A man pours water out of a small boat as the crowded vessel heads towards Dover - PA

Brexit will give the UK the opportunity to draw up new laws for dealing with migrants crossing the Channel illegally, Downing Street has said.

More than 4,000 people are believed to have made the journey so far this year, some of them vulnerable individuals including young children, pregnant women and disabled people.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "We are currently bound by the Dublin Regulations for returns and they are inflexible and rigid - for example, there is a time limit placed on returns, it's something which can be abused by both migrants and their lawyers to frustrate the returns of those who have no right to be here.

"At the end of this year we will no longer be bound by the EU's laws so can negotiate our own returns agreement.

"The Home Office continue to look at all available options to tackle this issue."

Earlier today, Boris Johnson said the Government was "looking at the legal framework that we have", saying current laws meant "that when people do get here, it is very, very difficult to then send them away again even though blatantly they've come here illegally."

Immigration minister Chris Philp is due to hold talks with French counterparts tomorrow, amid reports that the UK is planning to deploy the Navy.

Read below for the latest updates.

03:04 PM

And that's it for another day

It's been another hot day in Westminster - but much of the focus has been on the coast, where more migrants have been making the journey from France, despite efforts to intercept them.

Story continues

Boris Johnson and his spokesman made it clear that plans are afoot to tackle the problem, which may involve a change in law after Brexit to make it easier to return migrants if they make it as far as UK waters, with critics pouring scorn on the plan to deploy the Navy.

Tomorrow immigration minister Chris Philp will travel to Paris to have crunch talks with his counterpart on the growing issue. It seems likely that the UK will offer the French financial support to try and prevent people from leaving in the first place - but it seems likely this is a whack-a-mole game Boris Johnson will never win.

Today the readers spoke with one voice on the matter, with 87 per cent of you saying the UK should adopt an Australia-style approach and "pushback" migrants to wherever they came from. It may well be this is the kind of law being drawn up on Whitehall.

But despite the undeniable challenge facing Mr Philp, there is another looming issue - whether he will make it out of France before the seemingly inevitable quarantine is imposed.

I'll be back from 8am tomorrow to bring you more from Westminster and beyond.

02:53 PM

Boris Johnson attacked over 'inflammatory' language on migrants

Campaigners have accused Boris Johnson of using "inflammatory" soundbites as he described the migrants' Channel crossings as a "very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do".

Lisa Doyle, the Refugee Council's director of advocacy, said: "It's incredibly disappointing to hear the Prime Minister using such inaccurate and inflammatory language to describe men, women and children who are desperate enough to make perilous journeys across the busiest shipping channel in the world.

"Seeking asylum is not a crime, and it is legitimate that people have to cross borders to do so."

While Stephen Hale, chief executive of Refugee Action, said the Government should "move on from soundbites" and focus "constructively on serious and long-term solutions".

He added: "Britain is better than this. We have a proud history of welcoming people fleeing some of the most violent and oppressive regimes in the world and we can't stop now."

Meanwhile former foreign secretary David Miliband, the president and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, told Times Radio "cooler heads need to prevail if the UK is to sustain an effective response as well as a humane response".

02:35 PM

Boris Johnson must follow Scotland's coronavirus advice during summer break, says Nicola Sturgeon

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said Boris Johnson should follow the nation's coronavirus advice, when the Prime Minister visits for his summer holiday.

Mr Johnson is said to be visiting with his fiancee Carrie Symonds and young son Wilfred when he takes a break next week.

The First Minister said she would give him the same advice anyone else travelling north of the border would get - "to take great care".

Ms Sturgeon said: "Whether it's the Prime Minister or anybody else, when you're in Scotland - and you should hopefully be doing this wherever you live - abide by all the advice."

She added: "If we all do that where we are then we've got the best chance of keeping it under control."

Ms Sturgeon also joked: "I hope the weather stays reasonably good for him, although I cannot promise that and refuse to take any responsibility for it."

Later in the briefing, the First Minister said she will not be able to take a holiday herself this year due to the return of the Scottish Parliament this week.

She said: "I'm fully occupied with what we're doing at the moment."

02:24 PM

Analysis: Is better testing fuelling the rise in UK Covid-19 cases?

Fears of a fresh Covid-19 surge mounted this week as the UK saw its largest rise in new cases since the end of June - but data suggests the rise is being driven by more infections in younger people and increased testing.

A total of 1,062 people tested positive for Covid in the 24 hours before 9am on Sunday - nearly a fortnight after Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned of the possibility of a 'second wave' of infections.

But the rise appearing in the UK's daily case numbers may in part be due to more testing - as infection rates climb among younger people while community testing is ramped up .

The Telegraph's data journalism team crunch the numbers for you here.

02:17 PM

Tom Harris: Labour is in no position to give moral lectures after trying to foist Corbyn on the nation

Labour is full of Bright Young Things, weaned on The West Wing and who know how to deliver a political message that hits every necessary demographic.

So how, in the name of God eternal, was the bright idea of weaponizing Claire Foxs peerage allowed to leave the birthing chamber without having a pillow quietly placed over its face?

Now, to be fair, giving the former communist and IRA apologist a seat in the upper house was a big mistake, a prime example of the misjudgement Boris Johnsons critics regularly accuse him of.

Tom Harris tries to get his head around the thinking that has led the party that tried to make Jeremy Corbyn prime minister is on the attack for putting an IRA supporter in the Lords.

02:01 PM

Just two English regions record Covid-related deaths

A further six people who tested positive for coronavirus have died, with all but two regions reporting no fatalities in the last 24 hours.

Just the North East & Yorkshire and the South East have registered Covid-related deaths - two and four respectively.

Patients were aged between 65 and 93 years old. All had known underlying health conditions and their families have been informed.

The total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England is 29,419.

01:59 PM

Unite accuses Government of 'abandoning' workers

Ministers are being accused of "abandoning" workers, as they forge ahead with plans to wind up the furlough scheme despite warnings that one in three companies will make redundancies by the end of September.

Some 33 per cent of firms are planning to make redundancies in the current quarter, up from spring's estimate of 22 per cent, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and recruiter the Adecco Group.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: "We warned that the tapering of the jobs retention scheme would see redundancy notices fly around like confetti and sadly this is coming to pass.

"But this crisis is being made infinitely worse by the very different approach the Westminster government is taking to that of our competitor countries where targeted support is helping vital sectors weather this storm, saving jobs in the process.

"There are simple effective measures, such as short-time working, that will keep people in jobs and retain skills. But this government lacks the capacity to understand, or the political will to grasp, that this is the moment it must use its vast power of intervention for the collective good of the country," he added.

01:39 PM

MPs urge Ofcom to conduct urgent review of BBC's cuts to local journalism

MPs have urged Ofcom to look at BBC plans to cut its regional news services, asking the TV watchdog to act before any "irreparable steps are taken".

The broadcaster is planning a shake-up of regional TV news and local radio in England, axing 450 jobs.

But Damian Collins, former chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee and other MPs have warned that "local and regional news would appear to be taking a disproportionate share of the cuts being made by the BBC management."

The letter asks the regulator to consider if "the BBC is acting in accordance with its mission and purpose".

Under the proposals designed to save the broadcaster 25m by April 2022 Inside Out, the regional current affairs magazine show made in 11 different regions, will be axed and replaced with a new investigative journalism programme from six hubs.

A "simplified schedule" introduced on local radio during the pandemic, with single instead of double presenters and a reduction in the number of shows, will become permanent.

01:33 PM

Government to strengthen regional contact tracing with local teams

People who have been in contact with confirmed coronavirus cases may get a knock on their door if tracers are unable to reach them over the phone

The Government has announced a pilot to "strengthen regional contact tracing" in England through local teams, in a desperate bid to improve the hit rate.

Last week a study published in the Lancet estimated that just half of contacts were being reached, falling well below the 68 per cent estimated for effectiveness. Official figures published later that week showed that local teams were having a far greater success rate than the national call centres.

Local authorities will be given "dedicated ring-fenced teams" to help with contact tracing.

Officials said that if the national team cannot make contact with a resident within a set period of time, the local public health officials can use the data provided by NHS Test and Trace to follow up.

In some pilot areas this has involved local authority teams visiting people at home, it added.

01:22 PM

Have your say on: the migrant crossing crisis

Boris Johnson and ministers including Priti Patel are mulling what to do about the rising number of migrants illegally crossing the Channel, with more than 4,000 people making the dangerous journey from France to the UK this year so far.

The Prime Minister says that after Brexit it can change the "legal framework". But there is considerable disagreement about what that action should be.

There is some suggestion the Navy could be deployed to return migrants from where they came - but this has been attacked by the MP for Calais and a former high-ranking civil servant, who say it would be technically challenging and little more than a gesture.

It is also thought the UK will give France a further 30m to try and stop migrants before they leave.

But would that money be better spent in helping asylum seekers settle and going after people smugglers?

Have your say in the poll below

01:12 PM

ITV 'seeking clarification' after Hong Kong-based freelancer arrested

ITV has said it is seeking answers from authorities in Hong Kong after one of its freelancers was arrested under the city's new national security law.

The broadcaster said ITV News freelancer Wilson Li was one of nine people arrested by the Hong Kong Police Force on Monday on suspicion of breaching the law.

An ITV News spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that Wilson Li works for ITV News in a freelance capacity.

"We are concerned to hear of his arrest and are urgently seeking clarification on the circumstances."

12:59 PM

Lobby latest: No 10 'deeply concerned' about Hong Kong journalist arrests

Downing Street is "deeply concerned" about arrest of one of Hong Kong's most strident pro-democracy figures.

Jimmy Lai, who founded the newspaper Apple Daily, which is frequently critical of Hong Kong and mainland Chinese leadership, was arrested and the offices of the newspaper he owns searched by police in an escalation by authorities enforcing new national security laws brought in by Beijing.

The 71-year-old media tycoon was arrested alongside six others including his son on Monday morning on suspicion of collusion with foreign forces and conspiracy to commit fraud. He was later released on bal.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "We are deeply concerned by the arrest of Jimmy Lai and other individuals in Hong Kong.

"Freedom of the press is explicitly guaranteed in the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

"This is further evidence that the national security law is being used as a pretext to silence opposition. The Hong Kong authorities must uphold the rights and freedoms of its people."

12:55 PM

Lobby latest: Downing Street will act 'rapidly' on quarantine

Downing Street will "act rapidly" to remove countries from the travel corridor exemption if needed, the Prime Minister's official spokesman has said.

Asked if France could be added to the quarantine list, with rates in the country rising above the level that has triggered a quarantine for other countries, he said: "We keep the data for all countries and territories under constant review.

"Any decisions to update the exemptions list will be informed by the latest health data and we can and will act rapidly. We have been updating the exemptions list on a weekly basis in order to make sure that it reflects the changes in the international health picture."

"We look a range of criteria... It's not only the infection rate per 100,000 people we also look at the testing rate", he added: "If there is a need to act very rapidly in order to protect public health, then we wouldn't hesitate to do so."

He went on: "Unfortunately, during this pandemic there isn't a risk-free way of travelling overseas. The population's made a huge effort to get the disease down to the levels that we're seeing in the UK and if we feel that we need to act in relation to the travel exemptions list then we'll do so."

Asked if quarantine measures will be lifted on Portugal, the spokesman said: "We can remove countries from the exception list but we can also reinstate them."

12:48 PM

Lobby latest: EU laws over migrant crossings 'inflexible and rigid'

Current laws governing what can be done to prevent migrants crossing the Channel are "inflexible and rigid", Downing Street has said.

The matter is covered by a long-standing European Union deal, called "Dublin III", which the Prime Minister's official spokesman said were open to abuse "by both migrants and their lawyers to frustrate return" on points such as the time limit on returning individuals.

After the Brexit transition period the UK "will no longer be bound" by the EU laws "so we can negotiate our own returns agreement", he said.

The Home Office "continue to look at all available options to tackle the situation", the spokesman added.

The UK will "continue to work with the French on stronger enforcement measures", with the primary objective "to prevent migrants from leaving France in the first place" .

The Prime Minister and Emmanuel Macron discussed the issue of "illegal migration and the crossings" in June.

12:44 PM

Lobby latest: Government is looking to review daily statistics, Downing Street confirms

The Prime Minister's official spokesman has confirmed the Telegraph's story that the Government has been "reviewing the publication of the death statistics".

However he declined to comment on whether the review will lead to them being scrapped in favour of weekly data. This recommendation comes because the data is more accurate - however it has been criticised by Labour as giving the wrong impression that coronavirus has gone.

"It's certainly possible that you will see something this week but I don't have a specific time-frame to give you but the work has been taking place," the spokesman said.

12:41 PM

Lobby latest: PM on holiday for one week

The Prime Minister will be on holiday for "one week", remaining in the UK, the Prime Minister's spokesman has confirmed.

Asked about speculation that Boris Johnson and his partner Carrie will be campaigning in Scotland, the spokesman said: "We'll set out details closer to the time."

He is expected to take his holiday next week.

12:40 PM

Lobby latest: Government will 'set out decision' on reopening remaining sectors of economy soon

During recess, we get one lobby briefing a week - so it's a bumper session today.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman has said we will hear more about whether the remaining parts of the economy will be reopening this week "at the earliest".

Plans were delayed by Boris Johnson amid fears that it was causing a rise in the number of cases.

On Saturday the UKs daily number of new coronavirus cases has topped 1,000 for the first time in more than a month.

The Government is "closely monitoring infections, and other data on the prevalence of the virus across the country" in response to the figure, the spokesman said.

The Government will "set out a decision on whether or not we're able to go ahead " with reopening the remaining sectors of the economy later this week at the earliest. "I don't have anything for you today and I wouldn't want to preempt the review that will take place," he said.

12:33 PM

Labour calls on Nicola Sturgeon to apologise to teachers over exam results tow

Labour has called on Nicola Sturgeon to apologise to the nation's teachers following the exam results row.

The First Minister this afternoon told students whose exam results had been downgraded that: "Despite our best intentions, I acknowledge we did not get this right and I'm sorry."

In an acknowledgment that the approach had seen good students in more deprived students take the brunt of the coronavirus-imposed approach, she said: "That burden has not fallen equally across our society. "

But Ian Murray, shadow secretary of state for Scotland, said this did not go far enough.

He tweeted: "What about an apology to the hard-working teachers that the FM blamed last week? Or to those young people who have lost conditional uni places. Without the no confidence motion placed this would never have changed. Let's see the detail tomorrow in Parliament rather [than during a] press event."

12:11 PM

Shutting schools again risks 'very bad consequences for future economy', Ken Clarke warns

Ken Clarke, the former chancellor, has warned that shutting schools again risks "very bad consequences for the future economy".

The ex-MP, who has been recently nominated for a peerage by Boris Johnson, said the Prime Minister was right to prioritise schools over hospitality, telling Sky News that "bars, restaurants and so on are far more dangerous places for the spread of the disease than schools are".

He said: "The consequences of closing both are very bad for some people, but the idea that with schools, where the risks are much lower, that you're just going to stop educating a whole generation of children in school for months on end, would have catastrophic consequences for children and their prospects, but also very bad consequences for the future economy in due course."

Mr Clarke added: "A crowded bar is much more likely to see transmission of the disease than a suitably spaced out classroom."

12:03 PM

Damian Green: A retirement home boom can help millennials finally get a foot on the ladder

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, there has been suffering and hardship on both sides of the generational divide.

Older people are at higher risk of becoming seriously ill and dying from Covid-19, with charities also reporting increased cases of confusion and loneliness. At the same time, young adults - dubbed the coronavirus generation - have been the most likely group to lose work or see their incomes drop because of lockdown.

In previous years, it has been too easy to pit baby boomers and millennials against each other, writes Damian Green. Now, more than ever, we need policies that work across the intergenerational divide.

11:44 AM

Nicola Sturgeon apologises for Scottish exam results debacle

Nicola Sturgeon has apologised to Scottish students who had their recent exam results downgraded, saying too much focus had been given to the system rather than individuals.

The First Minister said: "We will be taking steps to ensure that every young person gets a grade that recognises the work they have done.

"Our concern - which was to make sure that the grades young people got were as valid as those they would have got in any other year - perhaps led us to think too much about the overall system and not enough about the individual pupil."

Ms Sturgeon added: "That burden has not fallen equally across our society. Despite our best intentions, I acknowledge we did not get this right and I'm sorry."

11:39 AM

Quarter of a million over-50s will never work again after coronavirus

A quarter of a million over-50s could fall permanently out of work after being made redundant during the coronavirus pandemic because job schemes and recruitment are skewed in favour of younger workers, a study has found.

One in four (2.5 million) workers aged 50 and above has been furloughed and 377,000 of them could lose their jobs, according to a report seen exclusively by this newspaper.

You can read the full details here.

11:28 AM

Labour issues jobs warning after new survey finds rise in planned redundancies

One in three companies expect to make redundancies by the end of September in a blow to Britain's hopes of economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis, a new survey has found.

The report, by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and recruiter the Adecco Group, suggests the jobs market will continue to shrink through the current quarter until September - a month before furlough is due to wind up.

The 33 per cent figure is an increase on the spring's estimate of 22 per cent, and the lowest it has been since the survey's current methodology was adopted in 2013.

Jonathan Reynolds, Labours shadow work and pensions secretary, said: This research confirms what many businesses have been saying for months - the removal of government support while some businesses have yet to even open their doors again has created a jobs crisis...

The Governments one size fits all approach is clearly not working and they must now adopt a tailored approach, getting support to where it is needed to prevent even more redundancies.

11:21 AM

How would a wealth tax work and what would it look like?

British homes could be the new source of billions of pounds in much needed revenue for the Government in the form of a wealth tax, following the economic devastation of the coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Chancellor Rishi Sunak have attempted to stamp out any notion of a so-called wealth tax, saying they want job, jobs, jobs, not tax, tax, tax.

But the alternatives they have put forward so far are short-term measures. Experts say tax rises in some form or another, whether they are labelled as a tax on wealth or not, are inevitable.

10:53 AM

Boris Johnson praised by WHO over local lockdowns

The head of the World Health Organisation has praised Boris Johnson's decision to introduce local lockdowns in part of the UK, saying this is key to stopping a second wave of coronavirus.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, told a virtual press briefing that the number of cases of Covid-19 around the world will reach 20 million cases this week and the global death toll will reach 750,000.

"Over the last few days, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson put areas of northern England under stay at home notifications as clusters of cases were identified," he said.

"In France, President Emmanuel Macron introduced compulsory masking in busy outdoor spaces of Paris in response to an increase in cases.

"Strong and precise measures like these, in combination with utilising every tool at our disposal, are key to preventing any resurgence in Covid-19 and allowing societies to be reopened safely."

10:45 AM

'Vital' that daily Covid-death tally is published, says Labour

Labour has said it is "vital" that the Government continue publishing daily figures of Covid-19 deaths to avoid sending the wrong message.

A review, ordered by Matt Hancock after it emerged officials were "over-exaggerating deaths from the virus, is expected to recommend that ministers stop daily reporting altogether and move to a weekly official death toll instead, The Telegraph revealed today.

But Justin Madders, Labours shadow health minister, said: The Government must be as transparent as possible with all aspects of coronavirus, including daily death figures. While there may be issues with how the figures are collated, ministers must find solutions rather than end the publication of these statistics.

Throughout the pandemic there has been a failure to publish accurate statistics on a whole range of matters - from the number of people tested each day to the constant revision of the number of Covid-related deaths.

It is vital that ministers commit to continuing to publish daily death figures. Failing to do so risks sending the message out that the virus has been beaten when we know full well it is still circulating.

10:33 AM

Prime Minister calls on police to act with 'fairness' after MP claims she was racially profiled

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the police should treat people with "fairness and equality" after black Labour MP Dawn Butler claimed that racial profiling was behind a decision to stop a car she was travelling in.

Scotland Yard said the stop was a result of an officer having "incorrectly entered" the car's registration plate into a computer to wrongly identify it as a vehicle registered to Yorkshire, but did not explain why the search was carried out in the first place.

Speaking during a visit to a school in east London, Mr Johnson said: "The police have made a statement saying that they made a mistake.

"They have spoken to the occupants of the car but it's obviously very, very important that the Met continue to do everything that they can - as indeed they do - to show that they are serving every part of our country, every part of our community, with fairness and equality."

10:25 AM

Minister attacks 'unacceptable' rise in migrant crossing

A minister has attacked the "unacceptable situation" of growing numbers of migrants crossing the Channel, insisting the Government will be "taking action to ensure this isnt a viable route".

Health minister Helen Whately told Sky News: "We do have an unacceptable situation of many migrants coming across the Channel at the moment. It's also a dangerous route, there's real risk to life for those coming across, it's obviously a form of illegal immigration, it's not the right way to come to the United Kingdom."

She rejected suggestions that the French were turning a blind eye to the problem, instead emphasising plans to work collaboratively with the French, stressing there had been a "particular shift" towards using boats, noting that just a couple of years ago it was the Eurotunnel.

10:19 AM

Ministers will not hesitate to impose quarantine if needed, says Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson has said ministers will "not hesitate" to impose a quarantine system for travellers from other countries to the UK if needed.

It is widely thought that France will soon be removed from the list of travel corridor countries, joining Spain and Belgium among others, from which travellers must self-isolate for 14 days on entering the UK.

The Prime Minister said: "I don't want to advise people about their individual holidays, individual decisions, they should look at the travel advice from the Foreign Office clearly.

"But what I will say, and I hope people would expect us to do this, in the context of a global pandemic, we've got to keep looking at the data in all the countries to which British people want to travel.

"Where it is necessary to impose restrictions or to impose a quarantine system, we will not hesitate to do so.

"It's been a huge effort for the entire population of this country to get the disease down to the levels that we are currently seeing, but we do not want reinfection and that's why we've got to keep a very, very close eye on the data in destinations around the world."

Boris Johnson takes part in archery during a visit to the Premier Education Summer Camp at Sacred Heart of Mary Girl's School, Upminster - PA

10:07 AM

UK must 'look at legal framework' over migrants, says Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson has said the UK must "look at the legal framework" for migrants who have arrived in the UK illegally as part of efforts to reduce the number of people crossing the Channel.

Speaking during a trip to St Joseph's school in Upminster, the Prime Minister said: "We've got a problem which is that there are people who want to come from around the world to this country because obviously it's a great place to be.

"There's no doubt that it would be helpful if we could work with our French friends to stop them getting over the Channel.

"Be in no doubt what's going on is the activity of cruel and criminal gangs who are risking the lives of these people taking them across the Channel, a pretty dangerous stretch of water in potentially unseaworthy vessels.

"We want to stop that working with the French, make sure that they understand that this isn't a good idea, this is a very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do.

"But then there's a second thing we've got to do and that is to look at the legal framework that we have that means that when people do get here, it is very, very difficult to then send them away again even though blatantly they've come here illegally."

10:02 AM

Boris Johnson says he 'hopes' schools will not be shut during local lockdowns

Boris Johnson has said he hoped schools would not be forced to close as a result of local action - but has not ruled it out.

The Prime Minister, who was visiting a school in east London, said: "I very much hope that doesn't happen for any pupils but clearly what we are doing - the way we are trying to manage the Covid pandemic - is to have local measures in place and local test and trace to introduce restrictions where that's necessary.

"But, as we have all said, the last thing we want to do is to close schools.

"We think that education is the priority for the country and that is simple social justice."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, London, - Evening Standard Pool

09:50 AM

France 'days away from being added to quarantine list'

France is days away from being added to the UKs quarantine list, according to senior sources within the Government.

The Foreign Office is due to update its safe list this week, with Portugal hoping to gain its first travel corridor of the pandemic, meaning returning holidaymakers will not be required to self-isolate for 14 days. France, however, is one of several countries in Europe to have seen a rise in its number of coronavirus infections in recent days.

Paul Charles, spokesperson for campaign group Quash Quarantine, said he understood France, along with Switzerland, Poland and the Netherlands, has said France "has just two days" to gets its numbers below the trigger point.

Read our travel blog for live updates.

09:36 AM

Nick Timothy: Britain has no way to protect itself from this new wave of immigration

Even more than Brexit, no issue demonstrates the division between the country and its governing elites better than immigration. During election campaigns, and referendums too, politicians promise control and tell the voters they will get the numbers down. But between those campaigns, they hide behind the complexity of statistics and emphasise the apparently vital economic need for every kind of immigration: high-skilled, low-skilled, students, workers.

But now the politicians have to contend with a new problem. In place of complicated statistics, we have the simplicity of an image: photographs showing the steady flow of human traffic, crossing the Channel from France to enter Britain illegally.

Nick Timothy considers the shocking story of an almost total absence of immigration control.

09:17 AM

Have your say on: the migrant crossing crisis

With more than 4,000 migrants crossing the Channel so far this year, it is widely agreed that something has to happen about the numbers of people making the dangerous journey from France to the UK.

But there is considerable disagreement about what that action should be.

This morning Helen Whately, the care minister, did not push back against suggestions the Royal Navy could be sent in - but this has been attacked by the MP for Calais and a former high-ranking civil servant, who say it would be little more than a gesture.

It is also thought the UK will give France a further 30m to try and stop migrants before they leave. But would that money be better spent in helping asylum seekers settle and going after people smugglers?

Have your say in the poll below

08:59 AM

France must 'intensify efforts' to stop migrants leaving, former civil servant says

The French must be persuaded to "intensify efforts" to stop migrants from leaving in the first place, if the UK Government is to grapple with the problem, a former civil servant has said.

Sir David Normington, former permanent secretary at the Home Office, said he was "sceptical" about deploying the Navy because it would have to go into French waters, and "you can only do that with the permission of the French government."

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The best solution is if we can persuade the French to intensify efforts to stop illegal migrants leaving the French coast or patrolling the coastline within French territorial waters, because once they get into British territorial waters they are likely to end up being landed in Britain and then claiming asylum, so the only solution to this is to work with the French to persuade them to intensify their efforts to stop illegal migrants."

Asked about the proposed 30m to help the French fund patrols, he said: "Well, if it takes money to help the French increase their resources and their manpower then that will have to be done. There's a long history of Britain putting money into resources for the French on the French coast."

08:45 AM

RAF plane flying over Channel in bid to tackle migrant crisis

A Royal Air Force plane is carrying out surveillance over the English Channel as part of the effort to tackle migrants attempting the crossing from France.

The flight by the Atlas aircraft was authorised by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace to support Border Force operations in the Channel.

The Ministry of Defence said the aircraft, which flew from RAF Brize Norton, is an "initial offer of assistance" to the Home Office.

RAF Airbus A400M Atlas - RAF

08:31 AM

Reopening schools 'one of least risky things we can do', says Sage scientist

Reopening schools is "one of the least risky things we can do", a member of the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has said.

Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a member of Sage told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We cannot be in a risk-free society and this is about the risk balance. What is the risk balance equation and I think that's separate for children and young people themselves.

"It's very clear for them the benefits and risks, the balance is for them to be back at school. For broader society, look, I think it's also clear that reopening schools is one of the least risky things we can do.

"Anything we do that reopens society will add a small or a larger amount to the overall population reproductive number and for schools we believe that it's a relatively minor player, it would add little to the overall population R."

On one week on, one week off, he added: "It actually appears to make very little difference to the overall risk, the overall population R in fact, if you get the mitigations right ... then actually the rota systems appear to make very little difference and make little difference to the risk to teachers."

08:25 AM

Children 'minor players' in Covid transmission

Children are "very minor players" in the transmission of coronavirus and opening schools would "add little" to the reproduction rate of infection, a leading expert has said.

Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a member of the Government's Sage scientific advisory group, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Monday that "reopening schools is one of the least risky things we can do".

His comments were echoed by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, who said there was little evidence of transmission in schools.

However, teachers, scientists, opposition politicians and the children's commissioner for England Anne Longfield have all called for improvements to testing before pupils return.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said it is "a national priority" to get children back in class in England next month, but he has been warned by scientific advisers that "trade-offs" may be necessary to keep transmission down.

08:09 AM

Andy Burnham presses the case for jury service-style support during self-isolation

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has repeated his request to support people through self-isolation in the same way as they are through jury service.

Last week the former Labour frontbencher said the contact tracing system should be viewed as something "that's akin to jury duty" with people being able to self-isolate on full pay.

He told BBC BReakfast: "Our poorest communities are going to be very, very exposed in the second half of this year if we have people who can't self-isolate when we have the virus circulating in those areas and schools going back adding to the risk.

"It's a simple request we are making, a bit like when you are called up to serve on a jury, when you get a request from the Government to go and be a juror.

"This also is a request from the Government when you're being asked to self-isolate, so let's give everybody the ability to follow that request.

"Test and trace will start working much better if we do that."

08:00 AM

Welsh schools may have to shut in local lockdowns, warns First Minister

Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford has said some schools could close in the event of a local coronavirus outbreak.

He told BBC Breakfast: "Every local flare-up is different; in some places not reopening schools would be part of a plan, in other sorts of outbreaks that may not be necessary.

"It's down to the local circumstances, down to the team on the ground. and they will then advise Welsh ministers."

Mr Drakeford added: "There are a series of options that we could draw on if we needed to. Our top plan is to get every child back in school in September so that they are learning - these children have been deprived of their learning for months."

07:51 AM

Pandemic making international recruitment for NHS 'challenging', says minister

The pandemic could affect the Government's ability to hire overseas staff for the NHS and social care, a minister has warned.

Helen Whately, the care minister, told the Today programme that the new health and care visa would ensure it was still possible to fill roles in the sector when the UK's new immigration system comes into place, saying the Government "recognises the importance of overseas staff to our NHS".

"We absolutely want to and we are welcoming international recruits," she added.

However Ms Whately noted it was "a more challenging and uncertain environment at the moment," saying: "Clearly, with the pandemic, it may affect international recruitment flow."

She said: "But absolutely we are supporting those who come to work in the NHS from overseas as well as building up our homegrown workforce."

07:44 AM

Clapping for carers 'not enough', says health minister

Clapping for carers "is not enough", a minister has said, as the Government announces 172m to enable healthcare employers to take on up to 2,000 nursing degree apprentices every year over the next four years.

The NHS and other healthcare employers will receive 8,300 per placement per year for both new and existing apprenticeships.

But this weekend saw renewed calls for a pay rise for the profession, with protests across the country after nurses missed out in the above-inflation pay rise for doctors, police officers and teachers.

Helen Whately said the Government "absolutely recognises the importance of pay" but said there were also "questions of looking after workforce.. to make the NHS a better place to work".

Nurses' starting salary had been increased to almost 25,000, she said, but that was "only part of it" - ensuring there were enough people to do the work and that "employers are really looking out for their staff, caring for those who care for us" was also important.

"We can't say thank you enough to our health and care workers... for all they have done at the frontline during this pandemic," she told the Today programme.

07:34 AM

UK Government not considering Australian approach to tackling migrant issue, says minister

A minister has said the Government is not considering an Australian-style "pushback" approach to stopping migrants arriving in the UK, in which they would be intercepted and returned to whichever country they had just left.

Care minister Helen Whately told BBC Breakfast the Home Secretary was working to "bring this to an end", and that immigration minister Chris Philp would be talking "directly with the French Government about working together to stop this transit."

She added: "Options are being looked at to how we make sure that we stop this passage of boats across the Channel and the Home Secretary has appointed Dan O'Mahoney, a former Royal Marine, to lead the efforts on this front and will look at all the best ways to do so."

Asked about the "pushback" model used in Australia and if it was being looked at, she said: "Not as far as I know. I think we shouldn't suggest that there are any simple or easy answers to this ... This is a really dangerous journey, we need to put a stop to it, we also need to put a stop to the payment to people smugglers who are enabling this to take place, this is not the right way to come to the UK."

07:28 AM

Calais MP raises questions over Royal Navy plan

The MP for Calais has questioned the value of deploying the Royal Navy to tackle rising numbers of migrants crossing the Channel, saying it is a "political" move which will do little to help.

Immigration minister Chris Philp is travelling to Paris tomorrow to discuss the issue with French authorities, including possibly giving an additional 30m to help prevent migrants from starting the journey. It is also thought the Navy could be deployed to intercept boats before they arrive.

But Pierre-Henri Dumont told the Today programme: "I see the political point of the British government having the Royal Navy, and seeing the Royal Navy cross into the Channel to fight against illegal immigrants, but I don't see how they could do it technically speaking.

"What are they going to do if there is a small boat trying to enter British waters... Are they going to shoot? Is the Royal Navy going to enter French waters before the migrants try to cross and arrive into British waters? That won't change anything. This is a political measure to show some kind of muscles to fight against it, but technically speaking it won't change anything."

07:14 AM

Minister rejects calls for regular testing of children ahead of autumn return

A minister has rejected calls from unions and the Childrens Commissioner Anne Longfield for routine testing of pupils and teachers to catch and contain any resurgence of the virus when schools return.

Care minister Helen Whately told Sky News getting children back into schools this autumn was "absolutely a national priority, we're determined to see children back to school".

She said home-schooling was "not the same as children being in school and sadly we have seen children from disadvantaged backgrounds more likely to fall behind during this time, so it's essential that we have children back at school this autumn."

But while children with symptoms would have access to "a rapid test", Ms Whately said there was no "scientific evidence" to back calls for regular testing.

07:11 AM

Dinghy with 20 Syrian migrants intercepted off coast of Dover this morning

An inflatable dinghy carrying around 20 Syrian migrants has been met by Border Force off the coast of Dover this morning.

Good weather has seen more than 677 people travel across the Channel to the UK in a surge of crossings between Thursday and Sunday. At least 65 migrants made it to the UK aboard four boats yesterday.

Home Secretary Priti Patel last year vowed that the crossings would have become an "infrequent phenomenon" by now.

The Home Office is facing criticism in recent weeks and the Government has been accused of being "increasingly chaotic" in its handling of the crisis.

An official request has been made to the Royal Navy for help and a former Royal Marine has been appointed "clandestine Channel threat commander".

The people made the crossing early this morning - PA

07:05 AM

Daily covid death count could be scrapped

The official Covid-19 daily death toll may never be brought back following an investigation into Public Health England's method of counting it, the Telegraph understands.

The conclusions of the review, which was ordered by Matt Hancock after it emerged officials were "over-exaggerating deaths from the virus, are expected this week.

One expected recommendation would be to stop daily reporting altogether and move to a weekly official death toll instead, a government source said on Sunday night.

The review has been looking at all options, the source said.

On July 17, the Health Secretary asked PHE to urgently investigate the way daily death statistics had been reported, leading PHE to say it was pausing the daily release.

It came after Oxford University experts revealed a significant proportion of the daily out-of-hospital death toll relates to patients who recovered from the virus weeks or months earlier.
Bengaluru:

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday said it was too early to discuss anything about BJPs alliance with AIADMK in the new political scene unfolding in Tamil Nadu after the demise of its supremo and former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

It is too early to discuss anything (about alliance)... just now only last rites of madam (Jayalalithaa) were performed. Secondly, there is no election now. There is no alignment. There is no realignment also now. Let us wait and see ..., Naidu, a senior BJP leader, told reporters here.

Naidu was responding to a question about the role of the Centre and BJP in the emerging power play post the passing away of Jayalalithaa, which has caused a huge political vacuum in the highly polarised politics of Tamil Nadu and thrown up several imponderables within the AIADMK.

Asked if his describing AIADMK as a natural ally meant that it would join the NDA fold, Naidu said, natural is the word used by a section of media friends. I have not used that word. I said there is an ideological affinity to some extent.

This is the word I used...,

On some issues, he said, AIADMK was supporting the Modi Government and on some others, it was critical.

They are an independent party. We did not have an electoral alliance (with them). Whether we will have an alliance or not in future, there is a lot of time. This is not the time to discuss, he added.

Asked what role BJP has considering the fragmentation in AIADMK following Jayalalithaas demise, Naidu shot back, saying Why should I talk about fragmentation that is a figment of imagination. I do not know.

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India on Sunday, August 9 gifted 10 ventilators worth Rs 28 million to Nepal to support the country's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. As per reports, Indian Ambassador to Nepal Vinay Mohan Kwatra handed over the ventilators to Nepal Army chief Purna Chandra Thapa during a ceremony at the Nepali Army Headquarters on Sunday.

As per a statement from the Indian Embassy in Nepal, these ventilators will support a wide range of applications which include advanced invasive or non-invasive respiratory support. It further added that these can be used in hospitals with ICU, tertiary multi-specialty hospitals, and dedicated ICUs. Moreover, due to their compact nature, the ventilators are portable and handy in the transportation of patients requiring intensive care, the statement added.

READ: Nepal To Send India Its 'updated Map' With Kalapani, Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura

READ: Nepal Resumes Airing All Indian News Channels After Ban For 'hurting Country's Sentiments'

Friendly bilateral relations

As per reports, the embassy noted that India has a long record of extending support to Nepal as a first responder for humanitarian assistance and relief. The gifting of ventilators is a sign of friendly bilateral-relations and continued humanitarian assistance between both the neighbours, the embassy's statement added.

During the handing over ceremony, Ambassador Kwatra is reported to have reiterated India's commitment to providing all necessary help to the people of Nepal amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Johns Hopkins University tally, Nepal has recorded a total of 22,592 positive cases of COVID-19 infection, while 73 people have died from the disease so far.

(With ANI input)

READ: 'Gurkha Agreement Legacy Of Past': Nepal Calls For Revision Of Pact With India & UK

READ: Nepal To Send India Its 'updated Map' With Kalapani, Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura

Image: IndiaInNepal/Twitter
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar praised Taiwan during a visit Monday for being a "vital partner, a democratic success story, and a force for good in the world."

Why it matters: The highest-level visit by a U.S. cabinet official to Taiwan since 1979 shows the increasing importance of the island state, which China considers to be part of its territory. It comes at a time of heightened tension between the Trump administration and the Chinese government.

A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted.

Chinese officials accused the U.S. of "endangering peace" with the visit.

What they're saying: In a televised meeting at the presidential office in Taipei, Azar told Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen it's "a true honour" to make the trip and "convey a message of strong support and friendship from President Trump to Taiwan."

" There are three overarching themes for this trip. The first is to recognize Taiwan as an open and democratic society, executing a highly successful and transparent COVID-19 response," Azar said.

There are three overarching themes for this trip. The first is to recognize Taiwan as an open and democratic society, executing a highly successful and transparent COVID-19 response," Azar said. "The second is to reaffirm Taiwan as a long partner and friend of the United States, and to highlight our history of broad collaboration on health and public health. The third is to note that Taiwan deserves to be recognized as a global health leader with an excellent track record of contributing to international health."

Of note: Taiwan's quick, decisive action to introduce border restrictions early and implement a coordinated response to curb the spread of the coronavirus has been widely praised  including by the World Health Organization. That's despite China blocking the island from the WHO, per the South China Morning Post.

By the numbers: Some 23.8 million people live in Taiwan, but it's reported just 477 cases and seven deaths from COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins.
The former IAS topper was released from detention in June

File photo of Shah Faesal (second from left) at a rally to launch his party J&K People's Movement. (AA Photo: H U Naqash)

Srinagar: Amid speculation that Shah Faesal may shun politics and return to bureaucracy, the 2010 IAS topper has deleted his political bio as founder of the Jammu & Kashmir People's Movement (JKPM) from his Twitter handle.

Faesal changed his Twitter bio late Sunday evening even though he has not tweeted since August last year. It now reads Edward S Fellow @HKS Harvard University. Medico. Fulbright. Centrist.

The last time Faesal posted on the micro-blogging site was on August 13, 2019 when he retweeted a tweet of BBCs Hardtalk show host Stephen Sackur which quoted him (Shah Faesal) as saying India has murdered democracy (in Jammu & Kashmir)... the choice is to be a stooge or a separatist.

Sackur had then said this was a deeply depressing analysis of #Kashmir situation from @shahfaesal the voice of a Kashmiri moderate', after J&K was stripped of its special status and split into two Union Territories by the Centre on August 5 last year.

Faesal was soon detained by the police and subsequently booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA).

After spending nearly ten months in makeshift jails, the 36-year-old bureaucrat-turned-politician was released on June 3 this year. He did not make any statement after his release and did not react to reports in the media that he was among the politicians and activists who were set free by the authorities after they signed a bond agreeing to cease political activities.

Faesal took the country by storm after quitting his job in January 2019 to protest against the unabated killings and lack of political outreach from New Delhi, marginalization and invisibilization of around 200 million Indian Muslims at the hands of Hindutva forces and growing culture of intolerance and hate in mainland India in the name of hypernationalism.

On March 17, 2019, he floated a new political party named Jammu & Kashmir Peoples Movement (JKPM) with the slogan Ab Hawa Badlaygi (now there will be winds of change). At a rally on that day he also announced, Ive come here not to engage in traditional or regional politics but together with my team and the people who are joining us I seek an amicable solution of the Kashmir problem as per the wishes and aspirations of its people.

He also asserted that the new party believes in shortening the distance between Delhi and Srinagar and will act as a catalyst towards resolving the Kashmir issue by India and Pakistan.

Official sources here said Faesals resignation as IAS officer has not still been accepted. Despite submitting his resignation twenty months ago and subsequently forming a political party, his name has not been removed from the list of J&K cadre IAS officers on the official website of the government.

Faesal has not reacted to reports that he may rejoin civil services. Repeated attempts by this correspondent to reach him were not successful.

Meanwhile, Feroz Peerzada, his deputy in the party, has replaced Faesal as the JKPM president.

As per a statement issued by JKPM, Faesal has informed the partys state executive members that he is not in a position to continue with political activism and wanted to be freed from the responsibilities of the organization.

The statement added that keeping in view his request, it was decided to accept his resignation so that he can better continue with his life and contribute whichever way he chooses.

The statement further said that former minister and JKPM chairman Javed Mustafa Mir has also quit. He had joined the JKPM after leaving PDP last year.
3 Charged With Murder in Shooting Death of Off-Duty Mississippi Trooper

A Mississippi Highway Patrol lieutenant was found shot to death over the weekend, and now three people are in police custody, officials said.

Lt. Troy Morris, 58, was found dead at around 4:30 a.m. Aug. 8 in a U.S. Postal Service truck, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation confirmed in a news release on Aug. 7. He worked part-time for the U.S. Postal Service.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation stated on Aug. 8 that Treyon Washington, 24, Cdarrius Norman, 17, and Damion Whittley, 25, were all charged in connection with the troopers death.

Washington turned himself in to the Jefferson County Sheriffs Department in Fayette and is being held without bond. Norman and Whittley were both tracked down and apprehended in New Orleans, Louisiana, the agency said. They will be extradited to Mississippi.

Again, I would like to start by saying that our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Lt. Troy Morris, said Mississippi Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell, according to the Sun Herald. I met with his family yesterday and assured them that we are working with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners as we investigate his murder. The progress that has been made is a direct result of their hard work and dedication.

Morris was driving the Post Office vehicle when one of its tires went flat, officials told WAPT-TV. He then contacted the Mississippi Highway Patrol and the Jefferson County Sheriffs Department to report the flat.

We dispatched a deputy who arrived a short time later and found Mr. Morris had been shot to death inside his truck, Jefferson County Sheriff James Bailey told reporters.

A motive in the case wasnt disclosed.

My prayers are with the loved ones of Lt. Troy Morris who was senselessly shot and killed this morning in Jefferson County. I hope the individual responsible for such an unforgivable act is swiftly brought to justice, said Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.) in a statement on social media.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said Morris was one year away from retirement.

We suffer from the senseless killing of Lieutenant Troy Morris. A loyal and effective highway patrolman one year from retirement and working a second job. We pray for him and his family, and for expedited justice, Hosemann said in a statement.

Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.) wrote on Twitter: Haley and I are praying for the family and friends of the state trooper who tragically died this morning. Im confident in our justice system to bring the killer to face the consequences of the crime.
The Australian Federal Police's former deputy commissioner, Ramzi Jabbour, was stood down after he let a relative use his service pistol to shoot kangaroos and he bought cartons of beer for officers who helped arrange the hunting trip, a court has heard.

Jabbour is currently facing a three-day trial in the ACT Magistrates Court on charges of abuse of public office and possessing a prohibited firearm. He has previously pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Former AFP deputy commissioner Ramzi Jabbour.

He was stood down from the AFP in March, 2019, pending a professional standards investigation before resigning five months later in August.

The court heard Jabbour took his AFP-issued pistol, a 9mm Glock, on October 2, 2018, and then used it while on recreational leave. The weapon is a prohibited firearm unless it is being used for an official police purpose.
Nebraska will suspend visitation to its 10 state prison facilities for at least two weeks as the number of coronavirus cases grows statewide.

The stoppage will begin Saturday and last at least two weeks, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services said Friday in a news release. After two weeks, the agency will determine if it's safe to resume visitations.

Visitation restarted July 15 after being stopped in mid-March.

We were proactive in shutting visitation down when the coronavirus emerged several months ago, Corrections Director Scott Frakes said. Now that an uptick in positive cases is occurring, it is prudent to stop the program, until we know which direction the trend is going, particularly here in Nebraska.

In addition to suspending visitation, Corrections is also halting all volunteer programs to address another point of entry for the coronavirus to come into our facilities, Frakes said.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A West Brighton girl who police reported missing Saturday has still not been located, as of Sunday afternoon, according to an NYPD spokesman.

An emergency notification seeking the publics assistance locating 12-year-old Jaslene Dames, a resident of Barker Street in West Brighton, was issued over the weekend by the departments Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

Dames was last seen leaving her residence on Friday at approximately 11:20 a.m., police said.

Dames, described by police as a Hispanic female, is 4 feet 11 inches tall and approximately 100 pounds, with brown eyes and blond hair. She was last seen wearing black pants and black sneakers.

Anyone with information regarding this missing person is asked to call the NYPDs Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public also can submit tips on the CrimeStoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, or on Twitter @NYPDTips.

Police say all calls are confidential.
Press Release

August 10, 2020 De Lima bewails BuCor's lack of transparency regarding deaths of PDLs Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has called for a Senate investigation into the utter lack of transparency surrounding the deaths of Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs) and the actual extent of COVID-19 contagion in jails and prisons nationwide. De Lima, a social justice and human rights champion, filed Senate Resolution (SR) No. 491 after the reported deaths of nine high-profile inmates, including Jaybee Sebastian, who were all housed at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) Maximum Security Compound allegedly due to COVID-19. "These deaths of high-profile NBP PDLs not only raise numerous doubts on how health protocols and procedures are being outrightly neglected by BuCor but also how this pandemic can be a convenient excuse to cover up torture and killings of PDLs or worse, to even simulate deaths of PDLs," she said. Reportedly, at least 476 PDLs died in different prison facilities nationwide from January to July 2020, with a daily average of two to three deaths or 50 to 60 deaths per month. Of the deaths, 21 were confirmed COVID-19 cases and another 24 were suspected to be COVID-19. Of the 476 reported deaths, nine were deaths of high-profile PDLs including Jaybee Sebastian, Amin Imam Boratong, Benjamin Marcelo, Zhang Zhu Li, Jimmy Kinsing Hung, Francis Go, Jimmy Yang, Eugene Chua and Ryan Ong. While BuCor eventually released the death certificates of said nine high-profile PDLs, De Lima said there are speculations that they may have not died due to COVID-19, or, their deaths may have been simulated. Such rumors abound because of lack of transparency and poor track record of the agency. "The lack of transparency of BuCor with regard to deaths and of the true extent of contagion in jails and prison facilities, together with overcrowding, absence of reliable testing, inadequate health facilities, lack of protective medical equipment, non-implementation of physical distancing and health protocols inside jails and prisons, all show that the government failed in its duty to protect basic human rights and to value dignity of PDLs," said De Lima. Reportedly, a relative of Boratong confirmed that they were able to retrieve his body and bury it but they were not sure if it was Boratong since BuCor personnel refused to open the body bag while his medical records were not released even upon lawyers' request. On the other hand, it was also reported that the wife of Sebastian was not able to retrieve her husband's body because she was told that his remains had to be cremated immediately at a public cemetery in Cavite within 12 hours "to prevent the spread of infection." No autopsy was conducted. Recently, the Human Rights Watch said that the "government has not fully reported prison deaths" and that concerned authorities should urgently investigate it while Commission on Human Rights Commissioner Karen Gomez-Dumpit also called for the accounting of deaths inside the NBP in order for the government to identify appropriate actions to address the pandemic in prisons. De Lima, who chairs the Senate Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development Committee, filed bills on sweeping prison system reforms, logged as Senate Bills No. 180 and 181, this 18th Congress. These two measures both aim to help initiate comprehensive reforms in the country's prison and correctional systems.
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PM to launch Rs1 lakh-cr Agri Infra Fund facility; release PM-Kisan installment

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the Rs1 lakh crore financing facility under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund on Sunday at 11 AM via video conferencing. The prime minister will also release the sixth installment of funds of Rs17,000 crore to 85 million farmers under the PM-Kisan scheme.

The union cabinet has approved the Central Sector Scheme of financing facility under `Agriculture Infrastructure Fund of Rs1 lakh crore. The fund will catalyze the creation of post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets such as cold storage, collection centres, processing units, etc. These assets will enable farmers to get better value for their produce, as they will be able to store and sell at higher prices, reduce wastage, and increase processing and value addition.

A total of Rs1 lakh crore will be sanctioned under the financing facility in partnership with multiple lending institutions; 11 of the 12 public sector banks have already signed MoUs with the government. Under the facility, 3 per cent interest subvention and credit guarantee of up to Rs2 crore will be provided to the beneficiaries to increase the viability of these projects.

The beneficiaries of the scheme will include farmers, PACS, marketing cooperative societies, FPOs, SHGs, joint liability groups (JLG), multipurpose cooperative societies, agri-entrepreneurs, startups, and central/state agency or local body sponsored public-private partnership projects.

The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojna (PM-Kisan) scheme, launched on 1 December 2018, has provided direct cash benefit of over Rs75,000 crore to more than 99 million farmers. This has enabled them to fulfil their agricultural requirements and support their families. The rollout and implementation of the PM-Kisan scheme has happened at an unparalleled pace, with funds being directly transferred into the Aadhaar authenticated beneficiaries bank account to prevent leakage and increase convenience for farmers.

The scheme has also been instrumental in supporting farmers during the Covid-19 pandemic, through the release of nearly Rs22,000 crore to aid farmers during the lockdown period.
Chemical experts and firefighters are working to secure at least 20 potentially dangerous chemical containers at the explosion-shattered port of Beirut, after finding one that was leaking, according to a member of a French cleanup team.

Some of the containers were punctured when last weeks deadly blast ripped through the port and the Lebanese capital, said Lt. Anthony, a French chemical expert at the site who was not authorized to be identified by his full name according to government policy.

French and Italian chemical experts working amid the remains of the port have so far identified more than 20 containers carrying dangerous chemicals, Anthony said.

We noted the presence of containers with the chemical danger symbol. And then noted that one of the containers was leaking, he told The Associated Press in a TV interview on Monday.

The experts are working with Lebanese firefighters to secure all of the containers and analyze their contents, he said. We need to clean everything and put all in security.

He didnt identify what chemicals were involved or provide further details. Lebanese officials have not commented on the potential chemical risks at the port.

There are also other flammable liquids in other containers, there are also batteries, or other kind of products which could increase the risk of potential explosion, Anthony said, describing huge containers tossed around the port by the powerful force of the blast.

It is unclear whether there could be additional potentially dangerous containers in other zones of the port. The French and Italian experts were assigned to a specific zone to examine and secure that section, Anthony said.

The explosion last Tuesday in the port killed at least 160 people and injured about 6,000 others. It is believed to have been caused by a fire that ignited a 2,750-ton stockpile of highly volatile ammonium nitrate. The material had been stored at the port since 2013 with few safeguards despite numerous warnings of the danger.

The chemical experts are among scores of French emergency workers who arrived to help search for bodies, aid the sick and clean up after the blast. Nearly 50 French police are also in Beirut helping investigate what happened.
The convention originally was to be held in July in Milwaukee but was pushed off a month in hopes the coronavirus pandemic would wane. Last week, organizers announced that Biden would no longer travel to Wisconsin and that most other events scheduled from there had been canceled. Biden is expected to give his convention speech from his home state of Delaware.
Japanas population continues to become more international, but the situation might be changing soon.

Though the population of Japan has been in decline for quite some time now, the population of Japanas capital continues to grow. And itas not just Tokyo, either, as the city and the three prefectures that border it, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba, saw an increase to their collective number of residents last year.

According to the just-released results of a study by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the total population of Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba grew to 36,754,193 during 2019, a 0.37-percent increase over the previous year. Out of those new residents, 67,301 were Japanese citizens, but the bigger increase came from the 68,161 foreigners who started calling those parts of Japan their home.

In relative terms, the Japanese population of the aTokyo metropolitan areaa (as the survey described the city and its prefectural neighbors) was up just 0.19 percent, while its foreign population grew 6.23 percent, a rate more than 32 times faster. This marks the first time for the foreign population to increase faster than the Japanese one for the area since the ministry first began separating such demographic data in 2012.

The foreign population increased in Tokyo and all three of the prefectures individually as well. The largest gain was in Yokohama, two cities south of Tokyo, which welcomed 6,501 new foreign residents, likely due to having educational and economic opportunities of its own, as well as being within commutable distance to offices and schools in Tokyo (the recent addition of a life-size Gundam to the Yokohama harbor front probably didnat hurt the cityas attractiveness either).
Editors note: This story contains language that may offend some readers

LEELANAU COUNTY, MI  The Leelanau County Sheriffs Office investigated an incident that occurred at the Leelanau County Road Commission building located in the Village of Suttons Bay.

At 6:33 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 9, deputies responded to a report of the sign outside of the road commissions building being defaced.

The person responsible had published what he had done on social media and deputies contacted the 58-year-old man from Oakland, California, who was staying at a property in Northport. This person stated he did this as a protest to the statements made by a Road Commission Board member.

A posting on social media around that time showed the word Road covered with the word Racism on the sign. Deputies responded and found that this word had been removed from the sign but was now covering the word Eckerle on the adjacent road signs.

Leelanau County Road Commissioner Tom Eckerle will resign his post effective Monday, Aug. 10, following several days of controversy over his use of the n-word at a public meeting and in multiple media interviews last week.

RELATED: Northern Michigan road commissioner to resign after using racial slur

The alleged comments came during a public meeting that could be heard by anyone who dialed into a phone number to listen to the proceedings.

Well this whole thing is because of them (n-words) down in Detroit, Eckerle allegedly said during a meeting on Aug. 4, according to the Leelanau Enterprise.

Eckerle was responding to a question about why he wasnt wearing a face covering - which is required by executive order to help slow the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus - for the meeting.

It appeared that no permanent damage had occurred to either the signs.

Deputies had to use a ladder to remove the duct tape from the road signs, according to a Facebook post from the Leelanau County Sheriffs Office.

A report was completed to be reviewed by the County Prosecutor.

RELATED:

Road Commission asks member to resign for using slur to blame masks on Black Detroiters

Michigan road commissioner uses racial slur during meeting to blame COVID-19 masks on Detroiters
He said it had "starkly exposed all of the flaws of the aged care sector which have been highlighted during this royal commission". Mr Rozen cited a series of emails showing NSWs policy of caring for aged care residents who were sick with COVID-19 in the nursing home - known as 'Hospital in the Home' - was ageist. Older people are not less deserving of hospital treatment because they are old, he said in his opening statement. Mr Rozen disputed the claim by Commonwealth Health Minister Greg Hunt on July 29 - when COVID-19 was raging through a large number of nursing homes in Melbourne with devastating consequences - that aged care around the country has been immensely prepared. While there was undoubtedly a great deal done to prepare the Australian health sector more generally for the pandemic, the evidence will reveal that neither the Commonwealth Department of Health nor the aged care regulator developed a COVID-19 plan specifically for the aged care sector.

He cited a lack of updates for the sector, disagreement and confusion about processes, and the inability of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner to investigate what happened, or even enter facilities without giving prior warning. Loading Mr Rozen said the evidence at the three days of hearings would reveal that neither the Commonwealth Department of Health nor the aged care regulator developed a COVID-19 plan specifically for the aged care sector. And out of 45 statements released on COVID-19 by the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) from March 17 to August 3, only three were specifically addressed at aged care. There had been eight statements about children and schools in that same period. Mr Rozen said there had been vigorous disagreement between the Commonwealth and NSW officials on the question of hospitalisation of COVID-19 positive residents in the early days of the outbreak in NSW.

In emails between NSW and Commonwealth officials in April, NSW was quoted saying their preference is not to decant residents into hospitals given the precedent this would set. Need to find solutions that enable appropriate care to be provided in the facility. Looking at Hospital in the Home and in-reach palliative care if needed. Only two infected residents at Anglicare's Newmarch House went to hospital. Credit:Edwina Pickles Of the 37 residents who tested positive to COVID-19 at Newmarch House in Sydney, only two were transferred to hospital. One of those died. The other 16 residents who died of COVID-19 were all treated at Newmarch House, Mr Rozen said. In contrast, six residents died at Dorothy Henderson Lodge, where 13 of the 16 positive cases were sent to hospital. The commission heard that Dorothy Henderson Lodge had appointed two specialists in infection control within 24 hours of an outbreak, and the initial response was to move even those residents with mild symptoms to hospital. In contrast, there was a delay of nearly two weeks at Newmarch in getting infection control experts.

Melanie Dicks, the regional manager for BaptistCare, the operator of Dorothy Henderson Lodge, said moving residents to hospital during the first week had "absolutely" limited the outbreak. "I don't think you could say anything less; that anybody who was COVID positive going there in the first place ensured that they got the care they needed and then it allowed us to actually stabilise our workforce as well." In response to NSWs reluctance to move patients to hospital, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Janet Anderson wrote in an email that we must be vigilant in calling out the elephant in the room if ever we sense it might be present. The Dorothy Henderson Lodge in Macquarie Park, where six residents died from COVID-19. Credit:Wolter Peeters To be clearer  if there is a view sitting behind the NSW Health position that aged care residents with COVID-19 should always be cared for in situ and should not be transferred to a hospital in any circumstances, then WE MUST CALL THIS OUT as an intolerable and unsupportable assumption.

The Commission heard that South Australian policy was also to transfer patients with COVID-19 to hospital. This overrode do not hospitalise requests. UNSW Healthcare Infection and Infectious Diseases Control professor of epidemiology Mary-Louise McLaws said it was difficult to keep negative residents safe. So regardless of each State's ability to take residents into hospitals, they need to be

decanted, they need to be removed and put somewhere else that's safe, looked after by highly trained staff, she said. Professor McLaws, a WHO advisor on the pandemic, said the evidence from overseas showed the attack rate, once a resident had tested positive, made it very difficult to keep the rest safe. And the attack rate can go from anywhere between very negligible up to 100 per cent. So it's very difficult.

Loading Royal Commissioner Tony Pagone said the impact of the pandemic had been, for people in aged care, "tragic in ways that were unimagined a few months ago. The full impact is not yet known". He extended his sympathy and understanding to "those who have not been able to spend time with their relatives or friends in aged care because of of the restrictions introduced to deal with the pandemic". "We feel your losses and your absences deeply. We have heard many of your stories and have been moved by them," said Mr Pagone.
TORRINGTON  A plan to build an over-55 community on Notting Hill Gate and Wimbleton Gate North  met with objection from neighbors from the beginning  is awaiting a decision from the Planning & Zoning Commission, which meets Wednesday night.

Since its was first presented in February, neighbors living in Greenbrier Estates, adjacent to the proposed project site, have continuously objected to the idea of the project in their neighborhood, citing a decline in property values, increased traffic, flooding and other environmental impacts to their own properties, according to meeting minutes.

The hearing on the proposal closed July 29; the first hearing was held in February.

During its February presentation, the developer, TDF Enterprises, represented by attorney Chris Smith of Alter and Pearson, cited the need for additional over-55 housing for the citys aging population.

Smith referred to Torringtons Plan of Conservation and Developments population section, which states that Torrington is projected to become a community where 50 percent of the total population is age 55 and over. Smith noted that the city has a diverse but older housing stock, and said that if homes are continuously occupied by older people because there is no alternative housing for them, those homes remain unavailable to families with young children, according to the meeting minutes.

There is a need for the proposed type of housing in the city, allowable by Special Exception and Site Plan approval in the R15 zone, Smith said at the February hearing, according to the minutes.

TDF Enterprises is proposing constructing four buildings with a total of 120 units, with 88 one-bedroom units and 32 two-bedroom units, labeled active adult housing, on just less than 40 acres. The one-bedroom apartments are 928 square feet; the two bedroom units are 1,280 square feet. Each apartment will have a balcony. A pool and clubhouse also are proposed. Retaining walls will be used in the development.

According to the minutes from the Feb. 19 hearing, those who spoke in favor of the project said having development that provided over-55 housing and didnt impact the citys school system was a good idea.

A majority of the speakers in February and July, however, spoke against the project, according to the minutes. Most live in Greenbrier Estates, adjacent to the 40-acre property proposed for the development. Residents said the impact of a dense housing development would lower their property values, increase already dangerous traffic and cause flooding, according to the minutes.

The project first was proposed in 2019 during hearings with the citys Inland Wetlands Commission.

The commissions meeting begins Aug. 12 at 7 p.m. For information, go to www.torringtonct.org/planning-zoning-commission/events/45863 and click on the agenda for login information.
Indigenous territories and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon for 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2015. Deforestation is significantly reduced in territories with full property rights. Credit: Kathryn Baragwanath, UC San Diego.

One way to cut back on deforestation in the Amazon rainforestand help in the global fight against climate changeis to grant more of Brazil's indigenous communities full property rights to tribal lands. This policy focus is suggested by a new University California of San Diego study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Led by UC San Diego political science researcher Kathryn Baragwanath, the study uses an innovative method to combine satellite data of vegetation coverage in the Amazon rainforest, between 1982 and 2016, with Brazilian government records of indigenous property rights. The study found significantly reduced deforestation rates in territories that are owned fully and collectively by local tribeswhen compared to territories that are owned only partially by the tribes or not at all. The average effect was a 66% reduction in deforestation.

The Amazon accounts for half of the Earth's remaining tropical forest, is an important source of the biodiversity on our planet and plays a major role in climate and water cycles around the world. Yet the Amazon basin is losing trees at an alarming rate, with particularly high levels in recent years, due to a combination of massive forest fires and illegal activities.

Who owns the Amazon, meanwhile, is hotly contested, with numerous actors vying for the privilege. Some private entities go ahead with illegal mining or logging, for example, to demonstrate "productive use of land" and thereby gain title to that land. At present, about 2 million hectares of indigenous land are still awaiting official designation as tribal territories.

Also debated is whether collective property rights are effective in curbing deforestation. These rights are granted to indigenous peoples in Brazil through a complex and lengthy constitutional process, and are distinct from the private property rights most of us are more familiar with.

UC San Diego's Baragwanath and co-author Ella Bayi, now at Columbia University, say "yes, collective property rights are effective"if you focus your analysis on the final stage of the titling process in Brazil (which can take up to 25 years to complete), or the point at which tribes gain full property rights.

Full property rights give indigenous groups official territorial recognition, enabling them not only to demarcate their territories but also to access the support of monitoring and enforcement agencies, the researcher say.

"Our research shows that full property rights have significant implications for indigenous people's capacity to curb deforestation within their territories," said Baragwanath. "Not only do indigenous territories serve a human rights role, but they are a cost-effective way for governments to preserve their forested areas and attain climate goals. This is important since many indigenous territories have yet to receive their full property rights and it points to where policymakers and NGOs concerned about the situation in Brazil should now focus their efforts."

Explore further Amazonian Indigenous territories are crucial for conservation

More information: Collective property rights reduce deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020).

www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1917874117 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Collective property rights reduce deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon,(2020).
Cooperation and dialogue with Ukraine is deepening thanks to the countrys new status as an Enhanced Opportunities Partner, obtained in June 2020.

The NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme provides the Ukrainian scientific community with a platform to work side-by-side with NATO Allies and partner countries on security-related issues, according to a press release on the NATO website.

Ukraine is currently leading 27 ongoing activities, one of which is a key flagship project in the field of counter-terrorism called DEXTER (Detection of Explosives and Firearms to Counter Terrorism). It aims to develop an integrated system to detect explosives and firearms in public places, remotely and in real time, without disrupting the flow of passengers.

This project will contribute to NATOs enhanced role in the international fight against terrorism, said Dr Deniz Yuksel-Beten, senior SPS and partnerships cooperation advisor at NATO.

The SPS Programme also opens doors for Ukrainian experts  especially young scientists and researchers.

In particular, in the field of security-related advanced technology, Ukrainian experts have collaborated with peers from the United Kingdom and the United States to increase the robustness of ground and air vehicles, as well as their performance, operational agility in severe terrain and resilience to failures.

This year, the SPS Programme has approved 13 new activities with Ukraine. These focus on the protection of soldiers and civilians from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear contamination; using advanced technology to strengthen civilian population resilience, and national medical and emergency-response systems; and developing tools to protect military personnel from biological and explosive threats, while enhancing their energy efficiency.

Through these new activities, Ukrainian co-directors will work together with experts from Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, the United Kingdom and other partner countries including Belarus, Jordan and Sweden.

As reported, on June 12, the North Atlantic Council recognized Ukraine as an Enhanced Opportunities Partner. This status is part of NATOs Partnership Interoperability Initiative, which aims to maintain and deepen cooperation between Allies and partners that have made significant contributions to NATO-led operations and missions.

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An explosives expert has claimed the Beirut blast was caused by burning military missiles - not ammonium nitrate.

Danilo Coppe, 56 and from Parmesan in Italy, is one of the country's leading explosive experts.

He believes the August 4 blast, which killed 160 people, wounded 6,000 and destroyed 300,000 homes, was not caused by ammonium nitrate because the colour of the cloud was orange.

The explosives expert, nicknamed Mr. Dynamite, explained that when ammonium nitrate detonates, it generates an unmistakable yellow cloud.

At least 160 died when 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate in a warehouse went up in flames

But videos of the explosion show orange plumes of smoke, Mr Coppe told Corriere.

'There should have been a catalyst, because otherwise it wouldn't all have exploded together.

'You can clearly see a brick orange column tending to bright red, typical of lithium participation. Which in the form of lithium-metal is the propellant for military missiles. I think there were armaments there,' he said.

Mr Coppe explained that he thought there was a first, larger explosion, which may have started a fire where the ammunition was stored.

He claimed that this would have then spread to 'where there was some high explosive contained in rockets or missiles'.

The explosion was believed to be a fifth of the size of Hiroshima was so enormous that it altered the shape of not only of Beirut's skyline but even of its Mediterranean coastline.

Mr Coppe explained that he thought there was a first, larger explosion, which may have started a fire where the ammunition was stored

His claims come as the personal bodyguard of top Lebanese official Nabih Berry was seen firing rounds at protesters as fury over the Beirut explosion threatens to spark a revolution.

Sporting jeans and a black top, the bodyguard pointed a firearm at swarms of demonstrators yesterday afternoon and shot rounds over their heads.

Berri, 82, is the leader of the biggest Shi'a faction in the parliament, and is backed by Hezbollah.

His portrait was last week hung on the gallows as protesters demonstrated against the political leadership they blame for the explosion.

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

The personal guard of Nabih Berri, speaker of the Lebanese parliament - shoots live rounds over the heads of protesters

A cut out of Berri, who is the leader of the biggest Shia faction in the parliament and is backed by Hezbollah, was hung from the gallows in downtown Beirut last week

Berri's guard crouches down as he aims above protesters' heads before firing rounds

Yesterday Iran said that countries should refrain from politicising the massive blast in and urged the US to lift sanctions against Lebanon.

'The blast should not be used as an excuse for political aims ... the cause of the blast should be investigated carefully,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi told a televised news conference.

Iran backs Hezbollah, the armed Shi'ite Muslim group that is among Lebanon's most powerful political forces, which Washington considers a terrorist group and penalises with sanctions.

Lebanese anti-government protesters try to break through a barrier placed by Lebanese police to block a road leading to the parliament building during a protest in Beirut, Lebanon, 09 August

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

Demonstrators attack a protection wall leading to the Parliament square during a protest on August 8

Footage believed to be the closest captured during the devastating blast in Beirut shows the blaze that triggered the explosion

A warehouse fire sparked by a welder set light to 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that was being stored at the city's port, causing an explosion with force roughly equal to a fifth of the atomic bomb which levelled Hiroshima

French President Emmanuel Macron visited shattered streets on Thursday, two days after the chemical explosion in the dock area, as crowds demanded an end to decades of corrupt politics of patronage.

Asked about the visit, Mousavi said: 'Some countries have been trying to politicise this blast for their own interests.'

Macron told an emergency donor conference on Sunday that donors would watch closely how the aid was spent.

Mousavi also said that 'if America is honest about its assistance offer to Lebanon, they should lift sanctions'.

Lebanon's government is hanging by a thread as thousands of protesters continue to take to the streets and clash with police.

They have exchanged tear gas and molotov cocktails, with the army drafted in to take control of Martyrs' Square in the city centre.

It is believed one police officer fell to his death following an 'assault' by protestors, and dozens of demonstrators are injured.

The explosion that disfigured the city and shocked the world is widely perceived as a direct consequence of the incompetence and corruption that have come to define Lebanon's ruling class.

Two cabinet ministers have resigned, including a top aid to the premier, amid signals that the government may unravel entirely.

A demonstrator uses a slingshot in a protest following Tuesday's blast, in Beirut, Lebanon August 9, 2020

Riot police march toward demonstrators during an anti-government protest following Tuesday's massive explosion which devastated Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday

As the political fallout continued, protesters converged again on the parliament area Sunday afternoon, setting off another night of violent demonstrations.

Hundreds of protesters clashed with security forces, attempting to breach the heavily-guarded parliament.

Security forces responded with tear gas and chased the protesters in the streets of downtown, in a smaller repeat of scenes from the night before.

Warehouses full of goods including cars in the immediate area surround the blast were completely destroyed by the impact of the explosion the size of a small nuclear bomb

French President Emmanuel Macron reacts during a donor teleconference with other world leaders concerning the situation in Lebanon following the Beirut blast, in Fort de Bregancon in Bormes-les-Mimosas, France, August 9

Earlier Sunday, the resignation of Information Minister Manal Abdel-Samad, in which she cited failure to meet the people's aspirations and last week's blast, was followed by a swirl of reports that other ministers were also resigning.

Late Sunday, Environment Minister Demanios Kattar resigned, calling the ruling system 'flaccid and sterile.'

He stepped down despite closed-door meetings into the evening and a flurry of phone calls between Prime Minister Hassan Diab and several ministers following Abdel-Samad's announcement.

If seven of the 20 ministers resign, the Cabinet would effectively have to step down and remain in place as a caretaker government.

Maha Yahya, the director of the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center, said the discussions clearly point to backroom deals that seek to put together a new government that's acceptable to domestic and international powers, as well as the angered public.

The current government 'really has been a lame duck,' she said, unable to undertake any reform or show independence in a highly divisive political atmosphere. 'Even the ministers are deserting the sinking ship.'

Tear gas and rubber bullets were used by the Lebanese army to try and break up crowds of protesters last night

French experts working at the scene of the explosion say that the crater left by the explosion measures as large as 43-metre (141 foot) deep

Hundreds of tons of highly explosive material were stored in the waterfront hangar, and the blast sent a shock wave that defaced the coastline of Beirut - destroying hundreds of buildings.

World leaders yesterday pledged more than 250 million euros to rebuild Beirut.

Fifteen government leaders, including Donald Trump took part in a conference call hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and the UN.

The donor nations also urged Lebanon to 'fully commit themselves to timely measures and reforms' in order to unlock longer-term support for the country's economic and financial recovery.

And they said assistance for 'an impartial, credible and independent inquiry' into Tuesday's explosion 'is immediately needed and available, upon request of Lebanon.'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 09:23:53|Editor: huaxia

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NIAMEY, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Eight people including six French tourists and two Nigeriens (a guide and a driver) were killed on Sunday by armed individuals in the Koure area, according to the Nigerien ministry of interior and public security.

The Elysee Palace confirmed the incident. "French nationals were killed on Sunday in Niger," President Emmanuel Macron's office told French media and denounced the attack, adding that Macron had spoke by phone with Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou.

The victims, who went to visit giraffes in the Koure area about 70 km southeast of Niamey in the Kollo department, Tillabry region, were in a vehicle belonging to a French NGO Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development.

The vehicle was charred by the attackers, said the ministry in a statement, adding that an "investigation and search operations in collaboration with our partners are underway to find the perpetrators of this despicable act and to strengthen security in the area."

The Koure area bordering Burkina Faso has for over a year been a new hotbed of insecurity in the extreme southwest of the country. Enditem
(Newser)  "We are waking up in shock this morning," Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said of the unrest and looting that plagued part of downtown in the wee hours of Monday. She referred to the damage done as "straight-up felony criminal conduct" that was totally unrelated to the "righteous uprising" that happened in the wake of George Floyd's death. As earlier reported, the genesis of the looting seems to be a Sunday afternoon shooting in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side. Police responding to reports of an armed man said they shot and struck a 20-year-old who had fired at officers. He is expected to survive, but Police Superintendent David Brown says social media posts emerged that advocated looting, reports CBS Chicago, with the Chicago Tribune adding that some of the posts claimed the suspect who was shot was 15 years old. "Tempers flared, fueled by misinformation as the afternoon turned into evening," says Brown. "That grew and grew into the late-night hours." More:



CBS Chicago describes "caravans of cars" streaming into downtown, with looters bringing with them boxes of rocks and bricks. Brown says 13 responding officers were injured, with one suffering a broken nose.

story continues below

The bridges spanning the Chicago River downtown were briefly raised, some bus and train lines were temporarily halted, and more than 100 arrests were made by 9am, reports the Tribune, with investigators poring over surveillance footage in hopes of identifying more looters.

The New York Times describes the aftermath: "Business owners began to pick through the damage: cash registers overturned in a pharmacy, windows broken at high-end stores, empty boxes scattered outside a jewelry store."

The Tribune reports criticism is being hurled at the city as well, largely over the fact that it took officers four hours to contain the situation. The paper flags the reaction of Downtown Ald. Brian Hopkins, who says he was on the scene on Michigan Avenue from midnight to 4am and faulted Lightfoot for apparently not creating a looting response plan after it occurred in May and June.

The Sun-Times has more from Lightfoot, who spoke at a Monday press conference from police headquarters: "Criminals took to the streets with the confidence that there would be no consequences for their actions. You have no right, no right to take and destroy the property of others. We are coming for you. ... I dont care what justification was given for this. There is no justification."

Restrictions will be in place downtown from 8pm until 6am beginning Monday night.

(Read more Chicago stories.)
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The United States, on August 9, said that theres no "secret deal" with Afghanistan, President Ashraf Ghani revealed in a statement. This comes as recently, Afghanistans Loya Jirga Assembly approved the release of 400 Taliban prisoners. The statement further pushed the international community to cease direct or indirect intervention in Afghanistan's internal affairs. Ghani, in this regard, confirmed with the US if there was a consensus on an independent and democratic Afghanistan, to which, the White House response was yes, a news agency reported.

In a 25 article resolution, the Afghanistan government openly urged that the Taliban group "will not return to war and its activity will be monitored. The historic release of Talibani prisoners, a consensus reached in presence of Afghan elders, community leaders, and politicians in Kabul, was the last hurdle in the peace negotiations between the internationally-backed Afghan government and the Taliban, as per the report. Afghanistan governments decision has fostered the scope of renewed talks for both sides to reach a peace deal negotiated by the US. President Ghani, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and other political figures urged the Taliban to cease the conflict and start the immediate intra-Afghan talks to put an end to the historic wars.

Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen reportedly acknowledged the Afghan government's decision, saying, it was a good step, a positive step.

Atefa Tayeb, a council secretary who read out the final declaration at the conclusion, reportedly said, to remove obstacles, to start peace talks and to stop the bloodshed, the Jirga is taking the historic step.

Read: Afghan Peace Talks: Mike Pompeo Holds Discussion With Taliban Leader Baradar Akhund

Read: Afghan Taliban Calls UNSC Report 'False Intelligence', Refutes Ties With Terror Groups

"Clear mechanism" should be discussed

The resolution proposed by the Afghan government mentioned that a "clear mechanism" should be discussed during talks between the Afghan government and Taliban, which "should lead to social order, the security of facilities and infrastructure and stability in the country and address the concerns of the Afghan people", a news agency reported. Further, the assembly thanked the international community, including the US and NATO, and urged the nations and institutions to felicitate the peace process after the clarification with the US and the international guarantees.

Read: US Sends Special Rep. Zalmay Khalilzad for Peace Talks Ahead Of Intra-Afghan Negotiations

Read: Trump On Russian Involvement In Afghanistan

(With Agency inputs)
Ark. laws banning sex-selective, dismemberment abortions can go into effect: appeals court

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A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued a ruling allowing Arkansas to implement a set of laws banning dismemberment and sex-selective abortions.

In 2017, Arkansas passed four pro-life laws that, among other things, ban second-trimester and third-trimester dismemberment abortions and sex-selective abortions carried out because the parents don't want the baby because of its sex, most often because it's a girl.

In a Per Curiam decision released Friday, the appeals panel vacated a preliminary injunction against the laws by a district court, remanding the case for reconsideration by the lower court and allowing the laws to take effect on Aug. 28.

The panel cited the opinion of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, as given in last month's decision in June Medical Services L. L. C. v. Russo.

In June Medical Services, Roberts sided with the high courts four liberal justices, striking down a Louisiana state law that required abortion providers to have hospital admitting privileges.

Although Roberts had sided with the majority against the law, Roberts also wrote a concurring opinion taking issue with the courts determining whether courts could rule on certain abortion regulations.

 courts applying a balancing test would be asked in essence to weigh the States interests in protecting the potentiality of human life and the health of the woman, on the one hand, against the womans liberty interest in defining her own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life on the other, wrote Roberts in his concurring opinion.

There is no plausible sense in which anyone, let alone this Court, could objectively assign weight to such imponderable values and no meaningful way to compare them if there were.

The Eighth Circuit panel stressed the point Roberts made about how a weighing of costs and benefits of an abortion regulation was not a job for the courts.

Chief Justice Roberts vote was necessary in holding unconstitutional Louisianas admitting-privileges law, so his separate opinion is controlling, reasoned the Per Curiam decision.

Chief Justice Roberts  emphasized the wide discretion that courts must afford to legislatures in areas of medical uncertainty.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge celebrated the decision, saying in a statement that Arkansas has taken a strong stance to protect the unborn from inhumane treatment.

As Arkansass chief legal officer, I have always advocated for the lives of unborn children and will continue to defend our states legal right to protect the unborn, said Rutledge, according to LifeNews.com.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, which brought the litigation against the laws when they were first passed, denounced the panel's ruling, calling the laws onerous.

This ruling is a reminder that the fight against these extreme abortion restrictions is far from won, stated Holly Dickson, ACLU of Arkansas legal director.

We are evaluating our next steps and will continue to fight to ensure these harmful and unconstitutional laws do not take effect."
The American militarys presence in Europe is shifting eastward, the Defense Department has confirmed, as a new agreement with Poland sets up a host of construction projects designed to support more U.S. troops in that country.

In addition to the 4,500 troops that currently rotate from the U.S., Poland has agreed to fund infrastructure and logistical support to U.S. forces, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Tom Campbell told Military Times. An increase of 1,000 rotational troops is also still on tap.

The plan is part of an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement completed Monday and awaiting signatures.

Alongside the recently announced European strategic force posture changes, the EDCA will enhance deterrence against Russia, strengthen NATO, reassure our Allies, and our forward presence in Poland on NATOs eastern flank will improve our strategic and operational flexibility, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a statement.

Infrastructure projects will include

 A V Corps forward command post.

 A forward division headquarters

 Several combat training centers, starting with Drawsko and Pomorskie.

 An Air Force MQ-9 squadron.

 An aerial port of debarkation for loading and unloading troops and equipment.

 An area support group.

 A special operations forces facility to support air, ground and maritime operations.

 Facilities for a armored brigade combat team, a combat aviation brigade and a combat sustainment support battalion.

The Armys V Corps had been deactivated since 2013, but the service announced it would stand the organization back up earlier this year, with its main headquarters at Fort Knox, Kentucky. On Tuesday, that plan fleshed out. About 630 soldiers will be assigned to V Corps, 200 of whom will man the Poland outpost on a rotating basis.

An Army Europe official told Army Times the service is still unaware of the exact location that V Corps will be set up in the country, and could only confirm that it will be in Poland. V Corps had previously been based in Germany.

Story continues

The first command post rotation is expected to start in fiscal year 2021. V Corps primary mission will be operational planning, mission command and oversight of the rotational forces in Europe.

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.

Armys resurrected V Corps will go to Poland

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.

Esper presented the plan as a re-balancing, as post-Cold War Europe has shifted NATOs border with Russia eastward.

Trump, meanwhile, has characterized withdrawing troops from Germany as a direct rebuke, in response to the country not meeting its goal of contributing 2 percent of its gross domestic product to NATO, a goal the organizations set for itself by 2024.

Germany is not paying their bills, Trump told reporters July 29. Theyre delinquent. Its simple.

Poland is one of the minority of NATO countries who meets that spending benchmark.

While about 5,600 troops will shift from Germany to other parts of Europe, another 5,300 will head back to the U.S., then potentially move into the pipeline for rotational deployments back to Eastern Europe.

Since 2016, the Army has been rotating an armored brigade combat team to Europe. While much of that deployment includes Poland, exercises and engagements with partner forces have seen American troops moving down to Bulgaria and up to Estonia.
President Trump on Sunday denied a New York Times report that a White House aide had asked South Dakota's governor about how to add another president to Mount Rushmore. But Trump also suggested he wouldn't mind seeing his own face etched into the monument.

"This is Fake News," Trump tweeted of the Times report. "Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me!"

Trump has a long history of saying his likeness should be added to Mount Rushmore, although in public he's generally insisted he's joking.

His fixation with Mount Rushmore as a populist symbol, though, is undeniable. In July, he staged a gala Independence Day celebration at the South Dakota monument where he tried to capitalize on the social and political divisions riling the nation amid the novel coronavirus pandemic in a fiery speech warning of a "left-wing cultural revolution."

In the lead-up to that event, the Times reported on Saturday, a White House aide had asked the office of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, R, to spell out exactly what the process might look like to add another presidential face to the stone facade.

Per the Times, Noem responded in kind: By presenting the president with a four-foot-tall reproduction of Mount Rushmore that included Trump's face etched in the rock next to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

Although Trump on Sunday disputed the Times account, Noem has said in the past that Trump personally raised the question with her. In 2018, Noem, then a member of Congress running for governor, said Trump brought up the idea of adding his face to Rushmore during their first meeting in the Oval Office.

"He said, 'Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand,' " Noem said, according to the Argus Leader. "I shook his hand, and I said, 'Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore.' And he goes, 'Do you know it's my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?' "

Noem broke out in laughter, she told the paper - but quickly realized Trump wasn't joking.

"I started laughing," she said. "He wasn't laughing, so he was totally serious."

In 2017, Trump made similar comments at a speech in Ohio, but insisted they were in jest.

"I'd ask whether or not you think I will someday be on Mount Rushmore, but, no - here's the problem. If I did it joking, totally joking, having fun, the fake-news media will say, 'He believes he should be on Mount Rushmore!' " Trump said at the time. "So I won't say it, OK? I won't say."

So would it be possible to add Trump's face to the mountain? There's no clear process to make it happen, The Washington Post reported in 2017, though Trump would probably have to start by getting South Dakota's legislature and possibly Congress to sign on. Adding a new face would cost at least $64 million in labor alone, Bump calculated.

But there's also the question of whether the rock would be stable enough to add another towering set of presidential features. Jefferson's tribute had to be moved from its original spot due to flaws in the granite.

The staff at Mount Rushmore says any further sculpting is simply impossible.

"There is no more carvable space up on the sculpture," Maureen McGee-Ballinger, a spokeswoman for the monument, told the Argus Leader two years ago. "When you are looking on the sculpture, it appears there might be some space on the left next to Washington or right next to Lincoln. You are either looking at the rock that is beyond the sculpture (on the right), which is an optical illusion, or on the left, that is not carvable."

The White House didn't immediately respond to a message from The Post about Trump's latest reported flirtation with a spot in the rock.
Confirming reports earlier in the day that former deputy chief minister of Rajasthan Sachin Pilot met former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, senior party leader KC Venugopal said on August 10 that the two leaders had "frank, open and conclusive discussion".

"Sachin Pilot met with ex-Congress President Rahul Gandhi and expressed his grievances in detail... Sachin Pilot has committed to working in interest of Congress party and Congress govt in Rajasthan," Venugopal said while addressing reporters.

"Following this meeting, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has decided that the AICC will constitute a three-member committee to address the issues raised by Sachin Pilot and the aggrieved MLA and arrive at an appropriate resolution thereof," Venugopal said, according to news agency ANI.

The development comes ahead of the August 14 Assembly session and a month after Pilot rebelled, along with 18 other MLAs, against the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan, leading to Pilot's sacking as deputy chief minister and state party chief.

Reports had earlier suggested that some of the rebel MLAs have also been in touch with the Congress leadership in the last few days.

Earlier on August 9, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had asked his Congress legislators to show their unity on the floor of the House.

"The unity which you have shown till now, the same unity you have to show in the House," the chief minister said.
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Berlin, Aug 11 : German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that he had complained to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the threat of sanctions against a German port company due to the Nord Stream 2 project.

Maas said he spoke with Pompeo over phone on Sunday to complain about the decision by three US senators who threatened the German port operator Faehrhafen Sassnitz with sanctions over its support of the Russia-Germany gas pipeline project, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

In their letter which got published on Friday, the three senators warned that the port operator could destroy its future financial viability if it does not cease all cooperation with companies working on the pipeline stretching 1,230 km from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea.

"I mentioned it in a telephone call yesterday and expressed my surprise and displeasure," said Maas on Monday in Berlin.

Washington and Berlin have long been at odds at the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

US President Donald Trump has long voiced his discontentment about the Nord Stream 2 project, complaining about Germany's large payment to Russia on energy and "delinquency" on military spending.

German government and officials have repeatedly condemned the US sanctions and Washington's extraterritorial administration.

Last week, Bundestag economic committee chairman Klaus Ernst called on the German government to consider countermeasures and, if necessary, implement punitive tariffs against the US LNG gas.
OTTAWA  Manitoba universities will soon figure out whether their ranks resemble the provinces demographics, thanks to a federal push to make post-secondary intuitions more equitable.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/8/2020 (527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  Manitoba universities will soon figure out whether their ranks resemble the provinces demographics, thanks to a federal push to make post-secondary intuitions more equitable.

The funding comes amid a concern from Industry Canada that provincial belt-tightening will squander those initiatives.

"The hope of the program is to make sure all people are given a fair assessment," said Digvir Jayas, the vice-president of research at the University of Manitoba.

Its one of three Manitoba institutions that endorsed a charter on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), pledging to hire, promote and do research in a way that reflects the population.

EDI is based on a program the United Kingdom launched in 2005 called Athena SWAN, in which universities pledged to submit data to a non-profit, which compared the diversity of their communities with those who applied and got jobs, grants and promotions.

Canadas EDI initiative asks universities to log data and "address any potential systemic barriers in their policies and processes which have contributed to the underrepresentation" of women, visible minorities, people with disabilities, LGBTTQ+ and Indigenous people.

In a February briefing note for Industry Minister Navdeep Bains ahead of a meeting with U of M officials, bureaucrats noted that "university presidents in provinces where provincial budgets are being constrained may signal particular concern about the cost of meeting new federal program requirements (e.g., EDI) without additional operating support."

Ottawa has since boosted its funding for EDI.

With that cash, U of M is implementing a plan that involves rethinking how academics qualify for opportunities. For example, the number of papers a professor has published can vary based on the complexity of the work.

Studying a remote, Indigenous community involves years of building trust, and can produce results that have a huge impact for that communitys future, Jayas said.

"Is that of any less significance than somebody publishing X-number of papers in a journal, which may be read by a few people who work in that area but has had no impact? I think we have to look at those things."

In the same way, a climate-change monitoring project in the north could employ local Indigenous youth, giving them part-time income and a voice in shaping the data, and the community can use the findings to help improve their lives.

"(Its) making sure that we are not just doing research on them, but with them, and by them, as an equal partner," said Jayas.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES U of M's Digvir Jayas says the program aims to ensure all people are given fair assessment.

The university is working on an initiative to try making sure the pool of job applicants reflects the local population. For example, if no one from a group with a sizable presence applies for a job, it would trigger a discussion, where staff would review processes like whether the places the job was advertised reached a fair mix of people.

U of M was able to tap into existing grants that are normally used for maintaining facilities or digitizing records. So far, thats started with a $50,000 budget for someone to develop tools and training materials for staff.

Last fall, the University of Winnipeg joined a national EDI pilot project to collect and analyze "the institutions systems, practices and culture," while Brandon University is awaiting federal funding to implement EDI initiatives.

"Its going to be amazing to attract the researchers, the faculty, the staff that are able to show the diversity of our province and country," said Cheryl Fleming, BUs diversity and human-rights advisor.

The university has proposed to invest in software to analyze self-identification surveys from staff, to provide anonymized data on whether faculties and departments follow the demographics of the Westman region.

It will also be able to provide resumes to hiring committees that shield the name of those involved, to avoid discrimination based on ethnic origin.

Innovation, Science and Economic Development (known widely as Industry Canada) spent $5.3 million on EDI initiatives last year, and has this year earmarked $7.35 million.

"The Government of Canada recognizes that in times such as a pandemic, it is even more important to address systemic barriers as these disruptive situations further exacerbate existing inequities faced by individuals from equity-seeking and underrepresented groups," wrote department spokeswoman Genevieve Sicard.

She added that federal agencies "are also sharing tools with institutions on how to consider and embed EDI in virtual settings."

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At Brandon University, Fleming says she would like to eventually train hiring committees, so they can factor in maternity leave and childcare needs when comparing academics track records and publication history.

"Over the long term, well be able to do statistical analyses, to ensure that were () equalling the playing field," Fleming said.

"We want to be very reflective of our community, our province and our country."

Jayas argues that having a range of perspective leads to stronger outcomes

"If we can change the culture and start recognizing people for their work, I think we can have a huge impact on the society and everybody will feel properly assessed, and that theyve been given their fair chance. And theyll be proud and want to make those contributions, for the betterment of society."

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
A daily-wage earner from South Garo Hills district in Meghalaya, who was accused of raping a minor, was killed by the rape survivors father and three others, the police said on Monday.

Harun Sheikh (42), a resident of a village under the jurisdiction of Silkigre police station in Meghalayas South Garo Hills district, succumbed to his injuries on Saturday while undergoing treatment at a local public healthcare centre.

Priyanshu Pandey, superintendent of police (SP), South Garo Hills, said the accused had committed the crime at night on August 5. The matter came to light, when on Saturday the rape survivor narrated the ordeal to her mother, who, in turn, told her husband.

The enraged father along with some of his friends accosted Sheikh and fatally injured him.

The father of the rape survivor is among the four persons arrested and two separate cases have been registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, and for murder, the SP said.

The deceased, who had married to a local Garo woman a year ago, is survived by his wife and step-children.

Anurag Thakur, deputy inspector-general (DIG) (Western Range), Meghalaya, said security has been beefed up in the area to prevent any untoward incident and the stringent norms under the POCSO Act, 2012, would be complied with.
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Startr Co., a modern public relations partner and champion for startups and emerging businesses, has been honored with recognition as one of the 2020 Best Places to Work by the Los Angeles Business Journal. This is the first time the agency has been recognized since its founding in 2016. Announced at a special virtual event on August 5, Startr Co. was ranked 5 out of 29 Los Angeles-based companies in the small company category.

Los Angeles Business Journal Best Places to Work 2020

Companies from across the county applied for the Best Places to Work in Los Angeles list, which honors the top 100 companies in Los Angeles who are actively setting trends and redefining the employee experience through leadership, corporate culture, communications and much more. Managed by Best Companies Group, an independent research firm specializing in identifying and recognizing great places to work, rankings were the result of an anonymous two-part questionnaire and survey process by both Startr Co. and its valued employees. The assessments helped to evaluate Startr Co.'s workplace policies, company culture, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics. The two combined sets of data allowed the judging committee to conduct an in-depth analysis of the strengths and opportunities that exist in each company.

"At Startr Co., we have an unwavering commitment to our team and strive to create an intrapreneurial environment that highlights strengths and is welcoming of all ideas," said Startr Co. CEO Monica Guzman Escobar. "We believe that a healthy workplace produces happy teams and stellar results and we will continue to innovate new and better ways to ensure all team members feel supported by their colleagues and leadership. It is truly an honor to be named one of the Los Angeles Business Journal's Best Places to Work".

A small business comprised of big thinkers, Startr Co. is on a mission to create raving fans for the inventions and ideas that will shape the future. The Los Angeles-based agency works with brands such as SmartSweets, Bobo's, Beanfields, Cappello's, LILLEbaby, The Little Gym and Lemon Perfect, to name a few. Startr Co. is proud to provide employee benefits including internal and external development training, strength assessments, a newly renovated office space, a robust work from home program, fitness class reimbursement, anonymous feedback tools, and more. To add to their accolades, Startr Co. was also named a 'Best Workplace' in Inc.'s annual list in May.

For more information on the Best Places to Work in Los Angeles and a full list of winners, visit www.BestPlacestoWorkLA.com.

About Startr Co.

Startr Co. is a modern public relations partner and champion for startups and emerging businesses. Providing Fortune 500-quality PR service at a startup-friendly rate, Startr Co. serves clients through strategic advisement, media relations, press material creation and influencer marketing. Founded in 2016, Startr Co. is led by an experienced team with deep roots in the food & beverage, lifestyle, family and franchise arenas. For more information on Startr Co. or to become a client, visit www.startrco.com.

Media Contact:

Monica Guzman Escobar

213.225.4427

[email protected]

SOURCE Startr Co.

Related Links

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 11:16:43|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- A senior U.S. Federal Reserve official said on Sunday that another fiscal support package is "incredibly important" for the economy to recover from the pandemic as Congress failed to reach a deal on the new relief bill.

"I would say that fiscal policy has been unbelievably important in supporting the economy during the downturn that we've been experiencing," Charles Evans, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said in an interview with CBS's "Face the Nation."

"That continues to be important because we've not got control over the virus spread. I think that public confidence is really important and another support package is really incredibly important," he said.

Evans also said that there would be increases in job losses if Congress doesn't provide further fiscal support to state and local governments.

"States have to balance their budgets. They are experiencing reduced tax revenues. And so there will be employment reductions," he said, noting state and local governments account for about 10 percent of employment in the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday signed a series of executive orders to extend certain COVID-19 economic relief, but they're unlikely to provide meaningful boost to the overall economy.

"President Trump still does not comprehend the seriousness or the urgency of the health and economic crises facing working families," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Saturday in a joint statement.

"The only solution to crush the virus and protect working families is to pass a comprehensive bill that is equal to the historic health and economic catastrophe facing our country," they said.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, has recently warned that the U.S. economy is at serious risk of sliding back into recession unless Congress and the Trump administration come up with another fiscal rescue package before Congress goes on its August recess. Enditem
Huawei Technologies reign as the worlds No 1 smartphone vendor may be short lived, as the head of its consumer business unit publicly admitted that the company may not be able to ship handsets with its high-end Kirin chips after this year owing to US trade sanctions.

We are in a difficult situation  Huaweis smartphones have no chip supply, Richard Yu Chengdong, chief executive of the companys consumer business group, said on Friday at the China Info 100 conference, according to a video recording of his comments posted on multiple websites. This year may be the last generation of Huawei Kirin high-end chips  This is a big loss for us, he said.

Huawei, which overtook Samsung Electronics in the second quarter to become the worlds No 1 smartphone vendor, is at the epicentre of escalating US-China tech tensions. In May, Washington expanded its sanctions against Huawei by prohibiting foreign chip makers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) from using US technology to produce chips for the Chinese company. That move followed its inclusion in a US trade blacklist a year earlier.

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Huawei declined to comment for this story.

With its in-house HiSilicon chip unit, Huawei was able to get around the first US ban by designing its own chips to replace those it could not buy from US suppliers like Qualcomm, but it lacks the ability to manufacture the devices.

However, that loophole was closed with a new direct product rule sanction that takes effect September 15, which will require TSMC or any other non-US semiconductor maker that uses US equipment in its wafer fabs, to apply to Washington for a licence to ship chips to Huawei.

Smartphones come under Huaweis consumer business group, the companys biggest operating segment, which generated 255.8 billion yuan (US$36.5 billion) in revenue in the first six months of this year.

Story continues

Huawei looks like it will lose a lot in smartphone sales [without Kirin chips], said Greg Austin, senior fellow for Cyber, Space and Future Conflict at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore. Whether the US ban is permanent depends on who wins the election in the United States, now just three months away.

Yu said Huaweis smartphone shipments probably will be lower than the level of 240 million last year due to the sanctions, in a sign that the US bans are starting to damage Huaweis business.

The problem of Kirin [system-on-a-chip] supply is not limited to volume, said Jusy Hong, director of smartphone research at Omdia. Most of the Huawei models currently sold in China are high-end models  Potentially limited supplies of Kirin SoCs, which are integrated in high-end models, will have a tremendous impact on sales and profits beyond volume.

Huaweis most advanced processor, the Kirin 900 series, accounted for 36 per cent of total smartphone shipments in the first quarter, according to Omdia. The Kirin 900 series is widely adopted not only in Huawei's flagship model, but also in the mid-high line-up models such as the Honor and Nova series.

The impact of the US sanctions spreads across price segments, Hong added. [The ban] on Huawei producing Kirin processors via [TSMC] will have an impact not limited to Huawei's top line-up but also on its mid-range.

While Yu publicly said supply of the top of the line Kirin chips will soon dry up, company executives privately told the Post that they are confident the company can still produce high end smartphones because Huawei has a back up plan, which they declined to disclose.

In any case, the impact of the sanctions has not been reflected in Huaweis performance this year. In fact, driven by increased demand in China as the worlds second-largest economy recovers from disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Huawei was able to over take Samsung Electronics for the first time in global smartphone shipments in the second quarter

If the sanctions continue and Huawei is unable to produce Kirin processors through TSMC, it is expected that any impact on Huaweis smartphone business will not materialise before 2021, said Hong. Huawei is reportedly shifting orders for earlier versions of its Kirin smartphone processors from TSMC to mainland Chinese wafer foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), which is behind the industry leaders in technological expertise.

A Huawei logo seen on the building of Huawei Technologies in France. Photo: Reuters

SMIC will also need to apply for a US license to provide chips to Huawei because its wafer fabrication plants use equipment from US suppliers such as Lam Research.

Separately, Qualcomm has been lobbying the US government for a waiver to supply 5G smartphone chips to Huawei, The Wall Street Journal reported at the weekend.

After Huawei was put on the Entity List in May last year, Qualcomm and other US suppliers were banned from selling products to the Chinese company without permission from Washington.

Qualcomm has argued that the latest sanctions on Huawei have inadvertently created massive financial opportunities for the two foreign competitors of Qualcomm, the WSJ quoted the company as saying to government officials.

However, it is unclear if foreign 5G chip suppliers like South Koreas Samsung Electronics and Taiwans MediaTek  Qualcomms major rivals  could supply Huawei if their chips are also made using US technology. In June, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Reuters that Washington would aggressively crack down on any bid to evade the intent of the new Huawei curb.

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The Pound Sterling Euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate made gains on Monday morning. This left the pairing trading 0.2% higher at 1.1091.

The riskier Pound was able to make gains today as risk sentiment edged higher despite the stalemate in Congress between Republicans and Democrats.

US President Donald Trump signed a number of executive orders to help provide relief from the coronavirus crisis. These orders included a $400 per week increase in unemployment benefits.

However, gains were limited as the United States will need a broader package to help support the economy going forward due to the extent of the damage caused by the coronavirus crisis.

Meanwhile, Sterling likely continued to be supported by the increase in Brexit optimism last week. Britains top minister overseeing Brexit negotiations, Michael Gove said he was confident a free trade deal between the UK and EU would be secured in time.

Gove noted there had been a distinct change of tone from the EU in recent weeks which has allowed progress to be made.

Speaking to reporters in Northern Ireland, Mr Gove said:

Im confident that there will be a deal, I think there has been a welcome change in tone over the last few weeks.

The omens are good for a deal. Now of course there is some tough talking to do. I believe that there will be a successful negotiated outcome.

The relationship that we have with the European Union is constructive, pragmatic and impressive.

Meanwhile, the single currency remained under pressure after the Bank of France revealed economic activity ran below normal levels in July.

Frances economic activity ran 7% below usual levels in July, although this was a slight improvement on Junes data.

The countrys construction sector neared its pre-coronavirus levels while industrial capacity usage edged higher.

The Bank of France said the blocs second largest economy contracted by -13.8%, in line with forecasts. The bank noted:

The rebound continued in July, at a more moderate rhythm, in line with the trajectory anticipated last month.

Junes data revealed activity was -9% below normal levels, while the first two weeks of March saw economic activity -32% below standard levels.

Meanwhile, in the blocs largest economy, Ifo have noted that companies expect public life to be restricted for a further 8.5 months due the coronavirus crisis.

Those hit the hardest by the crisis, leisure firms, are incredibly pessimistic and expect restrictions to last another 13 months. The beverage sector is more optimistic, expecting restrictions to end in around 6.4 months.

UK Unemployment Data in Focus

Looking ahead to Tuesday, the Pound (GBP) could suffer losses against the Euro (EUR) following the release of the latest UK employment statistics.

Data is expected to show the countrys unemployment rate has edged higher in June, and average earnings have plummeted which will weigh on Sterling sentiment.

However, if Julys claimant count change reveals the number of Britons claiming unemployment benefits has slumped once again, GBP gains could be limited.

Meanwhile, the latest German Economic Sentiment Index could offer the single currency an upswing of support.

If economic sentiment in the blocs largest economy jumps higher than expected in August, it will boost EUR. This will send the Pound Euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate lower.
BALTIMORE - A natural gas explosion destroyed three row houses in Baltimore on Monday morning, killing a woman and trapping other people in the debris. At least seven people were seriously injured, and firefighters were searching for more survivors.

Dozens of firefighters converged on the piles of rubble. A fourth house in the row was ripped open, and windows were shattered in nearby homes, leaving the northwest Baltimore neighbourhood of Reisterstown Station strewn with glass and other rubble.

Its a disaster. Its a mess. Its unbelievable, said Diane Glover, who lives across the street. Her windows where shattered and her front door was blown open. Im still shaken up, she said hours later.

Seven people were hospitalized, while a woman was pronounced dead at the scene, The Baltimore City Fire Department said on its Twitter page. One person transported to the University of Maryland Medical Center is in critical condition, the Baltimore Sun reported. Rescuers were painstakingly going through the rubble by hand, prepared to work into the night.

Were trying to make sure that we comb through every area to determine if there are any victims inside, Baltimore Fire Department spokeswoman Blair Adams said at an afternoon news conference.

While the cause wasnt immediately clear, The Sun reported last year that dangerous gas leaks have become much more frequent, with nearly two dozen discovered each day on average, according to the utilitys reports to federal authorities. The Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. has thousands of miles of obsolete pipes that need to be replaced, an effort that would cost nearly $1 billion and take two decades, the newspaper said.

No gas odours were reported prior to this mornings event and BGE did not receive any recent gas odor calls from the block of homes that were damaged, it said in a statement late Monday.

BGE said it responded to the scene at the fire departments request to shut off all gas and electric service to make the scene safe. BGE has canvassed the area and found no current readings of gas. A statement from the utility said it will conduct an investigation of its equipment in the area.

Area inspections will encompass homes and gas equipment in a wide area to ensure there is no additional damage, the statement said. In addition, BGE is reviewing records for this area, including any reported gas odours, recent inspection results and repairs.

Glover, 56, and her 77-year-old father, Moses Glover, were at home when the massive explosion shook their house, knocking over a fan and some of her DVDs.

I jumped up to see what was going on. I looked out the bathroom window and there was a house on the ground, she said. It sounded like a bomb went off.

Dean Jones, 36, who lives nearby, ran to the scene. He said he saw a mess of bricks, glass and cinder blocks  and also a box of pancakes.

You could tell this was a house that people lived in, he said.

Jones said he and others began calling out for survivors and located an older woman who was eventually pulled out by firefighters. Kevin Matthews, who lives on the block, told The Baltimore Sun that he could hear trapped children shouting: Come get us! Were stuck!

Barry Leventhal, whose warehouse equipment business is about 150 feet (46 metres) from the blast site, said he was in his warehouse when the explosion erupted and shook his building, damaging lights and a concrete wall.

Fortunately, none of the companys 10 employees was injured.

We thought a plane crashed or something. We couldnt figure it out, said Leventhal, the owner of Everything Warehouse.

BGE asked the Maryland Public Service Commission to approve a new gas system infrastructure and a cost recovery mechanism in late 2017 to pay for upgrades.

Founded in 1816, BGE is the oldest gas distribution company in the nation. Like many older gas systems, a larger portion of its gas main and services infrastructure consists of cast iron and bare steel  materials that are obsolete and susceptible to failure with age, the PSC wrote in a 2018 order approving a modernization plan.

This areas gas infrastructure was installed in the early 1960s. When aging pipes fail, they tend to make headlines. Last year, a gas explosion ripped the facade off a Maryland office complex in Columbia, affecting more than 20 businesses. No one was injured in the explosion early on a Sunday morning. In 2016, a gas main break forced the evacuation of the Baltimore County Circuit Courthouse. Under Armour Inc. had to evacuate its Baltimore office after a gas main break in 2012.

BGE said in a statement late Monday that its most recent inspection of the gas mains and services in the area occurred in June and July of 2019 and did not identify any leaks.

Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott said he needs the entire city of Baltimore right now to focus on hopeful prayers for those individuals that have been impacted by this.

I want everybody in the city really to rally around those individuals that are still fighting for their lives, he said at a news conference.

___

Associated Press contributors include Mike Kunzelman in Silver Spring, Brian Witte in Annapolis, and Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia.

___

This story has been corrected to show that a quote about BGE being the oldest gas distribution company in the nation was written by the Maryland Public Service Commission, not BGE.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), which busted an international narcotics racket and seized 191.6kg of heroin worth 1,000 crore from an imported container at Nhava Sheva, have arrested the owner of the import company that had ordered for the narcotics to be smuggled from Afghanistan to India. Two aides of the owner have also been arrested.

Suresh Bhatia of Sarvim Exports Ltd, Delhi, was arrested and brought to Mumbai on Monday, along with accused Mohammed Nauman and Mahendra Nigam. Sarvim Exports Ltd companys Import Export Code (IEC) was used for smuggling the drug under the pretext of Mulethi.

Nigam looked after the logistic support on the instructions of Nauman. Nauman is a key lieutenant of Bhatia and was looking after the entire import and transportation-related work for him.

DRI probe has revealed that Suresh Bhatia has past criminal antecedents. He was convicted in the year 2008 case for smuggling 1,200kg of hashish. He completed his sentence under the charges of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. Mohammed Nauman too has past criminal antecedents.

The probe has so far revealed that Nauman had given the custom clearing work and transportation of the consignment to Meenanath Bodake and Kondibhau Gunjal. Both have been arrested in the case on Saturday and presently are in judicial custody.

Bodake, a Nerul, Navi Mumbai resident, is a partner in MB Shipping & Logistics Solution, a Customs Broker firm which was facilitating the clearance of the imported consignment having the Container number INKU2267955.

Bodake was facilitating the custom clearance on Naumans instructions to whom he was introduced by his relative and Mumbra resident Gunjal.

Nauman had entrusted Gunjal with customs clearance work, and later for arranging the transport of the smuggled item. He was promised hefty sum as commission if he facilitates safe and timely delivery of the consignment, investigations have revealed.

Gunjal had been in touch with Nauman since June 2019 and he was very much aware of the fact that the Heroin was being smuggled, sources said.

Bodake and Gunjal have helped the drug racket for clearing the consignment containing the banned drug. Their role in the crime is clear. They have been sent to judicial custody for 14 days by a court, said Jitentra Mishra, the special public prosecutor for DRI.

The investigations in the case is on and Bhatia, Nauman and Nigam are being thoroughly questioned. Their phone call details would also be analysed to probe if more people are involved, sources said. The three would be produced in court on Tuesday.
FLINT, MI  The city of Flint is working on plans for a new police chief after Phil Hart stepped down from duty.

Hart had agreed in February to fill the role on a temporary basis until Monday, Aug. 10.

The Flint City Charter limits the length of interim appointments. Flint City Council approved appointing Hart temporarily to the chief position in February 2020, allowing Neeley additional time to secure a permanent police chief.

Harts temporary appointment ran out Monday.

He initially stepped into the role after former Flint Police Chief Tim Johnson resigned in November 2019 -- after Sheldon Neeley won the mayoral election against Karen Weaver -- and decided to run for the Genesee County sheriff.

Flint police chief resigns, enters Genesee County sheriffs race

I have worked diligently to put into place programs to assist the men and women of the Flint City Police Department and assist in making a smooth transition for the next chief, said Hart.

Hart has worked in law enforcement for more than 30 years, 26 of them with the Michigan State Police where he served as a lieutenant and commander of the Flint post.

In 2012, Hart became the Genesee County Sheriffs Department Jail Administrator. He took on the role of Saginaw County Undersheriff in September 2014 before stepping down in March 2018.

Hart and Johnson both ran for the sheriffs position during the Aug. 4 primary, with both losing to Chris Swanson on the Democratic side of the ballot. Swanson will face Republican candidate Stephen Sanford in the Nov. 3 general election.

Neeley offered his thanks to Hart for his service, dedication to residents, and friendship.

No one could have predicted the intersection of crises we would face as a community. Through it all, Chief Hart showed poise and heart, said Neeley. He guided our community through the anguish of George Floyd, participated alongside myself in numerous peaceful protests, and provided leadership within the Flint Police Department. He stepped up to serve temporarily as Flint police chief when his community needed him and for that I will always be grateful.

Hart assisted Neeley in re-establishing relationships with Mott Community College and University of Michigan-Flint police departments to increase neighborhood patrols; settling two police union contracts, including one that had not been successfully negotiated since 2008; stopping the auctioning of confiscated firearms and allowing the illegal weapons to go back into use; and, led a recruitment effort that brought in more than 200 applicants to fill long-vacant police officer positions in the department.

Neeley is expected to make an appointment soon on a new police chief, but no additional details were provided at this time on who it is that might fill the role.

The departments command staff will operate as usual until the new hire is in place.

Hart expressed his gratitude to the citys officers.

I am very appreciative of my time with the City of Flint and wish the men and women of the Flint Police Department all the best. They have a difficult job, but always approach each and every day with a positive attitude and commitment to the citizens they have sworn to protect and serve.

More on MLive:

Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson leads by large margin in August primary election

Flint police chief in place until August, remains in sheriffs race

Phil Hart appointed interim Flint police chief

Saginaw County Undersheriff Phil Hart resigns

Former Saginaw County Undersheriff announces candidacy for Genesee County Sheriff
Dawn Butler has hit out at racist trolls after she accused the Metropolitan Police of racially profiling her when she was stopped while travelling in a car.

The Labour MP was a passenger in a car that was stopped by police in Hackney, east London, on Sunday.

Butler, a vocal critic of stop and search, recorded a video of the incident at about midday, with police under heightened scrutiny over incidents of alleged racial profiling.

Read more: Four days of thunderstorms for UK after heatwave

On Monday, she tweeted: I see the racist trolls are going crazy with conspiracy theories.

She said claims on social media that the car was being driven by a white man were untrue, and pointed out that her friend is black.

Dawn Butler was in a car that was stopped by police in east London. (PA)

The MP for Brent Central called on police officers to "stop associating being black and driving a nice car with crime" after the BMW she was travelling in was pulled over.

"It's obviously racial profiling, she said.

We know that the police is institutionally racist and what we have to do is weed that out. We have to stop seeing black with crime.

We have to stop associating being black and driving a nice car with crime."

Good morning twitter I see the racist trolls are going crazy with conspiracy theories. Someone who claims to be an ex police officer is challenging me to a debate. No need waste my time as I'm speaking to current police officers. Working together to make the system better.  Dawn Butler MP (@DawnButlerBrent) August 10, 2020

Scotland Yard said the stop was a result of an officer having "incorrectly entered" the car's registration plate into a computer to wrongly identify it as a vehicle registered to Yorkshire, but did not explain why the search was carried out in the first place.

On Monday, Boris Johnson said the police should treat people with "fairness and equality.

The police have made a statement saying that they made a mistake, he said.

Story continues

On Monday, Boris Johnson said police should treat people with 'fairness and equality'. (PA)

"They have spoken to the occupants of the car but it's obviously very, very important that the Met continue to do everything that they can  as indeed they do  to show that they are serving every part of our country, every part of our community, with fairness and equality."

Responding to Johnsons comments, Butler said: The problem is that currently every part of the community is not being served with fairness and equality.

The police are policing not on intelligence or reasonable suspicions, they are using bias and they are stereotyping and they are making assumptions.

In footage from the stop, an officer says police are carrying out searches because of "gang and knife crime".

I JUST GOT STOPPED BY THE POLICE DRIVING THROUGH HACKNEY... MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW...@metpoliceuk



I recorded the whole incident.  Dawn Butler MP (@DawnButlerBrent) August 9, 2020

Butler told the officers: "It is really quite irritating. It's like you cannot drive around and enjoy a Sunday afternoon whilst black, because you're going to be stopped by police."

Read more: Tanker spills 1,000 tonnes of oil into Indian Ocean

Later, Scotland Yard's statement said: "Prior to stopping the vehicle, an officer incorrectly entered the registration into a police computer which identified the car as registered to an address in Yorkshire.

"Upon stopping the vehicle and speaking with the driver, it quickly became apparent that the registration had been entered incorrectly and was registered to the driver in London.

"Once the mistake was realised the officer sought to explain this to the occupants, they were then allowed on their way."

Last month, Great Britain sprinter Bianca Williams and her partner Ricardo dos Santos were pulled from their car in London and handcuffed in front of their three-month-old son.

Nothing was found in the search and the Met referred itself to the police watchdog, while the force's commissioner Dame Cressida Dick was forced to apologise for the "distress" caused.
What happened

Shares of L Brands (NYSE:BBWI), the parent of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works, skyrocketed last month as investors cheered the business update and cost-cutting plan it announced at the end of the month as well as its decision to continue pursuing a separation of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works. Earlier in July, the stock steadily gained as it bounced back from the depths of the market crash. According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, the stock finished the month up 63%.

The chart below tells the tale.

So what

The big news of the month came on July 29 when the company announced that it was cutting $400 million in annual expenses by reducing its corporate headcount by 15% (or 850 people), better managing inventory, closing 250 Victoria Secret stores, and cutting operating losses in foreign markets like the U.K. and China.

Additionally, the company reported strong sales at Bath & Body Works, where it expected a sales increase of 10% from a year ago, though companywide, it still projected a 20% decline in sales due to an estimated 40% drop at Victoria's Secret. Still, that and the company's commitment to separating Victoria's Secret encouraged investors who see Bath & Body Works as a strong stand-alone business.

CEO Andrew Meslow said, "The Board and management remain committed to separating the Bath & Body Works and Victoria's Secret businesses, as well as improving the profitability of the Victoria's Secret business."

Now what

Several analysts lifted their price targets on L Brands after the update, and J.P. Morgan upgraded it to overweight. But Citigroup downgraded it to sell.

While the Victoria's Secret brand is still troubled, L Brands trades at a significant discount to where it was a few years ago, giving investors hope that the retail stock has further upside.

The company's second-quarter earnings report is expected next week. Analysts are forecasting revenue to drop 23.7% to $2.21 billion, and a loss of $0.43 per share on the bottom line, versus a profit of $0.24 in the year-ago quarter.
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Melissa McCarthy enjoyed some quiet family time in Byron Bay on Sunday before her filming commitments for the new TV series, Nine Perfect Strangers, kick off.

The Hollywood star appeared happy and relaxed during a spot of retail therapy and lunch with her husband Ben Falcone, 46, and their lookalike daughters, Vivian Falcone, 13, and Georgette, 10.

Soaking up the local scene, the actress, 49, cut a stylish figure in a navy floral maxi dress and matching coat.

Hollywood star: Melissa McCarthy, 49, enjoyed some family time in Byron Bay on Sunday before her filming commitments for the new TV series, Nine Perfect Strangers, kick off

Melissa toted her belongings in a padded black bag draped across her body while carrying her purchases in a brown paper bag.

The Bridesmaids actress kept her makeup to a minimum and wore a pair of glasses.

Strolling along in a pair of black sandals, Melissa ensured to make the most of her downtime before she headed back to work.

Family time: The Hollywood star relaxed during a spot of retail therapy and lunch with her husband Ben Falcone, 46, and their lookalike daughters, Vivian Falcone, 13, and Georgette, 10

Doting mother: Melissa is seen with her eldest daughter Vivian, 13

Looking good! Soaking up the local scene, the actress cut a stylish figure in a navy floral maxi dress and matching coat

After treating herself to a few goodies, the brunette enjoyed an al fresco lunch with her other half and children.

The family appeared to be in great spirits as they chatted away while enjoying some delicious food.

Melissa will soon begin filming for Nine Perfect Strangers, which is based off the 2018 novel by Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty.

Stylish touches: Melissa toted her belongings in a padded black bumbag draped across her body while carrying her purchases in a brown paper bag

Pretty: The Bridesmaid actress kept her make-up to a minimum and wore a pair of glasses

Chilling: Strolling along in a pair of black sandals, Melissa ensured to make the most of her downtime before she headed back to work

The show is being brought to life by Oscar winner Nicole Kidman, with the $100 million production filmed in New South Wales, Australia.

The series will tell the story of nine stressed-out urbanites who escape to a wellness retreat run by Nicole's character.

Filming will begin on August 10 and will run for 19 weeks.

Last month, Nicole Kidman told The Daily Telegraph, that she's 'thrilled' to be able to bring hundreds of jobs to the local film industry after it was sent crashing down by the coronavirus pandemic.

Lunch time: After treating herself to a few goodies, the brunette enjoyed an al fresco lunch with her other half and children

Having a chat: The family appeared to be in great spirits as they chatted away while enjoying some delicious food

Hollywood star commitments: Melissa will soon begin filming for Nine Perfect Strangers, which is based off the 2018 novel by Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty.

'It is a great opportunity for me to give back to the community that nurtured me through so much of my career,' she said.

The limited series is being produced by Nicole's production company Blossom Films, alongside Big Little Lies collaborators Bruna Papandrea (Big Little Lies, Gone Girl) and David E. Kelley.

Nicole will also star in the series alongside an A-list Hollywood cast including Melissa, Luke Evans and Manny Jacinto.
Mount Greylock Adds Day in High School, Splits Elementary Days

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  All students at Mount Greylock Regional School will be in school two days a week, and elementary school pupils will attend four days a week to start the school year under the latest iteration of the hybrid learning model announced Thursday by interim Superintendent Robert Putnam.

And the School Committee finalized its negotiation on a three-year contract with incoming Superintendent Jason "Jake" McCandless.

After meeting in exectutive session for about 15 minutes, the committee came out and voted 6-0 (with one member, Regina DiLego, absent) to approve a contract negotiated with McCandless, who was offered the job the week before.

The committee did not disclose a starting date for McCandless, who currently is the superintendent of the Pittsfield Public Schools. Pittsfield has voted to hold McCandless to the 90-day notice in his contract.

The bulk of Thursday's meeting was devoted to Putnam, who discussed his most recent thinking on hybrid learning and informed the committee that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education had given districts a four-day extension of the deadline to submit a final plan for the resumption of school in the fall.

The panel had scheduled a vote for Thursday evening to approve the plan that Putnam was to submit to DESE on Monday, but at the outset of his presentation, he asked the body to delay that vote until Thursday, in advance of a now-Aug. 14 deadline for submission to the commonwealth.

Putnam stressed that the plans for the start of the school year continue to evolve, and nowhere was that more apparent than in the school schedules he laid out.

At Lanesborough Elementary and Williamstown Elementary, pupils now are scheduled to attend either a morning or afternoon session on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Previously, the preK-6 classes were scheduled to be divided into cohorts that attended for full days on either Monday-Tuesday or Thursday-Friday.

The new plan maintains the objective of only having half the pupils in the buildings at one time, but it avoids having youngster away from school for five-day stretches (either Wednesday through Sunday for kids going to schools on Mondays and Tuesdays or Saturday through Wednesday for those in the Thursday-Friday block).

"The advantage of this is children will have more consistent interaction with teachers and their peers," Putnam said.

As for Mount Greylock, last week Putnam laid out a plan that would have had sophomores, juniors and seniors begin the year with fully remote learning. Earlier this week, he announced that 10th through 12th graders would go to school one day per week.

On Thursday, he announced that sophomores, juniors and seniors will be in school two days per week, just like their counterparts in the middle school and the freshman class.

Seventh- and eighth-graders will have classes on the third floor, Putnam said. The ninth grade will be on the second floor of the schools academic wing. Classes for students in 10th through 12th grades will be on the first floor.

"Cohorts would be developed alphabetically based on family groups and in consideration of family-developed pods," according to a slide Putnam showed the School Committee. "To the extent possible, students would be grouped in cohorts of 10-15 students that stay together throughout the day in a specific set of classrooms to limit commingling of cohorts."

The rapid change from fully remote learning to hybrid instruction for most of the high school came after the district heard feedback from families concerned about the potential social and emotional impact of continued isolation for adolescents already feeling the effect of lost connection with families and teachers since Marchs school closure.

"I'm very happy with the progress were making," School Committee member Steven Miller said. "That doesnt mean Im not going to continue to ask [for more in-person instruction], and I encourage other people to constantly ask. But I think this is wonderful, the discussions weve been having."

Putnam replied that the development of plans for September is an iterative process and will continue to be an iterative process once classes begin.

"Once the school year starts, we are redesigning and rebuilding the plane while it's flying," he said. "Thats just the nature of the organization of school. Essentially, our task is done with students with us the entire time.

"The heavy lift is what's going to be happening the first 10 days of school and figuring out how to make that happen."

Thursday's School Committee meeting marked the first time a public body in the town of Williamstown has met in person since March. While the Lanesborough Board of Selectmen continued to hold in-person meetings and the town held its annual town meeting at the elementary schools, the two-town school district has held all of its meetings remotely by video conference since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as have all Williamstown's boards and committees.

With one committee member, Alison Carter, participating remotely by phone, the other five School Committee members in attendance sat 6 feet apart from one another and wore masks during the meeting, which was telecast on the district's YouTube channel.

The public was barred from in-person attendance at the meeting in accordance with the same executive order from Gov. Charlie Baker that enabled all of the recent video conferences by public bodies throughout the commonwealth.
The attorney for the family of a Colorado man fatally shot by a U.S. National Park Service ranger in New Mexico said she was disappointed with a district attorney decision to not pursue criminal charges against the ranger.

Civil rights lawyer Shannon Kennedy said Charles Gage Lorentzs parents Kimberly Beck and Travis Lorentz were disappointed, and that the district attorney had omitted some key factors when explaining the decision.

Legally and factually there is evidence that the ranger acted in a manner that was objectively unreasonable and unconstitutional, Kennedy said. We believe we can prove that at trial and we believe that what happened to Gage Lorentz is more than a tragedy, its a crime.

Fifth Judicial District Attorney Dianna Luce announced last week that the actions of Park Ranger Robert Mitchell were objectively justifiable during a traffic stop at Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

Mitchell stopped Lorentz for erratic driving March 21.

A video showed a struggle ensued between the two and Mitchell deployed his stun gun, which failed to subdue Lorentz. Mitchell then can be seen firing his service weapon twice.

We were able to determine from the Eddy County sheriffs office that Mr. Lorentz has his arm around the neck of Park Ranger Mitchell during the struggle, Luce told KOB-TV.

Lorentz was traveling from Texas back to his home in Colorado when he stopped in Carlsbad to meet a friend.

Kennedy filed a wrongful death claim against the National Park Service and the U.S. Department of Interior in June. She said the federal government has six months to respond to the lawsuit.

As of Aug. 6, no response was filed, the Carlsbad Current-Argus reported.

National Park Service spokeswoman Vanessa Lacayo said the U.S. Attorneys Office in New Mexico is investigating. Lacayo also said Mitchell has been on administrative duty since the shooting, in accordance with department policy.
She is a die-hard fan of the Red Devils and was even rumoured to be taking a role as director for the team in 2019.

And Rachel Riley was every inch the proud mother as she dressed daughter Maven, seven months, in a miniature Manchester United kit on Monday.

The Countdown presenter, 34, looked radiant in a plunging red dress with floral detailing ahead of the Europa League quarter-final against Copenhagen in Cologne.

Young fan: Rachel Riley was every inch the proud mother as she dressed daughter Maven, seven months, in a miniature Manchester United kit on Monday

A beaming Rachel styled her blonde tresses in loose waves over her shoulders as she held a smiling Maven on her hip for the selfie.

She finished her look with a hint of dark eyeliner and a slick of matte lipstick to keep all eyes on her outfit.

Maven looked adorable in the United strip with a number seven and 'Maven Aria' printed on the back.

Fans: Rachel styled her blonde tresses in loose waves over her shoulders as she held a smiling Maven on her hip for the selfie

Support: Captioning the Instagram snaps, Rachel wrote: 'No 7 is ready for the match! Come on you reds #united #unitedfamily #matchday #mufc'

Captioning the Instagram snaps, Rachel wrote: 'No 7 is ready for the match! Come on you reds #united #unitedfamily #matchday #mufc.'

Rachel's devotion to Manchester United is well-known, with the star a proud, long-term fan of the Premiership team.

It comes as the TV personality nailed summer chic as she left filming for Countdown at MediaCity in Greater Manchester on Monday.

The star wore a printed pink and red floral mini dress styled with towering white sandals.

Wow: The TV personality nailed summer chic as she left filming for Countdown at MediaCity in Greater Manchester on Monday

She finished her look with tortoiseshell round sunglasses as she flaunted her toned sun-kissed limbs.

Former Strictly Come Dancing star Pacha, 40, was seen strolling with Maven in her floral pushchair donning a navy face mask to co-ordinate with his t-shirt and shorts.

The outing comes after Rachel apologised to Jedward after joking about their music while criticising Wiley's anti-Semitic rant.

Toned: Rachel flaunted her sun-kissed limbs wearing a printed pink and red floral mini dress styled with towering white sandals

Natural: Rachel opted for minimal makeup as she left filming ahead of the Manchester United game

Rachel, who is Jewish, said the Grime star could have ended his career by performing with Irish twins Jedward instead of making his vile remarks.

But the former X Factor stars hit back at her comments, saying she should not have targeted them.

She wrote: 'He could have just done a duet with Jedward if he was that keen to end his career.

Doting dad: Pacha was seen strolling with Maven in her floral pushchair donning a navy face mask to co-ordinate with his t-shirt and shorts

'An unprompted, still going, public antisemitic breakdown is a bizarre route to go down.'

But Jedward replied: 'You are a patron for a Center for Countering Digital Hate? And yet here you are spreading Hate!! As anti bullying ambassadors we don't approve of this!'

Rachel promptly apologised and deleted her original tweet.

She then replied to the duo: 'Genuinely didn't mean any offence to you, was just a joke and you were the least grime people I could think of.'

She also tweeted the statement: 'Apologies to Jedward, totally flippant joke about them not being particularly grime and no offence intended. Good meme below though, they're nice boys and I didn't think of the cumulative impact of jokes.'
The competition highlights companies that demonstrated innovative solutions, technologies, and services that have the potential to make the greatest impact for biotech and pharma companies. Clinerion was recognized as a finalist in the category of Data Analytics/Business Intelligence.

Clinerion was selected as a finalist for its innovative, industry-leading real-world data service solutions for the generation of real-world evidence (RWE) and health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) on its Patient Network Explorer platform, in particular for real-world data for COVID-19.

These services are based on patient data queried and aggregated directly from the anonymized, aggregated real-time patient electronic health records (EHRs) from the millions of patients around the world in the global network of partner hospitals on Clinerions Patient Network Explorer platform. This resource allows users to generate insights on the patient journey, treatments and outcomes, by applying intelligent, patented informatics methodologies to interpret information from large amounts of EHRs. This powerful platform facilitates longitudinal epidemiological studies, allowing a focused search of patient characteristics or treatment patterns, as well as patient, physician and site outreach.

In the battle against COVID-19, researchers and health authorities require immediate patient data from a global perspective on disease transmittance, cohorts, and success rates for treatment regimes, among many other indicators. Patient Network Explorer supports research and RWE for COVID-19 cases, as well as for conditions that are associated with SARS-CoV-2 infections.

The awards programs applications were reviewed by an exclusive panel of executives from major biotech and pharma companies including Astellas, Accenture, AstraZeneca, Angiocrine Bioscience, Biotech Research Group, NIHR Clinical Research Network, Medidata Solutions and PPD. All applications were evaluated based on the following criteria: effectiveness, technical innovation, competitive advantage, financial impact, and true innovation.

Winners will be announced in the 2020 Innovation Report set to publish by Fierce Life Sciences on September 14, 2020.

Our main objective is to be able to support good outcomes for patients and their physicians around the world with our technology, especially in the age of COVID-19, when researchers are so desperate for robust, usable data, says Ian Rentsch, CEO of Clinerion. To have this recognized by the Fierce Innovation Awards and leaders of the industry is a very nice icing on the cake.

Fierce Innovation Awards website: https://fiercelifesciencesawards.secure-platform.com/a

The full list of Fierce Innovation Awards judges https://fiercelifesciencesawards.secure-platform.com/a/page/judges

About Clinerion

Clinerion accelerates clinical research and medical access to treatments for patients. We generate real-world data from our global network of partner hospitals for Real World Evidence analyses. Clinerion's Patient Network Explorer radically improves the efficiency and effectiveness of clinical trial recruitment by offering data-driven protocol optimization, site feasibility evaluation and real-time patient search and identification to match patients to treatments.

Clinerion facilitates the participation of partner hospitals in leading-edge, industry-sponsored trials and time savings in patient recruitment. Researchers gain access to real-time, longitudinal patient data from electronic health records for analysis. We enable pharmaceutical companies, CROs and SMOs to shorten patient recruitment and save costs by streamlining operations and leveraging strategic intelligence. Clinerions Patient Network Explorer also provides a platform for integration of diverse patient data sources into real-world data ecosystems. Clinerions proprietary technologies comply with international patient privacy and data security regulations. Clinerion is a global data technology service company headquartered in Switzerland.

Clinerion website: http://www.clinerion.com

Clinerions Patient Network Explorer: http://www.clinerion.com/index/PatientNetworkExplorerSolutions.html

For more information, please contact:

Le Vin Chin

Director, Head of Marketing & Communications

Clinerion Ltd

Elisabethenanlage 11, 4051 Basel, Switzerland

Tel.: +41 61 865 60 54

media@clinerion.com
In an apparent effort to push Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make In India' initiative, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will launch 'Atma Nirbhar Bharat Saptah` on Monday (August 10). The event will take place at 3.30 pm on Monday, tweeted the Office of the Defence Minister of India.

Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh will launch Atma Nirbhar Bharat Saptah at 3.30 pm tomorrow. #AtmaNirbharBharat    / RMO India (@DefenceMinIndia) August 9, 2020

On Sunday (August 9), Singh had announced that the Defence Ministry will impose import embargo on 101 defence items beyond given timeline to boost indigenisation of defence production. Singh had asserted that the move is a big step in making India self-reliant (Atma Nirbhar) in defence sector.

In a series of tweets, Singh had said that the capital procurement budget for 2020-21 has also been bifurcated by the Defence Ministry between domestic and foreign capital procurement routes. He added that a separate budget head has been created with an outlay of nearly Rs 52,000 crore for domestic capital procurement in 2020.21.

"The Ministry of Defence is now ready for a big push to #AtmanirbharBharat initiative. MoD will introduce import embargo on 101 items beyond given timeline to boost indigenisation of defence production," Singh had tweeted.

The embargo on imports is planned to be progressively implemented between 2020 to 2024. Our aim is to apprise the Indian defence industry about the anticipated requirements of the Armed Forces so that they are better prepared to realise the goal of indigenisation.  Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 9, 2020

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a clarion call for a self-reliant India based on the five pillars, i.e., Economy, Infrastructure, System, Demography and Demand and announced a special economic package for Self-Reliant India named `Atmanirbhar Bharat`," he had said in another tweet.

"MoD has also bifurcated the capital procurement budget for 2020-21 between domestic and foreign capital procurement routes. A separate budget head has been created with an outlay of nearly Rs 52,000 crore for domestic capital procurement in the current financial year," he had tweeted.

"Almost 260 schemes of such items were contracted by the Tri-Services at an approximate cost of Rs 3.5 lakh crore between April 2015 and August 2020. It is estimated that contracts worth almost Rs 4 lakh crore will be placed upon the domestic industry within the next 6 to 7 years," he had said.

"Of these, items worth almost Rs 1,30,000 crore each are anticipated for the Army and the Air Force while items worth almost Rs 1,40,000 crore are anticipated by the Navy over the same period. #AtmanirbharBharat," the Minister had tweeted.

India is second biggest arms importer and it is at 23rd rank on arms exporters list. In February 2020, PM Modi had set USD 5 billion defense export target in next 5 years and India is eyeing Rs 1.75 lakh crore turnover in defense manufacturing by 2025.
Boris Johnson has said ministers will not hesitate to impose a quarantine system for travellers from other countries to the UK if needed.

The Prime Minister, speaking on a visit to St Josephs school in Upminster, urged those who go abroad to look at the Foreign Office travel advice carefully.

It comes after a rise in Covid-19 cases in France, with face masks being made mandatory in busy parts of Paris as of Monday.

The coronavirus pandemic is ongoing and travel advice is subject to change.



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 https://t.co/G30uvrt6iW pic.twitter.com/r6RUpRojKr  Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) July 27, 2020

Mr Johnson said: I dont want to advise people about their individual holidays, individual decisions, they should look at the travel advice from the Foreign Office clearly.

But what I will say, and I hope people would expect us to do this, in the context of a global pandemic, weve got to keep looking at the data in all the countries to which British people want to travel.

Where it is necessary to impose restrictions or to impose a quarantine system, we will not hesitate to do so.

Its been a huge effort for the entire population of this country to get the disease down to the levels that we are currently seeing, but we do not want reinfection and thats why weve got to keep a very, very close eye on the data in destinations around the world.

Last month, the UK Government announced that travellers to the UK from Spain would have to quarantine for 14 days on their return to the country.

Luxembourg, Andorra, The Bahamas and Belgium were also added to the UKs 14-day quarantine list last week.
The Centre Monday told the that work for installation of smog tower at Anand Vihar in east Delhi has started and soil samples have been taken for examining the structural stability.

Smog tower is a structure designed as large-scale air purifier to reduce air pollution.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra that an memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed for the project of installation of smog tower and IIT Bombay and Tata Projects Limited are in touch with University of Minnesota for transfer of technology.

The bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai and Krishna Murari, was informed by Mehta that as on August 8, site survey has been done and soil samples have been taken and are being examined.

Meanwhile, the bench refused to entertain the contention of an intervenor, who had filed an affidavit raising questions over the effectiveness of smog tower and claimed that money for it would ultimately go to Chinese companies.

The bench said it would hear the issue of smog tower tomorrow (Tuesday).

Besides this, the top court also dealt with the issue of pollution from stubble burning in states including Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

The bench asked the chief secretary of Punjab, who was present in the hearing conducted through video-conferencing, about the steps taken in providing machines and equipment to small and marginal farmers to prevent instances of stubble burning there.

The chief secretary of Punjab told the bench that subsidy is being provided to these small and marginal farmers but they are facing shortage of funds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bench asked the Centre's counsel to apprise it about the subsidy and also about implementation of its orders passed in the matter earlier.

It also asked other stakeholders to give detailed report on the issue of stubble burning.

The bench, which observed that policies need to be put in place now to prevent stubble burning, asked whether Panchayats have been roped in for spreading awareness of various projects for prevention of stubble burning.

It said if the authorities will not take proper steps, then the issue of stubble burning would continue in times to come.

It also sought affidavits on the steps taken by the concerned authorities in dealing with pollution hotspots in the region.

The top court asked Punjab government to apprise it about the steps taken to deal with industries which were found non-compliant with pollution norms.

The bench asked Delhi's chief secretary, who was also present in the hearing, about the steps taken to deal with pollution, including from stubble burning.

Delhi's chief secretary said that several steps have been taken to reduce traffic congestion and also to deal with open waste.

The bench also dealt with the issue of vehicles running on kerosene and said that Centre should formulate rules for preventing it and also confiscate such vehicles.

On August 4, the top court had asked the Centre to "start at the earliest" the work for installation of smog tower at Anand Vihar.

The government had then informed the bench that setting up of smog tower would take 10 months.

The solicitor general had told the apex court that supervision of the project work would be done by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay while funding would be provided by the government.

The apex court had earlier questioned the Centre as to why its January 13 order, directing the project to be completed within three months, was not complied with.

It had earlier expressed shock at IIT Bombay's backing out of the smog tower project and said this was "not expected of such institutions.

Earlier, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the Central Pollution Control Board had filed an affidavit in the top court and claimed that the MoU was not finalised as IIT Bombay has not agreed to take responsibility of overall coordination of project and verification of works to be carried out by Tata Projects Limited, which has been involved by IIT Bombay for construction, operation and maintenance of smog tower.

It had said that funds amounting to Rs 18.52 crore have been sanctioned for the project.

In the stubble burning issue, the top court had last month asked governments of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan about the arrangements made by them for preventing it.

These issues have cropped up before the apex court during the hearing in pollution matter in which it is dealing with several aspects.

In November last year, the apex court had expressed serious displeasure over the failure of state machinery in preventing stubble burning and said that citizens of Delhi-national capital region were "suffocating" due to air pollution and people cannot be left to die in a "gas chamber".

(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.)
States offering tax credits in competitions to lure businesses is bad enough. Now Delaware wants to change federal law to give a United Arab Emirates company an advantage over those in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

A couple of years ago Delaware granted UAE-based Gulftainer a 50-year lease to operate the Port of Wilmington.

The state didnt want to spend the money needed to make the port competitive and the company promised to spend $584 million on it within a decade. Some $410 million of that would be used to convert the former DuPont chemical plant in Edgemoor to an extension of the port.

Selling out its main port wasnt enough. Delaware Sen. Thomas Carper inserted environmental breaks lucrative to Gulftainer into the Americas Water Infrastructure Act of 2020. One would ease the federal permitting process for it that New Jersey ports have followed for decades. Another would let Gulftainer dispose of dredged material at minimal or no cost at a federal dredge disposal site intended for government projects.

The act, including the gifts to Gulftainer, was approved last month by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, where Carper is the ranking Democrat.
Michigan added another 557 cases of COVID-19 on Monday, with eight new deaths reported as well.

That is the eight day in a row with at least 500 cases confirmed, and nine out of the ten days in August have hit that mark. The first ten days of July saw only three such days .

With the Monday update from the states Department of Health and Human Services, the seven-day average was at 653 cases. Overall, Michigan has 87,960 confirmed cases, and with the eight deaths, the state has reached 6,257 deaths.

With probable cases, Michigan has 93,306 cases and 6,526 deaths.

Within the past two weeks, Michigan has added more than 500 cases for 13 of the 14 days. In August so far, the state has added 6,339 cases. In the first 10 days of July, it saw 4,425 new cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, while that period of June saw just 1,881 cases.

Michigan remained 18th in the U.S., according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Michigan and Maryland appear the next states to cross the 100,000 mark.

In the U.S. where the total number of cases passed 5.06 million on Monday afternoon, now three states have more than 500,000 cases, with Texas passing the mark and joining California and Florida. New York, long the top of the list in the U.S., remained fourth with 421,000 cases

Worldwide, the total number of cases across the globe had topped 19.9 million, and more than 732,000 deaths.

Testing and new cases

Testing continues to increase in Michigan, it appears from data provided by the MDHHS.

While 21,450 tests were conducted on Sunday, the past week had higher daily rates of diagnostic testing.

The prior days showed:

* 26,491 on Saturday

* 37,686 on Friday

* 30,161 on Thursday

* 26,931 on Wednesday

* 28,713 on Tuesday

* 26,064 on Monday.

Overall, the state has seen 2.15 million tests conducted.

In Michigan, Oakland and Macomb counties showed similar day-over-day numbers on Monday, with Oakland adding 113 cases and Macomb adding 112.

Oakland County now has 12,348 confirmed cases  plus an additional 3,266 probable cases  and deaths were the same at 1,086.

Macomb County now has 10,181 cases with 909 deaths,

In Macomb County, the county executive said people need to remember to practice physical distancing and washing hands evan as the economy has opened up.

Its still a concern, Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel said Friday in a YouTube video update. We are seeing the uptick, if you will, in the number of cases out there For the most part, we still need to understand, there is the community spread, it is out and about, and its not going to go away any time soon, so you need to take the precautions.

He said the concern should also be practices within households, recognizing the younger people are socializing and may feel this is less of a concern.

John Paul Rea, deputy executive in Macomb County, said the county leadership is working with state and federal leaders on how to communicate about the personal responsibility, the facial coverings, the social distancing will help to combat the spread of the virus,

Hospitalizations are still low, which is good, Rea said.

Wayne County, not counting Detroit, added 84 cases and is still the zone with most infections, standing at 13,636 confirmed cases. Deaths went up by two to reach 1,202.

In Detroit, adding only 21 cases, the city was at 12,987 on Monday afternoon.

Also in the southeastern Michigan area, Washtenaw County added 13 to reach 2,233 and Genesee County added 14 to reach 2,957.

Two other areas to see substantial increases were Saginaw County, adding 23 to reach 1,919, and Kent County, adding 24 to reach 6,867.

In mid-Michigan, the areas of north Lansing saw minimal changes. Isabella County stayed the same at 181 and Gratiot County also saw on change and was at 138 cases. Clare County added one case to reach 68.
Dozens of people are feared to have been injured in the French Riviera resort of Cannes as hundreds fled after false reports of a gunman on the loose.

There were reports of gunfire shortly after midnight in the seaside town, which is known around the world for its annual film festival.

But as a spokesman for the emergency services reported 'many people injured', local Mayor David Lisnard said it was all because of a false alarm.

People dashed for cover, pictured left, as armed police, pictured right, were seen on the famous Croisette in Cannes

Mr Lisnard tweeted: 'According to information recorded by the forces of law and order, three was no gunfire in Cannes nor a trapped intruder, but a collective madness after an individual shouted 'gunfire'.

Despite this, armed police were seen on the famous Croisette, and especially around the Carlton Intercontinental Hotel.

Groups of men, women and children were seen running in panic while screaming, and many are thought to have hurt themselves as they tried to make themselves safe.

Tonight's incident follows a series of bomb, gun and knife attacks carried out by Islamic State and al-Qaeda operatives in France, dating back to early 2015

The deadliest single terrorist attack ever in the country came in November 2015 when 130 people were killed in Paris.

Suicide bombers pledging allegiance to ISIS targeted the Stade de France, cafes, restaurants and the Bataclan music venue, where 90 died.

Groups of men, women and children were seen running in panic while screaming, pictured left and right, and many are thought to have hurt themselves as they tried to make themselves safe

Armed officers were seen around the Carlton Intercontinental Hotel as they responded to the scare

Earlier in the year, two Paris-born gunmen linked to Al-Qaeda broke into the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, leaving 17 people dead inside and three outside.

In July 2016, 86 people were called and more than 400 injured when a 19-tonne truck was deliberately driven into crowds on the seafront promenade at Nice, which is just 20 miles from Cannes.

The terrorist turned out to be a Tunisian immigrant who was shot dead by police.

During the same month, two Isis terrorists murdered an 86-year-old Catholic priest during a church service in Normandy.

There have been frequent knife attacks on the forces of law and order, leading to the deaths of serving police.

In October of last year, a radicalised computer operative working at the Paris Prefecture stabbed four of his colleagues to death.

The attacker  who was also shot dead  turned out to be a Muslim convert who kept extremist Al-Qaeda and Islamic State literature and images on his computer.
Curfew-bound Victorians angry at Stage Four lockdowns and record coronavirus deaths are sparking questions about the future of Daniel Andrews as Premier.

His dissatisfaction rating has soared as Melburnians are banned from being outside after 8pm.

The Labor caucus has a potential replacement should their leader, dubbed 'Chairman Dan', prove to be even more of a political liability.

Jacinta Allan, the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, is one of the state government's strongest performers but has hardly been seen during the pandemic - because she doesn't hold the thorny health portfolio.

She was elected to Parliament in 1999 when, at age 26, she defeated a sitting Liberal MP more than twice her age in the rural city of Bendigo.

Two decades later, she is the longest-serving female cabinet minister in the history of Victorian politics despite being only 46, and could soon revive a long Australian political tradition of a woman taking over from a man who struggles in the top job.

A woman could save Victoria by taking over from Daniel Andrews as Premier with the surge in coronavirus cases destroying his political standing. Pictured is the Premier with his possible successor Jacinta Allan

Jacinta Allan, the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, is one of the embattled Labor state government's strongest performers but has hardly been seen during the pandemic - because she doesn't hold the thorny health portfolio

Were she to step up as leader, she would be the first Victorian Labor premier in 88 years to represent an electorate outside of Melbourne.

She would also be the first woman to lead the state in almost three decades.

With 14 years under her political belt juggling portfolios, the mother-of-two certainly isn't short on experience.

By happy coincidence she has the same initials as New Zealand's Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern - who is expected to win re-election in a landslide in next month's poll.

Monash University politics professor Paul Strangio said Ms Allan had 'proved to be an effective, articulate and deft minister in major portfolio areas'.

'Allan has serious claims to be the next in line as Labor leader,' he told Daily Mail Australia, adding she wouldn't be the only contender.

Labor's federal member for Bendigo Lisa Chesters said Ms Allan had broad appeal across the state.

'She's already appealing very well to the rest of Victoria because of the high profile of her job,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'She's been a fantastic minister, a senior minister in the state Labor government.'

When it came to Mr Andrews, Ms Chester was more lukewarm with her praise.

'Daniel Andrews is the current Premier of the state - he's doing a good job considering the circumstances,' she said, adding the Labor leadership was 'ultimately a matter for the Victorian Labor Party caucus'.

With 14 years under her political belt juggling portfolios, the 45-year-old mother-of-two certainly isn't short on experience and even has the same initials as New Zealand's popular Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. She is pictured in 2013 with her daughter Peggy

Monash University political professor Paul Strangio said Ms Allan had 'proved to be an effective, articulate and deft minister in major portfolio areas'. Ms Allan is pictured in 2013

Before the pandemic struck and threatened to cripple the Victorian economy, Ms Allan was the face of a popular $8.3billion program to replace dangerous railway crossings.

Australian female leaders in government Rosemary Follett, Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Terrritory: May 1989 to December 1989; and June 1991 to March 1995 Carmen Lawrence, Premier of Western Australia: February 1990 to February 1993 Joan Kirner, Premier of Victoria: August 1990 to October 1992 Kate Carnell, Chief Minister of the ACT: March 1995 to October 2000 Clare Martin, Chief Minister of the Northern Territory: August 2001 to November 2007 Anna Bligh, Premier of Queensland: September 2007 to March 2012 Kristina Keneally, Premier of New South Wales: December 2009 to March 2011 Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia: June 2010 to June 2013 Lara Giddings, Premier of Tasmania: January 2011 to March 2014 Katy Gallagher, Chief Minister of the ACT: May 2011 to December 2014 Annastacia Palaszczuk, Premier of Queensland: February 2015 to present Gladys Berejiklian, Premier of NSW: January 2017 to present Advertisement

Her success in replacing 38 level crossings to date was a major factor behind the government's November 2018 re-election, which saw Labor win more than double the seats of the Opposition Liberal and National parties combined.

Less than two years later, her boss is under pressure, despite Twitter plaudits from the likes of actor Russell Crowe.

In just two months, Mr Andrews' approval rating in Newspoll plunged from 75 per cent in April, when he was riding on the crest of approval for his handling of the bushfires, to 57 per cent in mid-July.

While 57 is still a healthy number, his dissatisfaction rating more than doubled from 17 per cent to 37 per cent in the same period, even before Melbourne and the neighbouring Mitchell Shire were placed into a strict Stage Four lockdown.

Business leaders have called for Mr Andrews to resign as premier, with the once-thriving and now-struggling Chapel Street shopping precinct in the upmarket inner-city suburb of Prahan last month demanding that he go.

Chrissie Maus, the general manager of the Chapel Street Precinct Association, predicted Labor would dump Mr Andrews before the 2022 election.

'All I will say is that the Victorian Labor Party will leave Andrews up there to charcoal like a beyond-burnt steak and pin every single thing that has gone wrong in the pandemic on him, and then come out with a shiny new toy replacement close to the election,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

Should Ms Allan take over, she won't be the first woman to replace a struggling male premier in Victoria.

'I'm sure in the future we will have another fabulous Labor woman step up to be premier,' Ms Chesters said.

'We are a progressive state.'

On this day 30 years ago, Joan Kirner became Victoria's first-ever female premier, after the old State Bank's merchant banking arm Tricontinental lost $2.7billion and destroyed John Cain's political authority.

He quit after winning three elections for Labor, and ending its 27 unbroken years in the political wilderness.

Just six months earlier Carmen Lawrence made history as Australia's first-ever female premier, taking over the leadership of Western Australia after the WA Inc scandal, involving the likes of disgraced billionaire tycoon Alan Bond, caused Labor's popularity to sink.

Should Ms Allan take over, she won't be the first woman to replace a struggling male premier in Victoria. On this day 30 years ago, Joan Kirner (pictured) became Victoria's first-ever female premier, after the State Bank's merchant banking arm Tricontinental lost $2.7billion and destroyed John Cain's political authority

Macquarie University gender studies expert Professor Catharine Lumby said women were often better communicators during times of trouble.

'It's not some essential part of being female - we're not born with empathy,' she told told Daily Mail Australia.

'What happens to women is that they are conditioned to be better communicators and to be more caring on the whole because of the way in which they are socially positioned in relation to families, in relation to children.'

Like those other female premiers of three decades ago, Ms Allan also hails from Labor's left wing.

The member for Bendigo East comes from the same Socialist Left faction as her boss, Mr Andrews, and like him was a political staffer before being elected to Parliament.

Her second husband Yorick Piper, like her, was a political adviser to Labor politicians, and at one stage even worked for his future wife.

They have a daughter Peggy and a son, Cormac Kevin.

Her second husband Yorick Piper (left), like her, was a political adviser to Labor politicians, and at one stage even worked for his future wife. He is now a director of the Victorian Fisheries Authority, with a government website hailing his 'deep knowledge of government and stakeholder engagement, industrial relations'

Her husband was previously an official with the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, before becoming a senior adviser to former Labor premier John Brumby.

He is now a director of the Victorian Fisheries Authority, with a government website hailing his 'deep knowledge of government and stakeholder engagement, industrial relations'.

'In addition, Mr Piper is passionate about fishing, fishing policy development and the importance of education in this Authority,' it said.

Should Ms Allan become premier, this would create the untenable situation of having a spouse within the public service.

She could learn from what happened in Queensland when the state's first female premier Anna Bligh in 2007 appointed her husband Greg Withers as head of the Office of Climate Change on a $220,000 salary.

Ms Allan, the woman who could succeed Mr Andrews as Premier, however, isn't without controversy

Ms Allan, the woman who could succeed Mr Andrews as Premier, however, isn't without controversy.

Two years ago, she ordered the removal of Sky News from Melbourne city railway station billboards after the News Corp-owned subscription TV service had aired an interview with far-right activist Blair Cottrell.

'I've directed @MetroTrains to remove @skynewsaustralia from all CBD station screens. Hatred and racism have no place on our screens or in our community. #springst,' she tweeted.

As Sky News presenter Laura Jayes, however, pointed out the interview with Cottrell, a founder of the United Patriots Front, was never shown on the Sky News public transport broadcasts.

'This interview never went to air at train stations so that is a lie,' she said.

Two years ago, she ordered the removal of Sky News from Melbourne city railway station billboards after the News Corp-owned subscription TV service had aired an interview with far-right activist Blair Cottrell. As Sky News presenter Laura Jayes, however, pointed out the interview with Cottrell, a founder of the United Patriots Front, was never shown on the Sky News public transport broadcasts

In a subsequent train wreck interview, Ms Allan admitted she had wrongly been told the Sky News updates on Metro Train billboards had featured the Cottrell interview.

'You've obviously gone and done a lot of checking on this this afternoon and I will go and check the advice,' she said.

Sky News reappeared at Melbourne city train stations a year later.

Still, that minor controversy two years ago was nothing compared with her colleague Jenny Mikakos's poor handling of the health portfolio during the COVID-19 crisis.

The botched quarantining could see up to 400,000 Victorians lose their job and wipe up to $12billion from the Victorian economy, the federal government estimates.

With numbers like that, Ms Allan could soon find herself in a new job involving a lot more than level crossings, with COVID-19 a much scarier freight train than the usual locomotives.

Victorians don't go to the polls again until November 2022 but Professor Strangio said Mr Andrews may quit before then, despite being a dominant party leader.

'At the same time, by 2022 he will have been premier for eight years which is a lengthy incumbency in the contemporary era,' he said.

'It is possible that he may decide to step aside at some point.'
The identity of the second person killed in a July 28 plane crash in Baldwin County has been officially confirmed, according to the Baldwin County Sheriffs Office.

The Sheriffs Office said Sunday that the Baldwin County Coroners Office had positively identified the remains as those of Doris Rhodes of Florence. The body of Rhodes husband, Tim Rhodes, was identified shortly after the crash. There were no survivors.

The TimesDaily reported on July 30 that Doris Rhodes was believed to be on the plane. The paper identified Tim Rhodes as well known area businessman and said the couple owned a residential property management company.

The couple had taken off from Jack Edwards National Airport in Gulf Shores in a Beechcraft Bonanza before dark that Tuesday, apparently bound for home in the Florence area after a weekend on the coast. The crash occurred not long after the takeoff; while a cause has not been identified, scattered severe storms were passing through the area at the time.
As part of this donation, the US is funding a maintenance package and specialised training for medical providers

The United States has donated 250 ventilators for intensive care units to support Egypts efforts to combat the coronavirus, the US embassy and the Egyptian minister of international cooperation said.

The donation of the specialised, state-of-the art equipment by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) "delivers on President Trumps pledge to provide these critically needed supplies, and supports Egypts urgent response to the pandemic," the US embassy in Cairo said.

The machines are designed to treat patients experiencing severe breathing difficulties caused by COVID-19 and are intended for use at university and health ministry hospitals to help them deliver "quality, lifesaving care," it said.

As part of this donation, the US is funding a maintenance package and specialised training for medical providers.

The COVID-19 challenge has pushed stronger cooperation between countries to meet evolving humanitarian needs. Egypts partnership with the United States has reflected a spirit of collective responsibility and reciprocated solidarity for the benefit of our communities, Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat said.

In April, the government of Egypt donated a package of medical aid to the US to help with COVID-19 relief efforts.

The donation of 250 ventilators to hospitals throughout Egypt represents the latest step in the joint efforts by Egypt and the United States to fight COVID-19. Early in the pandemic, Egypt generously provided the United States with a donation of personal protective equipment so our healthcare workers could stay safe. The innovation of American private industry has allowed us to return the favour today with these state-of-the-art, lifesaving devices, US Ambassador to Egypt Jonathan R. Cohen said.

The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Ministry of Health and USAID have identified 24 hospitals in 12 governorates that have a need for both ventilators and staff who can use them immediately to treat patients suffering from the effects of COVID-19, according to the statement.

The cooperation portfolio of the USAID in Egypt has reached more than $30 billion since 1978 in several sectors; and over $1 billion has been invested to strengthen Egypts health system. This includes efforts to improve maternal and child health and nutrition, eliminate infectious diseases, and educate and mobilise community health workers.

The Ministry of International Cooperation has been pushing the frontiers of multilateralism through public-private partnerships that have helped implement projects dedicated to enhancing the lives of the Egyptian people, not only to scale up the immediate health response to curb the spread of COVID-19, but to bring to the fore the urgent need to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals, Al-Mashat said.

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NIAMEY French and Nigerien soldiers searched through a giraffe reserve and the surrounding area in Niger on Monday for traces of the gunmen who killed six French aid workers, a French military source said.

Frances anti-terrorism prosecutor also opened an investigation into the incident, in which attackers on motorbikes ambushed the group as it drove through the reserve located 65 km (40 miles) from the capital Niamey - an area considered safe by the Niger government.

The French aid workers were employed by the charity ACTED. A local driver working for the relief group and a guide were also killed. ACTED called the murders senseless and cowardly".

This heinous crime must not go unpunished, nor will it distract us from our commitment to support the people of Niger," said ACTED, which has worked to help vulnerable populations in the country since 2010.

No one has claimed responsibility for the assault. But France and other countries have warned people against travelling to parts of Niger where militants including Boko Haram and an affiliate of Islamic State operate.

Military operations are ongoing today," the military source said.

In the clearest sign yet that France believes a militant group was behind the attack, the office of Frances anti-terrorism prosecutor said it was launching an investigation on suspicion of the involvement of a terrorist group.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he shared their families grief. Our determination to combat armed terrorist groups is resolute. The fight continues," Macron tweeted.

The reserve southeast of Niamey is home to West Africas last sizeable population of giraffe in the wild. In the wet season, thick green acacia bushes dot the flat, sandy plains.

It is a popular attraction in Niger, a vast country that borders seven states in an unstable region including Libya, Mali, Chad, Algeria and Nigeria.

France, a former colonial power in the region, has 5,100 troops deployed in the arid region south of the Sahara desert since 2013. The united States also has soldiers based in Niger.

Nonetheless, militant violence has been on the rise.

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
Springfield City Councilor Malo Brown on Monday announced that he has switched his endorsement in the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts from Sen. Ed Markey to Rep. Joe Kennedy III.

Brown previously backed Markey, who has four decades of experience in the House and Senate.

But in a statement Monday, Brown, who represents Ward 4, said he enthusiastically supported Kennedy, citing the four-term congressmans views on racial justice along with his accessibility, willingness to listen and his forward-thinking vision.

I did not make this decision lightly, Brown said, acknowledging Markeys long and distinguished career representing our Commonwealth.

But he said that over the course of the campaign season, which saw statewide and national protests over racial injustice, it became more and more obvious that Kennedy represents the future we need here in Ward 4, Springfield, Western (Massachusetts), the Commonwealth and the Nation as a whole.

Brown also tied the decision to a frequent critique of Markey during the race, that hes spent too much time in Washington, D.C. and his Maryland residence. Markey has disputed the complaints from his opponent and critics, arguing that dozens of local leaders have supported him because hes delivered legislation and financial support to Massachusetts communities.

Joe has shown up and listened, Brown said. He doesnt come to Springfield to just make speeches. Hes been to the barber shops, restaurants and churches in Mason Square, the storefronts in the North End and the (Black Lives Matter) rallies in the community. He has proven to me that he will be a tireless advocate for the issues that impact the City of Springfield and specifically Ward 4.
The country halted the spread of SARS-CoV-2 by imposing a strict lockdown in late March when only around 100 people had tested positive.

New Zealand has hit a new milestone - the country had marked 100 days, on Sunday, with no recorded cases of the coronavirus being transmitted within its borders. The country also acknowledged their need to be careful, lest they see resurgences in new cases like Australia and Vietnam.

"Achieving 100 days without community transmission is a significant milestone, however, as we all know, we can't afford to be complacent," director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield warned. "We have seen overseas how quickly the virus can re-emerge and spread in places where it was previously under control, and we need to be prepared to quickly stamp out any future cases in New Zealand."

The country has seen 1,569 confirmed cases of coronavirus since the first patient was diagnosed in February. New Zealand stopped the spread of the virus by imposing a strict lockdown in late March when only around 100 people had tested positive for the disease, and managed to limit their COVID-19 death toll to 22.

New Zealand's border is being strictly controlled and all new arrivals are required to spend 14 days in quarantine. Currently, there are still 23 active cases but all were detected at the border when entering the country and are being held in isolation facilities.

"It was good science and great political leadership that made the difference", said professor Michael Baker, an epidemiologist and Professor of Public Health at the University of Otago to The Associated Press. "If you look around the globe at countries that have done well, it's usually that combination."

Now, the Pacific island nation of five million people is enjoying a near-normal, pre-coronavirus lifestyle with no social distancing and even allowing spectators to sport and enjoy cultural events.

Australia and Vietnam, which also saw a period of time during which their new case numbers were under control, but are now fighting a new resurgence in COVID-19 cases. The governments have said that there is a possibility of a second wave and is pushing for all households to keep emergency supply kits including masks.

The World Health Organization has hailed New Zealand as an example to others for having "successfully eliminated community transmission".

With inputs from wires
10.08.2020 LISTEN

Mr. Karl stood Infront of a small kiosk that was part of an apartment. A lady of great body shape smiled at him and made a gesture he should buy what she has on offer, Plastic toys from China, groundnuts paste made by her next door neighbor that had a small manufacturing facility near the Washing Bay at the back of Jehovah Witness Church just when turning right into a small dead end, the second building on the right, therefore always fresh and spiced to perfection. She had King Crackers from Olam Bakery located near Tema Motorway in Lashebi, just off the junction there that he must have used when coming that way from KIA the day before. She wanted to know everything about Germany as she had heard so many good stories from there. Mostly Ghanaians like to go to Hamburg and some also to Dusseldorf, but mostly in fact to Hamburg was she telling him with great interest in him not hiding in any way what God had added to her body well on front sticked to her chest. It was not that she was close to nakedness, far from it, but she knew so well what she was blessed with in the eyes of an African Man. Now she wanted to see whether they also work for a White Man and make him her best friend. Her looks were like her falling asleep and her lips needed watering of her tongue. A man with round visible belly appeared from behind her standing at first in the darkness of the small room before getting closer to the window fully visible to Mr. Karl. He had seen what his wife did to Mr. Karl but was not at all concerned or worried. He was dressed in washed out blue jeans and a singlet. His hairy body was not shaved but covered in sweat all over. Mr. Karl took a step back trying not to give the married couple the impression that their natural body odour would bother him at all. Deep in his mind his strategy was hankered to observe, to hear, to smell and to feel this place more than to share his own private story. Country survey, the faces, and ideas of the people around, that is what he had in mind and nothing else. He smiled at the couple, they smiled back and pronounced him as a really friendly and kind German. They added that in this shady place not many White People would come to, at least they themselves have never seen anyone around as long as they can remember. Not even Missionaries or White Social Workers would meet them in their homes. In fact, some of their children had never seen a White Man before and most certainly would love to meet him and play with him. They advised him to watch out for young kids that they would not disturb him too much out of their enthusiasm to see a White Man and to have the chance to talk to him. Mr. Karl promised to be mindful and be always aware of what he had just learnt from the nice couple. He did not leave the place without buying Airtime for his phone.

Princess pushed Mr. Karl further up the way to meet one of her friends. They stood right in front of a structure ready to fall down to the ground at any minute but still standing for ages. The wood was attacked by termites, mosquito nets made from plastic were making sure no insect would fly from the sides and settle on the fresh and fried fish. The board on which the fish was offered to customers was dark brownish, close to black with endless lines in it of cutting and hitting fish after fish. This board was a party location for germs and bacterias alike. For the local buyers, no reason to stay away as their bodies were trained to resist what would bring any White Man`s stomach right into an ICU unit of the nearest hospital. As the traffic conditions around Sakumono Village were a constant headache to any driver including Ambulances of which the city of Accra and Tema had only less than a handful around Princess mentioned for which reason for him at first this fish should not be an option. In mild cases the toilet would be the place of his choice but also not advisable as toilets in these areas and most places of the country are not as hygienic as they should be to say the least. When she explained to him the challenges of a country still struggling after over nearly sixty years of independence, he was smiling but most certainly not shocked, he took the information with great stoic attitude.

"We girls never sit down when we have to pee but try as much as possible to do what we need to do while standing," explained Princess their situation and smiled to the side feeling a bit ashamed to have to confess their misfortune, "all for hygienic reasons, you understand?"

Mr. Karl looked down on her and said: "Yes, I do! In Germany wives command their husbands to sit on toilet always...for hygienic reason...here they would have to turn their heads and change their views on this side of human life." He could not resist to laugh while the seller was offering him fried fish. As some people not able to afford schooling she only spoke Twi and did not hear any English word.

"So, here in Ghana fish always swim...I mean always!" said Mr. Karl looking closer into the frying pan filled with cooking oil.

"What do you mean by that, Sir?" wanted Princess to know her hands in her hips.

"First they swim in water and into your nets. Now, here they swim in oil...so, so much of it, an ocean of oil!" laughed Mr. Karl.

"I love you sense of humour, I really do, Mr. Karl," smiled Princess at him while telling the seller with the fried fish that Mr. Karl was not yet able to hear or speak Twi. "Soon you must learn to speak Twi, Mr. Karl!"

"Tell me Princess as you are a wise woman already," started Mr. Karl to investigate.

"Yes, please, what is it?"

"Is Twi the official language of Ghana or a local tribal language? I just need clarification on that, please!"

Princess was surprised about his question never have thought someone would ever ask such a question as it was self-understood that most people in Ghana speak Twi ad even outside in abroad foreigners know Twi more than any local language that exist in Ghana and said: "It is a local language that is from the Ashantis, people based in Kumasi. That is where they come from."

"You also come from there?" asked Mr Karl while seeing behind Princess a group of laughing young boys had gathered overseeing the scenery trying to find out what this tall White Man as doing in a place like theirs. White people regardless of reality were seen as people with money, at least a small fortune, so far bigger than any of these boys could ever imagine. Their dreams went wild. They did not know that in the society of the White Man standing few meters apart from them citizen would sleep rough outside on the streets of Hamburg and other cities, even old people having to go through waste in the waste bins along the streets to look for bottles they could return back to local Supermarkets and get money for it as their own pension and social benefits would not pay their bills.
Visiting President-elect of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly Volkan Bozkir said on Monday that the regional security in South Asia should be maintained through political and diplomatic means.

Bozkir, a veteran Turkish diplomat, was elected president of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly in June 2020.

Bozkir was speaking at a joint press conference in the Pakistani capital Islamabad with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi after they held formal talks. Earlier, Bozkir also called on Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan during his two-day visit from Sunday.

"Difficult challenges can be resolved peacefully through meaningful mutual engagements," Bozkir said while responding to questions about the conflicts in the region.

"If my assistance is requested by the parties, I will be ready to provide contributions," Bozkir said when journalists drew his attention towards the disputes between Pakistan and India, and their tension over the Kashmir issue.

Bozkir said Pakistan is a key country at the United Nations, which makes extensive and substantial contributions to the world body's work including peacekeeping operations, adding the United Nations looks forward to closer cooperation with Pakistan.

He said the world is currently faced with many challenges including humanitarian issue, deadly conflicts and the unprecedented health challenge of COVID-19.

"Pakistan has been a good example for the world, which handled the (COVID-19) pandemic-related policies very well and figures show Pakistan has done better than many other countries in the world," Bozkir said.

Speaking on the occasion, Qureshi said Pakistan strongly believes in the importance of a multilateral world anchored on the basis of peace, progress and stability.

"It is in this spirit, we welcome the president-elect of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly Volkan Bozkir to Pakistan for a constructive and fruitful visit. Pakistan has consistently supported and valued the UN's significant role in global affairs and we will continue to strengthen bonds within the institution of the UN be it for conflict resolution, peacekeeping, sustainable development, health, economic and social cooperation," Qureshi said.

The Pakistani foreign minister said he briefed Bozkir about the role played by Pakistan in pushing forward the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan, the challenges that lie ahead and the recent positive developments.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister Office of Pakistan said Imran Khan apprised Bozkir of Pakistan's initiatives to mitigate and suppress the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on saving lives, securing livelihoods, and stimulating the economy.

The prime minister further highlighted his call for global initiative on debt relief and stressed the need to provide greater fiscal space to the developing countries to overcome deleterious socio-economic impacts of the pandemic.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  August 10, 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: Aaron's, Inc. AAN, Companhia Brasileira de Distribuicao CBD, Graphic Packaging Holding Company GPK and Meritage Homes Corporation MTH.

Here are highlights from Fridays Analyst Blog:

Is P/S the Best Valuation Metric in the Current Environment?

The pandemic has introduced never-before dynamics into investment decisions, pushing people to develop both short-term and longer-term strategies to minimize the risk to their portfolios.

If youre already scarred from the initial hit and havent quite recovered yet, this is going to be a tough situation to play. Especially because the markets have rallied hugely since then, with most companies resoundingly beating lowered expectations and leading analysts to readjust their estimates for the rest of the year. Obviously, this situation isnt going to continue forever.

And when things get tougher, you have to be that much more careful about what you invest in. One thing that the decision to buy, sell or do nothing depends on is the valuation. But since there are so many ways of valuing a stock, it can be difficult to select a suitable method. Moreover, even after youve chosen a particular method, it pays to check the valuation based on the historical performance and compare with a broad market index like the S&P 500 and/or the market segment in which the company operates.

So lets say for example that we are valuing on the basis of the price-to-sales ratio (P/S). This is basically the market value of all the shares of the company (market capitalization) divided by the sales in the last-completed year or expected sales in the current year.

If this value is less than 1, it means that the market values the stock at less than its annual sales, which would seem to indicate that the stock is undervalued.

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Of course, a company has to incur expenses in order to generate sales, so the value left over after accounting for these expenses, i.e., the profit, is what investors are usually more concerned about.

In unforeseen situations like the pandemic however, companies may have to incur extra expenses. These could be in the nature of adjusting processes to facilitate social distancing and providing masks and PPE (like Amazon had to do). Or it could be tied more directly with operations (as Beyond Meat did when it re-allotted products meant for foodservice to retail and discounted these to capture market share). If financially sound, companies could also be driven to increase headcount more cost-effectively as labor is more easily available in this environment (its what Facebook, Amazon and Alphabet did among many others).

In general, larger companies or those with substantial revenues are better positioned to take charges against revenues with minimal impact on profits, while smaller, relatively new, or those generating only a small amount of revenue could find themselves making losses even while posting impressive revenue growth. This doesnt mean they dont have value. If they have for example key technology or information that they are in the process of monetizing (like a small tech or biotech company), this innovation could be valuable, although not on the basis of earnings. This is typically the kind of situation where the P/S metric is very useful.

Taking the P/S a step further, we can deduct balance sheet debt and add cash on hand to the market value before dividing by the annual revenue. This EV-to-sales (EV/S) metric as its called is useful for valuing companies that also have a certain amount of debt.

Thats because its a more exact tool, representing the true purchase value of the company per unit of sales. When this value is less than 1, theres a good chance that the shares are undervalued. When at a discount to the industry to which it belongs, its an additional sign of undervaluation. Make sure that the forward sales growth estimate is positive, add other valuation metrics like the PEG (which should ideally also be below 1) and combine with other positive indications to pick your stock like Ive done below-

Aarons

Aaron's is a major omni-channel provider of lease-purchase solutions, mainly to underserved and credit-challenged customers. Through its various business segments, the company primarily deals in sales and lease ownership, apart from specialty retailing in furniture, home appliances, consumer electronics, as well as accessories. Popular brands at Aaron's include Philips, Samsung, Whirlpool, Hewlett-Packard, LG, Simmons, and Ashley, among others.

The company announced that it is splitting into two (Progressive and Aarons) by way of a tax-free distribution of shares to improve focus and increase long-term shareholder value. The reconstruction is expected to be completed by year-end.

Zacks Rank #1

VGM A

Industry: Retail - Consumer Electronics (top 8%)

June quarter earnings surprise 43.9%

2020 EPS estimate up 42 cents (12.1%) in the last 7 days

Estimated 2020 EPS growth 0%, 2021 growth 11.0%

Estimated 2020 sales growth 4.4%, 2021 growth 8.6%

Valuation: EV/trailing 12 months sales of 0.88X is below the median value of 1.03X over the past year while the industry is at its annual high of 0.44X. The PEG is 0.94. Therefore, on both counts, the shares are undervalued.

Companhia Brasileira de Distribuicao

Founded in 1948 and headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Companhia Brasileira de Distribuicao or Grupo Pao de Acucar ("GPA") is the largest traditional retailer in the food segment in Brazil and the second largest player in the cash and carry segment. It sells food, clothing, home appliances and other products by means of hypermarkets, supermarkets, specialized stores and department stores.

Zacks Rank #2

VGM A

Industry: Retail - Supermarkets (top 43%)

In the June quarter, it reported earnings of 19 cents, up 10 cents from the year-ago quarter

2020 EPS estimate up 5 cents (7.6%) in the last 7 days

Estimated 2020 EPS growth 61.4%, 2021 growth 47.9%

Estimated 2020 sales growth 39.8%, 2021 growth 8.4%

Valuation: EV/TTM sales of 0.28X is below the median value of 0.32X over the past year while the industry is at its annual high of 0.66X. The PEG is 0.85. Therefore, on both counts, the shares are undervalued.

Graphic Packaging Holding

Graphic Packaging, headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, is a leading provider of paperboard packaging solutions for a wide variety of products to food, beverage and other consumer products companies. Graphic Packaging's customers include some of the most widely recognized companies in the world.

Zacks Rank #2

VGM A

Industry: Containers - Paper and Packaging (top 8%)

June quarter earnings surprise 36.8%

2020 EPS estimate up 9 cents (9.4%) in the last 30 days

Estimated 2020 EPS growth 20.7%, 2021 growth 6.0%

Estimated 2020 sales growth 4.5%, 2021 growth 1.5%

Valuation: EV/TTM sales 1.11X is at a discount to the median value of 1.15X over the past year although the industry, at 3.27X is at a steeper discount to the median value. Although above 1, this stock is still worth investing in because the value is lower than the average historical average. The PEG is 0.55. Therefore, the shares are undervalued.

Meritage Homes

Based in Scottsdale, AZ, Meritage Homes is one of the leading designers and builders of single-family homes. It builds and sells its single-family homes for entry-level, first-time, move-up, luxury and active adult buyers in historically high-growth regions of the United States.

Zacks Rank #1

VGM A

Industry: Building Products - Home Builders (top 2%)

June quarter earnings surprise 56.6%

2020 EPS estimate up $3.08 (50.6%) in the last 30 days

Estimated 2020 EPS growth 42.8%, 2021 growth 13.3%

Estimated 2020 sales growth 16.4%, 2021 growth 8.2%

Valuation: EV/TTM sales of 1.07X is 1.8% off its high point over the past year while the industry is 5.6% off at its annual high of 1.24X. The S&P 500 is off by 3.8%. The PEG is 0.94. Therefore, the shares are undervalued on PEG and given all the other positives, there may be further upside.

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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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It will take days, if not weeks, to sort out what Trump intended with his executive actions, as guidance from the administration is sent to the states. Already, the Department of Labor is telling governors that Trump's promised $400 weekly jobless benefit boost will actually amount to just $300 if states are unable to provide the rest, according to information obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
Kurt Luedtke holds the Oscar he won for screenplay based on material from another medium for the film "Out of Africa" in 1986. (Lennox McLendon / Associated Press)

Kurt Luedtke, who rose to be the top editor of a major American newspaper by the age of 33 and then abruptly left journalism to become an Oscar-winning Hollywood screenwriter on films such as "Out of Africa" and "Absence of Malice," has died after a prolonged illness.

Luedtke died Sunday at a hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., his wife, Eleanor, said. He was 80.

Luedtkes first film, 1981s Absence of Malice, starring Sally Field and Paul Newman, was a dark drama about a reporter whose multiple ethical lapses led to tragedy. It earned him an Oscar nomination for original screenplay.

Four years later, his second movie, Out of Africa, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, cleaned up at the Academy Awards, winning seven Oscars, including best picture and, for Luedtke, screenplay based on material from another medium. Luedtkes collaborator on both projects, Sidney Pollack, won for directing.

Luedtke explained his decision to change careers as Out of Africa was about to premiere. He told a Detroit Free Press reporter he had been named executive editor of the paper  the best job that I could possibly get in journalism when I was relatively young  and he took stock five years later and thought to himself, I could literally look forward to 27 more years of it and then retirement. And I thought: Good Lord, thats impossible!

So he resigned with vague ambitions to somehow break into the movies or television. He flew to Hollywood to pursue the dream, with no experience and no contacts.

Ive always, as you know, been undeterred by common sense, he said in the 1985 Free Press interview.

Luedtkes first idea was to write a novel about newspapering and sell the film rights. A relative gave him the name of a college friend who worked at Orion Pictures, Luedtke told Free Press film critic Jack Mathews in 1981. The Orion executive listened to the story concept and thought enough of it to set up a meeting with director George Roy Hill. Eleanor had to tell her husband that Hill was the director who made Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

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Meryl Streep and Robert Redford appear in a scene from "Out of Africa." (Universal)

Hill liked Luedtkes proposal, and Orion gave him a $20,000 advance to write an outline. Luedtke agreed, as long as the studio would give him back the idea if they chose not to film it.

In the end, Hill decided to do a different movie, and Luedtke wound up working with Pollack. The director later told Matthews that when he saw the outline and a first draft of a screenplay for Absence of Malice, he didnt know if it could be made into a movie.  It needed a lot of work.

Pollack and Luedtke spent an intense three days rewriting it and Pollack said he knew in the end they had succeeded.

Kurt is one of the fastest and most inexhaustible writers Ive ever worked with, he said. We had to come up with major changes overnight, and hed do it.

With the success of Absence of Malice, Luedtke persuaded Pollack to buy the film rights to five books so that he could pull together the life story of a Danish aristocrat, Baroness Karen Blixin, who moved to East Africa in the early 20th century, married her lovers brother, ran a coffee plantation and had a love affair with a British nobleman and big game hunter. When her plantation eventually went broke, Blixin returned to Denmark and wrote books about her time in Africa under the pen name Isak Dinesen.

I just wanted to do it, Luedtke said as the movie was about to come out. He said he had read Dinesens books as a teenager. I was already in love with Africa and fell more in love  not just with Africa but with the woman who wrote those books.

It was considered a risky project. Luedtke said: Its silly for me to say, because you really cant tell yet, but I think were going to make our money back. That turned out to be an understatement. In addition to all the Academy Awards, Out of Africa grossed more than $258 million worldwide and was the fifth highest grossing film in the United States and Canada that year. It earned more than 10 times its investment.

Luedtke and Pollack would make one more picture together, Random Hearts in 1999, starring Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas. It did not enjoy the success of their first two films.

Kurt Mamre Luedtke was born in Grand Rapids, Mich., to Herman and Virginia Luedtke. His father was a lumber broker.

Luedtke graduated from Brown University in 1961 and worked at the Grand Rapids Press and a television station in his hometown. He attended law school at the University of Michigan but left to cover the attempt by James Meredith to integrate the all-white University of Mississippi . Now focused on journalism, Luedtke enrolled in graduate school at Northwestern University.

He never finished because a summer internship in 1963 at the Miami Herald turned into a full-time job.

Luedtke was soon a full-time reporter at the Herald, where he met his future wife, Eleanor Kruglinski. They married in 1965 and moved to Detroit, where he joined the Free Press.

Luedtke started at the Free Press as a reporter but quickly moved up the newsroom ranks  assistant city editor, photo editor, assistant managing editor, assistant to the executive editor and finally executive editor in 1973.

As an assistant city editor in 1967, Luedtke was a key driver of the newspapers Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of that summers Detroit riots, one of the worst racial uprisings in American history.

At one point, he and a colleague covering the violence that led to 43 deaths and more than 300 injuries were forced by Michigan National Guardsmen to lie on a street at bayonet-point while shots rang out all around. In the immediate aftermath of the rioting, Luedtke wrote a front-page story revealing that federal and local law enforcement officials were investigating the deaths of three Black teenagers. Authorities feared the youths were deliberately executed, he reported. Three police officers and a private security guard would later be charged. All were acquitted.

Three reporters were later assigned to investigate every death, conducting more than 300 interviews in the process. Early on a Saturday morning, Luedtke sat at a typewriter in the newsroom and compiled all their notes into a masterful reconstruction that ran in the Sunday paper, headlined, The 43 Who Died. The storys conclusion was that few of the dead were rioters and most of the deaths could and should have been prevented.

Peter Gavrilovich, who spent 44 years at the paper as a reporter and editor, said that the paper's city editor took the takes from Kurt, made the paragraph marks and just sent to composing. It was flawless. And that work led to the Pulitzer for the staff.

As a script writer in his second career, Luedtke often agonized over virtually every word, just as he had as a journalist.

He once said he was struggling with how to tie up an ending and turned to the Detroit-based mystery novelist Elmore Leonard for help. Leonard listened on the phone for a while as Luedtke described various possible approaches, then interrupted him and cut short their conversation with blunt advice: Kurt, just write the goddamn thing.

Luedtkes journalism movie, Absence of Malice, was controversial with many in the trade, who preferred the heroic portrayal of reporters in 1976s All the Presidents Men, which told the story of how the Washington Posts Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein pursued the Watergate scandal that brought down President Nixon. But Absence of Malice would eventually become assigned viewing at an ethics class at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

It was praised by New York Times critic Janet Maslin, who wrote that the performances by the large supporting cast, including the late Wilford Brimley, were extremely good because of the way Luedtke had written their scenes.

Film critic Roger Ebert called the movie absorbing and entertaining, although he wrote that he doubted any journalist would commit as many ethical breaches as Sally Fields character did  publishing a story from a single anonymous source without checking it out, starting a romantic relationship with the subject of the story, revealing deeply personal information about a private figure that drives her to suicide.

Looking back on his transition from newspaper editor to aspiring screenwriter, Luedtke told Mathews:

When I was executive editor of the Free Press, if I needed to reach the governor or Henry Ford, there was a good chance I could do it. When I left the paper, I was happy if secretaries would return my call.

When youre out of work, humility finds you in a hurry.

Luedtke is survived by his wife of 55 years.

Hoyt is a special correspondent.
Yellophant Digital, a Mumbai-based digital agency from the house of Merge Infinity Global has won the digital & creative duties for India's first functional sugarcane juice brand fortified with natural ingredients, Cane Juicery. As part of the mandate, the agency will handle social media content, creatives, SEO, ORM, media planning, buying, and strategy of the freshly squeezed juice brand across all digital platforms.

Commenting on this, Jasmeet Singh, Founder, Cane Juicery says, After scouting for agencies across the board we finally found Yellophant Digital the perfect match as someone who understands the long term vision for our brand Cane Juicery, and someone who was willing to work with us on a day to day basis setting up the long term strategy. Preksha and her team have been brilliant and bring a whole different perspective to brand challenges and solutions which are required in the initial days for every brand. The ideas presented by them are fresh and out of the box, something that sets them apart. We are thrilled to have them as our digital partner and look forward to a long term relationship with them.

Preksha Seth, Co-Founder of Yellophant Digital, says, We are truly thrilled to have Cane Juicery on board with us and we are fascinated with Jasmeets vision for the brand. The cold-pressed juice category has grown tremendously in the last 5 years and we are glad that we are going to be a part of Cane Juicerys digital journey and help the brand reach its full potential. Our strategy has always been digital-first and we aim to create this as a benchmark brand in the category.
AUSMIN: the escalation of Aus-US aggression against China

Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne and Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds visited US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in Washington on the 28th July for 30th Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN), and the next day released a joint statement.

Much of the mainstream media coverage of the event has focused on the details about which the Australian side did not give in to US pressure  conducting military exercises closer to Chinese-held islands in the South China Sea, and copying the US outrageous Cold War-style rhetoric about a righteous crusade against the Chinese Communist Party. The focus on these points of difference serves to promote the impression that we make our own decisions, as Minister Payne claimed.

However, this obscures much larger facts at play which demonstrate the very opposite. The joint statement released shows yet more indication that Australia is loyally following the US in its war preparations against China. The entire document is filled with allegations about China, reproducing every major slander by the US, including on the matters of Hong Kong, Xinjiang and cyber-security. It gives signs of a coming expansion of the US military presence in Darwin, and expanded joint military exercises (including other countries such as India and Japan) around the Indo-Pacific region.

Although the Australian diplomats did not agree to reopening a discussion about moving military exercises closer to the Chinese-held islands, the possibility of continued Australian participation in joint military exercises in the South China Sea remains open. Although the Australian diplomats did not imitate the language of Pompeo and Esper around the Chinese Communist Party, they did not protest Pompeos recent speech in which he threatened countries around the world to choose between the US and China  in his words, between freedom and tyranny.

The fact that the US regime is speaking of tyranny as it continues to suppress with police violence the Black Lives Matter protests against police violence, and continues to exercise its imperialist tyranny over the whole world with threats of economic and military attack against any country which resists them, is a supreme hypocrisy.

The Australian government is in a difficult position with regards to China. It is caught between political obligation to the US, and the overwhelming Australian interest in retaining economic ties with China. Payne and Reynolds are trying to have their cake and eat it too  consent to uphold US policy in every meaningful way, but make a couple minor points of difference in a hypocritical and futile attempt to make a gesture (not a friendly one, but a gesture) to China. China is not fooled, and this cowardly approach only serves to cast further shame on our country in the international arena.

The government has also committed $270 billion to military spending over the next ten years, which indicates its desire to have time to upgrade the militarys capabilities before the US war on China breaks out. This is a good reason to attempt to discourage the US from its most aggressive, deliberately provocative actions in the South China Sea, for a certain time at least.

The US has already started a war based upon a lie about an incident in the South China Sea: the US invasion of Vietnam was justified by a claimed incident in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964, which has since been definitively proven to have been a lie by the US government. Since lying to start a war is a repeated practice of the US, their provocative actions in the South China Sea clearly serve to give a perpetual pretext for declaring war. By indicating that the Australian Navy will not take part in some of these actions, the Australian government only signals the need for more time to prepare the military before war breaks out.

The joint statement also refers to the rules-based international order and portrays the US and Australia as fighting to uphold such an order, while China supposedly violates it. Yet the only rule the US is interested in upholding is that they always get their way. The Trump administration has seen the US pull out of many major international, bi- and multilateral agreements and organisations, such as the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris Agreement on climate change, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Health Organisation. The Trump administration has intensified its unilateral blockades against Cuba and Venezuela against overwhelming international opposition, supported the Israeli regime in its intensification of apartheid-style policies against the Palestinian people against equally overwhelming international opposition, and made open threats of war against many countries including Venezuela, Iran and the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK). This is not a regime which cares about upholding any rules-based order, only preserving its international imperialist hegemony.

China poses a threat to US hegemony both practically because it offers other countries a way out of economic and political dependency on the US  and has the military capacity to hold its own against US threats  and also ideologically. In Pompeos recent speech titled Communist China and the Free Worlds Future, Pompeo noted:

We know too that doing business with a CCP-backed company is not the same as doing business with, say, a Canadian company. They dont answer to independent boards, and many of them are state-sponsored and so have no need to pursue profits.

The concept that a country can have an economy dominated by state owned enterprises, where pursuit of profits is not the ultimate objective of economic development, is here expressed as something obscene and horrifying. And the US regime is quite right to view it as such, because it negates the entire political-economic paradigm they are devoted to propagating.
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Generically, can you successfully paint a caricature of your opponent and be rewarded at the polls? Yes, said Pia Carusone, a Democratic ad maker. But you cant just do that without understanding the greater context that the attack is falling in, and were in the middle of a health and economic catastrophe and people are very pessimistic about what theyre hearing from candidates and elected leaders.
The government has started work on a National War Museum at the India Gate hexagon in New Delhi, ending a four-year long wait for a structure that should have come up along with the National War Memorial which opened on February 25.

The planned museum will be connected through an underground passage with the memorial, according to documents reviewed by Hindustan Times.

The ministry of housing and urban affairs arm the Central Public Works Department of India has shortlisted two New-Delhi based firms, CP Kukreja Architects and Suresh Goel & Associates. CPWD opened the financial bid for the tender on July 23 for selecting the consultant for comprehensive architectural and engineering planning for the proposed National War Museum and underground connecting passage between National War Museum and Memorial in New Delhi.

The construction of the project is expected to cost around 450 crore, according to officials aware of the development.

The objective of this bid documents is to engage a consultant to plan the National War Museum at Princes Park with parking facility in the basement and Underground passage connecting with National War Memorial. The National War Museum Complex is to be connected with National War Memorial through a pedestrian Underground passage. The land area allotted for development of National War Museum Complex is around 10.71 Acre, said the tender document, which has been reviewed by HT.

The plan shall entail concept, plan, detailed design and strategies, development works, demolition of existing buildings as well as related infrastructure and site development works. These new iconic structures shall be a legacy for 150 to 200 years at the very least, it added.

A combined Quality and Cost Bases selection (QCBS) process shall be adopted for the selection of Consultant. The first stage in the selection process shall be evaluation of the technical proposal submitted by the Bidders, the tender document states.

The final selection of the firm will be on the basis of the Final Composite Score (FCS) derived by combining the Technical Score (TS) and the Financial Score (FS) with 80% and 20% ratio respectively. A similar method was also adopted for the selection of the firm for Central Vista project in 2019, which was awarded to Gujarat based-HCP design. CP Kukreja Architects was also among the shortlisted bidders for the Central Vista project.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 25 inaugurated the National War Memorial. The plan to construct a National War Memorial has been under consideration since 1961 at the apex level.

The consideration acquired momentum in 2014 and after a deliberate process the Union Cabinet on 7 October 2015 approved construction of National War Memorial & Museum (NWM&M) within the National capitals Lutyens zone, the war memorials website states. For the memorial a two stage Global competition was held in 2016-17 and Chennai based WeBe Design Lab Chennai was appointed the project consultant. A similar competition was held for the museum, but it soon turned controversial with the runner-up accusing the winner of plagiarism, and the battle ending up in court.

Now, CPWD seems to have decided to push ahead with the project for the museum.

India has a rich military heritage. The gallantry of Indian soldiers is recognized world over. Since Independence, the Indian Armed Forces have fought four major wars to defend national borders and uphold our national interests. The Armed Forces have also won laurels and glory while operating in UN mandated peace missions, combating terror and insurgency and during conduct of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Operations, the CPWD tender said.

A National War Museum has been planned in New Delhi as tribute to Indian soldiers and to showcase the nations military culture, customs, traditions and history. The Museum is envisaged to be world class, state of the art building which will be a must visit landmark for those visiting New Delhi, it added.

According to the tender, the consultant should adhere to the Central Vista Committee Guidelines and Lutyens Bungalow Zone Guidelines while carrying out the consultancy work.

A pre-bid meeting was held on March 16 by CPWD officials with senior officials from the defence ministry and around 15 interested firms. Followed by this five firms had evinced interest and presented their designs and two qualified for the financial bids, a senior official said.

The firm for the museum will soon be selected, the official added.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz, federal minister of finance, attend a session of the German Bundestag. Photo: Kay Nietfeld/picture alliance via Getty Images

Germanys finance minister and vice-chancellor Olaf Scholz will run as the Social Democratic Party (SPD) candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor in the next federal elections, due to take place by October 2021.

The Social Democrats are the junior partners in the federal coalition government with Merkels Christian Democrats (CDU) and their sister party in Bavaria, the Christian Social Union.

Scholz, aged 62, confirmed his nomination on Twitter on Monday, saying: I am looking forward to a great, fair and successful election campaign in a strong team.

Jetzt ist es raus: Auf Vorschlag unserer Vorsitzenden @EskenSaskia und @NowaboFM haben mich Prasidium und Vorstand der @spdde gerade einstimmig als Kanzlerkandidaten nominiert. Ich freue mich auf einen tollen, fairen und erfolgreichen Wahlkampf in einem starken Team. #KK_SPD pic.twitter.com/3OFQepqQxj  Olaf Scholz (@OlafScholz) August 10, 2020

He said that he had received unanimous approval on his nomination after SPD co-chairs Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans had put him forward.

Scholz, formerly mayor of Hamburg as well as labour minister in Merkels first CDU-SPD coalition from 2007 to 2009, became vice-chancellor and finance minister in 2018. Known for his attention to detail and love of frugality, he has proved to be a strong ally for Merkel during the coronavirus crisis, loosening the countrys strict purse strings to unveil massive stimulus packages.

The coronavirus crisis pushed Germany to suspend its constitutional debt brake law, abandoning the so-called black zero (Schwarze Null) balanced budget. Scholz has pushed through billions of euros in financial aid and stimulus since March, some of which is financed by new debt.

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In March, the government announced it would make 20bn (18bn, $23.5bn) available to companies in the form of tax relief and unlimited credit from loans through the KfW state development bank.

Scholz described the measures as a bazooka for the economy, adding: We are not feeling our way around, we are putting all our weapons on the table.

He noted that the government was well-positioned to finance the stimulus thanks to years of savings.

In June, the government announced a 130bn package to boost economic recovery in the wake of lockdown restrictions lifting.

READ MORE: Coronavirus: Berlin unveils 130bn package to reboot German economy

It is not only the size of the package which is remarkable but also the fact that the German government has made a complete U-turn in its approach to fiscal policy, ING chief eurozone economist Carsten Brzeski said in June.

From austerity champion to big spender  a few months ago, concluding with such a comment on German fiscal policy would have been almost unthinkable.

Despite Scholzs popularity, the party is lagging far behind its coalition partners in polls. This weekends polls put the SPD at 14% and 16%, faring much worse than Merkels CDU at around 38%, and coming in in third place after the the Green Party, which is polling between 18% and 21%, depending on the poll.

It is still not decided who will run as the chancellor candidate (Spitzenkandidat) from Merkels party. The popularity of Bavarian state premier Markus Soder from the CSU has soared during the corona crisis, provoking broad speculation that he could run for the top seat in the country next year. However, Soder so far has maintained that he is committed to heading up the state of Bavaria, and will not run for chancellor.

Whether or not he sticks to this line remains to be seen  the conservative candidate is unlikely to be announced until early next year.
Sinn Fein has condemned a gun attack on a house in Co Londonderry

Sinn Fein has condemned a gun attack on a house in Co Londonderry.

A police investigation has been launched following a report of shots being fired at the home in Dungiven.

Damage was caused to the front door of the property at Ard Na Smoll during the incident in the early hours of yesterday morning.

The PSNI said that the occupants of the house were not injured but have been left extremely traumatised by their ordeal.

Local Sinn Fein MLA Caoimhe Archibald said: "This gun attack on a house in the Ard na Smoll area of Dungiven was wrong and I condemn it.

"Thankfully no one was injured in this incident but it must have been a frightening experience for those in the house and nearby.

"There is no place in society for incidents like this."

She added: "I would encourage anyone with information on what happened to bring it forward to the PSNI."

Police have appealed for anyone with information or who may have noticed any suspicious activity in and around the Ard Na Smoll area around midnight to contact them at Coleraine using the non-emergency 101 number, or they can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
A non-governmental organization, 4H-Ghana has called on the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to introduce a bill to Parliament to outlaw witch camps.

The bill should also deal with traditions and practices associated with the treatment of people accused of witchcraft.

The 4H-Ghana, the NGO, also called on Ghanaians to take advantage of the lynching of the late Madam Akua Denteh at Kafaba in the East Gonja District of the Savanna Region to contribute to ending all obnoxious practices that abuse the rights of women.

These negative practices include trokosi, women genital mutilations, marriages or girls and witches camps and associated practices.

This was contained in a press release by the organization at Koforidua in the Eastern Region.

4H-Ghana said it was regrettable that 63 years after independence such terrible things could happen in the country in the name of tradition.

The release said despite suggestions and proposals for ending such inhuman practice in the country, not much had been done.

4H-Ghana called on the religious community, the Pentecostal Council, Catholic Bishops Conference, Christian Council, the Moslem Council, the National Peace Council, Civil Society Organisations(CSOs), NGOs and well-meaning Ghanaians to help restore the dignity of the affected mothers and grandmothers.

This they could do by establishing a fund to provide shelter, food and clothing as an immediate stop-gap, while the relevant ministries and agencies work on the laws and provision of state support.

The release challenged the various district assemblies and the Regional Co-ordinating Councils in the affected districts and regions to immediately liaise with the CSOs, NGOs and other religious organizations to provide immediate relief to the affected women.

---GNA
Chants of "revolution" rang through Beirut's streets yesterday as protesters confronted security forces, while two government ministers resigned in protest at last week's deadly blast that killed 158 people.

Manal Abdel-Samad, the information minister, and Demianos Kattar, the environment minister who is one of Prime Minister Hassan Diab's closest advisers, announced they were stepping down from the government, which is accused of gross negligence and failing to prevent the explosion.

Ms Abdel-Samad cited the government's failure to enact reforms and the "Beirut catastrophe" as her two reasons for stepping down.

Mr Diab asked other ministers to delay their resignations until the results of a special cabinet session, set to be held this afternoon, where a proposal by the prime minister to hold early elections is due to be discussed.

The resignations came as security forces fired tear gas and - according to some reports - live ammunition during a second day of clashes with protesters in Beirut.

"We've reached the limit of what we can take. People were shot in the protests last night and still came down tonight. There's nothing left to lose," said Maria Bitar, a demonstrator, as chants of "revolution" rolled down the heavily fortified streets close to Lebanon's parliament building.

Tuesday's blast is understood to have been caused by 2,750 tonnes of confiscated ammonium nitrate stored in Beirut port for the past six years.

The chemical, most commonly used as a fertiliser, is highly explosive.

Beirut's residents are seething that such a dangerous material was stored with so few precautions, so close to civilian areas. More than 6,000 were injured and several hundred thousand were left homeless, with homes and businesses destroyed across entire neighbourhoods of the city.

"We live in a corrupt country and we cannot live this way anymore. We've had enough, we're like living dead, like zombies in our own country," said 26-year-old Anthony, wearing a gas mask to protect himself from the volleys of tear gas fired by security forces. "The government will be forced to give up before we do."

Early elections were one of the key demands of the protest movement that flared up in October last year as Lebanon's currency started to collapse, which forced the resignation of Saad al-Hariri, the former prime minister.

The Diab-led government was formed in mid-January, but has failed to turn around the country's ailing fortunes. The currency has now lost 80pc of its official value, wiping out savings and livelihoods.

Mr Diab has argued his relatively young government is not responsible for Tuesday's devastating explosion, but has faced massive public anger and demands for the entire political class to bear responsibility for the tragedy.

Lebanon's most senior Christian Maronite cleric said the entire cabinet should resign as it cannot "change the way it governs".

"The resignation of an MP or a minister is not enough... the whole government should resign as it is unable to help the country recover," Patriarch Bechara al-Rai said during his Sunday sermon.

Security forces said they were looking into reports of possible live fire during the previous day's protests. Footage shared on social media appeared to show a plain-clothes officer firing a handgun into a crowd of protesters, while a doctor from the Hotel-Dieu hospital shared a scan appearing to show a patient peppered with birdshot.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese army said hope was fading of finding any further survivors at the blast site, despite the arrival of international search and rescue teams.

"After three days of search and rescue operations we can say we have finished the first phase, which involved the possibility of finding survivors," Colonel Roger Khoury told a press conference in the city.

The Lebanese owner of a cruise ship sunk by the explosion has said he would be filing a lawsuit against "all those responsible." ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
Lebanons prime minister says he is stepping down from his job in the wake of the Beirut port explosion last week that triggered public fury and mass protests.

In a brief televised speech, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Monday that he is taking a step back so he can stand with the people and fight the battle for change alongside them.

He said: I declare today the resignation of this government. May God protect Lebanon, repeating the last phrase three times.

A brief while earlier, Diab's Cabinet resigned. The developments follow a weekend of anti-government protests in the wake of the Aug. 4 explosion in Beiruts port that caused widespread destruction, killed at least 160 people and injured about 6,000 others.

Diab blamed corrupt politicians who preceded him for the earthquake that has hit Lebanon.

They (political class) should have been ashamed of themselves because their corruption is what has led to this disaster that had been hidden for seven years, he added.

Prime Minster Hassan Diab headed to the presidential palace to submit the Cabinets group resignation, said Health Minister Hamad Hassan. It follows a weekend of anti-government protests in the wake of the Aug. 4 explosion in Beirut's port that caused widestpread destruction, killed at least 160 people and injured about 6,000 others.

The moment typified Lebanons political dilemma. Since October, there have been mass demonstrations demanding the departure of the entire sectarian-based leadership over entrenched corruption, incompetence and mismanagement.

But the ruling oligarchy has held onto power for so long  since the end of the civil war in 1990  that it is difficult to find a credible political figure not tainted by connections to them.

Although Diabs resignation had appeared inevitable after the catastrophe, he seemed unwilling to leave and only two days ago made a televised speech in which he offered to stay on for two months to allow for various factions to agree on a roadmap for reforms. But the pressure from within his own Cabinet proved to be too much.

Diabs government was formed after his predecessor, Saad Hariri, stepped down in October in response to the demonstrations. It took months of bickering among the leadership factions before they settled on Diab.

His government, which was supported by Hezbollah and its allies and seen as one-sided, was basically doomed from the start, tasked with meeting demands for reform but made up of all the factions that reformers want out. His government was basically doomed from the start, tasked with meeting demands for reform but made up of all the factions that reformers want out.

Now the process must start again, with Diabs government in a caretaker role as the same factions debate a new one.

I hope that the caretaking period will not be long because the country cannot take that. Lets hope a new government will be formed quickly, Public Works Minister Michel Najjar told reporters. An effective government is the least we need to get out of this crisis.

The weekend protests saw clashes with security forces firing tear gas at protesters.

The explosion is believed to have been caused by a fire that ignited a 2,750-ton stockpile of highly volatile ammonium nitrate. The material had been stored at the port since 2013 with few safeguards despite numerous warnings of the danger.

The result was a disaster Lebanese blame squarely on their leaderships corruption and neglect. Losses from the catastrophic blast are estimated to be between $10 billion to $15 billion, with nearly 300,000 people left homeless.

The last decision taken by Diabs government before its resignation was to refer the case of the explosion to the Supreme Judicial Council, which handles crimes infringing on Lebanons national security as well as political and state security crimes. The Supreme Judicial Council is Lebanons top judicial body.

A judge on Monday questioned the heads of the countrys security agencies. Public Prosecutor Ghassan El Khoury questioned Maj. Gen. Tony Saliba, the head of State Security, according to state-run National News Agency. It gave no further details, but other generals are scheduled to be questioned.

State Security had compiled a report about the dangers of storing the material at the port and sent a copy to the offices of the president and prime minister on July 20. The investigation is focused on how the ammonium nitrate came to be stored at the port and why nothing was done about it.

Najjar, the public works minister, said he learned about the materials presence 24 hours before the blast, receiving a report about the material and holding a meeting with port officials before calling its chief, Hassan Korayetem.

I wrote a report in the morning the explosion happened in the evening, Najjar said. Asked why he only learned of it the day before, Najjar said, I dont know. Truly I dont know.

About 20 people have been detained after the blast, including the head of Lebanons customs department and his predecessor, as well as the head of the port. Dozens of people have been questioned, including two former Cabinet ministers, according to government officials.

On Sunday, world leaders and international organizations pledged nearly $300 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Beirut, but warned that no money for rebuilding the capital would be made available until Lebanese authorities commit themselves to the political and economic reforms demanded by the people.

Iran, meanwhile, expressed concern that Western countries and their allies might exploit anger over the explosion to pursue their political interests. Iran supports the Hezbollah militant group, which along with its allies dominates the government and parliament.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said it is natural for people to be frustrated. But he said it would be unacceptable if some individuals, groups and foreign countries use the incident as a pretext for their purposes and intentions.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz drew a line Monday between the blast and claims that Hezbollah stores its rockets and weapons deep inside civilian areas.

While he did not accuse Hezbollah and its arms of being linked to the blast, Gantz said villages and towns across Lebanon were packed with Hezbollah arms that, if set off  whether by Israeli operations or by accident  would destroy homes. He said Hezbollah was Lebanons biggest problem.
Simon Property Group Inc., the largest mall operator in the U.S., has been in talks with Amazon about transforming shuttered department stores into fulfillment centers, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

Amazon is targeting shuttered JCPenney and Sears stores operated by Simon Property Group Inc., the report says. Both companies have filed for bankruptcy, while Sears has closed just about all of its New Jersey stores.

Fulfillment centers are used to store inventory like electronics, kitchen appliances and face masks, until orders are shipped to customers, Amazons website says.

Simon Property Group Inc. currently has 63 JCPenney and 11 Sears stores, the report says. There are 13 Simon-owned malls and shopping centers in New Jersey, according to the companys website.

The Wall Street Journal report did not list the potential locations that Amazon was interested in converting to fulfillment centers. An Amazon spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In June, Amazon signed leases in New Jersey for 14 delivery stations, with plans to open them this year.

The online retail giant officially postponed its annual Prime Day shopping event, but is making up for it with a Big Summer Sale currently ongoing.

RELATED STORIES ABOUT RETAIL AND SHOPPING:

Amazons Big Summer Sale, offers discounts on electronics, kitchen items, home goods, face masks

What you can buy right now to prepare for the next major storm

Walmart to offer free drive-in movies in parking lots at 160 stores (but only 1 in N.J.)

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Nicolette Accardi can be reached at naccardi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter: @N_Accardi. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tip
- Mesut Ozil is currently relaxing in Turkey after the just concluded season with the Gunners

- The Arsenal star has been hanging out with Okan Buruk who is trying to sign him at Istanbul Basaksehir

- The Gunners are understood to be looking to take Ozils 350,000-a-week pay off their wage bill

Mesut Ozil has been spotted with Istanbul Basaksehir manager Okan Buruk amid speculations the Arsenal playmaker could leave the club before next season.

Buruk is said to be keen on a summer transfer move for Ozil who has significantly fallen out of favour at Arsenal.

READ ALSO: Man United vs Copenhagen: Predicted Red Devils line up for crucial Europa League quarter

READ ALSO: James 'Kamala' Harris: WWE legendary star dies aged 70

Ozil has been in Turkey for days now, having been allowed to leave the UK prior to Arsenal's FA Cup final against Chelsea.

It is believed Mikel Arteta granted him permission to fly out after informing the former Real Madrid star he was not part of his plans for the matchday squad.

Mersut Ozil in Turkey, spotted with Okan Buruk. Photo Credit: Getty Images

Source: Getty Images

READ ALSO: Willian: Chelsea winger announces Stamford Bridge exit

Reports at the Emirates contend Arsenal are desperate to offload the Word Cup-winning midfielder following his dip in form.

The German still has a year left on his contract with the Gunners, but there seems to be little hope of him finding a way back into Arteta's plans.

PAY ATTENTION: Install Pitch Football app for FREE to easily access stats, news and live updates

The 31-year-old's agent recently insisted Ozil is keen to remain at the north London club and see out his 350,000 a week contract.

However, his meeting with Buruk will no doubt add fuel to the speculation of a move to Turkey, with the Super Lig champions Basaksehir said to have offered Ozil a transfer in July.

Ozil tops the list of stars who could be on their way out of the Emirates Stadium if the club gets the right amount of money.

Do you have an inspirational story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Tuko news.

I was rejected by my father three times- Tony Cruize | Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 22:47:49|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland spokesperson Monday slammed the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority's interference in Hong Kong affairs, saying its motive is to create chaos in Hong Kong and seek "Taiwan independence."

Ma Xiaoguang, the spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the statement in response to irresponsible remarks made by the DPP authority and some political forces in Taiwan on the arrest of Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and other individuals in Hong Kong.

The DPP authority has long been meddling in Hong Kong affairs, supporting and inflaming black-clad rioters, and viciously attacking the principle of "one country, two systems," said Ma.

The handling of law breakers by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government is lawful and brooks no interference, Ma said, adding that any act that violates the law on safeguarding national security in Hong Kong will be held accountable. Enditem
Citing a lack of a national testing strategy in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Ralph Northam and other governors have joined forces to buy antigen tests that deliver quick results.

Northam and governors from Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio have formed the first interstate purchasing compact of its kind during the pandemic. More states may join this novel effort, which seeks to encourage companies to speed up the production of much-needed new tests.

The governors are entering discussions with two companies approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to buy 500,000 rapid antigen tests per state. The tests can deliver results in 15 to 20 minutes  a far cry from the days or even weeks many have experienced waiting for results.

The states are leading Americas national response to COVID-19, Northam said in a statement announcing the compact. We are bringing together this bipartisan, multistate coalition to combine our purchasing power and get rapid testing supplies to our communities as quickly as possible. The people in our  states want to see action, and together, were delivering.

The rapid tests are sold by Becton Dickinson and Quidel Corp., the U.S.-based manufacturers of antigen tests that can be run at a doctors office. In July, the FDA approved Becton Dickinsons handheld device, which can detect a coronavirus infection within 15 minutes, The Washington Post reported. Quidels rapid-screen antigen test, the first of its kind, was approved in May.

Announcement of the compact comes as reported cases of the coronavirus continue to climb, and many states lack adequate testing supplies. In Virginia, the number of confirmed and probable cases rose past 97,000 as of Friday, with more than 2,300 reported deaths. Hampton Roads, which has seen a surge in cases, fell under new public restrictions last week to stop the spread.

Additional testing is needed to make sure outbreaks are contained. Delays in receiving test results largely have stemmed from backlogs at the nations largest private labs.

We applaud the governors for stepping up and filling a federal leadership void. States have been forced to pursue a Lord of the Flies approach to securing needed resources to fight this highly contagious virus. This pandemic is a national crisis, one that calls for a unified approach across all levels of government. After all, we are the United  not divided  States.

RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
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WisLawNOW is a community of Wisconsin legal bloggers established by the State Bar of Wisconsin in partnership with LexBlog, a worldwide legal blogging network. Through this syndicated network, Wisconsin legal bloggers reach a wider audience and build their reputations in their areas of practice, while helping expand understanding of the law, all in one place.

In essence, WisLawNOW allows Wisconsin legal bloggers to amplify the blogs they are already writing and creates a community of legal bloggers. Readers gain more insight on whats happening in Wisconsins legal world, from lawyers who are practicing in the trenches and following the legal issues in real-time.

Visit WisLawNOW.com

How Does it Work?

Readers can read all blog posts on WisLawNOW, which includes profile pages for the author, firm, and blog. Blogs are categorized and archived by channel so readers can navigate to legal blogs in specific practice areas or by specific topics.

Once a blogger joins WisLawNOW, their posts feed directly into the network via RSS feed. Posts are aggregated into the online platform and displayed alongside other participating blogs.

Learn more

Why Should I Join?

Many Wisconsin lawyers are already blogging  publishing about legal developments and providing analysis  on their own publishing platforms. WisLawNOW allows those bloggers to amplify their content.

By aggregating legal blogs together on a single platform, WisLawNOW creates a network for Wisconsin law bloggers to showcase and leverage their content and their legal expertise.

If you are a State Bar of Wisconsin member and you publish a legal blog, you can join to have your blog reposted in WisLawNOW, so long as it meets some basic criteria for inclusion. In addition, your blog may be included in a WisLawNOW digest that will be emailed periodically to all State Bar of Wisconsin members who choose to receive it.

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Newly elected Kiribati President Taneti Maamau plans to ask help from China to raise its island above the ocean to address sea-level rise and secure the nations future. (Photo : Getty Images)

Newly elected Kiribati President Taneti Maamau plans to ask help from China to raise its Island above the ocean by dredging to address sea level rise and secure the nation's future.

Scientists believe that the continued sea-level rise brought about by climate change may render Kiribati uninhabitable before it becomes wholly submerged. The country has been suffering from constant flooding, increased water salinity, and loss of some uninhabited islands.

READ: Mangroves May Disappear Beneath Rising Sea Levels by 2050



Government Strategy to Combat Sea-level Rise

In an interview, Maamau said that the government's strategy for addressing the increase in sea levels is to raise the islands and secure dredgers that will assist with these efforts.

Maaumau disclosed that there are plans to raise portions of Tarawa, the capital atoll through dredging fill materials from the lagoon. The 20-year vision of the country includes strategies to secure dredgers that will assist with these efforts as well as dredging channels in the outer islands.

The Kiribati government has also sought the advice of Professor Paul Kench, dean of science at Simon Fraser University in Canada, and a leading researcher on the response of atolls to sea level changes.

Kench proposed replacing causeways, which are landfills between islands that support the main road with an elevated bridge over the entire length of the atoll.

"The idea of building an elevated road parallel to the coast is something that we would like to explore in future with our partners," Maamau said.

Former President Anote Tang had predicted massive displacement in the Island because of rising seas, worsening salinity, and increased vulnerability to disasters. The administration even bought land in Fiji as a potential new homeland.

Maamau does not agree with the migration strategy, citing studies that say that the islands can survive with the right adaptation measures, and citizens of Kiribati will not be forced to leave.

Kench also cited studies that reveal that waves rolling over narrow atoll islands every few years leave the sand behind, thereby raising the islands.

Thus, Kench asserts that the solution involves large-scale land dredging to raise the Island and razing houses to ensure the Island's safety for 50 or more years.

READ ALSO: Mississippi Delta Marshes May Soon Be Gone Due to Climate Change



Effects of Dredging to the Environment

Several studies on reclamation and reef dredging have cited that these operations are harmful to coral reefs. In the 1960s, the dredging on Johnston Island, US destroyed 440 hectares of the atoll, and 2,800 hectares corals from the dredging area were also affected.

In Hay Point Australia, the damage of the dredging affected corals up to six kilometers away from a dredging operation.

The recovery of the coral reefs for the dredging operations is slow, are in some cases, it may not recover at all. In 1939, the Kanohoe Bay in the United States removed 29 percent of its coral reef through dredging. Thirty years after, none of the dredged atolls had completely recovered.

A study in 2016 also revealed that building new islands and channels on the atoll in the Spratley Islands is causing considerable losses of, and perhaps irreversible damages to, unique coral reef ecosystems.

In a Washington Post article published in 2018, Tong and filmmaker Matthieu Rytz disclosed that the current administration is focusing on developing the Island into the next Dubai or Singapore: with luxurious resorts on previously uninhabited islands. Critics of the administration warn that the plan is a grave luxury infrastructure that will eventually flood.

READ NEXT: Half of World's Beaches to Disappear by 2100
McDonald's accused former CEO Steve Easterbrook of engaging in sexual relationships with three employees and conspiring to keep photographic and video evidence of those relationships secret in a willful violation of the company's policies.

The fast-food giant said Monday that it had filed a lawsuit against Easterbrook, seeking to force him to pay damages or to disgorge him of compensation that he retained when the company's board fired him without cause in November.

The company said an internal investigation recently discovered "dozens of nude, partially nude or sexually explicit photographs and videos of various women, including photographs of these Company employees, that Easterbrook had sent as attachments to messages from his Company e-mail account to his personal e-mail account."

McDonald's said Easterbrook had "lied to the Company and the Board and destroyed information regarding" his behavior, which allegedly occurred in 2018 and 2019.

Are dress clothes gone for good?: Store closings, bankruptcy cases pile up for business wear retailers during COVID-19

COVID-19 fallout: Will Americans spend the record cash they've saved?

Easterbrook also approved a stock grant worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to one of the women "shortly after their first sexual encounter and within days of their second," McDonald's alleged in the lawsuit, which was filed in a Delaware court.

Easterbrook received total compensation of $55.1 million from 2017 through 2019, according to the company's 2020 proxy statement.

It was not immediately clear Monday how to reach Easterbrook for comment.

In a July 26, 2017 file photo, McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook is interviewed at the New York Stock Exchange.

Easterbrook, a citizen of the United Kingdom, was fired last year after he admitted to having had what McDonald's called a "non-physical, consensual relationship involving texting and video calls" with an employee. That person was not one of the three women with whom Easterbrook allegedly had sexual relationships detailed in the lawsuit.

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The company said Monday that it had dismissed Easterbrook without cause and with a severance package because it did not have evidence of the other behavior at the time. But the internal investigation that has been ongoing since his departure revealed details that, McDonald's said, would have led the company to fire him with cause and without a severance package, had it known all along.

"McDonalds would have been well served by doing a more thorough investigation" in the first place, said Tim Hubbard, assistant professor of management at the University of Notre Dames Mendoza College of Business, in an email interview. "I think, though, the board had an expectation of honesty from Mr. Easterbrook given the large sum of money that was going to be paid out."

The alleged photographic and video evidence of Easterbrook's sexual relationships had been deleted from his company-issued phone by the time he handed it over to McDonald's upon his departure, the company said.

But the emails containing the evidence he allegedly sent from his work account to his personal account were still housed on the company's server, according to the lawsuit.

Hubbard said the Easterbrook case should serve as an example for other corporations of how they need to conduct "much more thorough investigations into wrongdoing."

"This should start as early as possible  even in the rumor stage," he said.

He also said companies should structure severance packages to punish bad behavior.

"Right now, we see company after company sending their corrupt and dishonest CEOs away with millions of dollars," he said. "We set a terrible example for other executives that this behavior is OK. Its not. Compensating CEOs as they walk out the door is the worst thing we can do."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-McDonald's CEO sued over alleged sexual relationships, nude videos
KV Kamath

The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) has requested the Reserve Bank of India to review it's decision to appoint KV Kamath as the head of the Expert Committee on COVID-19-related loan restructuring.

In a letter addressed to RBI India Governor Shaktikanta Das, AIBEA has expressed concerns about Kamaths alleged role in the ICICI Bank- Videocon Group loan controversy.

Reports have appeared in the media about the infamous nepotism scandal in ICICI Bank involving Ms Chanda Kochhar for sanctioning huge loan of more than Rs 3,000 crores unscrupulously to Videocon Company. As per media reports, in the FIR filed by CBI, in addition to the name of Ms Chanda Kochhar, the name of KV Kamath also appears, the letter read.

AIBEA further wrote, It is reported that besides being the former CEO and non-Executive Chairman of ICICI Bank, he (KV Kamath) was also a member of the committee that approved the loan which has now become questionable and are under investigation."

We strongly feel that at this stage, making such a person as Chairman of the Expert Committee is avoidable and needs to be reviewed, the union urged the Reserve Bank of India.

The regulator named KV Kamath as the head of the expert panel for loan restructuring last week, along with four other members who will submit their recommendations on sector-specific parameters and other considerations within 30 days. The committee is also tasked with reviewing all large resolution plans under this recast scheme involving a debt of over Rs 1,500 crores.

KV Kamath, a veteran banker, was most recently the head of the New Development Bank set up by the BRICS nations. He served as ICICI Banks MD & CEO from 1996 to 2009.

Get Chanda Kochhar, the name of KV Kamath also appears, the letter read.

It is reported that besides being the former CEO and non-Executive Chairman of ICICI Bank, he (KV Kamath) was also a member of the Committee that approved the loan which has now become questionable and are under investigation, AIBEA said in its letter.

We strongly feel that at this stage, making such a person as Chairman of the Expert Committee is avoidable and needs to be reviewed, the union urged the Reserve Bank of India.

The regulator named KV Kamath as the head of the Expert Panel for loan restructuring last week, along with 4 other members who will submit their recommendations on sector-specific parameters and other considerations within 30 days. The committee is also tasked with reviewing all large resolution plans involving a debt of over Rs 1,500 crores.

KV Kamath, a veteran bankers, was most recently the head of the New Development Bank set up by the BRICS nations. He served as ICICI Banks MD & CEO from 1996 to 2009.
ALBANY  Wayne LaPierre, child of Schenectady and head of the National Rifle Association, is a loathsome fellow.

That's been obvious for many years now, but New York Attorney General Letitia James provided new evidence last week in a 164-page filing that contains detailed allegations of avarice and corruption at the NRA.

The lawsuit paints LaPierre as a greedy self-dealer who has enriched himself on the donations of NRA members. His lifestyle is outrageously lavish, allegedly - complete with millions of dollars spent on private jets, trips to the Bahamas and luxury hotel suites.

That's not all. The lawsuit accuses LaPierre of games that camouflage the full perks of his position, including the use of "pass-through arrangements" with outside companies to conceal personal trips and goodies. That may get the attention of the IRS  and if you're an NRA donor, you have reason to wonder at how your money is being spent.

But it's important to note that no criminal charges have been filed. Instead, James is seeking to dissolve the NRA, an effort that, if successful, would silence one of the nation's most effective conservative voices.

It's an extraordinary move, and you don't have to be a gun enthusiast to be worried about the consequences.

James, a Democrat, has long made her hostility toward the NRA clear, declaring it "a terrorist organization" during the 2018 campaign. That makes the subsequent investigation and resulting lawsuit feel more like a politically motivated abuse of power than a good-faith effort to do right by NRA members.

It is also one heck of a publicity stunt. James billed her Thursday press conference as being of national significance  which it was  and the lawsuit she announced earned her praise and attention on MSNBC and other left-leaning voices.

But imagine the howls of outrage from those very same outlets if Attorney General William Barr announced a plan to cancel a left-leaning political group, especially if that group had pledged, as the NRA has, to spend heavily on the presidential race. (That James announced her lawsuit so close to the election doesn't seem coincidental.)

Imagine the outrage if an attorney general in a red state had vowed to shutter Planned Parenthood, a powerful union or another organization that donates heavily to Democratic candidates.

The danger of James' effort is that it could inspire copycats who do exactly that. It may convince other attorney generals to target their political enemies, free speech and civil society be damned.

None of this is to say that James and other legal authorities don't have a role in cleaning up the NRA, assuming the corruption allegations are accurate. But there's a big gulf between attempting to reform an organization (perhaps by sending its bad actors to jail) and trying to eliminate it.

When asked about a precedent Thursday, James pointed to her takedown of the Trump Foundation, which last year agreed to close and pay damages after a lawsuit filed by the attorney general also alleged financial malfeasance.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

That won't quell concerns about political bias. Are we to believe there isn't a left-leaning charity incorporated in New York that mishandles money? Or should conservative groups alone fear ruinous litigation costs?

And, obviously, shuttering a smallish "charity" like the Trump Foundation is not the same as shuttering a 149-year-old organization with five million members and enormous cultural and political influence. There really is no precedent for what James is attempting to do.

I'm hardly alone in believing the NRA has used its influence irresponsibly in recent years, opposing even modest gun-safety measures while throwing gasoline on cultural fires. LaPierre, who graduated from Siena College in 1972 and became head of the NRA 19 years later, has not used his power for progress. He's been a face of extremism.

James' lawsuit may bring an end to LaPierre's tenure, but it won't have a meaningful effect on gun policy. In fact, she may provoke a backlash, rallying new donors to the NRA and previously unmotivated voters to President Trump. Gun sales, already at record highs, may rise.

If James' effort has a lasting impact, it will be on free speech and political discourse. It's another step toward authoritarianism in a country that feels increasingly bored by abuses of power and the politicization of justice. It's new evidence of a political culture that, more and more, would rather silence opponents than win the debate.

New York's attack on the NRA is an assault on the First Amendment, not the Second.

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchill
Applications to graduate jobs are down by 32.8% year-on-year. Photo: Getty

The number of graduate jobs being advertised in the UK has fallen by more than 60% year-on-year, according to a study, with industries such as marketing and construction experiencing larger drops than other sectors.

The analysis by CV-Library, an independent job board, also found university leavers appear to be giving up on their job hunt, as searches for these roles have dropped by 8.4% year-on-year.

Alongside this, applications to graduate jobs are down by almost a third (32.8%).

Applications have, however, risen in some sectors, with the biggest increase in graduate job applications registering in catering (up 57.9%), social care (up 42.9%), IT (up 9%) and the public sector (up 5.4%).

The analysis focused on data between 1 January and 30 July 2020 and compared with the same period a year ago.

Despite jobs and applications dropping overall, the average amount of applications per job has increased by 47.2% in the past 12 months; from 16.8 in 2019, to 24.7 in 2020.

READ MORE: Coronavirus: A third of UK firms expect to cut jobs in autumn

Certain industries are, however, more competitive than others.

The study shows that in recruitment, applications per job have risen to 180. A 471% change from the same period a year ago.

CV-Library's analysis of applications per job. Credit: CV-Library

Despite a dearth in available jobs, the average graduate salary has risen by 7.1% from a year ago, currently sitting at 24,626 ($32,159) per annum.

Sectors paying above-average wages included the public sector (34,000), retail (33,550), property (30,235), catering (27,500), IT (27,290), accounting/finance (27,074), media (26,958), legal (26,738), design (26,266) and sales (26,002).

Salaries registered as highest in London, sitting at 27,259, Newcastle with 27,250, Southhampton which was 26,667, Edinburgh which was 24,857 and Manchester, 24,740.

Lee Biggins, founder and CEO of CV-Library, said: Its a difficult time for everyone, not least the newest entrants to the job market, whose career prospects have been shattered by COVID-19.

The government is making inroads by creating more job opportunities for young people through its Kickstarter scheme, but whether this is enough remains to be seen. Unfortunately, job numbers are down across the board and its going to take a very long time until they return to normal levels.
(CNN)  One of India's biggest food delivery companies says it will give all female employees 10 days of "period leave" a year  a significant milestone in a country where menstruation remains a taboo topic.

In a statement Saturday, Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said women and transgender people would be entitled to one day of period leave for each menstrual cycle.

Zomato  which bought Uber's food delivery business in India earlier this year  is the most high profile company in the country to introduce period leave. At least a handful of other companies have introduced similar policies in the past, according to local media reports.

"At Zomato, we want to foster a culture of trust, truth and acceptance," Goyal said in an email to staff that was posted publicly. "There shouldn't be any shame or stigma attached to applying for a period leave. You should feel free to tell people on internal groups, or emails that you are on your period leave for the day."

He urged anyone who experienced "unnecessary harassment" or "distasteful comments" for taking period leave to speak up, and told male colleagues it "shouldn't be uncomfortable for us."

"This is a part of life, and while we don't fully understand what women go through, we need to trust them when they say they need to rest this out," Goyal said. "I know that menstrual cramps are very painful for a lot of women  and we have to support them through it if we want to build a truly collaborative culture at Zomato."

Menstruation is such a taboo subject in India that women in many homes aren't allowed to cook or touch anyone during their period as they are considered impure and dirty. That social shame can prevent women from talking openly about menstruation, meaning many girls aren't taught about safe, hygienic practices.

Some in the country have tried to change that stigma. For example, Bihar  one of India's most populous states  allows women to take two days of leave each month because of "biological reasons." However, India's federal government hasn't pushed to change the nationwide rules around period leave.

Similar schemes have been in place in a number of Chinese provinces and other countries in Asia for years. Women in Japan have been granted menstrual leave since 1947.

Research released last year based on a survey of 32,748 Dutch women between the ages of 15 and 45 found 81% said they had been less productive as a result of their menstrual symptoms. The researchers calculated that on average, women were absent from work or school for 1.3 days per year because of their period  and productivity loss was equivalent to 8.9 days per year.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "One of India's biggest food delivery companies has introduced period leave"
Mike Tyson admitted he was scared when he joined Discoverys Shark Week for Tyson vs. Jaws: Rumble on the Reef. Tyson was asked to join a team of scientists on a dive in the Bahamas where he would need to wrangle a shark and coax it into a sleep-like state, known as tonic immobility, so a scientist could attach a camera to the sharks dorsal fin.

This is something that Im doing from an egotistical perspective, Tyson said. It connects with everything I think about myself. That Im the most ferocious, the meanest, the baddest animal that breathes air.

There was a process to getting Tyson comfortable enough around sharks to wrangle one, and that was anything but smooth sailing. The first step had Tyson in a cage in the water with sharks. Even then, Tyson was questioning his decision.

What am I doing? Tyson asked himself as dozens of sharks swam nearby. What the f**k am I doing? Tyson later added, Im stupid to do this. F**k this. I cant do this s**t. Asked how he was feeling, Tyson replied, Im scared to death.

The next round of preparation had Tyson outside the cage, though he was cloaked in chainmail armor. He was given a small pipe to ward off any sharks that came too close for comfort, but Tyson turned out to be the aggressor and was told he had to relax and not lunge at the passing sharks.

Then, before the final dive, Tysons fear manifested in a physical reaction as he vomited on the boat while getting ready. But when the time came, Tyson did exactly as he was taught. The scientists were looking to attach the camera to a certain shark theyd photographed on an earlier dive. As their oxygen tanks were getting low, Tyson caught the shark by the snout and coaxed it into tonic immobility just long enough to get the camera attached.

I didnt really experience fear until I came to the Bahamas. I was really scared. I was apprehensive about even doing this stuff, Tyson said. But I was disciplined enough to go through the process and I overcame that. This experience is really worth it. Just overcoming that fear in general, making death irrelevant, its pretty liberating.

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A beloved grandmother who spent all her life taking care of her family is proving to the world that you're never too old to make your dreams come true.

Dorothy Pollack, who turned 103 years old in June, is spending her days going through her bucket list. Her first adventure? A frog tattoo in honor of the one thing she loves more than beer and burgers.

On June 16, she celebrated her birthday in a nursing home in Muskegon, Michigan, where she spent months in isolation during the coronavirus pandemic.

"COVID-19 had her in prison for months," said Teresa Zavitz-Jones, referring to her grandmother's lockdown situation at the nursing home.

"The nurse in the home said she was horribly depressed and we needed to get her out. We couldn't see her so we had no idea how she really was. She's extremely hard of hearing so phone calls were not helpful."

Weeks after she was discharged from the nursing home, out of nowhere Pollack decided she wanted a tattoo.
Voters line up outside Lingelbach Elementary in Philadelphia's Germantown section on Pennsylvania's primary election day, June 2, 2020. There were fewer polling locations across the city because of the coronavirus pandemic. Read more

The calendar says theres more than a month until Election Day. But Pennsylvanians are already casting ballots now, and hundreds of thousands could be doing so within weeks. That creates new challenges for President Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and candidates across the state, as voting starts sooner  and spreads out longer  than usual.

With the coronavirus continuing to disrupt life, a big chunk of voters in Pennsylvania and other battleground states are expected to turn to mail voting, under which they can receive and send back ballots well ahead of Election Day, Nov. 3. A new state law makes it easier for anyone to do so, more than 2 million voters have already requested mail ballots, and ultimately about 3 million are expected to do so.

That has some Republicans worried that Trump has little time to make up ground in a critical swing state where Biden has a smaller but steady edge in polls. Some people may even vote before the first presidential debate Tuesday.

But the biggest impact, strategists in both parties said, could be on down-ballot races. Trump and Biden have the resources to handle a long period of advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts. Candidates for Congress or the state legislature have less money for a peak campaign season that could last weeks instead of days.

Traditionally, there would be this sort of massive October push to make sure that people turn out on Election Day in November. Thats obviously very different right now, said Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of BlackPAC, a grassroots group that engages progressive Black voters. We consider ourselves to be in the [get-out-the-vote] phase right now.

That means lesser-known candidates cant save their election appeals and limited cash for the end, Shropshire said.

Voters need to know in August, and they need to without a doubt know in September, she said, otherwise theyll cast those ballots and skip really critical and important races because they wont know who to vote for.

That can strain challengers, who arent as well-known or well-funded as incumbents, said J.J. Balaban, a Democratic consultant in Philadelphia, who has also worked on races in Washington state, which votes almost entirely by mail.

He recalled when he helped Joe Sestak beat Arlen Specter in Pennsylvanias 2010 Senate Democratic primary. Specter led big early, but Sestak caught him late in the race. If voters had cast their ballots early, Specter might have locked in some support that later slipped away.

As an example this year, Balaban pointed to Christina Finello, the Democrat running to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in Bucks County. She has far less campaign cash than Fitzpatrick. Such a challenger might normally save her big ad buys for the last 10 days of the race.

She has to make a really tough choice between holding it until the end and missing a chunk of voters, or potentially communicating at such a light level for three weeks that she barely gets heard, Balaban said.

 READ MORE: Voting has begun in Pennsylvanias messy, unprecedented pandemic election

Whit Ayres, a Republican strategist who has worked on many races in Florida, where mail voting is prevalent, said it complicates life enormously for campaigns, because you need to start advertising earlier, start getting out the vote earlier, but then you need to extend those efforts all the way up through Election Day.

Trump and Biden are already tailoring their campaigns to the new reality.

In rolling out the $280 million Biden TV and digital campaign last week, Biden aide Patrick Bonsignore said the buy is heavier in the summer and early fall than later on compared with the past. And after pulling ads off the air when a new campaign manager took over, the Trump campaign planned to refocus its ads in states that start voting earliest, Politico reported.

But while early voting could shorten the window for a Trump comeback, strategists in both parties said people voting a month or two early are likely dedicated partisans who would pick their partys candidate no matter what. In the primary election, only about one out of four ballots mailed in Philadelphia was returned more than a week before Election Day.

The people who vote right away are the people who knew in the womb who they were going to vote for, Balaban said, quoting a pollster he has worked with.

Still, if someone votes by mail, campaigns dont have to worry about their failing to show up on Election Day because of a coronavirus surge, long lines, or a personal emergency. And the more people vote by mail, the shorter lines will be on Election Day, easing one potential obstacle in cities like Philadelphia.

For campaigns, early voting can also diminish the impact of late surprises that can sway undecided voters.

If recent primaries are any indication, the impact of the early voting is likely to be skewed, because far more Democrats are using mail voting than Republicans, as Trump attacks the method with false and exaggerated claims.

In Pennsylvania, more than one million Democrats used mail ballots in the June primary, compared with 397,000 Republicans. In other swing states like Florida and North Carolina, Democrats are far outpacing Republicans in requesting mail ballots.

 READ MORE: Women in Pittsburghs wealthy suburbs could help Biden beat Trump in Pa.

Despite the presidents rhetoric, the Republican National Committee and Pennsylvania GOP are encouraging voters to use mail ballots, and the Trump campaign says its strong staffing will eventually give it the edge in early voting. You need to contact voters earlier, and it actually works to our advantage having the infrastructure we have, said Ted Christian, a senior campaign adviser in Pennsylvania.

But other Republicans worry that Trumps diatribes could hamper GOP turnout.

Its a concern that trashing the idea of mail voting is going to suppress Republican votes, Ayres said. Republicans could be leaving a whole lot of votes on the table if they discourage their own supporters from voting by mail.

NextGen, a progressive group focused on voters aged 18 to 35, usually builds its major get-out-the-vote effort during the four days leading up to Election Day, said Larissa Sweitzer, the groups Pennsylvania state director.

Now, its already reaching out to make sure young voters know about mail-in voting. The group texted more than 700,000 Pennsylvanians last week.

It does expand the amount of time that we have to talk to voters, Sweitzer said. Its our job, its our responsibility, to then retouch those voters.  Do you know where to return that ballot? Do you know when to return that ballot?  Did you sign your ballot?

As the election goes on, widespread mail voting can help campaigns see whats working, what isnt, and who to target, since public records show who has requested a mail ballot  and who has returned one.

You can really get a sense of whos showing up, and that allows a campaign to start tailoring their message toward later voters who are maybe undecided, said Christian Sinderman, a Democratic consultant from Seattle who also works on races in Oregon, another state that votes almost entirely by mail.

And campaigns can better target their phone calls and mailings, since they know who hasnt voted yet.

If you want to be left alone before Election Day, Sinderman said, send in your ballot early.
They showed up at the couples apartment, bearing heaps of goodwill and hope and a herd of guinea pigs.

Carolyn Ortega, director of the Albuquerque Animal Welfare Department, had arrived at the tiny apartment on Arizona SE to fix what the law could not and finesse an agreement between the city and the couple to assure the safety of the animals and the rights of the humans.

Were not here to be the bad guys, she said.

But Brittany and Jeffrey Hawkins, the humans in this case, were having none of it  not at first, anyway.

On July 18, I wrote a column about those guinea pigs  28 of them, actually  seized by the Animal Welfare Department in March from an apartment on Charleston NE where the Hawkinses had previously lived with their pack of piggy pets and countless cockroaches.

Jeffrey Hawkins, 28, was charged with 28 counts of cruelty to animals and two related charges. According to the criminal summons, about 18 of the guinea pigs were in cages and the rest were roaming free in the urine-scented, feces-sprinkled apartment along with the roaches.

In addition, the summons said, Jeffrey Hawkins had shown up several times since January 2019 at a city shelter with about 30 dead or dying guinea pigs.

It seemed a textbook case of animal hoarding. It was also a situation that, as far as anyone can remember, neither the city nor the courts had come across before.

But on June 23, the charges were dismissed when the court ruled Hawkins incompetent to stand trial  that because of his neurocognitive disorder and mental illness.

And that meant he and his wife were legally entitled to reclaim their guinea pigs  now 34 of them after the pregnant females gave birth.

The news sent shockwaves through the community of foster families who had been caring for the animals  along with other pet lovers  who were upset that the guinea pigs were likely being returned to the same unsafe and unsanitary conditions from which they had been rescued.

Complaints were lodged with Animal Welfare, Mayor Tim Kellers office and advocacy group Animal Protection of New Mexico. Ortega, who inherited the case in May, consulted with the city attorney in search of a loophole to prevent the animals return.

But guinea pigs and similar rodents arent addressed in the citys Humane and Ethical Animal Regulations and Treatment, or HEART, ordinance.

It seemed no one wanted the guinea pigs returned to the Hawkinses  except the Hawkinses.

I miss my guinea pigs so much. I been crying every day for my guinea pigs, Brittany Hawkins wrote in a July 22 Facebook post. I will never give up on my guinea pigs no matter what they say or said.

She and Jeffrey Hawkins declined to be interviewed.

Just know that we never hurt our guinea pigs, Jeffrey Hawkins texted.

Cindy Cribbs, who had found homes for 10 of the guinea pigs through her Haven for Hamsters Rescue and Sanctuary in Rio Rancho, decided that instead of going to war she would try to make peace with the Hawkinses, joining forces with Ortega to offer them help, training, supplies and oversight, and to convince them to reduce their herd to a more manageable number.

On July 31, both women, along with an Animal Welfare officer, showed up at the couples apartment with the 12 guinea pigs, separated among eight cages, that had been returned by the foster families.

The Hawkinses refused to let them in.

After 45 minutes of negotiating, Jeffrey Hawkins finally emerged to take possession of the guinea pigs. He signed a contract allowing the city to check on the animals every two weeks. But whether he understood what he signed or whether officers will be allowed in the apartment is anyones guess.

Alicia Sullivan of Sky Management, which maintains the Arizona SE properties, said the Hawkinses have also refused to let her inside the apartment. She said they are in violation of their lease agreement, which specifies that pets are not allowed. Besides the guinea pigs, she said the couple is believed to have a dog. Even before the city returned the guinea pigs, numerous complaints had been lodged against them.

Eviction proceedings have not been initiated  so far.

Cribbs said she is concerned about the couples welfare, especially if they are evicted in the midst of a pandemic. But she is also concerned about the welfare of the guinea pigs.

I am a human who has agreed to always protect and care for these little ones to the best of my abilities, and sometimes that means harsh things happen, she said. People are faced with coming to terms with their problems and situations they themselves have caused.

For now, neither she nor the city is pushing to have the other 22 guinea pigs returned to the Hawkinses.

In the meantime, Ortega said she is working on an update to the HEART ordinance that would include guinea pigs, gerbils, hamsters, mice and rabbits in the limits on the number of pets per household. She hopes to present the update to the City Council by October.

Such a change will help protect the small creatures. Its harder to protect humans from the same.

UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Reach Joline at 730-2793, jkrueger@abqjournal.com, Facebook or @jolinegkg on Twitter.
Opposition supporters protest after polls closed in Belarus' presidential election, in Minsk, on Aug. 9, 2020. (Sergei Gapon/AFP via Getty Images)

Belarus Opposition Tells Lukashenko to Step Down After Illegitimate Election Win

MINSKThe opposition in Belarus rejected official election results handing President Alexander Lukashenko a landslide re-election victory on Monday, saying the poll was rigged and that talks needed to begin on a peaceful transfer of power.

Earlier, the central election commission said Lukashenko, in power for more than a quarter of a century, won 80 percent of the vote in Sundays election, while Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, who emerged from obscurity to become his main rival, took just 9.9 percent.

Law enforcement officers march during clashes with opposition supporters after polls closed at the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, on Aug. 10, 2020. (Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

The authorities are not listening to us. The authorities need to think about peaceful ways to hand over power, said Tikhanouskaya, a former English teacher who entered the race after her blogger husband was jailed.

Of course we do not recognize the results.

Foreign observers have not judged an election to be free and fair in Belarus since 1995, and the run-up to the vote saw authorities jail Lukashenkos rivals and open criminal investigations into others who voiced opposition.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko reacts as he visits a polling station during the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus Aug. 9, 2020. (Sergei Gapon/Pool via Reuters)

Events are being closely watched by Russia, whose oil exports run through Belarus to the West and which has long regarded the country as a buffer zone against NATO, and the West, which has tried to lure Minsk from Moscows orbit.

The streets in the capital and other cities were quiet after violence on Sunday night, when riot police used force to disperse thousands of protesters who had gathered to denounce what they said was an electoral farce.

Tikhanouskaya told reporters she considered herself the election winner. She said the poll had been massively rigged.

Presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya holds a press conference the day after Belarus presidential election in Minsk on Aug. 10, 2020. (Sergei Gapon/AFP via Getty Images)

Her campaign rallies have drawn some of the biggest crowds since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The opposition now wants a vote recount at polling stations where there were problems, her aides said, adding that protests which turned bloody on Sunday would continue.

They said they were ready to hold talks with authorities.

No Revolution

There was no immediate response to that offer from Lukashenko, a former Soviet collective farm manager who has ruled Belarus since 1994. Once dubbed Europes last dictator by Washington, he faces his biggest challenge in years to keep his grip on power amid discontent over his handling of the economy, COVID-19, and human rights abuses.

But Lukashenko signaled he would not step down.

Opposition supporters join protest after polls closed at the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, on Aug. 9, 2020. (Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

The response will be appropriate. We wont allow the country to be torn apart, the 65-year-old leader was quoted by the Belta news agency as saying.

Lukashenko repeated allegations that shadowy forces abroad were trying to manipulate protesters he called sheep in order to topple him, something he said hed never allow.

They are trying to orchestrate mayhem, said Lukashenko. But I have already warned: there will be no revolution.

The European Unions foreign policy chief and its commissioner for enlargement said the election had been marred by disproportionate and unacceptable state violence against peaceful protesters.

We condemn the violence and call for the immediate release of all (those) detained during last night, Josep Borrell and Oliver Varhelyi said in a joint statement.

A spokesman for the German foreign ministry said there were numerous indications of electoral fraud and that the EU was discussing how to react. Neighboring Poland said it wants a special EU summit on Belarus.

Russias RIA news agency cited the Belarusian Interior Ministry as saying that police had detained around 3,000 people during post-election protests.

Rights groups say more than 1,300 people were also detained in the pre-election crackdown, including independent election observers and members of Tikhanouskayas campaign team.

Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated Lukashenko on his win, however, as did Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said he hoped the Belarusian leader would deepen ties with Moscow, something Lukashenko has been resisting in recent times.

By Andrei Makhovsky
With testing once again a huge vulnerability to Americas coronavirus response, public health officials are calling for a revamped strategy that features the use of more tests, even if they're imperfect.

Why it matters: The system is overwhelmed by the demand for tests, and yet prolific testing is key to identifying asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic coronavirus cases. Experts say the solution is smarter testing  which doesn't require perfect accuracy.

The big picture: Most coronavirus diagnostic tests right now are PCR tests, which are highly accurate, but relatively slow and expensive. But other kinds of tests exist; they just carry the risk of more false negatives.

Some experts argue that, when doing mass testing, the tests dont need to be 100% accurate. Catching, for example, even 50% of unidentified cases is better than the much-lower percentage that were catching today.

By putting a premium on the accuracy of tests, we fail to test a majority of people with COVID-19 and these built in delays actually undermine our ability to timely identify cases which is the key purpose for widespread testing, Harvards Ashish Jha recently wrote in a TIME op-ed.

Between the lines: Strategy is key, and who gets which test matters.

In a white paper calling for a national testing strategy, former FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan, Johns Hopkins Caitlin Rivers and Dukes Christina Silcox last week wrote that symptomatic patients and people who are close contacts of known cases should still receive PCR or other highly-accurate diagnostic tests.

But for people without symptoms, we also need broad availability of more rapid but sometimes less accurate screening tests...to detect outbreaks sooner and give people more confidence in their workplaces and schools, they write.

This is particularly important for high-risk populations such as nursing homes, essential workplaces, and hard-hit communities that currently have limited resources for testing.

Details: There are several alternative testing options. Antigen tests are faster and cheaper than PCR tests, but less accurate. The FDA has already authorized two companies to sell antigen tests, per Science, and others are in the pipeline.

Pool testing is another way to stretch limited resources. This is where multiple samples are tested together, and each individual sample is only tested on its own if the pooled sample comes back positive. But this is only effective in populations with low caseloads; otherwise, too many pooled samples come back positive.

Yes, but: Many insurers dont pay for tests that arent medically necessary, which generally includes screening or surveillance testing.

The absence of a guaranteed demand could be depressing the creation and mass production of these alternative tests.

Without clear funding or screening protocols, test manufacturers are not getting a clear signal for investing in much larger testing capacity for the months ahead, McClellan, Rivers and Silcox write.

What were watching: Six states announced last week that, in the absence of a national testing strategy, theyre banding together in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation to buy 3 million rapid point-of-care antigen tests.
Sangrur/Patiala/Bathinda Farmers in their thousands, under the banner of 10 Kisan Unions, protested outside the residence of around a 100 leaders including MLAs, Punjab cabinet ministers and Member Parliament (MPs) across the state on Monday. The farmers are demanding the repeal of three ordinances for farming issued by the central government and the withdrawal of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020. The hiked rates of petrol and diesel and the fear of Minimum Support Price (MSP) system not being implemented are other concerns.

The All-India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) had given the protest call, held to mark the start of the Quit India Movement on August 8, 1942. Reminiscent of the movement, farmers chanted the slogan of Corporates Leave Farming.

In Patiala, farmers protested outside the residence of chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, cabinet ministers Brahm Mohindra, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and MP Preneet Kaur. In Sangrur, they held protests opposite the residence of school education minister Vijay Inder Singla, Sunam MLA Aman Arora and MP Bhagwant Mann.

Protests were also held outside the residence of finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, revenue minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar and union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal in Bathinda. They met SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal at Badal village and urged him to raise their voice in Parliament.

Darshan Pal, state convener of AIKSCC, said, We have asked MLAs and MPs that if they will not raise our voice in state assemblies and Parliament to withdraw three ordinances, Electricity Act, 2020, and give us relief from hiked prices of petrol and diesel, they will have to face protests in villages and towns. Crop prices must be paid to us as per the recommendation of the Swaminathan Commission report. He added that have given a 9-point charter of demands.

TWO FACTIONS PROTEST IN BATHINDA

Two factions of farmer associations protested against the state and the Centre at different places in Bathinda on Monday. Physical distancing and covering of faces in public places in view of the pandemic outbreak was violated at both venues. Under the banner of All-India Kisan Sangarsh Talmel Committee, about 10 farmer right associations threatened to launch a protest against the finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Aam Party legislator from Bathinda (rural) Rupinder Kaur Ruby. In the other protest, Left-leaning farm associations protested near the Children Park.

BKU (Ekta-Sidhupur) leader Resham Singh said the three central ordinances would pave the way to end the Minimum Support Price (MSP) in a phased manner. Farmers handed over a memorandum to the political adviser to chief minister Kushaldeep Singh Dhillon.

WILL NEVER LET ANYBODY STOP

MSP AND FREE POWER: SUKHBIR

Chandigarh SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday said that he was ready to make any personal or political sacrifice in the fight to safeguard and promote the cause of the peasantry in Punjab.

Be it the issue of any threat, present or future, to the Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime, with assured marketing of farmers crop or to the free power facility for the farmers that the Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP government introduced in the state, I and my party will never allow the current dispensation to be disturbed nor allow anyone to rob the peasantry, Sukhbir told a delegation of All India (Kul Hind) Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee at his residence in Badal village.

On the alleged confusion on the intricacies of the ordinances, Sukhbir said, I have already conveyed to the Centre that neither the MSP regime with assured marketing, nor the free power facility in Punjab can be allowed to be tinkered with under any pretext. The former deputy CM assured the farmers that if the MSP or free power regime was stopped, or even diluted, he would personally lead protests.
PHILIPSBURG:--- After nearly 5 years of dispute, the Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Traffic and Telecommunication (TEATT), Ludmila de Weever, mediated a long-standing stalemate between the Telem Group, Bureau Telecommunications and Post Sint Maarten (BTP) and the Government of Sint Maarten. The Minister achieved an amicable end to the stalemate that resulted in a settlement agreement for amounts owed by Telem to BTP and BTP to the Government of Sint Maarten. What appeared to be unresolvable for almost half a decade, took approximately 6 weeks to be finalized. The Ministry of TEATT can now grant the concession agreement to Telem Group based on the positive advice received from BTP.

Minister de Weever expressed satisfaction with the outcome of this settlement. It was one of her top priorities. The realization of the fiber network will be a major step for the countrys telecommunication sector and its economic recovery and future growth. Minister de Weever said she looks forward to continuing to strengthen the relationship between all parties as the agreement terms are carried out and is grateful to the mandate given to her by the Council of Ministers.

Both Telem Group and BTP have expressed satisfaction with the resolution and outcome of the settlement. After several discussions, we are pleased to have advised the Minister. Telem Group now has the space to concentrate on providing key services to St. Maarten in these crucial times, stated BTP Director Anthony Carty.

Without this resolution, the refinancing of the existing bond and additional funds provided by a $44 million USD loan was at risk with potentially dire consequences for the future of Telem and its employees. The much-needed financing provided by Windward Islands Bank will now enable Telem to realize its fiber to the home network project.

We are happy that we have finally gotten our concession settlement agreement finalized so that Telem Group may continue to provide the services to the people of St. Maarten, stated Chief Executive Officer of Telem Group Kendall Dupersoy.

Photo caption: (Left to Right) Telem Group CEO Kendall Dupersoy, Honorable Minister of TEATT Ludmila de Weever and Cabinet of the Minister of TEATT Legal Advisor Aarti Baran looks on as BTP Director Anthony Carty signs the settlement agreement.
"Instead of passing a bill, now President Trump is cutting families' unemployment benefits and pushing states further into budget crises, forcing them to make devastating cuts to life-or-death services," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer say in a joint statement.

Less than 90 days from the U.S. presidential election, the country's COVID-19 cases surpassed 5 million on Sunday while public opinions remain sharply divided over the government's response to the pandemic.

The number of U.S. confirmed COVID-19 cases rose to 5,017,150, with the national death toll reaching 162,635 as of 12:34 p.m. local time, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

The hardest-hit U.S. state of California reported 555,797 cases, followed by Florida with 532,806 cases, Texas with 497,915 cases and New York with 420,860 cases, the data showed. Other states with over 180,000 cases included Georgia, Illinois, Arizona and New Jersey.

A screenshot taken from C-Span's live broadcast shows U.S. President Donald Trump signing a series of executive orders to extend certain COVID-19 economic relief in New Jersey, the United States, on Aug. 8, 2020. (Xinhua)

RELIEF BILL DEADLOCK

The grim milestone came as White House officials and Democratic lawmakers remained deadlocked over a new relief bill. President Donald Trump signed four actions on Saturday, trying to move around Congress and assert executive power.

One of the actions would extend extra unemployment benefits through the end of the year at a reduced level of 400 U.S. dollars per week, instead of the 600 dollars approved by Congress in late March, which expired at the end of July.

Trump said the reduced level of extra benefits would give people "a great incentive" to go back to work. The new order also demands that states cover 25 percent of the 400-dollar weekly benefits.

"Instead of passing a bill, now President Trump is cutting families' unemployment benefits and pushing states further into budget crises, forcing them to make devastating cuts to life-or-death services," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement.

The chart publicized on Aug. 6, 2020 by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington shows that there will be 295,011 COVID-19 deaths in the United States by Dec. 1, 2020, based on current projection scenario. (Xinhua)

TOUGHER SITUATION AHEAD

An influential model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington has projected there will be 295,011 COVID-19 deaths by Dec. 1 in the United States.

The country's actual number of COVID-19 cases may be 6 to 24 times higher than reported, according to a recent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

With the virus still spreading, the Trump administration has continued to push schools to reopen in the fall. School reopening is seen as a crucial step to restarting the country's economy for his reelection campaign.

In a Friday opinion piece on The New York Times (NYT), President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Neel Kashkari and Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, urged policymakers to commit to a more restrictive lockdown, state by state, for up to six weeks to crush the spread of the virus to less than one new case per 100,000 people a day, whereas the country currently reports 17 new cases per 100,000 people a day.

Photo taken on Aug. 8, 2020 shows the Washington Monument during sunset in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

WIDENING POLITICAL DIFFERENCE

According to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll of 730 adults on July 29-30, only 34 percent of Americans said they approved the president's handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

"It's no mystery how America got here," the NYT editorial board said in an opinion on Saturday.

The Trump administration's response to the pandemic has been "disjointed and often contradictory, indifferent to science, suffused with politics and eager to hand off responsibility to state leaders. Among the states, the response has also been wildly uneven," it said.

The pandemic has also intensified political and ideological differences in U.S. society. Liberal media argued that the public should stay indoors and children should stay home from school until there is a vaccine. In contrast, conservative media contended that people should take proper safety precautions, but life should go on as usual.

Conservatives voiced their belief that left-leaning media put irrational emphasis on the number of cases, which critics said had stirred panic and led to poor government decisions, while liberals said conservative media had not taken the deadly virus seriously enough and this could endanger peoples' lives.

The divide was even larger between Republicans who described themselves as being conservative and Democrats who described themselves as liberals, according to a report from the Pew Research Center.
Syracuse, N.Y.  A Liverpool facility that cares for people with Alzheimers disease and dementia did not do enough to protect residents from a coronavirus outbreak that has killed 10 residents, according to the state Health Department.

The department said it found deficiencies at The Hearth at Keepsake Village July 9 during a surprise Covid-19 focus investigation.

Since July 2, the coronavirus outbreak at the 56-bed memory care center has infected at least 38 residents, 10 of whom have died.

The operators did not ensure adequate supervision to maintain resident safety during the Covid-19 outbreak due to failure to comply with the departments guidelines, executive orders and the facilitys own policies, said Jill Montag, a health department spokeswoman, in an email.

Keepsake must submit a plan of correction to the department, explaining what it will do to fix the violations uncovered during the investigation.

Montag provided no further information and would not provide a copy of the inspection report. The Post-Standard/syracuse.com has filed a Freedom of Information Law request for a copy of the report.

Richard Mollot, an advocate for nursing home and adult care facility residents, said the problems uncovered by the health department appear to be serious violations that threaten the lives of residents.

The departments findings that the facility failed to carry out both the states directives and its own policies in the face of the pandemic is appalling and infuriating, said Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition.

Kevin Hunter, chief operating officer of Hearth Management, which operates the facility, said in an email his company is preparing an operations plan for Keepsake that will be submitted to the health department later this month. He refused to provide any details about the plan.

He said Hearth is working with county and state officials  to maneuver through this changing environment.

In a July 30 email sent to families of residents, Michelle Gillespie, Keepsakes executive director, announced 38 residents and 21 employees had tested positive for the coronavirus, and nine residents had died.

In an Aug. 3 email, Gillespie reported another resident death due to Covid-19.

Our teams continue to work tirelessly internally with every resident onsite to maintain the best protocols for safety and wellbeing, the email said.

Hunter said there have been no new positive Covid-19 cases at Keepsake.

On its website, Keepsake Village says it is taking extensive steps to stop transmission of the virus. But Hunter previously said its difficult to limit contact in a facility where many residents have Alzheimers, dementia or memory issues.

The state can impose fines and suspend the operating licenses of adult care facilities cited for violations that endanger residents. The health department said it has conducted inspections focused on Covid-19 infection control at every adult care facility in the state since March 1.

Weekly testing of staff members first detected a Keepsake Village worker with Covid-19 on June 16, company officials said previously. The first resident tested positive for the disease July 2. Within two weeks, Keepsake Village had sent 22 residents to local hospitals and 18 staff members had caught the virus.

Hearth Management, a privately owned and operated senior living management and development company, is based in Camillus. It operates 15 facilities in New York, Connecticut, Tennessee and Indiana.

If you work at Keepsake or have a loved one who lives there, tell us what you know about the facilitys Covid-19 outbreak. Contact James T. Mulder at jmulder@syracuse.com or (315) 470-2245.
Hotels, gyms and weekly markets in Delhi are unlikely to open this week, senior government officials said on Monday.

If the number of daily fresh Covid-19 cases continues to be like it was last week, it is highly possible that gyms, hotels and yoga centres will not be allowed for now, said an official in the health department on condition of anonymity.

The Delhi government declined to comment on the matter.

Officials in the chief ministers office said Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal is yet to return the file sent by revenue minister Kailash Gahlot on August 6, seeking approval to open hotels, gyms, weekly markets and yoga centres in the Capital.

Delhi recorded 707 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, which is because of fewer tests (12,323) conducted on Sunday and its recovery rate crossed the 90% mark with 131,657 persons recovering of the total 146,134 cases recorded so far. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted that only around 7% of the total Covid cases in Delhi are now active. Slowly and steadily, the people of Delhi are defeating Corona, he said.

Between August 1 and 7, Delhi witnessed an average of 1,028 fresh cases per day.

Delhis health minister Satyendar Jain on Sunday had said around 35% of beds in Covid hospitals in Delhi are currently occupied by patients from other states.

Till last month, we observed that total bed occupancy in Covid hospitals in the city in terms of absolute numbers was dropping by around 100 per day on an average. But, for at least the last 10 days, the number has been more or less constant. When we studied the trends, it emerged that around 35% of patients who have occupied beds currently are outsiders. In fact, on Saturday, 224 Delhi residents were admitted in Covid hospitals, compared to 97 patients from other states, said Jain, who himself recovered from Covid and joined the office last month.
Japan News-Yomiuri photo

The Godzilla Museum, featuring dioramas and figures that re-create scenes from the monster movie series, opened Saturday at Hyogo Prefectural Awaji Island Park in Hyogo. Visitors can experience a close-up view of Godzilla for a limited time until Aug. 31.

With the cooperation of Toho Eizo Bijutsu Co., which has been in charge of the movies' special effects, scenes from "Godzilla: Tokyo SOS" (2003) and "Shin Godzilla" (2016) have been reproduced in a powerful gigantic diorama. Starting with the figure of Godzilla, which is about 2 meters tall, there are about 80 monster figures, including Mothra and King Ghidorah.
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By Azernews





By Ayya Lmahamad

State-owned Azerishig company and Germanys EKM Global Consulting GMbH that provides concepts related to business innovations, have signed a memorandum of cooperation.

During the meeting held on August 8, Head of EKM Global Consulting GMbH Elshan Musayev praised the application of innovative technologies in the country, saying that these innovations cover all sectors of the economy, and create opportunities for positive results in training and capacity building of youth.

Thus, Azerishig for the first time in the field of power engineering, laid the foundation of the virtual monitoring system, implementing a project of modern 3D- mobile map in electronic control of power networks within the Smart Networks concept.

Musayev expressed his confidence that the prospective cooperation with the specialist of Azerishigs Training and Innovation Center will be successfully continued in the development of modern and innovative technological achievements and training of specialist in this field.

In turn, Director of the Training and Innovation Center of Azerishig OJSC Araz Mammadzade noted that the methods of education, which meet modern requirements in training and professional development of highly qualified personnel in the field of electric power industry, are based on digital technologies.

Moreover, he emphasized that training of relevant categories of specialists with the help of Virtual Reality Training system to ensure that networks are managed in modern, man-made, innovative ways provides a great opportunity to achieve significant achievements in the short term.

Thus, this is considered as the next important step in the study of international experience, as well as in the study, design and training of specialists in the use of already implemented innovations to be implemented in retail networks.

It should be noted that the name of Bakielektrikshebeke OJSC was changed to Azerishig OJSC by the presidential decree in February 2015.

Azerishig OJSC aim to provide Azerbaijan with uninterrupted quality electricity and ensure a high level of service to subscribers. "Azerishig" OJSC also performs large-scale reconstruction and repair works. The outdated equipment is replaced with more modern, powerful and of high quality. In addition, new substations are being built, complete transformer substations are being installed, new cable lines are being laid, and outdated cable lines are being replaced with new ones.








Ceres, the nearest dwarf planet to the Earth is a water world and could have a vast reservoir of salty water hidden under its surface, according to new research.

The reservoir on the minor planet, which orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, lies beneath a 20 million year old crater known as Occator - and could harbour life.

The finding is based on an analysis of images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft as it surveyed the surface of Ceres by a team from the California Institute of Technology.

Dawn orbited Ceres, which is about 600 miles across - roughly the vertical length of the UK - between 2015 and 2018 until it ran out of fuel.

In its final few months it travelled just 20 miles above the surface and focused on the Occator crater, where it performed imaging, scanning and gravity analysis.

The finding is based on an analysis of images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft as it surveyed the surface of Ceres including 'bright spots' within the crater

In its final few months it travelled just 20 miles above the surface and focused on the Occator crater where it performed imaging, scanning and gravity analysis

Dr Carol Raymond, deputy principal investigator of the mission, said: 'It suggests Ceres is an ocean world and may have been geologically active in the recent past.'

The observations are reported in seven papers published in Nature Astronomy, Nature Geoscience and Nature Communications.

Dr Raymond's team believe the reservoir of brine found under the surface of the dwarf planet was fuelled by the impact that created the crater.

This led to the the formation of deposits of salt on the planet's surface - which appear as bright spots when viewed from a distance.

Raymond said: 'The existence of a deep-seated brine reservoir beneath Occator is supported by recent results from gravity data.'

Salt lowers the freezing point of water - increasing the likelihood of it being fluid.

Another paper described the detection of chloride salts - commonly found in sea ice - by instruments that mapped the crater using visible and infrared light.

It tops Cerealia Facula - a dome at the centre of the Occator crater and it is the first time the compound has been found beyond Earth.

Lead author Maria Cristina De Sanctis, of the National Institute of Astrophysics in Rome, said this requires liquid water in combination with hydro-thermal activity.

'The spatial distribution suggests chloride salts are the solid residue of deep brines that reached the surface in the last two million years - or are still ascending,' De Sanctis explained.

'These salts are very efficient in maintaining Ceres' warm internal temperature and lowering the temperature of the brines - in which case ascending salty fluids may exist today.'

At almost 600 miles wide, Ceres is the biggest object in the asteroid belt.

It lies less than three times as far as Earth from the sun - which is still close enough to feel the warmth, allowing ice to melt and reform.

Ceres was the first dwarf planet to be visited up-close. It belongs to a distinct class of objects - after the rocky inner planets like Earth and Mars and gas giants like Jupiter.

It's fascinated astronomers for decades as it's seen as being a record of the early solar system and how it developed.

Dr Julie Castillo-Rogez, a planetary scientist at Caltech who was not involved in any of the studies, said Ceres has long been believed to be a primitive body.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft orbited Ceres, which is about 600 miles across - roughly the vertical length of the UK - between 2015 and 2018 until it ran out of fuel

'Ceres is now an ocean world with deep brines at a regional and potentially global scale,' Castillo-Rogez explained.

'Further studies of Ceres' conditions and - above all - a follow-up mission are needed to study its evolution and potential habitability.'

She said the findings also have implications for finding life on icy world's - such as Jupiter's moons Europa and Ganymede.

NASA's Europa Clipper mission and the Jupiter Icy moons explorer (JUICE) are being launched in the coming decade.

Dr Castillo-Rogez said: 'The next ten years of dwarf planet exploration requires focus to be brought onto habitability through time in these evolved oceans - which are likely to be rich in organic matter.

'Exposed natural salts in Occator provide direct sourcing of the deep brine below the crater and represent an obvious target for a future mission.'

The various papers are available to read from Nature.
Former Montana State Prison Warden Lynn Guyer left the state corrections agency last month after he said working conditions proved insufferable: officials in the agencys clinical department were resistant to install evidence-based programming for sex offenders, as well as drug and alcohol addicts, and the director often belittled him in front of subordinates, he told the Missoulian in a phone interview on Friday.

Guyer submitted his letter of resignation to the Montana Department of Corrections on July 16, less than two years after he was selected as warden of the state men's prison in Deer Lodge, which houses 1,600 inmates. Guyer, a 30-year veteran of the Idaho correctional system, has moved back to Idaho since leaving the Montana prison system on his own terms.

I am leaving with my dignity, Guyer said. Im not putting up with this bullst. This is just, you guys (the Montana corrections department) are wrong.

On Wednesday, the Missoulian received Guyer's exit questionnaire from an anonymous source. Guyer on Friday confirmed the authenticity of the document; as he was making his exit from the agency, he said he sent the exit questionnaire to the governor's office and staff so they would know the truth about why he left.

Friday, Guyer explained the frustrations he poured into it, to the Missoulian. A long-standing point of contention, he said, was the lack of evidence-based practices  ones proven to work  was hurting the ability of offenders to get appropriate treatment and succeed.

A Montana Department of Corrections spokesperson on Friday said the department is committed to evidence-based programming as an integral part of its justice reinvestment efforts.

We are making solid advancements toward breaking the cycle of incarceration and are dedicated to ensuring this progress continues, department spokesperson Carolynn Bright said in an email.

Guyers resignation comes at a critical time for the corrections department, for which a legislative oversight committee has continuously requested updates to policies in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in secure facilities as the pandemic shows no sign of slowing.

Guyer said his reasons for leaving included the apathetic pace in which Clinical Services Division Administrator Connie Winner implemented evidence-based programming for sex offenders, as well as drug and alcohol treatment in secure facilities. Bright did not directly respond to a question about claims Winner had slowed the pace of implementing such programming thus far.

This programming was supposed to move into place as part of a 2017 justice reinvestment package passed by the Montana Legislature earlier that year. The DOC's quality assurance office was tasked by the legislation to measure program effectiveness and adherence to evidence-based standards. That legislation was championed by then-state Sen. Cynthia Wolken, D-Missoula, now deputy director of the corrections department. Wolken did not return a call seeking comment on Friday.

We continued to tell them that through the leadership, that there is no (evidence-based) treatment for sex offenders or alcohol or drug addiction, Guyer said. Since January 2019, that never moved forward.

The Montana Department of Corrections lists online its approved evidence-based programs. Sex offender programs, along with specific drug and alcohol programs, are not among them.

So if you have alcohol or drug addiction, and youre not getting the appropriate treatment, then it affects your success rate, Guyer said.

On July 7, the Department of Corrections presented a document to the state Law and Justice Interim Committee, which oversees the agency, highlighting its programming. The state prison does offer three levels of sex offender programming, as well as substance use disorder treatment, both intensive treatment and relapse prevention, while additional facilities, including Pine Hills Correctional Facility, Crossroads Correctional Center, Dawson County Correctional facility and the Great Falls Regional Prison offer some of the same programming. None of the programs are detailed as "evidence based."

Because Montana State Prison does not have evidence-based treatment programming, contracted facilities, such as Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby, also do not have the proper programming, Guyer said.

Pre-release facilities and community entry programs, however, are using evidence-based programming, he said.

***

Also chief among Guyers reasons for resigning from the wardens office was his relationship with Montana Department of Corrections Director Reginald Michael. Guyer described Michael degrading him on conference calls with subordinates and peers.

The most recent tirade, according to Guyer, was over mask use at the prison. Officials in clinical services had accused 95% of prison staff of not wearing masks.

We have issues with staff not wearing the masks but 95%, thats pretty much everybody, Guyer said. I said, Thats not true.

Guyer said there were a few issues regarding mask use among staff, but wholly disputed the claim that nearly all staff worked without them. As of Saturday, no COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in the state men's prison.

Guyer said Michael responded by going on a rant against the warden and getting personal in some of his remarks. It wasnt only Guyer who suffered these diatribes, he said; others in field leadership would hear the same thing.

You never knew what topic was going to set him off, Guyer said.

Through an email with DOC spokesperson Bright, the director did not answer a question about Guyer's claims he degraded field staff; Bright cited personnel policy.

Michael fired Guyers predecessor, Michael Fletcher, in January 2018. Fletcher and Michael had been in their respective positions less than a year. Fletcher, according to a report by Lee Newspapers in August 2018, had been accused of several instances of misconduct. Fletcher denied the claims then and contended others in the department had sought his ouster. The warden previous to Fletcher, Leyor Kirkegard, retired in 2017 after five years in the warden's office.

Guyer was hired in October 2018.

While he was in the moving phases of returning to Idaho, a week after tendering his resignation, he received a call from agency officials asking if it would be easier for him to return to Idaho immediately, rather than the Aug. 30 date he had set.

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Lithium recovery from Orocobre at the Salar de Olares salt lake in Argentina.

Lithium prices have fallen due to the pandemic. This could endanger the supply in the coming years.

Manufacturers of electric cars and batteries would have to pay higher prices now to secure future access to lithium. With these words Reuters quotes Paul Graves, CEO of lithium producer Livent Corp.

The demand for electric vehicles (EV) will increase strongly in the coming years. However, the corona pandemic has halted the long-term growth trend, resulting in a short-term oversupply of lithium and the price of lithium has now fallen by 10 percent.

As a result, manufacturers of EVs and batteries want to take advantage of the opportunity to renegotiate delivery terms and pay less - while at the same time demanding that lithium production be increased by the end of the decade. According to Paul Graves, this is a contradiction, he calls it "Vodoo-Economics": "If you don't want to have a reasonable discussion with me about how high the price of lithium has to be for me to make investments, then I won't invest.

Livent, for example, has put on hold a lithium mining project in Argentina. It would take at least six months to get the necessary permits to resume construction there and it would take several years to start production there, as Graves explains.

Competitor Albemarle Corp. has also put expansion plans on hold for the time being because of a sharp drop in sales.

"If every EV manufacturer demanded the purchase quantities they had planned for 2023 today, they would not receive more than 15 percent of what they actually wanted," Graves said.

In the past, battery manufacturers such as Panasonic had signed contracts with lithium suppliers, but now more and more EV manufacturers are thinking about signing contracts directly with lithium manufacturers.

While the lithium price is low at the moment, long-term contracts at higher prices should be concluded to enable the industry to build new mines, Graves said: "If not, the situation will reverse itself, then the lithium producers will demand significantly higher prices.
Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/10/2020 -- Latest added Global Feed Binders Market research study by AMA Research offers detailed outlook and elaborates market review till 2025. The market Study is segmented by key regions that are accelerating the marketization. At present, the market players are strategizing and overcoming challenges of current scenario. The study explored is a perfect mix of qualitative and quantitative Market data collected and validated majorly through primary data and secondary sources.



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Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (United States), CP Kelco (United States), Danisco A/S (Denmark), The Cooperative Royal Avebe U.A. (Netherlands), BENEO (Germany), Uniscope (United States), Ingredion Incorporated (United States), Borregaard (Norway) and Roquette (France)

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Feed binders are products used in the feeding products in animal nutrition to bind or hold together the ingredients of the feed to maintain pellet integrity. The binders are the agents to stick the feed to improve the quality of the feed and make it easier to eat for the animals. It ensures water stability, hardness, and bulk density. It is consumed by the ruminant, poultry, swine, aquaculture animals, available in the natural and synthetic form.

The latest edition of this report you will be entitled to receive additional chapter / commentary on latest scenario, economic slowdown and COVID-19 impact on overall industry. Further it will also provide qualitative information about when industry could come back on track and what possible measures industry players are taking to deal with current situation. Each of the segment analysis table for forecast period also high % impact on growth.

Market Trend

- Rising Availability of Feed Binders in the Online Platform

Market Drivers

- Growing Animal Feed Industry Worldwide

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- Stringent Regulatory Guidelines on the Feed Binders

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Type (Lignosulfonates, Plant Gums & Starches, Gelatin & Other Hydrocolloids, Clay, Molasses, Others), Application (Ruminant, Poultry, Swine, Aquaculture, Others), Nature (Natural Feed Binder, Synthetic Feed Binder), Distribution Channel (Supermarket, Hypermarket, Specialty Store, Others) For Early Buyers | Get Up to 20-50% Discount on Various License type of this Premium Version of the Report: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/request-discount/37342-global-feed-binders-market

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The number of active coronavirus cases in Armenia continued to decrease over the weekend as the fatality rate remained relatively high, according to official statistics.

The figures reported by the Ministry of Health show that for the first time since early June the number of active coronavirus cases in Armenia has dropped below 7,000. Eleven more patients died from COVID-19 over the weekend, bringing the total number of deaths to 796.

According to the ministry, since the start of the epidemic in March 228 other patients infected with the virus died from other pre-existing diseases.

The daily number of officially registered fatalities averaged approximately 15 from July 6 through July 24 after which a downward trend began.

As of August 10, the total number of coronavirus cases identified in Armenia has reached 40,433. In the past weeks and days the number of daily reported cases decreased more than twice as compared to what appears to be the peak of the epidemic in early July when over 700 cases were identified on a daily basis.

Ministry spokesperson Alina Nikoghosian sees a continuing positive trend in the rate of infections. The numbers themselves show a significant decrease. But, like we did it before, we keep repeating that vigilance must not be weakened, because if we relax, the numbers will start growing again, she said.

The Armenian government ascribes the recent improvement in the coronavirus situation to the wearing of face masks in all public places that was made mandatory in Armenia in early June and other enforced and popularized measures like social distancing and regular washing of hands.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and other officials have urged Armenians to continue to follow the basic anti-epidemic rules, insisting that they can help cope with the epidemic.

Despite the improving trend the Pashinian government intends to extend the coronavirus-related state of emergency that ends on August 12 for another month.

Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian said last week that the government will at the same time fully or partly lift its ban on public gatherings and make it easier for foreign nationals to enter the country. He also reaffirmed plans to reopen all schools and universities in time for the start of the new academic year in September.

Health Minister Arsen Torosian, meanwhile, said at a government session on August 6 that his ministry planned more targeted and pro-active testing among people working in government agencies, supermarkets, factories, banks or other businesses as well as patients of various medical and elderly care institutions.

Critics have for months urged authorities to significantly expand COVID-19 testing, saying that it is vital for tackling the epidemic.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 14:39:39|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on Aug. 10, 2020 shows Mount Sinabung spewing ash in Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Mount Sinabung in Indonesia's North Sumatra province's district of Karo erupted on Monday at 10:16 a.m. local time with a column of ash reaching some 5,000 meters above the volcano's peak or about 7,460 meters above the sea level, local media reported. (Photo by Sarianto Sembiring/Xinhua)

JAKARTA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Mount Sinabung in Indonesia's North Sumatra province's district of Karo erupted on Monday at 10:16 a.m. local time with a column of ash reaching some 5,000 meters above the volcano's peak or about 7,460 meters above the sea level, local media reported.

The 2,475-meter high Mt. Sinabung is under an alert status, a local volcanology agency said as quoted by Antara news agency.

In case of rains of ash, locals were expected to wear face masks outdoors to reduce health impacts, the agency said in a statement, adding that residents were also expected to keep unpolluted water and clean up their house roofs from thick volcanic ash to avoid possible collapses.

The agency also called on people who live by rivers whose upstream in the volcano to remain aware of possible hot and cool lava flowing to the rivers.

Mt. Sinabung erupted for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic on Saturday, when the volcano spewed a column of volcanic ash up to two km high. Enditem
Former President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said that he has tested positive for coronavirus and asked his contacts to self-isolate and get tested for the virus. "On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for Covid-19 today. I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self-isolate and get tested for Covid-19," the former President said in a tweet.

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From Ahmad SAKA, Bauchi

The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has threatened to boycott the forthcoming Bauchi State 20 local governments elections slated for 17th October 2020 in the state.

Caretaker chairman of the party in the state Alhaji Yusuf Musa Gumli stated this today Sunday in Bauchi while speaking with newsmen,

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He said the party has lost confidence that justice will be done in the elections.

He alleged that the state commissioner for local governments has already pre-empted that the ruling party will not allow any opposition party to win even a seat in the October polls.

I dont think we are going to participate in that election because the party in power made us believe that there wont be fairness. And I quote honourable commissioner for local governments saying sarcastically that they will be fair to opposition patties just as they were fair to them in other states.

And we know that PDP lost in all the states that are not governed by their party. Definitely, that is what they are going to do for us. So, is like he is pre-empting the outcome of the election. So why should we delve into what we know certainly is planned?. He said.

Gumli said the caretaker executives who include himself as Chairman, Baba Abubakar Misau, secretary, Barrister A. U Ganaru public relations officer, Abdullahi yahya, youth leader and Hadiza Abubakar Mustapha women leader will conduct election of new leaders within three months.

Our correspondent reports that NNPP won only one house of assembly seat in the state in the last 2019 polls.
Two teenage girls have been arrested at a shopping centre for allegedly skipping quarantine after they crossed the Queensland border from New South Wales.

The teens, aged 15 and 16, were detained at Noosa Civic on the Sunshine Coast on Monday before being whisked away for coronavirus testing.

Neither of the girls are displaying any COVID symptoms, but police have spent the last 24 hours searching for them after learning they had travelled to hotspots within Sydney before arriving in the Sunshine State via train last Friday.

Officers alleged the teens had been in Sydney prior to entering Queensland ahead of Saturday's border closure.

State Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced she would close the border to all of New South Wales in an attempt to stem the spread of the deadly respiratory infection.

Police are yet to decided whether charges will be laid against the two teens (pictured in custody on Monday). One is from Queensland's Sunshine Coast and the other is from NSW

One of the teens is a returning Sunshine Coast resident who would have been ordered to undergo mandatory hotel quarantine - at her own expense - had she been truthful on her declaration.

The other girl is believed to be a New South Wales resident, and would have been denied entry to Queensland if officers knew she had been in coronavirus-riddled Sydney.

Superintendent Craig Hawkins on Monday said the next course of action for officers was 'difficult'.

While the logical step would be to place the girls in mandatory hotel quarantine, their age is proving challenging.

'Because they are minors there are other layers of work we need to do about supervision and guardianship and parental responsibilities that need to be considered,' he said.

'I am not talking about prosecution, I am talking about in order to quarantine.

Police officers pictured at Noosa Civic on Monday following the arrest of the two teens

'Obviously we can't put a child in quarantine on their own, so the supervision aspect has to be considered.'

The girls' guardians have been contacted and are aware of the matter.

Supt Hawkins confirmed police caught the two girls at the shopping centre on Monday after learning they had not been entirely truthful on their border declaration passes.

'These two ladies arrived in Queensland last week - prior to the border closures,' he said.

'However they had come from a hotspot down in NSW.'

Supt Hawkins said the girls arrived into Brisbane by train and had lied about where they had been.

'They weren't completely honest with where they had been but later on we discovered they had come from a hotspot,' he said.

The teens will likely be charged under the Youth Justice Act.

While they were taken into custody in the early afternoon, police could not confirm whether they were still detained by afternoon.

It is understood they were taken to complete a COVID-19 test, but Supt Hawkins would not confirm whether those results would be available.

Queensland Health will be responsible for distributing any further information about the teens' health status.

Multiple shops at Noosa Civic have been closed for deep cleaning as a precaution, sparking community alarm on local neighbourhood Facebook pages.

A Noosa Civic spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia the shopping centre remains open and operating as normal.

Two teens aged 15 and 16 (pictured) have been detained following their arrest in Noosa

'Stockwell and Noosa Civic centre management are aware of a police incident at the centre today. The centre management team is cooperating with Police and their directions,' she added.

Superintendent Hawkins stressed that the girls aren't displaying any symptoms and that the local community should not be alarmed.

'Certainly there is no need to panic in regards to an outbreak of COVID-19 on the Sunshine Coast,' he said.

'I stress, there is no information to suggest they are carriers of the disease.

'However, in the interests of safety and because they have come from a hotspot, we were keen to ensure they had undertaken the right testing to ensure that Queensland doesn't find itself in a situation where it might be contaminated.

Shoppers who visited the tourist hotspot on Monday said they were confronted by scenes of two young girls sitting on the floor by multiple police cars.

Police provided the girls with masks, and some of the shops in the centre were closed immediately.

Cotton On and City Beach were among the stores which closed following the arrests.

Store manager Eva Fowler told Sunshine Coast Daily she was aware the teens were in her store.

Team members had already flagged the girls to Ms Fowler because they thought they were 'acting suspiciously'.

Neither of the teens purchased anything from the store, but they did touch several items of clothes. The store was closed for a clean after staff learned of the arrests.

Multiple stores at Noosa Civic (pictured) on Queensland's Sunshine Coast have been closed following the teens' arrest

Queensland recorded just one new case of COVID-19 on Monday with no community transmissions for eight consecutive days.

Health officials have been on high alert for an outbreak linked to Olivia Winnie Muranga and Diana Lasu, who spent a week moving around the community after returning from Melbourne before testing positive to the virus.

The teens and another friend were each fined $4000 over their irresponsible actions.

'Today was the very important day,' Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said, referring to the end of the two-week period since police placed the women in isolation.

Communities on Queensland's southern border have been put on notice that exemptions allowing them to cross over will end if coronavirus spreads north from NSW.

The warning comes two days after the Queensland closed its border with NSW and authorities on Monday relaxed restrictions blocking visitors from aged care homes.

'The border is difficult,' the state's chief health officer Jeannette Young told reporters.

Dr Young said it was likely COVID-19 would spread through NSW north to the border communities and could cross over into Queensland.
There is a window of opportunity for reform in Lebanon following the Beirut explosion earlier this month, but formidable obstacles remain

French President Emmanuel Macron met with the leaders of the Lebanese political forces last week in the wake of the massive explosion that hit the port of Beirut. According to many sources, he told them that without reform, they would not get any further money.

France is clearly frustrated by the lack of progress in Lebanon. Well before the sad day of the Beirut explosion, the crisis was deep and worsening, and total collapse seemed imminent. The Lebanese political class was unable to stop the bickering and to confront the challenges.

One scholar, Maha Yahya, had showed that the power-sharing system in Lebanon was no longer working. Four of the five pillars of Lebanese society had collapsed: the financial and banking system; the tourism industry; the middle classes and the liberal atmosphere.

Regarding the recent catastrophic explosion, it has emerged that many actors in Lebanon were aware of the danger, and yet they did not do anything about it apart from writing memos. The disaster, as one expert put it, was completely avoidable. Now everybody is trying to deflect the blame, and the political elite is looking for scapegoats.

The conventional wisdom combines two elements. The first is that within the framework of the Lebanese political system, institutional arrangements and current internal balance of power it is very difficult to act and almost impossible to hold anybody accountable.

The second is that this plight has been worsened by the current nature of the key players, who are old, incompetent and have no commitment to the national interest.

Macron, who has taken the lead on the Lebanese issue, seems to believe that the combination of popular wrath and international pressure can force progress on reform. He claims that the explosion is a turning point in Lebanese history and that there was a before 4 August and that there will be an after 4 August.

He may be right: however, it is difficult to see how to proceed.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab is going to call for early elections. It is clear that Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea is trying to capitalise on the current unpopularity of President Michel Aouns party and that Bahaa Al-Hariri, the brother of former prime minister Saad Al-Hariri, wants Diabs job.

It is difficult to believe that these rivalries are tantamount to reform. The teams differ, but their ways of doing things are probably the same.

Macron is right when he says that the current state of the Lebanese political system is the main explanation of the disaster. He is wrong when he says it will be easy to reform and supposes that it has neither roots nor clients willing to defend it and themselves.

Another idea that has been floated is empowering civil society and NGOs by directly sending money to them. I am no expert on Lebanese NGOs, but I tend to believe my Lebanese friends assessment. The NGOS are the dominant power on social networks and they control the narrative. They help the international media and vice versa. But do they have boots on the ground and a relevant presence in the streets? Do they control instruments of power? We have the right to be skeptical about this solution.

Lebanon badly needs efficient institutions, and in this country as in most others this means transparent ones. The commentators say this will mean new political foundations. I doubt that this will be possible, and in any case it will take time. Due to the present critical situation, that time is not available.

The current reasoning for most policy-makers more or less looks like this: the Lebanese people want radical change. For their leaders, serious change means self-destruction. So, they will try to placate the international donors and the population with cosmetic ones.

However, this will not do. There are two ways of achieving the necessary change: sweeping results in the upcoming elections and international help. Of course, nobody will send in troops to Lebanon. The US is not really interested, French and Turkish forces are already overextended, previous experience in Lebanon and elsewhere does not recommend it, and the Hizbullah militia is a formidable force and something like a real army.

As a result, many experts say the only way, or at least the best option, is a mixture of incentives and calibrated sanctions targeting bad leaders. Macron has made threats of this sort.

But I am still sceptical. Can you dismantle the clientelist networks in Lebanon without risking the collapse of the whole social fabric? Can you build a transparent system without dismantling these networks? Is there the time to ponder and implement appropriate policies? I may be overstating my case, but my feeling is that the Lebanese system may be impossible to reform. In any case, I do not see how reform can proceed as long as Hizbullah is not on board.

This Shiite power-broker has no interest in weakening its allies, and it does not have an interest in building a strong political order in Lebanon unless it has a say in it. But this might be unacceptable for many donors, especially in the Gulf. It remains to be seen whether the Hizbullah mantra of forget the West, go East, meaning that Lebanon does not need the US and France, but that it needs China, is tactical or strategic.

However, I do not think many players will be willing to handle this hot potato or to invest in a country that has such great needs and so many handicaps. The Lebanese are a great people, their middle classes are impressive, and they now have a window of opportunity for reform. But they face formidable obstacles.

The writer is a professor of international relations at the College de France and a visiting professor at Cairo University.

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Ireland's 5.3pc rate is higher than Croatia's 5pc rate, but is one of the lowest in Europe. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire

People are mixing closer together on Irelands streets, the acting chief medical officer has warned.

Dr Ronan Glynn raised alarm at declining physical distancing standards as he urged a renewed national effort to defeat the pandemic.

No new Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) said, but there has been an uptick in the number of cases in recent weeks.

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As of midnight on Sunday, the health system has been notified of 57 more confirmed cases.

19 cases are located in Kildare, 11 in Dublin, 10 in Offaly, seven in Limerick, and the rest of the cases are in Clare, Cork, Galway, Kerry and Wicklow.

Dr Glynn said: It appears that people are washing their hands and practising respiratory etiquette (masks).

Along with all of that we are seeing people much closer together on our streets.

He added: I would ask people to just give yourselves the space.

He said the outbreak was not confined to three Midlands counties.

It continues to be a pandemic that affects us nationally and it continues to require a national effort to overcome it.

There are currently 12 cases in hospital and seven in intensive care units.

A couple of weeks ago, if we had seen 57 cases in any day of the week, we would have been concerned. Obviously its a significant improvement in what weve seen over the last couple of days, said Dr Glynn.

Its going to be next week before we can really assess the impact of the measures in particular Kildare, Laois and Offaly, but clearly we are seeing a significant number of cases in other counties.

There have been no new cases reported this evening in Laois, which is currently under a localised lockdown.

He warned that the blame should not be placed in relation to the virus and that he understands that people are tired.

There have been no new cases reported this evening in Laois, which is currently under a localised lockdown.

It comes as a new report found that one in 20 coronavirus cases were imported into the country in the months of June and July.

According to a new European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) report, 40 Covid-19 cases out of a total of 748 reported in the country during June and July were imported from abroad, or 5.3pc.

This is significantly higher than the number of cases imported from abroad from January to May, which was 392 cases, or 1.8pc.

Malta, the Netherlands and Portugal saw 0pc imported cases during June and July, while 75.6pc of cases in Cyprus came from abroad during this period.

Ireland's 5.3pc rate is higher than Croatia's 5pc rate, but is one of the lowest in Europe.

The report also states that countries with an increased percentage of positive tests but who have relaxed measures have a higher risk of a second wave than those who have maintained measures or strengthened restrictions.

Countries that see an increase in the percentage of positive tests and have relaxed or removed various control measures will be at higher risk of resurgence than countries that have maintained measures or strengthened them.

As countries implement multiple response measures and the publics adherence to these measures varies, it also remains difficult to quantify the risk posed to each country, it states.

The report notes that widespread testing strategies will identify resurgences of the virus early.

It recommends that all people with symptoms are tested, that testing is made accessible and that it is promoted so people with even the mildest symptoms are tested.

It states that several countries in the EU, EEA and the UK are seeing a resurgence in the virus after stricter measures were lifted in March and April.

It adds that response fatigue and economic impacts are compromising the public adhering to guidelines.

At the same time, response fatigue and the economic consequences of the response to the spring Covid-19 wave are compromising widespread adherence to the mainstay recommendations, such as physical distancing, and increasing the risk that the public will be less accepting of measures put in place for a prolonged period of time.

With additional reporting from PA
Dublin Metropolitan Region Roads Policing are currently assisting colleagues in Kildare with Covid-19 checkpoints.

The large unit normally polices the streets of the capital.

The officers based in Dublin Castle may mount checkpoints on the M7 and M9 in coming days.

All garda officers are engaging with motorists in Kildare as well as Laois and Offaly to remind them to follow the latest guidance from the Department of Health.

At midnight on Friday, gardai recommenced a local version of Operation Fanacht in Kildare, Laois and Offaly, focused on supporting public compliance with public health measures that are being implemented in these areas.

Gardai are reporting excellent compliance from members of the public so far.



Operation Fanacht will run alongside Operation Navigation which sees gardai checking pubs/restaurants.

Since Friday night, there has been a high level of visibility of garda members members in Kildare, Laois, Offaly and surrounding counties, as well as checkpoints and permanent presence on relevant motorways and associated off ramps.

Existing Garda resources in these counties are being supplemented by Garda personnel from the nine surrounding counties.

Deputy Commissioner, Policing and Security, John Twomey said, "Throughout the country, it is vital that people adhere to the public health regulations in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

"This operation is designed to support the restrictions that are being implemented locally in these three counties in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19. It is vital that we continue to work to minimise the risk to ourselves, our families and our local communities.

"We would appeal to all those living in these counties to stay and home and not undertake unnecessary journeys in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19."
Judging by the volume of business most brokers have been generating over the last few months, its obvious that Canadas various housing markets are changing right before our eyes. But with so much happening at once  a pandemic, low rates, new underwriting guidelines, massive unemployment  taking a moment to actually stop and assess the underlying trends is a luxury most brokers dont have.

The real estate market in Canadaand globallyis constantly shifting, says Eugene Levin, Chief Strategy Officer at SEMrush, a trends data provider that, on Thursday, released a report on the trends currently shaping Canadian real estate.

We wanted to see what Canadians have been specifically looking for to better understand what industry priorities are and where real estate marketing efforts might be most effective in 2020.
Lending resonance to the dinosaur iconography, the artist saw himself as someone who was about to become extinct, Ms. Carr said in a phone interview. Lined up below the painting are smaller squares, several devoted to his animal imagery. He was so gentle with animals, Ms. Vitale noted in a Zoom chat with the other quilters this spring. Ms. Mansion added, He was from such an abusive family, he took refuge in the woods. Ms. Carrs biography details sadistic torture that the artists father heaped upon Mr. Wojnarowicz and his siblings; as a child, he escaped not only to nature, but also to the streets of New York.

Dominating Mr. Rauffenbarts quilt, meanwhile, is his partners 1989 canvas Something from Sleep III (For Tom Rauffenbart), which had resided at Mr. Rauffenbarts apartment for decades before it was exhibited in the artists 2018 show. Within the silhouetted figure of Mr. Rauffenbart looking into a microscope, we see a rendering of our solar system, the very cosmos within the frame of the lover. Ms. Vitale remembers Mr. Rauffenbart as a man who could find humor in even challenging situations, and who loved to cook  one photo reproduced in his quilt shows him clowning around with a pot on his head, brandishing serving spoon and spatula. Ms. Hourigan describes him as a Renaissance man, with interests in music, theater, food and travel. They all say he was completely devoted to Mr. Wojnarowicz.

Conceived by the gay rights activist Cleve Jones, the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt offered a way for friends and lovers to commemorate people who were often abandoned by their families. Ms. Vitale recalls that some found the news that their children were gay even harder to accept than the fact that they were dying. The Quilt had its first public showing on the National Mall in 1987, when it consisted of just 1,920 panels, each measuring three by six feet, about the size of the average grave. At the time, I said, This is our Arlington, Ms. Carr said, comparing the Quilt to the national military cemetery. It now memorializes more than 94,000 people in 50,000 panels and weighs about 54 tons. (Among those panels is one Mr. Wojnarowicz designed for his onetime lover, longtime friend and enduring mentor, the photographer Peter Hujar, of whom he said, Everything I made, I made for Peter.) Mr. Jones wrote of the Quilt in his 2016 book, When We Rise: My Life in the Movement, that It could be therapy, I hoped, for a community that was increasingly paralyzed by grief and rage and powerlessness. That is proved by the experience of these women, who have found it very moving, and helpful in working through their grief.
BENGALURU: The Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) will declare the Secondary School Level Certificate (SSLC) or Class 10 results 2020 on Monday (August 10). The results will be announced at 3:00 pm today on the official website of the board  karresults.nic.in or kseeb.kar.nic.in.

However, candidates will only be able to check their results on the board websites after 3:45 pm as the link will be active after that.

The minister for primary and secondary education of Karnataka Suresh Kumar on August 7 confirmed on social media the timing of the Karnataka class 10th results declaration.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa extended his wishes to students ahead of the KSEEB SSLC class 10th results. He tweeted, "SSLC exam results will be published today. My best wishes to all students. Whatever be the outcome, don't lose considence. Proceed under the guidance of your father, mother and mentor. Good luck."

Once the Karnataka SSLC results 2020 are declared, students can check their scorecard by following these simple steps:

Step 1: Visit the official website i.e. karresults.nic.in

Step 2: Find Direct Link for SSLC Results 2020 Karnataka Board

Step 3: Input your exam roll number and other details asked on the page

Step 4: Verify the details against your hall ticket and submit them on the website

Step 5: Your SSLC Result 2020 Scorecard will be displayed on the screen

Step 6: Download PDF Softcopy or take a printout for future reference

Apart from the official website, different private websites will also host the Karnataka SSLC result 2020. Students, however, are advised to check their results from an official source.

Around 8.43 lakh students appeared in the SSLC board exams in 2020.

This year, the exams were held from March 27 but the KSEEB had to postpone the exams in view of the coronavirus induced lockdown. The Karnataka SSLC exams were later conducted from June 25 to July 4, following safety measures.
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This bill does nothing to actually address the underlying issues that are driving violent crime, Gardner said in a statement Monday. In fact, my office has an overall felony conviction rate of 97%. Unprosecuted crimes in our community come down to two variables  lack of evidence and lack of community trust with law enforcement. Solving crime will take all of us working together, not divisive political maneuvers such as this that are designed to usurp the will of the people.

Republican lawmakers expressed support for Parsons concept.

I think its a really good idea. We have a prosecutor who I think isnt doing her job and there ought to be some remedy for it. The governors idea will fix it, said Rep. Bruce DeGroot, R-Chesterfield.

Although he doesn't support the idea of concurrent jurisdiction, Rep. Justin Hill, R-Lake Saint Louis, said he believes St. Louis police officers are quitting the force because they are worried that Gardner is going after cops.

Democrats were outraged.

House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, called the proposal a political vendetta against the only elected African American woman prosecutor in Missouri.
25 years ago: Indictments in Oklahoma City bombing

On August 10, 1995, a federal grand jury handed down indictments against the two main suspects in the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building in which 168 people died. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were charged with making the explosive device from a combination of diesel fuel and fertilizer, transporting it in a rented Ryder truck, and detonating the bomb outside the Murrah Federal Building on the morning of April 19, 1995.

The 11-count indictment listed a total of 37 acts dating back to September 1994, ranging from a robbery committed to finance the bombing to the rental of storage lockers and the purchase of the farm chemicals required to make the bomb. It charged that McVeigh and Nichols carried out their actions together with others unknown, leaving open the possibility of further arrests.

Despite detailing eight months of preparation for the terrorist attacks, the indictment named only one other co-conspirator; Michael Fortier, a former friend and associate of McVeigh in both the US Army and in paramilitary right-wing circles. Fortier agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges and testify as a government witness, with the guarantee of a sentence no longer than 23 years in prison.

Fortier served just under eight years for his role in the mass murder and was released on January 20, 2006, into the Witness Protection Program, along with his wife and two children. McVeigh was executed by lethal injection in 2001, and Nichols is still serving 161 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Until the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Oklahoma City bombing was the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil. McVeighs main motivation for executing the attack was retribution against the federal government for the siege of the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, Texas in 1993. The disillusioned Gulf War veteran was inspired by The Turner Diaries, a fascist manifesto which described a race war consuming the US.

50 years ago: New York prisoners riot against conditions

On August 10, 1970, prisoners held in the Manhattan House of Detention, or The Tombs, rioted against inhospitable conditions and attacks on their democratic rights in the vastly overcrowded jail. The Tombs, with a maximum capacity of 932 inmates, however had been packed with almost 3,000 men. The Bulletin, the publication of the American Trotskyist movement at the time, described the Tombs as a veritable hell-hole of rats, roaches, lice, and filth with a shortage of everything from beds to soap.

The riot came during a wave of unrest in American prisons, including the frame-up of inmates in Soledad, California for the murder of a guard in January. Just a week before the Tombs riot, 17-year-old Jonathan Jackson, the brother of Soledad inmate George Jackson, attempted to free his brother by taking a judge hostage in a California courtroom. Both Jackson and the judge died in the attack.

In the early morning hours, hundreds of Tombs prisoners on the ninth floor of the jail rebelled against the guards and took five of them captive. To draw attention to their protest burning mattresses and other objects were thrown from the windows of the high-rise jail.

The prisoners demanded improvements in their living conditions and the right to a trial. Many of the inmates, who were mostly poor black and Puerto Rican youth, had been locked up for as long as two years without being given trials for their alleged crimes and unable to afford bail. This meant that many had yet to be convicted of a crime.

For about eight hours the prisoners negotiated their demands in exchange for the safe release of the guards, who were being held hostage. After having brought national attention to their protest, gaining the promise of state officials that the prisoners grievances would be addressed and that the rioters would face no additional punishment, the inmates released the guards.

But the promise was not kept. Once the prison authorities regained control over the ninth floor, the prisoners found themselves in the same conditions as before. During the incident, New York Mayor John Lindsay made statements to the press that he would order the courts to clear their schedules so that the prisoners could receive their right to due process. However, Lindsay was well aware that a simple declaration would do nothing to free up the backlog in the courts that had been built up over years of mass arrests of young men in working-class communities.

Lindsays only measure was to send a number of the leaders of the riot out of the Tombs and to the notorious Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York. Attica was also known for squalid conditions, in addition to holding prisoners considered to be the most dangerous. About one year later a riot would also break out in Attica resulting in the deaths of 33 prisoners and 10 guards.

75 years ago: Japan surrenders after nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

On August 15, 1945 the Japanese imperial regime officially declared that it would surrender to the United States, days after the American military dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in an unprecedented war crime that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

On August 6, the US bomber Enola Gay had dropped the Little Boy nuclear device on Hiroshima, rapidly killing an estimated 80,000 people. On August 9, an atomic bomb dubbed the Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki, leading to a similar number of deaths.

The attacks, which shocked the worlds population, destroyed the two cities. They came on top of a yearlong campaign of US air raids involving conventional incendiary devices, which wiped out up to one-seventh of Japanese urban and industrial areas.

The Japanese government immediately responded to the atomic bombings by offering to surrender to the US on August 10, under the terms worked out by the Allied powers at the Potsdam Conference in July. The only condition was that the sovereignty of the emperor be recognized. This was rejected the following day, with US Secretary of State James F. Byrnes insisting that the terms of any Japanese capitulation be unconditional.

By this point, the Japanese regime was in an immense crisis, presiding over a state that lacked any of its previous industrial or military capacity and facing a rapidly escalating invasion from the Soviet Union. On August 14, Emperor Hirohito recorded a radio broadcast, calling on the Japanese population to bear the unbearable, including a full surrender to the US.

This touched off the Kyujo incident, in which a group of staff officers at the Ministry of Defense, along with leading members of the Imperial Guard, sought to carry out a military coup to forestall the surrender and prevent Hirohitos message from being nationally broadcast. The rebellion was rapidly defeated.

On August 15, Hirohitos recording, dubbed the Jewel Voice Broadcast, was played on radio, insisting on the necessity for immediate and unconditional surrender. The emperor pointed to the ruinous state of the Japanese war effort.

He referred to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, stating: [t]he enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should we continue to fight, not only would it result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization.

Japan had first raised the prospect of a surrender in May but had been rebuffed.

100 years ago: Polish troops break through Red Army lines outside of Warsaw

On August 16, 1920, Polish troops counterattacked against the Red Army outside Warsaw, the Polish capital, and threatened to encircle it. In an exceptionally confusing battle along the Vistula River, only eight miles outside of the city, a Polish force made a bold attack on the left flank of the Red Army at a weak point in the Soviet lines, contrary to the advice of French imperialist advisors.

The plan was a gamble for Polish forces, and when the Soviet command intercepted plans for the attack, it disregarded them as fake. Nevertheless, on August 12, Red Army General Mikhail Tukhachevsky was taken by surprise when critical communications equipment between units was seized by the Poles, and he was unable to maneuver some of his forces. By August 16, Polish forces attacked the Red Army at its weakest point and were able to exploit a gap in the Soviet encirclement. Tukhachevsky was forced to retreat.

While the Battle of Warsaw preserved the Polish capitalist state, the Soviet Republic had successfully repelled a Polish invasion into the Ukraine in April, advanced the borders of the Soviet Republic hundreds of miles and secured the frontiers of an independent Soviet Ukraine. The hopes of French and British imperialism to intervene with their own or with proxy troops were dashed. The Poles and Soviets signed a peace treaty in October.

In assessing the Polish-Soviet War in a September speech, the Soviet Commissar of War, Leon Trotsky, noted that such setbacks are inevitable in a big military campaign. War does not proceed like a chronometer in which each movement of each wheel, each hand, is calculated to a second. War is a fierce struggle between two powerful forces and is inevitably associated with unexpected events, and this is especially true of maneuvering, revolutionary war.
SYRACUSE  A federal judge in Syracuse has overturned Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's limit of 50 guests at wedding receptions in restaurants, a measure the governor put in place earlier this year to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Chief U.S. District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby issued the ruling Friday in a case that involved a couple who wanted to host 110 people at a wedding at a golf club restaurant in Akron, Erie County.

The 50-person limit on wedding parties was one of a raft of executive orders and special closures the governor imposed earlier in the year amid sharply rising rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths.

But that rankled some venue owners who host weddings and similar events, who noted that larger restaurants that dont host weddings could still operate with more than 50 people as long as they were at half capacity.

Despite the ruling, Cuomo spokeswoman Caitlin Girouard said they were exploring ways, which would include an appeal and further court action, to keep the over 50 people wedding ban in place.

The judge's decision is irresponsible at best, as it would allow for large, non-essential gatherings that endanger public health. We will pursue all available legal remedies immediately and continue defending the policies that have led New York to having -- and maintaining -- one of the lowest infection rates in the country, while cases continue to rise in dozens of other states, Girouard said.

The plaintiffs had argued that the ban violates Constitutional protections for freedom of speech and religion as well as the Equal Protection clause.

They also noted that the restaurant where they wanted their reception could normally run at half capacity with more than 50 people -- so a wedding should be able to do the same  as long as other precautions were taken.

The plaintiffs also noted that other events such as mass demonstrations, special education classes and outdoor graduations were not limited to 50 people.

Suddaby agreed, focusing on the Equal Protection argument in particular. A former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York, Suddaby was nominated by President George W. Bush to his judgeship, and made chief judge in 2015.

A wedding that follows all the same rules that would be applicable to the given venue for dining when that venue is operating as a restaurant should not be treated differently than a restaurant, he wrote.

While appearing to apply to restaurants rather than, say, banquet halls that just do special events, the ruling could open the door for those venues to seek an end to the 50-person limit for those facilities as well -- as long as they take the same COVID-19 precautions that restaurants do.

And some in the legal profession are anticipating similar lawsuits from banquet hall operators to solidify Suddabys ruling for them as well as for restaurants.

The suit was filed by a western New York couple, Jenna DiMartile and Justin Crawford, who wanted to have a wedding reception at The Sterling at Arrowhead Golf Club.

The ceremony took place Friday night, just after the court decision. Another couple looking to marry at the restaurant, Pamella Giglia and Joe Durolek, also were named as plaintiffs.

They were represented by Phillip Oswald and Anthony Rupp III of the Rupp Baase Pfalzgraf Cunningham law firm.

News of the decision was met with mixed reactions by Capital Region restaurant and wedding venue operators who have been battered by the pandemic-related restrictions and subsequent loss of business.

A May survey by the Knot wedding planning website found that 66 percent of 6,253 parties surveyed in eight countries were rescheduling to a later date. Overall, 52 percent said they would wait until 2021.

A lot of my people have postponed their weddings, said Pat Popolizio of The Waters Edge Lighthouse restaurant in Scotia.

Despite the court ruling, Popolizio said he would likely wait and see before immediately booking new weddings, amid worries that the ban could be reinstated, and amid other worries about the pandemic.

I dont want to test the water, said Popolizio. I cant afford it if the water is too deep.

My phones been ringing off the hook, said Michael Fusco of Franklin Plaza in Troy.

Im getting calls from brides and other clients and vendors, he said, adding he needed to talk with his lawyer to find out how the ruling impacted his event venue.

Im not going to count my chickens before they hatch.

rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU
A heated exchange has earned a Lambton County man a yearlong peace bond. But even though he accepted the sentence the man maintains he did nothing wrong.

Derek Wilson was working a roofing job in Plympton-Wyoming recently when a man asked him if he could help out with some damaged shingles on his house. Wilson agreed and drove his car to the mans house on Egremont Road.

The exact details of what happened next are disputed, but something led to an argument between Wilson and the wife of the man who had requested the roofing help. He had not told his wife that Wilson would be coming over. The woman was walking with her daughter and their dog.

The dispute resulted in her yelling at Mr. Wilson as he drove by her at a fast speed, and then Mr. Wilson getting out of the car and a loud argument ensuing afterward, which caused (the woman) to fear for her safety, says Crown attorney David Nicol.

Wilsons car has a souped-up muffler according to defence lawyer Robert McFadden, which he says may have caused the woman concern.

But the court heard Wilson say he didnt believe this. It was kind of a he-said, she-said. It was me and her and my buddy and her daughter, so were the only ones who know what happened, says Wilson. I dont think she was scared. I dont think she was scared at all.

The judge said that it didnt matter what Wilson thought. Its not important necessarily what she felt, but its the circumstances that give rise to the Crowns position that she had a reasonable fear for her safety, says Justice Krista Leszczynski.

Wilsons agreement to the peace bond means a criminal charge of assault was dropped. He will have to keep good behaviour, stay away from the woman and the house, and will not be allowed to have any weapons.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 08:15:28|Editor: huaxia

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It's Travel Time! Since early July, tourists have been heading to Dunhuang, a city in northwest China's Gansu Province, for a summer break. Click here to find out what popular places have reopened since the #COVID19 closures.
Hong Kongs new National Security Law was used to snare its biggest target to date on Monday morning, as media mogul Jimmy Lai was arrested along with eight others on suspicion of collusion with foreign powers. The offence carries a maximum sentence of life in prison under the law.

Lai, 71, is a rare tycoon in Hong Kong to speak out against Beijing, and owns the avowedly pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper. The papers newsroom was later raided by about 200 police, as was a restaurant owned by one of his two sons, who were both also arrested.

The businessman, who came to Hong Kong from mainland China as a stowaway at the age of 12, has had numerous links with high-ranking officials in the United States in recent years. Last year, he met both Vice-President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington and in May called on Donald Trump to save Hong Kong. However, given the National Security Law is not retroactive, it is unclear if Lai has violated it since it came into force on 30 June.

It is the third time Lai has been charged this year  on the previous two occasions for illegal assembly and incitement to illegal assembly during last years protests and at this years outlawed Tiananmen vigil on 4 June. He has in the past been the target of violent attacks for his pro-democracy stance, most recently last September when suspected Triads threw petrol bombs at his home.

But it was the targeting of Apple Dailys newsroom, a couple of hours after Lais arrest, that aroused the most outrage in Hong Kong. Police officers descended en masse on the offices in the suburb of Tseung Kwan O, despite social distancing measures due to Covid-19 currently restricting public gatherings to two people. Apple Daily broadcast the raid live on its Facebook page.

The Democratic Party, of which Lai is a major donor, denounced the arrests of members of the press  also detained were executives of Next Media, the newspapers owners  and said the raid on the offices was intended to create a deterrent effect for pro-democracy media.

Story continues

Former student leader Joshua Wong said the raid spelled the death of press freedom in Hong Kong. Several media groups were also refused entry to a police press conference after the raid; one of them, the public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong, reported its journalists were told the police were not admitting media that had previously obstructed them.

EU denounces tycoon's arrest

The European Union on Monday accused China of using Hong Kong's new security law to crack down on media freedom, following the arrest of Jimmy Lai.

A spokesman for Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, said Lai's arrest and the raid on his newspaper Apple Daily "stoke fears" for freedom of expression in Hong Kong.

"The European Union recalls that the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms is a central element of the Basic Law and the 'one country, two systems' principle.

"In addition, media freedom and pluralism are pillars of democracy as they are essential components of open and free society," the spokesman said.

Beijing has welcomed the arrest, accusing Lai of being an "anti-China rabble-rouser".
Photo: (Photo : YouTube/Daily Mail)

In 1988, Li Jingzhi lost her son, Mao Yin, when he was kidnapped and sold. In May, after 32 years, the mom and son finally got reunited.

Emergency at home, return right away

Li and her husband would drop their two-year-old son at a kindergarten in the morning, then pick him up after work. The mom-of-one worked for a grain exporting company, and she had to leave town for many days during harvest time.

On one of her trips in October 1988, she received a telegram, which wrote six words: "Emergency at home; return right away." She hurried home only to find that her son, whom she nicknamed Jia Jia, was missing.

See also: Mom Kept Cracked Duck Egg in Bra for 35 Days and Safely Hatches It [Heartwarming Story]

Her husband explained that he had stopped by a small hotel owned by the family to drink water on their way home after picking up their son. He left Jia Jia for one to two minutes to cool the water. When he turned around, their son was gone.

A week had passed but still no signs of her son

Li thought that someone would bring her son back to her. After a week had passed and still no signs of Jia Jia, she knew the situation was severe. She printed 100,000 flyers with her son's picture and handed them everywhere but to no avail.

During that time, she was not aware of child-trafficking. People believed that the one-child policy introduced in 1979 caused people to abduct children, especially boys.

See also: Doctor Delivers Both Mom and Daughter's Babies 25 Years Apart

She thought of blaming her husband for her missing son at first, but she realized that they had to work together to find Jia Jia. After four years of not talking about anything else besides their son, the couple got divorced.

Did not give up

Li did not stop searching. She would go to the provinces every Friday after work and then come home on Sunday to work on Monday. She would investigate whenever she would hear news about a boy who looked like her son.

There was one time she followed the parents of whom she thought has Jia Jia everywhere. She even had gone more than two days of no sleep, only to find out that the boy the couple had was not her son.

See also: Viral Video: Baby of Breastfeeding Mom Feeds Her Fries

A former classmate who was a doctor told her that made a big impact on Li. He said that he could heal her physical illness but not her heart. It woke her up and helped her to avoid getting upset from not finding her son.

Around that time, many children had gone missing already. Li started volunteer work with the website, "Baby Come Home." The site helps families reunite with their missing children. It gave her hope.

In 2009, the Chinese government let parents, who lost children and suspect they may have been abducted, register their DNA. It has helped find thousands of children.

On May 10 this year, Li got a call saying that Mao Yin has been found. The police convinced the man they found to take a DNA test. The mom and son got matching results. On May 18, the son called out "Mother!" as he ran towards his long lost mom.
John Zhang, a part-time staff member of an Australian state Labor parliamentarian who was subjected to raids by the federal spy agency and police in June, last week applied to challenge the constitutional validity of the foreign interference legislation.

Whatever the outcome of the case, it will shed light on the profoundly anti-democratic implications of the laws, which seek to criminalise any political conduct that allegedly involves cooperation with an overseas or international organisation.

The documents filed by Zhang in the High Court, the countrys supreme court, point to the nebulous nature of the accusations hurled against him and Shaoquett Moselmane, the Labor MP. Moselmane was forced to seek indefinite leave from the New South Wales parliament after his home and office were raided.

Moselmane addressing a Sydney press conference in June

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and Australian Federal Police officers ransacked Zhangs home and business as well. The raids triggered hysterical headlines, such as ASIO chases Chinese agents in the House.

Personally authorised by Attorney-General Christian Porter, the raids marked an escalation of the anti-China witch hunting being conducted by Australian governments and the corporate media, in line with the US Trump administrations increasingly aggressive conflict with China.

The operation was the first major public use of the foreign interference laws that the Liberal-National government pushed through parliamentbacked by the opposition Labor Partyin 2018. These laws were hailed by leading figures in the Washington political elite as setting a global precedent for targeting Chinas supposed growing international influence.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison immediately supported the raids, underscoring the governments direct involvement. Morrison effectively junked the presumption of innocence and prejudiced any chance of a fair trial in the event of a foreign interference prosecution.

More than six weeks later, no charges have yet been laid against Moselmane and Zhang, who both deny being Chinese agents. The High Court documents show that the raids were based on allegations that Zhang used a private social media chat group with Moselmane to encourage the MP to advocate for Chinese state interests.

Invoking the vague language of the foreign interference laws, Zhang was accused of failing to disclose to Moselmane that he was acting on behalf of, or in collaboration with the Chinese state and party apparatus. This was said to include the Ministry of State Security and the United Front Work Department.

The Ministry of State Security supervises Chinas intelligence and security agencies, roughly paralleling Australias Home Affairs Ministry. The United Front Work Department is alleged to be Chinas main overseas propaganda and political influence organ, although its activities mirror the diplomatic and public relations activities conducted by many countries, including the US and Australia.

Zhang, an Australian citizen who emigrated from China in 1989, is specifically challenging the offence of reckless foreign interference, contained in section 92.3 of the federal Criminal Code , upon which the AFP search warrants were based. He argues that this offence violates the implied freedom of political communication in the Australian Constitution.

The AFP documents accused Zhang of engaging in conduct that was covert or involves deception, just because he used a private social media platform, as millions of people do. The AFP alleged that Zhang was reckless to the risk that his conduct would influence the NSW branch of the Australian Labor Partys policy positions and the views of members of the NSW electorate on China.

This offence, punishable by 15 years imprisonment, illustrates how far these laws can extend. The Criminal Code defines reckless as simply being aware of a substantial risk that the result (in this case influence a political or governmental process) would occur and knowing that it was unjustifiable to take the risk.

Zhang is also seeking to quash the raid search warrants for lacking clarity and making it unclear whether the target was Mr Moselmane, the NSW branch of the ALP, or members of the electorate as a whole.

Zhang is further claiming parliamentary privilege over items seized relating to his employment at parliament house, as is Moselmane, a member of the NSW Legislative Council, the states upper house.

No date has yet been set for the High Court to consider Zhangs case. The 1901 Australian Constitution contains no bill of rights, or any other guarantee of free speech. During the 1990s, however, the High Court said the document implicitly prohibited laws that blocked political discussion within the framework of the current parliamentary order, unless the laws served a legitimate end of government.

Even that limited protection of free speech has been eviscerated in recent years. Last year, the High Court unanimously endorsed the sacking of a federal public servant for criticisingeven anonymouslythe countrys brutal refugee detention regime. Earlier High Court rulings allowed the banning of the distribution of leaflets in public places.

Whatever the High Court rules, the raids against Moselmane and Zhang are a direct threat to free speech. Moselmane, a Muslim MP who represents an area of Sydney with a large Chinese population, has hardly been covert in his views. He has made speeches, including in state parliament, calling into question Australias alignment behind the intensifying US confrontation with China, opposing the foreign interference laws and crediting Chinas swift response to the COVID-19 pandemic with saving lives globally.

The pursuit of Moselmane and Zhang opens anyone up to potential prosecution who voices anti-war views, opposition to the foreign interference laws or criticism of the Trump administrations attempts to divert attention from its homicidal response to the pandemic by accusing China of letting the coronavirus loose on the world.

The raids are a warning of a wartime-like atmosphere being whipped up by the political establishment and the corporate media to intimidate opponents of the intensifying offensive against China by the US, which is seeking to maintain the global dominance it acquired through World War II.

As the WSWS and the Socialist Equality Party have warned, the foreign interference laws contain sweeping offences, ranging from treason to breaching official secrecy and cooperating with a foreign organisation. These provisions could be used to criminalise political dissent, including opposing Australian involvement in a catastrophic US-led war against China.

The Trump administration is insisting that the Australian government step up its involvement in the US confrontation with China, including by sending warships into the South China Sea, providing greater access to ports and military bases and strengthening the US-led Five Eyes worldwide surveillance and cyber-warfare network.

At the same time, Morrisons governmentlike Trumpsis seeking to divert, in a reactionary nationalist and anti-Chinese direction, the deepening working-class unrest over mass unemployment, dire financial stress and soaring social inequality, all magnified by the global COVID-19 disaster.

The Labor Party, which demanded Moselmanes suspension from parliament, is equally committed to this course. It has been in the forefront of the anti-China offensive since 2010, when US protected sources in the partys inner cabal executed a backroom coup to install Julia Gillard as prime minister. She aligned the country completely behind the Obama administrations anti-China pivot to Asia.

Increasingly, Australias people have been placed in the vanguard of the conflict with Beijing. But concerns remain in Washington about deep anti-war sentiment, and the dependence of sections of Australias wealthy elite on exports to China. Hence the ratcheting up of the witch hunt to send a chilling message not to deviate from the pro-US commitment.

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Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan  Tue, August 11 2020

Authorities have advised the public to remain alert over potential future eruptions at Mount Sinabung in Karo regency, North Sumatra, as the volcano has erupted several times since the weekend following a year-long absence of volcanic activity.

The latest string of eruptions occurred on Monday, with Mt. Sinabung spewing a 5,000-meter-high column of volcanic ash and smoke from the peak of the mountain at 10:16 a.m., followed by a second eruption at 11:17 a.m. that produced a 2,000-m-high column of ash, according to the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG).

A PVMBG official of the Sinabung observation post, Armen Putera, told The Jakarta Post that the volcanic ash from Monday's eruption had covered at least three districts in Karo and turned the sky dark, especially in Namanteran district, which is located 5.2 kilometers from the mountain.

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Visit of His Excellency Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi of the Republic of Iraq

Washington, DC - President Donald J. Trump will welcome Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi of the Republic of Iraq to the White House on August 20, 2020. The visit comes at a critical time for both the United States and Iraq as we continue our collaboration to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS and address the challenges from the coronavirus pandemic.

As close partners, the United States and Iraq will look to expand our relations across a range of issues, including security, energy, health care, and economic cooperation.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 14:55:59|Editor: huaxia

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CHANGSHA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- China's Hunan Province saw its foreign trade rise 11.1 percent year on year to more than 251 billion yuan (about 35.8 billion U.S. dollars) between January and July this year, local authorities said Monday.

Exports rose 3.8 percent year on year to 164.5 billion yuan while imports gained 28.5 percent to 86.55 billion yuan during the period, according to the customs of Changsha, the provincial capital.

The ASEAN became Hunan's largest trade partner during the period, with imports and exports totaling 42.18 billion yuan, up 36.4 percent year on year.

The exports by Hunan are dominated by mechanical and electrical products as well as labor-intensive products.

The province reported an increase in iron ore and grain imports in the first seven months. Enditem
10.08.2020 LISTEN

There is no doubt that there are some visible indices that mark Ghana out as a developing economy. Over the years, scholars from the so-called Global South and some sympathisers from the Global North have contested the categorisation that Ghana or Africa is a developing country or continent respectively. But beyond the academic debates, there is a stark reality that as a nation we are faced with multiple challenges. Some of these challenges have made life very difficult for many Ghanaians. This is not the same as saying that the political elites are not investing time and resources to turn the destiny of the nation around.

For the past few years that I have lived in Adjei-Kojo in Tema West Constituency, I have increasingly become aware of the poor road networks in the area. Consequently, since the re-democratisation of Ghana in 1992, residents have made it known to the political elites about this challenge. In many cases, some political improvisations and strategies have been cultivated by residents to compel Members of Parliament to make promises of constructing the roads in the constituency.

As a major characteristic of politics, political aspirants always promise to construct the road, but most of them vanish into thin air after elections and only return when their four-year mandates expire and need renewal. But like a bad omen that operates on a cyclical basis, residents in the constituency appear not to exit from the cycle of always complaining about bad roads. Suburbs in the constituency where the roads have been heavily unmotorable include Adjei-Kojo, Kanewu, Global and Sun City.

Many vehicles have broken down on these roads, sometimes at wee hours of the day  exposing the lives of road users to armed robbery attacks and other forms of dangers. During the rainy season, some commercial drivers refuse to convey passengers to and from the communities in the constituency. Sadly, every onset of rainy season escalates the poor road network in the constituency, specifically the suburbs mentioned earlier.

The poor states of our roads have a debilitating effect on all aspects of life, particularly economics. Most traders struggle to have their commodities transferred from the commercial towns in Accra. This development has increased the cost of living in the area. Certainly, this is against the background that most of the residents of these suburbs are involved in the informal sector of the economy where income levels are very unpredictable and inadequate.

As the nation anticipates heavy downpour this year, residents in the Adjei-Kojo, Kanewu, Global and Solomon City of Tema West constituency, like elsewhere in Ghana, are left to count on the divine to avoid any fatal accidents as a result of the bad roads. But it is rather curious to ask about how long we will continue to call on the divine when what it takes to construct the roads are right within the means of the nation.

Since the residents in Adjei-Kojo, Kanewu, Global and Solomon City are also Ghanaians who pay taxes to support the developmental agenda of Ghana, we are asking the political elites to honour their many promises of constructing the roads in these communities. It is rather becoming obvious that our political elites in the constituency have not shown enough commitment to solving our challenge.

We call, therefore, on the Ministry of Roads and Highways, as well as other stakeholders, to respond to the needs of those of us residing in the Tema West constituency. While some residents may deploy voting strategies, such as holding placards that read no roads no vote to force state structures to get the roads, we are painfully aware that such strategies have not worked to our advantage. This is precisely because of the political fragmentation of the constituency. As a resident of the constituency, I am calling, therefore, on government and other stakeholders to come to our aid.

If Tema is to recover its past glories as the industrial hub of Ghana, then the political elites must turn their attention to the developmental challenges of the constituency.

Thank you.

Ruth Gifty Arthur

(Resident, Adjei Kojo, Tema-West)
Mark Zuckerberg may have never thought he can one day get a chance to play a role in the escalating U.S. sanctions drama on Chinese tech companies.

The billionaire was in the spotlight after terming the White House ban on TikTok as "a really bad long-term precedent." The CEO was asked to express his views on his company's interest in acquiring the most popular short-video app in the U.S. on an internal meeting last Thursday.

His remarks, which were made in the middle of a possible acquisition deal between TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance and Microsoft, appear to be contradicting the attitudes that the company showed in the past.

Last month, TikTok's current CEO, Kevin Mayer, also a former executive at Disney, slammed Zuckerberg for using patriotism as a disguise to attack the China-oriented app and compete unfairly.

Zuckerberg's love-and-hate 'China complex'

Over the years, the billionaire, build an image portraying him as an enormous Chinese fan. He flaunted Mandarin skills by delivering a speech in China's top university, showed his keen interest in Chinese science fiction on his social media accounts, jogged in front of Beijing's Tiananmen Square, leaving a strong impression on people that he has an affection for, or at least interest, in China.

Zuckerberg is jogging with his companions in Beijing. /Photo via Facebook

But the once well-flaunted Chinese fan seems to have changed his stance towards the emerging economy and its competitors after he failed to enter the Chinese market.

According to Buzzfeed, Zuckerberg was in a serious deal with a Shanghai-based startup Muscial.ly, the one that later became the basis of TikTok's global empire. The tech giant spent much of the second half of 2016 trying to make that happen.

But in 2017, ByteDance closed the deal with Muscial.ly with a bid of around 800 million U.S. dollars.

In mid-2018, ByteDance has taken an even more aggressive marketing strategy targeting Facebook's U.S. camp by surging app-install ads on Facebook's ad network.

At the peak, it was responsible for nearly 22 percent of all such ads on U.S. Apple devices. According to data from the research firm Sensor Tower, the total downloads in iOS and Android app stores have surpassed 2.2 billion times globally.

What does TikTok ban mean to Facebook?

The CEO has witnessed his Chinese-alike competitor growing up to be a tech mammoth.

"For Facebook, the ban has earned them a precious window to compete in the social media battleground," Jin Yechen, a media analyst, told CGTN.

"As things stand now, Facebook barely has a chance to defeat TikTok in the short-video field without government interventions," Jin added.

If it is too hard to compete with, it would be easier to resort to a government approach to attack a Chinese company, Wei Fangzhou, founder and CEO of Beluga Global, a consultancy working on overseas commercial development, expressed similar views in a recent interview with CGTN.

Screentshot from Twitter

The company released a new copycat lip-syncing feature Reels in Instagram a few days ago. The answer to TikTok is their latest attempt to rival this competitor after a similar app  Lasso, in 2018, failed to gain popularity.

Zuckerberg did mention that a lot of people are out there saying that this helps Facebook, and "my reaction to that is only in the most narrow sense."

"Yes, they are a competitor this year, and this month, next month, maybe our engagement will go up. Maybe it will make Reels a little bit easier just to roll out. But you don't run a company for the next month or the next quarter."

In a recent U.S. congressional hearing, Zuckerberg is the only person who held a different opinion towards other three tech tycoons  CEOs of Apple, Amazon and Google on intellectual property thefts by China.

"I think it's well documented that the Chinese government steals technology from American companies," he said when grilled about the practice.

(CGTN)
People at the Bytedance Technology booth at the Digital China exhibition in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China, on May 5, 2019. (Reuters)

ByteDance Takes Step Toward Entering Online Stock Brokering in Hong Kong

BEIJING/SHANGHAIBeijing-based ByteDance, the owner of popular short video app TikTok, is taking steps to move into the online stock brokerage and wealth management business in Hong Kong, trademark registration documents show.

ByteDance applied last December to register a trademark called Songshu Zhengquan, which translates to Squirrel Securities, in Hong Kong, the citys online intellectual property database shows.

The trademark application is being examined, according to the database, and areas of business it applied for include computerized financial information services, stock trading, brokerage services, and stock exchange quotations.

The business is still in its infancy, and ByteDance currently has just one full-time employee assigned to it, according to a person familiar with the situation.

The company has obtained a license, but any official launch of the online stockbroker business is not imminent, the source added, declining to be named, as the information isnt public.

ByteDance didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company pulled its hit TikTok app out of Hong Kong in July after Beijing established a new national security law in the Chinese-ruled city.

President Donald Trump on Aug. 6 issued executive orders to ban U.S. transactions with ByteDance, as well as Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings, effectively banning their popular apps TikTok and WeChat. Trump has given ByteDance until Sept. 15 to sell TikTok to Microsoft or another American firm. Microsoft confirmed that its in talks to buy the app.

The U.S. administration and cyber experts have raised national security concerns about TikToks access to American users data, which they say could potentially be exploited by the Chinese regime for espionage purposes.

A Beijing-based fintech banker who spoke on condition of anonymity said that it made sense for the tech giant to explore opportunities in Hong Kong rather than the mainland, where the online wealth management market is dominated by Alibabas affiliate Ant Group.

Other Chinese-owned online stockbrokers in Hong Kong include Tiger Brokers and Tencent-backed Futu.

By Yingzhi Yang and Brenda Goh
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.
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TDT | Manama

International, youth-run non-profit organisation AIESEC launched yesterday the first version of its Ebtikar programme, which is to be held until August 31. The programme is being held under the patronage of Sustainable Energy Authority (SEA) president Dr Abdulhussain bin Ali Mirza.

It aims to spread awareness about climate change and renewable energy among youth aged 17 to 25 years old from both genders, who will compete in teams and be evaluated by sustainable energy specialists, through a competitive atmosphere to find solutions to the issues given to them.

Dr Mirza praised AIESECs role and efforts in developing youth and directing their skills to sustainable contributions for a better future. He also noted the success of the National Renewable Energy Plan and the National Energy Efficiency Plan. AIESEC Bahrain head Ahmed Shabir expressed his thanks and appreciation to Dr Mirza for his support of their efforts to achieve national goals of renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Dozens of firefighters converged on the scene, where the natural gas explosion reduced to the row houses to piles of rubble

Baltimore: A natural gas explosion destroyed three row houses in Baltimore on Monday, killing a woman and trapping other people in the wreckage. At least four people were hospitalised with serious injuries as firefighters searched for more survivors.

Dozens of firefighters converged on the disaster scene, where the natural gas explosion reduced to the homes to piles of rubble. A fourth house in the row was ripped open, and windows were shattered in nearby homes, leaving the neighborhood strewn with debris and glass.

Its a disaster. Its a mess. Its unbelievable, said Diane Glover, who lives across the street. The explosion shattered her windows and blew open her front door. Im still shaken up, she said hours later.

Four of the homes occupants were taken to hospitals in serious condition, while an adult woman was pronounced dead at the scene, a fire spokeswoman said.

Rescuers were painstakingly going through the wreckage by hand. About two hours after the explosion, a line of firefighters removed a person on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance.

Baltimore Fire Department spokeswoman Blair Adams said at least five people were inside, maybe more, when the homes exploded.

They were beneath the rubble, Adams said. You have homes that were pretty much crumbled ... A ton of debris on the ground. So, were pulling and trying to comb through to see if we can find any additional occupants.

While the cause wasnt immediately clear, The Baltimore Sun reported last year that dangerous gas leaks have become much more frequent, with nearly two dozen discovered each day on average, according to the utilitys reports to federal authorities.

The Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. has thousands of miles of obsolete pipes that need to be replaced, an effort that would cost nearly $1 billion and take two decades, the newspaper said.

BGE turned off the gas in the immediate area after receiving an initial call from the fire department at 9.54 am on Monday, utility spokeswoman Linda Foy said.

We are on the scene and working closely with the fire department to make the situation safe, she said, without answering any questions from reporters. Once the gas is off, we can begin to safely assess the situation, including inspections of BGE equipment.

BGE asked the Maryland Public Service Commission in 2018 to approve a new gas system infrastructure and a cost recovery mechanism to pay for upgrades needed to close the systems many leaks.

Founded in 1816, BGE is the oldest gas distribution company in the nation. Like many older gas systems, a larger portion of its gas main and services infrastructure consists of cast iron and bare steel  materials that are obsolete and susceptible to failure with age. According to BGE, about one-third of the Companys gas mains and services in use on the gas distribution system are over 50 years old, the utility said.

Glover, 56, and her 77-year-old father, Moses Glover, were at home when the massive explosion shook their house, knocking over a fan and some of her DVDs.

I jumped up to see what was going on. I looked out the bathroom window and there was a house on the ground, she said. It sounded like a bomb went off.

Neighbors scrambled toward the rubble, calling out for survivors. Kevin Matthews, who lives on the block, told The Sun that he could hear trapped children shouting: Come get us! Were stuck! Firefighters and police officers then showed up and took over.
BRANCH COUNTY, MI -- Michigan State Police are investigating a hit-and-run boat crash that occurred early morning Monday.

At approximately 4 a.m., a small walk-through watercraft crashed into a pontoon on Marble Lake and left without reporting the accident, according to MSP.

The boat was operated by one or two boaters. Police described the suspected watercraft as a white, walk-through watercraft white with a blue stripe running from stem to stern. It is expected to have damage on the right side of the watercraft.

The boat was last seen headed northbound on Marble Lake from Corn Island. Marble Lake is in Quincy Township east of Coldwater, Michigan.

The crash is still under investigation. Anyone with information regarding the investigation is asked to call the Michigan State Police Marshall Post at 269-558-0500 referencing report number 54-4800-20.

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The continuous rise in COVID cases and the disjunction between economic fundamentals and the market rally has tempered investor optimism. However, Samir Arora, founder and fund manager, Helios Capital, says that COVID is a 15-18 month problem and should be viewed from that lens.

Arora doesnt think this is a great buying opportunity, neither does he feel that the world is facing a disaster. The best advice to investors would be to stick with your plan, he said in an interview to Moneycontrol Pro.

Arora also talked about the simultaneous rise in gold and stock prices, if investors should buy on dips, why one should avoid companies with government links, whether investors should consider real estate and commodities, the three themes his fund is betting on and more.

To access the complete interview, exclusive to MC Pro subscribers, click here
Munster Police spokesman Lt. John Peirick said in a release Monday afternoon that out of an abundance of caution, the town would close off northbound Calumet Avenue at Ridge Road and Calumet Avenue at River Drive in both directions until further notice. The town opted to follow the leads of Calumet City, Illinois; and Lansing, Illinois, after the two municipalities received information that looters could be heading their way, Peirick said.
Shanghai recorded 18 new Covid-19 infections from abroad on Sunday, a high not seen for more than four months, as the city assumes a role as Chinas major gateway for international flights that are slowly resuming.

The new infections were all Chinese citizens aboard two flights from the United Arab Emirates, according to the citys local health authority. Of the 18, three arrived aboard an Air China flight on Aug. 6. The remaining 15 came on a SriLankan Airlines flight that originated in the UAE on Aug. 7 and transited through Sri Lanka before continuing to Shanghai.

The infected have been transferred to designated facilities for treatment. Another 237 people who had close contact with them aboard the flights are under quarantine, in line with customary procedure for all inbound passengers.

The case marks the citys highest number of imported infections on a single day since April 11, when a record 51 infected people arrived aboard an Aeroflot flight.

Having largely brought its domestic outbreak under control, China has turned a major part of its disease prevention and control effort to overseas travelers who have the potential to seed new outbreaks in the country. Such arrivals slowed to a crawl as the big majority of international flights were canceled at the height of Chinas outbreak in March.

The nation is now slowly starting to resume some of those flights, both by domestic and international carriers. But it is also trying to remain vigilant about bringing new cases into the country, including its rollout of a circuit breaker mechanism in June designed to reward airlines that remained on guard while punishing ones that were more lax.

One provision of that circuit breaker will now be applied to the SriLankan Airlines route, which will be suspended for four weeks. Under the system any international route is subject to such a suspension if 10 or more passengers on a single flight tested positive for the virus.

The four-month high in daily new imported cases comes amid a broader increase in such new cases coming into Chinas commercial capital. The city saw 29 such cases in the four days from Aug. 6 to Aug. 9, including 21 from the UAE and six from the Philippines. To date Shanghai has recorded 444 imported cases, outpacing the citys 342 domestically-transmitted cases reported since the outbreak began.

The city already takes a wide range of actions to prevent such imported cases from getting into the community, including on-the-spot testing on arrival, and requiring health declarations and temperature checks in addition to the standard 14-day quarantine.

Shanghai has become Chinas biggest gateway for travelers from abroad as the country gradually lets in more flights following sharp reductions at the height of the virus. From July 1 through Aug. 6, the citys Pudong International Airport received 209 international flights, averaging five to six per day. Beijing, which was previously the countrys other top destination for international flights, curtailed such flights back in May, when it rolled out a policy requiring all inbound flights to the city to first stop at other domestic airports first.

Shanghai has also assembled a team to study methods that can be used at places of origins to prevent infected people from boarding flights to the city, including pre-flight screenings and inspections of certificates showing a person has tested negative for the disease. The city has also issued guidelines on the matter emphasizing that foreign employers have the main responsibility for the management of their workers on health-related issues.

Contact reporter Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com) and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)

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Sure, it might be warm Wednesday, but what about the rest of the week?
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar (L) speaks as Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen (R) looks on during his visit to the Presidential Office in Taipei on Aug. 10, 2020 (Pei Chen/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Health Secretary Azar Voices Strong US Support for Taiwan in Historic Meeting

TAIPEI, TaiwanU.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar met with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday as the allies together face increased tensions regarding communist China.

It is a true honor to be here to convey a message of strong support and friendship from President Trump to Taiwan, Azar said at a joint press conference with Tsai in Taipei Monday morning after flying in on Sunday.

Quoting from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeos remarks in May congratulating Tsai on her second term in office, Azar added: President Tsais courage and vision in leading Taiwans vibrant democracy are an inspiration to the region and the world,

Azars trip to Taiwan carries political significance as the highest-level visit by a U.S. cabinet official since 1979the year the United States severed official diplomatic ties with the island in recognition of Beijing.

Thank you, President Tsai, for welcoming me to Taiwan today. It is a true honor to be here to convey a message of strong support and friendship from the United States to #Taiwan. https://t.co/tsZTN9gp9T  Secretary Alex Azar (@SecAzar) August 10, 2020

Currently, the United States maintains a robust, nondiplomatic relationship with Taiwan, formally the Republic of China, and operates a de-facto embassy on the island known as the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT).

The U.S. government has also continuously sold military weapons and equipment to Taiwan for its self-defense against the communist regime in the Chinese mainland, which claims that the self-ruled island is a part of its territory.

The particular focus of both my discussion with President Tsai and of our trip is highlighting Taiwans success on health in combating COVID-19, and cooperating with the United States to prevent, detect, and respond to health threats, Azar said.

Taiwan had drawn international plaudits for its success in containing the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. As of Aug. 9, Taiwan has 480 confirmed COVID-19 cases and seven deaths, despite its close proximity (81 miles) to mainland China.

The virus, which originated from China, has infected over 5 million individuals in the United States and been linked to over 162,900 deaths.

Taiwans response to COVID-19 has been among the most successful in the world. And that is a tribute to the open, transparent, democratic nature of Taiwans society and culture, Azar added.

The health secretary applauded Taiwan for extending a helping hand to the United States and other countries by continuing to send personal protective equipment since the early stages of the pandemic.

I look forward to using this visit to convey our admiration for Taiwan, and to learn about how our shared democratic values have driven success in health, Azar said.

Azar also offered his condolences to people in Taiwan for the recent death of Taiwans former President Lee Teng-hui, who is also known as the father of Taiwans democracy.

Welcome to #Taiwan #US HHS @SecAzar & the @HHSGov delegation! We look forward to sharing our expertise, exchanging ideas about containing #COVID19, & strengthening our global leadership in promoting public health. https://t.co/1wDcJGqHuJ   Tsai Ing-wen (@iingwen) August 10, 2020

Speaking at the press conference, Tsai again condemned Beijing for blocking Taiwan from participating in the World Health Assembly (WHA)the decision-making body of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO).

I would like to reiterate that political considerations should never take precedence over the rights to health. The decision to bar Taiwan from participating in the WHA is a violation of the universal rights, Tsai said.

Since 2017, Taiwan has been barred by Beijing from taking part in the assembly and its meetings.

Related Coverage US Pushing Back Against Chinese Influence at UN, Pompeo Says

Tsai welcomed Azar and his delegation, saying their visit will allow them to better understand Taiwans approach to containing the pandemic.

The visit also provides us with an opportunity to speak face to face on issues of importance to both sides and find a direction for future cooperation, Tsai said.

The Taiwan President also voiced her optimism on U.S.-Taiwan joint effort to develop and produce vaccines and medicines against the CCP virus. The two sides announced their joint cooperation on March 18.

I trust that through joint endeavors, we will see even more breakthroughs and fruits of cooperation not only in the area of pandemic prevention, but on all fronts so that we can jointly contribute to the sustained peaceful development of the Indo-Pacific region, Tsai concluded.

According to Taiwans government-run Central News Agency, Azar is also scheduled to meet with Taiwans Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung and visit Taiwans Central Epidemic Command Center, a government agency tasked with dealing with the pandemic.

Additionally, Azar will also attend a memorandum of understanding signing ceremony between AIT and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO)the name for Taiwans de-facto embassy in the United States.
Longshore workers at the Port of Montreal launched a general, unlimited strike Monday morning, as negotiations with their employer remain in deadlock.

The strike, which began at 7 a.m., shut down activity at Canada's second-largest port with the exception of grain transport and shipments to Newfoundland and Labrador.

The labour action by more than 1,100 workers comes after a series of temporary strikes by the Canadian Union of Public Employees over the past six weeks saw several ships diverted to ports in Halifax, New York City and Saint John, N.B.

Union spokesperson Michel Murray confirmed that CUPE Local 375 is going ahead with its plan to strike after giving 72-hour notice last week.

Murray said on Radio-Canada's Tout un matin that "there's no good moment" for a strike, and that containers with medical supplies will still be allowed to pass through the port.

In a statement, the Port Authority of Montreal raised concern about the timing of the strike, given the unfolding economic crisis caused by the pandemic.

"A prolonged stoppage in port operations has major repercussions for Canadian businesses that depend on international trade and, ultimately, for the supply of goods and services to the public," the statement said.

Ships destined for the port have already been rerouted for the past two weeks as the longshore workers staged two four-day strikes.

In response to the daytime strikes, their employer, Maritime Employers Association, cut overtime rates last week.

The 1,125 longshoremen, foremen and maintenance workers on the waterfront in Montreal have been without a collective agreement for nearly two years.

Ivanoh Demers/Radio-Canada

Murray described the strike as a pressure tactic as the union continues to negotiate with the Maritime Employers Association.

The association said it contacted the union Sunday night in hope of avoid the strike, and that it still believes an agreement can be reached through binding arbitration.

Story continues

"The line of communication remains open," said a spokesperson for the association.

In 2015, longshore workers across Quebec earned an average of $110,000 before benefits, according to figures from the province's Labour Ministry.

Murray says the conflict is largely over work-life balance, with union members having to work late nights, early mornings and holidays.

"If they earn this salary, it's because they're available seven days a week," he said. "There is no stability for the family life of a longshoreman"

The Montreal Port Authority says nearly 6,300 businesses depend on the port, with about 19,000 jobs linked to its operations.
Bollywood actor Rhea Chakraborty moved the Supreme Court on Monday with a fresh plea, alleging media trial and attempts to pronounce her guilty for the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Chakraborty has filed a fresh affidavit in the top court, maintaining that Bihar government does not have the jurisdiction to probe and try the matter. The actor has also submitted that the transfer of the case to the CBI by Bihar police is without jurisdiction.

Rhea is seeking a transfer of the case from Bihar to Maharashtra. In her plea, she alleged that the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput is being sensationalised by the media since it occurred at a time when Bihar elections are due.

This has led to the suicide being blown out of proportion. Actors Ashutosh Bhakre and Sameer Sharma were also reported to have died by suicide in last 30 days and yet no whisper about the same in power corridors. In case of death of Sushant Singh Rajput, Chief Minister of Bihar is reported to be responsible for the registration of FIR in Patna, the affidavit said.

The plea further alleged that media channels are examining and cross-examining all the witnesses in the case and that Chakraborty has been convicted by media even before a foul-play in the case is established.

Extreme trauma and infringement of privacy of the rights of the petitioner is caused due to constant sensationalisation of this case. Media had convicted accused in 2G and Talwar case in a similar fashion where each and every accused was later on found innocent by the Courts, the affidavit stated.

The Supreme Court is slated to take up the matter tomorrow.

Rhea Chakraborty faced investigation agency Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday in money laundering case linked to Rajputs death. In a fresh round of questioning, the ED probed Chakraborty and her family members on Monday.

Also read: Theyve got nothing to do with Sushant Singh Rajput case - Sanjay Raut slams Bihar govt

#SushantSinghRajput death case: Rhea Chakraborty approaches Supreme Court with a fresh plea alleging media trial and attempts to pronounce her guilty for the death of the actor. pic.twitter.com/nMkw7cRs2a  ANI (@ANI) August 10, 2020

Rhea, her brother Showik and father Indrajit Chakraborty reported at the office of the central probe agency in the Ballard Estate area around 11 am in response to their scheduled summons for Monday, officials said.

Later, Shruti Modi, the business manager of Rhea and Rajput, also reported at the ED office. All four were previously questioned by the agency on August 7. Rajputs friend and roommate Siddharth Pithani also arrived at the ED office later in the day.

The ED had questioned Rhea once on Saturday following which she was called back on Monday. The agency had questioned her brother for nearly 18 hours on Saturday. As per reports, Showiks questioning went on till around 6:30 am on Sunday.

Rajputs father KK Singh had filed a complaint with the Patna police against Rhea last month. The complaint also included Rheas parents, brother, Rajputs manager Samuel Miranda, Shruti Modi and unknown persons. KK Singh had accused them of cheating and abetting his sons suicide.

The CBI had re-registered this FIR as a fresh case on Thursday and named as accused the same people.
Figure 1.0

Au Grade x Thickness Contours  Longitudinal Section Looking North at 015 Azimuth

Au Grade x Thickness Contours  Longitudinal Section Looking North at 015 Azimuth

Unigold reports the longest, highest grade intersection drilled to date at Neita:

30 metres averaging 9.02 g/t gold, 5.1 g/t silver, 0.63% copper

Intercept is contained within a larger interval of 104.1 metres grading 3.14 g/t gold, 2.1 g/t silver, 0.27% Cu.

Gold grades are consistent throughout the interval, ranging from 4 g/t to 19 g/t gold

Geological interpretation that system is strengthening to depth is reinforced by this result

System is open to depth: deepest intercept is 350m below surface

15,000 m drill program expected to commence within the next 10 days

TORONTO, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Unigold Inc. (Unigold or the Company) (TSX-V:UGD) is pleased to announce additional results from its completed Phase 1 drill program at the Candelones Extension deposit, part of the Companys 100% owned Neita Concession in the Dominican Republic.

Drill hole LP20-147 intersected 104.1 meters averaging 3.14 g/t Au, 2.1 g/t Ag, 0.27% Cu and 0.01% Zn with a sulphide intersection of 30.0 meters averaging 9.02 g/t Au, 5.1 g/t Ag, 0.63% Cu and 0.00% Zn (Ref. Table 1.0 and Figure 1.0). The Company notes that six (6) over limit results for copper are pending. It is not anticipated that the over limit results will cause a material change in copper grade.

The gold, silver and copper mineralization over the entire 30-meter intersection is consistent (see Table 1) and no samples required cutting to calculate weighted average grades.

LP20-147 was drilled to fill a gap between holes LP15-96 (34.0 meters averaging 4.15 g/t Au, 0.40% Cu) and LP16-124 (5.9 meters averaging 11.8 g/t Au, 0.20% Cu). The intercept has likely increased the geological confidence (resource classification) of this area within the easternmost sulphide mineralization recognized to date at Neita.

Joe Hamilton, Chairman and CEO of Unigold notes: LP20-147 is the longest, highest grade intercept that has been returned from the Neita concession. The hole was placed to convert a significant portion of the current inferred mineral resource to at least indicated status and it is our opinion that we successfully achieved our objective. The hole suggests that sulphide mineralization may have a steeper plunge to the northeast than originally interpreted but most importantly, it suggests that the system is strengthening to depth. The top of this sulphide mineralization starts about 150 m below surface and has been drilled to a depth of about 350 m below surface. There is additional potential to expand this mineralization to depth.

Story continues

We are currently awaiting a shipment of critical parts for our owner-operated drills to arrive at our exploration camp. These parts should allow us to increase the maximum depth capacity of our drills allowing us to continue to chase the high grade mineralization to depth. We are planning to resume active exploration drilling by mid August. An additional two drills, with 1200m drill capability, have been ordered and are expected to be operational at Neita by the end of September.

The recognition of a second stage, late epithermal sulphide mineralization that overprints older primary mineralization has allowed us to focus drilling on these higher-grade resources. We believe that we have identified up to four of these sulphide-rich zones within a 3 kilometre strike length. Our initial holes will test the lower limits of two of these epithermal feeders. Our metallurgical testing earlier this year indicated that the late epithermal overprint offers gravity recoveries of +50% and leach recoveries of +85% making these targets extremely attractive.

QA/QC

Diamond drilling utilizes both HQ and NQ diameter tooling. Holes are established using HQ diameter tooling before reducing to NQ tooling to complete the hole. The core is received at the on-site logging facility where it is, photographed, logged for geotechnical and geological data and subjected to other physical tests including magnetic susceptibility and specific gravity analysis. Samples are identified, recorded, split by wet diamond saw, and half the core is sent for assay with the remaining half stored on site. A minimum sample length of 0.3 meters and a maximum sample length of 1.5 metres is employed with most samples averaging 1.0 meters in length except where geological contacts dictate. Certified standards and blanks are randomly inserted into the sample stream and constitute approximately 5-10% of the sample stream. Samples are shipped to a sample preparation facility in the Dominican Republic operated by Bureau Veritas. Assaying is performed at Bureau Veritas Commodities Canada Ltd.s laboratory in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. All samples are analyzed for gold using a 50 gram lead collection fire assay fusion with an atomic adsorption finish. In addition, most samples are also assayed using a 36 element multi-acid ICP-ES analysis method.

Wes Hanson P.Geo., Chief Operating Officer of Unigold has reviewed and approved the contents of this press release.

About Unigold Inc.  Discovering Gold in the Caribbean

Unigold is a Canadian based mineral exploration company traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol UGD, focused primarily on exploring and developing its gold assets in the Dominican Republic.

For further information please visit www.unigoldinc.com or contact:

Mr. Joseph Hamilton

Chairman & CEO

jhamilton@unigoldinc.com

T. (416) 866-8157

Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this document, including statements regarding events and financial trends that may affect our future operating results, financial position and cash flows, may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are based on our assumptions and estimates and are subject to risk and uncertainties. You can identify these forward-looking statements by the use of words like strategy, expects, plans, believes, will, estimates, intends, projects, goals, targets, and other words of similar meaning. You can also identify them by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. We wish to caution you that such statements contained are just predictions or opinions and that actual events or results may differ materially. The forward-looking statements contained in this document are made as of the date hereof and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Where applicable, we claim the protection of the safe harbour for forward- looking statements provided by the (United States) Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

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.





Table 1.0  LP20-147 ASSAY RESULTS

From To Interval (1) Au Ag Cu Zn (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) (%) (%) 326.50 356.50 30.00 9.02 5.10 0.63 0.00 including: 326.50 327.50 1.00 6.36 4.30 0.87 0.00 327.50 328.50 1.00 8.27 5.00 1.00(2) 0.01 328.50 329.50 1.00 4.08 3.40 0.23 0.00 329.50 330.50 1.00 4.87 3.60 0.34 0.01 330.50 331.50 1.00 5.28 4.00 0.41 0.01 331.50 332.50 1.00 7.53 6.00 1.00(2) 0.00 332.50 333.50 1.00 17.90 6.60 1.00(2) 0.00 333.50 334.50 1.00 6.41 4.80 0.38 0.00 334.50 335.50 1.00 12.10 5.30 0.43 0.00 335.50 336.50 1.00 16.80 6.00 0.70 0.00 336.50 337.50 1.00 12.40 4.80 0.49 0.00 337.50 338.50 1.00 12.10 4.90 0.50 0.01 338.50 339.50 1.00 13.10 5.20 0.55 0.00 339.50 340.50 1.00 9.80 5.10 0.56 0.00 340.50 341.50 1.00 9.43 5.80 0.48 0.00 341.50 342.50 1.00 6.66 4.00 0.54 0.00 342.50 343.50 1.00 5.35 4.60 0.56 0.00 343.50 344.50 1.00 5.22 4.30 1.00(2) 0.00 344.50 345.50 1.00 6.41 4.50 0.54 0.00 345.50 346.50 1.00 7.79 5.10 0.62 0.00 346.50 347.50 1.00 9.80 6.30 0.59 0.00 347.50 348.50 1.00 12.20 4.20 0.45 0.00 348.50 349.50 1.00 8.10 5.80 0.57 0.00 349.50 350.50 1.00 15.30 7.50 0.98 0.00 350.50 351.50 1.00 19.20 9.60 1.00(2) 0.00 351.50 352.50 1.00 6.71 5.40 0.60 0.00 352.50 353.50 1.00 5.59 4.40 0.41 0.00 353.50 354.50 1.00 4.27 3.90 0.42 0.00 354.50 355.50 1.00 7.06 4.90 1.00(2) 0.00 355.50 356.50 1.00 4.67 3.60 0.67 0.01 (1) Intervals are reported as drilled length not true width. There is insufficient data at this time to estimate true width. (2) Denotes pending over limit analyses for copper. The over limit results are not anticipated to result in a material increase in copper grade.





A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3fc94a28-9371-4250-b2f7-ac03aa4e7fc4




More than a quarter of UK universities are attempting to 'bribe' A-leve pupils with laptops and discounts and cash offers if the chose them as a 'firm' choice on UCAS forms, it has been revealed.

In a desperate scramble to fill places in a competitive market, universities are trying to tempt students with 'incentives', an investigation by the i has found.

Freedom of information (FOI) requests sent to 133 universities showed as many as a 35 universities offered the incentives last year or will this year, the paper reports.

They include the University of Portsmouth, Hants, who offer a 1,000 scholarships for those who meet their grades as part of their unconditional offers.

The university, which paid out to 376 students last year, has previously defended the scheme, which it says provides a 'carrot' to students not to 'sit back' in their A-levels.

Meanwhile, the University of Northampton gives every student a free laptop.

More than a quarter of UK universities are attempting to 'bribe' A-leve pupils with laptops and discounts and cash offers if the chose them as a 'firm' choice on UCAS forms, it has been revealed

The University of Portsmouth, Hants, offer a 1,000 scholarships for those who meet their grades as part of their unconditional offers

The University of Northampton gives every student a free laptop, which can be exchanged for 500 in campus credit or 500 discount on halls of residence rent

The University of Stirling provides 1,000 to all students the UK who meet the terms of their offer

Which universities offered incentives and what were they? University of Hull - Gives students 1,200 for achieving A-level B,B,C University of Derby - Gives students 1,000 if they put as their firm choice and go on to get B,B,B at A-level University of Portsmouth - 1,000 scholarship for students who meet or exceed their grades University of Stirling - 1,000 to all students who meet terms of offer University of Northampton  every student gets a free laptop, or 500 campus credit or 500 off halls of residence rent Queens of University Belfast - 500 tuition discount, free flights and cinema tickets University of Westminster - Offered a three-year payment of 4,500 to some students who applied through clearing last year St Georges University, London - 1,000 to all students starting the Clinical Pharmacology undergraduate course in 2019 Advertisement

This can be exchanged for a 500 discount on halls of residence rent or a 500 credit which can be spent on campus.

The University of Hull gives students 1,200 for achieving grades of B,B and C in their A-levels, while the University of Derby gives 1,000 to students who achieve three B grades after making them a firm choice.

Queen's University Belfast offers a 500 tuition fees discount plus other benefits including free flights and cinema tickets, while the University of Stirling provides 1,000 to all students the UK who meet the terms of their offer.

The incentive schemes have been criticised by some, including Tom Richmond, director of the EDSK think-tank and an adviser to Michael Gove when he was Education Secretary, who described some of the offers as a 'shameless bribe'.

He told the I: 'If universities want to attract more applicants, they should focus on improving the quality and value of their courses.

'Regrettably, some of them are instead choosing to shamelessly bribe students with these 'incentives' even when applicants have not demonstrated any special talent or aptitude.'

The figures come after thousands of extra students are expected to get a place at university this year in what's being predicted as the biggest ever year of clearing, as institutions place 'quantity over quality to earn some bucks'.

With a fall in overseas students predicted due to the coronavirus, places for British students have been increased.

According to The Times, UCAS is predicting 80,000 students could find a place during the clearing scheme - which runs in the two weeks after A-Levels results day in August.

Queen's University Belfast offers a 500 tuition fees discount plus other benefits including free flights and cinema tickets, while the University of Stirling provides 1,000 to all students the UK who meet the terms of their offer

The University of Derby gives 1,000 to students who achieve three B grades after making them a firm choice

The University of Hull gives students 1,200 for achieving grades of B,B and C in their A-levels

Last year 73,000 students found a course during the same period.

Institutions have a deal with the government allowing them to take in five per cent more UK students than their targets.

Record number set to go through clearing Universities face their 'busiest' ever clearing period as a record number of students are due to take up places through the system, the head of Ucas has predicted. With less than a week to go until youngsters receive their A-level results, nearly three in four of the top institutions have vacancies on their undergraduate programmes on the clearing website. And more than 4,500 courses at the elite Russell Group universities still have spaces. School leavers who have had their gap-year plans disrupted by Covid-19 will be among those who will bypass the main application scheme and search for a course through clearing, the admissions service predicted. Analysis showed that for applicants living in England, there were 29,163 courses with availability across 327 universities and colleges. Seventeen of the 24 Russell Group universities had vacancies for English residents  a total of 4,509 courses between them  on the Ucas clearing site ahead of results day on Thursday. Clare Marchant, Ucas' chief executive, believes as many as 80,000 applicants could find a place via clearing, up from 73,325 last year, despite fears about the impact of Covid-19 on the student experience. She said it was a 'good year' for prospective students in Britain who wanted to attend university in autumn as institutions will be competing to fill their courses at a time of uncertainty. Miss Marchant said the 'fragile' situation', where the number of overseas students could fall amid Covid-19, alongside the fact there are fewer 18-year-olds in the population, may play to UK students' advantage when applying. Advertisement

It comes as school leavers have applied in record numbers to start university this autumn despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

Admissions service Ucas says a record 40.5 per cent of all UK 18-year-olds have applied, despite fears over the impact of social distancing on college life.

By June 30, 281,980 school leavers were looking for places, a small rise from 275,520 last year despite a reduction in the population aged 18.

There had been concern that young people would be put off higher education this year after institutions moved towards a mix of online and face-to-face classes.

There were also concerns after A-Level exams were cancelled this year due to the pandemic, and results relying on school averages and teachers' own assessment of their pupils, results this year are set to be slightly different.

Before clearing begins on August 13, universities have been urged to show some flexibility with their entry requirements.

It also comes as A-level pupils whose marks are downgraded by computer face missing out on university places while exam boards sift through a flood of appeals, experts warned last night.

This year's exams were cancelled because of coronavirus so marks will be based on teachers' estimates of what entrants would have achieved.

But exam boards are expected to lower nearly 40 per cent of grades using a computerised marking scheme to ensure results are not significantly higher than previous years.

This means tens of thousands of pupils will not achieve the marks they had hoped for when they get their A-level grades on Thursday.

Those who appeal must be awarded a higher grade by September 7 to attend the university they have chosen.

But exam boards, which are in charge of appeals, have refused to commit to this timeframe.

Instead, they have given themselves 42 days to resolve complaints  meaning the university term will have started before most cases are dealt with.

Many pupils, teachers and parents in England are nervous about this year's results after last week's debacle over the Scottish Higher exams.

In Scotland, 124,000 grades awarded by teachers were lowered, with the poorest entrants getting their marks downgraded at more than double the rate of the richest.

Pupils in England who are unhappy with their grades must rely on their schools to mount appeals for them, based on stringent criteria, potentially adding to the delays. Last night none of the 'big three' exams boards  AQA, OCR and Pearson Edexcel  provided assurances that it would be able to meet the September 7 deadline set by university admissions body Ucas.

The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), which represents the exam boards, said its members were 'committed to completing appeals as quickly as possible'.

But it admitted grade appeals may take six weeks or longer. This means a complaint lodged on A-levels results day  and most will come later than this  does not have to be dealt with until September 24.
PM Modi inaugurated the submarine optical fibre (OFC) that connects Chennai and Port Blair. After the inauguration, the Prime Minister said that the importance of our islands including Andaman and Nicobar Islands has increased as India is following the new policy and practice of trade and cooperation in Indo-Pacific.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the role of Andaman and Nicobar Islands is very crucial and it is going to be enhanced further under Indias Act-East policy. Speaking after inaugurating submarine optical fibre cable (OFC) connecting Chennai and Port Blair through video conferencing, the Prime Minister said that the importance of our islands including Andaman and Nicobar Islands has increased as India is following the new policy and practice of trade and cooperation in Indo-Pacific.

Prime Minister said that the Indian Ocean had been the centre of Indias trade and strategic prowess for thousands of years. Now that India is following the new policy and practice of trade and cooperation in Indo-Pacific, the importance of their islands including Andaman and Nicobar has increased further. He added that under the Act-East policy, Andaman and Nicobars role in Indias strong relations with East Asian countries and other countries associated with the sea is crucial and it is going to increase.

He said that the Prime Minister said that Andaman and Nicobar Islands are going to be developed as a hub of Port Led Development in the coming times. He mentioned that the Andaman and Nicobar islands are located at a very competitive distance from many parts of the world.

Also read: Maharashtra, Delhi refuse to hold final term exams: SC asks UGC to respond

Also read: Former president Pranab Mukherjee tests Covid-19 positive

He also said that now, when India is moving forward with the resolve of self-sufficiency as a global manufacturing hub, is establishing itself as an important player in the global supply and value chain then it is very important to strengthen their network of Waterways and our ports. He said that this optical fibre cable project, connecting Andaman and Nicobar with rest of the country is a symbol of our commitment towards ease of living.

He stated that be it online classes, tourism, banking, shopping or telemedicine, thousands of families in Andaman-Nicobar will now get its access. Now, the tourists going to the Andaman will get the huge benefit of the facility. Better net connectivity has become the first priority of any tourist destination today. The Prime Minister said that there were several challenges regarding OFC that was also a reason that despite the need of this facility for years, it could not be worked on.

He said that from Chennai to Port Blair, Port Blair to Little Andaman and Port Blair to Swaraj Island, the service has started in a large part of Andaman and Nicobar from this day. He congratulated the people of Andaman and Nicobar for this connectivity filled with endless opportunities.

After this, he said that before Independence Day, he see this occasion as a present to people of Andaman. The completion of this work of laying of cables for about 2,300 kilometres within the sea, is itself very admirable. Surveying in the deep sea, keeping the quality maintenance of the cable, laying the cable through special ships is not so easy.

The PM said that the bigger this project was, the greater the challenges. This was also a reason that despite the need of this facility for years, it could not be worked on. But I am happy that this work was completed, bypassing all the obstacles. He said that it is our endeavour to reduce the geographical distance faced by every citizen of the country and make an emotional connect with them.

He said that their dedication had been that every citizen of the country should reach every area with modern facilities, make their life easier. He said that it had been their dedication to develop border area, areas on sea borders that are related to the countrys security.

Also read: Security checks tighten in Delhi ahead of Independence Day
Or perhaps you see the looting, the attacks on police, the lawlessness as the ultimate symbol of societys walls crumbling. It is not the fate of the buildings, the store owners or the dumb leather bags inside that concern you, but the disrespect the behavior shows for boundaries. You know its our collective agreement to follow laws that protects us all from death, injury or the confiscation of anything we have that others want. Society is a compact: A little of my freedom, traded, so that you can live and have things, too. You believe that police officers guard the line between us and anarchy, and though they are no less free of failings than any of the rest of us  individuals can be racist and misogynistic, anti-immigrant, violent and cruel  their mission is valuable, necessary.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 21:20:03|Editor: huaxia

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BERLIN, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Germany's federal state Bavaria would continue to increase COVID-19 test capacities and set up around 100 test centers in every district and city by the end of August, Bavaria's minister-president Markus Soeder announced on Monday.

People should be able to get tested "quickly and unbureaucratically" and no longer had to go to the doctor, Soeder said at a press conference after a cabinet meeting on Monday.

Currently, Bavaria had a capacity of 55,000 COVID-19 tests per day, which would be increased to well over 200,000 tests per day by the end of August, according to Soeder.

At the end of July, Bavaria announced to set up voluntary COVID-19 test facilities at several motorway border crossings as well as at main railway stations in Munich and Nuremberg. Soeder stressed that he was "very worried" about travelers returning from holidays when announcing the measures.

Since last Saturday, travelers from international risk areas had to undergo a mandatory COVID-19 test on their return to Germany, according to the German government. At the end of the school holidays, the risks would increase that the coronavirus could be brought to Germany from abroad.

Soeder also said on Monday that people returning from holidays should have themselves tested for COVID-19 twice. The first test should immediately be carried out at the border or airport, and a second one should be done five to six days later.

The coronavirus would become "more dangerous every day," stressed Soeder. Long-term consequences of COVID-19 such as a missing sense of smell would only become apparent over time. Enditem
Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Global Times, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, in this undated photo. (The Epoch Times)

Arms Strategist Slams Chinese Editor for Promoting Use of Nuclear Warheads Against US

Amid heightened tension between Beijing and Washington, Hu Xijin, the chief editor of the Chinese regimes mouthpiece, Global Times, once again touted that China should increase its armory of nuclear warheads to deter the United States ambitions. This time, however, Hus remarks met resistance from the regimes arms strategy expert.

Hu Xijin Repeats his Call to Increase Nuclear Warheads

On July 26, Hu repeated his stance on nuclear warheads on Weibo. He wrote: Dont be naive. Dont expect Washington will improve its attitude towards the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] after the election. The CCP must be prepared.

Hurry up and build more nuclear warheads in sufficient numbers to deter the United States, and we must seize the day  a stronger nuclear arsenal is the only key countermeasure to balance the U.S. arrogant attitude. Hu claimed nothing else would be useful.

He complained that the regimes nuclear policy has been very subtle to date.

Expert Criticizes the Hype on the Nuclear Issue

On July 31, Yang Chengjun, a retired PLA (Peoples Liberation Army) arms strategy expert wrote an article titled, Beware of Malicious Hype on the National Nuclear Issues, but didnt specifically mention Hu.

Yang wrote that as an expert in the nuclear arms field for 47 years, he believed that seeing recent talk in the media of adding more nuclear warheads is extremely harmful to national security.

This kind of hype will only provide hostile countries a reason to attack us. It will heighten the anxiety of neighboring countries and push them toward the United States for nuclear protection. It will also arouse unwarranted domestic dissatisfaction with the country and the military for its inaction, he wrote.

Yang pointed out that there are four purposes and motivations for those who repeatedly hype the nuclear-related topics: first, to instigate dissatisfaction with the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Military Commission and the military and accuse them of inaction; secondly, to attract attention online; thirdly, to demonstrate only he cares about nuclear safety; and finally, to force the experts to clarify the issues so that they can pry into national nuclear secrets.

United States Demands Explanation From China

Hu had earlier posted a similar discussion on the expansion of nuclear weapons on social media. On May 8, he posted on Weibo, China should expand its stock of nuclear warheads to 1,000 to counter the challenges posed by the United States, and to suppress the U.S. strategic ambition and impulse against China.

The Epoch Times previously reported that the DF-41, unveiled in mid-2019 by the rocket force of Chinas military, the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), is estimated to have a 12,000- to 15,000-kilometer range, the longest nuclear operating range in the world, which makes it capable of striking the continental United States.

At the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on June 30, U.S. disarmament ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood criticized Chinas nuclear arms control policy and military build-up and argued that the regime poses a major threat to world peace and security.

At the conference, Wood also quoted Hus reiteration that China should expand its number of nuclear warheads to 1,000 and demanded that the regime give an explanation.
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. The Connecticut National Guard joined over 1,750 utility crews in Connecticut on Friday in efforts to clear trees and restore power to more than 400,000 homes and businesses still in the dark, as frustration continued to grow over the pace of the response to Tropical Storm Isaias.

Eversource, the states largest electricity distributor, had nearly 1,200 crews working around Connecticut, including many from other states and Canada. United Illuminating, which serves shorelines areas from Fairfield to East Haven, said it had about 580 crews in the field.

Eversource said power will be restored to most of its customers by Tuesday night, while United Illuminating said power restoration should be substantially completed by Monday. State regulators have launched an investigation into both utilities preparation and response to Tuesdays storm, which cut power to more than 700,000 customers as winds gusted to more than 60 mph (97 kph) and knocked down scores of trees and wires.

Im going to hold their feet to the fire every day until this is done, Gov. Ned Lamont said Friday while touring storm damage in Westport.

The Democratic governor announced Friday that President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for Connecticut that will allow the state to request federal aid to fix the storm damage.

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service confirmed Friday evening that a tornado, which began as a waterspout in Long Island Sound, made landfall in Westport on Tuesday at 1:40 p.m. Captured on video by a private meteorologist, the eventual tornado was blamed for tearing the roof off a house and causing other damage.

The two utility companies said their crews were working as fast as they can while keeping safe in restoring power.

We recognize how disruptive power outages are to our customers lives and were urgently working around-the-clock to get every customer affected by Isaias back on line, Craig Hallstrom, Eversources president of regional electric operations, said in a statement.

Assurances by the two utilities did not quell the anger of customers who had been without electricity for three days. Many customers have been taking out their frustration in comments posted on Eversource and United Illuminatings social media pages.

Suzanne Berthiaume, 65, a retired floral designer who lives in East Hartford with her husband, a disabled veteran, said it has been a struggle living without power and water. She went to the town library on Friday afternoon to use free charging stations for her and her husbands cellphones.

She said they had to throw out all the food in their refrigerator, and have been ordering takeout and delivery for their meals.

Thats getting expensive, but theres nothing you can do, Berthiaume said. Its getting depressing. Its very scary, not knowing how long its going to be.

Mayor Mark Boughton of Danbury, where more than 13,000 homes and businesses _ nearly 36% of customers _- remained without power Friday, was highly critical of Eversources response. He said the first Eversource crews arrived in Danbury on Thursday, two days after the storm.

They are here today in force, but I think this was just an abject failure by Eversource on every level, Boughton said Friday, just before touring damage with Lamont. Theres something inherently wrong here.

Boughton joined state and federal officials in expressing frustration that the utilities didnt appear to be prepared for the storms, despite having nine years to upgrade their systems and response plans following two storms in 2011 that both knocked out power to 800,000 customers.

Eversource said it spent $300 million, as part of an agreement with the state after those past storms, to strengthen its electricity system to help avoid extended storm-related outages. Under the plan, the company trimmed scores of trees, strengthened utility poles and equipment and installed coated, thicker-gauge wire.

State officials said Eversource underestimated Isaias strength.

United Illuminating said its preparation and response to the storm were in line with its emergency plan that is filed with the state.

Two dozen National Guard members were helping United Illuminating to clear roads so utility crews could get to downed wires and other equipment, company officials said.

About the photo: A fallen tree rests on the roof of supreme-lake manufacturing, inc. in Southington, Conn., on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020. A snapped utility pole and other fallen trees nearby brought down wires in front of the building. (Dave Zajac/Record-Journal via AP)

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
John MacArthur Sunday service: 'Welcome' to the 'peaceful protest;' preaches on obedience to Scripture

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Pastor John MacArthur, whose California church is holding in-person services in violation of the states COVID-19 health orders, opened his most recent sermon by welcoming his congregation to "the Grace Community Church peaceful protest.

"Good morning, everyone. I'm so happy to welcome you to the Grace Community Church peaceful protest, MacArthur, senior pastor of Grace Community Church, a megachurch in Sun Valley, California, said Sunday morning, drawing cheers and applause from worshipers.

MacArthur went on to explain that, based on the Word of God, his church is pro-life, pro-family, pro-law and order, and pro-church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The preacher then invited a chaplain from the Los Angeles Police Department to deliver the services opening prayer. The chaplain prayed that MacArthur and his congregation would have the wisdom and faith to weather all of the things going on in church and outside church.

MacArthur preached from 1 Corinthians 1, which reads in part, For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

We are here in obedience to our Lord, we are here because He has given us commands, not in a personal esoteric way, not through some vision or dream, not because I hear voices from Heaven, I dont, but because I have a Bible, he said. Grace Church is defined by its commitment to Holy Scripture. For true Christians, the Bible is our greatest treasure.

The mark of a true Christian is the love of Scripture, MacArthur said, adding: God's true church has always been a place where people hunger for the truth from the Bible. Thats why we're here.

If this pulpit was not the place for the proclamation of the Word of God, this place would begin to be empty, he added. That's why you're here ... it's clear to me that you love the word of God. That's why you're here.

"We're not smarter than anybody else," MacArthur stressed. "Were not more spiritual. We're not better people. Were as wretched as any and all sinners are. But we've been chosen. And then we've been called. And then we are being saved, sovereignly, supernaturally."

We're the nobodies, we get it," he concluded. "We're the nothings. Were nonexistent. Were the low of the low. But we have the wisdom of God, because God in His grace and mercy, called us."

MacArthur has made headlines in recent weeks after his church opted to meet in defiance of Gov. Gavin Newsom's second round of lockdown orders affecting church gatherings.

We are a church that has a reputation for the last 50 years of obeying the government, the pastor said in a recent 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, MacArthur said, noting that out of 7,000 church members, no one has had any effect if theyve had COVID.

Officials from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reportedly threatened MacArthur with repercussions such as fines and even possible arrest if his church doesnt comply with state orders.

MacArthur and Grace Community Church have since received special counsel from President Donald Trumps personal attorney, Jenna Ellis, and religious freedom expert Charles LiMandri.
A total of 117 employees of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have succumbed to Covid-19, information by the civic body has revealed. So far, 2,384 BMC employees have been infected with Covid-19, of whom 1,280 (53%) have recovered.

The case fatality rate among the civic employees is 4.9%. Sainath Rajadhyaksha, head of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Engineers Association, attributed the high case fatality ratio to the late reporting of the cases.

The high number of deaths is owing to the late reportage of cases when the BMC was not allowing anyone to get tested unless they had developed symptoms and a doctors prescription was also must. Nearly 30,000 civic employees are out on the field, working to curb the outbreak. The likelihood of many of them getting infected is high, he said.

Among the senior officials who have succumbed to Covid-19 is H-East wards assistant commissioner, who was working towards creating the jumbo Covid facility at Bandra-Kurla Complex. He died on July 11. On June 9, a deputy municipal commissioner also succumbed to the infection.

According to the corporation, most employees who have tested positive for Covid-19 are from the solid waste management (SWM) department, health department and many staffers who work at the ward level. These are frontline staff who come directly in contact with Covid-19 patients, work at containment zones and have been assigned field work, a civic official said.

According to the official the BMC is taking several measures to prevent the spread of the virus among its employees. Unlike the pre-Covid times, people are not allowed to gather in large numbers at corridors or outside the BMC canteen. There are sanitisers at every entry point. Many wards are adopting foot-operated lifts and sensor-based taps. Even the Worli engineering hub will now be fitted with foot-operated machines. However, we cant say how and when can the infection spread, the official added.

Meanwhile, Rajadhyaksha said that the compensation amount for the family of the deceased staffers should be released soon to their families. The compensation of 50 lakh promised by the state to the families of government employees who succumb to Covid-19 should be expedited, as there is a lot of red tapism in releasing the money. Also, the kin of the deceased should be given jobs as per their qualification without any delay, he said.
Presiding Bishop of Perez Chapel International, Bishop Charles Agyinasare, has reiterated that he's at peace despite the constant attacks and threats on his life by politicians because he speaks nothing but the truth.



The preacher in one of his sermon's dubbed 'There is a cause for integrity and honesty, received lots of condemnation from politicians and party foot soldiers for speaking on national issues.



According to him though his friends and loved ones who are concerned about the attacks have entreated him to stay away from speaking on transformation issues, he's peaceful because he speaks the truth.

politicians sit on-air - radio and TV - and make false accusations and

"Fortunately or unfortunately, politicians sit on-air - radio and TV - and make false accusations and insult who they disagree with, including their opponents. In the past few weeks, the unmentionable things that people have said about me is unbelievable.



"My loved one and concerned people have called me and they keep calling to say Bishop stop talking about national transformations because we cannot stand the insults smeared against you. Some wonder whether I'm able to sleep soundly at night in the midst of the insults... Others wonder, why I'm so cool. When they see me or call as if nothing is going on. Why am I so peaceful, it is because what I am saying is the truth," Bishop Agyinasare told members of his congregation on Sunday, August 9, 2020.



During the service monitored by GhanaWeb, the bishop supported his comments with a scripture from the bible culled from 2 Corinthians 13:8, "For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth and the gospelthe good news of salvation."



Bishop Agyinasare added that he will not stop commenting on national issues hence if the attacks from politicians are what he has to endure, then so be it.



"And so for me, if this is the price I have to pay for preaching transformation, then it is worth it all," he added.

Source: ghanaweb.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The upcoming visit of a senior US official to Taiwan is evidence of the healthy relationship between the two sides and indicative of Washington's dwindling concern about upsetting Beijing, observers say.

US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is set to lead a delegation to the self-ruled island on Sunday, according to Taipei. The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the United States' de facto embassy in Taipei, also announced the visit but did not give a date.

Azar is the highest-ranking member of the US cabinet to visit Taiwan since Washington severed ties with the island in favour of establishing formal relations with mainland China in 1979. He is also the first senior US official to visit Taiwan since US President Donald Trump signed the Taiwan Travel Act into law in 2018.

Beijing has been critical of Azar's planned trip, describing it as a violation of the "one China" policy the US promised to observe on the establishment of diplomatic ties with Beijing.

In contrast to the steadily worsening relationship between mainland China and the US, which has seen them clashing on issues from trade and technology to defence and human rights, ties between Taipei and Washington have improved significantly since Tsai Ing-wen was elected the island's president in 2016.

Against that backdrop, some Taiwanese politicians have suggested there may be the possibility of a normalisation of US-Taiwan relations.

"The fact that the AIT has officially announced the planned visit of Azar and identified him as the highest-ranking cabinet member to visit Taiwan shows the United States has begun normalising its relations with Taiwan and no longer takes Beijing's views into account," said Wang Ting-yu, a politician from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party who sits on the parliamentary foreign and defence affairs committee.

The recent enactment of several pieces of legislation that support Taiwan was further evidence of normalising ties, he said.

Story continues

Since 2018, the US Congress has approved at least five pieces of legislation relating to Taiwan, including the Taiwan Travel Act, which encourages high-level government exchanges between the two sides, and the Taiwan International Participation Act, which calls for the US to advocate for Taiwan's membership or observer status in international organisations.

Last year saw the passage of the Taiwan Assurance Act - which mandates a presidential review of the state department's guidelines on US-Taiwan relations and directs the defence department to include Taiwan in military training exercises - and the Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative Act, which directs the state department to tell Congress about government moves aimed at strengthening Taiwan's diplomatic relations "partners" in the Indo-Pacific.

At a meeting last month, Taiwan's legislative speaker Yu Shyi-kun told pro-independence activists "it is not impossible that the United States will establish formal ties with Taiwan and recognise it diplomatically".

"After the US changed its strategic policy to counter China, a number of US dignitaries, including vice-president Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have spoken in support of furthering relations with Taiwan, which shares a belief in democracy, freedom and human rights, unlike China," he said.

Michael McCaul, a senior Republican politician who sits on the foreign affairs committee, said recently that recognising Taiwan as a sovereign, independent country was the harshest punishment the US could inflict on Beijing.

But analysts are less optimistic about the re-establishment of formal ties between the US and Taiwan, given the likely fallout.

"Re-establishing a formal relationship with the Republic of China [Taiwan's official name] is a very attractive and romantic proposal," said Alexander Huang Chieh-cheng, a professor of strategic studies and international relations at Tamkang University in Taipei.

"But it would directly challenge Beijing's red line - the 'one China principle' - and require extremely complicated diplomatic engineering that would bring chaos to all three capitals," he said.

While there was undoubtedly a political message attached to Azar's visit to Taiwan - it comes ahead of the Republican Party convention in the US - it was unlikely to derail the relationship between Washington and Beijing, Huang said.

"An official visit of this nature is unlikely to shake US-China relations," he said, adding that Beijing was not so naive as to dance to Washington's tune.

"If it is smart enough, Beijing will just hold its breath for three months until the US election result."

However, Beijing may well react to Azar's visit after hearing what he has to say, Huang said.

"If, for example, the secretary blasts China for hiding the truth about the coronavirus, then Beijing will definitely react strongly."

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Shimla: Days before India celebrates its 74th Independence Day, the newly arrived Rafale fighter jets have shown its valour by night flying over skies in Himachal Pradesh.

Even though the aircraft kept a safe distance from the Line of Actual Control (LAC), where India is currently engaged in a border dispute with China, the night flying of the Rafale fighter aircraft will send strong signals to the Chinese Army about Indian Air Force's operational preparedness.

The arrival of the first batch of five Rafale jets on July 29 has given India's air power a strategic edge amid tensions with China and Pakistan.

The Rafale aircraft is capable of carrying a range of potent weapons.

European missile maker MBDA's Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile, Scalp cruise missile and MICA weapons system will be the mainstay of the weapons package of the Rafale jets.

Earlier on August 8, in a continuous effort to disengage peacefully at the LAC, India and China held a Major General-level talk at Daulat Beg Oldi area over the withdrawal of Chinese troops from the Depsang plains in the Ladakh region.

The sixth round of military-level talks took place to ease the tensions that escalated in June when the two countries were involved in violent clashes in Ladakh's Galwan valley.

The brutal clashes on the night of June 15 resulted in 20 Indian soldiers getting killed in action, while over 50 reportedly died in China's Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) camp.

Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Harjit Singh Arora also visited forward air bases in the Ladakh sector on August 7 and interacted with air warriors of the combat units currently operating in the sector.

Subsequently, the IAF has deployed most of its frontline fighter jets like Sukhoi 30 MKI, Jaguar and Mirage 2000 aircraft in the key frontier air bases in eastern Ladakh and other critical places along the LAC.
A savvy mother has revealed how to quickly remove lint balls from a sofa without trimming each one with a pair of scissors, or pulling them up with a strip of Velcro.

Georgia Spencer, who lives in Australia, demonstrated how materials covered in lint balls can be revamped - simply by trimming them with a pair of electric barber clippers.

Taking to Facebook group Mums Who Clean, she shared a video of the hack in action, which quickly garnered a stream of comments from impressed social media users.

Alongside the short clip, which racked up over 800 likes, Georgia penned: 'First time poster here, but I found this way too genius not to share.'

Georgia Spencer, who lives in Australia, impressed members of Facebook's Mums Who Clean with her hack for removing lint balls (pictured)

Georgia explained in the caption of her video that it was her first time sharing a cleaning hack with the group of over 20,000 Facebook users

'Not sure if this has already been posted before, but I just found the best way to remove those c*****y lint balls from my couch!!!'

She demonstrated how a barbering clipper can be lightly placed over the balls to instantly remove them.

Boasting over 20,000 members, the Facebook group gushed that they have never thought of using barber clippers to trim away lint balls.

'This is so satisfying to watch,' commented one, while a second penned: 'Wow! That's awesome!'

Many praised the idea and admitted to never considering the possibility of using a pair of barber clippers to remove lint balls

A third commented: 'My mind is blown!' while a fourth enthused: 'How have I not thought of this! Smart idea.'

Meanwhile, others branded the hack 'fantastic' and agreed the top tip is far quicker than using an electronic lint machine.

One person commented: 'Love it! And heaps faster than sitting there with a damn electric lint remover'

'I do this with my teens hoodies over an ironing board, but need to be careful not to push too hard or you'll get a tiny hole,' another wrote.

A further penned: 'Love it! So much quicker than electronic lint machine'
Shankari Sundararaman By

On 10 July 2020, Singapore went to the polls in its 14th parliamentary elections even as the country faced the twin challenges of Covid-19 and the severe economic recession that the world has to deal with due to the pandemic. After nearly six decades, the opposition led by the Workers Party (WP) has for the first time won 10 seats out of the 93 in the unicameral Singaporean parliament. The ruling Peoples Action Party (PAP) continues to remain in power with 83 seats, but politically, it is a wake-up call for the party that has been at the helm of political affairs since 1959.

At the heart of the matter are several issues that plagued the ruling party and its approach to politics, which were both internally and externally driven. At the internal level, the PAP had systematically been returned to power through the electoral mandate even while there has not been any substantial role for opposition voices, thereby pushing its own agenda on various reforms and constitutional changes. In most of the elections held so far, the PAP has won more than a two-thirds majority, leaving little room for opposition parties to express their concerns or influence the formulation of key policy matters.

At the external level, the impact of Covid-19 on the Singaporean economy has been critical with the countrys GDP plunging by 41% as it faces the worst recession since the global financial crisis of 2008.

Singapore has clauses in its Constitution that relate to Non-Constituent Members of Parliament (NCMPs) and Nominated Members of Parliament (NMPs). The NCMPs are the contestants with the highest votes among the losing candidates; they are inducted into parliament as opposition voices. This was specifically addressed as a constitutional provision in 1984, given that the PAP continued as the single dominant political party for much of the countrys history.

The number of NCMPs in each parliament varies depending on the number of opposition members elected and the Constitution provides for a maximum of 12 NCMP candidates. The NCMP members actually presented a critical moral dilemma in the political systemthese members were never technically elected opposition members and were basically inducted to provide a veneer that an opposition existed, though some have proved to be strong voices. Moreover, it gave legitimacy to the near total control that the PAP had in parliament, with claims of the opposition being represented by the NCMPs.

Similarly, the Constitution also has provisions for nine NMPs, who are appointed by the President. Normally, these NMPs are independent voices with credible standing in society who are not politically affiliated. Given the ideological leanings of the PAP as a centre-right grouping, the NMPs were mostly technocrats who fitted into the PAPs overarching policy formulations. In the run-up to this years general elections, several noticeable shifts were visible in the political fray. First, a group emerged from within the ruling Peoples Action Party.

A former PAP political leader, Tan Cheng Bock, who had been a strong contender for the presidential post in 2011, formed the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) in 2019. The dynamics of Singapores founding father Lee Kuan Yews family were also playing itself out in this context as his younger son Lee Hsien Yang, brother of the current premier Lee Hsien Loong, joined the PSP, fracturing the legacy and mandate of the prime minister and the PAP even further.

Interestingly, both Tan Cheng Bock and Lee Hsien Yang articulated the opinion that the PAP, as the single dominant party in Singapore, was not capable of leading the country forward given the political complacency associated with repeated incumbency. The call for change was focused on the lack of transparency in the system and highlighted the opaqueness that political dominance by one party leads to, especially in the absence of credible checks and balances.

The polar opposite positions taken by the two sons of Singapores founding father, no doubt, brought life to the short campaign period, but also highlighted the divisiveness in the political process even within the same family. In the elections last month, the PSP lost and two of its losing members have been inducted into the cabinet and declared elected as NCMPs. The most credible shift was the position of the Workers Party (WP), which represents a centre-left social democratic platform. Winning 10 out of the 93 elected seats in parliament, it has increased its share by four additional seats since the 2015 elections.

Significantly, in the context of the recent economic downturn, the WPs seat gain is a credible victory as it represents the working class sections of Singaporean society. The leader of the Workers Party, Pritam Singh, has been made leader of the opposition. In the context of the political volatilities observed across several democracies, this small victory of the Workers Party may not seem that big. However, at a time when the centre-right has claimed its legitimacy across several countries, and given Singapores political history, this is no small feat.

Shankari Sundararaman

Professor at School of International Studies, JNU, New Delhi

(shankari@mail.jnu.ac.in)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 10)  Fresh stimulus measures meant to boost the economy post-coronavirus lockdowns are closer to becoming law.

The House of Representatives approved its version of the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act on final reading on Monday, with 242 yes votes. Six lawmakers voted against the measure.

House Bill 6953 serves as the chamber's version of the stimulus measure, which allots a 162-billion standby fund for interventions to address the current health crisis.

The amount includes 51 billion set for infusion of capital for government financial institutions, 20 billion for low-interest credit for the agriculture sector and implementation of cash-for-work programs, 10 billion for the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, and 10 billion each for the Transportation and Tourism departments.

The capital infusions are meant to push banks to lend more to companies, especially small firms, so they can rebuild their operations.

The measure also allocated 10.5 billion for hiring additional healthcare workers and provision of risk allowance, life insurance and compensation for medical front liners.

The Senate passed its own version of the bill in July. The House earlier passed a version worth 140 billion, matching the amount which the Department of Finance said are available.

The House earlier passed a stimulus package worth more than 1 trillion, but economic managers said it was not "fundable."

Most lawmakers voted in favor of the measure, with House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano saying the bill is the chamber's response to "remaking" the society. Emphasis is placed in balancing lives and livelihoods, with a focus on reviving the agriculture, tourism, and manufacturing sectors.

Minority Leader and Manila Rep. Benny Abante and Quezon City Rep. Kit Belmonte both said the funds provided by the bill were "not enough." Abante said this would be a problem since the measure, once passed, is seen effective until December 31.

Those who rejected the measure said its provisions were vague and unresponsive.

"Hindi taglay nitong Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (BARO) ang hinihinging tugon sa hamong hinaharap natin ngayon [The Bayanihan to Recover as One Act is not responsive to the challenges we are currently facing]. BARO scrimps on cash aid and is vague on much-needed health interventions," Gabriela Party-List Rep. Arlene Brosas said, pointing out that the measure is also silent on free mass testing and comprehensive contact tracing which are crucial to controlling the spread of the disease.

She added that the poor and employed are in need of paid quarantine leaves and protection measures.

Bayan Muna Party-List Rep. Eufemia Cullamat also voted no, saying: "Isang malaking kabiguan ang Bayanihan 1 at isang malaking kamalian ang pagbibigay ng malaking pera at dagdag-kapangyarihan kay Pangulong Duterte doon. Bakit pa ito dadagdagan pa ng part 2 kung malaking sablay naman ang part 1?"

[Translation: Bayanihan 1 was a massive failure and it was a huge mistake to grant a huge sum of money and extraordinary powers to President Duterte then. Why should we pass Bayanihan 2 if part 1 was a letdown?]

RELATED: Duterte asks Congress to pass Bayanihan 2

She is referring to the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act which lasted from March to June that granted President Rodrigo Duterte the authority to realign budget allocations under the 2019 and 2020 spending plans for COVID-19 response and fast-tracked procurement processes for medical equipment.

The government spent 375 billion on response measures, about 200 billion of which went into two-month subsidies to the 18 million poorest Filipino households.

TIMELINE: The COVID-19 response money trail

The chamber also approved other health-related measures on final reading, such as House Bill 6864 or the Better Normal bill which institutionalizes public health standards, and House Bill 6756 which puts up a medical scholarship and return service program in the country.
The electronic toll collection market is projected to reach USD 10. 0 billion by 2025 from USD 6. 9 billion in 2020; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7. 7% during the forecast period. The electronic toll collection market in APAC is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

New York, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Electronic Toll Collection Market with COVID-19 Impact Analysis by Technology, Offering, Application, Type And Region - Global Forecast to 2025" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05586876/?utm_source=GNW

Countries such as China, Japan, India, and South Korea are major contributors to the growth of the electronic toll collection market in APAC. The growth prospective of the electronic toll collection market in APAC is promising with a steady growth rate in the near future. The COVID19 pandemic has affected the market in APAC, however, a steady recovery by 2021 is expected with the significant infrastructural investments and government support. The major restraints for the growth of the market are implementation constraints in emergent nations. Issues related to interoperability and common standards act as major challenges for the growth of the market.



The transponder-/tag-based tolling segment projected to hold a larger share of the electronic toll collection market during the forecast period.

TransCore (US), Q-Free (Norway), and Star Systems International (Hong Kong) are the major companies that offer transponders for electronic tolling systems.TransCore (US) offers RFID transponders and readers, which are widely used in toll operations across the US.



Interoperable multi-protocol transponders provided by the company use existing toll infrastructure, thereby eliminating risky and costly modifications for tolling agencies.



Among applications, the highways segment to grow at a higer CAGR between 2020 and 2025.

The electronic toll collection market is significantly driven by its adoption mainly in developing countries.Government initiatives to promote faster payments of toll fees through a digital mode and decongest highways would generate immense growth opportunities for the ETC market.



For instance, in December 2019, the National Highways Authority of India initiated electronic toll collection at national highways through FASTag, an RFID tag. Many interurban toll highways, including Highway 6 (Israel) and Northern Gateway Toll Road (New Zealand), all over the world use DSRC-based ETC systems.



RFID technology to hold the largest share of the electronic toll collection market during the forecast period.

RFID technology utilizes its radio-frequency electromagnetic fields for the identification of objects that carry RFID tags.This technology is used in electronic identification, tracking, and storing information contained on the tag.



Two-way radio transmitters/receivers called interrogators or readers send a signal to the tag and read its response.RFID readers scan the tag and then send that information to the database for storing.



RFID is a prominent technology used in ETC systems owing to its low operational cost.



North America projected to hold the largest share of the electronic toll collection market in 2025.

The North America is expected to continue to lead the electronic toll collection market by capturing the largest market size throughout the forecast period.The US and Canada are the key countries in North America with most vehicles per person, which is one of the most contributing factors to the growth of the electronic toll collection market.



Additionally, both the countries have the largest networks of interstate and state highways wherein advanced toll collection systems are installed at many locations, and several toll installation projects are in progress for lanes with high traffic. Leading companies such as TransCore (US), Raytheon (US), and Conduent (US) in the electronic toll collection market have their base in North America while having operations in countries across the world. They contribute significantly to the growth of the electronic toll collection market in the region



Breakdown of profiles of primary participants:

 By Company Type: Tier 1 = 35%, Tier 2 = 45%, and Tier 3 = 20%

 By Designation: C-level Executives = 40%, Directors = 35%, and Others = 25%

 By Region: North America = 40%, Europe = 30%, APAC = 20%, and RoW = 10%



Kapsch TrafficCom (Austria), Conduent, Inc. (US), Efkon GmbH (Germany), TransCore (US), and Thales Group (France), Raytheon Technology Corporation (US), Cubic Corporation (US), Siemens AG (Germany), Neology Inc. (US), and Feig Electronics (Germany) are a few major players in the electronic toll collection market.



Research Coverage:

This report segments the electronic toll collection market based on technology, type, offering, and application. The report gives a detailed view of the market across 4 main regions: North America, Europe, APAC, and RoW.



Reasons to Buy the Report:

 This report includes statistics pertaining to the electronic toll collection market based on technology, type, offering, application, and region, along with their respective market sizes

 Major drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges for the electronic toll collection market have been provided in detail in this report

 The report includes illustrative segmentation, analysis, and forecast for the electronic toll collection market based on its segments and subsegments

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05586876/?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




Ghana needs GHc3.5 trillion in order to provide adequate nutrition to 850,000 pregnant women and over 4,000 infants in the country.



The nutritional value should include multiple micro nutrient and calcium supplementation, exclusive breastfeeding of infants and improving complementary feeding interventions.



It is expected that adequate nutrition would reduce maternal death by 82% and 16% stunted growth in children under five years and ultimately minimise infant mortality.



Currently, one out of every five children in Ghana is malnourished due to endemic poverty, especially in the northern parts of the country.



Dr Haruna Issaheku, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economics, University of Development Studies, made this known when he presented findings on a study to a seven-member Eminent Panel at the Ghana Priorities Conferencein Accra on Sunday August 9, 2020.



The event was organised by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), in collaboration with the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, an international think tank.



The conference will allow the Panel to critique 80 priority policy interventions using the cost-benefit analysis, to provide government and the donor community with the most effective policy solutions to accelerate socio-economic growth.



Dr Issaheku said for instance, it would cost government GHc203 million annually to provide multiple micro nutrition solutions to pregnant women.



Also, it would cost government GHc26 million annually by way of breastfeeding promotions and sensitisation programmes, in order for 174,000 mothers to undertake exclusive breastfeeding, which will save 745 infant lives annually.



The nutrition intervention, he said, would cost the nation to the tune of GHc623 million and compel 43,000 extra mothers to undertake exclusive breastfeeding.



Dr Issaheku noted that should government invest one Ghana cedi in nutrition solution interventions, GHc24 would be accrued to the nation.



Meanwhile, Prof.Charles Adjasi of the University of Stellenbosch Business School, who presented a study on poverty interventions, outlined four measures to alleviate poverty in the country.



They included providing skill training to help individuals pursue economic activities that would earn them regular income, cash transfers to poor households, financial assistance to microfinance enterprises operated by poor households and social housing or shelter to urban-poor households to enhance livelihoods.

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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BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 10

By Eldar Janashvili - Trend:

The Social Development Fund for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of Azerbaijan has announced an open tender to build a four-storey 16-apartment building No. 6 with the necessary social and technical infrastructure for 200 families of IDPs in Samukh district.

The tender will be held on one lot.

The tender participation fee is 200 manat ($117.6).

All those wishing to take part in the survey of proposals should send the necessary documents before 16:00 (GMT+4) on August 27, 2020, and their proposals  until 18:00 on Sept. 4, 2020.

The packages with proposals will be opened at 16:00 on Sept. 7, 2020.

Address: 57D Tbilisi Avenue, Nasimi district, Baku, Azerbaijan.

Phone: (+994 12) 431 87 03

Contact: Aygun Huseynova

(1 USD = 1.7 AZN on Aug. 10)
BASEL, Switzerland, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- NBE-Therapeutics, the Swiss-based company developing best-in- class cancer therapies based on its proprietary, highly differentiated Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) platform, announces the appointment of Prof. Dr. Erich Schlick as Independent Chairman of its Board of Directors.

Prof. Schlick has over 35 years' experience across the pharmaceutical and investment industry and has been non-executive director for many biotech companies. He is currently a General Partner and Managing Director at Wellington Partners, a Munich-based venture capital firm focused on life science investments. Prior to this, he served as Director and Head of 3i Healthcare Germany and as Deputy Sector Head of 3i Healthcare Worldwide. Prior to venture capital, Prof. Schlick spent 15 years with BASF Pharma / Knoll AG where he was an Executive Board Member with worldwide responsibility for preclinical and clinical R&D. During this time, he obtained worldwide registrations for several products in cardiovascular, metabolic and pain indications. He is one of a very few European drug developers to see their innovation become a blockbuster. In the 1990s he initiated the development of Humira, the first fully human therapeutic monoclonal antibody for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. Prof. Schlick studied medicine in Berlin, Mainz, Heidelberg and trained at the US National Cancer Institute, where he specialized in oncology and immunology. He holds a professorship of immune pharmacology at the University of Heidelberg.

Detlev Mennerich, Partner at Boehringer Ingelheim Ventures and Board Member of NBE-Therapeutics, commented: "We are very pleased to welcome Prof. Dr. Erich Schlick to NBE-Therapeutics as Chairman. His unrivalled experience and extensive network in the global life sciences industry will be invaluable to NBE-Therapeutics as it moves NBE-002, an anti-ROR1 Antibody Drug Conjugate through clinical development."

Prof. Dr. Schlick, Chairman of NBE-Therapeutics, said: "NBE Therapeutics is developing best-in-class oncology treatments to increase survival and improve quality of life for cancer patients worldwide. I am very pleased to join as Chairman of NBE's Board of Directors and I am looking forward to working with the Board and Management Team to help maximize the potential of its proprietary, highly differentiated ADC platform."

About NBE-Therapeutics

NBE-Therapeutics is a privately-owned Swiss biotech company based in Basel and founded in 2012 with the vision of developing next-generation immune-stimulatory antibody drug conjugate (iADC) products. NBE advances its products to clinical proof of concept with the goal of improving treatment options for cancer patients.

The company leverages proprietary platforms covering all aspects of ADC development: its Transpo-mAb Display technology for antibody discovery, its SMAC-Technology for site-specific payload conjugation of toxins to antibodies and a novel highly effective and immune-stimulatory anthracycline-based toxin platform. The company is financially backed by the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (D), the PPF Group and Novo Holdings (DK) as institutional investors, and by additional Swiss, German and Dutch private investors. For more information about NBE visit the website www.nbe-therapeutics.com.

A photo of Prof. Dr. Erich Schlick is available on request.

SOURCE NBE-Therapeutics
New Delhi [India], Aug 10 (ANI/BusinessWire India): Maulik Sisodia is one of the well-known social workers in the country and he has been the heart behind numerous social activities in the region of Rajasthan and Maharashtra.

Maulik runs Tarun Bharat Sangh, an organization that works to bring dignity and prosperity to the life of a destitute section of the nation through sustainable development measures.

Situated at the foothills of Aravalli ranges of Rajasthan, is the village Bheekampura there is an Ashram called the Tarun Ashram. There one can find Maulik guiding volunteers on how to educate people about water conservation and its need.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, Maulik and his team of volunteers worked tirelessly as Corona Warriors and supplied the needy with essential food items at their doorsteps. With the help of local bodies and village heads, Maulik immediately chalked a plan to help the nomads and the daily wage labourers. They even supplied cooked food to thousands of migrant labourers who were rendered jobless and penniless.

Born into a family of social-reformists and zameendars of Baghpat (erstwhile Meerut) and brought up in Jaipur did MA in Economics from the University of Rajasthan and MBA in Agri-Business from Symbiosis, Maharashtra. After which he worked with country's premier agribusiness-corporate for a year.

Maulik has been working on rejuvenation of two small Rivers Shairni and Tevar in the basin of Chambal of an aspirational district Karauli in Rajasthan and a River Mahakali in the basin of Agrani in Sangli district of Maharashtra impacting more than One Lakh families. In the three river basins, he has built and restored more than 150 traditional rain-water harvesting structures (Pokhar, Pagaare, Taal) with the capacity of conserving Five billion litre rain-water at once.

"Rivers have always been a basic unit in the matrix of development of human civilization. But now we have lost all the respect and empathy toward these living eco-system. So it is the time to adopt small rivers and rejuvenate them with your sweat and patience. Hollow table-discussion won't work. Regeneration of small eco-systems around small rivers will lead to revival of macro level hydro-cycles and eco-systems. This is the only way to adapt to climate change crisis," he said.

Maulik's motivation in life is his father, Rajendra Singh, popularly known as the Waterman of India, who has been bestowed with the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2001 and Stockholm Water Prize in 2015 and is a water conservationist and environmentalist. Maulik joined his father in his social work and he has now created an identity of his own with his social works. He was also invited with his father as special guest on the stage of Kaun Banega Crorepati Karmveer Special for their contribution to the society.

"I work in Rajasthan and Maharashtra in the areas where farmers go out to earn a living as they do not have water for their land so if we could provide water to their lands, maybe they will not go back to do labour work in the cities and can proudly spend his life as a farmer. Rejuvenating Rivers, Forest and Land are the only solutions to solve this problem," says Maulik.

Maulik and his team have motivated and supported 1,000 women-farmers in Alwar district of Rajasthan, to do efficient use of water in agriculture by adopting sprinklers system saving 100 million litre of groundwater every year.

Water Voice:

Maulik is also steering a national movement of water literacy "Jal Jan Jodo Abhiyaan" to protect the rights of rivers, water bodies and their natural course & basin and to ensure community rights on this precious resource through creation.

The Corona Warrior:

On 24th March 2020, the Government of India announced the largest and strictest lockdown ever happened in the history of humankind in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Maulik held a quick meeting with the volunteers of Tarun Bharat Sangh at his ashram, discussing the probable situations people could face as the conditions across the country looked grim. They concluded that the nomads and the daily wage labourers would be hit the hardest.

"In the situation of natural disasters, you can go to volunteer but in this a curfew was imposed and even if you wanted to help, you still can be arrested under the law," says Maulik remembering the days of the first phase of lockdown.

Maulik decided that for immediate relief, dry ration should be provided and the day lockdown was announced, they started working for the relief of the needy. They met the local Govt. authorities and took all the necessary permissions, gathered volunteers and worked in full cooperation and passion.

His team made processes on how to identify the people who needed relief. They worked with the local village heads, principles, development officers, Asha workers and important people from the villages.

What the team thought was a work to help 50 families, soon became a chain and spread into six districts of Rajasthan, from Alwar, Bharatpur, Dausa, Jaipur, Karauli and Dhaulpur, helping around 10,000 families.

During the lockdown, his team worked tirelessly for two months to bring in the necessary items, made them into small kits and then went to these villages to distribute them. The ration kit consists of 15 essential edible ingredients sufficient for a month.

During this relief work, they also organized a special campaign for vaccination of infants and providing healthy and nutritious supplements for pregnant women and new mothers for one month. They supported the installation of oxygen plants in the local block level hospital which was first of kind in the district.

When the migrant workers from the cities started returning, there was an increase of almost 25 per cent population with no source of food. Maulik's team provided the 5000 plus migrant workers and their families with cooked food. They also extended the delivery of cooked food to these families for one month.

"It was sheer luck that when coronavirus came to India, it was harvesting time so at least the farmers had something to eat at their homes or else the situation would have been much worse as compared to what it has been," says Maulik.

At the ashram, Maulik can be seen doing shramdaan, motivating the youth volunteers and doing field visits. Maulik feels that just like nature, human life too has a balance and one should work towards maintaining that balance.

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.)
Home Two wheelers Harley-Davidson India Operations Scaled Down: Lays Off Staff As Part Of Downsizing Process oi-Rahul Nagaraj

Harley-Davidson India is said to have laid off employees and cut down on production operations at its assembly plant in Bawal, Haryana. According to reports from TOI, the company is having to scale down all operations, not only in India but globally, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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She has recently been flaunting her staggering two-stone weight loss during lockdown.

And Chloe Ferry was proudly showcasing the results of her fitness regime as she shared bikini snaps on Monday.

The Geordie Shore star, 24, showed off her famous hourglass curves in her animal print two-piece.

Stunning: Chloe Ferry was proudly showcasing the results of her fitness regime as she shared bikini snaps on Monday

The reality star posed up a storm in the mirror selfie, as she made the most of the UK heatwave.

The TV personality also shared snaps of her skimpy outfit on her Stories as she showcased her enviable figure to her 3.4 million followers.

She captioned her post: 'Baby face going for a swim.'

Gorgeous: The Geordie Shore star, 24, showed off her famous hourglass curves in her animal print two-piece

Soaking in the sun: The reality star posed up a storm in the mirror selfie, as she made the most of the UK heatwave

It comes after Chloe ignored speculation she is faking a trip to Ibiza and has instead secretly joined her ex boyfriend Sam Gowland, 25, in Dubai.

The star is reportedly back together with her co-star ex Sam - despite being in the throes of filming Celebs Go Dating.

A source has told The Sun the former-couple are 'reconnecting'; but fans have also connected the dots.

Back on? It comes as Chloe is reportedly back together with her co-star ex Sam - despite being in the throes of filming Celebs Go Dating

All eyes on her: Chloe later but on a very busty display in a pink cut-out swimsuit

Interesting: The pair are both on holiday currently, with Sam in Dubai, and Chloe claiming to be in Ibiza

The pair are both on holiday currently, with Sam in Dubai, and Chloe claiming to be in Ibiza.

Savvy social media fans of the reality stars have spotted very similar backdrops in each of their Instagram posts, deducing they're on a secret getaway together.

Clues suggesting they're both in Dubai, and that Chloe is in fact not in Ibiza, include matching door-frames and swimming pools in the backdrop of their separate photos.

Rumbled! Savvy social media fans of the reality stars have spotted very similar backdrops in each of their Instagram posts, deducing that they're on a secret getaway together

In addition, Chloe made the mistake of filming herself talking about a delivery service only available in Dubai.

Adding to this, a source said: 'Chloe's taking it really slowly and she's keen to keep it quiet as her friends will all be furious after all the drama. It's a chance for them to reconnect.'

MailOnline has approached reps for Chloe and Celebs Go Dating for comment.

Plot holes: Chloe made the mistake of filming herself talking about a delivery service only available in Dubai

It's thought Chloe could have initially flown to Ibiza, where she was supposedly shooting images for her swimwear line.

On Tuesday morning, she posted,' Be back never!' and tagged herself at Ibiza locations.

But fans have tried to call her out as they began noticing holes in her story.

Snap! Chloe posed in front of a black door with a silver handle. The same door design cropped up in one of Sam's videos

One follower commented on her latest Instagram post: 'Actually rooting for you and Sam but don't get why you lie to your followers? You're in the same pool as Sam and it's in your stories, same furniture in the background.

'Just no need to lie to us... amazing if you're back with Sam but no need to lie to us and tag somewhere you're clearly not!' [sic]

Another added: 'She's not in Ibiza... why is she saying that? She just could had said nothing, then she have had her private life!' [sic]

The present season of Celebs Go Dating signed Chloe up amid what appeared to be the complete end to her and Sam's romance.

The couple - who have been on/off for years and had a turbulent relationship since first getting together in 2017 - were believed to split for good in February, prompting her to sign up for the virtual version of the celebrity dating show.
The volume of water loss from Antarcticas floating ice shelves over the past 25 years would fill the Grand Canyon, according to a new study published on Monday.

The continents ice shelves were found to have lost nearly 4,000 gigatons since 1994 due to melting from increased heat in the ocean as a result of the climate crisis.

Although there was much variation in the rate at which the ocean is melting the ice shelves, overall the ice is melting faster than it is being replaced in Antarctica.

Ice shelf loss does not directly impact sea-level rise as they are already floating in the water. However ice shelves form gigantic buttresses to slow the slide of ice sheets into the ocean and therefore, as they shrink, their ability to hold back ice sheets begins to falter.

Antarctica holds enough ice to raise sea levels globally by an estimated 197 feet (60 metres). The West Antarctic ice sheet, considered to be in a precarious position by some scientists, would increase global seal levels by 10 feet (3m) if it were to melt completely.

Global sea levels have risen by more than six inches in the past 70 years, with half of that occurring since 2000. Even half a foot of sea-level rise has led to a 233 per cent average increase in tidal flooding across the US, according to Sealevelrise.org.

Antarcticas ice-shelf melting over the past quarter of a century (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)

Our rapidly-warming planet causes sea levels to rise on two fronts. Warmer temperatures melt ice sheets and glaciers, leading the run-off to flow into oceans. The ocean also absorbs excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions and warm water expands, taking up more space than colder water.

The new study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, involved researchers from NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, Earth and Space Research in Corvallis, Oregon and Colorado School of Mines.

The research is based on 25 years worth of data from four European Space Agency (ESA) satellite missions along with NASA ice velocity data and computer modelling, charting a detailed history of the losses around the edges of the continent.

It is notoriously difficult to study Antarctic ice shelves due to their size and remote location so satellites offer a practical solution. They send radio waves to the ground up to 20,000 times a second, allowing scientists to measure the travel time of those waves and determine the precise height of land or ice.

This method allowed for the first-ever analysis of melting across all Antarctic ice shelves, totalling an area of 580,000 square miles (1.5million sq km)  more than three times the size of Spain.

Lead author and Scripps Oceanography graduate student, Susheel Adusumilli, said: This is the most convincing evidence so far that long-term changes in the Southern Ocean are the reason for ongoing Antarctic ice loss.

Its incredible that we are able to use satellites that orbit around 500 miles above the earth to see changes in regions of the ocean where even ships cant go.

The study also identified the ocean depths where melting is occurring, which has impacts beyond sea-level rise. Melting ice leads to colder and fresher water rushing into the ocean which affects the global climate and ocean circulation.
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, whose rebellion raised questions about the stability of the Congress government in the state, appeared to have agreed to a truce after his meeting with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on Monday, putting an end to a month-long uncertainty involving dramatic legal and political flashpoints in the western state.

Pilot expressed his grievances in detail in the open and conclusive discussion with former party president Gandhi, the Congress said in a statement, while declaring the formation of a three-member committee to look into the issues raised by the 42-year-old leader and the 18 other rebel legislators who backed him.

...Shri Sachin Pilot has committed to working in the interest of the Congress party and the Congress government in Rajasthan, the statement issued by KC Venugopal, Congress general secretary in charge of the organisation, said.

Leaders close to Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, who has had differences with Pilot on a number of issues since the Congress-led government came to power in December 2018, said Gehlot will accept the high commands decision and termed Pilots move as a face-saver.

Pilots apparent softening of stance not only bolsters Gehlot politically and eliminates any possible threat to his government but also gives a much-needed breather to the Congress, which has been suffering due to a perceived generational gap between its old and young leaders at a time when it is also struggling to stay relevant nationally in the face of an aggressive Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) .

At one point, a rapprochement looked distant with Gehlot launching a personal attack on Pilot , but Mondays meeting changed all that.

The meeting, which came four days ahead of the beginning of a crucial assembly session in the state, took place for over two hours after noon at the 12, Tughlaq Road residence of Gandhi, a leader from the Pilot camp familiar with the details told HT, requesting anonymity. He also confirmed the presence of Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

The Gandhis did save the day for the Gehlot government, the person quoted above said, confirming a peaceful resolution. They [the Congress leadership] assured Pilot that the issues he had would be looked into, he said.

The Congress leadership appreciated that Pilot did not respond to utterances by the chief minister and other leaders owing allegiance to him. All issues that his supporters raised will also be looked into, said the leader. Pilot also stressed that the grievances of his people should be addressed, they should get respect and their work should get done and he categorically stated that he does not want any post.

Later in the day, Pilot said we raised issues of principles before the Congress leadership, and welcome their assurance of a time-bound redressal of our grievances. Asserting that he is not after any post and that the party can take back any position given to him, Pilot told the media that he thought certain issues had to be raised for the benefit of the party.

While a lot of unparliamentarily words were used, I have chosen to maintain the dignity of the discourse, Pilot told HT. He also said he was set to head back for Jaipur on Tuesday.

Pilot has given up his claim to chief ministership, a second Congress leader HT spoke to said, though there was no word on this from the former deputy chief ministers team.

It was the first time that Gandhi met Pilot since the now-dismissed deputy chief minister left Jaipur on July 12. Since then, he has camped at various places in the national capital region  from Faridabad to Manesar  with the Congress legislators backing him. The state Congress unit and Pilot and his team have also been locked in a legal battle over the speakers powers in initiating disqualification proceedings against them.

It was not immediately clear whether Pilot will be given a responsibility at the central level as part of the peace formula.

Pilot and the legislators supporting him are expected to attend the crucial assembly session beginning August 14. Confident of its numbers, the Gehlot government was expected to take a floor test in the House. But, in view of the latest developments, it is not sure if that will be required.

On Monday, seven-time legislator Bhanwarlal Sharma, a key member of the Pilot camp who was suspended by the Congress, met Gehlot to assure him of his support.

It [the session] is on the 14th; so there is time left. We will be making an announcement soon, said another leader from the Pilot camp.

The second Congress leader said it was Pilot who sought a meeting with the central leadership. This leader said Pilot has been speaking to senior leaders Ahmad Patel and Venugopal.

Asked if Rajasthan will be out of bounds for Pilot, another party functionary said: We are not aware of any promise given to him by Rahul Gandhi. What transpired between them at the personal level is not known to us.

A section in the Congress believes Pilot had a rethink because of a difference of opinion within his group; some of them were worried that Pilot did not have the numbers to destabilise Gehlots government.

Rajasthan-based political analyst Narayan Bareth said the developments are lesson for the Congress that it should promote only those who have risen through the ranks. Pilot should also realise that the organisation and its ideology are more important than any post, he said.

The crisis in Rajasthan surfaced after Pilot received a notice from the special operations group of Rajasthan Police on July 10, triggering a revolt that has been in the offing for months. It asked him to record his statement regarding an alleged attempt to topple the Congress government.

Though the Congress said a similar notice was sent to Gehlot, leaders close to Pilot called it a joke; for it is the chief minister who is in charge of the home department that oversees the police force. Pilots camp said the notice was yet another move to humiliate the deputy chief minister and undermine his authority.

The Congress removed Pilot as the deputy chief minister and state Congress president on July 14 and two of his supporters, including Sharma, were suspended from the party.

Gehlot alleged that the Centres ruling BJP was trying to topple his government and his camp also said the BJP was helping Pilot. While the BJP repeatedly blamed the Congresss internal rift for the Rajasthan crisis, Pilot said publicly that he would not join the BJP.

As the spotlight turned to the numbers amidst possibilities of a floor test, the Gehlot camp appeared to have the support of 101 legislators (though this did not include speaker CP Joshi) in the 200-member assembly. Pilot had the backing of 18 other Congress MLAs and three independents. Bhanwarlal Meghwal, one Congress MLA said to be close to Pilot, is indisposed. The BJP and its ally Rashtriya Loktrantrik Party have 75 seats.

On the day the Rajasthan crisis appeared to have been resolved, state BJP president Satish Poonia sharpened his attack on Gehlot, asking him to quit on moral grounds.

I had said on day one that it is the infighting of the Congress and they kept running from one place to another. There should be an audit of it in janta ki adalat, Poonia told reporters at the party office in Jaipur, referring to allegations that his party was involved in the mutiny.

In this entire episode, the one who is actually a villain tried to become a hero. Ashok Gehlot should quit as the chief minister on moral grounds as it would lead to the solution of a lot of problems.

(with inputs from HTC in Jaipur)
Half of Ukrainians (53%) support restoration of transport links and full-fledged ties with the population of temporarily uncontrolled territories.

This is evidenced by the results of a recent poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine and in cooperation with the ZMINA Human Rights Center.

According to the poll results, almost 23% of respondents believe that the current state of affairs should be maintained: Government declares support for the population in the temporarily uncontrolled territories but maintains economic and transport blockade.

Eight percent of Ukrainians believe that the state should introduce a complete blockade of uncontrolled territories.

According to the press release, the poll conducted in May-June 2020 aimed to find out the attitude of Ukrainians towards certain human rights challenges related to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Half of Ukrainians (55%) also believe that residents of uncontrolled territories are victims of the conflict and need full support of the state. Nineteen percent of respondents say that residents of uncontrolled territories do not need additional support. Another 11% believe that the Government of Ukraine should not support residents who stay in the uncontrolled territories because they made a decision to continue to live there.

Ukrainians were also asked who, in their opinion, should be held criminally liable for cooperating with the authorities of the so-called Donetsk Peoples Republic and Luhansk Peoples Republic.

Half of the respondents (53%) believe that only those, whose guilt in war and other serious crimes will be proven in court, should be held liable. Another 22% of respondents consider that all those who occupy senior posts in the so-called "DPR" / "LPR" should be held liable. Only 7% think that all residents of uncontrolled territories have cooperated with local authorities in one form or another. Another 3% believe that no one should be held accountable.

Almost 59% of Ukrainians support Ukraine's membership in the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Another 24% do not know what the International Criminal Court is.

The poll was conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in May-June 2020 in all regions of Ukraine, except for the territories that are temporarily not controlled by the Government of Ukraine: the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, some districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The poll was commissioned by UNDP with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.

ol
Controversial musician Barima Sidney has urged his fellow artistes who wish to do music for any of the political parties in Ghana.

He is advising them to make sure they charge and take money before any move to do that.

The African Money hit maker during the 2016 general election threw his support behind the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and went further to do music for the party.

But speaking on Akoma Fm in Kumasi in an interview monitored by MyNewsGh.com, he noted that musicians must utilize the business aspect of their craft.

As a celebrity, when you decide to endorse any political party or candidate make sure you claim your cash. Never do it for free; I will never say that Just because you love the person or party. You only do that at the expense of your career; hence in any case you must take money. He noted

You cant blame them in future if they dont show appreciation after giving free endorsement, he added.

However, Sidney has clearly said the NPP did not pay him for his work because he did it out of love for the party.

It is therefore unclear if Sidneys comment is as a result of the NPP not showing any appreciation for his work of not.

---Mynewsgh
Akeyem Abuakwa Traditional Council has written to the Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh and Ghana Education Service (GES) demanding the immediate closure of Bright Senior High Schools over the misconduct of their students for allegedly beating WAEC Officials.



This was contained in a statement issued and Signed under the hand of D.M. Ofori-Atta, the Secretary to Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, assert that the violent incident confirms several reports of corrupt and exploitative activities of Bright Senior High School.



Of more importance to this matter and of illustrative and evidential significance is his bribery of certain officers of the West African Examination Council over the past decade. This situation is proven by the honesty of Mr. Gyan Mensah who decided not bow to the filthy temple of indecency and corruption.



Read the full statement below;



For immediate release



DEMAND FOR THE CLOSURE OF BRIGHT SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL



10th August, 2020



It is the well-considered opinion of the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Council to hold up to its responsibility in relation to the affairs of the Bright Senior High School situated at Kukurantumi in the Abuakwa North District of the Eastern Region. Particular emphasis is the conduct over the past decade of the proprietor of the school, a certain Bright Amponsah.



This statement is provoked by the incident of examination fraud of grave significance in direct relation to the assault of Mr. Gyan Mensah and Damolie Emmanuel Pacome, an official of the West African Examination Council and a reporter or the Daily Graphic respectively in their lawful duties to insist on a fair conduct of WASSCE examination.



The assault was instigated and ordered under the misdirection of Bright Amponsah, the proprietor of the rogue Bright Senior High School which for over a decade has been engaged in ultra-commercial and profiteering aims which runs against the established interest of the educational policy and integrity of public examination.



The above is not an isolated incident; it confirms several reports of corrupt and exploitative motive of Bright Senior High School.



Of more importance to this matter and of illustrative and evidential significance is his bribery of certain officers of the West African Examination Council over the past decade.



This situation is proven by the honesty of Mr. Gyan Mensah who decided not bow to the filthy temple of indecency and corruption.



The Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Council takes this matter seriously.



I am directed to express publicly that the exams results from the rogue Bright SHS are falsified.



It has become evident that 90% of graduands of the Bright SHS drop out of public universities in their first year due to their lack of ability to meet the intellectual and academic demands of tertiary institutions.



The Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Council is most concerned with the fact of the abuse and degradation of its young mind, and regrettably is unable to tolerate this situation.



The Council finds the liberal attitude of public authorities on this matter as radical deviation from responsible attitude in terms of enforcement of public policy.



Also to the above, it has been noted that Bright SHS in terms of admission process and curriculum is in violation of all the protocols and regulatory measures of the Ghana Education Service. This point is proven without doubt.



The Council directs its decision in relation as stated above to live up to its customary responsibility to defend the interest of the youth and ensure integrity in public life.



Further are reports of sexual abuse, which for the sake of lack of evidence I am not directed to relate.



Finally, I am instructed by the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Council and on the august permission of His Majesty Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin on the following measures divorced from any compromise:



-The closure of the Bright Senior High School with immediate effect.



-The arrest of Bright Amponsah, the proprietor of Bright Senior High School and his immediate prosecution.



- On humanitarian grounds and fatherly consideration, the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Council will assist in the rehabilitation of affected students; this is in consideration of their immediate and best interest.



Further, a thorough investigation of the operations of Bright SHS over the last decade with particular concern with its dealings with certain officers of the West African Examination Council WAEC.



Also, to be emphasized and insisted, a comprehensive auditing of the academic and social situation of Bright SHS by the GES and the police.



. D.M. OFORI-ATTA STATE SECRETARY



THE HON. MINISTER FOR EDUCATION MINISTRIES ACCRA CC: The Director General. Ghana Education Service.



The Director General West African Examinations Council



Eastern Regional Police Commander Koforidua









Source: Josephine Acheampomaa/[email protected]









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Several leading Armenian media organizations have called for a "serious investigation" into an incident in which former police chief Vladimir Gasparian threatened two RFE/RL Armenian Service journalists and obstructed their work on a report about government plans to demolish private houses illegally constructed near Lake Sevan.

In a joint statement issued on August 10, the Committee To Protect Freedom of Expression, the Yerevan Press Club, the Asparez journalists' club, and seven other organizations stressed that Gasparian "must be held accountable in accordance with the law."

"During his time in office as chief of police, Vladimir Gasparian stood out through his arrogant attitude toward journalists and in some cases through his cruelty," the statement said.

It mentioned the 2015 and 2016 protests in Armenia's capital, Yerevan, "when more than 40 journalists and cameramen were targeted by police and were subjected to physical violence and illegal persecution."

"All this went unpunished, and, apparently, that is the reason why today the former police chief continues to display indecent behavior toward journalists," the statement said.

Gasparian, who served as Armenia's police chief for seven years before being dismissed after the change of government in May 2018, on August 8 drove his vehicle in the direction of the two Azatutyun reporters, almost running them over, after seeing that they were filming in the lakeside area where his house is presumably located.

Gasparian threatened the reporters, using phrases like "I'll shoot you" and "I'll slaughter you," and, using offensive language, he also demanded that the reporters not show his house in their report.

"We are horrified at this attack on our Armenian Service reporters, by no less than a former chief of police," RFE/RL acting President Daisy Sindelar said.

"The reporters were covering a story of significant public interest when Mr. Gasparian nearly struck them with his vehicle, threatened to kill them, and forced them to erase their footage," Sindelar said.

"We demand that police investigate the incident, and that Mr. Gasparian be held accountable for endangering journalists who were simply doing their jobs," she added.

After RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported the incident, police on August 9 formally opened a criminal investigation, which is currently under way.



If found guilty, Gasparian risks a prison sentence from three to seven years in prison.

The reporters were working on a follow-up story after newly appointed Environment Minister Romanos Petrosian said this week that the authorities will formally start the process of demolishing illegal constructions near Lake Sevan on August 10.

According to media reports, a number of houses belonging to several former high-ranking officials, including Gasparian, are affected by the decision.

Earlier this week Petrosian ordered the demolishing of a lakeside resort where a party, with a current pro-government lawmaker in attendance, had been held in breach of coronavirus safety rules set by the authorities.

Petrosian then turned to other buildings around the lake, which environmentalists say is endangered by overuse.

"Here we have no legal issues, as there are no ownership rights pertaining to these territories, consequently there are no prospects of legal actions [against the government]," the minister said.

Initially, 130 business facilities will be affected, but a total of 3,800 buildings, including houses, are eventually to be demolished.

Environmentalists argue that illegal constructions -- both business facilities and private houses -- greatly damage the lake's ecosystem, resulting in its usually blue water turning green in some places during the summer in recent years.

The minister said the demolition was going to be a "long process" and that only the first steps were being taken now, but formally the process will start on August 10.

An environmental plan for Lake Sevan, which lies at 1,900 meters above sea level, aims to raise its level, and the buildings that are to be demolished lie below the level to which it is to be raised.

Raising the level of the lake, the largest body of fresh water in Armenia, has been the stated goal of consecutive governments.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 09:53:50|Editor: huaxia

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PANAMA CITY, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Eleven people from one family were killed during a flood in Panama on Sunday, according to the country's civil protection authorities.

The Bejuco River in Veraguas province west of Panama City flooded after heavy rains that swept away the family's house during their sleep in the coastal town of Calovebora, the officials said. Nine of the victims were minors.

Panamanian President Laurentino Cortizo expressed his condolences on Twitter.

Authorities continued to search for more people, as there had initially been reports of 13 missing. The civil protection service Sunday warned of heavy storms with lightning in much of the country. Enditem
NEW HAVEN  Every so often, small groups of people would break into cheers outside the Hall of Records Saturday as a first-time voter slipped their primary ballot into the drop box set up outside the government building.

Among them were Sam Crumlish and his twin brother, Caleb Crumlish, who turned 18 this summer and wanted to participate in one of the defining rituals in the United States: casting a vote.

They were joined by some 450 other residents, who trickled in over the course of the day, to take advantage of the system set up by City Clerk Michael Smart where party members who had not yet received their ballots for Tuesdays primaries in the mail, or wanted to get an application and cast a ballot, could do so.

Smart, with five staff members and volunteers, checked peoples drivers licenses, vetted them against the voter roles and gave instructions explained on how to fill out the necessary paperwork.

In New Haven, appearing on the presidential ballot is Donald J. Trump and Rocque Rocky De La Fuente for the Republican primary; Joseph Biden, Tulsi Gabbard and Bernie Sanders are on the Democratic side. De La Fuente, Gabbard and Sanders however, have dropped out, but they did so after the ballots were printed.

Unlike other municipalities, New Haven does not have primaries for state House and state Senate seats this year.

Smart will set up the same process outside the Hall of Records from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday to accommodate more voters. His office sent out some 1,500 ballots last week after receiving late applications. He is urging voters to come get a ballot and to put their ballots in the drop box, rather than the mail.

He estimated the voters who showed up Saturday were split 60/40 between those whose ballots had not yet reached their homes and those who opted to both apply and vote in the same day.

Caleb Crumlish participated in the process, but was disappointed that the contests among the Democrats for the partys nomination for president had wrapped up so quickly, leaving Biden as the presumptive nominee.

Whats the point of having everyone vote if it is going to be done in this weird staggered format, leaving only one candidate by the time it gets to Connecticut, Caleb Crumlish said of the nominating system.

He said he cast his ballot for Sanders. I still did it, but it was more of a symbolic gesture. This entire thing was a symbolic gesture because there is only one candidate, the Sound School student said.

Still, he felt it was worth participating.

If you are not going to get involved in the pointless stuff, are you going to get involved in the stuff that matters? It is probably good to practice on how this whole thing goes, even if the procedure (absentee ballot) might be kind of difficult, Caleb said.

He is going to see how safe it will be in the fall in terms of COVID-19 cases and whether it makes sense to vote in person for the Nov. 3 presidential election.

Most of the people who came by Saturday were seasoned voters and were grateful for this late opportunity to cast a vote, when their ballots had not yet sown up. State rules did not allow ballots to be sent out until at least July 21, but they were sent several days after that.

Smart said lawmakers should make an adjustment and push the date ballots go out further back to build in flexibility and to take into account the millions of absentee ballots that are expected to be cast for Nov. 3.

Connecticut sent out 267,000 ballots for the primaries. Usually absentee ballots account for 8 per cent of votes cast. This year, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is expected to be 60 percent, according to the Secretary of the States office.

Jerry Poole, co-chairman of Ward 23, got his ballot late, but still mailed it in. Worried, however, that it would not get to the City Clerk in time for Tuesdays primary, he filled out another application and cast his ballot Saturday. When absentee ballots are counted on Tuesday, one of his will be discounted.

Poole, 75, takes enfranchisement and the coronavirus seriously, in terms of voting safely.

His 98-year-old mother recently passed away after contracting COVID-19.

I have a lot of issues that I have been dealing with. Im dealing with being a Black man in this country. Im dealing with the pandemic situation ... Im dealing with the changes that could take us backwards to the days of slavery  almost, he said of the current political situation. I have a lot on my mind that takes me down here to vote.

Like (the late U.S. Rep.) John Lewis says, the vote is the most precious thing we have to fight all this. Not guns, the vote, Poole said. So I hope people will come, cast their ballots and be part of the process. We have so many people who said that the vote dont count. Oh my gracious, are they crazy?

He said this is the most serious time in his political life. Poole, like others, said he is worried about reported slowdowns at the U.S. Postal System and how that will impact the presidential election.

Deta Reid said she got a call from her alder and neighbors as well, recommending they go vote on Saturday.

It is so convenient. We are so glad we did this, Reid said of herself and her husband. She said the staff were so kind and patient. They made it as easy as pie.

Brad Gallant and Joanna Waley-Cohen also cast their ballots Saturday.

It was the easiest thing in the world, Gallant said. They were very efficient, Waley-Cohen, who was voting for the first time after becoming a citizen, said. It is kind of exciting.

mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com
by Silvina Premat

The agreement, signed in 2015, became official along with a currency swap worth US$ 18.5 billion. The facility, which has cost US$ 50 million so far, is run by an agency controlled by the Chinese military. For Western experts, it can be used for military purposes. The concessions are too good for China, sayas Argentine analyst.

Buenos Aires (AsiaNews)  Argentina has officially granted China a controversial space station that went into operation two years ago in Patagonia.

The decision followed an explicit request from Chinese President Xi Jinping to his Argentine counterpart Alberto Fernandez.

It came in the same week that Argentina's central bank renewed a currency swap with the Chinese central bank for US$ 18.5 billion.

For several observers, the two agreements seal the political-economic alliance of the two countries.

Fernandez signed into the law a bill adopted in 2015. The latter grants China 200-hectare base in Neuquen province with a 50-year tax exemption.

The facility is operated by the Satellite Launch and Tracking Control General agency, which is controlled by the Chinese People's Army, and uses only Chinese personnel.

So far, Beijing has invested US$ 50 million to build the station, which includes a 35-metre antenna. The Argentine government can only use 10 per cent of the operating time of the space observation equipment.

In addition to the "peaceful" exploration of the darker side of the moon, ostensibly Chinas reason for the base, European and US experts believe the facility has other purposes as well.

They warn of possible espionage, sabotage and other military activities banned under international treaties.

"The concessions are too favourable to the Chinese government, said Martin Dinatale, an Argentine journalist and expert, speaking to AsiaNews. The danger of dual use is latent and the activity taking place there is unknown.

Dinatale notes that Xi recently promised the Argentine president that he would raise the status of the diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The current global strategic partnership will become full cooperation, which "implies greater benefits for both parties, but also greater commitments".
188 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore on August 10, including 12 imported cases

The Ministry of Health has confirmed 188 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of 12 pm on August 10. This takes the national tally of infections to 55,292.

Photo courtesy: Facebook/Singapore Ministry of Health

The vast majority of the new cases are Work Permit holders currently under quarantine. There is also one case in the community, who is a Singaporean, said the MOH in its preliminary release of figures.

Additionally, there are 12 imported cases, who had all been placed on Stay-Home Notice upon arrival in Singapore.

We are still working through the details of the cases, and further updates will be shared via the MOH press release that will be issued tonight, the ministry added.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Beirut, Lebanon  Mon, August 10, 2020 08:20 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cb4438 2 World Lebanon,Beirut,Beirut-blast,Beirut-explosion,Ammonium-nitrate Free

Lebanon's information minister Manal Abdel Samad on Sunday quit in the first government resignation since a deadly port blast killed more than 150 people and destroyed swathes of the capital.

"After the enormous Beirut catastrophe, I announce my resignation from government," she said in a statement carried by local media, apologizing to the Lebanese public for failing them.

The head of Lebanon's Maronite church meanwhile called on the entire government to step down over the August 4 explosion, a blast widely seen as shocking proof of the rot at the core of the state apparatus.

Lebanese protesters enraged by the blast vowed to rally again after a night of street clashes in which they stormed several ministries.

Maronite patriarch Beshara Rai joined the chorus of people pressing Prime Minister Hassan Diab's cabinet to step down over a blast he said could be "described as a crime against humanity."

"It is not enough for a lawmaker to resign here or a minister to resign there," Rai said in a Sunday sermon.

"It is necessary, out of sensitivity to the feelings of the Lebanese and the immense responsibility required, for the entire government to resign, because it is incapable of moving the country forward."

Rai echoed calls by Diab for early parliamentary polls -- a long-standing demand of a protest movement that began in October, demanding the removal of a political class deemed inept and corrupt.

He also joined world leaders, international organizations and the angry Lebanese public by pressing for an international probe into an explosion authorities say was triggered by a fire in a port warehouse, where a huge shipment of hazardous ammonium nitrate had languished for years.

President Michel Aoun on Friday rejected calls for an international investigation, which he said would "dilute the truth."

At least six lawmakers have quit since the explosion.

Under increased pressure from the street and foreign partners exasperated by the leadership's inability to enact reforms, Diab's government is fraying at the edges.
Artist rendering of the new Roadmaster Drivers School facility in Columbus, OH. New truckers are urgently needed in Ohio, and fortunately, job-seekers are responding; we are already seeing a significant upsurge of demand for training at our new facility in Columbus.

Looking to address Ohios high unemployment rate and a shortage of truck drivers, Roadmaster Drivers School is ready to open a new training facility in Columbus, the states largest city. While Roadmaster has continually operated in Columbus since 1995, this new custom-built school will open its doors and have its first class on Aug. 17. The 10,000-sq. ft. facility sits on 12 acres in the state capital and will be able to serve approximately 750 students each year.

Meanwhile, the Ohio State Senate is currently considering a bill that would increase training opportunities to meet Ohios growing demand for additional truck drivers. House Bill 222, which passed the Ohio House of Representatives with strong bipartisan support, would provide a tax credit for companies that invest in truck-driver training, equal to a total of one-half of the training expenses.(1) Ohio legislators are to be commended for this timely and forward-looking initiative, says Brad Ball, President of Roadmaster Drivers School. New truckers are urgently needed in Ohio, and fortunately, job-seekers are responding; we are already seeing a significant upsurge of demand for training at our new facility in Columbus.

Ball, whose company is nationally known for quality training of entry-level truck drivers, notes that demand for training has been growing for some time, due to pandemic-driven increases in unemployment. The jobless rate in Ohio, for example, which was at 4.1% in January of this year, rose to 17.6% in April.(2) The rate has dropped somewhat since then, but is still extremely high; more than 35,000 Ohioans filed new unemployment claims for the week ending July 11, with 429,000 filing claims for continued unemployment during the same period.(3) In this context, not just in Ohio but nationwide, says Ball, trucking stands out as an island of employment stability and opportunity.

Long before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Ball points out, there was a severe shortage of truck drivers(4), and the COVID-19 crisis has if anything increased the need for new drivers. As store closures and social distancing have made in-store shopping increasingly difficult, American consumers have turned to ecommerce. According to new research from Adobe Analytics, total U.S. online sales reached $73.2 billion in June, up 76.2% from June of 2019.(5)

To help manage the consequent surge in shipping and handling, Amazon alone has announced plans to hire 100,000 new employees, including drivers, for its U.S. warehouse and delivery operations.(6) And ecommerce is by no means the only area in which truck drivers are, and will continue to be, in high demand. Trucking, notes Ball, moves 71% of all freight shipped in America, and accounts for nearly 6% of all full-time jobs in the country(7).

The training required to enter the profession, he notes, is relatively brief, about four weeks. Every day, says Ball, nationally and in our new facility in Columbus, were hearing from people who want to get off the layoff-and-furlough roller coaster and build a new, secure future for themselves. Roadmaster is currently putting the finishing touches on its new facility in Columbus is opening in August.

About Roadmaster Drivers School:

Roadmaster, headquartered in St. Petersburg, FL, is a nationwide training organization for truckers. They have more than 25 years of experience training more than 150,000 graduates with 13 training locations nationwide. By focusing on giving students the best education and maintaining high job placement standards, Roadmaster has gained a national reputation in the trucking industry for quality training of entry-level commercial truck driversnoted for their training practices to be the most hands-on and safety-focused training in the country. For more information, visit http://www.roadmaster.com.

1. Hlavaty, Kaylyn. House Passes Bill to Address Truck Driver Shortage in Ohio. WEWS, 21 Feb. 2020, news5cleveland.com/news/democracy-2020/ohio-politics/house-passes-bill-to-address-truck-driver-shortage-in-ohio.

2. Ohio Economy at a Glance. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, bls.gov/eag/eag.oh.htm.

3. Staff, 10TV Web. More than 30,000 Jobless Claims Filed in Ohio Last Week. 10tv.Com, WBNS, 4 June 2020, 10tv.com/article/news/local/ohio/more-12-million-ohioans-have-filed-unemployment-claims-last-11-weeks-2020-jun/530.

4. Long, Heather. Analysis | America Has a Massive Truck Driver Shortage. Here's Why Few Want an $80,000 Job. The Washington Post, 28 May 2018, washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/05/28/america-has-a-massive-truck-driver-shortage-heres-why-few-want-an-80000-job/.

5. Evans, Katie, et al. As Pandemic Pushes on, Online Sales Grow 76% in June. Digital Commerce 360, 16 July 2020, digitalcommerce360.com/article/coronavirus-impact-online-retail/.

6. Mattioli, Dana. WSJ News Exclusive | Amazon to Hire 100,000 Warehouse and Delivery Workers Amid Coronavirus Shutdowns. The Wall Street Journal, 17 Mar. 2020, wsj.com/articles/amazon-to-hire-100-000-warehouse-and-delivery-workers-amid-coronavirus-shutdowns-11584387833.

7. 11 Incredible Facts about the $700 Billion US Trucking Industry | Markets Insider. Business Insider, Business Insider, markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/trucking-industry-facts-us-truckers-2019-5-1028248577


Downing Street has said that the arrest of journalists in Hong Kong has showed that Beijing's national security law was being used to suppress opposition.

ITV News freelancer Wilson Li was one of nine people arrested by the Hong Kong Police on suspicion of breaching the law.

ITV News said it is now seeking answers from the authorities in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was also arrested on suspicion of collusion with foreign powers.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai (pictured centre) was also arrested on suspicion of collusion with foreign powers. Mr Lai, masked and wearing a blue shirt and a light grey blazer, was led out of his mansion in Kowloon by police officers also wearing surgical masks and was taken away

The Prime Minister's spokesman said the Government was 'deeply concerned' over the arrest of Mr Lai and the others.

He added: 'Freedom of the press is explicitly guaranteed in the Sino-British joint declaration and basic law and is supposed to be protected under article four of the national security law.

'This is further evidence that the national security law is being used as a pretext to silence opposition.

'The Hong Kong authorities must uphold the rights and the freedoms of its people.'

The national security law came into effect on June 30 and has been criticised as a means to curb dissent after anti-government protests rocked Hong Kong last year.

The security law outlaws secessionist, subversive and terrorist acts, as well as collusion with foreign forces in the city's internal affairs.

The maximum punishment for serious offenders is life imprisonment.

Hong Kong police said nine people aged between 23 and 72 had been arrested on suspicion of violating the national security law.

It said that offences included 'collusion with a foreign country/external elements to endanger national security'.

An ITV News spokeswoman said: 'We can confirm that Wilson Li works for ITV News in a freelance capacity.

'We are concerned to hear of his arrest and are urgently seeking clarification on the circumstances.'

Mr Lai, masked and wearing a blue shirt and a light grey blazer, was led out of his mansion in Kowloon by police officers also wearing surgical masks and was taken away.

The national security law came into effect on June 30 and has been criticised as a means to curb dissent after anti-government protests rocked Hong Kong last year

'Jimmy Lai is being arrested for collusion with foreign powers at this time,' his aide Mark Simon wrote on Twitter.

Mr Simon said that police searched both Mr Lai and his son's home, as well as other members of media group Next Digital, which Mr Lai founded.

More than a hundred police also raided Next Digital's headquarters in Hong Kong, entering the newsroom and searching the desks.

Next Digital operates the Apple Daily tabloid, which Mr Lai founded in 1995, ahead of Britain's handover of Hong Kong to China.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Authoritarian regimes die in unique ways, and their speed of decline is hard to predict. It is clear, though, that the end has begun in Belarus.Ignoring his strongest and most unexpected challenger in 26 years, populist President Alexander Lukashenko is sticking firmly to the Soviet strongman script. He has claimed yet another sweeping election victory: Official figures after Sundays vote suggest an implausible 80% of the vote, while his charismatic, crowd-pleasing opponent apparently garnered barely 10%. Unarmed protesters, meanwhile, are being silenced with stun grenades, rubber bullets and internet blackouts.Repression will no doubt continue after a violent night in the capital Minsk, but demonstrations are spreading across the country, fuelled by social media and galvanized in a way that will be far harder to contain than in 2010. There are as-yet unverified photographs and videos on Telegram and Twitter suggesting some polling stations published results that show the opposition well ahead. It is still unclear what Europe and the U.S. will do. More brutality will almost certainly mean fresh Western sanctions, and more influence for Moscow, which has already congratulated Lukashenko.

Whatever does follow, the fate of Belaruss collective farm boss-turned-autocrat is being accelerated by his own mistakes. This offers a cautionary tale for his post-Soviet rivals including Russian President Vladimir Putin, whos aware of his own fragility and facing persistent unrest.

The first basic error Lukashenko made was to underestimate his opposition. He failed to notice the significant change in those willing to stand against him: Rather than old-school rivals, the 2020 election saw the emergence of privileged figures as opponents, who had plenty to lose by standing. Viktor Babariko, an ex-banker whose candidacy garnered some 435,000 signatures, was detained in June with his son and accused of financial crimes, which he has disputed. Another candidate was Valery Tsepkalo, a former ambassador to the U.S. who helped to found the countrys tech hub. He fled to Moscow.

Story continues

Lukashenkos constant denigration of women, whom he has said cannot bear the burden of presidential responsibility, meant that he also dramatically underestimated Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. A 37-year-old former teacher, she stood at the last minute after her husband, video blogger and would-be candidate Sergei Tikhanovsky, was arrested in May. She was allowed to stand, on the premise that she posed little threat. As late as Sunday, after her weeks of rousing unprecedented rallies across Belarus, Lukashenko dismissed her as not even worthy of repression. The second mistake was the most egregious, when it comes to the rules of populist autocracies: His officials overdid the electoral outcome. Belarus has not had a free and fair ballot since the mid-1990s, but the scale of early voting  which makes tampering easier  and the size of the ultimate landslide in Lukashenkos favor were over the top, even for Belarus. In the context of the crowds garnered by Tikhanovskaya, which people could see for themselves in person and on video, the official results are simply too far-fetched, especially when combined with a dramatic show of force and the absence of Western observers.

Many of those marching on Sunday evening after official exit polls favored the incumbent, were doing so for the first time. Ostentatious military hardware and brute force did away with any pretense of electoral legitimacy.

Underpinning all of this is Lukashenkos failure to respect the social contract that kept him in power. Belarus reduced poverty in the post-Soviet period, but the command economy has been stagnating for years, privatization has been too slow and subsidies to keep state enterprises afloat are inflating the debt burden. His promise last week to double the average salary within five years is laughable. Combined with the dramatic mishandling of coronavirus, instances like the failed tax on the unemployed and fading Russian subsidies, that unspoken agreement looks badly broken.

Popular revolutions are easier in theory than in practice in autocratic regimes like Belarus, or even Russia, where power relies on the support of elites, specifically the security forces. Street scenes in Minsk suggest the latter remain onside as does, crucially, Moscow, which is unwilling to have a burgeoning democracy on its doorstep. Even so, the breadth of protests and a stumbling economy will make Lukashenkos grip harder to maintain. The man who was happy to call himself Europes last dictator may have claimed his last victory.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Clara Ferreira Marques is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities and environmental, social and governance issues. Previously, she was an associate editor for Reuters Breakingviews, and editor and correspondent for Reuters in Singapore, India, the U.K., Italy and Russia.

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

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Election officials in Belarus say the country's longtime authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko has won his sixth consecutive presidential term, taking over 80% of the votes, according to preliminary results of Sundays election that resulted in mass protests all over Belarus and a violent crackdown on demonstrators.

The countrys central election commission announced on Monday that all the ballots have been counted and Lukashenko took 80.23% of the votes, while his main opposition challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya had only 9.9%.

The announcement may exacerbate tensions with opposition supporters who believe the results of the vote were rigged.

Thousands of people took to the streets in a number of Belarusian cities and towns on Sunday night, protesting the early count suggesting Lukashenkos landslide victory.

Tsikhanouskaya, a former English teacher and political novice, rejected the official figures, saying I will believe my own eyes the majority was for us.

Her supporters quickly took to the streets of the capital to protest what they saw as official manipulation of the vote. They faced rows of riot police in black uniforms who moved quickly to disperse the demonstrators, firing flash-bang grenades and beating them with truncheons.

The brutal crackdown followed a tense campaign that saw massive rallies against Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet nation with an iron fist for 26 years. Lukashenko has not yet commented on the election results or the protests.

Several other cities across the country saw similar crackdowns on protesters. According to the Viasna human rights group, over 100 protesters were detained, with the number likely to be much higher.

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova said that police efforts to restore order were continuing overnight, but wouldnt say how many people were detained. On Monday morning, Belarus Investigative Committee opened a criminal probe into mass riots and violence toward police officers.

What has happened is awful, Tsikhanouskaya told reporters Sunday.

An AP journalist was beaten by police and treated at a hospital.

At Minsks Hospital No. 10, an AP reporter saw a dozen ambulances delivering protesters with fragmentation wounds and cuts from stun grenades and other injuries.

It was a peaceful protest, we werent using force, said 23-year-old protester Pavel Konoplyanik, who was accompanying his friend who had a plastic grenade fragment stuck in his neck. No one will believe in the official results of the vote, they have stolen our victory.

Konoplyanik, whose legs were also cut by fragments of police grenades, said he doesnt want to leave the country but fears that he might have no other choice.

Two prominent opposition challengers were denied places on the ballot, but Tsikhanouskaya, the wife of a jailed opposition blogger, managed to unite opposition groups and draw tens of thousands to her campaign rallies, tapping growing anger over a stagnant economy and fatigue with Lukashenkos autocratic rule.

Lukashenko was defiant as he voted earlier in the day, warning that the opposition will meet a tough response.

If you provoke, you will get the same answer, he said. Do you want to try to overthrow the government, break something, wound, offend, and expect me or someone to kneel in front of you and kiss them and the sand onto which you wandered? This will not happen.

Three journalists from the independent Russian TV station Dozhd were detained after interviewing an opposition figure and were deported.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose assessments of elections are widely regarded as authoritative, was not invited to send observers.

Tsikhanouskaya had crisscrossed the country, tapping into public frustration with a worsening economy and Lukashenkos swaggering response to the pandemic.

Belarus, a country of 9.5 million people, has reported more than 68,500 coronavirus cases and 580 deaths but critics have accused authorities of manipulating the figures to downplay the death toll.

Lukashenko has dismissed the virus as psychosis and declined to apply measures to stop its spread, saying a lockdown would have doomed the already weak economy. He announced last month that he had been infected but had no symptoms and recovered quickly, allegedly thanks to playing sports.

Yet for some voters, Lukashenkos long, hard line rule was a plus.

He is an experienced politician, not a housewife who appeared out of nowhere and muddied the waters, retiree Igor Rozhov said Sunday. We need a strong hand that will not allow riots.
Don't be angry, don't be sad/And don't sit crying over good times you had/There's a girl right next to you/

And she's just waiting for something to do

I know it's a first-world problem given everything else, but I was sour about not going to Italy. Don't get me wrong. I understood that, green list or no green list, we shouldn't go. So after playing chicken with Ryanair for a while to see if they'd cancel the flight, we gave in and changed our booking for another unlikely time and destination. And then I worked on owning it, on making it feel like my choice not to go. It wouldn't have been any good anyway. We wouldn't have enjoyed it. We would have been stressed out. It would have been grim there. Etc etc.

But every time I heard about someone else going abroad, generally to places not on the green list, I would get sour again. We had been going to a very isolated situation in Italy, in an area where there had been little Covid, and there was less now. It was low-risk compared to what other people were up to. And yet they would get their holidays, and I wouldn't, but we would all bear the consequences of any further restrictions that resulted from Covid brought back from foreign red zones. These were the disgruntled thoughts I would run through in my head every time I heard of someone heading off to a hotel in Portugal or Spain. It was bringing out a bitter, judgy side to me that I didn't like. And it was doing me no good either.

I was talking about it too much. Virtually stopping strangers on the street to whinge. I was being a real moaning dick. One guy I moaned to staged an intervention by quoting me the words above, from the Stephen Stills song Love the One You're With. This wasn't about the circumstances, which were out of my control, it was about how I was choosing to respond to them. I am lucky to be having a holiday at all. I am lucky my family are healthy. I am lucky I have a livelihood. And I am lucky I live in such a great country. You just have to accept that the weather is, well, unreliable. And as much as I feel that I need to get away to the light and warmth of the feckless south of Europe to recharge me, to get away from everything and everyone I know in order to see things clearly again, you can change how you see Ireland too.

I write this looking on an awesomely wild seascape. There are a few surfers braving Inchydoney beach. The weather has actually been okay for the last few days, and today I'm not pushed really because we're heading home for a few days. We're not facing into a day of travel, with airports and whatnot. We will cram everything into the car again and head off. We can call in to my parents for a cup of tea, and we'll bring them some spuds and strawberries from the lady outside Clon. And we can get home and regroup and wash our clothes and take a break from each other and see other people before we head off again for a few days.

Last night, after dinner, my elder daughter asked me to go down and jump in the waves in the shallows with her, a little daddy-daughter micro-adventure. The day before that we got a surprise performance of what I suspect, from googling, were humpback whales, leaping out of the water, visible from the land. We had blowy walks on sand dunes and we even managed to get surprise sunburn on the beach one day. We swam in the sea a few times every day, braving forests of seaweed at times. Every morning I got up before the others and joined the other early birds in the heated seawater pool here in Inchydoney, swimming a bit, and blasting ourselves with the various jets, so you felt like you'd been to a Swiss sanitarium before breakfast. We shared a seafood platter to die for at Dunmore House across the bay. We discovered that while Skibbereen has Fields, Clonakilty has Scally's, another fantastic SuperValu with all kinds of in-house goodies. I'm a sad soul really, but one of the exciting bits of Italy for me is the trip to the supermarket. But it turns out that Ireland has exotic supermarkets too!

We drove down roads we never drove down before, ogling architect-designed cliff-side houses with giant windows and amazing views, houses, we decided, that must be owned by foreigners. We basked in the warmth of Irish hospitality, of all these wonderful young people who are glad to be working and glad to be busy. I had random chats with older people who stop out walking to tell you how it is and what's really happening in the world. Is it me or is everyone randomly chatting a bit more this summer? And even when the news in the background seemed grim, everyone is determinedly getting on with it.

And we'll hit the road again in a few days, for more west Cork and a bit of Kerry. We'll do some visiting and swimming and exploring down other roads that bring you into different worlds, and the weather even looks a bit promising. But whatever the weather, we will forge ahead, powered by good brown bread and the bounty of the sea and the odd pint or a 99. And we will agree that Ireland is magic really. And that as much as we need to get away, sometimes it's good to be forced to give into the mystical, elemental draw of this place, to notice the one you're with, that girl right next to you.

Don't laugh, but I'm even thinking I might try learning to surf.
LONDON - A Royal Air Force surveillance plane flew over the English Channel on Monday as the British government sought to stop a growing number of people making the hazardous crossing from France in small boats.

Britains Conservative government has talked tough amid a surge in the number of migrants crossing the Channel during recent warm summer weather. More than 650 have arrived so far in August  including 235 in a single day last week  with pregnant women, babies and unaccompanied children among them..

An inflatable dinghy carrying about 20 people was met by a U.K. Border Force boat on Monday and escorted to the port of Dover.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said trying to make the voyage was a very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do.

Be in no doubt whats going on is the activity of cruel and criminal gangs who are risking the lives of these people taking them across the Channel, a pretty dangerous stretch of water in potentially unseaworthy vessels, Johnson said during a visit to a school near London.

U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel appointed a former Royal Marine commando, Dan OMahoney, as clandestine Channel threat commander to try and make unauthorized sea crossings unviable.

Patel has also said the Royal Navy could be called in to prevent boats reaching U.K. waters, though other senior officials and politicians say that would be impractical and potentially dangerous because small boats could capsize if they are forced back to the French shore.

The Ministry of Defence said it was considering how the military could best help. It said the RAF Atlas aircraft was deployed on Monday to support Border Force operations in the Channel.

Migrants have long used northern France as a launching point to get to Britain, either in trucks through the Channel tunnel or on ferries. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the U.K.s strong economy and need for farm and restaurant labour drew migrants from around the world who could speak some English.

Some have turned to small boats organized by people smugglers because coronavirus lockdowns have reduced opportunities to stow away on ferries and trucks. Fine summer weather is also prompting more people to make the risky journey across one of the worlds busiest shipping lanes  about 20 miles (32 kilometres) at its narrowest point  in vessels as small as dinghies and kayaks.

The British and French immigration ministers were due to hold talks in Paris on Tuesday about the Channel crossings, as some British politicians accused France of not doing enough to stop boats leaving shore.

The migrants, and the smugglers who profit off them, have long dogged French politicians, who have failed to find an effective way to deter them.

French authorities routinely pick up migrants trying to illegally cross the Channel, most recently on Sunday, when rescuers retrieved 17 migrants from a rubber dinghy in distress off Calais.

Over the past week, French rescuers have picked up 125 migrants from kayaks, rubber boats or other small vessels trying to cross the Channel, according to near-daily statements from the regional maritime authority.

Last month Britain and France agreed to set up a joint intelligence unit to allow for better exchanges of information about people-smuggling networks.

The lawmaker for Calais accused the U.K. government of political grandstanding with talk of sending in the Royal Navy.

This is a political measure to show some kind of resource to fight against smugglers and illegal crossings in the Channel, but technically speaking that wont change anything, Pierre-Henri Dumont told the BBC.

Human rights groups also criticized the British governments harsh rhetoric and said asylum-seekers should be given safe routes to reach the U.K.

Lisa Doyle, director of advocacy at Britains Refugee Council, accused the prime minister of using inaccurate and inflammatory language.

Seeking asylum is not a crime, and it is legitimate that people have to cross borders to do so, she said.

___

Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this story.
Debris and rubble littered Lebanon's destroyed port area on Monday (August 10), six days after a powerful explosion killed 158 and left thousands more injured.

Syria's government has said that around 45 of the more than 158 people confirmed killed in the blast were Syrian nationals. Syrians comprise the biggest foreign labor force in Lebanon, working in construction, agriculture and transport.

An emergency donor conference on Sunday raised pledges worth nearly 253 million euros ($298 million) for immediate humanitarian relief, the French presidency said.

Those commitments would not be conditional on political or institutional reform, President Emmanuel Macron's office said. There were also pledges made for longer-term support that would depend on changes brought in by the authorities, the Elysee Palace said.
A medical worker who returned from Wuhan after supporting the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic tutors a student about anti-virus knowledge in a class in Xinjianlu Primary School, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, on May 18. [China News Service]

In February, Wu Qi, associate editor-in-chief of Sanlian Life Week, posted a handwritten mind map on Sina Weibo, sharing with her young daughter how she deals with misfortune.

She told her daughter how to face a problem and how to manage emotions in different steps.

Wu returned to her hometown Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, to celebrate Chinese New Year on Jan 17. Four days later, she moved to a hotel next to Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital together with two colleagues, from where they reported on the fight against the novel coronavirus for the next three months.

Her mind map outlined to her daughter how Wu faced the psychological challenges she encountered and how she managed the accompanying emotions.

According to Huang Zheng, associate professor at the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for parents who communicate with their children well in daily life, the extra hours and days spent with their kids due to the suspending of economic activities and the closing of schools have strengthened their relationships.

"But for those who already have friction with their children, or teenagers who are in their rebellious phase, the relationship might be more intense," Huang says.

Huang says Wu's mind map is a useful way to communicate with children how to understand and manage emotions and similar to the social and emotional learning course taught in schools and kindergartens.

"It's necessary to teach children how to manage their emotions, which can also be done through reading related picture books or stories," she says.

But, she says, the frequency should not be too much, lest it overwhelms children.

Huang says children may get curious and scared when they hear about the virus and that COVID-19 kills people, but says: "Parents should not avoid these questions about life and death, as learning about death is compulsory for everyone."

According to Huang, children usually become aware of death at the age of 4 or 5, "much earlier than parents think".

"If they have pets that die or relatives pass away, they may realize the existence of death more directly, and furthermore, they might worry death could happen to them," Huang says.

Huang says if a child asks about death due to the pandemic, it's a good time to discuss the topic with them because it shows the child's interest, otherwise there is no need to bring up the topic.

"Life education is combined with experience, when they ask, it means they are emotionally prepared, whether curious or fearful, the emotion will make sure the knowledge they learn is not just cold concepts but an experience connected with emotions," Huang explains.

For children of different age groups, Huang thinks parents should use slightly different ways to talk to them about death.

"For preschool children, a psychological barrier needs to be built between them and death," Huang says. "They need to feel safe."

Children's fear of death won't be eased in one go and the key to reassuring children is for parents to answer their kids' questions with a calm attitude each time.

"If the parents are impatient or reject the questions, the attitude will transfer the parents' fear more directly than words."

For school-age children, Huang recommends parents have a sincere discussion with them, and search for answers or information together with them in books or on the internet.

For teenagers, some may be overly defensive against death, denying the possibility of any personal danger, although they are told certain behavior such as smoking or drinking may harm them.

A parent takes her children to Wuzhong Museum, which opened in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, in late June, on July 22. Many children are using the summer vacation to broaden their knowledge by visiting museums. [For China Daily/Wang Jiankang]

Huang says for teenagers, parents should emphasize the danger of the pandemic and ask them to pay attention to the epidemic prevention measures.

"It's not horrible to talk about death. Children at any age may have questions about life and death, and the parents should answer them patiently," Huang says. "It's not good for children to reject the topic of death."

Lin Chun, deputy director of psychological consultant working committee of Chinese Psychological Society, says besides offering the chance for parents to talk to their children about death, the pandemic has also given parents an opportunity to cultivate their children's ability to deal with a crisis.

He says it's normal for people to be afraid and anxious because of the uncertainty of the pandemic, and both feelings have a positive side of keeping people alert to danger.

"If the kids are anxious, parents could guide them to embrace their emotions and learn scientific epidemic prevention methods to reduce their fear," Lin says.

Lin says information overload is a problem people are facing when learning about the pandemic. He encourages parents to search for accurate and useful information together with their children.

The pandemic is something that both parents and kids want to know about, so it's a good time for parents to inform themselves while helping their kids to figure out how to find accurate information amid all the online messages.

One way to do that is to contrast the information from medical professionals or authoritative institutions such as the WHO and articles on other websites, which will reveal how some reports or rumor-mongers sensationalize or misrepresent the situation to gain attention.

"Critical thinking is needed, and we can use the pandemic to train children to always question the information they receive," Lin says.

Some news reports and science popularization materials can also inspire kids to imagine and feel the vulnerability of life and the anguish of disease, which lets them understand the importance of health and the inevitability of death.

Lin also says parents can learn more about the virus with their kids, such as the routes of transmission, how the virus infects the cells, and the relationship between such pathogens and wild animals and why climate change is increasing the risk of such viruses emerging.

"By telling them that human's knowledge is still limited which needs scientists to explore further can also trigger the kids' curiosity about nature and their interest in science," Lin says.

Children may not be used to the lack of outdoor activities and playing with their peers, and Lin says the pandemic is also an opportunity to discuss with children the importance of society.

"Parents could tell the kids that because of the medical workers' round-the-clock efforts, patients were saved and recovered, and the pandemic has been controlled because of the front line epidemic prevention personnel, together with people from other professions, and by the rest of us staying home," he says.

As the summer vacation has arrived and the pandemic is basically under control in China, Lin encourages parents to create more opportunities for their children to communicate with their friends.

"There are many things the children can only learn from each other, even from fighting with each other, so social contact with their peers is necessary," Lin says.

"Children should not only communicate through the internet. Families can socialize together."

Lin says there are multiple roles that parents play besides being an educator, and the pandemic has strengthened those roles because of the time spent with the children.

"Parents should also be good observers, companions, demonstrators and leaders," Lin says.

(Source: China Daily)
Judge Stephen Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has died at age 83, reportedly due to the Wuhan coronavirus. The statement of Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan praising his colleague is here. This tribute by Aaron Nelson includes moving praise from one of his liberal colleagues, Judge David Tatel. Williams was a staunch conservative.

Nelsons article begins by quoting the following opening line by Judge Williams in one of his administrative law opinions:

In the Spring of 1985, as Mikhail Gorbachev was assuming the duties of General Secretary and inaugurating perestroika, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission launched its own restructuring of the natural gas industry.

The reference to Soviet history was both apt and unsurprising. For, as Nelson notes, Williams was a scholar of the Soviet Union and, indeed, the author of a book about it  The Reformer: How One Liberal Fought to Preempt the Russian Revolution.

I know first hand about Judge Williams passionate interest in the Russian revolution. The first time I met the judge was at a small gathering, during which he showed an unusual interest in talking with me. Initially, I thought he might be a Power Line reader, but that wasnt it. I doubt he ever read or heard of Power Line.

Instead, it was my Russian name that intrigued the judge. He wondered whether one of my ancestors was involved in the Bolshevik revolution. I said I thought Lenin had an underling named Mirengoff in 1917 who, perhaps, was him at the Finland Station, but I wasnt sure.

I couldnt really hold my own in the conversation. However, I must have shown enough familiarity with the topic, or enough interest in it, to keep the talk going for a while. We also discussed the revolution on two subsequent occasions.

In all, I probably spoke with Stephen Williams for about 45 minutes. That was enough to convince me that, in addition to being an outstanding jurist, he was a gentleman and a scholar.
Kravchuk does not exclude direct contacts with residents of the occupied territories.

Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) and first president of independent Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk has said he will consider the expediency of a trip to Russia-occupied Donbas if the appropriate conditions develop in the occupied territory.

Speaking in an interview for RFE/RL's Donbas.Realii project, he said he supports the initiative of first Ukrainian Prime Minister Vitold Fokin to make a trip to the occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

"From among the people I know he is better aware of the situation there. And he has decisiveness, courage and is ready to do this. And if there are appropriate conditions that I, Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk, need to study any issues for a solution, I will also think about how to do this, not excluding direct contacts," Kravchuk said.

Read alsoKravchuk announces four possible options to achieve full ceasefire in Donbas

The official was also asked with whom he was ready to sit down at the negotiating table in the occupied part of Donbas.

"This is civil society, first of all. These are people who are not involved in administration, did not take direct part in hostilities with rifles in their hands, did not torture those who were captured," he said. "These are people who work in higher educational institutions, in schools, in NGOs  I am ready to listen to them."

In addition, Kravchuk was asked what the point in such contacts is if it is Moscow rather than Donetsk that makes a decision on war or peace.

"Not only the desire of Kyiv is needed to convince Moscow, it is difficult to convince them. And when there is desire among people who live there and those who are outside (the occupied territories), I emphasize this is 1.7 million people, Moscow will hear better and will also meet people halfway. I believe in this," he added.

On July 30, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky officially appointed Kravchuk as Ukraine's representative to the TCG at the Minsk talks on Donbas.
BOSTON, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Saga Education, a nonprofit that provides consistent, personalized, in-school-day math tutoring and mentoring, today announced the expansion of its tutoring program in New York City and Chicago. Supported by nearly $6M in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Citadel Founder and CEO Ken Griffin, philanthropic dollars will enable Saga Education to reach 1,600 new high school students in under resourced schools in the 2020-21 school year.

In partnership with leaders in two of the nation's largest school districts, the program will scale through a combination of public and private funding and employ 187 tutors in a service year model. The Gates Foundation's support will expand the program online to 1,000 students per year across six schools in New York City over two years. Griffin's support will scale the program by 600 additional students across five schools in Chicago this academic year, bringing the total served in Chicago to 2120 students in 20 schools. The Saga model can be delivered in person, or online, by professional tutors.

"Early research suggests that millions of students will start the 2020-21 school year behind. Researchers and educators have called for new, intentional investments in tutoring to address learning loss," said Antonio Gutierrez, co-founder of Saga Education. "We know that high-dosage tutoring models like Saga drive positive outcomes for students. The support and recognition from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Ken Griffin will allow us to scale research-proven supports to our most vulnerable students in a dire moment."

"Saga's innovative approach to personalized education in math is creating pathways to success for students across our country," said Griffin. "I am proud to support their work to empower students with the tools and confidence they need to learn, grow and make their aspirations a reality."

Even before the pandemic, research has found that many students arrive to high school three or more years behind grade level, especially in math -- a key barrier to graduation. 80 percent of students who drop out of high school cite course failures as their number one reason and Algebra 1 is the course most frequently failed.

Since 2013, the University of Chicago Education Lab has researched Saga Education's intensive math tutoring model in Chicago Public Schools and in New York City, finding that it substantially improves academic outcomes for high school students. In two randomized controlled trials, students who received Saga tutoring learned as much as an extra two and a half years of math in one academic year  the equivalent to closing up to 50 percent of the black-white test score gap in one school year. The randomized controlled trials also found that Saga's tutoring model reduced math course failure rates by 60 percent.

About Saga Education

Saga Education is an evidence-based, personalized tutoring intervention designed to support students struggling with math, to give them the confidence and academic strength to graduate high school and pursue their dreams. In 2020, the organization was named to Fast Company's prestigious list of the World's Most Innovative Educational Companies, recognized for its evidence--based, scalable tutoring model which serves students in high-need schools.

SOURCE Saga Education

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http://www.sagaeducation.org


The resumption of fertility services in Northern Ireland has been welcomed.

Eligibility has also been extended by a year in recognition of disruption to the services caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Health Minister Robin Swann said this temporary measure will reduce the pressure for women who would otherwise breach the upper age limit before receiving treatment.

Minister Swann welcomes phased return of fertility services and confirmed:



Eligibility for anyone currently on the waiting list will be extended by a year



Extended opening hours to help provide appointments to as many patients as safely as possiblehttps://t.co/P7RSl3mR5O pic.twitter.com/h3avpNexol  Department of Health (@healthdpt) August 10, 2020

Although fertility treatments are considered to be routine elective services and the focus is on re-starting urgent services first, I have made it clear that re-starting fertility services is a priority for me and as such, preparations have been ongoing to enable this to happen as soon as possible, he said.

As treatment will re-start on a phased basis, it will take some time before service levels can be restored to full pre-Covid-19 provision.

To mitigate some of the delay, the RFC (Regional Fertility Centre) will be opening extended hours to help provide appointments to as many patients as safely as possible.

In recognition of the distress caused to women who are currently waiting for treatment at the RFC, the eligibility for anyone currently on the waiting list will be extended by a year.

This will reduce the pressure for women who would otherwise breach the upper age limit before receiving treatment.

This temporary extension to the age limit will only apply to women currently on the waiting list.

Health committee chairman Colm Gildernew welcomed the move.

This will be welcome news for the many women and couples who have been devastated by the closure of services and had an anxious wait until services resumed, the Sinn Fein MLA said.

I also welcome the news that those already on the waiting list will have an extra year to start treatment without exceeding the age limit for services.

I know this will go some way to reassure those seeking additional time and support.

However, it will be essential that services are extending to increase the number of appointments necessary to deal with the backlog of appointments.

SDLP MLA Colin McGrath added: It is very welcome news that this invaluable service will resume on a phased basis.

This will provide huge relief to those waiting to commence treatment.

It is also welcome that the service hours have been extended, to accommodate as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.
BRIDGEPORT  A backyard barbecue turned into a horror show when police said a woman began chasing party-goers around with what was described as a meat cleaver.

Police said 65-year-old Gloria Reid allegedly chopped at one woman in the head and shoulder with the blade.

Reid, of Boston Avenue, was taken into custody by judicial marshals at the Golden Hill Street courthouse on Monday when she showed up to answer minor  second-degree breach of peace  charges in the incident.

But to Reids apparent surprise, Senior Assistant States Attorney Kevin Dunn told Superior Court Judge Tracy Lee Dayton that Reid was being charged with first-degree assault.

Reid, who was being viewed from another courtroom by video conferencing, apparently tried to argue her defense as marshals moved in and handcuffed her.

These are serious allegations, the judge said, ordering Reid held in lieu of $75,000 bond.

According to police, on Friday, officers were dispatched to a home on Palisades Avenue on a report of a woman chasing people with a knife.

Police said witnesses told them they had been attending a backyard barbecue when Reid, an invited guest, got into a dispute with other people at the party over how she was dressed.

Police said Reid then grabbed a large knife and began chasing screaming party-goers around the yard with it.

When a 49-year-old woman tried to stop Reid, police said Reid attacked her with the cleaver.

The victim was taken to Bridgeport Hospital in serious condition, police said.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 10

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev congratulated Alexander Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Belarus.

"Dear Alexander Grigoryevich,

I congratulate you on the occasion of your re-election as President of the Republic of Belarus," Azerbaijani president wrote.

"The results of the voting once again confirmed the high level of Belarus citizens' trust in you, as well the people`s strong support for your political line aimed at developing Belarus," the head of state said.

"I believe that your landslide victory will serve the further prosperity of the brotherly country of Belarus and strengthen its international position, contribute to the sustainable development of Azerbaijan-Belarus strategic partnership and comprehensive cooperation based on the traditions of friendship between our peoples," Azerbaijani president said.

"I sincerely wish you the best of health, happiness and new successes in your activities for the well-being of the brotherly people of Belarus," the head of state wrote.
By Laman Ismayilova

There's something about cooking on the open fire and eating far away from city hustle buzzle.

Fresh air, unspoiled nature make some food recipes so delicious and nutritious.

Called "Northern Gates" due to its geographical location, Gusar will certainly amaze you with its mouthwatering dishes.

The region is largely populated by Lezgis, a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group, who cook some of the most delicious dishes.

A trip to Hil village offers you a great chance to meet friendly locals and try some of the best food recipes.

The village's residents Aziza Ramikhanova and her son Amiraslan have attracted the attention of millions of viewers on social networks. Their cozy and comforting food recipes has left no one indifferent.

Amiraslan Ramikhanov is a professional chef who had been working in one of the restaurants in Baku.

Returning to his native village due to pandemic, Amiraslan did not stay away from his favorite profession.

Together with his mother, he continued to delight food lovers with various food recipes vie his Youtube channel.

Aziza Ramikhanova is also an incredibly talented cook. Her mouthwatering recipes are extremely popular at all weddings in Hil village.

The Ramikhanovs usually film their culinary videos on their farmland near their village. A charming house was built on the area to make filming process even more exciting.

The family, who is mainly involved in vegetable growing, makes two cooking videos a week. The Ramikhanovs prefer cooking from fresh veggies which grow in their yard. The videos are shot and edited by Amiraslan Ramikhanov himself.

Speaking about Gusar it is impossible not to touch upon its historical monuments that extended infinitely in all directions.

The historical monuments are protected in the region. The remains of the fortress walls of the village of Anigof of the 13th century, the mausoleum of Sheikh Juneyd near Hazra village, ancient mosques in villages of Hil, Anig, Balagusar, Yasab, Old Khudat, Gunduzqala are such kind of monuments.

Laza village is boasting stunning landscapes so varied and dramatic that every day is an unforgettable there.

The most ancient landmark of the village is the historical mosque, located in the center of the settlement. The mosque is more than 300 years old.

Surrounded by mountains, Laza is well known for its majestic waterfalls. Competitions on climbing are held at the frozen waterfalls in winter here.

Being a favorite tourist spot, Gusar offers its visitors a wonderful recreation experience at Shahdag Mountain Resort.

The Complex is Azerbaijans first ski resort and it differs from similar facilities in the world for its uniqueness and diversity. Year by year the number of tourists discovering this beautiful resort increases.

The Shahdag Complex stands 2,500 meters above sea level and serves as an outstanding getaway with its rich nature, fresh air, and a good climate.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
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The Mayflower II, the replica of the vessel that brought the pilgrims to America 400 years ago, set sail to return home Monday for the first time since undergoing renovations.

After spending the weekend at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, the Mayflower II began its voyage to return to Plymouth Harbor near Plimouth Plantation on Monday.

The 64-year-old historic reproduction has spent the last three years in Mystic, Connecticut, getting $11.2 million in renovations.

The vessel, which was a gift from England in 1957, began the slow journey home last month making stops at other Connecticut and Massachusetts ports.

It stopped in New London, Connecticut, but canceled a planned trip to Newport, Rhode Island. The voyage was canceled as a result coronavirus-related travel restrictions.

Last week, Gov. Charle Baker added Rhode Island to a list of states where visitors must quarantine or provide a negative COVID-19 test to visit or return to Massachusetts. Instead of landing in Fort Adams State Park, the Mayflower II traveled to New Bedford to seek shelter from Tropical Storm Isaias. New Bedford Harbor has a hurricane barrier.

A cruise into Boston Harbor alongside the USS Constitution was previously canceled because of the pandemic.

In returning to Plymouth, the Mayflower II had escorts from the Massachusetts State Police. The marine unit, specifically Marine 9, helped guide the vessel through the Cape Cod Canal and back to Plymouth, according to state police.
An inflatable dinghy carrying around 20 Syrian migrants has been met by Border Force off the English coast.

The packed vessel had been making its way across the English Channel on Monday morning, with those on board seen waving and smiling on their journey.

They were met by the Border Force patrol boat Hunter at about 7.15am with the White Cliffs in sight.

It comes as immigration minister Chris Philp is preparing to hold the latest round of talks with French counterparts in Paris on Tuesday in a bid to tackle the problem.

More than 4,000 migrants have now reached the UK in 2020 by crossing the dangerous Dover Strait in small boats.

Monday mornings crossing comes after more than 677 people made it to the UK in a surge of crossings between Thursday and Sunday.

This comes despite Home Secretary Priti Patels vow last year that the crossings would have become an infrequent phenomenon by now.

The Westminster Home Office is facing criticism in recent weeks and the British Government has been accused of being increasingly chaotic in its handling of the crisis.

An official request has been made to the Royal Navy for help and a former Royal Marine has been appointed clandestine Channel threat commander.

Asked if the Navy should be involved, UK Care Minister Helen Whately told BBC Breakfast: We need to bring this to an end.

The Home Secretarys determined that this will not be a viable route to the UK and my colleague, Home Office Minister Chris Philp, is going to be in Paris later this week to talk directly with the French government about working together to stop this transit.

The boat was intercepted by Border Force within sight of the White Cliffs (Gareth Fuller/PA)

The Royal Air Force has provided aerial surveillance as part of an initial offer of assistance from the Ministry of Defence to the Home Office.

The flight by the Atlas plane over the English Channel was authorised by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.

A @RoyalAirForce Atlas aircraft has been flown from @RAFBrizeNorton this morning to support Border Force operations in the Channel. Authorised by the Defence Secretary @BWallaceMP, the surveillance aircraft is an initial offer of assistance as @DefenceHQ supports @ukhomeoffice.  Ministry of Defence  (@DefenceHQ) August 10, 2020

At least 65 migrants made it to the UK on board four boats on Sunday, the Home Office said.

Dramatic pictures and footage from the PA news agency show a boat carrying around 20 migrants wearing lifejackets motoring across the Channel.

At least one woman was among their number.

The journey can be dangerous in the best of weather, but seas early on Monday were choppy.

One migrant could be seen bailing out water with a plastic container from the boat, which sat low in the water, while another was spotted smoking a cigarette.

When asked how they were, many of the migrants put their thumbs up and replied that they were OK.

As they drew within sight of Dover they were met by Border Force, and it is expected that they will be taken ashore later on Monday.
Swapna Suresh, the second accused in the Kerala diplomatic gold smuggling case, was denied bail on Monday by the NIA special court in Kochi. The court further added that provisions of the anti-terrror law, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), will apply in her case.

Sureshs counsel opposed the application of UAPA against her client arguing that the case pertains to an economic offence and is not terror related.

The National Investigation agency, probing the case, opposed it, saying major proceeds from smuggling were used to fund anti-national activities in south India.

Earlier the premier agency told the court that it suspected the proceeds from the gold smuggling case might be used for terror funding.

The agency invoked Section 16 and 17 of the UAPA, which prescribes punishment for raising funds for terrorist activities.

After preliminary investigation, the NIA said, it found one of the accused K T Ramees, who is in 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 added.

When Sureshs two bank lockers were opened by the probe team last month 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.
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Promoter group Khaitan family's stake in Eveready Industries has slipped below 10 percent after IndusInd Bank acquired nearly 8 percent stake by invoking pledged shares of the battery maker, according to stock market data.

Williamson Magor Group, owned by the Khaitan family, is the promoter while the Burman family is the single largest public shareholder in the city-based company with nearly 20 percent stake.

Recently, the Khaitan family had also indicated that they were ready to jointly manage the company, which is listed on stock exchanges.

"We are ready to evaluate options for any additional share purchase. But, we will keep our holding below 25 percent," Mohit Burman told PTI on Sunday.

Burman is a senior member of the Burman family, also the promoters of the Dabur group.

Under Sebi norms, if the stake of an existing shareholder in a listed company goes beyond 25 percent, then that shareholder would be required to make an open offer.

When asked whether the family would be interested in jointly managing the company with the Khaitan family, Burman said it was too early to talk about such a scenario.

At the end of June, the Khaitan family had around 22.16 percent stake in Eveready Industries.

Since then, IL&FS and IndusInd Bank have invoked shares of the company pledged by the Khaitan family. The invoked pledged shares amounts to around 13 percent stake, as per regulatory filings.

Taking into account that the two entities have acquired around 13 percent stake by way of invoking pledged shares, the current holding of the Khaitan family would be about 8-9 percent.

Messages and calls to Eveready promoter and Managing Director Amritanshu Khaitan to seek comments on the promoters' holding falling below 10 percent remained unanswered.

Recently, the Burman family had purchased pledged shares of the company that were invoked by IL&FS.

"The equity shares of Eveready Industries India Ltd held by Williamson Magor were pledged with the bank for securing the outstanding dues of Seajuli Developers & Finance Limited (Seajuli), the borrower company. The bank has invoked the pledge held in aforesaid shares for recovery of its dues from Seajuli," IndusInd Bank said in a regulatory filing on Saturday.

The bank invoked 56,83,320 shares equivalent to 7.82 percent of paid-up equity share capital of Eveready Industries.

Eveready Industries was incorporated in 1934 and was a subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation, US. The Williamson Magor Group acquired the company in 1993.
We're pleased to once again be offering coverage of the ISMRM annual meeting. This year's virtual format for ISMRM 2020 is a perfect complement to our exclusively online coverage.

For the second straight year, radiology portal AuntMinnie.com, part of Science and Medicine Group, has launched a new special section dedicated exclusively to the proceedings of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) annual meeting.

AuntMinnie's RADCast@ISMRM is available at radcast.auntminnie.com and features wall-to-wall editorial coverage of the premier medical conference dedicated exclusively to MRI. Important topics at the 2020 conference include the following:



Alternatives to gadolinium-based MRI contrast

Reducing the ecological impact of MRI scanners

MRI in low-resource countries

New applications of artificial intelligence and MRI

Holographic visualization of human anatomy

Efforts to improve the safety of MRI scanning

"We're pleased to once again be offering coverage of the ISMRM annual meeting," said Brian Casey, editor in chief of AuntMinnie.com. "This year's virtual format for ISMRM 2020 is a perfect complement to our exclusively online coverage."

ISMRM's mission to educate the MRI community continues with this year's virtual meeting, even in an era of social distancing, according to Lawrence L. Wald, PhD, 2019-2020 ISMRM president.

"Sharing research, networking, precipitating new thinking, and inspiring thought that does not come easily in isolation -- that is the goal of our annual meeting," Wald said. "Its been a challenging year for all of us, with plenty of isolation, but I am confident that the virtual meeting can achieve these goals. I look forward to participating in it with you. It has been an honor serving the society as the 2019-2020 ISMRM president."

AuntMinnie's daily editorial coverage of ISMRM 2020 will run from August 8 to August 14.

About AuntMinnie.com

AuntMinnie.com is the premier online destination for radiologists, radiation therapists, interventional radiologists, and related professionals in the medical imaging industry, while AuntMinnieEurope.com serves the European radiology community. AuntMinnie.com and AuntMinnieEurope.com feature the latest news, communities, continuing medical education, and board review education for medical imaging physicians, clinicians, residents, and medical students across the world. AuntMinnie.com and AuntMinnieEurope.com are part of Science and Medicine Group.


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Less than 24 hours after a leopard was spotted in an abandoned factory warehouse and along the boundary of a residential complex in Andheri (East), a Mumbai suburb, the animal was captured in one of the strategically-placed trap cages and released back into the wild.

Forest officials said it was a male adult leopard, aged around five years.

The animal had strayed close to Kanakia Atrium-2 near JB Nagar in Andheri-MIDC (Andheri-East) on Sunday early morning and was spotted by security staff of the apartment complex, who immediately informed the police and forest department.

Forest officials said the animal was hiding in a 20-acre area, adjacent to the residential society, which housed Vazir Glass Warehouse, an abandoned factory warehouse, and placed three trap cages there on Sunday.

On early Monday morning, the leopard was trapped in one of the cages, said Santosh Kank, range forest officer (Mumbai). The animal was transported to the van parked near the society and released back into the wild.

A forest official said the animal was released back into Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP). However, as per protocol, we cannot name the exact location, where the animal was released, said the forest officer.

The factory warehouse has been lying abandoned for over two decades and there are several areas that are covered with dense vegetation, where the leopard could have hidden. The animal avoided any movement during the day. But, it might have moved towards the trap cages late at night on Sunday or Monday early morning, where a chicken was kept as bait and got trapped, he said.

Teams from SGNP, Mumbai, and Thane forest range, and animal rescue groups had gathered at the spot after the incident was reported on Sunday.

Two cages were set up during the day, and another by the afternoon.

Besides, camera traps (about 10-12) were placed across the abandoned warehouse to track the animals movement. Two forest guards and a few police personnel were deployed at the residential complex in a bid to restrict the movement of the public.

In April 2019, a leopard was rescued after a three-hour operation following its entry into a residential area in Marol, Andheri (East).

At least six leopards have been rescued from residential areas in the densely-populated Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) since 2017.

SGNP and its surrounding areas, including Aarey Colony, are home to an estimated 47 leopards.

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Yoshinori Ono, the executive producer of Street Fighter, announced on Sunday that he is leaving CAPCOM this summer. He is stepping down from being the brand manager of Street Fighter and other titles.

Ono has been with CAPCOM for nearly three decades that his name has become synonymous to Street Fighter. He joined CAPCOM in 1994, working on the sound of several titles, Street Fighter Zero included. From then on, he came the sound manager and sound director of several Street Fighter versions. He then became the producer of Shadow of Rome and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams. He also worked on Monster Hunter.

In his Twitter post, Ono assured fans that CAPCOM would maintain the legacy of Street Fighter. He also said he looks forward to seeing its future and how it will expand, but this time, as "one of [the] regular gamers next time around."

Before announcing his resignation, Ono opened his letter by acknowledging criticisms toward the Capcom Pro Tour and the shift to online matches. He explains that it took them a long time to decide the format for this year. However, he continued writing, "we believe that conducting the event itself would repay those who has [sic] been supporting the CPT, regardless of what format it is."

Ono then announced that he is stepping down and thanked the individuals and companies he had worked with over the years. He then closed his message with SHORYUKEN, shouting out to every Street Fighter follower out there.
Eric Metaxas responds to Bible burning: Freedom is impossible without values we got from the Bible

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Too many Americans have forgotten that freedom in the U.S. is "utterly impossible" without the values that come from the Bible, said Eric Metaxas in response to the rise in attacks on churches and Christian symbols.

In an interview with Fox News opinion host Tucker Carlson on Thursday, Metaxas stressed that he wasn't suggesting everyone living in the U.S. must identify as Christian. Instead, his point was that the Bible is more than a sacred book; it's "what led ... to freedom and self-government" that most Americans cherish.

Weve forgotten that freedom is utterly impossible on the American model without the values we got from the Bible, said Metaxas, a bestselling author and radio host, in response to images of rioters burning stacks of Bibles in Portland last Friday night.

All of the Founders understood that the Bible wasnt just a sacred book for some people. It was what gave us the West and what led to the idea of freedom and self-government, Metaxas said, asserting that those who are attacking the Bible and Christianity are attacking foundational ideas that built the nation.

In Carlson's segment on the topic of Christianity seemingly being under attack, he and Metaxas discussed the shutting down of churches and indifference toward the rise in vandalism and torching of churches and Catholic statues.

Carlson began the segment by noting that the U.S. has long been a beacon for those seeking religious freedom.

Since the day it was founded, the United States has been a refuge for people from around the world to worship their gods as they choose, Carlson said. Thats precisely why so many of our first European settlers came here. When they wrote our Constitution, in the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights, they explicitly protected religious freedom.

Carlson then compared the state of religious freedom in the U.S. today to religious persecution in China. America is becoming much more like what we say we hate. Many states have canceled in-person church services under the pretext of protecting the rest of us from the Wuhan coronavirus, he said, singling out Democrat-run states of California and New Jersey that designated churches as non-essential unlike abortion clinics or liquor stores that have been deemed essential.

Back in April, Carlson confronted Gov. Phil Murphy, D-N.J., over his decision to impose restrictions on church services as part of the state's response to the novel coronavirus. When Carlson asked Murphy what authority he used to nullify the Bill of Rights in issuing this order, Murphy responded that he wasnt thinking about the Bill of Rights when he did this.

Nearly four months after that exchange, Carlson shared his theory as to why some Democratic politicians have decided to continue to impose bans or restrictions on religious services while allowing secular businesses to operate without such restrictions. The restrictions are about punishing people they dont think vote for them, he asserted. Democratic leaders in Congress despise traditional Christians because they dont vote for them.

During the segment, Carlson also aired a clip of House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., saying in an earlier Fox News interview that he wasn't aware that rioters in Portland had burned Bibles last weekend. Nor was he aware that riots have been ongoing in the city and outside the Mark Hatfield Federal Courthouse for over 70 days.

According to Metaxas, people being unaware of what's going on Portland and other cities where churches are being vandalized and burned is the reason why many Americans fail to stand up for Christianity.

Christianity, among other things, limits the excesses of the state, Carlson remarked. This is why all authoritarian governments hate it because when your population worships an actual God, that suggests that you are not God and there are some things you cant do. So without it, theres nothing they cant do. Isnt that the whole point? he asked.

That is precisely the point, Metaxas responded.

In China, which was repeatedly mentioned throughout the segment, communist authorities have demolished churches, beat Christians, and ordered believers to renounce their faith and worship communist leaders instead of God.

Last year, authorities forced churches to replace traditional Christian hymns with songs praising the Chinese Communist Party. More recently, pastors have been ordered to extol President Xi Jinping and slander the U.S. in their sermons.

Metaxas warned that Americans' failure to stand up and push back against the idea that we can be a secular nation will basically lead to the U.S. becoming China.

He also slammed those who are burning Bibles and the American flag. These are the two things that have created more human flourishing, that have lifted human dignity on a level weve never seen in the history of the world, he said.
On the occasion of GMT Magazines 20th anniversary (and WorldTempuss upcoming 20th anniversary in 2021), we have embarked on the ambitious project of summarising the last 20 years in watchmaking in The Millennium Watch Book, a big, beautifully laid out coffee table book. The Millennium Watch Book is available exclusively now for pre-order at a discounted rate on www.the-watch-book.com, in French and English, with delivery aimed just in time for the holiday season.

In the coming weeks, WorldTempus will be exclusively sharing excerpts from the book, to give you a taste.

Only a few days left to get an additional 10% discount on the Millennium Watch Book. To obtain your code, fill in the information requested in the dedicated area to the left of the article.

Heres is an exclusive excerpt from our section Whos who, where we name the 80 industry players, from CEOs to Creative Directors to retailers and independent watchmakers, who have indelibly shaped the last two decades of watches, written by those in the industry who perhaps know them best. For more information, visit www.the-watch-book.com.

Patrick Graf, Chief Commercial Officer, Bucherer

The man who gave the world leader in luxury watch retailing a whole new corporate culture initially studied watchmaking from the unusual perspective of airport terminals. Sporting his first proper watch on his wrist (a Chopard bought in 1996), he was working in the largest retail group in the travel industry as the third millennium began. His then employer, the Nuance Group, belongs to Dufry, and does a lot of business in aircraft and airports. Switzerland had recently entered into a free trade agreement with the European Union, and the duty-free sector there was undergoing a thorough transformation. Patrick Graf, in charge of luxury products, witnessed these inevitable changes first-hand, and indeed oversaw them in several airports through until 2006.

Patrick Graf  Bucherer

Meanwhile, his ties with watch brands were becoming ever closer. At a time when Zurich airport was aiming to become the worlds leading airport for luxury shopping, he was appointed as its CCO, playing a part in its conceptual and architectural transformation over almost a decade  and closely involving watchmaking, the perfect embodiment of the Swiss Made ethos. The airports store layout and customer experience were both a priority and ahead of their time. In 2016, after a short stint with TAG Heuer as Global Marketing Director, Patrick Graf joined Bucherer to stimulate its commercial and international growth. The venerable Swiss institution also needed to move with the times: the brands it represented were opening their own stores, e-commerce and the pre-owned watch business were taking off, customers were becoming more demanding, and an in-depth response was required. That response included the acclaimed Blue Editions (limited-edition watches created for Bucherer by the brands); the arrival of lounges in renovated stores; online sales websites; the certified pre-owned watch offer; and diversification into other luxury products, such as the Carl F. Bucherer Blue Edition motorbike. At the same time, Bucherer store locations worldwide passed the 80 mark, with Patrick making sure that everyone  not least those in North America  kept fully in step with the new mindset.
Amid the crisis, Qatar has had warmer ties with Iran and used its airspace while sharing a vast offshore oil and gas field with Tehran. The small nation is home to the massive Al-Udeid Air Base, home to the forward headquarters of the U.S. militarys Central Command. Oman, which saw its long-serving sultan die earlier this year, long has had close ties to Iran and has served as an interlocutor between Tehran and the West.
From left, U.S. Reps. Fred Keller, Daniel Meuser, Brian Fitzpatrick, and Scott Perry greet President Donald Trump as he arrives at Lehigh Valley International Airport for a visit to the Owens & Minor medical equipment distribution center in Allentown, Pa., on May 14, 2020. Fitzpatrick and other representatives have backed a bailout for lobbying groups as part of coronavirus relief. Read more

Of all the priorities on which lawmakers can focus right now, bailing out corporate lobbying groups should be among the lowest. Yet, during this historic crisis, when millions have lost their jobs and health insurance, there are multiple bills in Congress to do just that.

Last month, Senate Republicans introduced their COVID-19 relief stimulus package, the HEALS Act. Tucked inside the legislation was a bill introduced by Sens. Susan Collins and Marco Rubio that would make 501(c)(6) organizations  i.e., lobbying groups  eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the forgivable loan program created by Congress to help small businesses and their workers get through the pandemic.

Proponents of such a bailout, such as Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick  who co-introduced his own lobbying group bailout bill, HR 6697, in the House  tout the importance of ensuring that local chambers of commerce and regional 501(c)(6) organizations can continue assisting our small businesses as they navigate through the COVID-19 crisis. What Fitzpatrick and others fail to reveal is that many of the largest corporate lobbying groups in D.C. could also be eligible for a bailout in the proposals floating around Congress.

 READ MORE: Democrats and White House negotiators search for a coronavirus relief deal as Trump threatens to take unilateral steps

Under the Collins-Rubio bill, any 501(c)(6) with 300 or fewer employees could qualify for PPP loans. The Democratic Policy Center  an organization I cofounded  found that 99.8% of 501(c)(6) organizations meet this threshold, including PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America), D.C.s top lobby for drug manufacturers.

Based on our data, roughly 90% of 501(c)(6) groups have 20 or fewer employees. The only reason to maintain a 300 employee threshold is to allow the most powerful corporate lobbying groups  which bankroll congressional campaigns through political action committees  to get federal assistance.

An early draft of the GOP Senate bill limited PPP eligibility to those groups with 50 or fewer employees and capped their loans at $500,000 (with exceptions for chambers of commerce and destination marketing organizations). However, the American Society for Association Executives  quite literally a lobbying group for lobbying groups  has been actively lobbying Congress to make their members eligible and won a last-minute revision to remove these restrictions. ASAE is currently working to gut the bills final meaningful prohibition  that no group that spends more than 10% of its activities on lobbying can get a PPP loan. (The bill prevents loans from covering lobbying activities, but this is easily circumvented by moving money around.)

Unfortunately, the perceived need to bail out corporate lobbying groups has become widely accepted in Congress, cutting across partisan divides. Congressional Democrats included a massive lobbying group giveaway in their omnibus relief bill, the HEROES Act, in May.

It is truly inexcusable that Congress is considering bailing out the people who stuff their pockets with campaign cash, while millions of Americans teeter on the brink of financial catastrophe. The last thing America needs right now is for Congress to give its constituents more reason to believe donors and special interests matter more in Washington than everyone else.

 READ MORE: National groups come to the aid of Democrat challenging U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in Bucks County

Yet, despite the absurdity of these bills, the effort to bail out lobbying groups has failed to attract significant media coverage, much to the benefit of the congressional leaders pushing it. After all, this bailout is incredibly unpopular.

According to polling conducted by Data for Progress for the Democratic Policy Center, 70% of Americans do not think its important for Congress to provide coronavirus relief funds to lobbying groups. Instead, they want to see relief for individuals and families, states and cities, and small businesses.

If the efforts in Congress to bail out corporate lobbying groups are successful, the blame should fall on congressional leadership. But anger should also be directed to the House members who pushed HR 6697 to extend PPP eligibility to any lobbying group with 300 or fewer employees. The bill garnered a bipartisan roster of 125 sponsors and effectively normalized the idea.

 ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work and life? Ask our reporters.

There is something fundamentally broken about a political institution that shows more bipartisan agreement about bailing out lobbying groups than extending unemployment benefits and guaranteeing health care during the worst crisis of our lifetimes. Deep reform of our political system is clearly needed  especially to reduce the influence of special interests. Until that reform is won, its up to citizens to tell Congress that bailing out corporate lobbying groups is a terrible idea.

Adam Eichen is a cofounder of the Democratic Policy Center and coauthor of Daring Democracy (Beacon Press 2017).
The world should be thankful to the blessed Emir of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, the government and people of Qatar for pointing the torchlight of the noblest path in international cooperation to save lives in Lebanon.

They do this while other Arab governments are busy bombing and killing civilians in Yemen, and at the same time trying to deny the Qatari people, through illegal, unjust and criminal blockade and malicious propaganda campaign, access to life-saving medicines, food and equipment.

The issue of the unjust, illegal and criminal blockade against Qatar, initiated by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Egypt, with the tacit backing of powerful countries outside the Middle-east can be seen here as an attempt to punish humanity.

It is impossible to calculate in a small fashion Qatars humanitarian solidarity with poor countries and people in need, since the inception of the leadership of the blessed Emir, His Highness Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, in 2013. Without any iota of doubt, Qatars current humanitarian aid to Lebanon, to save lives after the devastating explosion of 4th August, 2020 explains in simple term the best of an Arab nation taking the lead in solidarity with humankind.

The Qatar Red Cross is performing a superb job on the ground in Beirut and they are the first to respond to the humanitarian need of victim in Tuesdays explosion in Beirut, Lebanon. This has sent shivering waves to the blockading countries, which are bent on bombing and reining terror on the civilian population in Yemen.

Qatar is not in Lebanon to bomb or kill civilians and cause destruction on public infrastructure. On the contrary, Qatar is in Lebanon with a first class 500-bed mobile hospital, rescue team, medics, food and other essential humanitarian goods to save lives. This is because to Qatar, Lebanese lives matter!

It is now the fourth day since the catastrophic explosion that struck the Lebanese capital and it is clear that the death toll will climb the ladder. The scale of the devastation is unimaginable, with most of Beirut almost completely in tatters.

Few countries in the world were less equipped to deal with a disaster of this magnitude than Lebanon. For the hundreds of thousands of people left homeless and those desperate for medical attention and life-saving aid, help cannot come quickly enough. Thanks to the quick intervention of Qatar, the death rate will have been more than double in the Beirut explosion.

Qatar is not on a competition rating in Lebanon. This has to be understood in its moral meaning that Qatar thought it as a duty and responsibility to humanity, and particularly to the people of Lebanon that the disaster in Beirut is not a Lebanese issue alone, but the world over. Qatars humanitarian aid should not be misrepresented as a rivalry mission, or show off to the world. Qatar is committed to providing humanitarian aid anywhere, be it in mud sliding community in Sierra Leone, flooding in Southern Africa region, hunger and famine in the horn of Africa, Palestinian and refugees camps, or the starving Yemeni civilian population, Rohingya refugee crisis, or any other country or region that is in dire need of humanitarian aid.

For the coming days the focus in Lebanon will shift from the search and rescue phase to trying to address the dire needs of those left homeless by the massive explosion in Beirut. Hundreds of thousands have lost their houses and many others whose homes are still standing are too afraid to return for fear of the aftershocks. Medical treatment for the injured is vital. Facilities are improving as Qatars field hospitals arrive, and with them rescue workers, more doctors and medical supplies, but the needs are still overwhelming.

By this statement, the Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation (STBHF) pays tribute to the quick response of the blessed Emir of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, the government and people of Qatar, to the disaster in Lebanon. Qatar has demonstrated an extraordinary level of generosity in extending humanitarian solidarity to victims of the Beirut explosion. This level of generosity towards and solidarity with the people of Lebanon is something of which the world cannot afford to recognize and be proud of.

We commend the government of Lebanon and, each and every member of the Lebanese public that is working hard to save the lives of survivors of the Beirut explosion. We, in particular, commend the Qatari people-Qatari Red Cross-whose priceless humanitarian support means the difference between life and death for many of those suffering the effects of the Beirut disaster.

Concluding this statement, the Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation (STBHF) pays particular tribute to the Qatari rescue team and Qatari Red Cross workers and the Lebanese people, many of who are working in Beirut to distribute aid, provide medical attention and, wherever possible, to save lives. The Qatari contingents are on the clock, risking their personal safety to bring relief to save lives in Lebanon, and not bombing the Lebanese people, as we currently experiencing in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia and its blockading partners are bombing Yemeni civilians and destroying property with no end in sight. All of other aid workers in the field as part of private initiatives deserve also our recognition and thanks.

The Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation (STBHF) wants to assure the government and people of Lebanon, as well as the United Nations, European Union, the League of Arab States, Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation and Association of South East Asian Nations of its preparedness, willingness and ability to join the humanitarian service in Beirut.

Long live the blessed Emir of Qatar!

Long live Qatar!!

Solidarity with Lebanon!!!

Sender:

Fatmata B. Bangura

Acting Prgramme Coordinator

Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation (STBHF)

For and on behalf of volunteers of the Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation (STBHF)
Cafe owner Nguyen Thanh Binh tends a rescued cat. - AFP/VNA Photo

Ngao's Home Cafe in Hanoi is a loving home for 15 felines, many of whom were abandoned or found injured after being bitten by dogs or suffering serious accidents.

"I try to help cats with difficult backgrounds, to heal their physical and mental wounds," said 24-year-old cafe owner Nguyen Thanh Binh ahead of International Cat Day on Saturday.

The cafe has clawed its way up the favourite list of many cat lovers since it opened last month, offering coffee and cuddles but also the chance to give the animals medicine and even engage with them on a deeper level.

"When I come to this cafe, apart from playing with the cats, I can hear their stories and empathise with them," 20-year-old student and customer Le Hoang Yen said.

Many cats in Vietnam are cherished pets but others are sold for their meat, which is considered a delicacy in parts of the country.

Thieves have been known to steal cats which can then be sold on for consumption.

Owner Binh was inspired to start the coffee house, which runs as a non-profit, after spotting cats in cages, and others who had been injured by thieves.

"Once me and my friends have the cats, we first bring those who with injuries or medical problems to a vet. Then when they get better, I take them here to the cafe for even better care," he said as he stroked a fluffy white feline, blind in one eye.

He also hopes one or two customers might be tempted to take home more than a coffee.

"I will help them find new owners - ones who really love them.".
Delta, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 10, 2020) - Desert Gold Ventures Inc. (TSXV: DAU) (FSE: QXR2) (OTC Pink: DAUGF) ("Desert Gold" or the "Company") announces that, subject to exchange approval, it will conduct a non-brokered private placement of 23,214,286 units at a price of CAD $0.28 per unit (the "Unit") to raise CAD $6,500,000 (the "Financing"). Each Unit will consist of one common share in the equity of the Company and one-half common share purchase warrant (the "Warrant"). Each full Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional common share of the Company at a price of CAD $0.40 per common share for a period of three (3) years from the closing of the Financing.

The Company shall pay a finder's fee to qualified individuals in respect to the Financing of 7% cash on the proceeds of the Units found. Securities issued as a result of the Financing will be subject to a statutory hold period.

The proceeds of the Financing will be used primarily for exploration activities at the Company's project and secondly for general working capital purposes.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CONTACT

Jared Scharf, President & CEO

Direct: +1 (858) 247 - 8195

Email: jared.scharf@desertgold.ca

ABOUT DESERT GOLD

Desert Gold Ventures Inc. is a gold exploration and development company which holds 2 gold exploration permits in Western Mali (SMSZ Project and Djimbala) and its Rutare gold project in central Rwanda. For further information please visit www.SEDAR.com under the company's profile. Website: www.desertgold.ca

This news release contains forward-looking statements respecting the Company's ability to successfully complete the Offering. These forward-looking statements entail various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in these forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on current expectations, are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks, and actual results may differ materially from those contained in such statements, including the inability of the Company to successfully complete the Offering. These uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, the strength of the capital markets, the price of gold; operational, funding, and liquidity risks; the degree to which mineral resource estimates are reflective of actual mineral resources; and the degree to which factors which would make a mineral deposit commercially viable are present; the risks and hazards associated with mining operations. Risks and uncertainties about the Company's business are more fully discussed in the company's disclosure materials filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada and available at www.sedar.com and readers are urged to read these materials. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from such statements unless 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. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the securities described herein in the United States. The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the united states securities act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the united states or to the account or benefit of a U.S. person absent an exemption from the registration requirements of such act.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/61432
FBI Informant Halper in Jan. 2017: I Dont Think Flynns Going to Be Around Long

Stefan Halper, the Cambridge professor who allegedly told the FBI a false story to dirty up then-Trump adviser Michael Flynn, seemed keenly aware of Flynns impending downfall in January 2017, according to a recently released recording.

Halper predicted Flynns departure from the position of President Donald Trumps national security adviser just two days before a leak of classified information set in motion a chain of events that cost the retired three-star Army general his job and continues to this day with Flynns turbulent legal saga.

Halpers comments suggested insider knowledge of what was about to unfold, according to Cambridge Ph.D. candidate Steven Schrage, who recently released the recording of Halper that he said was made on Jan. 10, 2017, when Halper was supervising his doctoral work.

In the one-minute audio clip, it appears Halper was cautioning Schrage, former think tank national security scholar and congressional aide, against joining the National Security Council (NSC), which Flynn was slated to lead upon Trumps inauguration.

If you go in the NSC, you have to consider very carefully if you feel its appropriate for you to work for Flynn [crosstalk]. I dont think Flynns going to be around long. I mean, thats just my guess, but the way these things work, you inevitably find yourself at odds with someoneI mean, you always do, probably lots of peopleand when your opponents, so-called enemies, when people oppose you are looking for ways of exerting pressure, they go to people they know youre at odds with.

And thats how it builds and then eventually you get squeezed pretty hard.  But Flynns reaction to that is to blow up and get angry. Hes really [expletive], I mean [crosstalk], I dont know where he goes from there, but that is his reaction. Thats why hes so unsuitable.

Halpers comments came at a time when Flynn had already been hammered for months by negative media coverage that coincided with his joining the Trump team. None of it, however, rose to the point of dissuading Trump from appointing him to the NSC.

That changed, starting on Jan. 12, 2017, when The Washington Post ran a column by David Ignatius, which suggested that Flynn violated the Logan Act in his December 2016 calls with then Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak.

The Logan Act is a 1799 law that prohibits private citizens from conducting diplomacy with foreign nations without White House approval. Not only are there questions about its constitutionality, but the law has never been applied to the incoming administration of a president-elect. In fact, nobody has ever been successfully prosecuted under it.

Based on documents released over the past several months, the FBI was investigating Flynn in 2016 for supposed links to Russia as part of a wide-ranging probe into alleged TrumpRussia collusion.

But agents came up empty-handed and, on Jan. 4, 2017, drafted a memo to close the Flynn case.

FBI top brass intervened at the last minute to keep the case open as they considered opening a new criminal investigation based solely on a potential violation of the Logan Act by Flynn, the DOJ said in a May 6 court document (pdf).

Even though the Department of Justice (DOJ) made clear to the FBI that a Logan Act violation wouldnt fly in court, the bureau kept the case open and even sent agents to the White House to interview Flynn without notifying White House counsel or the DOJ.

Flynn at first didnt accurately portray his calls with Kislyak to the Trump team, which led to the incoming Vice President Mike Pence providing inaccurate information during an interview. Thats why Flynn was fired in February 2017, Trump said.

His firing came after DOJ officials informed the administration that Flynn also portrayed the calls inaccurately during the FBI interview.

Around the same time, anonymous sources were spreading stories to the media alleging Flynn had an affair with a suspicious Russian woman. The woman was a Cambridge scholar of Russian origin named Svetlana Lokhova, who denied the claim and accused Halper of spreading the false story. She said she had met Flynn just once, at a 2014 formal dinner organized by the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar, which was at the time co-convened by Halper.

The tale was also passed to the FBI by one of its established informants, one FBI document says. The name of the informant was redacted. Halper had been a longtime informant for the bureau.

It isnt clear why Schrage is releasing the Halper tape now. While he told Fox News he found it a few weeks ago, in a recent article, he said he had been recording his sessions with Halper since 2015 and that he was looking into Halpers role in the Russia investigation since 2018.

Attempts by The Epoch Times to reach Schrage for comment were unsuccessful.

Flynn, who headed the Defense Intelligence Agency during the Obama administration, eventually pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI. In January, he moved to withdraw the plea, saying he was misled and pressured into it.

In May, the DOJ moved to dismiss the case after a review uncovered documents suggesting the FBI questioned Flynn solely to elicit false statements from him, rather than for a legitimate investigative purpose.

District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who presides over the case, has refused to accept the dismissal and appointed former Judge John Gleeson to argue against the dismissal. Flynns lawyers, led by former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell, are trying to get the District of Columbia appeals court to make Sullivan accept the dismissal. A hearing in the case was scheduled for Aug. 11.
Anatoliy, 32, who has extensive experience of the agricultural machinery industry and is fluent in Ukrainian, Russian, and English, graduated from the National Transport University in Kiev with a Degree in Mechanical Engineering. His commercial experience includes seven years with Kuhn-Ukraine, initially as Sales Administration Manager and subsequently as Commercial Manager. Prior to joining Claydon, he was with JCB - Russia and CIS from 2018 to 2020 as Business Manager with responsibility for Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan.

Living in Kyiv, the countrys capital, Anatoliy is perfectly placed to support Claydons two Ukrainian distributor/dealers. Eridon Tech LLC is in the city, while Technotorg LLC is based in Mykolaiv, located in the south of the country on the Southern Bug River and close to the Black Sea. He states:

I was keen to join Claydon because the company has an increasing presence in Ukraine and the role of Territory Manager would allow me to fully utilise my knowledge and experience. I particularly like the fact that Claydon is a very innovative company which is owned by a farming family and develops its own technologies rather than copying other brands. Claydon continually tests Opti-Till products on its own arable farm in the UKs largest grain-producing region and, for the last 17 years, has been emphasising the importance of soil health and raising awareness of how to improve it.

As Territory Manager my time is spent working with our dealers and highlighting the benefits of the Claydon Opti-Till system to farmers. Like their counterparts throughout the world, farmers in Ukraine are having to deal with the agronomic and financial impact of increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, more stringent environmental considerations, and greater economic pressures on their businesses. They are open to learning more about new developments in crop establishment and production technologies. I will be demonstrating how the Opti-Till System can substantially reduce their costs and increase profitability, whilst improving timeliness, increasing yields, conserving moisture, improving soil health, and making their business more resilient to extremes of weather.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Electronic filters are essential to the inner workings of our phones and other wireless devices. They eliminate or enhance specific input signals to achieve the desired output signals. They are essential, but take up space on the chips that researchers are on a constant quest to make smaller. A new study demonstrates the successful integration of the individual elements that make up electronic filters onto a single component, significantly reducing the amount of space taken up by the device.

Researchers at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign have ditched the conventional 2D on-chip lumped or distributed filter network design - composed of separate inductors and capacitors - for a single, space-saving 3D rolled membrane that contains both independently designed elements.

The results of the study, led by electrical and computer engineering professor Xiuling Li, are published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

"With the success that our team has had on rolled inductors and capacitors, it makes sense to take advantage of the 2D to 3D self-assembly nature of this fabrication process to integrate these different components onto a single self-rolling and space-saving device," Li said.

In the lab, the team uses a specialized etching and lithography process to pattern 2D circuitry onto very thin membranes. In the circuit, they join the capacitors and inductors together and with ground or signal lines, all in a single plane. The multilayer membrane can then be rolled into a thin tube and placed onto a chip, the researchers said.

"The patterns, or masks, we use to form the circuitry on the 2D membrane layers can be tuned to achieve whatever kind of electrical interactions we need for a particular device," said graduate student and co-author Mark Kraman. "Experimenting with different filter designs is relatively simple using this technique because we only need to modify that mask structure when we want to make changes."

The team tested the performance of the rolled components and found that under the current design, the filters were suitable for applications in the 1-10 gigahertz frequency range, the researchers said. While the designs are targeted for use in radio frequency communications systems, the team posits that other frequencies, including in the megahertz range, are also possible based on their ability to achieve high power inductors in past research.

"We worked with several simple filter designs, but theoretically we can make any filter network combination using the same process steps," said graduate student and lead author Mike Yang. "We took what was already out there to provide a new, easier platform to lump these components together closer than ever."

"Our way of integrating inductors and capacitors monolithically could bring passive electronic circuit integration to a whole new level," Li said. "There is practically no limit to the complexity or configuration of circuits that can be made in this manner, all with one mask set."

###

Professor Pingfeng Wang and postdoctoral researcher Zhuoyuan Zheng, of industrial and enterprise systems engineering; professors Yang Shao, Songbin Gong and student Jialiang Zhang, of electrical and computer engineering; and professor Wen Huang and graduate student Haojie Zhao, from Hefei University of Technology, China; also contributed to this study.

The National Science Foundation and the Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute, China, supported this research.

Li is the interim director of the Holonyak Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory and also is affiliated with mechanical science and engineering, the Materials Research Laboratory and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the U. of I.

Editor's notes:

To reach Xiuling Li, call 217-265-6354; email xiuling@illinois.edu.

The paper "Monolithic heterogeneous integration of 3D microwave L-C elements by self-rolled-up membrane nanotechnology" is available online and from the U. of I. News Bureau. DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202004034.
While Congress and the White House are hashing out funding that could lead to a second round of stimulus payments, some Americans recently received $500 from the federal government.

The payments arent part of a second stimulus, but rather catching up on money due to them from the first.

In an Aug. 5 update, the IRS said it was automatically issuing the additional $500 payment per qualifying child to some stimulus recipients who used the non-filers tool before May 17, 2020. The non-filers tool allowed people who arent required to file a tax return to input information needed for stimulus checks. People who used the tool after May 17 probably already received their dependent payment, which went to families with children age 17 and younger.

The payments will come in the same form as how you received your original stimulus  direct deposit or paper check.

Heres how the IRS explained the process:

The IRS will automatically issue the additional $500 EIP per qualifying child to affected individuals in early August for those who used the Non-Filers tool before May 17, 2020. Direct deposit payments are scheduled for August 5, 2020, and paper checks or debit cards are scheduled to be mailed August 7, 2020. You can use Get My Payment to check the status of the $500 EIP per qualifying child, and you will receive another notice in the mail letting you know the $500 EIP per qualifying child was issued.

If you received your EIP by direct deposit, the additional $500 EIP per qualifying child will be direct deposited to the same bank account.

If you received your EIP in the mail, the additional $500 EIP per qualifying child will be mailed to your address of record.

If you used the Non-Filers tool on or after May 17, 2020, your EIP included $500 per qualifying child.

The Cares Act, passed in the early day so the coronavirus pandemic, provided $500 for each dependent under age 17 for those qualifying to receive a stimulus payment.

Along with the dependent payments, the last stimulus provided $1,200 for individuals earning up to $75,000 and $2,400 for married couples filing jointly who earned up to $150,000, with amounts reduced based on incomes of $99,000 or more for single filers and $198,000 or more for joint filers.
There's not much artist Jim Koehn doesn't love about Houston. From the moment he set foot in his adopted hometown, he fell in love with the wide open city, the "crazy" roadways, the music venues, the gritty streets and the cool mom-and-pop spots all across Houston. Koehn wears his love for Houston proudly in his nostalgic, dreamy watercolors that have a photorealistic look.

"I came down to Houston on a total whim. We earmarked Galveston Island. But I thought, 'man, Houston's where it's at,'" Koehn said. At the age of 19, Koehn went out on a road-trip from his native Michigan to see Houston, and he never left.

"I loved the big city. Everything was here. All the bands were playing here," Koehn said. "I just fell in love with Houston. I was enamored with all the neighborhoods. I loved the oldest, grittiest neighborhoods. I ran streets from Navigation to Canal when I worked for Channel 8."

Jim Koehn

He also likes the raw beauty of the old watering holes--from Alice's Tall Texan to Kay's Lounge. Koehn's painterly style when it comes to his watercolors has a luminous touch with attention to detail. Koehn has a series of 150 watercolors, devoted specifically to Houston iconic spots, from Astroworld to Numbers.

"One of my favorite things to paint are dive bars and beer joints," Koehn said. "They must ring a little strong to people."

As other artists have struggled to make a go during the pandemic, Koehn's Etsy shop has doubled its business since March.

"People are scooping them right up," Koehn said. "Starting last year, in 2019, business started really picking up. I just kept working that Etsy store, and it kept picking up. Even you're sleeping, your stuff is still working for you."

The one thing he says truly resonates with people about his work is the memories his pieces evoke.

"I've heard people say, 'I get a good feeling when I stand in this booth,'" Koehn said. "They get lost in the thoughts of the memories and experiences. Everyone's got a story about Astroworld or one of those spots."

Jim Koehn

So what was a painting he had the most affection for?

"I do love my Astroworld painting. But I also like my Numbers painting because it was early," Koehn said. "I've had people say, 'Holy cow, there's a piece of art about Numbers!"

alison.medley@chron.com
Jacobs and McMurray are headed toward a November rematch.

On the same day in June, Jacobs ran in a Republican primary to ensure that he would be the GOP candidate in November. He easily dispatched Stefan I. Mychajliw, the Erie County comptroller. But Jacobs had a tougher time with Parlato, who had secured the Conservative line for November. The districts Conservative Party leaders had seen Jacobs as out of touch with their values and preferred Parlato, a former Darien Town justice, an occasional commentator on Fox News, and a member of their party.

In the run-up to the primary, Parlato said she expected to win but vowed that if she lost she would not allow herself to split the vote and endanger the Republican. GOP leaders have been tapping their toes waiting for her exit.

"We were looking forward to it happening," Karl J. Simmeth, the Erie County Republican chairman, said as he welcomed Kassar's comments Monday. He said Parlato had promised him and the other GOP leaders that if she didn't win the GOP primary, she would move off the ballot. Then came weeks of silence, he said. "I don't know why it took so long," he added.
It was a brief moment - an act of compassion to John Hume from a stranger amid unspeakable horror - that turned out to be a pivotal moment in the peace process.

It was October 1993, one of the most violent times since the earliest days of the Troubles.

Hume stood desolate in a graveyard in the small Derry village of Greysteel.

Eight innocent civilians had been murdered by UDA gunmen who entered the Rising Sun bar on October 30, 1993.

One of the gunmen shouted "trick or treat" before he opened fire.

Days earlier the IRA had detonated a bomb in Frizzell's fish shop on Belfast's Shankill Road.

It was a horror beyond description; nine people were killed as well as one of the IRA bombers, Thomas Begley. More than 50 were injured.

Gerry Adams carried Begley's coffin through the streets of Belfast.

It was the lowest point of Hume's political and personal life.

Delicate peace talks being led by Hume, whose attempts to negotiate an IRA ceasefire had become public knowledge, now lay in tatters. He had been personally and unfairly vilified in the media. He was hospitalised with stress shortly afterwards.

On that cold winter day in Greysteel, Hume wept uncontrollably while being comforted by a young woman and the images were broadcast around the world.

The image has been replayed many times over the last week.

In her eyewitness account, Miriam O'Callaghan described it as "a moment I will never forget".

"All funerals are sad, but there was something particularly upsetting and poignant about this one. All around the graveyard women and men were crying.

"I spotted John Hume across the graveyard. His wife, Pat, was standing beside him. I could not stop looking at him, wondering what was going through his mind at that moment.

"Then I noticed a woman go up to him and start to speak to both John and Pat. Within moments, John started to weep uncontrollably, and the woman immediately comforted him in her arms. I always remember how she touched the side of his face to try to ease his pain. But John continued to cry," she said.

Fr Paul Farren mentioned the significance of that single act of compassion at Hume's funeral mass on Wednesday.

Now for the first time in 27 years, the woman in question - Finuala Wyer - has explained why she felt compelled to reach out to Hume. "1993 saw some of the darkest days of the Troubles. All sides were traumatised," she said.

"I attended the Greysteel funerals to show my support for a beloved friend who had lost a family member in the Rising Sun massacre.

"After the service, the graveyard was full of pain and anguish.

"I was acutely aware, at that moment, that this scene had been played out all over the Province time and time again through the years.

"The weight of that realisation was overwhelming," said the mother of two from Waterside in Derry.

"I looked over and saw John and Pat Hume. John looked so broken to me and he touched my heart.

"I knew that he was under the most immense pressure from many quarters. He had been dismissed from Dublin and London and seemed so isolated. My instinct told me to go and speak to him.

"I was unhappy that people in Dublin and London and the media weren't treating him fairly.

"A politician in Ireland had recently said when asked about the North that it 'wasn't an election issue'. That's why I approached him.

"My conversation with him was brief, touching for both of us and intended to be private.

"My words to him came from my heart, and I wanted him to know that ordinary people that he represented appreciated what he was trying to achieve.

"I believe that if you stand in your power and tell the truth, you will receive the support you need.

"Knowing that so many people who lost their lives during the Troubles never got to finish school, get married, raise a family, play with their grandchildren was so heartbreaking only made finding a solution to the senseless loss of life more urgent.

"Many people worked hard to find peace. Some did it quietly, some publicly.

"Because of their efforts and, most importantly, John Hume, a whole generation has been spared the horror of violence.

"Our young people today know peace. We all do. That is a magnificent achievement.

"In John Hume, the world had a Nobel-winning statesman. And even in terrible times, the people of Derry always had his back."

:: A week on from John Hume's death, a cross-border university in memory of the late SDLP leader and Nobel peace prize winner has been proposed.

Fine Gael TD Colm Burke has suggested the creation of a university with campuses on both sides of the border in Derry and Donegal.

"The establishment of a university in memory of John Hume would be a fitting tribute to him given his dedication to creating a brighter future of the young people of this island," the Cork North Central TD said.

"An Institute of Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies could be a major element in the new university, which over time could make a major contribution to solving complex political conflicts around the world."
Clean-up crews, volunteers are scrambling to contain the ecological disaster, with further damage to the ship expected due to bad weather.

A grounded ship off the coast of Mauritius has leaked tonnes of crude oil into the island's clear waters. Clean-up crews and volunteers have been scrambling to contain the ecological disaster by cordoning the oil from spreading towards the island, and have successfully stemmed the leak.

The MV Wakashio ship's hull struck a coral reef off the island on 25 July, and it has been aground ever since, but only began leaking oil over the past few days, BBC reported. The ship has roughly 4,000 tonnes of oil, of which close to 2,000 tonnes is thought to have seeped into the Indian Ocean waters near Mauritius.

The nation's Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said the leak from a damaged oil tank on board the stuck vessel had stopped but that the ship still had 2,000 tonnes of oil in two other, undamaged tanks.

"The salvage team has observed several cracks in the ship hull, which means that we are facing a very serious situation," Jugnauth said in a televised speech, parts of which were made available to Reuters. "We should prepare for a worst-case scenario. It is clear that at some point the ship will fall apart."

Diving centres, fishermen and others are party to the clean-up effort, with guest houses on the island now offering free accommodation to volunteers and hair salons offering discounts to those donating hair  one of the resources being used in the undertaking, as per the report. The government is also using sea booms to control the spill, and vacuuming the oil floating on the surface.

The site of the leak is at Pointe d'Esny, a region of Mauritius home to a wealth of sanctuaries for rare and endemic wildlife, and a marine park with pristine protected coral reefs, mangrove forests and endangered species, the report said. Residents and conservationists have reported seeing the early impacts of the spill on the local wildlife.

We are starting to see dead fish. We are starting to see animals like crabs covered in oil, we are starting to see seabirds covered in oil, including some which could not be rescued, said Vikash Tatayah, conservation director at Mauritius Wildlife Foundation, a non-governmental organization.

Experts have warned that the unprecedented damage caused to the fragile coastal ecosystem of Mauritius will likely also impact its economy. Mauritius and its residents depend primarily on its seas for food and tourism. Mauritius has maintained its reputation as a conservation success, and one of the top global destinations for nature lovers. The spill threatens to permanently destroy the already fragile marine ecosystem at the heart of global ecotourism.

The Mauritian PM declared the spill an "environmental emergency" and call for international help to help contain the damage. He thanked France for sending a naval vessel, military aircraft and technical experts from the nearby French island of Reunion, to assist with the disaster.

Jugnauth is also said to have convened a crisis committee meeting to plan for the forecast of bad weather, which could further complicate efforts to stem the spill from any further structural damage to the vessel. Ecologists have warned that if the ship breaks, the potential damage to the coastline  and the island nation's economy  could be catastrophic.

The MV Wakashio is owned by Nagashiki Shipping Company, and operated by Japanese transport company Mitsui OSK Lines. Mitsui said it had tried to place its own containment booms around the vessel but had not been successful owing to rough seas. Mitsui could come under heavy fire for its role in the accident, according to Nikkei Asian Review.

The company, which operates an 800-vessel fleet, said it wanted to respond appropriately, given the massive, growing, impact the spill will have in the local environment.

"We don't know the full extent of the harm yet, so we don't know what such payments would even look like," Kiyoaki Nagashiki, President of Nagashiki Shipping Company told Asian Review.

"We apologize profusely and deeply for the great trouble we have caused," Akihiko Ono, executive vice president at Mitsui said in a news conference, according to the report.

An expert has said that the payment for damages will likely be made by the ship's owner, the Nagashiki Shipping Company, and capped somewhere between 2 and 7 billion yen (1.4 to 5 billion INR) for a ship the size of Wakashio.
Coronavirus-hit Peru is experiencing a concerning surge in infections as the nations health system struggles to cope with the influx.

The nations coronavirus death toll topped 20,000 last Thursday yet there are fears that figure could double due to deaths only being counted if the victim had a coronavirus test before dying.

There are more than 27,000 uncounted deaths now under investigation as to whether they are coronavirus-related, Peruvian authorities say.

As Peru began to ease its restrictions at the beginning of July, it has seen an uptick of cases which have now skyrocketed in August, with daily cases routinely surpassing 7000.

Relatives of COVID-19 patients queue to recharge oxygen cylinders. Source: AFP

The nation, with a population of 33 million, now has 471,000 confirmed cases, the second highest in South America and the seventh highest globally.

As hospitals struggled to deal with the surge in patients at the start of the pandemic, a nationwide shortage of oxygen in May left families fighting to get their hands on the commodity for infected relatives at home.

As the nations second wave begins to take hold, the shortage continues as authorities try and supply oxygen to those in desperate need.

The Association of Municipalities of Peru (AMPE) and the Peruvian army began providing limited free oxygen to poverty-stricken areas from July via its mobile oxygen plant.

Tragic story behind eerie photos from Lima

Photos from its capital Lima shows dozens of people queuing for hours on end with large oxygen tanks after running out.

Peru has seen a surge in cases over the last two weeks. Source: Worldometers

It is difficult to see people cry and claim and beg for oxygen, Marco Antonio Pitor told AFP after spending a full day in search of oxygen.

Some families queue all night through winter and those who arent lucky enough to acquire free oxygen are left to fork out up to $70 for a tank.

Jennifer Garcia said she cant get enough for her infected father who uses multiple tanks daily.

Getting oxygen is horrible because they ask too high for prices, she said.

AMPE Head and La Molina Mayor Alvaro Paz de la Barra said getting oxygen to family members was a matter of life and death, local news agency Andina reported.

Story continues

Relatives of COVID-19 patients move oxygen cylinders as they queue to recharge them in Villa Maria del Triunfo, in the southern outskirts of Lima last week. Source: AFP

"We have seen what many compatriots have to go through to get oxygen, and that  unfortunately  they even die due to the lack of its supply, he said.

This cannot keep on happening.

Mr Paz de la Barra announced a partnership with the Science and Technology Research Centre of the National Engineering University would allow the AMPE to increase oxygen production up to five times its current output in two weeks, however recent complications had hampered production.

In June, the government attempted to crack down on those cashing in on oxygen supplies, yet it had done little to ease the worries of families forced to care for relatives at home.

The extent of the crisis in the nations health system was seen last week when bodies were seen outside hospitals in the regional cities of Cusco and Cajamarca where the outbreak has extended beyond Lima.

Relatives of COVID-19 victims have said cemeteries in the north of Peru have no room for their dead.

Peru has extended its state of emergency to the end of August and broadened a quarantine to cover more than half of the country's regions as cases continue to soar.

Authorities are now looking to relocate medics to at-risk areas so as to reinforce fragile hospitals outside of the capital.

with AFP and Reuters

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Bobby Cannavale, 50, quietly jetted into Australia to film his new series, Nine Perfect Strangers, last month with his partner Rose Byrne, 41, and their two sons, Rocco, four, and Rafa, two.

And the family were spotted spending some quality time together in Byron Bay on Sunday.

Fresh out of quarantine, the clan enjoyed a beach walk on Sunday.

Family time: Actress Rose Byrne, 41, and partner Bobby Cannavale, 50, cuddled up to their sons Rocco, four, and Rafa, two, while out for a stroll in Byron Bay on Sunday

The New York-based couple lapped up the sunshine and the sea as they took in the sights of the popular tourist town.

Rose and Bobby were ever the doting parents as they lovingly carried their sons, who seemed all tuckered out after spending time after the walk.

Cute: Rose and Bobby were ever the doting parents as they lovingly carried their sons, who seemed all tuckered out after spending time after the walk

Australian star Rose kept her look low-key for the outing, wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a beige-hued sweater.

She finished her look with a black cap, a pair of oversized sunglasses and white Birkenstocks sandals.

Meanwhile, Bobby kept to his cool dad-style by wearing a blue sweater, a pair of blue chinos and white hi-top sneakers.

Casual cool: Australian star Rose kept her look low-key for the outing, wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a beige-hued sweater

He completed his dressed down outfit with a pair of black sunglasses.

The couple were later spotted on the beach canoodling.

Rose and Bobby smiled at each other as the actor lovingly put his arm around her shoulder.

Daddy cool: Meanwhile, Bobby kept to his cool dad-style by wearing a blue sweater, a pair of blue chinos and white hi-top sneakers

Bobby, Rose and their family quarantined in a Sydney hotel for 14-days upon arrival into NSW.

The actor's new series Nine Perfect Strangers is based on the 2018 novel by Big Little Lies author, Liane Moriarty.

Doting: Later in the day, Rose was seen carrying a tote while holding her son's hand

Last month, producer and star of the show, Nicole Kidman, told The Daily Telegraph that she's 'thrilled' to be able to bring hundreds of jobs to the local film industry after it was sent crashing down by the coronavirus pandemic.

'It is a great opportunity for me to give back to the community that nurtured me through so much of my career,' she said.

The limited series is being produced by Nicole's production company Blossom Films, alongside Big Little Lies collaborators Bruna Papandrea (Big Little Lies, Gone Girl) and David E. Kelley.

Romance: The couple were later spotted on the beach canoodling

Loved up: Rose and Bobby smiled at each other as the actor lovingly put his arm around her shoulder

Nicole will also star in Nine Perfect Strangers alongside an A-list Hollywood cast, including Melissa McCarthy, Luke Evans and Manny Jacinto.

Melissa McCarthy was also spotted in the tourist town.

Filming will begin on August 10 and will run for 19 weeks.
The Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Developments (ADDED) Strategic Plan 2020-2025, which focuses on sustainable economic development, has been reviewed by Sheikh Khalid bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Member of the Executive Council and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office.



The plan also places strong focus on the execution of projects, programmes and initiatives that aim to enhance the Abu Dhabi Government's efforts to increase the competitiveness of the emirate's economy by enabling non-oil sectors to lead the local economy, reported state-run news agency Wam.



During Sheikh Khalid bin Mohameds visit to ADDED's headquarters in Abu Dhabi, its Chairman, Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa, presented the strategic plan, sharing the full details and programmes. The plan aims to ensure the continuous growth of Abu Dhabi's gross domestic product via the consolidation of ADDED's role in enhancing strategic partnerships with local and federal government entities, private sector companies, institutions, and global partners.



Sheikh Khalid gave directives to create an integrated and comprehensive framework for micro, small and medium enterprises, mSMEs, that is capable of providing all services required to support these enterprises, including a range of financing solutions.



He also gave directives to review the laws, policies and procedures related to the ease of doing business and to submit proposals for regulatory reforms before the end of this year, in order to enhance Abu Dhabis competitiveness as an attractive investment destination.



Furthermore, Sheikh Khalid gave directives to enhance the role the private sector plays as a partner in Abu Dhabi's sustainable economic development plans and approved the formation of the Economic Collaboration Committee between the public and private sectors and gives directives to accelerate the submission of proposals to enhance private sector development while focusing on key sectors defined in the emirate's strategy.

Meanwhile, Al Shorafa presented a detailed overview of the objectives and programmes of ADDEDs Strategic Plan 2020-2025, which also included the Department's new operational structure and future direction in leading Abu Dhabi's economic agenda.



Al Shorafa pointed out that the strategic plan identifies a set of priorities in enhancing the competitiveness of the emirate and its economic diversification efforts, by focussing on sectors such as financial services, information technology, tourism and agriculture technologies. Additional priorities include investing in the institutional development of the department by introducing legislation and laws, automating the economic licences procedures, developing the role of control and inspection and the issuance of economic data and studies.



He stated that ADDED's plan will also focus on supporting SME projects through further developing the operational system of the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development (KFED) enhancing the role of free zones in the emirate, implementing the strategic plan for the industrial sector's development, establishing the Logistics Support and Exports Office and launching promotional campaigns to attract more FDIs by the Abu Dhabi Investment Office, ADIO.



Al Shorafa highlighted that the implementation of the department's five-year strategic plan relies mainly on the role of the Economic Collaboration Committee which was established recently by ADDED. The new committee aims to enhance cooperation and coordination between the public and private sectors through the development of economic policies and legislation in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. This will play a pivotal role in stimulating the business sector and boost growth in the emirates GDP.
Artsakh FM: Azerbaijan attack on Karabakh will mean attack on Russia

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15 years pass since Hrant Dink assassination

563 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Guterres offers Merkel job at UN

Armenian church revamped in Iran

World oil prices going up

Newspaper: ECHR rulings increase after Armenia revolution in 2018

Newspaper: Armenia ex-President Sargsyan to give interview instead of press conference

Azerbaijan MFA falls into hysterical rage by France FM statement

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
Japan's quiet push to protect its supply chains in the era of covid-19 may prove a boon for Southeast Asian nations looking to gain from the growing backlash against China.

The Japanese government is paying about 12 billion yen ($114 million) to 30 companies to increase production in Southeast Asia, in the first round of a multi-billion dollar program to diversify supply chains after covid-19 and worsening relations between the U.S. and China.

Japan wants to cut its reliance on China or any other individual nation and the money will hasten the trend of firms moving out of China and into cheaper neighbors like Vietnam or Thailand.

Fujikin Inc. makes parts used in semiconductor manufacturing and is one firm benefiting from the incentives. The Osaka-based manufacturer will receive subsidies worth two-thirds of its costs to shift production out of China and into Vietnam.

"We'd been thinking about increasing our capacity in Vietnam before the subsidy was announced, and it fit right in," said company President Shinya Nojima.

When the virus shut down Fujikin's suppliers in China earlier this year, their customers became worried about shipments of parts. "Our customers were asking us: Is the China procurement happening? Are we going to be able to meet the deadline?" Nojima said Monday.

The coronavirus outbreak, and the lockdowns that followed, have forced businesses and government officials around the world to rethink their supply chains in order to reduce reliance on China as a manufacturing source.

Japan had already been a key player in Southeast Asia, home to some of Asia's fastest-expanding economies before the pandemic and a growing and youthful population. Japanese investment into five of the region's economies -- Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand -- rose at nearly double the pace into China over the past decade.

Infrastructure development formed a big chunk of that investment, with Japanese firms vying with Chinese ones to build railways and hospitals in countries like Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The U.S.-China trade war and worries about China's growing dominance in Southeast Asia have fostered stronger economic ties between Japan and the region.

Japan is considered the most trusted major power among Southeast Asian nations, according to an annual survey by the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, released in January. Of 1,308 people surveyed across five professional sectors, 61.2% said they had confidence Japan would "do theright thing" to provide public goods.

That trust goes both ways, with Japan putting a net $139 billion into Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines over the past decade.

"Even before coronavirus and the U.S.-China trade war struck, there was a shift away from production in China," said Satoshi Kitashima, a deputy director at the Japan External Trade Organization.

Vietnam has emerged as the clear favorite for many manufacturers over the years, given its proximity to China, relatively low labor and power costs, and its openness to foreign investment. Kitashima, who had previously spent nine years in Vietnam facilitating business between the two countries, said there's been a clear upward swing in Japanese direct investment into Vietnam since the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.

Fujikin's Nojima says Vietnam's wages are a 10th of Japan's and lower than in China, while Kitashima says many firms are now moving to Vietnam with their focus on the nation's young and rapidly growing domestic market. Investors also credit Vietnam for its stable political leadership and ability to contain the coronavirus outbreak, although the nation has recently seen a spike in cases again.

Of the 30 firms that secured Japanese government subsidies to expand production abroad to protect their supply chains, half of them will be using that money in Vietnam.

One of them is Showa International Co., a Tokyo-based business that's been making clothes in Vietnam for 25 years. The pandemic has seen it ramp up production of medical gowns and masks, with Kazuo Nishizawa, head of the company, projecting it should be able to produce up to 150,000 gowns a month.

"There's still a large shortage of gowns and masks," he said. With demand surging across the world, "we have a mission to first be able to provide stable supplies to Japan," he said.

In the first round of the new subsidy program, 57 companies shared 57.4 billion yen to boost output in Japan, and the 30 companies shared about 12 billion yen to increase output in other nations. That leaves around 174 billion yen that firms can apply for in the next round.

Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy and the world's fourth most-populous nation, is another country that's benefited from a surge in Japanese investment, including in Jakarta's first underground rail network.

Japan was the biggest Asian investor in Indonesia in the first quarter, according to data from the central bank. In June, authorities announced that seven foreign companies will relocate their plants from China to Indonesia with a total investment value of $850 million. Three of them were from Japan, including electronics giant Panasonic Corp. and auto parts maker Denso Corp.

"FDI from Japan will remain high or even higher, especially because the second phase of the mass rapid transit construction project in Jakarta will soon begin," said Yuliot, a deputy chairman at the Indonesian Investment Coordinating Board, who goes by one name. Another reason is "the relocation trend of Japanese plants from China to Indonesia," he said.

Within Japan, pressure is growing to secure supply chains.

"In the past supply chains were put together solely from the perspective of economic rationale," Akira Amari, a confidante of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a senior ruling party official, said in an interview last month. "Amid the coronavirus crisis, the thinking is shifting toward diversifying risk from the perspective of national economic security."
This November, New York might be a swing state. Not because it will be remotely suspenseful  Democrats have waltzed away with its electoral votes in every presidential contest from 1988 on  but because a barrage of legal activity coming out of the Empire State could provide a few plot twists heading into the presidential election in November.

Could is the operative word there. The thing about plot twists is that you cant put them on your calendar beforehand.

But people and entities close to Trump World have found themselves wrapped up in a host of New York legal matters, and they could factor into the way the presidential contest plays out. Manhattans district attorney, Cy Vance, just notched a major Supreme Court victory in his effort to scrutinize Trumps financial dealings. Meanwhile, New Yorks attorney general has sued to dissolve one of Trumps strongest outside allies. And despite resistance from Washington, a former career prosecutor recently ascended to the top of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York  meaning the most powerful law enforcement job in DOJs most powerful district isnt held by an ally of the Trump administration.

The NRA vs. The World

Last week, New York Attorney General Letitia James brought a blockbuster civil lawsuit against the National Rifle Association, accusing it of a host of financial wrongdoings and seeking its dissolution. The NRA has long been a stalwart ally of the Republican Party, and it spent millions to help Trump win in 2016.

Her office floated a major national announcement the day before, spurring speculation that she was going to target a company or person linked to the Trumps. But zeroing in on the NRA was the culmination of a long-running probe that has generated simmering consternation among allies of the gun group, who point out that James hasnt been understated about her views on the subject.

The NRA holds [itself] out as a charitable organization, but in fact, [it] really [is] a terrorist organization, she said in a 2018 interview with Ebony.

Story continues

Many of the allegations in the 100-plus-page suit, including that the NRAs CEO used the organizations funds to fly his family members around on private jets, had trickled out in media reports over the past year. But James lawsuit gave those concerns the imprimatur of law enforcement, and the suit cites NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre himself.

Its extremely unlikely the litigation will be resolved before the election, and the NRA has countersued, calling the states suit a political attack (the NRAs president called it a power grab by a political opportunist  a desperate move that is part of a rank political vendetta). But the suit could have a big impact on November  the only question is how.

Multiple people close to the NRA spoke to POLITICO about how the suit will affect the group. Two things are all but certain: First, it will excite NRA supporters and likely drive an increase in membership. And second, It will be expensive. Sources said the groups mounting legal costs could siphon off money that would have gone to TV ads designed to get those new members to the polls. So the New York lawsuit could clarify which matters more: the legions of voters motivated by perceived assaults on gun rights, or the more formal power of the biggest group that lobbies for them.

Since Trumps election, the NRA has faced a host of financial problems, including some pretty big ones that insiders have long said are self-inflicted. In particular, the groups spending on legal bills since Trumps election may have eclipsed how much it spent helping Trump win that race; a legal filing from its former PR firm alleged in April that the gun groups top lawyer had billed it $54 million, as The Trace reported. And its pricey legal fights havent subsided, indicating its legal spending since then has likely only grown.

Meanwhile, the NRAs spending on elections has sagged.

They were a nonfactor in 2018, one person close to the gun group told POLITICO. Theyre going to be an even bigger nonfactor in 2020, financially.

In 2016, the group spent more than $50 million to help Republicans. In 2018, per OpenSecrets, the NRA just spent just $9.5 million on federal elections. And thus far for 2020, the groups spending doesnt look impressive. In June 2016, the NRA spent more than $5 million. This past June, however, the NRA has so far only reported spending $2 million, according to Federal Election Commission records. A recent filing shows it spent $530,000 in August on canvassing to support Trump. Meanwhile, the group has laid off dozens of employees.

Despite all that, the groups leadership is looking to telegraph optimism. In an interview with the Washington Free Beacon, a top NRA official said the group will spend tens of millions in the fall and has added a thousand new members every day since June. Assuming those numbers are right, the association has likely pulled in about $3 million in new membership dues (its website says annual membership fees are $45) thus far this summer.

And another challenge could be maintaining the confidence of major donors. The association is arguing that the allegations in James lawsuit are fanciful, and that the private jets and yacht trips were for the good for the NRA. Its an open question as to whether that defense will persuade the groups major donors to keep giving.

For the groups opponents, this all brings considerable schadenfreude.

"Simply put, the NRA is going to be spending less on politics this cycle and more on lawyers, and that's going to make us all safer, said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, which pushes for stricter gun laws.

President Donald Trump shakes hands with NRA executive vice president and CEO Wayne LaPierre as he arrives to speak to the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association, Friday, April 26, 2019, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The Southern Districts Black Box

The Justice Department has a general practice  according to its inspector general  of avoiding bringing criminal charges against political candidates within 60 days of an election. That practice also generally proscribes public disclosures of investigative steps related to electoral matters. If DOJ abides by that practice, the department has less than a month to bring charges that could be connected to either presidential contender.

Attorney General William Barr issued a memo early this year ordering prosecutors and investigators to get his personal signoff on any probes into presidential candidates. The scope of this memorandum should be broadly construed to ensure that Department leadership is made aware of the opening of matters that could potentially be disruptive to our democratic processes if publicly disclosed prior to an election, Barr wrote.

Given the public excoriation the department faced for its eleventh-hour revelations in 2016 about Hillary Clintons emails, any announcement of criminal charges against major figures in the days before Election Day 2020 seems unlikely. Barr has downplayed expectations for such prosecutions, but seems to be leaving open the possibility of the preelection release of a report from U.S. Attorney John Durhams long-running investigation into the genesis of special counsel Robert Muellers Russia probe.

Republicans have been champing at the bit for revelations from Durhams inquiry. But, as NPR detailed, Barrs assurance that hell abide by DOJs longstanding policy hasnt done much to calm Democrats nerves.

Simultaneously, the Southern District of New York has been scrutinizing Rudy Giuliani  who has represented both Trump and his campaign  in connection with potential violations of foreign lobbying laws. Its not clear whether Barr, known to be no fan of Giuliani, would deem a prosecution of the presidents attorney to fall afoul of his memo.

The Advance of Cy Vance

New York District Attorney Cy Vance nabbed a win at the Supreme Court last month in his quest for financial information about Trump and his businesses. While Vances legal demand for Trumps tax and financial information proceeded for months in tandem with litigation over congressional subpoenas, the high courts decisions on those cases last month left the Manhattan prosecutor  a Democrat who was elected to his post in 2010  much closer to the finish line in his fight than Congress has managed to get.

The Supreme Courts decision on the House subpoenas at issue punted those cases back to lower courts for further review. The justices told those judges to take a close look at lawmakers need for the information and whether the scope of the Hills demands aligned with legitimate congressional goals. The House may well be able to persuade judges to enforce the subpoenas, at least in part, but with less than three months until Election Day, the prospects that Congress scores substantial Trump-related revelations looks slim.

The DAs probe initially appeared to focus on hush money payments made to women who said they had sexual encounters with Trump, but recent filings have suggested it is a wider investigation into potentially serious criminal misconduct.

The investigation includes allegations of bank and insurance fraud, according to a filing last week. Trumps latest attempt to block the subpoena fails for the additional reason that it rests on the false premise that the grand jurys investigation is limited to so-called 'hush-money' payments made by Michael Cohen on behalf of Plaintiff in 2016, Vance wrote in those court papers. This Court is already aware that this assertion is fatally undermined by undisputed information in the public record.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance arrives to talk to reporters in New York

Congressional investigators and Vances prosecutors believe the Trump financial data could provide a treasure trove of evidence about potential bank fraud and tax fraud. Former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen has said Trump had a pattern of overstating the value of his assets when applying for loans and understating the worth of those same properties for tax purposes.

While its possible that federal prosecutors in New York probing Giuliani and his associates could make news before the election, the window on that possibility is closing. But those norms on preelection law enforcement action dont constrain state and local officials. And a spokesperson for Vance confirmed to POLITICO that his office does not have any comparable 60-day blackout period for moves that could potentially shape elections. So an October surprise from those quarters is a more viable prospect.

Trump officially dropped New York as his residence last October, but local prosecutors there would have jurisdiction over his tax filings, bank submissions, and business records since the Trump Organization remains in the city and Trump himself lived there for his entire life before the shift to Florida last fall.

Vances office has already shown a willingness to bring aggressive criminal charges against Trump associates. In March of last year, the D.A. announced an indictment of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on 16 charges of fraud and falsifying business records. The move seemed to be aimed at discouraging a Trump pardon of Manafort on his federal convictions.

A judge tossed out the New York-based Manafort case, finding that it violated a New York State law against successive state and federal prosecutions for the same crimes. Vances appeal of that ruling is pending.

Meanwhile, Vance and James have both sought information on Trump from Deutsche Bank, the longtime lender of choice to the presidents businesses.

Josh Gerstein and Erin Durkin contributed to this report.


Damaged buildings are seen at the Port of Beirut in Lebanon, Aug. 8, 2020. The Lebanese Health Ministry announced on Saturday that 158 people died and 6,000 were wounded by the huge explosions that hit Beirut's port on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

The total figure of "emergency aid pledged or that can be mobilized quickly" amounts over 252 million euros (297.08 million U.S. dollars), said the French presidency.

PARIS, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The international community on Sunday pledged timely and sufficient aid, well-coordinated under the leadership of the United Nations (UN), to assist the Lebanese people hit by the massive explosions at the Beirut port five days ago.

After a UN-backed virtual conference, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, representatives from Britain, Qatar, the United States, the European Union, China, the World Bank and others issued a joint statement pledging solidarity with and support to the Lebanese people.

"The participants agreed that their assistance should be timely, sufficient and consistent with the needs of the Lebanese people, well-coordinated under the leadership of the United Nations, and directly delivered to the Lebanese population, with utmost efficiency and transparency," said the statement.

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)

To help Lebanon overcome the tragedy and recover better, "we will need all hands on deck," UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told the conference.

"I give my pledge that the United Nations is committed to helping the people of Lebanon in every way we can," she said.

Mohammed called for a focus on support to four priority sectors, health, food, the rehabilitation of buildings and the rehabilitation of schools.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun told the conference that rebuilding Beirut requires a lot of efforts and resources.

"The earthquake struck us while we are in the midst of economic and financial crisis, in addition to the existence of over 1 million refugees in Lebanon and the repercussions of COVID-19. Dealing with all these is way beyond the capacity of Lebanon," Aoun noted.

The total figure of "emergency aid pledged or that can be mobilized quickly" amounts over 252 million euros (297.08 million U.S. dollars), said the French presidency.

"We are sending a clear message: we, the global community, Lebanon's closest friends and partners, will not let the Lebanese people down," Macron tweeted.

French President Emmanuel Macron visits the Port of Beirut in Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 6, 2020. (Dalati & Nohra/Handout via Xinhua)
Cities listed on Interstate Highway System signs are selected based on recommendations from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Read more

Why does Philly rarely get any love on Maryland northbound I-95 signs?

A reader asked that question of Curious Philly  The Inquirers platform that lets people send in questions for our reporters to answer.

Why do all northbound signs on I-95 in Maryland say New York and not Philadelphia or Wilmington? Very irking to me and several million Philadelphia-area residents, wrote James Udell.

We set out to find the answer. Whether itll make you or Udell feel any less irked, well, thats debatable.

 READ MORE: Got a question for one of our reporters? Ask us through Curious Philly.

Who decides?

Cities that appear on signs on interstate highways are based on recommendations by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), says Bob Cullen, the groups information resource manager.

AASHTO is a nonprofit, nonpartisan association representing highway and transportation departments for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. It serves as a liaison between state departments of transportation and the federal government.

AASHTO maintains a published list of control cities, which it updates periodically. Control cities are locations determined by each state to be major destinations on or near the Interstate Highway System. If you look at the list, both Philadelphia and Wilmington, along with other local destinations, including Chester and Trenton, are marked 95 NB. In other words, Philadelphia is a candidate for I-95 northbound signage.

 READ MORE: Read more Curious Philly questions, answered

So, why New York?

How did New York become the chosen golden child for I-95 NB signs all across Maryland? The idea is that its the most recognizable of all the options.

Using NEW YORK as the guide sign destination clearly captures all northbound motorists regardless of their ultimate destination without presenting information which could confuse motorists destined for an interim destination, says John Sales, Maryland Transportation Authority public affairs manager. It also maintains consistency with signing along all approach roadways and in adjacent jurisdictions.

Federal regulations limit the number of destinations that can be shown on guide signs to two per sign. So, if a sign is pointing people in two directions, each can only show one destination.

Adding additional destinations causes confusion for motorists at a time when they are processing significant amounts of information as part of driving, Sales says.

 READ MORE: The most curious things we learned about Philly in the past year

Once a primary control city is selected, its repeated to create a clear and consistent message, Sales says.

But have no fear, if youre headed from Baltimore to Philadelphia, youll get at least a little City of Brotherly Love guidance. Once you approach Delaware, signs appear instructing you to take I-95 North to reach PHILADELPHIA. Its just enough to point you in the right direction.

Have a question related to the region? Send them to us through Curious Philly, inquirer.com/askus.
Constrained to exist in public spaces, the homeless are constant targets of regulation, criminalisation, expulsion and erasure.  Randall Amster

On April 3, 2020, Californian Governor Gavin Newsom announced the implementation of Project Roomkey: the states initiative to aid those in situations of homelessness amidst the COVID-19 crisis. As growing fears of coronavirus contagion became more prevalent, it fell to officialdom to focus on demographics deemed particularly at-risk to assuage public concerns. Sensibly, the project aims to secure 15,000 hotel rooms for homeless candidates deemed particularly vulnerable to the virus.

Yet serious problems exist with this intervention. Primarily,the suddenness and urgency with which the virus was publicised left little room for critical or constructive decision-making. Instead, by considering the pandemic as an isolated event (without appreciation of context or history), autocratic global solutions were implemented through strict quarantine and lockdown efforts, demonstrating what critics identify as the emergency imaginary [1]. Under this, issues that lead to or exacerbate a crisis are rejected and intervention is considered the only reasonable response, bringing with it methods for control under humanitarian hubris: sufferers become objects [2], death and illness become statistics [3], lives become measurable and so the categorisation of lives is (re)established [4]. That is to say, the logic of Project Roomkey distinguishes the (hapless) lives to be saved from those who are able to save, setting in place the respective values of said lives.

While COVID-19 is indiscriminatory in terms of contraction, it is highly discriminate in fatalities. The most at-risk individuals include those already suffering from health problems which disproportionately affect those experiencing homelessness [5]. Despite this, the present emergency-focus has meant authorities have avoided discussion of long-term solutions to homelessness. By temporarily sweeping away urban street dwellers from public areas into confinement, public concerns have been prioritised over efforts to effectively remedy homelessness.

This is evident in pandemic-management which, while granting more affluent demographics temporary vacation time, has come at the expense of longer-term economic considerations which are forecast to seriously impact the poor [6]. Additionally, repeated slogans from officialdom such as Stay at home and, Keep your distance are behavioural luxuries that poorer communities and those experiencing homelessness can seldom afford. The coronavirus outbreak exposed inequalities between the haves and have nots  those who can benefit in times of duress versus those for whom unobtainable expectations produces additional anxiety. It is under this guise that forms of state charity have emerged, yet its eventuation is as much a product of class distinction as it is a reinforcer of it. The neoliberal approach to managing the COVID-19 crisis is not as the [facade of] emergency suggests, without pretext. In fact, the discourse guiding the Californian state charitable response for homeless individuals in Project Roomkey could have been predicted based on a brief review of homelessness as a phenomenon throughout US history.

Homelessness in California: The Economic Pretext

The history of homelessness in the United States is, as with most sociopolitical phenomena, a story of economics. Homelessness has served a necessary capitalist function beginning with the wandering men  a mobile source of labour in the industrial city [7]. Establishing residency along rail transit lines and on the periphery of cities, geographic spaces created by this workforce blended local business and social dimensions, establishing community for those who in times of economic downturn faced subsequent unemployment [8]. Skid row  with its Single Room Occupancy units (SROs) and cheap lodging  reflected US economic trends, shrinking in times of abundance and expanding in times of economic hardship. Affordable accommodation eventually attracted other residents; the unemployable (often with health or addiction related issues), the night-working women and other cultural misfits, so that by the 1950s, Skid row inhabitants became all but external to mainstream society.

Two significant events shaped urban ghetto demographics in the post-war era. The first was deindustrialisation. This marked the end of associating Skid row inhabitants with their reserve labour instrumentality. Instead, the mostly single, white male occupants became only known for their failure to observe social norms (routine schedules centred around steady labour) or their duty to fulfil social, political, or community roles [9]. As such their dwelling place directly implicated their personhood; their character, status, and value. In other words, Skid row and ghetto inhabitants were judged by where they lived, not who they were; generative of the social imaginary of the homeless as a person, not an experience.

The second was deinstitutionalisation which took place over the course of the 1970s. Those suffering from acute mental illness were forced from state-funded facilities without sufficient housing or medical provisions, tripling the homeless population throughout many US cities. While deinstitutionalisation operated under the guise of liberating former patients, in reality it freed up state and federal funding from an expensive interventionist endeavour. The effects of deindustrialisation and deinstitutionalisation served liberal discourses that determined class and status as a matter of choice  not of sociopolitical design or failure. Negative effects from policies generated by this discourse accelerated under Reagans administration during the 1980s, when minimal welfare benefits under the New Deal and Great Society initiatives (limited in application but nonetheless there), were abolished in favour of capital-first mandates. Public housing and SROs were sold and destroyed to make way for more profitable real-estate construction, forcing thousands onto the street. Class distinction increased and the poor who could no longer access low-cost housing options became increasingly marginalised to the point of invisibility. Government and public attitudes towards the resulting increase in Californian homelessness remained confined to this discourse of homelessness by personal choice and as such, was addressed through punitive measures [10]. Indeed, California is both home to more unsheltered urban dwellers [11] and has more anti-homeless laws than any other US state [10].

This criminalisation of the poor is the product of the same discourse that implies poverty as matter of choice and continues to ignore evidence to the contrary, including the correlation of homelessness with periods of economic downturn. It also ignores structural failures throughout the mental and physical healthcare services and the effects of stigma and social classification which this unchecked discourse recreates. Research quantifiably points to public medical failures leading to homelessness [12] [13]: Inability to work due to injury or illness and the expiration of personal resources to cope (e.g, limited insurance or family support) often ends in some form of homelessness. In fact, medical issues are more prolific amongst homeless demographics as both a precursor and amplifier of health-related issues. Physical conditions like tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, hypertension, vascular disease, seizures, and most other infectious and chronic conditions affect transient residents over their domiciled counterparts by factors ranging from two to twenty [14]. Additionally, the National Health Care for the Homeless Council notes that the lack of having basic storage for medicines means diabetes, asthma, and high blood pressure patients suffer the effects of these illnesses more acutely. Researchers and psychologists have also identified the reciprocal relationship between mental illness and homelessness; not only do individuals experiencing homelessness have a higher frequency of post-traumatic disorders, but homelessness itself is produces symptoms of psychological trauma [15]. These same experts argue the provision of safe and stable shelter is the most suitable antidote to trauma  for both past and ongoing experiences  which can be exacerbated when social bonds and support networks are disrupted. For instance, when individuals are removed from their respective communities and placed into isolation which is an assault on their sense of personal control..

Yet despite these political and individual limiting factors, homeless individuals have and do exercise agency by giving life to various communal spaces within the urban landscape; places which are synonymous with relationship, compassion and care. As researchers Cloke, May and Johnsen note, [T]hese broadly postsecular service spaces  of the night shelter, hostel, day centre and soup run  represent spaces of praxis in which secular and faith motivation collude in new forms of ethical citizenship that run counter to, and sometimes actively resist, more familiar models of social control. [2, p. 2]. Further, they argue the assumptions of refuge shelters being instrumental in sweeping away unwanteds from areas of visibility is a gross generalisation that undervalues the complexities of homeless geography. People who are homeless are, as academic Susan Ruddick asserts, social subjects, who both create themselves, and are created, in and through the evolving spaces and politics of the city. [16, p. 35].

Conversely, government technologies employed to assist homeless populations take on a very different form of charity. As urban theorist Mike Davis writes, The old liberal paradigm of social control, attempting to balance repression with reform, has long been superseded by a rhetoric of social warfare that calculates the interests of the urban poor and [others] as a zero-sum game. [17, p. 224]. Capital-first mandates premised on faulty logic only instrumentalises charitable policy initiatives to further class divisions and re-establish social imaginaries: where the valuing of lives rests on who is able to be charitable as separate and superior to those who are considered objects for charity.

Project Roomkeys Fallibilities

Project Roomkey fulfils this criterium neatly. While the intentions to source 15,000 hotel rooms for asymptomatic and elderly from amongst the vulnerable individuals experiencing homelessness appeared noble, critics point out that 15,000 is only a scratch on the 150,000 surface of people experiencing homelessness in California. Additionally, claims have been made that these figures are misleading  only one-fifth of the hotel rooms secured for the project have reportedly been tenanted as of July 19, 2020.

The official press release also omits any additional information  marking absent the object of the charitable venture. Indeed, the project is set to benefit hoteliers more than those from the homeless communities it ostensibly assists. COVID-19 has brought a sudden halt to travel and in lieu of tourism, state funds directed to Project Roomkey support these businesses in a time of economic decline. Such diversion of funds for public services and support to the private-sector in times of disaster (specifically for corporate benefit) fulfils the criteria for what is described as disaster capitalism [18]. This involves an initial shock to economies (for example in the outbreak of a pandemic), effectively creating a blank-slate from which governments can prioritise private-sector capital growth over public services and support structures. This is evident on the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) Frequently Asked Questions webpage for Project Roomkey. It covers the conditions for the temporary lodging scheme on issues concerning hoteliers specifically: the strict guidelines for eligibility, the extent of time the project would run for (which is a fixed three month term from when the hotel decided to open their doors, not when the pandemic subsided nor when it was safe for the new tenant to leave) and the assurance of twenty-four hour, on-site security, and of police readiness-to-respond.

The contrast in motives behind fiscally driven relief efforts with the motives of service-provider agencies produces two very different and distinct outcomes. The former deems the temporary hotel occupant as a commodity  a rather objectifying approach. Alternatively, in evaluating the recovery efforts and afterlife of Hurricane Katrina, researchers Adams, Van Hattum, and English deduce non-government organisations and non-profit volunteers are more effective in providing care for those in need. They identify problems with state-aid dependency under the disaster capitalism paradigm explaining: Chronic disaster syndrome [should] be used to refer not just to the individual diseases associated with the stress of disruption that manifest in individual bodies but also to the social conditions that produce distress, tied in nonspecific ways to larger political and economic arrangements that generate belief in, but ultimately prevent, recovery from disasters. (p. 616). Denied essential political life or, bios, individuals experiencing homelessness are stripped to bare life (zoe) [19]; to be separated, regulated, and erased as officialdom sees fit. The relocation of those more vulnerable individuals to places for isolation has also generated stigma and negative attitudes reminiscent of the NIMBYism (not in my backyard) movement of the 1990s. The city of Laguna Hills for instance, filed a lawsuit against Project Roomkey, declaring it to be a public nuisance endangering the health and safety of [their] residents.; recasting these people as problematic and an issue apart from the rest of domiciled society.

The haste with which Project Roomkey was set in motion left little room for questioning the short tenure of the relief effort. FEMA funds directed to the project amounted to a generous US $150 million, a sizeable amount that could make a significant contribution towards long-term housing solutions or the establishment of medical healthcare facilities to provide preventative care for poorer populations. Both would address systemic issues that otherwise have the adverse effect of perpetuating homelessness. Additionally, little regard has been made to the potential adverse effects of isolation on patients who face mental health issues. Under the emergency COVID-19 response, physical health has been prioritised over mental health, proving that bodies can be managed and controlled as the state deems necessary. Acceptance into the project also demands hotel residents abide by strict rules and curfew regulations, crediting the revanchist notion that unknowables should remain invisible and away from the public eye. The denial of agency and separation from ones familiar local community is a high price to pay for the brief comforts of a stock standard interior of a hotel room. Additionally, its temporality does nothing to protect future sufferers of homelessness from the next pandemic  as history should inform us this will not be the last international pandemic.

Freedom of choice, movement, and agency during a time of pandemic is the antithesis of neoliberal forms of social control, as evidenced within homeless communities and is most essential when opportunity to eliminate class indifference and distinction presents itself. After all, at its onset the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a collective truth for humanity; we are all susceptible. Yet the structural inequalities that already existed managed to further exacerbate differences, not only in the experienced effects of the virus  which implicated those experiencing homelessness as more susceptible due to social breakdown and structural failings  but also during government authorised lockdown measures.

Had the urgency and panic been (retrospectively) handled better, structural failures could have been addressed and designs on federal funds could have produced longer-lasting benefits for many homeless areas and individuals, not just the select few.

Lauren Ensor is a Masters student in Conflict and Terrorism Studies at the University of Auckland.

Jesse Hession Grayman is a Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. His ethnographic research examines humanitarian and health interventions in Indonesia.

Works Cited

[1] C. Calhoun, The Idea of Emergency: Humanitarian Action and Global (Dis)Order, in Contemporary states of emergency; the politics of military and humanitarian inventions, New York, Zone Books, 2013, pp. 29-58. [2] P. Cloke, J. May and S. Johnsen, Swept up lives?: Re-envisioning the homeless city, Oxford: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. [3] A. Moran-Thomas, The Creation of Emergency and Afterlife of Intervention: Reflections onGuinea Worm Eradication in Ghana, in Medical Humanitarianism: Ethnographies of Practice, Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015, pp. 209-225. [4] D. Fassin, Humanitarianism as a Politics of Life, Public culture, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 499-520, 2007. [5] World Health Organisation, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Situation Report  51, 11 March 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200311-sitrep-51-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=1ba62e57_10. [Accessed 18 April 2020]. [6] R. Muggah, Interviewee, Coronavirus in the city: A Q&A on the catastrophe confronting the urban poor. [Interview]. 1 April 2020. [7] D. Mitchell, Homelessness, American Style, Urban Geography, vol. 32, no. 7, pp. 933-956, 2011. [8] National Academies of Sciences, Appendix B: The History of Homelessness in the United States, in Permanent Supportive Housing: Evaluating the Evidence for Improving Health Outcomes Among People Experiencing Chronic Homelessness, National Academies Press, 2018. [9] P. E. Groth, Living downtown: The history of residential hotels in the United States, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. [10] M. Fisher, Miller, W. L. N. and J. Selbin, Californias New Vagrancy Laws: The Growing Enactment and Enforcement of Anti-Homeless Laws in the Golden State, University of California, Berkeley, 2015. [11] M. Henry, R. Watt, A. Mahathey, J. Ouellette and A. Sitler, The 2019 Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, The US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Wasington D.C., 2020. [12] A. M. &. W. J. D. Donley, The health of the homeless, Sociology Compass, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 1-12, 2018. [13] Institute of Medicine (US). Committee on Health Care for Homeless People, Homelessness, health, and human needs, Washington D.C.: National Academies, 1988. [14] K. A. T. a. J. D. W. Barrett A. Lee, The New Homelessness Revisited, Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 36, pp. 501-521, 2010. [15] L. A. S. L. &. H. M. .. Goodman, Homelessness as psychological trauma: Broadening perspectives, American psychologist, vol. 46, no. 11, pp. 1219-1225, 1991. [16] S. Ruddick, Young and Homeless in Hollywood, New York: Routledge, 1996. [17] M. Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, New York: Verso Books, 2006. [18] V. Adams, T. Van Hattum and D. English, Chronic disaster syndrome: Displacement, disaster capitalism, and the eviction of the poor from New Orleans, American ethnologist, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 615-636, 2009. [19] G. Agamben and K. Attell, State of Exception, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.

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FANS LOVE ROMESH Ranganathan for his dead-pan humour on panel show appearances and stand-up comedy gigs, but his travel show, The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan, shows us a completely different side of the British comedian. With an aim to investigate and smash stereotypes about different cultures, Romesh visits countries such as Zimbabwe, Haiti, Ethiopia and Colombia. But while doing so, he also has us in splits. Romesh is also known for his news-based comedy show The Ranganation, as well as Asian Provocateur, where he visits Sri Lanka to explore his heritage. We speak to the artiste about the most memorable moments from the shoot and what hes been up to during the lockdown. Excerpts:



The issue of race and culture, especially on television, is at the forefront of our conversation right now. Did you get a new perspective on the topic through your travels?

The whole premise of the show is about cultural awareness and exploring preconceptions people might have about certain places. For example, I went to Ethiopia. The perception of Ethiopia, because of the all of the charity work thats done and the media, is that of a famine ravished country and that theres no reason to visit there. But our trip shattered that illusion. Also, when we went to Albania, it was a different experience. I dont think Albanians are used to seeing brown people at all. I come from the UK, where there is racism of course, but people are generally used to seeing South Asian people and people of colour, but in Albania, they are not. So, you have to slightly adjust to their reactions to you.Thats another thing that came up on our travels, and we had to work around it. But there was a lot of changing of preconceptions when I started doing these trips and that was our hope with the show anyway.



Youre a vegan. How easy or tough was it to travel to all these countries as a vegan?

It depends on the country really. Some of the places were really tough, like for an episode we went to Mongolia. And Mongolia doesnt really do vegetarian food. We had to carry a lot of dehydrated meals with us. And then obviously in places like the Arctic, where we also went for another episode, its even more tricky. But, on the other hand, there were other places that were really surprising. For example, Ethiopia has got amazing vegan options. They are quite religious there and they have a fasting period during which they dont have any dairy or meat. Hence, every restaurant has a fasting menu, which is essentially vegan. So, it was a mixed bag, to be honest.



Which was the most daunting moment on the shoot?

(Laughs) There are a few of them that probably spring to mind. One is from the very first episode of the very first show, we went to Haiti.We visited a freshwater pool and there was a cliff, that people were jumping off the top of into the water. And my co-host wanted me to do that. I did climb the cliff, but I was too scared to jump. But I also didnt want to climb down because the climb was so treacherous so I ended up just jumping. And when we went to the Arctic, we camped on the edge of the oceans. We were right on the edge where the ice meets the sea.

While, it was an amazing experience and we got to see some polar bears, the actual challenges that we faced in that environment  I dont know if I want to go back and do that ever again.



Conversely, which was the most fun moment?

Lots of fun bits. In Ethiopia, we went to a church, that was at the top of a mountain and carved into the rock face. Seeing that church, in that scenario, is one of the most incredible things Ive ever seen. And it will stay with me for a very long time.



Tell us about your upcoming book, As Good As It Gets.

As Good As It Gets is a collection of life lessons, from my point of view. It is lessons of topics ranging from parenting and veganism to how men should dress at my age and long-term relationships.



How has the lockdown been? Have you picked up any new hobbies?

I have actually. My mum is obsessed with me not putting on weight. I think its her biggest concern. So, my wife and I have been doing a fair bit of exercise. Its really embarrassing to do it on Zoom!

My kids are obsessed with the video game Fortnite. And since weve not been able to get our kids to stop playing, my wife and I have started playing it as well.



What can we expect from you in the coming months?

I was in the middle of a tour when we had to go into lockdown in the UK and so thats all been pushed to next year. Originally, we moved the date to September, because people didnt know when we were going to come out of this; it was all so unpredictable. But comedians are itching to get back on stage, we are desperate to find a way of doing comedy

Were also looking to try and hopefully do more of the travel show but try to work within the restrictions. The books coming out later this year. And then Im looking to go back on tour as soon as possible. And I would love to come and do a tour show in India, its on the top of my list, so Im going to make that happen.



The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan airs on Sony BBC Earth



anagha@newindianexpress.com

Twitter: @anaghzzz
Grim figures today lay bare the scale of the crisis the high street was facing even before coronavirus hit.

Employment in shops in town and city centres fell by a quarter in some places between 2015 and 2018, and dropped in three quarters of local authorities.

The figures emerged amid fears that urban areas are being 'hollowed out' because so many people are still working from home due to coronavirus.

There are concerns that the destruction of the so-called lunchtime economy will fuel huge numbers of of jobs losses as the impact of the pandemic reverberates.

Meanwhile, Tory veteran Sir Nicholas Soames has slammed unions for making it 'impossible' for civil servants to return to offices.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has analysed figures on the structure of the high street from this year, and the most recent employment figures and residential from 2018.

It found around a third of addresses on the high street in Britain in 2020 belong to retail shops.

In Chesterfield the numbers working in retail on the high street were down 24.5 per cent between 2015 and 2018, while in Northampton they fell by 23.5 per cent

More than half are residential, while around 10 per cent are offices.

But the ONS said the makeup was changing dramatically even before the lockdown, which forced the closure of all non-essential outlets for months, as the effects of online shopping and other trends were felt.

Employment in retail dropped across all regions between 2015 and 2018, with the exception of the North West where it grew 4 per cent.

In Chesterfield the numbers working in retail on the high street were down 24.5 per cent, while in Northampton they fell by 23.5 per cent.

There was growth in accommodation and food employment, but those venues are have been among the hardest hit by lockdown - although Rishi Sunak's Eat Out to Help Out scheme appears to have given them a boost.

In an interview with La Repubblica, former MP Sir Nicholas - the grandson of Winston Churchill - said while Covid was 'very dangerous' younger people 'need to get back to work'.

'The Royal Bank of Scotland announced that all their employees they're not going back to work until 2021,' Sir Nicholas said.

'It's insane. I'm not in the least bit complacent about Covid. I think it's a very dangerous illness, it's looking all the time for someone to infect.

'Hand washing etc, we do everything that we should do. But, you know, these young people here, they need to get back to work and they want to get back to work. The government offices here, there's a department of the Home Office over the road, Department of Transport, the Department of Education out there What the hell they think they're playing at?

'They're all sitting at home and this is all because the unions: the unions set a bar, which is impossible to reach.

'It's so bad, if you want to get your passport done now, apparently there's a three-month wait Well, that's ridiculous.

'Everything's going to be washed down and hosed down.

'They just made it impossible and I think the government are very wet not to have made say: ''No, we're not having that. We're going back to work.'''
State Police photo

A State Police K-9 and his trooper partner helped locate a hiker who was lost in the woods for hours searching for his missing cellpolice.

State Police said around 4 p.m. Thursday, K-9 Brody and his handler were requested to respond to Beach Pond Road in Voluntown to locate a lost hiker.
Mary Daniel, 57, took a job as a dishwasher at the assisted-living facility in Jacksonville, Fla., where her husband is a resident so she could see him during the pandemic. Read more

Mary Daniel is the chief executive of a small company that helps patients with health-care bills. She recently took a part-time job on the cleaning crew at an assisted-living facility  but not because she needed the money.

She did it because it was the only way she could have a few stolen hours a week with her husband, who has early-onset Alzheimers disease and is a resident there.

Daniel, 57, works at RoseCastle at Deerwood in Jacksonville, Fla., two days a week, scrubbing dishes, mopping floors, and cleaning the grill. Afterward, she spends several precious hours with her husband, Steve Daniel, 66.

After not seeing her husband for more than three months, being with him again has been just amazing, she said through tears.

It didnt matter what I had to do to get there, said Daniel. I was willing to do whatever it took to fulfill my promise that I was going to be there for him every step of the way.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, she used to visit him each evening without fail to spend time together and get him ready for bed. They would lie together for a couple of hours, she said, until he fell asleep.

Despite her busy job as chief executive and founder of ClaimMedic, it had become an important ritual for both of them since last summer, when she moved him into a memory care unit there.

March 10 was the last evening Daniel was able to see her husband. The coronavirus was rapidly gaining momentum in the United States, and visitors were no longer permitted at the facility.

I got a call on the 11th, and they told me I couldnt come back, recalled Daniel, who said she was devastated after a state order barred visitors from nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. I didnt even get to say goodbye.

At first, Daniel was hopeful the pandemic would be short-lived and she would soon be able to reunite with her husband.

But the days just kept ticking away, said Daniel. I reached out to the governor, talked to local reporters, and called the parent company of the facility asking if there was anything I could do to get inside. I even offered to bring my puppy as a therapy dog.

Her pleas were denied. With options dwindling, she visited her husband at his window, but that proved more painful than beneficial for him, she said.

I did that twice, and he just cried, Daniel said. I decided not to do that anymore, since hes better when hes not crying at the window. That wasnt doing him any good.

But she wasnt willing to give up on seeing him, especially because she knew she was not alone. Countless other families across the country were also unable to visit loved ones in assisted-living centers and nursing homes.

Daniel started to mobilize, not just for her own cause, but for the multitude of Americans who were facing the same battle she was. She started a Facebook group, Caregivers for Compromise  because isolation kills too! It was quickly flooded with thousands of harrowing separation stories and details of the painful ramifications of restricted visitations.

James Harvey, a spokesman for RoseCastle Management, the parent company that owns the facility, said of Daniel at the start of her advocacy campaign: We started to partner with her in a more meaningful way to look at how we could meet her needs.

Others at RoseCastle Management learned about Daniels plight, too.

I heard about the work she was doing to bring awareness to her needs and the needs of others facing the same issues, said Mary Raddant, the chief human resources officer at RoseCastle Management.

Thats when she thought of a creative idea.

I knew we had some part-time roles available, so we called Mary and asked if she would be willing to come and work with us. Once she completed her shift, she could spend time with her husband, said Raddant.

Daniel enthusiastically said yes.

We took her through the interview process just as we would any other applicant, said Raddant.

I had to do a drug test, a background screening, video training, and a COVID-19 test, said Daniel, who added that she also gets a weekly coronavirus test.

On July 3, after Daniel completed her job training, she walked into her husbands room  114 days after they had last seen each other.

I opened the door and Steve just looked at me, wide-eyed, Daniel said. Then he said my name.

The tears started streaming for both of them and we hugged for the longest time, she said.

Now, twice a week, Daniel puts in the time and elbow grease at RoseCastle, scrubbing, washing, and mopping.

Then I go visit Steve, she said, adding her husband doesnt know about the workaround that allows her to see him. I change him into his shorts and we lie in bed for a few hours until he falls asleep, just like we used to.

The facility is happy to have her.

Mary has been a part of our Deerwood family since her husband, Steve, moved into our community, but we are proud to welcome her onto our team, said Kelley Withrow, executive director for RoseCastle at Deerwood. Mary is off to a great start in her new role, and we are excited to see the positive changes in Steves demeanor as well.

RoseCastle Management is encouraging families to follow Daniels lead.

We welcome anyone who has a sincere desire to provide care, Raddant said. If people have the capability and desire to work with the elderly and they want to apply at any community we manage, we welcome them as an applicant.

Though the situation is far from perfect, Daniel said, she is thrilled to be reunited with her husband, and the feeling is mutual.

Steve doesnt speak very well, said Daniel. But I know he feels my love for him when Im there.
Will Smith is known for his acting, comedy, and music. But this summer, hes adding Shark Week star to his resume. The Hollywood a-lister is making his Discovery Channel debut with Will Smith: Off The Deep End. Heres the scoop on Smiths exciting new Shark Week special.

Will Smith | VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

Will Smith swam with sharks for his Bucket List series

In 2019, in an episode of his Facebook series, Bucket List, Smith reveals that he developed a real fear of sharks after watching Steven Speilbergs 1978 classic, Jaws. The award-winning actor and musician then goes to the Bahamas to face his fears and swim with tiger sharks.

Were in the Bahamas, and Im about to do my bucket list, diving with sharks, he says in the episode. When I came up with this bucket list idea, in my mind I was in a cage. I wasnt like, diving free, wide open with the sharks.

RELATED: Shark Week 2020: Mike Tyson Contends With a Shark for an Interesting Reason

In the video, Smith says that after living through his numerous successes, hes still searching for more. Ive achieved everything Ive ever dreamed, and the major thing that Im still seeking is I know theres more than that, he admits. And my fear of the unknown is keeping me from that divine wisdom. When youre not afraid to die, youre no longer afraid to live.

He hopes to overcome his fears

The idea of swimming with sharks is terrifying for most people, and Smith is no different. In the Bucket List episode, the actor was visibly nervous before jumping into the swarm of lemon sharks and tiger sharks beneath him.

I hate being scared. I hate it, Smith says. My whole childhood was marked by debilitating fear. Its like, you cant be happy if youre scared. I just dont want to be scared of anything, and how you get over it is you confront the fear.

After diving in, Smith starts getting comfortable with the sharks. He even musters enough courage to nudge them out of his way. Nothing in life will ever feel like that, he says to the camera after the swim. The reason you push the envelope is because the rest of life gets more enjoyable.

Will Smith: Off The Deep End premieres during Shark Week

Smith is making his Shark Week debut with Will Smith: Off The Deep End. The Discovery Channel is keeping details about the new special under wraps. But according to the synopsis, it will feature Smith diving headfirst into action, excitement, and shark-infested waters, as he confronts his fear of the open seas and the open jaws of natures fiercest predators.

The special is produced by Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smiths production house, Westbrook Media. Will Smith: Off The Deep End airs Tuesday, Aug. 11 at 9 p.m. ET on the Discovery Channel.
So the Trump administration is getting ready to ban TikTok ostensibly to protect TikTok users from an invasion of privacy by the Chinese Communist Party (which, I suppose is no worse than having your privacy invaded by Google, Facebook, et al., but oh well).

This implies that he thinks that people who use TikTok shouldnt be free to judge for themselves the risks and benefits of using the service. Contrast this attitude to Trumps position on such things as mandatory mask orders and other directives to require folks to take certain actions to avoid spreading Covid -19, a deadly disease. In that case, he thinks it should be a personal freedom to endanger oneself and others.

This is yet more hypocrisy from the con artist in chief. Me thinks Trumps hate for TikTok more likely stems from the facts that there are people on TikTok that routinely make fun of him, and that it was used by many to punk his Oklahoma rally with a lot of ticket applications that were not used to attend.

Mike Schnierle, Mechanicsburg, Pa.
JTBC's confirmed its new drama "Monster" (working title) will feature actors Yeo Jin Goo and Shin Ha Kyun. This will be Yeon Jin Goo's comeback, while Shin Ha Kyun has another psychological drama.

The new drama will be Yeo Jin Goo's return to the small screen after his last project, "Hotel Del Luna." It's going to be a psychological thriller about two men who are willing to break the rules and law in their pursuit of a serial killer. They work hard to uncover the killer's identity as they look deeper at the hidden sides of the people involved in the case.

Actor Yeo Jin Goo will play the character of Han Joo Won, a hardworking and credible detective. His career and life becomes more interesting as he partnered with the dubious Lee Dong Shik.

While actor Shin Ha Kyun will take one of the lead roles in the drama as the unpredictable Lee Dong Shik, he works as a former detective who was demoted to doing menial work at a local police station. Things went upside down when he paired with Han Joo Won as they seek justice and resolve each case.

Things got shaken when an incident mirrored a serial killer case from 20 years ago. This will make the two detectives busy as they bring all evidence on the table to get it resolved.

Yeo Jin Goo looks forward to playing the role. The actor explained why he accepted the project, "I was drawn to the unique plot that creates 'Monster' different from other dramas in the thriller genre. It is an interesting realistic series and the emotions that it brings to the story are new. This will bring a new side of Han Joo Won that I am excited to deliver to the viewers. I am looking forward to it."

Actor Shin Ha Kyun also shared, "While reading the script, I was intrigued by how the story brings suspense and mystery. I look forward to being a detective and working with Yeo Jin Goo. It is something I'm excited about. I will work hard to create a great drama with the production team and the actors. Please look forward and show us a lot of anticipation."

Meanwhile, Yeo Jin Goo is making well with his reality TV show "House On Wheels." His last project was with Hong Sister's fantasy drama "Hotel Del Luna." On the other hand, Shin Ha Kyun just ended the psychological drama "Soul Mechanic" with his lead role as a psychiatrist.

The upcoming drama "Monster" will premiere in the first half of 2021. Let us wait for more updates, who do you think will cast as their leading actress? Share your thoughts below!
Prague: Slovakia said on Monday it has expelled three staff at the Russian embassy in Bratislava whilst citing an abuse of Slovak visas, which local media said was linked with a murder of a Georgian man in Berlin last year.

"According to information from the Slovak intelligence services, their activities were in contradiction with the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations," a Slovak Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement.

Forensic experts secure evidence in Berlin's Moabit district, where Zelimkhan Khangoshvili of Georgia was shot dead in August 2019. Credit:Getty Images

"On the top of that, there had been an abuse of visas issued at the Slovak general consulate in St. Petersburg, and in this connection a serious crime was committed on the territory of another EU and NATO member state," he said.

The ministry did not provide further details but the justification brings the expulsions into connection with the murder of a former Chechen rebel with Georgian citizenship in Berlin last northern summer.
09:34 | Lima, Aug. 10.





"The most important thing is primary care, which means reactivating it as soon as possible in order to carry out detection and early care," she said in remarks to Canal N on Sunday night.





In this sense, the Cabinet member assured that now is the time for primary care level to be normalized , as it is one of the most relevant tasks to accomplish.





The high-ranking official also said that all citizens must act as if they were symptomatic patients.





"You must act as if you had the virus, because no matter how efficient any test is, no result reaches a 100% accuracy," she said.





Likewise, the minister indicated that it is appropriate to seek comprehensive solutions for the Peruvian health system.





"() we have only one (information) system for beds, for oxygen and for ventilators," she added.





Lastly, Mazzetti announced that 20 additional beds were delivered to Dos de Mayo Hospital in Lima. By the end of this week, there will be 50 additional beds in the capital city.
A day after unidentified men shot and wounded Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activist Abdul Hamid Najar when he was on a morning walk in central Kashmirs Budgam, he died of the injuries in hospital on Monday.

Najar was the district president of the partys Other Backward Classes front. He was the third BJP functionary to be attacked in Kashmir in five days and second to be killed by suspected militants. One functionary who survived an attack in south Kashmir is still battling for his life.

Najar was attacked when he was on a morning walk on Sunday. He was injured in the stomach and admitted to SMHS Hospital in Srinagar for treatment. He died of his injuries in the morning.

All efforts to save our injured colleague failed and he passed away around 5.30 am. He was later buried at his native place in Budgam, BJP state spokesman Altaf Thakur said.

On Thursday, unidentified gunmen killed Sajjad Ahmad Khanday, who was sarpach of Vessu village in Qazigund block in Kulgam. Khanday was shot by gunmen close to his house. Two days earlier, sarpanch Arif Ahmad was shot by suspected militants near his home in Akhran village of Devsar in Kulgam. He was hit in the neck and his condition is said to be critical.

After the attack Najar on Sunday, four leaders and workers of the Budgam unit of the party resigned. The leaders didnt cite any reason for the resignation.

Three BJP workers fromf Kulgam Nisar Ahmad Wani, constituency president from Kund; Sabzar Ahmad Paddar, vice president of the Devsar constituency; and BJP activist Ashiq Hussain Palla from Warpora-Kund  have also announced their decision to dissociate themselves from the party.

Last month, BJPs former district president of Bandipora, Waseem Bari, was killed, along with his father Basheer Ahmad and brother Suhail Basheer, inside his shop. Jammu and Kashmir Police had said that two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) members were involved in the killing of Bari and his kin.

Following the killings, two BJP leaders had resigned from the party. including Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) president from Baramulla, Marouf Bhat.

Police had received inputs that militants may try to target sarpanchs and block development council (BDC) chairmen ahead of August 5, the first anniversary of the revocation of Article 370 that conferred special status on Jammu and Kashmir.

Following the inputs. dozens of panchayat members and BDC chairmen were shifted to safe locations. Dozens of panchayat members have been taken to hotels in high-security zones in different places across the Kashmir and asked not to venture out till Independence Day on August 15.
The "Poland Gift Card and Incentive Card Market Intelligence and Future Growth Dynamics (Databook) Market Size and Forecast (2015-2024) Covid-19 Update Q2 2020" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Historically, the gift card market in Poland has recorded a steady growth with a CAGR of 14.6% during 2015-2019. However, according to the Q2 2020 Global Gift Card Survey, gift card market in Poland is expected to be impacted across retail and corporate segments due to disruption caused by Covid-19 outbreak.

Though growth of gift card industry will be impacted due to pandemic, there are certain segments such as self-use which will gain significant market share. Adoption of e-Gift cards is also expected to increase significantly over the next 4-6 quarters. There are interesting trends emerging across various segments, which are expected to fundamentally reshape gift card industry dynamics.

Despite near-term challenges, medium to long term growth story of gift cards in Poland remains strong. The gift card industry in Poland will continue to grow over the forecast period and is expected to record a CAGR of 10.2% during 2020-2024. The gift card market in the country will increase from US$ 1394.0 million in 2019 to reach US$ 1949.8 million by 2024.

Epay, a Euronet Worldwide Company, has already established its presence in Poland and offers physical Amazon.de gift cards which can be used in around 2800 retail stores all around Poland. These Amazon gift cards will continue to provide support for the growth of the gift card industry in the country. With more than 50% of the internet users shopping online, e-commerce is one of the major drivers of gift cards. E-retailers offering personalized gift cards are more popular. For instance, MAC cosmetics lets its consumers personalize their gift cards by adding their image to it. These cards can be either redeemed online or in-store.

With corporations increasingly adapting to the gift cards and gift vouchers to reward and offer incentives to their employees, the market will continue to rise in the years to come. For instance, Edenred, an employee performance and rewards solution provider, offers non-financial way of motivating and rewarding employees with the holidays, anniversaries and bonus gift cards. Edenred's Ticket Twoja Premia has recorded steady growth over the last 4 quarters.

This report provides a detailed data centric analysis of gift cards and corporate incentive cards market along with consumer behaviour and retail spend dynamics in Poland. With over 200 KPIs at country level, this report provides comprehensive understanding of gift and incentive card market dynamics. It includes raw data along with structured dashboards, charts and tables in an interactive Excel format.

Below is a summary of country level trend analyses covered across gift card segments:

Total gift market: Provides detailed view of overall spend on gifts, broken down by retail and consumer segments.

Gift cards: in-depth analysis of opportunities in both open loop and closed loop prepaid gift card categories. Assesses consumer behaviour by type of consumer, gifting occasion, digital gift card and market share by retail sectors.

Details six essential KPIs: number of cards in circulation, load value, unused value, average purchase value, average value per transaction, and value of transactions.

Corporate incentive loyalty cards: Detailed market dynamics of corporate incentive cards, segmented in three categories consumer incentive card, employee incentive card, and sales/partner incentive card.

Digital gift card analysis: Provides market size and forecast for digital gift cards, broken down by retail and corporate buyers. It also includes gift card spend by occasion.

Open loop and closed loop: Provides market estimates and forecasts to assess opportunities in open loop and closed loop gift and incentive card segments across consumer segments.

Consumer attitude and behaviour: Identifies and interprets key KPIs related to gift card dynamics including spend by age, gender, and income level.

Retail spend: Breaks down retail spend across retail sectors to provide detailed insights on consumer behaviour and changing dynamics of gift card spend.

Market share by retailer

Distribution channel analysis: Provides market share by distribution channel online vs offline sales and 1st party vs 3rd party sales.

Companies Mentioned

Jronimo Martins SGPS SA

Schwarz Beteiligungs GmbH

Tesco Plc

Auchan Group SA

Eurocash SA

Dirk Rossmann KG

Metro AG

Kingfisher Plc

Carrefour SA

Zabka Polska Sp zoo

Euro-net Sp zoo

LPP SA

Neonet SA

Inter Ikea Systems BV

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/3arzq6

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Since 2016, Cecille Wright, who lives in Spring, has been selling her handmade jewelry online. But ever since COVID-19 started to spread locally, shes shifted her business to begin making a new product that responds to the needs of the pandemic.

Since March, Wrights Etsy business, Fern Home And Fashion, slowed down considerably; no one was buying jewelry as they stayed home. But Wright was struck with inspiration when a friend asked for her help. After wearing a mask became mandatory at many local businesses, her friend needed a way to keep from losing or misplacing her mask.

Wright created a simple leather lanyard with jewelry clips on the ends that fastened easily to the elastic of a face mask. She sold the first batch in just a few days and quickly realized the new product could be in high demand. She credits part of her success to an Instagram influencer purchasing a lanyard and tagging her business in a post about it.

Before the pandemic, most of Wrights business was done at local events like The Woodlands Pride Festival, corporate events and conferences. Now, the bulk of her lanyards are being sold through her Etsy shop. It took her almost five years to get to 2,000 orders on Etsy before the pandemic. Now shes sold 1,500 orders online in just a few weeks since adding the lanyards to her shop.

The last two weeks have been like Am I dreaming? she said. Because it went from so dead, seriously dead, to all of a sudden (selling) every day.

As sales started coming in she ordered supplies online but knew they wouldnt make it in time, so her husband went to multiple craft stores to stock up on all the things she needed. He even convinced one of them to order a little extra supplies when they restocked, just for her.

My husband, he works from Austin, so that first week he went to every single craft store, she said. He went to San Marcos, to Austin, just to get me all the supplies that he could find.

She started to expand the lanyard options for kids, with a breakaway clasp for safety. Her son inspired her to start making personalized options with kids' names on them, to make them easier for kids to find and identify as their own. A friend of hers in the fashion industry asked for something more stylish, and she added chains with pearls and crystals to the collection. All of them are multi-functional and could be worn as just a necklace without the mask.

She has around 215 open orders, added over just a few days, and has been getting help from her sister-in-law, children and niece. But with the increased demand shes considering hiring someone else to join the business.

Her marketing has been targeted to states that have mandatory mask orders, and since schools are starting to accept students again, many of her personalized orders have been for students, using their school colors. Several small private schools have ordered in bulk.

She plans on offering the lanyards for as long as there is a demand. Shes even started seeing some international sales to Canada, despite the steep price for first-class shipping. She will probably even expand the options even more depending on what she hears from her customers.

Every time I get an idea, its from customers asking Hey, can you do this? Wright said.

jamie.swinnerton@chron.com
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Vilified, threatened with violence and in some cases suffering from burnout, dozens of state and local public health leaders around the U.S. have resigned or have been fired amid the coronavirus outbreak, a testament to how politically combustible masks, lockdowns and infection data have become.

One of the latest departures came Sunday, when Californias public health director, Dr. Sonia Angell, was ousted following a technical glitch that caused a delay in reporting hundreds of thousands of virus test results  information used to make decisions about reopening businesses and schools.

Last week, New York Citys health commissioner was replaced after months of friction with the Police Department and City Hall.

A review by the Kaiser Health News service and The Associated Press finds at least 49 state and local public health leaders have resigned, retired or been fired since April across 23 states. The list has grown by more than 20 people since the AP and KHN started keeping track in June.

Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called the numbers stunning. He said they reflect burnout, as well as attacks on public health experts and institutions from the highest levels of government, including from President Donald Trump, who has sidelined the CDC during the pandemic.

The overall tone toward public health in the U.S. is so hostile that it has kind of emboldened people to make these attacks, Frieden said.

The last few months have been frustrating and tiring and disheartening for public health officials, said former West Virginia Public Health Commissioner Dr. Cathy Slemp, who was forced to resign by Republican Gov. Jim Justice in June.

You care about community, and youre committed to the work you do and societal role that youre given. You feel a duty to serve, and yet its really hard in the current environment, Slemp said in an interview Monday.

The departures come at a time when public health expertise is needed more than ever, said Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

Were moving at breakneck speed here to stop a pandemic, and you cant afford to hit the pause button and say, Were going to change the leadership around here and well get back to you after we hire somebody, Freeman said.

As of late Monday, confirmed infections in the United States stood at over 5 million, with deaths topping 163,000, the highest in the world, according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins University. The confirmed number of coronavirus cases in the world topped 20 million with about 734,000 deaths.

Many of the firings and resignations have to do with conflicts over mask orders or social distancing shutdowns, Freeman said. Despite the scientific evidence, many politicians and others have argued that such measures are not needed, no matter what health experts tell them.

Its not a health divide; its a political divide, Freeman said.

Some health officials said they were stepping down for family reasons, and some left for jobs at other agencies, such as the CDC. Some, like Angell, were ousted because of what higher-ups said was poor leadership or a failure to do their job.

Others have complained that they were overworked, underpaid, unappreciated or thrust into a pressure-cooker environment.

To me, a lot of the divisiveness and the stress and the resignations that are happening right and left are the consequence of the lack of a real national response plan, said Dr. Matt Willis, health officer for Marin County in Northern California. And were all left scrambling at the local and state level to extract resources and improvise solutions ... in a fractured health care system, in an under-resourced public health system.

Public health leaders from Dr. Anthony Fauci down to officials in small communities have reported death threats and intimidation. Some have seen their home addresses published or been the subject of sexist attacks on social media. Fauci has said his wife and daughters have received threats.

In Ohio, the states health director, Dr. Amy Acton, resigned in June after months of pressure during which Republican lawmakers tried to strip her of her authority and armed protesters showed up at her house.

It was on Actons advice that GOP Gov. Mike DeWine became the first governor to shut down schools statewide. Acton also called off the states presidential primary in March just hours before polls were to open, angering those who saw it as an overreaction.

The executive director of Las Animas-Huerfano Counties District Health Department in Colorado found her car vandalized twice, and a group called Colorado Counties for Freedom ran a radio ad demanding that her authority be reduced. Kim Gonzales has remained on the job.

In West Virginia, the governor forced Slemps resignation over what he said were discrepancies in the data. Slemp said the departments work had been hurt by outdated technology like fax machines and slow computer networks. Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins, said the issue amounted to a clerical error easily fixed.

Inglesby said it was deeply concerning that public health officials who told uncomfortable truths to political leaders had been removed.

Thats terrible for the national response because what we need for getting through this, first of all, is the truth. We need data, and we need people to interpret the data and help political leaders make good judgments, Inglesby said.

Since 2010, spending on state public health departments has dropped 16% per capita, and the amount devoted to local health departments has fallen 18%, according to a KHN and AP analysis. At least 38,000 state and local public health jobs have disappeared since the 2008 recession, leaving a skeletal workforce for what was once viewed as one of the worlds top public health systems.

Another sudden departure came Monday along the Texas border. Dr. Jose Vazquez, the Starr County health authority, resigned after a proposal to increase his pay from $500 to $10,000 a month was rejected by county commissioners.

Starr County Judge Eloy Vera said Vazquez had been working 60 hours per week in the county, one of the poorest in the U.S. and recently one of those hit hardest by the virus.

He felt it was an insult, Vera said.

In Oklahoma, both the state health commissioner and state epidemiologist have been replaced since the outbreak began in March.

In rural Colorado, Emily Brown was fired in late May as director of the Rio Grande County Public Health Department after clashing with county commissioners over reopening recommendations. The person who replaced her resigned July 9.

Brown said she knows many public health department leaders who are considering resigning or retiring because of the strain.

The months of nonstop and often unappreciated work are prompting many public health workers to leave, said Theresa Anselmo of the Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials.

It will certainly slow down the pandemic response and become less co-ordinated, she said. Whos going to want to take on this career if youre confronted with the kinds of political issues that are coming up?



Weber reported from St. Louis. Associated Press writers Paul Weber, Sean Murphy and Janie Har, and KHN writer Anna Maria Barry-Jester contributed reporting.



Weber is a reporter with Kaiser Health News. This story is a collaboration between The Associated Press and KHN, which is a non-profit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
The death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput is being blown out of proportion by the media since it comes in the run up to the elections in Bihar, the actors girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty, who is now being investigated for allegedly abetting his suicide, told the Supreme Court on Monday.

The petition in the top court in Delhi was filed while Chakraborty, her brother Showik and father Indrajit were questioned for at least 10 hours by the Enforcement Directorate, which is looking for financial angle into the June 14 death when Rajput was found hanged at his flat in Mumbai.

Media Channels are examining and cross-examining all the witnesses in the case. Petitioner (Rhea Chakraborty) is already convicted by media even before a foul play in the death of Sushant Singh Rajput is established. Extreme trauma and infringement of privacy of the rights of petitioner is caused due to constant sensationalisation of this case, the affidavit filed through advocate Malak Manish Bhatt stated.

The apex court is slated to hear on Tuesday Chakrabortys petition seeking transfer of the case registered against her in connection with Rajputs death from Patna to Mumbai.

In its probe, the Mumbai Police found the cause of death as asphyxia due to hanging and filed an accidental death report (ADR) to begin an investigation. Chakraborty, who was in a live-in relationship with Rajput for a year till she shifted to her house on June 8, was also questioned by the Mumbai police.

The investigation by Mumbai police was ongoing when Rajputs father, KK Singh, filed a police complaint at Rajeev Nagar police station in Patna on July 25 against Chakraborty, accusing her of abetting his sons alleged suicide. His father also alleged that Chakraborty illegally transferred Rs 15 crore from Rajputs bank account and mentally harassed him.

Patna police registered an FIR on July 25 based on Singhs complaint for offences relating to abetment of suicide, cheating and criminal intimidation.

Chakraborty moved the top court on July 29 challenging the jurisdiction of the Bihar police in the matter, saying that the alleged crime took place in Mumbai.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the probe on August 5 based on a request by the Bihar police.

The Maharashtra government has, however, opposed it stating Bihar did not have jurisdiction to refer the case to CBI since the cause of action arose in Mumbai.

Investigation into financial scams of thousands of crores by Enforcement Directorate and CBI never see the light of the day and at drop of a hat, cases get registered even without there being a jurisdiction in the foundational case. Petitioner urges that she should be protected and not be made scapegoat of political agendas, Chakraborty submitted.
The Cincinnati Innovation District, anchored by the University of Cincinnati, is fueling the talent needs of the region, says David J Adams, Chief Innovation Officer of the University of Cincinnati. Our partnership with Kao USA supports our mandate as laid out by Governor DeWine and JobsOhio: to accelerate the creation of 15,000+ STEM graduates and $2B in research for our region. Attracting corporations like Kao USA into the CID gives affirmation that our model is a blueprint for the state and the nation. We are proud to welcome Kao USA to that success story.

Kao USA plans to use its new innovation center to highlight top innovation initiatives and recruit prospective employees. Kao USA will also work with UCs Venture Lab  a leading technology accelerator and business incubator  to fast-track and test new ideas.
Six child sex offences are recorded every day in Northern Ireland, alarming figures have revealed. Stock image posed by model

Six sexual offences against children are now being committed on average every day in Northern Ireland, alarming figures have revealed.

Statistics from the PSNI, obtained by NSPCC, show that in the last year there were 2,082 recorded offences against under 18s - representing a rise of 37% in the five years since 2014/15.

The charity also said the number of contacts from young people to Childline about sexual abuse in the family have tripled during the lockdown.

Across the UK there were 73,518 recorded offences including rape, online grooming and sexual assault against children in 2019/20 - up 57% in the five years since 2014/15.

Former PSNI officer and chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre Jim Gamble, who now runs the Belfast-based INEQE Group, which spearheads the battle to make the online world safer for children, said while the rise in cases is not unexpected, it demonstrates the need for greater investment in services.

"Victims are showing a greater confidence in coming forward and we have to see that as a positive, but now it's important that police services across the UK build on that confidence," he said.

"The rise in the number of reported incidents is not unique to Northern Ireland; the north of England has seen an increase of 75% during the same time, but it would have been disappointing if we had not seen the number of incidents reported rise given the efforts made by police over the past five years.

"Police now understand better how online abuse has enabled greater access to children and the PSNI has been one of the forces leading the way in combating this.

"But there is more to come. The figures will continue to rise and there is always a need for greater investment in tackling how individuals and gangs across the UK are able to control and exploit children, particularly online.

"The Department of Education has been increasingly aware of the treat from online predators and that the threat has risen substantially during lockdown.

"The department responded by introducing their Safer Schools App, free to all schools, which offers alerts and information on online threats and easier access to Childline services, which has played a part in the growing number of reports.

"But with the growing number of reported cases, the investment needs to match demand."

All but one of the UK's 45 police forces provided the NSPCC with the latest data on sexual offences against under 18s after a Freedom of Information request.

Detective Chief Inspector David McBurney from the PSNI's Public Protection Branch said the sexual abuse of children was an issue that police took very seriously.

"Child protection is a priority for us and we work with a range of other agencies to help keep children and young people safe," he said.

"It is important that children know that they can speak to someone who they trust if anyone causes them worry and I would advise parents and guardians to reassure their children that they do not have to deal with any concerns on their own.

"We will continue to work to bring offenders before the courts and anyone with any information in relation to the sexual abuse of children should contact police on 101, or 999 in an emergency."

The NSPCC said the figures on child sexual abuse show the need for the Government to deal with the "hidden harms" of the pandemic and ensure support for children who have experienced sexual abuse is embedded in recovery planning.

"This should include the expedient establishment of a cross-departmental strategic framework to support a collaborative response to child sexual abuse in Northern Ireland, as recommended by the Criminal Justice Inspection," the charity said.

The NSPCC is calling for the needs of children and young people to be at the centre of how authorities respond to sexual abuse, with a focus on effective prevention and victims having access to timely and specialist support.

"The crisis of child sexual abuse is not going away, and behind these figures are thousands of children and young people who have reported crimes that can have a devastating impact on their lives," said NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless.

"Urgent action is needed to prevent abuse and to ensure children are supported to recover when they bravely speak out.

"We need concerted leadership from governments across the UK to implement strategies on tackling child sexual abuse that put the experiences and needs of children at their heart and are effective in preventing abuse and helping young people recover."

The call comes as an NSPCC report found contacts from young people to Childline about sexual abuse in the family tripled during lockdown.

'The Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Child Welfare: Sexual Abuse' report shows there were an average of 23 contacts to Childline per week about child sexual abuse in the home, up threefold since March 23 when lockdown was announced.

Childline reported that sexual abuse had become more frequent during lockdown, as children were spending more time with their abusers.

A third of counselling sessions were about abuse in the family that happened over a year ago, with many children talking about it for the first time.

Anyone concerned about a child can contact the NSPCC helpline for advice on 0808 800 5000.

Adult victims of non-recent sexual abuse can also get in touch for support.

Childline is available for young people on 0800 1111 or at www.childline.org.uk.
The death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput is nearing two months and a wide range of false news has been doing the rounds. The fake news has led to intense speculation and is being spread like wildfire.

While several media and social media platforms have also been running these false news, Zee News is taking a step in busting these false rumours and providing clarification on what the real news is.

Here are a few of the fake news and the real news:

1) Fake News: Sushant had a party before his death!

Real News - From Mumbai Police Commissioner to Siddharth Pithani, many people related to this case have made it clear that there was no party at Sushant's house on the night of June 13. In the investigation of both the Mumbai Police and Bihar Police, no such facts have been revealed.

2) Fake News: This party also included the young leader of a political party. Hint at multiple platforms was at Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's son Aditya Thackeray.

Real News: As we have told earlier that there was no party on June 13 at the house of Sushant. The news that in such a party the young leader of a political party was involved, is false. Aditya Thackeray himself also presented a clarification in this matter. In the investigation of both Mumbai Police and Bihar Police, no such facts have been revealed.

3) Fake News: On June 14, the day of Sushant's death, there is a secret behind changing two ambulances.

Real News: Due to a problem in the stretcher wheel of the first ambulance that reached Sushant's house, the body couldn't be fit in the ambulance, hence the second ambulance was called. This disclosure was made by the ambulance owner himself on Zee News' camera. The same fact has also been found in Mumbai and Patna police investigations.

4) Fake News: On June 14, Sushant's body was shifted from one ambulance to another ambulance after leaving the house.

Real News: On the day of the incident, the Zee Media team reached the hospital along with the ambulance and no such incident occurred.

5) Fake News: The party which took place before Disha Salian committed suicide, that party also had Showik Chakraborty.

Real News- The correct news is that Disha Salian along with her fiance Rohan Rai went to a party with her school friends at their house in Malad area. The party was set to celebrate Disha's birthday, which had passed a week earlier. But there were only 6 people in this party, which included neither Showik Chakraborty nor any leader nor any big actor.

6) Fake News: Disha Salian was pregnant

Real News: Neither Disha was pregnant nor did the police of either Maharashtra or Bihar say that in the investigation till now.

7) Fake News: Disha Salian was raped before she committed suicide.

Real News: There has been no confirmation of this matter and no such facts have been revealed in the investigation of Mumbai and Bihar Police.

8) Fake News: Disha Salian's body was found in a naked state.

Real News: When Disha Salian's body was found, she had clothes on her body. The investigating agency also has photographs. The clothes were removed for post mortem only. The same fact has also been found in the investigation conducted so far.

9) Why the post-mortem of Disha's body was done on June 11, two days after her death.

Real News - Disha's body was first tested for COVID-19 and then the post mortem was done after the report came out.



10) Fake News: Disha Salian's death investigation has been handed over from Malvani Police to Charkop Police.

Real News: Investigation has not been handed over to any other police. Malvani police is investigating this case. In this case, till now some media channels also showed some sting operations. While the reality is that many of these people were also ready to talk openly on camera but to create a sensation, the hidden cameras were used.

11) Fake News: Riya Chakraborty's picture with Aditya Thackeray goes viral

Real News: While this picture features Disha Patani with Aditya Thackeray.

12) Fake News: IPS Vinay Tiwari gets command of CBI investigation

Real News: IPS Vinay Tiwari has not received any such responsibility and is working as Patna City SP only.

Some case studies:

Case number 1: Property broker Sunny Singh of Sushant and Riya Chakraborty sting on an English channel!

Sunny Singh has kept the same matter openly on Zee Media's camera.

Case Number 2: Sting of the key maker

The key maker on whom a channel conducted a sting operation said that he is not the person who opened the door of Sushant's bedroom. A channel known for being loud, twisted and put forward a distorted point. The key maker has spoken to Zee News on this matter.

Case Number 3: Ambulance owner's audio

A channel played the audio of the ambulance owner, stating that he took down the body of Sushant when it was tied to the ceiling fan while in reality the ambulance owner took Sushant's body down from the house and placed it in the ambulance. The body was brought down from the ceiling fan by Siddharth Pithani.

Case number 4: A channel gave information related to Sushant's diary citing a sting of his forensic doctors.

The doctor who appeared in the sting, Sonawane Kapoor is working as an associate professor in the forensic department of Cooper Hospital, which only performs post mortem of the dead bodies. Kalina FSL carries out a forensic investigation of things like diaries, mobiles and laptops by a separate team of experts.
- Pastor Natasha donated food packs to displaced families in the recent Beirut blast through her Hands of Compassion Lebanon-based team

-The woman of God shared photos of her said team as they went shopping in various stores and bought food for the affected

- Natasha said her church cared about everyone and wanted to bring a smile to the affected

City pastor Lucy Natasha has donated immensely to the people facing severe difficulties in Beirut, Lebanon after a recent blast.

Through her Hands of Compassion team based in the affected country, she was able to supply food packs to families that were displaced after the destruction.

READ ALSO: Nairobi woman quit marriage after learning husband was garbage collector, not airport employee

Rev Lucy Natasha's team shopping for foodstuffs before distribution Photo: Revlucynatasha

Source: Instagram

READ ALSO: President Uhuru's lookalike says he doesn't know his father

The woman of God shared pictures on social media of her said team as they went shopping in various stores to purchase the food supplies.

"The Natasha Hands of Compassion team in Lebanon distributed food packs to families displaced by the recent blast in Beirut. We care about all and are grateful to the Lord that we brought a smile and spark of hope in the lives of these families," she captioned the posts.

READ ALSO: CS Kagwe evades discussion on his son, Kahush spotted at house party: "You can ask them"

READ ALSO: Mwanaisha Chidzuga celebrates hubby Mungatana's birthday in lovely post: "My pillar of strength"

Natasha has also been of great help to the less fortunate Kenya who have been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

She has donated masks and hand sanitisers to city matatu operators and foodstuffs to Nairobi slum residents.

READ ALSO: Kampuni ya pombe iliyoipa bidhaa yake jina la nywele za siri yaomba msamaha

The huge explosions that rocked the Lebanese capital on Tuesday, August 4, killed and injured dozens of people, shaking buildings and sending huge plumes of smoke into the sky.

Lebanon's prime minister Hasan Diab declared Wednesday, August 5, a day of mourning.

He blamed the catastrophe on the explosion of 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate used to make fertilisers and explosives.

READ ALSO: Willian: Chelsea winger announces Stamford Bridge exit

He also said those responsible for the explosion at a warehouse in the port area would pay the price.

Major General Abbas Ibrahim of Lebanon's General Security Directorate also said the massive blast that shook Beirut's port was caused by the confiscated high explosive materials.

A Red Cross official was quoted by the country's Daily Star stating that the death toll rose overnight to at least 100 and that more than 4,000 people were wounded.

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly.

I was rejected by my father three times- Tony Cruize | Tuko TV

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Malik Faisal Akram, from Blackburn (top-right, being arrested in 2018), was shot dead by US law enforcement on Saturday night after taking four people and a Rabbi hostage in a 10-hour siege (bottom-right). Tonight, it was revealed that the 44-year-old was the subject of a 'short lead investigation' - effectively chasing a tip-off - by MI5 for a least four weeks at the end of 2020. While there were concerns about Akram's activities, spooks deemed there was no sign he presented an imminent threat and he case was closed before tactics such as eavesdropping were deployed, according to the Times. It comes as a new image (left) emerged of Akram tonight, taken at an outreach centre in Dallas - around three miles from the site of the attack in Colleyville - just days before he took hostages. Wayne Walker, chief executive at the shelter, Our Calling, said Akram was hugged by a man who dropped him off there on January 2. Meanwhile, police in the UK have released two teenagers who they arrested as part of their inquiry into the attack without charge. The youngsters, who are believed to be under the age of 18, and cannot be identified for legal reasons, were detained in South Manchester on Sunday.
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When Curtis Carlson started having back pain this spring, he tried to put off seeing a doctor. The COVID-19 pandemic was raging, his job at a transitional housing organization in Ukiah, Calif. was busier than ever amid the economic collapse, and a hospital seemed like the last place he wanted to be.

But when he finally took himself to the emergency room and he was diagnosed with a kidney infection, Carlson figured he would have no choice but to stay. Instead, his doctors told him about a new program that would allow him to finish the rest of his hospital care at home, with a medical team monitoring him virtually around the clock and making in-person visits multiple times each day.

I was blown away, says Carlson, 49. When it became clear that staff would set up the equipment, which all fit on a TV tray, in Carlsons home, and that hed be able to communicate with his medical team via iPad, he was on board. It was easy enough that I could use it, which was awesome, says Carlson, who describes himself as terrible at technology.

Carlsons experience was revolutionary, he says. After one night in the hospital, he was back at home with his wife and their four sons. The biggest part for me was when I got home, seeing the look of relief on my seven-year-olds face, Carlson recalls. While they were putting in the electrical wizardry, I asked him, Were you worried about me? You could see him just crumble a little bit. He was definitely very happy Dad was home.

Hospital administrators at Adventist Health, the system that runs the Ukiah hospital where Carlson went for care, had been looking for ways to reach rural patients outside their hospitals for years. But when the COVID-19 pandemic came to California this spring, administrators felt the timeline collapse. After finding the right technology in April, they began offering the service to patients like Carlson within 29 days. By May, Adventist Health had the infrastructure ready to care for 200 patients in their own homes.

Story continues

Adventist is not alone in its warp-speed embrace of new technology during COVID-19. In recent months, hospitals around the country, looking for ways to free up beds for coronavirus patients, began expanding their virtual offerings, launching video doctors visits and virtual therapy sessions, and rolling out programs to remotely monitor vulnerable patients, like those in nursing homes. As doctors and patients embraced these new, online methods of care, Medicare, Medicaid and many private insurers temporarily changed their payment rules to accommodate them. But many of these changes are only guaranteed through October, and plenty of regulatory hurdles remain.

Now that its clear the pandemic is not going away anytime soon, medical providers and hospital administrators say they need more substantial reforms to ensure their investments in telehealth can continue. Whether innovations like remote hospital recovery beds will be available in the long term depends primarily on whether public and private insurers will continue to pay for them. In other words, in the topsy-turvy health care economy of the United States, its payment modelsnot technological ability or patient benefitthat will now determine the future of virtual care.

Hospital care at home

Prior to COVID-19, Medicare only covered telehealth services from certain providers. It also generally required telehealth patients to be located in a rural area and at a medical facility. Many Medicaid plans and most private insurers had similar restrictions. But after the coronavirus outbreak this spring forced nearly all doctors to stop seeing patients in-person, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a number of waivers relaxing these rules, and private insurers followed suit.

Once CMS led the way, private insurers temporarily changed their rules too, and telehealth usage exploded. Between April 2019 and April 2020, telehealth claims increased 8,336%, according to FAIR Health, a nonprofit that analyzes private health insurance claims. More than nine million Medicare beneficiaries used telehealth services during the first three months of the crisis. And at University of Virginias network, which already had a more robust telehealth program than many others, virtual visits increased 9,000% between February and May.

COVID-19 changed everything when it comes to telemedicine services, says Dr. Karen Rheuban, director of the University of Virginia Center for Telehealth. The genies not going back in the bottle.

The Trump Administration is now pushing for more telehealth access. On Aug. 3, the President signed an executive order calling on CMS to permanently expand the kinds of telehealth services that Medicare covers, and the agencys administrator Seema Verma has also said she believes access to telehealth should continue beyond the public health emergency. Broader expansions would need to come from Congress, where dozens of bills on telehealth have been introduced in recent months, but lawmakers have not yet seriously considered the topic.

Curtis Carlson and his family at their home in Ukiah, California. | Courtesy of Adventist Health

Telehealth advocates say now is the time to act. A range of virtual offerings could be revolutionary for patients who are seriously sick, need long-term care, or live in rural areas, where hospital closings have left millions of Americans without easy access to treatment. The environment in a hospital, although its very conducive to high intensity care, is not that conducive to being able to engage in normal activities of daily living that might be actually important for recovery, says Dr. Michael Apkon, president and CEO of Tufts Medical Center.

In March, when Apkon watched Italian hospitals overflow with coronavirus patients, he sped up Tufts long-simmering telehealth plans. Apkon called Raphael Rakowski, the CEO of the tech startup Medically Home, and by April, the two organizations had launched a program that would provide hospital-level care in patients homes. Rakowski says hes spent years telling hospitals they could reduce overhead costs and improve the patient experience by embracing care at home. Sadly, it took a pandemic to amplify the patients role in their own care, he says.

In order to be eligible for the Tufts-Medically Home partnership program, patients must typically have a similar profile to Curtis Carlson: they must have relatively stable health, be suffering from common conditions such as heart failure, diabetes, pneumonia, or kidney infections, and they must have a safe, stable place to live. If a patient meets that criteria, Medically Home provides all the equipment, including communications devices, monitors, backup internet, cell signals and power sources. (Some locations are admitting patients such as those with cancer, COVID-19 or who need longer-term care, and over time those will grow, says Rakowski.)

In Boston, where Medically Home is based, the tech company itself employs nurses, paramedics and other staffers who visit the Tufts patients in person several times each day to administer IVs, do blood tests or provide other care, and the patient checks in with their doctors via video. In California, where Carlson was treated, and in other locations, Medically Homes partner hospitals provide the staff. Teams of nurses and physicians also monitor each patient 24 hours a day from a command center, and can be reached immediately if any questions or complications arise.

Even accounting for the time and cost of staff traveling to visit patients at their homes, Rakowski says at-home hospitalization costs about 20 to 25% less on average than care in a traditional hospital setting. In California, where Carlson was one of Adventist Healths first patients to use the Medically Home model, Adventist Health President Bill Wing sees significant savings in the future. Maintaining hospital facilities and building new infrastructure is very expensive, he notes, so if Adventist Health can care for more patients remotely, it could potentially avoid hundreds of millions in construction costs.

I believe that longer term well see at least 20 percent less utilization inside the four walls, Wing says. Adventist Health had been considering building a couple new hospitals, but may no longer pursue those plans, he says.

Keeping patients healthy

Telehealth can also play an important role in helping patients before they reach the point of needing hospital care. When non-urgent procedures were canceled during the early months of the pandemic, many Americans turned to virtual visits to keep up with routine treatment and ask for guidance from health care providers before venturing into offices.

While some doctors have returned to in-person visits, telehealth remains an important component of many practices, says Dr. Joseph Kvedar, a dermatologist in Massachusetts and president of the American Telemedicine Association. Physicians in his office have all added a half day of telehealth onto their in-person schedules so that they can keep the number of patients in the waiting room low and minimize their exposure to the coronavirus.

Even emergency rooms, which typically serve the purpose of receiving unexpected in-person visits, have turned to telehealth. This spring, the University of Virginia started a virtual urgent care service to address smaller problems without requiring patients to come to the hospital. UVA also expanded its remote monitoring program to keep tabs on patients quarantined at home with COVID-19.

And as nursing homes and other congregate care settings saw massive outbreaks of the virus, University of Virginia doctors developed a telemedicine strategy that allowed them to partner with long-term care facilities, rapidly deploy technology, coordinate care with on-site nursing staff and reduce hospitalizations.

These kinds of programs do require large investments in technology and training, UVAs Rheuban says, but in the long-term, she has seen that telemedicine diminishes the need for in person visits and improves clinical outcomes.

Paying for the care

For these innovations to continue, doctors and health systems need to convince insurersor lawmakersthat virtual services go beyond convenience and are important for treating a broad range of conditions. Already, commercial insurers are raising questions. Since weve had this explosive growth, we dont necessarily know what the impact on patient outcomes has been, says Kate Berry, senior vice president of clinical affairs and strategic partnerships at Americas Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the industrys main lobbying group.

During the pandemic, many major insurers have reimbursed telehealth at the same rates as in-person visits. Some have said they will continue these rates until the end of the year, while others have not made decisions past September or October. AHIP says it wants patients to have access to telehealth, but is opposed to laws that would mandate coverage or require insurers to reimburse telehealth at specific rates.

Nancy Foster, vice president of quality and patient safety policy at the American Hospital Association, says that some of her organizations members have already heard from insurers that dont plan to cover telehealth beyond the emergency, or that only want to cover it at reduced rates. They seem to be taking some steps back, which is unfortunate, she says. It may be yet another thing that creates a greater opportunity for the wealthy than for those who are unable to afford the additional cost of paying for it themselves.

The AHA supports the changes that CMS has made and is advocating for Congress to pass legislation that would allow more permanent flexibility in where patients could be and what technologies they use to access telehealth.

But cost is still a central concern for lawmakers and insurers. There have been a bunch of barriers to telehealth, says Glenn Melnick, a health care economist at the University of Southern California who studies hospital systems. If you take those out of the equation, utilization is going to go up.

In the current system where each visit means a separate fee, this could add up quickly. Physicians typically argue that telehealth should be paid the same as in-person care because the work is equally complex and time-consuming, but insurers will want to find savings. Its sort of a balancing act, says Josh Seidman, managing director at consulting firm Avalere Health. There are going to be a lot of changes over the next six to 12 months that will last long term in terms of how care is delivered and paid for.

In the meantime, Medically Home and its hospital partners are working to secure more commitments from private and government insurers to cover their care. Both Adventist Health and Tufts are excited with the results of the program so far, but their leaders say the programs ability to scale remains to be seen.

Carlson, the patient in California, had his stay covered by his state Medicaid plan, and says he would choose the at-home model again if he needs care in the future. After four days of treatment at home, his doctors determined he was ready to be discharged. But before the Adventist team moved forward, they helped Carlson find a primary care physician, transitioned his records and relevant information, and made sure he scheduled a follow up appointment. The tech team arrived to pick up the equipment and Carlson remained in place. No complaints, he says.
Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai was arrested on Monday on suspicion of breaching a national security law imposed by Beijing on the territory, his own tabloid reported.



The arrest of Lai, the owner of pan-democratic tabloid Apple Daily and an outspoken prominent pro-democracy figure, was also reported by the South China Morning Post and broadcaster RTHK.



His sons Timothy Lai and Ian Lai and several senior executives at the company which publishes the newspaper were also arrested amid the latest crackdown under the legislation, according to Apple Daily.



Hong Kong police confirmed on Twitter that seven people aged 39 to 72 were arrested on suspicion of breaches of the national security law, but did not confirm their names.



The stated offences include collusion with a foreign country, police said.



Apple Daily posted footage on social media of dozens of police officers entering the Next Media Building, the newspaper's headquarters, with images showing police searching floors of news desks.



Steve Li, the chief superintendent of the national security law, was seen in live footage filmed by Apple Daily staff at the scene.



Apple Daily's editor Chan Pui Man posted on Apple Daily's Facebook page that the group would "keep publishing and editing, news will keep rolling out and the newspaper still issued tomorrow."



Shares of Lai's company, Next Digital, skyrocketed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange during Monday's afternoon trading session, as they rose by as much as 345 per cent.



The national security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing came into force on June 30, the eve of the 23rd anniversary of the handover of the ex-British colony back to China.



It targets secession, acts of terrorism, subversion and collusion with foreign forces.



Sentences for violation of the law range from three to 10 years or for the most serious offences, life imprisonment.



The law has garnered widespread international criticism which has resulted in countries including Britain, the United States and Germany announcing that they would suspend their extradition treaties with the territory.



Taiwan on Monday condemned the arrest of media tycoon Lai and other pro-democracy leaders.



"The move seriously damages Hong Kong's press freedom, human rights, rule of the law and democracy," presidential spokesperson Xavier Chang said in a statement.



Chang said that democratic Taiwan would team up with other democracies to continue to support people in Hong Kong and offer substantial assistance.



The US has placed sanctions on Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam and 10 other officials for "implementing Beijing's policies of suppression of freedom and democratic processes."



The foreign ministers of the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand on Sunday called Lam's postponement of the 2020 Legislative Council Elections a "disproportionate postponement" of the polls, though Lam cited a surge in coronavirus cases in the city as the reason for the decision.



Lam announced the postponement of the elections for one year on July 31, a day after 12 pro-democracy election candidates, including high-profile activist Joshua Wong were disqualified from the race.

Source: GNA









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Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan  Mon, August 10, 2020 13:24 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cd012f 4 National COVID-19,COVID-19-Indonesian-patients,coronavirus,novel-coronavirus,regional-heads Free

Nadjmi Adhani, the mayor of Banjarbaru city in South Kalimantan, passed away Monday after being hospitalized for two weeks for COVID-19.

Banjarbaru Disaster Mitigation Agency head Zaini Syahranie said Nadjmi passed away at Ulin Regional General Hospital in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan.



"Pak Nadji Adhani passed away at 2:30 a.m.," Zaini said in a written statement on Monday as reported by kompas.com.



Nadjmi announced through an Instagram post in late July that he and his wife had tested positive for COVID-19.



Nadjmi was hospitalized after the announcement. However, his condition worsened on Sunday after intensive treatment.

Read also: COVID-19 is no laughing matter, says mayor as more local leaders test positive

He is the third regional leader to succumb to COVID-19. Syahrul, the mayor of Tanjungpinang in Riau Islands province and Aptripel Tumimomor, the regent of North Morowali in Central Sulawesi, died in April.

Other regional heads have also announced that they have contracted the virus, the latest being acting Medan mayor Akhyar Nasution, who tested positive for COVID-19 last Tuesday after complaining of a fever.



Medan Health Agency head Edwin Effendy said Akhyar was receiving treatment at Royal Prima Hospital and was in stable condition.



"His condition, in general, is good, I hope he can recover quickly and resume his regular activities," Edwin told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.



Edwin said authorities had tested Akhyar's wife, children and mother, and the results came back negative.



Those who had been in close contact with Akhyar had also been tested.



"Two agency heads who had close contact with the acting mayor had tested positive for COVID-19 and had since been hospitalized. They are head of the Medan Sanitary and Parks Agency, M. Husni, and head of the Medan Labor Agency, Hannalore Simanjuntak," Edwin said.

Other regional heads that have announced they tested positive for the novel coronavirus include Bogor Mayor Bima Arya, Karawang Mayor Cellica Nurrachadiana, Bandung Deputy Mayor Yana Mulyana, Pemalang Regent Junaedi, Melawi Regent Panji and Surakarta Deputy Mayor Achmad Purnomo, tempo.co reported.(nal)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 18:23:52|Editor: huaxia

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DHAKA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh reported nearly 3,000 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, taking the total to 260,507, with more than half of the patients having recovered.

Nasima Sultana, a senior Health Ministry official, said in a briefing in Dhaka Monday that "2,907 new COVID-19 positive cases and 39 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh."

She said the total number of recovered patients in the country now stands at 150,437, including 2,067 new recoveries on Monday.

The current recovery rate is 57.75 percent, she added.

Sultana said "the number of confirmed infections in the country Monday totaled 260,507, while fatalities stood at 3,438."

According to the official, the COVID-19 fatality rate in Bangladesh is now 1.32 percent.

She said 12,849 samples were tested in the last 24 hours in labs across the country.

Bangladesh recorded highest 4,019 cases in a 24-hour period on July 2.

The country reported the highest 64 deaths of COVID-19 patients in a day on June 30. Enditem
Ukraine ups gas imports by 21% in Jan-July  operator

19:20, 10.08.20 165

The largest volumes were imported from Slovakia.
Aware that undocumented people frequently face abuse because of the false belief  by themselves or by third parties  that they do not have the right to report abuse or the right to a legal defense, Barcelo Durazo reiterated that the consulate is a safe place where they can go in search of counseling.

The most important thing is that they know that no one should be a victim of abuse, and that if they are, they can approach the consulate, and it will gladly have the opportunity to guide them and even link them with authorities or civil society organizations, he said.

Consul in times of COVID-19

Every Thursday, for several months, the consulate has held a live information session through its Facebook page, connecting residents to health and other services to help during the coronavirus pandemic.

Continuing to take advantage of social networks during the pandemic is one of Barcelo Durazos objectives.
By PTI

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Citing the double blow of COVID-19 and monsoon fury, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Monday demanded that the states be allowed to use funds fully from the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) for the fight against the pandemic, removing the current 25 per cent limit.

Raising the demand during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's video conference with Chief Ministers of flood-hit states, he also said the state was facing the monsoon havoc for the third year in a row and the floods have come at a time when the coronavirus cases were rising.

Briefing the media later, Vijayan said the states had been facing a financial burden due to the setting up of COVID-19 testing and quarantine facilities.

"Therefore, generous assistance is expected from the Centre to meet this expenditure. The floods too have come at a time when the numbers of COVID-19 patients are increasing.

The current monsoon has had a major impact on the economic condition of the state battling the pandemic," Vijayan said.

He also said the state has informed the Prime Minister that a comprehensive report on the losses incurred by the state will be submitted to the Centre.

Vijayan said he thanked the Prime Minister for sending ten NDRF companies to Kerala to deal with the floods, for the assistance provided by the NDRF in rescue operations in the aftermath of the landslide at Idukki Rajamalai and after the Karipur plane crash.

"The state has taken all possible precautions and preparations to deal with the ongoing heavy rains. Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Wayanad and Idukki are the worst affected districts.

People have been evacuated from dangerous areas," he said.

He also informed that 686 relief camps have been set up in compliance with COVID-19 protocol and 22,830 people from 6,967 families have been accommodated there.

Vijayan said he also informed the Prime Minister that the landslide at Idukki was not due to any human intervention and that the region was not considered as a place prone to natural disasters.

Health Minister K K Shailaja, Revenue Minister E Chandrasekharan, Chief Secretary Vishwas Mehta, and state Police chief Loknath Behra were also present for the video- conference meeting with the Prime Minister.
The Mariners announced Monday that theyve claimed right-hander Brady Lail off waivers from the White Sox and designated infielder Patrick Wisdom for assignment.

Lail, 27, made his big league debut with the Yankees in 2019 but pitched just 2 2/3 innings in his lone appearance with the club. It was a similar tale with the ChiSox, who got Lail into one game for 1 1/3 innings of work prior to designating the right-hander for assignment. Hes struggled in the upper minors as a starter, but he moved to the bullpen full-time a couple years back and has since enjoyed much better results. In 49 1/3 frames between Double-A and Triple-A in 2019, Lail pitched to a 3.83 ERA with 12.2 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9.

Wisdom, 28, hasnt appeared in the Majors with Seattle since signing with them over the winter. Hes a career .224/.306/.408 hitter in 86 MLB plate appearances and a .252/.328/.478 hitter in parts of four Triple-A seasons. Wisdom struggled quite a bit in his first run through Triple-A, but hes slugged 77 homers in three seasons since that time while oscillating between the Majors and Minors. He has experience at all four corner positions.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: DMK Lok Sabha member Kanimozhis experience with the CISF at the Chennai airport has resonated with politicos hailing from other States as well. Kanimozhi, on Sunday, tweeted that a CISF personnel had asked her if she was Indian after she said she did not speak Hindi.

Former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy on Monday tweeted in support of Kanimozhi. Now, it is apt to debate how political leaders from the South were snatched of their opportunities by Hindi politics and discrimination, he said, blaming Hindi politics for preventing K Kamaraj and M Karunanidhi of Tamil Nadu from becoming prime minister. Although his own father HD Deve Gowda broke the barrier, there were several incidents of him being criticised and ridiculed for reasons of language, he said.

He pointed out that public sector jobs too favoured those who knew Hindi or English over regional-language speakers.

Similarly, former Union finance minister P Chidambaram of the Congress also tweeted in support of Kanimozhi, noting that her experience was not unusual. If the Central government is genuinely committed to both Hindi and English being the official languages of India, it must insist that all central government employees are bilingual in Hindi and English. Non-Hindi speaking recruits to central government posts quickly learn functional, spoken Hindi. Why cannot Hindi speaking recruits to central government posts learn functional, spoken English? he asked.

Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Karti P Chidambaram, Su Thirunavukkarasar, Manickam Tagore also backed Kanimozhi. TMC Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra, supporting Kanimozhi, charged that the BJP treasury benches define Indianness by their own narrow parameters of homogeneity.

To see this @BJP myopia spread beyond Parliament & into the streets only tells me how important it is for us to continue to stand straight & fight this, she said on Twitter.

DMK president MK Stalin, Kanimozhis brother, questioned why Hindi was made the yardstick for being Indian. Is Hindi a yardstick for being Indian? Is this India? or Hindia? Those who dig the pit for pluralism will be buried in it, he said on Twitter.

Responding to the comments on Monday, Kanimozhi, in a statement, thanked her supporters and said that stealth imposition of Hindi is widespread. Stating that this was a larger issue and that persons in positions of authority were unaware that Hindi and English were official languages of India, she said sensitisation to be inclusive and respect diversity was needed.

However, some BJP leaders, including H Raja in Tamil Nadu, accused Kanimozhi of lying about the incident and alleged she was merely resorting to language politics ahead of Assembly elections next year.
Superstar Salman Khan will soon return with the next season of the hit reality show "Bigg Boss", the makers have announced. TV channel Colors shared a promo of the series Saturday on Instagram, writing that the "scene will change" as the show gears for its 14th edition.

Shot at Salman's Panvel farmhouse, the promo features the 54-year-old actor farming. "The lockdown has become a speed breaker to everyone's normal life. Which is why I am growing rice and riding a tractor. "But now the time has come for the scene to change," Salman says in the video as the logo of "Bigg Boss" 2020 appears on screen.

The 'Bharat' star has been hosting the reality show since its fourth season in 2010. While details are currently under wraps, "Bigg Boss" will reportedly go on floors in September.

"Bigg Boss" season 13, which got a five-week extension owing to its popularity, saw TV star Sidharth Shukla emerge winner.
Oscar nominee Melanie Griffith celebrated her 63rd birthday on Sunday at her $3.7M three-bedroom Hollywood Hills mansion.

The Working Girl alum discovered her gate was 'stealth decorated' overnight by two of her pals, Kevin and Eli, who later dropped off cake and cookies.

'I love all of my friends so much,' Melanie - who boasts 630K Instagram/Twitter followers - gushed.

Happiness! Oscar nominee Melanie Griffith celebrated her 63rd birthday on Sunday at her $3.7M three-bedroom Hollywood Hills mansion

'I've gotten flowers and gifts and sweet texts and FaceTimes from my children, my ex-husbands and so many dear friends. I am so grateful to all of you! Thank you for thinking of me and showing me so much love!'

Griffith is mother to son Alexander Bauer, 34; daughter Dakota Johnson, 29; and daughter Stella Banderas, 23; from her marriages to Steven Bauer, Don Johnson, and Antonio Banderas.

The Graduate thespian received glowing comments from her celeb pals Jamie Lee Curtis, Rosie O'Donnell, Kate Beckinsale, Angie Harmon, Rosanna Arquette, Mario Lopez, Sandra Bernhard, Lisa Rinna, and Carole Radziwill.

Keeping Up with the Kardashians matriarch Kris Jenner Instastoried her well wishes to Melanie along with a few vintage snaps of the pair.

'They said maybe I should check my security camera system': The Working Girl alum discovered her gate was 'stealth decorated' overnight by two of her pals, Kevin and Eli, who later dropped off cake and cookies

Melanie gushed: 'I love all of my friends so much. I've gotten flowers and gifts and sweet texts and FaceTimes from my children, my ex-husbands and so many dear friends'

'You are loved!' Griffith received glowing comments from her celeb pals Jamie Lee Curtis, Rosie O'Donnell, Kate Beckinsale, Angie Harmon, Rosanna Arquette, Mario Lopez, and more

Griffith and the 64-year-old momager have been friends as far back as 2015 when they attended a Gwen Stefani concert together.

The Black Lives Matter activist owes her good genes to her famous mother Tippi Hedren, whom she visited last Friday.

'The birds that live outside my house are absolutely, fascinatingly interesting because there are a number of them,' the 90-year-old Golden Globe winner told Melanie in a video.

'Some of them are related to each other and of course you can see those relationships and tell the ones that like each other and the ones that don't. And I find that to be rather amusing.'

'Love you!' Keeping Up with the Kardashians matriarch Kris Jenner Instastoried her well wishes to The Graduate thespian along with a few vintage snaps of the pair

BFFs! Melanie and the 64-year-old momager have been friends as far back as 2015 when they attended a Gwen Stefani concert together (pictured with her daughters Stella Banderas and Dakota Johnson in 2015)

Tippi (born Nathalie) founded 80-acre big cat sanctuary The Shambala Preserve, and she was also instrumental in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons.

But Hedren is best known for her screen debut as socialite Melanie Daniels in Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 horror flick, The Birds.

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, Griffith has switched gears from acting to being investor and ambassador to German skincare company, Augustinus Bader.

'Tell me a story, Mom!' Griffith owes her good genes to her famous mother Tippi Hedren, whom she visited last Friday

The 90-year-old Golden Globe winner told her in a video: 'The birds that live outside my house are absolutely, fascinatingly interesting because there are a number of them'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the submarine Optical Fibre Cable between Chennai and Port Blair via video conferencing on Monday morning.

The submarine optical fibre cable link will deliver bandwidth of 2 x 200 Gigabits per second (Gbps) between Chennai and Port Blair, and 2 x 100 Gbps between Port Blair and the other islands of Andaman and Nicobar Islands chain.

The foundation stone for this project was laid by the PM on December 30, 2018 at Port Blair.

Here are the highlights of the PMs address on the occasion:

- I am hopeful that through our efforts today, not only will the islands and its residents get new facilities in the coming decade but it will also establish Andaman and Nicobar on the world tourist map in a major way.

- The modern infrastructure that is being developed in Andaman Nicobar is a key aspect for blue economy. A major part of blue economy is fisheries, aqua culture and sea-weed farming. Several countries are exploring the possibilities of sea-weed farming today

- There is a proposal to build a transshipment port in Great Nicobar at an estimated cost of 10,000 crore. Efforts are on to have the first phase of this project operational in the next 4-5 years. Once it is ready, big ships will be able to dock here

- The four ships being built at Kochi shipyard to improve water connectivity between the islands and the rest of the country will be delivered in a few months

- In 12 islands of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, high-impact projects are being expanded. A major issue of mobile and internet connectivity has been solved today, and were working towards solving road, air and water connectivity

- Better internet connectivity is one of the first needs of any tourism hub. This problem has now been solved. ourists will now be in no rush to return and thus, they will enjoy the sea-food and the islands. This will help tourism and employment in the region

- This submarine OFC project that connects Andaman Nicobar Islands to the rest of the world is a symbol of our commitment towards ease of living. Thousands of families in Andaman-Nicobar will now get its access, the residents will reap the benefits of internet connectivity

- My congratulations to every one connected with this project.

-This is an early gift for the people of Andaman and Nicobar on Independence Day. Laying 2,300 km cable under sea and that too, before schedule, while also maintaining the quality of cable is a commendable job. This is not an easy project

- The cable connectivity between Chennai and Port Blair has begun from today. My greetings to the residents of Andaman and Nicobar Islands for this, says the PM
A predator who snuck into a woman's bed and sexually assaulted her in the early hours of the morning remains on the loose in country Victoria.

The man broke into the woman's unit about 3.30am on Saturday on Monash Street at Shepparton, two hours north of Melbourne.

Victoria Police said he crawled into the woman's bed and then sexually assaulted her.

A manhunt was initiated and it led to one man being interviewed but he was released pending further investigations.

A sexual predator is on the loose after breaking into a woman's apartment on Monash Street at Shepparton, two hours north of Melbourne, in the early hours of Saturday and assaulting her

It is understood the woman was not a local resident, but rather was in Shepparton to work at a medical centre.

'Investigators have been told the victim was asleep in a private residence on Monash Street when she was woken by a man in her bed at 3.30am,' Victoria Police told Daily Mail Australia in a statement.

'The man sexually assaulted the woman before fleeing the scene.

'Police have interviewed man from Shepparton in relation to the investigation. He has been released pending further enquiries.'

The matter is being investigated by Shepparton's Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team.

It is unknown if the man who was interviewed by police was already known to them.
The owner of popular Montclair restaurant Cuban Petes was charged with violating Gov. Phil Murphys executive order barring indoor dining, a top state law enforcement official said Monday.

Local police responded to a report of indoor dining at the Bloomfield Avenue eatery, and that was found to be the case, New Jersey State Police Col. Patrick Callahan said during a daily coronavirus news briefing.

The owner was charged with a violation of the [executive order], Callahan said.

Montclair authorities did not immediately respond to messages seeking details. A worker at Cuban Petes on Monday said the owner was not available to comment.

Under Murphys order, restaurants can only provide takeout, delivery and offer outdoor dining. The charge was among three cases Callahan detailed at the regular pandemic briefing.

Other coronavirus-related offenses included a customer who threw his hot coffee and food at a Hanover QuickChek employee who asked him to wear a mask, according to Callahan.

Charges were also pending after police broke up a massive party at a house party in Howell on Sunday, the colonel added. Officers from eight police agencies responded to the residential area and found at least 300 party-goers.

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Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com.
Coronavirus infections in northeastern Syrian are rising, with officials admitting that they have no way of stopping the spread reports Alsouria Net.

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria has announced new coronavirus infections, coinciding with its announcement of the start date for the beginning of the upcoming school year.

The Health Authority in the Autonomous Administration has recorded 15 new cases, according to what was announced by the co-chair of the authority, Juan Mustafa.

Mustafa confirmed that six cases were recorded in Hassakeh, five in Qamishli, and four in al-Shahba, in addition to five recoveries, and one death in Hassakeh.

The total number of recorded cases in northeastern Syria is now 101, of which five have died.

Syria has been witnessing an acceleration in the spread of the virus, in what the World Health Organization categorized as a dangerous indicator.

As of Saturday, the number of infections in the Assad regimes areas reached 1,125, of which 50 have died, and 331 cases have recovered, according to the official statistics, which all available data disproves and shows to be inaccurate.

In the northern regions of Syria, the number of infections has reached 43, distributed between the governorates of Aleppo and Idleb, of which 29 cases have recovered, according to what the Early Warning Alert and Response Network of the Assistance Coordination Unit announced on Saturday.

According to a statement issued by the Education Authority, school employees are set to resume work on Aug. 23, 2020, while the beginning of the year for students is scheduled for Sept. 1, 2020, and that the necessary measures have been taken.

Mustafa had warned, in an interview with North Press Agency a few days ago, that the northeastern area will see a spike in coronavirus cases in late August.

Mustafa said that the health situation in northeastern Syria is not good, due to the massive spread of the coronavirus and the large number of infections.

He added, We cannot stop new cases from appearing, but we have been trying to delay its happening by imposing a curfew, in order to understand the nature of the virus as well as put active infections in quarantine.

The Autonomous Administration had imposed a 10-day curfew in the areas under its control, starting Jul. 31, 2020.

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.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Bangkok, Thailand  Mon, August 10, 2020 08:50 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cb8b01 2 SE Asia Thailand,activists,activist-arrest,pro-democracy,anti-government,politics Free

A Thai activist took aim at the government for "threatening" the pro-democracy movement at a protest Sunday -- a day after his bail release on sedition charges for his role in a recent rally.

The kingdom has seen near-daily demonstrations for weeks by mostly young students denouncing the military-aligned government of premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha.

Anon Numpa, a 35-year-old human rights lawyer, and another activist were arrested Friday and charged with sedition and breaking coronavirus rules for taking part in a Bangkok rally last month.

The arrests also came four days after Anon led a discussion at a subversive protest on the monarchy's role in Thailand.

Released on bail on condition they would not repeat the alleged offences, Anon travelled Sunday to Chiang Mai, a northern city popular with tourists, to speak at a rally.

"We repeat our three demands: stop threatening the people, dissolve the parliament and write a new constitution," he told a cheering crowd of roughly 400.

Analysts say the 2017 military-scripted charter tipped the scales of last year's election in favor of former army chief Prayut and his party.

Protesters regard his administration -- stacked with ex-generals and elite establishment allies -- as a legacy of a royalist junta regime.

"We call for this charter to be amended because it is the inheritance of dictators," said Anon

His speech avoided the discussion of reforming the kingdom's draconian royal defamation laws, which protects the monarchy from criticism.

The law carries a sentence of up to 15 years per charge, making open scrutiny of the super-rich King Maha Vajiralongkorn virtually impossible.

No charges have so far been filed under the law against the protesters.

Another anti-government protest expected on Sunday in Phitsanulok province was cancelled, according to its organizer on Facebook, who announced it under the hashtag "stop threatening people".

Protesters say their nascent pro-democracy movement has been organized organically, with young leaders taking to social media to promote the flashmobs.

The coronavirus pandemic has sent Thailand's economy into freefall, sharpening the discontent of young Thais as the downturn laid bare the equalities of a society perceived to favor the elite, pro-military establishment.
BYD delivers electric bus to German buyer

From:ChinaDaily | 2020-08-09 19:53

SHENZHEN - China's leading new-energy vehicle manufacturer BYD said Saturday that it has delivered the first of 22 pure electric buses ordered by German public transport operator Bogestra.

The BYD e-bus exported to German is 12 meters long and has a maximum passenger capacity of 80 people. It also has an over-200-km mileage on a single charge, according to the company.

The Chinese automaker received Bogestra's order in last September. The rest of the buses are expected to be delivered by October and serve in cities including Bochum and Gelsenkirchen in Ruhr region, Germany.

He Yipeng, general manager of BYD Europe, said the entry into the German market indicates recognition of BYD's technology and products by the local government and the public transport operator.

Data from BYD show that the company has sold its pure electric buses to more than 300 cities in over 50 countries and regions.
For most of his life, Ross Sharp has lived in Borden County in north Texas.

Sharp said there are no strangers here. I like the people. It's home, said Sharp. He started a family here and never left.

Fewer than 700 people live in Borden County. About 40 percent of them live in the small town of Gail.

Sharp has worked as a maintenance supervisor at the Borden County schools for 30 years. He is now a county judge.

Coronavirus free

Sharp has a strong reason to feel good about the place. No one in the county has caught COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

However, Sharp knows that Texas has one of the largest numbers of COVID-19 cases. It has more than 400,000 confirmed cases and nearly 8,000 deaths.

A neighboring town 75 miles (120 kilometers) away in a week could infect your whole county population, Sharp said.

Cows and oil are the countys two biggest businesses. Sharp said the high quality of its schools is a reason people want to live in the county. More than 50 percent of the students come from outside Borden County.

That's probably one of the major areas of concern for me is a school starting up, he said.

High school student Austin Buchanan is worried about the coming school year. For two months this spring, his classes were all online because of restrictions aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus. He does not know what to expect for this school year.

This being my final year of high school, I want everything to be the way it's supposed to be, and COVID has definitely affected that, Buchanan said.

Richard Buchanan, Austins father and his math teacher, said he hopes students will attend classes in person.

He said it is important for student to be together because you might not seeyour friends ever, you know, living 20 miles (32 kilometers) from school and on a farm, Richard Buchanan said.

Borden Countys farm life may have kept its people free from coronavirus.

We weren't around lots of people every day. Some people think it's a burden, and lately it's been a blessing, Richard Buchanan said.

Although there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Gail, life has changed.

Many people in Gail wear face coverings when they go to other towns, even to the nearest food store 50 kilometers away.

South Texas town

In the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, things are very different for Veronica Gonzalez.

Although many stores in the U.S. have been closed, her flower store is doing well because COVID-19 is increasing our business, unfortunately.

Weve got funeral sprays to deliver tomorrow, said Gonzalez, whose shop is very near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Gonzalez lives in Roma, a Texas border town with about 12,000 people.

The coronavirus has hit Roma badly as well as the rest of the people in Starr County. It is a Latino-majority county that is one of the states poorest. Large, multi-generational families often live together.

The county also has some of the highest rates of diabetes and obesity in Texas. People with those diseases who get COVID-19 are at a high risk of other problems or even death.

When the coronavirus first started spreading, Starr County had very few cases. Then it exploded, Gonzalez said.

The surge

Starr Countys battle with COVID-19 began at the end of April, when Texas started reopening its businesses. Then there was an increase in cases as people started to socialize more, said Dr. Jose Vasquez. He is a Starr County health official.

The area has one hospital and less than two doctors for every 10,000 people. In July, the countys top official announced on Facebook that doctors were going to have to decide who received treatment and who would be sent home to die.

Vasquez said that did not happen because state and federal government officials helped. The Navy sent two medical teams. The San Antonio veterans hospital began admitting Starr County patients.

More than 20 people from Starr County have died of COVID-19. Vasquez said there have been several deaths in some families.

Im Susan Shand.

VOAs Elizabeth Lee reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

burdenn. something that is difficult to deal with, a problem

blessingn. something good that you are grateful for

diabetesn. a serious disease in which the body cannot control blood sugar

sprayn. a group of flowers

obesityn. a condition in which someone is highly overweight
The immediate result of Trumps Thursday executive order banning TikTok and WeChat was to shave nearly $35 billion off the shares of Chinese tech giant Tencent, the parent company of WeChat, by Friday morning, though it pared half of those losses by market close in Hong Kong. Late on Thursday, Trump banned TikiTok and WeChat from operating in the United States, taking effect in 45 days unless they are sold by their Chinese-owned parent companies. Additionally, there is a vague condition that the U.S. Treasury Department is compensated in any sale deal.

In the executive order, the administration says that TikTok and WeChat capture vast swaths of information from their users. This collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans personal and proprietary information.

Any U.S. transactions with Tencent, which owns WeChat, and ByteDance, which owns TikTok are now banned starting in 45 days. That, too, remains vague and more clarity is expected to be forthcoming when Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross details the specific transactions that will fall under the ban.

Shares in Hong Kong-listed Tencent took a major hit immediately after the executive order was announced, but bounced back somewhat after investors had time to digest the fact that the target here is WeChat, not Tencent in general, which owns

ByteDance has been considering listing in New York or Hong Kong, but US-China tensions have forced it to re-think its strategy. It could list as a combined entity, or separate out the small part of the business that includes TikTok, according to sources cited by Reuters.

Last week, however, sources told Reuters that New York was likely off the list now, and that ByteDance would consider Hong Kong or Shanghai.

Related: Precious Metals Bulls Are Not Done Yet

TikTok is not available in China, where ByteDance operates a different version of the app called Douyin.

Earlier this week, Microsoft confirmed it is in talks with the U.S. government about its possible purchase of TikTok, despite the fact that Trump had earlier said he would not support an American takeover of the video app.

For Microsoft, it would be an incredibly risky, but incredibly rewarding endeavor once the US Treasury Department element is clarified. TikTok could be valued at $10 billion at the low end or upwards of $30 billion at the high end--but its a deal that has a host of landmines, from national security issues to government intervention and valuation itself.

Talks are expected to wrap up by the end of this month, with the September 15 ban deadline looming. According to CNBC, Microsoft has already agreed to transfer TikToks code from China to the U.S. within a year should a deal be agreed.

In the meantime, theres still Tencents WeChat to deal with. While the hammer was clearly falling on TikTok, the targeting of WeChat not only hit Hong Kong-listed Tencent, but shook the entire global tech market. Thats because it sparks concerns that other Chinese giants, such as e-commerce monolith Alibaba, will be the next targets.

By Michael Kern for Safehaven.com

More Top Reads From Safehaven.com:
Hyderabad: Telangana IT and industries minister K T Rama Rao has warned private hospitals against presenting hefty bills to patients. Responding to questions from Twitterati on the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues on Sunday, Rama Rao said the state government has in the past taken action against erring hospitals and will not hesitate to do so again.

Replying to a question about the stance of the state government on Pothireddypadu issue, the minister said we will fight for our rightful share in Krishna waters. Already an SLP (special leave petition) has been filed in the

Supreme Court by the state government.

Reacting to a question pertaining to Telanganas contribution to the Ram temple construction in Ayodhya, Rama Rao said, We will pray and hope for Ram rajya

where people of all faiths, castes and classes will be respected and treated equally, as enshrined in Constitution of our great country.

He reiterated the State governments commitment to provide quality

treatment to COVID-19 patients in government hospitals.

Pointing out that while the mortality rate is less than 1 per cent in Telangana, the recovery rate in the state was the highest in the country at 72 per cent, KTR said that coronavirus testing was already underway in more than 1,200 centres across the State and that over 23,000 tests were being conducted every day and the testing will be increased to more than 40,000 tests per day in a few days.

The Minister appealed to the people stating that rather than spreading anti-government propaganda against government hospitals, people should also recognise the services being rendered by these hospitals where thousands of people have already been treated and sent home safely.

Maintaining that the government alone cannot fight the pandemic, he urged people to join the ongoing battle against COVID-19 across the world.

KTR said, Fear psychosis, stigma and social ostracism, were causing a lot of grief. I am very pained to see the story of an old couple committing suicide recently to not infect their family.

He emphasised the need to strengthen the medical sector further in not only Telangana state, but also across the world after the Covid-19 experience.

Replying to a question about not implementing Ayushman Bharat to help

people during the pandemic time, he said the state governments Aarogyasri was more comprehensive than the Central scheme and in fact, Ayushman Bharat was modelled after Aarogyasri.

He made it clear that Telangana was not in race with any other State in fighting the pandemic as each state has its own set of challenges which were being dealt as per WHO (World Health Organisation) and ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) guidelines.

Answering a question about estimated time for vaccine for Covid-19, the minister said I was told by the vaccine manufacturers that it may take 6-9 months to release the vaccine and he is hoping that the vaccine will come from Telangana first, but will also be happy if it comes up sooner from another country.
KIT Scientists have identified and evaluated trends such as electromobility that might establish themselves by 2035. (Photo: Sandra Goettisheim)

Autonomous driving, electromobility, synthetic fuels: the mobility in our world is changing rapidly. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Baden-Wurttemberg are supported in this transformation by the Technologiekalender Strukturwandel Automobil Baden-Wurttemberg initiative. This technology calendar for structural change in automotive for Baden-Wurttemberg was co-developed by scientists from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). It describes how key automotive technologies might develop until 2035, and assists companies in identifying future-oriented products and business segments, in systematically building up expertise in order to remain competitive.

The technology calendar compares mobility scenarios based on different drive technologies: One scenario focuses on battery-electric drives for electric cars, a second one on hydrogen-based fuel cell drives, and a third one on synthetic fuels for vehicles with combustion engines. The study uses maturity levels in technology and manufacturing to describe which modules and systems will be relevant to the various types of drives by 2035. There are two other scenarios, where the researchers look at how quickly networked and autonomous driving might become a reality and how vehicle equipment and user behavior develop with it.

Through the technology calendar, we give SMEs recommendations on how they can use existing skills in research, development, and production in a targeted manner for new offers, says Sascha Ott, Managing Director of the KIT Mobility Systems Center. Especially for Baden-Wurttemberg companies, we see great potential for value creation with regard to their high level of product and manufacturing expertise. This includes, for example, metal-plastic jointing technology, the development of heavy-duty plastics, and lightweight constructions for innovative drive elements.

Profiles help SMEs identify and evaluate trends

The scientists use roadmaps and technology profiles to illustrate which technologies will become established when, and which skills SMEs will require for being at the forefront. With the technology calendar, which has been co-developed by KIT, we can identify and evaluate recommended actions for new and future-oriented products, says Florian Marthaler from IPEK (Institute of Product Engineering) of KIT. Methodologically, we relied on a Delphi study, which is a systematic, multi-stage survey procedure that enables us to assess future trends, technical developments and the like as objectively as possible.

Researchers of the KIT Mobility Systems Center identified technology trends with a focus on electrification and hybridization of conventional powertrains, high-speed transmissions, and modular solutions. We were able to show that it is enormously important for SMEs to build up expertise, especially in the field of clutches and gearboxes for electric drives. This applies to development, design and validation alike, says Ott.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) coordinates the study that was developed jointly with KIT, the IMU Institute (a work-related research and consulting institution), and the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Wurttemberg (ZSW). The Ministry of Economics, Labor and Housing of the State of Baden-Wurttemberg funded the project within the scope of an initiative called Strategiedialog Automobilwirtschaft (SDA) Baden-Wurttemberg (strategic dialog within the Baden-Wurttemberg automotive industry). This is an initiative where KIT is involved in a number of other research projects.



For more details, see: www.tkbw.de

More about the KIT Mobility Systems Center: http://www.mobilitaetssysteme.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.
A 30-year-old beauty therapist who launched her own business just two years ago has made a staggering $10,000 within an hour after launching a $55 hydrating mist.

Kayla Houlihan, 30, from Geelong, Victoria, saw the website for her Tribe Skincare brand crash within seven minutes of uploading her new skin spritzes to the website, with one selling roughly every 15 seconds since it launched just hours ago.

'It's a real relief to launch them and have success,' Kayla told FEMAIL.

'We were due to bring out the Hydrating Spritzes in March, but had to postpone due to COVID-19, so it's really exciting to give our customers the chance to try them.'

The 30-year-old beauty therapist Kayla Houlihan (pictured) has made a staggering $10,000 within an hour after launching a $55 hydrating mist

Kayla saw the website for her Tribe Skincare brand crash within seven minutes of uploading her new skin spritzes (pictured) to the website

The Hydrating Spritzes ($55 each) come in two flavour combinations designed to do different things.

The 'Peachy Rose' Hydrating Spritz is designed to get rid of redness and calm your skin, while the 'Citrus Burst' Hydrating Spritz is all about reducing breakouts and clearing your complexion.

Both products are vegan, Australian-made and cruelty-free, and they feature skin-boosting natural ingredients like aloe vera, oatmeal, rose oil and radish root.

The spritzes are designed to be sprayed onto skin under makeup for added glow or over the top of your makeup for a luminous look.

All Tribe products are vegan, Australian-made and cruelty-free, and they feature skin-boosting natural ingredients like aloe vera, oatmeal, rose oil and radish root (pictured: before and after using other Tribe products)

The 'Peachy Rose' Hydrating Spritz is designed to get rid of redness and calm skin, while the 'Citrus Burst' Spritz is about reducing breakouts and clearing your complexion (both pictured)

Kayla Houlihan founded cruelty-free brand Tribe Skincare two years ago, and has since seen her business enjoy a meteoric rise to the top, making a staggering $1.3million in the past 12 months alone.

Her previous offering, Protect Me! Day Moisturiser with SPF30, launched exclusively via social media late last year and swiftly shifted more than 465 bottles in a single business day at $58 each.

Made with natural ingredients including zinc oxide, which protects against harmful solar rays that burn and age skin, the moisturiser claims to leave your face hydrated and silky with a non-greasy, matte finish, making it perfect for use as a makeup base.

Kayla Houlihan founded cruelty-free brand Tribe Skincare two years ago, and has since seen her business enjoy a meteoric rise to the top, making a staggering $1.3million in the past 12 months alone (her products pictured with Tully Smyth)

Kayla previously told FEMAIL that she counts herself as lucky that during the global pandemic, she has managed to continue in business (pictured before and after using Tribe)

Kayla previously told FEMAIL that she counts herself as lucky that during the global pandemic, she has managed to continue in business:

'I have seen a lot of businesses struggling at the moment with all the changes caused by COVID-19. Fortunately for e-commerce brands, online sales are thriving,' she said.

'A lot of people are choosing to stay home, even if they aren't locked down.

'We are in a very fortunate position to be able to take their orders online and send them directly to their front doors.'

For more information about Tribe, please click here.
Neeraj Bablu, the brother of late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, on Monday (August 10) said that Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut should apologise for his statement in which he has claimed that Sushant did not share good relations with his father and was unhappy with his father's second marriage.

Bablu asserted that Raut's claim about Sushant's father second marriage is totally fake and if the Shiv Sena leader will not apologise publicly then Sushant's family will take legal action against him.

Raut, who had been opposing CBI probe into the case since the very first day, had claimed that probe has revealed that Sushant was not on good terms with his father KK Singh. "How many times did Sushant meet his father?" he had asked.

"Political conspiracy is being done in the guise of Sushant's death so that truth doesn't come out. Why the haste to take away the case from Mumbai Police," he had claimed.

Raut, through his weekly column, had said that a FIR was registered on Sushant death in Patna when the alleged incident occurred in Mumbai. "The family stepped in only after 40 days after the incident," he had said.

Menawhile, Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam has slammed Raut for his claims about Sushant's father and the late actor's relations with his father. Nirupam did not take Raut's name but said that Shiv Sena MP is talking 'cheap' things about Sushant's family. Nirupam added that each family has some stories and even the families of Shiv Sena leaders have many families. Nirupam noted that Sushant's untimely death is a sensitive matter and Shiv Sena must show sensitivity in this case.

In a related development, actress Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik Chakraborty reached the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office on Monday morning for another round of questioning in a money laundering probe connected to Sushant's death case. Rhea was questioned by the ED on Friday too and Showik was quizzed twice (Friday and Saturday). Rhea's former manager Shruti Modi has also been called for the second round of questioning today.
Because of this job, she said, she will be able to take a calmness into nearly any other field.

"It gives you a certain perspective on any other type of work that you're doing because we were making life-and-death decisions, we were impacting families, we were changing the face of our state in a lot of ways," she said.

Lots of stress, she said, but also lots of reward.

Howard was the leader on the series of bills that last week were signed into law that will provide oversight of the state Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Centers. That's the role of the legislative branch, she said.

"It's the first time in four years that we've asserted our authority as a co-equal branch, which shouldn't be hard and shouldn't be remarkable," she said. "But in this environment, it really is."

Her work on opioids and drug monitoring  continuing the work her mother started  has been most important to her, because of her sister Carrie's death from an opioid overdose.

Through it all, she said, it has been satisfying to work in the Legislature, in a job in which she could affect so many people, a job that was bigger than one young woman from midtown Omaha.
Climate Action Minister Eamon Ryan said the real aim was to end fast fashion. Picture: Steve Humphreys

Hitting greenhouse gas reduction targets presents an "enormous challenge", briefing documents prepared for new Climate Action Minister Eamon Ryan warn.

Officials stressed that implementing the Climate Action Plan would involve the efforts of 13 government departments and 40 agencies.

"Delivering such an integrated set of actions and policies requires a deep level of collaboration across government," they said.

"Ireland's targets for this period will present an enormous challenge."

The briefing was compiled on the basis that the country was aiming for a 3pc annual reduction in emissions from 2020 to 2030. Under the new Programme for Government, the target has been set at 7pc.

Even using the lower target, officials stressed the scale of the task, using as an example a bleak synopsis of the energy inefficiency of buildings.

"Our homes use 7pc more energy than the EU average and emit 58pc more CO2eq (carbon and other greenhouse gases).

"Our buildings are 70pc reliant on fossil fuels, including oil-fired boilers; over 80pc of our homes and other buildings assessed for their Building Energy Rating have a rating of C or worse; and the current annual retrofit activity for existing stock is far too limited at approximately 23,000, mainly shallow, retrofits."

Upfront costs of adopting energy-saving policies would pose problems, they warned.

"Although the majority of technologies and measures result in net lifetime cost savings to the economy as a whole, adopting these technologies and measures will still pose a considerable challenge for the whole of society.

"Even when the total cost of ownership becomes cheaper for a specific technology (eg, when the lifetime cost of an electric vehicle becomes cheaper than that of an internal combustion engine vehicle), the upfront cost may still be higher for the Exchequer, for individuals or companies."

The documents were prepared before the Supreme Court's recent ruling that the existing national climate strategy was not detailed enough to get the country to a zero carbon position by 2050, in line with national and EU aims.

But they say a "comprehensive draft Long Term Strategy for greenhouse gas emissions reduction out to 2050 has been prepared" and will go to government for approval.

The strategy was informed partly by public submissions sought late last year. A number of other public consultations are planned, the briefing states, including one on energy security.

It will focus on the anticipated growing dependence on natural gas imports from the UK once the Corrib gasfield runs down from 2025 onwards.

Another consultation will ask for views on extending the smoky coal ban to peat, wet wood and other smoky fuels. While coal companies had threatened legal action if coal continued to be singled out for a ban, no proceedings have taken place.

A further consultation will ask for views on mining. The briefing notes that 25pc of all land is under prospecting licences and it is necessary to draw up a policy on how the mining sector can "sustainably contribute to Ireland and the EU's transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions".

"Engagement by the public on the prospect licensing process has increased considerably in the last 12 months. The concerns raised range from mineral rights; land access and the environmental impacts of prospecting and mining activities," notes state.
By PTI

BEIJING: China has greeted 'old friend' Mahinda Rajapaksa on taking over as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka following a landslide victory and assured him full support, as Beijing looks forward to advancing its strategic cooperative partnership with Colombo.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has greeted Rajapaksa, saying that the Sri Lankan leader has been long committed to promoting the friendship between the two countries.

Rajapaksa, during whose previous tenures China made billions of dollars of investments in the island nation, enjoys a close rapport with Chinese leaders for consolidating bilateral ties.

Commenting on Rajapaksa being sworn in as prime minister, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here on Monday that "China and Sri Lanka enjoy traditional friendship and we have been advancing our strategic cooperative partnership based on sincere mutual assistance and ever-lasting friendship. We have been expanding and deepening our cooperation across the board."

Significantly Rajapaksa has been greeted by the Central Committee of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) headed by President Xi Jinping.

The CPC's greetings were conveyed to Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party (Sri Lanka People's Front) of Rajapaksa which had emerged victorious in the elections.

Conveying the CPC message to Rajapaksa personally, the Charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka Hu Wei said Rajapaksa is an 'old friend' of Xi and has assured him to "have confidence in our support," Sri Lanka news portal Colombo Page reported.

Hu met with Rajapaksa and passed on a congratulatory letter from the CPC, expressing heartfelt congratulations to him for winning the general election, it reported.

The two sides also exchanged in-depth views on the key areas of cooperation between the two countries in the next stage, as well as the key projects of China's Belt and Road Initiative in Sri Lanka, such as the port city of Colombo and the comprehensive development of Hambantota, the report said.

Rajapaksa has requested that the work on the Port City be expedited and to consider collaborating on drinking water and irrigation projects, the report quoted a statement from the Prime Minister's Media Division.

According to official estimates, Chinese loans and investments in Sri Lanka amounted to over USD eight billion.

The huge loans sparked concerns globally after Sri Lanka handed over its Hambantota port to a state-run Chinese firm in 2017 for a 99- years lease as a debt swap amounting to USD 1.2 billion.

The Colombo Port City project also funded by China is currently being built along the city's coastline on 269 hectares of reclaimed land.

Rajapaksa in a twitter message thanked Xi; "Thank you for the well wishes from President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party. China's support for Sri Lanka's development spans decades. I'm certain that our long-standing, friendly relations will continue to improve as we enhance our cooperation."
Nearly 5,000 businesses will benefit from the first of two rounds of COVID-19 Relief Statewide Small Business Assistance grant program intended to help businesses recover their pandemic-related losses and reopen their doors.

About half of 4,933 businesses  or 2,512  that are receiving grants in this round are going to historically disadvantaged businesses. Businesses in all 67 counties were awarded grants including 79 in Cumberland County, 130 in Dauphin County, 10 in Perry County, 45 in Lebanon County, and 202 in Lancaster County.

As we continue to address this public health crisis, its critical that we also focus on our states economic recovery and supporting our small businesses across the state, which continue to be impacted by our necessary mitigation efforts, said Gov. Tom Wolf in a news release about the grant awards. This funding will go a long way to help small businesses, including historically disadvantaged businesses, at a time when they need it most.

This $225 million grant program announced in June is funded with a portion of the $2.6 billion in federal stimulus funds Pennsylvania received through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

The application window for the second and final round of grant awards opens today and runs through 11:59 PM Aug. 28. Eligible applicants not awarded in the first round do not need to reapply and will be rolled into the next round for consideration.

The funds were distributed by the state Department of Community and Economic Development through the Pennsylvania Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), which are administering the grants through three programs: $100 million for the Main Street Business Revitalization Program, $100 million for the Historically Disadvantaged Business Revitalization Program, and $25 million for the Loan Payment Deferment and Loss Reserve Program.

The departments Secretary Dennis Davin said the grants will help some of Pennsylvanias hardest hit and most at-risk businesses shore up their resources and regain sound financial footing as we move into recovery.

Daniel Betancourt, chairman of the PA CDFI Network and President & CEO of Community First Fund, said nearly 50,000 applications were received seeking more than $860 million in the first application window. The grants may be used to cover operating expenses during the shutdown and transition to re-opening, and for technical assistance including training and guidance for business owners as they stabilize and relaunch their businesses.

Senate Democratic Appropriations Committee Chairman Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, said this money will deliver help to the auto body shops, the barbershops, the beauticians, the pizza shop owners, the soul food establishments and other businesses across the commonwealth. It is critical to understand that there is still a great deal of need and must continue to direct resources and aid to our small business community to help it recover from the devastation of the pandemic.

Sen. John Blake, D-Lackawanna County, appealed to Congress to recognize the interest expressed from Pennsylvania businesses in this grant program and provide more funding to assist more of them.

For minority and women-owned businesses in Pennsylvania COVID-19 didnt create a crisis, it laid bare the crisis our minority entrepreneurs have been facing for decades, said Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Allegheny County. While Im glad to see the positive impact of these grants and I urge all local community businesses to apply for the next round of grants, we need to expand investment in programs like this because its long past time for the Legislature to address the systemic flaws that are leaving too many marginalized people behind.

More information on the COVID-19 Relief Statewide Small Business Assistance Program, including how to apply, is available on DCEDs website .

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.
D onald Trump has said getting his face carved onto Mount Rushmore "sounds like a good idea", after a White House aide reportedly reached out to the South Dakota governor to discuss the plan.

The US president denied reports in the New York Times that Kristi Noem was approached to ask about the process of adding new presidents to the 60-foot monument.

He branded the claim "fake news", but added that it "sounds like a pretty good idea" as he has accomplished "many things" during his time in office, "perhaps more than any other presidency".

Mr Trump wrote on Twitter: "This is Fake News by the failing @nytimes & bad ratings @cnn.

"Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me!"

Thousands gathered to watch the US president make a speech at Mount Rushmore National Memorial / AP

During a presidential visit to South Dakota last year, Ms Noem gave Mr Trump a four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore that included his face on.

A White House official did not deny the reports but told the New York Times that Mount Rushmore is a federal monument, rather than state-run.

Mr Trump has reportedly speculated before about his face being carved on Mount Rushmore alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

In a 2018 interview, Ms Noem recounted a meeting when Mr Trump first became US president when they discussed the monument.

TODO: define component type apester

She told Argus Leader: "He said, 'Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand, and so I shook his hand, and I said, 'Mr President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore.'

"And he goes, 'Do you know it's my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?'"

Mount Rushmore was completed in 1941.

The local Native American Cheyenne River Sioux tribe has called for it to be removed, claiming that the monument is on sacred ground and it was promised to the indigenous people in a 19th-century treaty.
Rating Action: Moody's assigns Aa2 and Aa3 to Louisiana's 1st & 2nd lien Gas & Fuels Tax Refunding bonds; outlook stable

Global Credit Research - 10 Aug 2020

New York, August 10, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service has assigned a Aa2 rating to $543.33 million of the State of Louisiana's Gasoline and Fuels Tax Revenue Refunding Bonds, 2020 Series A and a Aa3 rating to $68.735 million of Gasoline and Fuels Tax Second Lien Revenue Refunding Bonds, 2020 Series B. The two series of bonds will refund certain outstanding Gasoline and Fuel Tax Revenue Bonds from the first and second lien. This transaction is expected to be price August 18 and August 19. The transaction will result in debt service savings in every year of the maturity schedule. The outlook is stable.

RATINGS RATIONALE

Louisiana's (general obligation rating Aa3 stable) Gas and Fuels Tax bonds benefit from strong legal provisions that include constitutional protections of revenues for transportation purposes, no appropriation risk, and healthy current coverage by pledged revenues. The senior lien on pledged revenues is closed. In the flow of funds, a portion of the pledged revenues must first flow through the state's Bond Security and Redemption Fund, to which the subordinate lien has greater exposure. The transportation-related revenues pledged to the bonds are tied to the energy-dependent state's volatile economic and financial condition.

We regard the coronavirus outbreak as a social risk under our ESG framework, given the substantial implications for public health and safety. The coronavirus crisis is not a key driver for this rating action. We do not see any material immediate credit risks for the State of Louisiana or its Gas and Fuels Tax bonds. However, the situation surrounding coronavirus is rapidly evolving and the longer term impact will depend on both the severity and duration of the crisis. If our view of the credit quality of the State of Louisiana changes, we will update the rating and/or outlook at that time.

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RATING OUTLOOK

The outlook for the State of Louisiana Gasoline and Fuels Tax Revenue Bonds is stable. The stable outlook reflects the outlook for the state of Louisiana's general obligation rating, to which these bonds are linked through economic and financial factors. The outlook also reflects our expectation that the stagnant gas tax revenue trend will remain sufficient to provide good coverage of debt service in the near to medium term.

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO AN UPGRADE OF THE RATINGS

- Structural changes, such as permanent closure of the second lien and segregation of all gas and fuels tax from the state budget, that strengthen the bonding program

FACTORS THAT COULD LEAD TO A DOWNGRADE OF THE RATINGS

- Severe declines in pledged revenues or other changes that cause a major reduction in coverage levels

- State rating downgrade LEGAL SECURITY

The bonds are secured by the state's tax on gas, motor and special fuels. This tax was increased from 16 cents to 20 cents as part of Act 16 of the 1989 Legislature, which authorized the Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development (TIMED) bonds. The 4-cent tax increase (Act 16 taxes) is dedicated exclusively to the TIMED Program. In addition, the remaining 16 cents of the state's gasoline and special fuels tax is also pledged, if needed, to pay the state's general obligation debt service.

Gasoline and special fuels funds are constitutionally dedicated to transportation purposes. The Act 16 4-cent gasoline and fuels tax expires when all projects authorized under the act are completed or when all outstanding bonds mature, whichever is later.

USE OF PROCEEDS

Proceeds of the bonds will be used to refund certain outstanding senior and second lien gasoline and fuels tax bonds for estimated present value savings of about $80 million.

PROFILE

Louisiana is the 25th-largest state by population, at 4.7 million. Its state gross domestic product is 24th largest. The state has below average wealth, with 2018 per capita personal income equal to 85% of the US level and the among the highest poverty rates in the country.

METHODOLOGY

The principal methodology used in these ratings was US Public Finance Special Tax Methodology published in July 2017 and available at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBM_1077147. Alternatively, please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

REGULATORY DISCLOSURES

For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity to Assumptions in the disclosure form. Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions can be found at: https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_79004.

For ratings issued on a program, series, category/class of debt or security this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series, category/class of debt, security or pursuant to a program for which the ratings are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.

The ratings have been disclosed to the rated entity or its designated agent(s) and issued with no amendment resulting from that disclosure.

These ratings are solicited. Please refer to Moody's Policy for Designating and Assigning Unsolicited Credit Ratings available on its website www.moodys.com.

Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating review.

Moody's general principles for assessing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in our credit analysis can be found at https://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBC_1133569.

The Global Scale Credit Rating on this Credit Rating Announcement was issued by one of Moody's affiliates outside the EU and is endorsed by Moody's Deutschland GmbH, An der Welle 5, Frankfurt am Main 60322, Germany, in accordance with Art.4 paragraph 3 of the Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 on Credit Rating Agencies. Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the Moody's office that issued the credit rating is available on www.moodys.com.

Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued the rating.

Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.

Marcia Van Wagner Lead Analyst State Ratings Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 7 World Trade Center 250 Greenwich Street New York 10007 US JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Edward Hampton Additional Contact State Ratings JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653 Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service, Inc. 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 U.S.A JOURNALISTS: 1 212 553 0376 Client Service: 1 212 553 1653

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According to media reports, social media platform Twitter has been in talks with ByteDance, the Chinese owner of short video plaform TikTok and has expressed an interest in acquiring the US operations of the app.

Twitter has a market capitalization of approximately $30 billion (23 billion pounds), which is almost the same as the valuation of TikTok's assets to be divested. According to reports, the company would need to raise additional capital to fund the deal.

Earlier, Microsoft has been on the negotiating table with ByteDance to acquire the company.

Also read: TikTok to relocate its Headquarters
Supporters of Hong Kong media tycoon and democracy activist Jimmy Lai have launched an apparent show of support after his arrest under the city's new national security law.

"Jimmy Lai is being arrested for collusion with foreign powers at this time," Mark Simon, a senior executive at Mr Lai's media company Next Digital, tweeted in the early hours of Monday.

Mr Simon said police searched both Mr Lai and his son's home, as well as other employees of Next Digital.

Police also searched the offices of his Apple Daily newspaper.

As news of Mr Lai's detention spread, shares in Next Digital rose by up to 344% with market analysts partly crediting sympathy purchases.

Hong Kong police said in a statement that seven people aged between 39 and 72 had been arrested on suspicion of violating the national security law, but did not reveal the names of those arrested.

"The police operation is still ongoing and does not rule out more arrests," the force said.

Mr Lai, 71, has been one of the most prominent democracy activists in the Chinese-ruled city and an ardent critic of Beijing.

He was also arrested this year on illegal assembly charges, along with other leading activists, relating to pro-democracy protests.

Steven Butler, Asia program co-ordinator of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said: "The arrest of media tycoon Jimmy Lai bears out the worst fears that Hong Kong's national security law would be used to suppress critical pro-democracy opinion and restrict press freedom."

Wang Dan, dissident and exiled student leader of the crushed 1989 Tiananmen Square protests said: "Although it was expected, the arrest of Jimmy Lai was still very outrageous because his two sons were also arrested, which was obviously an attempt by the authorities to destroy Lai's will through family ties.

"I call on the international community to take immediate action."

In an interview with Reuters in May, Mr Lai pledged to stay in Hong Kong and continue to fight for democracy even though he expected to be one of the targets of the new legislation.

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Beijing imposed the sweeping new law on 30 June , drawing condemnation from the West and prompting several countries, including Britain, Australia and Canada, to suspend extradition treaties with Hong Kong.

The legislation punishes anything China considers subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.

Critics say it crushes freedoms in the semi-autonomous city, while supporters say it will bring stability after prolonged pro-democracy protests last year.

Before Monday, 15 people had been arrested under the law, including four aged 16 to 21 over posts on social media.

Last month, Chinese broadcaster CCTV said pro-democracy activist Nathan Law and five others were wanted under the law, although all six had fled overseas.

Mr Law had relocated to Britain in July to continue international advocacy work for Hong Kong.

Shares in Next Digital closed 186% up.

A former columnist for the media group, Stanley Wong, said he had been among people to buy in.

He offloaded the 1.2 million shares he had bought earlier in the day and pledged his profits would go to fund a scholarship.

Some brokers speculated that the share price surge also reflected the possibility that Mr Lai could be forced to sell the group.

Kenny Ng, an analyst at Everbright Sun Hung Kai, said: "After this event, the market is looking ahead.

"Maybe, if this chairman is no longer here, another person would take this company in a different direction."
Armenias Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sent a message to the participants of the conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Sevres. The message reads as follows, in particular:

"The reconciliation Treaty of Sevres has a significant place in the modern history of the Armenian people.

The Treaty of Sevres is a historical fact. It remains so to this day. Why is this document important for the Armenian people? Why is it in the center of our attention today?

First, the Treaty of Sevres was signed based on the results of World War I, one of the most dramatic pages in human history, almost two years after its end.

The Treaty of Sevres was creating a new system of interstate relations in the region.

The treaty was prepared based on the most advanced ideas of the time.

Second, the Treaty of Sevres is the international document that recognized and enshrined Armenia's independence.

By being a party to the treaty, the contribution of Armenia and the Armenian people to the victory of the Allies in World War I and to the establishment of peace was also being recognized.

Third, the Treaty of Sevres documented and enshrinedwith its Article 89the Armenian peoples indisputable historical connection with the Armenian Highlands where the Armenian people were born, lived, and established statehood and culture for millennia.

Finally, the Treaty of Sevres was signed in the period following the years of the Armenian Genocide, when the Ottoman Empire was attempting to resolve the Armenian Question by annihilating the Armenian people. (). Meanwhile, the Treaty of Sevres was paving the way for overcoming the aftermath of the genocide.

"Although the Treaty of Sevres was never implemented, it continues to exist as a historical fact that reflects the path we [Armenians] have passed toward the restoration of an independent state."
On Saturday, health officials in Boone and Winnebago counties in northern Illinois announced an investigation into a possible COVID-19 outbreak at the Fiat Chrysler (FCA) Belvidere Assembly Plant, one of the largest employers in the area.

The investigation is a response to an uptick in daily new case counts in the area surrounding the plant. The preliminary seven-day test positivity rate currently stands at 6.7 percent in Boone County, where the plant is located, and 3.8 percent in Winnebago County directly to the west.

Officials have not revealed the number of autoworkers who have tested positive at the plant since production restarted prematurely at the beginning of June. Fiat Chrysler and the United Auto Workers union, who are the subject of a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme alleged in court by General Motors last week, together with the rest of the auto industry and the corporate press, have actively suppressed news of confirmed cases in the domestic and internationally based auto plants since production started up again after nationwide restrictions on nonessential business were lifted.

Workers at the plant come from Illinois and southern Wisconsin, and local health officials have noted that Wisconsin counties just north of the state line are also reporting higher rates of positive tests for COVID-19 than counties south of the state line in Illinois. Overall, both states have seen rising weekly new case counts.

Exterior of Belvidere Plant

The restart of production in US auto plants has had devastating consequences for autoworkers and their families. The coronavirus spreads unchecked, which proves that the so-called "safety measures" by the auto corporations, implemented with the support of the UAW, have been completely ineffective against the transmission of the virus in the plants, where thousands of workers in the facility work in close contact with one another for 10-12 hours per day.

Autoworkers at Belvidere Assembly spoke out against the deadly conditions of the return to work, driven by the profit interests of FCA and its Wall Street investors.

Misinformation and communication from the company and union to the employees is pretty bad, a worker at the plant told the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter. Someone in the Paint Department tested positive for COVID-19. The company and union took them out of the plant secretly and didn't even tell the team, but she went on Facebook to tell us she had COVID-19. We're doing what workers at Toledo Jeep [Assembly Plant] are doing, by using social media to tell each other.

There was a wildcat [action] Wednesday with about four to six people on first shift. The hazmat team came in, then the entire team walked out.

The experiences of workers at the plant reveal that, contrary to public statements by FCA, no contact tracing, cleaning or social distancing guidelines are being followed.

FCA and the UAW Local say their reason for not saying anything about [positive cases] is because of HIPAA [Health Information Portability and Accountability Act] violations. That has nothing to do with anything; it's freedom of speech.

A lot of people shared the [ Autoworker Newsletter ] article on Toledo on our Facebook page. We said, Holy cow, this is happening right now. I've been telling people we're not alone; Toledo and Sterling Heights are going through what we are. The demands those committees made are perfectly logical.

Not telling the workers about who has been infected helps spread the virus even more. It's an endangerment to your life and an endangerment to the people around you. People are dying. So, it's like contain it, and stop the spread.

As soon as the first person got COVID-19, they upped production and went to mandatory Saturdays and some Sundays. The Jeep Cherokee is not selling. We were laid off multiple times because of sales. Now we're back running full force. We all know it's because of profit. Regardless, these cars are going to go sit in car lots.

FCA has implemented deep cuts over the past two years at Belvidere Assembly, and the closure of the facility altogether in the coming years remains a possibility. The third C shift was eliminated at the plant in May of 2019, and UAW Local 1268 did absolutely nothing to stop the job cuts, ensuring that they would be carried out.

The plant was also hit with a series of temporary shutdowns in the first two months of 2020 prior to the pandemic. These temporary layoffs were preceded by a two-week shutdown of FCA's Windsor Assembly plant in Canada, which employs 6,500 people.

A few weeks ago, a lot of people were worried and called off. Tomasz Gebka, our plant manager until recently, called everyone and said we needed to come in. We had people doubling up on jobs and some supervisors were on the line.

Now they're cutting our ten minutes from lunch, and later on they said theyre cutting the extra five minutes from our other breaks. What about the factor of social distancing? Youre back to having a line of people going into the bathrooms at lunch. Theyre pinching pennies, theyre pinching minutes, because one minute makes one car.

They're making it seem like the cars are worth more than our lives. It's all about profit. This is a pandemic, this is worldwide.

Another worker at the plant said about the working conditions: "[Safety] protocol is a joke. We're asked to sign these waivers stating we're not sick and everyone just signs them so they can work instead of going home. It's not clear what happens if you say yes, if you get paid time off. We haven't gotten any details on what happens and no help. I haven't been able to get any reply from my committeeman.

"They're not sanitizing or inspecting the workstations. We're given 10 minutes before and after break to clean. This isn't being enforced or even inspected. The bathrooms have no soap in the dispensers. But there are all these signs around referring to 'keeping us safe'. It's a joke."

Winnebago County was issued a warning level for the spread of COVID-19 by the Illinois Department of Public Health on Friday, which is issued when two or more of the state's COVID-19 risk indicators have increased. The Illinois state government reports 13 counties at a warning level, according to Friday press reports.

But just ten days prior, Winnebago County Health Department director Dr. Sandra Martell insisted that in-person classes for students could resume in the fall, stating that Schools will have to coexist with COVID.

"It's madness," the worker responded. "My daughter is school-aged. I'm not sure if she's going back yet or will be at home doing online learning, but my wife and I both work. It is highly unlikely we can stay at home with her and take pay cuts.

"I saw a picture posted from a student in Georgia where students were packed in a hallway without distancing and many without masks. She was given a suspension. How could that be unauthorized? There should be full transparency of what's going on in the schools for students and for teachers."

To fight against the conditions causing life-threatening outbreaks at auto plants, workers across the Midwestern US have opposed the UAW and taken matters into their own hands by forming rank-and-file safety committees to fight for the right to a safe workplace. These committees must link up with teachers, food production and meatpacking workers, transit and logistics workers, and all other sections of industrial workers internationally to end the devastating impact of the pandemic and its underlying cause, the capitalist system of exploitation. For help forming a committee at your workplace, contact the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter.


STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Police are seeking the publics assistance locating a missing 16-year-old male, who was last seen in Concord.

It was reported to police that Amarrion Crenshaw was last seen on Friday at 12 Steuben Street, at about 10:56 a.m. He is described as a male, black, 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighing 140 pounds with brown eyes and black hair.

GIRL, 12, STILL MISSING

A West Brighton girl who police reported missing Saturday has still not been located, as of Sunday afternoon, according to an NYPD spokesman.

The NYPD asked for the public's help locating Jaslene Dames. (Photo courtesy of NYPD)

An emergency notification seeking the publics assistance locating 12-year-old Jaslene Dames, a resident of Barker Street in West Brighton, was issued over the weekend by the departments Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

Dames was last seen leaving her residence on Friday at approximately 11:20 a.m., police said.

Anyone with information regarding either missing person is asked to call the NYPDs Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).

The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls are strictly confidential.
Parents, if you feel a little confused over the different COVID-19 protocols for the top Texas universities, don't stress. We've developed a quick guide to clear that up. With Texas universities now preparing for students to return to campus, it's crucial that all students, faculty and staff are protected with the proper COVID-19 guidelines.

The University of Texas

Students are being asked to self-quarantine at home for 14 days before returning to campus. Access complete details, guidance here.

Texas A&M

Texas A&M will provide free COVID-19 testing for students, faculty and staff at 11 campuses in Texas. Texas A&M officials are asking students and faculty to complete COVID-19 certification and training by Tuesday, August 11. The university is encouraging students, faculty and staff to get tested if they have experienced COVID-19 symptoms. Access complete details, guidance here.

$1.6M SHOPPING SPREE: Houston entrepreneur accused of spending $1.6M in CARES Act money on Lamborghini, strip clubs

University of Houston

According to the University of Houston, only 17% of all registered students are enrolled in face-to-face class. No more than 4,500 students will be on campus at any given time, compared to 30,000 last fall.

UH is requiring that all of its employees complete COVID-19 training and a self-health screening as well as get approval from their supervisor before being allowed to work on campus. Access complete details, guidance here.

Rice University

According to Rice University officials, students will have a staggered move-in to the university. Houston-area students can begin to move in their belongings, starting August 12th. They will then return to campus on the morning of August 16. Those students who are not in the Houston-area will begin their move-in on August 15th. Access complete details, guidance here.

Baylor University

Baylor University is slated to begin its fall semester on August 24. The school requires that all students must provide negative COVID test results before they are allowed back to campus. Access complete details, guidance here.

Houston Community College

Houston Community Colleges fall semester will start on August 24th. However, all classes will meet remotely for the first six weeks. Students, faculty and staff can learn about all of the safety measures and protocols in place across campus with this guidance.

Houston Baptist University

HBU is slated to start its fall semester on August 24th with a combination of in-person, hybrid, remote and online courses which will continue through December 11th. Access complete details, guidance here.

Blinn College

Blinn College has made a few changes for the Fall semester to ensure that the school provides a safe environment for students and employees. These changes include a new self-certification, an expanded selection of 4-and 8-week courses as well as online and blended courses. Access complete details, guidance here.

Lone Star College

Lone Star College is also slated to begin with online classes and hybrid classes on August 24th. Check the school's COVID-19 safety protocols here, including mask requirements and temperature checks.

Prairie View A&M

According to Prairie View A&M officials, students must complete the Student COVID-19 Certification training by August 20th. Access complete details, guidance here.

San Jacinto College

San Jacinto College has developed a comprehensive COVID-19 strategy, including a different status levels that correspond to the current state of the pandemic. The college is now operating on Level 3, which is the highest level of precaution. Access details, guidance here.

University of St. Thomas

University of St. Thomas will begin their fall semester on August 24th with a blend of in-person and online options. The school has a "Healthy Celts" coronavirus prevention plan. Access details, guidance here.

Texas Christian University

If Texas Christian students need immediate answers about health questions, they have access to a live chat feature in TCUs COVID-19 guide.

Texas Tech University

Texas Tech has decided to adjust student billing this fall, since students won't have complete access to campus resources. It's now waiving its Online Distance Education Fee. Note: There will also be a limited number of on-campus housing units for students that test positive or have come in contact with a positive individual, to self-isolate for 14 days. Access details, guidance here.

Texas Southern University

According to Texas Southern officials, classes will begin on August 19th online and continue that way through at least September 14th. Access details, guidance here.

Texas State University

Texas State University students are being asked to quarantine 14 days before returning to campus. The university is also providing flexible online learning options for students to reduce crowding in classrooms. Access details, guidance here.
In 1994, Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto cut off all meaningful interaction with India. The freeze continued till Nawaz Sharif won the February 1997 election and immediately signalled a desire to resume diplomatic and political contact. Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and external affairs minister IK Gujral decided to reciprocate positively, but, before doing so, Gujral held quiet and separate conversations with leaders of the ruling alliance but, significantly, also with the main Opposition parties.

Gujral went personally to some of them, taking his officials along so that if matters of detail arose during these discussions, they were on hand to answer them. I recall that I accompanied Gujral to a meeting with the then Congress president Sitaram Kesri who, like all political leaders, endorsed the view that India-Pakistan dialogue should resume.

The purpose of my recounting the political spadework undertaken by Gujral is only to emphasise that despite the political contestation, there has been a tradition of trying to forge a consensus or, at a minimum, bridge differences on crucial foreign policy and security issues. This was accomplished through out-of-the-public-eye contacts and briefings, either directly between political leaders or through contacts of officials and professionals whom the Opposition leaders trusted. It would seem that this tradition continued, at least, for some part of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on matters relating to Pakistan and the India-United States (US) nuclear deal.

In keeping with the same spirit, Opposition political leaders sometimes reined in their colleagues from probing too deeply on sensitive information on national security and foreign policy matters. Again, an incident related to Gujral comes to mind. He was then no longer PM, but a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs. The then foreign secretary was before the committee on the Afghanistan situation. Committee members began to raise questions about the nature and extent of our assistance to the anti-Taliban forces. This was sensitive information and it would have been detrimental to Indias interests if it became public. Gujral intervened. He said that he knew what India was doing and it should not be openly discussed. The subject was immediately dropped.

It was good that PM Narendra Modi convened an all-party meeting after Chinas dastardly action of June 15 in the Galwan Valley. Obviously, he did so, among other reasons, to show the nations resolve to resolutely respond to the Chinese strategic challenge, especially its designs on Indian territory. Notwithstanding the controversy that emerged from some of Modis remarks, the essential message that emerged from the meeting was one of the nations firmness to confront Chinas actions. Such signals are important but cannot be a substitute for the development of a consensus on broad and enduring strategy. That can only come through quiet and confidential dialogue within all sections of the countrys political and strategic classes.

Naturally, this does not mean that the government of the day does not have the right and the responsibility to design and execute foreign and security policies. To think otherwise would be to question its popular mandate and its constitutional functions. But there are some issues of such surpassing significance to the national interest that every endeavour has to be made by the political class to forge understandings through quiet and purposeful conversations, which would lead to a toning down of the sharp, often vitriolic rhetoric  the staple fare of spokespersons of all political parties in the electronic media. The process naturally would have to be government-led but the main Opposition parties would bear an equal responsibility in making it a success.

After the trauma of Partition, there has not been as difficult a time for the country as now. The Covid-19 health crisis, by itself, is daunting for Indias society and polity. The migrant labour movement brought about great distress and its impact continues in some spheres. The economy, which was already in a slowdown, is now contracting. It will take time to be restored to the path of sustained growth. It is at this stage that India has been confronted by Chinese aggression along the Line of Actual Control, necessitating a complete re-look at Indias China policy since 1988.

The question that the political class has to ask itself whether the nation can afford normal ebb and flow of politics at this stage or if it is a time to reach out to each other. Is this a time for the political parties, whether in the ruling alliance or the Opposition camp, to score points on national security and foreign policy concerns, even if, unlike the past three and a half decades, there is one single party under a leader with a decisive electoral mandate? The answer cannot but be to seek a build a unified national policy approach to begin with on China. And, give politics and the ideological divides a rest.

Vivek Katju is a former diplomat

The views expressed are personal
Editor:

The Observer editorial of Aug. 2, entitled Injustices Served for RR highlights the selective memory of the newspapers editorial staff and is the latest example of its bias in favor of Republican candidates and elected officials.

In the editorial, the Observer righteously laments that would-be school shooter Joshua Owen was let off the hook after attempting to murder his classmates. While being held in juvenile detention, Owen apparently did not receive the mental health treatment he needs.

The reason cited is there are no resources available to treat Owen to competency, so he cant stand trial and his charges were dismissed.

The Observer stated, This is the first instance where the system failed, but thats not true. In 2013, then-Gov. Susana Martinez decimated New Mexicos behavioral health system and the impact is being borne out in the dismissal of Owens case.

This result is incomprehensible and should never have happened. We are all less safe because we have a broken behavioral health system in New Mexico.

Lets rewind the clock to 2013 when Susana Martinez was governor and she unilaterally shut down 15 of the states mental-health providers by cutting their Medicaid funding based on unfounded allegations of fraud. In an instant, New Mexicos behavioral health-care system was gone.

Their contracts were awarded to out-of-state firms on an emergency no-bid basis. In 2016, the attorney general finished clearing all 15 of the providers from any wrongdoing, but the long-lasting damage was done.

It has been a slow recovery for New Mexicos behavioral health-care system since then and we are clearly not where we need to be. It should come as no surprise that resources were not available to effectively treat Owen in this instance.

It also begs the questions, how many more people, especially juveniles, are not receiving appropriate mental health treatment? What risk does that pose to our society? What are our elected officials, Democrat and Republican alike, doing about it?

The Observer noted that it is encouraged to learn that state Rep. Jason Harper has started looking for solutions to the gap in the law, and state Sen. Craig Brandt wants to fix the issue in the next legislative session.

While those are nice sentiments, perhaps these legislators should have done more to prevent the decimation of our behavioral health system long ago. They have both been in office since 2013.

Will the Observer continue to unabashedly give deference and preferential treatment to Republican candidates and elected officials in its Viewpoints column? Each Sunday when I open the Observer, I know I can count on Republican campaign propaganda masquerading as legitimate guest/opinion columns.

As we gear up for another election, I hope the Observer will at least make a good-faith effort to present information in an objective, unbiased and non-partisan way.

Edward W. Lovato

Rio Rancho

Editors note: The Observer always strives to be objective and fair. We do not favor Republicans, do have a range of political views among staff members and were not discussing partisan politics or 2013 occurrences in the editorial in question. We believe mental health and the handling of would-be school shooters are non-partisan issues. We run whatever opinions local residents send us, regardless of political affiliation, as long as they are not obscene, libelous, unnecessarily inflammatory or violations of our policies on political candidates.
The police informed the on Monday that it has no objection to quashing of the separate FIRs against various foreigners, who attended the event here and allegedly indulged in missionary activities in violation of visa norms and breached anti-COVID-19 guidelines.

The submissions were made before Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani who was hearing a batch of petitions by the foreign nationals seeking quashing of FIRs against them.

Delhi government standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra said that without going into the merits of the cases, he has instructions to say that as these foreigners have already pleaded guilty in the first FIR, they do not want to pursue it further.

He said if they are asked to go back to the trial court, it will enhance the burden and the high court can quash the FIRs here only.

However, the judge said he was of the opinion that the petitioners should go back to the trial court as the magistrates, by whom the matters were heard, were doing their jobs efficiently and there was no need for the high court to intervene.

According to the separate petitions, the foreigners said they have already admitted their guilt in the FIR lodged by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police in the matter and pleaded for lenient punishments under the provisions of plea bargaining.

They were allowed to walk free on payment of varying fines and pleading guilty for minor offences related to the COVID-19 lockdown violations, the counsel for the foreigners said, adding that their deportation orders were also issued.

However, they are not able to fly back to their countries due to the pendency of other FIRs lodged at various police stations here, the counsel said.

When the petitioners wanted to go back to their countries, it transpired that a second FIR is also pending against each of them and the charge sheets have been filed before the trial court, she said.

Senior advocate Rebecca John, representing the foreigners, said the police cannot register another FIR and file charge sheet for the same offence for which they have already entered into plea bargaining.

John said her instructions are that the foreign nationals cannot plead guilty for the same offence second time.

The case related to foreigners who are in this country for the last several months and are desperate to go home, to their native countries, the counsel said.

The counsel sought a day's time to take instructions on the issue of whether the foreign nationals are desirous of pressing these petitions.

The high court asked Mehra to take instructions on whether some of these petitioners are also booked in any other FIRs and listed the matter for further hearing on Tuesday.

These petitioners are nationals of various countries including Australia, South Africa, Indonesia and Sri Lanka and are arrayed as accused in the charge sheets filed by the police.

Their counsel has contended that the police cannot lodge separate FIRs for the same alleged offence and they are unable to go back due to look out circulars (LOCs) being opened against them.

She said while the first FIR was lodged on March 31, this second FIR by the police was filed later on and added that the foreigners were not informed of these additional FIRs before the Saket court where they pleaded guilty.

In the petitions filed by advocates Ashima Mandla and Mandakini Singh, the petitioners have sought quashing of two FIRs registered at various police stations under various sections of IPC and the Epidemic Diseases Act.

The petitioners said that the FIRs registered at other police stations are untenable in law in light of foreign nationals having entered plea bargaining in the same charges registered by the crime branch.

They have also sought directions to the respondents to close the LoC issued qua foreign petitioners.

In the case being probed by the crime branch, the foreign petitioners have duly entered plea bargaining and consequent deportation orders have been issued by the court.

They said that the allegations in the FIRs before this court are similar to the FIR of crime branch, in which 911 of the 955 foreigner Jamaatis have entered into plea bargaining



"Under the law, second FIR is impermissible and there is an operational bar from prosecution of same offences arising out of the corresponding cause of action under Article 20(2) of the constitution of India( widely known as doctrine of double jeopardy) as well as section 300 of the CrPC," the pleas said.

In April, COVID-19 cases across the country spiked after hundreds of many members, who had attended the religious congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz in the capital, tested positive.

At least 9,000 people, including the foreign nationals participated in the religious congregation in Nizamuddin. Later, many of the attendees travelled to various parts of the country.

(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.)
MIDLAND, MI  Midland has been through a lot amid the confluence of the pandemic, historic flooding and social unrest, Midland Center for the Arts President and CEO Terri Trotter said.

How a spring rainstorm became a 500-year flood event in mid-Michigan

The area is still recovering from the devastating floods of mid-May that prompted the evacuation of thousands of people and left homes and infrastructure damaged or destroyed. Disaster relief, financial assistance and many services and initiatives continue to be made available for the community as the region rebuilds.

Its really been a very unique situation, Trotter said. And I think that the community demonstrated a lot of great leadership, a lot of heart.

Volunteers rally to help Midland area pick up the pieces after devastating floods

Fundraisers, drives and donations around Midland County help flood victims and volunteers

Community initiatives

The Midland Center for the Arts and WCMU Public Media will present Moving Forward: Midland Aug. 11, a virtual town hall offering interactive discussion about the recent crises and providing information on various recovery efforts. Guest panelists include Trotter, MidMichigan Health President and CEO Diane Postler-Slattery, Midland Business Alliance President and CEO Tony Stamas, United Way Midland County President and CEO Holly Miller and Midland City Manager Brad Kaye.

The thought on the program is really to have an opportunity to talk with community leaders from different sectors of the area about how these events have impacted both their businesses  so whats going on in terms of the different areas  but also whats happened across the community, what are the common experiences, Trotter said.

Registration for the Aug. 11 virtual town hall is free and open to the first 100 people. Itll take place from 7:15 p.m. to 8 p.m. and will also be streamed on YouTube.

The Midland Center for the Arts also held a check presentation recently to celebrate the Michigan Historical Society raising funds in support of the Midland County Historical Societys efforts to restore its damaged artifacts and infrastructure. Trotter discussed other collaborative initiatives in the area, such as Midland County and the city of Midland working together to unite community groups hoping to help.

Especially in recovering from the flood, the damage was so substantial and people and organizations coming together has been really, really helpful, she said. Thats one of the most amazing and really important collaboration that Ive seen  just how much the county and the city have stepped up to help everybody with this effort of coordinating.

Receiving relief

Trotter said one of the topics addressed by these groups is how to help residents navigate FEMA to receive disaster relief and financial assistance, which she said can be a complicated process.

Midland Countys Long Term Disaster Recovery Group recently announced that three case managers, a construction manager and volunteer manager have been hired to provide support and resources for Midland County residents impacted by the flooding. Case managers will be available to help residents apply for FEMA and advocate for them throughout the process.

FEMA has also set up a documentation drop-off center in Midland for victims of the flooding to submit any required supporting documents for their disaster assistance application. Its open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and is located at 825 E. Main Street, Midland, MI 48640.

Case managers, a construction manager and a disaster volunteer manager are going to be vital for the long-term recovery efforts here in our community, Miller said. Theyre going to work collaboratively together to guide homeowners through the rebuild and restore process, leverage volunteer and donated items and work with those like United Way and the Midland Area Community Foundation and many others who will be deploying funds to stretch those dollars as far as possible so we can impact the most families in our community.

Federal assistance

President Donald Trump approved a major disaster declaration July 6 for Midland, Saginaw, Gladwin, Iosco and Arenac counties, making millions of dollars in federal funds available for the region. Businesses and residents in those counties can now apply for low-interest disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration and Disaster Unemployment Assistance from the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency.

Disaster Unemployment Assistance available for residents hit by Midland-area flooding

As of Aug. 4, the U.S. Small Business Administration had already approved $17,278,300 for 225 disaster loans. Those impacted by the severe storms and flooding can apply for a loan online after registering with FEMA at disasterassistance.gov. The Disaster Unemployment Assistance application can be found here.

A view down Main Street in downtown Midland on Tuesday, July 28, 2020. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com

Stamus said helping businesses reopen will be a crucial part of rebuilding the community, and recently, the Midland Business Alliance announced it will award more than $150,000 in grants to local businesses in collaboration with the Midland Area Community Foundation.

This is a very collaborative effort, Miller said. It is taking many, many people to help bring hope and help to our community. It is truly an illustration of collaboration in action.

Read More on MLive

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Hong Kong police have arrested billionaire media tycoon Jimmy Lai on national security charges and raided his Apple Daily newspaper headquarters.

Reporters were told to stop broadcasting live as up to 200 police officers entered the Apple Daily newsroom on Monday morning. Police rifled through desks and banned journalists from attempting to enter executive offices before cordoning off key sections of the newsroom with tape.

Hong Kong police raid the Apple Daily headquarters on Monday. Credit:Twitter

Live broadcasts of the raid on the Apple Daily YouTube channel showed a handcuffed Lai being taken through the newsroom by police two hours after his arrest at home on charges of colluding with foreign forces.

Apple Daily reporters said no search warrant was presented before dozens of officers piled up the office's staircase on Monday morning.
MARION, Va.  Tina Hayes knew for years that she would lose her arm. In her early 40s and suffering complications from the AVM (arteriovenous malformation) she was born with, she was ready. She asked the doctor to amputate it.

While she expected the phantom pain that often comes with losing a limb, her need for medication surprised her. Hayes doctor told her to expect to take the nerve pain medication for the rest of her life.

That prospect didnt sit well with Hayes, who began searching for another remedy. She found one  a practice that has also helped ease her lifelong battle with anxiety.

Now Hayes wants to share it with other people. The student has become the guide.

In her search for alternative treatments, Hayes came across the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, which translates to forest bathing. Also often called forest therapy, Hayes said the simplest definition is using your senses to immerse yourself in nature.

Hayes, who grew up staying outside from morning until dark, decided to try the practice. Working with her doctor, she began to decrease her pain medication dose. Within two months, she was free of the medicine.

She also is becoming increasingly free of anxiety. Before adopting a forest therapy practice, Hayes said, the knowledge of a work presentation at the end of the week would ruin the entire week for her. At times, she would cry from the stress and get sick to her stomach.

She credits forest therapy with helping her become mindful and slow down.

Despite losing her arm, Hayes said, I feel more whole now.

Hayes was frustrated, however, that this area wasnt home to any certified forest therapists. She remedied that situation. Theres one now.

Hayes decided, If I couldnt find the guide, Id be the guide.

She discovered the Association of Nature & Forest Therapy (ANFT) and registered for training. She traveled to Ohio for intensive studies and then continued her work at home. In March 2016, she earned her certification.

Major surgery got me there. We get so busy and live every day just getting tasks done. ... I think it sometimes takes something to stop us in our tracks.

The world has opened up to Hayes in new ways.

Shes lived in Southwest Virginia all her life, but now, she said, its like I just discovered it.

Like so many others, when she was young, she thought this area was boring, and she wanted to move away. Today, Hayes said, it brings me so much joy.

She ticked off mountains and trails and learned that the region is a biodiversity hot spot. Southwest Virginia is one of the best places where people should be taking advantage of the ability to connect with nature, she said.

With her eyes opened to the natural world, Hayes joined the Holston Rivers Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalists. There, she met Tanya Hall, who serves as the Department of Conservation and Recreations adviser to the chapters board. Hall also is chief ranger for visitor experience at Hungry Mother State Park in Marion.

Hayes was interested in leading a forest therapy program, and Hall said shes always looking for new outdoor opportunities for our guests. I like to host diverse programming so we hit everyones interest and not just cater to one type of audience.

Hall observed the program went over very well, especially with our more experienced adults.

Hall participated in one of the weekly programs and said, I enjoyed it very much. I noticed so much more around me. Instead of worrying I needed to get from Point A to Point B, I was able to notice all the little things around me that many of us miss in our busy, noisy days. I was able to hunt for critters in the creek as I listened to the trickling of the water. I enjoyed a snake catching a very large fish (this might sound scary to some, but it was very fascinating to watch nature in one of its most intimate moments), and I enjoyed feeling the slight breeze in the shade of towering trees.

Last year, Carrie Sparks, a recognized regional expert in edible, herbal and medicinal plants, joined Hayes for one program and kept going back every week.

Sparks had read about forest bathing in multiple magazines and decided to give it a try. She loved the programs ability to get participants to use all their senses to be aware of what was around them. She too focused on easing her pace. Even when going to the park, Sparks said, she would hurry from the car to a picnic shelter or to the beach.

Forest therapy, she said, encourages participants to take in the world around them deliberately. It helps you be in touch with right now, not yesterday or tomorrow.

In one of last years sessions, Sparks said she watched a Baltimore oriole land in a tree. I would have never seen it if Id been walking along.

Sparks began taking different friends with her to each session to introduce them to forest bathing, which she defined as just bathing it in.

Shes looking forward to the program once again being offered at Hungry Mother  though, Sparks said, she realized that she could do forest therapy most anywhere, even in her backyard.

Hayes emphasized that it can be done anywhere someone can connect with nature, even if its sitting on a porch or simply studying a plant in a hospital.

Hayes was also quick to point out that, in forest therapy, the forest is the therapist. The guides just open the door.

The Bristol resident has also offered forest therapy programs in Russell County and for People Inc. She said the program can not only be good for those suffering with a physical, mental or emotional problem, but also for those who want to take preventative action. She said the program can be beneficial for those going through cancer treatment, PTSD, addiction and numerous other challenges  even stress and anxiety stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and the countrys unrest.

Forest therapy requires three components: being in nature, using your senses and slowness or stillness.

Hayes pointed to the ANFT website  https://www.natureandforesttherapy.org, which offers links to numerous studies finding benefits to forest therapy.

Those studies suggest forest therapy can ease stress, depression and anxiety and lower blood pressure while boosting focus, creativity, immune function and the activity of natural killer cells that help destroy certain tumor cells and viruses. Its one of the simplest things you can do for your health, Hayes said.

To maintain benefits, the ANFT recommends people practice forest therapy for about two hours a week, and that time can be done in small increments.

Due to the relaxation and de-stressing nature of the program, Hall said, Hungry Mother will be offering forest therapy on Thursday evenings (7 p.m.) at no charge. We want to try it at night when people are ready to settle down for the evening and relax right before bed, she said.

Forest therapy traditionally includes a tea ceremony featuring tea made of local plants, such as dandelion or spicebush, but, due to COVID-19, that wont be included at this time.

The program is open to people of all abilities. Hayes noted that one participant was confined to a wheelchair and was able to join in.
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Im proposing that gig economy companies be required to establish benefits funds which give workers cash that they can use for the benefits they want, like health insurance or paid time off. Independent workers in any state that passes this law could take money out for every hour of work they put in. All gig companies would be required to participate, so that workers can build up benefits even if they switch between apps.

Had this been the law in all 50 states, Uber would have contributed $655 million to benefits funds last year alone. Taking one example, we estimate that a driver in Colorado averaging over 35 hours per week would have accrued approximately $1,350 in benefits funds in 2019. Thats enough to cover two weeks of paid time off, or the median annual premium payment for subsidized health insurance available through an existing Uber partnership.

Why just give drivers money and let them decide what to do with it, rather than requiring companies to provide specific benefits to everyone? Once again, it comes down to what drivers want. When you ask many policymakers which benefit they think is most important to drivers, the answer is almost always health care. Yet when we ask drivers which benefits they most want, health care doesnt crack the top five. Thats most likely because most drivers already have some form of health insurance, whether through another job, the Affordable Care Act or a family member.

Driving passengers or delivering food on a bike comes with real risks. States should require all gig companies to provide medical and disability coverage for injuries incurred on the job, creating a baseline safety net that we cannot give to drivers today without risking their independent status under the law. We also need new laws that prevent companies from denying independent workers opportunities based on their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or any other protected characteristic. Shockingly, that fundamental measure of equality is not fully enshrined into law for all American workers today.

There are changes we should make on our own. Uber will start, and I hope others will follow. To begin with, we have to be more transparent about what drivers make and the realities of the work. Thats why weve launched a new earnings estimator, using historical data to give drivers a clearer view of what they can expect to earn in their area, before they even sign up.

We also need to do a better job acting on driver concerns. That starts with holding ourselves accountable: We commit to surveying every single active driver in the country about whats working and whats not and to publicly releasing the results, no matter what they say. With the upcoming election, we commit to helping every driver register to vote, so that independent workers have a stronger voice in our democracy.

For many people, nothing short of us reclassifying all drivers as employees will be enough. That is the thrust of several lawsuits against Uber in the wake of a new California law, known as Assembly Bill 5. (Were backing a November ballot initiative in California that would keep drivers as independent contractors, while requiring us to provide new benefits.)
PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The standing ovation and shouts of approval that greeted the conclusion of Sunday night's opening performance of the play "Harry Clarke" were in part for Mark H. Dold's star turn in the one-man show that finally launched Barrington Stage Company's summer season, more than 10 weeks after it was supposed to have begun.

Dold's performance, as an insecure Midwesterner who reinvents himself as an assured, alluring Brit in Manhattan, deserved the claps and hollers of acclaim. But a similar, albeit briefer reaction also welcomed BSC's founder and artistic director, Julianne Boyd, simply for stepping on the stage before the performance started. Starved for live theater in a world where it hasn't been permitted since mid-March, the audience was grateful to be seated before a stage again. They were also eager for the lights to go down and to be entertained and challenged by what precedent promised would be supremely accomplished acting from BSC veteran Dold and expert production direction by Boyd. They got both.

And, as audiences who have been paying attention knew, they were about to be part of only the second production in the entire nation to be given approval by Actors' Equity Association since the pandemic shutdown irrevocably altered 2020 theater, canceling much of it. The other production, as it happens, is Berkshire Theatre Group's "Godspell," which opened just two days earlier and just a few blocks away, also under a tent in a parking lot in downtown Pittsfield.

While most arts institutions in the Berkshires and greater Capital Region called off their entire summer seasons, Boyd and her Barrington Stage staff are to be commended for their commitment to finding a way to safely perform and their perseverance in the face of changing mandates and delayed permissions. As the COVID-19 pandemic evolved and its duration became more evident, the company first modified and postponed its season, then announced physical changes to its Boyd-Quinson Mainstage to allow for social distancing, then, with barely two weeks' notice, moved "Harry Clarke" from the Mainstage to a parking lot after governmental approval for indoor performances didn't materialize as expected.

The tent is commodious, the chairs well-spaced, the ushers adamant about masks for everyone at all times and the greeters deft with their deployment of touchless thermometers for temperature readings. (I got 97.5 degrees.) Street sounds can occasionally be intrusive, though Dold handled it with aplomb, sometimes pausing and glaring at wailing emergency vehicles or belching motorcycles as they passed, or one point ad-libbing about the noise of city life.

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It isn't especially distracting, and it often fits in with the play, much of which is set in New York City. Performed on a simple set with an Adirondack chair and a backdrop changed by lighting, the story follows a man who, at age 8 in Indiana, starts his transformation from mild-mannered but big-dreaming Philip Brugglestein into British-accented Harry Clarke. Tyrannized by a verbally demeaning and physically abusive father, undefended by a mother who feels equally trapped, Philip makes his escape after both parents die while he is in his teens.

Sustained in New York at least initially by proceeds from their modest estate and the sale of the family home, Philip becomes Harry Clarke, the persona he's been developing since childhood. Glib, confident and equally charming to women and men, Harry ingratiates himself with many. Central among them is the wealthy Schmidt family, with whom his flexible personality and fluid sexuality allow him to appeal to family members according to their individual needs.

While Dold embodies and delineates the characters brilliantly, allowing for a performance as free and expansive as any I've yet seen him give, this story of a chameleonic loner as social magnet, though different in its specifics, nonetheless feels familiar. As in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" or "Six Degrees of Separation," an individual with a soul hollowed by a traumatic past uses self-invention for escape and self-fulfillment. But you can never find yourself if you're being always being someone else.
During a meeting with the committee formed to combat the spread of the coronavirus in the country, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani talked about the problems Iranians will continue to face due to the pandemic.

We can neither cut out all activity nor can we behave as we did in the past, Rouhani said. Since the beginning of the pandemic, he said, Iranians were warned that they must change their social lives. But not everyone paid heed to this advice, and Iran is suffering for it now. In comparison, some European countries have fined people for having dinner parties, Rouhani added. He urged Iranians not to travel. If they must travel, Rouhani urged them to cut their trips short and follow all health guidelines. He also urged Iranians to not have weddings or other celebrations, even though the country is moving ahead with the Muharram religious holiday ceremonies.

Without offering specific evidence of the data, Rouhani said daily deaths dropped to below triple digits when 88% of Iranians were following health guidelines. But that led to the perception that the virus was over, and adherence to health guidelines then dropped to below 17%. Now, the country is once again experiencing daily deaths in the triple digits.

Rouhani also said it would have been better from the outset of the virus to explain to people that this would be a long-term issue. Maybe in the first days we should have told people not to consider this in a manner of weeks; the criteria are rather in months and years, not days or weeks, he added. Rouhani said Iran would be dealing with this virus at least for another six months to even a year, warning that this crisis will remain until there is a vaccine and, even after a vaccine is discovered, there remains the issue of producing and distributing it.

In the last 24 hours, there have been 189 deaths due to the coronavirus in Iran. For six days in a row, Irans daily deaths have been below 200. Twenty-five of Irans 31 provinces are currently under a warning or red zone status, meaning the provinces have to take extra precautionary measures to stop the spread of the virus. Health Ministry Spokesperson Sima Sadat Lari also said statistics from other individuals who interview with Iranian television are not to be taken seriously if those individuals do not work with the Health Ministry or the headquarters for combatting the virus. She said the Health Ministry is not a political organization, and they have been reporting accurate numbers since before the parliamentary elections.

Irans medical workers have been hit particularly hard. In Mashhad University, four of the eight infectious disease specialists have been infected with the virus. According to medical institutions that represent medical workers, 140 medical workers have died from the virus across the country since the outbreak.
evolutionQ was awarded a Space Technology Development Program (STDP) contribution by the CSA to develop solutions to advance satellite-based secure quantum communication services and tools to address challenges related to satellite-based Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) networks.

Cryptography underpins the secure communications required for the digital, network-based social and financial interactions that are at the heart of modern society and the economy, including banking, the sharing of confidential healthcare data, and the exchange of sensitive information between governmental institutions. However, rapid advancements in quantum computing threaten current encryption methods because quantum computers, when built, will be able to break commonly used cybersecurity systems. It is important to develop tools, like QKD, that will be resistant to such quantum threats.

QKD technologies leverage the fundamental laws of quantum physics to distribute confidential cryptographic keys between two users, while detecting the attempts of malicious third-parties to intercept such keys. Unfortunately, typical terrestrial methods to establish such direct secure connection between locations are limited to relatively short distances, of the order of at most 200 km. This is clearly a challenge for a country as vast as Canada. Satellite-based QKD will enable secure, reliable, and economical key-sharing across Canada.

A powerful quantum computer has the power to decimate todays cryptography. As key quantum computing milestones are achieved, the need for quantum-safe solutions intensifies, said Dr. Michele Mosca, President and CEO of evolutionQ. Robust cryptography is absolutely necessary for our safety and the proper functioning of our digital economy. We must adopt quantum-safe solutions to secure and safeguard our critical infrastructures, financial services and intellectual property."

Quantum Key Distribution is an important tool in addressing the quantum threat. QKD uses the fundamental laws of physics to protect information shared between two parties. CTO of evolutionQ, Dr. Norbert Lutkenhaus remarked. Satellite-based QKD is essential for a vast country like Canada and will help secure communications from coast to coast. evolutionQ is poised to utilize its expertise and develop solutions to help establish satellite QKD, and to integrate it with existing terrestrial solutions.

evolutionQ will develop tools to address the challenges unique to satellite-based QKD. This will be accomplished by modelling the role and performance of QKD satellites, and by designing optimization algorithms to integrate QKD satellites with terrestrial networks. The software solutions will be designed to be integrated with existing and planned satellite hardware. The project is expected to last 24 months.

The initiative will also help Canada safeguard sovereignty in the quantum age and strengthen Canadian leadership in the space and quantum sectors. The initiative aligns with the new Space Strategy for Canada, the safety and security principle in Canadas Digital Charter and the Government of Canadas Innovations and Skills Plan.

This project is undertaken with the financial support of the Canadian Space Agency.

About evolutionQ:

evolutionQ is a leading quantum-safe cybersecurity company led by world-renowned quantum computing experts Dr. Michele Mosca and Dr. Norbert Lutkenhaus. evolutionQ delivers quantum-risk management strategy and advisory services along with robust cybersecurity products designed to be safe against quantum computers.
A high-level reflection webinar on new governance models in the downstream sector of Nigerias oil and gas industry is scheduled to hold on Wednesday, August 12, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., featuring the velvet rank of the nations economic and energy policy experts.

The panel of discussants is led by Doyin Salami, Chairman of Nigerias Economic Advisory Council and former member of the Central Bank of Nigerias Monetary Policy Committee. He will be joined by Wilson Opuwei, chief executive of Dateline Energy Services Limited, a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) and the Association of Private Refinery Owners of Nigeria (APRON).

Oluwatoyin Aina, Group Head, Energy and International Oil Trading at First Bank of Nigeria Limited is billed to give an overview and review the findings and recommendations of a new research report on promoting transparency and new governance models in Nigerias downstream oil sector.

Kole Shettima, the Africa Regional Director of MacArthur Foundation will give the keynote address while Tobi Oluwatola, a public policy expert and World Bank Consultant, will moderate the event. The event is sponsored by the PTCIJ  a journalism innovation and development initiative in West Africa with headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria.
Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci ended up criticizing his former boss for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the country's economy during an interview on Fox News on Sunday night.

Speaking with Fox News' Steve Hilton, 'The Mooch' went on to blast President Donald Trump over every aspect of his performance over the last three-and-a-half years.

'Number one, the economy is upside down. You had 13% unemployment for the African American community. Number two, he's politicized the science around the pandemic....and the last thing in the most important thing for me, about the Republican Party, we are shrinking, and so in order to expand the tent, we have to reframe and reengineer the Republican Party,' said Scaramucci, who recently declared his support for Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

Anthony 'The Mooch' Scaramucci appears on Fox News on Sunday night

The interview caught the attention of the president who dismissed Scaramucci as someone who was a 'loser'

The interview caught the attention of the president who dismissed Scaramucci as someone who was a 'loser'.

'Scaramucci who just made a fool of himself as he got taken apart by Steve Hilton, only lasted 11 days in his favorite of all time Administration, before being fired for, again, making a fool of himself. Anthony is a loser who begged to come back. I said No Thanks,' the president tweeted.

Scaramucci was unable to resist the temptation to fight back and replied to the president on Twitter.

'The Loser is you: 162,000 dead, 40 million American jobs lost on your watch. We are tired of all of the losing. We wanted you to succeed but you are an abject failure. Thankfully it will be over on 11/3. America will heal and rebuild,' he wrote.

Scaramucci was unable to resist the temptation to respond to the president on Twitter

Since leaving the White House, Scaramucci has become one of Trump's fiercest critics.

During Sunday night's interview, Scaramucci attacked Trump for 'the way he treats people,' claiming 'he bullies suburban housewives on his Twitter feed.'

'He is a divider. He divides people. He incenses people. He is creating hate in our democracy,' Scaramucci stated.

The interview with Scaramucci took place on Steve Hilton's Fox News show on Sunday night

'I can't speak for the other never Trumper Republicans but I'm playing the long game. I'm looking at the future, I'm looking at my millennial children and I'm looking about how we are going to re-knit the party so we can make that an all-inclusive party and the principles of that party.

'What we are doing right now, we've destroyed the economy, we are dividing the people, we are racially charging, that's not going to work,' he said.

Scaramucci is currently working with former officials from the Bush and Trump administrations to launch a super PAC whose aim is to encourage disaffected Republican voters to support former Vice President Biden in November's election.

It didn't take long before Twitter users decided to have a go at the president, mocking him for the choices he had made in his cabinet along with other high-profile, administrative positions

It didn't take long before Twitter users decided to have a go at the president, mocking him for the choices he had made in his cabinet along with other high-profile, administrative positions.

'ONLY THE BEST" Trump hires "only the best" until they are the worst! And the time between being the best and worst varies depending on how much the individuals fawn over America's greatest narcissist. In terms of HR and hiring practices, Trump gets a massive FAILING grade.' wrote one user.

'The Mooch is already having the last laugh on you. You just dont know it yet...' added another.

'I dont know if anyone has informed you or not but were dealing with a national crisis. A rising pandemic. Thousands of deaths everyday. More than 5 million Americans infected. Per-capita, testing is very low & people are waiting as long as two or more weeks to get test results.'
10:59

Bharatiya Janata Party has said that Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should question Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut and Maharashtra Minister Aaditya Thackeray in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput death case and suggested that their narco tests should be conducted.





BJP official spokesperson Nikhil Anand alleged that the proof and evidence related to the case are being destroyed and tampered with.





"An absurd article was written in Saamna by Shiv Sena in which Rajput's fans, his family, Bihar Police and Bihar Government were insulted. It is clear that Shiv Sena leaders are afraid of CBI investigation and they are nervous about it. CBI should question Sanjay Raut and Aaditya Thackeray. Their narco-analysis test should be conducted," Anand said.





"Top leaders of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress are under question. Why only Aaditya should give clarification? Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra should also break their silence.





"It is unfortunate that the Maharashtra government is indulging in dirty politics. The proof is being destroyed and evidence is being tampered with. CBI should take cognizance all of this," he said.





On Sunday, Raut alleged that a conspiracy was being hatched against the Maharashtra government and said the Mumbai Police was trying its best to bring out the truth in the case.





Earlier, Maharashtra Police in an affidavit in the Supreme Court said that an investigation by Mumbai and Bihar Police into Sushant Singh Rajput's death case would have lead to a 'chaotic situation'.





As the Bihar Police did not have jurisdiction to investigate into the first information report or examine witnesses, the question of co-operation by the Mumbai Police into the simultaneous inquiry by the Bihar Police did not arise, the Maharashtra Police told the top court in its affidavit.





An FIR had been registered against Rhea Chakraborty at Rajiv Nagar police station in Patna under various sections, including abetment to suicide on the complaint of Rajput's father.





The CBI has registered a case against 6 accused including Rhea Chakraborty and others in connection with Rajput's death.





The investigating agency has collected documents related to the actor's death from Bihar Police.Sushant was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14. -- ANI
Alyssa Milano has shown her shocking amount of hair loss as a result of having COVID-19 after experiencing acute symptoms in April.

The 47-year-old actress took to Twitter on Sunday to share a video of herself brushing her locks after a shower which resulted in her pulling out several strands.

She began the video by saying: 'Hey everybody, I just wanted to show you the amount of hair that is coming out of my head as a result of COVID.

People who experienced long-term symptoms of COVID-19 say hair loss is a side effect of the virus, according to recent studies.

Demonstration: Alyssa Milano has shown her shocking amount of hair loss as a result of having COVID-19 after experiencing acute symptoms in April

Result: The 47-year-old actress took to Twitter on Sunday to share a video of herself brushing her locks after a shower which resulted in her pulling out several strands

'This is a detangler brush, my favorite detangler brush. As you can see in there is no hair in there right now.'

Hair loss among COVID-19 'long haulers' Multiple clinics and studies have reported a link between COVID-19 and hair loss among survivors. Experts say most COVID-19 patients are suffering telogen effluvium (TE), a temporary condition that involves hair shedding, caused by physical or emotional stress, high fever, illness or weight loss of over 20 pounds, according to WebMD. Dr. Sarah Hogan, a clinical instructor at UCLA says the link between hair loss and the virus makes sense as it often happens to patients three to five months after a stressful illness. Specialists at the Belgravia Centre in London say theyve noticed an uptick in TE cases in patients who battled coronavirus. Dr. Natalie Lambert from the Indiana University School of Medicine conducted a survey along with Survivor Corps among virus 'long haulers' and found over 400 patients out of 1,500 experienced hair loss. In all, the survey listed 98 symptoms, including lesser-known issues like weight gain, clogged ears, dry eyes and rash Advertisement

Milano began brushing through her brunette tresses while wearing a New York Giants robe as she kept pulling bunches of locks from her brush.

She concluded the video by lifting the entire bunch of long hairs and saying: 'One brushing, this is my hair loss from COVID-19. Wear a damn mask!'

The actress captioned the shocking video to her 3.7million followers writing: 'Thought Id show you what #Covid19 does to your hair. Please take this seriously. #WearADamnMask #LongHauler.'

Multiple clinics and studies have reported a link between COVID-19 and hair loss with survivors of the disease reporting their hair falling out in clumps.

Experts say most COVID-19 patients are suffering telogen effluvium (TE), a temporary condition that involves hair shedding, caused by physical or emotional stress, high fever, illness or weight loss of over 20 pounds, according to WebMD.

Dr. Natalie Lambert from the Indiana University School of Medicine conducted a survey along with Survivor Corps to study virus survivors who experienced long-term symptoms and found over 400 patients out of 1,500 experienced hair loss, according to CBS News.

Milano recently revealed that she had tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies after testing negative three times after experiencing symptoms in April and said she is considered a 'long hauler' by physicians.

On Saturday she shared a selfie wearing a rainbow while sitting in a hospital bed.

She captioned the image: 'I was acutely sick w/ Covid19 in April. I still have many symptoms. I am what they call a long hauler. Last night, I had real heaviness in my chest.

Showing off: She began the video by saying: 'Hey everybody, I just wanted to show you the amount of hair that is coming out of my head as a result of COVID'

Oh no: She showed off all the strands of lost hair in her hands

'I went to the ER just to make sure it wasnt a blood clot. Thankfully, it wasnt. This virus sucks. Please take it seriously.'

One fan asked where she believes that she had contracted the virus and Milano responded: 'Traveling between Portland, NY and LA. [sad face emoji]'

Days earlier Milano revealed that she has tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies in lengthy Instagram post on Wednesday.

She opened up about her weeks-long battle with the coronavirus and the lingering symptoms she was left with after struggling to get a positive diagnosis.

'Long hauler': On Saturday she shared a selfie wearing a rainbow while sitting in a hospital bed

Milano said she was tested twice for the virus and once for antibodies and received negative results but pushed for a fourth test that finally revealed she was positive.

'This was me on April 2nd after being sick for 2 weeks,' she began in an Instagram caption. 'I had never been this kind of sick. Everything hurt. Loss of smell.'

'It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. I couldnt breathe. I couldnt keep food in me. I lost 9 pounds in 2 weeks. I was confused. Low grade fever. And the headaches were horrible,' she said detailing her symptoms.

The Charmed star added: 'I basically had every Covid symptom.'

In the image posted, Milano is seen at the height of her illness sitting in bed with her reading glasses on, wearing a medical breathing mask.

The actress said she was tested twice for COVID-19 in March and did a 'finger prick test' for antibodies once she was feeling better and all three came back negative.

Revelation: One fan asked where she believes that she had contracted the virus and Milano responded: 'Traveling between Portland, NY and LA. [sad face emoji]'

Telling her story: Days earlier Milano revealed that she has tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies after suffering from severe symptoms but getting negative results three times in lengthy Instagram post on Wednesday

Confusion: The actress said she was tested twice for COVID-19 in March and did a 'finger prick test' for antibodies once she was feeling better and all three came back negative

Despite the negative tests results, Alyssa explained that she had brutal lingering symptoms like 'vertigo, stomach abnormalities, irregular periods, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, zero short term memory, and general malaise.'

The Who's the Boss star decided to listen to her body and seek out some additional blood work.

'I am POSITIVE for covid antibodies. I had Covid19,' Alyssa told her followers. 'I just want you to be aware that our testing system is flawed and we dont know the real numbers.'

COVID-19: Despite the negative tests results, Alyssa explained that she had brutal lingering symptoms like 'vertigo, stomach abnormalities, irregular periods, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, zero short term memory, and general malaise' so she went back to get blood drawn and got a positive result

The podcaster added gravely: 'I also want you to know, this illness is not a hoax. I thought I was dying. It felt like I was dying.'

Along with her sick bed selfie, the star shared a screen grab of her positive antibody result on social media.

Milano said she is going to donate her plasma for antibody research with the hopes that it could save lives.

'Please take care of yourselves. Please wash your hands and wear a mask and social distance,' she implored. 'I dont want anyone to feel the way I felt. Be well. I love you all (well, maybe not the trolls. Just the kind people.)'

Alyssa joins other celebrities like Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston who have since recovered from the fatal virus and have donated their blood plasma to COVID-19 research.
Rajya Sabha member Shamsher Singh Dullo on Monday condemned the Punjab government's move of withdrawing MP Partap Singh Bajwa's police security cover and alleged that in this state, it is provided on the basis of "sycophancy".

The on August 8 had decided to withdraw the state police security given to Bajwa, also a member of the and Rajya Sabha, citing he virtually faced no threat.

"There is no criterion for providing security in Punjab. Security in Punjab is not provided on the basis of degree of threat but on the basis of sycophancy. Policy of pick and choose is being adopted for providing security cover," Dullo, who is a former Punjab chief, said.

He said if anything happened to him or Bajwa, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta would be responsible.

"We are the whistleblowers against mafias, including sand mafia, liquor mafia and land mafia, and some of them are enjoying political patronage, alleged Dullo.

The Punjab Congress had sought the expulsion of Bajwa and Dullo for "anti-party and anti-government activities".

Bajwa and Dullo had targeted their party-led government over the spurious liquor tragedy that claimed 121 lives, and petitioned Punjab Governor V P Singh Badnore for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investiagtion as well as the Enforcement Directorate into the alleged "illegal" liquor trade.

(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.)
Driven by the demand for remote and virtual work, 2020 has exposed us to the necessity of video conferencing be it at any corner of the world. An individual today, is not just dependent on the phone he/she uses but feels the importance to be productive and get acquainted to the new aged technology. Standing tall to the consumers demands and requirements, A Pune based B2B Technology and scalable demand generation company, VLMS - Verified Leads & Marketing Services Global successfully launched its homegrown video conferencing solution called 'SpeaQin' (Spea:king), on 5th August, 2020 a Made in India video conferencing solution.

SpeaQin allows seamless communication in scheduling a remote video conference between two parties. It highly focuses on the simplicity and security of the end users as no meeting data is stored on the servers. Through SpeaQin, an individual, groups and organizations can collaborate remotely with ease on multiple platforms. The solution consists of industry leading features like, seamless video meetings for up to 100 participants at a time, easy screen sharing, unmatched video-bandwidth ratio, connection from any device, among others. SpeaQin dashboard gives users control over their meetings where they can access meeting reports, invite participants, create events and set unique meeting preferences among other features.

SpeaQin offers a 3-level plan for its users like, Basic, Advanced and Custom. SpeaQin is currently offering a free 1-month trial for users which will incorporate features like

Unlimited usage for multiple participants.

Access to the SpeaQin Dashboard

No meeting time limit

Join by phone dial in

HD video and voice Quality

Supports low bandwidth usage

Screen Share

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption with AES 256 bits encryption

Along with its unique features and facilities, SpeaQin is also a part of a bigger platform that encompasses a myriad range of consultancy services. This platform is rightly called as XperTalk which connects individuals and institutions to service providers, both at consultants, freelance and organizational levels. This adds on to the advantage for innumerable experts to provide their services and help grow their business and reach. To add on, XperTalk also intends to connect to smaller regional communities and single work seeking professionals to provide their services.

Commenting on the launch Mr. Nikhil Devar, Co-Founder and COO says, With video conferencing becoming the new normal, data security has become paramount and we need India based solutions to cater to this growing need. Video conferencing has moved beyond office workplaces to educational institutions, hospitals, tourism, shopping, etc, and to industries that may not have tapped into this medium of organised business before. The opportunities are immense and so is the responsibility of keeping everyone's data safe. We are here to offer a "Made in India" affordable solution that not only caters to the basic needs of providing video conferencing but also a customized dashboard that allows individuals and organizations to track past and future conferences, access reports, data etc. Our aim is to offer the best online conferencing facility which is also light on the pocket. It is time we moved away from big data collectors to support home-grown local solutions whose objective is to provide you the best service while also maintaining your privacy online.

Mr. Amaan Kazi, Co-Founder and CMO says, We always do a market viability and assessment before introducing a new product or service in the market. According to our analysis by our consulting firm Verified Market Research, the number of one on one meetings would reduce to less than half in the upcoming year due to the advent of newer video conferencing technology also considering the effects of the ongoing COVID- 19 pandemic. We believe, we are in the right time and right geography to scale our services. Hence, we are glad to introduce SpeaQin to our Indian and global audiences which will not only act as a platform for scheduling remote communications but also will focus on the safety and precautions of our end users. SpeaQin is our phase 1 roll out of our Online consulting Marketplace which leverages the power of automation to allow you to connect with Subject Matter experts.

Mr. Pratiek Phand, Co-Founder and CSO says, The need for video communication has increased tremendously be it at any corner of the world or at any organisational level. While various providers look to offer easy video conferencing solutions, user data security and privacy remain key concerns. With the launch of SpeaQin, we have introduced our consumers to various tools and facilities that drive simplicity and practicality of a video communication solution. We are constantly upgrading our services in order to drive up the productivity and usefulness of the platform whilst maintaining high levels of data privacy.

SpeaQin envisions to become India's very own video conferencing unicorn.
Prices of buckwheat may go up in Ukraine this year  expert

16:52, 10.08.20 2719

There are not so many exporters of this crop in the world.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 06:44:00|Editor: huaxia

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BUENOS AIRES, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Argentina's government has not ruled out tightening lockdown restrictions in force since March 20 if a rise in novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infections threatens to overwhelm hospitals, a top official said on Monday.

Argentina's Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers Santiago Cafiero said officials were waiting to see what the statistics show before making a decision.

"We have to finish collecting the data from today, tomorrow and Wednesday to see where we stand. The pandemic has the world on its knees, it is not an Argentine invention," he said in an interview with a local radio station in Buenos Aires.

Social distancing and mandatory self-isolation measures due to end on Aug. 16 could be extended, he indicated, adding President Alberto Fernandez was expected to make an announcement on Friday.

"We are going to evaluate not only the number of cases, but also the occupation of (intensive) care units, how stressed the healthcare system is, how we see the work of all the medical or health teams, a good general overview, and based on all of these variables, we will make a single diagnosis," said Cafiero.

Some 87 percent of Argentina's productive activities have resumed around the country, but cases of COVID-19 continue to rise, he said.

"If we have to turn back (to broader measures) or we have to be stricter, we will. We have to be clear, we are going to continue to care for the lives of Argentines," Cafiero stressed.

Argentina registered its first case of COVID-19 on March 3, and has since reported 246,499 cases of infection and 4,634 deaths. Enditem
With many Florida school districts set to open this week and thousands more infected with COVID-19 every day across the state, teachers from across Florida marched on Republican Governor Ron DeSantis mansion Saturday to protest his statewide mandate for fully in-person instruction. It was one of dozens, possibly hundreds, of protests against the reopening of schools held across the US over the past month.

On Saturday, Florida hit the ghastly total of 526,577 COVID-19 cases and 8,109 deaths. Test positivity rates stand at 13.3 percent, indicating a chronic lack of testing and therefore a substantially greater prevalence of infection than the official numbers. For three weeks in July, the number of daily new cases averaged more than 10,500, and Florida is now second only to California in total COVID-19 cases.

Weve called upon the mayor and local officials to return us to Phase 1 due to the increase in COVID-19 deaths, said teacher Alex Ingram, marching at the governors mansion, according to Florida Today. We have called upon the school board to close schools. Weve called on the health department to close schools. Now were calling on the governor to close schools.

DeSantis, a loyal acolyte of the Trump administration, claimed throughout the summer that if school boards wanted to close districts, they needed to be authorized by their local health department. Then he issued a directive to health directors to refuse to close schools. As a result, USA Today noted, In county after county the health directors refrain to school leaders was the same: Their role was to provide information, not recommendations.

When we voted to reopen schools, Ill be honest and tell you I did it because we are under an executive order to do so, Marc Dodd, a school board member in Lake County, Florida, said last week. Do I think theyre safe? Absolutely not.

Meanwhile, it was announced on Sunday that 97,000 children nationally have tested positive for coronavirus from July 1630, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. With the US now posting over five million total cases since the start of the pandemic, more than 338,000 have been children. These numbers demonstrate the criminal recklessness of a return to school being justified with the lie that children are either less susceptible or cannot transmit the deadly virus.

Nevertheless, across the US, both Democratic and Republican state officials are presiding over the herding of young people into schools, sanctioning the suffering and deaths of children, teachers, staff and families in the name of the economy. By this they mean getting parents back on the job producing profit.

The bipartisan character of the campaign to reopen schools was on full display Friday, when New Yorks Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo declared, Good news, all schools can reopen. His statement paves the way for the reopening of all schools across New York, including the largest school district in the US, which will set a precedent for other states and districts to follow.

For its part, the 150,000-member Florida Education Association (FEA) recently did a survey of 44,000 educators and 5,000 parents, showing that 76 percent did not feel their school could be reopened safely. Refusing to call for statewide strike action, however, the FEA opted instead to file a lawsuit July 20 against the statewide reopening. Predictably, the suit has been sandbagged by authorities. On Thursday, the venue for the trial was relocated, and other procedural barriers are anticipated. Meanwhile, students by the thousands are being forced back into the classroom.

Speaking to the World Socialist Web Site, a Florida music teacher with over 25 years of experience denounced the mandate for a return to school. She agreed that it was entirely motivated by the broader campaign for a return to work. This decision is 100 percent economically driven. We teachers are revered, given little muffins and cards on Teacher Appreciate Days. But the bottom line is that we are shouldering the responsibility for getting the economy going. Thats whats being placed at our feet.

She added, It is fundamentally irresponsible. It is all about childcare. Meanwhile, teachers are now spending their own money on personal protective equipment and building little plexiglass devices to protect themselves and their students.

Florida educator Matt Theobold displays the 33 plexiglass shield he purchased and assembled for coworkers to help them return to the classroom [Credit: Facebook Matt Theobold]

In our county, we had 350 people march on the local health department. We have a large contingency of parents behind us. We call them a momfia. We have had the highest rate of COVID in the state and the highest pediatric rate.

I am slated to return to the classroom on Tuesday. Since my county provides the option to go virtual, purchasing webcams for parents, I will have a camera on me all day. I am now responsible for providing the same quality of education, both live and virtual at the same time. I have no idea how that will work out.

The music teacher shared a letter she had recently written to protest the resumption of face-to-face instruction. Addressing school board members, she said, I am writing this letter with the hope of getting you to listenauthentically LISTEN to my concerns, which by no coincidence, are shared by hundreds of colleagues, community members, parents, and families.

We do what we do with intention, integrity, and at a grueling paceoften at personal sacrifice mentally, emotionally, physically, and financially. Regardless of the workload (which only increases each year), we persist. We spend our own personal time and money taking course after course, training after trainingall to better serve our students. Each year we are presented with new mandates and expectations and each year we are grossly underfunded and micromanaged almost to the point of insanity.

She emphasized, We cannot provide world class rigorous, standards-based, differentiated and developmentally appropriate instruction within the practical and physical challenges of a raging and novel disease that has ravaged the entire planet and killed hundreds of thousands of human beings. Its not in our rear view mirror. We do NOT have it under control whatsoever. How many local health officials have you ignored? IT IS IN OUR COMMUNITY. IT HAS INFECTED OUR NEIGHBORS.

Referring to the inevitable proliferation of the virus as a game of Russian Roulette with the lives of children, she stated, We want to work. We want to earn every penny of our paycheck. We are not in a position to not work. We have car payments and mortgages and medical bills. We are only asking that you look at the data READILY AVAILABLE TO YOU and make a decision that protects the lives of students, staff and families. This is fixable. Do you have the fortitude to do what is right? Because if you dont, the consequences will not be fixable. Not now. Not ever.

These sentiments are echoed across the US, as workers are horrified at the dangers of a return to work, but even less inclined to allow their children to be an experiment, as recently proposed by Dr. Anthony Fauci. The most recent polling numbers by NPR/Ipsos shows that 82 percent of K-12 teachers nationally are concerned about returning to in-person teaching this fall, with two-thirds preferring remote instruction.

Teachers are not speaking out not just for themselves, but for their students and communities. We urge all opponents of the homicidal demands of the Democrats, Republicans, unions and big businesses to the profit-driven return to work and school to contact us today and sign up for the WSWS Educators Newsletter.
New Delhi, Aug 10 : A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Centre and the Telangana government to pass an Executive Order or Resolution, giving a commitment for rebuilding religious places within the Telangana Secretariat complex building.

The plea filed by advocate Khaja Aijazuddin said that the Secretariat complex is spread across 25 acres and housed the Office of the Chief Minister of Telangana, Council of Ministers and bureaucrats. "It is respectfully submitted that within the Secretariat complex existed a temple namely Nalla Pochamma temple which is situated in one of the Blocks i.e. A Block, and two mosques namely Masjid Dafaatir-e-Muatamadi located adjacent to the 'C' Block and Masjid-e-Hashmi located near the 'D' Block", said the plea. The petitioner argued that the temple and the two mosques were within the Secretariat building complex, Hyderabad and the same is under no dispute so far as the existence of the religious places is concerned.

The petitioner said that the Telangana government decided to demolish the Secretariat building complex and entire structures existing therein, which resulted in the filing of PILs in the Telangana High Court. On June 29, the High Court dismissed all the PILs paving the way for the demolition of the Secretariat complex building.

"The Chief Minister of Telangana has just merely apologized for the demolition of the religious structures but never committed to rebuild the religious places which were demolished. It is a settled Principle of Law, once the religious structure existed, it remains forever as the same, is enshrined under Article 26 of the Constitution of India", said the plea.

The petitioner contended that the concerned authorities who are statutorily bound to supervise the functioning and protection of the shrines have failed to act and remained silent. The petitioner argued that the top court has been approached because the demolition of the religious places is in utter violation of the rule of law.
SearchInform Risk Monitor Solution has been Available in the region, Now the Company Offers Risk Monitor in the Cloud to the Local Clients.

ANKARA, Turkey, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SearchInform finds a new way through the current obstacles many organizations have to face while dealing with the pressure the COVID-19 pandemic keeps exerting on their workflow. As business processes are still partially relocated outside the office, remote work mode might become permanent for a number of employees. Not every company appeared to be ready to rebuild established practices so fast ensuring business continuity and information security.

SearchInform announces Risk Monitor solution in the cloud and offers companies to deploy the complete toolset protecting communication and data transfer channels, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements including SAMA, GDPR, KVKK, PCI DSS, HIPAA and controlling employee performance with no need to purchase a server, make a one-time payment for the software and hire staff to integrate it. The company will place all the components in the cloud chosen by the client and process and store data on the provider's side or install the solution on its own servers and guarantee safe work with sensitive corporate information.

"SearchInform Risk Monitor cloud deployment model allows you to ensure the security of remote connection and data usage fast and easy. The monitoring solution in the cloud will keep the workflow uninterrupted thanks to the quick launch and cost-effective approach," said Sergey Ozhegov, CEO of SearchInform.

SearchInform risk management software is suitable for public and private sectors, including financial services, insurance, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, hospitality, etc.

ABOUT SEARCHINFORM

SearchInform has a decade of experience in combatting contemporary cybersecurity threats, protecting over 2 million PCs across 3,000 organizations.

The company's product line includes DLP, Risk Monitor, ProfileCenter, FileAuditor, Database Monitor, SIEM, TimeInformer.

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Math teacher Antoinette Blaustein worries about heading back to her classroom at Voorhees High School in less than a month amid a pandemic.

And when she returns, school officials wont be providing her with a mask to help stop the spread of coronavirus. Its up to her to buy her own face coverings, according to North Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional High School Districts re-opening plan.
Seema Davids Scarborough soup kitchen has stayed open every day since Toronto was locked down under COVID-19 rules in March to feed the communitys most isolated and vulnerable.

It couldnt close, said the founder of the charity 5n2Kitchens, because the demand from hungry people is too great. And its a demand thats increasing, she said.

Through COVID, its a miracle we stayed open, said David, recalling her mid-March scramble to switch from a buffet-style serving style in large rooms to now, taking on-line orders to produce individual meals for contactless doorstep deliveries  all with volunteer crews.

It was an enormous logistical task when masks and physical distancing were added to the mix, amid the urgency of delivering food to hungry people daily.

People have to understand there is a lot of hunger around them, she said.

Each week, more than 1,500 hand-packed, freshly cooked meals and more than 400 bags of groceries are assembled and delivered by Davids volunteers to seniors, adults, frontline workers and families with young children across Scarborough. Masked drivers connect at curbside or at the main floor of apartment buildings to drop off tenants food.

David fears the hungry may be forgotten as the city reopens. Thats part of the reason she is now campaigning for monthly donors while expanding the charitys programs with a focus on seniors. (One new program is the free food pantry, like a food bank, where locals make appointments to pick up perishable and non-perishable items in a newly-expanded storefront).

Now in its eighth year of operation, until now largely sustained by one-time private donations and in-kind support from organizations like Second Harvest, David said the kitchen  now simply known as 5n2  urgently requires ongoing financial support to survive.

The hungers not going to go away, David said, taking a short break outside of her kitchen in an industrial park near Markham and Ellesmere Roads.

The isolation (of some people) is not going to go away. Whatever (vulnerabilities) COVID-19 has created and brought to light, its not going to go away.

David has some regular donors whom she estimates generate about $3,000 a month, but that barely covers her basic overhead. David says 5n2s services are worth well over $600,000 annually when all services and overheads are calculated. No one, except the head chef, is paid.

The city of Toronto has recognized 5n2s work, with Councillor Paul Ainslie (Scarborough-Guildwood) helping David secure support based on her audited financial statements.

This summer, the city approved $99,600 in funding for food and operating costs to cook, prepare and package meals and grocery bags for delivery from the citys emergency COVID-19 relief program.

The councillor is a huge supporter of 5n2Kitchens and Seema has done some fantastic work in the community, Antonette DiNovo said, Ainslies chief of staff, said in an email.

We have continued to work with Seema through the pandemic, calling her weekly to inquire on her needs and have been successful in sending her volunteers as well as the city recently approving funding.

The 5n2 volunteer drivers cover an area that very roughly is bounded by Port Union Road, north to Finch Avenue East, south to the Danforth and west to the Don Valley Parkway.

To operate at the volume it does, 5n2 relies on donated food items from grocery stores, markets and bakeries. This includes fresh produce, meats, starches, canned goods, breads, sweets and beverages. Some donations are often so plentiful, she shares her extras with other charitable organizations. Now, some of those extras are being directed to the free food pantry.

David said she will never refuse one-time donations but we need the consistent $100 monthly donors to keep the kitchen afloat. She said the donations will strengthen the current programs and create opportunities for sustained employment.

In order to generate a consistent revenue stream, 5n2 recently launched a new subsidized meal program, Meals4U. It targets seniors and others who are in need of fresh, nutritious homemade meals and delivered to their door.

The free meal service will remain, for which people need to fill out an online order form.

If I can continue to feed people and pay the chef and a small staff to coordinate the programs, that would be fantastic, David said.
A technical team of Boeing Co is likely to examine the debris of the Air India Express 787-800 jetliner that crashed in Kozhikode on Friday. The Dubai-Kozhikode plane skidded off the tabletop runway while landing.

The company said that it is in touch with Air India and is offering support.

Boeing had also said in a statement, "Boeing is prepared to provide a technical team to assist the US National Transportation Safety Board, in accordance with ICAO Annex 13 guidelines, as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) of India conducts its investigation. We extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives in the Air India Express accident at Kozhikode International Airport. Our thoughts are also with the passengers and crew who were injured, and we hope for their swift recovery."

India's director general of civil aviation Arun Kumar said on Sunday that the transcripts from the black box will be soon recovered. He added that they would also ask Boeing to examine the aircraft for defects. "We are also going to talk to Boeing to examine the aircraft's original equipment and check for defects. Only after conducting a thorough and unbiased probe, can we tell what exactly happened," Kumar told ANI. The black box was brought back from the crash site to DGCA's laboratory in Delhi.

"Deeply anguished & distressed at the air accident in Kozhikode. The Air India Express flight number AXB-1344 on its way from Dubai to Kozhikode with 191 persons on board, overshot the runway in rainy conditions & went down 35 ft. into a slope before breaking up into two pieces," Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had said after the crash. The flight had 190 people, including 174 passengers, 10 infants, four cabin crew and two pilots. At least 18 people have lost their lives.

Also read: Air India crash: Pilot of ill-fated flight earlier flew MiG-21s in Indian Air Force

Also read: Air India plane crash: Aircraft overshot runway in rainy conditions, split into two, says Hardeep Singh Puri
In one of Clarks recent works, Twist (2016-), which was named by the former poet laureate Rita Dove, whom the artist met at a dinner party, the thread is Clarks own hair, which shes using to create a novel 26-letter font. Clark was inspired by Ngugi wa Thiongos book Decolonizing the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature (1986), in which he urges African writers to write in their Indigenous tongues. Clark realized that even if this came to pass, the printed texts would always be in a Western script. In order to get to your language, you have to go through the gatekeeper of the Roman alphabet  thats how centric Europe still is, she says. To counter this reality, she worked with a graphic designer, Boqin Peng, to create a digital font that is based on the curl pattern of her hair, each strand of which holds the genetic material of her ancestors. Clark also worked with the Massachusetts-based Swamp Press to make the alphabet printable on a letterpress, and is now teaching herself to read and write in the language. Shes transcribed a section of the 13th Amendment using it.

She hopes the public, too, will soon get an opportunity to experiment with Twist, entertaining the possibility of another mode of communication, another story. In addition to having work in a number of upcoming group shows, shes scheduled to have several solo exhibitions next spring, one at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in her hometown of D.C., and then twin shows at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Mass. Who knows where, exactly, the country will be by then, but Clarks voice will undoubtedly be needed. Racism is not just a Southern problem, says the artist, who was previously the chair of the craft/material studies department at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Its an everywhere problem. Her work reminds us of that, and of the fact that while the past cannot be undone, it can, if we fail to change, repeat itself, over and over.
Recently, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut wrote in his weekly column 'Rokhthok' in the party mouthpiece Saamana that late actor Sushant Singh Rajput was displeased with his father KK Singh's second marriage, and was not on good terms with him.

Raut's comments have upset Sushant's family who have now demanded a public apology from him.

As per a report in DNA, Sushant's cousin, BJP MLA Neeraj Singh Bablu called Raut's allegations "completely false" and demanded a public apology from him.

He was quoted as saying, "Sanjay Raut has to apologize for his statement in which he has said that Sushant Singh's father KK Singh had done two marriages. This news is completely false. If Sanjay Raut does not publicly apologize, Sushant Singh's family will take legal action against him."

On the other hand, Sushant's uncle, RC Singh, told Navbharat Times, "Sanjay Raut has given a wrong statement at the behest of Uddhav Thackeray and Aditya Thackeray. Sanjay Raut is trying to tarnish his image by saying such a thing. It is not a good thing to spoil someone's image by saying such a thing."

For the uninitated, Sanjay Raut had written in his article, "His father's second marriage was not acceptable to him (Rajput). Let the facts come out how many times Rajput visited his family in Patna. Why did (Rajput's former girlfriend) Anita Lokhande split from Rajput and this should be part of the probe. It is wrong to see the unfortunate suicide from a political angle."

Further, in his allegations, Raut had claimed that "pressure tactics" are being used in Sushant's death case, and the issue is being politicised as part of a conspiracy against Maharashtra.

Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead in his Bandra residence in Mumbai on June 14, 2020. His post-mortem report confirmed his death by suicide. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the case after a turf war broke out between Mumbai police and Bihar police.

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

ALSO READ: Sushant's Death: Rhea Chakraborty And Family Questioned By ED In Money Laundering Case

ALSO READ: Sushant's Friend Kushal Zaveri Takes A Dig At Sanjana Sanghi; Says She Was Quick To Reply To Kangana
In the two months since the death of George Floyd, the nation has been beset by often-violent protests and riots. Yet the mainstream media and Democratic politicians have tended to describe the demonstrations as mostly peaceful, and to rationalize and minimize them. For many on the left, the real story has not been the violence directed at law-enforcement personnel, the assaults on federal courthouses and police precincts, the toppling of statues, or the destruction of private property; its been the use of federal personnel in response.

It is only in that context that we can hope to understand the sympathy being generated for Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman.

Mattis and Rahman are the lawyers who were caught on camera throwing a Molotov cocktail into an empty, already-vandalized NYPD patrol car in Brooklyn. After setting the vehicle on fire in full of view of the cops, they drove away in Mattiss van and were quickly chased down and arrested. In their possession, officers found yet another Bud Light bottle turned into a homemade incendiary device and the makings of more in the back seat. Prosecutors later said Rahman had offered Molotov cocktails to other protesters, as well.

There could hardly be any doubt about their guilt. In addition to the police video of the firebombing itself, a photographer actually snapped a picture of Rahman, a 31-year-old attorney for Bronx Legal Services, leaning out of the window of the car holding an unlit Molotov cocktail. And shortly before the incident, Rahman gave a filmed interview to a journalist in which she vented her rage at the Floyd killing:

This sh** wont ever stop unless we fu**ing take it all down. Were all in so much pain from how fu**ed up this country is toward black lives. This has got to stop, and the only way they hear us is through violence, through the means that they use. You got to use the masters tools. Thats what my friend always says.

In the background of the interview footage, Mattis, a 32-year-old attorney, can be seen exiting a 7-Eleven carrying two bags that likely contain the beer bottles that would be used for the car bombing.

Story continues

As subsequent coverage pointed out, the two are unlikely criminals. Though they come from impoverished, immigrant backgrounds  Rahman arrived from Pakistan with her parents at the age of four while Mattiss mother was an immigrant from Jamaica  they have both attained substantial educational and professional success. Mattis earned a scholarship to a private prep school, attended Princeton University, and then graduated from New York University Law School before becoming a highly paid attorney at a Manhattan law firm. Rahman went to one of the most select public high schools in New York before attending Fordham University for her undergraduate degree and then law school.

As lawyers, both knew what they were doing was against the law and what the consequences would be. But as the initial coverage of their case showed, and a highly sympathetic profile published by New York magazine this week confirmed, some on the left see the prosecution of the pair in a different light:

Today, some of Mattis and Rahmans friends may concede in private that throwing a Molotov cocktail represents a lapse in judgment, but none are willing to discuss the degree to which their friends may have been ethically, professionally, morally, or legally out of bounds. Instead, they emphasize that violence against government property, especially in the midst of political upheaval, is not the same as violence against a person; that the prosecution of their friends for an act of what amounted to political vandalism is far more extreme than the crime itself; that it amounts to a criminalization of dissent and reflects a broader right-wing crusade against people of color and the progressive left  and, as such, demonstrates precisely the horror of the system they were out in the streets that night to protest. There is a version of the Rahman and Mattis story in which they are civil-rights heroes, even martyrs, instead of professionals who crossed a line.

The claim that federal authorities are seeking to make examples of the pair is not without justification. Few among the mobs that have set Americas cities aflame and looted private property since Floyds killing have been held accountable by the law. Local authorities have too often stood down and let the rioters do as they like, and in those instances where offenders were arrested, most have not faced serious consequences.

But Rahman and Mattis were caught in the act of committing a crime that carries the most severe consequences. They face seven federal charges, including arson, conspiracy, and the commission of a crime of violence employing what the law defines as a destructive device. That last charge means that if they are convicted they will have to automatically serve a sentence that is three times longer than if they had used a gun: a mandatory minimum term of 30 years. With the other charges thrown in, each is looking at the possibility of non-negotiable sentences of 45 years to life in prison (though, as New York points out, they have a reasonable hope that the charges against them will be either drastically reduced or dismissed if the Justice Department reverts to Democratic control in January).

The possibility of such draconian sentences is part of what is generating support for the pair. But, as the New York profile reveals, the effort to turn them into anti-Trump martyrs is connected to the broader justifications for the protests. For those who have watched in frustration as rioters run amok, their comeuppance is satisfying. For those who share their politics, on the other hand, their serious crimes are a justified effort to bring attention to the alleged evil done by the police and the government.

Thus the prosecution of what is, on its face, an open-and-shut case of domestic terrorism has become like everything else in this year of pandemics and unrest: a referendum on the legitimacy of the Trump administration and Americas past. In that way, even privileged lawyers can earn a pass from the Left for brazen violence that in any other context would be damned as criminal behavior worthy of significant jail time. The two lawyers arent outliers; theyre living examples of how hatred of Trump has morphed into a willingness to justify the unjustifiable.

More from National Review
RALEIGH, N.C., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, HORIZON Labs Systems announced the deployment of version 13 of its laboratory information management system (LIMS), including an Oracle 19c technology upgrade and several new features, such as internationalization, database archiving and streamlined report delivery.

HORIZON LIMS Version 13 Deployed Today! An Oracle 19c technology upgrade, it enables greater performance, enhanced document security industry-specific customization and internationalization.

"HORIZON v13 enables greater performance and enhanced document security, while still being easy to upgrade," said VP, Professional Services & Product Management, Kevin Carter. "Labs are now able to customize their user interface to stay aligned with industry-specific terminology and make use of date, phone and postal code formats required for Canadian laboratories."

HORIZON LIMS version 13 features include:

Internationalization and customization, provides greater customization of the user interface specific to terminology and formatting for multiple countries.

provides greater customization of the user interface specific to terminology and formatting for multiple countries. Archiving data, improving long-term storage management, allowing for deletion of data no longer needed, or data labs are required to delete in keeping with retention time policies.

improving long-term storage management, allowing for deletion of data no longer needed, or data labs are required to delete in keeping with retention time policies. Streamlined report delivery, documents have been moved off of file servers and into the database, which has improved performance and speeds results to the lab and the lab's customers.

documents have been moved off of file servers and into the database, which has improved performance and speeds results to the lab and the lab's customers. Self-service lab online features remove some of the administrative burden from labs allowing privileged users (lab customers) to manage their own accounts, documents can also be attached to both orders and patients.

Carter said HORIZON LIMS software upgrades are included in its annual maintenance fees. For questions regarding updates, contact client support at 919-855-8716, and select option 1.

For more information about HORIZON LIMS, visit horizonlims.com.

About HORIZON

Government and private labs rely on HORIZON LIMS to collect, process and test samples that impact millions of people  ensuring water and crop safety, disease readiness and management of other mission-critical health issues. With more than three decades of experience in the field, HORIZON's technological advancements include its best-in-class Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) helping to provide accurate results and insightful reporting in an efficient, effective and easy-to-use platform/interface. HORIZON is owned by Dohmen , and is one way Dohmen is fulfilling its preventive health mission, by keeping water, food and the environment safe. Visit www.horizonlims.com to learn more.

For More Information:

Carole Pfeil

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262 623 4054

[email protected]

SOURCE HORIZON

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Before the pandemic, EasyJet was planned to resume flights to Sharm El-Sheikh in June for the first time in over four years

Britain's budget airline EasyJet will resume charter flights to the Egyptian resort cities of Sharm El-Shiekh and Hurghada on the Red Sea in September, Egypt's civil aviation ministry said on Monday.

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 British company "has been approved to operate charter flights to Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada international airports," said Asharf Noweir, head of the Civil Aviation Authority.

Noweir said this "important" step is a sign that air traffic with European countries is returning to normality after over three months of suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Two weekly flights will be operated from Manchester to Sharm El-Sheikh airport on Sundays and Tuesdays and one weekly flight will be operated from Gatwick to Sharm El-Sheikh starting September.

Hurghada airport will receive four weekly trips on Saturdays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays as of 2 September, while two weekly trips will be operated from Manchester every Saturday and Wednesday.

Before the pandemic, EasyJet was planned to resume flights to Sharm El-Sheikh in June for the first time in over four years following the lifting by the UK government of a ban on direct flights to the popular winter sun destination late last year. The suspension was imposed due to a Russian plane crash in 2015.

Some 415,000 Britons visited Egypt in 2018, according to British government estimates, making the UK one of the leading sources of tourists for the country.

Around 50,000 tourists visited Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada since the country announced the resumption of regular international flights last month, Egypt's tourism minister Khaled El-Anany said last week.

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"They want to come back and have on-campus experiences, but to do that, you have to pledge you're going to follow along with the guidance we've outlined," Turman said.

State colleges operate in counties with relatively few coronavirus cases: Dawes County, where Chadron State is located, has had a total of 10 cases since the pandemic began, although the number of cases has more than doubled in the last two weeks; Nemaha County, where Peru State is headquartered, has recorded 24 total cases, including 12 in the last two weeks; and Wayne County has 38 total cases.

The state college system is asking students to observe public health guidelines in their own way.

At Chadron State, whose mascot is an eagle, for example, students are being asked to "Protect the Nest" by following public health guidelines that have been pushed by Ricketts and health officials since the start of the outbreak: "Wash your hands, watch your distance and wear a mask."
Bob Garick was looking forward to being a field supervisor during the door-knocking phase of the 2020 census, but as the number of new coronavirus cases in Florida shot up last month, he changed his mind.

With widespread home visits for the 2020 census set to begin next week, the Census Bureau is losing workers like Garick to pandemic fears. The attrition could complicate the bureaus plans to ramp up efforts to reach the hardest to count communities, including minorities and immigrants, on a shortened schedule.

Before, I thought it was my civic duty, to do my part, but now its like the health concerns are too great, said Garick, 54, a software development director who is between jobs.

Door-knockers started heading out last month in six areas of the country in a test-run of the most labor-intensive part of the 2020 census, and their ranks have increased with each passing week as more locations were added. But next week, the full army of 500,000 census-takers will be in the field for the first time, knocking on the doors of more than a third of U.S. households that havent yet responded to the once-a-decade head count.

The census helps determine how $1.5 trillion in federal spending is distributed and how many congressional seats each state gets.

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Bureau officials acknowledge that theyve had door-knockers, also known as enumerators, come to training but then not show up for work. The door-knockers wear cloth face masks and come equipped with hand sanitizer and cellphones.

We are seeing folks who are a little hesitant because of the COVID environment, Deborah Stempowski, the Census Bureaus assistant director for decennial programs, told a conference of data users last week.

Other non-COVID factors are also playing a role. Some enumerators are uncomfortable with the technology, as iPhones have replaced the clipboards of censuses past. The pandemic has forced training to be held mostly online and theres less in-person interaction with supervisors should enumerators need help, Stempowski said.

Concerns about attracting door-knockers forced the Census Bureau to raise its hourly wage: Enumerators in the highest-paying cities can now earn $30 an hour. Based on historical trends, the Census Bureaus planning models assume 20% of door-knockers wont show up for training, but the bureaus media office said its too early to say what attrition rates are this year.

A census taker in Orlando who also was a door-knocker for the 2010 census says the training this time has been quite different. She asked not to be identified for fear of losing her job.

A decade ago, she had 40 hours of training with other census takers in a class where they practiced face-to-face, helping each other develop techniques to persuade reluctant people to answer the census questionnaire.

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We had a lot of practice with each other, she said. A lot of people whose doors you knock on are reluctant to talk to you, and some people dont want to give any information to the government. If theyve never done it before, its hard to persuade and convince people.

For the 2020 census, her training has been about half that time and primarily online because of the pandemic, though she was required to have an in-person meeting with her supervisor.

Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham said in prepared remarks to a House committee last week that the bureau has 3 million applicants available, and that more than 900,000 job offers have been accepted. But he acknowledged that the number of door-knockers deployed to the field in the test-run was lower than expected, and that offices used for fingerprinting and meeting with census takers have had to close at the last minute because of coronavirus conditions.

This large number of offers is needed to cover attrition, Dillingham said. Unlike prior censuses, concern with the pandemic is estimated to increase the number of no shows to training sessions, as well as the number of employees who complete training but decline to show up for work.

The Census Bureau also is recruiting more workers in specific areas of the country, and regional offices are training replacement enumerators on an ongoing basis, he said.

In a joint statement, the bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that participation in 2020 Census interviews presents a low risk of virus transmission since census takers will be wearing masks, maintaining 6 feet distance and conducting interviews outside as much as possible.

The statistical agency is dealing with a shorter schedule for door-knocking than it anticipated earlier this summer. Facing pandemic-related delays in April, the Census Bureau had asked Congress for delays in handing over data used for redrawing congressional and legislative districts, and it pushed back wrapping up its data collection through door-knocking or self-responses from the end of July to the end of October.

The request passed the Democratic-controlled House, but its not going anywhere in the Republican-controlled Senate. The inaction coincides with a memorandum President Donald Trump issued last month to try to exclude people living in the U.S. illegally from being part of the process for redrawing congressional districts.

The lack of action is forcing the Census Bureau to turn in numbers used for redrawing congressional districts by the end of the year, instead of by the end of next April as requested. To meet the year-end deadline, the agency announced this week it would finish data collection at the end of September instead of the end of October. Some census officials had previously said they would be unable to meet the end-of-the-year deadline.

When Garick told his supervisors that he was withdrawing from the job, they seemed unfazed, he said. It seemed as if they had heard the same thing many times before.

Im a little disappointed that Im not going to do it, but it didnt seem like a wise move on my part, Garick said.
A new report has suggested that Amazon.com Inc. and Simon Property Group could take over the spaces left by struggling department store chains in the wake of their bankruptcies.

According to a highly cited exclusive from The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, the online retail behemoth and Americas largest mall owner are in talks to turn some of JCPenneys and Sears formerly occupied anchor stores into fulfillment centers. The locations in Simons malls, read the article, will effectively become Amazon distribution hubs, housing products from apparel and accessories to books, home goods, electronics and more.

More from Footwear News

The report also indicated that discussions between Amazon and Simon have been under way for months  beginning even before the coronavirus pandemic swept the United States. It added that there remains a possibility both parties fail to reach an agreement.

As of May, a public filing revealed that Simons malls have 63 JCPenney and 11 Sears units. It is unclear how many outposts will be impacted by such a deal.

If a deal is made, Amazon would be able to speed up its last-mile deliveries from distribution hubs to customers doorsteps in more regions. On the other hand, Simon could fill up vacant prime spaces in its shopping centers with a reliable digital-first tenant whose growth has become even more pronounced in coronavirus times.

In a statement to FN, Amazon spokesperson Rachael Lighty said, Amazon has a policy of not commenting on rumors or speculation, while a JCPenney spokesperson said the company has nothing to share. Sears declined to comment. FN has also reached out to Simon Property Group, which is set to release its Q2 2020 results after market open today.

Over the past few years, Simon has been snapping up retailers like Aeropostale and Forever 21, and most recently making a joint stalking-horse bid for the bankrupt Brooks Brothers, to avoid dark storefronts in its portfolio of malls.

Story continues

A report in June also indicated that the mall giant along with brand management firm Authentic Brands Group and Brookfield Property Partners were interested in pulling JCPenney out of bankruptcy. The Plano, Texas-based company is currently undergoing reorganization after it filed for Chapter 11 protection in mid-May. According to Kirkland & Ellis attorney Joshua Sussberg, the retailer has moved forward with a going-concern asset sale and has not seriously entertained the possibility of a liquidation.

Separately, the once-dominant Sears filed for bankruptcy in mid-October after failing to turn a profit since 2010. As part of chairman and ex-CEO Eddie Lamperts restructuring plan through his namesake hedge fund, ESL Investments, the chain is able to continue operations at 425 stores and retain the jobs of 45,000 employees.

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TN SSLC 10th Result 2020 DECLARED| This time, 100 percent of students  over 9.5 lakh students of which 468,070 are girls and 471,759 boys  have cleared the Class 10 exams

TN SSLC 10th Result 2020 DECLARED: Class 10 results were declared by Tamil Nadu's Directorate of Government Examination (DGE) on Monday (10 August) at 9.30 am.

Students can check their matric results on the state board's official websites: dge.tn.gov.in, dge1.tn.nic.in, tnresults.nic.in.

This time, 100 percent of students  over 9.5 lakh students of which 468,070 are girls and 471,759 boys  have cleared the Class 10 papers.

Students have been assessed on the basis of a special scheme that takes into account the results of quarterly or half-yearly exams (given 80 percent weightage) and attendance (20 percent weightage).

The exams, which were to be conducted from 15 to 25 June after being postponed from March due to the nationwide lockdown, were cancelled as per a Madras High Court order to ensure the safety of students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The highest number of passed students are from the following districts: Kancheepuram (52,741), Vellore (50,916), Chennai (49,235), Tiruvallore (48,950) and Villupuram (46,494).

The Tamil Nadu board had stopped declaring the names of top ranking students from 2018. It, however, announces the city or district which registers the highest pass percentage. According to the DGE, the move is aimed to reduce the 'unhealthy' competition, as per a report in Indian Express..

Follow LIVE Updates on Tamil Nadu Class 10 results

Last year, an overall pass percentage of 95.42 percent was recorded. Girls had outperformed boys with pass percentage of 97 percent. The pass percentage of boys was 93.

Steps to check TN Class 12 results 2020 on the official website:

Step 1: Visit the official website at dge.tn.gov.in

Step 2: On the homepage, click on the link that reads, "Tamil Nadu SSLC result 2020"

Step 3: Key in your credentials and log-in details

Step 4: Your results will be displayed on the screen.

However, the official websites could become unresponsive or slow down due to the heavy traffic.

But students need not worry as the result is available on a mobile app as well as a few alternative websites such as examresults.net, indiaresults.com, schools9.com, results.shikha.

How to check TN SSLC Results 2020 on examresults.net:

Step 1: Log onto examresults.net website.

Step 2: Click on Tamil Nadu in the list of the states or access the link directly here.

Step 3: Look for the link that says "Tamil Nadu SSLC Exam 2020."

Step 4: Click on the link and fill in all the details to get your Tamil Nadu Board SSC Examination 2020 result.

Steps to check Tamil Nadu SSC result 2020 on indiaresults.com:

Step 1: Visit the website indiaresults.com.

Step 2: Click on Tamil Nadu in the list of the states or type the URL tamil-nadu.indiaresults.com on your browser and press 'enter'.

Step 3: Look for the link that says "TN SSLC 10th Results 2020".

Step 4: Click on the link. It will take you to a new page. Fill in all the details to get your matric result.

How to check via mobile app

Students may also face issues with internet connectivity. In such a situation, students can check their results through the TN SSLC Result app, which can be downloaded on smartphones from Google Play Store or App Store.
More than 10,000 baby turtles were recently released into the sea off the Indonesian island of Bali, as part of conservationists attempts to boost the population of this vulnerable species and promote environmental protection.

A baby turtle is released at a beach in Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia. (Photo: STAFF/Reuters)

Conservation groups on August 7 carried crates of tiny turtles to the islands Gianyar beach and encouraged local people and volunteers to line up on the sand and release the hatchlings together.

The Olive Ridley turtles are among the most abundant sea turtles but are still considered vulnerable because there are few places in which they will nest. The turtles typically weigh 34-50kg as an adult and grow to 60-70cm long.

Sea turtle populations have declined in recent years due to hunting, loss of beach nesting sites, over-harvesting of their eggs and being caught in fishing gear.

Earlier on August 5, Bali authorities released 25 of the larger green turtles into the sea after their rescue from illegal traffickers.

Agus Budi Santoso, head of the Bali Natural Resources and Conservation Centre, recommended creating a green zone of designated beaches for turtles to lay eggs safely./.VNA
CHICAGO, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL), a division of Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), is celebrating the completion of its new multipurpose center in Chicago's Morgan Park neighborhood. BCBSIL today cut the ribbon on the 130,000 square foot space in Marshfield Plaza at 119th Street and Marshfield Avenue. The site has been transformed from an abandoned retail store into a vast employee workspace coupled with a community-facing Blue Door Neighborhood CenterSM (BDNC).

"We believe in the power of community and how collective action will drive long-term meaningful change for our members and employees where they live and work," said Maurice Smith, president and CEO of Health Care Service Corporation. "This center, and our ongoing collaboration with the Morgan Park community, is all about creating opportunities and making intentional investments in our local neighborhoods such as new jobs, supporting local businesses and increased access to health and wellness programming. It is our communities that make us stronger."

Nearly 100 people are among the first wave of employees working at the Morgan Park site. Hiring is rolling out in a phased approach. This site will eventually house up to 550 employees in roles that help BCBSIL support members and network providers. Hiring efforts have been focused around the Morgan Park area and almost 70 percent of new hires live within 10 miles of the center.

The Morgan Park location also features BCBSIL's second Blue Door Neighborhood Center, which will focus on making a positive impact on the health of people beyond the walls of hospitals and physician offices. It's a face-to-face, high-touch, hyper-local approach that represents a new way for BCBSIL to partner with the communities where we operate. The first BDNC opened in April 2019 in Pullman.

"Our Blue Door Neighborhood Centers are destinations for people to learn, connect and focus on their whole person health  which includes tackling the physical, mental, environmental and social factors that can impact wellbeing," said Steve Hamman, president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois. "We partner with local organizations to create a neighborhood-level coalition working toward the common goal of making a positive impact on community health."

"COVID-19 has forced us to come face to face with the disproportionate levels of poverty and inequality that far too many Chicagoans face," said Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot. "However, thanks to companies and agencies like Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois and Health Care Service Corporation, we are able to put ourselves on the fast track to finding holistic, long-term solutions that end the cycle of suffering for our residents. This once-empty site will now give Morgan Park residents and surrounding communities long-overdue access to the quality health and wellness resources that they need to stay healthy during these uncertain times."

The Blue Door Neighborhood Centers offer no-cost programming such as low-impact fitness, educational classes on how to manage chronic health conditions, as well as information on how to best use health insurance. i

One of the new hires for Morgan Park's BDNC is lifetime Morgan Park resident Aquea Wynn.

"I'm just so grateful right now  for those of us that live in the community, to be able to see a future giving back and working in the community that we live in," said Aquea Wynn, health educator at the Blue Door Neighborhood Center. "Blue Cross planting themselves here in Morgan Park is a game changer and I am excited to start working to put my experience and knowledge into making Morgan Park a better place."

BDNC locations are currently offering virtual programming due to COVID-19. Projected opening dates and web-based class offerings are available at bluedoorcenteril.com.

BCBSIL is furthering its footprint across Chicago neighborhoods. Later this fall, we're opening a third Blue Door Neighborhood Center in South Lawndale's Little Village neighborhood, at 2551 W. Cermak Road. And in 2021, we'll be opening office space in the Mural Park development in Pilsen.

i iWhile many resources are available, since health care providers are not located at Blue Door Neighborhood Centers, anyone experiencing an emergency or in need of urgent care, should call 911.

SOURCE Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois

Related Links

http://www.bcbsil.com


OTTAWA COUNTY, MI  Planned repairs will mean Grand Havens drawbridge will have to be shut down in the future, though the exact timing of the work planned for 2021-22 is unclear.

Thats according to a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Transportation, which has a $23 million plan to repair the drawbridge as well as four other bridges on U.S. 31 and M-104 in northern Ottawa County.

A virtual public meeting, where specifics will be discussed, is planned for 4-5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12.

The Michigan Department of Transportation plans to improve several bridges on U.S. 31 and M-104 in the Tri-Cities area, including:

-- The drawbridge over the Grand River on U.S. 31 in Grand Haven.

-- The bridge on U.S. 31 over the south channel of the Grand River.

-- The U.S. 31 bridge over the M-104 connector.

-- The U.S. 31 bridge over North Third Street in Grand Haven.

-- The M-104 bridge over the Spring Lake channel.

Construction is expected to begin in spring 2021 and continue through fall 2022.

Work will require ramp detours and traffic shifts, according to MDOT. Some adjacent nonmotorized paths will be closed at times. Those include paths adjacent to and crossing the Spring Lake channel, and along U.S. 31 over the Grand River.

Boat navigation will be maintained throughout the construction period, according to MDOT.

Work planned on the drawbridge includes replacing the steel grid deck and adding epoxy overlay on the concrete section of the deck, paint, steel beam repairs, new submarine cable, and mechanical and electrical work, John Richard, spokesman for MDOT, told MLive.

He said there is not yet a timeline for that work, which will require the drawbridge to be closed. The bridge is the main northern entry point into Grand Haven.

Work on the other bridges include concrete repairs, railing repairs, approach replacements and paint among other items, Richard said.

A portion of Richardson Park and the Ferrysburg carpool lot are being considered for construction staging areas, according to MDOT.

Public input, including comments and questions, regarding the pathway closures can be emailed to Monica Monsma at MonsmaM@Michigan.gov or mailed to Monsma at MDOT Environmental Services Section, Van Wagoner Building, 425 W. Ottawa St., P.O. Box 30050, Lansing, 48909.

Wednesdays meeting will be held virtually via Microsoft Teams. The conference ID is 747 020 744#. To join by phone, call 248-509-0316.

Transcripts of the meeting and presentation can be obtained by emailing Monsma.

Also on MLive:

Michigans Adventure claims water park is a swimming pool, remains open despite shutdown order

Whitmer extends coronavirus state of emergency through Friday, Sept. 4

Perseids meteor shower: Best days to view weather-wise, and what to expect
G C Murmu rarely speaks in public and when he does, his statements are always in lockstep with the thinking within this government.

Subhomoy Bhattacharjee reports.

IMAGE: Girish Chandra Murmu, then lieutenant governor of Jammu and Kashmir, takes the salute.

In the span of less than a week, a former bureaucrat close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi has found himself in hot water.

Since the officer concerned is Girish Chandra Murmu, then lieutenant governor of Jammu & Kashmir, the developments are striking.

Murmu, always the quintessential low-profile mandarin, rarely speaks in public and when he does, his statements are always in lockstep with the thinking within this government.

First, Murmu batted for restoration of 4G telecom services in J&K, according to a report in the Indian Express.

The newspaper quoted him as saying, 'I feel that 4G will not be a problem. I am not afraid how people will use this...'

But within 24 hours, the Centre told the Supreme Court it stands by its position that it is not yet time to relax the restriction on the speed of Internet usage in the Valley.

The affidavit filed by Attorney General K K Venugopal noted that a special panel of the government has decided against any relaxations for now.

The panel was formed in response to an order by the court in May to examine if the restrictions could be relaxed.

Then, Murmu earned the Election Commission's displeasure.

In an interview to the Hindustan Times, he said elections to the legislature of the Union Territory could be held as soon as a delimitation exercise was over.

His observation immediately earned a reprimand from the EC.

'Timings etc of elections is the sole remit of the Election Commission of India,' the Constitutional body noted.

'It would be proper for authorities other than the EC to refrain from making such statements,' the EC sternly stated.

It is not as if the EC has never rapped governors or lieutenant governors, but when the official concerned is Murmu, who is supposed to be extremely aware of such niceties, it is surprising.

When two such events happen so rapidly, there is reason to sit up and take notice.

Murmu was a surprise appointment as lieutenant governor last year as soon as the erstwhile undivided state was officially split into two Union Territories.

It was certainly a challenging assignment, given the opposition to the realignment of the former state's constitutional position, but Murmu, a Gujarat cadre Indian Administrative Service officer (1985 batch), was uniquely placed to fulfil the Modi government's programme of keeping the political and administrative pressures in the state under control.

Indeed, there was one crucial way in which Girish Chandra Murmu was seen to be separate from his batchmates.

As a Business Standard report noted in November 2018: 'His colleagues were known to be close to either (then) Chief Minister Narendra Modi or state Home Minister Amit Shah. Murmu, it is said, enjoyed their confidence in equal measure.'

He served as Modi's principal secretary in the chief minister's office and played a key role in advising him and Shah at critical junctures in their political careers.

He had to face questions from the Central Bureau of Investigation in 2013 in connection with the alleged fake encounter case involving Ishrat Jahan.

The officer from Mayurbhanj district in Odisha has a reputation for industriousness, which has helped him pick up the nuances of any department in which he has served.

He holds a master's degree from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, and an MBA from the University of Birmingham.

From Gujarat he came to New Delhi in 2015 in the finance ministry and remained there till he moved on to govern J&K.

He joined the finance ministry as joint secretary (expenditure), moved to the revenue department, became additional secretary (banking) in the department of financial services.

And then on promotion he became secretary, expenditure, in the same ministry.

Incidentally, one of his predecessors at the post in the ministry, Ashok Lavasa, is now one of the three election commissioners.

Though he is now far away from his native state of Odisha, 60-year-old Murmu is a celebrity of sorts in his district.

Some of his siblings (Murmu is the eldest among six sons and two daughters) still live in Betnoti, a small town in Mayurbhanj district.

His father worked as a station manager with the Railways and his mother retired as a postmaster.

A media report said a large number of people in Mayurbhanj gathered before television sets to watch the live telecast of the local boy's swearing-in ceremony as lieutenant governor.

Murmu has them rooting for him just as evocatively as he has the support of the prime minister and the home minister.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
HERZLIYA, Israel, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- XM Cyber , the multi-award-winning leader in breach and attack simulation (BAS) advanced cyber risk analytics and cloud security posture management, today announced that it has been named a Top 100 Cybersecurity Startup for 2020.

XM Cyber competed against many of the industry's hottest cybersecurity startups for this prestigious award. Cyber Defense Magazine searched the globe and found over 3200 cybersecurity companies, with nearly 30% in the startup range having been incorporated within the last 36 months or releasing their first round of innovative cybersecurity products and services.

"We're pleased to name XM Cyber as a winner among the Top 100 Cybersecurity Startups for 2020 in our second annual Black Unicorn awards. This award showcases those companies like XM Cyber with this kind of incredible potential in the cybersecurity marketplace," said Judges Robert R. Ackerman Jr. of www.allegiscyber.com, David DeWalt of www.nightdragon.com and Gary Miliefsky of www.cyberdefensemediagroup.com.

XM Cyber is advancing the security industry with patented products that enable enterprises to automatically and continuously test their security posture. By safely simulating attacks 24/7, XM Cyber exposes real-life security issues that arise from vulnerabilities, human error and misconfigurations. Additionally, recommendations to remediate issues are provided and prioritized based on importance and relation to the customer's most critical assets. By helping businesses to constantly improve their security posture, XM Cyber reduces costs and allows security teams to focus on the most critical issues, all while lowering exposure and risk.

"XM Cyber is proud to be recognized as a Top 100 Cybersecurity Startup for 2020," said Noam Erez, CEO and co-founder of XM Cyber. "Each award that we receive serves as additional validation that our solution is helping companies proactively improve their security posture, ensuring that they're protected against any threat before they're targeted by attackers."

About XM Cyber

XM Cyber brings innovation to the security industry with patented products that address the unique gaps that arise in large, complex networks. By safely and continuously simulating attacks on premise and in the cloud, XM Cyber exposes real-life security issues that arise from vulnerabilities, human error and misconfigurations. Remediation recommendations are prioritized based on criticality and relation to the customer's most critical assets. The customer achieves a continual cycle of security posture improvement, optimizing security investments and human resources, and lowering exposure and risk. XM Cyber was founded by top executives from the Israeli cyber intelligence community and has offices in the US, UK, and Israel.

For more information: www.xmcyber.com

Social Networks: Follow us on Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube

About Cyber Defense Awards

This is Cyber Defense Magazine's 8th year of honoring cybersecurity innovators, in this case the Black Unicorn Awards for 2020 on our Cyber Defense Awards platform. In this competition, judges for these prestigious awards includes cybersecurity industry veterans, trailblazers and market makers Gary Miliefsky of CDMG, Robert R. Ackerman Jr. of Allegis Cyber and David DeWalt of NightDragon with much appreciation to emeritus judge Robert Herjavec of Herjavec Group. To see the complete list of Top 100 Cybersecurity Startups for 2020 please visit https://cyberdefenseawards.com/top-100-cybersecurity-startups-for-2020/

About Cyber Defense Magazine

Cyber Defense Magazine was founded in 2012 by Gary S. Miliefsky, globally recognized cyber security thought leader, inventor and entrepreneur and continues to be the premier source of IT Security information. We are managed and published by and for ethical, honest, passionate information security professionals. Our mission is to share cutting-edge knowledge, real-world stories and awards on the best ideas, products and services in the information technology industry. We deliver electronic magazines every month online for free, and limited print editions exclusively for the RSA, BlackHat and IPEXPO conferences and our limited edition paid reprint subscribers. Learn more about us at http://www.cyberdefensemagazine.com . Cyber Defense Magazine is a proud member of the Cyber Defense Media Group.

Fusion PR (for XM Cyber)

Brian Janson

E: [email protected]

T: +1(646)-452-7111

SOURCE XM Cyber

Related Links

www.xmcyber.com


Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 11)  President Rodrigo Duterte expressed his confidence that a COVID-19 vaccine from Russia would be effective, saying he would be the first to take it on to prove how safe it is.

In a late night address on Monday, the President said, "Maligayang-maligaya ako, kasi ang Russia kaibigan natin ito... Ang ano nila is, magbigay sila ng bakuna, wala naman sila sinasabi na bayaran mo."

[Translation: I am overjoyed because Russia is our friend... They will give us vaccines and did not say anything about payment.]

Duterte said he saw it as help coming from Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said he and Putin would discuss how many vaccines the Philippines would need.

However, Duterte said clinical studies on the vaccine would be needed and offered himself as the first subject.

"Mag-injection muna tayo ng iilan, tapos tignan natin ang resulta... You will be given the vaccine, and reaction ng katawan mo, tatanggapin ba o hindi... There will be volunteers. Ako, pagdating ng bakuna  in public  para walang satsat diyan, in public magpainjection ako. Ako yung mauna maeksprimentuhan," he said.

[Translation: Some people will receive the injections and then we will look at the results... You will be given the vaccine and see whether your body will accept it or not... There will be volunteers. Now, when the vaccine arrives, so there will be no talk, I will volunteer to receive it in public. I will be the first to be experimented on.]

Duterte said he would tell Putin he had great faith in Russia's studies into COVID-19.

"Kung puwede sa akin, pwede sa lahat," he added.

[Translation: If will work on me, it will work on everyone.]

Duterte again said he was hopeful the vaccine would be available by this year so the country could have "a COVID-free December."

Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte expressed confidence that a vaccine will be developed by December, saying it was possible that China would be one of the first countries to complete its research.

Duterte also said the country would get priority access to the vaccines because it is "friendly" to the East Asian giant.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the country was ready to spend P20 billion to distribute free COVID-19 vaccines to 20 million people.

"We have a plan. We can execute it as soon as the Department of Health (DOH) chooses which vaccine or vaccines they want. Certainly, by late this year, if it's available, we can already buy it," he said.

He said the vaccine chosen by the DOH will be bought through the Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC), which is under the Department of Trade. It will be initially financed by the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines, then paid off by the DOH.

In his State of the Nation Address, Duterte said he asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to let the Philippines be among the first countries to have access to a COVID-19 vaccine once it is developed.

Xi, in a previous conversation with Duterte, already assured that the Philippines will be prioritized once the East Asian giant develops a vaccine for the infectious disease.
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Jimmy Lai, one of Hong Kong's most prominent democracy activists, was arrested on Monday for suspected collusion with foreign forces under the national security law, in what is the highest profile arrest yet under the new legislation.

China imposed the security law on Hong Kong just before midnight on June 30, punishing what Beijing broadly defines as subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.

*Lai, a millionaire publishing tycoon, has been a key critic of Beijing and widely believed to be a target of the new legislation.

*Mainland-born Lai was smuggled into Hong Kong on a fishing boat at the age of 12.

*He started working in a textile factory and by the age of 25, Lai had set up a successful garment business, manufacturing sweaters for major U.S. retailers.

*Lai says the June 4, 1989, crackdown on pro-democracy students in and around Tiananmen Square in Beijing spurred him to switch from the garment business to media.

*The tycoon had been a frequent visitor to Washington where he has met senior officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to rally support for Hong Kong democracy, prompting Beijing to label him a "traitor".

*In an editorial in February, Chinas state-owned Global Times tabloid called Lai a force of evil, rather than the hero of democracy painted by the West.

*The 71-year-old Lai owns Next Digital, which is considered one of the key remaining bastions of media freedom in Hong Kong. Next Digital owns Apple Daily, a popular tabloid known for its feisty and critical coverage of China and Hong Kong, and Lai is the publisher.

*Police raided Apple Daily's office building on Monday, going through documents and searching the newsroom, local television showed.

*Apple Daily has been hit by dwindling advertising revenues as well as frequent attacks by pro-Beijing voices in the city.

*In an interview with Reuters in May, Lai pledged to stay in Hong Kong and continue to fight for democracy even though he expected to be one of the targets of the new legislation.

Story continues

"What I have, this place gave me, I will fight on till the last day. It will be (an) honour if I... sacrifice," Lai said.

*He has openly called on foreign countries to assist Hong Kong.

"The so-called foreign influence is our only salvation ... I think if the Americans support us very strongly, the other countries will follow through. America has to take the lead," he said in his comments in May.

*The pugnacious Lai, a thorn in the side of China, had already been arrested twice this year on illegal assembly charges, along with other leading activists, relating to anti-government protests last year.

*Lai, who founded casual wear brand Giordano in 1981, has seen his net worth slide from $1.2 billion in 2008, according to Forbes, to fall off the richest person list in the city. His net worth is now below $1 billion, but no precise estimates are available.

*Hong Kong police said on Monday they had arrested 7 people on suspicion of breaching the city's new national security law for offences including collusion with foreign powers. Police said the operation was still ongoing and further arrests possible.

(Reporting by Farah Master; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Meyer & Meyer/iStockBy DR. LAITH ALEXANDER and SONY SALZMAN, ABC News



(NEW YORK) -- As the race for a novel coronavirus vaccine continues, there's growing concern from scientists and economic experts that wealthy nations are prioritizing getting doses for their own citizens at the cost of poorer nations and thus failing to control the global pandemic.



Some countries -- including the U.S. and the U.K. -- are securing vast quantities of new coronavirus vaccine candidates in a phenomenon being dubbed "vaccine nationalism."



Now, a growing chorus of experts is sounding the alarm. They say that with a virus capable of quickly spreading from country to country, vaccinating one nation at a time will ultimately prolong the pandemic, lead to more lives lost and continue to devastate the world economy.



"The virus does not know and does not respect borders. An outbreak of the virus anywhere threatens people everywhere," Dr. Dan Barouch, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told ABC News.



While it's understandable for each country's "health departments to have a primary responsibly to their country's citizens," Barouch said, "each country needs to have a dual goal -- a goal of protecting their citizens and also ... to do their part in solving the global pandemic."



Economists Thomas J. Bollyky and Chad P. Bown have said the fastest way to stop the pandemic is by breaking chains of transmission by allocating the vaccine to people who are the most likely to be infected -- no matter where they live.



"Global cooperation on vaccine allocation would be the most efficient way to disrupt the spread of the virus. It would also spur economies, avoid supply chain disruptions, and prevent unnecessary geopolitical conflict," they wrote in a recent editorial published in Foreign Affairs.



Yet, even if global cooperation is the most efficient way to halt a virus in its tracks, it's a difficult political proposition.



In the midst of this debate, wealthy countries have invested heavily in ensuring that their own citizens get the vaccine first.



"Prioritization of vaccine access can't be governed by political borders. This means health workers and the vulnerable deserve to be first in line regardless of nationality," said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and ABC News contributor.



The U.S. has Operation Warp Speed -- a government-funded initiative to turbocharge vaccine development and secure vaccine doses for the U.S. population. In total, almost $10 billion has been allocated by Congress for hundreds of millions of doses to be made available to U.S. citizens.



In Europe, there is the Inclusive Vaccines Alliance which has already agreed to buy 400 million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine being co-developed with Oxford University.



The U.K. has made a deal with AstraZeneca and Wockhardt to secure and distribute 30 million vaccine doses by September, part of a broader push to get 100 million doses by the end of the year. A deal has also been made for the Sanofi/GlaxoSmithKline vaccine.



Some have compared the coronavirus vaccine buyouts to the 2009 swine flu pandemic, when wealthier countries bought up of most of the vaccine doses. The U.S. and many European countries donated some of their vaccines to poorer countries, but only when they were satisfied that they had enough doses for their own citizens.



That's important, because a strategy of vaccinating high-risk people first -- wherever they are -- is thought to be most effective at slowing viral transmission.



"Ensuring fair, equitable and transparent allocation is not just the right thing to do, it's in everyone's best interest," Brownstein said. "Placing certain wealthy countries at the top of this list will only serve to prolong the pandemic."



There are also implications for vaccine cost. Countries "bidding" against each other could also increase the cost of vaccines for everyone.



Even countries that do secure large doses of vaccine candidates, the risk remains that the vaccine they bought simply doesn't work well enough. Some countries could be playing a potentially dangerous game by gambling on a small number of vaccines.



Although the World Health Organization has set up a group called the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, with a mission statement to guarantee "fair and equitable access for every country in the world," its lofty goals will only be realized with a formal and tangible commitment by powerful nations.



But like other global scourges, the burden of supplying a coronavirus vaccine to low-income countries is likely to fall to nongovernmental organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and international vaccine collaborations it founded, such as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi.



According to Barouch, nothing short of a global strategy will work to control the virus: "For a global pandemic, if the virus is not brought under control globally ... we will not solve the problem."



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
August 10, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - The narrative that the Beirut explosion was an exclusive consequence of negligence and corruption by the current Lebanese government is now set in stone, at least in the Atlanticist sphere.

And yet, digging deeper, we find that negligence and corruption may have been fully exploited, via sabotage, to engineer it.

Lebanon is prime John Le Carre territory. A multinational den of spies of all shades  House of Saud agents, Zionist operatives, moderate rebel weaponizers, Hezbollah intellectuals, debauched Arab royalty, self-glorified smugglers  in a context of full spectrum economic disaster afflicting a member of the Axis of Resistance, a perennial target of Israel alongside Syria and Iran.

As if this were not volcanic enough, into the tragedy stepped President Trump to muddy the  already contaminated  Eastern Mediterranean waters. Briefed by our great generals, Trump on Tuesday said: According to them  they would know better than I would  but they seem to think it was an attack.

Trump added, it was a bomb of some kind.

Was this incandescent remark letting the cat out of the bag by revealing classified information? Or was the President launching another non sequitur?

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Trump eventually walked his comments back after the Pentagon declined to confirm his claim about what the generals had said and his defense secretary, Mark Esper, supported the accident explanation for the blast.

Its yet another graphic illustration of the war engulfing the Beltway. Trump: attack. Pentagon: accident. I dont think anybody can say right now, Trump said on Wednesday. Ive heard it both ways.

Still, its worth noting a report by Irans Mehr News Agency that four US Navy reconnaissance planes were spotted near Beirut at the time of the blasts. Is US intel aware of what really happened all along the spectrum of possibilities?

That ammonium nitrate

Security at Beiruts port  the nations prime economic hub  would have to be considered a top priority. But to adapt a line from Roman Polanskis Chinatown: Forget it, Jake. Its Beirut.

Those by now iconic 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate arrived in Beirut in September 2013 on board the Rhosus, a ship under Moldovan flag sailing from Batumi in Georgia to Mozambique. Rhosus ended up being impounded by Beiruts Port State Control.

Subsequently the ship was de facto abandoned by its owner, shady businessman Igor Grechushkin, born in Russia and a resident of Cyprus, who suspiciously lost interest in his relatively precious cargo, not even trying to sell it, dumping style, to pay off his debts.

Grechushkin never paid his crew, who barely survived for several months before being repatriated on humanitarian grounds. The Cypriot government confirmed there was no request to Interpol from Lebanon to arrest him. The whole op feels like a cover  with the real recipients of the ammonium nitrate possibly being moderate rebels in Syria who use it to make IEDs and equip suicide trucks, such as the one that demolished the Al Kindi hospital in Aleppo.

The 2,750 tons  packed in 1-ton bags labeled Nitroprill HD  were transferred to the Hangar 12 warehouse by the quayside. What followed was an astonishing case of serial negligence.

From 2014 to 2017 letters from customs officials  a series of them  as well as proposed options to get rid of the dangerous cargo, exporting it or otherwise selling it, were simply ignored. Every time they tried to get a legal decision to dispose of the cargo, they got no answer from the Lebanese judiciary.

When Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab now proclaims, Those responsible will pay the price, context is absolutely essential.

Neither the prime minister nor the president nor any of the cabinet ministers knew that the ammonium nitrate was stored in Hangar 12, former Iranian diplomat Amir Mousavi, the director of the Center for Strategic Studies and International Relations in Tehran, confirms. Were talking about a massive IED, placed mid-city.

The bureaucracy at Beiruts port and the mafias who are actually in charge are closely linked to, among others, the al-Mostaqbal faction, which is led by former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, himself fully backed by the House of Saud.

The immensely corrupt Hariri was removed from power in October 2019 amid serious protests. His cronies disappeared at least $20 billion from Lebanons treasury  which seriously aggravated the nations currency crisis.

No wonder the current government  where we have Prime Minister Diab backed by Hezbollah  had not been informed about the ammonium nitrate.

Ammonium nitrate is quite stable, making it one of the safest explosives used in mining. Fire normally wont set it off. It becomes highly explosive only if contaminated  for instance by oil  or heated to a point where it undergoes chemical changes that produce a sort of impermeable cocoon around it in which oxygen can build up to a dangerous level where an ignition can cause an explosion.

Why, after sleeping in Hangar 12 for seven years, did this pile suddenly feel an itch to explode?

So far, the prime straight to the point explanation, by Middle East expert Elijah Magnier, points to the tragedy being sparked  literally  by a clueless blacksmith with a blowtorch operating quite close to the unsecured ammonium nitrate. Unsecured due, once again, to negligence and corruption  or as part of an intentional mistake anticipating the possibility of a future blast.

This scenario, though, does not explain the initial fireworks explosion. And certainly does not explain what no one  at least in the West  is talking about: the deliberate fires set to an Iranian market in Ajam in the UAE, and also to a series of food/agricultural warehouses in Najaf, Iraq, immediately after the Beirut tragedy.

Follow the money

Lebanon  boasting assets and real estate worth trillions of dollars  is a juicy peach for global finance vultures. To grab these assets at rock bottom prices, in the middle of the New Great Depression, is simply irresistible. In parallel, the IMF vulture would embark on full shakedown mode and finally forgive some of Beiruts debts as long as a harsh variation of structural adjustment is imposed.

Who profits, in this case, are the geopolitical and geoeconomic interests of US, Saudi Arabia and France. Its no accident that President Macron, a dutiful Rothschild servant, arrived in Beirut Thursday to pledge Paris neocolonial support and all but impose, like a Viceroy, a comprehensive set of reforms. A Monty Python-infused dialogue, complete with heavy French accent, might have followed along these lines: We want to buy your port. Its not for sale. Oh, what a pity, an accident just happened.

Already a month ago the IMF was warning that implosion in Lebanon was accelerating. Prime Minister Diab had to accept the proverbial offer you cant refuse and thus unlock billions of dollars in donor funds. Or else. The non-stop run on the Lebanese currency, for over a year now, was just a  relatively polite  warning.

This is happening amid a massive global asset grab characterized in the larger context by American GDP down by almost 40%, arrays of bankruptcies, a handful of billionaires amassing unbelievable profits and too-big-to-fail megabanks duly bailed out with a tsunami of free money.

Dag Detter, a Swedish financier, and Nasser Saidi, a former Lebanese minister and central bank vice governor, suggest that the nations assets be placed in a national wealth fund. Juicy assets include Electricite du Liban (EDL), water utilities, airports, the MEA airline , telecom company OGERO, the Casino du Liban.

EDL, for instance, is responsible for 30% of Beiruts budget deficit.

Thats not nearly enough for the IMF and Western mega banks. They want to gobble up the whole thing, plus a lot of real estate.

The economic value of public real estate can be worth at least as much as GDP and often several times the value of the operational part of any portfolio, say Detter and Saidi.

Whos feeling the shockwaves?

Once again, Israel is the proverbial elephant in a room now widely depicted by Western corporate media as Lebanons Chernobyl.

A scenario like the Beirut catastrophe has been linked to Israeli plans since February 2016.

Israel did admit that Hangar 12 was not a Hezbollah weapons storage unit. Yet, crucially, on the same day of the Beirut blast, and following a series of suspicious explosions in Iran and high tension in the Syria-Israeli border, Prime Minister Netanyahu tweeted , in the present tense: We hit a cell and now we hit the dispatchers. We will do what is necessary in order to defend ourselves. I suggest to all of them, including Hezbollah, to consider this.

That ties in with the intent, openly proclaimed late last week, to bomb Lebanese infrastructure if Hezbollah harms Israeli Defense Forces soldiers or Israeli civilians.

A headline  Beirut Blast Shockwaves Will Be Felt by Hezbollah for a Long Time  confirms that the only thing that matters for Tel Aviv is to profit from the tragedy to demonize Hezbollah, and by association, Iran. That ties in with the US Congress Countering Hezbollah in Lebanons Military Act of 2019 {S.1886}, which all but orders Beirut to expel Hezbollah from Lebanon.

And yet Israel has been strangely subdued.

Muddying the waters even more, Saudi intel  which has access to Mossad, and demonizes Hezbollah way more than Israel  steps in. All the intel ops I talked to refuse to go on the record, considering the extreme sensitivity of the subject.

Still, it must be stressed that a Saudi intel source whose stock in trade is frequent information exchanges with the Mossad, asserts that the original target was Hezbollah missiles stored in Beiruts port. His story is that Prime Minister Netanyahu was about to take credit for the strike  following up on his tweet. But then the Mossad realized the op had turned horribly wrong and metastasized into a major catastrophe.

The problem starts with the fact this was not a Hezbollah weapons depot  as even Israel admitted. When weapons depots are blown up, theres a primary explosion followed by several smaller explosions, something that could last for days. Thats not what happened in Beirut. The initial explosion was followed by a massive second blast  almost certainly a major chemical explosion  and then there was silence.

Thierry Meyssan, very close to Syrian intel, advances the possibility that the attack was carried out with an unknown weapon, a missile - and not a nuclear bomb  tested in Syria in January 2020. (The test is shown in an attached video.) Neither Syria nor Iran ever made a reference to this unknown weapon, and I got no confirmation about its existence.

Assuming Beirut port was hit by an unknown weapon, President Trump may have told the truth: It was an attack. And that would explain why Netanyahu, contemplating the devastation in Beirut, decided that Israel would need to maintain a very low profile.

Watch that camel in motion

The Beirut explosion at first sight might be seen as a deadly blow against the Belt and Road Initiative, considering that China regards the connectivity between Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon as the cornerstone of the Southwest Asia Belt and Road corridor.

Yet that may backfire  badly. China and Iran are already positioning themselves as the go-to investors post-blast, in sharp contrast with the IMF hit men, and as advised by Hezbollah Secretary-General Nasrallah only a few weeks ago.

Syria and Iran are in the forefront of providing aid to Lebanon. Tehran is sending an emergency hospital, food packages, medicine and medical equipment. Syria opened its borders with Lebanon, dispatched medical teams and is receiving patients from Beiruts hospitals.

Its always important to keep in mind that the attack (Trump) on Beiruts port destroyed Lebanons main grain silo, apart from engineering the total destruction of the port  the nations key trade lifeline.

That would fit into a strategy of starving Lebanon. On the same day Lebanon became to a great extent dependent on Syria for food  as it now carries only a months supply of wheat  the US attacked silos in Syria.

Syria is a huge exporter of organic wheat. And thats why the US routinely targets Syrian silos and burns its crops  attempting also to starve Syria and force Damascus, already under harsh sanctions, to spend badly needed funds to buy food.

In stark contrast to the interests of the US/France/Saudi axis, Plan A for Lebanon would be to progressively drop out of the US-France stranglehold and head straight into Belt and Road as well as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Go East, the Eurasian way. The port and even a great deal of the devastated city, in the medium term, can be quickly and professionally rebuilt by Chinese investment. The Chinese are specialists in port construction and management.

This avowedly optimistic scenario would imply a purge of the hyper-wealthy, corrupt weapons/drugs/real estate scoundrels of Lebanons plutocracy  which in any case scurry away to their tony Paris apartments at the first sign of trouble.

Couple that with Hezbollahs very successful social welfare system  which I saw for myself at work last year  having a shot at winning the confidence of the impoverished middle classes and thus becoming the core of the reconstruction.

It will be a Sisyphean struggle. But compare this situation with the Empire of Chaos  which needs chaos everywhere, especially across Eurasia, to cover for the coming, Mad Max chaos inside the US.

General Wesley Clarks notorious 7 countries in 5 years once again come to mind  and Lebanon remains one of those 7 countries. The Lebanese lira may have collapsed; most Lebanese may be completely broke; and now Beirut is semi-devastated. That may be the straw breaking the camels back  releasing the camel to the freedom of finally retracing its steps back to Asia along the New Silk Roads.

Pepe Escobar is correspondent-at-large at Asia Times. His latest book is 2030. Follow him on Facebook.-
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.

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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:



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Elderly Virus Sacrifice Idea Hideous: Australian PM

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has launched a savage attack on amoral and hideous suggestions elderly Australian should be sacrificed to COVID-19.

The nation recorded its deadliest day of the pandemic on Aug 10 with 19 people in Victoria succumbing to the disease.

Victorias one-day total for new cases fell to 322 as the national death toll rose to 313.

Morrison expressed his disgust at suggestions older Australians should have been offered up to the virus in order to reduce restrictions.

That is just a hideous thought, he told reporters in Canberra.

An absolutely amoral, hideous thought. One I have had no countenance with from the very first time it was suggested.

More than 200 people have died from coronavirus in the aged care system, a grim figure Morrison described as a terrible tragedy.

Genomic testing indicates Victorias botched hotel quarantine program could have sparked the states deadly second outbreak.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg renewed criticism of the Victorian government over significant failures in hotel quarantine, saying the mistakes must be explained.

Its very very difficult emotionally, its difficult obviously on the economy as well, he told 2GB radio.

We know with respect to quarantine there have been very significant failures with deadly consequences. Victorians deserve answers. Ill leave that to Daniel Andrews and his government to provide.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd said the past five days of declines were heartening, but urged caution around the figures.

Meanwhile, NSW has reported 14 new cases of the virus, including one with no known source.

Queensland recorded one new case of the virus overnight, a man in hotel quarantine who recently returned from overseas.

Rebecca Gredley, Matt Coughlan in Canberra
HBOs Emmy-winning series Succession aired its second season in 2019, and ever since that shocker of a season finale, fans can hardly wait for new episodes. While HBO renewed Succession for a third season, the COVID-19 pandemic put into question when the cast and crew could get to work on it. When will Succession Season 3 finally be on our TV screens?

Succession will be back for a third season  but when? The cast weighs in

Kieran Culkin on Succession | Graeme Hunter/HBO



According to Variety, production has been delayed indefinitely on Succession, as a result of COVID-19, or the coronavirus.

In one of Varietys Actors on Actors segments with Succession cast member Kieran Culkin previously, he shared how unsure he was of when the series would be able to get back to shooting.

We might start shooting in September, or not, Culkin said.

Like many things, the film industry has had to be put on hold during the global health crisis. While many countries are getting back to normal-ish life, the U.S. is still seeing thousands of new cases each day.

However, in a more recent interview with Variety, Succession creator Jesse Armstrong had a slightly more secure response to the big question: when can they get back to work?

When will they start filming new episodes for the HBO series? The showrunner is tentatively planning to begin in late 2020

Armstrong said they were trying to think about starting shooting in New York before Christmas. However, just the phrase trying to think about starting sounds like a solid plan is still a distance away.

Even the showrunner acknowledged all of these ideas are just conversations. Armstrong understands the process will be  and already is  tough.

Hiam Abbass and Brian Cox on Succession | photo: Peter Kramer/HBO

RELATED: Succession: Will Season 3 Be All About Roman?

Who knows if thatll come about, but thats the plan at the moment, the Succession creator explained.

What does that mean for when viewers will actually get to see season 3?

Even if Succession manages to fire up the engines again before Christmas, viewers will likely have to wait well into 2021 to find out what happens for themselves, Variety reported. No doubt, given time for filming, editing, etc. we cant expect to see another season of Succession until spring 2021 at the very earliest. But, given that Armstrong himself is not confident in the December 2020 start date, we may have to wait until at least the summer or fall of next year.

Which characters will Succession Season 3 focus on?

RELATED: Succession Could Spoil Game Of Thrones 2019 Emmy Night With a Shocking Win for Outstanding Drama

In an earlier interview with Vulture, Culkin seemed to think that this upcoming season will be his character, Romans time to shine. The Succession actor shared:

I said, Well if you look in the first season, [it seemed] that Kendall was going to be his guy, and then he wasnt. Then this year, it seems like Shiv is going to be the guy and now its starting to look like shes not. And this is before I knew where it was going. I said, So, maybe next year is Romans turn.

Well be eager to see if Culkins theory is correct. But, we cant wait to see the new Succession season anyway  so well take it any way HBO gives it to us.
OSLO, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Borr Drilling Limited (the "Company") advises that the 2020 Annual General Meeting of the Company was held on August 10, 2020 at 09:30 ADT at 2nd Floor, The S.E. Pearman Building, 9 Par-la-Ville Road, Hamilton HM 11, Bermuda. The audited consolidated financial statements for the Company for the year ended December 31, 2019 were presented to the Meeting.

The following resolutions were passed:

1) To re-elect Pal Kibsgaard as a Director of the Company.

2) To re-elect Tor Olav Trim as a Director of the Company.

3) To re-elect Alexandra Kate Blankenship as a Director of the Company.

4) To re-elect Patrick Arnold Henk Schorn as a Director of the Company.

5) To re-elect Georgina E. Sousa as a Director of the Company.

6) To re-elect Neil J. Glass as a Director of the Company.

7) To approve the increase of the Company's authorized share capital from US$9,182,692.30 divided into 183,653,846 common shares of US$0.05 par value each to US$11,182,692.30 divided into 223,653,846 common shares of US$0.05 par value each by the authorization of an additional 40,000,000 common shares of US$0.05 par value each.

8) To appoint PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as auditors and to authorize the Directors to determine their remuneration.

9) To approve remuneration of the Company's Board of Directors of a total amount of fees not to exceed US$950,000 for the year ended December 31, 2020.

Hamilton, Bermuda

August 10, 2020

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/borr-drilling-limited/r/borr-drilling-limited---2020-agm-results-notification,c3166507

SOURCE Borr Drilling Limited

SOURCE Borr Drilling Limited
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday said illegal migrant crossings of the Channel, which have hit record numbers, were "very bad and stupid and dangerous" on the eve of talks in Paris.

British immigration minister Chris Philp will visit the French capital on Tuesday to urge the local authorities to step up efforts to prevent migrants from setting off on the illegal voyages.

"Be in no doubt what's going on is the activity of cruel and criminal gangs who are risking the lives of these people taking them across the Channel, a pretty dangerous stretch of water in potentially unseaworthy vessels," Johnson said during a visit to a London school.

"We want to stop that, working with the French, make sure that they understand that this isn't a good idea, this is a very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do."

The prime minister insisted he wanted to change current British legislation that he said made it "very, very difficult" to deport migrants "even though blatantly they've come here illegally."

More than 4,000 migrants have arrived illegally in the Britain via the Channel since the beginning of the year, including around 600 since last Thursday.

Home Secretary Priti Patel, who visited the coastguard at the port of Dover on Monday, has asked for help from the Navy, which has said it was considering the request, and instructed former Royal Navy veteran Dan O'Mahoney to tackle the problem.

A Royal Air Force surveillance plane was deployed to support the coastguard on Monday, the defence ministry said.

The French interior ministry has said that additional personnel have already been deployed.

Ten times as many crossings were prevented last month compared with July 2019, with four times as many boats and equipment discovered in the dunes, it added.

A plan to combat illegal crossings, drawn up with British authorities, is being finalised to strengthen control of the main crossing points, it said.

A Franco-British intelligence unit was set up last month in the fight against people smugglers.

jwp/gd
It is conventional wisdom that Americans cherish democracy -- but a new study by Yale political scientists reports that only a small fraction of U.S. voters are willing to sacrifice their partisan and policy interests to defend democratic principles.

The study, published in the American Political Science Review, found that only 3.5% of U.S. voters would cast ballots against their preferred candidates as punishment for undemocratic behavior, such as supporting gerrymandering, disenfranchisement, or press restrictions.

"Our findings show that U.S. voters, regardless of their party affiliation, are willing to forgive undemocratic behavior to achieve their partisan ends and policy goals," said Milan Svolik, professor of political science in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and co-author of the study. "We find that polarization raises the stakes of elections and, in turn, the price of prioritizing democratic principles over partisan interests. Voters' willingness to sacrifice democratic principles may not be desirable in terms of protecting democracy, but it has an intuitive political logic: They are trading off one political interest against another."

Svolik and co-author Matthew Graham, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science, conducted two experiments. One was an original, nationally representative survey experiment that asked respondents to choose among candidates, some of whom took positions violating key democratic principles. The other was a natural experiment the researchers conducted based on Montana's 2017 special election for the U.S. House of Representatives, in which Republican candidate Greg Gianforte physically assaulted a journalist who had repeatedly asked him a question about health policy on the night before the election.

In the survey experiment, respondents were presented with a series of choices between hypothetical candidates for a state legislature. Candidates were randomly assigned attributes, including race, gender, party affiliation, and positions on economic and social issues. In four of the scenarios, both candidates adopted democratically neutral positions. In seven others, one of the candidates was randomly assigned an undemocratic position, such as support for gerrymandering or ignoring unfavorable court decisions.

Overall, candidates who embraced an undemocratic position lost about 11.7% of their vote share. This may have been exacerbated by the randomized nature of the experiment, which assigned some hypothetical candidates highly unlikely attributes, such as a Democrat who supports tax cuts for the wealthy. When the researchers focused on choices respondents were more likely to encounter in the real world because candidates' adopted conventional positions for their respective parties, they found that just 3.5% of respondents would vote against their partisan interests to protect democratic principles. This reflects the consequences of political polarization, said the researchers: When party and policy are closely aligned, opposing candidates become increasingly ideologically distinct from each other, raising the price that voters must pay to punish their preferred candidate for undemocratic behavior by voting for the other candidate.

In 2016, only about 5% of U.S. House district candidates won their seats by a margin of less than 7% -- making the potential loss of 3.5% in vote share unlikely to deter candidates from engaging in undemocratic behavior, the researchers said.

"Our findings suggest that in the overwhelming majority of House districts, a majority-party candidate could get away with openly violating a democratic principle," said Graham. "Voters make tradeoffs. For the most part, people support candidates who share their partisan, ideological, or policy goals, even if that means condoning undemocratic behavior."

When Gianforte body-slammed a reporter in his campaign office the night before Montana's 2017 congressional election, more than half of voters had already cast absentee ballots. This allowed the researchers to compare votes cast for the same pair of candidates before and after the election-eve assault. In politically moderate precincts, voters who cast ballots on Election Day punished Gianforte for the assault on the journalist by voting across party lines. In hardline Republican precincts, significantly fewer voters punished Gianforte for his undemocratic behavior on Election Day, according to the study.

The researchers assert that their findings expose a blind spot in conventional methods of measuring support for democracy, which often involve asking people questions like: "Democracy may have problems, but it is better than any other form of government. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?"

"Conventional measures don't capture people's willingness to act on their commitment to democratic values when doing so is politically costly," Svolik said. "If, as we found, only a small percentage of voters are willing to punish undemocratic behavior by their favored candidates in one of the world's oldest democracies, then we shouldn't be surprised by voters' failure to stop aspiring autocrats in younger democracies like Turkey, Hungary, or Venezuela."

###

Yale's Institution for Social and Policy Studies and MacMillan Center for Area and International Studies supported the research.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) says President Akufo-Addo has no intention of prosecuting perpetrators of the botched Power Distribution Service (PDS) nor is he ready to recover stolen funds for the state.

It can be recalled that in 2019, the government of Ghana terminated the Concession Agreement with the PDS Limited after it took over the assets of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) for distribution of electricity in the southern sector of the country less than a year.

The move by the Akufo-Addo government was necessitated by a forensic audit conducted by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the government of Ghana's investigations into the issuance of Demand Guarantees for the Concession Transaction, which revealed that the Payment Security for the Transaction was invalid.

The investigations re-affirmed the earlier report that there was no approval by Competent Signatories to the Demand Guarantees issued by Al-Koot in Qatar, therefore, the Transaction lacked the required authorization and approval of the Company.

At the 10th edition of the NDCs weekly press briefing held at the partys headquarters today, the National Communications Officer of the party Sammy Gyamfi indicated that President Nana Addo postured towards the fraudulent deal under his administration appears he has no intention to bring the perpetrators of the PDS sham to book.

It is glaringly clear that President Akufo-Addo has no intention to pursue the prosecution of persons responsible for the PDS scam and the recovery of the millions of monies they collected from electricity consumers for the State," he stated.

He continued, We in the NDC, are not in the least surprised at the nonchalant posture of President Akufo-Addo on this matter. We have always known that President Akufo-Addo can neither be trusted to punish the perpetrators nor ensure that monies collected by PDS are refunded to the state because of he and his cronies are complicit and neck-deep In the scam.

According to Sammy Gyamfi, the NDC under John Dramani Mahama shall ensure the arrest and criminal prosecution of all persons who directly or indirectly played a role in the stinking PDS scam and the several other corruption scandals when the party wins power in the 2020 General Elections.

Full statement below:

AN ADDRESS BY COMRADE SAMMY GYAMFI, NATIONAL COMMUNICATION OFFICER OF THE NDC, AT THE 10TH EDITION OF THE NDCS WEEKLY PRESS BRIEFING, HELD AT THE PARTYS HEADQUARTERS ON MONDAY, 10TH AUGUST, 2020.

CORRUPTION TRACKER SERIES (PART 2)- TRACKING THE STINKING PDS CORRUPTION SCANDAL.

Introduction

Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the media. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the headquarters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the 10th edition of our weekly press briefing. Our strive to deepen democracy and accountability cannot bear any fruits without your esteemed platforms, and that is why we will continue to cherish our partnership with you.

Todays briefing is part two (2) of the Corruption Tracker Series we launched a couple of weeks ago. You would recall, that on 8th June 2020, we launched a Corruption Tracker initiative to track the status of the numerous corruption scandals that Ghanaians have witnessed and continue to witness under the Akufo-Addo government; scandals which have occasioned huge financial losses to the state, and robbed Ghanaians of the comfort they were promised in the run up to the 2016 general elections.

As I indicated that day, the NDC is deeply worried about the fact that, resources which otherwise would have gone into developmental projects in order to uplift the poor, are sadly going to line the pockets of greedy officials of the Akufo-Addo government. Indeed, the structural violence that corruption continues to wreak on our people cannot be underestimated, as corruption deprives the vast majority of our people an opportunity to a decent living. This is the reason for our decision, to embark on the Corruption Tracker initiative to expose to the Ghanaian people the extent to which President Akufo-Addo and his corrupt appointees are milking the state coffers dry through graft and sleaze.

During our very maiden press conference on this series, we spoke about the BOSTGATE corruption scandal in which five (5) million liters of contaminated fuel was sold by BOST to some unlicensed businesses in the year 2017, in clear violation of the NPA Act and the Public Procurement Act under the watch of President Akufo-Addo. Also, at that press conference, we condemned the fact that the proceeds of that unlawful transaction had not been paid into the state coffers by the beneficiary businesses, MOVENPINAA ENERGY AND ZUP OIL.

Against all hope, we had hoped that President Akufo-Addo was going to act on the issues we raised, by ensuring that the perpetrators of this daylight heist are prosecuted or in the very least, ensure that the proceeds from the unlawful transaction were paid into the state coffers for the benefit of Ghanaians.

Unsurprisingly, and very characteristic of him, President Akufo-Addo has once again failed to uphold the national interest, such that as we speak, the proceeds of that illegal transaction have still not been paid into the state coffers and the perpetrators of this naked thievery are still walking the streets of Ghana as free men enjoying their loot, while Ghanaians continue to suffer.

Despite the refusal of President Akufo-Addo to change his corruption clearing agent ways, duty calls on us as a responsible opposition, to continue our Corruption Tracker series in order to shed light on the corrupt activities of this government, and the extent of damage it is inflicting on the already-constrained public purse and all sectors of the nation, so that Ghanaians can make an informed choice at the upcoming December Polls.

PDS CORRUPTION SCANDAL

Todays Corruption Tracker will focus on one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated against the Ghanaian people by any government in Ghanas history. I am talking about the gargantuan and stinking PDS corruption scandal that most of you are very familiar with.

Given the possibility that some of you may have forgotten the facts of this matter, I wish to start by way of a brief recap of the sordid facts and events that led to the PDS scam.

Distinguished friends from the media, you may recall that the Akufo-Addo government sometime in July 2019, informed the Ghanaian public that it has suspended the ECG Concession Agreement with Power Distribution Services (PDS) Ghana, over what they described as, material and fundamental breaches relative to the Demand Guarantee provided by PDS to ECG. You may also recall, that the Energy Minister, Hon. John Peter Amewu, and his Deputies subsequently followed-up and described the entire ECG/PDS Concession Agreement as fraudulent.

The key facts and events that led to this situation are as follows;

1. The PDS concession agreement was the product of the American governments Compact 2, also known as the Power Compact with the government of Ghana, which required that Ghana introduces private sector participation (PSP) into ECGs retail business, with the aim of improving the power distribution sector of the country. The Power Compact is the result of Ghanas successful implementation of Compact 1, a US$547m deal, which the Kufuor and Mills administrations between 2007-2012 used to undertake agri-cultural reforms and major infrastructural projects such as the N1 Highway project in Accra.

2. The PSP Concession Agreement approved by the Parliament of Ghana, contained 45 Conditions Precedent which had to be fulfilled by PDS before they take over the GHS20 billion assets of ECG.

3. Under Conditions precedent 24 and 31, PDS was required to provide ECG a payment security, in the form of a Letter of Credit or Demand Guarantee with a value of US$350 million from a Bank. The purpose of this payment security was to safeguard the assets of ECG so that, in case of default by PDS, Ghana through ECG could fall on same to recover our losses. This precondition of a demand guarantee from a Bank was therefore critical to the protection of the assets of ECG and the interest of Ghana under the ECG-PDS Concession Agreement.

4. Contrary to the effort of Ghanas Parliament to protect the public purse in order to safeguard our interest in the concession, the Akufo-Addo government shamefully conspired to bend the rules for PDS by changing the key requirement of a BANK GUARANTEE to a less liquid instrument, an INSURANCE GUARANTEE, thereby jeopardizing the assets of ECG and the interest of Ghanaians. This infamous and nation-wrecking decision was taken by high-ranking Government officials, including the Vice President of the Republic, representing President Akufo-Addo at a meeting at the Jubilee House on 19th February, 2019.

5. Pursuant to these scandalous amendments by the Vice President Dr. Bawumia, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, and the Eson Benjamin-led MIDA, PDS subsequently provided an Insurance Guarantee with dubious validity to ECG, as same was described as fraudulent by Alkoot, the Qatar-based Reinsurance company which purportedly issued the said Insurance guarantee.

6. According to the FTI investigative report on this matter which was commissioned by MIDA at the instance of the US government, crucial advice from Ghanas own Financial Advisors on this transaction for the necessary due diligence to be done before the said Insurance Guarantee was accepted by the Finance Ministry and ECG, and the assets of ECG handed over to PDS, was ignored. In short, the over GHS20 billion worth of assets of ECG were handed over to PDS by the Akufo-Addo government on the 1st of March, 2019 on the basis of a fraudulent Insurance Guarantee.

7. It is worthy of note, that under the guise of promoting local content, 51% of the shares of PDS were allotted to companies belonging to friends and cronies of President Akufo Addo under very shady circumstances, in furtherance of the Presidents state-capture agenda. As was found by the FTI investigative report, these local companies had no technical capacity in power retailing and did not demonstrate any financial capacity to manage a critical national asset such as the GHS20 billion worth of assets of ECG.

Indeed the FTI report found that PDS could not even raise the needed funds from equity contributions of shareholders to pay for the so-called Insurance Guarantee it claims to have secured from Alkoot such that, out of the $12.25 million that was charged by Cal Bank to PDS as fees for raising the fraudulent Guarantee, only $1 million (8%) was funded by an equity contribution by a PDS shareholder, Philip Ayensu of TG Energy Solutions; $7 million (57%) was funded by a loan that was advanced by Cal Bank to another PDS shareholder, Santa Baron. However, this loan was repaid from operating cash flows, i.e electricity bills collected by PDS after the transfer date. The balance of $4.25 million (35%) was also paid directly from operating cash flows generated by PDS after the transfer date.

8. Subsequent attempts by the Finance Minister and cousin to the President, Ken Ofori-Atta to restructure the shareholding of PDS after the deal was sealed, with the aim of diluting and appropriating the shares of the original shareholders for other cronies of President Akufo-Addo, is what lit the spark for the whole PDS inferno. As some of you may be aware, the original Ghanaian shareholders rebelled and refused to participate in this charade. It is this defiance that outraged the Akufo-Addo faction and occasioned the suspension and subsequent cancelation of the PDS Concession.

9. It is instructive to note, that this fraudulent entity called PDS collected over GHS1.5 billion from electricity consumers in the form electricity bills from 1st March, 2019 to 18th October, 2019 when the concession agreement was in force. As a matter of fact, it was part of these monies, that is about US$11.25 million that PDS used to finance the Insurance Guarantee from the Qatar-based Reinsurance company, Alkoot which was later found to be fraudulent and invalid.

10. More importantly, the cancelation of the PDS concession, occasioned the abrupt termination of the whole MCC Ghana Power Compact by the US government. Consequently, the US government withdrew the second tranche amount of US$190 million (equivalent to GH10 billion) it had allotted to Ghana for the improvement of the power sector of the country under the Power Compact. Overall, Ghana has lost about US$1.8 billion as a result of the greed and avarice of President Akufo-Addo and his corrupt family and friends cabal, who sought to appropriate the GHS20 billion assets of ECG for themselves.

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, these are the sad events that occasioned the PDS corruption scandal. However, the real tragedy of this scandal is summed up by these nagging questions which are begging for answers:

1. Since the Minister for Energy, John Peter Amewu told Ghanaians that the Insurance Guarantee PDS presented for the takeover of the over GHS20 billion assets of ECG was fraudulent - a fact corroborated by Alkoot, the Quatar based Company which allegedly issued the said guarantee, who were those who perpetrated this fraud against Ghanaians and what actions has President Akufo-Addo taken to ensure that they answer for this fraud?

2. Who are the state actors who neglected to perform their fiduciary responsibility to the state by failing to conduct the necessary due diligence on the Insurance Guarantee presented by PDS, and what action has President Akufo-Addo taken against them?

3. Can the Akufo-Addo government tell Ghanaians the total amount of monies PDS collected from electricity consumers in the form of electricity bills, from 1st March, 2019 to 18th October, 2019, when the concession agreement was still in force?

4. Have those monies been accounted for, and if yes, have same been audited?

5. If PDS has accounted for those funds collected, and same has been audited, can President Akufo-Addo publish those accounts for the benefit of you the media who are the fourth estate of the realm, and the entire Ghanaian people?

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, what we know is that as we speak, the perpetrators of the PDS scam are still walking the streets of Ghana as free men. Despite the fact that government itself described the transaction as fraudulent, no arrest or prosecutions have taken place till date.

The likes of Vice-President Dr. Bawumia, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta and the Eson-Benjamin-led MiDA who aided and facilitated this scam which has occasioned the nation huge financial losses, have not been held to account for the roles they individually and jointly played in the scam.

Also, cronies of the President such as Mr. Philip Ayensu, an appointee of President Akufo Addo on the NCA Board, who was the Chairman of PDS and the Directors of the local partners in the company, who perpetrated what government itself alleges to be fraud on the people of Ghana, have all been left off the hook.

Even more bizarre and scandalous is the fact that till date, PDS, the Company made up of friends and cronies of President Akufo-Addo, who were gifted the GHS20 billion assets of ECG on the basis of a fraudulent Insurance Guarantee, and operated same for more than seven (7) months, have not been made to account for the over GHS1.5 billion they collected from electricity consumers during the period.

Also, all calls for the accounts of PDS to be audited by an independent and internationally reputable Audit firm have been ignored by President Akufo Addo. And so as we speak, Ghanaians do not even know how much was collected by PDS from electricity consumers within the duration of the concession, and whether those funds have been properly accounted for and audited.

Friends from the media, it is glaringly clear that President Akufo-Addo has no intention to pursue the prosecution of persons responsible for the PDS scam and the recovery of the millions of monies they collected from electricity consumers for the State.

We in the NDC, are not in the least surprised at the nonchalant posture of President Akufo-Addo on this matter. We have always known that President Akufo-Addo can neither be trusted to punish the perpetrators nor ensure that monies collected by PDS are refunded to the state because of he and his cronies are complicit and neck-deep In the scam.

Ladies and gentlemen, never in the history of Ghana have we seen this level of corruption and naked thievery like we are witnessing under the reign of President Akufo-Addo in the last three (3) and half years. Despite promising to protect the public purse, President Akufo Addo has supervised the biggest rape of the public pursue since he took office in 2017. This has led to a sad situation where millions of money, which should have gone into the provision of schools, hospitals, roads, potable drinking water, jobs and other critical investments in the productive sectors of the economy for the benefit of all Ghanaians, have been diverted into the pockets and bank accounts of a few selfish officials of the Akufo Addo-government, while the masses continue to suffer.

Friends from the media, these acts of naked robbery and the coverup of same by President Akufo-Addo, as pertains to the PDS scam, is what continues to entrench President Akufo-Addo as the Chief Clearing Agent of corruption, who shields his corrupt appointees from punishment. This is why we have always maintained, that President Akufo-Addo is the biggest enabler and promoter of corruption in his government. Today, the incorruptibility tag he was clothe with by his party and some elements in the media prior to the 2016 general elections, has turned out to be a ruse which was presented to Ghanaians for votes and nothing more.

Ghanaians should not and will never forgive President Akufo for supervising this stinking PDS scam which has caused the nation a huge financial loss of over US$1.8 billion, and the numerous corruption scandals that has engulfed his government in the last three (3) and half years. We call on the good people of Ghana to kick out the corrupt Akufo-Addo regime and vote for the John&Jane Ticket come 7th December, 2020. This country needs Leaders who are honest and incorruptible. And those are none other than H.E John Dramani Mahama and his running mate, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, who have dedicated themselves to serving this country with honor and integrity in all the positions they have individually served in.

As President Mahama has already announced, when he is given the opportunity to serve this country again on 7th January 2021, he shall wage a ruthless war against corruption in all sectors of the nation through a crusade dubbed Operation Sting.

Ghanaians can be rest assured, that under the Operation Sting crusade, the next NDC/Mahama government shall ensure that all monies (over GHS1.5 billion) collected by PDS from electricity consumers are properly accounted for, and ensure the retrieval of any amounts misappropriated by the company, their promoters and accomplices for the State. Also, the next NDC/Mahama government shall ensure the arrest and criminal prosecution of all persons who directly or indirectly played a role in the stinking PDS scam and the several other corruption scandals we have witnessed under the Akufo-Addo government.

As President Mahama demonstrated between 2012-2016, when he ensured the prosecution of his own appointees and party members in the YEA scandal involving Abuga Pele and Assibit, the National Service Secretariat Pay roll fraud scandal among others, President Mahama will not be a clearing agent of corruption in the next NDC government. Through the Operation Sting crusade, all appointees of the Next NDC/Mahama administration shall be required to publish their assets and no acts of corruption in any form, whether by Mahama appointees or political opponents will go unpunished. This is the only way, Ghana can succeed in the fight against corruption which has undoubtedly been the bane of the countrys development for a very long time.

President Mahama shall ensure the judicious utilization of state resources for the development of the country through far-reaching policies such as his "Agenda 1 million jobs" policy, Free Primary Health Care program, National Apprenticeship Program, free TVET program, the BIG PUSH policy which will inject some $10 billion into infrastructural projects to dualize key roads, complete the remainder of the 200 Community Day Senior High Schools, finish all abandoned hospital and road projects, among others, for the benefit of all Ghanaians.

Thank you for your attention.
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Linkedin Michael Fuhrer (The Jakarta Post) The Conversation  Mon, August 10, 2020 10:41 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cc3928 3 Environment Netflix,binge-watching,streaming-service,live-streaming,watching-TV Free

Coronavirus lockdowns have led to a massive reduction in global emissions, but theres one area where energy usage is up  way up  during the pandemic: internet traffic.

Data-intensive video streaming, gaming and livestreaming for business, university and school classes, is chewing up energy.

Estimates can be notoriously difficult and depend on the electricity source, but six hours of streaming video may be the equivalent of burning one liter of petrol, due to emissions from the electricity used to power the data centers which deliver the video.

In fact, the energy associated with the global IT sector  from powering internet servers to charging smartphones  is estimated to have the same carbon footprint as the aviation industrys fuel emissions (before planes were grounded).

But Australia is a global leader in research to lower the energy used in IT, which is vital for meeting the streaming demand without the environmental cost.

Where does the data come from?

Video requires huge amounts of data, and accounts for around 80 percent of the data transmitted on the internet. Much of the energy needed for streaming services is consumed by data centers, which deliver data to your computer or device. Increasingly housed in vast factory-sized buildings, these servers store, process and distribute internet traffic.

Research in 2015 found data centers may consume as much as 13% of the worlds electricity by 2030, accounting for about 6% of global carbon dioxide emissions. And the European Commission-funded Eureca project found data centers in EU countries consumed 25% more energy in 2017 compared with 2014.

Imagine what those figures will look like at the end of this year of home-bound internet use.

Meeting demands with Moores law

The growth in IT is often taken for granted. In contrast to the old days of dial-up internet, we now demand a three-hour movie, in high definition, to download immediately. We want phones that can take video like a pro.

None of this is free. Nor is it sustainable. Every year the number of computations, or transmission of information through space, done globally, increases by 60 percent, according to 2011 research.

All this computation uses transistors. These are tiny switches that amplify electrical signals, and are made using silicon-based technology.

For the past 40 years, our ever-increasing need for more computing was largely satisfied by incremental improvements in silicon-based computing technology  ever-smaller, ever-faster, ever-more efficient chips. We refer to this constant shrinking of silicon components as Moores law.

Errol Hunt , Author provided

For example, since the late 1970s the length of transistors reduces by about 30%, and the area by about 50%, every two years. This shrinks the energy used in switching on and off each transistor by about 50%, which is better for the environment.

While each transistor uses only a tiny amount of energy, there are billions of transistors in a typical computer chip, each switching billions of time per second. This can add up to a vast amount of energy.

We need better chips

Recently it has become much harder (and much more expensive) to pursue such trends, and the number of companies pursuing smaller components is dropping off rapidly.

Globally, four companies manufactured chips with 14 nanometre (nm) transistors in 2014, but in recent years theyve struggled to continue shrinking the size of silicon transistors. Global Foundries dropped out of this race altogether in 2018, and Intel experienced enormous problems with manufacturing at 10 nm. That leaves only two companies (Samsung and TSMC) making 7 nm transistors today.

So the answer isnt to switch off Netflix. The answer is to create better computer chips.

But weve got everything we can out of silicon, so we need to use something else. If we want computing to continue to grow, we need new, energy-efficient computers.

Australia is a leader in low-energy solutions

Australia is leading the world in this new field to replace conventional electronics. The ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET) was established in 2017 to address exactly this challenge.

Last year scientists at FLEET published research in Nature revealing the discovery that the topological material sodium-bismuthide could be the key to achieving ultra-low energy electronics.

These so-called topological insulators, which led to a 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics, conduct electricity only along their edges, and in one direction, without loss of energy due to resistance.

This discovery is a first step towards the development of a low-energy replacement for conventional silicon-based electronics.

Other top research centers in Australia are addressing different parts of this challenge. For example, one centre is working to reduce the energy used in ubiquitous communication of digital data. Another two are taking a different tack, developing an entirely new quantum technology for computing which promises to enormously speed up, and improve the efficiency of, certain difficult computing tasks.

Other countries are equally focused on developing alternatives to the unsustainable need for better and faster electronics, since we cannot sustain the energy needed for these existing and future technologies.

All of these technologies are still confined to specialized laboratories and are probably at least a decade away from finding their way into everyday devices. But we dont expect the demand for computing to go away, and the energy problem in IT will only become more urgent.

---

Michael Fuhrer, Professor of Physics, Monash University and Errol Hunt, Senior Communication Coordinator, Monash University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
Monday, August 10, 2020

The financial impact of Covid-19 and heightened tensions with China have many concerned that businesses will cut budgets and overlook the serious threat of cybercrimes. Since the onset of Covid, the FBI has reported a 300% increase in cybercrimes.

Cyberattacks have continue to be reported in significant numbers by small businesses for several years now and these attacks have become more sophisticated and more severe. Consider the following statistics from 2017:

18.5 million websites are infected in any given week, and 80% of these websites are small business web sites.

400,000 new pieces of malware (which is usually delivered via e-mail and can steal, alter, and delete data) pop up on the Internet every day, and 58% of malware attacks are against small businesses.

54% of all organizations were hit with ransome ware in 2017 at a cost of over $5 billion dollars.

Last year, I sat in on a cybersecurity seminar my client in Tulsa held for his employees and it really opened my eyes to the risks small businesses face today to cyberattacks. The most common problems highlighted during this seminar were: (i) weak password policies, (ii) unprotected mobile devices, (iii) not performing software updates in a timely manner, (iv) non-existent employee training, and (v) a lack of investment in cybersecurity.

Hackers can break into most passwords in less than 10 minutes. Small businesses can strengthen their password policies by having their employees change their passwords quarterly, and by following "The 8+4 rule." "The 8+4 rule" strengthens passwords by mixing eight characters with four different types of characters -- upper case, lower case, symbols, and numbers. If you add one additional character, (8+4+1) that password will take a hacker 44,000 years to crack.

Because most hackers break into a network through one's e-mail and many employees today access their employers network through their smart devices, it is also important that businesses create a "mobile device policy," which, at minimum, should include the above "8+4+1" password policy. Information about creating a mobile device policy can be found on the Internet.

There is no excuse for not performing regular software updates as they can be automatically programmed when setting up most software today, albeit performing regular software updates still needs to be part of an employee training program on cybersecurity.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers a free cybersecurity training module that can be downloaded from the Internet to train your employees. The SBA also promotes the following ten-(10) cybersecurity best practices:

Protect your business against viruses, spyware, and other malicious code.

Make sure each of your computers and mobile devices are equipped with antivirus and antispyware and configure all your software to install updates automatically. These updates provide patches that protect against problems and maximize the functionality of your electronic devices.

Secure your networks by using a firewall and encrypting information.

If you have a Wi-Fi network, make sure it is secure, hidden and password protect access to your Wi-Fi network or router. To hide your Wi-Fi network, set up your wireless access point or router so it does not broadcast the network name, which is known as the Service Set Identifier or SSID.

Establish security practices and policies to protect sensitive information.

Establish policies on how employees should handle and protect personally identifiable information and other sensitive data. Clearly outline the consequences of violating your business's cybersecurity policies and enforce these policies.

Educate employees about cyberthreats and hold them accountable.

Educate your employees about online threats and how to protect your business's data, including safe use of social networking sites. Depending on the nature of your business, employees might be introducing competitors to sensitive details about your business. Employees should be informed about how to post online in a way that does not reveal any trade secrets to the public or competing businesses. And hold your employees accountable to the business's Internet security policies and procedures.

Require employees to use strong passwords and to change them often.

Consider implementing multifactor authentication that requires additional information beyond a password to gain entry. Check with your vendors that handle sensitive data, especially financial institutions, to see if they offer multifactor authentication for your account.

Employ best practices on payment cards.

Work with your banks or card processors to ensure the most trusted and validated tools and anti-fraud services are being used. You may also have additional security obligations related to agreements with your bank or processor. Isolate payment systems from other, less secure programs and do not use the same computer to process payments and surf the Internet.

Also, shift from magnetic-strip payment cards to safer, more secure chip card technology, also known as "EMV." (Visit SBA.gov/EMV for more information and resources.)

Make backup copies of important business data and information.

Regularly backup the data on all computers. Critical data includes word processing documents, electronic spreadsheets, databases, financial files, human resources files, and accounts receivable/payable files. Backup data automatically if possible, or at least weekly, and store the copies either offsite or on the cloud.

Control physical access to computers and network components

Prevent access or use of business computers by unauthorized individuals. Laptops can be particularly easy targets for theft or can be lost, so lock them up when unattended. Make sure a separate user account is created for each employee and require strong passwords. Administrative privileges should only be given to trusted IT staff and key personnel.

Create a mobile device action plan.

Mobile devices can create significant security and management challenges, especially if they hold confidential information or can access the corporate network. Require users to password protect their devices, encrypt their data, and install security apps to prevent criminals from stealing information while the phone is on public networks; and be sure to set reporting procedures for lost or stolen equipment.

Protect all pages on your public-facing websites, not just the checkout and sign-up pages.

Cybersecurity is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation today. The good news about protecting your business from cybersecurity attacks is that it isn't expensive, and business owners can quickly make the necessary investments to protect their businesses from cyberattacks; however, if you think that your small business is not likely to be hacked in the future, it's time to change your thinking and take action to protect your business from the risk of a costly, future cyberattack.

For additional information about cybersecurity during Covid-19, go to CISA.gov. CISA stands for the "Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency," which is an agency within homeland security to advise against risks, work with partners to defend against today's threats and collaborate to build more secure and resilient infrastructures.

Looking for more information about successfully navigating the Covid Crisis ?

Our Small Business Owner's Covid Survival Kit is available through our on-line store on my Square web site https://greater-prairie-business-consulting.square.site/

It contains almost three dozen files filled with a plethora of financial, tax, HR, safety, leadership, sales, marketing, and government information to help business owners survive the Covid Coronavirus Crisis.

We offer a 100% Money Back Guarantee if you are not completely satisfied, and free updates.
Almost a year after the official announcement, the second-gen Google Pixel Buds are now finally available in more color options. During the Made by Google event in October 2019, Google launched the Pixel Buds alongside the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL smartphones.

The company mentioned its first-ever truly wireless earbuds (TWS) will be sold in Oh So Orange, Clearly White, Quite Mint, and Almost Black color options. In April this year, the Pixel Buds went on sale for the first time but only came in Clearly White color option. According to 9to5Google, Walmart is currently the only retailer to offer the Pixel Buds in new color options.

Almost Black Pixel Buds now on sale through Walmart

The users can order the Pixel Buds in Almost Black color through Walmart and the delivery date is set for this Friday. As of now, no other retailer is taking orders for these new color options. While all the three new colors are listed on BestBuy, the product is still mentioned as coming soon.

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Interestingly, Googles own website is yet to update the Pixel Buds listing with these new color options. More importantly, not every country will get the Pixel Buds in all the colors. Google will sell its earbuds in all four colors only in the US. Both Japan and Canada will get the Pixel Buds in Clearly White, Quite Mint, and Almost Black colors.

Oh So Orange color could be exclusive to the US

In the UK, the earbuds will be available in Clearly White and Almost Black colors. As of now, the other markets will only get the Clearly White Pixel Buds. Looks like the Oh So Orange Pixel Buds will be exclusive to the US customers. Still, the Pixel Buds are only limited to very few markets.

With the Pixel 4a launch, Google also made the Pixel Buds available in Japan. We also expect the Pixel Buds to make its debut in India alongside the Pixel 4a in October. In the US, Googles TWS earbuds are still retailing for $179.99.

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The Pixel Buds will compete with the likes of Apple AirPods Pro and Microsoft Surface Earbuds. With the Pixel Buds, Google is also offering hands-free Google Assistant support. Additionally, the interchangeable ear tips will provide a secure and comfortable fit.

While the buds alone provide 5 hours of music playback, the overall battery life with the wireless charging case will be up to 24 hours. Moreover, the Pixels Buds are also water and sweat resistant for using them during the workouts.

Buy the Google Pixel Buds
The nearly $300 million in humanitarian assistance raised for Beirut at a virtual conference of international donors on Sunday will be directly delivered to the Lebanese population, the office of French President Emmanuel Macron said.

The millions in emergency aid will be distributed with utmost efficiency and transparency, according to Macron, who co-hosted the hastily arranged pledge drive with the United Nations.

Lebanon's future is being decided now, by Lebanon itself, and with its international partners at its side, Macron tweeted on Sunday, adding, Our offer of help includes supporting a credible and independent impartial investigation of the explosion.

Thousands of protesters have filled the streets in recent days demanding an independent probe into last Tuesdays explosion as well as the entire overhaul of the Lebanese government. On Monday, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced that he and his cabinet were resigning, saying the blast resulted from "endemic corruption."

Despite repeated warnings, the Lebanese authorities improperly stored a stockpile of ammonium nitrate at Lebanons most vital port for years. The highly explosive chemical ignited Tuesday, setting off an explosion that killed more than 150 people, injured 5,000 and left an estimated 300,000 homeless. Officials estimate the blast caused as much as $15 billion in damage.

Macron was the first world leader to tour the wreckage, arriving the day after the blast to throngs of crowds begging for his help. France has already dispatched two military planes, a mobile health clinic and 15 tons of equipment to its former colony. A French helicopter carrier with an onboard hospital that is carrying medical personnel and further supplies is due to arrive on Thursday.
A Carlisle man accused of killing the two mothers of his children excitedly confessed to both murders during an interview at the Cumberland County Prison, borough police contend.

Davone Unique Anderson, 25, admitted he shot and killed Sydney Parmelee, 23, at a home in the 100 block of East Louther Street on July 5 because he believed she was cheating on him, Detectives Christopher Miller and Antanine Klinger said in arrest documents.

The detectives said Anderson told them he shot and killed Kaylee Lyons, 23, who was six weeks pregnant, at the same home on July 30 because he feared she was going to tell police he had killed Parmelee.

In the arrest papers filed with District Judge Jon Birbeck, the officers said Parmelees body was found lying on a couch just before 4:45 p.m. on July 5. She had been shot in the head. A gun was found lying nearby and as was a spent bullet casing, the detectives said.

The death scene was the home of Lyons, who like Parmelee was a 2014 graduate of Carlisle High School.

The detectives said Anderson told them Parmelee had followed him to Lyons home where the two of them argued. The officers wrote that Anderson said he and Parmelee were in a relationship, had two children together and had recently been going through a separation.

Anderson told police he left the home to smoke and while outside heard a gunshot. He said he went back inside and saw Parmelees body on the couch next to his and Lyons 14-month-old son, the officers wrote. They said Anderson said he grabbed his son, ran to his mothers home and told her to call 911.

Under questioning by Detective Thomas Dolan Anderson appeared calm, answering questions in a monotone manner, the officers wrote.

Davone Anderson . Photo provided by Cumberland County Prison.

Evidence at the scene indicated Parmelees death wasnt a suicide, however, the detectives said. Anderson made conflicting statements to different officers, they said, and Parmelees newly purchased cell phone and wallet were missing. A review of Parmelees cell phone messages showed there was no evidence that Parmelee wanted to commit suicide, the investigators said. Nor were there gunpowder burns or other marks on Parmelees body to indicate she had shot herself at point-blank range, they said.

Police said they determined the pistol that killed Parmelee had been stolen from Boiling Springs.

Miller and Klinger said Lyons was found on the floor of the Louther Street home with a gunshot wound to her head around 9:15 p.m. on July 30. A spent bullet and a shell casing were found at the scene, but Lyons cell phone was missing, they said. Lyons died hours later at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

Lyons was found by Andersons mother and another woman. The detectives said the women told them Anderson had asked them to go to the house to get his son, who was left alone in the house with the fatally injured Lyons. The women said Anderson left without explaining what had happened, the investigators said.

The detectives said another witness told police Anderson went to a home in Harrisburg shortly after Lyons shooting, where he got a change of clothes and some bleach and went into a bathroom. That witness said Anderson had a gun, asked for ammunition, asked about being tracked and said he didnt want anyone to know where he was, the detectives wrote.

Anderson was arrested in Carlisle soon after while driving Lyons Honda Civic.

Miller and Klinger said that while in the Cumberland County Prison on July 31, a day after Lyons death, Anderson made an excited utterance to a correction officer that he killed them both. The investigators said he also told detectives I killed Sydney and I killed Kaylee, too.

Anderson said he killed Parmelee due to his belief of infidelity and shot Lyons because he feared she would turn him in to the police, the officers wrote. They said Anderson admitted killing Parmelee with the stolen gun from Boiling Spring and of shooting Lyons with her own pistol.

Anderson wasnt allowed to possess firearms due to a 2017 drug conviction, the detectives noted. He is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of murder of an unborn child, plus counts of illegally possessing firearms, receiving stolen property and child endangerment.
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://media.zenfs.com/en-us/newsfile_64/eea0c46f03e2d81f6cbf329f207306cf

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!"

Story continues

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
The benchmark indices were trading near the day's high in early afternoon trade. Global stock markets were upbeat after US President Donald Trump signed executive actions extending financial relief to Americans hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

At 11:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 302.20 points or 0.79% at 38,342.77. The Nifty 50 index added 99.45 points or 0.89% at 11,313.50.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 1.50% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 1.55%. Both these indices outperformed the benchmark Sensex.

Buyers outnumbered sellers. On the BSE, 1709 shares rose and 809 shares fell. A total of 166 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 397.32 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 438.62 crore in the Indian equity market on 7 August, provisional data showed.

Economy:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a Rs 1 lakh crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund to support community farming assets across the country and said this would enhance India's ability to compete globally in the agriculture sector. The farm infrastructure will enable farmers get higher value for their produce as they will be able to store and sell at better prices as per market conditions, reduce wastage and increase processing and value addition.

PM also released Rs 17,000 crore to nearly 8.5 crore farmers under the sixth installment of the PM-Kisan scheme.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 19,862,599 with 731,349 deaths. India reported 6,34,945 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 44,386 deaths while 15,35,743 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, fell 0.35% to 22.4975. The Nifty August 2020 futures were trading at 11,312.90, at a discount of 0.6 points compared with the spot at 11,313.50.

The Nifty weekly option chain for 13 August 2020 expiry showed maximum Call OI 26.34 lakh contracts at the 11,300 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 31.39 lakh contracts was seen at 11,000 strike price.

The Nifty option chain for 27 August 2020 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 21.85 lakh contracts at the 11,500 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 31.31 lakh contracts was seen at 11,000 strike price.

Earnings Impact:

Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) slumped 14.50% to Rs 389.55 after the company's consolidated net profit dropped 78% to Rs 49.29 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019. Net sales for Q1 June 2020 stood at Rs 1194.20 crore, fall 28% compared with Rs 1654.76 crore in Q1 June 2019.

Birla Corporation tumbled 7.08% to Rs 606.80 after consolidated net profit tanked 53.2% to Rs 65.77 crore on 35.1% decline in net sales to Rs 1,221.97 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

Revenue for the quarter declined as sales by volume dropped 33.9% to 2.4 million tons (mt). EBITDA slumped 37% to Rs 252 crore in June 2020 as against Rs 402 crore in June 2019 amid severe disruptions in key markets and manufacturing centres due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"With the arrival of monsoons, cement prices have started to weaken in key markets from the end of June. Timely arrival of monsoons, however, augurs well for recovery of India's economy. While demand during rest of the year will be a function of how the lockdowns in various regions of the country pan out from time to time, expectations of gradual easing of lockdown in urban areas and resurgence in infrastructure activities with migrant workers returning to construction sites are indicative that the worst may be over for the industry. The company remains cautiously optimistic about a gradual return to normalcy over the next few months", the company said in a statement.

Affle India hit an upper circuit of 10% at Rs 2025.95 after the company's consolidated net profit jumped 42.3% to Rs 18.77 crore on 20% increase in net sales to Rs 89.77 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019. EBITDA margin remained unchanged at 25% in Q1 June 2020.

The firm said that the growth has been broad-based coming from both cost per converted user (CPCU) business and non-CPCU business. The CPCU business continued its positive momentum delivering a total of 1.7 crore of converted users in Q1 FY21.

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Linkedin Eunice Ali (The Jakarta Post) Surabaya, East Java  Mon, August 10, 2020 09:16 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cba59f 3 Opinion women-empowerment,workplace,workplace-safety,gender-equality,minority-groups,female-directors Free

Dear CEO,

Did you know that you could benefit from advocating for women and minorities?

As we prepare for a post-pandemic new normal, we have had to adjust to changes on an unprecedented level: being forced into partial lockdowns and working remotely for months with no end in sight while juggling childcare now that schools have been moved online.

Google has announced that employees will be permitted work from home until next summer, and Twitter has allowed employees work from home permanently. Suddenly, maternity leave is not such a big deal at these companies.

But what about your company? Not just maternity leave, what about mentoring and engagement with important clients? Promotions and pay raises?

You may be aware of the unspoken view that the only reason men would go out of their way to stand up for or provide opportunities for women is that they have crushes on them and are likely to end up having affairs with them, despite the fact that championing and taking advantage of women are two distinct behaviors.

In addition, you do not want to be accused of harassment by being seen near women. Many senior men have told Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg that they are more likely to take other men on trips or to dinner than they are to take women.

Now you are in a dilemma. A part of you knows you can leverage your power and set an example in your company, but deep inside you also still want to enjoy the superiority that comes with locker room talk.

Please play the long game. You might not take discrimination seriously, thinking it is not your problem, so you are not willing to go the extra mile to take matters into your own hands. But #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter are here, whether you are ready or not; these are the forces shaping the nation right now.

When you look back at the end of your career, you will likely want to consider yourself part of the solution and not part of the problem. This is your chance to become an ally and influence the discourse.

The tricky part is getting people on board with you. You might sense that people think you are becoming less cool. But the founding fathers of the United States did not prioritize being cool; they did what was right and honorable.

They led the United States of America to declare independence from Britain. They created the foundation of human rights for their fellow citizens: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [people] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

It was also with this spirit that philosophers and scientists led Europe through the Enlightenment, out of the authority of the Church and into the age of reason.

You can bring a similar revolution to your company through equality of opportunity, as The Economist suggests. You can start by acknowledging that your employees need more than just diversity training from HR.

You can ensure that all direct reports are taken to dinner and given shots at big projects. You can make clear your criteria for career development so that it is accessible by merit to everyone. You can ensure that entry-level staffers are evaluated for critical early promotions into managers.

You can conduct regular surveys to create an environment where people are free to express themselves (psychological safety), are not interrupted during meetings and do not have their thoughts credited to someone else. These steps will augment your employees job satisfaction and sense of belonging.

Your success in managing employee retention would contribute to your companys bottom line and reputation. The Harvard Business Review wrote that workers who felt they belonged performed 56 percent better, were 50 percent less likely to leave and reduced sick days by 75 percent. This would be the equivalent of more than US$52 million annual savings for a 10,000-person company.

These people were also 167 percent more willing to recommend their companies, and they received double the raises and 18 times more promotions. Your company would boost its competitiveness and, in turn, attract more talent.

Finally, you would define what it means to live out American ideals by making the American dream a reality for your employees. Your subordinates would take their cues from you on how to treat their coworkers.

They would no longer be content with being bystanders; they would put in the effort to listen to what their fellow workers had to say without dominating every conversation, and they would not ignore or sideline women and minorities.

Your company would become a melting pot of ideas that represented people across the spectra of gender, race and sexual orientation, among other demographic differences. You would be known for your personal impact. Your accomplishments would speak for themselves.

When you retired, it would be my turn to celebrate how far your company had come. Because when my time comes, I want to be able to say that it was your legacy that I aspired to live up to, not that of your competitors.

Sincerely,

Your future successor

***

The writer is a university student with experience in journalism and research overseas.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
Farmer Wants A Wife host Natalie Gruzlewski is reportedly on the verge of quitting after being left none too pleased about the show's focus on drama this year.

The Channel Seven series is known as the wholesome equivalent to its dating show rivals including Married At First Sight and The Bachelor franchise - however, the current season has been embroiled in a list of scandals from the get-go.

And New Idea has now revealed that the show's 'very conservative' long-time host, 43, has complained about the explosive direction of the series this year and is frustrated about her 'hands-on involvement with the cast'.

'She's not happy!' Farmer Wants A Wife host Natalie Gruzlewski, 43, [pictured] is reportedly on the verge of quitting after being left none too pleased about the show's focus on drama this year

A source has told the publication that Natalie is annoyed that Farmer Wants A Wife has lost its 'feel-good' factor, which initially captured the hearts of viewers.

'Very conservative Natalie is not happy - she expected it to be like the old days,' it's revealed.

The brunette has also reportedly protested the 'tone of the show's promos and publicity which replicates Married At First Sight.'

Irritatingly enough for Natalie, Farmer Wants A Wife's 'MAFS-style cast and content' has been a rating smash-hit.

New direction: The Channel Seven series is known as the wholesome equivalent to its rivals including Married At First Sight and The Bachelor franchise - however, the current season has been embroiled in a list of scandals [Pictured farmer Harry]

'She expected it to be like the old days': It has now revealed that the show's 'very conservative' long-time host has complained about the explosive direction of the series this year

Longtime host: Before returning to the show for its tenth season this year, former weather presenter Natalie hosted Farmer Wants A Wife from 2007 to 2012 [Pictured in 2007]

Despite Natalie allegedly being at her wits' end with the revamped series, she has 'no choice' but to forge ahead with her presenting commitments.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted a Channel Seven representative for comment.

Before returning to the show for its tenth season this year, former weather presenter Natalie hosted Farmer Wants A Wife from 2007 to 2012.

Meanwhile, on Sunday's episode, contestant Karlana Alexander sensationally quit the show after Harry Robertson confronted her about her supposed interest in a crew member.

People want drama: Irritatingly enough for Natalie, Farmer Wants A Wife's 'MAFS-style cast and content' has been a rating smash-hit

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph's Confidential afterwards, the 24-year-old set the record straight on claims she wanted to pursue a production employee - explaining that it was merely a bizarre rumour.

It has also been teased that in true MAFS-style, the show will be rocked by a 'partner swap' as one of farmer Harry's women 'leaves for another man'.

Farmer Wants A Wife continues Monday at 7.30 pm on Channel Seven.
The U.S., by a wide margin, leads the globe in COVID-19 cases. But its neighbor to the south has its own alarming spike, making it the third worst outbreak in the world.

Mexico has had 52,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths, The New York Times reported Monday. A widespread distrust of hospitals has made the pandemic even deadlier, as Mexicans are reportedly frequently refusing to seek treatment until their COVID-19 symptoms have worsened past the point of possible recovery, or not at all. Additionally, the tendency to avoid hospitals has made it difficult to confirm the true number of coronavirus deaths  those who die at home often aren't tested, so their deaths aren't counted as part of the official death toll. Mexico's government says there were 71,000 excess deaths this spring, deaths that aren't officially COVID-19-related but likely point to an even deadlier outbreak.

Last month, nearly 70 percent of Mexicans said they would feel unsafe taking their loved ones to a hospital for coronavirus treatment, writes the Times. The fear, of course, isn't unfounded. Almost 40 percent of those hospitalized with COVID-19 end up dying, data shows, compared to less than 25 percent in New York City at the peak of the outbreak. Deaths in hospitals also happen quicker in Mexico, though doctors say that's partly because patients wait so long before arriving for treatment.

The vicious cycle has many fearing that medical workers are even deliberately infecting patients or allowing them to die, though no evidence suggests that's the case. Read more at The New York Times.

More stories from theweek.com

Donald Trump's impotent tyranny

Protesters, police clash during 2nd night of protests over disputed Belarus election

Trump says the 1918 flu pandemic began in 1917, 'probably ended the Second World War'


The detainees include human rights activists, journalists, election observers.

Belarusian police detained 170 people overnight after the election day in Belarus, according to preliminary reports.

In particular, 82 people were detained in Minsk, and 88 people were detained in the regions, the human rights center Viasna reported.

The detainees include human rights activists, journalists, observers who worked at the polling stations.

In particular, law enforcement agencies apprehended Elena Redkova, who is an authorized representative of presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, along with Tatyana Bosyuk, a member of her headquarters.

Viasna's lists also include people contact with whom has been lost since August 8.

Read alsoProtests reported downtown Minsk, riot police use stun grenades (Photos, video)

As UNIAN reported earlier, the presidential elections were held in Belarus on August 9. Early voting began on August 4 and ended at 20:00 local time on Sunday, August 9.

According to the national exit poll, incumbent President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko is gaining 79.7% of the vote in the elections.

After the publication of exit poll findings, thousands of Belarusians took to the streets of Minsk and other cities, which resulted in spontaneous protests and clashes with law enforcement agencies. The police fired water cannons, tear gas and stun grenades in a crackdown on protests.

Local media reported about the first death during the clashes. A young man, Evgeny Zaichkin, was killed during the protest.

By Monday morning, the situation in Minsk had reportedly returned to normal. The Investigative Committee of Belarus is inspecting the sites of yesterday's actions in the center of the city. An investigative group is working there, and officials ask passers-by not to interfere with their work.

Rallies were also reported in such Belarusian cities and towns as Baranovichi, Brest, Kobyin, Pinsk, Lida, Grodno, Maladzyechna, Mogilev, Vitebsk, Babruysk, and others.

Leaders of European countries have condemned the violent dispersal of protesters in Belarus.
Former Local Government and Rural Development Minister, Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi in his book, Working With Rawlings has disclosed how the late Prof Atta Mills was "captured" by Jerry Rawlings barely a week to the filing of nominations for the presidential elections in 1996.



He narrated that things were getting desperate for the party as Prof. George Benneh, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana and Minister of Finance and Economic Planning in the third Republic and Prof. Samuel Kwasi Agyapong, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, had both declined the offer.



According to him in the midst of this desperation and in very fortuitous circumstances, he came up with what eventually turned out to be the solution of the partys dilemma.



He recounted that Prof. Mills had just lost to Prof. Ivan Addae-Mensah by a single vote in the University of Ghana Governing Council the position of Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana.



The Minister of Education, Harry Sawyer, whose preferred candidate for the Vice Chancellorship position was Professor Mills with whom he shared some Accra Hearts of Oak affinity, spoke passionately in a cabinet meeting about Prof. Mills and how he wished Prof. Mills had won the position.



He said after the meeting he went to the office of Dr. Obed Asamoah, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and a member of one of the search teams for a Vice Presidential candidate and suggested to him that the Professor fitted the bill of what it took to be the NDCs Vice Presidential candidate.



Obed Asamoahs reaction was immediate and almost instinctive, he wrote.



He spoke to President Rawlings and I was asked to ensure that Atta Mills was on the ticket.



Please go to the Professors house or wherever you may find him today and do whatever you can to get him to come on the ticket. Do not leave until he has agreed, Mr. Ahwoi said as he was assigned by Jerry Rawlings.



He continued that that evening his wife and he visited Prof. Mills and his wife Naadu at their Legon residence, but they met his absence.



On his return around 10 pm, he looked and sounded a bit inebriated but as soon as he saw my wife and I, he sobered up and wondered at our presence . . . I broached the subject to Prof Mills. I was not very successful. Our long discussion which lasted till dawn ended with Prof Mills reluctantly agreeing to sleep over the matter, he narrated.



Throughout the conversation, he said Mills through his constant references to Ato Ahwoi had given a clear indication to him that in matters of contemporary politics and especially in matters of the NDC, he deferred to the opinion of Ato Ahwoi.



He said after his unsuccessful discussions with the Professor, he briefed Ato Ahwoi that same dawn about his initiative, Jerrys assignment, his apparently unsuccessful meeting with Prof Mills and requested for his intervention.



At Midday of that same day, Ato and Prof Mills came to my office at the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.



On opening the door Prof Mills beaming with smiles, said: "Kwamena, I have news for you. I know on hearing it you would like to have a bottle of our favourite Club beer but let us pray first . . . "



" . . He has succeeded, through appropriate and relevant spritiual and biblical references, to convince me to accept the offer to be Jerry's running mate. So I will do it. But let me tell you one thing: This is neither your will nor Jerry's will. This is God's will," Prof Mills had said.



I called President Rawlings on the telephone and relayed Prof Mills positive response to him. Rawlings was ecstatic. Lock your door, mo nua, he said, Dont let him leave your office for somebody to go and change his mind. I am sending some people over, he said.



He said within 30 minutes Nana Ato Dadzie, Chief of Staff to Rawlings and Tsatsu Tsikata arrived with the Presidential nomination forms in which President Rawlings had filled his personal details as required by the EC and Prof Mills took the forms and duly completed his portion.



He continued that a meeting was to be arranged with President Rawlings for the first face-to-face encounter between the two of them, to be followed by a full meeting of the Chapel Group at which President Rawwlings would announce his choise of Running Mate.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
A model who offered to help a mental health organisation after her own personal battle with depression was left livid after she was sent back a topless photo of a man's chest with a message telling to her sell it as a 't** picture' on her OnlyFans page.

Zoe Cain, 29, reached out to The Happiness Project on social media offering to help out after being inspired by the organisation's positive messages - posted daily to its hundreds of thousands of social media followers.

But the mental health worker, from Anglesey, Wales, who herself has battled with depression and anxiety, was left shocked and angry when her offer of assistance was met with a picture of a man's chest.

The picture, sent from The Happiness Project's Whatsapp account, was accompanied by the message: 'I reckon I could sell that as a tit picture on your OnlyFans and people wouldn't know. Chest pump in real today.'

Zoe Cain, 29, reached out to The Happiness Project on social media offering to help out after being inspired by the organisation's positive messages - posted daily to its hundreds of thousands of social media followers

But the mental health worker, from Anglesey, Wales, who herself has battled with depression and anxiety, was left shocked and angry when her offer of assistance was met with a picture of a man's chest

Ms Cain, who runs an account named Blonde Gypsy Witch on the OnlyFans website, which allows people to charge users for often explicit pictures and videos, was not impressed.

What is OnlyFans? OnlyFans is a UK-based social media platform that allows influencers to charge followers a monthly subscription fee for videos and photos. The majority of OnlyFans users make adult content ranging from topless selfies to hardcore pornography, but others - including personal trainers - sell non-explicit photos and videos. High-profile Australian users include Married At First Sight's Rhyce Power and Love Island star Vanessa Sierra. Advertisement

She replied: 'Excuse me,' which prompted the response: 'It was only a joke.'

Ms Cain later questioned the professional nature of the message, before ending the conversation and blocking the account.

She has since hit out at the message, which she described as 'inappropriate and discriminatory'.

Ms Cain said: 'I've suffered from mental health issues, I'm a big advocate for supporting people's mental health.

'For someone in that position, with such a large number of followers, it's really inappropriate and it's also discriminatory.

'Someone like that shouldn't be anywhere near other people's mental health issues if that's the way they behave.

'That behaviour completely contradicts everything that organisation stands for.'

Ms Cain had contacted the non-profit organisation after recovering from a 'dark place'.

The organisation, set up by Joshua Martin Hudson in 2017, states 'it uses social media to help those battling mental illness.'

It posts daily positive messages to its 370,000 Facebook followers and 51,000 Instagram disciples.

Ms Cain, who runs an account named Blonde Gypsy Witch on the OnlyFans website, which allows people to charge users for often explicit pictures and videos, was not impressed by the message

Ms Cain later questioned the professional nature of the message, before ending the conversation and blocking the account

As well as social media campaigns, the organisation also arranges events to help people with mental health issues.

Ms Cain was open about her own struggles with mental health issues to The Happiness Project, and thought she could lend her expertise.

The model, who has more than 33,000 followers on Instagram, had hoped to use her profile to support people's mental health issues.

Ms Cain was open about her own struggles with mental health issues to The Happiness Project, and thought she could lend her expertise

She has previously volunteered with mental health charity Mind and since January, has worked as a support worker helping people with various mental health issues.

She messaged them on Instagram saying: 'I love your page and your work and I'm wondering if there's any way I can be involved at all?

'I've suffered with mental health and experienced family members with different things and I'm also a mental health support worker so would love to be part of your movement.'

She initially had a positive response, was given a mobile number to contact and was told she could help post content.

However she then received the photo when communicating through Whatsapp.

Responding to Zoe's criticism, The Happiness Project said: 'The photograph was sent as nothing more than a joke in response to me being in the gym.

'I do fully appreciate that this was not acceptable and have offered my deepest apologies.

'I do understand my sense of humour in this instance was not acceptable.

'I take full responsibility for it being inappropriate and can not apologise enough.

'The Happiness Project provided content that aims to eradicate the loneliness and isolation that people often feel and help them feel a little less alone during difficult times.'
The occupancy of beds in medical institutions of the first wave in Lviv region exceeds 50%, medical facilities of the second wave are opening for patients with COVID-19, Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Monday.

"The number of patients requiring hospitalization is growing. Lviv region has crossed the threshold of 50% occupancy of beds in medical institutions of the first wave. We have begun to open hospitals of the second wave," he said.

Stepanov also noted that the Ministry of Health continues to increase its capacity in the fight against COVID-19.

"We continue to increase capacity. Testing has increased from 200 per day in April to more than 15,000 now. There are 10,237 beds in the second wave hospitals, of which 851 are intensive care beds, and 1,442 ventilators. We have significantly increased the number of ventilators, more than 800 devices have been additionally installed. We have increased the number of beds with oxygen. We are increasing the number of purchases of personal protective equipment. For this we use the resources of the state budget, as well as the purchase of 1.2 million test systems and equipment for laboratory centers under the World Bank program together with the Ministry of Health," he said.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded a grant of $1.2 million to the Mouse Biology Program at the University of California, Davis, to create mice that are susceptible to the COVID-19 virus, and to distribute them to researchers.

The goal is to create mice that can be used to reproduce human COVID-19 disease, said Kent Lloyd, director of the Mouse Biology Program and professor in the Department of Surgery at the UC Davis School of Medicine.

Mice and rats are not naturally infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The virus enters human cells by attaching to a protein called ACE2. Lloyd's team plans to create "humanized" laboratory mice by using CRISPR-Cas9 technology to precisely replace the genetic code for the mouse equivalent of ACE2 with the code for human ACE2.

They will also do the same with other human proteins thought to play a role in COVID-19 disease, such as TMPRSS2, which is thought to work with ACE2 to get the virus into cells. These lab mice will enable new investigations of how the virus attacks the body, why some people are more susceptible than others, and how COVID-19 might be prevented or treated.

As new genes involved in COVID-19 disease are discovered, they could also be engineered into mice, Lloyd said. Researchers might even be able to look at the effect of genetic variations in key genes on the course of disease.

Lloyd expects the mice to become available in about six months. The UC Davis Mouse Biology Program is a member of the NIH-funded Mutant Mouse Resource and Research Centers. The network collects and characterizes gene-modified and genetic knockout lab mice, and makes them available to researchers worldwide. The NIH recently renewed funding for the UC Davis center, now in its 21st year, for another five years.

###
WASHINGTON  A dispute that erupted into gun fire during a large outdoor party in Washington, D.C., early Sunday left one person dead and some 20 others injured, including an off-duty officer struggling for her life, according to police.

Christopher Brown, 17, died in the shooting that occurred after midnight in a southeast side neighborhood where people had gathered for music and food, Peter Newsham, the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, told reporters.

"There was some kind of a dispute," Newsham said. "Multiple weapons were produced."

Police said at least three shooters may have been involved, though no arrests were immediately announced. Newsham said a motive for the shooting wasn't clear.

Fellow officers took the injured off-duty officer to a local hospital.

"She's struggling for her life right now," he said. He added that "the rest of the gunshot wounds, as far as we know, are non-life-threatening."

Nelson Bostic, a resident in the area, told WTOP he heard a burst of rapid gunfire, then saw "people laying on the ground" and "ducking under cars."

"It was terrible," he said.

There may have been hundreds of attendees at the party despite city restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic on such large gatherings.

"We can't tolerate these types of gatherings in our city during COVID-19," Newsham said. "It's just too dangerous."

Mayor Muriel Bowser, speaking to reporters near the scene of the shooting, noted that public drinking and marijuana use outside were prohibited, as were gatherings of more than 50 people as a precaution against spreading the coronavirus.

"It's very important that as a community we have a zero-tolerance for this activity," she said. Bowser added that police will have to make some "difficult decisions" and "break up these events."

The gathering had been advertised on fliers as the 34th-n-EAT cookout that would start late Saturday, The Washington Post reported. It would, the flier added, be a drama free event.
Technavio has been monitoring the light-emitting diode (LED) lighting market in North America and it is poised to grow by 5.12 bn during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of almost 8% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200810005396/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Light-Emitting Diode (LED) Lighting Market in North America 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire).

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Acuity Brands Inc., Cree Inc., Dialight Plc, Eaton Corporation Plc, GE Current a Daintree Company, OSRAM Licht AG, Schneider Electric SE, Signify NV, USA LED, and Zumtobel Group AG are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Declining manufacturing cost of LEDs has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, the high average cost per LED fixture might hamper the market growth.

Light-Emitting Diode (LED) Lighting Market in North America 2020-2024: Segmentation

Light-Emitting Diode (LED) Lighting Market in North America is segmented as below:

Product LED Luminaries LED Lamps

Application Residential Commercial Industrial Outdoor Others



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=IRTNTR44287

Light-Emitting Diode (LED) Lighting Market in North America 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 light-emitting diode (LED) lighting market in North America report covers the following areas:

Light-Emitting Diode (LED) Lighting Market in North America size

Light-Emitting Diode (LED) Lighting Market in North America trends

Light-Emitting Diode (LED) Lighting Market in North America industry analysis

This study identifies the increasing demand for LED lights in hazardous industrial areas as one of the prime reasons driving the light-emitting diode (led) lighting market growth in North America during the next few years.

Light-Emitting Diode (LED) Lighting Market in North America 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the light-emitting diode (LED) lighting market in North America, including some of the vendors such as Acuity Brands Inc., Cree Inc., Dialight Plc, Eaton Corporation Plc, GE Current a Daintree Company, OSRAM Licht AG, Schneider Electric SE, Signify NV, USA LED, and Zumtobel Group AG. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the light-emitting diode (LED) lighting market in North America are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Light-Emitting Diode (LED) Lighting Market in North America 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist light-emitting diode (LED) lighting market growth in North America during the next five years

Estimation of the light-emitting diode (LED) lighting market size in North America and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the light-emitting diode (LED) lighting market in North America

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of light-emitting diode (LED) lighting market vendors in North America

Table Of Contents :

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2019

Market outlook: Forecast for 2019 2024

Five Forces Analysis

Five forces summary

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by Product

Market segments

Comparison by Product

LED luminaries Market size and forecast 2019-2024

LED lamps Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by Product

Market Segmentation by Application

Market segments

Comparison by Application

Residential Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Commercial Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Industrial Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Outdoor Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Others Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by Application

Customer Landscape

Market drivers

Market challenges

Market trends

Vendor Landscape

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

Acuity Brands Inc.

Cree Inc.

Dialight Plc

Eaton Corporation Plc

GE Current a Daintree Co.

OSRAM Licht AG

Schneider Electric SE

Signify NV

USA LED

Zumtobel Group AG

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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(Natural News) Earlier this month, New York City officials set a minimum threshold for the citys schools to open. They stated that only if the citys daily COVID-19 infection rate remained at less than three percent over a rolling seven-day average would these reopen for in-person instruction.

As part of the announcement, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio stated that should the three percent threshold be breached, public school buildings would close once again and switch to remote learning. De Blasio called it a very rigorous standard that would balance the importance of keeping everyone safe from the virus with that of getting students back to classrooms.

The essence of this plan is safety for everyone, de Blasio said during his daily news conference. We are going to have an extremely rigorous plan for opening schools and, if necessary, closing schools.

De Blasio sets a tougher standard than Cuomo

New York Citys current rate of positive coronavirus tests has been below the three percent threshold set by officials since June. Currently, only about one percent of those tested are found to be positive for COVID-19.

Prior to the citys announcement, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo stated that schools in the district could reopen for in-person instruction if the regions daily coronavirus infection rate averaged below five percent for 14 days. De Blasio, however, said that he set a tougher standard because of the citys density, as well as its prior experience with the spring surge of the outbreak.

According to de Blasio, who says that he had worked on the plan with unions for teachers and principals, the tougher standard sends the message of health and safety first.

We have a particular challenge here in New York City. We were the epicenter. Theres tremendous concern, tremendous trauma, that weve been through, and also the conditions of this city: Were one of the most densely populated places in the country, de Blasio stated.

Weve fought so hard to come back from this disease. Were gonna be very cautious to not let there be a resurgence.

Cuomo has said that he would reach a final decision on whether to reopen schools next week.

Plans in case of students and teachers testing positive detailed

Prior to de Blasio announcing the threshold, city officials already detailed what conditions would force the temporary closure of a school building, should students or teachers get infected.

Under guidance laid out by the New York City Department of Education, should one or two linked cases be found among students or staff in the same classroom, then that classroom will close for 14 days.

If two students in different classrooms get the virus but have some link, such as using a locker room at the same time, then the school will have to switch to remote learning. (Related: Coronavirus-enforced remote schooling hurts Americas most vulnerable students.)

Furthermore, should two students in different classrooms get infected with the coronavirus due to circumstances outside of school, the school building will be closed while contact tracers investigate how widespread the infections have become. The school might be able to reopen after cleaning; however, the students and staff in the affected classroom, as well as their close contacts, will have to quarantine at home for 14 days.

Unions have doubts whether schools can reopen in September

Previously, de Blasio had said that the city would open its public schools in September with a blended learning model. This would allow some students to attend school in person for as little as two days a week, due to limited space and the need for students to practice social distancing.

Teachers and principals unions  the same ones de Blasio says he worked with for his plan  have questioned whether the citys school buildings will be able to open safely in September.

We have serious concerns about what has been communicated to school leaders so far regarding safety protocols and instructional designs as well as the citys ability to provide schools with the necessary resources to implement their plan, said Mark Cannizzaro, president of the union representing city principals, in an email to the Wall Street Journal Friday.

Meanwhile, Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said that the new safety rules fell short, questioning whether they could be enforced effectively in every school.

We need randomized testing of school communities throughout the year and a vigorous contact tracing system that gives schools test results and a course of action with a 24-hour turnaround, he said.

Richard Carranza, Schools Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, addressed the concerns stating that school staff would be asked to take a coronavirus test in the days before school starts. In addition, they would have priority access to testing at no charge at 34 city-run testing sites, with a 24-hour turnaround time to get results. Some city educators, however, question if such rapid responses are feasible, after having experienced long waits to get results themselves.

Learn more about how the Wuhan coronavirus is affecting school at Pandemic.news.

Sources include:

WSJ.com 1

ABC7NY.com

NewsDay.com

WSJ.com 2
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 733,000 people worldwide.

Over 20 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some national governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their outbreaks.

Since the first cases were detected in China in December, the United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 5 million diagnosed cases and at least 163,400 deaths.

Monday's headlines:

New cases and deaths both down from previous week, says FEMA memo Total number of global COVID-19 cases surpasses 20 million Pediatric cases up 90% from last month, says report TSA screens over 800K people for 1st time since March Coronavirus testing site opening along US-Mexico border

Here's how the news developed Monday. All times Eastern.

10:28 p.m.: New cases and deaths both down from previous week

New COVID-19 cases and deaths have both decreased in the last week nationally, according to an internal FEMA memo obtained by ABC News.

In the last seven days, there was an 11.5% decrease in new cases and a 7% decrease in new deaths compared to the previous week, the memo said.

The national test-positivity rate is also going down: In the last week, the rate was 6.6%, down from 8% the previous week, according to the memo.

Cases and deaths have generally been on an upward trend nationwide, but this is the second time in the last four days that the week-over-week numbers have been down for both.

8:15 p.m.: Total number of global COVID-19 cases surpasses 20 million

There are now more than 20 million confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The total number of global confirmed cases is currently 20,001,019. There have been 733,897 deaths reported globally.

Story continues

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases around the world passed the benchmark of 15 million nearly three weeks ago, on July 22.

7:46 p.m.: Pediatric cases up 90% from last month, report says

There were nearly 180,000 new COVID-19 cases in children over the last month, according to a weekly report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Childrens Hospital Association.

The latest report found that between July 9 and Aug. 6, there were 179,990 new child cases -- an increase of 90% over the previous month.

There have been 380,174 child COVID-19 cases reported so far, representing 9.1% of all cases, the survey found.

The report compiles state-by-state data on COVID-19 cases in children. Most are not severe and do not require hospitalization, the AAP noted.

In the 20 states plus New York City that reported hospitalizations, children were 0.5-5.3% of total reported hospitalizations, according to the latest report. In the 44 states and New York City reporting mortality data, children made up 0-0.4% of all COVID-19 deaths.

4:50 p.m.: California's hospitalizations, ICU numbers trending down

The number of hospitalizations and ICU patients in hard-hit California have been trending down for weeks, Gov. Gavin Newsom said.

PHOTO: Partitions are installed between beds as work is performed to turn Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, Calif., into a 400-bed emergency field hospital to help deal with the coronavirus outbreak. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP, FILE)

Hospitalizations fell by 19.6% and ICU admissions fell by 15.4% in the last two weeks, according to the California Department of Public Health.

California has more coronavirus cases than any other state in the U.S., with over 561,900 people diagnosed.

At least 10,359 people in California have died, according to state data.

3:40 p.m.: Royal Caribbean says testing 'very likely'

It's "very likely" that COVID-19 testing will be part of Royal Caribbean's new safety plan when operations resume, cruise line executives said during a second quarter earnings call. No final decision has been made, they added.

The executives said they've been "humbled and surprised" by the amount of bookings made for 2021, calling the demand "remarkable."

MORE: The way forward: How experts would clean up our COVID nightmare if they were in charge

"The tone of our bookings, especially as we get into the second half of 2021 has been encouraging," CEO Richard Fain said. "Our guests want to come back. Families want and need to vacation."

The CDC's no-sail order is set to expire at the end of September, but it may be extended. Major cruise lines have voluntarily suspended operations in the U.S. until the end of October.

MORE: Alaska cruise cut short after passenger tests positive for COVID-19

"We will not rush to return to service until we are confident that we have figured out the changes that we must make," Fain said.

Royal Caribbean expects to submit a return-to-sailing plan to the CDC by the end of the month.

1:15 p.m.: Philadelphia school sports suspended until 2021

The Philadelphia Public League is suspending all interscholastic sport competitions until 2021 following a recommendation from Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, ABC Philadelphia station WPVI reported.

MORE: 5 former CDC directors on where US went wrong in its COVID-19 response

Wolf said Thursday, "We ought to do everything we can to defeat that virus ... the guidance from us, recommendation, is that we don't do any sports until January first."

The Philadelphia Public League said, according to WPVI, "If guidelines released by the Governor's office change, or are updated in a way that would allow programming to resume, we reserve the right to revisit our decision and provide further guidance on a safe return to play."

12:40 p.m.: COVID-19 is not demonstrating a seasonal pattern, WHO says

COVID-19 "has demonstrated no seasonal pattern" so far, World Health Organization (WHO) emergencies chief Dr. Mike Ryan said Monday.

PHOTO: Cars line up at a rapid antigen coronavirus testing site at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens near Miami, Aug. 5, 2020. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)

"What it has clearly demonstrated is: you take the pressure off the virus, the virus bounces back," Ryan warned.

MORE: Timeline: How coronavirus got started

"You can call that a second wave, you can call that a second spike, you can call it a flare-up, you can call it anything you like," he said. "Take the pressure off the virus, the virus will bounce back. And that's what we would say to countries in Europe: keep the pressure on the virus."

Many countries in Europe -- like France, Germany, Spain and Italy -- had major outbreaks but when they took action they were able to suppress it, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

MORE: Why stopping COVID at schools may not be as easy as taking temperatures

"We all want to see schools safely reopened but we also need to ensure that students, staff and faculty are safe. The foundation for this is adequate control of transmission at the community," Tedros said. "My message is crystal clear: suppress, suppress, suppress the virus. If we suppress the virus effectively, we can safely open up societies."

12:15 p.m.: DC adds 5 new states to its quarantine list

Washington, D.C. has added Alaska, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Minnesota to the district's quarantine list.

Those traveling to D.C. from these high-risk states must quarantine for two weeks: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.

PHOTO: Workers talk residents through a COVID-19 self-test at a mobile COVID-19 testing site set up on a vacant lot in the Austin neighborhood on June 23, 2020 in Chicago. (Scott Olson/Getty Images, FILE)

States are added to the list if their seven-day moving average of daily cases is 10 or more per 100,000 people.

Traveling to and from D.C.'s neighboring states, Maryland and Virginia, will not apply to the list.

PHOTO: DC Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks during an announcement that District of Columbia public schools will be all virtual through Nov. 6, during a news conference, July 30, 2020, in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP, FILE)

11 a.m.: 20% of Florida's ICU beds available

In hard-hit Florida, 20.79% of the state's ICU beds were available as of Monday morning, the state's Agency for Healthcare Administration reported.

PHOTO: A healthcare worker gives a thumbs up to a driver as he stops his car, Aug. 5, 2020, at a COVID-19 testing site outside Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee/AP)

Thirty-eight hospitals had no available ICU beds Monday while 22 hospitals in the state had just one available bed, the agency said.

These numbers are expected to fluctuate throughout the day as hospitals and medical centers provide updates.

Florida has the second-highest number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. behind California.

PHOTO: A healthcare worker performs an antigen test, Aug. 5, 2020, at a COVID-19 testing site outside Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee/AP)

Florida has over 536,900 diagnosed cases and at least 8,406 fatalities, according to the state's Department of Health.

9:40 a.m.: TSA screens over 800K people for 1st time since March

The TSA screened 831,789 people on Sunday, marking the first time over 800,000 people traveled in one day since March 17.

PHOTO: Passengers wear masks as they walk through LAX airport, as the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Los Angeles. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters, FILE)

This is still down about 70% compared to the same day last year when the TSA screened 2,647,897 travelers.

Major U.S. airlines don't expect recovery to be linear as infection rates and state quarantine rules change over time in different parts of the country.

PHOTO: A sign informs travelers arriving at Logan Airport about the restrictions imposed by a Massachusetts Travel Order amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Boston, Aug. 3, 2020. (Brian Snyder/Reuters, FILE)

9:10 a.m.: Cases rising in Lebanon after explosion

Coronavirus cases are rising in Lebanon after the explosion in Beirut last week that killed at least 160 people.

PHOTO: A crater and damaged grain silo are seen from above, Aug. 9, 2020, after an explosion in Beirut's harbor. (AFP via Getty Images)

Lebanon reported 294 new cases on Sunday, according to Health Ministry data. Seven days earlier, the daily number of new cases was 155, according to the data.

Lebanon now has a total of 6,517 diagnosed cases and at least 76 COVID-19 fatalities.

8:35 a.m.: Clorox says demand for its wipes is up 500%

Clorox says demand for its wipes is up 500% during the pandemic.

"We are making wipes in record numbers and shipping them to stores in record numbers," Clorox CEO Linda Rendle told "Good Morning America" on Monday.

MORE: How widespread is COVID-19 in children? A look at the latest data as schools reopen

Since January, Clorox has made 100 million more disinfecting products than before -- a 50% increase, Rendle said.

Clorox is now making nearly 1 million packages of disinfectant wipes every day, Rendle said.

7:25 a.m.: UK has 'moral duty' to fully reopen schools next month, PM says

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterated Monday that he's "very keen" for all schools to fully reopen in England next month.

"Its not right that kids should spend more time out of school," Johnson told reporters while visiting a school in East London. "Its much, much better for their health and mental wellbeing, obviously their educational prospects, if everybody comes back to school full-time in September."

"It's our moral duty as a country to make sure that happens," he added.

PHOTO: U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson (left) talks with head teacher Bernadette Matthews as he visits St. Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Upminster, East London, on Aug. 10, 2020. (Lucy Young/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Johnson said he's been "impressed" by the work administrators and teachers have done to make sure schools are safe.

Last month, the U.K. government outlined a plan for the "mandatory" return to classrooms across England in September, with students being restricted to "class or year sized bubbles" and teachers being told to "address gaps in knowledge."

Schools across the United Kingdom shuttered in mid-March at the start of the pandemic. Some pupils returned to classrooms in England in June.

Meanwhile, Scotland is set to fully reopen its schools on Tuesday.

6:49 a.m.: India's former president tests positive for COVID-19

India's former president, Pranab Mukherjee, has tested positive for COVID-19.

"On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for Covid-19 today," Mukherjee, who served as president of India from 2012 to 2017, announced via Twitter on Monday. "I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for Covid-19."

On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for COVID19 today.

I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19. #CitizenMukherjee  Pranab Mukherjee (@CitiznMukherjee) August 10, 2020

With more than 2.2 million diagnosed cases of COVID-19, India has the third-highest tally in the world, behind the U.S. and Brazil.

5:36 a.m.: Coronavirus testing site opening along US-Mexico border

A coronavirus testing site will open soon near the U.S.-Mexico border in Southern California's San Diego County, according to a report by San Diego ABC affiliate KGTV.

The appointment-free, walk-up testing site will be located at the San Ysidro Port of Entrys PedWest crossing, one of the world's busiest pedestrian international border crossings. The site, among more than two dozen others across San Diego County, will be the closest one to the border with Mexico so far for the region.

The United States and Mexico are two of the worst-affected nations in the coronavirus pandemic.

PHOTO: An aerial view of Mexico's old customs facilities (above), next to the construction site of an expansion of the crossing lanes at San Ysidro Port of Entry on the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on July 27, 2020. (Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images)

The Hispanic community makes up just 34% of San Diego's population and yet, as of Sunday, they accounted for 62% of the city's COVID-19 cases, according to KGTV. That figure will likely rise after the new testing site opens up within the next couple weeks, since the area is dominated by Spanish speakers.

However, Chicano Federation Chief Strategy Officer Roberto Alcantar said many in the Latino community are still afraid of getting tested.

"Our community is nervous about losing their jobs, not being able to go to work, the real economic impact that comes from being positive and feeling that that might hinder them in a way," Alcantar told KGTV.

4:21 a.m.: Australia sees record rise in virus-related deaths

An additional 19 coronavirus-related deaths were recorded in the Australian state of Victoria on Sunday -- the highest single-day increase in fatalities that the country has seen since the start of the pandemic,

"This news is devastating no matter what age COVID affects people, and we just want to reaffirm again our support through every channel we can provide it," Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

Victorias Department of Health and Human Services also reported 322 new cases of COVID-19 -- the lowest daily count recorded in the state since July 29.

PHOTO: People exercise alongside Albert Park Lake in Melbourne, Australia, on Aug. 10, 2020, as the city struggles to cope with an outbreak of the novel coronavirus. (William West/AFP via Getty Images)

"We are seeing some stability. That's a good thing. But that's not enough," Victoria's state Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters in Melbourne. "And that's the product of masks and Stage 3. That's what the experts tell us. The next stage, though, is all about these restrictions that we've had to painfully impose."

Andrews declared a state of disaster in Victoria on Aug. 2, giving authorities additional powers to ensure people are complying with public health directions. Victoria is home to Australia's second-largest city, Melbourne, which has become a hotspot in the country's novel coronavirus outbreak.

In total, Australia has reported more than 21,000 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 with at least 313 deaths.

3:45 a.m.: US records under 50,000 new cases for 1st time in 6 days

There were 46,395 new cases of COVID-19 identified in the United States on Sunday, bringing the nationwide total soaring past 5 million, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

It's the first time in six days that the nation has recorded under 50,000 new cases. An additional 516 coronavirus-related deaths were also reported.

Sunday's caseload is well below the record set on July 16, when more than 77,000 new cases were identified in a 24-hour reporting period.

PHOTO: A health worker takes a patient's temperature before sending them to a tent to be tested at a COVID-19 testing site at St. John's Well Child and Family Center in Los Angeles, California, on July 24, 2020. (Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images)

A total of 5,045,564 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 162,938 of them have died, according to Johns Hopkins. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C. and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.

By May 20, all U.S. states had begun lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The day-to-day increase in the country's cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up and crossing 70,000 for the first time in mid-July.

Many states have seen a rise in infections in recent weeks, with some -- including Arizona, California and Florida -- reporting daily records. However, new data published last week in an internal memo from the Federal Emergency Management Agency suggests that the national surge in cases could be leveling off.

What to know about coronavirus:

How it started and how to protect yourself: Coronavirus explained

What to do if you have symptoms: Coronavirus symptoms

Tracking the spread in the U.S. and worldwide: Coronavirus map

ABC News' Dee Carden, Matt Fuhrman, Mina Kaji, Josh Margolin, Eric Strauss, Christine Theodorou and Scott Withers contributed to this report.

New COVID-19 cases and deaths both down from previous week, FEMA memo says originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
A person gets his swab taken at a mobile coronavirus testing facility IMASQ near LB Nagar in Hyderabad.(DC Photo: P. Surendra)

Hyderabad: Telangana recorded 1,256 new cases and 10 deaths of Covid-19 Sunday, taking the tally to 80,751 cases and the toll to 637. The data for Sunday was released by the the health department on Monday.

The fall in numbers could be due to fewer number of tests performed  11,609 on Sunday against 22,925 on Saturday, when 1,982 cases were reported. The results of 1,700 samples are awaited.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation area recorded 389 cases while 867 were reported from the districts. Ranga Reddy topped the districts list at 86 cases, followed by Sangareddy 74, Warangal Urban at 67 and Adilabad at 63 cases.

There is a major challenge being noted with home isolation in rural areas as many houses have six to seven family members and there is only one toilet. Those who are coming to government hospital isolation centres have to stay for the full 14 days.

A senior government doctor explained, In mild cases too, we are not able to ask them to seek treatment at home as there is no facility of a separate toilet. They are all staying together and many of them are scared to go home as they do not know how family and neighbours will behave.

The government isolation centres in districts are full and there is limited understanding of home care facilities. The burden on doctors and healthcare workers therefore is very high.
After the assembly election debacle early this year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)s Delhi unit is now gearing up for the municipal polls in 2022. The partys Delhi unit chief Adesh Gupta said that he will announce the new state team by the end of this month. Women party workers, Gupta said, will be given key positions, especially at the grassroot levelmunicipal wards (mandal) and districts.

The rejig, party members say, has been long overdue. Former Delhi BJP president and North East Delhi MP Manoj Tiwaris tenureTiwari was appointed the state chief in December 2016was extended due to the assembly elections earlier this year and later due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

This time there was no election due to Covid-19. But we are in the process of finalising the team based on extensive discussions with party workers at all levelsfrom mandals to state and MPs. We will announce the new team by the end of this month. The team, which will lead the party into municipal elections, will be a mix of young and experienced people. This time, active women party workers will be given key roles such as mandal and district presidents, Gupta said.

The biggest challenge for the BJP, which was limited to single-digit seats in the recent assembly elections, is to regain the lost ground. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won 62 seats while BJP got just eight seats in the elections held earlier this year.

While the BJP has been out of power in the Delhi assembly, the saffron party has been ruling the three civic bodies for 13 years. Despite strong anti-incumbency sentiments in 2017, the party won 184 seats, 46 seats more than it had won in 2012, in the three municipal elections.

Gupta said that the party will work hard to retain its hold over the corporations in the next elections. The party plans to start an aggressive campaign showcasing the work done by them in the last 13 years and also against the ruling AAP for stifling the corporations by not releasing funds on time.

The three corporations have done a lot of work in sanitation. We have successfully lowered the heights of landfill sites. We aim to flatten the garbage mounds in the next few years. The Centre has helped us a lot. But the Delhi government has only made things worse for us. They have not released funds on time. We will go to people and highlight these issues, he said.

With nearly one-and-a-half-years left for the corporation elections, BJP says that it has enough time to complete all the pending projects. Gupta said that once the new team is in place, the party will start the work for municipal elections.

BJP attacks AAP on job portal

Meanwhile, the BJP on Monday hit out at the Delhi government on its initiative for providing job-seekers with employment. The BJP alleged that the ruling party had started a similar initiative two years ago on which it spent 34.41 crore.

Two years ago, the party started an employment scheme which failed. The Kejriwal government had spent 34. 41 crore on the scheme, but only 334 people were employed, Gupta said.

Gupta said that the portal is yet another attempt to misguide people. It is being claimed that the job portal has more than 9 lakh vacancies and has 8.64 lakh applicants. The government should tell us how many people have got jobs through the portal so far, he said.
Puerto Rico will partially redo Sundays key gubernatorial primary election on 16 August after ballots did not arrive at some polling centres, leaving many who ventured out amid the pandemic unable to cast their vote.

Governor Wanda Vazquez, 60, who is facing a challenge from within her New Progressive Party, or PNP, said no results would be released until everyone gets an opportunity to vote.

Vazquez is facing her first election for governor after replacing Ricardo Rossello, who was ousted amid massive street protests last August. But when voters arrived at polling stations early on Sunday, many found that there were no ballots.

Asked whether she took any responsibility for the fiasco, Vazquez told reporters that the Puerto Rico State Commission on Elections is clearly responsible for this chaos and had lied to her about being prepared for the vote.

Commission President Juan Davila blamed the problems on delays at the printing press and told WKAQ radio that he had no plans to resign.

Recommended Thousands of Puerto Ricans without housing three years after Maria

As of late Sunday, it was unclear how many precincts will be allowed to hold a new vote on Sunday.

The episode is the latest challenge for the US commonwealth of 3.2 million people that has been trying to overcome an array of natural disasters, a historic bankruptcy and last summers political turmoil. Vazquez, a former justice secretary who originally said she did not want the job, was installed as governor by the commonwealths Supreme Court in a chaotic succession process a year ago.

Sundays troubles also derailed the gubernatorial primary for the the main opposition party, the Popular Democratic Party, or PPD. That race pits San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz against local legislator Eduardo Bhatia and Isabela Mayor Carlos Delgado Altieri.

Cruz, who famously clashed with President Donald Trump after Hurricane Maria, called the situation a national embarrassment and suggested that Vazquez and the PNP had botched the process as they try to cling to power.

Pedro Pierluisi  Vazquezs rival for the PNP nomination and the islands former delegate to the US House  also blamed her for Sundays failed vote. At a news conference on Sunday, he demanded that partial results be released in the name of transparency and said it should be up to the courts to decide how and when a new election is scheduled.

Under my government, this would never have happened, he said.

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The delay is likely to keep the island on edge this week. Vazquez warned election officials against publishing results, but social media was abuzz with an assortment of purported tallies. Meanwhile, all the candidates are being forced to extend their campaigns for an additional week.

As the finger-pointing gained steam late on Sunday, some blamed the federally appointed oversight board that controls the islands finances for contributing to the chaos. In a statement, the board said the electoral commission has a $43 million annual budget and 656 full-time employees.

The State Elections Commission has sufficient money, and it has the more than enough staff to perform the one task it is charged with, the board said. Elections are the very foundation of democracy, and what the people of Puerto Rico experienced today is unacceptable.

The flawed vote also caught Washingtons attention.

The election problems happening today in Puerto Rico are outrageous and unprecedented, Rep Nydia Velazquez, (D-NY), who was born in Puerto Rico, wrote on Twitter. I am monitoring this situation closely. Everyones right to vote must be protected.

The Washington Post
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Corcoran Global Living, a franchise affiliate of Corcoran Group, LLC, today announced that it has welcomed Northern California's Terra Firma Global Partners to its growing operation. Adding more than 80 real estate agents into the fold, this latest expansion broadens the firm's reach into California's celebrated Wine Country region. Corcoran Global Living, unifying five prestigious independent brokerages, now encompasses nearly 700 affiliated real estate agents across 25 offices, with annual combined sales of nearly $4 billion.

"Bringing together these leading independent brokerages under the distinguished brand of Corcoran Global Living has allowed us to create a truly unique environment, one that focuses on local expertise in luxury markets, all while fostering our culture of collaboration to further elevate the experience for our sales associates and our clients alike," said Michael Mahon, founder and CEO of Corcoran Global Living. "Terra Firma Global Partners' knowledge and experience in the Napa, Sonoma, and Marin regions of California is unparalleled. We look forward to all this will bring to our affiliated agents and our clients across the markets we serve."

"Corcoran Global Living (CGL) continues to grow rapidly in California, and this new footing in the state's Wine Country is incredibly exciting," said Pamela Liebman, Corcoran President and CEO. "The team at Terra Firma Global Partners truly started from scratch to build a company based on trust and fosters a culture of partnership, which we value highly at Corcoran. I'm very happy to help welcome them to Corcoran Global Living."

Corcoran Global Living's partnership with Terra Firma Global Partners furthers the firm's commitment to continued representation across California. As part of Corcoran Global Living, the firm will now have access to Corcoran's resources, networking, and broader recognition both within the industry and among consumers. The firm's founders and co-owners, Bill Facendini and Heidi Rickerd-Rizzo, will now serve as partners with Corcoran Global Living.

"We are proud to join forces with Corcoran Global Living in the shared effort of exceptional client and agent service," said Bill Facendini, broker/owner for Terra Firma Global Partners, now partner at Corcoran Global Living. "We've long strived to make this business a team sport  and we've been able to see firsthand how Corcoran Global Living also believes in giving back time, talent, and treasure in all of the communities it lives and works in. We couldn't be more excited to now be a part of that."

"I feel blessed that we've found a partner in Corcoran Global Living that for me, feels like family  one that we have great comfort and confidence in," said Heidi Rickerd-Rizzo, broker/owner for Terra Firma Global Partners, now partner at Corcoran Global Living. "As someone who has held tightly to our vision and our 'story' as a company, I can enthusiastically move forward into our next chapter and the future we're building with this great team."

Terra Firma Global Partners' client base is located throughout the North Bay across Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties. Widely known as a preeminent wine region, the area has even more to offer beyond some of the finest wines in the world. The region encompasses sprawling private estates, bucolic farm and ranch properties, suburban enclaves dotted along California's Highway 101, forested settings among the coastal redwoods, and to the furthest western edge, the dramatic California coastline from Sea Ranch to Bodega Bay. Throughout the region, their agents build lasting client relationships through their fierce commitment to integrity, communication and service.

About The Corcoran Group

The Corcoran Group is a leading residential real estate brand with more than 50 offices and more than 3,300 sales associates serving Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Hamptons, the North Fork of Long Island and Shelter Island, N.Y., Delray Beach, Miami Beach, Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Bal Harbour, 30A, Surfside, Windermere and Dr. Phillips, FL; San Francisco, CA, Lake Tahoe and Reno, NV, and Chicago, IL. The Corcoran Brand is comprised of company owned offices which are owned by a subsidiary of Realogy Brokerage Group LLC and franchised offices, which are independently owned and operated. For more information about The Corcoran Group, please visit www.corcoran.com.

About Corcoran Global Living

Founded on the principle of putting people first, Corcoran Global Living, an affiliate of The Corcoran Group, serves the California and Nevada markets with 25 strategically located offices in Northern California, Southern California and Reno/Lake Tahoe. Corcoran Global Living is well positioned to provide exceptional service to its very loyal customer base, with over 700 dedicated, professional agents and gross annual sales of nearly $4 billion. With a forward-thinking leadership team and deep roots in real estate and notable private investment backing, Corcoran Global Living is poised for exponential growth into additional metro areas in the states where they operate. From luxury homes and income properties to vacation getaways and first-time homes, Corcoran Global Living has the experience, insight and expertise to achieve and surpass clients' highest expectations. For more information, visit CorcoranGL.com.

SOURCE The Corcoran Group

Related Links

www.realogycorporation.net


TAMPA, Fla., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Primo Water Corporation (NYSE: PRMW) (TSX: PRMW) (the "Company" or "Primo"), a leading provider of water direct to consumers and water filtration services in North America and Europe as well as a leading provider of water dispensers, purified bottled water, and self-service refill drinking water in the U.S. and Canada, today announced that Primo Water North America, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Primo, has acquired substantially all of the assets of Mountain Glacier LLC ("Mountain Glacier") located in Texas and Tennessee.

Mountain Glacier is a family owned business headquartered in Evansville, IN that has been serving both Residential and Commercial customers since its founding in 2006. In recent years, the business has expanded to other regions including additional areas in Indiana, Nashville, Tennessee as well as Harlingen, Texas.

Customers of Mountain Glacier in Nashville, TN will now enjoy Crystal Spring while those in Harlingen, TX will enjoy Sparkletts, the respective Primo Water North America brands in each region. Both will have the ability to select additional products for their orders, including premium water products such as Mountain Valley Spring and sparkling water beverages from Sparkling Ice where available.

"Mountain Glacier has built a reputation for providing refreshing spring water and quality customer service for its more than 2,500 customers in Tennessee and Texas," said Dave Muscato, President of Primo Water North America. "It is because of this shared vision for sustainable hydration and premier service that we are excited to add Mountain Glacier's Nashville and Harlingen routes to our national Primo brand. Mountain Glacier also possesses a small but growing filtration business  a key area of focus for future growth for Primo. We look forward to welcoming these customers to the Primo family."

Jay Peterson, President of Mountain Glacier, added, "Primo Water North America's technology, people and expanded product offerings are a natural fit for our Tennessee and Texas customers. We are confident these markets are in capable hands and are excited to see them grow under Primo Water North America's leadership."

For more information on the hydration solutions Primo Water North America offers, please visit www.water.com.

ABOUT PRIMO WATER CORPORATION

Primo Water Corporation is a leading pure-play water solutions provider in North America, Europe and Israel and generates approximately $2.1 billion in annual revenue. Primo operates largely under a recurring razor/razorblade revenue model. The razor in Primo's revenue model is its industry leading line-up of sleek and innovative water dispensers, which are sold through major retailers and online at various price points or leased to customers. The dispensers help increase household penetration which drives recurring purchases of Primo's razorblade offering. Primo's razorblade offering is comprised of Water Direct, Water Exchange, and Water Refill. Through its Water Direct business, Primo delivers sustainable hydration solutions across its 21-country footprint direct to the customer's door, whether at home or to commercial businesses. Through its Water Exchange and Water Refill businesses, Primo offers pre-filled and reusable containers at over 13,000 locations and water refill units at approximately 22,000 locations, respectively. Primo also offers water filtration units across its 21-country footprint representing a top five position.

Primo's water solutions expand consumer access to purified, spring and mineral water to promote a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle while simultaneously reducing plastic waste and pollution. Primo is committed to its water stewardship standards and is proud to partner with the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) in North America as well as with Watercoolers Europe (WE), which ensure strict adherence to safety, quality, sanitation and regulatory standards for the benefit of consumer protection.

Primo is headquartered in Tampa, Florida (USA). For more information, visit www.primowatercorp.com.

SOURCE Primo Water Corporation

Related Links

http://www.cott.com


Moscow court fines Google $20,300 for content filtering failure

 flickr.com/mjmonty

13:58 10/08/2020

MOSCOW, August 10 (RAPSI)  A magistrate court on Monday fined Google 1.5 million rubles ($20,300) for repeated violation of the obligationton to filter content banned in Russia, RAPSI was told in Moscows Tagansky District Court.

The company was found guilty of repeated failure to perform a search engine operators obligations.

In July 2019, Russias communications agency Roskomnadzor imposed a 700,000-ruble fine ($9,500 at the current exchange rate) on Google company for failure to abide by Russian legislation. The company did not connect to Russias registry of prohibited websites, according to the watchdogs statement. In December 2018, the company was fined 500,000 rubles ($6,800 at the current exchange rate) for similar violations.

Russian legislation envisages that search engine operators must exclude links to prohibited websites from the search results. For this purpose, they must connect to the federal state information system with the list of prohibited websites.




" " An illustration of Custer's Last Stand from the Battle of Little Bighorn; lithograph, 1876. A similar lithograph was distributed to saloons and dining places with a logo advertising the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Assn. GraphicaArtis/Getty Images

In 1896, exactly 20 years after General George Armstrong Custer was killed alongside 261 of his cavalrymen at the Battle of Little Bighorn, the beer company Anheuser Busch brewed up a wildly popular advertising campaign. The company reproduced 150,000 copies of a lithograph called "Custer's Last Fight!" and plastered it in saloons and taverns across America.

The lithograph, based on an 1888 painting by Cassilly Adams, depicts a chaotic battle scene on the Montana plains with a dozen blue-uniformed cavalrymen laying dead or wounded on the ground as war-painted Indians finish them off with clubs and spears before ceremonially scalping the white men's corpses. In the center of the violent scrum is a long-haired Custer dressed in fringed buckskin, raising his saber skyward to dispatch one last "savage" before succumbing to the overwhelming force of his attackers.

"More people 'learned' about what they think happened at Custer's last stand from this Anheuser Busch lithograph, and probably after a few Budweisers," says Tim Lehman, a professor of history and political science at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana, and author of "Bloodshed at Little Bighorn: Sitting Bull, Custer, and the Destinies of Nations."

In American mythology, the popular notion of Custer's "last stand" echoes the story told in that 19th-century painting. Custer's down-to-the-last defeat ranks with the Alamo as a tale of white heroism in the face of "barbaric" aggression, of patriotic martyrs dying "with their boots on" to protect Western settlers.

But the real story of Custer's last stand isn't nearly so innocent, or cut and dry. On June 25, 1876, the Civil War cavalry hero known as the "Boy General" led a U.S. Army attack on an Indian village in the Black Hills in violation of a treaty promising those lands to the Lakota Sioux. Custer and his 7th Cavalry were clearly the aggressors, and if the Battle of Little Bighorn was anyone's "last stand," it was the Plain Indians'.

"It was crystal clear to Sitting Bull and the Lakota that they would be attacked that summer, and they saw the confrontation as one last great fight for their free way of living, before they had to submit to agencies and reservations and federal domination," says Lehman.

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Custer Cultivated an 'Indian Hunter' Image

" " George A. Custer, circa 1864. National Park Service, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

Custer was a complex and controversial figure even in his day. A brash troublemaker at West Point who graduated last in his class, Custer earned fame during a series of heroic cavalry charges at the Battle of Gettysburg, which landed him on the cover of Harper's Weekly and propelled him to becoming the youngest general in U.S. military history. After the Civil War, Custer chased further glory on the Western frontier and rebranded himself as an "Indian hunter," complete with a Daniel Boone buckskin suit.

In dispatches that Custer wrote for Eastern newspapers and magazines, Custer sold himself as a veteran frontiersman with intimate knowledge of the Indians' ways, but in reality, says Lehman, Custer didn't speak a lick of Sioux or Cheyenne and had very little understanding of the tribes he fought. After the 1868 Battle of Washita River, Custer bravely (or foolishly) went to a Cheyenne encampment nearly alone to negotiate the release of hostages. The Cheyenne invited him to a pipe ceremony, which Custer took as a sign of respect, but that wasn't the intended message, says Lehman.

"They understood that Custer promised never to attack the Cheyenne again, and if he did, he would be rubbed out," says Lehman. "They took the pipe, dumped out the ashes and rubbed them into the dirt as a sign of what would happen to him."

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Custer's Folly in the Black Hills

The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 created a reservation for the Lakota Sioux in the Black Hills region of modern-day Montana. But when gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874, Congress decided it was time to rewrite that treaty. Custer and the 7th Cavalry were sent to Montana under the pretense of convincing holdouts like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse to come to the negotiating table, but the real intention, says Lehman, was a white takeover of the lucrative Black Hills gold deposits.

In June 1876, Custer was given orders to engage with the Sioux at the head of the Rosebud River, but Custer decided to follow tracks to the nearby Little Bighorn River. The preferred U.S. Army tactic was a dawn raid on Indian villages, but Custer worried that waiting for morning would sacrifice the element of surprise. So he split his forces in three and ordered the attack on Sitting Bull's encampment in mid-afternoon.

Under Custer's battle plan, Major Marcus Reno led a direct charge into the village while Custer and 120 men occupied a ridge where they could round up any escaping Sioux women and children to hold as hostages.

"This was a tactic Custer used in the Battle of Washita River with great success," says Lehman. "Custer wrote that once the women and children of an Indian village were under control, the warriors were much more docile."

Unfortunately for Custer, the plan fell apart almost instantly. Reno's men were easily repulsed by Sioux and Cheyenne fighters, and a contingent of Oglala Sioux led by Crazy Horse circled back on Custer's forces and trapped them on what's now known as Last Stand Hill. Custer ordered his men to shoot their horses and stack the carcasses for a makeshift bunker, but it was hopeless. The ending captured in paintings like "Custer's Last Fight" show Custer and his men bravely fighting off the Indians until their last breath, but Lehman says that the archeological record and contemporary Indian accounts say otherwise.

"The evidence suggests 'tactical disintegration,' which is a nicer way of saying that they got really scared and started to run," says Lehman. "Once the panic set in, Indian combatants said it was like hunting buffalo  'We just rode down and killed them.'"

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The Myth is Born

The shocking news of Custer's death spread like wildfire and the newspapers immediately cast him as a martyr for Manifest Destiny. The New York Herald published this wholly fictional account of the battle's final moments:

"In that mad charge up the narrow ravine, with the rocks above raining down lead upon the fated three hundred, with fire spouting from every bush ahead, with the wild, swarming horsemen circling along the heights like shrieking vultures waiting for the moment to sweep down and finish the bloody tale, every form, from private to general, rises to heroic size... They died as grandly as Homer's demigods... Success was beyond their grasp so they diedto a man."

It's unclear where the particular phrase "Custer's last stand" was first coined, but Lehman says that the mythology of a "last stand" was well entrenched at this point in the Indian Wars. Custer himself used the same poetic language in a letter to the father of a soldier named Lyman Kidder whose company was killed by an Indian ambush in 1867.

"No historian will ever chronicle the heroism which was probably here displayed because no one is left to tell the tale, but from the evidence and circumstances before us we can imagine what determination, what bravery, what heroism must have inspired this devoted little band of martyrs, when, surrounded and assailed by a vastly overwhelming force of bloodthirsty barbarians, they manfully struggled to the last, equally devoid of hope or fear."

In the decades after Custer's death, the "last stand" myth was popularized not only in beer advertisements, but in Buffalo Bill Cody's immensely popular Wild West Show, in which the real Sitting Bull actually participated for a time. This fictional version of Custer's last stand was used to justify unbridled Westward expansion.

" " This dramatic scene shows a Native American man stabbing "Custer," with "dead" Native Americans lying on the ground. It was part of Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show, a rival to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Library of Congress

"It created the image that Custer in a 'last stand' was simply defending himself," says Lehman, "and that Americans more broadly were defending themselves from these 'aggressive hordes' of Indians who represented this savagery that was well beyond the pale of civilization. People created the death that they wanted to imagine had happened to their hero."

The "last stand" story spread by the pro-Custer press had its intended effect. Lehman says the Army experienced a rush of recruitment of so-called "Custer Avengers" who waged a series of brutal campaigns over the following year that defeated the holdout Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne once and for all.

Now That's Interesting Custer's wife, Libbie, often lived with him while deployed in frontier camps, and after becoming a widow at 34, she spent the next 52 years of her long life writing books and giving lectures about her heroic husband that cemented his legacy.
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It's been barely a month since huge changes to California's charter school laws took effect -- and already, charters in Los Angeles are complaining that local officials' plans to implement the new law could put their schools at risk.

These huge changes, all part of Assembly Bill 1505, signed into law last October, were certainly likely to make it harder to open some new charter schools.

Still, some advocates for charters -- publicly-funded schools run by non-profit groups -- felt the new law codified a compromise that would at least make it easier for existing charter schools to survive in districts like L.A. Unified, where teachers' union arguments against charters appeared to be gaining ground.

But many local charter school leaders believe LAUSD's newly-written plan for carrying out the new law -- which is up for a vote at Tuesday's school board meeting -- shatters the compromise central to AB 1505, stretching the district's new regulatory powers in ways that could "ban new charter schools and close existing quality schools."

LAUSD's policy, "as drafted, is profoundly illegal," said Myrna Castrejon, president of the California Charter Schools Association.

While the association has a long list of objections -- 10 pages worth, in fact -- its main concern is new rules about where charters choose to house their schools. They basically say LAUSD is using concerns about limited real estate choices as a weapon that would help it deny new charter schools.

Officials in LAUSD's Charter Schools Division -- the department that would actually carry out this new policy -- declined an interview request.

But school board member Jackie Goldberg said most of the 224 independently-run charters currently operating in LAUSD have little to fear from the district's new policy. She argued the charter association's concerns stem from features of the new law, not from LAUSD overreach.

"Their view is, 'We like the old system,'" Goldberg said. "'Anything you're doing to change the old system was wrong.'"

FIRST, SOME BACKGROUND

Los Angeles is home to more charter schools than any other city in the nation. An estimated 118,000 children attend charters in L.A. -- and Tuesday's vote is on a policy that, at one point or another, will affect each of these schools.

While charter schools are run separately from their districts, every charter needs the permission of a school board -- an "authorizer" -- in order to receive public funding. Every few years, existing schools must ask the board to renew their charters in order to remain open.

As we explained during the debate on AB 1505 last year, the state funds public schools on a per-student basis, which means every child who leaves LAUSD for a charter school costs the school district money. (Charter enrollments have been increasing in the last few years; LAUSD's enrollment has declined more rapidly.)

In the past, authorizers had complained that state law made it too hard to say "no" to charters' requests, even if it was potentially against the district's financial interests or the interests of the neighborhood.

AB 1505 shifts this balance of power. In short, the compromise at the heart of the new state law is: authorizers will have more power to reject bids to open new schools -- but existing schools with strong test scores should have an easier time being renewed.

Tuesday's vote is LAUSD's attempt to update its procedures to follow this new law -- and the compromise at its heart.

FILE: Charter school supporters gathered outside the headquarters of the L.A. Unified School District to oppose a proposed temporary moratorium that school board members were voting on Jan. 29, 2019. (Kyle Stokes/LAist)

Q: WHAT IS TUESDAY'S FIGHT ABOUT? (A: BUILDINGS)

On July 27, the California Charter Schools Association sent LAUSD officials a 10-page letter outlining its objections to the proposal, setting the stage for Tuesday's debate.

While the association lists varied grievances with the proposal, Castrejon said a "primary concern" for her organization was an issue that has been central to numerous disputes with LAUSD in recent years: facilities.

In L.A.'s difficult real estate market, charter schools unable to build their own facilities often find themselves renting seemingly random spaces: downtown office suites, church-adjacent properties, former Hebrew schools and unused daycare spaces. Still others simply claim space on an LAUSD campus using a state law known as Proposition 39, which requires officials to "co-locate" charter schools on district-run campuses.

In short, the charter schools association claims LAUSD's new policy attempts to unfairly use charter schools' difficulty finding facilities against them: Charter advocates fear language in the district's proposal suggests a school's request for Prop 39 space could be used as grounds to deny an application to open a new school.

Since the association sent its July 27 letter, the district has amended its proposal to explicitly say that requesting a Prop 39 co-location "by itself, will not be deemed against the entire community's interest." Still, Castrejon argued the co-locations aren't supposed to factor into new charter school applications at all.

"AB 1505 was never intended," said Castrejon, "to supersede voter-approved provisions of Prop 39 that ensure charter school families have access to publicly-owned, district-managed facilities. In fact, it was explicitly carved out."

And any time a school moves to a facility more than three miles away, the new policy calls for a vote of the school board -- which Castrejon called unnecessary, "massive overreach" and a departure from past practice.

'THE BEST INTEREST OF THE COMMUNITY'

Goldberg argued the new law does invite LAUSD to place facilities issues on the scale as it weighs charters' requests.

"The reality is that we always looked at facilities," she said, "but now they take a new meeting."

In general, Goldberg is no fan of Prop 39 co-locations, saying they're "terrible for everybody." Charters are occasionally split across two or three different LAUSD campuses; the district-run school is often forced to give up spaces they're using as labs, parent centers or music rooms.

That said, Goldberg rejects the notion that a Prop 39 request alone would be enough to sink a new charters' application under LAUSD's new policy.

AB 1505 allows school districts to analyze whether a charter school is "demonstrably unlikely to serve the interests of the entire community in which the school is proposing to locate" -- including cases where a new charter "would substantially undermine" schools already operating in the neighborhood.

Therefore, "the only way [a Prop 39 request] would be held against them," Goldberg said, "was if co-locating them somewhere undermines the existing school. We have cases where that has happened, and cases where that has not happened."

She also defended the idea that the school board should have to vote any time a charter moves to another facility: "If you apply to serve a community which by anybody's definition is underserved, and then you want to move to a location where that is not true, how is that demonstrably not undermining a program?"

Even before her most recent election to the board, Goldberg has argued certain neighborhoods have become overly saturated with charter schools, creating neighborhoods of half-empty schools.

"If you want to put another charter school around a high school that's already surrounded by too many charter schools and is underperforming, we can say 'no' now -- that that is not in the best interest of serving the community."

"It isn't even in the best interest of other charter schools," Goldberg added, "much less LAUSD."

But Castrejon said the district's proposal offers a foothold to groups that oppose charter schools on principal. She said the influence of LAUSD's teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, remains a "threat" to charters.

UTLA's 2019 strike helped drive the case for AB 1505 in Sacramento. Locally, the union has mounted increasingly vocal protests against co-locations.

"It is their intent," Castrejon said, "to turn 1505 into another arrow in their quiver to shut down charter schools whether existing or new."

Goldberg said some new petitions are likely to face tougher scrutiny -- but estimated "85 percent" of LAUSD's existing charters are likely to have no problem with their renewals.

But there's a silver lining for charters that don't pass muster with LAUSD: they're able to appeal their denial to the L.A. County Board of Education, which historically has been a charter-friendly body. Preserving that right to appeal was also part of the AB 1505 compromise.

WHAT'S NEXT

Tuesday's vote of the LAUSD board will not be the last word.

Castrejon said the State Board of Education will likely vote on regulations on implementing AB 1505 this winter -- regulations that will have the force of law, which could also shape how LAUSD handles future authorizing decisions.

Facilities issues between LAUSD and charter schools have spurred lawsuits in the past, and Goldberg wouldn't be surprised if this new dispute triggered even more litigation. She said the charter association has motivated, deep-pocketed donors, and believes they'd be willing to underwrite another legal fight with LAUSD.

Among charter school advocates, the California Charter Schools Association raised eyebrows when it dropped its opposition to AB 1505 last fall. Some charter supporters wondered why the association backed off, arguing the new law could subject charter applicants to the whims of politically-hostile board members at both the district and county level.

Castrejon acknowledges new charter applicants and applicants appealing decisions against them are likely to face tougher fights in the AB 1505 era -- but she believes that if the law is implemented fairly, successful charter schools will blossom.

"We do not believe," said Castrejon, "it was the spirit of the governor's compromise ... that [AB 1505] should be used to decrease the number of good options for students."
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 National Youth Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye a.k.a Nana B has asked Ghanaians to disregard former President John Mahamas statement that he has no intention to cancel he free Senior High School (SHS) policy of the Akufo-Addo government.



In a statement copied to Peacefmonline.com, Nana B said Ghanaians should consider Mr. Mahamas statement as comic relief because he (Mahama) couldnt find few millions of cedis to reimburse three (3) consecutive terms Feeding Grants to keep Second Cycle Institutions in the northern part of Ghana opened.



If Mr. Mahama couldnt pay Trainees allowances in that he had to insensitively canceled it, where would he get over Ghc2 billion to fund free SHS? he questioned.



He commended President Akufo-Addo for the initiative saying the young people in Ghana is grateful to the President, HE Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his visionary leadership that has seen over 1.2 million Ghanaians access second cycle education free of charge.



Read full statement below:



John Mahama Does Not Believe In Free SHS; He Will Collapse The Free SHS Policy When Given The Opportunity



Reference to Mr. John Dramani Mahamas dishonest and opportunistic disposition relative to the implementation of the Free SHS Policy, the National Youth Wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) wishes to bring clarity to the matter, lay the facts bare, and expose the mischief and contempt therein.



It would be recalled that on Saturday, 8th August, 2020, Mr. Mahama paid a courtesy call on the Overlord of Dagbon, Ya-Na Abukari II, during which he (Mr. Mahama) made a deceptive statement that Free Senior High School education has come to stay. He stated "If anybody tells you that I, John Dramani Mahama, will abolish Free SHS when I come into power tell the person he is a bloody liar.



The Youth of the NPP finds this statement very deceptive and we wish to respond as follows:



1. That the general belief among Ghanaians that Mr. Mahama will scrap the Free SHS Policy in the extreme unlikely event that he becomes President again is NOT the creation of any individual or group of persons but the explicit engineering of Mr. Mahama himself as evident in his actions and utterances from 2008 to yesterday as stated forthwith.



2. That it is on record that Mr. Mahama and the NDC in 2012 sponsored over 46 radio and television adverts against the Free SHS policy.



3. That Mr. Mahama on November 23, 2012 told the people of Okere in the Eastern Region that Free SHS will collapse the education system of Ghana.



4. That Mr. Mahama on October 1, 2018 reiterated his aversion to Free SHS, stating that it is unthinkable to spend 2 billion Ghana cedis on free SHS and that it is seriously constricting governments budget and therefore when he become President, it will undergo a review.



5. That Mr. Mahama on November 25, 2017 stated that Lalasulala Free SHS will fail.



6. That Mr. Mahama at the NDCs Tarkwa unity walk strongly rejected the Free SHS policy stating that It is unwise to implement it.



7. That Mahama on his presidential primaries tour said to Akufo-Addo ''Free SHS is not working



It is important to note that the stern opposition to the Free SHS policy witnessed over a decade is deep rooted in the NDC. Every single member of the NDC including high ranking leaders have, overtime, opposed and worked against the implementation of the Free SHS Policy as cataloged below:



1. On October 16. 2018, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang said free SHS is not working and that Ghanaians are complaining.



2. The General Secretary of the NDC, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah is on record to have said on October 1, 2018 that Free SHS is shambolic and that it will have to be scrapped.



3. The National Chairman of the NDC, Elder Ofosu Ampofo also on 18th December, 2018 said free shs is bogus because double Track system is causing teenage pregnancy.



4. The then Minister of Education, Lee Ocran, on 10th September, 2012 said ''Free SHS can only be possible in 2032, in 20 years time''.



5. NDC MP for Adaklu, Kwame Agbodza, on June 19, 2018 said ''Over concentration on Free SHS stifling funds meant for other sectors of the economy''



6. Felix Kwakye Ofosu on May 14, 2018, had this warning for the government ''You can't use oil money to fund Free SHS''



8. Mahama Ayariga, on September 26, 2016, said ''Choose Mahama's education policy, it is better than Akufo-Addo's Free SHS.



The seeming endorsement given to Free SHS policy by Mr. Mahama is driven by ill-faith, deception and opportunism borne out of Mr. Mahama and the NDCs innate tendencies to subtly associate themselves with goods things to benefit unduly from same.



If Mr. Mahama couldnt pay Trainees allowances in that he had to insensitively canceled it, where would he get over Ghc2 billion to fund free SHS? Ghanaians should consider Mr. Mahamas statement as comic relief because he (Mahama) couldnt find few millions of cedis to reimburse three (3) consecutive terms Feeding Grants to keep Second Cycle Institutions in the northern part of Ghana opened.



Its even pathetic that Mr. Mahama failed to make a pesewa available to pay for his shambolic Progressively Free Education and E-Blocks. It took President Akufo-Addo to pay for the gargantuan debt inherented in the Education sector encompassing Progressively Free SHS, E-Blocks, Supply of Vehicles, Chalks, Textbooks among others.



It is instructive to note that the Nana Addo led NPP Government do not need the incompetent and insensitive Mahama to remind us that Free SHS is working and has come to stay.



The massive endorsement from Religious leaders, Traditional leaders and the testimonies about the Free SHS policy from parents and well-meaning Ghanaians coupled with the dozens of successfully implemented economic and social policies provide enough grounds for Ghanaians to vote for the NPP to prevent the NDC from destroying these transformative and progressive policies in future.



The young people in Ghana are grateful to the President, HE Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his visionary leadership that has seen over 1.2 million Ghanaians access second cycle education free of charge.



Thank you.



Signed



Henry Nana Boakye (Esq)



(NPP, National Youth Organizer)

Source: Josephine Acheampomaa/[email protected]









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Dramatic pictures have emerged of two swimmers being rescued by a lifeguard after they found themselves in difficulty far from the shore, caught in a rip and battling large waves.

The rescue took place on Saturday morning at Tamarama Beach, as weekend beachgoers flocked to the picturesque coastline in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

The pictures show the two swimmers, one in a pink cap, wetsuit, and swimming goggles and the other dressed in a wetsuit, clinging to the lifeguard's board.

A council lifeguard (pictured, back) paddles out to rescue two swimmers having difficulty at Tamarama Beach in Sydney on Saturday

Despite being repeatedly pummeled by large waves, which caused the brave lifeguard to gasp for breath several times, the trio eventually made it safely to shore

Large waves off Tamarama made the rescue difficult but the three (pictured) safely made it to the relief of the crowd

Despite being repeatedly pummeled by large waves, which caused Waverley Council lifeguard to gasp for breath several times, the trio eventually made it safely to shore to the relief of other beachgoers.

While the weather was not ideal for beach Saturday in Sydney - being overcast with the occasional patch of sunshine - that did not stop locals keen to get out for some fresh air and enjoy the surf.

The city is set for more of the same on Sunday with cloudy weather forecast and the showers likely. The temperature is set to be a minimum of 10C with morning fog, warming up to 17C in the afternoon.

Further south, wild winds whipped up the waves along southern NSW prompting a warning from Surf Lifesaving CEO Steven Pearce.

'Surf conditions from Eden up to Illawarra may become extreme. We are urging members of the public not to engage in coastal activities that might put them at risk,' Mr Pearce tweeted on Saturday afternoon.

While the weather was not ideal for beach Saturday in Sydney - being overcast with the occasional patch of sunshine - but that did not stop locals keen to get out for some fresh air and enjoy the surf

Friends of one of the rescued swimmers (pictured) rushed out to help the weary woman up the sand

In March this year beaches across the Sydney area were temporarily closed to reduce crowds and combat the spread of COVID-19, with police patrolling the sand in large numbers.

Earlier that month pictures had emerged of hundreds of beachgoers crowding popular locations such as Bondi despite repeated warnings from health authorities to adhere to social distancing.

Beaches were reopened shortly after but crowds are limited based on public gathering caps and sunseekers are required to maintain the 1.5 metres distance.

Professional lifeguards, who wear light blue unforms and work 365 days each year, are employed by Waverley Council to patrol Bondi, Bronte and Tamarama beaches and protect visitors.

Tamarama Beach is also one of 129 surf clubs that belong to Surf Life Saving New South Wales located along the entire stretch of the NSW coastline.

According to Surf Lifesaving Australia Lifesavers and Lifeguards are estimated to perform 30 rescues each day in Australia on average in the beach season.

While the professional lifeguards are employed by local government, they are sometimes assisted such as on weekends and holidays by volunteer lifesavers who wear red and yellow uniforms and are members of Surf Lifesaving NSW.

This organisation helps run surf clubs and through corporate partners and fundraising provides training for volunteer lifesavers and nippers.

Large waves off Tamarama Beach on Saturday (pictured) provided excellent conditions for surfers with many paddling out to catch a wave to kick off the weekend
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, escorted by his wife Susan, disembark from the plane upon landing in the Lebanese capital Beirut on March 22, 2019, on the final stop of his regional tour.

WASHINGTON  Susan Pompeo will join her husband, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on an official trip to Europe this week while she is already under scrutiny over her use of federal resources.

The State Department confirmed that she would be on the trip, which was set to begin Monday.

Despite having no official State Department position, Susan Pompeo has nevertheless requested and will be accompanied by personal control officers  U.S. Embassy officials who will organize her travel and tend to her needs  during her time in each of the four nations she is set to visit, according to a person with knowledge of the trip's planning.

Susan Pompeo's travel plans, revealed as most Americans remain largely barred from traveling to Europe due to the coronavirus pandemic, mark the latest instance of her involvement in her husband's official government duties. Her attendance could draw increased scrutiny toward her use of federal resources, which previously sparked an investigation by a State Department internal watchdog.

The State Department on Monday said ethics and legal advisors cleared Susan Pompeo's participation in the European trip.

"The State Department's legal and ethics team determined that Mrs. Pompeo's role on this trip will advance our country's foreign policy goals," a State Department spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement to CNBC.

"Mrs. Pompeo provides tremendous lift to our diplomatic mission by meeting with spouses of new foreign service officers, speaking to families headed overseas for first-time assignments, and making sure that foreign diplomats and their spouses are always treated with kindness and warmth, reflecting the finest tradition of America."
Bobby Greenawalt is the owner of B&B Beverage Management and Cigar & Fine Spirits in Auburn, Alabama. He also serves as Vice-President for the American Beverage Licensees, a national organization of alcohol licensees. Brandon Owens is the Executive Director of the Alabama Beverage Licensees Association, a statewide organization of bars, restaurants, and package stores.

For the past two weeks, Alabama has made moves to curtail late night drinking at businesses throughout the state. Believing this will help stop the spread of COVID-19, Governor Kay Iveys ABC Board ended on-premises alcohol service at 11 p.m. Adding to the curfews placed by the governor, cities are considering their own measures, further harming one of the most regulated industries out there. We are concerned this could be just the beginning.

Prior to reopening drinking establishments, COVID Parties, where college students were intentionally trying to get infected, were reported in Tuscaloosa. Even though reports were mixed while following up on the matter, there is no question house parties became more prevalent during the shutdown. One could drive around Tuscaloosa and see houses with several cars in parking areas that normally were not there.

House parties are more dangerous than any regulated environment like drinking establishments and restaurants. Altercations tend to breakout with no security to assist to stop them, alcoholic beverages are served with no limits on the amount of alcohol in each drink, minors are served without identification or age verification, there is no conscious regulation of how much someone is consuming, and, in some of the worst cases, the chances of drinks being drugged and sexual assaults occurring increase significantly. At the pinnacle of these unregulated activities is the non-existent regulating of social distancing and occupancy.

Many of us have attended house parties in our youth and know what they are like. In many cases, house parties are a time for friends to get together. After over-regulating or shutting down the on-premises alcohol businesses however, house parties will be attended by unfamiliar faces, illegal alcohol establishments will be created, and the likelihood of a criminal incidents increase. On top of this, the chances masks will be mandatory are slim to none.

Meanwhile, other businesses in the state are operating unencumbered by shutdowns, quarantine, or over-regulation. Big box and grocery stores have done little to change their operations and are typically full of customers. The crosshairs of government have been aimed squarely at restaurants and drinking establishments with little to no discussion about problems in other business sectors.

As conversations about operating in the COVID-Era rolled downhill like a snowball, no evidence was presented by any government officials that these latest actions will combat COVID-19 spread. Earlier guidelines put in place when businesses reopened were never enforced by any government officials or agencies, causing bad actors to flaunt the rules in place. While well-intentioned businesses that implemented the rules cried foul when no enforcement of those guidelines took place, their reward was not a thank you for adhering to the rules, but rather an overreaction of government saying the current rules cannot be enforced, so all businesses would be punished. Furthermore, because the alcohol industry is so heavily regulated, it allows government to further restrict when they want, where they have little to no leverage to do the same in other business sectors that are not as regulated.

Our law-abiding small businesses in Alabama deserve better. They should not be punished for the actions of a few bad seeds. Instead, the nefarious actors need to be dealt with while the owners and their employees who are operating safely can continue their attempts to provide a service in this challenging and unprecedented environment. We hope our elected Alabama officials will develop an evidence-based plan that does not single out certain business sectors.

Their survival depends on it.

RELATED: Mounting debt, reduced capacity top indie restaurant concerns going into fall, survey says
SYDNEY, Australia - Australia has reported the fewest number of new daily cases in its virus hotspot, Melbourne, since last month. But it also reported the nations highest daily death total since the virus outbreak began.

The state of Victoria reported 322 new infections and 19 new deaths on Monday, with 14 of the deaths connected to outbreaks at aged-care facilities.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was more hopeful now that cases are stabilizing in Victoria than he has been at any time over the past week.

But state Premier Daniel Andrews cautioned that not too much could be read into a single days worth of data, and that some of the states most stringent lockdown measures had only come into effect at midnight Sunday.

The number of new cases was the lowest recorded in Victoria since July 29.

The figures did not include new infections and deaths from other Australian states, although Victoria has been accounting for the vast majority of both in recent weeks.

Since the outbreak began, Australia has reported more than 21,000 infections and more than 300 deaths.

In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:

 Chinas new local transmissions fell to just 14 but was offset by 35 new cases among Chinese travellers coming from overseas. All of the new local cases reported Monday by the National Health Commission were in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, whose main city, Urumqi, is the centre of Chinas latest outbreak. China has reported 4,634 fatalities from the disease among 84,668 cases. Hong Kong reported another 72 cases and five deaths as it continues to battle a new wave of infections with tightened rules on indoor dining and obligatory mask wearing in public settings. The semi-autonomous Chinese city has reported 52 deaths among 4,079 total cases.

 Sri Lanka has started reopening schools nearly five months after they were shut to contain the coronavirus. The governments move comes as health authorities say they have successfully brought the coronavirus under control. Under the reopening plan, students in grades 5, 10, 11, 12 and 13 will attend school every day because they need to be prepared for government examinations. Students in grades 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8 will attend a single day per week, while students in grades 4 and 9 will come two days per week. Sri Lanka has reported 2,841 coronavirus cases and 11 deaths.

 Thailand is making plans to allow at least 3,000 foreign teachers to enter the country, even as it continues to keep out tourists and tightly restricts other arrivals to guard against new coronavirus infections. Attapon Truektrong, secretary-general of the Private Education Commission, said Monday that those who have registered include teachers returning to their jobs after leaving during the pandemic, as well as newly employed teachers. Their names have been sent to the Foreign Affairs Ministry for processing, he said. The teachers will have to be quarantined for 14 days after arrival, as is also the case for most business people, investors and state visitors who are among the categories of allowed arrivals. Thailand barred scheduled passenger flights from abroad in early April. Attapon said a survey last year determined there were close to 10,000 foreign teachers in schools nationwide.

 Former Indian President Pranab Mukherjee says he has tested positive for the coronavirus. Mukherjee, 84, said Monday that he found out he was positive when he went for a routine medical check-up. He requested all those who came in contact with him in the last week to isolate themselves and get tested. Mukherjee was Indias president between 2012 and 2017. Over the last few weeks, several Indian political leaders have either tested positive or gone into quarantine. India has nearly 2.3 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, the third-highest number in the world after the United States and Brazil. At least 44,386 people have died. The country has been reporting an average of about 50,000 new cases a day since mid-June.
(Natural News) A non-profit health freedom group known as Vaccine Choice Canada (VCC) is suing the Canadian government for its mishandling of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) plandemic.

The defendants in the suit, which include Justin Trudeaus Liberal Government and Doug Fords Government of Ontario, are being accused of overreach in their response to the crisis. Plaintiffs say the Canadian government imposed draconian and unjustifiable measures in response to the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) that unlawfully harmed the people of Canada.

The mass and indiscriminate containment of citizens, the restriction of access to parliament, the courts, medical and educational services, the destruction of local economies and livelihoods, and the requirement to physically distance, along with the forced use of non-medical masking are extraordinary measures that have never before been imposed on the citizens of Canada, VCC is alleging.

The impact of these aberrant measures on our physical, emotional, psychological, social and economic well-being is profoundly destructive and these actions are unsustainable, unwarranted, extreme and unconstitutional.

In a recent press release, VCC indicated that multiple parties are being sued for their involvement in imposing such measures on the Canadian public. Some of the other parties besides the aforementioned include the Municipality of Toronto and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), as well as the following entities:

 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

 Ontario Premier Doug Ford

 Canadas Chief Medical Officer Dr. Theresa Tam

 Transport Minister Marc Garneau

 Ontario Ministers Christine Elliot (Health) and Stephen Lecce (Education)

 Toronto Mayor John Tory

 Ontarios Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Williams

Lockdowns harm peoples mental and physical health, lawsuit says

Other defendants named as part of the suit include Dr. Eileen De Villa, the County of Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph and its chief medical officer, and Windsor Essex County and its chief medical officer. CBC, by the way, is a state-funded broadcaster, which is why it is being sued as well.

Citing multiple nurses and informed citizens who have presented solid evidence to suggest that the lockdowns in particular have harmed peoples mental and physical health, the lawsuit seeks damages on behalf of everyone in the Canadian public who suffered under these draconian measures.

The suit also seeks to stop the Canadian government from imposing mandatory vaccination once a Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine becomes commercially available. Any attempt at mandatory vaccination would violate the rights of Canadian citizens under the countrys constitution.

The VCC is also asking for a declaration that face masks not be mandated, as being forced to wear them is a violation of ones own bodily autonomy. So-called social distancing is also on the chopping block in the lawsuit, which says it is too extreme and harms individuals by keeping them unconstitutionally isolated.

Churches, schools, playgrounds, and other public places must also remain open at all times, no matter the perceived threat, because it is not up to the government to decide which freedoms are allowed every time a sickness passes our way. Not only that, but shutting everything down is scientifically invalid, the suit states.

One of the goals of the lawsuit is to recuperate $10 million in punitive damages, as well as $1 million in general damages, specifically from CBC for spreading misinformation and false news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) as part of a shock-and-awe campaign aimed at instilling fear and panic over the novel virus.

In its Statement of Claim summary, the lawsuit adds that the entire pandemic was pre-planned and false, and driven by the likes of the World Health Organization (WHO), Bill Gates and various other Billionaire Oligarchs trying to install a New World (Economic) Order against the will of the people.

For more related news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, be sure to check out Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

LifeSiteNews.com

NaturalNews.com
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BEIJING, Aug. 7 (Xinhua)  Chinese authorities have started a two-month campaign to address prominent problems of online education platforms for minors and protect students' lawful rights and interests, said the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on Friday.

Jointly launched by the administration and the Ministry of Education, the campaign aims to rectify problems regarding online games, dating sites, and pornographic, violent and fraudulent information advertised on the learning platforms.

In light of the fact that the majority of students have turned to online courses during the epidemic, such content risks having a negative impact on society, endangering students' physical and mental health.

Under the campaign, all platforms setting up online classes for minors are asked to assume the main responsibility of content management on the pages, strictly examine the courses, and ban pop-up advertisements and information that are unsuitable for minors.

The administration vowed to harshly crack down on illegal platforms and institutions involved in such issues in accordance with the law, and create a healthy learning environment for minors.

In a separate campaign, launched in early July, against harmful online content for minors, a number of online learning platforms and apps were investigated and punished, according to the CAC.

Those platforms and apps featuring content that was harmful to minors, such as vulgar pop-up advertisements and violent animations, were ordered to rectify the situation.

(Source: Xinhua)
A pilot project based on the concept of inclusive growth dividend (IGD) or universal basic income (UBI), guaranteeing income to poor people is likely to kick off soon in two of the mineral-rich but poor districts of Odisha. Under the project, a monthly transfer of Rs 100 will be made to the bank accounts of each and every person in the targeted areas.

Odisha government officials said the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) South Asia, co-founded by Nobel Laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, has proposed a pilot project in Keonjhar, Sundargarh and Mayurbhanj districts of Odisha. Last year, J-PAL South Asia had signed an agreement with the state government to maximise the impact of states poverty alleviation programmes across a wide range of sectors.

Under the pilot project, J-PAL has proposed UBI for poor people in around 400 gram panchayats in these districts by ensuring functional bank accounts of each of the adults and crediting Rs 100 to their accounts every month for two years with a budget of Rs 300 crore.

For minor children in each of these panchayats who cant have bank accounts, the money will be transferred to their mothers account. As per J-PALs assessment, the monthly unconditional income supplement of Rs 100 was assessed after pegging it at 1% of GDP/capita (Odishas GSDP/capita estimated to be Rs. 1,16,614 as of 2019-20).

However, government sources said the pilot project can be implemented in only Keonjhar and Sundargarh districts as it can be financed from the District Mineral Fund available there.

Development Commissioner Suresh Mohapatra, who had a preliminary discussion with J-PAL officials last week, said, Once we get the project report, the DMF trust boards of the two districts would consider it and if found viable then it would be approved. We have suggested to them to include villages within 10 km area of the mining blocks in these districts.

A Below Poverty Line census conducted by Odishas Panchayati Raj department found about 65 per cent of the population in Sundargarh district to be BPL while in Keonjhar 69 per cent of its population is BPL.

J-PALs proposal to Odisha government said that IGD may be especially appropriate in the current situation when the aftermath of the economic shutdown to slow the spread of COVID-19 is creating enormous stress on every part of the economy.

A small regular and predictable income transfer cannot only provide universal social protection, but also be a foundational investment in the broader economic recovery by boosting demand. The Rs 100 a month may be a trivial amount, it would give a large a boost to consumptions to poor households in rural Odisha. The IGD would boost monthly consumption by nearly 20% for the poorest 10% of rural households and would increase monthly consumption for the bottom half of the rural population by l4%, it said.

While most income transfer schemes are targeted at households, the J-PAL said individual transfers -- where childrens allowances are deposited into the mothers account -- could be a game changer for female empowerment and intra-household targeting. It can also help in boosting female labour-force participation in Odisha, which at 2l.6 %, is lower than the national average.

The J-PAL in its proposal said the inclusive growth dividend has the potential of delivering on several development goals including progressive poverty reduction without exclusion errors or targeting costs, it can also improve livelihoods through several channels including making it easier for poor households to save and access credit for productive investments.

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On Sunday, Congressional Democrats called for an intelligence report investigating the threat of foreign interference in the 2020 United States general election to be shown to the public. The officials said they have the right to be informed of the documents' details more than they had in 2016.

Russian interference

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the American people have the right to know what foreign entities, such as Russia, are doing to threaten the integrity of the United States and its political scene. Pelosi noted that citizens have the right to determine who their next president will be and not Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to USA Today, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, William Evanina, issues a statement on Friday that wrote foreign parties would continue to conduct both covert and overt influence methods to sway the preferences and perspectives of American voters to suit their agenda.

Evanina's statement added foreign states would also attempt to shift US policies, spread chaos and confusions within the country, and undermine the confidence of citizens that they have placed on the democratic process of voting.

The director said the primary concerns for foreign parties involved included China, Russia, and Iran. Evanina added Russia was conducting attempts to boost President Donald Trump's presidency while China and Iran were doing what they can to bring him down.

Also Read: State Department Accuses Russia of Building Vast Website Proxies to Spread Coronavirus Disinformation

However, Pelosi said Russia's move to aid Trump's reelection was a more significant concern than the threat of China and Iran. The House Speaker said the threats were not equivalent and said Russia is continuously working to interfere with the US elections. Pelosi noted they did so in 2016 and are doing it once again and said China may be supporting Joe Biden but have not involved themselves as much as the Kremlin have.

Director Evanina's statement wrote that Russia is creating multiple networks that attempt to slander presidential candidate Biden. However, while the document did not detail the interference in specific terms, it said that some Kremlin-linked entities are working to showcase Trump's presidency on social media platforms and Russian television.

Multiple international threats

Robert O'Brien, Trump's national security adviser, said on Sunday that the US government is taking any threat to the general elections very seriously. The adviser noted China has been conducting cyberattacks and phishing attempts in relation to the US's election system, as reported by ABC News.

O'Brien said the US government would not stand for the threats and will take necessary actions to keep them out of the elections, whether it was China, Russia, or Iran.

Other Congressional Democrats, including Pelosi, have expressed their concern that several intelligence agencies have been keeping specific information from the public about the actual threat that foreign identities have on the US elections.

Senator Richard Blumenthal said the facts were horrifying, adding he believes American citizens have the right to be given the information and has called for the immediate declassification of the documents.

Related Article: Hackers Gain Access to US Voting Systems, Reveal Vulnerabilities and Weak Points

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The outgoing head of the Civil Service sparked uproar today by branding his 250,000 severance package as 'standard' and claiming he could have got 'significantly more' if he'd been made redundant.

Sir Mark Sedwill's remarks came after the Government announced plans to limit the size of such 'golden goodbye' deals to 95,000.

Last month it was revealed he will get 248,189 when he steps down later this year from his dual role as Cabinet Secretary and national security adviser.

He is quitting the top posts following a power struggle with the Prime Minister's top aide Dominic Cummings.

Speaking to Civil Service World today, Sir Mark said: 'That is a calculation made by the experts for someone in my position for voluntary early retirement by agreement  that's essentially what I took. And then there is a compensation payment into the pension.'

And discussing redundancy payments, he added: 'There's a distinction between the two.

'I know it's a significant amount of money  but if I've been made redundant, actually it would have been more than that under the terms of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme. Significantly more than that.'

Last month it was revealed Sir Mark (pictured with Boris Johnson in July 2019) will get 248,189 when he steps down later this year from his dual role as Cabinet Secretary and national security adviser

He is quitting the top posts following a power struggle with the Prime Minister's top aide Dominic Cummings (above)

Garry Graham, deputy general secretary of the Prospect trade union, said: 'It will not be lost on more junior civil servants that shortly after it was announced that Sir Mark Sedwill was to receive a 250k severance package, the government announced its plan to cap payments at 95k.

'Sir Mark has been treated shoddily by this administration- and we do not begrudge him this payment. However the arbitrary cap will impact on long serving modestly paid public servants whose jobs are at risk.

'People are right to be angry at the hypocrisy and double standards which seem to apply for the sake of political expediency.'

Civil service unions last month accused No10 of orchestrating a series of corrosive and cowardly briefings against Sir Mark  who Mr Cummings is said to have seen as a roadblock to a Whitehall shake-up.

Sir Mark, 55, who has more than 30 years of Government service, also hit out at unpleasant off-the-record briefings and sniping as he addressed MPs.

He called them a regrettable feature of modern politics. He also denied resigning, saying he had agreed with Boris Johnson to step down.

David Frost, the PM's chief Brexit negotiator, will succeed Sir Mark as national security adviser at the end of August.

He will be given a peerage and operate as a political adviser  the first time the role has not gone to a civil servant.

Mr Cummings was reported to have been unimpressed by the response of the Cabinet Office to the coronavirus outbreak, telling aides a hard rain is coming for the civil service.

Mr Johnson has sought to play down claims that Sir Marks position was undermined by a series of hostile Press briefings.

He insisted Sir Mark, who will continue to be involved in the preparations for the UK taking on the presidency of the G7 next year, still had a lot to offer.
TEHRAN, Iran, Aug. 10

Trend:



The director of the Headquarters for Iranian Execution of Imam Khomeinis Order, announced that the first phase of COVID-19 vaccine's clinical trial is set to begin within the next two weeks.



"The animal tests have already been done in three different ways, and considering the protocols of the Ministry of Health, the human trial phase will be performed in the next one to two weeks, Director of the Headquarters for Execution of Imam Khomeinis Order Mohammad Mokhber said, Trend reports citing Tasnim News Agency.

The launch of the vaccine trial comes as Iran is struggling to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Iranian Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said on Sunday that the total number of coronavirus cases in the country has reached 326,712, with the death toll exceeding 18,400.

With 163 new deaths in the past 24 hours, the death toll from the virus has reached 18,427. Unfortunately, we had 2,020 new cases since yesterday, Lari said during her daily press briefing.
What grocery store sells Desi foods and spices? Where can I find a babysitter that speaks my language? What if my visa expires during COVID-19?

These are just some of the common questions immigrants may have when they move to a new country, especially during a pandemic. Thats what Homeis, a digital platform aiming to provide a more seamless transition for newcomers, hopes to bring to Canada.

I remember from the moment I moved, I realized that the internet is just broken for immigrants, Ran Harnevo said.

Harnevo, originally from Israel, saw a need for this type of connection after he moved to the U.S. in 2008. With a background in tech, he co-developed and became the CEO of Homeis, a network for immigrants who share the same background and cultures to connect and help navigate life in the America. Initially the app was created for Israeli immigrants, but has since expanded to include services and communities for immigrants from South Asia, Mexico, and France.

During COVID-19, the platform saw a user increase of about 20 per cent as the virus spread globally, Harnevo said. As people began to lose their jobs and encounter difficulty renewing their work or education visas and had questions like where can an undocumented immigrant get tested for COVID-19? or Im here on a H1B visa and have 60 days to find a new job, what should I do? Since March, there has also been an increased demand on the topic of immigrating to Canada and an interest in virtual information sessions with immigration lawyers and experts.

Now, with nearly a million users worldwide, Homeis is expanding to north, launching its first Canadian digital platform for South Asian immigrants from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka starting Monday.

South Asian communities are early adopters, they understand the internet well and they are tech savvy, Harnevo said.

Varsha Ahir is leading the Canadian expansion and she is also the head of South Asian Communities on Homeis.

There are already around two-hundred Canadian users who have signed up early for Homeis. Now they will be able to join a community and connect with people in their area.

The platform also has a number of support groups to support those who are feeling especially isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Once it is safe to do so, Ahir says she cant wait for the in-person connections to continue, because they helped her find a sense of belonging.

Im a heavy user of the app, Ahir said.

She moved to the United States in 2018 when she got married to her Indian-American husband. His friends quickly became hers, but she was looking to establish her own networks. My very first friend I made in the U.S was through Homeis. Today I have my own set of friends who have now become my husbands friends, Ahir said.

Last week, Ahirs patio needed to be fixed and she asked for help in the marketplace section of the platform. Someone has already visited her house twice to take measurements and estimates for the job, she said.

Though we live in an increasingly digital world, the internet is disorganized and doesnt foster sense of community, Harnevo said. Unlike other communities, the immigrant community is based on trust.

How does it work? To sign up, users enter their country of origin and where they currently live or hope to live and are immediately connected to a virtual hub where they can ask others questions.

Were not trying to build Facebook for immigrants. Were a company of immigrants, committed in what were doing, Harnevo adds.

Correction: A quote has been corrected to indicate that an H1B visa requires the holder to find a job within 60 days, not a K-1 visa which has no restrictions.

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Four years of incarceration of Baha'i faith adherents in Yemens Sanaa has ended up with exiling them. The Houthi authorities set six Baha'i members free on July 30, and they were immediately flown outside Yemen.

The six Baha'i individuals are named Hamed bin Haydara, Badiullah Sanai, Wael al-Arieghie, Waleed Ayyash, Akram Ayyash and Kayvan Ghaderi.

Haydara is the leader whom the Houthis sentenced to death last year for alleged links to Israel and apostasy. But Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, declared in March a pardon and ordered the release of the six detainees. The Houthis have been boasting about this pardon ever since.

Baha'ism dates back to the 19th century and it first emerged in Iran. The believers in this faith say their chief objective is to contribute to the construction of a more peaceful and just global order. The Baha'is are estimated at 5 million worldwide and they are dispersed in several countries, including Yemen. The Baha'i minority constitutes 1% of Yemens non-Muslim population.

While the Houthi release of the Baha'i members seems like a good deed, deporting them out of Yemen points to the oppressive atmosphere the country is undergoing. The war has not only starved people to death, but also has taken a heavy toll on their freedom of expression and faith. The recent exile of the Baha'i faith members is a stark example of the insecure freedom climate in this war-ravaged country.

In the eyes of the Houthis, freeing the Baha'is is a praiseworthy step and a noble act. Hussein al-Azzi, the Houthi deputy foreign minister, said July 30 that the release of the six Baha'is came in response to the directives of Mashat. He added, We hope that this noble stance would be met with more commitment and respect for the law and with the observance of the general order of Yemeni society.

The release has not been applauded by everyone. Nadwa al-Dawsari, a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute, does not see the release of the Baha'is as a step that should be commended. She tweeted, I hope no one celebrates the 'release' of Bahais. There is nothing to celebrate. They were exiled for simply having a faith that Houthis did not approve. Even their exile came after tremendous international pressure on Houthis.

Presently, the Houthis are in control of the bulk of Yemens northern territories, and their decrees can go unopposed. The reaction of human rights activists and the UN-recognized Yemeni government can do nothing to stop the persecution of the Baha'is or other groups in the country.

Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani described the exile of adherents of this faith as a flagrant violation of international laws and conventions, and a crime against humanity. What happened is as heinous as the crime of abducting them from their houses, holding them at detention centers for years, exposing them to the worst physical and psychological tortures, and appropriating their properties, Eryani said.

Though the Baha'i International Community (BIC) appreciated the release of the six members, it remains gravely concerned.

Diane Alai, a BIC representative, said in a statement, As Yemens search for durable, societal peace continues, Bahais must be able  like all Yemenis  to practice their faith safely and freely, in keeping with the universal principles of freedom of religion or belief. This is not possible until the charges are lifted.

Over the last five years, journalism and politics have been risky in Yemen, let alone practicing a different faith. The Houthis rose to power swiftly in 2014-15, and this would not have materialized without the resort to force and absolute domination of areas they rule.

A Sanaa-based human rights journalist told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the Baha'is cannot be safe and they cannot practice their faith freely as long as this war continues. If they are in the south, they would be targeted by al-Qaeda operatives and they have been persecuted by the Houthi group in the north.

He added, The group has no tolerance toward ideologies that contradict theirs, and they have even modified the school curricula over the last few years. They make sure their ideologies permeate society to foster the spread of their influence. They have also renamed some public schools and university halls, and all this [has] been done to promote their thoughts.

Political observers have criticized the deportation of the Baha'is calling it inhumane. Khalil al-Omary, the Belgium-based editor-in-chief of Rai Alyemen news site, told Al-Monitor that forcing these men into exile is a fascist act.

He noted, The Houthis committed two crimes against the Baha'is. The first is incarceration and banning them from practicing their religious rites, and the second is exiling them from the country.

What the Houthis have done to the Baha'is is not different from the way they have treated journalists and political opponents, according to Omary. The Houthis sentenced journalists in Sanaa to death and their assaults on freedom of opinion and expression do not seem to cease as long they continue to dominate the population, he added.

As the war in the country persists and goes on unabated and peace is nowhere in sight, freedom of thought and expression will continue to be a red line and the Baha'is ordeal will not be the last example of oppression in Yemen.
New Delhi, Aug 10 : One of the unfulfilled wishes of India's 11th President late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was to ensure that every youth of India has access to good books and quality knowledge, says his former advisor and co-author for many years, Srijan Pal Singh. Having come up with a unique library initiative for COVID-19 centres, Singh aims to fulfil the wish of the late President.

"He aspired that there should be one free library in every village and even the remotest corner of the country and that the youth of the nation should have access to books as a matter of right," Singh, who is the CEO of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Centre, told IANSlife.

The Kalam Library Project is based on this unfulfilled wish of Dr Kalam and was founded by Singh. It aims to empower the youth with the power of knowledge, so that they realize that nothing is impossible in life.

As a response to COVID, a Kalam Library in Surat's Atal Samvedna Centre has been launched. The library has a collection of over 60 books and 20 magazines to cater to the needs of patients of all age groups. Books include biographies of great leaders, religious scriptures, storybooks and motivation guides.

"Kalam libraries have been serving the marginalized section of society with the power of knowledge and we have over 450 such libraries across 14 states of the nation. We believe that even in these distressing times, learning should not stop. Anybody who is coming to the quarantine centre to heal should also be learning from the wealth of books. Also, we came across many articles related to the mental agony of patients in the quarantine centres. And what would be a better way to alienate them from the anxiety and fear than books. After all, books are our best friends," Singh said.

"The books are kept inside the quarantine centres. Any patient can pick up a book of his/her choice and read it. They are regularly sanitized so that they do not become a carrier of infection among the patients. And since, the patients cannot go outside the centre, there is no case of loss of books," Singh said.

What has been the initial response so far? "People from age groups, especially the older ones have responded well. Since they have less access to mobile phones, books help them keep their mind engaged. Also, good books radiate positivity and keep the mind healthy. And a vibrant mind leads to fast healing." The initiative is being planned to expand to all the quarantine centres of the country, wherever operation of such libraries is possible.

(Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in)
" " Even stalks of corn growing in the Arizona desert create their own microclimate. The temperature in the carefully leveled irrigation rows at the base of these corn is lower than the outside temperature. Dusty Pixel photography/Getty Images

If weather is your mood, climate is your personality. That's an analogy some scientists use to help explain the difference between two words people often get mixed up.

In other words, weather exists in the short term. It's the state of the atmosphere in a specific area during a limited period (think minutes, hours, days or weeks). Climate, meanwhile, describes long-term average weather trends.

And if you're interested in the latter, you'd better know geography: Our global climate is made up of smaller regional climates. Break those down and you'll find local variations at just about every conceivable scale.

That brings us to microclimates, an amazing subject with broad applications for farming, conservation, wildlife management and city planning.

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Size Matters

Climates are a bit like woven tapestries. The big picture is important, no question. But so are all the seemingly minor details found inside the larger whole.

Tommaso Jucker is an environmental scientist at the University of Bristol. In an email, Jucker says he'd define the term microclimate as "the suite of climatic conditions (temperature, rainfall, humidity, solar radiation) measured in localized areas, typically near the ground and at spatial scales that are directly relevant to ecological processes."

We'll talk about that last bit in a minute. But first, there's another criteria to discuss. According to some researchers, a microclimate  by definition  must differ from the larger area that surrounds it.

Forests provide us with some great examples. "The climate near the ground in a tropical rainforest is dramatically different from the climate in the canopy 50 meters [164 feet] above," says University of Montana ecologist Solomon Dobrowski in an email. "This vertical gradient among other factors allows for the staggering biodiversity we see in the tropics."

Likewise, scientists observed that a 2015 partial solar eclipse caused the air temperature of an Eastern European meadow to change more dramatically than it did in a nearby forest. That's because trees provide not only shade, but their leaves also reflect solar radiation. At the same time, forests tend to reduce wind speeds.

All those factors add up. A 2019 review of 98 wooded places  spread out across five continents  found that forests are 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) cooler on average than the areas outside them.

Now if you hate the cold, don't worry; there's a cozy exception to the rule. According to that same study, forests are usually 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) warmer than the external environment during the wintertime. Pretty cool.

" " This image of the Santa Monica Mountains in California shows how a north-facing slope (left) can be covered in white-blooming hoaryleaf ceanothus (Ceanothus crassifolius), while the south-facing slope (right) is much less sparsely covered in a completely different plant. Noah Elhardt/Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 2.5

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A Bug's Life

When does a microclimate stop being, well, micro? In other words, is there a maximum size we should be aware of when discussing them?

Depends on who you ask. "In terms of horizontal scale, some have defined 'microclimate' as anything that is less than 100 meters [328 feet] in range," Jucker says. "I'm personally less prescriptive about this."

Instead, he says the "scale at which we want to measure [a particular] microclimate" ought to be "dictated" by the questions we're trying to answer.

"If I want to know how temperature affects the photosynthesis of a leaf, I should be measuring temperature at centimeter scale," Jucker explains. "If I want to know if and how temperature affects the habitat preference of a large, mobile mammal, it's probably more relevant to capture temperature variation across [tens to hundreds] of meters."

For instance, solitary plants have the power to generate itty-bitty microclimates. Just ask Peter Blanken, a geography professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder and the co-author of the 2016 book, "Microclimate and Local Climate."

"A single stalk of corn can create its own microclimate through the shading and changes in soil properties in the immediate vicinity of the stalk," Blanken says via email. "For a field of corn, the microclimate created would be much larger, extending over the entire field," Blanken says via email.

Many organisms eke out a living in some of the dinkiest microclimates you can imagine.

Take aphids, spider mites and leaf miner insects. All those critters are dwarfed by the plant leaves they feed on. And every leaf comes with its own microclimate. Observations show that aphids seek out cooler leaves while those other invertebrates prefer warmed ones.

Because none of these animals can generate their own body heat, leaf microclimates have a critical effect on their well-being.

" " The urban heat island effect is a good example of how microclimates work. NOAA

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Microclimates on a Grand Scale

It's no secret that our planet is going through some rough times at the macro level. The global temperature is climbing; nine out of the 10 hottest years on record have occurred since 2005. And by one recent estimate, roughly 1 million species around the world are facing extinction due to human activities.

"One of the big questions that ecologists and environmental scientists are trying to answer right now is how will individual species and whole ecosystems respond to rapid climate change and habitat loss," says Jucker. "...To me, [microclimates are] a key component of this research  if we don't measure and understand climate at the appropriate scale, then predicting how things will change in the future becomes a lot harder."

Developers have long understood the impact small-scale climates have on our daily lives. Urban heat islands are cities that have higher temperatures than neighboring rural areas.

Plants release vapors that can moderate local climates. But in cities, natural greenery is often scarce. To make matters worse, plenty of our roads and buildings have a bad habit of absorbing or re-emitting heat from the sun. Vehicle emissions don't exactly help the situation.

Still, it's not like Boston or Beijing are thermal monoliths. Sometimes, the documented temperatures within a single city vary by 15 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit (8.3 to 11.1 degrees Celsius).

That's where metro parks and city trees come in. They have nice cooling effects on nearby neighborhoods. "Several cities around the world have developed programs to increase urban green spaces," says Blanken. "Tree planting programs and green roof programs, have been shown to lower surface temperatures, decrease air pollution and decrease surface water runoff (urban flash-flooding) in urban areas."

NOW THAT'S INTERESTING Spruce-fir moss spiders are appropriately named. And they depend on a very specific microclimate: These endangered North American tarantulas live beneath moist moss mats that grow on rocks at high elevations. (Before you ask, dry moss just doesn't cut it for them.)
The depths of the Earth have mysterious details that may seem fascinating to any scientist or researcher. The ocean beds have thousands of sinkholes, which may look invisible from the water surface. These are known as blue holes and scientists are now willing to conduct a detailed study on them.

The last week of July helped divers in Floridas Gulf Coast to discover a new blue hole. This 425-foot blue hole has been dubbed as the Green Banana and is located around 155 feet below the water's surface. The data has been provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

One of the deepest blue holes on Earth, the Green Banana has intrigued the scientists. In order to find out multiple answers, a team of scientists from NOAA, Mote Marine Laboratory, and other regional scientific organizations will conduct intensive research of the Green Banana this month.

Using an instrument called benthic lander, which is in the shape of a triangular prism, divers will collect water and sediment samples. Scientists will read them to find about the life in these holes and its connection to other coasts of Florida and the Floridan aquifer system.

Resolving the mysteries behind blue holes, their emergence and their connection might lead to an increase in the knowledge about an unexplored area of marine diversity.

Recently, the team explored another blue hole which is 350 feet deep. They discovered two dead small tooth sawfish inside the holes, dubbed as Amberjack.
The smallest coalition party Za Ludi talks about unity, but they ended the congress with a conflict.

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The 109 delegates of the smallest ruling coalition party Za Ludi and their guests stood to start their congress with the national anthem, followed by the minute of silence to honour the recently tragically deceased high-profile member Vladimir Dolinay.

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In less than a year of existence, the party jumped to 11 percent but in February only made it to parliament with 5.77 percent and now faces oblivion.

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Former president of the republic Andrej Kiska, who founded the party one year ago and is now withdrawing from politics, delivered the first speech of the event to the delegates.

"Today the party's support is under the electability threshold and its founder and chairman is leaving," Kiska told the party in his speech.

After his departure, the delegates were to choose between two candidates to replace him at their helm: Investment Minister Veronika Remisova and MP and Hlohovec Mayor Miroslav Kollar. While Remisova declared her ambition to continue the line Kiska has held - a centrist party with a strong focus on regions - Kollar wanted it to be more focused on the middle class and the centre-right voter.

The party in the end opted for Remisova. She received 76 votes, while Kollar received the support of 33 delegates.
WUHAN, China  Cloistered off a major thoroughfare, the Wuhan Institute of Virology could pass for a college campus, its red brick buildings distinguishable from their busy surroundings only by a long, imposing driveway lined with cameras, with a security guard standing sentry.

On the neatly manicured grounds beside a small man-made lake is a newer structure with silver sidings and few windows. This, the institute's BSL-4 lab  the first in China to receive the highest level of biosafety clearance  stands at the center of an international firestorm of recrimination over China's role in the coronavirus pandemic.

On Friday, NBC News became the first foreign news organization to be granted access to the institute since the outbreak began, meeting with senior scientists working to pinpoint the origins of the virus. The Wuhan institute and its scientists have become the focus of intense speculation and conspiracy theories  some emanating from the White House  about China's alleged efforts to downplay the outbreak's severity and whether the virus leaked from the facility.

During the roughly five-hour visit, which included a tour of the BSL-4 lab, where technicians clad in bubblelike protective suits handled small vials and other equipment while sealed inside a thick-walled glass enclosure, Wang Yanyi, director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, said she and others felt unfairly targeted. She urged that politics not cloud investigations into how the coronavirus spilled over into humans.

Wuhan Institute of Virology (Feature China / Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

"It is unfortunate that we have been targeted as a scapegoat for the origin of the virus," she said. "Any person would inevitably feel very angry or misunderstood being subject to unwarranted or malicious accusations while carrying out research and related work in the fight against the virus."

The first clusters of a pneumonia-like illness were reported in December in Wuhan, a sprawling city of 11 million people that hugs the Yangtze River in China's central Hubei province.

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The Wuhan Institute of Virology, founded in the 1950s, is a prominent research facility that enjoyed an even more elevated profile after it opened the BSL-4 lab in 2015. These days, scientists at the lab are focused on the coronavirus, but normally, work at the facility includes research on some of the most dangerous known viruses, including the Ebola, Nipah and Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever viruses.

It is partly because the Wuhan institute is equipped to study the world's highest-risk infectious agents and toxins  including those, like the latest coronavirus, that are believed to have originated in bats  that it is entangled in accusations that it had something to do with the outbreak.

During a White House event on April 30, President Donald Trump referred to a possible link. When asked whether he had seen evidence that suggested that the virus originated at the Wuhan lab, Trump responded: "Yes, I have."

I cant tell you that. Im not allowed to tell you that, he said when declining to give specifics.

Image: The Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. (Janis Mackey Frayer / NBC News)

The White House has shown no credible proof to back up claims that the coronavirus was either manufactured at or accidentally leaked from the lab, and neither have any other sources. But Trump continues to fuel the blame, often through racist rhetoric, by regularly referring to the pathogen as the "China virus," the "Wuhan virus" or "kung flu."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has repeated similar claims, also without providing proof.

In April, current and former U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News that the U.S. intelligence community was examining whether the virus emerged accidentally from the Wuhan lab. Spy agencies had ruled out that the coronavirus was man-made, the officials said at the time.

Democrats in Congress who have asked administration officials to provide information about any such associations say their requests have been ignored.

The White House declined to comment for this article.

Zero evidence

At the beginning of the tour of the institute, a guard took the teams temperatures and checked bags and equipment. In the facilities, workers wore regular clothes and facemasks, which have become ubiquitous in China during the pandemic.

Trees dot the hilly landscape along the path leading to the institutes BSL-4 lab, which NBC News was given access to  although not in to the germ-free inner area.

During separate 50-minute interviews accompanied by a representative of the government, Wang and Yuan Zhiming, vice director of the institute, strongly denied that the virus could have originated at the institute. They also said scientists at the facility obtained their first samples of the coronavirus after the disease had begun to spread among the public.

"I have repeatedly emphasized that it was on Dec. 30 that we got contact with the samples of SARS-like pneumonia or pneumonia of unknown cause sent from the hospital," Yuan said. "We have not encountered the novel coronavirus before that, and without this virus, there is no way that it is leaked from the lab."

Wang said none of the institute's scientists contracted the virus, which she said made it extremely unlikely that the pathogen could have escaped from the facility.

NBC News was not able to verify her statements on when the lab first received live samples of the virus or whether any of its scientists were sickened by it.

Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, a New York City-based nonprofit dedicated to studying and preventing pandemics, worked with the Wuhan institute for 16 years until the U.S. government cut funding this year. He also rejected the idea that the virus could have leaked from the lab.

"The fact that they published the sequence so quickly suggests to me that they weren't trying to cover up anything," he said.

Image: Janis Mackey Frayer tours the Wuhan Institute of Virology with Dr. Yuan Zhiming, Director of Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory. (NBC News)

There is "absolutely zero evidence that it escaped from a lab," he added.

In May, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, told National Geographic that he discounted the idea that the virus had accidentally escaped from a lab.

Yuan said that regular health checks are conducted for the facility's personnel but that so far the institute has not encountered positive tests for the virus or its antibodies, which would suggest that a person had the virus at some point.

Wang and Yuan also challenged an internal State Department cable from 2018 that raised concerns by U.S. Embassy officials in China over the safety and training of staff members at the institute.

The partially redacted contents of the cable were leaked this year and were subsequently released following a freedom of information request by The Washington Post. The cable noted "a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory," but the identity of the person who raised the concerns was not revealed.

Wang disputed the conclusions. She said U.S. officials did visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology, but in March 2018  about two months after the Jan. 19, 2018, cable was sent. She added that the officials did not tour any of the labs at the facility and that they did not discuss biosafety procedures.

Wang's and Yuan's comments echo those of other Chinese officials who insist that instead of being criticized, China should be praised for efforts to contain and now identify the virus. But the arguments are undermined by the Chinese government's history of exerting control over scientific data and what many critics see as the country's lack of transparency during the pandemic.

The State Department did not respond directly to Wang and Yuans claims that U.S. officials had not visited the lab before the January cable. A spokesperson did say the Chinese government has yet to sufficiently share data or samples, with the international community.

We still don't have the answers we need about a virus that has left 700,000 dead, they said. For the world to have those answers, Beijing must provide open and transparent access to full information needed to allow for a complete understanding of the origins of the virus.

Wang said the institute will "fully support" the World Health Organization, which has dispatched a team in China to interview scientists in Wuhan and develop a framework to investigate the origin of the coronavirus. She also called for more international collaboration, but China and the U.S. remain at political loggerheads  tensions that escalated in 2018 with trade disputes, then sharpened a year later over China's Xinjiang policy and the protests in Hong Kong, and were further aggravated by the pandemic.

In April, the National Institutes of Health terminated funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for a research collaboration with EcoHealth Alliance. The long-term project aimed to identify areas at risk for emerging infectious diseases and to collect and study bat samples to prevent future coronavirus outbreaks. Yuan said the institute was not given a reason for the cancellation of the grant.

The National Institutes of Health did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

A mysterious pneumonia

About eight months into a pandemic that has killed more than 720,000 people and brought the world's economy to its knees, precisely where and when the virus emerged remains a mystery.

The first unexplained cases of a pneumonia-like illness were reported to the WHO's office in Beijing on Dec. 31, and detailed information about the "viral pneumonia of unknown cause" was provided Jan. 3, according to the WHO.

Trump has accused the WHO of failing to adequately warn the world about the coronavirus outbreak, saying in May that its actions as a "puppet of China" allowed the pandemic to spiral out of control. Later that month, he announced that the U.S. would pull its funding for the agency.

The timeline of events early on in the coronavirus outbreak has come under intense scrutiny, including whether China acted quickly enough to alert the WHO of evidence that the virus was being transmitted between humans. Local authorities have been criticized for downplaying the threat to the public and being slow to impose lockdown measures in Wuhan, which went into effect Jan. 23.

Image: Dr. Li Wenliang.

Reports also emerged that the Chinese government had suppressed information about the coronavirus, going so far as to have police punish a 34-year-old doctor named Li Wenliang after he warned about the virus in a chat group on the messaging app WeChat in late December.

Li died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, on Feb. 7. The government later conducted an investigation, took disciplinary measures against the police officers involved and posthumously hailed Li as a martyr.

And despite the country's experience with SARS, another type of coronavirus that emerged in China in 2003 before spreading to four other countries, Chinese authorities have been accused of not doing enough to stem the trade of exotic wildlife, which can harbor so-called zoonotic diseases that can hop from animals into humans.

Wet market' a focus

Early research suggests that this virus closely resembles a known coronavirus harbored in horseshoe bats, but teasing out its origin  and what intermediate animal, if any, it passed through before infecting humans  will likely be a long, complicated process.

Some of the first reported cases were traced to the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, a "wet market" where outdoor stalls sell a variety of meat, seafood and live animals for consumption. Public health officials have warned that these types of live-animal markets can be hotbeds of emerging infectious diseases.

Yuan, the Wuhan institute's vice director, said scientists have not yet found a smoking gun linking the emergence of the pathogen to the market.

"So far, there is no evidence to show that the novel coronavirus jumped from animals to people in Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan," he said, adding that it is not yet clear "how it jumped from the natural or immediate hosts to humans in the early stages, from what animal and when and how the spillover happened."

The Huanan Seafood Market was shuttered Jan. 1, and although scientists with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention were reported to have gathered samples from the site, most of the data have not been made public, further fueling suspicions of Chinese motives and actions.

Image: The closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where some of the first reported cases were traced to. (Getty Images)

Scientists can glean information about a virus from its genetic material, but a pathogen's molecular makeup will not reveal everything about its source. The Wuhan Institute of Virology was involved in sequencing the coronavirus' genome, and Chinese researchers published the results Jan. 12.

The virus' genome revealed it to be a new pathogen, but there were marked similarities between this coronavirus and one from a bat sample that was collected in 2013 in Yunnan province. The genomes of the coronaviruses were found to be 96.2 percent alike, but the differences are crucial, said Shi Zhengli, a prominent bat researcher who directs the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Wuhan institute.

Based on the two sequences, it would take more than 1,100 mutations for the virus isolated in the 2013 sample to evolve into the strain of coronavirus that is spreading around the world, she said in written responses.

The WHO has maintained that the coronavirus was likely harbored in animals. And the authors of a study published in March in the journal Nature said it is "improbable" that the pathogen emerged as a result of lab-based manipulations of a related coronavirus. About a month before that paper was released, 27 public health scientists from nine countries signed a statement in the medical journal The Lancet supporting their colleagues in China and pushing back against misinformation surrounding the pandemic.

The U.S. decision this year to terminate funding for EcoHealth Alliance's bat research also sent ripples of alarm through the scientific community  a feeling Daszak, its president, said he shared.

"Cutting off our relationship with scientists on the ground, the places where these pandemics start, is absolutely the wrong thing to do," he said.

Photographs of the labs construction and opening  a collaboration with France  decorate one wall leading to the secure lab at the institute. The lab technicians were trained in Lyon, France, and at least two of them trained in Galveston, Texas, Yuan said.

So it is perhaps not a surprise that Yuan lamented that worsening U.S.-China relations were hurting scientific collaboration and said the world would be better off with more and not less cooperation.

"We don't want to see the tension between China and the U.S., because it is not good for the scientific development. It is not good for the progress and stability of the world," he said.

"We have learned a lot from the American scientists in terms of their scientific technology, spirit and relevant experience," he said, adding, "During this pandemic, I think we still need to believe in science, respect science and trust the scientists."

Janis Mackey Frayer and Dawn Liu reported from Wuhan, Denise Chow from New York, and Ken Dilanian, Dan DeLuce and Abigail Williams from Washington.

CORRECTION (Aug. 10, 2020, 5:11 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated the source of an observation that the lab had a shortage of trained technicians and investigators. The comment appeared in a State Department cable, but because the cable was partially redacted, it is not clear whether department officials observed the shortage themselves, or whether they were told about the shortage from lab officials.
Marjorie Taylor Greene has embraced the fringe conspiracy and has a history of racist and Islamophobic rhetoric.

A Republican primary runoff for an open seat representing Georgia in the United States House of Representatives could see a candidate with a history of making racist, Islamophobic and anti-Jewish remarks, as well as supporting QAnon conspiracy theories, become the partys nominee.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a businesswoman who has become a lightning rod for controversy, is set to face off against John Cowan, a neurosurgeon, in Georgias deeply conservative 14th congressional district on Tuesday.

The winner of the primary is considered all but certain to win in the general election, taking the seat of retiring incumbent Tom Graves.

Greene, who beat Cowen by 20 percentage points in the nine-person first round of the primary, is considered the frontrunner in Tuesdays election, despite several prominent Republicans seeking to distance themselves from the candidate.





The backlash mostly began in June, when the Politico news site attained several videos Greene had posted on social media.

In one, she compared Black Lives Matter protesters with the neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan who had marched in the Unite the Right in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, calling all three idiots.

She also rejected the idea that there was a racial disparity in the US, declaring guess what? Slavery is over  Black people have equal rights and saying that minorities are held back by drugs, gangs, lacking education, and abortion, not white people.

Instead, she declared that the most mistreated group of people in the United States today are white males, she said, according to Politico.

Meanwhile, in another instance, she accused Democrats of trying to keep the Black people in a modern-day form of slavery and said Black Republicans get called coon and Uncle Toms by liberal Black voters.

The news site said the videos were apparently recorded between late 2017 and early 2019.

The Politico report was published amid an ongoing movement against racial injustice in the country following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, in Minnesota on May 25 after a police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

You have to be sworn in on the Bible

In the videos, Greene also showed a preoccupation with recently-elected Muslim members of Congress, calling the 2018 midterm elections, which saw the most diverse group of legislators enter Congress in US history, an Islamic invasion of our government.

In one instance, she referred to recently-elected representative Ilhan Omar as that woman out of Minnesota who has got to wear a head covering.

She also said taking the oath of office on the Quran should be prohibited, saying instead: No! You have to be sworn in on the Bible.

The vitriol was not reserved for Muslims, in another video and on social media, Greene has also supported an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that George Soros, the Democratic mega-donor and Holocaust survivor, was a Nazi collaborator.

George Soros says dark forces have been awakened by Trumps win. I dont think so, she said in one video, according to Politico. George Soros is the piece of crap that turned in  hes a Jew  he turned in his own people over to the Nazis.

Republican rebuke

The June report prompted a swift rebuke from the three most powerful House Republicans as well as the National Republican Congressional Committee, a campaign arm of the Republican Party that is not involved in primary races.

But as Politico reported on Sunday, the statements have not translated into a coordinated resistance against Greene.

Of the three top Republicans in the chamber, only one, Steve Scalise, has explicitly helped Greenes opponent Cowan.

While a spokesman for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Politico in June that Greenes comments were appalling, the spokesman more recently told the news site that McCarthy was remaining neutral and letting the primary process play out.

Greene, for her part, has remained unapologetic.

For too long, Republicans have played footsie with the DC Swamp, she wrote on Facebook on July 28. I have no time or patience for this nonsense. Im not politically correct, and I make no apologies for it. I tell it like it is.

Even before the June report, Greene had been a controversial candidate for her outspoken support of so-called QAnon conspiracy theories.

If she wins in the general election, she will be the chambers first open supporter of QAnon, a pro-Trump collection of baseless accusations spread by an unknown internet figure called Q that centre, in part, on alleged paedophilia rings run by Washington elites.

In a video posted online, Greene has called the shadowy figure at the centre of the theories a patriot and said the predictions have been accurate, according to the Daily Beast. Greene has also posted QAnon catchphrases, tweeting Trust the plan and #GreatAwakening.

The FBI has labelled QAnon a possible domestic terrorism threat.

President Donald Trump tweeted his congratulations for Greene on June 12, shortly after she won the first round of the primary, but before Politicos report sparked the most recent round of controversy.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's social media accounts have been removed from the Royal Family's social media page, according to eagle-eyed fans.

Prince Harry, 35, and Meghan Markle, 39, stepped down as senior royals at the beginning of the year, to focus on their various charities and leading a more private life in LA with their son Archie, one.

Following their move, their Sussex Royal Instagram accounts no longer appears alongside that of the Queen, Prince Charles and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the official Royal Family website.

Fan account Gert's Royal, also notes that disgraced royal Prince Andrew, who stepped down last year following his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, has also had the link to his social media account removed.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's (seen earlier this year in London) social media accounts have been removed from the Royal Family's social media page, according to eagle-eyed fans

Fan account Gert's Royal took to Twitter to reveal that the Sussexes have had their social media account removed from the page

FEMAIL has contacted Kensington Palace for comment.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's defunct Instagram account - which stood at 11.3 million at its peak - is still open, though it has dropped 500,000 followers to 10.8 million followers following their retreat from the limelight as they have been unable to use it.

Harry and Meghan performed their final duties in March before stepping down as senior royals to focus on their own charities and build a more private life in LA - losing 200,000 followers last month alone as they are no longer able to post from their account.

The couple were forced to drop the Sussex Royal branding as part of their release from The Firm, starting an Archewell Foundation instead, and are thought to be waiting until after the pandemic to announce any further details on their charity or any new social media accounts they may be launching.

The pair are currently residing in actor Tyler Perry's Hollywood mansion with their 1-year-old son Archie, were they are keeping a low profile amid ongoing charity work.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's defunct Instagram account - which stood at 11.3 million at its peak - is still open, though it has dropped 500,000 followers to 10.8 million followers following their retreat from the limelight as they have been unable to use it

The couple were forced to drop the Sussex Royal branding as part of their release from The Firm, starting an Archewell Foundation instead

The couple revealed their new charitable foundation 'Archewell' in April, which will replace Sussex Royal.

Unveiling the new project, which will incorporate the causes close to their heart, the couple revealed the Greek word in the project Arche  meaning source of action  was the inspiration behind the name of their son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.

And it has now been revealed that the couple submitted an application for their non-profit foundation to be called 'Archeway' with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on February 28.

Fan account Gert's Royal , also notes that disgraced royal Prince Andrew, who stepped down last year following his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, has also had his social media accounts removed

The duke and duchess said they were focusing their efforts on the coronavirus pandemic but felt 'compelled' to reveal details of the venture.

'Like you, our focus is on supporting efforts to tackle the global Covid-19 pandemic but faced with this information coming to light, we felt compelled to share the story of how this came to be.

'Before SussexRoyal, came the idea of Arche  the Greek word meaning source of action.

'We connected to this concept for the charitable organisation we hoped to build one day, and it became the inspiration for our son's name. To do something of meaning, to do something that matters.

'Archewell is a name that combines an ancient word for strength and action, and another that evokes the deep resources we each must draw upon.

'We look forward to launching Archewell when the time is right.'
Many air their dissatisfaction over Trump's executive order that he signed without the blessing of the Congress. Peter Navarro stressed that the Chief Executive's action is warranted to assist Americans during the COVID-19 crisis.

The White House adviser last Sunday made the statement due to what is seen as congressional inaction driven by the Democrat agenda of $600 or no coronavirus deal, reported USA Today.

On NBC News, Meet the Press, he alluded to the Lord and Founding Fathers who made executive orders if there is divisiveness that needs to be broken from a stalemate. But his comments are not immune to detractors who want to discredit anything affirmative for the White House.

Last Saturday, the president stood true to his word and signed several executive orders that bypassed Pelosi and Schumer, who has not agreed to the Republican Chief Executive's pleas to approve the federal aid. He approved the $400 extra per week, suspension of student loan payments, moratorium on evictions, and deferring payroll taxes, cited Houmatoday.

Navarro's assertion was greeted by derision about the divine relevance of the executive action on social media by pro-Democrat supporters.

Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe tweeted what kind of book did the comment spring from, mentioning the Old or New Testament, bunching in the Quran as well to deride the Trump supporter.

Another tweet jabbed and said dinosaurs were part of the declaration of independence, adding another rude reference to the White House adviser.

According to Chris Gibbs, farmer and disgruntled Republican support, mention another religious jibe to Navarro's pronouncements. Gibbs is very much against administration trade policies as well.

Also read: Trump Funnels $35M Grants to Provide Housing for Human Trafficking Survivors

The Founding Fathers did not include expressly make executive orders as an inherent part of the Constitution. But it was discovered by Congressional Research Service to existing as a fundamental and inherent right of presidential power. It is mentioned in the executive powers given to all presidents as something to exercise as part of the right under Article II. But counter-argument is the Supreme Court that says that this presidential action is given clout by the institution or if the Congress agrees. In this case, the Democratic Congress is against it despite references in the constitution.

According to the CRS brief, executive orders to presidential memoranda and proclamations are tools that have been used not only now, but from the first days of the American Republic which gave President Trump the power to break this deadlock.

Navarro struck back at Democrat critics and pointed out that they would rather see the economy tank to sink Trump. In response, the Dems say they passed the Heroes Act to conveniently lay blame on Republican stoicism, not themselves.

The White House adviser shot across the congressional Democrats and said that they should have talked the thing over and not force what they want. He said it was easy to agree on something, but they instead stonewalled.

Democrats countered they lower the price to $2 trillion, and the Republicans balked at it. They were willing to get in between the $2 trillion and shave it to $1 trillion instead.

Related article: Dr. Anthony Fauci Dismisses White House Tirades, Urges Instead to Fight Coronavirus

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KABUL, Afghanistan -- A government contractor who's been confined for months at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan has asked a U.S. military judge to bring his former employer to court and to order his immediate release.

Kumar Pabitra, an Indian national who had been employed by U.S.-based Fluor Corp., is one of an undisclosed number of foreign workers who have been living in conditions they describe as jail-like on the sprawling base since their jobs were cut earlier this year amid downsizing of the U.S. mission.

They've been unable to return home because travel restrictions related to the coronavirus have made it impossible to repatriate some of them, a spokesman for their former employer said when Stars and Stripes first reported the situation last month. The military has also said diplomatic efforts were underway to return them.

The workers are being kept in "an illegal state of confinement," said a petition Pabitra filed Thursday with the U.S. Military Magistrate for Afghanistan, a military attorney assigned by the office of the staff judge advocate to make independent judicial decisions.

"This probably is the first instance in which the Staff Judge Advocate has reviewed a petition to release a civilian accompanying the force, as opposed to a service member," said Sam McCahon, a retired judge advocate general officer who is providing legal counsel to Pabitra.

The military contracts with Fluor for services such as construction, maintenance, security and dining facility operations on overseas bases in war zones.

Fluor officials declined to comment on Pabitra's case Friday.

Pabitra, a former fuel depot worker for the firm, was terminated from another base in Afghanistan in early April and sent to Bagram to await transportation back to India.

For security reasons, he was given a "red badge," meaning that while he waits for a flight out, he must remain in temporary quarters that are constantly monitored by guards. Mobile phones, regular internet access and unescortedtrips to the store are not permitted.

He and other workers there -- many of whom are sole wage-earners for their families back home -- are also not being paid. A Macedonian man who killed himself at the base last month had waited two months under such conditions.

Over the past several months, Pabitra has made repeated requests to Fluor to be released from his room, but those pleas have been rejected, states his petition, which Stars and Stripes has reviewed.

"Mr. Pabitra has not been charged with any offense," it says. "The cause for his prolonged illegal detention of more than four months remains unexplained."

The petition calls on the magistrate to summon Fluor officials for a hearing. The magistrate is responsible for various judicial functions on bases throughout the country, such as approving search and apprehension warrants, as well as determining whether confinement is legal and warranted.

Pabitra wants both the president of Fluor Government Group International, Thomas D'Agostino, and the company's country manager, Bryan Owens, a retired Army major general, to explain at a hearing why he has been confined for months and "deprived of his liberty."

McCahon filed a similar petition last week, he said, but it was simply forwarded to Fluor. The foreign worker in that matter, a Kenyan, has since been returned to his homeland.

In Pabitra's case, McCahon plans to file a petition in U.S. district court seeking to require the military magistrate to make a decision.

Magistrates typically review detentions used by the military to hold soldiers charged with a crime ahead of trial proceedings, but McCahon says the official should still have to make a decision in the contractors' cases.

"Nonetheless, it is still the responsibility of the magistrate to hear these petitions," McCahon said.
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There's nothing quite as pesky as a small army of fruit flies buzzing around a bowl of delicious, ripe fruit. Luckily, there's an age-old hack to repel those little pests  and it will also give you an excuse to stock up on more wine.

Over the weekend, TODAY Food editor Emi Boscamp learned about a mind-blowing trick from her mother. The hack is surprisingly simple: All you need is a bowl of fruit and a few dry, clean wine corks. That's it. No insect repellant, no chemicals, no special covers. Even in the open summer air, fruit flies steer clear.

But why does it work?

Kick fruit flies to the curb with just a couple corks. (Emi Boscamp)

Ryan Watts, a sommelier who works for Cameron Hughes Wine, explained how a simple cork can work wonders when it comes to keeping fruit clear of fruit flies.

Two things attract fruit flies: sugars and moisture. This is why you most often find them around ripe fruit and in or around sinks and drains," Watts told TODAY. "Natural cork is a perfect deterrent as the cork material absorbs moisture put off by the ripening fruit and activates a fragrance from the cork that fruit flies are none too pleased about."

Once the sugary moisture is wicked away and the fruit flies catch a whiff of the natural cork scent, they simply choose not to land on the fresh produce that suddenly isn't so appetizing. Though Boscamp (and many others) hadn't heard of this hack before her mom told her about it, Watts said it's been around for long time.

"This cork deterrent was essentially an old wives tale at one point, being traced back to a French grandmother," he said. "But as more folks tried it, it began to catch on because it actually works."

For the trick to work well, however, Watts said there are a few things to keep in mind.

Story continues

First, the corks need to be made of natural cork  not a composite or synthetic material  or it won't have the same effect. If you're using corks from leftover wine bottles, make sure you thoroughly dry them before placing them in a bowl with any fruit. Corks with wet, sugary wine will only attract more flies.

"White wine (non-sweet styles) work best, and corks tinted red from red wine are fine. Just avoid any corks with built up sediment or tartrates (aka wine diamonds)," Watts said. "If you have to use a cork with sediment or tartrates, I recommend removing the tainted area of the cork carefully with a knife or good, sharp kitchen scissors."

And while clean corks can stop fruit flies from landing on fruit, they won't stop a fruit fly infestation in the kitchen.

Related: Kitchen hacks may save time and energy, but not all of them are great ideas.

For folks who may not be going through enough wine bottles to throw five or more corks into their fruit bowl, some companies have commercialized the trick by making bowls crafted with natural cork. Watts' all-time favorite is from Emile Henry, a French company. It's a large ceramic bowl with a removable natural cork top. The cork top holds the fresh fruit while the ceramic bowl underneath stores root veggies and alliums that keep best in a darker, dry environment.

Emile Henry Fruit and Vegetable Storage Pantry Bowl

Emile Henry Fruit and Vegetable Storage Pantry Bowl (Amazon / Amazon)

Emile Henry Fruit and Vegetable Storage Pantry Bowl $140.00 at Amazon

"While it isn't cheap, it's effective and there's just a certain je ne sais quoi to having a French kitchen piece that is understated but somehow still stands out," Watts said.
Rwanda has achieved astonishing results in controlling the novel coronavirus, recording just five deaths from COVID-19 even as cases continue to rise throughout Africa.

Though some foresaw problems for Rwanda  a poor, landlocked country of 12 million people with a tourist-dependent economy  its success in managing the global pandemic by implanting science-based policies has set an example for other countries to follow, especially in Africa.

For us, what is important is to manage the science part of it...and the health part of it and also to be able to revive the economy, said Clare Akamanzi, CEO of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), in an interview with CNN . We believe we have had a formula and we keep working to contain the virus.

The question now is whether Rwanda will be able to ensure that people entering the East African nation are free of COVID-19 following the Aug. 1 reopening of its airports. Akamanzi said that Rwanda will be relying on lessons learned from science and its previous experience with diseases like HIV and tuberculosis.

We have to learn how to safely live with the virus until the vaccine, Akamanzi said. That means building trust between government and communities to embrace new ways of living, expanding testing capacity from 300 COVID-19 daily tests to the current daily total of 3,000, implementing a contact tracing system with 1,900 tracers working across the country and regional collaboration with its neighbors.

Akamanzi also spoke of Rwandas intention to further revive its economy through the new Economic Recovery Fund . The fund launched with US$100 million in support to the private sector, with the government pledging to double that figure to US$200 million.

Economic recovery is crucial to poor families that live on short-term earnings. This demographic encompasses a large portion of the African population, particularly farmers who cant get their produce to market due to closed borders and a paralyzed hospitality industry.

The hospitality sector, a robust and booming part of the African economy, has suffered during COVID-19, virtually halting the influx of foreigners and putting huge stress on the food system. The market is currently flooded with fresh produce, making it difficult for poor farmers to earn a living.

On a global scale, this scenario has been addressed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which issued a report predicting a shortage of protein-rich foods and hammering the urgent need to prioritize social and economic recovery. The total utilization of coarse grains is forecast to regain momentum in 2020/21 but remain below global production for a second consecutive season, leading to higher stock levels and keeping international prices under downward pressure ( FAO 2020 Food Outlook ).

Meanwhile, the crop production that feeds and employs millions of Africans is expected require new technological inputs in response to climate change impacts and agricultural pests. Many farmers, especially those in the region from Central Africa to the Horn of Africa where insect pest and droughts have been ravaging their fields, are pinning their hopes on science and technology.

Thanks to new agricultural inventions, more African models are emerging and standing tall, such as breeding crops that emit an odor that attracts the natural enemies of pest species. Scientists at the International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology ( ICIPE ) in Nairobi, Kenya, discovered ways to isolate maize traits at the genetic makeup level and breed varieties that can withstand stemborer infestations by attracting Cotesia Sesamia, a parasite native to Africa that kills cereal stemborers.

African nations face enormous burdens due to COVID-19 as governments struggle to provide alternative livelihoods for families that cant feed themselves. They managed to keep the number of hungry nights proportionately survivable until a good number of countries were able to ease many of the draconian measures imposed during lockdown, though borders and airports remain closed in many areas.

At a time when African nations are facing an existential need to integrate science into daily life within communities, fact-informed decisions are key to bringing the continents economies back to life. This is particularly true in the agricultural sector, where farm productivity and crop health are paramount to both food security and economic vitality. Africa must harness scientific and technological research and innovations to fuel the continents main employment sector, which is at the forefront of a successful economic recovery.

2019 Cornell Alliance for Science Fellow  Rwanda
Bharatiya Janata Party has said that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should question Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut and Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput death case and suggested that their narco tests should be conducted.

BJP official spokesperson Nikhil Anand alleged that the proof and evidence related to the case are being destroyed and tampered with.

"An absurd article was written in Saamna by Shiv Sena in which Rajput's fans, his family, Bihar Police and Bihar Government were insulted. It is clear that Shiv Sena leaders are afraid of CBI investigation and they are nervous about it.

"CBI should question Sanjay Raut and Aaditya Thackeray. Their narco-analysis test should be conducted," Anand said.

"Top leaders of Shiv Sena, NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) and Congress are under question. Why only Aaditya should give clarification? Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra should also break their silence.

"It is unfortunate that the Maharashtra government is indulging in dirty politics. The proof is being destroyed and evidence is being tampered with. CBI should take cognisance all of this," he said.

On Sunday, Raut alleged that a conspiracy was being hatched against the Maharashtra government and said the Mumbai Police was trying its best to bring out the truth in the case.

Earlier, Maharashtra Police in an affidavit in the Supreme Court said that an investigation by Mumbai and Bihar Police into Sushant Singh Rajput's death case would have lead to a 'chaotic situation'.

As the Bihar Police did not have jurisdiction to investigate into the first information report or examine witnesses, the question of co-operation by the Mumbai Police into the simultaneous inquiry by the Bihar Police did not arise, the Maharashtra Police told the top court in its affidavit.

A first information report had been registered against Rhea Chakraborty at Rajiv Nagar police station in Patna under various sections, including abetment to suicide on the complaint of Rajput's father.

The CBI has registered a case against 6 accused including Rhea Chakraborty and others in connection with Rajput's death.

The investigating agency has collected documents related to the actor's death from Bihar Police.

Sushant was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14.
ON THE RUN! Samuel Paintsil

10.08.2020 LISTEN

Three persons have been nabbed for attempting to steal GH3.5 million from the account of the Ministry of Energy.

The suspects  Bright Addae Addison, a 31-year-old banker of the National Investment Bank (NIB); Fuseini Abdullah, a 32-year-old Managing Director of Gumah Oil and Gas Limited, and Dennis Koranteng, a 46-year-old businessman  are being held for alleged transfer of the amount into another location.

Another suspect, identified only as Samuel Painstil, 24, is at large and is being hunted for.

The suspects were said to have cloned a cheque book belonging to the ministry to withdraw the huge amount from the ministry's account at NIB.

They are in the custody of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) assisting in investigations.

The Executive Director of EOCO, Frank Adu Poku, a retired Commissioner of Police, who confirmed the arrest to DAILY GUIDE, said on May 5, 2020 the unit received a complaint from the Ministry of Energy that somebody had attempted to withdraw GH3.5 million from the ministry's account.

But according to the ministry's complaint, no cheque had been issued to any individual or company for any work done, he said.

The EOCO boss revealed that the said cheque was an NIB bank cheque to be paid into Gumah Oil and Gas Limited account at Zenith Bank.

With the full cooperation of the two banks, EOCO traced and retrieved the cheque from Zenith Bank for investigations, he added.

Further investigations showed that the signature on the said cheque did not correspond with the authorized signature from the ministry.

We again did signature verification from the police forensic experts which result indicated that the signature was fake and that the cheque was cloned, Mr. Adu-Poku pointed out.

It has come up also that suspect Painstil (now on the run) went to deposit the cheque into the account of Gumah Oil and Gas Limited at Zenith Bank.

Suspect Bright Addison, NIB worker in charge of the said account, was to monitor and report to Dennis Koranteng when the cheque finally goes through.

Later, a source at EOCO said that when the suspects were individually interrogated, Fuseini Abdulla said he received a call from somebody that the Ministry of Energy had issued a cheque for payment of work done by Gumah Oil but since they had also not done any work for the ministry, he asked that the money be paid into his Gumah account.

Bright Addison also allegedly told the security officials that he was called by Dennis Koranteng to monitor and inform him when the cheque finally goes through.

Dennis Koranteng, on the other hand, mentioned a Nigerian by name Liko as the person who tasked him to pay the cheque into Gumah's account.

NIB has since terminated the appointment of suspect Addison.

---Daily Guide
Former President John Mahama and flagbearer of the opposition NDC says the presidential directive to the Auditor General to proceed on leave sets a dangerous precedent for the country.

He noted that President Akufo-Addos treatment of the auditor general is a reflection of the general politicisation of key state institutions under the NPP administration.

If the president can ask the Auditor General to go on leave, it means he can ask the Chief Justice to go on leave, he can ask the Electoral Commissioner to go on leave, he can ask the CHRAJ Director to go on leave, but these are supposed to be independent institutions, Mr. Mahama noted during a live Facebook interview with TV XYZ.

Look, the Auditor General, when you go on leave who changes your door locks? It means that there is no intention that youre coming back and apart from that what is thethe Auditor Generals office is supposed to be an independent office, he stressed.

Mr Mahama also berated government over the violence that erupted in some registration centres during the just ended vote registration exercise.

The most ludicrous one that I have heard was the strategy they use, they meet a group of people and they say Bonjour and if you respond Bonjour, then they say you are a Togolese or a Burkinabe but who does not know Bonjour in Ghana?

People whose ancestors were born in this country and they have contributed to the progress of this country are the great, great-grandchildren of people who lived in this country long before independence, today you go to register and somebody says you are not a Ghanaian because your name does not sound familiar; it is not what he is used to but the EC even said that assuming you believe the person is not a Ghanaian, file the complain the form, they refused and took the law into their hands.

I saw a very sad video of somebody in civilian clothes holding a pistol and threatening a police officer and there were other security personnel there including the military and what I saw was them begging him to calm down and I said this guy should be arrested and be behind bars right now and yet they were begging him with his pistol threatening the police officer. I mean what kind of a country have we become?

All these people are running rampage and we have just seen this recent registration exercise where thugs go and try to prevent people from registering, they go and cause confusion at the polling centres in order to disrupt the process and yet they do it with impunity and they get away with it, he bemoaned.

---starrfmonline
Professor Kwesi Opoku Amankwa, Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), has disclosed that the final year student of Sekondi College, Nicholas Cobbinah who insulted President Akufo-Addo is noted for being notorious and violent.



According to him, the attack on President Akufo-Addo was not the first but the third time the student had breached school rules.



Even though the Sekondi College student destroyed nothing but their misconduct and behavior was distasteful. This is the third time the boy in question has done that and always does it with a friend. Nicolas Cobbinah was first arrested in March for assaulting one of the students, knocking out six of his teeth but his parent later agreed to fix the boys teeth and was suspended, Professor Opoku Amankwa said in UTVs Adekye Nsroma.



Professor Opoku Amakwa further revealed that Nicholas Cobbinah returned to school following the Presidents clearance for final years to return to school.



Briefly after the return, he headbutted someone and there was blood oozing from the persons nose and he was suspended again. So, he came from home everyday to write the paper. It was until this issue that we got to know about his violent behavior. How can a child behave like that? he questioned.









Source: Josephine Acheampomaa/[email protected]









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We had to have brick and mortar, Mclemore said. This is where we can have outreach to the community about things important to the black community. We will have transitional services to help people coming out of jail become productive members of the community.
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The Supreme Court on Monday said that it will hear in detail whether any comment on corruption against judges tantamount to contempt of court or not, adding that it will hear the 2009 contempt case against lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said that it has decided to hear whether the remarks made by Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan against the higher judiciary in a Tehelka magazine interview is "per se contempt".

The top court scheduled the matter for further hearing on August 17.

Last week, the apex court had said it would go on to hear the case if "we do not accept the explanation/apology of Bhushan".

On August 4, the Supreme Court had said it had not received the apology submitted by Bhushan and reserved its order in the 2009 contempt case against him.

A bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra, BR Gavai and Krishna Murari had said: "We have heard the counsel for the parties at some length. Explanation/apology submitted by Prashant Bhushan/Respondent No. 1 and Tarun Tejpal/Respondent No. 2 have not been received so far."

The bench added: "In case we do not accept the explanation/apology, we will hear the matter. We reserve the order."

In an earlier hearing, taking up the 2009 contempt of court case, the apex court observed that there is a "thin line between free speech and contempt", adding that the issue now is how to save the system's grace and bring the matter to an end as well.

The bench asked Senior Advocate Rajeev Dhavan, representing Bhushan, to suggest ways to resolve this matter. Justice Mishra had told Dhavan: "Can you suggest some way to avoid this rigmarole? You can resolve it."

In response, Dhavan had said that Bhushan had already provided an explanation on the matter.
New Delhi, Aug 10 : InterGlobe Aviation, which operates airline major IndiGo, has decided to raise funds worth Rs 4,000 crore.

Accordingly, the company will issue equity shares by way of a qualified institutions placement to raise the fund.

The decision was taken by the company's board in its meeting held on Monday.

"We hereby inform you that the Board of Directors of lnterGlobe Aviation limited, at its meeting held today, i.e., August 10, 2020, has considered and approved the raising of funds for an aggregate amount not exceeding INR 4,000 crore through an issue of equity shares by way of a qualified institutions placement, in accordance with the relevant provisions of applicable law and subject to approval of the Company's shareholders and receipt of applicable regulatory approvals," the company said in a regulatory filing.

The decision comes days after the company posted its highest ever quarterly net loss at Rs 2,844.3 crore for the first quarter of 2020-21.

It had posted a profit of Rs 1,203.1 crore in the like period of the previous fiscal.

"IndiGo had a total cash balance of Rs 184,498 million comprising Rs 75,276 million of free cash and Rs 109,222 million of restricted cash. The capitalised operating lease liability was Rs 211,779 million. The total debt (including the capitalised operating lease liability) was Rs 235,516 million," the company had said in a statement last month.

In its outlook, the company said it expects the Q2 fiscal 2021 to be around 40 per cent of Q2 FY20.
By Ayya Lmahamad

New members of Azerbaijani delegation to Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization were elected during the 55th Plenary Session of Azerbaijani Parliament of the General Assembly of the BSEC, held recently in a video format.

During the session, a new composition of Azerbaijani delegation, of six people, was approved. It should be noted that the previous delegation consisted of five people.

The session was attended by BSEC Parliamentary Assembly Secretary General Asaf Hajiyev, and representatives of the organizations member states- Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Serbia and Armenia.

Azerbaijan was presented by MPs, BSEC Deputy Chairman, head of Azerbaijans delegation to the organization Eldar Guliyev and member of the delegation Eldar Ibrahimov.

The plenary session chaired by E.Guliyev adopted the agenda of the event, approved the protocol of the 54th plenary session held on November 20-21 in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, and presented the report on the organization's activity.

During the meeting, the participants were informed about the activity of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization.

Moreover, the Assembly elected the Vice-Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly.

Additionally, audit report for fiscal year 2019 was presented during the meeting.

As a result of the meeting, the chairmanship of the organization was transferred to Greece on a rotational basis.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
This article will reflect on the compensation paid to Paul Forman who has served as CEO of Essentra plc (LON:ESNT) since 2017. This analysis will also evaluate the appropriateness of CEO compensation when taking into account the earnings and shareholder returns of the company.

Check out our latest analysis for Essentra

How Does Total Compensation For Paul Forman Compare With Other Companies In The Industry?

According to our data, Essentra plc has a market capitalization of UK787m, and paid its CEO total annual compensation worth UK1.4m over the year to December 2019. We note that's a small decrease of 3.7% on last year. We think total compensation is more important but our data shows that the CEO salary is lower, at UK639k.

On examining similar-sized companies in the industry with market capitalizations between UK306m and UK1.2b, we discovered that the median CEO total compensation of that group was UK991k. This suggests that Paul Forman is paid more than the median for the industry. Furthermore, Paul Forman directly owns UK780k worth of shares in the company.

Component 2019 2018 Proportion (2019) Salary UK639k UK625k 47% Other UK729k UK795k 53% Total Compensation UK1.4m UK1.4m 100%

Talking in terms of the industry, salary represented approximately 71% of total compensation out of all the companies we analyzed, while other remuneration made up 29% of the pie. Essentra pays a modest slice of remuneration through salary, as compared to the broader industry. If total compensation is slanted towards non-salary benefits, it indicates that CEO pay is linked to company performance.

A Look at Essentra plc's Growth Numbers

Essentra plc has seen its earnings per share (EPS) increase by 112% a year over the past three years. Its revenue is down 5.0% over the previous year.

This demonstrates that the company has been improving recently and is good news for the shareholders. It's always a tough situation when revenues are not growing, but ultimately profits are more important. Historical performance can sometimes be a good indicator on what's coming up next but if you want to peer into the company's future you might be interested in this free visualization of analyst forecasts.

Story continues

Has Essentra plc Been A Good Investment?

With a three year total loss of 36% for the shareholders, Essentra plc would certainly have some dissatisfied shareholders. This suggests it would be unwise for the company to pay the CEO too generously.

In Summary...

As previously discussed, Paul is compensated more than what is normal for CEOs of companies of similar size, and which belong to the same industry. However, the earnings per share growth is certainly impressive, but shareholder returns  over the same period  have been disappointing. Considering overall performance, we can't say Paul is underpaid, in fact compensation is definitely on the higher side.

While it is important to pay attention to CEO remuneration, investors should also consider other elements of the business. We've identified 2 warning signs for Essentra that investors should be aware of in a dynamic business environment.

Switching gears from Essentra, if you're hunting for a pristine balance sheet and premium returns, this free list of high return, low debt companies is a great place to look.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
In what could signal a thaw in the strained ties between the Congress high command and the now-sacked Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, the rebel leader reportedly met former party chief Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday ahead of the crucial assembly session on August 14.

Top Congress sources said the meeting took place a little after noon at Rahul Gandhi's residence and a "positive outcome" was expected. Sources also confirmed that Pilot has been in touch with the top Congress leadership and a formula for his return was being worked out.

Sources in Gandhis office had earlier said Pilot, who last month engineered a rebellion with 18 Congress MLAs and ditched the Ashok Gehlot government, was in touch with senior leader KC Venugopal.

The Pilot camps rebellion seems to have divided the Congress after party MLAs in Rajasthan demanded action against the rebels led by him even though the Grand Old Party is making last-ditch efforts to placate Pilot and bring him back into the fold.

At the Congress Legislature Party on Sunday, sources said state Congress in-charge Avinash Pandey has said that he will not advocate for rebels in front of party high command as the MLAs demanded action.

The developments came even as sources within the party said efforts are still on to reach out to Pilot, who was reportedly miffed after the SOG sent him a notice to record his statement in a case of alleged poaching of Congress MLAs in the state.

Sources said Congress Working Committee member Raghuvir Meena said the rebels would be forgiven if they voted for the party in the floor test. The Congress said it was in touch with some rebel MLAs and hoped for clarity by Monday night on Pilot's plans. A similar softening of stand was seen when Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, after publicly rebuking Pilot, said he would accept the rebels if they apologised to the high command.

Nineteen Congress rebels, including Pilot, revolted against Gehlot, posing a threat to the Congress government in Rajasthan. Congress removed Pilot as the Deputy Chief Minister and as the state chief of the party on July 14 but also sent many feelers to Pilot, though the rebel leader has not opened his cards yet even though he has said he would not join the BJP.

Gehlot has convened a session of the state assembly on August 14 where he will prove his majority.
<! Some Nigerian ladies trafficked to Lebanon but evacuated early July. An official stands in the middle >

Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora Affairs, Tolulope Akande-Sadipe said 80,000 Nigerian ladies are being held as sex slaves, and forced labour in Mali, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia UAE and Oman.

And she blamed Dr Chris Ngiges Ministry of Labour for being complicit in the way the girls were trafficked to the countries.

Akande-Sadipe, who is representing Oluyole Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, made the revelation on Monday, while speaking with journalists in Abuja.

She called on the Federal Government to urgently put a stop to the exploitation of Nigerians abroad.

She pointed out that the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, under the supervision of Dr. Chris Ngige has violated the law and has continued to issue International Recruiters Licenses to Agents, despite Federal Governments 2017 moratorium.

She lamented that Nigeria has no Bilateral Labour Agreement with any nation and the execution of the Standing Operating Procedure (SOP) has been lingering.

Federal Government placed a moratorium on issuance of International Recruiters License in September 2017 and yet the Ministry of Labour and Productivity as at January 2020 was still issuing international recruiters licenses.

She added that many Nations in the Middle East and even within Africa were violating the rights of our citizens under the guise of domestic servitude.

The question we must ask is How they got there? We have called out Immigration but then again the Ministry of Labour is also complicit, she said.

These agents collect $1000 plus the first 3 to 6 months salaries of the girls and abandon them to their plight in the foreign nations. The trafficked girls unfortunately are ignorant of the ills they may face abroad and are lured by the agents, because they seek a better life.

Akande-Sadipe also revealed that these agents lie to the ladies about the jobs waiting for them in foreign lands, urging Nigerians to move away from the perception that the girls left this shores to prostitute.

She however decried the Minister of Labour and Employments refusal to appear before the Committee after four invitations, adding that the Ministry also refused to submit the requested information.

She added that information submitted earlier by the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, was inconsistent with the relevant records of other Federal Government Agencies, such as Corporate Affairs Commission, Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund and Federal Inland Revenue Service.

In addition the Ministry has not been complying with laid down policies and procedures for international recruitment. For example, Agents pre-licensing procedures contravened the requirements of doing business with Federal government MDAs, she added.

The Ministry did not conduct the mandatory pre-departure counselling; had no records of the annual reporting requirements mandated to Agents, which should provide information on the whereabouts of each Nigerian recruited, compensation and contact details, she disclosed.

Akande-Sadipe further stated that the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mr. William Alo and two of his lieutenants lied under oath to the Diaspora Committee.

It is disheartening that the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Permanent Secretary and those who came with him gave the Committee false information, she said.

This issue of human trafficking has reached pandemic levels and the appeals for help circulating across social media is an embarrassment to our Nation.

She therefore appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to initiate an Executive investigation into the activities of the Ministry of Labour and Productivity.

She also urged Mr. President to empower National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons.

This, she said, would enable NAPTIP achieve its mandate to apprehend and prosecute these agents.

Akande-Sadipe also asked President Buhari to review the funding of Foreign Missions to enable them meet their responsibilities to Nigerians across the world.

Related
(CNN) A pair of spectacles thought to belong to Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi are set to be auctioned for more than $19,000 -- after being left "hanging out" of a letterbox on a busy industrial estate.

Around four weeks ago on a Monday morning, auctioneer Andy Stowe headed into work and was checking the letterboxes at his office on an industrial estate in Bristol, southwest England.

"I saw an envelope hanging out of our letterbox -- really, literally, just hanging out," he told CNN.

When a colleague opened the envelope, they discovered the unusual contents -- a pair of gold-rimmed, circular spectacles.

"They had a little note in there saying 'These belonged to Gandhi, and my uncle was given them,'" he said.

Stowe told CNN he called the phone number on the note, and traced the item's seller, who was an elderly man who lived locally.

The man told Stowe that the glasses had been passed to him from his uncle, who told him they were given to him by Gandhi while he was employed in South Africa.

"The uncle [was] working for British Petroleum at the time and was stationed in South Africa, and it can be presumed that these were gifted by way of thanks from Gandhi for some good deed," auctioneers East Bristol Auctions said in an item guide.

"We started doing some research and realized they were worth quite a considerable amount of money," Stowe told CNN, adding that the glasses have been valued at between 10,000 and 15,000 (from $13,000 to $19,500). They are expected to sell for "a considerable amount" more, he added.

"I gave him a call back later that day, and I think he nearly fell off of his chair when he learned how much we were going to value them at," he said.

Stowe told CNN that auctioneers researched the item's timeline, and are confident that the story -- and the glasses' provenance -- checked out.

"The dates and the facts match up fine. The guy is an 80-year-old man -- I don't think he concocted it up in his head," he said.

"From our point of view, the history and the story matches up completely fine," he added. "The fact that the gentleman told me that if they weren't worth anything, I could throw them in the bin -- I'm quite sure he had no idea how much they were worth."

The glasses will be auctioned on August 21.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Gandhi's glasses, worth more than $19,000, were left hanging out of an auctioneer's letterbox."
China claims Taiwan, a self-ruled island backed militarily by Washington, as its territory, and it objects strenuously to Taiwans participation in international bodies like the World Health Organization and to any official exchanges that lend Taiwan the appearance of sovereign nation status. Under a framework that recognizes Beijing as the sole government of China and acknowledges  without accepting  Chinas territorial claim over Taiwan, senior U.S. officials rarely meet with the Taiwanese president.
Tiflet (Morocco), 8 August 2020 (SPS) - Sahrawi civilian prisoner Mohamed Hasena Ahmed-Salem Bourial, in the local prison of Tiflet 2, Morocco, on Friday announced waging a warning hunger strike for 24 hours in protest against the discrimination and racist practices to which he is subjected to in the prison.



In a testimony of the sister of the Sahrawi civilian prisoner, Mohamed Hasena Ahmed-Salem Bourial, to the Association for the Protection of Sahrawi Prisoners, he was exposed on Wednesday to ill-treatment and confiscation of some of his belongings by the local prison staff and guards, who broke into his cell in an arbitrary and degrading manner aimed at exerting further restrictions against him.



Sahrawi civil prisoner Mohamed Hasena Ahmed-Salem Bourial, is in the local prison of Tiflet 2, east of Rabat, under an unjust and harsh sentence of 30 years imprisonment, during an unfair trial that lacks the guarantees and standards of a fair trial, took place in the Moroccan city of Sale, with the testimony of major international organizations concerned with human rights, such as Human Rice Watch and Amnesty International, on the background of his participation in 2010 in the events of the Gdeim Izik camp, east of El-Aaiun, the capital of the occupied Western Sahara. (SPS)



062/SPS/T
HOLYOKE  The Sunrise Western Mass Coalition said Monday its members have voted to rescind the groups endorsement of Alex Morse in his campaign to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Richard Neal in the Sept. 1 congressional primary.

Morse, 31, a former political science lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has acknowledged what he describes as consensual relationships with college students.

We believe the students that came forward about the inappropriate nature of Alexs actions  as we believe all survivors. There is no justice without survivor justice, the group wrote in a Monday news release.

The Sunrise Western Mass Coalition said it was attracted to Morses support of the Green New Deal and of Medicare for all, but that now its members cannot trust him.

We made this decision as a group of young people who are part of a movement for a more just and livable future, the statement reads. Our coalition consists of high schoolers, college students, and young workers in Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden counties, including folks who worked actively on Alexs campaign and folks with their own experiences of sexual harassment.

Separately, the national Sunrise Coalition announced Monday that has suspended its campaigning on Morses behalf.

As a youth movement, we take such allegations seriously and recognize that Alexs positionality creates a challenging unequal power dynamic, the statement said. Thank you to the young people who have spoken out and shared their truth. We see and honor the people who experienced harm by Alexs actions. We also want to acknowledge and condemn the homophobia that we have seen laden in the discourse we have seen play out since these allegations surfaced. We are encouraged that Alex has agreed to participate in processes with students, and hope that he will lean in further to listening to the impacted and repairing harm.

Morses candidacy is in trouble after College Democrats of Massachusetts and its affiliates at UMass Amherst and Amherst College disinvited him from their future events, saying that hed pursued romantic relationships with college-age men. In their letter, the Democratic clubs said Morse used dating apps and Instagram to contact students as young as 18.

Some students who were contacted felt intimidated because of Morses prominence in progressive political circles, his candidacy for Congress and his role as Holyoke mayor, the student groups said.

Morse was a lecturer in political science at UMass Amherst. The university is reviewing the situation for any possible violation of the federal Title IX anti-discrimination law and has no plans to hire him back.

The Sunrise Western Mass Coalition said its members are still advocating for their causes.

This retraction of our endorsement for Alex Morse is by no means an endorsement of Richard Neal, the group wrote. Our current congressman does not stand with the values of the Green New Deal, and has for decades neglected the people of Massachusetts 1st District in favor of corrupt corporate interests. Should Rep. Neal be re-elected, we will release a plan to hold him accountable. If he does not embrace the values of the Green New Deal and fight for our district, we will unseat him in 2022  this time with the right candidate.

Neal, D-Springfield, has spoken in support of plans to lower emissions, develop renewable energy, provide tax credits for green research and outfit the Postal Service with electric trucks.

The LGBTQ Victory Fund reaffirmed its support of Morse Monday.

The Massachusetts Nurses Association union said it will meet this week to reconsider its backing of Morse.

Related Content:
Chennai, Aug 10 : The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) has expressed its opposition to the appointment of ICICI Banks former CEO and non Executive Chairman K.V.Kamath as the Head of the Expert Committee on Resolution Framework for Covid19-related Stress as his name figures in a CBI First Information Report (FIR).

The AIBEA in a letter to Shaktikanta Das, Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Sunday said as per media reports Kamath's name figures in the FIR lodged by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the infamous nepotism scandal in ICICI Bank involving its former chief Chanda Kochar for sanctioning loan of over Rs 3,000 crore to Videocon group.

"It is reported that besides being the former CEO and non-Executive Chairman of ICICI Bank, he was also a member of the Committee that approved the loan which have now become questionable and are under investigation.

"Hence we strongly feel that at this stage, making such a person as Chairman of this Expert Committee is avoidable and needs to be reviewed," C.H.Venkatachalam, General Secretary, AIBEA told RBI Governor.

Venkatachalam also recalled the recommendation of Kamath led Task Force set up by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in 1999 on bank non-performing assets (NPA) to close Indian Bank and privatisation of State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda.

"AIBEA questioned the Committee and its recommendations as one of the member of that Committee himself was a bank loan defaulter," Venkatachalam said.

"Today Indian Bank is one of the best run Banks and everyone also knows the growth and progress of SBI and Bank of Baroda under public sector," he added.

On August 6, RBI announced the setting up of an Expert Committee on Resolution Framework for Covid19-related Stress, as a special window under the Prudential Framework on Resolution of Stressed Assets issued on June 7, 2019.

The Expert Committee headed by Kamath will make recommendations on the required financial parameters to be factored in the resolution plans, with sector specific benchmark ranges for such parameters.

The Expert Committee shall also undertake the process validation for the resolution plans to be implemented under this framework, without going into the commercial aspects, in respect of all accounts with aggregate exposure of Rs. 1,500 crore and above at the time of invocation.
No one, it is safe to assume, told J.F.K. he was too ambitious.

In 1956, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, he campaigned aggressively to be vice president, said Keneshia Grant, an associate professor of political science at Howard University. His father, she noted, had even offered to pay for Lyndon B. Johnsons run if he promised to choose his son as a running mate.

That was no secret at all, said Professor Grant, the author of The Great Migration and the Democratic Party: Black Voters and the Realignment of American Politics in the 20th Century. And that was fine. People took him at his word.

But when Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives and the first Black woman in the country to be a major partys nominee for governor, stated bluntly in an interview published in April that she would be an excellent running mate to Joseph R. Biden Jr.  unapologetically making her case for the No. 2 spot on the ticket  she was criticized as being inadequately self-effacing.

On Tuesday, Mr. Biden announced that Senator Kamala Harris would become the first woman of color to be selected for a major party ticket, and the third woman ever.
(Natural News) Minneapolis police have released new guidelines in the event that people are attacked by violent criminals, a new report says.

According to the police, people must be more proactive regarding their safety especially since the city is currently facing an unprecedented surge in violent crime since the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

Among the tips offered by police to the citys residents include not walking alone, being hyper-aware of ones surroundings at all times, carrying less cash than usual and by cooperating with criminals.

In addition, Minneapolis residents are advised to refrain from fighting with criminals in order to preserve their safety.

These guidelines, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, were released just as residents started airing complaints regarding slow police responses, with some noting that the police are taking longer to respond to emergency calls.

Police murdered a man in our neighborhood and then they just all fell out and left us alone to figure out our own as far as protecting our neighborhoods, Leslie Bowden, a long-time resident who lives in the area surrounding Floyds memorial said, adding that their neighborhood now feels like a warzone.

You feel isolated like youre in a war zone sometimes, but theres no one helping us, Bowden said.

Local authorities have since launched an inquiry into the matter, with city council members questioning the citys officers apparent reluctance to enter the area surrounding Floyds memorial at E. 38th Street and S. Chicago Avenue  an area that has become a pilgrimage site for countless visitors and civil rights activists, as well as a site for countless violent shootings.

People in this area, theyre not experiencing slow response, theyre experiencing no response. Theyre being told that this is called a no-go zone by MPD, Council Member Andrea Jenkins said.

This lack of proper response from authorities has been linked to the steady decline in the number of officers employed by the city police department over the past two months.

As per a report, 40 cops have either resigned, been fired or are currently in the process of leaving the force, while another 75 have taken medical leaves for post-traumatic stress disorder allegedly caused by the riots that followed Floyds death.

The latter event, which has been noted by mainstream media as an example of extreme police brutality, has dealt a blow to the morale within the department, according to veteran officers, with some cops seen to be scaling back their policing efforts out of fear that their interactions with people on the street could land them in proverbial hot water.

Its almost like a nuclear bomb hit the city, and the people who didnt perish are standing around, Officer Rich Walker Sr., a Minneapolis police veteran and union official who has been with the force for 16 years, said.

In addition, an anonymous insider noted that the Minneapolis Police Department, despite having enough funds to support 888 officers, stands to lose about one-third of its entire force by the end of the year. (Related: Seattle police union leader says Seattle will be lawless wasteland if police are defunded.)

This, authorities say, could spell bad news for the city, especially as it grapples with an uptick in violent crimes.

Minneapolis crime now at an all-time high

Minneapolis has been a focal point of the Black Lives Matter movement since Floyds death on May 25, with the incident sparking protests and general civil unrest in the city, as well as other locations in the United States.

Aside from protests, however, Floyds death has also been linked to a dramatic uptick in violent crime within the city, with homicides, shootings and robberies in Minneapolis increasing by double digits compared to statistics from last year.

According to official MPD records, 288 people have been shot this year, a figure that exceeds the recorded total for all of 2019.

Authorities have also recorded a total of 41 homicides in the city, as well as 100 armed robberies and 20 carjackings in the citys Third Precinct.

This is not isolated to Minneapolis, however, with a Wall Street Journal analysis of crime statistics from the nations 50 largest cities noting that reported homicides were up by 24 percent so far this year.

Despite the dire statistics, however, a spokesman for the police insists that the MPD has enough officers to patrol the city.

Right now we have reduced numbers of sworn people due to COVID, midyear retirements and medical leaves. The vacancies are being filled by other sworn personnel, John Elder, a spokesman for the MPD, said. Whereas we have less sworn people than six months ago, we are not seeing staff shortages on any sort of a routine basis.

Charter Commission says dismantling of Minneapolis police force wont be voted on this year

The Minneapolis Charter Commission said it will need more time to review a specific amendment in the city charter that would dismantle the citys police department, with several commissioners noting that the process to change the citys charter was being rushed.

The proposed amendment, which was drafted following widespread criticism of law enforcement over Floyds death, would have replaced the citys police department with a Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention. This department, according to the amendments backers, would take a more holistic approach to law enforcement.

According to a CBS report, the lack of a final decision from the commission means the proposal will not make the ballot this November.

Despite this setback, however, the city would still move ahead with the community engagement process, Steve Fletcher, a city council member and one of the authors of the proposal, said.

According to Fletcher, this is because the city wants to build a collective vision of what we really want the future of public safety to look like.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, however, remains opposed to eliminating the citys existing police department.

We should not go down the route of simply abolishing the police department. What we need to see within this department, and within many departments throughout the country, is a full-on culture shift, Frey said.

Mayor Frey and Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, have earlier moved ahead with their own changes to the police force since Floyds death, such as requiring officers to document their attempts to de-escalate situations whether or not force is used, as well as the expansion of requirements for reporting use-of-force incidents.

Requiring officers who may become suspects to complete a police report before reviewing body cam footage will help ensure that investigators, attorneys, and jurors receive a transparent account of how an officer remembers the incident  one that hasnt been influenced by other evidence, Frey said in a statement.

Arradondo, meanwhile, said the change would align with the rules for civilians, who are not allowed to watch body camera footage for an incident in which they may be potential suspects.

The policies also restrict consultation with certain representatives immediately following a critical incident and clarify time requirements for reporting, he said.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

BBC.com

StarTribune.com

NYTimes.com

WSJ.com

CBSNews.com

NPR.org

APNews.com
The Industrial Products sector is anticipated to witness a lackluster earnings season as evident from the latest Earnings Trends, per which its revenues are expected to decline 16.1%, while earnings are likely to witness a 41.9% slump. However, the slump is not restricted to this sector, as 13 of the 16 Zacks sectors are expected to log declines.



In the second quarter, industrial production contracted at an annual rate of 42.6%  the largest quarterly decrease since the World War II, per the Federal Reserve. Factory output slumped 47% at an annual rate in the quarter. Also, per the Institute for Supply Management, the Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), came in at 41.5% for April  the lowest since April 2009 when it registered 39.9%. In May, the PMI came in at 43.1%. Notably, a reading below 50 denotes contraction. Even though the index has climbed to 52.6% in June, the manufacturing index averaged 45.7% for the second quarter. The New Order Index averaged 38.4% while the Production index averaged 39.3% in the quarter under review.



These figures clearly indicate that the manufacturing sector has been hit hard by the pandemic and energy market volatility in the quarter under review. This along with other challenges associated with the pandemic, which include factory closures, supply chain disruptions, and low demand for goods, and logistic costs are likely to get reflected on the Industrial Products sectors results in the June ended quarter. So far 79.3% of the sector participants have released their quarterly numbers, logging a decline of 38.1% in earnings and a slump of 19.4% in revenues on the scoreboard. While 95.7% of the industry players that have reported beat earnings, 82.6% surpassed revenues.



One of the major players in the sector, Caterpillar Inc. CAT witnessed a 64% decline in second-quarter 2020 adjusted earnings per share but managed to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a margin of 56%. Restrained spending in the oil & gas, mining and construction sectors amid the pandemic weighed on its results.



Nevertheless, the sector players, which are engaged in packaging for food, medicines, home and personal-care products, might have benefited from higher demand during the pandemic. In the wake of weak demand, the companies have been focusing on cost cutting measures including reducing discretionary expenses, freezing salary hikes, and lean manufacturing actions. This may have contributed to margins despite low volumes.



With regard to the price performance, the sector grew 28.2% in second-quarter 2020 compared to the S&P 500s growth of 24.8%.

Story continues

Selecting Potential Winners

Amid this backdrop, it is wise to select industrial stocks that are well positioned to beat earnings in their upcoming releases. Nonetheless, given the wide range of companies in this space, the task is by no means easy. One way to do it is by picking stocks, which have the combination of a Zacks Rank  Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold)  and a positive Earnings ESP.



Earnings ESP is our proprietary methodology for identifying stocks that have high chances of surprising in their upcoming earnings announcement. It shows the percentage difference between the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Our research shows that for stocks with this combination, the chance of a positive earnings surprise is as high as 70%.



You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.



With the Zacks Stock Screener, four such industrial stocks have been identified.



Amcor plc AMCR develops, manufactures, and sells various packaging products for food, beverage, pharmaceutical, medical, home and personal care, and other consumer goods end markets worldwide. This Zurich, Switzerland-based company has an Earnings ESP of +1.78% and a Zacks Rank #2, at present. The company, which is slated to report fourth-quarter fiscal 2020 results on Aug 18, has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 7.15%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the to-be-reported quarter is pegged at 19 cents.

Amcor PLC Price and EPS Surprise

Amcor PLC Price and EPS Surprise

Amcor PLC price-eps-surprise | Amcor PLC Quote

Nordson Corporation NDSN engineers, manufactures, and markets products and systems to dispense, apply, and control adhesives, coatings, polymers, sealants, biomaterials, and other fluids worldwide. The company is set to release third-quarter fiscal 2020 results on Aug 19. The company has a trailing four-quarter negative earnings surprise of 0.17%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the fiscal third quarter is pegged at $1.32, reflecting a decline of 18.5% from the prior-year quarter. The estimate moved up 1% over the past 30 days. This Westlake, OH-based company currently has an Earnings ESP of +6.06% and a Zacks Rank of 2. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Nordson Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

Nordson Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

Nordson Corporation price-eps-surprise | Nordson Corporation Quote

Deere & Company DE manufactures and distributes a full line of agricultural equipment; a variety of commercial and consumer equipment; and a broad range of equipment for construction, road building, and forestry. The Moline, IL-based company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 10.95%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the companys third-quarter fiscal 2020 earnings, which is scheduled to be reported on Aug 21, is pegged at $1.16. The figure indicates a decline of 57.2% from the year-ago reported figure. The estimate has been revised upward by 5% over the past 30 days. Currently, the company has an Earnings ESP of +4.64% and a Zacks Rank #2.

Deere Company Price and EPS Surprise

Deere Company Price and EPS Surprise

Deere Company price-eps-surprise | Deere Company Quote

Greif Inc. GEF produces and sells industrial packaging products and services worldwide. The Delaware, OH.-based company has an Earnings ESP of +3.41% and a Zacks Rank of 3, at present. The company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise history of 14.7%, on average. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the companys third-quarter fiscal 2020 earnings stands at 88 cents, indicating a decline of 30% from the prior-year quarter. The estimate has moved south 3% over the past 30 days. The company is scheduled to report its results on Aug 26.

Greif, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

Greif, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

Greif, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Greif, Inc. Quote

The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All

Last year, it generated $24 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $77.6 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early.



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Former King of Spain Juan Carlos in self-exile in Abu Dhabi

Former Spanish king Juan Carlos who is alleged to be involved in a financial scandal involving Saudi Arabia, is currently staying at Abu Dhabis exclusive Emirates Palace Hotel after leaving Spain aboard a private jet on Monday, the ABC newspaper said.

Juan Carlos, 82, abruptly announced his decision to leave Spain on Monday but there has been no official confirmation of his whereabouts, ABC newspaper reported.

The newspaper said a private plane en route from Paris to Abu Dhabi stopped off in the northwestern Spanish city of Vigo to pick up Juan Carlos, four security guards and one other person on Monday morning.

Upon arrival at Abu Dhabis Al Bateen airport, the ex-king and his entourage were flown by helicopter to the government-owned Hotel Emirates Palace, according to ABC, a pro-monarchy Spanish daily.

Spain's monarchy, which is funded by taxpayers, is beset by scandals and mounting corruption allegations.

A palace spokesman said he did not know where Juan Carlos was. The former kings lawyer and the government have all declined to say where Juan Carlos is.

United Arab Emirates officials and the Emirates Palace Hotel also declined to reveal the kings whereabouts.

The former monarch is not formally under investigation and has repeatedly declined to comment on the allegations.

However, Spains Supreme Court in June opened a preliminary investigation into Juan Carlos involvement in a high-speed rail contract in Saudi Arabia, after Switzerlands La Tribune de Geneve newspaper reported he had received $100 million from the late Saudi king. Switzerland has also opened an investigation.

Spain and Abu Dhabi have an extradition agreement, signed by Juan Carlos himself in 2010.
Transaction Augments Working Capital for Planned US Expansion

PHOENIX, AZ, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Taronis Fuels, Inc., (Taronis or the Company) (OTCQB: TRNF), a global producer of renewable and socially responsible fuel products, today announced the closing of a $6.7 million senior subordinated convertible note, which can be increased to $7.3 million until September 15, 2020. The note is for 12 months and is convertible at $0.09. Joseph Gunnar, a New York based investment bank, acted as the sole placement agent for the financing.

This is a key milestone for the Company as we look to accelerate our business plans in the second half of 2020, commented Scott Mahoney, CEO of Taronis Fuels. Domestically, we have already expanded into six new markets in the first half of the year, and we expect to add an additional twelve new markets before year end. Our combined retail and wholesale model is generating strong financial results, and we want to accelerate this model as much as possible under the current market conditions.

Mr. Mahoney continued, Many of our competitors have pulled back during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we benefitted by being highly opportunistic. We have recently enjoyed some meaningful successes by winning increasingly larger clients in many of our markets, and we want to further capitalize on our momentum and success.

In addition, we expect to begin to deploy capital resources at scale for our international expansion initiatives. We plan to manufacture up to ten 300KW Venturi plasma arc gasification units for deployment into three separate markets. Some of these units will be earmarked for outright sale, and some will be retained for operation through our European wholly owned subsidiaries and through promising new partnership opportunities. We are excited to see our international efforts progress to revenue generating operations in the coming months, concluded Mr. Mahoney.

About Taronis Fuels, Inc.

Taronis Fuels, Inc. is a global producer of renewable and socially responsible fuel products. Our goal is to deliver environmentally sustainable, technology driven alternatives to traditional fossil fuel and carbon-based economy products. We believe our products offer a vastly cleaner solution to legacy acetylene and propane alternatives.

Taronis is also dedicated to providing fundamentally safer solutions to meet the industrial, commercial and residential needs of tomorrows global economy. Our products have been rigorously tested and independently validated by global gas authorities as vastly safer than acetylene, the most dangerous industrial gas in use today.

Lastly, we strive to deliver products that offer significant function superiority at a reduced cost to the end consumer. Through these efforts, we support 9 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. For more information, please visit our website at www.taronisfuels.com/

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined within Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements relate to future events, including our ability to raise capital, or to our future financial performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond our control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects our current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to our operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. We assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

For a discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Our public filings with the SEC are available from commercial document retrieval services and at the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov .
Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Ghana, Patricia Obo-Nai, has called on Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana to take advantage of the various interventions put in place by Vodafone Ghana to cushion them against the negative impacts of COVID-19.



According to her, Vodafone Ghana has tailor-made packages that are very well placed to enable SMEs be in tune with current technological trends to survivor the negative impact of COVID-19 in Ghana.



At Vodafone Ghana, we acknowledge the role SMEs play in the growth and sustainability of the nations economy. To mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the growth of SMEs, we have put in place many interventions including a tailored web presence solution, Your Business Online, Vodafone Red Trader, free transfers from Vodafone Cash to all other networks, affordable data bundle packages among others to keep many SMEs going as they strive to ay relevant during this pandemic, she noted.



CEO Of Vodafone disclosed this at the maiden edition of the Vodafone Business Runway webinar series aimed at empowering SMEs with insights and opportunities that will enable them manage and build thriving businesses especially during this time.



The event which was organized under the theme After the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP), What Next? The Way Forward for Ghanaian SMEs brought together leaders in Ghanas SME sector to share insights into strategies that can be adopted to stay afloat as an SME.



Patricia Obo-Nai further stated that her outfit is not focused on profits amid the pandemic but rather introduced tailor-made solutions to help businesses rebound.



We are proud to say that as a brand, we have tailor-made packages that are well placed to support SMEs. Your Business Online is an industry first where Vodafone Ghana creates the avenue to allow SMEs have a website designed, built and maintained for them for free for a 6-month period. In addition, the website is integrated into many digital payment platforms.



On the other hand, Vodafone Red Trader provides a secure and flexible mobile app that allows wholesalers/retailers to be in control of their business with the ability to keep track all sales and stock inventory on a smart device or computer, she added.



On the recovery of SMEs from the negative effects of the pandemic, Mrs Kosi Yankey- Ayeh, Executive Director for National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) underscored the essence of a good recovery plan and a safe workplace environment.



She was of the view that, SMEs can leverage on the downtime of businesses due to the pandemic to position themselves to take advantage of business opportunities that may present themselves during and post COVID times.



The NBSSI boss further lauded the private sector for partnering with government to undertake many initiatives geared towards the gradual recovery of Ghanaian SMEs from the negative impact of the pandemic.



The Vodafone Business Runway Webinar was organized by Vodafone Business, the enterprise unit of Vodafone Ghana in collaboration with Ministry of Business Development, National Entrepreneur & Innovation Plan, Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), and Ghana Export Promotion Authority.





Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
She recently spoke candidly about her crippling struggle with body image.

But Skye Wheatley appeared anything but shy as she posed for an impromptu photo shoot at her Gold Coast home on Thursday.

The former Big Brother star stunned in a tangerine glitter bikini.

Cut it out! Former Big Brother star Skye Wheatley showed off her VERY ample cleavage and super flat tummy in a racy bikini during an impromptu photo shoot on Thursday

The two-piece featured a cut-out top that drew attention to her ample cleavage and flat stomach, and some very high-cut G-string bottoms.

'Welcome to my backyard where we pose take photos and film TikToks,' she captioned two photos posted to Instagram.

Skye was immediately praised by fans, who were stunned that the blonde beauty was a mother-of-one.

'How did you even have a baby?' many marvelled.

The former reality star gave birth to her son Forest in December 2018.

Back in May, she opened up about her crippling struggle with body image in an honest YouTube video to her fans.

Over the past five years, Skye has had a breast augmentation, reconstructive surgery after her first boob job became botched, rhinoplasty, lip filler and cheek filler.

Revealing: The two-piece featured a cut-out top that drew attention to her ample cleavage and fastened at the front, and some very high-cut G-string bottoms

'I feel like [body image] has been my biggest hurdle in life and something that I've focused on a lot. Which I know I shouldn't, but I've always been very hard on myself and self-critical,' Skye explained when asked about her transformation.

'I know it's normal for people to be like that, but I was pretty extreme. I used to wear a hat in class [at school] because I was worried about my eye bags. I had so many insecurities, not the normal amount a child my age should have.

'I was always very self-conscious of my weight, insecure about my eye bags, my skin, how light I was and my hair.'

'I tried to cover up as much of my face as possible with a hat, and lots of makeup. I still hated myself. I hated my teeth, my freckles and my nose. I never learned to accept my nose and went and had plastic surgery.'

Wowser! Skye was immediately praised by fans, who were stunned that the blonde beauty was a mother-of-one. Skye is pictured here while pregnant with her first child Forest in 2018

Despite going under the knife to change the things she didn't like about herself, Skye said she was still unhappy with the way she looks.

'I still have insecurities, I'm still really hard on myself, and yeah, I probably need counselling. It's bad to be like that,' she added.

Skye's first cosmetic procedure was a breast augmentation in Bangkok in 2015, aged 22.

She flew to Thailand to get her surgery at a lower price, however the surgeon left her with a botched 'bubble boob'. She later spent $28,000 on corrective surgery.

Joy! The former reality star gave birth to her son Forest in December 2018

'I actually used to get teased for having big boobs, because I developed at a really young age,' Skye said of her breasts in her YouTube video.

'Then my boobs stopped growing and everybody else's got bigger.'

Ahead of giving birth to her first child, Skye said she planned on getting a 'breast lift and new implants' once he was born.

In 2016, the mother-of-one went under the knife again and also had a nose job.

Meanwhile, the blonde denied getting butt implants in 2017 amid rumours.
By PTI

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned Showik Chakraborty, brother of actor Rhea Chakraborty, for about 18 hours in connection with a money laundering case linked to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, officials said on Sunday.

Showik left the central investigative agency's office here in the Ballard Estate area around 6:30 AM after an overnight questioning session that began around noon on Saturday.

Officials said Showik's statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and he was asked about his personal businesses, income, investments and financial dealings with his sister and Rajput.

He was grilled by the agency for a few hours on August 7 as well.

On the same day, his sister and prime accused in the case Rhea (28) was questioned by the agency for the first time for about eight hours.

Rhea and her father Indrajit Chakraborty have been summoned to appear before the agency again on Monday.

On Friday, the ED had questioned Indrajit, Rhea's chartered accountant (CA) Ritesh Shah and business manager Shruti Modi, who also worked for Rajput.

The agency is understood to have questioned Rhea, who stated in her petition to the court that she was in a live-in relationship with Rajput, about her friendship with the late actor, business dealings and the developments that took place over the last few years between them.

The ED's line of questioning, officials said, is revolving around Rhea's income, investments, business and professional deals, and links.

Also under the ED's scanner is a property located in the city's Khar area and another in Navi Mumbai, both linked to Rhea, for the source of purchase and ownership.

Agency sources have said they "want more answers" from Rhea over the alleged mismatch between her income, expenditure and investments.

They said while Chakraborty has filed Income Tax Returns stating an income of about Rs 14 lakh, the value of her investments is reportedly higher.

Her father, they said, is a retired defence personnel who gets a pension of about Rs 1 lakh per month.

The sources said Rhea told the agency that she had made the property investments from her income, savings and has taken bank loans.

ALSO READ | Politicisation of Sushant's death a conspiracy against Maharasthra: Sanjay Raut

Rhea has been accused by Rajput's father of abetting his son's suicide and she had initially refused to appear before the agency citing her appeal pending before the Supreme Court that is slated to be heard on August 11.

Her lawyer Satish Maneshinde had said Rhea is a law-abiding citizen and would cooperate with the probe.

She has filed a petition in the apex court requesting that the case lodged by the Bihar police against her be transferred to the Mumbai police.

She, through her lawyer, also shared a picture of a note on Saturday which she claimed was written by Rajput to express his gratitude for her and her family.

Rhea also shared a photograph of a water sipper, which is a piece of movie merchandise from Rajput's 2019 film "Chhichhore".

"The only property of Sushant that I possess," she said in a message sent along with the photo to the media.

The ED, during the questioning sessions, is learnt to have confronted Rhea, Showik and Modi with certain bank statements that purportedly show transfer of small amounts into Showik's accounts from those of Rajput and Chakraborty.

The agency had also summoned Rajput's friend and roommate Siddharth Pithani to appear before it on Saturday in connection with the money laundering case that stems from the complaint filed by the actor's father with the Bihar Police in connection with his death.

Pithani, an IT professional, is stated to be out of Mumbai at present and may appear before the agency on Monday.

He has said in various news channel interviews that he was present in the Bandra flat on June 14 when the 34-year-old actor hanged himself.

ALSO READ | Sushant Singh Rajput case: Verbal duel between actor's father, Mumbai Police in SC over CBI probe

Pithani, stated to be living with Rajput for about a year, had earlier recorded his statement with the Mumbai Police as part of their accidental death report (ADR) probe in the case.

Rajput's 74-year-old father K K Singh, who resides in Patna, had on July 25 filed a complaint with the Patna police against Rhea, her parents (including mother Sandhya Chakraborty), Showik, Rajput's manager Samuel Miranda, Modi and unknown persons accusing them of cheating and abetting his son's suicide.

The CBI had re-registered this FIR as a fresh case on Thursday and named as accused the same people.

Singh also alleged financial irregularities in bank accounts of his son.

In the complaint, Singh alleged that Rs 15 crore was siphoned off from Rajput's bank account in one year to accounts of persons not known or connected to the late actor.

Under the ED's scanner are at least two companies linked to Rajput and some financial deals involving Rhea, her father and Showik, who are stated to be directors in these companies.N
Hong Kong police on Monday arrested pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai on charges of allegedly colluding with foreign forces under the controversial new national security law imposed on the territory by China.

Lai, 71, was arrested along with at least six other people connected with him including his two sons and four executives at his publishing group Next Digital, publisher of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, which frequently criticizes Beijing.

Jimmy Lai is being arrested for collusion with foreign powers at this time, read a Sunday evening tweet from Mark Simon, a senior executive at Lais media company.

More than a hundred police raided Next Digitals offices on Monday morning. The newspaper livestreamed video of officers arresting Lai and his chief executive and warning reporters to stop filming the raid.

Lais arrest is the most high-profile so far under the new national security law passed by Beijing in June and aimed at tightening Chinas control over Hong Kong, a measure pro-democracy critics say will erode the civil liberties of Hong Kong residents.

China claims that the national security law is necessary to crack down on separatism, subversion, terrorism, and foreign intervention in Hong Kong. The measure would also allow Chinas state security agencies to operate in the territory.

Critics and pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong have warned that the law, which comes after months of pro-democracy demonstrations among residents of the territory, will erase the one country, two systems arrangement between Hong Kong and Beijing and will subvert the freedoms currently enjoyed by Hong Kong residents, including the right to assembly, a free press, and a judiciary system independent of mainland China.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Congress in May that the city of Hong Kong no longer maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, an appraisal that indicates the U.S. may end its special trading relationship with the financial hub.

Story continues

Lai faces up to life in prison if convicted of colluding with foreign forces.

More from National Review
Teachers in coronavirus-hit Victoria have lodged more compensation claims for mental health than any other profession, even the at-risk healthcare sector which has racked up over 1200 infections.

An ABC report said WorkCover in Victoria has received 111 claims for compensation for the effects of COVID-19, with 78 of those claims being from people who had not actually contracted the virus.

Of those 78 non-infected claimants, 26 were in the eduation and training industry, 21 in healthcare and 11 in the public service or safety workers, with 'mental injury' being the most typical cited effects.

Educators have had to change their teaching methods as schools closed and distance learning began during waves of the pandemic.

With metropolitan Melbourne now in the midst of a Stage 4 lockdown and rural Victoria currently under a Stage 3 order, the state's teachers are now faced with a prolonged period of teaching and assessingonline.

Teachers in coronavirus-hit Victoria have lodged more compensation claims for mental health than any other profession (stock image)

Victoria's teachers are now faced with the difficult task of preparing remote learning classes for students online

'It's been an almost relentless period of time without any break whatsoever, so they're working incredibly hard to meet the needs of their students, which is heroic really,' teachers clinical psychologist Andrew Fuller told the ABC.

The challenges of administering online learning has not only been a technological one.

Glitches and issues with the system have left parents furious and some teachers have borne the brunt of their anger.

'The tensions [about] who can motivate these kids, whether it's parents or teachers, becomes more fraught,' Mr Fuller said.

Victoria's largest Islamic school Al-Taqwa College (pictured) in Truganina sparked a huge outbreak of more than 150 cases

All 2,000 students and 300 teachers at the school were forced to self isolate in July

'There has been a bit of pointing the finger about who is responsible.'

The standard WorkCover claim lodged for mental health injury is for someone who has missed more than 10 days of work and endured medical expenses of more than $735.

Mr Fuller said in some cases teachers have been so concerned about contracting the virus, they have been preparing their wills, although there have been no recorded cases of a teacher picking up the illnes from a pupil.

The remaining claims - beside education, health and public administrators - were made up workers from various sectors including, financial, scientific and IT services, retail, transportation, telecommunications, media and postal workers.

Glitches and issues with remote learning have left parents furious and some teachers have borne the brunt of their anger
by Sumon Corraya

Less than 200 Catholic marriages have been celebrated in 2020, down from an annual average of 1,700 before COVID-19. Only 50 people can attend the wedding ceremony. For young couples this has a positive aspect as they save money and do not go into debt to get married.

Dhaka (AsiaNews)  The number of Catholic marriages in Bangladesh has dropped considerably as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a source in the local Church, approximately 1,700 unions are celebrated on average each year in Bangladesh, but so far in 2020, there have been fewer than 200.

The Catholic Church, following government regulations, banned large public gatherings as a security measure against COVID-19. Some 255,000 cases have been reported in the country so far, with almost 3,400 deaths.

Card Patrick DRozario, Archbishop of Dhaka, ordered that a maximum of 50 people be allowed to take part in a wedding.

Ranjit Gomes, a Catholic man, had to respect such a restriction for his son's recent wedding. Some 400 people had been originally invited for the ceremony, he told AsiaNews.

Fr Albert Thomas Rozario, parish priest in Dharenda (Dhaka), said he celebrated only seven weddings this year. "Many young people are waiting for the end of the pandemic before getting married, he explained.

For the clergyman, the coronavirus had one positive effect. Restrictions on the number of people attending the wedding party have allowed the bride and groom to reduce expenses.

Before the pandemic, at least 250 people could be invited, plus musicians and DJs hired for the celebrations. As a result, many people go into heavy debt. Now young newlyweds can save money.

Augustine DCreuze, a Catholic man, believes that the practice of small marriages should be maintained even when the crisis is over. "I have three children, and for their marriage I intend to organise only limited ceremonies.
PORTLAND, Ore. - On Saturday, a small group broke into the police union headquarters and threw pieces of flaming wood inside. One night later, police dispersed more than 100 demonstrators long before any more vandalism could occur, declaring an unlawful assembly less than 15 minutes after a crowd arrived at the Portland Police Association building.

Among those arrested in the swift crackdown was a Black activist who survived a hate crime in 2017 and has been a prominent organizer among the Wall of Moms. Demetria Hester, who was attacked by an avowed white supremacist in 2017 the day before he killed two men and grievously injured a third during a hate-filled rant on a light-rail train, was arrested just before midnight on Sunday, police confirmed.

Video shows officers walking into a group of people and telling 46-year-old Hester, "you're under arrest." The woman calmly followed the officers, who loaded her into a police vehicle. She was later charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with a peace officer.

Police made 16 arrests on Sunday night and early Monday morning, charging each person with either disorderly conduct, interfering with a peace officer, or both.

The police bureau said in a statement that the arrests came after someone threw a "mortar" at officers, injuring two and burning through a mask one officer was wearing. They shared photos of officers' injuries and the scorched mask.

On May 25, 2017, Hester was riding home on a light-rail train when Jeremy Christian boarded and began shouting that he was "a Nazi, that he hated all Muslims, Blacks, Jews," Hester later testified in court. She told him to "shut up." When she got off the train, Christian followed her and flung a Gatorade bottle into her face, hitting her in the eye.

When police arrived, Hester pointed out Christian, who was still standing nearby on the light-rail platform. Officers did not arrest him.

The next day, Christian confronted two teenage Black girls on a light-rail train. When three White men intervened to stop him, Christian pulled out a knife and stabbed each of them. Ricky John Best, 53, and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, died of their wounds and Micah David-Cole Fletcher, 21, survived a cut across his throat. Christian was convicted of hate crime, murder and other charges in February.

Since the crime, Hester has been active in Portland politics. She came forward a few months after the attack to share her story and to slam the police and public transit officials for failing to arrest Christian on the night he accosted her.

When President Donald Trump ordered federal agents to downtown Portland in July, Hester joined the Wall of Moms who formed a human barrier between federal officers and activists. She has been one of the Black women leading the Moms United for Black Lives group, which grew out of the Wall of Moms. Hester is also a plaintiff in a lawsuit against federal police contesting their use of aggressive tactics on largely peaceful protests.

Activists decried Hester's arrest late Sunday night.

"PPB just arrested a survivor of the MAX violence," the Council on American-Islamic Relations Oregon tweeted after video of the arrest surfaced on social media. "This is unconscionable and wrong. She must be released now."

Portland police said that Sunday night's quick crackdown, in which police drove the crowd into a residential neighborhood and made multiple arrests in a nearby park, came after people barricaded streets and set a fire in front of the police union building within three minutes of the crowd's arrival.

At past protests, including on Saturday night, police have allowed protesters to block the street and stand around fires set in dumpsters in the road for hours. But on Sunday, police quickly broke up the crowd.

After the crowd thinned, police drove through the Kenton neighborhood with dozens of riot police perched on vans. They shouted at small groups of protesters, urging them to go home.

One of the vans stopped in front of a home where residents had invited a few people to stay on their lawn after the dispersal order. Police dismounted the van and exchanged verbal barbs with the people in the yard, telling them to "go home." Two officers grabbed a pallet of water bottles that the residents had placed in their yard.

When a man shouted at the officers that they were stealing his property, one Portland Police officer responded by accusing him of throwing water bottles at police. A short time later, the riot police returned to the van and drove away.

The residents of the home, who asked not to be named, told The Washington Post they were frustrated by the police actions in their neighborhood.

"I'm stuck, trapped in my own home because [the police] are having a fit," one of the residents said.

After the initial dispersal, a smaller crowd of protesters returned to the police union building and shouted at police, who made a few more arrests but did not use crowd control munitions to chase the group away. Eventually, officers left and the protesters milled around into the early morning hours.
SC refuses to accept Prashant Bhushans regret

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Aug 10: The Supreme Court has refused to accept, Prashant Bhushan's regret on his statement that half of the 15 former Chief Justices of India were corrupt.

The court said that it would examine whether prima facie the statement amounts to contempt. The hearing, in this case, would now commence on August 17, the SC also said.

The case concerns Bhushan's comments on the judiciary during an interview to the Tehelka magazine in 2009.

Cameras go off in Supreme Court for Prashant Bhushan contempt hearing

Pranab Mukherjee tests Covid-19 +ve | Former President tests positive | Oneindia News

The contempt case was taken on the basis of a complaint by senior advocate Harish Salve. This was in relation to a 2009 interview given by Bhushan to the Tehelka magazine.

The Bench said on the previous date said that there is a thin line between free speech and contempt. Justice Arun Mishra had said that this system belongs to you. Can you suggest some way to avoid this rigmarole.

The court had reserved its verdict on the issue on whether to accept the explanation or drop proceedings.
HOUSTON - (Aug. 10, 2020) - The Rice University-based Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) has won a five-year extension from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to pursue its investigation of mysteries at the intersection of biology and physics.

The grant for $12.9 million will allow the long-running center to continue sophisticated computational analysis, often combined with experimental efforts, to show how interactions at the atomic scale relate to the behavior of cells.

In recent years, CTPB scientists have pursued answers to a number of big questions, including immune response mechanisms, how memory works, the roots of neurological disease, the structural maintenance of DNA and a number of cancer-related studies.

The center was founded in 2001 at the University of California, San Diego, and came to Rice in 2011 when Peter Wolynes, Jose Onuchic and Herbert Levine were recruited to join the faculty, the latter two with help from grants by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

Onuchic and Wolynes are co-directors of the CTPB. Levine is now University Distinguished Professor in Physics and Bioengineering at Northeastern University and remains a senior scientist at CTBP.

"We have four major areas at the center," Onuchic said. "The first is in chromatin theory and modeling, developing the underlying mathematical theory to explain the nucleus of the cell -- what Peter calls the 'new nuclear physics.' The second is to test ideas based on the data being created by experimentalists. The third is to understand information processing by gene networks in general, with some applications related to metabolism in cancer. The fourth is to study the cytoskeleton and molecular motors. And the synergy between all of these areas is very important."

Onuchic noted the upcoming donation of a petaflop-scale supercomputer by AMD will help the center's ongoing research into the mechanisms behind COVID-19. "We're all set to move on doing major COVID-related molecular simulations on day one," he said.

He said having four institutions -- Rice, Northeastern, Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Houston -- actively involved in CTPB research is essential to its continued progress. "The full functioning of a center requires a synergy of participation," Onuchic said. "Rice is the main player with people from multiple departments, but Baylor, Northeastern and Houston play critical roles."

He said NSF officials were impressed by the center's outreach program, which brings underrepresented students to labs for summer internships. The program is directed by Margaret Cheung, the Moores Professor of Physics, of Chemistry and of Computer Science at the University of Houston, whose CTBP research focuses on cellular dynamics, particularly cytoskeleton mechanics.

"They have a one-to-one mentorship with our postdocs, who volunteer to do this work," Onuchic said. "Some good science has come out of the program."

The announcement marks the second time CTBP has been renewed at Rice, the last in 2014 for five years with an option (which was granted) for a sixth. Onuchic noted the center is mainly supported by NSF's Physics and Molecular and Cellular Biosciences divisions with additional support from the Integrative Organismal Systems division and the Division of Materials Research.

"The Physics Frontiers Centers (PFC) program enables major advances at the frontiers of physics," said Jean Allen, NSF program officer who oversees the agency's PFCs. "Researchers at the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics conduct innovative and forefront work at the intersection of physics and biology."

Wolynes is the D.R. Bullard-Welch Foundation Professor of Science and a professor of chemistry, biosciences, physics and astronomy and materials science and nanoengineering. Onuchic is the Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Chair of Physics and a professor of physics and astronomy, chemistry and biosciences.

###

This news release can be found online at https://news.rice.edu/2020/08/10/nsf-renews-rice-biological-physics-center/

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Related materials:

Jeff Falk

713-348-6775

jfalk@rice.edu

Mike Williams

713-348-6728

mikewilliams@rice.edu

Center for Theoretical Biological Physics: https://ctbp.rice.edu

Image for download:

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2020/08/1008_CTBP-1-WEB.jpg Jose Onuchic, left, and Peter Wolynes, co-directors of the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics at Rice University. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,962 undergraduates and 3,027 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 4 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance.
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Twitter has approached ByteDance's TikTok to work out a possible combination in the US. However, analysts have said Twitter does not seem to possess the kind of financial backing for a deal with TikTok and so it is highly uncertain. A report by the Wall Street Journal first stated that Twitter was in preliminary talks for a potential deal with TikTok's US operations.

As of now, Microsoft is already in talks to work out a deal with TikTok globally in at least four countries including the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Twitter has also privately made a case that its bid would face less regulatory scrutiny than Microsoft's. Twitter also noted that it will not face any pressure from China given that it is not active in that country, sources told Reuters. It is far from certain that Twitter would be able to outbid Microsoft Corp and complete such a transformative deal in the 45 days that US President Donald Trump has given ByteDance to agree to a sale, the sources further said. One of Twitter's shareholders, private equity firm Silver Lake, is interested in helping fund a potential deal, as per the report.

US President Donald Trump has given TikTok's parent company Byte Dance an ultimatum of 45 days till September 15 to sell the company. Trump has also signed an effective order barring transactions with ByteDance after the deadline. A similar order targets Tencent-owned messaging app, WeChat.

"The spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned by companies in the People's Republic of China continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States," the executive order reads. "At this time, action must be taken to address the threat posed by one mobile application, in particular, TikTok."

TikTok in response to the executive order in a blog post said, "We are shocked by the recent Executive Order, which was issued without any due process. For nearly a year, we have sought to engage with the US government in good faith to provide a constructive solution to the concerns that have been expressed. What we encountered instead was that the Administration paid no attention to facts, dictated terms of an agreement without going through standard legal processes, and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses."
After 35 years in the business, Japanese tech company Toshiba is no longer making laptops.Two years ago, Toshiba sold 80 percent of its shares in Dynabook Inc., the laptop computing subsidiary of the company, to another Japanese tech company, Sharp. On Aug. 4 of this year, Toshiba transferred the remaining 19.9 percent to Sharp, making Dynabook a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sharp according to a press release.Toshiba launched its first personal laptop in 1985, and remained a steady contender in the field through the early 2000s. However, improvements in the competition left the company in trouble and eventually led to a shift in focus from consumer products to business hardware. Fortunately for fans of Toshiba televisions,reports that that aspect of their business is still going strong.
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) today announced it will again award Climate Adaptation & Resiliency Grants to local cities to support efforts to increase resiliency in the face of climate change risks such as wildfires, floods, extreme heat, drought, sea level rise, and other major weather events. The competitive grant program provides $50,000 each to three municipalities in the SoCalGas service territory and is designed to help cities and counties reduce the impact of climate change-related threats. The application process opens today.

An advisory panel of planning and sustainability experts from the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability (LARC) and the American Planning Association-California Chapter (APA-California) will assist with the selection of the winning applications from across Southern and Central California.

"Collaboration between utilities and municipalities is key to resiliency when preparing for climate events such as wildfires, earthquakes and floods," said Andy Carrasco, vice president of strategy & engagement and chief environmental officer at SoCalGas. "The natural gas infrastructure is critical to the resiliency of the energy supply during natural disasters and as we work to implement our vision for a 21st century energy system, we look forward to providing affordable and cleaner energy to cities while helping them maintain resiliency."

"As LA's regional climate collaborative, LARC supports cross-jurisdictional collaboration and facilitates the exchange of information, best practices, and cutting-edge research" said Erin Coutts, LARC's executive director. "We are excited to advise a grant program that encourages partnerships and will help our cities address climate vulnerabilities in disadvantaged communities."

"As shapers of the built environment, planners recognize our critical role in helping the communities we serve prepare for the risks associated with climate change," said Ashley Atkinson, president-elect of the American Planning Association's California Chapter. "We're grateful to SoCalGas for helping local cities elevate climate adaptation among competing priorities by providing grant funding for essential plan updates."

Municipalities embarking on a Hazard Mitigation Plan Update, Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Plan, or incorporating climate change impacts into the Safety Element of their General Plan are eligible to apply. Grant proposals will be assessed according to the following criteria:

DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES: SoCalGas encourages applicants to address climate vulnerabilities in disadvantaged communities.

SoCalGas encourages applicants to address climate vulnerabilities in disadvantaged communities. COLLABORATION: Reflect coordination and partnerships with a diverse range of stakeholders (energy/water utilities, transportation, housing, etc.).

Reflect coordination and partnerships with a diverse range of stakeholders (energy/water utilities, transportation, housing, etc.). CO-BENEFITS: Identify potential co-benefits of the adaptation work, such as benefits to public health, air quality, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and the economy.

The annual grants will be funded by shareholders and will not impact natural gas bills. The deadline to submit proposals is September 30, 2020.

Last year, the City of Loma Linda, the City of Malibu and Los Angeles County were awarded the three SoCalGas adaptation and resiliency grants.

Los Angeles County is utilizing its grant to prepare an Adaptive Capacity Assessment for disadvantaged communities in unincorporated Los Angeles County, which will inform and be incorporated into the County's Safety Element Update. The City of Loma Linda is making use of its grant to update its local hazard mitigation plan as well as the Safety Element of its General Plan. Finally, Malibu is applying its grant to create a comprehensive and actionable Community Resilience and Adaptation Plan that will be integrated into the Safety Element of the City's General Plan.

A study on the impacts of four climate-related disasters on the energy sector found that natural gas infrastructure exhibited significant resilience because it is underground. In addition, the study showed that backup generation powered by natural gas pipelines can provide on-site electricity generation for hospitals, relief centers and other critical facilities during a disaster. A summary of its findings may be found here.

The climate grant program is part of SoCalGas' vision to be the cleanest gas utility in North America. As part of this plan, the utility committed to displacing 20% of its traditional natural gas supply with RNG by 2030 through its reimagined 21st century energy system. It also has the potential to include several other clean energy strategies such as hydrogen and will provide clean, reliable and affordable energy.

For more information about SoCalGas' environmental initiatives, go to socalgas.com/smart-energy .

About SoCalGas

Headquartered in Los Angeles, SoCalGas is the largest gas distribution utility in the United States. SoCalGas delivers affordable, reliable, clean and increasingly renewable gas service to 21.8 million customers across 24,000 square miles of Central and Southern California, where more than 90 percent of residents use natural gas for heating, hot water, cooking, drying clothes or other uses. Gas delivered through the company's pipelines also plays a key role in providing electricity to Californians about 45 percent of electric power generated in the state comes from gas-fired power plants.

SoCalGas's vision is to be the cleanest gas utility in North America , delivering affordable and increasingly renewable energy to its customers. In support of that vision, SoCalGas is committed to replacing 20 percent of its traditional natural gas supply with renewable natural gas (RNG) by 2030. Renewable natural gas is made from waste created by dairy farms, landfills and wastewater treatment plants. SoCalGas is also committed to investing in its gas delivery infrastructure while keeping bills affordable for our customers. From 2014 through 2018, the company invested nearly $6.5 billion to upgrade and modernize its pipeline system to enhance safety and reliability. SoCalGas is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), an energy services holding company based in San Diego. For more information visit socalgas.com/newsroom or connect with SoCalGas on Twitter (@SoCalGas), Instagram (@SoCalGas) and Facebook.

SOURCE Southern California Gas Company

Related Links

http://www.socalgas.com


Berlin, Germany,  August 10, 2020 Smart Pricer announces the launch of its th!nkpricing brand with the release of the new website www.thinkpricing.com. Focused on creating a community of people who price, th!nkpricing distributes pricing knowledge, tools, and techniques to help businesses maximize their pricing potential. The new and improved website introduces users to the world of pricing and pricing processes. Visit to find information on upcoming events as well as 
President Trump told reporters on Monday that he wants to delay the G7 summit until after November's election and implied that the decision had already been made.

The big picture: Plans for the summit have already been scrapped multiple times, with proposed venues moving from the Trump National Doral resort in Miami to Camp David. In May, Trump postponed the in-person event in Washington, D.C. to September.

What to watch: Trump has said on numerous occasions that he wants to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the summit, despite the fact that Russia was kicked out of the G7 for annexing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have both said they would veto attempts to bring Russia back into the G7.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declined Trump's invitation to attend the in-person summit in May due to coronavirus concerns

What he's saying: "I'm much more inclined to do it sometime after the election. We were going to do in September. They'd like to do it, we could do it through teleconference or we could do it through a meeting," Trump said.
An eight-month-old baby was found dead in a house in the village of Politika on Sunday, a fire service spokesman said. The baby's parents were unharmed

Five people including a baby died and another person was missing on Sunday as torrential rains and floods swept the Greek island of Evia, damaging dozens of houses and blocking roads.

The eight-month-old baby was found dead in a house in the village of Politika on Sunday, a fire service spokesman said. The baby's parents were unharmed.

Hours earlier, a man and woman, both in their 80s, were found unconscious by firefighters in two houses in the same village, the spokesman said. They were confirmed as dead at the hospital.

Deputy minister for civil protection Nikos Hardalias had earlier said five people had died and two were missing.

But a spokesman for the local emergency services told AFP later in the day that "a woman has been found alive, the rescue workers are looking for the second missing person, a man."

The ANA news agency said a helicopter had spotted the missing woman, who had been swept away by the floodwaters from her home in the village of Bourtsi.

The two other people who died, a 74-year-old man and a 73-year-old woman, were also from Bourtsi, the agency reported.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis voiced his "profound pain for the loss of lives" and said he would visit Evia, Greece's second largest island after Crete, on Monday.

- 'A nightmare' -

Torrents of water blocked roads in the west of Evia, which lies about 100 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of Athens. Some tourists were unable to leave one campsite on the island, ANA reported.

"We are experiencing a nightmare, we are using every possible means" to combat the floods, said Ana Fanis Spanos, a lawmaker from the central Greece region.

Storm Thalia battered several regions of mainland Greece Saturday, though the weather was improving on Sunday.

Hundreds of homes were flooded in Politika and several surrounding villages. Blocked roads prevented fire trucks from reaching the affected sites.

Two rivers burst their banks and filled roads with mud, local authorities said. The ground floors of many houses were flooded.

About 100 firefighters and two helicopters as well as the coastguard were deployed to rescue those trapped.

"Last year we had fires, this year it's floods," one resident of the village of Psachna told ERT television.

Flooded homes are a frequent occurrence in Greece due to a lack of adequate controls over construction and planning.

In November 2017, floods killed 24 people in Mandra, a village in an industrial region 30 kilometres west of Athens. Torrents of mud poured down over thousands of buildings, homes, shops and factories.

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India on Sunday (August 9) rejected the controversy over the birthplace of Gautam Buddha, saying that Foreign Minister S Jaishankar's comment on the founder of Buddhism was on 'our shared Buddhist heritage' and there is no doubt that Lord Buddha was born in Lumbini, Nepal.

The controversy started after Jaishankar on Saturday referred to Gautam Buddha as one of the "two greatest Indians" apart from Mahatma Gandhi. The Union Minister made the statement during Confederation of Indian Industrys India@75 Summit  Mission 2022.

On Sunday, Nepal foreign ministry issued a statement that it was a well-established and undeniable fact proven by historical and archaeological evidences that Gautam Buddha was born in Lumbini, Nepal.

The statement issued on behalf of Nepal foreign ministrys official spokesperson was in the context of the recent statement made by the External Affairs Minister of India on Gautam Buddha.

The statement also asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also mentioned during his speech to Nepal parliament in 2014 that Nepal is the country where apostle of peace in the world, Buddha, was born.

It is true that Buddhism spread from Nepal to other parts of the world in the subsequent period. The matter remains beyond doubt and controversy and thus cannot be a subject of debate. The entire international community is aware of this, he added.

India, however, reacted swiftly to end the controversy, for now.

EAMs remarks yesterday at the CII event referred to our shared Buddhist heritage. There is no doubt that Gautam Buddha was born in Lumbini, which is in Nepal, said MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava.
The former mayor of San Francisco has advised Senator Kamala Harris to reject the role of Vice President if Joe Biden offers it to her.

Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, Willie Brown said that Senator Harris should instead aim for the role of attorney general.

The former San Francisco mayor said that the role of vice president doesn't often open the doors to the job of president, but admitted that it would be an achievement if Harris were to become the first woman to ever hold the position.

The former mayor of San Francisco has advised Senator Kamala Harris (pictured) to reject the role of Vice President if Joe Biden offers it to her

Writing for the paper, Brown said: 'True, the vice president does have an advantage the next time the party needs a new nominee, which in Bidens case could be four years from now.

'But in the meantime, the vice president has no real power and little chance to accomplish anything independent of the president.'

Brown also pointed out that the position of attorney general holds the power to decide every single US attorney in the country, offering real authority.

He also pointed out that the role of attorney general would give Harris enough distance from the White House to still be a viable candidate for the president's job in 2024 or 2028 if she chooses to run.

Willie Brown served as mayor in San Francisco between 1996 and 2004 and as Speaker of the California Assembly, he appointed Harris to the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and the California Medical Assistance Commission.

He also claims to have briefly dated Harris while she was an Alameda County deputy district attorney.

Willie Brown (pictured) said that Senator Harris should instead aim for the role of attorney general

Biden has promised to name a female running mate and Harris is just one of the names reportedly in the running.

Other suggested names include Senators Tammy Duckworth and Elizabeth Warren, Representative Karen Bass, former national security adviser Susan Rice and Gretchen Whitmer the Governor of Michigan.

Biden had originally said that he would announce his running week in the first week of August, but on August 3 he delayed his decision by two weeks.

The delay indicates there is no clear favorite among Biden or his allies to be his running mate.

The former vice president is reportedly going to speak to five or six contenders instead of having the traditional short list of three names.
US president Donald Trump denied claims on Sunday he asked about Mt. Rushmore additions: AP

Donald Trump was whisked out of his daily weekday press briefing by a Secret Service officer following a shooting outside the White House on Monday.

The US Secret Service confirmed that law enforcement had shot a person blocks away from the White House, prompting the president to abruptly end a press briefing as he was escorted to the Oval Office.

He returned several minutes later announcing that a person had been shot and sent to a nearby hospital

The president continued to falsely claim that children are nearly immune from coronavirus, despite a new report that found nearly 100,000 young people were infected within the last two weeks of July alone, as schools prepare to open across the US.

Last week, Facebook and Twitter removed videos shared by the president in which he claimed that children are "virtually immune" from Covid-19, though Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reports show that children are as vulnerable to being able to transmit the virus as adults.

As lawmakers debate additional emergency relief legislation for millions of Americans during a looming eviction crisis and mass unemployment, the president has faced intense scrutiny from Democrats challenging the constitutionality of a series of executive orders that undermine congressional efforts.

Treasury Secretary told reporters that states can access extended unemployment relief "in the next week or two" despite governors signalling that the federal government, not the states, should be responsible for the additional funds.

Secretary Mnuchin also said he has not met with Democrats to repair the stalled emergency relief funding talks, despite House Democrats authoring and passing legislation to do so and meeting Republican resistance, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's accusation that Democrats are "obstructing" relief efforts.

"If they want to meet and want to negotiate and have a new proposal, we'll be happy to meet," Mr Mnuchin said.

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09.08.2020 LISTEN

Within the spate of one week, two stories, in which some mischievous characters tried to exploit the name of Togbe Afede XIV, President of Asogli State Council, have gone viral. We wish to inform the general public that these publications are fake.

In the first publication, titled, Volta Chiefs Blast Opposition NDC, with Togbes picture at the top, the chiefs and people of the Volta Region were reported to have, among other things, accused or blamed the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the poor or low level of development in the region over the years.

It further reported, and we quote, We the Chiefs and the people of the region are saying that we are tired of voting for NDC. The propaganda in the NDC is too much. We shall change our way of voting come December 7th, 2020.

In the second publication, titled, Announcement to all Voltarians from the Asogli State, his Royal highness Togbe Afede XIV, and purported to have been issued and signed by Togbe, it was reported, among others things, that, We have, since 1992, supported the NDC because its (sic) was founded by one of our own, his excellency Flt Lt J J Rawlings because he is our blood, our brother, father and a renowned personality from our land.

It further stated that Because of him, we have supported the NDC from 1992 through thick and thin and still continue to support them even though, this loyalty (sic) has not been replicated in terms of infrastructural projects, jobs, and investments to our region.

But for the anxiety they have created among a few people, we would have treated these worthless and poorly written publications with contempt. So, for the avoidance of doubt, we wish to emphasize that Togbe has nothing to do with the two publications, which are obviously the work of shameless, mischievous, and evil-minded people.

Asogli State Council

Stephen Tetteh,

Secretary

TO ALL PRESS HOUSES, AUGUST 8, 2020:

RE: ELECTORAL COMMISSION MOP-UP REGISTRATION

It is one week since I embarked on a tour of some border towns and villages of the Volta Region with some colleague members of the Volta Region House of Chiefs and Asogli State Council. I am still haunted by the plight of those citizens of Leklebi-Kame, who are trapped on the about 300-metre stretch of land between the Ghana Immigration Service barrier and the actual Ghana-Togo border.

Not only have these people not been able to register to vote, but their kids have not been able to cross the barrier to attend school; mothers have not been able to cross to grind their maize; and farmers could not access their farms, etc. Even though we highlighted their situation in interviews that were widely reported by the media, nothing has been done so far to solve their problem, to the best of my knowledge.

Thankfully, the Electoral Commission (EC) has announced its decision to begin a mop-up mass registration of eligible voters starting today, Saturday, August 8, 2020, and ending tomorrow, Sunday, August 9, 2020.

I wish to ask for justice for those unfortunate compatriots of Leklebi-Kame, who were not allowed to cross over to register before the regular registration exercise ended last Thursday. Other citizens who may be in similar situations in other parts of the country also deserve justice.

I am appealing to the EC to ensure that these fellow citizens of Ghana are allowed to cross the respective Immigration barriers and go to the district offices of the EC to register. Their eligibility to register and vote in the forthcoming elections is not in doubt, so they must not be disenfranchised.

I further urge all eligible Ghanaians who have not registered to take advantage of ECs mop-up registration and register, so that they can exercise their franchise, come December 7, 2020.

Finally, I would like to ask the Ghana Immigration Service to move these barriers close to the actual borders in order not to deny some citizens access to their own country in the future. Until they do so, I wish to urge the authorities not to forget these people during future border closures.

Togbe Afede XIV, President
Kravchuk stressed the issues concern the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine.

Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) and first president of independent Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk has elaborated on issues that will definitely not be discussed at Minsk talks on Donbas.

"We will never discuss with anyone the issues that are beyond the red line," he told Obozrevatel TV channel.

Kravchuk stressed the issues concern the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine.

Read alsoKravchuk announces four possible options to achieve full ceasefire in Donbas

"These are issues that are not discussed and are not included in the agenda," he said.

"This is a question of our life, nation, people, and I will never agree to this and will never sign any document under any conditions," the official said.

Kravchuk also vowed to stop any speculations concerning these topics.

"I'll tell you at once: the topic is closed, there is nothing to talk about," he said.

In this context, Kravchuk reiterated he behaved in a similar way in 1991 during the signing of the agreement on the cessation of the existence of the Soviet Union known as the Belovezha Accords.
Blameless victims of sophisticated bank scams are being left thousands of pounds out of pocket because of a refund lottery.

Under rules which were introduced in May last year, banks are meant to refund fraud victims who have taken reasonable care to protect themselves.

Yet firms continue to wriggle out of paying refunds and treat customers unfairly or inconsistently, according to Which?

Sam and Dave Pentin, pictured, were conned out of 14,200 by a fraudster who posed as their solicitor. They called their bank, Lloyds, after realising they'd been scammed but five months on they had not had a refund

The consumer champion warned that banks regularly blamed customers for missing warnings and not doing enough to realise they were being scammed.

The refund scheme was introduced following a major campaign by this paper.

It is voluntary, but major banks including Barclays, Co-operative Bank, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Metro Bank, Nationwide, NatWest, Santander and Starling Bank have all signed up.

Yet fewer than half of fraud victims  41 per cent  are getting their money back, according to the Payment Systems Regulator.

Victims of highly sophisticated scams, where fraudsters are able to quote financial and personal details and use manipulative tactics, are being denied refunds

In one case, a Lloyds Bank customer is still 33,000 out of pocket after falling victim to a so-called spoofing scam, in which fraudsters call or text from what appears to be a legitimate number.

Which? said she was told by the bank she could not have a refund because she did not take sufficient steps to verify the text message or person she spoke to on the phone were genuine.

In another case, Nationwide initially offered only a partial reimbursement to a customer who was scammed out of 4,000 after his builders email account was hacked.

This was despite the bank admitting it had failed to provide adequate warnings to the customer before the payment was made.

He eventually received a full refund, Which? added.

Which? said banks had unreasonable expectations of the steps customers should have taken to verify a payment was legitimate.

'We lost 14k in an email con' Sam and Dave Pentin were duped by a fraudster who posed as their solicitor to steal 14,200 they were putting down as a deposit on a property in Penryn, Cornwall. The Pentins, both 53, received an email from an address that looked like the one belonging to their solicitor, requesting the deposit be paid into an HSBC account. Mrs Pentin said: We saw no reason to question who we were communicating with. Realising they had been scammed, they called their bank, Lloyds. But five months on, they had not had a refund. After Money Mail intervened, Lloyds refunded the 8,024 it recovered from the HSBC account, and HSBC paid back the rest. Advertisement

This means victims of highly sophisticated scams, where fraudsters are able to quote financial and personal details and use manipulative tactics, are being denied refunds.

Which? added that banks were also not doing enough to protect the vulnerable.

Under the code, they are required to reimburse vulnerable customers regardless of their actions.

The consumer group heard from one customer who was defrauded out of 20,000 while undergoing extensive medical treatment.

Santander initially refused reimbursement but the customer later received a refund.

Gareth Shaw, head of money at Which?, said: The scams code is a landmark milestone in the fight against fraud, but our analysis has found clear issues with how banks are meeting its core objective of reimbursing blameless people who have lost money through bank transfer scams.

Even as this type of crime continues to surge, the lack of fairness, consistency or transparency across the industry means that the chances of people getting their money back is often a total lottery.

A voluntary approach to tackling bank transfer fraud has failed. Banks, regulators and Government must work together to make the code mandatory and ensure that strong standards on reimbursement are introduced.

Katy Worobec of UK Finance, which represents the banking industry, said: We agree that a voluntary agreement alone is not enough, and new legislation is required to address issues of liability and reimbursement.

With criminal gangs continuing to target customers, the Government and regulators should consider as a priority how data breaches and vulnerabilities in other sectors such as telecoms and social media are facilitating these crimes, as part of an overall strategy to protect consumers from harm.

1,000 jobs at risk as TSB axes cashiers amid branch closures

By Francesca Washtell City Correspondent

TSB is scrapping the traditional cashier role in another blow to local banking.

The banks 929 cashiers have been told they either need to retrain for a more complex role, take voluntary redundancy or lose their job entirely when the role is phased out in early 2021.

Cashiers perform basic bank transactions such as cashing cheques and helping customers with queries.

TSB is scrapping the traditional cashier role in another blow to local banking

These will still be available in its 500 branches  but TSB wants staff to be able to do more complex roles such as helping customers open accounts or use digital services.

The lender has hammered yet another nail in the cash coffin because it expects fewer customers to use branches for basic transactions  and it cited the Covid-19 pandemic for speeding this up.

Mark Brown, the general secretary of the banks staff union TBU, said: TSB was already facing major cost problems and this looks like them jumping on the bandwagon, using the pandemic as an excuse to get rid of these roles.

They dont know whether people will return to branches once this pandemic is over.

TSBs Spanish parent company Sabadell said it had been looking at ways to speed up cost cuts at the lender, dubbed Totally Shambolic Bank in 2018 after a gigantic IT glitch that left 2million customers locked out of their online accounts.

Last November TSB named 82 branches that were due to shut before the end of 2020. TSB will then be left with 454 branches and there are fears that more closures are on the way.

Over the past five years the UK has lost a third of its bank branches. And accessing banking services has been made even harder by the pandemic, with branches reducing opening hours.

Millions of people  particularly the elderly and vulnerable  rely on bank branches for essential services such as withdrawing cash and paying their bills.

But a further 247 branches are expected to disappear this year, leaving customers with 35 per cent fewer than they had in 2015.

Critics argue coronavirus has accelerated the death of cash, with many shops accepting only contactless payments.

A TSB spokesman said: Covid-19 has accelerated the use of digital services. When customers visit our branches, their needs tend to be more complex and we need a fully multi-skilled workforce to meet them.
Its time for some truth in advertising. Especially when it comes to political messaging.

The most current example is a dark and forbidding visual narrative that tells us no one is available to answer your 911 call because the police department has been defunded. Followed by a claim that this accurately reflects what life would be like if Joe Biden were elected.

But defunded is misused. It really means divesting funds from police departments and reallocating them to non-policing forms of public safety and support, such as social services, youth services, housing, education, health care and other community-based agencies.

It never meant eliminating the public safety responsibility of the police, i.e. shutting down police departments. Its purpose, however, was to create more effective ways to plan and carry out preventive interventions to reduce violence and crime. Supplementing and supporting current police practices.

Asking law enforcement personnel to engage in tasks for which they are ill-equipped and poorly trained serves no ones interest. The police, over time, have increasingly been burdened with performing duties that are clearly outside their domain, with less than desirable outcomes.

Joe Biden never said he absolutely supported defunding the police, or that he was advocating for disbanding police departments nationwide.

According to the AP News July 20, Joe Biden did not call for defunding the police. Nevertheless, Biden did say that he supports redirecting some police funding to address mental health issues or to change the prison system.

In addition to inaccurately reporting what Biden said about defunding, he was also accused of saying the police are the enemy.

Heres what he actually did say: The last thing you need is an up-armored Humvee coming into a neighborhood. Its like the military invading. They dont know anybody. They become the enemy. Theyre supposed to be protecting these people.

Another problem with the language of politics today is demonizing. Donald Trump consistently refers to his opponents as liberal, leftist, anarchist, progressive, Anti-fa (Anti-Fascist), Democrats.

It follows, then, that Trump and his followers are conservative, rightist, reactionary, regressive, Pro-fa (Pro-Fascist), Republicans.

But what do emotionally charged labels have to do with the facts?

Whatever happened to the truth? It got lost in the shadowy distortion of a mother and child cowering under their bed, frantically dialing 911.

Our senses are brutalized by relentless and twisted political ads, intended not to inform, but to perpetrate terror and fear, divisiveness and hate.

There is a phrase for this propaganda technique that derives from the German, grosse Luge. Outlined in Mein Kampf, authored by Adolph Hitler at Landau prison in 1925. Translated, it means Big Lie.

A falsehood so colossal that no one would believe that someone could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. And further, that the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted, because in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie.

Especially one told over and over and over. And over again.

The only thing we have to fear, then, is the Big Lie himself: Donald Trump.

Gordon Ammon, a longtime lakes area resident, has written a book entitled State of the Union: Observations on American Life.
Nursing students are fighting to suspend some face-to-face classes, saying they fear being exposed to coronavirus infection and feel pressured to attend campus.

A petition has attracted 180 signatures from people who say family members could be at risk because students attending classes are also employed as front-line healthcare workers and may have been exposed to the virus.

The petition's signatories want exemption from face-to-face practical classes. Credit:Mario Borg

The petition, which does not name a particular educational institution, was created by a student from the Australian Catholic University.

But the university, which is a major provider of graduate nurses, says preparing critical healthcare staff to join the workforce is now more important than ever.
DUBLIN, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Home Furniture Market in US 2020-2024" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The home furniture market in US is poised to grow by $8.08 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 2% during the forecast period.



This report provides a holistic analysis, market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, as well as vendor analysis covering around 25 vendors. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current us market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.



The market is driven by the improving residential construction market and increased online sales. In addition, improving residential construction market is anticipated to boost the growth of the market as well. The study identifies the increased awareness of home decor and attractive furnishings as one of the prime reasons driving the home furniture market in US growth during the next few years.



This robust vendor analysis is designed to help clients improve their market position, and in line with this, this report provides a detailed analysis of several leading home furniture market in US vendors that include:



Ashley Furniture Industries Inc.

Inter IKEA Holding B.V.

Klaussner Home Furnishings

LaZBoy Inc.

Pier 1 Imports Inc.

Raymour & Flanigan Furniture

Restoration Hardware Inc.

Roomstogo.com Inc.

Steinhoff International Holdings N.V.

Williams-Sonoma Inc.

Also, the home furniture market in US analysis report includes information on upcoming trends and challenges that will influence market growth. This is to help companies strategize and leverage on all forthcoming growth opportunities.



Key Topics Covered



1. Executive Summary

Market Overview

2. Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

3. Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2019

Market outlook: Forecast for 2019-2024

4. Five Forces Analysis

Five Forces Analysis

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

5. Market Segmentation by Product

Market segments

Comparison by Product

Living room furniture - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Bedroom furniture - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Storage furniture - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Others - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by Product

6. Market Segmentation by Distribution channel

Market segments

Comparison by Distribution channel

Brick and mortar - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Online mode - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by Distribution channel

7. Customer Landscape

Customer Landscape

Market drivers

Market challenges

Market trends

8. Vendor Landscape

Competitive scenario

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Industry risks

9. Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

Ashley Furniture Industries Inc.

Inter IKEA Holding B.V.

Klaussner Home Furnishings

LaZBoy Inc.

Pier 1 Imports Inc.

Raymour & Flanigan Furniture

Restoration Hardware Inc.

Roomstogo.com Inc.

Steinhoff International Holdings N.V.

Williams-Sonoma Inc.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/nqkqp8

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.



Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


As an investor in value-oriented commercial real estate in Texas, it allows us to do what we do bestown and operate commercial real estate while providing ongoing liquidity to our investors, said Al Hartman, Chairman and CEO.

The Board of Directors for Hartman Short Term Income Properties XX, Inc. (Hartman XX) and Hartman vREIT XXI, Inc. announced the formation of special committees to explore the possibility of converting Hartman XX, a lifecycle real estate investment trust (REIT), to a perpetual life or net asset value (NAV) REIT. The special committees will consider several options to provide liquidity their investors and modifying its share redemption program to allow redemptions at NAV per share. The Company cautions that no final determinations have been made and the establishment of committees to explore any merger is preliminary and there is no assurance that the process will result in a merger transaction or revision to the share redemption program. Any potential merger between the companies will require registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators.

The adoption of a perpetual life or NAV REIT model makes a lot of sense for our investors and for us as a sponsor. As an investor in value-oriented commercial real estate in Texas, it allows us to do what we do bestown and operate commercial real estate while providing ongoing liquidity to our investors, said Al Hartman, Chairman and CEO.

For more detailed information about Hartman vREIT XXI, Inc., please refer to the FORM S-11 filed on June 16, 2020 and other documents on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission or as posted on the companys website http://www.hartmanreits.com/sec-filings/.

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 $750 million as of December 31, 2019.

Forward-Looking Statement: This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Because such statements include risks, uncertainties and contingencies, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and you should not place undue reliance on any such statements. Several important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this material. Such factors include those described in the Risk Factors sections of the annual report on Form 10-K for Hartman XX and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date on which such statements were made, and the company undertakes no obligation to update any such statements that may become untrue because of subsequent events. Such forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor protection for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

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.


Appointment

10 August 2020

HRS Hospitality and Retail Systems has announced the appointment of David Deng as their General Manager for HRS China. David will lead the China team and continue to develop, maintain, and expand its product and service portfolio.

David, who will be based in the HRS Beijing office, has spent over thirty years working in the Hospitality Industry and has a comprehensive knowledge of hotel operations and system applications. He has previously held senior positions with technology companies serving the Hospitality Industry, as well as hotel properties in China.
Real Estate Professional

Jose Pablo Orellana

Jose Pablo Orellana

Los Angeles, United States, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jose Pablo Orellana, 25 years old, Real Estate Professional in California, US.



Tell us about yourself?

My name is Jose Pablo Orellana, I was born and raised in Guatemala. I am 25 years old, I arrived at the United States when I was 16 years old. I reside in L.A county and Im a Real Estate Professional in California.



Can you tell us about your childhood?

I was not really a smart kid, I was always getting in trouble at school. I repeated 7th grade twice, due to my lack of focus. I was always going out with friends and girls, I never really cared about my grades or asking permission to go out. My mother had to bring me to the U.S because my grandmother who was taking care of me at the time she couldnt take care of me anymore.



Was it challenging to adapt living in the U.S?

Definitely, before arriving to the U.S I did not speak English. It was very hard to go to high school while learning to speak a different language. I barely graduated high school, I had to sing to a teacher to get a passing grade for me to graduate.



What did you do before Real Estate?

I worked at McDonalds, Hollister, Jack In the box, as a painter, you name it. My last job before Real Estate was as a banker at Wells Fargo. Thats where I learned about business and money.



What has been your biggest obstacle in life?

Leaving my parents home when I was 18 and being homeless for about 3 months, I even slept in my car many nights.



Too many young immigrants that aspire to achieve what you have achieved, Whats your advice to them?

Dont let anyone tell you, you cant achieve something. I shouldnt be where I am today based on societys standards. You can achieve anything you want just be persistent and dream big.



Follow Jose Pablos journey on Instagram @josepablorellana



Media Details

Company: Jose Pablo Orellana

Email: mail@orellanajosepablo.com

Website: https://Orellanajosepablo.com

Story continues

Attachment




TV chef Rachael Rays Upstate New York home was destroyed by a fire Sunday night, according to multiple reports.

The Warren County Sheriffs Office told ABC10 that multiple fire crews were called to a home owned by the celebrity cook in Lake Luzerne. Photos showed flames shooting through the roof of the house, located near Lake Vanare in the Adirondacks region.

Seeing some of the first pictures of the fire at the Lake Luzerne home of @rachaelray and it does not look good, WNYT reporter Mark Mulholland wrote on Twitter.

Seeing some of the first pictures of the fire at the Lake Luzerne home of @rachaelray and it does not look good. Photos: Hot Shots Fire Videos. @WNYT pic.twitter.com/6XzPQwC29q  Mark Mulholland (@MulhollandWNYT) August 10, 2020

Witnesses told The Sun Community News that the house was destroyed by the blaze, believed to have started as a chimney fire around 7:30 p.m. Sunday. The fire was fully involved and the house couldnt be saved, one person at the scene said.

Warren County Sheriff Jim LaFarr said no one was hurt in the fire.

A spokesperson for Ray told ET that she, her husband John Cusimano, and their dog Bella were all safe following the incident.

The house is unfortunately damaged and we dont yet know to what extent, the rep said.

According to the New York Post, Ray had been producing live cooking segments for her daytime talk show during the coronavirus pandemic from the home. The TV series, The Rachael Ray Show, is now on summer hiatus.

Ray, 51, is a Glen Falls, N.Y., native who has hosted the syndicated Rachael show since 2006. Shes also written cookbooks, published the magazine Every Day with Rachael Ray, and hosted television shows like 30 Minute Meals, Rachael Rays Tasty Travels and Rachael Rays Kids Cook-Off.

Rachael Ray's Lake Vanare home destroyed by fire https://t.co/DOhwfE0KYi pic.twitter.com/XioF4i4NIn  Sun Community News (@SunCmtyNews) August 10, 2020
Ava Gray, 12, was praised as a 'dancing angel'

A 12-year-old girl who died after getting into difficulty in a river in Scotland yesterday has been praised as a 'dancing angel' and an 'amazing' child.

The body of Ava Gray was pulled last night from the River Leven in the West Dunbartonshire village of Balloch following a three-hour search.

Police Scotland officers were called to the scene at the foot of Loch Lomond at about 6.45pm yesterday, but the search ended with Ava's body being recovered from the water at 9.45pm.

Last night dance teacher Holly Douglas paid tribute to Ava on Facebook, saying: 'My dancing angel, I am heartbroken.

'Words can't describe the way I feel, Ava. We all love you so, so much. You will never be forgotten at Full Out.

'You will always be part of our team and our family. The world is a cruel place, thinking of all the family right now. Ava, I love you so, so much.'

She later set up a GoFundMe page for the family, writing: Our gorgeous angel Ava Gray tragically died in a horrible accident in the River Leven in Balloch.

Ava was part of the Full Out dance company and was remembered as a 'beautiful dancer'

A police car at the scene in Balloch this morning following the death of the girl yesterday

'We are all absolutely heartbroken and devastated, words cannot even describe our feelings. Ava was the funniest most crazy girl at our dance school and she never failed to make me laugh and smile.

'I am writing as Avas dance teacher that you please, please help to raise some money for Avas family at this awful time. Leanne, Jamie and all family, I love you all so so much. Ava, our dancing angel girl, we love you forever and ever.'

In response to the Facebook post, Leanne Melville wrote: 'Ava, you really were the most gorgeous girl with a heart of gold. You were a wee superstar.

'I loved to watch you dance at comps, you were such a beautiful dancer. Iona and I will never forget you. Rest in peace, gorgeous girl.'

Police were joined by firefighters and members of the Coastguard in last night's search

And Ciara McBride said: 'This is so heartbreaking to hear. My thoughts are with all of Full Out and Ava's family.

'She was such a sweet girl the day that I met her and such a talented girl. Dancing in the sky.'

A police spokesman said: 'Around 6.45pm on Sunday, 9 August, police were called to a report of a 12-year-old girl in difficulty in the River Leven, near Balloch Bridge.

'Emergency services attended and searches were carried out. Around 9.45pm, the young girl was recovered from the water. Sadly she was pronounced dead at the scene.'

Police, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency were all involved in the search and had earlier asked the public to avoid the area.

A helicopter flies across the River Leven in Balloch yesterday as police search for the girl

The child's family were informed and enquiries are ongoing, but police are not treating the death as suspicious. A full report will be sent to the Procurator Fiscal.

The incident came just a day after a man in his 20s drowned in a water-filled quarry at Bawsey Pits near King's Lynn, Norfolk, after 'getting into trouble in the water'.

Yesterday, a woman in Waxham, Norfolk, also died following reports that she had been struggling while in the sea. She was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

Britain continues to swelter through a heatwave with highs of 94F (34.5C) over the weekend in southern England - and more very hot conditions on the way this week.
A Maryland man accused of killing a 63-year-old last month had earlier secured release from jail by raising concerns about the coronavirus, court records show.

The man, Justin Andrew Wilson, 26, of Germantown, Md., was arrested and charged in the death of Egidio Ienzi on July 28, according to Montgomery County police. Ienzi was fatally stabbed in his Germantown home on July 23, police said.

Wilson was arrested after a member of Ienzi's family identified him as the man caught fleeing the scene on neighbors' home surveillance video. He is now in police custody.

This is the second time this year that Wilson has found himself behind bars. Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Circuit Court to a charge of theft of less than $25,000. He also was charged with credit card and identity theft.

Wilson was placed in custody while awaiting sentencing, according to online court records. But in April, he filed an emergency motion for release "due to immediate threat posed by covid-19 pandemic," according to court records. That motion was granted at an April 30 hearing, according to records. An unsecured bond of $5,000 was set, and the sentencing hearing was postponed until November.

So Wilson walked free for about three months, until he was accused of stabbing Ienzi to death.

His case marks the second time in recent weeks that a Washington-area inmate, released because of coronavirus concerns, has been accused of committing another crime. In Virginia, Alexandria police said this month that a rape suspect released from jail over fear of the virus went on to kill the woman who had accused him.

The virus has swept through United States' jails, which - as confined spaces - do not easily lend themselves to social distancing and other health and safety measures. In response, civil liberties advocates have argued that inmates should be released in large numbers to avoid their possible infection and death.

On the day of Ienzi's death, a family member who had been sleeping in an upstairs bedroom awoke in the late morning to loud noises and the sound of Ienzi screaming. She headed downstairs and saw Ienzi struggling with an unknown man who was wielding a knife.

The man with the knife fled the scene. The relative ran back upstairs, called 911 and was able to give a description of Ienzi's attacker to police who arrived on the scene about 11:34 a.m.

Ienzi, who had been stabbed multiple times, was transported to a hospital, where he died of his wounds. Another family member, after reviewing neighbors' surveillance footage, identified the man running away from the home as Wilson. The relative said that he knew Wilson, and that Wilson had visited Ienzi's home three or four weeks before the killing.

After that visit, Ienzi's relative said, he noticed many silver coins missing from the home.
The National Cyber Security Centre(NCSC) of the Ministry of Communications, in collaboration with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service and the National Cyber Security Technical Working Group, have nabbed the administrator of the notorious website, empress leak, Mr Anderson Ofosuhene Anim.



Empress Leak is a website known for the publication of child pornographic and adult sexual content. The website records about 600,000 monthly users who are located in Ghana, Nigeria and the United Kingdom.



The Minister of Communications, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful revealed this during a joint press briefing held on Monday August 10, 2020 in Accra, to announce the arrest of the operator.



Addressing the media, she noted that, an investigation to clamp down on activities of empress leak was launched after a female Senior High School student, filed a report on January 6th, 2020, with the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-GH) of the NCSC. The report by the victim who is below 18 years, was to alert the CERT-GH team of an uploaded sexually explicit video of her to the website.



The Minister further noted that, preliminary investigations uncovered information on the websites registrant information, associated domain names, email addresses, telephone contactsas well as residential address of the administrator, Mr. Anderson Ofosuhene Anim.



She said As part of Governments efforts towards the protection of Ghanas cyberspace, the National Cyber Security Centre in 2019 launched a Cybercrime/Cybersecurity Incident Reporting Point of Contact (PoC), to provide an effective mechanism for citizens to report suspected and identified cybercrime and cybersecurity incidents. The channels are:



Call or send a message to  292



WhatsApp  0501603111



Download NCSC Ghana App on Google Play store or Apple App store



Email  [email protected]



Website - www.cybersecurity.gov.gh



The Minister stated that since the operationalization of the PoC, the NCSC has received countless cybercrime/cybersecurity incidents reports from the public. Key among these reports are the publication of non-consensual intimate images (sextortion), online impersonation, online fraud, malware attacks, online blackmail, website defacement, among others.



According to her, sextortion and distribution of sexual images of individuals are gradually becoming a canker in the Ghanaian cyber space, due to the trusting nature of most Ghanaians.



Out of a total of 296 cases received by the National CERT between January 1 to June 30, 2020, 27% of the cases, representing a total of 79 cases, are related to either sextortion, non-consensual sharing of intimate images or child online abuse, she added.



She stressed that these criminal acts are perpetrated by malicious individuals who build acquaintance with unsuspecting victims on platforms such as social media, dating and adult website through the use of fake identities.



Explaining how these criminals operate, the Minister said, victims are coax to either share nude pictures/video of themselves or perform sexual acts that are secretly recorded. The criminals capitalize on these recordings to extort monies from victims.



Touching on the provisions of the law, the Hon. Minister explained that, Child pornographic content and the act of extortion constitutes criminal activities under Section 136(1) of the Electronic Transactions Act, 2008 (Act 772) - (c) possesses child pornography in a computer system or on a computer or electronic record storage medium, commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than 25 penalty units or a term of imprisonment of not more than10 years or to both, and Section 151 of Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).



She added that, Government and its agencies are working assiduously to curtail the prevalence of cybercrimes, however, implored the general public, especially children and young adults to be cautious of the activities of malicious individuals.



The Director General of the CID of the Ghana Police Service, COP Isaac Ken Yeboah, in his address, mentioned that victims who reach out to the perpetrators of these criminal activities are compelled to pay between GHS 500 to 1,000 via mobile money.



He revealed that the suspect will be charged for obscenity, child pornography and extortion.



The press briefing was also graced by the National Cybersecurity Advisor, Dr. Albert Antwi-Boasiako, Deputy Minister for Communications, Hon. George Andah, Deputy Minister for Communications, Hon. Alexander Abban, Director, Cybercrime Unit, Dr. Gustav Yankson, Chief Director, Mrs. Magdalene Apenteng and others.



The National Cyber Security Centre works closely with the National Cyber Security Technical Working Group (NCSTWG), which is the governance body responsible for providing technical directionto the countrys cybersecurity.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Editors note: This story contains language that may offend some readers

LEELANAU COUNTY, MI  Leelanau County Road Commissioner Tom Eckerle will resign his post effective Monday following several days of controversy over his use of the n-word at a public meeting and in multiple media interviews last week, Leelanau County Administrator Chet Janik, The Ticker reports.

Janik spoke with Eckerle Friday, who informed him he was stepping down because the Road Commission is hiring a new manager this month and he didnt want to burden that manager with the controversy created by Eckerles comments this week.

On Thursday, Aug. 7, Leelanau County Road Commission members sent a letter to Eckerle requesting his resignation. The letter follows calls from other elected officials representing the Northern Michigan county.

We do not condone the racist comments that you made in the Leelanau County Road Commission meeting room on Aug. 4, states the letter signed by the four other commissioners. We will not tolerate any kind of racism in our meeting room or in our organization. This behavior has had a serious effect on our excellent road commission, and we are asking you to resign immediately.

The alleged comments came during a public meeting that could be heard by anyone who dialed into a phone number to listen to the proceedings.

Well this whole thing is because of them (n-words) down in Detroit, Eckerle allegedly said during a meeting on Aug. 4, according to the Leelanau Enterprise.

Eckerle was responding to a question about why he wasnt wearing a face-covering - which is required by executive order to help slow the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus - for the meeting.

RELATED:

Police investigating graffiti tied to Northern Michigan officials racist remarks

Road Commission asks member to resign for using slur to blame masks on Black Detroiters

Michigan road commissioner uses racial slur during meeting to blame COVID-19 masks on Detroiters
Health advocates and progressive Democrats have revived calls for the US to consider expanding Medicare to millions of Americans during the coronavirus pandemic, while the White House threatens the federal health programme and Democrats draft their vision for the next four years in the party's 2020 agenda.

The US public health emergency from Covid-19 has laid bare several institutional crises, renewing calls for a nationalised healthcare system, free at the point of service, to address inequities in care along the long road to the nation's recovery.

Medicare for All proposes opening the publicly financed federal Medicare programme to all Americans and eliminating a for-profit insurance market, which critics argue has created administrative hurdles for providers and inconsistent and unequal coverage and billing for patients. Under a nationalised healthcare system, Americans wouldn't lose coverage if they left a job or face massive hospital bills.

In a column published by USA Today last week, Khati Hendry  an American physician who moved to Canada in 2004  said she has "never felt more grateful to work in a universal healthcare system than during the Covid-19 pandemic".

"My heart aches for the millions of Americans who have fallen ill and then have had to worry about how they will pay for tests and treatment, who have gone to work while sick for fear of losing their health coverage or who have lost not only their jobs but their insurance, leaving them at risk for financial ruin," she said.

Canada has confirmed more than 120,000 coronavirus cases, while the US has surpassed 5 million.

"Its health system has two big advantages when fighting the pandemic: universal health coverage and an administratively simpler system," Dr Hendry said.

Her US colleagues are "burned out from administrative demands and anguished from seeing patients not get the care they need because of cost," she added.

"Now it is worse, as the number of uninsured has soared with the pandemic," she said. "My message for them is this: I know we can do better, because I see it every day. It is worth fighting for a system that puts public health ahead of profits: Medicare for All."

Washington congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, sharing the column on social media, said: "Let's make it happen."

The congresswoman endorsed Medicare for All legislation in 2019. The bill has 118 cosponsors.

Along with Bernie Sanders, whose Medicare for All pitch was central to his 2016 and 2020 presidential platforms, she also introduced the Health Care Emergency Guarantee Act to "fully cover the cost of medically necessary healthcare, including prescription drugs" for uninsured Americans through the duration of the coronavirus public health crisis.

Despite broad popularity among voters, Democrats ultimately rejected Medicare for All in its 2020 agenda ahead of the party's convention in August.

The platform draft says the party should instead work to "protect, strengthen, and build upon our bedrock health care programmes, including the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Veterans Affairs system." The draft endorses a "high-quality, affordable public option through the Affordable Care Act marketplace" to be administered by the government, but the US healthcare system still primarily would rely on healthcare companies to provide care for most Americans.

Presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden also has supported expanding a public option but does not endorse replacing the current health system with Medicare.

A group of more than 700 delegates have pledged to reject any party platform that does not include Medicare for All, pointing to the urgency of the pandemic.

"Millions of Americans have lost their healthcare insurance because of those job losses at a time when healthcare is needed most," the group wrote.

"The Democratic Party and their Platform Committee process has failed, to date, to incorporate a clear and progressive platform plank" to adopt Medicare for All as part of its 2020 platform, according to the group.

The four former co-chairs of Senator Sanders's campaign  former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner, Congressman Ro Khanna, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz and Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen  applauded the effort, urging that "now is the time to reclaim the legacy of the Democratic Party, which sought healthcare for all starting with [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] and Harry Truman but lost its way beginning in 1980 when Medicare for All was stripped from our party's platform."

An estimated 5.4 million Americans lost their health insurance from February through May, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Unprecedented unemployment and layoffs following forced business closures in the outbreak's economic fallout have accelerated the coverage loss.

Another 27 million people are at risk of losing coverage through the pandemic, according to the foundation's report. Another 28 million Americans didn't have any insurance last year. Factoring in the number of uninsured Americans  people who receive some coverage but whose out-of-pocket costs exceed 10 per cent of the income  and that figure climbs to more than 84 million.

While many Americans are eligible to enrol in coverage plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplace or Medicaid, gaps in coverage and associated cost barriers to buying insurance are more likely to impact Americans of colour.

Those obstacles are compounded by the lack of health services in low-income communities.

An August report from Health Affairs found that 49 per cent of the lowest-income communities had no intensive care unit hospital beds, compared to only 3 per cent in the highest-income communities, amid the pandemic.

"Policies that facilitate hospital coordination are urgently needed to address shortages in ICU hospital bed supply to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on mortality rates in low-income communities.

Democrats and some Republicans have condemned Donald Trump's latest executive orders, claiming that the president is attempting to bypass Congress after Republicans stalled coronavirus relief negotiations.

The orders would cut back additional unemployment benefits the government provided during the pandemic to $400 a week and provide a payroll tax holiday for Americans who earn less than $100,000 annually, which the president said he would forgive if he was re-elected in November.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the president's payroll tax holiday essentially "depletes money out of the social security and Medicare trust funds".

"If you're a social security recipient or Medicare recipient, you better watch out if President Trump is re-elected," Senator Schumer said.

Ben Sasse, one of the rare Senate Republicans who has spoken out against the president despite receiving his endorsement, called the orders "unconstitutional slop" in a statement sent to The Independent.

"The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop," the statement read.
They spent quarantine together amid the coronavirus pandemic.

And Cara Delevingne was every inch the proud friend as she paid tribute to her friend and actress Margaret Qualley, 25, with a set of sweet snaps on Sunday.

The supermodel, 27, put on a playful display with the Death Note star in the collection of pictures captioned: 'Im not cute, you are @margaretqualley.'

Sweet: Cara Delevingne was every inch the proud friend as she posted a set of sweet snaps to Instagram with actress Margaret Qualley, 25, on Sunday

The Once Upon A Time in Hollywood actress was seen with her arm around Cara in an adorable selfie before the pair were pictured leaping together in front of a mountain range.

In a second shot Margaret was seen balancing her hips on Cara in a car park with the pair holding hands to support each other in the gymnastic move.

And Cara looked relaxed as she lay her head on Margaret, the daughter of actress Andie MacDowell, where she appeared to exclaim something before bursting into laughter.

Heartfelt: The supermodel captioned the pictures: 'Im not cute, you are @margaretqualley'

Playful: Margaret was seen embracing Cara in one of the candid snaps of the pair posted to Instagram

Cute: The duo were seen lounging around on a bed in the collection of sweet social media snaps

The duo were also seen in matching beanies during a walk where Cara was seen grimacing as Margaret posed at her knees.

Fellow supermodel and friend Kaia Gerber commented on the post: 'I feel lucky to know you both.'

Last month Cara was seen giving her dear friend a tight hug and even a kiss through their face masks after lunch, at Lemonade in Studio City, California.

The pair were seen laughing and giggling over their outdoor meal, and at one point they embraced sweetly next to the table.

Ouch! Cara she appeared to exclaim something as she rested her head on Margaret

Giggles: Cara appeared relaxed with Margaret, the daughter of actress Andie MacDowell

Friendship: Fellow supermodel and friend Kaia Gerber commented on the post: 'I feel lucky to know you both'

Wow: Margaret was seen balancing her hips on Cara in a car park with the pair holding hands to support each other in the gymnastic move

And for one last goodbye, Cara leaned in for a kiss with Margaret, while they both kept on their standard surgical face masks.

It comes as model-actress Cara was seen with Margaret as well as fellow supermodel Kaia Gerber at a Black Lives Matter protest outside the Hall Of Justice in Downtown Los Angeles last month.

While there, Cara was seen getting hands-on with Kaia, again displaying lots of sweet physical affection.

Cute: The duo were seen in the back of a truck with complementary beanie hats

Candid: The duo were also seen in beanies during a walk where Cara was seen grimacing as Margaret posed at her knees

The pair had been in in a self-professed 'quarantine crew' including Cara's then-girlfriend Ashley Benson and Tommy Dorfman at the start of the coronavirus pandemic but then spent some time apart.

Cara's impromptu hangout with Kaia and Margaret in Los Angeles, comes two-months after her shocking split from Pretty Little Liars star Ashley Benson, 30.

Benson is now in a romantic relationship with rapper G-Eazy, 31.

Embrace: The duo were seen with their arms around each other in front of the stunning backdrop
Available anecdotal and scientific evidence supports the need to open schools safely. Ontarios school reopening plan relies on a document produced by SickKids, one part of which reviewed the evidence that children may not transmit the COVID-19 virus as readily as adults. Therefore, Ontario felt it was safe to open middle and elementary grades without cutting class sizes to improve physical separation.

I have reviewed the same evidence as the SickKids document and have come to different conclusions. Reading the source references suggests most of the evidence about transmission in children is anecdotal or based on modelling. Aggregation of poor evidence into a meta-analysis does not improve the quality of the evidence. The plural of anecdote is not data.

Subsequent to the SickKids report, new evidence has been published that suggests children may have more viral load, and may transmit the virus as much or more than adults. Whatever the actual transmission rate, however, there is no doubt children do transmit the virus to others, with children over 10 as frequently as adults do. Because children are less symptomatic, it is by stealth  no one knows they are sick, but they are contagious anyway.

We also know that many jurisdictions that reopened schools have had to close them again (e.g. Israel, originally cited in the SickKids report as a success.)

Children generally do not suffer severe illness from COVID. Their risk is of the same magnitude as other things we do every day, like driving on a highway. Some children are exceptions and need more protection, but the main issue is the safety of those with whom they are in contact.

When faced with uncertainty in medicine, we act by looking not only at the risk, but also at the consequences of being wrong. With schools, the consequence is spread of the virus to the childrens contacts  (teachers, support staff, parents, grandparents and others in their homes) leading to a second wave and a second lockdown.

All risk mitigation strategies work together to reduce risk; there is no single magic bullet. But we do know that the top two are physical distancing all the time and mask-wearing indoors.

Middle schools with children ages 10 and older are no different in risk profile than high schools, and having children 10 and up in schools full time with class sizes of 30 is an unforced error that needs to be corrected as quickly as possible. Given how this virus exploits any weakness, it is prudent to include physical distancing measures in younger children as well.

A Harvard School of Public Health document states:  ... there are unique behavioral factors in this age group that can facilitate the spread of infectious disease . . . it is reasonable and prudent to assume that COVID-19 transmission may occur between children and from children to adults in reopened U.S. schools.

Teachers should be considered no differently than pediatricians or family doctors. Whatever protective measures are being used for these non-hospital health-care workers should be in place for teachers as well. This includes effective PPE and physical distancing as well as all of the 16 risk mitigation strategies on page 7 of the SickKids report.

Proper physical distancing necessitates more teachers and more space. Since all strategies work in concert to reduce transmission, ignoring physical distancing completely while at the same time knowing that not all the other strategies can be followed all the time creates a weak link and is likely to lead to failure of the whole system.

No teachers should have to do in-person education if they put themselves or others at significant risk. A healthy teacher with a spouse undergoing chemotherapy should not be in front of a classroom. A young teacher with an important pre-existing condition should not be in front of a classroom.

Spending money now to implement all the known risk mitigation tactics is far less costly than a second lockdown. School opening should use every possible preventive measure. Well look like fools if a second wave occurs and we didnt.
Former President Pranab Mukherjee, 84, is on ventilator support after undergoing a brain surgery at the Army Research and Referral hospital, where he was admitted on Monday morning after testing positive for coronavirus disease (Covid-19). He tested positive while undergoing routine check-up.

On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for COVID-19 today. I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19, Mukherjee tweeted on Monday afternoon.

Also read: Former President Pranab Mukherjee tweets he is coronavirus positive

Officials added that former president underwent a successful brain surgery for removal of clot.

Mukherjee, President between 2012 and 2017, had been keeping his public interactions at a minimal level after the pandemic swept cross Indian states. In his Rajaji Marg residence, he stopped all gatherings and only met a handful of people.

According to officials, he is under close monitoring in the hospital. Army R&R has been Mukherjees preferred hospital for treatment ever since he became the defence minister in 2004.

President Ram Nath Kovind spoke to his daughter, Congress leader Sharmistha Mukherjee and inquired about the health of her father. Kovind and many Indian leaders wished him speedy recovery.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage

He had undergone an angioplasty  procedure to open blocked or narrowed coronary arteries  at the same hospital in 2014. He had decided not to contest the 2017 presidential elections citing advanced age and failing health.

While west Bengal chief minister expressed concern about Mukherjees health and wished him speedy recovery, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, union minister Piyush Goel and many others took to twitter to wish Mukherjee speedy recovery.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited the R&R Hospital and enquired about the former presidents health. Singh was at the hospital for around 20 minutes.

Several political leaders have wished him a speedy recovery.

Please take care sir. We are praying for your speedy recovery and good health @CitiznMukherjee, tweeted Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Abhijeet Mukherjee, Congress leader and the former presidents son, tweeted, I wish my father a speedy recovery! I appeal to all my countrymen to pray for his speedy recovery & good health. Several leaders from across the political spectrum also wished Mukherjee an early recovery.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot tweeted, I have come to know former President of India Sh. Pranab Mukherjee has tested positive for Covid-19...concerned about his health. Wish him a speedy recovery.

Last year, the Mukherjee was awarded the Bharat Ratna - the countrys highest civilian award.
TYSONS, Va., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The PenFed Foundation, a national 501(c)3 founded by PenFed Credit Union, today announced a partnership with Army Emergency Relief (AER) to assist approximately 480 US Army Active, Reserve, and National Guard Soldiers through the Foundation's COVID-19 Emergency Financial Relief Program. The partnership will result in the distribution of approximately $500,000 in grants to those with an increased financial burden as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic to assist with rent, mortgage, auto loans and utilities payments.

"We are extremely grateful for the partnership of Army Emergency Relief as we continue to support the military community through these difficult times," said PenFed President and retired U.S. Army Gen. John "Mick" Nicholson Jr. "The PenFed Foundation is proud to be the first national Veterans Service Organization to launch a COVID-19 relief program for emergency financial assistance. The need for such a program was apparent as we received over 6,000 applications in the first four days. Support from organizations like Army Emergency Relief is crucial to allow us to continue meeting the needs of those who have already reached out to us and qualified for assistance."

Founded in 1942, Army Emergency Relief (AER) supports Soldier readiness by providing zero-interest loans, grants, and scholarships to Soldiers and families. AER has provided nearly 4 million Soldiers with $2 billion in assistance, including $1 billion since Sept. 11, 2001.

"This partnership with the PenFed Foundation is the first of its kind. AER is positioned and resourced to help disburse the grants that Soldiers and their families need during these tumultuous times, just as we've done for the last 78 years," said Army Emergency Relief Director and retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Ray Mason.

The PenFed Foundation was created in 2001 and, since then, has provided more than $38.5 million in financial support to veterans, active-duty service members, families and caregivers. Those interested in supporting the PenFed Foundation's mission to help the military community and their support network are encouraged to visit penfedfoundation.org.

About PenFed Foundation

Founded in 2001, the PenFed Foundation is a national nonprofit organization committed to empowering military service members, veterans and their communities with the skills and resources to realize financial stability and opportunity. It provides service members, veterans, their families and support networks with the skills and resources they need to improve their lives through programs on financial education, homeownership, veteran entrepreneurship and short-term assistance. Affiliated with PenFed Credit Union, the Foundation has the resources to effectively reach military communities across the nation, build strong partnerships, and engage a dedicated corps of volunteers in its mission. The credit union funds the Foundation's personnel and most operational costs, demonstrating its strong commitment to the programs the Foundation provides. To learn more, visit www.penfedfoundation.org .

About Army Emergency Relief

Army Emergency Relief is a part of the Army. AER serves as the Army's financial assistance organization and exists solely to help the Army take care of its own, by providing grants and/or zero interest loans to eligible Soldiers and Families: Active Duty, Retired Soldiers, and dependent surviving spouses and children. In 2019, AER provided 40,000 Soldiers and their families $70 million in assistance. AER has over 30 categories of assistance, ranging from basic living expenses, personal transportation, dependent educational scholarships, to disaster relief. For more information, visit www.armyemergencyrelief.org. AER does not endorse PenFed Credit Union, or its products or services.

SOURCE PenFed Foundation

Related Links

https://penfedfoundation.org


Hundreds of people swept through streets of Chicago overnight, injuring police officers, smashing store windows, and looting and damaging property after police officers shot a man they say was armed, officials said.

More than 100 people were arrested and 13 officers were injured, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said Monday morning at a news conference.

"This wasn't an organized protest. It was an incident of pure criminality," Brown said. "Criminals took to streets with confidence that there would be no consequences for their actions. I refuse to let these cowardly acts hold our city hostage."

Mayor Lori Lightfoot also called the actions criminal.

"We are waking up in shock this morning," Lightfoot said Monday. "This had nothing to do with protected First Amendment expression. ... This was abject criminal behavior. ...This is straight up felony criminal conduct."

The shooting happened Sunday afternoon when police responded to a call of a person with a gun, according to the city's police department. Officers said they tried to confront a man who matched the description of the suspect when he fled on foot, firing toward officers as he did.

Two officers fired back, striking the man, identified as a 20-year-old with four arrests for burglary, child endangerment and domestic battery. He was taken to a hospital, where he was in stable condition, according to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which is investigating the shooting.

Police said a firearm was recovered at the scene and three officers involved were hospitalized for observation.

The officers involved will be placed on administrative duties, which is department protocol.

Brown said "tempers flared, fueled by misinformation" about the shooting. Police started noticing social media posts encouraging looting and were then called to reports of a mob scene at about 12:20 a.m., he said.

The injured officers included a sergeant who was struck with a bottle and another whose nose was broken, Brown said. Details about specific injuries to other officers were still being gathered, said Thomas Ahern, the Deputy Director News Affairs and Communications for the Chicago Police Department.

Story continues

Officers who were arresting a man with a cash register were shot at by people passing by in a vehicle, Brown said. A security guard and a civilian were struck by gunfire during the early morning hours and taken to hospitals.

Five guns were recovered during the unrest, Brown said, bringing the total of weekend guns recovered by police to 149.

The turmoil led to street closures, notably in Chicago's Loop, the center of the city's downtown, according to Chicago's Office of Emergency Management & Communications.

Downtown train and bus services were shut down, according to the Chicago Transit Authority, and the bridges over the Chicago River were lifted, further limiting entry and exit to downtown. The Illinois State Police said the Chicago police had asked for help blocking expressway ramps going in and out of the city's Loop.

At least two Chicago colleges closed campuses Monday in response to the unrest, and City Hall employees were told to work from home "due to restricted access to downtown."

The looting spread from stores and other businesses in the Loop to several other neighborhoods, including River North, Streeterville, Lincoln Park, the Gold Coast and the South Loop, NBC Chicago reported.

Brown said access to downtown would be "restricted" with a heavy police presence starting at 8 p.m. Monday and lasting until 6 a.m. Tuesday. The department would also monitor outside neighborhoods.

"This is a beautiful city, and CPD will not let criminal acts destroy generations of hard work," Brown said.

CPD Deputy Chief Yolanda Talley had said earlier that misinformation about the age of the man who was shot caused an emotional response from residents.

Talley said the disruptions were "a direct response to one agitator being on the scene, getting people all worked up without having the full story," NBC Chicago reported. During a news conference, she asked people to "take a step back" to allow a dialogue.

"We want to hear what they have to say" Talley said. "Right now, in this climate, everyone is feeling a certain way about the police, and it's really unfair to us. It really is."

Lightfoot was more stern. "To those engaged in criminal behavior  let's be clear  we are coming for you," she said Monday morning. "I don't care what justification is given, there is no justification for criminal behavior."

"Our citizens deserve to be safe," she added. "Our officers deserve to be able to do their job without having to worry about shots fired."

The clashes occurred amid a spike in gun violence in Chicago this year that has hit communities of color particularly hard.

Brown said there were 31 shootings over the weekend, including three murders. Nine officers had been shot in the last seven days.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: A 62-year-old male Covid-19 positive patient who was admitted at a private hospital passed away on August 7. The patients brother has alleged that the body wasnt given to the family for two days as they were unable to pay the full amount of Rs 8.96 lakh.

Srinivas, resident of Vijaynagar and the patients elder brother, said his sibling showed signs of fever and breathlessness and was admitted at the Sagar Hospitals, Kumarswamy Layout, on July 19.

He had tested positive. My brother had been working as a cashier at the Sagar Hospitals for more than 20 years. So we admitted him there.

However, on August 7, we got a call from the hospital that he had passed away. And when we asked them to release the body, they refused and asked us to first pay Rs 8.96 lakh. The insurance covered Rs 1.84 lakh and I paid Rs 1 lakh in cash and asked them to release the body. But they did not and kept the body with them for two days, said Srinivas.

He added, I then contacted the media who brought it to the notice of Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar. He spoke to the hospital and got the body released. We got the body around 5 pm on Sunday. My brother was the only breadwinner of the family. Im visually challenged and it was he who took care of us.

Dr Venkatesh Vikram, Managing Director of Sagar Hospitals, said, The patient when admitted was on oxygen and he passed away on August 7 and we kept calling the family. However, none of the family members answered the calls. On August 9, we had to reach out to the BBMP, health officials and police and told them that nobody had come to pick the body and they contacted the family. We released the body. The family only paid Rs 1 lakh. We did not tell them to pay the amount first and then take the body.

Minister Sudhakar tweeted, It is reprehensible to torture a family by claiming to make payment first. Making money should not be the standard for private hospitals. Will talk to the hospital. Just will be served to the family.
Restoring the temporarily occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions will require around $10 billion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's economic advisor Oleh Ustenko said.

"Preliminary estimate: that's around $10 billion, which will be needed to restore the uncontrolled territory. That is 5-7 per cent of our GDP," Ustenko told The Donbas.Realities radio station on Saturday.

Once those areas have been reintegrated, it will be necessary to set up a fund with money from donors among others, he said.
Northern Ireland cafe chain Bob and Berts has said it's progressing its expansion plans with new stores in Scotland and England despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company, which was founded in Portstewart in 2000, has reopened all of its 20 existing stores here and in Scotland and is now ready to expand its empire further.

Colin McClean, co-owner of Bob and Berts said: "All sites are now fully operational and stores are performing ahead of our expectations, which is really positive and shows people have missed what we offer."

The business has introduced a number of new innovations following the lockdown, including the launch of an online ordering service through its own app. The app also allows customers to order for collection.

Co-owner David Ferguson added: "Lockdown has given us confidence that we can deliver a takeaway service and we have seen the success of our app. We know there may be more twists and turns because of coronavirus but we're committed to delivering a great service in safe environments to our customers."

A new store in Stirling, Scotland that was originally scheduled to arrive in April is now expected to open in October.

The company said that it's still looking for additional sites in Northern Ireland and Scotland and expects to launch its first store in the north of England in the second part of 2021.

Bob and Berts is one of seven Northern Ireland-based companies to have received investment from BGF.

In 2017 BGF made a 2m equity investment into Bob and Berts to help drive the expansion of the busines.

BGF has backed 24 new companies in the first half of the year. In June, it invested 10m in Lisburn-based Decora, manufacturer of window coverings, to support its growth plans including expansion into the EU. Mzuri Holdings is now the owner of Decora and has announced the acquisition of Swift Direct Blinds in the UK and Coolblinds in the Netherlands.
Most Parsi matchmakers maintain Excel sheets or handwritten diaries of profiles and a collection of bio-datas. They dont advertise their services at all; it is word of mouth or social media chatter that does the job.

Sima Taparia from Mumbai is the phrase that went viral as soon as the series Indian Matchmaking dropped on Netflix last month. Regressive, casteist and sexist are just a few terms people used to describe the show that gives a glimpse into Taparias life as a matchmaker, as she jetted across countries in an attempt to find suitable matches for her clients. But despite the criticism the show and the institution of arranged marriage faces today, matchmakers seem to be a blessing in disguise for a small populace that is almost on the brink of extinction.

Parsis, who settled in India from the eighth century onward, are a community who find their religious roots in Iran, and are followers of Zoroastrianism. On landing on Indian shores, the Parsis  and Iranis who arrived in later centuries  soon assimilated with South Asian society, before many spread their wings to move abroad in the 1960s and 70s. Today, their ilk struggles with a number of issues  late marriages due to the difficulty of finding a partner; the reluctance or inability to have children; conversion not being permitted by their religion; and the chief demographic being above 60, all major reasons for their dwindling numbers. There are just over a lakh Zoroastrians left in this world, or maybe even less.

But Parsi matchmakers are making their own attempts to help delay this decline.

Known as kaajwaalis in the olden days  kaaj being the Parsi Gujarati word for match  who, like Taparia, had a hands-on role in getting families and couples to meet and advise them on prospective partners, todays Parsi matchmaker has taken on the role of a facilitator. Most maintain Excel sheets or handwritten diaries of profiles and a collection of bio-datas  details of each potential bride or groom that includes personal, family and career descriptions, hobbies, and preferences for a partner  that they share with men and women who register with them. I collect basic information on email, and have a huge database of prospective youngsters. Once every few months, I mail people registered with me a list of these names suitable to each ones age and qualifications. Its entirely up to them to contact whoever they think would be a good match. I just create a platform for youngsters to get to know each other. This is my small contribution towards my beloved community, I dont want any compensation for it, says Mumbai-based matchmaker Zarin Havewala who has been practicing for ten years. Due to her efforts, she has seen an average of eight to nine matches in a year since she started.

Like Havewala, almost all Parsi matchmakers provide their services free of cost, simply to encourage intra-community marriage at a time when their global population is endangered. Most of these women dont advertise their services at all; it is word of mouth or social media chatter that does the job.

***

Since most Parsis are scattered around the world and are already scarce in number, many do not get a chance to even know of others of the same community in their usual social and work circles. The key is to find ways for our singles to meet  be it at youth congresses, seminars, trips, camps and social media, or introductions by an old-fashioned matchmaker like me, says Roshan Rivetna of Chicago, who also runs the matrimonial section of the FEZANA (Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America) Journal of which she has been editor in the past. I would never consider charging for these services  I am more than amply rewarded when a match is made, she adds. Shes helped around 75 people find their partners since she began this work in 1991, but feels like that isnt enough. My success rate is not as high as I would like.

Many Parsis though, owing to their Westernised and relatively modern worldviews, are wary of arranged marriages, with many not considering it as a way to find a spouse. Theres a misconception that in arranged marriages you see someone today and are engaged tomorrow, or that parents have the main say. No, I think couples should take their time to get to know one another. Its important to meet and know someones family and lifestyle properly before taking the plunge, explains Kamal Karanjia, a matchmaker based in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh who has clients across the world, from New Zealand to Canada.

Nowadays, I find that some youngsters are hesitant about being introduced by an old lady like me  they are instead looking for that spark or vibe. I tell them that sparks can come after marriage too  you have to work hard together to find it and make it grow into an enduring and loving marriage, says Rivetna.

Its not just the spark theyre looking for that turns Parsis away from the world of arranged marriages. The Netflix series showcased many participants rattling off qualities and traits they desired in a partner that viewers found problematic, like fair-skinned and mentally and physically attractive to even girl must be over 5'3"" and flexible  the last two being a ladys criteria for her potential daughter-in-law. But Parsi matchmakers are not usually plagued with such requests. Although some families believe in horoscopes and reject good matches based on the stars, and a few may have requests based on superficial qualities (Karanjia has rejected bio-datas or stopped working with people if she feels that they arent too serious about the process), most seem to have a good head on their shoulders.

I'm happy to say that most of the time, our young have their priorities right  focusing on education, profession, family, and to a lesser extent on looks and fair skin, Rivetna, mentions. Karanjia too, whose list of bio-datas includes those of people even in their 40s and 50s, adds, Some Parsi boys are less educated as compared to girls, but they still have the capability to rise. I tell people to look at the persons nature and family background too.

And most Parsis who do decide to go through the matchmaking route seem to understand this well.

Khushnaz Appoo, who was 26 when she registered with Havewala and found her match within three months, says I was quite open to the thought of meeting my partner this way. I was just searching for someone who was mature and financially stable. Her husband Adil, who took almost five years to find a life partner after registering, said he never had any specific requirements when looking for a spouse. There were rejections throughout the process, but I always believed that someone was waiting for me. The day I met Khushnaz, I had a positive feeling about her. It was worth the five year wait. The couple dated for ten months, mentioning that they initially took it slow and didnt want to rush into marriage.

Similarly, US-based Gave and Sanaiya Poonawala, who met through Rivetna and have been married since 2017, viewed the process positively. The main takeaway I have had through working with a matchmaker was that as you meet people with different perspectives and backgrounds, it helps you to reflect on what you want for now and for the distant future, the limits of compromises that you will be able to make, and values you wouldnt cross over, says Sanaiya.

Ultimately, these Parsi matchmakers are working towards one goal for nothing in return  to help people find worthy partners, who will together hopefully go on to start families of their own. What keeps these women going, one wonders? Im happy when couples show their gratitude for the hard work I do, for those who are total strangers to me. I dont expect anything except a thank you, but some couples do send their wedding invitations or a box of sweets. That gives me a boost to continue doing this, Havewala says.

This is not a business for me. I do this work for the preservation of my community  that is my only aim, concludes Karanjia, speaking for all the Zoroastrian matchmaking aunties.
Bachelor in Paradise bartender Wells Adams and Modern Family star Sarah Hyland celebrated what would have been their wedding day in separate Instagram posts on Aug. 8. The couple got engaged in July 2019 after nearly two years of dating. And although Adams and Hyland had to postpone their wedding plans due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, they still managed to make the most of their special day  white dress and all.

How did Sarah Hyland and Wells Adams meet?

Wells Adams and Sarah Hyland | Gregg DeGuire/WireImage

RELATED: Why Sarah Hyland Says Shes the Child in Her Relationship With Wells Adams

Its no secret Hyland is a fan of The Bachelor franchise. She frequently posts about the show while its on air. Then after Adams appeared on Joelle JoJo Fletchers season of The Bachelorette and became the bartender for Bachelor in Paradise, Hyland started posting about her now-fiance on Twitter. Then the couple started flirting on social media.

I saw him on The Bachelorette, Hyland said about meeting Adams during an interview with Dax Shepard on The Ellen Show. Then he became the bartender on Bachelor in Paradise  And I thought he was real hot. Then he slid in them DMs because I tweeted about him.

Hyland and Adams started dating in 2017. Then after almost two years of happiness together, the Bachelor Nation star proposed in Fiji.

That cant eat, cant sleep, reach for the stars, over the fence, world series kind of stuff, Hyland captioned the engagement photos on Instagram.

Wells Adams and Sarah Hyland celebrate their wedding date on Instagram

On July 7, Hyland and Adams celebrated their one-year engagement anniversary on Instagram. The couple also confirmed their plans to postpone their wedding.

One year engaged to my best friend, Hyland wrote on the social media platform. So grateful to be quarantined with the love of my life. One day well get married, but for now, Ill take eating junk food and Netflix all day every day. I love you to Pluto and back baby.

Now, Adams and Hyland have confirmed their wedding date was originally planned for Aug. 8, 2020. And although they didnt tie the knot, they still seemed to have a good time together.

We were supposed to get married today, Adams captioned a photo alongside his financee dressed in all-white. We didnt. But I still got to grab a butt. So, ya know, still pretttty cool.

Then in an Instagram post of her own, Hyland wrote, A couple, a pandemic, & a postponed wedding: A series. We were supposed to get married today. Instead we took pictures and drank wine. I love you to Pluto & back.

Wells Adams and Sarah Hyland discuss their future wedding plans

In May 2020, Adams spoke with Access Hollywood and revealed there were no wedding plans because of the coronavirus pandemic.

I think the thought was we would originally start thinking about that around this time. But now that this is happening, whats the point of even trying to get something solidified with everything being so up in the air, Adams said at the time. If it lasts really long, I think we might do a small backyard thing. But thats probably not gonna happen.

Then in July 2020, Hyland and Adams stopped by The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons  Ever! and shared an update on their wedding plans  or lack thereof  with host Chris Harrison.

No plans as of right now, Hyland said. Weve put all planning on hold.

The actor then noted her family is from the East Coast and is worried about flying them out amid the coronavirus pandemic. She also pointed out her own health risks, as she was born with kidney dysplasia and is immunocompromised.

We want to be as safe as possible, Hyland said.

While Hyland and Adams had to postpone their wedding plans, its clear the couple is still making the most of their time together. So cheers to that.

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Princes William and Harry are working towards mending the 'hurtful' rift that has all but torn the once-inseparable brothers apart, the author of a new biography about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has claimed.

Carolyn Durand, who co-authored Finding Freedom alongside royal correspondent Omid Scobie, spoke to the Today show about some of the revelations within its pages, and opened up about what caused Harry, 35, and his brother William, 38, to fall out.

According to Durand, the rift between the two brothers began in 2016, when Harry and Meghan first started dating - and was sparked by a conversation during which William urged his younger brother to slow the romance down and to 'take some more time getting to know Meghan'.

Expert: Finding Freedom co-author Carolyn Durand has opened up about the rift between Princes William and Harry, detailing how it was caused, and how they are repairing it

Problem: According to Durand, Harry and William (pictured in 2018 with their wives) fell out after the older brother urged his sibling to slow down his relationship with Meghan Markle

'Hurt': The royal author says that the brothers (pictured as children with their father Prince Charles) are 'making their way back to each other', but that the process will 'take some time'

The royal expert suggests that these words of advice rubbed Harry the wrong way - and served as the straw that broke the camel's back as far as the siblings' relationship was concerned.

'He expressed to him, maybe he wanted to take some more time getting to know Meghan,' Durand said. 'It wasn't because people didn't trust Meghan. This was simply because the boys had watched our for each other since they were young children.'

Durand stresses that the falling out between the two brothers did not happen as a result of any anger or resentment on either part however, but rather feelings of 'hurt' on both sides.

Opening up: Durand co-authored Finding Freedom with fellow royal expert Omid Scobie

'As we write in the book, it wasn't anger,' Durand said. 'It was hurt.'

The bombshell biography also reveals that the two siblings, who were once inseparable, 'hardly spoke' in the months after that tense chat, with sources close to the royals alleging that this bitter rift between the brothers only grew wider after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex tied the knot in 2018.

Their already-fraught relationship then suffered another blow at the start of this year, the book details, when Harry and Meghan announced that they were quitting their roles as senior members of the royal family and would be splitting their time between the US and the UK.

However, Durand and Scobie explain that the tension between the two siblings was most certainly borne out of concern on William's part that Harry's relationship with Meghan was moving so quickly - a fear that his brother refused to pay mind to.

In fact, Finding Freedom also reveals just how intense the romance between Harry and Meghan was right from the get-go, claiming that the couple knew they 'would be together' after the second date, and that they were immediately 'obsessed' with one another from the very first meeting.

And while Harry may have officially popped the question to Meghan at home at Kensington Palace, Durand says the royal actually 'pledged' to marry her when the couple were on their second trip to Botswana in 2017 - having ignored his brother's advice to the romance slowly.

'They actually made a promise to each other in Botswana initially underneath the stars,' Durand said. 'And when Harry got back to London, then he did propose over a roast chicken.'

Caution: '[William] expressed to [Harry], maybe he wanted to take some more time getting to know Meghan,' Durand said of the conversation that sparked the siblings' falling out

The new book Finding Freedom is pulling back the curtain on Prince Harry and Meghan Markles life together, from their first date to their current standing with the royal family. @joefryer spoke with Carolyn Durand, the books co-author. pic.twitter.com/JDVXiG5yI0  TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 10, 2020

Priorities: The royal author said that Meghan and Harry, who are living in Los Angeles, are focusing their time on their one-year-old son Archie and their charitable work

But one silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic is that it has pushed Harry and William to begin repairing their relationship, with Durand revealing that they are slowly 'making their way back to each other'.

'Like in any family, there have been some ups and downs, but the brothers are making their way back to each other,' Durand said. 'And that will take some time.'

For now, the British author said that Harry and Meghan are enjoying their time in Los Angeles - where they have been living for several months with their son Archie - and are focused on their charity work, and spending as much time with their first-born as possible.

'When they do video-conferencing calls with their team and with members of the community, you will often see Archie pop into the camera,' Durand revealed. 'He's now walking a bit. They're very, very hands-on parents.'

The Today interview comes just as Durand's co-author spoke to Good Morning America about William and Harry's fallout, defending both Meghan and Kate Middleton against any suggestion that they were to blame for causing the rift between the brothers.

Scobie insisted that any falling out between William and Harry was entirely due to the behavior of the brothers, and had nothing to do with Meghan or Kate , or indeed any uneasiness that may have existed between the two women.

In fact, he believes that the change in the relationship between William and Harry actually came as a result of the younger sibling choosing to break out of the role of 'subservient brother' - which Scobie notes likely prompted the dramatic chilling of relations between the princes.

'I felt it was important to really dive into this in the book because we had seen Meghan and Kate really blamed for almost driving a wedge between them,' he said.

'They are both men in their 30s and Harry not wanting to play that role of sort of the younger more subservient brother anymore.'

Difficulties: While Durand was on Today, her co-author Scobie spoke to Good Morning America about the couple's decision to quit the royal family

Motivation: He said that the monarchy's racial 'ignorance' did 'play a role' in the couple's decision to leave the UK and step down as senior royals

But while frosty relations between Meghan and Kate may not have been to blame for Harry and William's falling out, Scobie does not deny that the two women were never close - and that there was at least some resentment on the Duchess of Sussex's side over how the Duchess of Cambridge treated her when she first joined the royal family.

'These are two women that really have very little in common,' he said.

'I think that being a newcomer and knowing that Kate was once a newcomer, I think there were times - speaking to sources - where Meghan felt she could have [had], or needed, a little bit more support from Kate and didn't get it in some of those important moments.'

Still, he insisted that much of the tension between the two women has been over-dramatized in the court of public opinion, addressing one particular report that Meghan had pushed Kate to 'tears' at her wedding to Prince Harry, claiming that it has been completely over-exaggerated.

'When I spoke to the people who were actually there and involved, the first thing they all said, well, there were no tears,' he said - although he did not deny that there was some tension between the two women on the day of the royal wedding.

But as far as Kate breaking down, Scobie insisted it 'couldn't be further from the truth'.

During his GMA interview, the royal correspondent also claimed that Meghan and Harry's decision to quit the royal family for good was prompted by racial 'ignorance' within the monarchy.

'In terms of ticking those boxes that may ruffle feathers within an ancient institution such as that of the monarchy, she had really ticked all of them,' he said, adding: 'Race did play a role.'

Scobie suggests that Meghan never felt comfortable within the royal family - and that she was never made to feel as though she was entirely welcome.

Explosive new book about Harry and Meghans royal exit. @scobie, co-author of #FindingFreedom, gives our @DebRobertsABC an inside look at the couples side of the story. https://t.co/X8P82x9Dsv pic.twitter.com/L9fkvvAPGA  Good Morning America (@GMA) August 10, 2020

Speaking out: The author opened up about his own experiences with racial prejudice as a bi-racial royal correspondent, recalling one unpleasant interaction with a senior royal aide

'Failed': Scobie said that Meghan and Harry were 'failed by the monarchy' and insisted that the royal family missed the chance to embrace 'diversity, inclusivity and representation'

The author went on to detail his own experiences with racial prejudice as a bi-racial man working closely with the monarchy in his role as a royal correspondent, recalling one particularly unpleasant interaction with a senior aide to the Queen.

'I myself have also had moments as a bi-racial royal correspondent within the institution,' he said.

'I'll never forget the moment an aide, or a senior aide close to the Queen, said to me, 'I never would have expected you to speak like that,' and that level of ignorance I think perhaps made it very difficult for Meghan.'

Scobie's remarks come just as Prince Harry addressed the desperate need for more diversity and inclusivity, insisting that it will take 'every single person on the planet' to defeat racism in a candid new virtual interview for a civil rights organisation.

Harry, who is currently living in Tyler Perry's $14 million mansion in Beverly Hills with Meghan, 38, and their son Archie, one, is set to speak about the topic in further detail in a new interview for the Color of Change initiative - however in a short clip released on Instagram, he praised the younger generation for 'acting, rather than just saying'.

Speaking with US civil rights leader Rashad Robinson, the royal said: 'As we've discussed before, it is going to take every single one of us, this is not just down to the black community, it's going to take every single person on the planet right now.'

Harry's decision to speak so publicly about the battle against racism is all part of what Scobie recently described as his 'journey to workeness', which, the author says, was guided by Meghan.

In a recent interview with the National Public Radio, Scobie noted that watching Meghan face racial bias was the first time that Harry had witnessed that kind of prejudice towards someone so close to him first-hand, explaining that this sparked the royal's 'journey to wokeness'.

'Harry's journey to wokeness has been very public,' he said.

Tension: Scobie said that Meghan never felt entirely welcome in the royal family, and that she did not feel as though she received enough - or indeed any - support from Kate Middleton

Falling out: However the author denied that Meghan and Kate had anything to do with the rift between Princes Harry and William, insisting that the brothers fell out on their own

'We've seen him learning and educating himself along the way, but this experience of witnessing Meghan face racist remarks and commentary would have been the first time he'd seen someone in his life or someone he was particularly close to affected by it in a certain way.

'We talk about some of the more obvious examples in some of the media coverage but I think that the things that have flown under the radar are some of the othering of Meghan we've seen.

'We've sort of seen it repeatedly that she's not one of us. And now, what do they mean by not one of us?

'And I think there are things like that which Harry's really had to become more attuned to and learn to see when it happens in front of him. And Meghan would have been the person that guided him on that journey. '

While Meghan and Harry's decision to quit their roles as senior members of the royal family in favor of a more independent life in the US sparked serious controversy that continues to rage on - however Scobie insisted to GMA that the couple will come out on top in the history books.

He placed blame on the royal family for the couple's move, saying that he believes Harry and Meghan were 'failed by the monarchy', and insisting that when historians examine the moment in years to come, it will be viewed as a missed opportunity for the centuries-old institution to evolve and diversify.

'History will remember them as a couple that were perhaps failed by the institution of the monarchy, where there was this chance to have a woman of color, an American woman of color, in the house of Windsor representing the monarchy just as much as her husband,' he explained.

'That was a chance for the royal family to have diversity, inclusivity and representation in a way that no other moment in their lives could have brought and for them to not have harnessed that is something I'm sure historians will be looking at for years to come.'

Scobie believes that the couple were left with 'no choice other than to leave', insisting that things had reached breaking point for both Meghan and Harry.

False: Although Scobie admits that Meghan and Kate never saw eye to eye, he denied rumors that the Duchess of Sussex left her sister-in-law in tears at her wedding to Prince Harry

Rumors: It was reported that Kate had been 'reduced to tears' by Meghan's 'strict demands' for her wedding, but Scobie insists this 'could not be further from the truth'

'They had no choice other than to leave because they both knew that it wasn't going to continue should they just carry on as they were,' he said.'

The royal correspondent also called out the 'harsh British tabloids' for the treatment of Meghan, insisting that this contributed, at least in part, to the couple's departure, pointing back to November 2016 when Harry publicly blasted the media's coverage of his then-girlfriend as a sign that the couple were already considering a move away from life within the monarchy.

'I think we had a series of ups and downs with the couple,' Scobie said when asked when things 'took a turn' for Harry and Meghan.

'We only have to look back in the early days of Harry's relationship with Meghan around November 2016 when he issued that statement lambasting sections of the media for racist and misogynistic reporting.'

Scobie also address reports that Meghan and Harry 'weighed in' on Finding Freedom through 'secret interviews', insisting that the couple had nothing to do with the stories in the book.

'I know there's a lot of speculation about the couple having sort of given secret interviews for the book and having weighed in, but it really couldn't be further from the truth,' he said.

However, royal expert Victoria Arbiter told Today that, while Meghan and Harry may not have given direct quotes to Durand and Scobie, she believes the couple certainly had a hand in providing some of the information that is in the book.

'There were a lot of very personal texts that are mentioned in this book, personal feelings, personal accounts that really only could've come from Harry and Meghan,' she said, adding that it's likely the royal couple gave their friends the go-ahead to share certain stories with the authors.

'So though not directly, there's a suggestion here really that their friends were given permission to talk. I don't think anyone that's a close friend to Harry and Meghan would want to talk without permission, so yes, I say that Harry Meghan's fingerprints are on this, just not directly."
Little Desk Shield acts as physical barrier for elementary school children in the classroom

Heartland Direct International, a Moore company, has developed an affordable desk shield to protect elementary school children returning to classrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic. The tri-fold cardboard frame has a clear plastic center and attaches easily to the desk with packing tape, providing an added barrier around children to lessen airborne spread of the virus. The Little Desk Shield is made from the same materials as face shields worn by doctors and nurses and can be manufactured on the companys existing equipment.

We normally create fundraising products for some of the worlds top nonprofits but, during the pandemic, we want to use our manufacturing expertise to help kids stay safe as they transition back to in-school learning. We partnered within Moore to figure out a way to repurpose existing machines to make Little Desk Shields as efficiently and affordably as possible. With production based entirely in the U.S., we are also supporting American workers, says Aaron Siddiki, president of Heartland Direct International.

It is expected that students will be spending more time than usual at their desks. The Little Desk Shield provides a physical barrier between students and teachers for times of learning, lunch and play. The product is sold in bundles of 25 to easily equip one classroom for as little as $100 when 10 bundles or more are ordered. Heartland is selling directly to teachers, parents, schools and school systems.

The people at Heartland are concerned parents too. When we saw what other countries were doing with barrier protection in classrooms, we knew we wanted to build on that idea but in an affordable way. On our website people can buy for one classroom or an entire school, says Siddiki.

Little Desk Shields are designed for students in fifth grade and below and can be purchased online from littledeskshield.com. Any company, school system or nonprofit that orders over 10,000 can be personalize with branding and custom artwork. The shields can be sprayed clean with a disinfectant mist at the end of each day and easily replaced when needed.

Many companies, including parent company Moore, are donating Little Desk Shields to support area schools. As part of Heartlands own give-back efforts, the company is donating more than 1,000 to schools in neighborhoods where employees live and work.

About Heartland Direct

Heartland Direct International LLC is dedicated to providing advertising solutions to support all product and premium needs for nonprofits, companies and fundraising campaigns. The companys mission is centered on helping better the human condition by providing quality products and a helping hand to organizations that are tackling some of the worlds greatest problems. Heartlands products are designed to be the heart and direct touch point connecting consumers to an organziations mission, brand or campaign.

About Moore

Moore is a global leader in performance-driven marketing solutions focused on all facets of the consumer experience. Comprised of 33 companies with more than 2,500 employees, Moore is dedicated to helping clients fulfill their missions. The organization provides services including strategic consulting, creative development, media planning and buying, research and analytics, production management and product fulfillment, database services and public relations to nonprofit, association, commercial and government clients, and is a key contributor to strengthening these sectors.
To shut down rumours surrounding the chaos within the Nepal Communist Party (NCP), its leaders on Sunday launched a signature collection campaign to demonstrate their 'unity.' Around 63 MLAs from the NCP, which has been witnessing speculations of a split, following tensions between factions of PM Oli and Chairman Prachanda launched the campaign in a bid to collect signatures of 90 MPs from the ruling party.

One of the signatories to the campaign, Ram Kumari Jhakri, spoke to news agency ANI regarding the campaign saying, "While setting up this small group, the first criteria we set was not to include any of sitting ministers and the Standing Committee meeting which is going on, members of the committee also would not be entertained."

"We did so because they have to express their opinion during the Standing Committee Meeting and our group also have some Code of Conducts too, in order to facilitate them during their presentation we thought of keeping them away from it," Kumari Jhakri said to news agency ANI.

Read: India Gifts 10 Ventilators Worth Rs 28 Million To Nepal To Help Its Fight Against COVID-19

Read: Nepal To Send India Its 'updated Map' With Kalapani, Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura

"In order to split a party or unify it, a leader's power is tested on parliament. As they ( NCP leaders) would provide their signatures for the campaign, a clear message will be sent that Parliamentary Committee is against the split, making them go ahead discussing agendas following the legal system," claimed Jhakri.

Factionalism grows within the NCP

The factionalism in the Nepal Communist Party only seems to have worsened in the recent times, with senior party leaders demanding the resignation of KP Oli as the Prime Minister over his recent decisions, as well as his handling of the COVID-19 crisis in the Himalayan nation.

Oli was also under fire for his 'anti-India' remarks and his sham new political map wirth top NCP leaders, including former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, demanding his resignation, saying that his statements were 'neither politically correct nor diplomatically appropriate.'

In order to escape any form of criticism, Oli kept postponing the Central Standing Committee meeting which commenced from June 24 to avert criticisms landing on him. Though the duo chairs of the party have held multiple rounds of discussions, no concrete decision has been made till now on the matter.

The differences between the two factions of the NCP -- one led by Oli and the other led by Chairman Dahal 'Prachanda' -- intensified after Oli unilaterally decided to prorogue the budget session of Parliament. Both Prime Minister Oli and former Prime Minister Prachanda are chairmen of the ruling party.

Read: Nepal Resumes Airing All Indian News Channels After Ban For 'hurting Country's Sentiments'

Read: Nepal PM Oli Pushing For Ordinance To Stay In Office, opposed Party-mates Meet President
The Central Region Police has launched investigations into an alleged assault reported by one Francis Mensah, a resident of Savoy in Cape Coast against some men in military uniform on Saturday, August 8.

According to the Police the report received indicated that the men numbering about eight allegedly brutally assaulted Mensah during the Electoral Commission's mob up exercise at the premises of the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly (CCMA) without any provocation.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Irene Serwaah Oppong, who is the Central Regional Police Public Relations Officer confirmed this on Monday to the Ghana News Agency in Cape Coast.

She said Mensah appeared at the Police station around 1320 hours with a blood soaked yellow Tee shirt and a cut at the back of his head and a swollen left eye, saying he had been attacked by some men in military uniform.

She said on that same day at about 1530 hours, Second Lieutenant Isshaku Joseph, leader of nine men of the Ghana Armed Forces who were in the Metropolis for the exercise, also reported to the police that one Mensah had attacked them with a pinch bar and a cutlass and had attempted to snatch a rifle from one Lance Corporal Appiah.

DSP Oppong said a Police medical report form was issued to Mensah to attend hospital for treatment while investigations continue.

---GNA
I know that I am dealing with some form of low-grade depression. Michelle Obama podcast, Aug. 6, 2020

What a coincidence. Everyone I know feels pretty much the same, Ms. Obama. Last night I dreamed I was trapped in a warehouse where every surface was covered in candle wax and I had to scrape it off with my fingernails. Is that a Sisyphean-task-to-get-rid-of-Trump dream or just your standard cleaning nightmare?

I worry about news stories that were once toweringly huge and awful slipping past me now, mostly underwater, like icebergs in the night. What happened to the children in cages at the U.S.-Mexico border? How are the sweatshop clothing workers of Bangladesh surviving as orders dry up?

Is the guy who was in charge of tidy cage placement at a Wuhan wild animal market in terrible trouble now? Did he go into another line of work?

Who is Kayleigh McEnany? Why? Did she go to mermaid school? The law degree seems improbable.

Rocks thrown in a pond have ripples, this one 20 years later. Dick Cheney inspired a British serial rapist, rapper Andy Anokye a.k.a. Solo 45, to waterboard four women he raped. Anokye, 33, was jailed for 24 years for doing to terrorized women what the CIA did to Guantanamo prisoners. Does Cheney get royalties?

Thigh-land. I cannot get Trumps words out of my head, which is a shame as he has so many. Quotes advance through my days and nights, an endless drumroll, a doom-roll. Heres a brief snapshot. If it doesnt make you a little depressed, congratulations.

Just seeing this administration, watching the hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting  Michelle Obama

Yo-Semites. Donald Trump

Basically, we all knew he was an asshole, but he was our asshole.  Mary Trump on the years when Uncle Donald was just a local family jerk.

The country that Eisenhower led to victory three-quarters of a century ago is now a pathetic object, mocked and pitied around the world.  Philip Kennicott in the Washington Post on the new and grand Dwight D. Eisenhower memorial in Washington D.C.

And the same thing with sinks, toilets and showers. You turn on the shower, you waste 20 minutes longer. Please come out. The water  it drips, right? I got rid of that. So now when you actually go into a new home and pay a lot of money, you turn on the faucet and water actually comes out. Isnt that nice? Donald Trump, Aug. 6

Spiritually, these are not fulfilling times.  Michelle Obama

The old lightbulb was so great, and they put it out of business. It was much cheaper, and it had much better light. And, you know, the new one is considered hazardous waste. When you lose it, youre supposed to take it down to a dump, a specified dump. How many people are going to do that with a lightbulb? Hey, you know, we lost this lightbulb. Lets travel 28 miles outside of the city to get rid of it.   Donald Trump

Heres how it works. The app will let you know if youve been in contact with someone who has the app and has tested positive for COVID-19. If thats the case, it will then encourage you to call your provincial health services for guidance on what to do.  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Cases up because of BIG Testing! Much of our Country is doing very well. Open the Schools!  Donald Trump

Ive downloaded the app this morning, and I encourage you to do the same.  Justin Trudeau

So I put the old bulb back in.  Donald Trump

At the moment we seem to be headed for a Greater Recession  a worse slump than 2007-2009, overlaid on the coronavirus slump. MAGA!  U.S. economist Paul Krugman

Then theres that Axios interview with Trump. I cant get over the flapping papers, Jonathan Swans foot twitching, his dumbstruck look.

There are those that say you can test too much, Trump said. You do know that.

Who says that? asked Swan.

Read the manuals. Read the books.

Manuals? What manuals?

Read the books.

What books? . . .
Gunmen on Sunday killed eight people including a group of French aid workers as they visited a part of Niger popular with tourists for its wildlife. The crime will be investigated by the French anti-terrorist authorities.

"There are eight dead: two Nigeriens including a guide and a driver, while the other six are French," the governor of the Tillaberi region told the French AFP news agency on Sunday.

France confirmed its nationals were among the dead, without giving a figure.

The anti-terror prosecutor's office in Paris said Monday it would probe the killings.

The investigation will concern charges of "assassinations with links to a terrorist enterprise" and "criminal terrorist association", the office said in a statement.

French aid group Acted (the Agency for Technical Development and Cooperation) said several of its workers were among those killed during a tourist outing.

"Among the eight people killed in Niger, several were Acted employees," said the NGO's lawyer Joseph Breham.

Identity of attackers remains unknown

"We are managing the situation, we will give more information later," governor Tidjani Ibrahim Katiella said, without indicating who was behind the attack.

A source close to Niger's environmental services said the assault took place at around 11:30 am, six kilometres east of the town of Koure, which is an hour's drive from the capital Niamey.

"Most of the victims were shot... We found a magazine emptied of its cartridges at the scene," the source told AFP.

One woman managed to escape but was later caught and killed, the source added.

"We do not know the identity of the attackers but they came on motorcycles through the bush and waited for the arrival" of the group.

The source said the victims' vehicle belonged to Acted, which was later confirmed by Niger's home ministry.

Wide condemnation of a barbarous act

The office of French President Emmanuel Macron said he spoke on the phone with his Niger counterpart Mahamadou Issoufou.

Story continues

Both leaders condemned the "cowardly" attack.

In Paris, a spokesman for the French army said France's Barkhane force, which fights jihadists in the Sahel region, had provided support to Niger's forces.

An AFP reporter at the scene confirmed that French fighter jets flew overhead later Sunday as Niger's army searched the vast wooded area.

Forensic police were collecting evidence at the scene.

IBK laments violent extremism

Neighbouring Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita meanwhile strongly condemned the "barbaric act".

He lamented that "violent extremism" was still rife in the Sahel region "despite the merciless war waged by national armies, the G5 Sahel joint forces and the Barkhane force".
Indian markets witnessed mild profit-booking at higher levels on August 10 but closed comfortably in the green, as the S&P BSE Sensex rallied more than 100 points while the Nifty50 went past 11,250.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended the day 141 points higher at 38,182, while the Nifty50 rose 56 points to close at 11,270.

The broader markets outperformed the benchmarks. The S&P BSE Midcap index rose 1.4 percent, while the S&P BSE Smallcap index ended with gains of 1.47 percent.

Pharma stocks remained in the limelight as Dr Reddys (up 2.5 percent), Divis Laboratories (up 11 percent), Torrent Pharma (up 2.3 percent), Ipca Laboratories (up 7 percent), Lupin (up 8 percent), and Cipla (up 9 percent) hit a new 52-week high.

Defence stocks rallied after the ministry came out with a list of 101 items that will no longer be imported. Among Sensex constitutents, L&T was the top gainer, up nearly 5 percent.

Sectoral news flow boosted positivity in the Indian markets, with the pharma index leading the gains. The gains were news-driven, with earnings results and government actions accounting for sectoral gains, Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services told Moneycontrol.

Earnings results of select pharma companies drove gains in the sector while government actions to boost domestic defence productions helped gains in defence stocks. With valuations are going high, investors are advised to remain cautious and nimble with their investments, he said.

Sectorally, action was seen in healthcare, capital goods, realty, industrials, and utilities, while profit-taking was visible in energy and oil & gas stocks.

Top Nifty gainers included Tata Motors, M&M, L&T and Cipla.

Top Nifty losers included RIL, Asian Paints and Eicher Motors.

Stocks & Sectors

Sectorally, the S&P BSE Healthcare index rose 4.6 percent followed by the S&P BSE Capital Goods index that was up 3.3 percent and the S&P BSE Realty index closed with gains of 2.7 percent.

Volume spike of more than 100 percent was seen in stocks like BHEL, Dabur India, Divis Laboratories, Amara Raja Batteries, and Container Corp.

Long buildup was seen in stocks like Bharat Forge, Motherson Sumi and Cipla.

Short buildup was seen in stocks like Container Corp, Bata India, and Bajaj Finance.

More than 200 stocks on the BSE hit their fresh 52-week high. Among them were Bharat Rasayan, Wabco India, SRF, Info Edge and VST Tillers.

Stocks in news

Cipla stock jumped almost 10 percent after the company reported its June quarter earnings after the market hours on August 7.

Tejas Networks shares jumped 5 percent after the company bagged a Rs 66-crore order from L&T Construction.

IPCA Laboratories stock jumped over 7 percent after the company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 445.7 crore against Rs 129.4 crore YoY.

Cochin Shipyard share price gained over 3 percent as the company posted a 65 percent YoY fall in its consolidated net profit at Rs 41.4 crore against Rs 119 crore.

Shipping Corporation Of India stock price jumped almost 7 percent after the company reported a net profit of Rs 336.87 crore in the June quarter against a net loss of Rs 28.90 crore in June 2019.

Technical View

The Nifty formed a Doji candle on the daily scale, indicating the absence of follow-up action at key resistance zones.

It has to continue to hold above 11,200 to witness an upmove towards recent swing highs of 11,341 then 11,500. On the downside, support exists at 11,150 then 11,100 zones, said Chandan Taparia of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited.

: The views and investment tips expressed by experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not those of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
State elections chief urges caution on absentee voting pitches

North Carolina's top elections official says that while third party outreach efforts urging residents to request absentee ballots "typically are legal," she warns that the efforts can be confusing and could undermine voters' confidence in the election process.

Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the state Board of Elections, said in a news release that her office is responding to voters questions and concerns about mass mailings, text messages, phone calls and home visits by political and advocacy groups. Many ongoing outreach efforts by third parties urge residents to request absentee by-mail ballots or register to vote ahead of the November 3 general election. Some mailings include voter registration applications or absentee ballot request forms.

These efforts typically are legal, but they can be confusing or frustrating for voters and erode confidence in elections, especially when they are unsolicited, Brinson Bell said.

The State Board offers to review mailings and other communications for third parties to ensure compliance with state and federal laws and to attempt to avoid voter confusion and anger.

The State and County Boards of Elections encourage third-party groups to consider the overwhelming toll that misleading or confusing mailings and other outreach efforts take on elections resources and the damage they cause to voters confidence in elections, Bell said. We need our elections officials to be focused on serving more than 7 million voters during a pandemic.

For voters, elections officials offered the following tips for dealing with the onslaught of mail, phone calls and text messages this election season:

1) Rely on official sources, especially your state and county elections officials, for accurate information about elections and the voting process. Third-party mailings and other outreach materials may be misleading or false. Go to NCSBE.gov or your county boards website for accurate and up-to-date information about elections. Follow the State Board of Elections on

social media.

2) Check your voter registration status with the State Boards Voter Search tool. If you are not registered or want to update your registration, download, complete and sign a North Carolina Voter Registration Application. Return the application to your county board of elections. If you are an existing NCDMV customer, you can register to vote or change certain parts of your registration online free of charge.

3) Request an absentee ballot by going to NCSBE.gov and downloading a 2020 State Absentee Ballot Request Form. The law has changed to allow request forms to be transmitted to the county board of elections office via fax or email, in addition to by mail or in person. The status of your absentee ballot request remains confidential  and cannot be viewed in your online voter record  until your marked ballot is returned to the county board office. The voter or voters near relative or legal guardian can still contact the county board of elections to receive that information. Absentee ballots will be mailed to voters who requested them beginning September 4.

4) If you have concerns about a mailing, please contact the group responsible for the mailing. There is rarely anything elections officials can do to stop outreach efforts.

5) State and county elections officials are not associated with third-party groups that send out mass mailings or text messages.

6) Elections officials do not randomly call or text residents to encourage them to register to vote or request absentee ballots.

7) Elections officials do not verify the accuracy of data, such as voter record data, provided by third parties in their mailings. State and county elections officials do not go door-to-door to register voters or encourage them to request absentee ballots.

8) Always ask voter registration workers who come to your door to verify their identities and organizations. If someone refuses, call the State Board office at 919-814-0700 and ask for the Investigations Division.

We know these groups are often well intended and we certainly do not want to discourage folks from being active participants in our democracy, said Brinson Bell, but we must make sure that these actions do not prohibit, impair, or cause voters not to be active participants in democracy.
Members of the Louisville Metro Police Department congregate around the place where Breonna Taylor was shot during a rally to protest her killing, in Louisville, Kentucky on July 25, 2020. (Jeff Dean/AFP via Getty Images)

Louisville Police Clamp Down on Protest Caravans Over Aggressive Behavior

Louisvilles Metro Police Department (LMPD) says it will crack down on protest caravans, citing safety concerns and a recent surge in aggressive behavior in Kentuckys largest city, which has been the scene of weeks of unrest.

In a statement on Twitter, LMPD said Aug. 9 that caravans would no longer be allowed and that all protesters would have to follow normal traffic laws.

LMPD continues to balance the First Amendment right to protest with the public safety needs of the entire community, the department stated. For nearly 75 days, Louisville residents have taken to the streets to express their desire for accountability and change.

One of the primary ways of doing that has been to hold nightly caravansboth cars and foot marchesthroughout the city, LMPD said.

We have seen increasingly unsafe behavior, including an escalation in aggressive behavior over the past week or so. Due to ongoing safety concerns and an increase in aggressive behavior over the past week, including several incidents Saturday night, LMPD has determined the protest caravans cannot continue as they have been, the statement said.

LMPD continues to balance the First Amendment right to protest with the public safety needs of the entire community. For nearly 75 days, Louisville residents have taken to the streets to express their desire for accountability and change. pic.twitter.com/2jNGO2Uayc  LMPD (@LMPD) August 9, 2020

Examples of aggressive behavior regularly seen in these caravans, the LMPD said, include reckless driving that has endangered the lives of others, pointing weapons at others, throwing items from vehicles, confrontations with other drivers who encounter the caravan, and blocking intersections for extended period of time.

The city police department announced that as of Aug. 9, it will enforce all laws as it relates to the caravan.

All pedestrians must stay out of the streetsstaying on sidewalks and following all laws for pedestrian traffic, LMPD said. Cars and pedestrians will not be allowed to block intersections for any length of time.

The office added that participants who refuse to comply with any law or lawful order will be cited or arrested.

According to The Courier-Journal, a Black Lives Matter Louisville protester responded to the LMPD announcement by saying that they would continue to protest until the three Louisville law enforcement officers involved in the shooting of Breonna Taylora 26-year-old woman who was shot dead in her own home in Marchface criminal charges.

The special agent in charge of Louisvilles FBI field office said last month that the case is top priority for agents in the city; federal officials are probing potential civil rights violations by the officers.

The announcement came a day after clashes between police officers and protesters who reportedly vandalized property and set up roadblocks in the city on Aug. 8.

An LMPD spokesperson told the newspaper that protesters, during their march, blocked roadways, surrounded vehicles that tried to avoid the protest, shot paintballs (at) passing motorists, destroyed property at 4th Street Live while it was occupied with patrons, set trash cans on fire, and then continued to Jefferson Square.

Based off these actions, the assembly was deemed unlawful, the spokesperson added.

Hundreds of protesters continued to gather and march toward Jefferson Square at around 7 p.m. on Aug. 9 despite the departments order, resulting in the arrests of at least two people, WLKY reported.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday questioned actor Rhea Chakraborty for over ten hours in the case of money laundering registered in connection with the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Chakraborty, 28, had allegedly been in a romantic relationship with Rajput at the time of his death. This is the second time Chakraborty has been questioned by ED following allegations by Rajputs father that Chakraborty abetted Rajputs suspected suicide and misappropriated his funds.

On Monday, Chakraborty arrived at the Central agencys office at Ballard Estate at around 11.30 am. She was accompanied by her father Indrajeet and brother Showik. Later, her manager Shruti Modi also arrived at the ED office. A few hours later, Rajputs friend and flatmate Sidhharth Pithani also reached the ED office for questioning.

Chakraborty and her family were questioned for over nine hours and left the ED office at around 9pm. Sources in ED said the questioning was focused around Chakrabortys income, expenditures, investments, business and professional deals. Details of properties in Khar and Navi Mumbai linked to Chakraborty as well as dealings of the companies that she and her family had established with Rajput were under scrutiny. Her statements were recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

EDs investigation has focused on a possible mismatch between Chakrabortys income and expenditures. Sources said questions were raised about a flat she owns in Khar. Chakraborty told investigators that the property is valued at 84 lakh and to purchase it, she took a home loan of 60 lakh. Chakraborty has maintained she is innocent and she has denied using Rajputs money for any of her investments, officials said.

Chakraborty had initially refused to appear before the agency, citing an appeal pending before the Supreme Court. However, she later produced herself before ED investigators on Friday and again on Monday. Officials said she had responded to most of their questions.

Rheas manager Shruti Modi left ED office at around 10.30pm. At the time of going to press Rajputs close friend Sidhharth Pithani was still being questioned at the ED office.

Previously, Chakrabortys brother Showik, who is a director at two companies reportedly owned by Rajput, was questioned for approximately 18 hours by ED.

On July 31, ED filed a case on the basis of a first information report (FIR) by Bihar Police. The FIR was registered following a complaint by Rajputs father, KK Singh, who accused Chakraborty and her family of abetting Rajputs suspected suicide and misappropriating his funds. Singh alleged close to 15 crore had been transferred from Rajputs account to unknown persons and that Rajputs credit cards were linked to Chakraborty.

On the request of the Bihar government, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has launched a probe in the matter of Rajputs death and named Chakraborty, Showik and four other family members of Chakraborty, as accused along with other unknown persons.

Rajput, 34, was found dead in his apartment in Bandra on June 14 and a case of accidental death was registered by Bandra Police, which is conducting a parallel investigation into the actors death. According to the post-mortem report, Rajputs death was due to asphyxia and there were no indications of foul play.
Compare candidates fast COVID-19 has created an urgent need to help provide candidates from all parties with better ways to engage voters online, especially since the Coronavirus has eliminated typical door-to-door and public rally campaigning says President and founder Marc Appleby

A new media platform is being introduced in the U.S. to help candidates of all political stripes, at all political levels, win over more undecideds, independents, and swing voters.

VoterFeed.com is a social media aggregator where each candidate has a dedicated campaign page pre-loaded with their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and Linkedin accounts, all organized into one easy-to-follow feed for voters.

Candidates can also further customize their VoterFeed, including their photo, biography, and top 5 priorities, as well as provide direct links back to their campaign platform and donation page.

COVID-19 has created an urgent need to help provide candidates from all parties with better ways to engage voters online, especially since the Coronavirus has eliminated typical door-to-door and public rally campaigning says President and founder Marc Appleby.

Our first-of-its-kind platform will officially launch to the public later this Summer, but we're already following almost 5,000 candidates in federal, state, and local races across the U.S. Today, we want to invite all candidates running in 2020 to get early access by activating their campaign now at VoterFeed.com.

Appleby says that VoterFeed was created to provide an easier way for voters to find, follow and compare candidates in any election, while providing candidates with the best way to campaign online, find new voters and raise more money.

A Pew Research survey dated February 2020 says that about two-thirds of Americans (66%) feel worn out by the amount of news being generated each day, making it confusing and difficult for many voters to understand candidates true positions on issues.

Candidates too can often feel misrepresented, sometimes due to media bias or political partisanship, other times their words taken out of context, but either way these civil divisions have been shown to be easily exploited by foreign governments like Russia and China.

VoterFeed on the other hand aims to provide clarity about candidates on what their top priorities will be if elected. Billing itself as Your Election Home, it is designed as a one-stop shop for voters to compare candidates fast, focusing especially on those harder-to-follow state and local races.

With so many divisive public commentaries on social media, Appleby says that I believe that the political conversation for voters and candidates can instead be a productive one, where they can connect effectively with each other, and have a positive impact on campaigns and their message.

To meet that challenge, VoterFeed offers what theyre calling Voter-Feedback, a proprietary and private communication link between candidates and voters, away from the often noisy and negative media climate that can frustrate people on all sides of the aisle.

Another Pew Research survey from February this year also found that most Americans (72%) say it is likely that Russia or other foreign governments will attempt to influence the November 2020 election.

To help counter concerns, VoterFeeds secure channel only allows the candidates themselves to speak directly to voters, with no third-party ads. This bypasses any risk of foreign meddling or corporate influence when a voter is trying to compare candidates on the issues that matter to them.

In addition to their integrated social media feeds, candidates can now upload video, audio, and pictures from the campaign trail to showcase their personality and platform, and share it with voters through their own dedicated voter-focused channel, explains Appleby.

Each candidates VoterFeed is based on the good old soapbox model where only the candidates own spoken words are used for voters to make a decision. In our research, it is an electorate right now that does not want to be buried in Google searches, biased media opinions, or the confusing analysis of news pundits to get informed.

As Franklin D. Roosevelt said Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

VoterFeed is now sharing login instructions with all campaigns about the exclusive two-week pre-launch access window ahead of Septembers public launch to voters.

Candidates running in federal, state, or local races in the USA in 2020 are invited to go to VoterFeed.com now and activate their free account for more details.

For more information on VoterFeeds fight for the future of democracy, Marc Appleby can be contacted at media(at)voterfeed(dot)com.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, August 8, 2020.

President Donald Trump on Monday urged Americans to stop politicizing the coronavirus, only to blame the outbreak in the United States on China moments later.

"We must stop politicizing the virus, but instead must be united in our condemnation of how this virus came to America, how this virus came to the world," Trump said during a White House press briefing on the coronavirus pandemic. "And we're going to figure it out and we're going to find out and we're very angry about it."

Moments later, Trump blamed China while discussing extending a freeze on home evictions due to the pandemic. He signed an executive order Saturday extending the federal protections from evictions after a moratorium lapsed in late July.

"It's not their fault. The virus came from China. It's China's fault," he said.

Using a racially charged term, Trump also claimed nearly half of all deaths in the U.S. from the "China virus" are in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

The virus, which emerged from Wuhan, China, a little over seven months ago, has infected more than 20 million people worldwide and killed at least 732,128, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. has the worst outbreak in the world with more than 5 million cases and at least 162,950 deaths, Hopkins data shows.

Trump has repeatedly blamed China for causing the pandemic and exacerbating it in the U.S., saying China early on hid the extent of its outbreak. And earlier in the year, Trump pulled funding the World Health Organization, accusing the agency of being "China-centric."

However, public health experts say the Trump administration failing to act quickly to contain the virus, a lack of a coordinated response between the federal government and states and early missteps on testing are among the top reasons the U.S. has so many cases.

Trump also touted Monday the nation's progress with the pandemic, saying U.S. health officials are continuing to see "encouraging signs." He said the rate of new cases continue to decline in Florida and Texas as well as hospitalizations. The U.S. is continuing to monitor states in the Midwest, which have seen an uptick in the rate of coronavirus tests that come back positive.

"I do want to say that at the end of a very short period of time we will be in good shape in this country," he said.
The United States surpassed five million coronavirus cases on Sunday, the most in the world.

The figures were released Sunday by Johns Hopkins University, which said the U.S. death toll is above 162,000.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has released a model predicting nearly 300,000 deaths by December 1 if Americans dont start consistently wearing face masks.

IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray said in a statement that if 95% of Americans started wearing masks, more than 66,000 lives would be saved.

Meanwhile, Brazil has become the second country in the world to pass 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus, second to the United States.

Brazils President, Jair Bolsonaro, said last week he had a clear conscience despite the toll. Bolsonaro himself survived COVID-19 last month and said he had done everything possible to save lives. Because of insufficient tests, experts say, the number of Brazilians with the virus could be six times higher.

Mexicos Health Ministry reported nearly 6,500 new COVID infections Saturday and almost 700 deaths. Mexico follows only the U.S. and Brazil in the numbers of COVID deaths. Mexico has more than 46,000 COVID deaths, according to John Hopkins University data.

In France, the government ordered face masks must be worn outside in busy areas  except around some tourist sites, including the Eiffel Tower. The government said the French tourism industry has lost at least $35-$47 billion due to the health crisis.

"The French are participating massively in the revival of the tourism sector by favoring France," and 70% of those who have gone on vacation have chosen to stay in their country, Secretary of State for Tourism Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche.

New mask mandates went into effect Saturday in Britain where people are now required to wear masks in most indoor settings. In England and Scotland, masks must be worn in places of worship, banks, libraries and in many other indoor places.

Masks were already required in shops and on public transit, but more stringent measures were imposed to contain a surge in coronavirus infections in Britain after easing lockdown requirements.

Travelers arriving in Germany from most non-European countries and regions within the European Union with high infection rates must now undergo testing for the coronavirus Travelers from high-risk areas were previously required to self-quarantine for 14 days or until they could produce a negative test.

Australia recorded 404 new cases Sunday  10 in New South Wales and 394 in Victoria. Seventeen deaths were reported in Victoria.

New Zealand reports it has experienced 100 days of zero community transmission of the coronavirus.
Demonstrations broke out across Belarus on Sunday after a government exit poll predicted that President Aleksander Lukashenko, an authoritarian who has ruled the Eastern European country since 1994, had swept to overwhelming victory over a pro-democracy opposition candidate.

...

The state of play: Opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a teacher who replaced her husband on the ticket when he was arrested for launching his campaign, is claiming victory based on results from 20 polling stations, where a spokesman told the Globe and Mail her vote share was "two, three, four times" that of Lukashenko.

The government exit poll that triggered Sunday's protests, which had been ongoing at a smaller scale for weeks, showed Lukashenko with 79.7% of the vote and Tikhanovskaya with 6.8%.

The country's Central Election Commission said that more complete results would be coming on Monday, according to Politico.

In the meantime, thousands of Belarusians have taken to the streets in cities all over the country to protest the allegedly rigged results.

They've been met in many instances with riot police and other security forces, who have been documented on social media deploying tear gas and violently attacking protesters.

Convoys of military personnel were filmed moving into the capital of Minsk, where main roads into the city have been blocked off. The internet was also reported to have been shut down late Sunday.

What they're saying: "As neighbors of Belarus, we call on Belarusian authorities to fully recognize and uphold basic democratic standards," the presidents of Poland and Lithuania said in a joint statement.
Zoe Kravitz cut a casual figure in a vintage Bob Marley and the Wailers T-shirt, as she stepped out for coffee with her dog in New York City on Sunday.

While displaying her affinity for the Jamaican reggae band across her chest, the 31-year-old Big Little Lies star stayed safe in a black CDC-recommended face mask.

As she kept a tight hold on her beloved pup Scout, the beauty could be seen walking around in a pair of green New Balance trainers and purple sweatpants.

Keeping it casual: Zoe Kravitz looked effortlessly chic, as she stepped out for coffee with her dog in New York City on Sunday

As she enjoyed the fresh air, Kravitz looked effortlessly chic in her thin cat-eye shades and just a few pieces of ink from her expansive tattoo collection showing.

Despite revealing the cancellation of her critically acclaimed series High Fidelity last week, the actress appeared in high spirits.

On Friday, she publicly spoke out about Hulu's lack of diverse programming on her Instagram account.

Doting dog mom: For her outing, the 31-year-old Big Little Lies star donned a vintage Bob Marley and the Wailers band t-shirt and a pair of purple sweatpants

In an exchange with her pal Tessa Thompson, who wrote a consoling comment on Kravitz's farewell post, the Gemini star took a jab at the streaming service.

'@tessamaethompson it's cool,' Zoe replied. 'At least hulu has a ton of other shows starring women of color we can watch. oh wait.'

The series was based on the book by Nick Hornby, who is famous for his books and films including Fever Pitch and About a Boy.

Doing well: Despite revealing the cancellation of her critically acclaimed series High Fidelity last week, the actress appeared in high spirits

Since the show's cancellation after just one season, Zoe has had only kind words for her High Fidelity colleagues.

'I wanna give a shout out to my #highfidelity family,' said the X-Men: First Class star, who led the show and executive produced it, on Wednesday. 'Thank you for all the love and heart you put into this show.'

The Divergent beauty continued: 'I'm in awe of all of you. and thank you to everyone who watched, loved and supported us.'

Parting ways: Zoe previously had kind words for her colleagues on High Fidelity after Hulu announced the show's cancellation after one season on Wednesday

All alone: Zoe sarcastically replied to Tessa Thompson's condolences and noted Hulu's lack of shows starring women of color

Zoe, the daughter of rocker Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet, added an emoji of a peace out sign with the hashtag, #breakupssuck.

She also shared a montage of shots of herself with the show's cast.

The kind words came as Deadline reported that Hulu informed show officials that the series was not renewed.

The show, based on the 1995 book and 2000 film starring John Cusack, featured Zoe in the lead role of Robyn 'Rob' Brooks, and costarred DaVine Joy Randolph, Jake Lacy and David H. Holmes.

NY state of mind: The adapted show was based on a record store based in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn

It was based on a record store based in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City.

According to Deadline, Hulu went back and forth on canceling the show, which received positive feedback from critics and fans, and gave serious consideration to renewing it.

Zoe also posted a number of fan art on her Instagram Stories and inspiring messages about the show, amid the cancellation news.
Ghislaine Maxwell is currently facing sex trafficking charges, arising from her relationship with the late Jeffrey Epstein. The entire scandal has caused citizens all over the world to question establishments such as congress, the presidency, and Hollywood. Epstein was known to rub shoulders with everyone from current and former presidents, to international movie stars. Maxwell wasn't far behind. She can be spotted in pictures with some of the world's most popular people. According to The UK Sun, Maxwell was giddy as a schoolgirl after having oral sex with one of those celebrities.

The UK Sun, citing court documents, revealed that one of Epstein and Maxwell's alleged victims, Virginia Giuffre, reported the story. Giuffre had her book unsealed by a New York judge last week. In the book, she writes, "One [time] she came back giddy as a schoolgirl with an explosion of news, with all the build up and excitement in her voice youd think she was the next crown princess," speaking of Maxwell. "But she had given George Clooney a bw j-b in the bathroom at some random event.  She never let that one down.

The 139-page manuscript, entitled The Billionaires Playboy Club, claims that Maxwell loved to brag about her rendezvous with various lovers. According to The UK Sun, there is no information in the manuscript connecting Clooney with underage girls, Epsteins sex trafficking, or other crimes.
The Vietnam business of Japanese retail giant AEON has apologized after a photo of rats sneaking onto its food stall at a Ho Chi Minh City mall went viral on social media.

The photo, which was posted on Facebook by a customer last weekend, appeared to show two small rodents inside a cabinet displaying ready-to-serve foods in the Delica section at AEON Mall Tan Phu Celadon in Tan Phu District.

The area, localed on the ground floor of the shopping mall, has over 250 seats, offering an extensive menu with multiple choices of Vietnamese and Japanese cuisines, from sweets, drinks, coffee, ice-cream and cakes to ready-to-eat foods.

In a press release posted on the website of AEON Vietnam Co. Ltd. on Sunday, the company confirmed the incident.

AEON Vietnam would like to send our sincerely apologizes [sic] to our customers for this incident. We have promptly implemented countermeasures to bring peace of mind to our customer and avoid the same incident to happen again, the statement reads in English.

The company said it has temporarily closed the food counter in question to clean its shelves, food trays, cookware, and floor.

The counter will not be reopened until repairs are completed.

All other cabinets, counters, and shelves in the entire Delica area were also reviewed.

The retail chain said that it always complies with food hygiene and safety requirements and procedures, while making every effort to bring the best experience and products to consumers.

AEON operates six shopping malls in Vietnam, including two in Ho Chi Minh City, two in Hanoi, one in the northern city of Hai Phong, and one in the southern province of Binh Duong.

The Japanese corporate had been present in Vietnam since 2009 before launching the AEON Tan Phu Celadon  its first mall in the Southeast Asian country  five years later.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
The Assembly, a self-described "wellness club" marketed primarily towards women and located in a 100-year-old church just off the Mission District's Valencia Street, is closing permanently. Members of the club (of which there were 630 in January) paid a $250 monthly fee to access a coworking space, fitness classes and "wellness" activities such as acupuncture, cupping sessions, manicures and even tarot reading sessions.

When the pandemic hit, none of these activities could continue in person, but The Assembly quickly pivoted to a $60/month digital wellness club, complete with online workouts and workshops. But it wasn't enough to save the space  mostly, it was just a way to keep their instructors employed for as long as possible.

"It became pretty obvious wed be unable to make the financials of the businesses work out," explained co-founder Molly Goodson. "Even with the current structure of our lease, on top of that almost half of our revenue came from events of over 150 people, and those aren't coming back any time soon ... It's been a heartbreaking and heartwrenching situation the past five months to make it work without having the landlord on our side and ready to make a deal that worked with us."

Coworking spaces across the globe aren't exactly thriving at the moment  WeWork, for example, has taken a severe financial hit from the pandemic. Goodson pointed out that the open floor plan of spaces like The Assembly is also not conducive to a coronavirus-safe redesign.

"The space is best when you find 80 people sitting in every seat, side-by-side and as close as possible," she said. "Thinking about dividing the space out, and all the distancing measures, it's not a space designed for that  it's a big open church space."

But, with a massive population of people adapting to remote work for the first time, Goodson does think there will be a future for coworking spaces when it's finally safe to gather indoors again.

RELATED: German cafe in the Castro announces permanent closure

"I do fundamentally believe people are really going to want to get back together in spaces when they can," she said. "...I'm interested in seeing what the next iteration of it looks like. With a lot of people working from home, they are going to be at home most of the time, but they're going to want the outlet of a place they can go to for a few hours for a change of scenery or a break."

Goodson is holding out hope for a "next act" for The Assembly, and is keeping most of the club's furniture in storage just in case. Since they announced the closure on Friday, the business has received an outpouring of support from members and their over 42,000 Instagram followers.

"Im incredibly grateful," said Goodson. "I wanted to create something very San Francisco  that was always a goal. I want to just always urge people to continue to support the spaces that you love that are trying to make it work, and find a way to keep all the small businesses of San Francisco alive."

Madeline Wells is an SFGATE reporter. Email: madeline.wells@sfgate.com | Twitter: @madwells22
Analyzing the data

After new COVID-19 cases had seemingly plateaued in Athens during July, the county saw a marked increase in the rate of new cases last week. From Aug. 3-9, Athens reported 330 new cases, 23.1% more than from July 27-Aug. 2. It is the second straight week Athens reported 57 or more cases than the previous week.

Analyzing this data comes with a couple of caveats. First, county data can fluctuate from week to week, so it may be too early to draw trends with certainty. Second, Georgia does not break down testing numbers on the county level, so it is unclear how much of the increase in cases can be attributed to changes in testing. Still, a rise in new confirmed cases is concerning, especially with the start of in-person classes at the University of Georgia less than two weeks away and dorm move-in taking place at the end of this week.

Athens also reported another COVID-19 death last week, bringing the total death toll to 18. It is the third death recorded in the past two weeks. Athens had nearly gone two months before that without a death.

Although the rate of new coronavirus cases may be rising in Athens, it seems to be declining statewide. Last week, Georgia reported 23,419 new cases, down from the 25,224 cases reported the previous week. Furthermore, the seven-day average positivity rate fell to 10% on Aug. 9  the lowest it has been since late June.

However, despite improving case numbers, deaths rose statewide compared to last week. From Aug. 3-9, Georgia reported 359 deaths, 5.0% more than the 342 reported from July 27-Aug. 2. Georgias weekly death toll has been steadily rising since early July.

However, the rate of new deaths may start to fall in the coming weeks. According to the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, the number of current hospitalizations has been decreasing, falling from 3,069 on Aug. 2 to 2,878 on Aug. 9. This suggests the number of serious cases of COVID-19 is dropping.

In the news

With the start of the fall semester looming, the University of Georgia is coming under increasing scrutiny for its handling of the coronavirus and pressure to change its reopening plans.

After UGA housing employee Ana Cabrera died on July 24, anonymous sources told The Red & Black that she had tested positive for COVID-19. On Aug. 7, Athens-Clarke County Coroner Sonny Wilson confirmed Cabrera died due to COVID-19. Despite Wilsons confirmation, UGA has not said whether Cabrera died from COVID-19.

In addition, on Aug. 4, university administration held a Zoom call to discuss its plans for the fall semester. According to Rahul Shrivastav, vice president for instruction, most classes will be on-campus with social distancing measures in place. Some classes will be moved online, and some are going to a hybrid model with some online and in-person classes.

The university wants to test 300 asymptomatic student, faculty and staff volunteers a day. By comparison, Georgia Tech plans to test 1,500 asymptomatic people a day. There was also no explanation as to why UGA will not test all students, faculty and staff before they return to campus. UGA hopes to isolate students who test positive as soon as possible.

Yet many in the UGA community are not satisfied with the universitys plan for reopening. Frustrated students, faculty and staff held a die-in to protest the universitys fall reopening on Aug. 6. That came after the faculty senates of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and Mary Frances Early College of Education submitted a letter on July 28 to UGA administration calling the universitys plan to test 300 asymptomatic people per day clearly inadequate.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Only 8% of teachers felt comfortable returning to school full time during the coronavirus pandemic -- though teachers are still worried for the consequences for distance learning, according to a recent Ohio Federation of Teachers survey.

Among the top concerns for returning to school include community spread and potential negative health effects for the community, as well as the potential long-term effects for teachers, students and families. About 35% of the members were in a high-risk population for COVID-19.

The Ohio Federation of Teachers represents 55 unions with about 22,000 members. The survey, focused on back-to-school, gathered just over 1,700 responses. The American Federation of Teachers, the national organization, recently approved a resolution which would back last-resort efforts to protect staff and students, including safety strikes.

About 66% of respondents said they would be most comfortable with full-time distance learning, either until COVID-19 cases decline significantly (36.24%) or for the full fall semester (29.98%).

The majority of teachers were also either unsure, disagree or strongly disagree with the plan their school district chose for the fall, and are unsure, disagree or strongly disagree that schools can appropriately prepare for social distancing.

Teachers were also asked to select reasons they would be concerned for remote learning. The responses, ranked from most selected to least selected, were:

-- Growing disparities between students due to differences in income and access to technology (65.54%)

-- Social and emotional impact on the students (61.46%)

-- Students falling behind on academic progress (58.31%)

-- Difficulty in providing students with meals, health services, and other essential resources and services (44.31%)

-- Growing disparities between students due to differences in race, ethnicity or language (43.09%)

-- I have no major concerns about distance learning (10.73%)

Less than 3% of teachers said they would resign based on their districts current plan, and less than 1% said they would retire.
KYIV. Aug 10 (Interfax-Ukraine)  Ukrainian MP from the European solidarity faction, member of the Ukrainian parliamentary delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Oleksiy Honcharenko declares his intention to raise the issue of political prisoners in Belarus in the PACE.

"At the next meeting in the PACE, I will definitely raise the issue of political prisoners in Belarus," Honcharenko said at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency in Kyiv on Monday.

The MP also believes that Kyiv can become a platform for negotiations between President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and the opposition.
The Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, has written to President Muhammadu Buhari, refuting claims that he is corrupt and has embezzled public funds.

Vanguard newspaper reported that Mr Malami, who is also the Minister of Justice, listed in the letter the sources of his income before he became a minister and how he came about them, claiming that he is not corrupt and has never taken a dime from the public.

The ministers letter was in reaction to a demand by a group, Kanuri Collective Agenda, calling on Mr Buhari to sack the AGF over allegations of corruption and insubordination levelled against the former acting chairman of Nigerias anti-graft agency, EFCC.

Mr Magu and Mr Malami have had repeated disagreements on the anti-corruption war and many Nigerians, including a member of a presidential adviser on anti-corruption, Femi Odekunle, believe Mr Magus ordeal is part of a power play with Mr Malami.

Mr Magu has denied any wrongdoing, while the presidency has said Mr Magus investigation was a sign there was no sacred cow in Mr Buharis anti-corruption fight.

AGF reacts

Mr Malami, in his letter reacting to the groups petition against him, drew the presidents attention to the fact that he filed his assets declaration with the Code of Conduct Bureau(CCB) in 2015 when he was first appointed minister and also did same in July last year upon his re-appointment into the same position in his government.

The AGF said he was compelled to write to the Presidency in order to clear his name and set the records straight, in the wake of what appeared as a deliberate campaign of calumny by his detractors to tarnish his hard-earned reputation, an act for which he had already sued one of the online publishers.

He said, I have taken a personal decision to seek remedy from the court as a result of the series of derogatory contents so published against me. In the same vein, I have written the Inspector General of Police to investigate the matter.

I, nonetheless, felt it is imperative to write Your Excellency on the subject above. This is because the crux of their campaign is to falsely portray me as a corrupt officer who used public office to acquire wealth and build an empire.

On the contrary Your Excellency, since my appointment as a minister in your cabinet, I have conducted myself strictly within the confines of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers contained in Part 1 of the Fifth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, as amended.

It is to be noted that apart from my successful legal practice of more than 20 years, seven of which were as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, before my appointment, I have as allowed by law had interests in business ventures, all of which I had resigned from active participation upon my appointment.

Among other things, I owned lucrative business ventures of Rayhaan Hotels and Rayhaan Food & Drinks, both in Kano, since December 13, 2013, years before the 2015 election that saw to the victory of President Muhamadu Buhari as the President and long before I was appointed to be a Minister in the first term.

That informs why those items were included among 27 property listed in the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, Form filled by Malami when he was first appointed a minister.

Apart from the above as income from the government, Your Excellency is invited to also note that while the Code of Conduct for Public Officers prohibits my active participation in the running of my already established ventures, it does not preclude me from gaining the fruit of my establishments. Hence, earnings from mainly the hotels, restaurants, farms are used to either improve these ventures or to expand and build new ones. In all these, the requirement of the law is that I declare at the point of exit from office as I have declared at the point of entry.

On assumption of office in 2015, I had course as a constitutional requirement to file my assets declaration form at the point of assuming duty as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria detailing my assets which include: my houses (both residential and others) farmlands, hotel, school and other enterprises.

Statements of accounts from all my banks were also submitted to the Code of Conduct which were duly verified as is the procedure after submission is made. A copy of the form is attached hereto as annexure1, should Your Excellency wish to personally review it.

As a public officer, my sources of income were streamlined and narrowed to my entitlements from the government coffers. These entitlements come in the form of salaries, allowances and estacodes. For the period, I have served as a Minister (for the 1st term) starting from November 11, 2015, to May 28, 2019, the cumulative figure of what constitutes these entitlements is as provided for in our laws relating to the salary and emoluments of political office holders.

He said, As Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, I pledge to continue to uphold the highest ideals in respecting the professionalism of the Office and to continue to serve the Government with the best intent in mind in order to enable President Buharis administration achieve all the development goals set out.

The minister also attached the Code of Conduct Bureau forms he filled, the statement of accounts of all the businesses he owned regarding the turnover, covering the period of his appointment to date, the report added.
METUCHEN, N.J., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Tevogen Bio announces a joint partnership with renowned bone-marrow transplant expert Neal Flomenberg, M.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Medical Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University, with the intent to evaluate Tevogen' s proprietary antigen-specific T cell technology as a potential treatment for COVID-19 and influenza-A patients.

This collaboration aims to harness Tevogen's proprietary immunotherapy platform and Dr. Flomenberg's expertise and research prowess to investigate potential treatments for viral infections.

Dr. Flomenberg has been at the forefront of immunogenetics and immunology for more than four decades. "Tevogen's technology resonated with me as there have been several groups who have used T cells to treat patients after bone-marrow transplants. The idea of utilizing T cell therapies to potentially treat COVID-19 and other viruses is truly remarkable," Flomenberg said. "I'm enthusiastic about moving forward with an investigation of Tevogen's technologies."

Tevogen CEO Ryan Saadi, M.D., M.P.H., is leading the new biotech's efforts. "Our work has been to pioneer T cell therapies that can be abundantly and efficiently reproduced to develop an affordable and scalable cellular treatment for the biggest global health threats, including COVID-19, influenza, and a variety of cancers. We are very excited about Dr. Flomenberg's contribution to our efforts and hope to initiate our investigational study soon."

In addition to developing its potential therapies, Tevogen is committed to organizational and manufacturing efficiency. This should allow it to engage in affordable innovation to the benefit of all patients.

About Tevogen Bio

Tevogen Bio was formed after decades of research by its contributors to concentrate and leverage their expertise, spanning multiple sectors of the health care industry, to help address some of the most common and deadly illnesses known today. The company's mission is to provide curative and preventative treatments that are affordable and scalable in order to positively impact global public health.

About Dr. Neal Flomenberg

Dr. Neal Flomenberg is the Chairman of Medical Oncology at Jefferson University in Philadelphia and also heads the Hematologic Malignancies, Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BMT) Program. Throughout his more than four decades of practice, he has maintained a longstanding interest in the immunogenetics and immunology of stem cell transplantation, with the goal of making transplantation safer and more widely available. Dr. Flomenberg developed an approach to bone-marrow transplants that uses half-matched relatives as donors, a breakthrough that assures that the majority of blood and bone-marrow cancer patients can benefit from this potentially curative treatment.

Media Contacts:

Mark Irion

[email protected]

Katelyn Petroka

[email protected]

SOURCE Tevogen Bio
Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 10.08.2020:

Beirut blast death toll has exceeded 200, BBC reported referring to Governor of the Lebanese capital Marwan Abboud.

According to him, there are dozens of missing persons, and many of them are foreign workers.

In the meantime, an international donor conference has raised 252.7 million euros to help Lebanon, the dpa agency reported referring to the entourage of President Emmanuel Macron, who presided over an online conference organized by France and the UN.

Armenia has already sent its aid to Beirut.

Medical drugs and medical supplies were sent to the Lebanese people on board.

And with the flights from Armenia scheduled for Sunday and August 11, aidespecially material goods and foodwill be sent to the Armenian community of Beirut amid Tuesdays powerful blast.

Another plane left for Beirut Sunday on a special flight to deliver humanitarian aid from Armenia.

It is written, "From the people of Artsakh to Lebanon," on the boxes sent.

As of 11am Monday, 23 new cases COVID-19 were confirmed in Armenia, and five more people have died.

Thus, as of Monday morning, a total of 40,433 people have been infected with the coronavirus, 6,793 people are receiving treatment, and 32,616 infected people have recovered.

Also, 340 COVID-19 tests were performed in Armenia in the past one day, and a total of 176,354 tests were performed to date.

A total of 796 deaths from the coronavirus have been recorded so far.

A Yerevan court upheld the motion to reestablish the pretrial detention of former MP Levon Sargsyan, Gor Abrahamyan, Adviser to the Prosecutor General, told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

To note, on March 20, Russia had granted the Armenian side's petition to extradite Sargsyan to the Armenian law enforcement agencies, and the extradition took place on August 6.

In November, Levon Sargsyan, 51, was found and detained in Zelenograd, Russia.He has been wanted by the Armenian law enforcement since October 2018.

Levon Sargsyan is charged with ordering the robbery attack on the house of Armen Avetisyan, former Head of State Customs Committee of Armenia, 11 years ago.

The opposition in Belarus has rejected official election results giving President Aleksandr Lukashenko a re-election victory on Monday. According to them, the poll was rigged and that talks needed to begin on a peaceful transfer of power.

The streets in the capital Minsk on Sunday night were crowded as riot police used force to disperse thousands of protesters who had gathered to denounce what they said was an electoral farce. Belarus police fired water cannons, tear gas, and stun grenades.

Over 50 citizens and 39 police officers have been injured in Belarus' riots, official spokesman for the Ministry of Health Yulia Borodun told Sputnik-Belarus.

According to Ursula von der Leyen's tweet, "harassment & violent repression of peaceful protesters has no place in Europe."

"Fundamental rights in Belarus must be respected," she added.

[UPDATE] High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell and European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood and Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi made a joint statement in connection with the presidential elections in Belarus.

"The election night was marred with disproportionate and unacceptable state violence against peaceful protesters. This reportedly resulted in the loss of life of one citizen and many others have been injured. We condemn the violence and call for the immediate release of all detained during last night. The Belarusian authorities must ensure that the fundamental right of peaceful assembly is respected," the statement noted.

Aleksandr Lukashenko is winning the presidential elections in Belarus with 80.23% of the vote, according to preliminary data from the Central Election Commission.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 22:10:10|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- China's national observatory on Monday issued a blue alert for rainstorms in several provinces and regions for the next 24 hours.

From 8 p.m. Monday to 8 p.m. Tuesday, heavy rains and rainstorms are expected to hit parts of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Sichuan Basin, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, as well as Gansu, Fujian, Guangxi, Heilongjiang and Yunnan, the National Meteorological Center said.

The center warned that areas in the provinces of Fujian and Gansu, as well as some areas of Sichuan Basin, will experience downpours.

Some aforementioned regions will see over 70 mm of hourly precipitation, accompanied by thunderstorms and strong winds, the center said.

The center advised local authorities to remain alert for possible flooding, landslides and mudslides, and recommended halting outdoor operations in hazardous areas.

China has a four-tier, color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe, followed by orange, yellow, and blue. Enditem
Arizona News

Phoenix, Arizona - Yesterday, the Arizona Department of Health Services released Benchmarks to help guide decisions by public school districts and charter schools on when to offer virtual, hybrid, or in-person instruction amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Benchmarks were developed in response to Governor Duceys June 23 Executive Order, Arizona: Open for Learning, and align with the Arizona Department of Education Roadmap for Reopening Schools. The Benchmarks also use public health data guided by recommendations from county, state, and federal experts to inform our schools on implementing a safe return to the classroom.



Heres what others are saying about Arizonas School Benchmarks:

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman

The public health benchmarks released today by the Arizona Department of Health Services provide our school communities much needed clarity on the safe reopening of schools. 8/6/20



KTAR: Arizona Announces School Benchmarks For In-Person Learning

Arizona health officials released much-anticipated benchmarks Thursday on how schools will be able to open for in-person instruction this academic year Additionally, Arizona will offer free coronavirus testing for students, staff and families in conjunction with a handful of districts to start and that could grow. 8/6/20



Arizona Medical Association

ArMA appreciated the inclusion of Arizona's physicians in the benchmarks decided for reopening schools. We believe data-driven decisions must be made to protect our students, teachers, and communities. 8/6/20



AZ Family: Arizona Health Officials Issue Guidelines For Safe Return To In-Person Learning

"The plan gives details about how kids can make a safe return. The State of Arizona recommends there should be "minimal community spread" to resume in-person schooling. That would be fewer than 10 new cases per 100,000 people, less than a 5% positivity rate, and less than 5% cases of COVID-like illness." 8/6/20



Arizona Republic: Health Officials Release Data Benchmarks To Help School Leaders Decide When To Reopen Schools

"Under Ducey's current executive order, schools must consider the benchmarks set by health officials, along with guidance from county health officials. Schools also must open in some capacity on Aug. 17 for students with no place to go during the day." 8/6/20



Arizona Public Health Association Will Humble, KTAR Interview

Theyve got percent positivity in there which is a really important metric. Theyve got the trend of new cases, which is an important thing to include... In terms of putting out solid guidance, kudos to the Department of Education, the county health departments and the State Health Department for putting something solid together. 8/6/20



Arizona Hospital Association

We cant lose this hard fought progress by sending students and teachers back to the classroom without following sound public health measures, guidelines and interventions. We encourage school boards to work closely with their county public health agencies to open schools safely. 8/6/20
10.08.2020 LISTEN

He came with his entourage, a motor caravan of V8 Land Cruisers in their numbers, to the Western Region. It was a spectacular unimaginable in Germany, so common in Africa. Ministers, Government Officials, Honorable Members of Parliament, Press Corps, local Royals, and representatives from the Indian company involved all gathered under canopies. Lasting a whole morning in the bush around Komenda, the day long expected finally had come. Facing the coming elections few months down the line President Malcom Osei took great pleasure and pride to have made his way all from Accra to inaugurate a project that most certainly in is few increase his chances to be reelected in the December election, outsmarting his old rival, old not only long time standing rival, old in the sense of his years lived already. When no Media House was around and people of political parties were small in their numbers, both men sat side by side laughing cracking jokes they had learned in Moscow or Oxford. President Osei even teased his opponent and mentioned his small size, his little statue that was big in the papers, while in return had to hear the question why on earth in Ghana Presidents wives do not look charming and beautiful. As African men, they laughed, they enjoyed women with big hips and bottoms; unlike the taste of the White Man that goes for slim ladies more, slim once with no gigantic breast that would easily knock a men down while her sitting on him during sex. The small sized rival during such often occasions would never stop asking him whether or not he still enjoyed his portrait branded on the Aayalolo Bus Rapid Transport buses along with all former Presidents saying the photo used made him look pretty smart indeed. Yes, of course the lady that was awarded the contract had cheated on the State of Ghana but in the end paid back half of the money asked for mounting to half a Million Cedis. Oh, absolutely true, when not under observation and scrutiny of the public, both were real buddies in mind. The differences in their political belief was marketing seeing politics as a game after all to write themselves into history book of the Nation and having a jolly good time travelling the world to be honoured by many Heads of States and welcomed by citizens of foreign lands that had no idea, no time to think behind the smiling and respective looking faces, yet still wondering why they had come to their foreign lands asking for financial and political support as their very own country had all needed natural resources to be great and strong.

"Protocol observed," ended President Malcom Osei his introduction seeing the gathered crowd that could have used the time very productively in their schools, factories, Government buildings and offices while sitting well protected under the erected long and wide canopies rented from a local dealer for the day. Finger food stood ready at long tables with drinks all paid for by the Ghanaian Taxpayer, God bless him. "As we have promised in our Manifesto before he came into office, what we see now here is the promised fulfilled. As a President of this country I am most grateful that the Indian contractor was able to fulfill its promise as well based on a well negotiated contract and very transparent procurement process observed beforehand, so that this region can be very happy today indeed. As we all stand before this new and modern factory, the Komenda Sugar Factory, we as a Nation can be immensely proud of ourselves indeed. The import of sugar from other countries in the past years has hit our currency and weakened our economy. We as a country all know that what we consume we must produce mostly here in Ghana and not import from outside. Let me remind you of my widely seen and appreciated interview before I left Davos from the World Economic Forum two years ago that a friend had called me asking me to bring chocolate home from Switzerland has in that country the best chocolate in the world is manufactured and while I was standing at the Airport about to departure back to Ghana my mind was set on the idea and conclusion that as Switzerland is not having and cocoa farms but we here in Ghana in fact grow the best cocoa beans in the entire wide world, for that reason the best chocolate should come from us. And now as we are gathered here all in our great numbers to support a great new history of our beloved Motherland Ghana...we are supposed to close our ranks and reduce the import of sugar but produce it by ourselves form our very own sugar cane that we will grow in big volumes here around the area. The local chief has just told me how much his people appreciate our initiative and I was humbled by his best wishes for my government and our upcoming elections. He has wished us as a party well and prays that we will win over our rivals that are not only small in numbers, but also small in size. .... Yes, I know you are all laughing about this joke as we all know the person I am talking about, someone with a great heart but a confused mind and wrong solutions for the immense problems this country is facing. Therefore I am so happy today to stand right before you and look at this Komenda Sugar Factory that will eventually employ seven thousand people in direct and indirect jobs, a great initiative of my Administration indeed in an area where jobs are not available in big numbers. So, as we inaugurate today this Factory...," unexpectedly did President Malcom Osei stop and looked around the place, starred into the eyes of the people gathered to find inner hold to his mind. He was shaking and tried to make sense of it all. He opened his eyes wide; he closes them for moments; he felt the hands of his personal body-guard under his right arm to support him and hold him upright. President Osei opened his eyes again, looked confused into the eyes of Victor Ataba unable to think straight.

"Mister President...please Sir...are you okay?" asked Victor Ataba stationed at Castle Osu. He felt his pistol at his belt. "Please Sir...are you alright?"

"He has come!" answered President Malcom Osei. "He has come!"

"Sorry, Mr. President...Who has come?" was Victor Ataba confused and at a loss of how best to help his Boss to avoid any embarrassment in public.

"I can feel it...he has come!" whispered President Malcom Osei as his voice failed him.

""Who is HE...Mister President?" kept Victor Ataba his arms round President Osei looking over to Okoro, the small sized man responsible for the management of the cars of the Presidency and signaled him with his eyes not to move otherwise more and more confusion and irritation would air the waves.

"I can feel it in me...he has come...touched down yesterday. I do not know where he is from and I do not know where he is at the moment right now. But I can feel it...he is here, and he is dangerous. He has come to expose me, you, and all of us...and we will have to fight him back, very serious. And if he does not stop, we have to stop him for good. We cannot allow him to tell the whole wide world the truth about us...never ever. What we do is our own business and not to be criticized in anyway, especially not from White People. This country is our own business, our own affair."

Victor Ataba had a hard time to keep President Malcom Osei upright on his feet. He looks him straight in the eye. As the President saw the gun Victor Ataba was carrying at his belt and the strength which he was holding him in both of his eyes, so deep brown, so confident, so obeying, he slowly made it back to the microphone and proclaimed: "Ghana might shake for a moment but will rise always above all problems that we have to face in our great country. Let us all see this Komenda Sugar Factory as a great symbol of what we Ghanaians are capable of to accomplish and lets all learn from our mistakes made in the past. Yes, we all have eyes to see and we all know much went wrong in years that are behind us. Cars procured standing idle behind Ministries, cars we once paid much money for and never used them. The silos in Tema port built to store cocoa beans when the price for this commodity is low yet never in use. No, my fellow Ghanaians, these times are truly over and with this Komenda Sugar Factory I promise you, we as a Party and Administration will not only have fulfilled our Manifesto promises but open a new chapter in the history of our great Motherland Ghana. This factory stands as a great symbol for a great mind, a vision for real, hard work, endurance, improved economy, honesty where corruption has no place anymore and innovation. Innovation in minds of our people is so vital to our success. Idea seen in innovations is the gold of the future. We in this world no longer live in darkness of hard work with our hands making them dirty but are part of a global economy that sits on ideas and makes themselves rich by just thinking and doing as they think. That is the revelation of our modern age. So, let us use this great opportunity to toast to ourselves and a new...a renewed Ghana that makes our country great and strong...and rich!"

The people attending got up and applauded President Malcom Osei. They could not stop to praise him for what he had done. Of course, they all knew deep in their hearts the money paid for the factory was not out of the personal money purse of President Malcom Osei but of the Taxpayers money purse, yet their conscience ignored the reality.

President Malcom Osei asked Victor Ataba to come and the body-guard bowed over to him said: "Find me this White Man that has come to Ghana. I want you personally to find him, observe him closely and if anything is suspicious about him, that he might become a treat to my Administration and legacy, I want to know it all. So, you personally are responsible for my safety from any evil plotted against me from this White Man that has touched down in our country yesterday. I can feel him deep inside me. And I do not want to have any sleepless nights that he behind my back without me knowing about him has, without me seeing his face and what his mind is up to...to do any foolish thing against me and my Administration. You must promise me that!"

"Yes, Mister President, I will do as you have ordered me to do and save your life and your Presidency against anyone intending to harm you. I hear you, Mister President," said Victor Ataba before stepping back to the place reserved for the many body-guards that had stepped out of Castle Osu to protect the President of the Nation.

"The people in this country are funny people...that is what I sense," mentioned Mr. Karl laughing.

"What do you mean, Sir?" asked Joseph Trebarh while sitting together with the entire family around the breakfast table with a wax print tablecloth that had seen better days.

"I sense this is a great country, truly blessed by God. But, as the country is great, I feel the people are the problem. When we Germans come down here and handle your affairs, Ghana will be a paradise in the shortest possible time. But when all Ghanaians leave for Germany my country will be destroyed and ruined in the shortest possible time, I believe!" laughed Mr. Karl and enjoyed the laughter of his hosts.

"You have all the time of your life to prove your point," mentioned Princess and emptied the table after everyone had eaten his piece of sugar bread two days old.

"All the time of my life?" smiled Mr. Karl teasing his new friend he was in love with. "There is also something in life called ending, isnt it?"

"But not you, Mr. Karl," was Princess guiding her German older friend to the door ready to show him the rest of the place and meet some of her friends and neighbors. "You will live long and forever!"

"Only a stone is forever!"

Princess stood still, looked up to him and said: "Than we will erect a stone for you! We surely will!"

"Before you do that...great lady, the best friend I have here around," stepped Mr. Karl out of the apartment and into the heat of the morning, "let me live first." He had a certain twinkle in his eyes which Princess responded to and twinkled back. Her smile was all over her face.
After plunging in April, consumer sentiment in housing began a promising recovery.

Home sales surged and beat expectations; homebuilders reported buyer traffic was, well, through the roof, and online housing-related searches soared.

Consumer confidence in housing now appears to be weakening, but consumer curiosity is not.

Fannie Mae's monthly Home Purchase Sentiment Index fell back in July. The percentage of respondents who said it was a good time to buy a home decreased from 61% to 53%. Those who said it was a bad time to buy increased from 27% to 38%.

Some of the drop can be attributed to a rise in Covid-19 cases in July and growing concern over more parts of the economy shutting down again. Home prices were also a factor.

"Supply constraints appear to be applying upward pressure to consumers' home price expectations, which in turn has contributed to both a sharp reversal in optimism about whether it is a good time to buy a home and further improvement in home-selling sentiment," said Doug Duncan, chief economist at Fannie Mae.

Despite the decline in confidence, consumers are still much more interested in all facets of the housing market. The pandemic has both increased and altered demand for housing, and it has also helped push mortgage rates to record lows.

No surprise, Google searches for "Refinance home loan calculator" jumped nearly 4,000% last week, according to Google Trends. This as news hit of another record low on the 30-year fixed  and, of course, searches for, "How low will mortgage rates go?" quadrupled.

There is also more evidence of a surge of interest among first-time homebuyers. Searches for "Process of buying a house" jumped 950%, and "Minimum credit score to buy a house" was also popular. Recent home sales numbers have showed an uptick in the share of first-time buyers in the market.

Some consumers, however, are stretching their finances to make that purchase. Searches for "Can you use your 401(k) to buy a house?" were up 2,800% in the past three months. Low supply and high demand has heated up the competition this summer, and competition was already fierce before the pandemic struck.

Just over half of the offers submitted to Redfin agents faced a bidding war in July, according to the national brokerage. Competition was highest for single-family homes, followed by townhouses and then condominiums.

"We may still be in the early innings of the pandemic migration wave," noted Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. "If coronavirus cases continue to climb, more employers will likely make flexible remote work policies standard procedure, which will drive further migration out of large, expensive cities. As a result, we may see bidding wars gain more traction in suburban areas and small towns."

Another sign of the times: "How to buy foreclosure" has been a breakout search in the past two months, as well as the question: "Buy a fixer-upper or move-in ready?" Either owner-occupant buyers are looking for a good deal, or more investors are looking for an opportunity. Likely both.

The growing trend of urban flight is also showing up in searches. Interest in the term "suburbs" hit an all-time high in July, not just in the U.S., but worldwide. U.S. cities with the highest search interest in "suburbs" in the past three months were Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles and Houston. While San Francisco didn't make the top five, the outflow from the city has already caused a massive drop in rental occupancy and rent prices.

The trajectory of this housing recovery is still dependent on government relief to both the housing market specifically and the economy generally.

Some predict interest in housing will slow down after this initial surge, and while that trend has shown up in sentiment numbers, it has so far not shown up in home sales, prices, nor in consumer curiosity in just about every aspect of the market.
The family of a former Premier of defunct Western Region of Nigeria, Ladoke Akintola, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for naming the Omi Adio (Ibadan) Railway Station after their late patriarch.

In a letter jointly signed by Abayomi Akintola and Abimbola Akintola, the family said it appreciated the honour done to their father, even after over 50 years of his death.

This is, indeed, a great honour to our family.

In the letter sighted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday, the family equally acknowledged what it called the many good works Mr Buhari is doing for the country.

The letter reads in part: We write to acknowledge and appreciate the honour done to our late father, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola (GCON), the former Premier of Western Nigeria and the 13th Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland by Your Excellency.

Undoubtedly, the man you are honouring was a renowned orator, teacher, journalist, legal luminary, politician of first class order, devoted Christian, Nationalist par excellence, and a family man of no mean status, who contributed immensely to the attainment of Nigerias independence.

This could be attested to by various offices and positions he occupied during his eventful lifeHe was the first Minister of Labour, leader of opposition in the Federal House of Representatives, Minister of Health, Minister of Communication and Aviation, Founder of a political party known as Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) and last Premier of the defunct Western Region of Nigeria.

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We accept and appreciate the honour done to our father even after over 50 years of his death. This is, indeed, a great honour to our family.

We sincerely acknowledge many good works Your Excellency has been carrying out since the assumption of office in the last five years to ensure that our country features prominently among the comity of nations and to ensure that Nigeria is not only a better place to live in, but also a safer place.

(NAN)
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court Monday (August 10) granted bail to two persons in a case of communal violence in north east Delhi in February, saying there was no electronic evidence on record against them.

Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav granted the relief to Sunny Chaudhary and Abhishek Thakur on furnishing a bail bond of Rs 20,000 and a surety of like amount each.

The court said complainant Constable Parmesh Kumar had not identified two accused in the case and their identification by Constables Vipin Tomar and Rahul respectively was hardly of any consequences.

"A perusal of charge sheet reveals that the statement of complainant Constable Parmesh Kumar was recorded in the matter, wherein he identified only one person, Chand, and the applicant(s) was not identified by him... There is no electronic evidence on record against ?the applicant. The investigation in the matter is complete," the court said in its order.

It, however, clarified that anything stated in the order should not be construed as expressing any opinion on the final merits of the case, as it was at the pre-cognizance stage.

The court directed Sunny and Thakur to maintain peace and harmony in the Khajuri Khas locality and to install "Aarogya Setu App" in their mobile phone.

It also said they should not tamper with evidence or influence the witnesses in the case.

During the hearing held through video conferencing, advocate Saroj Kumar Singh, appearing for the a accused, said that on February 24 Constable Kumar was allegedly robbed by an unruly mob of rioters in Khajuri Khas area and his car was also damaged.

The duo were arrested in the case in June on the basis of identification by Constable Tomar and Rahul respectively only, their lawyer said adding they were falsely implicated in the case.

Special Public Prosecutor Manoj Chaudhary opposed the bail applications saying they were accused of committing serious offences and further investigation was going on in the matter.

Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.
President Akufo-Addo has been merciful for asking the Ghana Education Service (GES) to reconsider its decision to dismiss 14 students from writing their West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

The GES dismissed and barred the 14 students from writing their remaining papers over their involvement in acts of indiscipline and vandalism during the WASSCE.

The President in a statement argued that their dismissal alone will serve as enough punishment and deterrent.

He is thus hopeful that the students will be allowed by the GES to take their final examinations as scheduled.

Even though the acts of indiscipline undertaken by these students are intolerable, acts which have led to their subsequent dismissal from school, President Akufo Addo is of the firm view that dismissal alone is enough punishment, and will serve as enough deterrent against future acts of indiscipline, a statement signed by the Director of Communications at the office of the President, Eugene Arhin said.

The President, however, pointed out that other punishment imposed by the relevant authorities should remain in place.

The violent action from the students was in protest of strict invigilation during the examinations.

Since the beginning of these developments, the Ghana Education Service has said it will adopt a zero-tolerance approach to the recent disturbances in schools.

The GES said it was appalled by the videos showing crass indiscipline from students, including the instances of students insulting the President.

---citinewsroom
Bengaluru, Aug 10 : An escaped 43-year-old Covid positive woman under treatment at a city hospital has been traced and put in home quarantine, said an official on Monday.

"The woman has been traced and put in quarantine," senior police officer Srinivas Murthy told IANS.

The woman escaped from Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) on Friday evening and was traced by Saturday.

"She was traced at her home and is now under home quarantine," said the official.

The woman's home is located in Dodda Basti.

She was admitted in the hospital for Covid treatment on July 25 after testing positive for the virus and was being treated in the Covid ward in KIMS B Block.

After she slipped out on Friday, the hospital authorities lodged a missing complaint with the police.
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong encourages employees during a visit to the company's Onyang semiconductor plant in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, July 30. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics



By Kim Hyun-bin



Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong has made it official that he will not pass on management of the Samsung Group to his children. The promise drew raised eyebrows from experts amid the possibility of Samsung seeking "drastic changes" in its future corporate governance.



Samsung SDS is expected to be under the spotlight following Lee's commitment, as the vice chairman is one of the top shareholders of the affiliate.



Lee is the largest shareholder in SDS holding a 9.2 percent stake. Samsung Electronics holds 22.58 percent in SDS followed by Samsung Construction & Trading Corp. with 17.08 percent. Lee's older and younger sisters Lee Boo-jin and Lee Seo-hyun each hold 3.9 percent of SDS shares.



Before the announcement, some analysts expected Lee to use Samsung SDS to possibly increase his control over Samsung Electronics through mergers of key divisions of Samsung SDS and Samsung C&T.



Samsung SDS and Samsung C&T are key affiliates for Lee from a management control standpoint. Many scenarios have been postulated whereby Lee splits off parts of Samsung SDS and merges them with Samsung Electronics to increase his control over the tech giant.



One possibility was the creation of a special entity out of Samsung Electronics that would purchase treasury stocks and merge with Samsung C&T or Samsung SDS, in which Lee has relatively larger stakes. Such thoughts got attention when Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee fell "unconscious" after suffering a heart attack in 2014.



Samsung's official position is that it has "no plans to separate out Samsung Electronics." However, it left room for possible managerial changes, adding, "We will review possible revisions at a suitable time."



Samsung SDS's stock price fluctuates whenever the issue of a corporate governance "revision" is mentioned.



When Samsung Electronics raised the possibility of a division of the company in June 2016, SDS shares dropped from 150,000 won to 130,000 won  a significant drop considering on its first day of trading, Aug. 20, 2014, they ended at 327,500 won.



Samsung SDS has been looking good in terms of corporate growth and exploration of new business models that have satisfied shareholders in terms of returns. The company saw 7.89 trillion won in sales back in 2014, but these reached 10.72 trillion won as of 2019. Its operating profit also climbed 67 percent over the same period.



Investors seemingly interpreted Lee's announcement as a "plus factor" for SDS's stock price  afterwards its shares jumped 9 percent. Observers say the "possible evaporation" of uncertainty surrounding a corporate governance revision to strengthen ownership of the affiliate was a key factor behind the surge.


State lawmakers are weighing legislation that would effectively suspend the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, or MCAS, for four years and create a commission that would study the testing regime and recommend changes.

The bill would put a pause on MCAS beginning this coming academic year  2020-2021  through 2023-2024. Favorable MCAS test results are required for students looking to graduate high school, and are used by state education officials to make high-stakes decisions about students, educators, schools and districts.

Lawmakers pushing for bill say that the move to cancel the MCAS has taken on new urgency amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, as the disruptions caused by the virus this past spring have, among other things, exacerbated the achievement gap between districts in communities of color and white districts, created an unequal learning environment and created uncertainty ahead of the start of the school year as schools look to reopen.

This is a COVID bill because, in fact, were responding to the emergency of this moment, said State Sen. Jo Comerford, chief sponsor of the bill. It looks at the impact of the pandemic and the health crisis on education.

Comerford said the legislation has been spurred forward by longstanding concerns that the MCAS have also, in some cases, increased student drop-out rates across Massachusetts. One study found that low-income urban students whove failed the Grade 10 MCAS are more likely to drop out of school than their peers.

The test, while it was put in place to do the opposite, has done very little to improve the academic achievement of disproportionately underachieving communities of color, Comerford said.

The bill instructs the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education to request waiver from the U.S. Department of Education of federal student assessment requirements for the years the MCAS would be on pause, giving the state the authority to cancel administration of the tests.

The bill would also set up a states approach to school and district performance, including school district goals, academic indicators, evaluation and testing.

In a letter to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education dated July 13, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the Boston Teachers Union and the American Federation of Teachers of Massachusetts wrote that the MCAS should be suspended in the fall as part of the states plan to reopen schools.

The educators wrote that the MCAS obstructs the goals of reimagining curriculum and instruction, and that, upon reopening, teachers and students should not have to focus on test prep.

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US Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley among those targeted amid row over Hong Kong crackdown.

China has imposed sanctions on 11 United States citizens, including legislators, in a tit-for-tat response to the United States sanctions on 11 Hong Kong and Chinese officials accused of curtailing political freedoms in the Asian financial hub.

Among those targeted on Monday were US Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley and Pat Toomey and Representative Chris Smith, as well as individuals at non-profit and rights groups.

In response to that wrong US behaviour, China has decided to impose sanctions on individuals who have behaved egregiously on Hong Kong-related issues, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular press briefing.

He did not specify what the sanctions entail.

Last month #China banned me. Today they sanctioned me. I dont want to be paranoid but I am starting to think they dont like me, Rubio posted on Twitter.

The Florida legislators remarks followed the arrest of Hong Kongs pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai under the controversial national security law earlier on Monday.

More arrests taking place in #HongKong under National Security Law. Jimmy Lai and his son were charged with colluding w/ foreign powers. As more arrests are expected, the free world must respond quickly as well as provide safe harbor to at-risk Hong Kongers. https://t.co/KriQdwiqFS  Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 10, 2020

Jimmy Lai and his son were charged with colluding w/ foreign powers,' Rubio said. As more arrests are expected, the free world must respond quickly as well as provide safe harbor to at-risk Hong Kongers.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated sharply in recent months over issues ranging from trade to Hong Kong and Chinas handling of the novel coronavirus.

Cleaning workers, wearing protective gear, walk past a wet market in Sham Shui Po, one of the oldest districts in Hong Kong [Tyrone Siu/Reuters]

Chinas sanctions of the 11 US citizens is the latest move in a tit-for-tat round of measures between China and the US over accusations of rights abuses and interference.

The US on Friday imposed sanctions on Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam as well as the citys current and former police chiefs under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump.

The sanctions freeze any US assets owned by those people and generally bar the Americans from doing business with them.

The US legislators targeted by China have been vocal critics of the new security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in late June, expanding its authority in the former British colony.

Last month, China announced sanctions against Cruz, Rubio, Smith and other US officials after the US penalised senior Chinese officials over the treatment of Uighur Muslims in its Xinjiang region.

In December, Beijing had imposed sanctions against the heads of five US-based non-governmental organisations  the National Endowment for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, Freedom House and Human Rights Watch  for their positions on Hong Kong.
The College Station area is known for Aggie pride and small-  but not that small  town feel. There are both ranches and retail, farmland and museums.

Youll also find, in increasing numbers, expat Houstonians.

Since the pandemic, one out of three calls inquiring about homes in Mission Ranch, a master-planned community on the citys southern edge, are from Houston, according to the subdivisions developer, Caldwell Communities.

Weve definitely seen more interest, said Marci Raley, the subdivisions welcome center coordinator.

The pandemic  which recently thrust Houston into the national spotlight for its surge in COVID-19 cases and strained hospital systems  is only the latest in a confluence of trends pulling people from Houstons hustle and bustle to smaller towns an hour or two away. Terrible commutes, repeated flooding and a disconnect from nature are also driving people from the city.

Many have headed to Brazos County, home of College Station. An estimated 3,800 people moved to Brazos County from Harris in 2017, the most recent year for which the Census data is available, making it the most popular destination for people moving out of Houston after Travis County, where Austin is located.

We have seen quite a bit of pick-up in buyers from Houston, said Deborah Stepanek, a College Station real estate agent with the Houston-based brokerage CB&A. Theyre wanting to get out of the rat race of Houston.

THESE ARE MY PEOPLE: Investor seeks preservation, not gentrification

Some families treat College Station as a sort of Houston suburb. Zac Henderson, for example, used to commute 45 minutes north from the Energy Corridor to his office off Texas 249 outside of Beltway 8. Now, he commutes an hour south from the edge of College Station closest to Houston.

There are a lot of people who drive 15 miles, and it takes them an hour. I just drive 60, Henderson said.

That commuting time could become even shorter once a tollway, nicknamed the Aggie Expressway, is completed in 2023 to connect College Station to Houston.

With the improved roadways, said College Station Mayor Karl Mooney, its not a bad commute to come from College Station to the greater Houston area.

While Henderson, a graduate of Texas A&M University, had long daydreamed about moving back to College Station, it was Houstons flooding that forced his hand. His first experience came during the Tax Day flood of 2016, which filled his home with a half-foot of water. The next year, when Hurricane Harvey flooded the home with nearly two feet of water while his wife was 37 weeks pregnant, that was it.

Three-and-a-half months later, we were in College Station, Henderson said.

Jen Zweiacker, a real estate agent in College Station, said she receives an influx of calls after every flood event in Houston.

After Tropical Storm Imelda last year, she recalled, I actually had someone from the west side of Houston saying, Im standing in Houston, watching water come into my house. Get me out of it.

The pandemic is the latest disaster to set real estate agents phones abuzz. Closed home sales in College Station rose 17 percent in June from a year earlier, according to Byan-College Station Regional Association of Realtors. The median home price climbed 4.5 percent to $243,000.

But this disaster has spurred a wider buying spree in Houstons surrounding towns. Some of it comes from people buying second homes from where they can work remotely and enjoy natural surroundings when they want to escape the city.

Linda Plant, a real estate agent who specializes in small farms and ranches near Round Top, an hour west of the city, said so many Houstonians are buying second homes as rural retreats that her sales since March have jumped 35 percent from the same period last year. Glenn S. Phillips, chief executive of Lake Homes Realty, a website specializing in lakefront properties, said sales of lakefront homes have more than doubled, increasing 140 percent year-over-year in June.

LISTEN: How the pandemic may change the way we build homes

Mike Goins, a real estate agent who specializes in property on or near Lake Conroe, called the market a feeding frenzy. Hes hired an assistant and brought on a buyers agent to help him handle the increased workload.

There are enough people who are okay financially who cant take a cruise, cant take a vacation, cant go anywhere, Goins said. So Lake Conroe becomes more attractive. The median listing price of lakefront property on Lake Conroe is $520,000.

Another incentive for would-be urban refugees: historically low mortgage rates. The rate for the 30-year mortgage last week fell to a record low for the eighth time this year, averaging 2.88 percent, according to the government-sponsored mortgage company Freddie Mac.

Mike and Linda Baker decided in 2019 to retire to College Station. They made the move this summer, renting until the construction of their new home is completed, as the pandemic drove home the benefits of living in a smaller city.

It just validates that we made the right decision in choosing College Station as the place where we wanted to land, Linda Baker said.

She and her husband both grew up in small towns where it was easy to get to know neighbors and spend time in nature. They hoped to rediscover that feeling in College Station, which has the added perk of an easier commute to their sons and grandchildren in Austin and Fort Worth.

Last month, Linda Baker recalled, she saw a roadrunner cross the street. She still remembers breathing a sigh of relief when they made the move.

Its like youre exhaling when you get out of Houston, she said. Because theres green pastures and green fields.

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Anyone whos braved a Thanksgiving conversation with an uncle or commented on a Facebook post or really is just alive in the year 2020 knows that convincing a skeptic to change their mind is nearly impossible. A hostage negotiator may say that empathy and not logic is often the best weapon against COVID-deniers, but should you want to engage in a debate about the reality of the virus thats led to over 150,000 American deaths, its best to come armed with cross-examination skills.



Since lawyers aim to convince a jury rather than the witness themselves, this isnt a perfect parallel, but plenty of the same techniques apply. Two law professors, Lara Bazelon (USF) and Spencer Pahlke (Berkeley Law), humored our questions about how to use their decades of legal acumen to disarm someone distrustful of science, or worse, a troll posting memes showing Bill Gates as a plandemic puppet master (who also spreads cancer through 5G cell phone towers, obviously).



Like any lawyer taking on a difficult case, the first thing to do before interacting with a COVID denier is prep work. You can expect a spread offense of many divergent theories not covered in mainstream media, so Google what sources do coronavirus deniers rely on most commonly. Politely ask for evidence, and be ready to discredit unreliable outlets or so-called experts by stressing their underlying motivations, which in the case of viral Youtube personalities, is likely financial. With regards to hydroxychloroquine advocate Stella Immanuel, one might calmly inquire if theyre aware of her statements about demon sex.



The key phrase there is "calmly ask" (close second, "demon sex").



I think for some of these folks, they really enjoy making other people angry, and sort of red-faced, and almost incoherent in the enormity of what theyre trying to explain and the stupidity of what theyre confronted with, says Bazelon. I wouldnt give them that.



Pahlke suggests establishing agreement on a few basic facts that may deflate faulty arguments, like comparisons to flu deaths. For instance, establishing a universal reference point, like the fact that the 3,000 deaths from the September 11 terrorist attacks is something of a big deal. Or even playing to partisan slants, bringing up the cost of lives from controversial issues like inner city gun violence.



If youre concerned that they were going to disagree that 150,000 deaths isnt enough, there are ways to get them into a difficult position where theyre agreeing that something less than that is in itself a tragedy, says Pahlke.



A personal hypothetical is another strong approach. Present a scenario where one of their specific family members contracts COVID-19 and has to be hospitalized. What happens when as their mothers medical contact, theyre forced to sign off on treatment decisions? Will they follow the doctors advice or insist that its not serious and demand another treatment? A concrete situation like that will resonate much more than sweeping data-driven statements or testimonials about others.



Another strategy is to ask a question and give the denier a few options that are all bad (hopefully no judge is present to yell leading the witness!). One could present a list of Democrat and Republican politicians who have all spoken out against the virus, then ask the denier if they trust any of them. Or go even further and ask an open-ended question.



I generally dont like to ask open-ended questions, says Bazelon. But with crazy people I sometimes do, because whichever answer I get is going to be good. In the case of the coronavirus, Bazelon suspects answers would fall into two categories: total ignorance or defiance of conventionally accepted knowledge (neither a good look).



You can push somebody out on the limb and make them look even more silly, because the position theyre taking has so little support so that nobody else, your jury, would want to follow them out on that limb, says Pahlke. You get to persuasion not by virtue of directly persuading your witness, but by isolating them in this world thats not real. And pointing out how unreal this world theyre living in is, so others wouldnt tread there.



If the argument takes place around a group or on social media, the more far-fetched the deniers response, the better.



Comedy and cross-examination are actually quite similar in that the bigger gap you can create between the expectation of what the witness should have done, and what they actually did do, the more impact from the questioning, says Pahlke. Likewise in comedy, the greater the difference between where you think the joke is going, to where it ends up, the funnier it seems to be.
A 3D map of San Franciscos Downtown/Financial District with inch-perfect accuracy is now available for public use. Karlsruhe, Germany  Collaboration and sharing of data is a major trend in the autonomous driving space today. Joining Ford, Argo AI, Uber and others in the endeavor to do more together, atlatec now adds its own piece to the puzzle: A 3D map of San Franciscos Downtown/Financial District with inch-perfect accuracy. The dataset is 
Up to 100 million more people globally could fall into the bitter existence of living on just $1.90 a day, according to the World Bank. Thats well below any reasonable conception of a life with dignity, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty wrote this year. It comes on top of the 736 million people already there, half in just five countries: Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Congo and Bangladesh.
Police in Chicago said 100 people were arrested and 13 officers were injured after hundreds smashed windows, stole from stores and clashed with police early Monday in Chicagos Magnificent Mile shopping district and other parts of the citys downtown.

About 400 officers were dispatched to Chicago's downtown area after seeing posts on social media encouraging a "caravan" of cars to engage in looting, Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown said at a news conference Monday.

At one point, shots were fired at police and officers returned fire. No officers were wounded by gunfire, but Brown said a security guard and a civilian were hospitalized in critical condition after being shot.

Brown said the social media posts appear to have been prompted by an incident earlier in the day in which police officers wounded a 20-year-old man with a long criminal history who shot at them. A Facebook video later circulated falsely claiming police had shot and killed a 15-year-old boy.

"This was not an organized protest. Rather, this was an incident of pure criminality," Brown said. "This was an act of violence against our police officers and against our city."

Along the Magnificent Mile, people were seen going in and out of stores carrying shopping bags full of merchandise and also running out of a bank that had its windows smashed, the Chicago Tribune reported, and as the crowd grew vehicles dropped off more people in the area.

Glass is shattered in the Nordstrom store after a riot occurred in the Gold Coast area of the city early in the morning of Monday, Aug. 10, 2020 in Chicago. Hundreds of people smashed windows, stole from stores and clashed with police in Chicago's Magnificent Mile shopping district and other parts of the city's downtown.

One officer was seen slumped against a building and a rock was thrown at a police vehicle, the newspaper said. Police worked early Monday to disperse the crowds.

Brown said a heavy police presence is expected in the downtown area and a special team of investigators will examine hours of footage from Sunday night and pledged "to pursue these offenders to the fullest extent of the law."

Those arrested were expected to face charges including looting, disorderly conduct and battery against police. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot called this incident "abject criminal behavior."

Story continues

"This is not legitimate First Amendment protected speech. These were not poor people engaged in petty theft to feed themselves and their family," she said. "This was straight-up felony criminal conduct."

Lightfoot said the city has activated a neighborhood protection program that will be in place for foreseeable days until we know our neighborhoods are safe. Travel restrictions in and out of downtown were imposed after the incident and eased later in the day, but were to be in place again from 8 p.m. Monday until 6 a.m. Tuesday. With a major storm approaching the city, there figure to be few people out on the streets anyway.

Lightfoot said she had talked early Monday with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and they agreed there was no need to call in the state's National Guard.

She also sent a clear message to President Donald Trump that his intervention was not welcome. Trump has criticized the city's handling of increased levels of gun violence, which resulted in more homicides in July than any month in decades, and last month sent federal agents to Chicago in what was called an anti-crime initiative.

"No, we do not need federal troops in Chicago. Period. Full stop,'' Lightfoot said. "Im sure the president will have his way with this incident, but Im calling upon him to do the things that we do need. We need common-sense gun control.

Brown suggested that lenient treatment in Chicago to those engaged in criminal activity during the protests that followed the George Floyd police killing in Minneapolis may have emboldened the looters and vandals Monday morning.

Lightfoot was also critical of the limited prosecutions by Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, who defended herself, saying, Those cases are coming to court now.

Videos of the vandalism showed large groups of people ransacking stores and loading merchandise into vehicles, pulling cash registers and even teller machines out of shops.

Brown said the unrest, which began shortly after midnight, was sparked by a shooting in the city's South Side hours earlier. Officers responded to a reports of a man with a gun and the 20-year-old suspect fled and pointed a weapon at police. Officers returned fire and struck the suspect, who Brown said is expected to survive.

A gun was recovered and the suspect was taken to a hospital for treatment and three officers involved also were taken to a hospital for observation, according to a statement from police.

"After this shooting a crowd gathered on the South Side," he said. "Tempers flared, fueled by misinformation as the afternoon turned into evening."

More than an hour after the shooting, police and witnesses said the crowd faced off with police after someone reportedly told people that police had shot and wounded a child. That crowd eventually dispersed.

Elsewhere this weekend: Portland riot; Denver, D.C. shootings

In Portland, a riot was again declared by authorities Sunday night in Portland when protesters marched to a police union building, blocked a road and set dumpster fires as officers continue to try to quell nightly unrest in Oregons largest city.

The protest was broken up almost as soon as it formed outside the Portland Police Association building  the same building where protesters were dispersed after a fire was started inside the unions offices the night before. Demonstrators had marched to the building from a nearby park. The road was blocked with fencing, and flames were seen rising from dumpsters in the middle of the street.

Police began forcing the crowd of a couple hundred away from the building. While demonstrators were being dispersed, commercial-grade fireworks were thrown at officers, injuring two, police said. The department released photos of the officers injuries, including a photo of a face covering that partially melted from the firework. The officers were treated at the scene.

In this July 29, 2020, file photo, members of the "Wall of Moms" protest group march during a Black Lives Matter protest in Portland, Ore.

In Colorado, 10 people were injured Sunday after a gunman apparently opened fire on a family gathering in a small park south of downtown Denver.

Denver police asked for the public's help in identifying the shooter. Investigators said it appeared the drive-by shooting was unconnected to the family gathering and occurred shortly before 5 p.m. None of the victims appeared to have suffered life-threatening injuries, police said.

In Washington, D.C., a dispute that erupted into gun fire during a large outdoor party early Sunday left one person dead and some 20 others injured, including an off-duty officer struggling for her life, according to police.

Christopher Brown, 17, died in the shooting that occurred after midnight in a southeast side neighborhood where people had gathered for music and food, Peter Newsham, the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, told reporters.

There was some kind of a dispute, Newsham said. Multiple weapons were produced.

District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department Chief Peter Newsham is shown at a previous press conference. Newsham said Christopher Brown, 17, died in a shooting that occurred after midnight in a southeast side neighborhood of Washington, D.C., where people had gathered for music and food.

Police said at least three shooters may have been involved, though no arrests were immediately announced. Newsham said a motive for the shooting wasnt clear.

Contriibuting: Ryan W. Miller, Trevor Hughes, Jorge L. Ortiz; The Associated Press.

Follow N'dea Yancey-Bragg on Twitter: @NdeaYanceyBragg.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chicago looting and demonstrations: Miracle Mile struck by violence
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has defended the Governments decision not to immediately close down all the meat-packing factories in the Midlands once clusters of the virus had occurred.

Three out of four plants affected have now closed their doors to allow for testing but one factory in Tullamore  Carroll Cuisine - has taken the decision to open today but is working closely with the HSE's outbreak team.

There is an outbreak team involved with that plant. The power does exist under public health legislation for the HSE to order a business to close, he said.

I trust that the public health officials who are involved in this are engaging with the plant and they will make the right decision and if it is necessary to impose a closure order, they can do that. But it is the public health team on the ground that have to be allowed make that decision with the company and I think we have to trust them.

But I do understand the frustration that people in those three counties must be feeling particularly people who have seen their businesses closed to see another businesses open.

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He also spoke on RTEs Morning Ireland of his regret that the issue of blaming people has crept into cases of Covid which is something we hadnt seen before.

Whether its American tourists or young people or migrants or particular tourists...you can do everything right as an individual and still get this virus and do everything right as an employer and still have a cluster in your business, he said.

He said the best thing we can do is minimise the amount of Covid that is in the community and we had managed as a country to bring the rate down to single digits of new cases so we need to get back to basics again.

Asked about why the Government didnt consider shutting down these factories as soon as they started recording clusters of the virus, he replied: The advice from NPHET was that what we needed to do was to have a local lockdown in those three counties because the concern was that it may have spread to the community and we wanted to make sure that didnt happen or if it did, that it was contained, he said.

We do know that meat factories are risky environments. I read that 250,000 people working in meat plants around the world have been affected, over 100 have died in America, thankfully that hasnt happened here.

But despite all the various different theories, we dont know exactly why its the case or how exactly to prevent it. There is research from Germany that indicates its more to do with the workplace than home or transport. Even when you put in a lot of these different measures like the shields and the screens and the visors, theyve still had outbreaks; so this is a real problem and its going to be a continuing problem.
As many of us are rediscovering our home province this summer, were venturing to areas of Manitoba weve never seen or knew existed. Two hours west of Winnipeg in Spruce Woods Provincial Park, where the boreal forest meets the Assiniboine River, youll find a natural wonder thats known as Manitobas desert  Spirit Sands.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/8/2020 (527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As many of us are rediscovering our home province this summer, were venturing to areas of Manitoba weve never seen or knew existed. Two hours west of Winnipeg in Spruce Woods Provincial Park, where the boreal forest meets the Assiniboine River, youll find a natural wonder thats known as Manitobas "desert"  Spirit Sands.

This short Manitoba road trip will take you from prairie farmland to Sahara-like terrain. For a province thats covered in snow for half the year, desert-like conditions are almost unheard of. Its also something I had to see.

Pack plenty of water for a Spirit Sands hike. (Supplied photo)

While you can take the Trans-Canada Highway to get there, I highly recommend going west along Highway 2 and travelling through small-town Manitoba to see Hollands windmill and the glass bottle houses in Treherne. Its a beautiful drive. Turn north on to Highway 5 at Glenboro and the Spirit Sands entrance is just past the Assiniboine River bridge.

The only sand dunes in Manitoba, the Spirit Sands are a great place to hike, photograph and explore various landscapes, particularly in the summer when theres an abundance of berries and wildflowers. The sand dunes, steeped in local folklore, are both fascinating and delicate, as I came face-to-face with ones towering over me at 30 metres high.

While not technically a desert (due to the amount of rainfall the area gets each year) it sure looks and feels like one with massive stretches of open sand, cacti and soaring temperatures.

There are several varieties of plant and animal life that are completely unique to this area. Among them are the pincushion cactus, northern prairie skink (the only lizard species in the province) and western hognose snake. While this snake is non-poisonous, if threatened, it imitates a rattlesnake. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), I saw neither on my hike.

Other animals you might spot include white-tailed deer, elk, coyotes and black bears. Its a good idea to watch the sands carefully to see if you can spot any animal tracks along the trail.

Theres endless beauty here so I scheduled at least four hours to meander along the network of trails that wind through meadows, lush forest and desert-like dunes (including a stop for lunch and plenty of photo taking).

My companion and I packed a picnic lunch and made a day of it  nuts, cheese and crackers, protein bars and lots of water kept us both full of energy and well-hydrated for a hike under the Manitoba sun (bring at least two litres as water from the pumps is typically not drinkable).

The Devil's Punch Bowl is a small, natural lake fed by a groundwater spring and framed by spruce trees and sandy hills. (Supplied photo)

Id also suggest sturdy runners or hiking boots as you will get sand in your shoes. A lot of it. We had to empty ours at least three or four times.

The history of Spirit Sands goes back thousands of years. When glaciers retreated about 12,000 years ago, the Assiniboine River drained into the ancient Lake Agassiz, creating a massive delta with sand and other sediments from melting glaciers. When the waters receded, the wind sculpted the drying sand into dunes.

Of the original 6,500 square kilometres of delta sand that once spread between present-day Brandon and Portage la Prairie, only four square kilometres remain open. The rest of the modern-day sand hills are covered by grasses, junipers, spruce, wildflowers and a few cacti.

According to Prairie Public Television, the name of Manitobas Spirit Sands honours Indigenous peoples belief that the world arose from the grains of sand found in this natural geographic wonder where some sense the presence of the Great Spirit "Kiche Manitou."

As you approach the dunes via the East Gate, sometimes referred to as the Place of Beginnings, its important to be aware that youre on land considered sacred by generations of Indigenous people. The south is called the Place of Plenty, the north is the Place of Wisdom and the west is called the Place of Endings.

Visitors can tailor their hike distances, from two- to 10-km routes. A scenic loop can take hikers across the Devils Punch Bowl. (Supplied photo)

In earlier days, the dunes were called Montagne du Diable, which translates to Devils Mountain. The dunes present name  Spirit Sands  recognizes the sacred significance of the dunes to these early inhabitants.

There are marked hiking trails, shelters and washrooms along the route, and several interpretive panels that describe the history and geological forces that shaped the area. There are also log ladders that make the climb up some of the steep dune faces a little easier.

The hike is made up of a number of various loops and visitors can do their own hike distance to suit their liking, ranging from two- to 10-km routes. I hiked the full 10-km loop through the Spirit Sands to the Devils Punch Bowl, which I would recommend if youre looking for a more scenic (though challenging) full day of hiking.

There are also several add-on loops and detours that are non-directional  its important to keep that in mind as hiking through sand is slow and tiring. It gets real hard, real fast, so I recommend hiking the dunes first and then making your way to the flatter, grassier land around the Devils Punch Bowl.

With several soft, sandy sections, the trails can be demanding with some level stretches and a few steeper slopes. There are various look-out points along the trail, which offer incredible views. But with two kilometres straight uphill, Spirit Sands is challenging. And once at the top, there are an additional couple of kilometres of trails, which is all sand with very few sections of firm footing.

BRUCE BUMSTEAD A Delaware Skipper butterfly rests on a flower near the Spirit Sands trail in Spruce Woods Provincial Park.

I knew this ahead of time so I was prepared for a demanding hike, however, theres nothing quite like hiking uphill in sand. Its a great leg workout and requires some stamina and strength.

Once through the dunes, an offshoot of the trail leads to the Devils Punch Bowl, a natural, small lake fed by a groundwater spring. The trail affords a hilltop view of the Punch Bowl, a 45-metre deep depression containing a pool of blue-green water framed by spruce trees and sandy hills.

The pool is the result of underground streams eroding and collapsing on the hillside beside the Assiniboine River, creating this unique crater-shaped lake. Theres a stairway that leads to a viewing platform with benches that overlook the Punch Bowl, a perfect spot to enjoy a picnic.

After the Punch Bowl, the trail continues through mostly forested sections and loops back to the trailhead. There are fewer sandy sections along the final portion of the hike and the terrain was flatter and easier.

Some tips: we packed hats, sunglasses, sunscreen and bug spray. The dunes can feel much warmer than the forecast (on hot summer days, the sand radiates an unyielding heat), so we left early in the morning to avoid the midday heat.

While not technically a desert (due to the amount of rainfall the area gets each year) it sure looks and feels like one with massive stretches of open sand, cacti and soaring temperatures. (Supplied)

I forgot binoculars but if you have a pair, bring them along to try and spot bluebirds and indigo buntings.

Even though it might be tempting to walk barefoot in the sand, its best to keep your shoes on when hiking as there are cacti and poison ivy in the area. And come prepared with the essentials: snacks and lots of water.

Remember, youll need a provincial park pass  you can purchase one online or at the Spruce Woods campground office.

Surrounded by mature spruce trees and wildflowers, this area of the province is reminiscent of a prairie landscape with a slight twist.

On the drive home, it was suggested to me to stop at the Carberry Summer Shack Drive-Inn on Third Avenue. We grabbed a couple soft serve ice cream cones and sat on the grass  a perfect way to wrap up a Manitoba day trip.

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The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has once again revisited the controversial suspension of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Concession Agreement with Power Distribution Services (PDS) Ghana, accusing the current administration of inaction over what the former describes as the "biggest scams ever perpetrated against the Ghanaian people by any government in Ghanas history."



The opposition party slammed the NPP government for allowing "perpetrators of the PDS scam" to walk freely about without subjecting them to criminal prosecutions "despite the fact that government itself described the transaction as fraudulent".



Background



In 2017, after a protracted re-negotiations with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), the original arrangements to give 80 per cent of the ECG's assets to foreigners were changed to a 51 per cent ownership by Ghanaians and 49 per cent to foreigners.



This new arrangement required the original foreign bidders to find a local Ghanaian consortium who was to take up the 51 per cent of their shareholding to make their bid whole.



Manila Electric Company Limited (Meralco) who was one of the original foreign bidders to accept the new arrangements struck an accord with Mr. Philip Asare Kwame Ayesu, a strategist and a serial entrepreneur and chairman of TG Energy Solutions to put together a strong local Ghanaian team in order to create the Meralco Consortium that would present an unassailable bid to the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA).



"Local" Consortium



Mr. Ayesu is said to have recognised this challenge as a once in a lifetime opportunity to showcase the Ghanaian entrepreneurial drive and enable him to leave a lasting legacy that would prove that Ghanaians can do it.



He reportedly took up the challenge to find the Ghanaian team with the right pedigree of complementary attributes that would provide the requisite technical and financial credentials for the bid.



Thus, leading to the formation of the local Ghanaian consortium made up of TG Energy Solutions Limited (TG), a Lead Local Consortium Sponsor with 18 per cent, Santa Baron Ventures Limited (Santa), a Local Technical Lead with 13 per cent, GTS Engineering Services Limited (GTS), a Local Financial Lead 10 per cent and TBK Ghana Limited (TBK), a Local Financial Sponsor with 10 per cent.



Unified Ghanaian Ownership



However, in a letter dated March 27, 2019, signed by the Minister of Finance Mr Ken Ofori-Atta and addressed to Lawyer Akoto Ampaw, Chairman of the Negotiation Committee for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Private Sector Participation (PSP), the Minister of Finance indicated that TG Energy Solutions' shares had increased to 28 per cent as part of efforts to secure and safeguard Ghanaian ownership of PDS.



The Finance Minister's letter explained that the move was aimed at ensuring and safeguarding Ghanaian ownership of PDS and to ensure that control of PDS was secured with Ghanaians in a "unified manner."



The letter said the Ministry of Finance requires that the Ghanaian Shareholding was consolidated and held by a single, newly incorporated, Ghanaian entity (the SPV - special purpose vehicle) in which the Initial Ghanaian Shareholders (and or any other Ghanaian investors from time to time would hold shares.



Therefore, the initial Ghanaian Shareholders would be required to transfer their respective shareholdings in PDS to the SPV, a structure which was to preserve Ghanaian control of PDS in the SPV (as opposed to three separate entities as is currently the case) and ensure that 51 per cent shares in PDS was always held by a Ghanaian entity.



Suspension



Shockingly, Government, somewhere in July 2019, announced that it has through the Ministry of Finance and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Limited suspended the concession agreement with PDS with immediate effect.



This followed what government termed as the detection of fundamental and material breaches of PDS obligation in the provision of Payment Securities (Demand Guarantees) for the transaction which has been discovered upon further due diligence.



The news led to speculations that the government did not do due diligence on the shareholders and the demand guarantees they presented.



PDS Inferno Caboodle



But the NDC believes the attempt by the Finance Ministry "to restructure the shareholding of PDS after the deal was sealed, with the aim of diluting and appropriating the shares of the original shareholders for other cronies of President Akufo-Addo, is what lit the spark for the whole PDS inferno".



"As some of you may be aware, the original Ghanaian shareholders rebelled and refused to participate in this charade. It is this defiance that outraged the Akufo-Addo faction and occasioned the suspension and subsequent cancelation of the PDS Concession," the largest opposition party claimed.



Nonchalant Posture, Naked Thievery, Greed & Avarice!



National Communication Officer of the NDC, Mr Sammy Gyamfi, at a press conference in Accra on Monday, August 10, 2020, said it is "glaringly clear that President Akufo-Addo has no intention" of getting to the bottom of the matter; which is unsurprising to them.



"We in the NDC, are not in the least surprised at the nonchalant posture of President Akufo-Addo on this matter. We have always known that President Akufo-Addo can neither be trusted to punish the perpetrators nor ensure that monies collected by PDS are refunded to the state because of he and his cronies are complicit and neck-deep In the scam.



"Ladies and gentlemen, never in the history of Ghana have we seen this level of corruption and naked thievery like we are witnessing under the reign of President Akufo-Addo in the last three (3) and half years. Despite promising to protect the public purse, President Akufo Addo has supervised the biggest rape of the public pursue since he took office in 2017...



"The likes of Vice-President Dr. Bawumia, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta and the Eson-Benjamin-led MiDA who aided and facilitated this scam which has occasioned the nation huge financial losses, have not been held to account for the roles they individually and jointly played in the scam.



"Also, cronies of the President such as Mr. Philip Ayensu, an appointee of President Akufo Addo on the NCA Board, who was the Chairman of PDS and the Directors of the local partners in the company, who perpetrated what government itself alleges to be fraud on the people of Ghana, have all been left off the hook.



"Even more bizarre and scandalous is the fact that till date, PDS, the Company made up of friends and cronies of President Akufo-Addo, who were gifted the GHS20 billion assets of ECG on the basis of a fraudulent Insurance Guarantee, and operated same for more than seven (7) months, have not been made to account for the over GHS1.5 billion they collected from electricity consumers during the period," he stated.



The NDC National officer further posited that, "as a result of the greed and avarice of President Akufo-Addo and his corrupt family and friends cabal", the state has lost nearly a whopping US$2 billion.



"It is instructive to note, that this fraudulent entity called PDS collected over GHS1.5 billion from electricity consumers in the form electricity bills from 1st March, 2019 to 18th October, 2019 when the concession agreement was in force. As a matter of fact, it was part of these monies, that is about US$11.25 million that PDS used to finance the Insurance Guarantee from the Qatar-based Reinsurance company, Alkoot which was later found to be fraudulent and invalid.



"More importantly, the cancelation of the PDS concession, occasioned the abrupt termination of the whole MCC Ghana Power Compact by the US government. Consequently, the US government withdrew the second tranche amount of US$190 million (equivalent to GH10 billion) it had allotted to Ghana for the improvement of the power sector of the country under the Power Compact. Overall, Ghana has lost about US$1.8 billion as a result of the greed and avarice of President Akufo-Addo and his corrupt family and friends cabal, who sought to appropriate the GHS20 billion assets of ECG for themselves," Sammy Gyamfi asserted.





Read the full statement below;



AN ADDRESS BY COMRADE SAMMY GYAMFI, NATIONAL COMMUNICATION OFFICER OF THE NDC, AT THE 10TH EDITION OF THE NDCS WEEKLY PRESS BRIEFING, HELD AT THE PARTYS HEADQUARTERS ON MONDAY, 10TH AUGUST, 2020.



CORRUPTION TRACKER SERIES (PART 2)- TRACKING THE STINKING PDS CORRUPTION SCANDAL.



Introduction

Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the media. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the headquarters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the 10th edition of our weekly press briefing. Our strive to deepen democracy and accountability cannot bear any fruits without your esteemed platforms, and that is why we will continue to cherish our partnership with you.



Todays briefing is part two (2) of the Corruption Tracker Series we launched a couple of weeks ago. You would recall, that on 8th June 2020, we launched a Corruption Tracker initiative to track the status of the numerous corruption scandals that Ghanaians have witnessed and continue to witness under the Akufo-Addo government; scandals which have occasioned huge financial losses to the state, and robbed Ghanaians of the comfort they were promised in the run up to the 2016 general elections.



As I indicated that day, the NDC is deeply worried about the fact that, resources which otherwise would have gone into developmental projects in order to uplift the poor, are sadly going to line the pockets of greedy officials of the Akufo-Addo government. Indeed, the structural violence that corruption continues to wreak on our people cannot be underestimated, as corruption deprives the vast majority of our people an opportunity to a decent living. This is the reason for our decision, to embark on the Corruption Tracker initiative to expose to the Ghanaian people the extent to which President Akufo-Addo and his corrupt appointees are milking the state coffers dry through graft and sleaze.



During our very maiden press conference on this series, we spoke about the BOSTGATE corruption scandal in which five (5) million liters of contaminated fuel was sold by BOST to some unlicensed businesses in the year 2017, in clear violation of the NPA Act and the Public Procurement Act under the watch of President Akufo-Addo. Also, at that press conference, we condemned the fact that the proceeds of that unlawful transaction had not been paid into the state coffers by the beneficiary businesses, MOVENPINAA ENERGY AND ZUP OIL.



Against all hope, we had hoped that President Akufo-Addo was going to act on the issues we raised, by ensuring that the perpetrators of this daylight heist are prosecuted or in the very least, ensure that the proceeds from the unlawful transaction were paid into the state coffers for the benefit of Ghanaians.



Unsurprisingly, and very characteristic of him, President Akufo-Addo has once again failed to uphold the national interest, such that as we speak, the proceeds of that illegal transaction have still not been paid into the state coffers and the perpetrators of this naked thievery are still walking the streets of Ghana as free men enjoying their loot, while Ghanaians continue to suffer.



Despite the refusal of President Akufo-Addo to change his corruption clearing agent ways, duty calls on us as a responsible opposition, to continue our Corruption Tracker series in order to shed light on the corrupt activities of this government, and the extent of damage it is inflicting on the already-constrained public purse and all sectors of the nation, so that Ghanaians can make an informed choice at the upcoming December Polls.



PDS CORRUPTION SCANDAL



Todays Corruption Tracker will focus on one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated against the Ghanaian people by any government in Ghanas history. I am talking about the gargantuan and stinking PDS corruption scandal that most of you are very familiar with.



Given the possibility that some of you may have forgotten the facts of this matter, I wish to start by way of a brief recap of the sordid facts and events that led to the PDS scam.



Distinguished friends from the media, you may recall that the Akufo-Addo government sometime in July 2019, informed the Ghanaian public that it has suspended the ECG Concession Agreement with Power Distribution Services (PDS) Ghana, over what they described as, material and fundamental breaches relative to the Demand Guarantee provided by PDS to ECG. You may also recall, that the Energy Minister, Hon. John Peter Amewu, and his Deputies subsequently followed-up and described the entire ECG/PDS Concession Agreement as fraudulent.



The key facts and events that led to this situation are as follows;



1. The PDS concession agreement was the product of the American governments Compact 2, also known as the Power Compact with the government of Ghana, which required that Ghana introduces private sector participation (PSP) into ECGs retail business, with the aim of improving the power distribution sector of the country. The Power Compact is the result of Ghanas successful implementation of Compact 1, a US$547m deal, which the Kufuor and Mills administrations between 2007-2012 used to undertake agri-cultural reforms and major infrastructural projects such as the N1 Highway project in Accra.



2. The PSP Concession Agreement approved by the Parliament of Ghana, contained 45 Conditions Precedent which had to be fulfilled by PDS before they take over the GHS20 billion assets of ECG.



3. Under Conditions precedent 24 and 31, PDS was required to provide ECG a payment security, in the form of a Letter of Credit or Demand Guarantee with a value of US$350 million from a Bank. The purpose of this payment security was to safeguard the assets of ECG so that, in case of default by PDS, Ghana through ECG could fall on same to recover our losses. This precondition of a demand guarantee from a Bank was therefore critical to the protection of the assets of ECG and the interest of Ghana under the ECG-PDS Concession Agreement.



4. Contrary to the effort of Ghanas Parliament to protect the public purse in order to safeguard our interest in the concession, the Akufo-Addo government shamefully conspired to bend the rules for PDS by changing the key requirement of a BANK GUARANTEE to a less liquid instrument, an INSURANCE GUARANTEE, thereby jeopardizing the assets of ECG and the interest of Ghanaians. This infamous and nation-wrecking decision was taken by high-ranking Government officials, including the Vice President of the Republic, representing President Akufo-Addo at a meeting at the Jubilee House on 19th February, 2019.



5. Pursuant to these scandalous amendments by the Vice President Dr. Bawumia, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, and the Eson Benjamin-led MIDA, PDS subsequently provided an Insurance Guarantee with dubious validity to ECG, as same was described as fraudulent by Alkoot, the Qatar-based Reinsurance company which purportedly issued the said Insurance guarantee.



6. According to the FTI investigative report on this matter which was commissioned by MIDA at the instance of the US government, crucial advice from Ghanas own Financial Advisors on this transaction for the necessary due diligence to be done before the said Insurance Guarantee was accepted by the Finance Ministry and ECG, and the assets of ECG handed over to PDS, was ignored. In short, the over GHS20 billion worth of assets of ECG were handed over to PDS by the Akufo-Addo government on the 1st of March, 2019 on the basis of a fraudulent Insurance Guarantee.



7. It is worthy of note, that under the guise of promoting local content, 51% of the shares of PDS were allotted to companies belonging to friends and cronies of President Akufo Addo under very shady circumstances, in furtherance of the Presidents state-capture agenda. As was found by the FTI investigative report, these local companies had no technical capacity in power retailing and did not demonstrate any financial capacity to manage a critical national asset such as the GHS20 billion worth of assets of ECG.



Indeed the FTI report found that PDS could not even raise the needed funds from equity contributions of shareholders to pay for the so-called Insurance Guarantee it claims to have secured from Alkoot such that, out of the $12.25 million that was charged by Cal Bank to PDS as fees for raising the fraudulent Guarantee, only $1 million (8%) was funded by an equity contribution by a PDS shareholder, Philip Ayensu of TG Energy Solutions; $7 million (57%) was funded by a loan that was advanced by Cal Bank to another PDS shareholder, Santa Baron. However, this loan was repaid from operating cash flows, i.e electricity bills collected by PDS after the transfer date. The balance of $4.25 million (35%) was also paid directly from operating cash flows generated by PDS after the transfer date.



8. Subsequent attempts by the Finance Minister and cousin to the President, Ken Ofori-Atta to restructure the shareholding of PDS after the deal was sealed, with the aim of diluting and appropriating the shares of the original shareholders for other cronies of President Akufo-Addo, is what lit the spark for the whole PDS inferno. As some of you may be aware, the original Ghanaian shareholders rebelled and refused to participate in this charade. It is this defiance that outraged the Akufo-Addo faction and occasioned the suspension and subsequent cancelation of the PDS Concession.



9. It is instructive to note, that this fraudulent entity called PDS collected over GHS1.5 billion from electricity consumers in the form electricity bills from 1st March, 2019 to 18th October, 2019 when the concession agreement was in force. As a matter of fact, it was part of these monies, that is about US$11.25 million that PDS used to finance the Insurance Guarantee from the Qatar-based Reinsurance company, Alkoot which was later found to be fraudulent and invalid.



10. More importantly, the cancelation of the PDS concession, occasioned the abrupt termination of the whole MCC Ghana Power Compact by the US government. Consequently, the US government withdrew the second tranche amount of US$190 million (equivalent to GH10 billion) it had allotted to Ghana for the improvement of the power sector of the country under the Power Compact. Overall, Ghana has lost about US$1.8 billion as a result of the greed and avarice of President Akufo-Addo and his corrupt family and friends cabal, who sought to appropriate the GHS20 billion assets of ECG for themselves.



Ladies and gentlemen of the media, these are the sad events that occasioned the PDS corruption scandal. However, the real tragedy of this scandal is summed up by these nagging questions which are begging for answers:



1. Since the Minister for Energy, John Peter Amewu told Ghanaians that the Insurance Guarantee PDS presented for the takeover of the over GHS20 billion assets of ECG was fraudulent - a fact corroborated by Alkoot, the Quatar based Company which allegedly issued the said guarantee, who were those who perpetrated this fraud against Ghanaians and what actions has President Akufo-Addo taken to ensure that they answer for this fraud?



2. Who are the state actors who neglected to perform their fiduciary responsibility to the state by failing to conduct the necessary due diligence on the Insurance Guarantee presented by PDS, and what action has President Akufo-Addo taken against them?



3. Can the Akufo-Addo government tell Ghanaians the total amount of monies PDS collected from electricity consumers in the form of electricity bills, from 1st March, 2019 to 18th October, 2019, when the concession agreement was still in force?



4. Have those monies been accounted for, and if yes, have same been audited?



5. If PDS has accounted for those funds collected, and same has been audited, can President Akufo-Addo publish those accounts for the benefit of you the media who are the fourth estate of the realm, and the entire Ghanaian people?

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, what we know is that as we speak, the perpetrators of the PDS scam are still walking the streets of Ghana as free men. Despite the fact that government itself described the transaction as fraudulent, no arrest or prosecutions have taken place till date.



The likes of Vice-President Dr. Bawumia, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta and the Eson-Benjamin-led MiDA who aided and facilitated this scam which has occasioned the nation huge financial losses, have not been held to account for the roles they individually and jointly played in the scam.



Also, cronies of the President such as Mr. Philip Ayensu, an appointee of President Akufo Addo on the NCA Board, who was the Chairman of PDS and the Directors of the local partners in the company, who perpetrated what government itself alleges to be fraud on the people of Ghana, have all been left off the hook.



Even more bizarre and scandalous is the fact that till date, PDS, the Company made up of friends and cronies of President Akufo-Addo, who were gifted the GHS20 billion assets of ECG on the basis of a fraudulent Insurance Guarantee, and operated same for more than seven (7) months, have not been made to account for the over GHS1.5 billion they collected from electricity consumers during the period.



Also, all calls for the accounts of PDS to be audited by an independent and internationally reputable Audit firm have been ignored by President Akufo Addo. And so as we speak, Ghanaians do not even know how much was collected by PDS from electricity consumers within the duration of the concession, and whether those funds have been properly accounted for and audited.



Friends from the media, it is glaringly clear that President Akufo-Addo has no intention to pursue the prosecution of persons responsible for the PDS scam and the recovery of the millions of monies they collected from electricity consumers for the State.



We in the NDC, are not in the least surprised at the nonchalant posture of President Akufo-Addo on this matter. We have always known that President Akufo-Addo can neither be trusted to punish the perpetrators nor ensure that monies collected by PDS are refunded to the state because of he and his cronies are complicit and neck-deep In the scam.



Ladies and gentlemen, never in the history of Ghana have we seen this level of corruption and naked thievery like we are witnessing under the reign of President Akufo-Addo in the last three (3) and half years. Despite promising to protect the public purse, President Akufo Addo has supervised the biggest rape of the public pursue since he took office in 2017. This has led to a sad situation where millions of money, which should have gone into the provision of schools, hospitals, roads, potable drinking water, jobs and other critical investments in the productive sectors of the economy for the benefit of all Ghanaians, have been diverted into the pockets and bank accounts of a few selfish officials of the Akufo Addo-government, while the masses continue to suffer.



Friends from the media, these acts of naked robbery and the coverup of same by President Akufo-Addo, as pertains to the PDS scam, is what continues to entrench President Akufo-Addo as the Chief Clearing Agent of corruption, who shields his corrupt appointees from punishment. This is why we have always maintained, that President Akufo-Addo is the biggest enabler and promoter of corruption in his government. Today, the incorruptibility tag he was clothe with by his party and some elements in the media prior to the 2016 general elections, has turned out to be a ruse which was presented to Ghanaians for votes and nothing more.



Ghanaians should not and will never forgive President Akufo for supervising this stinking PDS scam which has caused the nation a huge financial loss of over US$1.8 billion, and the numerous corruption scandals that has engulfed his government in the last three (3) and half years. We call on the good people of Ghana to kick out the corrupt Akufo-Addo regime and vote for the John&Jane Ticket come 7th December, 2020. This country needs Leaders who are honest and incorruptible. And those are none other than H.E John Dramani Mahama and his running mate, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, who have dedicated themselves to serving this country with honor and integrity in all the positions they have individually served in.



As President Mahama has already announced, when he is given the opportunity to serve this country again on 7th January 2021, he shall wage a ruthless war against corruption in all sectors of the nation through a crusade dubbed Operation Sting.



Ghanaians can be rest assured, that under the Operation Sting crusade, the next NDC/Mahama government shall ensure that all monies (over GHS1.5 billion) collected by PDS from electricity consumers are properly accounted for, and ensure the retrieval of any amounts misappropriated by the company, their promoters and accomplices for the State. Also, the next NDC/Mahama government shall ensure the arrest and criminal prosecution of all persons who directly or indirectly played a role in the stinking PDS scam and the several other corruption scandals we have witnessed under the Akufo-Addo government.



As President Mahama demonstrated between 2012-2016, when he ensured the prosecution of his own appointees and party members in the YEA scandal involving Abuga Pele and Assibit, the National Service Secretariat Pay roll fraud scandal among others, President Mahama will not be a clearing agent of corruption in the next NDC government. Through the Operation Sting crusade, all appointees of the Next NDC/Mahama administration shall be required to publish their assets and no acts of corruption in any form, whether by Mahama appointees or political opponents will go unpunished. This is the only way, Ghana can succeed in the fight against corruption which has undoubtedly been the bane of the countrys development for a very long time.



President Mahama shall ensure the judicious utilization of state resources for the development of the country through far-reaching policies such as his "Agenda 1 million jobs" policy, Free Primary Health Care program, National Apprenticeship Program, free TVET program, the BIG PUSH policy which will inject some $10 billion into infrastructural projects to dualize key roads, complete the remainder of the 200 Community Day Senior High Schools, finish all abandoned hospital and road projects, among others, for the benefit of all Ghanaians.



Thank you for your attention.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/GHANA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Manipur:

Manipur government, led by Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh, has decided to form seven more new districts, bifurcating the existing nine districts of the state, a state cabinet secretariat source said on Friday.

The decision for formation of seven new districts was taken in a state cabinet meeting chaired by the Chief Minister last evening at the CM's secretariat, the source said.

"Manipur will now have 16 districts and the decision for formation of 7 new districts was taken for administrative convenience and to enable the state government take up development works effectively even in the remote and underdeveloped parts of the state," the chief minister said.

The newly fzormed districts are Kangpokpi, Tengnoupal, Pherzawl, Noney, Kamjong, Jiribam and Kakching, the cabinet secretariat source said. Posting of the new Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police for the newly formed districts were also effected in the government order issued yesterday, the source said.

Manipur earlier had 9 districts - Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur, Thoubal, Ukhrul, Senapati, Tamenglong, Churachandpur and Chandel.

The chief minister explained that inauguration of the new districts would be taken up as soon as possible before the announcement of state assembly elections by the Election Commission of India.

The move came in the backdrop of the United Naga Council (UNC) launching economic blockade in Manipur for more than one month since November one last in protest against the formation of Sadar Hills (Kangpokpi) and Jiribam districts.

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The automotive industry is evolving, and development cycles are becoming shorter.

FREMONT, CA: Continental has invested in setting up its supercomputer for Artificial Intelligence (AI), powered by NVIDIA InfiniBand-connected DGX systems, to develop innovative technologies even more efficiently and quickly. It has been operating from a data center in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, since the beginning of 2020 and is offering computing power and storage to developers in locations around the world. AI improves advanced driver assistance systems, makes mobility efficient and safer, and accelerates autonomous driving development.

"The supercomputer is an investment in our future," states Christian Schumacher, head of Program Management Systems in Continental's Advanced Driver Assistance Systems business unit. "The state-of-the-art system reduces the time to train neural networks, as it allows for at least 14 times more experiments to be run at the same time."

Cooperation with NVIDIA secures top quality

"When searching for a partner, we look for two things: quality and speed," said Schumacher. "The project was set up with an ambitious timeline and implemented in less than a year. After intensive testing and scouting, Continental selected NVIDIA, which powers many of the fastest supercomputers around the world."

"NVIDIA DGX systems give innovators like Continental AI supercomputing in a cost-effective, enterprise-ready solution that's easy to deploy," said Manuvir Das, head of Enterprise Computing at NVIDIA. "Using the InfiniBand-connected NVIDIA DGX POD for autonomous vehicle training, Continental is engineering tomorrow's most intelligent vehicles, as well as the IT infrastructure that will be used to design them."

IT masterpiece for AI-based solutions

Continental's supercomputer is built with above 50 NVIDIA DGX systems, connected with the NVIDIA Mellanox InfiniBand network. It is ranked according to the openly available list of TOP500 supercomputers as the best system in the automotive sector. A hybrid approach has been selected to extend capacity and storage from cloud solutions if required. "The supercomputer is a masterpiece of IT infrastructure engineering," says Schumacher. "Every detail has been planned precisely by the team  in order to ensure the full performance and functionality today, with scalability for future extensions."

Advanced driver assistance systems utilize AI to make decisions, assist the driver, and finally operate autonomously. Environmental sensors such as radar and cameras deliver raw data. This raw data is being processed quickly by intelligent systems to develop a comprehensive model of the vehicle's surroundings and devise a strategy for interacting with the environment. Ultimately, the vehicle needs to be controlled to behave like planned. But with systems being more complicated, traditional software development methods and machine learning methods have reached their limit. Deep Learning and simulations have risen to be the fundamental methods in developing AI-based solutions.

Main use cases: Deep Learning, Simulation, and Virtual Data Generation

With Deep Learning, an artificial neural network allows the machine to learn by experience and connect the new information with existing knowledge, mostly imitating the human brain's learning process. But while a child is capable of remembering a car after being shown a few dozen pictures of different car kinds, several thousand hours of training with millions of images and thus enormous amounts of data are necessary to train a neural network, which will, in future, assist a driver or even control a vehicle autonomously. The NVIDIA DGX POD reduces the time needed for this complicated process, but it also reduces the time to market for the new technologies.

"Overall, we are estimating the time needed to fully train a neural network to be reduced from weeks to hours," says Balazs Lorand, head of Continental's AI Competence Center in Budapest, Hungary, who also works on the development of infrastructure for AI-based innovations together with his groups in Continental. "Our development team has been growing in numbers and experience over the past years. With the supercomputer, we are now able to scale computing power even better according to our needs and leverage the full potential of our developers."

The data used for training the neural networks comes mainly from the Continental test vehicle fleet. They drive around 15,000 test kilometers per day, collecting around 100 terabytes of information  equivalent to 50,000 hours of movies. Already, the recorded data can be utilized to train new systems by replaying and thus simulating physical test drives. With the help of a supercomputer, data can now be generated synthetically. It is a high computing power-consuming use case that allows systems to learn from traveling virtually via a simulated environment.

This can have many advantages for the development process: Firstly, over the long run, it might make the recording, storing, and mining the data generated by the physical fleet unnecessary, as the necessary training scenarios can be created immediately on the system itself. Secondly, it improves speed, as virtual vehicles can travel a similar number of test kilometers in a few hours that would take a real car many weeks. Thirdly, the synthetic generation of data increases the possibility for systems to process and react to the changing and unpredictable situations. Ultimately, this will enable vehicles to navigate safely via changing and extreme weather conditions or make reliable forecasts of pedestrian movements, thus paving the way to higher automation levels.

The potential to scale was one of the main reasons behind the conception of the NVIDIA DGX POD. Through technology, machines can learn faster, better, and comprehensively than through any human-controlled method, with potential performance growing exponentially with every evolutionary step.

The supercomputer is located in a data center in Frankfurt that has been chosen for its proximity to the cloud providers and, more importantly, its AI-ready environment, completing the specific requirements regarding connectivity, cooling systems, and power supply. Certified green energy is being leveraged to power the computer, with GPU clusters being much more energy-efficient than CPU clusters by design.
CHWC / Contributed photo /

TORRINGTON  Community Health and Wellness Center will celebrate National Health Center Week (NHCW) with a special event from 9:30 a.m.-noon Aug. 12 at 469 Migeon Avenue. The rain date is Aug. 13. The national initiative runs Aug 9-15, with the theme Community Health Centers: Lighting the Way for Healthier Communities Today and in the Future, according to a statement.

CHWCs event will have free COVID-19 testing; the center will also distribute Narcan kits, and guests can meet the centers health care providers. Guests will include state Rep. Jay Case, R-Winsted; Rep. Michelle Cook, D-Torrington; and Rep. Maria Horn, D-Salisbury. Other community partners at the celebration include Friendly Hands Food Bank, providing a limited amount of non-perishable food items; New Opportunities, which will meet with attendees to determine if they are eligible for a $200 or $400 gift card; Susan B. Anthony Project, and Apex Community Care.
Drone footage reveals the extent of the devastation after a fire at television host and celebrity cook Rachael Ray's upstate New York home.

While much of the building remains standing, a massive proportion of the mansion went up in flames with most of the roof completely destroyed.

Most of the damage was to the second floor of the home and the roof. Ceilings caved in and water damage occurred after firefighters tackled the blaze but much of the first floor is still intact.

Remarkably, despite the ferocity of the blaze Ray's high-end kitchen managed to survived the fire that ripped through her mansion, as she confirmed that she and her family are safe.

Exclusive drone footage shows how almost the entire structure of Rachael Ray's upstate New York mansion almost burned to the ground after a fire ripped through the building on Sunday

There was substantial damage on the second floor but other than water damage and some ceilings that came down the first floor is in still intact including Ray's kitchen

The place is so remote that there are no fire hydrants for miles but her family and dog are fine

On Monday the celebrity cook tweeted, 'Thank you to our local first responders for being kind and gracious and saving what they could of our home. Grateful that my mom, my husband, my dog were all okay. These are the days we all have to be grateful for what we have, not what weve lost.'

She added that she lost her cell phone in the blaze and sent the tweet from a team member and could not respond to calls and texts wishing her well.

DailyMail.com has learned from fire chiefs that the house had no fire sprinklers that could have stopped the raging inferno, and the house inside New York State's Adirondack Park is in such a remote area that there were no fire hydrants for miles.

Ray tweeted her thanks to the firefighters who battled to save her home for several hours

The home is pictured on Google Earth before being struck by fire on Sunday night

The left portion of the home houses a garage and granny flat which was still left standing

The blaze raged for several hours while firefighters from several departments tackled the fire

Much of the damage was to the roof portion of the home which will require reconstruction

Ray was at her home in Lake Luzerne, New York, where she had been spending quarantine with husband John M Cusimano, 52, and their dog, when the fire broke out Sunday night

But still the celebrity cook, her husband, mother and dog escaped from the fire without injury  and the kitchen where she has been filming her show during the pandemic was virtually unharmed.

'The kitchen is fine, it wasn't touched at all,' Warren County's fire coordinator Brian LaFlure told reporters, Monday.

Ray, 51, was at home in Lake Luzerne, New York, with her husband John Cusimano, 52, and their dog Bella when the fire broke out shortly before 5:30 pm Sunday.

They all escaped unhurt and are now staying with neighbors. LaFlure said they managed to rescue several valuable pieces from the home with the help of staff and firefighters.

Fire crews were on site well past 11pm having been on scene for several hours tackling the fire. Ray, her husband, and mother were at home at the time and managed to escape the fire along with their dog, Bella, who also escaped alive from the blaze

Ray spoke out on Monday for the first time since the fire, thanking first responders and confirming that she and her family are safe

Lucerne-Hadley fire department arrives and drives through the private road where a fire ripped through the home of celebrity chef Rachel Ray located at Chuckwagon Trail in Lucerne

Lucerne-Hadley EMS leaves the private road where a fire ran through Ray's home

Ray said her mother Elsa Scuderi was also able to escape from the burning home unharmed

Some 70 volunteer firefighters from 14 different departments were called in when the fierce blaze broke out in the house's roof on Sunday afternoon. They took nearly two hours to get the flames under control

'The big problem was getting water to the scene,' LaFlure said. 'We are a rural area, there are no fire hydrants and that's the way it is. You can only bring the water in with trucks, 1,500 or 2,000 gallons at a time and you can go through that very quickly.'

The firefighters soon sucked a pond on Ray's road dry, he added, before then starting pumping from a lake.

'And there was no sprinkler system which is something that down the road we would like people to deal with,' said LaFlure.

'The fire is more on the roof level,' said LaFlure. 'Fires don't burn down very easily, they burn up, so there was substantial damage on the second floor but other than water damage and some ceilings that came down the first floor is in really good shape.'

He said Ray and her husband 'are going through a very difficult time.'

LaFlure said the fire would have been much worse if it had broken out later in the day when the couple were asleep, but it was spotted before it took too much hold.

'It could have been substantially worse. They were very fortunate. We tried to come as fast as we could, but it doesn't come quickly. If you are down in a smaller urban area, the next fire department may be five or six minutes away, here you are talking 15 minutes away at least.'

The kitchen where Rachael Ray has been filming her show during the pandemic was virtually unharmed

The home is located in upstate New York, about half an hour's drive north of Saratoga Springs

Luzerne-Hadley Fire Chief Ted Backus, who was first on the scene, could see flames leaping through the roof as soon as he arrived.

He immediately called for mutual aid from other volunteer fire departments from miles around.

'The kitchen is fine, it wasn't touched at all,' Warren County's fire coordinator Brian LaFlure told reporters, Monday

The cause of the blaze is not known, but it is not thought to be suspicious.

Investigators from New York State's office of fire prevention and control were still on site on Monday morning combing through the rubble of Ray's home, which lies deep in the woods a quarter of a mile up a dirt road.

Department chief William McGovern said they are in the midst of a 'methodical investigation' which could take up to two weeks to determine the cause of the fire. 'We will treat this like any other fire investigation,' he said.

He said he could not put a figure on the loss. 'All I know is that it is a beautiful piece of land and property up there.'

One neighbor said the blaze was so fierce the walls of Ray's home glowed bright orange.

'It was like the fire was coming through the walls,' said who declined to give her name. 'I ran outside and thought: This is bad.

'It just went up so fast, it's amazing they all managed to get out unhurt.'

The fire quickly took hold in the upstate New York home that was mainly built out of wood

The cause of the blaze is not known, but it is not thought to be suspicious

Luzerne-Hadley Fire Chief Ted Backus, who was first on the scene, could see flames leaping through the roof as soon as he arrived. He immediately called for mutual aid from other volunteer fire departments from miles around

Ray has lived in the southern Adirondacks for years. Her mother at one stage ran a Howard Johnson Inn in neighboring Lake George, and she ran the pub at the luxury Sagamore Hotel before finding fame as a TV cook. She owns almost 200 acres of land around Lake Luzerne.

She has been filming and cooking up a storm from her home since the coronavirus pandemic began and in April posted video online of her kitchen, in which she revealed that she designed it herself by drawing it out on a piece of paper.

'I decorated the house before it was ever built,' Ray says in a video tour of her kitchen and pantry. 'I drew the house on a piece of paper so I knew what I wanted it to be in my mind.'

The spacious, open-plan design allowed Ray to film her show from the comfort of her own kitchen.

In a video clip that gave a tour of the kitchen, she revealed that her two favorite appliances was the six-burner gas stove and her wood-fired pizza oven, which she referred
WELLINGTON -- New Zealand marked 100 days without a domestic transmission of the coronavirus on Sunday, but warned against complacency as countries like Vietnam and Australia which once had the virus under control now battle a resurgence in infections.

New Zealands successful fight against COVID-19 has made the Pacific island nation of 5 million one of the safest places in the world right now.

New Zealanders have returned to normal life, but authorities are concerned that people were now refusing testing, not using the government contact tracing apps, and even ignoring basic hygiene rules.

Achieving 100 days without community transmission is a significant milestone, however, as we all know, we cant afford to be complacent, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said.

We have seen overseas how quickly the virus can re-emerge and spread in places where it was previously under control, and we need to be prepared to quickly stamp out any future cases in New Zealand, he said.

New Zealand has 23 active cases in managed isolation facilities, and 1,219 COVID-19 cases in all so far.

Vietnam, which went for three months without detecting any domestic transmission, is now racing to control a new outbreak in Da Nang.

Neighbouring Australias second-biggest city, Melbourne, has gone into a six week lockdown due to a surge in cases. The second wave of cases in Melbourne has been largely a result of lapses in quarantining.

For countries like Australia and New Zealand the source of such outbreaks is likely to be from managed isolation and quarantine facilities because of the large numbers of people held there and the multiple shifts of staff involved in looking after them, said Michael Baker, Professor of Public Health at the University of Otago.

There have been cases of returning New Zealanders sneaking out of quarantine, and other security slip ups.

New Zealand last week ramped up testing at quarantine facilities and clinics, and started work on technology to track people using Bluetooth technology.

Ardern kicked off her re-election campaign on Saturday calling it a Covid election.

But a resurgence of cases due to Covid fatigue could spark a backlash against her, and give the opposition a chance to work their way back into the election contest.
There are "very encouraging" signs across the real estate market in China, major Asian developer CapitaLand said last week.

"China remains a bright spark," Andrew Lim, group chief financial officer of CapitaLand Group, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" on Friday.

His comments were made following the company's announcement that profits for the first half of 2020 fell 89% to 96.6 million Singapore dollars ($70.5 million), from 875.4 million Singapore dollars a year ago.

Revenue was 4.9% lower, "mainly due to rental rebates" and lower contributions from malls and residential projects, the press release said. CapitaLand provided rental relief to tenants that were hit hard by partial lockdowns due to the coronavirus crisis.

Earnings before interest and taxes also dropped 71% from 2019. Singapore and China remain the "key contributors to EBIT," accounting for 74.1% of earnings before interest and taxes.
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By AFP

ISLAMABAD: An improvised bomb planted on a motorbike killed six people in Pakistan's restive southwestern Balochistan province on Monday, police said.

A vehicle carrying personnel from the country's anti-narcotic force was believed to be the target of the blast in Chaman town, which borders Afghanistan, senior police official Razzaq Cheema said.

"The explosion killed six passersby and wounded 10 others, two of them critically," he told AFP.

Local police official Masood Khan confirmed the attack and casualties.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but Baluch separatists demanding greater autonomy have been waging an insurgency for years while the province is also riven by sectarian strife and Islamist violence.

Interior minister Ejaz Shah said in a statement that "such attacks are aimed at spreading fear among the people".

Mineral-rich Balochistan, bordering Afghanistan and Iran, is the largest of Pakistan's four provinces, but its roughly seven million inhabitants have long complained they do not receive a fair share of its gas and mineral wealth.

China is investing in the area under a $54 billion project known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, upgrading infrastructure, power and transport links between its far-western Xinjiang region and Pakistan's Gwadar port in Balochistan.

Thousands of paramilitary troops carry out security checks and help police in maintaining law and order in restive parts of Pakistan.
By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A 54-year old health inspector, who was under self-quarantine, went missing from his house at Kundamanbhagam on Saturday evening.

In a note recovered from the banks of the Karamana river where his footwear was also found, Krishnakumar said he was disappointed for spreading Covid-19 among his colleagues.

As per Vilappilsala police, Krishnakumars son noticed his fathers chappal lying on the riverside near Kundamankadavu bridge. The search by Fire and Rescue Services personnel did not yield any result till evening.
By PTI

LOS ANGELES: Actor Kristen Wiig has teased that her role of antagonist Cheetah in the much-anticipated 'Wonder Woman 1984' will go through 'different evolutions'.

In DC Comics, the character of Cheetah is feline-esque with strength and speed to make her Wonder Woman's worthy adversary.

"There are different evolutions to my character. I will leave you with that,' Wiig said in an interview with InStyle.

In the Warner Bros.movie, directed by Patty Jenkins, Wiig will face off actor Gal Gadot's titular superhero. The movie also features actors Chris Pine and Pedro Pascal. Wiig said for a superhero nerd like her, it was dream come true to work on the second installment in the 'Wonder Woman' franchise.

"I'm a superhero nerd, so this is my dream. I've always wanted to have superpowers. It was all very secretive. I went out to London to test for it, which was one of the most nerve-racking things of my life. After that, Patty and I met for a drink and really hit it off. I didn't hear anything for a while when I got home, so I flipped out when I got the part," the 'Bridesmaids' star said detailing her casting process.

The 46-year-old actor said she never imagined starring in a superhero movie at this age.

"I never thought I'd get the chance to be in one of those movies,I'm in my 40s, and I'm not known for being this type of actor. I would look around the set and think, 'I can't believe I'm in this'."

'Wonder Woman 1984' is scheduled to be released on October 2.
Public health precautions were expected to limit school transportation options this fall, but now the union that represents school bus drivers in central Winnipeg is warning bargaining woes could stop busses from running altogether.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/8/2020 (526 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Public health precautions were expected to limit school transportation options this fall, but now the union that represents school bus drivers in central Winnipeg is warning bargaining woes could stop busses from running altogether.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 832, which represents 95 bus drivers in the Winnipeg School Division, said Monday it has turned down the divisions "final offer", following months of contract negotiations.

Bus drivers in the provinces largest division have been without a contract since July 30, 2019.

"Were actively preparing for a picket line on September the 8th," said Bea Bruske, secretary-treasurer of UFCW Local 823, Monday.

Bruske said the latest offer contains financial terms of Bill 28, legislation that attempted to force a two-year wage freeze on public sector unions and was thrown out by the Manitoba Court of Queens Bench in June.

The proposed compensation  a wage freeze for 2019-2021, a 0.75 per cent increase in 2022 and a one per cent increase in 2023  is the "driving factor" for members refusal, Bruske said, adding other items on the negotiation table include vacation time and how extra work is allocated.

The union has three days of bargaining booked with the employer at the end of August. If the division does not adjust its position, Bruske said, parents will not be able to rely on bus service when schools reopen in the fall.

Drivers in the division voted unanimously to strike back in March, saying the employer was not engaging in "meaningful bargaining."

Radean Carter, a senior information officer at the WSD, declined to comment on specific matters Monday.

"Winnipeg School Division will continue to bargain in good faith with the union involved and hope for a positive outcome for our students," Carter said.

Province-wide, parents have expressed concerns about limited seats on school buses in the fall, as a result of public health precautions.

Manitoba Education has asked parents to transport their children to school next year, if possible, and detailed physical distancing guidelines on school buses.

Both Louis Riel and Pembina Trails school divisions have asked their respective communities about whether they would support temporarily cutting bus service to kindergarten students and extending minimum walk zones next year to free up space.

Stay informed The latest updates on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 delivered to your inbox every weeknight. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

The latest update from Pembina Trails is that the division will not be able to accommodate "seat sales"  spots provided to students outside bus catchment zones with school transportation for an annual fee  during the upcoming school year.

Meantime, in the Evergreen School Division, bus driver Karen Crotty is eager to get back to work.

"Its time  I'm ready to get back on the school bus. Regular, enhanced cleaning is inevitable and doable," said Crotty, who works in the division based in Gimli.

"I understand the panic regarding going back to school, but should we not be trying to have our children get back to a routine, learning, interacting and socializing?"

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie
StarlingX provides a complete cloud stack designed specifically for the challenges of deploying edge clouds, and can significantly improve and simplify Day 1 and Day 2 operations for deploying workloads at the intelligent edge.

StarlingXthe open source edge computing and IoT cloud platform optimized for low-latency and high-performance applications that combines open source projects including Ceph, OpenStack, and Kubernetesis available in its 4.0 release today. Among many new integrations, StarlingX 4.0 increases security in edge environments by supporting Kata Containers as a container runtime and adding Active Directory integration for Kubernetes APIs for enhanced authentication.

***Download StarlingX 4.0 at git.starlingx.io/starlingx***

Headline Features of StarlingX 4.0

To further support the low-latency and distributed cloud requirements of edge computing and industrial IoT use cases, the community prioritized these features in StarlingX 4.0:



Support for Kata Containers as a container runtimeStarlingX can be configured to use Kata Containers as a container runtime which increases security in the environment

Integration of the Ussuri version of OpenStackmoving to the latest OpenStack release

Containerization of the remaining platform servicesit is a continuous effort to containerize all the platform services which requires multiple release cycles to complete

Active Directory integration for Kubernetes APIsfor enhanced authentication methods in the platform while still supporting service accounts for the use case

TSN support in Kata Containersto support real-time applications that is important in areas such as industrial or automotive use cases

Cert Manager Integrationto provide automation to handle certificates in the platform

Redfish virtual media supportto support board management functions (power on/off, reset, network boot, etc) with increased security

Layered Buildit creates build layers which allows to build only a subset of the platform that got modified, for instance updating only the StarlingX Flock services

Learn more about these and other features of StarlingX 4.0 in a blog post by Ildiko Vancsa, OpenStack Foundation ecosystem technical lead, as well as the communitys release notes.

Open Source Community Drives StarlingX Progress

The OpenStack Foundation (OSF) Board of Directors recently announced that former pilot project StarlingX had been confirmed as a top-level Open Infrastructure Project supported by the OSF. Confirmation by the OSF conveys recognition of a projects success in meeting the goals of the pilot process and a commitment from the OSF to continue supporting the project.

Since the StarlingX project launched in 2018, there have been 7,717 commits from 216 authors. Todays 4.0 release adds 1,531 commits from 84 developers. The StarlingX community is actively collaborating with several other groups such as the OSF Edge Computing Group, ONAP, Akraino and more.

After initial code for the project was contributed by Wind River and Intel, the active community of support for StarlingX has expanded to include 99Cloud, FiberHome, Intel, the OpenStack Foundation, China UnionPay and Wind River, among others. China UnionPay, China Unicom and T-Systems have become early adopters of the software.

Community Accolades for StarlingX 4.0

The StarlingX community is continuously making significant progress since the project confirmation. Were excited to see StarlingX 4.0 is available with a lot of enhancement and new features, such as FPGA support for Kubernetes, Active Directory Integration for Kubernetes APIs, and upgrade to OpenStack Ussuri release. Its time to use the latest StarlingX platform to build your edge cloud.

Shuquan Huang, technical director, 99Cloud Inc.

Distributed edge cloud will be a critical part of the 5G network architecture, especially as it will be used for performance-sensitive edge use cases such as 5G vRAN, on-premise factory automation, autonomous vehicles, and other applications that require low latency. StarlingX provides a complete cloud stack designed specifically for the challenges of deploying edge clouds, and can significantly improve and simplify Day 1 and Day 2 operations for deploying workloads at the intelligent edge. The latest StarlingX milestone further advances edge cloud infrastructure to meet key needs, and we look forward to continue working closely with the community.

Paul Miller, Chief Technology Officer, Wind River

Meet the StarlingX Community at Open Infrastructure Summit

Members of the StarlingX community will join the next OSF collaborative open infrastructure event, Open Infrastructure Summit, October 19-23, for working sessions to map out the future of the project and collaboratively solve problems around deployment, operations, upgrades and more.

Project Resources

Download the StarlingX 4.0 code

Website // IRC freenode // Twitter // Mailing-list // Email: info@starlingx.io

About StarlingX

StarlingX is the open source edge computing and IoT cloud platform optimized for low latency and high performance applications. It provides a scalable and highly reliable edge infrastructure, tested and available as a complete stack. Applications include industrial IoT, telecom, video delivery and other ultra-low latency use cases. StarlingX ensures compatibility among diverse open source components and provides unique project components for fault management and service management, among others, to ensure high availability of user applications. StarlingX is the ready-for-deployment code base for edge implementations in scalable solutions. The project is supported by the OpenStack Foundation. http://www.starlingx.io
New York: A leading diaspora group in the US will hoist India's National Flag at the Times Square this week, the first time the Indian tricolour will be unfurled at the iconic New York City destination.

The Federation of Indian Associations (FIA) of the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut said in a statement that it "will be creating history" on August 15, 2020 by "hosting the first ever flag hoisting ceremony at Times Square" to commemorate India's Independence Day.

"It will be the first time ever that India's tricolour will be unfurled at the iconic venue in all its glory," the organisation said, adding that Consul General of India in New York Randhir Jaiswal will be the Guest of Honour at the event.

The FIA said this year's Independence Day celebrations will include the flag-hoisting ceremony at Times Square and the annual tradition of illuminating the Empire State Building in hues of the tricolour - orange, white and green.

The Empire State lighting ceremony will be held on August 14.

"The Times Square flag hoisting ceremony is a testament to the Indian-American community's growing patriotism and is a fitting tribute to the FIA which is celebrating its golden jubilee year," the organisation said.

Established in 1970, the FIA is among the largest umbrella diaspora organisations.

In July, Ankur Vaidya was appointed the FIA Chairman, succeeding prominent Indian-American community leader Ramesh Patel who passed away due to complications from coronavirus.

Vaidya, 40, has been long associated with the FIA and was the President of the umbrella diaspora organisation for the year 2014. He is the youngest member of the Board and the youngest to be chosen as its chairman.

The Consulate General of India in New York will host a virtual Independence Day celebration on August 15 in which it has invited "members of the Indian community and friends of India" for the commemoration that will be live streamed.

The FIA annually organises its flagship event - the India Day Parade to mark India's Independence Day in August.

Top US political leaders, lawmakers as well as prominent members of the Indian-American community and celebrities from India have participated in the annual parade that draws a crowd of thousands in the heart of Manhattan each year.

This year, however, the parade will not be held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Various studies are being undertaken in the United Kingdom (UK) to find out why black and ethnic minorities in the country appear to be more susceptible to COVID-19 than the white population.



UK government statistics have shown that people from minority ethnic groups, particularly South Asian and Black and African Caribbean communities, are up to four times more likely to die from COVID-19.



Now the government is spending millions of pounds to fund six projects whereby UK scientists will try to find out why people from an ethnic minority background are at greater risk from COVID-19.



The projects will look at health and genetic factors and social and working conditions - some of the reasons given for the high incidence of COVID-19 infections and deaths among the black and ethnic minority communities.



Most of the early victims of COVID-19 in the black community were working in the National Health Service (NHS) and the private health sector, mainly in care homes for the elderly who are in a vulnerable position in relation to the coronavirus.



A recent report by Public Health England (PHE) showed that 63 per cent of healthcare workers who died from COVID-19 were from a black, Asian and minority ethnic background.



Two of the deaths that hit the headlines during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic were those of Augustine Agyei-Mensah who worked at the NHS Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust (NHFT) and Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong, 28, a nurse at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital  both originally from Ghana.



Angela Hillery, the chief executive of the NHFT, said Mr Agyei-Mensah cared for some of the most vulnerable people in society, adding: Lives have been transformed because of him.



Mrs Agyapong was pregnant when she contracted COVID-19 and pneumonia and died after her baby was delivered by emergency Caesarean section, according to the inquest.



Given that members of the black and ethnic minority form a substantial percentage of healthcare staff, the UK government recently launched a 2.1 million study to investigate COVID-19 risks among this group.



The Chief Medical Officer for England and Head of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Professor Chris Whitty said: "With evidence showing that people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds are more severely affected by COVID-19, it is critical that we understand what factors are driving this risk to address them effectively.



He said a range of projects funded by the NIHR and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will help examine this association in detail so that new treatments and approaches to care can be developed to target the ethnicities most at risk.



He added: This research will have embedded patient and public involvement with black, Asian and minority ethnic groups at all stages of the research.



The study will focus on 30,000 clinical and non-clinical black and ethnic minority members of staff and will follow the group for the next 12 months to see what changes occur in their physical and mental health, how they have changed their professional and social behaviours in response to COVID-19, and how risky their jobs are.



It will also include non-clinical staff integral to the day-to-day running of healthcare institutions, including cleaners, kitchen staff and porters.



The Science Minister, Amanda Solloway, said: COVID-19 has had an enormous impact on all of our lives, but sadly we have seen that people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds are disproportionately affected by this terrible disease.



There is an urgent need to better understand the complex reasons behind this.



These new projects will enable researchers to work directly with ethnic minority groups to improve our evidence base and, crucially, save lives.



Lord Bethell, the Health Minister, said: I am deeply concerned by the disproportionate impact of this horrible virus on some minority communities.



We need to find out whats causing this, so we can stop these deaths.



These research awards will give Britains scientists resources they need to answer the urgent questions behind these disparities so we can address the root causes and save lives.



Dr Manish Pareek, Associate Clinical Professor in Infectious Diseases at the University of Leicester and the chief investigator of the study, noted that it was the first to be conducted on a large scale, investigating why these healthcare workers could be at greater risk of COVID-19.



We want this research to improve the lives of healthcare staff  to this end, we have a stakeholder group of major national organisations to research and publicise our findings, he said.



Professor Kamlesh Khunti, who leads the Centre for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Health in Leicester, said the University of Leicester study would help in the development of a national Risk Reduction Framework for NHS staff and a comprehensive report recommending a series of policy actions to reduce health inequalities related to COVID-19.



These studies will help us to develop and to refine these recommendations with the overall aim to mitigate further disparities in COVID-19 outcomes for ethnic minority healthcare staff, he added.

Source: GNA









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Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday claimed "pressure tactics" were being used in the case of actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death and the issue was being politicised as part of a conspiracy against Maharashtra.

It is wrong to see the unfortunate suicide of the actor from a political angle, Raut said in his weekly column 'Rokhthok' in the party mouthpiece 'Saamana'.

Also read: Sushant Singh Rajput Death Case Updates: Rhea, Showik Reach ED Office for 2nd Round of Questioning

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recently took over the probe in the case, based on a Patna police FIR related to alleged criminal conspiracy and abetment to suicide against Rajput's girlfriend and actor Rhea Chakraborty.

"If one wants to indulge in politicisation and pressure tactics, anything can happen in our country. It looks like the script of Sushant's case was already written. Whatever has happened behind the curtains is a conspiracy against Maharashtra," Raut said.

When it is decided to politicise an incident, one cannot say to what extent it can be done and "this is what is happening in the unfortunate suicide of Rajput", he said.

Raut said the Bihar government alleged involvement of top political, film and business personalities and it claimed Mumbai Police will not investigate the case properly. "That government demands CBI probe which is accepted in 24 hours.

Attorney General Tushar Mehta tells the Supreme Court that the Centre has decided to hand over the probe to the CBI," Raut said, claiming this was a "direct attack on a state's autonomy".

Describing Mumbai Police as the "best investigating agency in the world" and a professional force, he said, "It investigated the Sheena Bora murder case where some top names were involved and sent all to jail. The Mumbai Police probed the 26/11 terror attack which resulted in the hanging of the accused Ajmal Kasab," the Rajya Sabha member said.

"Prima facie, Sushant Singh Rajput's case is that of suicide. There is no basis for repeated allegations that he had been murdered," he said.

Raut alleged that since the BJP cannot topple the Uddhav Thackeray government (comprising the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) in Maharashtra, it has decided to "malign it and with the help of news channels.

Raut said the Mumbai Police should have registered a ''zero FIR'' and continued with the probe in Rajput's case.

But Rajput's family had no complaints and left Mumbai for Patna (some days after his death). "The BJP politicised the incident and created a sensation" by linking a young minister in the Maharashtra cabinet to the case. Two English news channels started challenging the chief minister and confused the police, he said.

The Mumbai Police should have started media briefing, considering the case is becoming high profile, and should have declared that if any minister or politician name crops up, his statement will be recorded, Raut opined.

He said a party at the house of actor Dino Morea before Rajput's death was being linked to the case. "Morea and others are friends of (state cabinet minister) Aaditya Thackeray and if that friendship is the cause of targetting the latter, it is wrong," he added.

Raut claimed Rajput did not share good relations with his father.

"His father's second marriage was not acceptable to him (Rajput). Let the facts come out how many times Rajput visited his family in Patna. Why did (Rajput's former girlfriend) Ankita Lokhande split from Rajput and this should be part of the probe. It is wrong to see the unfortunate suicide from a political angle," he said.

Raut lamented that Rajput's former manager Disha Salian, who allegedly died by suicide a week before the actor's death, was also being maligned.

Rajput's father KK Singh on July 25 lodged a complaint with the Bihar police against Chakraborty, her parents, brother, her former manager Shruti Modi and one Samuel Miranda, whom Chakraborty had employed as the manager in Rajput''s house.

Based on the complaint, the Bihar police registered an FIR against the accused persons and booked them under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including abetment to suicide, criminal conspiracy, cheating and wrongful confinement.
New Delhi:

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has got the backing of the parliament for ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, despite US President-elect Donald Trump's plan to withdraw from the 12-nation trade pact.

Upper house lawmakers approved the TPP on Friday, heeding Abe's calls to push ahead with it despite Trump's rejection of the free-trade initiative championed by President Barack Obama.

Japan's ratification still requires Cabinet approval of needed regulatory revisions. The market opening measures required by the trade pact are seen as a way for Abe to push through difficult reforms of the agricultural and health sectors.

So far, Abe has made scant progress on a slew of reforms he proposed to help improve Japan's lagging productivity and competitiveness. Trump has vowed to take steps to exit the pact right after he takes office.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
DCH says AMC has no right to refuse purchase of Motor Sich with Chinese partners, ready to apply to intl court

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) has no any legal grounds to refuse permission to concentrate PJSC Motor Sich's shares to Chinese investors in the enterprise and DCH Group of Oleksandr Yaroslavsky, DCH said in a statement.

"The AMC does not have the legal right to refuse satisfaction of our joint application with the Chinese partners ... If the AMC, in violation of the legislation of Ukraine, does not give consent within the established time frame or refuses, such actions of the AMC will be appealed in court," the document says.

DCH notes that the deal does not lead to monopolization or significant restriction of competition in the Ukrainian market, since the buyers do not operate in the markets where Motor Sich is represented, including in Ukraine. In addition, the applicants are not on the sanctions lists of Ukraine, the statement says.

The group also emphasized that the AMC has 45 to 135 calendar days to consider the application, recalling that the agency had previously violated these deadlines when considering previous applications from the Chinese partners.

DCH also stated that Motor Sich is in a deplorable financial condition due to the blocking of its development by Ukrainian authorities since 2017, in particular, criminal proceedings and the seizure of all 100% of the shares.

"For three years now, the owners of Motor Sich shares have been unable to dispose of their property, take part in the management of the enterprise and control the conformity of decisions made by management to their economic interests," the document says with a reminder that the seizure is a temporary measure. According to DCH, the seizure of shares does not help ensure the safety of the property, but leads the enterprise to destruction.
Government grants are free federal, state and locally funded programs offered to help launch or grow small businesses.

Only apply for grants that you are eligible for and can meet all the conditions of the grantor.

Look to your local government for coronavirus-relief programs specific to your community.

This article is for new or existing small business owners who want to secure a government grant to help them launch or grow their organizations.

Launching and expanding a small business is expensive, and there are several financial routes you can take to secure funding. For many small business owners, government grants are a desirable option. Several grants are provided by federal, state, and local governments to help small businesses launch, grow, and develop their companies. Learn what the best government grants in 2020 are, how to apply and five tips to help your business get one.

What is a small business grant?

A small business grant is essentially free money given to a small business owner to help them launch, develop or expand their organization. Grants, unlike a loan, do not have to be paid back, but they often come with restrictions on how the money can be spent.

Just because a grant is free money, doesn't mean it is easy to get. It takes a lot of time and preparation to apply for a grant, and they are highly competitive, so small businesses should only apply for grants they are eligible for.

Entrepreneurs and small business owners can seek a variety of grants, like private grants from corporations and government grants from federal, state, and local governments. Grants are also available for specific industries and demographics; for example, if you are a minority business owner, there are several minority-owned business grants specifically geared toward you.

Key takeaway: Small business grants are free money given to small businesses by private corporations or federal, state, or local government.

Editor's note: Looking for the right loan for your business? Fill out the below questionnaire to have our vendor partners contact you about your needs.

Business grants vs. business loans

As discussed above, with a grant you do not have to repay the funds. However, if you have just launched your business or you're in the early startup phase, you may not be eligible for many grants. Another potential limitation with grants is that many grants have strict requirements concerning the grant application process and the grant proposal. If your application or proposal doesn't meet the specific requirements mandated by the agency, your request will be rejected.

If you're just starting out in business (two years or less) and it's unlikely that you will be awarded a grant, you may want to consider finding a loan provider.

One advantage of a business loan is that you can secure the capital you need to meet your needs, whereas with a grant, the amounts are fixed and may not sufficiently meet your company's needs. Another advantage is that some lenders may have more relaxed requirements, such as a lower minimum monthly income or lower minimum time in business.

Where to find business grants

Below is a list of some of the most robust resources for finding grants that can aid your business:

SBA.gov is one of the top places to search for grants. The government site is filled with various grant and financing opportunities.

Grants.gov is the ultimate database for federal grants. You can search for grants by funding type, eligibility, category (arts, business and commerce, health) and agency. Be forewarned: Sorting through the database will require some effort, but the potential payoff is that you may find a grant opportunity that is perfect for your company.

The Economic Development Administration administers grants for economically depressed communities to stimulate new jobs and commercial growth.

Similarly, Small Business Development Centers offer local resources that can help your business.

In the wake of the coronavirus, there are resources, including federal and private funding sources, that are helping businesses cope with the drastic economic contraction that is affecting the world.

Economic Injury Disaster Loans are administered by the SBA and can provide businesses with working capital to pay employees, rent and other expenses.





In addition to government loans, companies like Verizon have created funds that provide grants to small businesses.

Government grants for small businesses

Government grants are a desirable source of funding for many small businesses. Well-known sources for government grants include agencies like Grants.gov, Challenge.gov, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), but small businesses should look to every tier of the government (federal, state and local) to find the best grant for their business.

If this is a funding option you are considering, check out these government grants for small businesses.

Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs (SBIR, STTR)

The SBIR and STTR programs are some of the best government grants available to for-profit small businesses innovating in science and technology. They are highly competitive and incentivize small businesses to conduct research and development, in hopes to eventually commercialize their product.

In addition to funding, these programs also offer opportunities for small businesses to work with nonprofit organizations. To be eligible, you must operate a U.S.-based small business that is more than 50% U.S.-citizen owned and has less than 500 employees.

These programs are broken down into three phases:

Phase I: Award is between $50,000 and $250,000 for six months (SBIR) or one year (STTR). The objective is to determine technical merit, commercial potential and feasibility.





Award is between $50,000 and $250,000 for six months (SBIR) or one year (STTR). The objective is to determine technical merit, commercial potential and feasibility. Phase II: Award is generally $750,000 for two years (SBIR and STTR). The objective is to continue research and development efforts from Phase I.





Award is generally $750,000 for two years (SBIR and STTR). The objective is to continue research and development efforts from Phase I. Phase III: Funding is not provided by SBIR or STTR programs. The objective is to pursue commercialization.

Visit the website to learn more about the SBIR and STTR program requirements and applications.

State Trade Expansion Program (STEP)

Small businesses seeking grant funding at the state level should consider STEP funding. STEP awards are given to state entities to increase exporters and sales in their state.

Small businesses can find STEP awardees in their state to access STEP resources and expand their global customer reach. STEP financial support helps small businesses learn how to export, participate in foreign trade missions, and design and develop products to attract foreign buyers.

Visit the SBA website to learn more about expanding your global reach.

Environmental Protection Agency grants

The EPA helps a variety of businesses, from small nonprofits to large state governments, by offering billions of dollars in grants and other assistance agreements. It's focused primarily on aiding in the development of human health and the environment. The EPA homepage features helpful guidance like available training and grant opportunities, application processes, and rules and policies.

Visit the website to see the EPA grant and training assistance available to you.

USDA Rural Business Development grants

If you are a small business (less than 50 workers and less than $1 million in gross revenue) operating in a rural area (population under 50,000), you may be a prime candidate for funding from a USDA Rural Business Development grant.

This grant is awarded to public entities (towns, communities, state agencies, nonprofits, etc.) to be used to benefit small and emerging businesses in rural communities that are based in industries such as land acquisition or development, pollution control and abatement, rural transportation improvement, and economic development.

The USDA also offers other rural grants, loans and loan guarantees. You can narrow your search based on your specific sector and state. From here, you will see details about each grant, including deadlines, funding amount, eligibility requirements and terms.

Visit the website to learn more about funding for rural business development.

U.S. Department of Education grants

Small businesses operating in the education industry can access grants offered by the U.S. Department of Education. It has dozens of grants for specific uses like scientific research, state education, special education and rehabilitation. Each grant lists program information like who is eligible to apply, total program funding, award ceilings and number of awards.

Visit the website to view and apply for education grants.

Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVO SBC) Program

The U.S. Small Business Association offers federal grants to service-disabled veteran small business owners through the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Program.

To qualify for the program, you must meet certain ownership and operational requirements. For example, your small business must be at least 51% owned and controlled by service-disabled veteran(s), and you must have one or more service-disabled veterans who make day-to-day and long-term decisions. As a member of the SDVO SBC Program, you will be eligible to compete for set-aside contracts.

Visit the website to learn about SDVO SBC Program benefits and requirements.

Funding for small businesses impacted by COVID-19

If your business is facing financial distress due to the coronavirus pandemic, securing a general government grant is not your only financing option. For example, the SBA is offering additional relief funding specifically to those impacted by the pandemic.

These funding options include the following:

Additionally, said Ty Stewart, CEO and president of Simple Life Insure, "Many states are currently offering relief programs and alternative short-term funding opportunities to hard-hit businesses. Your chance of finding fitting opportunities increases the more local that search is, so try to prioritize ones available in your county or state."

[Related content: How to Fund a Business in Debt]

To give you an idea of what type of local relief may be offered in your area, Ryan Pitylak, chief marketing officer and founder of ZenBusiness, listed several local grant examples, including:

Although a smaller number of businesses are eligible for local funding programs like these, they are still highly competitive. If you want to apply for a local COVID-19 relief program that has already allocated all of its current funding, check the details to see if they anticipate providing another round of aid.

[Related content: SBA Loans VS Conventional Loans]

Key takeaway: If your small business was impacted by the pandemic, search for local grants that are available to businesses in your specific county or state.

How to know if your business is eligible for a grant

Applying for a business grant is a long and involved process, so it is important that you only apply for the ones you are eligible for. To narrow down your search to a select few grants, carefully check the details and deadlines of each grant you are considering. If you meet the general business criteria, take it one step further and ensure your goals align with those of the government grantor.

"Businesses need to be aware of the problem they are going to solve using the grant," said Will Ward, CEO of Assistive Listening HQ. "It should be double-checked if solving this particular problem is part of the goals of the government entity giving the funds."

Ward also recommended researching similar problems that are being solved by other companies and the amount invested, as this knowledge will help you prove eligibility in securing the grant. Once you find a grant that aligns with your company goals, the next step of eligibility is to verify that you will be able to meet the grantor's required conditions.

Key takeaway: To be eligible for a grant, your business goals must align with the grantor's goals, and you must fulfill all required details and conditions.

How to apply for (and get) a government grant

It is not easy to secure a government grant. Although grants are technically free money, you want to put a lot of time and energy into ensuring your application is as good as possible; this will give your business the best chance at securing a grant and receiving funding.

"A great chunk of time will have to be allowed to put together all of the paperwork and make the grant application," said Pitylak. "You're advised to perform a cost-benefit analysis to find out whether it's worth your while."

Securing a government grant is just like securing any other grant. You will first need to spend a considerable amount of time gathering your application materials (business plan, business records, administrative details, funding objective, etc.) Next, you want to clearly define what type of grants you are eligible for and carefully read through grant requirements to select a few that directly apply to your business. You may want to meet with the funding source before applying.

After you write and submit your grant proposal (or hire a grant writer to do it for you), the last thing to do is wait. Unless the grant has application tracking or next-steps listed, wait at least three to six months before following up.

Applying for a government grant is one thing, but how do you get the grant? We spoke with established business leaders to learn five tips for securing a grant.

Create a professional resume. "It's worth taking the time to create a professional 'resume,' giving answers to questions that are bound to be asked when deciding the suitability of your business," said "You should specify the amount of time that you have been in business, monthly revenue and expected uses of the grant money. It would also be worth attaching a professional photo and business plan."

Partner with a large local organization. "Start by researching large corporations or brands headquartered in your area that maintain a corporate social responsibility strategy," said Stewart. "Businesses often support grant programs and partnerships to help develop the communities where they're located, especially around regional or worldwide headquarters. They have a vested interest in keeping those communities thriving, including helping out relevant small businesses."

Connect with your city's or county's economic development council. "This branch of government often aggregates a continual list of grant opportunities," said Stewart. "Having a working relationship with economic development council staff or members can help you stay in the loop on these grants as well as elevate your business' visibility in your community, which will help come application time."

Use your digital assets. "Businesses should also focus on digital assets like social media handles and websites, along with other physical assets," said Ward. "The digital assets act as the face of the company and should give a good first impression when people search for it."

Think outside the box. "It is important for small businesses to stand out from the rest of the other grant applications," said Ward. "Business owners should think creatively and do out-of-the-box ideas to impress the people in charge. Something as simple as a light-hearted video explaining why your business plan is worth investing on can do the trick."

Key takeaway: Secure a grant through unique strategies like creating a professional resume, connecting with local corporations and local economic development councils, highlighting digital assets, and getting creative on applications.
This time, the postings on social media about Daisy Coleman are arriving with the respect that she always deserved, that all young girls deserve. Its damnable that theyre arriving too late.

There are notes of RIP; for Rest in Power. And messages from people who attest that the Netflix documentary about her life, Audrie & Daisy, helped to save theirs.

Included also are many tributes that note that while 23-year-old Daisy died technically by suicide, but morally by murder.

The charge is accurate. And so many could be named as co-conspirators, especially those who viciously attacked her on social media. They left scars.

Daisys mother reported her daughters suicide on Facebook in early August, rocking a network of followers who looked to the young woman as a symbol of resilience, an advocate who characterized the term sexual assault survivor, over victim.

Daisy became a household name in the worst way possible for a young girl. She was allegedly sexually assaulted as a 14-year-old in 2012.

The details of the case garnered it national attention. Her story was a drama in a section of the nation that news outlets too often see in stereotypical terms.

A small bucolic town in the Midwest. The pretty young cheerleader, new to the area. A popular football player, with locally significant family members.

The story went that she was lured to the house late at night. Other boys were also there and alcohol was served to both her and her even younger friend. The next morning her mother found her on their front lawn, her hair frozen to the ground, disheveled and traumatized.

The local hospital suspected an assault occurred, charges were initially filed. And then dropped.

The town turned against Daisy and shielded the young man, Matthew Barnett, the grandson of a longtime Northwest Missouri legislator. At 14 Daisy was labeled a liar, a slut and blamed for the incident because she was drinking. Eventually, only with public pressure and the appointment of a special prosecutor out of Kansas City, would Barnett plead guilty to a misdemeanor of child endangerment, but not of felony sexual assault.

In the years following her case, Daisy Coleman managed to articulate what sexual assault robs from a person. Its an innocence and a natural course of a life that should have progressed along a different, now evaporated route.

In a 2018 YouTube video she captured it, discussing her life in terms of before and after with Amanda Knox.

People dont understand who I really was before all of this happened to me, she said. I was almost like a stereotype. I had blonde hair. I was a cheerleader. I was on the dance team. I did pageants.

She spoke about how to her the bullying, the taunting, the labeling was almost worse than thoughts of being assaulted. It was what others did in reaction to her coming forward that multiplied the harm.

You lose a part of yourself because youre trying to rekindle with what you believe you are, but then everyone is telling you something exactly opposite, she said. So it just completely misconstrues how you look at yourself.

And yet, she is so self-assured, so present in the video.

A person can be both incredibly resilient and powerful in one minute and also vulnerable in the next. People are not necessarily one or the other. We choose daily, to either build people, or strike them down. And while we want to believe that most people, including us, choose the former, it is often the latter that becomes the most visible.

In my career I have spent a lot of time writing and researching sexual assault cases. As Daisy grew from a teenager into a young woman, the nation finally, belatedly, haltingly began to grasp the scale of the #MeToo movement. And yet, for all the training, the positive shifts in peoples attitudes and language about victim blaming, there is no doubt that a similar story could still be playing out right now for another young woman.

Its also true that Coleman had far too many traumas layered on her at a young age. The reason her family initially moved to Maryville was to restart after her father died in a car crash. Coleman and one of her brothers escaped the wreck that killed their father. She was nine years old. Then came the assault at age 14. And in 2018, one of her three brothers died, also in a car crash.

Despite the fact that she was receiving treatment for PTSD, the cumulation of all those traumas might have won in the moment that Coleman decided to end her life.

In announcing her death, Colemans mother wrote, She never recovered from what those boys did to her and its just not fair. My baby girl is gone.

Among Colemans legacies is the group she helped found, SafeBAE, which works to teach middle and high school students about consent, Title IX laws and preventing rape culture. But ultimately, one of Daisy Colemans greatest contributions may be a simple reminder. That everyone has trauma, some more than others. And its the role of everyone, not to add to that pain.

Readers can reach Mary Sanchez at msanchezcolumn@gmail.com and follow her on Twitter @msanchezcolumn.

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Alabama rapper Chika has dropped U Should, a sultry summer single that is her first new music following the March release of her major-label debut, the EP Industry Games.

U Should got instant notice from major industry news sites including Billboard, which included it in Billboard Prides First Out, a roundup of new music from LGBTQ artists. Billboard credited Chika for employing some of her much-loved rapid-fire bars, while blending them with a trippy melody filled with acoustic guitars, horns and some gorgeous harmonized voice.

The vibe may be laid-back, but the lyrics are all about the intensity of a new crush: This how you feel when you stunned/ This how you feel when you won/ Yes, Im a hopeless romantic/ But dont think Im manic when saying I think you the one/ Tryna get cuffed or just looking for fun?/ Ill take you up on it/ But total disclosures, Im tryna get closer/ So mama, just wish me good luck on it/ Wish me good luck on it.

Said Uproxx: Chikas profile has risen considerably during the last few months, both as a result of her excellent EP and due to her social activism during uprisings against police brutality over the summer. She documented being detained at a protest in Los Angeles after slipping her restraints to retrieve her cell phone. She also called out other artists for exploiting the protests for personal profit. But now, the focus is back on her music  right where it should be, as she lives up to the potential that Cardi B declared in her with a confident co-sign.

Chika -- a Montgomery native born Jane Chika Oranika -- has teased an appearance in the Netflix superhero crime drama Project Power. The movie, set in New Orleans and starring Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Dominique Fishback, premieres Aug. 14. According to the Internet Movie Database shell appear as a character called Akeela.
Rescue workers search for missing people at a landslide site caused by heavy rains in Pettimudy, in Kerala state, on Aug. 8, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Monsoon Rains Trigger Tea Plantation Landslide in India, Killing at Least 43 People

At least 43 people, including three children, have died with dozens more feared buried after torrential rains triggered a landslide in the southwestern Indian state of Kerala.

The landslide swept into a settlement housing workers on a tea plantation in Idukki district late Thursday, when most residents were sleeping. Dozens of houses were destroyed and 11 injured people were taken to local hospitals.

The death toll steadily rose as search and rescue workers spent the weekend digging through thick mud and debris, with efforts hampered further by heavy rain.

At least 25 people remain missing, according to district lawmaker Dean Kuriakose. More than 500 personnel from local forces and the National Disaster Response Force have been deployed to sift through the debris, he added.

Despite inclement weather and harsh conditions, the search for those who went missing is progressing, Keralas Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan tweeted Sunday.

On Monday, the Indian Meteorological Department issued a warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall in certain parts of the state for the next 24 hours. On Sunday, a red alert was in place for seven of the states 14 districts.

Kerala has been battered by rain and flooding for weeks. On Friday, tragedy struck again when an Air India Express plane skidded off the runway and broke into two while landing at Kozhikode Calicut International Airport amid heavy rain.

People stand by the debris of the Air India Express flight that skidded off a runway while landing in Kozhikode, Kerala state, India, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020. (Shijith Sreedhar/AP Photo)

The flight from Dubai had 190 people on board when it crashed, according to Air India Express. A total of 18 people died, including both pilots and four children.

For centuries, agriculture in South Asia has depended on the annual monsoon, which stretches from about June until September. But intense rains and floods also cause devastation and billions of dollars in damage and economic loss across much of the region every year.

In 2018, Kerala was hit with its worst flooding in almost a century following unusually high rainfall. Flash floods swept through the state, rivers overflowed and sewage lines were blocked, with more than 300 people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Last year, Kerala and neighboring states were inundated again, with at least 150 killed, hundreds of homes destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people forced to take refuge in relief camps.

A damaged area is pictured following a landslide in Meppadi, Wayanad district, in the Indian state of Kerala on Aug. 9, 2019. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Volunteers, local residents and members of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) search for survivors in the debris left by a landslide at Puthumala at Meppadi in the Wayanad district of the Indian state of Kerala on Aug. 10. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Since May this year, monsoon rains have triggered deadly flooding in the eastern Indian states of Assam and Bihar, affecting more than 2.4 million people, swamping large parts of a national park, and killing more than 100 wild animals, including a dozen rhinos.

Elsewhere in the region, Nepal has endured massive landslides and severe flooding, while nearly one third of Bangladeshand a fifth of its population of 161 million peoplehave been affected by floods.

Floods have also engulfed huge swaths of southern China this year, with the Yangtze basin having its heaviest average rainfall in almost 60 years since June. Chinas Ministry of Emergency Management put the direct economic cost of the disaster at $21 billion in destroyed farmland, roads and other property. Some 55 million people have been affected.

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File image: Rhea Chakraborty

A day before the crucial hearing, actress Rhea Chakraborty Monday told that Supreme Court that she should not be made "scapegoat of political agendas" in the actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death case and alleged that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is "reported to be responsible for registration of FIR in Patna" against her.

She claimed that the "sad incident" of Rajput's death unfortunately occurred just in wake of elections in Bihar and this led to the issue of suicide being isolated and "blown out of proportion in media", causing extreme trauma and infringement of privacy of her rights due to the "constant sensationalisation" of this case.

The actress said she has already been "convicted" by the media in the matter even before any foul play has been established.

In an additional affidavit filed in the apex court, Chakraborty said that she has "no objection" if the top court refers the case to CBI by its order and "even if the CBI investigates the matter the jurisdiction will still be with the courts at Mumbai and not at Patna".

The affidavit by the actress which stated that ruling party in Bihar and Centre is same and the said party is in minority in the state of Maharashtra, also alleged that the purported transfer of the case to a Patna court and further to the CBI on August 4 is only to render her petition in the apex court infructuous.

It alleged that the transfer of investigation to the CBI by Bihar Police is illegal and bad in law.

Chakraborty filed the affidavit in the top court which is seized of her plea seeking transfer of an FIR, lodged against her by Bihar Police in Patna on a complaint by Rajput's father Krishna Kishore Singh, to Mumbai.

In her additional affidavit, she said that two actors --- Ashutosh Bhakre and Sameer Sharma -- were reported to have committed suicide in last one month and "yet no whisper about the same in power corridors."

"In case of death of Sushant Singh Rajput, Chief Minister of Bihar is reported to be responsible for registration of FIR in Patna," the affidavit claimed, adding, "The sad incident of the death of Sushant Singh Rajput who hailed from Bihar unfortunately occurred just in wake of elections in Bihar. This has led to the issue of suicide of deceased being isolated and blown out of proportion."

"The issue is blown out of proportion in media. Media channels are examining and cross-examining all the witnesses in the case. Petitioner (Chakraborty) is already convicted by media even before a foul play in the death of Sushant Singh Rajput is established," it alleged, adding, "Petitioner urges before this court that she should be protected and not be made scapegoat of political agendas".

Referring to a provision of the CrPC, which deals with offence triable where the act is done or consequence ensues, the affidavit said it appeared to have been "misconstrued to usurp jurisdiction in Bihar under political pressure".

From a plain reading of FIR, neither any such act which is done in the State of Bihar, nor any such consequence which has ensued in State of Bihar, is forthcoming by reason of which such act and consequence is an offence, out of any alleged in the FIR, it said, adding that jurisdiction lies only with the jurisdictional court in Maharashtra.

It alleged that admittedly, the case registered by the Bihar Police was transferred to CBI for the reasons of sensitivity' and inter-state ramifications'.

The concept of sensitivity is alien to criminal jurisprudence. There is not even a remote whisper of any material to support the theory of inter-state ramification', it said,

The apex court is scheduled to hear Chakraborty's plea tomorrow (Tuesday).

Rajput's father has accused Chakraborty and others, including her family members, of abetting the actor's suicide. The matter was later transferred to the CBI.

The 34-year-old Bollywood actor was found hanging from the ceiling of his apartment in suburban Bandra in Mumbai on June 14.

She has also said in her affidavit that media had convicted the accused in 2G spectrum allocation case and the Aarushi Talwar case in "similar fashion" but later the accused were found innocent by the courts.

"Investigation into financial scams of thousands of crores by Enforcement Directorate & CBI never see the light of the day and at drop of a hat, cases gets registered even without there being a jurisdiction in the foundational case," it claimed.

Recently, Mumbai Police has filed an affidavit in the apex court opposing a CBI probe into Rajput's death case and said that it was carrying out an impartial investigation in the matter.

Rajput's father too has filed a reply affidavit before the apex court in which he has defended the Bihar Police action and accused the Mumbai police of negligence.

On July 25, Rajput's father had lodged the complaint at Rajiv Nagar police station in Patna against Chakraborty and six others, including her family members, accusing them of abetting the actor's suicide.

In her plea filed in the apex court, Chakraborty has alleged that Rajput's father has used his influence in roping her in the FIR.
Social media apps. Photo: Chesnot/Getty

Twitter (TWTR) is said to have held preliminary talks to acquire TikToks US operations, as the video-sharing app continues to hold talks about a sale with Microsoft.

It comes as US and Chinas tech war hit new lows after president Donald Trump banned US companies from doing any transactions with the owners of TikTok and WeChat.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, it is not yet clear whether Twitter will pursue a deal with TikTok.

Microsoft (MSFT) has been negotiating an acquisition for weeks with TikToks Beijing-based owner Bytedance. With the tech giant considered to be a front-runner for any deals TikTok agrees.

READ MORE: Microsoft reveals talks to buy TikTok US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand

The deal is thought to involve selling off TikToks operations in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, to avert a ban of the app on American shores.

After initially saying he wouldnt support a deal, Trump set a deadline for TikTok to find a buyer for its US arm or face a ban, following a conversation with Microsofts chief executive Satya Nadella.

But, Twitter might run into troubles, as the social media company is much smaller than tech giant Microsoft  with a valuation of close to $30bn (23bn), almost as much as the valuation of Tiktoks assets to be divested. Microsoft on the other hand, had a market capitalisation of $1.6trn on Friday.

The company reasoned that due to its size it would face less antitrust scrutiny as Microsoft or other bidders, according to people close to the matter.

READ MORE: Trump steps up Chinese tech war with new TikTok and WeChat executive order

With Twitter having much less financial firepower, the social media platform would almost certainly need help from investors to raise funds for the sale. It would also likely struggle to outbid Microsoft and complete a deal within the 45-day deadline set by Trump.

On Friday, Trump singed executive orders against TikTok and Chinese messaging app WeChat, effectively banning US firms from working with them after 15 September, on grounds of national security fears.

In retaliation to the move, TikTok has threatened legal action against the order, saying it would pursue all remedies available to ensure the rule of law is not evaded.
Kayla Washington stood among a crowd of students, faculty and community members at a protest in June on Portland State Universitys downtown campus.

Protesters shouted the name of her father, Jason Washington. It was nearly two years since her father was shot and killed by Portland State campus police officers. Kayla Washington remembers crying as everyone chanted his name.
By Laman Ismayilova

A video conference dedicated to the International Youth Day will be held on August 12.

Initiated by Azerbaijan National Commission for UNESCO, the conference will focus on UNESCO's activities in the field of youth policy, prospects of Azerbaijan-UNESCO cooperation in this field, as well as aspects of youth policy in Azerbaijan.

The event will be attended by representatives of government agencies and youth organizations.

International Youth Day is commemorated every year on August 12. On 17 December 1999, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth that August 12 be declared International Youth Day.

The theme of the International Youth Day 2020, "Youth Engagement for Global Action" seeks to highlight the ways in which the engagement of young people at the local, national and global levels is enriching national and multilateral institutions and processes, as well as draw lessons on how their representation and engagement in formal institutional politics can be significantly enhanced.

Youth policy has always been one of the priorities in Azerbaijan. Young people here are distinguished with their active roles in all sectors of public life including political, economic, humanitarian and social sectors.

As a result of state policy, many young people in Azerbaijan have achieved their full potential in various spheres of life.

Azerbaijan annually celebrates the National Youth Day on February 2. The public holiday takes its origin from the First Youth Forum which was held in 1996.

A year later, national leader Heydar Aliyev signed a decree according to which February 2 was declared the Day of Azerbaijani Youth.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The Hyderabad-based pharma firm- Bharat Biotech has completed phase-I clinical trials for its vaccine candidate against Covid-19. Claiming that the company would not succumb to pandemic pressure, chairman Krishna Ella said that they can not rush the vaccine-making procedure.

"There is tremendous pressure on us to develop the vaccine. But for us, safety and quality are paramount. We don't want to kill more people with the wrong vaccine," Krishna Ella, Chairman & MD, Bharat Biotech International said during an interaction with members of the Chennai International Centre on 'Covid-19 Endgame Scenarios'.

Responding to the launch date for the vaccine, Ella added that they want to do clinical research of the highest standards as they are being monitored by international agencies and communities. It's a matter of prestige for the country and for us. We won't be shortsighted on research and will produce the best quality vaccine," said Ella.

Covaxin- Bharat Biotech's Covid-19 vaccine took only 30 days for phase-I clinical trials and the company has now entered phase-II.

Stating that the Indian vaccine industry is no less than global giants based in Europe and the US, Ella said, we are not less than GSK or Sanofi. People are sceptical about the capabilities of Indian companies and they were proved wrong when vaccines were developed for rotavirus, polio and other diseases with tremendous experience in manufacturing and clinical trials from India.

Indian vaccine makers have proved that they can develop quality and affordable vaccines, Ella said. In the past few years, Bharat Biotech launched a rotavirus vaccine for $1, when global major GSK supplied it for $85, with the same parameters and quality, Business standard reported.

Assuring an effective and cost-efficient vaccine for Covid-19, without any government funding Ella added "This is what an Indian company can do. For this (Covid) vaccine also we will make it very affordable and accessible for everyone."
Two dedicated volunteers, who have retired after more than 50 years supporting the work of Marie Curie, say they will miss the feeling of "being useful".

Liz Brown (80) and Dorothy McLean (79) are enjoying a well-earned rest after spending decades giving their time to help support the hospice, based on Kensington Road in east Belfast.

Dorothy joined Marie Curie as a bereavement team volunteer 26 years ago and then moved into a role as a refreshment volunteer.

She was soon joined by Liz and for another 25 years, the pair always made sure the patients had everything they needed - and always with a kind word and a smile.

Dorothy, a former teacher at Tullycarnet Primary School, was prompted to volunteer following the death of her husband Harold in February 1994.

The grandmother-of-nine said: "As it was coming up to the summer holidays, I wanted something to do as my two children were grown up and had left home.

"I applied to join Marie Curie part-time and in the evenings to help cover holidays for other volunteers and later I trained with Cruse Bereavement Care."

For Liz, joining the hospice seemed like a natural step when she retired after a long nursing career at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald.

"I had always been a people person so I was keen to use the time I had on my hands to help out on the hospice wards," she said.

"We're still not quite sure how we ended up being put together but it has certainly worked out and thankfully we have never fallen out!"

Dorothy added: "We never felt that we were anything special, we just came in every week and did what we could."

While the two ladies have seen huge changes down the years as the facility grew in size and moved from large wards to smaller single rooms, they say the level of staff dedication has remained steadfast.

Liz said: "From the moment I arrived, I was always found there was a very calm and peaceful atmosphere in the unit.

"The main concern of the staff was always for the patients and their families and going the extra mile for them."

Marie Curie is one of the biggest charities caring for terminally-ill patients in Northern Ireland and Dorothy acknowledges that while volunteering was rewarding, it could also be very tough.

"There were times when you came in and spoke to people who looked perfectly well and then when you returned the following week, you learned that they had passed away," she said.

"It was very sad, especially if it was a young person and they had been with their parents when you last saw them, but you had to realise that this happens.

"People would often say to me that this was an awful place and ask why I came in every week but it was never like that.

"Instead I would tell them that it was a very friendly place and that there was as much laughter as there were tears.

"Christmas was always a time that we tried our best to make as special as possible with carol singing and decorations.

"We also had a wedding on one occasion for a lady who sadly didn't live very long afterwards but it was a lovely moment."

Now, after volunteering and providing refreshments for patients for a remarkable 51 years between them, the pair, who have become firm friends, say the time has now come for them to hang up their aprons.

Liz added: "We talked about it at the end of last year and came to a truce that because we had been together for so long that when one went so would the other.

"We both enjoyed our time here and the feeling of being useful but we wanted to leave while we were still fit."
2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #32

Posted on 9 August 2020 by John Hartz

Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review...

Story of the Week...

Drawdown Review 2020: How To Address Global Warming In A Responsible Manner

Source: Project Drawdown

Project Drawdown is a non-profit organization that relies on the collaborative efforts of many scientists, economists, and technology specialists from around the world to craft intelligent ways of meeting the challenge of a warming planet. Three years ago, the group published its first book, entitled Drawdown, which presented 100 strategies for meeting the goals agreed to by the vast majority of the worlds nations in Paris in 2015.

Three years later, it has updated that original with a new report entitled Drawdown Review, which dares to suggest humanity can manage the climate crisis effectively using only the tools available today. Of course, that assumes we have the will to address the problem as responsible adults.

Drawdown Review is too complex and detailed to compress it into a short article. It is packed with graphs, charts, and footnotes, and we urge you to read it for yourself. Its ten most salient findings are reproduced below, prefaced by these words from the foreword:

At present, global efforts come nowhere near the scale, speed, or scope required [to address the most recent IPCC report]. Yet many of the means to achieve the necessary transformation already exist. Almost daily, there is promising evolution and acceleration of climate solutions, alongside growing efforts to sunset fossil fuel infrastructure and prevent expansion of these antiquated and dangerous energy sources.

Click here to access the entire article originally posted on the Clean Technica website.

Drawdown Review 2020: How To Address Global Warming In A Responsible Manner by Steve Hanley, Clean Technica, Aug 8, 2020

Toon of the Week...

Hat tip to the Stop Climate Science Denial Facebook page.

Coming Soon on SkS...

Scientists discover new human fingerprint on global drought patterns (Daisy Dunne)

(Daisy Dunne) Why children must emit eight times less CO2 than their grandparents (Zeke)

(Zeke) SkS New Research for Week #32 (Doug Bostrom)

(Doug Bostrom) Siberias 2020 heatwave made 600 times more likely by climate change (Daisy Dunne)

(Daisy Dunne) Will Fusion Power solve Climate Change? (Climate Adam)

(Climate Adam) 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #33 (John Hartz)

(John Hartz) 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #33 (John Hartz)

Poster of the Week...

SkS Week in Review...
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 23:17:37|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) voiced strong support on Monday for the counter-measure against the United States by the Chinese foreign ministry.

A spokesperson of the liaison office stressed that no concessions will be made on major issues concerning China's sovereignty, security and development interests, adding that the so-called sanctions against some Chinese officials by the U.S. Treasury Department are full of absurdity.

"The false claim that 'the United States stands with the people of Hong Kong' is a huge lie and joke," the spokesperson said. "The way out for Hong Kong lies in the correct implementation of 'one country, two systems'. Hong Kong's future lies in being with its strong motherland."

The spokesperson pointed out that after the announcement of the so-called sanctions, countless compatriots in the mainland and Hong Kong issued just calls against the United States, expressing strong condemnation and maximum contempt for its outrageous acts.

In the meantime, it has been noticed that a few representatives of the opposition in Hong Kong jump out eagerly, saying that the U.S. sanctions are "of great indicative significance," "champagne will be opened tonight to celebrate," or confidently announcing that "more sanctions will follow."

"These people, with their undisguised arrogance, have once again confessed that they are the agents of the United States in Hong Kong and the pawns of the United States in messing up Hong Kong. These people have completely deviated from their own country and are completely on the opposite side of the 1.4 billion Chinese people, including all Hong Kong compatriots. They are bound to be nailed to the pillar of shame in history," said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson said the clumsy performance jointly staged by the Hong Kong opposition and the anti-China forces in the United States has let more people recognize the deep connection between the anti-China forces in the United States and the chaos in Hong Kong after Hong Kong's return to the motherland, and see clearly that the Hong Kong opposition's purpose is to oppose China and create chaos in Hong Kong.

"People should really think about what attitude they should hold towards the interference of external forces in Hong Kong affairs. Hong Kong is a highly internationalized place with a special history, strong social tolerance, and rich and diverse cultures. However, this cannot be the reason why we blur the national boundaries or even stand on the wrong national position. We cannot be vague on the major issues of safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests," the spokesperson stressed.

The spokesperson said the facts have proved that the U.S. brazen imposition of the so-called economic and political sanctions on Hong Kong under the pretext of the national security legislation only aims to create more chaos in Hong Kong and instigate a "color revolution." For the United States, Hong Kong is "a beautiful sight to behold" only if it is plunged into long-term civil strife and turmoil in places like Ukraine, Iraq and Syria.

The spokesperson said that Hong Kong's fate has always been closely linked with the motherland, and the rapid progress of China has provided a strong support and a broad stage for Hong Kong's future development.

"As long as we make good use of the biggest advantage of 'one country, two systems', the biggest stage of the country's reform and opening up, and the new biggest opportunity brought by the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development ... Hong Kong will surely be able to prevail over its current difficulties, and will surely prosper and develop together with the increasingly powerful motherland," the spokesperson added.

The spokesperson pointed out that the central government has always been concerned about Hong Kong and sincerely cares for Hong Kong compatriots.

"It is the guardian of Hong Kong's prosperity and stability, the defender of 'one country, two systems' and the driving force behind Hong Kong's historical turning point from chaos to governance. Hong Kong's future and destiny are bound to be with its motherland." Enditem
In a remarkable incident, a man who lost his wallet containing Rs 900 in a local train in Mumbai in 2006, was in for a pleasant surprise when the police contacted him to inform him about the recovery of his wallet.

Hemant Padalkar had lost his wallet while travelling in a Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus-Panvel local train in 2006, a Govrnment Railway Police (GRP) official said on Sunday.

In April this year, he received a call from GRP, Vashi, informing that his wallet was found. However, he could not then go to collect his wallet because of the coronavirus-enforced lockdown.

After the easing of restrictions, Padalkar, a resident of Panvel in neighbouring Navi Mumbai township, recently went to the GRP office at Vashi where he was given part of the money that was in the wallet.

My wallet at that time contained Rs 900, including a Rs 500 note which was later demonetised (in 2016). The Vashi GRP returned Rs 300 to me. They deducted Rs 100 for stamp paper work and said the remaining Rs 500 would be returned after exchanging the scrapped currency note with a new one, Padalkar told PTI.

He said when he went to the GRP office, there were many who had come to collect their stolen money, amounting into several thousands in demonetised currency, and wondered how they would get it back.

Padalkar said he was happy to get his money back.

A GRP official said those who stole Padalkars wallet were arrested sometime back.
HOLYOKE  In the wake of revelations that he had sexual relationships with college students, Mayor Alex B. Morse said Sunday he has no plans to quit his year-old race for Congress in Massachusetts just weeks before the Democratic primary.

While I am staying in the race, I also fully understand that some of my supporters and endorsers have legitimate concerns about these allegations, and I understand if they feel they need to rescind their support, Morse said in a statement Sunday night. I am officially releasing any endorsers who feel it is in their interests to no longer support my campaign. For my part, I intend to take our campaigns progressive, inclusive message to the voters of the First District. I look forward to seeing Congressman Neal on the debate stage next week.

Morse is running against longtime incumbent U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means. With no Republican candidates in the field, the Sept. 1 primary will likely decide the race.

Earlier this week, the College Democrats of Massachusetts and its chapters at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Amherst College released a letter outlining allegations that Morse used his position of power for romantic or sexual gain, including sexual relationships with students at UMass and other schools in the Five College Consortium.

Morse, 31, says the relationships were consensual.

I have never used my position of power as Mayor and UMass lecturer for romantic or sexual gain, or to take advantage of students, he said Sunday. I have never violated UMass policy. Any claim to the contrary is false. As Ive acknowledged, I have had consensual relationships with other men, including students enrolled at local universities that Ive met using dating apps.

The university has said it has no plans to rehire Morse, who is not a current UMass employee but has worked as an adjunct instructor in urban government and politics, teaching the course between 2014 and fall 2019. It is not clear whether any of the relationships involved students who were in or had taken his classes.

UMass officials have said they are investigating whether Morses behavior violates any federal Title IX laws on sexual harassment and discrimination.

Morse said he is confident that a full investigation into these matters will clear my name completely of any unethical conduct, but said he recognizes some students felt uncomfortable with interactions they had with me.

Its unfortunate that these allegations came three weeks before the primary, because there isnt enough time for UMass to conduct an independent review before the people of this district vote on September 1, Morse said.

In its own follow-up statement earlier on Sunday, the College Democrats of Massachusetts said neither Neal nor his campaign  nor anyone affiliated with the Morse campaign  had orchestrated the letters release. The statement also called Morses actions unacceptable.

For the Mayor to pursue students he meets at College Democrats events is unacceptable, it said. For an elected official who is also a lecturer at a university (a position that involves holding both academic and political power over students) to sleep with students at that university is unacceptable. In addition to being a Mayor and a lecturer, Mayor Morse is a widely-admired and well-connected gatekeeper to progressive politics in Massachusetts and nationally, which makes the task of refusing his advances fraught for college students who wish to enter progressive politics themselves.

Morse said the allegations invoked age-old anti-gay stereotypes.

I continue this campaign mindful of the fact that my personal life  and my consensual sexual activity  will be subject to scrutiny and fixation that are all too familiar to other members of the LGBTQ community, he said. I am also mindful of the fact that there are people holding onto power today who themselves have acted in dishonorable ways in their personal lives. I say this not to shirk responsibility for having made anyone uncomfortable. I am simply highlighting the fact that I am being held to a different standard, one deeply connected to a history of surveilling the sex lives of people like me. "

Two of Holyokes 13 councilors  At-large Councilor Michael J. Sullivan and Ward 5 Councilor Linda Vacon, a frequent Morse critic  have called for Morse to resign as mayor. Ward 2 Councilor Terence Murphy said Sunday that Morse should take an unpaid leave of absence while the UMass investigation is pending.

Morse, who was elected mayor in 2011 at the age of 22, did not respond to the councilors comments in his statement Sunday.

Full statement from Alex Morse, Aug. 9, 2020:

I announced my candidacy for Congress because I believed our country needed leadership that understood the urgency of this moment. I believed that the voters of the First Congressional District deserved a member of Congress who would put their interests before those of wealthy and influential donors. I believed that the health of our democracy relied on envisioning a new kind of politics  a politics of lifting up and empowering ordinary people.

I still believe these things. If anything, my time as a candidate has only deepened my conviction that people are looking for a politics that is more generous, more open, and more just. Ive heard stories from people in every corner of this district that Ill carry with me for the rest of my life.

Our campaign is fueled by the hard work and dedication of my amazing staff and volunteers and the contributions of small grassroots donors. Our campaign is also lifted up by the support of progressive organizations that helped take our efforts to new heights. I remain committed to their missions, but also understand the toll that recent events are taking on them and their supporters.

Over the weekend, the Daily Collegian published a story that alleged that I abused my power in having consensual sexual encounters with college students, and that I made other college students feel uncomfortable by conversing with them on social media.

I want to be very clear about this. I have never, in my entire life, had a non-consensual sexual encounter with anyone. I have never used my position of power as Mayor and UMass lecturer for romantic or sexual gain, or to take advantage of students. I have never violated UMass policy. Any claim to the contrary is false. As Ive acknowledged, I have had consensual relationships with other men, including students enrolled at local universities that Ive met using dating apps.

While I am confident that a full investigation into these matters will clear my name completely of any unethical conduct, I also recognize that some students felt uncomfortable with interactions they had with me. I am sorry for that. This is unacceptable behavior for anyone with institutional power. Further, for the past few years, there has been an important conversation underway in this country about power dynamics in romantic or sexual relationships. This conversation is long overdue  and while I never used my power in a problematic way, I understand why the issue would be raised. My position and the power that comes with it follow me in every area of my life, and I understand now, in a deeper way, the importance of being sensitive to that fact. I am human. Im imperfect. But I know who I am and what I stand for.

Its unfortunate that these allegations came three weeks before the primary, because there isnt enough time for UMass to conduct an independent review before the people of this district vote on September 1. While I fully believe that I will be cleared after the UMass review is complete, I also believe the students have the right to be heard and for their concerns to be addressed. I am pledging my full support and participation in that process. I stand ready to meet with the University, the students, or any other people affiliated with the review process.

To all my supporters whove reached out over these past few days, encouraging me to stick this out, I want you to know I hear you. Your support means the world to me. And to the many members of the queer community that have reached out to me in recent days, its clear that many of you feel that these recent events, and the language used in response, arent just an attack on me, but on all of us. Youre genuinely outraged, as I am, by the invocation of age-old anti-gay stereotypes. You have reminded me that weve come too far to turn back. I want my freedom, and I want you to have yours, too.

I continue this campaign mindful of the fact that my personal life  and my consensual sexual activity  will be subject to scrutiny and fixation that are all too familiar to other members of the LGBTQ community. I am also mindful of the fact that there are people holding onto power today who themselves have acted in dishonorable ways in their personal lives. I say this not to shirk responsibility for having made anyone uncomfortable. I am simply highlighting the fact that I am being held to a different standard, one deeply connected to a history of surveilling the sex lives of people like me.

Too often, elections arent about issues and ideas; theyre about personal destruction. As I move forward, I vow to keep speaking up for the cause on which this campaign was built: the cause of building a true and just democracy in this country. Because, long after this story has faded and the election cycle is behind us, working people in this district and around the country still need a government that looks out for them. Thats who I got in this race for, and thats who I will keep fighting for. This was never going to be an easy path. Moving forward, I commit to continuing the debate and focusing on the issues that matter most to voters in the district.

While I am staying in the race, I also fully understand that some of my supporters and endorsers have legitimate concerns about these allegations, and I understand if they feel they need to rescind their support. I am officially releasing any endorsers who feel it is in their interests to no longer support my campaign. For my part, I intend to take our campaigns progressive, inclusive message to the voters of the First District. I look forward to seeing Congressman Neal on the debate stage next week.

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Toronto police have charged two men with second-degree murder after a man died of a stabbing early Sunday morning.

The victim, who has been identified as Remi Almeida, 22, of Toronto was found on the sidewalk suffering from multiple stab wounds near Dundas Street West and Ossington Avenue. Police were called to Baden Street around 3:30 a.m.

Almeida was transported to a trauma centre in life-threatening condition and later pronounced dead.

Officers arrested and charged Eric Medeiros, 21, and Jose Pereira De Medeiros, 48, both of Toronto on Sunday.

Police said there is no indication on what the motive may have been, said Det. Trevor Grieve, a police spokesperson.

Both are scheduled to appear in court at Old City Hall Monday at 10 a.m.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-7400, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477)

With files from Star staff
The Railways has initiated action against a private agency for issuing a fake advertisement for over 5000 posts in the national transporter. The advertisement printed in a prominent newspaper said the Railways was seeking applications for 5,285 posts in eight categories.

"It has come to notice of Ministry of Railways that one organization by name of 'Avestran Infotech' having website address "http://www.avestran.in"www.avestran.in has given an advertisement in a prominent newspaper on 8th August 2020 calling for applications against a total number of 5,285 number of post in eight categories on outsourcing basis on Indian Railways on 11 year contract. The applicants have been asked to deposit Rs.750/-as online fee and last date for receipt of applications has been mentioned as September 10, 2020.

"It may be informed to all that advertisement for any Railway recruitment is always done by Indian Railways ONLY. No private agency has been authorized to do the same. The said issuance of said advertisement in question is illegal," the ministry said in a statement. The ministry said railways will initiate strict against the agency.

It also clarified that the recruitment of various categories of Group 'C' and erstwhile Group 'D' posts on Indian Railways is presently catered to by 21 Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and 16 Railway Recruitment Cell (RRC) only and not by any other agency. Vacancies in Indian Railways are filled up by giving wide publicity through Centralized Employment Notifications (CENs).

Online applications are called from eligible candidates all over the country. CEN is published through Employment News/Rozgar Samachar and an indicative notice is given in national daily and local newspapers. The CEN is also displayed on the official websites of RRBs/RRCs. The website address of all RRBs/RRCs is mentioned in the CEN.

"It is further clarified that the Railways have not authorized any private agency as yet to do the recruitment of staff on its behalf as alleged by the above named agency. "Railways has initiated its investigation and is going on to take strictest action as per law against the above agency/persons involved in above matter," it said.

Also read: Nitin Gadkari urges industry to identify sectors to boost exports, make India 'self-reliant'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday (July 10) inaugurated the submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connecting Chennai and Port Blair, via video conferencing.

PM Modi said that submarine OFC will connect Andaman and Nicobar to the rest of the country and it shows the Centre's commitment to improve the standard of living of the people of the island.

"This optical fibre cable project, connecting Andaman and Nicobar with rest of the country is a symbol of our commitment towards ease of living. Be it online classes, tourism, banking, shopping or telemedicine, thousands of families in Andaman-Nicobar will now get its access," PM Modi said.

Today is not only important for millions of friends living in dozens of islands of Andaman and Nicobar, it is also important for the whole country. The bigger the project was, the greater the challenges were. This was also a reason that despite the need of this facility for years, it could not be work upon. But I am happy that this work was completed, bypassing all the obstacles, he added.

The prime minister expressed confidence that tourists going to Andaman will be biggest beneficiary of this facility because better internet connectivity has now become the top priority of any tourist destination.

"High Impact Projects are being expanded in 12 islands of Andaman and Nicobar. The major problem of mobile & internet connectivity has been resolved today. Apart from this, physical connectivity through road, air and water is also being strengthened," said PM Modi.

It is to be noted that the submarine cable will connect Port Blair to Swaraj Dweep (Havelock), Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Kamorta, Great Nicobar, Long Island and Rangat.

The foundation stone for the project was laid by PM Modi on December 30, 2018, at Port Blair.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government delegation led by High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs Zareh Sinanyan in Lebanon held a meeting with Rev. Megerdich Karageozian, the President of the Union of the Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East, and Paul Haidostian, the President of Haigazian University in Beirut. Armenian Ambassador to Lebanon Vahagn Atabekyan was also present at the meeting, the High Commissioners Office said.

Rev. Megerdich Karageozian welcomed the delegation and emphasized that it is an honor to receive them during the difficult days of the Beirut blast aftermath. When I saw the relief plane with Armenia written on it, with Ararat in the background, I honestly got emotional, he told the delegation. Karageozian presented the Armenian community situation, the pre-explosion economic crisis and its impact on the Lebanese-Armenians. He said that the August 4 explosion had also a huge emotional and psychological impact on Lebanese-Armenians.

Sinanyan presented details on the humanitarian mission and the scheduled additional planeloads of assistance from Armenia. He then addressed the Armenian governments actions in the direction of repatriation process. The High Commissioner highlighted the creation of the Repatriates Integration Center by end of 2020 and the adoption of the Law on Repatriation, which is currently in the final phase of development.

After the meeting a tour was held at the Armenian Evangelical Church, where its famous stained-glass cross was completely destroyed from the blast. The delegation also visited the Haigazian University, which also suffered damages.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
Syracuse, N.Y. -- President Donald Trump signed an executive order providing extra unemployment benefits of $400 a week, but when can those out of job expect to see the additional money?

Congress had made an extra $600 in weekly benefits available to the unemployed because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy. But that benefit ran out at the end of July.

Lawmakers and the White House have been unable to cut a new deal. Democrats want to extend the $600 benefit, but Republicans have been pushing for a lower benefit of about $200.

Trump, attempting to bypass Congress, issued an executive order on Saturday extending the extra benefit, but with limitations. Its only $400, not $600. And it requires states to contribute 25%, or $100, of the $400.

His order is expected to be challenged in the courts over whether he has the authority to issue such an order.

And its not clear that states, which are strapped for cash right now, will agree to contribute the $100. On Sunday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New York didnt have the money to do so.

Also unclear is whether the unemployed will receive any of the extra benefit if their states do not contribute their 25%.

The New York State Department of Labor said Monday it is assessing Trumps order and asked that New Yorkers not call the department to ask about the extra benefits.

When we have additional information, we will update you on our website and social media platforms, and we will reach out directly via emails and text messages, the department said on its website.

In an email, the department said it will process any additional benefits if and when they come due, as long of recipients continue to certify their unemployed status weekly.

Rick Moriarty covers business news and consumer issues. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact him anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148
WASHINGTON, D.C.  A White House aide reportedly called the governor of South Dakota to ask how the face of President Donald Trump could be added to Mount Rushmore, according to the New York Times.

The call was made last year to South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noems, an avid Trump supporter who has been rumored as a possible replacement for Vice President Mike Pence in a possible shakeup to bring life to Trumps lagging re-election campaign. Noem and the White House have denied there is any possibility that Pence will be removed from the ticket.

But its no secret that Trump longs to have his face added to the famous monument. Noems told the Argus Leader in 2018 that Trump told her that it was his dream.

He said, Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand, Noem told the Argus Leader. I shook his hand, and I said, Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore. And he goes, Do you know its my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore? "

Noem said she thought Trump was joking, but quickly realized he was serious. However, she hasnt discouraged the presidents dream. According to the Times, when Trump visited the monument on July 3, she greeted the president with a 4-foot replica of Mount Rushmore with Trumps face added.

It appears all Trump ... and any other president ... can do is dream about being added to Mount Rushmore. National Park Service officials tell the Argus Leader there is no stable surface in which to carve another face. Also, officials say the sculpture by Gutzon Borglum is meant to represent the first 150 years of the nations history.
Former President John Dramani Mahama has promised as part of his 2020 manifesto to create more than one (1) million jobs for the teaming unemployed youth in the country should he get lucky to run the affairs of the country again.



According to him, the country is sitting on a youth time bomb with a youth bulge, explaining the main thrust for him to seek leadership again to find jobs for the young people in the country.



Speaking in an interview with Woezor TV in Keta Krachi, the Flagbearer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) outlined lack of jobs as the main concern and challenge for the unemployed young people in the country.



He, however, added that the one (1) million job plan is the central plank of his intention to seek leadership again as his first administration saw social and economic infrastructure for development, thus he made a huge investment in infrastructure.



In Ghana we have a youth bulge and we are sitting on a youth time bomb and that is why the main thrust of my seeking leadership again is on finding jobs for our young people. All those young people you see, the main concern and challenge they have is that they have no jobs and so for me the one million jobs plan is the central plank of my seeking leadership again, he promised.



Former President John Mahama maintained that his next administration will focus on job creation as he has already set the tone for it by investing in social and economic infrastructure as can be seen in the country.



In my next administration, everything will be geared towards jobs. So, it is infrastructure, it is to create jobs for young people, if it is for afforestation and natural resources, it is to create jobs for young people and so that is the thrust, he promised.



He further mentioned that young people getting agitated and enthused in wanting to participate in political choices is to enable them make a decision that will create a better life for themselves.



Talking about the debt of the country, former President John Mahama hinted that the Akufo-Addo government has incurred a huge debt in less than 4 years in office to the tune of 140 billion; indicating that such an amount could have been put to good use for the country.



I mean I was talking about the huge debt incurred by this government; in less than 4 years, the debt incurred by this government is 140 billion. Do you know what I could have done with 140 billion? We intend to create more than 1 million jobs in 4 years and the phase way we are going to do is to look at the public services and as I have said before, we are going to do a human resource gap analysis to see what optimum number in the public service should be and all the various sectors and base on that be able to fill in whatever gaps there are and that is the first part, he outlined.



He again indicated that his government if he is lucky to win the 2020 general election will inject money into the infrastructural development again in the area of the construction industry, engineering sector and other sectors as it will bring a lot of artisans and everybody back into business.



We are looking at what I call the big infrastructure push and that is going to be about an injection of 10 billion dollars to dualise our roads, to complete the 200 Senior Secondary Schools, to finish all the hospitals that we were building, to do bridges in order to open up the country and so there is going to be 10 billion dollars and we believe that that should allow the engineering sector and the construction sector, the cement sector, building materials sector to create at least 300,000 to 400,000 jobs a year.



The funds for afforestation, billions of dollars for afforestation; we are going to come up with a new initiative in our forestry and that is tree-growing and it is going to be in every district of this country. We are going to employ people to be involved in growing trees and reclaiming some of our lands that are spoilt and we intend to inject about some 100 to 200 million dollars into that sector. I am sure that that will create another 100,000 to 200,000 jobs in the country. We will give you the breakdown of the sectors in our manifesto, he disclosed.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com









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The oldest womens organization in continuous existence in the United States is based in Jacksonville, and it has helped more than 2,640 women during its 187-year history.

The Ladies Education Society was founded on Oct. 3, 1833, and at the time of its formation was named the Ladies Association for Educating Females, so named to distinguish it from groups for educating young males, according to a society history written by member Helen Hinde. The group was founded to help needy and worthy women obtain an education, and to raise funds to pay all or part of their tuition.

Its a mission that continues today, nearly two centuries later.

As a former teacher, of course I place a high value on education, said current Ladies Education Society member Suzanne Verticchio. The opportunity to assist young ladies who are deserving but who may struggle to afford a college education is such a blessing.

Verticchio joined the society in May 2011 and has spent most of her time on the groups scholarship committee, where members revise and adapt the application and award procedures. They have brought the 19th century organization into the 21st century by embracing technology to accommodate todays applicants.

The fact that we follow our girls through all four years of college, increasing the amount they receive each year, allows us to watch them develop from high school seniors through their graduation from college, and often beyond, Verticchio said. Some continue to let us know about their life milestones for several years after our monetary support ends.

In 1833, Illinois was still considered the frontier, and teachers were desperately needed to instruct the largely illiterate population, especially in rural areas. However, according to Hindes history, most of the available teachers didnt want to work on the frontier, or they came to Illinois and were married quickly, educated women being highly desirable wives.

Several Jacksonville area women reached a consensus that the solution was to educate young women living in the state to become teachers, because they already knew how to endure hardship and survive. The local women started the Ladies Association for Educating Females, and their simple criteria for awarding assistance still drives the Ladies Education Society today  the recipients must only be, in the language of the early days, capable of improvement and indigent.

The ability to support women in obtaining their educational goals is rewarding, said Martha Varble, a Ladies Education Society member since 1990. All of us take a personal interest in their college years as well as following them into their future.

The longevity of this group speaks to the value the women of Jacksonville place on education, Varble said. Once you agree to become part of this group of 12 women you commit to a life-long pursuit.

The groups first donation was a five-dollar gold piece given by Elizabeth Duncan, whose husband Joseph would be elected Governor in 1834. An auxiliary was formed in New York City and sewing circles in New Haven, Connecticut, and Brooklyn, New York, also helped. Support groups were also formed in Chicago, Galesburg, Springfield, Canton, Peoria, and Waverly.

Total funds raised during the first year amounted to $246.40 and were awarded to students in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. At the end of the third year $405 was raised, with 45 young ladies receiving aid. In its fifth year, 107 women were helped.

During the last 10 years, the Ladies Education Society has provided between $22,000 and $32,000 per year to assist women from the Morgan County area with their educational expenses.

I am proud of our long history of helping, said Emily Osburn, a member since 1981. It is quite a special honor to meet and mentor our amazing young women.

The current Ladies Education Society members and the years in which they joined the organization include: Pat Bone, 2013; Beth Brockschmidt, 2016; Janet Chipman, 2008; Addie Coultas, 2006; Millie Deal, 1994; Cathy Green, 1993; Laura Marks, 2018; Jo Ann Nelson, 2015; Emily Osburn, 1981; Karen Sibert, 2004; Martha Varble, 1990; and Suzanne Verticchio, 2011. Louise Bone, who was an active member of the society from 1976 to 2018, is now an honorary member. The organizations bylaws allow for 12 members who serve as long as they are willing or able.

Karen Sibert is the current Ladies Education Society president.

My mother-in-law, Jessica B Sibert, was a member from 1972 until her death in 2011, and she spoke so highly of the organization, Sibert said. It was an honor to be asked to join the oldest womens club in continuous existence in the United States. It continues to amaze me that a group from Jacksonville holds that honor.

Sibert said special funds within the organization have been established to help specific groups of women. These include the Nancy Chambers Moore fund, which was set up to offer low interest loans to junior, senior and graduate students, and the Adah Laura Coultas Fund, which helps teachers who are continuing their education while still working.

It is exciting to see what has happened but even more exciting to see what the future holds for the Ladies Education Society and the young women we help, Sibert said.

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If you have a suggestion about someone who should be profiled, send their name and any contact information available to communitynews@myjournalcourier.com.
Police in Quang Nam province said on August 9 they are completing procedures to deport 21 Chinese citizens who have illegally entered the locality in recent times, reported VOV.

Chinese citizens have been detained for illegally entering Vietnam (Photo: B.D)



The 21 Chinese citizens were among those who were staying in a residential area in Dien Duong ward, Dien Ban town of Quang Nam province.

The police raided the apartment and detained 21 people, many other managed to escape.

Local medical workers took their samples and test results showed they had not been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The detainees were said to belong to a human trafficking ring masterminded by a number of Vietnamese and Chinese people to illegally bring Chinese nationals into Vietnam. Local authorities decided to prosecute the criminal case.

The Quang Nam police collaborated with their counterparts in northern border Lang Son province to hand over the Chinese fugitives to border guards at Lang Sons International Friendship Border Gate for expulsion.

Lao Cai police prosecute individuals for organising illegal entry

Police forces operating in Lao Cai province declared on August 9 that they have moved to prosecute two suspects for assisting people to illegally cross the border between Vietnam and China.

According to an investigation conducted by local police, officers at the Lao Cai International Border Gate on July 16 noticed a suspicious taxi as it was in the process of travelling from Lao Cai to Hanoi. Upon stopping the vehicle, guards discovered four Chinese nationals inside.

It was among this group that police were able to pick up two of the trafficking rings leaders, with the pair later identified as Phung The Anh of Bao Thang district and Vang Seo Xoa of Muong Khuong district.

Upon being questioned by police, the two suspects admitted that between July 6 and July 15 they had hired a nine-seater car to illegally bring 44 Chinese nationals into the country, earning a total of CNY71,000, equivalent to VND240 million, from their activities. VOV
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 10)  The Department of Health will not recommend completely scrapping the use of rapid antibody tests in the Philippines even after several doctors said that this may have caused the rise of COVID-19 cases in the country.

Health spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire on Monday said the government is not keen on issuing a nationwide ban on the use of rapid antibody tests as it can still be used to identify recovering patients.

The health official made it clear that the rapid antibody test kits will not be used to confirm or rule out a coronavirus infection as it detects the presence of antibodies in a persons body, not the infection. Antibodies may not be produced during the early stages of the disease, making the test less accurate.

"Not really totally banning pero kailangan appropriate ang use at kailangan naka-align paano gagamitin ang rapid antibody test. Hindi talaga pwede for screening," she said in an online media forum.

[Translation; We are not banning it but it must be used appropriately. We have to be aligned on how to properly use the rapid antibody test. It cannot be used for screening.]

Rapid test kits have been widely used in the country as industries reopen following the easing of movement restrictions. Last week, a member of the Philippine College of Physicians and the Philippine Society of General Internal Medicine said the use of rapid antibody test as basis to let employees go back to work might have contributed in the spread of the coronavirus, leading to clusters of transmission in workplaces.

Vergeire reiterated that rapid tests cannot be used as a standalone test. She said a patient should still undergo reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test as it remains to be the "gold standard" in detecting the presence of the virus.

She said authorities are crafting a guideline on the proper use of different testing methodologies in the country. She added that the technical advisory group and an expert panel have been consulted in finalizing the rules that will determine when rapid antibody test, antigen tests, and RT-PCR tests can be conducted.

Ruling out the use of rapid tests as a screening process is among the goals of the Department of Health after the two-week modified enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila and nearby provinces. This was one of the objectives of their updated COVID-19 response plan to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Vergeire said the DOH will be stricter in requiring the testing laboratories to submit their COVID-19 data. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has ordered that sanctions  even possible suspension  be imposed on laboratories that will not comply. Vergeire said that as of now, only 70 percent of laboratories are submitting their requirements.
Jenna Ellis, an advisor for President Donald Trumps re-election campaign, referred to Pennsylvania health secretary Dr. Rachel Levine as this guy in a Tweet on Monday.

The Tweet states This guy is making decisions about your health while linking to a PennLive story about a news briefing in May where a Pittsburgh radio host repeatedly referred to Levine as sir. Levine objected to being misgendered, and the host later apologized, saying he was distracted.

The Tweet by Ellis prompted a response from the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign, the nations largest LGBTQ rights organization.

Jenna Ellis is a bigot and Dr. Levine is a patriot - plain and simple. Dr. Levine illustrates character and patriotism while Ellis cannot even define those terms, the commission said.

The campaign further said, Despite claims of allyship, Donald Trump, Mike Pence and their staff have gone out of their way to dehumanize and attack transgender and non-binary people simply for existing. Trump and his allies have refused to acknowledge the epidemic of violence transgender and gender non-conforming people face, attempted to strip away their access to health care, and blocked these patriotic Americans from openly serving in the military.

Levine recently addressed various transphobic remarks and acts toward her which had been made in public. A member of her staff also said hateful remarks have been made to her privately, including some by people who have come to her home, which is now patrolled by state police.

Our children are watching. They are watching what we do. And they are watching how we act, and to all LGBTQ young people, it is okay to be you, and it is okay to stand up for your rights, and your freedoms, Levine said. My heart is full with a burning desire to help people, and my time is full with working towards protecting the public health of everyone in Pennsylvania from the impact of the global pandemic due to COVID-19, and I will stay laser focused on that goal.

According to her Twitter bio, Ellis is a constitutional law attorney and a senior legal adviser to Trumps campaign. She says in a pinned Tweet, If they try to cancel Christianity, if they try to force me to apologize or recant my Faith, I will not bend, I will not waver, I will not break.

The Human Rights Campaign said, Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Levine has steered Pennsylvania through this crisis leading efforts to reduce the spread of the virus and keep Pennsylvanians safe and healthy. Our nation has and should continue to laud the frontline workers and public servants confronting this pandemic, not attack them simply for living their truth.
Hours after the Congress decided to form a high-level committee to look into the grievances of all its rebel leaders in Rajasthan, Sachin Pilot who had rebelled against chief minister Ashok Gehlot, called for restraint and humility.

Several things were said, I heard a lot of things. I was surprised by a few things that were said. I think we should always maintain restraint and humility. There is no place for personal malice in politics. We had formed the government in Rajasthan after 5 years of hard work, ANI quoted Pilot as saying late Monday night after a meeting with Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Ahmed Patel and KC Venugopal in Delhi.

Pilot, who had pitched camp Manesar with 18 MLAs had earlier been accused of hobnobbing with the BJP to bring down his own partys government. On Monday, he insisted that there were issues that needed to be raised for the partys interest.

Since past some time some MLAs were in Delhi, there were some issues which we wanted to highlight. I did that. Id been saying since beginning that all these things were based on principle. I always thought these things are essential to be raised in the partys interest, he said.

Earlier in the day, Pilot met former Congress president Rahul Gandhi to end the revolt in the state unit that threatened the survival of the Ashok Gehlot government, people familiar with the development said.

The patch up in the party came ahead of an assembly session in Rajasthan on August 14.

Pilot was sacked as deputy chief minister and removed as Congress chief in Rajasthan last month after his differences with Gehlot came to a head.
Poster of the "Most Beautiful Soldiers in the New Era" [PLA Daily]

Three women serving in military organs were honored the title of the "Most Beautiful Soldiers in the New Era" at an award ceremony ahead of the 93rd anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA).

The three female recipients  Mahepali, Chen Jing and Zhong Yuexia  were identified as distinguished soldiers along with 10 male counterparts from a list of candidates made up of both genders, according to the results announced by the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission.

Mahepali, political instructor of a tank company in a division of the Xinjiang Military Command, is one of the 13 "Most Beautiful Soldiers in the New Era." [China Women's News]

Among the honorees is Mahepali, a political instructor for a tank company in a division of the Xinjiang Military Command who also serves as a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress.

The post-90s woman keeps pace with the times by exploring innovative theoretical learning methods, using a popular "mobile phone plus" platform to spread the CPC's theories. She is also known for her efforts to create a positive atmosphere in her team.

During her tenure in the PLA, she has learned how to drive armored vehicles and mastered a dozen types of military equipment. She has also taken responsibility for training soldiers and cultivated a combat force that was rated a "first-grade military training company."

Due to her excellent performance, she was selected as one of the "Most Beautiful Soldiers in New Era" this year.

Chen Jing is the head nurse at the Second Affiliated Hospital of the Second Military Medical University. [China Women's News]

Chen Jing is the head nurse at the Emergency Department of the Second Affiliated Hospital of the Second Military Medical University. She valiantly fought on the front line of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak as a member of the army's medical team aiding Central China's Hubei Province.

Upon receiving the call on Lunar New Year's Eve, Chen rushed to Wuhan, capital city of Hubei

Province and the country's hardest-hit place during the epidemic, to support Hankou Hospital together with a 48-member nursing team.

Later, while stationed at a makeshift hospital, she held fast to ICU wards, taking rigorous care of patients and working to save infected patients from serious complications. She also conducted strict disinfection management within the department to protect the medical workers.

Since joining the army in 1988, Chen has taken part in numerous missions, including the fight against the SARS virus 17 years ago and humanitarian medical service in 2018, receiving second-class and third-class merit citations.

Zhong Yuexia serves as a senior nurse at the Second Affiliated Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University. [China Women's News]

Zhong Yuexia is the chief superintendent nurse of the Second Affiliated Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University. She has served in the armed forces for 37 years and was a member of the army's medical support team in Hubei Province amid this year's anti-epidemic battle.

Zhong hurried to Wuhan on Chinese New Year's Eve with her husband, Wang Xin, who is also a medic. After arriving at a hospital on the front line of the battle against COVID-19, she led her team members to quickly transform the wards for patient isolation.

During her time at Huoshenshan Hospital, a makeshift hospital built within two weeks to save lives in Wuhan, Zhong offered personalized care and tailored treatments for COVID-19 sufferers, working hard to relieve patients' emotional stress and strengthen their confidence to overcome the illness through psychological counseling.

(Source: PLA Daily and people.cn/Translated and edited by Women of China)
Eighty-three Indians, who were stranded in Pakistan due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, returned to India via the Attari-Wagah border on Monday.

The passengers who returned are from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Most of those who are from J&K are students who were studying in Pakistans educational institutions, while others had gone to the neighbouring country to meet their relatives or pay obeisance at religious places.

All passengers were medically examined during their entry to the Indian territory at the integrated checkpost in Attari. The Union ministry of healths guidelines to contain coronavirus were followed while receiving the passengers, said a senior Land Port Authority of India (LPAI) official.

He said that they had information that 118 Indians will come, but only 83 returned. Now movement of passengers has been closed. Remaining passengers will come in the coming days, he said. Amritsar-2 SDM Shivraj Singh Ball said those who had come from Pakistan will be quarantined in their respective states.

Earlier, India had allowed movement of 500 Pakistani nationals, who were stranded in India, to their home country. Similarly, over 700 Indians have already returned from Pakistan so far.
NAACP Sues U.S. Education Secretary Over COVID-19 School Money

The coronavirus pandemic has focused the nations attention on the essential role public schools play in families and communities lives.

The NAACP said its also exposed severe racial inequalities that continue to plague the countrys education system and disadvantaged students of color.

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Rather than addressing those problems, NAACP President Derrick Johnson declared that U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos exploited the pandemic to promote her personal agenda of funneling taxpayer dollars to private schools and taking resources away from the schools and the students who need it most.

We simply cant let this happen. So, were taking her to court, Johnson announced.The NAACP formally filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., accusing DeVos of illegally changing the rules for allocating $13.2 billion in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) money to benefit wealthy private k-12 schools.Recently, Secretary DeVos issued regulations that would force public school districts to divert federal emergency relief funds from public schools and send them to private schools. By one estimate, over $1 billion would be lost to private schools under the rule, Johnson declared.

So, the NAACP filed a lawsuit along with public school families and school districts across the country, challenging this unfair, unequal, and unjust rule. Well fight this as hard as it takes  for as long as it takes  to protect our students, schools, and communities.

The NAACPs lawsuit suggests that the CARES Act, which was signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year, says explicitly that local school departments are to distribute the fund based on the number of Title I, or low-wealth students, in a particular school.

Congress allowed CARES funds to go to institutions that depend on tuition and donations because lawmakers said they recognized that some students from low-income families attend private schools.

The lawsuit claims the share going to private schools should have its basis on the number of Title I students attending those schools.

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DeVos did not follow that rule, the NAACP contends, spelling out that hundreds of millions of dollars in CARES Act funds would immediately divert from public schools to affluent private schools.

The controversial education secretary reportedly holds a different interpretation of how local school districts should distribute the money.

Her interim final rule allows sharing the money equally with private schools based on the number of students in those schools, regardless of how many are Title I students.

The Rule is as immoral as it is illegal, NAACP lawyers argue.

The NAACP filed the lawsuit on behalf of a group of parents and their children, who are enrolled in economically disadvantaged public schools. The Pasadena, California, Unified School District, and Stamford, Connecticut, School District, joined the NAACP in the lawsuit asking for an injunction to prevent DeVos from immediately instituting her change to the rule.

In this moment of crushing need for Americas public schools, the Rule directs public school districts to divert desperately needed CARES Act 1 funds to affluent students in private schools or face unlawful limitations on the way that those funds can be spent  both in direct contravention of the Act, the lawsuit reads. The Rule harms American children and subverts the will of Congress; it cannot stand.

If allowed to proceed, the DeVos rule would change public schools, including some in which 80, 90 and 99 percent of the students are from low-income families.

Shes trying to increase allocation disproportionately for private schools over public schools in the midst of the debate over whether or not schools should reopen. Its horrific what shes doing, Johnson told ABC News. What will happen is you further take money away from children who are financially in need to benefit high-wealth children.
Mahindra Rural Housing Finance Ltd (MHRFL), has resumed loan disbursals and collections, both of which had been put on hold for most of the first quarter due to the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. MRHFL, a subsidiary of Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services, has raised over Rs 1,400 crore in April-July 2020 to stay liquid.

Anuj Mehra, managing director, MHRFL said it was a conscious call on the part of the company not to disburse. Its business model is entirely physical as property and documents have to be checked. There was no activity In April and May, and limited activity in ...
Sushant Singh Rajput Death Case: Rhea has filed a complaint in the top court saying that she is being targated. Rhea and her family were questioned by the ED again today. The questioning of Rhea Chakraborty's brother Showik by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), in connection with the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, continued till around 6:30 am on Sunday

Rhea Chakraborty has filed a complaint in the Supreme Court stating that shes being made a scapegoat in the case. She alleged that the case made against her in the suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput is raked up for Bihar polls. The actress also said that media trials in Sushants case are unfair. Rhea added that the Bihar police had filed the FIR against her without any jurisdiction.

Rhea, in her fresh petition before the Supreme Court, said that the issue has been blown out of proportion in the media and alleged that the news channels are examining and cross-examining all the witnesses in the case. She said that the petitioner (Rhea Chakraborty) is already convicted by media even before a fowl-play in the death of Sushant Singh Rajput is established. Extreme trauma and infringement of privacy of the rights of the petitioner are caused due to constant sensationalisation of this case.

It said that the media had also convicted the accused in 2G and Arushi Talwar case in a similar fashion and each and every accused was, later on, found innocent by the courts. Actor Rhea Chakraborty on Monday filed a fresh plea in the Supreme Court over the alleged unfair media trial against her in connection with the case related to the death of Sushant Singh Rajput.

Also read: After getting landing clearance, plane missed approach runway: Kozhikode crash prelim report

Also read: India to embargo import of 101 defence items: Rajnath Singh

The plea said targeting the probe in the death case by the two probe agencies that the investigation into financial scams of thousands of crores by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) never sees the light of the day, and a drop of a hat, cases get registered even without there being a jurisdiction in the foundational case.

The CBI had last week registered an FIR against Rhea Chakraborty, Indrajit Chakraborty, Sandhya Chakraborty, Showik Chakraborty, Samuel Miranda, Shruti Modi, and others in the case. The ED has also registered a case in the matter. The central government had earlier accepted Bihar governments recommendation for a probe by the CBI in the matter.

The Supreme Court is slated to hear on Tuesday Rhea Chakrabortys earlier plea seeking to transfer the probe in a case against her in connection with the death of Sushant Singh Rajput from Patna to Mumbai. Rajput was found dead at his Bandra apartment in Mumbai on June 14.

Also read: 11 dead and 30 injured as fire breaks out at Covid-19 facility in Vijayawada
Bachelor in Paradise star Glenn Smith has confirmed rumours that he cheated on his girlfriend, Alisha Aitken-Radburn, shortly after they returned from Fiji late last year.

The 32-year-old addressed the speculation during a rather awkward live radio interview with Hit 107 Adelaide's Bec, Cosi and Lehmo on Monday.

Radio host Bec Morse asked Glenn if it was true he had kissed his co-star Helena Sauzier on a boozy night out in December, and he acknowledged that it was.

Indiscretion: Bachelor in Paradise star Glenn Smith has confirmed rumours that he cheated on his girlfriend, Alisha Aitken-Radburn, shortly after they returned from Fiji late last year

'It wouldn't be The Bachelor if you weren't the subject of some gossip. So a podcast has accused you of cheating, Glenn, with Helena. What is this?' Bec asked.

'Look, I'm not going to deny it. It actually did happen. Me and Alisha worked through it at the time. That was nine months ago... and it's not really relevant now,' he replied.

Glenn continued: 'Our relationship looks perfect [on Bachelor in Paradise] but it's a real relationship and mistakes get made, but we worked through it.'

Alisha, 26, who was also being interviewed on the radio program, added that she had long since moved past her boyfriend's indiscretion.

Copping it: On Monday, Hit 107 radio host Bec Morse asked Glenn if it was true he had kissed his co-star Helena Sauzier on a boozy night out in December, and he acknowledged that it was

The Labor Party staffer even said they joke about Glenn's kiss with Helena, and refer to their brief break-up as their 'week of chaos'.

Helena, 25, has yet to comment on the matter.

The revelations about Glenn first surfaced on Friday, when the So Dramatic! podcast claimed that he and Alisha had split shortly after leaving Fiji.

During this time, it was alleged, they both 'hooked up' with different people.

Forgiven: Alisha, 26, added that she had long since moved past her boyfriend's indiscretion

Brushing it off: The Labor Party staffer even said they joke about Glenn's kiss with Helena, and refer to their brief break-up as their 'week of chaos'

Radio silence: Helena (pictured on Bachelor in Paradise) has yet to comment on the matter

'Glenn was at a bucks party in Perth, and met up with Helena at a club and they ended up kissing a couple of times that night,' the podcast host said.

Alisha then 'hooked up' with another Bachelor in Paradise star, Scott Fuller, before she and Glenn 'called it even' and reconciled.

During Sunday's finale of Bachelor in Paradise, Alisha and Glenn declared their love for one another and officially became boyfriend and girlfriend.

Drama: The revelations about Glenn first surfaced on Friday, when the So Dramatic! podcast claimed that he and Alisha (pictured) had split shortly after leaving Fiji, before later reconciling

In a video shared to the show's Instagram account, the pair confirmed that they were not only still dating nine months later, but were also living together.

Alisha revealed she had moved to Perth to be with her partner, and that the couple were sharing a house with Glenn's twin brother, Neil, and his boyfriend, Marty.

The Bachelor starring Locky Gilbert debuts Wednesday at 7:30pm on Channel 10
Willie Brown was instrumental in launching Kamala Harris political career, so I guess he has standing to give her career advice. His advice is that Harris should say no to Joe Biden if he offers her a place on the Democratic ticket.

Here is Browns rationale:

[T]he vice presidency has often ended up being a dead end. For every George H.W. Bush, who ascended from the job to the presidency, theres an Al Gore, who never got there. True, the vice president does have an advantage the next time the party needs a new nominee, which in Bidens case could be four years from now. But in the meantime, the vice president has no real power and little chance to accomplish anything independent of the president. Basically, no one takes the vice president seriously after election day. Just ask Mike Pence.

But George H.W. Bush, Al Gore, and Joe Biden all parlayed the vice presidency into their partys nomination for president. Bush made it to the White House, Gore came within a whisker, and Biden has a good shot. Thats better than the track record of candidates who unsuccessfully sought the presidential nomination and afterwards did not become vice president.

In addition, of course, theres a more than a small chance that, if elected, Biden wont make it through his first term, thus enabling his vice president to succeed him without having to run for the office. Brown declines, understandably, to consider this touchy scenario.

Brown argues that Harris would be better off heading up the Department of Justice. But how many AGs have ever become president?

Brown believes that the coming years will be a bumpy ride for the White House occupant. He may be right. On the other hand, the coming years might well see an end to the pandemic and a massive economic recovery.

The coming years are likely to be a very bumpy ride for a Democratic Attorney General, should the nation be saddled with one. The Wuhan coronavirus will very likely recede before the wave of homicides and other violent crimes does.

As Attorney General, Harris would either have to alienate the Democratic base by standing up against lawlessness or preside over anarchy in our cities. In all likelihood, she would satisfy neither the Democratic left nor those who desire some semblance of order.

Better to be more or less out of sight as vice president.

The nomination isnt Harris to decline at this moment. If she gets the nod, she should jump at the opportunity  and almost certainly will.
The coronavirus pandemic has created significant new ways of doing business that could benefit both the economy and environment, according to business leaders, who said there was no other option but to shift toward sustainability. In June, Brazilian cosmetics giant Natura launched its "Commitment to Life" vision for the next 10 years. The plan includes pledges to reduce its emissions to net zero, have 30% of its management made up of under-represented groups, and make all of its packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable.

View of the plant of Brazilian cosmetics company Natura, in Cajamar, some 43 km from Sao Paulo, Brazil on August 26, 2019. Brazilian Natura is about to become the fourth largest cosmetics company in the world, with an image of respect to biodiversity and to beauty styles which are "free of stereotypes", its CEO assured. Nelson Almeida | AFP | Getty Images

"(This) is even more relevant because of the time we are in and the importance of really thinking about how we want to shape the world coming out of this crisis," Natura CEO Roberto Marques told CNBC by phone. Natura owns British brand The Body Shop, Australian skincare company Aesop, and in January closed a deal to buy American business Avon, creating a group that it claims has 200 million customers. For Natura, financial growth and sustainability go hand-in-hand, and executives' remuneration has been partly based on green goals, Marques said. As with other manufacturers, it's in Natura's interest to focus on sustainability in an effort to ensure, for instance, that raw materials are available in the long term. "We can't run a business in a dead planet  There is no other option for companies and leaders," Marques added. Asked what he would like from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been criticized for his skepticism over green issues, Marques said: "We strongly believe that the answer is dialog, including the key stakeholders."

For Richard Mattison, CEO of Trucost, a company owned by S&P Global that estimates climate risks to businesses, the pandemic has created opportunities that are good for the economy and the planet. Mattison suggested there were three things companies can do: cut business travel, instigate a work-from-home policy and make supply chains more local. "For example, if the professional services sector set a work-from-home policy for three days a week, that would (put) the entire passenger transportation system in alignment with climate goals," Mattison told CNBC's Geoff Cutmore in an interview in May. Reducing business travel by 40% and relying more on video calls would mean the aviation industry was on track to meet climate goals pledged as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement, he added. Travel is something that companies have signaled they may cut. For example, Martin Sorrell, executive chairman of advertising group S4 Capital, has said he will fly less. "I will travel less. I will attend fewer conferences. I will be more conscious of deploying my time in a much more effective way," he told CNBC in May.

Green shoots

Governments around the world are releasing funds to boost the economy during the pandemic  and some have included green measures. In May, the European Commission announced a new coronavirus-related stimulus package, with 150 billion euros allocated to green initiatives. For Helen Clarkson, CEO of nonprofit The Climate Group, post-pandemic spending is a critical opportunity to invest in ways to get to net zero greenhouse gas emissions. After the 2008-2009 recession, sustainability issues tended to be ignored, she told CNBC by phone. "There was really a sense of leave us alone, we have just got to get things back to normal and then we'll come and talk to you sustainability people again," she said. But now, things are different, in part due to pressure from younger generations and also because businesses are having to reimagine themselves, Clarkson added. "(The pandemic) is almost the biggest psychological shock we've all had  Every business is looking at its business model and its budgets and its annual plans and saying, well, this is up for grabs," Clarkson stated. Compare Ethics is a site that lets shoppers compare clothing brands' commitment to issues such as paying a living wage or using recycled materials. It was founded by young entrepreneurs James Omisakin and Abbie Morris, who said the pandemic has meant that consumers have paid more attention to supply chains.

Abbie Morris and James Omisakin, founders of Compare Ethics, a sustainable e-commerce fashion platform. Compare Ethics

"Consumers and employees are now acutely aware of how their lives can change overnight and how supply chains directly affect them," Morris told CNBC by email. She added that sales of clothing via the Compare Ethics platform were up 150% in June compared to May. Omisakin is hopeful that the business world will continue to think about green issues. "There's no choice now but to place the planet first. Senior leaders know that without synergy, nature will ultimately disrupt and disarm business efforts," he told CNBC by email.

Government action
New York, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PHI Group, Inc. ( www.phiglobal.com , PHIL ), announced today that Vietnam-based Tecco Group (https://teccogroup.vn/) has signed an agreement with PHI Luxembourg Development SA, a subsidiary of PHI Group, to launch PHILUX Infrastructure Fund, the first-ever Luxembourg-based infrastructure fund for Vietnam.



As one of the fastest growing economies in ASEAN, Vietnam is currently demanding for more foreign financial investment and technical assistance to narrowing its infrastructure gap. According to the Global Infrastructure Outlook, Vietnam requires an investment of US$605 billion to meet 83 per cent of its infrastructure goals by 2040. Among the sectors that have been given utmost priorities are the urban transportation, road & rail and port infrastructure.

Currently, just 20 per cent of the countrys national roads are paved, and a recently approved plan to build Vietnam's North-South high-speed railway, which allows passengers to travel between capital Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in about eight hours, will cost about 26 billion U.S. dollars.

The rising population in major cities in recent years has strained and exceeded capacity of the existing connectivity networks and utilities systems. With 50% of Vietnams population expected to be living in cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh are building rapid transit systems exceeding US$22 billion in the hope of reducing private vehicle ownership and improving air quality.

Various expressway projects are planned and underway to improve connectivity within major cities. Similarly, development and upgrading of urban utilities infrastructure are announced and there are 44 planed PPP projects with total investment value worth up to US$ 120 billion in the road and power sectors.

PHILUX Global Funds SCA, SICAV-RAIF ( www.philux.eu ), is a Luxembourg-based bank fund with multiple sub-fund compartments for investment in real estate, infrastructure, renewable energy and healthcare as well as the proposed Chu Lai Multiple Commodities Center (CMCC) and the Asia Diamond Exchange (ADE) in the Chu Lai Open Economic Zone, in Quang Nam Province. This will be the first rough diamond exchange in Asia, comparable with diamond exchanges in Antwerp and Dubai.

Besides supporting transport infrastructure, Tecco Group expects to utilize the Luxembourg infrastructure fund for a number of port, industrial zone cluster, and airport projects together with modern technologies. Mr. Huyen Duc Vu, Vice Chairman of Tecco Group, commented:  This is the first time Vietnam has the opportunity to access international capital for infrastructure development through a Luxembourg-based bank fund, which helps respond to the overall social development demand and at the same time elevate the competitiveness of the economy. Representing Tecco Group, I am extremely pleased to cooperate with PHILUX Infrastructure Fund to capitalize on huge potential of the infrastructure construction market in Vietnam.

Mr. Vu added:  The negative impact from the coronavirus pandemic has exerted a heightened pressure on the Vietnamese government in its efforts to maintain a positive growth economy, especially in the backdrop of decreasing ODA financings, failure or negative consequences of BT, BOT and PPP models, and bottlenecks in public finance funding; therefore, I strongly believe that the launching of an infrastructure fund for Vietnam at this time is very appropriate. I am confident that the cooperation between PHILUX and TECCO will bring about positive beacons for infrastructure investment projects in the near future.

Henry Fahman, Chairman of PHILUX Global Funds SCA, SICAV-RAIF, stated: We are delighted to cooperate with Tecco Group in launching the first-ever Luxembourg-based PHILUX Infrastructure Fund for Vietnam. We look forward to utilizing our combined experience and international networks to serve the needs of infrastructure development in Vietnam as well as create meaningful economic value for both companies, our shareholders and other stakeholders.

About PHI Group, Inc.

PHI Group ( www.phiglobal.com , PHIL ), primarily focuses on mergers and acquisitions and invests in select industries and special situations that may substantially enhance shareholder value. In addition, the Companys wholly-owned subsidiary, PHILUX Capital Advisors, Inc. ( www.philuxcap.com ) provides M&A consulting services and assists companies to go public and access international capital markets while also serving as the investment adviser to Luxembourg-based PHILUX Global Funds ( www.philux.eu ).

About Tecco Group

Established on December 17, 2001 with a charter capital of VND 2,000 billion (Two trillion VND), TECCO is a multidisciplinary business operating mainly in the fields of construction investment - housing real estate, resort real estate, quarrying, water exploitation, hydroelectricity and service chains. services such as: travel and tourism services, design consulting, construction, supermarket services, hotels, etc.



With 20 years of establishment and development, TECCO Group has 5 affiliated corporations, 36 member units, joint ventures, and has been implementing more than 60 projects across 18 provinces and cities nationwide, from Lao Cai in the North to Kien Giang in the South of Vietnam. The Group is operated by a team of managers including Ph.D.s, Masters, engineers, and well-trained, professional and experienced staff with modern specialized equipment. TECCO has been investing in many large-scale, high-quality projects all over Vietnam. Website: (https://teccogroup.vn/)

Safe Harbor Act and Forward-looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as may, future, plan or planned, will or should, expected, anticipates, draft, eventually or projected, which are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors.

Contact:

PHI Group, Inc.

+1-702-475-5430

info@phiglobal.com
The world is waiting with bated breath for a vaccine that will finally end the scourge of the novel Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) that has wreaked havoc on lives and economies globally.

It certainly seems to be on its way  sooner than originally expected  but will entail substantial cost, with estimates pegging the cost of Oxford and Moderna vaccine candidates between Rs 1,000-4,500 . Through a tie-up with global vaccine alliance GAVI and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Serum Institute, Pune is likely to offer anti-COVID-19 vaccines at $3 per dose by 2021.

While vaccines remain critical to the prevention of the pandemic, you will have to foot the bills, unless the central and state governments step in with an alternative funding plan.

Are vaccination expenses covered under regular health insurance policies?

A regular health insurance cover reimburses your hospitalisation expenses up to your sum insured, as also pre-admission and post-discharge bills. Therefore, vaccines will usually not make the cut under such regular policies, except for post-animal-bite vaccinations or antidotes. New-born babies vaccinations, too, will be covered under policies that pay for pregnancy expenses.

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

What kind of policies pay for vaccination expenses?

Some policies that cover outpatient department expenses (OPD) will pay for the vaccination expenses too. We cover vaccinations under our premium variant, where there is an OPD element of Rs 10,000. This includes routine vaccinations such as Hepatitis B or Influenza. As and when vaccines for COVID-19 are developed, those expenses will be paid for too, says Nikhil Apte, Chief Product Officer, Health Insurance, Royal Sundaram General Insurance.

In future, as more insurers launch OPD products, it is likely that vaccinations will be paid for as part of preventive healthcare costs. For now, the number of such products  and coverage for vaccines under these  remain limited. You need to check if your policy specifically covers vaccinations. Generally, these are not covered as they do not qualify as treatment procedures, but are preventive in nature. And regular health covers are not meant for preventive care, says Abhishek Bondia, Co-Founder, SecureNow.in. In fact, vaccines are specifically excluded  not eligible for claim  under some policies.

This apart, products with maternity benefits will also take care of the new-borns vaccinations. These include BCG, Measles, Hepatitis B, Chicken Pox and so on. However, a policy that pays for pregnancy expenses will also come with higher premiums, besides a waiting period of up to four years for this particular cover.

However, maternity and OPD benefit covers are costlier than regular covers. For example, a 35-year-old buying a regular Rs 5-lakh cover will have to pay an annual premium Rs 6,827 under ICICI Lombards iHealth Plus policy. If you were to add the outpatient department, wellness and preventive care and maternity benefit add-on to this base cover, you will have to shell out Rs 9,925 a year.

Is there any standard list of vaccines that maternity benefit policies will pay for?

Insurance companies will reimburse the new-borns expenses in line with government of Indias National Immunisation Schedule, up to 90 days from the date of delivery. Once you include the baby in the cover, vaccine expenses will be paid for till the child turns five, depending on the policy terms and conditions.
Government Plans for all Brexit Outcomes at the End of the Year

The Government has said today that it continues to plan for all eventualities as negotiations continue to define a future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union before the transitional period comes to an end on 31 December.

In this context, the Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia chaired a meeting of the Brexit Strategic Group late last week in order to provide added impetus to plans for no agreement between the parties.

It is important to make the point that this does not mean that there will be no agreement. It simply means that the Government has a duty to prepare for different possible outcomes and that this is one of them. Indeed, the Government has said that it is confident that a good economic partnership can be agreed that will greatly benefit Gibraltar in the context of our involuntary departure from the EU and that such a partnership can produce an area of shared prosperity for the whole of the region around Gibraltar also.

Separate work-streams, running in parallel to each other, have continued to operate over the last few years, even through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

First, this work covers the commitments entered into in relation to the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement, the Gibraltar Protocol and the accompanying MoUs. This framework ensured the orderly departure of Gibraltar from the European Union and our inclusion in the transition.

Second, there is ongoing work between the Gibraltar and United Kingdom Government in relation to the Future Relationship with the European Union in the context of the Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) and other side agreements.

Third, there is a work-stream which concentrates on future trade deals which the UK is negotiating with non-EU countries.

Fourth, there is work on an ambitious future relationship between Gibraltar and the European Union, including with our nearest EU neighbour Spain. The first formal round of discussions between Gibraltar, the United Kingdom and Spain took place in Malaga on 9 June in a positive and constructive atmosphere. This team is headed by the Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and includes the Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia, the Attorney General Michael Llamas and the Financial Secretary Albert Mena. It will be recalled that the Chief Minister subsequently met the Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya in Algeciras on 23 July during her Brexit-related visit to the Campo area.

A fifth stream of work is no-deal planning, which was the basis of the meeting last week. This reviewed the output from the Brexit Executive Group, which included all the different specialist resilience groups tasked with specific topic areas and which is normally chaired by the Chief Secretary.

The Deputy Chief Minister briefed the meeting on different aspects of the wider UK/EU negotiations. He explained that three more rounds were planned. These would be round 7 in Brussels the week of 17-21 August, round 8 in London on 7-11 September and round 9 in Brussels on 28 September  2 October. The Chief Negotiators David Frost and Michel Barnier were expected to meet in between as required.

The meeting found that the no-deal planning work which had been carried out in 2018 and 2019 had been very useful and, in some areas, served as a dress rehearsal for the COVID-19 pandemic. This was particularly so in relation to the stock-piling of materials by the GHA and the setting-up of an oxygen plant at the hospital for example. In other instances, departments and agencies had drawn up detailed action plans for a no deal Brexit which were then adopted to deal with COVID also.

The Deputy Chief Minister asked for an update on a review he had requested of all the Technical Notices and no deal advice that the Government has issued so far. This is being conducted by the Director of the Brussels Office Daniel DAmato together with the Civil Contingencies Coordinator Ivor Lopez.

A number of different reports were put forward to the meeting by the Chief Secretary, the GHA, the Port Authority, the Royal Gibraltar Police, HM Customs, the Department of the Environment and the Gibraltar Law Officers on legislation issues.

The Deputy Chief Minister, who is responsible for work related to our departure from the European Union, said:

The Government continues to plan for all outcomes because this is the responsible thing to do. It is obvious that the greater the planning the more likely that concerns are identified and solutions are found. The issues are narrower as we progress to 31 December and all the work carried out so far is expected to be very useful if there is no agreement. There are alternative methods and mechanisms that the Government is putting in place, both in a legal and in practical sense, which will come into play in the event that we lose our existing EU framework. The Government is very grateful to the civil service, the public service and our agencies and authorities for the positive way in which everyone has put the shoulder to the wheel for the wider benefit of Gibraltar.
Canadas immigration level in June was the highest since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Canada welcomed over 19,000 immigrants in June Canadas immigration level in June was the highest since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Canada welcomed over 19,000 immigrants in June Canadas immigration level in June was the highest since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Canada welcomed over 19,000 immigrants in June Canadas immigration level in June was the highest since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Kareem El-Assal Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Canada welcomed over 19,000 immigrants in June 2020 Canadas immigration levels are recovering. In June, Canada welcomed its highest level of immigration since the coronavirus was officially labelled a pandemi

Canada welcomed nearly 19,200 new permanent residents in June 2020. This was revealed in new Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) data released today.

Canadas June permanent resident (PR) intake was much stronger than the 11,000 newcomers welcomed by Canada in May and the 4,000 who gained PR in April. It was also Canadas highest level of immigration in a month since the coronavirus was officially labelled a pandemic in March.

On the other hand, it is well short of the over 34,000 immigrants welcomed by Canada in June 2019. The lower level compared with last year is due to the disruptions caused by the pandemic. Canada has had travel restrictions in place since March 18th. Additional challenges include confirmation of permanent residence (COPR) holders being unable to travel to Canada even if they are permitted to do so, and IRCC application processing being affected by social distancing measures.

Top immigrant countries in June

The top 10 immigrant source countries in June 2020 (PR numbers in brackets) were:

India (6,760)

China (2,010)

Philippines (900)

USA (740)

Pakistan (595)

Brazil (560)

United Kingdom (535)

Nigeria (530)

Iran (390)

South Korea (355)

The leading immigrant source countries in June remain unchanged from recent months and years. The new immigrants in June were individuals who had applied for PR months ago, meaning that immigrant source countries have not been impacted by the pandemic so far.

What to expect for the rest of 2020

The June 2020 figures indicate that Canadas immigration system is normalizing to the extent possible during the pandemic. More people were able to overcome COVID-19 challenges in June (e.g., travel delays) than prior months to complete their PR landing.

Canadas PR levels tend to be higher in the summer so over the coming summer months we should expect immigration levels to remain in the same range as the June level.

Conversely, the travel restrictions and other COVID-19 disruptions will keep PR figures lower than what they were during similar periods in 2019.

Nonetheless, Canada continues to invite more successful immigration candidates to apply for PR.

Bi-weekly Express Entry draws have remained a constant fixture throughout the pandemic, with Canada issuing 3,900 or more invitations to apply (ITAs) for permanent residence every two weeks.

Get a free Canadian immigration assessment

Last week, Canada held two Express Entry draws, including Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) candidates in one of the draws. FSWP candidates were excluded from Express Entry draws between March and July since IRCC wanted to prioritize the invitation of candidates more likely to be in Canada right now (and hence, less likely to face COVID-19 interruptions).

The resumption of Express Entry draws which include FSWP candidates, plus ongoing Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) draws are among the numerous positive signs that suggest Canada remains committed to its pre-pandemic immigration policies.

This has also been emphasized by IRCC and Canadas immigration minister. They have repeatedly stated since the start of the pandemic that welcoming high levels of immigration after COVID-19 will be key to maintaining a strong and healthy Canadian economy.

Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs

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European Council President Charles Michel on Sunday called for an independent investigation into the cause of the deadly Beirut explosion. Meanwhile, lebanese environment minister Damianos Kattar resigned in the wake of civil anti-government unrest.

European Council President Charles Michel on Sunday urged an independent investigation into the cause of the deadly explosion that rocked the city of Beirut and inflicted heavy casualties last Tuesday. What struck me most yesterday was the need for confidence, the need for trust, and the need to know the truth, Michel addressed the international conference on assistance and support to Beirut. He visited the Lebanese capital and toured the devastated site in person on Saturday.

The people in Lebanon want to know the truth, they deserve transparency and justice. An independent and credible inquiry into the cause of this tragedy is therefore crucial, said Michel. He also mentioned the EUs assistance. The bloc offered 33 million Euros (38.9 million US dollars) as an initial aid and pledged on Sunday an additional amount of 30 million Euros to address the urgent needs.

Over 250 rescuers from the EU member states have been on the ground, plus tons of emergency supplies made available, he noted. Lebanese environment minister, Damianos Kattar, resigned on Sunday in the wake of a powerful deadly blast in the port of Beirut, media reported.

According to Al-Jadeed broadcaster, the countrys Prime Minister Hassan Diab was trying to persuade Kattar to continue performing his duties on this post. Earlier in the day, Lebanese Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad announced her resigning from office in the wake of the massive explosion in Beirut and subsequent civil anti-government unrest.

On Saturday, thousands of people took to the streets of Beirut, demanding the government to resign. Protesters have stormed four ministries and the banks association.

Late on Tuesday, a powerful explosion took place at the port of Beirut, killing at least 158 people and injuring over 6,000, per the latest estimates. According to the authorities, the explosion was caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, confiscated by the customs services in 2014 and stored in the port since then. The explosion has also caused considerable damage to the city, having destroyed or damaged dozens of houses.
There will be no in-person classes when Wharton MBAs begin learning later this month. That has led to widespread dissension among admits. Wharton photo

Coronavirus has been the most talked-about element in higher education for about six months now. Some schools have undoubtedly handled the pandemic better than others. As The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania prepares for a fall semester that the school recently announced will begin fully online because of the continuing risk of the pandemic, MBA admits are coming forward to say that their alma-mater-to-be has fumbled its pandemic response at key moments  and has a Class of 2022 full of angry and disappointed students as a result.

The eruption of discontent comes after Whartons announcement late last month that plans for a hybrid approach this fall have been suspended in response to a national resurgence of the coronavirus Covid-19. The incoming MBA admits dont spare new Dean Erika James, calling her a crisis management expert who cant handle a crisis; as one tells Poets&Quants, he and his classmates are paying the price for a lack of leadership at the precise moment when the school needs it most.

Their biggest criticism: Wharton misled admits with poor communication throughout the summer, delaying announcements and moving back deadlines, then made its big announcement about going fully online to start the fall without also having a Q&A session or offering much additional information. Additionally, they say, the school has not brought students into any of the decision-making about the fall and has been unforgivably inflexible in granting deferrals or considering discounted tuition.

I SHARE IN YOUR DISAPPOINTMENT

There has been excessively poor communication between the administration and students, with many representatives of the Wharton administration urging students to move to Philadelphia right up until now, one student says of the late-July announcement of an entirely virtual start to classes, which are slated to begin August 19. Many students have given up offers at other schools, left their jobs, and moved halfway around the world to attend a program that is now very different from what they paid for.

Story continues

The schools hybrid approach was originally communicated on July 6, and then reaffirmed in email messages to students on July 9th and 21st. Ten days later, on July 31, came official notification that all courses would pretty much be online. There were countless promises and misleading communications sent out by the Wharton administration, grouses on admitted student. International students, who have been fighting for months to secure visas to get here, have been especially pushed aside. To receive this surprise update right before school starts, rather than months ago, has disrupted and upended everyones plans.

Like every school, of course, Wharton is struggling to navigate through an unprecedented health crisis amid great uncertainty. Re-opening a business school campus, moreover, is dependent on guidelines and rules from the Centers for Disease Control, the state government and the University of Pennsylvania. In communicating its change of heart on July 31, the school was clearly apologetic in its messaging.

I share in your disappointment, wrote Howie Kaufold, vice dean of Whartons MBA program. For the past several months, we concentrated our efforts on creating plans for an in-person experience for you but as the developments unfolded over the last two weeks, It became clear that what we could deliver would not be sustainable amid the shifting situation, nor worth the heightened risk for those of you attending. It is now evident that rather than plateauing during the summer, as many health expert expected, COVID-19 has instead gained momentum.

COVID CASES IN PHILADELPHIA HAVE DOUBLED SINCE WHARTON ANNOUNCED ITS HYBRID REOPENING

In fact, new daily cases of coronavirus in Philadelphia have more than doubled from July 6 when Wharton officially announced it would go hybrid, to July 31 when the school reversed its decision, jumping from 450 to 970 new cases a day. In that same timeframe, daily deaths attributed to COVID in Philadelphia rose from one on July 6 to 13 on July 31.

Nonetheless, these numbers are far below the peak of cases on April 9, when there were 1,989 new confirmed COVID cases, while daily deaths from COVID reached a peak of 554 on May 5 in Philadelphia. Wharton is the only M7 business school  that elite group including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Chicago, Northwestern, and MIT  that has thus far announced the fall will be online. All the other schools are sticking with their hybrid formats.

Fueling the frustration of students is their lack of involvement in the planning of a fall return. Stanfords Graduate School of Business put students members on its faculty and staff task force. That did not happen at Wharton. In, fact, complain students, the school didnt even informally consult with students on the plans.

From our perspective, they didnt survey us and they didnt ask for our input, says a second-year MBA. They didnt ask for students on the task force. Students proposed things and they largely went unanswered. I dont know if it is flat-footed but it just doesnt feel particularly innovative, forward-looking or responsive. They generally do not provide clarity on their decisions. They provide no backup or justification for their changes despite the fact that students have asked for it repeatedly. A spokesperson for Wharton did not return phone and email calls for comment.

DID WHARTON PLAN ALL ALONG TO GO VIRTUAL?

Former Emory Goizueta Dean Erika James officially began her term as dean of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania on July 1, taking over from Geoff Garrett. Courtesy photo

Poets&Quants spoke with six Wharton admits to the MBA Class of 2022 and a second-year student in the Class of 2021. Five of the half-dozen admits considered deferrals but were either denied or declined to pursue one because they expected to be denied. A sixth admit, accepted to another school, has opted to go there instead, partly because of what she characterizes as Whartons missteps. All asked for, and were granted, anonymity to avoid potential reprisals from the school or colleagues. Much of their criticism is also supported by a student survey in Julybefore the decision to cancel in-person classesbased on the responses of 572 members of the MBA Class of 2021 (see This Survey Fully Captures MBA Discontent In The Age of COVID).

The survey found that 78% of the second-year students are not excited about the upcoming semester, and 94% of them feel the value of their overall MBA experience has diminished by at least 40%. When asked to rate their expectations for the fall semester on a scale of 1 (would rather defer) to 10 (very excited), 78% of the responding students rated it 5 or below. No less crucial, 86% of the students responding to the survey feel that Wharton has not incorporated student feedback in the decision-making process for this fall.

In the short-term, moreover, 31% of the students indicated that they are likely to request a leave of absence this fall, making Whartons planning for future classes more difficult. Over the long-term, 69% of students have changed their stance on donating to Wharton, and 48% of students do not plan on donating at all.

WHARTON HAS GONE THROUGH FOUR PHASES OF WHAT THE DELIVERY MODEL SHOULD BE

The students main criticism: They were urged for months to move to Philadelphia to attend some in-person classes, but on July 31 the school announced an all-online format to start the fall  by which time the deadline for deferrals had passed and it was too late for most to change their plans. Admits may still request a leave of absence through September 8, which is much the same as a deferral in practice; but those who spoke to P&Q say the difficulty they and others had in securing a deferral makes them skeptical that the school will be liberal in granting LOAs. They point to Harvard Business Schools blanket offer of deferrals for any admits who wish to wait until the fall of 2021 to enroll, contrasting HBSs approach with Whartons, and add that Whartons plans to enroll its largest-ever class  the exact size of which has not yet been announced  show that Whartons leadership planned to be entirely online all along.

Wharton has gone through four phases of what the delivery model for their fall should be, one student tells P&Q. First it was going to be in-person like everywhere else. Then they made a big announcement that it would probably be hybrid, without providing many details, and then they rebranded to Remote Plus where they were going to offer very, very few in-person classes, most of them online, and everyone was annoyed about that. Then they switched it to completely virtual. So its like everyones been brought through this sequence of more and more and more and more virtual at every step of the way  and every time after all the deadlines passed, they would come out with something new.

Wharton has also accepted one of its largest classes in history this year and I think its interesting because other schools have chosen the opposite approach. HBS decided to accept one of its smallest classes in history so that they could host in-person classes with social distancing. As we all know, to host a class with social distancing, you have to be able to fit fewer people into a room. What Wharton did is, they accepted one of their largest classes in history. They still wont publicly release the numbers, but everyone knows its one of the largest classes because we can see the number of accepted students. Then they said our class size is too big to host in-person activities. So I think its interesting that they kind of created some of this problem for themselves.

I know its kind of an inference, but the way I see it is, if they planned to admit so many people, it shows that they planned all along to do it mostly virtual because they always knew what the social distancing restraints were for the specific buildings that they host classes in on campus.

IN PRACTICE, A DEFERRAL POLICY FOR INTERNATIONALS ONLY

Whartons official policy is to grant deferrals on a case-by-case basis, as Blair Mannix, director of MBA admissions, reiterated in an April post on the school website. But in practice, say the MBA admits who spoke to P&Q, Whartons deferral policy is only for international students who could not get a visa to the U.S.  a common problem in the Trump era.

The deferral policy works much differently for domestic students, the admits say.

While they allowed you to apply for a deferral, they made it very clear that they would only grant one in very extreme circumstances, one admit says. I think the specific example given in a video live stream was someone getting deployed to Afghanistan by the U.S. Army. So they wouldnt allow an open deferral the way HBS did just for people who think theres a lot of uncertainty with COVID, or their parents lost their jobs, or their situation has changed. None of that was considered legitimate enough to grant deferrals to domestic students.

A lot of people were kind of held hostage with no other option. Yeah, Wharton will say that they had a different policy, but in practice, it was for international students only. I think all of us would have definitely considered it if we had been given an open deferral policy like HBS, which we were never given. All of us got into other schools, too. Them doing this at the last minute really prevents anyone from going anywhere else.

One international admit who spoke to P&Q says she intends to be in Philadelphia this fall, barring visa problems. But she, too, was stunned by the schools announcement that in-person classes had been nixed.

Definitely it was surprising for us to know, given we were told itll be hybrid when we made the enrollment versus deferral decision, she tells P&Q. But apparently the reason for going virtual is that 40% of all the Covid cases in the U.S. since the pandemic started have been reported only last month. While the classes will be virtual, they are including small in-person requirements like studio classes, lab requirements, and clinical trials to ensure internationals can still make it to the U.S. in fall.

THE STUDENT PERCEPTION OF HER IS SOMEONE WHOS BEEN VERY UNINVOLVED SO FAR

Whartons new dean, Erika James, is known as a crisis management expert  she even co-authored a book on the subject. But Jamess handling of the biggest crisis to hit graduate business education in generations is being questioned by Wharton MBA admits and second-year MBA students who say she is at least partly to blame for poor communication and widespread misunderstanding between the administration, students, and admits. They also dont spare her predecessor, Geoffrey Garrett, who served as a lame duck dean through June. Of course, it could not have helped that there was a leadership transition in the middle of the pandemic, either.

Erika James, our new dean, considers herself an expert in crisis management, one MBA admit says. To everyone in our class, the school keeps touting how shes an expert in crisis management and how shes the best person to lead Wharton forward through these unprecedented times  so its really funny for everyone to see how little shes been involved. I mean, her first public address to the student body was the announcement the other day when she said everything was going virtual. Until then, we had not seen her face or heard from her besides one email.

The student perception of her is someone whos very uninvolved so far, who is being touted as an expert in crisis management, but then clearly isnt. I dont want to blame it all on her because I think she inherited a lot of the problem, and a lot of the problems were talking about were in place before she came. I think a lot of the misleading came from the admissions director and from the vice deans who would constantly host these live streams. So its definitely not all the fault of the current dean, but yeah, she inherited a problem and I think its kind of funny that shes a crisis management expert and then cant really handle this crisis.

Another admit, referring to Jamess video announcement of the schools plan for an all-online format, adds: One story that I dont get at all is that Erika James is getting so much praise when shes ignored students for the last six months. She went on a publicity tour. She calls herself a crisis management expert. She read a scripted message from a Word document that she typed out. It came off extremely broken and insincere.

Tip For The Wharton Team-Based Discussion

The Wharton School

EMAILS FILLED WITH HOLLOW, CORPORATE PR LANGUAGE

Wharton announced in April that, for the first time in years, it would not hike tuition this year. In that way the school avoided the ire that has been leveled against other top B-schools, such as the Stern School of Business at NYU, where students are currently protesting a planned tuition increase. Wharton also reduced the price of its Pre-Term, which is entirely online due to Covid, and which gets underway August 15.

But for some MBA admits, that raises the question: If the school can reduce the cost of Pre-Term because it will be conducted remotely, why cant they reduce tuition? Even with no tuition hike this year, Wharton has the highest tuition of any business school in the world, at more than $80,000 per year.

Our Pre-Term was going to be online due to COVID, and they actually reduced the price, one admit tells P&Q. I think normally its a couple of thousand dollars and its only $800 this year. A lot of people saw that as a precedent for a potential tuition reimbursement if the whole fall were to go virtual, but now theyre claiming that thats just for Pre-Term.

Adds a second-year MBA student who believes, with many others, that the school should discount tuition due to the shift to online learning: Its incredibly unrealistic to say the MBA experience isnt massively diminished by what we are going through. For the school to not recognize that and pretend as though that is not the case feels pretty disingenuous. The school is reacting more like a business than a mission-driven academic institution. The flat-footedness, lack of desire to take care of students and the lack of empathy is what is really rubbing people the wrong way.

If they cared about the students, they would say, we totally hear you. Well give you a fifth semester or well give you a semester of relief or make it really easy to give you a leave of absence. Instead, weve gotten nothing more than emails filled with hollow, corporate PR language.

A TUITION RELIEF PETITION SIGNED BY 539 MBA STUDENTS IN THE CLASS OF 2021

A petition signed by 539 members of the MBA Class of 2021 was delivered to the administration on July 30 but, according to one student, has yet to receive a response. It formally calls for tuition and fees relief for the upcoming semester, commensurate with the diminished value of our MBA experience, as well as subsidized continuing education opportunities post-graduation, including an optional fifth semester on campus.

The petition, says another admit, is as much a signal of student frustration and discontent. I think its more of this feeling that we want Penn to know that they cant do stuff like this to students without people speaking up about it or without there being negative media attention  because if no one says anything when they mislead people, then they may feel comfortable doing it again in the spring, and doing it again next fall, the student adds.

While the school has stated there will be no tuition reduction, it has established a financial relief fund, from which eligible students may receive stipends.

Blair Mannix of Wharton: Wharton photo

Blair Mannix, Whartons director of MBA admissions, spoke to P&Q in April about the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic. She said the school wanted to bring students to campus but would always act in students best interests.

Ive been a member of the University of Pennsylvania community for almost 15 years, Mannix said, and I know in my soul that Penn would never  and could never  take the easy way out on this. I think Penn will figure out the best possible solution to get the most amount of students on campus for the most amount of time, to deliver the most content and curriculum in-person as humanly possible. That is who the University of Pennsylvania is, and I know right now we have top health experts working on this at the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

And I do think the entire university ecosystem in the United States  colleges and universities across the United States  are moving toward this. Its in everybodys best interest to figure out creative ways to get students on campus. And I do believe well be a leader in that charge.

But unfortunately where we are right now is, were going to have to ask our students to make some decisions with incomplete information and some unknowns on the table. I think a lot of universities are saying this: We want to support you. We want to make sure we can give you enough information to make those decisions with incomplete information. Were trying to make decisions with incomplete information and its a tough time for all of us, but thats what were going to ask our students to do.

THE FYRE FESTIVAL OF BUSINESS SCHOOLS

One of the Wharton admits who spoke to P&Q decided to accept another offer to join an elite MBA program, a decision she says was made easier by Whartons handling of coronavirus.

I was honestly really shocked by the news about going fully online, she says. I think it definitely did influence my decision. I mean, I was leaning toward the other school, to be honest, just because for my interests the other school fits a little bit more. But I think seeing how they handled it, that definitely did push me over the edge, made me feel a lot more comfortable in my decision. It was just really shocking with how transparent they seemed, at least in the beginning  the community has been great. Blair, whos the dean of admissions, has been so communicative. Shes been awesome. Shell respond to messages immediately, she will do a Q&A every single week. Shes been phenomenal.

But I guess after it transitioned out of the admissions team and more to the actual full-time program faculty, and then this happened with no Q&A after, and dead silence from any faculty in the forums for the next two-plus hours, thats scary. People were posting like, Hey, I just landed in Philly, just got off of my 14-hour flight from, like, Sweden, to this news. Oh shit, like I just moved my life across the world and this happened? Its crazy.

Another admit, who will enroll at Wharton this fall despite misgivings  saying he has no choice after quitting his job and packing his belongings for a relocation to Philadelphia  hopes that Wharton will commit to more transparency going forward.

I dont expect for them to go back on their plans for this fall, but the question is, are they going to be more transparent when they plan for the spring? he says. Are they going to be more receptive to students? Are they going to include students in the conversation? And up until now, they really havent been transparent or communicated with anyone at all.

To my knowledge, it is one of the only schools thats really, really misled people. I think other schools were more upfront about what they were doing and didnt wait till the last minute. I think other schools also had more liberal deferral policies and just less uncertainty overall. Maybe part of the issue is that Penn was too optimistic, but that in itself misled a lot of people.

People in our class call it the Fyre Festival of business schools, the admit adds, referencing the disastrous 2017 luxury music festival. Theres a meme going around that that compares Wharton to Fyre Fest  so thats kind of the mindset of a lot of students.

DONT MISS: WHARTON R1 APPLICANTS CAN APPLY WITHOUT IMMEDIATE GMAT & GRE RESULTS or WHARTONS FALL SEMESTER FOR MBAs WILL NOW BE MOSTLY ONLINE

The post The Fyre Festival Of B-Schools: Wharton MBA Admits Say School Is Failing Them appeared first on Poets&Quants.
Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Director John Nkengasaong will host an online press conference every month to share updates on COVID-19 with the public. / Captured from United Nations website



By Yi Whan-woo



The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) will hold an online press conference every month to share updates on COVID-19 with people across the continent, the African Union (AU) said last week.



The press meeting will come after the number of infected cases in Africa, although it still remains one of the least-affected regions, surpassed 1 million as of Aug. 6.



Under the auspices of the 55-member AU, the Africa CDC has been strengthening health systems and improving surveillance, emergency response, prevention and disease control.



The press conference will be organized in cooperation with the APO Group, a leading pan-African communications and business consultancy. The meeting will be open to journalists and the public.



Africa CDC Director John Nkengasong will host the meeting. The date and time of the first meeting has not been announced yet.



Among the issues to be shared are overviews of the epidemiologic situation across the continent, progress on the AU's Partnership for COVID-19 Testing (PACT), capacity building being undertaken with and for AU member states, updates on vaccinations and supplies of COVID-19 materials to member states and initiatives of African leaders.



"Africa has over 1.3 billion people, and reaching them all with COVID-19 information is a major priority of the African Union, as we work to prevent deaths, save lives and prevent unnecessary harm to economies," Nkengasong said.



He said the online conference was "a practical and commendable example of the African private sector supporting African-led efforts to fight COVID-19" and that APO Group's vast online network would allow it to reach "not only the largest possible media audience, but also the public all over the continent."



APO Group founder and Chairman Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard pointed out that the group had experience working with World Health Organization (WHO) for online press conferences.



The WHO press meeting, held every two weeks since June, was first to be live-streamed on more than 300 Africa-related news websites and on Google.



He said such experience demonstrated the value of live-streaming important press briefings and providing vital news and updates in real time.



"We are proud to now be working, once every month, with the African Union through the Africa CDC, as they have the continental mandate from heads of state and government to lead the continental response to COVID-19," he said.
One person died and three people were seriously injured late Sunday in a two-vehicle head-on crash on Route 46 in Liberty Township, according to New Jersey State Police at Washington.

Two people suffered minor injuries as well in the wreck just after 11 p.m. near mile post 13, police said.

Three medical helicopters -- New Jersey State Police NorthStar, Atlantic Air One and Hackensack UMC Air Med One -- landed at Pequest Fish Hatchery off Route 46 to take the most seriously injured to hospitals, according to a report from the scene.

One person died and three people were flown in medical helicopters to be treated in hospitals after a two-vehicle crash just after 11 p.m. Aug. 9, 2020, on Route 46 in Liberty Township.Rich Maxwell | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

A Dodge Ram pickup heading west crossed the double yellow line and crashed head-on into an eastbound GMC pickup hauling a trailer, police Sgt. Lawrence Peele, based in West Trenton, said Monday morning. The driver of the Dodge died, Peele said. The drivers name will be released once all family has been notified, he said. There were two people in the Dodge and four in the GMC, he said.

Route 46 was shut for five hours, Peele said.

Warren Countys hazardous materials team responded to clean up a spill, the report from the scene said.

One person died and three people were flown in medical helicopters to be treated in hospitals after a two-vehicle crash just after 11 p.m. Aug. 9, 2020, on Route 46 in Liberty Township.Rich Maxwell | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

The state police Fatal Accident Unit responded as well as troopers from the Washington barracks and personnel from Mountain Lake Fire Company, Independence Rescue Squad, Oxford Rescue Squad, Mansfield Rescue Squad, Hackettstown Rescue Squad, Allamuchy Rescue Squad, Mt. Bethel Fire Company (which set up the landing zones), St. Clares Health paramedics and the New Jersey Department of Transportation Incident Management Team (to set up detours).

This post will be updated if more information becomes available.

Freelance photographer Rich Maxwell contributed to this report.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting lehighvalleylive.com with a voluntary subscription.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com.
A surfer has died after being pulled from the water near a storm drain at a popular Sydney beach.

The unconscious surfer was pulled to the shore of Collaroy Beach, on the northern beaches, by witnesses at about 12.45pm on Monday.

Bystanders performed CPR on the 44-year-old man until paramedics arrived.

The surfer was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital in a critical condition and later died.

Police officers attended the scene and commenced inquiries. A report will be prepared for the Coroner.

The death comes as heavy rain and howling winds batter the New South Wales south coast, while Sydney and the Blue Mountains are also being lashed by bad weather.

A surfer has died after being pulled from the water near a storm drain at Collaroy Beach. Pictured: Emergency crews on the scene

Paramedics performed CPR on the man at Collaroy Beach (pictured), on the northern beaches, at about midday on Monday

Police, ambulance and the NSW Rural Fire Service were on the scene

The State Emergency Service received 1600 calls for help across NSW over the weekend as torrential rain and winds downed trees, damaged roofs and flooded roads.

The Manly fast ferries were cancelled on Monday morning due to large swells in the harbour, while train services on the south coast line were briefly out.

Damaging winds with gusts more than 90km/h have been recorded along the Sydney and Illawarra coast and will move up the NSW coast throughout Monday.

A severe weather warning remains in place for a large stretch of the NSW coast.

The SES issued three evacuation orders late on Sunday after up to 200mm of rain hit several south coast towns in the previous 24 hours and up to 300mm in isolated areas.

The SES ordered hundreds of residents in Moruya, Sussex Inlet and Nowra suburbs including Terara, East Nowra, Worrigee and North Nowra to move to higher ground. The Shoalhaven River will peak on Monday at about 4.1 metres - a lower level than originally feared.

Low-lying areas of Terara Village, Ferry Lane, Lyrebird Drive Moss Street, Hyam Street, Terara Road, Bolong Road and Burrier Road may nevertheless experience flooding.

Heavy rain and howling winds batter the New South Wales south coast, while Sydney and the Blue Mountains are also being lashed by bad weather. Pictured: A car in Canberra submerged in rising floodwaters

Cars were caught in rising waters in Canberra on Sunday (pictured). The SES has told residents in Queanbeyan in the Australian capital's eastern fringe the surging flood waters should not be considered a 'tourist attraction'

Minor flooding has occurred along the St Georges Basin at Sussex Inlet and Island Point while 23 homes remain cut off at Broughton Vale near Berry.

By Monday morning, flooding at the Moruya River was minor and SES Commissioner Carlene York said the Moruya CBD evacuation order would soon be lifted.

Some 40 flood rescues have been required in NSW to date.

About 2000 Endeavour Energy customers in NSW remained without power on Monday afternoon, with storms creating 270 electrical hazards from fallen trees and branches.

'Localised flooding on parts of the south coast are hampering crews from accessing damaged parts of the network in some areas,' the company said in a statement.
Police in Mumbais Oshiwara arrested a woman and her boyfriend on Saturday for planning and stealing cash and gold ornaments worth Rs 19 lakh from her home.

The arrested woman and the man have been identified as Uzma Qureshi, 21, and Charandeepsingh Arora, 35. Police said Arora is a PT teacher in a school in Versova.

On July 30, Uzma went missing and hence I lodged a missing complaint at Oshiwara police station. However I had a hunch that she may have eloped with Arora, Umradaraz Qureshi, Uzmas father, said in his statement to the police.

Umradaraz, a hotelier, also found find 65 tola of gold and Rs 10 lakh missing from his home. He then recollected that Uzma asked him to give his locker key on July 23, saying as the family of a friend was infected with Covid-19 and were admitted to hospital, they had requested her to keep their gold in a safe place and return it to them after they returned from hospital.

Umradaraz then lodged a case of theft against his daughter. Following his complaint, we registered the FIR against his daughter, Dayanand Bangar, senior inspector from Oshiwara police station, said.

Police booked them under sections 379 (punishment for theft), 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

With the help of technical assistance we got there hideout in Punjab and a team was dispatched there. The accused were hiding at Sita Niwas, near the Golden Temple in Amritsar, an officer from Oshiwara police said.

Mumbai Police with the help of Amritsar Police raided the hotel and found her and the PT teacher. During questioning they admitted to the crime and said they had stashed the stolen gold and cash in a bank locker.

On Saturday we produced them before the metropolitan magistrate court where the court remanded them in police custody till Tuesday, Bangar said.
German foreign minister speaks with his US counterpart about Washingtons threat of sanctions over Nord Stream 2.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has expressed displeasure to his US counterpart Mike Pompeo about Washingtons threat of sanctions against a German port over a gas pipeline from Russia.

Speaking in Berlin on Monday as transatlantic tensions spike, Maas was asked by a reporter about last weeks letter from three US senators, which pledged tough sanctions against the operators of a key German port involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

I mentioned it in a telephone call with (Secretary of State) Mike Pompeo yesterday and expressed my surprise and displeasure, he said.

Nord Stream 2, a 10 billion-euro ($11bn) pipeline nearing completion beneath the Baltic Sea, is set to double Russian natural gas shipments to Germany, the EUs largest economy.

US President Donald Trump last year signed legislation against contractors working on Nord Stream 2 and another Russian gas project, TurkStream, which goes through the Black Sea.

But while those sanctions focused on technical assistance, the separate Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act lays out harsh measures that can include severing access to the US financial system.

Pompeo announced guidelines last month stipulating that German companies could suffer sanctions even for small investments in the project.

Internal affairs

Germany had voiced anger over the earlier sanctions law, saying that it interfered in its internal affairs.

But Ukraine, Poland and Baltic states fear that Nord Stream 2 will further embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin by giving Moscow more control over crucial energy flows.

Germany, despite political differences with Russia, sees Nord Stream 2 as ensuring a more stable and cleaner source of energy as it pivots away from coal and nuclear power.

Berlin is a long-standing ally of the US, but Trump has tense relations with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, once berating her as captive to Russia.

The Sassnitz port is located in Merkels electoral district, which German media interpreted as a personal affront to the veteran leader.

Meanwhile, Trump recently approved plans to pull 9,500 US troops from Germany, accusing Berlin of treating the US unfairly on trade while not paying enough as a NATO ally for defence.
Photo: BC Wildfire Service

BC Wildfire Service reports progress is being made on a suspected human-caused wildfire east of Kimberley.

The Stirton Road wildfire is about two hectares in size and is being actively responded to by attack and unit crews, with aerial support from air tankers and ground support from the Kimberley fire department.

No structures or communities are currently threatened by the fire, and BC Wildfire Service says good progress has been made to limit fire growth.

It is highly visible from Kimberley, Marysville and Highway 95A, and smoke is expected to remain present in the area for the next 24 to 48 hours.

The initial attack crew will remain on site Sunday night to monitor the fire.

There are currently no restrictions or closures impacting the St. Mary's Lake area, but residents are advised air tankers may use the lake for skimming and to exercise caution when using the area.

To report a wildfire, unattended campfire or open burning violation, call 1 800 663-5555 toll-free or *5555 on a cellphone.

For the latest information on current wildfire activity, burning restrictions, road closures and air-quality advisories, visit the BC Wildfire Service website.
Baghdad, Aug 10 : Despite the overall coronavirus caseload increasing to 150,115, Iraq was yet to reach the peak of the pandemic, Deputy Minister of Health Hazim al-Jumaili said.

"Iraq has not yet reached the peak of infections, while the daily coronavirus cases are still coming in large numbers (sometimes) exceeding 3,000, and this indicates that the citizens are not abiding by the instructions of the Health Ministry and the High Committee for Health and National Safety," al-Jumaili told the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) on Sunday.

He said the Higher Committee for Health of National Safety, headed by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, will hold a meeting at the end of the week to discuss the health restrictions during the upcoming month of Muharram, reports Xinhua news agency.

Muharram is one of the most important months for Muslims and marks the start of the Islamic New Year.

The Iraqi Health Ministry reported 2,726 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, bringing the total nationwide infections to 150,115.

It also reported 82 fatalities during the day, raising the death toll to 5,392, while 2,271 more patients recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 107,775.

The new cases were recorded after 18,003 testing kits were used across the country during the day, and a total of 1,145,386 tests have been carried out since the outbreak of the disease.

On Saturday, the Higher Committee decided to extend the partial curfew to August 15, while the full curfew continues on every Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The committee also decided to permit only 25 per cent of employees to work in government institutions.
Days after registering a case against Rhea Chakraborty and her family members in connection with the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, a Central Bureau of Investigation team is likely to record the statement of the late actor's father and sister.

According to CBI sources, a team of the agency officials is likely to visit the residence of Sushant's brother-in-law in Haryana's Faridabad to record the statement of K.K. Singh and his daughter Rani Singh.

Singh has been for the past few days staying with his daughter and son-in-law O.P. Singh, who is also Faridabad's Commissioner of Police.

The CBI team will question Singh and other family members on Sushant's death and the late actor's relation with Rhea and others. The allegations made by Singh in an FIR lodged in Patna regarding the financial transactions from Sushant's bank accounts to the tune of Rs 15 crore and the depletion in fixed deposits (FDs) amount over last couple of years will also come up.

On August 7, the CBI took over the Sushant death case on the request of the Bihar government after a central government notification.

It has since collected all documents from the Bihar Police in connection with the case. The agency will also seek help from health experts to understand the autopsy report of the late actor, as well as to understand his mental health condition.

The CBI team, if required will also speak to the Bihar Police officials, who had gone to Mumbai to probe after Sushant's father lodged the FIR.

On K.K. Singh's complaint, the Bihar Police had registered a case against Rhea and several others on July 25. Sushant's father has accused the actress, who was his son's live-in partner, of cheating and threatening his son and keeping him away from the family.

Sushant was found dead in his Bandra flat in Mumbai on June 14.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also initiated a money laundering probe on the basis of the Patna police's FIR and has been questioning Rhea, her brother Showik, their father Indrajit and several others continuously everyday since Friday.

Indrajit Chakraborty was being questioned for the first time on Monday besides his children. Rhea's ex-manager Shruti Modi and another has also been quizzed in connection with the probe at its Mumbai office.

Earlier, a verbal duel erupted between the governments of Maharashtra and Bihar over the investigation initiated by the Bihar Police in the case.
PULLMAN, Wash. - Automatic gratuities leave restaurant patrons with a bad taste, even when the meal and the service were excellent, new research from Washington State University indicates.

"We thought if service quality was high, people wouldn't care if an automatic service charge was added to their bill," said Jeff Joireman, the study's coauthor and professor and chair of the Department of Marketing and International Business at the Carson College of Business.

But whether customers had a good experience or bad one, they reacted negatively when their bill came with a mandatory tip, preventing them from leaving the gratuity themselves. Surprisingly, customers with the best dining experiences expressed the most dissatisfaction with automatic gratuities. The research was published in Journal of Services Marketing and was based on four separate studies.

"People think non-voluntary tipping systems are unpopular because customers can't punish servers for poor quality service," Joireman said. But when the service was high, "we found that customers were equally frustrated by non-voluntary tipping - this time because they couldn't reward their servers."

In both service scenarios, customers said they were unlikely to patronize the restaurant in the future.

Non-voluntary tipping systems take control away from the customer, said Ismail Karabas, assistant professor of marketing at Murray State University and lead author of the research, which was part of his doctoral dissertation at WSU.

"Being able to reward the server makes customers feel good," Karabas said. "That's part of the restaurant experience."

When customers lose control of the tip, "their ability to show their gratitude has been blocked," he said. "They have fewer positive feelings about the restaurant experience, and they're less likely to eat there again."

Automatic gratuities growing in restaurant industry

North American customers spend about $66 billion annually on tips at restaurants and other establishments. Although voluntary tipping is still standard practice, a growing number of restaurants are moving toward automatic gratuities, Karabas said.

For restaurant owners, the switch to automatic gratuities is often about fairness, he said. They want to divide tips between servers and the kitchen staff, rewarding the entire team and equalizing pay.

"The person who cooks your meal may be working harder than the server, but servers end up making quite a bit more money when you add in the tips," Karabas said. "That's led to turnover of kitchen staff, which is a concern in the restaurant industry."

While the intent of using automatic gratuities to equalize pay and retain employees is laudable, restaurant owners and managers should be aware of the drawbacks, he said.

"High-quality service does not compensate for the negative customer response to a non-voluntary tipping system," Karabas said. "Managers may think 'We're fine as long as we provide good service,' but we found that's just not true."

Exploring other ways to reward good service

Restaurants thatswitch to automatic tipping could explore other ways to help customers keep their sense of control, the researchers said.

"Based on what we know about blocked gratitude, I would look for ways to give customers the feeling they are still the ones leaving the tip, even though it's added automatically," Karabas said. "It could be as simple as saying, 'You tipped your server 18% today. Thank you.'"

Restaurants could also encourage customers to reward their servers through other means, such as providing feedback on comment cards, voting for a server of the month, or even adding a separate line on the bill for an extra tip, the researchers said.

But restaurants should be careful about perceptions, according to Karabas, who said additional research is needed on alternate ways to reward servers. Some customers might react cynically to an extra line on their bill for an enhanced tip.

"You don't want customers to think you're being sneaky and trying to trick them into tipping twice," he said.

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L ebanons government has resigned over the devastating explosion in Beirut that left more than 200 people dead and has triggered public fury and protests.

The country's prime minister Hassan Diab revealed the news in a brief televised speech on Monday.

He said he was taking a step back so he can stand with the people and fight the battle for change alongside them, adding: I declare today the resignation of this government. May God protect Lebanon."

Moments earlier, Mr Diabs cabinet resigned.

Hassan Diab resigned as prime minister / DALATI AND NOHRA/AFP via Getty Images

Mr Diab blamed corrupt politicians who preceded him for the earthquake that has hit Lebanon.

They (political class) should have been ashamed of themselves because their corruption is what has led to this disaster that had been hidden for seven years, he added.

It comes after a cabinet meeting earlier today, which followed two days of demonstrations that saw clashes with security forces firing tear gas at protesters.

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

On Monday, Beirut city governor Marwan Abboud was quoted by the al-Marsad Online news website as saying the death toll from the explosion had risen to 220, with 110 people still missing.

The blast also injured 6,000 people, in addition to destroying the countrys main port and devastating large parts of the city.

It has brought a new wave of public outrage at the government, with demonstrators blaming the explosion and a severe economic crisis on years of corruption and neglect.

Demonstrators take part in a protest after last week's blast / REUTERS

The explosion is believed to have been caused by a fire that ignited a 2,750-tonne stockpile of explosive ammonium nitrate. The material had been stored at the port since 2013 with few safeguards despite numerous warnings of the danger.

Losses from the blast are estimated to be between 8 billion to 12 billion, and nearly 300,000 people were left homeless in the immediate aftermath.

Mr Diab's cabinet now assumes a caretaker role until a new government is formed.

Demonstrators throw stones during a protest / REUTERS

It comes as a Lebanese judge has started questioning the heads of the countrys security agencies over the explosion.

Judge Ghassan El Khoury began questioning Major General Tony Saliba, the head of State Security, according to the state-run National News Agency.

About 20 people have been detained over the blast, including the head of Lebanons customs department and his predecessor, as well as the head of the port. Dozens of people have been questioned, including two former cabinet ministers, according to government officials.

Police officers take to the streets during the protests / REUTERS

The investigation is focused on how the ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in fertilisers, came to be stored at a warehouse in Beiruts port for six years, and why nothing was done about it

State Security had compiled a report about the dangers of storing the material at the port and sent a copy to the offices of the president and prime minister on July 20.

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On Sunday, world leaders and international organisations pledged nearly 230 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Beirut but warned that no money for rebuilding the capital would be made available until Lebanese authorities commit themselves to the political and economic reforms demanded by the people.
Egyptians go to polls on Tuesday and Wednesday to elect the Senate revived in constitutional amendments adopted in 2019.

Egyptians are heading to the polls to choose members of a newly formed Senate.

Voting begins on Tuesday, with results due on August 19.

Of the 300 seats in the new Senate, 100 will be appointed by the president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, directly.

Critics say it is a power grab, but the government says it will give minorities a voice.

Al Jazeeras Imran Khan reports.
The Saudi British Bank (SABB) Waafer saving account has won the Product of the Year Award for 2020 in Saudi Arabia.

The award is based on a consumer survey conducted by POY, the largest consumer-voted award for product and innovation.

Waafer was launched last year as an alternative to traditional savings accounts.

Customers are offered higher returns for making monthly installments against a saving plan. Unlike typical savings accounts, theres no requirement to maintain a minimum balance and no large lump sum is needed to start saving.

Established over 30 years ago, Product of the Year POY guides consumers to the best products in the market through a transparent voting process for local consumers.

Naif Al-Abdulakareem, Deputy Managing Director Retail Banking and Wealth Management, said: Our merger with Alawwal bank is our opportunity to become the best bank in the kingdom. To be the best, you have to innovate and go beyond what everyone else is doing  and thats exactly what we did with Waafer. Every day we challenge ourselves to do the right thing for Saudi consumers, so having them single us out for this award is really encouraging.

Waafer allows customers to save by choosing an affordable amount to be debited monthly from their current account on a date of their choosing. As an added incentive, customers access higher rates of interest by selecting savings plans from one to three years. There are no set up costs for the account and it can be opened and managed completely online.

Al-Abulakareem added: Waafer is about giving more people, more of a reason to save. In just one year, its already changing savings behaviour for the better. Customers are saving more than we anticipated, theres an increase in couples and parents are using it to build a nest egg for their family - and perhaps most surprisingly, its now one our most popular services for women.

Waafer account is the first of its kind in the kingdom and is fully Shariah compliant. Customers can open multiple accounts without paying additional fees. -- Tradearabia News Service
Ever since entering into a relationship with Prince Harry, the tabloids have been picking apart just about everything that Duchess of Sussex says and does. Even after she and Prince Harry decided to step down from their royal duties, it seems that the former American actor is still constantly in the spotlight. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are currently living in Los Angeles, California with their young son, Archie Harrison, and it seems that they are finally getting to do the things that they have wanted to for so long.

Meghan Markle has been making frequent virtual appearances, never hesitating to speak about what she believes in. There is no doubt that she feels a sense of freedom now that she is no longer a senior working royal, considering as to how even before her royal days, she took her independence very seriously. It was pretty obvious that Meghan wasnt too happy living in the royal spotlight, and she appears to be much more relaxed now that those days are over. She is definitely making sure that her voice is heard, something that we have always admired her for. Lets talk about how Meghan Markle knows exactly what shes doing when she sends a message.

Meghan Markle | Michele Spatari/Getty Images

Meghans style during her time as a royal

Meghan Markle sends a message with final royal fashion choices https://t.co/5C598ZJZU2 pic.twitter.com/7u8pBNGItG  Page Six (@PageSix) March 11, 2020

After marrying Prince Harry, we all know that Meghans style changed in order to adhere to royal rules. While working on the legal drama, Suits, and living in Toronto, she was often seen in casual clothing, looking comfortable and effortlessly put together. According to Harpers Bazaar, she was known to wear dresses that hit above the knee and even the occasional belly-baring outfit. We know that Queen Elizabeth has a strict dress code in place, especially for senior royals, so once she and Harry were officially husband and wife, Meghan was seen in much more conservative outfits. The duchess would attend events and engagements in sophisticated suits and dresses, and her looks were usually complimented with lovely matching hats and fascinators.

A woman who knows what she is after

Meghan Markle's public hidden romantic message to Harry after date  and it worked https://t.co/WGFMht9mw5 pic.twitter.com/PeZI2HRxh6  Mirror Royal (@MirrorRoyal) July 27, 2020

RELATED: Royal Expert Claims Prince Harry Isnt as Smart as Meghan Markle

Meghan is, and always has been, one of the most ambitious and confident women around. For years, she has been an outspoken feminist, humanitarian, and animal rights activist, and she doesnt hesitate to stand for what she believes in. Meghan has done extensive charity work and her main focus was on supporting womens rights. She has also done work with World Vision Canada and supports issues including gender equality, disaster relief, and poverty, among others. It is pretty safe to say that Meghan has specific goals in mind, and she is willing to do what it takes to make a difference for herself and others.

Meghan Markle knows exactly what she is doing when she sends a message

Meghan Markle's last message to public before quitting royal life with Harry https://t.co/ZKYiNrRq7t pic.twitter.com/580npdNJGG  Daily Star (@dailystar) April 1, 2020

Meghan definitely likes to make a statement. Ever since leaving the royals, she has been reported to have sent certain messages and as it turns out, it is not a coincidence. In fact, Meghan knows exactly what she is doing when she sends a message. Best Life reports that the fashion choices the duchess made during her final weeks as a royal sent a clear message, which is exactly what she intended to do. The green outfit that she wore to Commonwealth Day let everyone know that she was ready for the next stage of her life, and after she and Harry relocated to Canada, Meghan was seen in leggings and boots that she often wore before her days as a royal. This conveys the message that she is being herself, happy to be out of the glaring spotlight of life as a working royal. Looks like Meghan knows exactly what she wants to say, and is constantly finding unique ways to do just that.
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, tech lifestyle expert, television contributor and speaker, Stephanie Humphrey, aka Techlife Steph, released her first book, Don't Let Your Digital Footprint Kick You In The Butt!. The new book underscores the importance of having a positive online reputation and how to do so. Don't Let Your Digital Footprint Kick You In The Butt! is geared toward students of all ages and focuses on three main areas, How Does Your Digital Footprint Lead to Your Personal Brand?, What Happens When Your Digital Footprint Takes a Wrong Turn? and How to Make Sure Your Digital Footprint Is on the Right Path?. It provides real-world examples of the lasting impact that social media mistakes can have on your personal brand, as well as a blueprint to create a positive digital imprint.

Don't Let Your Digital Footprint Kick You In the Butt! Cover Image Author Stephanie Humphrey

Humphrey is a former engineer and tech contributor for ABC News. She has appeared on national television programs including Good Morning America, Sarah Strahan and Keke, Home and Family and Harry and has been educating students and their parents on social media responsibility for the past decade through an online seminar that she created named 'Til Death Do You Tweet.

With occurrences of social media mistakes and misbehavior being more prevalent and more exposed than ever and people experiencing serious consequences for these missteps, she saw a need to provide young people with a guide to protect their digital reputations. Humphrey says, "In this time of 'cancel culture' we need to be even more mindful than ever about what we post. I truly hope this book will help make all of us better digital citizens!"

In addition to the release of Don't Let Your Digital Footprint Kick You In The Butt!, Humphrey is currently conducting virtual seminars focusing on the lessons covered in the book. Also, she will be appearing on ABC's Good Morning America on Tuesday, August 11th and GMA 3: What You Need to Know on Wednesday, August 12th. Don't Let Your Digital Footprint Kick You In The Butt! is available on Amazon (https://amzn.to/2PEyOHn).

To connect with Stephanie Humphrey, please visit:

Media Contact:

Aliya Crawford / [email protected]

W&W Public Relations

908-253-6360, ext. 227

SOURCE Stephanie Humphrey
Six students and three staff members at North Paulding High School have reported testing positive for coronavirus. Read more

A cluster of novel coronavirus cases has emerged at the Georgia high school that drew national attention last week after students posted pictures and videos of their peers walking without mask in tightly packed hallways, according to a letter sent to parents over the weekend.

Six students and three staff members at North Paulding High School have reported testing positive for the virus, Principal Gabe Carmona wrote in the letter, which was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He said the infected people were in school "for at least some time" last week.

Superintendent Brian Otott later announced that the school will close Monday and Tuesday, and revert to virtual learning while the building is cleaned. The district will announce Tuesday evening whether in-person instruction will resume the next day, Otott wrote to parents Sunday in a second letter, shared by a WSB-TV reporter.

Otott added that anyone who has tested positive, as well as close contacts of people who have the virus, must quarantine for 14 days before returning to school.

The infections validate concerns in Georgia and nationwide that crowded conditions in the nation's K-12 schools could facilitate virus transmission as the new academic year begins. Young people develop severe infections at far lower rates than adults, but experts warn that they could be vectors for infecting more-vulnerable populations, such as older relatives in the same household.

Carmona said custodial workers were cleaning and disinfecting the school building daily - a practice that offers only marginal protections against the virus, which primarily spreads through person-to-person contact, not from contaminated surfaces.

"The health and well-being of our staff and students remains our highest priority," Carmona said, "and we are continuing to adjust and improve our protocols for in-person instruction to make our school the safest possible learning environment."

A representative for the Paulding County School District did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.

The school of more than 2,000 in Dallas, Ga., was thrown into the national spotlight last week when students posted images on social media showing seas of students milling through the halls between classes.

The school district suspended two students who shared the images, prompting another wave of negative attention from critics who said administrators were silencing them. Administrators reversed the suspensions on Friday following the backlash.

Lynne Watters, the mother of one of the students, said her daughter would be able to return to school Monday with her disciplinary record unblemished. "The principal just said that they were very sorry for any negative attention that this has brought upon her," Watters said in a text message, "and that in the future they would like for her to come to the administration with any safety concerns she has."

Officials have continually sought to downplay concerns generated by images of the crowded corridors.

On Wednesday, Otott, the superintendent, told parents in a letter that while the photo "does not look good," the conditions were permissible under the Georgia Department of Education's health recommendations.

The superintendent also misleadingly cited a state health department document listing the different ways people can become infected with the coronavirus. He claimed that exposure occurs after Being within 6 feet of a sick person with COVID-19 for about 15 minutes but omitted other factors such as being coughed on that can cause the virus to spread faster and more directly.
A criminal record can cast a long shadow that can affect almost every part of your life, including your ability to travel. When traveling internationally, you should be aware of how your record can affect your ability to travel to other countries. It is easier to travel domestically unless you have restrictions because you are still on parole or probation.

If you have a criminal record but are not currently on parole or probation, you may be unsure of how your criminal history can affect your ability to travel. If your criminal record is decades old, you might wonder if it still shows up on a background check. An easy way to find out is to run a background check on yourself to see what shows up. You can use an online site such as https://checkpeople.com/ for an essential service.

Doing a background check on yourself is a good idea even if you do not have a criminal history, as mistakes can happen, and identity theft is always a concern. To make sure nothing is surprising on your background, use a background site that provides an in-depth premium report.

Getting a Passport with a Criminal Record

There are only a few specific convictions that can prevent the State Department from issuing you a passport. For instance, federal law prevents the issuance of a passport to anyone convicted of a felony drug charge involving the crossing of international borders.

At their discretion, the State Department can also refuse a passport for those convicted of other drug charges, including federal misdemeanor charges. To find out more about specific drug charges that can stop you from getting a passport, visit The United States Department of State site dealing with passport denials.

Visas

Even if you have a passport, certain criminal records can result in the denial of entry to various countries. Each country sets its own disqualifications for entry, and some can be very strict. Canada is an excellent example. Canadian Border officials can deny entry to anyone from the United States who has been convicted of a crime.

Each country sets its own rules for disqualifying criminal records that can deny you the ability to enter the country. Some countries, such as Canada, have strict rules about disqualification for entry.

Canadian border officials have the capacity to deny entry into the country to those who have been convicted of any crime in the United States. You can also be denied entry if you were charged despite a lack of conviction. There are ways to obtain special permission, but you need to plan ahead.

Research any country you plan to visit in advance of traveling. The State Department maintains a webpage for each country with valuable sources of information, and you can also visit the websites of each country's embassy or consulate.

Clear Up Outstanding Warrants Before You Travel

A warrant is a court order asking law enforcement to arrest you, and it is never wise to travel with an outstanding warrant. An arrest warrant can be for relatively minor infractions such as unresolved traffic tickets. The possibility of a warrant for a minor infraction you may have forgotten about is another good reason to do a quick background check before you finalize travel plans.

Traveling While on Parole or Probation

Travel restrictions are quite common for those who are on parole or probation. Depending on the offense, and your sentence, those restrictions may be relatively lax or quite restrictive. You will need special permission to travel outside the county or state where you reside, so request this well in advance of any travel plans.

It is uncommon to be allowed to travel out of the country while on parole or probation. If there is an urgent need, such as a family emergency, you can talk to your parole or probation officer, but be prepared to be denied permission. Once granted permission, remember, you will also need permission from the country that you are entering.
By Laman Ismayilova

With multiple tourism destinations, Azerbaijan has always attracted tourists from around the world. For many years, tourism sector is playing a great role in the country's life.

Despite all extraordinary challenges presented by COVID-19 pandemic, Azerbaijan Tourism Bureau continues to promote the country's tourism industry.

Some 68 virtual meetings with tour operators and tourism companies from the Middle East, India, China, Russia, Belarus, the UAE, South Korea, Israel, Germany and Ukraine were successfully held in July.

More than 249 participants attended 9 webinars organized as well.

The virtual conferences covered tourism industry in the post-pandemic period, forms of sanitation and hygiene, new trends in world tourism.

The events participants were informed about a number of e-learning platform users.

About 1212 people from more than 50 countries in Europe, the Middle East, the CIS and South Asia used this platform to learn more about Azerbaijan.

The platform provides insight into Azerbaijani nature, customs and traditions and much more.

In addition, two online study tours were organized for more than 55 tourism representatives from target market countries.

In total, 56 webinars and 176 online meetings were held with tourism partners in foreign markets in May, June and July, which were attended by more than 2,000 participants.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
She's often been seen sharing envy-inducing social media snaps from the balmy shores of Dubai, which has emerged as one of her favoured holiday spots.

But Lauren Goodger was spotted sunning herself on the beach of a considerably more local town over the weekend, as she paid a visit to Essex's Clacton-on-Sea.

The former TOWIE star, 33, was seen donning a black beach dress as she made the most of Britain's sweltering heatwave, amid COVID-19 travel restrictions to Dubai.

Soaking up the sun: Lauren Goodger, right, was spotted sunning herself on the beach as she paid a visit to Clacton-on-Sea in Essex on Saturday

Donning a pair of sunglasses and wearing her brunette locks in a relaxed updo, the reality star looked relaxed and happy as she chatted away with a friend.

She blended in with the crowd of sun seekers who were seen donning swimwear as they frolicked along the sandy shores and topped up their tans.

While a number of celebrities have made a beeline for such destinations as Spain, France and Portugal, Lauren will have to wait until she can visit Dubai once again.

Travel restrictions: Reality star Lauren is normally seen holidaying in Dubai, but hasn't been able to visit amid COVID-19 travel restrictions. Pictured last year

Hot stuff: The former TOWIE star, 33, was seen donning a black beach dress as she made the most of Britain's sweltering heatwave

Shades: The star donned a pair of sunglasses and wearing her brunette locks in a relaxed updo

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) issued a blanket warning against all non-essential international travel in March.

And while the travel restriction was lifted for some 67 destinations from 4 July, with some of those air bridges since being recalled, Dubai wasn't on the list.

Effective from 1 August, all visitors to the United Arab Emirates must have received a negative PCR COVID-19 test result within the 96 hours prior to their arrival.

It appeared that Lauren had returned to the same beach on Sunday, as she posted selfies to her Instagram account, as she donned a bikini.

Enjoying a chat: The reality star looked relaxed and happy as she chatted away with a friend

Sun seelers: She blended in with the crowd of sun seekers who were seen donning swimwear as they frolicked along the sandy shores and topped up their tans

Cover: She was spotted covering herself with a large towel as she enjoyed her day at the beach

Lauren let her ample cleavage bask in the scorching British sunshine as she spent a day away from Essex in a bid to 'escape from everything'.

She was bronzed to perfection as she posed on the coastline wearing a simple black bikini top.

Lauren left little to the imagination as she showcased her curvy figure and puckered her lips for a selfie.

Her highlighted brown tresses were swept effortlessly to the side and her makeup mirrored a neutral and warm toned palette.

Holiday: Several of her fellow reality stars have headed for holidays in Europe, after travel restrictions were lifted to a number of destinations

Snaps: The star also took to Instagram to share glimpses of her adventures over the weekend

Life's a beach: Brits flocked to several beaches across the land amid the sweltering heatwave

Lauren wore a pair of statement '60s inspired tinted shades to protect herself from the glaring British rays.

She delicately placed her hand under her chin for the poised yet sultry Instagram snap.

The reality star captioned the image: 'I followed my heart and it led me too the beach.... days like this where I can escape from everything.

'Nothing I more love that the sound of the Sea, sand and the sun #LeaveMeB #clearhead #comingback #recharged.'

UAE opulence: The star's beach trip was different to opulence she usually enjoys in Dubai

Precautions: Effective from 1 August, all visitors to the United Arab Emirates must have received a negative PCR COVID-19 test result within the 96 hours prior to their arrival

Lauren came under fire last, week after she was accused of enhancing her social media images with photo editing tools.

On Wednesday, she hit back at 'vile, nasty, evil' trolls in a lengthy rant.

The former TOWIE star vowed to be even more 'successful, sexy and confident' than ever after her followers criticised her for enhancing her appearance in a white bikini.

In a lengthy rant, Lauren wrote: 'Please look at every other celebs page comments who are posting pics of them with @boombod and please look at mine!

'Same brand and same pics! This is why I never take ANYTHING seriously what my "hating" followers say. They just want any excuse to hate and make vile, nasty, evil comments.'

Bronzed beauty: Lauren delivered the ultimate pout and displayed her ample cleavage as she enjoyed another getaway to the beach on Sunday

Lauren has defended other celebrities such as Kylie Jenner- who was called out for a Photoshop blunder- and she has accused fans of fuelling hate out of jealousy.

She added: 'Some people that follow me are just pure jealousy. It's actually disgusting. Someone said I should never be allowed children and I'm mentally deranged.

'I have PTs "professionals" (my a**e)! using their own profile by slagging me off and putting clown emojis over my face.

'It's any excuse to try and bring me down! But it's so wrong. How dare you. But one thing about me is I will never let you win! You will never bully me to try and make your ugly selves feel better...'

Hot water: Lauren has come under fire recently after fans called her out for Photoshopping her images on social media, specifically one of her posing in a white bikini (pictured above)

Speaking out: She said, 'This is why I never take ANYTHING seriously what my "hating" followers say. They just want any excuse to hate and make vile, nasty, evil comments'
OAK PARK, Ill., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In 1995, Marketing Resources, Inc. started as a data-based promotions business by creating the new "Maika`i" Loyalty Program for the Foodland Super Market chain in Hawaii. The program collected, analyzed and segmented data in ways that had never been done before, making the Maika`i (means excellence) program cutting edge and a huge success! That program is still running and thriving today and started MRi on a path of 25 years of providing marketing solutions that help brands connect with their customers in significant and impactful ways.

In the constantly changing world of promotions marketing, MRi has continued to evolve.

MRi now offers increased and up-to-date services and technologies (such as augmented reality, OCR, Geofencing, etc.), state of the art data management platforms and more. They consistently not only meet, but exceed, the expectations of their diverse clients with each new year. With each new challenge, MRi is excited to tackle it successfully, then move on to meet the next.

Marketing Resources firmly believes their 4 step IDEA plan is crucial to brands understanding the strategy and value of making purposeful, data-driven choices at each stage of their program. MRi's propriety plan breaks down each promotion process into four steps: 1. Identify, 2. Develop, 3. Execute, 4. Analyze. Each step hones in on the purpose of that particular promotion and provides real time data to lead the strategy planning for the next promotion.

In their 25 year history, MRi has had the pleasure of working with some of the world's top brands, including Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Quaker, Driscoll's, Federal Mogul, Credit One Bank and many more. MRi is very thankful to those that have been a part of their story thus far and look forward to continuing to provide excellent client services and outstanding promotions in the future.

ABOUT MARKETING RESOURCES INC.

Marketing Resources Incorporated is a promotional marketing company that specializes in purpose-driven promotions. MRi has been in the promotions business for over 25 years helping brands Identify, Develop, Execute, and Analyze promotions that consumers love. Please visit marketingresources.com to learn more about this company.

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630-607-5913

SOURCE Marketing Resources, Inc.
Brella Insurance, Inc. (FKA Clara Insurance), a provider of a health insurance plan for Texas-based employers and their teams, raised an additional $1.5M, bringing their total funding to over $7M.

Backers included new investors Digitalis, Operator Partners, the investment group that includes Zach Weinberg and Nat Turner of Flatiron Health, as well as angel investor Ron Bouganim. They joined existing investors Two Sigma Ventures, Founder Collective, SymphonyAI, and RGAx, among others.

Founded in 2019 by Veer Gidwaney, former CEO and co-founder of Maxwell Health, Brella aims to allow employers to enhance their employee benefits with a supplemental plan that covers more and complements their health insurance. Its supplemental health insurance plan pays cash if people are diagnosed with any of 13,000+ covered conditionsmany of which are common complications of COVID-19.

The company has already partnered with RGAx and Greenhouse Life Insurance Company, subsidiaries of Reinsurance Group of America (RGA), one of the largest global life and health reinsurance companies, to bring its solution to the employee benefits market.

Brella is also actively engaging brokers and employers in Texas.

FinSMEs

10/08/2020
DA declares California county a 'sanctuary county' for church worship gatherings

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San Luis Obispo County, located in central California, has become a sanctuary county for churches struggling to cope state restrictions on worship gatherings.

San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow confirmed late last month he will not prosecute churches for holding worship services or for singing in church, which was deemed unlawful by an order from California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

In many counties, pastors have had to decide between revolting or abiding by the order.

Newsoms order to ban or limit church gatherings has led to lawsuits from churches and even a federal court ruling in May, where District Judge John A. Mendez ruled that Newsoms order is legal during the COVID-19 crisis.

I declare San Luis Obispo County a sanctuary county for singing and praising in our houses of worship, Dow said in a video shared via Twitter. Inherent with my responsibility to enforce the law is the discretion I have  to pursue only those charges that are warranted and are in the interest of justice.

More than 30 counties in California are not allowed to gather for church services, according to Newsoms order that places even greater restrictions on counties included in the states COVID-19 watch list.

Gatherings of 10 people or more in households in those counties are also banned, essentially prohibiting some in-home Bible study gatherings. Whether a church can legally gather or not, singing during worship is disallowed under Newsoms order.

Churches in other counties not on the watch list are permitted to gather in limited capacities as long as they follow social distancing guidelines.

In Dows Twitter announcement, he referenced an Independence Day speech he gave in which where he spoke about the importance of the First Amendment. It was in the July 4 speech that he first declared that San Luis Obispo County would be a sanctuary county for worship and praise in church.

Daw contended that the military makes sacrifices to bring freedoms that are uniquely American. He said he stands by the speech, reaffirming his stance on Newsoms gathering ban.

Now more than ever in 2020, we need more people attending their houses of worship and seeking help from the Almighty for an answer to the coronavirus, Dow said. In that spirit, Im calling on people of faith in our county and across our state, across our country and across the world, to pray for peace [and] healing.

San Luis Obispo County has 2,254 coronavirus cases and 16 coronavirus-related deaths as of Monday, according to a Los Angeles Times virus tracker.

The county has significantly fewer cases than some of its larger, more urban neighbors. By comparison, Los Angeles County has nearly 209,000 cases as of Monday.

Dow also acknowledged the thousands of prisoners that have been freed in California due to the coronavirus. He stressed how unfair it would be if he were to prosecute a person for attending a religious service.

At this time our state is letting tens of thousands of state prisoners out of prison who were convicted and sentenced for very serious crimes because were concerned they might catch the coronavirus, Dow said.

It would be, in my opinion, the very definition of insanity if we simultaneously branded a person of faith as a criminal for singing in a house of worship, Dow continued. It would be a severe injustice for my office to charge a person with a crime who has simply chosen to practice their faith by singing with their congregation.

Not all people of faith see Newsoms order as an attack on religious freedom.

Pastor John Cox of Riverpark Bible Church in Fresno told The Christian Post earlier this year that the ban put his church in a tricky situation. But he does not want to worship in defiance of the law.

"It put us in a tricky spot. We want to be who God ordered us to be. But also, [we] want to be gracious and submit to leadership," Cox said. "We don't want to worship in defiance or to stand against the government, but as the people of God."

Riverpark has halted in-person services and has held online services since the restrictions began. Cox said he thought the bans used vague language, so his church is being safe by remaining online.

In Ventura County, a judge granted a temporary restraining order last week against Godspeak Calvary Chapel and its Pastor Rob McCoy.

The church is ordered to adhere to statewide and county public health orders requiring that church services be held outdoors with congregants wearing masks and adhering to social distancing protocols.
The police on Monday confirmed the death of two undergraduates after a truck allegedly on top speed hit them in Ikere Ekiti, Ikere Local Government Area of Ekiti State.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Sunday Abutu, an assistant superintendent of police, confirmed the incident.

Mr Abutu, who said the truck driver had been arrested, added that the corpses of the victims had been deposited in a morgue.

It is sad and unfortunate that two young men can be killed due to an avoidable accident.

Preliminary investigation reveals that it is a case of collision.

We appeal to motorists and other road users to always exercise restraint on roads, he said.

The victims, Ojo Hezekiah Abidemi, 25, and Ojo Ayomide,21, were said to be pursuing degree programmes at the State College of Education, Ikere Ekiti, in affiliation with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

READ ALSO:

An eye witness said the victims were planning to travel to Akure, the Ondo capital, to see their parents when the accident occurred late on Sunday.

The witness said security agents had prevented some irate youths from setting the truck ablaze.

The two students were on a motorcycle going to board a vehicle to Akure when they collided with the truck leading to their death, the witness said.

(NAN)
Upcoming political events in the Bay Area. Events take place online unless otherwise noted:

WEDNESDAY

Biden team: A discussion with Ashley Allison, Joe Bidens national coalitions director. Hosted by Mannys. 2 p.m. More information is here.

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

Immigration during the pandemic: A look at U.S. immigration policies during the coronavirus pandemic. Immigration attorney Tammy Sumontha talks with the Commonwealth Clubs Michelle Meow and John Zipperer. Noon. More information is here.

Jim Sciutto: CNN national security reporter on President Trumps foreign policy. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 3 p.m. More information is here.

Supervisor Matt Haney: A discussion with the supervisor representing San Franciscos District Six, hosted by Mannys. 6 p.m. More information is here.

TUESDAY

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

Race and equity: A discussion on systemic racism and ways to create a more just and equitable community. Panelists include William Armaline of the SJSU Human Rights Collaborative; LaToya Fernandez of YouthHype; Chava Bustamante of Latinos Unidos for a New America; and Zahra Billoo of the Council on American Islamic Relations. Hosted by San Jose Spotlight. 4 p.m. More information is here.

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.

AUG. 27

S.F. first suffrage march: The story of the first known San Francisco march for womens right to vote, and the women who led it. Presented by Evelyn Rose, director of the Glen Park Neighborhoods History Project. Hosted by the San Francisco Public Library. 6 p.m. More information is here.

AUG. 29

Silicon Valley Pride: Day One of a virtual Pride celebration, beginning at 9 a.m. More information and events are here.

AUG. 30

Silicon Valley Pride: Day Two of a virtual Pride celebration, beginning at 10 a.m. More information and events are 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
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has called for online applications from qualified and experienced Indian citizens for filling Twenty Four (24) vacancies to the post of Scientific Officer (Pharmacognosy), Junior Scientific Officer, Lecturer (Vocational Guidance, Prosthetics and Orthotics, Physiotherapy) and Sub-Editor posts through direct recruitment on a fulltime basis to be posted across India. The registration-cum-application applications process towards the same started on August 8, 2020 and closes on August 27, 2020 by 11:59 pm.

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Scientific Officer (Pharmacognosy), Junior Scientific Officer, Lecturer (Vocational Guidance, Prosthetics and Orthotics, Physiotherapy) and Sub-Editor Organisation Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Educational Qualification Masters Degree in Botany/Pharmacy (with Pharmacognosy as the main subject) Physics/Applied Physics/Chemistry/Polymer Chemistry/Electronics or Bachelors Degree in relevant engineering discipline; Masters Degree in Physiotherapy, Prosthetics and Orthotics, Psychology; Degree in Law Experience Refer to the advertisement Job Responsibilities null Skills Required Desirable Job Location India Salary Scale Level 7 to Level 10 of the pay matrix as per 7th CPC Industry Civil Service Application Start Date August 8, 2020 Application End Date August 27, 2020

UPSC Notification 2020: Age Criteria And Fees

Candidates interested in applying for various posts through UPSC Notification 2020 must not have exceeded 35 years of age (Lecturer and Scientific Officer) and 30 years of age respectively as on August 27, 2020 with relaxation (upper age limit) up to 5 years (SC/ST) and 3 years (OBC) respectively.

Candidates must remit a prescribed amount of Rs. 25 (Gen/OBC/EWS) as application fee at any branch of the SBI by cash or by using net banking facility of the SBI or by using visa/master credit/debit card. However, SC/ST/PWD and Female candidates are exempted from pay the application fee.

Unlock 3.0: Schools, Colleges Likely To Reopen From September. Guidelines To Be out On August 31

UPSC Notification 2020: Vacancy Details

Post Name No. Of Vacancies Jr. Scientific Officer, Scientific Officer 15 Lecturer 07 Sub-Editor 02 Total 24

UPSC Notification 2020: Educational Criteria And Experience

Desirous candidates applying for various posts through UPSC Notification 2020 must possess a Master's Degree in Botany/Pharmacy (with Pharmacognosy as the main subject) Physics/Applied Physics/Chemistry/Polymer Chemistry/ Electronics or Bachelor's Degree in relevant engineering discipline; Master's Degree in Physiotherapy, Prosthetics and Orthotics, Psychology; Degree in Law from a recognised University/Institution with relevant years of work experienced as detailed in the advertisement.

UPSC Notification 2020: Selection And Pay Scale

The selection of candidates for various posts through UPSC Notification 2020 will be done through a Written Examination, Interview and Document Verification.

Candidates selected for various posts through UPSC Notification 2020 will be paid emolument under Level 7 to Level 10 of the pay matrix as per 7th CPC.

National Education Policy 2020:Focus on 'Reforms' In School, Higher Education. Check Highlights Here

UPSC Notification 2020: How To Apply

Candidates applying for various posts through UPSC Notification 2020 must register through ORA on the official UPSC website at https://www.upsconline.nic.in/ora/VacancyNoticePub.php and submit their applications on or before August 27, 2020 by 11:59 pm.

Read the detailed notification about UPSC Notification 2020 for various posts here https://www.upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/Advt-08-2020-Eng_0.pdf
Luke Kavanagh has been charged with three offences

A Dublin man has been sent for trial accused of production of child pornography.

Luke Kavanagh (22) had a book of evidence served on him when he appeared in Dublin District Court. Judge Deirdre Gearty sent him for trial to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Mr Kavanagh, of Kew Park Crescent, Lucan, is charged with three offences under the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act.

One is that he had material contained on a silver Dell laptop - 15 videos and a sample of 46 images, all defined as child pornography.

This offence is alleged to have taken place at his home address on July 30, 2015.

He is also charged with knowingly producing child pornography on July 10 that year.

The third count alleges that he was in possession of a Dropbox account containing 434 videos and 21 images of child pornography at a place unknown on March 7, 2016.

A state solicitor said a book of evidence was ready and the DPP was consenting to the accused being returned for trial to the next sittings of the circuit court.

Judge Gearty gave Mr Kavanagh the formal warning that he had 14 days to provide any alibi details to the prosecution.

There was no state objection to the accused being remanded on bail, on condition he has no contact with a named female, directly or indirectly and to include social media.

Interview

Judge Gearty ordered the prosecution to furnish the defence with a copy of the accused's garda interview video.

At the request of defence solicitor Luke Staines, the judge granted free legal aid, to also cover a barrister at trial. She assigned Michael Staines solicitors. The accused was returned for trial, to appear in the circuit court on October 30.
There is a school of thought, well represented in high government circles, that rejects the notion of systemic racism in British society. Instead, the argument runs, racism is very much a thing of the past. If you apply yourself, go out and take the opportunities available you can do well, even if youre not from a traditionally privileged background. You can get to be home secretary or chancellor of the exchequer.

Or, indeed, editor-in-chief of British Vogue, as Edward Enninful, appointed in 2017, born in Ghana in 1972, and who emigrated to Britain in 1985, well demonstrates. (The family got out when they found themselves on the wrong side of one of Ghanas frequent coups detat  political refugees, asylum seekers, as it happens). Yet while Enninful fits the ideal set by the likes of Munira Mirza and Priti Patel, hes in no doubt about the endemic racism that wrecks the lives of others  and still touches his.
A Special NIA Court on Monday (August 10) rejected the bail plea of of Swapna Suresh, main accused in high-profile Kerala gold smuggling case. The NIA court rejected Suresh's bail petition on the basis of the evidence and case diary.

''There is prima facie evidence that Swapna Suresh was involved in gold smuggling. There's evidence in case diary that gold was smuggled many times in diplomatic baggage. Accused knew that this was a threat to India's economic security. Charges imposed by NIA will remain same," the Special NIA Court said.

On Wednesday (August 5), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) got the custody of three people, including Swapna in connection with this case. The agency got their custody from a special NIA court in Thiruvananthapuram, officials said.

The ED has got the custody of Sarith PS, Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair who were arrested by the NIA earlier in this case. The three will be questioned and their statements recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The central probe agency had filed a PMLA case in July 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 the 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.
Charlotte Dawson was forced to hit back at trolls on Sunday after they accused her of drinking alcohol while pregnant and 'using' her late father Les.

The Ex on the Beach star, 27, took to her Instagram to call out the cruel social media users and defend herself.

Charlotte admitted that she shouldn't have to explain herself to the 'idiots' but wanted to do so as she has 'feelings' and is 'hurt'.

Cruel: Charlotte Dawson was forced to hit back at trolls on Sunday after they accused her of drinking alcohol while pregnant and 'using' her late father Les

The reality star first of all hit back at trolls who accused her of drinking alcohol while pregnant with her first child with boyfriend Matthew Sarsfield.

Over the weekend, Charlotte shared a fun TikTok video of herself with a flute of non-alcoholic Prosecco as she danced to various clubbing tunes.

Yet despite writing in her caption 'the Prosecco is nosecco non alcoholic btw before I get any of the prego police onto me', users still lashed out at the pregnant reality star.

Taking to Instagram to hit back at the trolls, Charlotte posted a close-up picture of the alcoholic-free Prosecco bottle as she issued a lengthy statement.

Upsetting: The Ex on the Beach star, 27, took to her Instagram to call out the cruel social media users and defend herself (pictured with a cutout of her late father recently)

No alcohol! The reality star first of all hit back at trolls who accused her of drinking alcohol while pregnant with her first child with boyfriend Matthew Sarsfield

The reality star insisted that she would never drink alcohol while pregnant as she is 'nervous' about her pregnancy as it is and is being careful with her food intake.

Charlotte also said that as much as she loves social media she 'can't stand' the negative and trolling aspect to it.

She penned: 'To the negative Nancy's thinking it was real Prosecco on my video ... don't even know why I've even explained myself to these idiots, but there blocked now.

'I love social media because I love that I can have a laugh with you all make you all feel good, but I can't stand the negative side to it... yes I put myself out there so I know I'm bound to get people saying things...

Fun: Over the weekend, Charlotte shared a fun TikTok video of herself with a flute of non-alcoholic Prosecco as she danced to various clubbing tunes

Statement: Charlotte admitted that she shouldn't have to explain herself to the 'idiots' but wanted to do so as she has 'feelings' and is 'hurt'

'But I have feelings & it hurts just like it would anyone.... Plus if anyone knows me they know how nervous I am about being pregnant with being careful with what I'm eating etc so I deffo wouldn't be drinking Prosecco..

'Also if you don't like my videos or anything I do just unfollow me now darlings because I have aaaaalot more to come  and to all my lovely supportive followers come ere yew love yas.'

Charlotte then went to call out Big Brother star Hughie Maughan who cruelly accused her of 'using' her late father Les in a now-deleted Facebook post.

The pregnant reality star recently revealed that her baby is due just a week before what would have been her late father Les's 90th birthday, on February 2, 2021.

Hurtful: Charlotte then went to call out Big Brother star Hughie Maughan who cruelly accused her of 'using' her late father Les in a now-deleted Facebook post

Fame: Hughie finished in second place on Big Brother in 2016

Friendly: The reality star then posted a series of friendly DMs with Hughie where she accused him of trying to 'befriend' her as he spoke about going on a night out in Blackpool

Charlotte shared her heartache that Les, who passed away from a heart attack aged just 62 when she was just eight-months-old, would have been the 'best' grandfather.

Sharing an article of her emotional interview with OK! magazine, Hughie, who finished in second place on Big Brother in 2016, wrote on Facebook: 'Imagine constantly using your dead dad to get in the news. Disgraceful.'

Charlotte shared a screenshot of his cruel comment to her Instagram Stories and wrote: 'I've bit my tongue for too long now with you. You do it all on Facebook so I can't see,' followed by crying laughing emojis and she tagged his profile.

The reality star then posted a series of friendly DMs with Hughie where she accused him of trying to 'befriend' her as he spoke about going on a night out in Blackpool.

Famous face: The pregnant reality star recently revealed that her baby is due just a week before what would have been her late father Les's 90th birthday, on February 2, 2021 (pictured in 1992)

Charlotte wrote alongside the messages: 'Funny how you write statuses about me on Facebook... but you wanted to befriend me?

'I don't even know you... and apparently the whole of Blackpool think bad of me... you're not even from Blackpool. To use my dad is disgusting!!!!!!! Very sad and below the belt... shame you can't be happy for people and shame you feel so bitter in life...'

Hughie then posted on his Instagram Story a cryptic quote which said: 'Sometimes you gotta give up on people. Not because you don't care, but because they don't.'

He also shared a quote to his grid about craving peace and not wanting to wake up 'bothered, angry, bitter, no negative energy or thoughts'.

Expecting! Charlotte revealed earlier this month that she was expecting her first child with boyfriend Matthew Sarsfield

MailOnline has contacted Hughie's representative for comment.

Charlotte revealed earlier this month that she was expecting her first child with boyfriend Matthew Sarsfield.

The reality star revealed she's 'over the moon' to be expecting a baby with the rugby league player, 28, and is due to give birth just a week before what would have been her late comedian father Les Dawson's 90th birthday in February 2021.

She told OK! magazine: 'We went for the first scan and my due date is actually the week before, but there's every chance I could give birth on his birthday. What a tribute that would be!'

She added: 'He would've been the best grandfather. It's bittersweet because he would have been here, making everyone laugh.'
A Lancaster County man walked into a Sheetz carrying a long gun just minutes before he is accused of shooting a man early Sunday morning, according to the Lancaster District Attorneys Office.

Stephen John Jones, 27, of Denver, is charged with homicide in the death of a 68-year-old man who has not been identified by police as of Sunday evening.

According to the DAs office, Jones was driving a Chevy pickup truck when he forced the other man to stop his car just after midnight on Cats Back Road in West Earl Township. Jones is accused of shooting the man through his open drivers side window.

Officials say Jones is on surveillance video at a Sheetz on Route 322 in Ephrata a few minutes before the shooting.

Witnesses and surveillance video revealed Jones entered the gas station with a long gun and asked employees for a gas pump to be turned on, the DAs office said. Jones then fueled up his truck but drove away with the nozzle still inside the truck which caused the hose to become disconnected from the pump.

Jones has also been charged with robbery in connection with the stolen gas, the DAs office said.

A man who was in the area of Cats Back Road at the time of the shooting said he heard a gunshot and the sound of a shotgun being racked he saw a Chevy pickup driving away from the area, the DAs office said.

When police arrived in the area they found the deceased man in a Toyota, with a gunshot to the head, the DAs office said. All the vehicles doors were closed and the windows were up except for the drivers side window.

The DAs office said later on Sunday, a friend drove Jones to his pickup which was parked in Farmersville. The friend saw the shotgun in the trunk and a spent shotgun shell in a cupholder.

Jones was taken into custody at his workplace at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, the DAs office said.

Investigators are looking into whether Jones knew the deceased before the shooting, the DAs office said.

Jones is being held at Lancaster County Prison without bail.

Anyone with information about the shooting or Jones is asked to contact West Earl Township police at 717-859-1411.

Read more on PennLive:
EDWARDSVILLE  Sivia Law has expanded to South St. Louis County, Missouri, in which they have welcomed a new attorney to the team.

Jeff Wagener has been a practicing attorney for 30 years. He offers clients, in both Illinois and Missouri, a wealth of experience in a broad range of legal areas. Wagener joins Sivia Law with a strong service commitment and a record of unblemished personal integrity spanning legal, public service, business and academic environments.

We are excited that we are continuing to grow and that we have the ability to hire great attorneys, like, Jeff, said Todd Sivia, owner of Sivia Law. Jeffs personal and professional experience make him a great fit for the Sivia Law family.

Sivia Law has grown immensely since its founding in 2006. They have recently added two offices: one in East Alton and the new one in South St. Louis County, offering services to help clients through lifes transitions. The new Missouri location is located at 10024 Office Center Ave., suite 202, in St. Louis.

Wagener will focus on business, real estate, special needs and elder law.

I have been interested in working with a growing, mid-size firm, Wagener said. When I learned of Sivia Laws value of putting family first, I was sold. I am excited for what this new opportunity has in store for me.

Wagener prides himself in his ability to form productive relationships with his clients based on sincerity, credibility and trust. He is also a flexible, big-picture planner, thus, emphasizing Sivia Laws motives to provide smooth transitions to those in various stages of life.

Learn more about Sivia Laws practice areas and online options at www.sivialaw.com. To set up a consultation with one of the attorneys, call the St. Louis office at 314-782-4499 or the Edwardsville office at 618-659-4499 or send an email to info@sivialaw.com.
Appointment

10 August 2020

Anoop Dhondoo is an experienced professional in the world of hospitality, having nurtured his skills and natural flair at some of the leading hotel brands in various segments of the industry.

As a driven and inspiring individual, he launched his career as a hotelier in 1998 in various front and back of house roles in the hospitality industry in Mauritius, U.K. and Asia. By 2010, Anoop had been appointed as Hotel Manager of the 5-star beachfront hotel Pullman Bali Legian Nirwana. He played a key role in keeping the property amongst the top 5 hotels in Trip Advisor for the year 2011. In 2012, he took on the mantle of general manager at Ibis Jakarta Tamarin. He was responsible for all operational output. Under his tenure, he implemented a strong innovative sales and marketing strategy that resulted in an increase of bookings that significantly influenced the GOP. In 2014, he was appointed the pre-opening GM of Novotel Bali Airport, the flagship Novotel property of the region. The Middle East welcomed him in 2019 as a Complex Hotel Manager for ibis World Trade Centre and ibis One Central. Now we see him take on a new challenge as the Cluster General Manager at Dubais Novotel & ibis World Trade Centre and ibis One Central  located in the midst of Dubais financial and commercial districts. In these challenging times Anoop draws upon his experience in driving results with managing diverse projects and customer-driven focus to ensure both Accor properties are at the vanguard of the citys diverse & vibrant hospitality sector. He has already been successful in implementing the Accor ALLSafe initiative in partnership with AXA Insurance, across the hotels to ensure the safety and comfort of the guests.
Tech tycoon John McAfee claimed he had been arrested in Norway because he refused to put a medically-certified face covering over his thong mask.

McAfee, who made millions with the anti-virus software bearing his name, took to Twitter on Monday morning to report that he had been detained by Norwegian authorities who weren't impressed by the mask he made out of ladies underwear.

His wife, Janice McAfee, took over his Twitter page a few hours later and confirmed that he had been placed under arrest while she was merely detained.

The couple also shared several photos showing off the offending mask - a black lace thong.

'I am insisting it is the safest available and I'm refusing to wear anything else - for my health's sake,' John McAfee, 74, declared.

However he later followed it up saying he had been pulling a prank.

According to Swiss tabloid Blick, the photos are from the airport in Augsburg close to Munich.

The publication reported that McAfee was not arrested but told he would be subject to quarantine if he entered Germany so he traveled elsewhere. He claimed to now be in Belarus.

Tech tycoon John McAfee claimed he had been arrested in Norway because he refused to put a medically-certified face covering over his thong mask (pictured)

McAfee and his wife Janice (pictured) took to Twitter on Monday morning to share that they had both been detained for not wearing approved face coverings

Janice McAfee shared this photo of her husband laughing with a detention officer

McAfee first confirmed his detention in a tweet announcing that he would have to push back the meeting time for his group called the Red Scarf Society.

'Trivial issue but waiting for high level beaurocrats [sic] to arrive. Slow b*******, as you know,' he wrote.

Soon after he posted another tweet canceling the meeting, alongside a photo of himself laughing alongside a detention officer.

Janice began tweeting from the account minutes later, writing: 'I'll manage John's account until he escapes (usual method), bribes someone (very quick - might be out in a few hours), retains the right lawyer (will be a few days) or becomes warden of the jail, in which case we will have to force him out.'

She then shared a message of support for her husband and his choice of facial covering.

'His thong mask: It doesn't recycle his exhaled carbon dioxide, like over the ear masks. (Breathing impaired people are exempt from wearing masks because masks impair respiration),' she wrote.

'Masks stop bacteria. Not viruses people! He was arrested for what he believes. Thank you my love.'

Janice said she had also refused to put a medically-certified mask over her thong mask, but authorities opted not to arrest her.

McAfee first confirmed his detention in a tweet announcing that he would have to push back the meeting time for his group called the Red Scarf Society

Janice began tweeting from her husband's account soon after

Janice shared a message of support for her husband and his choice of facial covering

She also tweeted a video of herself drinking champagne inside the detention center

About five hours later Janice posted a video of herself in a waiting room at the detention center, where she had somehow managed to get her hands on a couple bottles of champagne.

'John is the only person I know that can get you champagne while being detained!' she wrote.

Soon after Janice offered another update in a Twitter video from the couple's private plane as it took off for Munich, where they live.

'Hello everybody, I'm here on our private jet,' she said with a wave.

'I received instructions from John through a private connection that he wanted me to go home and wait for his arrival.

'So, hopefully - you know him, he got this, so you'll be hearing from him soon, in a few hours I'm sure.

'In the meantime I'm headed home with our bodyguards and hopefully we'll be hearing from him in a few hours. Take care!'

About five hours after McAfee announced his arrest, Janice offered an update in a Twitter video, saying that her husband had told her to take their private jet home to Munich

McAfee is seen posing in his thong mask on the steps of his private jet

McAfee, who was born in 1945 at a US military base on British territory, has a long history of brushes with law enforcement in various countries.

He made headlines in 2012 after authorities announced that he was wanted as a 'person of interest' in the murder of his neighbor in Belize.

The eccentric millionaire was later tracked down in Guatemala, where he claimed he was seeking political asylum. He was subsequently arrested for entering the country illegally and was eventually deported back to the US.

Officials in Belize never brought any charges against McAfee in the investigation into his neighbor's murder.

Last summer McAfee and his wife were arrested by police in the Dominican Republic who accused them of sailing into the island with a boat-load of firearms.

He soon fled to Lithuania, where he shared a photo of himself hiding out in an 'ultra-secure facility'.

McAfee is currently seeking the Libertarian Party's nomination for US president this fall - after another failed bid back in 2016.

McAfee, who was born in 1945 at a US military base on British territory, has a long history of brushes with law enforcement in various countries
A 44-year-old man has died after being dragged under water near a submerged stormwater pipe while surfing at Collaroy Beach on Monday afternoon despite the heroics of local surf lifesavers.

Witnesses pulled the man from the water about 12.45pm and CPR was performed until emergency services arrived.

Emergency workers at Collaroy Beach on Monday. Credit:Nine News

Carol Chaffer, an off-duty member of the Collaroy SLSC, was alerted by her son Sam, 12, that the surfer had been dragged under the water and hadnt resurfaced.

Ms Chaffer grabbed a yellow surf rescue tube and handed it to a member of the public who ran out along the pipe looking for the surfer who had still not resurfaced.
Scientists will examine a new product that could help Scottish farmers and crofters draw down more carbon into their soils.

The Rock On Soils project will see scientists and farmers working together to investigate the use of crushed basic silicate rocks as a soil input.

The project aims to determine the carbon sequestration potential alongside any additional soil and biodiversity benefits.

The James Hutton Institute is taking part in the research, led by the Scottish Organic Producers Association (SOPA) - the UKs only membership body owning Scottish organic standards.

Alex Brewster of Rotmell Farm, recently unveiled Farm Carbon Toolkit and Innovation for Agriculture 2020 Soil Farmer of the Year, will also be participating.

The project seeks to demonstrate the use of the silicate rock on Rotmell Farm, monitoring the movement of carbon between the air and soil and noting any changes in plant health and production, soil chemistry and soil microbiology.

A network of a dozen pilot farmers - organic and non-organic - will test and evaluate the silicate rock product on small test plots on their respective farms and consider the practicalities of using the product at farm scale.

Lastly, the project will develop an app for the wider farm audience that will allow farmers to identify the carbon sequestration potential of their own soils using silicate rock products.

Debs Roberts, policy manager for SOPA, said the project was an excellent example of grassroots farming working with cross-sector partners in the scientific sector.

The prospect of farmers and scientists collaborating so closely on Rock On Soils is incredibly exciting, and the fact that we have been able to go ahead virtually is really innovative," she said.

Besides the James Hutton Institute, project partners include Abertay University, the University of Dundee, and the Geoscience department of German institution Forschungszentrum Juelich.

Emily Grant of Forrit (Farming and Consultancy) will be managing the 8-month project, along with Debs Roberts at SOPA.

She said: Farming has been given a bad name when it comes to environmental impacts, so we are really keen to investigate ways that farmers can be more carbon friendly.

"The initial research suggests that this product could be a game changer, not only in terms of tackling climate change, but also helping to improve soil and plant health.

"We could be at the cutting edge of some really positive work for carbon friendly farming.
Maharashtra on Monday reported 9,181 Covid-19 cases, taking its tally to 524,513, while the death toll rose to 18,050 with 293 new fatalities. Mumbai saw 925 new infections and 46 deaths, taking the tally to 124,307 and toll to 6,845.

A total of 6,711 patients recovered in the past 24 hours, taking the total of recovered patients to 358,421, which pushed the recovery rate to 68.33%. The state has 147,735 active patients  1,001,268 are home quarantined and 35,521 are in institutional quarantine. The percentage of active patients against the recovered ones has improved to 41.21% on Monday, from 66.49% two weeks ago on July 27. The state conducted 48,430 tests and the cumulative positivity rate of the state stood at 18.91%.

Pune district continues to be on top, with respect to daily caseload, at 1,699 new cases, including 280 in rural Pune, 779 in Pune city and 640 in Pimpri-Chinchwad. Pune city has, however, for the first time in the past few weeks reported fewer cases than Mumbai. Pune city reported 23 deaths, while 19 fatalities were reported in the districts rural part.

Of the other deaths on Monday, 96 were from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), including 46 in Mumbai, 10 in Mira-Bhayander, eight in Thane city and seven in Kalyan-Dombivli.

States case fatality rate (CFR) stood at 3.44%, against the national rate of 2.01%.

The CFR of the state is a cause of worry for the state administration, as of the total fatalities, more than half have been reported in the past 35 days. Of the 17,757 deaths reported in the past five months of outbreak of the Covid-19, till August 9, 8,935 or 50.32% deaths were between July 6 and August 9. First case of the virus infection was reported in the state on March 9 this year. In the last 35 days, the state reported 3,08,713 infections and registered a CFR of 2.89%.

Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune districts accounted for 69.34% or 6,196 deaths in the last 35 days. Mumbai alone has seen 1,900 cases during this period.

According to the officials, the high CFR is attributed to the weak health infrastructure, lacklustre approach towards tracking and tracing of contacts. Districts like Nandurbar depend on testing labs from neighbouring districts, leading to delay in reports, which in turn results in faster spread of the infection. The districts administrations in such districts have failed to rope in private laboratories and use private infrastructure. The state and central governments diktats for aggressive testing and tracing are not followed rigorously. We have been asking the district authorities to trace at least 15 people per infection, but in many districts it is below 10. Districts like Jalgaon, Solapur, Nagpur have not been able to augment the infrastructure and manage the available resources properly, said an official from the health department.

State health minister Rajesh Tope said on Sunday that the authorities have been directed to go for the aggressive tracing of more than 15 people per infection and their proper treatment which will help in reduction of CFR.

Dr TP Lahane, director, directorate of medical education and research said, High CFR is due to the late admission of patients in many districts. We have directed authorities to go for aggressive tracking and tracing to entail reduction in fatalities. We have set up labs in almost all districts now. Dr Sanjay Pattiwar, public health consultant, said, In many districts, we do not have crucial infrastructure with ICUs, oxygen and ventilators, apart from the lack of trained manpower and medical expertise. Government should have participation of the doctors from private medical colleges, which will help the authorities tide over the shortage of doctors. Proper analysis of deaths and critical patients with the help of district-level committee of doctors will also help the government in reducing CFR.

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Vela's SuperFeed normalized market data now available via IPC's Connexus Cloud and Connexus Labs

LONDON and NEW YORK, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Vela, a leading independent provider of trading and market access technology for global multi-asset electronic trading, today announced the expansion of its strategic partnership with IPC , a leading global provider of secure, compliant communications and networking solutions for the global financial markets.

The partnership will provide IPC customers with access to Vela's award-winning market data solution , SuperFeed, via Connexus Cloud , IPC's flagship financial ecosystem that interconnects more than 6,600 capital market participants across the globe. It will also enable IPC customers, utilizing Connexus Labs, to access an on-demand market data solution to support trading application testing along with third-party product evaluations.

Vela's SuperFeed is a fully-managed, low-latency market data feed that delivers high-quality, normalized real-time data via a single source with industry-leading levels of performance, availability, and reliability. Offering an exceptional blend of fast delivery and a scalable solution, SuperFeed is designed to simplify and speed up clients' access to data. The feed provides coverage to over 150 markets and data sources including all major North American and European exchanges and a growing number of Asia-Pacific venues. Vela continues to make significant strategic investment in SuperFeed coverage to expand the range of data types available, beyond real time and delayed, to include end-of-day and historical data solutions offering more flexibility to clients. Vela's vendor bridge technology eliminates the costs and overheads associated with changing feed providers, enabling a more seamless and rapid migration.

IPC's award-winning Connexus Cloud platform is an unparalleled multi-cloud platform for the global financial markets, an ecosystem that interconnects more than 6,600 diverse capital market participants across 750 cities in over 60 countries. The world's top financial institutions rely on Connexus Cloud for trade execution, order routing, market data delivery, clearing, settlement and accessing trade lifecycle services. IPC's Connexus Labs is a worldwide hosted infrastructure platform that provides testing and evaluation facilitates for fintech firms and innovators to assess how their products, services and applications can be integrated with the IPC product portfolio.

Ollie Cadman, Chief Product Officer at Vela, commented, "We are delighted to expand our partnership and have the strength of IPC as part of our ecosystem connecting SuperFeed to the global financial markets community. Now more than ever, firms are looking to trusted providers and private and public cloud environments to support the growing demand for access to global data sets for business processes such as automation, artificial intelligence and analytics." He continued, "With IPC's Connexus Cloud and Connexus Labs, financial institutions can leverage the power of the cloud for market data to support their electronic trading requirements. This partnership is an exciting step forward in our ongoing strategy to expand access to our services through public and private cloud providers."

Mike Smith, Director of Global Exchange Relations Management at IPC, said, "We are pleased to have Vela's SuperFeed as a part of our market data content offering, as we continue to provide our secure and compliant managed solutions to cater for all our customers' unique trading requirements. The SuperFeed market data service complements our Connexus Cloud offering by providing access to multiple market data feeds from a single place, and delivers the additional benefits of a professionally managed infrastructure and support model."

About Vela

Vela is a leading independent provider of trading and market access technology for global multi-asset electronic trading. Our software enables clients to rapidly access global liquidity, markets, and data sources for superior execution. We help firms successfully differentiate and innovate in an ever-changing, increasingly regulated and fiercely-competitive landscape, while also reducing total cost of ownership.

Vela's ticker plant, execution gateways, trading platform, and risk and analytics software deliver a unique, ultra-low latency technology stack to simplify and streamline electronic trading. We leverage the latest innovations in technology to deliver cutting-edge performance, features and reliability. Our modular stack provides access to a comprehensive set of trading data and risk APIs and can be delivered "as-a-Service" from multiple co-location data centers globally.

With access to more than 250 venues, Vela provides global coverage across all major asset classes. Clients are supported by an award-winning team of technical and business experts available 24x7 from our multiple offices in the US, Europe, and Asia. Vela's clients include traders, market makers, brokers, banks, investment firms, exchanges, and other market participants.

Visit us at www.tradevela.com. Follow us on Twitter @TradeVela.

About IPC

IPC is a technology and service leader powering the global financial markets. We help clients anticipate change and solve problems, setting the standard with industry expertise, exceptional service and comprehensive technology. With a customer-first mentality, IPC brings together one of the largest and most diverse global financial ecosystems spanning all asset classes and market participants. As the enabler of this ecosystem, IPC empowers the community to interact, transact and react to market changes and challenges, and we collaborate with our customers to help make them secure, productive, compliant and connected. Visit ipc.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter (@IPC_Systems_Inc).

For media inquiries, please contact:

Melanie Budden

The Realization Group for Vela

Email: melanie.budden@therealizationgroup.com

Tel: +44 7974 937970

Patrick Chambeau

Marketing Director, IPC

Email: Patrick.chambeau@ipc.com

Tel: +331 55 82 91 50

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While COVID-19 dominates the news cycle, a battle is being fought over a deadly drug that has killed over 3.7 million children and at least 24 women. The drug is Mifeprex  commonly known as the abortion pill. On July 13, an Obama-appointed federal judge enjoined the Food and Drug Administration requirements governing the prescription of Mifeprex. He ruled that requiring pregnant women to complete an in-clinic appointment to procure the drugs was a substantial obstacle to abortion and was to be suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic. This ruling suspends, for the abortion pill, the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), the FDAs rules for certain medications with serious safety concerns to help ensure the benefits of the medication outweigh its risks. Women procuring abortion drugs without proper education or evaluation are at greater risk of complications and death due to undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy, hemorrhaging, infection, and more. This dangerous judicial activism should compel elected officials, entrusted with the care of their constituents, to take a stand when federal agencies jeopardize public health and safety.

The first drug in the abortion-pill regimen, Mifeprex was approved by the FDA in 2000 after a highly politicized scramble within the Clinton administration. Beverly Winikoff is the founder of one of the abortion pills loudest proponents, Gynuity Health Projects. Winikoff claimed that the September 11 terrorist attacks saved Mifeprex because the nearly 3,000 Americans killed that day overshadowed news of a woman killed by the abortion pill a day prior. Mifeprex was designed specifically to kill the developing child and is approved for use up to ten weeks, at which point a child has arms, eyelids, toes, fingers, and organs.

Since the drugs approval, over 4,000 adverse maternal reactions have been reported to the FDA. The FDA acknowledges that adverse reactions are notoriously underreported, and most women experiencing hemorrhaging and severe infections will seek follow-up care at emergency rooms instead of returning to the abortion clinic. Yet emergency rooms are not required to report adverse reactions. And as of 2016, the Obama administration changed the requirement so that abortion-pill manufacturers must report only maternal deaths to the FDA. The number of women seeking blood transfusions and emergency intervention is likely much greater than 4,000.

Story continues

The Mifeprex regimen has unleashed horrors on Americas women and children while providing no medical benefit. Killing innocent children, endangering mothers, and abusing the health-care system to do harm is tragic. And as long as this deadly drug remains on the U.S. market, it will pose a serious health risk.

Pregnancy is not a disease and abortion is not health care. The abortion pill is not medicine. No child deserves to be killed by a drug, and pregnant women deserve better. FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn should acknowledge the subversion of the abortion industry and its allies, which are using a national pandemic to instigate abortion expansions that could remain long after the pandemic is over. The FDA should protect the public health of Americans and pull this lethal drug, Mifeprex and its approved generics, from the market immediately.

Ted Cruz is a U.S. senator from Texas and a member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Lila Rose is the president and founder of Live Action, a nonprofit human-rights organization educating on abortion and the abortion industry.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 20:03:49|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- A spokesman for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said Monday that the HKSAR government fully supports the central government's counter-measure against the United States and will facilitate its enforcement.

In response to the so-called "sanctions" introduced unreasonably by the U.S. government against officials of the central government and the HKSAR government days earlier, China's foreign ministry announced sanctions against 11 persons from the United States on Monday.

"In recent months, the United States passed laws and pronounced an executive order targeting the HKSAR under the pretext of human rights, democracy and autonomy, blatantly deviating from international laws and basic norms governing international relations and ignoring the rampant violence in the HKSAR in the past year. It also smeared the national security law (in Hong Kong) which was passed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and applied in Hong Kong by promulgation, displaying in full its double standards and hypocrisy and seriously damaging our bilateral relations," the spokesman said.

The central government and the HKSAR government have repeatedly expressed firm opposition to the acts of the United States, and the central government has also emphasized that it reserved the right to take counter-measures, said the spokesman.

The spokesman added that the U.S. government has gone further in recent days by imposing the so-called "sanctions" against officials of the central government and the HKSAR government, which is shameless and despicable, and is resented by the people of Hong Kong and the whole nation.

"The imposition of sanctions against 11 persons from the U.S. by the central government in response to its wrongful act is necessary for safeguarding the interests of our nation. The HKSAR government fully supports the move and will facilitate its enforcement in accordance with the law," the spokesman added. Enditem
'We are in complete political and operational readiness,' Minister of State George Gerapetritis said on state TV ERT

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday conferred with military chiefs after Turkey resumed oil and gas research near a Greek island, his office said.

A senior Greek minister added that navy ships were monitoring the Turkish seismic research ship Oruc Reis.

"We are in complete political and operational readiness," Minister of State George Gerapetritis said on state TV ERT.

"Most of the fleet is ready to be deployed wherever necessary," he said.

Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez had earlier tweeted that the Oruc Reis had "reached the destination where work would be undertaken", near the island of Kastellorizo.

Mitsotakis' office said the PM had spoken to EU Council President Charles Michel on the issue, and would later speak to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Energy exploration in the gas-rich eastern Mediterranean is a frequent source of tension between Turkey and a bloc of neighbours including Greece, Cyprus, and Israel.

Turkey sent out a message on NAVTEX, the international maritime navigational telex system, announcing the vessel would be carrying out activities off the island of Kastellorizo between August 10 and 23.

The move came just days after the NATO allies seemed close to talks over disputed maritime zones in the Aegean.

Turkey had called off an earlier search by the Oruc Reis last month to hold negotiations with Greece and Germany, which holds the rotating EU presidency.

But the mood soured last week after Greece and Egypt signed an agreement to set up an exclusive economic zone in the region.

The Turkish foreign ministry said the "so-called maritime deal" was "null and void".

Egypt, Cyprus and Greece have likewise denounced a contentious deal, including a security agreement, signed last year between Ankara and UN-recognised government in Libya.

Greece, Cyprus and Israel in January signed an agreement for a huge pipeline project to transport gas from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe despite Turkey's hostility to the deal.

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Barclays Plc is being probed by the United Kingdoms privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), over allegations that the British bank spied on its staff, the agency said on Sunday.

Earlier this year, Barclays said it was changing a system that the bank was piloting, which tracked how employees spent their time at work, after critical media reports accused the bank of spying on its staff.

The ICO said on Sunday a formal probe was ongoing but it could not say when the investigation would conclude.

People expect that they can keep their personal lives private and that they are also entitled to a degree of privacy in the workplace, an ICO spokesman said.

If organisations wish to monitor their employees, they should be clear about its purpose and that it brings real benefits. Organisations also need to make employees aware of the nature, extent and reasons for any monitoring, he added.

The probe was reported earlier by The Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

Late in February, Barclays said it was changing how it used the Sapience software so it would now track only anonymised data, in response to staff feedback that the system was intrusive.

Sapience gives companies insights into work patterns and tracks employee productivity by monitoring their computer usage, according to its website.

Such systems are becoming increasingly common among banks and other financial firms, which use voice recognition and other behaviour-tracking tools to watch for unusual behaviour that could indicate misconduct.

In 2017, Barclays faced widespread criticism when it rolled out a system known as OccupEye, which tracked how long people spent at their desks.
A federal judge has upheld the convictions of two men found to be trying to bribe North Carolinas top insurance regulator with large political contributions so that scrutiny of a defendants businesses would be eased.

A jury in March found Greg E. Lindberg, an insurance magnate and big political donor, and Lindberg consultant John Gray guilty of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and bribery. No sentencing dates have yet been set.

The two men asked U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn, who presided over the case, to order acquittals or a new trial, challenging a host of elements within the three-week trial, including jury instruction and evidence. Late Tuesday, Cogburn denied their motions, writing that contrary to the defendants assertions, the law and evidence supported that verdict.

Gray and Lindberg also challenged their attorneys limitations in questioning state Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, who evidence showed was the intended beneficiary of the political donations. Causey, who wasnt accused of wrongdoing, alerted authorities and cooperated in the case against Lindberg, recording conversations with the two defendants and others.

Evidence showed Lindberg offered to funnel money for Causeys 2020 reelection campaign in exchange for the removal of an official regulating his insurance companies. The recording transcripts show Lindberg supporting the establishment of two independent expenditure committees funded with $1.5 million to support Causeys campaign, according to Cogburns ruling.

The judge also rejected the defendants arguments that they were unlawfully entrapped by Causey and the government. Prosecutors presented ample evidence for the jury to find that the defendants were predisposed to commit the offenses, as they were ready and willing to offer a bribe when given an opportunity, Cogburn wrote.

In a separate ruling last week, Cogburn also ordered the forfeiture of $1.45 million within the independent expenditure committees. Lindberg wrote $1.5 million in checks for the accounts, according to evidence. Appeals are possible.

Former Lindberg company employee John Palermo, who also was indicted in the case, was acquitted by the trial jurors.

A fourth person indicted in early 2019, ex-state GOP Chairman Robin Hayes, pleaded guilty last October to lying to investigators and is awaiting sentencing. Prosecutors said Hayes caused the transfer of another $250,000 in Lindberg contributions from the partys coffers to benefit Causey, a Republican.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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New Delhi/Kolkata:

One month post demonetisation, Congress Vice President and TMC supremo on Thursday attacked PM Narendra Modi, claiming that it was a "foolish decision" and "one man-made economic disaster".

On the other hand, Prime Minister Modi praised the campaign as a 'Yagna' against corruption and black money.

As the exchanges between rival parties escalated both inside and outside Parliament over scrapping of high denomination notes, the BJP hit back at the Congress Vice- President, saying he was levelling baseless charges on almost daily basis to grab "headlines".

Leaders of opposition parties observed a 'Black Day' in Parliament premises in Delhi to mark one month of the announcement of demonetisation by Modi on November 8 with Gandhi launching a scathing attack on the Prime Minister, saying his "foolish decision" has "devastated" the country.

Besides Congress, leaders of all opposition parties including TMC, CPI(M), CPI, JD(U), Samajwadi Party joined the protest wearing black band on their arms.

Also Read: Mamata Banerjee asks PM Modi to step down over demonetisation

"The Prime Minister took this so-called bold decision. The bold decision can also be a foolish decision. And this was a foolish decision, it has devastated the country. More than 100 people have died. Farmers, fishermen, daily wage earners have been hit hard," Gandhi told reporters.

Facing opposition onslaught, Modi took to Twitter to assert that the "short term pain" will pave the way for "long term gains" and insisted that farmers, traders and labourers stand to gain from this step.

In a series of tweets, Modi spoke about the benefits of demonetization and said the country has a "historic opportunity" to embrace increased cashless payments.

"I salute the people of India for wholeheartedly participating in this ongoing 'Yagna' against corruption, terrorism & black money," he said.

"Together, we must ensure #IndiaDefeatsBlackMoney. This will empower the poor, neo-middle class, middle class & benefit future generations," Modi added.

Also Read: 90 lives lost due to demonetisation, claims Mamata Banerjee

"I always said that the government's measure will bring a degree of inconvenience but this short term pain will pave way for long term gains," the prime minister added.

He said the decision has several gains for farmers, traders, labourers, "who are the economic backbone of our nation" and "no longer will the progress and prosperity of rural India be curtailed by corruption & black money.

Our villages must get their due."Holding the prime minister solely responsible for the "present economic disaster" in the country caused by demonetisation, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banejee said that the central government got "totally derailed" under the present prime minister.

"The PM doesn't trust anyone. There is no teamwork. He doesn't understand what is good for the country. He did not consult the experts. It is a one-man dictatorship. It is a one man-made disaster. It is a dangerous tendency," the TMC supremo told a press conference in Kolkata.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu hit out at the Congress-led opposition for observing the 'Black Day' against demonetisation, saying they are actually observing a "Black Money Support Day".

BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma alleged that Gandhi's charges against the Modi government are borne out of his incompetence and arrogance.

"He is competing with Arvind Kejriwal in TRP politics by levelling baseless charges on almost daily basis. He is doing so merely for headlines." CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury held Modi "singularly responsible" for the "mess" in the economy due to demonetization.

FULL COVERAGE: BLACK MONEY CRACKDOWN

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Actor Rhea Chakraborty approached the Supreme Court on Monday with plea alleging unfair media trial in boyfriend Sushant Singh Rajputs death. Actor Swara Bhasker welcomed the move and said that she hopes the apex court will take an action on the fake news spinners and conspiracy theorists.

Swara tweeted, Rhea is being subjected to a bizarre & dangerous media trial fuel led by hugely problematic impulses of mob justice. I hope the Honble #SupremeCourt will pay heed & take fake news spinners & conspiracy theorists like Repooplic, Poopindia & others to task. Let the law decide.

Sushants father K K Singh, had on July 25 filed a complaint with the Patna police against Rhea, her parents, brother Showik, Sushants manager Samuel Miranda, Shruti Modi and unknown persons accusing them of cheating and abetting his sons suicide. The CBI had re-registered this FIR as a fresh case on Thursday and named as accused the same people. Singh also alleged financial irregularities in bank accounts of his son.

Rhea is being subjected to a bizarre & dangerous media trial fuel led by hugely problematic impulses of mob justice. I hope the Honble #SupremeCourt will pay heed & take fake news spinners & conspiracy theorists like Repooplic, Poopindia & others to task. Let the law decide. https://t.co/P6ZJhw2ALw  Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) August 10, 2020

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) began a fresh round of questioning of Rhea and her family members in connection with its probe in a money laundering case linked to Sushants death. Shruti Modi, the business manager of Rhea and Sushant, was also questioned. They were earlier questioned on August 7.

Also read: Swastika Mukherjee shares video of Sushant Singh Rajput asking his fans to let him go: I will come in a day or two. Watch

In the complaint, Sushants father alleged that an amount of Rs 15 crore was siphoned off from Sushants bank account in one year to accounts of persons not known or connected to the late actor. Under the EDs scanner are at least two companies linked to Sushant and some financial deals involving Rhea, her father and Showik, who are stated to be directors in these companies.

(With PTI inputs)

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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Some 1.5 million viewers saw Lee Jung-jae's latest film "Deliver Us from Evil" in just four days since its release last week, the Korean Film Council said Sunday.

It joins "Steel Rain2: Summit" and "Peninsula" in bringing life back to local cinemas that were hit hard by the coronavirus epidemic.

Lee reunites with Hwang Jung-min for the first time since their 2013 hit "New World." Hwang plays a hit man, and Lee chases him all the way to Thailand to avenge his brother's death.

The lack of original plot and flat characters are made up for by hardboiled action and relentless chase scenes.

As of Saturday, "Peninsula," the sequel to zombie hit "Train to Busan," had lured 3.65 million viewers.


A cluster of novel coronavirus cases has emerged at the Georgia high school that drew national attention last week after students posted pictures and videos of their peers walking without mask in tightly packed hallways, according to a letter sent to parents over the weekend.

Six students and three staff members at North Paulding High School have reported testing positive for the virus, Principal Gabe Carmona wrote in the letter, which was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He said the infected people were in school "for at least some time" last week.

Superintendent Brian Otott later announced that the school will close Monday and Tuesday, and revert to virtual learning while the building is cleaned. The district will announce Tuesday evening whether in-person instruction will resume the next day, Otott wrote to parents Sunday in a second letter, shared by a WSB-TV reporter.

Otott added that anyone who has tested positive, as well as close contacts of people who have the virus, must quarantine for 14 days before returning to school.

The infections validate concerns in Georgia and nationwide that crowded conditions in the nation's K-12 schools could facilitate virus transmission as the new academic year begins. Young people develop severe infections at far lower rates than adults, but experts warn that they could be vectors for infecting more-vulnerable populations, such as older relatives in the same household.

Carmona said custodial workers were cleaning and disinfecting the school building daily - a practice that offers only marginal protections against the virus, which primarily spreads through person-to-person contact, not from contaminated surfaces.

"The health and well-being of our staff and students remains our highest priority," Carmona said, "and we are continuing to adjust and improve our protocols for in-person instruction to make our school the safest possible learning environment."

A representative for the Paulding County School District did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.

The school of more than 2,000 in Dallas, Ga., was thrown into the national spotlight last week when students posted images on social media showing seas of students milling through the halls between classes.

The school district suspended two students who shared the images, prompting another wave of negative attention from critics who said administrators were silencing them. Administrators reversed the suspensions on Friday following the backlash.

Lynne Watters, the mother of one of the students, said her daughter would be able to return to school Monday with her disciplinary record unblemished. "The principal just said that they were very sorry for any negative attention that this has brought upon her," Watters said in a text message, "and that in the future they would like for her to come to the administration with any safety concerns she has."

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Officials have continually sought to downplay concerns generated by images of the crowded corridors.

On Wednesday, Otott, the superintendent, told parents in a letter that while the photo "does not look good," the conditions were permissible under the Georgia Department of Education's health recommendations.

The superintendent also misleadingly cited a state health department document listing the different ways people can become infected with the coronavirus. He claimed that exposure occurs after "Being within 6 feet of a sick person with COVID-19 for about 15 minutes" but omitted other factors such as being coughed on that can cause the virus to spread faster and more directly.

- - -

The Washington Post's Marisa Iati and Lateshia Beachum contributed to this report.
Sunday Briefing: Lefrancois Enjoys a Fantastic Sunday

August 10, 2020 Matthew Pitt

Sundays are traditionally the busiest day on the online poker calendar and August 9 was no different with dozens of massive events taking place around the major sites.

Pascal Lefrancois will look back at August 9 with fond memories after enjoying a super Sunday that saw him walk away with hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Lefrancois triumphed in the $25,500 buy-in WPT Super High Roller at partypoker on Sunday and saw his bankroll swell by a massive $315,812. Some 31 players bought into the event and created a $775,000 prize pool. Only the top five finishers secured a slice of this pie and Nick Petrangelo was the unfortunate soul who burst the money bubble.

Team partypokers Isaac Haxton and Mikita Badziakouski were the first competitors to bank some prize money, namely $54,250 and $73,625. Vyacheslav Buldygin won the first six-figure prize when he collected $127,875 for his third-place exit.

Heads-up pitted Lefrancois against Jake Schindler and the former came out on top. Lefrancois won $315,812 which left Schindler to bank $203,437.

A $10,300 buy-in High Roller took place at partypoker on August 9 and while Lefranoics did win it, he did finish fifth for another $26,600.

Laszlo Bujtas and Benjamin Rolle also cashed, leaving Petrangelo and Timothy Adams to fight it out one-on-one for the title. The remarkably talented duo struck a deal that saw Adams finish first and collect $135,855 and Petrangelo to scoop a $118,744 runner-up prize.

Some of the other notable scores at partypoker included:

Lars Kamphues  first-place in the WPT 6-Max Warm Up for $95,606

Phil Mighall  first-place in the $2,100 WPT 6-Max Turbo Knockout: $200K Gtd for $44,227*

Felipe Theodoro Da Costa  first-place in the WPT 6-Max Mini Warm Up for $22,717

Jupiter Jones  first-place in the Big Gladiator: Mix-Max: $100K Gtd for $16,697*

Raman Sfalsin - $215 WPT 6-Max Turbo Knockout: $100K Gtd for $15,616*

Jamnix_90  first-place in the Masters: $75K Gtd for $13,726

*includes bounty payments

Gavin Cochrane banks $540,000 at partypoker

Star Shine Bright at PokerStars

Lefrancois hot run continued over to PokerStars where he reached the final table of the $5,200 NLHE Single Event. A field of 93 entrants battled it out for a slice of $500,000 and Lefrancois scooped $19,670 of this after falling in eighth-place.

The rest of the final table wouldnt have looked out of place in a tournament with a buy-in 10-times the size. It was eventually won by CrazyLissy of Russia for $119,483. The Russian defeated Mike SirWatts Watson heads-up, resigning Watson to a $92,337 consolation prize.

Place Player Country Prize 1 CrazyLissy Russia $119,483 2 Mike SirWatts Watson Canada $92,337 3 Fedor CrownUpGuy Holz Austria $71,359 4 HITRII999 Russia $55,147 5 Anatoly NL_Profit Filatov Russia $42,618 6 Thomas WushTM Muehloecker Austria $32,936 7 roo_400 Canada $25,453 8 Pascal Pass_72 Lefrancois Canada $19,670 9 Korrinho Austria $15,755

Check out some of these big scores enjoyed by PokerStars players this weekend:

ISultanchiki  first-place in the $109 Stadium Series Afterparty High for $100,002

Armani1974  first-place in the $1,050 Sunday Cooldown for $32,648*

Jemisis  first-place in the $109 Bounty Builder for $31,240*

Marc FrenchDawg Ladouceur  first-place in the $215 Bounty builder for $28,731*

Keep2p34Ch  first-place in the $109 Sunday Cooldown for $25,920*

Kevin.PU  first-place in the $1,050 Sunday Supersonic for $23,061

Eleres88  first-place in the $215 Sunday Warm-Up for $21,202

SinkedShrimp  first-place in the $215 Sunday Supersonic for $20,125

Simon C.Darwin2 Mattsson  first-place in the $1,050 Sunday Warm-Up for $16,779

nomalice  first-place in the Bigger $109 for $14,094

umvelt900  first-place in the $109 Sunday Kickoff for $12,024

Gustavo GuGuGFBPA Rego  first-place in the Hotter $109 for $11,659

dantegoyaf  first-place in the $530 Omania for $9,416

*includes bounty payments

$721K score for Brazil's Fernando "fviana" Viana

You Won't Believe The Size Of The prizes at GGPoker

It was a similar story over at GGPoker where more than a dozen massive events took place. GGPoker is enjoying a ton of traffic thanks to the WSOP being held online there and those extra players resulted in some mega prizes.

Kristen Bicknell got her hands on one such prize namely $89,156, after she triumphed in the High Rollers Blade Closer $5K. Bicknell came out on top of a 44-strong field to secure the chunky top prize.

Bicknell had to contend with a final table that was the home to such luminaries as Isaac Haxton, Sergi Rexiach, Stephen Chidwick, David Peters, Sean Winter and runner-up Derek Chun Cheung Derek Ip Ip, the latter netting $52,677.

Darren Elias also walked away with a title and a bumper prize courtesy of winning the High Rollers Blade Opener $5K for $95,001. Elias defeated Thomas Muehloecker heads-up to secure the title, after battling at the final table against the likes of Dario Sammartino, MILLIONAIRE Maker winner Daniel Dvoress, Nick Petrangelo, Kristen Bicknell, and Pascal Hartmann.

While impressive, both these scores were blown out of the water by the gargantuan $275,344 won by Canadas Christopher Brewer. Brewer was one of 25 players to pony up a massive $25,000 in the Bryn High Rollers $25K event. Jake Schindler bubbled in fifth before Laurynas Levinkas collected $63,922 for his fourth-place finish. Timothy Adams finished third for $104,006 with Mikita Badziakouski falling in second for $169,226. Brewer was the last man standing and banked $275,344.

Some of the other huge GGPoker results included:

YrttiDekaani  first-place in the High Rollers Blade Prime $5K for $143,748

BTCtoMOON  first-place in the WSOP Side EVent: $500 FIFTY STACK for $130,555

Belarmino De Souza  first-place in the High Roller Blade Mulligan $5K for $129,100

CharlieD23  first-place in the WSOP Side Event: $2,100 Bounty Turbo 6-Handed for $120,958*

jochee  first-place in the High Rollers Blade PLO $5K for $87,130

RDIC  first-place in the Sunday Special $250 for $69,243

Boris Kolev  first-place in the High Rollers battle Royale $525 for $61,187*

Manig Loeser  first-place in the WSOP Side EVent: $400 Warmup for $55,693

Conor Beresford  first-place in the High Rollers Big Game Hunter $1,050 for $46,668*

chrisbenoit  first-place in the Sunday Monster Stack $200 for $46,105

hotsince93  furst-place in the WSOP Side EVent: $210 Bounty Turbo 6-Handed for $31,691*

YippeeKiYay  first-place in the Bounty Hunters Sunday Special $105 for $29,822*

FortySixand2  first-place in the WSOP Side Event: $150 Super Turbo 6-handed for $24,883

Bicknell secures her third career bracelet!

Big Scores Galore at 888poker

There was a big win over at 888poker for Lithuanias SNICKERS05 who triumphed in the $100,000 Sunday Sale Mega Deep. Some 1,884 players bought in for the cut-price of $55 which left 888poker nursing a $5,800 overlay, but SNICKERS05 wasnt bothered because it meant their to prize weighed in at a cool $17,000.

The $20,000 Sunday Sale Whale was also half price this week and 196 players bought in for $160. Moroccos BhadizUlue came out on top, turning their second bullet into a substantial $6,321.

Special mentions also to TOUGHEST_ and wklix who won the $20,000 Sunday Challenge for $3,774 and the A Good Tournament for $8,200 respectively.
Sachin Pilot will work in the "interest of the Congress", and a three-member committee will be set up to address the grievances of Pilot and other aggrieved MLAs, the Congress said on Monday after a meeting between the rebel leader and former party chief Rahul Gandhi, signalling a "amicable resolution" of nearly a month-long Rajasthan crisis ahead of the crucial assembly session from August 14.

IMAGE: Sources said, the meeting between Pilot and Gandhis lasted for about two hours. Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI Photo

The meeting between Rahul Gandhi and Pilot at the former party chief's residence, where Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was also present, lasted two hours during which they had a "frank, open and conclusive" discussion.

While the Congress did not give details of what transpired in the Rahul-Pilot meeting, AICC general secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal said in a statement that following the meeting, Sonia Gandhi has decided that the AICC will constitute a three-member committee to "address the issues raised by Pilot and the aggrieved MLAs and arrive at an appropriate resolution thereof".

"Shri Sachin Pilot has committed to working in the interest of the Congress party and the Congress government in Rajasthan," it added.



On his part, Pilot said,"we raised issues of principles before the Congress leadership, and welcome their assurance of a time-bound redressal of our grievances."



Asserting that he doesn't crave for any post and that the party can take back the position given to him, Pilot said,"some personal remarks have been made against me. I feel there is no place for personal mudslinging in politics", in an apparent reference to Gehlot's 'nikamma' remarks against him.

SEE: I think all the issues will be resolved, says Sachin Pilot

Sachin Pilot will work in the "interest of the Congress", and a three-member committee will be set up to address the grievances of Pilot and other aggrieved MLAs, the Congress said on Monday after a meeting between the rebel leader and former party chief Rahul Gandhi, signalling a "amicable resolution" of nearly a month-long Rajasthan crisis ahead of the crucial assembly session from August 14.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, "The political crisis in Rajasthan Congress stands resolved amicably by the intervention of none other than Rahul Gandhi himself."

"This is reflective of steadfast unity in Congress party and the commitment of Congress legislators to never fall prey to BJP's evil designs to defeat democracy," he said.



However, Congress sources ruled out that Ashok Gehlot will be replaced as Rajasthan chief minister or Pilot will be reinstated as party's Rajasthan chief, a post which was filled immediately after the Congress sacked Pilot following his open revolt against Gehlot last month.

Meanwhile, rebel Congress MLAs started returning from Haryana to Jaipur. Bhnwarlal Sharma, one of the MLAs, met Gehlot, and said there are no camps in the Congress and the party stood united.

Sharma is facing a case of alleged involvment in horse trading of Congress lawmakers in a bid to topple the Gehlot government.







AICC sources said all rebel MLAs will return ahead of the August 14 assembly session, and asserted that the Gehlot government was safe.

Once all dissidents return, the Congress will have a total strength of 107 MLAs in the 200-member state Assembly where the simple majority is 101. The Congress also has the support of a number of independent MLAs. BJP has 72 MLAs.

Congress leaders also claimed that with this reproachment, "BJP's conspiracy" to break the party has been dashed and the Congress leadership has not yielded to demands of removal of Gehlot as chief minister.

A Congress leader said this is one of the "best fightbacks by the Congress" in saving its government and thwarting BJP's attempts to topple its government.

He alleged that BJP's efforts to bring in Pilot met with a revolt within the BJP by its former CM Vasundhara Raje, and the party had to lodge its MLAs in different locations.



Meanwhile, party sources said a formula for Pilot's return was being worked out.



They said among the options, one possible agreement discussed during the Monday meeting was favourable voting by Pilot and MLAs loyal to him in case of a trust vote during the upcoming Rajasthan assembly session.

Pilot and 18 other MLAs had rebelled against Chief Minister Gehlot in Rajasthan, leading to Pilot's sacking as deputy chief minister and state party chief.

Sources add that some of the rebel MLAs have also been in touch with the Congress leadership in the last few days.

Pilot and other rebel MLAs would have faced disqualification in case they defied the Congress whip on the floor of the house.

Party leaders had held discussions with Congress MLAs lodged in Jaisalmer and had sought their views on the rebel party legislators on whether to accept them or not.

Meanwhile, after a rapprochement between the Congress and Pilot, the Bharatiya Janata Party is weighing its options and working to put up a united face against the Ashok Gehlot government ahead of the assembly session from August 14.



BJP legislative party leader Gulab Chand Kataria claimed even a unity in the Congress ranks can only be temporary and the government is "bound to disintegrate sooner than later".

A meeting of BJP MLAs has been called on Tuesday, Kataria said.
Looters ransacked shops in downtown Chicago early on Monday morning following a shootout between a suspect and police officers.

According to police, officers were called to the Englewood neighborhood on Sunday afternoon after receiving reports of a man with a gun. Officers found a suspect who matched the description, however the suspect attempted to flee and fired at officers giving chase. Police then shot and wounded the suspect, who was brought into custody.

However, police said rumors spread in the neighborhood that the suspect was a child, when in fact the man is in his 20s. A crowd gathered at the sight of the shooting and confrontations with police ensued. One officer was sprayed with a can of mace and the windows of a police vehicle were smashed with a brick, while community members told a local CBS affiliate that officers beat some of the demonstrators.

Hundreds of people began looting stores in Chicago on Sunday night, causing city authorities to raise bridges leading to the citys downtown area and cease public transportation. There have been reports of shots fired between officers and looters during attempted arrests.

All bridges up in Chicago to prevent access to downtown. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/KutdT8Nbc6  Vi Nguyen (@ViNguyen) August 10, 2020

Mass chaos in downtown Chicago. Hundred of people looting stores. Looters broke into a bank and ripped out the atm. They are trying to break into it. This is at State and Lake. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/oKGrMHGADP  Vi Nguyen (@ViNguyen) August 10, 2020

Absolute chaos in downtown Chicago, CBS reporter Ryan Baker wrote on Twitter. Appears to be coordinated effort with minimal police presence.

Story continues

Former Chicago Bears player Patrick Mannelly posted a video of looters at a branch of The Gold Coast.

The Gold Coast is being looted right now. What the hell is going on @chicagosmayor ? 3:11am. WTF! pic.twitter.com/SF0x4q6LIb  Patrick Mannelly (@PatrickMannelly) August 10, 2020

The Gold Coast is being looted right now. What the hell is going on @chicagosmayor? Mannelly wrote.

Chicago has been struggling with a wave of shootings since the end of May. While shootings typically rise every summer in the city, this year has been especially violent following coronavirus lockdowns and demonstrations sparked by the killing of George Floyd, an African American man killed during arrest by Minneapolis police officers. Chicago police recorded 440 homicides and 2,240 shooting victims from January-July 2020, compared with 290 homicides and 1,480 shooting victims over the same period in 2019.

Chicago saw widespread looting and rioting during the weekend after Floyds death in late May.

More from National Review
By Edmund Wong



My humble career in the tourism industry has given me the opportunity to experience some of the world's most dynamic tourism markets including Singapore, Malaysia, China, Australia and New Zealand, and exotic places such as Bangladesh and Mongolia.





Yet the years spent in these markets failed to prepare me for the raw potential that is Korea's tourism sector when I first came to Jeju Island six years ago.



For instance, the fact that 70 percent of Korea's land mass is covered in unspoiled mountains is a true blessing for the country's tourism industry. Korea also offers a diverse range of different landscapes including beaches, valleys, marshes and rivers all just a few short hours away from each other.



Coupled with Korea's cultural charms, hospitality and some of the world's most advanced public infrastructure, the nation truly has all the ingredients to offer the world a delectable tourism feast.



All this notwithstanding, the question must be asked: Is Korea living up to its full tourism potential?



According to a recent OECD report issued early this year, the average contribution percentage of tourism to the GDPs of member states amount to 10.4 percent while contribution to jobs records 10 percent. However, Korea's numbers stand at only 2.7 percent and 3 percent respectively. So to answer my own question, there still remains a good margin for the country's tourism industry to move upwards.



I have observed how developed nations draw on tourism as an equal pillar of GDP growth on par with key industries like manufacturing, ICT and finance.



Singapore is a good example. Since Singapore opened two integrated resorts  Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa  in 2010, its tourism economy received an immediate boost and became one of the fastest-growing sectors and directly contributed $17.7 billion in 2017 to the economy.



The two integrated resorts were also credited for creating 20,000 jobs and many more spin-off effects to the country's economy. Tourism is undeniably one of the fundamental parts of national economies. And I believe this will become more paramount in the coming years as the capacity for businesses to create jobs will diminish with the advancement of AI technology since tourism remains a high human touch business.



Behind the success cases of the world's most robust tourism markets lies a strong government initiative to cultivate tourism.



Going back to Singapore's case, the Singaporean government provided investment policies specifically designed to ensure that businesses continue to grow and invest further.



This "mothering" policy is the key reason behind its global reputation as a hotbed for foreign direct investment  businesses know they will be taken care of when they invest in Singapore.



When COVID-19 hit the globe, Singapore moved quickly to protect businesses from collapsing. This included radical support packages like corporate income tax rebate and payment deferment, temporary relief on contractual obligations and subsidies for wage increases.



There are many perspectives and scenarios on how we will bounce back after the pandemic is over.



I see great potential in Korea's unique allure that could be a great addition to its economy. Reevaluating and revitalizing the tourism sector would be imperative to elevating Korea's standing in the global economy.



It is best positioned to become a beloved destination for world travelers with its beautiful natural heritage and rich culture. Koreans are naturally service-minded, and most importantly, the nation has the technology to add a competitive edge to the industry.



The only question left is "Will the government ever see tourism as a fundamental pillar of the economy?" If Korea does, I am confident that tourism will emerge stronger as a GDP driver and a major job creator for the nation.





Edmund Wong is the CEO of Jeju Shinhwa World.


New Delhi: The Railways has initiated action against a private agency for issuing a fake advertisement for over 5000 posts in the national transporter. The advertisement printed in a prominent newspaper said the Railways was seeking applications for 5,285 posts in eight categories.

"It has come to notice of Ministry of Railways that one organization by name of "Avestan Infotech" having website address "http://www.Avestran.In"www.Avestran.In has given an advertisement in a prominent newspaper on 8th August 2020 calling for applications against a total number of 5,285 number of posts in eight categories on outsourcing basis on Indian Railways on 11-year contract. The applicants have been asked to deposit Rs.750/-as online fee and the last date for receipt of applications has been mentioned as September 10, 2020.

"It may be informed to all that advertisement for any Railway recruitment is always done by Indian Railways ONLY. No private agency has been authorized to do the same. The said issuance of said advertisement in question is illegal," the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said railways will initiate strict against the agency. It also clarified that the recruitment? of various categories of Group 'C' and erstwhile Group 'D' posts on Indian Railways is presently catered to by 21 Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and 16 Railway Recruitment Cell (RRC) only and not by any other agency.

Vacancies in Indian Railways are filled up by giving wide publicity through Centralized Employment Notifications (CENs). Online applications are called from eligible candidates all over the country.

CEN is published through Employment News/Rozgar Samachar and an indicative notice is given in national daily and local newspapers. The CEN is also displayed on the official websites of RRBs/RRCs. The website address of all RRBs/RRCs is mentioned in the CEN.

"It is further clarified that the Railways have not authorized any private agency as yet to do the recruitment of staff on its behalf as alleged by the above-named agency."

"Railways has initiated its investigation and is going on to take the strictest action as per law against the above agency/persons involved in the above matter," it said.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani holds up the advice of the Loya Jirga, who sanctioned the release of the final 400 Taliban prisoners - JAWAD JALALI/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock /Shutterstock

A council of Afghan elders has ruled that the nation's remaining 400 Taliban prisoners will be freed, paving the way for long-awaited peace talks to begin on Sunday.

The Taliban had demanded the release of all of its prisoners before it sat down in Doha with Afghan leaders to negotiate an end to the 18-year conflict which has claimed over 150,000 lives.

After successful initial prisoner exchanges, the Afghan Government had refused to release the final group of Taliban inmates, arguing they had been jailed for serious crimes, including kidnappings. It delegated the decision to the Loya Jirga, a grand assembly of Afghan religious and tribal elders, who convene in times of national crisis.

On Sunday, after three days of talks, the council agreed to release the Taliban prisoners, as long as an international guarantee is provided that the inmates do not return to the battlefield.

To remove obstacles for the start of peace negotiations, end bloodshed, and observe the interests and good of the people, the jirga approves the release of 400 Taliban prisoners, the council declared, reiterating its demands for a long-term ceasefire.

A government source told Reuters Afghan President Ashraf Ghani would sign the decree to release the remaining prisoners later on Monday. Everyone is waiting for Ghani to sign on the decree. The original plan is to travel to Doha on Wednesday and the talks will begin on Sunday, said an Afghan Government source.

Over 3,000 delegates convened to be part of the Loya Jirga - HANDOUT/AFP

We are ready to sit for talks within a week from when we see our prisoners released. We are ready, said Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman. In February, the United States signed a peace agreement with the Taliban, which will see a full withdrawal of American troops within 14 months if the Taliban and Afghan Government reach a peace deal.

As part of the terms, the Taliban and Afghan Government promised to release thousands of their respective prisoners before politicians sat down at the negotiating table. The U.S. had urged the Loya Jirga to sanction the prisoners' release and threatened to withdraw aid to Afghanistan if talks between the Afghan Government and the Taliban remained unfulfilled.

Story continues

We acknowledge that the release of these prisoners is unpopular. But this difficult action will lead to an important result, said Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of State.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. Special Envoy to Afghanistan welcomed the exchange: In the next few days, we expect the completion of prisoner releases, then travel of the Islamic Republic team to Doha, & from there the immediate start of intra-Afghan negotiations, he tweeted.

Violence between the Taliban, the Afghan Government, and international forces has surged since the U.S-led peace deal was signed. Over 1,200 civilians have died in fighting so far this year, with the Islamic State and Al Qaeda also targeting Afghan citizens.
A surfer is in a critical condition after being rescued from water near a storm drain at a popular Sydney beach.

Paramedics performed CPR on the man at Collaroy Beach, on the northern beaches, at about midday on Monday.

The man, in his 40s, was rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital in a critical condition.

Police, ambulance and the NSW Rural Fire Service were on the scene.

It comes as heavy rain and howling winds batter the New South Wales south coast, while Sydney and the Blue Mountains are also being lashed by bad weather.

The man, in his 40s, was rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital in a critical condition

Paramedics performed CPR on the man at Collaroy Beach (pictured), on the northern beaches, at about midday on Monday

Police, ambulance and the NSW Rural Fire Service were on the scene

The State Emergency Service received 1600 calls for help across NSW over the weekend as torrential rain and winds downed trees, damaged roofs and flooded roads.

The Manly fast ferries were cancelled on Monday morning due to large swells in the harbour, while train services on the south coast line were briefly out.

Damaging winds with gusts more than 90km/h have been recorded along the Sydney and Illawarra coast and will move up the NSW coast throughout Monday.

A severe weather warning remains in place for a large stretch of the NSW coast.

The SES issued three evacuation orders late on Sunday after up to 200mm of rain hit several south coast towns in the previous 24 hours and up to 300mm in isolated areas.

The SES ordered hundreds of residents in Moruya, Sussex Inlet and Nowra suburbs including Terara, East Nowra, Worrigee and North Nowra to move to higher ground. The Shoalhaven River will peak on Monday at about 4.1 metres - a lower level than originally feared.

Low-lying areas of Terara Village, Ferry Lane, Lyrebird Drive Moss Street, Hyam Street, Terara Road, Bolong Road and Burrier Road may nevertheless experience flooding.

Heavy rain and howling winds batter the New South Wales south coast, while Sydney and the Blue Mountains are also being lashed by bad weather. Pictured: A car in Canberra submerged in rising floodwaters

Cars were caught in rising waters in Canberra on Sunday (pictured). The SES has told residents in Queanbeyan in the Australian capital's eastern fringe the surging flood waters should not be considered a 'tourist attraction'

Minor flooding has occurred along the St Georges Basin at Sussex Inlet and Island Point while 23 homes remain cut off at Broughton Vale near Berry.

By Monday morning, flooding at the Moruya River was minor and SES Commissioner Carlene York said the Moruya CBD evacuation order would soon be lifted.

Some 40 flood rescues have been required in NSW to date.

About 2000 Endeavour Energy customers in NSW remained without power on Monday afternoon, with storms creating 270 electrical hazards from fallen trees and branches.

'Localised flooding on parts of the south coast are hampering crews from accessing damaged parts of the network in some areas,' the company said in a statement.
(Bloomberg) -- Charter Communications Inc. has won support from an unlikely roster of organizations as it seeks permission to increase fees for customers that use a lot of data.

The Boys & Girls Club of Harlem, for example.

The New York youth organization is among scores of civic and local-business groups that have received charitable donations from the company, and have reciprocated by filing statements on Charters behalf with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. Others include a non-profit theater in Honolulu, civil rights organizers in Los Angeles, an African America museum in South Dallas, and a car dealership in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Theyre a supporter of us. We support them, Dominique Jones, executive director of the Harlem youth club, said in an interview.

The groups say the nations second-largest cable provider has won their support by being a good source of jobs and philanthropy in their communities. In its July 15 filing, the Boys & Girls club said it is happy to support Charter and mentioned a $35,000 grant it received to help with computer literacy.

Charters petition to the FCC asks for freedom to charge subscribers more for high data consumption, as well as to demand fees from online video providers such as Netflix Inc. The company agreed in 2016 not to do that for at least seven years when it won the FCCs approval for a $55 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable Inc.

The deal catapulted Stamford, Connecticut-based Charter from a regional player to a colossus with customers in New York and Los Angeles. Charter wants to be released from the conditions next May, at the five-year mark of its merger, rather than waiting until 2023.

Opponents say charging extra would be doubly self-serving: deterring the streaming of video from Netflix and other companies, and shunting viewers toward Charters in-house offerings. Charter calls the change a housekeeping measure and says it has no plans to impose the changes on customers but wants the freedom to adjust in a market that can change rapidly.

Story continues

Corporate Battle

The use of community groups to burnish a campaign isnt uncommon in Washington, where corporations wage battles for the ear -- and sympathy -- of regulators.

When asked by Bloomberg News about a letter filed July 20, the Niagara Falls Boys & Girls club, which got $5,000 from Charter for a summer camp, backed away from its support for the measure Charter is seeking from the FCC.

The letter the club submitted was prepared by Charter and upon closer review, the last paragraph of the letter states that we support Charters request, Rebecca Vincheski, chief executive officer of the club, said in an email.

The club has a position of neutrality on this important community issue, Vincheski said.

Enterprise Florida, the states main business development group, wrote to call for full and fair consideration of Charters request. In the filing, President Jamal Sowell cited 8,000 Charter workers in Florida, and grants from the company of $57,500 to groups including non-profits working on digital literacy.

Florida Governor

Enterprise Floridas chairman is Ron DeSantis, the states Republican governor. Charter gave his political action committee, Friends of Ron DeSantis, contributions of $25,000 on June 13, 2019, and $25,000 on Dec. 11, 2019, according to Florida states online records. Enterprise Florida didnt respond to emailed questions.

Competitors and consumer groups have urged the FCC to reject Charters request.

Promises made must be promises kept, said Chip Pickering, chief executive officer of the Incompas trade group, whose members include Netflix, Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc. Charter has the power to slow, throttle and stifle new creative content from online and streaming choices.

An advocacy group called Stop the Cap! that focuses on broadband issues has campaigned on line against Charters request, and it said more than 700 people wrote the FCC insisting the company not get its way. We are VERY disappointed in nonprofit groups receiving $ and equipment from Charter Spectrum that turn around and lobby the FCC in favor of data caps, Stop the Cap! tweeted.

Changed Circumstances

Charters June 17 petition seeking the changes cited changed circumstances. It pointed out a trend of recent years: appetite for online mini-series and movies is flourishing, while cable providers suffer a steady exodus of video customers. Online services are thriving and growing at an unprecedented rate, showing they dont need the protections afforded by the conditions, the company said.

Other TV providers have data caps and can charge for connecting to their networks, without ill effect on consumers, Charter said in its petition.

We wanted to put ourselves, from an opportunity perspective, on the same even playing field as all of our competitors, Charter Chief Executive Officer Tom Rutledge told investors on July 31. But we dont have any change in business strategy or marketing strategy or product strategy as a result.

Theres been another change, too: the FCC now is led by Chairman Ajit Pai -- a Republican who voted against the merger to express his distaste for the restrictions written by Democrats who were running the FCC in 2016.

The agency took comments on the issue through Aug. 6. FCC spokeswoman Anne Veigle declined to comment.

Charter is grateful for the comments submitted on its behalf to the FCC, Avery Boggs, a spokeswoman for the company, said in an emailed statement.

Our business is inherently local and we are committed to improving the communities we serve and impacting lives where our customers and employees live and work, Boggs said. These efforts include long-term relationships with local leaders and philanthropies.

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

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By PTI

NEW DELHI: Soon after his patch-up talks with senior Congress leaders, former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot on Monday night said he has never hankered after posts and his was a fight for principles.

Pilot, who made his first public appearance since he revolted against Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot a month ago, told reporters that he and the other MLAs raised organizational issues, the case of sedition filed by the SOG and the style of governance in the state, and expressed the hope that the grievances will be addressed soon.

ALSO READ | Rajastahan crisis: As Pilot succumbs, Gehlot seals a huge victory

He was speaking after the rebel Congress MLAs met party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and KC Venugopal and aired their grievances.

The MLAs said the issues raised were in the party's interests.

"We raised issues of principles before the Congress leadership and welcome their assurance of time-bound redressal of our grievances," Pilot told reporters.

"I don't crave for any post or hanker after any position. The party has given a position and can take it back.

I wanted that the respect be maintained and those who have worked hard in the formation of Congress government in Rajasthan be rewarded accordingly," the former deputy chief minister said.

Pilot said he has worked hard for bringing the Congress to power in Rajasthan and hoped the party would fulfill its promises made to the people.

After the meeting, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said, "The Congress will go forward unitedly by mutually respecting each other and resolving concerns raised".

Pilot said some personal remarks have been made against him, but he has never used such language that hurts anyone.

"I feel there is no place for personal mudslinging in politics," he said.

The young Congress leader said all this while he did not respond to any personal remarks made against him and maintained dignity.

"We raised organisational issues, the case of sedition filed by the state SOG, the style of functioning and governance in Rajasthan," Pilot said.

"I raised my experiences of 1.5 years to the party leadership and said whatever was in the party's interest," he said.

Prior to the meeting, a three-member Committee was formed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to address the grievances.

Sources said Priyanka Gandhi, Ahmed Patel and KC Venugopal will be part of this Committee.
Egypt: Suez Canal tunnels open 24 hours a day Decision to improve connections between Sinai, Wadi al-Jadid

(ANSAmed) - NAPLES, AUGUST 10 - Egypt has decided that tunnels of the Suez Canal will operate 24 hours a day to facilitate the movement of people and to serve development projects in the area.



The 24-hour opening kicked off on Sunday in a first since they were inaugurated, Emirati newspaper The National reports.



The tunnels are Tahyia Misr in Ismailia and July 3 in Port Said.



There will only be partial closures on Saturday and Sunday from 2 am until 8 am local time for maintenance work. The decision was ordered by President Abdel Al-Sisi to improve connections between the Sinai and the region of El Wadi el-Gedid.



Meanwhile on August 6 Egypt celebrated the fifth anniversary of the inauguration of the new Suez Canal which brough a 4.7% increase in financial revenues to 27.2 billion dollars over the last five years compared to the 25.9 billion over the 2010-2015 period. (ANSA).




Sprinkling bicarbonate of soda over a filthy stovetop and covering it with tea towels drenched in hot water and dishwashing detergent will lift tough stains without chemicals or scrubbing, an Australian mother has revealed.

In a cleaning group on Facebook, Allana Kirkwood said she spread a thick layer of the generic baking powder over her grimy cooker, then laid two soaking tea towels over the top.

After leaving the towels overnight, the mum from Tasmania found deeply ingrained dirt wiped off easily with a single swipe of the cloth - no scrubbing required.

Scroll down for video

Before: Tasmanian mum Allana Kirkwood's grimy stovetop

After: The cooker after being cleaned with bicarbonate of soda and tea towels soaked in hot water and dishwashing detergent

People were impressed by what she had achieved using only basic household staples found in millions of homes across the country.

One said: 'Amazing, I'm going to do this tonight.'

Another added: 'Wow, great stuff and so simple!'

Ms Kirkwood said she avoids heavy duty cleaning products typically used on ovens 'wherever possible' to reduce her exposure to toxic fumes.

She recommended the 'no scrub' method for anyone suffering from arthritis, an inflammatory n Austdisease which causes pain and stiffness in the joints.

It's the latest trick for shaving time and money off your cleaning regime doing the rounds on social media this month.

Ms Kirkwood said she sprinkled a generous layer of bicarbonate of soda (pictured)

She covered the cooker with damp tea towels drenched in dishwashing liquid (left and right)

On Sunday, an Australian mother revealed how a $7.50 dishwashing spray is her secret to a sparkling clean over door.

The woman posted anonymously in a household group on Facebook, telling members how she coated the grime-riddled glass with Fairy 'Lemon Easy Spray' and scrubbed with a sponge for just under two minutes.

Photos prove the dark grease lifted off easily, leaving the door gleaming with just a few spritzes of the product which is available from leading supermarkets like Coles and Woolworths.

The result of just two minutes of scrubbing with $7.50 Fairy 'Lemon Easy Spray'

The woman said she 'can't believe' she has finally found a product that lifts stains quickly and easily without the toxic fumes typically associated with effective oven cleaners.

The post quickly racked up hundreds of 'likes' and comments from impressed Australians, with many hailing the result the best they've seen.

One said: 'Wow, seeing is believing! I need to buy this.'

The cleaning spray is available from leading supermarkets like Coles and Woolworths

A second added: 'Getting this as soon as possible. I cleaned my oven a couple of weeks ago it was a nightmare.'

A third said the spray had done 'exactly the same' to her oven door and she never plans to clean it with anything else.

A fourth said she also sprays it on her shower door, leaving the glass brighter and cleaner than ever before.
At least 10 people died in clashes between protesters and security forces in Ethiopias southern region on Monday, health officials said, the latest violence as myriad ethnic groups clamour for more autonomy.

The protests were sparked by Sunday's arrest of local officials and activists seeking a new autonomous region for their Wolaita ethnic group, said Matheos Balcha, spokesman of the opposition party Wolaita National Movement Party. One of their party members was arrested, he said.

Security forces shot dead at least six people in Boditi on Monday, a town 295 km (180 miles) southwest of the capital Addis Ababa, said Temesgen Hilina, a senior official at Boditi health center.

They were shot in the head, abdomen, and their chest," he said. I was the one who gave them the first treatment and later they died."

A 14-year-old boy was among the dead, he said, and 34 people injured.

In Sodo town, 315 km southwest of Addis, a health officer from Wolaita Sodo University teaching hospital said he saw four dead gunshot victims and heard of eight others from colleagues. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

The regional government spokeswoman did not return a call seeking comment.

Like many ethnic groups, the Wolaita - currently part of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Regional state - want their own state, which would give them greater powers over security and taxation.

Ethiopia currently has 10 states and around 80 ethnic groups. Its federal system allows any ethnic group to demand a referendum on establishing their own autonomous region - but the previous administration never permitted such votes.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who came to power in 2018, oversaw democratic reforms that included holding one such referendum last year. But Abiy has struggled to reign in the forces he unleashed as regional strongmen build their bases with appeals to ethnic nationalism.

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The Perseids are one of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year (Getty)

One of the best meteor showers of the year will unleash up to 100 shooting stars an hour as it reaches its peak this week, astronomers have said.

All through this week, the Perseid meteor shower will blaze across the sky as our planet flies through a cloud of dust from a comet.

The shower will peak between 11 and 13 August, according to Royal Museums Greenwich.

You wont need binoculars or a telescope to watch, astronomy experts say (weather permitting).

The meteors occur yearly between 17 July and 24 August, but reach their peak this week.

The event, one of the high points in the celestial calendar, occurs as the Earth ploughs through dusty debris left by Comet Swift-Tuttle.

Read more: Lyrid meteor shower captured in time-lapse

The meteors, mostly no bigger than a grain of sand, burn up as they hit the atmosphere at 36 miles per second to produce a shooting stream of light in the sky.

Peak temperatures can reach anywhere from 1,648C to 5,537C as they speed across the sky.

The meteors are called Perseids because they seem to dart out of the constellation Perseus.

This colourful Perseid fireball was photographed during the Perseid meteor shower in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico. (Getty)

To make the best of the Perseids, observers should avoid built-up areas and try to find an unobstructed view to the east, experts suggest.

Royal Museums Greenwich suggests wannabe viewers should try to minimise the amount of light affecting their view.

Read more: Scientists warn dangerous space rocks could be hiding in meteor shower

An astronomer at the Greenwich Royal Observatory advises: Reduce the amount of light pollution in your field of view. This could mean heading out to the countryside, a nearby park or even do something as simple as turning your back to street lamps if you are not able to go anywhere.

Give your eyes at least 15 minutes to adjust to the dark so that you can catch more of the fainter meteors  this does mean that you should not look at your phone!

Meteors can appear in any part of the sky so the more sky you can see the better. Find an area with a clear view of the horizon and away from trees and buildings.

Story continues

Read more: Huge meteor explodes in the sky above Derby

Such shooting stars are formed when pieces break off comets in the heat of the sun.

If the debris ends up in Earths atmosphere, it can slam into our atmosphere, creating shooting stars visible from the ground.

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK Recommended
As Kerala has been receiving incessant rainfall for past many weeks, the flood-like situation continues to prevail in low-lying areas of Kuttanad taluk in Alappuzha due to heavy rainfall in the region.

Flood-like situation continues to prevail in low-lying areas of Kuttanad taluk in Alappuzha due to heavy rainfall in the region. In view of the current situation, the district administration has set up over 30 relief camps where affected people are being shifted in lorries and tractors, an official said on Sunday.

As Kerala has been receiving incessant rainfall for past many weeks, Kasaragod is all set to face any flood-related issues that may arise, said District Collector (DC) Dr D Sajith Babu on Sunday after the India Meteorological Department issued a red alert for the area. DC Babu said that they were ready to face any issue, should they arise. The low lying areas were flooded on Saturday but the police, the fire department, revenue department, the municipality and local people intervened and shifted the affected people.

He further added that camps had been opened in accordance with COVID-19 protocols. He added that heavy rain alert has been issued for the next three days. We request all departments to engage in relief work. People are requested to avoid unnecessary travel by road as trees are being uprooted. A new control room has opened in Kanjangad to coordinate actions.

Also read: 11 dead and 30 injured as fire breaks out at Covid-19 facility in Vijayawada

Also read: After getting landing clearance, plane missed approach runway: Kozhikode crash prelim report

The death toll in Idukki landslide has surged to 43 with the recovery of 17 bodies including a six-month-old baby, an official said on Sunday. Idukki District Information Office (DIO) said that a total of 17 dead bodies were recovered on Sunday. This included a six-month-old baby.

Two National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams, a full unit of Idukki Fire and Rescue team, a team each from Kottayam, Thiruvananthapuram, and a team which received special training are leading the rescue operations in Idukkis Rajamala, informed the DIO.

Also read: India to embargo import of 101 defence items: Rajnath Singh
The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) expresses concern on insecurity in the country and calls on the government to put a complete stop to the killing of innocent people.

By Fr. Benedict Mayaki, SJ

The Catholic Bishops of Nigeria (CBCN) have addressed the "increasing insecurity" and acts of terrorism in the country in the wake of recent violent attacks, especially in Northern Nigeria.

We continue to hear of increasing insecurity and unabated acts of terrorism in Northern Nigeria. We are all tired of this situation, said the Bishops in a statement issued on 8 August.

Our hearts are bleeding, and we are more troubled when we hear of the massacre presently going on in Southern Kaduna.

There should be one response from everyone, and that is; the killings must stop, read the statement signed by CBCN President, Archbishop Augustine Obiora Akubeze of Benin City on behalf of all the country's bishops.

Context

Violence in the form of attacks by suspected Fulani militia has increased recently in Northern Nigeria, especially in Kaduna State. Local media reports attribute at least three attacks on Southern Kaduna to the Fulani group in July alone.

About 76 people were also killed in an attack on Sabon Birni Local Government Area of Sokoto State in June. Last month, five humanitarian aid workers were violently murdered by Boko Haram militants after being abducted in Borno State in June.

On Wednesday, at least thirty-three persons, mostly women and children, were killed by unknown gunmen in an attack on five Atyap chiefdom villages in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State. The State government recently imposed a curfew in the area due to the rising tensions.

When there is no justice or justice is not seen to be done, there cannot be peace. When there is no peace, there cannot be development,

Appeal to the government



The bishops called on the Federal Government, as well as the Kaduna State Government to put an end to the killing of innocent people. They also insisted that the perpetrators of the killings must be brought to justice.

The loss of the life of any Nigerian does not help to further the agenda of any religious ideology or the ambition of any politician, read the statement. There will never be sustained development built upon the bloodshed of innocent people brutally murdered by religious fundamentalists without any recourse to justice for the victims.

When there is no justice or justice is not seen to be done, there cannot be peace. When there is no peace, there cannot be development, the bishops stressed.

Promises unkept

The bishops recalled that the present government came into power riding on the back of promises to eradicate corruption, guarantee security to life and property, and stimulate rapid growth in the economy.

The creation of jobs, and an enabling environment that engenders growth of the private sector; a significant increase in the supply of electricity to Nigerians, affordable and quality health care to Nigerians, and the revamping of the education sector were the promises the Government continues to make, they said.

However, noted the bishops, many Nigerians, irrespective of political party affiliation, will affirm that these promises have remained a far cry.

Call for prayers

In the face of these concerns, the Bishops invite all Catholics to join in praying one Our Father, three Hail Marys and one Glory Be to the Father every day after the Angelus for forty days.

This joint prayer will start from 22 August through to 30 September 2020  the eve of Nigerias Independence Day anniversary. On 1 October (Nigerias Independence Day), the faithful are to pray the five decades of the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary for God to save Nigeria.

We want all the people suffering the incessant attacks in Southern Kaduna to know that all the Catholics in Nigeria are praying for them, the Bishops said.

Concluding, the Nigerian Bishops enjoined everyone to be instruments of peace and reconciliation, and to be on the part of justice for all. They also prayed for eternal rest to all who died in the violence in Northern Nigeria and in other parts of the country.
Gunmen kill 20 in latest attack in Burkina Faso; 6 aid workers killed in Niger

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As many as 20 people were killed when unidentified gunmen attacked a cattle market in Eastern Burkina Faso on Friday, as violent extremist attacks continue to increase across the Sahel region of Africa.

Officials in Burkina Faso have not yet blamed any group for the attack.

"Unidentified armed individuals burst into a cattle market in Namoungou village in the region of Fada N'Gourma and attacked the population," Col. Saidou Sanou, the governor of the eastern region, said in a statement, according to Agence France Press. "According to an initial toll, around 20 people have been killed and numerous others wounded."

Although Burkina Faso was once thought of as a relatively peaceful nation in West Africa, Fridays attack comes as United Nations data indicates that some 1,800 were killed in terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso in 2019, up from 80 in 2016.

The increase in extremist violence in the country has led to the mass displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

Violence elsewhere in the Sahel continued in Niger on Sunday when gunmen opened fire in the Giraffe Zone in the southwestern part of the country, killing six French aid workers, a Nigerian driver and a guide.

Among those killed was Kadri Abdou, president of the Association of Giraffe Guides of Koure.

We are deeply saddened and thinking of the victims and their families to whom we offer our most sincere condolences and especially to the family of Kadri, our friend. May he rest in peace, the association said in a statement, according to The Associated Press.

French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian vowed on Monday to make those responsible answer for their acts.

According to the AP, the French government warned its citizens about traveling outside of Nigers capital city due to the presence of militants aligned with Islamic extremists groups such as Boko Haram, the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

Across the Sahel region  in countries that include Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger  the U.N. reports that terrorist attack casualties have increased five-fold since 2016, with over 4,000 deaths reported in 2019 alone. By comparison, 770 terrorist-casualty deaths were reported in 2016.

According to the U.N., 2019 saw the highest annual death toll due to armed conflict in the Sahel region since 2012.

France deployed over 5,000 troops to help combat the growing Islamic extremism in the Sahel region as part of its Operation Barkhane. Additionally, local fighters from various Sahel countries have also joined forces.

In March, the U.S. State Department named Peter Pham as a new special envoy in charge of monitoring extremist violence in the Sahel region.

In Burkina Faso, violence this year has increased in the countrys eastern region. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project, attacks in Burkina Fasos eastern region have increased by 75% in 2020. According to an internal security report seen by the AP, there were 11 clashes between Islamic militants and local defense militias in the first week of August.

Sahel researcher Heni Nsaibia told the news agency that violence in Burkina Faso is on track to surpass the violence that occurred there in 2019.

With a major humanitarian crisis, a swell in militant activities in multiple parts of the country, coupled with the incompetency of security forces, the picture looks quite grim, Laith Alkhouri, an intelligence specialist who specializes in extremism in West Africa, told the AP.

Burkina Faso was added to Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the greatest persecution. The country is ranked as the 28th worst in the world when it comes to Christian persecution while Niger ranks as No. 50.

Some of the extremists in Burkina Faso have targeted Christians and their places of worship.

According to Open Doors, Christians in Burkina Faso were told during some attacks to convert to Islam or die.

"An influx of violent Islamic extremist groups into West Africas Sahel region has led to these attacks that killed at least 40 Christians in 2019, Open Doors reports in a fact sheet. These groups are campaigning for attacks on believers, with some who want to create an Islamic state opposing the very existence of Christianity.

In February, a pastor was among dozens killed and injured when gunmen attacked a church in northeast Burkina Faso.

Last Fridays attack on the cattle market comes after a similar attack on the Kompienbiga cattle market in eastern Burkina Faso left about 30 dead in May.
Benchmark Sensex jumped over 300 points in early trade on Monday, led by gains in index majors HDFC twins, L&T and Kotak Bank amid sustained foreign fund inflow and positive cues from global markets.

The BSE Sensex was trading 317.68 points or 0.84 per cent higher at 38,358.25; while the NSE Nifty was up 92.05 points or 0.82 per cent at 11,306.10.

M&M was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying over 4 per cent, followed by L&T, Kotak Bank, SBI, Bajaj Finance, Sun Pharma, ITC and HDFC duo.

On the other hand, Maruti, Tata Steel and Nestle India were the laggards.

In the previous session, the Sensex had settled just 15.12 points or 0.04 per cent higher at 38,040.57, while the Nifty rose 13.90 points or 0.12 per cent to finish at 11,214.05.

Exchange data showed that foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 397.32 crore on a net basis on Friday.

According to traders, market sentiment was positive tracking firm cues from other Asian indices and consistent foreign fund inflow.

Bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul were trading on a positive note, while Tokyo was closed for a holiday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 1.06 per cent higher at USD 44.87 per barrel.
Boston, MA - 06/15/17 - A driver with placards for both Lyft and Uber waits for a traffic light outside South Station after picking up a passenger. Will Lyft benefit from the current corporate travails of competitor Uber? (Lane Turner/Globe Staff) Reporter: (Adam Vaccaro) Topic: (16lyft)

California Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman has granted a preliminary injunction forcing Uber and Lyft to reclassify its drivers as employees. This order is set to go into effect in 10 days.

"The Court is under no illusion that implementation of its injunction will be costly," Judge Schulman wrote in the order. "There can be no question that in order for Defendants to comply with A.B. 5, they will have to change the nature of their business practices in significant ways, such as by hiring human resources staff to hire and manage their driver workforces."

Given that the order won't go into effect for another 10 days, Uber plans to file an immediate emergency appeal, an Uber spokesperson told TechCrunch.

"The vast majority of drivers want to work independently, and weve already made significant changes to our app to ensure that remains the case under California law," an Uber spokesperson told TechCrunch. "When over 3 million Californians are without a job, our elected leaders should be focused on creating work, not trying to shut down an entire industry during an economic depression."

The decision comes after Judge Schulman heard arguments in court last week. The hearing was the result of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, along with city attorneys from Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, filing a preliminary injunction in an attempt to force Uber and Lyft to comply with AB 5 and immediately stop classifying their drivers as independent contractors.

"Drivers do not want to be employees, full stop," a Lyft spokesperson told TechCrunch. "Well immediately appeal this ruling and continue to fight for their independence. Ultimately, we believe this issue will be decided by California voters and that they will side with drivers.

In the order, Judge Schulman says the plaintiffs are likely to prevail on the argument that Uber and Lyft are violating AB 5. AB 5 codifies the 2018 ruling established in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v Superior Court of Los Angeles. In that case, the court applied the ABC test and decided Dynamex wrongfully classified its workers as independent contractors based on the presumption that a worker who performs services for a hirer is an employee for purposes of claims for wages and benefits

According to the ABC test, in order for a hiring entity to legally classify a worker as an independent contractor, it must prove (A) the worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity, (B) performs work outside the scope of the entitys business and (C) is regularly engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as the work performed.

The motion for a preliminary junction was filed as part of the suit filed in May, which asserted Uber and Lyft gain an unfair and unlawful competitive advantage by misclassifying workers as independent contractors. The suit argues Uber and Lyft are depriving workers of the right to minimum wage, overtime, access to paid sick leave, disability insurance and unemployment insurance. The lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of San Francisco, seeks $2,500 in penalties for each violation, possibly per driver, under the California Unfair Competition Law, and another $2,500 for violations against senior citizens or people with disabilities.

"For years, workers have been organizing and speaking out against our mistreatment by billion-dollar gig companies who have refused to obey the law," Uber driver and member of Gig Workers Rising Edan Alva said in a statement. "It is because of the fearlessness of workers that the Attorney General has been able to argue that the mistreatment we face is so severe that justice can no longer wait. Today, the court sided with workers and not corporations. Thousands of misclassified gig workers will receive the wages, benefits, protections and employee status they are legally owed. It is abundantly clear that Uber and Lyft now must comply with the law. We are steadfast in our demand that the gig companies drop their $110 million ballot initiative, Proposition 22, and reinvest those funds into treating their workers with dignity and respect."
Key domestic equity benchmarks ended with decent gains after a volatile session on Monday. The key indices sharply came off the day's high as profit booking emerged at higher levels. Global stock markets were upbeat after US President Donald Trump signed executive actions extending financial relief to Americans hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, the hearing the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) case is currently underway in the Supreme Court.

As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was rose 141.51 points or 0.37% at 38,182.08. The Nifty 50 index added 61.75 points or 0.55% at 11,275.80.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 1.42% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 1.47%.

Buyers outnumbered sellers. On the BSE, 1763 shares rose and 996 shares fell. A total of 172 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 397.32 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 438.62 crore in the Indian equity market on 7 August, provisional data showed

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 19,862,599 with 731,349 deaths. India reported 6,34,945 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 44,386 deaths while 15,35,743 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Economy:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a Rs 1 lakh crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund to support community farming assets across the country and said this would enhance India's ability to compete globally in the agriculture sector. The farm infrastructure will enable farmers get higher value for their produce as they will be able to store and sell at better prices as per market conditions, reduce wastage and increase processing and value addition. PM also released Rs 17,000 crore to nearly 8.5 crore farmers under the sixth installment of the PM-Kisan scheme.

AGR Case Hearing:

The Supreme Court (SC) has begun hearing the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) case at 15:00 IST today, 10 August. The apex court on 20 July reserved its order on permitting telecom companies to make staggered payments over 15 years. Both Vodafone Idea (up 2.49%) and Bharti Airtel (down 0.12%) requested for a 15-year window to clear the dues, while Tata Teleservices (up 5.80%) has sought 7-10 years.

The Supreme Court is reportedly also examining whether the insolvency proceedings of bankrupt telcos Reliance Communications (RCom), Aircel and Videocon Telecom are bonafide. At the previous hearing, it had directed the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to submit details of the insolvency proceedings of the bankrupt telcos before today's hearing.

Buzzing Segment :

Shares of eight defence companies rose by 3% to 10% after defence minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday announced import ban on 101 defence items. Dynamatic Technologies (up 10%), Hindustan Aeronautics (up 9.51%), Bharat Electronics (up 9.02%), Astra Microwave Products (up 5.02%), Bharat Dynamics (up 4.65%), Bharat Forge (up 3.81%), Premier Explosives (up 4.04%) and BEML (up 3.74%) were top gainers in defence segment.

The defence ministry has decided to put 101 items put on embargo to boost indigenisation of defence production. The embargo on imports is planned to be progressively implemented between 2020 and 2024. The deadline has been set for December 2025. The list of 101 embargoed items comprises some high technology weapon systems like artillery guns, assault rifles, corvettes, sonar systems, transport aircraft, light combat helicopters (LCHs), radars and many other items.

Earnings Today:

Among the Nifty stocks, Power Grid Corporation of India (up 0.65%), Shree Cement (up 2.28%) and Titan Company (up 1.63%) will announce their quarterly earnings today.

Among the other stocks, Akzo Nobel (down 0.53%), Bank of Baroda (up 0.10%), HEG (up 0.71%), KEC International (down 0.49%), Meghmani Organics (down 6.13%) and V-Mart Retail (up 0.77%) will announce their quarterly earnings today.

Earnings Impact:

Cipla jumped 9.13% to Rs 795.15 after the company's net profit rose 21% to Rs 578 crore on 9% increase in total revenue from operations to Rs 4,346 crore in Q1 FY21 over Q1 FY20.

EBITDA margin stood at 24.1% as 30 June 2020 as against 22.7% as 30 June 2019. Cipla said that it has achieved zero net debt position led by strong collections and improved EBITDA.

India business grew by 16% YoY with strong growth across the three businesses. Overall South African business continued the strong growth momentum to deliver growth of 17% on a YoY basis in local currency; private business continues to outpace the market. The US business reported $135 million led by Albuterol ramp-up; 14% QoQ growth.

Divi's Laboratories surged 11.89% to Rs 3115.40 after the company's consolidated net profit jumped 81% to Rs 492 crore on a 47% increase in total income to Rs 1748 crore in Q1 FY21 over Q1 FY20. The company has been able to have near normal operations during the quarter and there was minimal impact due to COVID-19 pandemic.

The company further said that while a significant part of the ongoing capex programs has been completed during the last financial year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been delay in implementing the balance part of the capex programs taken up by the company due to non-availability of workmen of some contractors implementing the projects. It expects to complete the capex programs by second half of the financial year.

REC gained 2.22% to Rs 108.10 after the consolidated net profit rose 22.29% to Rs 1,845.30 crore on 20.44% rise in total income to Rs 8,450.36 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

Meanwhile, the board of directors of REC approved the proposal of raising of funds through issue of unsecured/secured non-convertible bonds/debentures through Private Placement, upto an amount of Rs 85,000 crore, in one or more tranches, subject to approval of shareholders in this regard in the ensuing Annual General Meeting.

Birla Corporation tumbled 7.51% to Rs 604 after consolidated net profit tanked 53.2% to Rs 65.77 crore on 35.1% decline in net sales to Rs 1,221.97 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

Revenue for the quarter declined as sales by volume dropped 33.9% to 2.4 million tons (mt). EBITDA slumped 37% to Rs 252 crore in June 2020 as against Rs 402 crore in June 2019 amid severe disruptions in key markets and manufacturing centres due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"With the arrival of monsoons, cement prices have started to weaken in key markets from the end of June. Timely arrival of monsoons, however, augurs well for recovery of India's economy. While demand during rest of the year will be a function of how the lockdowns in various regions of the country pan out from time to time, expectations of gradual easing of lockdown in urban areas and resurgence in infrastructure activities with migrant workers returning to construction sites are indicative that the worst may be over for the industry. The company remains cautiously optimistic about a gradual return to normalcy over the next few months", the company said in a statement.

Affle India hit an upper circuit of 10% at Rs 2025.95 after the company's consolidated net profit jumped 42.3% to Rs 18.77 crore on 20% increase in net sales to Rs 89.77 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019. EBITDA margin remained unchanged at 25% in Q1 June 2020.

The firm said that the growth has been broad-based coming from both cost per converted user (CPCU) business and non-CPCU business. The CPCU business continued its positive momentum delivering a total of 1.7 crore of converted users in Q1 FY21.

IPCA Laboratories surged 6.97% to Rs 2091.95. The company's net profit surged to Rs 445.68 crore in Q1 June 2020 from Rs 129.43 crore in Q1 June 2019. Net total income increased by 41% YoY to Rs 1,546.49 crore during the quarter.

Global Markets:

Most markets in Europe and Asia edged higher on Monday. Investors shrugged off concerns over rising tensions between the United States and China. Japanese and Singaporean markets are closed for public holidays.

Investors continued to monitor the US fiscal stimulus after talks between the White House and Democrat lawmakers broke down.

In US, the S&P 500 retreated from a near six-month high in choppy trading on Friday with data showing a sharp slowdown in US employment growth, while US-China tensions escalated with President Donald Trump's move to ban WeChat and TikTok.

US President Donald Trump signed two executive orders banning WeChat, owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent, and TikTok in 45 days' time while announcing sanctions on 11 Chinese and Hong Kong officials.

Trump signed a series of executive orders to extend unemployment benefits after talks with Congress broke down. The orders would provide an extra $400 per week in unemployment payments, less than the $600 per week passed earlier in the crisis.

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The "Hustler" Riley Hickman of Ooltewah has his hands full in a different and unique aspect of his racing career. Winning nearly 100 various Late Model features over the past 20 years in and around Tennessee, North Georgia and Northeast Alabama, the most important aspect has been his twin sons. Now, at 13 Drew and Dillon (sitting on the door area - talking with dad) are interested in following in dads "tire tracks" and Sunday at Tim and Angie Kyle's I-75 Raceway, they got the first opportunity behind the wheel.

Driving a Ronnie Johnson owned MasterSbilt that was dad's race car a few years back, the twins with dad and Mama Hustler (Mrs. Angie Hickman) overseeing things, turned some laps Sunday morning. Jason Welshan/Competition Racing Equipment, a longtime stout competitor to dad, also was on-hand for insider guidance for the teenagers.

The Riley Hickman Racing Facebook page commended the boys debuts, in the closed track session and dad later said, "A lot of practice is in store for the boys," before they get their first taste of competition.

Hickman Manufacturing and American Billett of Ooltewah back Riley Hickman Racing with dad fielding a race car currently for Boyd's Speedway owner David Duplissey of Chattanooga. Hickman's biggest win came in 2014 when he beat Chickamauga's Dale McDowell in Central Tennessee at the "Deep Fried 75" worth $11,000 at Duck River Speedway outside Shelbyville. Most track host a "beginner" sportsman division that's specifically tailored to new racers both young and old.
In the largest study of its kind, Ottawa researchers found that children whose mothers reported using cannabis during pregnancy were at greater risk of autism. The incidence of autism was 4 per 1000 person-years among children exposed to cannabis in pregnancy, compared to 2.42 among unexposed children. The findings were published in the prestigious medical journal Nature Medicine.

Recreational cannabis is now legal in Canada, but that doesn't mean it's safe for people who are pregnant or breastfeeding. Health Canada and the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada recommend against these populations using cannabis, and health warnings to this effect appear on cannabis packaging.

"Despite these warnings, there is evidence that more people are using cannabis during pregnancy," said Dr. Mark Walker, Chief of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Newborn Care at The Ottawa Hospital, professor at the University of Ottawa and senior author on the study. "This is concerning, because we know so little about how cannabis affects pregnant women and their babies. Parents-to-be should inform themselves of the possible risks, and we hope studies like ours can help."

The research team reviewed data from every birth in Ontario between 2007 and 2012, before recreational cannabis was legalized. Of the half a million women in the study, about 3,000 (0.6 percent) reported using cannabis during pregnancy.

The researchers had previously found that cannabis use in pregnancy was linked to an increased risk of preterm birth, and created an animated video to summarize their findings. In that study, they found that women who used cannabis during pregnancy often used other substances including tobacco, alcohol and opioids.

Considering those findings, in the current study the researchers specifically looked at 2,200 women who reported using only cannabis during pregnancy, and no other substances. They found that babies born to this group still had an increased risk of autism compared to those who did not use cannabis.

The researchers do not know how much cannabis the women were using, how often, at what time during their pregnancy, or how it was consumed. They also note that while they tried to control for other factors that could influence neurological development, their study can still only show association - not cause and effect.

As cannabis becomes more socially acceptable, health-care researchers are mindful that some parents-to-be might think it can be used to treat morning sickness.

"In the past, we haven't had good data on the effect of cannabis on pregnancies," said Dr. Daniel Corsi, Epidemiologist at The Ottawa Hospital and BORN Ontario, which is affiliated with the CHEO Research Institute. "This is one of the largest studies on this topic to date. We hope our findings will help women and their health-care providers make informed decisions."

Women who are thinking about or currently using cannabis during pregnancy should talk to their health-care provider to help make an informed choice about what is best for them and their baby.

###

Reference: Maternal cannabis use in pregnancy and child neurodevelopmental outcomes. Daniel Corsi, Jessy Donelle, Ewa Sucha, Steven Hawken, Helen Hsu, Darine El-Chaar, Lise Bisnaire, Deshayne Fell, Shi Wu Wen, Mark Walker. Nature Medicine. Aug 10, 2020. DOI: 10.1038/s41591-020-1002-5

Core Resources: BORN Ontario, ICES, Canadian Institute for Health Information

Funders: This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Research at The Ottawa Hospital is possible thanks to generous donations to The Ottawa Hospital Foundation. BORN Ontario is supported by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.

About The Ottawa Hospital

The Ottawa Hospital is one of Canada's top learning and research hospitals, where excellent care is inspired by research and driven by compassion. As the third-largest employer in Ottawa, our support staff, researchers, nurses, physicians, and volunteers never stop seeking solutions to the most complex health-care challenges. Our multi-campus hospital, affiliated with the University of Ottawa, attracts some of the most influential scientific minds from around the world. Backed by generous support from the community, we are committed to providing the world-class, compassionate care we would want for our loved ones. http://www.ohri.ca

About the University of Ottawa

The University of Ottawa is home to over 50,000 students, faculty and staff, who live, work and study in both French and English. Our campus is a crossroads of cultures and ideas, where bold minds come together to inspire game-changing ideas. We are one of Canada's top 10 research universities--our professors and researchers explore new approaches to today's challenges. One of a handful of Canadian universities ranked among the top 200 in the world, we attract exceptional thinkers and welcome diverse perspectives from across the globe. http://www.uottawa.ca

Media Contact

Amelia Buchanan

Senior Communication Specialist

Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Cell: 613-297-8315

ambuchanan@ohri.ca
While love didn't work out for her on The Bachelor, she's found the one for her a lot closer to home.

The Bachelor season 21 winner Vanessa Grimaldi has become engaged to her boyfriend Josh Wolfe, a Canadian businessman.

Grimaldi, 32, took to her Instagram to share the happy news on Monday, in a spread of photos from the Sunday night engagement that she told People Magazine was 'an intimate, beautiful moment that was candle-lit.'

Love by candlelight: The Bachelor season 21 winner Vanessa Grimaldi has become engaged to her boyfriend Josh Wolfe, a Canadian businessman; seen on Instagram

'It was absolutely beautiful!' Vanessa gushed of the moment Josh, 35, popped the question atop the Saint-Louis Gate in Quebec City, Canada.

'I knew we were going to get engaged eventually, but I had no idea it was going to happen when it did," she continued.

'Josh is the first person I am with where I am at complete ease and where I never second-guessed his love for me. Ive been ready to say YES! I am the luckiest woman!'

While love didn't work out for her on The Bachelor, she's found the one for her a lot closer to home: The pair both live in Montreal

Her enthusiasm extended to her Instagram post, where she captioned a gallery of pictures showing Wolfe on one knee and the couple embracing with, 'August 9th, 2020 will forever be my favourite DAY OF MY LIFE!

'@jbrwolfe YOU ARE MY EVERYTHING AND I CANNOT WAIT TO BE FOREVER AND EVER WITH YOU!!!!!! #engaged' she concluded happily.

In 2017, Vanessa was the recipient of Nick Viall's final rose on The Bachelor, and the pair got engaged on the finale.

Cheers: Grimaldi took to her Instagram to share the happy news on Monday, in a spread of photos from the Sunday night engagement that she said was 'an intimate, beautiful moment'

In 2017: Vanessa was the recipient of Nick Viall's final rose on The Bachelor, and the pair got engaged on the finale

However, they parted ways only five months later.

'We just realized we were different people fighting to keep a relationship when ultimately we just werent the best fit for each other,' she told People at the time.

Happily, though, it seems Nick has nothing but well wishes for his ex and her new fiance.

'Well thank god I followed you back a week ago to hear this news,' Viall, 39, wrote in response to Grimaldis Instagram post about her engagement. 'Congrats to you two! Lucky guy. '

The exes recently followed each other again on Instagram soon after Nick announced an upcoming episode of his podcast, which sees the pair reuniting for a conversation.

But now, love is in the air for the special education teacher  with someone who was in her hometown of Montreal all along.

'I feel at home whenever I am with Josh,' Vanessa enthused about Josh. 'His love and affection for his family is something Ive always admired about him and what I've always looked for in a partner.

However: They parted ways only five months after the finale aired

But now: Love is in the air for the special education teacher  with someone who was in her hometown of Montreal all along

'Who knew my person was living in the same city as me all these years!' she added.

Ever the gentleman, Wolfe actually helped design Grimaldi's beautiful 1-carat diamond and 18K yellow gold engagement ring, with the help of local Montreal jeweler Teresa and Sons.

'I knew Vanessa was the one after the first Sunday lunch I had with her family in Saint Leonard,' he exclaimed. 'It was then that I realized just how important family was to her, as it is to me. I felt so welcomed, and just grateful at the idea that they may one day become my extended family. I felt like I was at home.

Ever the gentleman: Wolfe actually helped design Grimaldi's beautiful 1-carat diamond and 18K yellow gold engagement ring

'Also, the first time she made me her pasta sauce. Its something else!' he added giddily.

The couple, who enjoyed their first date in New York City, have been dating for a year and a half.

By way of an engagement party, the fiances will celebrate with a small group at their favorite Lebanese restaurant, Garage Beirut, in Montreal.

A portion of the bill will be donated to Red Cross Lebanon in support of victims and their families from last week's deadly explosion in Beirut.

'I knew Vanessa was the one after the first Sunday lunch I had with her family,' Josh exclaimed
Rana Daggubati, who played the iconic character Bhallaladeva in SS Rajamoulis Baahubali franchise, married his sweetheart Miheeka Bajaj, in a one-of-a-kind lockdown-style wedding in Hyderabad on Saturday evening. Every time the actor appears on screen, there is hardly anything else that one can focus on. From good looks to brilliant onscreen presence, Rana Daggubati is an absolute powerhouse of talent.

Most people know him as Bhalladeva or as Jai Singh Rathore in Akshay Kumars Baby. However, there is a lot more to this handsome actor than meets the eye. The actor made his debut in films in 2010 with Telugu blockbuster Leader and won the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut, South. Subsequently, next year he also ventured into Bollywood with the movie Dum Maaro Dum.

Here we have curated a list of some of the lesser known facts about this newly-wed star.

Check it out:

1. Began his career as visual effects coordinator

Despite being a star kid as his father Suresh Babu is a famous film producer, Rana started out as a special effects coordinator. Following his passion, the actor initially worked in the visual effects department for the Mahesh Babu starred Sainikudu in 2006. He even won a Nandi Award for his efforts - the highest honours in Tollywood. It was only years later that he stumbled upon a career in acting when he bagged a part in the 2010 film Leader and the rest is history.

2. Blind in one eye

The 35-year-old actor was part of a television show in 2016 where he admitted that he's blind in one eye during his childhood. In a bid to motivate one of the constants, Rana narrated his own story that left the audience shell-shocked. Speaking about his childhood, Rana said, "Should I tell you one thing, I am blind from my right eye. I see only from my left eye. The one you see is someone else's eye which was donated to me after his death. If I close my left eye, I can see no one."

"LV Prasad operated me when I was young. Study well, we will support, be courageous as you have to look after her. Sorrows will go away one day but you have to gear up and keep them happy always," he added.

3. Huge Kamal Haasan and Sridevi fan

 Kamal haasan sridevi

If you are a true Daggubati fan, then you would know that Rana is a self-confessed fan of legendary actors Kamal Haasan and Sridevi. In fact, Ulaganayagan played a big inspiration while the 35-year-old actor prepped for his iconic role Bhallaladeva in Baahubali. As per the reports, Rana paid close attention to Kamals act in the cult classic Nayagan to get the nuances of playing an aged man in the film. Interestingly, Rana keeps drawing inspiration from the legendary actor.

4. Incredible transformation for Baahubali

 Baahubali

The dedicated actor that he is, Daggubati had to go to incredible lengths to bulk up for Baahubali. In fact, he put on a whopping 110 kilos to play the character of older Bhalladeva in the first instalment of the SS Rajamouli film. To do this, he had to increase his meat consumption considerably to attain the right amount of muscle. Apparently, the actor consumed up to 40 egg whites each day! Isnt that phenomenal? That's not all, after bulking up, he had to lose around 20 kilos to play the younger version of the cruel king in Baahubali 2. Kudos to such commitment!

5. A Kabaddi enthusiast

 pro kabbadi



Not many know that Rana is the brand ambassador for the Pro Kabaddi League, but his involvement with the sport does not end there. He is an ardent supporter of the team Telugu Titans and can also be often seen on social media cheering on and motivating his team. In addition, he attends many matches of the Telugu Titans to show his support in person too.
By PTI

PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday drew the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi about alleged non-cooperation from Nepal in managing floods that have ravaged the state's northern districts. Rivers originating in the neighbouring country have inundated several districts of the state.

At a meeting convened by the prime minister on flood situation in states hit by the calamity, Kumar said that the authorities in Bihar had "not been receiving full cooperation from Nepal in the past few years" and sought the Centre's intervention on the matter.

"North Bihar gets ravaged by floods because of heavy rainfall in the catchment areas of Nepal. In accordance with an agreement between India and Nepal, the water resources department of Bihar conducts the flood management work in the bordering areas. "But we have not been receiving full cooperation from Nepal in the past few years," Kumar said in the meeting held via video conference.
WHO 'only 10 per cent of way' to funding fight Loading There is a "vast global gap" between funds needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic and funds committed, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says, and the WHO is only "10 per cent of the way" there. More than 19.92 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus globally and 729,883 have died, according to a Reuters tally. Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.

"The coming three months present a crucial window of opportunity to scale-up the impact of the ACT Accelerator for global impact," Tedros on Monday told a briefing in Geneva, referring to the "Access to COVID-19 Tools" initiative. "However to exploit this window, we have to fundamentally scale up the way we are funding the ACT Accelerator and prioritise the use of new tools. There is a vast global gap between our ambition for the ACT Accelerator, and the amount of funds that have been committed." He said the WHO was only "10 per cent of the way" to funding the billions of dollars required. "For the vaccines alone, over $US100 billion will be needed," Tedros said. This sounds like lot of money and it is. "But it's small in comparison to the $US10 trillion that have already been invested by G20 countries in fiscal stimulus to deal with the consequences of the pandemic so far."

However, he said he saw "green shoots of hope". "It is never too late to turn the pandemic around," Tedros said. The message is to "suppress, suppress, suppress". Dr Mike Ryan, head of WHO's emergencies program, said the coronavirus was simple, brutal and cruel. "It's brutal in its simplicity, it is brutal in its cruelty, but it doesn't have a brain," he said. "We have the brains... we can outsmart something that doesn't have a brain but we are not doing such a great job right now." Ryan said that Brazil was registering 50,000-60,000 cases per day. "Brazil is sustaining a very high level of epidemic, the curve is somewhat flattened, but it's not going down and the system is under great deal of pressure.

"In a situation like that, hydroxychloroquine is not a solution and not a silver bullet," he added, referring to the malaria drug which President Jair Bolsonaro has encouraged Brazilians to take against COVID-19. India posts record number of daily virus deaths India has registered a record 1007 fatalities in the past 24 hours as new coronavirus infections surged by 62,064 cases. The Health Ministry says the total fatalities reached 44,386 on Monday.

The number of positive cases reported so far are 2,215,074. At least 634,935 patients were still undergoing treatment. India has recorded more than 60,000 cases of the virus daily in the last four days and more infections than any other country in the world for six consecutive days. It has averaged around 50,000 new cases a day since mid-June. Infections in India remain concentrated in 10 states that contribute nearly 80 per cent of the new cases. India has the third-highest caseload in the world after the United States and Brazil. It has the fifth-most deaths but its fatality rate of about 2 per cent is far lower than the top two hardest-hit countries.

Iran shutters newspaper after expert questions virus numbers Iran shut down a newspaper on Monday after it published remarks by an expert who said the official figures on coronavirus cases and deaths in the country account for only 5 per cent of the real toll, allegations rejected by the Health Ministry. Mohammad Reza Sadi, the editor-in-chief of Jahane Sanat, told the official IRNA news agency that authorities closed his newspaper, which began publishing in 2004 and was mainly focused on business news. A volunteer checks the temperature of a worshipper as she enters the mosque of Tehran University. Credit:AP On Sunday, the daily quoted Mohammad Reza Mahboobfar, an epidemiologist the paper said had worked on the government's anti-coronavirus campaign, as saying the true number of cases and deaths in Iran could be 20 times the number reported by the Health Ministry.

He also said the virus was detected in Iran a month earlier than February 19, when authorities announced the first confirmed case. He said they held up the announcement until after the commemorations of the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and parliamentary elections earlier that month. "The administration resorted to secrecy for political and security reasons," he said, and only provided "engineered statistics" to the public. He also criticised testing efforts and warned of a renewed outbreak next month as universities hold entrance exams and people mark major Shiite holidays. Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari rejected the allegations and said Mahboobfar had no role in the government's anti-coronavirus campaign. IRNA quoted her as saying the ministry has provided figures in a "transparent" way. "The Health Ministry is not a political body and health of people is its main priority," she said.

The ministry has reported a total of nearly 330,000 cases and 18,616 deaths, including 189 fatalities in the past 24 hours. Antonio Banderas tests positive for virus Antonio Banderas says he's tested positive for COVID-19 and is celebrating his 60th birthday in quarantine. The Spanish actor announced his positive test in a post on Monday on Instagram. Banderas said he would spend his time in isolation reading, writing and "making plans to begin to give meaning to my 60th year to which I arrive full of enthusiasm". "I would like to add that I am relatively well, just a little more tired than usual and hoping to recover as soon as possible following medical instructions that I hope will allow me to overcome the infection that I and so many people in the world are suffering from," wrote Banderas.

Earlier this year, Banderas was nominated for the Academy Award for best actor for his performance in Pedro Almodovars Pain & Glory. Antonio Banderas says he has tested positive for coronavirus. Credit:Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP Virus 'on its way back' in Denmark Denmarks health minister says the virus is "on its way back", and has announced local measures to contain it. "We are intervening with local measures that are fitted to local needs," Magnus Heunicke said on Monday. "We are doing that to avoid a total lockdown of the country."

Increases in the number of cases were reported in Aarhus  Denmarks second-largest city  and in six other places geographically spread across the country of nearly 6 million. Loading Since Sunday, Denmark has recorded 76 new cases, totaling 14,815 cases and 620 deaths. More than half of the new cases are in Aarhus, The decision comes after Aarhus made it mandatory as of Monday to use face masks on public transportation. Sign up to our Coronavirus Update newsletter Get our Coronavirus Update newsletter for the day's crucial developments and the numbers you need to know. Sign up to The Sydney Morning Herald's newsletter here and The Age's here.
While corporate earnings reporting no longer has an impact on overall market sentiment, all eyes will be on new developments of the second wave of coronavirus in Vietnam.

Rolled steel produced by Hoa Sen Group (HoSE: HSG). The company's shares gained total 17.9 per cent last week.  Photo vsa.com.vn

Viet Nams benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange gained a total of nearly 5.4 per cent to finish last week at 841.46 points.

The markets growth was a surprise as most analysts had bet on a change of market sentiment from positive to negative since the number of infections was increasing.

As of Sunday evening, the total number of infection cases in Viet Nam was 841 and 11 people had died.

The market recovered from two slumps on July 24 and 27, which pushed the VN-Index down to 785 points, as investors were motivated by the efforts of the Government to put the virus under control soon, Vu Minh Duc, director of market research and analysis at VietCapital Securities Corp, said.

Since July 27, the VN-Index has gained a total of 7.17 per cent in two weeks.

Last weeks rally was attributed to strong gains in the materials sector, which added 8.5 per cent to its market capitalisation. The industry was led by steel producers such as Hoa Phat (HPG), Hoa Sen (HSG) and Nam Kim Steel (NKG).

Following the materials industry was consumer staples, which was up 7.7 per cent on the back of dairy producer Vinamilk (VNM), Masan (MSN) and brewer Sabeco (SAB).

The recovery of global crude had a positive impact on the oil and gas sector with PetroVietnam Oil Corp (PVO), Petrolimex (PLX), PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS) and PetroVietnam Coating Corp (PVB) rising.

The banking, industrials, utilities, information and technology, financials, and health care and pharmaceuticals sectors also advanced between 2.4 per cent and 6.2 per cent.

BIDV Securities Corp (BSC) said in its weekly report that the market will struggle in August as there will be a lack of good news strong enough to lift the whole market as the spread of virus remains unpredictable and there is tension between the US and China.

Corporate earnings reports are no longer a factor that could drive market sentiment, the company added.

More than 690 listed companies on HoSE and HNX, equal to 92 per cent of the total, have posted an annual decline of 11.8 per cent in their post-tax profit in the second quarter. After six months, those companies saw net profits fall 16.8 per cent on-year.

In the last two trading days of last week, market growth weakened to indicate investors were a bit confused, BSC said.

Last weeks development may suggest the VN-Index will struggle at 850-865 points, VPS Securities director of market analysis Le Duc Khanh told tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn.

The VN-Index may slip from 840-845 points before bouncing back to 850-855 points or it could leap to 845-850 points then decline, he forecast. Whatever the move is, the market is getting more positive than negative.

The increase of new cases in Viet Nam will definitely affect Viet Nams socio-economic development path, especially when local companies have experienced the toughest second quarter, Nguyen Anh Khoa, Agribank Securities Cos director of market analysis and consultancy, said.

The level of 850 points will still be strong resistance for the VN-Index and it is not easy to get past this level, he said.  VNS

VN stocks under pressure as virus cases weigh on market sentiment Vietnamese shares are on the edge of declining this week as worries about the second wave of coronavirus spread increased after new cases were reported over the weekend.
BEIJING -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday extended his congratulations to Mahinda Rajapaksa on the latter's assuming office as Sri Lanka's new prime minister.

Li said in his congratulatory message that China and Sri Lanka enjoy traditional friendship, and recent years have seen their strategic partnership developing vigorously, which features sincere mutual help and time-hornored friendship, and their practical cooperation in various fields constantly broadening and deepening.

In particular, Li said, the Chinese and Sri Lankan governments and people have been looking out for each other and sharing weal and woe in the joint combat against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has consolidated and elevated their friendship.

Li pointed out that Prime Minister Rajapaksa has been long committed to promoting the friendship between the two countries.

Noting that China attaches great importance to developing relations with Sri Lanka, Li said that China is willing to consolidate its traditional friendship with Sri Lanka, deepen mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation, and promote faster development of China-Sri Lanka relations to better benefit the two countries and peoples.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 601 coronavirus cases Monday, raising the statewide total to 119,453.

After a steady climb of new infections in July, the number of new cases has dipped in August. Officials said they were worried about the uptick in July, particularly with the rise in new cases among adults age 19 to 24.

The state hasnt reported 1,000 new cases in a single day since July 28, a number the state reached several times last month. At the peak of the coronavirus in the spring, the health department regularly reported well over 1,000 new cases on a daily basis.

Across Pennsylvania, 7,317 deaths have been tied to COVID-19, including 3 newly reported fatalities Monday. About two-thirds of the states coronavirus deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes.

The state has administered 152,486 COVID-19 tests over the last seven days (an average of 21,783 per day), the health department said. There were 18,368 test results reported to the department through 10 p.m. Sunday.

Gov. Tom Wolf and Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine continue to stress the importance of social distancing, particularly as schools and colleges prepare to open later this month.

On Friday, the Wolf administration said the states positive test rate for COVID-19 dropped to 4.1 percent; it has been 4.6 percent the previous week. Still, the governors office said several counties bear watching because their positive test rate is at or above 5 percent, including York (5.8%) and Lancaster (5.3%).

State data show the trend in new cases over the past several weeks.

July 7-13: 5,438 new cases, an average of 776 per day

July 14-20: 5,996 new cases, an average of 856 per day

July 21-27: 6,526 new cases, an average of 932 per day

July 28-Aug. 3: 5,891 new cases, an average of 841 per day

Aug. 4-10: 5,298 new cases, an average of 756 per day

There are 1,240,830 patients who have tested negative since the virus was first found in Pennsylvania.

About 77 percent of all those who have contracted the coronavirus have recovered, according to the health department. The department considers patients to have recovered when they have reached 30 days past the point of infection or the onset of symptoms.

Across the state, 4,974 coronavirus deaths have occurred in nursing homes and personal care homes, the health department said.

The department said 20,011 residents in long-term care facilities have contracted COVID-19, along with 4,161 employees. A total of 24,172 people in those facilities have been infected.

Cases have been found at 883 long-term care facilities in 61 counties.

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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.

Tune into a conversation about Isabel Wilkerson's new book on our invisible caste system. Watch wacky videos compiled from found footage. Listen to risky storytelling. Get crafty and drink crafty. Head to the latest SFV drive-in. And listen in as KPCC's Kyle Stokes talks about plans for the upcoming school year.

Monday, Aug. 10; 5 - 6:30 p.m.



In Conversation: Isabel Wilkerson and Jacqueline Woodson

The California African American Museum presents an online conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winner Wilkerson who discusses her latest book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, with children's author Jacqueline Woodson. Wilkerson's new book examines how our class system has shaped America. Signed copies of the book are available at Eso Won Books. Zoom instructions will be sent after RSVP.

COST: FREE with RSVP; MORE INFO

Tuesday, Aug. 11; 6 p.m. PDT



Nathaniel Rateliff

Roots-soul musician Nathaniel Rateliff performs his solo album, And It's Still Alright, in its entirety from his home studio in Denver. The night begins with an interview between Rateliff and Rolling Stone editor and music journalist David Fricke. Proceeds from the event will benefit Rateliff's foundation, The Marigold Project, which supports various organizations working for economic and social justice.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Watch found footage films on Tuesdays on the Museum of Home Video's Twitch channel. (And yes, that's Isabella Rossellini.) (Courtesy of the Museum of Home Video)

Tuesdays, 7:30 p.m. PDT



Museum of Home Video

Film programmer and Voyager Institute founder Bret Berg has launched a new online film showcase for found footage. Tune in live on Twitch for 90 minutes of weird, obscure and outdated video finds.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Tuesdays, Aug. 11 - Oct. 27



For the Love of L.A.

The Music Center launches a new weekly series on its social media accounts, debuting more than 35 works of art that celebrate L.A.'s creative community of musicians, dancers, performers and visual artists. Tune in on Tuesday see up to three new works revealed, then learn more about the artists in the digital library The Music Center Offstage.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Tuesday, Aug. 11; 7 p.m. (doors)



Spree

Vineland Drive-In

443 Vineland Ave., City of Industry

ArcLight at the drive-in presents an advance screening of Spree, starring Joe Keery (Stranger Things) as a 23-year-old rideshare driver who wants social media attention so badly that he tries to go on a videotaped rampage, but it doesn't really go as planned. Stand-up comedian (Sasheer Zamata), who has her own viral agenda, crosses his path and may be the only person who can stop the insanity.

COST: $45 per car (carmel corn popcorn included); MORE INFO

A preschool classroom at Cal Poly Pomona. (Mariana Dale/KPCC)

Wednesday, Aug. 12; 4 p.m.



Virtual Event: Kyle Stokes on Distance Learning

KPCC's education reporter Kyle Stokes talks about schools and distance-based learning in the midst of a pandemic. The Zoom conversation will focus on educational plans, safety, school-life-family balance and how to reach and teach the most vulnerable children. Once registered, participants will be able to submit questions for Stokes.

COST: FREE, with RSVP; MORE INFO

Wednesday, Aug. 12 (Opening)



Jazz on a Summer's Day

The 1959 concert documentary directed by Bert Stern has been digitally restored and opens in select virtual cinemas. Shot at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, it captures performances by legendary artists including Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Anita O'Day, Chuck Berry, Dinah Washington and Mahalia Jackson. Find the film at several SoCal Laemmle theaters or through the Frida Cinema in Santa Ana. One ticket is good for a five-day rental. Proceeds benefit whichever theater you buy your tickets from.

COST: $10; MORE INFO

Thursday, Aug. 13; 6:30 p.m. PDT



RISK! Livestream Online Show

Host Kevin Allison leads a lineup of storytellers who tell tales they never thought they'd reveal in public. The show is accessible via Zoom.

COST: $15 per person; MORE INFO

Thursday, August 13



Crafting + Craft Beer

The Orange County Museum of Art offers a craft-at-home workshop with participants learning simple embossing techniques to create a metallic hanging. The session is led by teaching artist Elizabeth Cardenas and draws inspiration from Allan Sekula's photograph, "Dockers Unloading Sugar Ship," which is in OCMA's collection. Pick up art supplies (including your own beverage) from Green Cheek Beer Co. (Orange and Costa Mesa) through Thursday while supplies last.

COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Thursday, Aug. 13; 7 p.m.



KCRW's Trivia Night

KCRW's Summer Club presents a team-based, long-form game night based on KCRW Trivia Club Live. Madeleine Brand hosts the virtual battle of trivial knowledge via Zoom. Event link will be sent to all registered attendees the day of the event.

COST: FREE for KCRW members, by donation for everyone else; MORE INFO

Thursday, Aug. 13 - Sunday, Aug. 16



San Fernando Valley Drive-In Theatre

Westfield Fashion Square

14006 Riverside Dr., Sherman Oaks

My Valley Pass brings a retro drive-in back to the SFV with a lineup that includes The Sandlot, Grease, Jurassic Park and La Bamba this week. The screenings will raise money for The Valley Relics Museum and the Neon Retro Arcade, both of which have been closed for several months during the pandemic.

COST: Tickets start at $15 per person; MORE INFO

Through Saturday, Aug. 22



7th Annual Burbank CoVedy Festival

The international virtual comedy fest continues with a lineup of shows, podcasts, workshops and Q&As featuring more than 250 participants and performers. They include Michael Rapaport, Rob Paulsen, Jackie Kashian, Jimmy Pardo, Laurie Kilmartin and Jimmy Dore.

COST: Ticket prices vary ($5 - $25); MORE INFO

Lawry's debuted The Silver Cart Terrace in Beverly Hills last week. (Courtesy of Lawry's)





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.
A high-flying sales executive who sealed lucrative eight-figure deals has won a sex discrimination claim after she was 'pushed aside for an old boys network'.

Nadine Lee's male bosses 'went behind her back' by stripping her of her multi-million pound accounts and giving them to new salesmen without her consent, a tribunal heard.

Ms Lee, a sales manager at Silicon Valley tech company Splunk's London office, was so successful in her job selling computer software deals to Fortune 100 companies she took home 750,000 one year through commission on top of her 95,000 salary.

She was regularly lauded for negotiating huge deals with high-profile clients including global banks and won 'prestigious' sales awards.

High-flying sales executive Nadine Lee (pictured) who sealed lucrative eight-figure deals has won a sex discrimination claim after she was 'pushed aside for an old boys network'

But, bosses feared she would 'burn out' so encouraged her to take six months leave - then gave her profitable accounts to the newly-hired salesmen without her permission.

One salesman - who had been friends with Ms Lee's bosses for years - was given a higher salary than her and, upon her return, shocked Ms Lee was given significantly less valuable accounts.

Now she has successfully sued Splunk for sex discrimination after arguing that new recruits were given 'preferential treatment'.

Ms Lee, of asian descent, told bosses: 'This appears to be an old boys' network and a high performing female from an ethnic background with an outstanding performance is being pushed aside for the furtherance of that network.'

Accounts were transferred to male executives just three weeks before Ms Lee returned from leave.

A judge ruled that the reallocation of accounts was 'humiliating' and wouldn't have happened if she were a man.

A tribunal report revealed the damning gender unbalance at the male-dominated Splunk, with men making up for '90 per cent of its upper pay quartile'.

Global account manager Ms Lee worked for the company from February 2013 until her resignation in August 2018, which came soon after her return from leave.

New recruit Steven Gracey, UK sales director, then headhunted Raj Dosanjh (right) - whom he knew previously - and gave him a 110,000 salary, 15,000 more than Ms Lee

Ms Lee, who graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2001, had a number of big accounts - one of which was 'one of the largest banks in the world' - for years and had closed 'large deals' for them.

She received numerous emails from bosses praising her for her 'masterful' work, entry to the company's 'President Club' and was also given a Rolex and a 'one-time spot bonus' of 70,000.

She was also showered with praise again after closing a series of mega deals worth 2.68million 7million and 9.2million.

Soon, in January 2018, her boss put forward a proposal that she be granted six months leave.

Then-director of sales Colin Ferguson said Ms Lee 'had been a consistent high performer over the last four years and her work effort and ethic had been the highest he had seen in the UK' - but was worried she would 'burn out'.

New recruit Steven Gracey, UK sales director, then headhunted Raj Dosanjh - whom he knew previously - and gave him a 110,000 salary, 15,000 more than Ms Lee.

The London employment tribunal heard Mr Gracey then oversaw the reallocation of Ms Lee's biggest accounts to Mr Dosanjh.

A resignation letter said 'her managers removed her accounts and allocated poor accounts in their place and gave new recruits from their network preferential treatment to her detriment'.

Employment Judge Lewis said: 'Removing and reallocating [accounts] without the Ms Lee's consent was a detriment.

Ms Lee has successfully sued San Francisco-based software company Splunk for sex discrimination after arguing that new recruits were given 'preferential treatment'. Pictured: The building where Splunk's London office is

'The claimant was a top performer, if not the top performer, in the Europe, Middle East and Africa division for many years.

'These were high value accounts on which she had built relationships and in the case of [two accounts], had recently secured large high-profile deals.

'Moreover, the way it was carried out, without consultation and behind her back, was hurtful and humiliating.'

The judge added: 'We find that.. the reallocation of [accounts] as well as the way it was handled while the claimant was away and behind her back, was because of the claimant's sex.

'Mr Dosanjh and/or a man in the claimant's position would not have been treated this way.'

The judge was also critical of Splunk bosses' 'belittling' assessment of Ms Lee when she was described as a 'good but not great salesperson' who needed 'hand-holding'.

Ms Lee sued Splunk for sex discrimination and unfair dismissal. She is yet to receive compensation.

Ms Lee also alleged sex discrimination as she did not win the Salesperson of the Year award - which was considered 'prestigious' and had been won by her before - when she brought in the most revenue.

A white man, who scored less than her, was preferred for the award in Las Vegas.

However, Judge Lewis said this did not amount to sex discrimination as rules of the award state that deciding who won was down to the 'discretion' of her boss.
https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8610351-sobewff-fiu-chaplin-school-hospitality-industry-relief-fund-grant/

"We commend Mayor Gimenez and his team for stepping up to create this emergency grant program to help the Miami-Dade County hospitality industry during these challenging and unprecedented times," said Lee Brian Schrager, Founder and Director, SOBEWFF. "We are also grateful to count United Way of Miami-Dade as a partner in this endeavor, which will aid thousands of hard-working hospitality employees who need our help now more than ever, and who are part of the economic engine of our celebrated industry."

Since it launched on March 25, 2020, the SOBEWFF & FIU Chaplin School Hospitality Industry Relief Fund has granted more than $1.6 million to more than 500 local restaurants in South Florida. The $5 million grant received from the County is part of a larger Miami-Dade County Business Grant Program. From this grant program, $30 million is earmarked for a new Miami-Dade County Hospitality Industry Grant (HIG) Program, administered by the County to provide hospitality businesses much needed financial assistance to help sustain them through the most recent County-wide closures. Funds from the County's grant program can be used for expenditures that will allow the businesses to remain viable and cover expenses incurred as of March 1, 2020. For more information on the Miami-Dade County Hospitality Industry Grant (HIG) Program, including eligibility requirements, please visit https://www.miamidade.gov/global/initiatives/coronavirus/employment-business.page.

"We recognize the hardship this shutdown has placed on the local hospitality community in Miami-Dade County and want to do our part to offset those financial burdens," added Mayor Gimenez. "We remain committed to balancing the priority of public health with the preservation of our local economy and are pleased to partner with the SOBEWFF and FIU Chaplin School team, who were one of the first to launch and successfully execute a hospitality relief initiative in South Florida. Our goal with this latest effort is to quickly deliver financial relief to help sustain those hospitality businesses so they are positioned to reopen and rehire when we overcome this crisis."

"FIU and the Chaplin School are so thankful to Miami-Dade County for its support of our efforts, which have helped more than 500 business owners and thousands of employees to date," said Michael Cheng, dean of the Chaplin School. "We are also grateful to count United Way of Miami-Dade as a partner in this endeavor which helps us give hope to hospitality workers and to our students, who are the future leaders in the industry, that our local government and community supports them, and that hospitality will thrive again."

Funding for the Miami-Dade County Business Grant Program has been made available under section 601(a) of the Social Security Act, as added by section 5001 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act ("CARES Act"). The CARES Act established the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) and appropriated $474M to Miami-Dade County of which has been allocated to various areas of need.

For more information, to donate to the SOBEWFF & FIU Chaplin School Hospitality Industry Relief Fund, or to apply for a relief grant, please visit https://sobewff.org/mdc-relief/.

Press Contacts:

Festival Public Relations

Andrea Moreno  [email protected]

FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management

Ivonne Yee-Amor  [email protected]

SOURCE Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival presented by Capital One
Clashes between protesters and law enforcers continue in central Beirut, Al Jazeera TV reported.



According to the television channel, clashes are reported Sunday from an area near the Lebanese parliaments building. The police are using tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.



Al Arabiya said earlier on Sunday that protesters had begun to gather in downtown Beirut again. According to the television channel, calls for participation were spread in the morning via social networks.



On Saturday, an anti-government protest gripped downtown Beirut, turning into riots. Sami Gemayel, the leader of Lebanon's Kataeb opposition party, had earlier called for mass anti-government protests. The protesters blamed the ruling coalition for corruption and demanded an early election and an independent probe into a powerful blast that ripped through Beiruts port on August 4, claiming more than 150 lives and destroying the capitals infrastructure.



Earlier, Arab media reported that at least 728 people were injured in the protests and one police officer died of a head injury.
In the Igbo town of Idumuje-Ugboko in southeast Nigeria, artist and architect Demas Nwoko reports to his home office Monday through Friday.

The room is cool, softly lit and furnished with his own hand-built wooden desks, tables and chairs. A selection of Nwokos terracotta sculptures is displayed on shelves. Throughout the day, the 84-year-old meets one-on-one with his two young interns, recent architecture school graduates who assist with the logistics of his latest building projects. His feedback and direction are those of an exacting perfectionist, but his serious tone is softened by an easy chuckle.

Outside his two-storey mud-brick home is the communitys only paved road, connecting the town to the capital Abuja in the north and Lagos in the west. A slow but steady stream of residents patronises nearby shops, buying mostly basic food provisions. The farm-based economy here is bolstered by work in Lagos and remittances from abroad.

The African Designs Development Centre, Nwokos factory, is the sole industrial venture in town and is under the direction of Nwokos son, 54-year-old Ashim, an architect and building contractor. The family hopes to eventually employ workers from the area to manufacture furniture and building components from locally sourced materials to be sold across the country. For now, the workshop is used to build custom parts to supply Demas Nwokos building commissions.

Today, Nwokos attention is focused on a recent government commission to design the new National Gallery, 415km (258 miles) away in Abuja. His laptop sits next to stacks of notes for his autobiography and a manuscript about his architectural philosophy. His wife beckons repeatedly until he finally allows his work to be interrupted for lunch.

Im a realist, a concrete thinker, allergic to wasting effort, Nwoko says, gazing into the distance as he speaks, as if seeing his vision before him. His now-white beard and afro echo the pattern of white circles on his indigo tie-dye top. He is still a man with much to do as he follows his plan to keep pushing in my own small corner at what is positive and viable.

Demas Nwoko and intern Gentle Paul work on a new roof design for the theatre in New Culture Studios, a full-facility community arts institution in Ibadan [Photo courtesy of Rufus Nwoko]

Following global trends

Nwoko grew up as a prince in a mud palace, a son of the village king. The palace was fashioned to emulate those of the Oba of Benin from whom the royal family descends, and features spaces for public gatherings, private meetings, and secret rituals, all constructed from laterite.

By the age of three, I was already recognising architectural features, he recalls with some wonder. I was aware of buildings as architecture  design built by somebody.

Throughout his childhood, he played at architecture and paid close attention to new buildings in the community, watching their construction from the foundations up.

To formalise his interests, Nwoko apprenticed as a draughtsman in the Public Works Department, preparing himself to study architecture. But after applying for admission to universities in Nigeria and the United Kingdom, backed by the promise of government funding, he became disillusioned with his plans. Other government-sponsored students came back to work in an office. I wouldnt be studying my own idea of architecture, Nwoko explains. He chose to study fine arts instead, ensuring that he would have the opportunity to develop himself creatively.

New houses going up in Eleyele Ibadan [Andrew Esiebo/Al Jazeera]

But when he got to the University of Zaria, he found that there was a complete absence of the study of our own traditional knowledge.

Nwoko remembers how the curriculum avoided the study of modern art as the Europeans tried not to teach it because it would reveal that there is an African influence.

So he and like-minded art students formed the Zaria Arts Society in 1958, a collective committed to the independent study of Nigerian artistic heritage as a means of forming the foundation for their curriculum.

They developed a methodology they coined Natural Synthesis, anchoring their drawing, painting, sculpture and printmaking in the knowledge of African art traditions (with the conscious addition of Western innovations where useful) as a platform for their creative output. Among peers who would become giants of Nigerian modern art, such as Uche Okeke, Bruce Onobrakpeya, and Yusuf Grillo, Nwoko created works inspired by Nok terracotta heads from 300 BC, the ancient sculptural works of Ile-Ife, and everyday scenes from his hometown.

Nwoko soon formalised a related guiding philosophy called New Culture to describe his personal practice. Believing that everything must be grounded in ones heritage and that culture is continually evolving, he draws from his ancestral legacy to provide the foundation for culturally relevant development and innovation.

In a newly independent Nigeria in the 1960s, a similar reverence for indigenous knowledge could have gained prominence across disciplines as an assertion of national pride. However, Nwokos embrace of traditional methods in his architectural practice was mostly an anomaly.

Reflecting on the general mindset of the times, Nwoko describes how, as a country, everything we did was to follow the world trend, whether it served us or not. We didnt want to pursue our own knowledge.

Houses in the city of Ibadan, home to six million people [Andrew Esiebo/Al Jazeera]

Traditional Nigerian design

After graduating from the University of Zaria in 1961 and receiving a scholarship to study theatre and stage design in France, Nwoko was recruited to help launch the University of Ibadans School of Drama. As he settled into his new city, he started his first building project, the construction of his private residence and arts space, which he would later expand to become a full-facility community arts institution named New Culture Studios.

Given his background, it was a conventional choice to use on-site materials in his construction. Hand-built earthen homes can still be found, particularly in rural communities. Their often lumpy, coarse surfaces show evidence of an organic building process and the individual tastes of the people who built them.

As Ashim explains, mud building is indigenous technology developed almost everywhere in Nigeria. And while the regional makeup of the soil may differ, the practice exists throughout the country.

Mud is where you stand, Nwoko reasons. Dig a little hole outside and build  When we built with mud, everyone had a house.

In the 1960s virtually all houses built in Ibadan were built with mud, Nwoko explains. I didnt invent it; I just built like everyone else.

Old houses in Ibadan [Andrew Esiebo/Al Jazeera]

Nwoko began building his own house in Ibadan with the methods that have remained his hallmarks. He created the bricks with laterite soil extracted on-site during the excavation process. Left unpainted, the slight colour variations, ranging from ochre to rust, reflect the strata of the earth from which they came.

Trees removed during construction were repurposed as flooring, doors, window shutters, and the framework for the roofing. Granite stones from local quarries form interior and exterior accent walls. Echoing the practical elements of traditional Nigerian design, the home was built with few windows to keep out the intense light and heat of the sun.

Ventilation portals create pathways for breezes to enter from the floor and for hot air to escape at ceiling level. With this passive cooling system, as well as the natural temperature regulation provided by the mud walls, no air conditioning is needed, year-round.

A section of the New Culture Studios building, designed and built by Demas Nwoko [Andrew Esiebo/Al Jazeera]

The structure was designed to become more beautiful with time and wear, the use of local materials offering resilience to the specific environmental conditions of the site  Nwokos Ibadan home has never needed renovation or significant repair since completion in 1964.

Two generations later, Nwokos grandson, Rufus, 26, lives in the home. As a photographer and theatre artist, he uses New Culture Studios expansive, open-air theatre to showcase his performances and those of his contemporaries.

While this Ibadan residence remains a lasting example of historical building technologies advanced by contemporary design innovation, almost 60 years after independence, most Nigerians are instead living in their own version of the colonial masters house.

The interior courtyard of the New Culture Studios [Andrew Esiebo/Al Jazeera]

Imported problems, imported solutions

For now, in the city known as the largest urban territory in all of West Africa, concrete construction is ubiquitous. Ibadans nonstop expansion has even created an abundance of leftover packaging so bountiful that the waste has become its own mini-industry. Discarded LaFarge, Elephant and Dangote brand concrete sacks are upcycled into shopping bags and sold for 50 Naira (14 cents) by industrious children in open-air markets.

Just under five kilometres (three miles) from Nwokos home, in a convenient location between the popular Ele-yele market and the bustling Dugbe central business district, is a rare open plot of land along a main throughway that has otherwise been long-since developed.

Throughout the day, flatbed trucks stacked with bags of imported concrete make U-turns into the construction site where three- and four-bedroom homes are being built in a private estate. Concrete blocks are used to build the two-storey structures, which feature large windows that will allow an abundance of light and heat to enter, also demanding the use of electrical fans and air-conditioning units in every room.

The open-air theatre, used by artists to showcase their performances [Andrew Esiebo/Al Jazeera]

In Nwokos view, such inconveniences classify as imported problems that didnt exist. Then [we] got imported solutions to resolve [them].

In the case of Nigeria, a country with an unreliable electricity supply and daily blackouts, these imported solutions include gasoline-powered home generators, which produce inescapable rough engine noise accented by the smell of exhaust fumes.

Future residents of the development will pay handsomely, despite these inconveniences, with prices ranging from 39 million to 50 million Naira ($110,000-$140,000), a disqualifying sum for most Ibadan residents where the average three-bedroom home is around 12 million Naira (about $34,000).

According to Mr Ibrahim, the developments on-site architect, the cost is affordable for the retired senior federal employees and those moving from Lagos and Abuja who were able to pre-purchase the homes. He reports that the 50 properties have sold out before the construction is completed.

Colonial values and aesthetics

The practice of using bricks made from sand and imported cement came with the colonial presence, when they were used for both residential construction and large-scale government buildings in Ibadan and across the country.

As described in Nwokos 1979 essay, The Functioning of A House, British materials and building styles reflected the cultural values and aesthetics that they brought from home, practices suited to very different environmental and social needs.

The importation pathways created from the UK to Nigeria created a revenue stream for the colonial government by way of taxing the foreign materials upon entry. Nigerian architects were trained by foreign professors in the practices and styles that now have a dominant foothold in the construction landscape. Social norms shifted to embrace these designs as they came to be seen as signs of modernity and progress.

By 1976, the Oyo State government, after assessing the economic losses incurred by importing building materials, constructed its own affordable housing models using mud blocks. With domestic coconut and palm timbers as rafters, officials hoped to show the possibilities of using local materials as a viable and more cost-effective alternative to sandcrete.

A detail on the exterior of the New Culture Studios [Andrew Esiebo/Al Jazeera]

According to reports, those that commended the governments efforts also wondered why these materials were not used by the state to construct civil servant housing if the resulting structures were truly more affordable and structurally up to par. The local population was more firmly discouraged by the impracticality of such construction, noting that town planning laws that banned the use of mud in construction were still on the books.

As of June 2, 1960, the colonial governments Western Regional Law of Nigeria 171, which specified methods of construction, dimensioning, and acceptable building materials for residential construction, stated that new mud construction would not be approved by local town planning offices and could be demolished if built.

Today, 60 years later, the same regulations remain in effect.

Responsibility system

When Nwoko started building his Ibadan residence in 1963, he added 10 percent concrete to the mud mixture as a way to satisfy the new laws. In older sections of Ibadan, however, hand-built mud houses still stand side-by-side with colonial-era homes, in spite of the restrictions.

In Bere, where the Western-inspired, concrete palace of the king of Ibadan is only a brief drive from the former colonial administrative building, Mapo Hall, traditional structures can practically be seen disintegrating, the base of their walls becoming practically indistinguishable from the earth from which they rise.

Historically, earthen homes, weathered by the elements, would be repaired annually by the women of the community. Men traditionally took responsibility for mending damage to the roofs. But, without the continuity of cultural practices and the community rituals meant to maintain them, such structures have been largely neglected.

Although some residents attempt to hide the deterioration by plastering the walls with an outer layer of concrete, it is a temporary repair at best. In a city of more than six million people, it becomes clear that indigenous building practices do not exist in isolation of culture, but are sustained through communal customs that may be more scarce in an urban environment.

We never thought the Europeans would stay, Nwoko says, and when they left, our culture was still intact [Andrew Esiebo/Al Jazeera]

Nwoko sees the same breakdown in socio-cultural relationships as the root of what has kept Nigeria from meeting its potential. If you ask a young person today, what is their value to society, they cant answer, he says. Whereas before, he feels culture was structured as a responsibility system  everyone was obliged to fulfil a need within the community.

But Nwoko is quick to correct the easy assumption that the colonial presence was the direct cause of the cultural breakdown. Instead, he sees the starting point of the social disintegration as a consequence of how resources were managed after independence.

We never thought the Europeans would stay, Nwoko says, and when they left, our culture was still intact.

He recalls that after valuable natural resources were found, revenue began to flow into the country. Crude oil, in particular, was mined and exported by foreigners without employing local people. The next generations lived funded by government subsidies and scholarships by money that they did not earn, thus diminishing their connection to their community.

They were given opportunities to study in the West where they have imbibed the Western culture of self. They found new freedom of irresponsibility. That version is more attractive. Many Nigerians embraced the path of least resistance, Nwoko continues, with few having the desire to return home to contribute with what they had learned while abroad.

A city street in Ibadan [Andrew Esiebo/Al Jazeera]

It is a trajectory that he sees as a continuation of the legacy of the slave trade, the most recent example of the export of human labour from Africa for the benefit of Western development.

And were still transporting human resources over there, Nwoko laments, reflecting on the movement of Nigerias human capital to benefit the economies of the West. When children from his village go to school and get educated, they do not return to farming, he says, also noting that more than 50 percent of Idumuje-Ugboko lives and works abroad.

They build houses they never live in and come back home to be buried, he says.

Design as a product of culture

But Nwoko has remained steadfast in his commitment to developing his home and cultural impact.

I make sure my works are permanent, heavy, so they will last. Whatever Ive done will continue to stick for hundreds of years, he explains, reasoning that by example he can offer an attractive alternative to construction using imported materials.

His structures, such as the Dominican University in Ibadan, the Akenzua Cultural Centre in Benin and his private residence in Idumuje-Ugboko, serve as examples of his dedication to proving that traditional building methods are not only viable and practical, but can also be innovative and captivating.

Nwokos structures have been described as large-scale sculptures, their outer appearance creating a monumental presence that simultaneously exists in harmony with the surrounding landscape. Similarly, his interiors adhere to a balance between drama and comfort.

I make sure my works are permanent, heavy, so they will last. Whatever Ive done will continue to stick for hundreds of years [Andrew Esiebo/Al Jazeera]

While some feature exceedingly high ceilings supported by towering columns, others showcase impluvium fixtures that serve as natural spotlights and alternatives to windows. Their grandeur coexists with a sense of privacy and gentle intimacy.

According to Nwoko, an iconic design is the product of culture. His artistic touches in decorative carving and metalwork reflect a combination of traditional Igbo designs and those of Nwokos own creation in a style that cannot be mistaken for that of any other builder.

I have always concretised what I believe in, Nwoko reflects, speaking of the sustainable building practices that he has committed to throughout his career. And now, as the global conversation around climate awareness continues, what could have been regarded as his personal philosophical, political and aesthetic choices, sound right on trend  green building practices are seen by many as an essential tool in the fight against climate change.

Building monuments to what is possible

The recent release of the book Lo-TEK, Design by Radical Indigenism by Princeton professor Julia Watson is a current example of the design field catching up to thinkers like Nwoko by recognising the value of indigenous technologies as climate-responsible practices that we should all learn from.

In the face of factors such as sand scarcity (caused by a global construction boom that has led to disappearing coastlines, river erosion, sand theft and sand mafias specialising in black-market trade), any alternative construction methods that significantly reduce the use of sand are of benefit worldwide.

Fortunately, historical building techniques throughout Nigeria offer a library of existing knowledge that can be further developed to meet contemporary needs.

As the Nigerian senate considers a bill introduced in early March to ban the importation of home generators to curb environmental pollution, the countrys minister of works and labour also announced that by 2030, renewable energy is scheduled to make up 30 percent of Nigerias total consumption while 45 percent of carbon emissions are projected to be eliminated.

Both initiatives have been presented absent of communication to the public about plans to implement accessible alternatives. Reviewing the laws that prevent local, traditional home-building may be among the relevant areas from which to begin such massive and impactful transitions.

Different types of architecture in Ibadan [Andrew Esiebo/Al Jazeera]

For now, Nigeria need look no further than the example of Demas Nwoko, who has harnessed the countrys natural and human resources to create physical monuments to what is possible. While the senate debates, he is launching the New Culture School of Design in Lagos with a mandate to teach architects his hands-on, culturally relevant, sustainability-oriented approach to local architecture.

Independence is to become ourselves, Nwoko says, reflecting on the idea that self-sustainability could be a measurable indicator of true independence.

For him, it is most important that wherever you are, whichever town you are in, you must become relevant to the young people there and make your efforts felt.

With examples of his design work throughout the country, it is Nwokos hope that what one generation has ignored, the next will appreciate. It will be up to that generation and the rest, to decide if they will follow his lead.
The Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) has signed a cooperation protocol with Upjohn, one of Pfizers divisions, and healthcare technology company Iqvia Egypt and Saudi Arabia to automate the drug distribution process in the domestic market, especially drugs that require tight control.

Deputy Chairman of the EDA Ayman El-Khatib said that the cooperation protocol is consistent with the role the private sector plays in Egypts development process. El-Khatib said that the protocol is also consistent with the EDAs plan for digital transformation and the automation of its services.

Meanwhile, chairman of Upjohn Egypt Mohamed Swilam asserted the importance of providing sustainable solutions for all healthcare partners that can improve patients lives, add value to the healthcare systems and reinforce the healthcare infrastructure in Egypt.

He added that the cooperation protocol aims to support the EDA in establishing a robust automated system for drug distribution and boost public-private partnership and cooperation with Egypts government, particularly in digital transformation and healthcare automation.

Director-General of Iqvia Egypt and Saudi Arabia Mohamed Mostafa said that the company is eager to support the Egyptian governments efforts in digital transformation, adding that Iqvia is committed to participating in the EDAs operations and plans including developing android and IOS apps for mobile phones.

He added that Iqvias experience in healthcare technology qualifies it to implement all digital transformation procedures for all partners in Egypts healthcare sector.

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As of Monday afternoon, more than 60% of Ridgefield has electricity restored, showers are available at the Recreation Center, charging and WiFi stations are open at St. Stephens North Hall, and Eversource is estimating that 99% of the towns 10,000-plus customers will have power back by Tuesday night at 11:59 p.m.

Currently Main Street, the fire house, post office, CVS corridor and Ballard Green have been restored, First Selectman Rudy Marconi said last night in a phone call to Ridgefield homes.

We still have 45 percent of the town without power. Police, fire and town personnel have been touring the town to make sure all damage is reported, Marconi said, adding that the town continues to pressure Eversource to get more crews working to restore power in town.

Shortly after noon today (Aug. 10), Eversource was reporting that 3,944 of its 10,989 Ridgefield electricity customers  nearly 36 percent  were still affected by outages caused by Tropical Storm Isaias sweep through town on Tuesday. Thats down from 77 percent of Ridgefielders who were without power last Wednesday morning.

In his recorded call Sunday night, Marconi said showers would be available at the Parks and Recreation Center (off Danbury Road) from 5 to 9:30 p.m. tonight.

Unless you have a death wish, please keep generators out of the garage and away from the house, Marconi added in the call.

The town is continuing to get calls concerning generators improperly set up and used, he said, urging generator owners to follow manufacturers instructions.

Consider all downed wires live, Marconi added. Dial 911 for all emergencies.

The town has set up a special hot-line for storm related questions at 203-431-2718  operative from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. An additional hot-line will be open from 1:30 to 5 p.m. on Monday, at 203-431-2350. Due to call volume, we ask for your patience, said Gerri Lewis, public information officer with the town office of Emergency Management.

Charging. WiFi

Lewis spread the word Sunday afternoon that St. Stephens Episcopal Church  the stone church on Main Street across from the intersection of Governor Street  will be offering charging and WiFi on Monday and Tuesday.

St. Stephens is pleased to offer complimentary charging and WiFi in North Hall, for anyone whos been affected by Tropical Storm Isaias. There are 11 one-hour time slots each day, beginning on the hour and half hour from 9 to 2. You should see 11 for each of the two days, said a release from the Office of Emergency Management.

St. Stephens said: Please choose a 60-minute time slot on Monday and/or Tuesday, and bring a power strip or extension cord, and any chargers you may need. We have tables set up in North Hall, one per person, each a safe distance apart. North Hall is the white building on our campus closest to Deborah Anns.

One person per ticket, please, the churchs release said. Face Masks are required at all times. (This will not be an opportunity for video conferencing, unfortunately.) Seats are more than 6 feet apart, and entering the space will be timed.

Click on the link below to reserve charging time in North Hall:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/power-and-wifi-at-st-stephens-tickets-116307814805

2,300 utility crews

Eversource line and tree crews continue working around-the-clock to repair the extensive damage caused during Tropical Storm Isaias while adhering to strict COVID-19 pandemic safety protocols. said company spokesman Mitch Gross on Sunday. With the support of utility workers from across the country and Canada, more than 2,300 line, tree and support crews are now on the ground as the energy company continues its urgent effort to restore the remaining 138,000 customers in Connecticut without power.

We know how frustrated our customers who still dont have power are, and we have thousands of utility workers repairing the extensive damage across the state today who are relentless in their determination to restore power for all customers, said Eversource President of Regional Electric Operations Craig Hallstrom. We hear our customers and community leaders, and we will not rest until this massive restoration effort is complete.

Eversource said it was providing accommodations for the thousands of out-of-state crews, and had secured more than 6,500 beds for crews, while serving more than 30,000 meals daily to the workers trying to restore power to customers.
Our nation is in trouble, we need Gods help: Franklin Graham announces Prayer March 2020

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Evangelist Franklin Graham has called on thousands of families, pastors and churches to join him for Prayer March 2020 in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 26. Our nation is in trouble  we need Gods help, he says.

Im announcing today that on Sept. 26, Im going to be in our nations capital to pray& I hope thousands of families, pastors, & churches will join me! Our nation is in trouble, & we need Gods help. Make plans now to come for #PrayerMarch2020, Graham, president of the Christian charity Samaritans Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, wrote on Twitter.

Our only hope for this country is God, he says in a video message.

Jack Graham, the pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, responded to Franklin Grahams tweet, saying,  I will be there. I want to invite every Pastor and church in the SBC and all others who can to join us. Can you imagine thousands of believers praying together for our broken nation? Lets do it!

From noon to 2 p.m., believers will march from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol building covering 1.8 miles while praying for the nation during extraordinary times, the events website says.

America is in trouble. Its in distress. But we do have hope, and that hope is in Almighty God. And we need to pray now more than ever  more than we have ever done in our lives. Our communities are hurting. Our people are divided. And theres fear and uncertainty all around us, Graham says in a video message on the website, referring to riots and violence across the country and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier this month, rioters carrying Black Lives Matter signs threw Bibles into a fire in front of the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, and burned an American flag.

Riots in Portland and many other cities across the country have been ongoing since the May 25 death of George Floyd, who died while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

According to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, the U.S. had more than 5 million confirmed cases with nearly 163,000 deaths, as of early Monday.

Jentezen Franklin, the senior pastor of Free Chapel Church in Gainesville, Georgia, also called on Americans to join him for 21 days of fasting and prayer beginning Aug. 1.

I believe the Lord spoke to me and said to make the month of August a season of  crying out and praying and fasting and turning back to God like never before, Jentezen Franklin said. Its time to fast and pray and break the back of COVID. We must see a divine reversal. We must see a turnaround, added the host of the weekly television program Kingdom Connection.

In May, GO 2020 invited thousands of churches and ministries worldwide to dedicate the entire month  to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Through the outreach, 50 million Christians shared the Gospel reaching 248 million people, according to estimates by the organizers.
Vodafone-Idea shares were trading 4% higher on Monday's early session ahead of the Supreme Court's decision on the issue of tenure of payment of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues.

The stock price of Vodafone Idea opened at Rs 9 today and later gained 4.07% to the intraday high of Rs 9.19 against the earlier closing value of Rs 8.83 on BSE today. The stock also touched an intraday low of Rs 8.82.

Vodafone Idea stock price trades higher than 5, 20, 100 and 200-day but lower than 50-day moving averages. M-cap of the telecom major stood at Rs 26,120.47 crore as of closing session today.

Stock of Vodafone has risen 4.24% in one week and almost 70% since last year. Vodafone stock has climbed 47% since the beginning of 2020.

Shares of struggling telecom major Vodafone-Idea closed 2.94% higher at Rs 9.09 apiece on BSE today. Till now, Vodafone Idea has paid Rs 7,854 crore of its Rs 50,399 crore dues.

In its last hearing, held in July, the Supreme Court had reserved its order on a petition related to allowing telcos to make staggered payments of AGR over a 20-year period. The Supreme Court had said there was "no going back" on the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) demand on the AGR issues and it would only consider the timeline. The court had also said that private telecom companies including Vodafone Idea must come out with a reasonable payment plan and make a minimum payment to "show their bonafide".

During the last hearing, Vodafone had revised the demand to 15 from 20 years after the Supreme Court said that telcos should seek a reasonable time for a payout as 20 years is too long a period.

As per market analysts said if Supreme Court approved the desired timeline to repay AGR dues, then this will be positive for Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and banks also, those who have given loan to telecom companies.

Divi's Laboratories share price climbs 16% on strong Q1 earnings

Share Market Highlights: Sensex ends 141 points higher, Nifty at 11,270; Cipla, L&T, M&M top performers
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August 10, 2020 De Lima: My situation is 'best argument' against the restoration of the death penalty Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has urged the Filipino public to continue expressing their strong opposition to the planned re-imposition of the death penalty law in the country. In her message read by Ms. Jean Enriquez during the Movement Against the Anti-Terrorism Act (MATA) webinar on the renewed push for death penalty last Aug. 7, De Lima said capital punishment will never be acceptable because of the possibility of wrongful convictions and executions, especially under an authoritarian regime. "When Duterte made a renewed call to re-impose the death penalty during his 5th SONA with no response from the audience, he had to pander for some cheap applause. Not only was the emperor revealed to have no clothes, but his shameless dictatorial streak was also laid bare before the nation," she said. "Instead of focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed thousands of lives and ravaged millions of jobs, still foremost on his mind is capital punishment, as if tens of thousands of his own people were not killed in his bloody war on drugs by no less than state agents he, himself, has emboldened. It will never be enough for a blood-thirsty dictator," she added. De Lima, a social justice and human rights champion, said the webinar by the MATA on the issue of death penalty should serve "to enrage the public into saying enough is enough." "I thank and commend MATA for providing this platform to discuss how death penalty has no place in policy-making, and should be fiercely opposed if we are to ever realize a just and humane world." It may be recalled that, during his 5th State of the Nation Address last July 27, Duterte reiterated his call for the Congress to reinstate death penalty in the country for crimes specified under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. As the first prominent political prisoner under the Dutere regime, De Lima said her situation should serve as the "best argument" against capital punishment. "Not only is death penalty severe, it is also irreversible for the falsely accused which are aplenty in our deeply flawed justice system. I am one of them. The drug cases against me are all trumped-up, based on perjured or coerced testimonies from Bilibid inmates and other dubious characters. I am a clear victim of false prosecution and malevolent persecution," she said. "Imagine this scenario-there is now a death penalty and I get convicted! I cannot stress enough that wrongful convictions and executions are a real possibility under a tyrannical, oppressive and evil regime," she added. In stressing her opposition to the reimposition of death penalty in the country, De Lima noted that capital punishment is being abolished worldwide because it has never been proven to deter crime any more than long-term imprisonment. "As such, I have filed a bill introducing the alternative penalty of qualified reclusion perpetua for heinous crimes. I also proposed a measure to streamline and strengthen the process of criminal investigation that will expedite and improve the administration of criminal justice in the country," she noted.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 18:23:42|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The municipal government of Mongolia's capital on Monday warned its citizens to avoid forest areas after footprints of a bear were found near the city over the weekend.

"A bear has left footprints in a residential area with forest, Sanzai, near the capital city," the environment department of Ulan Bator said in a statement.

The number of people going to forests to pick cones and wild berries has increased dramatically in recent days, the department said, urging people not to go to forests to prevent possible bear attacks.

Two people were killed in a bear attack in Yeruu soum (administrative subdivision) of Selenge Province in northern Mongolia in October last year. Enditem
Nawroz clarified that he doesnt believe that most Afghans in his province trust the Taliban to be just rulers. But the deal with the United States has given the militants legitimacy in the eyes of many Afghans and has made them appear to be a more reliable source of security than the government.
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MINSK The Belarusian opposition accused President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday of rigging a landslide re-election victory after bloody clashes between police and protesters sparked Western criticism and talk of new sanctions.

Official results handed Lukashenko, in power for more than a quarter of a century, an 80% share of the vote in Sundays election, while Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, who emerged from obscurity to become his main rival, took just 9.9%.

The authorities are not listening to us. The authorities need to think about peaceful ways to hand over power," said Tikhanouskaya, a former English teacher who entered the race after her blogger husband was jailed.

Of course we do not recognise the results."

Foreign observers have not judged an election to be free and fair in Belarus since 1995, and the run-up to the vote saw authorities jail Lukashenkos rivals and open criminal investigations into others who voiced opposition.

Events are being closely watched by Russia, whose oil exports run through Belarus to the West and which has long regarded the country as a buffer zone against NATO, and by the West, which has tried to lure Minsk from Moscows orbit.

Germany called for the European Union to discuss sanctions on Belarus that were lifted in 2016 to foster better relations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin used a congratulatory telegram to nudge Lukashenko to accept deeper ties between the two nations, which the Belarusian leader has previously rejected as an assault on his countrys independence.

The streets in the capital and other cities were quiet after Sunday night, when riot police used force to disperse thousands of protesters who had gathered to denounce what they said was an electoral farce.

But calls for new protests spread through social media networks on Monday. Local media also reported a partial strike at a steel plant in protest against Lukashenko. The plants management has not commented.

Tikhanouskaya, whose campaign rallies drew some of the biggest crowds since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, told reporters she considered herself the election winner. She said the poll had been massively rigged.

The opposition now wants a vote recount at polling stations where there were problems, her aides said, adding that protests would continue.

They said they were ready to hold talks with authorities.

NO REVOLUTION

There was no immediate response to that offer from Lukashenko, a former Soviet collective farm manager who has kept Belarus under tight control since 1994. He faces his biggest challenge in years to hold onto power amid discontent over his handling of the economy, the COVID-19 pandemic, and human rights abuses.

But Lukashenko signalled he would not step down.

The response will be appropriate. We wont allow the country to be torn apart," the 65-year-old leader was quoted by the Belta news agency as saying.

Lukashenko repeated allegations that shadowy forces abroad were trying to manipulate protesters he called sheep" in order to topple him, something he said hed never allow.

They are trying to orchestrate mayhem," said Lukashenko. But I have already warned: there will be no revolution."

The European Unions foreign policy chief and its commissioner for enlargement said the election had been marred by disproportionate and unacceptable state violence against peaceful protesters".

We condemn the violence and call for the immediate release of all (those) detained during last night," Josep Borrell and Oliver Varhelyi said in a joint statement.

Neighbouring Poland said it wants a special EU summit on Belarus.

Russias RIA news agency cited the Belarusian Interior Ministry as saying that police had detained around 3,000 people during post-election protests.

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 (AP)  Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not about to blink.

The Democratic leader has been here before, negotiating a deal with the White House to save the U.S. economy, and lessons from the Great Recession are now punctuating the coronavirus talks. With Republicans again balking at big government bailouts, the Democrats believe they have the leverage, forcing President Donald Trump into a politically risky standoff over help for millions of Americans.

Its impossible to know whether she has overplayed her hand until we see if there is a COVID package, says Michael Steel, a former top aide to then-Speaker John Boehner.

Monday brought no new talks between Trump's team and negotiators on Capitol Hill as the president tries a go-it-alone strategy. Over the weekend, he launched a series of executive actions that give the appearance of a White House taking charge but may end up providing little help for ordinary Americans.

The president's orders seek to reverse the devastating fallout from unemployment assistance, eviction protections and other aid that has expired. But there are limits, and legal pitfalls, in trying to make an end run around the legislative branch.

Pelosi dismissed Trump's proposals Monday as an illusion in an interview on MSNBC.

Trump acknowledged he's still quite open to a deal with Congress. So now Schumer and Pelosi want to meet to make a deal. Amazing how it all works, isnt it, he tweeted Monday. They know my phone number.

With Trump now having played his hand, however, Democrats appear in no rush to show theirs.

It will take days, if not weeks, to sort out what Trump intended with his executive actions, as guidance from the administration is sent to the states. Already, the Department of Labor is telling governors that Trump's promised $400 weekly jobless benefit boost will actually amount to just $300 if states are unable to provide the rest, according to information obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

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Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer dismissed the Trump's administrative actions as all sizzle and no steak, held together by spit and glue.

In the meantime, countless Americans are already feeling the squeeze. What had been a $600 weekly unemployment benefit boost is gone, as are federal eviction protections. Schools that had been eyeing federal help now face the prospect of reopening on shoestring budgets.

The virus shows no signs of easing, with more than 5 million infections and 160,000 deaths nationwide and stark new evidence that many Americans' jobs may never return.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, on a conference call with governors on Monday, said action by Congress remains the administrations first choice.

Mnuchin and Vice President Mike Pence urged the governors to reach out to congressional leaders and push for legislation, according to audio of the call obtained by AP.

Anytime they want to meet  and theyre wiling to negotiate and have a new proposal  were more than happy to meet, Mnuchin said later at the White House. He confirmed he has not spoken to the Democratic leaders since talks collapsed Friday.

Pelosi has been here before, at the start of the last recession, when George W. Bush's Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson dropped to a knee at the White House and all but begged her not to let a financial rescue plan fail in Congress.

Democrats provided the bulk of the votes in 2008 for Bush's bank bailout and, with the majority in both the House and Senate, they also approved President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan in 2009. They often see that era as mopping up after a Republican president.

Now, facing a far greater crisis  the raging virus and economic shutdown  Pelosi is standing firm.

She told The Associated Press earlier this year that Mnuchin is a good listener and they have a good rapport, having negotiated a relief package in March.

But she said, When President Bush was president he would say to me, 'Secretary Paulson speaks for me.' This case, I dont - Im not sure."

Negotiations over the latest coronavirus bill shifted with the arrival of Mark Meadows, the president's new chief of staff, a conservative former head of the House Freedom Caucus who is widely seen as a counter-force to Mnuchin.

During days of closed-door talks, Meadows often declares one issue after another a nonstarter, according to an aide granted anonymity to discuss the private sessions.

Another aide said both Meadows and Mnuchin used that phrase several times as they pushed back against the Democratic proposals.

Pelosi has said repeatedly that Trump and the Republicans don't grasp the gravity of the situation facing the nation.

She and Schumer have put their latest compromise offer on the table, dropping their $3 trillion-plus package of relief by $1 trillion to $2.5 trillion, and asking the White House to do the same, raising its $1 trillion proposal to at least $2 trillion. That was rejected last week.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell accused the Democrats of hostage taking.

The GOP leader, who has chosen to stay on the sidelines in the talks, has a weakened hand because unlike the Democratic leaders, who have most of their rank-and-file behind them, his Republican majority is fractured. Almost half the GOP senators prefer no new aid at all.

Democrats think they smell an opening, he said.

McConnell nevertheless can play an influential role if and when he decides to bring the votes he's sure of to the table. That could lead to one path for an eventual deal.

___

Associated Press writer Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.
Lobos from out of state spent the weekend getting settled into their new dorm rooms.

The University of New Mexico students now begin a two-week self-monitoring period during which they have to take their temperature twice a day, maximize social distancing and avoid shared spaces.

In-state students will join them in the dorms between Aug. 13 and 16.

UNM is planning for a hybrid fall semester in which some instruction will take place in person, but most teaching will happen remotely.

UNMs reentry plan changes life in the dorms from last year.

Students have their own rooms and are only allowed to have one visitor during the day, and the visitor must live in the same residential hall. Overnight guests are prohibited, and masks must be worn when students are outside of their own room.
Las Vegas officials stormed a hotel and shut down the Mrs Nevada beauty pageant for violating social distancing rules, just days after the same hotel was fined for hosting a Evangelicals for Trump event.

The City of Las Vegas Business Licensing shut down Mrs Nevada on Sunday evening after the crowd size was found to be in violation of Nevada mandates brought in to combat the spread of coronavirus.

Contestants vying to be the next Mrs. Nevada America were left competing in an empty room at the Ahern Hotel in Las Vegas after attendees were ordered to leave.

Currently in the state of Nevada, public and private gatherings are limited to 50 or fewer people and everyone must be wearing face masks.

Women taking part in Mrs Nevada pose together in masks and face shields at the beauty pageant

Contestants, including the winner Ashley Tesoro(left), continued the pageant without an audience

Las Vegas officials stormed into a hotel to shut down the Mrs Nevada beauty pageant for violating social distancing rules (left and right)

One attendee estimated that there about 200 attendees - 150 over the limit - the Las Vegas Review Journal reported.

City spokesman Jace Radke said in a statement that the event violated the order 'by attempting to hold the Mrs. Nevada pageant with spectators.'

Footage taken at the event shows City officials entering the hotel and asking attendees to leave the venue.

Everyone left voluntarily and no citations were issued.

Once the crowd had left, the pageant was permitted to continue in the emptied room.

Going forward, the pageant will be allowed to continue with crowds of 50 people or less.

Kari Deike, one of the tabulators at the Mrs. Nevada-America pageant told News 3's Gerard Ramalho: 'The sheriffs department said either you do not have the pageant or if the ladies still want to compete they have to have nobody in the audience so these wives and mothers who have worked so hard . Their families couldnt be in the audience to see that hard work come to fruition.

'I honestly think this was a direct retaliation by the governor for what happened with the Trump rally the other day and I think these ladies were just the unfortunate victims of that

'We were threatened with being arrested if the guests did not leave. We were told they would be arrested and taken away in handcuffs which is mindboggling

'This was such a great disservice to the women who worked so hard to get here

'To have this happen to anybody is bad but when you have so many amazing women doing so much amazing work and they get robbed of this one experience that they have worked so hard for is something that shouldnt happen. This is America the land of the free.'

The City of Las Vegas said they had attempted to notify the Ahern Hotel that the pageant would not comply with Gov. Steve Sisolak's mandate.

Going forward, the pageant will be allowed to continue with crowds of 50 people or less

Contestants at Mrs Nevada beauty pageant after all their families had been told to leave

Everyone left voluntarily and no citations were issued. Once the crowd had left, the pageant was permitted to continue in the emptied room

In a statement posted on Twitter, the City said: 'The City and @LMVPD found that the Ahern Hotel is in violation of the governor's safety directives by attempting to hold the Mrs. Nevada pageant with spectators.

'Business Licensing accompanied by Metro Police did visit the property tonight and the event was stopped.

'Earlier in the weekend we attempted to notify the Ahern Hotel that the pageant would violate the governor's directives, but our licensing officer was escorted off property by hotel security.

'We will have additional information tomorrow.'

It comes just a few days after the Ahern Hotel was issued a $250 civil penalty for hosting the Evangelical for Trump event.

The group held the event to push back at the governor's 50-person gathering limit, according to 8NewsNow.

The event was not attended by Trump.
BEIRUT - Lebanons prime minister stepped down from his job Monday in the wake of the catastrophic explosion in Beirut that has triggered public outrage, saying he has come to the conclusion that corruption in the country is bigger than the state.

The move risks opening the way to dragged-out negotiations over a new Cabinet amid urgent calls for reform. It follows a weekend of anti-government protests after the Aug. 4 explosion in Beiruts port that decimated the facility and caused widespread destruction, killing at least 160 people and injuring about 6,000 others.

In a brief televised speech after three of his ministers resigned, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said he and his government were stepping down.

May God protect Lebanon, he said, repeating the last phrase three times. As he spoke, protesters demonstrated in the streets near parliament for a third straight day.

The moment typified Lebanons political dilemma. Since October, there have been mass demonstrations demanding the departure of the entire sectarian-based leadership over entrenched corruption, incompetence and mismanagement.

But the ruling oligarchy has held onto power for so long  since the end of the civil war in 1990  that it is difficult to find a credible political figure untainted by connections to it.

Diab blamed corrupt politicians who preceded him for the earthquake that has hit Lebanon.

They (the political class) should have been ashamed of themselves because their corruption is what has led to this disaster that had been hidden for seven years, he added.

I have discovered that corruption is bigger than the state and that the state is paralyzed by this (ruling) clique and cannot confront it or get rid of it, said Diab, who was a professor at the American University of Beirut before he took the job.

After the catastrophe, Diab had sought to stay on for two months to organize new parliamentary elections and allow a map for reforms. But the pressure from within his own Cabinet proved to be too much. With the mass resignation, the call for early elections appears dead, so the same factions will debate on forming a new Cabinet.

Diabs government was formed after his predecessor, Saad Hariri, stepped down in October in response to the demonstrations. It took months of bickering among the leadership factions before they settled on Diab.

His government, which was dominated by the Hezbollah militant group and its allies and seen as one-sided, was basically doomed from the start, tasked with meeting demands for reform but made up of all the factions that reformers want out.

Now the process must start again.

I hope that the caretaking period will not be long because the country cannot take that. Lets hope a new government will be formed quickly, Public Works Minister Michel Najjar said. An effective government is the least we need to get out of this crisis.

The pressure from the streets  and from French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited Beirut last week after the blast  could push the political factions to put aside their differences and form a unity government. Diabs government largely excluded Hezbollahs opponents, the Eurasia Group said in an analysis, adding that the factions may now see the need to carry out greater reform.

The group said a government of independent experts could be created, although Hezbollah is a main obstacle to that since it fears that would eventually lead to the group being forced out of the political system.

The weekend protests saw clashes with security forces firing tear gas at demonstrators.

The explosion is believed to have been caused by a fire that ignited a 2,750-ton stockpile of highly volatile ammonium nitrate that had been stored at the port since 2013 with few safeguards despite numerous warnings of the danger.

The result was a disaster that the Lebanese people blame squarely on their leaderships corruption and neglect. Losses from the explosion are estimated at $10 billion to $15 billion, with nearly 300,000 people left homeless.

On Monday, a French chemical expert working at the shattered port told The Associated Press that his team is working to secure at least 20 potentially dangerous chemical containers there after finding one that was leaking.

He also said there are flammable liquids in other containers as well as batteries and other products that could increase the risk of an explosion, describing huge containers tossed around the port by the powerful blast. The expert identified himself only as Lt. Anthony in accordance with French government policy.

The last decision by Diabs government before its resignation was to refer the case of the explosion to the Supreme Judicial Council, which handles crimes infringing on Lebanons national security as well as political and state security crimes. The Supreme Judicial Council is Lebanons top judicial body.

A judge on Monday questioned the heads of the countrys security agencies. Public Prosecutor Ghassan El Khoury questioned Maj. Gen. Tony Saliba, the head of State Security, according to state-run National News Agency. It gave no further details, but other generals are scheduled to be questioned.

State Security had compiled a report about the dangers of storing the material at the port and sent a copy to the offices of the president and prime minister on July 20. The investigation is focused on how the ammonium nitrate came to be stored at the port and why nothing was done about it.

Najjar, the public works minister, said he learned about the materials presence 24 hours before the blast, receiving a report about the material and holding a meeting with port officials before calling its chief, Hassan Korayetem.

I wrote a report in the morning the explosion happened in the evening, Najjar said. Asked why he only learned of it the day before, Najjar said, I dont know. Truly I dont know.

About 20 people have been detained after the blast, including the head of Lebanons customs department and his predecessor, as well as the head of the port. Dozens of people have been questioned, including two former Cabinet ministers, according to government officials.

On Sunday, world leaders and international organizations pledged nearly $300 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Beirut, but warned that no money for rebuilding the capital would be made available until Lebanese authorities commit themselves to the political and economic reforms demanded by the people.
KYODO NEWS - Aug 10, 2020 - 15:09 | World, Coronavirus, All

New Zealand has recorded zero community transmissions of coronavirus for over 100 days, following a strict nation-wide lockdown earlier in the pandemic.

In a statement released on Sunday, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said the achievement was a "significant milestone," but warned New Zealanders against becoming complacent.

"We have seen overseas how quickly the virus can re-emerge and spread in places where it was previously under control, and we need to be prepared to quickly stamp out any future cases in New Zealand," he said.

In March, New Zealand went into a nationwide lockdown that saw most businesses, public transport and schools shut down for about five weeks. Since then, the country has gradually and consistently reopened, with discussions around quarantine-free travel between other Pacific Island states taking place.

New Zealand has over 20 active cases of COVID-19 in travelers returning from overseas and staying in managed isolation facilities.

In total, New Zealand has confirmed 1,219 cases of COVID-19 and 22 deaths.
A recent report by the expert committee of doctors has revealed that 29% of coronavirus disease (Covid-19)-related deaths in Maharashtra have occurred within hours or on the same day of the admission of a patient, while many of the remaining deaths were reported within four days.

The high Covid-19 case fatality rate (CFR) in Maharashtra is attributed to poor healthcare infrastructure coupled with inadequate contact tracing, late referral, and a lacklustre implementation of the lockdown restrictions that were enforced from end-March to contain the spread of the contagion.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage

Maharashtra is ranked second to Gujarat as far as CFR is concerned at 3.45% against pan-India (2.01%).

The CFR is over 5% in Mumbai, Solapur, and Nandurbar. The state has reported over 50% of its total deaths in the last 35 days, as 8,935 Covid-19 patients have succumbed to their viral infection between July 6 and August 9.

The first case of viral infection was reported in the state on March 9 and five months on, 17,757 deaths were reported.

While 5,15,332 Covid-19 cases have been reported in Maharashtra to date.

Many districts were not prepared for the surge in Covid-19 cases, despite advance warnings. In Jalgaon, Solapur, Satara, either the healthcare facilities, including the medical colleges, were not ramped up or were in an administrative mess. In Nagpur, the facilities were spruced up, but there was poor bed management such as asymptomatic Covid-19 patients were found to be occupying oxygen beds. Similarly, in some districts like Nandurbar, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test facility is not available. The test reports in these districts are available after three days and that lead to a high CFR, said a health department official

An expert committee, appointed by the state government, has recommended steps to curb the spread of the viral outbreak.

Dr. Avinash Supe, former dean of Mumbais KEM Hospital and a member of the panel, said, Late referrals make it difficult for doctors to treat Covid-19 patients. We have ramped up the infrastructure, and the CFR is likely to improve soon.

State health minister Rajesh Tope, on Sunday, said that the focus is to reduce the CFR. He has also directed the district authorities to increase the contact tracing to 15 people for each Covid-19 patient in a bid to keep the spread of the pathogen in check.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had pointed out to high CFR in 10 districts during a review meeting with the district collectors and divisional commissioners.

Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoH&FW), had also attended the meeting.

Dr. Sanjay Pattiwar, a public health consultant, said, In many districts, we do not have crucial infrastructures such as intensive care units (ICUs), oxygen, and ventillators. Besides, there is a lack of trained manpower and medical expertise. These are the primary causes that are leading to high CFR.

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It was an evening in September 1996 when Karen Vanscoys world changed forever. It was on that night 24 years ago that Vanscoys 14-year-old daughter Jasmine was shot dead in the familys living room by a 17-year-old male acquaintance, later found to have an untreated mood disorder.

The gun in question was a 45 mm semi-automatic weapon stolen from the boys stepfather who had the weapon in an unlocked kitchen cabinet.

Since then, the St. Catharines resident and community mental health nurse has been an advocate for greater accountability when it comes to gun ownership, and tracing where guns come from.

In Vanscoys case, it was a gun with origins outside Niagara region that ultimately took her daughters life.

Vanscoy said the weapon was at one point stolen during a violent robbery.

The stepfather had 30 or so guns, some legal, some illegal, some registered, some not registered. This particular gun had been stolen originally from a gun shop in Oshawa in a gun shop robbery where the owners were killed.

The tragedy moved Vanscoy to take action. As a long-time member of the Coalition for Gun Control, she was a strong advocate against Stephen Harper governments repeal of the long gun registry in 2010. The move meant owners would no longer be required to register shotguns or rifles and significantly impacted gun registry data.

Vanscoy said the inability to properly track the history of gun ownership has meant guns changing hands, and guns coming into Niagara become more difficult to account for when used in violent crimes.

I know a lot of gun owners will say a lot of these guns that are used in crimes are illegal guns. But what I would suggest is that at some point those guns were legal, and we need to be able to know who had legal ownership of those guns at which point in time.

In the 10 years since the repeal of the long gun registry in Canada, Vanscoy said the country has taken a noticeable step back when it comes to tackling problems associated with gun accountability, and illegal guns in particular.

I feel repealing the gun registry has failed us. We should have had an increased requirement with respect to registering guns, including hand guns, never mind repealing the entire registry. Access to guns is becoming easier, not more difficult. 

A huge problem is the influx of guns coming across the border and how accessible they are in the states. That definitely needs to be addressed as well.

The Canada Border Services Agency has reported a number of seizures of guns coming over the Niagara border in recent years.

For instance, 33 hand guns were seized at the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie, and six at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls between March and August 2019.

In October 2018, CBSA agents found a Niagara Falls, N.Y. resident crossing at the Rainbow Bridge into Canada with 20 handguns, including 19 prohibited weapons, hidden in a secret compartment.

Niagara Regional Police superintendent Brian Ash said the challenges Niagara faces as a border region are similar to others in southern Ontario and across the province, including places like Windsor.

By virtue of location, Niagara being a border community provides the potential of being a nexus for illegal activities, he said. The NRPS works collaboratively with the Canada Border Services Agency to identify and address concerns as they present with both proactive and reactive measures. It isnt necessarily unique to Niagara, as many of the incoming guns or drugs that are potentially entering Niagara illegally are destined for other areas of Ontario or Canada.

Ash added the NRPS does work with other law enforcement agencies to address the problems of guns coming into and along Niagara highways.

The Niagara Regional Police Service is an active member of the provincial weapons enforcement unit, working collaboratively with law enforcement agencies across the province.

When it comes to guns coming into Niagara on highways from the Greater Toronto Area in particular, Ash said the statistics show the connection between the two regions does not represent a trend, or demonstrate any established pattern of criminal activity.

While we have seen investigations with ties to the GTA, it would not be correct to say gun crimes are predominantly connected as that would be anecdotal and not based in evidence or fact.

Solutions though may be just as multifaceted as the problem itself.

According to Vanscoy, a long-time mental health nurse who now runs her own clinic in Niagara Falls, addressing the issue of gun crime in Niagara may start with better regulations on registration, and tighter border control, but ultimately comes down to understanding the social determinants at the root of the problem.

We really have to look at what is driving gun crime, she said. We know that there are things like poverty and other social determinants of health. It is not just about tougher rules and regulations or increased accountability, we need to look at the root causes of gun crime and gun violence, and address those issues.
Former IAS officer Shah Faesal, who launched his political party Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement (JKPM) in 2019, on Monday stepped down as the president of the party. He is likely to re-join the Jammu and Kashmir administration.

Current Vice President Feroze Peerzada will take charge of the post till formal elections can be held for the post of president, read an official statement.

Faesal had kickstarted his political journey officially by launching his political outfit JKPM on March 17, 2019, nine years after he became the first Kashmiri to top the UPSC civil services exam in 2009.

On Monday, in an online meeting of state executive committee of JKPM, the request of Faesal to be spared from the organisational responsibilities was discussed. A party statement read, "Dr Shah Faesal had informed State Executive Members that he is not in a position to continue with political activities and wants to be freed from the responsibilities of the organisation. Keeping in view this request, it was decided to accept his request so that he can better continue with his life and contribute whichever way he chooses."

The statement further said that "unanimously it was decided to appoint current Vice President Feroze Peerzada as president for the party in the interim till formal elections can be held for the post of president".

The 2010 batch UPSC topper had resigned from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in January 2019. After his resignation, the former bureaucrat has been met several youngsters to get their support for his initiative. He had also launched a crowdfunding campaign in January to support his initiative.

As per the vision document of the party, Shah had stated that the outfit will use democratic methods and legislative processes for resolution of all disputes, issues and problems. The vision document also stated that the party shall pursue peaceful resolution of the Kashmir problem as per the will and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
<! Buhari, with Northeast governors >

Northeast governors on Monday told President Muhammadu Buhari that Boko Haram terrorists are recruiting more members to take over the territory.

They told the president that pragmatic approach must be adopted to tackle the issue of insurgency in the region.

The governors met with Buhari and other security chiefs in Abuja on Monday to find ways forward to end insecurity in the region.

Borno State Governor, Prof Babagana Zulum, at the end of the meeting with the President told newsmen that there was need for the Federal Government to address the causes of insurgency, which were not limited to endemic poverty, hunger, among others.

He said one of the causes was that of access to farmlands, saying that people needed to go back to their farmlands and needed to be resettled in their original homes so that they could restart their means of livelihood.

According to him, This is one of the reasons the insurgents are recruiting more into the sect. Therefore, creating an enabling environment for the people to go about their normal duties will no doubt reduce the cases of insurgency.

Zulum stated that since he was attacked by Boko Haram, he had held series of consultations with security chiefs and that security was not only about the Federal Government.

He pointed out that there was a need for the federal, state, and local governments to come together with a view to proffering solutions that would end this crisis in the region.

Zulum said most importantly, there is war economy in the region, saying that was why they met with Buhari.

So, I think the government is taking a bold step with a view to ensuring the speedy resolution of some of the grey areas that we have in the region, he said.

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Sophia Antipolis, 11 August 2020: Pupil size predicts death and hospital readmission in patients with heart failure, according to research published today in ESC Heart Failure, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1

"Our results suggest that pupil area is a novel way to identify heart patients at elevated risk of death or hospital readmission," said study author Dr. Kohei Nozaki of Kitasato University Hospital, Kanagawa, Japan. "This provides an opportunity to intervene and improve outlook."

Around 26 million people worldwide currently live with heart failure. It is a life-threatening condition in which the heart is unable to pump enough blood to meet the body's needs. Symptoms include shortness of breath, swollen limbs and fatigue. Up to 45% of patients admitted to hospital with heart failure die within one year of admission and the majority die within five years of admission.2

"Finding better ways to pinpoint which patients are more likely to be readmitted or die is crucial," said Dr. Nozaki.

One of the causes of worsening heart failure is disturbed function of the body's autonomic system, which controls heart rate, digestion, respiration, and so on. Autonomic function is typically evaluated by measuring changes in heart rate. However, this method is ineffective in patients with a heart rhythm disorder called atrial fibrillation, which is common in those with heart failure.

Pupil area is another way to assess autonomic function and has been used in patients with Parkinson's disease and diabetes. This study examined whether pupil area could predict prognosis in patients with heart failure.

The study was conducted in 870 patients hospitalised for acute heart failure in 2012 to 2017. The average age was 67 years and 37% were women. Pupil area was measured in both eyes at least seven days after hospital admission. For the test, patients put on goggles, waited five minutes for their eyes to adapt to the dark, then photos were taken of the eyes. Patients were tested at a standard time (between 09:00 and 12:00) since the autonomic system is affected by time of day.

Patients were divided into the small pupil area group and large pupil area group according to whether their measurement was below or above the median (16.6 mm2). They were then followed-up for all-cause death (the primary endpoint) and readmission due to heart failure (the secondary endpoint). Results of the small and large pupil area groups were compared.

Over a median follow-up of 1.9 years, 131 patients died and 328 were rehospitalised because of heart failure. Compared to the large pupil area group, patients in the small pupil area group had a significantly poorer survival rate and significantly higher rate of readmission for heart failure.

After adjusting for other factors that could affect prognosis such as body mass index (BMI) and kidney function, patients with a large pupil area had a 28% lower risk of all-cause mortality and an 18% reduced risk of readmission due to heart failure compared to patients with a small pupil area.

Dr. Nozaki said: "Pupil area can be obtained rapidly, easily, and non-invasively. Our study indicates that it could be used in daily clinical practice to predict prognosis in patients with heart failure, including those who also have atrial fibrillation. Patients with a small pupil area (e.g. less than 16.6 mm2) could be prioritised for cardiac rehabilitation with physical activity, which has been reported to improve autonomic function."

Dr. Nozaki noted that pupil area cannot be used in patients with severe retinopathy or other eye diseases.

###

Authors: ESC Press Office

Tel: +33 (0)4 89 87 20 85

Mobile: +33 (0)7 8531 2036

Email: press@escardio.org

Follow us on Twitter @ESCardioNews

Funding: This study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid [JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP 19K19884] from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Disclosures: None.

Notes

References

1Nozaki K, Hamazaki N, Yamamoto S, et al. Prognostic value of pupil area for all-cause mortality in patients with heart failure. ESC Heart Fail. 2020. doi:10.1002/ehf2.12933.

2Ponikowski P, Anker SD, AlHabib KF, et al. Heart failure: preventing disease and death worldwide. ESC Heart Fail. 2014;1:4-25.

To find out more about heart failure, visit the Heart Failure Matters website. Including information and practical tips on COVID-19 and heart failure.

About the European Society of Cardiology

The European Society of Cardiology brings together health care professionals from more than 150 countries, working to advance cardiovascular medicine and help people lead longer, healthier lives.

About ESC Heart Failure

ESC Heart Failure is the open access journal of the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC.
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Angry Miao, a native digital vertical brand focused on revolutionizing desktop products, has made its debut into the desktop technology market with the CYBERBOARD, a custom cyberpunk mechanical keyboard and the first of its kind to feature a customizable LED panel.

The CYBERBOARD was officially launched on Indiegogo today at 10 am PT. The limited edition comes with five exclusive color options - Cyber Grey, Industrial Yellow, Purple Haze, Vapor White, and Jungle Green - there're only 1000 sets available worldwide. A 40% off deal will be offered to early birds.

"We believe that innovative products provide not only practical function, but also cultural and emotional values. We want to bring our radical design and concept to the community - that is, the world's first custom keyboard with a DIY LED panel," said Nan Li, Founder of Angry Miao. "In the process of refining the CYBERBOARD, we have constantly pursued the ultimate experience for keyboard enthusiasts, in order to bring a different product to the world while offering exceptional DIY fun and making our mark in the world. However, this is just a beginning. We will launch far more exciting products and a totally new brand line on Aug 26."

Inspired by Tesla Cybertruck, CYBERBOARD breaks the status quo of the mechanical keyboard market with its unique design, technological prowess, and highly customizable nature. The sharp-edged lines of the CNC-machined 6063 aluminum alloy frame encapsulate the rebellious cyberpunk spirit while the custom LED strip channels the retro aesthetic of the '80s.

Channeling its cyberpunk aesthetic, the CYBERBOARD's customizable LED panel features 200 LED lamp beads for vivid, eye-catching displays; as well as specific chips for programmed lighting effects and a changeable modular design. Users can opt for the keyboard's preset effects or access a unique web interface for DIY configuration www.diy.angrymiao.com .

In addition to its unique design and DIY LED panel, the CYBERBOARD has been meticulously refined by Angry Miao's engineers over hundreds of hours in order to deliver a superior typing experience.

The keyboard achieves the sensitive touch of a mechanical keyboard through its individual positioning plate, and the top mount structure is designed with a custom silicone mute mount along with a conical dampener for unparalleled shock absorption, which optimizes touch and sound. CYBERBOARD also includes a 75% layout with independent arrow key and function key zone, which is ideal for touch typing. Moreover, users can change whichever switches they like easily with their hot swap PCB.

The CYBERBOARD is built with impeccable craftsmanship using the finest materials. The meticulous 10 incline achieves the optimal balance between expressiveness and typing experience, and the keyboard is proofed three times to confirm its 0.65 radius to ensure a gentle touch while retaining its sharp appearance. In addition, the keyboard's top-level anodic coloring is up to the standard of smartphone manufacturing.

Created by enthusiasts for enthusiasts, the CYBERBOARD design team is a Red Dot award winner design team boasts talents from some of China's leading tech brands.

Users can also join the Angry Miao Discord to stay up-to-date with the CYBERBOARD developments at https://discord.com/invite/Xre4H4c

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1225903/Angry_Miao_Releases_CYBERBOARD_1.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1225904/Angry_Miao_Releases_CYBERBOARD_2.jpg
Nobody has benefited more from the riots destroying retail stores in major cities than Amazon, which has seen the brick-and-mortar competition shrinking even faster than before. And the company, founded by Jeff Bezos, has not been shy about donating $10 million to "organizations supporting justice and equity" and subsequently increasing the total to $17 million by matching employee donations.

If Bezos thought that such virtue-signaling would buy immunity for his Amazon empire from the mobs, he was mistaken. Less than two hours ago, Andy Ngo posted video of a Seattle mob attacking an Amazon-owned Whole Foods retail outlet in Seattle, "us[ing] hammers to break windows one-by-one."

#Antifa are attacking an Amazon store again in Seattle. Theyve using sledgehammers and have been rioting for hours and smashing businesses in and around Capitol Hill. Video by @BGOnTheScene #SeattleRiots pic.twitter.com/iB4sIVyoBd  Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) August 10, 2020

The mobs also hit another Seattle-based progressive company, Starbucks, as they have in the past.

Some of the comments on Andy Ngo's tweet are fun.

Bart Taliaferro quipped:

@aoc is going to win this particular one though, because they really do have bread at @WholeFoods

And Dan McCrory cautioned:

I hope virtue signaling companies are paying attention to what's happening to amazon and Starbucks. It doesn't work, folks.

Even though an NPR station fired a weatherman for making this comparison, I will sacrifice any possibility of future appearances on the taxpayer-funded network by noting that in the early 1930s, some German companies thought they could buy off the Nazi thugs, only to discover that once they took power, nobody was safe.

Big hat tip: David Paulin.

Photo credit: Twitter video screen grab.
The owner of a winning Euromillions ticket worth 195,042 has yet to come forward but there is a good chance it is a hospital worker.

The ticket was sold in an Aramark-run coffee shop in Sligo University Hospital which serves patients across much of south Donegal.

National Lottery spokesperson Fran Whearty said: There is no word from the winner yet, so the message is to check your ticket.

Mr Whearty said he had been in touch with the manager of the shop.

There are no visitors allowed in the hospital so that narrows it down. It is either a hospital worker or a patient.

We are told it is very likely to be a hospital worker.

The Euromillions player matched five numbers and a lucky star in Friday evening's draw, and was only one number away from the 64 million jackpot. The winning numbers were 05, 20, 21, 36, 41 and the Lucky Stars were 06 and 11.

It remains to be seen if the winner was a staff member or patient. Either way, there is a great buzz of excitement in the hospital as anticipation builds. It is great to have such a positive occurrence there after the challenges faced by healthcare workers and patients since the coronavirus crisis began.

Mr Whearty explained that there are currently two options for claiming the prize.

They can come down and pick it up at Lottery HQ by appointment only, he said. Or more likely they will look at the postal option.

Due to Covid-19, winners of prizes exceeding 15,000 have the option of their prize being posted out if they do not wish to go to Dublin. Winners of amounts below 15,000 can collect their prize via post offices.
WEXFORD COUNTY, MI  Theres a new pup on the job in Northern Michigan.

The Michigan State Police Cadillac Post is welcoming a female Labrador Retriever named LuLu to its team in Wexford County. Lulu recently graduated from canine school and is ready to serve at events across the region.

She is from Hungary and received six weeks of specialized training tracking explosives' Trooper Matt Unterbrink, her handler, said.

LuLu can move through crowds and track explosives. If she detects explosives, she will follow the odor to the source. Even if the person carrying it is on the move. She is a single purpose dog and the only one north of Lansing with this ability. Her calm demeanor and friendly personality make her the perfect dog to work crowded venues.

The Michigan State Police post currently has five dogs that have this specialized training. German Shepherds are traditionally used as explosive dogs, but they are brought in before events.

The friendly demeanor of the Labrador Retriever makes them the perfect dog to use while an event is taking place since they can move about the crowd with ease.

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Linkedin Choi Ji-won (The Korea Herald/Asia News Network)  Mon, August 10, 2020 14:09 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cd673e 2 People Sam-Okyere,Racism,South-Korea Free

Ghanaian television personality Sam Okyere apologized after his social media posting lashing out at racism in Korea sparked controversy online.

Earlier on Thursday, the 29-year-old had expressed outrage about a yearbook photo of local high school senior students parodying viral Ghanaian dancing pallbearers video. The photo showed five boys from Uijeongbu High School -- famous for their unconventional yet trend-reflecting graduation pictures -- with their faces painted brown.

Time and time again why wont people get that blackface is very offensive and not funny at all, Okyere had wrote in English. There have been so many instances both on and off air where people pain their faces black here in Korean think its funny! Its not and I am highly against it and highly disappointed.

Pointing out at the Korean education about such mockery of a different culture, Okyere added, This has to stop in Korea! This ignorance cannot continue!

Read also: Racism: My experience as doctor in Papua

Sam Okyere spoke out about the students in blackface parodying a meme. He posted about 1 hour ago on instagram and I'm so happy he said something. pic.twitter.com/ECharRMTnW  Luna  (@LunaIsFree_) August 6, 2020

Contrary to his intentions, Okyeres remarks immediately sparked controversy among some Korean internet users, who claimed it was insensible of him to openly criticize the high school students by reposting their picture without permission, and using the world ignorance in reference to the Korean education.

His use of the hashtag #teakpop -- a derogatory expression used on social media in discussing Korean pop culture -- also caused huge outrage among the Koreans, who slammed him as maliciously publicizing the issue by using an unrelated hashtag.

Some even called Okyere a two-faced racist, referring to his past behavior on air. During an episode of JTBCs Non Summit in 2015, Okyere had pulled his eyes long with his fingers, in a common racist gesture made against Asians.

As criticisms mounted, Okyere on Friday removed the post and updated an apology in Korean.

I had no intention to humiliate the students. I had gone too far in expressing my opinion, and I apologize for using their picture without their consent, the new post read.

He went onto explain that he had not meant to discredit Korean education by criticizing it in English, and that he was not aware of the true meaning of #teakpop as he would never have used it if he had known.

I had received a big love for a long time in South Korea, and I believe I was indiscreet this time, Okyere said. I apologize again. I will become a more educated person.

Such controversy expanded after Benjamin Aidoo, a member of the original dancing pallbearers, shared the Uijeongbu High School students picture on his social media, with a comment celebrating their graduation.

Topics :

This article appeared on The Korea Herald newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
Energy Harness Corp., which has an office in the Purdue Research Park of Indianapolis, created a device that attaches to ceiling grids and uses UVC light to clean and circulate air. (Image provided)

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  A Purdue University-affiliated LED lighting manufacturer has created new technology to help schools combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Energy Harness Corp., which has an office in the Purdue Research Park of Indianapolis, created a device that attaches to ceiling grids and uses UVC light to clean and circulate air.

We have demonstrated and studies have shown the effectiveness of UVC light in killing the COVID-2 family of pathogens, said Patricio M. Daneri, managing director of Energys Midwest division. Our Active Airflow unit provides the added advantage of safe usage during the school day in occupied classrooms. The unit has a fan system to draw in the air, where it is cleaned and then cycled back into the room.

Daneri said the team created the technology by applying its expertise in LED lighting and their familiarity with school clients. The device uses patented technology.

We wanted to help because we know schools can be great at disinfecting surfaces and areas, but they may not have the same options to clean the air, Daneri said.

Energy is working to have the technology installed and ready for the school year for Beech Grove City Schools and Franklin Township Community School Corporation, both located in central Indiana.

We have had success working with the Energy Harness team before and are excited about this new technology product to help keep our community safe, said Tom Gearhart, director of operations for the Beech Grove City Schools.

Daneri said some schools may be able to use special federal and state funding during the pandemic to help cover the costs of the technology. More information is available by emailing patricio@energyharness.com.

About Purdue Research Foundation

The Purdue Research Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation created to advance the mission of Purdue University. Established in 1930, the foundation accepts gifts; administers trusts; funds scholarships and grants; acquires property; protects Purdue's intellectual property; and promotes entrepreneurial activities on behalf of Purdue. The foundation manages the Purdue Foundry, Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization, Purdue Research Park, Purdue Technology Centers and University Development Office. In 2020, the IPWatchdog Institute ranked Purdue third nationally in startup creation and in the top 20 for patents. The foundation received the 2019 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Award for Place from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. For more information on licensing a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization at otcip@prf.org. For more information about involvement and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org. For more information about setting up a presence at Purdue, possibly in the Purdue Research Park or Discovery Park District, contact the PRF Economic Development Office at parksinfo@prf.org.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked the No. 6 Most Innovative University in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at purdue.edu.

Writer: Chris Adam, cladam@prf.org



Source: Patricio M. Daneri, patricio@energyharness.com

Journalists visiting campus : Journalists should follow Protect Purdue protocols and the following guidelines:
A conference was held Sunday to mark the 90th founding anniversary of the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party (CPWDP) in Beijing.

Vice Premier Sun Chunlan attended and addressed the gathering on behalf of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

Over the 90 years, the CPWDP has made important contributions to the great cause of China's revolution, development and reform, according to the congratulatory message given by Sun, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Particularly in fighting the COVID-19 epidemic, the CPWDP has given full play to their advantages of talents in the field of medicine and health, the congratulatory message said.

The vast number of CPWDP-member medical personnel devoted themselves to joining the battle on the front lines, demonstrating their love for the people and the country with concrete actions, it continued.

Chen Zhu, chairman of the CPWDP Central Committee and vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, reviewed the glorious journey of the CPWDP in the past 90 years, and urged all CPWDP members to make new and greater contributions in realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.
Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl arrives at work in Seoul, Monday/ Yonhap



By Kim Se-jeong





Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae leaves the ministry headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. /Yonhap
Three arrested for drug trafficking in Carlisle County
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 21:20:44|Editor: huaxia

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ISLAMABAD, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Visiting President-elect of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly Volkan Bozkir said on Monday that the regional security in South Asia should be maintained through political and diplomatic means.

Bozkir, a veteran Turkish diplomat, was elected president of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly in June 2020.

Bozkir was speaking at a joint press conference in the Pakistani capital Islamabad with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi after they held formal talks. Earlier, Bozkir also called on Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan during his two-day visit from Sunday.

"Difficult challenges can be resolved peacefully through meaningful mutual engagements," Bozkir said while responding to questions about the conflicts in the region.

"If my assistance is requested by the parties, I will be ready to provide contributions," Bozkir said when journalists drew his attention towards the disputes between Pakistan and India, and their tension over the Kashmir issue.

Bozkir said Pakistan is a key country at the United Nations, which makes extensive and substantial contributions to the world body's work including peacekeeping operations, adding the United Nations looks forward to closer cooperation with Pakistan.

He said the world is currently faced with many challenges including humanitarian issue, deadly conflicts and the unprecedented health challenge of COVID-19.

"Pakistan has been a good example for the world, which handled the (COVID-19) pandemic-related policies very well and figures show Pakistan has done better than many other countries in the world," Bozkir said.

Speaking on the occasion, Qureshi said Pakistan strongly believes in the importance of a multilateral world anchored on the basis of peace, progress and stability.

"It is in this spirit, we welcome the president-elect of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly Volkan Bozkir to Pakistan for a constructive and fruitful visit. Pakistan has consistently supported and valued the UN's significant role in global affairs and we will continue to strengthen bonds within the institution of the UN be it for conflict resolution, peacekeeping, sustainable development, health, economic and social cooperation," Qureshi said.

The Pakistani foreign minister said he briefed Bozkir about the role played by Pakistan in pushing forward the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan, the challenges that lie ahead and the recent positive developments.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister Office of Pakistan said Imran Khan apprised Bozkir of Pakistan's initiatives to mitigate and suppress the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on saving lives, securing livelihoods, and stimulating the economy.

The prime minister further highlighted his call for global initiative on debt relief and stressed the need to provide greater fiscal space to the developing countries to overcome deleterious socio-economic impacts of the pandemic. Enditem
Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/10/2020 -- Latest added Global Shock Testing System Market research study by AMA Research offers detailed outlook and elaborates market review till 2025. The market Study is segmented by key regions that are accelerating the marketization. At present, the market players are strategizing and overcoming challenges of current scenario. The study explored is a perfect mix of qualitative and quantitative Market data collected and validated majorly through primary data and secondary sources.



Major Players in This Report Include,

L.A.B. Equipment Inc. (United States), Lansmont Corporation (United States), Shinyei Technology Co. Ltd. (Japan), NTS (United States), Illinois Tool Works Inc. (United States), ETS Solutions Asia Pte Ltd. (Singapore), HALT & HASS Consulting NZ Ltd (New Zealand), PCB Piezotronics (United States), Labtone Test Equipment Co., Ltd. (China), Dongling Technologies (China) and Vibration Source Technology Co., Ltd. (China)

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The shock testing system helps in recognizing the products and material at what level can a material withstand physically and function-wise in certain environmental conditions, like high force, temperature, etc affecting the handling and transportation. The shock testing system ensures the tolerable nature of the product caused by the explosion, drop, and collision.

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Type (High Speed Shock Testing System, Multi-drop Shock Testing System, Pull Down Drop Shock Testing System, Others), Application (Manufacturing Industries, Civil Engineering, Quality Control Department, Others), Product (Classical Shock Testing, Pyroshock or Ballistic Shock Testing), Testing (Mechanical Shock Testing, Temperature Shock Testing)

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The Burman family, the single largest shareholder of Eveready Industries, has no plans for taking over the company but is open to acquiring additional stake, Mohit Burman has said, amid the promoters' shareholding falling below 10 per cent.

Mohit Burman is a senior member of the Burman family and vice chairman of Dabur India.

With lenders, including IndusInd Bank, invoking pledged shares in recent weeks, promoter group Khaitan family's stake in Eveready Industries has fallen below 10 per cent, according to stock market data.

"We are ready to evaluate purchase for any additional shares including from the IndusInd Bank. But, our headroom is about four per cent. We will keep our holding below 25 per cent," Dabur India Vice Chairman Mohit Burman told PTI from Greece on Sunday.

He also indicated that the family does not have plans for any hostile management takeover bid.

The Burman family has around 20 per cent stake in the company, which is listed on the BSE and NSE.

Under Sebi norms, if the stake of an existing shareholder in a listed company reaches 25 per cent, then that shareholder would be required to make an open offer.

Recently, the Khaitan family had indicated that they were ready to jointly manage Eveready Industries.

When asked whether the family would be interested in jointly managing the company with the Khaitan family, Burman said it was too early to talk about such a scenario.

At the end of March 2019, the Khaitan family had about 44 per cent stake in the company and that came down to 22.16 per cent as on June 30, 2020, according to the stock market data.

Since then, IL&FS and IndusInd Bank have invoked shares of the company pledged by the Khaitan family. The invoked pledged shares amounted to around 13 per cent stake, as per regulatory filings.

Taking into account that the two entities have acquired around 13 per cent stake by way of invoking pledged shares, the current holding of the Khaitan family would be around 8 to 9 per cent.

Messages and calls to Eveready promoter and Managing Director Amritanshu Khaitan to seek comments on the promoters' holding falling below 10 per cent remained unanswered.

Recently, the Burman family had purchased pledged shares of the company that were invoked by IL&FS.

"The equity shares of Eveready Industries India Ltd held by Williamson Magor were pledged with the bank for securing the outstanding dues of Seajuli Developers & Finance Limited (Seajuli), the borrower company. The bank has invoked the pledge held in aforesaid shares for recovery of its dues from Seajuli," IndusInd Bank said in a regulatory filing on Saturday.

The bank invoked 56,83,320 shares equivalent to 7.82 per cent of paid-up equity share capital of Eveready Industries.

Eveready Industries was incorporated in 1934 and was a subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation, US. The Williamson Magor Group acquired the company in 1993.
WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trumps push to crack down on illegal immigration and reshape legal immigration was at the heart of the Republicans winning 2016 campaign and has remained at the forefront of his White House agenda.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the likely Democratic challenger in this years presidential election, promises to rescind many of the policies put in place by Trumps administration and instead advance his own platform if he wins on Nov. 3.

Here is a look at some of their immigration stances.

CORONAVIRUS IMMIGRATION RESTRICTIONS

Trump has dramatically curtailed immigration and travel into the United States during the coronavirus pandemic, arguing the steps were needed for health reasons and to protect jobs for U.S. workers in the face of high unemployment.

During the pandemic, Trump has restricted the entry of many foreign workers and immigrants seeking green cards" for permanent residency.

Biden tweeted at the time that Trump was banning immigrants to distract from his administrations pandemic response and that immigrants help grow our economy and create jobs."

Trump also implemented a public health emergency policy that allows U.S. officials to rapidly deport migrants caught at the U.S.-Mexico border, including unaccompanied minors and asylum seekers, bypassing standard legal processes.

Biden has said he will pause deportations for 100 days after taking office, but his campaign did not comment on the coronavirus-related border rules.

When the Trump administration announced plans in July to restrict the entry of some foreign students to the United States, a policy it later had to rescind, Biden tweeted support for international students, saying they bring innovation to the country.

DREAMERS

The Supreme Court ruled in June against Trumps 2017 decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects from deportation immigrants popularly known as Dreamers," who were brought to the United States as children and have remained in the country illegally.

The high courts ruling - which found Trumps termination of the program was arbitrary and capricious" - left the administration the option to try again to end it.

The Trump administration issued a memo in July that clamped down on DACA, blocking new enrollment and allowing only renewals that last one year, less than the current two-year period.

Launched by then-President Barack Obama in 2012, DACA grants deportation relief and work permits to about 644,000 mostly Hispanic young adults, but does not provide them a path to citizenship.

Biden has said he would reverse Trumps cruel" decision and strengthen protections for Dreamers.

He said he would make Dreamers eligible for federal student aid for college, and would back legislation that provides a path to citizenship for them as part of efforts to do so for all of the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally, including those who did not arrive as children.

Trumps administration has prioritized arresting immigration violators regardless of their criminal histories or length of time in the United States.

U.S.-MEXICO BORDER WALL

Trumps promises to build a wall along the southwest border and to force Mexico to pay for it were the centerpiece of his hard-line immigration rhetoric during the 2016 campaign, energizing his supporters and enraging Democrats.

The administration has completed 265 miles of border wall, with a goal of 450 miles by the end of the year, but nearly all of those barriers replaced existing structures, according to U.S. border officials. Mexico has refused to pay for any of the construction, leaving the U.S. government to foot the bill, partially with billions of dollars in Pentagon funds.

Federal court records show the Trump administration has ramped up efforts to seize more land for the barrier.

Biden said last week that he would not tear down border walls built under Trump, but would stop construction.

Bidens immigration plan would end the diversion of Pentagon funding to build the wall and focus instead on border enforcement like investments in improving the screening infrastructure at ports of entry.

FAMILY SEPARATIONS

Trumps 2018 zero-tolerance" policy to prosecute illegal border crossings led to several thousand children being forcibly separated from parents and legal guardians detained on the Mexico border.

The policy, described by the administration as a deterrent, sparked outrage, and the backlash led Trump to sign an executive order to end the practice. But the administration continued to separate hundreds of kids traveling with other adult relatives.

Biden would end the prosecution of parents for minor immigration violations, which he calls an intimidation tactic," and make it a priority to reunite any children still separated from their families.

TRAVEL BAN

Trump signed an order banning entry to immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries, a move Biden and other critics said discriminated against Muslims. A federal court blocked the initial ban, but in 2018 the Supreme Court upheld an amended version that has since been expanded to other countries.

The version upheld by the Supreme Court places restrictions on travelers from five majority-Muslim nations - Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. North Korea and Venezuela also face visa bars, but those measures affect relatively few travelers.

Trump placed restrictions on six additional countries in January, including Nigeria and three other African nations.

Biden has promised to rescind the bans, calling them an abuse of power designed to target primarily black and brown immigrants."

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
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 11)  Quirino province recorded its first COVID-19 infection, Governor Dax Cua confirmed on Monday.

We received a phone call informing us that we have one positive COVID-19 case in our province, Cua said in a Facebook video.

Cua reported the infected patient is in good condition and does not exhibit any symptoms of COVID-19.

The Quirino provincial government arranged to admit the patient in the Southern Isabela Medical Center in Santiago City, Isabela for proper medical care.

He did not elaborate how the patient got infected with the virus.

The governor assured they have started their contact tracing activities and advised all possible contacts of the patient to isolate.

Let us not resort into panic. What is important is we should be safe always, Cua addressed his residents.

With this confirmation of Quirinos first COVID-19 case, Batanes remains the only province with no COVID-19 infection since the country tallied its first confirmed case in January.

To date, the country now has a total of 136,638 confirmed COVID-19 infections, along with 66,186 active cases. Some 2,293 persons died and 68,159 patients recovered from the virus.
Photo: Xinhua

About 16,000 people signed up for the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy's recently completed annual pilot recruitment drive, and among those who have passed the tests to become pilot cadets, nearly half will be trained to fly aircraft carrier-based fighter jets in the coming years. This is expected to satisfy China's future aircraft carrier programs.

Experts said on Monday that the ratio indicates China's ambitions in aircraft carrier development, as the country could operate three or more aircraft carriers in the near future, which need more pilots.

The PLA Navy recently wrapped up the 2020 pilot recruitment drive, during which none was infected by the novel coronavirus, thanks to nucleic acid testing and optimized procedures, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Sunday.

A large batch of talent among the 16,000 registered applicants emerged after several selections, the report said, without elaborating further on the number of applicants who were eventually enrolled in the pilot training program.

Chu Hanqiang, director of the PLA Navy Pilot Recruitment Office, was quoted as saying in the report that 49 percent of the enrolled candidates will become aircraft carrier-based fighter jet pilot cadets, and this should satisfy the development of aircraft carriers.

"In the past, most Navy Aviation Force pilot cadets were trained to fly ground-based fighter jets and bombers," Li Jie, a Beijing-based naval expert, told the Global Times on Monday.

The significant increase in the ratio for aircraft carrier-based fighter jet pilot cadets indicates that China will operate not only two aircraft carriers, Li said.

Forbes reported in July that China's third aircraft carrier is being assembled in a dry dock in Shanghai's Jiangnan Shipyard. Military observers expect the new aircraft carrier to be much larger and carry more aircraft than China's previous two, the Liaoning and the Shandong.

Cadets will study for four years and potentially continue to train on advanced trainer aircraft, the website of the Navy's pilot recruitment program said.

This means this batch could join active service when the third aircraft carrier is commissioned, observers said.

Li said that in addition to aircraft carrier-based fighter jets, the PLA Navy also needs more pilots for vessel-based helicopter pilots, as China recently launched two Type 075 amphibious assault ships and each has the potential to carry about 30 helicopters.

Other warships, including Type 055 and Type 052D destroyers, also host helicopters, Li noted.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday reviewed the current flood situation and preparedness of Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala to deal with the monsoon. He held a meeting through video conference with chief ministers of these six states.

The PM emphasized on better coordination between all central and state agencies to have a permanent system for forecasting of floods and extensive use of innovative technologies for improving forecast and warning system.

He said that over the past few years, forecasting agencies like India Meteorological Department and Central Water Commission have been making concerted efforts to make better and more usable flood forecasts. They are trying to provide not only rainfall and river level forecast but also location-specific forecast of inundation.

PM Modi also said that there are pilot efforts underway to also use innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence to improve locations specific forecast, for which States should provide necessary information to these agencies and timely disseminate the warnings to local communities.

He mentioned that investment should be increased in localised early warning system so that people in a particular area can be provided with a timely warning in case of any threatening situation such as breach of river embankment, inundation level, lightning etc.

The meeting was also attended by Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, both the Minister of State in Home Affairs and senior officers of the concerned Central Ministries and organizations.

The Prime Minister also emphasized that in view of COVID-19 situation, while undertaking rescue efforts, states must ensure that people follow all health precautions such as wearing of face mask, hand sanitization and maintain adequate physical distance and relief materials must include provision for hand washing/ sanitizing and face masks for the affected people. In this regard, special provisions should be made for elderly people, pregnant women and people with co-morbidity.

He further conveyed that states should ensure that all development and infrastructure projects must be built with resilience to withstand local disasters and to help in reducing consequential losses.

The chief ministers of Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala and Home Minister of Karnataka gave an update on the flood situation, rescue efforts made in their respective states. They complimented the efforts of central agencies including NDRF teams in timely deployment and rescuing people. They also gave some suggestions for short-term and long-term measures for mitigating the effects of floods.

Prime Minister directed the officers of concerned ministries and organisations to take action on the suggestions given by the states and assured that the Centre will continue to provide its support to the states and union territories in order to strengthen their capabilities for dealing with various disasters.
Covid-19 has spawned a plethora of new opposing tribes, but one of the deepest divides is between the work-from-home evangelists and those who can't wait to get back to the office.

The laptop in the attic is so ubiquitous it has acquired its own acronym: WFH, or working from home.

Inevitably, there is a section of the workforce, largely middle-class, well-paid and professional, that has zero desire to resume WAW  working at work  ever again.

Change of lifestyle: The laptop in the attic is so ubiquitous it has acquired its own acronym: WFH, or working from home

The WFH warriors should be careful what they wish for. The idea there can be a mass middle-class exodus from offices is shortsighted, and obsessing about one's own work-life balance seems self-indulgent when thousands of Covid redundancies are bearing down on us like a freight train.

This newspaper has identified 130,000 jobs facing the axe since March and the total swells daily. The office model could certainly be improved. Based on a male commuter, it's forbidding to many, including those who can't afford to live near city centres, women and others with caring responsibilities.

If Covid-19 is a catalyst for intelligent, flexible working practices, all to the good.

The risk is this is interpreted to prioritise lifestyle privileges above productivity and the broader interests of the economy.

It's significant, I think, that we use the word 'work' to mean a place as well as an activity. Like it or not, WAW is often more productive. The most obvious point is that WFH will kill the commuter and office trade, causing 1,500 job losses at WH Smith, along with 1,000 job losses and cuts in hours at Pret a Manger. But it can also hurt customers. Look at the banks, many of whose employees are at home, meaning branches are only open for reduced hours.

That's the immediate damage. Further out, prosperity depends on our creative and innovative spark and that burns brightest when brilliant people come together. Some of us would like to keep our homes as a personal and family haven: With colleagues Zooming into your kitchen, work has invaded the sanctuary.

Yet there's little drive to return. Facebook has said its staff needn't come back until next July. I've spoken to many chief executives in the past two weeks and all have told me the vast majority of their staff are still at home with no firm date for return.

Everyone is talking about a 'hybrid' model, perhaps permanently, with some staff in the office and some not. Pity the poor managers who have to keep track of who's where.

In the short term, many employers want to safeguard health and can't have everyone back whilst maintaining social distance. They are worried about the risks of a second wave and lack of childcare.

But there seems little impetus to get anyone back. One CEO I chatted to last week sounded quite content that 99 per cent of his employees are still WFH.

That corporate attitude, the sheer lack of will from the top to get people back, is quite striking, and, it seems to me, ominous.

Large companies can make big savings by dumping expensive city-centre real estate. And if staff are working in cheaper parts of the UK permanently, employers will soon seek to cut their pay, as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has suggested.

The next logical step from an employers' viewpoint is to hire remote workers from even cheaper locations  anywhere where people can speak English will do.
NEW YORK  More than 695,000 homes and businesses in the New York tri-state area were still without electricity at midday Saturday as utilities continued trying to get the lights on four days after Tropical Storm Isaias.

Tuesdays storm dealt the region a surprisingly sharp blow, killing at least one person, downing trees, halting commuter trains and initially knocking out power to more than 2.5 million customers. A customer can be a single home or a skyscraper, sometimes even an entire apartment complex.

I get that this is a very frustrating situation. Were working as quickly as we can to clear downed trees, New York City Emergency Management Commissioner Deanne Criswell said at a news conference Saturday.

Theyre very time-consuming removals because of the safety concerns involved in taking fallen trees off houses and power lines, she added.

The outages themselves were posing dangers: Four people were hospitalized late Friday with carbon monoxide poisoning from a home in Mastic, on Long Island, where a generator was running in the basement, Suffolk County police said.

As of midday Saturday, more than 300,000 customers were in the dark in Connecticut, more than 280,000 in New York City and its suburbs, and more than 108,000 in New Jersey, according to various utilities.

We are making slow progress, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said in a video message.

The Democrat said restoration priorities include removing trees that are blocking roads and making sure generator power doesnt fail at water treatment facilities and nursing homes.

Power companies called Isaias one of the biggest outage producers in recent years.

We have made great progress in restoring customers, and understand that is of little comfort to those still without air conditioning, lights and charged cell phones, said Kim Hanemann, the chief operating officer of PSE&G. The company said it had gotten electricity back to about 96% of its New Jersey customers who lost it during Isaias, with about 24,000 to go, plus some others who lost power because of subsequent storms or other reasons. PSE&G said it had 3,400 people working on the effort.

Con Edison, a utility in New York City and its northern suburbs, said crews are rebuilding entire sections of the overhead wire system in some places.

The company said more than 1,700 of its workers were in the field, with 1,200 reinforcements from other companies and contractors and another 320 due to arrive Sunday.

Some of the regions elected officials have blasted the utilities preparedness and response, with New York and Connecticut launching investigations.

Still, Lamont urged residents Saturday not to vent their ire are work crews: If you want to blame somebody, blame the generals, not the troops, he said.

Meanwhile, the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection said Friday it was reviewing Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganims use of an emergency alert system to excoriate a power company, according to the Connecticut Post.

In text and phone messages sent through the system Thursday night, the Democratic mayor accused local utility United Illuminating of irresponsibility and arrogance, said it has ignored us, mentioned that hed told city lawyers to explore possible legal action, and urged residents to call the company and press it to restore power. The messages also provided information on how to seek help from the city.

The state emergency notification system, called CT ALERT, is intended to tell residents about imminent threats to health and safety and life threatening emergencies, according to its website.

Bridgeport emergency management chief Scott Appleby told the Post he was more than comfortable with using the alert system for what he described as telling residents where to call for help.

UI spokesperson Edward Crowder said it wasnt the utilitys place to opine on whether the messages were appropriate.

Our crews and contractors in the field are working hard, day and night, to safely restore service, he added

About the photo: Debris from trees and power lines lie in a road brought down by high winds and rain, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020, in Edgewater, N.J. Tropical Storm Isaias spawned tornadoes and dumped rain during an inland march up the U.S. East Coast, including New Jersey, on Tuesday after making landfall as a hurricane along the North Carolina coast. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
(Natural News) Proposed faculty diversity plan also does not include call for viewpoint diversity

(Article by Jackson Walker republished from TheCollegeFix.com)

An internal document from the University of Texas at Austin that outlines a new framework aimed at increasing and promoting faculty diversity has come under fire by some for ignoring the need for ideological and viewpoint diversity among professors.

The 16-page document highlights four strategic objectives and benchmarks to measure the success of the faculty diversity plan through the year 2024.

We are dedicated to the principle that individuals of all races, ethnicities, peoples, nationalities, religious backgrounds, sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, socioeconomic statuses, disabilities, and health histories, regardless of their marital, parental, age, veteran, or citizenship status, be respected, equitably included, and enjoy equitable access to opportunities, reads the documents introduction.

But a critique of the plan from the center-right National Association of Scholars denounced the proposal, calling it profoundly prejudiced.

Notably absent from the plans definition is diversity of worldview or ideologythat is to say, anything outside of ones physical, social, and legal identities, the association wrote.

 UT Austin leadership specifically seeks diversity of identity over and against viewpoint diversitya fundamentally progressive quest that cuts against what should be the universitys ideological neutrality.

Part of the proposal would also require faculty job applicants to demonstrate a history of involvement in diversity.

All applicants should address any past contributions, as well as their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion somewhere in their application materials, reads part of the documents first strategic objective under hiring criterion.

The National Association of Scholars argues that, if approved as proposed, such a requirement would amount to a political litmus test for hiring and promotion.

We dont yet know what the aforementioned mechanisms for evaluating contributions to diversity will look like, or how much weight contributions will hold as a criterion for faculty merit and a positive factor in promotion considerations, but their inclusion as an incentive for faculty promotions serves as another ideological litmus test, the association argues.

They would also fundamentally alter the nature of UT Austin instruction, encouraging conformity to leftist orthodoxy and discouraging dissent.

Debates around the inclusion of ideological diversity have long been taking place on college campuses across the country.

In 2019, The College Fix covered the story of UC Davis math Professor Abigail Thompson, who was attacked for speaking out against requiring diversity statements of new hires, calling it inappropriate.

Zachary Michael Jack, a professor of English at North Central College, also warned in a column for The Chronicle of Higher Education that lacking diversity of ideas in college faculty can lead to too much commonality.

Too often in choosing new colleagues, search-committee chairs fall in love with their own image, finding in deep pools of hundreds of well-qualified candidates someone that, for all intents and purposes, is a version of themselves. Something in the applicant reminds them favorably of themselves, and, if there is much of the egotist in them, they are smitten, he wrote.

Jack also argued that increasing diversity should complicate decisions, not simplify them: In practice, real diversity means that decisions that were once unanimous are now likely to be contentious.

The College Fix reached out to Professor Jack, who was unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, an official at the University of Texas said the document is far from complete and is still being reviewed by administration.

The document shared online by the National Association of Scholars is not a policy but a draft of a plan still being discussed and finalized, the universitys director of media relations J.B. Bird told The College Fix via email.

The final faculty hiring plan, which is not complete, will continue to place the highest priority on a candidates record of teaching, research and academic service while giving candidates some way to include in their application service that contributes to diversity. The university will continue to seek faculty with a wide range of political, religious, philosophical, ideological, and academic viewpoints.

Nonetheless, the association advocates for the proposal to be scrapped.

The National Association of Scholars condemns this insidious, unjust strategic plan and calls on UT Austin  to retract it immediately, it stated.

Read more at: TheCollegeFix.com
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-05 03:18:36|Editor: huaxia

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ADEN, Yemen, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The total number of COVID-19 cases in Yemen's government-controlled provinces increased to 1,760 on Tuesday, as 26 new cases were confirmed.

The Yemeni Health Ministry said in a brief press statement that during the past 24 hours, the number of recoveries in the government-controlled areas increased to 863 since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus on April 10.

Also, the government announced that the death toll from the deadly respiratory disease climbed to 506 in different areas under its control, including the southern port city of Aden.

The Yemeni government called on donors and relevant international humanitarian organizations to provide support to help contain the pandemic.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi group seized control of much of the country's north and forced the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of Sanaa. Enditem
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 10



By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:

Turkmenistan and the United Kingdom have established new ties in sectors such as the creative economy, a foreign office spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the UK told Trend.

The spokesperson pointed out that the new ties were established despite the global challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

"We're committed to ensuring that the global recovery from coronavirus is green and sustainable, paving the way for future cooperation and sharing of expertise between the UK's well regarded Universities, Research & Development institutions and their counterparts in Turkmenistan," said the spokesperson.

Generally, the UK continues to work with Turkmenistan in a number of areas such as energy, education, agriculture and finance.

The UK continues to build on work by international organisations in Turkmenistan in human rights, good governance, and supporting local small and medium business enterprises (SMEs), added the spokesperson.

"The UK's engagement with these institutions has proven very effective in supporting steady reforms in the government and improving the business environment," noted the MFA.

The main Turkmen sectors of interest to the United Kingdom investors are oil, gas and chemicals. Also, the sides have a number of ongoing projects in particular in agricultural technology and the energy sectors.



---

Follow the author on Twitter: @JeilaAliyeva
KFC has announced the return of the delicious Zinger Mozzarella Burger, which will be available across Australian restaurant locations for a limited time only.

The burger originally launched in 2017 and rose to fame for its distinctive oozy Zinger-coated mozzarella patty.

Packed with flavoursome spice and a crunch, the burger is perfectly paired with a classic Zinger fillet along with crispy bacon, fresh lettuce and topped with tangy tomato sauce and mayonnaise.

But the new menu offering will only be available from Tuesday August 11 until Monday September 7 for $8.95, so eager customers should act swiftly.

KFC has announced the return of the delicious Zinger Mozzarella burger, which will be available across Australian restaurant locations for a limited time only

The burger originally launched in 2017 and rose to fame for its distinctive stringy Zinger-coated mozzarella patty

Kristi Woolrych, CMO at KFC Australia, said the business is excited to be bringing back the unique burger to the menu.

'The Zinger Mozzarella is the burger for all the cheese lovers out there and a level up on our classic Zinger Burger, so we know fans will go wild for it again,' she said.

'During the chillier months the Zinger Mozzarella is the perfect way to indulge - so don't miss out this time around as we can't say when it'll be back again.'

Packed with flavoursome spice and a crunch, the burger is perfectly paired with a spicy Zinger fillet along with crispy bacon, fresh lettuce and topped with tangy tomato sauce and mayonnaise

Currently KFC has more than 640 restaurants across Australia, so the new burger should be easily accessible to thousands of customers

As the burger previously attracted a cult following and constant praise from customers, it is expected to swiftly become a popular menu option once again.

The burger is the ideal combination of cheesiness and hot spice for the ultimate meal.

Currently KFC has more than 640 restaurants across Australia, so the new burger should be easily accessible to thousands of customers.
It's European insurance firms who should be paying, Tehran stands.

Iran does not intend to compensate Ukraine's largest air carrier, Ukraine International Airlines, for the downing near Tehran in January 2020 of its Boeing 737 passenger jet.

According to the head of the Central Insurance Organization of Iran, Gholamrez Soleimani, the plane was not insured by Iranian insurance companies, Reuters reports.

"The Ukrainian plane is insured by European companies in Ukraine and not by Iranian (insurance) companies," said Gholamreza Soleimani, Reuters reported citing local media.

"Therefore, compensation should be paid by those European companies," Soleimani said.

Read alsoPS752 downing: Ukraine releases intercepted tower communications proving Iran was aware of missile launch all along

The statement refers to the airplane and does not apply to the expected compensation to the victims' families.

European air insurers are yet to comment on the Iranian side's statement.

PS752 downing in Iran: background
The silhouette of an oil pump is seen at sunset.

Oil rose on Monday, supported by an improvement in Chinese factory data, rising energy demand and hopes for an agreement in the United States on more coronavirus-related economic stimulus.

Brent crude rose 82 cents, or 1.9%, to $45.22 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude settled 72 cents, or 1.7%, higher at $41.94 per barrel.

Prices found support after U.S. President Donald Trump said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, top Democrat in that chamber of congress, wanted to meet with him to make a deal on coronavirus-related economic relief.

The talks between Democrats and members of Republican Trump's administration broke down last week.

"The oil complex is heavily reliant on that aid. We need people to be able to boost economic activity to spur demand," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital in New York.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabian Aramco CEO Amin Nasser he sees oil demand rebounding in Asia as economies gradually open up.

China's factory deflation eased in July, driven by a rise in global oil prices and as industrial activity climbed toward pre-pandemic levels.

"With oil demand still slowly grinding higher, and oil supply in check due to the OPEC+ production cut deal and prices too low to incentivise strong production growth in the United States, the oil market remains undersupplied," UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.

Iraq said on Friday it would cut its oil output by a further 400,000 barrels per day in August and September to compensate for its overproduction in the past three months.

The move would help it comply with its share of cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+.

"This would send out a strong signal to the oil market on various levels. That said, this would also require the international companies operating in Iraq to join in with the cuts," Commerzbank analyst Eugen Weinberg said.
Heres a look at Sundays protest scene, marked by the second consecutive declaration of a riot outside the police union building  a new hub of demonstrations and unrest in the city.

It was Portlands 74th consecutive day of Black Lives Matter demonstrations against police violence and anti-Black racism. The crowds have surged and dwindled  drawing thousands of people to downtown and city parks and lately hundreds to police buildings outside of downtown.

Demetria Hester arrested: Hester, who leads Mothers United for Black Lives Matter and is a regular presence at the protests, was among 16 arrested outside the Portland Police Association headquarters in North Portland. Like others arrested, she faces misdemeanor accusations of disorderly conduct and interfering with a peace officer. Hester was released from custody on her own recognizance Monday. She is the survivor of a hate crime committed by MAX train murderer Jeremy Christian in 2017 and testified against him in his trial.

Crowd of about 200: People gathered in Kenton Park about 8 p.m. and then marched to the union headquarters on North Lombard Street shortly before 10 p.m. About 200 gathered outside the building and police warned them via loudspeaker not to commit crimes. Some people blocked Lombard and Fenwick Avenue using dumpsters and fences dragged into the street from nearby. At least one dumpster was set on fire. Police declared the gathering an unlawful assembly.

Riot declaration: Police declared a riot about 10:10 p.m. Officers tried to move the crowd away from the building and appeared to arrest several people on the street. Some retreating protesters threw objects at police, video showed. A large firework exploded between the groups and police responded by firing crowd control munitions. Police followed the group into Kenton Park and made more arrests. About two dozen people later returned to the union building and police ordered them to leave. Portland officers and state troopers formed a line around the building but left about 11:45 p.m. No other confrontations occurred.

Portland police said two officers were injured Sunday night, Aug. 9, 2020, including an officer who suffered a burn on her neck when a mortar melted a hole in her face mask. (Portland police photos)

Officers hurt: Police said a mortar hurt two officers. One officer suffered a neck burn when the mortar burned a hole in her face mask. A piece of a firework also injured a sergeants leg, they said. Police cited direct attacks on officers in declaring the demonstration a riot.

Saturday night: A protest Saturday night in the same area was mostly peaceful until a small group lit a fire inside the police union building. Police then declared a riot and used impact munitions and physical force to move the crowd away.

Read more:

Movement to disarm Portland State police gains new prominence amid renewed activism

Neighbors end up splashed in paint after confronting protesters vandalizing police building in East Portland

Portland police sergeant speaks about being a Black officer and why defund the police concerns him

Saturday night fire turns protest to riot: Todays top takeaways

-- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Two beluga whales have been moved into their new home in Iceland, where they will be able to live freely in the open sea for the first time in nearly a decade.

Little Grey and Little White travelled 6,000 miles from Chengfeng Ocean World, where they were trained to perform in front of audiences. They flew for around 30 hours to the Beluga Sanctuary, run by British charity Sea Life Trust, on Heimaey Island in June this year.

According to the charity, the two 12-year-old female whales arrived safely at Klettsvik Bay, where they will stay in a bayside care pool for a short period of time to acclimatise before being released into the wider sanctuary.

Klettsvik Bay, in the Westman Islands off the south coast of Iceland, is the worlds first open water sanctuary for belugas. Once Little Grey and Little White are released, it will mark the first time they have been in the sea since they were taken from a Russian whale research centre in 2011.

Andy Bool, head of Sea Life Trust, said: Were absolutely delighted to be able to share the news that Little Grey and Little White are safely in their sea sanctuary care pools and are just one step away from being released into their wider open water home.

Following extensive planning and rehearsals, the first stage of their release back to the ocean was as smooth as we had hoped and planned for.

We are carefully monitoring Little Grey and Little White with our expert care team and veterinarians, and hope to announce their final release very soon.

Beluga whales, also known as sea canaries for their high-pitched calls, are not considered endangered but are threatened by hunting, commercial whaling and climate change.
A federal appeals court has ruled that a Florida school districts policy barring a transgender male student from the boys restroom violated the students rights under both the equal-protection clause and Title IX.

The panel said that student Drew Adamss Title IX claim was bolstered by the U.S. Supreme Courts recent decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga. , that transgender workers are protected from discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Bostock has great import for Mr. Adamss Title IX claim, says the majority opinion for the 2-1 panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta. Bostock confirmed that workplace discrimination against transgender people is contrary to law. Neither should this discrimination be tolerated in schools. The school boards bathroom policy, as applied to Mr. Adams, singled him out for different treatment because of his transgender status.

The Aug. 7 decision in Adams v. St. Johns County School Board involves Adams, who was assigned as a female at birth but suffered gender dysphoria and had begun presenting and living as a boy by the time he entered Nease High School in Ponte Vedra, Fla., in 2015.

Adams used the boys restroom for his first nine weeks of 9th grade, court papers say, but after a complaint administrators informed him he could use only the girls restroom or a gender-neutral, single-stall restroom in the school office. The St. Johns district had adopted a best practices policy for LGBTQ students that included using transgender students preferred pronouns. But it declined to allow transgender students to use restrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identity.

Adams and his mother sued the district under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which bars discrimination based on sex in federally funded schools, as well as under the 14th Amendments equal-protection clause.

A federal district court ruled in favor of Adams on both his Title IX and equal-protection clause claims, and the school board appealed to the 11th Circuit.

While the case was pending, the Supreme Court decided in Bostock that discrimination against gay, lesbian, or transgender employees was a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title VII. Writing in dissent in the 6-3 decision, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. predicted (with dismay, from his viewpoint) that the Title VII decision would lead to rulings under Title IX supporting transgender students seeking to use school facilities that match their gender identity.

The 11th Circuit court is the first court to issue such a ruling citing Bostock, though some other federal appeals courts and lower federal courts have been siding with transgender students for years based on the theory that transgender discrimination is a form of sex discrimination barred by Title IX.

The St. Johns County district argued before the 11th Circuit that Title IXs bar on sex discrimination is different from Title VIIs because schools are a wildly different environment than the workplace and education is the province of local governmental officials.

We are not persuaded, Chief Judge Beverly B. Martin wrote for the majority. Congress saw fit to outlaw sex discrimination in federally funded schools, just as it did in covered workplaces. ... With Bostocks guidance, we conclude that Title IX, like Title VII, prohibits discrimination against a person because he is transgender, because this constitutes discrimination based on sex.

In also ruling for Adamss equal-protection claim, the majority said The school boards bathroom policy singles out transgender students for differential treatment because they are transgender. ... The policy places a special burden on transgender students because their gender identity does not match their sex assigned at birth.

In a sharp dissent, Judge William H. Pryor Jr. said the majoritys decision cast legal doubt on sex-segregated bathrooms in schools.

The majority reaches the remarkable conclusion that schoolchildren have no sex-specific privacy interests when using the bathroom, Pryor said, and the logic of this decision would require all schoolchildren to use sex-neutral bathrooms.

There is nothing unlawful, under either the Constitution or federal law, about a policy that separates bathrooms for schoolchildren on the basis of sex, Pryor said.

The majority answered Pryor in a footnote, saying the dissents central flaw is that it does not meaningfully reckon with what it means for Mr. Adams to be a transgender boy. ... The dissent fails to acknowledge Mr. Adamss gender transition, his gender dysphoria and clinical treatment, or the unique significance of his restroom use to his wellbeing.

Adams, now a 19-year-old college student, praised the decision in a statement released by Lambda Legal, a New York City-based civil rights group that represented him.

I am very happy to see justice prevail, after spending almost my entire high school career fighting for equal treatment, Adams said. High school is hard enough without having your school separate you from your peers and mark you as inferior. I hope this decision helps save other transgender students from having to go through that painful and humiliating experience.

There was no immediate reaction from the St. Johns County district.
Twenty-six farmers across the UK have showcased what they are doing to help the industry reach the net zero by 2040 ambition.

The NFU has released a booklet Doing our bit for Net Zero which includes case studies from every sector and from farms across England and Wales.

The Committee on Climate Change called for the UK to drastically reduce emissions to zero over the next three decades.

The recommendations, published in May 2019, aim to slash emissions by 80 per cent what they were in 1990.

The farming industry is aiming to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 as a contribution to a new target of 2050 for the whole of the UK.

The NFU's new report covers each of the three pillars outlined in the union's net zero plan: productivity, carbon storage and renewables and bioenergy.

Some of the work outlined in the booklet includes examples of farmers who are continually improving livestock genetics and animal health to boost efficiency.

The report also includes case studies of farmers who are undertaking precise tree planting and woodland management.

And some producers have invested in new technologies to increase farm productivity.

The 26 case studies aim to inspire others to start their net zero journey ahead of the 26th meeting of the UN's Climate Change Conference (COP26), which will take place in Glasgow in November next year.

NFU deputy president Stuart Roberts, who farms 110ha in Hertfordshire, features as one of the case studies.

His organic family business is part-owned part-tenanted, comprising arable, 50 ewes, a small pedigree Hereford herd and 200 laying hens.

We started off with a stockless cereal rotation but the weed burden made it too difficult. Introducing sheep has led to a 34% increase in yield, he said.

We want to do more work on finding the best blend of livestock and technology so our next step is bringing RTK wider-spaced drilling and inter-row hoeing alongside the animals.

"And I know I need to get better at regular soil testing so that the crop and livestock genetics were putting so much effort into get the right nutrients."

He added: "If all of us, big and small, owner and tenant, take action now, I know that together we can produce the most climate-friendly food in the world.

He said British farmers were 'ambitious' in their goal in producing some of the world's most climate-friendly food.

While he admitted the goal was a 'challenge', the NFU deputy president urged farmers to come together and encourage each other to progress.

There is not one singular way to go about these changes  it just needs to work for the individual business," Mr Roberts added.

"Even within the NFUs three pillars of improving productivity, increasing carbon stores and boosting renewables and bioenergy production, these case studies show that there are so many options for farmers to explore."

The NFU will be publishing extended versions of the case studies online over the next few months to provide even more detail about the work farmers are undertaking.
Sean Connery poses as James Bond next to his Aston Martin DB5 in a scene from the United Artists release Goldfinger in 1964 (Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Sean Connery has been crowned the best James Bond of all time in a new 'tournament' style poll by the Radio Times.

14,000 fans took part to decide which actor best portrayed Ian Fleming's quintessential British secret service agent the best.

Using a system of rounds, Connery knocked out Daniel Craig - often cited as among the best to have played the role - in the first round, with 56% to 43%.

Read more: New look at No Time To Die action sequence

Pierce Brosnan then convincingly beat George Lazenby in his heat, with Brosnan scoring a decisive 76% of the votes.

An upset in round three saw the hugely popular Roger Moore lose to Timothy Dalton, with Moore receiving 41% of the vote to Dalton's 49%.

Read more: Olga Kurylenko thought she would die in Bond stunt

The final round, saw Dalton pitted against Connery and Brosnan, with Connery coming out on top, with 44% of the voting.

Timothy Dalton on the set of The Living Daylights (Credit: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

Dalton and Brosnan nabbed second and third respectively.

Read more: The troubled timeline of No Time To Die

Connery is the most prolific Bond actor, having appeared in six Bond movies; Dr. No in 1962, From Russia with Love in 1963, Goldfinger in 1964, Thunderball in 1965, You Only Live Twice in 1967, and Diamonds Are Forever in 1971. He also reprised the role in the non-Eon produced Never Say Never Again in 1983 which isnt considered canon.

Current Bond Daniel Craig will appear in his fifth movie in the franchise, No Time To Die, later this year, with the movie having been delayed from its original April release date due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It's now scheduled for release on 12 November.
Allentown, PA (18103)

Today

Turning out mostly cloudy and not as cold. There might be a rain or snow shower late..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy with some rain and snow showers. Any rain will be early in the night.
Hotel Business News and Analytics

Important! This article is written by orangesmile.com editors and is protected by copyright law. The article can only be re-used with a direct link to www.orangesmile.com

NEWS BLOCKS:

Singapore and Malaysia Agree on Cross Border Tourism

Travelers from Singapore and Malaysia can now move between the countries. The governments of the two countries have agreed on the opening of the borders. For now, only certain categories of travelers are eligible  the governments underline that business guests and people with official visits have a priority. It looks like Singapore hotels, as well as hotels in Kuala Lumpur, still need to wait a little longer for the mainstream visitors.



The cross-border travel is available through the Reciprocal Green Lane (RGL) scheme. This means that travelers need to undergo a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) swab test that proves the negative Covid-19 result. The countries had to close their borders yet in March 2020 due to the spread of the coronavirus. Once the first stage of the cross-border travel proves itself to be successful, the countries will start discussing leisure tourism.



To be able to move between the countries, it was decided to resume flights between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Airlines are preparing for this one-hour flight that is widely recognized as one of the busiest flight routes in the world. The Foreign Affairs Minister of Singapore asked people to be patient and assured them that the government was actively working on the resume of international travel.



To allow international travel and limit the spread of the disease, the countries think of the creation of travel bubbles and green lanes that are first available for residents of Malaysia and Singapore, and later  to citizens of countries with low infection rates. This is crucial for the revival of the global economy. One in ten people around the world works in tourism, and the industry is responsible for 10% of the global GDP. Additionally, the aviation industry provides jobs to more than 65 million people worldwide and contributes 4% to the global GDP. Without these industries, it is impossible to hope for any recovery or economic growth.



AirAsia already offers flights between the countries. Starting from August 17, 2020, the air carrier will make daily flights between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Additionally, there will be once-a-week flights between Singapore and Kota Kinabalu, Ipoh, Penang, and Kuching. Other international destinations havent been approved yet and are under consideration by the governments of the two countries.

10.08.2020Stay in touch with the latest news of a worldwide hotel industry. All up-to-date analytics, reports , and news about hotel business trends on OrangeSmile.com.
The mishap of an Austrian in Italy, in the Mediterranean country for plenty of the vortex: The man visited according to the media last Saturday, is a Museum in the Northern Italian Possagno in Treviso, dedicated to the sculptor Antonio Canova. In the midst of life-size statues he wanted a souvenir photo of themselves. He lay the figure of a lady resting on a bed in the feet  as it happened: the Statue parts from the broke toe. Since then, many Italians laugh at the footage of the incident. Even a Museum video of the accident has been circulating in the media.

The Tourist have apologized in the meantime, as the news Agency Ansa wrote on Tuesday. He had signaled to do the damage to compensate. The police had determined, as it was called, extensive. Because the accident was left without registering. But with the help of images from security cameras and data, the need to specify visitors for the Corona-crisis at the Museum, he had been tracked down.

In a letter of apology from the Museum on his Facebook page quoted, wrote the Tourist, he had only learned from the Austrian Newspapers of the incident. To him the damage he had caused was not noticed in the visit at all, which is why he had continued his visit to Italy as planned, without reporting in to the Museum. He was but fled not at all, but had simply continued his holiday after the end of the country to leave.

The regional President of Veneto, Luca Zaia, thanked the "great Carabinieri" for the Track of the tourist. "Simple apologies are not enough," he wrote in the middle of the week on Facebook. The man had to pay. The Letter of the toes dropout is not apparent that he is sorry only, but also the Museum for information about the other steps that are required asks.

If the damaged object is a plaster model of the marble statue of the "Venus Victrix" of the Italian sculptor, Antonio Canova. He got to 1805 the order was the then 25-year-old Pauline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister, as the goddess of love, Venus, to represent. The marble statue attracts a lot of admirers in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. The plaster model is issued since 1829 in Possagno. Damage had to accept the"Gypsotheca" only during the First world war. In 1917, the roof was destroyed in a bomb attack, some of the plaster were damaged statues in the process. During the Second world war the statues were transported as a precautionary measure, in the temple of Possagno, where they remained until 1946. Toes they had not lost in all of the years.

Updated Date: 10 August 2020, 04:20
By Trevor Hunnicutt

(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he is weighing delivering his speech accepting the Republican nomination later this month either at the White House or at the site of the Civil War battleground in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

"We will announce the decision soon!" he wrote on Twitter of the location for his speech to close out the Republican National Convention on Aug. 27.

Plans for this year's party conventions have been turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic that has hit the United States particularly hard and become a key campaign issue ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

The Aug. 24-27 Republican convention was initially supposed to take place entirely in Charlotte, North Carolina, a state both parties expect to be competitive in the fall. Now only one day of official convention business will take place there with a far smaller number of attendees.

Last week, Democrats scrapped plans to have former Vice President Joe Biden accept his party's nomination in person in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, another closely contested election state. Party officials, citing coronavirus concerns, said Biden will instead speak to the nation from his home state of Delaware as part of the mostly virtual convention being held Aug. 17-20.

Trump said giving the speech at the White House would be the least expensive and most convenient option for the U.S. Secret Service, which provides security for the president.

"You see what just went on here," Trump told reporters minutes after a shooting briefly prompted Secret Service agents to evacuate him from the White House briefing room.

Either of Trump's new possible venues would be a departure from a typical convention hall filled with patriotic colors and cheering party faithful.

Trump said both sites would be "really beautiful sets" and offered "plenty of room" for guests.

Pennsylvania is another election swing state, and Gettysburg was the location of a decisive 1863 battle lost by the pro-slavery Confederate States of America. Republican President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address delivered at the dedication of a national cemetery there is one of the best-known speeches in U.S. history.

Trump has defended the use of Confederate symbols as a source of pride and history for Americans. He has also rejected suggestions that it is inappropriate and possibly illegal to use a nonpartisan public site, such as the White House, for a political address.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in New York; additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Andrea Shalal in Washington; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Jonathan Oatis and Richard Pullin)
World US Coronavirus Cases Top 5 Million, Leading the World

A US flag face mask is seen on a mannequin in New Yorks Times Square on Aug. 7, 2020 as the city continues Phase 4 of re-opening following restrictions imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus. / Getty / Kyodo
A Comal ISD high school student tested positive for COVID-19 during a school band camp, according to a letter sent to parents over the weekend.

The letter was sent to parents from Canyon High School band director Steve Vaden and said the student had participated in the camp on Aug. 6. The student had completed and passed the health screen assessment and followed social distancing guidelines, the letter said.

The student will not return to camp, and their band equipment has been cleaned and sanitized. The letter did not make clear when the school district was notified of the positive test.

The marching bands programs in Comal ISD have, and will continue to, follow all established guidelines and protocols outlined by the UIL and the district as they continue their band camps this week, the school district said in a statement to mySA.com.

The positive case comes only weeks before the school district will begin in-person instruction on Aug. 25.

Comal ISD has five schools within Bexar County and will open despite the San Antonio Metropolitan Health Department's directive to delay on-campus learning until at least Sept. 7. Fifty-seven percent of families in the school district have said their students will return to campus.

District teachers and staff have expressed concerns about returning. The San Antonio Express-News obtained an anonymous letter sent to various Comal C0unty officials from a teacher, who said they have grave concerns about opening campuses to students and staff.

The teacher, citing rising positive cases in Comal County, said that the district's plans for reopening weren't a safety-centered approach, instead the plans are ineffective and unrealistic. Using the high school's seven-class period schedule as an example, an infected student could potentially pass the virus to over 100 0ther students throughout the day, the letter said.

"I promise you that if we go back to in-person instruction while we are still a hotspot there will be severe repercussions," the letter said. "... We cannot count on our district leadership to do the right thing for students and staff. I beg you. I so sincerely beg you, please help us avoid this disaster!"

The teacher also accused the district of withholding information from staff about positive cases in the school community, despite a promise from Superintendent Andrew Kim.

There is a "strong contingent of teachers who are so stressed and scared not only about the pandemic and potential virus exposure but also about their personal job security," according to the teacher's letter.

Kim was not immediately available for comment for the Express-News story.

Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news and general assignment reporter for MySA.com | taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway
A further 816 people have been diagnosed with the coronavirus in Britain and 21 more patients have died, official statistics revealed today.

The update takes the total number of fatalities to 46,595 and means there have now been 311,641 people diagnosed with the disease since January.

Today's data comes amid concerns the virus is starting to spread out of control again after 1,062 people were diagnosed yesterday - the first time since June 25 that the daily rise was more than 1,000.

But today's statistics have shown a 23 per cent drop in new cases, which also brings the seven day average down a notch from 877 per day to 860.

And other promising data shows that the number of people receiving hospital treatment for Covid-19 in England has plummeted by 96 per cent since April.

Survival rates in intensive care units are improving thanks to improved understanding of the disease and experimental treatments, and smaller proportions of people catching the disease are needing life-saving medical help.

Government focus now is on getting children back to school and a row has broken out between politicians and unions over reopening classrooms across the UK.

NHS England today confirmed six more people died in its hospitals between July 29 and August 9.

Two of those were in the North East and Yorkshire region, with the other four all dying in the East of England.

And Northern Ireland's government confirmed another death had been confirmed there over the weekend.

Today marks the 25th day in a row that no more deaths have been confirmed in Scotland.

While the number of people dying of Covid-19 in Britain is now very low and continuing to fall, concerns have turned to the number of cases being diagnosed each day.

Yesterday, Sunday, the daily count tipped above 1,000 for the first time in around six weeks when 1,062 people received a positive test result.

The country had not seen an increase so large since June 25, when 1,118 cases were reported in a single day.

The numbers come almost exactly a fortnight after Boris Johnson predicted a second wave in two weeks.

On July 28, a senior government source said the Prime Minister was 'extremely concerned' by outbreaks 'bubbling up', both at home and abroad.

Even as case numbers are increasing, however, the number of people going to hospital with the virus continues to fall and is now at the lowest level of the entire outbreak.

Hospital admissions are now making up a smaller percentage of total new coronavirus cases, data shows, falling from more than a quarter at the end of April, when widespread testing began, to less than 10 per cent in August

In the seven days leading up to August 5, 375 people were hospitalised with Covid-19 in England, compared to 18,638 between March 28 and April 3.

While the number of patients in hospitals would be expected to drop as cases decline and the virus fades out, data suggests fewer people are getting severely ill.

The proportion of coronavirus patients who need hospital care - regardless of the true number - seems to be falling.

Since late April, when testing first started to become available outside of hospitals, the proportion of positive cases being hospitalised has dropped from around a quarter to less than 10 per cent, averaging seven per cent - just one in every 14 - over the past week.

Experts say better treatments, more hospital capacity and some levels of immunity may have helped push down the need for hospital care.

Survival rates have improved, too, with eight in 10 intensive care patients now making it through their illness, up from fewer than half in April.

The total number of people in hospital with Covid-19 in England peaked at 17,172 on April 12 and has now dropped to just 638 on August 7

The number of people on ventilators was highest April 12 at 2,881, and has since dropped to 57 on August 7

The NHS faces a huge backlog of non-coronavirus patients after emptying its hospital wards to prepare for a surge in people sick with Covid-19. Falling levels of hospitalisations could help the health service get back on its feet if the virus remains under control.

The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 in England peaked at 17,172 on April 12, and the number of people on ventilators was highest on the same day, at 2,881.

This has since plummeted by 96 per cent to 638 people in hospital on August 7, and 98 per cent to 57 people on ventilators.

Patients on ventilators are usually the most ill and have to be hooked up to the life support machine to help them breathe by forcing air into their damaged lungs.

The most new admissions to hospitals happened on March 31 when there were 3,099 people taken into hospital with the disease.

On August 5 - the most recent day for which there is data - just 21 people were admitted.

That was the lowest figure so far in the epidemic and represents just three per cent of the 820 new cases that had been diagnosed each day, on average, over the last week.

That percentage - the number of hospital patients compared to the average number of people diagnosed over the past week - shows approximately how many officially tested people become so ill that they need to go to hospital.

Testing for people outside of hospital first became available on April 23, at which time around a quarter of people testing positive were hospital inpatients.

This has now been consistently at 10 per cent or lower since July 29, suggesting fewer people are now getting severely ill.

Professor Anthony Gordon, an intensive care expert at Imperial College London, said vulnerable people - those more likely to end up in hospital - were more likely to have got ill at the start of the epidemic before, or early in, the lockdown.

Data from intensive care units shows that survival rates of critically ill patients have improved drastically.

When the first report from the Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre (ICNARC) was published in April, 51.6 per cent of ICU patients had died.

But in the most recent report, which includes all hospitalised patients up to July 30, the death rate has dropped to 38.7 per cent, and in July alone it was just 20 per cent, the Express reported.

Professor Gordon told the Express: 'As this was a new disease we learnt quickly how to treat it and doctors very quickly adjusted.

'Clinical trials in this country have developed new evidence to know the best treatments. Use of steroids - dexamethasone - I think that has helped improve outcomes.

'More recently we've seen as the surge has eased that we're treating fewer patients. That has eased the pressure on healthcare, particularly on intensive care units.'
Zero-emissions aeroplanes could take to the skies 'within years' thanks to British scientists who are developing technology that will allow them to run on ammonia.

The collaboration between Oxford-based Reaction Engines and the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council could see ammonia replace kerosene as jet fuel.

Unlike kerosene-based jet fuel, ammonia is less of a fire hazard and burns without releasing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change.

Zero-emissions aeroplanes could take to the skies 'within years' thanks to British scientists who are developing technology that could allow a jet engine, pictured, to run on ammonia

Just like conventional jet fuel, ammonia could be stored in the wings of planes  but, unlike its kerosene-based counterpart, ammonia does not burn so easily on its own, making it far less of a fire hazard.

In order to be burned in a combustion chamber, ammonia needs to be mixed with hydrogen  which can be released from ammonia itself using heat and a catalyst.

The researchers are proposing, therefore, to use a heat exchanger to warm up the fuel en route to the engine, followed by a so-called 'cracking reactor' to split some of the ammonia into hydrogen and nitrogen.

The fuel mix can then be ignited to drive the engine, with the only waste products being nitrogen, water vapour and perhaps some nitrogen oxides  although the latter can be removed from the exhaust using more ammonia.

'The fuel could actually scrub its own emissions,' Reaction Engines' James Barth told MailOnline.

Given that the switch to ammonia would, at its minimum, only require minor additions to conventional jet engines, airlines could make use of the cleaner fuel without needing to completely replace their current plane fleets.

Ammonia does have a lower energy density than conventional jet fuel  meaning that aircraft powered by the novel fuel would have a slightly shorter range.

However, Dr Barth explained, ammonia fares well in comparison with other green aircraft solutions  including the more expensive fuel hydrogen and battery-power  and ammonia-powered planes would be perfectly suitable for short haul flights.

The switch may require an operational change, he added, but the team do not expect that the reduced range would prove to be a 'showstopper'.

At present, ammonia is produced from natural gases like methane and atmospheric nitrogen  however, there is significant potential for the process to be made entirely renewable in the future by replacing the natural gas with electrolysed water.

At present, kerosene and ammonia are about the same price-per-tonne. While truly green production of ammonia will be more expensive, Dr Barth said that he expects to be offset by things like future carbon taxes.

'We believe [...] ammonia will be cost-competitive with synthetic fuels,' he added.

In order to be burned in a combustion chamber, ammonia needs to be mixed with hydrogen  which can be released from ammonia itself using heat and a catalyst. The researchers are proposing, therefore, to use a heat exchanger to warm up the fuel en route to the engine, followed by a so-called 'cracking reactor' to split some of the ammonia into hydrogen and nitrogen. The fuel mix can then be ignited to drive the engine, with the main waste products being nitrogen and water vapour

Reaction Engines' chief executive Mark Thomas told the Telegraph that the pollution reductions brought about by COVID-19-related movement restrictions could help bring about more demand for 'green travel'.

'We've been living under clean skies for the past few months,' he added.

'It is becoming clear that there is going to be a real technology drive.'

At present, the team are looking to design the heat changers and cracking reactor  and are seeking funding to develop a small-scale, ground-based demonstration to show that such an engine could be started and throttled up successfully.

'There's no reason why, [with] the right funding, we couldn't have a small-scale demonstrator ready to test within a matter of years,' Dr Barth said.

The news follows a recent drive for the UK to slash its carbon emissions in the interests of mitigating climate change  with the Government having promised to reach net zero emission by the year 2050.
By PTI

GWALIOR: A 55-year-old COVID-19 patient was on Monday injured after jumping off the third floor of a hospital in Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, police said.

He also slit the veins of his wrist before jumping from the super specialty hospital in Gajra Raja Medical College in the afternoon, said Kampu police station in charge KN Tripathi. "He was saved because he did not land on the ground but on top of a tin-shed covering the generator set. He has received injuries. A guard saw him first," the official said.

Tripathi informed that the man had been admitted in the COVID-19 facility on August 8, adding that he did not appear to be mentally sound.

(If you are having suicidal thoughts, or are worried about a friend or need emotional support, someone is always there to listen. Call AASRA's 24x7 Helpline: +91-9820466726 for assistance.)
Minor opposition Justice Party Chairwoman Rep. Sim Sang-jung, right, and Rep. Ryu Ho-jeong engage in recovery efforts at the scene of the landslide caused by recent torrential rains in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. / Yonhap



By Park Han-sol



It has been almost customary for politicians to visit regions damaged by natural disasters to receive briefings from local government heads and engage in some recovery work.



Such practices  and subsequent media coverage  have sparked controversy over their sincerity and effectiveness.



Minor opposition Justice Party Chairwoman Rep. Sim Sang-jung posted on Facebook, Friday, about her party members' visit to a farm in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, which was destroyed by heavy rainfall and a landslide. She expressed concerns about visiting the affected region, saying she was aware of politicians' limits in offering practical help at the scene. Still she stated that "we worked hard to provide even the slightest consolation to the devastated victims."



A series of pictures that Sim posted showed her and other party members engaging in recovery efforts and drinking coffee during a break.






Shweta Bachchan Nanda is on cloud nine as her brother Abhishek Bachchan returned home almost after a month. The actor was discharged from the hospital after he tested negative for COVID-19. To celebrate his arrival, Shweta took to Instagram to share an adorable childhood picture of Junior Bachchan, in which he is sitting on a minibike.

While she shared this throwback picture, her son Agastya Nandas comment grabbed everyones attention. He wrote, DHOOM DHOOM on his mothers post to which he got a savage reply from Shweta. She tagged Agastya and wrote a little bit of originality please, with a magnifying glass emoji.

Abhishek shares a great bond with Shweta, and her kids, Agastya and Navya, hold a special place in his heart as he often seems to cherish their every accomplishment.

After being discharged from the hospital, Abhishek tweeted on his social media handle to express his gratitude to his well-wishers. He wrote A promise is a promise! This afternoon I tested Covid-19 NEGATIVE! I told you guys Id beat this. Thank you all for your prayers for me and my family. My eternal gratitude to the doctors and nursing staff at Nanavati hospital for all that they have done. THANK YOU (sic)!

A promise is a promise! This afternoon I tested Covid-19 NEGATIVE!!! I told you guys Id beat this.  thank you all for your prayers for me and my family. My eternal gratitude to the doctors and nursing staff at Nanavati hospital for all that they have done.  THANK YOU! Abhishek Bachchan (@juniorbachchan) August 8, 2020

Abhishek, along with his father Amitabh Bachchan was hospitalised with Covid-19 in July. On August 2, Big B was discharged but Abhishek continues to be in the hospital.
Today, the Washington Posts Sunday Outlook section ran a piece in which Lawrence Downes, formerly of the New York Times editorial board, boasts about feeding books by Sean Hannity, Bill OReilly, Laura Ingraham, and other conservative authors to worms. Downes says he purchases these books on sale from his public library. He then takes them home for quarantine. In this way, he prevents people who might want to buy and read the books from doing so.

For extra pleasure, Downes has taken to putting the books in a compost bin along with coffee grounds, potato and carrot peels, etc., and feeding the pages to worms. He seems to believe that doing so is different in nature from burning the books. Hes right. Taking into account the pleasure Downes gets and his desire to write about the experience, its sicker.

Downes, as you might already have concluded, is a piece of work. His beat at the Times was immigration. In Losing Control, a book I discussed here, Jerry Kammer describes Downes work as notable for its stridency and lack of perspective. Says Kammer:

[Downes coverage] made no room for the moral complexity that roiled Arizona civic life as illegal immigration surged early in the new millennium. It illustrated why Daniel Okrent, the Times first public editor and in-house critic, wrote. . .that the editorial page was thoroughly saturated in liberal theology. Downes reduced the story [in Arizona] to a Manichean struggle between strumming Mariachis who represented the forces of light and snarling Minutemen who represented the forces of darkness. . .In a single condescending sentence Downes shot down [a store owners] claim to be protecting customers from harassment [by pro illegal immigration protesters]. Mr. Reza calls that ridiculous, he approvingly reported. . . . Making no attempt to moderate his righteous contempt, he claimed that restrictionists yearned for a time when immigration laws were enforced and the Mexicans disappear and everything gets pure and legal again. He observed no one like the man who caught the ear of [a reporter for the Arizona Republic] with his defense of the protesters. None of these people is against immigration, he said. We have laws in this country, bud. Theres a proper way to enter this country.

As he was writing his book, Kammer asked Downes for an interview. Downes spoke with Kammer by telephone, but refused to go on the record.

Its not surprising that a shrill ideologue like Downes gets his kicks from destroying books by authors he doesnt like. Sadly, its also not surprising that the Washington Post turned over space in its once excellent Outlook section to this unhinged leftist for a celebration of book destruction.
Minister for Education Simon Harris has today announced changes to the support scheme for students living in Direct Provision (DP).

After a review of the current scheme, Minister Harris has confirmed that its rules will be relaxed with a view to running it over a longer term as the Government alters its approach to DP.

The requirement for applicants to have attended three academic years in the Irish school system and to have gotten their Leaving Cert will no longer apply. However, they will still have to have been in the asylum or leave to remain system for three years

Introduced in 2015, it provides similar supports to those given under the current Student Grant Scheme and is available to those seeking asylum, subsidiary protection applicants or leave to remain applicants.

The Government is committed to a new long-term approach to Direct Provision. This will take time to implement. But in the meantime, we will continue to make improvements for residents in Direct Provision, said Minister Harris.

"Relaxing the criteria for the student support scheme will hopefully result in more people accessing third level education.

"This support scheme will also be put on a more long-term footing. I am acutely aware of the stress that students feel at this time and I hope that the changes that I have approved will address the fears of prospective applicants.

The closing date for 2020/21 applications is November 6, 2020. Any student who has already applied for support under the scheme, will have his/her application reviewed under the new conditions of the scheme.
Howard Stern says that if he were in Ellen Degeneres' position, he would change his whole image after bombshell claims that she 'fostered toxic work environment behind the scenes' on her talk show.

The 66-year-old radio personality - who feuded with 62-year-old DeGeneres for years - took to his SiriusXM program Morning to give advice on how he would handle the controversy.

He said: 'You know what Id do if I was Ellen? I would change my whole image.

'Id go on the air and be a son of a b****... people would come on and (I would) go, "F*** you." Just be a pr**k.'

Scroll down for video

Interesting perspective: Howard Stern says that if he were in Ellen Degeneres' position, he would change his whole image after bombshell claims that she 'fostered toxic work environment behind the scenes' on her talk show

'I would change my whole image': The 66-year-old radio personality - who feuded with 62-year-old DeGeneres for years - took to his SiriusXM program Morning to give advice on how he would handle the controversy

Stern went on to say that he finds Ellen likable on a personal level but has no idea what it is like to work for her.

He went on to give his two cents on what he thinks the daytime television host should do as he said: 'So you think Im a pr**k? Im going to show you exactly.'

Interestingly enough, Stern said that he and DeGeneres actually have an opposite situation as far as their reputations and behind-the-scenes personalities go.

He explained:'Im known on the air as a pr**k, but off the air, Im known as a great guy, you know, for the most part.'

Taking a stand: Stern (seen in May 2019) went on to give his two cents on what he thinks the daytime television host should do as he said: 'So you think Im a pr**k? Im going to show you exactly

Last year the two made waves as they shared an on-air kiss during Stern's first ever appearance on Ellen's chat show in the program's 16-year history.

No doubt it came as a shock to many as he ripped her on his radio show in February of 2010 amid reports she was threatening to walk off her then-position as an American Idol judge amid speculation he would be added to the panel. (He later signed on to be a judge on America's Got Talent.)

'Ellen DeGeneres is such a jerk,' Stern said on the February 11, 2010 broadcast 'Shes such a foul piece of garbage, people who work with her know  shes a tyrant ogre, this whole nice girl image is a lot of horses*** fakery - shes miserable, and she is a miserable woman.'

The pair eventually mended fences after Stern came to her defense two years later when a group called One Million Moms threatened to boycott JCPenney - after the company made her their spokesperson - on the basis of her sexuality.

Sealing the deal: Last year the two made waves as they shared an on-air kiss during Stern's first ever appearance on Ellen's chat show in the program's 16-year history

Ellen warmed to Stern at a bash Kimmel invited both to, and eventually appeared on his SiriusXM show in the fall of 2015.

'I've mellowed, I became an elder statesman of radio, of television, of media,' Stern said Monday. 'Look at me, I'm so relaxed!'

Stern's comments come amid news that the Ellen DeGeneres Show has seen some of the worst ratings in its 17-year history, as the presenter, 62, continues to be plagued by claims of a toxic work environment.

According to The Wrap, the daytime talk show only garnered a 1.0 Live + Same Day rating through the week ending July 26, which was 29 per cent down on the same time last year, and nine per cent down on the previous week.

Viewership for Ellen appears to have been hit hard amid shocking claims that the work culture behind-the-scenes has been rife with bullying, racism and sexual harassment.

Shocking: Stern's comments come amid news that the Ellen DeGeneres Show has seen some of the worst ratings in its 17-year history, as the presenter, 62, continues to be plagued by claims of a toxic work environment (pictured in June)

Ellen's show has seen more significant declines than other talk shows, which are all seeing lower ratings as they air reruns during the summer break.

Dr. Oz was also down 22 percent, and The Real and The Doctors have seen 20 percent declines, according to the online publication.

In July, staff on the syndicated daytime talk show cited a number of the show's executive producers in their complaints, including Kevin Leman and Ed Glavin.

The show is now in the midst of an internal probe from parent company WarnerMedia.

Drama: The daytime talk show only garnered a 1.0 Live + Same Day rating through the week ending July 26, which was 29 per cent down on the same time last year

Ellen DeGeneres' memo to her staff addressing mistreatment allegations Hey everybody  its Ellen. On day one of our show, I told everyone in our first meeting that The Ellen Degeneres Show would be a place of happiness  no one would ever raise their voice, and everyone would be treated with respect. Obviously, something changed, and I am disappointed to learn that this has not been the case. And for that, I am sorry. Anyone who knows me knows its the opposite of what I believe and what I hoped for our show. I could not have the success Ive had without all of your contributions. My name is on the show and everything we do and I take responsibility for that. Alongside Warner Bros, we immediately began an internal investigation and we are taking steps, together, to correct the issues. As weve grown exponentially, Ive not been able to stay on top of everything and relied on others to do their jobs as they knew Id want them done. Clearly some didnt. That will now change and Im committed to ensuring this does not happen again. Im also learning that people who work with me and for me are speaking on my behalf and misrepresenting who I am and that has to stop. As someone who was judged and nearly lost everything for just being who I am, I truly understand and have deep compassion for those being looked at differently, or treated unfairly, not equal, or  worse  disregarded. To think that any one of you felt that way is awful to me. Its been way too long, but were finally having conversations about fairness and justice. We all have to be more mindful about the way our words and actions affect others, and Im glad the issues at our show were brought to my attention. I promise to do my part in continuing to push myself and everyone around me to learn and grow. Its important to me and to Warner Bros. that everyone who has something to say can speak up and feels safe doing so. I am so proud of the work we do and the fun and joy we all help put out in the world. I want everyone at home to love our show and I want everyone who makes it to love working on it. Again, Im so sorry to anyone who didnt have that experience. If not for COVID, Id have done this in person, and I cant wait to be back on our stage and see you all then. Stay safe and healthy. Love, Ellen Advertisement

On Tuesday it was reported Ellen will come back to host her show's 18th season despite claims celebrities including Sean Hayes, Kristen Bell, Melissa McCarthy and Jennifer Aniston were being considered to replace her.

A source close to The Ellen DeGeneres Show said 'no one is stepping in or taking over' as the investigation into the claims continue, NBC News reports.

Ellen was reportedly joined by executive producers Andy Lassner, Mary Connelly and Derek Westervelt and senior staff members to 'address' the issues on Monday.

Last week, Ellen issued a memo to her staff apologising for the alleged behaviour of senior crew behind-the-scenes.

'On day one of our show, I told everyone in our first meeting that The Ellen DeGeneres Show would be a place of happiness - no one would ever raise their voice, and everyone would be treated with respect,' she wrote.

'Obviously, something changed, and I am disappointed to learn that this has not been the case. And for that, I am sorry. Anyone who knows me knows it's the opposite of what I believe and what I hoped for our show.'

Upsetting: Last week, Ellen issued a memo to her staff apologising for the alleged behaviour taking place behind-the-scenes

DeGeneres said she was unable to 'stay on top of everything' with her hosting duties and delegated to 'others to do their jobs as they knew I'd want them done.

'Clearly some didn't. That will now change and I'm committed to ensuring this does not happen again... I'm also learning that people who work with me and for me are speaking on my behalf and misrepresenting who I am and that has to stop.'

She added: 'As someone who was judged and nearly lost everything for just being who I am, I truly understand and have deep compassion for those being looked at differently, or treated unfairly, not equal, or - worse - disregarded. To think that any one of you felt that way is awful to me.'

Following the claims many celebrities have come out to publicly defend Ellen, including Scooter Braun, DJ/musician Samantha Ronson and her wife of 12 years Portia de Rossi.

Portia who posted a graphic on Instagram saying, 'I stand by Ellen' in what appeared to be an attempt to push public sentiment back in the corner of the talk show host.

However some stars have also cryptically come out against Ellen, including Everybody Loves Raymond star Brad Garrett and Back To The Future's Lea Thompson.

One of the show's former resident DJs Tony Okungbowa, known to viewers as DJ Tony, also spoke out about his experience working on the show.

He wrote on Instagram: 'I have been getting calls asking me about the Ellen Degeneres Show and I would like to address the time I spent there.

'I was on air talent from 2003-2006 and from 2007 -2013. While I am grateful for the opportunity it afforded me, I did experience and feel the toxicity of the environment and I stand with my former colleagues in their quest to create a healthier and more inclusive workplace as the show moves forward.'

Claims: The show's executive producers Ed Glavin (left), Mary Connelly (center) and Andy Lassner (right) have been accused of fostering a hostile work environment

A source told the New York Post that the talk show host has been 'crushed,' 'devastated' and 'hysterical' following calls for her to leave the show ahead of its 18th season premiere this September.

'She felt like everything she worked so hard for was falling apart,' the insider said.

BULLYING, RACISM AND A 'TOXIC WORK ENVIRONMENT': THE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST ELLEN Ten former and one current member of Ellen's staff alleged they were bullied, fired for attending family funerals or taking sick leave, while one woman claimed to have walked off the job after facing comments about her race. 'That 'be kind' bulls*** only happens when the cameras are on. It's all for show,' one anonymous staff member said. Staff said they were told not to talk to DeGeneres herself while she was on set, and that the day-to-day running of the show was left to producers. The employees said they did not have first-hand experience of DeGeneres being unpleasant, but said she needs to take more responsibility for how her employees are treated. However, allegations have mounted from other sources against the host herself - sparked by a Twitter thread from comedian Kevin T. Porter Calling DeGeneres 'notoriously one of the meanest people alive', he asked people for 'the most insane stories you've heard about Ellen being mean'. The tweet received 2,600 replies and saw Porter give $600 to an LA foodbank, after promising to donate $2 for every legitimate mean story. Claims included that staff are required to chew gum before speaking to her because of her 'sensitive nose', and that she polices staff lunch orders and bans anyone from eating fish or meat. Separately, security worker Tom Majercak - who was assigned to be Ellen's bodyguard at the 2014 Oscars - said she was 'sly' and 'demeaning' to him. 'Ellen is the one person that I've been assigned to - and I've been assigned to quite a few celebrities - that has never taken the time to say hi to me,' he said. 'She's not the person she portrays to be that she's playing off of society.' Advertisement

Sources told the publication that Ellen's career problems might step from an incident last fall in which she was seen seen with former president George W. Bush watching a Dallas Cowboys home game against the Green Bay Packers.

Her character also came under fire in late March after a series of tweets from comic Kevin T. Porter (linked to a charity drive for the Los Angeles Food Bank), who requested his followers post 'insane' tales of 'Ellen being mean,' which blew up on social media with much feedback.

One current and ten former employees of the daytime chat show accused its three executive producers, Ed Glavin, Mary Connelly and Andy Lassner, of 'bullying.'

The executive producers issued a statement saying: 'We are truly heartbroken and sorry to learn that even one person in our production family has had a negative experience.'

Lassner also tweeted: 'Nobody is going off the air.'

Jonathan Norman, a co-executive producer, is alleged to have 'groomed' a former employee by taking him to concerts and showering him with other gifts and perks before attempting to perform oral sex on him.

Kevin Leman, the show's head writer and executive producer, is alleged to have solicited oral sex from an employee. Others say they witnessed Leman grope another colleague.

And Ed, an executive producer, allegedly 'had a reputation for being handsy with women,' according to former employees.

Leman and Norman have denied all allegations. Glavin has not addressed the claim publicly yet but is stepping down from his position, according to Variety.

Warner Bros., the studio that runs the show, has declined to comment on the sexual harassment allegations, citing an ongoing internal investigation.

Multiple staff members at the show have also told DailyMail.com they are not buying Ellen's apology and are calling on her to call it quits.

One staffer said, 'She's only addressing this now because the publicity is so bad for her and her BS brand of happiness and kindness. Ellen can throw everyone else under the bus, but the buck stops with her.

'Whenever she'd tell viewers to choose kindness, I'd throw up a little in my mouth because she always chose the opposite,' they added.

A BuzzFeed News' July 16 expose revealed claims made by one current and 10 former employees of Ellen's talk show accused Lassner, Connelly and executive producer Ed Glavin of bullying.

The current and former staff said that they experienced racism, fear and intimidation while working on the long-running series and said that Ellen should have stepped in on their behalf.

The show then faced additional accusations about sexual misconduct, lobbed on July 30 in another BuzzFeed News article, in which dozens of men and women named show producers Kevin Leman, Glavin and Jonathan Norman with alleged incidents of sexual harassment, misconduct or assault.

Among the allegations was one made by a black woman who claimed 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.

On the call, Ellen, Lassner, Connelly and executive producer Derek Westervelt supposedly said they wanted the talk show staff to 'have fun at work.' A scene from an old Ellen episode

Another former employee alleged they were fired after taking medical leave for one month following a suicide attempt.

Our source said: 'She was happy to put her name on the show, yet she let those three executive producers do whatever they wanted. The fish rots from the head and Ellen and the three of them are now rotting.'

They also claimed Ellen and her executive producers will be on a 'witch hunt' now to find who spoke out against them.

'Don't think for a second that there won't be a witch hunt to find out who went public with the worst kept secret in television,' they said. 'Ellen is mean. She'll want vengeance for all of this coming out.'
A Wasteful Enterprise

On Friday, August 7, the Electoral Commission of Ghana called a press conference to pat itself on the back for completing the latest in the long line of registration exercises conducted in this country.

As if mesmerised by its own achievement, the EC lunged into a series of misguided statistical commentary about the numbers it recorded, in obvious response to critics who argue that the millions of dollars spent on this needless mass registration exercise have mostly been effectively wasted.

Yet, evidence that the EC has wasted more than $185 million of the country's money (over $70 million for new hardware, software and datacenters to Thales and others; over $60 million of near- brand new equipment discarded; and at least $65 million for goods and services) for no clear gain whatsoever is firm and solid. As we have persistently argued, at most $35 million would have been required had the EC listened to sound counsel and used the existing infrastructure. The implied loss to the state of persisting in its course thus amounts to over $150 million.

Electoral Commission Spending on the Registration

The EC made two main claims to justify the need to spend all these millions that this COVID-hit, struggling, country can ill afford: that its equipment is obsolete (in its media campaign) and that the existing register is somehow not credible due to the presence of ineligible names (in the case it presented to the Supreme Court).

The first claim was thoroughly debunked by IMANI in several reports citing parliamentary records and auditor-general reports (the reader may review the evidence on the IMANI website: https://imaniafrica.org/2020/02/24/imani-the- dangerous-games-of-the-electoral-commission/ ).

The second claim was repeated in the EC's August 7th press briefing. Clinging to straws, the commission sought to give a modicum of respectability to the dangerous idea of malicious bloating, a wholly unsubstantiated view that somehow the register has been stashed with ineligible voters, especially foreigners, in a manner designed to benefit some specific political parties.

In this statement, IMANI will go over the claims and the evidence step by step to kill this pernicious idea once and for all and to establish firmly and clearly that absolutely NOTHING has been achieved by the wasteful decision to compile a new register. A dangerous precedent has been set and any future EC can use any reason to embark on a new mass re-registration exercise. The courts having vacated their responsibility to insist on administrative rationality would not be able to help either.

The Flawed Statistical Arguments of the EC

The EC's argument in supported of the deliberate bloating theory has three legs:

a. There are 797,493 individuals on the disqualification lists (multiples/duplicates and exempted) of the 2019 Voters Roll. These people would have had to be added to the Voters Roll had a limited registration exercise been conducted.

b. Had a limited registration exercise been conducted in 2020, instead of the full re-registration, two million first-time voters would have registered.

c.The total number of persons on the register would have totalled 19.6 million, a full three million more than what has been captured in the 2020 Voters Roll.

All three strands of the argument are completely ridiculous.

First, the only way an individual can be flagged for disqualification is through the challenge and certification processes. A person is only truly disqualified if they fail during the adjudication process to defend a charge of ineligibility after having been flagged for multiple registrations, or if their residency or citizenship is successfully challenged. For any of this to happen, the individual must first be on the main provisional register.

Therefore, it is practically impossible to separate the roughly 798,000 individuals from the 16,845,420 on the 2019 Voters Roll and then go on to claim that these people would have been automatically added to the register had a limited registration exercise been carried out this year. Why then are these mysterious people not being added to the 2020 provisional register just compiled? It is extremely strange that a constitutional body will publicly make such dubious arguments.

Second, there is no way 2 million people would have been captured on the Roll had a limited registration exercise been conducted. This country has good enough data going back nearly three decades to project the likely turnout for limited registration. In 2006, roughly 630,000 people registered. 928,540 registered in 2014. 1,046,067 registered in 2016. And 1,211,395 registered in 2019. The only time approximately 1.8 million wrote down their names in a limited registration exercise was in 2008 due to the exceptional circumstances of the 2004 mass registration exercise. In 2004, photo IDs taken with digital cameras were first introduced. Despite the country having insufficient cameras, the exercise was conducted over just 2 weeks (compared to the 40 days used in 2012.) The situation was such that the total number of voters dropped compared to what was on the 2000 register. The high number recorded in 2008 was thus a correction, and never before or after has similar figures ever been recorded. To therefore expect 2 million people to turn up in the midst of a pandemic just 1 year after a registration exercise is quite shocking and completely bereft of statistical sense. At any rate, how many first-time registrants were recorded on the 2020 register just compiled? This is after all the most conclusive evidence of how many would have turned up had only a limited registration exercise been conducted. Our evidence suggest that first time registrants were less than 1.2 million. In any serious country, that should settle the debate. Third, the EC, very characteristic of its obfuscating style of recent years, deliberately chose to provide numbers for 35 instead of the 36 days of registration and chose to issue its press statement when two more mopping up days remained. Adding the figures from the omitted three days will certainly take the numbers past 17 million. The reader must bear in mind that this still fall short of the 40 days of official registration plus two days of mopping up witnessed in 2012, during the last mass registration exercise in this country. Nor are we accounting for the many Ghanaians temporarily overseas who would normally have returned in the leadup to the registration, and who would have taken the advantage to register had COVID-19 not compelled a shutdown of the country's borders. In these circumstances, whilst general fears that the pandemic will turn millions away did not pan out, some voter suppression was nevertheless present. Worst, we can only hope that the surge of infections owing to the overcrowded registration centers we saw shall not lead to more hospitalisations and deaths in coming days and weeks. The case can certainly be made that limited-registration figures of approximately 1 million in 2020 would have taken the total number of voters on the roll to 18 million thereabouts, which is 1 million higher than what would be recorded in this exercise. Does that not suggest that the register had been maliciously bloated for some malicious objective, such as electoral cheating by one or the other party? We devote the next section to this contentious subject.

No Malicious Bloating

It is clear that had a limited registration exercise been conducted, a potential 1.2 million people would have got onto the register, roughly the same number it would have exceeded this newly compiled register by. The difference is easy to explain, however. Due to severe underinvestment in the Birth & Deaths Registry, the names of dead persons are not being removed from the register. In 2018, the Registry's allocated budget was $1 million in today's money, of which a mere 67% was released. If even a fraction of the $150 million given to the EC for this needless task had been instead passed on to the Registry to enable automatic electronic notifications of birthdates and deaths, something that would have cost less than $1.5 million, the $150 million wasted on this exercise would have been saved. Since 2012, projecting from the average death rate and adjusting for only those above 18 years of age and the proportion of the population on the voters register, 1.156 million names of dead persons must have been present on the register. It is clear that this accounts for the entire difference between the 18 million names that would today be on the register had a limited registration been conducted and the figures recorded in this exercise. In short, $150 million of our very scarce resources have been wasted to remove the names of dead people, who cannot be impersonated because of the biometric system, instead of the $1.5 million which would have more than doubled the capacity of the Births and Deaths Registry to improve records and automate notifications to the EC. What about minors? Nothing implemented in this mass registration exercise can be said to be more effective in removing minors than in previous registration exercises. About 40% of registrants used guarantors and virtually all of the remaining registrants used Ghana Cards. But recall that over 80% of Ghana Card registrants used guarantors too. In short, 90% or more of registrants are ultimately on this new Roll because of guarantors. A system whereby people merely state that in their belief a person is above 18 years old and is a Ghanaian cannot be an improvement in anyway. What is worse, current court decisions have merely served to wound the only institution whose true mandate is to report on birthdates and deaths, the two datapoints crucial to removing minors and dead people from the Roll. In an earlier contribution to the debate over the EC's adamant commitment to a new register, we outlined the motivations of the different parties to the controversy as follows:

The ruling party's only basis for supporting the mass re-registration was because of the NPP's long-held belief that through that process they could eliminate large numbers of ineligibles, especially foreigners, maliciously smuggled onto the register to distort electoral outcomes. Senior members of the party expressed an expectation to see about 14 million total registered voters by the end of the exercise, whilst the EC first set a target of 13 million, which it then revised to 15 million. One leading strategist cited the case of Ketu South's 140,000 registered voters, for example. Our view is that these fears were cynically exploited by the Electoral Commission to pursue a procurement-focused objective which had little to do with cleaning up the register. All the data does indeed point to such fears about malicious bloating being unfounded.

Ketu South's registered voter numbers have actually increased at a pace slower than the overall national average. In 2000, the constituency had about 98,000 registered voters on its roll. Today it has a little over 140,000. This is a mere 40% increase compared to the nearly 70% increase over the same period nationally. Or, to compare like to like, take Fomena, Ashaiman and Bekwai, which have all seen a 60% increase over the same period. In fact, the entire Volta region (now plus Oti) has seen a less than 40% increase in their registered voter numbers compared to the 50% number seen in Ashanti or the even more spectacular 60% recorded in Central Region over the two-decade period. There are some simple truths governing the rate and manner of change of national electoral registers, especially in countries where one has to explicitly register aforehand. These include the rate of urbanisation, the competitiveness and degree of maturity of party politics, the use to which the Voter ID card can be put and the level of investment into the general electoral infrastructure. When these factors are taken into account, the proportion of the total population who are registered voters in Ghana, ~53% to 55%, can be seen to have been roughly consistent for many years and, furthermore, completely typical. In Cape Verde, it touches 66%, whilst in Tunisia it is over 60%. On the other hand, it is just over 40% in Botswana because of low political competitiveness. In Ghana, Greater Accra trounces Ashanti in number of registered voters, despite the latter having a bigger population, because registration centers are more cluttered/clustered (investment level), urbanisation rate is higher (95% to less than 70%), and competition for parliamentary seats is keener. Our own history as a country also bears this analysis out. As urbanisation, electoral investment and the level of political competition have climbed, so also have registration levels. These are basic empirical facts easily borne out by regression analysis. We hereby present a few charts and graphs to illustrate the points.

We will urge the ruling party in particular to take a careful look at the outcomes of the registration and change its posture to data analysis presented by independent Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). It should discover that regions where it performed well in the 2016 elections such as Ahafo, Western North and Eastern have all seen noticeable declines. Western North for instance seems to have experienced the steepest fall. Meanwhile, the most competitive regions such as Bono and Bono East, Greater Accra, and the regions in the northern and upper political zones of the country have seen perceptible increases. Strongholds of the two major parties, Volta and Ashanti appear to have maintained roughly the same numbers. All of these facts are consistent with an analysis that discounts the conspiracy theories of malicious bloating and affirm the typicality and ordinariness of the current situation.

Way Forward

So where does this leave the country? First and foremost, the country should reject the triumphalism of the EC, and deny it the approbation it is so desperately seeking. Throwing $150 million at a non-existent problem and ending up at the same place you started from is no achievement.

In a desperate bid to prove to critics that it could compress the registration into 36 days instead of the more than 40 days warranted, it recklessly refused to enforce the social distancing and continuous sanitisation of scanners it had promised (see this video: https://youtu.be/fChfLAi7r6g); mobilised the old BVRs it had cynically claimed were obsolete, then promptly and shamelessly denied using any HP equipment when we had clear video evidence that they did (see here: https://youtu.be/5XIz4_e5MQ0); and disgracefully rigged the guarantor system by condoning the use of pre-filled guarantee forms, whilst blatantly turning a blind eye to collusion among electoral officers and party agents (see here: https://imaniafrica.org/2020/08/07/electoral-commission-of-ghana-ec-registration-recordings/)

This is a totally discredited Electoral Commission that needs to embark on serious soul-searching.

The rest of the country should not feel secure about the electoral process until the following has been done:

A detailed independent asset audit of the Electoral Commission to account for the 60 million dollars of equipment procured between 2016 and 2019 that it claims have suddenly gone obsolete. Deep and complete reconciliation with the Opposition Parties and CSOs whose calls for accountability it has shunned so far. Failure to patch up and open up to scrutiny by all stakeholders will only deepen the rancour, including the ethnocentric tensions, that marred the integrity of the electoral process in many places. A serious national dialogue about strategies to fix the identification and register cleaning issues that remain wholly unresolved due to continued neglect despite the expenditure of tens of millions of dollars of this country's hard earned resources over the last decade on the electoral system. Tackle the Procurement Raj that has taken hold of the EC and is hell bent on milking the country at all cost through scheme after scheme.

For the sake of our democracy, we hope this country shall take these matters seriously.
Members of the Verkhovna Rada express support for the freedom of the Belarusian people to elect a president.

Some members of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, have responded to mass protests and detentions in the wake of presidential elections in Belarus.

The corresponding statement was published on Facebook by MP from the Servant of the People parliamentary faction Yevheniya Kravchuk.

Read alsoBelarus police detain 170 people overnight after election  human rights center

It must be noted that Kravchuk did not specify the names of the lawmakers who signed the statement. The text of the document says that Ukrainian parliamentarians are monitoring developments in Belarus with concern.

"Given the proximity and kinship of the peoples of our countries, we consider it necessary to express support for the freedom of the Belarusian people to elect representative bodies of power, including the President, in a democratic, legal way. The Ukrainian people paid a high price for adherence to these principles. The memory of these victims encourages us to call on the Belarusian authorities to show restraint in regarding protesters, to prevent violations of human rights when the Belarusians exercise one of the fundamental rights  to a peaceful protest," the statement said.

The text also mentions that the protests in Belarus were caused by "numerous reports of violations and some non-transparent events that took place during the election campaign and on election day." Ukrainian parliamentarians called on all branches of power in Belarus to provide reliable and clear answers to the questions of the protesters as soon as possible to maintain peace and tranquility in the country.

"Not only a public consensus in Belarus, but also the preservation and strengthening of its sovereignty, the subsequent recognition of the election results by the international community, and therefore international support and protection of the statehood of the nation who are our friends, depend on openness, honesty, transparency, reason and restraint of all parties and participants in the elections. Long live a free and independent Belarus!" the statement reads.
Norwalk Police Department photo

NORWALK  Police have release a photo of a man they say used a stolen credit at Walmart on Connecticut Avenue.

The credit card was used around at 1:45 p.m. Aug. 2 after being stolen earlier that day in a car burglary on Gregory Boulevard, police said.
Turkey's navy has issued an advisory saying that the Turkish ship Oruc Reis will carry out a seismic survey in a disputed area in the eastern Mediterranean

Greece on Monday slammed a Turkish announcement that it will be conducting energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean in an area Athens says overlaps its continental shelf, as tension increased sharply in the region.

Officials said Greece's military was on alert, while Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis convened the government's national security council after Turkey issued a Navtex, or international maritime safety message, announcing its research vessel Oruc Reis and two auxiliary vessels would be conducting seismic exploration in an area between Greece and Cyprus from Monday until Aug. 23.

Last week, Turkey also announced it would be conducing a firing exercise in the eastern Mediterranean this Monday and Tuesday in a nearby area, southwest of the Turkish coast between Turkey and the Greek island of Rhodes.

``Greece will not accept any blackmail. It will defend its sovereignty and sovereign rights,'' Greece's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. ``We call on Turkey to immediately end its illegal actions that undermine peace and security in the region.''

The ministry said the Navtex ``combined with the observed broad mobilization of units of the Turkish Navy, constitutes a new serious escalation.`` Turkey is acting in a way that is destabilizing and threatening peace, it added.

Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez said Monday that the Oruc Reis had arrived in its area of operation from its anchorage off Turkey's southern coast. He tweeted that ``83 million back the Oruc Reis,'' referring to Turkey's population.

Greek Minister of State Giorgos Gerapetritis said the Oruc Reis was not transmitting through the automatic identification system carried by ships, but was being monitored by the Greek Navy.

``We are at full political and operational readiness,'' Gerapetritis said on state television ERT.

``The majority of the fleet is ready at this moment to go out wherever is needed,'' he said when asked to elaborate. ``Our ships that are sailing in crucial areas were already in place days ago. If necessary there will be a greater development of the fleet.''

Gerapetritis said that ``it is clear that we are not seeking any tension in the region. On the other hand our determination is a given.''

Greece on Monday issued its own maritime safety message saying the Turkish Navtex on seismic research had been issued by an ``unauthorized station'' and referred to ``unauthorized and illegal activity in an area that overlaps the Greek continental shelf.''

A crucial issue of the dispute is whether islands should be included in calculating a country's continental shelf and maritime zones of economic interest. Turkey argues they should not be, a position Greece says violates international law. Greece has thousands of islands and islets in the Aegean and Ionian seas, around 200 of them inhabited.

Tension has been high in the region in recent months over drilling rights and maritime boundaries. Late last month, Turkey had said it was suspending its exploratory operations in the eastern Mediterranean, and the move was seen as somewhat defusing the situation.

But last week Ankara slammed a deal signed on Thursday between Greece and Egypt delineating maritime boundaries and the countries' exclusive economic zones for drilling rights.

Last year, Turkey signed a similar deal with the U.N.-backed Libyan government in Tripoli, sparking outrage in Greece, Cyprus and Egypt, who all said it infringed on their economic rights in the Mediterranean. The European Union says it's a violation of intentional law that threatens stability in the region.

NATO allies and neighbors Greece and Turkey have been at odds for decades over a wide variety of issues, including sea boundaries, and have come to the brink of war three times since the mid-1970s, including once over drilling exploration rights. Recent discoveries of natural gas and drilling plans across the east Mediterranean have led to a spike in tension.

Mitsotakis spoke Monday morning with European Council President Charles Michel, informing him about the Greek-Egyptian agreement and the situation in the eastern Mediterranean, officials said. He was scheduled to speak to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday afternoon.

In a television interview late Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin said Turkey and Greece had been holding talks in Berlin for 2{ months and were on the verge of issuing a joint statement when the Greek-Egyptian agreement emerged.

``The moment the agreement with Egypt was announced, we received a clear instruction from our president: `You are halting the talks. Inform the Germans and the Greeks, we are not pressing ahead with the negotiations,''' Kalin told CNN-Turk television.

``This is another move to keep Turkey out of the Eastern Mediterranean and to restrict it to the Gulf of Antalya,'' Kalin said.

Kalin said Turkey is in favor of resolving the dispute through dialogue.

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Customs and Border Protection agents check pedestrians as they exit Mexico into the customs area of the United States on the east side of the San Ysidro port of entry in Tijuana, Mexico, on Nov. 19, 2018. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

US Customs Seizes Shipments of Nearly 20,000 Fake Drivers Licenses From China, Other Countries

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Chicago have seized more than 19,000 fake IDs in the first half of this year, with the majority arriving from China and Hong Kong, the federal agency said.

The fake drivers licenses were intercepted at the International Mail Facility (IMF) at Chicagos OHare International Airport between Jan. 1 and June 30 this year, according to a news release issued by the CBP.

Take a look at these IDssame person, different bio info, CBP Chicago said on Twitter. Officers in Chicago have kept a tally of how many fraudulent IDs have come through the OHare mail facility. From Jan. 1 to June 30, CBP officers have seized nearly 20,000 counterfeit drivers licenses.

The 19,888 seized fraudulent IDs which arrived from China, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and South Korea were, in the majority of cases, headed for neighboring states, mainly for college-age students.

These counterfeit drivers licenses can lead to disastrous consequences, CBPs Ralph Piccirilli said in a statement. Criminal organizations use these counterfeit IDs to avoid attracting attention to their illegal activities.

A fraudulent drivers license seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

CBP said many of the fraudulent IDs had the same photograph, but different details listed. A major cause for concern was that the bar code attached to the fake Michigan licenses worked.

The fake IDs, the CBP said, can lead to identity theft, worksite enforcement, critical infrastructure protection, and fraud linked to immigration-related crimes such as human smuggling and human trafficking.

These documents can be used by those individuals associated with terrorism to minimize scrutiny from travel screening measures.

Last November, the CBP said it intercepted more than 5,000 fake IDs, or the blank cards used to make them, sent from China at a Louisville, Kentucky, Express Consignment Operations hub, that were headed to various states nationwide, including New York.

Of these, 2,909 were counterfeit drivers licenses, and 3,123 were blank cards used to make fake IDs, it said in a press release.

One of the fraudulent IDs was headed to a convicted child rapist located in New York, officials said, noting that authorities believe the individual entices minors with alcohol and counterfeit IDs before engaging in illicit activity.

Timothy Lemaux, CBP port director for Dallas-Fort Worth, warned against obtaining fraudulent identity documents overseas, as counterfeiters will have access to personal information.

What is most disconcerting about these interceptions, besides the volume in which we are experiencing, is the ease in which so many young people freely share their personal information with counterfeiters abroad, Lemaux said in a statement, reported Fox News.

Well continue to collaborate with local law enforcement to educate the public, and anyone who is contemplating purchasing a counterfeit ID online, on the potential dangers of sharing your personal, identifiable information with a criminal element.
Thousands of people poured into Martyrs Square in Beirut Saturday, for the third successive day, to vent their anger over Tuesdays deadly port explosion, with similar protests taking place on Sunday.

They blamed the catastrophe on the plutocrats who have governed the country for decades, living in obscene luxury while workers face job losses, ever-deepening poverty, constant power outages and garbage piled up everywhere.

The explosion has killed at least 158 people and injured 6,000 more, with a further 100 people, mainly port workers, known to be missing. Around 300,000 people12 percent of the citys populationhave been made homeless. The blast blew up buildings, shattered windows and set neighbourhoods ablaze. Officials have estimated losses at $10 billion to $15 billion.

Protesters in Beirut, Lebanon, August 9, 2020 (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

The catastrophic blazeapparently the result of welding work on the door of the hangar storing 2,750 tons of ammonium nitratecould have been prevented. It was the result of the criminal neglect and callous indifference displayed by successive governments and the ruling elite. They ignored repeated warnings about the dangers for years, especially after a similar explosion in 2015 at the Chinese port of Tianjin that killed 173 people and injured hundreds.

The billionaires and millionaires that rule Lebanon allowed the powerful chemical, impounded in 2014, to be stored without proper safety controls close to residential neighbourhoods.

The blast has wrecked Lebanons, Syrias and Jordans main entry point for cargo, including the grain terminal and the silos that normally hold 85 percent of the countrys cereals, threatening a food crisis for tens of millions of people.

The street demonstrations may appear to be a continuation of last Octobers anti-government protests against economic hardship, government corruption and the countrys sectarian political set up. These protests had subsided amid coronavirus pandemic restrictions. But the latest demonstrations were marked by the presence of the Christian and Sunni parties and ex-generals. Their leader is former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Washingtons and Riyadhs man in Lebanon, who was forced to resign last year in the face of mass opposition.

The Lebanese national flag was prominent, as were signs extolling Octobers Revolution. Some set up nooses on wooden frames as a warning to the countrys rulers as the hashtag #prepare the noose took off. While some demonstrators called for a reckoning with all the plutocrats, others centred their fire exclusively on Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Islamist party. Its bloc is the largest in the countrys parliament, reflecting the dominant numerical position of Shia, who constitute 40 percent of the Lebanese population. Protesters burned an effigy of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

In the evening, angry clashes broke out with the security forces which fired tear gas and rubber bullets to stop protesters breaking through the barrier to government buildings, wounding at least 238 people. A policeman died after a fall.

Nevertheless, one group of demonstrators, led according to Al-Jazeera by retired army officers, stormed the foreign ministry, declaring it the headquarters of the revolution. Before being pushed out by the military, they pulled down the portrait of President Michel Aoun, who has supported Hezbollahs role in government, suggesting they have their sights set on installing a replacement who, under Lebanese law, must be a Christian.

Others entered the energy and economy ministries, as well as the Association of Lebanese Banks.

Unable to openly call for Hariris return to power, these forces are urging the formation of an interim salvation government, potentially headed by the military and including bankers and other business figures, to resolve the humanitarian and economic crisis, and prepare the way for elections on the basis of a new electoral lawin as much as three years time. Their aim is to restore the direct rule of the plutocracy, in the service of imperialism, and limit or eradicate the influence of the mobsters in Lebanon and Syriaa euphemism for Hezbollah.

Demonstrators pledged to continue the protests, even after Prime Minister Hassan Diab called for early elections to defuse the tensions. He was installed as a technocrat to head the government in January after Hariris forced resignation.

Diab said fresh elections in two months time were the only way out of the countrys crisis. His announcement followed the resignation of several Christian legislators who sought to precipitate an election and that of Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad. Diab has put 19 officials, mostly unnamed, under house arrest and/or banned them from travelling, accusing them of knowing about the ammonium nitrate. They include port and customs officials, judges, and former ministers. Several officials have had their bank accounts frozen.

Aoun has set up an investigation into the blast, which will also look at whether external interference was a factor, to report within four days. Commentators have seized on this to pin the blame on Hezbollah, claiming that the warehouse was a Hezbollah explosives dump that prompted an air strike by Israel.

While such suspicions of an Israeli attack are understandable, given Israels history of targeted assassinations, cyber-attacks and other assaults on its opponents, there is no evidence to back this up. In a recent border incident with Hezbollah near the disputed area of the Shebaa Farms, Israeli forces were under unprecedented orders to miss their assailants to prevent an escalation. That indicated that Tel Aviv does not want a renewed war with Hezbollah at this stage.

Nevertheless, theories of Hezbollahs involvement serve a definite purposeto deflect attention away from the political factions aligned with Washington, Paris and Riyadh, all of which have denied any responsibility for the explosion of a mountain of explosives kept at the port for six years.

Playing a key role in these machinations is the representative of the former colonial power, and suppressor of the year-long yellow vest protests, French President Emmanuel Macron. He became the first international figure to visit the country after the blast. Under the cover of offering aid, he is seeking to organise a political coup by the ruling elite against the working class and engineer Hezbollahs elimination as a political and military force in Lebanon and Syria.

Macron called for an international investigation into the explosion. His model is presumably the fraudulent $700 million trial in absentia of four low-level Hezbollah members by a special UN-backed court in the Netherlands for planting the bomb that killed former Lebanese prime minister and billionaire Rafiq Hariri and 21 others in 2005. That court is due to report its findings soon.

Co-chairing a virtual international aid conference with the UN over the weekend, Macron insisted that aid was conditional upon radical political reform. While claiming he would never interfere in Lebanese politics, he said he could apply pressure.

Speaking on television on his return to Paris, Macron said that if France did not play its part, other powers may interfere, whether it be Iran, Saudi Arabia or Turkey.

In the absence of a revolutionary leadership advancing a perspective for unifying the working class, there are real dangers that the legitimate anger of workers, youth and middle-class layers engulfed by the ever-widening crisis will be channelled behind yet another bunch of kleptocrats, this time possibly headed by military generals.

The demands of Lebanese workers and youth, like those of workers who have risen in revolt across the region, in Europe, the US and elsewhere, have nothing in common with those of their political leaders. Their demands cannot be achieved other than through a unified struggle with their class brothers and sisters internationally for the overthrow of capitalism and the building of socialism throughout the Middle East and around the world.
New Delhi:

Indian telecom giant Vodafone, on Friday announced unlimited free voice calling for prepaid customers in two packs starting at Rs 144 and Rs 344 respectively, matching similar offers by rivals Airtel and Idea, which had announced similar plans on Thursday.

Both the new packs, valid of 28 days, come bundled with 50MB of data, Vodafone said in a statement Friday. Both packs also offer unlimited incoming free on national roaming.

For users of 4G smartphones, the first pack, which could cost Rs 144 to Rs 149 depending on the circle, bundles in 300 MB of data, while the second pack, priced between Rs 344 and Rs 349, bundles in 1 GB of data.

"We had recently made incoming free on national roaming across India. Our hundreds of million customers can remain confidently connected and enjoy talking to their loved ones worry free. Our 4G customers will further enjoy the additional benefit of up to free 1GB data along with unlimited calls," Sandeep Kataria, Chief Commercial Officer, Vodafone India said in the statement.




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A detailed analysis report of the Global Intra-Operative 3D Navigation System Market has been covered in the report coupled with a thorough description of each company profile with information on the H.Q, future capabilities, key mergers & acquisitions, financial outline, partnerships and new product launches and developments.

The comprehensive value chain analysis of the market will assist in attaining better product differentiation, along with detailed understanding of the core competency of each activity involved. The market attractiveness analysis provided in the report aptly measures the potential value of the market providing business strategists with the latest growth opportunities.

The report classifies the market into different segments based on product type and end-user. These segments are studied in detail incorporating the market estimates and forecasts at regional and country level. The segment analysis is useful in understanding the growth areas and probable opportunities of the market.

Final Report will cover the impact of COVID-19 on this industry.

Browse the complete Global Intra-Operative 3D Navigation System Market Research Report  Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/10039-intra-operative-3d-navigation-system-market-report

The report also covers the complete competitive landscape of the global Intra-Operative 3D Navigation System market with company profiles of key players such as:

Medtronic

DOTmed.com Inc.

Brainlab AG

FIAGON GmbH

Zimmer Inc.

Siemens Healthcare GmbH

Stryker

XION GmbH

B. Braun Melsungen AG

A detailed description of each has been included, with information in terms of H.Q, future capacities, key mergers & acquisitions, financial overview, partnerships, collaborations, new product launches, new product developments and other latest industrial developments.

SEGMENTATIONS IN THE REPORT:

By Product Type:

Neurosurgery Navigation System

Spinal/ Trauma Surgery Navigation System

Orthopedic Surgery Navigation System

ENT Navigation System

By End-User:

Hospitals

Ambulatory Surgical Centers

Clinics

By Geography:

North America (NA)

Europe (EU)

Asia Pacific (APAC)

Latin America (LA)

Middle East & Africa (MEA)

Download Free Sample Report of Global Intra-Operative 3D Navigation System Market @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/download-sample-10039

The Global Intra-Operative 3D Navigation System Market has been exhibited in detail in the following chapters 

Chapter 1 Intra-Operative 3D Navigation System Market Preface

Chapter 2 Executive Summary

Chapter 3 Intra-Operative 3D Navigation System Industry Analysis

Chapter 4 Intra-Operative 3D Navigation System Market Value Chain Analysis

Chapter 5 Intra-Operative 3D Navigation System Market Analysis By Product Type

Chapter 6 Intra-Operative 3D Navigation System Market Analysis By End-User

Chapter 7 Intra-Operative 3D Navigation System Market Analysis By Geography

Chapter 8 Competitive Landscape Of Intra-Operative 3D Navigation System Companies

Chapter 9 Company Profiles Of Intra-Operative 3D Navigation System Industry

Purchase the complete Global Intra-Operative 3D Navigation System Market Research Report @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/buy-now-10039

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Global Flight Navigation System Market Research Report  Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026

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DecisionDatabases.com is a global business research reports provider, enriching decision makers and strategists with qualitative statistics. DecisionDatabases.com is proficient in providing syndicated research report, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains.

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Two patients in Da Nang react with joy as they are declared Covid-19 free on August 10, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong.

Two medics and two caregivers at Da Nang Hospital have tested negative for the novel coronavirus, marking the first recoveries since the pandemic resurgence.

The female medic duo, aged 41 and 58, and two caregivers aged 43 and 55 at Da Nang Hospital in central Vietnam were confirmed Covid-19 free Monday.

The medics were confirmed infected on July 27 and the caregivers two days later. All have been treated at the Da Nang Hospital for Lung Diseases.

The four marked the first recoveries since the Da Nang outbreak late last month.

Of them, three are residents of central Da Nang City, including the two medics. The remaining recoveree lives in nearby Quang Ngai Province.

All four will return home where they will be isolated for 14 days and have their health monitored by local medics.

Covid-19 returned to Vietnam on July 25 after more than three months without reported infections.

With the initial source a mystery, locally transmitted cases have spread around hospitals in Da Nang, with the coastal city alone reporting 269 infections.

Domestic infections have been reported in 14 other cities and provinces, including Hanoi and HCMC, all linked to Da Nang.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Vietnam has reported 841 Covid-19 cases. Of them, 429 remain under treatment, 399 have recovered and 13 have died, including two Monday morning.
Australias stock market outperformed a weak Asia-Pacific region on Monday, clocking up a 1.8 per cent gain to a three-week high of 6110.2 points.

The ASX enjoyed a strong session despite flat Wall Street futures and dicey global sentiment leading into Mondays session thanks to ongoing feuds between the White House and Beijing.

The ASX 200 finished at a three-week high on Monday with a 1.8 per cent gain. Credit:Louie Douvis

But the local bourse was boosted by strong gains across all sectors, in particular financials, utilities, and consumer staples as Victoria appeared to be getting on top of its COVID-19 outbreak.

Investment consultant at Grant Samuel Funds Management Stephen Miller believed Mondays gains could also be traced back to Fridays very dovish [Reserve Bank of Australia] Statement on Monetary Policy.

Investors are getting their head around the fact that monetary policy is going to remain accommodating for a long, long, long time, he said.

The 104-page statement revealed downgraded estimates for Australia suggesting the economy will not be strong enough to withstand an interest rate rise until at least 2023.

Mr Miller now expects the RBA to do more easing, which would be good for domestic banks.

The banks share prices increased significantly amid low trading volumes on Monday. Commonwealth Bank shares gained 3.4 per cent to $73.98, National Australia Bank shares gained 3 per cent to $17.46, taking the stock back to where it was on the last day in July. Similarly, Westpac gained 3.3 per cent to $17.36 on below-average trading volumes, and ANZ Bank gained 2.7 per cent to $18.17.

Portfolio manager at Tribeca Investment Partners Jun Bei Liu said there was some optimism in the market thanks to Victorias lower COVID-19 infection numbers. The state remains in Stage 4 lockdown but on Monday recorded 322 infections, the lowest in two weeks.

Banks were sold off on fears the recession may last longer than expected, she added. The financial sector dropped 2.7 per cent last week and has been stuck in a trading range since June.

Property trusts and travel names did very well on Monday, Ms Liu added, with Scentre Group up 3.4 per cent to $1.99 and Webjet up 4.2 per cent to $3.24.

Among the consumer staples cohort Blackmores, Woolworths, and Coles enjoyed the best gains. The vitamin-maker gained 3.1 per cent to $74.50, Woolies gained 2.8 per cent to $40.04 and Coles was up 2.6 per cent to $18.85.

News Corp gained 6.5 per cent to a nearly-six months high of $20.81 after a flurry of analyst upgrades following last weeks results.

Utilities also out-performed on Monday with APA Group up 3 per cent to $11.44, Spark Infrastructure up 3.6 per cent to $2.31, and AusNet Services up 2 per cent to $1.83.
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) announced today that it has earned an Achievement Award from The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) in the category of "Community Champion."

The winning program, CHOP's CAPP+ Home Repairs Program, was among twelve projects selected from 131 submissions. Winning projects were chosen for their demonstration of exceptional work and innovation in community health projects; quality improvement efforts; and operational efficiencies.

Launched in 2018, CAPP+ addresses the impact of unhealthy housing on pediatric asthma outcomes in West Philadelphia neighborhoods, where asthma affects approximately one in four children. CAPP+ expands the focus of CHOP's award-winning CAPP program to include home repairs, aiming to further reduce asthma-related emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations by removing asthma triggers in the home.

"We are honored that our CAPP+ program has been recognized by HAP," said Peter Grollman, Senior Vice President of External Affairs at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "A vital program in our community, it helps families address important health-related issues so that all children have the opportunity to grow up to be healthy, happy adults."

CAPP+ is a component of Healthier Together, CHOP's umbrella initiative that focuses on some of the most pressing health and economic needs in neighborhoods surrounding the hospital's campus.

"Especially in light of the extraordinary challenges that COVID-19 has presented Pennsylvania's hospital community, we are pleased to honor the recipients of the 2020 HAP Achievement Awards," said Andy Carter, President and CEO of HAP. "These outstanding projects demonstrate the tireless commitment to excellence that Pennsylvania's hospital community embodies each and every day. We congratulate the winners for their accomplishments."

HAP's Achievement Awards program has recognized Pennsylvania hospital excellence since 1978. Entries were evaluated by a 16-judge panel. The panelists, drawn from Pennsylvania and across the nation, represented the public and private sectors, business organizations, consumer groups, and renowned health care quality institutes.

CHOP's CAPP+ team, led by Tyra Bryant-Stephens, M.D., will be recognized at HAP's 2020 Patient Safety and Quality Symposium, which will be held virtually September 910.

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 HAP

HAP is a statewide membership services association that represents nearly 240 organizations, as well as the patients and communities they serve. Additional information about HAP is available online at www.haponline.org.

CONTACT:

Joey McCool Ryan

(267) 426-6070

[email protected]

SOURCE Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Related Links

http://www.chop.edu


News  Headlines

Vietnam Airlines projects loss of over 650 million USD this year
The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, has accused the Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki, of being behind the political crisis rocking the state House of Assembly, adding that the governors woeful leadership in the state will hopefully come to an end soon.

In a statement released on Friday August 7, the former governor of Lagos accused Governor Obaseki of making a mockery of Nigerias constitution by blocking the timely inauguration of two-thirds of the elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly, and now resorting to the strong-arm tactics of dictators.

Read Tinubus statement below;

IN DEFENCE OF CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY The recent actions of the Governor of Edo State represent the gravest possible assault on constitutional democracy and the rule of law and escalation of violence and tension in the state he purports to govern.

Not satisfied with making a mockery of our constitution by blocking the timely inauguration of two-thirds of the elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly, Governor Obaseki has now resorted to the strong-arm tactics of dictators.

First, he sponsors hoodlums to deface, indeed destroy, parts of the House of Assembly Building in Benin, feigning the building is undergoing renovation. Then, he imports sand and gravels to prevent access to the assembly complex.

In effect, the man has spent state funds to thwart the very apparatus of the state government he was sworn to uphold. He has squandered public money to defeat the very will of the public. This is tragic beyond words.

As a pretext for his refusal to allow the Edo House of Assembly to function, Governor Obasekis actions are perverse. This is a cowardly act and a move to thwart representative democracy in Edo.

No renovation has been planned for the state house building. No appropriation was made in the states budget. The only reason any renovation could be deemed necessary is the destruction wrought by his own goons.

Governor Obasekis governance of Edo State recalls the worst excesses of our military past and represents a direct threat to the democratic order by his refusal to permit duly elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly to perform their constitutional duties.

Governor Obaseki betrayed contempt for the people of his state and, unfortunately, his ignorance of Nigerias constitutional order. As a Governor he ought to know better than to obstruct the functioning of his own legislature, but perhaps he is in need of a quick lesson.

Indeed, it is no coincidence that of the three arms of government, the powers of the legislature are enumerated first, in our Constitution.The legislature is the authority imbued with the power to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of the federation and states

Indeed, the Constitution makes clear that a Governors role primarily extends to the maintenance and implementation of the laws set down for him by his states legislature.

Although Governor Obasekis conduct in the past year is undoubtedly impeachable, these legislators have made no threat to impeach the Governor. Their only desire is to peacefully perform the duties asked of them by the constituents who elected them.

The rule of law and preservation of democracy is too important to sacrifice at the altar of any one mans ambition. Governor Obasekis woeful leadership of Edo State will hopefully be brought to an end soon by the very people whose rights he has so carelessly trampled upon.

One can only hope that the damage he is doing to the most important of the states democratic institutions can just as easily be repaired.
A body of leading sexual assault law reform advocates has called for an independent review of a technical mistake at WA Police that led to the potential loss of two years worth of correspondence with sexual assault survivors, as police are yet to reveal the extent of the mistake.

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Last month, WAtoday revealed victims who attempted to report a sexual crime via a WA Police email between at least February 2016 and March 2018 were sending highly sensitive reports to an incorrect address not monitored by police.

Although police apologised to at least one woman who fell victim to the bungle, admitting they "let her down" by dismissing her when she pointed out the mistake, key questions remain unanswered.

On July 31, WA Police Assistant Commissioner Brad Royce publicly vowed to investigate the technical bungle and find out where the missing emails went.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 12:54:48|Editor: huaxia

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HOHHOT, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Thirty-three people were injured after a tornado ripped through a tourist site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Sunday, local authorities said Monday.

The local government said the extreme weather hit the Swan Lake, Darhan Muminggan Joint Banner, around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, toppling or damaging over 100 yurts and injuring 33 tourists and workers of the tourist site.

The injured have been sent to local hospitals, officials said, adding that three were in serious condition. Enditem
Updated regulations around access to medical marijuana caregivers emerged last week as a point of contention among some in the cannabis community, with a patient advocacy group and individual patients disagreeing over the right approach.

During a public hearing on Aug. 3, officials from the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance opposed the Cannabis Control Commissions proposal to allow caregivers to support up to 10 medical marijuana patients each -- to the disappointment of some individual patients.

Grant Ellis, a patient who said he relies on caregivers, said the CCCs plan to up the patient to caregiver ratio to 10:1 and to let caregivers grow up to 500 square feet of marijuana in some situations is a threat to only one group of people, that being the existing brick and mortar dispensaries who do not want patients to have at-cost access to medical cannabis.

On Aug. 3, officials from the MPAA said caregivers -- essentially people registered with the CCC to care for and provide cannabis to medical marijuana patients -- should be allowed to support more than one patient, but not 10.

An arbitrary number of patients per caregiver will likely open the door to a gray market that is indistinguishable from the legally-regulated market you and the staff have worked so hard on developing, Nichole Snow, the president and executive director of the MPAA told the commissioners.

Later in the hearing, patient advocate Goldie Piff referred to MPAAs B.S. about caregivers and urged support for caregivers. Dawn Duncan said the CCCs proposed 10:1 ratio will benefit patients because it will allow caregivers to provide medical cannabis at a lower price.

Caregivers are so very important. This is a very good number to ensure caregivers can provide the lowest possible cost medication to those most vulnerable, she said.
Focusing on collaboration, fine-tuning successful programs, and capitalizing on a lot of enthusiasm made a winning combination for the University of Maryland School of Dentistrys (UMSOD) Student National Dental Association (SNDA).

The UMSOD group was named SNDAs 2020 Chapter of the Year (large chapter category) in recognition of its exemplary fundraising, community service, and outreach  an honor that marks the seventh consecutive year that UMSOD has won either first or second place in the national competition. The chapter also won the Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions and community outreach. Both awards were presented at the annual SNDA conference, this year held virtually from July 6-11.

It wasnt our goal to win, but we thought if we do everything weve done before but focus on making things bigger and better, we could improve our chapter, says Vaida Saucer, a fourth-year student and the 2019-20 president. We wanted to be sure we were inclusive and collaborative. And, I have to say, this year we had a lot of [first-year students] who were really enthusiastic.

The Chapter of the Year competition is based upon how successful each chapter is in fundraising, performing community service, and launching new initiatives. Additionally, each chapter is assessed on how it executes three standing national programs: Impressions Day, in which pre-dental undergraduate students visit dental schools to learn about the dental school experience; a holiday canned food or toy drive; and an oral cancer walk.

But the annual programs are just the beginning, points out Andrea Morgan, DDS, MS, clinical assistant professor in the Division of Operative Dentistry, and director of Student Advocacy and Cultural Affairs. The chapters are recognized for these three standing annual programs as well as the many other programs they plan and organize on their own. It is really great that [the members of UMSODs chapter] continue to rise above and get noticed by their peers. Im really proud of them.

Early this year, the UMSOD chapter hosted a regional conference for SNDA chapters from the East Coast. Held on Jan. 18, the event drew participants from dental schools including Howard University, Virginia Commonwealth University, East Carolina University, and the University of Florida. Programming included oral health speakers such as Catrice Austin, DDS 96; as well as a financial advice segment; and a community service component during which attendees packed 200 care packages (filled with dental and personal hygiene products) to be distributed to members of the Baltimore community.

The UMSOD chapter, which in 2019-20 had 96 members, also organized Lessons in a Lunch Box, through which dental students visited elementary schools to teach students about oral health. At each school, they passed out lunch boxes filled with the accoutrement of dental health from toothbrushes to floss.

UMSODs SNDA has a history of launching new, high-impact initiatives. One, called Generation NeXT, provides opportunities for UMSOD dental students to mentor high school students who are training to be dental assistants at Baltimores Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy. Through the mentoring program, which was launched in 2017, dental students work to inspire the younger students to pursue DDS or dental hygiene degrees.

Each year, the current chapter aims not just to sustain its programs but also to enhance them, notes Saucer. Overall, our focus is community service and trying to encourage the presence of minorities in the dental field, she says.

So, what we do includes everything from mentoring high school students and educating them about oral health to mentoring undergraduates about how to apply to dental school and build successful careers.
Most companies that offered essential retail employees extra hourly pay during the height of coronavirus-related store closures have ended that additional pay, a move union leaders say is premature.

A number of companies with locations in New Jersey, mostly those in the retail and service sectors, offered either hourly raises or pandemic bonuses in late March, when all non-essential businesses were shuttered to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Some censorship is more obvious than others. The arrest of Hong Kong's pro-democracy media baron Jimmy Lai on Monday falls into the category of very obvious.

That was intentional, no doubt. By arresting the outspoken 72-year-old billionaire owner of the Apple Daily under the so-called National Security Law, Xi Jinping is sending a clear message: "I will silence everyone. No one is too big."

Jimmy Lai, who founded local newspaper Apple Daily, is arrested by police officers at his home in Hong Kong on Monday. Credit:AP

By arresting Lai's two sons, who are not involved in the popular media business, Xi is sending a further message: "I will come after you and I will not stop there. I am coming after your family as well."

Other forms of censorship are less obvious. For example, if you'd watched the hit Hollywood movie World War Z about the zombie apocalypse you'd have no idea that it'd been altered to anticipate Chinese government censorship.
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.




Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal believes that the creation of "free economic zones" (priority development zones) in Donbas will help revive the territory in terms of business.

As for creating attractive conditions for business (Im not even talking about conditions for investors), which will come to the temporarily occupied territories, the territories that are located along the contact line, we have several directions. These are tax benefits, certain preferences in terms of starting and running a business there. We have a vision and concept for today. The Economy Ministry and the Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories will develop specific steps and then present them," Shmyhal said in an interview with Radio Liberty.

This is the strategy and the way that should make it possible to revitalize these territories in terms of business, job creation, and filling local budgets, he added.

According to Shmyhal, priority development zones are a 15-20-kilometer zone of the contact line. "Priority development zones are zones that require certain preferences for business to create jobs, he said.

As reported, the newly appointed representative of Ukraine in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Leonid Kravchuk, speaking about the compromises on Donbas, which he is ready to make, offered the creation of a "special management system" in these regions and a free economic zone. He noted that the issues of Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence are not subject to compromise.

ish
Shocked residents have captured the terrifying moment a freak tornado hovered through a large Chinese resort and engulfed the site in seconds.

Apocalyptic footage shows the twister swallowing the scenic spot in Chinas northern region Inner Mongolia, turning skies pitch black and tearing apart structures.

Thirty-three people suffered different levels of injuries after the giant column of wind struck a grassland in the suburbs of Baotou city on Sunday afternoon, said the officials.

Apocalyptic footage shows the twister swallowing the scenic spot in Chinas northern region Inner Mongolia, turning skies pitch black and tearing apart structures on Sunday afternoon

The Swan Lake Resort, located on the Xilanmuren Grassland in city of Baotou, was severely hit by the monster tornado, according to the Inner Mongolia weather authorities yesterday

The Swan Lake Resort, located on the Xilanmuren Grassland, was severely hit by the tornado, according to the Inner Mongolia weather authorities yesterday.

Videos reportedly filmed by the resort staff show the freak twister first approaching the tourist spot before suddenly swallowing the site and covering the sky with thick dust.

A worker told Pear Video: When we first saw it, it was quite small. Within ten seconds, it suddenly changed. There was yellow dust everywhere.

'We were hiding in the bushes, and suddenly the sky turned black, like pitch black, even darker than the night sky.

Videos reportedly filmed by the resort staff members show the freak twister first approaching the tourist spot before suddenly swallowing the site and covering the sky with thick dust

We were really terrified. Also, maybe it was because of the air pressure, our ears were in great pain, really painful, the employee said.

Other clips see dozens of Mongolian yurts in the resort being torn down by the tornado, with shattered windows and destroyed furniture.

Thirty-three people were injured  including three critically - during the freak weather. They are said to have been in stable condition.

Local officials have activated an emergency response to deal with the aftermath, according to Peoples Daily.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 21:52:11|Editor: huaxia

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ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Monday revealed the death toll due to illnesses related to the COVID-19 pandemic rose to 23, 253.

The continent-wide COVID-19 related death toll registered an increase of 287 deaths compared to Sunday's 22,966 death toll report.

The Africa CDC, a specialized healthcare agency of the African Union (AU) Commission, in its latest situation update issued on Monday, said the number of COVID-19 cases across the African continent has risen from 1,036,564 on Sunday to 1,047,218 as of Monday.

The continental disease control and prevention agency also said the number of people who recovered from their COVID-19 infections also reached 733,375 so far.

South Africa currently has the most COVID-19 cases at 559,858. South Africa also has the highest COVID-19 related deaths currently standing at 10,408.

Egypt comes next with 95,492 COVID-19 cases and 5,009 COVID-19 related deaths followed by Nigeria which has so far recorded 46,577 COVID-19 cases and 945 deaths.

The Southern Africa region is the most affected area in terms of confirmed cases, followed by Northern Africa and Western Africa regions, the Africa CDC said.

Amid the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic across the continent, the Africa CDC had on Friday urged the African continent to increase compliance to the public health and social measures as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to gain momentum in Africa.

"We must increase mass wearing of masks as we expand testing and treatment services," the Africa CDC Director John Nkengasong said in his message following the launch of the World Mask Week, slated from August 7 to 14, as an effort to increase the use of face coverings in public across the globe.

As the pandemic spread across Africa, the Africa CDC together with the World Health Organization (WHO) and more than 40 other global, regional and national organizations and institutions have initiated the Pandemic Action Network, which launched the World Mask Week that envisaged increasing the use of face coverings in public in Africa and beyond.

According to the Africa CDC, the newly introduced initiative encourages people and organizations in Africa and beyond 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.

The initiative was launched by the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as part of his Wear a Mask challenge to mark the beginning of World Mask Week, asking people to share their mask photos and videos, it was noted.

"Given the alarming exponential increase of infection rates in Africa and across the globe, sustained community masking in public is critical to stop the spread of COVID-19, even as situations vary around the world," the Africa CDC statement read.

"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," the Africa CDC noted.

The Africa CDC, which noted that some 41 countries are practicing mandatory public use of face masks, stressed that preventing a crisis such as acute shortage of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers "should be prioritized by health authorities in Africa as part of the COVID-19 response."

Amid the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic across the African continent, the Africa CDC had also disclosed recently that some 34 African countries are under "full border closure" in an effort to halt the spread of the infectious virus. Enditem
Lancaster County appears poised to post a second consecutive week of declining new COVID-19 cases, interim Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Director Pat Lopez said Friday.

The 22 new cases confirmed in the county Friday brought the total to 3,266, according to the health department. This week, there have been 167 new cases locally, or an average of 28 a day.

Lopez and Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird said they see that as an encouraging indicator of the effect of the mask mandate implemented July 20.

That week, new cases peaked at 361, and health officials confirmed 310 cases the following week.

New cases among residents 20 to 29 years old have also seemed to decline recently, Lopez said.

Lancaster County isn't in the clear yet, despite these trends, Gaylor Baird said.

Health department officials have decided to keep the county's COVID-19 risk dial in the orange zone, denoting a high risk of spread.

The mayor encouraged people to continue to socially distance when they go out, wear a mask, stay home when they're sick and minimize their trips out in the community.
Potential action from US lawmakers may not be what forces Apple to change how it does business. Following a year-long investigation into the company, Reuters reports Russias Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has found the iPhone-maker abused its dominant position in the mobile app marketplace and will order Apple to resolve multiple regulatory breaches.

The agency started investigating the tech giant after developer Kaspersky Lab filed a complaint over the rejection of its Safe Kids app from the App Store. At the time, Apple said the software put users safety and privacy at risk. The agency ruled Apple forces developers to distribute to their apps through the App Store and then unlawfully blocks them. A spokesperson for Apple told Reuters the company plans to appeal the ruling.

The decision comes as Apple faces increasing scrutiny over its gatekeeping of the App Store in both the US and EU. When Tim Cook testified before the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee at the end of July, lawmakers asked the executive about the companys decisions to block some competitors from its digital marketplace. Cook was also asked about the ongoing 30 percent cut the company takes from third-party app sales, a rate many developers argue is too high. Apple was again in the spotlight earlier this month after it said it would not allow Microsofts Project xCloud on iOS since its App Store guidelines require developers to submit games individually for review.
Former NSW education minister Adrian Piccoli wants governments to fully fund private primary schools on the condition they stop collecting fees from parents and agree to abide by the same enrolment and accountability rules as public schools.

The country's most expensive private schools already receive at least $4000 per student in public funding, even if they charge $35,000 a year in parent fees.

Professor Piccoli argues non-government schools receive so much public money that the proposal would only cost governments about $500 million a year.

Former education minister Adrian Piccoli has proposed fully funding all non-government primary schools. Credit:Janie Barrett

"It is a radical idea for Australia and never really taken seriously before because of the cost," he said. "But given public funding of non-government schools has reached such a high point, government might as well bite the bullet and fully fund them as public schools."
Anil Kapoor has shared a sweet birthday wish for his sister Reena on her birthday. He also shared a few unseen family pictures on the occasion.

Sharing the throwback family pictures on Instagram, he wrote, Happy Birthday to the best sister in the whole world...Reena youve always been so loving, caring & the favourite of the entire family for obvious reasons! May you stay happy, healthy, cry less... and laugh more forever @reenamarwah1.

The first black and white picture shows Reena posing with Anils kids. While Sonam is seen standing in a lehenga, Reena is seen holding Sonams sister Rhea in her arms. A picture shows Anil posing with Reena and her husband and a few others show Reena spending time with Anils wife Sunita.

Anil also thanked an unverified fan page of Hollywood actor Michael Douglas for wishing Reena on her birthday. Anil had interviewed Douglas and his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones at the Hindustan Times Summit last year.

Sonam also wished her aunt on the occasion. Happy happy birthday Bua.. youre the best best best.. love you lots.. @reenamarwah1, She wrote along with a childhood picture of her and Reena.

Anil, along with filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, will now be seen in a new project titled AK vs AK, which will release on Netflix. He will also be seen in Karan Johars period drama, Takht.

The actor is currently focussing on fitness during coronavirus pandemic. He has been sharing inspiring posts on Instagram to encourage his fans to work out at home. He had also shared pictures and videos from the gym which show him either doing squats or flexing his biceps.

Also read: Soha Ali Khan shares adorable photo capturing Inaayas love of reading, says booked for the weekend

He had written in one of his posts, I take a more relaxed approach to my meals . A little more generous with portion size or may be a little treat thrown in. I was never into weightlifting nor did I take rest days so seriously....but this lockdown has definitely been a learning curve for me in many ways and this is one of them. For we can not forget a training plan is long term and the body needs its reward. I let my body take it easy because I know from the next day I am gonna make it work like crazy till the next rest day comes round...its a perfect balance of faith...patience and perseverance... #stayhomestaymotivated.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Three Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) employees have died in a helicopter crash.

Wildlife Biologist Dewey Stockbridge; Fish and Wildlife Technician Brandon White; and State Wildlife Veterinarian Dr. Bob Dittmar were conducting aerial surveys for desert bighorn sheep in West Texas on Saturday when the aircraft crashed on TPWD's Black Gap Wildlife Management Area in Brewster County.

The pilot, a private contractor, survived the crash and was transported to El Paso for further treatment.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Texas Game Wardens are currently investigating the incident.

State Wildlife Veterinarian Dr. Bob Dittmar is one of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department employees who died in the helicopter crash on Saturday

They were conducting aerial surveys for desert bighorn sheep in the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area in West Texas when the incident occurred

Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a statement on Sunday.

'Our hearts ache today for those who died in this tragic accident,' Abbott said. 'Cecilia and I are deeply saddened by this loss and we extend our sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims.

'I ask all Texans to keep these families in their thoughts and prayers.'

The bighorn sheep population was successfully reintroduced from 1954 after being hunted out.

But the population is under threat due to the spread of disease between livestock.

TPWD started using helicopters to conduct fall surveys over the land in 1990. The estimated population as of 2018 was 1,500.

The Brewster County crash area is pictured in a news report. The pilot survived the crash

File image shows a bighorn sheep. The estimated population as of 2018 was 1,500

The victims' colleagues also paid tribute to them, saying they were carrying out their 'calling.'

'No words can begin to express the depth of sadness we feel for the loss of our colleagues in this tragic accident,' said Carter Smith, TPWD Executive Director.

'These men were consummate professionals, deeply liked and highly regarded by their peers and partners alike for the immense passion, dedication, and expertise they brought to their important work in wildlife management and veterinary medicine.

'Wildlife conservation in Texas lost three of its finest as they so honorably and dutifully carried out their calling to help survey, monitor and protect the bighorns of their beloved west Texas mountains.

'We will miss Dewey, Brandon, and Dr. Bob deeply and dearly,' Smith continued.

'All of us at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department send our deepest condolences and sympathies to the Stockbridge, White, and Dittmar families in the wake of this devastating tragedy and continue to pray for the health and recovery of the pilot.'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 10:00:29|Editor: huaxia

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WINDHOEK, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Namibia is set to auction the bulk of its fishing quotas to the highest bidder at an international auction to generate urgent foreign currency fund to fight COVID-19, Fisheries Minister Albert Kawana said Sunday.

The government in need of financial resources on an emergency basis to mitigate the impact of the pandemic is in the process of auctioning off its governmental objective fishing quota to foreign fishing companies, Kawana said in an official letter to Matti Amukwa, chairman of the Confederation of Namibian Fishing Associations.

"We do not produce medicines in Namibia nor do we manufacture medical equipment. Therefore we are forced to compete for medicines and medical equipment on the international market. In order to obtain these items, we have to buy them with foreign currency," Kawana said.

As requested by the industry during a consultation meeting on July 27, 40 percent of hake and horse mackerel "will be reserved for Namibian operating companies with the view to preserve employment. In this regard, local companies will be permitted to compete for 40 percent reserved for them," Kawana added.

The minister said that 72,000 metric tons of horse mackerel and 11,000 metric tons of hake are available for local companies, and 392 metric tons of monk fish is available for auction to the highest bidder.

He said 70 percent of the 40 percent reserved for local companies will be sold to companies with sea based factory vessels. Enditem




NEW DELHI (PTI): Senior army commanders of India and China on Saturday held extensive talks in taking forward the disengagement process along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) at a number of friction points including in Pangong Tso and Depsang in eastern Ladakh, people familiar with the developments said.



The Major General-level talks began at 11 am at a border personnel meeting point in Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) area on the Chinese side of the LAC and concluded at 7:30 pm, they said.



The meeting primarily focused on implementation of certain decisions taken at the fifth round of talks between Corps Commanders of the two armies last week on the disengagement process as well as to bring down prevailing tension in the region, they said.



"The two sides discussed various finer details on taking forward the disengagement process in the friction points where the withdrawal of Chinese troops is yet to complete," said a source on Saturday's talks.



The Indian delegation at the talks was headed by Major General Abhijit Bapat, General Officer Commanding of the 3 Infantry Division.



It is learnt that the two sides also deliberated on having a specific timeline for withdrawal of troops from all the friction points.



At the latest rounds of military talks, the Indian side has been forcefully insisting on complete disengagement of Chinese troops at the earliest, and immediate restoration of status quo ante in all areas of eastern Ladakh prior to May 5 when the standoff began following a clash between the two armies in Pangong Tso.



The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has pulled back from Galwan Valley and certain other friction points but the withdrawal of its troops has not moved forward from the Finger areas in Pangong Tso, Gogra and Depsang as demanded by India, according to sources.



India has been insisting that China must withdraw its forces from areas between Finger Four and Eight. The mountain spurs in the area are referred to as Fingers.



The formal process of disengagement of troops began on July 6, a day after a nearly two-hour telephonic conversation between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on ways to bring down tensions in the area.



Both sides held several rounds of Major General-level talks in May and June before the level of negotiations was upgraded to the level of Corps commanders.



Considering the situation on the ground, the Indian Army and the IAF have decided to maintain a very high-level of operational readiness in all areas along the LAC in Ladakh, North Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh till a "satisfactory" resolution to the border row with China is arrived at, sources said.



Chief of Army Staff Gen MM Naravane has already conveyed to all the senior commanders of the Army, overseeing operation of the frontline formations along the LAC, to keep up a significantly high state of alertness and maintain the aggressive posturing to deal with any Chinese "misadventure", they said.



The fresh directive to maintain a very high-level of alertness came in the wake of lack of forward movement in implementation of the disengagement process by Chinese military in friction points like Pangong Tso, Depsang and Gogra.



The Indian Army has already made elaborate plans to maintain current strength of troops and weapons along the LAC during the harsh winter months in eastern Ladakh and all other sensitive areas along the LAC.



It is also in the process of procuring a number of weapons, ammunition and winter gears for the frontline troops.



The temperature in some of the high-altitude areas along the LAC drops to minus 25 degree celsius in the winter months.


Two firms in East Chinas Anhui province, have recently made their debuts on the NEEQ Select, the countrys newly launched equity market for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The NEEQ Select is a new tier of the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), also known as the new third board, Chinas equity trading system oriented for SMEs.

Highbroad Advanced Material (Hefei) co.and Anhui Jiaxian Functional Auxiliary Co. together raised 687 million yuan, or 7.3 percent of the total funds raised by the first batch of 32 listed firms.

Anhui-based companies have been listed on all boards of the countrys stock market.




The recent proliferation of events where Albertans visiting BC have been victimized by threats and vandalism is not only regrettable, but it is the epitome of ignorance displayed by the BC residents who are acting out or deploying the "stink eye" towards anyone with red lettered plates on their vehicle.

Here in BC, we have enjoyed the positive attention from the national media suggesting that we are a model that the other provinces should aspire to replicate in all matters related to the containment of Covid-19, and while we have fared well in comparison to the two most populated provinces, we should take a closer look at how we measure up against our neighbours to the east that so many are pointing to as the next big threat to our health.

On the surface, our 3,934 confirmed cases compared to Alberta's 11,430 suggest that we in BC are managing this mess significantly better than Alberta. But they have tested nearly 3.5 times more of their citizens. In fact, when you prorate our positive case number to the Alberta testing rate, we have nearly 10% more infected.

BC / Alberta Covid 19 Comparison 2020/08/09

BC % of Population tested: 4.7%

BC Cases: 3,934

Alberta % Population Tested: 15.07%

Alberta Cases: 11,430

BC Positive Cases Prorated to AB Testing Rate: 12,613

At first blush, one might suggest that the BC numbers have become inflated due to the mass infiltration of out-of-province visitors during the summer months however a similar comparison from three months ago on May 10 suggests otherwise.

BC / Alberta Covid 19 Comparison 2020/05/10

BC % of Population tested: 1.57%

BC Cases: 2,330

Alberta % Population Tested: 4.14%

Alberta Cases: 6,157

BC Positive Cases Prorated to AB Testing Rate: 6,152

Not only are we less superior than we thought we were, but one could argue that the Albertans are risking their personal health to spend their vacation time and money here in BC. Most importantly, Albertans are the third largest source of tourism dollars in BC at around $1.5 billion annually, behind Americans at $2.5 billion (who are spending zero here this year). Albertans also purchased just over $50 million of Okanagan real estate in 2019.

There will always be those who lash out at easy targets and blame them for their own problems, but let the rest of us get down of our not-so-high horses and thank our neighbours for visiting, whether it's a smile and nod at a neighbouring driver with the Wild Rose Country plates, or genuine "thanks for visiting" in the grocery store parking lot. You will never regret being kind.

Dave Callaghan, Vernon
CROSS-ASSET VOLATILITY REPORT: MARKETS SEARCH FOR DIRECTION AS VIX INDEX, EVZ, VXEEM & OVX OSCILLATE

Market sentiment hesitates as traders grow weary about fiscal stimulus and trade tensions

Popular cross-asset volatility benchmarks like the VIX Index remain broadly suppressed

EM equities and VXEEM could highlight potential changes in appetite for risk

Investor risk appetite appears to be wavering as global markets trade broadly mixed. This largely comes on the back of a fiscal stimulus stalemate enduring in US congress and a notable escalation in Sino-American trade war tension. Not to mention, coronavirus concerns still linger due to building evidence of a worldwide second wave.

That said, most benchmarks of cross-asset volatility have drifted lower over recent months and weeks. Perhaps an ongoing volatility cycle normalization after the blow-up this past spring largely explains this, which a seasonal summer lull in market activity could be exacerbating. Thus it seems that complacency is likely on the rise as investors continue looking past several notable fundamental headwinds.

CHART OF EXPECTED VOLATILITY FOR S&P 500 (VIX), EURO (EVX), EMERGING MARKETS (VXEEM), CRUDE OIL (OVX)

Chart created by @RichDvorakFX with TradingView

President Trump signed executive orders over the weekend aimed at extending unemployment benefits and foreclosure protections while also moving to temporarily waive student loan interest payments and defer payroll taxes. Yet, the unilateral action by Trump may face several legal hurdles, and further fuels uncertainty surrounding congressional gridlock over fiscal stimulus talks, which could weigh notably on the S&P 500 VIX Index. A sharp rise in the VIX fear-gauge could signal that investor uncertainty is climbing with demand for S&P 500 downside protection.

Also, US-China tensions ramped notably late last week. This follows the Trump administration seeking to ban Chinese tech companies like TikTok and WeChat from operating in the United States due to national security concerns. Further, sanctions were placed on Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam after the countrys democratic election was delayed. It appears that this is putting pressure on emerging market equities as indicated by a spike in the VXEEM Index and modest uptick in expected crude oil volatility.

Implied volatility for the Euro has started to edge back lower after an advance late last month that corresponded with a US Dollar relief bounce. This suggests potential for EUR/USD price action to remain relatively supported as demand for safe-haven currencies, like the US Dollar, keeps fading. US Dollar weakness may linger in turn, which may provide a positive tailwind to risk assets such as the S&P 500 Index, emerging market stocks, and crude oil. Consequently, in light of these conflicting fundamental drivers that loom over markets, it could be prudent to consider range trading strategies given the macroeconomic backdrop.

Read More: Gold Price Forecast Bright & Volatile as USD, Real Yields Swing

-- Written by Rich Dvorak, Analyst for DailyFX.com

Connect with @RichDvorakFX on Twitter for real-time market insight
The Karnataka State Department of Agriculture (KSDA), under Govt. of Karnataka, has called for offline applications from eligible and interested candidates for filling vacancies to the post of Communication Officer, Proficiency Officer, Data Analyst, Program Coordinator, IT and Management System Specialists, Head of State Tactical Unit, Horticulturists, Supervision and Valuation Experts through direct selection on a fulltime basis to be posted at Bangalore/Bengaluru in Karnataka, India. The application process towards the same started on August 5, 2020 and closes on August 17, 2020 by 4:00 pm.

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Communication Officer, Proficiency Officer, Data Analyst, Program Coordinator, IT and Management System Specialists, Head of State Tactical Unit, Horticulturists, Supervision and Valuation Experts Organisation Karnataka State Department of Agriculture (KSDA) Educational Qualification Required academic qualifications Experience Refer to the advertisement Job Responsibilities null Skills Required null Job Location Bangalore/Bengaluru Salary Scale As per the Govt. of K'taka norms Industry Department of Agriculture Application Start Date August 5, 2020 Application End Date August 17, 2020

KSDA Recruitment: Age Criteria And Fees

Candidates interested in applying for various posts through KSDA Recruitment 2020 must meet the age criteria as per the KSDA norms, with relaxation (upper age limit) for OBC (2A/2B/3A/3B) and SC/ST/PWD candidates are per the Govt. of Karnataka reservation policy.

For details regarding application fee for various posts through KSDA Recruitment 2020, refer to the official advertisement given at the end of the article.

WCD Bengaluru Recruitment For 63 Anganwadi Workers And Helpers, Apply Online Before September 5

KSDA Recruitment: Educational Eligibility

Desirous candidates applying for various posts through KSDA Recruitment 2020 must meet the required academic qualifications as per the KSDA norms from a recognised University/Institution as specified in the advertisement.

KSDA Recruitment: Selection And Pay

The selection of candidates to various posts through KSDA Recruitment 2020 will be done through Shortlisting and Written Test/Interview.

Candidates selected to various posts through KSDA Recruitment 2020 will be paid emolument as per the Govt. of K'taka norms.

BECIL Recruitment For Consulting Editors, Language Editors, Designers. Apply Online Before August 25

KSDA Recruitment: How To Apply

Candidates applying for various posts through KSDA Recruitment 2020 must fill the application form in a prescribed format and send the same to the "Commissioner of Agriculture, Agricultural Commission, Sheshadri Road, Bengaluru - 560001" on or before August 17, 2020 by 4:00 pm through register post, speed post, etc.

Read the detailed notification about KSDA Recruitment 2020 for various posts here
Rail freight operator Aurizon's boss Andrew Harding has flagged weaker demand for metallurgical coal, used in steelmaking, in the first half of fiscal 2021, warning that the subdued conditions will weigh on Australian coal production and exports in the period.

The softer steel market is a major reason behind Aurizon's weaker EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) forecast for fiscal 2021, between $830 million and $880 million, lower than the $909 million posted by the company for the year ended June 30, 2020.

The softer steel market is a major reason behind Aurizon's weaker EBIT forecast for fiscal 2021.

"It's all driven by the assumptions around a softer first half that we're in, for coal volumes, followed by a recovery in the second half of the year. And we base that on our expectations, particularly seeing what was a fairly big shutdown of the Indian steel mills in recent months, and you've seen quite large shutdowns in Japan," he told The Age and the Herald.

These shutdowns would work their way through the supply chain, but a thing in Australia's favour was that other coal producing countries had been hit harder by COVID-19, experiencing a much greater impact on production, he said.
Lukashenko, 65, has been in power for 26 years and is often referred to as Europes last dictator. Now, however, as he looks to extend his rule with a sixth term, he faces his most significant wave of domestic discontent over a slumping economy and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Belarus, which has a population of about 9.5 million, has more than 68,000 confirmed cases of the virus.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 19:40:35|Editor: huaxia

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by Martina Fuchs

GENEVA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's candidate for the top post at the World Trade Organization (WTO) has pledged to push for reforms in the global trade governing body and said she should be selected not because of her gender or origin, but competence.

Amina Mohamed, one of two female Africans competing for the job and who has served as Kenya's foreign affairs and international trade minister, urged to update the WTO rulebook "so that it's fit for purpose and in sync with the global developments, global aspirations and respond properly to global challenges."

The 58-year-old has previously chaired WTO's highest decision-making bodies, including the Ministerial Conference in Nairobi, the General Council, the Dispute Settlement Body, and the Trade Policy Review Body.

Like other candidates, fixing the WTO's broken dispute settlement mechanism would rank high on Mohamed's to-do list.

"The second thing I would like to do is to make sure that the dispute settlement system is back to where it was before, that it has the two-stage process, and that it has both the panels and the Appellate Body," she told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The United States has frozen the Appellate Body by blocking the appointment of new judges, complaining that it has overreached its mandate.

The European Union and other WTO members earlier this year set up a temporary arbitration system that allows them to overcome the current paralysis and solve trade disputes among themselves.

Talking about two major members of the WTO, Mohamed said: "We need the U.S. and China in the system. They're big contributors. They have used and benefited from the system for a very long time. And of course, they have more responsibility to the system than the much smaller countries."

Outgoing WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo announced in May that he would step down on Aug. 31.

If Mohamed wins, she would be the first woman and African leading the 164-member organization headquartered in Geneva.

There are a total of eight contenders running for the top job. Three candidates are from Africa, including Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, also a woman, and Egypt's Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh.

But Mohamed stressed that it's the qualification rather than the gender or origin which makes the difference.

"I should be selected because of the knowledge and the reform agenda that I have for the organization," she told Xinhua. "Being a woman would be an additional boost, showing what contribution women can actually make."

"But first and foremost it has to be about competence, about experience, about knowledge, and it has to be about having a proven track record, whether you are a man or a woman." Enditem
'The outlook for private investment, which has been such a weak link for India for so long, remains challenging.'

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

Oxford Economics, the global economic forecasting firm, recently released a report on the Indian economy, A Reopening Gone Wrong.

Contrary to the government's claims that green shoots have started appearing, the Oxford Economics report paints a grim picture.

According to the report, India fares the worst on the Asia recovery scorecard, and would take the longest among the major Asian economies to converge to its pre-coronavirus growth level.

It further says that GDP growth may lose momentum from late Q3 (July to September 2020), once the push from the initial reopening fades.

"You cannot forget the stringency of the lockdown. India went into a deeper hole because of that, and naturally it will take that much longer to climb up," Priyanka Kishore, the head of India and South East Asia Economics at Oxford Economics and the economist behind the study, tells Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com. The first of a two-part interview:

You titled your study, A Reopening Gone Wrong. India went into lockdown in late March, but today India's covid cases are the third highest in the world. So, is it the lockdown that went wrong, or the reopening that is going wrong?

Yes, India went into lockdown early, and at that time, there was very little information available globally. So, to be cautious was right.

But what aggravated the situation was, it was a very harsh lockdown. When you look at countries like Italy which were locking down at that time, India's lockdown was much more stringent.

That was probably not needed given that the government did not have much fiscal arsenal to ease the economic misery caused by the lockdown.

So, what happened between March 25 till April 20 was very stringent.

Then you entered a second phase of the lockdown.

During the second and third phase of lockdown, the amount of restrictions were more reasonable.

When cases were rising, you needed some amount of social distancing measures in place. But when you eased the restrictions and moved to the second and third phase, you should have stayed there longer.

However, the economy still needed a lot of fiscal support, which the government was unable to deliver and instead, chose to accelerate the reopening. At least at the Centre level.

Though the Centre has reopened the economy on paper, most of the states are still under strict lockdown.

Yes, you are right. When India went into lockdown, it was much more coordinated.

But when the reopening started, it was chaotic.

Now when the Centre has come out with Unlock 3, many of the states have not even reached Unlock 2. In fact, some of the states are choosing to re-impose tighter lockdowns in major cities.

Do you feel because of the high social disparity, the humanitarian crisis in the form of the mass exodus of labourers after the first lockdown, affected the economy much more than the health crisis?

Going by the available data, one could say that. Because India was, and is, not testing enough, it is difficult to get a sense of the true extent of the health crisis.

Health numbers are likely being under reported; both the number of infected cases, and probably the death count too.

So, if you take just the reported numbers, the humanitarian crisis that the lockdown caused because of the lack of fiscal backup, was stronger than the health crisis, to begin with.

The health crisis started hitting a bit later. At that time, they were so overwhelmed by the migrant workers situation, that they decided to open up everything.

Experts say the government's stimulus package of Rs 20 lakh crore has not stimulated the economy at all. Do you also feel that way?

The government did right in the first instance when they gave a bit of cash and grains to the most vulnerable. They realised that there was a lot of social disparity in India, and these are the people who needed immediate help.

That said, even that was not enough to start with.

But the follow-up has been pretty disappointing because the government primarily focused on giving cheaper credit to businesses.

The vulnerable sections of society and smaller businesses were not supported adequately.

The survival package was meagre, and a revival package was not even mentioned in a coherent fashion. It was disappointing.

In fact, the actual spending figure was way lower than the headline figure.

Your study says India fared the worst among the other major Asian economies in your Asian recovery scoreboard.

Yes, we looked at 27 indicators and broke them into different buckets.

One was the vulnerability indicator which meant how India was inherently capable of handling a crisis like this, in terms of both health and economic parameters.

Next was, as the crisis went on, how much success the country had in dealing with the virus which, of course, was not very good for India.

Then, what kind of policies you came up with. Yes, on the monetary side, India fared better than most countries, but on the fiscal side, not at all.

I have argued that fiscal should have been the lead tool in this crisis.

Also, you cannot forget the stringency of the lockdown. Actually, India went into a deeper hole because of that, and naturally it will take that much longer to climb up!

If you look at some of the peers who have managed to contain the virus with much less harsh lockdown, such as Vietnam, you will see that their economies suffered less damage nd they are recovering faster.

We created a ranking system based on these indicators, and we found that it would take the longest for India to return to its pre-coronavirus growth level compared to its Asian peers.

South Korea is at the top of your recovery chart.

It is Vietnam that is at the top, with South Korea close behind.

Vietnam is a poor country compared to South Korea or Japan, but they managed to control the virus and also recovered well. Why do you think Vietnam is at the top and India at the bottom?

One thing was, India's economic position while entering the crisis was weaker; it was dealing with a lot of legacy headwinds. Economic growth was coming off since early 2018.

When India entered 2020, it was dealing with twin balance sheet issues, financial sector blow-ups, etc.

Even when the global economy was robust, India was not benefitting from a pickup in exports because they were being held back by domestic issues plaguing MSMEs such a lack of capital, financial tightening, etc.

In comparison, Vietnam was in a more robust position. It initially had a sharp and early lockdown like India. But they were able to take it out early, and the fiscal support was more in line with the severity of the lockdown.

The fiscal package of 3.5% of the GDP is bigger than India's 1% of GDP, which is what India has actually spent.

So India's lockdown was more stringent than Vietnam's, but the fiscal package was smaller, which is hampering its recovery prospects

Vietnam is also in a better position to take advantage of the global pick up because they are an export-oriented economy.

South Korea had a very strong blow-out of the virus. But they managed to contain it through widespread testing, along with tighter social restriction, until the virus was contained.

You will see that there is no one strategy for all the countries.

Still, the key factor is that you have to get the pandemic under control for consumer and business confidences to pick up so that people start spending, and also for businesses to start planning and investing.

Only then a country can be on a sustainable recovery path.

Going with the mantra that one has to live with rising virus cases will impinge on business planning.

That's why the outlook for private investment, which has been such a weak link for India for so long, remains challenging.
In a publication in Nature Communications last Friday, NIOZ scientists Nina Dombrowski and Anja Spang and their collaboration partners describe a previously unknown phylum of aquatic Archaea that are likely dependent on partner organisms for growth while potentially being able to conserve some energy by fermentation. In contrast to initial analyses, this study shows that the new phylum is part of a group of Archaea that are believed to mainly comprise symbionts. Further, the study yields new insights into the diversity and evolutionary history of the Archaea.

Archaea make up one of the main divisions of life, next to the Bacteria and the Eukaryotes, the latter of which comprise for example fungi, plants and animals. Archaea are a large group of microorganisms that live in all habitats on Earth ranging from soils and sediments to marine and freshwater environments as well as from human-made to host-associated habitats including the gut. In turn, Archaea are now thought to play a major role in biogeochemical nutrient cycles.

In a publication in Nature Communications last Friday, evolutionary microbiologists Nina Dombrowski and Anja Spang from the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research (NIOZ) describe a previously unknown archaeal lineage (phylum). The authors named them the Undinarchaeota, in reference to the female water spirit or nymph Undina. For the study, Dombrowski and Spang cooperated with partners from Bristol University, the University of Queensland and the Australian National University.

Diverse symbionts and parasites

Because of their great resemblance to Bacteria, Archaea were only described as a separate lineage about 40 years ago and were not studied intensely until very recently, when it became possible to sequence DNA directly from environmental samples and to reconstruct genomes from uncultivated organisms. This field of genetic research, generally referred to as metagenomics, has not only revealed that microbial life including the Archaea is much more diverse than originally thought, but also provided data needed to shed light on the function of these microbes in their environments.

The newly described Undinarchaeota were discovered in genetic material from marine (Indian, Mediterranean and Atlantic ocean) and aquifer (Rifle aquiver, Colorado River) environments. The authors could show that they belong to a very diverse and until recently unknown group of so-called DPANN archaea. Members of the DPANN include organisms with very small genomes and limited metabolic capabilities, which suggests that these organisms depend on other microbes for growth and survival1,2,3. In fact, the few so far cultivated DPANN archaea are obligate symbionts or parasites that cannot live on their own4.

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"In line with this, the Undinarchaeota seem to lack several anabolic pathways, indicating that they are, too, depend on various metabolites from so far unknown partner organisms," says research leader Anja Spang. "However, Undinarchaeota seem to have certain metabolic pathways that lack in some of the most parasitic DPANN archaea and may be able to conserve energy by fermentation."

Complex evolutionary history

While DPANN have only been discovered recently, it becomes increasingly clear that they are widespread and that representatives inhabit all thinkable environments on Earth. Yet, little is known about their evolutionary and ecological role. "In some way, some of the DPANN archaea resemble viruses, needing a host organism, likely other archaea or bacteria, for survival," says Spang. "However, and in contrast to viruses, we currently know very little about the DPANN archaea and how they affect food webs and host evolution. It is also unclear whether DPANN are an ancient archaeal lineage that resembles early cellular life or have evolved later or in parallel with their hosts."

With their study, the authors could shed more light on the complex evolution of Archaea. "Our work revealed that many DPANN archaea frequently exchange genes with their hosts, which makes it very challenging to reconstruct their evolutionary history," says first author Nina Dombrowski. Tom Williams (Bristol University) adds: "However, we could show that DPANN have probably evolved in parallel with their hosts over a long evolutionary time scale, by identifying and studying those genes that were inherited from parent-to-offspring instead of having been transferred between host and symbiont."

Role in marine biogeochemical cycles

Spang expects that certain DPANN including the Undinarchaeota, may be important for biogeochemical nutrient cycles within the oceans and sediments. "One reason that DPANN were discovered relatively recently, is that they were not retained on the filters originally used for concentrating cells from environmental samples due to their small cell sizes." But since their discovery, DPANN turned out to be much more widespread than originally anticipated. Chris Rinke from the University of Queensland: "Prospective research on the Undinarchaeota and other DPANN archaea will be essential to obtain a better understanding of marine biogeochemical cycles and the role symbionts play in the transformation of organic matter."

These questions drive some of the prospective projects of Anja Spang. In particular, in collaboration with their NIOZ colleagues Laura Villanueva, Pierre Offre and Julia Engelmann, the authors of the publication Anja Spang and Nina Dombrowski have just sequenced new DNA from water samples from the Black Sea, revealing that Undinarchaeota are present in almost all anoxic depth layers of this basin. Spang says: "These data are a gold mine for the future exploration of the ecology and evolution of these potentially symbiotic Archaea, allowing us to identify their interaction partners and to unravel further secrets about the biology of the Undinarchaeota."
Demolition of UMKC Student Apartments - Picking up from Knickerbocker Apartments Demolition, shot on the same afternoon of July 7th, 2020. This was the site of the Twin Oaks dorms/apartments that were on there back when I was a kid.
He spent nearly 12 years of active duty in the U.S. Army, touring the world from Germany to Korea, to the U.S. and to his final destination of Iraq.

I had a chance to see and do a lot of things but after Iraq, I had to medically retire and start something new, said Chris Miller.

Miller married Emily McCord in 1997. The couple has four children: twins Gabriela and Grace, Jackson and Maverick.

During their senior year, sisters Gabriela and Grace were looking to attend Mineral Area College to earn additional college credits. However, because they were homeschooled instead of attending public school, they anticipated it was going to be much more expensive.

One day, Chris was searching online for scholarship information and stumbled upon a special scholarship involving the military.

Folds of Honor, which began in 2007 and awards military scholarships to spouses and children of fallen and injured service members, offers two types of scholarships: the Childrens Fund Scholarship for K-12 and the Higher Education Scholarship for first bachelors degrees or certification at post-secondary institutions.

Both of these scholarships are based on unmet need as determined by documentation submitted by applicants. Scholarship awards can reach as high as $5,000.

In the last 13 years, Folds of Honor has awarded 24,500 scholarships totaling $22 million in educational support. More than 4,500 scholarships were awarded during the 2019-20 academic year.

The application window for Folds of Honor scholarships is open from Feb. 1 to April 1 for the upcoming academic year. Award or denial letters are sent in the summer.

Gabriela, now a sophomore at Saint Louis University where shes studying psychology with a minor in Spanish, plans to attend graduate school for a doctoral degree and work with trauma and PTSD patients.

This is Gabrielas third year to receive a Folds of Honor scholarship. She was awarded the full amount, which can be renewed for up to four years.

SLU was the only place I wanted to go and I truly didnt know if it was financially possible for my family, she said. Now I dont have to worry about coming up with the money and I can truly enjoy my dream university.

Grace is studying theater at MAC and will graduate in the spring. She is a past Folds of Honor recipient.

The girls mom, Emily, will graduate with her associate degree in the spring and transfer to University of Missouri-St. Louis for a bachelors degree to work as a clinical social worker. She is also a past scholarship recipient.

Jackson, an incoming high school freshman, said he wants to work in film, producing, and music.

Maverick  wholl begin kindergarten this year at St. Joe Catholic School said he wants to be a fireman when he gets older because I want to put out the fire.

When its time for Jackson and Maverick to apply for college, their parents will encourage them to seek a Folds of Honor scholarship to help cover costs.

Folds of Honor is a wonderful organization which helps the families of disabled veterans and service members across the country with funding to continue education, said Chris.

He said he is grateful his wife and daughters have been awarded scholarships through Folds of Honor to help with educational expenses. Chris said words arent quite adequate to thank Folds of Honor and their generous supporters for all they have done for his family.

Without their support, I really dont believe Gabby could be attending Saint Louis University, he said. With the cost of higher education today, their support truly allowed her to attend the college of her choice.

Gabriela said she was so nervous this year because award letters arrived a few weeks later than usual due to COVID-19.

My dad and I were so nervous because we didnt know what that meant, she said. Did I not receive it? The stress weighed heavily on me for a few weeks in July because we werent sure what was going on.

Thankfully, Gabriela received notification that she had again earned a scholarship.

In all honesty, everyday people make a huge difference in Folds of Honor scholarships, she said. I like to tell my friends when they go to Schnucks for something, or when they see the donate button on my social media that I will sometimes share, they are truly funding my education.

But she said its not only her education to which theyre contributing but to so many deserving kids just like me and my family.

Gabriela said organizations like Fields of Honor  and people everywhere donating to it  are so inspiring to her because it recognizes the sacrifices her dad has given in order to get where they are today.

The amount of money Folds of Honor receives directly dictates how many scholarships they can give out and I am so grateful for generous people who donate for our education, said Gabriela.

Chris agreed.

I just want to say thank you so much for donating, sharing, recognizing Folds of Honor, and for showing military families like mine so much gratitude, he said. Folds of Honor is such a great organization and their generosity, plus the generosity of the everyday people, inspire me on a daily basis.

Customers can participate in Round Up at the Register at Schnucks through Tuesday. They can also text FOLDS at 314-444-5125 to make donations. The Millers indicated that, whether its 5 cents, $5 or $50, every cent donated to Folds of Honor benefits a military family and is greatly appreciated.

Sarah Haas is the assistant editor for the Daily Journal. She can be reached at 573-518-3617 or at shaas@dailyjournalonline.com.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to Alexander Lukashenko on his re-election as Belarusian president.



In the message, Xi extended warm congratulations and best wishes to President Lukashenko on his re-election on behalf of the Chinese government and people as well as in Xi's own name, Xinhua reported.



Noting that he highly values the development of China-Belarus ties, Xi said he stands ready to work with President Lukashenko to jointly push forward China-Belarus comprehensive strategic partnership and expand mutually-beneficial cooperation between the two countries in various fields, so as to create new benefits for the two countries and peoples.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- With 457,558 new vehicles sold, SAIC Motor recorded a 4.04% year-on-year growth in July sales, 1.27 percentage points higher than the increase in June sales, according to the company's sales report.

Except SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC Motor PV and SAIC GM Wuling Indonesia Co.,Ltd., the other subsidiaries all saw their July sales rise over the previous year. Notably, CV makers, such as SAIC-IVECO Hongyan Commercial Vehicle and Naveco Ltd., had their sales over doubled from the previous year.



(New Baojun RM-5, photo source: SAIC-GM-Wuling)



In terms of July sales, SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW) took the runner-up place among SAIC's subsidiaries by selling 130,000 new vehicles, only 4,000 units fewer than that of the champion SAIC Volkswagen. It also attained a robust growth standing at 19.82%, the fourth-month-in-a-row increase the automaker achieved this year.



SGMW announced via its WeChat account that the July sales of its Wuling and New Baojun brands surged 50% and 47% from a year earlier. During the same period, it sold a total of 10,764 NEVs (+70%). Such NEV models as the Baojun E100, the Baojun E200, the New Baojun E300/E300P and the Hongguang MINI EV are quite well received by consumers thanks to their compact exterior design and intelligent facilities.



(Wuling Hongguang MINI EV, photo source: SAIC-GM-Wuling)

The Wuling Hongguang MINI EV, the first-ever all-electric vehicle of Wuling brand, officially hit the market at the Chengdu Motor Show that kicked off on July 24. Prices of three variants range between only 28,800 yuan ($4,135) and 38,800 yuan ($5,570).

SAIC-GM secured this year's first-time growth in July with 112,767 vehicles sold. According to Buick's announcement, the brand saw its July wholesale mount up 36.6% from the previous year to 76,926 units. To be specific, the sales of the Lacross, the Regal and the Excelle reached 5,739 units (+191%), 13,309 units (+223%) and 17,305 units respectively. Besides, it also sold 20,551 SUVs last month, a year-on-year jump of 32.3%.



(Buick Velite 7 BEV, photo source: SAIC-GM)



The Sino-U.S. joint venture announced a number of new models hit the market in late July, including the Buick Envision S, the Buick Envision S Avenir, the Buick Velite 7 BEV, the Velite 6 PHEV as well as two 28T variants of Cadillac CT6 hit the market.

As for year-to-date performance, the decrease SAIC Motor posted has shrunk to 25.77% as of July from 30.24% for the first-half of the year.
The tree snapped, landing on Hemingers white sedan and crushing its hood. He was uninjured. His wife came to pick him up as Hobart police and fire departments personnel responded to the accident that came during the height of Mondays thunderstorm.
A man suspected to be part of a syndicate that steal goats and sheep in the Northern Region has been killed at Nyankpala in the Tolon District of the Northern Region.



The deceased, Fatawu Alhassan, believed to be in his 40s was reportedly killed during one of his stealing syndicates last Sunday.



His body was found in a pool of blood on the Tamale-Nyankpala road near the Savanna Agriculture Research Institute (SARI) of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on Sunday morning, August 9, 2020 with multiple cutlass wounds.



The Northern Regional Crime Officer, Superintendent of Police, Mr Kwabena Otuo Acheampong told Graphic Online that initial investigation by the police has revealed that the deceased and two others went to steal goats and sheep.



He said his two other accomplices managed to ran away whilst the deceased was arrested and attacked by some unknown persons.



Mr Otuo Acheampong said on August 9, 2020, at about 7.30am, the head of security of the Savanna Agriculture Research Institute (SARI), one Mr Gideon came to report at the Nyankpala Police station that someone was lying dead along the SARI road.



He said the Police proceeded to the scene and found a male adult who was later identified to the Police as Fatawu Alhassan.



He said the Police also saw a green Opel Astra saloon vehicle with registration number GE 8663 -Y which had been parked about 100 metres from where the body was.



Mr Otuo Acheampong said the police gathered that the deceased and two others went and stole goats and sheep but the two managed to ran away and the deceased was arrested and attacked by unknown persons.







Source: graphiconline.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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Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, August 11 2020

American oil and gas giant Chevron plans to withdraw from the national strategic Indonesia Deepwater Development (IDD) project in Makassar Strait and the government has wasted no time seeking a replacement.

The government has approached Italian oil and gas company Eni to take over the project, said Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry acting oil and gas director general Ego Syahrial on Wednesday.

He suggested that Chevrons exit was one packet with the companys impending exit from the Rokan Block in Sumatra. But analysts have pointed out that exits are common during periods of low global oil prices, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Pune, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Oleochemicals market size was valued at $ 27163.59 million and is projected to reach $38708.68 million by 2026, registering a CAGR of 5.19% from 2020 to 2026.

Oleochemicals Market 2020-2026 is to present the global business data with a definite and strategic review. The research analyses all section and sub-section present on the market for Oleochemicals. The report provides some useful information about the business constraints by accessing market growth, the amount of demand, future market patterns, as well as different price variations for the forecast year.

Latest Industry Research on Oleochemicals Gives Objective:

To examine and forecast the market size of Global Oleochemicals Market, in terms of value and volume.

To organize and forecast Global Oleochemicals Market based on type, sales channel, surface material, product type, and regional distribution.

To identify drivers and challenges for Global Oleochemicals Market. Also examine competitive developments such as expansions, new product launches, mergers & acquisitions, etc., in Global Oleochemicals Market.

To conduct the pricing analysis for Oleochemicals Market.

To identify and analyse the profile of leading players involved in the manufacturing of Global Oleochemicals Market

Get a sample copy of the Oleochemicalsmarket report 2020

Detailed profiles of the Top major players in the industry, including.

Emery Oleochemicals Group

BASF SE

Oleon NV

Procter & Gamble Company

Vantage Specialty Chemicals Inc.

Akzo Nobel N.V.

Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad

The Archer Daniels Midland Company

Kao Corporation

Evonik Industries AG

IOI Group

AAK AB

Croda International plc

Cargill Incorporated

Get a Sample PDF of report @ https://www.360marketupdates.com/enquiry/request-sample/15966900

OleochemicalsMarket Segment by Type covers:

Fatty Acids

Biodiesel

Fatty Alcohols

Fatty Acid Derivatives

OleochemicalsMarket Segment by Applications can be divided into:

Personal Care

Plastics

Soaps

Coatings

Lubricants

Detergents

Research Objective

- To analyze and forecast the market size of global Oleochemicals market.

- To classify and forecast global Oleochemicals market based on product, application.

- To identify drivers and challenges for global Oleochemicals market.

- To examine competitive developments such as mergers & acquisitions, agreements, collaborations and partnerships, etc., in global Oleochemicals market.

- To conduct pricing analysis for global Oleochemicals market.

- To identify and analyze the profile of leading players operating in global Oleochemicals market.

The report is useful in providing answers to several critical questions that are important for the industry stakeholders such as manufacturers and partners, end users, etc., besides allowing them in strategizing investments and capitalizing on market opportunities. Key target audience are:

- Manufacturers of Oleochemicals

- Raw material suppliers

- Market research and consulting firms

- Government bodies such as regulating authorities and policy makers

- Organizations, forums and alliances related to Oleochemicals

Fill the Pre-Order Enquiry form for the report @ https://www.360marketupdates.com/enquiry/pre-order-enquiry/15966900

Key Questions Addressed by the Report:-

OleochemicalsMarket Classify the problem areas in your business Prospects

OleochemicalsMarket trend Understand the wants of current customers

Oleochemicalsmarket Categorize new business opportunities and moving market trends

OleochemicalsGet History and Forecast 2020-2025 , new areas for expansion, increase your customer base, Breakdown Data by Manufacturers

new areas for expansion, increase your customer base, Breakdown Data by Manufacturers OleochemicalsNotice potential customers and their needs, which can be incorporated into your services

OleochemicalsSet achievable targets for commercial growth, sales, and latest product developments

Oleochemicalsmarket Share Make knowledgeable market decisions about your services and develop effective strategies

OleochemicalsMarket Lower Business Risks, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin, cost structure and Future Growth, rate, Current Position of key Vendors by Their Size

Oleochemicalsabout the future, Accepting the most reliable investment centers, Evaluating potential business partners

What are the different applications & Type of 555

Get a sample copy of the Oleochemicalsmarket report 2020

Market segmentation

Oleochemicalsmarket is split by Type and by Application. For the period 2015-2025, the growth among segments provide accurate calculations and forecasts for sales by Type and by Application in terms of volume and value. This analysis can help you expand your business by targeting qualified niche markets.

Competitive Landscape

Oleochemicalsprovides details by vendors, including company overview, company total revenue (financials), market potential, global presence,Oleochemicalssales and revenue generated, market share, price, production sites and facilities, SWOT analysis, product launch. For the period 2015-2020, this study provides the Oleochemicalssales, revenue and market share for each player covered in this report.

The report provides an in-depth knowledge of the Global Oleochemicalsmarket scenario:

Market Overview

Market Analysis by Regions

Market Dynamics & Companies Profiles, Business Overview

Data Source

Research Findings and Conclusion

Market trends & developments

Company profiles of leading companies

The report provides an in-depth knowledge of the Global Oleochemicalsmarket scenario:

1. Market Overview

1.1 OleochemicalsIntroduction

1.2 Market Analysis by Type

1.3 Market Analysis by Applications

1.4 Market Dynamics

1.4.1 Market Opportunities

1.4.2 Market Risk

1.4.3 Market Driving Force

2. Manufacturers Profiles

2.4.1 Business Overview

2.4.2 OleochemicalsType and Applications

2.4.2.1 Product A

2.4.2.2 Product B

3. Global OleochemicalsSales, Revenue, Market Share and Competition by Manufacturer (2019-2020)

3.1 Global OleochemicalsSales and Market Share by Manufacturer (2019-2020)

3.2 Global OleochemicalsRevenue and Market Share by Manufacturer (2019-2020)

3.3 OleochemicalsMarket Concentration Rates

3.3.1 Top 3 OleochemicalsManufacturer Market Share in 2020

3.3.2 Top 6 OleochemicalsManufacturer Market Share in 2020

3.4 OleochemicalsMarket Competition Trend

4. Global OleochemicalsMarket Analysis by Regions

4.1 Global OleochemicalsSales, Revenue and Market Share by Regions

4.1.1 Global OleochemicalsSales and Market Share by Regions (2014-2019)

4.1.2 Global OleochemicalsRevenue and Market Share by Regions (2014-2019)

4.2 North America OleochemicalsSales and Growth Rate (2014-2019)

4.3 Europe OleochemicalsSales and Growth Rate (2014-2019)

4.4 Asia-Pacific OleochemicalsSales and Growth Rate (2014-2019)

4.6 South America OleochemicalsSales and Growth Rate (2014-2019)

4.6 Middle East and Africa OleochemicalsSales and Growth Rate (2014-2019)

5.OleochemicalsMarket Forecast (2020-2025)

5.1 Global OleochemicalsSales, Revenue and Growth Rate (2020-2025)

5.2 OleochemicalsMarket Forecast by Regions (2020-2025)

5.3 OleochemicalsMarket Forecast by Type (2020-2025)

5.3.1 Global OleochemicalsSales Forecast by Type (2020-2025)

5.3.2 Global OleochemicalsMarket Share Forecast by Type (2020-2025)

5.4 OleochemicalsMarket Forecast by Application (2020-2025)

5.4.1 Global OleochemicalsSales Forecast by Application (2020-2025)

5.4.2 Global OleochemicalsMarket Share Forecast by Application (2020-2025)

6. OleochemicalsSales Channel, Distributors, Traders and Dealers

6.1 Sales Channel

6.1.1 Direct Marketing

6.1.2 Indirect Marketing

6.1.3 Marketing Channel Future Trend

6.2 Distributors, Traders and Dealers

7. Research Findings and Conclusion

8. Appendix

8.1 Methodology

8.2 Data Source

Continued..

The next part also sheds light on the gap between supply and consumption. Apart from the mentioned information, growth rate of Oleochemicalsmarket in 2025 is also explained. Additionally, type wise and application wise consumption tables and figures of Oleochemicalsmarket are also given.

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360 Market Updates is the credible source for gaining the market research reports that will exponentially accelerate your business. We are among the leading report resellers in the business world committed towards optimizing your business. The reports we provide are based on a research that covers a magnitude of factors such as technological evolution, economic shifts and a detailed study of market segments.
Dubai-based Union Properties said it has successfully reached an agreement with Emirates NBD for the full restructuring of its outstanding AED946 million ($258 million) debt with the bank along with payment of the initial amount as per the new terms.

This agreement with Emirates NBD, as the main creditor of Union Properties, will substantially improve the debt profile of the group.

As a result, Union Properties will have a significant reduction of its instalments as compared to the situation prior to this debt restructuring and better repayment terms which will improve the cash flow position of the company.

On the successful debt restructuring, Chairman Khalifa Hasan Al Hammadi said: "Restructuring our outstanding debt with Emirates NBD was our number one priority. This is now done. With better cash flow and the support of our main creditor, we can from this day exclusively focus on the development of our activities and projects."

"This is a strong sign of confidence from our banking partner and an important milestone for our group," stated Al Hammadi.

"We have efficiently dealt with legacy issues and are now fully geared for a new growth chapter in our history, which will improve our commitment to the banks and enhance the confidence of our shareholders," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Those raising objections to the draft environment impact assessment (EIA) notification are the same people who took "big decisions without consultations" when they were in power, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Monday, hitting out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Gandhi had on Sunday tweeted that the draft EIA was a "disaster" and urged people to protest against it.

Speaking to the media after an event to celebrate World Elephant Day, Javadekar said, "Saw reaction of some leaders demanding protest against the EIA draft. How can they protest against the draft? It is not a final notification. It was kept for public consultation for 150 days because of COVID-19. Otherwise it is only 60 days as per rules."

"We have received thousands of suggestions which we welcome. We will consider those suggestions. Then take a call and come out with final draft. So people jumping just on the draft is not fair practice. Those who want to now protest, during their regime took many of the big decisions without consultations. It is unnecessary and premature. I have mentioned it in my letter to (Congress leader and former Union minister) Jairam Ramesh. It (Gandhi's comment on EIA and demanding protests) is unnecessary and premature," the minister told reporters.

Gandhi had on Monday tweeted, "This EIA 2020 draft is a disaster. It seeks to silence the voice of communities who will be directly impacted by the environmental degradation it unleashes. I urge every Indian to rise up and protest against it."

EIA2020      - #LootOfTheNation



               -     -    



EIA 2020 draft must be withdrawn to stop #LootOfTheNation and environmental destruction.  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 10, 2020

The Congress leader has also called for its withdrawal, saying it will lead to further environmental destruction and looting. "EIA 2020 draft must be withdrawn to stop the loot of the nation and environmental destruction," Gandhi said.

The draft EIA notification has drawn flak from environmentalists, students, youth wings and NGOs across India who claimed it diluted the environmental clearance procedure.
Donald Trump has promised a new nuclear deal with Iran within four weeks if he is re-elected in November, according to a video of his remarks from inside a New Jersey fundraiser.

Footage from a campaign fundraiser on Sunday show the president addressing a crowd of packed-in supporters, none of whom appear to be wearing masks or socially distanced while at the home of a friend of the president who died from coronavirus.

Videos obtained by Jewish Insider show dozens of supporters at the Jersey Shore home of Stanley Chera, who died following Covid-19-related illness in April.

If we win ... we will have a deal with Iran within four weeks, the president said.

Admission to the fundraiser ranged from $5,600 up to $250,000.

His remarks followed a Friday statement from National Counterintelligence and Security Centre director William Evanina warning that Iran seeks to undermine US democratic institutions, President Trump, and to divide the country in advance of the 2020 elections.

Ahead of the 2020 US elections, foreign states will continue to use covert and overt influence measures in their attempts to sway US voters preferences and perspectives, shift US policies, increase discord in the United States, and undermine the American peoples confidence in our democratic process, the director said in a statement.

Tensions between the US and Iran have increased following the administrations 2018 withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a 2015 agreement among members of the United Nations Security Council to reduce Irans stockpile of enriched uranium and to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect Irans nuclear facilities.

Its unclear what a new deal would look like, though it follows a pattern of deadlines set by the president during his re-election campaign, including a healthcare overhaul and a vaccine for Covid-19, that have not materialised.

The campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The president has frequently criticised the plan and blamed his predecessor Barack Obama for a bad deal, while the presidents withdrawal polarised the globe and was condemned by world leaders warning that a reckless decision could destabilise the region.

Iran remained in compliance with the deal following the presidents 2018 announcement but began stepping outside its boundaries, enriching uranium that exceeded the limitations of the deal. Meanwhile, the US imposed sanctions that restricted Iranian oil exports and disrupted the nations economy.

Tensions reached a boiling point with the US killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in an airstrike in January. Iranian officials declared his killing an act of international terrorism. Days earlier, Iran announced it would be withdrawing from the deal, and Iran retaliated by attacking US and coalition bases in Iraq.

Another video from Sunday fundraiser shows Stanleys son Haim Chera telling the president that he believes China maliciously released Covid-19.

You are fighting a war against an invisible enemy, recklessly or maliciously released onto our shores from China, and you still made time to offer your assistance to us, he said.
With less than three months until the November election, former Vice President Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump in three battleground states, including Wisconsin, according to a new poll.

The Wisconsin poll, coordinated by the UW-Madison Elections Research Center in collaboration with the Wisconsin State Journal, found Biden has drawn support from Democratic voters who backed other candidates or did not vote in 2016. Trump still commands strong Republican backing, but has seen his support wane among independents and the white voters who helped him secure a narrow victory four years ago.

Biden, who has yet to make a formal campaign stop in the state and recently opted out of visiting Milwaukee next week to accept his partys nomination, leads Trump 49% to 43% among Wisconsin respondents. Bidens lead in Wisconsin widens to 52% to 44% among voters who say they are certain to vote in November.

Notably in Wisconsin, Biden leads Trump 49% to 44% among registered white voters. While not a statistically significant difference at face value, UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said white votes could prove critical for Trumps reelection efforts. Trump won the states popular vote by less than a percentage point in 2016, but held a roughly nine-point lead among white voters.

Its such a large share of voters in Wisconsin who are white that even small changes in those percentages have pretty big effects on the election outcome, Burden said. If Trump is struggling to be ahead among white voters, its hard to see how he can win the state.

Biden leads by 9 percentage points in Pennsylvania and by 4 percentage points in Michigan. The margin of error in each state is between +/- 4.85 and 5.05 percentage points.

The poll was conducted July 27 through Aug. 6 by YouGov, which has also done polls for CBS News, The Economist and other news outlets. There were 800 respondents surveyed in each of the three battleground states.

In February, the poll had Biden leading Trump in Wisconsin 45% to 43%  within the polls margin of error  in a November match-up.

Voter demographics

Partisanship played a significant role in the new poll, with 90% of Wisconsin Democrats supporting Biden, while 91% of Republicans said they support Trump.

While independent voters in Pennsylvania and Michigan were more evenly divided, Wisconsins independents leaned more heavily in Bidens favor, with 54% supporting the former vice president, compared with 37% supporting Trump.

If Trump is to win Wisconsin, hes got to claw back a good share of those independent voters, Burden said.

Across the three states, 83% of Black voters, 47% of Hispanic voters and 49% of other non-white voters backed Biden. White voters were more split, with 47% supporting Trump and 45% supporting Biden.

In addition, levels of education also played into voter responses. Trumps support was strongest among voters with a high school education in the three battleground states. Biden, however, led among voters with some college education, a college degree and post-graduates.

While Trump led Biden  49% to 44%  among 45- to 64-year-old voters and by 52% to 44% among voters 65 years or older, the former Vice President held significant leads among 18- to 29-year-old voters  58% to 27%  and 30- to 45-year-old voters  54% to 35%.

Oconomowoc resident Phil Lee, 80, told the State Journal in February he supported Trump over all Democratic candidates in the race at that time. On Friday, Lee said he has not changed his mind.

The vote is between capitalism, the Constitution, and socialism, Lee said. Thats the vote, period. Trump is a patriot when it comes to the Constitution.

Polling also suggests a gender gap in all three states, with 52% of Wisconsin men supporting Trump, compared with 54% of Wisconsin women supporting Biden.

A narrow field

The latest poll stands in stark contrast to the last survey in February, before the COVID-19 pandemic upended both the nation and presidential campaign season. At the time, about half a dozen Democratic candidates remained in the race for the partys nomination.

That poll showed a decline in support for Biden and an upswing for then-newcomer to the race and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who dropped out in early March.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who won the states 2016 presidential primary, was the top choice for 30% of registered voters intending to vote in the Democratic primary on April 7. At the time, Biden was the top choice for 13% of respondents.

But Biden consolidated support from supporters of other Democrats who dropped out and won the Wisconsin primary. Sanders dropped out of the race almost a week before official results were tallied.

The Democratic Party has really come around to be on Bidens side, Burden said.

Mary Ebert, 57, said she voted Republican in every presidential election until 2016, when she voted for then-nominee Hillary Clinton. The Nashotah banker said she shifted Democrat four years ago because she was frustrated with what she described as Republicans, including Trump, going down a negative, mean path.

In February, Ebert said her first choice for president would be a woman, such as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren or Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Short of that Im hoping at least for a vice president, Ebert said in February. I want the female representation. I think thats the voice thats been missing from the upper echelons for all these centuries.

On Friday, Ebert said she was disappointed when her top candidates dropped out earlier this year, but said she is encouraged by Bidens pledge to select a woman as a running mate.

Job performance

The poll also suggests that Trumps handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis policy custody have had a negative impact on perceptions regarding the countrys direction.

In all three states, 70% of respondents said the country is on the wrong track, while only 20% said the country is heading in the right direction.

In Wisconsin, 56% of respondents said they are dissatisfied with how the president has handled the protests. Half of Wisconsin respondents said they strongly disapprove of Trumps job performance, while only 28% strongly approve.

Ebert said she has been dissatisfied with Trumps handling of major issues this year and impressed with Bidens decorum over such matters.

To me, theres a certain amount of how you present yourself as a leader and Im seeing the significance of that concept more and more with Biden, Ebert said. Especially when you compare it with a showman like Trump. To me thats fake.

Dave Kruchten, 63, a retired town of Middleton resident, told the State Journal in February that he would be voting for Trump because the Republican president helped foster a strong economy. In January, the national unemployment rate was just 3.6%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Now that the economy has buckled under the weight of the business shutdowns and stay-at-home orders prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Kruchten is still supportive of Trump. Kruchten said Trump has the best shot at bringing jobs back and building the economy back up again.

(Trump) didnt bring us the pandemic, Kruchten said. And how would Biden have, how would anybody else have done anything different?

Kruchten said its unfair for Democrats to theorize that Biden would have handled the coronavirus crisis better than Trump when the situation was so unprecedented.

Its always easy after somethings done to look back and say you should have done this and that, but we were in kind of uncharted territory, Kruchten said.

The poll asked respondents in all three states why they support each candidate. The top three reasons among Trump supporters were his position on issues (40%), hes a different kind of politician (22%) and his record (20%). Among Biden supporters, the top three reasons were his position on issues (29%), his values (25%) and he can beat Trump (24%).

State Journal reporter Emily Hamer contributed to this report.
Angela Abraham, OD, Diversity and Inclusion Liaison This is about more than changing a culture, said Dr. Abraham. Its about bringing ideas in from the outside to cross-pollinate and spur new thinking. I believe in the year 2020, we all see the need to come together with better ideas and bigger hearts, and share both for the greater good.

Dr. Angela Abraham has been appointed as the first-ever Diversity and Inclusion Liaison for the New England College of Optometry (NECO). Dr. Abraham will be leading the drive to foster a more equitable and bias-free NECO community.

In a related announcement, NECO has also signed on to the 13% Promise, a new initiative led by Black Eyecare Perspective and dedicated to increasing Black presence in vision care. Both steps are part of a larger initiative for change at NECO, according to Howard Purcell, OD, the colleges President and CEO.

NECO is eager to do its part to help create the more diverse and inclusive community that we all know is the future of vision care, and Dr. Abrahams appointment is the first action in a larger plan, President Purcell says. Angela Abraham has been on faculty at NECO since 2011, and in her we have someone who has always been passionate about mentoring students of color in our field. Shes going to be essential in helping us achieve greater inclusion and living up to the ideals of the 13% Promise. This will take reflection and hard work, and were committed to a sustainable and powerful effort to get there.

Dr. Abraham will work with NECOs new Alliance for the Advancement of Diversity and Inclusion, which includes faculty, staff and students. The groups goal is to promote a culture where individuals from diverse backgrounds and life experience feel they belong, are able to contribute, and can thrive academically and professionally. A primary role of this Alliance is to connect D&I activities to a broader set of data-driven, results-oriented strategies, and to promote campus-wide communication on progress.

This is about more than changing a culture, said Dr. Abraham. Its about bringing ideas in from the outside to cross-pollinate and spur new thinking. I believe in the year 2020, we all see the need to come together with better ideas and bigger hearts, and share both for the greater good.

Dr. Abraham completed her Doctor of Optometry at the University of Missouri-St. Louis School of Optometry and took a Fellowship in Ocular Disease at the ODonnell Eye Institute, St. Louis. Her undergraduate degree in Biology was at Smith College in Northampton, MA. During her time at Smith, Dr. Abraham was part of a NECO summer program designed to attract more individuals of color to optometry. Years later, she sees her new role as the chance to do the same for others.

Im excited about taking on this new role, said Dr. Abraham. We all know that its a long road to real inclusion and diversity, and Im really happy to be part of that journey. I know NECO, and I know my colleagues and students are devoted to taking this important next step in optometry education.

NECO joins the 13% Promise initiative by Black Eyecare Perspective

NECO recently signed on to the 13% Promise pledge led by Black Eyecare Perspective (BEP). The initiative -- based on U.S. Census data showing that 13.4% of the U.S. population identifies as Black -- is asking for an equal amount of Black representation in eye care companies, colleges of optometry and boards of trustees.

BEP will be working with NECO, and with others who join the pledge, to help reach the 13% goal. That includes providing both resources and accountability to help achieve targeted goals.

Currently only 3.1% of NECO students and 4% of faculty identify as African American or Black, so the college will need a clear strategy to achieve this goal, says Traci Logan, Executive Vice President. Increasing representation isnt something we should just talk about as an aspiration, it has to become something we commit ourselves to doing because it benefits our students, employees, patients, and the eye care industry as a whole.

NECO is also dedicated to sharing what it learns with other optometry schools, and to understanding what others have done. Says Logan, Well be seeking best practices and knowledge from other schools and our industry collaborators to stimulate enduring success. These actions represent one step forward in a much longer journey, one we believe has the potential to transform the profession. Or, as we proudly state in our mission, we will change the way people see the world.


Harvey Weinstein will fight extradition from New York to Los Angeles for an upcoming sexual assault trial amid fears he may contract COVID-19 for a second time, his attorney has revealed.

The shamed former Hollywood mogul is currently serving a 23-year sentence in the Wende Correctional Facility in upstate New York after being convicted of committing a criminal sex act in the first degree and rape in third degree back in March.

However, the LA District Attorneys Office has requested Weinstein be extradited to City of Angels as hes set to go on trial for a second time for five other felony sex crime charges.

Weinsteins lawyer, Norman Effman, told TMZ that his client will be fighting the move because he believes it could pose a substantial risk to his health.

Harvey Weinstein will fight being extradited from his New York jail cell to Los Angeles for a new sexual assault trial amid fears he may contract COVID-19 for a second time, his attorney has revealed

Though the 68-year-old tested positive for coronavirus in March and later recovered, Effman said theres no guarantee Weinstein is now immune from the virus.

Instead, Effman said he believes Weinsteins health could actually be at serious risk if he were to be transferred for the duration of the trial into LA countys jail system, which has been plagued by outbreaks of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

Weinsteins lawyer, Norman Effman, told TMZ that his client will be fighting the move because he believes it could pose a substantial risk to his health.

Across the entire state, the virus has killed at least 52 inmates and sickened more than 8,700 others. Nearly 2,000 state prison system employees also have been infected and eight have died.

The attorney also pointed out that cases of the deadly virus have been surging across the state generally.

Meanwhile, the Wende Correctional Facility, where Weinstein is being held, currently has a low infection rate and no coronavirus deaths to date  which Effman suggests is a much safer environment for his client to remain in.

Effman said that Weinstein isn't fighting the extradition completely  he just wants to wait until the infection rate decreases in Los Angeles.

The convicted sex offender was supposed to set off for LA in May but the pandemic delayed his trial.

A new hearing is set for this week to address Weinstein's request.

The shamed former Hollywood mogul is currently serving a 23-year sentence in the Wende Correctional Facility in upstate New York after being convicted of committing a criminal sex act in the first degree and rape in third degree back in March

Weinstein is requesting to remain in the Wende Correctional Facility as it has a low COVID-19 infection rate and no confirmed deaths from the virus

In LA, the former Miramax chief faces five felony charges, which include sexual battery by restraint, forcible rape, sexual penetration by use of force, sexual battery and forcible oral copulation.

Adding to his woes, Weinstein was hit with a new lawsuit in New York on Friday by a woman who says he sexually assaulted her at film festivals in France and Canada.

His accuser, who filed the federal suit in Manhattan as Jane Doe, claims Weinstein first approached her at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 when she was a 22-year-old aspiring actress.

Weinstein is said to have told the woman he wanted to discuss her career, and then set up a meeting with her and his assistant inside his Majestic Hotel suite, the suit alleges.

All three of them spoke briefly about her aspirations, before his assistant left the room, and Weinstein started to sexually assault her, according to the suit.

Weinstein  clutched Plaintiff and tried to force her into massaging him. When Plaintiff refused to massage him, Weinstein continued to grope Plaintiff and tried to take off her clothes, the legal documents read.

The accuser claims she was able to run out of the room before he could rape her, however agreed to meet with him twice more during the festival.

Weinstein, pictured with his ex-wife Georgina Chapman, contracted coronavirus in March and recovered

During their third meeting, Jane Doe claims Weinstein raped her after a party they attended with a number of other film industry executives.

After Plaintiff and Weinstein met with various people in their hotel suites, Weinstein brought Plaintiff back to his hotel suite. Weinstein then used his considerable size and strength advantage to pin Plaintiff down and rape her, the suit says.

The woman claims Weinstein assaulted her numerous other times over the next nine years, including once at the Toronto Film Festival in 2014.

According to the suit, Weinstein hounded her to meet with him in his hotel room to discuss her career once again. After telling him she was in a relationship, Weinstein is said to have assured her that he wouldnt do anything.

After agreeing to meet with him on those grounds, Jane Doe says once inside the room, Weinstein began to force himself physically on [her]. Weinstein again tried to force Plaintiff into sex acts against her will.

When [Jane Doe] tried to fight him, Weinstein used his strength and size to pin her down. After much effort, Plaintiff managed to leave the room without Weinstein sexually penetrating her, the suit says.

The unnamed accuser is seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages.
These are the most-read letters from last week.
(Natural News) This week, Breitbart News revealed that Google, is trying to intervene in the 2020 elections by censoring conservative news and preventing voters from receiving information they need to make an informed decision in November.

(Article by Joel B. Pollak republished from Breitbart.com)

Google has killed search traffic to Breitbart. Moreover, Twitter suspended Breitbart News account after the website streamed a press conference of dissident doctors on Facebook Live.

YouTube  owned by Google  removed the video, and Twitter censored tweets that included excerpts from the video, including a tweet by the President of the United States. Facebook also suspended private groups that posted the video.

Though there are a few cases of liberal posts being flagged or taken down, Big Tech is distorting the national debate to benefit Democrats and hurt Republicans.

The pattern is reminiscent of the IRS scandal that emerged in 2013. In the months before the 2012 election, there were anecdotal reports of Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations facing closer scrutiny from the IRS. When they applied for recognition as non-profit groups, which would allow them to receive tax-exempt donations (as many liberal interest groups do), conservative groups found that they were subjected to delays and intrusive questioning.

Hundreds of conservative groups were affected. As a result, many of them never launched. The Tea Party  the grass roots effort that had led Republicans to victory in the House in 2010  was taken off the field for the 2012 elections.

The effect on the election was significant enough that the Wall Street Journals James Taranto suggested that Barack Obamas reelection victory that year should be listed in the history books with an asterisk, because he won unfairly.

Big Tech is attempting to do for the 2020 elections what the IRS, with the open encouragement of the Democrats, did eight years ago. Democrats even proposed legislation that would make what the IRS did retroactively legal. If Hillary Clinton had won in 2016, they would have passed it and continued to use the IRS to clamp down on conservatives. In 2020, Democrats are using a different tactic: they have outsourced the repression to Big Tech and the private sector.

This is not wholly a private effort, though. A coalition of Democrat-friendly civil rights organizations is pressuring tech companies to censor conservatives, under the guise of tackling hate speech. They have organized an advertising boycott of Facebook, for example.

If Joe Biden wins, Silicon Valley lobbyists will flood the new administration. Google had extraordinary access to the Obama White House, with Google executives visiting hundreds of times  more than once a week. Senior Obama administration figures found cozy jobs in Silicon Valley, and many would certainly return to run a Biden administration. There would be even less government scrutiny than there is today about what Big Tech does to stifle free speech.

Though some Democrats talk about breaking up the Big Tech companies, a Biden administration would be unlikely to do so. And if it did, it would let Silicon Valley write its own rules  restoring Net Neutrality, for example, which slowed investments broadband infrastructure. Biden would be able to reverse President Donald Trumps executive orders on freedom of speech on the Internet, and allow Big Tech to continue to shape Americas political debate to its own liking.

The full extent of the IRS scandal was not known until after the 2012 election. This time, everyone knows in advance what Big Tech is doing. Republicans need to stop them now  before it is too late.

Read more at: Breitbart.com
The leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces Party has called for early parliamentary elections following last week's explosion in Beirut's port.

Samir Geagea, addressing reporters, blamed the Shiite Hezbollah movement for the country's ongoing crisis because of its parliamentary majority, believing that the resignation of the Hezbollah-backed government is not enough to solve the crisis.

Hezbollah, according to a Reuters report, has 12 MPs in the 128-seat parliament. But, when adding those who back it, the Shiite group ends up having the support of at least 70 MPs.

These forces include parliament speaker Nabih Berry's Amal movement, a Shiite group, and other small Hezbollah-aligned parties such as the Maronite Christian Marada Party, the Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party, the Baath Party, the Armenian Tashnag and the Druze Lebanese Democratic Party.

Hezbollah is also backed by 11 independent MPs.

"Those who formed this government can form another one as long as they are in power," Sky News Arabia quoted the head of the Christian party as saying.

Geagea stated that holding early elections on the basis of the present election law represents the best political solution for Lebanon to end Hezbollah's control over the parliament.

Geagea's Lebanese Forces, Druze leader Walid Jumblatts Progressive Socialist Party, and Sunni leader Saad Al-Hariri's Future Movement are not represented in this government.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab formed the current coalition in January 2019 after being nominated by Hezbollah and President Michel Aoun, an ally of the former.

Diab's coalition only included Hezbollahs allies after Al-Hariri, who sought to form a government before him, failed to reach an agreement with the Iran-backed movement amid protests against all political forces and a severe economic crisis.

Geagea said that creating a new government to replace Diabs Hezbollah-backed one is a waste of time, for it would have to work with the current parliament.

So far, the ministers of justice, information, and the environment have officially resigned, and local media reports suggest  though this remains unconfirmed  that they are about to be joined by Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni.

Ahead of Beirut's port explosion on 4 August, foreign minister Nassif Hitti also resigned "given the absence of an effective will to achieve comprehensive structural reform which our society and the international community have urged us to do."

A number of parliamentarians also resigned, including three from Samy Gemayel's Kataeb Party, another Christian political force. Other MPs are likely to follow the same path.

Beirut's governor Marwan Abboud announced on Monday that the number of people who lost their lives from the explosion has reached 200. Lebanon's health ministry said on Saturday that 6,000 others are wounded.

Some 300,000 Lebanese citizens are currently homeless.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab will reportedly resign on Monday.

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The directive of the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice, Malam Abubakar Malami, to the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to protect the 17 lawmakers of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Edo State House of Assembly, who attempted to subvert the leadership of the House, has continued to irk the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the partys governorship candidate in the September 19 election in the state.

A chieftain of the PDP, Don-Pedro Obaseki, on Monday berated the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, for allegedly abusing the law, and providing support for the APC lawmakers who he alleged were involved in a failed coup.

Obaseki, speaking on a television programme Sunrise Daily on Channels Television monitored by National Daily from Lagos, argued that the directive of AGF Malami to the IG of Police over the crisis ravaging the Edo House of Assembly revealed the Minister is supporting a particular political party. According to Obaseki, I will state clearly that Mr. Malami has shown himself as a law officer, as a most-partisan one who decides to speak depending on what part of the (political) party divide he is in. What he has done is a flagrant abuse of the law.

Obaseki further chided the APC members of the House inaugurated at a private residence in Benin City, alleging they forged a mace used during their inauguration. He said the original mace was kept with the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Francis Okiye, at the time the APC lawmakers were inaugurated, adding the forging of mace is treasonable.

Obaseki, accordingly, demanded the arrest of the 14 APC members of the House who allegedly forged a mace for the purpose of their swearing-in.

Obaseki declared: They have gone to forge a mace. When you forge a mace, you are forcefully taking over a part of the government.

That is treasonable. The original mace still lies with the Speaker, Mr Okiye. The Department of State Service should go and arrest them. They are a threat to the state.
NEW YORK, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CEO of XO Wassim "Sal" Slaiby, along with Global Citizen, Red Cross Lebanon, World Food Program USA and the Children's Cancer Center Lebanon, today launched Global Aid for Lebanon to raise funds for the victims of the Beirut explosion, which has killed hundreds of people, injured thousands, and left hundreds and thousands of people homeless, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The campaign has been kicked off with a generous $250,000 donation from Sal & Rima Slaiby, and will support the Lebanese Red Cross, United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and Children's Cancer Center Of Lebanon. Global Citizen has partnered with the Slaiby family to step up as a global community and support the Lebanese people. Global Citizens and compassionate community members from all around the world are urged to donate, take action, and spread the word on social media using the hashtag #GlobalAidForLebanon about the Global Aid for Lebanon campaign found at www.globalcitizen.org/Beirut .

"My heart aches for Lebanon. The massive destruction scenes brought back to my memory the hard times I experienced with my parents during the war and that forced me to leave Lebanon at an early age following the loss of my dad, so I urge you all to take part in the 'Global Aid for Lebanon' campaign to raise funds and support for the region," said Wassim "Sal" Slaiby, CEO of SAL&CO / XO RECORDS.

George Kettaneh Secretary General of the Lebanese Red Cross continued, "In a country that is suffering now from so many overlapping crisis and tragedies, the Lebanese Red Cross reaffirms its commitment to stand by the most vulnerable and to provide neutral, impartial and independent humanitarian aid. Our ambulance volunteers were on the front line of the response after the blast, and we are now working with all other aid actors to provide relief, shelter, primary healthcare and basic assistance to all those who need it most."

Abdallah Alwardat, Country Director and Representative of the United Nations World Food Programme in Lebanon also shared sentiments, "Nearly 85% of food in Lebanon is imported  much of it coming through the country's largest port, which now lies in ruins. Even before the explosion, soaring unemployment and the global pandemic meant many people were already struggling to meet their basic needs. We're working to get food to families in urgent need and to offer logistical and supply chain expertise for the ports of Beirut or Tripoli to ensure no food shortages occur."

Rima Fakih Slaiby, Ambassador of the Children Cancer Center of Lebanon concluded, "I may have not been close enough to hear the blast, but we heard the tragic cries of the mothers and fathers who lost their children, the tears of the Lebanese people who were left with nothing. The heartbreak of a nation, our beloved nation, will always be within our hearts. The war forced us to leave and we cannot sit idly by and ignore clear cries for help, so we urge you all to take part in the 'Global Aid for Lebanon' campaign to raise funds and support Lebanon."

Lebanon was already in economic trouble before the August 4th explosion destroyed the Port of Beirut, which handles 80% of the country's imports, including food. The country has experienced high rates of unemployment, and COVID-19 has made day-to-day life for many a struggle. Human Rights Watch issued a report this week before the explosion warning of mass hunger across the country due to COVID-19.

Disastrous events like the explosion in Beirut make accessing essential services like health care, water, food, and education difficult, and can lead to increased poverty. To help the people of Beirut cope in the aftermath of this catastrophe, view the Global Citizen website , and post the graphic and donation links on all social media platforms for continued awareness and support of the people of Beirut.

"Global Citizen stands in solidarity with the people of Beirut and is proud to lock arms with Sal & Rima Slaiby to support this urgent appeal during this devastating time," said Michael Sheldrick, Chief Policy and Government Affairs Officer, Global Citizen. "We can support the people of Beirut to recover and rebuild, but only if we have compassion for each other when compassion is needed most. We are asking all Global Citizens to take action and take a stand."

To take action and show your support, visit http://globalcitizen.org/Beirut and spread the word on social media using the hashtag #GlobalAidForLebanon.

About Global Citizen :

Global Citizen is the world's largest movement of action takers and impact makers dedicated to ending extreme poverty by 2030. With over 10 million monthly advocates, our voices have the power to drive lasting change around sustainability, equality, and humanity. We post, tweet, message, vote, sign, and call to inspire those who can make things happen to act  government leaders, businesses, philanthropists, artists, and citizens  together improving lives. By downloading our app, Global Citizens learn about the systemic causes of extreme poverty, take action on those issues, and earn rewards with tickets to concerts, events, and experiences all over the world. To date, the actions of our community, along with high-level advocacy efforts and work with partners, has resulted in commitments and policy announcements from leaders valued at over $48 billion, affecting the lives of more than 880 million people. For more information, visit GlobalCitizen.org .

About the Lebanese Red Cross:

The Lebanese Red Cross (LRC) is a national society that was established on July 9, 1945 as an independent National Society. In 1946, it was recognized by the State as a public nonprofit organization and as an auxiliary team to the medical personnel of the Lebanese Army. In 1947, the Lebanese Red Cross joined the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which today has affiliates in 191 countries, and became a member of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The Lebanese Red Cross Society is led by volunteers, whose mission is to provide relief to victims of natural and human disasters, and help people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies, and to mitigate the suffering of the most vulnerable. The goal of the Lebanese Red Cross is to promote peace, serve the society, and alleviate human suffering with neutrality and without any racial, sexual, social, religious or political discrimination. To learn more about the Lebanese Red Cross, visit: http://www.redcross.org.lb.

About the United Nations World Food Programme:

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies, building prosperity and supporting a sustainable future for people recovering from conflict, natural disasters and the impact of climate change. Follow us on Twitter @WFPUSA and @wfp_media.

About the Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon:

The Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon is a regional reference center pioneering in the treatment of children with cancer: at no cost to their parents and with complete dependency on donations. Since 2002, the CCCL has treated, over 1,650 children with cancer and offered more than 4,500 external medical consultations to patients from all over Lebanon and the region: with an average 80% cure rate. The center is ISO 9001:2015 certified for quality management and has a diversified and growing fundraising operation to insure the sustainability of funds for treatment and support all along the cancer journey. In addition to that, the CCCL values partnerships and spreads awareness and education about the disease and proper governance and aims to insure optimal methods for regional and global cancer control. Learn more at: www.cccl.org.lb .

SOURCE World Food Program USA
Jakarta, Aug 10 : Mount Sinabung in Indonesia's North Sumatra province erupted on Monday, spewing a 5,000 metre-high column of ash to the sky.

The 2,475 metre-high Mt. Sinabung is under an alert status, a local volcanology agency was quoted as saying by the Xinhua news agency.

In case of rains of ash, locals were expected to wear face masks outdoors to reduce health impacts, the agency said in a statement, adding that residents were also expected to keep unpolluted water and clean up their house roofs from thick volcanic ash to avoid possible collapses.

The agency also called on people who live by rivers whose upstream in the volcano to remain cautious of possible hot and cool lava flowing to the rivers.

Image Source: IANS News

Mt. Sinabung erupted for the first time on Saturday, when the volcano spewed a column of volcanic ash up to two km high.

Sixteen people were killed and thousands of others were forced to flee home when it erupted in 2014.

Sinabung is one of the 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, a vast-archipelagic nation home to over 17,500 islands.

-- Syndicated from IANS
Two further leadership appointments have been made to the newly-formed UK-wide Ruminant Health and Welfare Group (RHWG).

Caroline Slay is now in the role of secretary general, and Gwyn Jones as the new vice chair.

They join Berwickshire farmer and qualified vet Nigel Miller, who was appointed chair on 1 June.

The double appointment signifies a strengthening of the leadership team and recognition of the urgency of challenges facing UK cattle and sheep sectors, said the recruitment panel.

Ms Slay, from Northamptonshire, has worked in the UK agricultural industry her whole career, mainly in marketing communications and knowledge exchange roles.

She also farms in partnership with her husband. She will be central to relationship-building both across the wide-ranging group of stakeholders, and across the UK.

Ms Slay said: An important determinant of the groups success is likely to be relationships  whether at national level between government animal health teams, or at farm level, for example in health planning between the farmer and vet.

Im planning to use my practical background and communications experience to help to build these enduring relationships around common goals, and to deliver further progress on the challenges the sectors face.

Mr Jones, originally from Snowdonia, was a dairy farmer in West Sussex for over 30 years.

He now sits on Defras Animal Health and Welfare Board for England as well as committees for a number of EU and UK farming and animal welfare organisations.

He said: We face unprecedented challenges but also opportunities  building new markets and displacing imports in a post-pandemic world, while meeting a broad raft of welfare, productivity, sustainability and reputational challenges.

I believe this approach working with private sector partners and engaging positively with both government and the supply-chain as a UK ruminant group can deliver huge benefits for all.

"I am therefore delighted to have been given this opportunity  ruminant health and welfare are passions of mine and as a Welshman, I am particularly keen to see the four nations in the UK benefit from much-needed collaboration.

Mr Miller, speaking on behalf of the recruitment panel which also included the Chief Veterinary Officer for UK, the CEO of the National Sheep Association and the Chief Technical Officer for AHDB, said the focus had been on creating a leadership team with skills and abilities suited to the task ahead.

The right team is critical if we are to pick up the reins from two very successful organisations in CHAWG and SHAWG, but also broaden our remit, he said.

Endemic diseases and reputational challenges cost the UK cattle and sheep sectors at least 500 million per year, and respect neither country borders nor political boundaries.

The RHWG will work independently to bring the industry and governments together to work collaboratively to speed up the fight against endemic disease in ruminants."

Mr Miller said the aim over the next few months was to consult on the most pressing disease challenges and livestock health concerns faced by those working on the ground.

We need to understand what farmers operating across the ruminant sectors are contending with, to not only get a sense of system priorities, but to also identify any particular regional issues, he explained.

The mapping of disease priorities will feed directly into the RHWG and will focus efforts on tackling the health challenges that erode performance and welfare across our cattle and sheep farms.

RHWG will operate at two levels: within England to co-ordinate and focus an industry drive to lift ruminant health and welfare to a higher level; and across the UK, through partnership working, to share best practice and to identify where a common approach can safeguard progress on endemic disease.

The CVOs will continue to have involvement as sounding boards though quarterly update meetings.
The Supreme Court on Monday said it will go ahead with the contempt of court proceedings against senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan in the 2009 case over his interview to Tehelka magazine alleging that half of past 16 chief justices of India were corrupt.

Refusing to accept the regret offered by Bhushan in a written statement to the top court, a three-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra posted the matter for hearing on August 17.

Whether calling judges corrupt per se amounts to contempt needs to be heard, the bench said.

On August 4, the Supreme Court had held an in-camera proceeding in the case and reserved its order. A statement was given by Bhushan as well as Tarun Tejpal, the former editor of Tehelka magazine.

The bench said that there is a thin line between free speech and contempt. The judges said they seek to balance the right to free speech on one hand and the need to protect the dignity of the judiciary as an institution.

Bhushan said that his allegation on corruption did not refer to financial corruption but lack of propriety and if his statement hurt judges or their families he regrets his statement.

Tejpal had offered an apology.

The top court had issued contempt notice to Bhushan and Tejpal in November 2009 for allegedly casting aspersions on some sitting and former top court judges in an interview to Tehelka.

On July 22, the same bench had issued suo motu notice to Bhushan for his remarks and two alleged derogatory tweets against the judiciary, observing his statements prima facie brought the administration of justice in disrepute.

In his reply to the courts notice, Bhushan said the expression of opinion, however outspoken, disagreeable or unpalatable to some, cannot constitute contempt of court.
A University of Arizona campus coalition says it is moving forward with plans to form a union in response to furlough and reopening plans actions taken by the administration during the pandemic.

Theres been unsuccessful attempts to work with the administration regarding reentry and furlough plans throughout the spring and summer, says the Coalition for Academic Justice, consisting of more than 500 group of staff, student and faculty employees.

Their unionization plans were confirmed July 30, after 96% of the organizations voters favored moving forward.

The coalition that formed in April says it will create a wall-to-wall union for staff, graduate students and faculty.

The campus community at the UA will be backed by a permanent organization that collectively and publicly defends the values of our land grant university, with its public mission to educate more than 40,000 students, to use knowledge for the public good, and to treat its employees respectfully and collaboratively, the coalition said.

The union will organize as a branch of the United Campus Workers in association with the Communications Workers of America, which claims it represents 700,000 workers in private and public sector employment.

The UA administrations furlough plan was to go into effect Monday, leading to pay cuts for workers making $44,500 or more.

There have already been more than 280 layoffs and non-renewals, according to the coalition. The organization hoped to delay the plan until Sept.8 as they searched for alternatives.
Tigers, declared as man-eaters, will no longer be confined to zoos in Madhya Pradesh (MP).

The MP forest department has decided to house them in special enclosures in the buffer zones of tiger reserves, which would be developed as tiger safaris in a bid to promote tourism, said an official.

However, the project has raised concern among a section of environmentalists, who feel that such a move would interfere with the natural ecosystem of the tiger reserves, and could drive away some wild animals and might trigger a fresh round of man-animal conflict in the surrounding areas.

The official explained that the objective is to give a semi-natural habitat for man-eater tigers and also to boost tourism in the state. The project, estimated to cost Rs 50 crore, will be implemented first in Pench, Bandhavgarh, and Kanha tiger reserves, and each of the enclosure will cover between 47 and 90 hectares (ha).

Alok Kumar, principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF), wildlife, MP, said: The Centre has given its approval for Kanha. Soon, we will get the nod for Pench and Bandhavgarh.

SK Mandal, a retired PCCF, wildlife, MP, who had proposed the project before he superannuated on July 31, said: The state forest department will not shift man-eating tigers to zoos such as the National Park in Bhopal. A special tiger safari will be developed in tiger reserves. The decision was taken after studying various adverse effects on tigers that were shifted to captivity in zoos.

All the guidelines of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) are being followed. Tiger safaris have been proposed near a river and natural water bodies. The concept is to provide a natural habitat for them, where the animals will have access to food in the ecosystem and the state forest department will also feed them, he said.

These safaris will operate throughout the year. A special tiger sighting will be facilitated for tourists. It will generate revenue for national parks through tourism, said VS Parihar, director, Pench Tiger Reserve.

The enclosure will be closed from all sides with walls. The focus will be on the security and conservation of tigers. The cameras will be fitted in the enclosure to protect the animal from poachers, he added.

In February, a re-wilding experiment on two cubs, who were abandoned by their mother, and taken care of by the forest department authorities, failed and the tigers had to be kept in an enclosure in a zoological park, Van Vihar, in Bhopal.

Earlier in 2015, they had come up with similar kind of project, but that had failed because of poachers. Its a good move, as efforts are on to keep man-eater tigers in large enclosures. However, it may disturb the ecosystem because of sightseeing activities by tourists. The state forest departments priority should be protection and conservation and not the promotion of tourism, said Ajay Dubey, an environmentalist.

A Jabalpur-based advocate Anshuman Singh, who is working as a wildlife activist for the past 15 years, said, In July 2019, the state forest department in coordination with Jabalpur Municipal Corporation had started a project to introduce tiger safari in 40 ha in Dumna Nature Park. This was a dangerous move, as leopards are also living in the park. I moved court against it and the matter is sub-judice. My concern about the latest project is that the state forest department will disturb other animals because of tiger safaris.

He urged the department officials not to neglect other animals at the cost of tigers, which, understandably, are their top priority.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shruti Tomar She is a senior reporter based at Bhopal. She covers higher education, social issues, youth affairs, woman and child development related issues, sports and business & industries. ...view detail
BASRA, Iraq An explosion near the Jraischan border crossing at the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border on Monday evening targeted a convoy carrying equipment for U.S. forces, three Iraqi security forces told Reuters.

It was not immediately clear if there were any U.S. troops in the convoy or if anyone had been injured in the explosion, which went off just before 9 p.m. Baghdad time (1800 GMT).

Vehicles are regularly loaded with military equipment at the crossing, the sources said, and the cargo is usually loaded or unloaded before entering or exiting Iraq.

Foreign companies are contracted by U.S. forces to provide security in the area, the Iraqi security 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
ST LOUIS, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bunge Limited (NYSE:BG) today announced that Bunge Limited Finance Corp., its wholly owned finance subsidiary, has priced a public offering of $600 million aggregate principal amount of 1.630% senior notes due 2025. The senior notes will be guaranteed by Bunge Limited. The offering was made pursuant to a registration statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The transaction is expected to close on August 17, 2020.

Bunge intends to use the net proceeds from the offering of the senior notes for general corporate purposes, including repayment of certain short-term indebtedness.

Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Credit Agricole Securities (USA) Inc. and SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc. are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering of senior notes. ABN AMRO Securities (USA) LLC, BNP Paribas Securities Corp., HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., ING Financial Markets LLC, Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Natixis Securities Americas LLC, Rabo Securities USA, Inc., SG Americas Securities, LLC, U.S. Bancorp Investments, Inc. and Wells Fargo Securities, LLC are acting as senior co-managers for the offering of senior notes. ANZ Securities, Inc., Barclays Capital Inc., BB Securities Limited, BBVA Securities Inc., BMO Capital Markets Corp., BofA Securities, Inc., Commerz Markets LLC, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., DZ Financial Markets LLC, ICBC Standard Bank Plc, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, PNC Capital Markets LLC, Scotia Capital (USA) Inc., Standard Chartered Bank, TD Securities (USA) LLC, Truist Securities, Inc., and UniCredit Capital Markets LLC are acting as co-managers for the offering of senior notes.

This offering of senior notes may be made only by means of the prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus related to the offering. Copies of the prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to the offering can be obtained by calling Citigroup Global Markets Inc. toll-free at 1-800-831-9146, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC at 1-212-902-1171 or J.P. Morgan Securities LLC collect at 1-212-834-4533.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of, these senior notes in any jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.

About Bunge Limited

Bunge ( www.bunge.com ,NYSE: BG) is a world leader in sourcing, processing and supplying oilseed and grain products and ingredients. Founded in 1818, Bunge's expansive network feeds and fuels a growing world, creating sustainable products and opportunities for more than 70,000 farmers and the consumers they serve across the globe. The company is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri and has almost 25,000 employees worldwide who stand behind more than 350 port terminals, oilseed processing plants, grain facilities, and food and ingredient production and packaging facilities around the world.

Website Information

We routinely post important information for investors on our website, www.bunge.com, in the "Investors" section. We may use this website as a means of disclosing material, non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors should monitor the Investors section of our website, in addition to following our press releases, SEC filings, public conference calls, presentations and webcasts. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, our website is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this document.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains both historical and forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, 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 (Exchange Act). These forward looking statements are not based on historical facts, but rather reflect our current expectations and projections about our future results, performance, prospects and opportunities, including statements with respect to the completion, timing and anticipated use of proceeds of the offering. We have tried to identify these forward looking statements by using words including "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "intend," "estimate," "continue" and similar expressions. These forward looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause our actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward looking statements, including those risk factors described in or incorporated by reference in the prospectus supplement for the offering. The following important factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements: industry conditions, including fluctuations in supply, demand and prices for agricultural commodities and other raw materials and products used in our business, fluctuations in energy and freight costs; competitive developments in our industries; the effects of weather conditions and the outbreak of crop and animal disease on our business; global and regional economic, agricultural, financial and commodities market, political, social and health conditions; the impacts of pandemic outbreaks, including COVID-19; the outcome of pending regulatory and legal proceedings; our ability to complete, integrate and benefit from acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and strategic alliances; our ability to achieve the efficiencies, savings and other benefits anticipated from our cost reduction, margin improvement, operational excellence and other business optimization initiatives; changes in government policies, laws and regulations affecting our business, including agricultural and trade policies and environmental, tax and biofuels regulation; our capital allocation plans, funding needs and financing sources; changes in foreign exchange policy or rates; the outcome of our portfolio rationalization initiatives; the effectiveness of our risk management strategies; our ability to attract and retain executive management and key personnel; operational risks, including industrial accidents, natural disasters and cybersecurity incidents; and other factors affecting our business generally. The forward-looking statements included in this release are made only as of the date of this release, and except as otherwise required by federal securities law, we do not have any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

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A webinar about Jesus and the Gospels

Im looking forward to returning to teaching about Jesus and the Gospels August 17 for a new Webinar connected to Seminary Now.

In my video course at SeminaryNow.com, we will bring together decades of teaching and writing about Jesus and the Gospels.

Image: Personal photo

On August 17, subscribers to Seminary Now can join me live as I discuss Jesus, key topics, and developments in Gospel studies that inform the church's theology and mission.

Live viewers will be able to submit questions.

Please join us.

If you are not a current subscriber, be sure to subscribe to view the live event.



August 17, 2020

7pm Central

Streaming Live at SeminaryNow.com
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on May 5, 2020. (Andrew Harnik/Pool via Reuters)

China Imposes Sanctions on US Lawmakers Over Hong Kong

Chinas ruling Communist Party announced on Aug. 10 that its imposing sanctions on 11 Americans, including some lawmakers, in response to sanctions imposed by the United States last week.

Zhao Lijian, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said at a press conference that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) resolutely opposes and vehemently condemns the Trump administrations actions.

In response to the erroneous actions of the United States, the Chinese government decided to sanction, effective from today, those who behaved badly on issues regarding Hong Kong, Zhao said.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters in a briefing later on Aug. 10 that the administration was aware of the sanctions.

Instead of taking meaningful actions such as immediately repealing the national security law and stopping the systematic repression of Uyghurs, the Chinese Communist Party opted to respond with a symbolic action and an ineffectual action, McEnany said.

A growing number of nations are demanding real action from Beijing. The ball is in the Chinese Communist Partys court.

China is sanctioning Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), as well as Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and Pat Toomey (R-Penn.).

All have been vocal about human rights issues in China, including the CCPs brutal treatment of roughly 1 million Uyghurs in concentration camps. Uyghurs are a Turkic ethnic minority group who live in Xinjiang, a region the CCP took over in 1949.

The regime is also targeting Carl Gershman, president of the National Endowment for Democracy; Derek Mitchell, president of National Democratic Institute; Ken Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch; Daniel Twining, president of International Republican Institute; and Michael Abramowitz, president of Freedom House.

President Donald Trump on Aug. 7 sanctioned Carrie Lam, the leader of Hong Kong, and 10 other officials for undermining the citys autonomy.

The 11 officials have helped implement a national security law passed in July that has led to greater authoritarian control over Hong Kong.

The United States stands with the people of Hong Kong and we will use our tools and authorities to target those undermining their autonomy, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement regarding the sanctions.

Trump in July ended Hong Kongs special status with the United States because top officials deemed the city no longer sufficiently autonomous from mainland China. On the same day, he signed into law a bill that would sanction officials and banks involved in crushing the citys freedoms.

The Chinese regime would prefer that Trump not win a second term in November, U.S. intelligence officials said in a recent analysis.

The Trump administration has in recent months escalated actions against the Chinese regime. The CCP has previously retaliated in response.

On July 13, the CCP announced that it would sanction four American officials, including Rubio and Cruz, and a U.S. entity, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, in an apparent move against the United States implementation of sanctions against Chinese officials involved in human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Last month China banned me Today they sanctioned me I dont want to be paranoid but I am starting to think they dont like me, Rubio, acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote on Twitter on Aug. 10.

Roth, the Human Rights Watch official, said the CCPs sanctions were little more than an effort to distract attention from its wholesale assault on the rights of the people of Hong Kong.

Arresting publishers, barring pro-democracy candidates, indefinitely postponing electionsthose are the hallmarks of the Chinese Communist Party. Sanctioning me is a mere footnote, he said in a social media statement.

Lily Zhou, Eva Fu, and Cathy He contributed to this report.
Students enter the Rheingau grammar school in Berlin, Germany, on the first day after the summer holidays. Photo: Kay Nietfeld/Picture Alliance via Getty

German company bosses are not counting on a return to unrestricted normality in public life this year.

According to the latest business survey from the Ifo economic institute, firms expect COVID-19 restrictions to last for another 8.5 months, until around April next year.

Companies in the leisure sector are the most pessimistic: they dont envisage a return to complete normality in public life for another 13 months. They are closely followed by restaurant and catering business owners, as well as the arts, who believe coronavirus restrictions will continue to impact them for further 11 months.

READ MORE: German exports rise amid concerns over second wave of coronavirus infections

The service, trade, and construction sectors all expect public life in Germany to be restricted for more than eight months, while the manufacturing industry is banking on under eight months.

Germany has had to contend with a resurgence in the virus over the past weeks to daily tallies not seen since May. The number of new cases rose by more than 1,000 a day for the third day in a row on Saturday.

Doctors and public health leaders have warned that coronavirus is still a very present danger and urged people not to become lax and start ignoring social distancing and hygiene rules.

READ MORE: Doctors warn Germany already in 'second wave' of pandemic

In general, the governments early shut down of businesses and social life in March meant the death toll from COVID-19 remained at much lower than in Spain, Italy, and the UK. Hospitals began testing early and in large numbers, which also helped them in terms of isolating patients and containing the pandemic.

According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, Germanys death toll from coronavirus stands at 9,200, with 217,288 confirmed cases.

It is now mandatory for travellers from high-risk areas to have a coronavirus test upon arrival in Germany, which are provided free of charge either at the arrival airports or at test centers and medical practices.
A Kentucky bishop has claimed Donald Trump cannot be pro-life, because he is only concerned about himself.

Reverend John Stowe, the Lexington Diocese Bishop in Kentucky, questioned the presidents stance on abortion during a Facebook Live panel with Catholic organisation Pax Ramona.

For this president to call himself pro-life, and for anybody to back him because of claims of being pro-life, is almost willful ignorance, the reverend said when asked about the churchs role in Novembers presidential election.

He is so much anti-life because he is only concerned about himself, and he gives us every, every, every indication of that, Mr Stowe added.

During an interview with The World Over on 23 June, the president criticised presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden for his stance on abortion, while he claimed that he is pro-life.

Im pro-life; hes not, and the Democrats-look who hes putting on the court, he said. Im pro-life. The Democrats arent. Nobody can say that Biden is. Look at his stance over the years.

Mr Stowe added during the discussion that he agrees with comments made by Pope Francis about what it means to be pro-life, after the religious leader himself doubted the presidents beliefs.

According to the National Catholic Reporter, in 2017 Pope Francis said: I have heard the President of the United States speak, and added: He presents himself as a pro-life man. If he is a good pro-lifer, he should understand that the family is the cradle of life and you must defend its unity.

Mr Stowe said that his interpretation of the Popes comments are that we cant claim to be pro-life if we support the separation of children from their parents at the US border, if we support exposing people at the border to Covid-19, because of the facilities that were in.

He added: If we support denying people who have [the] need to adequate healthcare access to that health care, if we keep people from getting the house or the education that they need, we cannot call ourselves pro-life.

In the past few weeks, the president has repeatedly claimed that the Democrats and Mr Biden are anti-religion, while on the campaign trail.

In an interview with Fox Business host Lou Dobbs earlier this month, the president said of the Democratic Party: Theyre against oil and gas. Theyre against guns, and I guess theyre against God, and added: Theyre against religion, theyre against the bible, certainly.

Those comments followed a speech he made last Thursday, where Mr Trump took aim at the former vice president and claimed that he is against god.

He said that the presumptive Democratic candidate has no religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God. Hes against God. Hes against guns. Hes against energy-our kind of energy. I dont think hes gonna do too well in Ohio.
In a bid to stem the spread of Covid-19, the Gujarat government on Monday increased the fine for not wearing mask in public places to Rs 1,000 from the present Rs 500.

The decision came after the Gujarat High Court in its order last month asked the government to collect a minimum fine of Rs 1,000 from those found without mask in public places.

In the wake of the rising number of coronavirus cases in the state, the high court had observed that masks are logically the best defense individuals have against Covid-19.

Following the high court directive, the penalty for not wearing mask in public will be Rs 1,000 from August 11 onwards, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said here.

To stop human-to-human transmission of the virus, Rupani urged people not to come out of their homes to celebrate festivals, including Janmashtami which falls on Tuesday.

The Gujarat government had recently increased the fine for not wearing mask to Rs 500 from Rs 200.

During a hearing in HC last month on a sou motu (taken by court on its own) PIL about various aspects related to coronavirus, the state government informed the court that the hike of Rs 300 led to a significant decrease in the number of people who violated the rule.

However, the high court said some people still do not adhere to the rule, and asked the government to increase the fine for not wearing mask in public places to a minimum of Rs 1,000.
Senior Services believes that people can only help each other if you first take care of yourself. This September, the organization will be offering an evidence-based program designed to provide caregivers with the powerful tools they'll need to successfully manage their loved one's care.

Family members who assist in the care of a loved one tend to spend themselves until there is little left. In this evidence-based program taking place over the course of six weeks, caregivers develop a wealth of self-care tools to reduce personal stress, change negative self-talk, communicate their needs to other family members and healthcare providers, deal with difficult feelings and make tough caregiving decisions.
A cluster of novel coronavirus cases has emerged at the Georgia high school that drew national attention last week after students posted pictures and videos of their peers walking without mask in tightly packed hallways, according to a letter sent to parents over the weekend.

Six students and three staff members at North Paulding High School have reported testing positive for the virus, Principal Gabe Carmona wrote in the letter, which was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He said the infected people were in school "for at least some time" last week.

Superintendent Brian Otott later announced that the school will close Monday and Tuesday, and revert to virtual learning while the building is cleaned. The district will announce Tuesday evening whether in-person instruction will resume the next day, Otott wrote to parents Sunday in a second letter, shared by a WSB-TV reporter.

Otott added that anyone who has tested positive, as well as close contacts of people who have the virus, must quarantine for 14 days before returning to school.

The infections validate concerns in Georgia and nationwide that crowded conditions in the nation's K-12 schools could facilitate virus transmission as the new academic year begins. Young people develop severe infections at far lower rates than adults, but experts warn that they could be vectors for infecting more-vulnerable populations, such as older relatives in the same household.

Carmona said custodial workers were cleaning and disinfecting the school building daily - a practice that offers only marginal protections against the virus, which primarily spreads through person-to-person contact, not from contaminated surfaces.

"The health and well-being of our staff and students remains our highest priority," Carmona said, "and we are continuing to adjust and improve our protocols for in-person instruction to make our school the safest possible learning environment."

A representative for the Paulding County School District did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.

The school of more than 2,000 in Dallas, Ga., was thrown into the national spotlight last week when students posted images on social media showing seas of students milling through the halls between classes.

The school district suspended two students who shared the images, prompting another wave of negative attention from critics who said administrators were silencing them. Administrators reversed the suspensions on Friday following the backlash.

Lynne Watters, the mother of one of the students, said her daughter would be able to return to school Monday with her disciplinary record unblemished. "The principal just said that they were very sorry for any negative attention that this has brought upon her," Watters said in a text message, "and that in the future they would like for her to come to the administration with any safety concerns she has."

Officials have continually sought to downplay concerns generated by images of the crowded corridors.

On Wednesday, Otott, the superintendent, told parents in a letter that while the photo "does not look good," the conditions were permissible under the Georgia Department of Education's health recommendations.

The superintendent also misleadingly cited a state health department document listing the different ways people can become infected with the coronavirus. He claimed that exposure occurs after "Being within 6 feet of a sick person with COVID-19 for about 15 minutes" but omitted other factors such as being coughed on that can cause the virus to spread faster and more directly.

- - -

The Washington Post's Marisa Iati and Lateshia Beachum contributed to this report.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

Pedro Arias, on San Quentin State Prison's death row since 1990, died Sunday at an outside hospital from what appears to be complications related to the COVID-19 coronavirus, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.

The Marin County coroner will determine the exact cause of death for the 58-year-old Arias, Corrections Department officials said in a statement.
Meera Bhardwaj By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: The widespread demand for illusionary horns of the golden jackal as a talisman for bringing luck, increasing wealth, property, magic, sorcery and witchcraft has led to rampant killings of this lesser known species.

A new study reveals that between 2013-19, seizures of jackal parts has increased. It includes 126 skins and over 379 horns, eight tails and 16 skulls. The illegal wildlife market, more often online now, also threatens rare and common species like leopards, pangolins, musk deer, monitor lizard, snakes and owls.

The demand for these horns which are nothing but a bony and furry half-inch long outgrowth on the skull, is primarily driven by extensive online endorsements and unsubstantiated claims made by religious practitioners in South Asia. The head, skin, tail and teeth of jackals find wide use in traditional practices of Southern India.

This carnivorous species, which has not evoked much interest or protection, is found in grasslands, scrubland, and even in semi-urban and rural landscapes of Koppal, Ballari, Hubballi, Chamrajnagar and other districts.

In this study, scientists from Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), India, ATREE and NCBS, Bengaluru, Wildlife Conservation Trust, University of Florida and James Cook University and Conservation Initiatives reveal that jackal trade is largely driven by superstitious beliefs and sorcery. They say, Golden jackals are relentlessly hunted to serve a pervasive illegal trade of their illusory jackal horns in many states.

Further, the use of horns in religious practices has led to many online domestic and international markets. Since wildlife crimes has mostly focused on large and iconic species, jackals have become a large part of illegal trading and hardly receives any conservation attention. The analysis also shows there is widespread demand for a talisman derived from the skull, known as jackal horns, which is called narikombu in Kannada, Tamil and Telugu, and siyar singhi in Hindi. Co-author Arjun Srivathsa says, Many aspects of trading like demand and supply chains remain unknown and so, require further investigations and research.
Jerri-Lynn here. Naked Capitalism has been consistently skeptical that the techno fix fairy, in the form of a safe effective vaccine  is going to make an appearance anytime soon and restore things as before. Obesity is yet another reason to heed the adage: Cave! Hic dragones.

By Sarah Varney, senior correspondent, Kaiser Health News, who reports on the implementation of the federal health law in the states and the effect of state budget woes on public programs, county governments and vulnerable populations including children and the elderly. She also reports regularly for NPRs Morning Edition and All Things Considered, for print publications and, more recently, PBS NewsHour. Originally published at Kaiser Health News

For a world crippled by the coronavirus, salvation hinges on a vaccine.

But in the United States, where at least 4.6 million people have been infected and nearly 155,000 have died, the promise of that vaccine is hampered by a vexing epidemic that long preceded COVID-19: obesity.

Scientists know that vaccines engineered to protect the public from influenza, hepatitis B, tetanus and rabies can be less effective in obese adults than in the general population, leaving them more vulnerable to infection and illness. There is little reason to believe, obesity researchers say, that COVID-19 vaccines will be any different.

Will we have a COVID vaccine next year tailored to the obese? No way, said Raz Shaikh, an associate professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Will it still work in the obese? Our prediction is no.

More than 107 million American adults are obese, and their ability to return safely to work, care for their families and resume daily life could be curtailed if the coronavirus vaccine delivers weak immunity for them.

In March, still early in the global pandemic, a little-noticed study from Chinafound that heavier Chinese patients afflicted with COVID-19 were more likely to die than leaner ones, suggesting a perilous future awaited the U.S., whose population is among the heaviest in the world.

And then that future arrived.

As intensive care units in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere filled with patients, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that obese people with a body mass index of 40 or more  known as morbid obesity or about 100 pounds overweight  were among the groups at highest risk of becoming severely ill with COVID-19. About 9% of American adults are in that category.

As weeks passed and a clearer picture of who was being hospitalized came into focus, federal health officials expanded their warning to include people with a body mass index of 30 or more. That vastly expanded the ranks of those considered vulnerable to the most severe cases of infection, to 42.4% of American adults.

Obesity has long been known to be a significant risk factor for death from cardiovascular disease and cancer. But scientists in the emerging field of immunometabolism are finding obesity also interferes with the bodys immune response, putting obese people at greater risk of infection from pathogens such as influenza and the novel coronavirus. In the case of influenza, obesity has emerged as a factor making it more difficult to vaccinate adults against infection. The question is whether that will hold true for COVID-19.

A healthy immune system turns inflammation on and off as needed, calling on white blood cells and sending out proteins to fight infection. Vaccines harness that inflammatory response. But blood tests show that obese people and people with related metabolic risk factors such as high blood pressure and elevated blood sugar levels experience a state of chronic mild inflammation; the inflammation turns on and stays on.

Adipose tissue  or fat  in the belly, the liver and other organs is not inert; it contains specialized cells that send out molecules, like the hormone leptin, that scientists suspect induces this chronic state of inflammation. While the exact biological mechanisms are still being investigated, chronic inflammation seems to interfere with the immune response to vaccines, possibly subjecting obese people to preventable illnesses even after vaccination.

An effective vaccine fuels a controlled burn inside the body, searing into cellular memory a mock invasion that never truly happened.

Evidence that obese people have a blunted response to common vaccines was first observed in 1985 when obese hospital employees who received the hepatitis B vaccine showed a significant decline in protection 11 months later that was not observed in non-obese employees. The finding was replicated in a follow-up study that used longer needles to ensure the vaccine was injected into muscle and not fat.

Researchers found similar problems with the hepatitis A vaccine, and other studies have found significant declines in the antibody protection induced by tetanus and rabies vaccines in obese people.

Obesity is a serious global problem, and the suboptimal vaccine-induced immune responses observed in the obese population cannot be ignored, pleaded researchers from the Mayo Clinics Vaccine Research Group in a 2015 study published in the journal Vaccine.

Vaccines also are known to be less effective in older adults, which is why those 65 and older receive a supercharged annual influenza vaccine that contains far more flu virus antigens to help juice up their immune response.

By contrast, the diminished protection of the obese population  both adults and children  has been largely ignored.

Im not entirely sure why vaccine efficacy in this population hasnt been more well reported, said Catherine Andersen, an assistant professor of biology at Fairfield University who studies obesity and metabolic diseases. Its a missed opportunity for greater public health intervention.

In 2017, scientists at UNC-Chapel Hill provided a critical clue about the limitations of the influenza vaccine. In a paper published in the International Journal of Obesity, they showed for the first time that vaccinated obese adults were twice as likely as adults of a healthy weight to develop influenza or flu-like illness.

Curiously, they found that adults with obesity did produce a protective level of antibodies to the influenza vaccine, but they still responded poorly.

That was the mystery, said Chad Petit, an influenza virologist at the University of Alabama.

One hypothesis, Petit said, is that obesity may trigger a metabolic dysregulation of T cells, white blood cells critical to the immune response. Its not insurmountable, said Petit, who is researching COVID-19 in obese patients. We can design better vaccines that might overcome this discrepancy.

Historically, people with high BMIs often have been excluded from drug trials because they frequently have related chronic conditions that might mask the results. The clinical trials underway to test the safety and efficacy of a coronavirus vaccine do not have a BMI exclusion and will include people with obesity, said Dr. Larry Corey, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, who is overseeing the phase 3 trials sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

Although trial coordinators are not specifically focused on obesity as a potential complication, Corey said, participants BMI will be documented and results evaluated.

Dr. Timothy Garvey, an endocrinologist and director of diabetes research at the University of Alabama, was among those who stressed that, despite the lingering questions, it is still safer for obese people to get vaccinated than not.

The influenza vaccine still works in patients with obesity, but just not as well, Garvey said. We still want them to get vaccinated.
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Eleven people from one family died Sunday in Panama when their home was swept away in a flash flood as they slept, officials said.

Nine of them were minors, said Carlos Rumbo, head of the national civil protection service.

Two other people are missing in the sudden rise of the Bejuco River in Veraguas province west of Panama City.

President Laurentino Cortizo expressed his condolences on Twitter.

The civil protection service had warned Sunday of heavy storms with lightning and gusting winds in much of the Central American country.
A Milwaukie man is expected to survive after he was shot by a police officer Sunday morning.

According to the Milwaukie Police Department, officers responded to a domestic disturbance around 8 a.m.

A woman had called 9-1-1, saying she and her husband had a physical altercation and she was afraid of him, according to a release sent out by Milwaukie police.

The woman said her husband would not leave, the release said, and at one point during the call, the woman locked herself in the bathroom and the 9-1-1 operator heard screaming in the background.

When officers arrived at the callers apartment, a man identified as Robert Woodside, 51, was seen leaving.

Police said Woodside moved toward the officers while holding a knife. According to officials, the officers gave Woodside verbal commands and one officer deployed a taser, but Woodside continued to move toward the officers.

The other officer fired a handgun and struck Woodside, who was taken into custody, police said.

After officers gave Woodside medical aid, he was taken to Oregon Health & Science University, according to officials, and is expected to survive. No other injuries were reported.

It was not clear whether Woodside faces charges.

According to the departments statement, the Clackamas County Major Crimes Team will coordinate an investigation into the shooting.

The officers involved in the incident are now on routine administrative leave and are prohibited from discussing the details of the incident with each other, officials said.

The names of those officers were not disclosed.

-- Lizzy Acker
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.
Police in Salt Lake City on Friday released body camera footage of two officers that killed a 34-year-old man who appeared to hold a victim at knifepoint.

The newly released footage show the moment two officers fired several rounds and shot dead Andrew Jacob Preece outside a Smith's grocery store on July 25.

Preece was gunned down by authorities while holding a knife 'the length of a forearm' in the victim's throat.

Cpt. Richard Lewis told reporters during a press conference that the incident happened shortly after 9am when Preece and another unidentified men got into an altercation.

Andrew Jacob Preece (pictured in an old mugshot) was shot dead by officers with the Salt Lake City Police Department on July 25

Deseret News reports that officers were dispatched to the Smith's grocery store after Preece and the other man entered the store to steal some items.

But an argument sparked between them while inside and the disagreement continued after they exited into the nearby parking lot.

In a 911 call made available to reporters, the store employee told authorities that the men appeared to be intoxicated.

'I think theyre drunk or something. They keep fighting each other in the parking lot,' the employee says 'They cant even walk straight.'

The employee adds that one of the men, later identified as Preece, had a knife and that both men 'keep turning around like theyre going to come back into the store, and they keep looking over here.'

One male officer arrived to the scene first and captured the two men leaving Smith's grocery store on his body camera

Authorities said Preece held the unidentified victim hostage with a knife, which was described by a store employee as 'the length of a forearm'

The body camera footage begins when the first Salt Lake City officer arrives to the scene and sees the two men walking down a sidewalk.

Preece appears to have a knife in one hand, while using his other to guide the victim down the walkway.

'Drop the knife!' the male officer yells. 'I will taser you if you won't stop. Stop right there!'

Suddenly, Preece stops walking and wraps an arm around the other man's body while holding the knife to his throat.

'Hes got a hostage!' the officer says, holding his firearm in one hand and the Taser in the other.

One female officer pleaded with Preece (pictured) that 'its not worth it' and 'I guarantee it dude, I promise you.'

The two officers eventually fired several rounds as Preece continued to hold the unidentified victim hostage

The male officer holsters the Taser as a female officer arrives to the scene, but does not lower his firearm.

Both officers desperately urge Preece to 'put it down' as he continues to hold the other man at knifepoint.

'Dude, its not worth it,' the female officer yells at Preece. 'I guarantee it dude, I promise you. I don't make promises I can't keep.'

When Preece turns his body to face one officer, he leaves part of himself exposed and one officer fires a round.

There's a short pause before another shot is fired, and then several rounds are fired in rapid succession at Preece.

Preece, injured by the shooting, falls onto the concrete sidewalk while the other man breaks free and run.

Officers fired around 10 shots during the confrontation. The two officers administered medical attention after the shooting, but Preece succumbed to his wounds.

Deseret News report that the shooting will be reviewed by an independent Officer Involved Critical Incident team from a separate police department.

Andrew Preece (left and right) was arrested as recently as April for allegedly robbing a fast food restaurant right after he was released from police custody

Those findings will be given to the Salt Lake County District Attorneys Office to determine if the officer-involved shooting is justified.

In a statement to Fox 13 Now, the Preece family condemned the shooting and called the shooting 'unnecessary.'

'We feel that the actions taken in this altercation was unnecessary. Andrew was not in his right state of mind but he never wanted to hurt anyone. He had a history with law enforcement but that doesn't make him in any way less of a person,' they wrote.

'This could have been prevented by taking a few extra minutes or hour to talk him down if that's what it would take. In our opinion it did not look like a hostage situation, rather Andrew leaning on his friend for support because it appeared that he was in some way hurt.

'They should have taken more time to talk instead of shoot and that's gotta change.'

Before the July shooting, Preece had previous run-ins with local law enforcement. He reportedly has misdemeanor and felony charges dating back to 2005.

In March, he graduated from a mental health court after being charged with retail theft, which is a class A misdemeanor.

In April, KUTV reports that Preece allegedly robbed a fast-food restaurant just minutes after he was release from police custody for drug charges.

Preece, who at the time reportedly had heroin and syringes on his person, avoided initial jail time because of COVID-19 policies implemented in Salt Lake City.
CLEVELAND, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CHAMPS Group Purchasing (GPO), in collaboration with four Cleveland-area agencies and organizations, is pleased to announce today its "Give Back With CHAMPS GPO" campaign in support of Northeast Ohio nonprofits. As part of the initiative, CHAMPS GPO will give a percentage of proceeds to a participating Greater Cleveland nonprofit organization with every purchase made by new CHAMPS GPO members.

Participating CHAMPS GPO members have a choice of four organizations to direct their proceeds to, which include: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Cleveland , a nonprofit driven by its mission to provide children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported 1-to-1 relationships that change their lives for the better; Cleveland Can't Wait , a Northeast Ohio nonprofit focused on revitalizing Cleveland through civic tech and entrepreneurship; Esperanza Inc. , a nonprofit aimed at improving the academic achievement of Hispanic individuals in Greater Cleveland; and Providence House , Ohio's first and one of the nation's longest-operating crises nurseries which protects at-risk children and supports families through crisis.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has hit everyone hard," said CHAMPS Group Purchasing Vice President Tracy Wise. "Despite that, it's important to recognize we're all in this together. By leveraging the connections our organization has to more than 2,200 discounted supplier agreements across the United States, including suppliers in our own backyard, I'm confident CHAMPS GPO and our new members will be able to make positive change within the Northeast Ohio community by supporting these Greater Cleveland nonprofit organizations."

To get involved in the "Give Back With CHAMPS GPO" campaign, organizations can contact CHAMPS GPO to start their free CHAMPS GPO membership. Stay connected with the campaign by using and following the hashtag #GiveBackCleveland on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

About CHAMPS GPO: CHAMPS Group Purchasing leverages the purchasing power of 14,000+ member locations across the United States. CHAMPS' members gain access to significant savings in product categories including medical / surgical supplies, foodservice, IT, wireless, office supplies and facility maintenance. Together with its national GPO partner Premier, CHAMPS supports healthcare and non-healthcare member supply chain initiatives through their expertise in contract management, aggregation savings, supply chain technology, spend analytics and customized service. For more, visit champsgpo.com.

PRESS CONTACT : For more information, please contact CHAMPS GPO Vice President, Tracy Wise

About The Center for Health Affairs

The Center for Health Affairs: With a rich history as the nation's first regional hospital association, The Center for Health Affairs has served as the collective voice of Northeast Ohio hospitals for more than 100 years. The Center works collaboratively to increase the efficiency of healthcare delivery, providing insightful healthcare information to the public and undertaking initiatives aimed at improving the health of the community. The Center's business affiliates include CHAMPS Oncology, CHAMPS Group Purchasing and The Essentials Group.

Press Contact:

Lynn Eastep

2165010051

http://www.neohospitals.org

SOURCE CHAMPS GPO

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Head of Public Relations Unit, Ghana Education Service (GES), Cassandra Twum Ampofo says her outfit has no authority whatsoever to ban the 14 students from writing their final year exams.



She explained that the GES statement on the students indicated that they (students) will not be allowed to sit for the exams in their respective schools.



According to her, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) is only responsible to determine the fate of the students.



What we said in our statement is that the students are ban from writing the exams in their various schools. It was up to WAEC to give them new centres to write their exams, Cassandra Twum Ampofo said in an interview with NEAT FMs morning show Ghana Montie.





The Ghana Education Service has been highly criticized for its decision on some 14 final-year students identified in various videos that have gone viral on social media inciting and participating in vandalism on various school campuses after sitting for their first 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).In a statement announcing the punitive measures, the GES said the sanctions are meant to deter others from such acts of vandalism.President Nana Akufo-Addo has directed the Minister of Education, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh, to engage the Ghana Education Service (GES) to reconsider its decision to ban some 14 dismissed final-year senior high school students.A statement signed by the Director of Communication at the Presidency, Mr. Eugene Arhin, said: Even though the acts of indiscipline undertaken by these students are intolerable, acts which have led to their subsequent dismissal from school, President Akufo-Addo is of the firm belief that dismissal alone is enough punishment and would serve as enough deterrent against future acts of indiscipline.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Jim Hood antagonized Google for nine years as Mississippis attorney general, going after the internet giant for enabling the sale of illegal drugs, allowing pirated content to flourish online and serving up targeted ads to children.

And Google fought back: Hood holds the title of the only U.S. public official the company has ever sued.

Now Hood has returned for more. Earlier this year, he signed on as a consultant to the massive, multistate investigation into the companys dominance online. Forty-eight states, D.C. and Puerto Rico are investigating the company and some are expected to file an antitrust suit against the company this fall, though not all have decided yet whether they will sign on to a complaint. That suit, paired with a federal antitrust probe, represents the biggest regulatory threat to Googles business yet. The twin efforts target the heart of Googles business: advertising and search, which are key to the companys $160 billion annual revenue.

The states decision to bring on Hood, who stepped down in January following an unsuccessful bid for governor, suggests they are expecting a drawn-out legal battle that will require persistence, and maybe a bit of an attack dog.

Dealing with Google is like dealing with a teenager, the 58-year-old Democrat said in an interview. They dont follow the norms that other businesses do. Google will tell you one thing and do something different.

During his 16 years as Mississippi AG, Google was Hoods biggest  and most elusive  target, spanning issues including antitrust, privacy, intellectual property theft and the power of state attorneys general to investigate tech. While other states and agencies opened investigations into Google during the same years, Hood mostly operated independently and kept going long after the others settled or let their cases drop.

A spokesperson for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton  who is leading the multistate probe  declined to comment on Hoods hire, but two people familiar with the investigation said Hood is helping the states develop investigative and litigation strategies. They declined to speak on the record because the probe is confidential.

Story continues

Ironically, the current multistate case might never have existed except for Hoods dogged pursuit of Google, which prompted the company to file the 2014 lawsuit. Googles move infuriated his fellow attorneys general and helped spur them to take on the company.



Google argued in its suit that Hood was part of a Hollywood-organized plot to censor online content. Over the years, the company has repeatedly accused him of engaging in bad faith, issuing threats and punitive subpoenas and suing the company based on unfounded and speculative allegations.

FILE - In this Sept. 24, 2019, file photo a woman walks below a Google sign on the campus in Mountain View, Calif. Google employees are demanding the company issue a climate plan that commits to zero emissions by 2030. More than 1,000 workers are signed the petition posted online Monday, Nov. 4. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

The lawsuit, which was ultimately dismissed, also galvanized attorneys general across the country to advocate for Congress to change the legal liability law Google invoked in its defense, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Hood spoke to POLITICO in March about his previous Google investigations. After his hire, he declined to answer follow-ups, referring further questions to Texas.

Unfailingly polite in his soft Southern drawl, Hood compares Google to the robber barons of old and leans into hyperbole to argue his points against the company.

Because they are innovative and we love what their technology has done for us, we give them a break versus other areas of business, he said. They have more power than any company in the history of the world. Google declined to comment for this story.

Hood said he became interested in Google around 2011 when the company reached a $500 million settlement with federal enforcers for selling ads for illegal drugs like unprescribed oxycodone. The fine remains the largest Google has paid in the U.S.

Hood tasked investigators with testing Googles compliance with the settlement. In a 2012 presentation to the National Association of State Attorneys General, Hood demonstrated how easy it was to use Google to buy pirated movies and music and that it still served ads for illegal drugs, including bath salts and synthetic cannabinoids.

Around the same time, Hood started going after Google on antitrust allegations that it biased search results in favor of its own products.

Throughout 2013 and 2014, the Mississippi AG continued to pepper Google with letters, some on his own, some with others focused on removing illegal ads and content. He also used his platform as president of the National Association of Attorneys General to press other state AGs to join his efforts.

Those who know Hood said his relentless pursuit of Google is in character.

Jim Hood is the most hard-headed person Ive ever met in my life, said Mike Moore, Mississippis attorney general from 1988 to 2004 who gave Hood his first job after law school. He likes to work on one thing and that one thing will occupy most of his time. He digs down deep into it and grabs hold of it like a snapping turtle.

Hood was among the first to raise several issues with Googles search platform that public uproar or advertiser pressure would later force the company to change. For example, Hood urged Google in 2014 to change its search bar autocomplete function to eliminate suggestions such as buy oxycodone online without a prescription.

Google general counsel Kent Walker responded that it would do more to address illegal activity recommendations and ban ads related to human trafficking. But Googles lawyers said they couldn't change autocomplete without also harming legitimate results.

Three years later, after reports surfaced that Google recommended anti-semitic, racist and sexist searches such as are Jews evil, public pressure led the company to update autocomplete to allow users to flag inappropriate results.

Hood and other AGs also upbraided the company for making money off of YouTube videos that promoted illegal or pirated content. In response, Google introduced a Trusted Flagger program in 2014 allowing government agencies and independent watchdogs to tag problematic videos. Three years later, some 250 advertisers boycotted YouTube after their ads appeared next to extremist content and the video platform sped up and expanded its removals of objectionable content.

But what riled Google most was Hoods 2014 subpoena requesting information about alleged facilitation of illegal drug sales and pirated movies and music. By that time, the other state and federal antitrust probes had closed without action against Google.

In lieu of responding to the subpoena, Google sued Hood in federal court, arguing that Section 230 prevented his probe. Written in 1996, Section 230 shields internet companies from suits over user-generated content. In its complaint, Google argued the law immunized the company from state civil or criminal liability.

That law has become a major flashpoint ahead of the November election, with the Trump administration and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle seeking to narrow Section 230. Republicans argue that the law has let Google, Facebook and Twitter censor conservative speech online with impunity. Democrats, who have described Section 230 as a gift to Big Tech, say it creates an unlevel playing field since tech firms are shielded from taking responsibility in ways that offline companies arent.

Hood called Googles invocation of Section 230 against him an abuse of power.

Section 230 was developed for the right reasons, but Google and some of these companies have abused what was originally written in there, Hood said. Now they use that shield like a sword for illegal activity.

Other AGs agreed, and came to Hoods defense.

Dozens of attorneys general weighed in for Hood in the initial Google suit  where a federal judge sided with Google  and during an appeal. They argued that Section 230 does not bar states from sending subpoenas to investigate potential illegal acts.

A target of an investigation should not be permitted to conjure up federal defenses to hypothetical claims for the purpose of forestalling or impeding a legitimate investigation, 40 attorneys general said in a brief.

A federal appeals court ruled in favor of Hood, but Google and Hood later jointly reached an agreement to dismiss the suit.

Googles case against Hood remains a sore spot among attorneys general. At a Justice Department workshop on Section 230 this year, Nebraskas Republican Attorney General Doug Peterson called the case the reason why state attorneys general want changes to the law.

We need to have the ability not to have some of the online providers who aided or abetted the crime say, Youre simply a state and were immune, Peterson said.

Google and some of its supporters portrayed Hoods subpoena as a plot organized by Hollywood unfairly targeting the search giant. Emails from the 2014 Sony hack revealed the Motion Picture Association of America  the film industrys trade association  urged Hood to investigate Google over piracy, and lawyers representing the group wrote some of Hoods letters and questions in the Google subpoena.

Moore, now a lawyer in private practice, represented several clients including a D.C. trade association and the MPAA in lobbying for the probe and was retained by Hoods office to help build a case. But he maintains the effort had broader support among music, software and telecom companies who consider Google a monopoly.

For his part, Hood said the companies and associations, who he described as victims of online piracy, provided valuable technical advice about what to ask Google.

Moore said Hood was a bit before his time in pursuing Google. But with nearly every state on board, Hoods predecessor said the right time may be coming.

Theres a time for everything. Sometimes the issue hasnt matured enough, Moore said, noting that Mississippi didnt retire its state flag until now after two decades of effort. Its also that way in the law. You have to wait till the timing is correct.

CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of this report did not include complete information about the states' expected suit against Google. It is not clear if all the states involved in the investigation will ultimately sign on to a suit.
Photo credit: TASS - Getty Images

From Popular Mechanics

Russia has sped up development of its Hunter drone.

First seen in 2019, Hunter is designed to fight alongside Moscows fighter and attack jets.

The uncrewed airplane should enter service in 2024.

Russia is pushing its new unmanned combat aerial vehicle out the door and into the hands of the military sooner than expected. The S-70 Okhotnik (Hunter) drone will enter service with the Russian Aerospace Force a year earlier than planned, in 2024. That means Hunter could become the first high-performance combat drone designed for large-scale conventional warfare to enter service with any country.

Dive deeper. Read best-in-class military features and get exclusive, unlimited access to Pop Mech , starting now.

Russian media first spotted the drone in January 2019 as it was performing tests at the Novosibirsk-based Chkalov Aviation Plant. The aircraft resembles a boomerang with a large air intake in the front on the top half of the aircraft, and a shrouded engine nozzle. The famous Sukhoi Design Bureau, makers of Cold War jets and todays Su-35 Flanker-E and Su-57 Felon fighters, designed the drone.

Photo credit: TASS - Getty Images

Tipping the scales at 20 tons, Okhotnik is about as heavy as a two-engine American F-15 Eagle fighter. The drone is designed to carry up to 13,200 pounds of munitions, including air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, in an internal weapons bay. The drone will have a range of 3,240 nautical miles and a top speed of 620 miles an hour.

Okhotnik was originally described as an autonomous drone capable of carrying out missions in support of crewed aircraft. American efforts to develop a loyal wingman that can operate alongside crewed fighters led to reports that Okhotnik would follow the same path. Okhotnik can reportedly execute strike missions against important enemy targets, including air defense systems, headquarters units, and others.

Photo credit: TASS - Getty Images

Russia has been trying to catch up to the West in the field of autonomous weapon systems, in one case rushing the Uran-9 unmanned ground vehicle drone into combat in Syria. Uran-9 performed badly in real-world operational conditions, though the Russians did learn important lessons.

Story continues

The U.S., as Forbes points out , has been using armed drones since the attacks on September 11, 2001, but has proceeded haltingly in developing large, heavily armed drones like Okhotnik. Although the U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone has been in service since the 2010s, it's optimized for use in low-intensity conflict and against insurgencies. Against modern air defenses fielded by modern armies, Reaper would probably be shot down in droves.

The Air Force is currently proceeding with its own  loyal wingman  semi-disposable drones, and the Navy is pursuing the MQ-25A Stingray carrier-based unmanned tanker.

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SAN ANTONIO, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- San Antonio-area law firms Wyatt Law Firm, PLLC, and Carabin Shaw are partnering to assist the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center's (STBTC) efforts to collect convalescent plasma for COVID-19 patients. The two firms will provide $50,000.00 each  $100,000.00 total  in gift cards to encourage South Texans who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate convalescent plasma. Donors will receive a $50.00 Visa gift card for each eligible donation.

Convalescent plasma contains antibodies to the virus that causes COVID-19 and may provide passive immunity to certain patients with severe forms of the illness. The plasma is used to treat patients with active infections, and it is one of the few treatments available for COVID-19.

The gift cards are supplied by the firms and are not funded by the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center, a subsidiary of BioBridge Global. The gift cards will be distributed while supplies last.

STBTC is supplying hospitals with convalescent plasma and plans to stockpile plasma donations for any future surges in demand. The average plasma donation provides enough for three doses, which are transfused to patients in hopes of helping their immune systems fight off a COVID-19 infection.

"The fight isn't over, so we need to continue to collect plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients," said Paula Wyatt, Founding Partner of Wyatt Law Firm. "The Greater San Antonio community has done so much for us, and we want to do our part to make San Antonio strong and healthy."

"We felt it was vital for us to encourage people to make a lifesaving plasma donation," said Jamie Shaw, a partner at Carabin Shaw. "It's critically important to our community, and we want to encourage others to step up and help."

Representatives from Wyatt Law Firm and Carabin Shaw met with STBTC representatives and San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg at the STBTC Donor Pavilion earlier today to announce the program and take questions from the media.

Nationally, blood centers collecting convalescent plasma are, by the end of August, looking to double the 100,000 doses given to patients so far. STBTC has provided more than 4,400 of those doses.

STBTC is the only organization in this area collecting convalescent plasma that can be transfused directly to patients with COVID-19. The center is taking donations by appointment only at the Donor Pavilion in San Antonio and its donor room in Victoria, Texas. Interested donors can learn more by visiting SouthTexasBlood.org or emailing [email protected]. All donors must contact the center and be screened for COVID-19 antibody levels and symptoms before donating. If you haven't had COVID-19, you can still help by donating blood to help address the current critical need.

About Wyatt Law Firm, PLLC:

Get a fighter on your side. Wyatt Law Firm fights for victims of negligence and has recovered more than $500 million for clients. We speak for those who can't. We stand firm in the legal arena, seeking compensation and justice for our clients. We are passionate about taking swift, aggressive, and effective legal action for people who have suffered at the hands of negligent corporations and individuals. Most of all, we are passionate about doing what is right for our clients. With decades of combined experience, each lawyer at our firm possesses a unique range of skills and abilities that, when pooled together, create a formidable force for justice. Our law firm is small, but our reach is large  as proven by our results. For more information, visit www.wyattlawfirm.com. Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wyattlawfirm, on Twitter at www.twitter.com/wyattlawfirm, and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/wyattlawfirm.

About Carabin Shaw:

Carabin Shaw law firm has nearly 30 years of experience helping clients get the attention they deserve and representing people who have suffered catastrophic injuries and tragic wrongful deaths. Headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, Carabin Shaw attorneys practice law in the fields of Auto Accidents, Semi Truck Accidents/18 Wheeler Crashes, Motorcycle Accidents, Injured Workers, Wrongful Death and Product Liability, in addition to other specialties. For more information, visit www.carabinshaw.com.

About the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center:

The South Texas Blood & Tissue Center (STBTC) is a nonprofit community blood center that provides blood, plasma, platelets and other blood components to 100 hospitals in 48 South Texas counties. It is the largest blood supplier in our region. In addition, it recovers and distributes donated human tissue for transplant. STBTC has a 45-year history serving the South Texas community. It is part of the BioBridge Global family of nonprofit organizations, which offers services in regenerative medicine and research including blood banking and resource management; cellular therapy; umbilical cord blood collection and storage; donated human tissue recovery and distribution for transplant; and testing of blood and plasma products to help patients in the United States and worldwide. STBTC has seven donor rooms in South Texas and conducts hundreds of mobile blood drives each year. STBTC is online at SouthTexasBlood.org .

SOURCE Wyatt Law Firm

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Analysis of open-source information and medical records show protesters were fired upon, days after deadly blast.

An earlier version reported Dr Fred Bteich operated on a man shot in the heart. The surgery was performed by another doctor, not Bteich.

Beirut, Lebanon  Enraged over a massive blast in Beirut last week, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of the capital on Saturday to call for accountability and the downfall of the countrys ruling class.

A large number of protesters threw stones and other projectiles. They faced tear gas, rubber bullets, and birdshot fired from shotguns.

Through analysis of videos and images of the security response by the army and men in plain-clothes on the day, and examination of medical documents and interviews with doctors who treated the wounded, Al Jazeera established that security forces violated international standards on the use of force.

The United Nations has set basic principles for the use of force which outline that all other non-coercive means must first be exhausted and security forces must exercise restraint and minimize damage and injury.

Law enforcement agencies are not allowed to use firearms against people except in self-defence or defence of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury, or to prevent the perpetration of a particularly serious crime involving grave threat to life, and related situations.

But open-source evidence shows these criteria were likely not met on Saturday.

Shots fired from a distance

Saturdays protest took place in Martyrs Square, a long rectangular expanse in downtown Beirut, which has the Mohammad al-Amin Mosque, the tomb of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and a building complex on its eastern side, marked on the map below.

Protesters threw rocks at security forces from the areas marked with green arrows. Hundreds did so from the area marked Tomb, but were unable to approach security forces across the expanse in front of them due to the difficult, nearly-impassable terrain.

On the other side, soldiers and men in plain-clothes fired a number of different weapons towards protesters.

Video showed protesters throwing stones at security forces who were at a distance of about 40 metres (131 feet) across the terrain that they were unable to cross.





Stills from the video shows the location of the security forces on the other side of the terrain [Images via Twitter]

Below are four examples of shootings that occurred during the demonstration on August 8, sourced from videos and images either posted online or recorded by Al Jazeera on site.

Man shooting handgun





Stills pinpoint this shooters location, standing in full view of uniformed security forces [Images via Twitter]

Man shooting silver shotgun





[Images via Twitter]

In the same video, another man with a cap and shotgun briefly appears [Images via Twitter]

Soldier shooting shotgun





The soldiers position is located just a few metres away from plain-clothes men who were shooting at protesters [Images via Twitter]

Plotted on the map below, the four shootings occurred close to each other, with the orange lines indicating the approximate distance between security forces and the closest protesters.

This shows that armed men in civilian clothes and a soldier shot at protesters at a minimum distance of 40-50 meters (131-164 feet) away, raising serious doubts over whether it was a legitimate use of force under UN guidelines.

Richard Weir, crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera that HRW was investigating the response by security forces on Saturday.

He said the large distance between protesters and security forces reduces the chance that the use of force was necessary recourse, that it was lawful recourse.

Asked about the use of a pistol and birdshot, Weir said: Nothing I saw on Saturday suggests that potentially lethal force by security forces would have been warranted.

Who was shooting?

The Internal Security Forces (ISF) denied in a statement that they fired any rubber bullets at protesters and said a man who appeared in a video shooting live fire was not a member of the force.

The army also said they had not used live fire, though they did not deny using rubber bullets.

Army and ISF spokespeople could not be reached for comment on who the men in plain-clothes were.

Apart from the army and the ISF, parliament police are stationed in that area. They are under the direct authority of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and have been documented assaulting protesters on numerous occasions in the past.

A spokesperson for General Adnan Sheikh Ali, the head of the parliament police, said he declined to comment on the matter.

Caretaker Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najem told Al Jazeera on Wednesday she had asked the countrys public prosecutor to investigate reports of live fire being used against protesters.

Troubling medical evidence

Use of force is placed under serious restrictions for good reason  it often leads to debilitating injuries and death.

At least 728 people were injured during Saturdays protest, including many receiving wounds to head, neck and chest. Wounds were consistent with both rubber bullets and birdshot.

Al Jazeera verified several images of injuries during the protest on Saturday, showing what appear to be birdshot wounds, and a rubber bullet wound [Photo courtesy: Human Rights Watch]

Two doctors who treated protesters wounded with birdshot told Al Jazeera they had seen wounds consistent with both close-range and long-distance fire.

Fred Bteich, a surgeon at Beiruts Hotel Dieu Hospital, said one man was shot from a maximum distance of 15 metres (49 feet). He said one of the pellets entered the right side of the 33-year-old mans heart, missing a major artery by 1cm (0.4 inches).

If it hit that he would have died on the spot, Dr Bteich said.

Due to the sensitive location of the pellet, surgeons were unable to remove it from the mans heart. This has the potential to cause complications in the future, Bteich said.

We cant afford for it to change position a lot because it would be catastrophic inside the heart.

The same man was also hit by a rubber bullet fired at close range, which logged inside his body and had to be surgically removed.

Both Bteich and Dr Ghassan Chakhtoura, a gastrointestinal surgeon at Hotel Dieu, said four or five patients had been treated for birdshot injuries at that one hospital alone.

Chaktoura said those treated included a 22-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman. The first had several pellets lodged in his body, with one piercing his spleen, kidney and lodging near his back. His condition was stable.

The woman, however, was shot in the stomach and pancreas and was in unstable condition, requiring emergency surgery.

One patient was brought in with at least 50 pellets spread across his body.

At least 50 metal pellets were spread across the body of this patient admitted to Hotel Dieu Hospital [Ghassan Chakhtoura/Twitter/Al Jazeera]

Chakhtoura said his colleague Dr Elie Saliba had been shot in the head at Saturdays protests after working long shifts to save victims of the Beirut explosion.

A metal pellet lodged near the back of Dr Elie Salibas head [Courtesy: Fred Bteich/Al Jazeera]

Chakhtoura also noted a number of people had come in with more superficial wounds, consistent with birdshot fired from a farther distance away.

Bteich and Chakhtoura spoke of a number of other cases at area hospitals. They said it was the first time they had seen protesters brought in with birdshot wounds despite working at the hospital since a massive protest movement began in October.

Its completely unacceptable for Lebanese security forces  be it the Lebanese Army, Internal Security Forces or parliament police  to be using birdshot against protesters, Weir said.

Its not designed for that in any way, shape or form. Its designed for sport, shooting clay pigeons and killing small animals, he said.

It is not designed to be used for crowd control and it poses a serious risk of injury or death, which Human Rights Watch has documented in the past.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On Saturday, Sysco-Sygma Kansas City warehouse workers voted unanimously, 25 to 0, to ratify their first contract, a four-year deal that raises wages, provides full seniority rights and other improvements.

"This contract protects and enhances the workers' livelihoods over the next four years," said Jerry Wood, Local 955 President. "This vote reflects a lot of hard work over the past months as we worked to address the workers main issues."

The contract provides full seniority rights, which was the workers' top issue. It also provides 2.5 percent wage increases each year, annual bonuses, and language that corrects the absentee policy.

"The future and is now here. What we have achieved by coming together will be a new beginning to not only better ourselves, our families and the companybut it also strengthens and builds our industry for those that follow for years to come," said Chase Hibdon, a six-year warehouse selector for Sysco-Sygma.

The workers voted for Teamster representation in August 2019.

The Teamsters represent more than 10,000 workers at more than 50 of the 84 Sysco and Sysco-Sygma distribution centers nationwide.

"This is a huge victory for our members, who have struggled during this pandemic," said Steve Vairma, Teamsters Warehouse Division Director. "This contract victory shows that when workers at Sygma and Sysco stand together and fight for a better future as Teamsters, they can and will win."

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and "like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teamsters.

Contact:

Galen Munroe, (202) 439-7427 [email protected]

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Related Links

http://www.teamster.org


Over 50 citizens and 39 police officers have been injured in Belarus' riots, official spokesman for the Ministry of Health Yulia Borodun told Sputnik-Belarus.

There are 39 police officers and more than 50 civilians in hospitals, she said.

The press service of the medical department noted that everyone who was taken to hospitals from street actions last night received the necessary medical aid. The Ministry of Health also said that there were no deaths.
WATERBURY  A 23-year-old city man was stabbed to death Saturday morning during a road rage incident, police said.

Police said Shawn Delacruz, 23, and three passengers narrowly avoided a collision with another vehicle while driving in the area of Sperry Street early Saturday morning.

Following the near crash, Delacruz pursued the other vehicle, which police described as a possibly light-colored four-door car. Eventually the two cars came to a stop on Willow Street and Delacruz and the other driver started to argue, police said.

During this argument, the suspect male stabbed Delacruz with a knife in the torso. The suspect then got into the other vehicle and departed the area, said Lt. David Silverio, a police spokesman.

Police described the suspect as a 6-foot, Hispanic male with a stocky build. He was wearing a white T-shirt and jeans at the time of the incident, police said.

One of the passengers drove Delacruz to Waterbury Hospital, where he later died, police said.

On Monday, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide.

The homicide is still under investigation.

Anyone with information can call the detectives at 203-574-6941 or leave information anonymously via Crime Stoppers at 203-755-1234.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 22:00:35|Editor: huaxia

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HEFEI, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- A total of 238 construction personnel from China Energy Engineering Group have returned to Turkey to resume construction of the Hunutlu Thermal Power Plant in the country's southern province of Adana, sources with the company said Monday.

The staff members from Anhui No.1 Electric Power Construction Co., Ltd. under China Energy Engineering Group departed the eastern Chinese province Anhui on Saturday and arrived in Turkey on Sunday. They had returned to China for the Chinese New Year, but were unable to go back to Turkey due to the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the company.

The company arranged a special team to facilitate the return of its staff members as the construction project was affected due to the absence of the working staff. The team helped the construction personnel apply for visas, undergo nucleic acid tests and health checks, and equipped them with medical supplies.

The power plant is a key project linking the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative with Turkey's "Middle Corridor." Upon completion, the plant will have an installed capacity of 1,320 megawatts of electricity. Enditem
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Snow this morning will mix with rain at times this afternoon. Some sleet may mix in. High 37F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of precip 80%. Snowfall around one inch..

Tonight

Cloudy. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 4F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph.
The Luxembourg Space Agency made the announcement on Monday morning.

The former vice prime minister is not only active in the private sector and in advisory positions, but he moreover retains at least one mandate in the country that directly relates to his former political tasks.

The LSAP politician thus becomes a member of the advisory council on space resources, a committee that he personally helped launch three years ago. Eight members in total are tasked with counselling the administration on which strategies to pursue in the domain.

The ministry of the economy emphasised that Etienne Schneider would fill this position voluntarily and without receiving pay. The CSV politician Jean-Louis Schiltz is another former minister on the advisory board.

The rest of the council is mostly made up out of foreign experts, the only exception being Georges Schmit, the former director of the San Francisco chamber of commerce. Another prominent member is Jean-Jacques Dordain, former director of the European Space Agency.
Yoga guru Ramdevs Patanjali Ayurved is considering to bid for the title sponsorship of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL), according to a company official. The slot of the title sponsorship of IPL was vacated after the Chinese handset maker Vivo decided to exit from it.

The move would help the Haridwar-based firm access a global marketing platform, as Patanjali is focusing on exports for its Ayurveda-based FMCG products.

Confirming the development, Patanjali spokesperson S K Tijarawala told PTI: We are considering this.

This is for Vocal For Local and making one Indian brand as global, this is the right platform. We are considering into that perspective, he said.

However, the brand has not taken a final decision on this yet.

The idea that Patanjali might soon be sponsoring IPL has triggered hilarious memes on social media.

#PatanjaliIPL please tell me its a joke Jamie Alter (@alter_jamie) August 10, 2020

Imagine Patanjali IPL, then players will have energy drink as "Tulsi Jal"! #PatanjaliIPL Harsh Sharma (@haarshest) August 10, 2020

Situation of IPL sponsorship right now #PatanjaliIPL pic.twitter.com/DtAsfN0enB sarcastic sinner (@thoughtscannon) August 10, 2020

I am all for Patanjali sponsoring IPL. I'll do Sirsasana and finally see RCB at the top of the table.#PatanjaliIPL Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) August 10, 2020

#PatanjaliIPLIf Patanjali sponsors IPL, my dadi will no longer ask me to change the channel in the middle of the match to watch her favourite serial. pic.twitter.com/4u73hd3ztQ Jagriti Gambhir (@iamjagriti_) August 10, 2020

Cheerleaders to do Surya Namaskar after every boundary? #PatanjaliIPL 10-4 Dinosaur (@iamRheaSarin) August 10, 2020

Ironically, some Twitter users had suggested that Patanjali might end up sponsoring IPL after Chinese company Vivo had made an exit last week.

Bada Ramdev should sponsor this years IPL#PatanjaliIPL Milan Nakrani (@milannaks) August 6, 2020

The BCCI last week officially announced that the Indian board and Vivo have ended their IPL title sponsorship association for the 2020 season.

Vivo India had bagged the IPL title sponsorship rights for five years in 2017 for Rs 2199 crore, committing to pay the league approximately Rs 440 crore every season.

(With inputs from agencies)
(@FahadShabbir)

The 969 MW-Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Plant (NJHP) achieved yet another landmark, as its contribution to the National Grid crossed 10-billion units generation mark last night, thereby yielding revenue of over Rs 120 billion

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Aug, 2020 ) :The 969 MW-Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Plant (NJHP) achieved yet another landmark, as its contribution to the National Grid crossed 10-billion units generation mark last night, thereby yielding revenue of over Rs 120 billion.

WAPDA spokesman said here on Monday that Neelum Jhelum Power Plant, with efficient operation, has not only been meeting the design generation but also exceeding the annual rated generation. It is pertinent to mention that Neelum Jhelum Power Plant during fiscal year 2019-20 generated 4843 million units of hydel electricity against the target of 4660 million units despite Covid-19 hiccups.

The project, having four generating units of 242.25 MW capacity each, started electricity generation with commissioning of its first unit in April 2018 attaining its maximum installed generation of 969 MW on August 14, 2018 with commissioning of its all four units.

It is worth mentioning here that Neelum Jhelum generated upto 1040 MW on April 9, 2019 beyond installed capacity of 969 MW, which reflects the efficiency of its electro-mechanical equipment, the turbines in particular. Now-a-days,the project has been running on full load i.e. 969 MW because the requiredquantum of water is available due to high-flow season.
Ukraines first president Leonid Kravchuk is ready to sit down at the negotiating table with residents of the occupied Donbas who did not take part in hostilities and in management.

The main thing for us is to hear people who live in Donbas. We declare everywhere that they are Ukrainians, this is our territory, and it is Ukrainian. To establish peace, we need to know the desire not only of those "leaders" who rule today in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but most importantly - the people who live there," he said in an interview with Radio Liberty.

First of all, Kravchuk notes, we are talking about civil society. These are people who do not participate in management, did not take part in the war, did not torture those who were captured," he added.

As Ukrinform reported, 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 of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk to this post.

On July 6, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that 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.

ish
Portland police officers walk through the Laurelhurst neighborhood after dispersing rioters from the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office in Portland, Ore., early Aug. 8, 2020. (Nathan Howard/AP Photo)

Portland Police Declare Riot After Officers Attacked

Portland police officers declared a riot late Sunday after a crowd of demonstrators attacked them.

Officers were trying to clear the area around the Portland Police Association (PPA) building in the north part of the city after demonstrators ignored warnings against criminal activity and blocked the road with dumpsters, fencing, and cars.

Within 3 minutes, participants began barricading streets with dumpsters and fencing. A fire was lit on the sidewalk outside the PPA office. Fire and an ambulance was [sic] en route to a medical call and had to reroute to get around the street blockage, the Portland Police Bureau said in an incident summary.

Police declared an unlawful assembly. While working to disperse the demonstrators, officers were attacked. Rioters hurled commercial-grade fireworks, including a mortar that injured two officers, leading to the declaration of a riot at 10:10 p.m.

Multiple arrests were made during the ensuing clashes. No tear gas was used.

Police officials later decided to have officers leave the area in an attempt to deescalate the situation. After officers left, some rioters moved back onto Lombard Street outside the PPA office and blocked the road with dumpsters, fencing, and other items before setting fires in the road.

A Portland police officer suffered a neck burn and her mask partially melted after rioters hurled commercial-grade fireworks at officers on Aug. 9, 2020. (Portland Police Bureau)

Security video from inside a Portland Police Association office shows unidentified people tossing flaming debris inside on Aug. 8. 2020. (Portland Police Association)

After some time, they moved aside and reopened the street, police said.

A female officer was burned on her neck by the mortar; her mask was partially melted. A male officer was hit in the leg by a piece of firework.

Since May 28, Portland has seen unrest virtually every night. City officials have struggled to contain the mayhem. The Trump administration sent officers to a federal courthouse in the city on July 4 because rioters had began attacking it.

Under an agreement reached late last month, state troopers are supposed to assist Portland police officers and county law enforcement with quelling the unrest. State troopers were seen helping police officers overnight.

Rioters on Saturday night set fire for the third time to the PPA office.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat, said the rioters have attempted murder by trying to set buildings on fire with people trapped inside. The officers of Wheeler and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown have not responded to requests for comment on President Donald Trumps recent offer to send in the National Guard to help deal with the chaos.
This Friday,14th August, Lionsgate Play will showcase an exceptional film written and directed by James Gray. Based on the 2009 book by David Grann, The Lost City of Z, is an American biographical adventure drama film. It portrays real events surrounding the British explorer Percy Fawcett, who was sent to Brazil and made several attempts to find an ancient lost city in the Amazon. The film stars Charlie Hunnam as Fawcett; Robert Pattinson as his fellow explorer Henry Costin, Sienna Miller as his wife, Nina Fawcett, and Tom Holland as his son Jack Fawcett. The film will be available on partner platforms of Lionsgate Play  JioFiber, Vodafone Play, Airtel Xstream, Idea Movies&TV.

The film revolves around Percy Fawcett, a young British officer participating in a stag hunt on an Irish baronial estate for the benefit of the visiting Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. A skilled horseman and marksman, he brings down the stag swiftly but is snubbed at the after-hunt party. A year later, Fawcett is sent to London to meet with officials of the Royal Geographical Society. The governments of Bolivia and Brazil are nearly at war over the location of their mutual boundary and its direct effect on the region's extremely lucrative rubber trade and have asked the British government to survey it. Fawcett agrees to lead the survey party to restore his family's good name. Aboard a ship to Brazil, Fawcett meets Corporal Henry Costin, who has knowledge of the Amazon rainforest. At a large rubber plantation in the jungle owned by the Portuguese nobleman Baron de Gondoris, the two meet Corporal Arthur Manley, who tells them that the British government advises against further exploration. Fawcett, with several guides and the Amazonian scout Tadjui, completes the mission. Tadjui tells Fawcett stories about a jungle city covered in gold and full of people. Watch this film to know what happens next!

The Lost City of Z was praised by critics across the globe and the Time magazine listed it as one of its Top 10 films. This film will surely take you on roller coaster journey to a completely different world!
The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday (August 10) said that it will now hear the petition challenging the University Grants Commission (UGC) decision to make final-year examinations mandatory on August 14.

The apex court has granted time to the UGC to file a reply on the affidavits to Delhi and Maharashtra governments. It is to be noted that an affidavit has been filed in the SC by the governments of Delhi and Maharashtra informing that they will not be conducting final-yer examinations due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, who appeared for UGC in SC, said that degrees are questioned by UGC and states have no rights to cancel exams. "Students should continue to prepare for the exams (final-year). If exams are not conducted, students cannot get the degree. That is the law," said SG Tushar Mehta.

It may be recalled that UGC had said on July 7 that the end-term examination for all final-year students would have to be mandatorily held by the end of September 2020 in offline, online or blended mode. The UGC's decision was opposed by several state governments and many final-year university students.

On July 27, SG Mehta had informed the SC that out of 818 universities in India, 209 have already competed the examinations while 394 are in the process of completing the examinations.

On July 30, the SC was informed by UGC that if students are unable to appear for the examinations by September 30, they will be allowed to appear at specially conducted exam at a later date.

On July 31, the SC had refused to pass any interim order while hearing a batch of petitions seeking cancellation of final year/semester examinations in September. The top court had also asked the Centre to clear the stand of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on the issue.

A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan had conducted the hearing and had posted the matters for further hearing on August 10.
CalPERS looks more and more like the gang that cant shoot straight. CalPERS PR department is flogging a new Bloomberg story about the unseemly departure of Chief Investment Officer Ben Meng, which means the pension fund planted it and is pleased with it. In fact, as one prominent beneficiary said, Its ironic that they prefer this terrible narrative over various other terrible narratives that are probably closer to the truth.

If you are late to this story, Dan Primack of Axois provided this summary:

When Ben Meng suddenly resigned as chief investment officer of CalPERS, Americas largest public pension system, the press release quoted Meng as saying its important for me to focus on my health and on my family. Now, though, CalPERS officials are slowly acknowledging what seemed obvious: Mengs decision was likely influenced by blogger Susan Webbers discovery that Meng had filed inaccurate conflict-of-interest disclosures, including a failure to note personal investments in private equity firms that regularly seek business from CalPERS.

Betty Yee, Californias state controller and a CalPERS director, told the Sac Bee that she was disappointed by a lapse in both judgment and adherence to standard conflict-of-interest policies.

An earlier Bloomberg account included that Yee had called for an emergency board meeting,now set for Monday August 17. The way CalPERSlegal department noticed the meeting is yet another criminal violation of the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, if the board simply intends to talk more about Meng or the meeting is to discuss a possible disciplining or even termination of CEO Marcie Frost.

CalPERS Spin Misfires

Given how often CalPERS is in reputational hot water, youd think by now it would know how to put the best face on a bad situation. Instead, if you take CalPERS messaging hash at face value, it confirms our criticism of CalPERS weak compliance function and poor controls.

CalPERS via Bloomberg tries to depict Meng as sympathetic, when readers who have worked with him give quite a different picture (see here and here) and CalPERS as fully aware for months that Meng had violated California conflict of interest laws. Specifically per Bloomberg:

in April, a compliance team uncovered at least one conflict-of-interest violation, it set in motion a chain of events that threatened to spark a firestorm of criticism and thrust him into the center of even more hostility.

And the subhead for the story includes: CIO approved investment in Blackstone fund while owning shares.

This is a massive misdirection.

CalPERS knew, and chose to ignore, that Meng had a conflict of interest problem in January 2019, not April 2020. Meng filed his initial financial disclosure form on January 31, 2019, which was as of his assuming office date, January 2, 2019. That form showed three private-equity related positions: Blackstone, Carlyle, and a credit fund run by Ares.

CalPERS strategy for many years had been to make large commitments to private equity funds so as to pay lower fees.1 That has had the effect, as CalPERS own private equity consultant has pointed out, of concentrating CalPERS investments in the buyout strategy which is tantamount to saying CalPERS mainly invests with the really big private equity fund managers. Blackstone and Carlyle both are among the four biggest private equity firms. CalPERS has also for years been stressing that private equity is central to meeting its 7% return target. It was inevitable that Meng would wind up overseeing commitments to Blackstone and Carlyle and thus violate Californias conflict of interest laws.2

CalPERS should have told Meng to dispose of his private equity stakes as soon as it received his financial disclosure forms. There was simply no way for CalPERS to continue with its private equity love affair and not have it blow up Meng. As the Bloomberg article suggests, Meng should have been alert enough to work that out.

Meng violated conflict of interest laws in 2019, not 2020, and with Carlyle, not Blackstone. CalPERS via Bloomberg misleadingly tries to suggest, but in 2019, with $328 million commitment to a Carlyle European fund, Carlyle Europe Partners V.3

CalPERS claim it knew Meng had a problem in April means it engaged in a cover-up for months. As we described above, CalPERS had already known Meng had private equity stakes. Even before Meng filed his Form 700 in April, which by the way was nearly a month late, CalPERS should have known Meng had not sold his Blackstone and Carlyle positions because Meng is also required to clear all of his personal trading with CalPERS. In other words, CalPERS knew or was horribly remiss if it did not know that Meng had not disposed of his private equity stakes.

So even if we believe this bizarre account, what could have triggered the complacent and complicit CalPERS to rouse a bit from its stupor?

As we indicated, the Form 700 filing contained no new information with respect to Meng holding Blackstone and Carlyle. Was it that the Investment Office, under its way too generous delegated authority, had committed $1 billion to a Blackstone fund in March? Or could it have been that someone in Compliance was alert enough to notice a new entry, that Meng had a new teaching contract for Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, and that Schwarzman was the long-standing CEO of Blackstone?4

So the only explanation that fits the CalPERS spin is that CalPERS had a look in April and decided to do nothing. Four months is more than enough time for CalPERS to have acted if they intended to get in front of this problem. Instead, our contacts say CalPERS hired a lawyer for Meng less than two weeks before he departed.5 That is consistent with our Public Records Act requests having stirred the pot. On June 8, we noticed that CalPERS had not put up any Forms 700 for calendar 2019 and requested them from 2016 to present for all board members plus a long list of named executives including Meng. On July 27, we supplemented that original request with another Public Records Act request:

Please provide any materials or writings related to actual or potential recusals by Chief Investment Officer Ben Meng.

In other words, to the extent CalPERS really did wake up to the fact that Meng had a problem in April, its executives apparently concluded they would not be held to account for ignoring their legal obligation to report the issue to toothless Fair Political Practices Commission and they had nothing to worry about.

Another Criminal Violation of Open Meeting Laws, or Is Frost in Serious Trouble?

Recall that the default for a California public agency like CalPERS is that information is public, and that board decision-making is to take place in public meetings so as to allow affected constituents the opportunity to provide input before a decision is made. This right is enshrined in Article 1 of the California Constitution:

SEC. 3. (a) The people have the right to instruct their representatives, petition government for redress of grievances, and assemble freely to consult for the common good. (b) (1) The people have the right of access to information concerning the conduct of the peoples business, and, therefore, the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies shall be open to public scrutiny. (2) A statute, court rule, or other authority, including those in effect on the effective date of this subdivision, shall be broadly construed if it furthers the peoples right of access, and narrowly construed if it limits the right of access. A statute, court rule, or other authority adopted after the effective date of this subdivision that limits the right of access shall be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.

Nevertheless, legitimate personnel matters are exempt from public disclosure. But not surprisingly, CalPERS has taken to overstretching the personnel exemption in order to hide embarrassing topics from its constituencies. Its pretty rich to see Frost tell a howler like this to the board.

A Bloomberg reporter is writing another story today and I wanted you to know that I made the following written statement regarding specific questions he asked. Once the story is online, Ill forward you the link. When it comes to personnel matters, we follow California state law and always protect privacy and due process and the rights of the individual. And, well always stay true to our mission. Every day, we focus on the 2 million people who are counting on us to provide them with financial security in their retirement.

.when the Bloomberg piece describes a meeting between only between Frost and Meng. And you can be sure Meng was gagged as part of his departure. So somehow Frost is protecting privacy and played coy with Bloomberg when she conveyed information only she could have known about Meng through her minions.

In other words, what is considered to be private at CalPERS depends on what serves Frosts needs, not anyone else.

Here is how CalPERS has justified its closed session for August 17:

Because Meng is no longer an employee, he is not entitled to the personnel exemption in Section (a)(1). And given how much CalPERS babbled on Mengs behalf to Bloomberg, its clear they dont take his privacy seriously.

Bear in mind that under this section, it is the boards option to discuss personnel matters in private. Given that CalPERS has chosen to provide a great deal of internal detail to Bloomberg, and that separately, Controller Yee called the meeting to discuss policy, it would seem that any discussion would be of senior executives who ought to be able to stand up and defend their actions. In other words, the personnel excuse looks intended to try to improve a coverup, rather than serve the public.

Section (e) covers pending litigation and the matter has to be ripe for this section to apply. So is CalPERS thinking of suing Meng? Doubtful given how they just painted him as a victim in Bloomberg, plus litigation would result in more embarrassment, which is the last thing CalPERS wants. So this is another legal overreach by General Counsel Matt Jacobs.

For Section (g) to apply, CalPERS arguably could be discussing the hiring of a new Chief Investment Officer, but it is highly unlikely given that Yee called this session and wants to do a post mortem plus it is inconceivable that staff could be far enough along on the recruitment of a replacement to have anything to tell the board. Thus this section is not invoked legitimately unless discussion is expected to include a discipline or termination of CEO Marcie Frost:

(g) This article does not prevent either of the following: (1) The Teachers Retirement Board or the Board of Administration of the Public Employees Retirement System from holding closed sessions when considering matters pertaining to the recruitment, appointment, employment, or removal of the chief executive officer or when considering matters pertaining to the recruitment or removal of the Chief Investment Officer of the State Teachers Retirement System or the Public Employees Retirement System.

Frost has six staunch cronies on the board and they would argue it would be too disruptive for her to go on the heels of Mengs ouster unless another shoe were to drop between now and the board meeting.

As for Meng, our reader vlade explained via e-mail why his departure was good for CalPERS:

Most people on the trading desks trade (on their account). But most of them stop when they get to MD level or higher, its just too problematic in too many way. If Meng could not stop trading as a CIO, hes not good enough for the role.

.

_____

1 The large private equity funds provided for tiered pricing, with larger commitments getting fee breaks.

2 From the California Government Code; this section is known as the Political Reform Act and is enforced by the Fair Political Practices Commission:

87100. No public official at any level of state or local government shall make, participate in making or in any way attempt to use his official position to influence a governmental decision in which he knows or has reason to know he has a financial interest. 87103. A public official has a financial interest in a decision within the meaning of Section 87100 if it is reasonably foreseeable that the decision will have a material financial effect, distinguishable from its effect on the public generally, on the official, a member of his or her immediate family, or on any of the following: (a) Any business entity in which the public official has a direct or indirect investment worth two thousand dollars ($2,000) or more. (b) Any real property in which the public official has a direct or indirect interest worth two thousand dollars ($2,000) or more. (c) Any source of income, except gifts or loans by a commercial lending institution made in the regular course of business on terms available to the public without regard to official status, aggregating five hundred dollars ($500) or more in value provided or promised to, received by, the public official within 12 months prior to the time when the decision is made. (d) Any business entity in which the public official is a director, officer, partner, trustee, employee, or holds any position of management. (e) Any donor of, or any intermediary or agent for a donor of, a gift or gifts aggregating two hundred fifty dollars ($250) or more in value provided to, received by, or promised to the public official within 12 months prior to the time when the decision is made. The amount of the value of gifts specified by this subdivision shall be adjusted biennially by the commission to equal the same amount determined by the commission pursuant to subdivision (f) of Section 89503. For purposes of this section, indirect investment or interest means any investment or interest owned by the spouse or dependent child of a public official, by an agent on behalf of a public official, or by a business entity or trust in which the official, the officials agents, spouse, and dependent children own directly, indirectly, or beneficially a 10-percent interest or greater.

3 The Carlyle fund closed in late October 2019, which means it is inconceivable that the fund was approved before Meng joined, not simply based on the time but also based on the lack of adult supervision in private equity before Meng joined. Former Chief Investment Officer Ted Eliopoulos announced his plan to leave CalPERS in May 2018 and left in November 2018. CalPERS had had no head of private equity for well over a year as of when Eliopoulos departed. CalPERS did not announce the hiring of a new Managing Investment for private equity until May 2019.

4 A colleague dismissed the notion that this gig amounted to fee for bona fide services: After watching Mengs charade with David Petraeus, its pretty clear that these talks are content-free. 

5 Needless to say, no one outside the CalPERS bubble buys the health pretext. Staff at CalPERS confirm that there was no indication that the 51 year old Meng had any physical ailment. And for anything short of the sudden onset of a debilitating condition, a senior executive in good standing would give notice.
A look at the shareholders of Genworth Financial, Inc. (NYSE:GNW) can tell us which group is most powerful. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time. We also tend to see lower insider ownership in companies that were previously publicly owned.

Genworth Financial isn't enormous, but it's not particularly small either. It has a market capitalization of US$1.4b, which means it would generally expect to see some institutions on the share registry. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it's seems that institutional investors have bought into the company. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholder can tell us about Genworth Financial.

Check out our latest analysis for Genworth Financial

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Genworth Financial?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

We can see that Genworth Financial does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Genworth Financial, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Genworth Financial. Our data shows that BlackRock, Inc. is the largest shareholder with 9.9% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 8.1% and 3.1%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

Story continues

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no one share holder has a majority.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. There is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of Genworth Financial

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. The company management answer to the board; and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board, themselves.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Genworth Financial, Inc.. Keep in mind that it's a big company, and the insiders own US$13m worth of shares. The absolute value might be more important than the proportional share. Arguably, recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 36% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over GNW. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Genworth Financial that you should be aware of.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
NEW YORK - Presidential politics move fast. What were watching heading into a new week on the 2020 campaign:

Days to general election: 85

Days to first state offering early voting (North Carolina): 26

___

THE NARRATIVE

The 2020 spotlight is about to shift, at least temporarily, away from President Donald Trump and onto his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

The former vice-president has largely been an afterthought in recent months as he waited out much of the coronavirus pandemic from his Delaware home and Trump struggled on the global stage through a series of crises and self-made controversies. That dynamic will change when Biden announces his vice-presidential selection, which is almost certain to come this week, ahead of the Democratic National Conventions Aug. 17 start date.

The burst of attention offers risks and rewards for Biden, who has struggled to energize Democrats behind his candidacy and has a demonstrated proclivity for gaffes. He is expected to make history by tapping a woman of colour to serve as his running mate, although his decision remains one of the most closely guarded secrets in politics.

___

THE BIG QUESTIONS

How will Biden handle the spotlight?

Its no secret that Democrats want the 2020 election to be a referendum on Trump. Theyre far more comfortable with voters focusing on the Republican incumbents struggle to control the pandemic, revive the economy and unify the nation. But for the next two weeks, the brightest spotlight is expected to shine on Biden and his party.

His vice-presidential announcement will likely be the dominant story, at least temporarily. And that leads immediately into the mostly virtual Democratic National Convention.

Make no mistake: Biden remains a candidate with flaws no matter what the polls say. Republicans have legitimate openings to attack the 77-year-old lifelong politicians age, his misstatements and his long and mixed record. The presumptive nominee has been able to deflect such attacks for much of the year given the political worlds focus on Trumps leadership through multiple crises, but very soon Biden will be under a relentless glare.

Aside from the debates, no moment in the campaign may be more consequential for Bidens fate than this one.

Will Biden make history  and how much will it matter?

Never before has a woman of colour been featured on a major partys presidential ticket. Biden is under intense pressure to do just that this week, although it may not be accurate to assume hes already ruled out the white women. He met privately with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whos white, last week. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who also is white, has also been a leading contender.

Still, it would be a surprise if Biden did not choose a Black woman from a short list that includes at least three prominent African Americans: California Sen. Kamala Harris, former national security adviser Susan Rice and California Rep. Karen Bass.

Its worth noting here that running mates have rarely, if ever, swayed a presidential election in the modern era. But Bidens team hopes that the historic nature of his pick might help energize two key Democratic constituencies: women and people of colour. Both groups are opposed to Trump, but that doesnt mean theyre necessarily excited to turn out for Biden.

Its fair to wonder how effective the leading candidates would be in exciting the Democratic base. Harris struggled to energize Black voters behind her primary campaign earlier in the year, and Rice and Bass remain largely unknown nationally.

Will anyone stop Russia?

They warned us that Russia would be back, and now U.S. intelligence officials have confirmed that Russia is using a variety of measures to denigrate Biden ahead of the November election and that individuals linked to the Kremlin are boosting Trumps reelection bid.

The countrys counterintelligence chief, William Evanina, on Friday offered the most specific warning to date about the threat of foreign interference in the 2020 election. He also announced that U.S. officials believe that China does not want Trump to win a second term and has accelerated its criticism of the White House.

But the assessment presents a much more direct threat from Russia, which, of course, has been charged by the U.S. government for various crimes related to interfering in the 2016 election on Trumps behalf.

The Trump administration implemented a series of sanctions in recent years against Russia, but its unclear if the president will do anything else to confront the new threat of foreign interference. He again appeared to dispute his own governments intelligence over the weekend when asked about Evaninas warning.

I think the last person Russia wants to see in office is Donald Trump because nobody has been tougher on Russia than I have  ever, Trump said.

Meanwhile, Trumps Republican allies on Capitol Hill are waging an ongoing probe into Bidens son Hunter and his work in Ukraine that parallels Russian disinformation efforts. The statement released Friday called out by name a pro-Russia Ukrainian lawmaker who has been spreading unsubstantiated corruption allegations against Biden and his son, which make up the core of the Republican investigation.

Will Trumps executive actions make an impact?

With Congress gridlocked and the nation in crisis, Trump over the weekend bypassed the legislative branch with executive actions that deferred payroll taxes and offered a supplemental federal unemployment benefit of up to $400 a week to millions of Americans.

It may not be legal. But its easy to see out-of-work Americans warming to Trumps move given that a week earlier an estimated 30 million people lost enhanced unemployment benefits in the midst of a public health crisis because of congressional inaction.

Trumps willingness to make his own rules has often gotten him into trouble over the last four years. And it may again this time. But Congress inability to get a deal done in the midst of legitimate crises is a reminder why voters supported a populist outsider in the first place.

___

THE FINAL THOUGHT

There is likely more risk than reward waiting for Biden as he weighs whether to pick a woman of colour to serve as his running mate. Such a decision would be historic. But its far from certain that a Black female vice-presidential nominee would on its own produce the kind of strong African American turnout Democrats need to defeat Trump.

Given the expectations, however, Biden faces a real backlash should he not pick a woman of colour. Aimee Allison, of She the People, tells us that it would be a reckless choice to pick a white running mate with a party thats as dependent on Black and brown voters as it is.

___

2020 Watch runs every Monday and provides a look at the week ahead in the 2020 election.
As the government starts the air bubble bilateral agreement with multiple countries including the US, France among others and with the Mission Vande Bharat reaching its fifth, a lot of people have resumed air travel, while many are planning to do so in the coming days. However, there's still a lot of confusion on the quarantine details, especially when you arrive or depart from the IGI International Airport, Delhi, India's biggest and busiest airport. We have tried to simplify the quarantine norms for you, in case you are planning your travel in the coming few weeks.

IMPORTANT- For the people who are flying back to Delhi and are intending to stay! For more info visit https://t.co/ch9P0R4bMp. #Flysafe pic.twitter.com/mSpDXjFTzC Delhi Airport (@DelhiAirport) July 6, 2020

Here's a FAQ on what will happens to you when you arrive at Delhi Airport in International Flights and also Domestic Flights, with all the quarantine details-

On Arriving Via Vande Bharat Flight With No Further Air Connection

If you're arriving in India on a VBM flight from any of the country and landing at Delhi airport and want to exit the airport, here's the quarantine norms laid by the state government

Institutional Quarantine - 7 Days

Home Quarantine - 7 Days

On Arriving Via Vande Bharat Flight With Further Domestic Flight

If you have a connecting flight to other Indian states from the Delhi airport, and if you are not leaving the airport, the quarantine norms of Destination state will be applied.

Institutional Quarantine - NIL

Home Quarantine - Nil

On Arriving Via International Flight With No Further Air Connection

If you're arriving in India on a international flight which is not part of Mission Vande Bharat from any of the country and landing at Delhi airport and want to exit the airport, here's the quarantine norms laid by the state government

Institutional Quarantine - 7 Days

Home Quarantine - 7 Days

On Arriving Via International Flight With Further Domestic Flight

If you're arriving in India on international flight which is not part of VBM and landing at Delhi airport with a further connection, here's the quarantine norms laid by the state government. It is advised to read the State government's latest protocol before booking any connecting flight.

Institutional Quarantine - 7 Days

Home Quarantine - NIL

On Arriving Via Vande Bharat Flight With Further Road Travel Outside Delhi

If you're arriving via Vande Bharat flight and want to travel further via road to your respective states, you are essentially leaving the airport and the state quarantine protocols will apply.

Institutional Quarantine - 7 Days

Home Quarantine - 7 Days

On Arriving Via Domestic Flight With No Further Domestic Air Connection

If you are entering Delhi via domestic flight from any other state and want to leave airport, here's the state protocol

Institutional Quarantine - NIL

Home Quarantine - 7 days

On Arriving Via Domestic Flight With Further Air Connection

Since you're not leaving airport, no quarantine is applicable in Delhi. However, destination protocols will be applicable.

On Arriving Via Domestic Flight With International Flight

If you're taking a flight out of country via VBM or any other international flight but are not leaving airport after arriving om your domestic flight, no quarantine will be applicable. Only destination protocols applicable.

Also Watch:

On Arriving Via Domestic Flight With Further Road Travel Outside Delhi

If you're entering Delhi state and leaving airport to travel to your respective state, here's what state protocol says

Institutional Quarantine - NIL

Home Quarantine - 7 days

NOTE: If you are arriving in Delhi and live in Delhi-NCR, state government will let to travel to your destination like Gurgaon, Noida and you will have to follow the respective state government protocols.

For further information and latest updates, you can visit the Delhi Airport website and check the information.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Cleveland City Council intends to investigate whether any parties accused in the statehouse corruption scandal involving bailouts of Ohios nuclear plants also intended to destabilize city-owned Cleveland Public Power.

In particular, council will examine if FirstEnergy Corp., listed but not charged as Company A in federal indictment papers, was involved in efforts against the city and its electric utility, City Council President Kevin Kelley said Monday.

I believe if this was some outside attempt to destabilize Cleveland Public Power, we have an obligation of investigate, Kelley said during a meeting of City Councils Finance Committee. If you peel this [HB 6] back, it really did have a harmful effect on the city of Cleveland.

The council has the authority under Clevelands charter to subpoena witnesses, compel production of documents and take testimony to investigate issues of city interest. While the council often has hearings, it has been years since it subpoenaed witnesses.

The Finance Committee amended a resolution that initially called for repeal of HB 6 to invoke the subpoena power. The resolution will be put before the full council on Wednesday.

Approval from Mayor Frank Jackson would be needed to implement it. Kelley, in an interview with cleveland.com, said the mayors support is expected.

Council has reason to believe that Company A has other long-term public policy goals specific to the City of Cleveland: to restrict or destroy Cleveland Public Power and to influence or control the Citys legislative body as well as its executive branch, the resolution states.

A spokeswoman for FirstEnergy said Monday it had not yet seen Cleveland councils resolution and could not yet comment on that effort.

Cleveland Public Power has about 70,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in the city. Among them is FirstEnergy Stadium, the home of the Cleveland Browns. FirstEnergy has about 60,000 customers in Cleveland.

While Kelley didnt have a specific timeline for action, he intends to start quickly.

I have no intention of sitting on this, Kelley said. The first step is to determine how to proceed, whether that means subpoenaing witnesses or doing document research.

HB 6, approved a year ago by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Mike DeWine, provides more than $1 billion in ratepayer subsidies for Ohios Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear power plants, owned and operated by Energy Harbor  formerly FirstEnergy Solutions, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., until it broke away earlier this year.

Money for those subsidies would be collected monthly from ratepayers from 2021 until 2027, ranging from 85 cents for residential customers to $2,400 for large industrial plants.

The law also provides subsidies for coal plants in Ohio and Indiana, and it effectively guts the states green-energy mandates for utilities.

Those changes hurt Cleveland. The city had set goals to reduce its emissions by 20% by 2020 and by 25% by 2025. HB 6 undercut energy efficiency programs and made it more difficult to generate electricity through renewable sources, said Jason Wood, the citys chief of Jacksons office of sustainability.

In July, then Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four allies were charged with conducting a bribery and money-laundering scheme, funneling more than $60 million in FirstEnergy donations through a web of dark-money groups and bank accounts to expand the speakers political power, thwart an anti-HB6 referendum effort, and enrich themselves by millions of dollars.

Court records refer to actions taken on behalf of Company A. Federal prosecutors, while not naming the company, made it clear that it is FirstEnergy.

FirstEnergy Corp. has stated that the company received subpoenas in connection with the investigation and that it intended to fully cooperate.

Householder has since been stripped of his speakership. Efforts in the Ohio House and Senate have been launched to repeal HB 6.

Among the factors Kelley wants to investigate is who bankrolled groups working against Cleveland Public Power, either through lobbying members of council directly, as was done by a 501(c)(4) organization formed in 2018 called Consumers Against Deceptive Fees, or working to change Clevelands charter and shrink the size of the council  an effort that fizzled last year by a group that called itself Cleveland First.

Cleveland First was bankrolled, in part, by Westlake businessman Tony George, who has links with First Energy.

In 2017, George was an agent for TPI Efficiency, one of four companies that sought to provide electric aggregation services to about 60,000 homeowners and businesses in the city who were not customers of Cleveland Public Power. TPI intended to use a FirstEnergy affiliate as the supplier of electricity, according city records.

The city opted to go with another company.

More from Cleveland City Hall

Complaints to Cleveland health officials about masks jump 75% after city enacts mandatory mask rules

Cleveland Hopkins International Airports recovery from coronavirus crisis could take years, airport chief says

Mayor Frank Jackson offers Cleveland rec centers, libraries as drop sites for absentee ballots, state checking legality

Chief Calvin Williams orders Cleveland officers to wear masks, despite exemption in coronavirus ordinance

Cleveland City Council launches effort to make in-home access to the Internet a reality for all

With coronavirus keeping commuters at home, soot pollution in Cleveland, Akron down significantly
A mobile operation to expand access to COVID-19 testing has been tested twice and is expected to be fully functional in September.

The goal is to bring testing closer to people in Harrisburg and in outlying areas of Dauphin and Perry counties who face barriers such as lack of transportation or distance.

The operation will be run by Harrisburg-based Hamilton Health Center with help from county commissioners in Dauphin and Perry.

It was tested on two Saturdays in July in the parking lot of Hamiltons main facility on South 17th St. in Harrisburg, with each one drawing close to 50 people, according to Jeannine Peterson, the CEO of Hamilton. Those events were held mainly for practice and with minimal advertising, she said.

The plan is to take testing to various locations advertised in advance so people who lack access to testing because of barriers such as lack of transportation can get tested.

Peterson said shes in the process of hiring a team that will be fully devoted to the mobile testing operation.

People wont have to pay for the tests. If the testing is not covered by their health insurance or they lack insurance, it will be covered by the federal CARES Act, Peterson said.

People tested so far have received their results within five days, which is slower than Peterson would like. We would like to get them back within 24 hours, she said. We have no control over turnaround time.

RELATED: People waiting way too long for COVID-19 test results in Pa.

The tests are processed by Quest Diagnostics, one of the national labs that has been overwhelmed as COVID cases have spiked around the country.

Recently, some of those labs have taken up to about two weeks to provide results. Quest has said it is adding equipment and technology and steadily increasing its testing capacity in order to reduce the waits.

Still, shortages of chemicals known as reagents are also delaying tests results, including some of the tests done by hospitals and health systems.

Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine acknowledged the problem Thursday, saying she has been having discussions with labs including Quest and with federal officials about how to shorten the wait for results.

Levine said the state lab, which is still able to deliver results in 24-48 hours, is only able to handle testing involving long-term care facilities, health care workers ad similar high priority situations.

The mobile testing operation will be open to anyone who wants to get tested, even if they have no symptoms. Hamilton is considering using pre-registration to speed up the process, although Peterson says people who walk up without having registered will also be tested.

Once flu season begins in October, Peterson said, the mobile testing operation also will provide flu shots and flu tests.

That will address another problem expected to arise this fall  as people get the flu, it will cause confusion over who has the flu and who has COVID, which is more dangerous for reasons including the fact its more contagious and theres no vaccine.

Public health officials will be urging everyone to get a flu shot in an effort to reduce the confusion and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed by a combination of flu and COVID patients.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.
We dont yet have any kind of industrywide guidelines, said Michele Bannister, a planetary astronomer at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. We dont have an industry body thats producing good corporate citizenship on the part of all of these enthusiastic companies that want to launch, and we dont have any regulatory setup in place thats providing clear guidelines back to the industry.

She added, To me, honestly, it feels like putting a bunch of planes up and then not having air traffic control.

Burning Twilight

Since the first group of Starlink satellites launched in May 2019, many skywatchers have lamented their bright reflected glare. The light pollution is particularly pronounced when the satellites are freshly deployed and headed toward their operational orbits. At this point, they are perfectly positioned to catch sunlight at dawn and dusk, scuttling astrophotos and telescope observations. Starlink must be replenished constantly with new satellites, so these trails will be an ongoing problem.

Most ground-based observatories actually start in twilight, said Julien H. Girard, a support scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. We start taking data even when the sky is not completely dark, especially in the near-infrared and infrared wavelengths.

The satellites may create the most problems for wide-field observatories that survey expansive regions of the night sky at once. The motion of satellites through the frame can obstruct observational targets or overwhelm them with light. Astronomers can use software to remove satellite trails to some extent, but that may not completely fix the images.
A Boston man facing numerous human trafficking charges in federal court wants to be released from pre-trial detention claiming he has medical conditions that make him susceptible to COVID-19, but prosecutors contend he was caught on a jail recording saying he wasnt social distancing.

Bruce A. Brown, 41, of Dorchester, was indicted on numerous charges of sex trafficking by force, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, attempted witness tampering and sex trafficking of a minor in a Massachusetts federal court.

A 42-year-old Rehoboth woman, Muriel Close, was also indicted on a conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. Authorities say her indictment came based on her conduct involving three victims in the case.

Brown is accused of sex trafficking five women over a period of 15 years beginning in June 2004 and continuing to December 2019. Based on court records, Brown is accused of trafficking the women in Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Hawaii, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

Brown has been in federal custody since February.

Authorities accuse Brown of trying to influence a victims testimony and tamper with witnesses in his case since he has been in federal custody. Brown, prosecutors claim, called this scheme, Plan B.

Currently held at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island, Brown claims he should be released under conditions while his case continues in court. Brown claims he has a history of chronic hypertension, asthma and is pre-diabetic, according to a filing from his lawyer Daniel Reilly asking Brown be released due to COVID-19 concerns.

Congregate settings such as jails and prisons allow for rapid spread of infectious diseases that are transmitted person to person, especially those passed by droplets through coughing and sneezing, Browns lawyer contends. In prison people are confined in close proximity to one another and to staff.

As seen in other cases, the lawyer argues incarcerated people with existing health conditions are at an elevated risk to get coronavirus. The government said there have been 2,143 tests done on 522 inmates.

Continued incarceration seriously jeopardizes his health and life, the defense lawyer wrote.

Reilly proposed placing Brown on around-the-clock home detention, specifically an uncles home in Boston, and to electronically monitor Brown. Reilly said his client would have no access to electronic devices and agree to random searches.

Brown, the lawyer contends, is not a danger to the community.

A federal prosecutor and a member of an FBI Human Trafficking/Child Exploitation Task Force argue Brown has been trying to tamper with victims and witnesses since he has been in custody.

The federal prosecutor also contends Brown has not shown any real concern while in prison about wearing a mask or social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Newton Police Department Police Officer Kathleen Doyle, who is assigned to an FBI Human Trafficking/Child Exploitation Task Force, wrote in a court affidavit that Brown had people attempt to contact witnesses and victims.

Brown, one witness told police, planned to take people out who were involved in the case.

Doyle said in jail recordings, Brown is caught directing people to tamper with witnesses in his case and told another person to contact a victim to influence her testimony.

One person contacted a victim on Browns behalf. The person told the victim, He wants to make sure you stay close to him until the case is over. He wants you to write a letter saying you guys are cool, you aint got no beef, no drama.

The call was recorded by investigators.

Federal prosecutor Mackenzie A. Queenin, said Brown is facing a potential life sentence on many of the charges he was indicted on. The prosecutor notes Browns history of 52 felonies and 42 misdemeanor charges on his record.

Each victim will testify about Browns methodical exertion and maintenance of control over them through his use of force, fraud and coercion in connection with the charges offenses, the prosecutor said.

At least one victim is a minor, authorities said.

Brown has no job history and instead trafficked women for sex, authorities said. While prosecutors have not disclosed the names of the victims, the prosecutor points out in a court filing that Brown had someone contact one victim.

Browns claim that he is susceptible to COVID, shouldnt outweigh that he is a danger to the community, Queenin said. The prosecutor said Brown had not provided any medical documents to support his claim and admitted in a jail recording that he never used an inhaler.

Further, based upon the defendants recorded jail calls, it strains credulity to believe he is concerned about contracting the coronavirus, the prosecutor said. The defendant has stated that he has not been wearing his mask and/or has not been wearing his mask properly.

In recorded jail calls, he told someone he was not wearing his mask or that it was on but just hanging off of an ear.

Im not social distancing, that is so stupid, that is so dumb man, Brown is caught saying on jail recordings.

A hearing on Browns request to be released was held last week. The matter is still being reviewed by a judge.
Iran's Foreign Ministry on Monday dismissed the allegations of interfering in the upcoming US presidential election.

"This is one of the ridiculous claims that the Americans have raised recently with respect to the (upcoming) elections in their country," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said.

What Iran cares about the policies of parties in the United States is their behavior and their interaction with Iran, Mousavi said at his weekly press conference on Monday.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleged that some countries, including Iran, have been interfering in the US elections by engaging in cyber activities.

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Hundreds of people in Chicago were involved in widespread looting in early August, following an officer-involved shooting. Police deployed 400 officers downtown after uncovering social-media posts that urged people to loot. Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP
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Talk show host and TV chef Rachael Ray, her husband and dog Bella have escaped a raging inferno that tore through their upstate New York home on Sunday night.

Photos from the scene on Chuckwagon Trail in Lake Luzerne, north of Saratoga Springs, show flames bursting from the roof of the luxury home.

'Seeing some of the first pictures of the fire at the Lake Luzerne home of @rachaelray and it does not look good,' reporter Mark Mulholland wrote as the blaze broke out just after 7pm. Hours later, and firefighters were still on scene.

The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.

Warren County Sheriff's Office has confirmed there is a fire at a house on Chuckwagon Trail in Lake Luzerne, New York belonging to celebrity chef and TV personality Rachael Ray

Photos posted online showed the home engulfed in flames with the roof on fire

The wooden home went up in flames on Sunday night. It's not known how the blaze started

Ray was at home at the time of the fire but managed to escape the flames with her husband

Ray was at her home in Lake Luzerne, New York, where she had been spending quarantine with husband John M Cusimano, 52. Both were at home at the time and managed to escape the fire along with their dog, Bella, who also escaped alive from the blaze

The home is situated in the middle of woods in Lake Luzerne in the middle of the Adirondack Park

The home is located in upstate New York, about half an hour's drive north of Saratoga Springs

At one point, 12 fire departments were the scene tackling the fire after being called to the incident at 7.27pm on Sunday evening.

In a statement, representatives of Ray confirmed there were no injuries although the extent of the damage is unknown.

A retired fire official at the scene said that Ray was at home when the fire broke out, but she was able to get out of the house with no injuries according to CBS17.

Fire fighters were on scene at the upstate New York home from around 7:30pm on Sunday

Ray has been filming from the home for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic

The fire quickly took hold in the upstate New York home that was mainly built out of wood

Fire crews were on site well past 11pm having been on scene for several hours tackling the fire

Rachael, her husband and their dog Bella are said to be safe.

Ray, 51, has been filming and cooking up a storm from her home since the coronavirus pandemic began and in April posted video online of her kitchen.

The TV chef owns almost 200 acres of land in the Adirondacks mountain range.

She shares the home with her husband, John Cusimano, and reveals in the video that she designed it herself by drawing it out on a piece of paper.

Rachael hosted her cooking show from in the kitchen from April when the pandemic began

Open-plan: Rachel made her kitchen just how she wanted it ...by designing it on a piece of paper

'I decorated the house before it was ever built,' Ray says in a video tour of her kitchen and pantry. 'I drew the house on a piece of paper so I knew what I wanted it to be in my mind.'

The spacious, open-plan design allowed Ray to film her show from the comfort of her own kitchen.

In a video clip that gave a tour of the kitchen, she revealed that her two favorite appliances was the six-burner gas stove and her wood-fired pizza oven, which she referred to as her 'treasures.'

Cosy living: The kitchen certainly had a country cottage vibe to the decor

Environmentally friendly: The chef uses organic dish soap as well as growing her own herbs
Credit: Alexander Kirch/Shutterstock

There is global interest in the potential for a hydrogen economy, in part driven by a concern over climate change and the need to move away from fossil fuels.

This month, for example, Australia's national science agency, CSIRO, released a report showing the use of clean hydrogen as a fuel could slash aviation emissions, including a complete transition from conventional jet fuel around 2050.

A hydrogen economy could tap Australia's abundant solar and wind energy resources, and provides a way to store and transport energy.

But, to date, there has been little attention on the technology's potential environmental challenges.

Using hydrogen as a fuel might make global warming worse by affecting chemical reactions in the atmosphere. We must know more about this risk before we dive headlong into the hydrogen transition.

Australia's hydrogen dawn

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. On Earth, it's found mostly in water, from which it can be extracted. When renewable energy is used to power this process, hydrogen can be produced, in principle, with no emissions.

Australia's National Hydrogen Strategy, released last November, identified hydrogen export as a major economic opportunity.

Countries such as Germany, Japan and South Korea have large energy demands and commitments to emissions reduction. But they have limited opportunities to develop their own renewable resources. This creates a major opportunity for Australia to ship hydrogen to the world.

Hydrogen projects in Australia are gearing up. For example, the Queensland government recently announced A$4.2 million for a trial project to inject hydrogen into the gas network of Gladstone.

A similar project is also proposed for South Australia, supported by a A$4.9 million state government grant. In New South Wales, a proposal is afoot to blend hydrogen into the existing gas network.

But little consideration has been given to the possible environmental consequences of hydrogen as an energy source.

Reactions in the atmosphere

In the atmosphere, ozone and water vapor react with sunlight to produce what are known as hydroxyl radicals.

These powerful oxidants react with and help remove other chemicals released into the atmosphere via natural and human processes, such as burning fossil fuels. One of these chemicals is methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

But hydrogen also reacts with hydroxyl radicals and, in doing so, reduces their concentration. Any hydrogen leaked into the atmospheresuch as during production, transport or at the point of usecould cause this reaction.

This would reduce the number of hydroxyl radicals available for their important cleansing function.

Hydrogen on the rise

Hydrogen concentrations in the atmosphere are monitored around the world. Collectively, the data show an increase over time. This includes in Ireland and at Cape Grim in Tasmania's northwest, where hydrogen concentrations have increased by about 4% in the past 25 years.

With our current understanding of the hydrogen cycle, it's not possible to say why this has occurred. Indeed, this is the challenge: improving understanding so we can anticipate any effects of hydrogen leakage and decide what acceptable leakage rates might be.

Based on what we do know, hydrogen may increase global warming by 20-30% that of methane if leaked into the atmosphere.

Our understanding so far suggests that if a hydrogen economy replaced the fossil fuel-based energy system and had a leakage rate of 1%, its climate impact would be 0.6% of the fossil fuel system.

But we need to better understand the hydrogen cycle, such as how land surfaces absorb hydrogen. In the meantime, we must try to minimize leakage of hydrogen in production, storage and use.

Credit: The Conversation

Lessons from methane

A commitment to a hydrogen economy must avoid pitfalls that accompanied the expansion of the natural gas economy.

Research published this year found emissions from our increased use of fossil methane is about 25% to 40% greater than previously estimated.

Other research shows methane emissions grew almost 10% from 2000-2006 to the most recent year of the study, 2017.

Coming to grips with methane leakage is difficult because of the many ways it occurs, including:

By contrast, hydrogen emissions will likely mainly occur during distribution and end use via faulty pipe fittings, given the absence of mining in the hydrogen economy.

Looking ahead

It's possible the emission of hydrogen from reticulation and distribution systems will be low. But specifying how low this should be, and what engineering approaches are appropriate, should be part of the development process.

A hydrogen-based energy future may likely provide an attractive option in the quest for a zero-carbon economy. But all aspects of the hydrogen option should be considered in an holistic and evidence-based assessment.

This would ensure any transition to a hydrogen economy brings climate benefits far beyond fossil-fuel-based energy systems.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Closed borders, a deepening recession and enforced quarantine are combining to destroy Australia's tourism industry, with more than 20,000 jobs already lost - and the damage will only get worse.

The Australian Federation of Travel Agents says ABS figures show 21,900 jobs have been lost so far in the travel industry - 74 per cent of which were full time positions - and a quick recovery once lockdowns are over is unlikely as so many Australians have lost money they had budgeted for holidays.

And estimated $10 billion remains tied up in cancelled holiday bookings - on flights, hotels, tours and car hire - and around 12 months needed to resolve the average claim for compensation.

'Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, travel agents operated close to 3,000 locations nationally and employed 40,000 Australians,' AFTA CEO Darren Rudd said.

The tourism industry is on the brink of collapse as Australians have been forced to cancel up to $10 billion in planned holidays, costing the sector 20,000 jobs (A woman pictured at Sydney Airport on August 7)

The Australian Federation of Travel Agents has warned that 21,900 jobs have been lost so far, 74 per cent of which were full time positions. (A deserted Sydney Airport on August 5)

'A recent AFTA member survey showed 98 per cent of our member travel agents have seen revenue drop by 90 per cent and more as a result of the pandemic.'

Mr Rudd said the tourism industry has been hit hardest by 'discriminatory' lockdowns and AFTA is working with governments to ease restrictions as quickly as possible to salvage the diminishing number of viable businesses.

AFTA CEO Darren Rudd said the tourism industry has been hit hardest by COVID-19

'Only three countries in the world have completely closed their borders: India, New Zealand and Australia,' he said.

'While we understand the health rationale, we need to find a way forward by working together to end this commercial and cultural discrimination and get us travelling again.'

Travel agents have been put under lots of stress and are working overtime to help customers get their refunds, but the process is more complex than frustrated customers can appreciate.

Australian travel agents liaise with 52 international airlines, up to 70 cruise liners and thousands of hotels, each of which have different terms and conditions on cancellations.

On top of that each of the travel agents have their own terms and conditions, meaning customers could expect to be waiting up to a year before getting any refund.

Perth travel agent Christine Ross has had to cancel up to $2 million worth of bookings, which is 50 per cent of her yearly takings.

'Effectively the entire business has been decimated,' she told ABC.

Ms Ross said she and her remaining four staff are working overtime because COVID-19 has made it even harder to chase refunds, and are spending up to five hours a day on hold waiting to talk with wholesalers and airlines to undo bookings.

A survey of AFTA members found up to half of Australia's 3,000 travel agencies could go out of business by Christmas.

It is not just businesses, but would-be travellers who are out of pocket.

Marcus Towner and his family were meant to go on a five-week trip of a lifetime around Europe during winter, but instead are anxiously waiting for refunds after the holiday was cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Passengers are pictured checking in to a Jetstar flight at Sydney Airport on June 19, 2020, after some state borders re-opened

Travel agents have been put under lots of stress and are working overtime to help customers get their refunds, but are losing money in the process

Mr Towner said the trip was self-funded long-service leave, with tickets booked in business-class and finishing off with a friend's wedding in London.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit Australia, the $35,000 holiday had to be scrapped.

'We were devastated because we were so looking forward to it, and being self-employed it's not just something you can do on a whim,' Mr Towner said.

But the family luckily had travel insurance that did not exclude pandemics, meaning they are slowly getting their money back.

'Even after all that, we're still waiting for a fairly large sum of money to come back for our flights, it's the best part of 20 grand,' he said.
By PTI

NAGPUR: A 74-year-old man, who died of COVID-19, was buried on municipal land here after a local Christian cemetery said it would only allow burial of his ashes after cremation.

The victim, who was undergoing treatment at a government hospital here in Maharashtra since August 1, died on Sunday morning.

He was a member of the local Protestant church, his son told PTI.

The family approached the Jaripatka Christian Cemetery for burial.

However, a member of the cemetery's committee told them that the deceased's ashes could be buried there, citing the COVID-19 outbreak and the facility being located close to some residential premises, he said.

"We wanted a regular traditional burial without cremation (burning of body) for which we were not getting permission. They were reluctant for burial of a COVID-19 patient in the Jaripatka cemetery," he said.

It was getting late and the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) authorities were waiting for the family's approval for the last rites of the deceased.

"So, we had to take a decision and they (NMC) were ready give us a burial place at their Mankapur crematorium premises. My father was buried there as per the Christian tradition," he said.

Jaripatka Christian Cemetery president Ganesh Barve told PTI that they had received a call from the deceased's family for his burial.

"The cemetery is situated in a residential locality and there was lack of space there due the rains. There was also a problem of digging the grave due to rains. We referred to them instances in which some COVID-19 patients were cremated at ghats and their ashes were buried in the cemetery as per Christian rituals," he said.

"We also gave them an option for burial at Bhandewadi cemetery, which is located in a little remote area. However, we did not get a call back from them," said Barve.

When contacted, a civic official said the Jaripatka cemetery was muddy and there was problem of digging the grave there.

Besides, the family was not getting permission for burial of the body at the cemetery.

"We provided them an alternative land for burial to which the family agreed. Graves of people from other faiths are also there,"he said.
Seoul:

South Korean lawmakers on Friday passed an impeachment motion against President Park Geun-Hye, stripping away her sweeping executive powers over a corruption scandal that paralysed her administration and triggered massive street protests.



The National Assembly ballot transfers Parks authority to the prime minister, pending a decision by the Constitutional Court on whether to ratify the decision and permanently remove the president from office.



A ruling could take up to six months, during which time Park will remain in the presidential Blue House while the country faces an extended period of political uncertainty and policy paralysis.



The motion was adopted by 234 votes to 56, easily securing the required two-thirds majority in the 300-seat chamber.



I declare that the bill to impeach President Park Geun-Hye has just been approved, announced speaker Chung Se-Kyun. Whether you support or oppose it, all lawmakers and South Korean people who are watching this grave situation unfold must feel so miserable and heavy at heart, he added.



I deeply wish that such tragedy in our constitutional history will not be repeated ever again.



The anonymous paper ballot was conducted against the background din of hundreds of slogan-chanting protesters outside the assembly building, screaming Impeach Park.



The result marked a startling fall from grace for a politician who had run for the Blue House as an incorruptible candidate, declaring herself beholden to nobody and married to the nation.



After just under four years in power, she now faces the prospect of going down in history as the first democratically-elected South Korean president to be kicked out of office.



The impeachment motion had accused Park of constitutional and criminal violations ranging from a failure to protect peoples lives to bribery and abuse of power.



Supported by all 171 opposition and independent lawmakers, its adoption was made possible by an anti-Park faction within the presidents Saenuri party.



The push for impeachment was driven by massive protests that have seen millions take to the streets of Seoul and other cities in recent weeks, demanding Parks ouster.



The scandal that has engulfed the president and paralysed her administration has focused on her friendship with long-time confidante Choi Soon-Sil.



Choi has been charged with meddling in state affairs and using her Blue House connections to force dozens of conglomerates to donate around USD 70 million to two foundations she controlled.



In a first for a sitting South Korean president, Park has been named a suspect by prosecutors investigating the case.



Since South Koreas first free and fair election in 1987, every president has faced graft investigations after leaving office and oneRoh Moo-Hyuncommitted suicide as a corruption probe closed in on his family.



Park, the daughter of military strongman Park Chung-Hee who led the country from 1961 to 1979, was meant to be different.

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DRDO plans to build a tank for use in the mountains and in the jungles.

Ajai Shuka reports.

IMAGE: Indian Army soldiers atop T-72 tanks cross a bridge during a military exercise. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/Reuters

The ministry of defence last month fast-tracked the emergency purchase of light tanks to counter possible attacks by over 20,000 Chinese troops poised on the Ladakh border along with tanks, artillery, air defence guns, and road construction units.

To eliminate the costly and time-consuming import of light tanks, the Defence Research and Development Organisation has developed plans for building an indigenous light tank for use in the mountains and in jungle terrain.

Arrayed on the Ladakh border is the People's Liberation Army's new light tank, the small, agile and versatile ZTQ 105, also known as the Type 15 tank.

To counter these, India's Ladakh garrison has just three tank regiments with a total of 150 -72 medium tanks.

Weighing a hefty 42 tonnes, the T-72 is designed for the plains; movement on mountain roads is slow and often impossible.

Given the limited elevation and depression of its heavy gun, the T-72 cannot engage targets on hilltops and in valleys.

In contrast, the Indian Army has used light tanks to great effect in the mountains.

In 1944, it used Stuart and Sherman tanks in the Battle of Kohima.

In 1948, these same tanks pushed back Pakistan forces in the Zojila Pass.

Against China in 1962, the army used light AMX-13 tanks in the battle of Gurung Hill near Pangong Tso and also deployed them in Bomdila and Dirang in Arunachal Pradesh.

In the 1971 Bangladesh campaign, French AMX-13 and Soviet PT-76 tanks played a stellar role in the battle of Garibpur.

DRDO has short-listed two options for developing an indigenous light tank within 18 months.

Both these involve marrying DRDO's tank development expertise created while developing the Arjun tank, with the defence manufacturing capability of companies such as Larsen & Toubro that are already building the K9 Vajra self-propelled gun system.

The first option involves creating a 34 to 35 tonne tank by fitting a 105 millimetre Cockerill gun turret onto a K-9 Vajra hull, powered by a 1,000 horsepower MTU engine optimised for high altitudes.

DRDO sources say this hybrid tank could go into production within 18 months.

DRDO's second option retains the K-9 Vajra hull and MTU engine, but matched with the gun turret of the T-90S tank that the army already uses.

This 38-tonne tank would also require 18 months for going into production.

L&T is assembling the K-9 Vajra under licence from South Korea and will deliver its current order by next year.

If the K-9 Vajra chassis is to form the basis for an Indian light tank, it would have to extend that licence.

DRDO is confident that either of these hybrid tanks would be better options than what the MoD is considering buying: The Russian Sprut SDM1.

They point out that the Sprut is a tank destroyer with old technology and that no other country has bought it.

Since the Russian military has bought only 24 Spruts, it is not in regular production, making it hard to meet early delivery schedules and Russia would have to be approached for spares, overhaul and future upgrades.

DRDO has earlier attempted to develop light tanks, but there was never any real interest from the army.

In the 1980s, DRDO integrated the chassis of the Soviet BMP-1 infantry combat vehicle with a 105 millimetre gun, but the army was not interested.

Next, DRDO mounted a French GIAT TS-90 turret and a 105 millimetre gun on the BMP chassis, which the Ordnance Factory Board was building in Odisha.

Again, the army was indifferent and the project was shelved.

In 2009, the army's interest in light tanks was renewed with the sanction of two armoured brigades for high altitude operations alongside the Mountain Strike Corps.

The army issued a request for information in 2009, but eventually T-72 tanks were deemed adequate and the RFI was abandoned.

Now, there is fresh interest with the possibility of encountering the PLA's new ZTQ 105 light tank, built by China's North Industries Group Corporation and unveiled during the Zhuhai air show in 2016.

The ZTQ 105 has a 105 millimetre rifled gun that can destroy tanks at ranges of three kilometres and can fire anti-tank guided missiles that knock out tanks at ranges of 5 kilometres.
The Air Force moved one step closer to a hypersonic weapon last week, with the final captive-carry test of the Lockheed Martin AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, or ARRW.

A B-52H Stratofortress conducted the test Aug. 8 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, according to a release from the 412th Test Wing.

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Hypersonic weapons will move at five times the speed of sound, and the Pentagon is engaged in a global race to develop them.

The test, by the 419th Flight Test Squadron and Global Power Bomber Combined Test Force, successfully transmitted telemetry and GPS data from the AGM-183A IMV-2 (Instrumented Measurement Vehicle) to the Navy's Point Mugu Sea Range ground stations on the California coast, the release adds.

The test also verified system integration with the B-52 launch platform and telemetry, and practiced concepts of operations that will be conducted during its first Booster Test Flight later this year, it states.

"This is a major milestone for the program, the team and our Air Force," Brig. Gen. Heath Collins, Air Force Program Executive Officer for Weapons, said in a statement. "ARRW is the first step in bringing game-changing hypersonic capabilities to our Warfighters."

Last June, the Air Force took a major step forward with the ARRW with its first test flight on the B-52 at Edwards Air Force Base, California. That flight was intended to gather information on "drag and vibration impact," officials said at the time.

The ARRW program, pronounced "arrow," aims to develop a hypersonic weapon for the Air Force in the first part of this decade through rapid prototyping. Having an operational hypersonic weapon will give commanders the capability to destroy high-value targets with urgency by amplifying the speed, range, flexibility and precision of airpower, the release adds.

"The event this week demonstrated the ability to communicate with the prototype weapon; the entire team is excited to take the next step and begin energetic flight test of our first air-launched hypersonic weapons," Lt. Col. Michael Jungquist, 419th FLTS commander and Global Power Bomber CTF director, said in a statement. "These weapons will enable application of conventional firepower anywhere in the world at eye-watering speed."

The Air Force launched the ARRW program in 2017 with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) demonstration system, which will be integrated into the ARRW payload. The Air Force announced it successfully completed the first captive-carry test on June 12, 2019.

The AGM-183A completed a preliminary design review in March 2019, according to Lockheed Martin. More ground and flight testing will be conducted by 2021.

"I am very pleased with the work on the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon and what this means for global precision-fires," Gen. Tim Ray, head of Air Force Global Strike Command, said in a statement. "This capability will directly support our warfighters. Hypersonic weapons further enable the U.S. to hold any target at risk in any environment anywhere."

-- Bing Xiao can be reached at bingxiao2020@u.northwestern.edu.

Related: In First, Air Force Flies Hypersonic Missile Prototype on B-52 Bomber
The assassination of a major tribal sheikh in eastern Syria and the ensuing protests have raised concerns about the stability of Deir ez-Zor province and what this may mean for its notoriously porous border with western Iraq.

The sheikh, Mutsher Hamud Jeidan al-Hifl, was a prominent leader of the Egaidat, the largest tribal confederation in the province. Another sheikh who was with him at the time was also killed.

The killings were followed by protests in eastern Syria, shootings and a statement of condolences from the United States.

It is currently unclear who killed the sheikhs or why. Many from the area deny it was the Islamic State (IS), usually blamed by default.

One Deir ez-Zor native, a longstanding source of this journalist, told her via WhatsApp on Aug. 8 that IS continues to assassinate people in the region  but not any top tribal figures  and the latest killings were by people linked to the Syrian regime.

The source noted that the current hostility between the local population and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is very dangerous since there does not seem to be any alternative to the SDF in Deir ez-Zor, an area with an Arab-majority population but which is administered by the Kurdish-led SDF.

The SDF, he said, kills the conscience of the Arabs that join it only for a salary, making them susceptible to being co-opted by the regime, IS or others.

Though SDF anti-IS operations continue, locals claim the operations often target the wrong individuals. Some note that the SDFs media operations are offensive to the local Muslim population, tweeting as they do such things as a photo of a small amount of money and prayer beads confiscated to show off their latest arrests of dangerous individuals.

When this journalist reported from Deir ez-Zor in 2019, she found that most inhabitants preferred the SDF over the regime or IS but were concerned that the SDF would at some point come to an agreement with the regime to allow it back into their areas. They also complained of extrajudicial killings, abductions and a ban on protesting.

The latest Pentagon report on international coalition activities in Syria and Iraq noted that most Deir ez-Zor Arabs gave passive support to the SDF but felt excluded from all decision-making processes in their region.

Deir ez-Zor natives have also long claimed that many former IS fighters had been accepted into the SDF, alienating Arabs who had fought against IS but refused to join the SDF.

If the current instability grows, this could also affect Iraq, where ISs top leadership has long been from. The source claimed that many Iraqi nationals are still in eastern Syria even outside of the well-known al-Hol camp run by the SDF, especially around Hasakah, Markada, al-Sur, Shaddadi and Dishisha in the Hasakah and northern Deir ez-Zor regions, and smugglers have been known to get these people into Iraq for between $500 and $1,000.

Accusations of corruption concerning al-Hol camp have been rife for years, long before ISs last territorial stand in Baghouz in eastern Deir ez-Zor, retaken by the SDF with the support of the international anti-IS coalition in March 2019.

In early 2017, this reporter met with Iraqi nationals previously in al-Hol who had been brought back to IDP camps in Iraqs Salahuddin province. They claimed that al-Hol camp officials had taken their Iraqi government-issued IDs, marriage certificates and other documents, and refused to give them back. Others claimed they were returned only if large bribes were paid.

At that time, the UNHCRs Scott Craig had said that confiscating refugees IDs was indeed the standard practice of the Kurdish camp management, despite UNHCRs advocacy.

The Deir ez-Zor source told Al-Monitor that many Iraqi nationals in Syria who had presumably been with IS did not want to go back unless the Iraqi government were to pardon them. Thus, the only alternative for many now, he said, was to organize and fight for the return of IS, and thus they are trying to create anarchy in northeastern Syria.

He claimed some with fighting experience had been recruited by the PKK and were now in Sinjar and Rabia in northwestern Iraq near the Syrian border.

On Aug. 9, the head sheikh of the Karabla tribe, Rabaa al-Karbouly, stressed to Al-Monitor via WhatsApp that hundreds of women and children without men but who were the wives and children of IS fighters have arrived in Qaim in recent months from the al-Hol camp, with involvement by neither the international community nor the Iraqi state.

Qaim is a strategically located city in western Anbar along the Syrian border where this journalist interviewed Karbouly several times since it was retaken in late 2017.

Karbouly stressed it should be remembered that before the Sykes-Picot Treaty in 1916, there were no borders separating these areas and the tribes continue to be in close contact.

The sheikh claimed these families had been smuggled via the SDF and then handed over to smugglers linked to the Popular Mobilization Units through either the road to Mosul or the one to Qaim, taking dangerous roads and exploiting these families in an ugly manner with up to $2,000 charged per person.

On border security between the two countries, international anti-IS coalition spokesman Col. Myles B. Caggins III told Al-Monitor in a WhatsApp voice message on Aug. 8, "Weve recently divested several million dollars worth of border guard towers to the Iraqi border guards, and those towers are being placed in areas that had been common smuggling routes and give the Iraqi security forces better capability to identify, observe and detect any illegal border crossings." He added, "The SDF and Iraqi security forces over the past few years have been trained. They are capable forces."

Through our relationship with the SDF and Iraqi government," said Caggins, "We have been able to learn that they are talking to each other and coordinating security operations, because everyone in this region shares a common goal of defeating IS. He stressed that almost no one in the area supports IS anymore, and though they may be capable of low-level attacks, assassinations and shakedowns, they are not able to retake territory.

"We have not conducted any airstrikes in Deir ez-Zor or Anbar in the past 30 days, Caggins said.
Vietnamese Americans and members of the Tibetan community joined a group of Indian-origin Americans in 'America Protest Against Communist China' demonstration outside the Capitol Hill on Sunday (local time).

Since the Galwan standoff between India and China, anti-China protests have broken out in several cities in the United States including New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta. Scenes in Washington looked no different with people holding placards, raising the American national flags along with chanting pro-India and anti-China slogans.

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The protestors believe that even though the "boycott China" campaign has already been more successful than anticipated, there is still a lot to be done apart from simply stalling the use of Chinese products. They also stressed that the protest is not against the people of China, instead, it's against the Chinese Communist Party.

Adapa Prasad, a community leader, who was at the forefront of calls for the boycott on China protest in Washington, described China as a nation on an expedition to grab other people's land. He said China is a nation that is opting and displaying the "expansionist policy apart from stealing, lying, backstabbing its neighbours including India".

"China is aggressively trying to steal the land from India in Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh. They are intimidating Bhutan. They have also claimed that the Tajikistan mountains belong to them. Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Russia are also victims of China's expansionist policies," Prasad told ANI.

"In DC, we have a people to people contact with all the victims of China like Vietnam, Tibet, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Together we are planning a bigger congregation to protest against China in October. We are also come up with ways to shift the supply chain in other countries in the region apart from China," he added.

Joining Prasad and the Indian community in the protest was a representative of the Vietnamese immigrants' community living in the United States. Talking to ANI, Mac John, said, "Our common threat is communism and not the Chinese people."

John, who also is a strong supporter of President Donald Trump, is looking forward to mobilising larger Vietnamese groups to come out and raise their voice against the people's Republic of China.

Echoing similar sentiment, Srilekha Palle, a republican supporter and an active member of the Indian community, said, "I am totally against communist China bullying America and the global world."

Representing the Sikh community in the demonstration was Kanwaljit Singh Soni, president of the Sikhs of America. He said, "China must compensate to the world for spreading coronavirus."

(ANI)

Also Read: Coronavirus: Moscow reports 13 deaths in 24 hours; toll rises to 4,585
Coronavirus LIVE Updates: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar Tuesday told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the state plans to raise testing rate for COVID-19 to over one lakh per day.

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In yet another staggering landmark, the death toll is expected to surpass 750,000 in a matter of days as the global health crisis that began late last year in China rages on.

The coronavirus pandemic chalked up another horrific milestone Monday as the world surpassed 20 million recorded cases of infection from the tiny killer that has upended life just about everywhere. The number as of 22:15 GMT was 20,002,577 cases, with 733,842 deaths recorded, according to an AFP tally of official sources.

China reported on Tuesday 44 new coronavirus cases in the mainland for August 10, compared with 49 cases a day earlier, the health authority said. The National Health Commission said in a statement, 31 of the new infections were imported cases, and the balance 13 were locally transmitted cases reported from Xinjiang region.

The suspension of flights to Kolkata from high Covid-19 prevalence cities (viz. Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chennai and Ahmedabad) will continue till 31 August, reports ANI quoting West Bengal government.

According to Trump, while the US has tested close to 65 million people for coronavirus, India would be second with 11 million tests.

US President Donald Trump on Monday asserted that no other country comes close to the United States with regard to COVID-19 testing while stating that India stands second.

According to the Union health minister, an expert committee on vaccine administration chaired by Dr VK Paul, NITI Aayog will meet on 12 August to consider logistics, ethical aspects of procurement and administration of COVID-19 vaccine. The committee will engage with stakeholders including state governments and vaccine manufacturers, reports ANI.

"Two of my ministers in the Cabinet Shri Kandasamy and Shri Kamalakannan were tested positive for Covid-1. Were moving with public and officers in discharge of their duties I wish them well and pray GOD for speedy recovery I appeal to people moved with them go for testing," his tweet read.

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy has said in a tweet that two of his cabinet ministers have tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday.

According to reports former President Pranab Mukherjee was put on ventilator support on Monday after he underwent surgery to remove a clot in his brain, sources said. Hours before the surgery, Mukherjee, 84, said he had also tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

India has a long-standing partnership with the US in the area of health & scientific research. Since initial days of the outbreak of COVID-19, our scientists and institutions have been actively engaged in exchange of information, reports ANI quoting the Ambassador of India to US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu

Urdu poet Rahat Indori has said that he has tested positive for COVID-19. After exhibiting preliminary symptoms of the infection, I have tested positive for Covid-19. I am admitted at the Aurobindo Hospital. Pray for my speedy recovery, he tweets.

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.

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 all three phases of human clinical trials successfully. Russia will reportedly begin producing the vaccine soon and already has plans for a massive, country-wide vaccine drive.

India on Tuesday reports 53,601 new cases, taking the overall tally to 22,68,675. The toll rises by 871 to 45,257. The COVID-19 tally included 6,39,929 active cases, 15,83,490 cured/discharged/migrated and 45,257 deaths.

India currently has 28.21% active cases, 69.80% cured and 1.99% deaths, says the Centre.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 2,45,83,558 samples have been tested up to August 9, with 4,77,023 samples being tested on Monday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold a video conference with Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Punjab, Bihar, Gujarat, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh today, to discuss corona related situation, reports ANI.

On Tuesday 1,896 new COVID19 cases, 1,788 recoveries, and 8 deaths were reported in Telangana in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 82,647, including 22,628 active cases, 59,374 recoveries and 645 deaths so far.

COVID-19 patients under home isolation will stand discharged after 10 days of symptom onset or date of sampling, and no fever for three days, as per the revised guidelines for home care issued by the government of Karnataka, reports PTI. Thereafter, the patient shall be advised to isolate at home and self-monitor their health for further 7 days, it said adding there is no need for testing after the isolation period is over.

With the fresh cases, India's COVID-19 tally rose to 22.68 lakh, while the recoveries have surged to 15,83,489, pushing the recovery rate to 69.80 percent. The case fatality rate dropped below 2 percent and was recorded at 1.99 percent as on date.

COVID-19 cases in India dipped below 55,000 in a single day on Tuesday after the country recorded over 60,000 cases daily for four days on the trot, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

The northeastern state has reported 749 fresh COVID-19 cases in August thus far. Arunachal Pradesh currently has 636 active cases. Three people have succumbed to the infection so far.

A total of 322 security personnel were diagnosed with the disease since 1 August, he said. At least 110 people were discharged from hospitals on Monday, raising the number of recoveries to 1,592.

Seventy-six more people, including 36 security personnel, have tested positive for COVID-19 in Arunachal Pradesh, taking the state's tally to 2,231 on Tuesday, a senior health department official said. Barring nine, all of them are asymptomatic, the official said.

The Committee will engage with all the stakeholders including state governments and vaccine manufacturers.

The Expert Committee on vaccine administration under the chairmanship of NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul will meet on Wednesday to consider the logistics and ethical aspects of procurement and administration of COVID-19 vaccine, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Since 11 June, when the temple reopened to the public after a nationwide lockdown, two of its staff and one former employee have lost their lives due to COVID-19.

"Of the 743 infected, about 402 personnel have recovered so far from infection while 338 people were undergoing treatment at different COVID-19 care facilities," PTI quoted TTD Executive Officer Anil Kumar Singhal as saying.

The Lord Venkateswara temple in Andhra Pradeshs Tirumala, which is part of Tirupati, has seen more than 700 cases of the novel coronavirus among its staff in the past two months.

"Movement of people has been restricted and the temple has been sealed," officials said.

Ahead of Janmashtami, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) temple in Uttar Pradesh's Vrindavan was sealed on Tuesday after 22 people, including priests tested positive for coronavirus.

Three people died in Ganjam and in Khurda district each while Sunderharh, Rayagada, Puri and Balasore reported one fatality each.

Odisha's COVID-19 cases rose to 48,796 with the detection of 1,341 fresh infections, a health department official was quoted by PTI on Tuesday. Ten more patients died, following which the COVID-19 toll reached 296 in the state.

As many as 261,246 patients have recovered so far, while 780 are in critical condition, the ministry said. The 531 new cases pushed Pakistan's coronavirus tally to 285,191, it said.

Pakistan's coronavirus tally reached 285,191 with the detection of 531 new cases in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said on Tuesday. The toll rose to 6,112 after 15 more people died overnight.

Both the patients had co-morbidities. With the two deaths, the toll rose to 91.

Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao told a virtual press conference that while one patient aged 44 died at Indira Gandhi Government Medical college (IGGMC) hospital here, the other aged 69 passed away at a private hospital in the last 24 hours.

Two more people succumbed to COVID-19 and 276 fresh cases were reported on Tuesday in Puducherry, where the aggregate touched 5,900.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday told Prime Minister Narendra Modi to increase the amount of the package to deal with the coronavirus crisis to up to Rs 3,000 crore, reports ANI. Weve received Rs 512.64 crore from Centre in two tranches under Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness package out of Rs 712.64 crore allotted to state, he says.

Narendra Modi on Tuesday, during his meeting with chief minister with 10 states said that according to experts, the spread of the coronavirus can be controlled if the patient is diagnosed within 72 hours, ANI reports. So, it is important that all the people who come in contact with an infected person must be tested within 72 hours, the prime minister says

In a tweet from the official handle, the Prime Minister's Office said that the prime minister has identifies Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat and Telangana as states where not enough testing has been carried out, and test positivity rate is high. He says these states need to increase testing, a matter that was discussed in the meeting.

Russia has developed 'first' coronavirus vaccine, said Russain President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, reports AFP. Putin has also said that his daughter has been inoculated with new vaccine.. Putin has made the announcement on a conference call with his ministers.

The average fatality rate has been continuously decreasing while the recovery rate is increasing every day, this shows that measures being taken by us are in the right direction, said Narednra Modi according to ANI.

Putin emphasized that the vaccine underwent the necessary tests. He added that one of his two daughters has received a shot of the vaccine and is feeling well.

Speaking at a government meeting Tuesday, Putin said that the vaccine has proven efficient during tests, offering a lasting immunity from the coronavirus.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says that a coronavirus vaccine developed in the country has been registered for use and one of his daughters has already been inoculated.

"During a video conference meet of PM with CMs of some states to review Covid situation, Capt Amarinder Singh said current cap of 35 percent in State Disaster Relief Fund for Covid related expenditure, as per MHA guidelines, is not sufficient to meet current requirements. CM Captain Amarinder Singh today sought from PM Narendra Modi a liberal financial package for states to fill the collection gap caused by the pandemic, and also flexibility on Covid-related terms of expenditure in SDRF," the statement read.

During the video conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Tuesday said the cap of 35 per cent in the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) for Covid-19 related expenditure was insufficient to meet requirements. A statement from the Punjab Chief Minister's Office said Singh had requested Narendra Modi to provide a liberal financial package for states to combat the pandemic, reports ANI.

Tamil Nadu chief minister E Palaniswami on Tuesday said that "the Centre should fund 50 percent of the cost of RT-PCR tests done for detecting COVID-19 and also finance the procurement of high-end ventilators," The Indian Express reported.

The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday addressed a press briefing after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with the chief ministers of 10 states. "He emphasised three important areas to focus on in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus. One of them is tracking, testing, and isolating," the statement said.

The Union health minsitry said that states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, and West Bengal have been asked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ramp up testing for coronavirus, to curb the spread of the infection.

"More than 2.5 crore tests carried out in the past week, more than 15 lakh recoveries have been recoded so far," he added.

In a press briefing on Tuesday, Health Ministry secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, "For the first time, COVID-19 fatality rate in India has fallen below 2 percent and is currently at 1.99 percent."

"He suffered two heart attacks today and could not be saved. He was admitted to hospital on Sunday, after testing positive for COVID-19. He had 60 percent pneumonia," said Dr Vinod Bhandari, Sri Aurobindo Hospital.

Urdu poet Rahat Indori on Tuesday passed away in a hospital after he tested positive for coronavirus.

"This expert group will continue its engagement with all state governments and vaccine manufacturers in India," said Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Health Ministry.

"The Centre has constituted National Expert Group on Vaccine administration which will meet tomorrow. Their terms of reference constitute all matters related to logistics of vaccines, ways to address issues of equity etc," said the Health Ministry on Tuesday, when asked whether the government is planning to tie-up with Russia over a COVID-19 vaccine.

A group of experts in Health Ministry is presently seized with this issue & working on a guidance note for recovered people & possible complications that may afflict them: Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Health Ministry on reports of lung ailments in some recovered patients #COVID19

"If Russia's vaccine is successful, then we will have to see critically whether it is safe and effective... India has the capacity for mass production of vaccine," said AIIMS director Randeep Guleria on Russia claiming to have developed vaccine for COVID-19 active cases.

The Maharashtra health department said that 11,088 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the state on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases to 5,35,601. There are 1,48,553 active cases and the toll is at 18,306.

Kerala reported 1,417 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, of which 1,247 new patients were infected via local transmission.

"More than 2.5 crore tests carried out in the past week, more than 15 lakh recoveries have been recoded so far," he added.

In a press briefing on Tuesday, Health Ministry secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, "For the first time, COVID-19 fatality rate in India has fallen below 2 percent and is currently at 1.99 percent."

"He suffered two heart attacks today and could not be saved. He was admitted to hospital on Sunday, after testing positive for COVID-19. He had 60 percent pneumonia," said Dr Vinod Bhandari, Sri Aurobindo Hospital.

Urdu poet Rahat Indori on Tuesday passed away in a hospital after he tested positive for coronavirus.

"This expert group will continue its engagement with all state governments and vaccine manufacturers in India," said Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Health Ministry.

"The Centre has constituted National Expert Group on Vaccine administration which will meet tomorrow. Their terms of reference constitute all matters related to logistics of vaccines, ways to address issues of equity etc," said the Health Ministry on Tuesday, when asked whether the government is planning to tie-up with Russia over a COVID-19 vaccine.

A group of experts in Health Ministry is presently seized with this issue & working on a guidance note for recovered people & possible complications that may afflict them: Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Health Ministry on reports of lung ailments in some recovered patients #COVID19

Modi held a meeting with chief ministers of Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh via video conferencing to review measures taken to tackle COVID-19.

Thackeray also said hospitals will be set up in all districts of the state to control the epidemic, according to an official statement. The chief minister said Maharashtra did not hide a single COVID-19 case and death due to the disease and shared information with transparency.

The Maharashtra government is striving to see there is no second wave of COVID-19 in the state, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Tuesday during a meeting held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

#WATCH : If Russia's vaccine is successful, then we will have to see critically whether it is safe and effective... India has the capacity for mass production of vaccine: AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria on Russia claiming to have developed vaccine for #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/4LDkXPyLGx

"If Russia's vaccine is successful, then we will have to see critically whether it is safe and effective... India has the capacity for mass production of vaccine," said AIIMS director Randeep Guleria on Russia claiming to have developed vaccine for COVID-19 active cases.

The Maharashtra health department said that 11,088 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the state on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases to 5,35,601. There are 1,48,553 active cases and the toll is at 18,306.

Earlier on Monday, Modi had tweeted listing Bihar as one of the states with inadequate testing.

The state government has set a target of conducting more than one lakh tests every day, he said.

"The RT-PCR facility will soon be introduced at five more medical college hospitals which would help in raising the daily average by about 2300. Moreover, we have plans to purchase 10 RT-PCR and RNA extraction machines which would raise our capacity by another 5,000", he said.

Kumar, who was joined by his counterparts in nine other states at the video conference meeting on coronavirus situation, said the state was at present testing more than 75,000 samples daily though the number of RT-PCR examinations, which he called "the most important", remained as low as about 6100 per day.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar Tuesday told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the state plans to raise testing rate for COVID-19 to over one lakh per day.

Kerala reported 1,417 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, of which 1,247 new patients were infected via local transmission.

The cumulative tally of COVID-19 cases from the five southern states and union territory of Puducherry stood at 24,704, with Andhra Pradesh topping the list with 9,024 new cases, while 87 more deaths pushed the overall toll to 2,203 in that state.

Southern states continued reporting high COVID-19 caseloads on Tuesday, the numbers being close to 25,000, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi took stock of the situation with four of the most affected ones from the region  Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana.

Coronavirus LATEST Updates: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar Tuesday told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the state plans to raise testing rate for COVID-19 to over one lakh per day.

Kumar, who was joined by his counterparts in nine other states at the video conference meeting on coronavirus situation, said the state was at present testing more than 75,000 samples daily though the number of RT-PCR examinations, which he called "the most important", remained as low as about 6100 per day.

"The RT-PCR facility will soon be introduced at five more medical college hospitals which would help in raising the daily average by about 2300. Moreover, we have plans to purchase 10 RT-PCR and RNA extraction machines which would raise our capacity by another 5,000", he said.

The state government has set a target of conducting more than one lakh tests every day, he said.

Earlier on Monday, Modi had tweeted listing Bihar as one of the states with inadequate testing.

Urdu poet Rahat Indori on Tuesday passed away in a hospital after he tested positive for coronavirus.

"He suffered two heart attacks today and could not be saved. He was admitted to hospital on Sunday, after testing positive for COVID-19. He had 60 percent pneumonia," said Dr Vinod Bhandari, Sri Aurobindo Hospital.

In a press briefing on Tuesday, Health Ministry secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, "For the first time, COVID-19 fatality rate in India has fallen below 2 percent and is currently at 1.99 percent."

"More than 2.5 crore tests carried out in the past week, more than 15 lakh recoveries have been recoded so far," he added.

He says these states need to increase testing, a matter that was discussed in the meeting.

An expert committee on vaccine administration will meet on Wednesday to consider "logistics and ethical aspects" of procurement and administration of vaccines against COVID-19.

The committee will be chaired by NITI Aayog's Dr VK Paul. The coronavirus disease has infected more than 2.2 million people and killed over 44,000 in India.

Narendra Modi to hold a video conference with Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Punjab, Bihar, Gujarat, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh today, to discuss corona related situation

The COVID-19 tally included 6,39,929 active cases, 15,83,490 cured/discharged/migrated and 45,257 deaths.

In yet another staggering landmark, the death toll is expected to surpass 750,000 in a matter of days as the global health crisis that began late last year in China rages on

The total number of coronavirus cases in India crossed 22 lakh with a rise of 62,064 new cases on Monday, while the toll rose to 44,386 with 1,007 new deaths, the Union health ministry said. The total tally includes 6,34,945 active cases.

India's COVID-19 recoveries crossed 1.5 million with the recovery of 15,35,743 patients in the past 24 hours, the ministry said, adding that the achievement was possible "because of the policy of testing aggressively, tracking comprehensively and treating efficiently".

"Better ambulance services, focus on standard of care and use of non-invasive oxygen have given the desired results," the ministry said.

With the highest-ever single-day number of recoveries of 54,859, the recovery rate is almost at 70 percent.

The ministry added that the record number of recoveries "have ensured that the percentage of the active cases have reduced and currently comprise only 28.66 percent of the total positive cases".

Early identification of cases has also led to a steep fall in the percentage of active cases, it said.

"Early identification helps to ensure timely and prompt isolation of the mild and moderate cases and hospitalisation of the severe and critical cases thereby leading to effective management of cases," the ministry said.

However, this is the fourth consecutive day that the COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 60,000.

As many as 4,77,023 samples were tested on Sunday, taking the total to 2,45,83,558, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Pranab Mukherjee tests COVID-19 positive

Former president Pranab Mukherjee said that he tested positive for coronavirus and requested people who recently came in his contact to get tested for the virus.

"On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for COVID-19 today. I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19," Mukherjee tweeted.

The octogenarian leader is the latest among many political figures in India to have been tested positive for coronavirus.

Several Union ministers including Home Minister Amit Shah, Minister of State Arjun Ram Meghwal, MoS for Agriculture Kailash Choudhary have tested positive for the virus.

Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit, Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa, Karnataka health minister B Sriramulu are among those who got infected with coronavirus.

PTI quoted that former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya as saying that he and his wife Medha had been detected with the coronavirus infection and have been hospitalised.

Additionally, earlier on Monday, Maharashtra Legislative Council member from Osmanabad, Sujitsingh Thakur, said he and some of his family members had tested positive.

The Superintendent of Police (Rural) in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr, Harendra Kumar Singh, also tested positive for coronavirus on Monday.

BS Yediyurappa 'completely' cured of COVID-19

Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa has recovered 'completely' from COVID-19 and was discharged from a private hospital nine days after being admitted, the state government said.

The 77-year old leader was admitted to the Manipal Hospital on 2 August after he tested positive for coronavirus.

"After recovering from COVID-19 completely, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has been discharged from the Manipal Hospital," an official statement said. Later, the chief minister himself tweeted about his discharge.

"Thank you everyone for your wishes and prayers. I have been discharged from the hospital and will be in self-quarantine. Deeply grateful for your affection and support. I look forward to getting back to the routine very soon," he said.

State-wise cases and deaths

Of the 1,007 new deaths on Monday, 390 are from Maharashtra, 119 from Tamil Nadu, 107 from Karnataka, 97 from Andhra Pradesh, 54 from West Bengal, 41 from Uttar Pradesh, 24 each from Gujarat and Punjab, 22 from Jharkhand, 19 from Madhya Pradesh, and 13 each from Delhi, Odisha and Jammu and Kashmir.

Of the total 44,386 deaths, Maharashtra has reported the maximum of 17,757, followed by 4,927 in Tamil Nadu, 4,111 in Delhi and 3,198 in Karnataka.

There have been 2,652 fatalities in Gujarat, 2,069 in Uttar Pradesh, 2,059 in West Bengal, 2,036 in Andhra Pradesh and 996 in Madhya Pradesh.

A total of 789 people have died in Rajasthan due to the pandemic, followed by 637 in Telangana, 586 in Punjab, 483 in Haryana and 472 in Jammu and Kashmir. There have been 387 COVID-19 deaths in Bihar, 272 in Odisha, 177 in Jharkhand, 145 in Assam, 125 in Uttarakhand, 108 in Kerala.

Chhattisgarh has registered 96 deaths, followed by 87 in Puducherry, 75 in Goa, 42 in Tripura and 25 in Chandigarh. Andaman and Nicobar Islands reported 20 deaths, Himachal Pradesh reported 15, Manipur reported 11, Ladakh reported nine and Nagaland reported eight.

There have been six coronavirus deaths in Meghalaya and three in Arunachal Pradesh, while Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu reported two and Sikkim reported one.

The health ministry stated that more than 70 percent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

Maharashtra reported 9,181 fresh cases of COVID-19, taking its tally to 5,24,513. Also, 6,711 patients were discharged from hospitals, pushing up the recovery tally to 3,58,421.

There are 1,47,735 active cases in the state at present.

Meanwhile, Mumbai reported 925 new coronavirus cases and 46 deaths, taking the tally to 1,24,307 and the toll to 6,845. The number of active cases in Mumbai stood at 19,172.

Tamil Nadu reported 5,914 new cases, taking the total number of cases in the state to 3,02,815. The state reported more than 100 deaths for the eighth consecutive day, taking the toll to 5,041, a government COVID bulletin said.

The state took just 16 days to reach the three lakh-mark compared to the 22 days it had taken for the two lakh milestone on 25 July. The one lakh tally was recorded on 3 July. The 6,037 recoveries on Monday eclipsed the fresh infections and cumulatively 2,44,675 people have got cured so far.

There are 53,099 active cases in the state.

Karnataka saw a dip in daily cases, with the numbers dropping from the consistent 5,000-plus infections for the past few days to over 4,000 on Monday.

The state on Monday reported 4,267 new cases of COVID-19 and 114 related fatalities, taking the total number of infections to 1,82,354 and the toll to 3,312, the health department said.

Andhra Pradesh also saw a sharp fall from the over 10,000 cases on Sunday to 7,665 fresh cases on Monday "on the back of slimmer testing numbers," PTI reported.

The state had reported over 10,000 each for five consecutive days.

The latest bulletin said 46,999 tests, including 24,331 rapid antigens, were conducted in 24 hours ending 9 am on Monday as against 62,000-plus tests per day over the past few days. No reason was cited for the drop in number of tests, PTI reported.

Kerala reported 1,184 COVID-19 cases on Monday and seven fatalities that pushed the overall deaths to 115. As many as 22,620 people have recovered from the disease.

Telangana saw 1,256 new cases on Monday, taking the total infection count in the state to 80,751.

West Bengal saw the highest single-day discharge of 3,208 COVID-19 patients taking the number of recovered people to 70,328, while 2,905 new coronavirus infections were registered, state health department said.

The department in a bulletin also said that 41 patients succumbed to the disease raising the toll to 2,100. The state's caseload has gone up to 98,459, while the active cases stood at 26,031.

Delhi recorded 707 fresh coronavirus cases, taking the city's tally to over 1.46 lakh, even as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asserted that with a current recovery rate of over 90 percent, "people of the city are slowly and steadily defeating COVID-19."

The total tally rose to 1,46,134, while the toll from the disease mounted to 4,131, the bulletin said, adding that twenty fatalities have been recorded in the last 24 hours.

Antonio Banderas tests COVID-19 positive

Hollywood star Antonio Banderas said he tested positive for coronavirus on Monday, his 60th birthday. The Oscar nominee, who shared his diagnosis on social media, said he feels "relatively good" besides being more tired than usual.

"I want to make it public that today, 10 August, I am forced to celebrate my 60th birthday in quarantine, having tested positive for the COVID-19 disease, caused by the coronavirus," Banderas wrote in Spanish alongside his childhood photo on Instagram.

"I would like to add that I feel relatively good, just a little more tired than usual, and am confident that I will recover as soon as possible following medical instructions that I hope will allow me to overcome the infectious period that I am suffering, and that is affecting so many people around the planet," he added.

With inputs from agencies
Leader of Shincheonji Church of Jesus, Mr. Lee Man-Hee

10.08.2020 LISTEN

Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG), a Non-Governmental Organisation has appealed to the government of South Korea to consider the release of the leader of Shincheonji Church of Jesus, Mr. Lee Man-Hee from detention.

A statement signed by Mr Joseph Wemakor, the Executive Director of the Organisation and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra called for proper investigation to put the issue to rest.

The South Korea church leader was arrested on July 31, 2020 for allegedly withholding information from government authorities about church members to help combat coronavirus, according to reports published on the news portals of some foreign media agencies sighted by HRRG.

One of such reports which appeared on an international news portal indicated that Mr Lee and his church were scapegoated as the cause of the spike in COVID-19 cases in the Asian country after a member of the religious sect was confirmed a coronavirus positive person in South Korea on July 31.

Over 5,500 cases of human rights violations including; coercive conversion have been reported since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in South Korea, the report further confirmed.

Mr Lee was arrested early on Saturday, following an investigation. A judge said there were signs that evidence related to the case was being destroyed.

The statement said although the report gathered, he was arrested in the midst of other accusations levelled against him, it however did not indicate where he was kept.

The Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) a not-for-profit organization founded by Mr. Lee has also been under threat of dissolution on grounds that they contributed to the spread of the coronavirus, the peace organization is on the verge of having its legal entity withdrawn by the South Korean authorities, alleging that the organization is acting as a missionary group.

The statement described the events in South Korea as inhumane and a gross violation of the rights and freedoms of members of the Shincheonji church including; its leader Lee Man-hee who is at the centre of the controversy and therefore called on the Authorities to ensure justice was served.

We as human rights activists are perturbed by the case and therefore plead that it is amicably resolved.

The statement added that the unfortunate development had compelled members of the church to go into hiding their identity and affiliation to the religious body due to discrimination and stigmatization while others were forced to change their religious denomination which was in total violation of their rights to religious freedom.

The government of South Korea must act with respect to international laws and treaties on human rights, to releases Mr. Lee sand his church members should be given equal protection as members of other religious groups in the country he concluded.

Meanwhile, the Head of Media Relations for Human Rights Reporters Ghana, Alexander Naaga Bombande also stated that scapegoating during a pandemic was the highest form of injustice.

This act of scapegoating the Shincheonji church must be condemned by all persons beyond boundaries, thats why as human rights activists in Ghana, it is imperative for us to join the voice of reason from all over the globe to demand from the government and authorities in South Korea to release Mr. Lee. As Injustice anywhere remains injustice everywhere.

The Human Rights Reporters Ghana is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) formed purposely to promote, protect and defend the freedom and the fundamental human rights

of all manner of people in Ghana and beyond particularly, the children, girls and women who are the most vulnerable in the society.

---GNA
The cabinet, formed in January with the backing of the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group and its allies, was due to meet on Monday under pressure with many ministers wanting to resign

Lebanese called for protests outside Baabda palace on Monday to demand President Michel Aoun step down after a massive explosion that has ignited anti-government protests and resignations by several ministers, with the justice minister Mary-Claude Najem the latest to go.

Last week's port warehouse detonation of more than 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate killed 158 people, injured more than 6,000 and destroyed a swathe of the Mediterrnean city, compounding months of political and economic meltdown and prompting furious calls for the entire government to step down.

The cabinet, formed in January with the backing of the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group and its allies, was due to meet on Monday under pressure with many ministers wanting to resign, ministerial and political sources said.

The information and environment ministers quit on Sunday as well as several lawmakers. Najem resigned on Monday, citing the catastrophic explosion.

"The entire regime needs to change. It will make no difference if there is a new government," Joe Haddad, an engineer, told Reuters. "We need quick elections."

Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Saturday he would request early parliamentary elections.

Aoun had previously said explosive material was stored unsafely for years at the port. He later said the investigation would consider whether the cause was external interference as well as negligence or an accident.

Beirut's governor said many foreign workers and truck drivers remained missing and were assumed to be among the casualties, complicating efforts to identify the victims.

Anti-government protests in the last two days have been the biggest since October when demonstrators took to the streets over an economic crisis rooted in corruption, waste and mismanagement. Protesters accused the political elite of exploiting state resources for their own benefit.

Some Lebanese doubt change is possible in a country where sectarian politicians have dominated the country since the 1975-90 civil war.

"It won't work, it's just the same people. It's a mafia," said Antoinette Baaklini, an employee of an electricity company that was demolished in the blast.

Workers picked up fallen masonry near the building where wall graffiti mocked Lebanon's chronic electricity crisis: "Everyone else in the world has electricity while we have a donkey."

"It will always be the same. It is just a political game, nothing will change," said university student Marilyne Kassis.

An emergency international donor conference on Sunday raised pledges worth nearly 253 million euros ($298 million) for immediate humanitarian relief.

But foreign countries demand transparency over how the aid is used, wary of writing blank cheques to a government perceived by its own people as deeply corrupt. Some are concerned about the influence of Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi told a televised news confernce on Monday that countries should refrain from politicising the Beirut port blast. He called on the United States to lift sanctions against Lebanon.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.

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Belfast City Council has rejected Sinn Feins bid for an independent investigation into alleged bullying of staff.

Councillors instead passed a motion proposed by the DUP expressing support for staff.

Several workers contacted Sinn Fein representatives about the claim, group leader Ciaran Beattie said.

He added: These allegations of bullying are extremely worrying and it is particularly concerning that some staff have claimed they are fearful of reporting bullying incidents because of the environment in which they work.

Everyone in society has a fundamental right to go to work in a safe and friendly environment.

The right to live and work free from harassment is the bedrock of democratic society and a right which must protected.

He said it was a matter of grave concern that some political parties on the council voted against establishing an independent commission to examine the allegation of bullying.

The rejection of this motion is shameful and lets workers down, he said.

No one has anything to fear from an independent commission which sets out to ensure maximum protection for workers with grievances.
Technavio has been monitoring the diaphragm valves market and it is poised to grow by USD 30.24 million during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 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/20200810005364/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Diaphragm Valves Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Alfa Laval AB, Christian Burkert GmbH Co. KG, Compagnie de Saint-Gobain SA, Crane Co., Emerson Electric Co., GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft, GEMU Group, KSB SE Co. KGaA, Parker Hannifin Corp., and Pentair Plc are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Growing demand for effective management of radioactive waste has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, the limitations of diaphragm valves might hamper market growth.

Diaphragm Valves Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Diaphragm Valves Market is segmented as below:

End-user Water Treatment Industry Pharmaceutical Industry Chemical Industry Food And Beverage Industry Power Industry Other Industries

Geography APAC North America Europe South America MEA

Type Weir Diaphragm Valves Straightway Diaphragm Valves



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Diaphragm Valves 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 diaphragm valves market report covers the following areas:

Diaphragm Valves Market size

Diaphragm Valves Market trends

Diaphragm Valves Market industry analysis

This study identifies the expansion of oil terminals as one of the prime reasons driving the diaphragm valves market growth during the next few years.

Diaphragm Valves Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the diaphragm valves market, including some of the vendors such as Alfa Laval AB, Christian Burkert GmbH Co. KG, Compagnie de Saint-Gobain SA, Crane Co., Emerson Electric Co., GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft, GEMU Group, KSB SE Co. KGaA, Parker Hannifin Corp., and Pentair Plc. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the diaphragm valves market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile, and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Diaphragm Valves Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist diaphragm valves market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the diaphragm valves market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the diaphragm valves market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of diaphragm valves market vendors

Table Of Contents:

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2019

Market outlook: Forecast for 2019 2024

Five Forces Analysis

Five Forces Summary

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by End-user

Market segments

Comparison by End-user

Water treatment industry Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Pharmaceutical industry Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Chemical industry Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Food and beverage industry Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Power industry Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Other industries Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by End-user

Market Segmentation by Type

Market segments

Comparison by Type

Weir diaphragm valves Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Straightway diaphragm valves Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by Type

Customer Landscape

Overview

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

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

Alfa Laval AB

Christian Burkert GmbH Co. KG

Compagnie de Saint-Gobain SA

Crane Co.

Emerson Electric Co.

GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft

GEMU Group

KSB SE Co. KGaA

Parker Hannifin Corp.

Pentair Plc

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

About Us

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 01:39:31|Editor: huaxia

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RAMALLAH, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Senior Palestinian officials accused Israel on Monday that it carries out "smoothly" the annexation of the West Bank lands under the pretext of military training.

Sabri Saidam, a member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement's Central Committee, told reporters in Ramallah that Israel is proceeding with its annexation plan through political and military maneuvers.

"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn't disregard the annexation plan of parts of the West Bank regardless of the political crisis in Israel and the talks on holding new parliamentary elections," Saidam said.

He also said that, in equivalent, the Palestinian leadership carries on with its diplomatic and political steps to confront and topple the Israeli annexation plan.

"The Palestinian efforts have never stopped although the world is engaged in the coronavirus pandemic. Israel hides behind the world's crisis to implement its plans of annexing Palestinian lands and controlling them," said Saidam.

Meanwhile, Walid Assaf, head of the National Committee to Resist the Wall and Settlements, said in a statement that Israel is exploiting its military rehearsals it carries out on the West Bank lands to seize them.

"Since 1967, Israel has been banning Palestinian constructions in several parts in the West Bank, preparing to expel Palestinian citizens from these parts and declare them a closed military zone," Assaf said.

"The Israeli occupation deprives the owners of the lands of using them or even considers them as natural resorts," said Assaf. Enditem
10.08.2020 LISTEN

Vice President and Policy Analyst of IMANI Ghana, Kofi Bentil has called on the government to consider opening the country's borders for free movement of people.

He said the restrictions on the country's borders now are needless.

Kofi Bentil argues that governments all over the world have realised that despite the significant threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic life must still go on.

"As it stands now, it seems governments across the world have decided that Covid is serious but not enough to stop life...", part of Mr. Bentil's statement reads.

He believes Ghanaians should be allowed to fully go back to normal life but insist on them to adhere to the safety protocols.

---
90 Day Fiance star Nicole Nafziger left on a trip to Morocco to visit Azan Tefou just as things started getting bad with the coronavirus outbreak. Now, after scrambling to find a way out of Morocco when informed shes be required to leave, it seems Nafziger is finally home. However, fans of the show have been blasting Nafziger for leaving her daughter, May, with Nicoles own mother for months on end amid a pandemic.

Nicole Nafziger seeks a way out

RELATED: 90 Day Fiance Fans Call Out Nicole Nafziger for Post About Paul Staehle and Karine Martins

90 Day Fiance star Nicole Nafziger must have been getting concerned as her deadline for leaving Morocco approached. Nafziger left the USA to visit Azan Tefou in his home country, but things rapidly turned sour as the COVID-19 situation developed.

Soon, Morocco made it clear that it expects foreign nationals to leave the country after it closed its borders to additional travelers. As reported by Morocco World News, 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.

Though Nicole Nafziger had plenty of time to devise an exit plan from Morocco, it seems she waited until the last minute to work things out. This was evidenced by a pair of Facebook posts captured by 90 Day Fiance blogger John Yates.

In one post, made to a Facebook group 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.

A second post 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]?

90 Day Fiance fans call her a bad mom

90 Day Fiance fans have been dogpiling Nicole Nafziger for choosing to head to Morocco during a volatile situation, an act that left her daughter May in the care of Nafzigers parents. This seemed especially dodgy given Nafzigers fathers recent arrests.

When one fan called Nafziger out in Instagram comments, she wrote back, Stop judging my [life] and decisions. Just an idea. I know you wont listen because its easier to pin me as a bad mom and gossip about the drama. Soon enough, yall can take a [peek] into my real life. Maybe.

In a different post, fans speculated about Azan Tefou and his intentions. Nafzigers mother replied to fans, telling them, I am always concerned that someone will try and take advantage of one of my children, but I have also said that he seems like a really nice person. I would rather have her here, but she is in charge of her own life and has to make her own decisions. I can only guide her to a better one, the rest is up to her. I love her no matter what. Thank you for your concern! May is doing great!

Nicole Nafziger confirms arrival in USA, 90 Day Fiance fans react

Azan Tefou and Nicole Nafziger of 90 Day Fiance | TLC

Nicole Nafziger took to her stories to post about her flight home. She recently posted a photo of herself in an American airport, captioned, Finally back in the U.S.

90 Day Fiance fans were quick to continue calling Nafziger out. One Reddit user wrote, So now its confirmed this woman left her 5 year old for nearly half a year to chase some scamming d*ck. Unbelievable.When Nicole gets home her family needs to do an intervention for her neglect and immaturity. She needs to grow up, get herself a trade so she can have a stable job to take care of her and her daughter.

I feel very conflicted for May. Shes probably happy that her mom is coming home, but she has probably had a lot more stability with Nicole gone, added another user.

One fan, also a mother, commented that the idea of leaving May behind for so long seems outrageous to her. They wrote, I literally cant even fathom ever leaving her for MONTHS on end half way across the world for a man that literally is embarrassed to be with her, has been known to talk to other women and regularly scams her out of money. She clearly has some severe self esteem issues If she is literally choosing to be with this man instead of her daughter DURING A F*CKING PANDEMIC. I dont understand.. and I feel awful for her baby.
RTE said there was a "growing urgency" to publish a list of its highest earners' salaries in internal emails from more than two months ago, but has still to release the figures.

Records reveal how there has been discussion over which year's set of figures to publish because fees have fallen further over the past 12 months.

RTE has not published the information since it released details of 2016 earnings in December 2018 with figures for the following year now long overdue.

Publication of the top 10 salaries with a time lag means the figures are often already out of date by the time they are made public.

But internal emails show there was concern over releasing more up-to-date figures, according to records obtained under Freedom of Information legislation.

In the middle of June, RTE's group financial controller Fiona O'Shea suggested the broadcaster would need to publish two sets of figures this year, for 2017 and 2018.

A member of the communications team responded to say: "While there has been no date agreed as of yet to release details of our highest earners, could we start to prepare for an announcement?"

The email suggested this could be done to coincide with publication of the annual report, which has not yet been completed.

In an email from June 24, RTE's head of communications Joseph Hoban said they were becoming "mindful of the growing urgency around this obligation".

He said from a "reputation perspective" the best option would be to publish even more up-to-date figures than normal. However, Mr Hoban said this came with "certain complications". He asked whether it was possible to prepare a table showing the most up-to-date fees for the top earners to be used in a preliminary discussion.

He was responding to an email from Ms O'Shea in which she asked if further consideration had been given to a release date for the information.

She wrote in an email: "Latest agreed fees for 2019 might not be useful. It might need to be more current, in order to encompass more recently agreed reductions.

"This then comes with complications about releasing current data which I don't think any of us would be comfortable with."

She said they should prepare a table for both 2017 and 2018 and then "discuss the message around this".

No further records were released by RTE and in a statement, a spokesman said they had no comment on the contents.

"In relation to publication of the earners of the top 10 most highly paid presenters, I don't have a publication date," he added.

RTE has not published the data since December 2018 when details for 2016 were made available.

At the time of that release, Ryan Tubridy remained the top earner on 495,000 per year while Ray D'Arcy was on 450,000.

The rest of the top 10 was filled by Joe Duffy, Sean O'Rourke, the late Marian Finucane, Miriam O'Callaghan, Claire Byrne, Bryan Dobson, George Hamilton and Mary Wilson.

Those figures are understood to have fallen significantly since, while Sean O'Rourke - the fourth highest earner - retired from his Radio 1 show in May of this year.
Does the August share price for OM Holdings Limited (ASX:OMH) reflect what it's really worth? Today, we will estimate the stock's intrinsic value by taking the forecast future cash flows of the company and discounting them back to today's value. This will be done using the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. Models like these may appear beyond the comprehension of a lay person, but they're fairly easy to follow.

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. 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 OM Holdings

The model

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. In the first stage we need to estimate the cash flows to the business over the next ten years. Seeing as no analyst estimates of free cash flow are available to us, we have extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the company's last 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.

Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, so we need to discount the sum of these future cash flows to arrive at a present value estimate:

10-year free cash flow (FCF) forecast

2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 Levered FCF (A$, Millions) AU$44.6m AU$40.4m AU$37.9m AU$36.6m AU$35.9m AU$35.7m AU$35.8m AU$36.1m AU$36.6m AU$37.2m Growth Rate Estimate Source Est @ -14.63% Est @ -9.57% Est @ -6.02% Est @ -3.53% Est @ -1.8% Est @ -0.58% Est @ 0.27% Est @ 0.87% Est @ 1.29% Est @ 1.58% Present Value (A$, Millions) Discounted @ 14% AU$39.0 AU$30.9 AU$25.4 AU$21.5 AU$18.4 AU$16.0 AU$14.1 AU$12.4 AU$11.0 AU$9.8

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = AU$198m

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 2.3%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 14%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2030  (1 + g)  (r  g) = AU$37m (1 + 2.3%)  (14% 2.3%) = AU$316m

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= AU$316m ( 1 + 14%)10= AU$83m

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is AU$281m. In the final step we divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Compared to the current share price of AU$0.3, the company appears about fair value at a 14% 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

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. If you don't agree with these result, have a go at the calculation yourself and play with the 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 OM Holdings 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 14%, which is based on a levered beta of 2.000. 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.

Moving On:

Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it ideally won't be the sole piece of analysis you scrutinize for 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 instance, if the terminal value growth rate is adjusted slightly, it can dramatically alter the overall result. For OM Holdings, there are three important elements you should further examine:

Risks: You should be aware of the 4 warning signs for OM Holdings (1 is potentially serious!) we've uncovered before considering an investment in the company. Other High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! Other Environmentally-Friendly Companies: Concerned about the environment and think consumers will buy eco-friendly products more and more? Browse through our interactive list of companies that are thinking about a greener future to discover some stocks you may not have thought of!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every Australian 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.
3 1 of 3 Larry Busacca Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Neilson Barnard/Getty Images Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Broadway sensation Christopher Jackson is set to host an online relief concert and not only can you watch the show from home, but tickets benefit a group of nonprofits including Houstons Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS).

Jackson is a Grammy and Emmy Award-winning songwriter/composer and a Tony Award-nominated actor best known for his role playing George Washington in Broadways "Hamilton."
Chinas foreign ministry said it would impose retaliatory sanctions against 11 American politicians and civil society leaders, including US senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, starting on Monday.

It follows the Trump administrations move on Friday to impose sanctions on 11 top Hong Kong and Chinese officials whom it accused of curtailing political freedoms in the city.

Mr Cruz and Mr Rubio spearheaded recent legislation designed to prevent goods produced by forced labour being imported by US companies, and mandating that the US government sanctions anyone who knowingly engages in forced labour in Xinjiang.

Republican congressman Chris Smith  who introduced legislation condemning Chinas treatment of the Uighurs and accused president Xi Jinping of presiding over genocide  joins Republican senators Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley and Pat Toomey on the list of 11 sanctioned officials.

Kenneth Roth, the executive director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, Michael Abramowitz, the head of US think tank Freedom House, and Carl Gershman, the president of National Endowment for Democracy are also on the list.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Chinas foreign ministry has not yet specified what form the sanctions will take. Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the measures came in response to the USs wrong behaviours.

Beijing first stated that sanctions would be imposed on Mr Cruz and Mr Rubio and two other political officials last month, after Washington penalised senior Chinese officials over the treatment of Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang region.

Chinas ministry of foreign affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying revealed the retaliatory move on 13 July, without giving any details what the planned sanctions would entail.

The announcement of an expanded list of names comes as Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai was arrested on suspicion of foreign collusion  the most high-profile figure yet detained under a controversial new national security law.

Mr Lai is the founder of the pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily, and has repeatedly criticised authoritarian moves to curb the territorys autonomy.
India: Italian Marines Case will be closed only when Italy compensates fishermens families: SC

August 10,2020 | Source: The Quint

The Indian government has told the Supreme Court (SC) that the Italian marines responsible for killing two Indian fishermen in 2012 will be prosecuted in their home country as assured by the Italian government. The marines could not be tried in Indian courts due to the immunity cover enjoyed by them as conveyed by an international court. The above statement was made during a hearing to close the case against the two Italian marines. Instead, the court said that it would first listen to the families of the fishermen and then the case can be closed. The SC also asked the Centre to make a fresh plea making the victims family members as parties to its application.



The apex court also told the Centre to let Italy pay the victims compensation, and then it could allow the withdrawal of prosecution. The top court insisted that it will have to hear the kin of the victims on the adequacy of compensation before it can close the case.



The case against the Italian marines will be investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). On 3 July, the Centre had informed the top court that it had accepted the international tribunal award in the killing of two fishermen by the Italian marines. The Centre asked the apex court to close the matter pending before it for eight years. The tribunal ruled for the trial of the marines in Italy. It said India is entitled to payment of compensation in connection with loss of life, physical harm, material damage to property and moral harm suffered by the captain and other crew members of the Indian fishing boat 'St Antony'.



However, it also said that the marines deserve immunity and that India is precluded from exercising its jurisdiction in the case. On 15 February 2012, two Indian fishermen aboard the fishing vessel St Antony were allegedly killed by the two Italian marines aboard the Italian tanker 'Enrica Lexie' off the coast of Kerala. The Indian Navy intercepted the Italian tanker and detained the two marines, triggering an international conflict over legal jurisdiction and functional immunity. It was then that the Kerala High Court said that India had the jurisdiction to try the Italian marines as the act to shoot the fishermen was not in self-defence. The two marines then took the matter to the Supreme Court where they were granted bail and were allowed to return to Italy in 2016.
State-owned PrivatBank (Kyiv) has launched biometric Point of Sale (POS) terminals FacePay24, which conduct payment for purchases without a card using face identification, the bank's press service said on Monday.

Head of PrivatBank's retail business Yevhen Vasyltsov said that "facial recognition payment" is currently available on 260 Android PAX POS terminals, and the bank plans to launch 7,700 FacePay24 in Ukraine by the end of 2020.

In order to use the "facial recognition payment" service, bank customers need to install the updated Privat24 application on their smartphones and activate FacePay24 payment, then take three pictures from different angles and link the selected bank card to them.

According to the statement, to pay in Android PAX POS terminals using face identification, after entering the amount, you must select "facial recognition payment" on the terminal, look at the terminal's front camera, press the "pay" button and confirm the operation by entering a pin code.

"FacePay24 uses one of the world's leading automatic facial recognition systems Amazon Recognition and ensures complete security of customer personal data, including technical and physical controls, data encryption during storage and transmission," the press service said.
Udupi district police have arrested a 38-year-old man for giving triple talaq to his wife through a social media platform. The accused has been identified as Sheikh Mohammed Saleem, belonging to Shirva in the district.

Police sources said Saleem had married Swapnaz from Shirva in September 2010 and had been staying in Dammam in Saudi Arabia. The couple has a daughter.

Saleem, who allegedly had a relationship with another woman, left his wife in Saudi Arabia and returned to India in July.He later posted an audio message to his wife on his Facebook account pronouncing triple talaq to her.

Swapnaz filed an online complaint to the jurisdictional Shirva police station. After getting information that the accused had reached his home in Shirva, police arrested him on Friday.

A case under Section 4 of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 has been registered at the Shirva police station. The accused was produced before a local court and sent to 14 days' judicial custody, the sources said.

(Representative image: PTI)
Events like extreme weather and 9/11 provided opportunities for government agencies to work out the logistics needed to remain up and running, but the emphasis in those cases was on enabling essential employees to continue working on-site or from officially designated alternate worksites. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments to determine how to make the most efficient use of the entire workforce with the bulk of employees working offsite -- typically from home -- for an extended period. For many, the trick lay in scaling up the remote work capabilities already in place.

The ease with agencies were able to migrate to remote telework varied significantly. In the best cases, agencies had core capabilities such as next-generation firewalls and Trusted Internet Connection-compliant policies in place to allow employees to download client software onto their remote devices, establish secure connections and resume work. In other cases, a lack of modern firewalls, adequate bandwidth or telework-friendly IT or security policies made it labor-intensive to establish and sustain remote connectivity.

While most agencies ultimately implemented remote telework for the majority of their workforce, some did so by granting waivers or by putting ad hoc technological solutions in place.

But what about security? Remote telework in the new normal is likely to be based on an organizations current practices. Its especially important for those agencies that struggled -- and which may have had to cut security and IT policy corners -- to review their current remote telework posture going forward.

The remote security challenge

Securely supporting a remote workforce is essential for any government business continuity and disaster recovery plan.

Grappling with a sudden and large number of remote workers presents numerous cybersecurity challenges. For one, an agency may not have operational control or even insight into the remote workers computing environment -- a home network -- that may contain vulnerable internet-of-things devices and family members running applications that potentially introduce threats into government networks. Further complications arise if the employee is using a personal device rather than a government-issued and owned computing platform. For agencies, the challenge is isolating the remote workers device -- or at least the IT resources and processes that are doing remote telework -- to ensure the integrity of government networks and data.

Human error accounts for the majority of security breaches, and in a remote computing environment such as a home network, the consequences of user error -- which may stem from activity not even conducted by the employee -- are magnified. Agencies need a secure, reliable communications solution thats easy to implement, effective and adheres to privacy best practices.

The private sector has similar needs and concerns, but government agencies must address them on a greater scale and with larger stakes at risk. The federal government has over 2 million full-time employees and thousands of contractors who access electronic resources. It also maintains some of the largest IT networks and controls some of the worlds most sensitive -- and coveted -- data. Achieving adequate cybersecurity protection at this scale would be a challenge at any organization, but for government, compromised systems could lead to disastrous consequences.

How to support distributed workforces

Not every government employee requires the same level of access to IT resources when working remotely. Agencies should look to solutions that can address security at different levels, including:

Standard government workers. Most employees need access to internet, email, teleconferencing, limited file sharing and function-specific capabilities (HR, accounting and so on) from their remote work site. This includes access to software-as-a-service solutions in the cloud, such as Microsoft Office 365, as well as a secure connection to the government network.

Most employees need access to internet, email, teleconferencing, limited file sharing and function-specific capabilities (HR, accounting and so on) from their remote work site. This includes access to software-as-a-service solutions in the cloud, such as Microsoft Office 365, as well as a secure connection to the government network. Power users. Employees who require a higher level of access to government resources while working remotely  such as system administrators, IT support technicians and emergency personnel. -- may need the ability to operate in multiple, parallel IT environments.

Employees who require a higher level of access to government resources while working remotely  such as system administrators, IT support technicians and emergency personnel. -- may need the ability to operate in multiple, parallel IT environments. Super users. Some employees require advanced access to sensitive government resources, even when working from an alternate office location. They frequently process organizationally sensitive information and may need access to classified data and networks as well. This employee profile includes administrators with privileged system access, support technicians, emergency personnel along with government executives such as agency heads, governors and mayors and key staff. For these super users, their alternate work site should be configured as an alternate office location.

Searching for silver linings in the pandemic work experience

When the pandemic ends, the massive remote work experiment it created will have a continuing dramatic effect on how work is done. As the RAND Institute pointed out, once the work-from-home genie has been let out of the bottle, its difficult to put it back in. An entire workforce will have experienced a commute-free day and other benefits. Organizations will have sorted out the technical logistics of telecommuting and discovered that productivity can continue -- in some cases, increase -- without having everyone in the office every day. Distrust in letting people work from home other than by exception will have largely evaporated.

If theres another silver lining to the pandemics global dark cloud, its that IT agility and resilience have migrated from the category of nice to have to must have. Cybersecurity is also in the spotlight, especially for organizations that may have been putting off security upgrades or which have identified new requirements for secure remote work. State and local governments are already facing a financial meltdown as a result of COVID-driven revenue shortfalls, and the federal budget will likely contract significantly too. Unfortunately, when funding gets tight, security is too often one of the first spending priorities to be sacrificed.

Improving security, improving culture

Government does a good job defining standards, but it often lags industry in its pace of implementation. Businesses quickly executed a COVID-driven pivot to remote telework, and as agencies move forward, they should leverage experience and lessons from the private sector. Agencies are used to looking to industry for not invented here IT solutions, but exploring applicable best practices and lessons learned beyond government may require a cultural shift.

The move toward telecommuting triggered by COVID-19 is likely to result in significant evolutionary changes to cybersecurity, the government workforce and society. Less commuting and secure, remote work environments open the door to recruiting and retaining a more diverse and motivated government workforce. By implementing the needed tools and cybersecurity strategies, agencies can support distributed workforces, enhance productivity and ensure continuity of operations.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Nagasaki, Japan  Mon, August 10, 2020 07:40 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cb1ecf 2 World Japan,Nagasaki,atomic-bomb,World-War-II,WWII Free

The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Sunday commemorated the 75th anniversary of its destruction by a US atomic bomb, with its mayor and the head of the United Nations warning against a nuclear arms race.

Nagasaki was flattened in an atomic inferno three days after Hiroshima -- twin nuclear attacks that rang in the nuclear age and gave Japan the bleak distinction of being the only country to be struck by atomic weapons.

Survivors, their relatives and a handful of foreign dignitaries attended a remembrance ceremony in Nagasaki where they called for world peace.

Participants offered a silent prayer at 11:02 am (0202 GMT), the time the second and last nuclear weapon used in wartime was dropped over the city.

"The true horror of nuclear weapons has not yet been adequately conveyed to the world at large" despite decades of effort by survivors telling of their "hellish experience", Nagasaki mayor Tomihisa Taue said in a speech afterwards.

"If, as with the novel coronavirus -- which we did not fear until it began to spread among our immediate surroundings -- humanity does not become aware of the threat of nuclear weapons until they are used again, we will find ourselves in an irrevocable predicament."

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, in a message read by his undersecretary Izumi Nakamitsu, warned that "the prospect of nuclear weapons being used intentionally, by accident or miscalculation, is dangerously high."

"The historic progress in nuclear disarmament is in jeopardy... This alarming trend must be reversed," he said.

'Nuclear-free world'

The number of participants in this year's ceremony was reduced to roughly one tenth the figure in previous years due to coronavirus fears, with proceedings broadcast live online in Japanese and English.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe refreshed his pledge that Japan would lead "the international community's efforts towards the realization of a nuclear-free world".

Terumi Tanaka, 88, who was 13 and at his hillside home when the bomb hit Nagasaki, remembers the moment everything went white with a flash of light, and the aftermath.

"I saw many people with terrible burns and wounds evacuating ... people who were already dead in a primary school-turned shelter," Tanaka told AFP in a recent interview, saying his two aunts died.

Atomic bomb survivors "believe that the world must abandon nuclear arms because we never want younger generations to experience the same thing", he said.

The remembrance comes as worries linger over the nuclear threat from North Korea and growing tensions between the US and China over issues including security and trade.

"I'm determined to keep appealing [to the world] that Nagasaki must be the last atomic bomb-hit city," survivor Shigemi Fukahori, 89, said at the ceremony.

"I hope young people will receive this baton of peace and keep running."

The US dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killing around 140,000 people. The toll includes those who survived the explosion itself but died soon after from radiation exposure.

Three days later, the US dropped a plutonium bomb on the port city of Nagasaki, killing 74,000 people.

Japan announced its surrender in World War II on August 15, 1945.

The United States has never acceded to demands in Japan for an apology for the loss of innocent lives in the atomic bombings, which many Western historians believe were necessary to bring a quick end to the war and avoid a land invasion that could have been even more costly.

Others see the attacks as unnecessary and even experimental atrocities.

Last year, Pope Francis met with several survivors on visits to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, paying tribute to the "unspeakable horror" suffered by the victims.

In 2016, Barack Obama became the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima. He offered no apology for the attack but embraced survivors and called for a world free of nuclear weapons.
US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, left, is greeted by Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen, right, during a meeting in Taipei, Taiwan - Pool Central News Agency

The United States top health official praised Taiwans democracy and response to the coronavirus pandemic during a visit to Taipei on Monday that signals the islands growing strategic importance to Washington as relations deteriorate with Beijing.

Alex Azar, the US health secretary, is the highest ranking official to visit Taiwan since Washington severed official ties with Taipei in 1979 and switched its diplomatic allegiance to Beijing. China has threatened unspecified retaliation for the trip to a state that it claims as its own territory.

After touching down on Sunday afternoon, and testing negative for the coronavirus, Mr Azars first port of call on Monday morning was to meet Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwans newly re-elected president, who he praised for her courage and vision in leading a democracy that was an inspiration to the world.

Mr Azar told Ms Tsai that Taiwans response to the coronavirus pandemic had been among the most successful in the world and thanked her for providing needed supplies globally, including to the US and Pacific Island nations.

Ms Tsai responded that she looked for even more breakthroughs and fruits of cooperation in dealing with the pandemic and other issues to jointly contribute to the sustained peaceful development of the Indo-Pacific region.

Taiwan, which has a population of 23 million, has kept Covid-19 cases low at just 480 and 7 deaths, through a combination of strict border controls, quarantine and contact tracing. The US has suffered close to 5.2 million cases and more than 165,000 related deaths.

Alex Azar, the US health secretary and Chen Shih-chung, the Taiwanese health minister, present an MOU on global health security - Pei Chen/AFP

The US health secretary also met Chen Shih-chung, his Taiwanese counterpart, to oversee the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on health cooperation between the US and Taiwan that would boost collaboration on infectious disease prevention and the development of drugs and vaccines.

The meeting of two senior health international officials during a global pandemic would normally be a routine occurrence, but increasing clashes between Washington and Beijing over trade, human rights in Hong Kong and China's claims to the South China Sea elevated the significance of Mr Azar's visit.

Story continues

The US' decision to send such a high-level delegation in the current climate must be seen against the background of global and US domestic politics said Lev Nachman, a Fulbright research fellow in Taiwan.

The timing of Azars visit cannot be separated from increasingly frequent military threats from China, deteriorating US-China relations, the Covid pandemic, and Trumps domestic failing and handling the pandemic, he told The Telegraph.

Although Taiwan functions like any other nation with its own government, currency and foreign policy, Beijing claims it as its own territory and seeks to annex the island, using force if necessary.

The Chinese government launched strong protests against the trip, calling it a betrayal of US commitments not to have official contact with the democratic island.

Secretary Azar landed in Taipei on Sunday - Reuters

China is highly sensitive towards any form of recognition of Taiwan as an independent entity and has sought to isolate the Tsai administration on the global stage by blocking its participation in global bodies, including the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Beijing has also stepped up its military intimidation of Taiwan. On Monday, Chinese fighter jets crossed over the median line of the Taiwan Strait and into the country's airspace, said the ministry of defence  an incursion that has increased in frequency in recent months.

Washington, Taiwans top arms supplier, has rebuffed Chinas accusations, basing its decision to send Mr Azar on the 2018 Taiwan Travel Act, which permits the travel of higher-level officials to Taipei after decades during which such contacts were rare.

Historic caution in dealing with Taiwan has changed significantly under a Trump administration which has grown increasingly hawkish towards China, but in an afternoon press conference, Mr Azar focused his remarks mainly on cooperation on global health security.

We have long had a history of close collaboration in the field of healthcare. Taiwan has been a model of transparent collaborative, cooperative public health and information sharing. In the middle of Covid-19, it is critical that we support and recognise those who share those values of transparency in healthcare, he said.

The health secretary cited Taiwans exclusion from the recent World Health Assembly, even as an observer, as a major frustration that the Trump administration has had with the WHO and its inability to reform. President Trump earlier this year pledged to exit the World Health Organisation.

Taiwan stood to benefit from the praise of senior global officials, even if the MOU was more of a symbolic gesture, said Mr Nachman. [Its] a global win for Taiwan and creates space for Taiwan in a global order that has regularly left Taiwan out, he argued.

Given the contentious state of the world, the US choosing to applaud Taiwans efforts for handling COVID while China threatens the island with military force is exactly why more people in Taiwan today than ever are supportive of more US-Taiwan cooperation.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Some very warm weather is ahead for Northeast Ohio, although there will be some slight relief in the middle of the week.

Monday is bringing the heat, with the National Weather Service calling for highs around 92 degrees with mostly sunny skies in both Akron and Cleveland. The good news is the humidity wont be out of control and there will be some breeze.

The first chances of showers and thunderstorms arrive Monday night. It will remain warm, with lows around 70 degrees and it will be mostly cloudy. Cleveland has about a 30 percent chance of showers, with Akron at about 20 percent.

Highs will drop back to the mid-80s on Tuesday in Cleveland and the upper 80s in Akron. There is a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Cleveland area and about a 60 percent chance in Akron. Showers and thunderstorms remain possible overnight in Cleveland and are likely in Akron. Lows again will in the upper 60s.

Cleveland will be partly sunny Wednesday with a high around 83 degrees, while Akron also will be partly sunny with a high of 86. There is a good chance of showers and thunderstorms overnight in the Akron area, while Cleveland is expected to remain dry. Lows again will be in the upper 60s.

Mostly sunny skies return to Cleveland on Thursday and highs will be in around 83 degrees. Chances of showers and thunderstorms linger in the Akron area, but otherwise it will be partly sunny with highs in the mid-80s.

It again will be mostly sunny on Friday in the Cleveland area, with a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs will be in the mid-80s. Akron will see similar conditions, but highs will be in the upper 80s.

The weekend is expected to bring partly sunny to mostly sunny skies, but there are chances of showers and thunderstorms. Highs will be in the mid-80s.

Mondays sunrise: 6:31 a.m.

Sunset: 8:32 p.m.

Pollen count: 9.5 (medium-high)
Construction was halted Thursday at a Miami construction site where six workers were hurt when a load of rebar fell from a crane, officials said.

A stop-work order was issued for the Brickell 57-floor property, which is a joint venture between the British construction firm Ant Yapi and Miami Beachs Civic Construction, the Miami Herald reported. The site will become the second-tallest building in Miami.

Miami Fire Rescue crews were called to the site Wednesday after the heavy steel fell, impaling two workers and injuring four others.

The crews used tools to cut through the steel and free the trapped workers. Five of the six workers were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospitals Ryder Trauma Center. Names and updated conditions were not released Thursday.

Civic Construction said in a statement that the workers were alert and conscious at the hospital.

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.

Miamis building director Asael Ace Marrero said that before construction can resume, his office must receive three reports  one from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, one from the sites structural engineer, and another from the shoring engineer. At that point, a meeting will be scheduled to make sure any concerns have been addressed.

Civic Construction told the newspaper on Thursday evening that they have completed reports from the structural engineer and the shoring engineer and were awaiting OSHAs report.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Workers' Compensation Construction
More than fifty prefabricated mobile homes burned down on Sunday evening when a fire broke out at the Pueblo Fiesta Lazy Days holiday park in Mollina.

Around 90 people were on the site at the time, most of them British, said municipal sources. No one was injured in the fire although the emergency services treated several people for shock and panic attacks.

Evacuated residents and holidaymakers were put up at the nearby Ceulaj youth residence, or taken in by friends or relatives.

Firefighters from the provincial fire consortium were deployed to the site, in the area known as Canada Realenga, along with members of the Civil Protection organisation, health emergency services, Local Police and Guardia Civil officers.

The flames were brought under control at around 7pm, after more than two hours fighting the blaze on the ground and from the air.

The blaze did not spread outside the holiday park but destroyed most of the homes, leaving just a small group standing.

As well as British nationals on the site, many of whom live there all year round, or for long periods of time, official sources said there were also some Dutch citizens, among other nationalities.

The mayor of Mollina, Eugenio Sevillano, told SUR on Sunday evening that the local people rallied round to help the evacuated residents, providing food and other basic essentials for those staying at the Ceulaj centre which was empty at the time.

Others offered their tractors and farm machinery to help clear the ash and rubble.

The Pueblo Fiesta Lazy Days, known in the area as "the English campsite", was opened 12 years ago.

The cause of the fire is not yet known.
Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister for Communications has advised children, young adults, and the public to beware of persons they contact online because not all persons online have good intentions.



She advised parents and guardians to take particular interest in knowing the websites their wards visited, their interactions on social media, and the internet.



The Minister said this at a joint press briefing by the Ministry of Communications and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to announce the arrest of the administrator of the Empress Leak website, Anderson Ofosuhene Anim, alias Mario Gee.



The website, which receives about 600,000 viewers monthly is mainly set to publish child pornographic and adult sexual content; a joint investigation by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) of the Ministry of Communication and CID revealed that the operators hide behind platforms such as short message services to demand payments from victims who called on them to pull-down uploaded sexual content.



She said the investigation to clamp down the suspect begun after a female Senior High School Student filed a report on January 6, 2020, with the Computer Emergency Responds Team (CERT-GH) of the NCSC of a sexually-explicit video of her, uploaded onto the website.



Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said sextortion and distribution of sexual images of individuals were gradually becoming a canker in the Ghanaian cyberspace, due to the trusting nature of most Ghanaians.



Additionally, she said out of a total of 296 cases received between January 1 to June 30, 2020, by the National CERT, 27 per-cent were related to either sextortion, non-consensual sharing of intimate images or child online abuse.



The Minister said, Child pornographic content and the act of extortion constitute criminal activities under section 136(1) of the Electronic Transactions Act, 2008 (Act 772), and cautioned against such acts.



She said a person who intentionally published child pornography through computer; produced or procured such materials according to the laws, could be convicted to a fine of not more than 25 penalty units (GH300.00) or a term of imprisonment of not more than 10 years or both.



Commissioner of Police (COP) Mr Isaac Ken Yeboah, Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) concerning the arrest of Anim said the operation towards the arrest was started in January 2020 and after six months of intensive investigation, the joint team finally arrested the 39-year- old at his residence in Osino in the Eastern Region.



He said the suspect was arrested on July 30, 2020, while busily uploading nude pictures and videos onto the website www.empressleaks.biz; all devices used in committing of the crime have been retrieved and subjected to forensic examination for evidence to aid in investigations.



COP Mr Yeboah said the investigation was underway to arrest all persons within the business circle who supplied him with images and videos and shared in the ransoms taken from the victims.



He said victims were charged amounts between GH500.00 to GH2000.00 before pulling down their uploaded images and videos from the websites.



COP Mr Yeboah said the suspect would be charged with the offence of obscenity, child pornography, extortion, and money laundering after investigations.

Source: GNA









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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 21:07:23|Editor: huaxia

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MOSCOW, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- A district court in Moscow has fined Google 1.5 million rubles (20,334 U.S. dollars) for repeatedly "insufficient filtering of content banned in Russia," Interfax news agency reported on Monday.

As Russian legislation requires, search engines are obliged to exclude links to Internet pages carrying banned information from search results.

This was the third case against Google in Russia concerning this issue, after the U.S. company was fined 700,000 rubles in July 2019 and 500,000 rubles in December 2018. Enditem
In a statement issued at the beginning of August, the Bishops of the Philippines reiterate their opposition to the reintroduction of the death penalty in their country.

By Vatican News

The Bishops of the Philippines are once again voicing their strong opposition to the reintroduction of capital punishment in the nation.

Capital punishment in the Philippines

The death penalty was a legal punishment in the Philippines for much of the countrys history. After the fall of the Ferdinand Marcos regime in the 1980s, a moratorium on capital punishment was imposed, but executions resumed in 1999. The practice was outlawed in 2006.



The current president, Rodrigo Duterte, has campaigned for the restoration of the death penalty, and polls suggest many Filipinos support his position. Several bills have been revived in the Senate seeking to restore capital punishment.

Reasons for opposition

In a statement issued last week by the Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP-ECPPC), the Bishops argue that the death penalty violates the inherent dignity of a person, which is not lost despite the commission of a crime. They cite Pope Francis, who has said that capital punishment is an offence against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person, which contradicts Gods plan for man and society and does not render justice to the victims, but rather fosters vengeance.

In addition, they point out that the death sentence is irrevocable, thus leaving no possibility for correcting errors that could occur in an imperfect justice system. For the same reason, it does not give the offender an opportunity to change. But true justice is restorative, they say, never merely punitive. Punishment should offer the opportunity for amendment.

Further, they argue that capital punishment is unfairly applied to the most vulnerable sectors of society, the marginalized and the poor.

The Bishops also note that the Philippines has made international commitments not to re-impose the death penalty. Reviving it, they say, will go against this commitment and will put our country in a bad light insofar as our standing in the community of nations is concerned.

Alternatives to re-imposing the death penalty

Instead of attempting to restore the death penalty, the Bishops call on Congress to focus its attention on working out a comprehensive response to the Covid-19 pandemic; to reforming the judicial and correctional systems; and to stamp out corruption in the various correctional institutions.

Trusting in the help of our merciful God, the Bishops write, we at the CBCP-ECPPC are ready to dialogue with our legislators to explore with them ways and means to improve our criminal justice system and our ways of treating PDLs (persons deprived of liberty).

They end their statement with the call, Together let us stand for life and heal as one!
As Norway commemorates the 77 people murdered by a lone gunman on this day in 2011, it is a good time to look again at how we talk about those responsible for acts of terror.

Are we causing even more harm by repeating a mass-murderers name and explaining his twisted motivation each time an anniversary comes around? After all, that was the precise aim of the right-wing Norwegian extremist who murdered eight people in a bomb attack in Oslo and then went on to shoot dead 69 young people at a summer political camp on the island of Utya on 22 July 2011.

Before doing so, he posted a manifesto online, all 1,500-plus pages of it, and raged against Muslims, multiculturism and immigration. This man wanted infamy. He wanted to cast a long shadow, and he has done just that.

He has become something of an icon to some extremists and his deranged ideologies have incited others to commit similar hate crimes.

But his reach extends beyond the far-right extremists. Mainstream newspapers have devoted countless column inches to articles that attempt to get inside his disturbed mind.

Today, in Norway, the focus for the families of the victims will be on their loved ones and all that the world has lost because they are no longer here. That loss is incalculable, yet it is seldom given the kind of exposure afforded a mass-killer.

Is it time, then, to turn the tables and switch the focus? Should we, the media and general public, commemorate the victims today and cancel  to use a term of the moment  the Norway mass-murderer.

Is it time to ignore his violence-inciting words, which are still circulating on certain parts of the internet, historys greatest sewer, to use Timothy Garton Ashs term.

For some, the answer to hate speech is to provide more free speech. The best way to expose bad or dangerous ideas is by open debate, they argue. The person making the argument should be neither silenced nor ostracised/cancelled, the logic goes.

It is hard to fault that view but there is also room for rules on hate speech to allow us to draw a clear line between criticism and incitement to violence. How legislation might better achieve that is a debate to be aired again when our hate speech laws are reviewed.

In the meantime, there is a lot of merit in the approach taken by New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern after a terrorist murdered 51 people in an attack on a mosque in Christchurch in 2019.

She refused to speak the mans name and asked the public to speak the victims names instead.

The man, she explained, sought many things from his act of terror but one was notoriety. That is why you will never hear me mention his name. He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist. But he will, when I speak, be nameless.

With acts of extremist violence on the rise, it has never been more urgent to track how the words of terrorists  and how they are quoted  amply their influence.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz made an unexpected statement this morning about Lebanon. Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Aug. 10, Gantz said, While [Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan] Nasrallah is our greatest enemy to the north, he is Lebanons biggest problem from within Lebanon. We see the tragedy that happened in Lebanon.  Just think about what would happen if that were repeated with Iranian weapons in Lebanese villages. Gantz went further, warning, We are dealing with enemies who are operating and storing weapons in a civilian environment. If we have no choice but to fight, it might have difficult implications.

Gantz was appointed to his position in May, but his address today was his first briefing to the committee as defense minister as well as the first address by a defense minister to the committee since November. Illustrating the volatile situation in Lebanon, Gantz said that there are homes in the neighboring country with both guest and missile rooms. "As a security network, we are fighting enemies that keep weapons and operate in civilian surroundings. If we dont have a choice but to fight, it will have dire consequences, he added.

Gantz statement came on the backdrop of reports from Lebanon concerning the source of the Aug. 4 Beirut explosion. According to these reports, the Lebanese army does not believe Israeli jets were responsible for the blast. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah denied last week any responsibility for the explosion in the Beirut port. On Aug. 7, Nasrallah said, We know more about the port of Haifa than the port of Beirut. We talk about resistance, we are thinking of a strategy of defending Lebanon, we did not intervene in Lebanese affairs. Nasrallah emphasized that the warehouse that exploded in Beirut's port did not contain any of the organization's weaponry.

Israel has been following closely the growing demonstrations in Lebanon against the government and against Hezbollah. Still, Jerusalem has been careful not to comment on these events, addressing only the humanitarian aspects of the blast. On the other hand, analysts in Israel now estimate that recent tensions on Israels northern borders with Syria and Lebanon might calm, at least temporarily, while Hezbollah is preoccupied with developments in Beirut.

The Israeli leadership, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ministers Benny Gantz and Gabi Ashkenazi, offered Lebanon humanitarian aid, but received no formal response. French President Emmanuel Macron noted Israels offer at his Aug. 9 address to the donor videoconference for Beirut organized by Paris. Still, Israel was not invited to participate in the conference.

Shortly after the blast, the High Follow-Up Committee of Arabs in Israel contacted Lebanese politicians and the Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon, Ashraf Dabbour, in an attempt to send a delegation of Arab medical experts from Israel, stating, We are ready to send medical teams; dozens of doctors are ready to go out and assist in their various areas of expertise. No formal response has yet come from Beirut.
WEST HILLS, Calif.Veteran adult novelty manufacturer Pipedream Products has announced that Orion has been named its third "Elite Distribution Partner" in its new streamlined international network. The Elite Distribution Partnership program has been designed to improve stock availability, giving retailers more reliable access to Pipedream Products European SKUs.

Pipedreams selection of Elite Distribution Partners is the result of a Request for Proposal (RFP) selection process. According to the company, these Elite Distribution Partners will carry the full range of Pipedream European top-sellers and will be servicing retailers with marketing support designed to increase brand exposure and boost sales.

A Pipedream spokesperson said the company looks forward to working with Orion, which joins Scala and Debranet in the program.

The Pipedream leadership team is proud to announce that Orion has been selected to join our Elite Distribution Partner program and bolster our international supply network, Pipedream CEO Matthew Matsudaira said. The Elite Distribution Partner program is one of the latest strategic investments in Pipedream, our international facilities, and adult retailers around the world. We appreciate the feedback and support weve received from our customers worldwide and look forward to continued improvement and expansion of Pipedreams global presence.

The launch of the Elite Distribution Partnership program follows the debut of Pipedreams brand-new distribution center in the Netherlands, which the company said was designed to help reduce customer lead times, allowing the European market to receive Pipedream shipments faster and more efficiently, with fortified customer service.

To learn more, contact a Pipedream representative or email [email protected].
Once seen as the bastion of free press and speech in Asia, Hong Kong now appears to be changing day by day.

Police detained the city's most prominent media tycoon and Beijing critic, Jimmy Lai, under the new national security law on Monday morning.

Hundreds of police officers also stormed the newsroom of his pro-democracy media outlet, Apple Daily, rummaging through documents on journalists' desks as Lai was led through the office with handcuffs.

Lai's arrest, for suspected collusion with foreign forces, is the highest-profile use of the sweeping new legislation, imposed by Beijing on June 30th following last years protests.

It is not clear what specific action led to the 72-year-olds arrest.

MORE: Beijing warns of consequences if Trump bans US deals with TikTok and WeChat

The law punishes anything Beijing deems subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with sentences of up to life in jail.

Apple Daily said Lai's son was detained along with executives at the paper.

PHOTO: Police officers stand guard outside the headquarters of Apple Daily and Next Media after media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, founder of Apple Daily was detained by the national security unit in Hong Kong, China August 10, 2020. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Hong Kong police confirmed that at least nine people, aged 23 to 72, were arrested on suspicion of breaching the new law.

The raid was live streamed on Apple Dailys official Facebook page.

A journalist who works at Apple Daily spoke to ABC News on condition of anonymity.

MORE: US sanctions Hong Kong leader, police commissioner, others for crackdown

He was expected to start work later in the day but received a message from his supervisor in the morning not to come into the office.

I was prepared for this day to come but I didnt expect it to come so quick and in the way that it did. The police were gravely intruding on journalists privacy and the confidentiality of their news materials, said the local Hong Kong resident.

He describes feeling sad, angry and scared over the ordeal.

Pro-democracy and press advocacy groups were quick to condemn Mondays events, with the Hong Kong Journalist Association warning journalists in the city to prepare for further crack downs on reporters.

Story continues

Hong Kongs Foreign Correspondents Club said it signaled a dark new phase in the erosion of the citys global reputation.

MORE: Hong Kong legislative elections postponed, democrats cry foul

Amnesty International called it a disturbing demonstration of how the Hong Kong authorities intend to use the new national security law to threaten press freedom.

The security law has been widely condemned by Western governments which accuse Beijing of breaking its promise of allowing the territory semi-autonomy under the "One Country, Two Systems" framework.

Mondays newsroom raid comes as reports emerge of a new unit within the Hong Kong Immigration Department that is now vetting foreign journalist work visas.

PHOTO: Police lead Hong kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai (C), 72, away from his home after he was arrested under the new national security law in Hong kong on August 10, 2020. (Vernon Yuen/AFP via Getty Images)

Later in the day it emerged that local freelance journalist, Wilson Li, was among those arrested.

Li, whose clients include UKs ITN, used to be a member of student activist group Scholarism.

Washington and Beijing have been engaged in a tit-for-tat spat over journalists as part of a wider cold war between the worlds two largest economies.

MORE: China orders US to close Chengdu consulate in retaliation to Houston closure

Also on Monday, Beijing rolled out expected retaliatory sanctions on 11 U.S. officials, including Republican senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.

Last week the U.S. announced sanctions on Chief Executive Carrie Lam and 10 other Hong Kong and Beijing officials.

Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Chinese state-run Global Times, said the arrest of Lai proves that the Hong Kong authorities wont be intimidated by the U.S. sanctions.

Hu tweeted that Washingtons punitive measures are pushing HK civil servants further to BeijingIn the future, the sanctions will also push the hearts and minds of entire HK society to the Chinese mainland, promoting Chinas unity."

The timing of todays raid and new round of sanctions is also raising eyebrows.

On Sunday U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar began his visit to Taiwan, something likely to irk Beijing, which considers the autonomous island a renegade province.

MORE: Hong Kongs new reality dawns as city feels chill of national security law

PHOTO: TOPSHOT - Police lead Hong kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai (C), 72, away from his home after he was arrested under the new national security law in Hong kong on August 10, 2020. (Vernon Yuen/AFP via Getty Images)

Veteran democrat Albert Ho told ABC News he believes the unprecedented scale of Monday's police raid is a retaliation, to show to the U.S. government about the anger arising from the imposition of sanctions.

Ho was charged along with Lai and more than 20 others last Friday for attending an event to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4.

Lai and Ho are part of what Chinese state-media have dubbed the "gang of four", accusing them of instigating unrest, along with Democratic Party founder Martin Lee and former chief secretary Anson Chan.

Ho said that he has long conceived the possibility that this long arm may extend to me.

Ho, who runs a law firm in the city, said, I wont allow myself to be scared and intimidated. I will stand firm that I have done nothing wrong against my country. Ive only advocated for my country to democratize and that one party dictatorship should be reformed into a democratic system.

'Dark new phase' in Hong Kong as pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai is arrested, his newsroom raided originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Celebrity chef and TV personality Rachael Rays home in upstate New York has been engulfed by flames.

According to a spokesperson, Ms Ray, her husband and her dog are all safe, though the damage to the house is yet to be fully assessed.

The fire reportedly began at around 7pm on Sunday night, and had soon spread to the whole house.

The multi-million-dollar home in Lake Luzerne, west of the city of Glens Falls, was reportedly designed by Ms Ray herself.

In a video for her show in April, she told the audience that she drew this house on a piece of paper and decorated it before it was ever built.

Ms Ray has been live-streaming cookery sessions during the coronavirus pandemic, using an enhanced internet connection to broadcast over Zoom.

Recommended Beyonce fans confuse Rachel Roy with TV chef Rachael Ray

There aint a lot of hair and make-up going on here, she told local station WNYT-TV, so its a different kind of intimacy that I think weve established with our viewers and honestly it feels good.




This order, published on Saturday in El Peruano official gazette, aims to adopt extraordinary measures in economic and financial matters in order to expand and guarantee operations at temporary care and isolation centers for COVID-19 patients called La Videnita (Piura region) and Cerro Juli (Arequipa region).





In addition, it guarantees the provision of personal protective equipment, medicines and the implementation of optimization investments aimed at facing the emergency caused by the spread of COVID-19.





Similarly, it (the decree) approves the transfer of S/11,783,880 (around US$3.318 million) to the Ministry of Labor and Employment Promotion to finance operations at the above-mentioned temporary care and isolation centers.

It also authorizes regional governments to make financial transfers to the National Center for Supply of Strategic Health Resources (Cenares) the logistics entity of the Ministry of Health (Minsa) from their institutional budgetary resources.





(END) RGP/RGP/RMB





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The Executive Branch has approved Urgency Decree 093-2020 , which is an extension of a previous mandate that introduces measures to expand the number of institutions providing health services and strengthen the health response within the framework of the state of emergency decreed to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.Publicado: 9/8/2020
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Cuyahoga County has hired its first woman to lead the beleaguered county jail, where the last two wardens tenures ended in accusations of misconduct.

Michelle Henry, an assistant warden at the Lorain Correctional Institution state prison, will make about $96,000 in her new position.

Cuyahoga County spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan said will start Aug. 31 at the jail, which is working on improvements after nine inmates died in an 11-month span in 2018 and 2019 and the U.S. Marshals Service found inhumane conditions .

The Ohio Attorney Generals Office launched a criminal probe that netted charges against more than a dozen officers for beating inmates, as well as a former warden for misconduct during an inmate death investigation and the former jail director, accused of negligently making decisions that made the jail unsafe.

Jail officers are also the subject of several lawsuits over accusations of misconduct, including beating inmates.

Madigan has not yet released Henrys resume, nor the resumes of the nine finalists for the job.

Henry has 25 years of corrections experience, according to the county.

At the Lorain prison, Henry was in charge of investigations, served as a liaison for outside law enforcement agencies and conducted security inspections and surveillance, according to a statement from the county.

Before that, she served as a correction specialist at the prison, where she supervised housing units and safety and sanitation inspections, among other duties, according to the county.

She will take over as the jail grapples with the coronavirus pandemic that saw a spike in inmate cases in April and May, but has since subsided.

The countys last warden, Gregory Croucher, resigned in April after a Cuyahoga County Inspector Generals investigation found he retaliated against officers who reported misconduct, slammed a handcuffed inmate to the wall and forced an employee to drive him to the airport while the employee was on the clock.

Croucher was one of several hires county officials made in an attempt to reform the jail. The county inspector general concluded that Croucher created a hostile work environment at the jail. His boss, jail director Rhonda Gibson, ordered him to self-quarantine after he came back from a trip to Costa Rica, but he walked into the jail without getting a coronavirus screening.

Croucher worked for just shy of eight months before resigning. His starting salary was $96,900.

He took over for the previous warden, Eric Ivey, who was initially demoted to associate warden over nepotism accusations because he supervised his wifes supervisor for two months.

Ivey, who was heavily criticized in the November 2018 U.S. Marshals report, ended his tenure at the jail in October after he pleaded guilty to obstructing an investigation into the drug overdose of an inmate and lying to investigators. He was sentenced to probation. Ivey ordered jail officers to turn off their body cameras in the wake of Joseph Arquillos Aug. 27, 2018, death so that evidence couldnt be used against the county in future court cases.

Part of his plea deal included that he resign from his position at the jail and cooperate with investigators in their on-going probe and to testify against others still facing trial, including former jail director Ken Mills.

Another employee  Martin Devring faces criminal charges in Arquillos deat. Arquillos son in May sued the county, Devring and Ivey.
TDT | Manama

Minister of Health Faeqa bint Saeed Al Saleh inaugurated yesterday the multi-storey car park at Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC). The state-of-the-art facility was developed by Bahrain Real Estate Investment Company (Edamah), the real-estate arm of Bahrains sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat. Government Hospitals board of trustees chairman Shaikh Hesham bin Abdulaziz Al Khalifa, Edamah chief executive Ameen Al Arrayed and the projects officials attended the opening ceremony.

The Health Minister said that the building will support the vital medical services delivered by SMC by providing the staff, patients and visitors with spacious and modern parking facilities with air-conditioned lobbies and glazed sliding doors for ease of movement. She added that the new facility meets the need for more parking space and improves the quality of services provided by SMC for the citizens and residents.

The Health Minister lauded the fruitful cooperation with Edamah, praising the companys accuracy, efficiency and success in completing the project according to schedule. The Edamah chief executive said that the completion of the project reflects the success of the companys investment and development strategies.

He added that the construction works of the project had been completed by the end of last month and was opened in August, as planned. Offering 600 car parking spaces built over an area of 7,410 square metres, the facility meets the increasing demand for more parking slots at SMC, improves the flow of traffic, and provides quick access to emergency centres. It also includes several service facilities that will serve SMCs staff, patients and visitors.
TDT | Manama

Representatives Council Speaker Fawzia bint Abdullah Zainal stressed moderation and balance characterising the foreign policy of the Kingdom, which has set a model in diplomatic work at the international level. She emphasised Bahrains keenness to promote international relations based on mutual trust, common interests and respect of countries sovereignty, and highlighted Bahrains comprehensive development in the prosperous era of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

The Speaker said this as she received in her office yesterday Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani to discuss local and international issues. She lauded the role of the Foreign Ministry in boosting relations with brotherly and friendly countries and promoting the Kingdoms outstanding and influential role in tackling global issues, mainly those pertaining to Arab and Islamic nations.

The Speaker praised the professionals working in the diplomatic field and their contributions to defending national interests and underlining the Kingdoms unwavering stances at local and international gatherings. The Foreign Minister asserted keenness on continuous cooperation with the legislative branch regarding issues of concern to Bahrain and its citizens.

He praised the efforts of the Representatives Council in backing national endeavours to map out and implement foreign policy, through the active role of parliamentary diplomacy. The Foreign Minister pointed out the Kingdoms advanced status in the international parliamentary community and its success in building strong relations with other parliaments in the world, to serve common interests.
How These Women Cartoonists Shaped the Flapper Image in the Roaring 20s

During the roaring 20s, cartoons featuring flappers were all the rage. And some of the best were actually drawn by the eras most talented women

WHEN FLAPPERS TOSSED their corsets and shore their locks in favor of short, slinky dresses, crisp bobs, and bold cosmetics in the 1920s, they introduced the world to the modern woman. These middle- and upper-class young ladies, newly armed with the right to vote and opportunities to work outside the home, were free in ways previous generations could only dream of. They proudly thumbed their noses at the bourgeois conventions of American life, openly defied social and sexual norms, and gleefully made art documenting their glamorous lives. But while men like F. Scott Fitzgerald are known for chronicling the lives of flappers in print, there was another category of folks putting pen to paper and illustrating these lives at the same time: female cartoonists, many of whom were flappers themselves. Their comics not only echoed the culture, they also informed it, helping to shape the aesthetics, aspirations, and dreams of millions of young American women.

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The newspaper was where you found out what was going on at that time, and contrary to what people think, there were lots of women drawing comics for the newspapers, says Trina Robbins, author of new book The Flapper Queens: Women Cartoonists of the Jazz Age, out July 7 from Fantagraphics. These rising art starsincluding Nell Brinkley, Eleanor Schorer, Edith Stevens, Ethel Hays, Dorothy Urfer, Fay King, and Virgina Hugetwould establish themselves as some of the most influential illustrators of the day, thanks to their strips popularity. Theres this myth that women didnt draw comics or that they had to change their names; this is untrue. If you were good, they published you, says Robbins. Women were drawing comics and people loved them. Just as many women read newspapers as men, and the editors were smart enough to carry the strips the women liked.

Women of the 20s reclaimed the title flapper from a slang term previously used to describe both very young prostitutes and theatrical dancers. But by the time the Charleston craze hit the nation in 1923, the word flapper had transformed into the perfect description of a young woman who had mastered the dances high-speed, flapping arm movements. It was also at that time that comic strip flappers became the go-to heroines for readers of daily newspapers, offering a captivating glimpse of a new female archetype: a liberated creature free to indulge her every whim and fantasy. As a feminist and a historian I am fascinated by the 20s, because if you take pictures of women from 1915 and compare them to photos of women from 1925, the 1925 women are smoking and drinking, putting on makeup, wearing dresses that go above the knee, says Robbins. While in 1915, any woman who did that would have been considered loose.

Nell Brinkley draws Fay King in 1924

The flapper comics inspired and empowered these newly liberated women. One of the most prominent cartoonists of the time was Nell Brinkley, and in her strip, Dimples Day Dreams, the heroine imagines becoming an aviator, a futurist artist, a chorus girl, a movie star, a socialite, and President of the United States. Before women got the vote, there were anti-suffragist cartoons, and feminists were portrayed as these dour, ugly old maids, Robbins says. Then women got the vote and Dimples fantasizes she is President; she is cute as a button and shes even wearing a pantsuit! Brinkley herself was something of a cartooning prodigy. Already an accomplished illustrator by age 16 in her native Denver, she was recruited by newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst when she was 21, moved to Brooklyn with her mother, and went on to illustrate for newspapers and magazines for almost 40 years.

The Hearst syndicate was also home to another darling of the flapper comics scene who would later collaborate with Brinkley. Just as adventurous as the flappers she drew, Fay King was one of the first women in her hometown of Portland, OR, to drive an automobile. And when she divorced her famous boxer husband Oscar Matthew Battling Nelson in 1916 at 27, it was a scandalous event widely covered in the press. By the time the flapper craze came around, King was based at Hearsts San Francisco Examiner, where she became an early creator of autobiographical comics. She depicted herself as a flapper with an independent spirit, clever banter, progressive womens-rights ideas, and an Olive Oyl silhouette, long before Popeye creator E.C. Segar popularized it. Her gangly, big-footed avatar appeared in a crossover with a Brinkley comic in 1924 in which Brinkley drew King and offered these words, Dont you worry about that pic of her she makes. She tells the truth about everything but her own self.

Detail from Virginia Hugets Mondays Child, from Sunday, 1936

Unlike Brinkley and King, who were both well into their 30s when the flapper craze took hold, Virginia Huget, who first started publishing in 1926 at age 27, was more of a contemporary of the young, liberated women she became famous for illustrating. A graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, she was perhaps the flappiest of them all with her euphoric figures drawn with sharp elbows and knees, as was the fashion. Unlike the other strips, Hugets girls came from working-class homes. There was Molly the Manicure Girl (1928), and Babs in Society (1927), a department-store clerk who unexpectedly inherits a fortune and is thrust into cafe society. The flapper was a star at the dawn of pop culture, Robbins says. She was a revolution. She was free. She was in control.

Nell Brinkleys Another Step (in Imagination) and She Becomes President from Dimples Day Dreams, 1928

detail from Ethel Hays Flapper Philosophy from Sunday, 1928; upper right and bottom: details from Nell Brinkleys Dimples Day Dreams, 1928

As the popularity for women-centric strips rose throughout the 20s, some publishers started recruiting female artists from unexpected places to meet demand. In 1923, H.B.R. Briggs, editor of the Cleveland Press, sent 31-year-old artist Ethel Hays an invitation to work at his paper after he saw some work she had submitted to a cartooning correspondence course. Hailing from Billings, MT, Hays taught painting to convalescing soldiers in Army hospitals during World War I, and it was those soldiers who first introduced her to comics. Once established, Hays was extremely prolific, producing a daily panel, Flapper Fanny Says, and a one-panel comic, Ethel. Her flappers were on the cutting edge of radical chic, their daring style matched only by their bravado, pluck, and willingness to openly confront the passe mores of patriarchal society.

In a similar vein, Edith Stevensthe only woman cartoonist at the Boston Post got her start when she entered the papers cartoon contest at age 29 in 1928. Although she didnt win the $50 prize, the Post scooped her up and put her on staff, starting her on a career that would last nearly four decades. Her daily comic, Us Girls, was dedicated to womens fashions, hairstyles, and pithy commentary on current events. Although she started Us Girls just seven months before Black Thursday, Stevens comics brilliantly captured the last hurrah of the flapper era.

Ultimately, the Great Depression put an end to the flappers youthful frolics, but these groundbreaking artists kept working, albeit on different subject matter. When you make gains, you try to keep them. You dont go back, Robbins explains. Maybe she couldnt dance the Charleston anymore because she was too busy earning a livingbut the flapper generation opened the door. The women now knew what they could do. They had to stand up for themselves and they did. They were proud of it.

Autobiographical Fay King strip, 1928

Edith Stevens Cuts from Us Girls, 1929

By Miss Rosen

Images courtesy of The Flapper Queens: Women Cartoonists Of The Jazz Age by Trina Robbins, Fantagraphics, 2020

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2020 print edition of BUST Magazine. Subscribe today!

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A black family detained and handcuffed at gunpoint in Colorado after police mistakenly thought their car was stolen believe they would've been treated differently if they were white, they said in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com.

Brittney Gilliam, 29, was driving the car with her six-year-old daughter Luvly Tubbs, her sister, Na'Kiya Jackson, 12, and two nieces, Emonne Gilliam, 17, and Teriana Thomas, 14, when Aurora cops detained them because they believed Gilliam was driving a stolen car.

Video of the family being put in handcuffs has since gone viral, as the young children can be heard screaming and crying in the parking lot of a thrift store on August 2.

Gilliam said she believes if they had been white, police wouldn't have escalated the situation by drawing their guns or having the youngsters lie face down on the hot ground to put handcuffs on them.

She told DailyMail.com: 'I get it, that sometimes the police have the wrong information and have to detain people while they check it out. But to detain a six-year-old child and make the child lie down on the hot pavement face down?'

'My child and the rest of the kids are scarred for life after this incident with the Aurora PD.'

Brittney Gilliam, 29, was driving her daughter, six, her 12-year-old sister and her two nieces, aged 14 and 17, when Aurora, Colorado cops detained on August 2. Police believed Gilliam was driving a stolen car, approaching the vehicle with their guns drawn. Pictured left to right: Gilliam; her nieces Teriana Thomas, 14, and Emonne Gilliam, 17; her daughter Luvly Tubbs, 6; and her sister Na'Kiya Jackson , 12

Video of the family being put in handcuffs has since gone viral, as the young children can be heard screaming and crying in the parking lot of a thrift store

Bystander footage shows four children, aged six, 12, 14 and 17, sitting on the ground of a parking lot

Single mother Gilliam, who works at the Denver County Jail in food services, said she wanted to have a nice day out with her young daughter, sister and two nieces, so she was treating them to a trip to the nail salon and to get ice cream afterwards.

'I wanted to take them to get our nails done, a Sunday fun day sort of thing,' she explained.

Gilliam said she drove to the nail salon near their house but wasn't sure it was open after driving into the parking lot, so she had her 17-year-old niece go check it out.

The niece came back and told her it was closed. Gilliam parked her car in the lot and was trying to find nail salons that were open on her cell phone.

'After about five minutes of looking up and calling other nail salons my niece told me that there were cop cars behind us,' Gilliam said.

My niece screamed out, no they got their guns drawn at us!

'I told her good for them, but my niece screamed out, no they got their guns drawn at us!'

Gilliam said her window was already down so she yelled out to the police, questioning why they had their guns drawn and asked what was going on.

But she said the police didn't respond to her questions, instead with guns pointed at them, they yelled for the family to put their hands out the window.

By this time Gilliam said there were several cops on both sides of the SUV with their guns pointed at her and the kids.

She then told the kids to get out of the vehicle as the police had instructed. One by one each of the minor children exited the SUV and got down on the hot parking lot pavement as instructed by the police.

Gilliam said she was the last to exit the SUV. She was handcuffed as well as her sister, Na'Kiya and niece, Emonne.

'They tried to handcuff my six-year-old but the cuffs wouldn't fit around her small wrists,' Gilliam said. Her other niece Teriana, who comforted little Luvly while she was crying and screaming for her mother, was not cuffed as well.

Gilliam said she believes if they had been white, police wouldn't have escalated the situation by drawing their guns and having the youngsters lie face down on the hot pavement to put handcuffs on them

Gilliam said she sat in the back of the police vehicle for about 10 minutes before hearing police dispatch on the radio saying they were cleared. 'As soon as I heard we were cleared I started yelling for the police officer to release my kids and take off their handcuffs and take off my cuffs,' Gilliam explained. Pictured: The blue SUV police believed was stolen

In the meantime, Gilliam was handcuffed and face down on the ground, but two police officers eventually came over and rolled her over so she could sit up.

She said she asked several times why she was being arrested and was finally told the vehicle was stolen.

Gilliam explained her vehicle had been stolen back in February but the police had recovered it and everything was all clear.

But the police didn't believe Gilliam and put her in the back of a police car. By this time Gilliam's daughter and her younger relatives were in full panic mode.

Hearing them scream broke Gilliam's heart, knowing they were frightened to see her handcuffed and put in the back of a police car, but she couldn't do anything about it.

'I just wanted to console the kids and tell them everything was going to be okay but the police wouldn't let me go near them,' she said.

Gilliam said she sat in the back of the police vehicle for about 10 minutes before hearing police dispatch on the radio saying they were cleared.

'As soon as I heard we were cleared I started yelling for the police officer to release my kids and take off their handcuffs and take off my cuffs,' Gilliam explained.

The next day Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson (pictured) called Gilliam and made a 'half-hearted apology' in a phone call that lasted fewer than three minutes, Gilliam said

'The police took the handcuffs off Emonne and Na'Kiya and I heard the younger ones crying. I yelled to my kids to call their grandpa and tell him what was going on and told my nieces to call their mother.

'At this time I was screaming at the police to release me, but they wouldn't.'

A police officer told her they were going to keep her in the backseat handcuffed a 'little bit more until she calmed down' and he also wanted to wait for his sergeant to arrive at the scene.

Gilliam informed the officer that 'this is the calmest I'm ever going to get, you're not going to get me any calmer at this point because you detained my family and you accused us of stealing a vehicle,' and he needed to release her that moment.

But still, Gilliam said it took another two minutes until cops took off her handcuffs. She thinks her family were in handcuffs for nearly 15 minutes during the ordeal.

Gilliam said she later spoke with a sergeant and a lieutenant who both apologized to her, but 'they were trying to justify their actions of making my children get down on the ground and drawing guns at them and placing them in handcuffs.'

Gilliam said she was held at the parking lot for nearly two hours before she was allowed to leave, saying at one point 14 Aurora Police vehicles were on the scene.

The next day Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson called Gilliam and made a 'half-hearted apology' in a phone call that lasted fewer than three minutes, Gilliam said. She also offered to pay for therapy for the children.

'Chief Wilson told me that it was a 'license plate' reader that flagged my vehicle as stolen.' But Gilliam isn't buying the Aurora PD story.

Emonne, 17, (second from left) said she was in handcuffs for about 15 minutes and all of the girls were patted down by a male police officer. Teriana, 14, (far left) said she was freaking out while holding the hand of her six-year-old cousin who was sobbing for her mother. Na'Kiya, 12, (far right) said she was frightened and scared when she was placed in handcuffs. Emonne said after her interaction with police she'll never call them for anything in the future

DailyMail.com left a message for Chief Wilson about her short phone call with Gilliam. Hours later the Aurora PIO called back and said Chief Wilson may not be available for an interview until 'sometime late next week' then emailed back Chief Wilson's statement that was originally sent out earlier in the week (pictured)

DailyMail.com left a message for Chief Wilson about her short phone call with Gilliam. Hours later the Aurora PIO called back and said Chief Wilson may not be available for an interview until 'sometime late next week' then emailed back Chief Wilson's statement that was originally sent out earlier in the week.

Gilliam said she is most disturbed about how police treated her family and believes that race factored into some of the actions by the Aurora PD that day.

Gilliam believes that if they were white, police would have never made the younger children lie face down on the pavement and handcuff them.

She said: 'If we were white, I think they would have treated it as a regular traffic stop. At any point during this they could have taken the young kids away instead of making them sit on the ground handcuffed like criminals, they could have changed the route at any point but they didn't.'

She said the kids have been left 'very traumatized' by the incident and haven't been sleeping and rarely eating. 'The first night they couldn't sleep at all I had to make them go to bed.'

Gilliam said she is in the process of scheduling therapy sessions for the kids.

'I'm hoping that will help them out with their trauma. They were forced to see the police in a way they should have never seen them.

The police need better training. They shouldn't have had a six-year-old girl face down on the pavement.

The younger children admitted they now fear police officers.

Emonne, 17, said she was in handcuffs for about 15 minutes and all of the girls were patted down by a male police officer. 'I was wondering why we were being detained. My little cousin was crying for her mother.'

Teriana, 14, said she was freaking out while holding the hand of her six-year-old cousin who was sobbing for her mother.

Na'Kiya, 12, said she was frightened and scared when she was placed in handcuffs.

Emonne said after her interaction with police she'll never call them for anything in the future.

Teriana said she believes they were treated differently because they are black, saying: 'I don't want to base this on racism but it's true. I can't get the screams from my cousins out of my mind. What these police officers did to us changed our life.

'The police need better training. They shouldn't have had a six-year-old girl face down on the pavement.'

Emonne said a police officer later apologized to her and Na'Kiya but neither of them accepted their apology.

Gilliam said before this incident she was in the process of applying to be a Denver County Deputy Sheriff, but said she's now going to have to put it on hold and decide if she really wants to be a police officer.

The Aurora Police Department has had its share of controversy this past year. In August 2019, 23-year old Elijah McClain died after Aurora PD put him in a chokehold after they claimed he 'resisted arrest.' McClain died two days later

Police confronted McClain after receiving reports of a man who looked 'sketchy'

Gilliam has hired famed Denver civil rights attorney David Lane from the law firm Kilmer, Lane and Newman, saying: 'It's not about compensation from the Aurora Police Department. I want my humanity back. I want these kids' humanity back. You dehumanized us. We are people. We are humans,' she said.

David Lane told DailyMail.com exclusively: 'If there is any police department in America that needs defunding or complete abolition it's the Aurora Police department.

'Aurora PD is well-known for their civil rights abuse. They are frequent flyers in Federal court with civil rights violations, this isn't my first interaction with them and sure it won't be my last.'

Lane said he will be filing a civil rights lawsuit against the APD in the next couple of weeks on behalf of Gilliam and the four other girls.

Asked about his thoughts on the hiring of new Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson, Lane chuckled and quoted a line in the song Won't Get Fooled Again by The Who, saying: 'Meet the new boss same as the old boss.'

'I don't have a lot of faith in APD, they are robo cops, no thinking permitted,' Lane added.

The Aurora Police Department has had its share of controversy this past year.

In August 2019, 23-year old Elijah McClain died after Aurora PD put him in a chokehold after they claimed he 'resisted arrest.' McClain died two days later.

After McClain's story went viral this year in the wake of George Floyd's death, the Aurora Police Department fired two of the three officers who posed photos mocking McClain's death. The other officer resigned.

The photo shows the officers reenacting the chokehold used on McClain. One of the officers involved in McClain's death was also fired after he received the tasteless picture and replied, 'Ha, Ha.'
A missing 12-year-old girl has been found dead in the west of Scotland after a police search at a river on Sunday evening.

Police Scotland said its officers were called to a report of a girl being in difficulty in the River Leven, near Balloch Bridge, West Dunbartonshire, at about 6.45pm last night.

Emergency services attended and searches were carried out. Around 9.45pm, the young girl was recovered from the water, Police Scotland said in a statement.

Sadly she was pronounced dead at the scene.

West Dunbartonshire Police, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency all confirmed they were involved in the search and asked the public to avoid the area.

The childs family have been informed of her death.

Enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances of the incident, but the death is not being treated as suspicious and a full report will be sent to the Procurator Fiscal, Police Scotland added.

It came as HM Coastguard dealt with a surge in incidents over the weekend as the UK experienced a heatwave.

The service said it responded to 340 incidents on Saturday across the whole of the UK - the highest number of call-outs in a single day for well over four years.

The Coastguard co-ordinated search and rescue responses for a wide range of incidents, such as people being cut off by the tide and children swept out to sea on inflatables.

In total, the service rescued 146 people and assisted a further 371.

On Sunday, police said a woman in her 30s had died after getting into difficulties in the sea off Norfolk coast.

A woman, aged in her 30s, was recovered from the water and she was sadly pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. Her death is being treated as unexplained but not suspicious, Superintendent Jason Broome from Norfolk Constabulary said.

While enquiries are continuing to establish the exact circumstances leading up to the woman's death, this is a tragic situation and our condolences are with her family.

Additional reporting by PA
Ithaca, N.Y.  Multiple gunshots were fired into the water during a dispute between two people at Stewart Park in Ithaca late Sunday afternoon.

Ithaca police were called to the park around 5:16 p.m., where police say a male fired the gunshots during a dispute with a female.

The two left the scene in a tan or silver van, police said. No injuries were reported.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Ithaca Police Department at (607) 330-0000.
Twenty-two panelists from the CSOs in China and the European nations joined the Zoom meeting and shared their initiatives of response during the lockdown and discussed the after-pandemic challenges that they were facing. The need for global collaborations between CSOs was stressed to accelerate the progress of realizing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
New York - This years Equator Prize Award Ceremony  themed Nature for Life  will honour ten outstanding Indigenous and local groups from across the world. Each winner showcases innovative, nature-based solutions for tackling biodiversity, climate change, and poverty challenges. The event highlights concrete responses and practical solutions to the environmental crisis from Indigenous peoples and local communities all over the world.

During the pandemic, calls for green recovery have been loud and clear, and the world is hungry for nature-based solutions. The ten winners of the Equator Prize 2020 provide blueprints for addressing the socioeconomic crisis caused by COVID-19 at the local level with green approaches.

"Indigenous peoples and local communities are vulnerable and have been hit heavily by the pandemic. At the same time, their resilience and ingenuity in the stewardship over their traditional territories show the pathway to sustainable development at the local level", said Jamison Ervin, Manager, UNDPs Global Program on Nature for Development, Bureau for Policy and Programme Support.

"We look forward to celebrating the achievements of the winners - each of them demonstrating how the protection, restoration, and sustainable management of natural ecosystems can provide clean water, protect our climate, and contribute to prosperity."

The high-profile event, held virtually this year, will feature award presentations, videos on winning initiatives, community statements and government commitments, as well as musical and cultural performances. The Ceremony will be held on September 29th, in conjunction with the UN Biodiversity Summit on September 30th and the UN General Assembly (both also virtual).

Countries featured in the Ceremony include: Canada, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mexico, Myanmar and Thailand. For a full list of winning communities, please visit https://www.equatorinitiative.org/2020/06/02/meet-the-winners-of-the-equator-prize-2020/

More specific details on roster of presenters, time and links to follow.

Interviews with Equator Prize winners and select speakers are available on request. For media requests please contact: Sangita Khadka, sangita.khadka@undp.org and Lesley Wright, lesley.wright@undp.org.

More information on the Equator Prize is available here.

An in-depth analysis of the significance of this years winners is available here.

Follow the Equator Initiative on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
File photo: The U.S. conducts the test of a medium-range ground-launched cruise missile.

By Hu Xiaodao

The US has gone further down the path of withdrawing from international treaties and organizations in the past year. It has revoked the signing of the Arms Trade Treaty, exited the Open Skies Treaty, unilaterally relaxed the control standard over drone export imposed by the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), and dragged its feet on renewing the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START). The headstrong and reckless actions by US administration have caused severe concerns in the international community and may exert substantial negative effects on global security situation.

The international community is worried about US capricious actions.

The international community has constantly voiced concerns over Washington's capricious behaviors in the past year.

America's withdrawal from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) will cause the "most negative impact" on international security situation, said Sergey Ryabkov, Russia's deputy foreign minister. Russian deputy defense minister Alexander Fomin also pointed out that Washington had long planned to back out of the INF Treaty, so the responsibility falls completely on the American side, whose consistent rejection to perform its responsibilities for arms control is aimed to maintain its military dominance.

America's withdrawal from the INF Treaty is a serious mistake, claimed an official statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry on August 3. After withdrawal from the treaty, Washington has been taking fast steps to complete its weapon development which is previously been limited, and publicly announced to deploy advanced missiles in the Asia-Pacific region, while also not ruling out the deployment in Europe. The US deployment of medium-range and medium-to-short-range missiles across the world will undermine regional and global stability and trigger a new round of nuclear arms race.

According to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the termination of the INF Treaty will cost the world "an invaluable brake on nuclear war" with mounting threats from ballistic missiles. Several members of the UN Security Council have stressed the damages to international peace and security caused by US frequent test launches of medium-range missiles, and the negative impacts on global arms control efforts exerted by the invalidation of the INF Treaty. The German Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying that the termination of the treaty will affect Europe's security and may lead to a new nuclear arms race.

Dim prospects on arms control.

In general, its exit from INF Treaty last year and the continuous missile test launches and tearing up of treaties in the past year have fully exposed Washington's true color of upholding unilateralism and seeking military hegemony, which has seriously damaged world and regional peace and security, disrupted the process of international arms control and disarmament, poisoned major-country mutual trust, and undermined global strategic stability. It's unlikely that the US will put a brake on its capricious actions on arms control, making the global arms control and security situation very pessimistic.

On the one hand, the current arms control system can hardly sustain. The termination of INF Treaty leaves New START the only arms control treaty between Washington and Moscow, which, to expire in 2021, is intended to limit the two countries' deployment of nuclear warheads and number of carrier vehicles. The US-Russian arms control dialogue in Vienna, Austria, in June this year failed to achieve anything substantial on issues such as the renewal of New START, mainly because of the US' passive attitude. If the two sides failed to agree on the renewal of the treaty, the current international arms control system will be on the verge of collapse, causing inestimable consequences.

On the other hand, regional security situation is faced with major challenges. As the comment goes, America's exit from INF Treaty will lift all restrictions on medium-range missiles and multiply threats to global security and stability". The National Interest, an American magazine, recently published an article on its website saying that the age of tactical ballistic missile is arriving with the termination of INF Treaty and America's accelerated development and deployment of medium-range missiles.

Going forward, Washington's deployment of medium-range missiles in Asia Pacific and Europe may incur strong countermeasures from relevant countries, plunging the international security situation to an abyss of grave challenges.
The on Monday said further hearing was required in the 2009 criminal contempt case against activist-lawyer and journalist

A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said that it will hear the matter and deal with the issue of whether comment on corruption against judges per se amounted to contempt or not.

The bench, also comprising justices B R Gavai and Krishna Murari, has posted the matter for hearing on August 17.

The top court had in November 2009 issued contempt notice to Bhushan and Tejpal for allegedly casting aspersions on some sitting and former top court judges in an interview to a news magazine. Tejpal was then editor of the magazine.

On August 4, the apex court had made clear to Bhushan and Tejpal that it would hear the case against them, if it does not accept their explanation" or "apology in the matter.
Federal officials will be shielded from direct scrutiny at the NSW inquiry into the Ruby Princess cruise ship amid accusations the Morrison government has failed to co-operate with the investigation.

The federal decision means the special commission will have to report without being able to question two federal officers who helped clear the ship to disembark 2700 passengers in Sydney in March.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says his government is co-operating with an inquiry into the spread of COVID-19 from the Ruby Princess. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen, Edwina Pickles

Commissioner Bret Walker has issued a legal summons to hear testimony from one of the officials, a Department of Agriculture worker who granted permission for the ship to enter port, but was rebuffed again on Monday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison promised to co-operate with the inquiry on April 21 and insisted on Monday he had done so, but he did not explain why the two officials should not appear to give evidence.
The Centre has again urged the West Bengal government to allow entry of 2,680 inhabitants of the state stranded in neighbouring Bangladesh since the announcement of the lockdown across India in March, a senior official said on Sunday.

The central government had made a similar request a few weeks back to let the people enter through two of the six land borders with Bangladesh, he said.

Our Mission in Dhaka has once again reported that 2,399 people are seeking to return to West Bengal from Bangladesh through the Petrapole-Benapole integrated checkpost and further 281 citizens are seeking to do so through the Phulbari-Banglabandha land border, Additional Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Vikram Doraiswami said in a letter to Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha.

The people stranded in Bangladesh are living in extreme distress, including sheltering in school verandah or public parks, it said.

Most of them are either unskilled or semi-skilled labourers who had gone to the neighbouring country to see their relatives, the official said.

The state government is considering the request of the Centre and working out the modalities, he said.

The central government must ensure that health screening of the stranded people is carried out before they board the trains, the official added.

The ministry, meanwhile, has also written to the Railways to consider the option of running special trains to bring the people back from Bangladesh.
Intel reports have revealed that Pakistani Army Special Service Group (SSG) commandos are now giving arms training to Talibani and Afghani terrorists in secret places of Afganistan. The report added that these terrorists are planning to launch attacks on security establishment and patrolling party in Jammu and Kashmir.

According to intel report, the influx of Taliban/Afghan terrorists means more threats of terror attacks in India in the future. The report also claimed that different terrorist outfits in Kashmir were working in tandem with each other to launch terror attacks in the valley and facilitate infiltration of terrorists from Pakistan.

Some call intercepts have revealed the increase in the presence of Talibani/Afgani/Pathani terrorist at LoC. Intel report has also revealed 22% increase in movement of terrorists at various launch pads near LoC. Also there was notable increase in movement of terrorists in Naushera sector, Bimber Gali sector, KG sector, Karan sector and Poonch Sector.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that Pakistan's notorious spy agency ISI is recruiting women Over Ground Works (OGW) to attack security forces in Jammu and Kashmir in order to protect terrorists from the Indian security agencies.

It has been revealed from the report of security agencies that since the terrorists in Kashmir are finding it tough to receive funds from Pakistan due to strong steps taken by Indian government, the ISI has devised a tiffin box plan to fund the terrorists.

Recently, Jammu police had arrested a young man from a Doda who used to send money to Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists using tiffin boxes. Police has foiled a major plan of the terrorists by seizing Rs 1.5 lakh from tiffin box which was in possession of the arrested man.
MBABANE - Why would legislators want the Hosea MP to be arrested? He must bring evidence to prove his claims.

This sums up the submission made by Motshane Member of Parliament (MP) Robert Magongo yesterday. Magongo was responding to the startling allegations made by the Hosea MP, Bacede Mabuza, against some of his colleagues. However, he did not mention any names. MP Mabuza was quoted by the weekend publications having alleged that there were factions in Parliament and that a certain clique was behind his arrest.

The vocal legislator, who made headlines during debates of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA) of 2018, claimed that a certain group was behind his arrest. MP Mabuza was arrested last Wednesday, resulting in him missing the Senate elections after he was detained by the police pending his court appearance on Thursday. At the time of his arrest, Mabuza was a strong supporter of his brother Sifiso, who aspired to replace the late Senator Mike Temple in Senate.

Disqualified

However, Sifiso was disqualified after police vetting pointed out alleged anomalies regarding his tax returns. MP Mabuza stated that his imminent arrest appeared to him in a vision. As a result, he stated that he informed 22 MPs about what was likely to happen. This was during a luncheon the MP had with his counterparts in Matsapha. MP Magongo, when reacting to MP Mabuzas statement, said as far as he was concerned, all MPs were equal and no one undermined the other. I think Bacede is a seasoned politician. If he talks about certain MPs, let him mention them so that we can also know them. Who would want him arrested? What has he done? asked Magongo, when expressing an element of shock. He stated that if MP Bacede knew something about an agenda in Parliament, it would be best that he mentioned it.

MP Magongo mentioned that as far as he was concerned, his colleague in MP Bacede, had a platform where he could address such issues as opposed to him speaking outside the parameters of Parliament. He stated that Parliament could take the necessary procedure if the matter was addressed on the right platform. He made an example that Parliament, through relevant structures, could go to an extent of initiating a commission of enquiry to ascertain the allegations if need be.
A s student digs go, a Mayfair apartment that once hosted Jackie Onassis is about as far from undergraduate squalor as it is possible to imagine.

But a Saudi billionaire is believed to have set a world record by paying 18.6 million for a vast flat for his daughter to live in while she completes her course in London.

The extraordinary deal, which will give the fortunate student a choice of five bedrooms to sleep in, was put together in 24 hours last week by specialist Mayfair estate agent Peter Wetherell.

The identity of the buyer has not been disclosed but is understood to be one of the Middle Easts wealthiest businessmen.

Jeremy Gee, managing director of agency Beauchamp Estates, which was also involved in selling the property overlooking Grosvenor Square, said: The 18.6 million sale of the former Onassis residence in Grosvenor Square in Mayfair shows that global high-net-worth buyers still see prime London luxury property as a good long-term investment.

The deal is cloaked in secrecy but we understand that the apartment has sold to a Middle East buyer, a Saudi billionaire buying for his daughter.

It is interesting that since Covid-19 all the ultra-prime deals have either been for houses or for full-floor apartments like this one or penthouses where buyers can carefully control access and do not have to share access to their homes with neighbours.

The luxury apartment has five bedrooms and three reception rooms

The first-floor apartment has over 5,000 sq ft of living space, more than 70 times bigger than the 70 sq ft minimum allowed for a student bedroom.

Features not normally standard for university accommodation include a 60-foot balcony and south-facing terrace, an entrance hall, family kitchen, library, guest powder room and walk-in storage room.

There are also five bathrooms and three reception rooms with ceiling heights of more than 10ft.

The apartment, which first came on the market last summer priced at 25 million, was formerly the London pied-a-terre of Artemis Onassis, sister of Greek billionaire Aristotle, and her husband Theodore Garoufalidis, who was president of Olympic Airways.

It was frequently visited in the Sixties and Seventies by the former first lady, whose first husband President John F Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, as well as her sister, the socialite Princess Lee Radziwill.

According to journalist and Kennedy historian J Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie used the apartment  close to the then American embassy, to be close to her daughter Caroline Kennedy, who was studying in London at the time.

The Onassis family bought the apartment from Sir John Anderson, Winston Churchills wartime home secretary and chairman of the Royal Opera House, where he hosted stars such as Greek soprano Maria Callas  who became Aristotle Onassiss lover.

Confirming the deal, Peter Wetherell, founder and chairman of agents Wetherell said: The landmark sale of the ambassadorial 5,000 sqft Onassis residence at 47 Grosvenor Square, in a 18.6 million deal done in under 24 hours, shows the continuing appeal by global wealth for trophy London properties.

Ultra-high-net-worth buyers from around the world are currently wanting to acquire trophy properties of this type in Mayfair which will soon be in short supply.

This is due to Westminster City Councils new planning brief, which will prohibit the building of new homes of over 2,155 sq ft. These planning changes mean that the pipeline supply of these type of large Ambassadorial residences will diminish over time.
Family of three missing labourers from Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir have alleged that the missing trio were killed in a staged encounter in south Kashmir's Shopian district on July 18.

Saleem Ahmad, cousin of one of the missing civilians Ibrar Ahmad, told News18 that he identified his cousin and two other relatives through circulated photographs of militants killed in an encounter on July 18 in Amshipora village of south Kashmirs Shopian district.

They are my relatives. The one in the centre of the photograph (of the alleged militants) is my cousin Ibrar Ahmad, while the other two are his relatives, Saleem Ahmad said. Ahmad is one of the relatives of the missing teenager from Rajouri district.

A missing complaint was filed in the district police station Rajouri by the families of the missing trio on Sunday. Police officers confirmed that they have registered a missing report and are investigating the matter.

The trio has been identified as Imtiaz Ahmed, aged 25 years, son of Sabir Hussain, the teenaged Ibrar Ahmed(16), son of Bagha Khan and Ibrar Ahmed(20), son of Mohammad Yousuf.

The family claimed that the three had left their homes on the morning of July 17 and trekked to Shopian through mountains. They said the trio had spoken to their families in the evening.

They called us up saying that they have reached Shopian at around 7:30 pm, Naseeb Ahmad, a relative of one of the deceased told News18.

Since then we had no contact with them. We tried to reach them but their phones were switched off, Ahmad said.

Guftar Ahmed Chowdhary, a social activist from Rajouri told News18 that the family members of the trio waited for so many days with the apprehension that they might have been put under quarantine due to the Covid-19.

J&K police had said that on a specific input by 62RR of army about presence of terrorists in village Amshipora area of District Shopian, an operation was launched and during the search the terrorists fired upon the army personnel and an encounter ensued."

Later on police and CRPF had also joined, the press statement said, adding that "during encounter three unidentified terrorists were killed.

The identification and affiliation of the slain militants, police said, was being retrieved.

Incriminating materials, including arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of encounter, the police added in the press release.

The dead bodies, police mentioned, were sent to Baramulla for their last rites after conducting medico-legal formalities including collection of their DNA.

In case any family claims the killed terrorists to be their kith or kin, they can come forward for their identification and participation in last rites at Baramulla, the police press release stated.

Police had also registered an FIR (No. 42/2020) at Police Station Hirpora and stated that

an investigation has been initiated into the matter.

Police told us that they have started investigation and we are yet to hear, Saleem Ahmad said.

SSP Shopian, Amrit Pal Singh didnt respond to the calls from News18.

Srinagar based Defense spokesperson Rajesh Kalia said, We have noted social media inputs linked to the operation at Shopian on 18 Jul 2020. The three terrorists killed during the operation have not been identified and the bodies were buried based on established protocols. The army is investigating the matter.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, who is detention since August 2019 reacted on Twitter to the news saying that she is shocked to hear that they have been killed in a staged encounter. The twitter handle is being operated by Muftis daughter, Iltija Mufti.

Shocked to hear about reports of 3 missing labourers reportedly killed in a staged encounter at Shopian. Armed forces have a free hand to operate with impunity. Explains why bodies are allowed to decompose at unknown locations.Probes into recent encounters must be ordered, Mufti tweeted.

Under the new policy, police doesnt identify the body of militants and doesnt give body of the slain to the family members due to the Covid-19.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday called the reports of three missing labourers killed in a staged encounter at Shopian as shocking.

"The encounter has raised questions on all such encounters in recent months especially in view of the new decision not to identify bodies, or hand them over to families and bury them reportedly in remote, inaccessible, unidentified places. In order to justify its repressive, unconstitutional, inhuman and extremely violent measures upon the people of Kashmir, all government of India needs is a militancy narrative," the statement read.
Police have fined 276 people  the highest number of penalties in a fortnight  for breaching Melbourne's coronavirus restrictions.

A couple visiting a playground more than five kilometres from their home because they were "sick of walking around their local area" with their children are among the latest to receive a penalty.

The man and woman travelled to Wyndham in Melbourne's outer west with their children, police said.

Other people fined for breaching stage four rules included a man crossing Edgevale Road in Kew, in Melbourne's inner east, on Sunday evening. He was stopped by police and stated he was just getting cigarettes, despite being aware of the curfew.
Prime Minister faces pressure to call for new elections and implement constitutional reforms as demonstrations return.

Students and other anti-government demonstrators plan to stage more rallies in the Thai capital, Bangkok, on Monday as they step up pressure on Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to call for new elections and implement constitutional reforms.

The latest wave of protests reflects growing anger among many young people towards the Prayuth administration. The former army chief took power in a 2014 coup, then remained in office after an election in 2019 many saw as heavily rigged in his favour.

After a period of relative calm in the countrys fractious politics, prolonged by lockdowns to combat the coronavirus pandemic, things are heating up again.

Many protests have been held on school and university campuses in Bangkok and other cities.

Over the weekend, hundreds of student protesters accused the government of attempting to stifle growing dissent following the arrest of two leading activists.

On Saturday, more than 1,000 people protested in Bangkok after human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa and student activist Panupong Jadnok were arrested and held overnight. They were later released on bail.





Protesters packed a concourse near a shopping mall in central Bangkok to hear speeches denouncing the arrests and calling for the prime minister to resign.

Tensions rose briefly as police officers moved in, telling the crowd they were only observing. They withdrew to a chorus of boos and chants for them to get out.

Police had arrested Arnon, a leading figure in the burgeoning protest movement, on Friday, charging him with sedition and defying an emergency decree imposed to control the coronavirus.

Critics say the emergency decree is actually being used to stifle political dissidents.

A second activist, Panupong, was also detained. Both men appeared in court on Saturday in Bangkok before they were granted bail.

Arnon and Panupong appeared in good health when they exited the court and pledged to continue protesting.

We will join protests that are in accordance with the constitution, Arnon said.

Meanwhile, the Student Union of Thailand in a Facebook post said three student activists were being held at a police station to prevent them from joining activities in the northern province of Phitsanulok. The authorities denied this.

There is nothing here, who can hold them? On what authority can we hold them? Wisarnpong Soikunbodi, director of Border Patrol Police Sub Division 31, which oversees the station, told Reuters news agency.

In the northern province of Chiang Mai, where Arnon was scheduled to speak on Sunday, some 50 police officers were observing the protest, according to a social media post by the legal group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.
The Texas Rangers, fabled guardians of the Texas frontier, were almost absurdly brave, extraordinarily tough and, as Doug Swanson notes in his new book about the legendary lawmen, practically immune to danger. Battling fierce Comanches, chasing outlaws, serving as swashbuckling soldiers during the Mexican War and patrolling the perilous border with Mexico, they risked their lives as a matter of course. Some lost their lives.

But the oldest - and certainly the best known - state law enforcement agency in the country, also have been, in Swansons words, violent instruments of repression. They terrorized Mexicans and Mexican Americans, hunted runaway slaves for bounty, busted unions, enforced school segregation and, Swanson writes, served the interests of the moneyed and powerful while oppressing the poor and disenfranchised. They have been the army of Texass ruling class.

The author of Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers makes the compelling case that both characterizations are correct.

Swanson, formerly an award-winning reporter with the Dallas Morning News and now a journalism professor at the University of Pittsburgh, didnt set out to puncture the substantial myth of the vaunted Rangers. He didnt really know what the story would be when he began his research more than five years ago.

Generally, the idea was to get behind the myth a little bit, he told me by phone a couple of days ago from his home in Pittsburgh. I didnt know that much about the Rangers. I had worked with then several times as a reporter. They were good guys, did good work.

One story in particular, he says, set off a light bulb. In the decades before the Civil War, Texas had its own Underground Railroad, with desperate runaway slaves making their treacherous way to South Texas and across the Rio Grande. Mexico had outlawed slavery in 1829. Although professional slave hunters roamed the border region, they werent rounding up enough fugitives to satisfy angry Texas planters.

Ranger Captain James H. Callahan, a Georgia native who had served as a soldier in the Texas Revolution, decided he could remedy that problem - and pocket a parcel of cash, as well. Texas slaveholders had raised a bounty pool of some $20,000 to pay for the return of runaways.

Rangers had been tracking down fugitive slaves on the Texas side of the border for years, but Callahan concocted a more ambitious plan. In September 1855, he led a force of approximately 130 men in an audacious invasion of Mexico, crossing the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass. Ten miles in, a force of about 500 men, Mexicans and Indians, met the renegade Rangers. After a brief engagement that killed four members of Callahans company, the Texans high-tailed it back to the river - for lack of ammunition, they said. On their way back, they looted the desperately poor Mexican village of Piedras Negras before burning it to the ground.

Callahan came home a hero, having vanquished Indians whose demonic hands, in his words, are still wet with the blood of Texan women and children. The myth-makers didnt mention Piedras Negras.

After Callahan was shot to death by a disgruntled Blanco County neighbor in 1856, a Texas lawmaker and former Ranger captain named John Henry Brown rose from his desk on the House floor to sing the fallen Rangers praises. Brown, who as a lawmaker had pushed for the resumption of the African slave trade and who warned that a free negro population is a curse to any people, reminded the House that a new county in West Texas needed a name. Thus, we have Callahan County east of Abilene, named in honor of a Ranger hero.

The more Swanson researched, the more he came across Ranger misdeeds, a number of them horrendous. They rarely came to light because the Rangers operated what Swanson calls a fable factory through which many of their greatest defeats, worst embarrassments, and darkest moments were recast as grand triumphs. He adds: They didnt merely whitewash the truth. They destroyed it.

Despite uncovering what seemed to be a pattern of atrocities, brutality and corruption, Swanson would be the first to admit that bravery bordering on foolhardiness is an integral part of the Ranger DNA. Consider, for example, the story of Cicero Rufus Rufe Perry, who became a Ranger in 1836 at age 14.

On a hot August afternoon in 1844, Perry and three other Rangers were looking for horse thieves along the Nueces River when they were ambushed by about 25 Comanches. An arrow burrowed into the young mans left shoulder, a second into his stomach, a third stuck in his temple. His fellow Rangers, perhaps thinking he was dead, took his gun and fled across the river on their horses. Perry passed out.

When he came to, he hid in a thicket, where he pushed his head against dirt and small sticks to stanch the bleeding. He could hear the Comanches talking nearby. After dark, unable to stand but desperately thirsty, he crawled back to the river, about 200 yards away. It took him all night, he recalled, to get to the wattor. The next day, he began an agonizing walk eastward toward the main Ranger camp a hundred miles away. Seven days later, dehydrated and near death, he stumbled into San Antonio.

I was like one risen from the dead, Perry recalled. At one point during his three-month recuperation, a surgeon cut out the arrow point that had burrowed into his head.

Rufe Perry, Jack Hays, Samuel Walker, Rip Ford, Ben McCulloch, Bigfoot Wallace and all the other legendary Rangers lived and died a long time ago. Their proud counterparts today are members of a small elite force that specializes in suspected cases of public corruption, among other contemporary law-enforcement operations. A 1957 state law guarantees that the Rangers can never be abolished, but the agency has certainly had to adapt.

The publication of Swansons book coincides, of course, with a remarkable moment of iconoclastic reassessment, in Texas and across the nation. Confederate flags are being furled; Confederate statues are being toppled. Military bases named for Confederate generals are likely to be renamed. In Dallas, the larger-than-life Texas Ranger statue that towered over the lobby at Love Field since 1961 has been trundled away (apparently because of Swansons book).

Why does it matter, I asked Swanson, that the myth doesnt tell the whole story? Todays Rangers arent rampaging through poor South Texas villages. Theyre not harassing farm workers in Starr County or launching probes of the NAACP and other civil rights organizations in East Texas as they were several decades ago. Cant we just live with the myth?

Swansons answer via email noted that the Rangers are approaching their bicentennial in 2023, a great opportunity for them, in the spirit of these times, to address and embrace their full history. Acknowledging that history would be a sign of their institutional strength.

Telling the entire story, he suggested, gives voice to those who have been overlooked or ignored. It's a fairer picture, and it's far more interesting. It also brings a measure of justice to a historical narrative that has, for many, been unjust. . . .

Swansons email got me to thinking that Rangers facing up to their full history would be, in a way, yet another act of bravery. In Swansons words, The Rangers have done many honorable things in their great history. This would be a chance for one more.

djholley10@gmail.com

Twitter: holleynews


By Kwak Tae-hwan





The United States has not yet proposed a "new method of calculation," as required by North Korea for the process of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.



Chairman Kim Jong-un seems to be assessing that the United States is not able to meet two requirements of his proposal for the resumption of denuclearization talks.



In the meantime, he is emphasizing the need for strengthening the DPRK's (nuclear) war deterrence, although he is still waiting for a "new calculation" by the Trump administration. As time passes, Kim's commitment to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula is weakening, and the Trump administration is losing its interest.



Then, is there any breakthrough to the deadlock on nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang? The DPRK and the United States seem unwilling to make mutual concessions for a compromise at this point.



Under these circumstances, the Seoul government, a party to the Korean Peninsula issue, can and should find an active role in the resolution of the current situation.



President Moon Jae-in proposed several inter-Korean projects in 2020. However, North Korea has been unresponsive. Regrettably, the peace process on the peninsula has not made any progress since the breakdown of the Hanoi U.S.-DPRK summit on Feb. 28, 2019.



The United States has used the U.N. Security Council sanction resolutions against North Korea as a bargaining chip to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. However, North Korea has called on the United States to offer corresponding measures of compensation for its voluntary pre-emptive measures toward denuclearization.



There has been no response from Washington. Instead, the U.S. is sticking to the position of "denuclearization first," while North Korea insists on an action-for-action formula for reciprocal measures. Both sides have thus far failed to agree on how to achieve denuclearization of the peninsula.



As a creative formula for withdrawing hostile policy against the DPRK, the author has proposed that the four concerned parties, including the U.S., China, and the two Koreas, consider an end-of-war declaration first.



This declaration will be the first step in the roadmap toward a denuclearized peace system on the peninsula. Eventually, the four parties need to conclude a multilateral peace treaty on the peninsula.



China began to take an interest in the concept of an end-of-war (peace) declaration.



During the August 2018 ASEAN Regional Forum in Singapore, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced at a press conference for the first time that China would officially support an end-of-war declaration. He also said that such a declaration would be a political declaration, playing a useful role in driving denuclearization of the peninsula.



North Korea has long insisted on a declaration to end the war with the U.S. It, however, supports an end-of-war declaration signed by the four relevant parties at Beijing's request. China has also informed the United States that it would not support an end-of-war declaration without its participation.



The Moon government has announced that it would retreat from an end-of-war declaration involving three parties in support of a four-party's end-of-war declaration. The U.S. has long wanted to enter into a four-party peace treaty.



The Trump administration remains indifferent to the proposal of an end-of-war declaration. The U.S. prefers a peace declaration to an end-of-war declaration. Washington is not in a hurry to sign an end-of-war (peace) declaration.



There are two reasons for this. First, the U.S. is calling for visible progress in North Korean denuclearization measures before signing a peace declaration. Second, Washington is afraid that North Korea would demand the reduction or withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea after signing a peace declaration.



The author has proposed a multilateral end-of-war (peace) declaration and a four-party peace treaty on the Korean Peninsula that are more binding than a bilateral end-of-war declaration between Washington and Pyongyang.



In other words, the U.S., China, and the two Koreas must sign an end-of-war declaration first, before they sign a Korean Peninsula peace treaty.



The process of establishing a non-nuclear peace system on the peninsula will begin with the withdrawal of hostile policy toward North Korea, which is one of the two preconditions for denuclearization that Chairman Kim has demanded.



A multilateral peace treaty on the peninsula would guarantee the survival of the North Korean regime. The two preconditions will liberate the "siege mentality" of the North Korean leadership.





Dr. Kwak Tae-hwan (thkwak38@hotmail.com), former president of the Korea Institute for National Unification, a professor emeritus at Eastern Kentucky University, and a columnist, has authored and (co)edited 32 books and has authored over 350 scholarly articles and numerous columns. The views expressed in the above article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.


Researchers from University of Missouri-Kansas City, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and University of Pennsylvania published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines the effectiveness of what they call "the dueling preferences approach" on prosocial giving.

The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled "Penny for Your Preferences: Leveraging Self-Expression to Encourage Small Prosocial Gifts" and is authored by Jacqueline Rifkin, Katherine Du, and Jonah Berger.

BallotBin, a UK-based company, designs custom bins for the disposal of cigarette butts. These "ballot bins" have a fascinating feature: They pose a question and provide two bin compartments, each labeled with a possible answer to the question. Smokers can then answer the question through the disposal of a cigarette butt into either compartment. For example, one recent "ballot bin" in London asked smokers whether flying or invisibility is the better superpower, allowing them to express their preference by depositing their cigarette butts in one of two labeled compartments. This set-up can be found in a variety of other settings designed to increase prosocial acts. Cafes have started to position two tip jars rather than one, asking patrons whether they prefer Star Trek or Star Wars. Similarly, the ASPCA asked people to donate money by expressing their preference for cats or dogs ("Vote for your Paw-sident").

This set-up, in which the act of giving is framed as a choice between two options, is called the "dueling preferences" approach. But the question remains: Is the dueling preference approach really more effective at increasing prosocial giving than traditional approaches? And if so, why?

The research team set out to answer these questions. They conducted initial experiments in real cafes and with real charities using several different "duels" (summer vs. winter, mountains vs. beach, chocolate vs. vanilla ice cream) and discovered that the dueling preferences approach can indeed be more effective than traditional approaches at increasing small prosocial gifts. In particular, the dueling preferences approach increased people's likelihood to tip/donate and how much money they gave.

Next, the researchers sought to understand why this approach works. Several follow-up studies indicate this approach works because it provides people with the opportunity to say something about who they are. Du explains, "People love to talk about themselves and share their opinions. In fact, the parts of the brain that light up when we get to share our opinions also light up in response to finding $10 or getting a sweet treat. This fact about human psychology ultimately makes the dueling preferences approach an inherently attractive and motivating opportunity. People are willing to give money to share what they believe in."

Of course, the dueling preferences approach must be implemented tactfully. People may be willing to give money to share what they believe in, but what if a duel captures an issue people don't believe in? As Rifkin described, "When we tested a duel that asked people's preferences for the letter "A" vs. "B"--a relatively uninspiring issue--we were not able to increase prosocial giving. Similarly, when we tested a duel that was interesting to some, but not to all--one's preference for pets--we found that the duel only increased giving among those who found the issue to be important to them. Also, people do not always want or even need to express themselves." While the inherent need to say something about who we are is critical for harnessing the power of dueling preferences, people differ in what and when they want to share. As a result, it takes some thought to figure out exactly what options to choose, when, and among whom to deploy this approach.

Overall, those interested in increasing prosocial giving can benefit by leveraging the flexibility and ease of implementation of the dueling preferences approach. Ultimately, if managers can effectively harness people's desire to express themselves, this approach can be a powerful tool for increasing prosocial giving. The magic of dueling preferences lies in its ability to leverage any valued identity--whether a Star Trek fan, chocaholic, or lefty--to increase prosocial giving.

###

Full article and author contact information available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022242920928064

About the Journal of Marketing

The Journal of Marketing develops and disseminates knowledge about real-world marketing questions useful to scholars, educators, managers, policy makers, consumers, and other societal stakeholders around the world. Published by the American Marketing Association since its founding in 1936, JM has played a significant role in shaping the content and boundaries of the marketing discipline. Christine Moorman (T. Austin Finch, Sr. Professor of Business Administration at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University) serves as the current Editor in Chief.

https://www.ama.org/jm

About the American Marketing Association (AMA)

As the largest chapter-based marketing association in the world, the AMA is trusted by marketing and sales professionals to help them discover what's coming next in the industry. The AMA has a community of local chapters in more than 70 cities and 350 college campuses throughout North America. The AMA is home to award-winning content, PCM professional certification, premiere academic journals, and industry-leading training events and conferences.

https://www.ama.org/
Armenias delegation visiting Lebanon on Sunday met with Gregory Peter XX Ghabroyan, Catholicos-Patriarch of Cilicia of Armenian Catholics. Armenias Ambassador to Lebanon Vahagn Atabekyan also was present at the meeting.

The Patriarch welcomed the delegation and addressed the situation facing Lebanese-Armenians including the human and material losses the community has suffered.

Armenias High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs Zareh Sinanyan thanked the Patriarch for the welcome, and noted that the Republic of Armenia is providing aid to the Lebanese government, the Lebanese people, and the Lebanese-Armenian community. The goal of this visit is to develop a comprehensive understanding of how we can support our Lebanese-Armenian compatriots, stated the High Commissioner.

In his remarks, the Patriarch emphasized that the Armenian people have two hearts, Armenia and the Diaspora, and expressed joy that the Armenian people finally have a free and independent homeland. He also highlighted the assistance received from the government of Artsakh two weeks ago. "Our brothers are with us, and this was a very beautiful gesture."

At the end of the meeting, High Commissioner Sinanyan noted that two additional planes with humanitarian assistance are scheduled to fly to Beirut, the food and medicine they carry will be provided to the Armenian community.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that Trumps ban on WeChat could have ramifications for Apple in China and the move could hurt iPhone sales in the region in a big way.

Trump passed an executive order last week banning WeChats parent company Tencent Holdings from indulging in any trade activity with any US company in 45 days from now. To comply with Trumps order, Apple would be forced to remove WeChat from its App Store worldwide. This might not matter much to customers in other parts of the world, but in China, WeChat is a very important app that is used for almost everything  right from messaging to online shopping to payments, and more. WeChat has evolved from a messaging platform to an OS in itself due to the sheer number of features it offers.

The ban means that Chinese iPhone users will not be able to download WeChat from the App Store from September 10th. Given just how important WeChat is in the region though, the move could lead customers to look into buying Android smartphones.

There is always a chance that the executive order is modified and a clarification is issued that the ban does not affect WeChat listing in the App Store outside of the United States. In that case, Kuo believes Apple could see a marginal 3-6% decline in iPhone sales. Since there is a 45-day time period for the ban to be effective, it is likely that all the major tech giants will try and convince the White House to issue a clarification as otherwise Apple could end up being a casualty of the ban thats primarily targeted at Chinese companies.

[Via 9to5Mac
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Britain's official coronavirus daily death count could be scrapped following an investigation into Public Health England's method of counting the toll.

The conclusions of the investigation, which was ordered by Health Secretary Matt Hancock after it emerged officials were 'exaggerating' virus deaths, are expected this week, The Telegraph reported.

One recommendation could be to move to a weekly official death toll, a government source said.

Britain paused its daily update of the death toll last month and the government ordered a review into how Public Health England reports coronavirus deaths, after academics said the daily figures may include people who died of other causes.

Academics in a blog post had warned that the way the government health agency calculated the figures was skewed as patients who tested positive for coronavirus, but are successfully treated, will still be counted as dying from the virus 'even if they had a heart attack or were run over by a bus three months later'.

England's death figures vary substantially from day to day due to this reason, the academics had argued.

In contrast, the other parts of the United Kingdom do not follow the same approach. There is a cut-off threshold of 28 days in Scotland after a positive test, after which a patient is not automatically considered to have died from the virus.

Britain, one of the countries hardest hit by the virus, reported more than 1,000 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday, its highest daily increase since June, taking the total number of cases past 310,000.

Britain's official coronavirus daily death count could be scrapped following an investigation into Public Health England's method of counting the toll

Britain's total coronavirus cases have jumped by 1,062 in the biggest daily rise in six weeks. The country has not seen an increase this large since June 25 - when 1,118 cases were reported in a single day

On July 28, a senior government source said Prime Minister Boris Johnson was 'extremely concerned' by outbreaks 'bubbling up', both at home and abroad

Holidaymakers and sunbathers flock to the beach at the seaside in Bournemouth on a scorching hot sunny day

Pupils pose NO RISK of spreading Covid, study reveals - as Gavin Williamson 'faces the chop if he doesn't get schools open again in September' A landmark coronavirus study has found the risk of transmission in classrooms is minimal, ratcheting up pressure on the Education Secretary to fully reopen schools in September. Boris Johnson is understood to have warned that Gavin Williamson's 'head will be on the chopping block' if pupils are not back in lessons next month. The Prime Minister has declared resuming classes a 'national priority' and is planning an advertising blitz to urge anxious parents to send their child back to school. His campaign was yesterday bolstered by encouraging scientific evidence which found a low threat of catching infection in schools. Government Sage adviser Professor Russell Viner outlined the forthcoming Public Health England study and stressed that reopening schools was 'imperative'. Advertisement

The country has not seen an increase this large since June 25 - when 1,118 cases were reported in a single day.

The numbers come almost exactly a fortnight after Boris Johnson predicted a second wave in two weeks.

On July 28, a senior government source said Prime Minister Boris Johnson was 'extremely concerned' by outbreaks 'bubbling up', both at home and abroad.

Scotland reported 48 new cases on Sunday, while Wales reported a further 26.

The drastic rise in figures - up from 758 the previous day - may come as a shock to lockdown-sceptic revelers who flocked to Britain's beaches over the weekend.

Swathes of beachgoers were pictured dotted along the coast - with many ignoring social distancing rules.

While case figures have shot up, the country's daily death toll remains low after a further eight people who tested positive for Covid-19 died in Britain. Both Scotland and Wales reported no further deaths.

The patients who died in England were aged between 45 and 89 and all had known underlying health conditions.

The region with the highest number of deaths was the Midlands with four.

There were three deaths in the North East and Yorkshire, two in the East of England and one in London.

There were no deaths reported in the North West, where local lockdown measures in place in Greater Manchester and parts of east Lancashire were extended on Friday to include Preston.

Figures released on Sunday are usually smaller due to a delay in processing over the weekend.

This comes as Sir Bernard Jenkin, chairman of Parliament's Liaison Committee, said the Government had been slow to come to grips with tracking and tracing.

'I think the Government were very slow to realise the importance of track and trace at the outset,' Sir Bernard told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour.

'Bear in mind the whole of Whitehall had prepared for an influenza and not for a coronavirus [pandemic] and that's the fundamental problem the Government had contended with.'

Beaches were seen packed with holidaymakers and sunbathers as people pitched up picnics and umbrellas during the scorching weather on Sunday

Eager holidaymakers queued to get a spot on busy Bournemouth beach Sunday morning, as some eager people even camped out the night before to claim their sunbathing patch

Minister rejects Children's Commissioner's calls for regular testing in schools The government's schools minister has slapped down calls from England's Children's Commissioner to introduce routine testing when schools reopen in September. Nick Gibb today said students and staff would only be tested if they displayed symptoms. But Anne Longfield earlier called for checks to become 'part and parcel' of school life and suggested they should be done weekly. She told Times Radio: 'I think it needs to be as regular as it needs to be for the infection to be caught... certainly not one-offs but regular occurrences so they're part and parcel of the running of a school.' But speaking on the same programme, Mr Gibb later said: 'Anybody who shows symptoms in schools will be tested, not routine testing, the advice we have is it's better when people show symptoms. 'If they test positive the people that pupil has been in contact with will be self-isolating. Everything we do is led by the science, the priority for the new 90-minute tests has to be the new hospitals and laboratories, the measures we are putting in place, the hierarchy of controls is the most effective measures of the virus.' Advertisement

The figures also came as a landmark coronavirus study found the risk of transmission in classrooms is minimal, ratcheting up pressure on the Education Secretary to fully reopen schools in September.

Boris Johnson is understood to have warned that Gavin Williamson's 'head will be on the chopping block' if pupils are not back in lessons next month.

The Prime Minister has declared resuming classes a 'national priority' and is planning an advertising blitz to urge anxious parents to send their child back to school.

His campaign was bolstered on Saturday by encouraging scientific evidence which found a low threat of catching infection in schools.

Government Sage adviser Professor Russell Viner outlined the forthcoming Public Health England study and stressed that reopening schools was 'imperative'.

As the reopening of schools was bumped to the top of ministers' agenda:

Children's Commissioner Anne Longfield called on the government to introduce regular testing for all students and staff in schools;

Labour's shadow education secretary Kate Green said she supports getting children back to school in September, but said the government needs to ramp up its track and trace system;

New research laid bare the damaging educational impact on pupils who have missed schooling during the lockdown;

Scientific advisers warned that the UK-wide reproduction rate, R, is between 0.8 and 1.0, the point at which the virus starts spreading exponentially again;

Oxford University researchers developing a vaccine were embroiled in an ethics row about whether to deliberately infect human volunteers  and warned that although there was a 50 per cent chance of a jab being available next year, it was likely to be only partially effective and carry side-effects;

A survey found that barely half of the adult population is committed to being immunised against Covid-19;

Up to 16 children and staff were forced to isolate at home after a coronavirus outbreak at a nursery in Bury, which has also been put into local lockdown.

Boris Johnson (right) is understood to have warned that Gavin Williamson's (left) 'head will be on the chopping block' if pupils are not back in lessons next month

Leading scientist Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a member of Sage said: 'A new study that has been done in UK schools confirms there is very little evidence that the virus is transmitted in schools

Mr Johnson outlined concerns in an article for yesterday's Mail on Sunday where he heralded the resuming of lessons a 'moral duty' and 'crucial' for pupils' 'welfare, their health and for their future.'

He wrote: 'The education of our children is crucial for their welfare, their health and for their future. That is why it is a national priority to get all pupils back into school in September.

'The message I have given to Ministers and civil servants is this: we can do it  and we will do it. Social justice demands it.'

He spoke of the 'uplifting sight as millions of parents rose to the challenge of educating their children' amid the added pressures of lockdown, but said that had to end.

A PHE study, which tested more than 20,000 pupils and 100 teachers, is hoped to allay the concerns of wary teacher unions, which thwarted ministers' initial attempts to resume classes for fears of staff catching the virus.

Ministers are poised to lock horns with union bosses who have unveiled a list of demands if teachers are to go back next month. Mary Bousted, head of the National Education Union, (left) urged schools to ignore 'threatening noises' from the Government and refuse to reopen if they feel it is unsafe

Union bosses were this weekend accused of 'nit-picking' after releasing an exhaustive list of 200 safety demands.

The National Education Union has urged its 450,000 teachers to 'escalate' action if their schools do not adhere to their 200-strong Covid-secure checklist.

Obese people could be told to stay at home in Covid hotspots if virus cases surge amid second wave this autumn By Kate Dennett For Mailonline Obese people could be among those told to stay home in coronavirus hotspots if there is a second wave of cases this autumn. The Government is said to be looking at plans for a 'more sophisticated model' of shielding to avoid another mass lockdown. Officials are considering how NHS data could target vulnerable groups, including those who are obese, so they can be told to stay indoors if there is a second coronavirus wave, the Sunday Telegraph reported. Obese people could reportedly be among vulnerable groups told to stay at home if there is a second coronavirus wave this autumn (file photo) One Cabinet minister reportedly described the plan to tell those who are especially vulnerable to shield as a 'stiletto not a sledgehammer' method. Those who are over-50 could also be among vulnerable groups contacted and told to stay indoors if there is a second coronavirus spike this autumn. A Cabinet minister told the Telegraph: 'They are understanding that age does come into it. The shielding cohort is way too broad - you can't say that every fat person has to shield. It will be more subtle.' This comes after stricter lockdown rules were imposed in Preston, following other northern towns, and young people were urged to follow the new regulations. It was revealed half of the 61 new coronavirus cases in the newly-locked down city are under the age of 30, as fears rise that 'bold' young people are ignoring social distancing. Council chiefs in Preston also launched a powerful 'don't kill granny' message to encourage youngsters to follow the rules. Bradford has also seen its tightened measures extended for another week, as other towns, including Aberdeen and Leicester, are also adhering to local lockdowns. Over-50s could also be told to shield if there is a second wave, as the Government is said to be looking at plans for a 'more sophisticated model' of shielding (file photo) Local Government Association also called for councils to be given more powers to shut down rule-breaking pubs nationwide, as revellers continue to pack into venues up and down the country. Experts warned that being in a busy pub carries more risk of spreading coronavirus than being on an aeroplane, as aircrafts have better ventilation. Dr Julian W Tang, honorary associate professor of respiratory sciences at the University of Leicester, said the most common method of transmission in the UK is probably 'conversational exposure'. The spike in Preston was blamed on households mixing in pubs and homes and the spike in Aberdeen's lockdown came after an outbreak of cases linked to a number of bars emerged. Local lockdowns will continue to be based on council boundaries, while rural areas could see it only applying to market down in villages. The Department of Health and Social Care have declined to comment. Advertisement

The demands included assurances the working day will not be lengthened, children waiting to be picked up to be kept isolated, and support for staff suffering workload anxiety.

Education select committee chair Robert Halfon MP last night hit out at the demands and told the Sun on Sunday: 'It is incredible not one of these 200 nitpicking questions asks the most important thing of all - what's best for the kids?'

But Amanda Martin, co-president of the NEU, said there is no price on safety, and pointed out that they had been urging their members to plan for the reopening in September.

She told Times Radio: 'I think the NEU right from the beginning has been on the right side of history by saying schools should remain open to key worker kids and the most vulnerable.

'We have half a million members, we have had schools open all the way through lockdown and we have been supporting them with checklists... We have said schools should be ready to open in September.'

She said her union has requested information from Sage and the government for a risk assessment about reopening schools in September.

Prof Viner, a member of Sage, insisted reopening schools was a non-negotiable, even if it meant sacrificing other freedoms as a trade-off.

The desperate need to prioritise education was endorsed by Children's Commissioner Anne Longfield, who said in the event of future lockdowns schools should not be closed as a default to save 'disruption to the lives of adults'.

She today threw her weight behind Mr Johnson's bullishness to reopen schools, even if it meant pubs were sacrificed.

Speaking to Times Radio, she said: 'Children have been out of schools for five months... There was a moment I thought children have been forgotten in the relaxation.

'They must reopen and they must stay open so if there are future lockdowns they are the last to close and first to reopen.'

Quizzed if that meant people should be restricted from indoor drinking in pubs, she said: 'I've talked about that when decisions need to be made in future lockdowns, it makes absolute sense if there's a limited amount of social interactions before infections are raised.'

She said she was 'dismayed' that theme parks and even zoos were opened before schools, but said she is pleased that the PM has bumped resuming lessons to the top of the government's agenda.

Ms Longfield said that regular testing should become 'part and parcel' of school life from next month.

She said: 'I think it needs to be as regular as it needs to be for the infection to be caught... certainly not one-offs but regular occurrences so they're part and parcel of the running of a school.'

But this was slapped down by schools minister Nick Gibb, who said only those who developed symptoms would be tested.

The minister this morning told Times Radio: 'Anybody who shows symptoms in schools will be tested, it won't be routine testing... the advice we have is it's better when people show symptoms.

'If they test positive the people that pupil has been in contact with will be self-isolating... Everything we do is led by the science... the priority for the new 90-minute tests has to be the new hospitals and laboraties, the measures we are putting in place, the hierarchy of controls is the most effective measures of the virus.'

On masks, he added: 'These kind of issues will be up to head teachers, but there's no need for masks to be worn within schools if the hierarchy of controls, the measures I have outlines, are in place.'

Labour expressed support for the reopening of schools in September, but urged the government to support teachers by bolstering the test and trace infrastructure.

Shadow education secretary Kate Green said: 'I think it's essential that schools open in September and that all pupils are expected to be back in the classrooms.

'I do think the Government could be doing more to support them (teachers) particularly, for example, making sure we've got a really robust Test and Trace system in place.

'The work is being done to make schools safe but more is needed to support those schools, they may need extra resources for example for extra clearing or to stagger the school day or to make sure children can travel to and fro safely.

'The Government has a window between now and the beginning of September to get that right and it absolutely must do so.

'It's really, really important that we don't write off a generation of Covid children - they need to be back in class, the whole of our futures depend on this.'
French President Emmanuel Macron's office informed that an emergency conference that was held on August 9 to raise funds for blast-stricken Beirut has managed to raise pledges worth $298 million. The 'International Conference of Support and Support to Beirut and the Lebanese People' met virtually on invitation from the President Macron and the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The conference was attended by Germany, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Spain, the USA, European Union, the UK, IMF, the World Bank, among others.

Read: Beirut: Police Fire Tear Gas To Disperse Protesters Blocking A Road Near Parliament

"The participants agreed that their support should be consistent, consistent with the needs of the Lebanese people, coordinated under the leadership of the United Nations, and deployed directly to the Lebanese people in the greatest transparency and efficiency. Beyond emergency aid, Conference participants are ready to support Lebanon's economic and financial recovery, which requires, as part of a stabilization strategy, that the Lebanese authorities fully commit to in favor of the urgent and substantive reforms that the Lebanese people expect," the French presidential office informed in a release.

Read: World Donors Demand Change Before Money To Rebuild Beirut

Beirut explosion

Lebanon's capital Beirut was struck by a massive explosion on August 4 killing at least 158 people and injuring thousands of others. According to reports, the explosion was caused by 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, equivalent to 1.2 kt of TNT, that was unsafely stored at Beirut port since 2014 and was purportedly triggered by an intense fire nearby the warehouse. The blast that leftover 3,00,000 people homeless is said to be among the most powerful non-nuclear explosion in history.

Extraordinary footage of the explosion of Beirut. pic.twitter.com/yBEGzwYeGv  Saad Mohseni (@saadmohseni) August 4, 2020

Read: Blast Destroyed Landmark 19th Century Palace In Beirut

Read: Beirut Blast: EU Urges Independent Inquiry Into Explosion, Donates $38.9 Million In Aid

(Images Credit: AP)
Amelia Simmons American Cookery follows Glasse. The author of the first cookbook written by an American using American ingredients, Simmons left no clues about her birth and death dates, Willan notes, but she was a genuine pioneer when the first edition was published in 1796. The Simmons chapter benefits from Willans deep understanding of culinary history. She describes the equipment that a cook of Simmons era would have at hand to cook over an open fire, from the three-legged skillets called spiders to Dutch ovens to spits for roasting. She notes that Simmons offers a variety of sturdy pastries to use to build a pie shell for meat pies for readers who didnt have pie pans.
A metal detectorist has discovered artefacts in the Scottish Borders dating back 3,000 years, including a preserved horse harness and a sword in its scabbard.

Archaeologists called to the site near Peebles also excavated decorated straps, buckles, rings, ornaments and chariot wheel axle caps.

Evidence of a decorative 'rattle pendant' from the harness was also discovered  the first one to be found in Scotland and only the third in the UK.

The hoard has been moved from the site in a large block of soil and taken to the National Museums Collection Centre in Edinburgh.

Experts, who described the objects as 'nationally significant', have dated them to the Bronze Age, which began around 2,000 BC and lasted for nearly 1,500 years.

Objects which are believed to be decorative and functional pieces of a Bronze Age harness

The period marks a time when bronze gradually replaced stone as the main material for making tools.

Communities in Late Bronze Age Scotland (1000-800 BC) often buried hoards of metalwork.

'This is a nationally significant find  so few Bronze Age hoards have been excavated in Scotland,' said Emily Freeman, head of the Treasure Trove Unit (TTU) overseeing the recovery and assessment of the find.

'It was an amazing opportunity for us to not only recover bronze artefacts, but organic material as well.'

'There is still a lot of work to be done to assess the artefacts and understand why they were deposited.'

The Crown Office, which runs the TTU, told MailOnline it cant provide a more specific location of the discoveries than 'near Peebles' because of the 'security and privacy concerns of the landowner.

The ancient sword seen here still in its scabbard, built into the rock, as found during the dig near Peebles

Archaeologists were called to the site near Peebles before the artefacts were taken to Edinburgh. The Crown Office, which runs TTU, told MailOnline it cant provide a more specific location of the discoveries due to security and privacy concerns of the landowner

The collection was promptly reported to TTU and excavated by archaeologists from National Museums Scotland.

The metal objects are believed to be decorative and functional pieces of a Bronze Age horse harness, while the sword is still in its scabbard and encrusted within the chunk of rock.

The complete horse harness  preserved by the soil  and the sword have been dated as being from 1000 to 900 BC.

'These are rare objects, some of which are unique in Scotland,' said National Museums Scotland.

'They have affinities with objects across Europe and were likely deposited by a well-connected community.

'The organic preservation in the hoard is remarkable and includes leather and wood that is three thousand years old.

'This allows archaeologists to see how the horse harness was assembled  this has never been seen before in Britain.'

The team also found decorated straps, buckles, rings, ornaments and chariot wheel axle caps

Mariusz Stepien was searching a field near Peebles with friends on June 21 when he found a bronze object buried half a metre underground

The hoard was uncovered by Mariusz Stepien, 44, who was searching a field near Peebles with friends on June 21 this year when he found a bronze object buried about a foot and a half underground.

The group camped in the field and built a shelter to protect the find from the elements while archaeologists spent 22 days investigating.

'I thought I've never seen anything like this before and felt from the very beginning that this might be something spectacular and I've just discovered a big part of Scottish history,' said Stepien.

'I was over the moon, actually shaking with happiness.

'We wanted to be a part of the excavation from the beginning to the end.

The objects after being discovered by the metal detectorist. They've been described as 'nationally significant'

'I will never forget those 22 days spent in the field. Every day there were new objects coming out which changed the context of the find, every day we learned something new.

'I'm so pleased that the earth revealed to me something that was hidden for more than 3,000 years. I still can't believe it happened.'

As he was getting strong signals from the earth around the initial object, Stepien contacted the TTU to report his find.

Mariusz Stepien stands next to the hoard ready for transport back to Edinburgh for further examination. They've been moved to the National Museums Collection Centre in Edinburgh

An archaeologist working at the site near Peebles, after metal detectorist Mariusz Stepien found objects, in the Scottish Borders

Scotland's TTU is 'the first port of call' for new discoveries and carries out investigations and object assessments of new objects.

All ancient objects newly discovered in Scotland need to be reported to the TTU, as they belong to the Crown, whether or not they're precious metal.



'We could not have achieved this without the responsible actions of the finder or the support of the landowners,' said Freeman.

'The finder was quick to action when they realised that they had found an in-situ hoard, which resulted in the TTU and National Museums Scotland being on site within days of discovery.'
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.-- Electricity has been restored to all but 97 Con Edison customers on Staten Island, while hundreds and in some cases thousands remain without power in other New York City boroughs.

The latest updates posted on the companys outages map come nearly a week after Tropical Storm Isaias uprooted trees and downed power lines in neighborhoods across the region. More than 20,000 customers on Staten Island and 180,000 city-wide were at one point left without power.

News of the latest restorations on Staten Island comes after 1,000 outages were reported Sunday, and 3,000 were reported Saturday, according to the Con Edison outage map.

For those still without electricity, the companys estimated restoration time reads more work required.

We are closing in on restoring New York City customers who lost service due to the devastation of #StormIsaias. We thank you for your patience as we continue to work on restoring every customer affected by this historic storm. https://t.co/LBZ6uzp1Hb #poweringthrutogether pic.twitter.com/fm45Wg1Zro  Con Edison (@ConEdison) August 10, 2020

The borough at this point is better off than most.

In Queens, nearly 6,000 outages still are being reported. In the Bronx, that number is 1,458. Brooklyn and Manhattan are faring better, with 427 and 67 respectively, as of 6:30 a.m. Monday.

Con Edison issued a statement on its website saying restorations for the vast majority of customers were expected by 11 p.m. Sunday in Queens, The Bronx, Staten Island and Brooklyn.

The message continues: About 90% of our customers have received individual estimates for when their power will be restored...repairs can take many days, especially after a severe storm like Tropical Storm Isaias.

The company goes on to explains how crews operate when responding to an outage.

After we clear safety hazards, such as fallen trees and downed wires, we check for any damage to our system and assign crews and equipment to the area to begin repairs. While we make conditions safe and assess damage, your estimated time of restoration will appear as Evaluating Condition.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The Scripture quite literally came to life for several Catholic churches in North Carolina as a rare earthquake rattled portions of the state over the weekend.

According to a news release from the Diocese of Charlotte, Father Richard Sutter of St. Gabriels Catholic Church said the lector in the Sunday service had just reached the 19th chapter of 1 Kings, a Bible passage referring to the prophet Elijah, which said, After the wind there was an earthquake  but the LORD was not in the earthquake. It was then that parishioners felt the 5.1 magnitude earthquake centred near Sparta, the most powerful to hit the state in more than 100 years.

Monitors said the 5.1-magnitude temblor struck at 8:07 a.m., following a much smaller quake several hours earlier. There were no reports of serious injuries, but some minor structural damage was reported in Sparta, as well as cracks in roads. Images on social media also showed items knocked off of grocery store shelves.

The Charlotte Observer reported that while he didnt feel it himself, Sutter said parishioners came up to him as soon as the service ended. He said the moment can be a lesson for the times.

When theres fear from an earthquake, when theres fear from a storm, when theres fear from a pandemic and uncertainty ... you have to let the Lord speak to us the truth, he said. Lets keep our eyes on Jesus Christ and not the waves (or even earthquakes) we cannot control, he said.

Father Cory Catron, pastor of the Catholic mission in Sparta, said his church suffered no apparent damage from the quake. Made for good homily material, though, the news release said.

In his homily, Catron joked about being worried the next thing would be fire. He called the events a reminder of Gods presence, adding we must not be distracted by the noise and problems of the world around us, but listen for His voice in the stillness.

As the 11:15 a.m. Mass in Sparta was ending and Catron offered a final blessing, there was a 1.8 magnitude aftershock. He said, The ceiling creaked for like three seconds, and everybody kind of looked up and immediately we knew what it was.
Fears are mounting of a 'bonfire of jobs' amid warnings a third of firms are planning to lay off staff this autumn.

Shock research found huge numbers of companies expect to axe roles in the third quarter of the year as coronavirus hammers the economy.

Many of the cuts are set to come from hospitality businesses such as hotels, restaurants and cafes, as well as shops that were already on the brink before the pandemic.

The hit emerged in a survey carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) with recruiter the Adecco Group.

Labour demanded the government ditches plans to scrap the furlough scheme entirely from October, forcing employers to take on the full costs of staff wages again.

Meanwhile, figures released this week are due to confirm that the UK has formally entered recession - with a second quarter of GDP contracting. And official jobs data are scheduled for tomorrow.

The number of firms that cut 20 or more roles during June was up fivefold compared to last year, rising to 1,778. Pictured: Stock photo of an upset businessman

GDP figures due to be released this week are set to show that the UK has entered a technical recession - with two consecutive quarters of contraction. The Bank of England predicts that the downturn will be the worst in a hundred years (chart pictured)

Figures on Wednesday are widely expected to show the economy contracted massively during the second quarter following the imposition of the virus lockdown.

That comes after output declined in the first three months of the year. Two successive quarters of contraction officially marks a recession, which would be the first since the financial crisis hit.

Separate figures from the Insolvency Service have indicated that more than 139,000 jobs were lost in June.

The number of firms that cut 20 or more roles during June was up fivefold compared to last year, rising to 1,778.

And economic figures due this week are due to underline the scale of the problems, with jobs figures and the latest GDP estimate coming within days.

There are fears that huge numbers of people working from home is causing damage as businesses that rely on busy offices  from sandwich shops and pubs to dry cleaners and hairdressers  are deprived of custom.

Sandwich shop chains Pret a Manger and Upper Crust have already axed thousands of jobs between them, with Pret yesterday asking staff to accept reduced hours.

The Bank of England said last week that the UK economy is likely to shrink by nearly a tenth over this year

The Bank predicted that GDP will have been down by more than a fifth in the second quarter

200,000 people forced to retire early Nearly 200,000 people over 50 have dropped out of the workforce and become economically inactive since the outbreak, a study suggests. Inactivity levels have increased more in recent months among over-50s than any other age group, said jobs and community site Rest Less. A separate study from the Centre for Ageing Better and the Learning and Work Institute also found roughly 2.5million over-50s had been furloughed and 377,000 of those face the prospect of losing their job entirely. Stuart Lewis, of Rest Less, said: 'In the wake of the toughest job market in decades, there has been a significant rise in the number of workers over 50 who have lost hope in finding a job and feel forced into an early retirement that many simply cannot afford.' Advertisement

Gerwyn Davies, of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), said businesses were now facing the prospect of rising costs as the Government winds down its jobs furlough scheme.

He added: 'For many firms, the problem is that revenues are simply not coming in. There is undoubtedly going to be a lot of job losses.'

Firms that revealed plans to lay off staff in June included Royal Mail, Jet2, HSBC, Jaguar Land Rover, Centrica and the Restaurant Group, owner of Frankie and Benny's.

Similar announcements followed from other big names in July, such as Marks & Spencer, Boots and John Lewis.

High Street businesses have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, with lockdown measures dramatically reducing visitor numbers and forcing 'non-essential' shops to close for months.

But the jobs bloodbath is expected to intensify when the Government's furlough scheme winds down in October.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been urged to extend the scheme for specific sectors that have been worst hit but has so far resisted pressure to do so.

Shadow business minister Lucy Powell called for the Government to 'urgently rethink their rigid approach', which will see the furlough scheme end entirely in October.

'The unpredictable nature of this virus means that public health measures must be flexible and responsive, but it surely follows that economic measures must be the same,' the Labour MP said.

'It's clearly illogical and unfair to prevent businesses from opening their doors, cutting them off from any income, and to cut their furlough lifeline at the same time.

'They've said they can't save every job, but we're seeing a jobs bonfire. They need to target their support at the hardest-hit sectors or be responsible for another wave of mass redundancies.'

As part of plans to set an example and get the country moving again, the Government has told civil servants  four fifths of whom are still working remotely -to get back to work in central London or risk losing their prestigious Westminster offices.

Treasury officials are said to be considering mass sell-off of the Government's buildings in the capital before this autumn's spending review.
Passengers arrive at Birmingham Airport on Sunday after the announcement that Spain had been added to the UK's quarantine list

The UK government has revised its travel advice for Spain to warn against all non-essential travel to the Balearics and Canaries - despite calls for the islands to be exempt from quarantine rules.

The Foreign Office said the latest advice came after it considered "the impact of the requirement to self-isolate on return to the UK".

Britons were already advised against non-essential travel to mainland Spain.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who is currently on holiday there, announced he is cutting short his trip to return home and now faces a two-week quarantine on his return.

"The sooner I get back from Spain myself, the sooner I can get through quarantine," he said in a statement.

Travel firm TUI UK has cancelled all holidays to the Spanish islands for the next few days, following the government's change.

The company has called on the government to take a more targeted approach to coronavirus quarantine measures as it also cancelled flights to mainland Spain until 9 August.

Jet2 urged passengers due to fly to Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza "not to go to the airport" on Tuesday.

A spokesman said: "We are not operating flights to these destinations."

"This advice also applies to customers travelling to any of our destinations in mainland Spain. We will be operating our scheduled programme of flights back to the UK from these destinations," they added.

Spain was added to the UK's quarantine list - which already included Portugal - from midnight on Saturday with just a few hours' warning.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the move was an "error" and "not justified", adding the country is in talks with UK authorities to make them reconsider their decision.

The number of coronavirus cases in Spain has increased by 6,355 since Friday.

Data also shows that infection rates are currently rising in many European countries, which could all be at risk of being placed on the quarantine list.

Story continues

Spain's government has been calling for the UK to exempt travellers to the Balearic and Canary Islands from the newly announced two-week quarantine.

Tourism minister Reyes Maroto insisted it was safe for holidaymakers to visit the popular destinations.

She said: "We've been talking all weekend. What we'd like is for quarantines to be lifted on the islands as early as possible and we hope it will be today rather than tomorrow."

Daniel Trigg, chairman of the Lanzarote Business and Residents' Association, said he was caught off-guard by the UK government's decision to apply a blanket rule across all of Spain and its islands, adding that Lanzarote currently has just one case of coronavirus.

He said: "It came out of nowhere. We do not understand how the Canary Islands can be included.

"We've complied with everything and just do not understand why we're all put in the same category as mainland Spain."

Mr Trigg urged the British government to reconsider the decision due to Lanzarote's reliance on tourism for income and its precarious outlook for jobs.

He added: "Thousands of people will be put out of work and will never recover. Some businesses will just not last this.

"You're [the UK government] going to wipe out a lot of business and a lot of hard working families, including a lot of self-employed people in the tourism sector."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said no international travel is "risk-free", adding: "Decisions on border measures and travel advice can be changed rapidly if necessary to stop the spread of the disease."

Spain's tourism association - known as CEHAT - has offered to pay for tourists to take coronavirus tests and called the quarantine decision "illogical" and "unfair".

But a UK minister showed no signs of budging, saying "within individual countries there is no way for us to control intra-country transport" so it is "very difficult" to have regional exemptions.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Sky News that the government received data on Friday which showed a "big jump" in COVID-19 cases across Spain.

He said ministers looked at the data on Saturday afternoon and acted as quickly as they could - and the Department for Transport stands ready to do the same again.

Speaking to Sky News, health minister Helen Whately urged people to work from home when they return from Spain and asked employers to "be supportive".

France said at the weekend that its R-rate was up to 1.3 - with countries aiming for 1 or less in order to contain the virus. Daily new infections in France on Friday rose to 1,130.

Spain's ministry of foreign affairs insisted the situation in the country was "under control", with outbreaks "localised, isolated and controlled".

But the number of cases there has tripled in two weeks, with more than 900 new infections reported on Friday.

Emily Harrison, from Essex, who was flying to London, said: "It's not given very much time to prepare so everyone is now panicking, and I also think it ruins plans for everybody, so I don't really agree with that because it has come too soon. We haven't had enough preparation."

Close to 1.8 million holidays were likely to have been thrown into chaos by the quarantine move, according to travel company The PC Agency.

Tourist Pippa Stickler, who was due to fly home to the UK, said she and her partner are unable to get 14 days off work upon their return.

She said: "My partner is in a hands-on job with only four days' holiday remaining, so it has to be unpaid, and I can't work from home so cannot be off."

Mr Raab said no employee should be penalised for isolating, telling Sky News: "If someone is following the law in relation to quarantine and self-isolating the way they should, they can't have penalties taken against them."

The decision to impose a quarantine for travellers returning from Spain has been taken by all the devolved administrations in charge of health policy in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

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According to The Times, trips to France, Italy and Greece are being cancelled in "large numbers" following the ruling by ministers on Spain, a development likely to heap further pressure on an already under-strain travel sector.

British Airways and easyJet both expressed "disappointment" with the Spain quarantine decision, but said flights would not be immediately affected.

BA added that customers who no longer wished to travel to Spain could contact them to claim a voucher for future travel, while easyJet has said customers can transfer their flights without a change fee or get a voucher for the value of their booking.
This story has been updated to reflect new session times for the state Senate and House of Representatives.

LANSING, MI - This weeks scheduled sessions for the state House of Representatives and Senate are canceled due to a senator testing positive for COVID-19 less than two weeks ago.

A rare Saturday session for the Senate, however, is confirmed.

The Senate will meet at 10 a.m. on Aug. 15, while the House of Representatives will convene at 10 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 17, according to a joint letter from Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mike Shirkey and Speaker of the House Rep. Lee Chatfield.

The House session was set for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12, while the Senate session was scheduled for 10 a.m. the same day.

Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, tested positive for coronavirus on July 31. The schedule change allows representatives, senators and staff who were exposed to Barrett within the Capitol the week he tested positive to quarantine for 14 days in accordance with guidelines from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention.

Michigan senator tests positive for coronavirus

The Senate follows recommended procedures related to social distancing, wearing of masks, and cleaning and disinfecting of spaces, McCann told MLive in an Aug. 4 email. The Senate canceled session and committees hearings this week to execute protocols and for individuals to be tested and receive results.

Barrett told MLive he is recovering at home and has not experienced any complications. The Chief Warrant Officer 2 in the Michigan Army National Guard was originally tested one week prior to leaving for a military training event.

I am awaiting to get cleared and return to civilization, he said. Right now, Im on military duty status isolating at home. Once Im cleared, Ill be on duty for the next week and half or so. Its likely that Ill miss some Senate sessions while I am away on duty.

Barrett has served in the U.S. Army for more than a decade as a helicopter pilot, and is a veteran of both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Barrett is the first Republican state legislator with a confirmed positive case of COVID-19. Rep. Karen Whitsett, D-Detroit, and Rep. Tyrone Carter, D-Detroit, also tested positive in April. State Rep. Isaac Robinson, D-Detroit, died on March 29. He was not tested for COVID-19 before his death, but multiple reports have linked his health issues to the coronavirus.

Second Michigan legislator confirmed positive for coronavirus

Barrett has publicly criticized Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for utilizing unilateral emergency powers during the COVID-19 pandemic. He sponsored Senate Bill 858, which would have amended Michigans Emergency Management Act of 1976, laying out deadlines for when some of Whitmers executive orders would end. Whitmer vetoed it on May 5.

The governor continues to disregard the constitutional separation of power by extending emergency declarations unilaterally, Barrett said in a May 6 release after the GOP-majority Legislature filed a lawsuit against Whitmer. The Legislature most closely represents the voice of the people, but apparently the governor is not interested in hearing the concerns of Michiganders. It should offend everyone that a governor wants to control power for as long as she chooses.

Whitmer says Trumps executive orders do nothing to protect unemployed Americans

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/.
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.
The government's decision to wind back JobKeeper could see up to 640,000 jobs lost in the next eight months due to Australia's second wave of coronavirus infections.

About 330,000 positions could be stripped from the retail and construction sectors as the country battles a second wave of unemployment, according to consulting firm McKinsey.

Figures, given to The Australian, show the jobs will be axed between now and March next year.

Consulting firm McKinsey predicted job losses from the retail and construction sectors and warned it could result in a 'second wave of unemployment' nearly as large as the first

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has called out Victorian Premier Dan Andrews (pictured) for 'significant failures with deadly consequences' during the coronavirus pandemic

Bourke Street Mall (pictured) in Melbourne during stage 4 restrictions which saw the majority of major retailers forced to close, 42,000 retail jobs have already been cut during pandemic

The lowest projection is 270,000, which means the economic impact of COVID-19 could be felt for a decade.

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has faced multiple calls for his resignation over the state's handling of the second coronavirus wave and the hotel quarantine outbreaks.

On Monday federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said 'mistakes must be explained'.

"We know with respect to quarantine, there have been very significant failures with deadly consequences. Victorians deserve answers. I'll leave that to Daniel Andrews and his government to provide."

The McKinsey data shows losses in the construction sector could be up to 205,000 by March next year if the government assistance is cut back as expected and a 'prolonged recovery' sets in.

The CFMEU confirmed they are anticipating that type of loss if the government doesn't implement serious stimulus measures such as social and affordable housing.

Victoria's stage 4 restrictions mean only one person per household is allowed out to shop once a day and only essential retail outlets can open including including supermarkets, chemists, petrol stations and bottle shops.

Major department stores and retailers have to remain closed for the remainder of stage 4 restrictions but can offer online shopping.

The retail industry has lost 42,000 jobs due to the coronavirus so far this year and could lose another 215,000 according to McKinsey.

The McKinsey report shows losses in the construction sector could be up to 205,000 by March next year if the government assistance is cut back and a 'prolonged recovery' sets in

Major department stores in Sydney still haven't re-opened some of their locations as they face a major drop in sales due to coronavirus, the industry could face another 215,000 job losses before March

Police officers (pictured) in Victoria patrol the streets during the state's stage 4 coronavirus lockdown with a curfew for residents from 8pm to 5am

Major department stores in Sydney still haven't re-opened some of their locations as they face a major drop in sales due to coronavirus.

The JobKeeper payment was originally due to run until 27 September this year but the Treasurer has extended it for eligible businesses until March 28.

Under the changes the payment has been reduced from $1500 per fortnight to $1200 from September 20 and will drop to $1000 from January 4.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told the ABC on Sunday that JobKeeper payments could change again in the future.

'If facts change, we'll reassess what may or may not be appropriate at the time.'
BEIJING, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sogou Inc. (NYSE: SOGO) ("Sogou" or "the Company"), an innovator in search and a leader in China's internet industry, today announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter, ended June 30, 2020.

Second Quarter 2020 Highlights

Total revenues [1] were $261.2 million , a 14% decrease year-over-year, or an 11% decrease in RMB terms.

were , a 14% decrease year-over-year, or an 11% decrease in RMB terms. Net loss attributable to Sogou Inc. was $8.5 million . Non-GAAP [2] net loss attributable to Sogou Inc. was $5.5 million .

. Non-GAAP net loss attributable to Sogou Inc. was . Sogou Mobile Keyboard had 484 million DAUs (daily average users), up 6% year-over-year. As China's largest voice recognition app, it processed up to 1.4 billion daily voice requests.

"We delivered overall in-line results in the second quarter, with Search maintaining a steady share of traffic and Mobile Keyboard further expanding its DAU base. Moreover, our AI Hardware business recorded solid growth in the quarter," said Xiaochuan Wang, CEO of Sogou. "Amidst the external headwinds from the pandemic, Sogou has been proactively upgrading its development strategy to focus on generating more user value and building out a business that is oriented towards long-term value and growth. We will further boost AI empowerment and synergies across our businesses while we continually drive technological advances."

Fion Zhou, CFO of Sogou, said, "In the second quarter, while our top-line performance came under pressure due to prolonged impact from the pandemic, we are pleased that we narrowed the net loss on a sequential basis, partially due to gradually normalized TAC growth. As we move forward, we will stringently manage our costs and expenses as we implement our strategy upgrade."

Second Quarter 2020 Financial Results

Total revenues were $261.2 million, a 14% decrease year-over-year.

Search and search-related revenues were $240.6 million , a 13% decrease year-over-year. Auction-based pay-for-click services decreased year-over-year, accounting for 86.9% of search and search-related revenues, compared to 88.2% in the corresponding period in 2019.

were , a 13% decrease year-over-year. Auction-based pay-for-click services decreased year-over-year, accounting for 86.9% of search and search-related revenues, compared to 88.2% in the corresponding period in 2019. Other revenues were $20.6 million , a 25% decrease year-over-year. The decrease was primarily due to decreased revenues from non-core businesses, partially offset by a 20% year-over-year increase in AI-enabled hardware.

Cost of revenues was $196.9 million, a 1% increase year-over-year. Traffic acquisition cost, a primary driver of cost of revenues, was $159.1 million, a 9% increase year-over-year, representing 60.9% of total revenues, compared to 48.2% in the corresponding period in 2019. The increase was driven by increased traffic acquisition from third parties as users confined to their homes spent more time online during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Gross profit was $64.2 million and non-GAAP gross profit was $64.3 million, both a 40% decrease year-over-year.

Total operating expenses were $90.3 million, a 6% decrease year-over-year.

Research and development expenses were $48.7 million , a 4% decrease year-over-year, representing 18.6% of total revenues, compared to 16.7% in the corresponding period in 2019. The decrease was primarily attributable to a decrease in share-based compensation expense.

were , a 4% decrease year-over-year, representing 18.6% of total revenues, compared to 16.7% in the corresponding period in 2019. The decrease was primarily attributable to a decrease in share-based compensation expense. Sales and marketing expenses were $32.0 million , a 13% decrease year-over-year, representing 12.2% of total revenues, largely flat with the corresponding period in 2019. The decrease was primarily due to a decrease in personnel-related expenses.

were , a 13% decrease year-over-year, representing 12.2% of total revenues, largely flat with the corresponding period in 2019. The decrease was primarily due to a decrease in personnel-related expenses. General and administrative expenses were $9.7 million , a 9% increase year-over-year, representing 3.7% of total revenues, compared to 2.9% in the corresponding period in 2019.

Operating loss was $26.1 million, compared to operating income of $11.6 million in the corresponding period in 2019. Non-GAAP operating loss was $23.2 million, compared to operating income of $18.1million in the corresponding period in 2019.

Other income, net was $15.5 million, compared to $4.2 million in the corresponding period in 2019. The increase was primarily due to a tax refund that was part of the Chinese government's initiatives taken in response to COVID-19 and other tax exemptions.

Income tax benefit was $1.1 million, compared to $1.4 million in the corresponding period of 2019.

Net loss attributable to Sogou Inc. was $8.5 million, compared to net income of $21.3 million in the corresponding period in 2019. Non-GAAP net loss attributable to Sogou Inc. was $5.5 million, compared to net income of $27.8 million in the corresponding period in 2019.

GAAP basic and diluted loss per ADS was $0.02. Non-GAAP basic and diluted loss per ADS was $0.01.

As of June 30, 2020, the Company had cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments of $1.2 billion, compared to $1.1 billion as of December 31, 2019. Net operating cash inflow for the second quarter of 2020 was $49.2 million. Capital expenditures for the second quarter of 2020 were $5.8 million.

[1] On a constant currency (non-GAAP) basis, if the exchange rate in the second quarter of 2020 had been the same as it was in the second quarter of 2019, or RMB 6.82=$1.00, total revenues in the second quarter of 2020 would have been 271.4 million, or $10.2 million more than GAAP total revenues, and down 11% year-over-year. [2] Non-GAAP results exclude share-based compensation expense. Explanation of the Company's non-GAAP financial measures and related reconciliations to GAAP financial measures are included in the accompanying "Non-GAAP Disclosure" and "Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Results of Operation Measures to the Nearest Comparable GAAP Measures."

Recent Development

On July 27, 2020, the Company announced that its board of directors (the "Sogou Board") received a letter containing a preliminary non-binding proposal (the "Proposal") from Tencent Holdings Limited (including its affiliates, "Tencent") for Tencent to acquire all of the outstanding ordinary shares, including ordinary shares represented by ADSs, of the Company that are not already owned by Tencent for US$9.00 in cash per ordinary share or ADS (as the same may be amended from time to time, a "Proposed Transaction"). A Proposed Transaction based on the Proposal, if completed, would result in the Company becoming a privately-held, indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Tencent, and Sogou ADSs would be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.

On July 31, 2020, the Sogou Board established a special committee (the "Special Committee") of the Sogou Board, composed solely of independent directors, to consider the Proposal.

The Company cautions its shareholders and others considering trading in the Company's securities that neither the Sogou Board nor the Special Committee has made any decision with respect to the Company's response to the Proposal. There can be no assurance that Tencent will make a definitive offer to the Company, that a definitive agreement relating to the Proposal will be entered into between the Company and Tencent, or that a Proposed Transaction or any other similar transaction will be approved or consummated.

The Company does not undertake any obligation to provide any updates with respect to this or any other transaction, except as required under applicable law.

Non-GAAP Disclosure

To supplement the unaudited consolidated financial information prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America ("GAAP"), Sogou's management uses non-GAAP measures of gross profit, gross margin, and net income that are adjusted from results based on GAAP to exclude the impact of share-based awards. These measures should be considered in addition to results prepared in accordance with GAAP, but should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, GAAP results.

Sogou's management believes that excluding share-based compensation expense is useful for management's internal operating purposes and for investors. The amount of share-based compensation expense cannot be anticipated by management, and this is not built into the Company's annual budgets and quarterly forecasts, which generally will be the basis for information Sogou provides to analysts and investors as guidance for future operating performance. As share-based compensation expense does not involve subsequent cash outflow, Sogou does not factor in this expense when evaluating and approving expenditures or when determining the allocation of its resources to its business operations. As a result, in general, the Company's monthly financial results for internal reporting and any performance measures for commissions and bonuses are based on these non-GAAP financial measures that exclude share-based compensation expense.

The non-GAAP financial measures are provided to enhance investors' overall understanding of Sogou's current financial performance and prospects for the future. A limitation of using non-GAAP gross profit, gross margin, and net income measures that exclude share-based compensation expense is that share-based compensation expense has been and is likely to continue to be a significant recurring expense in the Company's business. In order to mitigate these limitations, the Company has provided specific information regarding the GAAP amounts excluded from each non-GAAP measure. The accompanying tables include details on the reconciliation between GAAP financial measures that are most directly comparable to the non-GAAP financial measures the Company has presented.

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement may contain forward-looking statements. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Sogou's and Sogou management's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Any such statements are based on current plans, estimates, and projections, which involve inherent risks and uncertainties. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, intense competition in the market for search and search-related services; our need to continually innovate and adapt in order to grow our business; our reliance on Tencent platforms for a significant portion of our user traffic; uncertainty regarding the extent and reach of PRC governmental regulation of sponsored search; the effects of the COVID-19 virus on the economy in China generally and on our business in particular; and the fact that there is no assurance that Tencent will make a definitive offer to acquire the Company, that a definitive agreement relating to the Proposal will be entered into between Tencent and the Company, or that a Proposed Transaction or any other similar transaction between Tencent and the Company will be approved or consummated. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Sogou's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2019 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 21, 2020, and other documents Sogou files with or submits to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Conference Call and Webcast

Sogou's management team will host a conference call at 6:30 am U.S. Eastern Time, (6:30 pm Beijing/Hong Kong time) on August 10, 2020, following this quarterly results announcement.

The dial-in details for the live conference call are:

U.S. Toll Free: +1-888-317-6003 Mainland China Toll Free: 4001-206115 Hong Kong Toll Free: 800-963976 Hong Kong Local Toll: +852-580-81995 International: +1-412-317-6061 Passcode: 9971291

Please dial in 10 minutes before the call is scheduled to begin. When prompted, ask to be connected to the Sogou Inc. call and provide the passcode.

A replay of the conference call may be accessed by phone at the following number until August 17, 2020:

International: +1-412-317-0088 Passcode: 10146698

A live webcast and archive of the conference call will be available on the Investor Relations section of Sogou's website at http://ir.sogou.com.

About Sogou

Sogou Inc. (NYSE: SOGO) is an innovator in search and a leader in China's internet industry. With a mission to make it easy to communicate and get information, Sogou has grown to become the second-largest search engine by mobile queries and the fourth largest internet company by MAU in China. Sogou has a wide range of innovative products and services, including the Sogou Input Method, which is the largest Chinese language input software for both mobile and PC. Sogou is also at the forefront of AI development and has made significant breakthroughs in voice and image technologies, machine translation, and Q&A, which have been successfully integrated into our products and services.

For investor enquiries, please contact:

Jessie Zheng

Sogou Investor Relations

Tel: +86 10 5689 8068

Email: [email protected]

For media enquiries, please contact:

Serena Liu

Sogou Public Relations

Tel: +86 10 5689 9999 (61958)

Email: [email protected]



SOGOU INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (UNAUDITED, IN THOUSANDS EXCEPT PER SHARE AMOUNTS)





Three Months Ended



Jun. 30, 2020

Mar. 31, 2020

Jun. 30, 2019 Revenues:











Search and searchrelated advertising

revenues $ 240,602 $ 237,610 $ 276,152 Other revenues

20,581

19,674

27,464 Total revenues

261,183

257,284

303,616 Cost of revenues (1)

196,939

217,024

195,863 Gross profit

64,244

40,260

107,753 Operating expenses:











Research and development (1)

48,683

47,023

50,609 Sales and marketing (1)

31,981

28,597

36,664 General and administrative (1)

9,682

6,997

8,849 Total operating expenses

90,346

82,617

96,122 Operating (loss)/income

(26,102)

(42,357)

11,631 Interest income

813

744

1,739 Foreign currency exchange (loss)/gain (2)

(89)

1,730

2,387 Other income, net

15,542

7,212

4,216 (loss)/Income before income tax

expenses

(9,836)

(32,671)

19,973 Income tax benefit

(1,143)

(962)

(1,357) Net (loss)/income

(8,693)

(31,709)

21,330 Less: Net loss attributable to

noncontrolling interest shareholders

(233)

(93)

- Net (loss)/income attributable to

Sogou Inc. $ (8,460) $ (31,616) $ 21,330 Net (loss)/income per share/ADS











Basic $ (0.02) $ (0.08) $ 0.05 Diluted $ (0.02) $ (0.08) $ 0.05 Weighted average number of

shares/ADSs outstanding











Basic

383,066

382,141

391,490 Diluted

383,066

382,141

396,632













(1) Sharebased compensation

expense included in:











Cost of revenues $ 45 $ 77 $ 127 Research and development

2,095

613

4,470 Sales and marketing

702

(379)

1,670 General and administrative

72

166

187

$ 2,914 $ 477 $ 6,454

(2) Foreign currency exchange (loss)/gain, mainly arising from our cross-border RMB-denominated intragroup loans, is

a result of appreciation or depreciation, respectively, of the RMB.

SOGOU INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (UNAUDITED, IN THOUSANDS)





As of Jun. 30, 2020

As of Dec. 31, 2019 ASSETS







Current assets:







Cash and cash equivalents $ 257,055 $ 142,464 Short-term investments

920,993

995,350 Restricted cash

6,177

5,370 Account and financing receivables, net

111,366

131,813 Prepaid and other current assets

34,409

26,888 Due from related parties

2,495 $ 2,837 Total current assets

1,332,495

1,304,722 Longterm investments, net

71,080 $ 63,345 Fixed assets, net

88,797

110,006 Goodwill

6,016

5,534 Intangible assets, net

1,346

1,514 Deferred tax assets, net

15,095

16,306 Other assets

40,967 $ 20,975 Total assets $ 1,555,796

1,522,402 LIABILITIES







Current liabilities:







Accounts payable $ 209,078 $ 111,587 Accrued and other short-term liabilities

137,932

150,275 Receipts in advance

69,041

67,902 Accrued salary and benefits

17,525

24,167 Taxes payable

63,460

76,688 Due to related parties

32,055

22,594 Total current liabilities

529,091

453,213 Long-term liabilities

15,963

5,686 Total liabilities $ 545,054 $ 458,899









SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY







Sogou Inc. shareholders' equity

1,010,517

1,063,503 Non-controlling interest

225

- Total shareholders' equity

1,010,742

1,063,503 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $ 1,555,796

1,522,402

SOGOU INC. RECONCILIATIONS OF NON-GAAP RESULTS OF OPERATION MEASURES TO THE NEAREST COMPARABLE GAAP MEASURES (UNAUDITED, IN THOUSANDS EXCEPT PER SHARE AMOUNTS)



Three Months Ended Jun. 30, 2020 Three Months Ended Mar. 31, 2020 Three Months Ended Jun 30, 2019

GAAP Non-GAAP Non-GAAP GAAP Non-GAAP Non-GAAP GAAP Non-GAAP Non-GAAP Adjustments(1) Adjustments(1) Adjustments(1) Gross profit $ 64,244 $ 45 $ 64,289 $ 40,260 $ 77 $ 40,337 $ 107,753 $ 127 $ 107,880 Gross margin

25%





25%

16%





16%

35%





36%





































Operating expenses $ 90,346 $ (2,869) $ 87,477 $ 82,617 $ (400) $ 82,217 $ 96,122 $ (6,327) $ 89,795





































Operating (loss)/income $ (26,102) $ 2,914 $ (23,188) $ (42,357) $ 477 $ (41,880) $ 11,631 $ 6,454 $ 18,085 Operating margin

-10%





-9%

-16%





-16%

4%





6%





































Income tax benefit $ (1,143) $ - $ (1,143) $ (962) $ - $ (962) $ (1,357) $ - $ (1,357)





































Net (loss)/income before non-

controlling interest $ (8,693) $ 2,914 $ (5,779) $ (31,709) $ 477 $ (31,232) $ 21,330 $ 6,454 $ 27,784 Net (loss)/income attributable

to Sogou Inc. $ (8,460) $ 2,914 $ (5,546) $ (31,616) $ 477 $ (31,139) $ 21,330 $ 6,454 $ 27,784 Net margin attributable to

Sogou Inc.

-3%





-2%

-12%





-12%

7%





9%

(1) To exclude share-based compensation expense. This non-GAAP adjustment does not have an impact on income tax expense.

SOURCE Sogou Inc.

Related Links

www.sogou.com


Manhattan, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/10/2020 -- Getting help for mental health issues is trying under the best of times. The COVID-19 pandemic is making things worse for clients so one counseling center is offering telemental health services.



Neurofeedback & Counseling Center of Pennsylvania online counseling sessions are just like the ones done in person, except it is done online with a secure transmission. In some cases, clients actually find this kind of counseling is even better because they can do it from where they feel comfortable.



"The service is the same. You get the undivided attention from one of our counselors," said Amanda Levison, M.S., LMHC, LPC, CCBT. "We just do this online. You see your counselor, your counselor sees you and together, you work on what needs to be addressed.



Telehealth is a growing field of medicine. It allows a doctor, a nurse, a counselor or other health care provider to see clients anywhere. Clients and providers don't have to be the same state or country for that matter. All that is needed is a good Internet connection.



With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth is becoming even more accepted. Health care providers and the clients are never near each other so there is no chance of transmitting the virus.



"This is so wonderful for clients and people who need counseling. If you are home under isolation because you have COVID-19 or came in contact with someone who has it, you can still get the counseling you need," Ms. Levison said. "You get the same level of care, compassion and service, but you get it from your home."



She said the Neurofeedback & Counseling Center did not spend much time thinking about this one. It just made sense no matter how they looked at it, she said.



"The safety of our clients is always our top priority. We have to make sure everyone is protected. Doing telemental health allows us to protect our clients and it protects us," she said.



Harrisburg PA therapist, Ms. Levison further explained it is not just the individual clients and staff being protected, but other people as well. Any time a person who either has COVD-19 or may have it goes out in public they may be spreading the virus to other people around them. That includes other clients of the Neurofeedback & Counseling Center and the general public who may contact those people while the infected person is out and about.



"Of course, this service is available to all our clients, not just those who are presently homebound. If you do not want to leave your house, don't. We can walk you through the process to set up an online session. It's actually very easy," Ms. Levison said. "If you have a smartphone, you can do it. If you have a computer, tablet or laptop with a camera and microphone, you can do it," she said.



The offer also applies to new clients.



For more information visit Neurofeedback & Counseling Center of Pennsylvania or call 717-202-2510
* China reported 23 new coronavirus cases in the mainland for Aug 8, down from 31 a day earlier, the countrys health authority said on Sunday. Among the new cases, 15 were locally transmitted and eight were imported infections, the National Health Commission said in a statement published on its website. The total number of infections in mainland China now stands at 84,619, with the death toll unchanged at 4,634.

* Brazil's death toll from COVID-19 passed 100,000 on Saturday (August 8) and continue to climb as most Brazilian cities reopen shops and dining even though the pandemic has yet to peak. Confronting its most lethal outbreak since the Spanish flu a century ago, Brazil reported its first cases of the novel coronavirus at the end of February. The virus took three months to kill 50,000 people, and just 50 days to kill the next 50,000.

* Mexico's health ministry on Saturday reported 6,495 new confirmed coronavirus infections and 695 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 475,902 cases and 52,006 deaths. Officials have said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases. Mexico has the third highest coronavirus death tally globally, behind the United States and Brazil.

* Russia reported 5,189 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday, bringing its nationwide tally to 887,536, the fourth largest caseload in the world. Russia's coronavirus taskforce said 77 people had died over the last 24 hours, pushing its official death toll to 14,931.

* Indian investigators on Sunday began examining the black box of a Boeing-737 that overshot a runway on its second attempt, killing 18 people in the country's worst aviation accident in a decade. The Air India Express plane, which was repatriating Indians stranded in Dubai due to the coronavirus pandemic, overshot the runway of the Calicut International Airport in heavy rain near the southern city of Kozhikode on Friday. The aircraft fell into a valley and broke in half.

* New Zealand marked 100 days without a domestic transmission of the coronavirus on Sunday, but warned against complacency as some countries which once had the virus under control now battle a resurgence in infections. New Zealand's successful fight against COVID-19 has made the Pacific island nation of 5 million one of the safest places in the world right now.

* Australias second-most populous state, Victoria, reported its deadliest day of the COVID-19 outbreak on Sunday, with 17 people dying, as police thwarted a planned anti-mask rally in the capital of Melbourne. Victoria, at the centre of a second wave of infections in Australia, reported 394 cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, compared with a daily average of 400-500 over the past week. The new deaths bring the state's total to 210.

* The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 555 to 215,891, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Sunday. The reported death toll rose by one to 9,196, the tally showed.

* Paris authorities on Saturday said it would be mandatory to wear a face mask outdoors in busy areas of the French capital from Monday as the number of coronavirus infections there rose. The order applies to people aged 11 and over, the Paris prefecture said in a statement. The zones where masks must be worn will be detailed separately, and evaluated on a regular basis, the prefecture said.

* Afghanistan agreed on Sunday to release 400 "hard-core" Taliban prisoners, paving the way for the beginning of peace talks aimed at ending more than 19 years of war. With the release, the Afghan government will fulfil its pledge to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners.

* Japan and Britain agreed to lift auto tariffs for a post-Brexit trade agreement in 2026 despite Japan's push to lift the tariffs earlier, the Nikkei Asian Review reported on Sunday. Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi is currently in negotiations with British Trade Minister Liz Truss in London.

* French President Emmanuel Macron will host US President Donald Trump and other political leaders on Sunday for a U.N.-endorsed donors' conference by video to raise emergency relief for Lebanon following this week's massive explosion in Beirut. Lebanon was already mired in deep political and economic crisis when the blast ripped through its main port on Tuesday, killing 158 people, injuring more than 6,000 and destroying a swathe of the city.

* The United States plans to cut its troop levels in Afghanistan to "a number less than 5,000" by the end of November, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in an interview broadcast on Saturday, adding detail to drawdown plans US President Donald Trump announced earlier this week. The United States currently has about 8,600 troops in Afghanistan. Trump said in an interview released Monday by Axios that the United States planned to lower that number to about 4,000.

* Argentina will start talks with the International Monetary Fund in the coming weeks aimed at clinching a new program to replace a defunct US$57 billion standby lending deal from two years ago, a top IMF official told Reuters on Saturday. In 2018, Argentina received the biggest lending package in IMF history in an ill-fated bid to halt a slide in the local peso currency. About US$44 billion of the allotted cash has been paid out so far.

* Germany has declared certain regions in Romania and Bulgaria as risk areas after an increase in COVID-19 infections there, as Europe struggles to control an uptick in cases during the summer season. Germany has designated about 130 countries as high-risk, including Turkey, Egypt and the United States.
Wisconsin's biggest cities have secured more polling sites and volunteers following the April contests that saw winding lines and long waits as officials worked to pull off the state's first election of the COVID-19 era.

It was that spring election that logged voting locations numbering in the single digits in two of Wisconsin's most populous areas  Milwaukee and Green Bay  and a reduction elsewhere as clerks scrambled to lock in sites despite cancellations and a shortage of available workers.

But the fall primary will be different.

Rather than the five locations in Milwaukee (population 600,000) and two in Green Bay (population 105,000) from four months ago, voters will be dispersed among 168 and 17, respectively, come Tuesday.

Milwaukee Elections Commission executive director Claire Woodall-Vogg, who took over the role in July following her predecessor's retirement, said extra time ahead of this election was "the biggest factor" in securing the additional sites.

"The biggest difference between April 7 and August 11 is that we have had the time to make in-person voting safe for election workers and voters," she said, noting plexiglass would be placed at every table, disinfecting procedures would be in place and election workers would be trained on proper personal protective equipment protocol.

"Election workers are more comfortable knowing that they will interact with several hundred instead of several thousand voters," she added. "Voters are happy to return to their neighborhood polling place and not be faced with long lines or different procedures."

Meanwhile, Madison (population 250,000) is going from 66 to 86 polling locations, while Kenosha (population 100,000) will stick with the 10 sites the city had available in April.

Neither city witnessed the lines that snaked across parking lots and around blocks that voters in Milwaukee and Green Bay experienced in the spring.

City of Kenosha spokeswoman Michelle Nelson noted that while the total number of voting places may be the same, officials made some changes to the sites' layout and added extra staffing, bumping up the number of poll workers to 128.

Nelson said the 10 sites (down from the 22 the city typically uses) "were sufficient" in April when officials sent out more than 15,000 absentee ballots to voters.

"We have already sent out over 12,000 absentee ballots for the August 11th Partisan Primary which is exponentially higher than the normal amount of requests we would receive for a comparable election," she added. "We aren't expecting a large turnout at the polling places."

City-by-city breakdown

In addition to election officials working to secure more sites, voters can expect to see more poll workers and volunteers on Election Day.

Supplementing those efforts are Wisconsin National Guard troops, activated by Gov. Tony Evers last week after the local clerks told the Elections Commission they're 900 poll workers short for the primary.

The requests for poll workers were logged from municipalities in 40 of the state's 72 counties. National Guard soldiers were also mobilized for the April election.

Milwaukee's Woodall-Vogg said the city will employ nearly 1,500 election workers  above the normal staffing levels of between 900 and 1,200 individuals for a partisan primary.

Rather than the 170 National Guard members from four months ago, Woodall-Vogg said the city requested and was provided with 40 individuals who were trained Monday morning and plan to serve as "on-call" election inspectors, meaning they'll fill in for any sick or no-show workers at the 168 sites.

In Madison, Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl said she's expecting anywhere between 10 and 40 National Guard members to be working at the polls Tuesday, supplementing more than 1,100 workers scheduled for morning and afternoon/evening shifts.

They'll be spread out across the city's 86 polling locations, slightly fewer than the 89 sites the city typically supports in August.

Green Bay has around 250 poll workers for its 17 locations, said Celestine Jeffreys, chief of staff to Mayor Eric Genrich, plus 50 National Guard soldiers. She said the city is "very satisfied" with the individuals they have, though as of last week officials were looking for some additional workers to aid with the city's Central Count system for tabulating votes.

Kenosha is planning to have 128 poll workers on Election Day spread across its 10 sites, which Nelson said had some layout changes post April as well as higher staffing levels.

In the last election, former Clerk Deb Salas (who has since retired) said the city had some 95 workers and 25 National Guard soldiers available.

Looking to November

Many of the elections officials in the state's biggest cities are already looking ahead to November  though the August election isn't yet behind them.

Part of the reason Woodall-Vogg said Milwaukee took on the extra election workers (1,500 versus the usual 900 to 1,200) was to prepare for the general election.

"We feel it is important to use August to train as many new inspectors as possible so that we are prepared for Nov. 3, so we did not stop or create a 'wait list' when we surpassed our needs," she said.

In Madison, Witzel-Behl pledged officials "will be working hard" to establish 92 polling sites for November  the usual number of locations open.

She also credited the city's ability to remain "relatively resilient in April" with 66 sites because of officials' "relatively deep" poll worker base.

Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.

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We are very pleased to be in good company with a lot of other very brave organizations speaking out, said Michael Abramowitz, president of Freedom House. It will have no impact on what we say or what we do. We believe whats happening with the Chinese Communist Party is one of the greatest threats in the world today.
Joe Biden was not my first choice and to be honest I wasnt thinking much about who he should choose as Vice President. But after learning about Congresswoman Karen Bass Im hoping Joe Biden chooses her to be his running mate in the 2020 Presidential Election. Im a young progressive who grew up in Central Pennsylvania and now lives in Philadelphia, working in the hard hit hospitality industry, I wont be able to survive another four years of Donald Trump.

When I look at all of the issues facing our nation: the COVID pandemic, racial inequality, our economic crisis, and more, we need and deserve a proven President and Vice President that will be able to solve tough problems and heal our wounds.

As a member of Congress, and as Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Karen Bass is an unabashed progressive who has led the bipartisan passage of the Justice in Policing Act, which addresses police brutality, systemic racism, and discrimination. She served as Speaker of the California State Assembly, the 6th largest economy in the world during the 2008 recession when she fast-tracked economic stimulus legislation that created jobs and projects that led to economic growth and recovery. And before she was ever elected, she was a physician assistant, helping save lives while seeing and understanding our healthcare system from the inside. She knows we need universal health care and shes down the work. Her record as a leader and as someone who gets things done sets her apart from the other women rumored to be in consideration for Joe Bidens running mate. Many may not know her name, but they need to.

Karen Bass will be able to deliver results for Pennsylvania. I havent met her, but she inspires me. We need that right now. Biden/Bass, lets get it done!

Aaron Terroso Cook, Philadelphia, Pa.
Tens of millions of jobless Americans are unlikely to see their weekly unemployment checks grow anytime soon  despite President Donald Trumps executive action promising an extra $400 a week.

The presidents order depends on already cash-poor states being able to create and implement a new system and fund one-fourth of the aid, which for many governors would be a difficult if not impossible task.

It also would draw from a limited pool of funding, meaning enhanced benefits might only last a few weeks once the program is up and running. And it imposes a minimum benefit requirement, which could render some low-wage and gig workers ineligible.

"I honestly think this cant possibly be serious, said Michele Evermore, a senior policy analyst with the liberal-leaning National Employment Law Project. The White House must have released this thinking that this is just a negotiating tactic because it really is an empty promise.

How would it work?

The action uses presidential powers under whats known as the Stafford Act to use disaster relief funding, in combination with state dollars, to send money to unemployed workers.

The Labor Department has so far said it will work with states, the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA to help provide the relief, but it has not provided more specifics. Some states, like Hawaii and Missouri, have issued notices saying they are awaiting further guidance from DOL on how to implement the program.

States have to apply for the federal funding, and if they choose not to opt in or say they do not have the funds available to supply their portion of the aid, then unemployed workers in their state will get no extra benefit.

The memo instructs states to distribute the payments through their regular unemployment systems. But many experts and Democrats say they are confused as to how already struggling state systems would be able to administer Trumps plan. That's something that we just don't understand how that would work, a Senate Democratic aide told POLITICO. You basically need to set up this whole new entity.

Story continues

Where would the money come from?

Trumps memorandum says the federal government would cover 75 percent of the costs, while states would provide the remaining 25 percent  or $100 per worker per week. But the presidents messaging on who would be required to foot the bill for the program has shifted in recent days, as he suggested he could have the federal government cover all of the costs or more than 75 percent.

We have a system where we can do 100 percent or we can do 75 percent. They'd pay 25. And it'll depend on the state. And they'll make an application, we'll look at it, and we'll make a decision, Trump told reporters Monday in New Jersey. So it may be they'll pay nothing in some instances.

But White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany appeared to knock down that idea during a Monday press briefing, noting that states are legally required to pay for a quarter of the aid. She added that states can use CARES Act funding as a way to bring that hundred dollars forward.

A White House spokesperson told POLITICO that states could also apply their existing state unemployment benefits as funds that meet the 25 percent share.

But some cash-strapped state governments have been holding on to a portion of that money, hoping that Congress will provide them with the flexibility to use it for budget gaps caused by declining tax revenues.

Can states afford it?

Governors are already making clear that it wont be easy to come up with their required portion of the aid, nor to set up a new system in the middle of a pandemic that has already wreaked havoc on state budgets.

The nonpartisan National Governors Association, which for months has been calling for $500 billion for states from the federal government, said in a statement Monday it was concerned about the significant administrative burdens and costs this latest action would place on the states. The group called instead for Congress and the Trump administration to work out a solution that would not place new administrative and fiscal burdens on states.

States are going broke and millions of Americans are unemployed, yet the solution calls for the states to create a new program we cant afford to begin with and don't know how to administer, New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said on Monday.

And Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said Sunday his state was still reviewing whether it could afford to fund its share of the new program. The answer is, I dont know yet, DeWine said on CNNs State of the Union.

How quickly will workers get paid?

Requiring states to implement a new program could take weeks or months as they reprogram their antiquated systems to calculate who will be eligible. States will also have to find a way to separately fund administration of the new aid alongside regular unemployment benefits.

It will definitely be months, Evermore said. And thats in states that are able to pay it out at all.

The White House acknowledged on Monday the uncertainty around standing up such a system. "I can't pinpoint a timeline, McEnany said during a press briefing.

Who is eligible for benefits?

The memo says workers must receive at least $100 in benefits a week in order to be eligible, a requirement that could leave out many gig-economy, low-wage and part-time workers.

State unemployment benefits, which vary by state, typically replace about 50 percent of a workers wages. Most states will pay a minimum benefit far lower than $100, suggesting that some part-time and low-wage workers could fall below the threshold to receive the federal help.

Will this help the economy?

Experts warn there is not enough money available to have a meaningful impact on the economy.

Since Trump doesnt have authority to order the spending of new money, the most he can do is push existing programs to spend their existing funding in new ways, said Jack Smalligan, who previously worked as deputy associate director at the Office of Management and Budget.

Theres roughly $44 billion available in the Disaster Relief Fund, from which the government will draw the federal portion of the benefit. Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the progressive Century Foundation, calculated that would provide about six weeks of benefits if every state were to take up the extra unemployment insurance program  not enough to endure the current Covid-19 surge and get to the point when jobless are able to go back to their jobs, he said.

He also noted that the extra $400 per week for eligible jobless workers would still represent an average 22 percent pay cut for those who had through July been receiving an extra $600 weekly from the federal government.

And that in turn is likely to lead to a drop in consumer spending that has been supporting jobs. The Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, estimates that cutting the enhanced benefit by $200 per week would cost 1.7 million jobs.

Compared to actually doing another installment of emergency unemployment insurance legislation, Smalligan said, whats done in the executive order is really quite paltry.
The companies argue Trumps proclamation was based on a false assumption that it would protect US workers.

Top United States tech firms including Amazon.com Inc and Facebook Inc filed a legal brief on Monday backing a challenge to US President Donald Trumps temporary ban on the entry of certain foreign workers to preserve jobs for Americans during the coronavirus pandemic.

In the brief, filed in a lawsuit brought in California by major US business associations, the companies argued that the visa restrictions will hurt American businesses, lead employers to hire workers outside the US, and further damage the already struggling US economy.

Trump issued a presidential proclamation in June that suspended the entry of a range of foreign workers until the end of the year  a move his administration said would free up jobs for unemployed Americans amid the economic fallout of the pandemic.

Among those affected by the temporary ban are skilled foreign workers entering on H-1B visas and managers and specialised workers being transferred within a company on L visas  both visa types used by tech companies. Trumps ban also blocks seasonal workers entering on H-2B visas, with an exception for workers in food supply chain jobs.

In the brief filed on Monday, the companies argue Trumps proclamation could do irreparable damage to US businesses, workers and the economy, and was based on a false assumption that it would protect US workers.

Global competitors in Canada, China, and India, among others, are pouncing at the opportunity to attract well-trained, innovative individuals, the brief reads. And American businesses are scrambling to adjust, hiring needed talent to work in locations outside our nations borders.

Apple, Microsoft, Netflix and Twitter were among 52 companies that signed the brief, which was filed in a lawsuit brought by the National Association of Manufacturers, which represents 14,000 member companies. A similar lawsuit was brought in Washington, DC.
The CEO of Dekel Agri-Vision plc (LON:DKL) is Youval Rasin, and this article examines the executive's compensation against the backdrop of overall company performance. This analysis will also evaluate the appropriateness of CEO compensation when taking into account the earnings and shareholder returns of the company.

See our latest analysis for Dekel Agri-Vision

How Does Total Compensation For Youval Rasin Compare With Other Companies In The Industry?

At the time of writing, our data shows that Dekel Agri-Vision plc has a market capitalization of UK9.5m, and reported total annual CEO compensation of 252k for the year to December 2019. That's mostly flat as compared to the prior year's compensation. In particular, the salary of 223.0k, makes up a huge portion of the total compensation being paid to the CEO.

On comparing similar-sized companies in the industry with market capitalizations below UK153m, we found that the median total CEO compensation was 311k. So it looks like Dekel Agri-Vision compensates Youval Rasin in line with the median for the industry. Moreover, Youval Rasin also holds UK1.5m worth of Dekel Agri-Vision stock directly under their own name, which reveals to us that they have a significant personal stake in the company.

Component 2019 2018 Proportion (2019) Salary 223k 224k 88% Other 29k 28k 12% Total Compensation 252k 252k 100%

On an industry level, around 74% of total compensation represents salary and 26% is other remuneration. According to our research, Dekel Agri-Vision has allocated a higher percentage of pay to salary in comparison to the wider industry. If total compensation veers towards salary, it suggests that the variable portion - which is generally tied to performance, is lower.

A Look at Dekel Agri-Vision plc's Growth Numbers

Over the last three years, Dekel Agri-Vision plc has shrunk its earnings per share by 95% per year. Revenue was pretty flat on last year.

Overall this is not a very positive result for shareholders. And the flat revenue is seriously uninspiring. It's hard to argue the company is firing on all cylinders, so shareholders might be averse to high CEO remuneration. Although we don't have analyst forecasts, you might want to assess this data-rich visualization of earnings, revenue and cash flow.

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Has Dekel Agri-Vision plc Been A Good Investment?

Since shareholders would have lost about 81% over three years, some Dekel Agri-Vision plc investors would surely be feeling negative emotions. Therefore, it might be upsetting for shareholders if the CEO were paid generously.

To Conclude...

As previously discussed, Youval is compensated close to the median for companies of its size, and which belong to the same industry. In the meantime, the company has reported declining earnings growth and shareholder returns over the last three years. We'd stop short of saying compensation is inappropriate, but we would understand if shareholders had questions regarding a future raise.

CEO pay is simply one of the many factors that need to be considered while examining business performance. That's why we did our research, and identified 3 warning signs for Dekel Agri-Vision (of which 2 don't sit too well with us!) that you should know about in order to have a holistic understanding of the stock.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a different set of stocks. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

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.
Christianity is commonly mistaken as the religion of the white Western world. It is no secret that Christianity once found a home in Europe, but the Bible refutes any suggestion that Christianity is merely a Western religion, as Jesus upset the cultural status quo through his teachings. The Good Samaritan is tearing through social divides in uplifting the status of a person from a marginalised racial group.

Some of Jesus final words on earth were instructions to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew chapter 28 verse 19), and later the Bible tells us that the Good News was heard from every nation under heaven (Acts chapter 2 verse 5). The apostle Paul learning from the example of Jesus went on to write that there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all (Colossians chapter 3 verse 11).

Jesus brother James also wrote that that if you show favouritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers (James chapter 2 verse 9), emphasising that the church community is one that ought to be accepting of different races, statutes, and backgrounds as part of the fellowship.

Christianity predates colonialism

Global conquest through Western imperialism has often been to the detriment of traditional ways of living. But the decline in Biblical literacy and history has resulted in the first African Christians conversion story being overlooked. Contrary to popular belief, Christianity arrived in Africa through a eunuch who was a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians (Acts chapter 8 verse 27).

In AD316, fifty years before Rome was Christianised, the Axum Empire now in modern Ethiopia adopted Christianity not through crusades or imperial conquest, but rather from two slave brothers named Frumentius and Aedesius.

Even though much of Africas north is dominated by Islam, the continents Christian influence is felt even today with notable church fathers such as Augustine of Hippo coming from Numidia which is now modern-day Algeria.

Despite the growing persecution of Christianity in the Middle East, it is in fact in this part of the world that Christians first were known as such. Churches across this region predate the spread of Islam and it is mainly the geopolitical events of the past decades that have seen the destruction of the Christian population through the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and in Iraq from the rise of ISIS in 2013.

As we move further east across the world, we arrive in India with Hindu-nationalist government. Looking into history before British colonialism, the Christian church was established in the first century through the apostle Thomas. Christianity continues to offer hope for India as it affirms the value and dignity of each individual, as an alternative belief system to the traditional caste system which marginalises and divides subsections of the population.

The coming new world order

Although Christianity does not have historical roots in China before the eighth century, the missionary efforts of James Hudson Taylor from the mid-1800s onwards has left a lasting legacy for Christ. Taylor gave up his Western cultural norms to immerse himself into Chinese culture including growing a Manchu pigtail during his time there and eventually producing a colloquial Chinese language translation of the New Testament.

There is no official data for the fast-growing number of Christians in China but with many of the 100 million believers belonging to underground churches and predictions that by 2050 that a majority of the population will become converts, we await a new world order where it is no longer the West that leads in the faith.

As the Western world further forsakes its Judeo-Christian upbringing, Asian Christians are now leading the way in proving the fact that Christianity is not a Western religion of imperialism. Soon it will be Asian missionaries perhaps from South Korea that evangelise to the white communities in the United States, Europe, Canada and even Australia.

Strength in diversity

With the United States and the West struggling to come to terms with its racial history, the rise of identity politics has further fragmented community cohesion. It would be wise to heed the words of Baptist preacher Martin Luther King Junior, who said that one of the most shameful tragedies is that Sunday morning is one of the most segregated hours and that any church that stands against integration is standing against the spirit and teachings of Jesus Christ.

Our church communities in the West have often failed to live up to Godly expectations of an affirming and diverse fellowship. Too often do we fall back on Western-centric or white-orientated ideals in the running of our church lives. Often our in-groups at church are divided upon racial or class lines without us realising. But as Christians, we are called to form a bond with those who are different no matter how difficult this may be.

The Christian identity throughout history has been abused and wielded as a weapon against other cultures and people groups to the detriment of the testimony of Christ. From a persecuted minority to military might in the Roman Empire and the Crusades, it is often with power comes the greatest danger to the faith.

There ought not to be such a link between Christianity and Western culture of conquest, as the Bible tells that in the end times there will be a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb (Revelation chapter 7 verse 9).

A multicultural church is what will come together to worship Jesus. Even though the Western church has made many egregious mistakes in denying the place of diversity among believers, it is through Christ that redemption can be found. If we desire to overcome the racial, cultural, and socioeconomic divides in our society, we need Christ.
The group had been on a day of sightseeing Sunday when they were attacked just before noon, according to one of the aid groups they worked for, Paris-based NGO ACTED. An ambulance sent by the French military stationed in Niger found the bodies later in the day in their burned-out vehicle in the giraffe reserve in Koure, the group said.
PHOENIX  This political campaign was likely the last for Joe Arpaio, the former six-term sheriff of metro Phoenix known for leading immigration crackdowns and building a political career around the harsh treatment of jail inmates. The 88-year-old lawman narrowly lost a race to win back his old job, his second failed comeback bid four years after getting voted out of office.

Arpaio got edged out Friday in the Republican primary for Maricopa County sheriff by his former second-in-command, Jerry Sheridan, in a race that was lower profile and more modestly funded for Arpaio than the blowout campaigns of his heyday. While he still faced criticism over his 2017 criminal conviction  which President Donald Trump pardoned  many didn't know he was running until they saw his name on the ballot.

"I think some people were tired of me, and they wanted somebody else," Arpaio said. "And that's the way it went."

A retired federal drug enforcement agent, Arpaio was elected sheriff in 1992 after his predecessor was criticized for mishandling an investigation into the killings of nine people at a Buddhist temple.

Early in his 24-year tenure, Arpaio scored big points with voters by enacting tough jail policies, such as creating old-time chain gangs, housing inmates in tents during triple-digit heat, forcing them to wear pink underwear, and banning cigarettes and pornography. Critics say Arpaio created a culture of cruelty inside his jails that led to the deaths of several inmates.

He took up immigration enforcement in 2005 as some voters and Republican lawmakers called for a tougher approach. At the time, almost all other local police bosses in the U.S. were content to let federal authorities handle that work.

Arpaio led 20 large-scale traffic patrols that targeted immigrants and more than 80 business raids to bust people working in the United States without permission. His immigration powers were stripped away by the federal government and the courts by late 2014, minimizing his role in the immigration debate largely to criticizing federal policies.

While his defiant streak played well with voters for many years, Arpaio faced heavy criticism for taking on policies that he knew were controversial and racking up $147 million in taxpayer-funded legal bills.

Though he billed himself as the toughest sheriff in America, his agency botched the investigations of more than 400 sex-crimes complaints made to his office.

He locked up the two top executives of a weekly newspaper that had been critical of the sheriff's office, made criminal cases against political adversaries, investigated judges and misspent $100 million in jail funds.

His volunteer posse investigated the authenticity of then-President Barack Obama's birth certificate, a debunked controversy that remained alive in the eyes of some conservatives, including then-presidential hopeful Trump.

For much of his political career, Arpaio survived scandals and dodged investigations that would have sunk the careers of many politicians.

Critics accused him of picking on powerless people to generate publicity for himself and irresponsibly spending taxpayer money on policies that were bound to flop.

His defenders, who often referred to him only as "Sheriff Joe," said the freewheeling sheriff was the only local police boss who bothered to confront illegal immigration and that his policies reflected their views that jail is supposed to be miserable.

Stan Barnes, a political consultant in Phoenix and former Republican state lawmaker, said Arpaio, for good or bad, reflected for many years what a majority of voters in metro Phoenix wanted from a sheriff  immigration crackdowns and tough jails.

"While judging Joe Arpaio, we all have to make sure we are judging ourselves," Barnes said.

Arpaio's political fortunes started to decline significantly in 2013 when his officers were found by a judge to have racially profiled Latinos in immigration patrols. Arpaio was eventually convicted of criminal contempt of court for disobeying a court order in the profiling case, though he was later spared a possible jail sentence by Trump's pardon.

As voter frustration mounted over his legal troubles and headline-grabbing tactics, Arpaio lost his bid for a seventh term by nearly 13 percentage points to retired Phoenix police Sgt. Paul Penzone  in the same 2016 election that sent Trump to the White House.

Some political experts have predicted Penzone, a Democrat, will win the November general election.

Arpaio's first comeback bid ended badly when he placed third in the 2018 Republican primary for U.S. Senate, losing both Maricopa County and his adopted hometown of Fountain Hills.

His campaign this year to win back the sheriff's office was fraught with difficulty.

Arpaio, once a master at garnering publicity, couldn't get much news coverage. Though his $1.2 million in contributions led all other sheriff's candidates, it was a steep drop from the $12 million he raised in 2016. He also faced questions about his age and health.

His platform consisted of his unwavering support for Trump and bringing back practices that the courts have either deemed illegal or his successor has ended, such as immigration crackdowns. He also faced a more moderate electorate than in earlier campaigns.

It may be my last run for office, but Im going to be active, said Arpaio, noting he has a new book coming out in a few weeks. But if you think I am going home to stare at the mountain, that aint gonna happen. Never gonna happen.
Photograph: Gaston Brito/Getty

Demonstrators in Bolivia have dynamited Andean passes, scattered boulders across highways and dug trenches along rural roads to protest against repeated delays to a rerun of last Octobers deeply contentious election, which led to the downfall of the long-serving leftist president, Evo Morales.

Amid a mounting death toll from the coronavirus pandemic, more than 100 roadblocks and marches nationwide  convened on Monday by Bolivias main workers union, and indigenous and campesino movements allied to Moraless Movement Towards Socialism (Mas)  have brought the country to a standstill for six days.

The largest demonstrations since last years crisis come soon after the electoral authorities postponed elections originally scheduled for May for the third time  from 6 September to 18 October  citing the need to avoid a projected peak in coronavirus infections.

Related: Bolivians driven from pillar to post as Covid-19 overwhelms hospitals

The ruling late last month, and the resulting backlash, has ratcheted up a sense of crisis in a country already ravaged by Covid-19, an economic slump and fierce political divisions.

Were not doing this out of choice, said Jaime Quinones Veliz, 35, part of a group of mask-wearing protesters manning a roadblock made of tires, stones and wire strung across a street in El Alto  the sprawling conurbation overlooking Bolivias political capital, La Paz.

The people are desperate to know who their president will be  no matter who wins at the polls. We need a stable government, Quinones explained.

Were demanding that they respect the election date of 6 September, he said. If not, things are going to get even uglier.

The caretaker government of Jeanine Anez  a rightwing senator who came to power after Moraless fall promising fresh elections within 90 days, and later declared her own candidacy for president  has threatened to dismantle the roadblocks by force, claiming that by preventing oxygen and ambulances from reaching hard-pressed hospitals, the blockades have killed at least 31 people.

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Among the nearly 85,000 people to have been infected in Bolivia to date are Anez herself and about half her cabinet, including the public works minister, Ivan Arias.

In a wheezy audio message circulating on social media, Arias said his nurses were in tears lamenting the lack of oxygen and medicines  and were blaming Mas for the shortages.

Bolivians, lets not be manipulated, lets save lives. I beg you with all my heart: life first, then well sort out our political problems  We wont allow this group of orcs, this group of crooks that has taken control of a party, to defeat us and bring us to death, he said.

The Anez government has airlifted medicines and oxygen between Bolivias main cities, but a shipment of medical supplies worth $1.8m donated by the World Health Organization remains stranded, said Virgilio Prieto, Bolivias epidemiology chief.

Were going through a critical moment, he added. Things have been made a lot worse by the blockades, theres an attack on the health sector by different groups that dont believe that the illness exists.

But critics accused the authorities of trying to blame already-severe shortages on the opposition for political purposes, and pointed to videos online showing demonstrators temporarily dismantling roadblocks to let trucks and ambulances through.

Union authorities have threatened to seal off La Paz entirely if any roadblocks are attacked, while Morales has warned on Twitter that Anez is plotting a massacre. Sporadic clashes have broken out between police, protesters, and rightwing counter-demonstrators.

Luis Arce, formerly Moraless economy minister and the current frontrunner in the polls, said that the demonstrations reflected widespread anger  not just with illegal manoeuvring on the election date but with incompetence, corruption and repression under Anez.

The interim government wants to continue in power for eternity. Theyve demonstrated it various times, he argued. Every time they fix a date, the health minister says that will be the [coronavirus] peak. Weve had so many supposed peaks, its a plateau.

We want someone to genuinely guarantee us that therell be elections this year.

An abrupt decision this month to cancel the school year, a deep economic recession, intimidation of the press, and apparent moves towards privatisation in key industries like the state oil and gas firm had contributed to popular unrest, he suggested.

You cant blame Mas for being behind everything, he added.

Carwil Bjork-James, a scholar of Bolivian protest movements at Vanderbilt University, suggested that an earlier date for the elections or a binding commitment to 18 October could calm tensions.

Were already seeing some fracturing on the government side, he added. Anezs interior minister, Arturo Murillo, has lambasted the electoral court for setting the country alight with the latest postponement.

There are also divisions within the opposition, said Ximena Velasco-Guachalla, a political scientist at the University of Essex.

In late-night crisis talks this Saturday, the Mas signalled it would accept an intermediary date for the elections, but the union federation insisted they would remain in the streets.

A big portion of the population, especially in the context of the virus, is just standing still. They have the most to lose and many are not taking sides, Velasco-Guachalla added.
Conn. city agrees to exempt pro-life pregnancy center from sign ordinance

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A mobile pro-life pregnancy clinic can operate in Connecticuts capital city without having to adhere to an ordinance requiring that it post signs inside and outside the facility that imply that it does not have medical professionals on-site.

Caring Families Pregnancy Services Inc. and the City of Hartford recently agreed to a settlement over a lawsuit the pro-life clinic filed against the city over its Ordinance No. 25-17.

As part of the agreement, Caring Families will be exempted from the ordinance because it has licensed medical professionals on staff and will still be allowed to operate in the city.

For their part, the city will maintain the ordinance and will not have to admit liability in the case. Both sides agreed to cover their own legal expenses.

The settlement was reached last month but was only recently made public.

Both sides of the lawsuit have claimed victory.

This resolution leaves our ordinance completely intact and enforceable, Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said, according to The Hartford Courant. By settling in this way, the plaintiff chose not to pursue their challenge to the constitutionality of our ordinance, and we remain confident that our ordinance is constitutionally sound.

Denise Harle, senior counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group representing Caring Families, said in a statement that the settlement allowed the pro-life clinic to operate in a way that does not undermine their message.

Caring Families exists to help ensure that no woman feels alone, hopeless, or without options during an unexpected pregnancy, stated Harle. We commend the city for changing course and deciding not to use the force of law to make this pro-life care provider imply through its own communications that it is anything but competent and tolerant.

In 2017, Hartford passed the ordinance compelling pro-life pregnancy centers that dont perform or refer patients for abortions to post signs clarifying that they do not have a licensed medical professional on staff. The language of the ordinance accused the pro-life clinics of false and misleading advertising.

When a woman is misled into believing that a clinic offers services that it does not in fact offer, she loses time crucial to the decision whether to terminate the pregnancy, the ordinance argues.

In a statement at the time, Mayor Bronin said the ordinance is necessary to stop women from going to pro-life clinics rather than facilities that provided abortions.

When women are making choices that affect their lives, their health, they deserve to have full information and they deserve to not be deceived about what services are provided, said Bronin, according to NBC Connecticut.

Theyre going to have to put a sign up at the front door and at reception and theyre going to have to tell those women who are coming in for care and for counseling that they dont have medical personnel. It's really pretty simple.

In response, ADF filed a federal lawsuit in April 2019 on behalf of Caring Families. Caring Families operates a mobile care unit in the city. The organization argued at the time that it offers a wide range of services that dont require supervision by a licensed medical provider.

Although the clinic has licensed medical providers on-site  either a registered nurse or a certified ultrasound technician  most of the time it is in operation, the clinic was "uncertain whether Hartford may apply the Compelled Speech provision to Mobile Care, because of the vague wording of the Ordinance and implementing Rule."

"In addition, there are times when Mobile Cares licensed medical providers are

not on the premises," the lawsuit explains. "Under the Ordinance, Mobile Care would be required to make the burdensome Compelled Speech at all times  permanently posted both in and on its facility and on its website, and over the telephone in conversations with potential clients."

ADF argued that the ordinance was an unconstitutional violation of the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The ordinance exempts abortion clinics, community health clinics, and all other health care facilities within Hartford, except for pregnancy centers that do not offer abortion, wrote Harle in a May 2019 letter to Hartford officials.

The ordinance therefore unlawfully discriminates against organizations such as Caring Families that do not desire to perform, assist in, or refer for abortion services.

According to the settlement, the city acknowledges that Caring Families offers medical services such as urine pregnancy tests and ultrasounds. Additionally, the city agrees that because Caring Families has licensed medical personnel on-site at all times to provide and/or supervise such medical services, it does not consider Caring Families to be a pregnancy services center under the Ordinance.

[The city] will therefore not attempt to enforce the Ordinance  as to either its required disclosures or its advertising requirements  against Caring Families, the settlement states.

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a similar measure in a California law in its 5-4 ruling in the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra. The California law mandated that all licensed pregnancy health centers include a sign that refers patients to abortion clinics.
About 3,000 people were believed to have contracted the coronavirus during the opening ceremony of the Hagia Sophia as a mosque on July 24, Ahval reported referring to the Turkish health expert and associate professor at Ankara University.

The presence of hundreds of asymptomatic patients at the reopening ceremony in July could lead to a major outbreak, the doctor said in an interview with Turkey's ANKA news agency.

The official opening ceremony of the Hagia Sophia as a mosque took place in Istanbul on July 24, which was attended by thousands of people.
The office of the grand mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina has distanced itself from controversial remarks made by the imam of a mosque in Sarajevo that sparked outrage on social media and elsewhere.

Muhamed Velic in a Facebook post on August 6 welcomed the cancellation of an upcoming gay-pride parade in Sarajevo due to coronavirus restrictions.

The parade was due to be held on August 23.

"In every misfortune and tragedy -- there is also a grain of happiness, goodness and beauty," Velic wrote, sparking a public outcry.

The office of the grand mufti told RFE/RL on August 10 that the imam's remarks did not reflect the position of the Islamic community in Bosnia.

"This is his personal position and it is not the position of the entire Islamic community," said Muhamed Jusic, an adviser to the grand mufti.

Velic defended his remarks to RFE/RL, saying he did not "spread hate speech," and that he had the right to express his opinion.

The Bosnian capital held its first-ever gay-pride event amid heavy security on September 8, 2019. The event was dubbed "Ima Izac!" which roughly translates as "Coming out."

Dozens of followers of a conservative Islamic group held a rally against the event, describing the pride march as a "sin" and "humiliation" for Sarajevo.

Another protesting group, Svjetlost (Light), marched the day before the gay-pride event, calling on people to rally against "un-values propagated by the LGBT community."
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A police officer detains a protester after the Belarusian presidential election in Minsk, Belarus. (AP)

Minsk: Police in Belarus broke up crowds of protesters with stun grenades and rubber bullets as long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko looked set to declare an overwhelming victory in a presidential poll his opponents say was rigged.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the capital Minsk and other cities after a state exit poll showed Lukashenko winning just under 80 percent in Sunday's election, with main challenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya coming second with about seven percent.

Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old stay-at-home mother and political novice, galvanised the opposition during the election campaign, attracting tens of thousands of supporters to the ex-Soviet country's biggest demonstrations in years.

In the capital Minsk protesters gathered near a central monument, where they formed human chains as they faced off against hundreds of riot police with shields, an AFP journalist and witnesses said.

A live video feed provided by US-funded Radio Liberty showed police firing stun grenades and advancing to disperse the crowd, with many fleeing. The channel posted images of young protesters with their faces and bodies covered in blood.

An AFP journalist saw at least one protester receiving medical treatment from paramedics, and others being dragged away by riot police.

Opposition-linked media outlets showed a video of a police van ramming into a crowd and running down a protester.

Government buildings in Minsk had been cordoned off, residents reported internet shutdowns and widespread connection problems, and social media posts showed columns of military vehicles on roads leading into the capital.

Alexander, a 35-year-old protester in Minsk, accused Lukashenko of blatantly rigging the vote.

"I came out to protest because the country needs a change in power," he told AFP. "This is a crime, a mockery of our people."

Videos posted on social media showed water cannon being used and there were reports of rubber bullets being fired.

After several hours of rallies, state news agency Belta quoted the interior ministry as saying that "police are in control of the situation." Protests had largely died down in the capital by 3 am local time (00:00 GMT).

Ales Bialiatski, the head of rights group Viasna, said several people were injured and accused police of using excessive force against the mainly young protesters.

"The police responded with disproportionate harshness, using their full force," he told AFP.

'Majority is with us'

In a news conference after polls closed Tikhanovskaya said she did not trust the results.

"I believe my eyes, and I see that the majority is with us," she said. "We have already won, because we have overcome our fear, our apathy and our indifference."

She also called on members of law enforcement to stop using force.

Her ally, Maria Kolesnikova, said the government was "incapable of running the country" and an "unprecedented" political crisis was setting in.

Preliminary results had not yet been announced, although the election chief had said she expected them in the early hours of Monday.

Lukashenko, seeking a sixth term, warned the opposition he was not planning to give up his "beloved" Belarus as security was dramatically tightened in the capital.

Tikhanovskaya decided to run for president after the authorities jailed her husband, popular blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, and barred him from running.

On Sunday afternoon, huge queues formed outside polling stations in Minsk and other cities, after Tikhanovskaya urged her supporters to vote late to give authorities less chance to falsify the election.

Many wore white bracelets that have become a symbol of the opposition.

Tikhanovskaya has said that if she won she would release political prisoners and call fresh elections to include the entire opposition.

Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, vowed to maintain order, suggesting his opponents may be planning unrest.

"Nothing will get out of control, I guarantee you... whatever certain people have planned," the strongman said, casting his vote.

'What happens next'

Nigel Gould-Davies, a former British ambassador to Belarus, said there was no doubt the polls would be falsified.

"The question is what happens then," Gould-Davies, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told AFP.

In the past Lukashenko has crushed protests with riot police and hefty jail terms, prompting Western sanctions.

"Given Lukashenko's ruthlessness, anyone who is concerned about Belarus will worry, will fear for the Belarusian people in the days ahead."

Lukashenko has sought to boost his support by warning of outside threats and raising the spectre of violent mobs.

Authorities have detained 33 Russians, describing them as mercenaries sent to destabilise the vote.

The detentions sparked a political crisis with ally Russia. Moscow urged the men's release and President Vladimir Putin told Lukashenko he wants Belarus to stay "stable".
South Carolina surpassed 100,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus on Monday.

The milestone came on a day when the state reported fewer than 1,000 new daily cases for the first time in nearly two months. The number is the lowest reported by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control since mid-June.

"This is just a report card of how well South Carolinians are behaving," said Michael Schmidt, a research microbiologist at the Medical University of South Carolina.

He said the lower numbers indicate that people have been following safety measures of wearing masks and social distancing.

While Schmidt is encouraged by the numbers, it's important not to get cocky, he said.

He said the day's "718 cases is still too high." The percent of positive test results, which was 12.8 percent on Monday, is also much too high and should ideally be well below 5 percent. Schmidt hopes South Carolina will look into forms of rapid daily testing so results could return in a matter of minutes instead of days or weeks.

"We desperately cannot drop our guard," he said.

Also on Monday, DHEC warned South Carolina residents to beware of scammers posing as contact tracers. Official contact tracers will call individuals who test positive for COVID-19, asking which people and places the person has recently visited. Anyone who came into close contact with that person will also be contacted.

DHEC said a legitimate contact tracer will never ask for an individual's Social Security number or immigration status, or inquire about a person's money, bank account or credit card number.

With daily reported cases decreasing, Tidelands Health began limited visitation for most patients on Monday. It will allow one adult support partner per hospitalized patient at Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital, Tidelands Georgetown Memorial Hospital and Tidelands Health Rehabilitation Hospital.

Patients in COVID-19 isolation will not be allowed to receive visitors.

Statewide numbers

Number of new cases reported: 718

Total number of cases in S.C.: 100,431, plus 728 probable cases

Number of new deaths reported: 17

Total number of deaths in S.C.: 1,966, plus 83 probable deaths

Number of hospitalized patients: 1,353

Percent of tests that were positive: 12.8 percent

Total number of tests in S.C.: 849,117

Which areas are hardest hit?

Greenville County led the state in new cases on Monday with 85 positive tests. Richland County logged 61 and Charleston County reported 53.

What's happening in the tri-county region?

In addition to the 53 new cases counted in Charleston County on Monday, Berkeley reported 28 new cases and Dorchester logged 22.

Deaths

Of the 17 new confirmed deaths, four were 35 to 64 years old and 13 were 65 or older.

The deceased had resided in Berkeley, Charleston, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Hampton, Horry, Jasper, Lancaster, Oconee, Orangeburg and Richland counties.

Hospitalizations

DHEC reported that 1,353 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized as of Monday. Of these, 217 were on ventilators. The agency also reported that 360 ICU beds were currently being used by coronavirus patients.

How many cases have been found in long-term care facilities?

There have been 5,607 confirmed coronavirus cases in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities: 3,613 residents and 1,994 staff workers, according to DHEC data. That's a 7 percent increase in cases from the previous report.

So far, 762 residents have died from the virus, a mortality rate of 21 percent. Thirteen workers also have died. Together, they account for about 39 percent of deaths in the state, the data released Friday shows.

One nursing home, Sandpiper Rehab/Nursing, a residential care facility in Mount Pleasant, has had 27 deaths from COVID-19. Lexington Medical Center Extended Care has had 24 deaths.

The virus has been found in 332 facilities.

What do experts say?

Officials continue to urge basic precautions to slow the spread of the coronavirus: social distancing, wearing a mask in public, avoiding group gatherings, regularly washing hands and staying home when sick.

Cleve O'Quinn contributed to this report.
Washington:

Hillary Clinton has issued a stern warning against the proliferation of fake news, branding it an epidemic with real world consequences that must be addressed in order to protect the nations democracy.

The Democrat Clinton lost last months presidential election to Republican Donald Trump in a shock upset, with several Trump critics arguing that the prominence of fake articles shared on Facebook and other social media may have affected the outcome.

The phenomenon nearly turned deadly this week when a rifle-wielding man entered a pizza restaurant in Washington saying he wanted to investigate a fake news story that wrongly stated the Comet Ping Pong restaurant was a center for child abduction linked to Clinton and a top advisor.

Its now clear that so-called fake news can have real world consequences, Clinton told current and former US lawmakers on Capitol Hill where she attended a ceremony for outgoing Democratic Senate minority leader Harry Reid.

This isnt about politics, or partisanship. Lives are at risk, she said as she blasted the epidemic of malicious fake news and false propaganda that flooded social media over the past year.

The danger must be addressed quickly, she stressed. Its imperative that leaders from the private sector and the public sector step up to protect our democracy and innocent lives.

Clintons remarks were part of her second public address since her concession speech the day after the election.

This is not exactly the speech to the Capitol I hoped to be giving after the election, she quipped to an audience that gave her a standing ovation as she took the stage.

But after a few weeks of taking selfies in the woods, I thought it would be a good idea to come out.

Afterward Clinton ignored reporters questions about whether fake news stories had cost her the election.

The pizzagate story that Clinton referred to was widely shared before the November 8 vote.

No one was injured when 28-year-old Edgar Maddison Welch strode into Comet Ping Pong, packed with families on a Sunday afternoon, and fired off a round from his AR-15.

Police quickly arrested him, discovering two more weapons, and said he had told them he drove up from North Carolina to personally investigate the fake story.

But it raised to a new level the danger of the profusion of false news stories and rumours spread over the internet and in social media, much of it aimed at fortifying the views of various political and social groups.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Bhubaneswar:

The Odisha Government on Friday said it has no plan to utilise the land acquired for Poscos proposed mega plant near Paradip for any other purpose after the South Korean Steel major reportedly announced temporary freezing of the Rs 51,000 crore project.

The Posco authorities who proposed to set up a 12 MTPA greenfeild steel mill near Paradip, have not yet informed the state government about withdrawal from the project, state Steel and Mines Minister Prafulla Kumar Mallick told the Assembly.

He said quoting media reports that the company decided to keep the project under temporary freeze.

Therefore, the state government so far has not thought of utilising the land for any other purpose, Malliack said replying to a question by Congress member Bhujabal Majhi.

The minister said the company had also not so far given its implementation schedule.

The state government had earlier acquired 2752.3 acre of land against Poscos first phase requirement of 2,700 acre. The state-run Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) meanwhile handed over 1880.110 acre of land to the steel major and remaining land was in the process of being given to the company.

Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) president Abhay Sahu said as the state government had acquired the land after demolishing betel vines, it should return the land to the affected people.

He said the state government should take a lesson from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who returned untilised land to the original farmers in Singur.

Sahu said people have started cultivating the land.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Seen above are the rendered image of Hyundai Motor's IONIQ series electric vehicles which will debut over the next few years. From left are the IONIQ 6 midsize sedan, the IONIQ 7 large SUV and the IONIQ 5 crossover. Courtesy of Hyundai Motor



By Nam Hyun-woo



Hyundai Motor will launch the IONIQ 5 electric crossover next year, based on the 45 concept EV unveiled at the International Motor Show Germany last year, the Korean automaker said Monday.



The new car will be followed by the IONIQ 6 midsize electric sedan, which will be launched in 2022. It will be based on the Prophecy concept revealed online in March. The IONIQ 7 large electric SUV will hit the market in 2024, the company said.



Hyundai Motor already has IONIQ vehicles in the variants of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and EV. As the company said those vehicles will not be included in the new brand, the production of the existing ones is expected to be discontinued model by model. The company already discontinued the IONIQ hybrid earlier this year.



The new IONIQ series will be all based on the company's new EV-only platform, E-GMP. The carmaker said they will be equipped with batteries and platform technologies allowing vehicles to be charged to 80 percent in 20 minutes and drive at least 450 kilometers on a single charge.



Though Hyundai Motor said the IONIQ series will be operated as a separate brand, they will carry Hyundai Motor's emblem, unlike the company's luxury brand Genesis which has its own badge.



Hyundai Motor said it decided to launch a separate EV brand as part of its strategy to focus on EVs in the global market. According to market tracker SNE Research, Hyundai Motor was the world's sixth-largest EV maker in terms of the number of vehicles sold in January to March this year, up from ninth last year.



For a greater presence in the global EV market, the company said it seeks to sell 560,000 EVs in 2025, reaching 1 million in the accumulated number of EVs sold by Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors by that year.



Some analysts and industry watchers have been raising questions on Hyundai Motor's future mobility strategies, saying the company has a relatively weaker portfolio in EVs, while placing many investments into hydrogen fuel-cell EVs.



Investors welcomed about the Korean carmaker's unveiling, as Hyundai's share price climbed sharply on the country's main bourse of KOSPI. It was trading at 167,000 won as of 2:30 p.m., Monday, up 13.61 percent from a session earlier.



On a related note, Nikola Founder Trevor Milton said in an interview with local media outlet that he would like to cooperate with Hyundai Motor, and already made suggestions twice. Regarding the specifics of "suggestions," which the Nikola founder mentioned, Hyundai Motor declined to comment.



Nikola, a company that designs and intends to produce electric semi-trucks, has already partnered with European commercial vehicle manufacturer Iveco to produce its battery-electric Nikola Tre trucks in Europe. Like Hyundai, Nikola, dubbed the "next Tesla," plans to produce its long-haul Nikola Two semi using hydrogen fuel cells likely to begin production within the next two years.


Students move out of dorm rooms on Harvard Yard on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. on March 12, 2020. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

No Parties, No Trips: Colleges Set COVID-19 Rules for Fall

As they struggle to salvage some semblance of a campus experience this fall, U.S. colleges are requiring promises from students to help contain the coronavirusno keg parties, no long road trips, and no outside guests on campus.

No kidding.

Administrators warn that failure to wear masks, practice social distancing, and avoid mass gatherings could bring serious consequences, including getting booted from school.

Critics question whether its realistic to demand that college students not act like typical college students. But the push illustrates the high stakes for universities planning to welcome at least some students back. Wide-scale COVID-19 testing, quarantines, and plexiglass barriers in classrooms wont work if too many students misbehave.

I think that the majority of students are going to be really respectful and wear their masks, social distance, keep gatherings small, said incoming Tulane University senior Sanjali De Silva. But I fear that there will be a distinct group of students that will decide not to do that. And itll be a big bummer.

Tulane students have already received a stark warning from the school in New Orleans, an early pandemic hot spot. After a summer weekend of large gatherings, Dean of Students Erica Woodley wrote to students, stressing her key point in bold, capital letters.

DO NOT HOST PARTIES OR GATHERINGS WITH MORE THAN 15 PEOPLE, INCLUDING THE HOST. IF YOU DO, YOU WILL FACE SUSPENSION OR EXPULSION FROM THE UNIVERSITY, Woodley wrote, signing off with, Do you really want to be the reason that Tulane and New Orleans have to shut down again?

The emphasis on student behavior is part of a broader effort to create safe bubbles on campus even if the virus surges elsewhere. The University of Texas at Austin is not allowing parties either on or off-campus. In Massachusetts, Amherst College is prohibiting students from traveling off-campus except in certain cases, such as medical appointments and family emergencies.

Many universities have spelled out expectations for student behavior in pledges and compacts that cover everything from mask-wearing to off-campus travel. The pledges often cover faculty and staff, too.

Its unclear how well these rules will work. Critics say the very nature of the college experiencewith cramped housing and intense social activityworks against success. Some colleges are already backing off plans for in-person classes this fall.

The majority of kids who go to college are civic-minded, responsible people. Theyre also young, said Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at New York University. If some of them dont comply, its a problem. And I think some to many will have a difficult time ignoring every instinct pulsing through their body at that age that theyre supposed to socialize and find mates.

Galloway plans to teach online this fall and return to campus when theres a vaccine.

Outbreaks involving fraternities have already been reported at some schools, including the University of Southern California, the University of Washington, and the University of Mississippi. The University of California at Berkeley recently decided to begin the fall semester with fully remote instruction after a local flare-up of cases linked to fraternity parties.

After weeks of developing a very elaborate plan for a hybrid model in the fall, officials decided it was just too risky to teach face-to-face, Chancellor Carol Christ said during a virtual event hosted by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The pledges apply the advice public health officials have been giving since March for college settings. Yales compact includes a commitment to remain in Connecticut during the fall semester through Nov. 21 and a promise not to invite or host non-Yale-affiliated individuals on campus without permission. Ohio State Universitys Together as Buckeyes Pledge includes a promise to conduct daily health checks.

We want to be clear: Our return to on-campus operations in the autumn is fully dependent on each member of the university community following all requirements and guidance, reads a July 24 letter from Ohio State officials.

Cornell University students must agree not to organize, host, or attend events that may cause safety risks to people, under a school compact released this week. University of Pennsylvania students are warned in the schools compact that alcohol and drugs arent an excuse for risky COVID-19-related behavior. Syracuse Universitys pledge includes commitments to get a flu shot and to avoid going to social gatherings with more than 25 people.

I think that people will really keep each other in check. I know I will, said Suhail Kumar, an incoming Syracuse sophomore. If I see my roommates unmasked or not following protocol, Im definitely going to let them know because I dont want to jeopardize anything for myself.

Failure to comply with the pledges will be treated as a disciplinary violation.

Syracuse students can face serious consequences for violating COVID-19 guidance, and students who host large parties could face sanctions up to suspension and expulsion, according to the schools web site.

At Penn, incoming senior Ben Zhao is optimistic the new rules will be followed.

Zhao, who is from the Chicago suburb of Northbrook, Illinois, is looking forward to being back on campus after an interrupted spring semester, even with the prospect of online classes. He misses his friends, the school newspaper, where he is an executive editor, and studying with classmates.

Theyre all big things that I dont want to necessarily miss out on for my senior year, he said.

By Michael Hill
Senior and former Air India pilots said the airline must pay attention to the mental and physical health of pilots, especially since there have been pay cuts and greater stress since the outbreak of Covid-19.

Senior airline officials said Air India Express had announced heavy pay cuts for its flying crew on August 5. An office circular dated August 5 cited adverse effects on airlines due to the pandemic and announced pay cuts for Air India Expresss flying crew (pilots and cabin crew). All pilots, along with the ground instructors, would have to take a 40% pay cut from their flying allowance, which pilots claim constitutes 70% of their salary. The circular also stated cabin crew would take a 20% pay cut.

An Air India Express pilot alleged the pay cuts were unfair, Unlike Air India, Air India Express has been posting profits for the past four consecutive years. Why has the management then imposed heavy pay cuts? Also, the management is taking a pay-cut of around 8% whereas we are burdened with maximum pay cuts, said the pilot.

Air India Express did not respond to calls or message from this reporter.

Additionally, both Air India and Air India Express have done away with testing pilots for Covid-19 after flights, which has raised anxieties of getting infected, said pilots.

An Air India spokesperson said, We are adhering to all the laid down protocols required to protect the safety of our crew members. We are only streamlining the procedure. Our crew still have the option of getting the test done whenever they feel they have the symptoms on return.

A senior airline pilot said, Initially, pilots would be tested for Covid two days before flying and after landing at the destination airport. However, it is nearly two weeks now that the airline has stopped conducting post-flight Covid tests for pilots which is a cause of worry for everyone.

An official from Air India said, According to the new norms, a pilot can be tested after landing only if he is symptomatic. But there are many cases where a person with no symptoms tests positive for the virus. In that case, there are high chances that the pilot will infect his family, and children or parents are at higher risk of getting infected. Every pilot flying during this phase has this stress of carrying the virus home.

Captain Mohan Ranganathan, former Boeing 737 instructor and aviation safety aviation expert, said, Stress is a big factor because you are not only worried for yourself but also about infecting family hence it will always be there in your mind. You will not (mentally) be 200% in the cockpit. He said another worry among pilots would be losing their license in case they contract a severe case of Covid-19 and their medical record is affected as a result of this.

Another Air India Express pilot said the pilots are suffering from fatigue. The previous flight duty time limit (FDTL) for pilots did not allow consecutive night flying. However, the revised FDTL, introduced in 2019, allows pilots to be rostered for two consecutive nights in a week. Air India Express particularly has many flights scheduled at night, which take a toll on the body as a pilot is expected to report to duty two hours before departure time, they said.

A senior official from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said, The [FTDL] matter is sub judice and so I would not like to comment.

All pilots spoke to HT requesting anonymity since they are not authorised to speak to the media.
The United Nations Global Compact which has local networks in over 80 countries with 10 of them in Africa, including Ghana with the focus to mobilize companies in their countries and run projects, initiatives and advocate the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact & the UN Sustainable Development Goals has been joined by the Artisans Association of Ghana.



The concerns over the lack of human rights in business, in 1999, got the late Kofi Annan, then Secretary General of the United Nations, addressing the Davos Event in Switzerland advocated for a new type of social contract between business and the people.



In his statement, he quoted I propose that you, the business leaders . . . and we, the United Nations, initiate a global

compact of shared values and principles, which will give a human face to the global market.



Over 80 business leaders accepted this idea.



The result was the launch of the UN Global Compact with the commitment of 40 companies.



Today the UN Global Compact has commitments from over 11,000 companies worldwide making it the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world.



The Artisans Association of Ghana is a social enterprise that enables sustainable livelihoods for men, women, and youth in the informal sector, skill training, and upgrading in the artisan industry. The association, which can boast, of over 26,000 members where 75% are youths ages of 18-35 and 36 and above are 25% has a linked collaboration with National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI), Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training.(COTVET).



In addition to other training provider, train in trade skills such as Masonry, Electricals, plumbing, steel bending, welding, tiling, landscaping, etc.



The Association has many successful projects with the Global communities, Gratis Foundation, African Career Centre,

BUSAC FUND, Skill development Fund, and World University Service of Canada (WUSC,) etc.



The President of the Artisans Association of Ghana, Mr. Gideon Bidor express his sincere gratitude and excitement for the association in joining the United Nation global compact to help keep the sustainable development goals at every aspect of activities of the association.



He acknowledges that the joining has come in at the time of the world experiencing COVID-19 pandemic and the need for business to strive on strategies and policies to better its members and the world in general.



We are grateful to be a partnering member of this wealthy course and just like we always deliver on every important mandate, keeping the ten principles of the UN Global Compact (Human Rights, Labor, Environment, and anti-corruption) will be added to our hallmark and observe by every member of the association.



He highlighted that the construction industry has become core and important to every national economy.



The UN Global Compact helps companies bring change to the world by adopting the Ten Principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption, in their business practices and policies. It has the resources to equip companies to transform themselves into better and more sustainable companies. Some of the resources available include SDG Ambition Program, SDG Action Manager Tool, Decent Work Tool, The UN Global

Compact Academy, SDG Pioneer Program, and Sustainable Finance.



In Ghana, the UN Global Compact Network has a number of initiatives that it is running. These include: The West Africa Gender Equality Initiative (WAGE), Poverty Alleviation (Business response to COVID 19), SDG Pioneer Program, The Ethically Aware Supplier Induction Program (Partnership with the Ethics Institute, South Africa)

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The daughter of a former Afghan translator for UK forces told yesterday how she was snatched off the street while playing with her doll.

Six year-old Wajia said she had a knife held to her face as she was told by her Taliban kidnappers: I will kill you and your infidel father.

The terrified youngster was hit in the face when she began to cry before being thrown from a moving taxi in Kabul, the Afghan capital.

Six year-old Wajia (pictured) said she had a knife held to her face as she was told by her Taliban kidnappers: I will kill you and your infidel father

She was thrown out of the vehicle when shopkeepers who had seen her being snatched blocked the alley.

Her father Tameem, who worked with the British military for five years, said: It was clearly a warning from the Taliban who had been hunting me, threatening me.

The 36-year-old, who had twice been attacked by pro-Taliban insurgents and received death threats, said it was the moment he decided to flee Afghanistan. He chose to pay people traffickers after being told the UK could not help him.

Speaking from Istanbul, Turkey, yesterday, he said: I was a target for the Taliban because of my work with the British and Coalition partners but now my pregnant wife and three children had become targets too... No father could live with not trying to protect them  there is no safe place from insurgents in my homeland.

Wajia, now aged seven, said: I was playing with my doll in front of our house when suddenly a man picked me up and put me in a yellow taxi with another man.

I started crying and the man put a big knife in my face. He said, I will kill you and slapped my head telling me to shut up... The other man told me, I will kill your father, he is an infidel. I still have nightmares about this.

The Daily Mails award-winning Betrayal of the Brave campaign has highlighted how the Taliban has frequently targeted the family members of interpreters.

Tameem said he reported the threats to the UKs special unit but was told he did not qualify for help because he resigned from the job.

The kidnap of his daughter 18 months ago was reported to Afghan police. In recent weeks, he said, the Taliban had again been to the family home looking for him.

He said he and his wife Samira, 30, children Musawer, 11, Kawsar, five, Mubashir, one, and Wajia were now trapped in Istanbul, surviving illegally by working in a textile factory.

They are unable to return to Afghanistan because of the threats and a lack of funds, he said.

Tameem is one of at least six former translators living illegally in Greece and Turkey who say they are stranded and want to come to Britain. Colonel Simon Diggins, former military attache at the British embassy in Kabul, said: Those stranded in countries like Turkey and Greece should be allowed to apply to come to the UK from refugee camps and other places.
New Delhi: Airtel on Monday said that it has become the first mobile operator to launch Ultra-Fast 4G services in Andaman and Nicobar, with the commissioning of the fiber link in the union territory.

The fiber link will be a game changer for the region and unlock the true potential of 4G and even 5G in future for customers. We hope the Department of Telecom will accelerate the deployment of USOF for building such infrastructure backbone to complement the efforts of telecom operators to bridge the digital divide, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Airtel said.

The new fiber link marks a major milestone in Indias digital transformation journey as this critical infrastructure reaches the strategic archipelago. We are grateful to the the Prime Minister for taking the time to launch this key digital infrastructure, he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday (July 10) inaugurated the submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connecting Chennai and Port Blair via video conferencing. The submarine cable will connect Port Blair to Swaraj Dweep (Havelock), Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Kamorta, Great Nicobar, Long Island and Rangat.

PM Modi said that submarine OFC will connect Andaman and Nicobar to the rest of the country and it shows the Centre's commitment to improve the standard of living of the people of the island.

"This optical fibre cable project, connecting Andaman and Nicobar with rest of the country is a symbol of our commitment towards ease of living. Be it online classes, tourism, banking, shopping or telemedicine, thousands of families in Andaman-Nicobar will now get its access," PM Modi said.

The prime minister expressed confidence that tourists going to Andaman will be biggest beneficiary of this facility because better internet connectivity has now become the top priority of any tourist destination.

"High Impact Projects are being expanded in 12 islands of Andaman and Nicobar. The major problem of mobile & internet connectivity has been resolved today. Apart from this, physical connectivity through road, air and water is also being strengthened," said PM Modi.
According to a Tweet released by Navy Lookout, on August 8, 2020, ex-HMS Clyde River-Class offshore patrol vessel of the British Navy has been sold by BAE Systems Maritime to Bahrain. Now re-named BNS Al-Zubarah and handed over to Bahraini Navy at a ceremony in Portsmouth on August 7, 2020.

According to a Tweet released by Navy Lookout, on August 8, 2020, ex-HMS Clyde River-Class offshore patrol vessel of the British Navy has been sold by BAE Systems Maritime to Bahrain. Now re-named BNS Al-Zubarah and handed over to Bahraini Navy at a ceremony in Portsmouth on August 7, 2020.

Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link

Ex-HMS Clyde River-Class offshore patrol vessel of British Navy, now BNS Al-Zubarah of Bahrain Navy. (Picture source NavyLookout)

The HMS Clyde is a decommissioned offshore patrol vessel and is the tenth ship in the British Royal Navy to bear the name. She was launched on 14 June 2006 in Portsmouth Naval Base by VT Group shipbuilders in Portsmouth, England, and is the fourth vessel of the River class, with a displacement of 2,000 tones and a 30 mm Oerlikon KCB gun in place of the 20 mm gun fitted to Tyne River-class ships.

In February 2005, the Ministry of Defense placed an order with VT for the charter of a fourth modified River-class offshore patrol vessel. This fourth ship, Clyde, was constructed at Portsmouth Dockyard and replaced the two Castle-class patrol vessels for duties around the South Atlantic and the Falkland Islands.

The HMS Clyde has length 81.5 m (267 ft 5 in) hull, a top speed of 21 kn (39 km/h), a 30 mm cannon, two miniguns, and mountings for five general-purpose machine guns. Clyde's elongated hull permits a 20-meter strengthened flight deck able to accommodate a Merlin-sized helicopter.

The ship has a full load displacement between 1,850 and 2,000 tones. She is powered by two Ruston 12RK 270 engines developing 4,125 kW (5,532 hp) at 1,000 rpm.
EN VIVO| Alejandro Neyra, titular del @MinCulturaPe: "Hemos acordado retomar el "Plan de Cierre de Brechas" (...) para retomar tenemos que esperar una comunicacion de la gobernacion regional" #PrimeroMiSalud pic.twitter.com/cx0fRji3x4
Cameroon is using the International Day of the Worlds Indigenous Peoples, to educate indigenous communities who have preserved their ways of life and their own cultures despite external influences to respect barrier measures so as not to be infected by COVID-19.

Pygmies, Mbororos and Kirdis sing in Yaounde to invite their peers to make sure COVID-19 does not get into their communities. Cameroons indigenous people are taking part in activities marking the International Day of the Worlds Indigenous Populations.

Grace Bulami of the non-governmental organization Indigenous Rights is one of the organizers of the activities. She says it is imperative to stop the coronavirus from getting into their communities. She says certain traditional practices can favor fast transmission should a Pygmy, Mbororo or Kirdi be infected.

They have this tendency to always want to hold hands and shake hands with each other and so we went out to sensitize them that it is dangerous for themselves and their loved ones to continue to shake hands because the pandemic spreads through that method. We try to sensitize on the importance of wearing face masks, washing their hands and social distancing," she said.

A study carried out by Indigenous Rights, the Yaounde based Center for Environment and Development, and the Mbororo Cultural and Development Organization, MBOSCUDA, indicate that no indigenous person has been diagnosed with COVID-19. The first case of the coronavirus was reported in Cameroon on March 5. Since then more than 18,000 cases have been officially confirmed.

Jaji Manu Gidado, honorary president of MBOSCUDA says indigenous people have been free from the virus because they hardly mix with non-indigenous communities.

"They live in very difficult and isolated areas. Indigenous people live in ecosystems that provide them with a lot of traditional herbs that they use to prevent and even to cure minor illnesses," said Gidado.

This year's indigenous populations day was observed under the theme COVID-19 and indigenous peoples resilience. Angelica Bih Mundi Ambe, director of social protection in Cameroons ministry of social affairs says the government also used the opportunity to donate hand sanitizers, water basins, soap and face masks to indigenous people.

"When we talk of resilience it means capacitating these people to fight COVID-19," she said. "These people dont have access to the information that we [non-indigenous people] have, the sanitary and barrier measures and so this year, emphasis is being laid on this COVID-19 to see how these people who are excluded can be mainstreamed and make the fight against COVID-19 a success."

Cameroons National Institute of statistics reports that the central African state with a population of 25 million people has 2 million indigenous people. Most of them live in places that are difficult to access for non-indigenous people.

Indigenous Peoples Day is celebrated around the world and marks the date of the inaugural session of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations at the United Nations in 1982.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 03:09:07|Editor: huaxia

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at a press conference in Ankara, Turkey, on Aug. 10, 2020. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday appealed for an "acceptable formula" for energy exploration rights in the Eastern Mediterranean which has been the center of tension over recent drilling activities. (Photo by Mustafa kaya/Xinhua)

ANKARA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday appealed for an "acceptable formula" for energy exploration rights in the Eastern Mediterranean which has been the center of tension over recent drilling activities.

"Let's come together with all the countries in the Mediterranean. Let's find a formula that is acceptable to everyone and protects everyone's rights," Erdogan told reports at a press conference after a cabinet meeting.

"We are always there and ready to resolve conflicts through dialogue and equity," he said, noting Turkey will continue to implement its plans in the field and through diplomacy in the Mediterranean "until common sense prevails on this issue."

His remarks came amid long-time overlapping claims between Greece and Turkey for hydrocarbon resources in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Turkey on Monday issued a new Navigation Telex (NAVTEX) for seismic surveys in the Eastern Mediterranean that will be conducted by its vessel Oruc Reis protected by the Turkish navy.

Turkey's act came after Greece and Egypt signed a maritime border agreement last week after Turkey suspended its seismic survey plans in the Eastern Mediterranean amid ongoing talks with Greece.
It has been seven years since the central air conditioning system worked at the New York City middle school where Lisa Fitzgerald OConnor teaches. As a new school year approaches amid the coronavirus pandemic, she and her colleagues are threatening not to return unless its repaired.

Her classroom has a window air conditioning unit, but she fears the stagnant air will increase the chances that an infected student could spread the virus.

Window units just arent going to cut it. We dont want to stay cool, we just want the air to flow properly, said OConnor, a science teacher who has worked at the Patria Mirabal School in Manhattan since 2009. We are really super stressed out about it.

Schools around the country are facing similar problems as they plan or contemplate reopening this fall, dealing with aging air conditioning, heating and circulation systems that dont work well or at all because maintenance and replacement were deferred due to tight budgets. Concerns about school infrastructure are adding momentum to plans in some districts, even in colder climates, to take classes outdoors for the sake of student and teacher health.

Nationwide, an estimated 41% of school districts need to update or replace their heating, ventilation and cooling systems in at least half their schools, according to a federal report issued in June.

This 1900 photo from the Library of Congress photo shows an open air school in New York. Poor ventilation in school buildings across the U.S. will limit the ability of in-person instruction to resume safely. Some districts are warming to the idea of outdoor classrooms. (Library of Congress via AP)AP

There is no evidence that the disease can spread through ventilation systems from one classroom to the next, according to Dr. Edward Nardell, a Harvard Medical School professor who specializes in airborne diseases. The danger, Nardell said, is from ineffective systems that dont remove floating viruses and let them linger in classrooms after they are expelled in an infected persons breath, sneeze or cough.

Most schools are designed for comfort, not for infection control. So there is a danger that if you put 20 kids in a room, that if one of them has asymptomatic COVID and is infectious, you now have 19 more kids who are exposed, Nardell said. Healthy children almost always recover from COVID, if they become ill at all, but they can pass the disease to teachers, parents and other adults.

Nardell believes schools should consider installing ultraviolet lights along classroom ceilings, a technology some used in the 1950s and earlier to combat measles, tuberculosis and other airborne diseases and that is still used in hospitals and homeless shelters. Viruses and bacteria are destroyed using a spectrum of UV light that is safe for humans. Manufacturers say the devices would cost $3,000 per classroom.

Some, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, say one solution to air circulation problems may be teaching classes outdoors, which was done during tuberculosis and influenza outbreaks in the early 1900s, even in cold weather. The coronavirus spreads less efficiently outdoors and students could more easily sit 6 feet (2 meters) apart.

Having classes outdoors has other benefits, said Sharon Danks, CEO of Green Schoolyards America, a Berkeley, California, nonprofit that advocates for outdoor education. Children actually are less distracted and feel better emotionally when taught outdoors, she said.

Nature has been shown to restore the ability to pay attention, she said.

Several schools in the Northeast have bought large event tents like those used at outdoor weddings and plan to use them to teach outside through November.

The White River Valley Middle School in Bethel, Vermont, spent $50,000 on tents and another $20,000 on port-a-potties, hand-washing stations and other equipment. While some schools have equipped tents with propane heaters, White River Valley Principal Owen Bradley said his students can handle the expected November daytime temperatures in the 30s (about 0 Celsius) without them.

Bradley said one upside will be an opportunity to help students better understand and appreciate nature.

We hope they value it forever and help us save the planet, he said.

Schools bringing students back this fall will require or at least strongly suggest masks, but officials say they can only be so effective during six-hour school days indoors. Air circulation is needed.

Stephen Murley, the school superintendent in Green Bay, Wisconsin, said most of his district's 42 campuses have older air systems. When there is high humidity, they are set to recirculate drier indoor air to prevent unhealthy black mold from growing on the walls  but battling the coronavirus requires fresh air.

We have two things working at odds with each other, Murley said.

Janet Robinson, the superintendent in Stratford, Connecticut, said some of her districts 13 schools were built between 80 and 100 years ago and arent capable of handling modern air systems  they are a challenge. There are also crowding issues  one has classrooms built for 15 students but that typically have 25, making social distancing impossible.

It is kind of naive for politicians and whoever to say, Just bring (the students) in and keep them at 6 feet (2 meter) distance, she said.

Brian Toth, superintendent of the Saint Marys Area School District in northern Pennsylvania, said his districts five schools air systems have no exit vents to circulate fresh air in and the virus out. He estimates it would cost at least $600,000 per school to replace the systems. When his schools reopen Aug. 31, students will be asked to wear masks, but Pennsylvania law exempts children whose parents claim they have a physical or mental condition.

You look at the way schools were built, nobody expected to have a classroom with a 6-foot radius around a student, Toth said. Instead, classrooms pack them in like sardines and now we are facing the consequences.

Related Content:
Robert Perez, ex-Lukoil trader wins dispute over $5.3 million bonus Venezuela deal

Evato



Trader Prevails in Bonus Dispute

- Trader said Lukoil failed to pay all of his $5.3 million bonus

- Lukoil said it's not due because oil deal was poorly handled

By Lucia Kassai/Bloomberg

HOUSTON

Petroleumworld 08 10 2020

An oil trader was awarded the final installments of a $5.3 million bonus that his former employer, Lukoil Pan Americas LLC, argued it didn't have to pay because it was dissatisfied with his involvement in a Venezuelan crude transaction.

According to court documents filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, an arbitrator ruled Roberto Perez is owed the remaining $1.03 million. The Lukoil PJSC subsidiary claimed that the payment was not owed because Perez engaged in unauthorized purchases of Venezuelan crude that resulted in losses of over $20 million in 2018. Perez argued that the operations were authorized by management and passed compliance controls.

Oil trades are often shrouded in secrecy and traders and their employers typically settle disputes away from the spotlight to avoid exposing a transaction's details. In 2017 and 2018, Perez earned a combined $5.25 million bonus for his performance, according to the documents. It was to be paid over several years ending in 2020. Perez resigned in 2018.

Lukoil argued Perez wasn't owed the full bonus because he poorly handled the purchase of Venezuelan crude cargoes from a Rosneft Oil Co PJSC that were awarded in a tender in January 2018. A quality test determined that oil loaded on the vessel, Montreal Spirit, had higher-than-desired water content, which is referred to in the industry as being off-spec.

According to the court documents, Perez and a Rosneft representative agreed the oil was off-spec in a text exchange in February. After much back-and-forth among Perez and Lukoil trading supervisors and general counsel, Perez's immediate supervisor instructed him to accept the cargo in exchange for a significant discount, according to the court documents. Perez submitted his notice of resignation the next month. Lukoil alleged in the suit Perez was a bad leaver and therefore forfeited the final installment of his bonus.

Perez and Lukoil didn't immediately return a message seeking comment. The arbitrator, Theo Cheng, declined to comment. It is not apparent from the documents whether Lukoil intends to challenge the decision.

Perez began his career as a deck officer with Venezuela's state oil company. He joined Royal Dutch Shell Plc in 1997 and moved to Chevron Corp. before joining Lukoil in 2013. He set up a system for buying crude oil, mostly Venezuelan, for payment in oil products -- known as crude-for-product swap -- which rendered gains of over $80 million for Lukoil, he said in the legal documents.


cnbc.com - Jan 19

Several foreign airlines are canceling flights to the U.S. over concerns about 5G interference, despite a last-minute commitment from telecom giants Verizon and AT&T to delay the deployment of the new service near some airports.
Face masks became compulsory in popular tourist areas in Paris on Monday amid warnings of a resurgence of coronavirus cases. The new regulations have been generally welcomed, despite some confusion about where you can and where you can't.

The mask requirement comes as France swelters in a heatwave, with temperatures soaring above 35 degrees Celsius.

The blistering heat sent crowds flocking to beaches at the weekend despite health warnings about the risk of infection.

People in Paris aged 11 and over are now required to wear the masks in crowded areas and tourists hotspots.

These include the banks of the Seine River and more than a 100 streets in the French capital, including tourist destinations like Montmartre, where the Sacre Coeur basilica is located.

There has been some confusion about the limits of the compulsory face mask zone, as some streets which mark the border between administrative areas remain mask-free on one side.

The authorities have called for understanding and common sense.

Several French towns and cities have already introduced similar measures, as well as parts of Belgium, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain.

Virus circulating more actively in Paris

"All the indicators show that since mid-July the virus is again circulating more actively in the Paris region," said a police statement at the weekend.

Paris residents interviewed by the French AFP news agency generally supported the decision on masks.

"I think it's a very good idea, we should maybe have done it sooner," one man said in the popular Rue des Martyrs in central Paris.

"Since we don't understand enough about this illness, the best thing is that we protect ourselves."

The masks are "restrictive" but necessary "if we want to avoid a second wave in Paris," said a woman wearing a bright green mask. "Anything except a second lockdown."
Western Australias powerhouse Australian Ninja Warrior couple Olivia Vivian and Ben Polson have fought their way to the grand final of this years season, taking on new challenges  and each other  in their quest to be crowned the nations best.

Early heats proved no obstacle to the athletic couple, but the Power Tower pitted them against each other, taking the Perth duos rivalry to the next level.

Perth's Ben Polson in action on Australian Ninja Warrior. Credit:Nine

Vivian blitzed the semi-finals, and said she only felt the rigour of the course when she was pushing through. But her veteran status put her in good stead.

Going through, you realise how difficult this semi-final course was, and what really helped me was the experience Ive had from past seasons, she said.
(TNS)  Law enforcement agencies may be able to keep watch over their communities in more ways than one.A slew of surveillance technologies are in the hands of dozens of law enforcement agencies across Massachusetts, a new online map shows.According to the searchable database, called the Atlas of Surveillance, at least 18 police departments in the state have partnerships with Amazons home security company, Ring, and another 17 law enforcement agencies operate drones.Only two police departments it appears, Attleboros and Westfields, have both partnerships with Ring and operate drones, the atlas shows.After learning the city he lives in was on the Atlas of Surveillance, Westfield resident Trevor Eckhart filed a public records request with the communitys police department to see how the agency uses both drones and Ring.As a software programmer, Ekhart argued he knows that certain surveillance technologies, although sometimes useful for law enforcements investigations, can pose potentially serious risks.He pointed to facial recognition technology - a software that remains largely unrestricted - despite it being been widely criticized for its inaccuracies, its potential to violate individuals civil liberties and its racial biases.For instance, earlier this year, police in Detroit arrested Robert Williams, a Black man living in a suburb of the Michigan city, based on a false identification provided by facial recognition software.Williams was taken into custody on his front lawn in front of his family and jailed for nearly 30 hours, according to the ACLU However, facial recognition technology is largely not used in Massachusetts, and those working in public safety have argued Amazon Ring and drones, which are not weaponized, are far less of a threat to the public.In Westfield, the citys two drones have provided aerial shots that have proven invaluable in understanding the nature and scope of particular incidents, according to the citys police chief, Lawrence Valliere.From monitoring protests to keeping watch over forest fires, drones can be used for a range of tasks, the police chief pointed out.They could be deployed, for example, during an active shooter situation, to document a crime scene or to assist with fires or hazardous material spills, he said.It assists us in planning and coordinating an effective response to an ongoing situation or for future events. Better known as situational awareness, Valliere wrote in an email. Im sure you have looked at Google Earth and found the perspective to be amazing.Still, Ekhart, who has lodged a complaint with the citys police department about its drone use, said there needs to be more accountability, more visibility in terms of how the agency deploys surveillance technologies.Im a privacy advocate, and when I saw Westfield on the map here, it appears that Westfields overusing this technology, Ekhart told MassLive. Between Ring and Drones, that set me off.Surveillance technologies in MassachusettsThe Atlas of Surveillance has been called the largest-ever repository of information on what surveillance technologies law enforcement agencies are using and where, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group.The California-based nonprofit created the online map with the University of Nevada, Reno Reynolds School of Journalism, with the aim of allowing people to see what software is being used by police departments across the country.Law enforcement surveillance isnt always secret, the foundation says on its website . These technologies can be discovered in news articles and government meeting agendas, in company press releases and social media posts. It just hasnt been aggregated before.The organizations data was made public in July, as debates over the structure and role of law enforcement continue to rage across the U.S. in the wake of the killing of George Floyd , an unarmed Black man who died in May after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly 9 minutes.Floyds death sparked countless protests throughout the country and the world, calling for an end to racial violence and police brutality.According to the Atlas of Surveillance, the full list of Massachusetts law enforcement agencies that operate drones includes municipal police departments in Andover, Attleboro, Barnstable, Boston, Franklin, Gardner, Oxford, Methuen, Natick, Northampton, Swansea, Tewksbury, Westborough, Westfield and Yarmouth as well as the Barnstable County Sheriffs Office and Massachusetts State Police.Those who have partnerships with Ring include the Attleboro, Burlington, Chicopee, Dartmouth, Everette, Harwich, Haverhill, Hingham, Lowell, Malden, Mattapoisett, Needham, Norwood, Springfield, Quincy, Wellesley, Westfield and Worcester police departments.In Massachusetts, a bill that aims to reform law enforcement practices and create systems of accountability for police wrongdoing may soon be finalized. Six state lawmakers , it was announced last month, will be drafting the final version of the piece of legislation.Both the Massachusetts State House and Senates versions of the criminal justice reform package would create new commissions to certify police officers and decertify those who have committed misconduct, the State House News Service reported.One of the major areas where the legislative bodies differ, though, is in their approaches to limiting qualified immunity, a U.S. Supreme Court-issued doctrine that protects police officers from civil lawsuits for wrongdoing.Discussions about demilitarizing and reducing the surveillance capabilities of police departments are also occurring in some Massachusetts communities.Facial recognition, a piece of software that uses artificial intelligence in conjunction with databases of photographs to identify individuals spotted in images, is one such technology that is being hotly debated in the commonwealth.So far, the software remains largely unregulated at both the state and federal levels, so several communities in Massachusetts and other states have taken it upon themselves to restrict the use of the technology, which has been criticized for its racial biases and potential to violate civil liberties.Seven towns or cities in the commonwealth have either fully or temporarily banned the software, the majority in collaboration with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts , which has been running a campaign since last year that seeks to raise public awareness about the dangers of facial recognition.EFFs online map shows a wide array of the most pervasive surveillance technologies police departments are using throughout the country. Among them: facial recognition.In Massachusetts, use of the software is largely nonexistent among local police departments, though at the state and federal levels, thats a different story.The state Registry of Motor Vehicles uses the technology to identify potential fraud when issuing drivers licenses, and Massachusetts State Police sometimes deploys the software in criminal investigations to help identify unknown suspects.Any identifications made with the technology are then either confirmed or rejected through other investigative methods, according to David Procopio, spokesman for the agency.Boston Logan International Airport also became one of 18 airports where U.S. Customs and Border Protection is able to use face recognition technology in March 2019, according to EFF.Amazing Ring, Drones and facial recognition are only a few of the surveillance technologies mentioned on EFFs site.The foundations database includes information about automated license plate readers as well as body-worn cameras, camera registries, cell-site simulators, predictive policing, gunshot detection and fusion centers, hubs that serve as focal points for states and major urban areas to share threat-related information, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.People can search for information on what surveillance technologies a law enforcement agency is using by clicking on cities, towns or regions in the United States. They can also look up the locations by name or search by specific technologies.Some of the sites data is outdated, though.For example, according to the database, Northamptons police department has only two drones, even though the Hampshire County law enforcement agency has four drones in its inventory.EFF also says the Westfield Police Department operates a single drone, despite the public safety agency getting a second one last year that has more flight capabilities.One was donated, and the other was part of an emergency management grant, Valliere said. Both can obviously be used outdoors, but the second can also be deployed inside of large buildings. It is a smaller drone and has different features that allow for it to be effective indoors.Despite some outdated information on the online map, the database is expansive and provides and unprecedented look at law enforcements surveillance capabilities in the United States.Around 500 students, teachers, volunteers, journalists and other researchers worked on the project, aggregating information from government websites, news outlets reporting and other sources to create their massive database.More than 5,000 data points have been amassed across roughly 3,000 jurisdictions, EFF noted. The foundation claimed its crowdsourced information only reveals the tip of the iceberg.[Our research] underlines the need for journalists and members of the public to continue demanding transparency from criminal justice agencies, EFF said.Eyes from your doorstep: How Amazon Ring worksEkhart told MassLive that he believes the use of Amazon Ring and drones by Westfield and other communities in Massachusetts falls into the ongoing national dialogue about what policing should look like in the U.S.The Westfield resident said both technologies may have some effective uses. For example, drones, Ekhart said, could be used to assist law enforcement during a hostage situation.However, the Westfield resident argued police departments need to be more transparent about how they use the surveillance technologies included on EFFs database.There definitely needs some oversight on this. Its not perfect, Ekhart said.The Westfield Police Department, according to EFFs map, signed an agreement with the Amazon home surveillance equipment company Ring last year to gain special access to the companys Neighbors Public Safety Service application.Serving as another set of eyes that can look out from someones doorstep, Amazon Ring is a doorbell-security camera that sends surveillance footage to individuals phones.The companys police partnerships are widespread as well, with more than 1,300 law enforcement agencies using the service, EFF reported in June.The Neighbors application is a neighborhood watch service Amazon promotes in conjunction with its Ring devices that allows residents as well as law enforcement agencies to share videos and security concerns, though EFF claimed such systems can lead to racial profiling.Ring, meanwhile, has posited that its technology allows public safety officials to connect, communicate and share hyper-local updates with their communities. On its website , the company also claims its services have helped local law enforcement agencies solve cases.One Virginia Beach family was able to quickly recover stolen medical supplies for their diabetic child after sharing a video of the package theft on Neighbors, the company said. Thanks to the app, a neighbor spotted the suspect and alerted local law enforcement who then made an arrest and located the missing package.In regard to concerns about racial profiling, Ring employs trained moderators to ensure all content on its Neighbors portal is reviewed before it goes public. The aim is to make sure no posts violate restrictions against hate speech, discrimination or racial profiling.Rings partnership with the Westfield Police Department, signed in November 2019, makes the Neighbors application available to residents and the department free of charge, but it restricts WPD from sharing control over the surveillance system portal with anyone who is not a member of the agency.The portal must only be used for legitimate law enforcement purposes, the policy also notes.According to officials, residents Ring devices are secure and their accounts private. Public safety officials will never access a persons security system unless they are given permission to do so by the homeowner/subscriber.It is up to the subscriber to share their surveillance footage with police, Valliere noted, adding that the software can certainly be of great assistance to law enforcement.The process for trying to obtain video from Ring devices is extensive as well, according to the Westfield police chief.For example, if we have a number of car breaks in a particular area, there is a process where we contact Ring, Valliere said. We then provide them with the particulars of when, where and what we are looking for. Ring then contacts individuals in the problem area that subscribe to them. They then advise the subscribers as to what the police are investigating and that they are interested in any video related to the problem.So far in 2019, eight requests for law enforcement assistance have been sent via Ring to the Westfield Police Department. The submissions have ranged from reports of packages being stolen and vandalism to cars being broken into.For officers, the device provides a digital alternative to canvassing door to door.This certainly can save a lot of man-hours by not having to canvas a neighborhood on foot, Valliere said. It also may provide the information that solves the crime and identifies the perpetrator.The restrictions and benefits of dronesWhile Amazon Ring can provide surveillance on the ground, drones give law enforcement eyes up above.However, the technology comes with restrictions.Westfield polices eight-page policy on manning drones, also called small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS), requires that the Western Massachusetts police department get proper permitting and authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration before deploying any sUAS.Like Northamptons police department, Westfield must also have individuals specially trained to use the aircraft.Although the devices come with a slew of rules, the wide scope of their uses may be surprising.In terms of what the department is allowed to surveil, WPD can use drones when responding to emergency incidents and exigent circumstances, which encompass a range of situations.Appropriate uses may include searches and rescues, tactical deployments during incidents involving hostages or barricades and the documentation of a crime scene.Drones also allowed to be used to help Westfield police officers manage traffic, provide perimeter security and inspect infrastructures, such as buildings, bridges and roadways.The departments two unmanned aircraft are available to help other public agencies in the city as well.The devices provide great value to Westfields conservation office when investigating complaints or illegal dumping that would normally not be readily seen, according to Valliere.Akin to Amazon Ring, the police departments two drones can similarly cut down man-hours, particularly when being used to monitor the citys two reservoirs, which require constant oversight, according to the police chief.The drone is also used to help our fire department when requested, he added. It can help them determine the scale and direction of forest fires, which helps with tactical decisions. It also provides information regarding the integrity of a roof during a fire as well as documenting the fire itself.Put a drone up, you dont need to have any contact': Controversies surrounding the technologyAccording to logs of recorded sUAS flights by the Westfield Police Department, the law enforcement agency has deployed its unmanned aircrafts more than 30 times since June 2018.One section of the departments drone policy prohibits Westfield police from collecting data with its drone solely for the purpose of monitoring activities protected by the U.S. Constitution, such as the First Amendments protections of freedom of religion, speech, press and assembly.Ekhart believes the department violated this part of its sUAS policy when it deployed one of its drones on June 4 in response to a call from Park Square.On the same day and at the same time the drone was deployed, a rally to protest racism and police brutality was held near Broad and Main Streets in proximity to Park Square, the Westfield resident noted.The software programmer filed a complaint against WPD in late July when he saw that the dates and times lined up. Ekhart told MassLive that he was worried police used one of its drones to monitor the protest.I am making a complaint that on June 4, 2020, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Park Square, a local BLM protest was held, and per a FOIA request, the police used a drone at this exact same time and location, which is against hundreds of citizens civil rights, the documented Westfield policy and potentially the law, Ekhart wrote in his complaint.Westfields police chief confirmed that the department put up one of its drones during the protest for situational awareness.The drone was not used to identify protesters or any individual, he noted.It allowed us to see the size of the crowd, detect and manage disturbances, gauge the stability of the event, track its movement and monitor traffic flow, Valliere said.Monitoring large public gatherings like protests does not appear to be an uncommon use for drones in Massachusetts.In Northampton, the citys police department has also deployed its unmanned aircraft during a recent demonstration in support of Black Lives Matter.The law enforcement agency is allowed to use the technology to monitor protests, and it has been effective in avoiding potential conflict, Northampton Police Chief Jody Kasper explained.Put a drone up, you dont need to have any contact between uniformed officers and protesters, Kasper said. Our goal with any protest is to provide a safe and secure spot.She added, This is a way we can watch things from a distance. It has been very effective in monitoring these scenes.
IN 1996, while working as a GP in Devon, Robert Treharne Jones launched a clinical software company with two friends, Mark Sullivan and David Barrett.

Sullivan Cuff Software, as it was then known, became the market leader for anticoagulation decision-support software. Now it is used in more than 2,700 practices, hospitals and clinics in the UK alone.

Dr Treharne Jones began as the companys marketing director and in 2010 became clinical director.

The trio sold the business in 2016 to LumiraDx, an American firm, but he retained his position for the UK subdivision in the new firm.

As the company took off, Dr Treharne Jones decided to leave his medical practice in 2002 after 17 years.

He says: It wasnt as much fun as when I first started. Then it was like running a small business where you could make decisions to impact what you did to benefit your patients and suit the community you worked in, such as the software I introduced. But it became more top-down management and it didnt matter what was happening locally. Ever since then I have split my life between rowing and IT.

In his new role in sales, he found living in Torquay was a disadvantage and wanted to move somwhere more central, so when he was also made press officer at Leander Club in Henley it made sense to move to the area, which he did in 2006.

He says: It is not far from London and is a central point to talk to healthcare communities about the software. For the first two years of my career at Leander I was based in Devon and I got quite used to a day trip to Henley. It would take me two hours and 40 minutes to get here.

When the company was sold, the trio concentrated on how the different software applications they had created could work together.

Dr Treharne Jones says: Now that we are part of a much bigger organisation, the synergies between the different parts of the company are becoming apparent. We have developed a diagnostic blood testing platform where a drop of blood can be tested and a result given within a 10-minute consultation.

This reduces the need to go to a nurse and make another appointment to see a clinician.

We are developing a portfolio of various tests to be performed. We can only do about half a dozen tests at the moment but we will grow and grow as the potential is huge.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.10

Trend:

Azerbaijan House in Israel held a rally in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv to protest against the recent military provocations of Armenia in Tovuz district's direction of Azerbaijani-Armenian border and to support the Azerbaijani armed forces which adequately rebuffed these provocations, the State Committee for Work with Diaspora told Trend.

Over 400 Azerbaijanis living in Israel participated in the rally. The participants holding the state flags of Azerbaijan and Israel and photos of Azerbaijani servicemen who heroically died in the April battles in 2016 and the recent battles in the direction of Azerbaijan's Tovuz district, chanted "Martyrs are immortal, the Motherland is indivisible!", "End Armenian aggression!", "Karabakh is Azerbaijan!" and other slogans.

During the action, participants of the rally made a statement expressing a strong protest against the provocations of the Armenian armed forces.

The residents of Israel of Azerbaijani origin are proud of the successes of the Azerbaijani army, the statement especially stressed.

The young generation of the [Azerbaijani] diaspora in Israel has grown up, and its representatives are ready to show selflessness and heroism in the name of Azerbaijan, to contribute to the sacred task of liberating the Azerbaijani lands from the Armenian occupation.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
The death toll in the massive landslide in Idukki district rose to 55 on Thursday. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan visit the landslide-hit area on Thursday. More compensation and relief measures for the landslide victims will be also announced by the government.
Every investor in Bahamas Petroleum Company plc (LON:BPC) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. Institutions will often hold stock in bigger companies, and we expect to see insiders owning a noticeable percentage of the smaller ones. Companies that have been privatized tend to have low insider ownership.

Bahamas Petroleum is a smaller company with a market capitalization of UK91m, so it may still be flying under the radar of many institutional investors. In the chart below, we can see that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholder can tell us about Bahamas Petroleum.

Check out our latest analysis for Bahamas Petroleum

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Bahamas Petroleum?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

We can see that Bahamas Petroleum does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Bahamas Petroleum's historic earnings and revenue, below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Bahamas Petroleum. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Standard Life Aberdeen plc with 7.2% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 5.3% and 4.2%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

Story continues

Our studies suggest that the top 12 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. There is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.

Insider Ownership Of Bahamas Petroleum

The definition of company insiders can be subjective, and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own some shares in Bahamas Petroleum Company plc. As individuals, the insiders collectively own UK2.6m worth of the UK91m company. This shows at least some alignment, but I usually like to see larger insider holdings. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are mostly retail investors, collectively hold 54% of Bahamas Petroleum shares. This level of ownership gives retail investors the power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Bahamas Petroleum better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 2 warning signs with Bahamas Petroleum (at least 1 which is a bit unpleasant) , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 23:02:01|Editor: huaxia

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Bifouma (L) of Shenzhen FC breaks through during the fourth round match between ShenZhen FC and Henan Jianye FC at the postponed 2020 season Chinese Football Association Super League (CSL) Dalian Division in Dalian, northeast China's Liaoning Province, Aug. 10, 2020. (Xinhua/Long Lei)

DALIAN, China, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Henan Jianye claimed their first victory of the 2020 Chinese Super League here on Monday, coming from behind to beat Shenzhen FC 2-1.

Shenzhen had a dream start to the match, as Gao Lin's smart pass found Ole Selnaes, who squared for John Mary to turn in from close range after just two minutes.

However, Shenzhen was dealt a blow in the 33rd minute as Zhang Yuan was sent off after a dangerous foul on Du Changjie.

Jianye equalized before the break with a stroke of luck, as Shenzhen's Jiang Zhipeng accidentally chested a cross into his own net.

Jianye scored what turned out to be the winner in the 62nd minute as Fernando Karanga headed home Zhou Dingyang's left-wing cross.

Shenzhen almost equalized late on but Thievy Bifouma's 87th-minute free-kick rattled the crossbar, while at the other end Karanga also missed a golden opportunity after being sent clean through on goal.

Jianye's win sees them up to 5th in CSL Group A with five points, while Shenzhen is 6th with three points after three successive defeats. Enditem
An off-duty Massachusetts policeman is being credited for saving the life of a pilot who crashed his glider plane into Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire over the weekend, authorities said.

Officer Joe Ponzo, a veteran of the Stoneham Police Department, was vacationing with his family on a boat on the New Hampshire lake when he saw an ultralight glider plane make a crash landing into the water around 3 p.m. on Sunday, the department said in a statement.

Ponzo called the New Hampshire State Police Marine Patrol Unit to tell them about the plane crash and then rushed over to the pilot, the statement said.

The off-duty policeman and other boaters worked to pull the pilot out of the water and onto Ponzos boat. The man was conscious and alert, according to the statement.

A pilot was pulled out of Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire by Stoneham Police Officer Joe Ponzo after his ultralight glider plane crash landed into the water Sunday afternoon, Aug. 9, 2020. (Photo courtesy Stoneham Police Officer Joe Ponzo)

Thankfully, we were in the right place at the right time, Ponzo said in the departments statement. The plane sank into the water right after the crash and the man was able to get himself out before we got there. He was in the water, and a few other boaters came to help me get him into my boat.

The man was taken by Ponzo to shore and then driven by ambulance to a nearby hospital, police said.

Stoneham Police Chief James McIntyre noted Ponzo saved the pilots life.

Even off-duty on vacation with our families, we are never truly off the job when duty calls, McIntyre said. Officer Ponzo is a 23-year veteran of the Stoneham Police Department and he was the right person to be there when this man needed help.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Twenty-six percent of students in New York City public schools are choosing to learn remotely full-time when school starts in September during the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza announced on Monday.

During a press conference Monday morning, de Blasio said that 26% of public school students -- or 264,000 students -- across the five boroughs will start the school year learning remotely full-time, according to the number of applications families submitted to the Department of Education (DOE) requesting full-time remote learning.

That means that 74%, or over 700,000 public school students, will return to school buildings under the city DOEs blended learning model in which students go to school buildings for in-person instruction two or three days a week and learn remotely the rest of the time.

These numbers dont include charter school students, according to the DOE -- which were required to submit separate reopening plans to the state.

For us, health and safety leads the way, always, first and foremost, said Carranza. Our vision for the fall is a safe, strong, and supportive learning environment and an excellent education for every one of our students. School will be in session five days a week. Students will be learning five days per week no matter where they are. We know a lot more now about how thats going to work because healthy and safe in-person learning means knowing how many people we need to plan for in buildings.

Under the blended learning model, schools will operate at significantly reduced capacity for in-person instruction, with, on average, between half and one-third of the student population going to school at one time.

Students can opt into full-time remote learning at any time using the DOEs form. Families who chose full-time remote learning will be able to opt back into in-person instruction during designated timeframes throughout the school year, starting this fall, according to the DOE.

Additionally, 15% of teachers have requested a reasonable accommodation, which is available to employees who are at a heightened risk for severe illness if they contract COVID-19, allowing them to work from home. According to Carranza, teachers approved for a reasonable accommodation will exclusively teach remotely.

The DOE is expecting 85% of its teacher workforce, or 66,000 teachers, to teach under the blended learning model, the chancellor added.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

According to the DOEs reopening plan, schools will not reopen if the community transmission rate is above 3% on a seven-day rolling average.

When students return, they will be required to follow social distance protocols and wear face coverings or masks inside school buildings.

Live instruction will be provided daily for fully remote learners and students participating in the blended learning models when they are remote learning.

Students engaged in remote learning full-time must meet the same academic policies as students engaged in blended learning, which means students will be graded the same.

While there may be a few exceptions, depending on the number of fully remote students and staff with reasonable accommodations, fully remote students will be assigned teachers from their school when they receive their full schedules prior to the start of the school year.

Parents can expect their childs school schedule as early as next week, de Blasio said Monday.

Starting next Monday, the 17th, youll start to get those announcements going out to schools, many families and kids will have those announcements next week, the remaining will have them the week after, de Blasio said.

The mayor added that the city and the School Construction Authority are looking at additional spaces for learning and child care for families during remote learning days -- including working with the Archdiocese of New York to identify former Catholic school buildings.

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Apartments with over 3 Covid cases to be containment zones for 7 days: Check BBMP's full guidelines

Karnataka reports 41,457 new Covid cases; 25,595 from Bengaluru alone

Karnataka weather update: Red alert sounded in 7 districts

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Bengaluru, Aug 10: A red alert has been sounded in seven districts of rain-ravaged Karnataka where one more death was reported on Sunday, taking the toll to 13.

According to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, there would be heavy rain for the next 24 hours in coastal areas, in the northern and in the interior parts of the south.

Pranab Mukherjee tests Covid-19 +ve | Former President tests positive | Oneindia News

The red alert has been issued in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Kodagu and Shivamogga as they would get heavy rainfall.

Kerala rains: Red alert for 3 districts; 75 people missing as landslide hits Munnar

As on Sunday, Cauvery and Krishna rivers were flowing above the danger mark, and the sluice gates of the dams were opened.

Due to the release of water, many regions in the low- lying areas were inundated.

In the Cauvery basin, Krishnaraja Sagar Dam, Harangi, Hemavathi, and Kabini Dams were almost full.

In view of the swollen Cauvery river, the Mandya district administration put barricades near the Sri Nimishamba Temple near Ganjam in Srirangapatna Taluk to ensure the safety of public in general and pilgrims and tourists in particular.

"The public is not allowed to venture into the Cauvery River as a precautionary measure," read a statement issued by the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Mandya District Dr M V Venkatesh.

In Kodagu, the situation remained grim due to a heavy downpour and incidents of landslides were reported.

Congress state president D K Shivakumar, on a two-day tour of Kodagu from Saturday, visited many relief camps and spoke to the people there.

Also, he inspected a few places which suffered severe damages due to landslides.

Later, Shivakumar issued a statement saying the district has been suffering rain-related damages and all political parties should come to the aid of the people.

In Belagavi, reports emerged that youth got swept away in the rain.

In Mysuru, the Hebbal lake was overflowing.

Eighty relief camps have been set up to house 1,600 people as 278 houses have been fully damaged and 2,140 partially damaged, according to the Disaster Monitoring Centre.

A total of 23 animals have perished in the rains which destroyed 31,541 hectares of crops while inundating 35,000 hectares of horticultural crops.

The State government has released Rs 50 crore as an initial amount to carry out relief and rehabilitation work.
Bangladesh President Md Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have greeted the nation on the eve of the auspicious occasion of Janmashtami to be celebrated on Tuesday, which has been announced a public holiday.

Janmashtami is a Hindu festival celebrating the birth of Lord Krishna.

Officials said that this time all rituals and programmes will be arranged inside the temples in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. There would be no processions or rallies this year.

Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad General Secretary Nirmal Kumar Chattarjee said that a one-day programme will be organised at the Dhakeshwari National Temple premises to mark the festival.

Religious rituals, including recitation from Bhagavad Gita and workshops will begin in the morning, he added.

Also, devotees have to adhere to strict guidelines including wearing of facemasks and maintaining social distancing.

Different religious, cultural and social organisations have also chalked out various programmes to celebrate the festival across the country.

The national dailies will publish special articles to mark the occasion, while Bangladesh Betar, Bangladesh Television and other private TV channels and radio stations will air special programmes highlighting the various aspects of the eventful life of Lord Krishna.
A 103-year-old grandmother dedicated to crossing goals off her bucket list has gotten her first tattoo.

Last week, Dorothy Pollack, from Muskegon, Michigan, visited a tattoo parlour with her granddaughter Teresa Zavitz-Jones to have a little green frog inked on her forearm.

According to Pollack, who recently reunited with her family after months spent isolated in a nursing home as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, she decided out of the blue that she would like a tattoo.

"It was pretty exciting because years ago my grandson wanted me to get one and I wouldn't do it," Pollack told CNN. "All of a sudden, I decided I would like to have one. And if I could, a frog. Because I like frogs.

Granny is a badass now; sportin that ink, Pollacks granddaughter wrote on Facebook, alongside pictures of the centenarians new tattoo. Thank you tons AWOL Custom Tattooing LLC, Ray Reasoner Jr and your staff for making Granny feel comfortable and like a star. You are amazing.

Recommended US tattoo shop offers to cover up hate symbols for free

According to tattoo artist Ray Reasoner Jr, who did Pollacks tattoo free of charge, the grandmother is his oldest client to date.

"She took it like a champ. I didn't even see her wince. Maybe she had half a wince once," Reasoner told the outlet. "She was just so excited. It was an amazing experience.

If someone over a century old tells you to do something for them you just gotta do it."

On Facebook, Pollacks new ink prompted an outpouring of applause.

This is awesome!! You are never too old for some ink!!! one person commented.

Another said: Oh my goodness. The pics of the journey were such a delight!! She is just the cutest thing.

Shortly after her tattoo experience, the 103-year-old also managed to check another item off her bucket list - a motorcycle ride.

TWO for TWO, Zavitz-Jones captioned a video of Pollack riding on the back of a motorcycle. Thank you Ray for giving Granny her first-ever Harley ride.
Sharjah has embarked on a landmark project to chronicle 17 centuries of Arabic language development, spanning five distinct time periods.

Upon completion, in an estimated timeframe of six years, this will be the most comprehensive historical corpus of the Arabic language, and also the first to cover its evolution from the pre-Islamic period through its growth during the Islamic era and several dynasties, to its modern form.

The Historical Corpus of the Arabic Language is a monumental undertaking that will offer unparalleled insight into the worlds fifth most widely spoken language, and serve as a linguistic resource for researchers, academia, linguists and students worldwide, a WAM report said.

Under the supervision of HH Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, the Arabic Language Academy (ALA) in Sharjah will lead the management and coordination of the project, with the full support of the Union of Arab Scientific Language Academies, based in Cairo, Egypt.

Hundreds of senior researchers and linguists, editors, and experts from 10 Arabic language academies across the Arab world are currently documenting and researching the history and evolution of all the Arabic words.

Documenting 17 centuries of the Arabic language, with roots that lie in classical and modern Semitic, African and Asian languages, Arabic is a rich and sophisticated language that has had an enduring legacy in shaping civilisations across the Middle East and Africa. Spoken by more than 400 million people in these regions, it was also the medium through which philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers pursued knowledge during the Golden Age of Islam.

Since the dawn of the 20th century, efforts have been under way to document the ancient Arabic language in an all-encompassing corpus. However, the massive scale of such a project, coupled with sub-par planning and financial constraints, brought such initiatives to a halt, until it was resumed following the directives of the Ruler of Sharjah.

With the digitisation of nearly 20,000 Arabic books, manuscripts, sources, and historical documents, the Historical Corpus of the Arabic Language will be a portal into 17 centuries of the Arabic language, which includes Arabic engravings and antiquities dating back to the third century before Islam.

Created using a fully digitised platform with state-of-the-art technology, the Historical Corpus of the Arabic Language will be easy to access and navigate for both linguists and the public. The use of optical character recognition technology for all documents will further enable researchers to find information they require quickly, within a broad historical context. -- Tradearabia News Service
Fire-fighting training in the drill. (Photo by Tang Yaping )

YUNNAN, Aug. 10 -- The Pu'er Military Sub-command in southwestern China's Yunnan Province launched a maritime emergency rescue drill on the Lancang River on July 30. This marks the official establishment of the first militia unit for maritime search and rescue in Pu'er section of the Lancang River.

Within the city of Pu'er, the Red River , Lancang River and Nujiang River are arranged alternately and meandering south. Due to its geographical location and geological environment, Pu'er is an area with a high frequency of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, mudslides, and landslides. In recent years, the Pu'er Military Sub-command has established several militia rescue teams for different military operations other than war (MOOTW). The newly-built militia unit for maritime search and rescue consists of 80 militias.

Sun Yunshu, director of the mobilization division of the Pu'er Military Sub-command, said: "Its the first time for more than 90 percent of the maritime search and rescue militias to participate in such a military drill. They have just received a 10-day intensive training before the drill."

At the drill site, a passenger ship was on "fire", and the captain reported to local maritime safety administration for emergency assistance. The maritime safety administration immediately submitted a rescue request to the Puer Military Sub-command. After receiving the order, the militia unit for maritime search and rescue quickly sent its members who were patrolling nearby waters to rush to the scene for rescue operations. At the same time, the local maritime department dispatched two ships to control the accident water area and prevent other ships from entering.

Relying on the defense mobilization command system of Pu'er City, the drill encompassed four subjects (namely putting out fires on ships, transfer of persons in distress, search and rescue of drowning victims, and carrying out first aid for the wounded) and improved the citys military-civilian emergency response capability.
In a predictable and unfortunate move, she did not take this time to criticize her officers for shooting yet another Black man, the organizations statement read. Lightfoot instead spent her time attacking looters. The mayor clearly has not learned anything since May, and she would be wise to understand that the people will keep rising up until the CPD is abolished and our Black communities are fully invested in.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The COVID-19 pandemic is complicated. It is not merely a biomedical problem to be dealt with through medicine and public health. It also has major social implications.

How should a country like South Africaone of the world's most unequal societiesreact?

The country did well at first. Government response was based on the advice of a wide range of scientific input. At that point South Africans trusted President Cyril Ramaphosa, and almost everybody co-operated with the lockdown.

Trust then significantly eroded: the regulations did not make common sense. It soon became clear that medical advice alone was not enough in the face of unprecedented social disruption associated with hunger, uncertainty, anger and economic collapseall most adversely affecting the already very vulnerable.

Advice and assistance from experts in the social sciences and humanities should have beenand now we argue must beincluded.

A recently released special edition of the South African Journal of Science asked experts in the humanities and social sciences to weigh in. The collection of articles is not comprehensive, but it adds nuance to the national debate. It points policy makers towards areas of consideration that are critical if citizens are to follow instructions and guidelines about managing the Coronavirus pandemic and its consequences.

The articles point to the need for transparency, accountability and the recognition of the population's basic common sense. Nobody wants their loved ones to die, but behavior change requires buy-in that is currently lacking.

Varied considerations

History: The collection begins with history. Howard Phillips looks at how history offers guidance to the future, with the possibility that lessons learned should not be repeated. Such lessons make people care about medical research, and hasten changes already in motion.

Economic consequences: Tanja Ajam provides a reminder of the need for economic reflection. The way people view and balance the costs of pandemics is critical. Charting a way forward will require imaginative new partnerships between public, private and civil society sectors, and new ways of thinking. This is a challenge far too great for any person, group or institution to solve alone: it requires systems thinking.

Philosophical: Major social changes have practical and philosophical implications, Thaddeus Metz points out. Questions arise about who should live, who should die, the justifications for these decisions and who makes them. Philosophy asks people to weigh up their answers to questions like these: How should we fairly allocate scarce resources? Must we obey the government? Who should we believe? It is not just people's own lives that are affected by their responses to these questions, but the lives of others.

Social implications: Solomon Benatar argues that the social implications of these choices should be explored through ethical arguments, among other angles. The tension between individual rights and the social good has shaped South Africa's vastly unequal health systems and the overall health of our society. Moving from competition to cooperation and balancing rights and responsibilities are critically important challenges.

Unequal systems: Communities and families across South Africa are shaped by deep divides. How does the state respond when the pandemic follows the pathways of entrenched unequal systems? For political scientists the pandemic poses fundamental questions about political management. Whose interests count? What compromises can and must be made? How will these compromises affect the way that power in the country emerges, and is divided? Here, Adam Habib weighs in as a scholar.

Beliefs: If people are to cooperate, their beliefs must be taken seriously, writes Jess Auerbach from an anthropologist's perspective. What people believe matters much less in practice than that they believe it. Our understanding of value needs to be expanded beyond the financial towards the human and the social.

Language. Attention must be paid to how South Africans are speaking about new experiences and new realities, especially when that speech is now mediated through masks and screens. If people listen to language in all of the country's official tongues, they will learn a great deal about people's relationship with COVID-19, suggests Rajend Mesthrie.

Religion: Religion Studies provides one entry point for making sense of uncertainty and that which cannot be known. Barney Pityana reminds us that "human living is never an act in futility but rather one infused with purpose". COVID-19 is not only an individual experience, it is about community and family as well. Responses to the pandemic need to see people in context, with who, what, and how they love as well.

The law: Thuli Madonsela, Social Justice chair at Stellenbosch University and former Public Protector, minces no words when thinking through the personal consequences of the pandemic as a legal practitioner. What is justice? Who suffers? How does this suffering stand when measured against the country's constitution? Is it acceptable that a child goes hungry or that a man cannot bury his father due to models of kinship that have been laid down by the state? She calls for the urgent establishment of a multidisciplinary COVID-19 advisory forum to offer support where medicine has thus far failed.

Sociology: The social aspect of the virus "implies a form of self-imposed exile", writes Vasu Reddy. Sociology reminds us all that social worlds depend on "relationships with individuals, and within groups". The pandemic is "known" differently depending on geography, race, class, disability, gender, age and the framings and metaphors that people use. How can we account for these differences in preparing for future pandemics and challenges?

Schools: Finally, Jonathan Jansen, who conceived the collection of articles and shepherded it into being, considers the school. He argues that schools, as organizations, are far more complex than just places of teaching. They are social worlds, established in community, that involve many people beyond their pupils. Opening them, or not, should be as much about teachers, janitors and secretaries as it is about children.

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.
His womanising ways left viewers in disgust on this season of Bachelor In Paradise.

However, Ciarran Stott, 26, explained on The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Monday morning that his bad-boy behaviour wasn't just reserved for females.

The heavily-tattooed Englishman addressed his past working as a stripper at a gay nightclub as he admitted he would 'never say never' to dating men.

'Never say never to men!' Ciarran Stott, 26, explained on The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Monday morning that his bad-boy behaviour wasn't just reserved for females

The conversation began when radio host Kyle Sandilands cheekily quizzed: 'Do you sometimes go gay Ciarran, or are you always straight?'

The ex-army rifleman replied: 'Oh look, I did use to dance in a gay bar!'

Kyle noted: 'Dancing in a gay bar and letting men put $50 bills down your underwear is one thing, but giving them the full length is a whole new thing!'

Ciarran quipped back: 'I'd never say never, but I've never done it!'

History: The heavily-tattooed Englishman [left] addressed his past working as a stripper at a gay nightclub in Darwin as he admitted he would 'never say never' to dating men

The lothario first came clean about his raunchy stripper past at a gay Darwin nightclub during his time on The Bachelorette, last year.

He told Angie Kent: 'I used to dance in a gay bar... with, like, drag queens,' he began. 'It was carnage, but it was so much fun!'

Despite winning fans during his time on The Bachelorette, Ciarran didn't see a similarly warm response from viewers on Bachelor in Paradise.

Speaking to the So Dramatic! podcast following Sunday's finale, glamour model Kiki Morris revealed that Ciarran moved into her Sydney apartment immediately after the show.

'It was carnage, but it was so much fun!' The lothario first came clean about his raunchy stripper past at a gay Darwin nightclub during his time on The Bachelorette, last year

However, Kiki alleged Ciarran swiftly moved out without warning - despite the pair being in the midst of house hunting.

'He basically left me homeless, because I'd already put in notice on my apartment,' Kiki lamented.

'My housemate had moved out, the place we were looking to move into I couldn't afford on my own  and he just up and left,' she added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday congratulated the people of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and all those who had worked on the submarine optical fibre cable (OFC) connecting Chennai and Port Blair and said the improved connectivity in the archipelago would transform lives in the near future.

When I visited Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 2018, people complained about poor internet. A 2,300 km long submarine cable inaugurated today changes that! In quick time and challenging geographies, the cable is all set to transform lives. Kudos to those who worked on this, the Prime Minister said in a tweet.

PM Modi earlier on Monday morning inaugurated the submarine optical fibre cable connecting Chennai and Port Blair, via video conferencing. He had laid the foundation stone for this project in December 2018 at Port Blair.

Emphasising that the optical fibre cable would ensure high-speed broadband connectivity, fast mobile and landline telecom services and would also give an impetus to the local economy, the Prime Minister said, Today August 10 is a special day for my sisters and brothers of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Inauguration of the submarine Optical Fibre Cable in the islands will ensure high-speed broadband connectivity, reliable mobile and landline telecom services, delivery of e-governance, telemedicine and tele-education.

According to a release by Prime Ministers Office (PMO), the submarine cable will also connect Port Blair to Swaraj Dweep (Havelock), Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Kamorta, Great Nicobar, Long Island, and Rangat.

ALSO READ | OFC an early gift for people of Andaman-Nicobar on I-Day: PM Modi

The Prime Minister further said that the efforts of the government will establish the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago as a prominent place on the global tourist map within the next decade. The new infrastructure in Andaman and Nicobar Islands will also create employment opportunities.

Home minister Amit Shah also lauded the first undersea optical fibre project to provide high-speed internet connectivity to Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

In a series of tweets, he described it as a momentous day for the people of Andaman and Nicobar Islands after the Prime Minister inaugurated the 2,312-kilometer-long submarine optical fibre cable (OFC) connecting Port Blair, Little Andaman and Swaraj Island. Shah said the mammoth project had enormous challenges, but was completed well before its timeline.
The Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) has reiterated its earlier explanation that the Kotoka International Airport is "not for sale or being privatised" as alleged by former President John Dramani Mahama.



Rather, the Ghana Airports Company Limited says "an unsolicited proposal has been received from a Turkish Consortium which is yet to be considered. It is rather unfortunate that certain figures from the proposal are being used to peddle untruths," the GACL said in a statement in reaction a claim made by former President John Dramani Mahama in a television interview with Woezor.



Mr Mahama during the television interview at the weekend argued that giving 66 percent shares of the Kotoka Airport to private firm was wrong.



He said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was against attempts by the government to hand over 66 percent share of the Airport to TAM-SUMMA Consortium, a Turkish company.



According to him, such moves by the government are wrong and must be stopped.



The former President said while the NDC administration was in power, its valuation report showed that the airport was valued at about GH5 billion and so it is strange that the government intends to cede 66 percent of its control of the airport to the private company in exchange for $70 million.



When we were in office, a valuation study of the Kotoka Airport was done and it was valued at over GH 5 billion. It also had an insured value in the region of GH3 to GH4 billion because a lot of money had been invested in the airport and it had become one of the five best airports in Africa.



[Now we are seeing] a strange development where a Turkish company is being given the airport; to take over the airport and run it. For $70 million we are giving 66% of the airport to a Turkish company. We are against it. It is wrong, John Mahama said.









Source: graphiconline.com









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Ben Lambert / Hearst Connecticut Media

NEW HAVEN  A 17-month-old girl was in extremely critical condition after an overdose Saturday afternoon, according to police.

Capt. Anthony Duff said police responded to a Norton Street residence around 12:40 p.m. Saturday on reports of a child who had ingested adult medication.
London: Boiling tensions over last week's catastrophic explosion in Beirut have triggered the collapse of Lebanon's government and paved the way for potential elections in the crisis-plagued country.

Announcing the resignation of the entire cabinet, Hassan Diab  who took over as Prime Minister in January  blamed decades of "systemic corruption" for Tuesday's deadly blast and said he supported demands by the Lebanese people "to hold accountable those responsible".

A drone picture shows a huge crater caused by the explosion in Beirut. Credit:AP

But an angry Diab also sought to distance himself from the fallout by lashing out at Lebanon's "elite" for taking the country "to the edge of being broken".

"This disaster which has hit the Lebanese at the core occurred as a result of chronic corruption in politics, administration and the state," he said in an address to the nation.
Jefferson Parish voters will decide Saturday whether to approve the proposed sale of East Jefferson General Hospital to LCMC Health and consider two millage renewals for fire protection and solid waste disposal. There are also three runoff elections in Grand Isle, one for police chief and two for seats on the town council.

The ballot in Jefferson Parish is the busiest in the metro area. Elsewhere, voters in Mandeville will elect a new mayor, voters in Covington will decide a City Council runoff and voters in New Orleans will decide a judgeship for 1st City Court.

Jefferson Parish officials are asking voters to check with the Registrar of Voters to see whether their polling place has been moved, as precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have forced changes to the usual process.

Only East Jefferson voters will consider the proposed sale of the hospital, whose sprawling complex is on the south side of West Esplanade Avenue two blocks east of Clearview Parkway in Metairie.

LCMC Health has offered the parish $90 million for the half-century old hospital. Combined with the hospital's remaining cash reserves, that will pay off the hospital's existing debt and fully fund its pension obligations. LCMC has also vowed to make $100 million in capital improvements to the facilities over the next five years.

Parish officials for years have warned that putting parish hospitals into the hands of operators with the size and resources to run them is the only way to save them. West Jefferson Medical Center entered a long-term lease with LCMC Health in 2015 for the same reason.

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Also before voters in unincorporated East Jefferson is the renewal of the existing 25-mill property tax for the East Bank Consolidated Fire Department. This millage funds more than 90% of the total operating costs of the department, which has 10 fire stations in East Jefferson housing 10 front-line fire engines and four front-line aerial ladders and two rescue squads.

For voters throughout unincorporated Jefferson and the Town of Jean Lafitte, there will be a renewal of the existing 4-mill Solid Waste Disposal tax. This renewal covers operating costs for solid waste disposal, including storm debris collection, street sweeping, parade cleanup and landfill operations.

In Grand Isle, voters will cast ballots for incumbent Police Chief Laine Landry, a Republican, or challenger "Scooter" Resweber, a Democrat. On the council, Joel Bradberry, a Democrat, and Lan Tivet, who has no party affiliation, are running for Seat C and Leoda Bladsacker, a Democrat, and Elgene Gary, a Republican, are running for Seat E.

To find the proper polling place, register to vote and view a sample ballot, visit www.GeauxVote.com or download the GeauxVote mobile app available on iOS and Android devices.

Voters can vote by mail, though the deadline to request a mail-in ballot is Tuesday and can be done through the Louisiana Secretary of State or parish's Registrar of Voters Office, which can be reached at (504) 736-6191.

The parish has a website  www.Jeffparish.net/millages  with more information on the hospital sale and millage renewals. Voters can also visit the Louisiana Secretary of State Voter Portal at voterportal.sos.la.gov.

In Mandeville Laure Sica and Clay Madden are locked in a runoff battle to succeed the term-limited Donald Villere are mayor and Rick Smith and Steve Stokes will meet in a runoff for an open at-large post on the Covington City Council. In New Orleans, Marissa A. Hutabarat and Sara Lewis are in the runoff for the 1st City Court's Section B judgeship.
The Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) is calling on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to enforce its ban on political activities in first and second cycle schools in to protect the children from unhealthy political activities.

A statement signed by Mr Joseph Homadzi, Interim Chair of the GNECC, which was copied to the Ghana News Agency, in Accra, said partisan political activities, whether direct or indirect must be kept away from schools because it had the potential to undermine efforts to maintain discipline.

The GNECC, the statement said, condemned "the gross misconduct" of some final year students writing the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) in various parts of the country and some teachers.

While the Coalition it said, promoted the respect for the fundamental rights of children to free quality education as provided in the 1992 constitution, which was amplified in various international conventions, and the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4); it did not support riotous behaviour or any other acts of indiscipline by either students or teachers within or outside the school setting.

The statement said much as the Coalition had always championed the fundamental right to education for every Ghanaian child, particularly, the most vulnerable and marginalised, it also held the view that these same children must make the most of opportunities afforded them and understand that their rights came with commensurate responsibilities.

"In our view, instilling a sense of discipline and integrity in children is an important part of education," it said.

"The Coalition therefore, commends the swift disciplinary actions by the GES, against the students involved.

"We believe the sanctions meted out are adequate enough to deter other students from engaging in similar acts."

All culprits, the Coalition said, must face the consequences of their actions.

"That notwithstanding, as an organisation that has promoted access to quality and relevant

education for every Ghanaian child for more than 20 years, our position is that the application of sanctions should not be detrimental to the welfare and prospects of the child," it said.

"We, therefore, add our voice to calls to allow these students to complete the examinations in order to avoid losing the considerable investment of time and scarce resources in their education."

The GES, it proposed, should therefore, review its directive in accordance with the Children's Act, 1998 (Sections 2 and 13), and the principle of non-retrogression as provided in various international conventions to which the State had committed to.

"The positive discipline protocols developed by the Ghana Education Service should also serve as a guide as to the form and degree of punishment that ought to be given to the students most of whom may be first time offenders," it said.

"We also reiterate our calls for strengthening and adequately resourcing the guidance and

counselling structures in both basic and secondary schools to provide appropriate psycho-social support to those who may be having challenges with their studies."

The statement said parents were also critical stakeholders in education and played an essential role in shaping the child's character.

The Coalition, therefore, urged parents to take more active roles in instilling positive values in children and not leave the responsibility entirely to schools.

"Education is a shared responsibility and every stakeholder must play their role to ensure proper development of the country's human resources," it said.

---GNA
Summary: New research suggests that education provides little to no protection against the onset of cognitive declines later in life. It can, however, boost the cognitive skills people develop earlier in life, pushing back the point at which age-related dementia begins to impact a persons ability to care for themselves.

Investing time in education in childhood and early adulthood expands career opportunities and provides progressively higher salaries. It also conveys certain benefits to health and longevity.

A new analysis published in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest (PSPI), however, reveals that even though a more extensive formal education forestalls the more obvious signs of age-related cognitive deficits, it does not lessen the rate of aging-related cognitive declines. Instead, people who have gone further in school attain, on average, a higher level of cognitive function in early and middle adult adulthood, so the initial effects of cognitive aging are initially less obvious and the most severe impairments manifest later than they otherwise would have.

The total amount of formal education that people receive is related to their average levels of cognitive functioning throughout adulthood, said Elliot M. Tucker-Drob, a researcher with the University of Texas, Austin, and coauthor on the paper. However, it is not appreciably related to their rates of aging-related cognitive declines.

Video News Release: Schooling Is Critical for Cognitive Health Throughout Life

This conclusion refutes the long-standing hypothesis that formal education in childhood through early adulthood meaningfully protects against cognitive aging. Instead, the authors conclude that individuals who have gone further in school tend to decline from a higher peak level of cognitive function. They therefore can experience a longer period of cognitive impairment before dropping below what the authors refer to as a functional threshold, the point where cognitive decline becomes so obvious that it interferes with daily activities.

Individuals vary in their rates of aging-related cognitive declines, but these individual differences are not appreciably related to educational attainment, notes lead author Martin Lovden, formerly with the Karolinska Institute and Stockholm University in Sweden and now with the University of Gothenburg.

For their study, the researchers examined data from dozens of prior meta-analyses and cohort studies conducted over the past two decades. The new PSPI report evaluates the conclusions from these past studies to better understand how educational attainment affects both the levels of and changes in cognitive function in aging and dementia.

Individuals vary in their rates of aging-related cognitive declines, but these individual differences are not appreciably related to educational attainment. Martin Lovden [University of Gothenburg]

Although some uncertainties remain after their analysis, the authors note, a broader picture of how education relates to cognitive aging is emerging quite clearly. Throughout adulthood, cognitive function in individuals with more years of schooling is, on average, higher than cognitive function in those with fewer years of schooling.

This review highlights the importance of formal education for cognitive development over the course of childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. According to the researchers, childhood education has important implications for the well-being of individuals and societies not just during the years of employment, but throughout life, including old age. This message may be particularly relevant as governments decide if, when, and how to reopen schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such decisions could have consequences for many decades to come, said Tucker-Drob.

The authors conclude that improving the conditions that shape development during the first decades of life carries great potential for improving cognitive ability in early adulthood and for reducing public-health burdens related to cognitive aging and dementia.

# # #

# # #

APS is the leading international organization dedicated to advancing scientific psychology across disciplinary and geographic borders. Our members provide a richer understanding of the world through their research, teaching, and application of psychological science. We are passionate about supporting psychological scientists in these pursuits, which we do by sharing cutting-edge research across all areas of the field through our journals and conventions; promoting the integration of scientific perspectives within psychological science and with related disciplines; fostering global connections among our members; engaging the public with our research to promote broader understanding and awareness of psychological science; and advocating for increased support for psychological science in the public policy arena.

Published three times per year by the Association for Psychological Science, Psychological Science in the Public Interest (PSPI) is a unique journal featuring comprehensive and compelling reviews of issues that are of direct relevance to the general public. These reviews are written by blue-ribbon teams of specialists representing a range of viewpoints and are intended to assess the current state-of-the-science with regard to the topic. Among other things, PSPI reports have challenged the validity of the Rorschach and other projective tests, have explored opioid addiction, how to keep the aging brain sharp, and have documented problems with the current state of clinical psychology. All PSPI reports are freely available to the public via the APS website. This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

The article, Education and Cognitive Functioning Across the Life Span is available free of charge here:

https://journals.sagepub.com/stoken/default+domain/10.1177%2F1529100620920576-FREE/pdf

Lovden, M., et al, (2020) Education and Cognitive Functioning Across the Life Span. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100620920576.
SSLC Result 2020 Karnataka DECLARED| The Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) on Friday announced an overall pass percentage of 71.8 percent for its Class 10 exams.

SSLC Result 2020 Karnataka DECLARED| The Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) on Friday announced an overall pass percentage of 71.8 percent for its Class 10 exams.

Of the 8,11,050 students who appeared for the SSLC exams this year, 5,82,316 have cleared it. The pass percentage saw a drop of nearly two percent from 2019's 73.7 percent. Girls handily outperformed boys this year with a pass percentage of 77.74 compared to just 66.41 percent.

The results are now available online on official websites karresults.nic.in or kseeb.kar.nic.in.

Follow LIVE updates on Karnataka SSLC results 2020

All students, across 1,550 schools, cleared the SSLC exams. Sixty-two schools saw no students passing the exams.A total of 2,28,734 students failed SSLC 2020 board exams, The Times of India reported. State primary and secondary education minister Suresh Kumar S announced that supplementary exam dates will be declared in two days. Students who could not take exams due to coronavirus can appear as fresh candidates.

The SSLC exams, which were slated to be held from 27 March to 9 April, had to be postponed due to coroanvirus and and were conducted between 25 June and 4 July. The examination for English paper of Pre-University Course (PUC) was held on 18 June.

Last year, the results were announced on 30 April.

Students can visit both the websites by following the steps mentioned below to check their scores online.

How to check results on official website:

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

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.
The time has come to help the helpers.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/8/2020 (527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Editorial

The time has come to help the helpers.

As the demand for their programs and services is skyrocketing, Canadas charities and non-profit organizations are facing a bleak future.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Skepticism created by the WE contract controversy could affect charitable giving.

Their donation streams  often the sole source of revenue for smaller charities  are drying up because of the economic nightmare unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in June, Imagine Canada, a charities support organization, estimated the projected financial losses for registered charities alone to be between $9.5 billion and $15.7 billion.

"We are writing to express our deep and growing concern that the federal government has yet to propose policies or assistance aimed at helping charities and non-profits face COVID-19," Imagine Canada CEO and president Bruce MacDonald said in the letter.

In the charitable sector, which employs 10 per cent of Canadas full-time workforce, one in five organizations has either suspended operations or ceased programs as a result of the pandemic, according to Imagine Canadas "Sector Monitor" report.

The report also found that compared to the recession of 2008, twice as many charities have seen a negative impact on their bottom line as a result of COVID-19, with more than two-thirds reporting at least a 31 per cent drop in revenues.

The crisis has only been worsened by the ongoing WE Charity scandal over that groups now-aborted deal with the federal government to run a $543.5-million program to pay students for volunteer work. The deal with the charity was cancelled on July 3 amid conflict-of-interest allegations involving the prime minister and finance minister.

Charities fear donors will pull back on giving money or volunteering their time, because trust is being eroded as more questionable details about the WE organizations complicated structure emerge. And in the charitable sector, trust is paramount.

At the end of last month, the Ontario government announced it would be cutting ties with WE Charity amid the mounting controversy, raising fears governments will hesitate to partner with other charities over political concerns.

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Charities are changing the way they operate, but survival is exceptionally difficult when revenues are plummeting, demand and costs are increasing, and operating models that rely on large gatherings are thrown into chaos.

The Christian think tank Cardus has called on the federal government to match all donations made to Canadian charities on a one-to-one basis for four months, capping the federal amount at $1.25 billion. When married with the donations made directly to charities, it would mean up to a $2.5-billion injection of cash to the charity sector.

"But the government needs to act now if it wants to help charities big and small not only survive COVID-19, but thrive after the crisis is over," Cardus executive Brian Dijkema told Canadian Catholic News.

Charities and non-profit agencies have been referred to as the glue that helps to hold the fabric of Canadian society together. Many, such as pet rescue shelters, operate on shoestring budgets, with teams of passionate, albeit overworked, employees and volunteers.

They provide programs and services that governments cannot  or will not  offer to those in need. Its not just that Canadians want these organizations to be up and running after the pandemic is brought under control; we need them to be there.

One thing is clear: if charities are to continue their essential work at the end of this crisis, they are going to need a little charity from us while it continues to rage.
COVID-19 Case, Exposure, or Symptom Reporting

Beginning Jan. 3, 2022, COVID-19 symptoms or positive test results should no longer be reported to assesscovid@usf.edu as this inbox will be retired. Anyone with symptoms or who may have been exposed should get tested. Positive test results will be communicated by the testing site to the Florida Department of Health (FDOH). Similar to other infectious diseases, FDOH will only contact the university if they believe any particular measures need to be taken to mitigate the spread of the virus.

Students with symptoms or who test positive are encouraged to seek medical attention from Student Health Services (Tampa campus) or the Wellness Center (St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee campuses). Any student testing positive should notify their professors immediately. Faculty are encouraged to accommodate ill students as best they can. Employees testing positive or who are directly exposed to a positive case should notify their supervisors immediately. Please contact your HR department to discuss available leave options. Additional guidance is available through USF HR.

When faculty members or supervisors are informed of a positive case, they do not need to take further action, such as reporting that information to a central university source, because it will already have been shared with the Florida Department of Health at the time of the positive test result. However, USF Human Resources is available to assist supervisors or employees navigate related issues, such as sick leave or administrative leave policies.
When the coronavirus first surged across the planet, the World Health Organisation urged nations to "test, test, test" their citizens for the presence of COVID-19. But inevitably during a pandemic, every nation will be tested too. Australias biggest test  socially, economically, politically  has just begun thanks to the situation in Victoria.

Can we hold together? The signs are not promising, if the Victorian experience is anything to go by. It is a cautionary example of what can happen when a government falters at a time when fear nestles in a corner of every mind and drives public policy.

To an extent, the heat that Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has been getting has been fair enough. Credit:Justin McManus

Back when the first restrictions came into force during the autumn, there was a genuine sense of a shared burden, of boring in and getting it done. The community accepted the need to put up with the inconvenience and discomfort to get it over with.

Victorias secondary outbreak has not inspired the same feeling of unity inside or outside the state. As Melbourne moved into stage four lockdown last week, a local festival celebrating a culture of complaint got into full swing.
Photo: (Photo : Screenshot from Instagram)

There are probably a million baby shower ideas. All of which intends families to share the joy of having a newborn baby to their relatives and friends.

However, because of the coronavirus pandemic, most baby shower ideas are thrown out the window mainly because ideas that involve gathering in a small space is highly discouraged.

That is why a company thought of the idea that would make most baby shower ideas during the coronavirus pandemic a little lame: through a glass-sided truck!

READ ALSO: Gender Reveal Party Gone Wrong: Dad Leaves After Knowing He's Having Another Daughter





The "Baby Cabin"

The concept of the baby cabin is from an entrepreneur in Mexico. Using this baby shower idea, friends and relatives can see the baby and the parents, but they practice social distancing measures.

Parents may rent the baby cabin for the baby shower. The glass-sided truck will be delivered to the site of the baby shower. While the parents are inside the glass-sided vehicle, friends and relatives can drive by or walk while waving at their families and their newborn babies.

READ ALSO: Social Distancing Practice: Drive-Thru Baby Shower





Social distancing and other health safety measures

Since the family and their visitors are technically not close enough to transmit the virus, the baby cabin follows the social distancing protocols.

In terms of other health safety measures, the baby cabin is cleaned thoroughly by the company. That is to ensure that the coronavirus will not be transmitted to the next families that will also use the baby cabin.

READ ALSO: 5 baby shower ideas for moms-to-be [that are different from the last one you attended]





The owner of the baby cabin company said in an interview with Reuters, "After that the closest relatives are able to get down from their vehicles, such as the godparents, grandparents, and while social distancing they are able to get close to the window."

The baby cabin can be rented for 40 dollars an hour. As of writing, the company is only offering this service in Mexico.

Other baby shower ideas

In the United States, during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, families have already tried having baby showers. Some of them had a surprise drive-thru baby shower.

Aside from these baby shower ideas, families also opt to have virtual baby showers. This way, everyone is entirely safe from contracting the coronavirus.

READ ALSO: The Inessentials: What Parents Should Not Put In the Newborn Baby Gift Registry [Item No. 7 Might Come as A Shock]
They are one of the showbiz world's most beloved couples who began their romance in January 2016.

And Stacey Solomon left her followers in hysterics as she shut down the possibility of an intimate rendezvous with her partner, Joe Swash, on Monday due to the heatwave.

The Loose Women panellist, 30, turned down her acting beau, 38, and his evening plans and said she was more than happy to swap lovemaking for a cold shower.

'It's not going to happen': Stacey Solomon rejected the possibility of a night of passion on Monday with her partner Joe Swash due to the sweltering British heat

She spent her Monday making oat bars and spending time with her three children, meanwhile her partner Joe performed household tasks.

Her Eastenders beau was busy cleaning the windows which Stacey previously claimed was a massive turn-on.

She reacted to his house cleaning duties with: 'Don't know what he's playing at this evening...' accompanied by a laughing emoji.

Oh dear: The Loose Women panellist, 30, turned down her acting beau, 38, and his evening plans and said she was more than happy to swap lovemaking for a cold shower

Before Joe had time to put his plan into action, she confirmed that a steamy sex session was definitely off the cards.

She added: 'It's not going to happen. Not in this sweltering heat,' accompanied by a series of laughing emojis to soften the blow.

The British weather caught up with Stacey as she admitted later on in the day that it was too hot to handle.

Turn off: Stacey previously admitted that she finds it a turn on when Joe cleans the windows, but it didn't have the same affect on Monday as she shut down his wooing efforts

On Instagram she said: 'I don't know what's wrong with me, I usually love the warm weather but it's so sticky in here it's making me feel sick.'

During another amusing Instagram video, she put her hand on her head and said to the camera: 'I can't take it, I'm having a cold shower.'

Joe cheekily responded: 'Oh, I'll jump in with you please.'

Stacey laughed off his remark, 'maybe you need a cold shower,' and her beau continued his innuendo with his response, 'maybe we both need a cold shower!'

Soaring temperatures: The TV presenter said she struggled to cope with the scorching British heat and took a lie down outside her Essex home with her 14-month-old son Rex

Much to Joe's disappointment, the TV presenter ultimately had her shower alone.

Stacey spent the rest of her day completing mom duties at their Essex home and was seen cuddling their 14-month old son, Rex, on the grass.

She is also the mother to Zachary, 12, and Leighton, eight, from her previous relationships.

Joe is also the father to Harry Swash, 13, who he shares with his ex-partner Emma Sophocleous.
University of Georgia staff and students staged a 'die-in' demonstration last week in protest of the school's re-opening plans.

Fifty students, plus faculty members, played dead six feet apart from one another outside the office of the university's president, Jere W. Morehead, to send a message that they were dissatisfied with the rules and structure set up for the beginning of the university's fall semester on August 20.

Holding up signs and tombstones made out of cardboard, the protesters demanded mask requirements, remote learning, and free COVID-19 pandemic  while warning that people will die if the school re-opens as planned.

Symbolism: University of Georgia staff and students staged a 'die-in' demonstration last week in protest of the school's re-opening plans

Fifty students, plus faculty members, played dead six feet apart from one another outside the office of the university's president

Demonstration: Holding up signs and tombstones made out of cardboard, the protesters demanded mask requirements, remote learning, and free COVID-19 pandemic

Mix: The university's re-opening next week will involve some in-person classes, some online-only classes, and some classes with a mix of in-person and online sessions

The university's re-opening next week will involve a mix of learning types, with some in-person classes, some online-only classes, and some classes with a mix of in-person and online sessions.

Masks are only required indoors.

But the United Campus Workers of Georgia, a higher education union, says that's not good enough, and has started a petition to demand more safety measures.

The petition, which has garnered more than 12,000 signatures, demands that masks be provided and required for all of the campus community, and that no student or faculty member will be required to attend face-to-face instruction.

'There will be no penalty, either subtle or overt, for requesting online-only engagement in the Fall,' the petition reads.

It also demands that free and comprehensive testing be made available.

Taking a stand: The United Campus Workers of Georgia, a higher education union, says that's not good enough, and has started a petition to demand more safety measures

Signed: The petition has more than 12,000 signatures and demands that masks required, and that no student or faculty member will be required to attend face-to-face instruction

Statement: Playing dead on the lawn, the protesters held up signs with messages like 'RIP Campus Safety,' and 'We are not dispensable'

To further make their point, the United Campus Workers of Georgia also organized Thursday's protest.

Playing dead on the lawn, the protesters held up signs with messages like 'RIP Campus Safety,' and 'We are not dispensable,' and 'How many dawgs will die,' references the school's mascot, the Bulldogs.'

Others seen in photos read 'I cant teach when Im dead,' 'How many will UGA let die?' 'When I said I was dying to get back to my classroom, I didnt mean it literally,' and 'How do we fit "grieving our community members" into the syllabus?'

'Students learn more when they're alive,' read another. 'Allow remote learning.'

'We wanted to show that students, faculty and staff are very concerned with what we feel are inadequate plans from the university,' Bryant Barnes, a graduate student and teaching assistant who participated in the protest, told Yahoo.

'We wanted to show that students, faculty and staff are very concerned with what we feel are inadequate plans from the university,' Bryant Barnes, a graduate student (not pictured) said

Danger: Signs warned that students and staff may die if they are expected to resume classes on campus instead of sticking to remote learning

One sign read: 'How do we fit "grieving our community members" into the syllabus?'

HAPPENING NOW: @universityofga students and staff hold unique die-in in protest of schools planned fall reopening. #UGA pic.twitter.com/t5fjWhZiBb  CBS46 (@cbs46) August 6, 2020

'As a teacher, I am upset that we are not allowed to make our own decisions about effective ways of teaching,' added English Professor Sujata Iyengar, who also attended. 'No one is saying to close the school  but we need a cleaner air system and better screening and backup plans [when people get sick.]'

Protesters have other requests, too, including hazard pay for employees who cannot work remotely and paid leave for employees who must quarantine.

The school, however, has no plans to allow or remote learning for all students.

'Under the circumstances and given our mission to educate students, it is not practical or prudent to allow individual employees to decide whether to work from home or campus,' UGA president Morehead said, according to the Athens Herald-Banner.

'In order to plan for and deliver the high-quality educational experience our students expect and deserve, and to be fair to all employees, the University must apply consistent standards for work schedules.'

Demands: Protesters have other requests, too, including hazard pay for employees who cannot work remotely and paid leave for employees who must quarantine

Prep: A spokesperson for the university said that preparations for the fall semester began in April

Cases: Georgia has had a total of 216,596 COVID-19 cases, with 3,169 new cases recorded on Sunday

A spokesperson for the university said that preparations for the fall semester began in April, and the school 'is deeply committed to the health and safety of students, faculty and staff, and continues to follow COVID-19 guidance from the Georgia Department of Public Health and the CDC.'

Some schools, including Princeton University, have switched to remote-only learning for the fall 2020 semester, but the majority seem to be doing some combination of remote and in-person classes.

Georgia, however, is currently seeing a coronavirus spike, and has had a total of 216,596 COVID-19 cases, with 3,169 new cases recorded on Sunday.

It has the fifth-highest recorded cases of any state, following California, New York, Florida, and Texas.

The state also has had 4,108 confirmed deaths so far.
But there is no requirement that provides to members of the public, the victims families or communities across Virginia, either the sentence for which [an inmate] is being paroled, the crimes they committed or the reason they are being granted parole, Obenshain said. And I would respectfully submit that those are some of the things that need to be addressed and likely they will be floated.

The lawmakers have already called for all five members of the parole board to resign or be fired and for the governor to revoke Martins parole and take him into custody until the parole process can begin again, this time with proper adherence to the Code of Virginia and Parole Board policies.

The Republican leadership succeeded in compelling the inspector generals office, after it consulted with the parole board and Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, to release an uncensored copy of the IGs report to them, which they in turn released publicly last week.

A heavily redacted copy of the report, with all its findings stricken, was provided July 29 to several media outlets that requested it.
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YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Institute of Molecular Biology has already produced and supplied more than 47,000 COVID-19 test kits to health authorities and the manufacturing process is proceeding normally, Director Arsen Arakelyan told ARMENPRESS.

As planned, we are working within the framework of producing 2000 tests a day, he said. In case of necessity we can produce even more.

Arakelyan said all pre-production trials were successful and the tests had an accuracy of 98% at the time of commencing production. No problems associated with the quality were reported so far, he said.

Before the production was launched, the potential export of the test kits was being discussed. Arakelyan says this requires certification and lengthy registration phase, which in turn requires legislative regulation. He reminded that his institute is not a production company.

Our production of these tests is a one-time activity, aimed at assisting our country in the coronavirus response. As a scientific organization we delivered the result, while the respective companies ought to carry out the continuation. I would really want for Armenian companies to be able to use our experience in the future and advance the work in industrial-scale, because this is outside our circle, we are doing scientific research, Arakelyan said, adding that he has noticed some interest from businesses, which, however, are still on-standby waiting to see the outcome.

We hope that in the future the government will utilize the scientific communitys knowledge and opportunities more widely for resolving different issues.

Speaking about reforms in the scientific sector, Arakelian pointed out increase of funding to be the expectation of the area.

We will have stronger science and greater possibilities in the event of more funding, he said, adding that young people are also displaying interest in science careers. What matters are the conditions and possibilities in order for this interest not to fade away. Young people must be given possibilities for them to be involved in research, trials. You cant keep young peoples attention solely with lectures.

Reporting by Anna Gziryan; Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
- John Regala has been making headlines in the past few weeks after he revealed his health and financial problems

- The veteran actor also went viral after a 24-year-old man named John Santos claimed that he is a child of the actor

- Both Regala and Santos have undergone DNA testing to finally know if they are truly father and son, according to PUSH

- However, the result of the DNA testing has not yet been released, as of this writing

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John Regala (Screenshot from Raffy Tulfo's YouTube video)

Source: Facebook

John Regala has been one of the hottest topics on the internet in the past few weeks after he revealed his health and financial problems.

He also went viral after a 24-year-old man named John Santos claimed that he is a child of the actor.

Santos told Raffy Tulfo on his program that his mother Vilma and the actor met and fell in love with each other in Japan.

However, Regala said that he does not know Santos mother and that the person he fell in love with in Japan is a woman named Victoria Alonzo.

PAY ATTENTION: Shop with KAMI! The best offers and discounts on the market, product reviews and feedback

According to a new report by PUSH (authored by Leo Bukas), both Regala and Santos have undergone DNA testing to finally know if they are truly father and son.

In a past episode of Tulfos show, the host said that he was willing to pay for the DNA testing to learn the truth.

As of this writing, the result of the DNA testing has not yet been released, according to the said report from PUSH.

Here is the past episode of Tulfo's show featuring Regala and Santos:

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John Regala, or John Paul Guido Boucher Scherrer in real life, is a former actor in the Philippines. He is known for portraying antagonist roles in many movies.

In March this year, he appealed for help from Kapamilya superstar Coco Martin and television networks.

The former action star also asked the public for any kind of assistance amid the difficult situation that he is in. John Regala also told Raffy Tulfo that his family allegedly left him behind due to his health and financial issues.

Please like and share our amazing Facebook posts to support the KAMI team! Dont hesitate to comment and share your opinions about our stories either. We love reading about your thoughts and views on different matters!

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South Australian senator Rex Patrick has blindsided Centre Alliance colleagues by walking out of the party almost three years after he was gifted a plum seat in Federal Parliament.

Senator Patrick announced on Monday he would represent his state as an independent, ending a powerful South Australian voting bloc that was a legacy of long-time Senate crossbencher Nick Xenophon.

Former Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick will run as an independent at the next federal election. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

His former colleagues, Stirling Griff and Rebekha Sharkie, learned of his decision on Sunday, with Senator Griff saying it was "disappointing" and a "self-marketing move".

"He has been running his own race for a while now, but his actions have effectively removed a powerful voting bloc that has achieved a remarkable amount for South Australia," Senator Griff said.
CatholicVote demands Biden speak out against church attacks, leading Dems hate-filled rhetoric

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A conservative Catholic group has called on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to publicly denounce attacks on Catholic churches as well as the fueling of a climate of hate against Catholics by prominent members of his party.

Referring to arson-related church fires, desecration of sacred symbols and statues by extremist mobs and to the hate-filled rhetoric of leading members of the Democratic Party, CatholicVote said in a statement that Biden, a baptized Catholic, has a responsibility and duty to Catholics to publicly condemn these attacks.

Catholic churches across America are literally burning, and Joe Biden has said nothing, CatholicVote President Brian Burch said. Leading members of the Democratic Party have fueled a climate of hate against Catholics, and these attacks have now led to acts of vandalism and violence. These attacks on the Church raise serious questions about the commitment of Joe Biden, a self-professed Catholic, to stand up to the rising climate of anti-Catholicism across the country.

Former congressman and CatholicVote Senior Political Adviser Tim Huelskamp said the growing anti-Catholic rampage offends all good and decent Catholics.

Joe Bidens deafening silence during this hate-filled epidemic speaks loudly of his consent to this shocking assault on our religious freedoms, he added.

Last month, two Catholic churches were set on fire while statues of the Virgin Mary in major cities across the U.S. were defaced.

In the New York City borough of Queens, a vandal targeted a statue of the Virgin Mary located at Cathedral Prep School and Seminary.

CatholicVote says it plans to reach over 5 million active Catholics in battleground states during this election cycle.

President Donald Trump recently said that Biden is against God. In response, Biden's campaign released a statement to supporters, labeling the remarks as shameful.

Like so many people, my faith has been the bedrock foundation of my life: its provided me comfort in moments of loss and tragedy, its kept me grounded and humbled in times of triumph and joy, said Biden through his campaign.

Last month, more than 100 Christian pastors and pro-life academics and advocates called on the Democratic National Committee to recognize the inviolable human dignity of the child, before and after birth, and adopt a party platform thats friendlier to those who are pro-life.

We urge the Democratic Party to embrace policies that protect both women and children: legal protection for pre-born children, improved prenatal care for women in need, especially women of color, alternatives to abortion, and a comprehensive culture of life free from violence, poverty and racism, the letter said.

Last year, Biden reversed his decades-long support for restricting federal funding of abortions, according to The Associated Press, which quoted him as saying at the time: Just as Ive never attempted to impose my views on anyone else as to when life begins, I have never attempted to impose my view on who should pay for it.

Steven Krueger, president of the nonprofit Catholic Democrats, warned at the time that the far left wing of the party has had an influence on a number of issues, particularly on the issue of abortion, that is not going to serve candidates well once theyre in the general election.
While many have been fighting for the continued and very existence of Nairobi National Park, we are also aware that there are many out there who salivate when they see any open space.

They consider every open space occupied by trees, plants, and innocent silent creatures as empty land and waste of space.

READ ALSO: Beki kisiki wa Gor Mahia, Joash Onyango aondoka Kogalo na kuyoyomea Tanzania

Entrance to Nairobi National Park. Photo: Safarilink

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Nairobi woman quit marriage after learning husband was garbage collector, not airport employee

It is clear that they slept through both Geography and Biology lessons in school.

Since Nairobi National Park (NNP) debate is once again a hot topic and we have your attention allow me to pen my thoughts.

Firstly not every single open space has to have human settlement, besides man has been ruthless globally to evict other mammals and at the same time destroy what mother nature gave us. The universe is not just about man.

Nairobi county's size is just about 700Sqkm while the greater Nairobi i.e Kiambu, parts of Murang'a, parts of Kajiado and Machakos counties can easily scale up to 20,000Sqkm.

On the other hand, NNP is only 117 sqkm which is a drop in the ocean, even if we were to surrender NNP for human settlement it will never quench the hunger for land.

READ ALSO: NASA coalition is dead - Raila

It was originally called the Southern Conservation Reserve and that got whittled and whittled until we were left with 117 km.

The park is not your ordinary piece of land. It is home to over 300 species of birds and if we add migratory ones we can hit the 500 mark.

They equally have a right to live and the right to exist which is very clear in all holy books be it The Bible, The Quran, The Gita etc.

It was originally Maasai land including what is current Nairobi city.

We have communities around NNP that still allow animals on their land since NNP is also a grazing area for herbivores in the dry season as they migrate along the Athi Kapiti plains.

I must salute the Masai community who have always balanced their way of life and survival of the animals.

READ ALSO: Martha Karua says Jubilee gov't has collapsed

Many of us don't even know a simple fact that a Masai would never touch bush meat let alone eat it.

The park is also a big rhino sanctuary haven where they get relocated to other conservancies in Kenya.

Rhino is seriously endangered and anyone who does not get that has no business to discuss NNP.

Most, 80% of corporate, business and meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) visitors to Nairobi end up visiting NNP and it also headquarters of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the people who look after our fauna and flora.

It is a serious education centre for our children to learn about conservation, besides NNP idea was mooted in 1917 and gazetted by people who were visionary way before Kenya was born.

Well we can still take NNP and make it a human settlement, will that solve our problem with congestion?

READ ALSO: Makueni, West Pokot ranked happiest counties in Kenya

If we failed to deliver on many other fronts on 20,000+ Sqkm then some 110Sqkm will not solve our problem.

I even came across a letter by some Kenyans in the diaspora who go by the name "Parents in USA" who support the same warped thoughts of annexing NNP or even reduce it to some useless zoo.

These parents in USA, maybe, they can start a campaign to convert all available recreational parks in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and many other cities across USA and turn them into some concrete jungle.

Going by their view then Central park in the heart of New York, a congested city, would be better off as an extension of the concrete jungle as opposed it to being used by sun-worshipping sunbathers who pour out into the park at the slightest sign of the sun and the many "idlers" who just waste time doing nothing.

If it was their wish then Uhuru park will be gone and Karura is useless to have.

Lastly, we take our clean air for granted. The day you land in Mumbai or Guangzhou and many other cities globally is when you will appreciate what these natural open areas do for our health.

Many other parts of the world we have people who have never seen stars and they marvel when they come to Africa. Thanks to smog and light pollution they see nothing.

The park is part of the lungs that serve Nairobi city including many who see nothing but some 10050 plots.

Finally, to anyone who harbors thoughts to annex NNP, sorry, it is not vacant it has its owners: It is home for beautiful creatures created by the same God who created you and gave you a slightly more superior brainpower.

Please think and think hard.

The writer is Mohammed Hersi, a regular commentator on social, political and economic issues and chairman of the Kenya Toursin Federation.

The views expressed in this opinion piece are his and do not necessarily represent the position of TUKO Media ltd in anyway.

We welcome writers, bloggers, photographers and all sorts of noise makers to become a part of our Blog network Send your opinion, story or both to news@tuko.co.ke.

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A Mexican teacher is being called 'wonderful' and an 'angel' for turning her pickup truck into an on-the-go classroom and visiting students with autism at their homes.

Identified only as Nay, the elementary school teacher in Apaseo el Alto, Guanajuato, has gone the extra mile  literally  to help her autistic students with their school work during the pandemic.

With her school closed, Nay refused to let those kids fall behind, and drives two hours every day to visit kids who don't have access to books or the internet to make sure they keep on top of their schoolwork.

Incredible: A Mexican teacher is being called 'wonderful' and an 'angel' for turning her pickup truck into an on-the-go classroom and visiting students with autism at their homes

Work from home: She and the students wear masks and use hand sanitizer for the in-person class sessions

The photo of Nay, which was taken by a student's mother, went viral after it was shared on Twitter.

'In Mexico, school was cancelled because of the pandemic. This teacher turned her pickup truck into a portable classroom,' user Akki wrote. 'She drives two hours a day to teach children with autism who don't have books or access to the internet.'

In the image, Nay sits in the back of a red pickup trick, wearing a mask. She has a small table and chairs set up, and a single student  also wearing a mask  is going over an assignment with her.

The tweet earned thousands of likes, and even a retweet by Kim Kardashian, who commented with a heart.

Message: In response to those who have praised her, Nay insisted that all teachers put in extra effort for their students  and that's it's really a 24/7 job

According to Quien, Nay explained that she works at a regular school with students who have disabilities and is always thinking about how to improve as a teacher.

On that particular day, she was performing an evaluation 'to really know how this pandemic was affecting [the students'] learning, since they are the most vulnerable.'

She also wanted to 'know how they feel ... because this has not been easy for anyone.'

She maintained safety measures, too, not just wearing masks but constantly cleaning the table and providing hand sanitizer to the kids when they got on the truck and left.

Viral: Twitter users are calling her a 'hero' and an 'angel,' and even Kim Kardashian responded with a heart emoji

In response to those who have praised her, Nay insisted that all teachers put in extra effort for their students  and that's it's really a 24/7 job.

And the praise certainly has poured in.

'God bless this women,' wrote one admirer. 'Shout out to all those who go the extra mile to help those in need. This is exactly what humanity is all about, something we should all learn from one another.'

'Teachers DESERVE TO BE PAID WAY MORE THAN THEY ARE PAID,' said another. 'They spend more time with other peoples children than the children spend with their own families.'

Yet another pointed out why it was especially sweet that this teacher is doing so much for her special education students.

'Due to restricted/repetitive behaviors of kids in the spectrum isnt easy to modify teaching conditions to them so what this teacher is doing is extremely valuable, pure Love. Autism is a complex developmental condition that involves many challenges, learning is only one of them,' he said.

Devoted: Florida first grade teacher Katie Ricca sat in a student's driveway to read to her and chat after the student became sad during the pandemic

Y'all... Seven-year-old Hannah's mom Kelley Close shared the heartwarming image on Facebook

Nay certainly has one thing right  there are a lot of teachers going above and beyond to connect with and help their students during the pandemic.

In April, first grade teacher Katie Ricca in Panama City, Florida turned up at her student Hannah's house when she realized that the normally upbeat seven-year-old had been 'sad' and withdrawn.

Boundless love: Ricca has five kids of her own, whom she is homeschooling, and still holds Zoom classes and story time for her regular students

Ricca, who teaches at North Bay Haven Charter Academy left her own five kids at home to pay Hannah a visit, sitting outside with the youngster on her front lawn to read her books and keep her engaged.

Hannah's mom Kelley Close shared a photo of the sweet moment on Facebook.

'Hannah's class has a Zoom session each evening,' she wrote.'Last night she got really sad and kinda shut down. Today her teacher came over and hung out for a bit. They chatted, read books, and just talked.

This woman has FIVE kids at home and STILL she sat in my driveway for an hour to make sure Hannah was okay. Y'all...'

Speaking to GMA, she added that the generous teacher read several books, talked about the chalk drawings around them, and discussed feelings.

'She reminded Hannah that it's OK to get bummed out every now and then, it's OK to chill out and it's even OK to cry about it if we need to,' she said. 'She reminded Hannah that even though we're separated, we're all going through the same thing at the same time.

'With all the craziness in our world right now, these are the things I want to remember about this time.'
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The World Health Organization insisted Monday there was still hope of conquering the coronavirus pandemic despite the suffering behind the looming landmarks of 750,000 deaths and 20 million cases.

With both figures expected to be reached within days, the WHO stressed it was never too late to take action to suppress the COVID-19 crisis that has gripped the planet.

"This week we'll reach 20 million registered cases of COVID-19 and 750,000 deaths," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference.

"Behind these statistics is a great deal of pain and suffering. Every life lost matters. I know many of you are grieving and that this is a difficult moment for the world.

"But I want to be clear: there are green shoots of hope and... it's never too late to turn the outbreak around."

Tedros gave examples of countries that had successfully clamped down on the spread of COVID-19, citing New Zealand and Rwanda, and praised nations that had suffered major national outbreaks and were now responding quickly to local spikes.

"My message is crystal clear: suppress, suppress, suppress the virus," he said.

"If we suppress the virus effectively, we can safely open up societies."

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 731,500 people and infected nearly 19.9 million worldwide since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Monday.

Vaccine rush

The race to produce a safe and effective vaccine is well under way at unprecedented speed.

A total of 165 candidate vaccines are being worked on around the world, according to a WHO overview.

Of those, 139 are still in pre-clinical evaluation, while the other 26 are in the various phases of being tested on humans, of which six are the furthest ahead, having reached Phase 3 of clinical evaluation.

However, WHO health emergencies programme director Michael Ryan said that finding a vaccine would not automatically spell the end for COVID-19.

"We have perfectly effective polio and measles vaccines, and we still struggle to eradicate or eliminate those diseases," the Irish epidemiologist said.

"Having an effective vaccine is only part of the answer. You've got to be able to deliver that vaccine to a population that want and demand to have that vaccine."

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's COVID-19 technical lead, said experts did not yet have an answer as to whether people infected with one of the four globally-circulating common cold coronaviruses had some level of protection against the new coronavirus.

Outsmarting the enemy

Scientists think COVID-19 originated in bats and could have been transmitted to humans via another mammal.

Ryan said that adding billions to the global population, living in densely-packed conditions and exploiting the environment was fostering the conditions needed for diseases to jump species from animals to humans.

"We are actively creating the pressures that are driving the breaches of those barriers. We need to do better at managing the risks associated with that," he said.

Ryan said the virus it was "brutal in its simplicity and its cruelty but it doesn't have a brain".

He said humanity could therefore outsmart it "but we're not doing such a great job right now".

Van Kerkhove said the goal of the new coronavirus was to "make more virus" and find individuals to pass between without killing too many of its hosts and thereby ending its chances of transmission.

The US expert said it could be beaten with the "very unsophisticated" measures available now, such as physical distancing, regular handwashing, wearing facemasks and respiratory etiquette.

"Everybody on the planet needs to understand they have a role to play," she said.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

 2020 AFP
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has asked companies that store ammonium nitrate to be mindful of accepted safety protocols.

The EPAs notice comes after a stockpile ammonium nitrate detonated in the capital of Lebanon, Beirut, last week Tuesday.

In a statement, it directed all concerned in the storage, handling and use of ammonium nitrate, to ensure that all safety requirements and protocols are strictly adhered to and the general public is advised to keep away from such storage areas.

The EPA added that it has taken immediate steps to ensure that all known designated storage areas of Ammonium Nitrate in Ghana are audited to ensure that safety and stringent storage practices are enhanced.

More than 200 people are believed to have been killed by Tuesdays devastating explosion in the Lebanese Beirut.

Officials in the country have said 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate had been stored unsafely at a warehouse in the Port of Beirut.

The disaster was preceded by a large fire at the port.

That blast wave collapsed buildings near the port and caused extensive damage over much of the rest of the capital, which is home to two million people.

The explosion also left as many as 300,000 people were homeless.

Three cabinet ministers and several MPs in the country have since resigned.

Ammonium nitrate is a crystal-like white solid commonly used as a source of nitrogen for fertiliser.

It can also be combined with fuel oils to create an explosive used in the mining and construction industries.

Find below the full statement

---citinewsroom
Uttar Pradesh on Monday reported 51 more deaths due to Covid-19, pushing the fatalities due to the disease to 2,120. The total number of infected persons has now gone up to 1,26,722 with 4,113 fresh cases reported in the state in the last 24 hours, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said.

The number of those cured and discharged from hospitals after treatment was 76,724, he added.

Among the 47,878 active cases, he said, 19,635 are in home isolation,1,500 in private hospitals and 196 in semi-paid facilities, he said.

Prasad said a proper protocol for those in home isolation has been issued and rapid response teams have been deployed to visit homes of the affected persons and ensure the implementation of the treatment protocol.

Besides, the family members are also being apprised of the precautions and medication for them, he said, advising all those in home isolation to inform medical authorities if they face any problem or notice symptoms so that they can be admitted to hospitals for prompt treatment.

On Sunday, over 91,000 tests were done taking the total number of tests done in the state so far to over 32 lakhs, he added.
Sangita Reddy, President, FICCI has welcomed the announcement of the list of 101 items embargoed for imports in Defence starting December 2020. The announced policy measures will provide much needed impetus to make India 'AtmaNirbhar' in defence technology and products. The industry is looking forward to more items being added progressively to this list so as to deepen the process of indigenisation by leveraging the capabilities of Indian industry, she noted.

The decision to introduce an import embargo on at least 101 items signals the Government's resolve to push forward the VocalforLocal campaign. Manufacture and production of high technology weapon systems like artillery guns, assault rifles, corvettes, sonar systems, transport aircraft, LCHs, radars etc. in India will have cascading benefits to upstream industries, especially the MSMEs. While liberalisation of the sector has allowed several MSMEs to enter the market, the lack of demand from the Indian Government, the sole customer for the Indian industry, has meant the sector is yet to realise its full potential.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has described the deaths of 19 Australians on the nation's deadliest day of the COVID-19 pandemic as "devastating."

Authorities in Victoria on Monday announced that 19 people in the state had died from COVID-19 since Sunday, making it Australia's deadliest day since the pandemic began. Fourteen of the 19 new deaths were linked to aged care facilities.

It takes the national death toll to 313 and Victoria's to 228.

"More than 300 Australians now have fallen victim to the coronavirus," Morrison told reporters in a press conference on Monday.

"This news is devastating no matter what age, COVID affects people and we just want to reaffirm our support through every channel we can provide it. "

It has taken only nine days for the death toll to grow from 200 to 300 compared to about 74 days for it to grow from 100 to 200.

However, as the death toll continues to grow Victoria has confirmed its fewest number of new cases of COVID-19 in 12 days.

Michael Kidd, Australia's deputy chief medical officer, said in the update on Monday afternoon that there had been 21,397 confirmed cases of the virus in Australia, and the number of new cases in last 24 hours is 337.

He said the number of new cases "is a significant reduction since 10 days ago when we reported 747 new cases."

Of the 337 new cases, 322 were in Victoria.

"Within Victoria, 32 of the new cases are linked to outbreaks or complex cases and 290 are under investigation," said a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services in Victoria on Monday.

The department also said that to date there are 1,065 active COVID-19 cases among healthcare workers in the state.

(CGTN)
If you live in West Oakland, its not uncommon to see hundreds of ships pass through the Port of Oakland every month. After all, the port is the eighth busiest in the country. The freight activity in West Oakland provides Northern Californians with essential goods, but it carries with it great suffering concentrated in my community under a cloud of harmful, invisible diesel emissions.

Our air is so bad that nearly a quarter of students at West Oakland Middle School have breathing problems. I should know. My son and three grandchildren have all grown up with asthma here.

Its time to take a hard look at the history of our ports in the Bay Area, and which communities bear the burdens that come with them. A racist history of zoning, redlining, and subprime lending pushed ports and other industrial facilities right up against Black and immigrant communities in California as if we were expendable. West Oakland, Richmond, and Vallejo are prime examples of that history.

When large ships like container ships and oil tankers are at-berth and docked in ports across our state, they need power to run their systems. But rather than opting for clean options like plugging into zero-emissions electric shore power while theyre docked, most ships are still powered by their own heavily polluting engines, creating the poor air quality that port communities like mine experience. This is only compounded by the thousands of diesel trucks servicing the port and trucking along the freeways circling West Oakland.

Pollution in California isnt felt equally. Case in point: the average life expectancy in West Oakland is 7 years shorter than in the neighboring Oakland hills a mere 6 miles away. When we studied the effects of the ports pollution on residents, we found that each year ship emissions alone in West Oakland trigger an estimated wave of 25 hospital admissions for respiratory and heart problems, 45 cases of acute bronchitis, and 5,000 lost work days. To make matters worse, recent scientific studies show that chronic illnesses and long-term exposure to air pollution exacerbate the health impacts of COVID-19.

There has to be a better way. California has a record of building solutions to clean up our air, and its time to lean into that now. The Bay Areas ports need to be better neighbors to their surrounding communities, and they must move forward with its initiative to electrify to electrify cargo handling equipment and port vehicles. But we also have to address the mega polluters that come to the ports: the ships themselves. Some years ago, the California Air Resources Board began to tackle this issue and regulate ship pollution with new regulations.

Those regulations made strides in cutting ship pollution in port communities, but they left out large pieces of the puzzle: vessels like oil tankers and auto carriers. These exempted ships make up over half of the emissions of ships docking in Californias ports. The loophole has left communities like West Oakland, Richmond, Vallejo, and Martinez suffering. Theres no reason to leave an industry carve-out in place when its risking our health. Its time for a stronger standard.

The California Air Resources Board has proposed to update its regulations to require all vessels to either plug in to cleaner electrical grid power, or capture and treat emissions to dramatically reduce pollution from docked ships and save lives. Studies show that these new requirements will reduce smog-forming emissions in the Bay Area by 287 tons of pollution per year by 2032.

This new protection carries substantial health benefits, like preventing 31 premature deaths just among Bay Area residents. It can save Californians over $2.4 billion in avoided premature deaths, hospitalizations, and ER visits.

Polluting industries, including the Bay Areas refineries, are pressuring state leaders and doing everything they can to stop the momentum behind this clean air solution. Theyve been able to delay it for several months, using COVID-19 for cover to keep polluting.

There will be a vaccine for COVID-19, but not one for exposure to air pollution. Right now, the residents of the communities near these ports have to bear both of these burdens. These communities cant afford more delays, and for the sake of our health we shouldnt have to. We arent expendable, and our health, our lungs, and our future are on the line.

Margaret Gordon is the co-founder and co-director of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project.
Long-awaited peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban were expected to start in Qatar within a week once the final batch of Taliban prisoners were released, the U.S. special envoy and Afghan government sources said on Monday.

The government accepted the advice of a loya jirga, a grand assembly of elders, on Sunday to release 400 hard-core Taliban prisoners, paving the way for talks aimed at ending a war that has ground on since U.S.-backed Afghan forces ousted a Taliban government in late 2001.

We are ready to sit for talks within a week from when we see our prisoners released. We are ready, Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, told Reuters on Monday.

A government source told Reuters that President Ashraf Ghani would likely sign the decree to release the prisoners later on Monday.

Everyone is waiting for Ghani to sign on the decree. The original plan is to travel to Doha on Wednesday and the talks will begin on Sunday, the source said.

U.S. Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who reached an agreement with the Taliban in February for the withdrawal of the last U.S. troops, welcomed the progress, having spent months trying to bring the militant movement to the negotiating table with the government.

In the next few days, we expect the completion of prisoner releases, then travel of the Islamic Republic team to Doha, & from there the immediate start of intra-Afghan negotiations, he said on Twitter.

The Taliban had demanded the release of last 400 of 5,000 prisoners to be freed, as a condition for joining peace talk. But the government had been hesitant as these prisoners were involved in some of the worst violence, including a 2017 truck bombing near the German embassy in Kabul that killed more than 150 people - the deadliest attack in the 19-year insurgency.

(REUTERS)
William Bill Pownall (Republican)

Why are you the best candidate for the job?

I believe my experience makes me the best candidate for the job. Ive been involved in local and state government my entire adult life. As a young man I began my career in law enforcement in Campbell County, and at the end of that career I was the elected Sheriff of Campbell County for 12 years. Im currently in my 3rd term in the Wyoming House of Representatives.

My career experience and government experience are highly beneficial in helping me to make quality decisions for the benefit of the citizens of our great state. Over the years Ive developed great working relationships with elected officials and citizens all over Wyoming. Those relationships with legislators and community leaders have become partnerships we use to get things done for the citizens of Wyoming.

Wyoming is facing a historic budget crisis. As Sheriff and as a legislator Ive been personally involved in budget planning for nearly two decades. As a state legislature were facing one of the most critical budget times in Wyoming history. Judgement and experience are going to be needed to move Wyoming past this crisis, and I have both.

The state is facing a $1.5 billion drop in revenue. What cuts or tax increases would you support to address this decline?

We have to consider any and all intelligent cuts to our spending.

I support repealing the exemption of sales tax on food. This repeal would potentially generate an additional 70 to 90 million dollars in revenue annually. This revenue would directly impact local governments and help offset their shortfalls in meeting the citizens needs.

Aggressive economic development could be a tremendous source of increased revenue for Wyoming. We need to relentlessly recruit more businesses and industries from around the country to relocate to Wyoming. Companies who are unhappy with their current locations due to excessive government interference in the form of taxes and regulations need to get the message that Wyoming is a highly desirable place to do business. Wyoming has an outstanding quality of life for its citizens, we value individual freedom, we strongly support law enforcement and we dont overregulate.

Nationally, many state legislatures have taken up police reform. Does the Wyoming Legislature need to address this issue?

No. We already have excellent police training standards in Wyoming, standards which most agencies far exceed. There are effective policies and procedures already in place to deal with the rare occurrence of misconduct. Our Peace Officers in Wyoming are dedicated professionals who do a difficult job very well. Our policing system in Wyoming isnt broken or deeply flawed, so it doesnt require reform, certainly not reform at the legislative level.

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President Trumps decision to drop prohibitions on international students was right and necessary.

The prohibitions never should have been promulgated in the first place.

The Trump administration had ordered if their schools chose to shift to an entirely online schedule, international students would have to transfer to a school that had in-person classes  or else leave the country entirely.

The rule had huge implications for schools such as the University of Virginia, which enrolls many international students, as well as for the individual students who were being targeted.

The rule was wrong because it politicized decisions that should not have been political. The implication was colleges and universities needed to bow to the administrations view of the COVID-19 pandemic  and if they did not, they would be punished.

The rule was wrong because it federalized decisions that should have belonged to individual schools or to their states. The colleges and universities are best qualified to know what is right for themselves, their communities, and their students, faculty and staff. In states where the higher education system is more centrally managed, such decisions might fall to state officials.

The rule was wrong because it disrupted higher education plans and threw students into panic. Colleges and universities that had been carefully designing their opening strategies suddenly had to cope with a new and bizarre variable. Students who had been preparing  perhaps for years  to attend school in the U.S. now had their dreams dislocated.

We have no idea whether this order from the White House influenced UVas decision to open at least some classes on Grounds next month, although it is at least a theoretical possibility. The university is requiring negative COVID-19 tests for returning students.

The choice to reopen has been controversial in some quarters, as some local leaders fear that an influx of students might trigger a surge of coronavirus cases.

Such fears were heightened recently when students showed up to Midsummers events in Charlottesville and were photographed packed into parties and nightclubs without masking or social distancing. UVa strongly has warned students against such behavior in the future and has hinted it might rethink its decision to re-open classes in person if health and safety cant be protected.

In any case, such decisions should be made by the people closest to the problem  not mandated from Washington.

The rule was not only unnecessary, it was unfair. Good riddance to it.

 The Charlottesville Daily Progress
The voting center plan requires formal approval of the State Board of Elections, which meets Wednesday. Hogan has given it power to create roughly 360 voting centers instead of more than 1,800 precincts. Voters can cast a ballot anywhere in their home counties, rather than needing to show up at an assigned location. The voting centers would be housed in every single public high school, along with big community centers and other locations.
London, Aug 10 : Next time when you roll down car windows for some fresh air, think again. According to researchers, including one of Indian-origin, car users from the world's least affluent cities are exposed to at least 80 per cent more in-car air pollution because they rely heavily on opening their windows for ventilation.

For the study, published in the journal Science of The Total Environment, the research team investigated air pollution exposure levels for commuters in 10 different global cities across the world, including Chennai.

"To be blunt, we need as many cars as possible off the road, or more green vehicles to reduce air pollution exposure," said study researcher Prashant Kumar from the University of Surrey in the UK.

"Air-conditioned cars are unattainable for many poor and vulnerable commuters across the world, but our data is clear and coherent for all 10 participating cities," Kumar added.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year and nine out of 10 people breathe air with high levels of pollutants.

The research team investigated PM2.5 and PM10 exposure levels inside vehicles during peak hours in the morning and evening, as well as off-peak hours in the middle of the day.

The scientists measured how exposure levels changed when drivers used recirculation systems, fans and simply opened the windows.

The study discovered that drivers in some of the world's poorest cities experienced higher levels of in-car pollution.

Irrespective of the city and car model used, a windows-open setting showed the highest exposure, followed by fan-on and recirculation.

Pollution exposure for windows-open during off-peak hours was 91 per cent and 40 per cent less than morning and evening peak hours, respectively.

The study also found that the windows-open setting exposed car passengers to hotspots of air pollution for up to a third of the total travel length.

The findings also showed that commuters who turn on the recirculation are exposed to around 80 per cent less harmful particles than those who open their car windows.

Car cabin filters were more effective in removing pollution than fine particles, suggesting that if new cars had more efficient filters, it could reduce the overall exposure of car commuters.

"The study has drawn important conclusions that can help commuters make decisions in their day-to-day lives to protect their health," said study researcher Abdus Salam from the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh.

"Simple choices, like travelling during off-peak hours, can go a long way in reducing their exposure to air pollution," Salam said.
The 84-year-old asked those who came in contact with him in the last week to get tested as a precaution

New Delhi: Former President Pranab Mukherjee said on Monday that he has tested positive for COVID-19. The 84-year-old requested people who came in contact with him in the last week to get tested as a precaution.

"On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for COVID19 today," Mukherjee tweeted.

"I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19," the Congress leader, who was the president from 2012-17, said.

On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for COVID19 today.

I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19. #CitizenMukherjee  Pranab Mukherjee (@CitiznMukherjee) August 10, 2020

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala along with several other party leaders wished a speedy recovery to Mukherjee.

Wishing you a speedy recovery Sir! https://t.co/hxErfxo0RT  Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) August 10, 2020

"We wish former President Pranab Mukherjee a speedy recovery from COVID-19," the Congress said on its official Twitter handle.

We wish former President Shri Pranab Mukherjee a speedy recovery from Covid. @CitiznMukherjee  Congress (@INCIndia) August 10, 2020

Several leaders from across the political spectrum also wished him a speedy recovery.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot tweeted, "I have come to know former President of India Sh. Pranab Mukherjee has tested positive for COVID-19...concerned about his health. Wish him a speedy recovery."

I have come to know former President of India Sh. Pranab Mukherjee has tested positive for #Covid_19...concerned about his health. wish him a speedy recovery. @CitiznMukherjee  Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) August 10, 2020

Union minister Piyush Goyal also wished good health for Mukherjee, and said he is confident that the former president will be successful in recovering from the virus quickly.
Washington:

An Islamic State leader linked to the 2015 attacks at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo was killed in a US airstrike in Syria, says US military officials

Officials say Boubaker el Hakim was killed in Raqqa on November 26.

Also Read: 5 terrorists nabbed for planning to free Harkatul Jihad al Islami leaders in Bangladesh

He is believed to have played a role in IS attack planning. The officials werent authorised to discuss the strike publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

El Hakim was a 33-year-old French Tunisian. He was a mentor to the brothers who gunned down cartoonists at the French paper in January 2015.

He was arrested in Syria and sent to France, where he was convicted in 2008 and sentenced to seven years in prison. He was released in 2011 and is believed to have moved to Tunisia.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
NAPLES - Young film makers, writers and actors have closed the 17th edition of the Magna Grecia Film Festival which was organized this year in the Calabrian city of Catanzaro. The event, directed by Gianvito Casadonte, featured like every year a series of debuts and second films to explore the new frontiers of cinema through the eyes of emerging authors who were judged this year by a jury chaired by actor Michele Placido with director Peter Webber, actress and filmmaker Susy Laude and actor Antonio Catania. The prize for the best screenplay went to Dolcissime by Francesco Ghiaccio and Marco D'Amore for telling with ''elegance, delicacy and depth the sacrifices and difficulties of accepting and loving us the way we are, teaching us that we must breathe even when we breathless'', according to the motivation.



The award for best actor went to Phaim Bhuiyan, an Italian actor whose family is from Bangladesh, who won for his role in 'Bangla', which he wrote and directed, an ironic view on second-generation immigration in Italy. Carlotta Antonelli won the best actress prize also for her role in Bangla together with the three protagonists of Dolcissime: Giulia Barbuto, Margherita De Francisco and Giulia Fiorellino. The award for best director went to Marco D'Amore for 'L'Immortale', while the prize for best debut movie went to 'A Tor Bella Monaca non piove mai', by Marco Bocci. (ANSAmed).
New Delhi, Aug 10 : The Supreme Court on Monday, during the hearing on the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) matter of telecom companies, questioned the Centre as to how is it possible to sell the spectrum and whether it is transferable.

A bench, headed by Justice Arun Mishra, told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), to come prepared on the next hearing, and explain how can spectrum be sold or whether is transferable.

The bench also asked Mehta to get the NCLT orders connected with the query, as it scheduled the next hearing on the matter on August 14.

Mehta contended before the bench that the government has filed an appeal saying spectrum is a national property and it should not be part of bankruptcy assets.

At this, the bench questioned: "Why there was a delay in filing the appeal? What if the spectrum is sold in the meanwhile?" Mehta contended before the bench that the Centre has told the National Company Law Tribunal that spectrum is a national property, cannot be an asset of the company, and it cannot be sold.

The bench also questioned how Aircel's spectrum and license were sold and who gave the permission for it.

Aircel's monitoring committee's lawyer contended before the bench that no dues to government are be paid under the bankruptcy resolution plan, and insisted that he will place the details in court. The lawyer contended that the company paid the money to buy spectrum, and it is a transferable asset.

The Centre, however, said Aircel's dues were Rs 12,000 crore.

As the bench questioned the DoT as to how it proposes to recover the AGR dues from a company which has gone into insolvency, Mehta replied that DoT's stand is that spectrum cannot be part of bankruptcy assets.
Californias public health director and state health officer, Sonia Angell, has unexpectedly stepped down after the discovery of a glitch in the states data system which meant new cases of coronavirus were being under-reported.

The glitch affected the California Reportable Disease Information Exchange (CalREDIE) and caused a backlog of some 300,000 records, many of which will include positive coronavirus test results.

In a statement released after her resignation, governor Gavin Newsom praised her efforts during the pandemic. I want to thank Dr. Angell for her service to the state, he said, and her work to help steer our public health system during this global pandemic, while never losing sight of the importance of health equity.

In her letter, Ms Angell did not give a specific reason for her departure. Instead, she mostly praised the efforts of the states public health staff and workers, emphasising that none of them had been personally unaffected by the viruss impact.

You have all stepped up to the calling, she wrote. Some have done so by shifting your entire portfolio to emergency efforts, others of you have kept our States core public health work moving forward. Each and every one of you has been essential, because we know that in the final calculation, health is not defined by one condition, disease or experience. In the final calculation, all of our work, in aggregate, makes the difference.

I remain consistently impressed and humbled by the expertise, commitment, passion and kindness demonstrated by all of you daily.

California was the second state to record a case of coronavirus, and it has since been established that the virus killed two residents who died at their homes in February, even before the USs first officially confirmed deaths were confirmed in the Seattle area.

The state is one of several that has experienced a spike in cases in recent weeks after partially reopening its economy.

However, the number of new cases has since declined notably. While the glitch recently revealed needs to be taken into account, the daily case number is now hovering between 5,000 and 8,000  down from the daily record of 12,162 that was set on 22 July.
File image

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 10 underlined the need for a better coordination between all the central and state agencies to have a permanent system for forecasting of floods.

He also stressed on extensive use of innovative technologies for improving the forecast-and-warning system.

The prime minister made these remarks at a virtual meeting with the chief ministers and representatives of six states to review the flood situation in various parts of the country.

The states that attended the meeting, which was convened to review their preparedness to deal with the southwest monsoon and the current flood situation in the country, were Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala.

A statement from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said at the meeting, Modi highlighted that the investments in localised early warning systems should be increased so that the people of an area can be cautioned on time in case of a threatening situation such as breached river embankments, inundation or lightning.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar drew the prime minister's attention to the alleged non-cooperation of Nepal in managing floods that have ravaged the state's northern districts.

Rivers originating in the neighbouring country have inundated several districts in Bihar.

Kumar said the state authorities are "not receiving full cooperation from Nepal for the past few years" and sought the Centre's intervention in the matter.

According to a statement issued by the Maharashtra government, it demanded setting up of a committee under the prime minister for tackling crisis situations in states and ensuring a better coordination.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray also sought an immediate central assistance for Maharashtra in view of the June 3 Cyclone Nisarga that caused widespread damage in the state's coastal districts and the August 5 downpour and heavy winds that battered Mumbai.

The Karnataka government said it requested the prime minister to provide an additional special assistance of Rs 4,000 crore to handle the flood situation in the southern state.

Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said according to an initial assessment, the state had suffered a loss of Rs 4,000 crore due to the floods. "It is a preliminary estimate because the rains are continuing. A proper survey has to be done," he said.

The home minister represented Karnataka at the virtual meet as Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa is suffering from COVID-19. He was discharged from the hospital on Monday.

The meet, which lasted for nearly an hour and a half, was also attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Ministers of State for Home Nityanand Rai and G Kishan Reddy, and senior officers of the central ministries and organisations concerned.

The prime minister asserted that in view of the COVID-19 situation, the states must ensure that people follow all health precautions such as wearing of face masks, hand sanitisation and maintaining an adequate physical distance with each other while undertaking rescue efforts.

He said the relief material must include provisions for hand washing and sanitising and face masks for the affected people.

Special provisions should be made for elderly people, pregnant women and people with co-morbidities, he observed.

Modi said the states should ensure that all development and infrastructure projects are built with resilience to withstand local disasters and help reduce the consequential losses.

The prime minister pointed out that over the last few years, forecasting agencies such as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Central Water Commission (CWC) are making concerted efforts to make better and more usable flood forecasts.

They are trying to provide not only rainfall and river-level forecasts, but also location-specific forecasts of inundation, he added.

Pilot projects are underway to use innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence to improve the location-specific forecasts, for which the states should provide the necessary information to these agencies and timely disseminate the warnings to the local communities, Modi said.

"The prime minister emphasised on better coordination between all central and state agencies to have a permanent system for forecasting of floods and extensive use of innovative technologies for improving forecast and warning system," the PMO statement said.

The chief ministers of Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Kerala and the home minister of Karnataka gave updates on the flood situation and rescue efforts in their respective states, according to the statement.

They lauded the efforts of central agencies, including the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), for a timely deployment of teams and rescuing people.

The states also put forward some suggestions for short-term and long-term measures to mitigate the effects of floods.

The prime minister directed officials to take action on the suggestions.

He said the Centre will continue to provide support to the states and Union territories to strengthen their capabilities in dealing with various disasters.

According to those present at the meet, Modi said he would have visited all the states but could not due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Kanu Sarda And Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW: In Uttar Pradesh, crime and punishment are often separated by evidentiary inadequacies: A criminal booked for heinous crimes manages to bail himself out because he is so feared that nobody comes forward to record statements against him.

Vikas Dubey, who was killed in a suspected staged encounter, was out on bail. In fact, those who doubt the police version in Dubeys case tend to agree that had he been alive, it would have been almost impossible to get him convicted in any, or all of the cases under which his conviction was to be sought in a court of law.

Senior police officers say thats a dangerous situation for a law-based system and mirrors social chaos exacerbated by political interference and dilatory legal processes.

A police officer, who does not want to be named and was an Investigating Officer in one of the Vikas Dubey cases, says gangsters like him exercise enormous influence on villagers so much that despite assurances given to them for their protection, no one comes forward to testify, citing threat to life.

In such cases we are helpless as a mere filing of a case yields no result in a court of law, which demands irrefutable evidence, said the police officer.

First, policing in the criminal justice system is compromised, which results in failed prosecution. Thats especially so in cases against gangsters, where prosecution often fails to gather evidence and pleads the case by recording statements of the witnesses under Section 164 of CrPC, says Vikram Singh, former DGP, Uttar Pradesh Police.

When the police fail to provide evidence and witnesses turn hostile, courts remain unmoved, letting the gangster go scot-free. The courts then direct the police to re-investigate the cases, said Singh.

Supreme Court lawyer Rekha Agarwal says courts cant go and conduct investigation on their own. The best the court can do in such cases is order a re-investigation.

So the onus of securing bails and acquittals are largely to be blamed on the police officers who are unable to gain the trust of the people to make them credible witnesses, she said.

Soon after the Dubey incident, the UP Police came out with a list of gangsters who despite having serious charges are currently out on bail and are trying to nab each of them.

Heres looking at a five such cases in UP:

Lallu Yadav: The Lucknow police say he has 54 criminal cases against him, including four murders and seven attempted murders, besides illegal possession of firearms. He was a member of the Zila Panchayat and his wife was the head of a block.

Yadav heads a land mafia and operates from Kakroi on the outskirts of Lucknow. He has acted in two films - Chhabili and Lucknow Ka Bittu. Hes currently out on bail. Most cases against him are on trial stage and no charge-sheet filed.

Sanjeev Dwivedi alias Ramu Dwivedi: A former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLC has over a dozen criminal cases registered against him at Chauri-Chaura police station in Gorakhpur. Booked twice under UP gangster Act, and once under Arms Act, Dwivedi has also been booked in cases of rioting and criminal trespass. Dwivedi is out on bail, cases pending in various courts with conviction in none so far. Police have failed to bring any witness in the murder cases.

Rajesh Yadav: An alleged associate of Chhota Rajan. Rajesh Yadav has been slapped with 22 cases of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, rioting, abduction and others. Out on bail, Yadavs gang has been lying low for the last one-and-a-half years. The order sheet shows no court has proceeded with the trial as there was no progress in the police investigation.

Baccha Passi alias Nihal Kumar: A sharp shooter of Chhota Rajan gang. Passi has 24 criminal cases including murder, attempt to murder, loot, robbery, extortion, dacoity and cases under Gangster Act and Arms Act registered against him.

Out on bail, Pasi along with his three aides was once arrested and booked in a case of contract killing when he had travelled to Mumbai to bump off a businessman at the instance of Chhota Rajan in 2006. Interestingly, despite booking him under the Arms Act, the police failed to produce the arms involved in the case and thus the court granted him bail.

The latest case against Passi is related to the murder of Sachin Sonkar in 2019. Despite the manhunt, Passi dodged the Prayagraj police and surrendered in court. He is out on bail.

Dilip Mishra: The former block head faces 46 cases of heinous crimes. He is an accused in an attempt-to-murder case wherein he had attacked the present state minister of civil aviation Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi. He was booked under UP Gangster Act in 2008.

In May, this year, he was arrested and lodged in Naini jail in Prayagraj for sheltering a wanted criminal.

In Mishras case, the police failed to bring witnesses on record giving him the benefit of the doubt. He is out on bail.
A federal judge on Monday ordered prosecutors and a court clerk to turn over records on the race of grand jurors who showed up to the Camp Street courthouse on June 26 to indict City Council President Jason Williams and law partner Nicole Burdett on tax-fraud charges.

But U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman said it was far too soon to say that Williams or Burdett have been deprived of any rights by the government's decision to seat the grand jury during a lockdown for the coronavirus pandemic.

Feldman granted the pair's motion for the grand jury records, but denied a broader bid to toss the 11-count indictment against them, at least for now.

Feldman's 35-page order followed a hearing last week in which Williams and Burdett sought to attack the indictment against them as a shameless political ploy.

Feldman, a frequent critic of government charging decisions, allowed Williams and Burdett to air their allegations at the hearing, but in his ruling focused mainly on one of them: a claim of potential racial imbalance in the indictment process.

Other concerns raised by Williams and Burdett, such as the implications of a lockdown-era indictment on their right to a speedy trial, were premature, Feldman wrote.

The indictment alleges the pair conspired to inflate Williams' deductions by more than $700,000 over five tax years, while failing to properly report cash receipts of more than $60,000.

Williams has accused the government of carrying out a political hit by unleashing the indictment against him three weeks before qualifying for the race for Orleans Parish district attorney, a post for which he'd long telegraphed his plans to run.

Williams and Burdett have pleaded not guilty. A tentative trial date has been set for Sept. 14, although Feldman noted last week that the tax fraud case is unlikely to be resolved before election day.

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District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro announced he will not seek a third term, leaving Williams to run for the seat against three former judges: Arthur Hunter, Keva Landrum and Morris Reed.

Williams, who is Black, and Burdett, who is White, argued in court last week that the government's request to seat the grand jury -- approved by the court's chief judge -- may have violated his rights.

The virus has taken a stiffer toll on Blacks in Louisiana and the U.S. generally. Williams' attorney, Billy Gibbens, noted that disparity and requested records on the racial makeup of those who sat on the grand jury during its tenure, as well as those who showed up on June 26.

Prosecutors have said the vote by a quorum to indict Williams and Burdett was unanimous, arguing that whoever else might have showed up wouldn't have mattered. They also said they called in the grand jurors in the same manner as usual for the special sitting.

The grand jury that indicted Williams and Burdett was first seated a year ago; it handed up four other indictments on June 26 as well, say prosecutors in the Western District of Louisiana, who are pursuing the case after an earlier recusal from the New Orleans office now run by U.S. Attorney Peter Strasser.

The charges, prosecutors said, were approved in Washington, D.C. by the Justice Department's tax division, after a face-to-face appeal by attorneys for Williams and Burdett.

Feldman ordered prosecutors and the court clerk to turn over all letters and communication regarding the grand jurors; demographic questionnaires; racial data for the grand jurors who indicted the pair on June 26 and any responses by jurors to the request to sit that day.

Burdett's attorney, Michael Magner, praised Feldman for "carefully and appropriately scrutinizing the Governments actions."

He said he hoped the records would help show "whether the government acted improperly by denying the defendants their equal protection and due process rights to have their case considered by a fair cross section of a community devastated by COVID-19."
The Most Dr Reverend Paul Kwabena Boafo, Chairman, Christian Council of Ghana, has welcomed the apology of the rioting students to the Government and commended the intervention of the President for leniency.



He said the plea of some of the parents of the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) candidates as seen in some video footages in circulation was also welcoming.



That is what we were asking for, he told the Ghana News Agency in an interview on Monday.



Most Rev Boafo, also the Presiding Bishop Methodist Church of Ghana, said the Ghana Education Services swift application of its rules and regulations by dismissing the affected students was also in order and it would deter other students.



And so the President's intervention, not to disallow the students from writing the examinations is a show of a father who have listened to the apologies that have come in.



The President coming in to as it were, plead on behalf of the students resonate a fathers love for his children, as he put it, everyone deserves a second chance, and so, that is ok.



If it is a genuine apology they have put in, then we need to forgive them, Most Rev Boafo said.



Biblically, when the prodigal son realised that what he did was not right, he came back and his father readily accepted, welcomed and entertained him-that is what I think the President is doing, Most Rev Boafo, explained.



Meanwhile, the Christian Council Chairman had advised the Ghanaian-adult to set good examples for children to emulate, adding that, parents had much responsibility to teach the children the right way to live.



He said society, had a role to play in nurturing the upcoming generations, saying that the rot in society, especially among the youth was a matter of concern.



He called for multi-functional efforts by all, at the school level, the parental level, the church, and the state levels for all us to look at it, and address it through a concerted campaign.



Most Rev Boafo said, You see politicians insulting themselves on radio and the children see all these. It seemed the good things are drowned, and the bad things are rather seen as normal, which should not be.



So all of us must put our shoulders to the wheel, so that if your child comes home and is misbehaving, that is where you as a parent has to come in and correct him. When they go to school, teachers are also to play their part. Then as adults, we also have to play our part by exhibiting good values of respect for one another. 



He asked q young people to have a listening ear to the good advice of their parents so that they could become better adults. Otherwise, we are bound to suffer.



Most Rev Boafo also urged Ghanaians not to politicise every issue but rather, should look at them critically and address them more appropriately.

Source: GNA









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A "manipulative and controlling" man allegedly killed two vulnerable women and stored their bodies in a chest freezer in his flat, a court has heard.

Zahid Younis, 35, is on trial for the murder of Hungarian national Henriett Szucs and mother-of-three Mihrican Mustafa, who were discovered by police in a flat in Canning Town, east London, on April 27 last year.

The two women had been missing for a long time before the grim discovery. Ms Szucs had last been seen in August 2016 and Ms Mustafa in May 2018.

Mr Younis, who was the occupant of the one-bedroom, ground-floor flat in Vandome Close, had the "disposition to manipulate" and control vulnerable women, Southwark Crown Court heard on Monday.

On the first day of the trial, the jury was told the alleged victims had been subject to very significant violence.

Vandome Close in east London / PA

Prosecutor Duncan Penny QC said that Mr Younis had bought the freezer a short time after the death of Ms Szucs for the sole purpose of concealing her body.

Mr Penny said police had gone to the property looking for Mr Younis when one found a lockable freezer in a cupboard which had flies around it and items stacked on top.

The bodies were discovered after the officers forced the lid of the freezer with a crowbar.

Prior to their death each of them had been the victim of significant injury, each of them appeared to have been subject to very significant violence, Mr Penny said.

The court heard the two women were known to have associated with Mr Younis in the weeks leading up to their disappearances, and belongings of each of them were found in the flat.

Two women were found dead in Vandome Close / PA

Both were vulnerable women living somewhat chaotic lives, including periods of homelessness and class A drug addiction, Mr Penny added.

Ms Szucs had met the defendant while both were patients at the Royal London Hospital.

She had been taken to hospital after she had been thrown or had fallen from a fifth floor balcony during an incident of domestic violence at the hands of her previous partner, the court heard.

Diary entries understood to be written by Ms Szucs, whose body was found partially dressed in her pyjamas, suggested Younis was violent and controlling towards her, the prosecutor said.

Mr Penny added: You will hear that the defendant is indeed a man with the ability and the disposition to manipulate and to seek to control vulnerable women.

The women, both in their thirties at the time of their disappearances, had suffered numerous rib fractures, while Ms Szucs had sustained dreadful head injuries and Ms Mustafas sternum and larynx had been fractured, Mr Penny said.

Ms Szucs blood was found on the carpet of the flat and Ms Mustafas fingerprint on the oven, Mr Penny said.

The court heard that between their deaths and the discovery of the bodies, there were periods when the electricity supply to the flat had been cut off, causing the bodies to start to decompose.

By April 2019, Mr Younis had allegedly become so paranoid about the smell in the flat and the possibility the freezer would be discovered that he had abandoned the address.

When he was detained, Mr Younis told police: Its my house, its my problem, no-one else is involved.

He later gave a no comment interview.

The trial continues.

Additional reporting by PA Media.
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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. (Photo: AFP/VNA)



Recovering from the coronavirus crisis appears to be a daunting task, Duterte said in a message to mark the blocs 53rd founding anniversary on August 8, adding that but if pursued with friends, the burden is shared and transformed into an opportunity to create a more resilient Southeast Asian region.

We are confident that the ASEAN way of partnership and mutual aid will help us overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and move forward with our community-building endeavors, the President added.

He said with a deeper sense of common purpose, the regional bloc will continue to work together as one and strengthen partnerships with friends within and outside the region.

Though challenges remain, ASEANs commitment to community-building has never been stronger, Duterte noted.

The President emphasised that today, ASEAN is the worlds fifth largest economy, driving growth and development across the region. It is at the center of mechanims promoting peace and stability in our rapidly changing regional environment. More importantly, ASEAN is moving closer to becoming one politically cohesive, economically integrated and socially responsible Community.

The Philippines was among five founding members of ASEAN. The bloc now comprises 10 members, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam./.
1. Fresh relief for Americans hit hard by the coronavirus recession remained distant, and new presidential directives caused confusion and criticism.

Under the measures that President Trump announced Saturday, those eligible for unemployment aid would receive an extra $400 weekly, with the federal government covering only $300 of that amount and states making up the difference. Above, Mr. Trump with his executive orders.

A number of governors expressed alarm about having to make up the $100 difference, as many states have seen tax revenue plummet during the pandemic. And because Congress controls the federal budget, the presidents directives will almost certainly be challenged in court.
STAMFORD  A city man has been charged with first-degree attempted possession of child pornography, a charge that carries a mandatory jail sentence of five to 20 years if he is convicted.

Nicolas Gonzalez, 23, was arrested following an investigation sparked by notification from the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a network of 4,500 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, police said. The warning alerted local police that someone in Stamford was downloading some 1,000 files of interest to them, according to a 13-page arrest affidavit for Gonzalez.
OTTAWA - The federal Liberal government has handed over thousands of pages of documents related to the WE controversy to a House of Commons committee, which lawyers are now vetting for personal information and cabinet secrets.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 9/8/2020 (527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre holds a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on July 29, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA - The federal Liberal government has handed over thousands of pages of documents related to the WE controversy to a House of Commons committee, which lawyers are now vetting for personal information and cabinet secrets.

The finance committee demanded the documents last month as it probes whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's relationship with WE Charity influenced the government's ill-fated decision to have the organization run a federal student-volunteer program.

Committee members are hoping the documents will shed light on the discussions that led to the decision to have WE run the Canada Student Services Grant, before the deal was cancelled amid controversy in early July.

"People are asking a lot of questions," NDP finance critic Peter Julian said in an interview. "There's been a lot of contradictions in testimony. So the documents should be revealing a lot more of what the real answers are."

Yet while the Liberals turned more than 5,000 pages over to the committee ahead of Saturday's deadline, it wasn't clear when they would be released to members as committee lawyers go through them to prevent the release of protected information.

"We don't know," Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre said during a news conference on Sunday when asked when committee members would get the documents. "We have asked. They have not given us the timeline."

Committee chairman Wayne Easter, a Liberal MP, predicted the documents would be released in the coming days to members as additional lawyers from the public service have been brought in to help review them for cabinet secrets and other information.

Even after the documents are released, however, there will could be disagreements about why certain information was withheld.

While Poilievre and Julian suggested they were keeping the door open to challenging any redactions, Easter said the vetting was being conducted by the professional public service  and noted the tradition of Parliament respecting cabinet confidence.

Usually prepared for ministers to aid government deliberations and decision-making, documents marked as cabinet confidences hold closely guarded political secrets and are legally protected from unauthorized release.

Trudeau has previously faced pressure to waive cabinet confidence when it came to allegations he tried to pressure then-justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould on a deferred prosecution agreement with Quebec engineering firm SNC-Lavalin.

"We respect the integrity of the public service," Easter said when asked about the lawyers redacting cabinet confidences in the WE documents. "That's why there is no political involvement in the redacting of these documents. That's why the law clerk is involved."

The Liberals have been embroiled in controversy since it was revealed on June 25 that WE had been selected to run the Canada Student Services Grant, which promised up to $5,000 toward the education costs of students who volunteered during COVID-19.

The sole-sourced 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.

Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau have since apologized for not recusing themselves from cabinet's discussions about the agreement before it was awarded to WE given their respective families' ties to the Toronto-based charity.

Trudeau has spoken at six WE Day events since becoming prime minister, while his mother and brother have been paid almost $300,000 and reimbursed about $200,000 in expenses for appearing at WE events. Trudeau's wife has also had expenses covered.

Morneau, meanwhile, acknowledged 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.

Yet the government has insisted that the decision was based on a recommendation from the non-partisan public service following its conclusion that WE was the only organization capable of running the grant program.

Opposition critics, meanwhile, are also training their sights on an agreement between a Crown corporation and a company employing the husband of Trudeau's chief of staff, Katie Telford.

The agreement between the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. and MCAP, where Telford's husband Rob Silver is an executive vice-president, involves the administering of a rent-assistance program for small businesses affected by COVID-19.

The Prime Minister's Office has said Telford established clear ethical walls between herself and MCAP in January, even before COVID-19 shook the country's economy and led to the creation of the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program.

But Poilievre questioned why the government didn't simply ask the Canada Revenue Agency to run the rent-assistance program given it is already managing the federal wage subsidy for businesses struggling during the pandemic.

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.

"CMHC, which is strangely running this program, exists for the sole purpose of providing affordable housing. Not commercial real estate," Poilievre said.

"Now, of course, the easy way to deliver this program would have been through CRA. CRA already had a program stood up to deliver a wage subsidy."

Audrey-Anne Coulombe, a spokeswoman for CMHC, said in a statement Sunday that the federal housing agency had decided to go with an outside sub-administrator because it "does not have the internal capacity to stand up the program in short order."

Coulombe said CMHC sought bids from two financial institutions and chose MCAP because its proposal was stronger and cost less. She said Silver was not involved in contract negotiations or the delivery of services.

Easter expressed concern about the committee getting distracted by opposition "fishing" efforts and not focusing on its main task of preparing for next year's federal budget and overseeing COVID-19 spending.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 9, 2020.
American Wind Week (Aug. 9-15) is a time to celebrate the growth of wind energy development in the United States and the continued leadership of renewable energy in New Mexico. This year marks the fourth annual American Wind Week, highlighting one of Americas major sources of clean energy that is powering our state now and well into the future. It is an opportunity to redouble our renewable energy efforts in New Mexico and increase our investments in this clean energy source. Our state made great strides in wind energy in 2019, but to reach our true potential we must remind ourselves of the environmental benefits we derive from even greater investments in this technology.

Our environment is precious, and wind energy can go a long way toward helping us to preserve it. With the passage of the New Mexico Energy Transition Act, our state proved its commitment to that goal. By calling for half of our states electricity generation to come from renewable sources by 2030, we cemented our status as a national leader in the transition to green energy.

While we are resource-rich, we do not have a robust support structure in the state. We should work with our three national laboratories to foster more innovation in renewable technologies, establish and grow a manufacturing base within the state. We must support our educational institutions to train a skilled workforce that can install and maintain the wind and solar farms and energy storage systems that will supply our energy needs.

Wind energy is a huge part of our success thus far and of our future. Last year, wind provided almost 20% of New Mexicos total electricity generation. In fact, the amount of electricity produced by wind in 2019 was enough to power 630,000 homes, and it helped us avoid 2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions and 1 billion gallons of water consumption.

The current pandemic provides an opportunity for New Mexico as companies look to onshore with our partner Mexico. New Mexico is the leader in the nation for the lowest cost of renewable energy from wind and solar, and we must utilize that strength and promote green shoring, incentivizing companies to move their manufacturing to New Mexico and take advantage of our abundant green energy.

Increasing the number of jobs is the solution to the nexus of education, poverty and crime for New Mexicans. If we can increase jobs by green shoring, by bringing manufacturing by any of the 242 companies, such as Facebook, that have signed on to RE100 initiative  committing to 100% renewable electricity  to New Mexico, then we have a pathway to secure our leadership in green energy and deliver on the promise of its benefits to our fellow New Mexicans.

Wind Week is a great time to celebrate those successes and to call on others to join us in our pursuit of a more sustainable future. Our state has already committed to becoming a national leader in wind energy. Now, its time for us all to coalesce around this goal so that we can achieve the full potential for renewable energy generation.
The logo of China Taiping Insurance

By Park Jae-hyuk



China Taiping Insurance is facing a legal battle with Shinhan Bank and Arumdree Asset Management over its refusal to pay a 24 billion won ($20 million) insurance claim submitted by the latter, according to industry officials, Monday.



The Chinese insurer was supposed to fully cover Arumdree for possible losses on two private equity funds (PEFs) worth 24 billion won and 23 billion won, respectively. These funds had been invested in accounts receivable that Singaporean commodity trader Agritrade International was supposed to receive from its buyers.



Arumdree was in charge of the management of the funds, while Shinhan "sold" contracts that attracted 90 wealthy customers including 10 corporations, after promising them a 3.7 percent annual return. Each customer invested at least 300 million won in the funds.



The 24 billion won fund matured in May, but no redemption was given as Agritrade had declared a moratorium in February. The moratorium came after many of the company's buyers raised questions over the authenticity of the accounts receivable.



Shinhan and Arumdree had guaranteed that their customers would get their money back through an insurance claim. The Korean firms had expected to get the money from Taiping in August, given that insurance companies generally pay their policyholders 180 days after a claim is made.



Taiping, however, refused to pay out on the policy, attributing Arumdree's losses to alleged fraud by Agritrade. The insurer said it was difficult to check whether Agritrade had made actual transactions with its buyers. If trade finance funds are embroiled in fraud or contract disputes, insurers do not have to cover their policyholders for losses.



Shinhan refuted this, saying it has yet to be ascertained whether or not Agritrade was directly involved in fraud. According to the bank, Arumdree plans to take legal action against Taiping, Agritrade and its buyers, after hiring a local law firm in Singapore. Some sources said the asset management firm may attempt arbitration which takes less time and money.



Although Shinhan will not be a litigant, the bank said Arumdree will share the specifics of the progress of the envisioned lawsuit to allow it to check on whether the asset management firm is coping with the matter properly.



"As the seller of the fund, we are doing our best to retrieve the money," a Shinhan Bank official said.



The 23 billion won fund will mature in December. Taiping has already rejected full coverage on its loss for the same reason. If the Chinese insurer wins the legal battle with the Korean firms, investors here could collectively lose 47 billion won.


Rep. Williams Tours City Airport Following Grant Announcement Congressman Roger Williams toured the Hillsboro Municipal Airport Thursday, August 6, following the announcement of a $553,500 grant awarded to the airport under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.



He was joined on the tour by Hillsboro Mayor Andy Smith, Economic Development Corporation Administrator Art Mann, Airport Manager John Graham, City Manager Frank Johnson and Hillsboro Department of Public Safety Chief Tony Cain.



Ensuring our regional airports have the funding needed to improve and maintain infrastructure is crucial to serving our communities. Im proud to deliver needed funding to the Hillsboro Municipal Airport and am grateful for the opportunity today to learn more about forthcoming improvements, said Congressman Williams. I thank Mayor Smith, Administrator Mann and Airport Manager Graham for taking the time to join us this morning, and I look forward to the airports many years of continued service.



The grant from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was approved by the Texas Transportation Commission and is intended to be used for electrical improvements, including replacing medium intensity runway lights, replacing Precision Approach Path Indicators (PAPI) for Runway 16, installing PAPI for Runway 34, replacing the wind cone and replacing airfield signage.



The grant funds were made available through the federal Airport Improvement Program, which provides grants to public agencies for the planning and development of public-use airports.



While Airport Improvement Program grants usually require a 10% local match, Congress directed through the CARES Act that most FY 2020 grants be awarded at a 100% federal share in an effort to alleviate the burden on local governments responding to COVID-19.


Farmland in eastern Oklahoma, part of the study area. Credit: Kevin Krajick/Earth Institute, Columbia University.

Intensified rainstorms predicted for many parts of the United States as a result of warming climate may have a modest silver lining: they could more efficiently water some major crops, and this would at least partially offset the far larger projected yield declines caused by the rising heat itself. The conclusion, which goes against some accepted wisdom, is contained in a new study published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Numerous studies have projected that rising growing-season temperatures will drastically decrease yields of some major U.S.crops, absent adaptive measures. The damage will come from both steadily heightened evaporation of soil moisture due to higher background temperatures, and sudden desiccation of crops during heat waves. Some studies say that corn, which currently yields about 13 billion bushels a year and plays a major role in the U.S. economy, could nosedive 10 to 30 percent by the mid- to late century. Soy-the United States is the world's leading producer-could decline as much as 15 percent.

Since warmer air can hold more moisture, it is also projected that rainfall will in the future come more often in big bursts, rather than gentle downpours-a phenomenon that is already being observed in many areas. Many scientists have assumed that more extreme rains might further batter crops, but the new study found that this will probably not be the case. The reason: most of the projected heavier downpours will fall within a range that benefits crops, rather than passing the threshold at which they hurt them.

"People have been talking about how more extreme rain will damage crops," said lead author Corey Lesk, a Ph.D. student at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Obsevatory. "The striking thing we found was, the overall effect of heavier rains is not negative. It turns out to be good for crops."

That said, the effects will probably be modest, according to the study. It estimates that corn yields could be driven back up 1 or 2 percent by the heavier rains, and soy by 1.3 to 2.5 percent. These increases are dwarfed by the potential losses due to heat, but even a few percent adds up when dealing with such huge quantities of crops. And, the researchers say, "Our findings may help identify new opportunities for climate-adaptive crop management and improved modeling."

A new study finds that when rain comes down mainly as drizzle, yields of major crops are depressed; when downpours are heavier, yields rise, up a point. Yields go down severely with the most extreme rainfalls, but these are quite rare. Length of bars represents impact on crops per hour. Heavy rainfall is projected to increase more than extremes in the future, giving a boost to crops. Credit: Corey Lesk.

The team reached their conclusions by studying hour-by-hour rainfall patterns recorded by hundreds of weather stations in the agricultural regions of the U.S. West, South and Northeast each year from 2002 to 2017. They then compared the rainfall patterns to crop yields. They found that years with rains of up to about 20 millimeters an hour-roughly the heaviest downpour of the year on average-resulted in higher yields. It was only when rains reached an extreme 50 millimeters an hour or more that crops suffered damage. (20 millimeters an hour is about three-quarters of an inch; 50 is about 2 inches.) Moreover, years in which rain came mainly as mere drizzle actually damaged yields.

The researchers outlined several possible reasons for the differences. For one, drizzle may be too inefficient to do much good. In hot weather, it can mostly evaporate back into the air before reaching subsurface root zones where it is needed; in cooler weather, it might remain on leaves long enough to encourage the growth of damaging fungi. "There are only a fixed number of hours of rain you can get in a season," said Lesk. "If too much of them are taken up by useless drizzle, it's wasted."

Heavier storms on the other hand, are better-at least up to a point. These allow water to soak thoroughly into the soil, carrying in both moisture and artificial fertilizer spread on the surface. It is only the most extreme events that hurt crops, say the researchers: these can batter plants directly, wash fertilizer off fields, and saturate soils so thoroughly that roots cannot get enough oxygen.

To study the effects of future potential rainfall patterns, the researchers used basic physical models to estimate how much heavier rains might become under different levels of warming. They found that in most cases, more rain would, as expected, come in bigger downpours-but these heavier rains would fall within the fairly wide range where they are beneficial. The most extreme, damaging rains would also increase-but would still be rare enough that the greater number of beneficial rainfalls would outweigh their effects.

Because the study averaged out statistics over vast areas, and many other factors can affect crop yields, it would be hard to say exactly what the effects of future rainfall will be in any one area, said Lesk. "No single farmer would use a study like this to make decisions on what to plant or how," he said. But, as the paper concludes, the results "suggest that beyond extreme events, the crop yield response to more common rainfall intensities merits further attention."

Explore further Human activities found to be contributing to an increase in extreme rainfall events in North America

More information: Lesk, C., Coffel, E. & Horton, R. Net benefits to US soy and maize yields from intensifying hourly rainfall. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2020). Journal information: Nature Climate Change Lesk, C., Coffel, E. & Horton, R. Net benefits to US soy and maize yields from intensifying hourly rainfall.(2020). doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0830-0
Another scare jolted passengers onboard a Delhi-Shirdi IndiGo flight on August 9. According to passengers, the flight crew announced that there was some technical error but later the Captain announced that there was some issue with the landing gear. "We don't want a repeat of what just happened with the Air India Express flight," said a passenger. One passenger said that airlines have learned nothing from the recent Air India crash. Moreover, the passengers stated that the airline refused to provide accommodation.

The airline stated, "August 09, 2020 Indigo A 320 operating Delhi Shirdi (6E-2019) had a caution message on one of the hydraulic systems. As a precaution, the pilot diverted to Mumbai. The aircraft is currently at Mumbai and shall be back in operation after necessary inspections."

Talking to India Today TV, a Gurugram-based entrepreneur who was on the flight said, "At around 4:25 pm we took off from Delhi. While we were about to land at Shirdi we could feel there were some problems. The crew announced that the flight has been diverted to Mumbai as there is a technical error at the airport. This is what they said at Shirdi. But then just as were about to land in Mumbai the Captain announced that there is a problem in the landing gear hence the flight was diverted." The passenger said that even at the Mumbai airport, the plane had problems and needed to be pulled. "We heard a huge sound as if something broke from the landing gear and then the aircraft stood still for a while. We were so scared. We could have lost their lives. And all they had to say in the end was opt for a cab for Shirdi or take a refund," he said.

Another passenger tweeted to Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and said that all the passengers were stranded for 2-3 hours. "If they can't arrange another flight to Shirdi tonight then why should they not provide a stay facility?," he asked.

"I told airport people that it is the rainy season and that travelling such a distance during the time of pandemic isn't safe. I even said that as per DGCA rules they should be providing night stay and then arrange another flight for Shirdi. But the airline said go back to Delhi and take another flight to Shirdi," said another angry passenger. "We don't want a repeat of what just happened with the Air India Express flight," added the passenger.

Yet another said that airlines seemed to have learned nothing even after such a big mishap. "Nowadays even the common man understands while flying when something is amiss. So, I can say that there was a major maintenance flaw with the landing gear of the airline which wasn't taken care of," he added.

Also read: Air India Express crash: Boeing team to examine debris of 787-800 jetliner in Kozhikode

Also read: Air India crash: Pilot of ill-fated flight earlier flew MiG-21s in Indian Air Force
In this still image via video, ralliers chant during a "back the blue" rally in Seattle, Wash., on Aug. 9, 2020. (Katie Daviscourt via The Epoch Times)

Hundreds Turn Out for Back the Blue Rally in Seattle Ahead of Defunding Vote

Hundreds of people attended a back the blue rally in Seattle on Aug. 9, voicing their opposition to efforts to defund the citys police department. The City Council is scheduled to vote on approving cuts to the police on Aug. 10.

The crowd, many of whom wore blue, chanted SPD and Back the blue. The rally was arranged by the Seattle Police Officers Guild, a police union.

Backers said they dont want cuts to the Seattle Police Department (SPD).

Just because we need more social programs does not mean we need to defund the SPD. We can have both. We can fund the SPD, fund crime protection, and fund law enforcement, one woman told KOMO News.

John Balph, a retired X-ray technician, said Black Lives Matter is a worthy movement and reforms are needed, but the decline of public safety in the city worries him.

Thousands of Defend @SeattlePD Supporters send a huge message to Seattle City Council. Crowd is chanting vote no. This is the largest turnout thus far! pic.twitter.com/7aYSvEf1se  Katie Daviscourt (@KatieDaviscourt) August 9, 2020

Is this the city the Council wants to represent, a deserted city? Balph told the Seattle Times. Its not the Seattle I want to live in. But average citizens cant do anything about it. Its very frustrating.

Counter-demonstrators gathered across the street. The sides were separated by barriers.

Funds drawn from the police force should be reallocated to trained social workers and others, David Lewis, one of the counter-protesters, told KOMO.

This isnt saying abolish the police altogether, this is saying put the funds in to the organizations that actually decrease the crime that we have here. If you increase education and housing and welfare in these neighborhoods, we wont have as much crime, he said.

After two counter-protesters waded into the pro-police crowd, they were removed.

Police officers said the removal came because the women were trying to cause an altercation.

In this still image from video, Seattle Police Officers Guild President Mike Solan speaks in an interview with The Epoch Times in Seattle on June 29, 2020. (The Epoch Times)

In a Twitter post after the rally, Mike Solan, the police unions president, said he was truly humbled & yet not surprised by what he described as the ignored majority coming out to show their support for the police.

Solan urged Seattle City Council members to vote against defunding the police, or slashing funding to law enforcement.

The City Council is scheduled on Aug. 10 to vote on the citys budget for the rest of the year. Council members last week approved cutting millions from the Seattle Police Department but rejected efforts by Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, a socialist, to cut the departments budget by 50 percent.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Police Chief Carmen Best have united on opposing deep cuts to the department, arguing it would cripple the police force and lead to a delay in response times.

Sawants proposal would lead to the termination of 681 officers, Best told council members in July.

Cuts to patrol officers will lead to significant layoffs, closure of precincts, including the Southwest Precinct, and slower response times, she said.

Maria Lorena Gonzalez, the councils president, said in a briefing last week that police would be at fault if they couldnt respond to crimes.

A protester carries a sign during a Defund the Police march from King County Youth Jail to City Hall in Seattle, Wash., on Aug. 5, 2020. (Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images)

Slashing funding means money will be contributed to more pressing efforts, Gonzalez said.

Instead of buying bullets, violence, and intimidation, we are choosingthe City Council is choosingto invest in peace and restoration of communities that have been ravaged by generations of racism, she said.

Some officers will be terminated because of the cuts, the council president confirmed. Councilwoman Lisa Herbold asserted that officers are used too broadly, pushing for unarmed city workers to respond to some 911 calls.

We are asking police officers to do too much, and in doing so we make our communities less safe, she said.

Council members are all Democrats except for Sawant. The council is following some of the plans laid out by Decriminalize Seattle and King County Equity Now Proposals, two groups pushing for deep cuts to the police.

The Seattle Police Officers Guild, a police union, said on Aug. 8 that its petition against defunding the police has now been signed by more than 160,000 people.

On the petition website, the union accuses the City Council of having no specific plan and said cutting funding will lead to immensely longer 911 response times and of course, higher crime rates.
A Valencia County business development program is breaking ground later this year, and economic development experts are optimistic it will keep more money and living-wage jobs in the community.

With help from a $40,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant, a new business incubator at 22 El Cerro Loop in Los Lunas is slated to open by the end of the year.

Ralph Mims, economic development manager for the Village of Los Lunas, said he sees the program as a way to give talented entrepreneurs what they need to succeed in Los Lunas, rather than forcing them to seek those resources out in a larger city.

A lot of these startups need financial help, they need guidance, they need a lot of things, Mims said. The business incubator will be a good tool to keep them in Valencia County.

Business incubators, programs designed to help startup companies develop by offering resources ranging from office space to one-on-one training, are common in New Mexicos larger cities, but remain relatively rare in rural parts of the state.

Russell Combs, a consultant on the project, said he believes that the incubator can create between 35 and 50 jobs in Valencia County in its first year of operation.

Fifty new jobs  solid, good-paying jobs in Valencia County  is gigantic, Combs said.

Prior to receiving the grant funding, Mims reached out to Combs to put a study determining what industries would be the best fit for the industry. To Combs surprise, the study revealed that there was unmet demand for a business incubator that helped food production companies grow.

We started finding  how many people were doing food products, more or less as a hobby, Combs said.

In the short term, the business incubator will be home to companies from all sectors. However, Combs said the long-term plan is to move into a larger space a year or two later, and add commercial kitchen equipment to help companies looking to develop their food production businesses.

The larger incubator will be split evenly between food product companies and other industries, Combs said.

Companies looking to participate in the program must go through a 30- to 45-day intake process, where the leadership team answers questions about its business model and funding structure. Combs said the program is designed to encourage businesses to self-select.

From there, businesses receive technical assistance in a classroom setting and in one-on-one meetings with mentors. Combs said participants will learn to maintain and eventually scale up their businesses.

The idea is always pushing the company to be better and to meet higher goals, Combs said.

He added that the program will take two to three years for most companies to complete.

While Combs acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down development, he said he hopes the incubator will be open by early December.
On the first day of mandated masks, there was no insurrection in Cork  the people just got on with it, with no fuss, and a stoic attitude of que sera, sera.

It has a proud tradition as the Rebel County but Cork people have invariably known when to pick their battles.

Refusing to wear masks in shops was not one of them, especially with the health of the nation and their fellow citizens at stake.

With wisdom and patriotism that belied his tender years, 10-year-old Derren O'Donovan from Ballygarvan said it best.

"If it is helping others, and keeping everyone safe, then it's no big deal. We just get on with it," the youngster told the Irish Examiner, with bigger brother Ciaran and mum Fiona O'Donovan leading by example and keeping their masks on while strolling on Patrick's St, just to be sure.

Fiona O'Donovan pictured with her sons Derren and Ciaran. Derren says wearing a mask is "no big deal."

There was a collective shrugging of the shoulders from people in the city centre when it came to the threat of 2,500 fines or even a prison stint if mask compliance was not adhered to  the solution was "just wear it".

It was business as usual in Cork city centre, with traders doing their utmost to prepare for mandated masks, and assisting would-be customers of they forgot about the new normal.

Pam O'Regan, a Cork city centre stalwart of business, who has run Saville Menswear on Oliver Plunkett Street with husband Jim O'Regan for more than 40 years, was similarly stoic.

"I've seen The Troubles in the North, lived through a time when tuberculosis was rife in Ireland, and I've been a nurse  trust me, these sacrifices we are making in the grand scheme of things are small if it means we stay safe.

"This disease is not something you would wish on anyone. Yes, businesses have been badly hit, and we are no different than most, but we will do what is needed to keep our city safe.

"I've been giving the lads here a pain in the head for months, drumming it into them daily about the importance of hand cleaning and other measures. We get on with it."

Long-time store manager assistant Lukasz Bukry said nearly every single customer felt similar.

"Our customers have been brilliant. We have plenty of space for social distancing, we are wearing our visors and have masks for customers that might forget to wear them, which can happen in the early days of something like this. To be fair, everyone has been great about all of it."

Brown Thomas staff member on the entrance with customers wearing facemasks, on Patrick Street.Picture: Jim Coughlan

The visors were an important aspect for customers who prefer visual contact when staff members are speaking to them, Ms O'Regan added  especially those who are hearing impaired.

Fashion designer Christofer Kaprelien was adamant  if masks help stave off infections, then they are 100% worthwhile.

He has seen how Covid-19 devastated his homeland when the pandemic gripped the country in its insidious clutches back in March.

"I saw in the early days of Covid-19 how Italy suffered. It was terrible. These measures being taken, including those supporting businesses, have been excellent, believe me."

With its popularity reaching cult-like status in Cork, clothing store Penneys could have been a tinderbox for defiance, given its prime location on Patrick's St and its appeal to all demographics.

But there was no defiance. Just people carefully putting on masks and waiting patiently to enter the store, same as every other day, only this time there was one extra measure to be taken.

Penneys staff were the epitome of patience and good nature as they guided their customers in the front door and out the back.

The same could be said for Brown Thomas. Anyone who was gently reminded that a mask was necessary to enter the store took it in the spirit that is was intended. The only cries and exclamations by customers were those of gentle self-criticism, "Oh sorry, I'll put it on straight away, I completely forgot."

The only signs of frustration came from the city street parking and car parks.

Saville Cork staff with their facemasks, Pam O'Regan and Lukasz Bukry.Picture: Jim Coughlan

Inevitably, groans came after people left their cars, only to remember 30 metres on that they had forgotten to pack their new essential item.

Trudging back to the car and headshaking in self-annoyance will be commonplace for weeks to come. But like smoking bans, paying for plastic bags and not using cars on Patrick's St between 3pm and 6pm, it will soon be the norm, just another thing to remember as we keep Covid-19 at bay.

Retail Excellence, which represents more than 13,000 stores in Ireland, said the cooperation between shop staff and the public was key.

Managing Director of Retail Excellence, Duncan Graham said: "Since the Taoiseach announced over two weeks ago about the compulsory wearing of face coverings in retail, compliance has steadily improved.

"We take our responsibilities seriously and will be looking for the support of the public to help make shopping safe for all."
Commander of the Defense Army of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and concurrently chairperson of the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons of Artsakh, Major General Jalal Harutyunyan today visited the Union of Relatives of Missing Freedom Fighters.

The press service of the Defense Army reported that the army commander, escorted by President of the Union Vera Grigoryan, toured the museum presenting the lives and careers of missing freedom fighters, granted mementos to the Union and discuss a number of issues of the relatives concern.

The army commander promised to bring a new sweep and convey a new quality to the activities of the Commission and keep all the issues in focus.

Grigoryan expressed gratitude to Harutyunyan for the effective cooperation and granted the Homeland and Faith Medal as a sign of gratitude.
Pennsauken, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/10/2020 -- The Law Offices of Vincent J. Ciecka, P.C., a South Jersey law firm specializing in workers' compensation cases, is currently booking consultations for workers who have been injured on the job and need help receiving the benefits they deserve. Unlike other areas of the law  such as divorce, civil suits, and corporate  there are no upfront costs associated with filing a workers' compensation case. In fact, the attorneys can only be paid through what's known as a "contingency fee."



A contingency fee is always collected at the end of a case, following a judgment or settlement. While this may appear to limit the quality of the attorney that chooses to work on contingency, it also helps ensure that those who are legitimately interested in helping protect the rights of injured workers are working on the case.



At the end of the case, a workers' compensation attorney is awarded their fee by the judge. Typically, the judge grants the lawyer a fee that amounts to twenty percent of the final settlement. The client never has to pay anything more than twenty percent and, in some cases, insurance companies may help to pay the fee as well. However, clients don't have to pay a dime if they don't win the case.



Part of the reason why workers' compensation lawyers are required to work on contingency is to provide access to legal representation to those who are hurt while at work. Some might prefer to forgo filing their case to keep from dealing with the extra stress, but there have been numerous cases where denied benefits have been overturned by appeal. Although the New Jersey workers' compensation system was designed to protect workers, it isn't always the easiest to navigate without assistance, which is why having access to an experienced attorney is so necessary.



To find out more about legal fees or to schedule a consultation with a Camden County workers' compensation attorney, visit https://ciecka.com/.



About The Law Offices of Vincent J. Ciecka, P.C.

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New research at the University of Warwick has (pardon the pun) put a new spin on a mathematical analogy involving a jumping grasshopper and its ideal lawn shape. This work could help us understand the spin states of quantum-entangled particles.

The grasshopper problem was devised by physicists Olga Goulko (then at UMass Amherst), Adrian Kent and Damian Pitalua-Garcia (Cambridge). They asked for the ideal lawn shape that would maximize the chance that a grasshopper, starting from a random position on the lawn and jumping a fixed distance in a random direction, lands back on the lawn. Intuitively one might expect the answer to be a circular lawn, at least for small jumps. But Goulko and Kent actually proved otherwise: various shapes from a cogwheel pattern to some disconnected patches of lawn performed better for different jump sizes (link to the technical paper).

Beyond surprises about lawn shapes and grasshoppers, the research provided useful insight into Bell-type inequalities relating probabilities of the spin states of two separated quantum-entangled particles. The Bell inequality, proved by physicist John Stewart Bell in 1964 and later generalised in many ways, demonstrated that no combination of classical theories with Einstein's special relativity is able to explain the predictions (and later actual experimental observations) of quantum theory.

The next step was to test the grasshopper problem on a sphere. The Bloch sphere is a geometrical representation of the state space of a single quantum bit. A great circle on the Bloch sphere defines linear polarization measurements, which are easily implemented and commonly used in Bell and other cryptographic tests. Because of the antipodal symmetry for the Bloch sphere, a lawn covers half the total surface area, and the natural hypothesis would be that the ideal lawn is hemispherical. Researchers in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick, in collaboration with Goulko and Kent, investigated this problem and found that it too requires non-intuitive lawn patterns. The main result is that the hemisphere is never optimal, except in the special case when the grasshopper needs exactly an even number of jumps to go around the equator. This research shows that there are previously unknown types of Bell inequalities.

One of the paper's authorsDmitry Chistikov from the Centre for Discrete Mathematics and its Applications (DIMAP) and the Department of Computer Science, at the University of Warwick, commented:

"Geometry on the sphere is fascinating. The sine rule, for instance, looks nicer for the sphere than the plane, but this didn't make our job easy."

The other author from Warwick, Professor Mike Paterson FRS, said:

"Spherical geometry makes the analysis of the grasshopper problem more complicated. Dmitry, being from the younger generation, used a 1948 textbook and pen-and-paper calculations, whereas I resorted to my good old Mathematica methods."

The paper, titled "Globe-hopping," is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A. It is interdisciplinary work involving mathematics and theoretical physics, with applications to quantum information theory.

Explore further Grasshopper problem yields insight into quantum theory
Bengaluru, Aug 11 : The Karnataka government has appealed for a special financial aid of Rs 4,000 crore from the Central government to fund its flood relief and rehabilitation measures, a minister said on Monday.

"According to the initial assessment, the state has suffered a loss of Rs 4,000 crore. A proper survey will be carried out later," said Home Minister Basavaraj S. Bommai.

Bommai and Revenue Minister R. Ashok made this appeal in a video conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa was undergoing treatment for Covid, his cabinet colleagues chipped in for him in Modi's flood review meeting.

Additionally, the state has also asked for the second installment of Rs 395 crore to reinforce the State Disaster Response Fund to meet the immediate relief measures.

Bommai and Ashok made these requests during the meeting conducted by Modi.

The ministers told the Prime Minister that 885 villages spread over the seven districts of Raichur, Belagavi, Kodagu, Chikkamagalur, Shivamogga, Haveri and Hassan have been affected by the floods.

Likewise, in an effort to handle emergencies more efficiently, Bommai said four more National Disaster Response Teams (NDRF) have been sought for the state.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for dialogue on Monday while still pushing ahead with a contentious Mediterranean gas development plan that has outraged Greece and alarmed NATO and the EU.

The budding row over suspected reserves in the eastern Mediterranean Sea pits a range of regional powers in a confrontation watched with worry in Brussels and Washington.

Turkey dispatched a research ship to the region on Monday -- just three days after Erdogan said he was tired of waiting for the outcome of sporadic talks held in the past month with Greece and EU powerhouse Germany.

The vessel's arrival in an disputed area near the island of Meis (Kastellorizo in Greek) prompted Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday to confer with his military chiefs.

Mitsotakis took no action but the Greek foreign ministry called the ship's arrival a "serious escalation" that "exposed" Turkey's "destabilising role".

Erdogan sounded a slightly more conciliatory note after a meeting with his own ministers later Monday.

"Let us all come together as Mediterranean countries and find a formula that protects all of our rights," Erdogan said in a national address.

But Erdogan added: "We cannot allow (nations) to ignore a big country like Turkey and try to imprison us to our shores."

NATO and EU Alarm

The dispute is fanning longstanding regional tensions that flared up again with the military conflict in Libya.

Erdogan said last month he was "suspending" gas exploration to give time for talks with Greece and the EU's current president Germany.

But the mood soured when Greece and Egypt last week signed an agreement to set up an exclusive economic zone in the region.

The Turkish foreign ministry said the "so-called maritime deal" was "null and void".

Turkey's Oruc Reis vessel is planning to conduct seismic research at the easternmost edge of Greece's maritime jurisdiction.

The area is close to Turkey but belongs to Greece under international law.

Turkey says the rules are unfair since Greece only has rights to the waters because of a few tiny islands that expand its legal reach.

The European Union appears to be siding with Greece in the dispute.

The bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Sunday called Turkey's actions "extremely worrying" and a recipe for "greater antagonism and distrust".

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged respect for international law during his talks on Monday with the Greek premier.

"The situation must be resolved in a spirit of Allied solidarity and in accordance with international law," Stoltenberg tweeted after speaking to Mitsotakis.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 22:26:46|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit on Monday called on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to immediately interfere to enable a UN team to assess a neglected tanker off Yemen.

In a statement, the pan-Arab body chairman warned of the horrible destruction similar to Lebanon's Beirut blasts if the UN-led technical assessment and repair mission couldn't start the maintenance work onboard the Safer oil tanker off the coast of Ras Issa.

The maintenance work aims to avoid a possible catastrophic spill of 1.1 million barrels of crude oil.

At the end of May, water reportedly entered the engine room of the permanently anchored tanker, which could have led to disaster, but a temporary fix was applied at that time.

The tanker had served as floating oil storage and offloading vessel that is moored in the Red Sea before most of the crew deserted it after the Houthi rebels took over the area about five years ago.

"The indifference of the Houthis regarding the possible catastrophe reflects the rebels' carelessness about the suffering of the Yemeni people and the group's readiness to escalate the sufferings by keeping their influence and power," it added. Enditem
Human Rights Council urges Foreign Ministry negotiate release of journalists arrested in Minsk

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

17:37 10/08/2020

MOSCOW, August 10 (RAPSI)  Russias Presidential Human Rights Council has urged the Foreign Ministry to voice its official protest against arrests of Russian journalists in Belarus and immediately start negotiations on their release, according to a statement published on the bodys website.

Earlier, news has broken that five journalists from Russia reporting on the Presidential elections in Belarus were arrested.

Rights activists also called the Foreign Ministry to instruct the Russian Embassy in that country to find out where the journalists are held; what is their conditions; ensure that their rights are respected.

The Council says the journalists have committed no crimes, but were carrying out their professional duty.

The arrest of Semen Pegov, Maxim Solopov, Yevgeny Oleinik, Anton Starkov, and Dmitry Lasenko has been reported by the Union of Journalists of Russia.
Protesters calling for the resignation of Lebanon's government clashed with security forces in Beirut for two nights over the weekend - AFP

Lebanon's government resigned during a cabinet meeting on Monday to discuss early elections following last week's catastrophic explosion in Beirut, the country's health minister has said.

"The whole government resigned," Hamad Hassan told reporters at the end of the meeting.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab was expected to travel to the presidential palace to "hand over the resignation in the name of all the ministers," Mr Hassan said.

Pressure has mounted on the government to step down amid growing anger from a public that holds it accountable for the explosion that damaged half the capital last Tuesday.

Three ministers had already offered their resignations ahead of the meeting, while Foreign minister Nassif Hitti resigned the day before blast, warning the country was at risk of becoming a failed state and the government seemed incapable of reform.

Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni, a key negotiator with the International Monetary Fund over a rescue plan to help Lebanon exit a financial crisis, prepared his resignation letter and brought it with him to a cabinet meeting, a source close to him said.

The cabinet had been scheduled to meet to consider early elections promised by Mr Diab, following two nights of violent anti-government protests in Beirut at which demonstrators erected mock gallows and called the overthrow of the countrys ruling class.

But amid implacable anger in Lebanon and foreign governments distancing themselves, the government's position had become untenable.

"We need total dissolution," said Ghada Jannoun, a volunteer helping with a clean up operation in Beirut's Martyrs' Square on Monday.

At an international donor conference on Sunday, governments made it clear that foreign aid would bypass the government to be directly delivered to the Lebanese population.

USAID acting administrator John Barsa said on Sunday that American financial aid "is absolutely not going to the government."

Story continues

The cabinet was formed in January with the backing of powerful Iranian-backed Hizbollah group and its allies. It was tasked with enacting reforms to address a financial crisis and the demands of a nationwide protest movement that forced the resignation of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri last October.

At least nine members of parliament have now also resigned over the disaster, as the death toll has risen to more than 200 people and over 6,000 wounded, Beirut governor Marwan Abboud said Monday.

Dozens remain missing, he said, including many foreign workers.

The army has ended the rescue phase of the search for survivors at ground zero of the explosion at the port, where rescue workers had been looking for missing port workers who might have been trapped alive in the rubble.

The 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate blamed for the blast was seized from a cargo ship in 2013 and left at the port since then, despite port officials repeatedly warning of the danger the stockpile posed.

Losses from the blast are estimated between $10 billion to $15 billion and come as the country was already suffering a crippling economic collapse. The homes of an estimated 300,000 were unlivable in the immediate aftermath of the blast, with hundreds of buildings irreparably damaged.

Foreign governments pledged over 228 million pounds for immediate humanitarian relief on Sunday, including a further 20 million from the UK, on top of 5 million already made available.

Lebanons entrenched political class, which has been in power since the end of the civil law, has been blamed for decades of mismanagement and corruption that produced the current economic collapse, as well as the conditions in which a huge amount of explosive material could be stored in the capital for six years.

While President Michel Aoun has rejected an international probe into the blast, a Lebanese judge began questioning on Monday the heads of the country's security agencies on Monday.

The head of State Security Maj Gen Tony Saliba was the first to be interviewed by Judge Ghassan El Khoury, with more generals scheduled to be questioned.

About 20 people have been arrested over the explosion, including the head of the port and the head of Lebanons customs and his predecessor.

Officials say dozens of people have been questioned, including two former ministers, about why nothing was done about the ammonium nitrate stored at the port.

As recently as July 20, State Security had warned of the danger of the chemical, in a report sent to the offices of the president and prime minister.
RONN Motor Group

FIRST HYDROGEN FUEL CELL SUV, NAMED MYST

FIRST HYDROGEN FUEL CELL SUV, NAMED MYST

THE FULLY ENGINEERED SUV NAMED MYST IS THE FIRST TO BE BUILT ON OUR NEW Q-SERIES MULTI-PLATFORM SUV/SEDAN/MPV ALL-ELECTRIC/HYDROGEN FUEL CELL CHASSIS.



Scottsdale, Arizona, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RONN Motor Group, today announced the anticipated 2022 release of its new Hydrogen Fuel Cell SUV the Myst, named for the fact the only emission from a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is water vapor. Taking its design cues from the Scorpion, RONNs globally recognized hydrogen enhanced supercar, the Myst will keep the sporty look, and stylistic features as well as a complete package of engineering firsts:

Engineered in the United States by a team of automotive industry experts to exceed all global safety requirements

Represents the first modular BEV and Hydrogen Fuel Cell flexible platform that maximizes the wheelbase for best-in-class interior space with a distinct modern appearance

Unique designs for the SUV, CUV, MPV and delivery vehicles that have a common bill of process with high levels of commonality for engineering and operations efficiencies

Extensive use of the latest engineering modeling and simulation tools to deliver multi-material, design and manufacturing optimizations for weight and performance that deliver a best in class driving experience

RONNs Proprietary fuel cell technologies, including graphene plates, co-packaged with an OE tier one fuel cell provider.

RONN Ford, company CEO, said  we are as a company extremely excited to announce our new fully engineered all-electric/fuel cell multi vehicle platform, as the hydrogen/electric vehicle market is having many breakout moments in the capital markets. Our vehicle is fully engineered, computer tested for certifications in both China and the US, the US and European supply chains have been developed and our body design teams are earnestly working on the final design for release to the public.

As our company growth, engineering and manufacturing development have come into alignment, both in the US and China, we have been approached by several public SPACs in the last several weeks and are currently in discussions. Jerry Lavine, our new executive in charge of product development, and former Ford executive added the Myst SUV will define the global benchmark for product features and performance that are only achievable with the RONN Motor Groups all-new dedicated hydrogen fuel cell platform.

Story continues

RONN Motor Group, Inc Information:

RMG has grown into a multinational company with about 80 executives and engineers in both US and China

It plans to launch to the market its first mid-duty Class 3-6 fuel cell logistic truck in late2021. This truck will be produced in one of its JV in China.

It has also completed engineering and supplier certification of a pre-production SUV/Sedan platform and plans to launch all electric/fuel cell electric SUV/Sportscar in 2022.

RMG has formed two JVs in China. Formed a JV with a Chinese truck manufactures in one of its existing truck plants, which is 2 hours away from Shanghai. Owns the manufacturing facilities with an estimated asset value of over $100 million with over 2,000,000 square feet of manufacturing space. The JV partner - Kawei group is a well-established Auto maker in China with annual production value of $500M and fixed assets of $3B. It has more than 2000 employees. RMG plans to produce the logic truck in this JV leveraging Kaweis truck planform, experience, and expertise, as well as licenses, etc.

RMG formed another JV with Chinese Taixing municipal government, also 2 hours away from Shanghai. The JV partner committed $20 million and has already invested $2.2 million into the JV. It has also provided RMG a new 3-floor office building rent free as China HQ in prestigious Hongqiao district of Shanghai.

Chinese Qingdao municipal government has issued pre-orders for vehicles that could equal $200 million in sales, the initial focus will be fuel cell logistic trucks. Strategic Partnership in place to build an additional automobile manufacturing facility Ronn Ford named New Hydrogen Ambassador

Company has partners and suppliers similar to Nikola and others (Bosch Power Train, Matlabs Software, Roush Engineering, ElringKlinger all major OE global suppliers.

Contact:

Email: Evelyn.C@ronnmotorgroup.com

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MELBOURNE British and Australian investment funds said on Monday that Rio Tintos testimony last week over its destruction of ancient caves in Australia raised questions about the accountability of its senior leadership.

Rio chief executive Jean-SAbastien Jacques was grilled by an Australian Senate enquiry on Friday over how the company had legally destroyed two prehistoric rockshelters, causing deep distress to their Aboriginal owners.

Jacques told the inquiry that neither he nor other senior leaders had read a key archaeological report outlining the significance of a rockshelter showing continual human habitation before the last ice age 46,000 years ago.

aThe fact that Rio Tintoas senior management had not reviewed a critical report about the site itself calls into question the companyas governance and oversight processes," Councillor Doug McMurdo, Chair of Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF), said in a statement.

If there had been an effective community engagement process in place, it is hard to see how this tragedy could have occurred."

LAPFF represents 81 British public sector pension funds with assets of 300 billion sterling ($392.07 billion).

The LAPFF, together with the Australian industry fund Hesta, and ethical investment advocate, the Australian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR), found Rios apparent lack of senior level accountability for the destruction of the caves," concerning, representatives said.

Accountability is so opaque on community engagement regarding heritage issues that we are very concerned about how RIO is managing Indigenous Heritage considerations across the entirety of their business,a Mary Delahunty, Head of Impact at HESTA said in a statement to Reuters.

The caves, were of great cultural significance to the

Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura People (PKKP), were destroyed as part of Rios Brockman iron ore mine expansion.

Rio said it its submission that it believed it had the fully informed consent of the traditional owners to mine the area, but its CEO told the inquiry on Friday that the miner had not presented the PKKP with three alternative mine plans that would not have resulted in the destruction of the caves.

($1 = 0.7652 pounds)

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Just weeks before the first day of school for many Lehigh Valley districts, Pennsylvania state education officials on Monday unveiled new guidelines for safely reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The guidelines align community infection rates and positive test rates to recommended school instruction models from fully in-person to all virtual learning. They are not a mandate. Theyre meant to assist districts.

Only communities with low levels of community transmission -- fewer than 10 new cases per 100,000 residents over the last week -- and a positivity rate under 5% should operate fully in-person, according to the guidelines. Such districts could also opt for a blended model.

The Lehigh Valleys two counties have a moderate level of the virus spreading in the community. The state recommends blended learning or fully remote learning in such communities.

Valley school districts are considering an array of options this fall from fully virtual in Allentown to blended in Easton to all in-person in the Saucon Valley School Districts. Administrators have spent much of the summer crafting re-opening plans, which school boards have hotly debated before submitting them to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Some are still under consideration.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education issued guidelines Monday that include public health metrics and thresholds established by the White House Coronavirus Task Force.Sara K. Satullo | For lehighvalleylive.com

In a conference call with reporters on Monday, state Health Secretary Rachel Levine and Education Secretary Pedro Rivera said they are attempting to strike a balance between public health and education, allowing districts to be nimble with local decisions in a continuously evolving pandemic environment. The guidelines are meant to aid districts in making decisions to reopen and to know when a shift in educational models is warranted.

But that means a safe return to school will look different across every school, district and county depending on a variety of factors. And recommendations may change depending on what happens this fall.

There are no good choices. We have to choose the least bad choice, Levine said, noting that schools have the potential to become super-spreader events.

The system pulls on data from the states early warning dashboard, which tracks a slew of public health metrics measuring the viruss spread in all 67 counties over the last week. It is updated every Friday.

Currently, 22 largely rural counties are classified as low spread while the rest of the state is moderate. Only Union County in central Pennsylvania is considered substantial, mostly due to cases spreading through a federal prison there, Levine said.

Northampton Countys incidence rate has been 28 new cases per 100,000 residents over the last week with a 2.9% positive test rate. Lehigh Countys has the same incidence rate with a positivity rate of 3.1%. Both counties have seen new cases drop in the last week.

Relying on that data, the education department plans to issue a list each week, ranking spread as low, moderate or high in each county. The thresholds come from the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

From the beginning of this pandemic, we have said that decisions would be based on science and on data, Levine said in a news release. These recommendations use that data to help schools make local decisions.

Districts should consider changing instructional models only after observing two consecutive weeks of the same designation, according to the guidelines. So, a school offering a hybrid model in a moderate county might transition to fully in-person if the county moves to low for two weeks.

But, recognizing that such changes are disruptive to schools and families, a district may take up to an entire marking period to alter their instructional models, Deputy Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education Matthew Stem told reporters.

A widespread outbreak may necessitate moving to remote learning quickly. The health department will provide help to school entities if such an outbreak occurs. However, the ultimate decision is up to the districts themselves -- the health and education secretaries said that their departments can mandate action only if granted that ability by the legislature.

In response to the new guidelines, the Pennsylvania State Education Association urged schools to follow the states recommendations but also asked for clearer, more consistent directives from Harrisburg.

We still need state directives that make it absolutely clear that, in addition to wearing a mask, everyone must maintain 6 feet of social distance and when a school should close if a student or staff member tests positive for COVID-19, PSEA President Rich Askey said in a news release. The governors announcement today is a significant step forward, but state government still needs to answer some questions that school districts cant answer themselves.

Levine said the state will soon issue further guidance for when students or staff test positive.

On Sunday, Bethlehem Area School Board President Michael Faccinetto said he wished the state was providing more guidance to districts as they navigate reopening. Bethlehem is proposing a hybrid model that the school board is set to vote on Monday evening.

The latest guidance from PDE with clear metrics for different instructional models is welcome news for districts as they prepare for reopening this fall, Faccinetto said Monday. However, this information would have been much more useful had it been released in early July, not early August when most districts have already developed or approved their plans. I received this information just six hours before the BASDs final vote on our reopening plan.

If the school board approves it, Bethlehem students will attend school two days a week and learn virtually the other three. The district is offering two online learning options for students.

MORE: Pa. temporarily suspends school immunization rule (but kids still need to get them)

Editors Note: A previous version of this story did not reflect an Aug. 8 change to the Nazareth Area School Districts reopening plan. High school students will attend school every other day, so the district has a hybrid model. The story has been corrected.

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

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com.
The new 35 COVID-19 positive cases at one of the biggest prisons in Kashmir has come weeks after more than 90 inmates were found positive at the Anantnag jail. Capable of holding not more than 3,234 inmates, prisons in Jammu and Kashmir currently have 3,700 inmates.

The overcrowded prisons in Kashmir are turning out to be COVID epicentres with 35 fresh cases reported at the Srinagar Central jail.

Last year in August, when the Central government revoked the semi autonomous status of Kashmir after abrogating the Article 370, the number of inmates in the prison witnessed a sudden increase. The authorities have recently stepped up their operations and detained several militant sympathisers while several people have also been imprisoned for anti-India "dissent" on social networking sites.

The new 35 COVID-19 positive cases at one of the biggest prisons in Kashmir has come weeks after more than 90 inmates were found positive at the Anantnag jail. Capable of holding not more than 3,234 inmates, prisons in Jammu and Kashmir currently have 3,700 inmates. The number of prisoners remains more than double in some jails, like the Anatnag district jail, while the detainees include several hundred women as well senior citizens (above the age of 60).

Local prison officials admitted that the capacities in Kashmiri prisons were inadequate. With fresh cases, the families of detainees have expressed worries over the condition of the inmates.

Qazi Umair, brother of journalist Qazi Shibli, said that the authorities chose to detain him in the middle of the pandemic. "My brother has been taken into preventive custody. He was detained last month on the eve of Eid and is now lodged at the Srinagar central jail. He was detained first at the police lockup before he was shifted to the prison," Umair said.

Earlier, Shibli was released after being detained for nine months in a prison outside the Union Territory (UT) in the run-up to the abrogation of special status, in what his family said was over tweets about the deployment of thousands of troops in Kashmir. His fresh detention came after he ran a story and also tweeted that the coverage of media channels accusing US-based Kashmiri architect, Tony Ashai, of being close to Pakistani establishment was part of a larger conspiracy to vilify Kashmiris."

Human rights activist Mohammad Ehsan Untoo said that the prisoners were cramped in the Central jail. "A single barrack of few feet houses some 25 inmates," he said.

Untoo was recently released as the authorities didnt press any fresh charges against him after the tenure of his public safety act (PSA) detention expired last week. He was detained last year on 5 August as "over a thousand police and other government force personnel surrounded my house in Rajbagh and whisked me away."

"The condition of the prisoners in the Central jail is pathetic. The facility is cramped and prisoners are not provided proper medicine, food and drinking water," he said.

However, senior superintendent of Srinagar Central Jail Tej Ram Katoch said that the authorities ensureed "proper facilities at the jail and all new inmates were first being quarantined and their tests were carried out before they were taken for lodgning in the barracks.

We lodged Qazi Shibli at the quarantine facility at the prison and he has tested negative for coronavirus," he said. Katoch added that Shibli was facing a case of "preventive detention."

On 16 July, among the 190 prisoners lodged at the Anantnag jail, around 90 tested positive. Officials said that the inmates contracted the disease during the medical screening camp at the prison. Though some inmates were shifted outside Kashmir, the jail still houses 150 prisoners against the capacity of 70 only.

"All those who tested positive for the COVID have now recovered. We had shifted them to the quarantine facility of the Kashmir University campus in Anantnag," said Syroze Ahmad Bhat, Superintendent of Anantnag jail. "We have shifted out several inmates, while we are constructing new barracks here which will add capacity for more than 100 inmates in a month," he said.

Deputy Inspector General of Prisons MS Lone said that in a month the capacity will increase to house 500-600 inmates in different prisons across Jammu and Kashmir. "We are ensuring proper medical screening so that COVID remains under check," Lone added.

Katoch said that in order to ensure that the disease doesnt spread at the Srinagar jail any further, the authorities have restricted meeting between the family members and the prisoners.

On 29 July, the authorities in Srinagar issued and order empowering the DG prisons to extend the parole of the prisoners to check the overcrowding here. Umesh Sharma, deputy secretary of the Home department, who issued the order, said that this was done on the recommendation of a panel which had designated the class of the prisoners who could be released from the jails.

The panel that was constituted on 29 March was tasked to determine the category/class of prisoners who may be considered for release on parole or interim bail for such period as may be thought appropriate, depending upon the nature of offence, the number of years to which he or she has been sentenced or the severity of the offence to which he or she is charged and is facing trial. However on the recommendation of the panel, the parole has been extended to those convicts who have spent more than 10 years in jail and was subject to the good behaviour.

Advocate Zia-u-Rehman, said that the order release the prisoners on parole excluded those detained in militancy related cases. While some stone pelters were routinely released on bail by the Courts, the parole has not benefitted a large number of detainees charged in the militancy related cases.

Umesh said that the order to exclude the militancy related detainees was issued on the recommendations of the panel.

Untoo said that while his petition seeking the revocation of his detention order under the Public Safety Act (PSA) was reserved for judgment before the High Court he was released after the end of his one-year detention term. He was detained in August after being charged that his human rights campaigns were tarnishing the image of security forces. The previous governments including the one lead by PDP-BJP alliance however acted on his petitions which were filed before the State Human Rights Commission to provide relief to the victims of human rights violations. The security forces in the Valley have faced a number of cases of human rights violations during the anti-militancy operations.
I have expected this day would come, but I did not expect it to come at this moment, after the U.S. sanctions, said a journalist at Apple Daily, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. These arrests are about revenge. They are targeting us, a media outlet which is the most outspoken against the Hong Kong government and Beijing.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/8/2020 (526 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A judge has approved the sale of embattled fashion mogul Peter Nygards Toronto headquarters.

Queens Bench Justice James Edmond OKd the move by receiver Richter Advisory Group on Monday.

PHIL HOSSACK / FREE PRESS FILES A judge has approved the sale of embattled fashion mogul Peter Nygards Toronto headquarters.

The sale price of the 25,000-square-foot facility remains sealed by court order until the move is finalized later this month. The property was put on the market for $23 million.

"The receiver expresses the opinion that the transaction represents the most favourable offer available for the Niagara (Street) property," Edmond said. "The best interests of the parties is served by proceeding as quickly as possible."

The Nygard Group of Companies was placed in receivership in March, after creditors White Oak Commercial Finance LLC and Second Avenue Capital Partners LLC sought repayment of a US$25-million loan.

CINDY KARP / THE NEW YORK TIMES FILES Peter Nygard on Lyford Cay in front of his 150,000-square-foot Polynesian-style home in 2000.

Earlier that same month, a class-action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. accusing Nygard of sexual misconduct against dozens of women. Nygard, through his lawyers, has repeatedly maintained his innocence.

A judges approval is necessary for the sale of any property in a receivership proceeding valued over $250,000.

"This is certainly good news today in the sense that depending on the precise timing of receipt and closing, its most likely the lenders will be able to be paid out," White Oak Capital lawyer Jeremy Dack said.

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JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Nygard attempted to forestall sale of the Notre Dame property, arguing it housed an apartment that had been his primary residence since returning to Winnipeg from the Bahamas a year-and-a-half ago.

Sale approval for the Toronto property comes a month after Richter was given the go-ahead to accept Mist Holding Inc.s offer to purchase Nygards Notre Dame Avenue business property.

The 4.6-acre Winnipeg property had been listed for $5.2 million. Court heard the final sales price was well under the list price.

"That sale is in the process of being closed," Richter lawyer Bruce Taylor told court Monday.

Nygard attempted to forestall sale of the Notre Dame property, arguing it housed an apartment that had been his primary residence since returning to Winnipeg from the Bahamas a year-and-a-half ago.

Edmond rejected the move, saying there was no evidence of any tenancy agreement between Nygard and the company that bears his name, noting the property is not zoned for residential use.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Police have named a 35-year-old man who was stabbed to death during a 'large-scale disturbance' on Saturday in South Yorkshire as Marcus Ramsay.

Emergency services scrambled to a suburb of Sheffield shortly after midnight following reports of a mass knife brawl, which came after a house party celebrating Jamaica's independence day.

Locals described the scene on Saturday night as 'mayhem' as up to 200 people were said to have gathered on the residential street.

Mr Ramsay, who was named by police last night, was rushed to hospital with multiple stab wounds to his upper body. He was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

Police have named a 35-year-old man who was stabbed to death during a 'large-scale disturbance' on Saturday in South Yorkshire as Marcus Ramsay (above). He was rushed to hospital with multiple stab wounds to his upper body and was pronounced dead shortly after arrival

Emergency services scrambled to a suburb of Sheffield shortly after midnight following reports of violence, which came after a house party celebrating Jamaica's independence day. (Above, police at the scene)

Three other men, all aged 24, sustained 'non life-threatening' injuries and were treated at hospital before being released a short time later.

A police helicopter was scrambled and the area was sealed off for a forensic examination.

One female resident said: 'At 11pm, it all kicked off. There were maybe 150-200 people on the street. Cars were parked everywhere. It was mayhem.

'It was very noisy and this road was absolutely choc-a-block. There were loads of police.'

A pregnant woman was also said to have been pushed over, according to witnesses at the scene.

Another woman said: 'A friend of mine organised the party. It was for Jamaican Independence Day. All of a sudden there were girls shouting, there was a massive ruckus.

Three other men, all aged 24, sustained 'non life-threatening' injuries and were treated at hospital before being released a short time later. Residents described the scene on Saturday night as 'mayhem' as 200 people were said to have gathered on the residential street

'The police helicopter flew over us, there were police everywhere and at least one ambulance.'

A post-mortem carried out yesterday concluded that Mr Ramsay died as a result of a stab wound.

South Yorkshire Police's investigation is ongoing this evening and investigators are still trying to ascertain the exact circumstances surrounding the incident.

They have renewed their appeal for anyone with information to come forward.

Senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Mark Oughton said: 'The answers to this investigation lie within the local community.

'I am aware that there were large numbers of people congregated on Horninglow Road due to a house party and I believe that many of them will have seen the altercation that led to Mr Ramsay being fatally injured.

'As we work to piece together exactly what happened and provide answers for Mr Ramsay's family, it's these people who we need to come forward and speak to us.

'I am urging anyone who saw what happened or knows who is responsible, to get in touch.

'Even if you think the piece of information you have is insignificant, it could prove vital to our investigation.'

Anyone with information should call 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111, quoting incident number 18 of August 8, 2020.
Lawmakers from border states want a clearer picture of how technology can be brought to bear mile-by-mile along the U.S. border with Mexico.

A pair of bipartisan bills recently introduced in the House and Senate would require the Department of Homeland Security to assess technology needs along every mile of the 2,000 mile U.S. border with Mexico in conjunction with physical barriers.

On Aug. 5, Rep. Xochitl Torres Small (D-N.M.) introduced the Southwest Border Security Technology Improvement Act of 2020. The bill would require DHS to examine and report back on technology needs and gaps along the southern border.

The bill was also backed by former Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Rep. Michael McCaul, (R-Texas), as well as Reps. Elisa Slotkin (D-Mich.), and Michael Cloud (R-Texas).

A companion bill in the Senate, backed by Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) cleared the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on July 22.

The bills would require DHS to immediately assess technologies currently in use along the border, identifying the most and least effective of them, including communications gear, used by border agents. The legislation also keeps border barriers and other infrastructure in DHS' toolkit.

The legislation would also require DHS to take a more detailed look at emerging technologies, including manned and unmanned aerial systems, tower-based surveillance technology, as well as tunnel and other detection technologies.

DHS would also have to assess technologies that may be needed or developed for future needs, as well as privacy impacts of those existing and new technologies.

The agency would have to complete those assessments within a year of the legislation's enactment into law.

Supplementing border security with advancing technological capabilities and systems has been championed in the past by other border state representatives, as the White House has emphasized its push for a border wall.

Rep. Will Hurd, (R-Texas), for instance, said last June that the future of border security is in tech, not walls. Hurd, whose district includes 800 miles of U.S.-Mexico border, has been a longtime opponent of plans to build a continuous wall along the southern border, instead championing what he says are more efficient technological solutions. Hurd is retiring from Congress after the election, however.

Border agencies are already investing in emerging commercial technologies that offer more efficient operations and capabilities. Acting DHS chief Chad Wolf told Senate appropriators in February that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was looking for a $28 million increase to support the rollout of 30 autonomous surveillance towers. This summer CBP made an additional significant commitment to autonomous tower technology, when it signed a contract with Anduril for over 100 autonomous surveillance towers that would be added to the agency's inventory.

The agency made the portable, off-the-grid systems into a program of record to supplement ongoing Remote Video Surveillance System (RVSS) and Integrated Fixed Towers (IFT) already in border sections in Arizona and Texas.

Ultimately, CBP wants to procure and deploy the autonomous surveillance towers in fiscal 2021 and 2022.

Detailed reviews of technology needs that take on-the-ground border agents' needs into account, said former CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske, are effective. Such reviews, he said, helped weed out the ineffectual multibillion-dollar SBInet border surveillance project in 2011. That project with Boeing was cancelled after costs ballooned and the effort wasn't practical for border agents operating on the ground. Leaving operators out of the contracting process, said Kerlikowske in an Aug. 10 email to FCW, was a big part of the system's problems.

Requirements along the 2,000 mile border vary tremendously, Kerlikowske said.

"It is really a complex problem and as you know, if you have seen one part of the border you have seen one part of the border," he said.

New technologies, such as integrated fixed towers, ground sensors, portable video, drones, tethered aerostats, combined with various border walls/fencing, along with any emerging technologies, are more cost effective and work well, he said.

"No agent ever asked me in three years to build a wall, they wanted improved technology," he said.
Queenslanders flying back to the state from COVID-19 hotspots are expected to be able to apply for their border passes online from Monday, after new restrictions came into place at the weekend.

Authorities are urging residents of border zones in Queensland and NSW to plan ahead for any future clamp-down on travel based on community transmission in the southern state.

NSW and the ACT were added to Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young's list of declared hotspots from 1am on Saturday, with entry to Queensland barred to anyone who had spent time in either until they have quarantined for 14 days.

As part of a hard closure of the border, Queensland residents returning north are now forced to fly in before undertaking their self-funded 14-day stay in hotel quarantine. People who have been within Victoria in the previous 14 days are also being refused entry.
As the narrative surrounding Hagia Sophia plays out, I find myself travelling back to informal chats with ordinary Turks on the countrys streets a decade ago.

It was a motley group at a seaside cafe in Eceabat. The cafe owner who was an avowed Kemal Ataturk admirer, a young Kurdish man who assisted her and loathed the father of modern Turkey, a German who loved sailing in the warm waters of the Mediterranean, and myself. We were sharing a table over a conversation on a lean business day for the cafe, We dont see too many Indians visiting Gallipoli, said the lady. Yup, we havent done justice to our dead soldiers lying along your Aegean shores, I quipped. The Gurkhas and the Indian Mule Corps formed a part of Allied troops ill-conceived plan to control the Dardanelles strait first, and then the Bosporus strait. The Battle of Gallipoli in the First World War enjoys a significant place in the hearts of Turks, and so does the man who led that campaign  Kemal Ataturk. But not unequivocally so, as I was soon to learn.

While Kemal Ataturk is admired as a war hero and the founder of the modern republic, his legacy vis-a-vis the West-inspired sweeping socio-cultural changes divided the nation. (Photo: Reuters)

Kemal is the reason why you see a woman running a cafe in this tiny outpost. He empowered the women of Turkey who were earlier tied to the family homestead. Kemal lost his father early in life and saw the hardships faced by his mother and sisters. His father, who worked in the army, had enrolled him in a secular school as opposed to an Islamic school in Salonika (now Thessaloniki) in modern-day Greece, which was then under Ottoman rule. The cosmopolitan milieu of the city, with sailors and traders visiting from diverse European and Asian nations, and his stints at the military academy, led to Kemal developing a liberal attitude. One that laid the foundation of the Cultural Revolution that he was to usher in in subsequent years.

Educated in Istanbul, the lady represented Ataturks constituency  secular, liberal, Turkish speaking and comfortable in the blend of Western and Eastern thought. As the evening wore on, city lights of Canakkale on the Asian side across the Dardanelles strait could be seen. The young Kurd, from the eastern town Siirt  near Turkeys border with Syria and Iraq  had a very different opinion on Kemal. Our people supported him during his campaign to turn Turkey into a republic (in 1923) in lieu of autonomy to the Kurdish region. He betrayed us and subsequently executed many Kurdish leaders. Despite being the largest ethnic minority, there are many constraints on them such as the ban on the Kurdish language as a medium of instruction in schools.

While Kemal is admired as a war hero and the founder of the modern republic, his legacy vis-a-vis the West-inspired sweeping socio-cultural changes divided the nation. He banned the veil and the Fez cap, and ordered the use of western clothing, especially at work. This was followed by an even more lasting change that decisively turned Turkey away from its connection with the Islamic world. The introduction of the Latin alphabet instead of the Arabic script was a watershed step. Converting the Hagia Sophia Mosque, earlier a church, into a museum in 1935 was Kemals way of resolving a centuries-old tussle between the two Semitic faiths.

Hagia Sophias magnificent structure with its majestic dome and minarets looks hauntingly beautiful from the waters of Bosporus strait  a view which has dominated the city skyline for over millennia. (Photo: Reuters)

While the army elite and urban centres largely took to the changes, the rural areas and communities steeped in Islamic faith struggled with these state-induced changes. Following Kemals death in 1938, the armys resolve to keep the secular flame alive progressively dwindled. Coups against democratically elected governments became the norm through the latter half of the 20th century. The ensuing chaos provided ideal conditions for the gradual revival of faith-based nationalism.

Hagia Sophia had been one of the major draws for my trip. The magnificent structure with its majestic dome and minarets looks hauntingly beautiful from the waters of Bosporus strait  a view which has dominated the city skyline for over millennia. The smattering of Christian and Islamic motifs juxtaposed together harked back to its central position in both faiths. The only time the two Turks in the cafe agreed was when they said: A museum seems like a good reconciliation.

Also Read | Hagia Sophia: Erdogan's dream is Turkey's nightmare
(Newser)  Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is calling for a rethinking of the "outdated and unfair" labor laws so that gig economy workers like Uber drivers can enjoy benefits as well as flexibility. In a New York Times op-ed, Khosrowshahi calls for the creation of a "third way" to stop workers being forced to choose "between being an employee with more benefits but less flexibility, or an independent contractor with more flexibility but almost no safety net." He says that while critics are calling for Uber to just make its drivers employees, this would result in there being far fewer Uber drivers, operating in fewer citiesand surveys have shown that most Uber drivers value flexibility too much to want to be full-time employees.

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He says Uber is "ready to pay more, right now" to give workers better protection and benefits, but it wants to do so under a new system, under which drivers, not companies, determine what benefits they receive. "Im proposing that gig economy companies be required to establish benefits funds which give workers cash that they can use for the benefits they want, like health insurance or paid time off," the CEO writes. He adds: "If gig workers want to keep their current flexibility and get new benefits, shouldn't we give them the best of both worlds, instead of asking them to choose the lesser of two evils?" Click for Khosrowshahi's full piece. The op-ed comes as the company awaits a ruling in a California case in which it is accused of violating a new state law that reclassifies gig workers as employees, not contractors, reports CNBC. (Read more Uber stories.)
The Galleria location of Kenny & Ziggys New York Delicatessen Restaurant is getting a new address, along with a cocktail menu and in-house bakery.

Kenny & Ziggys announced on Friday that it will move to the former Lubys Cafeteria Post Oak space at 1743 Post Oak in early-to-mid-2021. Lubys did not renew its lease, according to the release.

The restaurant's decision to relocate is based on the planned demolition of the strip center at 2327 Post Oak Blvd. where it is currently located, according to the release.

On CHRON.COM: Lubys to sell restaurant business and assets

Seating will more than double at the the deli's spacious new outpost, which will feature familiar touches such as walls adorned with celebrity caricatures and playbill covers. The decor is a nod to owner Ziggy Grubers grandfather, who opened the Rialto Delicatessen near New Yorks Rialto Theater in 1927.

You can also count on the the casual deli's massive portions of New York deli staples and Jewish comfort food from smoked fish to sandwiches piled high with house-cured meats.

New additions will include a full-service bar with traditional and creative cocktails, full-scale onsite bakery and soda fountain and coffee bar. The latter will offer milkshakes, ice cream sodas and sundaes, plus cake, coffee, pastries and coffee drinks.

Catering and nationwide shipping will be available.

The restaurant will continue to operate at its current location at 2327 Post Oak until the new location opens next year.

Kenny & Ziggys at 5172 Buffalo Speedway remains temporarily closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Fox News

A Florida teacher wrote her own obituary in protest at plans to reopen schools in the state amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Whitney Reddick, 33, said that she had succumbed to the ignorance of those in power, in a message posted on her Facebook page.

Ms Reddick, a special education teacher working in Jacksonville, penned the obituary after Floridas state commissioner last week issued an executive order that requires all schools to open for at least five days per week by the Autumn.

The executive order was issued as Florida continued to be ravaged by the virus.

With profound sadness, I announce the passing of Whitney Leigh Reddick, the obituary begins. She left us while alone in isolation and on a ventilator at a Duval county hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.

Ms Reddick went on to describe how her family  including her 14-month-old son  would be devastated by the loss.

Being so young his memories of her will fade and he will only have those that were captured in film. He will have a hole only a few children bear, Ms Reddick said of her son.

She fought with vigor for things she believed in, the obituary goes on. She stood up to injustice, embraced those who differed from her, and truly listened when spoken to.

Whitney never took the easy path, she was assertive, strong-willed, and bossy, she loved that word because, to her, it meant female leadership.

The obituary then describes how Ms Reddick goes back to school in Autumn as instructed but later dies from the virus.

She returned to work, did her best to handle all the roles placed on her shoulders; educator, COVID-security guard, human shield, firefighter, social worker, nurse, and caregiver but the workload weakened her, and the virus took hold.

The reopening of schools has been a controversial issue in Florida and in several other states across the country.

Those in favour of pupils resuming lessons argue that there is very little evidence to suggest that children are susceptible to the disease.

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And some experts have said that keeping children out of school poses a far greater risk to their health and development than the virus does.

But teachers working in the profession have argued that the risks are too high, arguing they face a unique set of challenges in trying to get children to practise social distancing.

Ms Reddick later told NBC News that she decided to post the obituary after reading stories about teachers in other states who had died with the virus.

It was an overwhelming sadness, she told the network. It just stuck with me that, I may not pass away, but somebody is going to. To me, somebody who does something to serve their community and has a serving heart, I dont want to lose that person.

I wanted to portray that sadness ... and being introspective and thinking about the choices that our lawmakers are making, she explained. I really wanted the gravity of their decisions to weigh.

By Monday afternoon, Florida had reported 533,000 infections, with 6,229 of those coming previous 24 hours alone, according to official figures. Some 8,185 people in the state have died with the virus.

Read more

Florida couple jailed after breaking coronavirus quarantine
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 22:46:58|Editor: huaxia

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JAKARTA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- An Indonesian prosecutor on Monday demanded life sentences for two people for allegedly transporting drugs, as the country is battling drug abuses.

Prosecutor Imam Murtado said in a court session in South Sumatra province's capital of Palembang that Sando Ekowardo, 28, and Sayadi, 50, had convincingly committed crimes as couriers of 22 kg of crystal methamphetamine.

"Therefore, we demanded the panel of judges to hand down life sentences to the convicts," Murtado said.

The duo were arrested in February in Palembang city, and as many as 22 sacks containing about 22 kg of crystal methamphetamine were seized from them, local media reported.

The defendants' lawyer Triyasa Aulia said that a note of defense for them will be delivered within a week.

The Indonesian government has declared a war against drugs as the country is in a drug emergency for rampant drug abuses.

Dozens of drug offenders had faced firing squads for illegally trafficking illicit drugs in the country. Enditem
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Purdue University will be a partner in a new National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center created to develop advanced agricultural technologies to address food, energy and water security challenges.

With a five-year, $26 million grant, the NSF has established the Engineering Research Center for the Internet of Things for Precision Agriculture (IoT4Ag). Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) are NSFs flagship engineering program for convergent research to address large-scale societal challenges.

The new center, headquartered at the University of Pennsylvanias School of Engineering and Applied Science, will combine the talents of more than two dozen researchers with Penn Engineering, Purdue University, the University of California, Merced, and the University of Florida.

Participation on the IoT4G team will leverage Purdues strengths in developing new engineering technologies that will improve agriculture and address global challenges, said Mark Lundstrom, acting dean of Purdue Universitys College of Engineering. Our involvement will also represent a new chapter in a long history of collaboration between the colleges of Engineering and Agriculture.

Karen Plaut, Purdues Glenn W. Sample Dean of the College of Agriculture, said, This center allows us to continue our long-standing collaboration with the College of Engineering to build critical foundational tools for agriculture. This work continues on the success of the Plant Sciences Initiative and enhances the ability of the WHIN project, a consortium of 10 counties in north-central Indiana, to harness the power of IoT to become a global epicenter for digital agriculture.

David J. Cappelleri, associate professor of mechanical engineering, who will serve as co-principal investigator, Purdue site director and workforce development co-lead for IoT4Ag, said, "We are very excited about the new IoT4Ag ERC, which is poised to have a transformational impact on the future agriculture. The engagement of Purdue researchers in all three research thrusts of the center  agricultural sensor systems, communication and energy systems, and agricultural response systems  is a testament to the diverse leadership and collaboration between the Purdue College of Engineering and College of Agriculture."

Purdue faculty will play key roles across the breadth of IoT4Ag research areas. Melba Crawford, the Nancy Uridil and Francis Bossu Professor in Civil Engineering, and professor of agronomy and electrical and computer engineering, will serve as the systems integration lead for the project. Other Purdue team members are Dennis Buckmaster, professor of agricultural and biological engineering and agricultural response systems co-lead; James Krogmeier, professor of electrical and computer engineering and convergence co-lead; David Love, the Nick Trbovich Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and communication and energy systems co-lead; and Tony Vyn, the Henry A. Wallace Chair in Crop Sciences and professor of agronomy, and agricultural test-beds co-lead.

The IoT4Ag ERC is particularly significant for Purdue as we now have more than 50 years of collaboration between the College of Engineering and College of Agriculture through the Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing (LARS), which was established as the first interdisciplinary research center at Purdue in 1966, Crawford said. The ERC will also leverage Purdues commitment to plant science and our recent focus on digital agriculture. We are excited about the collaboration with our university and industrial partners to advance technology in environmental sensing, robotics, and data science in precision agriculture to help meet the demands for food production in the upcoming decades.

Starting in the soil and reaching into the digital cloud, technologies developed through the IoT4g ERC will collect, share and analyze data in order to improve farming practices, maximizing a farms productivity while minimizing its waste and ecological impact.

Center researchers will create miniature soil-based sensors and swarms of aerial and ground-based robots, as well as new ways of networking them together in communication-constrained environments. The researchers also will develop high-level data science techniques that will allow data from different sensors in the field to be integrated with data from weather reports and commodity markets, synthesizing it into actionable information.

Part of the ERC mandate is to converge a wide range of academic disciplines in tackling these challenges. Another is to develop a diverse and inclusive workforce from across the United States. By partnering with industry and a broad community of students, faculty and professionals, the IoT4Ag Center will create an innovation ecosystem to continue these efforts into the coming decades.

We need new technology to meet the challenges of a world with a growing population and changing climate, said Cherie Kagan, the Stephen J. Angello Professor in Penn Engineerings departments of Electrical and Systems Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering, who is the IoT4Ag Centers director and principal investigator. We simply need to produce more crops for every drop of water or joule of energy were currently using to realize a food, energy and water-secure future.

Collectively, the IoT4Ag Center will educate students, engineers, agriculture professionals and other members of farming communities through audience-specific lessons and hands-on classroom, laboratory and field activities. Bringing together academic, government and industry partners with the farming community, the center will create an innovation ecosystem that ensures the rapid translation of IoT4Ag practices and technologies into commercial products and economic impact.

The IoT4Ag Center is one of four new Engineering Research Centers announced by the NSF on Aug. 4. Purdue also is a partner in another such center, on Advancing Sustainability through Powered Infrastructure for Roadway Electrification (ASPIRE).

The full University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science release on the IoT4Ag Center may be found here, and NSF details on the center are here.

Sources:

David J. Cappelleri, 765-494-3719, dcappell@purdue.edu

Melba Crawford, 765-496-3224, mcrawford@purdue.edu

Agricultural Communications: 765-494-8415;

Maureen Manier, Department Head, mmanier@purdue.edu

Agriculture News Page
The World Bank report "China's Doing Business Success: Drivers of Reform and Opportunities for the Future," released in late July, shows that China has achieved a remarkable improvement in its business environment in recent years.



Measured by the World Bank's global Doing Business report, China has moved up by almost 50 places over the past two years, from 78th place in the 2018 report to the 31st now. China was among the countries showing the most notable improvement rate and is among the top 10 fastest global performers for two consecutive years.

The World Bank attributes China's success to six key drivers  high-level leadership and ownership of the reform agenda, local policy experimentation, national and international knowledge sharing, strong enforcement of the reform agenda and accountability for the results, robust private sector participation, and intensive use of e-government services.

Remarkable progress has been achieved during the past few years. There is one important contributing factor now widely recognized  the strong leadership developing and supporting the reform agenda at both the central and local government level.

This is not easy to be replicated elsewhere. China's Foreign Investment Law has been in effect since last January to provide stronger protection and a better business environment for overseas investors. To this is added the Regulations on Optimizing the Business Environment in a bid to explore institutional improvement to back the business community in general.

Although the direction of overall reform is set by China's national leaders, local governments are encouraged to undertake tailored and localized business reforms and pioneer policies. Beijing is one of the cities that are taking the lead in this regard.

Beijing has successively implemented versions 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 of the "9+N" series of policies, which have significantly improved the business environment.

Shanghai, another successful city in terms of business upgrade, designated 2018 as the "Year of Business Environment Reform." Having learned a lot from the effective governance concepts and practices internationally, it launched special action plans for benchmark reforms of version 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 between 2018 and 2020.

China's success has also been driven by an intensive use of digital technology such as big data, blockchain and cloud computing in e-government services. Beijing and Shanghai leveraged China's well-developed digital economy to put government services online.

Shanghai has established China's first "one network to run" general portal, setting an example for reforms across the country. This integrates city-wide inter-agency government services through blockchain, big data and other digital technologies, greatly improving administrative efficiency and improving Shanghai's business convenience.

Recently it took the lead in the country to realize the simultaneous issuance of electronic business licenses and electronic seals.

There are also a number of systemic reform initiatives. One of them is "Fang Guan Fu" (reforms to streamline administration and delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services). The "Fang Guan Fu" reform initiatives, as key measures to transform government functions, improve business environment and revitalize market activities, focus on redefining the relationship between government and market through delegation of power, streamlining administrative procedures, and improving regulations and public services.

The "Fang Guan Fu" reform initiatives emphasize the combination of reforms in these three aspects to remove institutional barriers for a better business environment and sustainable economic development.

Economic conditions in China have changed dramatically over the past seven months. The COVID-19 pandemic and measures taken to contain it administered a severe demand and supply shock.

Since early this year, local governments at different levels have put forward policies as hedges against uncertainty with the optimization of business environment, helping companies to tide over difficulties.

On this basis, the General Office of the State Council issued the Implementation Opinions on Further Optimizing Business Environment and Better Serving Market Entities to institutionalize and standardize the typical experiences emerging in various regions, and promote the efficiency of resource allocation and product services through institutional reforms.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a complex international situation, market players have been under great pressure to survive. As the Chinese economy faces new risks and increasing downward pressure, continuous optimization of business environment has become an important means to boost market confidence, promote economic recovery, and promote the transformation of the economy towards sustainable and high-quality development.

China is ahead of the global curve when it comes to economic recovery after months of lockdown, drawing on the fruits of years of continuous improvement of business environment.

He Shuquan is a professor at the School of Economics, Shanghai University; member of Fudan University-Jinguang Group Think Tank.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

If you would like to contribute, please contact us at opinion@china.org.cn.
The man and woman who died in a Gardner murder-suicide Saturday were identified by the Worcester District Attorneys Office as 47-year-old Migdalia Perez and 49-year-old Jose Muniz Badillo.

Perez lived at the Central Street apartment building where she was found dead. Badillo lived at 46 Prospect St. in Gardner, authorities said.

No further details were released about the case, which is still under investigation by Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr.s office and Gardner police.

Authorities said the man and woman were found dead Saturday inside an apartment building hallway after officers responded to a 911 call around 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

Officers were called to an apartment building at 206 Central St.

A man and a woman were found in the hallway outside the apartment on the third floor where she lived, the district attorneys office said. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

Witnesses reported hearing an argument between the man and the woman before the shooting.
Kiel Universitys Professor Ruth Schmitz-Streit together with international colleagues presented an inventory of the role of archaea in host-microbe interactions. Credit: Stefan Kolbe

All multicellular living beings carry an unimaginably large number of microorganisms in and on their bodies. The microbiome, i.e. the totality of these microorganisms, forms a unit together with the host organism, the so-called metaorganism. This metaorganism has developed during the course of evolution by mutual exchange of its components. The interaction between the body and symbiotic microorganisms is of central importance for the healthy functioning of the metaorganism. From supporting the uptake of nutrients to protecting against pathogens, the microbiome performs vital tasks for the host organism. On the other hand, disturbances of the microbiome can cause various serious diseases, in humans for example diabetes, obesity or chronic inflammatory diseases. For several years, researchers worldwide have therefore been intensively studying the highly complex interactions of host organisms and microorganisms and their involvement in central life processes. One particular group of microorganisms has so far received little attention: the archaea, formerly known as archaebacteria or primordial bacteria. However, just like the other components of the microbiome, archaea are probably also involved in maintaining the health and fitness of the host.

An international research team involving Kiel University, the Medical University of Graz, the Institut Pasteur Paris and the University of Clermont-Auvergne has now presented an inventory of the role of archaea in host-microbe interactions. The researchers conclude that certain groups of archaea are predestined to enter into close associations with other microorganisms and the host in the context of the metaorganism. The researchers, including Ruth Schmitz-Streit, Professor at the Institute for General Microbiology at Kiel University, recently published their findings in the renowned journal Nature Reviews Microbiology.

Archaea find special niches in the host

Numerous different microorganisms play an important role in the health and fitness, including humans, through their interactions with their host organism. The ability to enter into functional communication with the host also characterizes the archaea. They are basically known for their many special properties. Representatives of this group of microorganisms can also exist as so-called extremophiles under extraordinary living conditions, such as very high temperatures, high salt concentrations or in acidic environments.

"Archaea have developed various strategies for adapting to extreme conditions. These include the ability to live with a permanently low energy supply. Many archaea exist in the range of a barely sustainable energy minimum. This makes them particularly suitable for interaction with other microorganisms and the host organism. For this reason, we want to shed more light on the involvement of archaea in future research into host-microbe relationships," says microbiologist Schmitz-Streit.

In addition to giving an overview on the archaea associated with animals and plants, the researchers focused their work not only on the so-called thaumarchaeota found in the human skin microbiome but also on a very specific group of archaea: the methane-forming species. They occur preferentially in oxygen-poor environments such as the human intestine and provide substantial support for the metabolic activity of bacteria living there, making their conversions even more efficient. The end product is methane. Just how extensive these processes are can be seen, for example, from the fact that a human being produces on average about a third of a liter of methane gas per day, and it can even be detected in the breath of around 20 percent of the population.

Are archaea involved in the development of diseases?

Apart from their role in metabolic processes, the researchers also discussed how archaea might be involved in the development of diseases. So far no pathogenic archaeon has been identified. "However, for example, an active interaction of Methanobrevibacter smithii and Methanosphaera stadtmanae with the human microbiome has recently been demonstrated. The human immune system is able to recognize them and react to them," emphasizes Ruth Schmitz-Streit.

"These two most common archaea of the human intestinal tract have thus actively adapted to the human ecosystem in the course of evolution," says Christiane Moissl-Eichinger, Professor of Interactive Microbiome Research at the Medical University of Graz. The activation of the immune system caused by the archaea can be seen, for example, in the release of pro-inflammatory signal proteins, so-called cytokines. These reactions differ in intensity between the two archaeal species. Methanobrevibacter smithii and Methanosphaera stadtmanae also occur in very different numbers depending on the state of health of the host, which at least suggests a connection between their frequency and human health and the development of diseases.

On the one hand, it is discussed whether early exposure of children to archaea has a positive effect on the risk of asthma. Some archaea could also have a health-promoting effect by breaking down the so-called trimethylamines (TMA) - toxic key molecules that can cause arteriosclerosis, among other things. The first therapeutic approaches based on the use of TMA-degrading methanomassiliicoccales are already in clinical trials as so-called "archaebiotics." On the other hand, researchers suspect that an increased number of methane-forming archaea could be associated with a number of serious diseases, for example colon cancer or inflammatory bowel diseases. However, the authors of the current study assume that the archaea are not causally involved in the development of the disease. It is possible, however, that their role is to support the activity of pathogenic bacteria, for example by breaking down inhibitory metabolic products.

In future research projects, the researchers want to investigate a possible causal involvement of the archaea in the development of the disease and especially the medical significance of the methane they produce. In addition, they plan to eliminate previous methodological difficulties in the cultivation and molecular detection of these microorganisms. The still emerging field of research thus opens up a multitude of novel questions. For example, the scientists intend to investigate certain specific adaptations of archaea to their host organism or their interplay with bacterial components of the human microbiome in greater detail in the future, thus gradually gaining a better understanding of their part in the balance or disruption of the metaorganism.

Explore further New insight into the evolution of complex life on Earth
Hong Kong authorities broadened their enforcement of a new national security law on Monday, arresting media tycoon Jimmy Lai, searching the headquarters of his Next Digital group and carting away boxes of what they said was evidence.

In the evening, police also arrested prominent pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow Ting at her home, according to a tweet by fellow activist Nathan Law, who is currently in Britain. A post on Chow's official Facebook page said police had arrived at her home and that her lawyers were rushing to the scene.

Two days after Chinese and Hong Kong officials shrugged off sanctions imposed on them by the U.S., the moves showed China's determination to enforce the new law and curb dissent in the semi-autonomous city after months of massive pro-democracy demonstrations last year.

Lai's arrest and the search of his Next Digital group marked the first time the law was used against news media, stoking fears that authorities are suppressing press freedom. Next Digital operates Apple Daily, a feisty pro-democracy tabloid that often condemns China's Communist Party-led government.

Apple Daily's popularity stems from its celebrity news and flamboyant stories, but it is also known for investigative reporting and breaking news coverage. It has frequently urged readers to take part in pro-democracy protests,

On July 1 it condemned the new national security law on its front page, calling it "the final nail in the coffin" for the "one country, two systems" framework under which the former British colony has been able to enjoy civil liberties not seen in mainland China after it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.

The arrests of Lai and Chow came as Beijing announced sanctions on 11 Americans, including six members of Congress, in an escalating battle between the two nations over technology, security, trade and human rights. And in Chinese-claimed Taiwan, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar became the highest-ranking American official to visit since 1979, further straining U.S.-China relations.

Hong Kong police arrested Lai on Monday morning, an aide to the businessman said, in the highest-profile detention under the new law since it took effect on June 30. Lai, 71, is an outspoken pro-democracy figure who regularly criticizes China's authoritarian rule and Hong Kong's government.

Mark Simon, a Next Digital executive and Lai's aide, said Lai was charged with collusion with foreign powers. He said police searched the homes of Lai and his son and detained several other members of the media company.

Hong Kong police said they arrested at least nine people between the ages of 23 and 72 on suspicion of violating the new security law, with offenses including collusion with a foreign country and conspiracy to defraud. They did not release the names of those arrested or provide further details of the charges.

Following Lai's arrest, about 200 police raided Next Digital's headquarters, cordoning off the area, searching desks and at times getting into heated exchanges with staff. What police were looking for in the building wasn't clear, although they later said they took away 25 boxes of evidence for processing.

Lai, who was arrested at his mansion in Kowloon in the morning, was also brought to the headquarters of Next Digital, where he remained for about two and a half hours before police took him away in a car.

"We are completely shocked by what's happening now, with the arrest and followed by the ongoing raid inside the headquarters of Next Digital," said Chris Yeung, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association.

"With the passage of the national security law and the really tough powers given to the police in their operations, we have seen now what we call 'white terror' become a reality, which will affect media organizations and journalists' reporting."
S&P Global Ratings on Monday said that Reliance Industries Ltd's sizable proceeds from asset monetisation over the past four months should significantly improve its credit quality. "RIL's deleveraging could exceed our expectations, given the extent and magnitude of its asset monetisation," the rating agency said in a statement.

The asset monetisation was despite operations that are trending weaker than anticipated for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021. The oil-to-telecom conglomerate has amassed Rs 2.1 lakh crore in investment proceeds since Facebook announced its investment in its digital unit Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL) in April 2020.

The proceeds include Rs 1.52 lakh crore investments into JPL, a Rs 53,124 crore rights issuance, and Rs 7,600 crore from BP PLC for the fuel retail joint venture. "The developments suggest that RIL's adjusted debt could be less than Rs 1 lakh crore by the end of fiscal 2021. This is better than our base case, which already assumes a sharp decline in adjusted debt to Rs 1.7 lakh crore by fiscal 2023, from Rs 2.7 lakh crore in fiscal 2020," it said.

As a result, S&P believes RIL's credit quality will improve over the next two to three years, even if the company's fiscal 2021 earnings are well below forecasts. "Our sensitivity analysis indicates that RIL's debt-to-EBITDA ratio will be resilient to earnings volatility, implying material buffer for its current financials," it said.

RIL's first-quarter (April-June) earnings were resilient despite weaknesses shown by its peers. Consolidated EBITDA fell 12 per cent year-on-year to Rs 21,600 crore as the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, both globally and locally, weighed on the company's oil refining and petrochemicals as well as retail businesses. The digital division was a bright spot, however.

"Although earnings recovery could be slow, we expect RIL's fundamentals to remain supported by ongoing strength in the digital division and the gradual improvement in its energy segment. We continue to forecast resilient fiscal 2021 results, with EBITDA remaining flat year on year at about Rs 90,000 crore. In our view, RIL's first-quarter results demonstrate the benefits of having diversified businesses during volatile times," it said.

Stating that the possibility of sizable acquisitions was a risk to its underlying view on RIL, the rating agency said this was particularly so in the current environment where the company's financial buffer could see substantial improvement. "But we believe the management is committed to deleveraging, and the company will likely operate at lower leverage than prior to the deleveraging exercise," it said.

Meanwhile, even if the company's credit metrics strengthen further, the ratings would likely remain at 'BBB+,' given India's transfer and convertibility assessment of 'bbb+.'

Also read: Reliance Industries has a 15-year plan to convert itself into new energy company
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 10

Trend:

The Croatian media published an article highlighting hate crimes by Armenians against Azerbaijanis, Trend reports.

In the article, Head of the Azerbaijan-Croatia Interparliamentary Relations Working Group, Azerbaijani MP Konul Nurullayeva drew the international community's attention to the occupation policy of Armenia and the hate crimes committed by members of the Armenian diaspora against Azerbaijanis.

Azerbaijan has always supported the peaceful way of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within international law and demonstrated a constructive approach in the negotiation process under the co-chairmanship of the US, France and Russia. Baku justifiably expects the same constructive approach from the opposite side. But these expectations yielded no results yet. And in the course of peaceful protests abroad, it was representatives of the Armenian diaspora who violated public order, the article said.

"After the provocation on the [Azerbaijani-Armenian] border, the Armenians attacked the buildings of Azerbaijan's diplomatic missions abroad. Some of these provocations took place in the US," the article noted.

Provocation and an attack were carried out in Los Angeles, where a group of Armenians surrounded the building of the Consulate General of Azerbaijan in LA. They attacked members of the Azerbaijani community, who were conducting a peaceful rally, and inflicted bodily injuries of varying severity on seven Azerbaijanis, including one woman. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) confirmed that it was the Armenians who attacked the Azerbaijanis during these events. In addition, in connection with the incident, LAPD announced that a criminal case would be initiated not only under the article 'bodily harm', but under a more serious article - a hate crime," noted the article.

The US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Earle Litzenberger, who was summoned to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs due to the incident, emphasized the inadmissibility of justifying the attack on Azerbaijanis by vastly outnumbering Armenians. The US supports the right to free speech, but such actions of the Armenians are completely unacceptable."

On July 22, the Armenians living in Belgium also held an aggressive demonstration in front of the Azerbaijani embassy in Brussels and the mission to the EU. As a result of the attacks of the Armenians, who threw stones, sharp objects and pyrotechnics at the embassy building, six representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora, as well as one journalist, were injured. In addition to damaging a building and a car belonging to a member of the Azerbaijani community, an attempt was made to attack the area where the families of diplomats live, said the article.

Nurullayeva noted that both in peace negotiations and along theAzerbaijani-Armenian border, Armenia demonstrates similar aggression and destructiveness as in the streets of Europe and the US.

Unfortunately, it is precisely because of Armenias destructive position no results have been achieved in the peace negotiations. After the adoption of four resolutions of the UN Security Council, as well as the announcement of a ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan, about 900 Azerbaijani servicemen were killed and injured as a result of Armenian attacks. In total, as a result of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict 20,000 of our compatriots died and 50,000 became disabled; during the conflict, more than 6,000 Azerbaijani citizens went missing or were taken hostage. Over a million of our compatriots were expelled from their lands and became refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs)," the article said.

It is necessary to increase pressure on Armenia so that it abandons its occupation policy, the hate crimes should be replaced by efforts to strengthen peace and an atmosphere of trust. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group should be active in this process, added the article.

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.
~ Government will adjust measures if necessary, 118 active cases on SXM, Dutch and French ~

PHILIPSBURG: --- Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs called on residents and businesses on St. Maarten to take the necessary steps to flatten the curve on COVID-19 since the active cases have risen to 89. Jacobs said 86 persons have recovered since the outbreak in March 2020, while 17 deceased have been registered.

Of the 89 active cases. 3 are hospitalized, 82 are isolated. There are a total of 192 positive cases since the outbreak on St. Maarten

The Prime Minister reminded the residents and businesses on the mandatory wearing of masks in public places and in the workplace. She also called on businesses to provide the masks and as well as sanitization products for both employees and customers. Persons that report to work ill should be sent home and those persons should make contact with their doctors or CPS.

Jacobs said the spread of the COVID-19 is within the communities the very thing everyone dreaded from the inception. She said St. Maarten opens its borders to visitors to aid the economic situation locally, however, residents should exercise good sanitary conduct when around visitors and on the job.

Prime Minister Jacobs reminded that certain businesses will have to close off business from midnight to 06 am. Jacobs said that the government will make adjustments to the measures if necessary, however, she called on the people to take the necessary steps to actually flatten the curve to prevent a total lockdown on St. Maarten.

In the meantime, the ARS on St. Martin has declared 29 active cases on St. Martin. The ARS along with the Red Cross have been conducting free PCR tests throughout Saint Martin, of the 29 active cases, 2 are hospitalized while 27 are confined at home.

At the moment there are 118 active cases on St. Maarten and Saint Martin.
The family of Carole Baskin's missing ex-husband has filed a lawsuit against her and are offering a $100,000 reward for anyone with information about what happened to him over two decades ago.

Don Lewis - who started the animal sanctuary which later became Big Cat Rescue Corp. in Tampa, Florida with Carole - vanished a day before a scheduled trip to Costa Rica in 1997.

In the Netflix phenomenon Tiger King, Baskin's rival Joe Exotic raised suspicions she fed her spouse to tigers after Exotic was sentenced to 22 years in prison for a murder-for-hire plot against her.

Baskin has denied the allegations.

Attorney John Phillips held a news conference in Tampa Monday and announced an independent investigation into the disappearance of Lewis, whose van was found near the airport and who was declared legally dead in 2002.

Scroll down for video

The family of Don Lewis, a Florida man who disappeared in 1997 and who appeared on the hit TV series Tiger King, has hired a lawyer in an attempted to get information out of Carole Baskin (pictured). Attorney John Phillips held a news conference Monday

Baskin is pictured with Lewis. She declined to take a lie detector test in 2011 regarding his disappearance

The family of Lewis is offering $100,000 in exchange for information to help solve the case

Baskin was offered a lie detector test in 2011 but she decline to take it.

Lewis' body was never found and Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister recently reopened the case.

'We're going to serve (Baskin) with a lawsuit, but not a lawsuit for damages, it's a lawsuit for equity,' Phillips said Monday during the briefing at Riverhills Church of God.

The bill of discovery would allow them to get information before deciding who to sue.

It means depositions or subpoenas could be on the cards.

'Generally you announce a $150 million lawsuit and how we're going to get justice. And we are going to do all of that in time,' Phillips continued. 'But our office wants to invite reason, to invite civil conversation where it can be had.'

The family is also targeting Kenny Farr, Don's handyman who appeared in Tiger King, and a woman who witnessed the signing of Lewis' will.

That woman, Susan A. Bradshaw, told the Tampa Bay Times in 2005 that Baskin told her to say she was there for the will signing however she claims she was not.

'Resolving this case is in everyone's best interest. I believe it's in Carole Baskin's best interest. I invite her to the table,' Phillips said. 'I invite her to talk, and let us know what really happened.

'I will ask one time, for civility. I will ask one time that we come together to find closure of this whole thing. If that can't be done, I'm a lawyer. I sue people. We'll go that route too. Make no mistake, if the family's offer for civility is rejected, if the insults continue, the next step is to bring justice, because justice is love.'

The family took part in a press conference on Monday at Riverhills Church of God in Tampa, Florida

Carole is now married to Howard Baskin (pictured left) and she has not been charged in Lewis' disappearance

'We're going to serve (Baskin) with a lawsuit, but not a lawsuit for damages, it's a lawsuit for equity,' Phillips said Monday during the briefing

The family is also targeting Kenny Farr, Don's handyman who appeared in Tiger King, and a woman who witnessed the signing of Lewis' will

The family has paid for Tampa-area billboards asking for information in the case.

'We worked for weeks in raising this money,' Lewis' oldest daughter, Donna Pettis, said on Monday.

'An anonymous donor came forward guaranteeing the $100,000. We're hoping that with these funds someone will have the courage to come forward and provide the information to solve this case.'

Criminal defense lawyer, Kaitlyn Statile, from Carlson Meissner Hart & Hayslett appeared on stage Monday and said in an appeal that she would 'aggressively defend anyone if they needed representation.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff said immunity could be on the table.

Three of Lewis' daughters were at the news conference as was Anne McQueen, Lewis' longtime assistant who is named as a plaintiff.

Lewis' youngest daughter Gale Rathbone, expressed gratitude for those interested in the case.

'Amazingly, our little family tragedy has become your tragedy. Our search for closure and truth has become your mission also,' she said. 'We all know by now that (Lewis) was not a perfect man. But do only the perfect among us deserve justice?'

She added: 'For 23 years I have gone to bed at night knowing the only chance I have of seeing him again is in my dreams. ... Hopefully one day soon we, and you will know the truth.'

The family is worried that people are too scared to come forward with information.

'We really need someone to come forward,' family spokesperson Jack Smith said. 'There is a lot of people who have information who are afraid to come forward  they are worried that if they come forward they will be charged for a crime.'

Baskin did not immediately respond to an email or Facebook message Monday for comment on the latest legal developments.

Lewis' case, and Baskin, were featured in Tiger King. Baskin is still the owner of Big Cat Rescue, and lobbies for abolishing private wildlife ownership.

'We worked for weeks in raising this money,' Lewis' oldest daughter, Donna Pettis (left), said on Monday. Lewis' youngest daughter Gale Rathbone (right), expressed gratitude for those interested in the case

Baskin is the rival of Tiger King star Joe Exotic who shot to global fame this year on Netflix. A federal judge in June granted control of the Oklahoma zoo that was previously run by Maldonado-Passage - also known as Joe Exotic - to Baskin's Big Cat Rescue Corp

Earlier this year, Joe Exotic (Joe Maldonado-Passage) was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in a murder-for-hire plot. In retaliation, Maldonado-Passage raised questions about Baskin's former husband, Jack 'Don' Lewis

Tiger King was a documentary series about Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as 'Joe Exotic,' an eccentric former Oklahoma zookeeper who loves big cats.

Earlier this year, Maldonado-Passage was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in a murder-for-hire plot. He was convicted of trying to hire someone to kill Baskin, who had tried to shut him down, accusing the Oklahoma zoo of abusing animals and selling big cat cubs.

In retaliation, Maldonado-Passage raised questions about Baskin's former husband. The documentary extensively covered Maldonado-Passage's repeated accusations that Baskin killed her husband and possibly fed him to her tigers.

Baskin hasn't been charged with any crime and has repeatedly released statements refuting the accusations made in the series. She is now married to Howard Baskin.

Maldonaldo-Passage is currently in prison. A federal judge in June granted control of the Oklahoma zoo that was previously run by Maldonado-Passage - also known as Joe Exotic - to Big Cat Rescue Corp.

Baskin previously sued Maldonado-Passage for trademark and copyright infringements and won a $1 million civil judgment against him. The judge found that ownership of the zoo was fraudulently transferred to Maldonado-Passage's mother in an attempt to avoid paying the judgment.

In March, the Hillsborough County sheriff asked for tips in the case of Lewis and announced a reopening of Lewis' case.

'We may or may not have have hopped a fence yesterday just to try to investigate and find out if, you know, if this was a place where Don Lewis could have been buried,' Phillips said in an interview with HLN on Sunday.

The family has set up a tip line at (646) 450-6530.
MINSK  A day after the leader of Belarus, often called Europes last dictator, claimed a landslide re-election victory, his capital slipped into mayhem late on Monday as protesters barricaded streets and riot police officers beat back crowds of demonstrators with violent baton charges, stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets.

The Ministry of Interior, which controls police forces loyal to President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, reported late Monday evening that one protester had died during a confrontation with security forces from an unidentified explosive device that detonated in his hand and caused injuries incompatible with life.

The authorities described what began as peaceful protests as riots and vowed to crush demonstrators who have taken to the streets for the past two nights in Minsk, the capital, and in towns across the country.

Struggling to contain public fury over a fraud-tainted election that gave Mr. Lukashenko his sixth term in office, the government on Monday shut down subway stations, sealed off roads and poured armed riot police officers into the center of Minsk.
WASHINGTON  The Trump administration is expected in the coming days to lift Obama-era controls on the release of methane, a powerful climate-warming gas that is emitted from leaks and flares in oil and gas wells.

The new rule on methane pollution, issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, has been expected for months, and will be made public before Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke anonymously to avoid publicly pre-empting the official announcement.

The rollback of the methane rule is the latest move in the Trump administrations ongoing effort to weaken environmental standards, which has continued unabated during the coronavirus pandemic.

In April, the E.P.A. weakened rules on the release of toxic chemicals from coal-fired power plants, loosened curbs on climate-warming tailpipe pollution and opted not to strengthen a regulation on industrial soot emissions that have been linked to respiratory diseases, including Covid-19.
Poland and Greece are now in the red zone.

Ukraine's Ministry of Health has updated the list of countries in terms of the level of coronavirus spread and corresponding travel restrictions applied.

The "red" zone of countries that Ukraine's health officials perceive as a higher threat now includes Poland, the Netherlands, and Greece, which were previously assigned to the safe "green zone", according to an updated list posted on the Health Ministry's website.

As of August 7, the "red list" includes 105 countries.

Read alsoUkraine must brace for second COVID-19 wave in fall

Among them are the USA, Israel, Cyprus, Romania, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Estonia, as well as Poland, Greece, and the Netherlands.

Turkey, Egypt, Croatia, and a number of other countries remain on the "green list".

Red and green zones: what are they?
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President Donald Trump was abruptly escorted from his press conference on Monday less than five minutes after it began after a Secret Service agent shot a 51-year-old man who 'aggressively' approached the officer and said he had a weapon outside the White House.

In a update released Monday night, the Secret Service said the man approached an agent around 5.53pm at the corner of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW near the White House complex.

'The suspect approached the officer and told the officer he had a weapon,' the statement reads. 'The suspect then turned around, ran aggressively towards the officer, and in a drawing motion, withdrew an object from his clothing.'

The agency said the man then 'crouched into a shooter's stance as if about to fire a weapon'.

'The Secret Service officer discharged his weapon, striking the individual in the torso,' the update reads.

Authorities did not release any other information about the man's condition, only saying that both he and the agent were transported to local hospitals.

'The White House Complex was not breached during the incident and no Secret Service protectees were ever in danger,' the agency added.

President Donald Trump was abruptly escorted from his press conference on Monday less than five minutes after it began after a Secret Service agent shot a 51-year-old man who 'aggressively' approached the officer and said he had a weapon outside the White House

The agent told the president there was a shooting outside the White House and led the president from the briefing room

President Trump followed the agent from the briefing room and was taken to wait in the Oval Office

President Trump said he was escorted out because shots were fired by the White House

The area around the White House was blocked off after the shooting incident

Police officers stand guard at the corner of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, after a shooting incident outside the White House

Police cars block the entrance to Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House shortly after the shooting incident

Law enforcement locked down the White House at the incident; a Secret Service agent stands outside the press briefing room

'The White House Complex was not breached during the incident and no Secret Service protectees were ever in danger,' the agency said

An investigation into the actions of the agent is under way, the agency confirmed.

The situation made for a dramatic start to Trump's Monday press briefing. Trump had barely begun his press briefing when a Secret Service agent stepped into the press briefing room and said 'sir'.

'Excuse me,' Trump said, looking up from the text of his speech at the interruption.

'There's been a shooting outside,' the agent told him, whispering in his ear. 'Sir you're going to have to step out.' His words were caught on the microphone at the podium.

'Oh,' Trump said and left the room with him.

A lockdown for the White House was declared, which is standard procedure during a security breach.

A few minutes after his exit, the president returned to the podium and said: 'There was a shooting outside of the White House and it seems to be very well under control.'

He then proceeded to take questions from reporters on a variety of topics for nearly an hour and eventually said he was fine after being pulled from the room.

'Do I seem rattled?,' he asked at one point before thanking his security detail for their quick action.

'I'd like to thank the Secret Service for doing their always quick and very effective work,' he noted.

The area where the shooting occurred is at the Eisenhower Executive Office building, which sits next door to the White House.

Video on social media showed a person down at the corner of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue

Police officers stand guard at the corner of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, near the White House

A member of the Secret Service stands guard as President Donald Trump speaks at a news conference in the James Brady Press Briefing Room

Trump said it was his understanding the suspect was armed but didn't think it was necessarily about him.

'It might not have had anything to do with me,' he said. Trump said the agents took him to the Oval Office, which is just down the hall from the press briefing room.

Video on social media showed an individual on the ground with law enforcement surrounding the person at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street.

The president said he was surprised by what happened but was not concerned for his personal safety.

'I was surprised,' he said. 'It's pretty unusual but very, very professional people. They do a fantastic job, as you know.'

'The world has been a dangerous place. Very dangerous place and it will continue, I guess, for a period of time. I feel very safe with Secret Service, they are fantastic people. They are the best of the best and they are highly trained,' he added.

Secret Service agents screen all reporters and visitors before they enter the White House complex.

Additionally, agents lock down the briefing room before the president enters with agents standing at all its entry points.

Secret Service agents stand guard outside the press briefing room door

A Secret Service uniform officer's bike is seen laying on the sidewalk on Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House

Law enforcement officials gather following a shooting at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House

Members of the US Secret Service take up position outside the Brady Briefing Room as the White House is locked down

He said he never considered canceling his press briefing.

'I didn't even consider not coming back,' Trump said. 'I asked if I was able to come back, they said to wait a little while.'

And, with that, he somewhat impatiently returned to what he was saying before he was pulled from the room, talking about the rise in the stock market.

Then, in a freewheeling exchange with White House reporters, he spent nearly an hour discussing the coronavirus, negotiations with Democrats on a relief package, and his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

He also brought up one of his favorite topics, his accusation that former President Barack Obama spied on his campaign. During the 2016 presidential campaign, when Obama was president, the FBI opened a counter-intelligence investigation into the Trump campaign to see if Russian agents were trying to influence the election.

Trump turned that into a deep state conspiracy working against him.

'Look, the Obama campaign spied on our campaign and they've been caught, all right? Now let's see what happens to them. But they have been caught, they've been caught red-handed. It's probably treason. It's a horrible thing they did and it probably never happened before, at least nobody got caught doing it. But they use the intelligence agencies of our country to spy on my campaign and they have been caught. There are a lot of people involved,' he said.

As he took questions, President Trump saw John Roberts of Fox News standing at the back of the room. He noted Roberts was outside when the incident occurred. Roberts was doing a live shot from the North Lawn of the White House at the time.

'I heard two shots in rapid succession just after you took the podium,' Roberts told him.

'I saw your report inside when I went inside. It was a good report, thank you very much, appreciate it,' Trump told him.

President Donald Trump arrives back in the briefing room after being abruptly pulled from it

During the briefing, President Trump saw John Roberts of Fox News standing at the back of the room and asked him to talk about the shots he heard fired

An area at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue is roped off with police tape

A Secret Service agent stands guard at the briefing room door after President Trump resumes his press conference

Upon his return after an agent escorted him out, President Trump said he never considered not returning to finish his press briefing

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was attending the press conference and followed the president out

President Trump and his aides being led from the James Brady Briefing Room in the White House

A U.S. Secret Service police officer stands on the roof of the White House

A United States Secret Service officer stands outside the White House Briefing Room

President Trump picked up his briefing where he left off, talking about the stock market
India-China stand off unlikely to overshadow BRICS, SCO summits

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Aug 10: India has said that it expects an early end to the stand off with China. The same was conveyed to Russia and India said that the end of the stand-off will ensure greater success of the forthcoming BRICS and SCO summits, which would be hosted by President, Vladimir Putin in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese premier, Xi Jinping will be present.

Sources tell Oneindia that Russia is holding back-channel talks with both India and China in a bid to resolve the ongoing boundary dispute. In the wake of this New Delhi has conveyed to Russia that the stand-off would end soon.

The source also said that India will take part in the BRICS and SCO summits. The summits were to be held in July at Russia, but the same was postponed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pull back from Dapsang-Daulat Beg Oldie sector, India tells China at military level talks

Moscow is now planning on hosting the summits in October. There is a likelihood that the summits may be held through video conferencing this year.

Pranab Mukherjee tests Covid-19 +ve | Former President tests positive | Oneindia News

Meanwhile, India has told China two pull back troops from the Dapsang-Daulat Beg Oldie sector of eastern Ladakh. During the talks between the two sides, India also told China to stop further construction activities in the area.

Sources tell OneIndia that during the talks, India once again stressed upon the importance of reducing tensions in the Depsang plains. This has been a major flash point for several years now, owing to the perceptions of the Line of Actual Control.

The military level talks between the two sides were held on Saturday between 11 am and 7,30 pm. India stressed on the fact that the PLA troops who are camping near the Bottleneck area in the Depsang plains since May should not block Indian soldiers from going to their Patrolling Points-10, 11, 12 and 13.

Future of India-China ties depends on reaching 'some kind of equilibrium: Jaishankar

The primary agenda of the meeting was to reduce tensions at the Depsang Plains, where there is a massive build-up of troops of both sides. The meeting would discuss ways to de-escalate as well as disengage. India will also seek restoration of patrolling rights for its soldiers.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Aug. 09, 2020 | PADUCAH

By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 09, 2020 | 08:24 PM | PADUCAH

A local high school student has been accepted as a member of a national academic society.



The National Society of High School Scholars announced last week that Paducah Tilghman High School student Brooke Larimer has been selected to become a member of the organization. The Society recognizes top scholars who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, scholarship and community commitment. The announcement was made by NSHSS Founder and Chairman Claes Nobel, senior member of the family that established the Nobel Prizes.



"On behalf of NSHSS, I am honored to recognize the hard work, sacrifice and commitment that Brooke has demonstrated to achieve this exceptional level of academic excellence," Nobel said. "Brooke is now a member of a unique community of scholars that represents our very best hope for the future."



"We are proud to provide lifetime membership to young scholars to support their growth and development," Said NSHSS President James W. Lewis. "We aim to help students like Brooke build on their academic success by connecting them with unique learning experiences and resources to help prepare them for college and meaningful careers."



NSHSS members automatically become lifetime members at the time of their initial membership.
Actor Randeep Hooda was waiting to play a Sikh soldier in his Hindi film Battle of Saragarhi when he landed one of the lead roles in the Hollywood film, Extraction. The actor had grown his beard and hair for the long-delayed film and had pledged not to cut them until the completion of the Battle if Saragarhi. The Sarabjit actor has now opened up about how heartbroken he was when he had to break his promise in order to get into the look of his character in Extraction.

The actor said the makers of Extraction wanted him to sport a different look from that of Chris Hemsworths character in the film. However, he still had to get rid of his hair and beard for Extraction.

Talking about cutting his hair, he told Candy magazine in an interview, But I did not want to deviate too far, in case Saragarhi starts, I could get a beard and finish it off. I really wanted the audience to see that. I was really heartbroken. I had taken a pledge in front of the Guru Granth Sahib in Golden Temple that I will not cut my hair till this movie reaches its conclusion. When I got offered this role in Extraction, I did this audition still hoping that Saragarhi goes on, but it was a very hard decision for me to take off my hair.. Kesh Katana. So I went to the Gurdwara here, and I apologised and I said, I have to work. You know, I have to keep working. I mean my job is such that it is a performing art. And if I dont perform something inside me will die. And I apologised, I came home shaved my beard, with a very heavy heart, I just had to move on by putting an end to it.

Sharing how he eventually decided not to carry the baggage of breaking his promise, he added, I was very heartbroken throughout the filming of Extraction as well because a part of me was so attached to Saragarhi. But then I thought that Ive to move on. And have put your best foot forward, that was kind of a lesson for me to let go of the baggage with grace. Let go of the wrongs with grace and forgiveness. There is a saying in Sikhi called Dekh ke Undekha Kita, which means I saw it but ignore it and decided not carry that baggage. So that was the hardest part and I think the spirituality that I experienced while making Saragarhi helped me a lot. And then of course, as soon as I got on the sets of Extraction, they got me rehearsing for action and that really kind of blew my mind and piqued my interest that I gave it my all to this movie as well. So, I think by moving on and giving your all to the next thing that youre doing is the only way one can move forward.

Also read: Kareena Kapoor shares glimpse of her shoot day with husband Saif Ali Khan. See pics

Randeep Hooda sported straightened, shoulder-length hair and a clean-shaven look in Extraction. His character Saju was responsible for bringing in Hemsworths Tyler Rake for the extraction of his boss child. The film was a massive hit on Netflix and also features Rudhraksh Jaiswal, Pankaj Tripathi, Golshifteh Farahani, David Harbour and Priyanshu Painyuli in key roles.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 02:43:29|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- A woman was dead and at least four people seriously injured after several houses exploded in a major gas explosion on Monday morning in Baltimore, eastern U.S. state Maryland, local media reported.

At least one person was still trapped hours after the explosion, Baltimore Firefighters IAFF Local 734 tweeted, describing the explosion as a major 3 alarm incident.

The explosion erupted shortly before 10 a.m. local time and destroyed three rowhouses in a residential neighborhood in the northeast part of the city, according to a Fox News report.

"Several houses exploded. At least 5 people trapped, some children. A Collapse Response and Second Alarm has been called," the Baltimore City firefighters union tweeted on Monday morning.

About 200 emergency personnel were working at the scene, searching for anyone in the rubble on Monday afternoon, the authorities said.

The gas lines in the area have been shut off. However, electrical lines are still active.

"We are closely monitoring the situation in northwest Baltimore following this morning's horrific explosion," Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said in a statement. "We have reached out to offer our full support to the ongoing response and recovery efforts, and are deeply grateful to the first responders on the scene."

The Baltimore Fire Department said the precise cause remains under investigation. Enditem
Bollywood actor Rhea Chakraborty has approached the Supreme Court with a fresh petition alleging media trial and attempts to pronounce her guilty for actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death. Chakraborty has included various points in her plea ranging from infringement of her privacy and extreme sensationalisation of the matter by the media.

The actor, who is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on charges of abetting Rajput's suicide, has said in the fresh plea that extreme trauma and infringement of privacy of her rights has been caused due to constant sensationalisation of this case.

The issue is blown out of proportion in media and media channels are examining and cross-examining all the witnesses in the case, the petition added. The petitioner is already convicted by the media even before foul play in the death of Rajput is established, it noted.

The petition further mentions that even as actors Ashutosh Bhakre (32) and Sameer Sharma (44) were also reported to have committed suicide in last 30 days, no whisper could be heard about the same in power corridors.

In case of death of Sushant Singh Rajput, Chief Minister of Bihar is reported to be responsible for registration of FIRs in Patna, the petition said.

"Respondent State of Bihar has acted in an illegal manner in forwarding the case to Additional CMP at Patna Sadar instead of jurisdictional magistrate at Mumbai coupled with the fact that ruling party in Bihar and Centre is same and the said party is in minority in the State of Maharashtra; the purported transfer the case to ACJM Patna and further to CBI on 04.08.20 20 is only to render the present petition 7 in-fructuous," it also said.

Also read: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to launch 'Atma Nirbhar Bharat Saptah' today

Also read: US tech giants plan pushback against India's data-curb plan
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 19:11:11|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Iran recorded 2,132 new COVID-19 cases during the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 328,844 on Monday, Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for the health ministry, said at her daily update.

According to the state TV, Lari said that the death toll from the virus in the country rose to 18,616 after 189 new deaths were added overnight.

Out of the new patients, 1,067 were hospitalized, she said.

So far, there have been 286,642 recoveries, while 3,992 still remain in critical condition, she added.

The health spokeswoman noted that 2,711,817 lab tests for COVID-19 have been carried out in Iran.

She said 26 provinces, out of 31, are either in high-risk or alert condition over the disease.

Iran announced its first cases of COVID-19 on Feb. 19.

Iran and China have offered mutual help in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

In mid-February, at the early stage of the coronavirus outbreak in China, Iran lit up the Tehran Azadi (Liberty) Tower to show its solidarity with China, and donated 3 million masks to China.

In return, China has delivered several shipments of medical supplies to Iran. On Feb. 29, a five-member Chinese medical team visited Iran for a month-long mission to help Iran fight the pandemic. Enditem
The Disney World decided to make its usually festive fall season a little less magical as it planned to cut back on park hours starting September.

Reports on the revised theme park hours had been announced on the Disney World website over the weekend, said the People.

According to Fox Business, Disney World is planning to have the park hours shorter after the Florida theme park had seen more cancellations that it expected.

The theme park had only recently reopened after its March closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But by September 8, the day after Labor Day weekend, Disney World will take a step back and change park hours in some of its attractions.

What attractions will change operating hours?

Both the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios will lose an hour of operations at the end of the day. The Animal Kingdom will cut hours in the morning, while Epcot will cut back by two hours.

With these changes, the new hours should look like this:

Magic Kingdom : 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Epcot : 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Hollywood Studios : 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Animal Kingdom: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

How did COVID-19 affect Disney World?

After closing for nearly four months, the Disney World reopened on July 11. During that reopening, they put many protocols in place and reduced park capacity.

They made sure people wore masks and checked their temperatures upon arrival. Guests aged two and older had to wear face masks inside their parks, except when eating and drinking in "relaxation zones."

To manage park capacity, the company also asked visitors to make reservations for each park before they came in. The park rides have also been placed at reduced capacities, along with modes of transportation and in-park stores.

Disney CEO Bob Chapek and Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy talked about the situation in a recent conference call, reported the Deadline.

When they reopened, the company knew they were going to see fewer visitors than usual but remained hopeful that people would come in. Chapek said it was only natural to see a decline due to the "ebb and flow" of coronavirus infection numbers.

Despite this, the surge of COVID-19 cases in Florida caused more cancellations than what the company had in mind. Guests from out of state were out of their visitor count since there were declines in long-distance travel.

The Disney heads believed that this was due to the increase in Florida's infections just as they reopened. According to USA Today, the Walt Disney Co. lost almost $5 billion due to the closures in April, May, and June. On top of that, it cost the company $3.5 billion just to close the parks during the third quarter.

They have already spent $1 billion to shut the attractions down in the second half of March. The Disney reportedly saw a plunge in its Walt Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products division.

Revenue that was worth $6.575 billion last year dove to just under $1 billion this year. Operating income also went down by $1.7 billion, from $3.7 billion last year to only about $2 billion this year.

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison has appealed directly to United States President Donald Trump, expressing Australias concerns about releasing a rogue Afghan soldier who murdered three Australians in Afghanistan.

The former sergeant in the Afghan National Army, known as Hekmatullah, could be released as part of a prisoner swap deal with the Taliban in the coming weeks.

Officials from the Department of Defence contacted the families of the three Australian soldiers on Friday, warning Hekmatullah would probably be one of 5000 prisoners to be released as part of peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

Hekmatullah has spent seven years in jail after murdering Lance Corporal Stjepan Milosevic, Sapper James Martin and Private Robert Poate in August 2012 while they were playing cards.
West Bengal: Craving for Hilsa grows as poor catch fails to tickle palate

by Joydeep Thakur

August 10,2020 | Source: Hindustan Times

Hilsa, the queen of fish, which millions of Bengalis crave for, is yet to keep its annual date with monsoon and West Bengal this year. On an average, a Hilsa catch of 20,000-25,000 tonnes in a year is considered to be normal. The maximum yield comes during monsoon, when the fish migrates upstream into rivers from the Bay of Bengal to breed. But so far, the catch has been less than 100 tonnes this year. In recent times, 2016 was, undoubtedly, the best, said a senior official of the state fisheries department.



In June, when the over two-month-long coronavirus disease-induced (Covid-19) lockdown restrictions were lifted, fishermen associations had exuded hope that this year could see a bumper Hilsa catch, as the Ganges and its tributaries were less polluted due to the lockdown coupled with bountiful rains. There is an annual ban to catch Hilsa between April 15 and June 14 during its breeding season. Fishermen had suspended work from end-March due to the lockdown. The rivers were also relatively clean, which made us optimistic that there could be a bumper catch this year. However, the insignificant catch mostly includes Hilsa, which are less than a kilogram (kg) in weight, said Shyamsundar Das, joint secretary, West Bengal United Fishermen Association. Experts said that cleaner river water is not enough to attract shoals of Hilsa. Several other factors might have contributed to a poor catch, including siltation at the mouth of the rivers, poor flood pulse, inadequate rainfall and unfavourable wind pattern.



Hilsa will migrate upstream into the rivers if they find a depth of 8090 feet at their mouth. Unfortunately, prolonged siltation in some parts of the rivers have reduced their depth to less than 30 feet that are likely to go up to 60 feet during peak monsoon. Inadequate rainfall in the upper catchment basins has led to poor flood pulse, which could have led to a drastic shortfall in Hilsa catch this year, said Utpal Bhowmik, a Hilsa expert and the former head of the riverine fishery division at Central Inland Fishery Research Institute.



Perhaps, Hilsa is moving towards Bangladesh following tremendous resistance in our rivers and, as a result, is avoiding channels in West Bengal, said Pradip Chatterjee, convener, National Platform for Small Scale Fish Workers. However, all is not lost for Bengal Hilsa lovers, as hope springs eternal to tickle an inveterate Bengalis palate. There is still some time left, as the Hilsa season lasts until October in Bengal. A good monsoon in August-September will make up for the poor catch this year, said Das. On the contrary, rivers in neighbouring Bangladesh  the happy hunting ground for Hilsa  such as the Brahmaputra have good flood pulse because of heavy rains in their upper catchment areas. Fishermen associations in West Bengal said that Bangladesh has had a bumper Hilsa catch this year  one of the countrys major exports to international markets. Bangladesh, like Bengal, had suffered a jolt in early 1990, when the countrys Hilsa population had dwindled rapidly due to a raft of factors, including climate change, overfishing, and reduction in water flow in its rivers.



However, the Bangladeshi government strictly enforced seasonal ban on Hilsa fishing that led to a rebound over the past two and half decades. Earlier this week, the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel in North 24 Parganas district on the Indo-Bangla border had seized around 126 kg of Hilsa, while the consignment was being smuggled into the country from Bangladesh. A senior BSF official had said that it was the largest consignment of Hilsa seized in recent times and the first this year.
The coronavirus pandemic has not halted conflict in embattled parts of the Sahel, which lies south of the Sahara Desert. Extremists are scheming to exploit the chaos, analysts say, while cash-strapped governments face a growing public health threat on top of a stubborn security crisis.
Banks racing to digitise is an inevitable trend, experts said. - VNA/VNS Photo

The COVID-19 pandemic might have had a severe effect on the economy, but it has helped accelerate banks digitisation, they told.

With many people looking for new options to deal with their financial affairs, digitisation of services and e-payments are becoming crucial, and banks, seizing the trend, have been embarking on the use of technology 4.0 and modernising their business models.

Digital technologies come with lower costs but offer wider coverage than traditional models.

The development of internet banking, mobile banking, payment solutions using QR codes, near-field communication technology (NFC), and advances in biometric technology using fingerprints and iris scanning has enabled banks to offer new and convenient products and services to customers, helping them achieve sustainable growth thanks to an increase in revenues from services and gradually reduction in dependence on lending.

The Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade Vietnam (Vietcombank) launched its new digital bank service, VCB Digibank, last month integrating its online trading platforms.

Dao Minh Tuan, the lenders general director, said digital transformation has been identified as a key growth driver, and the bank is hastening the digital transformation process.

We hope VCB Digibank will bring a new experience to and help millions of our customers enjoy convenience in every transaction with Vietcombank.

The service has been developed based on a combination of internet and mobile banking platforms to provide a unified experience for customers.

The Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank) and Housing Development Bank (HDBank) are also investing a lot of money into digitisation.

According to a survey last year by auditing firm PwC Vietnam, Vietnam was among the countries with the fastest rate of growth in mobile payments. The number of users had seen a sharp increase to 61 per cent from just 37 per cent the year before.

The country now has 70 credit institutions and payment intermediaries like e-wallets providing payment services online and through phone apps.

But there are still obstacles like the Vietnamese habit of using cash.

This is biggest barrier to digital banking development and there is a need to change people's mindsets, according to Pham Tien Dung, director of the State Bank of Vietnams payment department.

The central bank recently announced the electronic Know Your Customer, or eKYC, for opening accounts online.

Banks must improve the customer experience to make them satisfied with their products and services, Dung said.
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Linkedin David Gaffen and Gary McWilliams (Reuters) Houston, United States  Mon, August 10, 2020 11:22 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cc8e31 2 Business oil-companies,Exxon,BP,Chevron,output,assets,oil-production Free

The worlds five largest oil companies collectively cut the value of their assets by nearly US$50 billion in the second quarter, and slashed production rates as the coronavirus pandemic caused a drastic fall in fuel prices and demand.

The dramatic reductions in asset valuations and decline in output show the depth of the pain in the second quarter. Fuel demand at one point was down by more than 30 percent worldwide, and still remains below pre-pandemic levels.

Several executives said they took massive writedowns because they expect demand to remain impaired for several more quarters as people travel less and use less fuel due to the ongoing global pandemic that has killed more than 700,000 people.

Of those five companies, only Exxon Mobil did not book sizeable impairments. But an ongoing re-evaluation of its plans could lead to a significant portion of its assets being impaired, it reported, and signal the elimination of 20 percent or 4.4 billion barrels of its oil and gas reserves.

By contrast, BP took a $17 billion hit. It said it plans to re-center its spending in coming years around renewables and less on oil and natural gas.

Weak demand means oil producers must revisit business plans, said Lee Maginniss, managing director at consultants Alarez & Marsal. He said the goal should be to pump only what generates cash in excess of overhead costs.

Its low-cost production mode through the end of 2021 for sure, and to 2022 to the extent there are new development plans being contemplated, Maginniss said.

London-based BP has previously said it plans to cut its overall output by roughly 1 million barrels of oil equivalent (boepd) by the end of 2030 from its current 3.6 million boepd.

Of the five, Exxon is the largest producer, with daily output of 3.64 million boepd, but its production dropped 408,000 boepd between the first and second quarters. The five majors, which include Chevron Corp, Royal Dutch Shell and Total SA, also cut capital expenditures by a combined $25 billion between the quarters.

Crude output worldwide dropped sharply after the market crashed in April. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, led by Saudi Arabia, along with allies including Russia, agreed to cut output by nearly 10 million barrels a day to balance out supply and demand in the market.
Bergers opposition carries more weight since North Carolina citizens do not have the ability to initiate statewide ballot referendums.

Analysts said the lack of a voter referendum option for North Carolina makes Medicaid expansion a pivotal issue in the U.S. Senate and governors races, as well as control of the General Assembly.

Republicans hold a 29-21 advantage in the Senate and 65-55 advantage in the House, but there have been at least four GOP retirements in the Senate and several in the House.

Berger said in January after red-state Kansas reached an expansion compromise between a first-term Democratic governor and Republican legislature that there are not the votes to pass Medicaid expansion (in the N.C. Senate). Thats not an ultimatum, but a factual statement that it would not pass.

Berger said in January that Senate Democrats supported Coopers veto of the 2019-21 state budgets for political reasons.

They are holding out in 2020 because they believe they will be in charge (of the legislature) in 2021, and thats not going to happen, Berger said.
The UK could be hit by severe thunderstorms this week as a spell of extremely hot weather continues, the Met Office has said.

The national weather service has issued yellow weather warnings for the vast majority of areas in the UK from Monday to Thursday, saying that the potential thunderstorms could be significant and disruptive.

The only areas excluded from the warnings are northern Scotland on Monday and Scotland and Northern Ireland on Thursday.

Craig Snell, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said that heavy rain could lead to some localised flooding by Monday evening.

It is not out of the realms of possibility that more than a months rainfall could fall in some isolated areas over the course of just three hours on Monday, Mr Snell added.

Recommended UK heatwave continues with temperatures to hit 35C

There could be up to 90mm of rain in some spots, exceeding the average rainfall for the whole month of August, which stands at around 70-80mm in England.

While thunderstorms are likely to affect the west of the UK in particular on Monday, there is the risk of thunderstorms breaking out almost anywhere, according to Mr Snell.

However, the weather will remain exceptionally hot for many this week.

Temperatures could reach 36C on Monday in the London area and then stay above 35C on Tuesday and Wednesday as well.

If this happens, it will be only the fourth time on record that there have been three consecutive days of temperatures over 35C in the UK.

The last time this occurred was in August 1990, with the two previous occasions both happening in the summer of 1976.

Friday, which was the warmest August day in 17 years, saw temperatures climb to 36.4C at Heathrow.
A pregnant mother arrived silently on Monday night last week on the Los Boliches beach in Fuengirola. In the darkness she made a hole in the sand and laid 73 eggs. She carefully covered them up and left.

The mother was a loggerhead sea turtle. The future of her offspring was left at the mercy of the tides and the hundreds of people who go every day to the busy beach. There is no other record of a loggerhead turtle laying eggs on the Costa del Sol for the last 80 years.

The news of this important, even extraordinary event, soon reached the Andalusian marine sustainable management centre (CEGMA), who arrived to take care of the eggs in collaboration with Fuengirola town hall, the Local Police and the emergency services.

50-60 days is the time it will take for the eggs to hatch. the young turtles born at Bioparc will be released in the sea. Their siblings on the beach in Marbella will depend more on the natural conditions, although they will be monitored.

Immediately the experts realised that the nest was too close to the shore, and that the eggs were in danger, and the decision was made to move them. After studying the ideal place for them they decided to set up a new incubator in the sand on a Marbella beach.

Moving the eggs was complex, explained Eugenio Montes, environment advisor at the Junta de Andalucia and in charge of the operation. Of the 73 eggs, 12 were taken to Bioparc Fuengirola, given the park's experience in reproducing reptiles, to guarantee the survival of part of the family if in the end the project on the Marbella beach doesn't work

"When they hatch we'll know whether it's been successful. If we'd left them on the beach in Fuengirola the chances of survival would be zero," said Montes, who expressed his gratitude for the understanding of Fuengirola town hall.

The eggs were removed one by one, and their position was photographed before they were placed into a container to be moved.

"These initial moments are critical for the development of the embryo," said the expert, who explained that each egg must be placed in the same position as it was when it was laid by the mother, to allow it to grow and so that the temperature and humidity levels remain the same.

Members of the Civil Protection organisation in Marbella prepared the new site for the nest which has been cordoned off and protected from attacks by birds, rodents and the biggest danger of all, human beings. The nest will be carefully monitored.

Loggerhead turtles can be found in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. This year there has been an increase in eggs being laid on the east Levante coast of Spain and the Balearic islands. The Junta experts had expected to find the odd nest on the Almeria coastline, but not on the Costa del Sol.

The temperature of the sand will determine the sex of the young. Females develop at higher temperatures

One of the possible explanations is the rising temperature of the Mediterranean Sea which is being more tropical. The second, according to Montes, is that the mother had been feeding off the Malaga coastline and decided that this would be a good place, due to the quality of the water.

Incubation time for this kind of turtle eggs is 50 to 60 days. A committee of experts will decide what to do once they have hatched. The baby turtles born at Bioparc will be released into the sea. The experts will do all they can to ensure that the family will be reunited in the sea, but Mother Nature will have the final say.
The decision to make face coverings mandatory in shops from today is to be welcomed as another step in re-opening business, say the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce.

Chief Executive Paul Clancy has said the Northern Ireland Executives decision to make the wearing of face masks mandatory in shops is positive news because it protects both shoppers and staff.

The decision also gives more certainty to businesses about the steps that need to be taken to keep people, including staff, safe.

In a survey carried out with the Chambers members last week, 83% of 171 respondents supported the mandatory wearing of face masks in shops by the public.

Londonderry Chamber Chief Executive Paul Clancy said: We are glad to see some certainty on this issue. A vast majority of our own members in the North West are supportive of the mandatory wearing of face masks in shops because they recognise that it protects the health and safety of their own staff, as well as customers.

The reality is that we will all have to make some changes to how we live, work, shop and socialise and if the wearing of face coverings is mandatory, it will help promote more of a cultural change in the acceptability of wearing face coverings.

Shops in the city have put in place new measures and changes which will protect their customers and staff. Many retailers have invested a great deal of time and money to make people feel safe and secure and it is important that customers support the new guidelines.

This has been an enormous time of change, but we must all play our part to protect public health, keep the spread of coronavirus to a minimum and avoid a second wave which will be catastrophic for many businesses.

I hope that people will embrace this change and support local businesses as they try to navigate this new landscape. I would also urge members of the public to be mindful of shop staff and treat them with patience and respect.

The number one priority of retailers is the welfare and safety of their customers and staff and have taken these measures to protect everyone. By shopping local and staying local, we can support small businesses who have been impacted by the lockdown.
BERRIEN COUNTY, MI  A 29-year-old woman was charged with three felonies Monday related to a wrong-way car crash last month that resulted in a mans death, according to a news release from the Berrien County Sheriffs Office.

Nyesha Alvern Campbell, of Benton Township, was charged with drunken driving and firearm offenses after she drove the wrong way down St. Joseph Parkway in Niles Township just before 3 a.m. on July 22, crashing into a car driven by Darnell D. Johnson, 28, authorities said.

Johnson, of Benton Harbor, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Campbell was formally charged with operating while intoxicated, causing death; carrying a concealed weapon in a motor vehicle; and felony firearm. All three charges are felonies.

The first charge carries with it a maximum charge of 15 years imprisonment, a fine of $2,500 to $10,000, or both. The second charge carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison and fines of up to $2,500.

The penalty for the third charge depends on a defendants criminal record, but carries a mandatory two years in prison for a first offense, up to 10 years for a third offense.

Campbell posted bond and is scheduled to appear for a preliminary examination on Wednesday, Aug. 19, according to the news release. She has also been placed on an alcohol use monitoring system, police said.

RELATED: Police identify man killed in wrong-way crash in southwest Michigan

On the night of the crash, police were responding to a report of a dark vehicle traveling north in the southbound late of the parkway when news came through the dispatch of a head-on crash.

The collision reportedly caused Johnson to be thrown from his Ford Fusion. Campbell was found standing outside of a GMC Acadia.

Read more on MLive:

Meet Lulu, Northern Michigans newest police dog

Kalamazoo hosting virtual town hall on ordinances to address housing discrimination

Families of men who died after horrific crash criticize state police investigation
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 10)  National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chairman Delfin Lorenzana on Monday said Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal are likely ready to ease lockdown rules by Aug. 19, less than a week after they were placed under modified general community quarantine (MECQ).

Lorenzana said he believes improvements are reflected in the daily recorded cases of infections.

"The new cases are going down, kahapon 3,000+ na lang down from 6,000 from previous days," he told CNN Philippines. "We are doing well. Sa tingin ko, if the trend continues, we will be ready to go back to GCQ (general community quarantine) by August 18,"

[Translation: The new cases are going down. Yesterday, we recorded 3,000+ new cases compared to the 6,000+ in the previous days. We are doing well. If the current trend continues, we will be ready to go back to GCQ.]

However, he did not discount the possibility that the 15-day strict lockdown may be extended.

"There is a chance kung talagang tataas nang grabe, siguro more than 6,000 to 10,000 per day ang bagong case, kailangan i-extend ang MECQ," he added. "Pero ako ay optimistic na bababa pa ito as we near Aug. 18."

[Translation: There is a chance for an extension if it spikes drastically to 6,000 to 10,000 cases daily. If this happens, then we need to extend the MECQ. But I am optimistic it will continue to go down as we draw closer to Aug. 18.]

Of the 3,109 new COVID-19 cases recorded on Sunday, 1,700 were from Metro Manila, 169 from Laguna, 98 from Rizal, and 93 from Cavite.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, meanwhile, said it is too early to give an assessment of the effectivity of the MGCQ. She said at least two to three weeks is needed to see the full impact of the lockdown.

She added that the declining number of confirmed coronavirus cases is not the only basis for easing stay-at-home rules, saying the government will also consider the healthcare system capacity and if hospitals can cater to all patients that need assistance and treatment.

"Lagi natin ina-assess ang capacity ng healthcare system. Kapag bumababa ang kaso, tinitingnan din natin ang health system, lumuluwag na ba sa mga ospital, wala na bang pasyente na hindi inaadmit? We have to look at these indicators para malaman natin if talagang mag-ease tayo ng restrictions," Vergeire said in an online media forum.

The Inter-Agency Task Force is set to meet on Wednesday to finalize its recommendation whether to place Metro Manila and the four provinces under GCQ or extend the MECQ. President Rodrigo Duterte will have the final say on the fate of these areas.

There are 129,913 confirmed cases in the country as of Sunday. Over 67,000 have recovered, while 2,270 have died.
The Northern Territory could become Australias seventh state on 1 January, 2001, the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, announced yesterday.

The Northern Territory is keen to become Australias seventh state

First published in The Age on August 12, 1998

Mr Howard said a referendum on statehood would be held in the NT in conjunction with the federal election.

He said the step would help revitalise and reinvigorate the Australian federation at its centenary.

The NT Premier, Mr Shane Stone, said the new state would probably be known as the State of the Northern Territory.

That, he said, would be no more contradictory than the name New South Wales.

Mr Howard said the new state would probably have three senators to start with and the number could increase with the population.
JOURNALIST: - Sir, the Covid-19 pandemic has negatively impacted many Vietnamese businesses, especially the export sector, with the production supply chain disrupted and markets at a standstill. As a person who is well experienced in salvaging many such issues, what in your opinion should Vietnamese export enterprises do to make a faster recovery?

Mr. MICHAEL GREENE: - Without doubt, the Covid-19 pandemic has seriously damaged the world economy, but from an optimistic perspective, I think this is a valuable opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to reconnect with a restructured production supply chain across the globe. Therefore, setting up a new production value chain to limit risks is what many businesses and large companies in the world must recognize and also move in taking immediate action. This is an opportunity for Vietnam enterprises in general and export enterprises in particular.

In order to make good use of this opportunity, Vietnamese enterprises must always be prepared for new positions, including proactive participation in the global supply chain, improving their capacity, meeting the requirements and expectations of multinational companies, and thereby expanding production scale in accordance with current and new improved standards. As of now, we are actively supporting the Vietnamese SME groups, because this is the most vulnerable group and also the largest portion of Vietnamese enterprises. We will work closely with the Government and the Ministry of Planning and Investment to support businesses to adapt to the prevailing situation, thereby also joining the new global value and supply chain.

- Sir, Vietnamese businesses have many opportunities to join the new global value chain. However, the actual capacity of Vietnamese enterprises is still limited. Is this playing field too much for them?

- As I have mentioned at many conferences with representatives of the Government and ministries in Vietnam, we continue to affirm United States commitment to supporting Vietnam's strong, independent and prosperous process of development in trade, with fairness and mutual benefits. Vietnam is becoming an increasingly important economic partner of the United States. Currently, we are working with the Government of Vietnam to carry out many projects to support several businesses as well as improve the investment environment in Vietnam. Some outstanding projects such as supporting the implementation of the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) study, and the project to promote reform and enhance the connectivity capacity of SMEs (linkSME) are in progress.

Setting up a new production value chain to limit risks is what many businesses and large companies in the world must recognize and also move in taking immediate action. This is an opportunity for Vietnam enterprises in general and export enterprises in particular.

Recently, the US has also committed to supporting Vietnamese businesses to recover after being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic with USAID help of USD 9.5 mn. In particular, we have set aside USD 4.5 mn to support businesses in the health sector and USD 5 mn to restoring and recovery in other fields. USAID is currently working closely with the Government and the Ministry of Planning and Investment to assist SMEs, so that they can access financial support in order to both expand the size of businesses and also become part of the global supply chain.

- Sir, the year 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of Vietnam-US cooperation, which has achieved many impressive results. Please could you tell us how US investors view the investment and business environment in Vietnam, as well as the prospect of cooperation between businesses of the two countries in the future?

- In 25 years of Vietnam-US cooperation we have achieved many positive results. I am especially impressed with the results of cooperation in the fields of economics, investment and trade between the two countries. Regarding the investment activities of US businesses, it is quite interesting that most US companies are investing in Vietnam through subsidiaries or branches located in Hong Kong and Singapore. As a result, investment capital seems to flow to Vietnam from Hong Kong and Singapore, but in fact it is from subsidiaries of US companies.

When investing in Vietnam, foreign investors, including American investors, consider many factors when deciding to expand their businesses overseas. They consider everything from political stability to geographical location, skilled labor, infrastructure, procedures and the legal system. I think that the investment environment in Vietnam is continuing to improve through simplified administrative procedures, reduced costs for businesses, and supported by a growing economy. I also noticed that in recent years, the US media has written positively about an effective and growing business environment in Vietnam, which is good for investing in this country. As such, we can fully expect even more abundant investment from the US in Vietnam.

- Thank you very much.

Luu Thuy (interviewer)
A district court in Moscow has fined Google 1.5 million rubles (20,334 U.S. dollars) for repeatedly "insufficient filtering of content banned in Russia," Interfax news agency reported on Monday.

As Russian legislation requires, search engines are obliged to exclude links to Internet pages carrying banned information from search results.

This was the third case against Google in Russia concerning this issue, after the U.S. company was fined 700,000 rubles in July 2019 and 500,000 rubles in December 2018.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
How far off is Strandline Resources Limited (ASX:STA) from its intrinsic value? Using the most recent financial data, we'll take a look at whether the stock is fairly priced 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. Don't get put off by the jargon, the math behind it is actually quite straightforward.

Companies can be valued in a lot of ways, so we would point out that a DCF is not perfect for every situation. 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.

See our latest analysis for Strandline Resources

The calculation

As Strandline Resources operates in the metals and mining sector, we need to calculate the intrinsic value slightly differently. In this approach dividends per share (DPS) are used, as free cash flow is difficult to estimate and often not reported by analysts. This often underestimates the value of a stock, but it can still be good as a comparison to competitors. The 'Gordon Growth Model' is used, which simply assumes that dividend payments will continue to increase at a sustainable growth rate forever. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a company's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In this case we used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (2.3%). The expected dividend per share is then discounted to today's value at a cost of equity of 9.0%. Relative to the current share price of AU$0.2, the company appears slightly overvalued 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.

Value Per Share = Expected Dividend Per Share / (Discount Rate - Perpetual Growth Rate)

= AU$0.01 / (9.0%  2.3%)

Story continues

= AU$0.2

dcf

The 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 Strandline Resources 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 9.0%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.123. 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.

Looking Ahead:

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 instance, if the terminal value growth rate is adjusted slightly, it can dramatically alter the overall result. Why is the intrinsic value lower than the current share price? For Strandline Resources, we've compiled three essential factors you should further examine:

Risks: Be aware that Strandline Resources is showing 4 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those doesn't sit too well with us... Future Earnings: How does STA'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 High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every Australian 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.
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Linkedin Mardika Parama (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 10, 2020 13:35 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cd1d28 1 Business patimban-seaport,Japan,Transportation-Minister-Budi-Karya-Sumadi,logistics,special-economic-zone Free

Japan-backed Patimban Port in Subang, West Java is now scheduled for partial operation in November, while its first development phase will reach completion by October despite previous delays, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi has stated.

The port is located about 70 kilometers from the Karawang industrial estate in West Java, where many Japanese companies have built factories, and is expected to ease logistics in the industrial neighborhood.

We hope everyone is working hard so that Patimban seaport can start operations in November, Budi said in a press statement on Sunday during a recent visit to the seaport with West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil.

There are still lots of things that need to be finalized, such as [the construction of] an access ramp, the shipping route and the appointment of a port operator, among other things. Hopefully we can finish everything on time, he added.

Patimban seaport is one of the governments national strategic projects, funded by an official development assistance (ODA) loan from the Japanese government amounting to Rp 14.2 trillion (US$968.5 million) for the first development phase.

The port is expected to be Indonesias primary export port and to ease the burden on Tanjung Priok Port and traffic congestion in Jakarta from the transport of cargo. It is also projected to support the future Rebana Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in Cirebon, Patimban, and Kertajati in West Java, along with Kertajati International Airport.

In the first development phase, Patimban Port is planned to serve 3.75 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and accommodate 600,000 complete built-up (CBU) vehicles. Meanwhile, in the second phase, Patimban's capacity will increase to 5.5 million TEUs and it is expected to reach its final capacity of 7.5 million TEUs in phase 3.

Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia Masafumi Ishii initially projected in 2017 that the ports partial operation would start in the first quarter of 2019.

In February this year, the Transportation Ministrys sea transportation director general, R. Agus H. Purnomo, said the auto terminal would be the first part of the port to be operational in September.

He stated that the operation of the auto terminal was awaiting the completion of a connecting bridge that would be the main access that linked the terminal with the backup area.

"The bridge will connect the auto terminal and the port in the middle of the sea. It will be 1- kilometer-long and as the operation of the auto terminal is scheduled for September, the connecting bridge must be completed long before, hopefully in April or June, Agus told reporters in Jakarta in Feb. 13.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 08/10/2020



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COLT AND JESS

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PAUL AND KARINE

Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

: Happily Ever After? featured Colt Johnson and Jess Caroline having an explosive fight that seemed to end their relationship, Elizabeth Potthast and Andrei Castravet getting into a screaming match, Larissa Dos Santos Lima appearing to dump Eric Nichols, and Asuelu Pulaa worrying his family only cares about money during Sunday night's Season 5 episode on TLC.: Happily Ever After?'s fifth season also features Tania Maduro Angela Deem and Michael Ilesanmi Happily Ever After? documents couples -- engaged, married or divorced -- navigating life, hardships, family, children and unexpected obstacles.The new season has already featured cultural differences, in-law arguments, scandals, confrontations and tears, and there is much more to come.Below is the latest on each couple or cast members, according to the ninth episode of : Happily Ever After?'s fifth season.Jess stormed off after learning Vanessa Guerra was at Colt's house babysitting his cats. Colt didn't run after her because he just wanted Jess to calm down, but Jess said her boyfriend was "not man enough" since Colt chose to talk to Debbie before working things out with her.Colt told Debbie that he couldn't handle feeling "paranoid," and Debbie said Jess storming off was "childish." Debbie said Colt might finally be realizing this wasn't the best relationship for him and he had probably made a mistake.Debbie believed a person cannot tell someone else whom to be friends with or not be friends with.Colt told Debbie that Jess was "jealous and insecure" but he loved and trusted her."I choose to be with her; that's why I'm here. If I wanted Vanessa, I would be in America right now with Vanessa," Colt said, adding that Jess just got a little angry sometimes and he didn't know what to do.Debbie told Colt that two people can't have a relationship without trust, and she dubbed this situation "a repeat of Larissa." Debbie admitted she was "really worried" for Colt, especially considering Jess was already showing she might have a bad temper.Debbie suggested to her son that Jess would probably have this same strong reaction about other women in his life and this probably wouldn't be the first and only time, and Colt was admittedly "having flashbacks of Larissa."Debbie expressed concern Jess would come back to her hotel room and hit her in the head or knock her out, which Colt thought was ridiculous."It's obvious to me that my mother wants to break up my relationship with Jess, but I love her. Jess may have reacted badly and stormed out, but I can't really blame her because I lied about Vanessa. I want to try to fix things," Colt said in a confessional.When Colt left the room, Debbie muttered under her breath, "Damn!"Colt said he and Vanessa were just friends but he felt guilty about lying to Jess. Colt wanted to fix things because he said he loved Jess, and so he chased her down in the hotel.Jess said Colt had sent her screenshots of a conversation he had with Vanessa in which Colt allegedly told Vanessa, "I love Jess... Leave me alone. Go, I don't need you in my life. I trusted this, but it's fake."Jess got Vanessa's number from Colt's phone and texted her, asking about her relationship with Colt. Jess learned Vanessa and Colt were still talking and so Colt had definitely lied to her.When Jess and Colt reunited in their hotel room, Jess threw her high heels at Colt from across the room."You lied!" Jess shouted. "Look this! Read!"Jess shoved a phone in Colt's face and he said, "What are you talking about?""Vanessa talk. You still friends," Jess screamed. "You talk every day! You are crazy! Read it. '[She's] not my friend.' You lie!"Colt apparently didn't know what to say or how to react to Jess' outburst. She stormed out of the room and he asked her to "stop it," but she pushed him away and Colt chased her down.Jess said she didn't want to talk to Colt, but Colt pleaded with her to stop fighting with him. Jess was prepared to leave Colt alone, but Colt said, "She's a friend. I'm allowed to have friends."Jess wished Colt luck and said he had lost her because he's a liar."Can you please stay so we can talk?" Colt asked."No, go back to America. Bye!" Jess responded.Colt begged Jess for just five minutes to talk but she yelled, "No," at him and just tried to get away from him."Don't touch me. You are a bad guy, a trashy guy," Jess said.Colt followed Jess into an elevator and then outside of the hotel, and Jess said she planned to "f-ck" another guy during Colt's last day in Brazil because he was "trash.""No, trash is better," Jess griped.Colt said the thought of Jess sleeping with another man broke his heart, and he said, "I'm sorry." But Jess told Colt to go "die," and Colt confessed, "I was going to marry you! I was going to propose to you!"Jess didn't believe that Colt loved her, and she threatened to sleep with her ex-boyfriend that night. Jess wished Colt had been honest with her about his friendship with Vanessa, and she said she no longer trusted her boyfriend.With that being said, Jess took off in a cab, and Colt said he was "freaking out" and felt like he was going to pass out. Colt said he had seen Jess jealous before but never violent. Colt wanted to explain Vanessa was just his friend."I never imagined this would be my last night in Brazil, maybe my last night with Jess," Colt told the cameras.Kalani and Asuelu were waking up from their first night in Washington State at an AirBnB. Although Asuelu had thrown a fit about not getting to see his mother and sister right away, Kalani said Asuelu apologized to her off-camera after his little outburst.Asuelu told Kalani that he saw a ghost in the middle of the night, a little girl standing in front of the bathroom. Asuelu said he didn't sleep well after that and felt very scared.Kalani was shocked because she said she heard someone talking in the middle of the night and so she was too terrified to even go to the bathroom.Kalani said she absolutely believes in ghosts and there seemed to be "a bad one" in their AirBnB.Asuelu apparently promised to Kalani that he wouldn't get angry during this trip because he had behaved poorly during their vacation in California when they had celebrated their son Oliver's birthday.Kalani's sister Kolini then showed up to help Kalani out with the kids, but Asuelu felt a little uncomfortable because he didn't think that Kolini even liked him.Kolini agreed being around Asuelu was "awkward" and she couldn't predict how a meeting with his family was going to go.And Kalani just hoped the reunion would go well and Asuelu wouldn't throw her under the bus since they were showing up with less money than Asuelu's mother Lesina had been hoping.It had been about a year since Asuelu last saw his mother and sisters Tammy and Rosa, so he expected the gathering to be a wonderful and special occasion. Asuelu's mother cried when she saw Asuelu and appeared thrilled to see her grandsons again. She even kissed Asuelu on the lips for about five seconds.Tammy said she was interested to see whether Asuelu and Kalani were a good fit together.Kalani teased Asuelu about how he basically made out with his mother, and then Asuelu swore and walked away from his wife, who called Asuelu a "crybaby" and didn't think it was wrong to tease her husband a little bit.The group then went to dinner and Asuelu hoped money wouldn't be brought up so that Kalani and Lesina would get along. The group ate food from a food truck in Portland and Asuelu was optimistic everything would taste delicious.Lesina invited Kalani and Asuelu over to her house the next day, and Asuelu said he would be bringing gifts. Tammy asked if Asuelu had any money for their mother, and Asuelu replied, "I guess.""How much money do you have for me?" Lesina asked."Um, I think $100," Asuelu replied.Tammy said, "That's all?!" But Kalani insisted that was a lot of money. Rosa, on the other hand, pointed out in sign language that was a small amount -- and his relatives were clearly disappointed on him.Asuelu explained that's all he could afford because raising children is expensive, and Kolini called it "the most awkward dinner" she's ever been a part of. Kolini was surprised Asuelu's family just wanted to talk about money, and Kalani reminded Asuelu's mother how Asuelu worked part-time and she stays at home with the kids.Tammy advised Asuelu to step up like a man and work full-time, and Asuelu said he had applied for jobs. Asuelu knew his family was "poor" and needed money, but Asuelu said he needed to support his wife and kids and they didn't have money to spare.Lesina argued, "Where is your mind?! Kalani's parents have a lot of money. They will take care of the kids."Asuelu said Kalani's parents already helped a lot but they shouldn't be responsible for everything."We gotta put our parents first no matter we're married. We're supposed to take care of them and send money no matter what," Tammy explained."Well do you send money home?" Kalani asked.Tammy was quiet for a moment and said, "It's none of your business." But Kalani argued it was her business, suggesting she and Asuelu shouldn't be held accountable for something Tammy didn't even do herself.Lesina told Kalani to leave her daughter alone and apparently missed Asuelu being her right-hand boy. Lesina thought Kalani was the reason Asuelu didn't want to send money to Samoa.Asuelu said he didn't want money to ruin his relationship with his family, but Lesina vented she was done with the conversation and wanted to go home. Asuelu was upset, saying his family didn't want to spend time with him and he feared they only wanted money from him.Larissa was shown talking to her friend Carmen about how Eric had allegedly trashed Larissa to his friends and family while he and Larissa were broken up.Larissa feared Eric was going to call the police on her because then she'd most likely be deported. Eric was threatening to call the authorities because Larissa took his phone that she had allegedly given him.And then suddenly, someone rang Carmen's doorbell -- but it was just a package being delivered. Larissa felt silly for trusting Eric when he had betrayed her again, but she apparently still loved him and wanted to be with him."I wish we could be a family and also stay together forever," Larissa lamented in a confessional.After leaving Carmen's house, Larissa returned to Eric's place and asked to speak with him."I believe sometimes I can attract toxic men. I am so sick of people using my immigration status to get over me. Colt did this, and I can't believe Eric will be so low like Colt and threaten me with immigration," Larissa told the cameras.Larissa told Eric to never threaten to call the police on her again or talk to her lawyer again.Larissa accused Eric of telling people that their sex was "bad" when Eric had allegedly insisted they made love, but Eric was angry and yelled about how it was crazy for Larissa to dive into his past and track down former flings to get information.Larissa asked Eric to tell her what he had said about her behind her back, but Eric said he didn't want drama, nonsense and exes to resurface. Eric said he had made comments out of "anger" and they weren't representative of how he really felt about Larissa.Eric apologized to Larissa, but she wanted specific details about what he had said when badmouthing her. Eric said he couldn't remember, and then Larissa said she would never forgive him.But Eric also felt Larissa owed him an apology, and he said he never expected to have problems with Larissa so soon. Eric realized in that moment Larissa was "not going to change," and so the couple did not exactly get back on good terms.Larissa planned to move out of Eric's place and told him to consider himself "buried" in her life. However, Larissa was going to spend one more night at Eric's house so she could rest because she was exhausted."I don't think we can get out of this situation. What he did was very serious," Larissa said.Larissa said she had been hoping Eric would tell her the truth and hug and kiss her, but that wasn't the case. Larissa cried about how she doesn't have a lot of sexual experience and so it was hurtful that Eric allegedly criticized her skills or ability to others.Syngin learned it was going to take his brother some time to heal from a blood clot, and Syngin looked forward to visiting his brother, who had just been discharged from the hospital.On their way to visiting Syngin's brother, Tania broke down into tears in the car because she apparently experienced panic attacks ever since her car accident. Tania said she didn't feel safe driving or being in the car with anyone else driving, and she hoped she would be able to work through the mental and emotional hurdles her injury had caused.Tania was hoping Syngin's reunion with his brother would result in the fresh start they needed for their relationship.Syngin said it was "amazing" to visit with his brother since they're extremely close. Syngin's brother recalled the immense pain he had felt due to the blood clot, but he was feeling much better and was thrilled to see Syngin.Syngin told the cameras he had become a much more open and emotional man, and his brother poked fun at Syngin for gaining weight in America. Syngin said living in America had been "a real crazy experience" and it wasn't all sunshine and roses.Syngin admitted he hadn't made a good friend in the United States yet, adding, "It's not the perfect life -- at all." Tania was tired of Syngin complaining, saying, "It's not the greatest country, but it's also not f-cking horrible."Tania worried Syngin being with his family in South Africa might persuade him to move back to his native country and leave her.Tania let Syngin go off for the day with his friends and even get drunk if he wanted to while she spent the day with his mother and sister shopping. Tania just told Syngin to not reach a point of no return with alcohol.Tania looked forward to getting past this day so she could spend more time with Syngin alone in South Africa. Tania told the women in Syngin's life that he was homesick but seemed happy.Tania explained she wanted Syngin to settle down but that didn't mean he had to lose his freedom, and Syngin's mother seemed worried Tania was trying to change her son. Tania elaborated, saying she was done partying at her age.Syngin's sister Charys acknowledged Tania seemed a bit controlling but Syngin could work on things as well in order to improve his marriage. Tania learned she and Syngin both needed to compromise, but Tania explained Syngin's fear of commitment was holding them back.Tania gushed about how she loved Syngin and wanted to have kids with him but she needed the free spirit to settle down and just find a good life balance. Tania even cried talking about it with Syngin's loved ones.Syngin's mom said Tania, a noticeably strong-willed woman, couldn't be too demanding or else her relationship wouldn't work out.Andrei and Elizabeth's brother Charlie argued at the dinner table and got in each other's faces, and an argument nearly turned physical. Elizabeth, however, separated the men in her life -- as they were swearing at each other -- and yelled at them to "stop" and sit back down.Elizabeth said she didn't know "what the f-ck" was going on but both men were at fault and their behavior was not acceptable or okay.Charlie couldn't believe Andrei would try to fight him when he had flown around the world to attend his wedding, but Andrei responded with, "It's all about him now... I don't give a f-ck. Go back to your f-cking country."Elizabeth told her husband not to treat guests in his country that way, and Andrei's brother pointed out the trouble seemed to be alcohol because both men appeared eager for a fight.Chuck said it's not okay to try to beat someone up and people in America treat guests in their country with respect, but Elizabeth accused Charlie of being a hothead just like Andrei.Andrei told Elizabeth that Charlie needed to leave the table and had been provoking him, and Andrei's friends seemed to agree Charlie and Chuck had asked the same question about ten times which would naturally piss Andrei off.Charlie insisted he was just trying to learn more about Andrei, and so both guys were fired up. Charlie decided to leave the restaurant and calm down outside, which Chuck acknowledged was a good idea.Andrei told Elizabeth to tell Charlie and Chuck to pack their bags and go back home, and Elizabeth seemed furious, telling her husband that he was the one misbehaving and the altercation was partly his fault.Chuck told the dinner table that Andrei had behaved much differently during his two years in America and Chuck was seeing a different, meaner side of Andrei that he didn't like. Chuck wondered which side of Andrei was his true self.Elizabeth told Andrei he had ruined the night and he did not treat her family right. Elizabeth scolded Andrei and said they had to leave, and so the couple left Chuck and Charlie with Andrei's friends and family.Chuck called Andrei "classless" and said it was "not a good move" to leave the restaurant. Chuck also believed Andrei was hiding something since Andrei had been so defensive and tight-lipped about his past.Elizabeth told Andrei his actions were "outrageous and embarrassing," and Elizabeth acknowledged Andrei had too much to drink. Andrei then threatened to fight Elizabeth's brother again, and she called him "insane" and couldn't believe he was lashing out like that.Andrei's brother Radu came outside and told Andrei to talk things out or just go home alone, and Andrei felt his brother was on Elizabeth's family's side and that they must have been "manipulating" Radu.Andrei told Elizabeth that her relatives asked too many questions, and so Elizabeth was wondering if he was hiding something. Andrei wanted Elizabeth to defend his behavior, but she said it wasn't normal and started to cry."He's on another f-cking planet right now. I don't even want to deal with him right now. I feel bad for my dad and my brother, like, they traveled so long and they are probably so jetlagged. And [Andrei] is just ruining their trip," Elizabeth vented to the cameras.It appeared no one could talk any sense into Andrei, who scolded his wife for not defending him, as Chuck apologized to everyone remaining at the dinner table for what just went down. Chuck kindly said he was enjoying their food and culture.Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Andrei argued outside. Elizabeth insisted she always defended her husband, but Andrei called her an "idiot" and said, "This is not going to work." Andrei yelled at Elizabeth, saying, "You are not married to your father, okay?!"Elizabeth considered leaving and canceling her second wedding because she was far from happy.Angela said Michael needed to "sh-t or get off the pot" and determine whether he wanted to marry her. Angela wanted to make sure Michael wouldn't regret marrying her if she couldn't have a child with him, and she wanted to hear Michael say that he wasn't having any doubts.Angela promised she would try to carry a child for Michael but a pregnancy would put her health at risk. Angela said "having a baby" would mean she must quit smoking, lose weight and more."I've got to make sure, Michael, that if I can't do it after we're married and we tried, you wouldn't just leave me because I can't have a baby. I can't take that stress and that anxiety," Angela told Michael.Michael's dream was apparently to have a child and play with his son or daughter, so he admitted it was "difficult" thinking about being with Angela without becoming a father.Michael told Angela that he loved her deep down and would "stick" by her even if she couldn't give them a child. Michael said, "I love you baby," and Angela replied, "I love you too, Michael."Angela felt happy and relieved, but Michael was still worried about what his mother was going to think. Michael said he and Angela needed his mother's blessing to get married, and if a baby wasn't going to be in the picture, Michael's mother wasn't going to be happy.Angela hoped Michael's mother would still approve of the wedding, but she said she didn't really "give a sh-t" if his mother disapproved. Michael explained it's the rules of his culture, but Angela snapped at Michael and told him to be a man and defend them as a couple."When you're in love, no one is going to stop you -- not even your damn mom," Angela said in a confessional."I've gone way beyond for love, and it's time for Michael to sacrifice for me -- and one of those sacrifices might be making his mom mad... [but] she'll get over it."Angela and Michael's wedding was only one week away, so they went shopping for a cake. Michael's aunt Lydia joined them for the occasion, and Michael revealed he and Angela were going to have a traditional, big American wedding with Angela wearing a white wedding dress.Michael's relatives didn't seem to appreciate the fact Michael wasn't going to have a traditional Nigerian wedding, but Michael wanted to make Angela happy.Lydia said Michael's family would like to contribute to the wedding as the group tasted different cakes and icings, and Angela appeared overjoyed and gushed, "I'll take it!"Lydia wished Angela and Michael good sex and babies in marriage, but Angela disclosed how getting pregnant would be risky to her health and she had no eggs left. Lydia, however, said Michael needed to make sure he could have a baby, even if it meant getting a second or third wife.Angela noted it was sad Michael felt a burden to satisfy and please his family, and Angela asked, "Let him be his own man." But Michael told the cameras he truly wanted to have a baby -- and he wasn't just feeling pressure from his loved ones.Michael assured Angela that he would stay with her even if she couldn't have a child, but Lydia could tell Michael was torn between the love he felt for his mother and the love he felt for his future wife.Karine had been in America for one month and called the adjustment very difficult. She was not used to the house and said Paul was still unable to land a job and provide for his wife and son Pierre.Karine didn't like living near the train tracks because the train was very loud when it passed by, and she said Paul didn't seem to know, understand or care how unhappy she was.Paul felt Karine was just looking for reasons to not like America, and he said he was doing everything he could for her and was just hoping Karine would be more patient with him.Karine told Paul to go look for a job, and he insisted he had been networking and connecting with people. Paul said Karine didn't give him enough credit for everything he did for his family because he took care of their food "and everything."Paul promised Karine everything was going to be alright, but she replied, "I'll give you two months to find a job. Otherwise, I'll pick up Pierre and we'll leave for Brazil."Paul told Karine that he loved her and wanted to stay together as a family and so he would do his "very best." Paul said Karine's threat broke his heart and shattered it on the floor, adding he would be devastated if Karine and his son moved back to Brazil without him."Failure is not an option for me -- whatsoever," Paul noted to the cameras.Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!
This comes after a number of outbreaks at processing plants in Kildare, Laois and Offaly - which have been linked to over 300 cases.

A fourth meat factory, Carroll Cusine, today announced it was suspending production at its facility in Tullamore in Co Offaly.

SIPTU held a two-hour meeting with Meat Industry Ireland today, where a commitment to rapid testing of workers was agreed.

Inspections was one of the biggest issues that they discussed seeing as only 33 have been carried out at meat plants between the middle of May and end of July, according to the Health and Safety Authority.

Greg Ennis from SIPTU says there needs to be a testing framework in place.

"We have done it in the HSE for workers in that industry and because Covid is so virulent within in the meat industry now and has been for some time.

Advertisement There have been 450 cases, so we need our meat industry plants to be tested and the workers in them as well."

Mr Ennis also says that there needs to more unannounced inspections of factories as well

"That issue was discussed also and Meat Industry Ireland would subscribe to that as well and they have no issue with unannounced inspections.

"I definitely believe there should be more, there have been some but not enough."
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

It took 32 months to complete but the transfer operations that moved canisters filled with spent radioactive fuel, or waste, from wet storage pools to a newly constructed dry storage facility at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station wrapped up Friday.

Shortly before 5 a.m., workers lowered the 73rd and final canister into its assigned enclosure at the north end of the plant, known as SONGS for short.

At commercial nuclear plants, after fuel used to generate electricity loses its effectiveness, operators place the assemblies in a metal rack that is lowered into a pool, typically for about five years. Once cooled, the fuel can be transferred to a dry storage facility, which is generally considered a safer place for it.

Officials Southern California Edison, the operator at SONGS, said completing the transfers is a key part of the company's eight-year plan to dismantle most of the structures at the plant, which has not produced power since 2012 and is being decommissioned.

"The safe completion of this storage campaign ... ends the largest canister loading campaign ever in the U.S.," Vince Bilovsky, Edison's deputy decommissioning officer, said in an email. "But our work won't truly be done until all canisters at SONGS are relocated off-site to a federally licensed storage or disposal facility."

Longtime critics of Edison were not cheering the news, though.

"It's a sad day," said Ray Lutz, national coordinator for the advocacy group Citizens' Oversight. "People say, well, (the waste issue) is fine right now and we'll deal with it later. But this is what they've said ever since they started this nuclear industrywe'll figure it out later, the five favorite words."

Transfer operations at SONGS began in January 2018 but seven months later, one of the 50-ton canisters was accidentally left suspended while being lowered into its storage cavity. Resting almost 20 feet from the floor, the canister was left perched on an inner-ring of the cavity for about 45 minutes, unsupported by rigging and lifting equipment.

The canister was eventually lowered safely and Edison officials said workers and the public were in no danger if the canister had fallen. The incident, which came to light after an industrial safety worker came forward six days later at a public meeting, led to a special inspection by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The commission later fined Edison $116,000 and chided the company for failing "to establish a rigorous process to ensure adequate procedures, training and oversight guidance."

Edison and its chief contractor, Holtec International, instituted a series of enhanced safety and work protocols to ensure another "near-miss" did not occur and after suspending all transfers for 11 months, it resumed moving the canisters in July 2019.

Since then, 44 canisters have been transferred at SONGS, with No. 73 on Friday marking the final move via slow-moving transporters. Another 50 canisters sit in a separate dry storage facility nearby. All told, there are 3.55 million pounds of used-up fuel at the plant, located between the San Onofre Beach and Interstate 5.

As thorny as the transfer operations were, a more complicated issue remains: How long the canisters at SONGS will stay there.

SONGS is not unique. About 80,000 metric tons of waste from commercial nuclear plants are stored across the country121 sites in 35 statesbecause the federal government has not constructed a repository to store any of it.

"Our commitment remains ensuring spent nuclear fuel is safely stored and that it can be transported to an off-site facility in the future," Doug Bauder, Edison's chief nuclear officer, said in a statement.

About $15 billion has been spent to construct the Yucca Mountain site in the Nevada desert but shortly before it was scheduled to open, the Obama administration cut off funding, heeding calls from then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other elected officials in the Silver State long opposed to the facility.

Some in Congress have called for reopening Yucca and the Trump administration had proposed spending $120 million to look into re-licensing the site but President Donald Trump earlier this year reversed course, saying in a tweet, "Nevada, I hear you on Yucca Mountain."

In recent years, discussion has turned to finding alternate, "interim" sites to store waste from SONGS and other nuclear plants.

A recently passed spending package in the U.S. House of Representatives included $27.5 million to develop a "robust" interim storage program. Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., has called for establishing a set of federal guidelines that would put waste at sites like San Onofrewith large populations and in areas with earthquake hazardsat the top of the list once a storage facility becomes available.

Two private companies have applied to build interim facilities but whether those sites will actually be constructed is an open question.

One of the potential sites is in southeastern New Mexicoa partnership between Holtec and a group called the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance that proposes to store as many as 10,000 canisters and boost the area's economy. The group is seeking a 40-year license from the NRC. But last month, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham reiterated her opposition to the project in a letter to Trump, saying, "the risks for New Mexicans, our natural resources and our economy are too high."

The other possible site is near the West Texas town of Andrews. A company called Waste Control Specialists has formed a partnership to expand an already existing facility and store as much as 40,000 metric tons spent fuel. The NRC has issued an initial recommendation to license the site but opponents vow to fight final approval.

Levin assembled a task force that in June released some 30 recommendations, including establishing a federal Nuclear Waste Administration aimed at creating a better process to find sites for the nation's spent fuel stockpile.

Following an out-of-court settlement that Lutz was involved in, Edison created an expert panel of experts to look at destinations for SONGS waste. Early next year, Edison intends to release the findings of a strategic plan for possible storage sites "as well as make sure that our fuel is ready for pick up when the opportunity presents itself," Bauder said.

When the eight-year dismantlement effort at SONGS is complete, all that will remain will be the dry storage sites; a security building with personnel to look over the waste; a seawall 28 feet high, as measured at average low tide at San Onofre Beach; a walkway connecting two beaches north and south of the plant and a switch-yard with power lines.

The distinctive 200-feet-high twin domes that loom over Interstate 5 are scheduled to come down between late 2025 and 2027.

Explore further Proposal advances to store nuclear waste in New Mexico

2020 The San Diego Union-Tribune

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Biden gets Wall Streets money and Silicon Valleys advice

The wallets of Wall Street are with Joe Biden, if not the hearts, report The Timess Kate Kelly, Shane Goldmacher and Thomas Kaplan. The millions of dollars that financiers donated to the Democratic presidential candidates once flagging campaign saw him through the primaries, and into a lead in national polls.

The prospect of higher taxes and stricter regulation are not scaring them away, with the prospects of a more seasoned and methodical presidency proving appealing, The Timess team reports. For example, Seth Klarman, founder of the hedge fund Baupost who was once a big donor to the Republican Party, has given $3 million to groups supporting Mr. Biden in this cycle.

 Financiers are closely watching Mr. Bidens pick for his running mate. Their support could wane if he chooses Elizabeth Warren, who has proposed a wealth tax and much tougher financial regulation than Mr. Biden.

In Silicon Valley, the tech giants are also making overtures. The Timess David McCabe and Kenneth Vogel report that Mr. Bidens campaign has welcomed staff members and advisers who have ties to Big Tech, raising concerns among the industrys critics that the companies are seeking to co-opt a potential Biden administration.
CAY HILL:--- St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) hereby reminds the public that persons experiencing non-urgent COVID-19 symptoms should contact their House Doctor or Collective Prevention Services (CPS) for instructions prior to coming to the hospital.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, SMMC has put protocols in place to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 to other patients and staff within the hospital. These protocols include a mandatory COVID-19 triage questionnaire at all entry points which include questions such as if the patient is experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms if they have recently traveled and if they have been in contact with anyone who has been confirmed as having COVID-19, mandatory hand hygiene and a mandatory universal masking policy which applies to patients and staff. Despite these protocols, SMMC has seen an increase in non-urgent patients attempting to visit the Emergency Room and the Outpatient Clinics requesting check-ups to rule out COVID-19.

Due to the recent uptick in cases on the island, we have had an increase of stable and asymptomatic patients coming to the hospital requesting a check-up to exclude COVID-19. As the only hospital on the Dutch side of the island, it is of utmost importance that we take all necessary precautions safeguard the health of our patients and employees and that includes urging the public to adhere to our COVID-19 mitigation protocols. By attempting to visit the hospital when experiencing non-urgent symptoms, these persons put our staff and patients at risk unnecessarily, said Dr. Felix Holiday, Medical Director and Chairman of SMMCs Outbreak Management Team.

We encourage the public to wear masks when in public, avoid visiting the hospital unnecessarily, practice social distancing, practice proper and frequent hand hygiene and to immediately isolate if you are feeling unwell concluded Dr. Holiday.

SMMC urges persons experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 such as fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headaches, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea to CALL their House Doctor or contact the CPS hotline at 914. Persons experiencing symptoms such as trouble breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, new confusion, the inability to wake or stay awake and bluish lips or face should contact the Ambulance Department by calling 912 and await further instructions.
Accordingly, Sun Life announced that it has opened a branch in Singapore a few days ago, in anticipation of its upcoming Asia-focus strategy. The newly-opened Singapore subsidiary extends Sun Lifes presence to eight markets in Asia, including China, the Philippines, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Sun Life Financial has set up a new subsidiary in Singapore to lea the charge in Asia

The company now provides its services specialising on life, health insurance, and wealth management solutions to more than 23 million customers in Asia. Since 2016, Sun Lifes business in Asia has grown to support 11.5 million new clients and its underlying net income has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15 per cent.

Sun Life targets affluent citizens, offering insurance services through international brokers and private banks.

According to Bloomberg, Sun Life is looking to make more acquisitions on the continent after reaching a bancassurance deal in Vietnam last year to sell insurance via privately-held lender Tien Phong Bank (TP Bank), said Leo Grepin, president for Asia.

Were very much looking for acquisitions in Asia across our core markets, Grepin emphasised.

Furthermore, the insurer is mulling over lifting its ownership ratio to 100 per cent in a joint venture with China Everbright Group. Sun Life currently holds 25 per cent stake in the partnership.

Were very bullish on China, and over time wed be interested in increasing our investment, but theres no short-term plan to do so, Grepin said. Obviously, that would require partners to sell down.
Government-run primary and upper primary schools, located in the gram panchayats of seven development blocks of Prayagraj will now get free high-speed broadband internet connection throughout the year.

Gradually the facility being provided by BharatNet, a central government initiative under Digital India, would be extended to all the schools, officials said.

This would help teachers, who at present are sharing academic content with students largely on whatsapp, to be able to conduct classes online, officials said.

The initiative will cover such schools located in Manda, Pratappur, Bahadurpur, Bahariya, Soraon, Karchana and Phulpur development blocks, said basic shiksha adhikari (BSA), Prayagraj Sanjay Kumar Kushwaha.

Once the facility is ready, teachers would now be coming to schools to take virtual classes, he explained.

The Block Education Officers (BEOs) of these seven blocks have been instructed to make available one passport size photograph, Aadhaar card and an identity proof of each of the headmaster or principal of these schools at the earliest to us for the free high-speed broadband internet connections to their respective institutions, he said.

Kushwaha said that the district administration was also overseeing the project and the chief development officer had chaired a meeting in this regard on August 7 in which he instructed that the free high-speed broadband internet connections to these schools be provided at the earliest.
Indices traded sideways with decent gains in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above its crucial 11,300 mark. Buying was broad based with pharma stocks at the fore.

At 13:21 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, added 321.1 points or 0.84% at 38,361.77. The Nifty 50 index gained 104.65 points or 0.93% at 11,318.50.

The broader market continued to outperform the benchmarks. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 1.49% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 1.51%.

Buyers outnumbered sellers. On the BSE, 1729 shares rose and 875 shares fell. A total of 168 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 397.32 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 438.62 crore in the Indian equity market on 7 August, provisional data showed

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 19,862,599 with 731,349 deaths. India reported 6,34,945 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 44,386 deaths while 15,35,743 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Economy:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a Rs 1 lakh crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund to support community farming assets across the country and said this would enhance India's ability to compete globally in the agriculture sector. The farm infrastructure will enable farmers get higher value for their produce as they will be able to store and sell at better prices as per market conditions, reduce wastage and increase processing and value addition. PM also released Rs 17,000 crore to nearly 8.5 crore farmers under the sixth installment of the PM-Kisan scheme.

AGR Case Hearing:

The Supreme Court (SC) will be hearing the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) case later today, 10 August. The apex court on 20 July reserved its order on permitting telecom companies to make staggered payments over 15 years. Both Vodafone Idea (up 2.72%) and Bharti Airtel (up 0.43%) requested for a 15-year window to clear the dues, while Tata Teleservices (up 1.45%) has sought 7-10 years.

Earnings Today:

Power Grid Corporation of India (up 1.51%), Shree Cement (up 1.81%) and Titan Company (up 0.79%) will announce their quarterly earnings today.

Among the other stocks, Akzo Nobel (up 0.62%), AstraZeneca Pharma (up 2.74%), Bank of Baroda (down 0.21%), Camlin Fine Sciences (up 2.56%), HEG (up 0.98%), IPCA Labs (up 6.4%), KEC International (up 0.63%), Meghmani Organics (up 1.85%), Ujjivan Financial Services (down 0.8%) and V-Mart Retail (up 0.52%) will also announce their quarterly earnings today.

Earnings Impact:

Cipla jumped 10.12% after the company's net profit rose 21% to Rs 578 crore on 9% increase in total revenue from operations to Rs 4,346 crore in Q1 FY21 over Q1 FY20. EBITDA in Q1 June 2020 was at Rs 1,049 crore, up by 16% from Rs 905 crore recorded in Q1 June 2019. EBITDA margin stood at 24.1% as 30 June 2020 as against 22.7% as 30 June 2019. Cipla said that it has achieved zero net debt position led by strong collections and improved EBITDA. India business grew by 16% YoY with strong growth across the three businesses. Overall South African business continued the strong growth momentum to deliver growth of 17% on a YoY basis in local currency; private business continues to outpace the market. The US business reported $135 million led by Albuterol ramp-up; 14% QoQ growth. The company's R&D investments amounted to Rs 200 crore, representing 4.6% of the total revenue from operations.

Divi's Laboratories surged 12% after the company's consolidated net profit jumped 81% to Rs 492 crore on a 47% increase in total income to Rs 1748 crore in Q1 FY21 over Q1 FY20. Profit before tax in Q1 June 2020 stood at Rs 661 crore, up by 77% from Rs 373 crore in Q1 June 2019. Forex gain for the current quarter amounted to Rs 5 crore as against a loss of Rs 6 crore during the corresponding quarter of the last year. Divi's Lab said that the company has been able to have near normal operations during the quarter and there was minimal impact due to COVID-19 pandemic. It added that while a significant part of the ongoing capex programs has been completed during the last financial year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been delay in implementing the balance part of the capex programs taken up by the company due to non-availability of workmen of some contractors implementing the projects. The company has seen improvement subsequently in terms of some of the technicians of contractors reporting for duty and materials arriving at site. It expects to complete the capex programs by second half of the financial year.

Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) slumped 14% after the company's consolidated net profit dropped 78% to Rs 49.29 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019. Net sales for Q1 June 2020 stood at Rs 1194.20 crore, fall 28% compared with Rs 1654.76 crore in Q1 June 2019. The company registered a 78% fall in profit before tax to Rs 71.79 crore in Q1 June 2020 as against Rs 325.34 crore in Q1 June 2019. Total tax expenses declined 77% year on year to Rs 22.5 crore in Q1 June 2020.

Affle India hit an upper circuit of 10% at Rs 2025.95 after the company's consolidated net profit jumped 42.3% to Rs 18.77 crore on 20% increase in net sales to Rs 89.77 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019. Profit before tax came at Rs 20.11 crore in Q1 June 2020, rising 23% from Rs 16.35 crore in the same period last year. EBITDA grew by 20.3% year on year to Rs 22.5 crore in quarter ending June 2020. The company EBITDA margin remained unchanged at 25% in Q1 June 2020. The firm said that the growth has been broad-based coming from both cost per converted user (CPCU) business and non-CPCU business. The CPCU business continued its positive momentum delivering a total of 1.7 crore of converted users in Q1 FY21.

Amara Raja Batteries gained 3.43%. The company's consolidated net profit tanked 55.6% to Rs 62.49 crore on 36.6% drop in net sales to Rs 1,151.22 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019. Consolidated profit before tax (PBT) slumped 60.8% to Rs 83.49 crore in Q1 June 2020 as against Rs 213.03 crore in Q1 June 2019. The company's performance during the quarter came against the backdrop of severe disruptions in manufacturing, supply chain, and sales and distribution operations due to COVID-19 lockdown. Despite the challenges, Amara Raja Batteries managed the demand and supply by implementing completely new standard operating procedures across operational branches and units.

Birla Corporation fell 6.93% after consolidated net profit tanked 53.2% to Rs 65.77 crore on 35.1% decline in net sales to Rs 1,221.97 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019. Revenue for the quarter declined as sales by volume dropped 33.9% to 2.4 million tons (mt). EBITDA slumped 37% to Rs 252 crore in June 2020 as against Rs 402 crore in June 2019 amid severe disruptions in key markets and manufacturing centres due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Global Markets:

European markets opened higher while most Asian stocks were trading higher on Monday. Investors shrugged off concerns over rising tensions between the United States and China. Japanese and Singaporean markets are closed for public holidays.

Investors continued to monitor the US fiscal stimulus after talks between the White House and Democrat lawmakers broke down.

In US, the S&P 500 retreated from a near six-month high in choppy trading on Friday with data showing a sharp slowdown in US employment growth, while US-China tensions escalated with President Donald Trump's move to ban WeChat and TikTok.

US President Donald Trump signed two executive orders banning WeChat, owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent, and TikTok in 45 days' time while announcing sanctions on 11 Chinese and Hong Kong officials.

Trump signed a series of executive orders to extend unemployment benefits after talks with Congress broke down. The orders would provide an extra $400 per week in unemployment payments, less than the $600 per week passed earlier in the crisis.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Alex Azar signs a memorandum of understanding on a visit to Taiwan: AP

Trump administration health secretary Alex Azar declared today that any US-developed coronavirus vaccine would be shared with the rest of the world  but only after Americanss needs have been served.

Speaking to reporters on a visit to Taiwan, Mr Azar made clear that the the US governments vaccine development programme  christened Operation Warp Speed  is principally aimed at tackling the domestic outbreak.

Our first priority of course is to develop and produce enough quantity of safe and effective FDA-approved vaccines and therapeutics for use in the United States, the secretary said.

But we anticipate having capacity that, once those needs are satisfied, those products would be available in the world community according to fair and equitable distributions that we would consult in the international community on.

The vaccine research being funded under Operation Warp Speed is attempting to create a safe and effective vaccine in record time, and to roll out hundreds of millions of doses as soon as the end of this year  an unprecedented achievement in mass inoculation research, a process that normally takes years rather than months.

Some observers are concerned that the project may have taken on an overly political dimension, with the administration keen to declare success by election day on 3 November. Donald Trump has repeatedly said the virus will disappear and that his administration will bring it to heel, promises that currently cannot be backed up with any available medication or technology.

The result, some experts worry, could be a vaccine brought to market before it has been deemed effective or safe, raising the prospect of inflicting dangerous side effects on millions of people without giving them immunity.

Mr Azars trip to Taiwan, meanwhile, is the highest-level visit by a US official in decades, and comes as the Trump administration takes a drastically more hawkish turn towards Beijing.

With fights over trade, data security, the future of Hong Kong and the treatment of the Uighurs in Xinjiang province all ramping up, US-China relations are at possibly their lowest point since the normalisation of the 1970s.

Story continues

The Chinese government has now responded with umbrage to Mr Azars visit. The secretary has already praised Taiwans response to the pandemic as among the most successful in the world, calling it a tribute to the open, transparent, democratic nature of Taiwans society and culture.

For its part, China has warned that the visit could gravely damage the two countries already strained relations, and has vowed to take countermeasures, albeit without specifying what those might be.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, has blamed China for the coronavirus outbreak. This summer, it pulled out of the World Health Organisation citing the bodys supposed acquiescence to China and its interests  among which is keeping Taiwan outside the organisation.

Nonetheless, Mr Azar maintained that the United States has always been and will remain the largest funder of global public health in the world, and said the administration would find new bilateral and multilateral alliances and organisations to pursue the same priorities.
TN SSLC 10th Result 2020 DECLARED| Students can check their results through the TN SSLC Result app, which can be downloaded on smartphones from Google Play Store

TN SSLC 10th Result 2020 DECLARED | The Tamil Nadu government has released its SSLC or Class 10 results today (Monday, 10 August) on the board's official websites dge.tn.gov.in, dge1.tn.nic.in, tnresults.nic.in.

This time, 100 percent of students  over 9.5 lakh students of which 468,070 are girls and 471,759 boys  have cleared the Class 10 papers.

Students have been assessed on the basis of a special scheme that takes into account the results of quarterly or half-yearly exams (given 80 percent weightage) and attendance (20 percent weightage).

The exams, which were to be conducted from 15 to 25 June after being postponed from March due to the nationwide lockdown, were cancelled as per a Madras High Court order to ensure the safety of students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

How to check via mobile app

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.

Follow LIVE Updates on Tamil Nadu Class 10 results

They may also face issues with internet connectivity. In such a situation, students can check their results through the TN SSLC Result app, which can be downloaded on smartphones from Google Play Store or App Store.

Tamil Nadu Class 10 exams were conducted from 15 to 25 June. More than 9.5 lakh candidates appeared for the examination. The board exam was earlier postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Class 10 examination was conducted at 12,690 centres.

How to check Tamil Nadu Class 10 results 2020 online:

Step 1: Go to the official website- tnresults.nic.in

Step 2: Select the link that reads 'SSLC Exam 2020 Results'

Step 3: Login by entering your roll number/registration number and date-of-birth

Step 4: The result with subject-wise marks and total score will appear on the screen.

According to a report by NDTV, the state education minister on 30 May had said that the Tamil Nadu Class 10 and Class 12 board examination 2020 results will be out in July, adding that it is impossible to disclose the exact date. However, Class 12 results were declared on 16 July.

State education minister KA Sengottaiyan earlier said all steps are being taken to provide the results of Class 10 exams at the earliest.
The heads of the U.S. military branches are calling on the Defense Department to stop the transfer of all medical facilities to the Defense Health Agency, saying the novel coronavirus pandemic has shown that the plan to convey the services' hospitals and clinics to the agency is "not viable."

In a memo sent to Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Aug. 5, the secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force, along with the branch chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Space Force, called for the return of all military hospitals and clinics already transferred to the DHA and suspension of any planned moves of personnel or resources.

Read Next: US Troops May Not Get Priority for COVID-19 Vaccine After All

They said that the COVID-19 outbreak has demonstrated that the reform, which was proposed by Congress in the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, "introduces barriers, creates unnecessary complexity and increases inefficiency and cost."

"The proposed DHA end-state represents unsustainable growth with a disparate intermediate structure that hinders coordination of service medical response to contingencies such as a pandemic," they wrote in the memo, first obtained by a reporter for Synopsis, a Capitol Hill newsletter that focuses on military and veterans health care.

The DoD launched major reforms of its health system in 2013 with the creation of the Defense Health Agency, an organization initially established to improve the quality of health care available to military personnel and family members and reduce services such as administration, IT, logistics and training that existed in triplicate across the three service medical commands.

But the initiatives ballooned in 2016, with Congress passing legislation that placed the DHA in charge of military hospitals and clinics worldwide, as well as research and development, public health agencies, medical logistics and other operations run by the service medical commands.

On Oct. 1, 2019, all military hospitals and clinics in the continental United States were transferred to the DHA, with those overseas expected to move over by October 2021.

But in December, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy asked for a temporary halt of the transfers of Army facilities and requested that the Army Public Health Center and Army Medical Research and Development Command remain permanently under the service's control.

Ryan said he had concerns with what he viewed as a "lack of performance and planning with respect to the transition" by the DHA and Defense Department Health Affairs, according to a memo he sent Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist.

McCarthy's comments were the first public statements by a military service in opposition to the transformation, which also calls for cutting roughly 18,000 military medical personnel.

In early March, the Air Force and Army surgeons general weighed in, telling the House Appropriations defense subcommittee that the reorganization is an "extremely difficult" and "complicated merger of four cultures." They suggested that the Defense Health Agency isn't ready for some of the coming changes.

The DHA assumed management of all domestic military treatment facilities without the staff or management capabilities to actually run them. As part of the plan, the services were to provide support and guidance for the DHA to run the hospitals and clinics in the interim, until its personnel were ready to operate them.

But then the pandemic struck. And according to a source familiar with operations at several medical treatment facilities in the Washington, D.C., region, tensions that had been bubbling since the initial facility transfer erupted.

At one facility, commanders and DHA leadership argued over who was responsible for the COVID-19 screening tents in the parking lot.

"There are definitely turf battles going on," said the source, a DoD civilian employee. "[The services] are making it very hard."

The COVID-19 pandemic has delayed several elements of the military health system reform effort. In March, the DoD placed a 60-day hold on a step to establish administrative markets responsible for military treatment facilities in five regions in the U.S.

In April, the department paused the rollout of its Military Health Systems Genesis electronic medical records program to several new medical facilities, although it continued to modernize the IT infrastructure needed to support the system.

And in June, the Pentagon's top health official announced that the DoD would delay some of the changes planned for this year, including an effort to begin closing or restructuring 48 hospitals and clinics and sending at least 200,000 patients to private care.

But Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Thomas McCaffery, a former health industry executive who took office last August, has said he remains committed to reform, which he believes will improve quality of care while also saving taxpayer dollars.

"There's been at least 12 times since World War II where there has been efforts to change our system," McCaffery said during a visit to military health facilities in Washington last week. "All focused on the best way to organize and manage for the mission, have a ready medical force and a medically ready force. The mission is still the same, and having a more integrated system is the way to do it."

In their letter to Esper, the service heads said the DHA has been helpful during the pandemic in developing standardized clinical practices for the coronavirus response.

But they still asked him to suspend any transfer activity and appoint a working group to explore different options for management of the hospitals.

They also asked that all military hospitals, including two that have operated under the DHA and the National Capital Region since 2013 -- Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland and Fort Belvoir Community Hospital -- be returned to their respective services.

They did not say which service Walter Reed would fall under; the medical center was created after a merger between the Army's Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and the Navy's National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. It remains housed at Bethesda, a Navy installation.

"We look forward to working together to achieve successful reform of the military health system," they wrote.

Lisa Lawrence, a public affairs officer at the Pentagon, said the department plans to continue pursuing reforms as spelled out in the fiscal 2017 defense policy bill.

"The Department remains focused on ensuring the Services maintain a medically ready force and a ready medical force, as well as [ensuring] all eligible beneficiaries have continued access to quality health care," Lawrence said.

A staff member for the National Military Family Association said that it "makes sense" the pandemic would lead to a reevaluation of the military health system reforms, adding that the organization hopes the DoD, DHA and military services will continue focusing on accountability, transparency and standardization across the system.

"Whatever the outcome, our priority is that service members and families have access to high-quality health care, wherever they happen to be stationed," said Eileen Huck, deputy director for health care at NMFA.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

Related: Military Medical Teams are Deploying Again to Battle COVID-19
Revenue Minister R Ashoka said that a disaster management committee would be set up at gram panchayat level to aid the district administration in times of need.

Such committees will help the district administration in averting human tragedy similar to the one unfolded at Talacauvery, he said and added that a committee would be set up on a pilot basis in Dakshina Kannada district.

The committee will have local elected representatives, interested volunteers and will be constituted at the gram panchayat level. State disaster management authority will train these committee members on tackling disasters, he minister said.

Even the Central government to has sought information on the initiative of constituting disaster management committees at the gram panchayat level. All gram panchayats in the district will have such committees shortly, he said. The Minister earlier directed the officials to distribute compensation to the rain victims immediately without any delay. The victims of flood and people whose houses were damaged due to tree fall should receive a compensation of Rs 10,000.

He said quality food should be given to the rain victims, who have been shifted to relief centres. The officials should ensure that nutritious food is supplied to the victims. Rs 5 crore was released to each district hit by rains, to tackle the situation. MLA Umanath Kotian drew the Ministers attention to landslides at Gurupura and urged him to release Rs 5 crore. The amount will be spent on construction of a retaining wall to prevent further landslides at the site.

The minister instructed deputy commissioners and revenue officials to evacuate people from their houses in flood-hit areas even if they are reluctant to move out.

He cited the incident where the chief priest of Talacauvery Kshetra and his family allegedly refused to relocate from their home and are now feared buried under a massive landslide. If people in flood-affected areas are unwilling to relocate, then officials with help of police should evacuate them, he said.
The eligibility criteria for the Mahila Police volunteer vacancy include a minimum academic qualification of Class 12, and age of at least 21 years.

The Tripura Police has released online notification to fill 213 vacancies. Under the Tripura Mahila Police volunteer recruitment 2020, female candidates under the Gomati Tripura District can fill in the application form by 11 August.

Tripura Police has released a notification for the position of Special Police Officer (SPO) as well.

According to the official notification, the Tripura Mahila Police volunteer will "act as a link between Police and the community and facilitate women in distress."

The eligibility criteria for the Mahila Police volunteer vacancy include a minimum academic qualification of Class 12, and age of at least 21 years.

Also, the applicants must not belong to any political party, should have knowledge about the local language and not have any criminal charges against them.

To apply, candidates need to visit the official website tripurapolice.gov.in and go to the 'Recruitment' section. Once there, they need to click on Notice for engagement to the post of Mahila Police Volunteer link. A PDF will open, which contains the application form on the 16th page. Candidates need to fill in the form and send it to the Superintendent of Police (DIB) at the given address.

Interested candidates can submit their application in the prescribed format to the Officer-in-charge of the police station under whom the applicant is an ordinary local resident.
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Villas Del Mar, Roatan, Bay Islands (70.1 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very strong shaking (MMI VII) : Our house is built on 10 concrete columns literally 15 from the sea on the north shore of Roatan. Moderate shaking initially for 6 seconds then reduced shaking for 1-2 seconds before it rapidly increased making it feel like bird being rattled in its | One user found this interesting. / Very strong shaking (MMI VII)

In the Grand Villa on Barefoot Cay between Brick B (83.2 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) : I was on the phone when the quake hit. Very sharp, strong onset. The two story structure I was in moved dramatically enough to cause me to get in the doorway for safety, and my dogs were distressed. The most severe shaking lasted less than 10 seconds, but | One user found this interesting.

near Belize City (283.5 km WNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) : I am a diabetic so at first thought it was my levels acting up but my dog is always lying near me and I have learnt to look at him if I am unsure about something happening at my place and indeed he reacted to it.Then I felt a second shake.Shake was light

Port Royal, Roatan, Honduras (64.2 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very strong shaking (MMI VII) : Cracks on walls, things on floor from shelves,small earth slides in areaswhere earth was moved, lucky it did not last longer otherwise......

Juticalpa Olancho, se sintio un poco fuerte. Hasta (243.5 km S of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) En Juticalpa Olancho, se sintio un poco, hasta ahora no hay danos. Pero estamos esperando reportes de la zona norte, que si se sintio muy fuerte. (reported through (reported through our app / Very weak shaking (MMI II)

San Pedro Sula, Honduraa (265.2 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / not felt I was sleeping and a friend told if i felt the shake bout like 5 seconds... So i didnt felt anything. (reported through (reported through our app / not felt

Belmopan city (312.9 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) : I was sitting inside my car that was parked and i felt it started to shake. I thought someone was shaking the car but then i realize it was an earthquake

near San Ignacio, Cayo (339 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) : Heard a deep rumble from north east direction of where I sat and a little shake. Told my parents who where right in front of me but both had no idea. One was walking and other concentrated on something at the table.

Chetumal, Quintana Roo Mexico (320.6 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) : no se escucho el ruido en si del temblor, porque esta lloviendo en estos momentos aqui por la zona, se sintio que se movio en mi caso, el sillon donde estaba, y un conocido que estaba en el tercer piso, comenta que si se sintio el movimiento donde es

near Roatan Town, Bay Islands (73 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) : Oak Ridge, Roatan. Medium shake with a secondary a few seconds after. Whole event was less than 5 seconds.

La Ceiba (151.1 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV)

Sandy Bay, Bay Islands (95.3 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) : Thunderous crack sound, slight rolling shake, lasting 5 seconds.

27 km of Belize City (281.3 km WNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV)

Cooper Bank, Belize (313.9 km WNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) : Felt chair move like someone bumped my chair.

Saint Petersburg Beach, Pinellas, Florida (1255.5 km NNE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Violent shaking (MMI IX) (reported through our app / Violent shaking (MMI IX)

Altos de San Antonio El Hatillo (327.7 km SSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) : I felt the bed move and saw my closets door shake a little bit.

Altos de San Antonio El Hatillo (327.7 km SSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) : I felt the bed move and saw my closets door shake a little bit.

Ilanga, Trujillo, Colon (97.6 km SSE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV)

Santos Guardiola (81.5 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) : compared to most it lasted a long time

Caye Caulker, Belize (251.3 km WNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) : Really weak, thought it was just a strong gust of wind

34 km of Dolores, Departamento del Peten (345.7 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III)

Sava, Colon (149 km SSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II)

near Orange Walk (313.2 km WNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) : Lying in bed, bed shake

San pedro Belize (257.4 km WNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III)

Utila (135.9 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V)

Lafyville, near Belize City, Belize. (227.3 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III)

Ambergris Caye Belize (254 km WNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) : Wooden door was rattling but no other vibration was felt.

San Pedro Town, Belize (253.2 km WNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V)

La Ceiba (151.1 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV)

Sandy Bay, Roatan, Bay Islands of Honduras (90.5 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) : Whole house was shaking for a couple of seconds, luckily nothing broke.

Caye Caulker Belize (251.1 km WNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) : We felt this shaking for 3-4 seconds, very scary
New Delhi:

AAP member Bhagwant Mann, who was held guilty by a parliamentary panel of putting the security of Parliament House at risk, was on Friday suspended from the Lok Sabha for the remainder of the Winter Session.

The House approved a motion put by Kirit Somaiya, who headed the 9-member committee probing the videography issue, after it tabled the report on Thursday.

That the House having taken note of the report of the committee to inquire into the improper conduct of a member of the Lok Sabha accepts the findings and recommendations of the committee that Bhagwant Mann has committed a highly objectionable act which is unbecoming of a member of the House and that he may be suspended from the membership of the House for the remaining period of the current session..., the motion read.

The Session concludes on December 16.

The committee in its report had held that the conduct of 43-year-old Mann, who had landed in a controversy in July after live-streaming from Parliament House on social media, was highly objectionable which showed him bereft of basic knowledge, etiquettes and responsibilities of the office he holds.

Asking Mann to refrain from such misdemeanour, the committee in its recommendations impressed upon him the utmost need for strict adherence to norms and standards of etiquette, due compliance of the rules of procedure and well settled rich traditions of Parliament.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 10) The head of embattled Philippine Health Insurance Corporation on Monday said he will be pushing for an additional budget for the agencys controversial information and communication technology project, despite criticisms on its alleged overpriced proposal.

In an interview with CNN Philippines, PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo Morales said he will ask for a higher allocation from Congress, stressing the new system would be able to thwart the supposed fraudulent transactions within the corporation.

Sa Senate hearing bukas sasabihin ko sa kanila, gusto niyong maayos to? Bigyan niyo ako ng pera. Kukuha tayo ng managing consulting firm kagaya ng McKenzie, Boston Consulting bigyan niyo ako ng pera at aayusin ko ito, Morales said.

[Translation: During tomorrows Senate hearing, I will them, do you want to fix this? Then give us money. Well get big managing consulting firms Give me money and I will fix this.]

The PhilHealth chief stressed that a good IT system will hugely benefit the agency, as all transactions and operations will be traced.

The budget for the project which amounts to 2.1 billion went under scrutiny during the Congressional probes last week, with officials slamming the bloated allocation for the agency's IT equipment and software. Morales had earlier denied irregularities in the budget proposal.

One year not long enough to fix PhilHealth mess

Morales meanwhile countered Senator Panfilo Ping Lacsons claim that one year would have been long enough for the key official to address long-standing corruption and controversies within the agency, saying they would be needing a systemic approach to counter the fraud problem.

The problem of fraud in PhilHealth is systemic, so it requires a systemic solution. All these investigations of fraud that is being done now is not going to solve the fraud problem, because it is deep-seated in long term Fraud is endemic, kaya kailangan systemic ang approach, Morales told The Source.

Both houses of Congress have recently opened separate inquiries into the fresh controversies hounding the agency including the supposed widespread corruption by some of its officials.

READ: Whistleblower claims 15 billion stolen by PhilHealth execs in fraud schemes

A multi-agency task force headed by the Justice Department has also been formed to investigate personnel from the state-run health insurance agency, with the teams findings and proposed legal actions expected to be submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte within a month.

CNN Philippines Correspondent Gerg Cahiles contributed to this report.
A little more than a week after announcing the number hit a four-month high, state officials said Monday that New Jerseys rate of coronavirus transmission has fallen below the key benchmark that indicates the outbreak is once again declining.

The state also reported four more deaths attributed to COVID-19  all of which occurred in previous months  and 258 new positive tests. Both are among the lowest daily numbers officials have announced in recent months.

The Garden States most recent transmission rate is just below 1, at 0.98, after spiking to 1.49 eight days ago  the highest mark in four months. The number dropped incrementally each day since then.

Any number above 1 means each newly infected person is spreading the virus to at least one other person, on average. Anything below 1 means the outbreak is shrinking.

The rate had been below 1 for weeks during the strictest parts of New Jerseys coronavirus lockdowns but had fluctuated above and below 1 in July as the state took more reopening steps.

We are, thankfully, down below 1, Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday afternoon during his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton. This is because so many of you have redoubled your efforts as it relates to social distancing and wearing your masks, and from what weve done from a policy point, as well as enforcement to crack down on crowded indoor gatherings.

The announcement comes one week after the rising rate prompted Murphy to lower limits on indoor gatherings in New Jersey to 25%, with a maximum of 25 people, except for weddings, funerals, and religious and political events.

New Jersey's coronavirus transmission rate over the last few months.

In addition Monday, officials said the states four newly reported deaths all occurred in previous months  April 21, May 19, July 23, and July 30  and had only recently been confirmed.

New Jerseys death toll from the virus is now 15,878, with 14,025 confirmed fatalities and 1,853 considered probable, in the slightly more than five months since the first case here was reported March 4. The state has reported 185,031 positive tests in that time.

The last time New Jersey reported fewer than five deaths was March 22, when the states total deaths stood at 20.

Monday marks the 32nd straight day New Jersey has reported fewer than 50 new deaths in one day and the 10th straight day it has reported fewer than 15. It also marks the 10th straight day the state has announced fewer than 500 new cases after seeing sudden upticks late last month.

The number of daily deaths and cases in New Jersey  an early coronavirus hotspot  remain well below their peaks in April, when it was routine for the state to announce hundreds of new fatalities and thousands of new positive tests a day.

The states positivity rate  the percentage of residents who test positive for the virus in one day  was 1.62% on Aug. 6, the date with the most recent available data.

Thats a good number, Murphy said.

Still, the governor urged residents to continue to wear masks and practice social distancing.

Please dont get complacent, he said. The virus is out there.

HOSPITALIZATIONS

There were 545 patients being treated for COVID-19 or under investigation for it across New Jerseys 71 hospitals Sunday night. Thats an increase of 62 patients from the night before.

Of those patients, 284 tested positive for the virus and 261 were under investigation and awaiting teat results.

Meanwhile, 83 were in critical or intensive care and 29 were on ventilators.

For both ICU beds and ventilators, we are now at lows we havent seen since the earliest days of March, Murphy said.

There were 35 coronavirus patients discharged from the states hospitals Sunday, according to the states tracking website.

New Jerseys hospitalizations have declined steadily over the last few months after peaking at more than 8,000 in mid-April.

New Jersey hit a peak in hospitalizations, with more than 8,000 coronavirus patients, in mid-April.

INDOOR DINING UPDATE

New Jersey is still in Stage 2 of its plan to gradually lift coronavirus restrictions that Murphy ordered in March to fight the spread of COVID-19. Gyms, movie theaters, and indoor dining sections of bars and restaurants remain closed until further notice.

Even though the states numbers continue to improve, Murphy said Monday indoor dining remains too risky, citing a study of a COVID-19 breakout that happened at a restaurant in China in January.

Allowing diners to sit maskless for an extended period of time in a restaurant where the air-conditioning unit could silently spread coronavirus is a risk we cannot yet take, the governor said.

Thats even as the states economy continues to suffer during the pandemic. Nearly 1.5 million workers in the state have filed for unemployment benefits since mid-March.

Murphy on Monday also threatened to shut down Jersey Shore bars that are not taking steps to require patrons to wear masks and socially distance while waiting on lines to enter outdoor dining areas. He cited an NJ Advance Media report from four crowded bars on Saturday night showing long, crowded lines.

This is not a game, Murphy said. Standing around maskless in a crowd outside a bar is just as big a knucklehead move as standing around maskless inside one.

COUNTY-BY-COUNTY NUMBERS

Atlantic County: 3,469 cases (7 new), 237 confirmed deaths (15 probable)

Bergen County: 20,825 cases (24 new), 1,787 confirmed deaths (251 probable)

Burlington County: 6,025 cases (18 new), 433 confirmed deaths (40 probable)

Camden County: 8,580 cases (18 new), 524 confirmed deaths (56 probable)

Cape May County: 834 cases (2 new), 82 confirmed deaths (5 probable)

Cumberland County: 3,348 cases (10 new), 146 confirmed deaths (12 probable)

Essex County: 19,747 cases (18 new), 1,872 confirmed deaths (239 probable)

Gloucester County: 3,258 cases (10 new), 205 confirmed deaths (7 probable)

Hudson County: 19,683 cases (13 new), 1,338 confirmed deaths (167 probable)

Hunterdon County: 1,149 cases (1 new), 70 confirmed deaths (56 probable)

Mercer County: 8,127 cases (8 new), 581 confirmed deaths (39 probable)

Middlesex County: 17,932 cases (13 new), 1,199 confirmed deaths (204 probable)

Monmouth County: 10,326 cases (24 new), 759 confirmed deaths (97 probable)

Morris County: 7,261 cases (12 new), 681 confirmed deaths (148 probable)

Ocean County: 10,603 cases (7 new), 951 confirmed deaths (67 probable)

Passaic County: 17,665 cases (22 new), 1,094 confirmed deaths (148 probable)

Salem County: 898 cases (3 new), 81 confirmed deaths (6 probable)

Somerset County: 5,253 cases (8 new), 486 confirmed deaths (75 probable)

Sussex County: 1,333 cases (3 new), 161 confirmed deaths (37 probable)

Union County: 16,725 cases (30 new), 1,180 confirmed deaths (170 probable)

Warren County: 1,345 cases (0 new), 158 confirmed deaths (14 probable)

There are another 645 positive cases that remain under investigation, with the patients home counties not confirmed.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

New Jersey, a densely populated state of 9 million residents, ranks second among U.S. states in total COVID-19 deaths and eighth in total cases.

About half of the states deaths  at least 6,966  have been of residents or staff members at the states nursing homes and longterm care centers.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the state is cumulative and does not reflect the thousands of residents who have recovered. Nearly 33,000 New Jersey residents have recovered from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.

There have now been more than 2.3 million COVID-19 tests administered in the state.

Meanwhile, Murphy is calling on travelers from Puerto Rico and 34 states that qualify as coronavirus hotspots to voluntarily self-quarantine for 14 days upon arriving in New Jersey.

As of early Monday afternoon, there have been nearly 20 million positive tests for COVID-19 across the world, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. Of those, more than 732,000 have died, while 12.1 million have recovered.

There have been more than 163,000 deaths in the United States, by far the most in the world.

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

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.
Clarksburg School Reopening Plans Affected by HVAC Issues



Results from a survey of parents last month. CLARKSBURG, Mass.  School officials' plans for reopening this fall are being complicated by the condition of Clarksburg School.

The administration is recommending a hybrid plan of in-school and remote because of issues with the ventilation system.

"Ventilation as a very key piece in keeping our schools safe," Principal Tara Barnes told the School Committee on Thursday. "We have some preliminary results that are telling us that many of our classrooms are not up to code to be able to handle COVID. In particular, they're not exchanging air."

Barnes said the building is being evaluated as part of the plans being developed to deliver education during the novel coronavirus pandemic. The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is requiring schools to submit plans for in-person teaching, remote or a hybrid model of both by Thursday.

"At best right now, what I can propose and what I would recommend at this point, with all the variables and the unknowns, is a hybrid model to bring students back into the building for some level of in person learning and remote," she said.

The School Committee put off a vote on a preferred plan until Tuesday, and on the school calendar although school is expected to open sometime between Sept. 11 and Sept. 16.

Officials have been struggling to implement upgrades in the 60-year-old school after voters rejected a rebuild project several years ago.

Business Administrator Jennifer Macksey said the construction of a new secure entryway is almost complete and work is being done on asbestos abatement, a public address system, an accessible bathroom and improvements to the kitchen.

Macksey said there were issues with the heating and ventilation system in the main corridor, which holds Grades 3 through 5 and the junior classrooms.

These, she said, "need to have some tweaks done to their units, but nothing that is a showstopper."

The primary wing, however, has no air exchangers, so the only way to get ventilation into the classrooms is to open windows and use fans.

"We're exploring what the long-term fix is there," Macksey said. "But in the meantime, we're looking for a temporary fix so we can bring the kids and teachers back safely. ...

"It's been a big learning experience over the last week. But rest assured, we will find a solution but it may delay the use of that wing."

She expected to have more information from the HVAC company the school is working with before Tuesday's meeting.

Barnes went over the preparations for school reopening and noted teachers have been working on unit planning through the summer and had met recently to discuss how their plans were going.

"I'm feeling really good about the position we're in in terms of planning for both in-person and remote kinds of learning activities," she said. "Teachers are getting ready to be able to pivot in between both for the first trimester, and doing great work."

The school year will be broken into trimesters and parents will have to commit to the learning program (remote, in-school) they chose for that time period.

"Families will have a date by which  and right now I'm saying the 19th, unless that changes based on any state dates changing  to be able to opt in or opt out of the plan that we submit," Barnes said. Parents would have to wait until the next trimester to make any changes because of spacing and other considerations.

She anticipated a presentation for parents on Aug. 17 once the plans had been approved.

Efforts will be made to keep students in one place during the school day, she said. "We do have students who have individualized plans, and we will accommodate their plans as best as we can in a way that keeps everyone safe."

Three electrostatic cleaning machines have been purchased to mist classrooms daily and extra cleaning will be done during the day for high-touch points. The working ventilation systems will run prior to the students entering the school and for a time after school. Hand sanitizers are in every room and portable sinks are being looked at for classrooms. Breakfast and lunch will be eaten in the classroom.

"We are working hard on trying to develop a hybrid plan but you know the other option to is to start remotely," Superintendent John Franzoni said. "Just for full transparency, the other three union schools have voted to come back in person, but they're in a different situation they don't have the same building issues, they're much smaller schools."

Barnes said, after speaking with the superintendent earlier, that they would like the meeting to be more of a discussion because there were still "variables that are unfolding."

"Our goal is to return to in-person school settings as safely as possible to maximize our all of our students," the principal said. "That's been the priority and the direction set by the commissioner [of education] from the start."

The committee did vote not to open any school choice slots for the coming year and to require masks for kindergarten and first grade.
At least 18 dead as Air India Express plane crash-lands in Kerala

At least 18 people, including the pilot and co-pilot, died and several others were injured when the Air India Express Flight IX-1344 from Dubai carrying 190 aboard crash-landed at the Karipur Airport in Kozhikode on Friday.

Those on board the plane included 10 children, 174 adult passengers and four cabin crew besides the two pilots.

Captain of the ill-fated flight, 58-year-old Wing Commander (Retd) Dipak Sathe, co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar and 16 others perished. About 125 injured were admitted to hospitals. It was a miraculous escape for the survivors as the plane skidded into a valley from the table-top airport's runway and split into two.

Wing Commander Sathe, a decorated former India Air Force pilot, had also served with No17 Squadron, Golden Arrows, which was recently recommissioned with the Rafale fighter jet. His squadron had also participated in the Kargil War.

Co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar was part of an Air India Express plane crew of the first repatriation flight under the Vande Bharat Mission to land in Kozhikode, bringing back several stranded Indians in Dubai.

Officials said the Boeing-737 aircraft crashed when it overshot the table-top runway, crashing into the steep ground.

In 2010, another Air India Express flight from Dubai overshot the table-top runway at Mangalore, and slid down a hill, killing 158 people.

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri visited the site of the accident on Saturday.

The plane overshot the runway while trying to land amidst what were clearly inclement weather conditions prevailing at that time, Puri told the media, adding that it would be premature to speculate on the precise cause of the accident

Puri said two separate teams had already reached Kozhikode from New Delhi to carry out an investigation into the crash.

He said authorities managed to rescue most of the passengers because the plane did not catch fire while descending the slope at the end of the runway.

The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have been recovered from the site, a top official at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation told Reuters.

Reports citing passengers said the pilot tried his best to land safely in the rainy weather. It was cloudy and around 7-7.30 pm in the evening, but the plave crash-landed.

Union minister V Muraleedharan who visited Kozhikode on Saturday also said the death toll in the accident would have been higher had the pilot not switched off the engine in time. In doing so, he said, the pilot prevented the fuel tank of the aircraft from going up in flames, according to report in The Times of India.

Flight data, cockpit voice recorders have been recovered from the Air India plane crash site.
WASHINGTON - The Republican chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee announced Monday that he has issued a subpoena to the FBI for records related to the bureau's probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The subpoena was the first issued by the committee as part of its examination of the origins of the FBI's Russia investigation and former vice president Joe Biden and Ukraine. Democrats have condemned the inquiry, saying it risks laundering Russian disinformation into the United States through the Senate ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

A copy of the subpoena, which was first reported by Politico, was released by the committee Monday, along with a voluminous open letter from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Johnson defending the GOP inquiry and attacking his Democratic critics.

"Democrats have initiated a coordinated disinformation campaign and effort to personally attack Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley and me for the purpose of marginalizing the findings of our investigations," Johnson wrote. "Chairman Grassley and I will not be deterred by the false accusations despicably being made by individuals with strong political biases and motivations."

The subpoena issued to the FBI on Aug. 6 includes a request for "all records related to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation," the code name given to the FBI probe into whether any Trump advisers were involved in Russian election interference in 2016.

The subpoena specifically asks for all records provided or made available to the Justice Department's inspector general, who conducted his own examination of the FBI's Russia probe, including its requests for surveillance warrants of Carter Page, who served that year as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign.

The inspector general found serious problems with the FBI's handling of requests for the surveillance warrants. Overall, however, the report did not find evidence that the 2016 inquiry was unjustified or tainted by bias. "We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the decisions" by the bureau, the report concluded.

Attorney General William Barr took rare public exception to that part of the inspector general's report, saying that he thought the Russia probe was launched on the "thinnest of suspicions."

Johnson's subpoena to the FBI also requests all documents related to requests to the General Services Administration for Trump presidential transition records.

The FBI said in a statement it has received the subpoena and has "already been producing documents and information to the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which are directly responsive to this subpoena. As always, the FBI will continue to cooperate with the Committee's requests, consistent with our law enforcement and national security obligations."

In his letter Monday, Johnson also took issue with a recent Washington Post op-ed written by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., that suggested his inquiry into Ukraine may have resulted from "theories peddled by Kremlin proxies."

Blumenthal referred in his piece to Andrii Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker previously affiliated with a Russian-leaning party, who told The Post that he had sent documents to Johnson's and Grassley's Senate committees. Both committees denied that they had accepted information from him.

On Friday, a top U.S. intelligence official named Derkach as part of Russia's efforts to undermine Biden in advance of November's election.

In his letter Monday, Johnson said Blumenthal's claim that the committee was using documents from Derkach was false.

"Let me be clear: The investigation by my committee of allegations of conflicts of interest within the Obama administration related to Ukraine policy and of allegations of corruption within the Obama administration affecting the 2016 election is focused on documents and officials from U.S. government agencies and a U.S. Democrat-linked lobbying firm," he said. "We have not taken, nor do we possess, the documents from Ukrainians that Democrats keep claiming."

In a statement, Blumenthal spokesperson Maria McElwain said that "Senator Johnson's alternative history of the investigation into Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 election reads like a piece of Putin propaganda.

"If Senator Johnson doesn't like how it looks when he pursues politically-motivated investigations in an election year, he should cease his efforts to obtain information from Russian-linked Ukrainian operatives peddling disinformation to interfere with our elections," she said.

Johnson's subpoena came as the GOP head of the Senate Judiciary Committee raised new allegations about a different aspect of the 2016 Russia probe.

On Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., claimed that a newly declassified document showed that in 2018, FBI officials lied to the Senate Intelligence Committee about the reliability of information in a dossier of Trump's alleged Russia ties compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele.

On Monday, Graham sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, demanding that he tell Graham the names of the FBI officials who prepared talking points and briefed the panel, and that he provide the Judiciary Committee with any related documents and materials that were shared with Congress.

But Graham took those steps without consulting with the Senate Intelligence Committee itself. Neither Republicans nor Democrats on that panel believe FBI officials lied to them as Graham alleged, since the information they presented was cleared by people at the highest levels of the Justice Department, according to people familiar with the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

A spokeswoman for Graham did not respond to a request for comment.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is expected to put out the fifth and final volume of its report into Russian interference in the 2016 election this month, which will clock in at just under 1,000 pages, according to people familiar with the investigation.

The volume is expected to contain substantial criticism of Steele's dossier and how the FBI and DOJ handled it, according to the people.

- - -

The Washington Post's Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.
Boris Johnson told teachers today they have a 'moral duty' to help schools reopen next month as he faced a standoff with unions.

The PM warned it is 'not right' that pupils should spend more time out of the classroom, reiterating his determination for a full return when term begins.

While he was careful to praise the work done by teachers and unions to make schools 'safe' in time for the move, he added: 'It is our moral duty as a country to make sure that happens.'

The intervention - as he tried his hand at archery on a visit to a school in Upminster - came as unions were accused of a bid to sabotage the government's plans with a 200-item list of safety demands.

The National Education Union has provided its half a million members with a 'checklist' of Covid-secure measures, saying they should 'escalate' complaints if they are not being followed. There have also been calls for pupils to be taught on a week on, week off rota.

But Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a member of Sage, said studies had suggested children were 'very minor players in the transmission overall' of the virus.

And he insisted teachers were not at significantly higher risk than any other workers.

Ministers have also played down calls for teachers and pupils to be routinely tested whether or not they have symptoms.

Boris Johnson tried his hand at archery today as he visited a school in Upminster, renewing his push for all children to be back in class next month

Some children watched bemused as the PM tried to make the bow work properly today

Boris Johnson visited St Joseph's Catholic School in Upminster, London, today as he underlined his determination to get children back in class

Children's soft play centres to reopen from today in Wales Children's soft play centres are allowed to reopen in Wales from today after a surprise move by the Cardiff government. Facilities in England have still not been given a date to get back up and running. But the move was announced in Wales on Friday after experts concluded young children pose low risk of spreading coronavirus, Carol James, owner of Tiny Tumblers, in Church Village, near Pontypridd told the BBC she had been taken aback by the decision. 'We were waiting for England to get the go-ahead, then we thought we would be about three weeks behind England,' she said. Gwen Evans, owner of Cantref Adventure Farm in Brecon, told BBC Radio Wales the news had come 'very suddenly'. Advertisement

Speaking to reporters at St Joseph's Catholic School in Upminster, Mr Johnson said: 'It's not right that kids should spend more time out of school, it's much much better for their health and mental wellbeing, obviously their educational prospects, if everybody comes back to school full-time in September.

'It's our moral duty as a country to make sure that happens.'

He added: 'It's very important that everybody works together to ensure that our schools are safe and they are - they are Covid secure - I have been very impressed by the work that the teachers have done, working with the unions, to make sure that all schools are safe to go back to in September.

'A lot of work being done over making sure that there's social distancing, bubbling, staggered start times, all that kind of thing.

'But, basically, the plan is there - get everybody back in September, that's the right thing for everybody.'

Mr Johnson refused to rule out completely closing down schools if there need to be local lockdowns.

But he said: 'I very much hope that doesn't happen for any pupils but clearly what we are doing - the way we are trying to manage the Covid pandemic - is to have local measures in place and local test and trace to introduce restrictions where that's necessary.

'But, as we have all said, the last thing we want to do is to close schools.

'We think that education is the priority for the country and that is simple social justice.'

Mr Johnson is understood to have warned that Gavin Williamson's 'head will be on the chopping block' if pupils are not back in lessons next month.

In a statement of intent overnight, Mr Williamson underlined that the classroom is the 'best place' for children.

He said: 'The education and care of our children is a national priority. Ahead of the full return of all pupils to school in September, we are continuing to do everything in our power to ensure all children can be back in their classrooms safely, as this is the best place for them to be for their education, development and wellbeing.

'We have always been and will continue to be guided by the best scientific and medical advice.

Children 'minor players' in spreading infection, says top expert Children play a 'very minor' role in spreading coronavirus, a leading expert said today. Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a member of Sage, said the evidence was that risks from schools was low. Prof Viner told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'There are five studies from around the world from New South Wales, from Australia, Singapore, from Ireland, from Germany, and from France, and in each of those there appears to be very, very little transmission in schools. 'We know that children can and do transmit this virus, of course they do, but they're very minor players in the transmission overall, particularly younger children. 'It's increasingly clear that older children - teenagers probably - transmit as much as adults, but schools themselves play very little role. 'They're a closed setting but actually we see very few outbreaks in schools, large outbreaks, and actually there's very little transmission from child to child or child to adult, actually much of the transmission in schools is from adults bringing it in, particularly staff. 'There's increasing evidence in the UK and the Government is doing a number of studies which have showed apparently very little transmission and very little infection when schools were open in England.' Advertisement

'The latest research which is expected to be published later this year - one of the largest studies on the coronavirus in schools in the world - makes it clear there is little evidence that the virus is transmitted at school.

'There is also growing confidence among parents about their children returning. This is down to the hard work of school staff across the country who are putting in place a range of protective measures to prepare to welcome back all pupils at the start of term.'

Care Minister Helen Whately said 'absolutely it'll be safe for children to be back in schools'.

She told BBC Breakfast: 'The evidence that we have is on the one hand of very low transmission and also that the risks to children from Covid are very low, so absolutely it'll be safe for children to be back in schools, and our national priority is to get to children back in school this autumn.'

Asked about the one week on, one week off suggestion, she said: 'Our priority is to make sure that children are fully back in school come the autumn.'

Pressed on whether schools should stay open in the event of a local lockdown, she said: 'Yes, that is the approach, so, for instance, in places like Leicester and Greater Manchester, and areas where we have local restrictions going on, absolutely schools should be still going back. It is essential that children get back into school this autumn term.'

Prof Viner told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'There are five studies from around the world from New South Wales, from Australia, Singapore, from Ireland, from Germany, and from France, and in each of those there appears to be very, very little transmission in schools.

'We know that children can and do transmit this virus, of course they do, but they're very minor players in the transmission overall, particularly younger children.

'It's increasingly clear that older children - teenagers probably - transmit as much as adults, but schools themselves play very little role.

'They're a closed setting but actually we see very few outbreaks in schools, large outbreaks, and actually there's very little transmission from child to child or child to adult, actually much of the transmission in schools is from adults bringing it in, particularly staff.

'There's increasing evidence in the UK and the Government is doing a number of studies which have showed apparently very little transmission and very little infection when schools were open in England.'

Demands for routine testing of children and staff in schools Boris Johnson is facing demands for routine testing of children and staff in schools - even if they do not have symptoms. Children's commissioner for England Anne Longfield has welcomed the PM's commitment to prioritise getting classrooms back up and running. But she said regular testing of pupils and teachers, perhaps as frequently as weekly, could be needed even if they do not exhibit symptoms to keep transmission rates down. 'I think it needs to be as regular as it needs to be, to ensure that the infection is caught and identified as quickly as possible and then the tracking system can move on from that,' she told Times Radio. However, schools minister Nick Gibb played down the idea. 'All the advice we've had is the measures that we're putting in place, the hierarchy of controls about hygiene and so on and bubbles within schools, is the most effective method of reducing the risk of transmission of the virus,' he said. Advertisement

Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, suggested schools could teach pupils on a 'week on, week off' basis if the government continued to demand that all children return to school by September.

Mr Barton told The Daily Telegraph: 'If you want to limit the number of children on site or travelling to and from school, a big part of that is using rotas and the obvious way to do it is week on, week off.'

The general secretary added that leadership teams would be drawing up their own plans in the absence of clear guidance from the government.

He added: 'The majority of leadership teams will be thinking about different scenarios and how they can get some children to school. In the absence of clear guidance from the Government, leaders are making their own contingency plans.'

Yesterday MPs ripped into the 25-page 'wrecker's charter' by the NEU which they said could thwart the Prime Minister's 'national priority' for classes to resume.

Education select committee chair Robert Halfon MP branded the criteria 'impossible' and told the Sun on Sunday: 'It is incredible not one of these 200 nitpicking questions asks the most important thing of all - what's best for the kids?'

The demands, which the NEU claim to have adopted from Department for Education guidance, include questions such as: 'Will lidded bins with double bagging be available in every classroom and work area?'

Another asks: 'Has the school agreed that any staff required to quarantine in September as a result of holidays booked prior to the Government's quarantine announcement will be able to work at home or be allowed paid leave of absence?'

The unions were blamed for blocking ministers' initial efforts to reopen schools before the summer holidays after expressing deep safety concerns.

The Tories accused Labour of 'playing politics' by refusing to say unequivocally that it is 'safe' to return to school.

Amanda Milling, co-chairman of the Conservative Party, said: 'Once again, Labour refuse to take a stance and back our plans to get kids back to school in September.

'Sir Keir Starmer won't stand up to the unions, won't take a position and shows more interest in playing politics than in our children's wellbeing.'

But NEU president Amanda Martin said she believed the union had been 'on the right side of history' and stood by the checklist.

She told Times Radio: 'This is people's safety. What costs safety? I as someone who works in Portsmouth and received the information from my Portsmouth school have had those checklists back where governors and heads and staff have worked together.

Some of the (very detailed) questions Will each classroom be provided with gloves and disinfectant spray in case a pupil coughs or sneezes on a piece of equipment or furniture? Does the timetable include sufficient creative subjects, and space for dialogue and sustained thinking? Will lidded bins with double bagging be available in every classroom and work area? Will dedicated space be available for any breastfeeding women to express milk, and will the space be cleaned thoroughly after each use? Will communication on social distancing take place regularly to reinforce key messages with translation into the preferred language of employees for whom English is not the first language? Has the behaviour policy been reviewed to acknowledge the increased level of trauma and anxiety experienced by pupils and the impacts on engagement, self-esteem and behaviours? Advertisement

'It's about ensuring confidence, it's about ensuring safety and if that means that's going through those 25 pages and have conversations about 'what would happen if this happened?', then that's exactly what we need to do and plan, planning is essential.'

Quizzed about whether the NEU is given teachers the green light to go back to lessons next month, Ms Martin added: 'We have said that schools should be ready to open in September.

'We have a number of meetings in the last week of August, we have asked our reps to look at the brand-new checklist that came out right at the end of summer term and we need to see what it means in regards to the scientists.

'We have asked the scientists to give us some modelling so we can make sure schools can be as Covid safe as possible.'

She added: 'The fact that the government are coming out this morning saying we're a national priority is a really positive thing'.

Teachers, scientists, opposition politicians and the children's commissioner for England Anne Longfield have all called for improvements to testing before pupils return.

Ms Longfield welcomed Mr Johnson's commitment to make children the priority after previously accusing ministers of treating them as 'an afterthought'.

But she said regular testing of pupils and teachers, perhaps as frequently as weekly, could be needed even if they do not exhibit symptoms to keep transmission rates down.

'I think it needs to be as regular as it needs to be, to ensure that the infection is caught and identified as quickly as possible and then the tracking system can move on from that,' she told Times Radio.

However, schools minister Nick Gibb played down the idea yesterday, saying: 'All the advice we've had is the measures that we're putting in place, the hierarchy of controls about hygiene and so on and bubbles within schools, is the most effective method of reducing the risk of transmission of the virus.'

It came as a landmark coronavirus study found the risk of transmission in classrooms is minimal, ratcheting up pressure on the Education Secretary to fully reopen schools in September.

The Prime Minister has declared resuming classes a 'national priority' and is planning an advertising blitz to urge anxious parents to send their child back to school.

A Downing Street source said the PM believed the harm being done to children's education prospects and mental health by not attending school was more damaging than the risks posed to them by the virus.

Today NEU president Amanda Martin said she believed the union had been 'on the right side of history' and stood by the checklist. Education select committee chair Robert Halfon MP branded the criteria 'impossible'

Mr Johnson wrote in an article for The Mail on Sunday: 'This pandemic isn't over, and the last thing any of us can afford to do is become complacent. But now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so.'

The PM also warned of the 'spiralling economic costs' of parents and carers being unable to work.

He added: 'Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible.'

His campaign was yesterday bolstered by encouraging scientific evidence which found a low threat of catching infection in schools.

But National Education Union deputy general secretary Avis Gilmore called for ministers to 'be clear' about support if a second wave of the virus strikes.

'Robust track, trace and test alongside health and safety checks in schools and colleges are necessary,' she said.

Prof Viner outlined the forthcoming Public Health England study and stressed that reopening schools was 'imperative'.

'A new study that has been done in UK schools confirms there is very little evidence that the virus is transmitted in schools,' he told the Sunday Times.

'This is some of the largest data you will find on schools anywhere. Britain has done very well in terms of thinking of collecting data in schools.

The latest tensions over Covid-19's impact on education come as a European study suggested reopening schools was not a major danger in community transmission of the disease.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control studied 15 countries, including the UK, and concluded: 'There is conflicting published evidence on the impact of school closure/re-opening on community transmission levels, although the evidence from contact tracing in schools, and observational data from a number of EU countries suggest that re-opening schools has not been associated with significant increases in community transmission.'

Professor Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust - who is advising the Government's coronavirus response, said the 'brief window' before schools reopen must be 'used wisely' otherwise new restrictions will be needed.

He wrote in the Observer: 'Most urgently, we need to ramp up testing. We are not where we need to be. We must improve contact tracing, so we're identifying more cases and providing better, faster data locally.

'If we don't, we may not be able to reopen schools without introducing new restrictions elsewhere. These are the trade-offs we face - if we do not act now.'
Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae will not force customers to wear masks or facing coverings in his shop as they become mandatory today.

Mr Healy-Rae said he will encourage people to wear them but said he will not become an enforcer and neither will his staff.

Speaking on Independent.ies Floating Voter podcast, he said: We are not going to be saying to a person 'you've no mask on, you can't be in the shop.

It wont happen in my shop and the vast majority of shops in Ireland. People working in the shops have enough to be doing just to do their own roles, he added.

Mr Healy-Rae runs a Mace supermarket and filling station in his hometown of Kilgarven.

In a wide-ranging interview Mr Healy-Rae also said:

- He would accept a local lockdown in Kerry because the rules are the rule.

- But public health experts dont have a monopoly on being right when it comes to pubs.

- The new government has been an unmitigated disaster.

- The sacking of Barry Cowen as Agriculture Minister was wrong.

- Education Minister Norma Foley is a formidable operator.

- And landlords are being demonised by certain TDs.

Mr Healy-Rae said it is remarkable that pubs are still closed when around 100,000 people flew into Ireland from abroad last week. That in itself was an anomaly and is something of great consternation to a lot of people, he said.

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The long serving deputy said the Government should introduce testing and quarantine for all travellers arriving here as they have in New Zealand where there has been no new coronavirus case in over 100 days.

Mr Healy-Rae said it is counterproductive to public health to keep pubs closed because people are not congregating in a smaller number of licenced premises. He also said the ban had led to emergence of shebeens in rural communities along with house parties and increased off-licence sales.

He said his brother Dannys pub has remained closed throughout the pandemic as he does not serve food.

Mr Healy-Rae says common sense outweighs advice from the National Public Health Emergency Teams (Nphet) guidance on the reopening of pubs. No one has a monopoly on being right about everything at all times and I think they're wrong on this occasion, he added.

He said the new coalition government has been an unmitigated disaster that has lunged from crisis to crisis. He said Taoiseach Micheal Martin is a very experienced TD and expected him to be more sure footed when he took office.

The way I would describe the Government is that they are waking up everyone morning and what they are doing is they are literally wetting their finger and they are seeing which way the wind is blowing, he added.

He said the sacking of Barry Cowen over his drink driving case was handled badly and poorly by the Taoiseach.

I don't think it warranted him being forced out of the position that he had. I know an awful lot of people around the country certainly didn't agree with it, he added.

Mr Healy-Rae said he was glad Kerry had a minister at the Cabinet table in Norma Foley and criticised those who describe he has an inexperienced TD.

He also warned TDs against criticising landlords because they will leave the market and there will be less tenancies for renters. He said there is no money in the rental business if you are starting now.
A Russell County woman died Sunday in a single-vehicle crash, according to information from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

According to ALEA, Sunseahray Prentice, 60, was killed when her 1991 Mazda left the road and struck a ditch at 2:14 p.m. Sunday. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The crash happened on Shady Grove Road near Battle Road, about three miles north of Hurtsboro. Troopers continue to investigate the incident, according to ALEA.
" " "Call of Duty Black Ops 2" sits in the window of a Brooklyn store on Jan. 11, 2013, in New York City. Following the Newtown shootings, numerous politicians and activists focused again on violence in video games and films. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Now that we've acknowledged that women can engage in violent behavior, let's not beat around the bush: A majority of violence, both mass and otherwise, is committed by men. (Especially if you bring war and politics into the issue, which might not fit in this article but is worth pondering.)

When you consider that between 1980 and 2008, 90 percent of those who committed homicide were men and males were nine times more likely to offend, it could strike you as less shocking that men committed nearly all mass murders. They seem to be the ones committing crimes, period [source: Cooper and Smith]. (Which might make it all the more shocking that historically there have been only two crimes committed equally as often by women: murdering their own children and shoplifting [source: Lithwick].)

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Are men biologically wired to be more impulsive or aggressive? It seems silly to say that men are inherently violent, but there are some natural factors that we should consider. Men are stronger -- that could mean that in a mass killing setting, they'd be more likely to overpower any challenger and less likely to be stymied. So while that doesn't mean they're more likely to plot mass killing, it might lead back to our examples of violent women who stopped before more people were hurt.

A popular myth is that higher levels of testosterone lead to aggression, which might explain why males are more likely to commit mass murders. However, studies point to the fact that violence might lead to testosterone, not the other way around. Testosterone might be used to prepare the body for aggression (and not initiate it) in both men and women [source: Mims]. And to prove once again that nature might just need a helping hand from nurture, one researcher points out one way to absolutely raise a man's testosterone level: hand him a gun [source: Mims]. (The 2006 study that drew this conclusion only included male participants.)

That brings us to another very interesting juncture: For both biological and societal reasons men might commit more violence. A study at Iowa State University determined that video game exposure does, in fact, cause a physiological response in the body. Video game players were less physiologically aroused by real-life violence, and the results were all fairly standard across participants [source: Carnagey, Anderson and Bushman].

But, of course, a caveat: This showed all individuals were desensitized to violence after video game exposure, not just males -- or not just some males. While there might be an argument that men or boys play more video games and thus are more widely becoming inured to real-life violence, that certainly can't explain why some of them turn into mass murderers.
Former Saudi intelligence officer filed lawsuit accusing the crown prince of sending a hit squad to try and kill him.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has been issued a summons by a US court for a lawsuit by a former top Saudi intelligence agent who was reportedly targeted in a foiled assassination attempt.

The US District Court for the District of Columbia issued the summons on Friday, a day after Saad al-Jabri filed the lawsuit accusing Prince Mohammed of sending a hit squad to Canada to try and kill him.

A summons is an official notice of a lawsuit, given to the person or persons being sued.

Al-Jabri, who lives in Canada, reportedly under increased protection by police and private security guards, claimed that his close ties with the US intelligence community and deep knowledge of the princes activities had 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, the lawsuit read.

Saudi Arabia, which has issued Interpol red notices seeking al-Jabris return  which have since been dismissed by the agency as political  has urged other countries to send al-Jabri back to the kingdom, accusing the former senior intelligence officer of corruption.

The summons, which named 12 people in addition to Prince Mohammed, added: If you fail to respond, judgment by default will be entered against you for the relief demanded in the complaint.

The suit asserts that MBS had ordered the detention of two of al-Jabris children, who have gone missing from their home in the capital Riyadh 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.





MBS will now vigorously lobby President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to issue what is called a letter of suggestion immunity, Bruce Fein, a former US associate deputy attorney general, told Al Jazeera.

It is rather an odd realm of law, but it asks the court to dismiss the case because it will interfere with the foreign relations of the US and relations with a head of state or high-level officials.

But that means November [US elections] will be critical for Saudi Arabia. I can guarantee you right now that Saudi Arabia and the crown prince are talking with Pompeo and Trump asking them get him out of this.
ISTANBUL Turkeys navy has issued an advisory saying that the Turkish ship Oruc Reis will carry out a seismic survey in a disputed area in the eastern Mediterranean over the next two weeks, a step likely to revive tensions with neighbouring Greece.

The two NATO allies are at odds over overlapping claims for hydrocarbon resources in the region. A similar advisory, or Navtex, last month prompted a dispute which was calmed after the intervention of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, leading Turkey to agree a pause in operations.

But President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday Turkey had resumed energy exploration work in the region as Greece had not kept its promises on the issue.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was expected to chair a meeting of the government council on foreign affairs and defence issues at 0900 GMT, his office said on Monday.

Minister of State George Gerapetritis told Greek state TV that Athens was in full political and operational readiness." Greece stood ready to engage in a constructive dialogue with Turkey on their differences, he said.

The NAVTEX, issued by the Turkish navys office of navigation, covered an area of sea south of Turkeys Antalya and west of Cyprus. It will be in effect between August 10-23.

The Oruc Reis vessel has already reached the location where it will operate after leaving the area where it was anchored off Antalya, Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said on Twitter.

Seismic surveys are part of preparatory work for potential hydrocarbon exploration. Turkey and Greece are also at odds over issues such as overflights in the Aegean Sea and ethnically divided Cyprus.

Erdogans announcement of the new exploration work came after Egypt and Greece signed an accord last Thursday designating an exclusive economic zone between the two nations in the east Mediterranean.

Diplomats in Greece said that agreement nullified an accord reached last year between Turkey and the internationally recognised government of Libya, but Erdogan said Turkey would maintain its agreement with Libya decisively".

(Additional reporting by Michele Kambas and Renee Maltezou in Athens; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Kim Coghill and Jane Merriman)

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
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar arrived in Taiwan Sunday, leading a U.S. delegation for a three-day visit during which he will meet President Tsai Ing-wen.

This is the highest-level visit by an American official since the break in diplomatic relations between Washington and Taipei in 1979. The visit comes as relations between the United States and China have plunged to historic lows.

China objects to official contact between the U.S. and Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory, while the Taiwanese president has strongly advocated Taiwan's recognition as a sovereign nation. Beijing has strongly and repeatedly objected to recognition of self-ruled Taiwan and has vowed to seize the island by force if necessary.


Scientists have discovered that a massive sunspot is turning towards Earth. This event could cause major strong flares, which can affect Global Positioning Systems (GPS) connectivity, power grids, satellites, and radio communications.

According to spaceweather.com, the sunspot AR2770 was noticed earlier last week and is likely to grow in size in the coming days.

The space weather forecasting website revealed that the huge amount of energy released by the sunspot, maybe up to 50,000 km in diameter, may result in solar flares.

This phenomenon is known as Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) and it can affect electrical operations and facilities on our planet, as per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Solar flares lead to "fluctuations of electrical currents in space and energize electrons and protons trapped in Earth's varying magnetic field".

A sunspot is a dark area on the sun and contains electrically charged gases producing areas of powerful magnetic forces. It is relatively cooler than the other parts of the star.

These charged gases constantly remain in motion, causing irregularities in this magnetic field. This process is called solar activity, whose levels dont remain the same and varies from one solar cycle to another.

On the other hand, solar flares occur due to change in magnetic fields on the sunspots. They can also trigger auroras, intense light in the sky.

The clear picture of the sunspot was captured by an amateur astronomer Martin Wise from Trenton, Florida, using an 8-inch telescope with safe solar filters.
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump was abruptly escorted by a U.S. Secret Service agent out of the White House briefing room as he was beginning a coronavirus briefing Monday afternoon. He returned minutes later, saying there was a shooting outside the White House that was under control.

There was an actual shooting and somebodys been taken to the hospital, Trump said. The president said the shots were fired by law enforcement, saying he believed the individual who was shot was armed. It was the suspect who was shot, Trump said.

Trump said he was escorted to the Oval Office by the agent. The White House was placed on lockdown following the incident.

The shooting took place near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue just blocks from the White House, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly about it. Law enforcement officials were still trying to determine the suspect's motive.

The suspect was transferred to a local hospital, and the District of Columbia fire department said the man suffered serious or possibly critical injuries. Authorities were investigating whether the individual has a history of mental illness.

Trump praised the work of Secret Service personnel for their work in keeping him safe. Asked if he was shaken by the incident, Trump asked reporters: I dont know. Do I seem rattled?

--The Associated Press
India is on alert against a possible increase in the dumping of Chinese products, either directly or through third countries, in the Indian market as major economies move to impose restrictions on Chinese imports, two officials aware of the matter said on condition of anonymity.

An investigation has already confirmed dumping of Chinese polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a raw material to manufacture bottles for packaging of food and beverages, after the US, Canada, Brazil and Argentina restricted its imports from China.

The finance ministry will take appropriate remedial actions soon based on a final investigation report, the officials cited above, who work in two different economic ministries, said.

Another cause of concern is a recent executive order by US President Donald Trump directing the federal government to purchase essential drugs from only American manufacturers. The move could block a major market for Chinese drug manufacturers and prompt them to push their products into the Indian market, they said.

As the government agencies as well as the domestic industry are vigilant, adoption of any illegal means by Chinese firms to access Indian market would be foiled, one of the officials said.

There is no blanket ban on Chinese imports, provided Beijing follows rules, does not engage in dumping to hurt Indian industries, and does not pose a threat to Indias national security. All critical items are still imported [from China]. Actions are initiated against only those Chinese products that hurt domestic companies. It is the duty of the government to protect Indian businesses, the first official said.

He cited the example of PET resin being domped from China. It is hurting domestic firms such as RIL [Reliance Industries Ltd]. On the basis of a complaint from the industry, DGTR (Directorate General of Trade Remedies) investigated the matter and its preliminary report found dumping by the Chinese firms, a second official said. The preliminary investigation report of DGTR, issued on August 5, confirmed the development.

Proposing to impose an anti-dumping duty on import of Chinese PET resin, DGTR said on Wednesday: Information provided by the petitioners shows that trade remedial measures have been invoked by USA, Canada, Brazil and Argentina against Chinese imports of subject goods [PET resin] show the pattern of dumping by the concerned producers/exporters of the subject country [China]. The petitioners have emphasized that the closure of these markets to the exporters indicates threat of increased dumping and further injury to the domestic industry.

Officials said a similar situation may emerge for the Indian pharmaceutical sector after President Trumps executive order. Over the course of the next four years, we will bring our pharmaceutical and medical supply chains home and we will end reliance on China and other foreign nations, a PTI report from Washington said on Friday. quoting Trump.

China and India are twoof the worlds biggest pharmaceutical exporters. While China has a near monopoly in active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), India is the largest exporter of generic medicines, the second official said. The US market will squeeze and Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers will face stiff competition from Chinese products in almost all markets. The governments effort to revive domestic API manufacturing may also get affected by influx of cheaper Chinese products, he added.

Divakar Vijayasarathy, founder and managing partner of consulting firm DVS Advisors LLP, said: India has always been the dumping ground for Chinese products. With America restricting imports from China, more things could be dumped in India. India has always been using both tariff-based and non-tariff based approach to limit the dumping of Chinese goods but often in vain.

Improving the cost- effective domestic manufacturing capabilities, establishing an integrated value-added supply chain and more importantly favourable regulatory regimes are solutions for fostering domestic manufacturing in the long run, he added.

He said more and more countries are reducing their import dependence on China either by encouraging domestic manufacturing like India through the Atmnirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (Self-Reliant India Initiative) or through an outright ban on imports like the America First policy of Trump.

Deepak Sood secretary general of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) said: When it comes to pharmaceuticals, our critical imports from China relate to APIs. The Indian government has come up with several effective measures to boost self-reliance in these crucial areas as well. For the rest of pharma products, our domestic industry can compete with the Chinese within and outside India. Even for APIs, we expect to soon catch up.
Arson Speculation About Apple Fire Spreads Like Wildfire

Rumors of arson have spread as fast as the Apple Fire that has consumed more than 33,000 acres in Southern Californiadespite authorities saying the likely cause of the wildfire was a diesel-fueled vehicle emitting burning carbon from its exhaust.

Emma Riley, 22, whose family owns apple and berry orchards in Oak Glen, told The Epoch Times she witnessed a suspicious event on July 31, the day the fire started. She saw four teenage boys with lighters and what appeared to be a can of lighter fluid huddled in the tall brush off a trail near the Oak Glen School House Museum on Oak Glen Road.

The fire is burning near Oak Glen Road and Apple Tree Lane, north of Cherry Valley; authorities say it started as three smaller spot fires before merging into one blaze.

I could see that they had what looked like two little cigarette lighters and then a black can of some sort. It was a rectangular can  and it appeared to be lighter fluid, Riley said.

Riley had towed a horse trailer to the area to help some friends move their horses. She walked past the boys once, but as she walked back to her trailer, she noticed flames.

When I saw the flames, I said, Hey, what are you guys doing back there? and they told me to mind my own business. They continued yelling at her, but she couldnt make out what they were saying. She yelled back, Im going to call 911, and she did.

The boys ran, jumped in a black Chevy Silverado pickup truck and sped off. Before they did, Riley photographed the truck and the license plate.

Cindy Bachman, a public information officer for the San Bernardino Sheriffs Department, told The Epoch Times via email on Aug. 9: The fire had already started at the time of her [Rileys] call, and when the deputy made contact with the boys, the boys did not have any lighter fluid in their possession. It is my understanding that the fire officials do not believe the fire was intentional.

On Aug. 6, Riley had followed up with police in YucaipaOak Glen has a population of only about 700, and Yucaipa is the closest city. She said they told her the four boys had been found with lighters and lighter fluid.

Police told Riley they didnt suspect the boys of arson, because they confessed to smoking marijuana wax, and that would explain why they hid in the brush and then ran. Its illegal in California for anyone under the age of 21 to possess marijuana wax.

But Riley and others in the region havent dismissed their suspicions about the boys and the general possibility of arson. Rumors of other locals having seen suspicious activity in the area around the time the fires started continue, and have gained traction on social media.

Dennis Riley, Emma Rileys grandfather, told The Epoch Times he wonders how certain authorities are about the malfunctioning diesel-fueled vehicle as the source of the fire if they havent located the vehicle and are still seeking information about it.

Fernando Herrera, a public information officer and fire captain for Riverside County Fire Department, told The Epoch Times on Aug. 5 authorities have not located the vehicle. Witnesses reported seeing a vehicle shooting large particles out of its exhaust system on July 31.

Authorities had announced the probable cause of the fire on Aug. 3 and asked that anyone who may have seen the vehicle on Oak Glen Road that day call in with more information.

On Aug. 5, at a community meeting in Banning, Calif., the Oak Glen division chief for Cal Fire, Todd Hopkins, responded to a question from a local resident about how certain authorities are that it wasnt arson.

Hopkins said the officers are trained in arson investigation. They have taken numerous reports, and they said [there were] multiple witnesses to when the fire started.

They are still looking for more information, Hopkins said: If theres something else that you might know, because you believe thats not what the cause is, you can also call  and give them what information you have.

Community Suspicions

Weve had a number of arson fires up here over the years, Dennis Riley said. You know, they always in the past have said Were investigating the cause of the fire, or arson is suspected, but all of a sudden its like theyre not even interested in four kids with lighters. Its strange.

At the Aug. 5 community meeting, Rileys great uncle, Jim Riley, also brought up the issue of previous arson fires in the region.

He gave the example of a 16-year-old boy from Yucaipa who was arrested in 2009 and initially charged as an adult for setting multiple large fires over the course of three years. In 2010, the adult charges were dropped and the boy was instead charged as a juvenile.

Also in 2009, Rickie Lee Fowler was charged and indicted with igniting the 2003 Old Fire in San Bernardino County. He was seen throwing a lit flare into brush by the side of the road.

The area has seen multiple other cases of arson over the years. The community is a little sensitive about arson for a reason, Jim Riley said.

Another local resident who preferred not to be named told The Epoch Times he saw two boys running from the area the fires started on July 31.

Mark Miller, a retired Cal Fire captain, told the Epoch Times on Aug. 7 that there have been other rumors among local residents, some of whom dont know each other, that arson suspects were seen throwing burning materials from vehicles.

The whole thing is suspicious, Miller said. They saw people throwing incendiary devices out from vehicles and so, yeah, its just awfully suspicious, he said.

The Apple Fire, as seen from Yucaipa, Calif., on Aug. 1, 2020. (Brad Jones/The Epoch Times)

An aircraft, part of firefighting efforts, flies above the Apple Fire, in Californias Cherry Valley, on Aug. 1, 2020. (Brad Jones)

Daron Wyatt, a public information officer for the interagency team working on the fires, spoke at the Aug. 5 meeting. He said he has been inundated with calls from news reporters asking about residents reports of possible arson suspects.

Rileys report has been of particular interest, but it seems authorities were largely unaware of it.

Wyatt said the rumors were raised at a meeting of every law enforcement agency in the region, and none were aware of a report about the four teenagers with lighters. Nobody knows what they are talking about, he said.

Before Bachman of the San Bernardino Sheriffs Department had tracked down the report on Rileys call and replied to The Epoch Times about it on Aug. 9, she had initially responded Aug. 5 that Yucaipa Lt. Julie Landen said no such report existed.

Capt. Herrera also said Aug. 5 he was unaware of any related police report.

Riley was shocked to learn authorities had no knowledge of the incident she witnessed, so on Aug. 6, she went to the Yucaipa Police Department and made a full statement. It was then that police told her the four boys were found with lighters and lighter fluid, but that no further investigation would be pursued, she said.

Social Media

When Cal Fire posted its media release on Facebook saying a diesel-fueled vehicle is the likely cause, a comment on Facebook read, What happened to the 4 kids in the area with gasoline and lighters.

Wyatt said he has urged everyone, including news media, to follow the San Bernardino National Forest Facebook and Twitter pages for official reports, rather than spinning it up on social media.

A lot of times somebody sees something that they perceive in a certain way, and theyll put it out there on social media, and it will then run faster than this fire has run, Wyatt said at the Aug. 5 meeting.

He said that authorities have to be cautious about what information they release to the public.

In the beginning stages  all we can tell you is that the cause is under investigation  so sometimes that goes against the grain of what we want to do in providing accurate information, but we cant compromise the investigation and a possible prosecution if it is arson, he said.

Threats

The Riley family owns more than 400 acres of orchards, including Rileys Apple Farm, and another 700 acres of property in the Oak Glen area. The Rileys have been the target of scathing social media posts in recent months.

Jim Riley has made comments on social media that he says have been misconstrued as racist and hes been the target of cancel culture, he said. Hes also received what he feels are real threats against him and his family.

After the fire department announced the probable cause of the fire, local BLM supporter Jessie Pearl Labrie wrote on her Facebook page: Oh good. Was hoping I wasnt gonna get a knock on the door. I openly said that I hope Rileys burns down. Glad to know its God Himself condemning the farm. Thats way cooler than arson.

In a private Facebook group called The Back Porch, Labrie had posted in late June: I honestly hope they burn down Racist Rileys. She also posted DRAG HIM with a GIF that said KILL HIM! followed by the comment Dont kill him actually though.

On Twitter, @Jadecruzz, whose profile included a reference to BLM, wrote on Aug. 1, Would be a shame if that fire BURNED DOWN Rileys Farm in Oak Glen after being exposed a few weeks back. The Twitter account has since been deactivated.

When asked if local police had investigated social media posts that some perceive as threats against Jim Riley or his family, Bachman told The Epoch Times that police will only investigate what they determine to be credible threats.

I think if we focused on comments made on social media, we wouldnt get any other work done, Bachman said. There is so much of this and a lot of it is nonsensepeople just sitting in their house with nothing else to do and making commentsnot making threatsmaking comments.

BLM protesters in nearby Yucaipa on Aug. 1 said they heard they were being blamed for the fires. They claimed that we started the fire in Cherry Valley. That did not happen, protest organizer Steph Marie Murphy told The Epoch Times. None of us are attacking anyone.

Tensions have been high between BLM supporters and some Yucaipa residents following clashes between the two on June 1.

Emma Riley said she felt it important to report to police what she saw out of concern for the safety of local families, their animals, and livelihood.

Many in the community came together to help each other out.

Cherry Valley resident Lynn Warren said neighbors arrived with a horse trailer to rescue her animals on July 31

. I didnt even call them. They just showed up, Warren told The Epoch Times. It was just cool that our neighbors all banded together and supported each other.

The Apple Fire was 55 percent contained as of Aug. 11. It has damaged 12 structures, destroying four, including homes, and injured three people, including one firefighter, according to Cal Fire. More than 2,200 fire personnel and 40 firefighting crews have been assigned to fight the fire.
NIAMEY, Niger - Armed forces from Niger and France have been deployed to pursue the gunmen who killed seven aid workers, mostly French citizens, and a leading guide in a Niger giraffe park considered one of the safer places in the vast West African country.

The group had been on a day of sightseeing Sunday when they were attacked just before noon, according to one of the aid groups they worked for, Paris-based NGO ACTED. An ambulance sent by the French military stationed in Niger found the bodies later in the day in their burned-out vehicle in the giraffe reserve in Koure, the group said.

The victims were six French citizens and one Nigerien working for ACTED and Geneva-based IMPACT Initiatives. The other victim was their Nigerien guide, who was the president of the guides at the park. Four of the French aid workers were women, two men, and all were between the ages of 25 and 50, according to ACTED.

Nigers Interior Minister Alkache Alhada said Monday that the area around Koure has been cordoned off by Nigers army and French soldiers from Operation Barkhane.

We have deployed the army and intelligence services to identify and neutralize the assassins, he said. We have also deployed air cover to reinforce the troops on the ground.

French prosecutors said in a statement Monday they opened an investigation for murders in relation to a terrorist undertaking.

The governor of the Tillaberi region where the attack took place, said he was surprised by this cowardly attack and assassination against foreign tourists.

This area has always been a peaceful and secure place, we really want to know what happened, Governor Tidjani Katiella said.

Hundreds of people each year visit the protected national park in Koure that that contains among the only remaining West African giraffes in the world, who live amid dense vegetation and tall trees about 70 kilometres (45 miles) southeast of the capital.

The NGOs condemned in the strongest terms the senseless and barbaric killing of our colleagues and their guide.

Our colleagues have been working to support the people of Niger facing hardship, driven by values of humanity and solidarity, the NGOs said.

The Association of Giraffe Guides of Koure also released a statement condemning the death of the president of their association, Kadri Abdou.

We are deeply saddened and thinking of the victims and their families to whom we offer our most sincere condolences and especially to the family of Kadri, our friend. May he rest in peace, said the statement.

Niger President Issoufou Mahamadou also condemned the killings in a post on Twitter.

I condemn the cowardly and barbaric terrorist attack perpetrated this Sunday in the peaceful town of Koure, he wrote, extending condolences to the families of the victims and to the French president, adding that Frances commitment to our side in the fight against terrorism is unwavering.

One of the biggest French NGOs, ACTED has been present in Niger since 2010 and provides aid to displaced people and local populations who are particularly vulnerable due to conflicts in the region, lack of food and droughts.

A partner to ACTED, IMPACT Initiatives was first deployed in Niger in 2012. It conducts mapping programs and other projects in camps hosting displaced populations.

In a phone call on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron and Nigers president pledged to clarify the circumstances of the deadly attack by all means, the French presidency said.

French Foreign Affairs minister Jean-Yves Le Drian condemned the attack on Monday, saying that those responsible will have to answer for their acts.

The French government has warned citizens against travelling outside Nigers capital, Niamey, as militants linked to Boko Haram, Islamic State and al-Qaida carry out attacks across the vast West African nation. Niger borders several countries including Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Nigeria and Libya.

Violence by rebels linked to the IS group and al-Qaida is on the rise in the Sahel region. France has deployed 5,100 soldiers to help fight the growing insurgency there, and a local Sahel force made up of soldiers from Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mauritania has also been fighting the extremists.

ACTED said that it is now barring its staff across Niger, Chad, Mali and Burkina Faso from leaving their zones as a result of the attack.

The group insisted that it had taken necessary security measures, requiring clearance three days ahead of time for their staff to travel within Niger. ACTED co-founder Marie-Pierre Caley said it was the first such attack in the area of the giraffe park, and described it as much safer than other areas in Niger where the groups staffers work.

ACTED co-founder Frederic Roussel said it may have been an opportunistic attack by a small group targeting Westerners, but said it was too early to say for sure.

He described increasingly tight security measures for ACTED workers in recent years, but said the attack shouldnt deter aid workers from helping the most threatened populations on the planet.

___

AP writer Carley Petesch contributed from Dakar, Senegal.
2020 began a decade that I think will be defined by irony. Ill skip over the prominent political examples and jump right into social media and drill down to focus on Facebook.

Last week we ran a survey asking people which of the CEOs that were questioned by Congress last month is the most trustworthy. Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg took the dubious prize for last place. Tim Cook of Apple was voted the most trustworthy of the four CEOs.

Online survey of ECT News Network visitors conducted Aug. 3  10, 2020

These results reveal overwhelmingly that issues of trust exist for these big tech company leaders across-the-board. With that said, I think this survey and Zuckerbergs image showcases an incredible level of incompetence, particularly given that Facebook appears to be tied so deeply to the amount of fake news that is currently surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak  and I believe it will eventually lead to the mother of all class-action lawsuits against the company.

If you think about it, you have a CEO of a company that is structured to mine user information and manipulate opinion, and a firm that still mostly sells hardware. There shouldnt be any competition; Facebook has the tools and information access to assure it is beloved. Yet Apple, which doesnt have anywhere near that level of reach nor engagement, has a far better image.

Lets talk about ironic incompetence this week, and well close with my product of the week: a stand-alone Microsoft Teams appliance that belatedly makes the video phone real (sort of).

The Potential Power of Facebook

For those that participate on Facebook, the company has data on you that is unprecedented. It knows when you were born, where you like to vacation, where you work, your title, your close friends (at least those on Facebook), what makes you mad, and what makes you happy. Facebook knows much of what you buy, who you are likely to vote for, and it likely knows who you voted for in past elections.

With the level of information Facebook collects on you, it could manipulate you, emulate you, and either do you great harm or, potentially, help you out a great deal. Harm could include aggregating comments youve made over time to make you appear sexist or racist. Doing you well could include making you visible in a positive way to those that have some control over your career or might be convinced to give you a job offer.

There is also little doubt Facebook has the capability to change the outcome of an election or change the impression of a sitting politician.

It can also help keep you safe by pointing out false information that puts you at risk, or it can (as Facebook did in my case) spread information that could put your life at risk.

With that kind of massive power, the person running the company needs to be trustworthy, because, if he or she isnt, we are not only in a world of hurt individually, but likely in a world of hurt as a nation. I believe that by the end of the year it is very likely that well conclude that, for the good of the nation, Facebook will need to be shut down  and it doesnt need to end that way.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

With Great Power

With high power comes great responsibility is one of the most memorable Stan Lee Spiderman quotes, and that is hard to argue with. What we often talk about is the abuse of power and the other well-known quote, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Facebook has an unprecedented amount of power, and it has the potential to be a great force for good in the world. Instead, it the company has chosen a very different path, and Mark Zuckerberg is seen as the face of that problem.

The ideal person to run a company like Facebook is someone who both understands the technology that Facebook uses and the social science underneath human interaction. That grants the core skills to steer the company; but if we want the company to do good rather than evil with the power, the person leading the company needs some other skills.

The leader must understand strategy to assure long-term outcomes. They need empathy so they are less apt to harm intentionally or by accident, they must have a strong ethical core, and the person needs to be successfully charismatic. Together these attributes would assure the company is run by someone that people trust, and is trustworthy, and that Facebooks power isnt used to abuse people.

As TikTok is exemplifying, if a social media service is seen as a threat, a government can ban it. There is a decent chance that enough people will see Facebook as a problem during both the pandemic and the coming election that a more serious effort to shut down the service  along with other social media properties  will result. Thats on top of the possible class action litigation over false information tied to folks who now arent socially distancing.

Fast forward a year, and I doubt there will be a jury pool or judge that did not lose someone due to this false information being spread on social media. Since Facebook is at the heart of this issue and appears to have deep pockets, itll be an extremely attractive target, particularly given how poorly Zuckerberg does in testimony.

Discovery to Judgement

I was reminded last week of how advanced discovery tools had become when I was briefed by Celebrate, who has one of the newer class of AI-driven solutions. I expect internal emails, notes, and employee social media posts will showcase that a large number of Facebook employees have been concerned with the firms spread of false medical (and other) information. This information should build a case for intentional gross negligence that, in turn, will be tied to the historic death toll we are likely to see by year-end.

I, and other Facebook users, have been actively trying to fight this false information. But we dont have the tools or scale that Facebook enjoys, and when we lose loved ones, as a result, we are likely to make credible and motivational statements about Facebooks culpability.

Its not just the deaths directly connected to not wearing masks and socially distancing. Millions of people could become insolvent by the end of next month, suicides are on the rise and likely not to peak before year-end, and divorces are expected to spike in the coming months. A large percentage, if not most, of these outcomes, should be partially tied to the spread of critical false information on Facebook.

In short, once we can again open the courts, Facebook is on the shortlist of companies likely to be blamed for the avoidable severity of this pandemic. This outcome is not only because it had the power, but it failed to use it to stop the dissemination of false information, but Facebook will be shown to have profited from the spread.

Wrapping Up: Facebook Needs a New CEO

If Facebook doesnt step up to the challenge (and frankly it may be too late) of using the incredible power it has responsibly and for the good of its users, it is likely to be put down much like what may happen to TikTok.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Zuckerberg may find that even his extreme wealth isnt enough to cover the liability he has accrued. The company desperately needs a new face and better leadership to both fully utilize the potential of a social media platform at scale, and to assure it is a force for good  and not partially responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths and the millions of devastated people we are likely to be talking about by the end of 2020.

The firm needs to be run by someone trusted and trustworthy, and that isnt Mark Zuckerberg. Not even close.

I first got excited about video conferencing in the mid-60s after seeing the AT&T exhibit at Disneyland. The future was coming, and it sure as heck took a lot longer than anyone expected for this technology to catch on. With the pandemic, the need to replicate in-person meetings with video technology has become the go-to solution for most of us.

However, using your laptop to do a video call and also to do work is problematic because you are consuming your limited screen real estate for both note taking and the call itself. It makes multitasking, where you are listening to a meeting while catching up with your work, far more difficult. But if you take the call on separate hardware, like a phone, your laptop remains untouched, and you can continue to function much like you would with a hands-free phone call. That is what the Lenovo ThinkSmart View does.

Tied to Microsoft Teams, which is fast becoming the new enterprise standard for video collaboration; this is an affordable (US$349.99), easy-to-use device that is dedicated to video calls. Reviews by Microsoft Teams users have generally been positive. However, there have been issues with the camera placement being too low, and the lack of support for other collaboration platforms like Zoom or WebEx. (The video conferencing industry is on a 40-year whirlwind effort to improve interoperability.)

Lenovo ThinkSmart View

The ThinkSmart View is a first-generation product, but it did borrow from Lenovos impressive digital assistant design. You do need a business Teams license to use it properly and, while it has a great speaker, you may find pairing a set of headphones works better to both keep the background noise down and limit how much you annoy your spouse.

For the right user and business, the ThinkSmart View could be an ideal tool to connect remote employees more solidly with their teams and management. As a result, the ThinkSmart View is my product of the week.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ECT News Network.
US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar (L) and Taiwan's Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung display signed documents at the Central Epidemic Command Center in Taipei on Aug. 10, 2020. (Pei Chen/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

US, Taiwan Sign Landmark Agreement on Health Cooperation

TAIPEI, TaiwanU.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar credited Taiwans open and democratic system for successfully containing the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, while calling out Beijing for its past and present failures to contribute to global health.

Azar made the remarks at a press conference in Taipei on Aug. 10 while overseeing the signing of a landmark memorandum of understanding (MoU) to expand public health cooperation between Taiwan and the United States.

Azar is the highest-level U.S. cabinet official to visit the island since 1979the year the United States severed official diplomatic ties with the island in recognition of Beijing.

Joint Project

The MoU was signed by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the U.S. de-facto embassy on the island, and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the United Statesthe name for Taiwans de-facto embassy in the United States.

Congratulations to @MOHW_Taiwan & @HHSGov on boosting #Taiwan#US health cooperation! Were proud to play a part in realizing this potential-laden pact. Taiwan & the U.S. are like-minded partners utilizing shared values of freedom & democracy in building better tomorrows for all. https://t.co/uASJngojD1 pic.twitter.com/ih0OObcRk7   Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan)  (@MOFA_Taiwan) August 10, 2020

The MoU spans global health security, infectious disease prevention and control, and digital health, through cooperative programs, meetings, and personnel exchange, according to a press release by Taiwans Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW).

This MOU aims to enhance the health and wellbeing of people of Taiwan and the United States as well as promote global health security together, the MOHW stated.

Azar and his Taiwanese counterpart Chen Shih-chung also signed a statement reaffirming the two sides long-standing cooperation to address health challenges, including COVID-19.

As we look ahead to health threats in the future, the United States and Taiwan will continue to strengthen our cooperation on health, relying on the common sense goals of transparency and openness that define successful health efforts, Azar said at the press conference.

Currently, the United States maintains a robust, nondiplomatic relationship with Taiwan, and supplies the island with military weapons and equipment for its self-defense against Beijing, which has threatened to annex the self-ruled island by force.

Azars visit drew an angry response from China. On Aug. 6, two days after Azar announced his upcoming visit to Taiwan, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin condemned the visit and threatened firm countermeasures in response to the US wrong move at a daily briefing.

While it remains to be seen what countermeasures China might take, Beijing flew its fighter jets close to Taiwan on Monday morning.

Taiwans Air Force Command Headquarters stated that J-11 and J-10 fighter jets of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army Air Force briefly crossed Taiwan Straits medium line, the unofficial airspace boundary separating the two neighbors, at around 9 a.m. local time, before being driven away by Taiwanese military jets, according to a Taiwan government press release.

Taiwans air force headquarters said Chinas deliberate intrusion seriously undermined regional security and stability.

Since February, Beijing has flown jets close to Taiwan and held military exercises in an effort to put pressure on the islands current government headed by President Tsai Ing-wen, who has been promoting Taiwans successful response to the CCP virus, while sending personal protective equipment to governments around the world.

After much discussion about how Taiwans engagement with the world has angered China, maybe its about time we start talking about how Chinas ongoing military coercion anger Taiwan, escalate tensions and fuel instability in the region. https://t.co/r63L1QGB6T   Wang Ting-yu MP  (@MPWangTingyu) August 10, 2020

Taiwan had earned international accolades for its success in containing the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. As of Aug. 9, Taiwan has 480 confirmed COVID-19 cases and seven deaths, despite its close proximity (81 miles) to mainland China.

Beijing

When answering reporters questions at the press conference, Azar pointed out that Taiwan, though not a member of the World Health Organization (WHO), offered to donate $1 million to the WHO to help Congo fight its local Ebola outbreak.

However, at the direction of Beijing, the WHO refused this contribution, Azar said. The Chinese regime has sought to diminish Taiwans presence at international organizations by pressuring countries and agencies to recognize its claim of sovereignty over the island.

From 2009 to 2016, Taiwans health ministers took part in the World Health Assembly (WHA), the decision-making body of the WHO, as observers. But since 2017, Taiwan has been barred by China from taking part in the assembly or any WHO meetings.

Azar said he and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, under President Donald Trumps direction, have fought each year trying to restore Taiwans observer status at the WHA.

But the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the World Health Organization have prevented that, Azar said.

He continued: This has been one of the major frustrations that the Trump administration has had with the World Health Organization and its inability to reform.

The Trump administration formally withdrew from the WHO, which will go into effect on July 6, 2021.

So on behalf of President Trump, I am here to highlight the importance of Taiwan in the international public health communitythe contribution that it has made and can make, and of course, the close partnership and friendship between the United States and Taiwan, Azar said.

After the United States withdrawal from the WHO, it will find the appropriate vehicles to continue its support for global public health and will talk to Taiwan and other entities as we go forward, Azar added.

US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar (L) looks on as Taiwans President Tsai Ing-wen (R) speaks during his visit to the Presidential Office in Taipei on Aug. 10, 2020. (Pei Chen/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Before his press conference on Monday afternoon, Azar met with Tsai and held a joint press conference.

Tsai said on Twitter that she had a productive meeting with @SecAzar & the @HHSGov delegation.

She added: Thank you to @POTUS and @SecPompeo for supporting the #TaiwanModel & our international participation. Working together, we can prove that democracy is the best system to overcome global challenges.
Hospitalisation from coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Delhi have stayed above 3,000 since Thursday after registering a steady decline in the two preceding weeks, shows data from the daily health bulletins released by the Delhi government.

Clinicians in Covid-19 wards and hospital administrators say the spike in the number is both because hospitals are choosing to admit at-risk patients at an early stage of infection to save lives, and an increase in the number of patients from other states getting tested and treated in Delhi.

With over 1.3 lakh recoveries, 90% of those who were diagnosed with the infection have recovered, shows government data.

Over 90% of Corona patients in Delhi have now recovered. Only 7% cases are active now. Slowly and steadily, the people of Delhi are defeating Corona. #DelhiModel, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted on Monday.

More than 3,000 people with Covid-19 have been hospitalised in Delhi over the past five days -- the number had stayed below 3,000 for 11 days with the exception of July 29, when 3028 people were in hospitals. On July 28, 2,775 people with Covid-19 needed hospitalisation, the data shows.

On Monday, 3,115 Covid patients were in city hospitals. This accounted for 30% of the total active cases or those still living with the infection. The rest of the patients are either admitted to Covid Care Centres or are in home isolation.

This proportion has been on the rise since the first week of July when on average 21% of the active cases needed hospitalisation.

We are admitting people early on and taking them into the intensive care units (ICUs) before they start developing complications like multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. The referrals from other smaller centres or non-Covid hospitals are also happening in a timely manner. This has resulted in better outcomes for the Covid-19 patients, said Dr Suresh Kumar, medical director, of the 2,000-bed Lok Nayak hospital, which is Delhis biggest Covid-19 centre.

This could be one of the reasons for increase in the number of hospitalisations in the city, even as the number of active cases has remained around 10,000 for two weeks.

Another reason for the increase in the number of admissions is the influx of patients from the neighbouring states. We have started getting patients from Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and other parts of the NCR over the last week or so. Earlier, inter-state travel was restricted and we used to receive almost no Covd-19 patients from these areas, said Dr Kumar.

This is a trend observed by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences as well.

Yes, there has been an increase in the number of admissions, but not too much  at the trauma centre the numbers have gone up to about 160 from the average of 120. I dont think it is worrying but we need to keep our guards up. The numbers could be driven up by patients from neighbouring states being referred here or coming here over the last 10 days, which had almost stopped with restrictions on borders, difficulty in travelling, etc, said Dr DK Sharma, medical superintendent, All India Institute of Medical sciences (AIIMS) Delhi.

Earlier, the Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Sunday had said that about 35% beds earmarked for the treatment of Covid-19 in Delhi are occupied by patients from other states.

The number of hospitalisations in Delhi had peaked at just over 6,200 in the last week of June. The government had worked to ramp up the bed capacity by converting some government hospitals to Covid-19 only, asking all big hospitals in the city to reserve 20% of their bed capacity for the treatment of Covid-19 patients, linking hotels to hospitals, and creating temporary field hospitals with the help of the armed forces.

The increase in the hospitalisation rate is a very positive sign. I think people are now coming forward. Earlier, they were scared of going to hospitals and preferred to remain home unless absolutely necessary. This also shows that the protocols have become well-established and receptive  patients are no longer being referred from hospital to hospital or to other places to get tests etc, said Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the department of community medicine at Safdarjung hospital.

The other reason could be that patients from other states have started to come here for treatment. I have said it time and again that the travel restriction for patients from other states should be eased, especially now that so many beds are lying vacant in Delhi hospitals. We can help patients from UP and Haryana in a big way. The admissions are likely to go up as the number of cases is on the rise across the country, he said.

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By Trend

Turkmenistan and the United Kingdom have established new ties in sectors such as the creative economy, a foreign office spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the UK told Trend.

The spokesperson pointed out that the new ties were established despite the global challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

"We're committed to ensuring that the global recovery from coronavirus is green and sustainable, paving the way for future cooperation and sharing of expertise between the UK's well regarded Universities, Research & Development institutions and their counterparts in Turkmenistan," said the spokesperson.

Generally, the UK continues to work with Turkmenistan in a number of areas such as energy, education, agriculture and finance.

The UK continues to build on work by international organisations in Turkmenistan in human rights, good governance, and supporting local small and medium business enterprises (SMEs), added the spokesperson.

"The UK's engagement with these institutions has proven very effective in supporting steady reforms in the government and improving the business environment," noted the MFA.

The main Turkmen sectors of interest to the United Kingdom investors are oil, gas and chemicals. Also, the sides have a number of ongoing projects in particular in agricultural technology and the energy sectors.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Melbourne's sprawling urban fringe teems with these families. A snapshot is revealed in State Revenue Office data that shows between July 2017 and September 2019 almost 3200 first home owner grants were issued for dwellings in Hoppers Crossing, Tarneit and Truganina, and over 2500 in Craigieburn, Donnybrook, Kalkallo, Mickleham and Roxburgh Park. All of these households have young mortgages to go with their young families.

Young borrowers, who are the backbone of new outer suburban communities, do it financially harder in the first few years of their mortgage than at any other time of their lives. Having ploughed their savings into their new homes, they are frantically busy, typically raising two children, managing childcare and school costs and working two jobs to keep their life's dreams alive. Financial pressure is an everyday reality.

With each day that passes, particularly now in Melbourne, more young families edge closer to this fate. The mathematics of young mortgages are irrefutable. Repayments over the first few years are devoted to interest rather than principal. In a loan of $450,000 at a fixed rate of 4.5 per cent for the first three years, a common enough mortgage in 2017 and 2018, repayments of almost $70,000 over the first 2 years only reduces the balance by around $20,000.

At the heart of Australia's COVID-19 crisis lies remorseless mathematical certainty. The geometric growth potential of virus transmission is well enough understood even though acknowledgement of the behavioral restrictions required to combat it are vigorously debated. Less well appreciated is the certainty that home loan repayment deferral, a necessity for many young Australian families in early 2020, will lead to loan book impairment and far worse in late-2020. As estimates of house price deterioration grow, more and more young borrowers will find themselves in the dreadful position of negative equity, a precursor to losing their homes.

Financially, COVID-19 is hitting, or about to hit this constituency like a cyclone. The impacts of the virus are being disproportionately felt in the north and the west of Melbourne, home to most of the city's new suburbs. And coinciding with the virus is a housing downturn, this week's AMP estimate of a 10-20 per cent fall the most alarming yet. Newer suburbs are built on new mortgages which afford limited time for stretched borrowers to build up any buffer. The mathematics of mortgages mean families who borrowed three years ago and opted for the full deferral in March are already pretty much back to where they started. Increasing debt and falling house prices are the harbinger of an acceleration to negative equity for many young families.

Which brings us to the Australian Bankers Association initiated loan deferral option, the right thing to do back in March when expectations were that the COVID-19 crisis might pass quickly. Shepherding borrowers to safer ground when the crisis was believed temporary made sense then but now that we recognise there is no quick fix, that safe ground risks becoming quicksand. Hopefully, the ANZ's announcement last week it will "flex" with customers unable to resume payments is a sign that our biggest lenders are focused on the looming catastrophe. The alternative is unpalatable. Who would want to be a bank hardship team member having to persuade distressed borrowers that their "best" option is to sell their home into a falling market? Perhaps our banks understand customers as well as they understand another truism of this moment, namely that foreclosing on properties in new suburbs will rapidly push prices down in those suburbs, thus amplifying the bank's losses.

And hopefully banks understand another harsh truth. With children to feed and bills to pay but bleak prospects in locked-down Melbourne of finding more work, selling now will likely forever deny these families, who have done nothing to deserve the fate that creeps closer to them, the chance to ever get back into the housing market.

ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott's statement is welcome but surely is a preliminary step to a solution yet to be articulated. Australia's banks and the federal government that oversees them need to grasp the nettle. Loan repayment deferral bought time but if its only effect is to postpone a moment of reckoning to a time when COVID-19's various impacts guarantees houses will be sold at a loss and hard-earned savings of young families wiped out, then what has been the point? Will it once again be a case of banks taking minimal losses while a significant group of their customers are forced to carry major life-shaping losses?

Banks need to be using the next few weeks to find a viable medium-term strategy because it is only a matter of weeks before a new and ugly chapter of COVID-19 impacts is written. Some form of unconventional response is required that addresses both the rising risk of loan book impairment and the risk of young Australian families, through no fault of their own, being permanently cast out of the housing market. It may require the federal government to go so far as to offer struggling home owners the option of shared ownership, an arrangement in which the federal government effectively buys a share in their property on the understanding it will hold that share as equity for as long as it takes until the crisis has passed and housing prices are restored. It may require something else. But it certainly requires more than business as usual based on the cruel and certain mathematics of mortgages.
Alabama anglers will get another shot at red snapper. An Alabamian wrote the scientific paper almost 20 years ago that gave Perseverance its destination on Mars. Summers scorching sting continues, with the only relief coming from afternoon rains.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 11)  President Rodrigo Duterte warned that he would get rid of officials of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) who would be found liable for acts of corruption.

"Itong PhilHealth, sabi ko yayariin ko kayo, maniwala kayo. Iyong mga inosente naman, wala kayong dapat i-ano, tahimik lang kayo at continue working, Duterte said in his weekly address on Monday night.

[Translation: With PhilHealth, I will go after you all. Believe me. Those who are innocent have nothing to worry about, just stay silent and continue working.]

The President added corrupt PhilHealth officials might have evaded prosecution for their wrongdoings during previous administrations, but vowed he would go after them.

Kung nakalusot kayo sa ibang president, sa akin sadsad kayo, warned Duterte, who said he will check with Commission on Audit on the real figures of alleged irregularities in PhilHealth.

[Translation: If you got away with other president, you cannot escape with me.]

Duterte delivered a tough stance against corruption after the state health insurance agency got hounded anew in alleged irregularities.

Key whistleblower Thorrsson Montes Keith, former anti-fraud legal officer of PhilHealth, accused key officials of stealing 15 billion from the agency using different fraudulent schemes. The amount covers the unauthorized release of interim reimbursement mechanisms, funds allocated for "fortuitous events" such as the pandemic, to hospitals that have not yet recorded COVID-19 cases.

PhilHealth board member Alejandro Cabading revealed the agency's President and CEO Ricardo Morales endorsed the 'bloated' allocations for the agencys IT expenses, even if some items were not approved by the Department of Information and Communications Technology.

Some of the overpriced software and equipment include 21 million for Adobe Master Collection software, 42 million for identity management software, 21 million for office productivity software, and 25 million for application server, virtualization licenses and support maintenance.

Last August 7, Duterte ordered the creation of an inter-agency task force to investigate the corruption issues in PhilHealth. The task force is composed of the Department of Justice, Office of the Ombudsman, Commission on Audit, Civil Service Commission, Office of the Executive Secretary, Undersecretary Jesus Melchor Quitain of the Office of the Special Assistant to the President and the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission.

The President said he will not fire Morales from his post, unless there is evidence he is involved in corruption in the agency. Morales, who was appointed by Duterte in June 2019 with a mandate to end corrupt practices in the agency, denied all the accusations thrown against him.

Both the Senate and the House of Representatives began their respective investigations into the beleaguered state health insurance agency. The Senate probe resumes on Tuesday.
By choice, I am Canadian  a proud Canadian. But I will always be a child of Lebanon.

I was four years old when Lebanons civil war began. By the time it finally ended, I was a man. My country was unrecognizable to me and to the world, its potential snuffed out, its people burdened by loss.

The explosion at the Port of Beirut is yet another moment of intense grief in a half-century of tragedy and misfortune. Countless Lebanese are now homeless. Food is in short supply. Some hospitals are devastated; others are running low on even the most basic supplies. Many of the services and structures required for recovery are themselves damaged or destroyed.

Those responsible  those whose indifference or incompetence led directly to this catastrophe  must pay a grave price. But that is beyond our reach as Canadians. Our role must be that of friend and helper. Our sentiment must be that of empathy and support. Lebanon is on its knees.

I am part of the Lebanese Canadian Coalition, a newly formed group of business leaders who on Friday announced an urgent national campaign to raise money to help the people of Lebanon. We hope the federal government will match the donations of Canadians.

So far, the government has pledged up to $5 million in humanitarian assistance. Crucially, this contribution will be directed to trusted partners  such as the Lebanese Red Cross  rather than the government of Lebanon, which for decades has been defined by cronyism and ineptitude. Our coalition will also be donating directly to NGOs on the ground in Beirut. Its the best way to deliver assistance that makes a real difference.

Lebanon was a country in crisis long before this latest disaster. Power outages, water shortages, limited heath care. A fragile banking system. A failing economy. People had been protesting in the streets against the government. They had had enough of a political class that, time and again, demonstrated both its incompetence and its corruption  but somehow never managed to defeat the spirit of the Lebanese people.

Indeed, even in the midst of this latest disaster, there were heartening stories of kindness and generosity  of people helping strangers, tending to the wounded, answering the call of need.

I wasnt surprised to hear this. Lebanon shaped me as a person. The wisdom I gleaned from the older people in my little village. The lessons I learned on the streets of Beirut. My religion, which taught me kindness and good faith toward friends and strangers alike. My work ethic, inspired by seeing how my Lebanese family and friends never gave up, no matter the hardship.

The people of Lebanon are resilient. They have to be. They do not give in. I can promise you: They will work tirelessly to rebuild. If we help them, they will succeed. They will recover.

But in my heart, I dream of something more than a recovery for Lebanon. I dream of a rebirth.

A little more than a half-century ago, Lebanon was a cosmopolitan beacon. It had a prosperous economy. It was a popular tourism destination. Some called it the Switzerland of the Middle East.

Fifty years of corruption and conflict have taken their toll. But crisis can bring change. Perhaps this can be the moment when the world helps Lebanon to its feet  and the people of Lebanon, Muslim and Christian alike, walk together toward a more promising future.

Today, even as I weep for friends and family affected by the port explosion, I dream of a Lebanon that is once more a land of opportunity. A country where people are appreciated and rewarded because of their skills, their ideas and their work ethic. A place where leaders are chosen and valued for their service to community and country, not for their family name or connections.

I dream of a Lebanon that is spoken of once more in tones of wonder, not of sorrow or pity.

This is a dream. But sometimes, even in the face of challenge and chaos, even amid pain and disarray, dreams can come true.
She enjoyed a sun-soaked getaway to the Canary Islands in July.

And Zara McDermott was clearly feeling nostalgic on Sunday night as she shared a sultry throwback snap from Fuerteventura, Spain.

The Love Islander, 23, showcased her ample cleavage in a PrettyLittleThing black bikini for her racy Instagram post.

Sultry! Zara McDermott was clearly feeling nostalgic on Sunday night as she shared a sultry throwback snap from Fuerteventura, Spain

She posed up a storm on the idyllic beach and placed her hands against her ample assets as she smiled in the sultry snap.

Zara's brunette tresses were moistened from the ocean water and strewn perfectly across the golden sand.

She showcased her flawless complexion and radiant glow with a makeup-free look.

As well as Fuerteventura, Zara recently returned from a romantic break in Mykonos, Greece, with her beau Sam Thompson.

Beach babe: The Love Islander, 23, showcased her ample cleavage in a PrettyLittleThing black bikini for her racy Instagram post

Zara revealed she's been having plenty of 'amazing dinners' with her boyfriend during the lockdown as the pair have similar taste.

She said: 'I put on a few pounds when I was in Mykonos, which is not the worst thing in the world.'

'But we do always eat similar foods and we eat a lot of protein,' added the brunette beauty, who revealed that she works out three to four times a week.

Last week, Sam was delighted when Zara arranged a lavish 28th birthday bash for him on a boat in London, after which she proudly shared the stunning details.

Holiday! As well as Fuerteventura, Zara recently returned from a romantic break in Mykonos, Greece, with her beau Sam Thompson

Happy couple: The Made In Chelsea couple have been spending lockdown together and have been feasting on amazing meals after Zara moved in with Sam earlier this year

The media personality declared how 'proud' she was of herself for pulling off the Spanish-themed party complete with 'personalised cocktails' and a 'tapas dinner'.

Zara shared a collection of snaps from the boat including blue and gold balloon arches, branded with 'Sam turns 28', and a lavish table complete with flower arrangements and cocktails.

The Love Island contestant tagged the businesses in the Instagram post, including a private chef and bespoke cake company, for helping her organise the birthday bash.
A day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi described the draft environment impact assessment (EIA) as a disaster and urged people to protest against it, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Monday that those raising objections to the draft (EIA notification are the same people who took big decisions without consultations when they were in power.

Saw reaction of some leaders demanding protest against the EIA draft. How can they protest against the draft? It is not a final notification. It was kept for public consultation for 150 days because of Covid-19. Otherwise it is only 60 days as per rules, PTI quoted him as saying after an event to celebrate World Elephant Day.

Javadekar said the environment ministry has received thousands of suggestions which it will consider before coming out with the final draft.

We have received thousands of suggestions which we welcome. We will consider those suggestions. Then take a call and come out with the final draft. So people jumping just on the draft is not fair practice. Those who want to now protest, took many of the big decisions without consultations during their regime. It is unnecessary and premature. I have mentioned it in my letter to (Congress leader and former Union minister) Jairam Ramesh, he said.

It (Gandhis comment on EIA and demanding protests) is unnecessary and premature, Javadekar said.

On Sunday, Gandhi had tweeted, This EIA 2020 draft is a disaster. It seeks to silence the voice of communities who will be directly impacted by the environmental degradation it unleashes. I urge every Indian to rise up and protest against it.

The Congress leader has also called for its withdrawal, saying it will lead to further environmental destruction and looting.

EIA 2020 draft must be withdrawn to stop the loot of the nation and environmental destruction, Gandhi said.

Congress MP Jairam Ramesh who heads the Parliamentary standing committee on science and technology, environment, forests and climate change, technology has been one of the strongest critics of the draft EIA.

On Monday, ahead of Javadekars comments, he said the draft EIA loosens pollution standards for thermal power plants, dilutes coastal regulation zone and opens up the western ghats in a substantial manner in an eco-sensitive area among other things

He accused the government of adopting double standards on environmental issues.

Globally, you want to assume the role of being an environmental leader but domestically, what you are doing is diluting all the laws that we have, Ramesh said.

In our desire for faster economic recovery from this current crisis, land laws and environmental laws will become the biggest casualties, he warned.
B oris Johnson has said the police should treat people with fairness and equality after Labour MP Dawn Butler accused officers of racially profiling.

The former shadow equalities minister was a passenger in her friend's BMW on Sunday when she stopped by Metropolitan Police officers in Hackney, east London.

Ms Butler, who recorded a video of the incident, said she and her friend, who is also black, had been pulled over simply for "being black and driving a nice car".

Scotland Yard said the stop was a result of an officer having incorrectly entered the cars registration plate into a computer to wrongly identify it as a vehicle registered to Yorkshire, but did not explain why the search was carried out in the first place.

Dawn Butler has accused the Metropolitan Police of 'institutional racism' / Sky News

Speaking during a visit to a school in east London, the Prime Minister said: The police have made a statement saying that they made a mistake.

They have spoken to the occupants of the car but its obviously very, very important that the Met continue to do everything that they can  as indeed they do  to show that they are serving every part of our country, every part of our community, with fairness and equality.

But Downing Street said Mr Johnson did not share Ms Butlers view that the Metropolitan Police is institutionally racist.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said: No, I dont think the PM would take that view of the Metropolitan Police.

Labour MP Dawn Butler accuses Metropolitan Police of racially profiling her after car stop

The Met, like police forces across England and Wales, are working very hard tackling issues such as knife crime and drugs.

Ms Butler responded, saying: The problem is that currently every part of the community is not being served with fairness and equality.

The police are policing not on intelligence or reasonable suspicions, they are using bias and they are stereotyping and they are making assumptions. That is not helping society and it is also not helping communities that we need to engage with.

Thats why its important that now is the time to get the work done to ensure that the recommendations from the Macpherson report, 20 years on, are carried out to the full.

Dawn Butler: Cressida Dick needs to admit 'institutional racism'

Earlier today, Ms Butler said she had been the victim of racist trolls online after speaking out about the police stop.

Twitter users claimed that her friend, who was driving, was white. Ms Butler, the MP for Brent Central, in north west London, said this morning that was not the case.

Hitting back at a deluge of online abuse, she tweeted: Good morning twitter I see the racist trolls are going crazy with conspiracy theories.

Someone who claims to be an ex police officer is challenging me to a debate.

No need waste my time as Im speaking to current police officers. Working together to make the system better.

Ms Butler's footage of the stop showed an officer saying police were carrying out searches because of gang and knife crime.

Ms Butler told the officers: It is really quite irritating. Its like you cannot drive around and enjoy a Sunday afternoon whilst black, because youre going to be stopped by police.

In the video, one officer says the initial search returned a car of the same make, model and colour but registered to North Yorkshire. Ms Butler was sceptical of this, asking for the police to share the registration they initially searched for to see how it returned such a similar car.

This week Ms Butler was named by Vogue magazine as one of the 25 most influential women shaping 2020 for her support of Black Lives Matter protests.

She described her backing of the anti-racism movement as having led to threats of attack on her office and staff having drastically escalated.

A Scotland Yard statement said: Once the mistake was realised the officer sought to explain this to the occupants, they were then allowed on their way.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines Life)  As the city settles into another week under MECQ, you can immerse yourself in these events focused on music, film, and the arts.

Art in the Park 2020 Online

While this affordable art fair is unable to be held in its usual Legazpi Village location, Art in the Park 2020 will push through online throughout the week. A fresh selection of artworks will be uploaded daily for no less than 50,000 a piece, and part of the proceeds go towards the Museum Foundation of the Philippines, in support of its projects and programs for the National Museum of the Philippines and its network.

This years special exhibits include Isometric Ay! lah, lah, land by Vigan-based visual artist, Richard Quebral and Garapata Hatchery by Dex Fernandez, which will feature a large-scale paper mural for the virtual fair.

The fair will run from August 10 to 17. For a full list of the participating galleries and browse over 2600 works of art on their website.

Liberation Talks: The Aftermath of World War II

Gain a richer insight of our countrys past through the eyes of Dr. Ricardo Jose, Cecelia Gaerlan, and James Scott as they discuss the effects of World War II on Philippine culture and history. The talk will be held on August 15 from 8 to 10 a.m., to be followed by a Q&A portion moderated by Desiree Benipayo.

You can pre-register for Zoom access here.

CTM Festival X Club Matryoshka

Berlin-based music and multi-sensory platform CTM teams up with Manilas own Minecraft server, Club Matryoshka, to host a free music and arts event on August 15. Players can explore the esoteric Lebbeus Woods-inspired world, special-made for the occasion. International acts such as BADSISTA, Aquarian, and Slikback. They will be performing alongside local talents similarobjects, Teya Logos, and Haute Couture.

Registration for the playing experience is open until August 12 at 4 p.m. GMT here, the event will also be streamed on Twitch.

Disruptions by Richard Buxani

Visual artist Richard Buxani will be showcasing his metal sculpture works all month through Eskinita Art Gallery. While physical viewing is off-limits due to MECQ, you may make an appointment to view the exhibit online.

Disruptions is a selection of Philippine mythological creatures pre-COVID, which was then inspired by the anti-China and COVID-narratives during the pandemic.

The exhibit runs until August 25. You can make your booking through 0939 682 8088.

Cinemalaya Film Festival 2020

Film festival Cinemalaya has also shifted online via streaming platform Vimeo. Three ticket bundles are priced at 75, 150, 200, and 350 to access a different assortment of shorts, competition mains, and foreign selections. A Ricky Lee masterclass on storytelling is separately available.

Aside from the 10 films in competition and the short film exhibition, you can also watch films from Japan and Iran in the Visions of Asia section; 12 full-length Cinemalaya films from the previous editions such as 100, Engkwentro, and Ang Babae sa Septic Tank in the Retrospective; a tribute to Anita Linda; and a screening of the digitally restored Minsay Isang Gamu-Gamo.

Some of the free content include Visions of Asia shorts, Ricky Lee 4D (Class Reunion), Allied Festivals Shorts and the 2020 Cinemalaya Campus.

The film festival is a mix of paid and free premieres, and talks. More events are lined up for the coming week on their website until August 16.

Philippine history through the lens of local church architecture

Ecclesiasitcal Architecture specialist, Ar. Roy John De Guzman, invites casual audiences and aesthetes alike to take a deep dive into different architecture styles such as Baroque, Gothic, and Neo-Romanesque as interpreted through Filipino church design and craftsmanship. De Guzman will dissect how historical cues reveal themselves through details via Facebook Live on August 15, 6:30 p.m.

Registration to the talk can be accessed through this link.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian sent a congratulatory message to President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on the occasion of being re-elected.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Presidents Office, the message runs as follows,

I cordially congratulate you on being re-elected President of the Republic of Belarus.

I am confident that the multi-dimensional cooperation between Armenia and Belarus will continue to successfully develop on bilateral and multilateral formats for the benefit of the peoples of our countries.

President Sarkissian wished Lukashenko health, success and all the best, and peace, stability and prosperity to the friendly people of Belarus.
<! Health workers attending to a COVID-19 patient >

World COVID-19 cases surpassed the 20 million mark on Sunday night, as three of the worst hit countries also hit grim milestones of their own.

According to worldometers.info, total confirmed cases were tallied at 20,016,286, with the death toll also estimated at 733,592.

The United States, Brazil and India account for more than 50 percent of the cases.

Several Latin American countries, such as Mexico are also responsible for the exponential growth in COVID-19 cases.

India crossed the 2million mark on Friday. And in 72 hours, it has logged in over 200,000 additional cases.

Its national tally is now 2,214,137 cases, with 62,117 cases recorded on Sunday.

India also has fatalities standing at 44, 466, the fifth worst national record.

The United States with the worlds largest COVID-19 cases of 5,199,444 on Sunday night, also has the worlds worst death record of 165, 417, according to worldometers.info.

Brazil which hit 3,035,582 cases on Sunday, is second to the United States in death toll and accumulated cases.

As of Sunday, its death tally was 101,136.

Brazil reported 23,010 new cases and 572 deaths from the disease caused by the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Sunday.

U.S. grim milestone comes as President Donald Trump signed executive orders intended to provide economic relief to Americans hurt by the coronavirus pandemic after the White House failed to reach a deal with Congress.

Dr. Anthony Fauci told Reuters on Wednesday there could be at least one vaccine that works and is safe by year-end.

But Trump offered a more optimistic view, saying it was possible the United States would have a coronavirus vaccine by the time of the Nov. 3 presidential election.

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The new rule eliminates the AFFHs prior regulations and assessment tools and replaces them with a self-certification in which any action related to fair housing is sufficient. It also eliminates language requiring steps to enhance housing opportunities for people with disabilities to live in the most integrated setting appropriate.

A home, either rented or owned, is the cornerstone of independence, Peter Berns, CEO of The Arc, said in an emailed statement. Living as independently as possible and being part of a community are crucial for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, but HUDs new rule could result in many people with disabilities continuing to be stuck in or forced into institutional settings, into housing that is substandard or unsafe, instead of a life they choose in the community.

The Arc is just the latest group to blast the rollback of the Obama-era rule. In a letter sent last week to HUD Secretary Ben Carson, the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA) even questioned HUDs legal authority to change the rule.

In claiming unfettered regulatory power to undermine fair housing, the New AFFH Rule is a perfect storm of regressive social policy and a total disregard for the rule of law, the CLPHA wrote.

Kristen Clarke, the president and executive director of The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, called the rollback an attempt to drag America back into the Jim Crow era of racial segregation.
Mexico City, Mexico -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/10/2020 -- Bussines Seeker is a Mexico based family owned and operated business that has proudly announced the launch of an all-new and effective face shield with the outstanding properties of copper to protect people against COVID-19. Known as CSC01 Copper Shield, this ultimate face mask has high durability and offers a wide range of features that make it an effective protection against the pandemic and other diseases.



In addition, Bussines Seeker has recently launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to introduce this shield to the world, and it is welcoming generous community support. Moreover, CSC01 is an adjustable face shield that is made with recyclable and biodegradable materials, which protect the users from contamination and particles that they could come into contact with.



"In this elegant and beautiful copper shield, we are offering a wide range of advantages and benefits, but the biggest benefit is that it is washable and reusable and has no filters that need any replacement." Said the spokesperson of Bussines Seeker, while introducing this project to the Kickstarter community.



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Brussels, Aug 10 : European Council President Charles Michel has urged an independent investigation into the cause of the two deadly explosions in the Port of Beirut last week that killed 158 people and injured over 6,000 others.

"What struck me most yesterday was the need for confidence, the need for trust and the need to know the truth," Xinhua news agency quoted Michel as saying on Sunday while addressing the international conference on assistance and support to Beirut.

He was referring to his visit to the damaged site in the Lebanese capital on Saturday.

"The people in Lebanon want to know the truth, they deserve transparency and justice. An independent and credible inquiry into the cause of this tragedy is therefore crucial," he added.

Michel also mentioned that the bloc has offered 33 million euros ($38 million) as an initial aid, and pledged on Sunday an additional amount of 30 million euros to address the urgent needs.

Some 300 experts from the EU and its member states have been deployed on the ground in Lebanon, providing help in search and rescue, chemical assessment and medical treatment.

In a separate development on Sunday, Lebanese environment minister Demianos Kattar submitted his resignation, just hours after Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad stepped down from his post.

A number of MPs also submitted their resignations a day earlier due to the explosions that also destroyed a big part of the city.

Also on Sunday, thousands of protesters took to the streets in Beirut for a second consecutive day demonstrating against the government.

On Saturday, more than 700 protesters were wounded in clashes with riot police who used tear gas and live bullets in a bid to disperse crowds.
Jimmy Lai, a newspaper publisher and critic of China's authoritarian rule, is arrested by police at his Hong Kong home Monday. (Associated Press)

Media tycoon Jimmy Lai, an outspoken supporter of Hong Kongs pro-democracy protests, was arrested Monday along with his sons and several colleagues at the Apple Daily newspaper. It was a shocking assertion of China's power over the city's long-cherished media freedoms  and a chilling turning point for its independent journalists.

In a dramatic raid, more than 100 police officers swooped into the Apple Daily newsroom, cordoned off cubicles and rifled through papers on desks. Reporters were ordered to stand against a wall. Stop filming! an officer barked at one who continued to livestream the raid as it happened.

The arrest of Lai is the highest profile so far under a sweeping new national security law imposed by Beijing on semiautonomous Hong Kong. Lai, 71, was taken from his home with his sons and then marched through Apple Dailys newsroom with his hands cuffed behind his back.

Outside, police barred several journalists for local and foreign outlets from getting near the building, reportedly saying that only those who had cooperated with police operations in the past would be allowed in. Even state-funded public broadcaster RTHK, which was recently forced to cancel a satirical program that poked fun at government policies, was blocked from entering the building.

This is the stuff of authoritarian dictatorships," said Keith Richburg, director of the Journalism and Media Studies Center at the University of Hong Kong. "This should give lie to the claims that the new national security law is all about protecting Hong Kong from external threats and would only target a tiny number of people.... This is a dark day for Hong Kong,

Police said in a statement that as of Monday evening they had arrested 10 people, whose names were not disclosed, on suspicion of breaching the national security law with offenses including collusion with a foreign country or external elements. Along with Lai and his two sons, several senior executives at Next Digital, Apple Dailys parent company, were arrested during the newsroom raid.

Story continues

Also among the 10 arrested were a freelance videographer and two pro-democracy activists, including Agnes Chow, who was arrested at her home Monday evening, according to local news reports. Chow, 23, was a co-leader of Demosisto, a political party that grew out of the student groups at the vanguard of 2014's pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. Demosisto disbanded hours after the national security law was passed.

Chow wrote online earlier Monday that several groups of what appeared to be officers in plainclothes had been following her and standing outside her house in shifts in recent days.

Inside the Apple Daily newsroom, the papers chief editor, Law Wai-kwong, confronted police, asking for their search warrant. They pushed him away. One officer pointed a finger in Law's face, shouting that he could be arrested as well.

Many of Apple Dailys reporters were working from home Monday morning and knew what was happening in their newsroom only by watching the livestream by one of their co-workers, said Alex Lam Wai-chung, a reporter at the paper and a spokesman for Next Media Trade Union, the staff union at Next Digital.

It felt like an invading army approaching a castle, he said.

Employees watched as hundreds of officers came out of cars surrounding their building, ignored their chief editor's protests and went through the documents on their desks. The search warrant police eventually produced stated that they did not have the right to search journalistic materials, but they still did so, Lam said.

Police said they carted away 25 boxes of evidence.

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong condemned Lai's arrest and the raid, as well as the police force's blocking of selected media outlets from coverage.

"If the police are allowed to decide who counts as a legitimate journalist, it will mark the end of press freedom in Hong Kong, and no critical coverage [will be] available to the public," the club said in a statement. "Instead of the free flow of information, Hong Kong will have only propaganda."

Meanwhile, another police squad searched and confiscated items from a restaurant belonging to one of Lais sons, ignoring questions from reporters as to whether they were national security police and had a warrant.

Also Monday morning, local news outlet the Standard reported that a new section had been quietly set up in Hong Kong's immigration department to review foreign journalists visa applications. Foreign press have traditionally reported freely in Hong Kong, but several outlets have reportedly experienced unusual delays in receiving visas for correspondents in recent months.

Lai has been vilified in Chinese state media as one of a new Gang of Four who supposedly colluded with the United States to foment the mass protests against police brutality and Beijings influence that have rocked Hong Kong since last summer. On Monday night, the Chinese government issued a statement applauding the arrests and calling Lai a "representative figure" of "anti-China, chaos-creating elements in Hong Kong that collude with foreign forces."

Lai met with Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo last year to discuss a proposed extradition bill that initially sparked the protests. But there is no evidence that the U.S. government instigated or directed the protests, as Chinese officials have claimed.

Lai was arrested twice this year over his participation in unauthorized protests in 2019. He was additionally charged last week alongside young democracy activist Joshua Wong and more than 20 others for participating in a banned vigil June 4 to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

The national security law was passed June 30 and imposes a maximum punishment of life imprisonment for what it deems as secessionist, subversive or terrorist activity, or collusion with foreign forces. It is not supposed to apply retroactively, according to Hong Kong officials.

Hong Kong-based lawyer Antony Dapiran said the seeming retroactive application of the law to arrest Lai was shocking, as was the targeting of his sons and business associates.

This hearkens back to the sort of classical imperial Chinese punishments which were given for ones family members, he said.

Dapiran said the arrest could be part of an escalating tit-for-tat between Beijing and Washington. Last week, the U.S. government announced sanctions against high-ranking Hong Kong and Chinese officials, including Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam.

On Monday, China's Foreign Ministry announced that it would sanction 11 U.S. officials and leaders of human rights organizations, including Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), in retaliation for the U.S. sanctions announced last week. Beijing had already slapped entry restrictions on several of the officials previously in retaliation for U.S. sanctions on Chinese officials over human rights abuses in Xinjiang in China's northwest, where hundreds of thousands of Muslim Uighurs have been detained in camps.

President Trump also signed executive orders last week banning transactions with Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat. The U.S. and China have recently closed each others consulates in Houston and Chengdu and clashed over journalist and student visas, tech, trade, Xinjiang and the South China Sea.

Dapiran said the arrest could also be a distraction from U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azars arrival in Taiwan on Sunday, a move widely criticized by Beijing, which does not recognize Taiwans government and has blocked it from membership in the World Health Organization and other United Nations bodies. Azar is the most senior U.S. official to visit the island since Washington and Beijing established diplomatic ties 41 years ago.

Monday's arrests and raid on Apple Daily were a step toward bringing Hong Kongs press more in line with that of the mainland, where news media are tightly controlled by the Communist Partys propaganda department. Chinese President Xi Jinping has told Chinese media that they should take Party as their last name.

Mainland journalists are also required to download and regularly score points on an app called Study Xi, Strong Nation that quizzes users on "Xi Jinping Thought." The app has been proven able to access messages, photos, contacts and internet history, and activate audio recorders in Android users phones.

Lam, the Apple Daily reporter, was stunned by the police incursion into his newsroom.

Nobody has seen anything like this in Hong Kong in the past 10 or 20 years. It was a large-scale raid by law enforcement on a news organization, he said. We think the police operation was meant to intimidate the media.

Police had cordoned off part of the Apple Daily reporters working area, Lam said, but journalists were requesting access to reenter the building and continue their work. His colleagues outside the building were also reporting and writing.

We have our responsibility to do what we do, he said.

Next Digital, the newspaper's parent company, issued a statement accusing the Beijing government of believing it could take Hong Kong "down the path of autocracy. Hong Kong's press freedom is now hanging by a thread, but our staff will remain fully committed.... Apple Daily shall fight on."

Su reported from Shanghai and Pierson from Singapore. Special correspondent Rachel Cheung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
Rates of flu and colds have plummeted 'well below average' during the coronavirus crisis thanks to lockdown and social distancing, data suggests.

Incidence of bronchitis and other viral infections, including laryngitis and tonsillitis, are also much lower than would be expected at this time of year.

A report by the Royal College of GPs, collected from 500 GP practices in England, shows rates for these viruses fell drastically when the Government launched a hygiene advertising blitz in early March.

People were urged to keep two metres apart from others and wash and sanitise their hands thoroughly weeks before the country was locked down on March 24.

While the main purpose of this was stopping coronavirus, it has also prevented the spread of other viruses, too.

For example, just four people per 100,000 visited a doctor with a common cold per week last month - 10 times fewer than the average for the time of year.

Around nine people per 100,000 were diagnosed with the lung infection bronchitis every week this July, compared to around 50 per 100,000 who catch it normally.

There is always a drop in flu-like illnesses during the warmer months but the latest figures show that fewer than one person per 100,000 were going to their doctor with flu symptoms each week last month.

In any given year, doctors can normally expect to see up to four times as many as this in a typical week in July.

Professor Martin Marshall, chair of the RCGP, said the Covid-19-blocking measures introduced by the Government were having the unintended benefit of shutting out a range of other respiratory viruses and easing pressure on the NHS.

But he added that some of the fall in numbers may have come from people avoiding the NHS out of fear of catching Covid-19.

Rates of the common cold plummeted in March (week 12) when Just four people per 100,000 visited a doctor with a common cold per week last month - 10 times fewer than the five-year average (in blue)

Fewer than one person per 100,000 were going to their doctor with symptoms of the flu each week last month

Around nine people per 100,000 were diagnosed with the lung infection bronchitis every week this July, compared to around 50 per 100,000 who catch it normally

Professor Martin Marshall, chair of the RCGP, said the Covid-19-blocking measures were having the unintended effect of shutting out a range of other respiratory viruses

Professor Marshall told The Guardian: 'The social distancing measures we have seen over the last few months and an increased public emphasis on maintaining good hygiene have probably played their part.

'But we also know that some patients have been reluctant to use the NHS during Covid-19 because they haven't wanted to overburden services at a time of crisis or are afraid of catching the virus.'

UK could face 120,000 hospital deaths this winter from second Covid-19 wave in 'worst-case scenario' More than 120,000 Britons could die from Covid-19 in hospital this winter, ministers have been warned. Leading academics were asked to predict a 'reasonable worst-case scenario' of how a second wave of coronavirus could hit Britain by Number 10's chief scientist Sir Patrick Vallance. The group  from the Academy of Medical Sciences  found 3,000 people may die every day in hospitals during the worst of the outbreak in December and January. They modelled what would happen if the UK's R rate  the average number of people each Covid-19 patient infects  climbed to 1.7. Data suggested 119,900 Covid-infected patients would die in NHS hospitals between September and next June, if the virus sees a resurgence this winter. But the report did not look at care home deaths, which have accounted for a third of the near-45,000 lab-confirmed coronavirus deaths so far. The group of 37 experts behind the report said the combination of Covid-19 and flu, as well as a huge backlog of patients on waiting lists, could overwhelm the NHS. And the academics called for urgent action, saying now presents a 'critical window' to help us prepare for 'the worst that winter can throw at us'. Advertisement

Professor Marshall said that the number of people using their GP was starting to return to normal levels and warned that rates of the viruses were starting to creep up.

He said this highlights the importance of maintaining good hygiene to protect against all infections during winter when Covid-19 is expected to make a resurgence.

Professor Paul Hunter, an epidemiologist at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline it was 'highly unlikely' there would be a severe winter epidemic of flu because even the limited Covid-19 rules in place were enough to suppress the influenza virus.

Britons legally have to wear masks on public transport and in shops, keep at least a metre apart from others in indoor settings and a lot of the workforce are still working from home.

Keith Neal, an emeritus professor in the epidemiology of infectious diseases at the University of Nottingham, echoed Professor Hunter's comments.

He told the Guardian: 'Even if we reduce social distancing by only 10 per cent and we have done a lot more than that, then you would expect 10 per cent less transmission of coughs and colds.

'It's impossible to say exactly what is going to happen. If people don't mix as much you will expect less of these coughs and cold type of minor illnesses. We're already seeing in Australia, which is in their winter, that they are having very little flu compared to previous years.'

Other expects have been less optimistic. A report commissioned by the Government's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, found there could be 120,000 Covid deaths this winter in a 'reasonable worst-case scenario' if the country is hit with a severe flu season at the same time as a second wave of Covid.

Last month, Health Secretary Matt Hancock hinted the UK was preparing for 'the biggest flu vaccination programme in history' on the back of the report.

Currently, the vaccine is offered on the NHS to everyone at high risk of flu  those over 65 or people who have health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, and pregnant women.

Children aged two to ten are offered the flu vaccine  given as a nasal spray  not because they suffer severe symptoms, but because they carry and spread the disease to other family members.

Inoculation is particularly effective in children. Last year it was found to offer protection in almost 90 per cent of cases, compared with just 39 per cent effectiveness in working-age adults.

While no official word has been given about extending the flu programme, insiders have said over-50s are a likely target as this is the age when coronavirus risk begins to mount.

Last month, Downing Street said Ministers were trying to secure a 'significant additional supply' of vaccines so more people could be made eligible for a free injection.
Media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, founder of Apple Daily (C) is detained by the national security unit in Hong Kong on Aug. 10, 2020. (Reuters/Tyrone Siu)

Worst Fears: Arrest of Hong Kong Media Mogul Jimmy Lai Draws International Condemnation

Hong Kong polices arrest of media tycoon Jimmy Lai under the citys new national security law has drawn condemnation from officials and activists around the world, who say the move was an attack on press freedom and snuffed out the territorys dwindling autonomy.

Lai, a strident critic of the Chinese communist regime, was arrested on Aug. 10, along with his two sons, on allegations of collusion with foreign forces. Later that day, more than 200 police officers raided the newsroom of Lais newspaper Apple Daily, the largest pro-democracy outlet in the city.

Several other media and pro-democracy figures were also arrested Monday, including prominent activist Agnes Chow. Police later said 10 peoplenine men and one womanwere arrested, without naming them.

Lais arrest bears out the worst fears that Hong Kongs National Security Law would be used to suppress critical pro-democracy opinion and restrict press freedom, said Steven Butler, the Committee to Protect Journalists Asia program coordinator.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a tweet that he was deeply troubled by the arrest, which was [f]urther proof that the CCP has eviscerated Hong Kongs freedoms and eroded the rights of its people, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.

The UK government said the arrests were further evidence of the national security law being used as a pretext to silence opposition. Hong Kong was a former British colony until the territory was handed back to China in 1997.

Hong Kong authorities have cracked down on pro-democracy elements in the city since the national security law came into effect last month. The law punishes any actions Beijing considers subversion, secession, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison. Prior to the laws implementation, Beijing and the Hong Kong government said that it would only be used against a small minority of criminals, and would not impinge on the citys freedoms.

Since July, popular protest slogans have been outlawed and pro-democracy candidates were disqualified from running in legislative elections. Later, the government said the election would be postponed for a year, citing the pandemic as the reason for the delay. Before Monday, 15 people, including teenagers, had been arrested under the new law.

The Chinese regime applauded Lais arrest.

A spokesman for Chinas Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office told state-run media Xinhua that Lai was representative of people who were anti-China, anti-Hong Kong, and that he planned and instigated illegal protests, funded pro-independence forces, and used his media group to spread rumors. The Chinese regime has pushed the narrative that the mass protest movement ignited last year was fomented by foreign countries to incite chaos.

Lai, 71, had previously visited Washington, where he met officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, Pompeo, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to rally support for Hong Kong democracy.

Last week, the United States imposed sanctions on Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and 10 other Chinese and Hong Kong officials over their roles in subverting the citys freedoms through implementing the new law. Beijing retaliated on Monday by sanctioning 11 U.S. citizens, including federal lawmakers and heads of U.S.-based nonprofits and rights groups.

While the arrests and raid on Apple Daily have heightened fears that local press will face tightening controls under the new law, Hong Kong-based journalists said they would not be cowed.

We will continue to strive for the truth and report whats happening in Hong Kong without fear or favor, Jessie Pang, Hong Kong correspondent for Reuters, wrote in a tweet.

Hong Kong, which historically has had high levels of press freedoms, has seen a sharp decline in the media environment in recent years due to Beijings growing control over the city.

Apple Daily executive Chan Pui-man said the newspaper will continue to be published on Tuesday.

Even if Apple Daily publish a pile of blank paper tomorrow, we would go and buy a copy, prominent local activist Joshua Wong said on Twitter.

Reuters contributed to the report.
The quake occurred at 8:07 a.m., with an epicenter in Sparta, N.C.  near the Virginia border, and just north of Stone Mountain State Park  according to the U.S. Geological Society. But the quakes effects extended into much of the Southeast.
BEIRUT  Lebanon's government has resigned following a weekend of massive protests demanding justice for the victims of the Aug. 4 explosion in Beirut which left over 150 dead and thousands injured.

Under the slogan Judgment Day, thousands of protesters took to the streets of the Lebanese capital Aug. 8  from Riad al-Solh to Martyrs Square in the downtown area  calling for punishment of those responsible for the explosion of 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate in Warehouse 12 in the port of Beirut. The blast ripped through Beirut and destroyed a huge part of the port's surrounding neighborhoods  like Gemmayze, Mar Mikhael, Martyrs Square and Ashrafieh  killing hundreds and injuring more than 6,000 according to the latest figures released Aug. 8 by the Information Office of the Ministry of Public Health.

Protests continued into Sunday, with demonstrators demanding the fall of the government. The resignations of Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad and Environment Minister Damianos Kattar failed to quell demands.

Following a cabinet session held at the Grand Serail Monday, Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced in a televised speech that his government will resign. Diab said the blast was "the result of endemic corruption," and called for holding those responsbile to account. There are reports that Diab will stay on in a care-taker role until a new government is formed.

Throughout the weekend and into Monday, demonstrators had expressed their frustration with the political class. On Aug. 8, massive crowds protested in Lebanons streets due to the deteriorating living and economic conditions, and requesting justice following the catastrophic blast.

Ali Heidar, a political activist who has been participating in the popular protests that started Oct. 17, told Al-Monitor, [Saturday's] protest outweighed the Oct. 17 one because of protesters simmering, unprecedented rage since the October revolution.

He added, The main drive of yesterdays protest was peoples deep sense of the governments disdain for its people.

Fatat Ayad, a protester who took to the streets in October, told Al-Monitor, I took to the streets yesterday because I have nothing left to keep me home. I could have died in the explosion, which is a result of the governments corruption over 30 years.

She added, We  the people in the streets  have so much rage inside us, something I have never witnessed before. People have died because of the governments slackening and failure to play its role after the blast. We are protesting to ask the government to step down. I think we achieved something yesterday. We broke the taboo by hanging gallows in the square. We are back to tell the ruling class that we have not forgotten about it. Among the many campaigns that took center stage during the protest was one dubbed, Resign or Hang.

In the middle of Martyrs Square, symbolic gallows were hung to hold those responsible accountable for the port explosion and the rampant corruption in Lebanon. Photos of President Michel Aoun, parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Hassan Diab, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and President of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt, among other political figures, were hung from the ropes.

As soon as the protesters who flooded to the squares around 4 p.m. arrived, the security forces who were massively deployed with the army met them with force. Tear gas grenades and rubber bullets were hurled at the protesters.

Some protesters tried to raid the parliament building in downtown Beirut, and violent clashes erupted with the security forces.

The Lebanese Red Cross tweeted that the protest in Beirut wounded 238 people, 63 of whom were transferred to hospitals in the area, while 175 received treatment elsewhere. The Internal Security Forces confirmed that one of their members was killed in the clashes.

Notably, there was no internet connection or cellphone network in the square most of the time. It is unclear as to why, but some considered this an attempt to prevent broadcasting the image of the massive crowds in the squares.

Several protesters broke into the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ashrafieh neighborhood, including officers and military men, and they raised banners on which was written Beirut, City of Revolution and Disarmed Beirut, and proclaimed the ministry as their headquarters, causing no damage to either the building or property. But the army expelled them by force. The protesters also occupied the buildings of the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Environment and the Association of Banks in downtown Beirut, as well as the Ministry of Energy in Corniche el-Nahr neighborhood.

Abbas Srour, an attorney who participates in the popular protests, told Al-Monitor, [Saturday] we organized a series of protests in Martyrs' Square as a cry of rage to tell the world that we want to reclaim the ministries, highlighting the mistrust that the people have toward their government and the whole political system.

In a statement addressed to the Lebanese people from the government on Sunday, Diab had stated, The country is experiencing the aftermath of a huge disaster that has left a devastating impact. The port of Beirut disaster resulted from deep-seated corruption and yearslong mismanagement. I am ready to handle the governments responsibility for two months until political parties reach an agreement. He expressed his intention to propose an early election bill to the Cabinet, as Lebanon cannot rise from the current crisis without early parliamentary elections. The investigation of the Beirut port tragedy will not take long.

According to the Lawyers Committee to Defend Protesters in Lebanon, which includes a group of Lebanese lawyers and legal experts volunteering to defend protesters during the October 2019 revolution, 20 people at least were arrested during the Aug. 8 protest and underwent drug tests. The committee objected to this measure, as it violates the privacy of protesters and constitutes a desperate attempt from the government to doubt the authenticity of peoples rage. The committee called for releasing those people immediately.

Heidar noted, I dont think anything will appease the streets before taking their revenge. New, well-studied, violent and organized protests are being arranged. Many revolution groups called on people to remain in the streets. Daytime hours will have precarious calm because most of the youths work in the relief efforts, but various acts can be expected any minute.

Srour said, The protests will continue in the next days, and they will be qualitative and new. We will stage them as rebels only without any other titles to make them stronger.

Against the background of the Beirut port explosion, ministers and members of parliament had resigned Aug. 8-9, coinciding with the presence of the protesters in the square who returned to Beirut in the wake of clashes that left dozens of people injured Aug. 8.

Hashem Adnan, a political activist in political and social change movement LiHaqqi Group, told Al-Monitor, These resignations show the fragility of the regime at the current stage and how difficult it is to reproduce itself  after Oct. 17 and after the monetary collapse, and the economic crisis and the explosion of the port.

Adnan added, "These resignations are details. What is important are the popular movements, their organization and resistance. The wager today is that we will be able to advance and take actual steps to change the entire system."
The year 2020 seems to have irritated both Amitabh Bachchan and Smriti Irani. The actor and the politician shared memes about being fed up with the year, in which the world was thrust into a pandemic.

Amitabh took to Instagram to share a comic strip, in which two people discuss how 2020 will become a symbol for misfortune in the future. One day 2020 will become the one-word catchphrase for everything messed up, a character says. Yes I do believe, wrote Amitabh in his caption.

The actor recently returned home from the hospital, after recovering from the coronavirus. He is now in quarantine. His son, Abhishek Bachchan, daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai and granddaughter Aaradhya had all tested positive for the virus, but have since been cured.

Meanwhile, Smriti posted a meme of herself, wearing frustrated expressions on her face. When you are waiting for 2020 to end, she wrote in her caption. The minister, who used to be an actor, recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of her television serial, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. 20 years ago this was possibly one of my first scenes with Sudha Aunty. I raced through my lines, nervous as hell coz @ektarkapoor was called to the shooting floor by the director who told her the project was a sure shot flop since the girl cast as Tulsi did not have the talent to see it through, she wrote in a caption, sharing a scene from the show.

Also read: After expressing concerns for career, Amitabh Bachchan gets job offer from fan, says my job is now insured

Amitabh has been blogging often, and recently expressed concerns about being able to work in a post-pandemic world. In response, a fan sent him a job offer, to which Amitabh responded by writing, My job is now insured.

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An uncertain school year is set to start for Conroe ISD Wednesday. Despite COVID-19, the district has not yet changed the academic calendar that the board already approved and most students will be starting the year completely online until at least Sept. 8.

In-class instruction must follow the guidelines set out by the Texas Education Agency, which have been updated several times since first released. At CISD, masks for all faculty, and students in third grade and up, will be mandatory. The district said it has hired more cleaning crews and ordered special equipment to clean the facilities every night.

Like several districts in the area, CISD plans on using the first few weeks while most students are going to be doing online learning to practice new safety protocols and ramp-up to when students who have chosen in-class instruction return. About 58 percent of the district chose in-class instruction, the other 42 percent chose online.

On Thursday, Superintendent Curtis Null held another YouTube Live to explain what the ramp-up plan, which can be found on the district website, looks like. Null explained to his watchers that we are dealing with unprecedented times and plans currently in place could change. In just 10 days, the TEA updated its guidelines three times.

Health and safety are still the priority of any plan that the district puts in place, he said, and keeping school open is the goal. The ramp-up plan is not perfect but Null said its one hes proud of.

Staggered return

As part of the plan, starting Aug. 19 the district will be inviting students who have the most significant needs back to campus. A week later, Aug. 26, students from the Preschool Programs for Children with Disabilities, and pre-k through first grade will be invited back. Starting Aug. 31through Sept. 3, students from second grade through high school will be invited back by last name on designated days.

We want to give our campuses an opportunity to prepare and to welcome students safely, Null said. We want them to be able to practice their procedures with smaller groups of children in the schools so we avoid that instant on opportunity where we could make mistakes and we could potentially get children sick. At the same time, we want to meet the needs of our most needy learners.

Null acknowledged that the first day of school this year is not what everyone wanted, and its not the same, but he encourages families to celebrate it anyway. He also reminded his audience that students must be engaged or make contact with their campus on the first day or they will be un-enrolled from school.

In a normal school year its not a huge deal because they come to school the next day and theres some paperwork to fill out and some forms to fill out and then we can get them re-activated in the system, he said. This year its different because theyre going to be virtual.

Consistent curriculum

When students do return to in-class instruction, Null assured parents that the curriculum for both online and in-class would be the same.

You should be at no academic advantage or disadvantage based on the choice you need to make for your family and your familys safety, Null said.

The district has been closely following the information coming from the Montgomery County Health District with COVID-19 updates. While Null was excited to show his viewers on Thursday that the active cases in the county are going down, he stressed that this trend will only continue with diligence. Mask wearing and social distancing are key.

By doing that, Null said of decreasing the cases in the community, were going to lower the amount of the virus thats going to walk into our schools when we have face-to-face instruction. Thats going to give us the best chance of keeping our students safe and our employees safe.

Virus impact

The virus has already impacted the district, even without students or teachers in the buildings. At the time of the YouTube Live, Null said CISD had 60 employees at home in isolation, 47 employees in quarantine, and 39 lab-confirmed positive cases of COVID-19.

Since schools closed in March, up until last week, in total the district has had 180 employees that have had to isolate, 162 employees that have had to quarantine, 90 employees that have tested positive, and 19 students with lab-confirmed positive cases. The district has 8,500 employees.

The district is creating a website to release these numbers to the public during the year. The website will include updates on how many teachers are out, and how many were able to find substitutes.

jamie.swinnerton@chron.com
Ted Carter has spent seven months as the University of Nebraskas president, but on Friday he will finally get his inauguration ceremony.

Carter, the former superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, will provide comments  a Ted talk of sorts  and many others will speak through videorecorded statements.

Gov. Pete Ricketts, leaders of the NU system and members of the Carter family are expected to attend the ceremony at 2 p.m. at the Lied Center for the Performing Arts in Lincoln. But coronavirus concerns will minimize the duration, audience and pomp of the ceremony.

The ceremony, often called an investiture or installation, will include gowns and music. The music will be previously recorded so that bands and musicians wont have to attend.

Carters installation follows an NU Board of Regents meeting at the University of Nebraska-Lincolns Innovation Campus. That meeting, which will be livestreamed, will start at 8:30 a.m. A link for the regents meeting will be available at the NU Board of Regents website. The link for the inauguration will be at nebraska.edu/president/investiture.
Krishna Janmashtami on August 11

Krishna Janmashtami this year will be celebrated on August 11, with many people also likely to celebrate it the next day. The festival is celebrated across India, but with much more fervour in cities of Mathura, Gokul and Vrindavan in UP.



According to the Hindu calendar, the festival falls on Ashtami of Krishna Paksha of the dark fortnight in the month of Shravan. Dahi Handi is another important aspect of this festival that is observed on the second day of Janmashtami. As a kid, Lord Krishna was named 'Makhanchor' or the one who steals butter.

Significance:

When Lord Krishna was born it is said that there was darkness that is a lot of evil around, his own uncle King Kanasa was a threat to his life. After his birth Lord Krishna's father Vasudeva crossed Yamuna and took his to Nanda and Yashoda who became his foster parents in Gokul. This legend is celebrated as Krishna Janmashtami.

Krishna Janmashtami 2019 Puja timings

According to Drikpanchang.com, Ashtami Tithi Begins on August 11 at 9.06 am and ends on August 12 at 11.16 am.

Ashtami Tithi Begins - 09:06 AM on August 11, 2020

Ashtami Tithi Ends - 11:16 AM on August 12, 2020

Nishita Puja Time - 12:17 AM to 01:02 AM, August 12

Duration - 00 Hours 45 Mins

Dahi Handi on Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Vrat:

On the day of Krishna Janmashtami 2019 like every year the devotees of Lord Krishna observe will fast. The idols of Lord Krishna are cleaned, bathed and decorated with new clothes, ornaments and flowers. The idol is placed in a cradle to symbolise his birth. Sweets like Makhaan Mishti, Peda, Rabdi, Panchamrit, Kheer etc are offered to Lord Krishna.

How do people celebrate on this occasion?

Some communities celebrate Krishna's legends such as him as a Makkan chor (butter thief).

Hindus celebrate Janmashtami by fasting, singing, praying together, preparing and sharing special food, night vigils, and visiting Krishna or Vishnu temples. Major Krishna temples organize recitation of 'Bhagavata Purana and Bhagavad Gita.

Many communities organize dance-drama events called Rasa Lila or Krishna Lila.The tradition of Rasa Lila is particularly popular in the Mathura region, in northeastern states of India such as Manipur and Assam, and in parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat. It is acted out by numerous teams of amateur artists, cheered on by their local communities, and these drama-dance plays begin a few days before each Janmashtami.

Wishes:

May Lord Krishna always be with you and protect you and your loved ones." Happy Krishna Janmashtami!

Let there be love and laughter in your life with Lord Krishna's blessings. Happy Janmashtami!

Happy Janmashtami 2020!
The news of Twitter and TikTok being in preliminary talks and Microsoft still being seen as the front-runner in bidding for the app's U.S. operations was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.

It is far from certain that Twitter would be able to outbid Microsoft Corp and complete such a transformative deal in the 45 days that U.S. President Donald Trump has given ByteDance to agree to a sale, the sources said on Saturday.

Twitter Inc has approached TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance to express interest in acquiring the U.S. operations of the video-sharing app, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, as experts raised doubts over Twitter's ability to put together financing for a potential deal.

Twitter has a market capitalization of close to $30 billion, almost as much as the valuation of TikTok's assets to be divested, and would need to raise additional capital to fund the deal, according to the sources.

"Twitter will have a hard time putting together enough financing to acquire even the U.S. operations of TikTok. It doesn't have enough borrowing capacity," said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan. "If it (Twitter) tries to put together an investor group, the terms will be tough. Twitter's own shareholders might prefer that management focus on its existing business," he added. One of Twitter's shareholders, private equity firm Silver Lake, is interested in helping fund a potential deal, one of the sources added.

Twitter has also privately made a case that its bid would face less regulatory scrutiny than Microsoft's, and will not face any pressure from China given that it is not active in that country, the sources said.

TikTok, ByteDance and Twitter declined to comment. TikTok has come under fire from U.S. lawmakers over national security concerns surrounding data collection.

Earlier this week, Trump unveiled bans on U.S. transactions with the China-based owners of messaging app WeChat and TikTok, escalating tensions between the two countries. Trump said this week he would support Microsoft's efforts to buy TikTok's U.S. operations if the U.S. government got a "substantial portion" of the proceeds. He nevertheless said he will ban the popular app on Sept. 15.

Microsoft said on Sunday it was aiming to conclude negotiations for a deal by mid-September.
A former NRL star will spend more than a decade in prison over a failed attempt to supply nearly one tonne of cocaine in Sydney.

Ex-Parramatta Eels player Aukuso Junior Paulo, 36, was sentenced to a minimum 11 years and four months jail over the attempted purchase of 900 kilograms of cocaine in December 2017.

Paulo and his co-accused, Kigi Kamuta, were arrested at Sydney's Centennial Park where they were busted in an undercover operation.

An associate of Paulo's, 'Peking Duck', organised the drug deal with an undercover cop and made arrangements to hand over the cocaine to Kamuta and Paulo.

Former Parramatta Eels player Aukuso Junior Paulo, 36, (pictured) has been sentenced to 17 years jail for trying to buy 900kg of cocaine from undercover police in 2017

Officer pounced on Paulo and his accomplice as they drove to the organised meet, firing non-lethal bullets through the windshield in the process, before finding guns and $650,000 in the vehicle

During their dramatic arrest non-lethal bullets were fired by police through the windscreen of the vehicles.

A search of both vehicles uncovered a Smith & Wesson pistol, a Beretta pistol and ammunition, encrypted Blackberry devices and nearly $650,000 in cash.

Paulo, 36 and Kamuta, 42, were later charged with attempting to supply 900 kilograms of cocaine, which has a potential commercial value of $180 million.

In handing down his sentence, Judge Antony Townsden said the two offenders played less of a role than Peking Duck.

'The fact that the drugs were not disseminated in the community is not a mitigating factor,' Judge Townsden said.

Paulo pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing an unauthorised pistol and knowingly dealing with the proceeds of a crime.

He was also found guilty of participating in a criminal group and supplying a prohibited drug.

Paulo and his accomplice, Kigi Kamuta, were both found guilty of participating in a criminal group and supplying a prohibited drug (the scene of the arrest pictured)

Kamuta was found guilty on all identical charges and was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years and nine months jail.

The judge deemed Paulo's role in the criminal enterprise as 'slightly more serious' than Kamuta's.

Paulo wrote in a letter to the court about a difficult and dysfunctional upbringing, and having witnessed his mother being assaulted while living in a refuge home.

The court also heard Paulo had become addicted to gambling after injury forced him to retire from the NRL in 2008.

'He describes having no other skills and began drinking and gambling, becoming indebted to many other people,' Judge Townsden said.

'According to the offender, he was offered an opportunity to make some quick money to do the crimes.'

Paulo was given a maximum sentence of 17 years behind bars, and will be eligible for parole in 2029.

Kamuta was given a maximum term of 16 years and will be eligible for parole in 2028.
State Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli on Monday announced a plan that would gradually lift New Jerseys 150-day lockdown on long-term care facilities, by first permitting a designated caregiver inside a residents room and by expanding the reasons why a family member may be allowed to visit.

The joint announcement with Gov. Phil Murphy, outlined the steps long-term care operators must take to gradually re-open facilities since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Department of Health ordered the facilities to stop indoor visits to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

We recognize and appreciate that contact with family, friends, and fellow residents is essential for the emotional well-being of nursing home residents, Persichilli said at the states latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton.

To start, essential caregiver visits in the first phase (phase zero) will be limited to once per week for a maximum of two hours if the resident is COVID-19 negative, asymptomatic, or recovered from the disease, the commissioner said.

In the next two phases of re-opening, operators must attest they have adequate staffing and personal protective equipment, and that there has not been an infection inside the facility for 28 days, Persichilli said. When these conditions are met these caregiver visits may occur twice a week for a maximum of four hours, she said.

Please bear in mind that facilities may need time to provide attestations to the Department of Health that they have met the requirements that I have outlined including having updated outbreak plans and enough staff and PPE before they can begin scheduling visits, Persichilli said.

The disease has devastated most nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the state. The disease has killed 6,679 residents and 119 staff, according to the health department website. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service says 43,231 nursing home residents have died from the coronavirus, but that figure is likely understated because not all states update their figures.

Over the past nearly five months, one of the most-impacted communities in our state has been the residents and staff of our long-term care facilities, Murphy said during his joint briefing with Persichilli Monday. They have borne an outsized burden of this pandemic. We cannot understate the enormity of either the spread or the loss of life within these facilities  nearly 25,000 cases of coronavirus among residents and nearly 13,000 among staff, and nearly 7,000 lab-confirmed deaths.

Back in March, no one understood how long it would take to contain the virus, and how the prolonged isolation would take its own toll on the mental health and resilience of the roughly 48,000 New Jerseyans in long-term care. Families say their loved ones have medically and mental regressed, and in some cases, their will to live is waning. The only residents who received visits were those who were dying.

Outdoor visits began June 21, but they typically last about 15 minutes to 30 minutes, weather permitting. They are by appointment only.

Outdoor visits allowed Bill Borrelle of Bay Head to see how much weight his 94-year-old mother, Rose, had lost while she was locked down in her assisted living facility. He formed a Facebook group to promote the cause, and corresponded with state Health Department officials to promote the idea of a designated caregiver being allowed to visit to provide essential, supplemental care.

The New Jersey Department of Health, in the directive announced today, added a new category of Essential Caretaker in their policy. This addition is significant, Borrelle said following the announcement.

Families providing essential care will now be able to resume caretaking and, with hope and love, work to reverse the declines in health and well-being resulting from isolation, Borrelle said. This was the mission of the facebook group FACE for Seniors, and we will continue our support for families providing essential care and advocating for our loved ones in senior communities.

In order to fully reopen, Persichilli will expect long-term care operators must meet a lengthy punch-list of requirements. They include producing an updated outbreak plan with lessons learned from COVID-19, which must include a communications strategy outlining regular communication with residents and families about cases and outbreaks in the facility or any other emergency, she said.

All facilities must contract with an infection control service within two months, and within a year hire a full-time employee in the infection prevention role if they have more than 100 beds, perform hemodialysis, or support ventilator beds, the announcement said.

Visits may take place in a residents room, but only if it is not shared. If the residents shares a room, a common area must be used, according to the announcement.

The latter stage of the reopening plan also allows for limited communal dining for people who are COVID negative, asymptomatic or recovered. They may also enjoy haircuts, small group activities and participate in limited outings, Persichilli said.

Jonathan Dolan, President and CEO, Health Care Association of New Jersey, the industry group for long-term care facilities, expressed support for the measures the Murphy administration announced.

As is now apparent, our industry is responding diligently and aggressively to the COVID challenge, Dolan said.

Murphy also announced:

$25 million in state and federal funds would be dedicated to help pay for the weekly testing that must occur among long-term care employees.

$130 million in state and federal funds to stabilize and support our nursing facility workforce and critical infection control practices in the facilities with 60 percent to flow directly to our nursing home workforce. The money will boost the wages of employees  particularly certified nursing homes aides  many who work more than one job to make ends meet. Experts agree the disease early on was spread by employees who went from facility to facility, and who often did not have adequate protective gear.

Human Services Commissioner Carole Johnson, who oversees the Medicaid program that pays for a large share of nursing home costs, said her department will check to make sure they money is passed on to employees. If operators do not comply, the state will withhold future funds to cover the different. A bill is pending in the state Legislature to enable this review process to take place, she said.

We will continue to work alongside the good actors in the long-term care industry who want to do the right things by their residents, their staffs, and the families who trust them  while making sure we have strong measures in place that are needed to deal with the bad actors who put profit before people, the governor said.

Laurie Facciarossa Brewer, New Jersey Long-Term Care Ombudsman, called the order an important first step in reducing the devastating social isolation that so many people living in long-term care have been experiencing for the last 5 months. Outdoor visits are not permitted everywhere despite the states approval in late June, which is completely unacceptable, she added.

The fact that the state is proposing to increase Medicaid rates while requiring that 60 percent of the rate increase goes toward direct care staff salaries is excellent and should help to ensure that there is a more stable workforce during this health emergency, Brewer said.

Local journalism needs your support. Subscribe at nj.com/supporter.



Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio.
A brain imaging study of veterans with Gulf War illness (GWI) and patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) (sometimes called myalgic encephalomyelitis), has shown that the two illnesses produce distinctly different, abnormal patterns of brain activity after moderate exercise.

The result of the Georgetown University Medical Center study suggests that GWI and CFS are distinct illnesses, an outcome that could affect the treatment of veterans with Gulf War illness.

The findings were published today in the journal Brain Communications.

While it is estimated that CFS affects 0.2-2% of the U.S. population, GWI is a multi-symptom illness that affects about 25% to 30% of the approximately 700,000 military personnel who participated in the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War.

The two illnesses share many symptoms, including cognitive and memory problems (often described as "brain fog"), pain, and fatigue following mild to moderate exercise. Some medical institutions, including the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA), list CFS as a symptom of GWI (called chronic multisymptom illness associated with service in the Gulf War by the VA).

"Our results strongly suggest that GWI and CFS represent two distinct disorders of the brain and therefore CFS is not a symptom of GWI," says Stuart Washington, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow and first author on the study.

"Combining of two different disorders could lead to improper treatment of both." Washington works in the laboratory of James Baraniuk, MD, professor of medicine at Georgetown.

In the study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) revealed that the brains of veterans with GWI and those of patients with CFS behaved differently when performing the same memory task after moderate exercise.

Veterans with GWI showed a decrease in brain activity in the periaqueductal gray, a pain processing region within the brainstem, and in the cerebellum, a part of the brain responsible for fine motor control, cognition, pain, and emotion.

On the other hand, patients with CFS showed increased activity in the periaqueductal gray and in parts of the cerebral cortex related to maintaining vigilance and attention. In healthy subjects, these areas of the brain had no changes at all.

A previous study published by this same research group also suggested that the two illnesses are distinct. It showed that exercise causes different changes to the molecular makeup of cerebrospinal fluid in veterans with GWI and patients with CFS.

Now that CFS and GWI have been shown to affect different regions of the brain, these regions can be more closely examined using neuroimaging and other techniques to further our understanding of the similarities and differences between the two illnesses. Once this new information is adopted broadly, diagnoses and treatments for both disorders should improve." James Baraniuk, MD, Professor, Department of Medicine, Georgetown University Medical Center
3iQ is the investment fund manager of the TSX-listed Bitcoin Fund (QBTC.U)

Tom Lombardi

Tom Lombardi

Toronto, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 3iQ Corp. (3iQ), a Canadian investment fund manager focused on digital assets, is pleased to announce the appointment of Tom Lombardi as Managing Director effective August 3rd, 2020.

"We are excited to announce the addition of Tom Lombardi to the 3iQ team," said Fred Pye, President and CEO of 3iQ. "Tom brings over 20 years of financial services and asset management experience with the last 5 years exclusively dedicated to digital assets. Appointing a seasoned leader like Tom with deep experience in digital assets and blockchain technology will help us accelerate our growth strategy in this fast-paced and evolving asset class. His experience in business development, digital transformation and investment marketing makes him an ideal leader to grow our asset management business.

Tom currently serves as adjunct professor of finance at Pepperdine University, teaching Digital Asset Finance to MBA students. Tom joins 3iQ from Wave Financial, where he was leading the digital asset investment team in Los Angeles. He held previous positions at the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, West Partners private equity firm and Bank of America investment banking.

"With digital assets at the cusp of global adoption, 3iQ is uniquely positioned, offering the first fully regulated investment funds backed by digital assets. 3iQ is a pioneer in bringing these assets to institutional and mainstream investors alike," said Tom Lombardi. "I am truly privileged to join the company at such an exciting time as digital assets forge an allocation in investment portfolios.

About 3iQ:

3iQ is a Canadian investment fund manager founded in 2012 focused on providing investors with exposure to digital assets. 3iQ manages the TSX-listed Bitcoin Fund (QBTC.U).

Disclaimers:

There are ongoing fees and expenses associated with owning units of The Bitcoin Fund (the Fund). The Fund must prepare disclosure documents that contain key information about the Fund. You can find more detailed information about the Fund in the final prospectus. The Fund is not guaranteed, its value changes frequently and past performance may not be repeated.

Story continues

You will usually pay brokerage fees to your dealer if you purchase or sell units of the Fund on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). If the units are purchased or sold on the TSX, investors may pay more than the current net asset value when buying units of the Fund and may receive less than the current net asset value when selling them.

The securities of the Fund have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or any applicable exemption from the registration requirements. The final prospectus of the Fund does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities of the Fund nor will there be any sale of such securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Attachment

CONTACT: Tom Lombardi 3iQ Corp. +1 (416) 639-2130 tom@3iq.ca




It has taken just over two weeks for the United States to record an additional one million cases of COVID-19. On August 6, the nation reached the grim milestone of five million cases.

As of this writing, there have been 5,187,611 cases and 165,500 deaths. There are 2,367,820 active cases and over 50,000 people hospitalized for treatment of COVID-19. After a low point in the positivity rate of 4.5 percent in mid-June, it has risen to 8 percent, where it has remained for several weeks despite claims of more testing by the Trump administration.

Globally, there are now 20 million cases of COVID-19 and the death toll is 732,000. The United States, comprising 4.25 percent of the global population, accounts for 26 percent of all cases and 22.6 percent of all fatalities. On a per-capita basis, only Brazil, Peru and Colombia have more daily cases than the US (with approximately 163 infections per million people).

Elementary school students in Godley, Texas, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Alarmingly, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington School of Medicine is now projecting that Americas death toll will reach 295,011 by December 1. The institute estimates that another 135,000 people will succumb in the next 113 days (1,195 deaths per day). These estimates are based on the assumption that mask usage will be inconsistent and that half of the school districts in each state will opt for online rather than in-person instruction.

IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray acknowledged that should the public adopt near-universal mask usage, estimated additional deaths by that date would drop by 49 percent, to reach a lower total of 228,271. If mandates were eased, the death toll could rise to over 391,000. The present estimate of community mobility, using cell phone data, is at 25 percent below pre-pandemic norms. At the peak of the nationwide restrictions, mobility had declined to 55 percent below pre-pandemic patterns.

The IHME has consistently been overly conservative in predicting the number of infections and deaths from the pandemic, and, by all accounts, the transition to fall and winter seasons can have a significant impact on the dynamics of community transmission.

Given the continuing rise in the rate of new infections and deaths and the lack of any nationally, let alone internationally, coordinated plan to scale up testing, contact tracing, quarantining and treatment, the drive to reopen the schools in the US assumes a homicidal and criminal character.

Global map of per capita COVID-19 cases

Several early school openingsIndiana, Mississippi and Louisianahave been marked by confirmed COVID-19 cases on day one, necessitating closure or quarantining of students and teachers. Experience has already exposed the falsity of claims that schools can be safely reopened for in-person instruction. What, in fact, is being prepared is an explosive increase in infections and deaths.

This is perhaps most clearly exemplified by Florida, with over 530,000 COVID-19 cases statewide and 8,500 new cases on Saturday. Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran told the Hillsborough County School Board that it needs to follow the law, its that simple, after the board issued a statement that the district did not meet the requirements for safely offering in-classroom instruction when schools resume. In the meantime, Governor Ron DeSantis, who has pushed hard for the schools to reopen, instructed health directors across Florida to refuse to give school boards recommendations or risk assessments.

On August 5, three rural school districts in Texas were the first to head back to the classroom. With some Dallas-area districts poised to begin the first day of fall sessions, state officials were debating if data on COVID-19 infections at public schools should be collected. This question on data collection is still under active deliberation by the agency, and we expect to have an update in coming weeks on what, if any, data will be required, and how it will be recorded, said Texas Education Association spokesperson, Frank Ward.

Several school reopenings in Europe and Asia that proceeded with little incident have been cited as examples of the low risk of transmission among school-aged children. However, these nations have a per capita transmission rate significantly lower than the US, along with a much more capable surveillance system to track and trace new infections.

Comparison of new tests vs new cases in the US

It is worth mentioning that the outbreak in an Israeli school in May of two known COVID-19 cases led to 153 students and 25 staff testing positive, including 87 close contacts outside the school. At the time, the number of daily cases nationwide had for many days been below 30.

Studies of children are limited because they are less likely to be tested, given their better outcomes. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 200,000 COVID-19 cases have occurred in children under the age of 18. They account for less than 1 percent of COVID-19 deaths. There have been 342 cases of a Kawasaki Disease-like syndrome, medically known as Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children. Six have died.

Yet recent findings have brought to the forefront of the school opening debate the fact that children are susceptible to becoming infected and have the ability to transmit the virus. In a study published for the Georgia Department of Health, Dr. Christine M. Szablewski noted that over half of the children between ages 6 and 10 tested positive at an overnight day camp. She concluded, This investigation adds to the body of evidence demonstrating that children of all ages are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection and, contrary to early reports, might play an important role in transmission.

The porous nature of communities and the extensive interactions that occur between counties and states place all geographic sectors at risk of new outbreaks. Dr. Tina Hartert of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine told the Wall Street Journal, [O]ur schools are little mini-microcosms of our cities that theyre inwhats happening in cities is whats going to happen in schools. Until there is definitive data one way or the other, we have reason to believe from decades of data from other respiratory viruses that children are very good transmitters. There isnt a lot of reason to believe that that wouldnt be the case with this virus.

The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a new report this week noting that more than 97,000 children tested positive for the coronavirus in just the last two weeks of July.

According to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis, one in four workers is at high risk of severe illness if he or she becomes infected. Among teachers, some 1.47 million (24 percent) have a condition that will place them at higher risk for serious illness. Additionally, millions of seniors live in homes with school-aged children.

By all accounts, the United States has been flying blind through this pandemic despite White House boasts about the vast number of tests conducted thus far. Of great concern is the fact that the number of daily COVID-19 tests in the US has dropped significantly in recent weeks. On July 24, when new cases peaked at 75,204, the number of tests performed that day reached a single-day high of 926,876. Since then, the number has plummeted, with only 665,029 tests on August 8. The US reported 53,923 new cases that day.

Even the Washington Post felt obliged to comment on August 6: The number of new coronavirus cases recorded nationwide each day is dropping after peaking at more than 75,000but the declines are muddied by issues with testing and data-gathering in big states.

President Trump has repeatedly complained that supposedly too aggressive testing was pushing up statistics on infections, and falsely attributed the explosive rise in confirmed cases to increased testing. In the context of the drive to reopen the schools, part of the murderous campaign to force workers back to work, there is every reason to believe that the government, working on behalf of the corporate elite, is engaged in a criminal effort to conceal the true impact of the pandemic.
Drew Pavlou is seen talking to the media outside the Brisbane Magistrates Court in Brisbane, Australia, on Aug. 10, 2020. (Darren England/AAP Image)

Magistrate Rules Chinese Diplomat Has Immunity in Pavlou Case, Dismisses Legal Action Over Public Comments

A Queensland magistrate has dismissed legal action against Brisbanes Chinese consul-general Xu Jie on Aug. 10 after ruling he has immunity because he was performing the functions of a consular official.

Under Queenslands Peace and Good Behaviour Act, 20-year-old Drew Pavlou was seeking a retraction of comments made by Xu who, while serving as Brisbanes Chinese consul-general and an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland (UQ), publicly described a demonstration organised by Pavlou on UQs campus as anti-China separatist activities.

This left Pavlou fearing for his physical wellbeing after receiving hundreds of death threats.

Pavlou wrote on Twitter after the ruling: The courts have ruled in favour of Consul-General Xu Jie, saying he has diplomatic immunity to endorse violent attacks against me. The courts cannot help us, we need Prime Minister [Scott Morrison] to protect Australian citizens by expelling Xu Jie as a diplomat.

BREAKING: The courts have ruled in favour of Consul-General Xu Jie, saying he has diplomatic immunity to endorse violent attacks against me. The courts cannot help us, we need Prime Minister @ScottMorrisonMP to protect Australian citizens by expelling Xu Jie as a diplomat  Drew Pavlou  (@DrewPavlou) August 10, 2020

Read More 20-Year-Old Australian Keeps Human Rights Activism Despite Death Threats

Xus comments came after Pavlou organised a protest in July 2019 on the UQ campus to support Hongkongers who were protesting a proposed extradition law that threatened the freedoms enjoyed in the former British colony under the One Country, Two Systems agreement with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The peaceful protest was interrupted by pro-Beijing figures, and Pavlou was allegedly attacked.

Federal MP Seeks Parliamentary Inquiry Into Foreign Influence on Campuses

Federal MP Bob Katter is pursuing a full parliamentary inquiry into foreign influence at Australian universities.

Katter told The Epoch Times he will also be pursuing a full inquiry into the actions of the University of Queensland and their non-action surrounding Pavlous case.

Now, this is a bloke (Pavlou) in his own country, expressing an opinion in the public arena, and hes bashed up by a bunch a foreign thugs who undoubtedly are working for a communist, totalitarian dictatorship, he told The Epoch Times.

Thats not the worst part, he went on. One of the four most prestigious universities in the country, they then proceed not to punish the thugs who assaulted students on their campusthey took no action against this bunch of thugsthey took action against the Australian who was organising the demonstration.

Katter asserted that foreign communist dictatorships are influencing Australian universities and their leadership, writing in the media release that UQs suspension of Pavlou exemplifies this.

In a media release on Aug. 7, the Minister for Education Dan Tehan said that the Commonwealth government is committed to protecting free speech on campuses and will review how the university sector has progressed implementing the changes outlined in the French Model Code.

Named after former High Court chief justice Robert French AC, the code provides a framework for institutions to ensure that academic freedom and freedom of speech is protected.

Tehan said: The review will consider areas of strength or weakness in institutional responses to the code and offer suggestions where alignment could be improved.

UQ has welcomed the review. UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Terry told The Courier-Mail on Aug. 8 that academic freedom and freedom of speech are a core value for the institution.

We acknowledge recent commentary may have caused some to question UQs commitment to freedom of speech and we welcome the opportunity to demonstrate otherwise, Terry said.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, second left, waves to media as he arrives at Taipei Songshan Airport in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

China Sends Fighter Jets as US Health Chief Visits Taiwan

TAIPEIChinese air force jets briefly crossed the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait on Monday and were tracked by Taiwanese missiles, Taiwans government said, as U.S. health chief Alex Azar visited the island to offer President Donald Trumps support.

Azar arrived in Taiwan on Sunday, the highest-level U.S. official to visit in four decades.

China, which claims the island as its own, condemned the visit which comes after a period of sharply deteriorating relations between China and the United States.

China, which had promised unspecified retaliation to the trip, flew J-11 and J-10 fighter aircraft briefly onto Taiwans side of the sensitive and narrow strait that separates it from its giant neighbor, at around 9 a.m. (01:00 GMT), shortly before Azar met Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwans air force said.

The aircraft were tracked by land-based Taiwanese anti-aircraft missiles and were driven out by patrolling Taiwanese aircraft, the air force said in a statement released by the defense ministry.

Chinas defense ministry did not immediately comment.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, second left, waves to media as he arrives at Taipei Songshan Airport in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

A senior Taiwan official familiar with the governments security planning told Reuters that China was obviously targeting Azars visit with a very risky move given the Chinese jets were in range of Taiwans missiles.

The incursion was only the third time since 2016 that Taiwan has said Chinese jets had crossed the straits median line.

The Trump administration has made strengthening its support for Taiwan a priority, amid deteriorating relations between Washington and Beijing, and has boosted arms sales.

Its a true honor to be here to convey a message of strong support and friendship from President Trump to Taiwan, Azar told Tsai in the Presidential Office, standing in front of two Taiwanese flags.

Washington broke off official ties with Taipei in 1979 in favor of Beijing.

Huge Step

Azar is visiting to strengthen economic and public-health cooperation with Taiwan and support its international role in fighting COVID-19.

Taiwans response to COVID-19 has been among the most successful in the world, and that is a tribute to the open, transparent, democratic nature of Taiwans society and culture, he told Tsai.

Taiwans early and effective steps to fight the disease have kept its case numbers far lower than those of its neighbors, with 480 infections and seven deaths. Most cases have been imported.

Tsai told Azar his visit represented a huge step forward in anti-pandemic collaborations between our countries, mentioning areas of cooperation including vaccine and drug research and production.

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar (L) speaks as Taiwans President Tsai Ing-wen (R) looks on during his visit to the Presidential Office in Taipei on Aug. 10, 2020 (Pei Chen/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Taiwan has been particularly grateful for U.S. support to permit its attendance at the World Health Organizations decision-making body, the World Health Assembly (WHA), and to allow it greater access to the organization.

Taiwan is not a member of the WHO due to Chinas objections. China considers Taiwan a Chinese province.

Id like to reiterate that political considerations should never take precedence over the rights to health. The decision to bar Taiwan from participating in the WHA is a violation of the universal rights to health, Tsai said.

Azar later told reporters that at Trumps direction, he and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had sought to restore Taiwans status as an observer at the WHA.

But the Chinese Communist Party and the World Health Organization have prevented that. This has been one of the major frustrations that the Trump administration has had with the World Health Organization and its inability to reform.

By Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard
 Flash

The Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Sunday revealed that the number of COVID-19 cases across the African continent surged to 1,036,564.

The Africa CDC, a specialized healthcare agency of the 55-member African Union (AU) Commission, in its latest situation update issued on Sunday, said that the number of COVID-19 cases across the African continent has risen from 1,022,084 on Saturday to 1,036,564 as of Sunday, registering about 14,480 new COVID-19 cases across the continent.

The Africa CDC also noted that the death toll due to illnesses related to the COVID-19 pandemic also rose to 22,966 on Sunday, registering about 505 new COVID-19 deaths across the continent from Saturday's 22,461 report.

The continental disease control and prevention agency also said the number of people who recovered from their COVID-19 infections also reached 723,040 so far.

South Africa, with 553,188 confirmed COVID-19 cases, is Africa's highest affected country in terms of positive cases, followed by Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria and Morocco, it was noted.

The Southern Africa region is the most affected area in terms of confirmed cases, followed by Northern Africa and Western Africa regions, the Africa CDC said.

Amid the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic across the continent, the Africa CDC had on Friday urged the African continent to increase compliance to the public health and social measures as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to gain momentum in Africa.

"We must increase mass wearing of masks as we expand testing and treatment services," the Africa CDC Director John Nkengasong said in his message following the launch of the World Mask Week, slated from August 7 to 14, as an effort to increase the use of face coverings in public across the globe.

As the pandemic spread across Africa, the Africa CDC together with the World Health Organization (WHO) and more than 40 other global, regional and national organizations and institutions have initiated the Pandemic Action Network, which launched the World Mask Week that envisaged increasing the use of face coverings in public in Africa and beyond.
The Bethlehem Area School Board is set to vote Monday on a hybrid model of in-person and online classes this fall for its K-12 students that caps a schools capacity at 50% on any day and requires face masks.

The board meets virtually at 6 p.m. and will take public comment before voting on the proposal. Members of the public can sign up to watch the meeting at 5:30 p.m via the districts website.

The plan calls for the Bethlehem Area School District to have no in-person classes on Monday, and classes will be divided in half alphabetically to have either in-person lessons or online classes on Tuesday/Thursday or Wednesday/Friday.
Leading bourse BSE on Monday said its mutual fund distribution platform StAR MF has launched a direct investment portal for corporates, which will simplify the investment process.

The portal -- StAR MF Corp Direct -- will simplify and provide end-to-end value-based services to the asset management companies (AMCs), distributors, investors, and mutual fund industry participants, BSE said in a statement.

The portal is currently live for corporates. It will soon will be available for other non-individuals like HUF, partnership firms, societies among others.

Earlier this year, the market regulator SEBI allowed exchanges to process mutual fund investments directly from investors.

Taking this opportunity, BSE has developed StAR MF Corp Direct portal, which will go a long way in improving the existing experience of corporates, said Ganesh Ram, Business Head-Mutual Funds at BSE.

"Now, corporates can seamlessly transact (both in direct and regular mode) with all AMCs and schemes, at one go using Corp Direct instead of switching between multiple platforms which is cumbersome, he said.

"Corp Direct will simplify the MF investment process and significantly reduce time and increase efficiency for corporates," he added.

The portal will provide value added services -- corporate dashboard view, transaction basket, pre-filled transaction form to corporate. In addition, all AMCs and schemes will be available under single platform. Overall, the platform processed 2.54 crore transactions during 2020-21 (April-July 20).
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 10)  A Philippine Embassy official in Bangkok expressed dissatisfaction over a local newspapers headline that called the Philippines the land of COVID-19.

In a letter to Thai Rath editor-in-chief Saravut Vacharaphol, Consul General Val Simon Roque said the characterization is inappropriate, insensitive, and unhelpful during this time when all members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are working together to solve the problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roque said the teachers strictly followed health protocols and quarantine rules set by the Thai government.

On August 8, there were 165 Filipino teachers who arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport to make up for the countrys shortage of such professionals. This was reported by Thai Rath newspaper on Sunday, and described the Philippine as such.

The Philippines recorded its highest single-day rise with 6,958 on Monday, bringing total case count to 136,638, still the most count among Southeast Asian countries, followed by Indonesia with 127,083.
ALTON  YWCA of Alton offers several options for before and after school care through its Childhood Enrichment program, registering children now for 2020-21.

The program serves the Alton, Wood River-Hartford and Roxana school districts with sites at YWCA Center in Alton, a full day care, Lewis and Clark Elementary, in Wood River, with before and after care options, and Ivy Heights Church of God, in Wood River, which serves the Roxana School District with before and after care options.

YWCA Childhood Enrichment Program is a state of Illinois license-exempt program that provides before and after school care and full day care, with a remote learning option for the Alton School District, for students in kindergarten through age 12. In addition, should other school districts shift to remote learning option, YWCA of Alton is prepared to provide support to working families with their child care needs.

During this pandemic, YWCA is complying with state and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for childcare facilities. The Ys Parent Handbook has been updated to include specific guidance while in the midst of the pandemic.

Our Alton staff will be trained on Google Classroom and we will support students as they stay on task for their allotted times during the day, said Kathy Holder, Child Enrichment Program director.

We are ready for the additional device usage at our facility. We find ourselves in a solid position to assist students during this critical time, as we have high caliber site coordinators. Several of our staff have degrees, as well as two site coordinators who will be finishing their degrees in elementary education in December.

Holder also noted that along with the YWCAs STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) curriculum, students will gain exposure to racial justice, cultural diversity and service in the community strengthening their education experience in Child Enrichment program.

Parents looking to provide a strong well-rounded experience for their students, including daily homework help, will find that in the YWCA program, Holder said.

YWCA accepts Childrens Home and Aid Society of Illinois (CHASI) and U.S. Department of Children and Family Services funding and assist parents with filling out CHASI paperwork. According to Dorothy Hummel, Executive Director of the YWCA of Alton, It is part of our mission to ensure that everyone has access to quality child care, and we are happy to help eligible parents receive the assistance that is available. Fees vary depending on the services provided. Families interested are urged to check out www.altonywca.com or contact us at 618-465-7774.

I am very pleased with the care and the activities that have been provided for my granddaughter. She comes home every day wanting to tell us what they did that day and she is always excited to go, said Jeff Oetken.

Another parent, Sarah Hankins, said It has been a great experience overall in both the after-school and summer programs. My son really enjoys all of the leaders and activities.

If you would like to register your child for the 2020-21 school year, you may do so in person at the YWCA at 304 E. Third St., Alton, or download the forms at www.ywcaalton.com and scan and return them to info@altonywca.com. Any parents wishing to register on site will need to have a copy of their childs birth certificate and physical. If you have further questions or need additional information, call the YWCA at 618-465-7774.
In its raw form, Foxxs disposition data contains more than 800,000 rows, each containing various details for a single criminal charge. The Tribune used an open-source statistical computing package called R to collapse the data into a form where a single row corresponded to a criminal defendant and summarized the outcomes for that case. It also specified the most severe charge brought against that defendant, referred to in the data as the primary charge.
He told Holcomb if the funding cut stands, you will be asking your most vulnerable communities and their leadership to go against their local health department recommendations and our conscience in having to bring students and staff back into our buildings when we know we cant keep them safe
A huge gap has opened up between public and private nursing homes in the cost of care for the elderly and incapable, according to a new report from the States financial watchdog.

The Comptroller and Auditor General notes that a review of the national Fair Deal was carried out five years ago  but still hasnt been published.

But between 2010 and 2018, the average weekly fee for a person in a public nursing homes was 1,564  while that for a place in a private or voluntary home was just 968.

Read More

And the total cost is now nearly 1 billion a year, not counting the estimated 345m from residents who must pay a proportion of their care costs  so that increases in the gross charge to the State also impacts on families.

The report findings of a 62pc increase for public care compared to private alternatives drew bitter criticism from umbrella groups for private nursing homes on Monday night, while the C&AG pointed out that rising costs set against a fixed budget threatened new admissions to the Fair Deal.

Prices to the taxpayer from public homes have increased by 26pc over the period, while private and voluntary home costs rose by less than half the same rate, with an 11pc increase.

The C&AG criticises unclear cost structures, inconsistencies in approach, the lack of integrated financial management in the HSE and on-the-job training for State negotiators with individual homes.

Residents are required to make a contribution towards the care costs, depending on their means, with the HSE contributing the balance.

The State is now providing financial support for over 23,300 individuals, 11 years after the scheme arrived, having been pioneered by former Health Minister Mary Harney.

The Scheme is cash-limited which means that the HSE must restrict access if there is an expectation that available funding will be exhausted, said Comptroller Seamus McCarthy.

The risks in such circumstances are that persons who medically require long-term residential care do not receive it in a timely way  or that costs are borne instead by other parts of the health service, applicants and their families.

Subvention amounted to 969m in 2018, including 51m in loans to residents to assist them in paying their contributions.

The HSE estimates that an additional 343m was paid in residents contributions the same year.

The private body Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI) said in response that Fair Deal now required urgent reform. It blasted the unfair disparity between State-run and private or voluntary provision.

Chief Executive Tadhg Daly said: Very serious questions arise from a 62pc differential in fees payable between State homes and their private counterparts.

The report had brought to light the long-standing poor practice and ineptitude of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), which is the State body delegated to negotiate Fair Deal fees, he said.

NHI is now demanding the Oireachtas to examine the report "as a priority" with the C&AG now expected to be asked before the Public Accounts Committee to discuss his findings.

Mr Daly said the evidence was that public homes were not subject to effective scrutiny and with a hiking the fees payable to its nursing homes while residents in private nursing homes are inherently discriminated against.

It was damning that the C&AG had to recommend that the HSE routinely publish the fees payable for care in individual nursing homes.

Mr McCarthy pointed out no such fees were published for the whole of 2017, and emphasised that his reports fieldwork was completed before Covid-19 struck, bringing a whole new series of problems.

For many years, Nursing Homes Ireland has highlighted the gross inequality in the application of Fair Deal funding, Mr Daly said.

This report confirms it, and presents very serious questions with regard to the lack of transparency and openness from the State.

Mervyn Taylor, chief of Sage Advocacy, said the report adds to our understanding of the dangerous architecture of the Fair Deal scheme.

The fees paid by residents, added to the contribution of the State, pointed to a total cost of 1.3 billion annually, he said. But the additional cost of regulation by HIQA would also have to be factored in to the final bill for taxpayers, he said.
With Vietnam boasting great potential for investment, Singaporean businesses and individuals are rolling out projects across the country, channelling massive capital flows into diverse sectors.

On July 15, Crown Beverage Cans Vung Tau Co., Ltd. from Singapore received an investment certificate for its $130 million project. With this, Crown Beverage Cans aims to become the leading supplier of beverage cans to major producers in Vietnam.

As a developing country with a sizeable population that lies very close to Singapore, Vietnam has been approached by hundreds of Singaporean enterprises like Crown Beverage Cans which have left their major footprints here, earning strong confidence of locals.

Commenting on Singaporean investments in Vietnam, Tan Soon Kim, assistant CEO of Enterprise Singapore, which is the government agency championing enterprise development, told media that Vietnam has a fast-growing middle class and has attracted many Singaporean firms, including caterers and retailers in recent years.

Select Group, Jumbo Group, and Mr. Bean have all expanded to Vietnam, for example, he said, adding that Singaporean investors are also found in many other key areas in Vietnam like infrastructure, and technology-related industries.

He said that in the context of Industry 4.0, the Vietnamese government is actively promoting smart city and e-government projects. This is a particular strength of Singaporean enterprises and they are seeking opportunities in this trend in Vietnam. We hope to contribute to digitalisation here, he said. Singapores smart city solution providers can meet the needs of various development projects related to logistics and smart infrastructure.

Deeper investment schemes

In late June, JR22 Vina Singco Pte., Ltd. from Singapore signed an MoU with Hanoian authorities to build a smart city with a hotel and office complex in Tay Ho district. Accordingly, JR22 would invest an additional VND220 billion ($9.57 million) to develop smart infrastructure there.

Besides this, JR22 has also just attained an investment certificate for a complex of luxury apartments, commercial centre, and hotels in the city with the total investment capital of VND4.2 trillion ($182.35 million).

With these two projects, JR22 officially entered the Vietnamese real estate market, along with compatriots VNSL Holdings Pte., Ltd. which plans to invest VND4.2 billion ($182.35 million) into a complex of mall, office, and cultural area; Twin Peaks, which is expanding investment by $246 million in its office project in Ba Dinh district; and a dozen other Singaporean investors.

Roland Ng, president of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told media that more Singaporean enterprises, especially small- and medium-sized ones (SMEs), tend to expand their businesses into neighbouring countries like Vietnam.

He also said that the abundance of young and skilled workers and the rise of the middle class has helped Vietnams consumer economy strongly flourish, which has accelerated urbanisation and the development of infrastructure.

According to data from the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), in the first seven months of 2020, Singapore had one major project in the country valued at $4 billion of registered capital. This is the Bac Lieu liquefied natural gas (LNG) power plant under the Bac Lieu LNG thermal power centre.

Meanwhile, Sunseap International  the global arm of clean energy provider Sunseap Group in Singapore  last year also reached a new milestone by commissioning one of the largest solar farms in Vietnam with the scale of 168ha, capacity of 168MW peak, and the total investment capital of more than VND4.4 trillion ($191.3 million) in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan. The project generates electricity for 200,000 households in Vietnam.

Another highlight of Singaporean investment in Vietnam are the four water treatment plants carried out by Darco Water Technologies and InfraCo Asia Development, which provides funding, leadership, and experience in designing, building, owning, and operating deal structuring.

This project helps take feed water from rivers and treat it to potable standards to serve 15,000 households in Vietnam. The project is valued at $50 million.

Singaporean groups have also been expanding operations in Vietnam in the field of finance. Major names include Syngience or United Overseas Bank (UOB), which last year opened a new branch in Hanoi, and has been promoting digital banking to improve the customer experience.

E-commerce consultancy Innovative Hub also entered Vietnams e-commerce market last year by signing an MoU with Alibaba Group. Particularly, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has been beneficial to the companys operations and it is now thinking of widening its profile by introducing digital solutions for SMEs in Vietnam and the wider region.

Preferred funding destination

According to the latest Singapore Business Federation survey, Vietnam is among the most preferred destinations for Singaporean companies thinking of going regional. Along with education, manufacturing and processing, and healthcare, these companies are also keen on investing in startups and innovation.

Meanwhile, data from the MPI shows that as of July 20, Singapore was Vietnams third-largest foreign investor, with the total registered investment capital of $55 billion for 2,544 projects, operating in numerous types of projects such as property, energy, finance, banking, IT, and tourism.

Studying the Southeast Asian and Vietnamese economies for over two decades, Suan Tek Kin, head of research and executive director of Global Economics and Markets Research at UOB Singapore, said that Vietnam will likely attract further foreign investment in high-tech industries with the operation of smart factories.

Over the middle to long term, Vietnam is striving to achieve sustainable development that will help to improve the quality of growth and elevate standards of living. These are also requirements of the new generation free trade agreements, Kin said.

Meanwhile, Joongshik Wang, from Ernst & Young Corporate Finance, pointed out that global geopolitical factors have affected the operations and supply chains of companies across the globe, including those from Singapore, and many businesses are looking to shift their operations to Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam. The US-China trade tensions have led some businesses to change their supply chains and shift their manufacturing bases from China, benefiting Southeast Asian markets like Vietnam, he said.

According to Wang, Vietnams achievements in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic has boosted its appeal as a safe destination for strong investment. VIR

Phuong Hao

Singaporean imprint in the Vietnamese property market Singaporean property developers are maintaining consistency with their ventures in Vietnam, based on generally healthy economic growth and an emerging middle class.
BEIJING - China on Monday announced unspecified sanctions against 11 U.S. politicians and heads of organizations promoting democratic causes, including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who have already been singled out by Beijing.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Monday said the 11 had performed badly on issues concerning Hong Kong, where China has cracked down on opposition voices following its imposition of a national security law in the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city last month.

The number of Americans named by the ministry exactly equals the number of Hong Kong and Chinese officials placed on a sanctions list by the U.S. last week over the crackdown.

China showed its determination to defy such pressure on Monday by arresting leading independent media tycoon Jimmy Lai and raiding the publishers headquarters.

The relevant actions of the U.S. blatantly intervened in Hong Kong affairs, grossly interfered in Chinas internal affairs, and seriously violated international law and the basic norms of international relations, foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a daily briefing on Monday.

China urges the U.S. to have a clear understanding of the situation, correct mistakes, and immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and interfering in Chinas internal affairs.

Four other lawmakers were named by the foreign ministry: Senators Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton and Pat Toomey and Representative Chris Smith.

Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, said he was sanctioned for defending the victims of Communist Party rule, including Hong Kong students fighting for democracy.

Chinese Communism is the most dangerous threat to freedom in the world, and I will never back down from fighting it, he said in a statement.

The others sanctioned were National Endowment for Democracy President Carl Gershman, National Democratic Institute President Derek Mitchell, International Republican Institute President Daniel Twining, Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth, and Michael Abramowitz, President of Freedom House.

Beijing already placed a travel ban on Rubio, Cruz and Smith last month after Washington announced similar measures against Chinese officials linked to measures taken against Muslims in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang.

The standing committee of Chinas national legislature passed the National Security Law last month, bypassing the citys Legislative Council and the public, where such legislation has faced stiff opposition for years.

The move came in response to months of sometimes violent anti-government protests last year that Beijing said were encouraged by foreign forces in a bid to overthrow Chinese rule over the former British colony that was handed over to Chinese rule in 1997 under a one country, two systems framework meant to last until 2047.

Read more about:
Rana Daggubati is one of Indias most popular superstars and he recently did a stylish lockdown wedding in Hyderabad on Saturday evening. He tied the knot with his sweetheart Miheeka Bajaj.

The actor is popular for the Bahubali franchise and lives in a contemporary house in Hyderabads Film Nagar, which is just an extension of his personality. The actor also owns an apartment in Mumbais Santacruz.

If youre wondering how his lake view house in Hyderabad looks like, we have a virtual house tour of his house thatll make you go crazy.

So, here we go-

Minimalistic Interiors In The Living Room

 Beautiful Homes Youtube

The living room is located at the lower level of the house and is split into many zones. The room has a youthful vibe and is flooded with travel souvenirs and mementos. The various zones include a formal living room, a bar, and a reading corner with minimalist interiors.

Built To Rent Out For Shoots

 Beautiful Homes Youtube

The home was initially built to rent out for shootings but eventually, the family moved in the house and a part of the house was still used for shoots.

Office Room

 Home Decor Youtube

Rana Daggubatis office is one of the most interesting places in the whole house. The walls of the office are filled with film posters and portraits of movies and inspirational personalities. The photos on the wall include Mohammad Ali, Uma Thurman, and many more.

The office also has a mini library that includes books such as Rig Vedas and Upanishads amongst many others.

Bedroom

 Asian Paints Youtube

All the bedrooms are on the top floor of the house with a huge balcony and a lush green lawn that makes the house look elegant and stylish at the same time.

Bar Area

 Home Decor Youtube

The bar area of the house is minimalist and is decorated with a range of glasses and stirrer holders made of recycled old glass bottles.

Rana Daggubati is now all set to welcome his wife Miheeka Bajaj to this contemporary house in Hyderabad.
LAS VEGAS, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Economic Club of Las Vegas has announced it will welcome Mary C. Daly, Presdent and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco as part of its Virtual Meetings Series hosted on Zoom, Wednesday, August 12th. She will discuss the current status of the U.S. economy and the ongoing impacts of COVID-19.

The event will take place from 12:00 PM. To 1:30 PM. PST. For more information and reserations visit www.econclublv.org/events. Registrants can participate in our Question and Answer session for $15 through Zoom.

Since taking office in October 2018, Dr. Daly has committed to making the San Francisco Fed a more community-engaged bank that is transparent and responsive to the people it serves. She works to connect economic principles to real-world concerns and is a sought-after speaker on monetary policy, labor economics, and increasing diversity within the economics field.

About the Economic Club of Las Vegas

The Economic Club of Las Vegas,a non-profit 501(c)(6), non-partisan organization, provides an independent forum for national and international economic discussion and intellectual debate. The Club brings national speakers to Las Vegas to share their perspectives and ideas about economic and/or political conditions in the United States and the world.

SOURCE The Economic Club of Las Vegas

Related Links

http://econclublv.org


Instagram Reels scammers are selling millions of fake views and fake likes on the new TikTok's rival, a few hours after it was launched. According to Business Insider's latest report, the scammers who are selling the fake likes and views on Instagram's new short-video feature were able to acquire enough money to buy a decent home and a good car.

Just like other websites selling 100 likes on a Reel for 75 cents, artificial engagement was offered by the managers of large botnets, to their followers on protected encrypted apps. The report said that the botnet manager who confirmed the scheme requested not to be named or identified. 11 million views on Reels were ordered by 80 people, as stated by the anonymous botnet manager.

Also Read: Israeli Hackers' New Apps May Help Prevent Domestic Violence by Alerting Women For Potential Signs of Future Violence

Although the manager did not provide the total earning for selling fake views and likes, he said that they were able to buy a car and a house. He said that most of the transactions were done using Bitcoin. The botnet manager explained that he charges his customers 15$ for 1,000 fake likes on Instagram Reels and $5 for 1,000 fake views. However, he said that a customer could only purchase a total of 500,000 views.

Also Read: [BEWARE] China's All-Seeing Massive Surveillance Could Monitor Every 'Millimeter' of an Entire Populaton

He also explained that if the person is identified as a loyal customer, he or she can use Paypal, credit card, or Cash App. The report confirmed that the unnamed botnet manager has a network of 500,000 Instagram accounts. However, he said that he also works with external partners if the company receives a huge number of IG accounts that need view increase.

How the scammer easily generates fake likes and views

The botnet manager said that he advertises his offers on the secure messaging app, Telegram. He includes popular influencers, who have a huge number of followers, together with his other clients.

He claimed that it only took him a few hours to generate fake views on Instagram Reels.

"I use my bots for followers' stories' Likes, and now for Reels," said the botnet manager.

"I guess Instagram is happy if we push their TikTok copy," he added, saying that Instagram does not have any regulations stating that view botting is not allowed.

However, the parent firm of Instagram, Facebook, said that the company is making ways on how to crack down on inauthentic activity. The new app was said to be Facebook's second attempt to capitalize on the short-form video market, its previous app, Lasso, was closed last month.

For more news updates about the new feature of Instagram, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Also Read: China's Voice Bots Can Make 3,000 Annoying Calls A Day Even If You Block Them

This article is owned by TechTimes,

Written by: Giuliano de Leon.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
DALLAS, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Employer Direct Healthcare is excited to announce its partnership with Trend Micro, Inc. Beginning in January 2020, Trend Micro began offering Employer Direct Healthcare's SurgeryPlus benefit, a supplemental benefit providing surgical concierge services with a focus on quality care, lower costs, and a better member experience.

The members participating in Trend Micro's health plan will have access to the SurgeryPlus benefit's full-service health care concierge for over 1,400 non-emergent procedures. When they choose to utilize the SurgeryPlus benefit, members will be paired with their own dedicated Care Advocate. Their Care Advocate will assist them with everything from their selection of a surgeon, to scheduling appointments, transferring medical records, and even arranging travel, removing the stress and confusion often associated with planning for medical care.

As an added benefit, when participants elect to use a participating surgeon through the SurgeryPlus benefit, Trend Micro will waive their out-of-pocket financial responsibility (deductible and coinsurance).

John Zutter, CEO of Employer Direct Healthcare commented, "We are thrilled to partner with Trend Micro as part of their strategy to provide superior health benefits for their employees and their dependents. The current COVID-19 crisis has had profound impacts, both societally and financially. People across the country have had to put their medical needs on hold and are now struggling to navigate the system. At SurgeryPlus, we guide our clients' employees and their dependents through the health system, focusing on providing access to top-quality surgical care at fair prices."

About Employer Direct Healthcare and the SurgeryPlus Benefit

Employer Direct Healthcare is an innovative health care services business providing high-quality and cost-efficient solutions for self-funded employers and their members. The company's core product, the SurgeryPlus benefit, provides full-service surgical concierge services to covered members, managing the entire process on their behalf. The SurgeryPlus benefit helps members identify quality providers at lower costs, helping employers and their plan participants dramatically reduce surgical costs while providing satisfying outcomes for members. Employer Direct Healthcare is majority owned by Dundon Capital Partners, LLC, a Dallas-based private investment firm, founded by Tom Dundon.

Contact for Employer Direct Healthcare: 855-200-2099.

SOURCE Employer Direct Healthcare

Related Links

http://www.edhc.com


The Airports Authority of India, which runs the airport, and the government of Kerala must act in tandem. PTI Photo

It would be some time before we get to know what led to crashlanding of the Air India Express flight at Kozhikode airport on Friday, which claimed the life of 18 passengers including the pilot and the co-pilot.

The Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has already initiated an investigation into the accident in which the aircraft, part of the Vande Bharat Mission, carrying 191 passengers including the crew skidded off the runway and ran into a ditch.

Inclement weather and poor visibility coupled with human error have been cited as early reasons but the whole truth will come out only when the investigation is completed. It should also reveal if the systems were made to make amends for the errors that caused a similar accident in Mangaluru airport 10 years ago.

An aircraft is a magnificent engineering product which has evolved over a century and air travel is the safest mode of transport if we consider the number of people using it.

This is basically because it is system-dependent, and recalibrates itself if something goes wrong anywhere in the system. It is imperative on the part of the regulators and the authorities to pick lessons from the Kozhikode incident and improve it further.

While awaiting the investigation report, we must comment on the grace, presence of mind, valour and selflessness, which were on display at Kozhikode immediately after the mishap.

The local residents of the nearby Kondotty town in Malappuram district rushed to the accident site, launched the rescue operations in no time and, with the help of the rescue team from the airport, completed the job in about less than two hours.

They evacuated all the passengers and rushed them to the nearby hospitals despite knowing the fact that they are operating in a Covid containment zone and that many of the passengers could have been infected with the coronavirus.

The timely intervention has considerably reduced the casualty, according to doctors. The social media was awash with photographs of youngsters rushing to hospitals and queuing up to donate blood for people whom they have not heard before.

That, however, should bring certain other disturbing facts to the attention of the government. The DGCA had banned the operation of wide-bodied aircraft under Code E from May 2015 after an inspection by the regulator flagged safety concerns and later in 2018 allowed the same.

The aircraft that met with the accident does not belong to that class but experts have already called for a reassessment of the safety standards.

The tabletop airport, which is traditionally considered accident prone, needs expansion of its runway and the proposal to acquire about 100 acres for the project has been hanging fire for long.

The Airports Authority of India, which runs the airport, and the government of Kerala must act in tandem, discuss it with the people and their representatives and complete the project after meeting their demands at the earliest so that all types of aircraft can have safe landing there.
Why has the United States' 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 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-defence 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 precisely that meant.

Only 14 nations, all in the developing world, and the Vatican still recognise Taiwan.

Beijing has tried hard to stop any international recognition for the island.

The United States, while recognising 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 centre 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.
When Virginia Beavert received her Ph.D. in linguistics at the age of 90, it was the culmination of almost eight decades of work preserving the Ichishkiin language. A member of the Yakama Nation, she had started doing language documentation at the age of 12, when she served as an interpreter and transcriber for researchers studying languages of the Pacific Northwests indigenous groups. As an adult, Beavert worked on the first-ever Ichishkiin dictionary, recorded Yakama myths, and contributed to grammars and word lists of her mother tongue.

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Earlier this summer, when she addressed fellow language activists from around the world via Zoom at a conference, she struck a determined tone. I want to let you know that we are here, she said to the camera at one point, and we are supportive.

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As is the case for so many during the pandemic, language activists, linguists, and others who work on revitalization campaigns are reimagining their work at a time when coronavirus has made in-person meetings impossible. Its a transition that has taken on particular urgency given the fact that the speaker pool for the worlds threatened and endangered languages skews olderprecisely the population most at risk from the pandemic. This problem is compounded by the fact that indigenous communities not just in the United States but around the world are disproportionately affected both by the virus and by the economic toll of the shutdown.

Against this backdrop, the push to keep language revitalization going under lockdown is a symbol of cultural resilienceand, for many, an opportunity to build national and international solidarity among indigenous peoples around the world.

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Many indigenous groups in the United States have long had provisions for distance learning. This is particularly the case for reservations that are checkerboards, with plots owned by native and non-native people intermingled, the legacy of 19th-century policies aimed at forcing assimilation by carving up communally owned land into private allotments. In some places, however, persistent connectivity issues make transitioning to online revitalization work a challenge. Despite calls from indigenous communities to address disparities, the FCC estimated in 2018 that 35 percent of tribal land residents still dont have broadband access.

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In spite of these obstacles, a number of language revitalization professionals report that their projects are not just continuing under quarantinetheyre expanding. Such was the case at Northwest Indian Language Institute, which Beavert addressed via Zoom after its in-person summer intensive was moved online. In the run-up to the programs kickoff this year, NILI Associate Director Robert Elliott says he and his colleagues were shocked to see enrollment hit 450a huge jump from the 60-65 people who usually attend the in-person workshops. Scheduling the program, Elliot told me, had always been tricky, given that many local tribes observe major cultural events such as canoe journeys during the summer. Putting the workshops online allows people to take part without leaving their communities during such significant times. Not only that, but there were now participants were from around the worldlinguists, teachers, and indigenous community members from Australia, India, Nepal, and elsewhere who were looking to learn and share stories and strategies with indigenous people in the U.S. Elliot now envisions a permanent online component, running in parallel with in-person teaching whenever it is safe to resume. Weve been playing around with online learning for a while, he says. The pandemic has forced us to go into the deep endno more sticking your toe in the water and trying this out.  Now that were in the water, theres no going back to the way it used to be.

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Programs like these come as UNESCO gears up to inaugurate the International Decade of Indigenous Languages starting in 2022, with the goal of preserving the worlds linguistic diversity. Currently, 43 percent of the worlds languages are believed to be endangered. In a roadmap for language promotion released in preparation for the decade, UNESCO explicitly highlighted the importance of digital activists as teachers for the future. One activist contributing to programming in preparation for UNESCOs indigenous language revitalization push is Jacey Firth-Hagen, a young Gwichin woman from Inuvik, Canada, who is heavily involved with youth development in her community. When the quarantine began in her area, Firth-Hagen told me, she wanted to take the opportunity to recommit to her language work. I thought, This is the perfect time to share the language, and if someone wants to learn they may have more time on their hands. 



The cornerstone of Firth-Hagens project, #SpeakGwichinToMe, is bite-sized, easily accessible language lessons delivered via videos and photos that she uploads to Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms, a format inspired by the work of Sami language revitalizers in the Nordic countries. Her focus is on words and phrases that could be used in real lifewhether its zhaaka, meaning jeez, or ejeii drin, meaning Happy Halloween. When the pandemic began, she busied herself with more video production and also shared her story with other youth in the Arctic who might be thinking about starting similar efforts for their own communities.

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Firth-Hagen is hardly alone in feeling a renewed pull toward language revitalization during quarantine. Linguistic anthropologist Anna Luisa Daigneault, program director at the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages in Oregon, told me that some of the initiatives shes worked on have expanded in recent months as her collaborators find themselves with more free time. A downloadable toolkit created by Living Tongues and the online language documentation initiative Wikitongues provides information on how to set up autocorrect in a new language, record oral histories, and apply for grant fundingall tasks that can be accomplished during quarantine.



One project that has seen particular growth during the pandemic has been talking dictionaries, open-source lexicons that feature audio entries. Since the outbreak began, Daigneault has been holding regular webinars with collaborators around the world on how speakers can work on dictionaries from home. It creates visibility for the languages on the internet, she says of the project, and it empowers the community to really take charge of their own documentation. At present, Living Tongues hosts more than 80 such dictionaries on its site.



In recent weeks, Daigneault and her colleagues have been reaching out to collaborators every day, eliciting new words, going over old linguistic data, and asking clarification questions about grammar and vocabulary over the phone. Its a good way to connect with a lot of the speakers we work with who feel very isolated right now, she says.

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But technological solutions cannot solve every problem posed for language revitalization at this time. Firth-Hagen found herself needing to take a step back from recording work after her initial spurt of activity. In regards to mental health, it is such a difficult and challenging time for all of us. At first I was really pumped, but it got a little too much for me, she says. Firth-Hagens experience reflects a question that many language activists must face at this time: how to balance the urgency of their work, the sense of responsibility they feel toward past and future generations, and the societal pressure to be more productive than ever during quarantine with the very real need to preserve their own well-being. And at a time when the shadow of the pandemic looms particularly long over indigenous communities, it can be difficult, amid worrying for ones family, livelihood, and future, to find energy for the daily labor of language learning and teaching.

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But if life under the pandemic is frequently characterized by anxiety and loneliness, communal language revitalization projects go some way towards combatting precisely those feelings. People feel like theyre working in isolation, Elliott says of many language campaigners who attend the Northwest Indian Language Institute. A lot of times, working in a tribe, theres a couple people working on the language and theres maybe a dozen, two dozen people who are interested in the language and taking part actively. But on a Zoom call with people from across the globe sharing teaching tips and research findings, he says, its a feeling that quickly fades. When you get that kind of discussion going, it breaks down the isolation.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
Jay Elkin says he wanted to run for public office as a way of helping and serving his community.

A Republican from Taylor, Elkin was first elected as a county commissioner in Stark County in 2008. Now, hes running for his second term as a state senator for District 36.

I love helping people. And I especially love helping people from my area, Elkin said.

But as the coronavirus continues to spread across the country, Elkin and other candidates in North Dakotas 2020 state races are being forced to alter their campaigning methods, taking away from face-to-face contact with constituents.

For Elkin, this meant reaching out to voters through local newspapers and mailing information about his campaign. He said that cost more than knocking on doors, and it caused him to lose in-person contacts where constituents could share their concerns with him.

I'd rather meet with people face to face and I believe that -- I'm hoping that -- we can do that come this fall, Elkin said. It just makes it easier. It's cleaner, its cheaper, and then I get to see the people. And that's what I want.

Other candidates said phone calling has been vital to their campaign while practicing social distancing. Terri Hedman, a Democrat running in Senate District 46 in Fargo, said she looks forward to meet-and-greets when campaigning, but she has relied on calling constituents this election season.

Democrat Kyle Thorson, challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Scott Meyer in District 18 in Grand Forks, has used Zoom as a new way of connecting with voters in addition to making phone calls and using social media. Thorson uses Zoom not only to meet with his campaign team and see people face to face, but also participates in events like a small business forum to talk about business owners needs during the pandemic.

I think the other piece that I'm kind of missing myself that is a fun part about elections is being able to get together with people who care about the same issues as you and really are excited to work to make the community a better place, Thorson said. You can do that a little by Zoom, but the energy level, you know, that feeling of being in a room with people who are excited, I've been missing that a little bit.

For some, finding ways to make contact in-person while staying safe has been a priority. Republican Curt Kreun, the incumbent senator in District 42 in Grand Forks, said he hopes to do some door-knocking this fall. He plans to bring a mask with him and will wear it depending on the comfort level of his constituents.

Kreun said his campaign is trying to use similar strategies as in previous years, but will likely use some, such as social media, more than others, depending on the pandemic. He said he hopes to still have face-to-face interaction with voters so as not to lose passionate conversations he could have with his constituents when door knocking or participating in forums.

Kreuns opponent, Democrat Melissa Gjellstad, also plans to have safe in-person interaction with voters. She said shes attended gatherings in peoples yards, consisting of 10 to 12 attendees, and has hosted small meet and greets in local parks. Those attending wear masks and practice social distancing during the events, and some constituents sew masks to sell during the events.

I feel like in the alternate ways that we've been finding, it's still a way to hear that consistent voter message of what things folks are interested in, Gjellstad said. It's healthcare, it's education, it's infrastructure and COVID preparedness. And that message is coming through loud and clear in every avenue that we're using.

For Elkin, Election Day will be a way to bring the community together after months apart. He said while many will choose to vote by absentee ballot, he does not believe the pandemic will cause a drop in voter turnout this November.

Gjellstad said she has seen a large passion for issues around the pandemic and beyond from her community during her campaign so far, and believes with clear messaging on how to vote this year, constituents will turn out as normal.

I mean, people are really engaged in topics right now, in issues that matter most to them, so I think that will be a driver to help folks get out and elect leaders that they believe will do right by them, Gjellstad said.
Islamabad, Aug 10 : Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged citizens to refrain from flouting standard operating procedures (SOPs) during Muharram despite a reduction in the number of COVID-19 cases.

Speaking at a ceremony here on Sunday, he said: "Today Pakistan is among those few countries that have successfully managed to control the pandemic.

"This is a time for precaution. If God has blessed us, we need to be thankful, and wear a mask." Muharram is one of the most important months for Muslims and marks the start of the Islamic New Year.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data, the number of tests, which had dropped to around 11,000 during Eid-ul-Adha holidays, has increased again, with 23,390 people having been tested across the country during the past 24 hours, reports Dawn news.

In Sindh, 10,001 people were tested for COVID-19, followed by Punjab with 7,114, Islamabad 2,931, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 2,314, Balochistan 697, Gilgit-Baltistan 117 and in Azad Kashmir 216 people.

As of Monday, the totoal number of confirmed cases in Pakistan stood at 284,660, with 6,097 deaths.
PrestigePEO, a leading professional employer organization (PEO) that partners with small and mid-sized businesses throughout the United States to deliver full-service HR solutions, is excited to announce a new partnership with ExpensePath, enabling clients to offer a fully digital expense reporting and payroll experience to their employees  from request to reimbursement.

ExpensePath seamlessly integrates expense reporting and payroll, reducing administrative workloads and simplifying operations for your employees. With ExpensePath, employees simply enter their spending details online and submit for approval. Managers and finance departments can then quickly review and approve, and with just one click, export data to initiate reimbursement via payroll. The system is custom configured to meet the needs of each unique business.

ExpensePath goes beyond payroll to enable valuable process improvements. Features like automated violation tracking and customized trends and spend data reports can help SMBs gain control of costs and implement smarter spending policies. It also brings efficiency to time tracking, employee benefits, and other HR functions.

Employees at SMBs often spend so much of their time on burdensome, repetitive tasks that can easily be automated with the right technology platforms. The powerful combination of ExpensePath and PrestigePEO increases efficiency through each step of expense reporting and payroll processing, freeing up employee time and empowering them to focus on goals that truly drive business growth.

PrestigePEO is dedicated to continuously improving critical HR functions like payroll, employee benefits, legal compliance, and more for our clients. Contact PrestigePEO today to learn more about ExpensePath and all of our service offerings.

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PrestigePEO, incorporated as Prestige Employee Administrators Inc., empowers small and mid-sized businesses to simplify HR by offering end-to-end support for employee benefits management, payroll administration, workers compliance, HR guidance, and more. Merging the power of industry-leading customer service with innovative technology options, PrestigePEO delivers a full spectrum of HR services and solutions to help SMBs lower employee benefit costs, reduce administrative workloads, and manage critical HR functions. PrestigePEO is among only 1% of PEOs that are ESAC-accredited, Workers Comp Risk Management (CI)-certified, and classified as a Certified Professional Employer Organization (CPEO) by the IRS  demonstrating financial stability and strict adherence with a diverse range of regulatory and security standards. Headquartered in Melville, NY, PrestigePEO is licensed to support SMBs nationwide and proud to serve long-standing clients across the tri-state area.

Learn more at http://www.prestigepeo.com.

About ExpensePath

Launched in 2010, ExpensePath was founded to bring a simple solution for expense reporting to small- and mid-sized companies. Headquartered San Francisco, the company was founded by Vik Agrawal and Andrew Kothen to deliver a solution that delivered the same level of features as enterprise solutions but with an ease of use, level of support and pricepoint needed by smaller organizations. For more information, visit http://www.expensepath.com.
The enormous hit taken by the hospitality and tourism industries became sadly predictable by the middle of March.

But did you foresee the troubles bearing down on the denim business, too?

Just as meal kit companies have profited from the pain of restaurants, so athleisures gain has been blue jeans loss. Levis reported a 62% sales drop in the second quarter and laid off hundreds. But the real carnage has been on the higher end, in the stores where cut-offs go for $128. The parent of Joes Jeans warned that it might not be able to continue as a going concern. Bankruptcy has overtaken True Religion, G-Star RAW, and, as of July 3, Lucky Brand Dungarees.

That gave Lucky Brand just seven weeks to savor its recent victory in the U.S. Supreme Court. In May, the court unanimously ruled in Lucky Brands favor in litigation thats been going on, with two short breaks, since 2001.

Lucky Brand was founded in Los Angeles in 1990, five years after another company, the wholesaler Marcel Fashions Group, started up in Miami. In 1986, Marcel trademarked the phrase Get Lucky, which it uses as a trade name. Its website is headed: Marcel Fashions dba Get Lucky.

Now, the word lucky, derived from the Anglo-Saxon, has been in use in English since at least the 15th century, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. The phrase get lucky is such an obvious extension that it must have followed soon after. And how long do you think it took sniggering Oxford undergraduates to give the phrase its second meaning? Sixteenth century by the latest, Id say.

But Marcel Fashions Group was apparently the first American company to trademark it. And so when Lucky Brand decided its previous ads were too subtle and began selling skin-tight jeans with the slogan, Get lucky, Marcel was ready to pounce. It filed its first trademark infringement suit against Lucky Brand in 2001.

The companies fought for two years before reaching the inevitable settlement by which Lucky Brand agreed to stop using the trademarked phrase. But, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, the ink was barely dry on the settlement agreement before the companies were at it again. This time, Lucky Brand started it, claiming that Marcel was copying its designs.

Marcel fired back with a counterclaim alleging that Lucky Brand was still using the slogan it had agreed not to use. Marcel was able to present conclusive proof of its counterclaim. The district court permanently enjoined Lucky Brand from using the phrase and, after a jury trial, ordered it to pay $300,000 in damages.

But that wasnt enough for Marcel. In 2011, it went for the kill, filing a new suit asking the court to enjoin Lucky Brand from using any of Lucky Brands marks containing the word Lucky.' It was trying to stop Lucky Brand from using its own name.

The companies spent the next nine years arguing about what they were arguing about. Lucky Brand first claimed that Marcel was just relitigating the original case, and the district court agreed, dismissing the suit. Marcel appealed, contending that it was instead complaining about Lucky Brands continuing use of marks other than the Get lucky slogan. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, sending the case back for trial.

Back in trial court, Lucky Brand claimed it should win based on language in the original settlement agreement. Marcel countered that Lucky Brand was precluded from raising that defense because it could have raised it previously but failed to do so. The district court again ruled for Lucky Brand and the 2nd Circuit again sided with Marcel, becoming one of the few federal courts to adopt the controversial doctrine of defense preclusion.

Lucky Brand then took the case to the Supreme Court, which unanimously ruled that the 2nd Circuit didnt know what it was talking about. Sotomayors opinion for the court used slightly more diplomatic language than that. But even if defense preclusion is a thing, it would apply only when the current claims are identical to previously-litigated claims, while the claims raised in the third round of litigation (involving the use of the word lucky by itself) were obviously different than those at issue in the first two rounds.

The Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower courts for further proceedings. Immediately, the parties began fighting about which lower court should hear it, the district court or the 2nd Circuit. Their renewed brawling was rudely interrupted by Lucky Brands Chapter 11 filing, which imposed an automatic stay on all litigation outside of bankruptcy court.

Still, somebody got lucky: the lawyers.

Joel Jacobsen is an author who in 2015 retired from a 29-year legal career. If there are topics you would like to see covered in future columns, please write him at legal.column.tips@gmail.com.
(Reuters) - The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) said on Friday it would continue to accredit the Perth Mint after an investigation into allegations that it processed unethically sourced gold found no significant wrongdoing.

The withdrawal of accreditation would have hurt the mint, one of the worlds largest gold refiners, because big banks that dominate gold trading usually require it.

The LBMAs guidelines aim to ensure that refiners do not process material whose production or trade contributes to human rights abuses, conflict, crime or environmental degradation.

The Australian Financial Review newspaper said in June the Perth Mint had refined gold from small-scale gold miners in Papua New Guinea who used child labour and toxic mercury.

The mint, owned by the government of Western Australia, has insisted it acted legally and ethically.

The LBMA said its investigation had revealed no zero-tolerance non-conformance, and that the Perth Mint would therefore remain on its good delivery list of refiners.

It said it had uncovered less serious failings in the way the mint assessed supply chain risks, including the failure to categorise the company in Papua New Guinea from which it took gold as a high risk supplier.

The mint must make improvements to its sourcing procedures and have these scrutinised by an outside auditor, the LBMA said. It declined to say what these were.

It said it had removed its accreditation from the mints previous auditor and was reviewing the accreditation of the company that auditor worked for, Bureau Veritas (BVI.PA).

Bureau Veritas did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Perth Mint CEO Richard Hayes said the LBMA had confirmed the rigour and integrity of the mints procedures and that its recommendations would be implemented.

He said a minority of the major banks that take gold from the mint had paused purchases during the LBMA investigation but he expected these to now resume.

Following the Australian Financial Review report the Perth Mint said it would stop processing metal from artisanal and small-scale miners. Hayes said such gold accounted for 0.3% of the refinerys throughput.
NEW YORK, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Clinical Risk Grouping Solution Market Research Report by Product (Dashboard Analytics Solutions, Risk Reporting Solutions, and Scorecards & Visualization Tools), by Deployment Mode (Private Cloud and Public Cloud), by End User - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913845/?utm_source=PRN



The Global Clinical Risk Grouping Solution Market is expected to grow from USD 561.50 Million in 2019 to USD 1,155.10 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.77%.



Market Segmentation & Coverage:

This research report categorizes the Clinical Risk Grouping Solution to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:



Based on Product, the Clinical Risk Grouping Solution Market studied across Dashboard Analytics Solutions, Risk Reporting Solutions, and Scorecards & Visualization Tools.



Based on Deployment Mode, the Clinical Risk Grouping Solution Market studied across Private Cloud and Public Cloud.



Based on End User, the Clinical Risk Grouping Solution Market studied across Ambulatory Care Centers, Hospitals, Long-Term Care Centers, and Payers.



Based on Geography, the Clinical Risk Grouping Solution 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 Clinical Risk Grouping Solution Market including 3M Company, 4S Information Systems Ltd., Cerner Corporation, Conduent Incorporated, Dynamic Healthcare Systems, Inc., Evolent Health, HBI Solutions, Inc., Health Catalyst Inc., Johns Hopkins University, Lightbeam Health Solutions, LLC, Nuance Communications, Optum Inc., and Perahealth, Inc..



FPNV Positioning Matrix:

The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Clinical Risk Grouping Solution 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 Clinical Risk Grouping Solution Market?

2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Clinical Risk Grouping Solution Market during the forecast period?

3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Clinical Risk Grouping Solution Market?

4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Clinical Risk Grouping Solution Market?

5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Clinical Risk Grouping Solution Market?

6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Clinical Risk Grouping Solution Market?



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913845/?utm_source=PRN



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ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Modelled on Long/Short High Yield strategy run by Jason Horowitz for a decade

Alternative credit specialist CIFC has launched a long/short high yield UCITS fund managed by industry veteran Jason Horowitz, who has been running similar strategies successfully for over 10 years.

Mr. Horowitz joined the New York-based manager in January as Head of U.S. High Yield Bond Investments. He has been managing the strategy for CIFC since February 1, 2020, delivering a 12.69% net gain to the end of July, compared with a 0.18% loss for the wider U.S. high yield market.1 The strategy made positive returns during March at the height of market anxiety around Covid-19.

The UCITS fund, which mirrors the existing strategy, is designed to seek high single-digit returns while protecting capital in down markets. The strategy is offered as a new sub-fund of CIFC Credit Fund ICAV, a UCITS structure domiciled in Dublin.

CIFC London MD Josh Hughes said: "CIFC believes that this is the right time for a strategy like this, which has shown over the long-term that it can deliver attractive returns in all weathers. Jason has 25 years of investment experience and is supported by CIFC's strong credit research team. By launching the strategy within a UCITS fund structure we can open it up to a wider audience, including wealth managers and private banks, as well as European-based pension funds, family offices and other investors."

Mr. Horowitz previously worked at Millennium Management. Prior to that he spent 13 years at Muzinich Co., overseeing an award-winning long/short corporate credit hedge fund. He was joined at CIFC by Brandon Hole and Eric Seiden, who worked with Mr. Horowitz at Millennium Management as well.

Mr. Horowitz said: "I believe that the high yield market is well-suited for a long/short strategy because there are lots of market inefficiencies that create opportunities in either direction for those with the research capacity and technical expertise. CIFC has a 47-strong investment team, with 20 analysts who will all bring ideas to this strategy."

The strategy offered in UCITS form will seek to capture returns from four areas: identifying long/short opportunities through fundamental credit research; exploiting long and short technical opportunities and inefficiencies in different segments of the high yield market; investing in dependable credit from short-dated bonds with low-volatility characteristics; and arbitrage.

The CIFC Long/Short High Yield strategy has a number of features that CIFC believes will help to reduce downside risk. Mr. Horowitz said: "We regularly stress-test the impact of possible macro events on industries and companies to understand where the risks lie and how we might mitigate them. We have a strict sell discipline for when our thesis changes or the outlook changes. And, of course, the ability to short means where we see particular risk, we have the opportunity to turn it to our investors' advantage.

"We do not look to generate our entire year's return on one or two trades we seek to maintain a diversified portfolio by credit and sector and closely monitor liquidity risk to the individual positions and portfolio overall. We focus on beta-adjusted portfolio-level net exposure, average rating, duration and yield as opposed to using a black box approach that may break down during periods of heightened volatility. We think that this gives us a good feel for what our risk is at any given time.

"The Covid-19 pandemic is unparalleled, but we have experienced tough markets before, and though nothing is ever guaranteed, we can see lots of opportunities to protect the portfolio and generate strong returns."

Steve Vaccaro, CEO and CIO of CIFC, said: "Jason, Brandon and Eric have a vast amount of expertise and experience in the high yield market. When you add this to CIFC's existing deep bench of corporate credit research analysts, it makes for a compelling proposition. This fund demonstrates our commitment to continuing to expand the range and flexibility of our investment solutions for investors around the world."

About CIFC

Founded in 2005, CIFC is a credit specialist with over $26 billion of assets under management, specialising in corporate and structured credit strategies. Headquartered in New York, CIFC is authorised and regulated by the FCA and is a SEC registered investment adviser. It opened its London office in May 2018. Serving institutional investors globally, CIFC is one of the largest managers of senior secured corporate credit. For more information, visit: www.cifc.com

The material is for informational purposes only and should not be regarded as a recommendation or an offer to buy or sell any product or service to which this information may relate. Certain products and services may not be available to all entities or persons.

Information about indices is provided to allow for certain comparisons of a fund or strategy to that of certain well known and widely recognized indices. Such information is included to show the general trend in the markets during the period indicated and is not intended to imply that the holdings of the fund or strategy were similar to the indices, either in composition, risk profile, expected returns and expected volatility. There is no representation that such index is an appropriate benchmark for such comparison. Such indices are not actively managed and therefore do not have transaction costs, management or performance fees or other operational expenses. The investment program of a fund or strategy is not restricted to the securities comprising such indices, and the volatility of the indices may be materially different from the volatility of the fund or strategy.

An investment in any fund involves risk; principal loss is possible. There is no guarantee a fund's investment objectives will be achieved. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The value of fixed income securities may decline significantly over short or extended periods of time. More information on these risk considerations, as well as information on other risks to which the UCITS are subject, such as concentration/non-diversification and investment strategy risks, are included in the UCITS' prospectus.

This release does not constitute or contain an offer, solicitation, recommendation or investment advice with respect to the purchase of the UCITS described herein or any security. Prospective investors should carefully consider objectives, risks, charges, tax considerations and expenses and other relevant information before investing. For this and more information on the CIFC Credit Funds ICAV, please request a prospectus and read it carefully before you invest in any particular sub-fund offered. Prospective investors should also consult their professional advisers as to the suitability of any investment in light of their particular circumstances and applicable citizenship, residence or domicile. CIFC Credit Fund ICAV has been authorized in Ireland as a UCITS pursuant to the European Communities (Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities) Regulation, as amended.

Shares of CIFC Credit Fund ICAV are only available for certain non-U.S. persons in select transactions outside the United States in accordance with Regulation S promulgated under the United States Securities Act of 1933, or, in such other limited circumstances and transactions which are exempt from the registration requirements of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended and such other U.S. laws as may be applicable.

Certain share classes of the CIFC Credit Fund ICAV are registered for public offer and sale in the Republic of Ireland. Fund shares may be otherwise sold on a private placement basis depending on the jurisdiction.

1 Based on the ICE BofA US Cash Pay High Yield Index. Feb 1 to July 31, 2020. The index is unmanaged and therefore does not take into account the deduction of fees and expenses.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200810005201/en/

Contacts:

Media

U.K.

Martin Stott, Bulletin PR

+44 (0)115 907 8413

U.S.

Amanda Klein/Sam Fisher, Gasthalter Co.

(212) 257-4170




Haiti - News : Zapping...





Army : last graduation in Ecuador

On Sunday in Ecuador, the Haitian cadet Eloge Goosmith graduated from the Eloy Alfaro Military School (ESMIL) with the rank of Sub-Lieutenant, Military Intelligence Category. Eloge Goosmith was the last cadet in training for military cooperation between Haiti and Ecuador. In total between 2012 and 2020 were trained : 10 Cadet Specialists in the rank of Lieutenant Military Engineer. 11 cadets Category Weapons and 130 Soldiers Specialists : Military Engineering Corps.



The Mayor of Carrefour is no longer resigning

"By respect for the votes of my constituents and in order to complete the 9 projects that I initiated, in particular the Cultural Center, I have decided not to resign. My apologies to all those who would upset this decision in one way or another, but I chose Carrefour," Jude Edouard Pierre, Mayor of Carrefour.



Gang rapes

During the night of Friday August 7 to Saturday August 8, 2020, in the locality "Choran" (3rd communal section of Jeremie) a case of gang rape was reported. Armed individuals entered several houses and after having immobilized the men present under the threat of their weapons, they raped 4 women including a 17-year-old girl, before leaving the scene of their crimes without being worried by taking objects of values.



State funding by the BRH explodes

According to Economist Thomas Lalime, the monetary financing of the BRH reached a record level in Haiti, going from 4.14 billion gourdes in June 2019 to 34.04 billion on June 30, 2020, i.e. 8 times more... Lalime emphasizes that the funding monetary seriously affects the exchange rate which lowers the value of the gourde which has lost 28% of its value since July 29, 2019. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-31503-haiti-economy-the-brh-financed-the-state-to-the-tune-of-more-than-34-billion-fiscal-year-2019-2020.html



CEP : The women's sector appoints its Representative

On Saturday August 8, the "Women's Political Tribune" coalition, after consultation with several women's organizations, and other personalities in the country and in the diaspora, decided to appoint Marie Rebecca Guillaume as Representative of the women's sector at the next Provisional Electoral Council. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-31458-haiti-news-zapping.html



Cap Haitien : Intensive cleaning

Sunday in order to show the need to regularly clean up the urban environment of Capois, the municipal authorities of Cap-Haitien, in concert with the National Directorate of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DINEPA) and other partner institutions, carried out an intensive cleaning operation in the second city of the country. These operations are part of the sanitation activities that must precede the official commemoration of the 350th anniversary of the Cite Christophienne in a few days.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Connecticut voters will become the last in the nation to cast 2020 ballots in a presidential primary election on Tuesday, after the coronavirus pandemic prompted the state to move back its contest from April to August.

While former Vice President Joe Biden has the Democratic nomination already locked up, the late vote means Connecticut will not allot its delegates to Biden  or his primary challengers, should they still capture support  until days before the Democratic National Convention, when the party will crown him as its standardbearer.

That vote is expected next week in a virtual national party convention.

Democrats will be able to cast a presidential primary vote for Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., or Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii.

Republicans can vote for President Donald Trump or Roque Rocky de la Fuente, a San Diego businessman who has run a number of failed campaigns.

Republican and Democratic voters will also cast ballots in congressional, state Senate, state House and municipal races.

Due to the pandemic, every Connecticut active registered Democrat and Republican was mailed an absentee ballot application to opt to receive an absentee ballot if they wished. State officials have encouraged voters to cast their ballots by mail or drop them in specially marked ballot boxes outside town offices  a new option this year due to the pandemic.

With the number of absentee ballots that are reportedly coming back, there has been a higher turnout than in other primary years, which I have to say is surprising, said Nancy DiNardo, chairwoman of the state Democratic party.

Voters will cast ballots in person at 748 polling places statewide on Tuesday, with coronavirus precautions.

Tropical Storm Isaias added another pre-election obstacle. The storm knocked out power at polling places and town halls and slowed mail delivery, Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said. All polling places are now operating on generator or regular power, Merrill said. Voters who just received their absentee ballots should place them in the new municipal ballot boxes, instead of using the U.S. Postal Service, Merrill advised  although late Monday, Gov. Ned Lamont said ballots need only be postmarked by Tuesday, not delivered to town clerks by then.

The presidential primary was pushed from April 28 to June 2 due to the virus, and later bounced to Aug. 11, to coincide with state and local primaries, in an effort to protect poll workers. By holding one primary instead of two, the state could prepare for the anticipate surge in absentee ballot voting and save money, Merrill said.

In Connecticuts 1st Congressional District, Republicans Jim Griffin and Mary Fay will fight for the opportunity to challenge longtime Democratic Rep. John Larson. Fay is a member of the West Hartford Town Council and financial services executive, a self-described moderate who Republicans hope can claim the support of centrists. Griffin, who has out-fundraised Fay, formerly worked for the White House Office of Budget and Management in the 1980s, before a career of lobbying for Colt Manufacturing and non-profit work.

In eastern Connecticut, Republicans Thomas Gilmer and Justin Anderson are vying for a primary win to take on U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2. Gilmer, the GOP endorsed candidate, is a Madison resident who works in commercial construction and has a long-held passion for politics. Anderson, of East Haddam, is a military veteran who served in Afghanistan and a former corrections officer.

Among General Assembly races, in Bridgeport, state Sen. Marilyn Moore and Marcus Brown will face off in a closely watched Democratic primary that is likely to decide the general election result. Brown, a two-term councilman, won the nomination for the seat over Moore, who has held it since 2015  a year after Moore challenged Mayor Joe Ganim in a party primary.

That is the only primary challenge to a sitting state senator.

In Hamden, Democrats Jorge Cabrera and Justin Farmer are competing for the opportunity to run against state Sen. George Logan, R-Ansonia. Cabrera and Logan faced off in 2018 and Logan narrowly won by 77 votes.

Republicans Kim Healy of Wilton and William Duff of Bethel are both seeking a primary victory in the 26th Senate District, now representated by Democratic state Sen. Will Haskell. Haskell, 24, claimed the seat from Republican Toni Boucher in 2018.

emilie.munson@hearstdc.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 00:17:03|Editor: huaxia

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DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Monday hailed Tanzania's new simplified birth registration system for under-five children saying the system will help more children in the country to claim their rights and be protected.

"Every child has the right to an identity. A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child," said UNICEF acting representative in Tanzania Rene Van Dongen.

The UNICEF official said the right to be registered immediately after birth, to have a name and acquire a nationality is every child's right.

He said the simplified birth registration program was aimed at ensuring that millions of children under five years old, who were "invisible" in the nation's records, will now be "visible".

The UNICEF official spoke at an event to launch the implementation of the simplified birth registration system for Tanga and Kilimanjaro regions where in the next two months more than 580,000 under-five children are expected to receive a birth certificate.

Tanga and Kilimanjaro join 16 other regions where more than 4.6 million children under the age of five have been registered since the program started to be implemented in 2013.

The new system has resulted in an overall increase of certification of under-fives in these regions from less than 10 percent to more than 80 percent.

Emmy Hudson, Acting Administrator General and Chief Executive Officer of the Registration, Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA), responsible for the program, said the new system significantly accelerated birth registration in Tanzania.

"The system makes it easier for children and their families to access the entitlement of a birth certificate," she said. Enditem
(TNS)  The Grant County, Wash., Courthouse and other county buildings will be getting new keyless entry systems on their exterior doors, a project that could cost more than $200,000.County commissioners approved $249,000 for the project, but, said Tom Gaines, central services director, it may cost less than that.The new keyless entries will use a card system. Gaines said the biggest expense is not the latches but the associated technology and the equipment required to make the cards. Gaines estimated the technology would cost about $100,000, with the rest of the money going to the locks, card makers and other equipment.The courthouse and annex will get new keyless entries on exterior doors, as will the countys youth services facility, its public works building and the law and justice building, which houses the Grant County Jail. Offices within the courthouse facilities will get new locks.Its all being paid for with grant funds, Gaines said. The grant are through the federal CARES Act, designed to help state and local governments address some of the consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak. Among other things, it pays for projects that would help reduce the chance of spreading the coronavirus. The grant will pay for the first phase of a longer project, since replacing the locks and latches on all county properties would cost more than the funds available through the grant. Gaines said county officials want to keep replacing the locks with keys with a keyless system, which would become a continuing capital project.The new keyless entries will reduce the number of times people have to touch the surface of the door, thereby reducing the chances of spreading any germs on the surface. Gaines said that qualifies the project for the CARES Act funding.Were focusing on exterior doors and some interior doors, he said.County officials have long been interested in changing to a keyless entry system, but until the grant was available, switching was cost-prohibitive, he said.I dont know the total number of doors, but its a lot of doors, Gaines said.In addition, the countys facilities have been built over the course of a century, and the construction standards varied over the decades. Nothing is cookie-cutter, he said.The lock systems software will track usage and can deactivate a card. Doors can be locked remotely in the case of an emergency in or around county buildings.It gives us a lot more security in our buildings, he said.
With tourism at an all-time low, a struggling Japanese railway operator is trying to avoid going under by selling canned stones from its railway tracks.

Founded in 1923, the Choshi Electric Railway company, in Japans Chiba Prefecture, had to overcome adversity several times during its 97-year history, but the situation has never been more dire than it is now. The railway operator relies on tourism to support its operations, but with the novel Coronavirus wreaking havoc all over the world, business has never been worse, so management had to come up with alternative ways of generating income. Among these, starting a YouTube channel and selling canned stones have been proving unusually successful.

Photo: YouTube screengrab

The Choshi Electric YouTube channel has been around for over 4 years, but it only recently started attracting attention, after management decided to use its dire situation to create humorous content. Videos like Just before bankruptcy or Actual situation of a bankrupt company have been racking up tens even hundreds of thousands of views, whereas older videos only got hundreds or thousands of views.

It all started with the announcement of a new, original product available in the Choshi Electric Railway online store  canned stones from the companys train tracks. Showcased by a female employee under the watchful eye of the manager, the stones were marketed as great paperweights, collectible items for railway fans, or rudimentary weapons against burglars.

Photo: YouTube screengrab

The presentation was humorous in nature, and the Choshi Electric Railway employee could barely contain her laughter while showcasing the canned stones, but this was no joke. The stones really are available on the Choshi Electric Railway online store, at a price of 1,650 yen ($15.5) and they have already become the companys best selling item.

According to the store page, the stones are collected from the railways operated by Choshi Electric, and washed and waxed before being packaged in metal cans. The number of rocks per each can varies on the size of the rocks.

Photo: Choshi Electric Railway

Apart from an assortment of canned foods, Choshi Electric is also selling other memorabilia than train aficionados may find appealing, like plush train cart seats, train rail slices, and train track nails. But its apparently the canned stones that are getting people to open their wallets.

As wild an idea as selling canned stones may seem, this wouldnt be the first time people made money from selling useless stuff. Gary Ross Dahl made millions selling rocks as pets, and the man behind Potato Parcel made $10,000 per month sending messages on potatoes. So just because its crazy doesnt mean its stupid, remember that!
A JUDGE has commended the genuine efforts" of a couple who were prosecuted in relation to a stabbing incident in the city centre three years ago.

Judge Tom ODonnell made his comments as he imposed suspended prison sentences in the case of Philip Whelan and Kate OConnor, who had pleaded guilty to assault charges.

During a sentencing hearing last October, Detective Garda Niall Fitzgerald said 49-year-old victim was walking at Pery Street at around 7pm when he encountered the defendants.

Mr Whelan, 34, has an address at Cosgrave Park, Moyross while Ms OConnor, 29, lives at Pinewood Avenue, Caherdavin.

Words were exchanged between the parties and the victim was then followed by the defendants to Catherine Place where a struggle ensued.

He was struck a number of times and sustained a laceration near his left ear which required treatment at UHL.

The detective told John OSullivan BL, prosecuting, gardai believe the dispute related to a drug debt which was owed by the victim.

The defendants were identified on CCTV and both made admissions when questioned

Barrister David McHugh said his client  Philip Whelan  has no history of violence and is genuinely remorseful.

He wasnt in a good place, he is on a road to recovery and is taking steps (to address his addiction), he is anxious to change his life.

Yvonne Quinn BL, representing Kate OConnor, said her client has also made strident efforts to deal with her addiction.

Reviewing the case before the summer vacation, Judge ODonnell noted the positive contents of probation reports prepared in relation to each of the defendants.

He accepted they have not been in trouble since and are making genuine efforts to address their issues. He imposed two year prison sentences, which he fully suspended.

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UGC Final Year Exam Update: States cant decide on cancellation of exams, SC told

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Aug 10: The UGC has told the Supreme Court that it is the sole authority to take a decision on whether the exams should be conducted or not.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court on behalf of the UGC that the decision can be taken by the body only as it only it can grant degrees. He further questioned the decision taken by the governments of Maharashtra and Delhi under the Disaster Management Act to cancel the final examinations. The court has adjourned further hearing on the matter. The case will next be heard on August 14.

Last week, the Supreme Court had asked the Maharashtra and Delhi government to place on record the decision to cancel the exams. The Ministry of Home Affairs too was asked about its stand on the matter.

The court is hearing a batch of petitions that sought cancellation of the final term exams due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The UGC said that the universities were approached to inform the status of the conduct of the exams and responses were received from received from 818 universities (121 deemed universities, 291 private universities, 51 central universities, and 355 state universities).

Pranab Mukherjee tests Covid-19 +ve | Former President tests positive | Oneindia News

Out of the 818 universities, 603 have either conducted the examination or are planning to conduct. 209 others have already conducted examination (on-line/off-line), 394 are planning to conduct examination (on-line/off-line/blended mode) in August or September.

Many students had urged that the exams be cancelled and the results of the students be calculated on the basis of their internal assessment or past performance.

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Story first published: Monday, August 10, 2020, 11:54 [IST]
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 10

By Elnur Baghishov  Trend:

The water level in the Caspian Sea has decreased by 3-4 centimeters in the current Iranian year (began from March 20, 2020), compared to last Iranian year, Deputy Director of Iranian National Institute for Oceanography and Atmospheric Science Hamid Alizadeh told ISNA, Trend reports.

The deputy director added that the main reason for the decrease in water in the Caspian Sea is the reduction of water entering the sea and high evaporation.

According to Alizadeh, the Volga River is the main supplier among the rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea.

Alizadeh added that at a time when the Volga River was overflowing, more than 300 billion cubic meters of water a year flowed into the Caspian Sea. When this river water was scarce, half of it (150 billion cubic meters) flowed into the sea.

The official stressed that the role of other rivers is not so large compared to the Volga River. For example, the water flowing from Iran's Sefid-rud River into the Caspian Sea is about 4 billion cubic meters per year.

"Given that the decline in water levels in the Caspian Sea is caused by increasing natural factors and climate change, the best way to protect the sea level is to overcome problems related to human activity, he said.

Alizadeh noted that if the human factor in the use of water in the Caspian Sea is reduced for 10 years and the water is used at the level of 100 years ago, the water level in this sea will increase by about 1 meter.
Eight months had passed since McDonalds fired its chief executive, Steve Easterbrook, for sexting with a subordinate. Easterbrook had apologised and walked away with tens of millions in compensation, and the fast food chain had moved on under a new chief executive. Then, last month, an anonymous tipster made a fresh allegation: Easterbrook had a sexual relationship with another McDonalds employee while he was running the company. On Monday, that accusation ignited a rare public war between a major company and its former leader: McDonalds filed a lawsuit ...
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, when the stresses of giving birth and raising a child are amplified, Massachusetts may just be one of the best states in the country to do both, according to a new study.

A study from WalletHub published Monday found that, by several metrics, the Bay State is the most ideal place in the U.S. to have a baby.

Another report from the personal finance website published in January also found that Massachusetts is the second-best state to raise a family. The commonwealth was ranked close behind Minnesota.

For its August study on the best and worst states to have a baby, WalletHub compared the 50 states and Washington, D.C. across 32 different categories that related to cost, health care accessibility, family-friendliness and baby-friendliness.

Among the categories states were judged by were their delivery charges, their infant-care costs and their positive COVID-19 testing rates for the last four weeks.

Having a baby is both a joyful and stressful occasion  but the stress side is more amplified in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, WalletHub said in a statement. Pregnant women might have an increased risk of severe illness or birth complications due to coronavirus, according to the CDC.

In addition, due to social distancing, some mothers may receive less after-birth support from friends and family.

WalletHub noted that aside from the difficulty of having a baby during a pandemic, people giving birth also have to worry about the hospital costs associated with giving birth.

The average conventional delivery in the U.S. costs more than $10,000, Business Insider reported, and whether or not someone is insured plays a big role as well, the personal finance company pointed out.

Birthing costs, however, wont hit your wallet as badly in some states as they will in others, WalletHub said. Expenses can vary significantly, considering the wide disparities in cost of living. They can also differ from one pregnancy to another, given that some women experience delivery complications.

According to WalletHub, Massachusetts ranked 28th in terms of the cost of having a baby. However, the state came in second behind Vermont in health care accessibility, fourth in baby-friendliness and second behind Minnesota in family-friendliness.

This is not the first time the Bay State has been deemed one of the best places to give birth.

In August 2019, WalletHub ranked Massachusetts as the second-best states to have a baby behind Minnesota. In the companys recent 2020 report, though, Minnesota is now second behind Massachusetts.

The commonwealth was also deemed this year to be the best state for health care in the U.S., the best state for public education and the best state to live in overall.

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Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy said on Saturday that he received a phone call from the newly elected Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who had invited Swamy to his oath-taking ceremony on Sunday. However, the BJP leader could not visit Colombo due to the travel formalities owing to Coronavirus pandemic and said he will go to the neighbouring county sometime in the future.

I am delighted to receive a phone call just now from the newly elected PM of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajpaksa. He had wanted me to come for his oath taking ceremony tomorrow but because of the Coronavirus travel formalities I cannot go to Colombo. Later on I will go to SL.  Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) August 8, 2020

READ | Rajapaksa Clan's Return: With Mahinda As PM, Rajapaksas Hold All 3 Top Posts In Sri Lanka

Rajapaksa was sworn in as the prime minister for the fourth time on Sunday by his younger brother and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the Rajamaha Viharaya in Kelaniya, an ancient Buddhist shrine that has often been associated with the rise and fall of Sri Lanka.

His party bagged a total of 150 seats with its allies in the 225-member assembly, securing a two-thirds majority in Parliament needed to effect key constitutional changes to consolidate the powerful Rajapaksa clan's control on power. The Rajapaksas want to repeal the 19th Amendment to the Constitution which had curbed the presidential powers.

READ | Swearing-In Ceremony Of Sri Lanka's Prime Minister

Mahinda Rajapaksas victory

74-year-old Mahinda served as the island nation's president from 2005 to 2015 and is highly popular among the ethnic majority Sinhalese for ending the country's 25-year civil war against Tamil rebels in 2009.

He was first elected Prime Minister in 2004 and appointed again for brief periods in 2018 and 2019. Sri Lanka People's Front, the party led by the Rajapaksa brothers, won 145 seats in the 225-member Parliament in the election last Wednesday. Its main opponent obtained only 54 seats. A party representing ethnic minority Tamils won 10 seats, and 16 others were split amongst 12 small parties.

READ | Mahinda Rajapaksa: Sri Lankas Man For All Seasons

The victory gave the Rajapaksa brothers nearly the two-third majority of seats required to make constitutional changes that could strengthen dynastic rule in the country. This time, five members of the Rajapaksa family have been elected as lawmakers; Rajapaksa, his son Namal, the eldest brother Chamal and his son Sashindra, and a nephew, Nipuna Ranawaka.

READ | Rajapaksa Sworn In As PM In Sri Lanka, Cementing Family Rule
WATERLOO REGION  The unexpected deaths of two young children just a week apart is concerning for Waterloo Regions child welfare agency, which urges people to look out for each other during this incredibly stressful time.

Please pay attention and please do reach out if you think someone needs help, said Karen Spencer, executive director of Family & Childrens Services of the Waterloo Region. The families that were struggling before COVID are really struggling now.

A two-year-old Waterloo boy died on Aug. 2, and his mother the following day, after Waterloo Regional Police responded to a medical distress call at their Waterloo home on July 31. Police are investigating the childs death as a homicide and its believed the woman died of self-inflicted injuries.

Then a week later this Sunday, a woman was charged with second-degree murder after her eight-month-old son was found dead in a Kitchener apartment. Police made the discovery after being called to help the mother with a medical incident nearby.

Spencer extended her condolences to the family and friends affected by the three deaths. She said undoubtedly that people who came into contact with these children and parents will wonder what they could have done differently.

These are tragedies and they are rare and very difficult to predict, Spencer said. I really believe this entire community will be impacted by this and mourning the loss.

Now more than ever as the ongoing pandemic limits peoples ability to be out in the community, she said its vital that people reach out if they are worried about someone and to call the agency or police when they have concerns about a childs safety.

These tragic deaths coming so close together at an unprecedented time point to the huge impact of social isolation caused by pandemic precautions.

People just dont feel as free to be out and about and reaching out to each other, Spencer said.

It is going to take a while for things to get back to normal and all the more reason to reach out to people who seem to be having a more difficult time.

A listening ear can make a big difference, but some families need more formal support. Spencer said people can call the agency if they are concerned about someone, or a person can call if they are struggling themselves.

We can help you make those connections to the supports that are here and available, Spencer said.

Most parents would say they have struggled at some point, and that should be normalized and not stigmatized so that people dont feel they can ask for help.

Unfortunately, its not uncommon for people to be afraid to call family and childrens services because they worry the agency will come in and take away a child. But Spencer said thats rare, and 97 per cent of kids in contact with the agency remain at home with family or extended family.

Thats not our first response, she said.

Spencer said the recent deaths are a worry, and she asks that people pay closer attention to their neighbours, family and friends as everyone tries to find a way to navigate such an extraordinary time.

We really have to be mindful and pay attention.
Unknown assailants on Sunday stormed the residence of Mr Azubuike Ekwegbalu, the Senior Special Assistant to Gov. Willie Obiano on Security, leaving him dead after allegedly stabbing him with a kitchen knife.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the incident occurred early hours of Sunday at his residence at the Commissioners Quarters, Awka, a high brow area for government officials.

An eyewitness said the late Ekwegbalu, who hails from Ogbunike in Oyi Local Government Area of the state, was a close relation to the wife of the governor.

He was murdered by unknown men last night at the commissioners quarters, Awka.

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This is barbaric. May his soul rest in peace.

Security operatives must do all that is possible to bring the killers to justice, the source said.

Confirming the incident in a statement, the Spokesman of the Police Command in the state, SP Haruna Mohammed, said one suspect, who was seen in the premises had been arrested.

On Aug. 9, 2020 at about 1:30a.m., there was a report of alleged murder of one Azuibuike Ekwegbalu, aged 43 years, native of Ogbunike in Oyi LGA but resident at the Commissioners quarters Awka.

Following the report, Police detectives attached to B Division Awka led by the DPO, CSP Emma Ogbuanya visited the scene and rushed victim who was found in a pool of blood to COOUTH Awka for medical attention.

He was certified dead by the medical doctor on arrival while his corpse was deposited at the hospital mortuary for autopsy, he noted.

Mohammed said a careful observation on the deceased body revealed stab wounds while a blood stained Kitchen knife was also recovered as exhibit at the scene.

Consequently, one suspect who allegedly was in the premises has been arrested and the case is under investigation to unravel the circumstances surrounding the incident, he stated.
BETHESDA, Md., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Walker & Dunlop, Inc. announced today that it structured $16,408,000 in financing for three skilled nursing facilities in central Colorado on behalf of the borrower, Madison Creek Partners. The portfolio is comprised of Pioneer Health Care Center, a 29-unit facility in Rocky Ford, Colorado, Paonia Care & Rehabilitation, a 28-unit facility in Paonia, Colorado, and Glenwood Springs Health Care, a 29-unit facility in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

Walker & Dunlop Managing Director, Kevin Giusti, led the origination team, which has extensive experience with senior housing and skilled nursing facilities across the country. Leveraging their knowledge of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) lending platform, the Walker & Dunlop team utilized HUD's LEAN 232/233(f) refinance program, which provides long-term and reduced-rate financing for specialty healthcare facilities. The HUD proceeds were used to refinance existing third-party debt on the properties, as well as recoup partner debt to fund capital improvements on each of the facilities.

Paulina Salazar, Chief Financial Officer of Madison Creek Partners, commented, "The Walker & Dunlop team was incredibly helpful and patient, guiding us and advocating for us every step of the way. We look forward to a continuing fruitful relationship with Walker & Dunlop as we continue to grow our company."

Renovated in 1964, Pioneer Health Care Center is a 29-unit/99-bed facility and is the only Veterans Affairs (VA)-contracted facility within 80 miles of the area. Paonia Health Care Center is a 28-unit/56-bed skilled nursing and memory care facility built in 1984. Paonia Health Care is the only facility in the Town of Paonia and is the only skilled nursing facility within 22 miles. Lastly, Glenwood Springs Health Care is a 29-unit/54-bed facility and the sole of its kind in the area. It is located less than a mile from its local medical center, Valley View Hospital.

Walker & Dunlop ranked as the 3rd largest HUD lender in 2019 based on MAP initial endorsements, closing over $94 million of seniors housing and healthcare transactions. For information about Walker & Dunlop's view on the apartment market, including expert perspectives on markets, leadership, and the road ahead, visit our new Driven by Insight information center.

About Walker & Dunlop

Walker & Dunlop (NYSE: WD), headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, is one of the largest commercial real estate finance companies in the United States. The company provides a comprehensive range of capital solutions for all commercial real estate asset classes, as well as investment sales brokerage services to owners of multifamily properties. Walker & Dunlop is included on the S&P SmallCap 600 Index and was ranked as one of FORTUNE Magazine's Fastest Growing Companies in 2014, 2017, and 2018. Walker & Dunlop's 900+ professionals in 40 offices across the nation have an unyielding commitment to client satisfaction.

SOURCE Walker & Dunlop, Inc.

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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) New Delhi, India  Mon, August 10, 2020 08:30 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cb5d73 2 World India,moonson-rains,landslides,natural-calamities,natural-disaster,flood Free

At least 43 bodies have been recovered after a massive landslide triggered by monsoon rains swept away dozens of tea estate workers in southwestern India, police said Sunday.

The landslide in Idukki district, around 250 kilometers from Kerala state's capital Thiruvananthapuram, occurred Friday but the ongoing search and rescue efforts have been hampered by torrential downpours.

The toll rose to 43 on Sunday afternoon, Idukki district's police chief, R. Karuppasamy, told AFP.

Twenty-six of the bodies were recovered on Friday night, a police official said earlier Sunday.

Local media reported that some 78 people were believed to live in the area, with many still missing.

Kerala has been hit by deadly floods during the annual monsoon.

At least 18 people died in a passenger jet crash in Kerala on Friday when an Air India Express jet overshot the runway while trying to land in a storm and plunged down a bank.

The monsoon across South Asia is critical to replenishing rivers and groundwater, but also causes widespread death and destruction.

More than 300 people have died in floods and landslides in eastern and northeastern India, Bangladesh and Nepal in recent weeks.
Bharat Biotech International Chairman Krishna Ella on August 10 said his company cannot rush to launch COVAXIN, India's first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine. "Safety and quality are paramount; we don't want to kill more people with the wrong vaccine," he said.

Russia would be the first country to launch a vaccine, which is expected on August 12, as per reports. The vaccine is being developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute and the countrys Defence Ministry.

The Russian health ministry has said mass production of the COVID-19 vaccine is expected to begin in October, and that medical professionals and senior citizens will be the first to get vaccinated.
Texas A&M International University student nurses are part of an innovative partnership with the City of Laredo that is helping all-important contact tracing for COVID-19.

Dr. Marivic Torregosa, TAMIU dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences Dr. F. M. Canseco School of Nursing, said she learned of the citys need for contact tracing assistance from TAMIU president Dr. Pablo Arenaz and realized it presented a rare opportunity for School of Nursing students.

Dr. Arenaz leads our campus COVID-19 Response Team and meets with the city pretty much daily, Dr. Torregosa said. He made us aware of the Laredo Health Departments need for contact tracing assistance. We realized that this represented a real-world opportunity for our students to get hands-on experience in community health, become involved in helping our hometown and our community health professionals. This is something most students would only read about in a textbook. Instead, they are part of vital contact tracing that can help flatten COVID-19 transmission.

Richard Chamberlain, the citys interim health director, said the contribution of TAMIU nursing students attests to a partnership and joint commitment to help the community.

Working on contact tracing efforts with TAMIU is a true testament of our strong partnership and our joint commitment to serve our community, Chamberlain said. Nursing students have always had a home at the City of Laredo Health Department to apply their knowledge and practice their skills in a real-world environment through practicums and internships. The COVID-19 outbreak will provide them with unique insight into public health practices and response efforts. We must remember that your health is everyones health during a pandemic. By working together, we will gain the upper hand and overcome COVID-19.

Arenaz said this latest university initiative joins other efforts focused on engaging with and helping the community.

Throughout our pandemic response, weve said were TAMIU Together, Laredo Together, and this is the latest instance of this commitment to helping our community through this crisis, Arenaz said. We are so proud of our nursing students for stepping up and helping out. Our previous efforts have seen our School of Engineering students and professor Dr. Tariq Tashtoush create protective masks, shields and aerosol boxes for Laredos frontline first responders. Working with our System, we were able to provide critically needed COVID-19 sampling kits. Most recently, weve launched a new BS degree in Public Health, further extending our commitment to the health and well-being of our community.

About 60 TAMIU junior and senior level nursing students, led by Dr. Belva Gonzalez, are participating in the initiative, completing training and rehearsals with the Health Department and faculty supervisors. The initiative is considered a clinical experience and part of their class program for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree.

Prior to participating in the activity, students were required to successfully complete webinar trainings from Johns Hopkins University and from the World Health Organization (WHO) on both COVID-19 and the mechanism by which it has become a pandemic. Once these were completed, a representative from the City of Laredo Health Department provided training on the process of contact tracing, use of the proper forms and communication techniques.

Before actually performing the first real contact tracing activity, faculty-supervised students rehearsed using forms and their competencies were assessed by faculty. TAMIU Nursing faculty also completed the Johns Hopkins and WHO trainings and training conducted by the City of Laredo Health Department, Dr. Gonzalez noted.

Torregosa said that while the larger benefit is to helping Laredo, TAMIU students are getting a truly insightful experience.

Through this lived experience, students are developing first-hand understanding of the pandemic of our time, Torregosa said. This tracing activity also requires them to perform an accurate health history, communicate clearly and concisely, be part of a collaborative and be an important part of an interdisciplinary health care team. Its helped them to gain an understanding of the importance of the nurses role in community and public health. I think its going to be an incredibly profound experience for all of them.

The TAMIU student nurses conduct the contact tracing on campus in a dedicated area with all-important social distancing and face-covering in place.

Weve created a call center on campus with phones provided by the Health Department. Each day, a group of 10 students, spaced 6 feet apart and masked, conduct the contact tracing. The room and all phones are disinfected between all uses, she explained.

Torregosa said shes tremendously proud of the TAMIU students and the contribution they are making to the Citys COVID-19 response.

This is truly a show of care, commitment and support and giving back to our community. Thats what all nurses do every day and these future nurses will be part of that caring legacy, she concluded.

The College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Dr. F. M. Canseco School of Nursing is approved by the Texas Board of Nursing and accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN).

In addition to its traditional BSN program, it offers an RN-BSN (online), a Master in Nursing Administration and an online Master of Science in Nursing - Family Nurse Practitioner Program.
Anyone whos braved a Thanksgiving conversation with an uncle or commented on a Facebook post or really is just alive in the year 2020 knows that convincing a skeptic to change their mind is nearly impossible. A hostage negotiator may say that empathy and not logic is often the best weapon against COVID-deniers, but should you want to engage in a debate about the reality of the virus thats led to over 150,000 American deaths, its best to come armed with cross-examination skills.



Since lawyers aim to convince a jury rather than the witness themselves, this isnt a perfect parallel, but plenty of the same techniques apply. Two law professors, Lara Bazelon (USF) and Spencer Pahlke (Berkeley Law), humored our questions about how to use their decades of legal acumen to disarm someone distrustful of science, or worse, a troll posting memes showing Bill Gates as a plandemic puppet master (who also spreads cancer through 5G cell phone towers, obviously).



Like any lawyer taking on a difficult case, the first thing to do before interacting with a COVID denier is prep work. You can expect a spread offense of many divergent theories not covered in mainstream media, so Google what sources do coronavirus deniers rely on most commonly. Politely ask for evidence, and be ready to discredit unreliable outlets or so-called experts by stressing their underlying motivations, which in the case of viral Youtube personalities, is likely financial. With regards to hydroxychloroquine advocate Stella Immanuel, one might calmly inquire if theyre aware of her statements about demon sex.



The key phrase there is "calmly ask" (close second, "demon sex").



I think for some of these folks, they really enjoy making other people angry, and sort of red-faced, and almost incoherent in the enormity of what theyre trying to explain and the stupidity of what theyre confronted with, says Bazelon. I wouldnt give them that.

RELATED: An FBI hostage negotiator explains how to persuade people to wear masks



Pahlke suggests establishing agreement on a few basic facts that may deflate faulty arguments, like comparisons to flu deaths. For instance, establishing a universal reference point, like the fact that the 3,000 deaths from the September 11 terrorist attacks is something of a big deal. Or even playing to partisan slants, bringing up the cost of lives from controversial issues like inner city gun violence.



If youre concerned that they were going to disagree that 150,000 deaths isnt enough, there are ways to get them into a difficult position where theyre agreeing that something less than that is in itself a tragedy, says Pahlke.



A personal hypothetical is another strong approach. Present a scenario where one of their specific family members contracts COVID-19 and has to be hospitalized. What happens when as their mothers medical contact, theyre forced to sign off on treatment decisions? Will they follow the doctors advice or insist that its not serious and demand another treatment? A concrete situation like that will resonate much more than sweeping data-driven statements or testimonials about others.



Another strategy is to ask a question and give the denier a few options that are all bad (hopefully no judge is present to yell leading the witness!). One could present a list of Democrat and Republican politicians who have all spoken out against the virus, then ask the denier if they trust any of them. Or go even further and ask an open-ended question.



I generally dont like to ask open-ended questions, says Bazelon. But with crazy people I sometimes do, because whichever answer I get is going to be good. In the case of the coronavirus, Bazelon suspects answers would fall into two categories: total ignorance or defiance of conventionally accepted knowledge (neither a good look).



You can push somebody out on the limb and make them look even more silly, because the position theyre taking has so little support so that nobody else, your jury, would want to follow them out on that limb, says Pahlke. You get to persuasion not by virtue of directly persuading your witness, but by isolating them in this world thats not real. And pointing out how unreal this world theyre living in is, so others wouldnt tread there.



If the argument takes place around a group or on social media, the more far-fetched the deniers response, the better.



Comedy and cross-examination are actually quite similar in that the bigger gap you can create between the expectation of what the witness should have done, and what they actually did do, the more impact from the questioning, says Pahlke. Likewise in comedy, the greater the difference between where you think the joke is going, to where it ends up, the funnier it seems to be.
Lebanon's prime minister and cabinet have resigned amid massive protests in the aftermath of a deadly explosion in Beirut that killed more than 160 people, injured 6,000 and left roughly 250,000 homeless.

Why it matters: Protesters blame the incompetence of the ruling elite  widely viewed as corrupt  for the disaster. The unstable and deeply distrusted government will remain in place in a caretaker capacity until a new prime minister is selected.

Driving the news: Three cabinet ministers resigned in recent days, making Prime Minister Hassan Diab's position increasingly untenable. The entire cabinet resigned on Monday, Health Minister Hamad Hassan told reporters. Diab then addressed the nation to offer his own resignation. He took office in December.

"I discovered that corruption is larger than the state, and that the state cannot overpower it."

 Prime Minister Hassan Diab

Between the lines: "[T]he resignation of Lebanon's government does not mean early elections. It means the appointment of a new prime minister by the existing parliament, and all the political issues that come with it," the Economist's Gregg Carlstrom points out.

Lebanese politics is a corrupt and generally ineffective balancing act between the interests of powerful factions, including Hezbollah.

The militant group dominates Lebanon's parliament, and its ally Iran has warned that it must not be sidelined as Western governments tie recovery aid to political reforms.

The big picture: Lebanon was already suffering through the coronavirus pandemic and a crippling financial crisis before last Tuesday's explosion, and many government services  from garbage collection to electricity  were limited or lacking altogether.

Then came the explosion of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate. Protesters blame corruption and incompetence for it having been left insufficiently secured in Beirut's port for nearly seven years. They have called for the entire ruling elite to fall.

An international aid conference on Sunday raised $300 million in pledges from countries and international organizations, but leaders warned the money would not be disbursed without reforms of Lebanon's politics and economy, per the AP.

Go deeper: What's next for Lebanon after the Beirut explosion
The deputy governor of Ondo State, Agboola Ajayi, has announced his resignation from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and formally joined the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).

This development is to further his governorship aspiration, he said.

Mr Ajayi announced his defection on Monday on Twitter. His aides also confirmed the development to PREMIUM TIMES.

Today 10th August 2020, I Resign my membership from the Peoples Democratic Party to join Zenith Labour party to further my Aspirations.

I appreciate the National Leadership and members of the party for their warm reception and acceptance in the short period i rejoined the party, the deputy governor wrote on Twitter.

Today 10th August 2020, I Resign my membership from the People's Democratic Party to join Zenith Labour party to further my Aspirations. I appreciate the National Leadership and members of the party for their warm reception and acceptance in the short period i rejoined the party  Agboola Alfred Ajayi (@AAjayiAgboola) August 10, 2020

PREMIUM TIMES earlier today reported that Mr Ajayi was cleared by ZLP headquarters to contest as the partys candidate in the October 10 governorship election.

He lost the PDP ticket to Eyitayo Jegede, after dumping the All Progressives Congress (APC) some months back.

READ ALSO:

One of those who is said to have endorsed Mr Ajayi is a former governor of the state, Olusegun Mimiko, who gave him some conditions to be met.

Mr Mimiko told Mr Ajayi that he must be willing to complete some of his abandoned policies and also pick his deputy governorship candidate from his camp.

He will be contesting against Rotimi Akeredolu of the APC, Mr Jegede of the PDP and 15 others on October 10.
The journal Science, Technology, and Human Values has released a special issue edited by Katrina Karkazis and Rebecca Jordan-Young that highlights the invisibility of race in different techno-scientific arenas.

Introduction: Sensing Race as a Ghost Variable in Science, Technology, and Medicine

Katrina Karkazis, Rebecca Jordan-Young

Ghost variables are variables in program languages that do not correspond to physical entities. This special issue, based on a panel on Race as a Ghost Variable at the 2017 Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science, traces ideas of race in particular niches of science, technology, and medicine where it is submerged and disavowed, yet wields power. Each paper is a case study exploring ghosts that emerge through the resonance among things as heterogeneous as hair patterns, hormone levels, food tastes, drug use, clinic locations, proximity to disaster, job classifications, and social belonging and suspicion, all of which vibrate with meanings accumulated over long racial histories. Together, the papers further elaborate methods and analytic models for identifying the operations of racethe relations and processes that make it, the effects that it has. A chief appeal of the metaphor of the ghost is that it brings the importance of history to the fore. Ghosts are simultaneously history and the present, not just an accretion of earlier experiences, but the palimpsest left when one tries to erase them. Sometimes faint and hard to discern, sometimes rambunctious and disruptive, ghosts refuse our attempts to simply move on.

Hair, Hormones, and Haunting: Race as a Ghost Variable in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Elizabeth Carlin, Brandon Kramer

In this paper, we examine how polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is racialized in biomedical research. Drawing from Stars seminal concept of triangulation, we analyze how the diagnostic criteria for PCOS combine two different biomarkers: body hair and testosterone. Hair and hormones are both haunted by their use in eugenic research, and as clinical measures, they can carry forward powerful narratives of biological difference. PCOS researchers circulate strong claims about racial difference in hirsutism (male-pattern hair growth in women) as if they were established knowledge, sometimes calling for race-specific diagnostic thresholds. Tracing the links between (1) race and hirsutism, (2) hirsutism and testosterone, and (3) testosterone and race, we find that these connections are all conceptualized in ambiguous and inconsistent ways. Through triangulation, the uncertainty clouding each link is mitigated by the apparent strength of the chain as a whole. The logic linking race to disease is attenuated, allowing race to persist as a ghost variable. As PCOS is increasingly reframed as a risk factor for other conditions, racial stratification is submerged, implicit but actionable, at every stage of the life course cascade of risk.

The Trouble with Race in Forensic Identification (open access)

Amade Mcharek, Victor Toom, Lisette Jong

The capacity of contemporary forensic genetics has rendered race into an interesting tool to produce clues about the identity of an unknown suspect. Whereas the conventional use of DNA profiling was primarily aimed at the individual suspect, more recently a shift of interest in forensic genetics has taken place, in which the populationand the family to whom an unknown suspect allegedly belongs, has moved center stage. Making inferences about the phenotype or the family relations of this unknown suspect produces suspect populations and families. We discuss the criminal investigation following the Marianne Vaatstra murder case in the Netherlands and the use of forensic (genetic) technologies therein. It is in many ways an interesting case, but in this paper, we focus on how race surfaced in science and society. We show that race materializes neither in the technologies used nor in the bodies at stake. Rather, race emerges through a material semiotic relation that surfaces in the translation that occurs as humans and things move across sites. We argue that race is enacted, firstly, in the context of legislation as biology reduced to bodily characteristics; secondly, in the forensic analyses as patterns of absent presence; and, thirdly, in society as a process of phenotypic othering.

(De)Racializing Refugee Medicine

Michelle Munyikwa

Based on ethnographic research within refugee-serving institutions in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA), this paper examines the relationship between physicians and the knowledge they produce and consume about caring for refugees from around the world. I explore the seething presence of race in refugee medicine, a domain of medical practice whose entanglement with racial ideology and practice has been underexamined. I consider how knowledge about refugees from different groupswhether racially laden designations like Asian or African or national markers like Congolese or Burmesecirculates in clinical spaces as health-care teams diagnose and treat refugees using standards of evidence-based medicine. Assessing the primary literatures that refugee health-care providers use to justify varying care plans, I argue that race, while often unmentioned, structures the practice of refugee medicine. Additionally, the implicit use of race as an analytic, not racism or economic injustice, often disguises the impact of structural racism and inequality in refugee health disparities. I end with some reflections on how we might conduct a more just practice of refugee health careand by extension, health care more generallyby shifting our gaze from the particularities of seemingly obvious cultural difference to social structure.

Race as a Ghost Variable in (White) Opioid Research

Helena Hansen, Caroline Parker, Jules Netherland

This paper traces the unspoken, implicit white racial logic of the brain disease model of addiction, which is based on seemingly universal, disembodied brains devoid of social or environmental influences. In the United States, this implicit white logic led to context-free neuroscience that made the social hierarchies of addiction and its consequences invisible to, and thus exacerbated by, national policies on opioids. The brain disease model of addiction was selectively deployed among the white middle-class population that had long accessed narcotics and pharmaceutical treatments for narcotics disorders from biomedical clinics, as opposed to from illegal sources subject to law enforcement. In turn, new treatments for opioid addiction were racially marketed to the same white clientele to which newly patented opioid analgesics were marketed, tapping into a circumscribed but highly lucrative consumer base that has long benefited from a legally protected, racially segregated safe space for white narcotics consumption. The connecting thread for the contemporary white opioid crisis, therefore, is white race as a ghost variable in addiction neuroscience and in its pharmaceutical and biotechnological translation.

Race in the Microbiome

Amber Benezra

Microbiome science asserts humans are made up of more microbial cells and genes than human ones, and that each person harbors their own unique microbial population. Human microbiome studies gesture toward the post-racial aspirations of personalized medicinecharacterizing states of human health and illness microbially. By viewing humans as supraorganisms made up of millions of microbial partners, some microbiome science seems to disrupt binding historical categories often grounded in racist biology, allowing interspeciality to supersede race. But inevitably, unexamined categories of race and ethnicity surface in a myriad of studies on microbiota. This paper approaches race as a ghost variable across microbiome research and asks, what is race doing in studies of the microbiome? Why is it there, and how is it functioning? I examine this research to argue that social scientists must work with biological scientists to help put microbial differences into perspectiveto investigate how microbiomes and race are entangled embodiments of the social, environmental, and biological. Ultimately, transdisciplinary collaboration is required to address racial health disparities in microbiome research without reifying race as a straightforward biological or social designation.

Bored Techies Being Casually Racist: Race as Algorithm

Sareeta Amrute

Connecting corporate software work in the United States and Germany, this essay tracks the racialization of mostly male Indian software engineers through the casualization of their labor. In doing so, I show the connections between overt, anti-immigrant violence today and the ongoing use of race to sediment divisions of labor in the industry as a whole. To explain racialization in the tech industry, I develop the concept of race-as-algorithm as a device to unpack how race is made productive within digital economies and to show the flexibility of race as it works to create orders of classification that are sensitive to context. Using evidence collected through observation in tech offices and through interviews with programmers over five years, I track race as an essential but continually disavowed variable within the construction of global tech economies. Historical racializations of casual labor in plantation economies illuminates how casualness marks laborers whose rights can be muted and allows corporations to deny their culpability in promoting discrimination within and outside of the tech industry. These denials occur across a political field that divides good from bad migrants. Using the ethnographic symptoms that Indian tech workers identify in their environments, this essay reads these signs as an antidote to these continued denials.

Postcarbon Amnesia: Toward a Recognition of Racial Grief in Renewable Energy Futures

Myles Lennon

Climate justice activists envision a postcarbon future that not only transforms energy infrastructures but also redresses the fossil fuel economys long-standing racial inequalities. Yet this anti-racist rebranding of the zero emissions telos does not tend to the racial grief thats foundational to white supremacy. Accordingly, I ask: can we address racial oppression through a just transition to a postcarbon moment? In response, I connect todays postcarbon imaginary with yesterdays postcolonial imaginary. Drawing from research on US-based climate activism, I explore how the utopic rhetoric of a just transition is instantiated in practice. I argue that the racialized absences constitutive of what scholars call postcolonial amnesia are operative in the anti-racist move to a postcarbon moment. This postcarbon imaginary formulates the vulnerability of people of color to biophysical disasters as the raison detre for infrastructural transformation. This, I argue, has the effect of overlooking the ways in which racial grief inheres in such vulnerability and the capacity of energy infrastructures to uphold racist hierarchies. I situate this postcarbon amnesia in Anne Chengs framework for differentiating grief from grievance, calling for renewable energy transitions that move away from enumerative grievances and toward a sobering recognition of racial grief.

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Since China imposed the National Security Law on Hong Kong a month ago, the territory has seen radical changes.

Teenager Tony Chung says he had been walking outside a shopping mall when police officers from Hong Kongs new national security unit bundled him into a nearby stairwell and tried to scan his face to unlock his phone.

Chung, whose alleged crime was writing comments on social media that endangered national security, was one of four students  including a 16-year-old girl  detained for the same offence that day.

The arrests were made under a sweeping new law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong just over a month ago, radically changing life in the once-liberal city.

Chung describes the law in stark terms.

I think night just fell on Hong Kong, the 19-year-old told AFP news agency after his release on bail, the investigation ongoing.

A political earthquake has coursed through the former British colony since the national security law came into effect on 30 June.

Under the 1997 handover deal with the United Kingdom, Beijing agreed to let Hong Kong keep certain freedoms and autonomy until 2047, which helped its transformation into one of the worlds leading financial centres.

The security law  a response to last years huge and often-violent pro-democracy protests  upended that promise.

Teenager Tony Chung said he was walking through a shopping mall when national security unit officers bundled him into a nearby stairwell and scanned his face to unlock his phone [Isaac Lawrence/AFP]

Last week, the United States placed sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials, including the territorys leader Carrie Lam.

Second handover

Despite assurances that the law would only target an extreme minority, certain peaceful political views became illegal overnight and precedent-setting headlines started appearing almost daily.

The overnight change was so dramatic and so severe, it felt as momentous as a second handover, Antony Dapiran, a Hong Kong lawyer who has written books about the citys politics, told AFP.

I dont think anyone expected it would be as broad-reaching as it proved to be, nor that it would be immediately wielded in such a draconian way as to render a whole range of previously acceptable behaviour suddenly illegal.

The law itself was new territory.

It bypassed Hong Kongs legislature  its contents kept secret until the moment it was enacted  and toppled the firewall between the mainland and Hong Kongs vaunted independent judiciary.

China claimed jurisdiction for some serious cases and enabled its security agents to operate openly in the city for the first time, moving into a requisitioned luxury hotel.

Officially, the law targets subversion, secession, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces.

But much like similar laws on the mainland used to crush dissent, the definitions were broad.





Inciting hatred of the government, supporting foreign sanctions and disrupting the operation of Hong Kongs government all count as national security crimes, and Beijing claimed the right to prosecute anyone in the world.

People in Hong Kong did not have to wait long to see how the letter of the law might be applied.

The first arrests came on July 1, the anniversary of Hong Kongs handover, mainly against people possessing banners or other objects carrying pro-independence slogans.

One man who allegedly drove a motorbike into police while flying an independence flag was the first to be charged  with terrorism and secession.

The law has also been felt in many other ways.

Schools and libraries pulled books deemed to be in violation of the new law. Protest murals disappeared from streets and restaurants. Teachers were ordered to keep politics out of classrooms.

Local police were handed wide surveillance tools  without the need for court approval  and were given powers to order internet takedowns.

Tony Chung reads a copy of a book that police seized as evidence from his home when he was arrested under the new law [Isaac Lawrence/AFP]

On Monday Jimmy Lai, a local media mogul and one of the citys most vocal Beijing critics, was arrested under the new law and accused of colluding with foreign forces.

Political crackdown

The roll-out of the legislation was combined with a renewed crackdown on pro-democracy politicians.

In July, authorities announced that 12 prospective candidates, including four sitting legislators, had been banned from standing in upcoming local elections.

They were struck off for having unacceptable political views, such as campaigning to block legislation by winning a majority, or criticising the national security law.

Lam later postponed the election by a year, citing a sudden rise in coronavirus cases.

Three prominent academics and government critics lost their university jobs.

Media networks started having visa issues, including The New York Times, which announced it would move some of its newsroom to South Korea.

Gwyneth Ho, who was recently banned from standing in legislative elections that were scheduled for September, poses with her disqualification notice at her office in Hong Kong [Anthony Wallace/AFP]

Gwyneth Ho, one of the disqualified election candidates, described the security laws suppression of freedoms as obvious and quick.

We are now in uncharted territory, she said.

Nonetheless, Ho remained optimistic.

The peoples fighting spirit is still there, waiting for a moment to erupt, she said.

Hong Kong people have not surrendered.
Imperial Valley News Center

President Trump We Have Rejected Globalism and Embraced Patriotism

Washington, DC - Visiting Ohio yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order to expand Made in America production, bring manufacturing jobs back to our country, and ensure that our citizens have access to all the life-saving medicines they need.

These actions come at a crucial time as we fight this battle against the invisible enemy from China, White House Director of Trade & Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro said.

Here are a few things the new order will accomplish:

Establish Buy American rules for Federal Government agencies

Strip away regulatory barriers to domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing

Help spark the manufacturing technologies needed to keep drug prices low and move more medicine production onshore

President Trump signed the order Thursday while visiting a Whirlpool manufacturing plant in Clyde, Ohio. This plant represents another important piece of President Trumps pro-America, pro-worker trade strategy toward China and other countries.

In January 2018, the United States challenged years of unfair trade practices by imposing tariffs that stopped washing machine manufacturers, including Whirlpool, from getting undercut by Chinese imports. After President Trump took action, Whirlpools Clyde plant alone was able to create 200 new jobs for American workers.

Washington stood idly by as other countries engaged in unfair trade practices, such as massive subsidies, currency manipulation, and . . . the wholesale dumping of foreign-made products sold below cost for the sole purpose of driving you out of business, President Trump told workers.

But we didnt let that happen, did we?

 For years, Washington stood by as unfair trade killed U.S. jobs

Todays executive order directs the Department of Health and Human Services to use the Defense Production Act to buy essential medicines and other equipment from within the United States. Drug prices will be kept low for customers, and American companies will be able to compete more fairly on the world stage as a result.

In addition, both the FDA and the Environmental Protection Agency will now give priority to domestic manufacturers during the regulatory review of pharmaceutical ingredients and essential medicines. Federal agencies will also help prevent the trafficking of counterfeit medicines from third-party sellers online.

Its a great day for America, Navarro said. The President has promised that he would bring home the supply chains in production for our essential medicines, and today were taking a very big step towards fulfillment of that promise.

President Trump has long made returning blue-collar jobs to America a top priority. Now, the Coronavirus pandemic has made even clearer the risks of becoming overly reliant on foreign nations for our essential supplies. Fortunately, more than any other president in history, President Trump is a fearless advocate for both buying and hiring American.

 Peter Navarro: Its important to bring our supply chains home

As a result, his list of trade accomplishments keeps growing. NAFTA is gone, replaced by a far stronger United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. China and its enablers on the global stage are at last being held accountable. Trade agreements with South Korea, Japan, and others have been renegotiated to protect American jobs and customers.

Globalization has made the financial elites who donate to politicians very wealthy, but its left millions and millions of our workers with nothing but poverty and heartacheand our towns and cities with empty factories and plants, President Trump said.

Were fighting for Main Street, not Wall Street. We have rejected globalism and embraced patriotism.
William Grant & Sons raises 100K for drinks industry charities

Spirits company William Grant & Sons has raised just over 100,000 through a charity auction to help those in the hospitality sector hit by Covid-19.

The #STANDFIRST Charity Auction was hosted online over a 10-day period, with bidders from around the world vying for 300 items in the catalogue of exclusive "money can't (normally) buy" lots.

Among the lots that went under the hammer were a one-off The Balvenie Morgan four-seater Roadster and accompanying trip to the Morgan factory, a trip to the Glenfiddich Distillery, a session with malt master David C. Stewart at The Balvenie Blending Lab, a weekend in Iceland - home of Reyka Vodka - and a visit to the Hendrick's Gin Palace in Scotland.

The money raised will go to The Drinks Trust and The BEN Scotland, which support the hospitality industry and have played a vital part in helping the sector's venues and staff through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ross Carter, CEO of The Drinks Trust, said: "The level of support that William Grant & Sons has shown towards The Drinks Trust's work through Covid-19 has been second to none. This is a very significant sum of money and will help support numerous people in need of help in this difficult time."

Chris Gardner, CEO at The BEN Scotland, added: "We want to thank all the brands involved in donating such fantastic items to this auction and are overwhelmed by the amount of money that has been raised."

10 August 2020 - Bethany Whymark
The state has increased the minimum distance between stone quarries that do not require blasting and residential areas and public buildings to 100 metres (m) from 50m. However, environmentalists maintain the revised guidelines are grossly inadequate and do not address the issue of uncontrolled blasting, which can affects human habitation within a 500m radius.

The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) published revised guidelines on August 3, which were made available on its website on Saturday. These come after a February 2 order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), based on a petition against quarrying in Kerala. NGT directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to develop country-wide uniform guidelines for quarrying. We have implemented exactly what CPCB has communicated to us, said Sudhir Srivastava, chairman, MPCB.

MPCBs circular states stone quarries may be set up at a minimum distance of 100 m (without blasting) from residential areas, highways, public buildings, railways lines, bridges, dams, monuments, heritage sites, canals, lakes, tanks etc. The minimum distance for quarries that require blasting of rocks remains the same at 200 m. The regulation for the danger zone  500m  as prescribed by the Directorate General (DG) of Mines Safety needs to be followed scrupulously, reads the circular .

While the pan-India mandate remains 200 m minimum distance (when blasting is involved), the 500 m rule regulation would applicable wherever necessary and the state pollution control board would implement it on a case-to-case basis, said officials. However, it is not a mandate and needs to be enforced only when required through controlled blasting methods and ensuring that human habitations and linear infrastructure is not threatened by the quarrys functioning, said Srivastava, adding that MPCB would ensure the 500m distance is maintained and noise norms are not violated by stone quarries.

Stone quarries emit particulate matter almost 100 times the safe limit, according to MPCB. Apart from air, noise and water pollution, express guidelines for blasting and drilling have been issued. Such activities need to be done during favourable weather conditions [not during monsoon when there may be landslides] using permissible quantity of explosives so there is no impact to human habitation, he said.

Stone quarries emit particulate matter almost 100 times the safe limit, according to MPCB. Apart from air, noise and water pollution, express guidelines for blasting and drilling have been issued. Such activities need to be done during favourable weather conditions (not during monsoon that can lead to landslides), permissible quantity of explosives so there is no impact to human habitations, and vibrations need to be periodically monitored, said Srivastava.

According to district survey reports from 2019, mining permits were issued to approximately 16 quarries in the Mumbai suburban district; 330 permits were issued in Thane; 52 in Palghar; 170 in Nagpur; and 30 in Sindhudurg.

Environmentalists said the revised guidelines are inadequate. While none of the existing quarries are following this rule, the 500m distance has not been followed by CPCB or MPCB. Another issue is cluster mining, which is more dangerous. This is an ad-hoc measure to comply with the NGT order, said Debi Goenka, executive trustee, Conservation Action Trust.

BN Kumar, director, NatConnect said, Going by the example of Navi Mumbai, for over three decades, Vashi, Nerul, Belapur face loud sounds of the blasts leading to cracks on glass windows. Presently, the neighbouring Kharghar node is facing a quarry menace. The hills behind the Tata Cancer Hospital are being blasted. Several houses at Gholwadi village also complained of cracks on their walls and window glasses.

CASE STUDIES OF QUARRY MENACE

Thane-Belapur Industrial Belt

When there is uncontrolled blasting, the minimum distance has to be more than 500m and despite the advent of technology, most of these quarries are not installing better equipment for controlled blasting. We faced a horrible situation as the entire industrial belt was threatened by these activities until it was taken up with the state. Only then, most of these quarries were moved out. However, the threat looms for other industrial and residential areas where the 200 m minimum distance is insufficient, said Jaydevan K, former additional chief secretary, Thane Belapur Industrial belt (TBIA).

Hillocks Being Flattened In MMR

Environmentalist Nandkumar Pawar, who has recently filed complaints of destruction of hills along the Dombivli-Ambernath MIDC road due to quarries that supply stones for housing construction projects in Kharghar, said, These quarries are not even 50m away from the highway and there are villages less than 150 m where uncontrolled blasting had taken place before the monsoon season, said Pawar.

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Thank you for tuning in to episode 85 of The CUInsight Experience podcast with your host, Randy Smith, co-founder of CUInsight.com. This episode is brought to you by our friends at PSCU. As the nations premier payments CUSO, PSCU proudly supports the success of more than 1,500 credit unions.

Credit union leaders can learn a lot about navigating difficulty from the amazing work being done at the international level for our movement. On this weeks episode, Im sitting down with Joanne Todd, President and CEO of the Northeast Family Federal Credit Union in Connecticut, to learn more about the importance of development work and how it has benefitted her credit union and the community they serve.

During the episode, Joanne tells us about her time working with credit unions and nonprofits in Trinidad and Tobago, Uzbekistan, Kenya, and more. We also talk about how those experiences helped to inform the work she and her team are doing to ensure their small credit union survives and thrives in this new normal. We also learn about the work her credit union is doing to deepen their outreach efforts to underserved communities.

Joanne and I also talk about how she got her start in credit unions at a very young age. Joanne shares what inspired her to take the position at Northeast Family Credit Union, how she learned to make hard decisions, and why its important to have the courage to change the things that need to be changed. We also learn that Joanne loves to travel and go to flea markets when she has a day off and wants to recharge.

In the rapid-fire section of the show, we find out that Joanne wanted to be an engineer before she began her career with credit unions. She shares that she got into memorable trouble in high school by skipping school with her then boyfriend, now husband. She also shares that her mother and grandmother are the two people she thinks of when she hears the word success. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation with Joanne!

Find the full show notes on cuinsight.com

Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher

Books mentioned on The CUInsight Experience podcast: Book List

How to find Joanne:

Joanne Todd, President and CEO of Northeast Family Credit Union

joanne@nefamily.coop

www.nefamily.coop

Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

Show notes from this episode:

A big shout-out to our friends at PSCU, an amazing sponsor of The CUInsight Experience podcast. Thank you!

Check out all the outstanding work that Joanne and her team at Northeast Family Federal Credit Union are doing here.

Shout-out: The Credit Union League of Connecticut

Learn more about the Co-operative Credit Union League of Trinidad and Tobago here

Shout-out: Lois Kitsch

Shout-out: George Ombado

Shout-out: Mary Beth Spuck

Shout-out: ACCOSCA

Shout-out: American Friends of Kenya, Inc.

Shout-out: Jill Nowacki

Learn more about the Juntos Avanzamos designation here

Shout-out: Willimantic, Connecticut

Shout-out: University of Connecticut

Shout-out: Haiti

Shout-out: Joannes husband

Shout-out: Kathy Chartier, President and CEO at Members Credit Union

Artists mentioned: 30 Greatest Hits by Aretha Franklin

Artists mentioned: Greatest Hits by Al Green

Artists mentioned: The Ultimate Collection by Ray Charles

Artists mentioned: The Essential Weird Al Yankovic by Weird Al Yankovic

Book mentioned: Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg

Book mentioned: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Shout-out: Nairobi, Kenya

Shout-out: Joannes Mom and Grandmother

Previous guests mentioned in this episode: Lois Kitsch, George Ombado, Mary Beth Spuck, Jill Nowacki (episodes 4, 18, 37, 64 & 82)

In This Episode:

[01:46]  Welcome to the show, Joanne!

[02:25]  Joanne shares the benefits her work around the world brings to her credit union.

[05:54]  Joanne discusses the American Friends of Kenya Inc.

[08:51]  Joanne speaks about a book discussion group she was a part of in Kenya.

[10:30]  Do you think the pandemic will change how the members interact with credit unions?

[12:49]  Joanne shares how the pandemic has changed the way her credit union works.

[15:29]  Joanne discusses what she thinks small credit unions need to do to stay relevant.

[17:14]  Listen as Joanne tells us what she will be the proudest to have accomplished in the next year.

[18:42]  Joanne shares what inspired her to take the position at Northeast Family Federal Credit Union.

[21:20]  Joanne speaks about what her team has heard her say over and over.

[22:02]  Making hard decisions is still hard for her.

[24:32]  Joanne debunks a common myth about being a leader.

[25:34]  The serenity prayer is something that Joanne goes back to time and time again.

[27:02]  When Joanne has a day off, she loves to travel and go to flea markets.

[29:47]  Joanne shares how she was in high school, and the first time she got into memorable trouble.

[30:44]  When Joanne was young, she wanted to be an engineer.

[33:31]  What is the best album of all time?

[34:26]  What book do you think everyone should read?

[35:22]  Joanne says that stuff has become less important, and the people she surrounds herself with have become more important.

[37:09]  Joannes mother and grandmother are who she thinks about when she hears the word success.

[38:54]  Joanne shares her final thoughts.

[39:54]  Thank you so much for being on the show!
Victor Osimhen

Nigeria striker Victor Osimhen who recently became the most expensive Nigerian player after signing for Napoli has blasted Punch Newspaper for fabricating a false story about him.

Victor Osimhen joined Napoli from Lille last month for a record fee of 70 million which could potentially rise to 80 million.

Following a false story by Punch Newspaper about him with the headline which read, I want to emulate Maradona at Napoli, Victor Osimhen has now come out to debunk such news stating that he has not granted any interview since his father died in May 2020 and such stories were false.

He warned Punch Newspaper against fabricating fake stories. Part of the post which was shared by Victor Osimhen on his twitter page read,

I never said such a thing, yall copy paste journalist just like to fabricate lies, since the passing of my late father I havent grant any interview whatsoever, stop this nonsense else na thunder go fire una.
The trial of Bashir over the military coup that brought him to power more than three decades ago, as well as of 27 other defendants, opened with a brief hearing in July

The trial of Sudan's ousted ex-president Omar al-Bashir was delayed Monday at the request of his defence, a prosecution lawyer said.

The trial of Bashir over the military coup that brought him to power more than three decades ago, as well as of 27 other defendants, opened with a brief hearing in July.

The second hearing had been set for August 11.

But defence lawyers requested a delay for three of the defendants -- Bashir as well as two former senior leaders of the once powerful but now defunct National Congress Party.

"Lawyers for three defendants petitioned the Court of Appeal to release three defendants on bail, after the court refused to grant their request at the trial's first hearing on July 21," Moaz Hadra, one of the prosecution lawyers, told AFP.

"The Court of Appeal must rule, and then a new date for the trial will be set."

Bashir, 76, and his co-accused could face the death penalty if convicted over the 1989 Islamist-backed overthrow of the democratically elected government of prime minister Sadek al-Mahdi.

It is the first time in the Arab world's modern history that the architect of a coup is tried for plotting a putsch, although the man dubbed the true brain behind it, Hassan Turabi of the National Islamic Front, died in 2016.

Bashir stayed in power for 30 years before being overthrown on April 11, 2019 after several months of unprecedented, youth-led street demonstrations.

The trial comes as Sudan's joint civilian-military transitional government is introducing a host of reforms and has relaunched peace talks with rebel groups.

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A teenage boy accused of murdering a young Newman mother who was found dumped in a wheelie bin will stand trial for two weeks in February, despite a push from his lawyer to bring the proceedings forward.

The 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is alleged to have killed an 18-year-old mother of two young children in the early hours of May 6.

According to police, the woman was found unresponsive by family members, placed in a wheelie bin and transported to Newman Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

The 17-year-old, who was known to the woman, was arrested on May 7 and flown to Banksia Hill Detention Centre, where he remains in custody.

The boy appeared in the Perth Children's Court with an interpreter on Monday afternoon, where his lawyer Cillian Stockdale pushed for the trial to be set for January before the teenager turned 18.
A protester speaks to police as they block the road during a rally after the Belarusian presidential election in Minsk, Belarus (Sergei Grits/AP)

Belarus police and protesters have clashed after a presidential election in which the countrys longtime leader sought a sixth term despite rising discontent with his authoritarian rule.

Tensions have been rising for weeks ahead of Sundays vote in the ex-Soviet nation, which pitted president Alexander Lukashenko, who has held an iron grip on Belarus since 1994, against four others.

The campaign has generated the countrys biggest opposition protests in years.

Opposition supporters say they suspect election officials will manipulate the results of the vote to give the 65-year-old Mr Lukashenko a sixth term.

Officials had already denied two prominent opposition challengers places on the ballot, jailing one on charges he called political and prompting the other to flee to Russia with his children.

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The main opposition candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, came under heavy pressure over the weekend as eight members of her staff were arrested, and one of her top aides fled the country on Sunday.

Belarusians weary of the countrys deteriorating economy and Mr Lukashenkos repression of the opposition coalesced around Mrs Tsikhanouskaya, a former teacher and the wife of a jailed opposition blogger.

The head of the Central Elections Commission, Lidia Yermoshina, said early on Monday that partial results from some regions showed Mr Lukashenko with a crushing lead, getting more than 90% of the vote in some districts.

Police presence in the capital of Minsk was heavy throughout the day and in the evening police set up checkpoints on the citys perimeter to check residence permits, apparently worried that protesters would come from other cities.

Mr Lukashenko had vowed to crush any protests.

About 1,000 protesters gathered near the obelisk honouring Minsk as a World War II hero city, where police harshly clashed with them, beating some with truncheons and later using flash-bang grenades to try to disperse them.

Protesters later tried to build barricades with trash containers.

I will believe my own eyes  the majority was for us Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

Protests also broke out in the major cities of Brest, Gomel, Grodno and Vitebsk and police fired tear gas at the demonstrators in Brest, news reports said.

There was no official information on the number of arrests or people injured, but Ales Bilyatsky of the Viasna human rights group told The Associated Press that he believed there were several hundred arrests.

Three journalists from the independent Russian TV station Dozhd were detained earlier after interviewing an opposition figure and were expected to be deported.

An Associated Press journalist was beaten by police and treated at a hospital.

What has happened is awful, Mrs Tsikhanouskaya said.

She also rejected exit polls that indicated an overwhelming win for Mr Lukashenko, saying I will believe my own eyes  the majority was for us.

Mr Lukashenko himself was defiant as he voted earlier in the day.

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If you provoke, you will get the same answer, he said.

Do you want to try to overthrow the government, break something, wound, offend, and expect me or someone to kneel in front of you and kiss them and the sand onto which you wandered? This will not happen.

Mindful of Belarus long history of violent crackdowns on dissent  protesters were beaten after the 2010 election and six rival candidates arrested, three of whom were imprisoned for years  Mrs Tsikhanouskaya called for calm earlier on Sunday.

I hope that everything will be peaceful and that the police will not use force, she said after voting.

As polls opened, the countrys central elections commission said more than 40% of the electorate had cast ballots in early voting, a figure likely to heighten concerns about the potential for manipulation.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose assessments of elections are widely regarded as authoritative, was not invited to send observers.

Mrs Tsikhanouskaya had crisscrossed the country, tapping into public frustration with Mr Lukashenkos swaggering response to the pandemic and the countrys stagnating Soviet-style economy.

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Belarus, a country of 9.5 million people, has reported more than 68,500 confirmed coronavirus cases and 580 deaths but critics have accused authorities of manipulating the figures to downplay the death toll.

Mr Lukashenko has dismissed the virus as psychosis and declined to order restrictions to block its spread.

He announced last month that he had been infected but had no symptoms and recovered quickly, allegedly thanks to doing sports.

He has defended his handling of the outbreak, saying that a lockdown would have doomed the nations already weak economy.

Belarus has sustained a severe economic blow after its leading exports customer, Russia, went into a pandemic-induced recession and other foreign markets shrank.

Before the coronavirus, the countrys state-controlled economy already had been stalled for years, stoking public frustration.
On the face of it, few companies have more to gain from Donald Trump's increasingly hostile attitude towards Chinese technology companies than Facebook. TikTok, the video app that the president has promised to ban if it remains owned by China's ByteDance, is possibly the biggest challenge to Facebook's social media hegemony. If a TikTok-shaped hole emerges in the market, it is most likely to be filled by Facebook-owned Instagram, which launched a near-clone of TikTok last week.

Mark Zuckerberg has done plenty to help stoke anti-TikTok sentiment. In a speech about internet censorship last year, he name-checked the app as an example of a Chinese approach to the internet that was "focused on very different values" to the West.

If Trump's executive order is carried through, this would cut off business from US advertisers, and more importantly, force Apple and Google to remove it from their App Stores. Credit:AP

Zuckerberg's warning was designed more to ward off regulators threatening to weaken Facebook than to encourage them to ban TikTok, but it is certainly possible that the social network's powerful lobbying operation has played a hand in the White House's recent threat to ban the Chinese-owned app, as well as the Chinese messaging service WeChat.

Last week, Trump signed an executive order prohibiting American companies from doing business with TikTok's parent company ByteDance within 45 days. If carried through, this would cut off business from US advertisers, and more importantly, force Apple and Google to remove it from their App Stores. In effect, it would constitute a ban on the app unless Microsoft successfully negotiates an acquisition of TikTok.
Alstom SA hinted that it may seek better terms for its 6.2 billion-euro ($9.7 billion) purchase of Bombardier Inc.s train arm after the Canadian company reported a second-quarter loss on writedowns at the unit.

The earnings announcement on Aug. 6 turned up unexpected financial and operational performance issues, especially when compared with information available prior to the February takeover deal, Alstom said in a statement Monday.

The French company said the transaction still makes sense, though it will take the developments into account in talks with Bombardier and update the market if needed.

Alstom would almost double its size with the cash-and-stock purchase of Bombardiers rail unit. The deal received European Commission approval at the end of July. Before that, Alstom chief executive officer Henri Poupart-Lafarge told French lawmakers it was on a good path.

Alstom, which is based in Saint-Ouen, France, said it remains convinced of the strong strategic rationale for the acquisition and is confident in its ability to restore the units profitability and commercial performance in the medium term.

Bombardier was unchanged at 43 Canadian cents at 9:38 a.m. in Toronto, while Alstom fell 1.6 per cent to 46.56 euros in Paris. Alstom gained 12 per cent this year through Aug. 7, while Bombardier declined 78 per cent.

Project writedowns

Montreal-based Bombardier reported a loss after writing down legacy projects at the rail unit, and racking up coronavirus-related costs in both the rail and aviation businesses.

Bombardier blamed the $435 million (U.S.) in charges on engineering, certification and retrofit costs for late-stage projects, mainly in the U.K. and Germany. Over two-thirds of the charge is expected to hurt 2020 free cash flow.

Combining with Bombardier Transportation would make Alstom the clear No. 2 in rail equipment and help it counter the industry leader, Chinas CRRC Corp., which is increasingly targeting global sales.

The deal would complete the breakup of Bombardier and leave the once sprawling firm focused on business jets after it was forced to off-load assets to pay down debt. Regional jet, turboprop and jetliner businesses have already been off-loaded.

Alstoms bid to merge with the rail unit of Germanys Siemens AG was blocked by the European Union on antitrust grounds, pushing it toward the deal with Bombardier.

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Personalized online learning for all age groups allows lessons to be adapted to each students individual strengths and weaknesses. (Photo provided by William Watson)

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  COVID-19 has changed the outlook for education, highlighting the potential for online learning and the need for more personalized learning options for students, according to a Purdue University College of Education professor.

William Watson, associate professor of learning design and technology, said student education levels are more likely to be spread all along the spectrum this school year based on what educational support they received at home.

Using personalized approaches to online instruction allows learning to be based more on each students individual strengths, weaknesses, goals and motivations, he said.

A personalized approach to learning supports student autonomy and the direction of each students learning process, Watson said. It values a students self-direction, motivation and engagement beyond simple knowledge acquisition.

Ultimately, the move to personalized systems of education is a question of when, not if, he said.

Watson is director of Purdues Center for Serious Games and Learning in Virtual Environments and studies the leveraging of technology to create more personalized learning.

Despite the efforts of instructors this year, the pandemic highlighted how unprepared many schools were to meet the suddenly altered learning situation of their students.

Watson said personalized learning moves past the traditional education style where students are grouped by age, with those that learn more quickly moving on and leaving behind others who learn at a slower rate.

If we move away from this, we can use online learning to structure our process in very different ways, namely, personalizing the process for each student to ensure learning, efficiency and personal meaning, Watson said.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked the No. 6 Most Innovative University in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at purdue.edu.

Writer, Media contact: Brian Huchel, bhuchel@purdue.edu. Working remotely but will provide immediate response.

Source: William Watson, brwatson@purdue.edu. In addition to phone interviews, the professor is available for Skype, Zoom and WebEx interviews.

Journalists visiting campus : Journalists should follow Protect Purdue protocols and the following guidelines:
Cipla share price gained over 6% today after the firm reported a 26.58 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit in June quarter. Cipla share price rose 6.64% in early trade to fresh 52 week high of Rs 777 against earlier close of Rs 728.60 on BSE.

Cipla stock price has risen 8.09% in one week, 20% in one month and 60.52% since the beginning of the year. Cipla stock opened with a gain of 4.78% at Rs 763.40 on BSE.

Market capitalisation of the firm rose to Rs 61,751 crore as of today's session. Cipla stock price is trading higher than 5, 20, 50, 100 and 200-day moving averages.

Total 2.45 lakh shares changed hands amounting to turnover of Rs 19.17 crore on BSE. On Friday, share price of Cipla closed at Rs 728.60 on BSE, down 0.42 per cent over previous close.

Cipla reported a 26.58 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit to Rs 566.04 crore on strong sales in Q1.

The company posted a net profit of Rs 447.15 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Stocks in news: Cipla, IndusInd Bank, Siemens, Punjab & Sind Bank, Concor

Total revenue from operations in Q1 stood at Rs 4,346.16 crore against Rs 3,989.02 crore for the same period year ago.

"During the quarter, our businesses actively re-imagined their operating models to drive strong growth across markets of India, South Africa, the US and focused execution on cost optimisation helped drive the quarter EBITDA to 24 per cent," Cipla MD and Global CEO Umang Vohra said.

The company is also at the forefront in combating COVID-19 through its strategic partnerships and a spectrum of offerings in its portfolio, he added.

Meanwhile, Indian markets rose extending last week's gains amid mixed global equities. Sensex was trading 279 points higher at 38,301 and Nifty gained 84 points to 11,299.

Last week, Sensex rose 433 points or 1.15%, while Nifty gained 140 points or 1.27%.

Share Market News Live: Sensex up 250 points, Nifty at 11,285; Cipla, Dr Reddy, Bajaj Finance top gainers
Business interruption insurance is designed for circumstances such as the current pandemic, said Koskie Minsky partner Kirk Baert in a statement. Many business owners who have contacted our firm have paid significant insurance premiums going back a decade or more, to have business interruption insurance coverage in place, and now find that their insurance claims are denied without even a cursory investigation of their business losses during the COVID-19 shutdown.

Baert accuses the Canadian insurance industry of abandoning small business owners when coverage is needed most.

Even at this early stage in the class action process, our firm has been contacted by more than 500 business owners who are shocked that despite the temporary closure of their businesses and clinics due to COVID-19, they are being denied any form of business interruption coverage, added Merchant Law Group partner Steven Roxborough.

Roxborough identified several insurers named as defendants in the lawsuit, including Aviva, Intact, The Co-operators, Wawanesa, Economical Insurance, Royal & Sun Alliance, and many other insurance companies. He also said that these insurers all seem to be taking the same blanket denial approach when it comes to business interruption insurance claims.
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
(Newser)  President Trump is denying a report that an aide asked about adding his face to Mount Rushmorebut he added that he loves the idea. In a Sunday night tweet, Trump rejected a report in the New York Times over the weekend that an unnamed aide reached out to the Republican governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, last year to inquire about the process, reports the Hill. "Fake news," the president wrote. "Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me!"

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One issue with the denial: Noem herself has said publicly that Trump seriously asked her about it in 2018, when she visited the Oval Office as a member of Congress. She spelled it out in an interview that year with the Argus Leader. The Washington Post has some context, pointing out that Trump has a history of raising the idea, while insisting he's joking. This 2017 quote sums it up: Id ask whether or not you think I will someday be on Mount Rushmore, but, noheres the problem. If I did it joking, totally joking, having fun, the fake-news media will say, He believes he should be on Mount Rushmore!  Trump said during a speech in Ohio. So I wont say it, OK? I wont say. (Read more President Trump stories.)
As one of our strategic partners, WRG exemplifies and supports Corelations service culture, vision, and journey

Leading credit union core processor Corelation, Inc. and Wescom Resources Group (WRG), a technology CUSO, today announced a multi-year extension of their long-time partnership. Through the agreement, WRG provides hosting services for Corelations KeyStone core processing system, empowering dozens of credit unions to innovate, grow and excel.

Since 2012, WRGs nationwide Managed Services platform has supported Corelations rapid growth and now serves three dozen credit unions with asset sizes ranging from $50 million to more than $2 billion. With a focus on People, Products and Processes, WRGs Managed Services solution acts as an extension of the credit unions in-house team, and offers a unique, cost-effective blend of leading technology infrastructure, outstanding service and process expertise. Through this collaborative effort, client credit unions experience all the processing speed and flexibility of in-house systems, without the associated hardware, infrastructure and compliance costs. At the same time, credit unions enjoy fully automated job processing and no server maintenance, along with exceptional 24-hour support by knowledgeable client support and computer operations staff.

We are excited to extend our partnership with Corelation, says David Cerwinski, President of WRG. Through our shared values and commitment to the credit union movement, our two organizations provide cooperatives across the country with a secure, reliable and cost-effective platform for serving their members needs. With this extension agreement, we look forward to continuing to invest and innovate for the benefit of our mutual clients.

As one of our strategic partners, WRG exemplifies and supports Corelations service culture, vision, and journey, says Theresa Benavidez, President of Corelation. Through the WRG-Corelation partnership, our clients receive the benefits of seamless integration, a secure platform and unfailing service. WRG has provided incredible service to our mutual clients for the past eight years, and we are thrilled to continue this relationship for years to come.

Corelation is also excited to announce its first-ever virtual annual client conference will be held on October 6-7, 2020. Learn more at http://www.corelationinc.com.

About Wescom Resources Group

Backed by Wescom Credit Union, one of the nations largest credit unions with over $4 billion in assets and nearly 200,000 members, Wescom Resources Group provides credit unions with advanced technology solutions that increase their competitive edge. With over 75 clients, WRG is a leader in innovative technologies for the credit union industry. WRG offers one of the most robust Managed Services solutions in the credit union industry. In addition, WRGs TellergyTM solution provides branch automation for todays modern credit union. For more information, visit http://www.wescomresources.com.

About Corelation

Based in San Diego, CA, Corelation has been driving innovation in credit union core processing since 2009. Corelations KeyStone core solution leverages state-of-the art system architecture with the bold goal of transforming the way credit unions operate. KeyStone places the member experience front and center through an innovative API that drives both the teller interface and the remote digital channel. Corelation serves nearly 140 credit unions and was recognized as a San Diego Top Workplace in 2019. For more information, visit http://www.corelationinc.com.
YEREVAN.  The 15-day period of execution of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling, which required the Armenian government to ensure the immediate medical treatment of former minister of finance and ex-chairman of the State Revenue Committee Gagik Khachatryan in a civilian hospital, ended on August 5, the Khachatryan familys attorneys noted in a statement.

Apparently, as per the statement, since July 21, the government has not taken any reasonable steps to ensure adequate treatment in the event of obvious risks to the life and health of an Armenian citizen.

The Khachatryan familys attorneys added that they have been reporting for months that Gagik Khachatryan, 64, who, according to them, has been illegally arrested for 11 months, needs an immediate surgery to treat his spinal stenosis, the non-fulfillment and delay of which poses serious and irreversible risks to his health and for life.

The attorneys also noted that in addition to applying an interim measure regarding Gagik Khachatryan on July 21, the ECHR had decided to consider his case as a matter of priority, in accordance with Article 41 of the ECHR Regulation, as in the case of Khachatryan, the priority was given due to his severe health condition and the inaction of Armenian authorities.
By Azernews





By Akbar Mammadov

Turkey will send another package of medical aid to Azerbaijan over the fight against COVID-19.

Thus, medical supplies will be delivered to Azerbaijan in accordance with the agreement signed on providing assistance in the field of health between the Azerbaijani and Turkish governments on July 6.

The agreement on providing medical supplies to Azerbaijan was renewed by the order of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on August 5.

The medical aid package includes 30 Hi-Flow ventilations, 35,000 coveralls, 50,000 N95 masks, 100,000 surgical masks, 5,000 medical protective glasses, 200,000 gloves, 40,000 boxes of various medicines (Tamiflu and hydroxychloroquine).

The medical supplies will be supplied to Azerbaijan "as a gesture of friendship and goodwill, reads the agreement.

It should be noted that the first package of medical aid from Turkey was sent to Azerbaijan in the fight against coronavirus infection on 6 July. That package included 30 devices of IVL, 55,000 coveralls, 50,000 masks ?95, 100,000 surgical masks, 5,000 protective glasses, 200,000 gloves and 40,000 boxes of the various medicines used for the treatment of a virus.
(CNN)  On a sunny autumn afternoon, two wizards in long, black robes and pointed hats sat down for coffee in one of New Zealand's biggest cities.

It wasn't Halloween, and they weren't on their way to a costume party. And while they attracted attention from passersby, there was no finger pointing or all-out stares.

That's because, in Christchurch, seeing a wizard isn't completely out of the ordinary.

For decades, the city has had an official wizard. Born in the United Kingdom, Ian Brackenbury Channell settled in New Zealand in the 1970s, where he became known as The Wizard. As if to reinforce how serious he is, he even held a New Zealand driver's license issued to The Wizard, although he says he hasn't officially changed his name.

Over the years, he became a fixture in the city. On the paved square in front of Christchurch's cathedral, he pontificated on his life theories, wore wizard robes and became such a well-known figure that he earned himself a TripAdvisor rating (four out of five stars). Since 1998, he's been paid 16,000 New Zealand dollars ($10,400) annually by the Christchurch City Council for "wizardry."

Now age 87, The Wizard spends less time in the public eye. He wants to find a successor -- and appears to have got one in 39-year-old Ari Freeman, who teaches guitar and fronts a psychedelic funk band.

As he and Freeman sit at at a table outside a sunny, inner-city cafe, a middle-aged cyclist calls out to them: "No casting spells fellas!"

"Can't promise anything," Freeman quips.

Becoming a wizard

As a young man, The Wizard backpacked around Europe, was a Royal Air Force Officer in Canada, and taught English literature at the University of Tehran. But it wasn't until he moved to Australia with his then-wife that he found the role he would spend his life playing: The Wizard.

After finishing his degree in sociology and psychology, he worked as a community arts organizer for the University of Western Australia in Perth, and then as a teaching fellow in sociology at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney.

There, he started what he called a "fun revolution," aimed at bringing love, logic and levity to the world, and turning the university into a "theater of the absurd." When he lost his university job, he hatched a plan with the vice chancellor to give him a new position -- UNSW's first official wizard.

"I've invented a wizard out of nowhere," says The Wizard. "There were no wizards when I arrived in the world, except in books."

A picture of him in the role -- published by Origins, the newsletter of the UNSW Archives -- shows him wearing a leather jacket, standing on a chair and holding a skull like a modern-day Hamlet.

To The Wizard, his job doesn't mean casting spells, or impersonating Gandalf from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. As he sees it, his role is to be a kind of provocateur -- someone who brings a sense of fun to the world, but also criticizes the system. A showman, who doesn't mind making a fool of himself.

"Every day the world gets more serious, so fun is the most powerful thing in the world right now," he says.

But, as The Wizard tells it, there were plenty of people against him. The academics in Sydney didn't like what he was doing ("academics don't like silly, fun things," he says) so he headed to the University of Melbourne, where he claims he led his own cosmology department. The university, however, says that is an "aggrandizement" of what he was doing -- according to them, he was not employed by the university, although he was associated with the student union.

When he became a wizard, he said he lost all his friends and his wife left him -- he says he turned her throwing him out of the house into a ritual by inviting friends to come, too. "To me it was fun, but not to her. She's still furious."

So in 1974, he moved to Christchurch, New Zealand. And it was there that his wizarding path really took off.

Mystical Christchurch

If there was ever a place to be a wizard, Christchurch is it.

While many inner-city buildings are still in disrepair from the 2011 earthquake that devastated the city and killed 185 people, some of its Gothic-revival architecture remains, and there's a distinctly British feel to the built environment. When low-lying fog rolls through the city, clinging to the gray stone buildings and colonial-era statues, it has the effect of conjuring a scene out of a British crime series, or low-budget horror movie.

In short: it's suitably mystical for a wizard.

When The Wizard arrived in Christchurch in the 1970s, he saw the city as the "romantic dream," a beautiful place far from the rest of the world which was unlikely to become a hub for economic development.

Once there, he became a mainstay in Cathedral Square, where he stood on a ladder and dressed in a variety of outfits, including in a loin cloth as John the Baptist. He praised the British Empire and criticized what he calls "anti-male sexism."

At first, the council wasn't taken with him, according to The Wizard. They initially refused to appoint him the city's official wizard and wouldn't grant him the written permission he needed to speak in the square under Christchurch bylaws. So The Wizard played "silly games with the council" -- he wore a gas mask and spoke in French, hoping to evade the rules.

"I've been the most popular man in Christchurch since then," The Wizard claimed. "And the most hated man by the bureaucrats."

But as his profile rose, he got more official recognition.

In 1982, the New Zealand Art Gallery Directors Association said he had become a living work of art -- the Auckland City Art Gallery document described the work's medium as "artist's corporeal substance" and its value as "priceless." (Funnily enough, The Wizard is not overly positive about modern art, which he describes as "mainly about writing applications for grants.")

In 1988, Waimate -- a town not far from Christchurch -- was in the grips of a drought. The organizers of a local agriculture fair invited him to perform a rain dance, and, according to The Wizard, rain fell only a few hours after he began beating his drum. "The Wizard adjourned to the refreshment tent to watch the downpour and partake of the free whiskeys that were thrust into his hands by the visibly shaken farmers," his website says.

In 1990, then New Zealand Prime Minister Mike Moore wrote him a letter on the official prime ministerial letterhead, suggesting that he should "urgently consider my suggestion that you become the Wizard of New Zealand, Antarctica and relevant offshore areas."

"No doubt there will be implications in the area of spells, blessings, curses, and other supernatural matters that are beyond the competence of mere Prime Ministers," Moore wrote.

Eight years later came perhaps the biggest validation of his status to date -- and an amazing about-turn.

Christchurch City Council contracted him to "provide acts of wizardry and other wizard-like-services as part of promotional work for the city of Christchurch," according to a council spokesperson. The Wizard is paid 16,000 New Zealand dollars ($10,400) annually -- for reference, New Zealand's pension for a single person is 22,039 New Zealand dollars annually after tax. The wizard doesn't pay tax, and is financially supported by his fiance of 43 years, Alice Flett, who he met at an Anglican church in Christchurch, and got engaged to in a public performance.

According to a Council spokesperson, his services include assisting with promoting local events and tourism, as well as welcoming dignitaries or delegations to the city, which would usually involve no more than 200 hours of work each year.

In 2009, The Wizard received the Queen's Service Medal -- one of the highest honors in New Zealand. "I couldn't believe it, I thought it would never happen," The Wizard says.

A wizarding apprentice

Freeman has been The Wizard's apprentice for six years -- but has seen himself as a wizard for far longer.

"I think it came together in my mid-20s. It's one of those things you don't have a name for and when you look back, you realize you've been doing it for a long, long time."

In 2014, Freeman decided to take the next step. He walked up to The Wizard, already sporting a long beard. "Hi, I'm Ari, and I'm a young wizard," he recalls saying. "OK, let's get started then," Freeman says the Wizard replied.

Being a wizard's apprentice -- as you might imagine -- isn't an especially formal arrangement. The pair meet up and argue a lot, although Freeman is rarely able to change The Wizard's opinion.

After all, the Wizard -- who often slips into impassioned tangents -- isn't shy about holding strong views. The Census, which he has evaded for decades, is "a branding of animals on the farm." Wicca, also known as Pagan witchcraft, is "shallow consumerist stuff, I'm afraid ... It's like vegetarianism, it's a fad."

The Wizard is resistant to the idea of a female wizard, and suggests women can be fairies, instead. He's not convinced by climate change, although he does like the idea of a simpler way of life ("The Hobbits were right.")

Among the things Freeman and the elder wizard disagree on is music. While The Wizard says a lot of music is "evil," Freeman thinks music is a form of magic. If he plays the right song in the right context, he can make people dance. "They'll think it's their idea to dance, but my song did it," he said.

Freeman went into being a wizard with few expectations, but in his tens of thousands of interactions, he's barely had any negative experiences. He's had a similarly positive reception from his friends, family and partner. When he told his partner that he wanted to be a wizard, "she loved it."

But times are changing for wizarding types. The Wizard's old haunt -- Cathedral Square -- is not what it once was. A barricade encircles the old church, and birds perch in the earthquake-ruined vault. And there is perhaps little need for a public figure whose views are increasingly out of step with those around him.

Freeman knows he can't be a wizard without the community's buy in. If people want a wizard, he will be one, he says. The council did not comment when asked whether Freeman would be given The Wizard's contract.

"I want the wizard phenomenon to continue, and I will totally fulfill that role," Freeman said. "Like a band needs a guitar player -- I'll be that guitar player."

To Freeman, being a wizard is a way to empower people who are lost or depressed, and shake them out of the bounds of what's expected.

"It takes someone to do something unusual to poke their head in to create a zeigeist change," Freeman said. "And those people are magicians."

This story was first published on CNN.com 'This New Zealand man gets paid $10,000 a year to be a city's official wizard'
Supplier News

10 August 2020

HRS Hospitality and Retail Systems has announced the appointment of David Deng as their General Manager for HRS China. David will lead the China team and continue to develop, maintain, and expand its product and service portfolio.

"I am thrilled to announce this appointment", said Slava Ovchinnikov, MD of Global Operations, "we believe that David's experience and management skills will help us to succeed in this important region".

David, who will be based in the HRS Beijing office, has spent over thirty years working in the Hospitality Industry and has a comprehensive knowledge of hotel operations and system applications. He has previously held senior positions with technology companies serving the Hospitality Industry, as well as hotel properties in China.

"I am excited to be joining HRS and look forward to contributing to the company's success in China", said David. "My immediate goal is to make HRS a leading player within the country and achieve the goals that have been set".

HRS China currently has a presence in fourteen Chinese cities, including three main offices in Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou. As an official Oracle Field Delivery Service Provider for China, HRS is authorized to provide 24/7 support services to new and existing customers within the country. HRS offers an impressive portfolio of Oracle Hospitality solutions, including, Opera PMS, Suite8 PMS, Simphony POS, RES 3700, the HRS spa, wellness and loyalty management system TNG, plus a full set of China-specific applications, and complementary products.
As concert venues remain closed, bands are starting to get creative about how they reach their fans this year. And heavy metal band Metallica will be taking on their first show of 2020 via a drive-in movie theater near you.

The concert is the first of the Encore Drive-In Nights series, which will broadcast a one-night-only concert event to drive-in theaters across the United States and Canada.

The band, known for hits including Enter Sandman, Fade to Black, Nothing Else Matters and The Unforgiven, will be on the big screen at 19 Pennsylvania drive-in venues on August 29 at 8:30 p.m. The show will also feature a performance by the band Three Days Grace.

Tickets go on sale starting on August 14 at noon, and will cost $115 per vehicle of us to six people. Each ticket purchase also includes four digital downloads of Metallicas S&M2 album, which is a recording of the bands two notable performances with the San Fransisco Symphony.

The closest screening to our area will be coming to the Haars Drive-In in Dillsburg. For a full list of drive-in venues that will be showing the concert, visit the Ticketmaster website.

READ MORE: Haars Drive-In: Movie nights are back with Friday opening
New Delhi:

In a significant development, India and influential East Asian nation Vietnam on Friday signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that it will further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

The two countries also signed three other agreements to enhance aviation links, to jointly work in the area of energy efficiency and promotion of parliamentary cooperation.

The four pacts, aimed at boosting the relations, were signed here in presence of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and visiting President of Vietnams National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan after their talks on enhancing the ties.

Ngan, who is leading a Vietnamese Parliamentary delegation, also met the Prime Minister who said the Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy will further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between India and Vietnam.

Modi recalled his earlier meeting with Ngan in Hanoi during his visit to Vietnam in September. He said that Ngan, as the first woman to head the National Assembly of Vietnam, is a source of inspiration to women across the world.

Modi welcomed increased Parliamentary interactions between India and Vietnam, and called for instituting an exchange programme for young parliamentarians of the two countries.

Cooperation Agreement between the Lok Sabha of the Republic of India and the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

The civil nuclear agreement with Vietnam, an influential East Asian nation, comes close on the heels of India signing a similar pact with Japan. Vietnam is the 14th country with which India signed the civil nuclear deal.

From the Indian side, the MoU on civil nuclear cooperation was signed by Sekhar Basu, Secretary of Department of Atomic Energy, while Pham Cong Tac, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, signed it from the Vietnamese side.

The two countries had earlier in 1986 signed a pact in the civil nuclear field which was limited to training. However, the new agreement is broadbased and encompasses research on nuclear reactors, sources said.

The cooperation in research on nuclear reactors will get activated once India gets membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, they added.

An MoU on Promotion of traffic between Vietnam and India and sharing of best practices in airline operation, ground handling procedure and management was also signed between Air India and Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company.

Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a PSU under the Power Ministry, and Vietnam Electricity (EVN) signed an MoU on Developing a Partnership to Jointly Work in the Area of Energy Efficiency.

It was signed by Satish C Mehta, Senior Advisor in EESL, and Duong Quang Thanh, Chairman of Vietnam Electricity.

Mahajan said the Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy is a remarkable development and a testimony to two countries willingness to give greater substance to their recently upgraded Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

The Speaker pitched for enhanced engagement between the two countries and specified sectors like defence, security, energy, exploration, non conventional energy as some of the key areas of mutual benefit. India and Vietnam can mutually benefit from each others strength, she said.

Referring to South China Sea over which China is laying an absolute claim and is in confrontation with Vietnam and some other East Asian countries, Mahajan said India has persistently maintained that sea lanes of communication passing through that maritime area are critical for peace, stability, prosperity and development.

She recalled Indias statement following the recent award of Arbitral Tribunal on South China Sea issue and reiterated its known position for resolving disputes through peaceful means without threat or use of force and by exercising self-restraint in the conduct of activities that could complicate or escalate disputes affecting peace and stability.

As a State Party to the UNCLOS (UN Convention on the Law of the Sea), India has called on all parties to show utmost respect for the UNCLOS, which establishes the international legal order of the seas and oceans, Mahajan said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A landmark study of sexual misconduct notifications to health regulators against health professionals shows that around one in five notified practitioners were the subject of more than one complaint.

The study, published online today by the Medical Journal of Australia, found that regulators received 1,507 sexual misconduct notifications for 1167 of 724,649 registered health practitioners (0.2%) during 2011-2016, including 208 practitioners (18%) who were the subjects of more than one report; 381 notifications (25%) alleged sexual relationships, 1,126 (75%) alleged sexual harassment or assault.

Lead author of the study, Associate Professor Marie Bismark, professor of Public Health Law at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, said in an exclusive podcast that the multiple complaints against some individual practitioners begged the question of whether sexual misconduct could be remediated or whether those practitioners needed to be removed from the profession.

"We do need to assess which interventions are effective, which group of practitioners can be remediated and which groups of practitioners are likely to continue engaging in this conduct," Associate Professor Bismark said.

"That's an incredibly important question. You sometimes hear about regulators imposing conditions like requiring a practitioner to attend an ethics course. I'm not sure of any good evidence that forcing somebody to attend an ethics course against their will has ever really changed their practice."

Bismark and colleagues analyzed data from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and NSW Health Professional Councils Authority on notifications of sexual misconduct during 20112016.

They found that:

notifications regarding sexual relationships were more frequent for psychiatrists (15.2 notifications per 10,000 practitioner-years), psychologists (5.0 per 10,000 practitioner-years), and general practitioners (6.4 per 10,000 practitioner-years);

the rate was higher for regional/rural than metropolitan practitioners;

notifications of sexual harassment or assault more frequently named male than female practitionersmale practitioners were 37 times more likely to sexually harass or sexually assault a patient than a female colleague;

a larger proportion of notifications of sexual misconduct than of other forms of misconduct led to regulatory sanctions (242 of 709 closed cases [34%] v 5,727 of 23,855 [24%]).

Bismark and colleagues highlighted three areas that need further investigation.

"First, we need strategies for reducing barriers to notifying regulators of sexual misconduct," they wrote. "The Medical Board of Australia has recently established a national committee for responding to sexual misconduct notifications and has trained investigators with specialist expertise. Second, the connection between sexual misconduct and sexual harassment of colleagues should be investigated, with the twin goals of training practitioners to practice ethically and professionally and providing trustworthy processes for reporting and investigating unacceptable behavior in the health professions. Finally, we need robust information about the effectiveness of regulatory interventions for preventing recurrent sexual misconduct. Patients, health care practitioners, and the public deserve focused efforts to prevent sexual misconduct in health care, fair and thorough investigation of allegations of sexual misconduct, and prompt and consistent action by regulators when allegations are confirmed."

Explore further Universities are failing to deal with serial sexual predators on their staffs, according to new report

More information: Marie M Bismark et al. Sexual misconduct by health professionals in Australia, 20112016: a retrospective analysis of notifications to health regulators, Medical Journal of Australia (2020). Journal information: Medical Journal of Australia Marie M Bismark et al. Sexual misconduct by health professionals in Australia, 20112016: a retrospective analysis of notifications to health regulators,(2020). DOI: 10.5694/mja2.50706

Provided by Medical Journal of Australia
Aaron Brady has been found guilty of carrying out the credit union robbery in which detective garda Adrian Donohoe was shot dead over seven years ago.

The accused is on trial charged with capital murder and robbery at Lordship credit union on January 25, 2013.

It is the prosecution's case that the accused fired the fatal shot which killed Adrian Donohoe (41) during the armed raid.

Mr Brady (29) denies this and says he was moving laundered diesel waste cubes at a yard in Cullaville, south Armagh, at the time of the robbery.

This afternoon the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict on the second count of robbery.

They have been deliberating for nearly 13 hours.

Mr Justice Michael White instructed the jury that they can continue deliberating on the charge of capital murder and that he will accept a majority verdict.

The jury were asked to return tomorrow morning to continue their deliberations.

Aaron Brady has pleaded not guilty to the capital murder of Adrian Donohoe (41), who was then a member of An Garda Siochana acting in the course of his duty, at Lordship Credit Union in Bellurgan, Dundalk, Co Louth, on January 25, 2013.

The accused, of New Road in Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, had also denied robbery of approximately 7,000 in cash and assorted cheques from Pat Bellew at the same location on the same date.
With the start of the 2020-21 school year now just days or a couple of weeks away, school leaders across Pennsylvania on Monday received some definitive guidance from the state Departments of Education and Health on how to know its safe for students and teachers to return to in-person instruction.

The guidance relies on public health metrics that measure the level of risk of community transmission of COVID-19, namely the incidence per 100,000 residents and the percent positivity of diagnostic testing.

The metrics are available for every county in Pennsylvania on the health departments COVID-19 Early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard. Department officials recommend school leaders consider two consecutive weeks of their countys coronavirus transmission data before considering making a switch to a different instructional delivery.

The guidance suggests:

Counties with fewer than 10 cases per 100,000 residents and a positivity rate of less than 5% are considered low risk, and can offer five-day-a-week, in-person learning or a blended model that mixes in-person with a remote instructional delivery. Currently, 25 counties fall into this category including Perry County.

Counties with between 10 and 100 cases per 100,000 or a positivity rate of between 5 and 10% can do a blended or fully remote delivery. Currently, 41 counties fall into this category including Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lebanon, Lancaster and York counties.

Counties with greater than 100 cases per 100,000 or a positivity rate of 10% or higher are recommended to only offer remote delivery. Currently, only Union County, home to a federal prison, falls into this category.

Receiving this guidance after many schools already approved a COVID-19 health and safety plan for their district is a source of consternation for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and House Republicans.

The school boards association CEO Nathan Mains said while this guidance is needed and warranted, the timing of its release, however, is at a point where school leaders are far along the path of planning for school reopening. Their plans have been discussed and researched over the summer months and in numerous cases, districts have publicly announced the instructional model(s) available to their students.

He went on: School leaders may find challenges in assessing these latest recommendations and incorporating them into reopening plans already formulated and announced, but we know they will continue looking to [the departments of education and heath] for ongoing, timely updates to best-inform their evolving decisions.

A House GOP spokesman also was critical of the timing of the departments recommendation, saying this type of guidance and support was needed months ago.

Instead, they were given this late-in-the-game, patchwork approach to closing schools that provides no predictability or assurances; not for children, not for working parents, and not for educators, said House GOP spokesman Jason Gottesman.

An education department spokesman defended the timing of the guidance as intending to be helpful to districts beyond just the opening of school.

From the onset of the pandemic, the department has said that guidance would change as conditions of the pandemic changes, said department spokesman Rick Levis. At this point, we expect that we will be dealing with COVID for at least some part of the upcoming school year. As such, the recommendations are intended to help schools safely provide instruction to students as they progress through the 2020-21 academic year.

During a conference call with reporters, Education Secretary Pedro Rivera said the departments recommendation is not for school districts to bounce from one instructional model to another based on the public health metrics about their county. Rather, he said they should track it over a suggested two-week period to see if the numbers change. He suggested some districts may choose to switch delivery methods at the end of a marking period, for example, if they see numbers trending upward or downward.

Deputy Education Secretary Matt Stem added, Our recommendation is that when districts transition to a new instructional model, they they take the time they need to ensure smooth transitions for students before returning or changing to another model. And that would include up until a full marking period to ensure that stability for students and families.

Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said a caveat to that would be if there is a serious outbreak of community transmission rapidly progressing in a county, then we would do a deep dive on that. And in working with [the education department] call the school districts to make a recommendation, for example, to go to full remote if we were very concerned about a county that had a rapidly changing situation.

Levine referred to this guidance as another tool in the toolbox that superintendents were asking for in helping them to make decisions about how to safely open and operate schools. She and Rivera emphasized that the recommendations are not mandates and Levine said at this time, she has no intention of taking action against a school that disregards this guidance.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania State Education Association President Rich Askey called this guidance from the departments a significant step forward and urged all Pennsylvania schools to follow it.

State government has issued helpful guidance on a number of health and safety issues that schools can use to guide their reopening plans, Askey said. But we still need state directives that make it absolutely clear that, in addition to wearing a mask, everyone must maintain 6 feet of social distance and when a school should close if a student or staff member tests positive for COVID-19.

Levine indicated during the call with reporters, the health department will soon be putting out recommendations for schools soon on how to handle a situation if a teacher or student is positive.

Askey went on to encourage state leaders to provide additional clear, enforceable rules for the reopening of schools for in-person instruction.

State government still needs to answer some questions that school districts cant answer themselves. Were educators, not doctors. So, we need state experts to tell us how best to keep our students, staff, and families safe.

* This post was updated to correct the risk category that midstate counties currently fall into.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

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Karl Stefanovic and his wife, Jasmine Yarbrough, welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Harper May, three months ago.

And according to New Idea on Monday, the Today show host, 45, and the shoe designer, 36, are already planning to have another child.

Karl, who has three older children from his first marriage to Cassandra Thorburn, has reportedly been telling colleagues at Channel Nine that he and Jasmine are keen to give Harper a younger sibling.

Growing family: Today host Karl Stefanovic and his wife, Jasmine Yarbrough, are 'planning to have their second baby' - just three months after welcoming their daughter, Harper May

'A second baby is not far away and due to COVID, they have decided to increase their family,' a source said.

Karl apparently loves being a father, and little Harper has 'made him so happy' that he wants to have another baby.

The insider added: 'Karl is telling his network colleagues they want a new baby brother or sister for Harper as soon as possible. His Today co-workers have said they are already planning that it will be sooner rather than later.'

Proud dad: Karl apparently loves being a father, and little Harper (pictured) has 'made him so happy' that he wants to have another baby, a source told New Idea magazine

Jasmine and Karl welcomed Harper on May 1. She was born at Sydney's North Shore Private Hospital.

In a statement to the Today show at the time, Karl said: 'Harper and Jasmine are doing well and dad had a great night's sleep.'

He added: 'I am in awe. Harper is absolutely perfect.'

'I'm in awe. Harper is absolutely perfect': Jasmine and Karl welcomed Harper (pictured) in May

Karl met Jasmine in late 2016, just five months after he separated from journalist Cassandra Thorburn, to whom he was married for 21 years.

The couple wed in a lavish ceremony at the One&Only Palmilla resort in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, in December 2018.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Karl and Jasmine's representative for comment.
KABUL Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Monday signed a decree to release a final batch of hardcore" Taliban prisoners demanded by the militants, sources told Reuters, paving the way for long-awaited peace talks to begin in Qatar.

It is signed," a presidential palace source said.

Afghanistans grand assembly, or Loya Jirga, on Sunday approved the release, under election-year pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump for a deal allowing him to bring home American troops.

The war has ground on since U.S.-backed Afghan forces ousted the Islamist Taliban government in late 2001.

We are ready to sit for talks within a week from when we see our prisoners released. We are ready,a Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Reuters.

It was not immediately clear when the release would happen.

The original plan is to travel to Doha on Wednesday and the talks will begin on Sunday," a government source told Reuters before the decree was signed.

U.S. Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who reached an agreement with the Taliban in February for the withdrawal of the last U.S. troops, welcomed the development, having spent months trying to bring the militant movement to the negotiating table with the government.

In the next few days, we expect the completion of prisoner releases, then travel of the Islamic Republic team to Doha, & from there the immediate start of intra-Afghan negotiations," he said on Twitter.

The Taliban had demanded the release of the last 400 of 5,000 in total as a condition for joining the peace talks.

But the government had been hesitant as these prisoners were involved in some of the worst violence, including a 2017 truck bombing near the German embassy in Kabul that killed more than 150 people - the deadliest attack in the 19-year insurgency.

The Taliban, in power from 1996-2001, previously refused to talk to the Afghan government, dismissing it as a puppet of the United States.

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
Mr. Chairman,

I wish to join all those who have expressed condolences and solidarity and who thanked OCHA for coordinating the effort.

The UN refugee organisations, UNHCR and UNRWA, have a close and long-standing association with Lebanon. This is a country that has hosted Palestinian and other refugees for decades  most recently, from Iraq and Syria. It is now time to stand by the Lebanese people in their hour of need.

In Lebanon, UNHCR has one of its largest operations globally  some 650 colleagues, who are now involved in the common relief effort and are available to pursue its goals.

We have already mobilised together with the UN and our humanitarian partners. I am planning to visit Lebanon next week to support our response.

I wish to make clear that our response covers the entire community - including Lebanese, refugees and migrant workers.

Given the centrality of the shelter emergency, our immediate priority is to help 10,000 vulnerable households repair their homes and make them safe. We are providing people with 'emergency weatherproofing' plastic sheeting, timber, plywood and tools. We will support additional rehabilitation work through cash and in-kind assistance.

We are also, like others, drawing on our existing networks of outreach volunteers and other partnerships to step up our community support, including psychological first aid, connecting vulnerable people with the right services, and supporting community solidarity initiatives. We will also step up our existing hotlines and case management systems to provide individual assistance, including legal support.

Naturally, and to conclude, while echoing what many others have said, while we concentrate on this emergency, let us not forget that Lebanon is affected by the COVID pandemic, and continues to host hundreds of thousands of Syrian and other refugees. All these responses, often underfunded, require our sustained attention and support.

Thank you.
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 10 : Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said that he had a fruitful discussion with Prime Minister Narendra Modi wherein he has raised the request for adequate financial assistance.

"First it was Covid... and it continues and then came the recent floods, in which a lot of damage has been suffered. Due to all these, the financial position of the state is badly stressed," he said.

"He has asked us to submit everything in detail and it would be looked into," he added.

Vijayan also said that the state recorded 1,184 new Covid cases on Monday.

"Of the new Covid cases, 956 were local infectees and included 114 whose source of infection is not known," he said.

At present, the state has 12,737 active cases, while there were 1,49,295 people under observation, including 11,876 in hospitals. The state has 531 hotspot areas.
Sensex and Nifty ended higher on Monday, extending last week's gains amid mixed global equities. Sensex ended 141 points higher at 38,182 and Nifty gained 60 points to 11,274. On Friday, Sensex ended 15 points higher at 38,040 and Nifty gained 13 points to 11,214. During last week, Sensex has risen 433 points or 1.15%, while Nifty has gained 140 points or 1.27%

Sectorally, all indices ended with gains with Nifty Pharma climbing over 5%. Realty and CPSE index on NSE ended almost 2% each. M&M, followed by L&T, Kotak Bank, SBI, Bajaj Finance, Sun Pharma, ITC and HDFC duo were the top Sensex gainers. On the other hand, Maruti, Tata Steel and Nestle India were the laggards.

Overseas, Asian stocks ended lower on Monday as investors kept eye on flaring tensions between the United States and China with President Donald Trump's move to ban WeChat and TikTok. Investors were also cautious on US fiscal stimulus after talks between the White House and Democrat lawmakers broke down. Japanese and Singaporean markets were closed for public holidays.

Share Market Highlights: Sensex ends 141 points higher, Nifty at 11,270; Cipla, L&T, M&M top performers

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 retreated from a near six-month high on Friday amid a sharp slowdown in US employment growth data. Traders will also keep a track of global markets as the United States is likely to announce another round of stimulus this week. The relief package, which is being discussed between lawmakers, is likely to boost market sentiments domestically and globally.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said,"Sectoral news flow boosted positivity in the Indian markets with Pharma index leading the gains. The gains were news-driven, with earnings results and government actions accounting for sectoral gains. Earnings results of select pharma companies drove gains in the sector while government actions to boost domestic defence productions helped gains in defence stocks."

Shares of defence companies were rallying in Monday's opening trade after Ministry of Defence announced over the weekend banning of 101 defence weapons and military platform items.

Shares of M&M, Dr Reddy, Pfizer, Divi Labs were trading as top gainers on Nifty after posting their Q1 results. Meanwhile, April-June quarterly earnings announcements by Titan, Power Grid, IPCA Labs, Bank of Baroda, AstraZeneca Pharma, TTK Prestige will also set the tone for the stock market.

Expressing views on the week ahead, Vinod Nair added, "Global markets are awaiting and will definitely be impacted by the heightened US-China tensions and imminent Chinese reaction. Heightened Chinese aggression could have a negative impact on our markets in the near term. However, there could be a silver lining for Indian markets in the long term, with global investors hesitating to invest in Chinese companies. For lack of options, some of this money could find its way into Indian companies, provided the right ecosystem is built. Earnings specific action will likely continue next week, with indices searching for direction in the near term. Accumulation continues the best strategy."

On the near term outlook, Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking said," Markets would react to the SC hearing on AGR dues and stocks especially from telecom and banking packs will remain in limelight. And since we're closely following the global markets, US-China trade tension, currency and crude oil movement would also be actively tracked. We maintain our positive yet cautious stance and suggest traders prefer hedged bets as volatility is here to stay. A decisive breakout above 11,350 in Nifty would again turn the bias in the favour of bulls."

On Nifty's near term technical levels, Sameet Chavan- Chief Analyst-Technical and Derivatives, Angel Broking said, "Since the last couple of days, we have been advocating some caution, because Nifty has approached a strong resistance zone of 11300-11350 and although there is no sign of weakness yet, it will not be easy for the index to overcome this sturdy wall. Going ahead, if we sneak and sustain below 11238, this will result in some immediate decline towards 11175-11120-11064 levels."

Worldwide, there are 200 lakh confirmed cases and 7.33 lakh deaths from the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak. In India, the number of infected cases has risen to 22 lakh, including 0.44 lakh fatalities.

HAL, Bharat Forge, BEL, L&T shares gain after ban on import of 101 defence items

Mahindra & Mahindra stock hits 52-week high despite 97% fall in Q1 net profit

Divi's Laboratories share price climbs 16% on strong Q1 earnings
Days after the Supreme Court ordered an inquiry as to how a petition filed by senior journalist N Ram, former Union Minister Arun Shourie and advocate Prashant Bhushan challenging the contempt of court law got listed before a bench other than the one which was hearing contempt petitions against Bhushan, it has now emerged that the petition contained an application for staying all contempt proceedings against the advocate.

The application mentioned the two contempt petitions pending against Bhushan before a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra. One was a 2009 contempt case initiated against Bhushan for his interview given to Tehelka magazine where he alleged half of past 16 Chief Justices of India (CJI) to be corrupt. The other contempt case was initiated on two tweets by Bhushan. One criticized CJI SA Bobde of riding a bike while keeping Courts closed and another was directed against the judiciary for destroying democracy without a formal Emergency. The tweets were of June 27 and June 29.

A statement released by the Supreme Court on Monday said, In the Writ Petition titled as N. Ram and Others v Union of India, an application for stay has been moved making a request to stay all the proceedings in criminal contempt cases pending against Petitioner no. 3 (Prashant Bhushan).

On receiving this petition, the SC Registry listed the matter before a bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud on Monday, August 10. But the petition was withdrawn after this application surfaced.

An inquiry has been ordered to ascertain how the petition got listed before a bench other than Justice Mishra. Pending such inquiry, the statement makes it amply clear why the matter was deleted from the list of Justice Chandrachud. The note released by SC said, It is a cardinal principle of law that a coordinate bench cannot stay the proceedings of ongoing cases which are pending before other similar bench. This would have created a problem as one Court cannot stay the proceedings of other court having the same jurisdiction.

The petition by Ram, Bhushan and Shourie is yet to be listed. The petition has challenged the validity of Section 2(c)(i) of the Contempt of Courts Acty 1971 which criminalizes publication of any matter that could scandalize or lower the authority of courts.

The petition alleged that this provision violates freedom of speech under Article 19 of the Constitution and gags discourse on matters of public importance.

The stay application annexed with the petition had prayed to stay all ongoing proceedings in criminal contempt cases pending against the Petitioner no 3 herein, that are either based on the definition of criminal contempt as defined under Section 2(c)(i) of Contempt of Courts Act or are intrinsically linked to the same during the pendency of the instant writ petition.
New Delhi: The national capital witnessed riots on February 24 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured. Charge sheets have been filed against several conspirators but DNA's expose today will shock you. You may find it difficult to believe that a Professor from Delhi University can also be part of this conspiracy.

Delhi riots were a planned conspiracy and revelations made through confessions of accused person authenticate that the communal clashes in February were not spontaneous. Last week, DNA report had anlaysed the confessions of Tahir Hussain, who has emerged as one of the key masterminds of these riots.

The latest confession of an accused woman stated as to how students and professors from esteemed universities extended ideological support to Delhi riots. The confessions of this accused woman, Gulfisha Fatima, is in possession of Zee News. Gulfisha Fatima, who was arrested in April under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) is currently serving a jail term.

The 28-year-old woman is an alumnus of Delhi University and is a resident of Seelampur in Delhi. The area was the hotbed of the Delhi riots in February. Of the 18 accused, who allegedly planned the riots, Gulfisha is named number 8.

In her confessions, Gulfisha told Delhi Police Professor Apurvananda of Delhi University was also part of the conspiracy. He was in fact at the forefront of the planning being hatched for the riots. Gulfisha has confessed that Professor Apoorvananda also praised her after the riots for doing a good job.

Last week, Delhi Police's Special Cell questioned Professor Apurvanand for 5 hours and confiscated his mobile phone for investigation. Apoorvananda, who is a Professor of Hindi at Delhi University, is facing allegations for his role in the Delhi riots. Gulfisha Fatima is learned to have said that Professor Apurvanand had told her that if the police nabbed her, she should not name Apurvananda or other girl students from Delhi University who are members of Pinjra Tod.

Two students associated with the Pinjra Tod are the key accused in the Delhi riots. Gulfisha told police about the planning of these riots in which burqa-clad women were prepared to incite the riot so that no one could be identified. The women were also asked to bring chili powder, which could be poured into the eyes. She added that two WhatsApp groups, Inquilab and Warrior, were also formed precisely for the riots.

The riots in Delhi were carried out in three stages. In the first phase, protests were held against the Citizenship Act and the NRC, roads were jammed under the second phase, while riots were carried out under the third phase. This has been authenticated from the confessions of Gulfisha.

Gulfisha used to visit different streets to mobilise women to incite them to stage protests against the Citizenship Law and NRC. The motive behind bringing burqa-clad women to the protest site was that the police would not use force against them, and the same was witnessed in Shaheen Bagh. If the police tried to use force, then the atmosphere will deteriorate and it will ultimately benefit the planners of the riots, she added.

Gulfisha stated that she befriended two members of Delhi University's Pinjra Tod, Devangana and Paroma Rai. The members of this organization are also accused of being involved in the planning of the Delhi riots. They worked under the guidance of Professor Apurvananda, who wanted these protests to appear "secular", thereby showing that the protests did not belong to Muslims only.

According to Gulfisha, she came in contact with Professor Apoorvanand and Rahul Roy, and through them, she met Umar Khalid--former student leader of JNU. In December, two months before the riots, Apurvanand, and his associates had explained that through protests in the name of the Citizenship Act, they would be able to create an atmosphere of revolt against the government and bring it to its knees.

She also confessed that Apurvanand had told him that the Jamia Coordination Committee of Jamia University students was staging agitation at 20 to 25 places in Delhi. The aim of these protests is to present the anti-Muslim image of the government. The professor is understood to have stated that this would happen only when riots occurred on the pretext of protests.

In association with the Jamia Coordination Committee, Gulfafisha was asked to see a place for a 24-hour demonstration in the Seelampur area. She visited Seelampur and protests followed. For this, Gulfisha was assisted by the Pinjra Tod group. She said that these people used to help with money and used to deliver provocative speeches on the protest site.

These people used to hold secret meetings, in which Prof Apurvanand, Umar Khalid, and others attended. Omar Khalid had told Gulfisha that he also had good relations with the Popular Front of India (PFI) and there was no shortage of money. She was also told that through these protests people will overthrow the Modi government. According to Gulfisha, Umar Khalid respected Professor Apoorvananda like his father.

She further confessed that on February 22, women were gathered on the pretext that they would hold a candle march but they sat down under the Jafrabad Metro station and blocked the road. This was done deliberately and a few days later, there were riots in Seelampur and Zafarabad of Delhi.

Since US President Donald Trump was on his trip to India, these people conspired for riots to tarnish India's image. Keeping this aspect in mind, #Chakka Jam was posted on WhatsApp to make it viral on social media. All this was monitored by Professor Apurvananda, Gulfisha added.

Professor Apurvanand, however, clarified the allegations against him and said that he is surprised that the police is mistakenly arresting those who extended support to protests on the pretext that they were involved in the riots. He expressed hope that the police will investigate the matter impartially.
H olidaymakers planning to head across the Channel should keep an eye on Foreign Office travel advice as Britain keeps under review whether to impose 14-day quarantine on people returning from France, a minister said today.

Health minister Helen Whately stressed the Government was prepared to impose more Covid-19 travel restrictions to stop the horrid disease spreading further in the UK.

The number of daily cases in France jumped to more than 2,200 on Friday and new rules have come into force on wearing face coverings in some busy outdoor areas of Paris.

We took action in Spain when we saw the rates going up there rapidly, Ms Whately told Talk Radio.

With France, we have to keep it under review and I would say to people just keep an eye if you are planning a holiday - keep an eye on the Foreign Office advice and be clear on your insurance terms and conditions.

She explained that a string of coronavirus data, including the overall number of new infections, as well as the number of tests being carried out, was being considered.

You need to look at a range of these factors, we take the advice of the Chief Medical Officer, the clinical advisor, on what is the right thing to do, she added.

But we are in a pandemic, this is a horrid disease, we have to do what is right for the health of our nation.

In a sign of growing concern over the spread of the virus, face masks have been made mandatory, with on-the-spot fines of 135 euros (122) for flouting the rules, in some busy areas of Paris including along the Seine, and famous market, tourist and shopping streets in Montmartre, Rue Saint-Honore and Boulevard de Rochechouart.

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The Governments Joint Biosecurity Centre is expected to deliver mid-week an updated analysis of Covid-19 infections abroad and any new restrictions are likely to be announced at the end of the week unless there was a sudden surge in cases in one country which needed urgent action, as happened in Spain.

Ministers are keen for people to be aware of the possibility that new quarantine measures could be imposed.
While coronavirus has spread through the world like wildfire, the number of infected people living in closed spaces who have not shown any symptoms has left researchers in a confusion.

The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in the US estimated last month that about 40 per cent of infected people are asymptomatic.

According to a Washington Post article, 88 per cent of people were asymptomatic in a Boston homeless shelter which houses 147 people. Similarly, prisons in Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia had 3,277 infected people but 96 per cent were asymptomatic.

Follow live updates on coronavirus

Efforts to understand the diversity in the illness are finally beginning to yield results, raising hope that the knowledge will help accelerate development of vaccines and therapies - or possibly even create new pathways towards herd immunity, in which enough of the population develops a mild version of the virus that they block further spread and the pandemic ends.

Supporting the hypothesis that asymptomatic infection triggering immunity may lead to more population-level immunity. Monica Gandhi, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of California said, A high rate of asymptomatic infection is a good thing. It's a good thing for the individual and a good thing for society. Population-level immunity may be the key to limit the spread of the virus, she told Washington Post.

While going through the data of the Covid-19 outbreak, Gandhi noted a plausible pattern: People were wearing masks in the situation which recorded the highest percentage of asymptomatic cases.

For example, the outbreak in the Diamond Princess cruise ship showed that only 47 per cent of the infected people were asymptomatic. No masks were used on this ship. While an Argentinean cruise ship, which had an outbreak in mid-March recorded 81 per cent asymptomatic patients. The passengers and the crew were given surgical masks and N95 masks respectively.

Similarly, high rates of asymptomatic infection were documented at a paediatric dialysis unit in Indiana, a seafood plant in Oregon and a hair salon in Missouri, all of which used masks. Gandhi was also intrigued by countries such as Singapore, Vietnam and the Czech Republic that had population-level masking.

"They got cases," Gandhi noted, "but fewer deaths.

In another study by Gandhi, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, she found that at the start of the pandemic when people did not wear masks, 15 per cent of the patients were asymptomatic, while a recent data showed that later when people did wear masks, 40-45 per cent of the infected were asymptomatic.

Another study published in late May involving hamsters, masks and SARS-CoV-2 found that those given coverings had milder cases than those who did not get them, Washington Post said.

Gandhi said the evidence points that masks not just protect others - as U.S. health officials emphasise - but protect the wearer as well.
De Blasios announcement comes as outbreaks of the novel coronavirus have thrown some school systems into chaos. Several school systems in Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp (R) has barred cities from establishing their own virus restrictions, opened last week. The states largest school system, in Gwinnett County, was forced to send 260 teachers home  either because they had tested positive for the virus or were exposed to someone who tested positive. Another Georgia high school came under scrutiny after students posted photos of hallways packed with people. Administrators attempted to punish the students who shared the images  and then shuttered the school for cleaning after nine people at the school tested positive.
Instagram's new short-form video feature, Reels.

Instagram; Paige Leskin/Business Insider

Scammers are already profiting from selling fake views on Reels, Instagram's short-form video feature that only launched on August 5.

One seller said they had already made enough from selling fake views for a "good car and a decent home."

Typically, a customer might pay $5 for 1,000 views, or $15 per 1,000 likes.

A Facebook spokesperson said: "Inauthentic activity is bad for the community and since the early days of Instagram we've invested in ways to identify and remove millions of fake or spammy accounts. We'll continue to build on these technologies, to maintain the best possible experience across our platforms."

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Fake views on Reels, Instagram's new short-form video feature, launched on August 5, were being offered for sale just hours after it launched.

Alongside websites offering 100 likes on a Reel for 75 cents, managers of large botnets were offering artificial engagement for a price to their followers on protected encrypted apps, Business Insider has learned.

One botnet manager, who asked not to be named, has already received orders from around 80 people booking 11 million views on Reels.

The manager declined to say how much money they gained for those views, though did say their overall business selling engagement on Instagram was "enough for a good car and a decent home."

He charges $5 per 1,000 views on Reels, up to a maximum of 500,000 views, and $15 per 1,000 likes on Reels, both paid in Bitcoin (unless you're a loyal customer, in which case he'll accept Cash App, PayPal and credit card).

He runs a network of 500,000 Instagram accounts, and works with external partners when more accounts are needed to bolster views. He advertises his wares on secure messaging app Telegram, and counts influencers with large followings amongst his clientele.

The biggest influencer to ask for help with Instagram Reels so far has 1.5 million followers on the app, he claims.

Story continues

The manager said it was easy to generate fake views on Reels, claiming it took "a few hours".

"I use my bots for followers' stories' Likes, and now for Reels," he said.

He claimed there was "no protection" against view botting on Reels. "I guess Instagram is happy if we push their TikTok copy."

Facebook, Instagram's parent firm, pushed back on this in a statement, saying it continued to crack down on inauthentic behavior.

The advertising of fake engagement isn't just bluster: a Reel of a black screen with a sticker detailing the date posted by Business Insider, which the fake engagement sellers offered to boost for free to show how their product was effective, gained 3,000 views within minutes.

We acquired some fake Reels views.

Chris Stokel-Walker/Business Insider

Reels is Instagram's alternative to TikTok, where creators post videos up to 15 seconds long and have the opportunity to add background music and filters to the video. In addition, creators can also use Spark AR filters  which overlay augmented reality graphics onto faces  within the app.

It's Facebook's second attempt to try and capitalize on the short-form video market, after the closure last month of its service Lasso, an app that proved unpopular after its launch and had little takeup.

However, Instagram is eager to try and make Reels a success, launching on August 5 with a star-studded video filled with some of TikTok's most popular names.

The Wall Street Journal has previously reported Instagram was offering top TikTok creators hundreds of thousands of dollars to join their app.

The selling of fake engagement is not unique to Reels: the same public-facing site offering likes for Reels also sells views and engagement on TikTok videos  1,000 views on a video will cost you $1.10. (The Telegram-based view botter for Reels only works on Instagram, saying TikTok is harder to hoodwink.)

However, the speed at which the shadow economy around social media engagement moved to adopt Reels was surprising.

"Me and my team hadn't time to study Reels from this point of view because it's a really new function, [but] I'm not surprised at all: the issue of bots on Instagram is well known," said independent cybersecurity researcher Andrea Stroppa, who has monitored the volume of fake engagement on social networks.

"Instagram during the years improved against bots, but they are not winning," he added. "The problem is related about the security of the app and its AI detection systems.

"While Instagram is improving and we should give credit to its new head Adam Mosseri, on the other side botnet managers are improving using new techniques and technologies like 4G proxies for running fake accounts. It doesn't mean a lot for Instagram but it should be disturbing in my opinion."

A Facebook company spokesperson said: "Inauthentic activity is bad for the community and since the early days of Instagram we've invested in ways to identify and remove millions of fake or spammy accounts.

"We'll continue to build on these technologies, to maintain the best possible experience across our platforms."

While it's early days for Reels, the manager of the 500,000-strong network of Instagram accounts isn't hopeful for its future  at least not without his help.

"It's not popular," he said. "Instagram and people like me will make it popular."

Read the original article on Business Insider
A photo showing a packed hallway at North Paulding High School in Dallas, Georgia, on August 3, 2020. @ihateiceman/Twitter

The Dallas, Georgia high school that punished students for posting pictures of a packed hallway says it will close for two days after nine people got COVID-19.

Six students and three staff members tested positive for the virus since the school reopened on August 3, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

North Paulding High School superintendent Brian Otott told parents Sunday that the classes will be conducted online until Wednesday, WSB-TV reported.

Photos of a crowded hallway at the school, with many not wearing masks, spread widely across social media on August 4, stoking concerns that schools could be breeding grounds for the virus when they reopen.

At least two students who posted the pictures were suspended for violating the code of conduct. Both suspensions were overturned shortly after.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Georgia high school that suspended and threatened students for posting pictures of mostly-maskless students cramming into a packed hallway said it will temporarily close after nine people contracted COVID-19.

On Saturday, Gabe Carmona, the principal of North Paulding High School, Dallas, told parents that six students and three staff members had tested positive for the virus, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The school reopened on August 3 following months of remote teaching necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic.

On Sunday, school superintendent Brian Otott wrote to parents saying that the school would be shut on Monday and Tuesday, and that classes would be conducted online in that period instead.

"On Monday and Tuesday the school will be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected," Otott wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by WSB-TV reporter Chris Jose.

It is not clear whether the nine infected people would be required to stay home, and whether their infections were due to exposure to each other.

Story continues

Though the novel coronavirus typically spreads via droplets, it can also survive on surfaces  and depending on the material, its lifespan can range from three hours to seven days. Surface disinfectants, like bleach, can kill viral particles within 15 seconds, though.

North Paulding High School became infamous on August 4 after a photo of dozens of students, many not wearing masks, seen packed into a hallway spread widely on social media. Several other photos also gained traction.

At least one student at North Paulding High School who posted a photo online was suspended as a result, and was told that the photo violated the school's code of conduct. Several other students told Insider's Gabby Landsverk that they were threatened with punishment if they did the same.

By and large, public-health experts and school teachers across the US have said that it may not yet be safe to send some 60 million American students back to school, though some experts think it can be done safely.

A protester holds a sign calling for schools to reopen seen on August 6, 2020 in Tampa, Florida. Octavio Jones/Getty Images

The White House is keen to reopen schools, despite the country's coronavirus outbreak rolling on.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly called on schools to reopen, and threatened to cut funding to those that do not.

A new report, published over the weekend by the American Academy of Pediatrics, found that 97,000 children tested positive for COVID-19 in the last two weeks of July, according to CNN.

While children are overall less likely to fall severely ill with the virus, they can spread it to other people.

Read the original article on Insider
People getting knee replacements at Brisbane's Mater hospital now have the option of having the surgery done by a human or a robot.

The private hospital has recently installed a robotic surgery assistant called ROSA in its South Brisbane and Springfield hospitals to improve patient outcomes and help surgeons with the often delicate work of a complete knee replacement.

Dr John Radvonovic using ROSA during a knee replacement at the Mater.

Toowoomba grandmother Patricia Murphy, one of the first people to have their procedure done using ROSA, said the results have been amazing.

Ms Murphy experienced a relatively quick degradation in her knee over the 18 months to the start of 2020.
The most senior American official to visit Taiwan in more than four decades, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, praised President Tsai Ing-wen's response to the pandemic and hailed the island's democracy in comments likely to stoke tensions with China.

"It is a true honor to be here to convey a message of strong support and friendship from President Trump to Taiwan," Azar said in prepared remarks when meeting Tsai. He called Taiwan's democracy "an inspiration to the region and the world" and said he wanted to use the visit "to learn about how our shared democratic values have driven success in health."

Besides meeting Tsai, Azar is scheduled to speak with Taiwan's health minister on Monday and hold a news briefing, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Taiwan has been a rare global success story in containing the coronavirus pandemic, and the U.S. is grappling with one of the world's worst outbreaks. In keeping with the democratic island's stringent anti-virus procedures, Azar's delegation is abiding by measures including multiple tests for the coronavirus, mandatory daily temperature checks and wearing masks at all times.

The visit has drawn China's ire as the U.S. challenges Beijing on a range of fronts, from the early handling of the virus to Chinese-owned technology companies to a new security law for Hong Kong. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin last week said Beijing was "firmly opposed" to the trip, calling Taiwan "the most important and sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations."

The trip comes days after President Donald Trump moved to ban Tencent Holdings's WeChat and Bytedance's TikTok, riling the global tech industry amid increased fears of a push for decoupling the world's two biggest economies. The Trump administration has also led the way in condemning China over its crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, where media tycoon Jimmy Lai was arrested Monday.

Azar's visit has little to do with the virus and is primarily aimed at sending a message to Beijing as it increases diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan, according to Jonathan Sullivan, director of China programs at the Asia Research Institute and an associate professor at the University of Nottingham.

"There is a confidence in Taiwan, which this demonstration of American support will buttress, that it can live with Chinese pressures, limited as they are, especially during a moment when the backlash to 'Chinese assertiveness' is growing around the world," he wrote in an email.

Taiwan has rejected China's criticism of Azar's visit, saying on Thursday that Beijing was a "global troublemaker."

"What the Chinese government can do is stop making irresponsible remarks on the international stage" and stop interfering with Taiwan's dealings around the world, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said at a briefing Thursday. "What the Chinese government can do is 'return politics to the people, listen to the voices of the people, and understand the needs of the people' because the 1.4 billion people of China and Hong Kong deserve freedom."

Azar's trip coincided with a visit by former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori to pay his respects to the late President Lee Teng-hui, who led Taiwan from dictatorship to democracy in the 1990s and reshaped the island's relationship with China.

In a meeting with Tsai on Sunday that could further worsen Japan-China ties, Mori conveyed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's condolences while the Taiwanese president said she hoped the two sides can work together to combat the virus. The group included Abe's younger brother, Nobuo Kishi, who is also a lawmaker in his ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammad Adamu, to prosecute seven companies that failed to deliver on contracts after collecting about N1.6 billion (N1,625,467,200).

The NDDC had earlier linked the companies to Delta senator, Peter Nwaoboshi, an allegation he denied.

NDDC said it awarded the contracts to the companies for the production of desks and chairs for primary and secondary schools in the Niger Delta region in 2017 in furtherance of the commissions education sector mandate and improving learning condition in the Niger Delta region but the goods were delivered to another location.

Last week, the NDDC in a letter signed by the Director, Legal Services, Peter Okoro, demanded a refund of N2.6 billion from Mr Nwaoboshi, being the amount the agency said it paid in 2017, for contracts to the companies allegedly linked to him.

According to the letter, the payment was made to contractors for the production of plastic desks and chairs for the primary and secondary schools in the Niger Delta region. This, it said, was in furtherance of the NDDCs education sector mandate of acting as a catalyst for the improvement of classroom and learning conditions in the region.

The lawmaker was given a two-week ultimatum to refund the said amount.

A similar allegation was contained in the latest petition dated July 29 and signed by the Managing Director of the Commission, Kemebradikumo Pondei.

In the letter titled Re: Forwarding of documents in respect of on-going investigation, Mr Pondei noted that the petition was to help with an on-going investigation.

The companies and amount paid to them for the 2017 contracts were mentioned in another document attached to the petition.

They are Noan Integrated Services, De Towers Construction and Allied Services Ltd, Franstine Nigeria Entreprises and Edrihide Company.

Others are Isumabe U.K Global, Benchmark Construction & Project Ltd and Millstone Allied Builders Ltd.

All the companies were paid N232,209,600 each for the purpose of production of plastic desks and chairs for primary/secondary schools in nine states of the Niger Delta Region  a total of N1.6 billion when summed up.

Instead of supplying the chairs and desks to the commissions warehouse in Port Harcourt or to any of the NDDC offices in the nine Niger Delta states, the contractors supplied them to a warehouse described as Akuede Akwis, Benin Expressway, Okpanam before Wichetech.

The warehouse is located in Delta State and has no relationship with the commission. Waybills evidencing delivery of the desks and chairs at the said warehouse are hereby attached.

Despite having been fully paid for the contracts, the contractors and the owner of the warehouse have refused to release the chairs and desks to the commission, part of the statement read.

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The NDDC boss further said the resultant effect is that the commission and the Niger Delta region have been deprived of the use of the desks and chairs and neither have the contractors refunded the monies paid on the items to the commission as money had and received.

It is on the strength of the foregoing that the NDDC invites you to take a look at the fact culminating in this petition.

In his response to the former letter, Mr Nwaoboshi said the matter is subjudice as it is already before two law courts of competent jurisdiction in Nigeria, describing the management of the NDDC as a bunch of confused men.
Two Lebanese government ministers have quit following the devastating explosion in Beirut that killed more than 150 people, as violent protests gripped the city for a second straight day.

As protesters called for a sustained uprising to topple the country's leaders, police fired tear gas and clashed with hundreds of people attempting to breach the heavily guarded parliament.

A fire broke out at an entrance to parliament square as rock-throwing protesters tried to break into the cordoned-off area, Lebanese TV channels showed.

In the political fallout of the blast, information minister Manal Abdel-Samad said she was resigning "given the magnitude of the catastrophe" and "in response to the public will for change".

Hours later, environment minister Kattar Demianos also stepped down, amid reports more might follow.

The resignations suggest the embattled government may be unravelling in the aftermath of the blast, which killed at least 158 people in Beirut and raised public anger to new levels.

International donors, who joined a teleconference on Sunday, pledged $300m (230m) to rebuild Lebanon's shattered capital but only if the nation's leaders agree to reforms demanded by protesters.

The Lebanese army said on Sunday that hopes of finding more survivors following the blast were fading, with 21 people still missing.

It follows a night of violent anti-government protests in Lebanon's capital as anger mounts over the alleged mismanagement and corruption behind the explosion.

A police officer died and more than 170 people were injured in the demonstrations on Saturday, as protesters tried to break into the parliament building before going on to storm several government ministries.

Demonstrators set up gallows and nooses and held mock hanging sessions of cut-out cardboard images of top Lebanese officials, while some held signs that read "resign or hang".

The devastating explosion in Beirut on Tuesday killed at least 158 people and injured more than 6,000, while destroying parts of the city.

Story continues

The blast happened after 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate - a chemical used as a fertiliser and in explosives - caught fire after being stored unsafely at a port warehouse for six years, Lebanese President Michel Aoun has said.

Five of the Lebanese parliament's 128 members have announced their resignation since Saturday.

But the country's top Catholic cleric said the "whole government" should resign as it cannot "change the way it governs".

"The resignation of an MP or a minister is not enough," Christian Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai said.

"The whole government should resign as it is unable to help the country recover."

Lawyer Maya Habli said: "People should sleep in the streets and demonstrate against the government until it falls."

In a televised speech on Saturday evening, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the only solution was to hold early elections.

He called on all political parties to put aside their disagreements and said he was prepared to stay in the post for two months to allow time for politicians to work on structural reforms.

On Sunday, an international conference was co-hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres aimed at bringing donors together to supply emergency aid and equipment to Lebanon.

"Despite differences in view, everyone must come to the help of Lebanon and its people," Mr Macron said via video-link from his summer retreat on the French Riviera.

"Our task today is to act swiftly and efficiently."

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The UK has promised another 20m in aid following the blast and pledged to "stand by the Lebanese people".

The rescue package is in addition to 5m already given by the British government.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump indicated his willingness to offer support, tweeting: "Everyone wants to help!"
BEIRUT - Lebanons prime minister stepped down from his job Monday in the wake of the catastrophic explosion in Beirut that has triggered public outrage, saying he has come to the conclusion that corruption in the country is bigger than the state.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/8/2020 (527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A soldier walks past damaged vehicles, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020, in Beirut, Lebanon, near the site of last week's explosion that hit the city's seaport. World leaders and international organizations pledged nearly $300 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Beirut in the wake of the devastating explosion, but warned on Sunday that no money for rebuilding the capital will be made available until Lebanese authorities commit themselves to the political and economic reforms demanded by the people. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

BEIRUT - Lebanons prime minister stepped down from his job Monday in the wake of the catastrophic explosion in Beirut that has triggered public outrage, saying he has come to the conclusion that corruption in the country is bigger than the state.

The move risks opening the way to dragged-out negotiations over a new Cabinet amid urgent calls for reform. It follows a weekend of anti-government protests after the Aug. 4 explosion in Beiruts port that decimated the facility and caused widespread destruction, killing at least 160 people and injuring about 6,000 others.

In a brief televised speech after three of his ministers resigned, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said he and his government were stepping down.

A soldier walks past a damaged car at the site of last week's explosion that hit the city's seaport in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. World leaders and international organizations pledged nearly $300 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Beirut in the wake of the devastating explosion, but warned on Sunday that no money for rebuilding the capital will be made available until Lebanese authorities commit themselves to the political and economic reforms demanded by the people. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

"May God protect Lebanon, he said, repeating the last phrase three times. As he spoke, protesters demonstrated in the streets near parliament for a third straight day.

The moment typified Lebanons political dilemma. Since October, there have been mass demonstrations demanding the departure of the entire sectarian-based leadership over entrenched corruption, incompetence and mismanagement.

But the ruling oligarchy has held onto power for so long  since the end of the civil war in 1990  that it is difficult to find a credible political figure untainted by connections to it.

Diab blamed corrupt politicians who preceded him for the earthquake that has hit Lebanon.

French emergency workers, part of a special unit working with chemicals, walk next to damaged containers near the site of last week's explosion, in the port of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. The unit is identifying potential leaks and securing an area where containers with flammable liquids have been damaged by the blast. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

They (the political class) should have been ashamed of themselves because their corruption is what has led to this disaster that had been hidden for seven years, he added.

I have discovered that corruption is bigger than the state and that the state is paralyzed by this (ruling) clique and cannot confront it or get rid of it, said Diab, who was a professor at the American University of Beirut before he took the job.

After the catastrophe, Diab had sought to stay on for two months to organize new parliamentary elections and allow a map for reforms. But the pressure from within his own Cabinet proved to be too much. With the mass resignation, the call for early elections appears dead, so the same factions will debate on forming a new Cabinet.

Diabs government was formed after his predecessor, Saad Hariri, stepped down in October in response to the demonstrations. It took months of bickering among the leadership factions before they settled on Diab.

Protesters turn back tear gas canister against the Lebanese riot police, during anti-government protest following Tuesday's massive explosion which devastated Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

His government, which was dominated by the Hezbollah militant group and its allies and seen as one-sided, was basically doomed from the start, tasked with meeting demands for reform but made up of all the factions that reformers want out.

Now the process must start again.

I hope that the caretaking period will not be long because the country cannot take that. Lets hope a new government will be formed quickly, Public Works Minister Michel Najjar said. An effective government is the least we need to get out of this crisis.

The pressure from the streets  and from French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited Beirut last week after the blast  could push the political factions to put aside their differences and form a unity government. Diab's government largely excluded Hezbollah's opponents, the Eurasia Group said in an analysis, adding that the factions may now see the need to carry out greater reform.

FILE - In this March. 7, 2020 file photo released by the Lebanese Government, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab, gives a speech at the Government House in Beirut, Lebanon. In a brief televised speech, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020, Diab said he is stepping down from his job in the wake of the Beirut port explosion last week that triggered public fury and mass protests. (Dalati Nohra/Lebanese Government via AP, File )

The group said a government of independent experts could be created, although Hezbollah is a main obstacle to that since it fears that would eventually lead to the group being forced out of the political system.

The weekend protests saw clashes with security forces firing tear gas at demonstrators.

The explosion is believed to have been caused by a fire that ignited a 2,750-ton stockpile of highly volatile ammonium nitrate that had been stored at the port since 2013 with few safeguards despite numerous warnings of the danger.

The result was a disaster that the Lebanese people blame squarely on their leaderships corruption and neglect. Losses from the explosion are estimated at $10 billion to $15 billion, with nearly 300,000 people left homeless.

Anti-government protesters run away as riot police advance to push them back during demonstrations following Tuesday's massive explosion which devastated Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

On Monday, a French chemical expert working at the shattered port told The Associated Press that his team is working to secure at least 20 potentially dangerous chemical containers there after finding one that was leaking.

He also said there are flammable liquids in other containers as well as batteries and other products that could increase the risk of an explosion, describing huge containers tossed around the port by the powerful blast. The expert identified himself only as Lt. Anthony in accordance with French government policy.

The last decision by Diabs government before its resignation was to refer the case of the explosion to the Supreme Judicial Council, which handles crimes infringing on Lebanons national security as well as political and state security crimes. The Supreme Judicial Council is Lebanons top judicial body.

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A judge on Monday questioned the heads of the countrys security agencies. Public Prosecutor Ghassan El Khoury questioned Maj. Gen. Tony Saliba, the head of State Security, according to state-run National News Agency. It gave no further details, but other generals are scheduled to be questioned.

State Security had compiled a report about the dangers of storing the material at the port and sent a copy to the offices of the president and prime minister on July 20. The investigation is focused on how the ammonium nitrate came to be stored at the port and why nothing was done about it.

Najjar, the public works minister, said he learned about the materials presence 24 hours before the blast, receiving a report about the material and holding a meeting with port officials before calling its chief, Hassan Korayetem.

I wrote a report in the morning the explosion happened in the evening, Najjar said. Asked why he only learned of it the day before, Najjar said, I dont know. Truly I dont know.

About 20 people have been detained after the blast, including the head of Lebanons customs department and his predecessor, as well as the head of the port. Dozens of people have been questioned, including two former Cabinet ministers, according to government officials.

On Sunday, world leaders and international organizations pledged nearly $300 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Beirut, but warned that no money for rebuilding the capital would be made available until Lebanese authorities commit themselves to the political and economic reforms demanded by the people.
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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Egypt rejected an Ethiopian proposal that lacked guidelines on the operation of the dam, any elements indicating a binding deal, or a legal mechanism to settle disputes

Renewed talks between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over a giant hydroelectric dam Addis Ababa is building on the Blue Nile will be postponed for one week following a request by Sudan, the three countries said in separate statements on Monday.

Negotiations to reach a deal over the filling and operation of the nearly $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) resumed one week following Cairo's call for a suspension of meetings after Addis Ababa put forward a new draft proposal that lacked operating guidelines" or any legally binding obligations.

"It has been agreed to postpone the meeting for a week for consultations to take place between the ministers to determine the agenda and the level of participation in the next meeting," Egypt's irrigation ministry said in a statement.

This came after a meeting between officials from three countries was convened earlier on Monday.

During the meeting, the "Sudanese delegation requested talks be put off for a week to continue internal consultations," Sudan's water ministry said in a statement.

The three countries are scheduled to reconvene on 17 August, Ethiopia's Water, Irrigation and Energy Ministry, adding that Addis Ababa "remains committed to the tripartite negotiations as a negotiated agreement is the only option."

Last week, Egypt said the Ethiopian draft on filling guidelines lacked rules on the operation of the dam, any elements indicating a binding deal, or a legal mechanism to settle disputes.

Sudan threatened to withdraw from the talks, sponsored by the African Union, if Ethiopia insisted on linking an agreement on the dams filling to negotiating a deal on sharing the waters of the Blue Nile.

Addis Ababa announced last month it had achieved its first-year target for the filling of the dams reservoir due to the rainfall season. The move was condemned by Cairo and Khartoum -- both have sought a legally binding agreement before the dam was filled.

Last week, Egypt sent a letter to South Africa, which currently chairs the AU, reaffirming Cairos rejection of Ethiopias unilateral initial filling of the GERD and the new Ethiopian draft proposal.

In its letter, Cairo said the Ethiopian proposal violates directives by the AU in July calling on the three countries to swiftly finalise a legally binding agreement.

However, Addis Ababa said on Monday the proposal is in line with the communique of the AU assembly Bureau dated 24 July and the understanding reached by the three nations' irrigation ministers during their meeting on 3 August.

South Africa last week called on the three countries to "remain engaged" in the negotiations which it said were at a "critical phase".

The mega-dam, built 15 kilometres from the Ethiopian border with Sudan, has been a source of tension between the three nations. Cairo fears the project will significantly cut its water supply from the River Nile, while Sudan fears it will endanger the safety of its own dams.

Ethiopia says the massive project, which it hopes will make it Africas largest power exporter, is key to its development efforts.

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Election officials in Puerto Rico said Sunday's primary was temporarily suspended because several precincts on the island did not receive ballots.

The State Elections Commission later announced that in precincts that were unable to open by 1:45 p.m., voters will have the chance to cast their ballots on August 16 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., CNN reports. In some areas, voters waited for hours in the heat, wearing their required face masks, only to be turned away and told there weren't any ballots.

Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vazquez Garced on Twitter said this was "totally unacceptable and outrageous! What the State Elections Commission did today is unprecedented and there is no excuse that can support it." She called on the head of the commission to step down, and said they "lied" to make it appear they were prepared for the election.

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A man from Arkansas tried planting mysterious seeds included in packages that seemed to have come from China to see what grows from them. The packages were sent to thousands of Americans across the country, and experts are urging citizens to avoid allowing them to grow.

According to the New York Post, Doyle Crenshawn, a resident of Booneville, told reporters that he and his family planted the mysterious seeds just to see what would happen if they grew.

Mysterious white fruit

The plants that grew from the seeds are producing large white fruits that look similar to squash coming out from orange flower flowers.

Crenshawn said he came back and checked on the plants every two weeks and gave them Miracle-Gro and watched them grow rapidly.

The man had planted the mysterious seeds before the repeated warnings of United States agriculture experts. The statements cautioned residents to avoid placing the seeds on the ground as they could be harmful or invasive species that could threaten the local ecology.

Arkansas Department of Agriculture's Scott Bray said their main concern is if the seeds come from an invasive-pest aspect. These sorts of plants could include invasive weed, an invasive insect pest, or some kind of plant disease.

Across all 50 states of the United States, many citizens have received packages containing similar mysterious seeds. Some have been labeled as jewelry and have confused the majority of what they actually are.

The deliveries came in little sealed clear plastic containers an/d placed inside regular-sized light gray or beige envelopes-the packages circulated across the United States beginning last month.

Crenshawn received a package that was labeled studded earrings with a shipping address from China. The man and his family thought the item was strange.

Also Read: Fact Check: Chinese Invasive Plant Seeds Being Spread Around US in Unsolicited Packages?

Official agricultural warnings

Despite not knowing the exact origin or sender of the mysterious packages, US agricultural experts suspect that it could be a form of "brushing scam." The fraud is where people received products they never ordered as the senders post fake reviews of the items in an attempt to boost their ratings on online selling platforms such as Amazon.

Agriculture officials have continued to warn citizens of planting the seeds and call their local agencies so they can be picked up and safely stored.

While Crenshawn did plant the seeds before the warnings were given out, the exact nature of the plants that grew from them remains a mystery as agriculture officials are continuing their investigations, as reported by BGR.

In a statement, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it is managing efforts to retrieve the mysterious packages of seeds. The agency is advising citizens to hold on to the seeds they received, including the mailing label until a staff of the agricultural department comes to pick them up.

The incident comes amid an already stressful situation with the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown procedures still in effect, along with multiple jobless surges and the end of financial support from the government.

The packages have caused a new fear to strike into the nation that is being whittled away by the deadly COVID-19.

Related Article: Beijing Forces US Diplomats to Flee Chengdu Consulate Amid Political War

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The industrials sector is the backbone of the economy. It performs three main functions:

The industrial industry is also known as the secondary sector. The other two main market segments are the primary sector, encompassing agriculture , fishing, and mining , and the service sector, which includes hospitality, consultancy, and nursing.

Industrial companies operate in several subsectors of the economy, providing products and services related to:

Source: The Motley Fool

Waste Management

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) is one of the leading waste management companies in North America, providing collection, transfer, and disposal services, as well as recycling and resource recovery. The company is also a leading developer and operator of landfill gas-to-energy facilities.

Waste Management provides its services to residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers, making the company's business more recession-resistant than other industrial companies.

Waste Managements revenue and earnings declined slightly as the COVID-19 outbreak hurt the economy, but its revenue and earnings rebounded in 2021 as the crisis subsided. The company was able to blunt some of the economic impact through a continuous focus on reducing costs and becoming more profitable. For example, WM invested money to automate its fleet of collection trucks and convert them to run on cleaner, cheaper natural gas.

Moves like these have allowed Waste Management to consistently generate free cash flow, giving it the funds to make acquisitions. In 2020, WM paid $4.6 billion for the waste disposal, collection, and recycling services company Advanced Disposal. The company also returns money to shareholders via dividends and repurchases its own shares, while maintaining an investment-grade balance sheet.

FedEx

FedEx (NYSE:FDX) provides customers with transportation, e-commerce, and business services. The company operates a fleet of aircraft and vehicles, logistics facilities, and retail stores that help facilitate the shipment of millions of packages daily. It also offers businesses a host of other logistics and e-commerce services that help to distribute their products to customers.

FedEx accelerated its push into e-commerce and managed to thrive during the pandemic. In 2020, e-commerce was the primary driver of additional demand for FedExs services and is only increasing in popularity.

FedEx is well positioned to continue producing lots of free cash flow. The company pays a competitive and growing dividend, can repay debt to strengthen its balance sheet, and can choose to expand its operations.

FedExs strong cash flow also enables the company to invest in innovation. The shipping company is testing autonomous vehicles and delivery services, and it is also making sustainability-related investments. FedEx aims to become carbon-neutral by 2040 while generating compelling investment returns for its shareholders.

3M

3M (NYSE:MMM) manufactures thousands of products that consumers and businesses use every day. As a diversified company, it operates in four main market sectors:

Safety and industrial equipment

Transportation and electronics

Healthcare

Consumer goods

3M's diverse product portfolio enables the company to generate steady cash flow regardless of market conditions. The company produced solid results through the pandemic despite some of its businesses being significantly affected.

3M ranks among the best companies in the industrial sector due to its capital allocation strategy. Around 30% of its available capital (operating cash flow plus debt capacity) has historically been reinvested into expanding the business through research and development and capital investments.

The company typically returns another 30% of its available capital to investors via a growing dividend. The remaining 40% is available to make opportunistic acquisitions or repurchase shares when they trade at an attractive price. The company is a Dividend King with an investment-grade balance sheet.

In conjunction with developing new products ahead of the competition, 3M is also investing in sustainability. The company plans to spend $1 billion over the next two decades to reduce its water usage and carbon footprint.

How to identify the best industrial companies

The strongest industrial companies have diversified operations, low operating costs, and investment-grade credit ratings. Diversification, a low cost structure, and access to affordable debt are important because of the cyclicality of the industrial sector. Economic downturns directly reduce the demand for industrial goods and services.

Industrial companies also need access to affordable debt because their operations are often very capital-intensive. Most industrial companies need to borrow money to buy new capital equipment and build new manufacturing facilities. Another benefit of a low cost structure is less exposure to rising cost pressures in inflationary environments.

While a company's financial performance is always relevant for investors, companies in the industrial sector need to maintain particularly strong financial positions. Prospective investors should pay close attention to how specific industrial companies fare in times of crisis.
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --

WHO American Jewish University (AJU) Dean of the Graduate School of Nonprofit Management David Groshoff in Conversation with Kfir Gavrieli and Joe Sanberg



WHAT B'Yachad Together: Spirited by American Jewish University | Virtual Event



WHEN Monday, August 10 at 4 PM PDT/7PM EDT



WHERE Zoom Webinar (link to be provided upon registration)

DETAILS

American Jewish University (AJU) will host Kfir Gavrieli as part of its B'Yachad Together online series on August 10, 2020 in a webinar titled: "Doing Business for Good." We live at a time of great excitement  and great skepticism  about the role that business can play in addressing society's most pressing challenges.

In conversation with AJU Dean of the Graduate School of Nonprofit Management, David Groshoff, two leading next generation entrepreneurs  Kfir Gavrieli of Tieks and Joe Sanberg of Aspiration.com  will share insights on how they've successfully pioneered new models for socially conscious capitalism.

Through digital programming, B'Yachad Together seeks to advance ideas, dialogue and debate relevant to the struggles posed by the coronavirus.

Kfir Gavrieli is the CEO and co-founder of Tieks, a world-leading women's fashion brand known for its Italian leather, split-sole flat shoes. As an entrepreneur and philanthropist, Gavrieli is a leader in PPE response efforts, donating over 1,000,000 masks to frontline healthcare workers through his Operation #SewTogether campaign. This online event is open to media. Link provided upon RSVP.

About Tieks:

Stylish, comfortable, durable, and foldable, Tieks are the most versatile flats in the world. Tieks has been recognized as one of the 25 Most Innovative Consumer Brands by Forbes, made Inc.'s 30 Under 30 list, been cited as a Top 30 Startup To Watch by Entrepreneur, and made Oprah's O List. Tieks is committed to women's empowerment and, through the Gavrieli Foundation, has become the largest individual lender in the world on Kiva, sending over $10,000,000 to women entrepreneurs living in poverty around the world.

SOURCE Tieks by Gavrieli
Leading veteran star (if there exists such a thing) of the Bollywood industry, Amitabh Bachchan has been one of the most active actors and delivered some of his finest performances in recent years.

However, of late, first with the lockdown and now with the Maharashtra governments suggestion of barring TV and film artistes above 65 years from resuming shootings, BigB expressed his concern about the fate of senior actors in the industry.

Soon after, Amitabh Bachchan sought suggestions for alternate work jobs for himself on his blog post. Now, as per the latest developments, it turns out that a fan has offered a job opportunity to BigB and its so innovative that he happily claimed: my job is now insured.

 BCCL

Taking to his blog to post a follow-up story, he wrote, Expect the unexpected from the Ef ever .. and one such brightness evolves in this creativity which kind of reflects one of my posers in the Blog. He then went on to share his fans creative job offer that has him convinced now:

Dear Mr Amitabh Bachchan,

Re: Your Application for an alternate job vide Day 4539

In view of the permanent kind of temporary moratorium on work imposed on you by the governance due to your age, and the loss of revenue caused by the same, we are pleased to inform you that your application for an alternate job is temporarily under review for permanent reasons

(By the way, before we forget, please register our request that if you understand anything of what we are saying, please let us know too)

So, here is our offer -

Sir,

if you wish to do nothing, yet you want to feel as if you are something, then we suggest that you become the President of the United States

But if you want to do something which will last forever, then we suggest that you open a Peace Shop Sell Peace that shop can never go out of business

Let us draft a flowchart for you to prepare for the venture

1) Vision - To provide a rolling plan for ways and means to acquire and sustain peace

2) Mission - Make sure that it remains a rolling plan Peace alive is peace dead

3) Aims and Objectives - Define Peace, develop immeasurable standards for peace, and draft governance models for ensuring that the standards are impossible to achieve

4) Policies - Develop and enforce codes of conduct which will make the objectives happen

5) Systems - Draft and build an organisation of functions which are both horizontally and vertically indefinite Make sure that everything and everyone is included

6) Procedures - Develop and establish procedures for each function such that no single procedure is standalone every procedure must rely on another to produce results

7) Standards - Establish standards for each procedure Make sure that the standards are not auditable we live in a democracy Use the preamble to beat audits

8) Codes of Practice - Adopt all new codes of practice Remember, history is recorded for telling us what has been defeated in the past Historical successes are compromised

We sincerely hope that you will lead our temporary enterprise We will wrap it up as soon as it shows signs of positive results

Looking forward to your favourable response, and assuring you of our best services at all times,

We remain,

Yours truly,

Sd/-

Who would have thought a commoners job offer would please Amitabh Bachchan so much? But well, surprisingly it did and now we all know why.
Andi Peters became overcome with emotion when he had a surprise reunion with his former Live & Kicking co-host Emma Forbes on Monday's episode of Lorraine.

The TV presenter, 50, is hosting the ITV chat show for two weeks and teared up when Emma appeared via link from her home in New York to wish him well.

The pair presented the children's show together from 1993 to 1996, with Emma, 55, admitting: 'I can honestly tell you, they were the best days of my life, and I say that without a doubt.'

Reunited: Andi Peters, 50, became overcome with emotion when he had a surprise reunion with his former Live & Kicking co-host Emma Forbes, 55, on Monday's episode of Lorraine

Andi was clearly shocked by his friend's appearance, saying: 'Oh Emma, this is amazing!' before he stared to tear up while speaking in studio to Ria Hebden.

Emma added: 'He [Andi] is my rock, hes been my friend through everything, we went through so many fun times together, through things like New Kids on the Block - who can remember the interview with the band who never spoke?'

The pair took a trip down memory lane as Emma fondly remembered their days on the show.

She said: 'Hes much more adventurous than me and we had to do things like open a ride at Thorpe Park and film and I couldnt open my eyes for the entire ride, so Andi held my hand as I screamed solidly through the VT. It was a ball from start to finish. It was just the best.

Shocked: Andi is hosting the ITV chat show for two weeks and teared up when Emma appeared via link from her home in New York to wish him well

'We had incredible people on [the show] - Cher on for the entire morning, on her own, no entourage, just us three.'

Andi was then presented with a gift from Emma - a slice of madeira cake, which she used to treat Andi to on a Saturday morning before filming.

Emma also assured viewers they are in for a treat with Andi, saying: 'Theyre [the viewers] going to have the best two weeks ever, you are television gold.'

Viewers took to social media to react to the moment as they fondly remembered Emma and Andi's days on Live & Kicking.

Back in the day: The pair presented the children's show together from 1993 to 1996, with Emma, 55, admitting: 'I can honestly tell you, they were the best days of my life

Emotional: Andi was clearly shocked by his friend's appearance, saying: 'Oh Emma, this is amazing!' before he stared to tear up

One fan wrote: 'Loving @AndiPeters on #Lorraine. He and Emma were fab on Live and Kicking. Would love to see them presenting together again.'

Another said: '@AndiPieters it's great to see you on Lorraine this morning and what a lovely surprise with Emma Forbes joining. I will be watching every morning so enjoy the next two weeks.'

Another added: 'Loving @AndiPeters sitting in for @Lorraine wish he had his own show. Such a genuine nice bloke. Was so sweet how emosh he got when Emma Forbes came on.'

Hosts: The pair took a trip down memory lane as Emma fondly remembered their days on the show (pictured with John Barrowman)

Reaction: Viewers took to social media to react to the moment as they fondly remembered Emma and Andi's days on Live & Kicking

Meanwhile, Andis puppet pal, Edd the Duck also made an appearance and joked why Eamonn Holmes wasnt in the seat instead.

Andi was also surprised with a video message from John Barrowman who also worked on Live & Kicking.

John said: 'You still look 25 while the rest of us are getting older. Lorraine is going to turn you grey, youre going to have to work my friend. I want you to be fabulous!'
Kajal Dalal walks through her family's food and liquor store after it was vandalized in downtown Chicago Aug. 10, 2020. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photo)

More Than 100 Arrested After Widespread Looting in Chicago

Gunshots fired at officers during arrest of looting suspect

More than 100 people were arrested overnight amid widespread looting in Chicago. Two people were shot and 11 officers were injured.

The mayhem caused the city to raise bridges to cut off access to downtown, according to photographs and video footage.

We are waking up in shock this morning, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a Democrat, told reporters in a press conference on Aug. 10.

Dozens of people engaged in what can only be described as brazen and extensive criminal looting and destruction, she said.

The rioting started late Aug. 9, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said. It appeared to stem from outrage over a police shooting earlier in the day.

People load merchandise into a car near a looted Best Buy store after parts of the city had widespread looting and vandalism in Chicago on Aug. 10, 2020. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Police officers detain a man who was found inside a Best Buy store after parts of the city had widespread looting and vandalism in Chicago on Aug. 10, 2020. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Officers responded to a call in the Englewood neighborhood about a man with a gun and tried to interview him but he fled. As he was moving away, he pulled out a firearm and fired shots at the officers, who returned fire.

The 20-year-old man was rushed to the hospital.

A crowd gathered in the area and began shouting at the police.

Tempers flared, fueled by misinformation as the afternoon turned into evening. CPD became aware of several social media posts encouraging looting downtown, Brown said.

Four hundred officers were dispatched to try to stop the looting but dealt with so-called car caravans streaming into the heart of the city, targeting dozens of stores, including a Best Buy, an Apple store, and clothing businesses.

Bridges that lead into the city were raised to limit access after widespread looting and vandalism took place in Chicago on Aug. 10, 2020. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Police inspect an Apple store that was looted in Chicago on Aug. 10, 2020. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

More than 100 people were arrested on charges including burglary and disorderly conduct.

Some looters resisted arrest. Thirteen officers were injured, including one who had his nose broken while fighting with criminals.

While officers were arresting one looting suspectwho was walking out of a store with a cash registera vehicle passed by them, and someone inside opened fire. Officers returned fire. It wasnt clear whether anyone inside the car was struck, and none of the officers were hit.

Elsewhere, a security guard and civilian were struck by bullets. Both were hospitalized in critical condition.

Officials vowed to hold criminals responsible for the crimes and urged the public to help them identify the looters.

A jogger runs past a broken storefront window after parts of the city had widespread looting and vandalism, in Chicago on Aug. 10, 2020. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

A broken storefront window in Chicago on Aug. 10, 2020. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Harsh measures are being imposed to try to prevent another night of unrest. Access to the downtown is being restricted from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., with an enhanced law enforcement presence staying in place until further notice.

CPD will not stand by as our beautiful downtown becomes someplace that people fear, Brown said.

The police department is creating a special team to pour over the hours of surveillance footage that shows the looting.

Officials described the looters as confident they could break into stores and face no consequences. Some of those arrested during rioting in the summer were released with little or no repercussions, Brown said.

These looters, these thieves, these criminals are emboldened by no consequences in the criminal system. They get released. Many charges get dropped. And so they feel emboldened to do it more, he said. We would argue that, lets have the criminal justice system here deliver a strong message to these criminals, that there will be consequences for their behavior.
The government sources on Monday said that no decision has been taken yet on a time frame for re-opening of schools. The sources added that the time of reopening of schools will depend on the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. So far, only Chandigarh has expressed its intention of open re-opening schools.

In a meeting of the Ministry of Education Parliamentary Standing Committee, the officials of the ministry said that according to the guidelines, online classes are not allowed for students till Class 3. The parents of students up to class three can participate in online classes. However, limited online classes can take place for students from Class 4-7. The Ministry of Education officials informed that schools will be opened on the advice of the states.

Some members of the committee also raised the matter that children were denied mid-day meal at many places during the period of the coronavirus pandemic. The officials said that the state governments have been asked to give food or ration to the children.

During a discussion on online class in the committee, some members said that many children don't have the facility of mobile and laptop for online classes. In such a situation, radio should be distributed to poor children so that children can study through community radio.

The Committee chairman and BJP MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe suggested to the government that a 'Question Bank' should be created to relieve the stress of college students and questions from this should be asked in the exams. The government said that this can be considered. It was also said that there will be no zero year in college which means that at the end of the year there will be an examination.

In July, the Ministry of Education had released circular asking states and union territories to seek feedback from parents when they will be comfortable with reopening of schools. The Department of School Education and Literacy had sent a circular also asking the expectations of parents from schools once they reopen.

The Department of School Education and Literacy has directed education secretaries of all states and union territories to revert with the feedback by July 20. I am directed to refer to the subject matter with a request to furnish feedback of parents of school-going children on the following points by 20.07.2020 (Monday) positively:

i. What is the likely period when they will be comfortable with reopening of schools August / September / October 2020

ii. What are the parents expectations from Schools  as and when they reopen?

iii. Any other feedback/remarks in this regard, the circular from the HRD ministry said.

It may be recalled that all educational institutions across the country have been shut since March 24 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

The extraordinary situation which has arisen due to the COVID-19 crisis has also forced the Centre to slash the school syllabus up to 30 per cent for students of classes 9 to 12. Justifying the decision, the ministry had said that courses will be rationalized to lighten the load of the students.

The ministry has been asking schools and colleges to adopt online teaching instead of classroom teaching during the coronavirus pandemic. It has also issued guidelines for online classes by schools and suggested that schools should impose a cap on the duration and the number of sessions in a day for students.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky calls on Belarusians to tolerance, indulgence, rejection of street violence and broad dialogue to get out of the crisis situation that has emerged after the announcement of the preliminary results of the presidential elections in Belarus.

"Our neighbors Belarusians are going through difficult times now. They are trying to determine the vector of their further development. This is very difficult. It is already obvious that not everyone in the country agrees with the announced preliminary election results. As you know, any legitimacy arises solely from public trust, exclusively out of trust. Doubt on such a scale is a direct road to violence, to conflict, to public protest, which is growing. What we are seeing now, unfortunately," Zelensky wrote on his Facebook page on Monday morning.

The president of Ukraine called on neighbors to maximize tolerance, indulgence and rejection of street violence.

"We call for the most open, albeit difficult, dialogue. Because only a broad dialogue will allow the citizens of the Republic of Belarus to get out of a difficult crisis situation and honestly discuss further steps and formats of public interaction," he wrote.

Zelensky said that only mutual understanding between all parties can preserve the country's independence and ensure its further movement towards freedom and democracy.

"Otherwise, the escalation of violence will grow, and this is fraught with very bitter consequences. In my opinion, now both sides should be interested in such a dialogue, both the government and the society that protests," the head of state said.

He also said that Belarus in its actions should adhere to the maximum democratic standards generally recognized in the civilized world, as well as try to ensure their own people their rights and freedoms in full. Only in this way, in his opinion, it is possible to maintain hope for a way out of the crisis.

"Ukraine and I personally are extremely interested in Belarus being a truly independent and democratic country with a strong economy and stable social relations. Belarus is our closest neighbor, and therefore we are not at all indifferent to what is happening there and what will happen to our friends further," Zelensky said.
The prisoners fate has been a crucial hurdle in launching peace talks between Kabul and Taliban armed group.

Peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban are expected to start in Qatar within a week once the final batch of Taliban prisoners was released, the US special envoy and Afghan government sources said on Monday.

The government accepted the advice of a Loya Jirga, a grand assembly of elders sometimes held to decide on controversial issues, on Sunday to release 400 Taliban prisoners, paving the way for the so-called intra-Afghan talks aimed at ending a war that has ground on since Taliban government was removed from power in US-led invasion in 2001.

The prisoner release was part of a US-Taliban agreement signed in February. The Afghan government, which was not party to the deal, was expected to release a total of 5,000 prisoners to kickstart the talks.

Our stance is clear, if the prisoner release is completed, then we are ready for the intra-Afghan talks within a week, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told AFP news agency, adding that the first round of talks will be held in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

The intra-Afghan talks, which were initially slated to be held in March, were delayed as the Afghan government was reluctant to release all the Taliban prisoners.

The resolution to release the last batch of prisoners, which was proving to be of particular concern to Kabul, was passed at the end of a three-day Loya Jirga.

In order to remove the hurdles for the start of peace talks, stopping bloodshed, and for the good of the public, the Jirga approves the release of 400 prisoners as demanded by the Taliban, Jirga member Atefa Tayeb announced on Sunday.

Lasting ceasefire

According to an official list seen by AFP, many of the 400 inmates stand accused of serious offences, including many involved in attacks that killed scores of Afghans and foreigners, with more than 150 of them on death row.

The Jirga urged the government to give assurances to the population that the released prisoners would be monitored and would not be allowed to return to the battlefield, adding that foreign fighters should be sent back to their respective countries.

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It also demanded a serious, immediate and lasting ceasefire in the country.

The decision of the Loya Jirga has removed the last excuse and obstacles on the way to peace talks. We are on the verge of peace talks, said Abdullah Abdullah, who is leading the governments peace process and has been appointed head of the Loya Jirga.

A government source told Reuters that President Ashraf Ghani would likely sign the decree to release the prisoners later on Monday.

Everyone is waiting for Ghani to sign on the decree. The original plan is to travel to Doha on Wednesday, and the talks will begin on Sunday, the source said.

US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said after the prisoner releases in the next few days, he expects negotiating teams to travel to Doha and from there the immediate start of intra-Afghan negotiations.

Former president Hamid Karzai told the Jirga he understood that the talks would begin within two to three days after the prisoners are released.

Redeeming Taliban is treason

The Afghan government has released about 4,500 Taliban inmates, but authorities had baulked at freeing the final prisoners demanded by the Taliban.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pushed for the release of the detainees, while recognising the decision would be unpopular.

The prisoners include 44 fighters of particular concern to the US and other countries for their role in high-profile attacks.

Five are linked to the 2018 attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul that killed 40 people, including 14 foreigners.

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A Taliban fighter involved in the massive May 2017 truck bombing near the German embassy in Kabul is also on the list, as well as a former Afghan army officer who killed five French soldiers in an insider attack.

The family of French aid worker Bettina Goislard, who was murdered in Afghanistan in 2003, said they would not accept the release of her killers, who are on the list.

Such a decision to free (them) made on the basis of horse-trading would be, to us, her family, inconceivable, Bettinas family said in a statement to AFP before the decision was announced.

On the first day of the gathering, Belquis Roshan, a member of the Afghan parliament and prominent womens rights activist, protested against the release of the prisoners, unfurling a banner that read: Redeeming Taliban is national treason.

The intra-Afghan talks were slated under a US-Taliban deal agreed in February, in which Washington said it would withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by mid-2021 in return for security guarantees.

US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told Fox News on Saturday said the US would reduce the number of American troops in the country to less than 5,000 by the end of November, but added that the move would be conditions-based.

President Donald Trump, up for re-election in November, has said repeatedly that he wants to end Americas longest war, which began nearly 20 years ago when Washington ousted the Taliban following the September 11 attacks.
August 10, 2020

On June 4, 2020, the Senate committee I chair granted me the authority to issue subpoenas for records and testimony to certain agencies and individuals relating to the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation, the 'unmasking' of U.S. persons affiliated with the Trump campaign, and allegations of the political corruption of US agencies.

Two months later, after patiently trying to work with these agencies and individuals on a voluntary basis, I have decided to begin issuing subpoenas primarily because of my strong belief that transparency in government is essential and that the American people have waited too long for the truth.

Also, because Democrats have initiated a coordinated disinformation campaign and effort to personally attack Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley and me for the purpose of marginalizing the findings of our investigations, I think it is important for me to lay out the history, purpose and goals of our ongoing oversight.

A Senate resolution tasks my committee with investigating, among other issues, 'the possible existence of  corruption or unethical practices  [and] conflicts of interest[.]'

Our current investigations fall well within this authority and have focused on two primary areas: first, allegations of conflicts of interest within the Obama administration related to Ukraine policy and, second, allegations of corruption within the Obama administration affecting the 2016 election, the transition between administrations, and Obama administration holdovers' sabotage of the Trump administration.

My committee began investigating corruption in the Obama administration in March 2015 when it was revealed that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was violating State Department policy, and possibly section 793(f) of the criminal code, by her extensive use of a private e-mail server for official and classified government business.

We quickly uncovered information about how Secretary Clinton's private e-mail server was stored. Based on documents from the company hired to manage her server, we discovered that the method for storing and maintaining the server raised numerous concerns regarding security and preservation of records.

Our investigation also uncovered and made public the extensive editing of then-FBI Director James Comey's July 5, 2016, statement that exonerated Secretary Clinton. We found that edits to Comey's statement downplayed the seriousness of her actions in several ways. They replaced 'gross negligence' with 'extremely careless.'

They weakened a conclusion that it was 'reasonably likely' that foreign adversaries gained access to Secretary Clinton's private e-mail account by saying instead that it was 'possible.'

And they removed a reference to the fact that she engaged in 'an email exchange with the President [Obama] while Secretary Clinton was on the territory of such an adversary.'

It is important to note the FBI officials who were involved in the editing process: Andrew McCabe, James Baker, Bill Priestap, Peter Strzok and Jonathan Moffa.

This was the same cast of characters that soon after initiated the investigation targeting candidate Donald Trump and his campaign. Soon after the election, President-elect Trump made it clear that he had no intention of pursuing further investigation of Clinton.

Since my committee had already issued an interim report on the Clinton email scandal, and she had been held politically accountable by losing the election, I felt there was no longer any need for our investigation to continue. Other than documents we released for transparency and the interim report, we never held a hearing or publicly interviewed witnesses.

As far as I was concerned, the case was closed.

Little did I know that others were only beginning their investigations and sabotage.

On Jan. 10, 2017, CNN reported that President-elect Trump had been briefed by Comey about salacious and unverified allegations compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. These allegations had been shopped to multiple news outlets, who had declined to publish them.

But as soon as CNN broke the story about the director of the FBI briefing the president-elect about them, Buzzfeed decided it had a sufficient news hook to justify publishing what became known as 'the Steele dossier.'

On Jan. 11, 2017, Ken Vogel published an article in Politico that described a Democratic National Committee (DNC) operative working with Ukrainian officials to conduct opposition research in 2016 on then-candidate Trump and his campaign.

The article was largely ignored by the mainstream media, which was being fed an unprecedented number of leaks and a narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to benefit Trump  a narrative that eventually morphed into the claim that the Trump campaign 'colluded' with Russia.

The number of news stories based on leaks from 'well placed' individuals inside government caught my attention, and I asked my staff to do an analysis based on public reporting comparing leaks in the early days of previous administrations. The results were revealing.

On July 2, 2017, we released a report identifying 125 leaks in the first 126 days of the Trump administration.

Many of these leaks helped fuel the false Trump-Russia collusion narrative. As FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok infamously described it at the time, 'Our sisters have begun leaking like mad. Scorned and worried and political, they're kicking in to overdrive.'

The Trump-Russian collusion narrative had taken on a life of its own. Gen. Michael Flynn had resigned as national security adviser, Attorney General Jeff Sessions had recused himself from any investigation involving Russia and the Trump campaign, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would eventually appoint Robert Mueller as a special counsel to lead an investigation into the allegations of Russian interference and collusion.

The combination of the Mueller special counsel investigation and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's decision to task the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence with investigating these matters effectively shut down my committee's access to relevant documents and key witnesses.

My committee was sidelined, and our investigation was essentially put on hold. On July 20, 2017, then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Grassley sent an oversight letter to Rosenstein in reaction to the Vogel Politico article.

As additional information became public regarding possible corruption within the FBI's investigation, my committee reinitiated its oversight efforts, sending multiple requests for information and documents to the FBI and the Department of Justice. In January, 2018, those oversight efforts resulted in us obtaining, and making public, the vast majority of the highly revealing and informative text messages between Strzok and fellow FBI agent Lisa Page.

In early 2019, to help move both committees' oversight forward, Senator Grassley, who by then had become chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and I decided to combine efforts. Between February 2019 and July 2020, we issued a series of oversight letters to numerous individuals, organizations, departments and agencies focusing on reported foreign influence in the 2016 election and the corrupt use of FBI investigations to sabotage the Trump administration.

Although we have received some records in response to those requests, the response time has been extremely slow and the information has been woefully incomplete. Some of the slow response time and incomplete production of records can be legitimately attributed to classification issues and reviews.

But I suspect there are other, more nefarious explanations.

I don't have polling data, but I doubt anyone could seriously dispute that a majority (probably a large majority) of career bureaucrats within federal agencies voted for Clinton and not Trump.

It was highly unusual, and a serious threat to national security, when detailed descriptions of President Trump's phone conversations with the prime minister of Australia and the president of Mexico were leaked to the press only two weeks into his administration.

My committee's report on leaks showed that 62 of the 125 leaks in the first 126 days of the Trump administration could affect national security. That compares to eight and nine such leaks in the corresponding time periods of the Obama and Bush administrations, respectively. Perhaps Sen. Chuck Schumer was right when he presciently warned Trump before his inauguration, 'You take on the intelligence community  they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.'

Senator Grassley and I are currently learning exactly how right Senator Schumer was.

Leaks of this nature are proof that individuals within the administration, the departments and agencies, have engaged in activities that seek to undermine the president's policies. The unresolved questions surrounding the impeachment whistleblower complaint provide further evidence of this reality.

It is not hard to imagine that individuals who would affirmatively take action to sabotage the president's policies would also frustrate our attempts to obtain information that could shed a negative light on a previous or future president more to their liking  especially if they themselves had been involved in actions we now are investigating.

Some may be high-level government officials who are still in a position to know what evidence exists, and have every incentive to frustrate our attempts to obtain it.

Regardless of the cause, the slow-walking of producing documents for our investigation delayed our efforts and has prompted me to begin issuing subpoenas.

In August 2019, a whistleblower initiated a complaint with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) and the Intelligence Community Inspector General.

The cooperation between HPSCI and the whistleblower remains murky, particularly in light of HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff's initial denial that his committee had contact with the whistleblower prior to the filing of the complaint  a statement Schiff later admitted was false.

We do know from public reporting that there were connections between the whistleblower, an impeachment witness, and their former colleagues who 'coincidentally' left the executive branch and joined HPSCI staff around the time the whistleblower complaint was filed.

Unfortunately, those connections, and any effect they might have had on the filing or pursuit of the complaint, have never been adequately explored.

My personal knowledge of the events involving Ukraine and the allegations that led to impeachment were detailed in my Nov. 18, 2019, 10-page letter to HPSCI Ranking Member Devin Nunes and U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan.

While the Democrats' narrative of the president's wrongdoing consumed the media's attention, the public grew increasingly curious about the facts and circumstances surrounding former Vice President Biden's Ukraine responsibilities and the very obvious conflict of interest posed by his son, Hunter Biden, serving as a member of the board of Burisma  a Ukrainian gas company owned by an individual who is generally viewed as highly corrupt.

Because Chairman Grassley and I were already looking into allegations involving a Democratic National Committee operative and certain Ukrainian individuals, we were not going to turn a blind eye to this. We didn't target Joe and Hunter Biden for investigation; their previous actions had put them in the middle of it.

Many in the media, in an ongoing attempt to provide cover for former Vice President Biden, continue to repeat the mantra that there is 'no evidence of wrongdoing or illegal activity' related to Hunter Biden's position on Burisma's board. I could not disagree more.

A brief summary of the timeline of events in Ukraine will support my assessment. Ukraine gained its independence with the fall of the Soviet Union in December 1991.

Three years later, in December 1994, Ukraine, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Russian Federation signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, in which Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for assurances against the threat or use of force against its territorial integrity or political independence.

Unfortunately, shedding the legacy of Soviet totalitarianism and corruption is not an easy task.

In late 2004 and early 2005, in what became known as the Orange Revolution, large protests over widespread election fraud and voter intimidation led to the overturning of the Ukrainian presidential election.

Roughly 10 years later, a series of protests led by a coalition of pro-western and anti-corruption advocates resulted in what is called the Revolution of Dignity. On Feb. 22, 2014, Ukraine's president, Victor Yanukovych, widely viewed as the puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin, abdicated his office by fleeing to Russia.

This is where the Ukrainian story of Vice President Biden and his son, Hunter, begins.

Following the Revolution of Dignity, U.S. foreign policy was focused on support for the pro-western, anti-corruption, and pro-democracy efforts in Ukraine. Unfortunately, Putin had a much different plan. Congress and the Obama administration were acutely aware of Putin's displeasure and his penchant for destabilizing governments not to his liking.

As a result, U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine focused on two main objectives: 1) security and economic assistance, and 2) advocacy for and support of anti-corruption, judicial, and other reforms.

On April 16, 2014, Vice President Biden met with his son's business partner, Devon Archer, at the White House.

Five days later, Vice President Biden visited Ukraine, and the media described him as the 'public face of the administration's handling of Ukraine.'

The next day, April 22, Archer joined the board of Burisma.

Six days later, British officials seized $23 million from the London bank accounts of Burisma's owner, Mykoloa Zlochevsky.

Fifteen days later on May 13, Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma, with public reports showing Hunter and his firm being paid $50,000 to $166,000 per month (totaling more than $3 million over five years) for his and Archer's board participation.

All of this initial activity in Ukraine involving the Bidens, Hunter's business partner, and a corrupt oligarch and his Ukrainian gas company occurred over a period of less than a month, and within three months of the Revolution of Dignity  a revolution against corruption in Ukraine.

Following that revolution, Ukrainian political figures were desperate for U.S. support. Zlochevsky would have made sure relevant Ukrainian officials were well aware of Hunter's appointment to Burisma's board.

Isn't it obvious what message Hunter's position on Burisma's board sent to Ukrainian officials? The answer: If you want U.S. support, don't touch Burisma.

It also raised a host of questions, including:

1) How could former Vice President Biden look any Ukrainian official (or any other world leader) in the face and demand action to fight corruption?

2) Did this glaring conflict of interest affect the work and efforts of other U.S. officials who worked on anti-corruption measures?

3) Did Burisma, its owner, or representatives receive special access to, or treatment from, U.S. agencies or officials because of Hunter Biden's role on the board of directors?

4) Was there anything corrupt or unethical about the financial transactions between Hunter Biden and Burisma?

5) How did State Department officials responsible for promoting anti-corruption measures in Ukraine react to Hunter Biden joining Burisma's board of directors?

6) Exactly when, and for what reasons, did the U.S. government decide to condition a $1 billion loan guarantee for Ukraine on the termination of Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin?

7) What was the reaction within the Obama administration when the replacement prosecutor general, Yuri Lutsenko, closed the case investigation of Burisma and its owner? Did Vice President Biden and other U.S. government officials believe that justice had been served and their anti-corruption efforts were successful?

In addition, the appearance of family profiteering off of Vice President Biden's official responsibilities is not unique to the circumstances involving Ukraine and Burisma.

Public reporting has also shown Hunter Biden following his father into China and coincidentally landing lucrative business deals and investments there.

Additionally, the former vice president's brothers and sister-in-law, Frank, James and Sara Biden, also are reported to have benefited financially from his work as well.

We have not had the resources to devote investigatory time to these other allegations, but I point them out to underscore that Ukraine and Burisma seem more of a pattern of conduct than an aberration.

Given all this public information, the press should be asking, and former Vice President Biden should be answering, a long list of questions:

1) Why did you meet with Devon Archer at the White House on April 16, 2014? What was discussed? Did you discuss anything related to Ukraine, Hunter Biden, or Burisma?

2) Were you aware that Devon Archer joined the board of Burisma six days later?

3) Were you aware that Burisma's owner, Mykoloa Zlochevsky, was generally viewed as a corrupt oligarch and that his London bank account containing $23 million had been seized by British officials only 15 days before Hunter Biden joined the board of a company he owned?

4) Was Hunter Biden aware that British officials had seized Zlochevsky's bank account?

5) When did you first become aware of Zlochevsky's and Burisma's reputations for corruption?

6) Do you believe Zlochevsky and Burisma are corrupt?

7) Were you aware in April 2014 that Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma?

8) When did you first become aware that Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma?

9) When did you first become aware of how much Hunter Biden was being compensated by Burisma?

10) Why do you believe Burisma recruited and paid Archer and your son to be on its board?

11) What skills or knowledge do you believe Hunter Biden possesses that qualified him to be on Burisma's board and receive $50,000 to $166,000 per month for his and his partner's services?

12) What exactly had Shokin done that caused you to threaten to withhold $1 billion in desperately needed aid from Ukraine if President Poroshenko didn't fire him?

13) What do you know about Hunter Biden's business dealings in China?

14) What do you know about financial benefits your brothers and sister-in-law have obtained because of their relationship to you?

Democrats and many in the media have mainly focused their criticism of our investigation on the Biden component of our oversight.

This is understandable in light of their almost maniacal devotion to ending the Trump presidency.

In their current attempt to circle the wagons around Biden, they have once again decided to weaponize a false 'Russian disinformation' narrative as a tool for attacking their political opponents.

As Chairman Grassley and I have pointed out in rebuttals to their unfounded accusations, it is Democrats who have sought out and disseminated Russian disinformation.

It was the Democratic National Committee, together with cutouts for the Clinton campaign, that paid for and helped peddle the Steele dossier. And now, once again, Democrats are falsely accusing Chairman Grassley and me of the very behavior they themselves are engaging in.

They have introduced, and made public, Russian disinformation into our investigatory record; we have not.

In December 2019, Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz issued a 478- page report on his investigation of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant abuse.

For anyone who is willing to take the time, the report is a devastating account of investigative and prosecutorial negligence, misconduct, and abuse of the FISA court process by FBI and Department of Justice officials.

Some of the most disturbing revelations include an FBI attorney doctoring and using an email to mislead the FISA court, ignoring the exculpatory evidence obtained during surreptitious recordings of campaign officials, deciding not to provide a defensive briefing to the Trump campaign, planting an FBI investigator in an intelligence briefing for candidate Trump, and withholding known and significant credibility problems related to the Steele dossier.

Shortly after the publication of Horowitz's FISA report, a member of my staff was reviewing classified sections of it when he discovered four footnotes that contradicted statements by FBI officials in the unclassified section of the report.

When I reviewed these footnotes, I immediately decided that the public had the right to see them, and we began the process to get them declassified.

Attorney General William Barr and then-Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell both deserve much credit for making this information available to the public.

The significance of the footnotes is hard to overstate, although many in the media simply shrugged them off.

Bill Priestap, the deputy FBI director for counterintelligence who was 'ultimately responsible' for Crossfire Hurricane, had told IG investigators that the FBI 'didn't have any indication whatsoever' that Steele's dossier was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

However, the footnotes revealed that the FBI received intelligence reporting between October 2016 and February 2017 showing that parts of the Steele dossier were, in fact, part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

This was critical exculpatory evidence that undermined the very premise of the investigation.

But as the FBI had done since the beginning of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, rather than using exculpatory information to end their investigation, the FBI ramped it up.

Confidential human sources became FISA wiretaps; top FBI officials argued for inclusion of the unverified and salacious Steele dossier to be included in the body of the Obama administration's Intelligence Community Assessment, and finally, the FBI investigation ballooned into a special counsel investigation.

As a result, the Trump administration was tormented for over two years by an aggressive investigation and media speculation, all based on a false narrative.

This has taken a tremendous toll on our country. Had the public known what the FBI knew at that time about its Trump-Russia inquiry, it's hard to imagine public support for continuing the investigation, much less the appointment of a special counsel four months later.

Investigations into Russian hacking, Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen could have  and should have  continued using normal FBI and Department of Justice procedures.

But with a sufficiently informed public, and an FBI and Department of Justice that rigorously followed their own procedures, this national political nightmare could have been avoided.

Which raises the question: Why wasn't the public properly informed?

Some of the reasons are now obvious; some are speculative. What is obvious is that certain FBI and Justice officials were not truthful.

Also, as this committee found, leaks during the first four months of the Trump administration helped fuel the false narrative of Trump campaign collusion with Russia.

Many in the media were either duped by, or complicit in, using those leaks to perpetuate that false narrative. Much evidence of corruption by Obama administration officials has already been made public, but only a mere portion of it is described above.

The role of other Obama administration officials and members of the intelligence community is murky  but legitimate suspicions and questions remain and must be answered.

These include:

1) Why were so many top level Obama administration officials, including Vice President Biden, unmasking Trump campaign and transition officials? Some of the unmasking occurred only 10 days before President Trump's inauguration?

2) Did the FBI's use of campaign and transition briefings for investigative purposes, as well as its efforts to access presidential transition records, violate the law or otherwise undermine faith in the peaceful transfer of power?

3) What other intelligence reporting did the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane team ignore?

4) Did any of these abuses precede the formal opening of Crossfire Hurricane?

5) And of course, the overarching question: Who knew what, and when did they know it?

On July 20, 2020, reports began surfacing falsely accusing Senator Grassley and me of accepting Russian disinformation in the course of our investigations.

The implication was that we were being duped into disseminating derogatory information on former Vice President Biden because Russia does not want to see him become president. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Chairman Schiff, Minority Leader Schumer and Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Vice Chair Mark Warner wrote a letter, parroting a letter our ranking members, Sen. Ron Wyden and Sen. Gary Peters, had written to us asking for a classified briefing on these developments.

The only problem with their overblown handwringing is that they all knew full well that we have been briefed repeatedly, and we had already told them that we had NOT received the alleged 'Russian disinformation.'

The very transparent goal of their own disinformation campaign and feigned concern is to attack our character in order to marginalize the eventual findings of our investigation.

They are running the same play, out the same playbook they have been using for the last three and a half years.

What I have provided above is an accurate history, summary and rationale of our investigatory efforts. Everything detailed above is already in the public realm. None of it is Russian disinformation.

But it is a stunning description of wrongdoing and corruption that the public has every right to know.

As our investigation continues, more will be uncovered and revealed. As always, almost all of the documents we are seeking and will make public are from U.S. sources.

Everything will be carefully verified for accuracy and veracity. Chairman Grassley and I will not be deterred by the false accusations despicably being made by individuals with strong political biases and motivations. Our investigation has been, and will continue to be, undertaken with the greatest integrity and transparency.

We intend to determine and reveal the truth.

An addendum: On the morning of Saturday, Aug. 8, I noticed an opinion piece in the Washington Post submitted by Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

It was headlined: 'The threat to U.S. elections is real, and frightening. The public has a right to know.' In addition to my curiosity being peaked by the hyperbolic headline, I was curious to read what 'stunning revelations' Senator Blumenthal might provide.

What I found corroborated what I have described above about a coordinated effort to attack me to pre-emptively marginalize the findings of our investigations.

This paragraph in particular needs to be responded to: 'On Wednesday, The Post reported that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is moving ahead with an investigation into presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's family using documents provided to the senator by the son of a former KGB officer. Johnson's actions are of such concern to the CIA, according to news reports, that the agency has refused to brief him.

Think of it: Congress may become a forum for debunked conspiracy theories peddled by Kremlin proxies.'

Let me first refute the specific false charges. Senator Blumenthal claimed my committee is 'using documents provided to the senator by the son of a former KGB officer.'

This is false. Not only have we have repeatedly and publicly denied it, no one has presented evidence to the contrary  nor can they, because there is none.

On July 1, the Washington Post reported false allegations that a Ukrainian named Oleksandr Onyshchenko provided our committee with information.

Our Democratic colleagues asked that day if it was true, and we quickly and unequivocally denied it. On July 23, Politico reported that Andrii Derkach provided our committee with information.

We immediately and unequivocally denied that. My press team has shared these denials with many reporters. And yet, for nearly a month, these baseless allegations have been repeated. Saturday morning, they were repeated by Senator Blumenthal.

Why do the press and Democrats continue to ignore these unequivocal denials? Have they no interest in the truth?

Let me be clear: The investigation by my committee of allegations of conflicts of interest within the Obama administration related to Ukraine policy and of allegations of corruption within the Obama administration affecting the 2016 election is focused on documents and officials from U.S. government agencies and a U.S. Democrat-linked lobbying firm.

We have not taken, nor do we possess, the documents from Ukrainians that Democrats keep claiming.

Blumenthal then writes, 'Johnson's actions are of such concern to the CIA, according to news reports, that the agency has refused to brief him.'

Not only is this claim false, it is a perfect demonstration of the disinformation technique they are using. We have been briefed repeatedly on these issues, but because the briefings did not support their preferred narrative, Democrats haven't liked what they've heard.

Ranking Member Sen. Gary Peters asked me to arrange yet another intelligence briefing, which I requested from the FBI and CIA. The CIA and FBI responded that they had provided all relevant information.

Democrats then moved the goalposts, asking the CIA for yet another briefing on other less relevant questions.

The CIA has not responded, and Democrats have not pursued the matter since May. In addition, note Senator Blumenthal's use of the term, 'according to news reports.'

This reveals exactly what is happening here. An 'intelligence product' full of false innuendo was produced, classified, and then leaked to the press more than a week before Senator Grassley or I were given access to it.

Many in the media dutifully reported this hot tip. Democrats then used the media reports to repeat, distort, and embellish the false charges. Sound familiar?

Now I know exactly how President Trump must have felt when he first heard the false reports contained in the 'Steele dossier' and allegations that his campaign colluded with Russia.

He knew these narratives were completely false  and now so do we, thanks to the Mueller report  yet they were repeated, distorted, and embellished to create the public demand for that special counsel investigation.

It is neither me, Chairman Grassley, nor our committees that are being used to disseminate Russian disinformation.

Instead, it is Democrats and the media that have been doing Russian President Vladimir Putin's work for him. Puppet masters in the Kremlin could not be more pleased at the political division and discord that has been driven by the resistance movement against President Trump.

Remember the tweet only 10 days after President Trump's inauguration from one of the impeachment whistleblower's attorneys, Mark Zaid: '#coup has started.

First of many steps. #rebellion. #impeachment will follow ultimately. #lawyers'

The left is relentless. They play for keeps, and they don't let rules or the truth get in their way.

Now many of the same players that engineered a special counsel and impeachment against President Trump are brazenly teaming up again with a different target in mind: me.

They are using the same tired old canard of Russian interference. You'd think they could come up with something better than that, but here they are, confident they can pull it off again.

And with a compliant media, why wouldn't they be confident?

Let me be very clear on another point. I have no doubt Russia is continuing its efforts to sow discord and destabilize countries and political systems throughout the world, including here in the U.S.

In Congress, I was one of the first to recognize Russia's menacing activities by holding three hearings related to Russian disinformation and destabilization campaigns as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Europe subcommittee back in 2015.

This is how the former Soviet Union behaved, and it should surprise no one that the Russian Federation under the leadership of Putin would engage in the exact same type of behavior.

What is surprising is that anyone would view this as some breakthrough revelation.

I certainly do not condone it, nor do I lack an understanding of the type of threat this poses to our democracy.

As chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, I am well aware of the significant efforts the Department of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have undertaken to safeguard our elections.

Congress has also appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars and provided grants to the states to counter these threats.

But I also try to put the threat of Russian election interference in proper perspective, to realize we face far greater threats as a nation, and to completely reject Democrats' successful and repeated efforts at weaponizing persistent Russian meddling to gain political advantage and destroy individual reputations.

The only way I can counter these personal political attacks is to tell the truth and continue to conduct my committee's investigations with the utmost integrity and transparency.

Let me repeat. We will not be deterred by these coordinated and despicably false attacks. We intend to uncover the truth and make it public.

Sincerely, Ron Johnson Chairman
Exhausted parents of Ireland, it brings me great pleasure to inform you that the start of the school year is approaching. Granted, I have no idea when it's actually going to commence, but at some point in the next six to eight weeks, we should be able to hand over our beloved infection vectors to the Irish education system for a few hours a day.

For our family, this is a special year - not only do we have the abject horror of a Leaving Cert coming up next June, but our youngest is also finally starting school, with emphasis on the word 'finally'. He was meant to go last year, but the living saints in his preschool suggested that perhaps he was not quite ready.

A typically understated input from them, as he was the loveable bane of their lives for the last couple of years, for the little dude struggles with the world. Not in the way I do, by having a quiet breakdown all day, every day, but in a more real and honest fashion.

One example is a trip to a local outdoor play area, where, once again, the entire mess was mostly my fault as I failed to book online first and all walk-in slots were taken. He did not take it well, prompting a Krakatoan meltdown, which saw us basically forced to abduct him from the car park.

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It really is quite the experience to have a child go to Defcon One in front of dozens of other people, because everyone knows the kid is not to blame. You are to blame. Only you. It is the ultimate walk of shame.

Part of the little guy's issue is that he is the youngest of four or, more specifically, that he is the youngest of three boys. Put all three boys together and, much like Hart To Hart, it's moida (murder). Technology does not help - even gentle co-op games on the Switch have the same effect as gamma radiation did on David Banner. I thought playing Luigi's Mansion would see the two youngest working together to solve puzzles and bust ghosts, or that they might at least learn how to use a hoover. Instead, it sees them ending up in a real-life game of mortal combat.

So sometimes you just have to divide and conquer. Getting some time with him on his own is hard - you try to get out and at least one other child will insist they are brought too. It doesn't matter if you are going to the bottle bank, it might as well be Disneyland when one is being brought and not the other. So on bank holiday Monday, I decided to sneak off to the woods with the five-year-old without alerting the seven-year-old. I told the 12-year-old, who, being in the middle of a game of Fortnite, heard not one syllable of what I said and so when his mother asked where I and the youngest were, he shrugged his shoulders and went back to his killing spree, prompting a worried phonecall asking if I was planning on doing a Hansel & Gretel with the child.

Sometimes these trips with him can go well, sometimes there will be something that will upset him - the heat in the car, the length of the journey, sun in his eyes, the prospect of rain. The list could go on. But this trip was perfect. We wandered the woods, pocketed unripe conkers and chatted about life. After so many walks of shame, this walk felt like a victory lap, albeit one he probably won't remember.

I don't think anyone remembers the things their parents get right with the same clarity as those we got wrong.

I thought, why can't it be like this all the time? Why can't we go back to hedge schools - I'm sure he would be fine with one of them, out in the woods, learning his cupla focail, loads of fresh air and lovely Irish rain, better than any hand sanitiser.

But it isn't, and sadly, our most uncontained child is about to head into a classroom for the first time. After all this time away from his preschool, with no other kids outside the family for him to play with, and blunted social skills, it's going to be one hell of a September.
In my years covering Illinois politics, Ive known two men called Public Official A.

One is Rod Blagojevich and the other is Mike Madigan.

In 2005, years before he was impeached or convicted of corruption charges, court documents ominously referred to someone as Public Official A. It was the first noticeable stray thread that would eventually lead to the political unraveling of Blagojevich.

Last month, federal prosecutors tagged House Speaker Mike Madigan with that moniker in a plea deal with Commonwealth Edison. The giant utility serving Chicago and much of northern Illinois essentially admitted to giving bribes.

The bribes would be in the form of contracts and jobs at the giant utility that Madigan could dole out to his supporters. In the court documents, Public Official A was identified as the Illinois speaker of the House, a post held by Madigan.

Last month, through a spokesman, Madigan said he is innocent of wrongdoing. He has not been charged with a crime.

Madigan and Blagojevich have a long and contentious relationship. For nearly eight years, both men faced off over the state budget and legislation. Although Madigan co-chaired the former governors re-election campaign, he later spearheaded the drive to impeach him. Blagojevich is the only Illinois governor to have been removed from office.

Because of this, Blagojevich brings a unique perspective to Madigans political maginations  and what it is like to be the target of a federal probe.

First, what does it mean to be Public Official A?

It means they have a target on your back, the former governor told me during an hour-long telephone interview.

After serving nearly eight years in prison on corruption charges, Blagojevich was released earlier this year when President Donald Trump commuted his term.

The gap between being Public Official A and a prisoner is not very long, he said.

It may take years; but in the course of a lifetime, its not very long at all. Once they have painted a bulls-eye on your back, they are out to get you, Blagojevich said.

Already, several members of Madigans caucus have called for him to resign.

But in a statement, the House speaker said, I understand that the last couple of weeks have been difficult for our caucus and party, and I have had many candid conversations with members of the Democratic caucus on this matter. The feedback is positive and demonstrates continued support for me and my leadership roles. I have no plans to resign.

Blagojevich said Madigan may be hanging on to the speakership and his position as chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party to be in a better bargaining position.

Federal prosecutors pursuing cases against other elected officials have entered into plea agreements where the politician agrees to leave office in exchange for a reduced sentence.

He has to hold onto the speakership and the chairmanship of the Democratic Party, Blagojevich said. Its so he can have bargaining chips with the federal prosecutors, so that in the event that he gets indicted, which could very well happen based upon whats happened so far, he has more bargaining chips to deal with when it comes to making a deal. Madigan is the ultimate deal maker here.

Madigan spokeswoman Maura Possley declined to respond to Blagojevichs statements.

Although Blagojevich is a Democrat, since the president commuted his sentence, he has become an enthusiastic Trump supporter, even going so far as to call himself a Trumpocrat.

Blagojevich contends Madigan hopes to see presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden defeat Trump so a different federal prosecutor will be appointed for northern Illinois.

Blagojevich said if the current U.S. attorney is serious about eventually charging Madigan with crime, he may seek to act sooner rather than later because of the possibility of an administration change.

But when pressed, Blagojevich concedes he doesnt know for sure if there is sufficient evidence to charge the House speaker.

Blagojevich added federal prosecutors may now be putting pressure on those around Madigan.

Its been my unhappy experience of being a Public Official A. It is not a good place to be. You learn very early on  and very quickly  who your friends are. They get squeezed so hard and treated, so mercilessly, just to get them to bend and break against you. My own experience tells me that no one withstands that pressure.  Sooner or later, theyre going to abandon ship. And the captain is going to be left with the Titanic to sink all by himself.

Scott Reeder is a veteran statehouse journalist and a freelance reporter. He can be reached at ScottReeder1965@gmail.com.
Appointment of nine judges is aimed to help resolve impasse between president and opposition coalition seeking his exit.

Malis embattled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has attended a swearing-in ceremony for new Constitutional Court judges, appointed last week in an attempt to end a deepening political crisis in the country.

The 75-year-old president, wearing a protective face mask and visor, had the nine new judges  six men and three women  pledge to conduct themselves as worthy and loyal judges.

Diplomats and prominent members of the countrys civilian society were also present at the event in the capital, Bamako.

The appointment of the judges was aimed at helping to resolve a weeks-long political impasse between Keita and an opposition protest movement which is determined to secure the presidents resignation.





Although dissatisfaction over the countrys economic woes, corruption and worsening security situation has been simmering for a while, the spark for the current crisis was a decision by the Constitutional Court in April to overturn the results of parliamentary polls for 31 seats, in a move that saw candidates with Keitas party get re-elected.

The protests turned violent earlier this month when three days of clashes between security forces and protesters left 11 people dead, in the worst political strife Mali has seen in years.

Heads of government from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) stepped in, suggesting on July 27 the formation of a new unity government to include opposition members, while sticking by Keita.

The ECOWAS bloc also urged the appointment of the new Constitutional Court judges to resolve a festering election dispute, among other measures.

There is little indication that the new appointments will soothe tensions, however.

Malis opposition June 5 Movement has repeatedly spurned the ECOWAS proposal and is expected to stage anti-Keita protests on Tuesday.

In a sign that regional leaders are still engaged in resolving Malis political crisis, former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan flew into Bamako on Monday to attend the swearing-in ceremony.

Jonathan, who had led the ECOWAS mediation mission to Mali, was also due to meet opposition and civil society members on Monday, one of his staffers said.

Opposition protesters have staged rallies in Bamako demanding Keitas resignation [File:Baba Ahmed/AP Photo]

Regional leaders are eager to avoid further instability in Mali, a country of some 20 million people that has been plagued by a conflict that began in 2012 and has since spilled into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

According to the United Nations, attacks grew fivefold between 2016 and 2020, with 4,000 people killed in the three countries last year, up from about 770 in 2016. The fighting has also forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and led to the closure of thousands of schools.

In central Mali, a multitude of armed groups have been jockeying for control while exploiting the poverty of marginalised communities and inflaming tensions between ethnic groups.

The presence of thousands of foreign troops has failed to stem the violence, while allegations of abuses and extrajudicial killings by Malian forces have perpetuated deep-rooted mistrust and enmity in parts of the country with little government presence otherwise.
HOLYOKE  The executive committee of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which last month backed Alex Morse in his Democratic primary campaign against U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, will meet this week to discuss allegations about Morses behavior involving college students.

The MNA Board will be meeting this week to discuss the issue as they learn about and review the allegations, said Joe Markman, a spokesman for the 23,000-member nurses union. Candidate for Congress Alex Morse has released organizations from endorsement  the MNA Board will decide what if any action they wish to take in light of this.

Markman said the organizations board felt they couldnt wait until its regularly scheduled meeting later in the month.

The unions review of its endorsement comes after the College Democrats of Massachusetts and its affiliates at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Amherst College claimed last week that Morse used its events to meet young men and pursue romantic relationships with them.

The organization said Morse had sexual relationships with college students, used social media and dating apps to contact students as young as 18, and that his position as mayor and as a UMass lecturer in political science intimidated students.

Morse, 31, admitted relationships with college students and said he needs to pay better attention to the power dynamics involved. But he qualified his apology saying he violated no university policy, has never had a nonconsensual relationship and that the scrutiny was part of a long history of homophobic attitudes.

In a statement Sunday, he said he released those that have endorsed him from their promises.

UMass is reviewing Morses behavior and has no plans to hire him back as a lecturer.

Morse has made health care, and his call for Medicare for all, a centerpiece of his campaign. He has also opposed the closure of Providence Behavioral Healths mental health beds in Holyoke, and plans for Baystate Health to consolidate inpatient behavioral health treatment in one Holyoke location while closing other units.

He shares those positions with the nurses union, and members of the union have appeared in Morse campaign ads.

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With the pandemic-mandated closure of Berlin's clubs stretching through the northern summer, illegal parties like this one have sprung up to fill the gap. Most are free to attend, and take place in isolated locations to escape police scrutiny; many are advertised via Telegram, an encrypted messaging app. To arrive at the party on Saturday, attendees had to follow a map sent on the app and walk 15 minutes through an empty industrial area from the nearest train station. A party on the northeastern outskirts of Berlin. The party was organised via the messaging app Telegram. Credit:Gordon Welters/The New York Times Although the number of new coronavirus infections remains relatively low in Germany, they have begun to climb in recent weeks, and parties like this have become a point of contention in a broader debate about whether young people are threatening the country's much-lauded success. The parties' persistence has infuriated some public health officials and politicians, and complicated attempts by the leaders of the city's club scene to push for officially sanctioned events. Some partygoers argued that raves were a much-needed way to blow off steam after a period of isolation, and pointed out that outdoor events pose less risk. Berlin's coronavirus regulations allow for gatherings in parks of up to 1000 people, but only if social-distancing measures are maintained and no alcohol is sold. Standing between the beer tent and the packed dance area, Paul Evina-Ze, 32, an American caricaturist living in Berlin, said, "Partying is a huge part of the city's identity, and you can't just expect people to wait two years." He added that he was not concerned about the virus. "I feel like if I were going to get it, it wouldn't affect me."

A public backlash against ravers in the city began in May, when demonstrators gathered in boats on the city's major canal in support of workers affected by club closures. The protest turned into a flotilla of about 3000 people and drifted in front of a hospital where COVID-19 patients were being treated. Loading Another wave of criticism came in late July, after police broke up a rave with approximately 3000 attendees in Hasenheide, a city park. The cover of a recent edition of Der Spiegel, the German news magazine, featured a picture of the Hasenheide party, with the headline "Are we too reckless?" In an interview in the magazine, Karl Lauterbach, a federal MP with the centre-left Social Democratic Party, said people who attended the raves and ignored distancing rules "must be penalised with fines in the hundreds of euros." Near Paris: 'I don't give a damn'

In normal times, the forested shore of the Etang de la Haute Maison, outside a pond about 23 kilometres east of Paris, is a coveted spot for fishermen on the lookout for carp or pike. But Saturday night, a different crowd gathered in the woods by the water: around 400 young people, moving to techno music that boomed from loudspeakers as spotlights swept a dance floor. The popularity of "free parties," as the illegal events are known here, has been surging in recent months. Across the Continent, crowds are flocking to events organised on social media and messaging apps, despite risks and a backlash. Credit:Gordon Welters/The New York Times "It's true, since the end of the lockdown, we've seen many more people attending the free parties," said Julien Faux, 26, a regular attendee of the events since before the pandemic. He was dancing behind the DJ, as a skull-and-crossbones flag, hung between two trees, flapped above his head.

The event, called The Piracy, had all the trappings of a legal party: A dedicated Facebook page advertised a line-up of DJs, and tickets were sold online. Loading The difference was that the location was released only by email less than an hour before The Piracy began. It came with a warning to approach the site quietly and not to tell anyone else where it was. "It's all about the smooth conduct of the party," the email said. It added that guests should bring masks and respect social-distancing measures. That turned out to be wishful thinking.

"People need that freedom to party," said Sarah Stalter, 21, a college student from Switzerland, in France on vacation. Surrounding her were hundreds of unmasked people, some crammed onto the dance floor in a forest clearing while others sat to the side in groups, passing around bottles of alcohol and joints. "I don't give a damn," Stalter said as she wiggled to the sound of heavy techno beats. "Of course this virus scares me, but I've got to enjoy my 20s." The proliferation of illegal parties poses a challenge for local authorities, who have wavered between strict repression and turning a blind eye. "The police just let it go until they change their mind," said Antoine Calvino, the co-founder of SOCLE, a union of French rave organisers. "It's completely random, and we'd like not to be in this grey area anymore." London: 'Shocking Return of Rave'

Just after midnight the Friday before last, two young men stood on a street in the Tottenham district, surrounded by brick warehouses, looking lost. "Are you going to the rave?" one man with a posh accent asked a passer-by. He couldn't work out where it was, he added: The map he'd been sent via WhatsApp was confusing. The details of the party they were looking for had been sent to a group on the messaging app a few hours before: To join, you had to submit a social media account so organisers could check you out. Advance tickets were sold via PayPal. Messages in the WhatsApp group included appeals for discretion. "We are protecting our community," read one. "Don't share our infos to anyone," it added. "It's like a military operation," one of the plummy-voiced men said, after finally deciphering the map. "If people put half as much effort into solving coronavirus, we'd all be out of it by now."

Soon, after walking through an underpass, the thud-thud-thud of a kick drum came into earshot and the two men walked up a path toward the sound. After a quick bag search by security guards, they moved into a woodland clearing, where about 300 people were dancing to house music, the trees around them illuminated by green and purple lights. The Guardian, the news outlet, has declared that Britain is now in the midst of a "shocking return of rave." About 30 years ago, young people here created a moral panic when they began holding parties in secret locations, fuelled by ecstasy and acid house, a new type of dance music at the time. Loading Today, the moral panic is less about drugs and more about the coronavirus, with fears that illegal parties could promote a second wave. In June, 6000 people attended a party near Manchester, in northern England, where a woman was raped and several people were stabbed. Parties have been taking place around Britain every weekend since, with fewer reports of violence. But criticism from newspapers and politicians has been harsh.
The stepped-up police efforts began Monday. While police do not have any information indicating protests or looting might occur here, the department wants to be ready to act should that change, he said.
Athletes, fitness buffs and others seeking nutrition and supplements will have to go a bit farther for their shopping after the GNC store in The Woodlands neighborhood of Alden Bridge closes.

The popular fitness store is one of hundreds being shuttered by the company after a bankruptcy filing in June. No closure date has been set.

The GNC location inside The Woodlands Mall will remain open.

Related: Brooks Brothers closes in The Woodlands; new pet store opens

Local GNC store manager Chris Routt said everything in the store is currently on sale but the final day of operations is not known at this time.

This particular store is closing, it has been here quite a while, Routt said in a telephone interview. The corporate office made that decision. We have signage everywhere and local residents who shop here regularly have been getting emails about the closure.

The store, located at 8000 Research Fores Drive, Suite No. 325, is one of three in the Montgomery County area. Routt said the GNC stores located in Conroe, inside The Woodlands Mall and also near the intersection of Interstate-45 and the Rayford Road intersection will remain open.

The store employees only two people, Routt and an assistant manager. The closure is one of hundreds announced by the parent company, GNC Evolution of Pittsburgh, Penn. Other closures in the region include the GNC in Willowbrook Mall, Almeda Mall, Sheppard Square shopping center. According to various media reports, the closures have been planned since 2018 and include as many as 1,200 GNC stores in the United States and Canada.

The closure of the Alden Bridge GNC is one of several recent business closures in The Woodlands, including the Pier 1 Imports and the Broken Barrel restaurant  both in Hughes Landing  Brooks Brothers in Market Street and New Lotus Moon in the Grogans Mill Village Shopping Center. In February, two Randalls grocery stores located in Grogans Mill and Panther Creek also closed.

Related: Still no news on possible Randalls replacements in Woodlands

Township board Chairman Gordy Bunch said closures are unfortunate, but township officials, foresee business failures and layoffs through the end of 2020 as well as in the 2021 calendar year.

We are still asking our community to support local businesses. We want these businesses to rebound, Bunch added.

The shutdowns, closures and other limitations on businesses in the township in 2020 have had a dramatic effect on sales tax revenue.

According to Monique Sharp, assistant general manager for finance and administration for The Woodlands, the township has seen a loss of 7.3 percent of expected sales tax revenue through July 30.

jeff.forward@chron.com
Responsibility to ensure that immunocompromised children receive appropriate support remains with their school, Education Minister Norma Foley has said.

Schools are due to return at the end of August under the Government's new roadmap, but concerns have been flagged over how children with underlying health issues will be catered for.

Sinn Fein's Donnchadh O Laoghaire as well as Fine Gael's Jennifer Carroll MacNeill pressed the minister on the issue in parliamentary questions.

Ms Foley said the Government's roadmap sets out what the operation of schools will look like in a Covid-19 context.

"It has been developed in line with public health advice issued by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, the Roadmap for Society and Business, and follows comprehensive and intensive engagement with education stakeholders, including the school management bodies and staff representatives," said Ms Foley.

"I am conscious that there may be some pupils for whom return to school at the end of August may not be appropriate because the relevant public health guidelines indicate they are at 'very high risk'.

"Responsibility to ensure these pupils receive appropriate support to engage adequately with learning remains with each school. Good communication is key to supporting these pupils and to ensure their ongoing connection with their classmates and school.

"Additional supports will be provided for these pupils/students through designated teachers from within the staffing resources of the school.

"Schools will have discretion to manage and redistribute their teaching support resources in order to best meet the learning needs of their pupils/students, including pupils/students at very high risk to Covid-19."

Read More Government considering further restrictions on international travel

Mr O Laoghaire said he was concerned that an unfair burden was being put on teachers and that there was a risk of children being left out.

I am very concerned that there has been very little thought given to children who are at high risk and will not be able to attend school, and indeed those who have a parent or relative at home who are high risk, who are literally not mentioned in the roadmap at all, said the Cork TD.

I am concerned that we could end up with some children being isolated, and getting limited support or indeed sporadic and inconsistent support.

There needs to be an agreed minimum standard, and identified dedicated resources, within a school or across a number of local schools.

There needs to be a dedicated strategy for ensuring these children are supported. Every child deserves to be safe, every child deserves an education.

The Government said it is "conscious" that some high-risk staff will be unable to return to work due to Covid-19, and schools will be provided with resources to replace these staff members.

Details of the arrangements that will apply to these staff, which will be in accordance with those applying to the public service generally, will be updated by the Department of Education following consultation with management bodies and unions, and a circular will be issued to all schools. This may include supporting high-risk students who cannot attend school.
In this Friday, March 13, 2020 photo, a slogan on a chalkboard reads 'It's Corona Time' in an empty class room of a high school in Frankfurt, Germany. In the U.S. employers must pay an employee's compensation if they miss work because they need to care for a child whose school is closed due to COVID-19. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, file) Read more

School officials in the area are taking different approaches to the new year as a result of the pandemic. Some, such as the Philadelphia School District and suburban districts such as Lower Merion and West Chester, plan to start online. Other school districts, including many in New Jersey, along with many private and Catholic schools, are allowing students to come to class with online streaming options available.

Its complicated and divisive. And, unfortunately, these decisions are creating headaches for many parents who are trying to juggle their own busy work schedules.

But its not just the parents who are affected. Countless small businesses are facing a potential costly dilemma as they, too, try to accommodate their employees.

Thats because, regardless of the size of your business, youre required to be in compliance with the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), the law passed at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak. It requires employers to pay an employees compensation for having to miss work to care for a child whose school is closed due to COVID-19.

How much could this cost a small business? A lot, potentially.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, employees would be entitled to up to 12 weeks of paid sick leave at two-thirds of their regular rate of pay if theyre unable to work because of a bona fide need to care for a child (under 18 years of age) whose school or child care provider is closed or unavailable for reasons related to COVID-19. Besides the out-of-pocket cost (which might be recouped through a tax credit when filing this years returns), the loss of these employees could be extremely disruptive.

So will this falls school schedules affect your business? Now is the time to find out. We are recommending that employers proactively reach out to their employees to assess their needs and challenges, said David Hackett, a labor and employment lawyer in Philadelphia for Cozen OConnor. Potential changes can include changes to work hours or days, reassignment, paid or unpaid leave, child care stipends, and many other creative solutions.

Hackett recommends that employers should be engaging their employees now with questionnaires, surveys, and internal meetings to assess their needs and evaluate what options can be implemented. Employers need to be flexible in coming up with solutions to address their employees child-care needs due to the schooling in the new normal while still accomplishing their business needs and goals, he said.

One big issue for a small-business owner in complying with the FFCRA is fairness. In addition to the law and similar state statutes passed to address COVID-19-related absences, Hackett advises employers to ensure that, as they make child-care accommodations, they must treat similarly situated employees the same. Your business needs to have a written policy for when an employee needs time off related to school schedules and it needs to be applied consistently. No one should be receiving an unequal level of time off or compensation, and if your employee purchases items to conduct business from home, you may be obligated to reimburse the employee for this business-related expense.

Employer accommodations to assist employees with child-care needs could also be taken as evidence of what reasonable accommodations an employer should be taking in order to be in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and similar state and local laws he says..

Not all employees may qualify for this leave. For example, an employee would not be entitled to FFCRA leave if the childs school is open, but the family decides to home school their child. According to current guidance from the Department of Labor, intermittent leave could be utilized in such a scenario only if the employer agrees to permit such intermittent leave.

But as a small-business owner and employer, do you want to have this fight? Most experts, including Hackett, agree that even the smallest of employers should be doing their best to assist employees to meet their parental needs in this challenging time. Doing otherwise not only opens up your business to a potential lawsuit, but can also create a negative environment in the office and poor relations with your staff. Because lets face it: Most parents havent had to deal with the challenges that todays parents are dealing with because of the pandemic.

The more you can do to help an employee navigate through these problems today, the better off you both will be in the long run.

Gene Marks is a certified public accountant and the owner of the Marks Group, a technology and financial management consulting firm in Bala Cynwyd.
KITCHENER  A woman is charged with second-degree murder after her eight-month-old son was found dead in an apartment on Cedarwoods Crescent behind Fairview Park Mall.

On Sunday just after 4 p.m., police were called outside to Fairway Road South and Wilson Avenue in Kitchener for a medical incident involving the 26-year-old woman, said Const. Andre Johnson with Waterloo Regional Police.

The woman was transported to hospital where officers received information that led them to an apartment building on Cedarwoods Crescent to conduct a well-being check.

During that check, officers found an infant boy deceased in the apartment.

The woman was arrested and is facing a charge of second-degree murder.

A court appearance by audio was set for Monday but it was delayed until Tuesday.

An autopsy is scheduled to determine the cause of the childs death.

Any homicide in the community, especially when it involves a child, is definitely traumatic not only for those who are immediately impacted but to the greater community as well, said Johnson.

We have officers in the area working diligently to get a fulsome idea of what transpired and to bring it before the courts.

Police vehicles, including forensic identification vehicles, were parked outside of the apartment building at the corner of Cedarwoods Crescent and Kingsway Drive on Sunday evening. Neighbours begin to crowd around outside trying to understand what was happening.

There was a continued police presence on Fairway Road and Wilson Avenue and at the apartment building on Monday as police were canvassing for possible witnesses and video evidence.

Police are not seeking any other suspects but the investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 519-570-9777 ext. 8191 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.
Russia condemn recent Israeli airstrikes, the number of Syrian killed in the Beirut Port explosion has risen, Iran has complained about a recent involving a US fighter jet and it was confirmed that the SDF are recruiting children. Catch up on everything that happened over the weekend.

1. On Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement about Israels airstrikes that targeted Syrian soil on Aug. 3, 2020, Al-Masdar reported. We strongly condemn these actions and express our serious concern about the next aggravation of relations between Israel and Syria. We warn the Israeli leadership against repeating such steps, which are fraught with dangerous consequences for the entire Middle East region. We express our support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic. We call on both sides to show restraint and prevent further a escalation of tensions.

2. The Syrian Embassy in Lebanon announced that the number of Syrians killed by the Beirut Port explosion has reached 43. According to Al-Watan, the Syrian Embassy in Beirut announced, 43 Syrians were martyred as a result of the Beirut explosion.

3. On Saturday, the Iranian authorities sent a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Security Council regarding the interception of a civil airliner by US fighter jets in Syria last month. The statement read, according to Tasnim Agency, It is absolutely clear that the behavior of the two American aircraft is a flagrant violation of the security and freedom of civil aviation, as authorized in the Chicago Treaty in 1944 and its annexes, as well as a flagrant violation of the Montreal Convention in 1971 in the field of preventing any illegal acts against civil aviation, adding that it is the duty of the United Nations to reject this illegal act and hold Washington accountable.

4. The Pentagon confirmed in a report on the war in Syria and Iraq that the the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continues to recruit children through forcible detention, Zaman Al-Wasl reported. The Lead Inspector General issued a report on Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), launched by a US-led International Coalition against Daesh in Syria and Iraq, indicating that the SDF continues to arrest and recruit children from refugee camps in the areas it controls in northeastern Syria.

5. The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that the agreement signed between the Syrian Democratic Forces and a US company to steal Syrian oil reflects Washingtons continued violations of international law and Syrias sovereignty. According to SANA, the Foreign Ministry indicated, in a statement, that the US side intends within the framework of the agreement to offer two mobile oil refiners under the pretext of reducing the damage to the surrounding environment.

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 new report suggests that in the future, Huawei smartphones, tablets, PCs, etc. may run on the home-grown Huaweis OS, the HarmonyOS. Notably, Huawei debuted its own HarmonyOS back in 2019.

After getting banned by the US government for its operations in the country, Huawei searched for some self-reliant options. Notably, Google also banned Huawei from using its Android OS.

And as per the latest developments, Huawei is pushing hard on its process of equipping its devices with HarmonyOS. In the same event where Huawei confirmed the launch of Mate 40 series phones, a new revelation was also announced.

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Huawei to pack HarmonyOS in its upcoming smartphone, tablets, and IoT products

The CEO of Huawei Consumer Business, Richard Yu, revealed that the upcoming Huawei Smartwatch will be powered by the companys very own, HarmonyOS. Moreover, the further added that the company will start using this OS on other products as well.

These products include smartphones, tablets, computers, and other IoT products. Besides, the company aims to build HarmonyOS as an operating system across all its devices, just like the Apple ecosystem.

Huawei Mate 40 series, which is due in September this year, is confirmed to pack the Kirin chipset. But the US has already imposed a ban on the supply of Huawei chips from September 15. Fortunately, for Huawei, the Kirin chip production for the upcoming Mate 40 series will be completed by then.

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Moreover, the CEO also clarified that because of these reasons, the Huawei Mate 40 series will be the last smartphones from the company to be powered by the Kirin chipset. So, are we looking at Qualcomm lending its chips for future Huawei devices? Time will only tell.

Matter of fact, Huawei devices are released without Google Play Services. Instead of Google services, the OEM is using Huawei Mobile Services.

Even after hurdles, Huawei managed to come out on top

Even after facing bans by the US government, and other major economies, Huawei managed to come out as the worlds leading smartphone manufacturer in the Q2 of 2020. This is in terms of the number of shipments.

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To give you some numbers, previous leader Samsung stands at the second position with 53.7 million shipments. While Huawei shipped 55.8 million units in Q2 2020. This shows that the company has a reliable user base which they can totally rely on.

It should not come as a surprise if Huawei devices go ahead with HarmonyOS for its devices. Because the company has already launched Huawei Smart TVs powered with HarmonyOS.

However, the interesting thing would be to see how Huawei handles this transition from using Android OS on almost all its products to switching over HarmonyOS.
Yellowstone I Killed a Man Today Season 3 Episode 8 Editors Rating 4 stars * * * *  Previous Next  Photo: Cam McLeod/Paramount Network

By now I should be used to Yellowstone stumbling through half-realized storylines and banal mythopoetic navel-gazing in the middle of its season, only to rally toward the end. But I cant recall a turnaround as dramatic as the one between last weeks frustrating nothing of an episode and this weeks I Killed a Man Today, which exemplifies what this show can be when everything clicks. At its best, Yellowstone is a little like a 21st-century Bonanza, using the over-the-top melodrama of the classic TV western as the backdrop to an honest re-examination of how the great American ranching dynasties of 150 years ago are getting along.

Let me start, then, by eating some of my words. Ive been complaining a lot this season about the reframing of John Dutton, Rich and Powerful Super-Rancher as John Dutton, Cash-Strapped Working Man. And even after this weeks chapter, I still think Yellowstones creator Taylor Sheridan  perhaps influenced by the proud ranch-folk he may have talked to before pitching this show  has a skewed sense of the American caste system if he thinks that the Duttons arent wealthy. Put it this way: With what they own and with the resources at their disposal, they can get things that most of us cant.

Still, I liked that in I Killed a Man Today, the characters stop talking around the situation that John Duttons facing, and instead just lay everything out for each other directly. Heres what we already knew: Market Equities and their real estate partners are offering the Duttons half a billion dollars for 50 acres of land; and if John declines, theyre going to enlist the state government to seize it anyway. But heres the larger context (hinted at before but now clearly expressed): With ranching revenues down and property taxes rising, the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch cant survive in its current form for more than a few years.

So those are the stakes. And theyre plenty real, regardless of John Duttons perception of his own socioeconomic status. The problem, from a dramatists point of view, is that the solution here seems obvious. John has to sell. (As Beth points out, he doesnt even have to sell the ranch. He can hold onto his home and business, and will have enough liquidity to keep ranching until he dies.) Thats where it helps that Sheridans spent so much time over the past two seasons establishing John as a stubborn son-of-a-bitch, with crazy kids.

Okay, maybe theyre not all crazy. A big part of this seasons arc has been about Kayces development into a Fine Young Man. He finds dozens of ranchers lining up at his Livestock Commissioners office, to thank him for risking his life to bring the rustlers to justice. Jamie tells him that John never earned that kind of genuine admiration. (Respect and loyalty, he says, But not that.) The two Dutton boys then share a sweet moment when the adopted Jamie asks if he can still call Kayce brother. Kayce says, without hesitation, Til the day you die, youd better never call me anything else.

Beth, though? Beths still pretty batty. Finding a fella and asking for his hand in marriage hasnt dulled her edge. In this episode, she pulls out all the stops in trying to scare Market Equities out of Montana: short-selling their stock; spooking the markets by planting rumors of takeovers; partnering with the reservations resident financial hawk Angela Blue Thunder; the works. In return, she gets crushed by Roarke Morriss boss Willa Hayes. (After I get this bitch fired, we should hire her, Willa sighs.)

Yet despite all that  and despite telling her dad just how hopeless his cause is  she still lets him know that shell keep advancing his interests if he wants her to. Everything I do is for you, Beth reminds John. So what does he order her to do about the land sale? Not an inch. Not one.  Theres always another way.

After last weeks dispiriting lack of action, it was satisfying to see such a greater sense of urgency and import in I Killed a Man Today. Sheridan and this episodes director, Guy Ferland, even overcame my early skepticism toward a subplot that  for its first few scenes  looked like it was setting up a gratuitous scene of sexual assault. When a stranded Monica gets picked up on the side of the road by some creep, I prematurely winced at what was to come. But it turned out the whole sequence was a payoff to the missing-persons investigation from two episodes ago. Monica was baiting a serial killer and rapist, whod previously eluded capture. Ill admit: I was fooled.

The payoff to the Monica storyline is a letdown, though. She initially avoids telling Kayce about her plans to help Chief Rainwater with the sting, because she doesnt want him to worry. But he also fails to tell her about his bloody raid on the rustlers (which made the front page of the local paper and wounded two of his men so Im not sure either his reticence or her ignorance make a lot of sense). They have a spat about their respective lack of openness, which ends with Kayce making excuses for himself  citing the dangers and complexities of his life  and Monica not getting to say much at all. The valuing of his choices and his interior life over hers is, frankly, exasperating.

And Kayce and Monicas big argument isnt the weeks only questionable moment. Rip also goes on an odd journey. He tells Lloyd about his upcoming marriage to Beth, then sinks into a funk after Lloyd congratulates him on having outlived your past. The episode ends with Rip crying at a bar. Perhaps hes upset because the musician playing onstage is Walker, the former Yellowstone ranch hand Rip intended to murder last season (before Kayce interceded). Or perhaps  like the useless bucking horse he cant bring himself to destroy  Rip feels like a wild animal, who shouldnt be tamed.

Whatever the reason for Mopey Rip, this new development could well be another step toward the big Rip/Beth split Ive been dreading all season. But who knows? Perhaps Ill be as pleasantly surprised by the way that arc goes, just as I was by so much of I Killed a Man Today.

How good was this episode? It even found a good use for the creepy Teeter/Colby flirtation. Here, her go-to seduction technique  taking her clothes off and demanding he go skinny-dipping  leads them both into the path of the Duttons surly cowboy nemesis Wade, who promptly tramples the couple under his gangs horse-hooves. Whether Teeter and Colby are dead or alive remains to be seen. For now, its just a relief that something is happening on this show, however extreme or bizarre.

To be honest, I had a good feeling about this episode from the opening scene: a short, lyrical sequence of a rodeo pro just doing his thing. It looked beautiful, it was exciting to watch, and it didnt waste a lot of time. Heres hoping the remaining two chapters of season three follow that lead.

The Last Round-Up

 While I appreciated the more honest accounting of the Dutton family finances in this episode, I do have to balk at Tate describing his dad as broke as hell. Last I checked, Kayce is a Montana Livestock Commissioner (a job that pays in the high double-digits, according to Google), married to a university instructor (not a lucrative gig, but hardly minimum wage), living presumably rent-free in a massive ranch-house which probably has a well-stocked kitchen. Ill grant that the Duttons may be the kind of rich that has a lot of strings attached. But I think most Americans would love to be that broke.

 Kayce remains an honorable dude, though, as evidenced by his reply when Jamie waves off his rustler-busting mission with, My office wont question it. Kayce gives him a stern look and says, You should probably question it.

 I sometimes feel that Sheridan leans too hard on the hard-bitten Beth schtick; but I have to admit I laughed out loud when John noted that she didnt look like a blushing bride and she responded, The blush was fucked out of me years ago. (Almost as funny was Johns halting follow-up: I love our man-to-man talks but weve gotta set some goddamn boundaries.)
Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday opposed the petition filed by Rohin Modi (19), the son of diamantaire Nirav Modi, a prime accused in the Rs.13,500-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case and arrested in London by the Scotland Yard authorities in March 2019, challenging confiscation of properties purportedly belonging to a trust started in his own name.

Additional solicitor-general (ASG) Anil Singh, who represented ED, supported the special court order issued on June 8, passed under Section 12 of the Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEO) Act, 2018, ordering the confiscation of movable and immovable properties worth Rs. 1,396 crore, belonging to Nirav and his firms.

Singh said no notice or opportunity of being heard was required to be given to Rohin, as his parents, Nirav and Ami, both the trustees, were represented before the special court and were heard before passing of the order under challenge.

Singh added that no relief could be granted to Rohin, as Nirav has defrauded PNB to the tune of Rs. 6,498 crore, laundered most of the money outside the country, and himself fled to the United Kingdom (UK).

Rohin moved HC, through advocate Lakshyaved Odhekar, challenging the special court order primarily on the ground that no notice was issued either to Rohin Trust or him individually, before ordering the confiscation of the trust properties, which include a penthouse in Samudra Mahal building at Worli and about 40 costly artworks that belonged to the trust.

These properties have been ordered to be confiscated along with other movable and immovable properties purportedly belonging to Nirav and his firms.

Rohins counsel, advocate Abhimanyu Bhandari, pointed out that section 4 of the FEO Act, 2018, mandates that the ED shall submit a list of all the persons, other than the FEO, interested in or who may have an interest in the properties sought to be confiscated.

He said ED knew that Rohin Trust owned the paintings and the penthouse, but neither the trust nor the name of Rohin was mentioned in the list of interested persons submitted by ED, and no notice was given to them, despite the mandatory legal norm.

Bhandari also pointed out that section 10 of the FEO Act, 2018, provides for an opportunity of hearing to such interested persons, but no such opportunity was given to Rohin before passing the order.

He urged HC to grant Rohin an opportunity of hearing to point out to the special court that the penthouse cannot be ordered to be confiscated to the central government, terming it proceeds of crime, as the premises were purchased in 2006 --- about five years before PNB even started giving loans to Nirav and his firms.

Bhandari pleaded with the court to direct ED to maintain the status quo with respect to the penthouse.

Singh responded to the contention about the penthouse by pointing out that the trust was started with a paid-capital of only Rs. 1,000 and it could not have purchased the apartment for Rs. 24 crore.

He argued that the property was purchased by Nirav, as Ami and Rohin have a beneficial interest in the Rohin Trust of 90 and 10, respectively,

Bhandari contended that Ami, too, was required to be given notice and an opportunity of being heard.

A two-member HC division bench, comprising Justices Sadhana Jadhav and NJ Jamadar, however, adjourned the matter for the next hearing on Thursday (August 13) after finding that the file before it did not contain reasoned order of the special court.
As the coronavirus surged across the Sunbelt, President Trump told a crowd gathered at the White House on July 4 that 99 percent of virus cases are totally harmless.

The next morning on CNN, the host Dana Bash asked Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and one of the nations most powerful health officials: Is the president wrong?

Dr. Hahn, an oncologist and former hospital executive, certainly understood the deadly toll of the virus, and the danger posed by the presidents false statements. But he ducked the journalists question.

Im not going to get into whos right and whos wrong, he said.

The exchange illustrates the predicament that Dr. Hahn and other doctors face working for a president who often disregards scientific evidence. But as head of the agency that will decide what treatments are approved for Covid-19 and whether a new vaccine is safe enough to be given to millions of Americans, Dr. Hahn may be pressured like no one else.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Libyan House of Representatives meeting in Tripoli has warned that the country could see explosions similar to that at the port of Beirut in Lebanon if oil facilities continue to be closed as they have in store large qualities of ammonium nitrate
LOUISVILLE, Ky.  Six years after a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, shot and killed his son, Michael Brown Sr. wavered on whether to spend the anniversary of his boy's death in another American city rocked by the loss of a Black person at the hands of police.

But on Saturday, standing in front of a vibrant, two-story mural of Breonna Taylor in Louisville's West End, Brown said he was glad he came. He, like countless others across the country, wants to see justice for Taylor's family, Brown said.

I can only imagine what the family goes through every day when they wake up not seeing those smiles. No talk. No hugs," said Brown, whose 18-year-old son, Michael Brown Jr., died Aug. 9, 2014.

"Those things will definitely kill you (from the inside) out," he said. "We might look OK in the face, but we dying in the inside.

The death of his son, who was shot by a white officer, set off months of protests in Ferguson and became a pivotal moment in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Brown's visit to Kentucky came amid continuing unrest over the death of Taylor, an unarmed Black woman who was fatally shot by police at her southern Louisville apartment in March.

Breonna Taylor's name is a rallying cry: Will it be enough to charge the police?

Michael Brown Sr. hugs Juniyah Palmer at the Until Freedom rally Louisville, Kentucky. Both lost loved ones in police shootings, Michael Brown Jr. and Breonna Taylor. Aug. 8, 2020

Saturday's rally took place at 11th and West Main streets, in front of a mural dedicated to Black people killed by police, including Taylor and George Floyd, who was killed in May by officers in Minneapolis.

The rally, which drew about 200 people, was organized by Until Freedom, a New York-based social justice organization.

Last month, the group organized a sit-in on Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's front lawn  an action that led to the arrests of 87 people. Cameron, a Republican elected to state office in November, became responsible for investigating Taylor's case after the Jefferson County commonwealth's attorney recused himself from reviewing it in May.

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Speakers on Saturday encouraged Louisvillians to keep fighting for justice for Black residents who have died at the hands of police, including Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician.

Breonna Taylor: Oprah Winfrey is demanding justice for Breonna Taylor with 26 billboards in Louisville

Linda Sarsour, co-founder of Until Freedom, said she knows local protesters are tired from more than 70 straight days of marches and demonstrations calling for justice for Taylor.

And we want you to know that we are here to alleviate any of that exhaustion, she told the crowd. We are here to inject whatever energy you need so the whole world turns their eyes to Louisville. You are the epicenter and the ground zero for the conversation on racial justice and police brutality. This is going to be a story in the history books and we are here to make history with you.

The No Justice No Peace Choir sang during the Until Freedom rally. Aug. 8, 2020

Members of Until Freedom plan to stay in Louisville until the officers responsible for fatally shooting Taylor are arrested and charged in her death, Sarsour said. While theyre here, she said the group will participate in community services, hosting free farmers markets and school supply drives.

The Rev. Stephen Green, also with Until Freedom, said the organization wasnt taking up residency in Kentucky for social media likes or shares but to support and build on the weeks of grassroots activism for Taylor.

Moving forward, the group will take action  or "disruption"  on Tuesdays, Green said.

We have come to disrupt the status quo, said Green, calling the upcoming events "Good Trouble Tuesdays," a nod to John Lewis, the late congressman and civil rights icon who encouraged Americans to make "good trouble" in the name of racial justice.

Brown, dressed Saturday in a "Black Lives Matter" T-shirt, said he continues to deal with the lingering trauma of his son's death. As a crowd converged at the shooting scene in 2014, Brown Jr.'s bloodied body remained on the Ferguson street for hours.

Later that year, a grand jury chose not to indict Darren Wilson, the former officer who shot and killed Brown Jr.

You dont get over nothing like this: Mother of Tamir Rice says moving on has been painful

Missouri law enforcement officials announced last month they would not reopen the case against Wilson.

Until Freedom co-founder Tamika Mallory said the global protests against police brutality and systemic racism that have sprung up in response to the deaths of Taylor and Floyd are not just a moment in time.

It is a continuation of a journey that our ancestors have been on here, in this country, for over 400 years, she said. We don't get to sit home and complain while watching our TVs or looking at our cellphones. We must be actively engaged in the movement, fighting for Black lives. We must be on the ground, putting boots to the pavement showing up on behalf of future generation.

When people look back on those involved in this movement, Mallory said, we want them to look at this generation and say that we were a mighty group. We were a mighty and intelligent and strategic and focused and courageous group of people who would not back down.

Follow Bailey Loosemore, Mandy McLaren and Matthew Glowicki on Twitter: @bloosemore, @mandy_mclaren and @mattglo.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: 6 years after Michael Brown's death, dad attends Breonna Taylor rally
By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 10, 2020 | 08:06 AM | MASSAC COUNTY

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources announced today that the 2020 Fort Massac Encampment, slated for Oct. 17-18 at Fort Massac State Park, has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The nearly half-century old gathering draws huge crowds to Metropolis and southern Illinois, sometimes estimated as high as 200,000 people throughout the days before and after a weekend full of 18th-century battle reenactments, military ceremonies, food and crafts.



The agency said that public safety during such a huge gathering during the pandemic was the reason the decision was made, with input from the Illinois Department of Public Health and the governor's office.

IDNR staff look forward to beginning plans for the 2021 Fort Massac Encampment with help from local supporters including the City of Metropolis, Friends of Forth Massac, and local sponsors and volunteers.
As we were preparing to return from holiday last weekend, it suddenly became clear to me what our three children were really craving.

Normally, they would be downcast, clamouring for a few more days of fun, swimming and indulgence in the sun. But this year was different.

They were glad to be going home and when we quizzed them about it, they conceded that what they were looking forward to was a return to routine.

They wanted to get back to school.

I wish I could offer them any reassurances. But to date, we have heard nothing from the state school attended by one of our two sons about what we and he can expect when term begins in just three weeks  basic logistical information on social distancing, pick-up and drop-off points, for example.

They have had five months to plan for this  and it should have been their top priority from the start.

Protesters at the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) in Glasgow to protest at this year's method of producing exam results

Of course, the ramifications of this chaos are not confined to younger pupils. The A-level appeals system is in utter disarray. Parents and students are fearful that grades awarded on the basis of course work and mocks will disadvantage many who excel in exams rather than the classroom and they will lose their university place.

The appeals process has now been extended until the end of September  but many of the colleges and universities will already have started term which presents huge uncertainty for youngsters left in the dark about their academic future. Some students wont hear about their grades until it is too late to find accommodation.

How can we let our childrens futures hang in the balance like this? Never mind the inconvenience and uncertainty for parents, who have no way of knowing what childcare arrangements they may or may not need, it is the welfare of children that concerns me.

For what millions of parents know without a doubt is that youngsters need to go back to school or on to university  for the sake of their sanity as much as their education.

This has been grimly confirmed in a study by Edinburgh and Glasgow universities that found that 28 per cent of children  three times the expected figure  felt lonely during lockdown.

If Britains children are to have any hope of overcoming this blight on their childhoods that began back in March and has cost them almost six unrecoverable months of their young lives  not only in learning but in play, sporting activities and social development  they need reassurance that it will soon all be over.

They need to think once more of their schools as places of sanctuary, friendship, and good teaching, rather than petri dishes of an enduring Covid-19 dystopia, as the teaching unions would have us believe.

I despair at reading of the lengths to which union leaders are going to frustrate a full return to school next month  something which is supported by the majority of the public and which the Prime Minister has described as a moral duty.

For its part, the National Education Union seems to have spent the latter part of lockdown crafting absurd demands before schools are opened that include the supposed dangers of children drinking hand sanitiser and the importance of safe zones for breastfeeding teachers to express milk.

Such obsessions may seem farcical  but dont forget it was the same NEU that undermined virtual lessons in state schools by playing up the ridiculously contrived danger of children taking photos of their teachers at home.

Lets not forget that most private schools moved seamlessly to online lessons, delivered via Zoom. And still the unions have the nerve to complain about the education divide!

Yet I fear that they and other doom-mongering education unions could win this battle for public sympathy by fuelling uncertainty and alarm, especially if talk of a second wave continues. They have seized the opportunity to manipulate the current narrative into a crude political game.

They know perfectly well that if Boris Johnson fails to get schools back fully for the start of a new term  much as they are returning in Scotland this week, albeit with limited restrictions  he will be politically weakened.

For with schools remaining closed  or operating part-time  there can be no semblance of a return to normality for millions of families. Parents who have combined childcare with working from home would be trapped and the economy would take a further hit.

Yes, the PM did speak out over the weekend about the importance of getting our children back into the classroom, but I find it baffling that he has left it so late to join the battle.

First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon visited West Calder High School in West Calder to see preparations ahead of pupils returning later this week after a four-month shutdow

This is allowing the unions to portray the reopening of schools as rushed and dangerous.

Some years ago I was a journalistic colleague of Boris Johnson, and he was noisily allergic to health and safety interventionism, maintaining that only cissies got ill. I simply dont understand why he shut schools down in the first place  or made no attempt to open them sooner.

The man I knew would never have endorsed such as foolish act of surrender to what was then spuriously termed The Science.

He now seems to accept the great damage the shutdown has done, but alas it has come too late.

In contrast, Sweden held its nerve and did not shut schools and the countrys eventual death rate looks like it will be in line with most of Europe.

Yesterday, there was an encouraging sign of resistance in the words of Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, who dismissed the headteachers unions demand for schools to open for week on, week off if there is a resurgence of the virus.

It is absolutely essential for schools to reopen in September, Prof Viner said. The risks to children from Covid are very low and the risks of school closures we know are very serious.

Another pan-European study finds that school outbreaks are the exception rather than the rule, and in many cases children did not catch or pass on the virus. To which most parents can only reply: Now they tell us.

This belated admission that science does not support school closure only makes me more enraged at what millions of families have endured and tens of thousands of children and teenagers have lost. Mr Johnson speaks of our moral duty to ensure schools reopen. But what was the moral impulse in keeping them closed long after it became clear that both the risks to children and transmission in the school setting were low?

Our 15-year-old daughter spent part of our holiday reading Jane Eyre, a set text for her GCSE next summer. But once back home she received an email announcing the novel had been struck out by the examination board because of the amount of school time lost in lockdown.

In this relatively trivial development you see laid bare all the defeatism of our educational establishment.

Surely there could be no better time than this to expand teenagers reading of classic novels than when they have been forced to be on their own for the best part of six months. You can be certain thats what private schools have been doing all along  and much more besides. For as the Sutton Trust points out today, it will be educational inequality that proves to be one of this pandemics most enduring and damaging legacies.

When term begins next month, I suspect private schools will find a way to function fully while the better state schools (which our three attend) will likely make a decent stab of opening. But the worst schools, which are largely in Labour-controlled local authorities where unions punch above their weight, will struggle to reopen fully.

And a sad truth will be borne out: those who need education most will be catching up for the rest of their lives.
Bengaluru, Aug 11 : The girls have outshone the boys in Karnataka's Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination (Class X) results in which an overall 71.80 per cent of the students cleared test, an official said on Monday.

The pass percentage among the boys stood at 66.41 per cent as compared to 77.74 per cent in girls. As many as 4,25,352 boys and 3,85,697 girls had appeared for the exam.

The overall pass percentage and the number of examinees declined in 2019-20, compared to the last academic year. The pass percentage was higher at 73.70 per cent last year.

Likewise, the number of candidates declined from 8,25,485 to 8,11,050 in a year's time.

Meanwhile, Minister for Medical Education and in-charge for Chikkaballapur, K. Sudhakar, expressed his happiness on the district emerging as the top district in the SSLC results.

"It is a matter of pride that the Chikkaballapur district has topped the entire state in the SSLC exam. As an MLA from Chikkaballapur, I am very happy," said Sudhakar.

Of the 8.2 lakh students, 7.3 lakh came from 5,233 government schools, 3,363 from aided schools and 6,103 from unaided schools.

Six students have secured the highest number of marks in the exam, 625, followed by 11 students scoring 624, 43 scoring 623 and 56 scoring 622.

The six top scorers are Sannidhi Mahabaleshware Hegde, K.S. Chirayu, Nikhilesh Marali, M.P. Dheeraj Reddy, A.L. Anusha and I.P. Thanmay.

All the six top scorers came from English medium schools. In fact, the first 17 students who scored highest marks came from English medium schools.

In Kannada medium, M. Abhishek, Sahana Shankar Kamagoudar and Shurti Basagouda Patil scored the highest marks of 623.

A total of 115 students took the SSLC exam in Hindi medium, 126 in Tamil, 207 in Telugu, 10,618 in Marathi and 21,022 in Urdu.

As expected, the highest number of students took the exam in Kannada medium, 4.2 lakh, while English came second with 2.7 lakh.

Under the category of private students, 59 students above the age of 50 years appeared for the exam, of which only two passed.

Initially, the exams were scheduled from March 27 to April 9, but were put off as the lockdown was extended thrice up to May 31.

Later, the exams were rescheduled between June 25 and July 4, under the shadow of coronavirus, compelling the authorities to take extra precautions.
Photo: The Canadian Press FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 14, 2019 file photo, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles FCA logo is shown at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is denying allegations by General Motors that FCA used foreign bank accounts to bribe union officials so they would stick GM with higher labor costs. In court papers filed Monday, Aug. 10, 2020 the Italian-American automaker said GM was using court records to make defamatory and baseless" claims.

Allegations by General Motors that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles bribed union officials are preposterous and read like a script from a third-rate spy movie, FCA lawyers wrote in court documents filed Monday.

GM, in a court motion last week, alleged that Fiat Chrysler used foreign bank accounts to bribe union officials so they would stick GM with higher labour costs.

But in a response, the Italian-American automaker fired back, calling GMs claims defamatory and baseless.

GM alleged in a court filing last week that FCA spent millions on bribes by stashing the money in foreign accounts. The allegations of new evidence were made in a motion asking a federal judge to reconsider his July dismissal of a federal racketeering lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler.

In trying to revive the lawsuit, GM alleged that bribes were paid to two former United Auto Workers presidents, as well as a former union vice-president and at least one former GM employee.

In its response, Fiat Chrysler said GM has to know that the prospect of getting the judge to overturn the dismissal is slim to none. So this motion is apparently a vehicle to make more defamatory and baseless accusations about a competitor that is winning in the marketplace.

FCA denied allegations by GM that FCA paid two moles to infiltrate GM and send inside information. The company also denied that foreign bank accounts were involved. That GM has extended its attacks to individual FCA officers and employees, making wild allegations against them without a shred of factual support, is despicable, FCA lawyers wrote.

GM's claims are based on the alleged existence of foreign bank accounts, which are legal, Fiat Chrysler wrote. There is not one well-pled allegation in the proposed amended complaint (by GM) that these foreign bank accounts were used to pay bribes or facilitate any other illegal conduct, FCA's response said.

GM contends that bribes were paid to former United Auto Workers Presidents Dennis Williams and Ron Gettelfinger, as well as Vice-President Joe Ashton. It also alleges money was paid to GM employees including Al Iacobelli, a former FCA labour negotiator who was hired and later released by GM.

GM alleges that payments were made so the officials would saddle GM with more than $1 billion in additional labour costs.

Gettelfinger, whose name had not come up previously in a wide-ranging federal probe of UAW corruption, vehemently denied the allegations in a statement and said he had no foreign accounts. Williams California home was raided by federal agents but he has not been charged. Iacobelli, who is awaiting sentencing in the probe, also denied the claims.

In July, U.S. District Judge Paul Borman in Detroit tossed out GMs lawsuit that alleged that Fiat Chrysler paid off union leaders to get better contract terms than GM.

He wrote that GMs alleged injuries were not caused by FCA violating federal racketeering laws, and that the people harmed by the bribery scheme were Fiat Chrysler workers.

GMs motion contended that payments were made to accounts in places like Switzerland, Luxembourg, Italy, Singapore and the Cayman Islands. The accounts were set up to avoid detection in the federal criminal probe, according to the motion. The accounts were discovered recently by private investigators working on GMs behalf, according to court records.
(Alliance News) - Amigo Holdings PLC on Monday announced the appointment of 40-year finanncial services veteran Gary Jennison as a non-executive director, effective next Monday.

Of the 40 years of experience Jennison has in the financial services sector, 20 years has been spent at chief executive or board level, Amigo noted. Over the last half-decade, he has spent two years as chair of Orchard Funding Group PLC and another two years as deputy CEO of Together Money.

Jennison is to step down from his position as non-executive chair of Lantern Debt Recovery Services Ltd to focus fully on his new position at Amigo.

Acting Amigo Chair Roger Lovering said: "We are delighted to welcome Gary to Amigo and the board. His tremendous commercial, regulatory and public listed experience, including with customer focused businesses, will be a valuable addition to our board."

Amigo shares were up 2.6% at 8.38 pence each on Monday morning in London.

By Greg Roxburgh; gregroxburgh@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Police in the northern Vietnamese province of Lao Cai have arrested two Vietnamese men for making arrangements for 44 Chinese people to enter the Southeast Asian country illegally.

The provincial Department of Police confirmed on Sunday they had launched legal proceedings against and apprehended Phung The Anh, 26, and Vang Seo Xoa, 31.

According to preliminary information, officers at the Lao Cai International Border Gate detected an automobile with suspicious signs that was traveling from Lao Cai toward Hanoi on July 16.

They coordinated with local police units to pull over the vehicle and discovered four Chinese citizens inside.

An inspection then showed that the Chinese had been brought into Vietnam unlawfully.

Police officers expanded their investigation and arrested Anh, Xoa, and several other suspects involved with an illegal ring that organized for Chinese nationals to enter Vietnam illegitimately.

At the police station, Anh and Xoa admitted to having arranged nine automobiles to transport 44 Chinese into the Southeast Asian nation from July 6 to 15.

The Chinese had paid them a total of CNY71,000 (US$10,185).

Further investigation into the case is ongoing.

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The Electoral Commission (EC) brought the curtain down on the mop-up voter registration yesterday with registration officials in two regions - Greater Accra and Upper East - expressing satisfaction about the exercise.



The EC set aside the last two days for the mop-up exercise to enable eligible Ghanaians who were unable to register in the mass registration of voters which ended last Thursday to do so to ensure that no eligible applicant was left out of the national exercise.



Greater Accra



In the Greater Accra Region, 2,249 applicants were registered on the first day across the 31 constituencies, reports Timothy Ngnenbe.



A visit by the Daily Graphic to some of the district offices of the EC that served as registration centres showed that the long queues that characterised the mass registration exercise were absent.



Among the district offices visited were Ablekuma West, Ablekuma Central, Ablekuma North, Okai Kwei South and Asiedu Keteke (Odododiodio).



At all the centres, the registration officers were virtually on holiday as just a handful of applicants turned up to be registered.



Some of the registrants said they were unable to register in the main exercise because they travelled.



Others also said they could not do so at their respective polling centres because of the long queues.



Throwing more light on the exercise, the Greater Accra Regional Director of the EC, Mr Kwame Amoah, said the registration had been largely successful.



He said the figures for the first day showed that the Dome Kwabenya Constituency registered the highest number, capturing 186 registrants followed by Tema Metro with 169.



Many other constituencies recorded less than 100 applicants, with the Odododiodio constituency settling on 17 registrants.



Upper East



From Bolgatanga, Vincent Amenuveve reports that the Electoral Commission in the Upper East Region recorded about 1,000 people in the Upper East Region on the first day.



The Regional Director of the EC, Mr William Obeng Adarkwa, who made this known to the Daily Graphic at Bolgatanga indicated that patronage of the exercise was quite encouraging.



The COVID-19 safety health protocols were adhered to.



Some party agents were spotted monitoring the processes, which went on peacefully.



Giving his impressions about the exercise, the Upper East Regional Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Donatus Akamugri, indicated that although it was peaceful, it fell short of their expectations.



He explained that the EC could have still conducted the exercise in all the gazetted polling stations to afford people the opportunity to register without necessarily travelling from their respective villages to the district capitals to have their names registered.



As it is now, a lot of people are still going to be disenfranchised simply because they might not be able to get resources to travel from their villages to the district capitals," Mr Akamugri stressed.



The Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Anthony Namoo, for his part, commended the people of the region for the peaceful manner they went about the exercise.



Bono Region



A few people trickled in at the Sunyani Municipal Office of the EC to take advantage of the mop-up exercise, reports Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah.



There were no queues as only two people were seated comfortably to be registered at the time the Daily Graphic visited at 1.00 p.m.



Mr Opoku Ware, who had just finished registering at the time, explained that he had to travel from Accra to register in Sunyani when he heard of the mop-up exercise to enable him to vote for his preferred candidate in the parliamentary polls on December 7, 2020.



"I am grateful for this opportunity offered by the Electoral Commission," he stated.

Source: Graphic.com.gh









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Nityanand Jayaraman

Two days before India went into a lockdown in March, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change published a draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2020, for public comments. The bar on public gatherings due to the lockdown, however, did little to dampen the spirited opposition to the draft. Youth, celebrities and political parties unleashed a fusillade of memes, videos and hashtags calling out the proposed law for rewarding environmental offenders, putting short-term profits of big business over the interests of future generations, and limiting public participation in environmental decision-making.

The allegations against the draft EIA 2020 are true, and its nationwide condemnation is justified. However, the 2020 draft is merely the latest  and worst  in a series of laws that view democracy and environmental protection as impediments to the ease of doing business. Scrapping this draft is essential, but not sufficient to cure Indias malaise. Indian environmental governance is characterised by a dangerously relaxed attitude to scientific rigour and integrity, and a disdain for public participation.

Successive EIA notifications  first in 1994, then in 2006  barred certain industrial and development activities from commencing without an EIA, public hearing and prior environment clearance. However, under pressure from big businesses, the object of the law has been continuously weakened. Since 1994, the law has been amended 65 times, including to exempt potentially damaging activities from the purview of the rules and providing a route for legalising activities commenced without environment clearance. Despite a Supreme Court order ruling such post-facto clearances to be illegal, the draft EIA 2020 perpetuates the practice of rewarding the offender.

Science And Nonsense

The EIA notification is a product of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development which enjoined member states to undertake EIAs for proposed activities that are likely to have an adverse impact on the environment.

Documents such as the EIAs and feasibility reports are meant to be truthful and scientific. In India, though, the poor quality of such studies is legendary, prompting even former environment minister Jairam Ramesh to admit that between the manipulated EIA report and the fixed public hearing, the environment clearance has become a fait accompli.

Even reputed consultants submit reports with plagiarised and fraudulent data. In 2000, Ernst and Young presented a 65-page EIA for the Dandeli mini hydel project in Karnataka of which 60 pages was plagiarised content from the EIA for another dam project 90 km away.

A 2018 Feasibility Report prepared by Feedback Infra for a controversial eight-lane expressway connecting Salem and Chennai in Tamil Nadu justified the project saying it would benefit the women of Xian, a city in China.

Such crippling flaws are brought to light, not by the experts appraising these projects, but by ordinary citizens and community activists.

In the case of a 4000-MW coal power project proposed at Cheyyur in Tamil Nadu, experts in the appraisal committee cleared the project over-looking the numerous falsehoods contained the application and the EIA. The project documents denied the existence of ecologically sensitive areas, including estuaries and areas used by migratory species. However, the project site is sandwiched between two estuaries with mangroves and seagrass beds, and located partly inside the Cheyyur Lagoon, a hotspot for birds, including trans-Himalayan migrants such as the Bar-headed Goose and near threatened species such as the Lesser Flamingo and European Curlew.

Fortunately, the project has not progressed, but that is because of public pressure. Left to the experts, the project would have been completed, the environment damaged and farming and fisher livelihoods harmed.

Decisions based on such reports can trigger irreversible consequences on communities and ecosystems. Unfortunately, there is no mechanism by which citizens can hold the authors of these reports or the easy-going experts accountable.

This culture of impunity extends also to project promoters that engage in unlicensed construction or operation. The bigger the project and more prominent the project proponent, the less likely it is that the spirit of the law will be enforced.

Oil Indias well blowouts in Baghjan, Assam, have exposed the hydrocarbon sectors dirty footprint. However, aided by pliant regulators at the pollution control boards (PCB), this sector has systematically avoided environmental due diligence and externalised risk to local communities and the environment around India.

In Tamil Nadus Cauvery delta, the ONGC claims to have drilled more than 700 hydrocarbon wells; of this, the ONGC says 183 were in operation in 2018. The PCB had records of only 71 operational wells, none of which had a valid operating license.

The ONGC has faced no legal action for its unlicensed operations. Neither has any officer of the PCB for dereliction of duty. Ditto with the more recent case of Vizag-based LG Polymers, where a gas leak on May 7 killed 12 people and injured thousands. LG Polymers did not have a valid environment clearance, and its application for post-facto clearance was pending with the ministry. Despite the magnitude of the offence, the ministry decided against closing the plant down. The offenders impunity arises from the lack of accountability of the law enforcer.

Indias environmental future is bleak. India is unlikely to survive the 21st century climate nightmare unless the government realises that the health of the environment matters more than the health of private businesses. Any strong environmental governance system is incomplete without tools that allow citizens to hold decision-makers, law enforcers and expert appraisers accountable.
Shoppers are facing fines of up to 2,500 and a prison stint if they breach new rules on wearing face coverings from today.

With the number of Covid-19 cases rising by 68 yesterday, Dr Ronan Glynn the Acting Chief Medical Officer with the Department of Health said that from today, "face coverings will be mandatory in retail and other indoor settings like hairdressers, cinemas and museums.

"We know that most people are already wearing face coverings and we hope to see even greater uptake over the coming days," he said.

He was speaking as figures showed that of the 68 new cases notified yesterday, 19 were located in Kildare, 17 in Dublin, 15 in Offaly, 12 in Laois and five in Donegal.

However, there were no new deaths reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC).

Successful

In relation to face masks, the Department of Health told the Herald yesterday: "To date there has been a very high level of buy-in from the public with the necessary public health measures and there hasn't been a need for high levels of enforcement.

"The vast majority of people are already wearing face coverings in shops," a spokesperson said. "To date, gardai have adopted an approach of engaging with the public to educate and encourage people to abide by the measure in place.

"That has proved to be very successful and they will continue that approach.

"As a very last port of call, gardai can be called but the hope is that will not arise and experience to date has been that the public are reading to comply with the health measures.

"The penalty for not wearing a face covering is 2,500 and/or six months in prison, but the expectation is that the vast majority of customers will comply and that penalties would only need to be imposed in very rare cases."

It is believed there will be exemptions similar to those outlined in the rules for public transport for certain people who cannot wear a face covering due to medical or physical reasons.

Meanwhile, Retail Ireland Director Arnold Dillon told the Herald: "Retailers are happy to do their bit to support any public health measures, and obviously the safety and health of our staff and customers is obviously the primary concern.

"Over the course of this crisis, retail has been at the forefront in terms of transforming how the businesses have been run to try and make sure that customers are safe and they have those assurances.

"Retailers will be happy to encourage the use of face coverings and they are already taking steps to do that and to make sure that their staff are also compliant.

"We expect the vast majority of the public to be supportive of these measures."

However, he said there is a concern that in a limited number of cases, retail workers shouldn't be at the coalface of any disputes that might arise because of the new regulations.

"While I think retailers are happy to play a part in encouraging it, enforcement should be a matter for the authorities," he said.

"We don't expect compliance to be a massive issue. Even since the intention to make it mandatory was announced, there has been a massive increase in the use of face coverings in retail settings.

"Of course there will be those people who won't be able to wear the masks, and that is why it is important there is some sensitivity around how these things can be policed.

Factories

"I think we have already seen over recent weeks that the uptake has been very significant. We expect that to be more so when the regulations come in."

Meanwhile, contact tracing and testing will be ramped up in food processing factories across the country to prevent further Covid-19 outbreaks, HSE chief executive Paul Reid said.

He said testing and tracing is effective in identifying where outbreaks are emerging, but it is up to individuals and organisations to follow health advice.

"One thing which has proven well in this instance has been our testing and tracing," he told Newstalk's Off The Record.

"It's not a silver bullet, and it can't prevent outbreaks from happening.

"The first line of defence in all scenarios, public health measures that individuals can take, and that organisation take around infection prevention and control, so that was the first line of defence for all of us against this."
Reno Omokri, former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari is in support of the killings in S...

Reno Omokri, former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari is in support of the killings in Southern Kaduna.

Omokri made the allegation while condemning the persistent killings in Southern Kaduna.

In a post on his Facebook page, the former presidential aide wondered why Buhari has not ordered any military operation in Southern Kaduna, despite the persistent killings.

He recalled that Operation Python Dance was deployed in the Southeast over the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra but has failed to do the same in Southern Kaduna.

Omokri maintained that Buhari knows how to put an end to the killings in Southern Kaduna if he wanted to.

He wrote: IPOB killed nobody, yet General Buhari sent Operation Python Dance to the Southeast. Herdsmen have killed thousands in S Kaduna, yet no Operation Python Dance is sent there.





That is to show that General Buhari is in full support of the killings in Southern Kaduna! General Buhari was the official Grand Patron of herdsmen before he became President. Google it.

If he wants Southern Kaduna killings to stop today, he knows what to do. That they have not stopped and are instead intensifying, is because that is what Buhari wants. I fear no one!
Keeping the Queensland-New South Wales border zone open will depend on how well NSW can keep the virus away from the northernmost part of the state, experts say.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young flagged she was watching the arrangements at the border very closely, after all of NSW and the ACT was declared a hotspot over the weekend.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young says people in border areas should have a plan for if they aren't allowed to freely cross the border any more.

Dr Young said exemptions had been granted for people who lived on one side of the border and worked on the other, or who had family members on the opposite side.

However, she said she did not think that would last much longer.
- Luis Manzano is one of the celebrities affected by the shutdown order against ABS-CBN

- He thought of a way to still connect with his supporters amid the issues that his network is facing

- Just recently, the actor revealed that he will be launching his new online show with Long Mejia

- According to Luis, people can send their complaints to the email account of his new show

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Luis Manzano is also set to launch his own online show amid the franchise renewal issue that ABS-CBN continues to face.

KAMI learned of the said information through the recent social media post of the prominent television host.

Luis Manzano (Photo from Flickr)

Source: UGC

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He disclosed that his upcoming show will be called Luckyng Tulong and he will be joined by comedian Long Mejia.

Through Instagram, Luis called on people to send their complaints to the shows email account because he and the production team will try to find possible solutions.

Meanwhile, a netizen asked the celebrity if the said online show is under ABS-CBN. The I Can See Your Voice host promptly answered No.

Eto na online show namin SOON! - Naagrabyado ka ba? Napupundi ka na ba? Pwes  ito ang takbuhan ng mga feeling dehado! the handsome showbiz personality wrote.

Reklamo mo sa buhay o sa kapitbahay  may solusyon! Ako at si Long ang aayos dyan. Ipadala ang reklamo sa luckytulong@gmail.com. Youre LUCKY dahil dito may tuLONG! he added.

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Luis Manzano is a well-known actor, TV host, and product endorser in the Philippines. He is currently in a romantic relationship with Jessy Mendiola.

He recently aired a message for Eat Bulaga on its 41st anniversary. Despite coming from the rival network, he greeted the longest-running noontime show in the country.

The celebrity also tried to imitate the viral bathtub photos of Jerry Yan. His caption also caught the attention of people in the online world.

POPULAR: Read more news about Luis Manzano!

Please like and share our Facebook posts to support KAMI team! Dont hesitate to comment and share your opinion about our stories either. We love reading about your thoughts!

Source: KAMI.com.gh
Starbucks' summer ready bag and summer chair / Korea Times file



By Kim Jae-heun



Starbucks Korea is unlikely to be sanctioned by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) for allegedly committing a "fraudulent act" against its customers.



At a meeting of the National Assembly State Affairs Committee two weeks ago, ruling Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Min Hyung-bae said the American coffeehouse chain violated the Fair Trade Act with its "summer ready bag" promotional event.



Starbucks Korea offered customers who purchased 17 drinks, including seasonal beverages, one of five options  two types of summer ready bags and three types of summer chairs.



The reward items gained unexpected popularity among customers with the summer ready bags in particular causing a craze here that led people to wait in front of Starbucks coffee shops every morning to check the inventory.



According to the lawmaker, Starbucks Korea "lured" customers with the reward items but failed to prepare a sufficient inventory. As a result, a lot of people purchasing beverages never received the promotional camping gear.



Rep. Min suggested Article 23 of the Fair Trade Act as the legal grounds for his argument, which bans acts of rejecting transactions unfairly or discriminating the counterparts. It also prevents a firm from unfairly exploiting its position when trading with another.



The lawmaker urged KFTC chief Cho Sung-wook to launch an investigation. Cho responded: "It is hard to tell if it was an illegal act just from listening to Rep. Min's allegation, but I will look into the matter."



As a consolation to customers, Starbucks Korea gave out free coffee to those who waited long hours before the stores opened but didn't receive reward items. But this was not enough to stop some from complaining, leading Rep. Min to bring up the issue.



"If Starbucks Korea deceived customers with false advertising or committed any acts against the Fair Trade Act, it will be subject to punishment," a KFTC official said. "However, it gave out the reward items until it ran out of stock; and it notified customers prior to the event that the promotion would end early if it used up its inventory. In this case, it is hard give it a penalty."



"Though, we will to look into whether Starbucks Korea deliberately prepared a small amount of reward items in the first place or intentionally managed the inventory to keep customers keep coming back for the reward items," the KFTC official said.



Meanwhile, the summer ready bags shortage has led people to trade the promotional gift on secondhand online trading platforms for as much as 160,000 won ($134.62) online.



The promotional event ended July 17.


Durham is an unincorporated community in Walker County, Ga., that is probably unknown to the majority of the public except for descendants of the miners and families that worked in the mines. Durham was first called Pittsburgh like so many other towns that intended to simulate the big steel metropolis in Pennsylvania. The name of the community changed to Durham after the mining area on Lookout Mountain was purchased by the Durham Iron and Coal Company.

Originally the Cherokee Indians lived in this area but were driven out on the Trail of Tears in the late 1830's. This allowed industrialists to come into the rich coal mining region and to develop the resources. Black convicts provided much of the labor to extract the coal from the mines that had begun operating before the Civil War. When the mines were opened in 1891 foremen were hired to oversee the convicts. The prisoners lived in barracks and were kept under heavy guard night and day.

The first load of coal from the Durham mines went on exhibition at the Georgia Avenue depot yard in Chattanooga on January 5, 1892. Originally the coal was hauled from the mines by mule-driven wagons to a winding precarious railroad constructed in that time frame. The Durham line crossed the Chattanooga Southern Railroad that went to Gadsden, Ala., and on to Chickamauga, Ga., where the Central of Georgia Railroad passed through. The coal was examined by coal dealers and manufacturers before it was transported by rail to Coalburn, Alabama, where it could be made into coke.

With the discovery of vast deposits of bituminous coal, Durham eventually evolved into Durham Coal and Coke Company, a town with the company providing housing, company store, and company-built churches. By 1910 Durham had a butcher shop, a movie theatre, gambling hall, pool hall, barber shop, ice house and three boarding houses for the miners. Business was so brisk that newcomers had to wait six months for a company house to become vacant. The Durham post office was listed as Pittsburgh, Georgia and was in operation from 1900 until 1946.

After the first shipment was made in 1892, the mining of coal continued on and off until the 1940s. The Chickamauga Coke Ovens are still present today just north of downtown Chickamauga on Georgia Highway 341. Twice a day trips were made hauling coal by the trains to the ovens where it would be burned at high temperatures without any oxygen present to remove the impurities from the coal.

In order to make iron and steel, coke is necessary because it burns longer, hotter and steadier than coal and this was what the foundries needed in the Chattanooga market. By 1904 the Durham mines were producing 700 to 1,000 tons of Coke in the Chickamauga ovens every day with approximately one-fifth of the ore being manufactured into coke. This process continued operation into the Great Depression years when the large seam of coal eventually ran out.

The railroad was abandoned in 1951 and the narrow iron rails on the Chickamauga and Durham line were taken up and the wooden trestles rotted. During the coal boom of the 1970s the ugly practice of strip mining was extracted from the area. While the rails were removed in 1952 a majority of the former right-of-way can still be traced although some of it has been encroached on and part of it goes through a private nature preserve. Eventually the right of way was given to Walker County but plans to build a walking trail from Chickamauga to Lula Falls were withdrawn because of opposition from land owners along the property.

A one day trip to visit the Town of Chickamauga and the coke ovens can be an interesting and historical journey.

* * *

Jerry Summers



(If you have additional information about one of Mr. Summers' articles or have suggestions or ideas about a future Chattanooga area historical piece, please contact Mr. Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com
Consumers now have a choice when shopping for country-of-origin products that reflect their ethical choices

New York, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- www.NotMadeInChina.Directory

As China continues to wage an all-out attack on Western values, consumers are increasingly despairing at the realization that so much of what they buy is made in China. China is a manufacturing powerhouse and effectively the worlds factory for much of what we buy and consume daily. Clothes, electronics, appliances, and home goods are the types of products we all purchase every day  often without realizing where they are made.

Increasingly, consumers are looking for an alternative to Chinese-made products as a way of showing their support for local businesses and the democratic values that underlie how we live and work in North America. The challenge has been how to find these companies amidst the hundreds of thousands of products available at Wal-Mart, Target, and other retailers nationwide.

www.NotMadeInChina.Directory is a Website directory listing products across a broad range of categories covering the items that consumers buy and use every day. Manufacturers provide detail around where their products are made and what, if any, percentage of the product contains Chinese content. By letting customers browse for products with the full knowledge of where they are made allows consumers to make more informed choices around the countries they want to support with their purchases. We are operating on trust knowing that the power of our community will ensure that manufacturers are highly motivated to ensure proper disclosure around product content, says Michael.

NotMadeInChina.Directory founder, Michael Paul, saw a need for an easier way to identify where products are made. I realized that so much of what we are buying comes from China  a country that many of us are troubled by in terms of its bad record on human rights, intellectual property theft, and the like. NotMadeInChina.Directory came to Michael as an idea for an easy and powerful solution for consumers looking to more thoroughly understand what they are buying and where it comes from.

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Local businesses North America-wide are the backbone of our economy and employment. The NotMadeInChina.Directory allows consumers to support these local businesses while also sending a message to China that its practices are not acceptable. Chinas economic power comes from its exports. Reductions in exports hurt the Chinese Communist Party because they lose vital foreign exchange to finance their global activities to undermine democratic values.

Companies throughout North America and the globe are now able to register and post their product listings on the NotMadeInChina.Directory websites database. This is a world-wide service.

This is a free listing service and will always be free to businesses and consumers. The NotMadeInChina.Directory is live to manufacturers who are signing up and posting their products now.

This is a tangible way for consumers to vote with their wallets, says Michael. Its a small yet important effort that we can all get behind.

Michael Paul, Founder

Not Made In China Directory

e-mail: info@notmadeinchina.directory

website: www.notmadeinchina.directory

facebook: www.facebook.com/notmadeinchinadirectory

Attachments

CONTACT: Michael Paul Not Made In China Directory 416-829-7236 info@notmadeinchina.directory




Cadillac, one of the most venerable nameplates in automotive history, with a nearly 120-year tradition, just unveiled a near-production-ready concept for its first EV (electric vehicle). The Lyriq, a luxurious four-seat SUV, will be the first new car underpinned by General Motors scalable Ultium battery system. This densely packed electric platform will allow GM to produce dozens of all-new electric vehicles of different shapes and sizes over the next few years, with various amounts of power and range, from cars to full-size pickups.

When the Lyriq is offered for sale to the public in late 2022, likely starting in the midfive figures and with an expected range of over 300 miles, it will be the first step in Cadillacs role as GMs pioneering EV brand. It will also enter an increasingly crowded field of battery-powered SUVs, from familiar luxury manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Tesla, as well as from upstart start-ups you may have never heard of, like Bollinger, Fisker, and Rivian. Cadillacs play in this field will include innovative technology and, especially, forward-looking exterior and interior design.

The coolest Cadillacs from the past have always been turning points, says Andrew Smith, the brands executive design director. Theyre always about the future. So the general brief for Lyriq was: Design the future of Cadillac.

The result is an alluring shape that balances the traditional with the outre. The front end is blunt, with a fresh, active lighting signaturearranged not just at the corners like traditional headlamps but also combined and woven into the grille. These lights, to become a Cadillac signature, will be used to greet occupants as they approach, providing what Smith calls a sense of occasion and experience.

The sides of the body feature quite a bit of interesting concave and convex surfacing, an effort to achieve what Smith calls a liquid-metal feel. The overall shape is fluid, if rectilinear, reflecting Smiths desire for the Lyriq to have a classic strong stance. The rear-end treatment is perhaps the most novel, featuring a mollusk-like protruding rear hatch, and Cadillacs signature vertical tail lamps rendered in two parts, the uppermost one of which reaches deep into the body side, almost playfully.

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This last element may have been influenced by the location in which the Lyriq was created, the General Motors Technical Center outside Detroit, a midcentury-modern campus masterpiece designed by Eero Saarinen, with help from Harry Bertoia, Florence Knoll, and others. Youll see in some of the footage, we actually shot it around the Saarinen campus, says Smith. In that environment, I just love this car. The whole feeling of midcentury-modern campus, of the optimistic future. When you see this car driving around, you think, The future is here.

The interior of the Lyriq continues this paradigm of mixing the conventional with the expressive. A giant single-screen OLED display curves across the dashboard, angled at the driver. An all-new head-up display layers in augmented reality and projects it over navigation and other information on the windshield in the drivers line of sight. And the next generation of Cadillacs Super Cruise driver-assistance technology is integrated, allowing for truly hands-free driving (while a drivers eyes remain on the road) on 200,000 miles of mapped U.S. highways.

While traditional materials like wood, metal, and leather are still utilized inside, theyre featured in intriguing ways. The wood veneer is backlit. The metal is brushed and knurled. Much of the leather interior is a dreamy bottle-green color. Some leather trim is cut and turned on its side, to expose what Smith calls its crust, and then interspersed with metal. Surprise and delight abounds, as with the bright ultramarine suede inserts inside the cabins glove box and storage bins.

Overall, the Lyriqs design reaches more than the contemporary electric SUV designs from Audi and Mercedes-Benz, which attempt to slip their electrification under the radar, looking like just another crossover. But it is less radical than efforts from Tesla or Jaguar to create completely new shapes for their battery-powered vehicles, liberated from the requisite conventionsengine up front, gas tank in back, transmission betweenof internal combustion engine design. According to Smith, this is intentional. The whole idea of an EV having to look like a science project? Maybe if its the only one in your portfolio, that might be relevant, Smith says. But if its the first of many, it should just be proportional and beautiful.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
Investigating the United Arab Emirates (UAE) leg of Kerala gold smuggling scandal, a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) reached Dubai on Sunday night to interrogate key accused - Faisal Fareed - and collect evidence gathered by the authorities there, people familiar with the development said.

Apart from Fareed, who used to send gold in the diplomatic baggage from Dubai, the two-member NIA team will question a couple of other suspects as well who have been taken into custody by the Dubai police, the officials said.

A senior official cited above, who didnt wish to be named, said that Fareeds firm was contracted in the UAE to clear and send the diplomatic baggage to India. It is also suspected that Fareed is the one who had set up a network of hawala dealers and couriers who helped in disposing of/selling the gold. He originally hails from Kerala but resides in the UAE.

The anti-terror probe agency had last month also approached the Interpol seeking a blue notice against Fareed. It was found that Fareed had forged the documents - seal and emblem - of the UAE embassy to ensure diplomatic protection for the baggage and the gold coming here was to be used for terror activities.

During its stay in Dubai, the NIA team will also seek details of shell companies, which were used for transferring the money, as well as hawala operators linked to gold smuggling. The UAE authorities are learnt to have conducted substantial investigation already on Indias request and are likely to hand over its findings to the NIA team.

The federal anti-terror probe agency is probing terror angle in the large scale smuggling of gold in Kerala.

Apart from Faisal Fareed and Swapna Suresh, NIA has identified K T Ramees as the mastermind of the whole racket. Ramees is currently in judicial custody.

Last week, it had arrested Muhammad Ali, a Popular Front of India (PFI) member. The outfit, however, denied Ali being associated with it.

In all, NIA has arrested 10 accused in the case so far, including Swapna Suresh, who helped in air consignment of UAE consulate at Thiruvananthapuram in which 30 kg gold was recovered last month.

The agency had informed a court last week that prime accused Swapna Suresh had a strong connection with Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayans office.

A larger terror conspiracy is being probed by multiple agencies  NIA, ED and Customs.

The NIA had said earlier that the accused persons had conspired to damage the monetary stability of India by destabilising the economy by smuggling large quantity of gold from abroad and it is suspected that they had used these proceeds of smuggling for financing terrorism through various means.

It has further claimed that using diplomatic baggage of UAE as a cover to transact illegal business may have serious repercussions in the diplomatic relations with the government of UAE and it is prejudicial to the monetary and economic security of India as well.
The Monmouth County Prosecutors Office is expected to decide Monday whether to charge the owners of a home in Howell with violating Gov. Phil Murphys ban on large gatherings after police broke up a 300-person party on Sunday.

Police arrested a 37-year-old man, identified as a resident of the house, on unrelated charges. Howell police Chief Andrew Kudrick said in an email Monday attendees were compliant and left without incident. The party drew a big police presence to the neighborhood.

A spokesman for the prosecutors office couldnt immediately be reached for comment.

People who attended the pop-up party on Wilson Drive in the Ramtown section of town were charged between $30 and $40 to enter after advertisements about the bash surfaced on social media, police said.

Howell police said about 300 people gathered at a pop-up party on Wilson Drive in the township Aug. 9, 2020Howell Police Department

PRIVATE Location in CENTRAL Jersey...Advance Tixs...Females $30.00 Male $40.00, an Instagram post advertising the event read. The post mentioned a DJ and a pool as part of the festivities. The online flier called the party the Real Big Drip 5.

Police from Wall, Brick, Jackson and Freehold along with state troopers and sheriffs officers from Monmouth and Ocean counties helped Howell police clear the area on Sunday evening.

On Monday, Alpine police charged a 45-year-old Newark man who authorities say hosted at least two massive gatherings at a mansion the upscale Bergen County town. Tashay Knight leased the home, charging admission to the parties and illegally selling alcohol, officials said.

Last month, police charged three people with violating Murphys coronavirus order barring large gatherings after officers broke up a party with at least 700 attendees in Jackson.

Outdoor gatherings can have up to 500 attendees while maintaining social distancing as of early July. Indoor gatherings are now limited to 25 people.

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Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
US tech firms argue in a court filing that President Donald Trump's visa restrictictions would backfire by leading to more jobs going offshore

Amazon, Apple and Facebook are among tech industry titans and organizations signing onto a court filing saying US President Donald Trump's move blocking visas for skilled workers hurts the country.

The brief was filed in federal court Monday in support of a suit by the US Chamber of Commerce and trade groups against a proclamation issued by Trump in June halting visas for various categories of guest workers including highly skilled talent sought by tech firms.

"The president's suspension of nonimmigrant visa programs, supposedly to 'protect' American workers, actually harms those workers, their employers, and the economy," the brief backed by more than 50 tech firms and organizations argued.

"Beyond the overwhelming data undermining the proclamation's purported rationale, the administration's actions send a fundamentally un-American message to those abroad who might otherwise have brought their skills and ingenuity to the United States."

Trump's proclamation suspended a group of non-immigrant visa programs, including H-1B visas relied on by many technology firms to bring in engineers.

The suspension is to last through this year and as long after "as necessary" under the justification of making jobs available to citizens amid economic disruption caused by the pandemic, according to the filing.

Evidence, however, overwhelmingly indicates that suspension of the visa programs will "stifle innovation, hinder growth, and ultimately harm US workers, businesses, and the economy more broadly in irreparable ways," the filing argued.

Rather than safeguarding jobs for US citizens, the proclamation "all but ensures" firms will need to hire abroad essentially moving jobs to other countries, the companies said.

Tech industry competitors in Canada, China, India and other countries are "pouncing on the opportunity" to attract skilled workers being shunned by the US, the filing contended.

"Predictably, other countries are poised to benefit from the US's wholesale suspension of nonimmigrant visas, the filing argued.

"Global competitors are aggressively updating their immigration systems to attract skilled workers."

Others joining the petition included Microsoft, Twitter, Uber and several trade groups for the tech sector including the Information Technology Industry Council.

 2020 AFP
For years, Michael Vorauers main concern was just making wine, including stops at two Pennsylvania wineries: Adams County and Folino Estate in Berks County.

Last year, he and partner Jason Kirkpatrick bought Stargazers Vineyard & Winery in Coatesville, Chester County, fulfilling a lifelong dream. But what he inherited with the purchase was an influx of the spotted lanternfly, which he began seeing on his vines last fall. He said he spent this spring spraying to kill the nymphs.

I compare their activity of movement similar to that of dropping a stone on a smooth very still surface of water. There are multiple ripples or waves generated from the impact, he wrote recently in an email. As the waves move outward from the epicenter, the surrounding areas are affected by these waves. Eventually, the waves subside and the water becomes smooth again. The waves in our scenario represent seasons or years. However; each year, the intensity of the population may increase or decrease depending on how many nymphs survive the elements. I believe they will be worse this year due to the fact it is the first wave in our area.

Those waves are keeping a number of individuals busy again this summer, from winery owners to a collaborative group of researchers and field agents from Penn State, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. PennLive writer Marcus Schneck reported last week that spotted lanternfly sightings in Pennsylvania increased by nearly 500 percent through the end of July, noting that the really heavy reporting period is only arriving now. Those numbers were supplied by the Pa. Dept. of Agriculture and can be attributed as much to the publicity and awareness surrounding them as to their proliferation.

Six years have passed since the first spotted lanternflies, Lycorma delicatula, were detected in eastern Berks County, an invasive pest native to China, India and Vietnam that has invaded several other counties, including the United States. No one knows how different things would have been if it had been found in California or Texas or New York, the three biggest wine-producing states in economic impact.

But what for a couple of years was a problem largely festering in and around Berks County took on more urgency as sightings increased in surrounding areas. By 2018 the state applied a quarantine to 14 Pennsylvania counties, and as of this spring that was widened to 26, largely across the eastern and central parts of the state.

They arent going away anytime soon, says Heather Leach, the spotted lanternfly extension associate working out of Penn State. Eradication would have been nice but that this point I dont think this is possible, she said. Its across 26 counties in Pennsylvania, then also New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and West Virginia. This bug is out there, so just hopefully we can slow that spread.

Leach is part of a collaborative that includes colleagues from Penn State and also from the state and federal departments of agriculture, as a group researching ways to kill these insects to try to lessen the damage they cause while trying to better understand their habits or predictability. While the spotted lanternfly is the latest in a long line of invasive pests that have added more hurdles to those who work the soil for a living, Leach called the lanternfly more challenging than others. Its just a complex bug, she added, one that theyve been hard-pressed to figure out totally. It seems like every time we learn something new about it, kind of gain some predictability about it it breaks those rules and does something completely different or doesnt fit in line with those expectations, and that includes in vineyards.

Indeed, of all the damage the insect causes, its main target appears to be grapevines. We dont see it going after tree fruit as much as we initially anticipated, Leach said, noting a prominent Berks County grower said that whlle the insect didnt bother his apples and peaches, it caused such serious damage to his vineyard that he chose to rip out all 40 acres and switch to something less vulnerable.

Adult spotted lanternflies are identifiable by their bright body and wing colors.Photo courtesy of Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Bugwood.org

Jef Stebben is the winemaker at Maple Spring Vineyard in Bechtelville, Berks County, which has been seeing more lanternfly activity this year. I think we had a bit of a reprieve last year in our vineyard, but I know they were really bad in other places. They definitely have more of a presence and arrived earlier than last year, he said. While it seems rare that they directly kill vines, they definitely open the door for other opportunistic bad things to happen. Stebben said they have killed off many of the bait trees around that were left to draw them away from the vines.

To the east, vineyards supplying grapes for two of New Jerseys top wineries are dealing with their first substantial infestation. Nick Sharko at Alba Vineyard in Milford, Hunterdon County, said that Anne Neilson from Rutgers has been working diligently in our vineyard on some ways to stop them, as we are the front line in NJ. The winery and its expansive vineyard is located only a couple of miles from the Pennsylvania line. As for the seriousness of their presence, I wont really know how bad its going to be until September, he said.

Fifteen miles farther to the east, and located in the same county, is Beneduce Vineyards,

We saw a decent amount of adults toward the end of harvest last season, and with the mild winter were expecting a much larger infestation this year, Mike Beneduce said. So far weve seen a few nymphs in the vineyard blocks closest to the woodline, but my understanding is that they dont cause significant damage during this stage in their life cycle. Its hard to tell what theyll mean for grape growers long term, but my best guess is that it will just be another challenge to add to our already long list. Hopefully. nature will balance itself out at some point and some predators will get a taste for them to help keep their populations in check. In the meantime, were following insecticide recommendations put out by Cornell and Penn State, and keeping in touch with other local growers to find out what works and what doesnt.

What works on a consistent basis is what Leach and her colleagues are trying to figure out, working in concert with regional wineries.

Ben Cody, co-owner of Chester Countys 1723 Vineyards, said his two-year-old winery saw its first spotted lanternflies arrive in 2019 via several tasting room visitors. We have implemented cultural practices such as cutting down all but two of our trees of heaven, which we kept for bait trees, he said. The USDA is coming back to inject them with insecticide. This will be great because we wont need to spray the vines. Well essentially kill them at the source. We also sprayed an insecticide back before bud break that killed the egg masses on the trunks, etc.

All of that seemed to work, he said. In general, I believe its a manageable problem so long as the grower is willing to get on the problem early and leverage the science thats available.

Rich Blair, owner and winemaker of Setter Ridge Vineyards in Berks County, also sounded optimistic about his status. Several years ago, a 9-acre vineyard of largely Pinot Noir grapes he managed was wiped out by the insect, which sucked the sap out of the vines and left them unable to survive the winter. The spotted lanternfly is still around, we see the nymphs, he said. They work the upper parts of the shoots. We just have to prepare for the adults in late August. I believe the lanternfly will be like the jab beetles; they will be here every year but will be under control.

A photo of Setter Ridge winery's Stonehedge vineyard in Berks County This photo of his Pinot Noir vines was taken in fall 2017. Per owner Rich Blair: 'The picture shows a vineyard in distress in mid-September - grapevines should never be red; they go from green to gold in the fall. The distress is caused by the spotted lanternfly sucking the sap out of the shoots. These vines do not have enough strength to make it through the winter.' By the following year, the vines had died and had to be replaced. (Provided)

As the primary battleground and attention remains in eastern Pennsylvania, the wine industry nationally is following closely.

In Maryland, the Department of Agriculture verified an egg hatch in May, and there is a quarantine so commercial entities have to get the training and permits, said Joe Fiola, the University of Maryland extension specialist for viticulture and small fruit. To date, he said, no sightings have been made in any Maryland vineyards. it is a huge POTENTIAL pest, but nothing we are doing actively other than reminding growers to be diligent in scouting and reporting. We have just put together a diverse task force to monitor and address the threat, he said.

Another of the regions grapevine experts is Tony Wolf, an extension specialist at Virginia Tech. Wolf sends out a monthly email thats always packed with information related to vineyard management and conditions affecting it. Weve been giving people a heads up on SLF for the last 2+ years, most recently in an insect update in one of our virtual vineyard meetings, he said. But until its in the vineyards, its a matter of advising people what to look for, to be vigilant and to take some proactive measures with habitat preparation where you can [e.g. tree of heaven eradication].

Meanwhile, other regions watch from afar and learned what they can about any progress being made to control it. Steve Orr of the (Rochester) Democrat & Tribune wrote this thorough piece in April 2019 documenting the worries of Finger Lakes wineries. Said Jayson Harper, a professor of agricultural economics at Penn State who also heads the colleges fruit research center. The reality of it is its going to be hard to contain. Were concerned about it getting into the Finger Lakes.

In California, which makes around 85 percent of the wine produced in this country, the threat hit closer to home this spring when agricultural inspectors found several dead lanternflies on cargo planes in Sacramento, Stockton and Ontario and a live one was reportedly seen on a hotel wall in September 2019. These developments were covered in a Sacramento Bee article that appeared under the headline: Rampaging insect shows up in California, alarming farmers. Like the coronavirus

Dustin Hooper is the VP of Sales for Wonderful Nurseries, the largest grapevine nursery in North America that also sells almond, pistachio and pomegranate trees. Its located near Bakersfield. Earlier this summer he said that members of his nursery staff had attended a webinar on the spotted lanternfly as a way to learn as much as they can about something that can devastate crops like this insect can.

His awareness was echoed by John Duarte, who runs the largest permanent crops nursery in the country out of its location in Californias Central Valley. Duarte referenced the spotted lanternfly among other plant issues when he said that the disease and exotic pest issues were seeing today are to me unprecedented.

Beyond enforcing the quarantine, the Pa Department of Agricultures strategy includes surveying statewide, responding to reports of the insect and treating high-traffic areas which pose the greatest risk for spreading the insect; funding key research; and doing outreach to the general public, the agriculture and transportation industries and others to raise awareness of the threat the insect poses to agriculture and our economy and how to recognize Spotted Lanternfly and help prevent its spread. The strategy, said spokeswoman Shannon Powers, was formulated in consultation with research scientists in the US and abroad, local, state and federal officials, and experts from various agriculture industry sectors, and was informed by previous efforts to control invasive species.

Teams of PA Dept. of Agriculture and USDA field inspectors follow up on every report in newly quarantined counties and outside the quarantine, she added, treating confirmed sightings as appropriate.

The total count for 2019 was 90,592, and 2020s count already has nearly topped 44,000 by the beginning of August. The public, as it has for the past couple of years, is asked to report sightings through the Penn State Extension website or the spotted lanternfly toll-free hotline at 888-422-3359.

Nimble Hill Vineyard & Winery in Tunkhannock, Wyoming County, is one of those wineries still on the periphery of the spotted lanternfly movement, left to monitor and remain vigilant. There is great concern that the spotted lanternfly will get to us next year, said Jeff Zick, who has spent several years as the vineyard manager there. For a time, he held a similar role at Waltz Vineyards Estate Winery in Lancaster County.

They have been found in Luzerne County, just to our south, so it is just a matter of time before they are here. I dont think these are similar to SWD (spotted wing drosophila) Japanese beetles, grape berry moth or stink bugs. Those are pests that come into your property, do damage that is manageable, you spray it, they die and you move on, he said. What I am hearing and what I have seen in SE PA is in some areas a total loss. We cant afford that, I dont know how anyone can. They are feeding on vines, weakening them, and making them more vulnerable to winter injury and disease. We are growing vinifiera in a marginal climate, all it takes is a cold freeze, spring frost, or in this case spotted lanternfly to ruin our season, or perhaps ruin us for good.

--

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By Express News Service

BENGALURU: The State government has certified the Bannerghatta National Park to be safe for public visit amid the Covid-19 pandemic, said park authorities. In a statement, the BBP said the Directorate of Health & Family Welfare department issued a compliance certificate to the BBP to mark the park as safe. The department has however set standard safety protocols for the public.

Only 4,400 visitors would be allowed in a day, and they should get tickets online. The visitors will be screened at entry points for temperature using a hand-held thermal scanner, the statement said, adding that hand-sanitiser and hand-washing facilities were already in place at the entrance among other places.

A team from the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare Services, Bengaluru, conducted an evaluation of BBP recently and issued a certificate of Covid-19 compliance, BBP said in the statement. The park was closed for public from March 14 after the State government announced lockdown and it reopened in the first week of June. However, people feared to visit the park over the fear of Covid-29.

On July 14, BBP, based on a government order, announced that the park would again close for a week until July 22, following which, all the sections under the BBP -- the zoo, safari and the Butterfly Park were closed for the public. BBP authorities hope that the governments compliance certificate now would see more people visiting the park.
Parts of Delhi recorded light rain and thunder on Sunday afternoon. The Regional Meteorological Centre of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said rain is likely to increase on Monday and Tuesday, and the city can expect a few intense spells.

Delhi, as on Sunday, had a monsoon deficiency of 33% since June 1. But this number is likely to fall by Monday evening. The monsoon trough (line of low pressure) is passing over Delhi and a low-pressure area has developed over Bay of Bengal, together creating favourable conditions for moderate to heavy rain in northwest India.

The monsoon trough is passing along Ferozepur, Delhi and Fursatganj towards the Bay of Bengal. During the next two days, southwesterly winds from the Arabian Sea and easterly winds from the Bay of Bengal will reach Haryana, Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region) and west UP in lower levels. There can be a few intense rain spells too, said Kuldeep Shrivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre.

Parts of Uttarakhand have already recorded extremely heavy rain (over 20cm) since Saturday evening.

A low-pressure area is lying over northwest Bay of Bengal off north Odisha-Gangetic West Bengal coasts. A trough is also running from southeast Rajasthan to cyclonic circulation associated with low pressure over northwest Bay of Bengal off north Odisha-Gangetic West Bengal coasts at 3.1 km above mean sea level. The monsoon trough is active and its western end lies north of its normal position and eastern end is south of its normal position, IMD said in its Sunday bulletin.

Under its influence, heavy to extremely rain is likely to continue over Kerala and Mahe, coastal and south interior Karnataka on Monday; heavy to very heavy rain is likely over Odisha , Chhattisgarh, Vidharbha, Telangana, coastal Andhra Pradesh and east Madhya Pradesh. Rainfall activity over northwest India is likely to increase from Sunday onwards with heavy to very heavy rain likely over Western Himalayan region and adjoining northern plains till August 12.

Moderate to severe thunderstorm with lightning is likely over Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, east Rajasthan, Bihar and Jharkhand, with lightning and gusty wind (of speeds between 30-40kmph) in some areas of west Rajasthan during the next 24 hours.

The low-pressure area is over north Odisha coast. We are not expecting extremely heavy rains in Konkan and Gujarat like last time. But we have issued a heavy to very heavy rain warning for northwest India, particularly for Uttarakhand, south Haryana and west UP. There may be extremely heavy rains in Kerala, coastal and south interior Karnataka for another day, said RK Jenamani, senior scientist, national weather forecasting centre.

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A toddler was found dead in a hot car in Franklin County on Sunday, and his parents could now face up to 20 years in prison.

Bentley Fowler, a 3-year-old boy, was declared dead in a car on Church Street in the tiny northwest Alabama town of Hodges on Sunday around 4 p.m., according to the Franklin County sheriffs office.

Fowler is the 15th child to die in a hot car in the United States this year, according to KidsAndCars.org, a national nonprofit child safety organization.

The boys parents, Dakota Heath Fowler, 20, and Brandi Michelle Burks, 22, were arrested on manslaughter charges, according to the sheriffs office. The parents are held in the Franklin County jail without bail set, records show.

The boys body has been sent for autopsy at the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for autopsy. The investigation is continuing, but the sheriff said he believes the boy died as a result of being left in a hot car.

According to the parents, the child was last seen around midnight when they put him to bed, the sheriff said in the press release. The parents woke up around 3 p.m. and found the child in a car, according to the sheriff.

In a phone interview with AL.com, Oliver said he believes the boys death was a tragic accident.

I dont feel there was any intent there, he said. I think it was neglect, which sadly cost the little guys life.

Its just a sad situation all around, the sheriff added. These types of cases are really hard for everybody.

Its unclear whether the parents have attorneys to speak on their behalf. If convicted of manslaughter, they could face up to 20 years in prison.

Alabama ranks No.12 in the nation based on the number of child hot car deaths with 27 fatalities since 1995, according to KidsAndCars. The organization provides safety tips for parents on its website.

This story was updated at 4:40 p.m.
A theatre has made an appeal for items with a connection to a loved ones killed in Northern Irelands troubled past.

The Playhouse in Derry has made the request to the public ahead of one of the first productions it will stage following lockdown.

Theatres in Northern Ireland have been allowed to reopen to allow staff to prepare ahead of September 1, when audiences will be allowed to return.

The Playhouse Theatre in Londonderry (Playhouse Theatre/PA)

However with the size of audiences limited by the requirement to social distance, the Playhouse intends to go digital and share productions with a global online audience.

It will stage a new production, Anything Can Happen: 1972, focusing on the worst year of the Troubles.

That year saw almost 500 killings, 10,000 shootings, 2,000 explosions and almost 5,000 people physically injured.

Poet Damian Gorman wrote Anything Can Happen, which includes untold stories from people affected by or involved in the events of that year.

With an audience of just 20 to 30 people able to watch the new production, the Playhouse has issued an appeal for the public to contribute significant items that connect them to loved ones who were killed in the Troubles or the pandemic, to be placed on the empty chairs of the theatre.

Poet Damian Gorman (Playhouse Theatre/PA)

These can be objects or photographs of significance or importance to them, to be placed on the 130 empty chairs in the theatre.

In a statement the Playhouse said the empty chairs will be lit by theatre lights in an act echoing Seamus Heaneys famous work Mossbawn: Two Poems In Dedication, in which he describes a sunlit absence.

Gorman said: The empty chair is a very powerful symbol of loss and grief. Somebody defined grief to me as love which has nowhere to go.

Rather than having all these empty chairs that would be housing absence, we would be housing something of significance.

If all of that makes sense to you, please get in touch with us here at the Playhouse.

From next month, The Playhouse will begin a programme of live performances inside the theatre that will also be broadcast live online, across the world via its newly installed live broadcasting infrastructure.

The new season will begin on August 28 with Proud To Be, an innovative new play created in lockdown by the poet and performer Mel Bradley and director Kieran Smyth. Proud To Be explores the diverse experiences of the LGBTQ+ community.
The book (Photo: VNA)

The book, which has nearly 200 pages with many vivid illustrations of a modern and innovative Vietnam, was written after the authors field trip to Vietnam.



In the front page of the book, the author states that the book was published on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the signing of the treaty on fundamental principles of friendship between Vietnam and Russia, and the 70th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic ties.

Vietnam News Agency reported that the author leads readers to a Vietnam strongly integrating into the world, and acting responsibly and contributing to ensuring regional peace and stability.

Russian readers will gain insight into Vietnamese traditional art, cuisine and culture reading the book.

The book will also contribute to improving mutual understanding between the Vietnamese and Russian peoples, and deepening the friendship between the two countries./.
A former Defence Force boss says the $500 million set aside for expanding the Australian War Memorial should be spent on veterans mental health rather than amusing tourists.

But Prime Minister Scott Morrison says "not one cent" of the half-a-billion dollar expansion of the Canberra site comes at the expense of support for veterans.

Former Australian War Memorial boss Brendan Nelson and Prime Minister Scott Morrison have defended the $500 million expansion of the national monument. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Former Defence Force chief Admiral Chris Barrie sees Australias monument to war dead as unique in its modest nature, a contrast to "the plethora of museums that glorify war and its heroes" around the world.

"I regret the recent trend that seems to have taken a turn towards the view that our place of national commemoration should be turned into a museum that is a place of entertainment to amuse tourists where nothing should be overlooked in telling stories about war or peacekeeping," the Vietnam War veteran wrote in a submission to a parliamentary committee examining the proposed expansion.
European stocks ended the day cautiously higher on Monday, brushing off tensions between the U.S. and China that hit technology stocks.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 pared some of its earlier gains to provisionally close up 0.2%. France's CAC 40 ended the day provisionally 0.3% higher, as did the U.K.'s FTSE 100. Spain's Ibex was the best performer of the major indexes, closing 1.7% in the green. Germany's DAX ended the day flat.

Banks added almost 2% to lead gains on the back of some positive data from China which bolstered hopes of economic recovery, while tech stocks dropped 1.6% amid a fraying of relations between Washington and Beijing.

Asian stocks were mostly higher Monday after data showed Chinese factory deflation slowing in July. However, gains were capped by simmering Sino-U.S. tensions after President Donald Trump issued executive orders last week that are set to ban American use of WeChat and TikTok, taking effect from the middle of next month.
Chennai:

Tamil actor Gautami Tadimalla has written a blogpost addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi where she has raised questions about the "secrecy" maintained by the Tamil Nadu government during the treatment of its late chief minister Jayalalithaa.

The 48-year-old star questioned why nobody was allowed access to her when she was admitted in the hospital. Jayalalithaa died on December 5 at the age of 68 following cardiac arrest.

She was admitted to Apollo Hospital on September 22, here after she complained of fever and dehydration. "Her demise is all the more tragic and unsettling because of the circumstances over the past few months and the sheer volume of unanswered questions about our late Chief Minister's hospitalisation, treatment, reported recovery and very sudden passing.

"There has been a near total blanketing of information regarding these matters. Nobody had been allowed access to her and many dignitaries who visited her with deep concern were denied an opportunity to convey their wishes in person. Why this secrecy and isolation of a beloved public leader and the head of the Tamil Nadu government?

What/whose authority restricted access to the late Chief Minister?," she wrote. Gautami said she would like to know the people who were taking all the decisions regarding Jayalalithaa's treatment. The actor said it's the right of every Indian citizen to know about their democratically elected leaders.

"Who were the concerned persons who were making the decisions about Selvi Dr J Jayalalithaa ji's treatment and care when her health was apparently in such a delicate state? And who is responsible for these answers to the people?

These and many other burning questions are being asked by the people of Tamil Nadu and I echo their voice in bringing them to your ears, sir." Gautami was recently in news for her separation from live-in partner, actor Kamal Haasan.

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3 Stranded Mariners Rescued After Spelling Out 'SOS' in Sand of Tiny, Uninhabited Island

The men spent four days on the remote Pacific island before they were rescued by search teams

Three missing mariners were rescued from a tiny, uninhabited Pacific island on Tuesday thanks to an "SOS" message they wrote in the sand, authorities said.

Guardsmen from the 203rd Air Refueling Squadron, Hawaii Air National Guard (ANG) and the 171st Air Refueling Wing, Pennsylvania National Guard found the men on the tiny island of Pikelot, Yap after they failed to show up to their intended destination on July 29, according to a press release from the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam.

The search teams were able to locate the mariners due to an "SOS" message that they had written in the sand of the remote island in the Federated States of Micronesia, southwest of Guam.

"We were toward the end of our search pattern," U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Jason Palmeira-Yen, the KC-135 pilot, said in a statement. "We turned to avoid some rain showers and thats when we looked down and saw an island, so we decide to check it out and thats when we saw SOS and a boat right next to it on the beach."

Australia Department of Defence The remote island

RELATED: 3 Men, Stranded on Pacific Island for Days, Rescued After Spelling Out 'HELP' in Leaves on the Beach

According to authorities, the men first departed from Puluwat Atoll on their 23-foot white and blue skiff boat on July 29.

Though they intended to travel to Pulap, Chuuk, which was approximately 21 nautical miles away, they never made it and were soon reported missing, according to the press release.

"Joint Rescue Sub-Center Guam received notification of an overdue skiff last seen in the vicinity of Chuuk and requested our assistance" U.S. Air Force Maj. Shaun McRoberts, 506th Air Expeditionary Aerial Refueling Squadron assistant director of operations, said in a statement. "Once notified, we began immediately working a plan to launch crews to locate the missing vessel."

Story continues

Australia Department of Defence "SOS" message in the sand of the island

Crews searched for three hours, flying at about 1,500 feet above land and sea, before noticing the "SOS" message in the sand.

"From there we called in the Australian Navy because they had two helicopters nearby that could assist and land on the island," Palmeira-Yen recalled.

Over the next few days, the mariners patiently waited on the island as officials organized the rescue mission, confirmed the men's identities, ensured they had no major injuries, and limited their exposure or contact due to the coronavirus, CNN reported.

In the meantime, the men were delivered supplies by a helicopter crew from the Royal Australian Navy ship HMAS Canberra and given radio and message blocks notifying them that the FSS Independence was en-route to return them home, according to the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam.

Finally, at 12 a.m. local time on Aug. 3, the FSS Independence and its small boat crew arrived on the remote island to rescue the mariners, officials said.

RELATED VIDEO: 3 People Rescued On Boat Near Puerto Rico After Treacherous Hurricane Maria

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U.S. & U.K. Join Forces To Rescue People Stranded On Vessel Near Puerto Rico

"Partnerships," U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Christopher Chase, Coast Guard Sector Guam, commander, said in a statement. "This is what made this search and rescue case successful. Through coordination with multiple response organizations, we were able to save three members of our community and bring them back home to their families."

In his own statement, Capt. Terry Morrison, the commander of the Canberra, also praised his crew for their efforts and saving the mariners' lives.

"I am proud of the response and professionalism of all on board as we fulfill our obligation to contribute to the safety of life at sea wherever we are in the world," he said, according to CNN.
New Delhi:

Government on Friday withdrew the exemptions it had given to people after demonetisation. On December 8, it announced that the deadline for use of old Rs 500 notes for purchasing railway, Metro and bus tickets is December 10. A day after, government shortened the deadline for same to December 9 midnight.

Narendra Modi-led government had earlier allowed the use of demonetised notes towards payment of utility bills, buying petrol, mobile recharge and others after it announced scrapping of old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.

Since then the deadline has been extended twice. The government has been continuously reviewing the policy by granting exemptions to make it easier for citizens major heavy cash crunch.

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A theatre has made an appeal for items with a connection to loved ones killed in the Troubles.

The Playhouse in Londonderry has made the request to the public ahead of one of the first productions it will stage following lockdown.

Theatres in Northern Ireland have been allowed to reopen to allow staff to prepare ahead of September 1, when audiences will be allowed to return.

However, with the size of audiences limited by the requirement to social distance, the Playhouse intends to go digital and share productions with a global online audience.

It will stage a new production, Anything Can Happen: 1972, focusing on the worst year of the Troubles. That year saw almost 500 killings, 10,000 shootings, 2,000 explosions and almost 5,000 people physically injured.

Poet Damian Gorman wrote Anything Can Happen, which includes untold stories from people affected by or involved in the events of that year.

With an audience of just 20 to 30 people able to watch the new production, the Playhouse has issued an appeal for the public to contribute significant items that connect them to loved ones who were killed in the Troubles or died in the pandemic, to be placed on the empty chairs of the theatre. These can be objects or photographs of significance or importance to them, to be placed on the 130 empty chairs in the theatre.

In a statement the Playhouse said the empty chairs will be lit by theatre lights in an act echoing Seamus Heaney's famous work Mossbawn: Two Poems In Dedication, in which he describes "a sunlit absence".

Gorman said: "The empty chair is a very powerful symbol of loss and grief. Somebody defined grief to me as 'love which has nowhere to go'.

"Rather than having all these empty chairs that would be housing absence, we would be housing something of significance. If all of that makes sense to you, please get in touch with us here at the Playhouse."
Liam Hemsworth and Gabriella Brooks have taken their relationship to the next level, adopting a puppy together.

The couple stepped out in Byron Bay with their new addition last Thursday, and looked smitten with the adorable French Bulldog pup.

The 30-year-old actor and his model girlfriend visited some local boutiques together, with Liam emerging from one shop with his arms full of folded clothes.

New addition: Liam Hemsworth and Gabriella Brooks have taken their relationship to the next level, adopting a puppy together

Gabriella, 24, also seemed to have found a few items, with a paper shopping bag sitting on one of her shoulders.

The couple seemed in high spirits, chatting and laughing as they waited to cross the street together.

Later, Gabriella visited a food market alone, as Liam waited patiently in the car with their adorable puppy.

Puppy love: The couple stepped out in Byron Bay with their new addition last Thursday, and seemed smitten with the adorable French Bulldog pup

Hitting the shops: The 30-year-old actor and his model girlfriend visited some local boutiques together, with Liam emerging from one shop with his arms full of folded clothes

She was seen carrying a small brown takeaway bag and a container with a condiment as she walked down the street.

Meanwhile, Liam sat in the car with the puppy on his lap, sweetly peering out the window as they waited for her to return.

Both Liam and Gabriella were dressed casually for the outing, with the Isn't It Romantic actor stepping out in a pair of navy blue shorts and a grey T-shirt.

Making a purchase: Gabriella, 24, also seemed to have found a few items, with a paper shopping bag sitting on one of her shoulders

Back to black: Gabriella showed off her slim figure in a black miniskirt, which she paired with a black singlet top and black Nike sneakers

He also wore a pair of black and white check sneakers and brown tortoiseshell sunglasses.

Meanwhile, Gabriella showed off her slim figure in a black miniskirt, which she paired with a black singlet top and black Nike sneakers.

Her long light brown hair was worn loose, and she appeared fresh-faced.

Grabbing a bite: Later, Gabriella visited a food market alone, as Liam waited patiently in the car with their adorable puppy

The stunning model was spotted happily chatting with a sales assistant in a clothing store, before walking out with a shopping bag.

Liam previously owned a series of pets with his ex-wife Miley Cyrus, with the former couple announcing they were still 'dedicated' to their animals following their split in August last year.

'They still remain dedicated parents to all of their animals they share while lovingly taking this time apart,' they said in a statement at the time.

True love: According to a report by People in January, Liam's relationship with Gabriella was 'serious' from early on

Liam and Gabriella were first spotted together in mid-December, when they went out for lunch in Byron Bay with the actor's parents, Craig and Leonie.

It's the second relationship for Liam since he split from Miley, 27, last year, after less than eight months of marriage.

In October, he was spotted kissing Australian actress Maddison Brown, 23, in New York, but their relationship proved to be short-lived.

'They have spent a lot of time in Australia together,' a source told People. 'Gabriella has met Liam's siblings and his parents'

Too cute: Liam sat in the car with the puppy on his lap, sweetly peering out the window as they waited for her to return

'He feels more at home with Gabriella than he did with Miley and feels like he can be his complete self without any drama,' a source told Us Weekly in March.

They added: 'Gabriella helped Liam boost his confidence and played an encouraging role in his life after his split with Miley.

'They are very happy together and it's comfortable and easy.'

Amiable: The stunning model was spotted happily chatting with a sales assistant in a clothing store, before walking out with a shopping bag

According to a report by People in January, Liam's relationship with Gabriella was 'serious' from early on.

'They have spent a lot of time in Australia together,' said a source.

They added: 'Gabriella has met Liam's siblings and his parents.'

Dog dad: Liam previously owned a series of pets with his ex-wife Miley Cyrus, with the former couple announcing they were still 'dedicated' to their animals following their split

The couple reportedly share many of the same interests, and Liam has apparently 'been in a great mood' since hooking up with the model at the end of last year.

According to a report by Us Weekly in December, the Hunger Games star was 'happy to be moving on' following his turbulent split from Miley.

'Liam feels comfortable with Gabriella. His family approves of her and really likes her, which is very important to him,' a source told the publication at the time.
After being relocated from a neighborhood in League City, the newest resident of Gator Country in Beaumont is adjusting well to its new home, staff at the wildlife rescue say.

The nearly 12-foot alligator named LC by Gator Country staff was captured two weeks ago by gator wranglers and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department staff after a League City father noticed the animal was getting uncomfortably close to his children and their babysitter.

Seven people subdued the alligator and it was delivered to Gator Country, where it will be permanently housed.

Gary Saurage, owner of Gator Country, said LC has already started to become accustomed to the centers routine and seemed comfortable in its new pond.

Its doing what most wild gators do, which is good to see, he said. Its pretty stressful for them to be moved like that, so we put them in the pond and they hang out in the back for a while until they start learning to come up to the water when they are getting fed.

LC was quick to catch on to associating people with meal time, which could be a sign of why it is residing at Gator County now.

Saurage said there was no question that the alligator had been fed by humans at some point.

Andrew Grande, the father who first spotted the animal near his League City home, had the same feeling when he saw it inching closer to his family.

Alligators are common in this area but this was different. They never come to us like that, Grande said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle.

The alligators behavior convinced TPWD officials that LC couldnt be safely returned to the wild.

The reptiles size was concerning to homeowners in the neighborhood where it was captured, but LC isnt the biggest gator in town.

Saurage said LC is probably between 20th or 25th largest gator at the rescue, dwarfed by the parks almost 14-foot behemoth, Big Tex.

The gator is now in the company of more than 600 others, most of which came to be rescued under similar circumstances.

Saurage said taking an alligator out of the wild is always a difficult decision to make, but it is often the safest choice for both people and the animal once an incident happens.

We dont enjoy taking them from their habitat and we never want to do it, he said. (TPWD) didnt ask for it to be moved because they wanted it either. At that point, if it is the last choice, we take it.

Two alligator-related fatalities have been recorded in Texas in the past 200 years: one in the Trinity Bay in 1836 and another in Orange County during the summer of 2015.

While the number of human deaths from encounters with alligators has remained relatively low in Texas and the United States, the same cant be said for the reptiles.

Saurage said a number of Gator Countrys residents have scars from gunshots or other weapon wounds.

Thats why parks and wildlife will be on alert if they know a gator has been seen in a public place, he said. Nine out of 10 times, it ends with the animal being hurt.

Houston Chronicle staff writer Marcy de Luna contributed to this report.

jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/jd_journalism
Attorney General William Barr claimed that Black Lives Matter protesters have inundated US cities with a new form of 'urban guerrilla warfare' because of a 'lust for power' and desire for a 'progressive utopia.'

Tensions between Republicans and Democrats ratcheted up significantly in recent months as the United States, still overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases, was hit with a swath of protests ahead of the November presidential election.

Politicians on both sides of the aisles have hurled blame on each other for the civil unrest from dissatisfied Americans disillusioned by law enforcement and the federal government.

But on Sunday AG Barr leveled fresh attacks at Black Lives Matter protests and Democrats in an interview on Fox News' Life, Liberty & Levin.

Attorney General William Barr (pictured) once again criticized the Black Lives Matter movement and Democrats in an interview on Fox News' Life, Liberty & Levin on Sunday

Barr, who has a history of denouncing Black Lives Matter protests, claimed the movement is comprised of 'Bolsheviks,' with a focus on 'some form of socialism, communism.'

'They are a revolutionary group that is interested in some form of socialism, communism. They're essentially Bolsheviks. Their tactics are fascistic.' said Barr.

He added that he believed the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests are a 'new form of urban guerrilla warfare.'

'The way the guerrilla...hides out among the people as a fish in the ocean...what they do is they are essentially shielding themselves or shrouding themselves in First Amendment activity,' said Barr.

'They go into the demonstrations, which are exercising First Amendment activity, and they insinuate themselves in there to shield themselves.

'That's where they swim. And what they do is they hijack these demonstrations and they provoke violence.'

Barr (pictured): 'They go into the demonstrations, which are exercising First Amendment activity, and they insinuate themselves in there to shield themselves'

Black Lives Matter demonstrations began in May after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Black Lives Matter and anti-police protests first sparked three months ago when George Floyd, a unarmed father-of-five, died in police custody after ex-Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Cell phone footage of the incident was shared to social media, where it sparked outrage and prompted a reckoning against law enforcement for brutality, as well as racial inequality.

Since then, a number of police departments have seen their budgets defunded and the Minneapolis Police Department full out abolished.

Barr told Fox News that the group's liberal leanings are parallel to the Democratic Party's supposed far-left shift in recent years.

Pictured: People gather to protest in front of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland as the city experiences another night of unrest in Portland, Oregon

Pictured: An officer with the Minnesota State Patrol kicks a tear gas canister toward protesters near the 5th Precinct Police Station

'The left has pulled away from the umbrella of classical liberal values that have undergirded' the United States and made a 'secular religion' out of seeking 'complete political victory.'

According to Barr, this alleged shift began after President Trump was elected into office in 2016.

'And from that point forward, there's been the resistance,' said Barr,' who added that power has become a 'secular religion of the left.'

'They were trying to impeach him from Day One. They have done everything they can..and I think it's because of the desire for power that the left wants.'

'They want to run people's lives so they can design utopia for all of us...and it's the lust for power. And they weren't expecting Trump's victory. And it outrages them.'

Later in the interview, Barr lashed out at the media for 'projecting a narrative' and allegedly lying to the American people about what's really happening.

'You don't see it on the networks. You don't see it on the other cable stations. And yet you hear about these peaceful demonstrators.' said Barr.

'So it's you know, it's just it's a lie. The American people are being told a lie by the media.'

Barr (pictured) also lashed out at the media for allegedly lying to Americans about the severity of protests

To Barr, the media institution has become 'extremely monolithic...and it's wedded in many ways to the Democratic Party.'

This echoes a previous statement from President Trump in July, when he blamed the 'Lamestream Media' in a tweet.

'The Lamestream Media, including Fox News, which has really checked out, is refusing to show what is REALLY going on in Portland, Seattle, and other places,' the president wrote.

'They want the American public to believe that these are just some wonderful protesters, not radical left ANARCHISTS!'

Both Barr and Trump have shown a preference for heavy-handed, militarized responses to Black Lives Matter protests.

AG Barr (far left) and President Trump (right) were criticized in July when peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square were cleared out with tear gas and alleged less-lethal munitions for an apparent photo-op

They were criticized for Trump's notorious St. John church photo-op where peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square were cleared out with tear gas and alleged less-lethal munitions.

While Barr as accused Black Lives Matter supporters of inciting violence, several others have accused the Trump administration of intentionally dividing Americans during this time of crisis.

Melina Abdullah, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles chapter and a Pan-African studies professor at California State University, called Trump hypocritical for calling a Black Lives Matter mural a 'symbol of hate.'

'I think its the height of hypocrisy for Donald Trump to call anything a symbol of hate,' said Abdullah, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles chapter and a Pan-African studies professor at California State University.

'He is the embodiment of hate, and for him to say that affirming the value of black life is somehow hate, again, reminds us of who he is.'

Melina Abdullah (right) on Thursday appeared on CNN to criticize President Trump over his response to Black Lives Matter

In response to claims that Trump is stoking the flames of both political and racial divide with harmful rhetoric, Abdullah pointed to white supremacy.

'I think we need to remember who he is. That Donald Trump is the embodiment of white supremacist terrorism.'

Abdullah said the polarization and instances of police brutality against minorities rested squarely on Trump's shoulders.

'So its really important to understand what Donald Trump has done to this country, and where hes chosen to align himself,' she said.

'So for him, again, to call anything hate is really the height of hypocrisy and we need as a country to be willing to point to him and say that he is actually the terrorist in chief.'
Foxx could not explain why her office has pursued far fewer escape cases than under Alvarez. We dont have an official policy on escape and so I dont have an answer for you as to why that number would be different, other than, again, were asking our people to be able to proceed on cases where the facts, the law and the evidence support it.
A campaign taking aim at a proposed noise bylaw in the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake is creating quite a stir online.

The video message, featuring Niagara-on-the-Lake comedian Joe Pillitteri, highlights some of the proposed restrictions outlined in the proposed bylaw  including no playing of musical instruments outdoors after 10 p.m. and no yelling, shouting, hooting, whistling or singing after 9 p.m.  which Pillitteri says will have a detrimental effect not only on area businesses but also on the way of life that currently exists in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

It would eliminate things like music on a patio, live concerts outdoors  outdoor comedy shows. Who wants to stop this world from having outdoor comedy shows? he asks, when referring to the part of the bylaw that prohibits noise louder than 55 decibels any time between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.

This means if youre yelling Happy birthday! to your grandmother in your backyard after 9 p.m., youve broken this bylaw as proposed, explained Pillitteri in the video.

Speaking to Niagara This Week, the business owner said if this bylaw is approved as is, it would significantly affect day-to-day life in Niagara-on-the-Lake, not to mention impact many businesses in the tourism industry.

Its pretty dystopian as far as Im concerned, he said. It would mean the end of live music in town, no music on patios  so many other things would be affected.

The video was his way of raising the alarm so people knew it was coming down the pipeline for council to consider.

Its a reminder to anyone whos involved in the political process at any time: if youre not aware of whats being proposed or whats on the radar sometimes, it just gets passed or becomes a part of your life without you even knowing its an issue, he said. This is an awareness-raising campaign and to that end, I think its done its job.

The petition, posted online Tuesday evening, had more than 1,500 signatures within 24 hours. By Friday morning, it was closing in on 6,000  with some prominent Canadian musicians lending their support, including Alan Doyle, Steven Page (formerly of the Barenaked Ladies) and Dan Mangan.

The past few months (have) been a tough time for artists as much as anyone else, said Pillitteri. Between artists and businesses, as well as citizens who will be affected by this bylaw, weve had a lot of support.

Lord Mayor Betty Disero said an update to the towns current noise bylaw has been in the works since the last term of council, when proposed updates were deemed too ambiguous and they were deferred so public consultation could be done.

At the start of this term of council, deputy Lord Mayor Clare Cameron, along with Coun. Erwin Wiens, embarked on some informal meetings to gather input for staff to be used in drafting a new bylaw. Cameron said the group included members of the public, business stakeholders and a number of residents on a list Disero provided.

The feedback was wide-ranging, said Cameron.

This desire to get rules for managing noise that would be practical, reasonable and fair  that message kept coming out, even back then, she said.

A public meeting, overseen by the town clerk, was to be held in March, but that was pushed back due to COVID-19 concerns and instead happened July 9.

The draft bylaw Pillitteri and others are speaking out against was prepared by town staff in advance of the public meeting.

That draft has never gone to council yet for councils input, said Cameron, noting staff was to gather all of the communitys comments from the public meeting and incorporate those notes before it was brought before council. A date has yet to be set for the proposed bylaw to come before council.

At any time, anyone who is concerned about what they see in that draft is encouraged to share those concerns with the town, she said.

The comments shes hearing from Pillitteri and others who have reached out since the video has gone live are really full circle to what they heard last summer during the informal public consultations, she said.

Its that any rules around noise in Niagara-on-the-Lake have to be reasonable, practical and fair. Even if we end up sticking with our current bylaw, the issue is providing effective enforcement, she said.

Pillitteri said enforcement of the current noise bylaw is what people would like to see happen.

The existing bylaws are supposed to address people being bad neighbours, he said. Theres no need to rewrite how we live our lives to address the behaviour of bad neighbours.

Del Rollo, vice-president of industry and government relations at Arterra Wines Canada  who is responsible for Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate  said he was on hand not just for the informal feedback sessions held last year, but the July 9 public meeting as well. While he knew there had been some residents pushing for a hard line on noise enforcement, he was still surprised when he read the draft bylaw.

Its been an ongoing conversation for a couple of years. The draft proposed bylaw came out and I thought, Oh my God, it shuts it all down. I mean, kids on playgrounds wouldnt even be able to make noise, he said. Its detrimental to many of the businesses in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Jackson-Triggs has been hosting an outdoor concert series at its amphitheatre for nearly 20 years, and Rollo said the proposed bylaw, if approved as written, would put an end to that.

The venue is also used to raise a lot of funds for various philanthropic efforts, from a long-standing partnership with War Child Canada to one-off events in support of the Terry Fox Foundation.

In fact, Pillitteri said, the businesses who would be most affected by the bylaw  restaurants, wineries and breweries  are often the most giving when it comes to fundraising events.

Theyve helped us raise half a million dollars for important causes, he said, referring to the Terry Fox Run and the Niagara Community Foundation.

Without those types of events, you cant raise money, said Rollo.

Rollo said that since Pillitteris video went live, hes heard a lot of support for the concert series and live music in general.

Ive always known that there is a silent majority of people who love the space. Its too bad that we had to go to the lengths of having a petition to ensure the town understands there is broad-ranging support for this. But its also rewarding in a way, because it validates what weve been saying: that tourism and events and live music and celebration is something that the majority of Niagara-on-the-Lake believes is needed and celebrated. Its good to see, he said.

Disero said shes heard from a lot of residents in recent days with concerns over the bylaw, as written.

Im not sure which portions of (the) bylaw came from those public engagement sessions, or elsewhere, she said. Theres been a lot of discussion. A lot of people are upset with it. It may be too overwhelming, for sure. I dont support it. I think what we need to do is something  a little more comprehensive.

She said its important for council to consider where the town is going and what it is they want. If, in fact, they do want special events  which she says she does  then council needs to find a way to encourage them and work with people that run special events rather than trying to tie their hands.

Thats where Im coming from, and Ive had discussion with our staff about them ... I dont believe the noise bylaw is going to see the light of day, she said.

Her focus, she said, is on council developing a town tourism strategy and looking at its short-, medium- and long-term plans. It may mean tightening up the existing noise bylaw before trying to reinvent the wheel.

Cameron said the town may simply need a clear enforcement regime, but noted its a challenge in any community.

A small municipality like Niagara-on-the-Lake does not have a large bylaw enforcement staff, and they dont often work during the evening, when a lot of noise complaints happen. Instead, residents are left to call the police, who may not be able to respond in a timely manner to noise complaints.

Including a decibel level cut-off had been suggested by some people, she said, as a way of drawing a line in the sand.

A way of trying to quantify what is an acceptable level of noise and what isnt. Of course, all of that has to be put into the balance of: what does normal life look like in Niagara-on-the-Lake? What does enjoyable life look like in Niagara-on-the-Lake? For most people, at some point in their lives, its probably going to involve making noise, she said.

As for the feedback coming out now, Cameron said, its more than welcome. She just hopes those signing the petition and expressing their concerns over the bylaw online will follow up and send a message to council (council@notl.com) so it can be counted as part of the public record.

If content people, with positive ideas, dont step forward, than the space will be taken up by people that have more extreme views  she said. If you think noise is being managed effectively in NOTL and its OK, then you need to come forward and express that.
Police clash with protesters for a second evening as President Alexander Lukashenko declares victory in disputed polls.

The main challenger in Belaruss disputed election has called on President Alexander Lukashenko to cede power as police clashed with protesters in the capital Minsk and other cities for the second evening in a row.

Police were seen dragging protesters out of a crowd and beating them with truncheons on Monday. More than 30 people were arrested, according to the Reuters news agency.

I want changes in my country. I am sick and tired. The Lukashenko dictatorship must be cancelled, a male protester told Al Jazeera correspondent Step Vaessen in Minsk.

I want [to] live in a free country, I want my children to live in a free country. I want them to have a future, said another protester.

I consider myself the winner

Meanwhile, Lukashenkos main challenger, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, said she would not join the demonstrations to avoid any provocation to the protesters.

Tikhanovskaya, whose surprise candidacy posed the biggest challenge to the veteran leader in years, said Sundays presidential vote had been rigged and accused authorities of resorting to force to cling to power.

The voters made their choice but the authorities did not hear us, the 37-year-old told a news conference after police used stun grenades, water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse crowds across Belarus.

The authorities should think about how to peacefully hand over power to us, she said. I consider myself the winner of this election.

Official results handed Lukashenko, in power for more than a quarter of a century, an 80 percent share of the vote, while Tikhanovskaya, a former English teacher who entered the race after her blogger husband was jailed, took just 9.9 percent.

Foreign observers have not judged an election to be free and fair in Belarus since 1995, and the run-up to the vote saw authorities jail Lukashenkos rivals and open criminal investigations into others who voiced opposition.

Germany called for the European Union to discuss sanctions on Belarus that were lifted in 2016 to foster better relations.





Russian President Vladimir Putin used a congratulatory telegram to nudge Lukashenko to accept deeper ties between the two nations, which the Belarusian leader has previously rejected as an assault on his countrys independence.

Tikhanovskaya, a stay-at-home mother, galvanised the opposition during the election campaign, attracting tens of thousands of supporters to the ex-Soviet countrys biggest demonstrations in years.

The opposition now wants a vote recount at polling stations where there were problems, her aides said, adding that protests would continue.

Therell be no revolution

There was no immediate response to that offer from Lukashenko, a former Soviet collective farm manager who has kept Belarus under tight control since 1994.

He faces his biggest challenge in years to hold onto power amid discontent over his handling of the economy, the COVID-19 pandemic, and human rights abuses.

But Lukashenko signalled he would not step down.

The response will be appropriate. We wont allow the country to be torn apart, the 65-year-old leader was quoted by the Belta news agency as saying.

Lukashenko repeated allegations that shadowy forces abroad were trying to manipulate protesters he called sheep in order to topple him, something he said he would never allow.

They are trying to orchestrate mayhem, said Lukashenko. But I have already warned: there will be no revolution.
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The Bharatiya Janata Party-led N Biren Singh government won a facile trust vote in Manipur on Monday, with some astute political manoeuvering by the chief minister resulting in eight opposition Congress MLAs skipping the one-day session defying a party whip.

The 60-member House has an effective strength of 53, including Speaker Y Khemchand, who had the casting vote he could have used in the event of a tie.

Four members had been disqualified earlier and three of the BJP resigned sometime back.

The ruling coalition had 29 MLAs, including the speaker, while the Congress had 24, of whom eight abstained.

Biren Singh's victory was a foregone conclusion, but the absence of eight Congress MLAs made things easier for him.

A Congress leader said eight MLAs were absent when the motion was taken up for a vote, without giving their names.

He also didn't say if disciplinary action will be taken against them.

With this victory, Biren Singh, buffetted by a string of desertions in the party, appeared to have consolidated his grip on the ruling coalition which has 18 BJP MLAs, four each of National People's Party

and Naga People's Front, one each of the Trinamool Congress, Lok Janshakti Party and an Independent.

Having failed to pull down the government following the resignation of nine coalition MLAs in June, the Congress had given a notice of no-confidence motion against the Biren Singh dispensation following a controversy that the chief minister had allegedly pressured a police officer to release the kingpin of a drug racket.

The effort failed, and Biren Singh, by ensuring the absence of eight Congress MLAs during the crucial trust vote, exhibited that his he has friends beyond the political space occupied by the BJP and its allies.

The BJP is ruling all the eight northeastern states, either on its own or in alliance with its (North East Democratic Alliance) partners.

The Congress had submitted a notice of no-confidence motion against the government on July 28. Days later, the government submitted a notice to the speaker for a trust vote.

"The rules of business of the House clearly mention that if there are two separate motions on the same spirit of the topic, the one moved by the opposition and the other by the government, priority should be given to the government's motion. So, Congress will take part in the discussion," Congress MLA Keisham Meghachandra Singh, who submitted the notice, said.

During the discussion on the motion, the Congress raised issues like alleged pressure by the chief minister on police to release former Chandel Autonomous District Council Chairman Lhukhosei Zou, a former BJP leader, the spread of COVID-19 and non-availability of essential commodities during the lockdown.

The BJP-led government had plunged into crisis on June 17 following withdrawal of support by six coalition MLAs. Three BJP legislators also quit the party and joined the Congress.

However, four MLAs of ally National People's Party later returned to the coalition after Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda intervened to salvage the situation.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, who is also the NPP supremo, along with the saffron party's pointsman in the northeast Himanta Biswa Sarma, also played an active role in defusing the situation.
A group of researchers is campaigning to end Melbourne's draconian lockdown because it is pushing up to 400,000 people out of work and taking away the basic right to liberty of millions of Australians.

Free market think-tank The Institute of Public Affairs has called the city's stage-four restrictions, which include an unprecedented 8pm curfew, 'the greatest incursion into our basic liberties ever on Australian soil'.

Victoria's State of Disaster, in place from 2 August, gives the police extraordinary powers including the ability to seize private property, enter people's homes and stop them in the street.

Residents walk in the empty central business district of Melbourne on Monday

Poll Are stage-four restrictions too strict? Yes No Undecided Are stage-four restrictions too strict? Yes 1003 votes

No 803 votes

Undecided 68 votes Now share your opinion





In a video posted online, Gideon Rozner, Director of Policy at the IPA, said Melbourne's restrictions were too severe.

'Almost five million people are under curfew. Private property can be seized by the Police Minister for any reason,' he said.

'Police and even the army can enter your home without a warrant, and stop you in the street to check that you're carrying the permit that allows you to leave your own home.'

Under stage-four restrictions, non-essential businesses have been forced to close and essential businesses such as meat packing have been ordered to reduce the number of staff working at one time.

The federal treasury estimates that up to 400,000 Victorians will be put out of work due to the draconian rules amid fears that soaring unemployment will lead to increases in suicide, poverty and substance abuse.

Federal housing minister Michael Sukkar last week warned the state is facing 'permanent damage' as some businesses will close for good.

'I'm frustrated, my heart breaks for the people that I have calling my office on a daily basis explaining to me that businesses they've spent decades building up are now probably gone,' he told Sky News.

'I fear about the long lasting impacts of these things,' he said.

A person wearing a face mask walks in front of a closed business in the central business district of Melbourne on Monday

A couple walk on St Kilda Pier in face masks on Sunday. The city is enduring stage-four restrictions

In early July, after stage three restrictions were announced, Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp revealed that 15 per cent of businesses surveyed said they may never open again after such a long period without income.

The IPA's Dr Rozner said: 'Businesses have been closed, jobs have been destroyed, and Victorians everywhere are losing hope.

'Many shops that have shut their doors will never reopen. Many people who've lost their jobs may never work again.'

John Roskam, Executive Director at the IPA, said the measures were not justified.

'The Andrews Government hasn't provided the evidence that shutting down thousands of Victorians businesses and destroying hundreds of thousands of lives is justifiable,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'Many of the Victorian government's rules they have made up are arbitrary, are illogical and are counter-productive. It is not clear that many of these measures are proportionate to the health risk.'

Several Liberal politicians have also joined calls to wind back stage-four. James Newbury, state MP for Brighton, has accused Premier Andrews of running a 'police state'.

He argued that requiring employees to get a permit to travel to work and forcing parents to get one to use child care was too strict and that most people were doing the right thing.

Federal Immigration Minister Alan Tudge said he feared young people are being affected particularly badly by lockdown.

'I mean, the mental health consequences are absolutely enormous,' he told the ABC today.

'We know that the incidents of self-harm amongst young people has increased.

'I mean, for young people, it's particularly hard on them because of the curfew at night, but also because of the employment market is going to look so different over the next couple of years.'

Mr Andrews today said stage-four lockdown was the only way to beat the virus.

He said: 'This strategy is difficult, it's heartbreaking, it's very challenging but it's the only one that will drive down movement across Victoria and, therefore, drive down case numbers.'

What can the government do in a state of disaster? Under the Emergency Management Act 1986, Victoria's Premier can declare a state of disaster if there is a 'significant and widespread danger to life or property in Victoria'. In a state of disaster, the police minister can: Tell any government agency to do or not do anything

Suspend any laws passed in parliament

Take possession of property if needed to respond to the disaster

Tell the police to stop any protest

Appoint police as authorised officers so they do not need to be accompanied by health officials to enter homes

Prevent entry into and out of the disaster area Advertisement

Victoria on Monday suffered its deadliest day in the coronavirus pandemic with 19 deaths and 322 new infections including 105 'mystery' cases with no known source.

The figure takes the state's death toll to 229 and the national total to 314.

Fourteen of the 19 deaths were residents in aged care. The people who died were one man in his 50s, one woman in her 60s, two men in their 70s, one man and six women in their 80s, and one male and seven women in their 90s.

Victoria currently has 7,869 active coronavirus cases, including 1,065 among healthcare workers.

The Australian Medical Association has said it is 'extremely concerned' after 590 healthcare workers contracted the virus over the past 14 days.

Nurses from Western Australia are due to touch down in Melbourne this week to provide reinforcements.

After peaking at 725 on 5 August, Premier Daniel Andrews said the daily case totals appeared to be decreasing as a result of stage-three lockdown and compulsory mask wearing.

Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday announced that Victoria has suffered 19 coronavirus deaths

'We're certainly seeing perhaps some greater stability that is a result of the cumulative impact of stage three,' he said.

But he warned Victorians 'not to get ahead of ourselves' and to keep following lockdown rules.

In his daily press conference Mr Andrews showed two videos of COVID-19 survivors who had lasting health impacts, including a middle-aged woman who needed a breathing tube for a month.

'Think about the person who is most important to you. And then think about them with a tube to help them breathe in intensive care for 32 days. That's how serious this is,' he said.

A woman walks down the street during an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne on Sunday

Victoria is rolling out a free call-to-test program which will allow a vulnerable person to summon a tester to their home within 48 hours by calling a hotline if they want a COVID-19 test.

'We will go to people's homes and we will ensure that they will be able to be tested within a 48-hour period,' Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said.

'This is designed to ensure that approximately 200 vulnerable Victorians every day will have access to this new testing capacity.'

In the past 24 hours, Victoria Police handed out 276 fines for beaching health rules, including to a man who broke Melbourne's 8pm curfew to get cigarettes.
FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: A general view of the financial Central district in Hong Kong

By Alun John and Scott Murdoch

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The United States has imposed sanctions on Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and 10 other top Hong Kong and Chinese officials over what Washington says is their role in curtailing political freedoms in the territory.

The sanctions, which came on Aug. 7, more than a month after Beijing imposed national security legislation on Hong Kong, will freeze any U.S. assets of the officials and generally bar Americans and American companies from doing business with them.

The security law, which has drawn condemnation from Western governments, was imposed in late June. Supporters said it would restore stability after a year of often-violent pro-democracy, anti-China protests.

Below are the main ramifications and concerns for financial firms in Hong Kong.

Will financial firms implementing sanctions run afoul of the national security law?

Under the law, it is a crime to receive "instructions, control or funding from a foreign country ... to impose sanctions or blockade" against Hong Kong or mainland China.

It is uncertain whether abiding by U.S. sanctions would breach this aspect of the law, legal experts say.

"Short answer is potentially yes, as the original Chinese text of Article 29(4) (of the security law) states that carrying out sanctions of a foreign government against HK or the PRC (People's Republic of China) would be a violation," said Mini vandePol, Asia Pacific head of Baker McKenzie's compliance and investigations group.

"This is an expansive interpretation and would have immense ramifications on many businesses in Hong Kong," she added. "To this day, we have not yet seen any enforcement of Article 29(4) in this way, nor has there been official guidance on this point."

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority said in a circular on Saturday the sanctions had no legal status in Hong Kong, and unlike United Nations sanctions, banks in Hong Kong were under no obligation to comply with them.

Story continues

When asked by Reuters whether or not banks were prohibited from enforcing the sanctions, the HKMA said it had nothing to add to the circular.

A blog post by two respected legal scholars published in late July said financial firms would not breach the law "merely by participating in the implementation of the sanctions" but they could become liable in certain exceptional circumstances.

The blog post was written by Albert Chen and Simon Young, both professors at Hong Kong University's law faculty.

Which types of financial firms are affected by the sanctions and how?

U.S. banks and asset managers operating in the United States cannot do business with any of the 11 sanctioned people or any companies those people control.

"It is likely that U.S. banks operating in Hong Kong will follow their headquarters' instructions on this on account closure," said Josephine Chung, solicitor and CompliancePlus Consulting director.

Non-U.S. firms can continue to provide banking services to the sanctioned people, but when doing so they cannot also work with the U.S. financial system, people or companies.

Is there more to come for foreign financial firms in Hong Kong?

Yes. Friday's sanctions were imposed under an Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump on July 14.

That order adds to the United States' Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which also creates a process for identifying and sanctioning foreign financial firms that knowingly engage in "significant transactions" with people who contributed to the current situation in Hong Kong.

The people on this list have not yet been named nor is there clarity about what constitutes a significant transaction.

(Reporting by Alun John and Scott Murdoch; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Rodrigo Duterte (right), then the mayor of Davao City, sits with a representative of communist guerrillas during the release of a Philippine Army sergeant from the groups custody in Butuan, southern Philippines, Dec. 31, 2015.

A senior peace adviser for the communist rebel movement, which has waged a decades-long war with the Philippine government, was killed along with a neighbor during a pre-dawn raid in a northern Manila suburb on Monday, police said.

Randall Randy Echanis, 72, a consultant for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines  the political wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines  was slain at his home in Quezon City with the neighbor, according to information from police.

Police did not dispute that the raid had occurred but did not release a statement giving more information, such as why it took place. Lt. Johanna Sazon, a spokeswoman for local police, confirmed basic information about the two people being killed during the raid but did not release other details.

Ariel Casilao, a former leftist congressmen, confirmed the incident to BenarNews, condemning the killing of Echanis and alleging that his body was found with stab wounds.

Our anger is beyond words. This is a culture of extrajudicial killings with impunity under the Duterte regime, Casilao said. President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to crush the communist movement and its guerrilla wing, the New Peoples Army, while rejecting any prospects of resuming peace talks with them.

This is a declaratory act that national leaders of the legal-democratic movement are now targeted to be killed by the Duterte regime, Casilao told BenarNews.

In recent months, Echanis was active in opposing a new anti-terrorism bill, which the president signed into law early last month. Human rights activists, for their part, have criticized provisions of the law as potentially being used to stifle public criticism of the Duterte administrations drug war, which has left thousands of suspects and others dead since mid-2016.

The new law allows the government to carry out warrantless arrests of suspected militants and hold them without charge for up to 24 days. The legislation removes a clause requiring police to present suspects before a judge to determine whether they were tortured. It also creates a special anti-terrorism council, to be made up of presidential aides instead of members of the judiciary.

Rafael Mariano, a former Duterte cabinet official who leads a leftist farmers group, also condemned Echanis death.

The killing was the work of state-backed mercenaries and death squads in the police ranks, he alleged.

Echanis death came just two days after six suspected communist guerrillas, a government soldier, and a civilian were killed during a firefight in the northern Philippines.

Five soldiers were also wounded in that clash between members of the New Peoples Army and the military in Santa Lucia, a town in Ilocos Sur, a province in northwestern Luzon.

The NPA has been waging a rebellion against the Philippine government since 1969  Asias longest-running insurgency. The strength of the guerrilla force is estimated to be around 5,000 troops divided among 80 fronts all over the archipelago.

President Duterte, a former student of CPP founder Jose Maria Sison, had initially sought peace talks with the group when he took office in 2016. He subsequently called off that effort after accusing the guerrillas of not stopping attacks against government forces.

Sison, in a statement from the Netherlands where he lives in self-exile, condemned the killing of Echanis, whom he described as a peaceful social activist and considered an intellectual among his peers.

As a peace consultant, Echanis was covered by a safety and immunity agreement because of his status, but the government considered that as voided after the peace talks collapsed.

The murder of Randall and his neighbor will have far-reaching consequences towards the intensification of the Filipino peoples struggle for national and social liberation against the evil Duterte regime, Sison said.

Meanwhile, presidential spokesman Harry Roque did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BenarNews.

Earlier in the day, he indicated that the authorities were investigating the killings of Echanis and the neighbor.

Lets wait for the results of the police investigation before pinning the death of Echanis on anyone, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said, according to GMA News Online, a Philippine news site.

Jeoffrey Maitem contributed to this report from Cotabato City, Philippines.
Trump Says Pelosi, Schumer Want to Meet on Pandemic Relief Bill

President Donald Trump on Aug. 10 said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, want to meet with him to make a deal on COVID-19 relief measures.

Last week, talks between the White House, Schumer, and Pelosi broke down after meeting for consecutive days. Democrats proposed a roughly $3 trillion bill to address economic issues incurred during the pandemic, while Republicans last month unveiled a $1 trillion bill.

So now Schumer and Pelosi want to meet to make a deal, he wrote on Twitter. Amazing how it all works, isnt it. Where have they been for the last 4 weeks when they were hardliners, and only wanted BAILOUT MONEY for Democrat run states and cities that are failing badly? They know my phone number! He appeared to be referencing statements from Pelosi and Schumer over the weekend on the necessity to continue talks on a broader relief bill.

Trump over the weekend issued several executive orders to extend a federal unemployment program that was authorized under the CARES Act, with $400-per-week payments instead of $600. Republicans in the Senate had sought $200-per-week payments in the HEALS Act.

Other executive orders deferred a payroll tax, which funds Medicare and Social Security, on Americans earning less than $100,000 per year, authorized eviction protections from homeowners and renters, and issued a moratorium on student loan payments.

President Donald Trump signs the Great American Outdoors Act during a singing ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Aug. 4, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Pelosi and Schumer, in weekend interviews, said that their party needs to reach an agreement with the White House on a pandemic stimulus measure. Weve got to meet halfway. Weve got to do the best we can for the American people. But what theyre putting forth does not meet that standard, she told Fox News.

Among the most controversial issues is whether to provide funding for state and local governments. Republicans and the White House said they want to propose no aid, with Trump in recent weeks saying that it would be essentially a bailout of poorly run localities. But Schumer and Pelosi have pushed for about $1 trillion in their HEROES Act, passed in the Democrat-controlled House in May.

State and local governments, Pelosi said, have expenses from the coronavirus. They have lost revenue. Because of that, they are firing health care workers, first responders, teachers, and the rest, sanitation, transportation, because they dont have the money.

Schumer, in an interview with ABC News, said more needs to be done.

We have this huge crisis, the largest economic crisis since the depression, the greatest health crisis since the pandemic, he said. The event at the country club is what Trump does, a big show but it doesnt do anything, as the American people look at these executive orders they dont come close to doing the job.
Consumer sentiment in Canada turned positive for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic, with widespread gains across regions and age groups.

The Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index, a composite measure of financial health and economic expectations, climbed to 51 last week, from 49.8 a week earlier. A reading above 50 indicates a net positive balance of responses.

The gauge is now at its highest since March 20, immediately after nationwide lockdowns went into effect to contain Covid-19.

The improvement aligns with other indications Canada is slowly returning to a more normal footing after provinces such as Ontario moved to fully reopen their economies. The country's labor market has recouped more than half of losses in the past three months, after mass business closures put 3 million people out of work.

Every week, Nanos Research surveys 250 Canadians for their views on personal finances, job security and their outlook for the economy and real estate prices. Bloomberg publishes four-week rolling averages of the 1,000 responses.

Survey highlights:

- Views that the economy will be weaker in the next six months fell to 49.7%, the lowest since March, and the gap between pessimists and optimists also narrowed to 26 percentage points, the least since before the outbreak began.

- Real estate sentiment continues to improve, with 31.6% of respondents expecting the value of housing in their neighborhood to increase in the next six months. That's up from just 9% at the end of May.

- Measures of employment anxiety eased. The share of respondents who reported feeling insecure or somewhat insecure about their jobs dropped to 13.4%, the lowest since March.

- Sentiment improved in all regions, apart from a slight decline in Quebec, where readings had already turned positive in July.

- Confidence also moved higher in every age group except those 30 to 39 years old
The 2021 Tour de France will start in the western French port of Brest, organisers said Monday, a week after Copenhagen pulled out of staging it.

Brittany will host four full stages and all the build-up to the 2021 Tour, the region's president Loig Chesnais-Girard announced.

"We have been talking with local authorities about this since 2018," Tour de France chief Christian Prudhomme told AFP.

"We were originally thinking about 2022, but the pandemic has changed all that."

Asked if there was any truth that the city of Rennes had refused to host a stage, Prudhomme avoided any conflict.

"We can only go where the elected officials invite us to go," he said.

"There are four stages and even then we couldn't please all the people who did want us."

In the original Copenhagen schedule the first stage would have been a time trial on July 2 with two more stages in Denmark on July 3 and 4.

But the new 'Grand Depart' will be a week earlier so as to avoid a clash with the rescheduled Tokyo Olympic Games.

Copenhagen mayor Frank Jensen said last week the Danish organisers have accepted an offer from the race's organiser, Amaury Sport Organisation, to postpone the start in Denmark until 2022.

jm/dmc/mw
A YOUNG man embarked on a crime spree after he spent the proceeds of a personal injuries claim, a court has heard.

Sean Rainbow, 23, of no fixed abode has pleaded guilty to more than 20 charges relating to offences which occurred in Limerick and Tipperary on dates between March and July 2019.

He has admitted unlawfully entering a number of homes at locations in the city and Ballybricken as well as stealing cash and other property from cars which were parked outside homes in Ballyneety.

Limerick Circuit Court was told the defendant was awarded a significant amount of money in late 2018 following a road collision and that the money ran out around three months later.

There was a lack of appreciation as to what was going on, said barrister Jack Nicholas.

During a sentencing hearing, Detective Garda Chris McGrath told Limerick Circuit Court the defendants modus operandi was to source (and steal) a vehicle which would then be driven to a rural location where a crime spree would be committed.

There was an element of targeting he said adding that blood found at one of the houses in Ballybricken matched Mr Rainbows DNA.

In addition to the theft and burglary charges, the 23-year-old has admitted deliberately ramming a garda patrol car in the early hours of May 11, 2019.

Garda Patricia McCormack said that incident happened at around 8.40am on May 11, 2019  a short time after gardai were alerted to the theft of a jeep.

She said she and a colleague observed the vehicle, which was being driven by Mr Rainbow, at Clancy Strand and attempted to stop it.

During the subsequent pursuit, Mr Rainbow deliberately stopped and reversed at speed at the garda patrol car a number of times

The pursuit continued to Westfield Park and the defendant was later found hiding in reeds at the wetlands.

Barrister Jack Nicholas said his client has addiction issues and that there was no rationality to any of his offending.

He made admissions, he apologises, he said.

Judge Tom ODonnell adjourned the matter to next month.

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Indigenous communities have fared better than the rest of Canada in the first wave of the pandemic despite facing major challenges to infectious disease control. Credit: Canadian Medical Association Journal

Like most people, Tania Cameron was watching the news intently as the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Canada. A member of Niisaachewan First Nation and regional coordinator for Indigenous Sport & Wellness Ontario, she worried that no one was talking to Indigenous communities about the pandemic heading their way.

"When I called a couple of [personal protective equipment] supply companies, they told me 'We're not allowed to announce it, but we're sold out and if we do get any, priority goes to the hospital.' So that to me was a warning," Cameron says. She texted friends in the community, chiefs and council members to raise the alarm and offer help updating pandemic plans.

It wasn't the first time Cameron has had to prepare for a public health crisisshe and a handful of local health directors developed her community's first pandemic plan in response to the 2002 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Then as now, many people feared that the virus could devastate communities already contending with the legacy of colonizationpoverty, overcrowding, limited health infrastructure and poor access to clean waterideal conditions for the spread of disease. But despite these challenges, Indigenous communities have fared better than the rest of Canada in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of August 6, the percentage of people living on First Nations reserves who have tested positive for COVID-19 was one-quarter that of the general Canadian population. Of a total 422 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on reserves, more than 80% have recovered. Six people have dieda fatality rate one-fifth that of the general population. According to Indigenous Services Canada, "First Nations communities are flattening the curve."

British Columbia is a case in pointthe province reported just 90 cases of COVID-19 among First Nations people in the first six months of 2020. Health officials attributed these low numbers to the "extraordinary" public health measures taken by Indigenous communities.

According to Dr. Nel Weiman, acting deputy chief medical officer for the First Nations Health Authority, the memory of past epidemics in which entire villages were nearly wiped out made people especially cautious about COVID-19. "Communities recognized the need to really take this seriously and install their own versions of public health measures," says Weiman.

Indigenous people got creative to stay connected virtually, set up trailers for self-isolation, and made roadblocks to control access to their communities. Now, as the rest of the province has reopened, many of these communities are fighting to remain closed. "Some people find it controversial, but I don't think people can argue that by limiting access the communities have been able to keep themselves safe to a certain extent," says Weiman.

The First Nations Health Authority also put out special public health messages specifically recognizing Indigenous strengths and the sacrifices made by communities during the lockdown. Many have put on hold or modified ceremonies, funerals, and rites of passage.

Robert Bonspiel, director of First Nations Paramedics, the only Indigenous private ambulance service in Quebec, attributes low infection rates among Indigenous people to communities taking a proactive approach to the pandemic.

As co-director of the emergency response unit for the Mohawk community of Kanehsata:ke, Quebec, "we asked people to go back to their roots, to go back to the way it was years ago, to be caring about their neighbors like their family," he says.

In addition to setting up roadblocks like in B.C., the community encouraged people to stay at home by delivering meals for Elders, food hampers and prescriptions. Keeping Elders at home may have been protective, given the high number of deaths in long-term care, Bonspiel adds. "If you look at the general Quebec population, their Elders are placed [in nursing homes.] In the Mohawk community, and First Nations communities, we don't do that."

For the Inuit, experience fighting tuberculosis (TB) has prepared communities for COVID-19. "Inuit communities, unfortunately, have become adept at contact tracing and isolation for TB," so pandemic measures were "not a new phenomenon," says Deborah Van Dyk, senior policy director with Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the non-profit representing over 60,000 Inuit in Canada.

"Strengths-based" strategies to mobilize communities, reduce poverty and implement Inuit-specific solutions to eliminate TB may also support the response to COVID-19, Van Dyk says. Inuit communities have also been working on building up their public health staff, "so it was a lot easier for that kind of staff to redeploy."

Van Dyk says shutting down travel quickly may have helped to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among the Inuit but it's still too early to say without any evaluations of the public health response. Meanwhile, "there is still a lot of work to be done in terms of impact around mental health, around businesses, education and that kind of thing," she says.

Courtney Skye, a research fellow at the Yellowhead Institute, a First Nations-led think tank, cautions that COVID-19 data are not being collected in a granular way that would show which Indigenous communities are affected at what rates. Without those data, "we lose the ability to hold decision-makers responsible for the actions that they're taking on behalf of the community."

Explore further Why Indigenous communities are taking COVID-19 measures into their own hands
The fragility of the liberal democracies and the challenge of totalitarianism By Dr. Joel Fishman

The Outbreak of Civil Disturbances in the United States, Spring 2020 During the Spring and Summer of this year, the world experienced violent civil disturbances, which have both political and social dimensions. Such events have destabilized the liberal democracies of the United States, the United Kingdom, and even now, in Israel. These outbursts have taken place against the background of the Covid-19 lockdowns and the ensuing hardship caused by the disruption of commerce, unemployment, and a sense of demoralization. Disparate as they may seem, these developments share several common characteristics, such as the attempts by well-organized political groups to by-pass the results of fair and free elections and seize power by gradually weakening the institutions of authority, such as the educational system and the judiciary, whose purpose is to preserve the values and legal relationships within a state. These groups have adopted a long-term strategy of delegitimization and decomposition, combined with continuous agitation and violent confrontations. As part of their strategy, they direct their attacks against a democratic government and its elected leaders. The functional definition of a democracy is a government whose leaders are elected through free and fair elections. Additional benefits of life in a modern democracy include a free civil society, competitive politics, fiscal transparency, equality under law, cultural pluralism, and respect for human rights  particularly those of women. Recent scholarship affirms that the concept of equality also includes some equality of material conditions and recognizes a link between income and political stability. Many respected commentators have regarded education as the basic requirement of democracy, because there is a correlation between the level of education and a higher standard of living. During the 1930s, the Soviet Union introduced and perfected the practice of continuous propaganda and political agitation. This method was originally based on the principles of commercial advertising which included the constant repetition of political messages. In fact, political groups of both the Right and the Left used this approach. Indeed, the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 and the destruction of the Weimar Republic in Germany provide the most dramatic example of a determined and unscrupulous adversary using the weapon of political warfare in order to dismantle a liberal democracy. With the support of the Bolsheviks, the Nazis destroyed a liberal democracy in Germany, a country once thought to be among the most cultured and advanced of the era. These developments demonstrate that modern liberal democracies are fragile and must be defended. The murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, triggered rioting, looting, and arson across the United States. Shortly afterward, the mob violence took on a life of its own, independent of the act of police brutality. It became evident that an underground leadership structure had already been in place and set in motion a wave of violence whose destructiveness was unforeseen. This leadership was prepared to use continuous violence and mayhem. Their revealed intention was to destroy the existing system, its legal structure, and accepted norms of lawful behavior. In addition, one of their methods was to attack the symbols of both contemporary authority and national heritage. Some of their attitudes are associated with secular messianism, including the rejection of the existing present, the demand for revolutionary change (not bureaucratic reform), and a quick and immediate revolution. This group claims the certain knowledge that their way is the only way to the truth. The Underlying Social and Political Climate Historians of the French Revolution, such as Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) and Crane Brinton (1889-1968), have researched the climate of ideas that preceded revolutions in general and the French Revolution in particular. Understanding this type of slow-moving history is helpful for our appreciation of the recent events in the United States and other countries, such as Israel. Drawing upon previous examples, Crane Brinton adopted the expression, the desertion of the intellectuals to describe critically important changes of collective mood before a major upheaval: .The bulk of those who at the higher levels of culture wrote, taught, preached, acted on the stage, wrote and played music, practiced the fine arts  and the bulk of their audience  clearly felt that the government, the political, social, and economic institutions under which they lived were so unjust that a root-and-branch reform was necessary. To put it simply, these intellectuals were disloyal toward existing legal authority. One of Tocquevilles important findings was that in the era before the French Revolution, wider circles of the educated public increasingly maintained that the government did not function equitably. However, at the same time, material economic conditions were actually improving. The observations of both Crane Brinton and Alexis de Tocqueville may well apply to the present situation in America. During the post-World War II era in the United States, several cultural and political currents became embedded in the national consciousness, sometimes in the background and occasionally, prominently in highly divisive and emotional manifestations. For example, in the 1960s and seventies, the struggle for civil rights and the opposition to the war in Vietnam resulted in a general distrust of authority. Furthermore, both civil rights and anti-war activities brought about new methods of resistance, passive and militant. In many ways, this legacy of civil disobedience of the sixties has persisted. In the United States, it has been assumed that the creation of wealth is good for society, especially if through hard work and resourcefulness, one could achieve the American Dream. Nonetheless, for the past decade, life has become complicated for many young adults. Many are underemployed and carry the burden of debt which they incurred paying their university tuition. They may harbor feelings of unfulfilled expectations, have problems of loneliness and credit card debt, and take opiates, drugs, and pain-killers. Their growing numbers show an increasingly dissatisfied group in society whose presence must be taken into account. In addition, there has been a lack of civility in the public discourse, which characterized the primaries in the Spring of 2020. Within a broader context, this campaign reflected the outlook of President Barack Obama, who distanced himself from the idea of American exceptionalism and downplayed the vital contribution of personal initiative, which traditionally had been considered a typically American virtue. For example, during a campaign speech in Roanoke, Virginia, on July 13, 2012, President Obama boldly castigated businesses and the wealthy, asserting, You didnt build that! While he explained that the success of individuals depends on society, friendships, and infrastructure, the brutality of his accusation was shocking. During the campaign preceding the primaries of 2020, many arguments of the different candidates were aggressive and simplistic, using promises of material benefits to all if the candidates won. The position of the two leading Democratic party candidates, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, was that something was intrinsically wrong with a system that enabled the building of great private fortunes and that the true measure of social justice should be an equality of material outcomes. Leon Cooperman, the founder of the Omega Advisors investment firm in New York City and an identified Jewish philanthropist, challenged Elizabeth Warrens arguments. Interviewed on television, Cooperman declared that he earned his fortune honestly and paid his taxes. After paying taxes on his gainful earnings, he had the right to share them as he wished, and in any case, his family trust would make sure that his assets would be used for philanthropic purposes. In fact, Cooperman was in tears and challenged Elizabeth Warren to a debate. She never responded. Similarly, the former Mayor of New York, Rudi Giuliani explained in an interview that the taxes of the wealthy provide for the needs of the indigent. More recently, on July 17, 2020, the headline of the New York Post proclaimed, AOCs proposed billionaires tax would spur an exodus of the wealthy from New York, report says. These opposing outlooks have not been reconciled and remain an open question to be decided either through peaceful dialogue or in a war on the streets. Another significant and related development has appeared in the statements of several billionaires. For example, Jamie Dimon, Chief Executive Officer of J. P. Morgan; Ray Dalio, Manager of the Bridgewater Associates hedge-fund; Bill Gates; and Warren Buffet, lamented the big gap between the super-wealthy entrepreneurs and ordinary Americans. Gates and Buffet took the initiative by launching the Giving Pledge, an open invitation for billionaires, or those who would be if not for their giving, to publicly commit to giving the majority [or at least half] of their wealth to philanthropy. In his essay, Diplomacy Then and Now, first published in 1961, Harold Nicolson (1886-1968) analyzed the social divide between the haves and the have-nots. More than half a century later, his words retain their value and aptly describe the current debate in the United States and other liberal democracies: .It is easy enough to convince uneducated people that they are being exploited or suffering humiliations and oppression. It is more difficult to preach to them the rewards of freedom. People who have been convinced that their rights have been disregarded will be glad to throw stones at windows or to overturn motor cars; the doctrine of individual liberty inspires no such acts of passion. We are at a disadvantage when it comes to applying propaganda to the have-nots. Dollars are not always enough; and the fact that our doctrine appeals more to the privileged classes is a fact, which cannot be exploited or even avowed. We have noted the correlation between democracy and education, an observation that dates back to the founding of political science in antiquity. Harold Nicolsons remarks remind us of this. However, he has pointed out that the opposite is also true: the uneducated, who can easily be incited, have the power to prevent the enjoyment of the rewards of freedom. Transforming Heroes into Villains According to Marxist-Leninist doctrine, the goal of organized mob violence is to foment a state of civil war, which will lead to revolution and overthrowing the system. The would-be revolutionaries in the United States did so well that their success exceeded their expectations. They created no-go zones in Seattle and Atlanta. Peaceful demonstrators tried to burn St. Johns Episcopal Church, the Church of Presidents, at Lafayette Park, one block from the White House, and then they began tearing down statues of the heroes of American history. The symbolic meaning of tearing down statues is not generally appreciated. This destructive act shows contempt for the heroes of American history who traditionally have been venerated. Beyond the shock value, imposing a new official narrative of the past has a distinctly totalitarian dimension. Changing heroes into villains effectively amounts to the rewriting of history and a type of thought control. Rewriting history by using the propaganda of the deed is an act of totalitarian aggression. The destruction of statues of public heroes may be compared to book burning, just as burning a church is a statement comparable to the burning of other houses of worship, such as synagogues. As George Orwell describes in Nineteen-Eighty-Four, taking over the past is the prelude to dominating the present: Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. To understand the seriousness of these recent events, we must place them in the context of modern political thought. At the beginning of the modern era, Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), wrote his famous work, Leviathan, first published in 1651. He described an implicit social contract between the subjects and a monarch, whereby individuals entrust the prerogative of self-protection to the state, which in turn accepts the obligation of policing and protection of property. This covenant is the cornerstone of society. According to Hobbes, compulsion is necessary in order to cause men to respect their covenants. Political scientist George Sabine (1880-1961) explained that The performance of covenants may be reasonably expected only if there is an effective government which will punish non-performance. In the words of Hobbes, Covenants without the sword, are but words, and of no strength to secure a man at all. The bonds of words are too weak to bridle mens ambition, avarice, anger, and other passions, without fear of some coercive power. Mayors of several major cities and governors of states where destruction, violence, looting, and arson took place, chose not to act and ordered the police and firefighters to stand down. Such inaction created a condition of anarchy, leaving the public without protection. Instead of using the force of law, these officials betrayed the covenant, which for centuries provided the foundations of society and the rule of law (in the Judeo-Christian tradition). For this reason, the moral shock resulting from the outbreak of mob violence, which was not put down, may have been worse than the actual damage caused by the rioters. To paraphrase Harold Nicolson, the exercise of authority became unpredictable and too uncertain to give its decisions the inevitability of public law. What happened in America shows the fragility of the democratic system, and particularly, its vulnerability. Given the cowardice of the authorities, had the revolutionaries acted with greater determination, the outcome could have been a disaster. To use the expression of Edmund Burke, this time the insurrectionists lacked the energy and vigour that is necessary for great evil machinations. The first time around, the results were seriously harmful. The second and third times, the outcome may well be a complete revolution and regime change. Globalization and the Impact of Civil Disturbances We live in an age of globalization, rapid communication, and  until recently  easy travel. Therefore, we must understand how recent developments in one country can influence the domestic politics of another. For example, recent events in the United States have affected the United Kingdom and Israel. Not so long ago, one spoke of lone wolf terrorism, whereby individuals, influenced by their environment and the media, carried out supposedly isolated acts of terror and murder. However, the more recent violence reflects the increasing influence of the social media upon the dominant environment of political thought and action. The work of American journalist and senior editor of the Readers Digest, Eugene H. Methvin, who studied the riots of the sixties and enjoyed close ties with the law enforcement community, is helpful in understanding current events. Methvin specialized in mob violence and the methods used by its perpetrators. He pointed out that among the highest priorities of the rioters were paralyzing police authority and creating an atmosphere which signals anarchy: While agitators keynote the crowd, young hoodlums and criminals probe and test, and police fail to respond, advertising a moral holiday. Prankish teenage boys and hardened rowdies start by throwing rocks and bottles. If police cannot or do not respond, the paralysis of authority signals anarchy. Behind the window-smashers, looters, and street-fillers, the fire-bugs go to work. The work of an Israeli scholar also is helpful. After the passage of General Assembly Resolution 3379, Zionism is Racism, on November 10, 1975, the Information Department of the Jewish Agency commissioned a series of studies on what became known as the New Antisemitism. Ehud Sprinzak, a member of the Department of Political Science of the Hebrew University, examined the process of delegitimization in an original piece of scholarship, published in May 1984: The loss of legitimacy effectively means the loss of the right to speak or debate in certain forums. When a political entity is subjected to widespread delegitimization, whatever its spokesmen have to say, is perceived as irrelevant. They are no longer accepted as partners in legitimate discourse, no matter how cogently they may express themselves. Their position resembles that of patients in a closed mental institution: once committed by the professional board of review, they are treated as mentally incompetent, no matter how cogently they may express themselves. Here, Sprinzak accurately describes the beginning of what is now called the Cancel Culture. For years, this totalitarian method has been used against Israel and its advocates. It now claims additional victims. In his famous essay, The Prevention of Literature, which first appeared in January 1946, George Orwell dealt with the destructive cultural consequences of totalitarian intolerance, .To be corrupted by totalitarianism one does not have to live in a totalitarian country. The mere prevalence of certain ideas can spread a kind of poison that makes one subject after another impossible for literary purposes. Wherever there is an enforced orthodoxy  or even two orthodoxies as often happens  good writing stops. The fragility of the liberal democracies is one of the most serious problems we face. A determined enemy is attacking our traditional freedoms and the continuity of our respective political systems. There is a short distance between peaceful demonstrations, mob violence, civil war, and regime change. The dynamics of political warfare and the methods of mob violence are knowable. We must use this knowledge to safeguard our liberal democracies because this is a matter of self-defense. Dr. Joel Fishman, a fellow of the Jerusalem Center, is a historian and former editor of the Jewish Political Studies Review. He served as the assistant editor of volumes X (July 1920-December 1921) and XI (January 1922-July 1923) of The Letters and Papers of Chaim Weizmann (Jerusalem: Israel Universities Press, 1977). Home
Businesses small and large always change. Where a business is headed reflects the community served. Clients and customers are in a constant state of flux. To provide what customers want, the business must adapt. After all, the current market rules.

Sometimes, the change in direction is incremental. Day by day, many small changes can add up, and the future of the business changes. Other times, the change in direction is sudden. A new owner brings a new vision to the direction of the business.

Two local businesses are experiencing big time changes in direction. Each of them was long-established and served a community purpose. New owners took over the operations and set new -- and expanded -- paths. A new vision is in full swing, pulling each business ahead.



Northlandz is a world class attraction in Flemington. Its in the Guinness Book of Records. The 52,000-square-foot space proclaims itself to be the worlds largest model railroad.

For almost 30 years, Northlandz has been attracting visitors from all over the world. Tourists and television crews from the United States, Europe, Japan and elsewhere have spent hours marveling at the sights here.

And what sights. Northlandz boasts over eight miles of model railroad track, with more than 100 trains running through tunnels and over 400 bridges. The trains thread their way through tall mountains and deep valleys, past miniature villages. The trains nose their way across bridges, leaping over rivers, and they make their way through miniature cities. Along the way the little railcars rattle past more than 250,000 trees and more than 1,200 miniature structures. Everything is to scale.

Theres much more to Northlandz. Inside, there is a collection of more than 200 historic dolls and a 2,000 pipe organ, along with a gallery of artworks, a new gift shop, a large space for private events, and a big play space for the kids. Outside, an 1890s replica steam train delights riders on the narrow gauge track as it choo-choos around the grounds.



Northlandz began with a youngsters fascination with model trains. Bruce Zaccagnino fell in love with model trains. In 1972 he and his wife were building a house, and he began dabbling with what was to become a major world class project.

When Bruce sold his computer game company in 1994, all those pastime years of building Northlandz turned into his main undertaking. Last year, he sold the whole operation to Tariq Sohail. Tariq has spent a fortune updating and renovating the existing facilities, and he has just begun expanding.

Northlandz is a piece of art, says Tariq. Its an ongoing project.

Last September there was a ribbon cutting ceremony here that was attended by local mayors and town officials. This past month, the Hunterdon Harmonizers gave an outdoor musical concert. Northlandz will become the new rehearsal and meeting space for this group.

Coming up, on Saturday, Aug. 29, 3 to 7 p.m., Northlandz Day is planned as a special celebration.

Outside festivities will include music, a car show, lots of food, special outdoor displays and train rides, says Julie Parker, manager at Northlandz. Its all COVID-19 safe.

For more information, visit Northlandz.com or call 908-782-4288.



Julie also runs the monthly Small Biz Networking Meetings. The next one is set for Tuesday, Aug. 18, noon to 2 p.m. at Chimney Rock Inn, Rt. 31, Flemington. The networking meeting will be held in Chimney Rocks open air room with a lunch menu included for $19, explains Julie. Registration is free. Do it at MeetUp.com/small-biz-networking or call Julie direct at 908 310-8098.



Stockton Market is growing. It was purchased by Steven Lau last year in July, and he is bringing seasoned management and plans for expansion to the operation. He also owns and operates the Salt House gastropub in New Hope.

Stockton Market is an indoor 10,000-square foot operation open year round. Its full of vendors offering farm produce, gourmet food stands, the Market Cafe, and much more.

New vendors are showing up, says Linda Koltuv, manager here. And new pop-up vendors are coming every month.

The COVID-19 virus dampened expansion plans, but the market never closed. Vendors adhere to social distancing and mask protocols, and pickups are offered. Linda says that traffic is increasing.

Current vendors represent a wide variety of artisanal foods, farm produce, craft vendors and much more. The list includes the Oy Vey Cafe & Delicatessen, Metropolitan Seafood, Apple Ridge Farm breads, Scia Scia Chocolates, DTown Dumplings, Highland Gourmet offering all natural beef, and Cornerview Farms offering produce, eggs, and pastured chickens.

Theres much more. Market Pizza features a new pizza recipe every week. El Mariachi offers Mexican cuisine, and barbeque is at BBQ 434. Mainly Mushrooms is what it says, and Sugar Cubed can satisfy your sweet tooth and more. Mediterranean Delicacies has oils and vinegars, along with carved bowls. Top off your visit with Cottage Spice which is currently offering specialty tomato flakes, and pick up freshly cut flowers and topiaries by Rusty Thomas Designs. Pick up an extra mask or two at The Pretty Little Mask.

Clearly, Stockton Market is on the move into an exciting new era. Its located at 19 Bridge St.

For more information, call 609-608-2824 and visit StocktonMarket.com.

Al Warr can be reached at 610-253-0432 AlWarr16@gmail.com.
A passenger who died after a crash on eastbound state Highway 4 in Brentwood on Thursday night has been identified by the Contra Costa County coroner's office as 26-year-old Antioch resident Justin Racht.

California Highway Patrol officers responded around 10:40 p.m. Thursday to a solo-car crash reported on eastbound Highway 4 near Sand Creek Road.

Both Racht and the driver, a 27-year-old Antioch man, were airlifted to a hospital where Racht later succumbed to his injuries. An update on the driver's condition was not immediately available from the CHP.

Investigators determined the two men were in a green Dodge Challenger that was headed east on the highway when it went off the road and struck a guardrail and highway signpost, according to the CHP.

The crash is under investigation and anyone with information about the case is asked to call the CHP's Contra Costa-area office at (925) 646-4980.

A GoFundMe campaign created by a friend of Racht's family to help pay for funeral and burial expenses had raised more than $6,300 as of Monday afternoon.

The organizer of the campaign at https://www.gofundme.com/f/funds-for-justin-racht039s-funeral said Racht's parents "loved their son and the only thing they're concerned with now is giving Justin a beautiful service."

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.
On Saturday, President Donald Trump signed several executive actions aimed at addressing the financial impacts the coronavirus pandemic has had on the U.S. economy after Congress failed to pass a new stimulus package. Lawmakers from both parties called the series of executive orders "unconstitutional."

Trump also signed a memorandum ordering Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to extend student loan relief policies included in the CARES Act that were scheduled to expire on September 30th, through the end of December.

The CARES Act, passed on March 27, paused federal student loan payments and temporarily set the federal student loan interest rate to 0%.

"Currently, many Americans remain unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and many more have accepted lower wages and reduced hours while States and localities continue to impose social distancing measures," wrote the president. "It is therefore appropriate to extend this policy until such time that the economy has stabilized, schools have re-opened, and the crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided."

Financial experts such as Bola Sokunbi, Clever Girl Finance CEO and FAB AID board member say suspending federal student loan payments will serve as "much-needed relief" for roughly 40 million borrowers.

However, approximately 9 million borrowers who have private student loans will not get total relief under the new rule.
In this Monday, April 6, 2020 file photo, police perform checks on commercial and passenger traffic on the Dutch-Belgian border, during a partial lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Meer, Belgium. As European countries struggle to manage spikes in coronavirus cases, concern is mounting about a "second wave" of uncoordinated border restrictions within Europe that threatens the free movement of goods and people: a foundation stone that the world's biggest trading bloc is built on. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)

As European countries struggle to manage spikes in coronavirus cases, concern is mounting about a "second wave" of uncoordinated border restrictions within Europe that threatens the free movement of goods and peoplea foundation that the world's biggest trading bloc is built on.

Despite repeated warnings about the dangers of unannounced checks, some countries have imposed new restrictions, or demanded that travelers quarantine, recalling the panic border closures after Europe's first outbreak emerged in Italy in February, blocking traffic and medical equipment.

Beyond the economic impact of uncoordinated measures, experts fear that countries are becoming so used to lowering the gates at their frontiers as they see fit that the future of Europe's ID-check free travel zone known as the Schengen area is in real peril.

In a letter to national governments, seen by The Associated Press, the European Commission warns that "while we must ensure that the EU is ready for possible resurgences of COVID-19 cases ... we should at the same time avoid a second wave of uncoordinated actions at the internal borders of the EU."

"The re-establishment of ineffective restrictions and internal border controls must be avoided. Rather, the response should be to have targeted, proportionate and coordinated measures, informed by scientific evidence," said the letter, sent to the 27 EU member countries and Britain.

In this Tuesday, March 17, 2020 file photo, trucks stuck in a traffic jams for 60 kilometers (36 miles) on the Lithuanian side of the border to enter Poland in Vilnius, Lithuania. As European countries struggle to manage spikes in coronavirus cases, concern is mounting about a "second wave" of uncoordinated border restrictions within Europe that threatens the free movement of goods and people: a foundation stone that the world's biggest trading bloc is built on. (AP Photo/Saulius Zaura, File)

Belgiumwhere EU headquarters are baseddoes not allow travel to some regions in Spain, notably Catalonia in the north, and also has bans on people coming from parts of France, Britain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Lithuania, Romania and Switzerland.

Scandinavian nations are notably quick to react to any rise in infection rates. Denmark's foreign ministry now has Spain, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Romania and Andorra on its so-called red list. Norway, which is not an EU member but is part of the Schengen area, has not hesitated either.

"Unfortunately, developments in several European countries are not moving in the right direction," Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide said. She says that people arriving from France, Monaco, Switzerland and the Czech Republic must now self-quarantine for 10 days.

In this Monday, June 15, 2020 file photo, French gendarmes approach a car at the Saint-Ludovic border check point on the Franco-Italian border in Menton, France. As European countries struggle to manage spikes in coronavirus cases, concern is mounting about a "second wave" of uncoordinated border restrictions within Europe that threatens the free movement of goods and people: a foundation stone that the world's biggest trading bloc is built on. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)

The use of compulsory COVID-19 testing is also growing. Germany is testing people arriving from high-risk areas, including parts of Bulgaria and Romania, which are EU partners but not members of the Schengen area. Greece and Italy are taking similar steps for the two countries.

But it's the constant tinkering with travel restrictions that is of greatest concern. EU governments can impose border restrictions for reasons of public securityincluding health concernsas they see fit. However, the measures should be targeted and limited in time, and governments should warn of their plans.

Since 2015, the Schengen rules have been routinely flouted, mostly due to distrust among European countries who doubted that their partners would do the right thing. First some countries relied on closures to help cope with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants, many fleeing conflict in Syria or Iraq, seeking better lives in northern Europe. Some of those restrictions are still in place.

In this Sunday, May 17, 2020 file photo, people gather at the border crossing at Saed, Denmark, to attend a demonstration to open the border between Denmark and Germany. As European countries struggle to manage spikes in coronavirus cases, concern is mounting about a "second wave" of uncoordinated border restrictions within Europe that threatens the free movement of goods and people: a foundation stone that the world's biggest trading bloc is built on. (Claus Fisker/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)

In this Wednesday, July 1, 2020 file photo, from left to right, Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Spain's King Felipe VI, Portugal's President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Costa during a ceremony to mark the reopening of the Portugal-Spain border in Elvas, Portugal. As European countries struggle to manage spikes in coronavirus cases, concern is mounting about a "second wave" of uncoordinated border restrictions within Europe that threatens the free movement of goods and people: a foundation stone that the world's biggest trading bloc is built on. (AP Photo/Armando Franca, File)

In this Monday, July 6, 2020 file photo, cars queue at the Promahonas border crossing with Bulgaria. As European countries struggle to manage spikes in coronavirus cases, concern is mounting about a "second wave" of uncoordinated border restrictions within Europe that threatens the free movement of goods and people: a foundation stone that the world's biggest trading bloc is built on. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos, File)

In this Monday, June 15, 2020 file photo, cars drive to Belgium at the French-Belgium border in Le Bizet, northern France. As European countries struggle to manage spikes in coronavirus cases, concern is mounting about a "second wave" of uncoordinated border restrictions within Europe that threatens the free movement of goods and people: a foundation stone that the world's biggest trading bloc is built on. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler, File)

The big challenge to Schengen these days is the coronavirus pandemic.

"Scenes of backed-up borders and checkpoints would have been unthinkable just five years ago. Yet today, the unilateral reintroduction of border checks and border closures has become an accepted part of member states' toolkits to respond to cross-border emergencies," according to the Migration Policy Institute.

A side-effect of the virus border restrictionswhich might be welcomed by countries such as Austria, Denmark, Hungary or Poland that are still worried about migrant arrivalsis that the number of people applying for asylum also plummeted.

The danger, the institute said, is that "the instinct to return to national borders at times of crisis may only grow stronger, particularly as second or third waves of the virus necessitate the reintroduction of some level of travel restrictions."

Explore further France unveils plan to reopen non-Schengen borders

 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
PHOENIX  Authorities say eight people were arrested at a Phoenix protest marking the anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri.

A few dozen demonstrators rallied at around 6 p.m. Sunday downtown to honor 18-year-old Brown.

They marched to Phoenix police headquarters shortly after 7 p.m. and walked past a barricade. Police in riot gear then tried to disperse the crowd from the area and called it unlawful assembly.

Officers fired what appeared to be flash-bang grenades into the air. Witnesses say they then fired pepper spray at one protester.

The crowd dispersed but continued their rally down the street. Officers followed and arrested eight people for alleged criminal activity.

Brown, who was black, was shot and killed by a white police officer in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson in 2014. His death led to months of protests and civil unrest over police brutality and treatment of people of color.

St. Louis Countys top prosecutor announced last month that he would not charge the officer.
An upscale Seattle hotels plea to paying guests for financial help with surviving the coronavirus pandemic has been met with raised eyebrows among travelers. It is now the subject of an investigation by its corporate owner.

The pitch paints a dire picture of how badly the hotel industry has been ravaged by the historic downturn in business due to COVID-19.

After checking into his room at the downtown Motif Seattle hotel last week, Alex Kremer flipped on the TV and was astonished to find a message soliciting COVID-19 Support for this hotel.

The hotel asked guests to make a $25 one time gift to help it through the pandemic.

I understand things are really hard for the industry right now, but for a hotel to ask for essentially free money (plus tax!) was something Id never have expected, Kremer said in an e-mail to SFGATE. It didnt upset me as much as it did underline just how desperate times must be right now for a hotel to even consider putting a message like that up there.

The Motif hotel is part of Hyatt Hotels. A spokesperson for Hyatt said the message went against company practice.

As soon as we were made aware of the situation, we immediately investigated with the hotel and its IT provider, and the message was removed from guestroom TVs immediately, a spokesperson said. We are looking into the situation further, and at this time, we believe this was an isolated situation.

Kremer said he paid north of $150 for his stay at the Motif, a boutique 319-room hotel. He said he also paid a $20 destination fee.

Motif Hotel

But Kremer said extras that typically come with a stay at the chic property were lacking.

There were no amenities during my stay. No housekeeping, the hotel restaurant was closed, and the front desk was staffed by extremely friendly and professional folks that normally work in HR and IT at the hotel, Kremer said. Times are clearly tough.

Kremer shared his hotels pitch on Twitter. Some followers said they were troubled about being asked to make a donation to a hotel that's part of a for-profit company with a market cap in excess of $5 billion.

In June, the hotel temporarily laid off 91 employees, according to WARN notices filed with Washington State.

Hyatts revenue per available room dropped 89.4 percent in the second quarter of 2020. The global hotel chain reported a net loss of $236 million because of the effects of the pandemic compared eiyh the same period in 2019.

San Francisco-based Airbnb received similar criticism in July when it sent e-mails to its users asking them to consider sending kindness cards with an option to send a financial donation to previous hosts.

Read all recent TravelSkills posts here

Chris McGinnis is SFGATE's senior travel correspondent. You can reach him via email or follow him on Twitter or Facebook. Don't miss a shred of important travel news by signing up for his FREE weekly email updates!

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An Irish research team is examining whether surfers and people who swim in rivers, lakes, or at sea, are at risk of picking up antibiotic-resistant superbugs which could cause life-threatening infections.

A team of researchers at NUI Galway are exploring whether recreational waters are carrying potentially deadly bacteria that are not routinely tested for.

While Ireland has some of the cleanest bathing waters in Europe, raw sewage is still being discharged at more than 30 locations.

The deadly superbugs are recognised as one of the greatest threats to human health.

The Antimicrobial Resistance and Microbial Ecology Research Group at the university is launching the PIER study (Public Health Impact of Exposure to antibiotic Resistance in recreational waters), funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Researchers are hoping to recruit 300 people to take part  one group of 150 sea swimmers, surfers, and people who regularly use the sea, lakes or rivers for recreation, along with a second group of 150 people who rarely take to the water.

A key part of the project is to understand how superbugs get into human populations to help scientists learn to control the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Professor Dearbhaile Morris, principal investigator on the PIER project, said: "In healthy people, antibiotic-resistant bacteria behave very similarly to other common bugs: They live harmlessly on the skin, in the nose, or in the bowel. This is called colonisation.

"As long as a bug stays on the skin or in the bowel, it usually does not cause a problem. However, once a superbug gets into a wound, into the bladder, or into the blood, it can cause an infection that can be difficult to treat.

Read More Covid-19: Ireland records no deaths but 68 new cases

"This mostly happens in sick or vulnerable people with weaker immune systems, such as those in intensive care, the very old or the very young, and special antibiotics are then required for treatment, as ordinary antibiotics do not work."

Previous research carried out by the team found potentially lethal bugs in seawater around Galway.

Dr Liam Burke, co-investigator on the PIER project, said some superbugs are very common in the environment because of increased antibiotic use in humans and animals and the release of sewage, manure and effluent containing antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant superbugs, which can end up in lakes, rivers and seas.

"Although bathing waters are routinely tested for some bacteria, they are not tested for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, so we don't really know to what extent they are present," Dr Burke said.

Dr Burke also warned about the dangers of heavy rainfall and its impact on beaches and sea swimming.

He said drains can overflow and carry wastewater into the sea and lakes, leading to no-swim notices being issued.

"If hospital waste ends up in the sea, it will more than likely contain antibiotic-resistant bacteria, or a slurry stream from a farm ends up getting into the water or river, then there is potential for that to contain a high level of antibiotic-resistant bacteria," he added.

"As the superbugs have been exposed to antibiotics, they needed to develop a mechanism to resist it. They don't cause problems in healthy people if they stay in the gut, but if they get out of your gut by not practising good hygiene, then you could spread them around the home. A young child or elderly person could then pick it up."

See: nuigalway.ie/pier.


Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 23:28:35|Editor: huaxia

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WINDHOEK, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's Minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta, on Monday reassured the tourism industry that the ministry is doing its utmost to revive the sector and to ensure that it recovers and emerges stronger after the shocks that have been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement at the launch of the 2019 tourism statistics report Monday, Shifeta said successes nurtured by the tourism industry over the years since independence are at the risk of being reversed as unprecedented challenges brought by COVID-19 have ravaged the global tourism sector.

"It is becoming clearer every day that COVID-19 is here to stay for the foreseeable future and we need to see how best we can re-establish the tourism sector without jeopardizing public health in the context of the 'new normal'", he said.

According to Shifeta, there is a need for both government and the private sector to realign efforts to ensure that Namibia regains its position as a tourism destination of choice.

He added that the industry should not lose sight of the fact that there are still underdeveloped opportunities in the tourism sector.

Meanwhile, the 2019 tourist statistical report showed that the foreign arrivals increased by 1.3 percent from 2018 to 2019, and tourist figures increased by some 2.5 percent for the same period.

A record of 1,681,336 foreign tourists visited Namibia in 2019, it read.

The figures indicated that visitors from countries including Angola, South Africa, Zambia, Germany and France dominated the tourist arrivals to Namibia in 2019.

The period from September to December accounted for the most arrivals, with 34.4 percent of all tourists traveling to Namibia in the period. Enditem
In the guideline called 'Pragyata', the HRD ministry has recommended that the duration for online classes for pre-primary students should not be for more than 30 minutes

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), Department of School Education and Literacy had announced guidelines for online classes by schools last month, recommending a cap on the duration and the number of sessions in a day for students.

In the guideline called "Pragyata", the HRD ministry has recommended that the duration for online classes for pre-primary students should not be for more than 30 minutes.

This new rule-book is a result of discussions between the ministry and respective representatives from the states and Union Territories held on 8 June, reports Indian Express.

The guidelines have been framed by the ministry, following concerns raised by parents about schools conducting online classes like regular schools, which has increased children's screen time after the COVID-19 pandemic mandated a shift from classroom teaching to online learning as schools continue to remain shut for over four months.

For classes 1 to 8, the HRD ministry has recommended two online sessions of up to 45 minutes each while for classes to 9 to 12, four sessions of 30-45 minutes duration have been recommended.

Class Recommendation Pre Primary On a given day for interacting with parents and guiding them, not more than 30 minutes. Classes 1 to 12 Recommended to adopt/adapt the alternative academic calendar of NCERT at http://ncert.nic.in/aac.html Classes 1 to 8 Online synchronous learning may be undertaken for not more than two sessions of 30-45 minutes each on the days the States/UTs decide to have online classes for primary sections Classes 9 to 12 Online synchronous learning may be undertaken for not more than four sessions of 30-45 minutes each on the days as decided by States/UTs.

The ministry has also asked the state to curate, develop and use digital resources and tools including Open and Free resources.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the closure of schools and has impacted over 240 million children of the country who are enrolled in schools. Extended school closures may cause loss of learning.

"To mitigate the impact of the pandemic, schools will not only have to remodel and reimagine the way teaching and learning have happened so far but will also need to introduce a suitable method of delivering quality education through a healthy mix of schooling at home and schooling at school," said HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

He said that the guidelines have been made with a focus on online education for students who are at home.

"The guidelines have been developed from the perspective of learners, with a focus on online, blended, digital education for students who are presently at home due to the lockdown.

"These guidelines on digital education provide a roadmap or pointers for carrying forward online education to enhance the quality of education," Nishank said.

According to the new rules, teachers have been asked to limit the screen time to 30 minutes on alternative days for pre-primary and two sessions of 20-45 minutes per day for elementary and four sessions of 30-45 minutes for secondary and higher secondary level students.

The guidelines have also warned against overburdening teachers. School heads should not expect teachers to be engaged in six to eight hours of online teaching in a day. Rather they may be engaged for about two to three hours of online activities per day for the classes they teach," the document read.

The ministry has also shared guidelines for parents and students on healthy online habits which include postures while learning digitally, being secure and safe in cyberspace, and tips to maintain mental wellness.

Universities and schools across the country have been shut since 16 March, when the Centre announced a countrywide classroom shut down as part of measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. A nationwide lockdown was announced on 24 March, which came into effect the next day.

While the government has largely eased restrictions, schools and colleges continue to remain closed.

With inputs from PTI
A look at the shareholders of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE:BK) can tell us which group is most powerful. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time. Companies that have been privatized tend to have low insider ownership.

With a market capitalization of US$33b, Bank of New York Mellon is rather large. We'd expect to see institutional investors on the register. Companies of this size are usually well known to retail investors, too. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutions own shares in the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about Bank of New York Mellon.

Check out our latest analysis for Bank of New York Mellon

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Bank of New York Mellon?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Bank of New York Mellon. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Bank of New York Mellon's earnings history, below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Bank of New York Mellon. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is currently the largest shareholder, with 9.9% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 7.3% and 6.0%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

Story continues

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 50% of the ownership is controlled by the top 14 shareholders, meaning that no one shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Bank of New York Mellon

The definition of company insiders can be subjective, and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation in their own names. It is a very large company, so it would be surprising to see insiders own a large proportion of the company. Though their holding amounts to less than 1%, we can see that board members collectively own US$42m worth of shares (at current prices). In this sort of situation, it can be more interesting to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 15% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over BK. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 9.9%, of the Bank of New York Mellon shares on issue. It's hard to say for sure, but this suggests they have entwined business interests. This might be a strategic stake, so it's worth watching this space for changes in ownership.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Bank of New York Mellon (of which 1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) you should know about.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
Actor Akshay Kumar has responded to a fan who claims that he has been writing to the star for 20 years. The actor, in a tweet, wished the fan a happy birthday.

Wishing you the happiest birthday dearest Debashri, May all your wishes come true. I hope this makes you smile Love and prayers always. The fan in their tweet had written, Dear @akshaykumar sir.. it has been long.. almost 20 years .. it all started from writing letters to your home address and now am on tweetr only bcoz of you. .. Hope you understand my unconditional love for you and wish me today .. PLZ make me smile. Its my Happy Birthday..

Wishing you the happiest birthday dearest Debashri, May all your wishes come true I hope this makes you smile Love and prayers always  https://t.co/8UqqGbdpxI  Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) August 9, 2020

Akshay recently jetted off to Scotland to commence filming his upcoming project, Bell Bottom, a period spy film that also features Huma Qureshi and Lara Dutta. He is among the first Bollywood stars to resume shooting post the coronavirus lockdown. Actor Aamir Khan was also recently spotted in Turkey, where he will recommence work on Laal Singh Chaddha, the official remake of Forrest Gump.

During the lockdown, Akshay regularly appeared in PSAs raising awareness about the virus. He also donated handsomely to various causes, and appeared in a government-produced advertisement about embracing the new normal, which was shot during the lockdown.

Also read: Akshay Kumar leaves for UK with family to shoot for upcoming film Bell Bottom. See pics

The actors big-budget action film, Sooryavanshi, was supposed to release months ago, but stands delayed until later this year. His other film, Laxxmi Bomb, was recently announced as a part of streaming platform Disney+ Hotstars upcoming slate.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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A mob of anti-mask protesters stunned grocery shoppers after storming a supermarket yelling 'You guys need to resist'.

Members of group StandUp X walked into the Morrison's store in Peckham, south London, to lecture people on wearing face coverings during the pandemic.

As shoppers harmlessly filling up their baskets looked on, the protesters walked through shouting that people should not submit to coronavirus rules.

And they told people buying food: 'Your masks are so bad for you.'

Members of group StandUp X walked into the supermarket in Peckham, south London, to lecture people on wearing masks

One shouted: 'You are conditioned to believe everything the government tells you.

'Never ask questions. You never ask questions, just wear a mask.

'You know this agenda is the new world order agenda. They are conditioning you for the new world order guys. You guys need to resist.

'Resist the new world order guys. How many people die from the flu every year?

The unmasked protesters insisted the safety measures were not necessary to stop Covid-19 and people should ask questions

Bizarrely for an anti-mask protest, one campaigner was seen wearing one on his face, similar to the type in the Scream films

Do face coverings help reduce coronavirus transmission? So, has the science evolved on face coverings? A report by the Royal Society suggests basic homemade face coverings can reduce transmission if enough people wear them. Dr Julian Tang, who is an associate professor of respiratory sciences at the University of Leicester, said wearing face coverings in public places could keep the R value below 1 by creating an 'artificial herd immunity'. Are there any benefits to wearing them? Experts say the risk of coronavirus transmission appears to be higher in poorly ventilated indoor spaces and wearing face coverings in small shops or enclosed shopping centres could help reduce the spread. In addition, there is also increased evidence which suggests that many people with the virus who do not have symptoms can still be contagious. What does this mean for those looking to go back to the office? Experts say wearing face coverings could provide an added line of defence amid growing evidence of airborne transmission of coronavirus. Dr Tang said: 'If half the people in the office wear a mask, it would increase artificial herd immunity to around 25 per cent, which can reduce transmission overall within the office, just by reducing the number of people who are susceptible.' Are there downsides to face coverings? There are many indoor spaces, such as pubs and restaurants, where the use of face coverings cannot be possible while eating and drinking. Some experts have also shared concerns that wearing face coverings may give the wearer a false sense of security, although Prof Neal said there is 'no evidence to suggest that is the case'. Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Jonathan Van Tam said in April: 'There is no evidence that general wearing of face masks by the public who are well, effects the spread of the disease in our society.' Are some face coverings better than others? The WHO advises a three-layer face covering in the community - the outer layer should be water resistant, the inner should be water absorbent and the mid-layer acts as a filter. The Government said coverings can be made from scarves, bandanas or other fabric items, as long as they cover the mouth and nose. Advertisement

'You are not asking any questions. You are just wearing a mask because they tell you to wear a mask. Do some research.'

StandUp x describe themselves as a group that is 'peacefully questioning the narrative.'

They believe the new lockdown rules are a state of 'authoritarian control' and say they do not consent to social distancing measures.

Their website says: 'We do not consent to Government social distancing measures infringing upon public and private life.

'We do not accept enforced masks. We do not accept a dictatorship of lockdowns, threats of lockdowns, and Covid Ghettos.'

They also question the need for 5G and various other government and charitable ventures.

As shoppers watched them walk through the store chanting, video footage shows none were wearing masks.

In contrast, many of those buying food were adhering to guidelines put in place by PM Boris Johnson to reduce the spread of the virus.

One protester handed out leaflets, while another shouted: 'Don't let the government lie to you no more!'

Another chanted: 'We are the people, we are the power, we are the 99%.'

The video was posted on the group's Twitter account, alongside the cation: 'On our London protest in Peckham Rye yesterday we took a detour to Morrisons to wake up the shoppers #londonprotest #peckhamrye #morrisons #nomasks #awake #HumanRights #freedom #covid #Police #media #Plandemic #Plandemic2020.'

It followed a series or organised marches across Britain protesting about the coronavirus rules.

Rallies have been held in Brighton, Sheffield and London and one will also take place this Saturday in Shoreditch.

At the Brighton march at the weekend, a member of the group said it had a pro-freedom and anti-lockdown stance and that its aim was to 'save our rights'.

Last month hundreds of activists descended on Hyde Park in central London to protest the wearing of face coverings, ahead of them becoming compulsory in shops and supermarkets.

Signs reading 'I will not be masked, tested, tracked' and 'no mask' were heald aloft by demonstrators after they gathered for the Keep Britain Free march.

The movement was founded by Simon Dolan, an aviation tycoon worth around 200million, who earlier this month lost a High Court bid to overturn the government's lockdown rules.

He had launched the campaign on July 6, saying: 'I believe in freedom of choice for all and the protection of personal liberties. The Governments actions are crippling the economy, denying children education, and trampling over human rights.'

One man wore a plague doctor costume, another had a mask with the front ripped out and one donned a vest saying: 'Save human rights. No to 5G. No to vaccinations.'

People gathered to listen to speakers at a July protest organised by 'Keep Britain Free' which is against the wearing of masks

The protest was to counter the government announcement that masks must be worn in shops from July 24, which organisers branded a 'liberty-sapping regulation'.

The march, which started in Speaker's Corner and moved to Marble Arch, also looked to repel 'the erosion of freedoms in the UK' brought in during lockdown.

Two months after attending a similar protest in Hyde Park, Piers Corbyn, brother of former Labour leader Jeremy, has also been seen at demonstrations.

A Devon woman Lara Crabb has also become a face of the anti-mask movement.

She posted videos of herself online proudly going into shops without the face coverings.

Crabb, who is linked to Keep Britain Free, wrote on Twitter earlier this month she had been told off by one shop for not wearing the protection.

She fumed: 'I spend a lot of money in your stores.

'I dont expect to be mask "shamed" by your staff. That happened yesterday in your Dartmouth branch.

'Suggest you speak to them about their conduct. I will not ever wear a mask.'

Facebook user Aron Walton filmed himself walking around a Sainsbury's store with a grin on his face as he then asked a member of staff 'what's the policy' before telling him the rule cannot be enforced.

Lara Crabb spoke of people avoiding her 'like the plague' as she filmed herself shopping in a farm store and a Tesco branch in Devon without covering her nose and mouth with a mask. Meanwhile tattoo artist Aron Walton filmed himself entering a Sainsbury's branch without a face covering as he told staff they cannot enforce the new policy

Twitter account 'Mr. Grunt' recorded video of the moment he approached a Boots store and asked the masked guard if he could enter, to which the guard replied 'yes, there are masks back there'.

In the video, which was posted online with the caption 'Well done @BootsUK! #NoMasks', the man says 'I can't wear a mask, is that ok' before the masked guard responds 'yeah, that's ok'.

And in London, Facebook user Reis Daniel says 'f*** it, I'm going in' before he is told by a member of Sainsbury's staff that he is not allowed in the store without a covering.

Mr Daniel responds 'man, that's rough' before he snatches a bag of sweets by the check-out counter without paying for them and sprinting out of the store laughing.

Morrisons have been approached for comment following the protest, which took place on July 25.

Are you or do you know a member of mask protest group StandUp X? Email: tom.pyman@mailonline.co.uk
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 01:54:48|Editor: huaxia

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AMMAN, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Jordan on Monday emphasized its full solidarity with Lebanon to address the catastrophic explosions at the port of Beirut.

The remarks were made by Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who addressed an online gathering held by the UN on the humanitarian situation in Lebanon.

Safadi said that the international aid is fundamental to help Lebanon to overcome the explosion-related crisis.

"We cannot leave Lebanon alone," Safadi said in a statement by the foreign ministry.

He highlighted that Jordan, whose field hospital has started work in Beirut, continues to send assistance to Lebanon. Enditem
RTHK: Protesters, police face off on streets of Minsk

Clashes broke out between police and protesters in Belarus after a presidential election on Sunday that saw longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko face the biggest challenge to his rule in years.

An official exit poll showed Lukashenko, in power since 1994, scoring a landslide victory, but his main challenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya immediately cast doubt on the results.

Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old political novice, galvanised the opposition and attracted tens of thousands of supporters to the ex-Soviet country's biggest demonstrations in years.

Opposition supporters took to the streets of Minsk and other cities after polls closed and the state exit poll showed that Lukashenko had won with 79.7 percent of the vote, with Tikhanovskaya in a distant second place with 6.8 percent.

Several thousand protesters gathered near a central monument in the capital Minsk, where they faced off with hundreds of riot police with shields.

A live video feed provided by US-funded Radio Liberty showed police firing stun grenades and advancing to disperse the crowd, with many fleeing.

Opposition-linked media outlets including tut.by and Nasha Niva reported clashes with police and said a police van had rammed into a crowd of protesters. There were also reports of water cannon and rubber bullets being fired.

The opposition had said it expected the vote to be rigged, and in a press conference after polls closed Tikhanovskaya said she did not trust results showing a victory for Lukashenko.

"I believe my eyes, and I see that the majority is with us," she said. "We have already won, because we have overcome our fear, our apathy and our indifference."

The first official results were expected overnight.

Lukashenko, seeking a sixth term, warned the opposition he is not planning to give up his "beloved" Belarus as security was dramatically tightened in the capital on Sunday.

Columns of military vehicles were seen on roads into Minsk, police carrying machine guns checked vehicles entering the city and government buildings were cordoned off.

Residents also reported internet shutdowns and widespread connection problems. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2020-08-10. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Frances anti-terrorism prosecutor opened an investigation on Monday into murder in connection with terrorism over Sunday's attack on humanitarian workers in Niger, in which eight people were killed including six French citizens.

French humanitarian aid group ACTED said at a press conference on Monday that the eight of its staff killed by gunmen in Niger on Sunday included four women and four men.

"We want to protect the victims' anonymity for now, but we can say they were aged 25 to 50 and included four women and four men," ACTED development director Frederic Roussel told a news conference in Paris.

The prosecutors office is delegating the investigation to the DGSI  Frances internal intelligence agency, equivalent to Britains MI5  and SDAT, the French polices national counter-terror unit.

French and Nigerien soldiers on Monday combed a wildlife reserve in Niger and the surrounding area for traces of the gunmen who killed the aid workers, a French military source told Reuters.

The unidentified gunmen, who rode on motorbikes, attacked the group in a giraffe reserve just 65 km (40 miles) from the capital Niamey. A Nigerien guide and a local driver employed by ACTED were also killed.

ACTED said in a statement the group had been "senselessly and cowardly murdered by armed individuals".

Thus far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. But France and other countries have warned people against travelling to parts of Niger where militants including Boko Haram and an affiliate of Islamic State operate.

"Military operations are ongoing today," the military source said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he shared the families' grief and tweeted: "Our determination to combat armed terrorist groups is resolute. The fight continues."

The reserve southeast of the capital is a popular attraction in Niger, a vast country that borders seven states in an unstable region including Libya, Mali, Chad, Algeria and Nigeria.

Story continues

France started its military operations there in 2013, after Mali asked it to help regain territory seized by Islamist extremists who had hijacked a Touareg rebellion in the countrys northern desert regions the previous year.

The French military succeeded in this initial task  but the jihadist insurgency has since spread throughout Mali and across the border to Niger and Burkina Faso.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Banco BBVA Argentina S.A. (NYSE & BYMA & MAE: BBAR; LATIBEX:XBBAR) today announced that it will report its Second Quarter 2020 results on Tuesday, August 25, after market close.

Earnings Release

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Time: After market close

Conference Call

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Time: 12:00pm Buenos Aires time  (11:00am EST)

Quiet Period

From Wednesday, August 12 through Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Executives

Mr. Ernesto Gallardo, Chief Financial Officer

Ms. Ines Lanusse, Investor Relations Officer

Mr. Javier Kelly Grinner, Investor Relations Manager

To participate, please dial in:

1-844-450-3851 (US Toll-Free)

1-412-317-6373 (International)

54-11-3984-5677 (Argentina)

Web Phone: click here

Conference ID: BBVA

Webcast & Replay: click here

CONTACT DETAILS:

BBVA Argentina Investor Relations

[email protected]

ir.bbva.com.ar/en/

About BBVA Argentina

Banco BBVA Argentina (NYSE, BYMA, MAE: BBAR; Latibex: XBBAR) is a subsidiary of the BBVA Group, the principal shareholder since 1996. In Argentina, it is one of the leading private financial institutions since 1886. Nationwide, Banco BBVA Argentina offers retail and corporate banking to a broad customer base, including: individuals, SME's, and large-sized companies.

Banco BBVA Argentina's purpose is to bring the age of opportunities to everyone, based on our customers' real needs, providing the best solutions, and helping them make the best financial decisions, through an easy and convenient experience. The institution rests in solid values: "Customer comes first, we think big and we are one team". At the same time, its responsible banking model aspires to achieve a more inclusive and sustainable society.

SOURCE Banco BBVA Argentina
President Donald Trump signed legislation Saturday that will broaden options for troubled veterans in the legal system and expand a home renovations grant program for disabled and blind veterans.

The new Veteran Treatment Court Coordination Act directs the Justice Department to support the development and establishment of veterans treatment courts at the state, local and tribal levels.

Read Next: Major Changes Coming for Marines Norway Deployments.

At more than 400 veterans treatment courts across the U.S., vets with substance abuse issues or mental health conditions who commit nonviolent crimes may enter court-supervised medical treatment and get access to veteran-centric services and benefits in lieu of going to jail.

The law will encourage the development of a grant program to expand these courts across all 50 states.

"We've wanted this for a long time. They've been trying to get it for a long time, and now we have it," Trump said after signing the bill, proposed in the House by Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Fla., and in the Senate by Martha McSally, R-Ariz.

"With this new law, thousands more veterans across the country facing the criminal justice system will have an alternative to jail time, ensuring they get the treatment they need," Crist said in a statement following the signing ceremony.

"These courts have turned veterans' lives around in Arizona, and now they will be able to do the same for veterans across our nation," McSally said, also in a prepared statement.

The first veterans treatment court was established in early 2008 in Buffalo, New York. After noticing an increase in the number of veterans appearing in the city's drug and mental health treatment legal programs, Judge Robert Russell brought in veterans and Department of Veterans Affairs advisers to help create the specialty court.

Since 2011, the Justice Department has supported the development of veterans treatment courts, providing more than $25 million to states and localities.

Trump on Saturday also signed a law that will give more veterans access to VA grants to renovate their homes to accommodate their disabilities.

The Ryan Kules and Paul Benne Specially Adaptive Housing Act of 2019 expands the program to include blind veterans and raise the maximum funding veterans can receive from $83,000 to $98,000. The bill also will let eligible veterans access the funds six times, instead of three, and gives them access to the full amount every 10 years -- a provision that will let them change residences as their needs change.

At the start of the president's press conference Saturday, Trump sowed some confusion about which bills he had just signed, referencing two he often mentions in stump speeches: the VA Mission Act, which he consistently refers to as "VA Choice," and the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, which became law in 2018 and 2017, respectively.

"Before we begin, I've just signed two bills that are great for our vets. Our vets are special. We passed Choice, as you know -- Veterans Choice -- and Veterans Accountability," Trump said before extolling the benefits of those laws.

"We passed Choice ... they've been trying to get that passed for decades and decades and decades, and no president has ever been able to do it. And we got it done so veterans have Choice," he said. "And now you have accountability -- that if you don't love your vets, if you're in the VA and you don't love the vets or take care of the vets, you can actually get fired if you don't do your job."

The president then went on to talk about the treatment courts and adaptive housing laws before moving on to other subjects.

Trump consistently refers to the VA Mission Act as VA Choice -- the program established in 2014 by President Barack Obama to widen veterans' access to health care treatment from non-VA providers.

The legislation, the Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act, was created in response to a nationwide scandal over delays veterans encountered when making medical appointments -- for months and sometimes years -- and secret waiting lists kept by some VA facilities to hide the scope of the problem.

The VA Mission Act, signed by Trump in 2018, replaced the Veterans Choice Program and gave more veterans access to private health care paid for by the VA.

The legislation also broadened the VA's caregiver program to include disabled veterans who served before Sept. 11, 2001 -- an expansion that will begin in October -- and ordered the department to inventory its 1,100 facilities with an eye to closing or selling outdated or excess buildings.

At the end of Saturday's press conference, a reporter asked why Trump "keeps saying [he] passed 'Veterans Choice,'" when it was "passed in 2014."

Trump told the reporter she was "finished," and he abruptly ended the press conference.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

Read More: VA Rolls Out New Private-Sector Health Programs
ATHENS, Greece - Greece slammed Turkeys move Monday to launch energy exploration in part of the eastern Mediterranean Athens says overlaps its own continental shelf, as regional tension spiked over rights to offshore natural resources with both countries sending warships to the area.

The Greek military was placed on alert, while Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis convened the governments national security council after Turkey issued a Navtex, or international maritime safety message, Monday announcing its research vessel Oruc Reis and two auxiliary ships would be conducting seismic exploration in an area between Greece and Cyprus until Aug. 23.

Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez said the Oruc Reis had arrived in its area of operation Monday morning from its anchorage off Turkeys southern coast. He tweeted that 83 million back the Oruc Reis, referring to Turkeys population.

Turkeys Defence Ministry said naval vessels were escorting the Oruc Reis to protect our rights, and tweeted images of the vessel flanked by five warships.

Last week, Turkey also announced it would be conducing a firing exercise Monday and Tuesday in a nearby area, southwest of the Turkish coast between Turkey and the Greek island of Rhodes.

Greece will not accept any blackmail. It will defend its sovereignty and sovereign rights, Greeces Foreign Ministry said in a statement. We call on Turkey to immediately end its illegal actions that undermine peace and security in the region.

The ministry said Mondays Navtex combined with the observed broad mobilization of units of the Turkish Navy, constitutes a new serious escalation. Turkey is acting in a way that is destabilizing and threatening peace, it added.

Greek Minister of State Giorgos Gerapetritis said the Oruc Reis was being monitored by the Greek navy.

We are at full political and operational readiness, Gerapetritis said on state television ERT.

The majority of the fleet is ready at this moment to go out wherever is needed, he said when asked to elaborate. Our ships that are sailing in crucial areas were already in place days ago. If necessary, there will be a greater development of the fleet.

Gerapetritis said that it is clear that we are not seeking any tension in the region. On the other hand, our determination is a given.

Greece on Monday issued its own maritime safety message saying the Turkish Navtex had been issued by an unauthorized station and referring to unauthorized and illegal activity in an area that overlaps the Greek continental shelf.

Turkey retorted with another maritime message saying the seismic survey was being conducted on Turkeys continental shelf.

Speaking after a four-hour Cabinet meeting, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Turkey would not confine its offshore exploration efforts to its immediate coastline, but otherwise appeared conciliatory.

Lets come together as Mediterranean countries. Lets find a formula thats acceptable for everyone, that protects everyones rights, he said in a televised speech.

He added: We are always there and ready for the solution of disputes through dialogue and on a fair basis. We will continue to implement our own plans in the (eastern Mediterranean) and in the field of diplomacy until common sense prevails in this regard.

At the crux of the dispute is whether islands should be included in calculating a countrys continental shelf and maritime zones of economic interest. Turkey argues they should not be, a position Greece says violates international law. Greece has thousands of islands and islets in the Aegean and Ionian seas, around 200 of them inhabited.

Tension has increased in recent months over drilling rights and maritime boundaries. Late last month, Turkey had said it was suspending its exploratory operations in the eastern Mediterranean, a move seen as having somewhat defused the situation.

But Ankara was angered by a deal Greece and Egypt signed Thursday delineating their maritime boundaries and exclusive economic zones for drilling rights.

Last year, Turkey signed a similar deal with the U.N.-backed Libyan government in Tripoli, sparking outrage in Greece, Cyprus and Egypt, which all said the agreement infringed on their economic rights in the Mediterranean. The European Union said the deal was a violation of intentional law that threatens stability in the region.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Christofer Burger said Berlin had taken note with concern of Turkeys decision to conduct seismic exploration. He said Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has repeatedly said that international law must be respected and that we need steps toward deescalation in the Eastern Mediterranean. And in view of this, further seismic exploration is certainly the wrong signal at this time.

Turkeys move further burdens its relationship with the EU, Burger added. He called on both sides to resolve all open questions through negotiations and to begin a bilateral dialogue between Athens and Ankara as planned.

NATO allies Greece and Turkey have been at odds for decades over a wide variety of issues and have come to the brink of war three times since the mid-1970s, including once over drilling exploration rights. Recent discoveries of natural gas and drilling plans across the east Mediterranean have led to renewed tension.

Greeces prime minister Mitsotakis spoke Monday with European Council President Charles Michel and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

After the call, Stoltenberg tweeted that the situation must be resolved in a spirit of Allied solidarity and in accordance with international law.

A Greek government official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the contents of the conversation, said Mitsotakis stressed during the call that the policy of equal distances is counterproductive and not acceptable.

Late Sunday, Erdogans spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin said Turkey and Greece had been holding talks in Berlin for 2 1/2 months and were on the verge of issuing a joint statement when the Greek-Egyptian agreement emerged.

The moment the agreement with Egypt was announced, we received a clear instruction from our president: You are halting the talks. Inform the Germans and the Greeks, we are not pressing ahead with the negotiations, Kalin told CNN-Turk television. This is another move to keep Turkey out of the Eastern Mediterranean and to restrict it to the Gulf of Antalya.

Kalin said Turkey is in favour of resolving the dispute through dialogue, but it is the Greek side that disrupted the agreement and broke the trust.

___

Andrew Wilks and Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.

Read more about:
The world is witnessing green shoots of hope in its battle against Covid-19, the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

In the WHOs daily media briefing, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus began by noting the scale of the coronavirus pandemic, with 20 million confirmed cases and 750,000 deaths expected by the end of this week.

However, he added that there were reasons to be hopeful in the global fight against the disease.

I know many of you are grieving and that this is a difficult moment for the world, Dr Tedros said.

But I want to be clear, there are green shoots of hope and no matter where a country, a region, a city or a town is  its never too late to turn the Covid-19 outbreak around.

The health chief praised New Zealand as a global exemplar for its response to the pandemic, after the country celebrated 100 days with no community transmission of Covid-19 on Sunday.

Dr Tedros also praised Boris Johnson for his governments decision to implement local lockdowns in the UK and Frances Emmanuel Macron for the introduction of compulsory face-masks in some outdoor areas in Paris.

Over the last few days, UK prime minister Boris Johnson put areas of northern England under stay at home notifications as clusters of cases were identified, he said.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron introduced compulsory masking in busy outdoor spaces of Paris in response to an increase in cases.

He added: Strong and precise measures like these, in combination with utilising every tool at our disposal, are key to preventing any resurgence in Covid-19 and allowing societies to be reopened safely.

The WHO has called for countries to use a combination of rapid case identification, contact tracing, physical distancing, mask wearing and regular washing of hands to slow the spread of the pandemic.

Dr Tedros also warned that effective suppression of Covid-19 in the community would be necessary for reopening schools.

We all want to see schools safely reopened but we also need to ensure that students, staff and faculty are safe. The foundation for this is adequate control of transmission in the community, he said.

My message is crystal clear: suppress, suppress, suppress the virus.

If we suppress the virus effectively, we can safely open up societies.

Dr Mike Ryan, the head of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said he believed the world would get vaccines which are safe and effective for tackling the virus but cautioned this would be just one step towards ending the pandemic.

The challenge is going to be scaling up production and allocating those vaccines in a way that does the most good around the world and stops this virus to the greatest extent possible, paying for all that and preparing national systems to deliver this, Dr Ryan said.

As Ive said before here in press conferences, we have effective polio and measles vaccines and we still struggle to eliminate those virus.

He added: Having an effective vaccine is only part of the answer. You have to have enough of the vaccine, enough people have to have access to that vaccine and you have to be able to deliver it to a population that want and demand that vaccine.

It has been more than six months since the WHO declared a global health emergency over Covid-19 in January.
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For more than 60 years, Casa Vega, an old school Mexican restaurant in Sherman Oaks, had never bothered with delivery. It didn't need to. "We were always very busy," says owner Christy Vega, whose grandparents started the business when they immigrated to Los Angeles from Tijuana in the late 1930s.

Before coronavirus, fans came to Vega's restaurant as much for the atmosphere as for the food, lingering over margaritas in the red, leather booths. In mid-March, when L.A. County ordered all restaurants to close their dining rooms, Vega realized the lack of delivery options was going to be a major problem. She and her team were, she admits, "completely unprepared" to reinvent the wheel.

In late April, after Casa Vega had been closed for more than a month, she reluctantly started contacting delivery apps. Although she had never cared for their business model  apps commonly take between 15% and 30% commission on every order  these were desperate times.

Christy Vega photographed at her Sherman Oaks restaurant, Casa Vega, in July 2020. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

For better or worse, the apps were so overloaded with sign-up requests they didn't have the necessary hardware (specifically, the ordering tablets) to add Casa Vega to their rosters. The restaurant had to figure out its own system. Vega now sees that moment as a blessing in disguise.

Casa Vega reopened for drive-through pickup on May 2, just in time for Cinco de Mayo.

"We opened with a great demand, more than we ever anticipated. We were completely overwhelmed with orders, much more than we could possibly handle. I looked at everybody that night and said, 'Thank God we didn't do those delivery apps.' It kind of saved us," Vega says.

Casa Vega is one of a growing number of restaurants that have chosen to ditch delivery apps because of high commission rates, safety concerns or both. Although restaurants had complained about delivery apps long before coronavirus, the pandemic has intensified their issues, especially in L.A. County, where 80% of restaurant jobs vanished almost overnight due to COVID-19.

Vega compares food delivery apps to piranhas, cannibalizing the industry they are supposed to serve. "It's not right," she says. "They take too much money. The fees are ridiculous."

Customers have multiple options among food delivery apps. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

How Much Money Do Delivery Apps Really Take?

We contacted each of the "Big Four" food delivery apps for this story: Postmates, Grubhub, UberEats and Doordash (which owns Caviar). Combined, these apps control 95% of the food delivery app marketplace, according to an analysis from Second Measure.

During this process, one thing became clear: Some of these companies aren't transparent with the public about the commissions and fees they charge restaurants  and they don't have to be.

To be fair, there isn't one standard commission rate for delivery apps, even within the same company, which is part of the reason the situation is so confusing. Every restaurant in the United States negotiates its own contract with whatever app or apps they choose to use. If restaurants decide to use multiple services, apps often charge them higher commissions but if they sign an exclusive agreement with one app, rates will typically go down. Postmates for example, is the only app that offers delivery from L.A. hot spots Moon Juice and Howlin' Rays, whose ordering pages feature an #onlyonpostmates hashtag.

This illustration photo shows the logo of delivery app Postmates on a smartphone screen. (CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images)

Those contracts often include non-disclosure sections that prohibit restaurants from publicly disclosing the apps' commission rates, making an already opaque process even less transparent.

We reached out to the top delivery apps to ask how much they take from each order. Here's what their spokespeople told us:



UberEats : A company rep said commissions vary based on the package a restaurant chooses. For restaurants that use the app only for ordering, meaning they have their own drivers and/or vehicles, the commission rates are about 15% on average. To use the UberEats platform and the UberEats delivery fleet, commissions range from 15% to 30% , according to the company. In an email to Vega, which she shared with LAist, UberEats said their standard commission rate is 30%. (In July 2020, UberEats acquired Postmates in a $2.65 billion deal. Both apps remain active.)

: A company rep said commissions vary based on the package a restaurant chooses. For restaurants that use the app only for ordering, meaning they have their own drivers and/or vehicles, the commission rates are about on average. To use the UberEats platform and the UberEats delivery fleet, commissions range from , according to the company. In an email to Vega, which she shared with LAist, UberEats said their standard commission rate is (In July 2020, UberEats acquired Postmates in a $2.65 billion deal. Both apps remain active.) Doordash / Caviar : In August 2019, Doordash acquired high-end delivery app Caviar for $410 million in cash. Since they're a private company, a spokesperson from Doordash declined to tell us their average commission fee or give us an average range of fees, saying the rates are confidential and vary by restaurant.

/ : In August 2019, Doordash acquired high-end delivery app Caviar for $410 million in cash. Since they're a private company, a spokesperson from Doordash or give us an average range of fees, saying the rates are confidential and vary by restaurant. Grubhub: A spokesperson from Grubhub said their platform is "free," but if restaurants want the company to provide delivery drivers, it will cost them 10% of the total order. If restaurants want to use the app for "marketing" purposes, meaning their menus appear or are featured on the app when users in the area search for available delivery and pick-up options, that costs them another 15%. Two restaurateurs told LAist that forgoing the marketing fee isn't realistic. They say that if you do, it's unlikely users will be able to find your restaurant, let alone order from it. That would mean using Grubhub, on average, costs restaurants approximately 25% commission on each order.

A spokesperson from Grubhub said their platform is "free," but if restaurants want the company to provide delivery drivers, it will cost them 10% of the total order. If restaurants want to use the app for "marketing" purposes, meaning their menus appear or are featured on the app when users in the area search for available delivery and pick-up options, that costs them another 15%. Two restaurateurs told LAist that forgoing the marketing fee isn't realistic. They say that if you do, it's unlikely users will be able to find your restaurant, let alone order from it. That would mean using Grubhub, on average, costs restaurants approximately 25% commission on each order. Postmates: When we asked, "What is your average commission fee?," a Postmates spokesperson said they took issue with the word "fee." "Commissions are not 'fees,'" the representative wrote via email, "they are the main source of revenue for our company and they are how we pay for the services that we provide to businesses and our customers." The spokesperson said that the commission rates are decided privately with each restaurant and that "arbitrarily setting on-demand delivery prices has real consequences that undermine our ability to operate... and kills the whole industry's ability to provide the services restaurants need to stay open." They did not provide any numbers. (As of June 2020, Postmates is the most used food ordering app in LA, trailed closely by DoorDash, according to the Second Measure analysis).

When the coronavirus pandemic forced restaurants to stop dine-in service, delivery apps released statements of concern and support for local businesses. But most of them did not significantly lower their commissions or fees.

A Caviar delivery person works during the coronavirus pandemic on April 18, 2020 in New York City. (Cindy Ord/Getty Images)

DoorDash and Caviar made some temporary changes to relieve local restaurants during the shutdown. On April 10, both apps offered half-off their commissions through the end of May, and zero commission fees for new restaurants during their first 30 days with the service. Those relief programs ended on May 31, a DoorDash spokesperson told us.

In July, DoorDash and Caviar launched "Main Street Strong," an initiative that allows restaurants to set up a digital "storefront" on their own website, so they can sell directly to customers without a commission. That service is being rolled out slowly and there's already a waitlist to sign-up. The DoorDash spokesperson said although the program does not have traditional commission fees, it does have set-up, subscription and delivery fees. She declined to share those figures with us.

UberEats told LAist that at the start of the pandemic, they announced they would waive all commissions on pick-up orders made through the end of 2020 via the app. (Yes, most delivery apps also take commissions for pick-up orders.) The company also says that between March 15 and the end of April, they waived "eater-facing" delivery fees at "independent restaurants." It was a good deal for consumers, temporarily reducing their delivery charges, but it didn't reduce the cut that restaurants paid to UberEats.

A Grubhub sticker in the window of Roxanne Cafe in San Francisco, August 2019. (Haydn Blackey/Flickr Creative Commons)

Grubhub, for its part, offered consumers a $10 off promo around the time stay-at-home orders were first issued. Restaurants who opted into the "Supper for Support" promotion received a $10 credit for the first 25 orders. After that, they could decide if they wanted to continue running the promotion at their own expense while still paying commission on the full, pre-discount cost of the order.

Joseph Badaro, who owns Hummus Labs in Pasadena, told LAist that the company repeatedly asked him to sign up for the promotion: "They're like, 'We're here to help you,' but it doesn't do anything to help the restaurant  other than sell food that eventually will lose 30% commission."

Grubhub strongarming client restaurants into giving customers a discount, but charging restaurants their platform commission fee on the pre-discount total. Totally cool, not dickish, not predatory in a time of crisis at all. A++ @Grubhub nice work, totally defensible https://t.co/VBiQPbtmyk  Hot Tubs Rosner (@hels) March 30, 2020

Meanwhile, food delivery apps were flooded with so many new restaurants itching to sign up, they couldn't keep up with the demand.

UberEats told LAist that since the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S., they've seen self-sign ups decuple (i.e. increase tenfold; we had to look that up). If you're wondering how much money that is, in 2019, UberEats made an estimated $337 million in adjusted net revenue. Now, multiply that by ten.

Diners enjoy food and drinks in Casa Vega's parking lot, which has been turned into a dining area. July 2020. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

'We Would Lose Money On Every Delivery'

Restaurants prepare and sell a physical product that can quickly spoil. Most of them, unless they're part of a chain, are small businesses operating on thin margins  about 6%, according to one financial statement analysis.

Food delivery apps, by comparison, are larger, more centralized tech companies that benefit from economies of scale. When a bunch of their clients go out of business, so what? New restaurants will open to meet consumer demand. If delivery apps don't care about the survival of individual restaurants, it's because they don't have to.

During her negotiations with delivery apps, Vega says the lowest fee she received was from UberEats, which pitched her a commission of 22%.

"I was just shocked, ethically and morally, that they weren't lowering the rates for restaurants [during the pandemic], yet they had so much business they didn't even have the hardware to sign us up," Vega says. "We're not going to give 30% to companies that show no compassion for our industry at this time. It's just crazy. We're in a fight for our lives right now."

Customers place an order at Burgers Never Say Die in Silver Lake, February 2019. (Elina Shatkin/LAist)

Vega is far from the only restaurateur who's fed up with delivery apps. Burgers Never Say Die, in Silver Lake, recently started charging extra on every order placed via Caviar to make up for the commission taken by the app. If you order one of their regular cheeseburgers in the restaurant or by phone, it'll cost you $7.50 (before tax). Order it on Caviar, and it'll cost you $9.50.

"Why are our delivery app prices so much higher than our in store prices? Well, it's because we're being charged 21% on every order, which means we're barely making any money on delivery app orders," owner Shawn Nee wrote in an Instagram post.

The exterior of Burgers Never Say Die in Silver Lake. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

"Every time a delivery app service contacts us, I respond with the following: 'If you can give me [a] 10% [commission deal] on every order, we can continue this conversation,'" Nee told us. "We either never hear back from them, or we get some spiel about 'corporate' and how they won't let us go that low."

Burgers Never Say Die still offers delivery via Caviar but Nee told LAist that he encourages customers to place their orders directly by calling or walking up to the restaurant.

The exterior of Tito's Tacos in Culver city. August 2020. (Elina Shatkin/LAist)

Wirt Morton, co-owner of Tito's Tacos in Culver City, told LAist that his restaurant's profit margin, despite its cult following and 60-year track record, is about 3% to 4%. But the lowest commission the delivery app companies offered him was 17%.

"We would lose money on every delivery. It just didn't make sense," Morton says.

Instead, he and his wife, who co-owns the business, decided to start offering delivery, something they've never done during their six decades in business. They chose local courier service StreetSmart Messengers, which requires its delivery drivers to complete the National Restaurant Association's food safety program. They deliver all items in "tamper-proof" packaging, according to Morton, so "no one puts their grubby hands on the food."

A tray of hard-shell tacos from Tito's Tacos in Culver City. (tbiley/Flickr Creative Commons)

It doesn't come cheap. Customers who order delivery from Tito's Tacos have to pay a $10 fee for delivery within a 5-mile radius of the restaurant and there's an extra $2 to $3 per mile charge for customers who live farther away. Morton knows the steep figure means he'll lose some customers, but he says it's worth it to know his patrons won't catch COVID-19 from one of his delivery orders.

Tito's is lucky to have a legion of hardcore fans, many of whom are willing to pay extra for their favorite hard-shell gringo tacos. "When it was announced that we were going to start delivery, we had people in Texas, Colorado, Connecticut and even overseas saying, 'Can you deliver here?," Morton says. (Sadly, he can't.) Restaurateurs who lack that kind of name recognition aren't so lucky.

A Postmates sign is displayed next to other food delivery app signs in a San Francisco restaurant on July 6, 2020, the day Uber announced it was buying Postmates in a $2.65 billion all-stock deal. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Between A Rock And A Hard Place

May Matsuo-Rose, who grew up in Orange County, started Don Don Curry, a Japanese deli business, in 2016 in New York City. She started by selling Japanese comfort food such as curry, chicken katsu and egg sandwiches at farmers markets and pop-up events. When she moved to L.A., she rented space in a commercial kitchen near Exposition Park, planning to expand to food delivery and catering.

Of course, after COVID-19 hit, catering was out of the question. Delivery was the only way Matsuo-Rose could make a living, so she signed up with four of the apps. She offered to share details about commission rates with LAist. (Although Postmates and UberEats had confidentiality clauses in their contracts, since she has ended those contracts, she can speak freely.)

Here's what each app was charging her:



Postmates: 25%

UberEats: 30%

DoorDash: 30% (cut to 15% when the pandemic hit)

(cut to when the pandemic hit) Grubhub: 33% (30% commission plus a 3% "processing fee")

At the end of May, Matsuo-Rose closed Don Don Curry. Relying solely on delivery apps to distribute food, she and her partner couldn't make enough money to pay the rent on their kitchen space and keep the business afloat.

Courtesy of May Matsuo-Rose (Courtesy of May Matsuo-Rose)

"It's been really difficult because they take so much commission. It's not a sustainable way to do business. You're losing money feeding people," Matsuo-Rose says.

For restaurants that have been open for years and built a dedicated client base, Matsuo-Rose says she could see their delivery business thriving, even with the apps' commission fees. But for a new business, she says it's nearly impossible.

When thousands of restaurants joined delivery platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic, the competition was so intense it was nearly impossible to find newbies like Don Don on these apps. If restaurant owners couldn't pay the extra marketing fees, like the ones Grubhub charges, Matsuo-Rose says their businesses got buried by a glut of more established restaurants.

Curry and assorted goods from Don Don. (Courtesy of May Matsuo-Rose)

"Our rep at the kitchen even encouraged us to order from ourselves on these apps so we could trick the algorithm to make it seem like our restaurant is busier and more popular than it is," Matsuo-Rose says.

At the same time, trying to make a go of it without delivery apps, especially as a new restaurant, means you might not be able to attract any customers at all.

"If you're a brand new business, you have to market yourself just to let people know you exist." The apps, she says, "are a necessary evil."

Kevin Mok, who runs Mr. Obanyaki, a dessert shop in Monterey Park that sells milk tea, frozen yogurt and Tawainese wheel cakes, echoes those sentiments.

"Postmates charges us 30%. Grubhub charges us 27%. It's a huge amount but there's nothing we can really do about it because we need the service," Mok says, adding that he has no other choice because he can't afford to hire his own driver.

Mok says on a $10 dollar order, for example, he pays about $3 in commission, $1 in sales tax and at least $2 on ingredients. After paying his rent and labor costs, he says, "I'm probably making $2 or $2.50 on that order."

"Right now, I'm able to survive," Mok says, "but the future is pretty uncertain. I don't know how much longer I can last." In April, he started a GoFundMe to raise extra money to keep his business alive.

Matsuo-Rose says restaurant owners who lack the English language skills to negotiate a better contract or the technical wherewithal to optimize their presence on apps are at an even greater disadvantage.

"It's hard because a lot of small restaurant owners are immigrants," Matsuo-Rose says. "Some are older and don't have the tech savvy to partner with these apps successfully. I'm in several Facebook groups where they're just like, 'I can't even navigate this dashboard to set up the menu and then take the pictures.'"

The DoorDash food delivery app seen on February 27, 2020, the day the company began the process of going public with a U.S. stock offering. (Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images)

Delivery App Alternatives: What Else Is There?

On June 8, the L.A. City Council unanimously approved a motion temporarily capping third-party delivery app fees at 15% and limiting marketing fees to 5%. In the original motion, councilmember Mitch O'Farrell called these fees "exorbitant" and argued they made it harder for restaurants to survive during the ongoing "international emergency."

It wasn't an original idea. Several cities including San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Washington D.C. and Jersey City had already capped delivery app fees in an attempt to dull the pandemic's blow to their respective dining scenes.

L.A.'s ordinance, which is set to expire 90 days after in-person dining is allowed to resume (this time, hopefully for good), also requires food delivery apps to provide an itemized rundown of all costs to customers. That includes the price of the food, the delivery fee charged to the restaurant, any other commissions or fees associated with the delivery and the tip.

All of the major delivery apps insist they are abiding by L.A.'s ordinance but in early July, two local restaurant owners told Eater LA that some delivery apps were still charging them between 25% and 30% commission on orders. The owners said when they asked Grubhub, DoorDash and Postmates about the new law, the companies either sent them generic statements, confusing messages or nothing at all.

A spokesperson for councilmember O'Farrell said, via email, that the city is currently surveying restaurants to gauge whether or not the ordinance is being followed.

"It is my understanding that restaurants can file a written report justifying when the ordinance was violated on the delivery application," the spokesperson told LAist. "The delivery app has 15 days from the written notice to make the necessary changes."

If the app doesn't make those changes, "civil action may be taken." The spokesperson said the City Attorney's office is "working on a plan" for what that might look like.

Even with a cap on commissions and fees, some restaurant owners are still ditching third-party apps. Morton says the city council's efforts sound good, but a 15% to 20% commission is still way too high for him. At those rates, he believes Tito's Tacos wouldn't be able to stay in business.

Other businesses aren't waiting for politicians or local ordinances to save them. They're looking for alternatives to the well-known delivery apps.

At the onset of the pandemic, Tock, a restaurant reservation system serving several cities across the country, has recast itself as a take-out (and, in some cases, delivery) platform. The company has less name recognition than Grubhub or DoorDash but its platform, which includes a website and an app, has become the go-to option for many of L.A.'s upscale restaurants.

Tock's Director of Marketing, Kyle Welter, told LAist that Los Angeles is "by far and away" one of their largest growing markets. More than 100 local restaurants now use the platform. Many of them, especially the ones that used to book reservations weeks in advance, are now offering prix fixe dinners or special menu items only on Tock. Bestia has a six-course "Bestia at home" menu that changes every three days while Republique offers family-style dinners, Bar Henry makes five-person craft cocktails and n/naka creates elaborate, two-tier bento boxes, all for pick-up. Wolfgang Puck told the Los Angeles Times that Tock helped him make take-out at Chinois worth it.

A bento box from n/naka. During the coronavirus pandemic, the Michelin-starred restaurant in West Los Angeles began offering its food for takeout, something it had never done before. (Elina Shatkin/LAist)

The site isn't as easy to navigate as the Big Four apps, likely because it wasn't originally designed to be an online ordering system. But Tock has a major upside for restaurants  its most basic plan charges restaurants a $199 monthly fee plus a 2% commission on prepaid reservations. If a restaurant doesn't want or need the reservation feature, the commission increases to 3%, with no subscription fee. For Tock's core clientele of high-end and midscale restaurants, where a dinner tab for two easily runs between $75 and $150 (without alcohol), this fee structure is likely a bargain compared to the steep per-order commissions most third-party apps charge.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of Tock's founders is a restaurateur.

"We are passionate about helping restaurants, and as a restaurant owner, I know how it works," Tock CEO Nick Kokonas told LAist via email. He owns four restaurants and two bars in Chicago.

Kokonas told us that since March, Tock has added about 60 restaurants a day, in 28 countries, but it isn't the only option for food businesses.

Joseph Badaro, owner of Hummus Labs in Pasadena, went a different route. He had spent months planning the opening of his Mediterranean restaurant, but when the pandemic hit, his landlord wouldn't let him cancel his lease. So he figured he'd try to make it work, at least for a month, and opened on April 1.

Badaro signed up for Grubhub, which kept him afloat for a while but he realized he was making nearly 70% of his profit through the app  and the app was taking 30% of it back. He started looking for options and decided to try ChowNow.

Assorted hummus and dips at Hummus Labs in Pasadena. (Courtesy of Hummus Labs)

"What they do is just put an order platform on your site, and the customer is the only one that pays a delivery fee," Badaro says.

Instead of paying a commission, restaurants pay ChowNow a set fee. Badaro says for him, it's $150 a month. Although he still uses Grubhub for pickup (at a 15% commission), he stopped using the app for delivery in July and hasn't looked back.

Hummus Labs owner Joseph Badaro on the day in late March 2020 when his Pasadena restaurant passed its health inspection. (Courtesy of Hummus Labs)

"It was just simple math. My sales have been increasing, like week over week. I've literally talked to every single restaurant in my building about signing up with them," Badaro says.

That flat fee is part of ChowNow's ethos. "We are anti-commission," CEO Christopher Webb told LAist via email, adding that since March, the company has added more than 8,000 new restaurants to its platform. "Every restaurant in the country wants to, and needs to, move off predatory marketplaces like Grubhub if they want to survive the pandemic," Webb says.

San Francisco-based coffee roasting company Sightglass is using Toast, a tablet-based, point-of-sale system, to process takeout orders.

Unlike many third-party apps, Toast is transparent about its prices. The company generally charges restaurants $50 to $100 per month to use its system for orders and sales, both online and in-person. Aside from that, restaurants pay no other fees to the company. The ordering system is usually embedded into the restaurant's website.

After opening on March 14, the day before L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti issued a stay-at-home order, Sightglass's first sit-down restaurant, located near La Brea and Melrose, had to close its dining room. (Andrea D'Agosto)

For Stanley Morris, director of operations for Sightglass, the decision to use Toast rather than any of the Big Four delivery apps was a no-brainer. "With delivery companies, unless you're doing a huge volume of orders, it's expensive. And I didn't see any consistent behaviors around sanitation and how they were handling everything," Morris says.

Sightglass had spent more than a year planning the debut of its first L.A. outpost, a 13,000-square-foot roasting plant with a 150-seat restaurant and a to-go coffee window near La Brea and Melrose. Opening day, on March 14, was a success. The next afternoon, Mayor Eric Garcetti issued a stay-at-home order. The restaurant had to pivot; it became Sightglass Provisions, a boutique provider of high-end prepared foods, farmer's market produce and, of course, locally roasted coffee.

Sightglass Provisions has become a boutique provider of produce, high-end prepared foods and locally roasted coffee. (Krista Simmons)

When it did, Morris was able to quickly train his seven-person staff on Toast. Aside from that, all he had to do was create a menu for pick-ups and pre-orders and voila, the digital marketplace was born. Toast allows him to fill orders without paying steep commissions or using outside delivery drivers. For health and safety reasons, he prefers only Sightglass employees handle the restaurant's food. Everyone who enters the premises gets their temperature checked, all items are carefully sanitized and pick-ups are entirely contactless. It's all part of the carefully choreographed quality-control system Morris has implemented to prevent COVID-19 transmission.

But even with the speedy reorganization, Morris says Sightglass is probably making less than 20% of its projected profit. "We're just trying to get through this. In the meantime, we're going to be the best business we can be, under the circumstances. Everyone's making this up as they go along," he says.

Separated by a pane of plexiglass from their barista, a customer pays for their purchase at Sightglass Provisions. (Andrea D'Agosto)

Restaurants Are Doing It For Themselves

For food businesses that don't have the capacity to hire a delivery staff or create complicated ordering systems, solving the food delivery issue can be like a high school group project  sometimes it's better to just do it yourself.

Sara Valdes runs Sara's Market, in City Terrace, with her husband, Steven. The shop is a neighborhood convenience store with a bit of a glow-up. Alongside the usual bags of M&Ms and bottles of Tabasco, you'll find Kernel of Truth organic tortillas, bottles of natural wine, craft beer and oat milk.

The exterior of Sara's Market in City Terrace. (Chava Sanchez/LAist)

The store didn't start making deliveries until May, when Sara and Steven outfitted a truck and started bringing their goods directly to a set location two days a week.

"People have expressed to us that they are still a bit hesitant to come into the store, so we give them the option to pick up from the truck," Steven Valdes told us in August.

The Sara's Market truck isn't like a typical food truck. You don't order at the window and wait until your number is called. Instead, you place and pay for your order in advance via Toast. For Sara Valdes, the best part is that she doesn't have to pay any commissions or rely on third-party apps.

"It's always been a family-owned business, so whatever we do, we can do it ourselves," she says.

Steven Valdes stands in front of the Sara's Market truck. (Courtesy of Steven Valdes)

They charge a $5 delivery fee per order, a number they can keep low since they don't have to pay steep commissions. Valdes says they also use the truck to help generate revenue for other businesses in East L.A. Their pickups usually occur at local businesses such as George's Burger Stand on Cesar Chavez, where their patrons might be tempted to grab a pastrami burger or some chili cheese fries. Valdez wants to share the wealth with neighborhood restaurants that might not have the resources to deal with delivery apps or online ordering platforms.

At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Valdes says business was slow. Now, the shop is generating about the same revenue as it did pre-pandemic  not something you hear often from people in the food industry.

"We are getting big support from the community, which we really, really appreciate," Valdes says. If you want to support your local restaurants, bars, convenience stores and markets but aren't sure how, she has a piece of advice: Call them and ask.

"Just straight ask them, 'What is the best way I can order that would benefit you the most?'" Valdes says. "I always tell everyone to shop local, support local, even if it's just a gallon of milk. That's still a sale for that person and that's still income coming in. I feel like everybody's in the same boat right now, struggling in one way or another. But I think as long as each community sticks together, we will all actually get through this."

Tortas from Evil Cooks at Sara's Market. (Cesar Hernandez for LAist)

As more restaurants close for good  pour one out for Dong Il Jang, Broken Spanish, Baco Mercat, Jun Won, Swingers, Here's Looking At You, Trois Mec along with the countless small establishments that will never see their names mentioned in a media outlet  and the timeline for a full reopening remains murky, many restaurant owners realize that if they want to survive, they'll have to reimagine their businesses for the long haul.

"We're not going back to what we thought the restaurant business was, maybe ever," says Morris, of Sightglass. "You can't make it on a few tables on the sidewalk or with just takeout. It's sad and it hurts and it's painful, but it's reality."

At Casa Vega, Christy Vega knows she won't be able to rely on the same business model she's used for more than half-a-century but she's not sure what comes next.

"The future of the restaurant industry is completely up in the air," Vega says. "Sadly, I think the landscape will look much different in 2021. That said, restaurateurs by nature have amazing heart and passion. Resilience in times of chaos is second nature for us. So I still have hope."
Central now to Russias hydrocarbons-related power is its Arctic sector oil and gas reserves. These comprise over 35,700 billion cubic metres of natural gas and over 2,300 million metric tons of oil and condensate, principally located in the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas. According to recent comments from Russias President, Vladimir Putin, the next 10-15 years will witness a dramatic expansion in the extraction of these Arctic resources, and a build-out of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) as the main transport route to monetise these resources in the global hydrocarbons markets. To these ends, last week saw the announcement of a joint venture (JV) between Russias third biggest oil company by output and the oil arm of state gas giant Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, and Anglo-Dutch super-major, Royal Dutch Shell (Shell). In broad terms, the JV will focus on the exploration and development of oil and gas resources along the Gydan peninsula area, with an immediate focus on the Leskinsky and Pukhutsyayakhsky licence blocks. To date, according to Gazprom Neft, little exploration work has been carried out on these two licence blocks, which are a considerable distance from any existing transport and oil and gas infrastructure. This said, both appear to be good prospects, with the Leskinsky block (located in the Taimyr district of Krasnoyarsk) estimated to contain at least 100 million metric tons (733 million barrels) of oil equivalent across its 3,000+ square km area, according to Gazprom Neft. The Pukhutsyayakhsky block is estimated to hold at least 35 million metric tons (256.5 million barrels) of oil equivalent, albeit over a much smaller exploration and development area (800 square km).

According to Gazprom Neft, two-dimensional seismic studies have been completed on both blocks, giving positive results, and drilling of the first well at the Leskinsky block is scheduled for 2020. Gazprom Neft-GEO will act as the operator on the exploration work at both blocks, and after the usual corporate and regulatory approvals, the deal should be completed by the end of the year, with each partner holding exactly 50 per cent in the JV.

Related: Are Oil Majors Giving Up On Guyana?

The development of the two blocks will neatly augment Gazprom Nefts increasingly Arctic-leaning business, with the area accounting for around 30 percent of the companys oil production in 2019. The company started exporting oil produced in the Arctic sector from as early as 2013 and since then it has delivered at least 40 million tons of oil  including both the ARCO (Prirazlomnoye field) and Novy Port (Novoportovskoye field) blends  to various European countries. Last month saw Gazprom Nefts highly-significant first Arctic oil delivery to China via the NSR and last week saw a similar first, albeit for Russias Novatek, with its inaugural delivery of a cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its flagship Yamal LNG project to Japan via the NSR.

Both deliveries highlight the potential to exponentially ramp-up oil and gas product exports to key Asian markets via the NSRs Eastern delivery route. To this specific end, Novatek is right now working on developing a trans-shipment terminal in Kamchatka to enable LNG to be unloaded from the specialised ice-class tanker fleet onto traditional LNG vessels. Last week, Novateks first deputy chairman, Lev Feodosyev, stated that these efforts to enhancing its LNG export logistics: will significantly expand our opportunities to cost competitively deliver and supply LNG to the entire Asia-Pacific region.

All of these developments have come despite the still in-place U.S. sanctions on Russia, primarily as a result of Russias annexation of Crimea in 2014 and negative rhetoric from the U.S. on Russian hydrocarbons expansion is increasing. Most notably, the U.S. State Department on 15 July updated part of its Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) legislation to allow for the targeting of companies involved in building the Nord Stream 2 gas link to Germany and the second line of the TurkStream gas pipeline to southern Europe.

Related: Alberta Missed Its Chance To Mint A Province Of Oil Millionaires

The U.S. Congress is also considering an additional element to the Nord Stream 2 sanctions - the Protecting Europes Energy Security Clarification Act - which would target even more companies involved in building the projects final segment. If implemented, these new sanctions could hit at least another 120 companies across a multitude of business sectors from more than 12 European countries, according to a comment last week from a Nord Stream 2 spokesperson.

It may be that Shells involvement in the JV with Gazprom Neft in the Arctic is a reaction at least in part to the increasing U.S. threats in Europe. As recently as April reports were that Shell had withdrawn from a wider deal with Gazprom Neft to develop five fields and licence areas in the Yamal-Nenets region. That JV had tentatively been named Meretoyakhaneftegaz and had also involved Spains Repsol, until it too withdrew a month after Shell. The Meretoyakhaneftegaz project looked to be a natural addition to Shells existing operational footprint in Russia, which includes a stake in oil JV Salym Petroleum with Gazprom Neft and a partnership in the major Sakhalin 2 oil, gas and LNG project.

At the time that it withdrew, Shell stated that it had exited the project due to the challenging external environment, although whether that meant the operational landscape, the U.S. increasingly hostile attitude to doing business with Russia, or a combination thereof remained unclear. It is clear, though, that Shell is also one of Nord Stream 2s five core investors, along with Frances Engie, Austrias OMV, and Germanys Uniper and Wintershall Dea (with each committing to pay EUR950 million).

Its becoming increasingly clear that there is a growing feeling of resentment in Europe to what it regards as U.S. interference in European affairs, a senior oil and gas industry figure with close knowledge of the European Commissions energy security policies told OilPrice.com last week. This really began back with the revelations by Edward Snowden in 2013 that the U.S.s NSA [National Security Agency] had spied on European Union members and had tapped [German Chancellor] Angela Merkels mobile phone, which, for Merkel  who had grown up in the Stasi [secret police]-run East Germany - was intolerable, and she has never forgiven them, he said.

You could see this distaste for the U.S. meddling in European-only affairs, when the E.U. refused to go along with the U.S. in its withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal with Iran or the subsequent sanctions, and the Nord Stream argument is part of exactly the same thing and dates right back to Merkels phone being bugged, he underlined. Indeed, very recently, German Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, said that by announcing measures that threaten European companies with sanctions: The U.S. Administration is disrespecting Europes right and sovereignty to decide itself where and how we source our energyEuropean energy policy is decided in Europe and not in Washington.

By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
An accountability court here on Monday indicted former Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in connection with the Park Lane corruption case.

Zardari appeared before the court via video link from Bilawal House in Karachi. He pleaded not guilty and the trial will continue, according to The Express Tribune.

Judge Muhammad Azam Khan heard the case and during the hearing, Zardari said that he cannot be indicted in the absence of lawyers as they are at the Supreme Court. However, the court rejected Zardari's plea and said that the former Pakistan President will be indicted and his lawyers would be marked absent if they did not appear before the court.

Other accused in the case -- Omni Group chief Anwar Majeed, Sher Ali, Farooq Abdullah, Saleem Faisal and Muhammad Hanif were also indicted during the hearing.

As per the indictment, Zardari influenced relevant authorities to release loans to front companies during his term as president. He was accused of being a director of Park Lane firm and planning to commit fraud.

With a malafide intention, Zardari allegedly got a loan of Rs 1.5 billion for his front company, Parthenon Private Limited, and the amount was transferred for personal use through fake accounts.

The Park Lane corruption case is being probed over Zardari's alleged involvement in extending loan and its misappropriation by Parthenon Private Limited under different sections of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999 and the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010, The Express Tribune reported.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has accused Zardari of causing the national exchequer a loss of Rs 3.77 billion through fake bank accounts.

In a 13-page NAB reference against the former president and other accused, the NAB alleged that the accused created benami properties through Park Lane Company, using Parthenon Private Limited as the front organisation.

(ANI)

Also Read: Pakistan's dream of uniting with OIC countries against India over Kashmir fall flat
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The international community on Sunday pledged timely and sufficient aid, well-coordinated under the leadership of the United Nations (UN), to assist the Lebanese people hit by the massive explosions at the Beirut port five days ago.

After a UN-backed virtual conference, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, representatives from Britain, Qatar, the United States, the European Union, China, the World Bank and others issued a joint statement pledging solidarity with and support to the Lebanese people.

"The participants agreed that their assistance should be timely, sufficient and consistent with the needs of the Lebanese people, well-coordinated under the leadership of the United Nations, and directly delivered to the Lebanese population, with utmost efficiency and transparency," said the statement.

To help Lebanon overcome the tragedy and recover better, "we will need all hands on deck," UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told the conference.

"I give my pledge that the United Nations is committed to helping the people of Lebanon in every way we can," she said.

Mohammed called for a focus on support to four priority sectors, health, food, the rehabilitation of buildings and the rehabilitation of schools.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun told the conference that rebuilding Beirut requires a lot of efforts and resources.

"The earthquake struck us while we are in the midst of economic and financial crisis, in addition to the existence of over 1 million refugees in Lebanon and the repercussions of COVID-19. Dealing with all these is way beyond the capacity of Lebanon," Aoun noted.

The total figure of "emergency aid pledged or that can be mobilized quickly" amounts over 252 million euros (297.08 million U.S. dollars), said the French presidency.

"We are sending a clear message: we, the global community, Lebanon's closest friends and partners, will not let the Lebanese people down," Macron tweeted.
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Robert Rivard knows people pay a premium to get their names on buildings. But Rivard "watched with pride" as his name was removed from a St. Paul Square office this week.

The Rivard Report has a new name, the nonprofit news site's editor and publisher announced Monday. The publication will now be known as the San Antonio Report.
Burma Former Suu Kyi Ally Behind New Political Party Bows Out of Myanmar Election

Union Betterment Party chair U Shwe Mann. / Htet Naing Zaw / The Irrawaddy

NAYPYITAWU Shwe Mann, founder of the Union Betterment Party (UBP) and former ally of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has said he will not run in the November election.

U Shwe Mann is a former general and was chair of the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) until he was ousted in a power struggle.

As the person in charge of the UBP, I have decided to devote myself to the party rather than personal victory, he said during an online press conference from the UBP headquarters in Naypyitaw. I decided not to run because UBP candidates have a high chance of winning in the constituencies where I wish to run.

He said that he considered running in his native Pyu Township in Bago Region but that there are other UBP candidates who want to run in Pyu and so he decided not to run.

The party chair said he will still be on the campaign trail around the country for his party despite not running in the election himself.

The UBP will field a total of 927 candidates in 261 townships: 260 for seats in the Lower House, 139 for seats in the Upper House, 251 for seats in regional and state parliaments and 25 for ethnic affairs minister posts.

Among the candidates are 15 former military personnel and five former senior members of the USDP.

We need a government that can perform better, said U Shwe Mann at the press conference. The UBP was registered in February 2019 and, after the Union Election Commission (UEC) gave approval in April of that year, U Shwe Mann then opened party offices in some 200 townships within four months.

U Shwe Mann graduated from the Myanmar militarys Defense Services Academy in 1965 and rose through the ranks to become a general in 2010. He was the third-highest-ranking military leader in the country.

He ran in the 2010 elections with the USDP and was elected as Lower House speaker but was ousted from the USDPs chairmanship in August 2015 in a power struggle with former President U Thein Sein. He contested the 2015 general election as a USDP member but lost to a candidate from the National League for Democracy (NLD).

After the NLD came into office in 2016, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi appointed U Shwe Mann as head of the Parliaments Legal Affairs and Special Cases Assessment Commission. His term in the position was extended annually by a majority vote in Parliament.

In 2019 however, U Shwe Mann was caught off-guard when an NLD-dominated vote rejected another proposal to extend his commission after he registered the UBP with the UEC.

In a recent interview, U Shwe Mann said that his relationship with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is normal.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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President Donald Trump, in announcing his executive measures Saturday, said he was bypassing Congress to deliver emergency pandemic aid to needy Americans. But his directives are rife with so much complexity and legal murkiness that theyre unlikely, in most cases, to bring fast relief  if any.

Because Congress controls federal spending, at least some of Trumps actions will almost certainly be challenged in court. They could also quickly become moot if congressional leaders reach an agreement and pass their own relief package. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California on Sunday dismissed Trumps actions as unconstitutional and said a compromise deal was still needed. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he would be open to further talks with Democratic leaders: Anytime they have a new proposal, Im willing to listen.

Trumps executive steps Saturday focused on four areas: extending supplemental unemployment benefits, reducing payroll taxes, extending relief for student loan borrowers and offering eviction relief. Of the four, the student loan memorandum seems likely to be the least controversial and the easiest to carry out.

But his various executive actions did not include several forms of relief that have been part of recent negotiations, including lump-sum payments to citizens and additional relief for small businesses.

If all of Trumps directives take effect, heres how experts believe they could play out.

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

Unemployment Benefits

The expiration at the end of July of the extra $600 a week in federally paid unemployment benefits, supplementing whatever eligible Americans get from their state, created an urgent crisis for the estimated 30 million people relying on that cash.

Trump described his action as creating an extra $400 per week in expanded benefits. But policy analysts said the plan laid out in Trumps memo was so complicated, and potentially costly, for states that people wont get that money quickly, if at all.

Nobody is going to see this money in August, and well be lucky to see it in September, said Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a public policy research group.

The plan is full of caveats. First: It actually translates to an additional $300, not $400, for recipients because the federal government would pay for only 75% of cost. States would have to kick in the other 25%, or $100 per recipient, per week.

States can use the benefits theyre already paying to meet that criteria, a White House official said. But some people currently get less than $100 a week from their states, and they would be left out entirely unless their state agreed to increase their payments. That means the hardest-hit recipients, with the least financial support, wouldnt get anything at all from this, Stettner said.

There are two more major catches. A big one is that the federal money is likely to vanish quickly. Trump directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to use up to $44 billion from its Disaster Relief Fund, which usually pays for emergency help after catastrophes like hurricanes and earthquakes, to cover the federal portion of the payments.

Michele Evermore, a senior policy analyst for the National Employment Law Project, projected that at current claims rates, the $44 billion would run out in about five or six weeks. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a research organization, also estimated that the money would last just five weeks.

Also, state governors must opt in and request the aid and must agree to distribute it through their regular unemployment insurance system as a supplemental payment. Thats a heavy demand on state systems that are already stressed to the point of breaking, Evermore said.

A FEMA spokeswoman did not answer questions Sunday about whether any states had contacted the agency to formally seek the federal aid. Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York said that the presidents executive measures were on shaky ground legally and that asking states facing financial crises to increase their unemployment benefit payments is just laughable.

FEMA said the program would be applied retroactively to the week ending Aug. 1 and would last until Dec. 6 or until the authorized disaster funding is depleted, whichever comes first.

Payroll Taxes

You would still owe your payroll taxes under the terms of the presidents memorandum, and so would your employer, if you have one. What might change would be when some of the taxes for the period from Sept. 1 to Dec. 31 are due.

If you are not self-employed, what usually happens is that your employer pays half of the 12.4% in Social Security payroll taxes that most people owe and then withholds the other half from your paycheck. For the four months that are now in question, the withholding of the employee share  6.2%  would stop, which means you would see more money in your paycheck.

This would only be true, however, for people who earn under $4,000 every two-week pay period, according to the memorandum, or about $104,000 a year. Those who earn more than that would still be subject to withholding, up to the annual limit of $137,700. And because the cap is per individual and not per household, two-income families who are well into the higher income tax brackets might have at least one working adult qualify.

At some point soon, the IRS will presumably issue guidance saying when the money is due, under what the White House is calling a deferral of these taxes. But the order also states that the Treasury Department shall explore avenues, including legislation, to eliminate the obligation to pay the taxes deferred.

Such a measure would face long-shot odds. Meanwhile, pity the payroll processors who have to interpret the memorandum. Mike Trabold, director of compliance at Paychex, outlined a number of scenarios in an interview. Employers could decide to be conservative and continue to withhold on their employees behalf. Or employers could stop withholding the money starting Sept. 1, and let those workers deal with the consequences of potentially owing money later, assuming the taxes eventually come due.

Then, some employers might formally let some employees continue to withhold even if all the other workers are getting the extra money in their paychecks. Or an employer might try to do the reverse  say, give an enraged employee, perhaps one threatening to sue, the opportunity to take home the 6.2% extra, even if the company chooses to continue withholding on all other employees behalf.

Assuming the income cap is itself legal, Pete Isberg, vice president for government relations at another payroll specialist, ADP, said that employers would need some flexibility. After all, an employee might show up for a new job on Sept. 15 having already earned too much elsewhere to be under the income cap. Other employees have side income throughout the year. Still more of them may simply make adjustments via a W-4 withholding form on their own, no matter what sort of default withholding strategy their employer selects.

The self-employed face their own questions, since they pay both halves of the 12.4%. Minnie Lau, a certified public accountant in San Francisco, is keeping her advice simple for most people who do not urgently need the boost in pay. I am still telling clients not to spend the money, if theyre thinking this will be forgiven, she said. Because it literally hasnt been yet.

Student Loans

Here, the White House memorandum aims to extend relief by three months.

Under the terms of the CARES Act, the Education Department and its loan servicers put all federal student loan borrowers into administrative forbearance. That means there are no payments due through Sept. 30 on federal loans that the government controls. Interest is not accruing either, though there was no outright loan cancellation associated with the relief. People can keep making principal payments if they choose to.

If the memorandum holds  and its not clear who would stand against providing relief to millions of people who borrowed to pay for higher education  the forbearance will last through Dec. 31. The Department of Education has not yet said how it might carry out the memorandum. It has an extensive FAQ page about how pandemic forbearance works (according to the prevailing CARES Act rules) on its website.

Eviction

The presidents executive order on assistance to renters doesnt offer much immediate hope for people on the brink of losing their housing.

Until its expiration during the last week of July, an eviction filing moratorium that the CARES Act put into place protected millions of Americans. They included people who lived in public housing, qualified for the Section 8 rental assistance program or rented from landlords with certain kinds of federally backed mortgages.

Now that the federal freeze has expired, those renters have no governmental protection unless state or local officials have put their own moratoriums in place. The order directs various federal agencies to consider what they can do with existing authority or budgets to help further, but immediate relief for desperate renters seems unlikely via this order.

c.2020 The New York Times Company
B oris Johnson has said he understands the "anxiety" pupils will be feeling as they prepare to receive their A-level and GCSE results after exams were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Prime Minister said on Monday that educators and officials were doing their best to "ensure that the hard work of pupils is properly reflected" despite the disruption unleashed by Covid-19.

With exams cancelled due to the pandemic, grades are being determined by teachers and moderated by exam boards.

Clearly, because of what has happened this year, there is some anxiety about what grades pupils are going to get, and everybody understands the system that the teachers are setting the grades, then theres a standardisation system," Mr Johnson told reporters during a visit to a school in east London.

We will do our best to ensure that the hard work of pupils is properly reflected.

Mr Johnson also said he was very keen to get back to normal assessments in the coming school year, with ministers planning for a full reopening of schools from September onwards.

Im very, very keen that exams should go ahead as normal," he said, adding it was "the right thing for everybody" for pupils to return to classrooms next month.

"Exams are a vital part of our education and I thank all the teachers for all the preparations they are making."

Boris Johnson is pressing ahead with plans for a full reopening of schools from September onwards / Lucy Young

The Prime Minister's comments came as school leavers ready themselves to receive their final results on Thursday, with GCSE results set to be released next week, on August 20.

Teachers have this year had to decide grades for each student and rank them in order within their class. Exam boards have moderated the grades to ensure the results are not significantly higher than previous years and the value of students grades are not undermined.

While appeals were allowed only on technical grounds in the past, exams regulator Ofqual on Friday told the Times it would provide greater scope this year, with schools able to challenge results if they had made rapid improvements or had outstanding year groups.

Meanwhile, the head of the universities admissions service has predicted the institutions face their busiest ever period of clearing as a record number of students are due to take up degree places this year through the system.

School leavers who have had their gap year plans disrupted by Covid-19 or students who had planned to do year-long internships before starting higher education will be among those who choose to bypass the main application scheme in favour of searching for a course through clearing, Ucas said.

Nearly three in four of the UKs top institutions currently have vacancies on their undergraduate programmes on the clearing website.

Clearing has become an increasingly popular route to securing a university place in recent years, in part due to reforms that lifted the cap on the number of students universities could recruit.

It is also used by students who may have changed their mind about their course or university and want to find somewhere new, or those who have done better than expected and want to trade places.
Rajesh Asnani By

Express News Service

JAIPUR: The return of Sachin Pilot to the Congress fold without any major concessions to him marks a huge victory for Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Although Pilot has come back to the Congress camp, there is no face-saving formula that was immediately offered to him beyond a committee that will look into his grievances.

This is a massive come down for Pilot which ensures that the Gehlot government is safe for now. Pilot has lost both his key posts in the state -- of being PCC Chief and Deputy CM -- after his one-month-long revolt. In addition, Gehlot has succeeded in foiling BJP's mega plans to topple his government and in its mission to damage the Congress at the national level soon after the MP shock.

ALSO READ | Today or a few months later, Congress government in Rajasthan will disintegrate: BJP

Sources say there will be clarity over the compromise formula that has been worked out within the next few days. But the big question is -- why did Pilot finally relent after a whole month of open revolt? Has Pilot compromised with his stature or has he sealed some secret deal with the party High Command?

Given Pilot's rebellion, Ashok Gehlot had even called him 'Nikamma and Nakaara' (an utterly useless fellow). Despite all this, the reason for Pilot's climbdown now is a blunt truth -- the number of MLAs supporting him simply did not rise. In contrast, the number of MLAs in the Gehlot camp never declined even after staying in different hotels in Jaipur and Jaisalmer for nearly a month.

The final straw was Vasundhara Raje's tough posturing with the BJP High Command in the last few days. As even the BJP was forced to herd its MLAs in Gujarat, Pilot perhaps realised the futility of his dream of bringing down the Gehlot government and he was left with no choice but to look for a compromise.

The big question now is whether Pilot will be rehabilitated in Rajasthan and given either of the posts he was previously holding. Most political observers say that the chances of this happening are virtually nil but as a face-saving formula, Pilot may be shifted to Delhi and offered a position there in the party organisation.

ALSO READ | Sachin Pilot and Rahul Gandhi meet in attempt to end Rajasthan crisis before assembly session

For the moment, however, it is a clear-cut victory for Ashok Gehlot who held on to his numbers and since Pilot's number never went beyond 19 MLAs which included himself, he finally had to climb down and reach out to the Congress high command for a compromise.

The most "shameful" aspect of the Pilot climb down was that Bhanwarlal Sharma, one of his key strategists, who was camping in Manesar for a month came down to Jaipur on Monday and reached the CM residence to meet Ashok Gehlot. Sharma has taken a U-turn from the Pilot camp to the Gehlot camp reflects how much he has shifted away.

"Only Gahlot is the chief of Congress in Rajasthan and I am with the Gehlot Government which will run for the entire period of 5 years. My grievances were related to the development in my area and everything is resolved. The other MLAs will also come back. Now, Sachin Pilot has met Rahul Gandhi then who am I to say anything", he said while talking to the media after he met CM Ashok Gehlot at his residence.

ALSO READ | Ashok Gehlot writes to Rajasthan MLAs, urges them to 'stand with truth' and 'save democracy'

Earlier, even as Pilot was meeting Rahul and Priyanka in the afternoon in Delhi, Congress State president Govind Singh Dotasara, while talking to the media on Monday afternoon, clarified that Ashok Gahlot will remain the Chief Minister for his entire term. Gehlot loyalists are reluctant in the rehabilitation of Pilot again on the key posts now from which he has been removed. "Gehlot has the numbers, it was Sachin who created a ruckus for the party and now to give him the positions back means a slap on the face of the CM. He has to be kept out of Rajasthan for some time, " said a Gehlot loyalist on the condition of anonymity.

So far, from getting Pilot as CM or even getting Gehlot removed as CM, the Pilot camp eventually had to accept Ashok Gehlot as CM, the magician of Rajasthan politics who has emerged very much stronger and played his cards well in the month-long drama that rocked Rajasthan!!
Figure 1

Golden Sidewalk / Skinner Gold property geological plan showing claim boundaries and associated historical till and rock sample assay results.

Golden Sidewalk / Skinner Gold property geological plan showing claim boundaries and associated historical till and rock sample assay results.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Prosper Gold Corp. (Prosper Gold or the Company) (TSXV: PGX) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive agreement (the Option Agreement) with Sabina Gold and Silver Corp. (Sabina) (TSX:SBB), whereby Sabina has granted the Company the option to acquire a 100% interest in the Golden Sidewalk and Skinner gold properties, consisting of approximately 3,000 hectares of mineral claims, leases, and patents, (collectively, the Properties) in the Red Lake mining district of Ontario. The Properties are located within the Birch-Uchi greenstone belt approximately 70 km (44 miles) east of Red Lake.



We are excited to begin work in Red Lake district, said Peter Bernier, President & Chief Executive Officer. The Golden Sidewalk and Skinner gold properties offer a favorable geological setting, with anomalous gold mineralization being encountered in till samples, outcrops, trenches and historic drill holes. The area contains all the correct attributes for economic gold deposits in the Red Lake District. Our exploration teams will be on the ground immediately and we will provide an exploration update in the coming weeks.

Golden Sidewalk (12 mineral leases & patents)

Gold was first discovered on this property in 1926. The discovery was called the Golden Sidewalk on the early maps, where it was described as a white granular quartz vein 11 feet (3.35m) wide where exposed and was observed to contain an abundance of coarse gold. The Bathurst Mine was developed in 1929 with a 61 m shaft and two levels with about 900 m of drifting and cross cuts. A total of 149 oz of gold and 50 oz of silver were produced in 1929 and the Bathurst Mine saw intermittent production until 1937.

High-grade gold samples have been collected in a northeast trending area about 1500 m long near the Bathurst Mine. In September of 2004, Sabina prospected the property and discovered two new gold zones. Grab sampling returned extremely high gold grades, approximately 800 m southwest of the Bathurst Mine, from what has been called the Joe Vein. The Joe Vein was traced for about 30 meters before disappearing under overburden and swamp. The Joe Vein channel sampling returned assay intercepts of up to 73.09 g/t gold (2.35 oz/t gold) over 2.4m on surface and remains open at both ends. Assays returned from grab samples ran as high as 3,742.55 g/t gold (109.17 oz/t gold).

Story continues

Twenty-three holes totaling 2,472 meters were drilled in March 2008. Drilling intersected gold mineralization in the primary target "Bathurst Mine Horizon" and discovered a second horizon with high-grade gold mineralization, including 45.96 g/t gold (1.34 oz/t gold) over 1.70 meters 420m west of the Bathurst Mine. The diamond drilling of the "Bathurst Mine Horizon" and the new "Upper Bathurst Mine Horizon" confirmed the presence of multiple gold bearing structures with further potential along strike and at depth.

Skinner Project (146 Mineral Claims)

The Skinner project is adjacent to and south of the Golden Sidewalk. Gold was discovered there by Thomas Dunkin in 1926. Dunkin Gold Mines was incorporated in 1928 and a 271-foot (83m) shaft was sunk to follow-up on the high-grade gold veining observed on surface. No production was reported. Other high-grade gold occurrences on the claims include the Dunkin II (grab samples up to 73 g/t gold) and Vihonen (grab samples up to 182 g/t gold).

In 1993, the Geological Survey of Canada released results from a basal till sampling program performed in the Red Lake area (Open File 2583, 1993 by D.R. Sharpe). Follow-up work traced the survey findings up ice towards magnetic anomalies located at or near the Balmer/Confederation Assemblage contact. The gold grains are less rounded and mechanically worn (more pristine), which can reflect a local source. In summer and fall 2003, Teck carried out extensive exploration including a detailed airborne magnetometer survey, aerial photography, geological mapping and rock sampling, rock geochemical survey, and till sampling. (refer to Figure 1.)

Tecks till sampling identified many samples with pristine gold grains in a down-ice dispersal zone measuring 5km wide 3 km long area concentrated along a regional unconformity. More detailed till sampling and a reconnaissance induced polarization (IP) survey were recommended to define follow-up drill targets.

Figure 1. Golden Sidewalk / Skinner Gold property geological plan showing claim boundaries and associated historical till and rock sample assay results is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/54e5a908-873c-4c62-a680-4108fd5d6def

Key Terms of Option Agreement

The Option Agreement on the Properties calls for the Company to pay $50,000 cash, issue up to 1,500,000 Prosper Gold shares (on a post-consolidation basis (see Corporate Update below)), and for work expenditures totaling $2,600,000 over 4 years in order for the Company to earn a 100% interest in the Properties. Details of the Option Agreement will be available on the Companys SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

The transactions contemplated by the Option Agreement, including the issuance of Prosper Gold shares thereunder, are subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Any Prosper Gold shares issued under the Option Agreement will be subject to a hold period of four months and a day.

Corporate Update

The Company also announces that its Board of Directors has approved a consolidation (the Consolidation) of the common shares in the capital of the Company (the Common Shares) at a ratio of ten pre-Consolidation Common Shares (the Existing Shares) for one post-Consolidation Common Share (the Consolidated Shares). Subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange, the Company anticipates that the Consolidation will take effect on or around August 31, 2020, and the Consolidated Shares will subsequently begin trading on a consolidated basis under the existing trading symbol.

As a result of the Consolidation, each ten Existing Shares outstanding will automatically combine into one Consolidated Share without any action on the part of the holders, and the number of outstanding Common Shares will be reduced from approximately 80,558,916 Common Shares to approximately 8,055,891 Common Shares. The Consolidation will also apply to Common Shares issuable upon the exercise of the Companys outstanding stock options and warrants. No fractional shares will be issued as a result of the Consolidation. In the event a shareholder would otherwise be entitled to receive a fractional share from the Consolidation, the number of Consolidated Shares to be received by such shareholder shall be rounded up to the next greater whole number of Common Shares if the fractional entitlement is equal to or greater than 0.5 and shall, without any additional compensation, be rounded down to the next lesser whole number of Common Shares if the fractional entitlement is less than 0.5.

The Companys transfer agent, Computershare Investor Services Inc. (Computershare), will act as exchange agent for the Consolidation. Shareholders owning shares via a bank, broker or other nominee will have their positions automatically adjusted to reflect the Consolidation and will not be required to take further action in connection with the Consolidation, subject to brokers particular processes. Letters of transmittal will be sent to the registered holders of Existing Shares. The letters of transmittal will contain instructions on how to surrender Existing Share certificate(s) representing the Existing Shares to Computershare. Computershare will forward to each registered shareholder who has sent the required documents a new Consolidated Share certificate representing the number of Consolidated Shares to which the shareholder is entitled

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed by Dr. Dirk Tempelman-Kluit, PhD, P.Geo., a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. The drilling results contained in this release were completed by previous operators of the Properties. Although the Company was not involved in the original work in respect of these drilling results, proper industry data verification procedures appear to have been followed.

For a detailed overview of Prosper Gold please visit www.ProsperGoldCorp.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Per: Peter Bernier Peter Bernier President & CEO

For further information, please contact:

Peter Bernier

President & CEO

Prosper Gold Corp.

Cell (250) 316-6644

Email: Pete@ProsperGoldCorp.com

Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could", "should", or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation; statements about the terms of the Option Agreement, exploration potential of the Properties and the planned exploration of the Properties are forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: the need for additional financing; the Companys ability to satisfy conditions precedent under the Option Agreement; operational risks associated with mineral exploration; fluctuations in commodity prices; title matters; environmental liability claims and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers, directors or promoters with certain other projects; the absence of dividends; competition; dilution; the volatility of our common share price and volume and the additional risks identified the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statement or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.




In 2019, Vietnam exported rice to 35 out of 55 African countries, with a combined turnover of approximately US$630 million, of which the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, Mozambique, Cameroon, Gabon, Tanzania and Egypt were among the major importers.

For the markets covered by the Vietnamese trade mission in Algeria, the revenue from Senegal was US$32.6 million, while the value was US$6.3 million for the Algerian market.

This year, the outbreak of locust swarms and the COVID-19 pandemic, together with high population growth and competitive rice prices in the international market, have caused governments and people of African nations to increase their storage of foods and foodstuffs, including rice.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, Africas rice demand in 2020 is estimated at 15.7 million tonnes, with Senegal expecting to import 1.25 million tonnes, up 13.6% year-on-year, and Mali aiming to buy 350,000 tonnes, up 16.6%. It is forecast that the regions rice imports will continue to rise next year.

In the first six months of 2020, Vietnam exported 41,149 tonnes of rice to Senegal, raking in US$14.58 million, a 28.5-fold increase in volume and a 19.5-fold rise in value over the same period last year.

Performing the assigned functions and tasks, the Vietnamese trade mission in Algeria has been monitoring changes in trade policies and updating the demand for rice imports and relevant regulations in the countries that it is in charge, especially regarding the aspect of payment in the context of COVID-19, in order to promptly provide information on the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT)s website, as well as to introduce Vietnamese companies to the business opportunities and the list of rice importers in the African nations.

So far this year, the Asia-Africa Market Department under the MOIT has coordinated with Vietnams regional trade missions to organise virtual seminars to advertise the potential of the African-Middle East market, attracting the participation of hundreds of Vietnamese enterprises.

Since mid-July, African countries, including Mali, Niger and Senegal, have reopened their land and air borders after bringing the pandemic under control. These are the positive signals that help these nations to restore trade and investment exchanges with foreign partners, including Vietnam.
FBI agents who raided YouTube star Jake Paul's mansion were looking for video evidence of the Arizona mall looting he is linked to, a source close to the influencer told DailyMail.com.

SWAT teams descended on Paul's $6.9 million Calabasas home and the Las Vegas mansion of his graffiti artist co-star Arman Izadi in a dramatic Wednesday dawn raid.

A source close to Izadi told DailyMail.com federal agents took computers and hard drives from the Vegas home and were looking for unreleased footage of Paul and Izadi at a mall looting in Scottsdale, Arizona in May.

The source also revealed that police searched other properties beyond the two mansions in the coordinated raid  though the FBI remained tight-lipped saying the case had been sealed.

FBI and law enforcement officers raided YouTuber Jake Paul's Los Angeles mansion Wednesday and were seen removing several firearms

DailyMail.com can reveal that agents were looking for evidence of the Arizona mall looting he is linked to

Multiple high powered weapons were seized at the $6.9million Calabasas mansion during the raid for video information

Paul, 23, Izadi, 35, and a third YouTuber filmed themselves at a Scottsdale protest over the killing of George Floyd but were arrested and charged with trespassing and unlawful assembly after looters ransacked and vandalized the Scottsdale Fashion Square mall.

As dozens of SWAT officers in armored vehicles hit the influencers' mansions around 6am Wednesday, Scottsdale Police Department announced the Arizona state charges against the three men had been temporarily dismissed while the case was handed over to federal investigators.

'It seems they wanted to get their hands on technology to review any footage that may not have been released,' the source told DailyMail.com. 'That is what seems to be out of control. Why is it so aggressive for just that?

'It was a shock to everyone... You just don't see that every day, these huge SWAT teams.

'Everybody there was detained while they secured the property.

'They asked [Izadi] a lot of questions,' the source added. 'They were asking him things pertaining to why they were in Arizona.

'We don't fully understand how misdemeanor trespassing charges turned into a federal investigation.'

News choppers caught on camera federal officers carrying several rifles confiscated from Paul's mansion during the Calabasas search, setting social media ablaze with speculation over the reason for the raid.

Jake Paul was charged with two misdemeanor crimes after he was seen at an Arizona mall that was being looted in May. He was seen in video taken at the incident

Tana Mongeau, Arman Izadi and Jake Paul are seen at Paul and Mongeau's wedding. SWAT teams descended on Paul's home and the Las Vegas mansion of his graffiti artist co-star Arman Izadi

Paul released a statement that claimed he was not involved in any looting and was in the area for protests

A spokesperson at the FBI's Phoenix office confirmed the raids were connected to a federal investigation of the mall looting.

TIME OF JAKE PAUL'S ARREST AND RESULTING FBI RAID May 30: Looting at the Scottsdale Fashion Square mall, Arizona May 31: Paul tried to distance himself from the situation in a statement, saying he was in no way involved in any looting or vandalism June 4: Scottsdale, Arizona authorities charged the 23-year-old internet star with criminal trespass and unlawful assembly - both misdemeanors August 5: Paul's home in LA and Armani Izadi in Las Vegas are both raided by the FBI Charges are dropped against both men by Scottsdale police; they remain the subjects of a federal investigation Advertisement

Echoing a statement released by Paul in June, the source insisted they were not involved in any looting.

'This is definitely being trumped up,' the friend of the YouTube stars said. 'It was never anyone's intention to go down there and loot. I know that Mr. Izadi and Jake didn't loot anything. It's hard to say what was going on with all of the people around them.

'There's plenty of footage out there showing there were ignorant people around them that were encouraging bad behavior. There were people who they knew and didn't know who were doing things that weren't intelligent.

'But of course the only names getting dragged into the media are Jake's and Izadi's. That's always the position. Jake's insanely famous and Mr. Izadi's a good friend.'

The FBI said there were no arrests during the searches, and Paul's lawyer, Richard Schonfeld, said he was out of California at the time.

A staffer who helps run events at Izadi's house, dubbed Graffiti Mansion, told Fox 5 Las Vegas that officers burst onto the property with flash bang grenades.

'They got here about 6 am this morning. We opened the gate to let them come in. They woke the staff with a couple of flash bangs which was pretty exciting,' Richard Ochoa told the TV station.

Izadi later posted on, saying: 'A lot of people talking trash. A lot of people making up things online today. I'm not going to get into any details other than all they wanted to know about was Arizona.'

Footage showed what appeared to be a high-powered rifle resting against the star's hot tub in the backyard that appears in many of his recent YouTube videos

The FBI said no arrests were planned in Wednesday's search. Sources say: 'We don't fully understand how misdemeanor trespassing charges turned into a federal investigation'

In a statement on Wednesday, the Phoenix FBI office said, 'The FBI is investigating allegations of criminal acts surrounding the incident at Scottsdale Fashion Square in May 2020.

'This morning the FBI executed federal search warrants in California and Las Vegas, Nevada in connection with this investigation. The search warrant affidavits are sealed and we are, therefore, prohibited from commenting further.'

Scottsdale Police said: 'Misdemeanor charges for Jake Paul, Arman Izadi and Andrew Leon related to their involvement in the May 30, 2020 Scottsdale Fashion Square riots are being dismissed without prejudice today.

'It is in the best interest of the community to dismiss misdemeanor charges without prejudice so that a federal criminal investigation can be completed. Scottsdale retains the option to refile charges depending on the outcome of the federal investigation.'
In January 2020, the Burkina Faso Customs Administration joined the WCO's Anti-Corruption & Integrity Promotion (A-CIP) Programme for Customs, funded by Norad. With the support of officials from the A-CIP Programme and through the mobilization of a local coordination team, the Directorate General of Customs of Burkina Faso has just initiated the Scoping Phase of the Programme by carrying out several preparatory and launching actions within the unprecedented context of the Covid-19 crisis.

Carried out remotely because of the constraints imposed by the health crisis, both partners were required to adapt their working and intervention methods by relying on teleworking technologies, expertise and strong remote project management skills. The first activities consisted in agreeing on a remote collaboration approach and in developing a support kit, activity sheets and work tools.

In order to officially launch the Programme, a videoconference brought together on July 29, 2020, Mr. Elie Kalkoumdo, Director General of Customs of Burkina Faso and Ms. Andrea Hampton, Manager of the A-CIP Programme, as well as the steering team made up of administrations contact points and members of the A-CIP team. The meeting was an opportunity to discuss the stakes, agree on the expected results and specify the working methods to be favored. The Director General recalled the strong commitment of the State of Burkina Faso, the government, the Ministry of Finance as well as the customs administration, as shown during the official presentation of the Customs Strategic Plan (2017-2021), in which the promotion of integrity plays an important role.

At the end of the meeting, the Director General shared his vision, his expectations and his commitment: I sense enthusiasm from all internal and external players when they talk about the positive impact of our approach to fighting corruption and promoting integrity. The A-CIP Programme improves and strengthens the scope of our actions initiated to date. If I am clearly the bearer of the integrity file as Head of the customs administration in Burkina Faso, I note through our exchanges that we are all ready to support each other, as integrity is first and foremost a collective responsibility.

For more information about the WCO A-CIP Programme, please visit the WCO A-CIP Programme page, or contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.
A 40-year-old Covid-19 patient allegedly made attempts to end life twice in less than 30 minutes on Monday - first by slitting his wrist and then jumping off the third floor at Jaya Arogya Government multi-specialty hospital in Gwalior where he is being treated, the hospital administration said.

His condition is stated to be serious due to injuries he sustained and loss of blood.

The man told hospital administration that he took this extreme step as he was depressed.

He had renal failure. His mother recently donated a kidney to him and then he tested positive for coronavirus. He was in a state of depression as he thought that he was becoming a burden for his family, said RKS Dhakad, superintendent of Jaya Arogya government multi-specialty hospital.

He said the man was admitted at the hospital on Saturday after he was found Covid-19 positive.

The man first slit his wrist at around 3 pm in the bathroom of the hospital and after a few minutes, he jumped off the third floor of the hospital. He fell on a tin shed and sustained serious injuries in his legs and hands. His condition is serious due to loss of blood, Dhakad said.

Gwalior superintendent of police Amit Sanghi said, We have informed the patients family. We are investigating the matter and will record his statement once his condition stabilizes.
Russias race to allow civilian use of a potential coronavirus vaccine before clinical trials are complete could put people at risk, according to a local association of multinational pharmaceutical companies.

The government plans to give a vaccine developed by Moscows Gamaleya Institute conditional registration as early as this week, which would open the door to civilian use. Yet less than 100 people had officially received the inoculation against the epidemic by early August and its widespread use could be dangerous, the Association of Clinical Trials Organizations said in a letter sent to Health Minister Mikhail Murashko on Monday.

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, ACTO Executive Director Svetlana Zavidova said by phone. This is a Pandoras Box and we dont know what will happen to people injected with an unproven vaccine.

The Gamaleya vaccine, which is being developed together with the Russian Direct Investment Fund, began Phase 3 testing last week. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Monday he hopes it will be registered soon, while one of his deputies has said production is likely to start next month and the Health Ministry said mass vaccinations could begin by October.

World Health Organization spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters last week in Geneva that vaccines should go through all stages of testing before being licensed.

A spokesperson for RDIF declined to comment on the letter. The Health Ministry didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Scores of Russias business and political elite have already been given access to the experimental vaccine as early as April, according to people familiar with the effort. Military volunteers completed Phase 2 trials in July, according to the Defense Ministry. The results havent been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Researchers and pharmaceutical companies in other countries including the U.S., the U.K., Japan and China are also racing to develop vaccines. AstraZeneca Plc, Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc. have begun late-stage testing for Covid-19 vaccines, with initial results from some of the human trials expected as early as October.

ACTO represents a group of multinational companies that conduct clinical trials in Russia, including Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Novartis AG.

Russia had over 27,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the second quarter, according to Federal Statistics Service data. It has the fourth-most confirmed cases in the world, with nearly 900,000 people diagnosed.

They havent published anything, Zavidova said of the Russian efforts. This runs counter to the rest of the world. There is a standard to publish data even from unsuccessful studies.

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

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl

Director - Sharan Sharma

Cast - Janhvi Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Angad Bedi, Vineet Kumar Singh, Manav Vij

Janhvi Kapoor plays the ultimate outsider in Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, a biopic of the Indian Air Forces first female combat pilot, out on Netflix on Wednesday. It isnt as slickly made as Uri: The Surgical Strike, but refreshingly, neither are its politics as problematic.

Gunjan Saxena doesnt subscribe to the hyper-nationalism that recent Indian war films have so proudly worn on their chest. Instead, director Sharan Sharma has chosen to explore a wholly different, but equally thorny topic: feminism.

Watch an interview with Janhvi Kapoor and Pankaj Tripathi here

In our country, the idea of equal opportunity is seen as a threat by those in positions of power. Which is why there is a systemic effort to maintain the status quo. Gunjan Saxena, solely on the strength of her convictions, chose to break it. Pinjra tod, her father, played by the great Pankaj Tripathi, tells her in an excellent scene in the films final act, when Gunjan, having nearly given up on her dreams of becoming a pilot, returns home. Tripathi, playing perhaps the most tender character of his career  Gunjans dad reminded me of Kumud Mishras equally virtuous character in Thappad  is the heart and soul of the film.

From an early age, Gunjans father, an army officer, was the only one who supported her dream of becoming a pilot. Despite topping her class in school, she frets about telling her parents that her future lies not in some mans kitchen, but in the skies. The moment when she breaks the news to her folks could almost be mistaken for her coming out as gay  there is gossip among the relatives, her brother adopts the log kya kahenge attitude, and Gunjans mother even proposes visiting an astrologer for advice on how to cure her.

Janhvi Kapoor and Pankaj Tripathi in a still from Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl.

These early scenes unfold at a clip, providing just enough context for us to care about Gunjan and her difficult journey. But every time she overcomes an obstacle  Gunjan in the film is gifted to a fault  she is faced with a new one.

Her joy at being admitted into the air force academy is short-lived, because it is here that she truly experiences sexism. She misses training because the base doesnt have a place for her to change into overalls. She is forced to relieve herself in a mens washroom because there isnt one for women. Nearly all of her fellow cadets refuse to participate in sorties with her, for fear of being outclassed. And her superior (an irredeemable man played by Vineet Kumar Singh) subjects her to further indignity by ordering her to arm-wrestle another cadet, displaying the sort of narrow-minded male mentality that the film repeatedly calls out. She loses, of course, but has the spirit to confront him in a later scene. Main yahan helicopter udaane aayi hoon ya helicopter uthaane? she says.

But Janhvi, most certainly, is expected to do the heavy lifting. Like Gunjan, it seems as if the young actor is aware that she must work harder than others to prove herself. She brings a sense of discomfort to her performance in the air force scenes, which Id like to believe is deliberate. In any case, it works. Its not easy playing a person whos massively proficient at her job, and still so doubtful of her own potential.

Janhvi Kapoor in a still from Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl.

Gunjan in the film is what many might describe as a Mary Sue -- a slightly outdated term used to describe a character who is implausibly skilled, even within the realms of fiction.There is no obstacle Gunjan cant cross by simply tapping into her reserve of strength. And there is no narrative problem that Sharma, who is making his directorial debut here, cant solve with a montage, or with the help of an overbearing background score.

He structures the film almost like a superhero origin story. Gunjan suffers hardships despite her obvious talents, but she develops her skills patiently, until she is called upon to unleash her powers in battle. By writing Gunjan as someone whose first love isnt serving their country, but flying, Sharma offers a new perspective on uber-patriotic war movies. This is a welcome change of pace, especially in India, where the benchmark for war films is determined by JP Duttas filmography .

Alsor read: Raat Akeli Hai movie review: Nawazuddin Siddiquis knives are out in Netflixs nail-biting murder mystery

Many might not agree with this, and that is understandable; some might even be annoyed, which is also understandable. But two of the best (and most progressive) Netflix India films this year have been produced by Dharma.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

The author tweets @RohanNaahar
The local station WBFF reported that at least three people were rescued by firefighters, all of them in a critical condition.

Meanwhile, the Baltimore Fire Department says that the explosion involved three homes and that one adult woman died due to the explosion, while two other occupants were brought to hospital in a serious condition.

On scene of a major gas explosion at Labyrinth and Reisterstown Rd. involving 3 homes. 2 occupants transported in serious condition, 1 adult woman deceased as BCFD continue to search for more. pic.twitter.com/4Hzrjkaled  Baltimore Fire (@BaltimoreFire) August 10, 2020

According to the Baltimore Firefighters union, at least five people are trapped due to explosion, some of them children.

The fire department say they will be holding a briefing at 12pm local time (17:30pm Irish time) to give more information about the explosion.
Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on resolving the situation in Donbas, first president of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk declares that he is ready to negotiate with people from the certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (ORDLO), but only those who represent civil society and did not take part in the war.

"In order to convince Moscow, it is necessary not only the desire of Kyiv, it is difficult to convince them. When this desire is the people who live there, and those who are outside [the occupied territories], I emphasize that this is 1.7 million people, then Moscow will hear better and will also meet people halfway. I believe in it," Kravchuk said.

Answering the question with whom exactly in the occupied part of Donbas he is ready to sit down at the negotiating table, Kravchuk said that, first of all, with civil society.

"These are people who do not participate in governance, did not participate in the war, directly with a rifle in their hands and did not torture those who were captured. These are people who work in higher educational institutions, in schools, in public organizations, I am ready to listen to them," he said.

According to Kravchuk among the changes in the work of the Trilateral Contact Group, it is planned to introduce there "people or a person who knows Donbas well, who lived and worked in Donbas."

"The main thing for us is to hear those people who live in Donbas. We declare everywhere that they are Ukrainians, this is our territory. It is Ukrainian. However, in order to establish peace, we need to know not only the desire of those 'leaders' who exist in Donetsk and Luhansk regions today, and most importantly the people who live there," the head of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG said.

Kravchuk said that the people from ORDLO are not demanding an end to the war now, as they do not see their prospects, but they see Ukraine as an enemy.

"We must act in such a way that people believe. Well, for example: instead of empty talk about statuses, about everything else, we propose to introduce a standard of free economic zones in these areas. If this is adopted, then people immediately start working, investments come, farms are being restored, destroyed housing is being restored, then people return and see the prospect. Today they do not see such a prospect. They think that they have a prospect in Russia, but they are mistaken," Kravchuk said.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 10

Trend:

Current president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko won 80.23 percent of the vote, Azerbaijani MP Arzu Naghiyev, who visited the country as a member of the Azerbaijani delegation of the presidential election observers, told Trend on August 10.

Naghiyev made the remark commenting on the preliminary results of the presidential election in Belarus.

"As was announced at the Central Election Commissions press conference after the elections, they were held transparently, with 83 percent of voters taking part in them. Alexander Lukashenko leads with 80.23 percent of the vote, followed by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya with 9.9 percent of the vote," the MP said.

The electoral process is over, and the situation in [the capital] Minsk is calm, he added.

The presidential election were held in Belarus on Aug. 9.
Scientsts at CCMB see some hope in the way the virus has been mutating as time passes. (Representational image: AFP)

Hyderabad: The first strain of the SARS Cov-2 virus  the so-called L strain  which initially caused Covid-19 is slowly disappearing according to 48,653 genomes that were studied by researchers and published in the journal Frontiers of Microbiology.

The L strain, which was widespread in Wuhan, has mutated during its journey to different continents and five different strains have been produced.

The L strain from Wuhan emerged in December 2019 and the first mutation was the S strain that appeared in the beginning of 2020. After that, there were strains G and V which have been produced in mid-January 2020 as they spread to different parts.

The G strain is most widespread till date and it has mutated to GR and GH strains in February 2020. In India, earlier there was L strain and then G and GH strains have been dominant. According to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), there has also been Clade A 3i which has been found to be very virulent in India. These were found in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi and also parts of Telangana.

There are different samples which are being collected from states and the genomic studies are being carried out.

The genomic study of the virus is important for development of drugs for the disease and also checking use of old molecules on the virus. Presently, CCMB has got more than 20 different molecules for testing on whether it will work on the virus. The scientists are looking at the different strains and the impact of medicines on them to understand how treatment can be further improved.

Meanwhile the biggest worry was whether like the influenza virus, the coronavirus will be variable but it has been found that, despite mutations, variability will be limited. This means that despite the different strains due to mutations, the virus structure has remained the same.

A scientist at CCMB explained, Less variability means that even if there is a mutation the vaccine will work for all the strains of coronavirus. This is positive news. The disappearing strain L also shows that due to constant mutations there are chances that other strains will slowly disappear and there may be new ones or they may not be. Or it could also mean that there is immunity developing for some strains.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, ARMENPRESS. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian sat down with the Syrian Al-Azmenah newspaper for an exclusive interview on the Treaty of Sevres, as August 10, 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of its signing.

The questions and answers below are the official translation of the published article provided by Sarkissians Office.

Question: Mr. President, August 10 marks the 100th anniversary of the the Treaty of Sevres which after WWI was signed at the Paris Peace Conference by the 13 victorious countries of the Entante on one side and the defeated Ottoman Empire on the other side. The Treaty was called to solve the tormented for decades Armenian Issue and end sufferings of the Armenians. Your opinion?

Answer: The Treaty of Sevres in its essence was a peace treaty and with this regard it really could have solved fundamentally one of the thorniest for our region problems  the Armenian issue.

The Treaty of Sevres was preceded by the first conference, which took place in February-March 1920 in London where a political decision was adopted that one, unified Armenian state must be created. At the same time, the Republic of Armenia, which was de facto recognized on January 19, 1920 at the Paris Conference, was accepted as its axle and some territories of Western Armenian under the Ottoman rule should had been united with it.

By the Treaty of Sevres, Turkey was to recognize Armenia as a free and independent state. Turkey and Armenia agreed to leave demarcation of the borders of the two countries in Erzrum, Trabzon, Van, and Bitlis provinces (vilayets) to the decision made by the United States (the arbitral award of President Woodrow Wilson which on November 22 will also mark its 100th anniversary) and accept his decision immediately and all other proposals  to provide Armenia with an access to the see and demilitarization of all Ottoman territories adjacent to the mentioned border line.

Question: But the Treaty of Sevres remained on paper

Answer: I would rather say that the Treaty of Sevres was not fully ratified (which means it remains unperfected and it is true that when it comes to Armenia its decisions were not implemented because the international political situation had changed but, at the same time, it was never denounced either.

The Treaty of Sevres is a legal, interstate agreement which is de facto still in force because this document became the base for other documents, which derived from it, for determining the status of a number of Middle East countries after WWI or more recently, among them Syria (currently Syria-Lebanon) and Mesopotamia (currently Iraq-Kuwait), Palestine (currently Israel and Palestinian authority), Hejazi (currently Saudi Arabia), Egypt, Sudan, Cyprus, Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya.

Along with all this, the Treaty of Sevres could have promoted the resolution of the Armenian Issue and unification of the Armenian nation on its historical lands.

It could have partly mitigated the losses inflicted on the Armenian people by the Genocide of 1915 and thus create conditions for the regulations of the relations between Armenia and Turkey and establishment of a lasting peace among the peoples of our region.

But in September 1920, the aggression unleashed by the Kemalists against the Republic of Armenia ended in the dissolution of the Armenian independent statehood and sovietization of Armenia.

Thus, the centuries-long struggle of the Armenian people for uniting in one state entity the separated parts of Armenia was unsuccessful.

But the Republic of Armenia and Armenian nation spread all over the world remain the inheritors and masters of our millennia-long history and civilization. No matter what was done or will be done, no matter how the undeniable facts are being denied, no matter how much the material monuments and Armenian traces on the territory of historical Armenia are being destructed, it is impossible to annihilate the memory of the Armenian people.

The Treaty of Sevres even today remains an essential document for the right of the Armenian people to achieve a fair resolution of the Armenian issue.

Question: There is an opinion that the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 negated the Treaty of Sevres.

Answer: It is simply not true and cannot be true. The Treaty of Lausanne does not contain such an annulment; moreover, it does not contain any reference to the Treaty of Sevres. The Republic of Armenia did not sign the Treaty of Lausanne, thus we are not a party of the Treaty of Lausanne. Thus, it implies no obligation for the Republic of Armenia. In this case, the international Res inter alios acta principle (a thing done between others does not harm or benefit others). The Treaty of Sevres and the Treaty of Lausanne are two different legal documents.

Question: Lets get back to our times. The Middle East, which is an immediate neighbor for the countries of the South Caucasus, has become a hot spot once again: armed conflicts, civil wars, fight against terrorism, territorial disputes. Border clashes took place on the Armenian-Azerbaijani line of contact in mid-July which claimed human lives and created extraordinary tension between Yerevan and Baku.

Answer: Yes, these days when the entire world and we are fighting against our common enemy, the coronavirus pandemic, and regardless of the fact that conflicts all over the world have been halted, our neighboring country - Azerbaijan tried to take advantage of the situation and use in the negative sense this window of opportunity to unleash aggression on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Fortunately, the Armenian Armed Forces demonstrated their high battle-ready spirit and literally in two or three days were able to contain the encroachments of the opponent and thus saved our region from the blazes of large-scale clashes.

Question: The UN, EU, OSCE, various capitals made statement on these extremely dangerous developments, urging the parties to maintain peace and dialogue. And only Ankaras tone was bellicose, in full support of Bakus actions.

Answer: It is true that the international community responded widely to these events. It is especially true with regard to Moscow, Washington, and Paris - the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But the Tavush events raised some serious concerns.

My first concern relates to a very aggressive rhetoric of our southern neighbor  Turkey. Turkey has been using with regard to Armenia a kind of language which is inappropriate in the international relations. And this is absolutely unjustified and irresponsible. Keep in mind that this is the country which was the scene of a great human tragedy, the country which 105 years ago executed a genocide against our nation. And instead of trying to establish bridges with Armenia by recognizing those black pages of its history, they resort to a language which in fact reveals their intention to carry on with what was done 105 years ago.

The second concern is Azerbaijans attempt to create an impression that Armenia poses a threat to the international infrastructure which is going through Azerbaijan. This is total nonsense. These infrastructure has been in place for over 20 years, and Armenia has never had any intention to destroy it. My message is the following: Armenia has never been and will never be a threat for anyone because we are the successors of those who went through the Genocide and survived. We know all too well what suffering means, we know the human values. I am concerned that when the entire world is fighting together against the coronavirus pandemic, some are undertaking inhuman actions.

Another concern is about official statements coming from the government of Azerbaijan or relevant structures on Azerbaijans threat to hit the Metsamore nuclear plant. I am a physicist and know very well the real consequences of a strike on a nuclear power plant. Thus, I take these statements as an intention to carry out a terrorist act which in international relations is defined as nuclear terrorism. God forbid it happens one day, we will have a Caucasian Chernobyl. Not only Armenia will be affected but everyone, including Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, Middle East

Regardless of what problems exist between the country and neighbors, playing with fire of nuclear issue is unacceptable.
The historic annual 24 Hours of Le Mans race is to go ahead without spectators due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Le Mans is one of the most celebrated events in the motorsport calendar and last year's race saw more than 250,000 attend to witness it.

It was expected that a small number of fans would head to the 8.48-mile long Circuit de la Sarthe for its September 19 start this year for what is the 88th edition of the famous car race but that will not happen.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans race will go ahead behind closed doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic

The famous race attracted 250,000 spectators last year but due to a spike in positive cases in France a decision was made to exclude fans from the 88th edition of the race in September

The scale of the pandemic has forced organisers - who worked closely with health officials and government ministers - into a U-turn and they announced on Monday that aside from a limited number of journalists on hand to cover the event, the 2020 race would see no fans present.

This will be the first time in the history of the Le Mans race that fans will not be there to see it in person.

Speaking on Monday, Pierre Fillon, president of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (AOC), said: 'The 88th 24 Hours of Le Mans will go down in the annals of history as, sadly, the world's greatest endurance race will be run this year with no spectators trackside.

'Over the last few weeks, we have looked at many ways in which we could hold our event in September with fans present, albeit in limited numbers.

'However, given the constraints involved in organising a festival-scale event over several days in the current situation, we have opted with the local government authorities to hold the race behind closed doors.

'There were still too many question marks regarding health and safety. We know that our fans will be as disappointed as we are by this decision but, with public health in the balance, it really wasn't a difficult call to make.

'You don't compromise where safety is concerned.'

Organisers confirmed that they were unwilling to compromise when it came to fan safety

A photo from 2017 shows the huge interest in the race, which first began back in 1923

The decision to expel spectators from the event next month comes following a spike in positive Covid-19 cases in France. Last year 25,000 Brits went to the race but the impact of the pandemic has put an end to many making the trip this time round.

The AOC's initial plan was reportedly to have small groups of spectators in social bubbles of up to 5,000 people.

Unlike Grand Prix events as seen in Formula One racing, 24 Hours of Le Mans is more about endurance than speed.

Teams involved in the race cover a distance roughly 18 times longer than an F1 Grand Prix.

Fans turn out in their hundreds of thousands to witness how cars survive such a taxing and enduring race and heading into its 88th race since its inception in 1923, it has gained worldwide recognition.

A number of films have been made about the race with the 1971 movie entitled 'Le Mans' starring American actor Steve McQueen in the role of Michael Delaney among the most famous.

Many films have been made about the endurance race with Steve McQueen's performance as Michael Delaney in the 1971 film 'Le Mans' remembered as one of the most memorable

The film starring McQueen focuses on Delaney suffering a horror crash with Claude Aurac on what is the most intense track to compete and survive on for those taking part.

Earlier editions of the race were fraught with danger and the 1955 Le Mans disaster remains the worst accident in motorsport history, when 84 people were killed including driver Pierre Levegh. After hitting the back of Lance Macklin's Austin-Healey at high speed, Levegh's Mercedes-Benz was sent hurtling through the air before crashing into a spectator area and bursting into flames. Thankfully, safety standards have improved greatly since then.

Le Mans is the latest major motorsport event to see fans barred from attending on health grounds.

Formula One is five races into their rearranged 2020 season and all five races - two in Austria, one in Hungary and two at Silverstone in the UK - have been held without spectators.

The Indianapolis 500, which regularly attracts around 300,000 fans each year, will also go ahead without fans. Having been pushed back to August 23 it had been hoped that the event in Indiana could welcome back fans but the pandemic is yet to be controlled in the United States and it remains too dangerous a risk on health grounds.
Humiliated Nicola Sturgeon today apologised for blunders that saw grades for 125,000 Scottish pupils marked down - but No10 insisted it will push ahead with 'standardisation' in England.

The First Minister admitted the Scottish government 'did not get it right', amid complaints that individual children have been punished to fit in with a model of how the overall results should look.

Those affected will not need to appeal, and there will an announcement on how it intends to fix the problems tomorrow. The rethink has raised concerns that England could see a similar furore over GCSE and A-Level results.

Boris Johnson said he understood the 'anxiety' caused by replacing exams with assessments, after they were effectively wiped out by coronavirus.

But the PM's official spokesman said they believed the arrangements would go ahead and be 'fair for all students'.

Nicola Sturgeon (pictured on a visit to West Calder High School today) admitted there will be 'anxiety' for staff and pupils but said she had been 'impressed and reassured' by viewing preparations for the reopening

The move north of the border comes weeks before children are due to get back in classrooms in England, because Scottish summer holidays finish earlier

Sturgeon hails return of schools in Scotland - weeks before England Nicola Sturgeon has hailed the return of schools in Scotland from tomorrow. The reopening comes weeks ahead of England, because the school holidays end earlier in Scotland. Ms Sturgeon told her daily briefing they will 'feel different' when they come back, with staggered starts and lunches ordered on apps in some places. 'I know that there will be anxiety for students parents and teachers this week and I think that is entirely understandable,' she said. 'All of us know that the reopening of schools is important for children's education, personal development, general wellbeing and happiness. 'I was really impressed and reassured this morning by what I saw of the preparations at West Calder and I know these are being repeated in schools all across the country.' Meanwhile, Mr Johnson told teachers today they have a 'moral duty' to help schools reopen in England next month as he faced a standoff with unions. The PM warned it is 'not right' that pupils should spend more time out of the classroom, reiterating his determination for a full return when term begins. Advertisement

Speaking on a visit to a school in London today, Mr Johnson said: 'Clearly, because of what has happened this year, there is some anxiety about what grades pupils are going to get, and everybody understands the system that the teachers are setting the grades, then there's a standardisation system.'

The Prime Minister's spokesman said: 'There is a standardisation process in place but if students are unhappy with their grade then they are able to appeal or they are able to take examinations in the autumn.

'We would expect that the vast majority of students will receive a calculated grade this summer that enables them to move on to the next stage of their education or training.'

The spokesman said the Department for Education and exams watchdog Ofqual had been working closely on the issue.

'It's important that we have a system in place which is fair for all students and reflects the hard work they have put in,' the spokesman said.

With the coronavirus crisis having wiped out exams this year, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) ran a system based on teacher assessments.

However, officials then moderated the results and downgraded about 125,000 estimates.

At her briefing, Ms Sturgeon said pupils who were downgraded will not all be expected to appeal.

She said: 'I do acknowledge that we did not get this right and I am sorry for that...

'We will be taking steps to ensure that every young person gets a grade that recognises the work they have done.

'Our concern - which was to make sure that the grades young people got were as valid as those they would have got in any other year - perhaps led us to think too much about the overall system and not enough about the individual pupil.'

Ms Sturgeon added: 'That burden has not fallen equally across our society. Despite our best intentions, I acknowledge we did not get this right and I'm sorry.'

Speaking at her daily briefing, Ms Sturgeon also hailed the return of schools from tomorrow.

She said schools will 'feel different' when they return, with staggered starts and lunches ordered on apps in some places.

'i know that there will be anxiety for students parents and teachers this week and I think that is entirely understandable,

'All of us know that the reopening of schools is important for children's education, personal development, general wellbeing and happiness.

'I was really impressed and reassured this morning by what I saw of the preparations at West Calder and I know these are being repeated in schools all across the country.'

The reopening comes weeks ahead of England, because the school holidays end earlier in Scotland.

Mr Johnson told teachers today they have a 'moral duty' to help schools reopen in England next month as he faced a standoff with unions.

The PM warned it is 'not right' that pupils should spend more time out of the classroom, reiterating his determination for a full return when term begins.

While he was careful to praise the work done by teachers and unions to make schools 'safe' in time for the crucial step, he added: 'It is our moral duty as a country to make sure that happens.'

The comments - as he tried his hand at archery on a visit to a school in Upminster - came as unions were accused of a bid to sabotage the government's plans with a 200-item list of safety demands.

The National Education Union has provided its half a million members with a 'checklist' of Covid-secure measures, saying they should 'escalate' complaints if they are not being followed. There have also been calls for pupils to be taught on a week on, week off rota.

But Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a member of Sage, said studies had suggested children were 'very minor players in the transmission overall' of the virus.

And he insisted teachers were not at significantly higher risk than any other workers.

Ministers have also played down calls for teachers and pupils to be routinely tested whether or not they have symptoms.
(Photo : REUTERS/Matthew Childs) Huawei logo pictured outside its headquarters building in Reading, Britain, July 14, 2020. (Photo : REUTERS/Aly Song) A Qualcomm sign is seen at the second China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, China November 6, 2019.

China-based Huawei was banned in the United States until May 2021. Though it seemed like American companies will be happy with this decision, Qualcomm speaks on the opposite. Reportedly, the California-based company is looking for ways for Huawei to have easier restrictions under the country.

Why Qualcomm wants a partnership with Huawei?

Huawei out of the country, the impact was pretty solid. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) that usually manufactures Kirin chips on Huawei devices, now quits its partnership with the Chinese company.

This means Huawei only have two choices: either to buy from Taiwan's MediaTek and South Korea's Samsung; or let another U.S. company like Qualcomm to supply for their demand.

To push through the 5G dream of the company, they needed chip semiconductor products to make it happen. And this involves a lot of money.

That is the reason why Qualcomm is now speaking to the government. The Wall Street Journal first reported that the California-based company has been finding a way to ease the restrictions against Huawei.

"Billions of dollars" are at stake once Qualcomm fails to talk to the U.S. for the Huawei ban. Qualcomm's proposal is for the government to give them a license in order to sell 5G chips to Huawei.

Specifically, the executive order says that there will be no phone components that will be sold to Huawei once the ban takes effect. Interestingly, once Qualcomm is approved to have a license, the executive order will have no strong basis no more.

However, once the government refused to make it happen, the government may have to face loss in economical state due to Huawei's huge financial contribution.

Why Huawei was banned?

The U.S has long alleged that Huawei had its close connection with the Chinese government. That is the reason why the White House continues to fight against its presence in the country.

Huawei already warned from the past that the U.S. will face ultimate repercussions due to this sudden banning.

"The US is leveraging its own technological strengths to crush companies outside its own borders," Huawei responded in a statement. "This will only serve to undermine the trust international companies place in US technology and supply chains. Ultimately, this will harm US interests."

So far, it was not confirmed whether Qualcomm actually talked to the government for easier rules against the Chinese company. The sure thing is that once it failed to do so, the U.S economy may lose billions.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Jamie Pancho

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The National Communication officer of the opposition NDC Sammy Gyamfi is demanding the prosecution of persons implicated in the botched ECG-PDS concession deal.

The party says although Energy Minister Peter Amewu publicly admitted that PDS was fraud committed on the country, no individual has been brought to book almost a year after cancellation of the agreement.

According to him, the country has lost about a billion dollars as a result of the cancellation of the power compact agreement with the US.

Sammy Gyamfi told a news conference in Accra that the NDC will prosecute all those involved in the alleged scandal should they win the December polls.

The next NDC Mahama administration will ensure the arrest and criminal prosecution of all persons who directly or indirectly played roles in this stinking PDS scam and several corruption scandals we have witnesses under President Akufo-Addo.

Read full statement below:

AN ADDRESS BY COMRADE SAMMY GYAMFI, NATIONAL COMMUNICATION OFFICER OF THE NDC, AT THE 10TH EDITION OF THE NDCS WEEKLY PRESS BRIEFING, HELD AT THE PARTYS HEADQUARTERS ON MONDAY, 10TH AUGUST, 2020.

CORRUPTION TRACKER SERIES (PART 2)- TRACKING THE STINKING PDS CORRUPTION SCANDAL.

Introduction

Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the media. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the headquarters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the 10th edition of our weekly press briefing. Our strive to deepen democracy and accountability cannot bear any fruits without your esteemed platforms, and that is why we will continue to cherish our partnership with you.

Todays briefing is part two (2) of the Corruption Tracker Series we launched a couple of weeks ago. You would recall, that on 8th June 2020, we launched a Corruption Tracker initiative to track the status of the numerous corruption scandals that Ghanaians have witnessed and continue to witness under the Akufo-Addo government; scandals which have occasioned huge financial losses to the state, and robbed Ghanaians of the comfort they were promised in the run up to the 2016 general elections.

As I indicated that day, the NDC is deeply worried about the fact that, resources which otherwise would have gone into developmental projects in order to uplift the poor, are sadly going to line the pockets of greedy officials of the Akufo-Addo government. Indeed, the structural violence that corruption continues to wreak on our people cannot be underestimated, as corruption deprives the vast majority of our people an opportunity to a decent living. This is the reason for our decision, to embark on the Corruption Tracker initiative to expose to the Ghanaian people the extent to which President Akufo-Addo and his corrupt appointees are milking the state coffers dry through graft and sleaze.

During our very maiden press conference on this series, we spoke about the BOSTGATE corruption scandal in which five (5) million liters of contaminated fuel was sold by BOST to some unlicensed businesses in the year 2017, in clear violation of the NPA Act and the Public Procurement Act under the watch of President Akufo-Addo. Also, at that press conference, we condemned the fact that the proceeds of that unlawful transaction had not been paid into the state coffers by the beneficiary businesses, MOVENPINAA ENERGY AND ZUP OIL.

Against all hope, we had hoped that President Akufo-Addo was going to act on the issues we raised, by ensuring that the perpetrators of this daylight heist are prosecuted or in the very least, ensure that the proceeds from the unlawful transaction were paid into the state coffers for the benefit of Ghanaians.

Unsurprisingly, and very characteristic of him, President Akufo-Addo has once again failed to uphold the national interest, such that as we speak, the proceeds of that illegal transaction have still not been paid into the state coffers and the perpetrators of this naked thievery are still walking the streets of Ghana as free men enjoying their loot, while Ghanaians continue to suffer.

Despite the refusal of President Akufo-Addo to change his corruption clearing agent ways, duty calls on us as a responsible opposition, to continue our Corruption Tracker series in order to shed light on the corrupt activities of this government, and the extent of damage it is inflicting on the already-constrained public purse and all sectors of the nation, so that Ghanaians can make an informed choice at the upcoming December Polls.

PDS CORRUPTION SCANDAL

Todays Corruption Tracker will focus on one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated against the Ghanaian people by any government in Ghanas history. I am talking about the gargantuan and stinking PDS corruption scandal that most of you are very familiar with.

Given the possibility that some of you may have forgotten the facts of this matter, I wish to start by way of a brief recap of the sordid facts and events that led to the PDS scam.

Distinguished friends from the media, you may recall that the Akufo-Addo government sometime in July 2019, informed the Ghanaian public that it has suspended the ECG Concession Agreement with Power Distribution Services (PDS) Ghana, over what they described as, material and fundamental breaches relative to the Demand Guarantee provided by PDS to ECG. You may also recall, that the Energy Minister, Hon. John Peter Amewu, and his Deputies subsequently followed-up and described the entire ECG/PDS Concession Agreement as fraudulent.

The key facts and events that led to this situation are as follows;

1. The PDS concession agreement was the product of the American governments Compact 2, also known as the Power Compact with the government of Ghana, which required that Ghana introduces private sector participation (PSP) into ECGs retail business, with the aim of improving the power distribution sector of the country. The Power Compact is the result of Ghanas successful implementation of Compact 1, a US$547m deal, which the Kufuor and Mills administrations between 2007-2012 used to undertake agri-cultural reforms and major infrastructural projects such as the N1 Highway project in Accra.

2. The PSP Concession Agreement approved by the Parliament of Ghana, contained 45 Conditions Precedent which had to be fulfilled by PDS before they take over the GHS20 billion assets of ECG.

3. Under Conditions precedent 24 and 31, PDS was required to provide ECG a payment security, in the form of a Letter of Credit or Demand Guarantee with a value of US$350 million from a Bank. The purpose of this payment security was to safeguard the assets of ECG so that, in case of default by PDS, Ghana through ECG could fall on same to recover our losses. This precondition of a demand guarantee from a Bank was therefore critical to the protection of the assets of ECG and the interest of Ghana under the ECG-PDS Concession Agreement.

4. Contrary to the effort of Ghanas Parliament to protect the public purse in order to safeguard our interest in the concession, the Akufo-Addo government shamefully conspired to bend the rules for PDS by changing the key requirement of a BANK GUARANTEE to a less liquid instrument, an INSURANCE GUARANTEE, thereby jeopardizing the assets of ECG and the interest of Ghanaians. This infamous and nation-wrecking decision was taken by high-ranking Government officials, including the Vice President of the Republic, representing President Akufo-Addo at a meeting at the Jubilee House on 19th February, 2019.

5. Pursuant to these scandalous amendments by the Vice President Dr. Bawumia, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, and the Eson Benjamin-led MIDA, PDS subsequently provided an Insurance Guarantee with dubious validity to ECG, as same was described as fraudulent by Alkoot, the Qatar-based Reinsurance company which purportedly issued the said Insurance guarantee.

6. According to the FTI investigative report on this matter which was commissioned by MIDA at the instance of the US government, crucial advice from Ghanas own Financial Advisors on this transaction for the necessary due diligence to be done before the said Insurance Guarantee was accepted by the Finance Ministry and ECG, and the assets of ECG handed over to PDS, was ignored. In short, the over GHS20 billion worth of assets of ECG were handed over to PDS by the Akufo-Addo government on the 1st of March, 2019 on the basis of a fraudulent Insurance Guarantee.

7. It is worthy of note, that under the guise of promoting local content, 51% of the shares of PDS were allotted to companies belonging to friends and cronies of President Akufo Addo under very shady circumstances, in furtherance of the Presidents state-capture agenda. As was found by the FTI investigative report, these local companies had no technical capacity in power retailing and did not demonstrate any financial capacity to manage a critical national asset such as the GHS20 billion worth of assets of ECG.

Indeed the FTI report found that PDS could not even raise the needed funds from equity contributions of shareholders to pay for the so-called Insurance Guarantee it claims to have secured from Alkoot such that, out of the $12.25 million that was charged by Cal Bank to PDS as fees for raising the fraudulent Guarantee, only $1 million (8%) was funded by an equity contribution by a PDS shareholder, Philip Ayensu of TG Energy Solutions; $7 million (57%) was funded by a loan that was advanced by Cal Bank to another PDS shareholder, Santa Baron. However, this loan was repaid from operating cash flows, i.e electricity bills collected by PDS after the transfer date. The balance of $4.25 million (35%) was also paid directly from operating cash flows generated by PDS after the transfer date.

8. Subsequent attempts by the Finance Minister and cousin to the President, Ken Ofori-Atta to restructure the shareholding of PDS after the deal was sealed, with the aim of diluting and appropriating the shares of the original shareholders for other cronies of President Akufo-Addo, is what lit the spark for the whole PDS inferno. As some of you may be aware, the original Ghanaian shareholders rebelled and refused to participate in this charade. It is this defiance that outraged the Akufo-Addo faction and occasioned the suspension and subsequent cancelation of the PDS Concession.

9. It is instructive to note, that this fraudulent entity called PDS collected over GHS1.5 billion from electricity consumers in the form electricity bills from 1st March, 2019 to 18th October, 2019 when the concession agreement was in force. As a matter of fact, it was part of these monies, that is about US$11.25 million that PDS used to finance the Insurance Guarantee from the Qatar-based Reinsurance company, Alkoot which was later found to be fraudulent and invalid.

10. More importantly, the cancelation of the PDS concession, occasioned the abrupt termination of the whole MCC Ghana Power Compact by the US government. Consequently, the US government withdrew the second tranche amount of US$190 million (equivalent to GH10 billion) it had allotted to Ghana for the improvement of the power sector of the country under the Power Compact. Overall, Ghana has lost about US$1.8 billion as a result of the greed and avarice of President Akufo-Addo and his corrupt family and friends cabal, who sought to appropriate the GHS20 billion assets of ECG for themselves.

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, these are the sad events that occasioned the PDS corruption scandal. However, the real tragedy of this scandal is summed up by these nagging questions which are begging for answers:

1. Since the Minister for Energy, John Peter Amewu told Ghanaians that the Insurance Guarantee PDS presented for the takeover of the over GHS20 billion assets of ECG was fraudulent - a fact corroborated by Alkoot, the Quatar based Company which allegedly issued the said guarantee, who were those who perpetrated this fraud against Ghanaians and what actions has President Akufo-Addo taken to ensure that they answer for this fraud?

2. Who are the state actors who neglected to perform their fiduciary responsibility to the state by failing to conduct the necessary due diligence on the Insurance Guarantee presented by PDS, and what action has President Akufo-Addo taken against them?

3. Can the Akufo-Addo government tell Ghanaians the total amount of monies PDS collected from electricity consumers in the form of electricity bills, from 1st March, 2019 to 18th October, 2019, when the concession agreement was still in force?

4. Have those monies been accounted for, and if yes, have same been audited?

5. If PDS has accounted for those funds collected, and same has been audited, can President Akufo-Addo publish those accounts for the benefit of you the media who are the fourth estate of the realm, and the entire Ghanaian people?

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, what we know is that as we speak, the perpetrators of the PDS scam are still walking the streets of Ghana as free men. Despite the fact that government itself described the transaction as fraudulent, no arrest or prosecutions have taken place till date.

The likes of Vice-President Dr. Bawumia, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta and the Eson-Benjamin-led MiDA who aided and facilitated this scam which has occasioned the nation huge financial losses, have not been held to account for the roles they individually and jointly played in the scam.

Also, cronies of the President such as Mr. Philip Ayensu, an appointee of President Akufo Addo on the NCA Board, who was the Chairman of PDS and the Directors of the local partners in the company, who perpetrated what government itself alleges to be fraud on the people of Ghana, have all been left off the hook.

Even more bizarre and scandalous is the fact that till date, PDS, the Company made up of friends and cronies of President Akufo-Addo, who were gifted the GHS20 billion assets of ECG on the basis of a fraudulent Insurance Guarantee, and operated same for more than seven (7) months, have not been made to account for the over GHS1.5 billion they collected from electricity consumers during the period.

Also, all calls for the accounts of PDS to be audited by an independent and internationally reputable Audit firm have been ignored by President Akufo Addo. And so as we speak, Ghanaians do not even know how much was collected by PDS from electricity consumers within the duration of the concession, and whether those funds have been properly accounted for and audited.

Friends from the media, it is glaringly clear that President Akufo-Addo has no intention to pursue the prosecution of persons responsible for the PDS scam and the recovery of the millions of monies they collected from electricity consumers for the State.

We in the NDC, are not in the least surprised at the nonchalant posture of President Akufo-Addo on this matter. We have always known that President Akufo-Addo can neither be trusted to punish the perpetrators nor ensure that monies collected by PDS are refunded to the state because of he and his cronies are complicit and neck-deep In the scam.

Ladies and gentlemen, never in the history of Ghana have we seen this level of corruption and naked thievery like we are witnessing under the reign of President Akufo-Addo in the last three (3) and half years. Despite promising to protect the public purse, President Akufo Addo has supervised the biggest rape of the public pursue since he took office in 2017. This has led to a sad situation where millions of money, which should have gone into the provision of schools, hospitals, roads, potable drinking water, jobs and other critical investments in the productive sectors of the economy for the benefit of all Ghanaians, have been diverted into the pockets and bank accounts of a few selfish officials of the Akufo Addo-government, while the masses continue to suffer.

Friends from the media, these acts of naked robbery and the coverup of same by President Akufo-Addo, as pertains to the PDS scam, is what continues to entrench President Akufo-Addo as the Chief Clearing Agent of corruption, who shields his corrupt appointees from punishment. This is why we have always maintained, that President Akufo-Addo is the biggest enabler and promoter of corruption in his government. Today, the incorruptibility tag he was clothe with by his party and some elements in the media prior to the 2016 general elections, has turned out to be a ruse which was presented to Ghanaians for votes and nothing more.

Ghanaians should not and will never forgive President Akufo for supervising this stinking PDS scam which has caused the nation a huge financial loss of over US$1.8 billion, and the numerous corruption scandals that has engulfed his government in the last three (3) and half years. We call on the good people of Ghana to kick out the corrupt Akufo-Addo regime and vote for the John&Jane Ticket come 7th December, 2020. This country needs Leaders who are honest and incorruptible. And those are none other than H.E John Dramani Mahama and his running mate, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, who have dedicated themselves to serving this country with honor and integrity in all the positions they have individually served in.

As President Mahama has already announced, when he is given the opportunity to serve this country again on 7th January 2021, he shall wage a ruthless war against corruption in all sectors of the nation through a crusade dubbed Operation Sting.

Ghanaians can be rest assured, that under the Operation Sting crusade, the next NDC/Mahama government shall ensure that all monies (over GHS1.5 billion) collected by PDS from electricity consumers are properly accounted for, and ensure the retrieval of any amounts misappropriated by the company, their promoters and accomplices for the State. Also, the next NDC/Mahama government shall ensure the arrest and criminal prosecution of all persons who directly or indirectly played a role in the stinking PDS scam and the several other corruption scandals we have witnessed under the Akufo-Addo government.

As President Mahama demonstrated between 2012-2016, when he ensured the prosecution of his own appointees and party members in the YEA scandal involving Abuga Pele and Assibit, the National Service Secretariat Pay roll fraud scandal among others, President Mahama will not be a clearing agent of corruption in the next NDC government. Through the Operation Sting crusade, all appointees of the Next NDC/Mahama administration shall be required to publish their assets and no acts of corruption in any form, whether by Mahama appointees or political opponents will go unpunished. This is the only way, Ghana can succeed in the fight against corruption which has undoubtedly been the bane of the countrys development for a very long time.

President Mahama shall ensure the judicious utilization of state resources for the development of the country through far-reaching policies such as his "Agenda 1 million jobs" policy, Free Primary Health Care program, National Apprenticeship Program, free TVET program, the BIG PUSH policy which will inject some $10 billion into infrastructural projects to dualize key roads, complete the remainder of the 200 Community Day Senior High Schools, finish all abandoned hospital and road projects, among others, for the benefit of all Ghanaians.

Thank you for your attention.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 01:38:09|Editor: huaxia

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COPENHAGEN, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- As five more cities have reported an escalation of new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend, Danish Health Authorities are paying extra attention to outbreaks in a total of seven cities, Minister of Health and Elderly Affairs Magnus Heunicke said on Monday.

In addition to outbreaks in Aarhus and Ringsted, the cities of Silkeborg, Glostrup, Nyborg, Solrod, and Soro have reported over 20 infected per 100,000 inhabitants, the minister said at a press conference.

According to Heunicke, there is "cause for concern and for quick action," since 756 cases have been reported in Denmark within the past seven days -- almost half found in Aarhus Municipality.

Silkeborg, 45 km west of Aarhus, was described as a fast-developing hotspot, recording 44 new infections per 100,000 within the last seven days.

Meanwhile, 40 children from a Silkeborg kindergarten were sent home for quarantine after the detection of a confirmed case in the institution on Monday.

"There are not yet many inpatients at hospitals. But the virus is here, and if we do not react in time, we risk that the hospitals will be burdened as we saw in the spring," Kare Molbak, director at the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), said at the press conference.

The SSI director does not expect the coronavirus would vanish itself before a vaccine comes out.

"I think it ends with a vaccine... I expect that by mid-2021 we will have a vaccine that may not be the best, but it will provide some protection. At some point we will have the virus under full control," he said.

Soon after the press conference, the Ministry of Transport issued a brief statement making it mandatory for citizens in Silkeborg, Odder, Horsens, Skanderborg, and Favrskov municipalities, to wear face masks on all public transport. A similar announcement was made for Aarhus municipality last week.

For the rest of the country, face masks were still being recommended on public transport.

To date, Denmark has reported a total of 14,815 COVID-19 cases and 620 deaths, according to the daily update from the SSI. Enditem
V300ZEFIRO

Hitachi and Bombardier to supply 23 V300ZEFIRO (Frecciarossa 1000) very high-speed trains to Trenitalia for operation in Spain

Hitachi and Bombardier to supply 23 V300ZEFIRO (Frecciarossa 1000) very high-speed trains to Trenitalia for operation in Spain

New operator ILSA has chosen Frecciarossa 1000 trains for their maximum reliability and high passenger comfort on high-speed routes in Spain from 2022

Recognition of the partnership between Hitachi and Bombardier in the high-speed rail sector

NAPLES, Italy and BERLIN, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

To view the photo associated with this press release, please visit the following link:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/fdb3360e-cdbb-45a7-a928-e93d64ea08d9

Hitachi Rail SpA and Bombardier Transportation announced today that they have signed a contract with Italys primary train operator Trenitalia to supply 23 Frecciarossa 1000 very high-speed (VHS) trains for the new Intermodalidad de Levante (ILSA) rail operation, a joint venture established by Trenitalia and Operador Ferroviario de Levante SL. The contract value is 797 million euro ($943 million US) in a partnership involving company participation of approximately 60 per cent and 40 per cent respectively. For Bombardier Transportation, this order relates to an undisclosed customer in Europe previously announced on August 6, 2020.

The ETR1000 train, widely known commercially as the Frecciarossa 1000, has transformed passenger transport on high-speed lines in Italy, setting the standard and becoming the fastest and most admired train in Europe. It is a platform that we are very proud of and is proof of our continuous and positive collaboration with Trenitalia to the benefit of passengers and society in terms of comfort, sustainability, style, performance and low noise. We look forward to bringing the same advantages to Spain, and to contribute to the development program of high-speed railway services in this country with these new services, said Andrew Barr, Group CEO, Hitachi Rail.

The Frecciarossa 1000 very high-speed train has been chosen for the new ILSA franchise in Spain to enrich the travel experience for passengers, thanks to its high levels of comfort and reliability. With cutting-edge train control and propulsion technologies deriving from the V300ZEFIRO platform, these fast and quiet trains are already very popular with long-distance travellers in Italy. The liberalization of Europes railways enables ILSA to offer new rail services in Spain to encourage even more passengers to shift their journeys from cars and planes to trains, contributing towards global sustainability goals, added Franco Beretta, President and Managing Director of Bombardier Transportation Italy.

Story continues

Working together with Bombardier as trusted partners of Trenitalia for this new international project, renews and recognizes our valued experience in the high-speed rail sector. For Hitachi, a fully integrated, global provider of rail solutions, this is a further confirmation of our capability to contribute to society through the development of superior, original technology and products that deliver sustainable mobility, commented Christian Andi, Executive Officer, Region EMEA, Hitachi Rail Group.

We are delighted that Trenitalia has put its confidence in Bombardier and Hitachi once again with this order for 23 trains based on Bombardiers V300ZEFIRO platform. This innovative, super-fast train is already extremely popular with passengers in Italy and were looking forward to bringing this outstanding high-speed travel experience to millions of rail passengers in Spain, concluded Marco Biffoni, Head of Sales Italy for Bombardier Transportation.

The Frecciarossa 1000 is the fastest and quietest very high-speed train in Europe. The 23 new trains for ILSA will be designed and built by Hitachi Rail and Bombardier in Italy. Each train will be approximately 200 metres long with capacity for around 460 passengers and capable of commercial speeds of up to 360 kph. State-of-the-art aerodynamics and energy saving technologies give the train unmatched operating efficiency. Once onboard, passengers will be able to enjoy WiFi, a bistro area and high levels of comfort in all classes. The trains are operable on high-speed rail networks equipped with multi-voltage technology fulfilling all TSI requirements. Since their introduction in Italy in 2015, the Frecciarossa 1000 very high-speed trains have set enviable standards of performance, operating efficiency and passenger comfort.

ILSA has been selected by ADIF (the company who runs Spains rail infrastructure) as the first private operator to be granted access to the Spanish rail market. From 2022, ILSA will run high-speed services on the Madrid-Barcelona, Madrid-Valencia/Alicante and Madrid-Seville/Malaga lines.

About Hitachi Rail

Hitachi Rail is a fully integrated, global provider of rail solutions across rolling stock, signalling, service & maintenance, digital technology and turnkey. With a presence in 38 countries, across three continents and over 12,000 employees, our mission is to contribute to society through the continuous development of superior rail transport solutions. Drawing on the wider Hitachi Groups market-leading technology and research-and-development capabilities, we strive for industry leading innovations and solutions that can deliver value for customers and sustainable railway systems that benefit wider society. For information about Hitachi Rail, visit www.hitachirail.com

About Bombardier Transportation

Bombardier Transportation is a global mobility solution provider leading the way with the rail industrys broadest portfolio. It covers the full spectrum of solutions, ranging from trains to sub-systems and signalling to complete turnkey transport systems, e-mobility technology and data-driven maintenance services. Combining technology and performance with empathy, Bombardier Transportation continuously breaks new ground in sustainable mobility by providing integrated solutions that create substantial benefits for operators, passengers and the environment. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Bombardier Transportation employs around 36,000 people and its products and services operate in over 60 countries.

About Bombardier

With nearly 60,000 employees across two business segments, Bombardier is a global leader in the transportation industry, creating innovative and game-changing planes and trains. Our products and services provide world-class transportation experiences that set new standards in passenger comfort, energy efficiency, reliability and safety.

Headquartered in Montreal, Canada, Bombardier has production and engineering sites in over 25 countries across the segments of Aviation and Transportation. Bombardier shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (BBD). In the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, Bombardier posted revenues of $15.8 billion. News and information are available at bombardier.com or follow us on Twitter @Bombardier.

Bombardier and V300ZEFIRO are trademarks of Bombardier Inc. or its subsidiaries.

For Information

Brand & Communication Director, Hitachi Rail SpA

Francesca Sarnataro

+39 331 6100857

francesca.sarnataro@hitachirail.com

Press Office & Media, Brand Image, Hitachi Rail SpA

Paola Limatola

+ 39 334 6074064

paola.limatola@hitachirail.com

Global media relations

press@rail.bombardier.com

Bombardier Transportation Italy Press Office:

SEC Spa  Tel. +39 02 624999 1

Irene Fusani

+39 340 1280512

fusani@secrp.com

You can also contact one of our worldwide contacts for specific press inquiries.




Sports 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
Tens of thousands of Chinese visitors have swarmed to tourist attractions across Wuhan despite the global pandemic after officials made dozens of them free to enter.

Social media footage shows large crowds of people standing together closely as they queue outside local scenic spots. Some even ditched wearing face masks.

It comes after the provincial government has offered citizens free entries to visit over 20 tourism destinations in the former coronavirus epicentre since Friday.

Social media footage shows large crowds of people standing together closely as they queue outside local scenic spots in Wuhan over the weekend. Some even ditched wearing face masks

China appeared to have largely brought the coronavirus outbreak under control through a series of lockdowns and restrictions.

But the country has recently seen a new spike of infections in the north-western province of Xinjiang and the north-eastern city of Dalian. Both regions have used draconian measures to fight the disease.

On Friday, Hubei officials announced in a press briefing that nearly 400 five-star scenic parks across the province would be free to enter from August 8.

The new policy is said to be an appreciation to Chinese people for their selfless support to Hubei during the coronavirus outbreak, according to local newspaper Chutian Metropolis News, citing a senior official.

The new policy is said to be an appreciation to Chinese people for their selfless support to Hubei during the coronavirus outbreak. The picture reportedly shows people queuing at a local aquarium Wuhan after officials made the tourist attraction free to enter for visitors

Visitors are only allowed to enter the tourist attractions after having their temperatures checked and showing their dedicated health codes, according to Wuhan tourism authorities

Visitors are required to book their appointments in advance. They are only allowed to enter the tourist attractions after having their temperatures checked and showing their dedicated health codes, according to Wuhan tourism authorities.

The offer, which will remain till the end of the year, has seen tens of thousands of Chinese people flocking to scenic spots across Wuhan over the weekend.

Footage emerged online show several Wuhan parks being jam-packed by large crowds of visitors following the new announcement.

One video allegedly sees a long queue of tourists at the Wuhan Madame Tussauds flaunting coronavirus rules as they stood in close proximity while some even ditched face coverings.

Local authorities were forced to temporarily closed the online booking system after the site was viewed by over 10 million people following the new scheme.

Officials have urged visitors to avoid travelling at peak times and make reservations in advance.

Last week, thousands of Chinese beer lovers also left their face masks and virus worries behind to gather in large crowds and raise a much-needed glass at the annual Qingdao beer festival, the largest booze festival in Asia.

At the festival, which opened on Friday and will run until late August, drinkers were eating and drinking together, watching shows and fireworks and sampling the more than 1,500 types of beer available.

On Monday, Chinese authorities reported 49 confirmed coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 84,668. The country's death toll remains at 4,634.
Mr. DeWine opted to just take the federal money. Its a lot quicker to implement and get the benefits to Ohioans at no additional cost to the state, said Dan Tierney, a spokesman for Mr. DeWine.

Several other states confirmed on Monday that they had received the same option from the Labor Department, although how many would actually get it remained an open question on Monday evening, when Mr. Trump told reporters that he would waive the 25 percent match in certain cases.

We just had a meeting with the governors, and they were very anxious to get money for the people in their states, Mr. Trump said at a White House briefing. We can terminate the 25 percent, or we dont have to do that. So we will see what it is  depends on the individual state  but a lot of money will be going to a lot of people very quickly.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who was with the president at the briefing, said the benefit would begin to go out to unemployed workers within the next week or two. But it was also unclear how long that federal benefit would last, with some experts estimating it would be just a few weeks because the administration could direct only existing funding.

As the governors wrestled with Mr. Trumps order, talks on a congressional aid package remained at a standstill. Several House and Senate members have scattered across the country unless they are called back to vote on an agreement. They spent the day trading barbs over who was to blame for the logjam.

In an interview with CNBC on Monday, Mr. Mnuchin, who has been negotiating for the Trump administration, declined to comment on specifics but said that the White House remained ready to make a deal.

He urged Democrats to consider a limited package focused on areas of agreement such as funding for schools  an entreaty Democrats have repeatedly rejected, arguing that the toll of the pandemic warrants a sweeping, broad package and urging Republicans to consider more than doubling their $1 trillion proposal.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 23:05:27|Editor: huaxia

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DHAKA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Floods triggered by heavy seasonal rains and onrush of water from hills have claimed nearly 200 lives in Bangladesh since June 30.

According to the daily flood report of the country's Health Emergency Operation Centre and Control Room on Monday, the floods have killed 188 people in 33 (out of 64) districts.

Most victims have drowned but some died in snake bites and lightning in the flood-hit areas, showed the report.

According to another daily disaster situation report prepared by the country's National Disaster Response Coordination Center (NDRCC) under the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, at least 5.45 million people have been affected by the floods while thousands of families were forced to flee home.

TV reports showed the floods caused widespread damage to habitation, crops, roads and highways across vast swathes of the country.

The latest government report, however, said the situation is now improving in most of the districts with water levels in many rivers receding.

Millions of people in Bangladesh, criss-crossed by hundreds of rivers, suffer from flooding as the low-lying country experiences seasonal floods every year during the June-September monsoon when rivers that feed into the Bay of Bengal burst their banks. Enditem
The Scottish Saltire flag flies next to the British Union Jack flag with the London Eye wheel seen behind in London on July 29, 2019. (Toby Melville/Reuters)

Johnson Fears Loss of UKs Power and Magic if Scotland Breaks Away

LONDONPrime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Monday that Britain would be weaker if the union that binds its four nations were brokenhis latest rejection of a growing push for Scottish independence.

Disagreements between Britains constituent nationsScotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Englandover the handling of the coronavirus pandemic have damaged relations already badly strained by Brexit.

That is particularly the case in Scotland, which voted against leaving the European Union and where opinion polls show support for independence narrowly outweighs support for its 300-year union with England.

British Prime Minster Boris Johnson applies hand sanitiser during a visit to North Yorkshire Police to meet with recently graduated police officers in Northallerton, United Kingdom, on July 30, 2020. (Charlotte Graham/Reuters)

The union of the United Kingdom is, for me, its the greatest political partnership the world has ever seen, Johnson told broadcasters, when asked what the union meant to him.

It would be such a shame to lose the power, the magic of that union.

Scotland voted 55 percent to 45 percent against independence in a 2014 referendum, but the Scottish National Party which runs the semi-autonomous nation wants another vote. Although voters there backed staying in the EU, Britain as a whole voted to leave.

Johnsons Conservative Party, which governs all of Britain and decides policy in areas that have not been devolved to Scotland, is a strong supporter of the union and dismisses any call for another vote.

However, Johnson and other senior ministers have visited Scotland in recent weeks, talking at length about the strength and benefits of the relationship.

By William Schomberg and William James
BBC director-general Tony Hall has apologised for a news report which contained a racist term.

More than 18,000 people complained to the BBC over the broadcast, which saw social affairs correspondent Fiona Lamdin repeat a racial slur allegedly used in a suspected racially-motivated attack in Bristol.

After the broadcaster initially defended the report, Lord Hall said in a statement that the BBC now accepts that we should have taken a different approach at the time of broadcast and we are very sorry for that.

He said the report had caused distress to many, adding: Every organisation should be able to acknowledge when it has made a mistake. We made one here.

It is important for us to listen  and also to learn. And that is what we will continue to do.

The BBC would be changing its guidance on offensive language in its output, he added.

The story ran on the BBC News Channel and local news programme Points West on July 29, but the broadcaster stopped running the report which featured the offensive language later that day.

It should be clear that the BBCs intention was to highlight an alleged racist attack, the outgoing director-general said.

This is important journalism which the BBC should be reporting on and we will continue to do so.

Yet despite these good intentions, I recognise that we have ended up creating distress amongst many people.

The statement was issued after Lord Hall held a meeting with BBC colleagues on the issue.

On Saturday, BBC Radio 1xtra presenter Sideman announced that he was quitting the corporation over the broadcast.

Announcing the move on social media, he said the news report represented an error of judgement, adding it feels like a slap in the face to our community.

After Sideman, real name David Whitely, announced his decision, a BBC spokesman said on Saturday that while they were aware that [the report] would cause offence it was important to explain the alleged context of the incident.

The broadcaster has also previously revealed that the decision was taken by a team of people which included senior editorial figures.

On Thursday, the BBC said it had received 18,656 complaints over the incident.

June Sarpong (Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA)

June Sarpong, the BBCs director of creative diversity, welcomed the decision, saying she is glad that Lord Hall has personally intervened to unequivocally apologise.

Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy praised Lord Hall for the move, adding: But once again it has taken a direct intervention by the DG to overturn a mistake on race previously defended by the BBCs editorial policy managers.

Larry Madowo, a US correspondent for the BBCs World Service, also commented on the move, saying that despite being black he had previously not been allowed to use the racist term in an article when quoting an African American.

But a white person was allowed to say it on TV because it was editorially justified, he said.

This is not the first time Lord Hall has made an intervention following a backlash over the BBCs handling of discussions around race in its news output.

In September, he reversed a ruling by the corporations Executive Complaints Unit after it said BBC Breakfast host Naga Munchetty breached editorial guidelines when she condemned comments made by Donald Trump after he told female Democrats to go back to their own countries.
Sachin Pilot, the former Rajasthan deputy chief minister, whose revolt spelt uncertainty for the ruling Congress in the state, reached out to the party leadership in Delhi and held a meeting with Rahul Gandhi on Monday, according to people aware of the developments.

A leader from the Pilot camp confirmed to HT that a meeting took place for over two hours at Gandhis residence at 12, Tughlaq Road. He said Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who has been in contact with Pilot, too, was present.

The Gandhis did save the day for the (Ashok) Gehlot government, said the leader quoted above. They (the Congress leadership) assured Pilot that all issues that he had would be looked into.

Another leader privy to the details told HT that a committee may be announced to look into the unresolved issues between Gehlot and Pilot, who have had a series of differences since the Congress coming to power in the state in December 2018.

Through the day, representatives of both sides held follow-up meetings to hammer out the details of a truce agreement. An announcement is expected soon.

The big question is now whether Pilot will go back to Rajasthan or if he will be accommodated in the central Congress leadership. When asked, his side, however, did not rule out Pilot attending the upcoming session of the Rajasthan assembly beginning August 14. It is on the 14th; so there is time left. We will be making an announcement soon, leaders in the Pilot camp said.

The second leader told HT that Pilot had agreed to give up his aspirations of being Rajasthan chief minister for now. However, there was no confirmation of this from Pilots side.

Another senior Congress leader aware of the developments sounded hopeful about the possible deal. ...since they met, a positive outcome is expected, the third leader said.

The developments take place exactly a month after Pilot and 18 dissident Rajasthan legislators left Jaipur and rebelled against chief minister Ashok Gehlot.

It was Pilot who sought an appointment with former party chief Gandhi, according to leaders privy to the details, who also said the now-dismissed Rajasthan deputy chief minister has been speaking to senior leaders Ahmed Patel and KC Venugopal in what is being seen as an apparent softening of his stance.

This was the first time that Gandhi met Pilot since the latter left Jaipur after the state police issued him a show-cause notice in a case involving a plot to bring down the government.

Pilot has till now insisted on the removal of Gehlot as chief minister as a pre-condition for any sort of rapprochement, while the Congress asked him and his legislators supporting him to give up the hospitality of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before starting a conversation on resolving the current impasse.

Pilots team, which has been camping in various places from Faridabad to Manesar after spending several days at the ITC Grand Bharat hotel, meanwhile, pointed out that the Congress Legislature Party meeting had completely ruled out a return of the rebels. Pilots rebellion stems from his complaints against the operational style of Gehlot, according to the Pilot camp.

While the Gehlot camp has been claiming the support of 102 legislators (including allies) in the 200-member House, Pilots side has not been able to increase its numbers beyond 19, although this number was previously claimed to be at least 30 by the rebel leader and his aides. The Pilot camp is believed to have the support of three independents as well.

Mondays developments come against the backdrop of the Congress suggesting, at least at the state level, that ties with Pilot are set to be severed.

On Sunday, the general secretary in-charge of Rajasthan, Avinash Pande, ruled out a return of Pilot and his supporters. In politics, sometimes to save democracy, dil par pathar rakhna padta hai (difficult calls need to be taken), he told the media.

In the run-up to the assembly session on August 14 that is likely to feature a floor test, the opposition BJP has also shifted 20 of its 72 legislators to Gujarat to prevent any poaching attempts by the Congress.

While Rajasthan BJP chief Satish Poonia denied any internal rifts, former chief minister Vasundhara Raje met party president JP Nadda and defence minister Rajnath Singh last week to discuss the political developments in her state.

The BJP will hold a meeting of its legislators and those belonging to its alliance partner, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) of Hanuman Beniwal on Tuesday, the day Rajasthan high court will hear a petition challenging the merger of six MLAs of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) with the Congress.

These BSP legislators have since moved the Supreme Court seeking transfer of their case from the Rajasthan high court to the countrys top court.

(With inputs from Aurangzeb Naqshbandi)
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Shares in media company Next Digital <0282.HK> surged more than 340% on Monday as supporters of its chairman Jimmy Lai, a staunch democracy activist, scooped up the stock after he was arrested under Hong Kong's new national security law.

Lai, a critic of Beijing, is the highest profile person to be arrested under the legislation. He was detained on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces, a crime punishable by up to life in prison.

After initially falling by almost a fifth, shares in Next Digital, which publishes Apple Daily, a pro-democracy, tabloid-style newspaper that also produces investigative work, jumped as much as 344% to their highest since June 2019 at HK$0.40, boosting its market value by HK$817 million ($105.42 million).

Having logged record trading volume, the stock eventually closed up 183%.

A former columnist for the media group, Stanley Wong, said he bought 1.2 million shares before noon to show support for the company and then offloaded them, making a profit of HK$75,000. Wong said he would use the proceeds to fund a scholarship at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

"The only way I can think of to support Next Media is to buy its stock," Wong said.

Netizens called the surge a "yellow stock circle," referring to companies that support Hong Kong's democracy movement, and "stock with you". One said purchasing shares was the only way to show support and they didn't care if they lost all their money.

Other supporters posted screenshots of their share purchases on Facebook, although Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of the posts.

Some brokers meanwhile speculated Lai may be forced to sell the group, while market watchers also said the prospect of new leadership at the company could be behind the surge.

"After this event, the market is looking ahead. Maybe, if this chairman is no longer here, another person would take this company in a different direction," said Kenny Ng, an analyst at brokerage Everbright Sun Hung Kai in Hong Kong.

Story continues

Representatives at Hong Kong markets regulator Securities and Futures Commission and Hong Kong stock exchange declined to comment on the stock's rally.

An Apple Daily executive said the newspaper would be published as usual on Tuesday.

"Even if Apple Daily publish a pile of blank paper tomorrow, we would go and buy a copy of it until it's sold out," democracy activist Joshua Wong said on Facebook, while lawmaker Ted Hui urged people to buy copies of the newspaper no matter what.

(Reporting by Donny Kwok and Clare Jim; additional reporting by Noah Sin and Alun John; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
A rich man once told me something that surprised me. He was once not rich.

Understand that his formerly deprived circumstances werent the surprise. The U.S. is happily dense with people who came up from nothing.

In this mans case he explained to me the why behind his formerly challenged circumstances. He was blunt: I was doing stupid things. Now I dont do stupid things.

Howard Marks arguably puts it more artfully. Paraphrasing the billionaire investor, the seeds of bad times are planted during the good times, and the seeds of good are planted during the bad.

During the good times its understandable that relative ease might lead to the development of bad habits and other ways of doing things not consistent with success. Considering lending and investing, the commitment of dollars to a venture is the shifting of resource access to a venture. When times are good, resources are logically abundant on the way to easier access to loans and investment. Translated, capital allocators grow a little bit lax. They reach.

In Markss case, he and his partners at Oaktree Capital have had a history of becoming pessimistic right when others in their midst are most optimistic. They sense lenders and investors reaching for yield as it were, and thats right when they start raising money for future funds that will purchase at a discount the mistakes made during the good times.

Which brings us to a recent piece by Slate columnist Jordan Weissmann. Weissmann is giddy about automatic stabilizers from government that would allegedly soften the blow of recessions. He says they would save the economy from downturns. Basically, government spending would automatically increase during recessions to reduce the pain that they bring. Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, and the other surely brilliant personages who populate Washington could, if Weissmanns enthusiasm is to be taken seriously, smooth out the difficult times. Washington as savior. Where have we heard that before.?

In Weissmanns defense, he probably hasnt thought very deeply about recessions. Because he hasnt, theyre bad in his eyes. And politicians must protect us from whats bad.

In truth, recessions are the surest sign of an economy thats fixing itself. That recessions are a sign of an economy on the mend requires a brief digression. Specifically, the previous truth needs to be discussed in terms of the here and now. Its not a recession.

What were experiencing now is a forced contraction care of politicians on the city, state and national level. Of the view that the answer to a virus was economic desperation, politicians chose to lock down the worlds most dynamic economy. You cant make this up. How little they understood about history. Didnt they know that economic growth has historically coincided with massive advances in the area of healthcare; advances that have elongated life and the quality of life all at once?

Its a long or short way of saying that if a virus threatens, the only answer is freedom. Free people prosper, plus they produce information about how the virus is contracted, how its spread, etc. Politicians chose desperation, and one-size-fits-all solutions. Historians will marvel.

The main thing is that recessions are a healthy sign of the individuals and businesses that comprise what we call an economy fixing what theyve previously done wrong. Thats not whats happening right now. In the here and now individuals and businesses are to varying degrees fighting for their survival amid the taking of their right to prosper.

So while were not in the midst of recession, it cannot be stressed enough that automatic stabilizers would fail us whether we were fixing our own errors, or if were being suffocated by governmental force. In each instance government would be arrogating to itself more control of the economys limited resources.

Weissmann writes as though Pelosi, McConnell et al have some private stash of wealth that they can release into the economy in order to stimulate it. He's incorrect twice, though he surely means well.

For one, governments can only spend insofar as wealth has already been created. If anyone doubts this, look up annual national government spending in the U.S. versus Haiti, Peru, or Zimbabwe. Notice the disparity. Its not because the politicians in the countries not the United States are austere individuals, or incredibly libertarian. They spend very little because theres very little economic activity taking place in those countries for them to take a piece of. In the U.S., Democrats and Republicans can spend in size fashion precisely because they enjoy a piece of the worlds biggest economy.

Weissmann presumes that government spending creates economic growth. No, thats naive. He misses that the growth already occurred; hence the government spending. Automatic stabilizers are a consequence of growth that already happened. Weissmann is double counting. He assumes growth can be multiplied if McConnell, Trump et al will simply take it from us, and give it to someone else. If true, theft during recessions would be legalized.

Weissmanns theorizing also presumes that consumption powers economic growth. No, consumption is the easy part. Investment is what powers growth. Abstinence. Unspent wealth flows to businesses that want to grow, and new economic ideas that cause our productivity to soar.

Which is why Weissmanns solution to economic hardship would only succeed insofar as it would add to the hardship. Indeed, the Slate columnist is calling for Congress to be handed greater control of private wealth when the economy is weakest. Central planning as the fix!

In Weissmanns defense, hes not alone. Nearly every economist buys into the double counting fantasy. Weissmanns merely parroting them. Economists believe the silliest things.
Sars-Cov-2 viruses can be inactivated using certain commercially available mouthwashes. This was demonstrated in cell culture experiments by virologists from Ruhr-Universitat Bochum together with colleagues from Jena, Ulm, Duisburg-Essen, Nuremberg and Bremen. High viral loads can be detected in the oral cavity and throat of some Covid-19 patients. The use of mouthwashes that are effective against Sars-Cov-2 could thus help to reduce the viral load and possibly the risk of coronavirus transmission over the short term. This could be useful, for example, prior to dental treatments. However, mouth rinses are not suitable for treating Covid-19 infections or protecting yourself against catching the virus.

The results of the study are described by the team headed by Toni Meister, Professor Stephanie Pfander and Professor Eike Steinmann from the Bochum-based Molecular and Medical Virology research group in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, published online on 29 July 2020. A review of laboratory results in clinical trials is pending.

Eight mouthwashes in a cell culture test

The researchers tested eight mouthwashes with different ingredients that are available in pharmacies or drugstores in Germany. They mixed each mouthwash with virus particles and an interfering substance, which was intended to recreate the effect of saliva in the mouth. The mixture was then shaken for 30 seconds to simulate the effect of gargling. They then used Vero E6 cells, which are particularly receptive to Sars-Cov-2, to determine the virus titer. In order to assess the efficacy of the mouthwashes, the researchers also treated the virus suspensions with cell culture medium instead of the mouthwash before adding them to the cell culture.

All of the tested preparations reduced the initial virus titer. Three mouthwashes reduced it to such an extent that no virus could be detected after an exposure time of 30 seconds. Whether this effect is confirmed in clinical practice and how long it lasts must be investigated in further studies.

The authors point out that mouthwashes are not suitable for treating Covid-19. "Gargling with a mouthwash cannot inhibit the production of viruses in the cells," explains Toni Meister, "but could reduce the viral load in the short term where the greatest potential for infection comes from, namely in the oral cavity and throat - and this could be useful in certain situations, such as at the dentist or during the medical care of Covid-19 patients."

Clinical studies in progress

The Bochum group is examining the possibilities of a clinical study on the efficacy of mouthwashes on Sars-Cov-2 viruses, during which the scientists want to test whether the effect can also be detected in patients and how long it lasts. Similar studies are already underway in San Francisco; the Bochum team is in contact with the American researchers.

###
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 00:28:35|Editor: huaxia

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Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa (front) gives a speech at the Heroes' Day Commemoration in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Aug. 10, 2020. Zimbabweans celebrated the 40th anniversary of Heroes' Day on Monday amid the COVID-19 pandemic that is ravaging the nation. (Photo by Wanda/Xinhua)

HARARE, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabweans celebrated the 40th anniversary of Heroes' Day on Monday amid the COVID-19 pandemic that is ravaging the nation.

Held without the usual festivities and funfare due to the current lockdown in place, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the occasion occupies a special place in the history and development of the country as the nation takes time to pay tribute to fallen heroes and heroines who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of the country from British colonial rule.

In a televised speech to mark the day, Mnangagwa bemoaned that this year's celebrations were taking place against a renewed onslaught on the country by its perennial detractors in and outside the country.

"Let us however, not lose heart or be discouraged but look back to our rich history and draw lessons from our departed, who since the 1980s, united and showed resilience in their gallant fight against oppressive forces," Mnangagwa said.

He urged the nation to remain united, continue to foster peace and defend its natural resources for the development of the nation.

"The divisive falsehoods and concoctions by renegades and supremacists who want to pounce on our natural resources will never win the day," Mnangagwa vowed.

He said his government will honor some of the country's distinguished liberation war fighters from both the First and Second Wars of independence, among them former President Robert Mugabe and former vice presidents Joshua Nkomo and Simon Muzenda.

Construction of a statue of the 1890s female liberation war icon, Mbuya Nehanda, in Harare's central business district had already started, as government moves to immortalize the supreme sacrifice paid by the gallant fighters.

"Other heroes and heroines from the early wars of resilience will also be honored in a similar manner. We must as a people appropriate our liberation war heritage and shape the narratives by telling our own journey to freedom and independence," Mnangagwa said.

He said the list of the country's monuments is being reviewed to include liberation war shrines while liberation war shrines in neighboring Mozambique and Zambia will continue to be rehabilitated.

Mnangagwa said his government was accelerating national development, although this was being affected by the effects of climate change and Western sanctions.

Maximum land and mining rights utilization will be enforced, as government consolidates the gains of the liberation struggle, Mnangagwa said.

"The blood of those who fought for our land shall forever be honored through maximum use of our land. The land that our heroes fought for includes all that which is under that land," the President said.

He said Zimbabwe was on course to achieving a 12 billion U.S. dollars mining sector by 2023, while the country was also poised to change its current position of being a significant importer to become a net exporter of energy by 2023 through ongoing and planned power development projects.

Road rehabilitation and tourism recovery strategies were also being implemented to accelerate economic development, while macroeconomic stabilization measures recently put in place by government were helping to stabilize the national currency and prices of goods and services, he said.

The government was also prioritizing the security and welfare of people that have been left vulnerable due to COVID-19, Mnangagwa said, adding that his government's resolve to fighting corruption was unwavering.

"The corrupt way is shut and those who choose that route will face dire consequences," Mnangagwa said.

In light of the upsurge in COVID-19 infections and deaths, the nation needs to be more vigilant in fighting the scourge, he said.

Zimbabwe has recorded 4,649 COVID-19 cases including 104 deaths and 1,437 recoveries as of Sunday. Enditem
On August 9, Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan launched the largest plantation drive in the history of Pakistan to plant 3.5 million trees, marking the 'Tiger Force Day'.

However, soon after the drive was over, residents at the Mandi Kass area at Khyber in Pakistan, deliberately uprooted trees planted by the government as a part of its countrywide plantation drive.

According to the residents, the government did not take their permission before planting the trees.

Twitter

The participants of the plantation drive tried to negotiate with the protesters, but in vain.

The tree plantation drive was carried out by more than a million volunteers of the Prime Ministers Tiger Force across the country, according to a report by The Week.

Twitter

Close to 6,000 trees were uprooted by the protestors, who said the trees were planted on private land. The protestors carried black flags and chanted slogans.

Khan launched the tree plantation campaign across the country, saying Pakistan is the sixth most affected country by climate change in the world.

Prime Minister @ImranKhanPTI urges the nation, especially children and the youth to participate in the biggest tree plantation activity in Pakistan's history tomorrow on August 9th, as part of #10BillionTreeTsunami.



The target is 35 lac trees in one day.  pic.twitter.com/bdPnzvO51u  Prime Minister's Office, Pakistan (@PakPMO) August 8, 2020

It is the responsibility of everyone to make country green for our coming generations, he said.

I want to congratulate Tiger Force that they planted 3.5 million plants in one day which is highest number in the countrys history, he added.

The government continues to pursue its ambitious plan of planting over 10 billion trees across the country.
In this week's TravelSkills on SFGATE newsletter...

This week started out on a hopeful note for both the travel biz and travelers. According to the TSA, more than 800,000 fliers passed through airport security on Sunday. That's the first time the TSA's daily tally has topped 800,000 since mid-March when all things travel-related really started to plunge as stay-at-home orders rolled out. Still, we have a long way to go until we get back to the 2.5 million-or-so travelers passing through airport security we saw this time last year.

In a sign of just how bad things have become for hotels, a guest at an upscale Seattle hotel reports that when he checked into his room, he was surprised to find a plea for donations to help the hotel weather the COVID-19 storm. Read: Upscale hotel asks paying guests for COVID-19 financial help

In airline news: Alaska Air launched a very good BOGO sale worth a look - but you must book by midnight tonight (Monday)! United Airlines has restarted service from San Francisco International to Tahiti, the U.K. and Mexico; British Airways expects to come back to San Jose this fall; revived SFO routes are coming from Lufthansa, Swiss and Fiji Airways; Hawaiis Sept. 1 date for reopening the islands to visitors now seems uncertain. Plus much more in our weekly roundup. Read: Routes: Alaska Sale, New Tahiti, London flights plus Hawaii uncertainty, no-mask-no-fly rules + more

Back in April, we wrote about how United Airlines agreed to extend the elite status of its MileagePlus members during a period of sharply reduced travel, and now it is doing the same for its most esteemed customers: those in its Global Services program. In order to offer those members "some certainty during these uncertain times," United said, it is extending its Global Services status through Jan. 31, 2022. Read: United gives more perks to Global Services members

Mask up, with the right type of mask, or get outta here! Two airlines that dominate Bay Area airports will enforce stricter face mask policies beginning Friday as carriers adopt a zero-tolerance approach for fliers who refuse to wear (a specific type of) facial coverings. Read: Airlines tougher on masks with new zero-tolerance policies

Although airline travel has shrunk to a fraction of its former volume, new research indicates that Americans still want to get away on vacation this summer  just not as far away as they did before. Read: Vacationers are still traveling  just not as far

Tell your friends about TravelSkills on SFGATE and have them sign up for our FREE weekly email alerts or forward this email to them!

What is Elon Musks Boring Company building in the desert between Los Angeles and Las Vegas? It might be a tunnel for ultra-high-speed travel between the two cities. A Tesla-focused blog revealed photos of the Boring Company's San Bernardino County facility in the desert near Adelanto, Calif., including a tunneling machine and large storage tents. What's going on? We also have an update on Richard Branson's hyperloop trains at various locations in the U.S. and around the world. Read: Elon Musks mysterious desert tunnel: A superfast LA-Vegas link?

Southwest Airlines has scaled back its aircraft-cleaning procedures between flights to prevent reduced staffing and busier operations from keeping aircraft on the ground longer than scheduled. The airline has shifted its sanitation focus to high-touch areas like lavatories and tray tables. But the new policy means armrests and seat belts will not be wiped down between each flight. Read: Southwest Airlines will disinfect tray tables between flights, but not armrests

Peering out from terminal windows last year, the runways at San Francisco International Airport looked like a tropical rainforest of brightly colored birds from all over the world. Then COVID-19 hit, and that far-flung flock shrank dramatically. Which birds are still flying at SFO, and which ones are we still waiting for? Read: Which international airlines are still flying to SFO?

Chris McGinnis is SFGATE's senior travel correspondent. Email: chris@travelskills.com | Twitter: @cjmcginnis | Facebook: @TravelSkills
After not being informed for over a day, Megha could not accept her husband's death when she finally got the news.

"Who is he?" she asked Akhilesh Kumar's body was brought home as per a TOI report.

Akhilesh died in the the Air India Express crash at Calicut International Airport.

On August 8, about 200 pilots and ground staff members gathered at the airport to pay their respects when his body reached. He was then taken to his home in Mathura by road.



TOI/ANI

His wife was unprepared and in disbelief.

"This is not Akhilesh. It can't be. Akhilesh is at Nayati (hospital) where we have to go when our child comes," said Megha, over and over.

She is pregnant, less than a month from her due date -- the reason Akhilesh's family cited for not telling her sooner.



Akhilesh would have been home for the delivery. He had sought leave from August 21.

"The last time we saw him was on a video call for Raksha Bandhan. He was going to be here," said his brother-in-law Vijay.

"But not like this," he added.

It was only when his body was being taken away for cremation that Megha was shaken out of her stupor.

ANI

"What will happen to our child?" she asked her father, KD Sharma, breaking down.

He was cremated at Mathura's Moksha Dham in the morning.



A medical team from the district hospital, meanwhile, checked on Megha.

"She is fine now, but lost consciousness several times," said a doctor.

The cremation done, the bustle died down and the void hit the family hard. Akhilesh's father, Tulasi Ram Sharma, hoped the government would help the family.

"He died on the front lines of the Covid emergency. He was a martyr," he said.


Since the Indian government puts up a ban on 59 Chinese apps on June 29th, the nation has witnessed numerous TikTok clones claiming to be the Indian alternative for TikTok. After a month, the wave has been shifted from downloads number to active users data, and there has been a decline in their enthusiasm.

And then, there is Moj. This short video platform from Indian Social Media behemoth ShareChat has not been vocal about their presence, and silently kept working on the product aesthetics. The platform was live on PlayStore within 2 days of the government ban on Chinese. It is now among the top 5 free apps on PlayStore. Recently, the platform has launched its test-version on iOS as well.

Moj has again silently done its image makeover without making any fuss about it. Last night, it changed its branding on the app store, and its social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram and ShareChat. The new branding brings out more cheerfulness, fun, colors, emotions and lots of energy.

One of its feature highlights on PlayStore indicates, Moj app is a global short video creation platform, where everyone has a chance to gain popularity, billions of video views and quickly become the next internet sensation!

While the other Indian platforms are riding on nationalism theory, Moj is probably building something bigger for the global audience. If this becomes true, India will have its first product internet company to make a mark on the global stage.

Within the first month, Moj has achieved almost 50 million downloads.
The Ohio governors positive, then negative, tests for Covid-19 have provided fuel for skeptics of government pandemic mandates and critics of his often-aggressive policies.

Im sure the internet is lighting up with Well, you cant believe any test,  Mike DeWine said in a WCOL radio interview Friday, after a whirlwind of events the day before when the initial positive showing forced the Republican to scrub a planned meeting with President Donald Trump. And on Sunday, he told CNNs State of the Union that people should not take away from my experience that testing is not reliable or doesnt work.

Instead of seeing Trump at the Cleveland airport, DeWine returned to this state capital for new testing with his wife, Fran, through Ohio State Universitys medical center. They then went to their southwestern Ohio farm in Cedarville, where DeWine said he planned to quarantine for 14 days. But within hours, he had received Columbus test results that were negative. The first test, part of protocol for people meeting with the president, was a rapid-result antigen test, while the Columbus testing was a genetic, laboratory test whose results are considered more reliable.

The governors office said Saturday another test for each by Ohio States Wexner Medical Center again returned negative results for DeWine and his wife.

The conflicting results come as Americans have grown frustrated about access to testing and by slow results. Ohioans also remain divided over DeWines actions to deal with the pandemic, with some saying his early shutdown actions unnecessarily damaged businesses. He was an early advocate of wearing masks to stop the Covid-19 spread even as other Republicans in Ohio remain unconvinced.

State Rep. Nino Vitale, a conservative GOP gadfly from Urbana, tweeted a photo of DeWine wearing a mask minutes after the positive test was announced Thursday.

I think the question must be asked. Has he not been wearing his mask, or do masks not stop the spread? Vitale said in his post, which also stated he wished the governor no ill will.

DeWine said he received some not so nice texts during the day Thursday about wearing masks. He reasserted Friday that while they might not be 100% effective, they do help prevent spread and have been made a noticeable difference in the states most-populated cities.

Critics were blasting him on his official Twitter account, too.

DeWine, 73, a former US senator and House member who is in his first term as governor, at first appeared to have been only the second US governor to positive for the coronavirus.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced he contracted the virus last month. Stitt, a Republican who has been disdainful of mask mandates, said he contracted Covid-19 by hugging friends.

Longtime Cincinnati-area conservative activist Mike Wilson, who has been analyzing and writing about coronavirus data since he contracted COVID-19 this summer, saw a storm of strong reactions on his Facebook page including from some who said DeWines results show the pandemic is a scam.

At this point, this is clearly not a hoax, said Wilson, who has fully recovered from the virus. He said continued pandemic-deniers are mostly outliers, but many other people are frustrated over what they see as DeWines overreactions and also about the testing issues. Test results, including false positives, affect individual lives by triggering quarantines that are a rising concern as Ohio schools prepare to reopen.

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.

DeWine had resisted a statewide mask mandate until July 23. He quickly backed off an earlier try at a mask requirement inside businesses and balked at closing down bars, instead recently mandating a last call at 10 p.m. and an 11 p.m. closing time. Nearly 3,700 Ohio deaths have been linked to the coronavirus.

Wilson thinks by now, DeWine and other government officials should allow people to make their own decisions on which precautions they need or are willing to take.

Weve found that peoples individual behavior matters more than those government actions anyway, Wilson said.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Sunday termed the new Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) 2020 draft, which has been placed by the BJP government for public feedback, as "disgraceful and dangerous." "The new Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) 2020 draft which has been placed by the BJP Government for public feedback, is not only disgraceful, it is dangerous.

Not only does it have the potential to reverse many of the hard-fought gains that have been won over the years in the battle to protect our environment, but it could also potentially unleash widespread environmental ...
With masks and face shields, plastic covers on books and a disinfecting schedule for classroom materials, this school year will look like none other.

Most of Americas largest school districts plan to start the academic year online, while others are planning a combination of remote and in-person classes. But some schools remain determined to teach in-person five days a week.

In districts that have reopened in the South and the Midwest, schools have already seen coronavirus cases, with staff members and students required to quarantine and classrooms temporarily closed.

Decisions on reopening are largely being made at the local level, leaving administrators to rely on conflicting federal, state and public health guidelines. This is the biggest adaptive challenge in my career, and in the history of public education, said Cindy Marten, superintendent of the San Diego public schools.
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Linkedin Panu Wongcha-um (Reuters) Bangkok, Thailand  Mon, August 10, 2020 19:00 526 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066ce58ad 2 SE Asia Thailand,anti-government,pro-democracy,student-protest Free

Dozens of Thai government supporters rallied in front of Parliament House in Bangkok on Monday in a counter-demonstration to recent student-led, anti-government protests.

Protests have been taking place almost daily since mid-July, challenging the government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and the conservative royalist establishment.

In a sign of more coordinated opposition to the students, a former nationalist activist, Sumet Trakulwoonnoo, 46, announced a new pro-government group, the Coordination Center of Vocational Students for the Protection of National Institutions (CVPI).

"A group of people is instigating young minors to come out and attack the military, the government and also involving the monarchy, and this could lead to violence and destruction of our system of governance and our culture," Sumet told reporters at the rally.

"We're setting up to remind youth groups, parents, teachers and officials about the danger to the nation from these people who are instigating youth to become godless and obsessed with Western culture, do drugs and hate their parents and teachers."

The protesters, led by student groups, have made a growing number of veiled references to the monarchy, a highly sensitive topic, and one speaker at a recent rally called for its reform.

Monday's pro-establishment demonstration took place less than 100 meters from a pro-democracy protest, but police kept watch and there was no trouble.

The rival demonstrations have revived concern about trouble in a country that was for roiled for more than a decade by sporadic street clashes between conservatives and their rivals loyal to former populist prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The recent demonstrations have been much smaller.

Prime Minister Prayuth has said that the government is creating a way for political groups to express their views but he has voiced concern about confrontation.

The reaction from authorities to the pro-democracy protests has been limited but two activists were arrested on Friday on charges of sedition and breaking restrictions to stop the spread of coronavirus, prompting a protest by more than 1,000 people in Bangkok on Saturday.

The two were later freed on bail.

Human Rights Watch said that several protesters around the country had faced harassment by authorities, including six student leaders in Phitsanulok province in the north who were held without charge for nine hours.

"Legal action and harassment are intensifying despite Prime Minister Prayuth's promises that the government would listen to the dissenters' demands and concerns," said Sunai Phasuk, senior researcher on Thailand for Human Rights Watch.

The government denied ordering any harassment of critics.

"The government has not ordered the blocking of student activism," government deputy spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek told Reuters.

"We don't want to see violence or expressions beyond the bounds of the law," Rachada said.
Here's some news that shows us just how bright the U.S. teachers' unions are:

One of the world's largest studies of its kind is expected to conclude that there is little evidence that coronavirus is transmitted in schools, according to a UK media report on Sunday, giving a boost to their proposed reopening next month. Professor Russell Viner, President of the UK's Royal College of Paediatrics and a member of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), told 'The Sunday Times' that a forthcoming report by Public Health England (PHE) would help put parents' minds at rest as the UK prepares for a full reopening of schools after lockdown and the current summer holiday period in Britain. "A new study that has been done in UK schools confirms there is very little evidence that the virus is transmitted in schools," Viner told the newspaper. "This is some of the largest data you will find on schools anywhere. Britain has done very well in terms of thinking of collecting data in schools," he said. The study was carried out in 100 institutions in the UK and is expected to be published later this year. About 20,000 pupils and teachers in 100 schools across England were tested to monitor the spread of the disease up to the end of the summer term  which runs from April-July in Britain. "It is absolutely essential for schools to reopen in September. The risks to children from Covid are very low and the risks of school closures we know are very serious," he said.

The teachers' unions, in fact, have a "very big megaphone," as the Christian Science Monitor quotes one person as saying, in keeping the schools closed because it's all so supposedly unsafe. Never mind about the kids not getting any education, which is certainly the case with little kids who are not naturals for Zoom-style learning. Even the Mexicans do a better job of such shutdowns, offering all courses on television, knowing that even the very poor have television. Not the teachers' unions here.

Here's their stance, using the example from Los Angeles. According to National Review:

"This is a painful decision, but we have to keep health and safety first," L.A. schools superintendent Austin Beutner told the local Fox affiliate on Wednesday. "There's no substitute for being in school, we understand that. But we can only be in school when all at the school are safe." "As it stands, the only people guaranteed to benefit from the premature physical reopening of schools amidst a rapidly accelerating pandemic are billionaires and the politicians they've purchased," the UTLA study concludes. "We must shift the astronomical amount of money devoted to policing, to education and other essential needs such as housing and public health," the study reads. The study also supported a moratorium on charter schools, saying they "drain resources from district schools" and received "federal small business bailout loans even though state funding did not decline this school year."

So little kids, and every other level of student, get just distance learning with no personal attention, while teachers' union members get paid bloated six-figure salaries with full pension benefits, all for doing almost no work. Such a sweet deal  safety first, don't you know  and it will always be safety first for this bunch, into eternity, because there's no such thing as life without risks, even before COVID. It's all just too dangerous for them.

Actually, it's just a hog wallow for them, an opportunity to hold school openings hostage to their favorite pet projects. They'll go back to teach when charter schools are banned, leaving less competition to their presence, and police are defunded  not a bright move in inner-city schools where discipline is already nonexistent.

None of these demands have anything to do with any dangers from COVID.

Now even COVID carries little danger from COVID, as the U.K. study shows. Safety first? Nope, it's unions first, and who cares about little kids? Hey, they'll learn somehow, or better yet, grow up ignorant and third-world-y, the better to manipulate at the polls and provide a client base for vast armies of government welfare bureaucrats.

And sure enough, interest in homeschooling is soaring, as I noted here, as parents look for alternatives to private schools.

Increasingly, the unions don't have a leg to stand on as they refuse to go back to work. The U.K. study shows that children are not big vectors for the spread of COVID. The rest of the world is noticing and carrying on. Schools in Sweden, Taiwan, South Korea, and much of the rest of Europe are already opening. Only America's little kids get left behind. If this isn't an argument for getting rid of teachers' unions, what is?

Image credit: Pixabay, public domain.
Boris Johnson says crossings of the English Channel by undocumented migrant are very bad and stupid and dangerous.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said undocumented migrant crossings of the English Channel, which have hit record numbers, were very bad and stupid and dangerous on the eve of talks in Paris.

Chris Philp, the British immigration minister, will visit the French capital on Tuesday to urge the local authorities to step up efforts to prevent migrants from setting off on the voyages.

Be in no doubt whats going on is the activity of cruel and criminal gangs who are risking the lives of these people taking them across the Channel, a pretty dangerous stretch of water in potentially unseaworthy vessels, Johnson said during a visit to a London school on Monday.

We want to stop that, working with the French, make sure that they understand that this isnt a good idea, this is a very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do.

The prime minister said he wanted to change current British legislation that he said made it very, very difficult to deport migrants even though blatantly theyve come here illegally.

More than 4,000 undocumented migrants have arrived in the United Kingdom via the English Channel since the beginning of the year, including about 600 since last Thursday.

Help from the navy

Home Secretary Priti Patel, who visited the coastguard at the port of Dover on Monday, has asked for help from the navy, which has said it was considering the request, and instructed former Royal Navy veteran Dan OMahoney to tackle the problem.

A Royal Air Force surveillance plane was deployed to support the coastguard on Monday, the defence ministry said.

The French interior ministry has said additional personnel have already been deployed.

Ten times as many crossings were prevented last month compared with July 2019, with four times as many boats and equipment discovered in the dunes, it added.

A plan to combat undocumented crossings, drawn up with British authorities, is being finalised to strengthen control of the main crossing points, it said.

A Franco-British intelligence unit was set up last month in the fight against people smugglers.
By Chuck Thompson, Columbia Insight

Seriously, what is wrong with people?

Does restricted social movement due to COVID-19 really make a portion of the population feel theyre entitled to use our public lands as a giant garbage can?

You already know the answer.

But the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife are dishing out the dismal details.

Excessive trash and littering challenges have approached a crisis level of concern at recreation sites throughout the Columbia River Gorge, said the USFS in a press release. During a time when resources and staffing capacities are stretched thin, keeping up with maintenance, cleaning and trash removal has proved problematic during record high visitations in 2020.

WDFW followed up with its own cry for help in the face of a recreating public that acts with less discretion than zoo animals.

Increased use (of public lands) has caused a pileup of trash, human waste and unauthorized activity at a number of locations around the state, according to a WDFW Facebook post. As one Eastern Washington access manager noted, in past years they could fill up four bags of litter in one week, but this year Im lucky if I dont fill up four bags in a day.

Dumping garbage in campground toilets? Apparently thats a thing now.

One challenge is people are leaving behind masks, which you might not want to pick up.

The adults who need to be trained to act like half-civilized 10-year-olds are almost certainly not reading this story. So it falls to the rest of us to pick up the slack by picking up the trash when we see it.

I started by hauling candy wrappers, chunks of plastic and a pile of discarded pistachio shells off the top of Sleeping Beauty peak in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest this week.

But even this kind of old-fashioned civic decency is being made tougher by sign-of-the-times refuse.

One challenge is people are leaving behind masks, which you might not want to pick up, says Friends of the Columbia Gorge communications director Burt Edwards.

Rather than asking its members to wrangle potential biohazardsto say nothing of those plastic bags of dog piles owners bag up then inexplicably just leave on the groundthe organization is reiterating its message to observe pack-it-in-pack-it-out protocol.

Through a partnership with Ready, Set, GOrge!, numerous agencies are collaborating on a public outreach campaign called Lets Talk Trash to highlight current garbage-related struggles and ways to help.

Preaching to the choir? Probably. But someones gotta do something.

Chuck Thompson is the editor of Columbia Insight.

Columbia Insight, based in Hood River, Oregon, is an online, nonprofit publication focused on environmental issues of the Columbia River Basin.
Less than 24 hours after Musikfest ended, ArtsQuest doesnt yet have quantifiable data on how many people tuned in to see KT Tunstall perform on a live stream, nor the number of Service Electric TV2 viewers that watched a GaragePlatz performance.

The Bethlehem arts organization still isnt even sure how much money it raised in the last 10 days.

But what it does know is that by going virtual due to the coronavirus, the beloved festival that draws thousands upon thousands to Bethlehem each summer was able to share its music across not only the country but the world, as Musikfest was viewed in over 150 cities in the United States as well as 12 other countries. As Musikfest wrapped up its 10 days of virtual (and a few in-person) performances, there were satisfied customers as far out as Japan and Peru, according to a press release sent out by the festival.

Of course, none of it would have worked without the financial support of ArtsQuest members and the 45 corporate sponsors, including companies like Air Products, Yuengling and Wells Fargo. ArtsQuest Chief Operating Officer Curt Mosel said that the 45 sponsors that committed to backing ArtsQuest 100%, regardless if a festival was held or not, were a huge part of how the organization was able to hold even a semblance of the festival.

Of course, the thousands of patrons -- whether they be live-stream watchers and donors, in-person concert members or hungry Fest food fans, as well as the bountiful volunteers -- played no small part in the fest as well. In fact, according to Mosel, we had, on some days, more volunteers than we needed.

From the safety of the in-person shows on the ArtsQuest campus to the smoothness of the Service Electric TV2 broadcasts, the virtual festival was a well-planned idea, but there were still some improvisations along the way.

Mosel said the festival operations team was picking up more 2020 Musikfest mugs to sell and wound up stumbling across some old Musikfest and ArtsQuest merch. So, to provide some nostalgia to Musikfest fans and to accentuate the cash flow -- since the coronavirus pandemic has lost ArtsQuest about $20 million in revenue -- a vintage merch stand was set up this past weekend with items like old mugs and Sangria Fest t-shirts selling for as low as $3 and up to $20.

One of the added benefits of the virtual platform for this years festival is its ability to live on for a little bit after Sunday nights fireworks signified the end of Musikfest 2020. Streams of performances will be available until Aug. 11, and that allowed for more viewers, more new fans and more donations.

Mosel said it wasnt even something theyd thought about back in May when planning commenced, but theres a huge benefit to having a larger reach and longer relevance.

If Musikfest is able to get back to taking over downtown Bethlehem in 2021, those new fans will perhaps want to make the trip. Theyll be welcomed with open arms.

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

Connor Lagore may be reached at clagore@njadvancemedia.com.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The profile of Australian aged care residents has changed markedly in recent years, and the developers of a new system for classifying residents, published today by the Medical Journal of Australia, say their model is better than the current Australian aged care funding system.

"Since the introduction in 2008 of the current aged care funding model, the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI), the profile of people entering residential care has changed substantially, partly because of the success of programs that enable people to stay at home longer," wrote Professor Kathy Eagar, Director of the Australian Health Services Research Institute at the University of Wollongong, and colleagues.

Residents are now typically older and frailer on entry (about half are over 84 years old), and their annual mortality rate is around 32%. Consequently, about half of those who enter residential care will live there for two years or less. The 2017 review of the ACFI found that it does not sufficiently discriminate between the care needs of residents, that it is administratively inefficient, and that it provides perverse incentives; for example, if a resident's functioning improves, ACFI funding can be reduced. It concluded that the ACFI is "no longer fit for purpose."

Eagar and colleagues conducted a study of resident characteristics in 30 non-government residential aged care facilities (RACFs) in Melbourne, the Hunter region of New South Wales, and northern Queensland, between March and June 2018.

They used that data to develop the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC), a casemix classification of 13 classes for residential aged care based on the attributes of aged care residents that best predict their need for care: frailty, mobility, motor function, cognition, behavior, and technical nursing needs.

"The AN-ACC is based on these key cost drivers, reflecting the functional consequences of health conditions rather than the conditions themselves," Eagar and colleagues wrote.

"It captures not what a resident does, but rather their physical capacity (including pain), cognitive capacity (including ability to communicate, sequence, interact socially, and solve problems, and memory), mental health problems (including depression and anxiety), and behavior (including cooperation, physical agitation, wandering, passive resistance, verbal aggression)."

Implementing the AN-ACC is now being considered by the Australian government in the context of the major structural and funding aged care reforms expected after the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety publishes its final report in March 2021.

"We recommended the AN-ACC not only for residential aged care but also that it be extended into aged care at home. The AN-ACC is not an end in itself, but an essential element in the broader reform of the national aged care funding system. This includes protocols for re-assessment that allow a resident to be assigned to a different class as their needs change," they concluded.

"The AN-ACC enables the community, care providers, and governments to make meaningful judgements about the quality and outcomes of residential aged care and to fairly compare the quality of care provided at different facilities."

Explore further Almost 6 in 10 Aussies living in aged care are in inadequately staffed facilities

More information: Kathy Eagar et al. The Australian National Aged Care Classification ( AN  ACC ): a new casemix classification for residential aged care, Medical Journal of Australia (2020). Journal information: Medical Journal of Australia Kathy Eagar et al. The Australian National Aged Care Classification ( AN  ACC ): a new casemix classification for residential aged care,(2020). DOI: 10.5694/mja2.50703

Provided by Medical Journal of Australia
Representative image

Attack on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker getting by militants in Jammu and Kashmirs Budgam district on August 9 has triggered mass resignations from party cadre in the Kashmir Valley.

According to a report by The Economic Times, there were eight fresh resignations in 24 hours. About 17 BJP workers have resigned over the last month.

On August 10, police confirmed that Abdul Hamid Najar, who was shot at by militants, had succumbed to injuries at a hospital. Najar was in-charge of the J&K BJPs OBC unit and had joined the party a few months back.

He is the fourth BJP worker or office bearer targeted by militants in the last one month. Earlier, BJP's district president for Bandipora, Waseem Bari, his father and brother were shot dead by militants.

A BJP panch was also shot at and injured on August 4, while another sarpanch from the saffron party was shot dead two days later in south Kashmir's Kulgam district.

The report cites a senior police official as saying that around 400 BJP workers have been shifted to secured hotels, government accommodation and cluster-secured camps in the past year.

The wave of attacks coincides with the first anniversary (on August 5) of BJP-ruled central government abrogating Article 370, which gave J&K special status, and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories.
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Linkedin Mardika Parama (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 10, 2020 14:19 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cd76d8 1 Business travel-bubble,tourism-industry,COVID-19,pandemic,Tourism-and-Creative-Economy-Ministry Free

Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry is mulling over the possibility of establishing travel bubbles with neighboring countries in a more local scope to accelerate the rebound of the pandemic-hit tourist industry, the ministrys official has said.

The ministrys undersecretary for infrastructure and destination development, Hari Santosa Sungkari, said on Aug. 7 that the governments plan to establish travel bubbles may not be between countries as previously floated, but rather between a country and provinces or specific tourist destinations.

We are drafting the travel bubble policy, which I assume wouldnt be between countries. It may be between country A with Bali, or even between regions, he said during an online press conference.

Government officials previously talked about the possibility of creating a travel bubble, which would allow free movement within the areas included in the bubble, between Indonesia and China, South Korea, Japan and Australia, despite the sustained upward trend in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country that reached 125,396 cases as of Sunday.

Read also: ASEAN hotel associations endorse travel bubble

Indonesias tourist industry has been severely impacted by travel restrictions during the pandemic, which wiped out Rp 85 trillion (US$5.87 billion) in tourism revenue so far this year, according to an estimate by the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI).

Meanwhile, foreign tourist arrivals to Indonesia plummeted 59.96 percent to 3.09 million in the first half of the year, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) reported.

As the industrys woes continue, the government recently allowed some tourist destinations to reopen to visitors in its effort to curb further losses.

The countrys major tourist destination, Bali, welcomed an estimated 4,000 domestic tourists on July 31, when tourism was reopened to the public, according to state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I (AP I). Bali is also planning to open its borders to international tourists on Sept. 11.

Despite the governments effort to lure foreign travelers, Hari projected that travel demand for foreign visitors would remain under pressure for the next few years.

Our foreign tourists arrival estimation in 2020 stands between 2.8 million and 4 million visitors, a far cry from our initial target of 18 million. We think it will take until 2024 or 2025 for the industry to fully recover and we could reach this years initial target, he said.
all dollar figures in US dollars, unless otherwise indicated

VANCOUVER, BC, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Equinox Gold Corp. (TSX: EQX) (NYSE American: EQX) ("Equinox Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to report its second quarter 2020 summary financial and operating results. The Company's unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements and related management's discussion and analysis for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 will be available for download shortly on SEDAR, on EDGAR and on the Company's website. The Company will host a conference call and webcast on Tuesday, August 11, 2020 commencing at 8:00am PT (11:00am ET) to discuss the Company's second quarter results and upcoming milestones. Further details are provided at the end of this news release.

"Equinox Gold achieved strong operational and financial performance in the second quarter, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, and again delivered record results with 127,000 ounces of gold produced, low all-in-sustaining costs of $900 per ounce, $85 million in earnings from mine operations and adjusted net income of $27 million," said Christian Milau, Chief Executive Officer. "Government mandated restrictions as a result of COVID-19 required the temporary suspension of operations and development at Los Filos for most of Q2 as well as temporary suspensions at Fazenda and Pilar, and we have revised our fiscal 2020 guidance accordingly. All of our mines are now operating normally with enhanced testing and safety protocols and we remain focused on protecting the health and economic wellbeing of our workforce and local communities while continuing to safely operate our mines.

"We look forward to achieving important milestones at a number of projects over the second half of 2020, including first production at Castle Mountain, the start of construction of the Los Filos expansion and Santa Luz restart projects, and continued exploration across our portfolio of mines."

HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE THREE MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2020

Operational and financial

Produced 127,016 ounces ("oz") and sold 125,824 oz of gold

Proactive response to COVID-19 global pandemic, including widespread testing of the workforce

Resumed mining activities at Los Filos in compliance with Mexican Government COVID-19 restrictions

Completed 2.6 million work hours with three lost-time injuries across all sites

Earnings from mine operations of $85.1 million

Net loss of $58.7 million or $0.26 per share driven by non-cash expenses of $48.8 million on change in fair value of Canadian dollar denominated share purchase warrants due to strong share price performance, and $37.6 million on change in fair value of historical Leagold gold hedges due to gold price increase

or per share driven by non-cash expenses of on change in fair value of Canadian dollar denominated share purchase warrants due to strong share price performance, and on change in fair value of historical Leagold gold hedges due to gold price increase Adjusted net income of $26.6 million (1,2) or $0.12 per share ( 1 , 2 )

or per share Mine cash costs of $776 /oz ( 1 ) and AISC of $900 /oz ( 1 ,3)

/oz and AISC of /oz Cash flow from operations after changes in working capital of $83.7 million ( $61.0 before changes in working capital)

( before changes in working capital) Adjusted EBITDA of $82.7 million ( 1 , 2 )

Expenditures of $13.3 million in sustaining capital and $11.5 million in expansion capital

in sustaining capital and in expansion capital Temporary care and maintenance and subsequent ramp-up costs of $16.0 million due to COVID-19

Corporate

Received cash of $157.5 million on the exercise of warrants and options

on the exercise of warrants and options Cash and cash equivalents (unrestricted) of $494.1 million at June 30, 2020 , after repayment of $22.4 million in loans and borrowings in the quarter

at , after repayment of in loans and borrowings in the quarter Net debt ( 1 ) of $244.3 million at June 30, 2020 (including $252.6 million of in-the-money convertible notes)

of at (including of in-the-money convertible notes) Added to the GDX, S&P/TSX Composite and S&P/TSX Global Gold Indices

Construction, development and exploration

Castle Mountain

Phase 1 construction substantially complete; commenced stacking ore in June and commissioning plant in August; first gold pour expected in Q4 2020

Phase 2 feasibility study on track for completion in late 2020 reviewing potential to expand production to 200,000 oz per year

Los Filos

Guadalupe open pit and Bermejal underground development activities recommenced in June, following a suspension in April and May in compliance with government restrictions related to COVID-19

open pit and Bermejal underground development activities recommenced in June, following a suspension in April and May in compliance with government restrictions related to COVID-19 Optimization study for new carbon-in-leach plant on track for completion in Q4 2020

Santa Luz

Finalizing update of costs and engineering for the retrofit and refurbishment of existing infrastructure before a full construction decision in H2 2020; early works activities commenced in Q3 2020

Aurizona

Completed a positive preliminary economic assessment ("PEA") and commenced a pre-feasibility study for the potential to develop an underground mine to complement the existing open-pit mine(4)

Exploration

Completed updated Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource estimates for Mesquite and Aurizona, including a maiden indicated resource at Aurizona's Tatajuba deposit

Advanced exploration programs at Aurizona, Mesquite and Fazenda

_______________________________________________ 1 Mine cash cost per oz sold, AISC per oz sold, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, adjusted earnings per share and net debt are non-IFRS measures. See Non-IFRS Measures and Cautionary Notes.

2 Primary adjustments were $48.8 million loss on the change in fair value of share purchase warrants and $37.6 million unrealized loss on the change in fair value of gold hedge contracts.

3Consolidated AISC per oz sold excludes corporate general and administration expenses.

4 The Aurizona PEA is preliminary in nature and includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves. There is no certainty that the results contemplated in the PEA will be realized.

UPDATED 2020 GUIDANCE

The Company released initial 2020 guidance on March 31, 2020, estimating production and costs for the full calendar year for Aurizona, Mesquite and Castle Mountain, and expectations for Los Filos, Fazenda, RDM, Pilar and Santa Luz for the period commencing March 10, 2020, the closing date of the merger with Leagold. Guidance at that time reflected the Company's expectations without consideration for potential COVID-19 related impacts and was intended to provide baseline estimates from which investors could assess the Company's expectations for its expanded asset base.

The suspension of mining and development activities at Los Filos for most of Q2 2020 in compliance with a Mexico Federal Government order requiring the temporary suspension of all non-essential businesses resulted in both a reduction to Los Filos gold production and a delay in accessing higher-grade ore that was in the Los Filos mine plan for late 2020. Workforce restrictions at Fazenda have also affected mining productivity. Production guidance for both Los Filos and Fazenda has been updated to reflect these restrictions. Mesquite and Aurizona, however, have both outperformed expectations resulting in an increase to production guidance for these mines.

Consolidated AISC guidance has been revised for the full year to reflect updated costs as well as the assumptions for the Mexican peso and Brazilian Real to 21.0 and 4.75 versus the US dollar, respectively, which are both below current spot rates. AISC in the second half of 2020 is expected to be higher than in the first half as the result of an increase in sustaining capital expenditures in Brazil following the rainy season and the resumption of full mining and development activities at Los Filos.







2020 Updated Guidance Mine Production

(oz) AISC

($/oz) Sustaining Capital

($M's) Expansion Capital

($M's) Los Filos 90,000 - 110,000 $850 - $950 $21 $58 Aurizona 120,000 - 130,000 $1,000 - $1,050 $36 $3 Mesquite 130,000 - 140,000 $975 - $1,025 $12 $11 Fazenda 50,000 - 55,000 $925 - $975 $7 $4 RDM 50,000 - 55,000 $1,000 - $1,050 $9 $4 Pilar 25,000 - 30,000 $1,200 - $1,300 $5 $2 Castle Mountain 5,000 - 10,000 $750 - $800 - $52 Santa Luz - - - $10 Total 470,000 - 530,000 $975 - $1,025 $90 $144

Updated 2020 guidance is provided to update production and cost estimates in light of COVID-19 restrictions, the Company's performance year to date and its expectations for the remainder of the year. The COVID-19 pandemic continues and the unpredictable impact on operations differs by both country and state, which makes it difficult to estimate potential future effects of COVID-19 on the Company's operations. The Company will continue to review and revise its health and safety protocols as appropriate to help protect both its workforce and business continuity, and will provide updates regarding its operations and guidance as appropriate.

Sustaining capital guidance remains at approximately $90 million with capitalized stripping at Aurizona reduced by $6 million, offset by $3 million extra stripping at Mesquite and $2 million at RDM. Sustaining capital for Los Filos was reduced by approximately $3 million primarily due to delayed purchases of process equipment.

Expansion capital guidance remains at approximately $144 million with increases at Los Filos for additional capitalized stripping at Guadalupe and $3 million on camp facilities; at Mesquite for increased exploration of $2 million to follow up on recent successes; at Castle Mountain for COVID-19 delays and minor scope changes of approximately $3 million; and at Santa Luz for early works construction activities of approximately $4 million. These amounts are offset by approximately $13 million reflecting a reduction in stripping at RDM due to improved pit design and reclassification of some expenditures as sustaining capital, which are included in AISC guidance.

MANAGING COVID-19

Equinox Gold took early precautionary measures at its mine sites and offices to proactively manage issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Company's crisis management team rapidly implemented preventive measures to help ensure the health, safety and economic wellbeing of the Company's workforce and local communities, and implemented business continuity protocols so the Company's mines could continue to operate as effectively as possible. Designated site teams continue to respond to daily changes, circumstances and directives of government and health authorities, and maintain open communication with the Company's workforce, community leaders and local health providers to develop and share strategies to manage COVID-19. The Company has initiated routine COVID-19 testing at all of its sites with the objective of identifying carriers early so that they can self-isolate before inadvertently spreading the virus to others.

Additional information regarding Equinox Gold's COVID-19 response plan, preventive measures taken to date and the potential impact on operations is available in the Q2 2020 management's discussion and analysis and on the Company's website at www.equinoxgold.com.

OPERATING AND FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE THREE AND SIX MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2020













Three months ended Six months

ended Operating data Unit June 30,

2020(1) March 31,

2020 December 31,

2019 June 30,

2020(1)











Gold produced oz 127,016 88,951 80,176 215,967 Gold sold oz 125,824 82,629 80,330 208,454 Realized gold price $/oz 1,712 1,574 1,482 1,657 AISC per oz sold(2,3) $/oz 900 968 848 927 Financial data









Revenue M$ 215.4 130.0 119.0 345.4 Earnings from mine operations M$ 85.1 43.2 38.5 128.3 Net income (loss) M$ (58.7) 10.9 (8.5) (47.8) Earnings (loss) per share $/share (0.26) 0.08 (0.08) (0.26) Adjusted EBITDA(3) M$ 82.7 49.5 47.9 132.1 Adjusted net income(3) M$ 26.6 17.1 20.9 43.7 Adjusted earnings per share(3) $/share 0.12 0.12 0.18 0.24











Balance sheet and cash flow data









Cash and cash equivalents (unrestricted) M$ 494.1 303.1 67.7 494.1 Net debt(3) M$ 244.3 446.8 196.3 244.3 Operating cash flow before changes in working capital M$ 61.0 23.2 38.9 84.2

(1) Results for Q2 2019 and the six months ended June 30, 2019 are not presented as they are not readily comparable. During the three and six months ended June 30, 2019, the Company had only the Mesquite mine in operation. During Q1 2020, it had the Mesquite and Aurizona mines in operation and, on March 10, 2020, added four additional operating mines acquired through the Leagold Merger. (2) Consolidated AISC per oz sold excludes corporate general and administration expenses. (3) AISC per oz sold, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, adjusted earnings per share and net debt are non-IFRS measures. See Non-IFRS Measures and Cautionary Notes.

SELECTED FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE THREE AND SIX MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2020 AND 2019







$ amounts in millions, except per share amounts Three months ended Six months ended June 30,

2020 June 30,

2019 June 30,

2020 June 30,

2019(1) Revenue $ 215.4 $ 35.4 $ 345.4 $ 70.8 Operating expenses (96.3) (24.0) (165.9) (48.2) Depreciation and depletion (34.0) (3.8) (51.2) (8.0) Earnings from mine operations 85.1 7.6 128.3 14.6 Care and maintenance (16.8) - (17.8) - Exploration (3.9) (3.2) (6.6) (6.1) General and administration (10.0) (3.7) (16.6) (6.8) Income from operations 54.3 0.7 87.3 1.7 Other expense (105.0) (13.5) (96.6) (20.8) Net loss before taxes (50.6) (12.7) (9.3) (19.1) Tax (expense) recovery (8.1) 1.2 (38.5) (0.8) Net loss and comprehensive income loss (58.7) (11.5) (47.8) (19.9) Net loss per share attributable to Equinox Gold shareholders, basic and diluted (0.26) (0.09) (0.26) (0.16)

(1) During the six months ended June 30, 2019, the Company had only the Mesquite mine in operation. During the six months ended June 30, 2020, it had the Mesquite and Aurizona mines in operation and, on March 10, 2020, added four additional operating mines acquired through the Leagold Merger. As a result, comparisons of Q2 2020 and the six months ended June 30, 2020 to the same periods in prior year are not meaningful.

Increased revenue and earnings are due primarily to an increase in realized gold price and also increased gold oz sold as the result of acquiring the Leagold mines in March 2020. Care and maintenance includes expenditures associated with the temporary suspension and subsequent ramp-up costs at Los Filos, RDM and Pilar due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Other expense for Q2 2020 was largely driven by non-cash losses of $37.6 million on the change in fair value of gold hedge contracts that were acquired as part of the Leagold Merger as the result of an increase in the gold price, and by non-cash losses of $48.8 million on the change in fair value of share purchase warrants as the result of an increase in the Company's share price. The Company's share purchase warrants are considered derivatives for accounting purposes as they are to be settled in Canadian dollars, which differs from the Company's US dollar functional currency. Accordingly, the Company's share purchase warrants are recorded at fair value with changes in fair value recognized through profit or loss.

Additional information regarding the Company's financial results and activities underway at the Company's projects are available in the Company's Q2 2020 Financial Statements and accompanying management's discussion and analysis for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020, which will be available for download shortly on the Company's website at www.equinoxgold.com, on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov/edgar.

CONFERENCE CALL AND WEBCAST

Equinox Gold will host a live conference call and webcast on Tuesday, August 11, 2020 commencing at 8:00am PT (11:00am ET) to discuss the Company's second quarter results and upcoming milestones. All participants will have the opportunity to ask questions of Equinox Gold's CEO and executive team. The webcast will be archived on Equinox Gold's website until February 11, 2021.

Dial-in and login details

Conference call Toll-free in U.S. and Canada: 1-800-319-4610 International callers: +1 604-638-5340



Webcast www.equinoxgold.com

ABOUT EQUINOX GOLD

Equinox Gold is a Canadian mining company with six producing gold mines and commissioning underway at a seventh mine, a multi-million-ounce gold reserve base and a clear path to achieve one million ounces of annual gold production from a pipeline of development and expansion projects. Equinox Gold operates entirely in the Americas, with two properties in the United States, one in Mexico and five in Brazil. Equinox Gold's common shares are listed on the TSX and the NYSE American under the trading symbol EQX. Further information about Equinox Gold's portfolio of assets and long-term growth strategy is available at www.equinoxgold.com or by email at [email protected].

CAUTIONARY NOTES AND FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Non-IFRS measures

This news release refers to mine cash costs per ounce sold, all-in sustaining costs ("AISC"), AISC per ounce sold, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, adjusted earnings per share, net debt and sustaining and expansion capital expenditures that are measures with no standardized meaning under International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Their measurement and presentation 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. Non-IFRS measures are widely used in the mining industry as measurements of performance and the Company believes that they provide further transparency into costs associated with producing gold and will assist analysts, investors and other stakeholders of the Company in assessing its operating performance, its ability to generate free cash flow from current operations and its overall value. Refer to the "Non-IFRS measures" section of the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis for the period ended June 30,2020, for a more detailed discussion of these non-IFRS measures and their calculation.

Technical information

Adriaan (Attie) Roux, Pr.Sci.Nat., Equinox Gold's COO, Doug Reddy, Msc, P.Geo., Equinox Gold's EVP Technical Services and Scott Heffernan, MSc, P.Geo., Equinox Gold's EVP Exploration, are the Qualified Persons under National Instrument 43-101 for Equinox Gold and have reviewed, approved and verified the technical content of this document.

Forward-looking statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation and may include future-oriented financial information. Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information in this news release relate to, among other things: the duration, extent and other implications of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and any related restrictions, regulations and suspensions with respect to the Company's operations, the strategic vision for the Company and expectations regarding expanding production capabilities and future financial or operating performance, Equinox Gold's production and cost guidance, conversion of Mineral Resources to Mineral Reserves, and the Company's ability to successfully advance its growth and development projects. Forward-looking statements or information generally identified by the use of the words "will", "continue", "look forward", "objective", "expected", "expectations", "potential", "estimate", and similar expressions and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could" or "should", or the negative connotation of such terms, are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements and information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements since the Company can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. The Company has based these forward-looking statements and information on the Company's current expectations and projections about future events and these assumptions include: tonnage of ore to be mined and processed; ore grades and recoveries; prices for gold remaining as estimated; development at Los Filos, Castle Mountain, Santa Luz and Aurizona being completed and performed in accordance with current expectations; currency exchange rates remaining as estimated; availability of funds for the Company's projects and future cash requirements; capital, decommissioning and reclamation estimates; the Company's Mineral Reserve and Resource estimates and the assumptions on which they are based; prices for energy inputs, labour, materials, supplies and services; no labour-related disruptions and no unplanned delays or interruptions in scheduled development and production; all necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals are received in a timely manner; and the Company's ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws. The Company's updated guidance included in this news release about its expectations for the remainder of 2020 is based on the Company's current understanding of the pandemic and its impact on operations and may prove to be incorrect. While the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available, they may prove to be incorrect. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on the forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release.

The Company cautions that forward-looking statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release and the Company has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: fluctuations in gold prices; fluctuations in prices for energy inputs, labour, materials, supplies and services; fluctuations in currency markets; operational risks and hazards inherent with the business of mining (including environmental accidents and hazards, industrial accidents, equipment breakdown, unusual or unexpected geological or structural formations, cave-ins, flooding and severe weather); inadequate insurance, or inability to obtain insurance to cover these risks and hazards; employee relations; relationships with, and claims by, local communities and indigenous populations; the Company's ability to obtain all necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals in a timely manner or at all; changes in laws, regulations and government practices, including environmental, export and import laws and regulations; legal restrictions relating to mining including those imposed in connection with COVID-19; risks relating to expropriation; increased competition in the mining industry; and those factors identified in the Company's MD&A dated February 28, 2020 for the year-ended December 31, 2019 and its Annual Information Form dated May 13, 2020, which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov/edgar. Forward-looking statements and information are designed to help readers understand management's views as of that time with respect to future events and speak only as of the date they are made. Except as required by applicable law, the Company assumes no obligation to publicly announce the results of any change to any forward-looking statement or information contained or incorporated by reference to reflect actual results, future events or developments, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting the forward-looking statements and information. If the Company updates any one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that the Company will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

SOURCE Equinox Gold Corp.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 10:51:54|Editor: huaxia

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A pedestrian walks in Times Square in New York, the United States, on Aug. 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

- The disease has killed more Americans than the Korean War, Vietnam War, War in Afghanistan and Iraq War combined.

- Some U.S. politicians' disregard for human life, the deep-rooted racial inequity as well as the ever-widening wealth gap have exacerbated the dire situation.

- More than 1,200 U.S. scientists have signed an open letter, accusing the Trump administration of denigrating "scientific expertise."

BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. COVID-19 cases passed a grim new milestone of 5 million on Sunday with soaring new infections, further highlighting the deep-rooted problems of U.S. society and casting doubt on Washington's behavior amid the ravaging pandemic.

The United States has registered 5,041,473 cases and 162,913 deaths as of 0000 GMT on Monday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

There are few signs that the spread is slowing down in the United States.





HUGE LOSS OF HUMAN LIFE

Even though it enjoys the greatest economic strength and one of the most advanced medical systems in the world, the United States became the hardest-hit country soon after the global outbreak of the pandemic.

Early warnings from other parts of the world did not prompt the country to take timely measures and make coordinated efforts to fight the virus.

People walk on Times Square in New York, the United States, Aug. 8, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

COVID-19 has now become the leading cause of death in the United States, killing more people per day than cancer or heart disease, according to a graph published in Newsweek on April 9. The disease has killed more Americans than the Korean War, Vietnam War, War in Afghanistan and Iraq War combined.

Some U.S. politicians' disregard for human life, the deep-rooted racial inequity as well as the ever-widening wealth gap have exacerbated the dire situation.

In order to downplay the scope and danger of the pandemic, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that the United States has one of the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates in the world.

However, the reality is that the United States has a mortality rate per 100,000 higher than many other countries, including Canada, Germany, France and the Netherlands, according to a recent article published by The Hill.

"But Trump is not focused on those numbers" and he has been fixated on a figure called the case fatality rate (the percentage of people who die after contracting COVID-19) in order to confuse people and cover up the extremely high rate of deaths as a proportion of the population, according to the article.

What's more, the country's vulnerable groups, including the elderly, the poor, African Americans and Latino Americans, have borne the brunt of COVID-19 and remain most at risk.

In at least 23 U.S. states, a majority of deaths were linked to nursing homes, according to The New York Times. As of July 15, deaths in long-term care facilities accounted for more than 42 percent of the country's pandemic fatalities.

Ben Shapiro, editor-in-chief for The Daily Wire, an American right-wing news website, suggested in an interview on April 30 that old people's lives are not worth saving.

"If somebody who is 81 dies of COVID-19, that is not the same thing as somebody who is 30 dying of COVID-19 ... If grandma dies in a nursing home at age 81, that's tragic and it's terrible, also the life expectancy in the United States is 80," he said.

Minority populations have also been disproportionately hardest hit by the coronavirus in the country.

However, despite the call of public health experts to prioritize minority communities in tackling the virus, the Trump administration has not taken enough actions.

As of June 12, non-Hispanic black persons had a rate of infection of or death from the coronavirus approximately five times that of non-Hispanic white persons, while Hispanic or Latino persons had a rate approximately four times that of non-Hispanic white persons, said the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a statement on June 25.





POLITICIZATION OF PANDEMIC PREVENTION

The pandemic in the United States has provided not a platform for cooperation among politicians, but a battleground for them to grapple with each other.

People ride bikes in Times Square in New York, the United States, on Aug. 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

As the COVID-19 cases surge across the United States, Republicans and Democrats increasingly view the disease in starkly different ways, according to a report published on June 25 by the Pew Research Center.

Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are about twice as likely as Republicans and Republican leaners to say that masks should be worn always. Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to say that masks should rarely or never be worn, according to the report.

The wide split between different political factions has not only prevented U.S. citizens from acting in accordance with the preventive guidelines, but also hindered the whole country from forming a comprehensive anti-pandemic plan.

Instead of following scientists' and public health experts' advice and listening to the voice of the masses, some U.S. politicians chose to prioritize their own political interests.

Few Americans want to see their local schools reopen for in-person instruction as usual or even with minor adjustments considering the severe COVID-19 situation, said a new poll released on July 22.

Only 8 percent of Americans say their local K-12 schools should open for in-person instruction as usual and 14 percent think schools can reopen with minor adjustments, showed the survey conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

However, Trump and his administration are pressuring schools to reopen in the fall, threatening to withhold federal funding from schools that do not comply, because reopening schools is seen as a crucial step to restarting the country's economy for his reelection campaign.

Witnessing the government's inability and bigotry in tackling the coronavirus crisis, more than 1,200 U.S. scientists have signed an open letter, accusing the Trump administration of denigrating "scientific expertise."

They also warned that "the dismissal of scientific evidence in policy formulation has affected wide areas of the social, biological, environmental and physical sciences."

"In a perfect world, this unprecedented pandemic would have been an occasion for Americans to put aside their differences and rally around the flag ... But overall, the pandemic has served to deepen polarization, and that is likely to get worse as time goes on," Francis Fukuyama, a famed political scientist, wrote in a recent article titled "The Wages of American Political Decay."





BLAME GAME

Since the onset of the pandemic, the Trump administration has been addicted to a blame game, heaping baseless accusations against China and the World Health Organization (WHO) to divert Americans' attention away from the virus.

The Capitol is seen in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Jan. 21, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Labeling the virus as the "China virus," the Trump administration claimed it was lab-made in Wuhan and blamed China for hiding the truth, despite the fact that China immediately briefed the WHO, the United States and other countries after it identified the COVID-19 outbreak.

On Jan. 12, China released the whole genome sequence of the coronavirus, which has proved critical for diagnosis and treatment of the disease globally.

The conspiracy theory claiming that the novel coronavirus was made in the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China has also been rejected by top scientists around the world.

Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University, said that "my judgement continues to be that (COVID-19) is consistent with a naturally occurring source," according to The Washington Post.

Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University, also told The Washington Post there is no evidence to support "the idea that this (the virus) is released deliberately or inadvertently."

Studies on the origin of the virus have overwhelmingly shown that the novel coronavirus originated naturally rather than from any institution.

The WHO, which was created to improve health globally, has also been targeted by the Trump administration.

To the astonishment of many American experts, the administration has begun to withdraw from the WHO last month, accusing it of being too close to China and having mishandled the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. move deals a blow to the fragile global cooperation on pandemic control.

France and Germany decided to quit talks on reforming the WHO because ironically, the United States, despite its decision to leave the organization, still attempts to lead the negotiations, the Reuters reported on Friday.

"Nobody wants to be dragged into a reform process and getting an outline for it from a country which itself just left the WHO," a senior European official was quoted by the report as saying.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, chief of the WHO, said on Thursday that the COVID-19 pandemic can not be defeated in a divided world, and he hopes the United States will "reconsider its position" on the decision to withdraw from the organization.

"Now it's time to work together, it's time to focus on fighting the virus. So I hope the U.S. will reconsider its position," the WHO director-general said at the Aspen Security Forum via video link.

(Xinhua writers Ma Qian and Luo Jun in Beijing also contributed to the story.)
Diabs announcement that he would lift Lebanons stringent banking secrecy laws on 19 port officials, who had been placed under house arrest after the explosion, alarmed politicians who participated in successive governments during those years, the adviser said. The system freaked out about one particular thing, which was lifting the banking secrecy. It was done unilaterally, through the courts without parliament, he said. It was a sign that maybe Diab was not quite under control.
Cork's historic riverside railings will be retained under revised flood defence plans, according to new images released by the Office of Public Works (OPW).

The OPW said the new images show that public feedback is factored into the designs.

The new drawings of the 150m Lower Lee Flood Relief Scheme (LLFRS) show how historic railings on the citys North Mall will be retained, with demountable barriers being deployed in this area at times of high flood risk only, and for a short period only.

OPW release latest Cork flood defence images : Fitzgerald's Park  After LL FRS: New landscaping creates a flood barrier which also encourages biodiversity

Based on 2018 data on river flows and water levels on the river Lee, they would not have deployed for use at all that year.

The images also show how flood defences have been blended into new contours and landscaping in sensitive areas of Fitzgeralds Park, and how flood defences will be provided around the Mardyke skatepark through landscaping, which will allow for the construction of a new tiered seating area overlooking the skatepark.

The images also show how flood defences will look in areas including Wandesford Quay, Bachelors Quay, Terence MacSwiney Quay, and the Lee Fields, where a wetlands zone will be created to boost biodiversity.

OPW release latest Cork flood defence images : Terence MacSwiney Quay  After LL FRS: A significantly enhanced quayside with clear views of the river

A spokesperson for the LLFRS project said the images demonstrate that, beyond protecting Cork City against flooding, the scheme results in significant improvements to the public realm.

These latest images also clearly show the scheme has been open to, and taken on board, the views of the public throughout the ongoing evolution of the schemes design, he said.

There have been numerous public consultation phases undertaken by the scheme and the Cork public has engaged fully with it.

OPW release latest Cork flood defence images : Lee Fields  After LL FRS: A wetland environment will be created in this area in the floodplain north of the tiered flood defence. These features will create and encourage biodiversity.

The scheme is now at a point when after 13 years of study of the complex nature of flooding impacting Cork City, it is being finalised for submission to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to seek statutory approval."

The LLFRS scheme has faced intense opposition, led by the Save Cork City (SCC) campaign group, which has criticised the OPWs overall approach to managing flood risk in the city, branding it a walls scheme.

SCC mounted a successful legal challenge against the city councils Morrisons Island public realm upgrade, which included elements of flood defence. That project has since been approved by An Bord Pleanala.

OPW release latest Cork flood defence images : Mardyke Skate Park  After: New amenities around the skate park will also act as flood defences

SCC has also legally challenged a road upgrade into the citys south docks because of the inclusion of an element of flood defences.

SCC has repeatedly called for a tidal barrier to be built in Cork Harbour, a proposal the OPW said it has examined in great detail, and has ruled out on cost, engineering, and environmental grounds.

The LLFRS features a blend of measures extending some 15km along the River Lee, from west of Ballincollig to the eastern edge of the city, including revised dam operating procedures, flood forecasting, restoration of quay walls, and the construction of direct defences in certain places, to protect over 2,100 properties against tidal and river flooding.
Former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has responded to the criticisms that have trailed his controversial condolence message on the passing of Buruji Kashamu, a former senator and leader of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State.

Mr Obasanjo, in the condolence message, said late Mr Kashamu, who was wanted in the U.S for alleged drug offences, was able to escape justice but could not evade death.

Senator Esho Jinadu (Buruji Kashmu) in his lifetime used the manoeuvre of law and politics to escape from facing justice on alleged criminal offence in Nigeria and outside Nigeria, Mr Obasanjo said.

But no legal, political, cultural, social or even medical manoeuvre could stop the cold hands of death when the Creator of all of us decides that the time is up.

May Allah forgive his sin and accept his soul into Aljanah, and may God grant his family and friends fortitude to bear the irreparable loss, he added.

Several Nigerians have attacked Mr Obasanjo for his remarks which they say demonstrated disrespect for the dead.

A former governor of Ekiti state, Ayo Fayose said, He (Obasanjo) should also remember that his own end will come too and nobody knows how the end will be.

Mr Fayose who took to Twitter to post his comment said the former president was not a saint, and should, therefore, stop behaving like one.

Can Obasanjo say in good conscience that he did not at some point collaborate with Kashamu and most of the things he (Kashamu) did politically were not with his collaboration? Mr Fayose said.

I thought that our culture is that every fight ends once one of the parties die? Joe Abah, a policy analyst, said of Mr Obasanjos comment.

Bola Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos state and a national leader of the All Progressives Congress, in his condolence message, said people should be kind to the dead since everyman would die someday.

READ ALSO:

But Mr Obasanjo in his response to the criticism told PREMIUM TIMES, Sunday, it was okay for people to mourn every death but that the living, including himself, must draw the right lessons from the lives of those who have died.

He said it is only in doing this that societies can make progress.

When I was growing up, in our community, when anyone known with bad character died, we usually only mourn him and bury him. No eulogy. No praise-singing.

There is an English saying that urges us never to talk ill of the dead. But in this case, we are not talking ill of the dead. We are only drawing lessons from the life and history of the dead. I am not gloating over his death. It is sad for anyone to die and we must mourn him.

But we must learn from such a passage. There will be bad lessons. There will be good lessons. But we should not just be praise-singing or eulogising the dead, especially when there is no need to do so.

We should not cover up bad histories and conducts so that the right lessons can be learnt, he said.

Former Senator, Buruji Kashamu. [PHOTO CREDIT: Instagram handle of the senator || senator_kashamu]

PREMIUM TIMES told Mr Obasanjo that were already suggestions by his critics that on his passage, he might be mourned in the manner he did Mr Kashamu.

The former president responded, As you know, I say my mind as truthfully as I know them and in line with my convictions. People are free to say whatever they want about my comment. I dont begrudge people for holding opinions on whatever I say or do.

Let people say whatever they like when I transit. Now that I am alive, am I not being abused? Whenever I transit, let people say whatever they know or think about me. Let them say it as it is. What my maker thinks of me is what matters most, he said.

Mr Kashamu, a controversial politician who for years was wanted by the U.S government for alleged drug offences but managed to beat repeated extradition attempts, died in Lagos Saturday from coronavirus complications.

He was buried on Sunday in his home town, Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun state.

Obasanjo Versus Kashamu

Mr Obasanjo had in a January 7, 2014 letter to the leadership of the PDP and then President Goodluck Jonathan, announced he was withdrawing from the then ruling party following the elevation of Mr Kashamu, whom he described as a wanted habitual criminal as the South-West leader of the party.

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In that letter, Mr Obasanjo said he personally found the South-West PDPs celebration of Mr Kashamu, who was a major financier of the party, unsavoury.

Politics played by any national political party must have morality, decency, discipline, principles and leadership examples as cardinal practices of the party, he said. I have attached here recent documents that clearly indicates that you extolled PDP Zonal leader in the South West of Nigeria and an indigene of Ogun State, who is, to say the least, not a credit to the party as a member let alone being a zonal leader.

While I believe that a good and truly national political party must be a microcosm of the nation in its membership, made up of all sorts of characters from near-saints to near-satan, I also believe that on no account should a known habitual criminal that is wanted abroad to face criminal charges levelled against him be extolled as a political leader in a respectable and wholesome nation-building political party.

Mr Kashamu tore back at Mr Obasanjo at the time While arguing that the former president had no moral right to attack anyone, the politician said Mr Obasanjo used him to wrestle power from former Governor Gbenga Daniel, who was then a thorn in Mr Obasanjos political career.

He said Mr Obasanjo dumped him thereafter and then began plotting his extradition to the United States.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 10, 2020 17:34 526 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066ce4697 4 National Bornean-orangutan,orangutan,wildlife,Central-Java,West-Kalimantan,BKSDA,Environment-and-Forestry-Ministry,animal-welfare,animal-conservation Free

A joint team comprising members of the Central Java and West Kalimantan natural resources conservation agencies has rescued two Bornean orangutans previously subjected to unlawful captivity.

The two male orangutans were each recovered from different locations in Central Java.

One of the orangutans, called Samson, was rescued from an unlicensed "conservation center" located within a tourist park in Kendal regency. The other one, Boboy, was rescued from a private residence in the provincial capital Semarang.

West Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BSKDA West Kalimantan) head Sadtata Noor said the primates had since been transferred to the International Animal Rescue (IAR) Indonesia rehabilitation center in Muara Pawan district in Ketapang regency, West Kalimantan.

[The animals] were transported via ferry from Tanung Emas Port in Semarang on Thursday morning, Sadtata said in a written statement, adding that the two orangutans arrived safely at the rehabilitation center on Friday.

Read also: Leonardo DiCaprio shows support for Sumatran orangutan conservation program

He said the agency had ensured that all equipment and health facilities at the rehabilitation center were up to standards so as to guarantee the well-being of the protected animals.

Temia, a veterinarian at IAR Indonesia, said the two orangutans  presumed to be around 20 years of age  had shown signs of malnutrition, resulting in stunted growth and high susceptibility to disease.

Their poor health is due to their confinement within narrow, substandard cages, according to Temia.

Based on our field observations, their rights as [protected] animals were not fulfilled, Temia said, adding that several unusual marks were found on the bodies of the great apes.

Considering their health, the orangutans are likely to spend the rest of their lives at the rehabilitation center, said IAR Indonesia program director Karmele Sanchez.

Read also: More than meets the eye in photo of orangutan offering help to man

Separately, BKSDA Central Java head Darmanto said the two protected animals had previously been identified and monitored last October.

The agency then reported the illegal captivity of the orangutans to the Environment and Forestry Ministry, he added.

Indra Exploitasia, director of the ministrys biodiversity conservation, said animal welfare was essential to conservation efforts.

Animal welfare needs to be guaranteed, as mandated by the law, Indra said as quoted by kompas.com.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Bornean orangutans  also known as Pongo pygmaeus  are critically endangered with a population of less than 105,000. (rfa)
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Kochi on Monday rejected the bail application of the main accused in the Kerala gold smuggling case, Swapna Suresh, and ordered that provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act will remain in place.

Her counsel had opposed the UAPA saying no terror angle was involved and the case only dealt with economic offences but Assistant Solicitor General P Vijaykumar appearing for the NIA contended that major proceeds from smuggling were diverted to fund anti-national activities. After a week-long hearing, quite unusual in bail petitions, the court had posted it for a decision on Monday.

This is the first time UAPA has been imposed in the country in a smuggling case. Earlier smuggling came under the Customs Act but after the amendment in UAPA, money laundering and serious economic offences that affect the countrys stability also come under it. True, this is first time UAPA has been applied in a smuggling case, Supreme Court lawyer M R Abhilash said.

After hearing the versions of both sides in detail, the court ruled that considering the case diary and other details submitted by the probe agency her bail application will not stand. The NIA had produced the letter of Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan which he wrote to the PM two days after the case surfaced on July 5 seeking a high-level central agency probe into the case. During the hearing, NIA also said the accused was influential and she had a good rapport with the CMs office, bureaucracy and the state police.

The NIA said a portion of the proceeds from the gold smuggling was diverted to fund anti-national activities. It also said that after a preliminary investigation it found that one of the suspects, KT Ramees, who is in NIA custody, was in touch with some fundamentalist organizations. He also undertook many foreign trips including Tanzania in Africa and he was suspected to be a part of the international smuggling and drug racket, it said. But her lawyer insisted that the terror angle was brought in without any reason. At one point, the court also agreed she had no direct links with terror activities.

Her counsel also said she was a victim of intense political rivalry between the CPI (M)-led state government and the BJP-led Union government but the NIA citied the CMs letter saying both governments wanted a thorough inquiry into the case and politics was dragged into the case intentionally. After her bail plea was dismissed, her counsel said he will move a higher court.

Meanwhile, people familiar with the probe said an NIA team had reached the United Arab Emirates and it will question Faisal Fareed, the third accused in the case, reportedly under the custody of the Dubai police. Earlier, Interpol had issued a red corner notice against him after the NIAs request. It will also interrogate three others whose names cropped up during the questioning of KT Ramees.

There are also reports that the MEA sought permission of the UAE government to interview and take a statement, of the consular attache who left the country after the seizure of 30 kg gold which had arrived as part of a diplomatic consignment. UAE is a friendly country where at least 25 lakh Indians are working, so the MEA is very cautious in its approach, a senior official said.

After the case came to light, the UAE embassy had issued a statement that some former employees had misused Swapna Suresh had earlier worked with the consular office in Thiruvananthapuram. During investigation the NIA also found that both of them had allegedly forged the consular seal, stamp and other documents.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ramesh Babu Ramesh Babu is HTs bureau chief in Kerala, with about three decades of experience in journalism. ...view detail
Travellers may be able to enjoy guilt-free "green" holidays within years thanks to eco-friendly aeroplane technology being developed in Britain.

Reaction Engines in Oxford has begun work on systems which will turn existing commercial aircraft "emission-free", by allowing them to run on ammonia rather than kerosene.

Ammonia would be safer than traditional kerosene because it is harder to burn and so less of a fire hazard, researchers say. When it does burn, it does so without CO2 emissions.

The system works by splitting ammonia into hydrogen and nitrogen, with the former burned to fuel the jet.

James Barth, the engineer behind the project, said there were key benefits to using ammonia over pure hydrogen. He said it meant commercial airlines would only have to adapt their existing fleet, rather than redesign models, and it would not mean higher air fares.

There has been a wave of trials of battery-powered planes, with companies such as Rolls-Royce, Airbus and Siemens looking into such projects.

But experts say the range of electric planes would be severely limited.

Ammonia-fuelled planes would be able to handle most short-haul flights, although the range is still less than that of existing planes.
With the unexpected advent of online classes for students post the Covid pandemic, some of them from a few villages in Karnataka's Dakshina Kannada district could not easily connect to the virtual lessons, forcing them to climb small hills to catch the signal.

Students from Perla, Bandihole, Hosathota, Boodudamakki, Shibaje, Belthangady and others in the coastal district are climbing hills for internet connection.

Located in South Canara area, bound by the Arabian Sea in the west and Western Ghats in the east, Uduipi district in the north and Kerala state in the south, Dakshina Kannada is an education hub.

In fact, falling under Mangaluru forest circle, Belthangady is one of the nine ranges of Kudremukh wildlife division which is subdivided into Kudremukh and Siddapura wildlife subdivisions.

Likewise, forests in the Kudremukh National Park are primarily evergreen to semi-evergreen, located at an altitude of above 1,000 m with extensive and rolling grasslands, surrounding pockets of Shola forest in valleys and depressions.

With such a geography and terrain, mobile signal is not always strong and uniform in these villages.

As a result, some students in the district's peripheral villages bordering the Western Ghats are facing mobile phone internet connection forcing them to scale the peaks for signal.

Despite the signal issue in these times when a lot of life is depending on the virtual world for transactions, the district authorities did not receive any complaint.

"We have not received any complaint from anybody about the lack of mobile internet connection," told newly arrived Deputy Commissioner K. V. Rajendra.

Following a local report and some media enquiries on the issue, the senior officer entrusted his subordinates to look into the matter.

Yathish Ullal, Assistant Commissioner of Puttur, managed to connect with the students from the villages and offered them a solution or two, after learning about the issue only on Monday.

"These are all peripheral villages. Dakshina Kannada has an area overlapping with the Western Ghats. This Shibaje village is in the core of the Western Ghats. Meriar, Shibaje, Charmadi, all these villages come in the boundaries, obviously, there is a network issue," observed Ullal.

As a solution, he suggested the students to avail internet facility at the village gram panchayats, which are connected by the Digital India broadband connection.

However, the students were not very keen on availing the facility.

"Since it is just for only two hours a day for online classes, they are not taking up these facilities. They don't want to move out of their comfort zone. It is their backyard, doesn't mean it is some forest. It is not some remote area,a he said.

According to the assistant commissioner, Belthangady and Shibaje village have a hilly landscape where the villagers own some estates.

As they are in their own properties, they are going to the top of those hillocks for mobile internet connection.

Incidentally, even after contacting, the students did not even complain and on the contrary they were happy to climb the hills and told the officer that it was not a problem for them.

The second solution Ullal offered the students was to come to a nearby town area where they could sit in a school to receive internet connection to attend their classes.

"They are not interested. They were telling we are happy here, we are enjoying, it is a nice facility for us, why should we be worried about it," he pointed out.

Ullal said the students were exhibiting an adventurous spirit and enjoying the process of climbing the hilltops.

Another alternative he suggested the students was to get a Reliance Jio 4G connection.

"Reliance Jio is giving good service in all the area. We have told them (students) to try to get Jio connection. It is giving good network," he said.

However, he highlighted that if many people complain about the bad signal, the district administration will definitely talk to the telecom service providers to strengthen their services.

Though that route can be explored, Ullal said nothing would happen in the next 3-4 months as all these villages are peripherally located and overlap into multiple authorities such as the forest department, wildlife areas and others.

"Even if permission is given, I don't think anything will happen in the next 3-4 months. It will take all labour, material and everything to materialize," he said.

Despite all these processes, he reiterated that the gram panchayats offering wi-fi signal could be the best solution.

"We will ask them to share it with the students. We are asking all the gram panchayats to try out this. Will start this from Shibaje. It is not yet communicated, but I have consulted a few of the gram panchayats," said Ullal.

The gram panchayats have agreed to share the Digital Indian broadband connection with the needy students.

Dakshina Kannada is 347 away from Bengaluru by the coast. Mangaluru, its district headquarters served as trading post for several centuries.

It was ruled by the Alups and the Vijayanagara dynasty but the Portuguese had the strongest influence who came in the 15th century.

Later, the district fell into the hands of Haider Ali to become the chief port of Mysuru, and after the fall of Tipu Sultan, it went into the British hands.
Night and weekend curfew in Jammu and Kashmir 2022: Know guidelines, rules: What is allowed, what is not

Shah Faesal quits politics amid speculation he may return to IAS fold

India

pti-Deepika S

Srinagar, Aug 10: Shah Faesal, who topped the IAS exam in 2009 but floated a new political party in Jammu and Kashmir last year, on Monday abruptly quit politics amid speculation that he may return to government service.

The 37-year-old tendered his resignation from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in January 2019 to launch a new regional party -- Jammu and Kashmir Poeple''s Movemnet (JKPM) -- of which he became the first president. He was the first candidate from the erstwhile state who topped the civil services exam.

Sachin Pilot meets Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi amid reconciliation talks | Oneindia News

Shah Faesal drops 'JKPM president from his Twitter bio, likely to rejoin administration

Faesal, a 2010 batch officer, was strongly critical of the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution on August 5 last year and was arrested from Delhi airport days later before he could board a flight to Turkey. He was subsequently taken into preventive detention and later booked under the draconian Public Safety Act from which he was released in June.

The doctor-turned-burueacrat''s political career ended suddenly with his party announcing on Monday that he had stepped from its leadership and quit politics. JKPM vice-president Feroze Peerzada will be the party''s interim president till formal elections can be held for the post.

Faesal had resigned from the IAS before joining politics but his resignation has not been accepted, pending disposal of a show cause notice given to him by the government in 2018. His name still figures in the list of ''serving'' IAS officers on the official website of the Department of Personnel.

Faesal''s decision to quit politics prompted speculation that he may want to go back to government services if permitted.

He was quoted by India Today as saying that there was a "new reality" in Kashmir and people have to come to terms with it. "As a member of IAS, I have been a stakeholder in the future of this nation. I can''t imagine why some people would be anti-India. I can''t be seen as a traitor to a nation that has given me everything in life. I want to move on and start afresh. In whatsoever position that is," Faesal told the India Today network.

Officials in the Home and Personnel ministries refused to comment on whether Faesal was re-joining the civil services but said his explanation on a show cause notice issued in June 2018, for his comments on Twitter on growing atrocities against women, had not been received so far.

Asked whether Faesal could rejoin duty, the officials said he needs to first submit his explanation on the charges levelled against him after which the decision of accepting or rejecting his resignation would be taken.
STAMFORD  Hidden at the tip of Wallacks Point, a private neighborhood east of Shippan, is a gated causeway leading to Caritas Island.

The island is home to the family of John A. Morgan, great-grandson of the famous banker J.P. Morgan and great, great-grandson of former U.S. President John Quincy Adams. Morgans estate, which is on the market for $9 million, sprawls over the 3.5-acre island with a 14,200-square-foot stone mansion flanked by two guest homes, a greenhouse, a natural pool and gazebo.

But some of the propertys most magnificent features are woven into its details.

Marble trim separates the original Herringbone oak hardwood floors from the ornate wood-paneled walls on the first floor of the main house, a stone patio features a to-scale map of Connecticuts Long Island Sound coastline and imported chandeliers from Sweden and Denmark add to the 12-bedroom homes grandiose atmosphere.

Im going to miss the atmosphere here, said Connie Morgan, Johns wife. When you cross that causeway, its like a relief ... Its like living in a vacation home.

The 114-year-old mansion is a fortress of solitude, clad by 20-inch stone walls and a green slate roof. The library on the first floor, which features a secured room with a wet bar, is particularly private.

This is a really quiet room, even when the weather is really bad, Connie Morgan said. On top of the thick walls, we just replaced all of the windows with storm windows so you really cant hear anything out there.

Thanks to a protective seawall and a hearty stone skeleton, the main house has never sustained any weather damage.

On the eastern tip of Caritas Island is a private harbor with a 13-foot draft and a 500-foot pier.

A large pier and deep-water dock is a rarity, especially when its fully protected with a breakwater, said listing agent Janet Olmsted, of Halstead Connecticut.

John A. Morgan said the private harbor, which is large enough to fit a 75-foot boat, is one of the most valuable amenities Caritas Island has to offer.

Other amenities include eight fireplaces scattered throughout the main house, and a master bedroom suite featuring his-and-her marble-clad bathrooms and two dressing rooms. Attached to the home is a four-car heated garage with pens for the Morgans five dogs, a workroom, a mudroom and a pantry.

A rich history

Even though the main house was completely renovated in 2011, pieces of history still remain around every corner. Some of these gems are original to the home, while others were brought in by the Morgan family.

John Pierpont Morgans original mahogany desk sits in the front room at the 140 Wallacks Drive home. Benjamin Bingo Gilbert and his Rockefeller wife Mary, used the same front room as a grand ballroom in the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

This desk used to be in the original Drexel building in New York, Connie Morgan said with pride as she flipped through old photographs of J.P. Morgans first headquarters in Manhattan. J.P. Morgan sat here when he lent some money to America in 1895.

Shes referring to the countrys near-disaster in 1895 when the U.S. gold reserves evaporated. J.P. Morgan dug up an old Civil War-era statute that allowed him and some fellow international financiers to replenish the Treasurys gold stocks, and the country was saved.

The house was built in the early 1900s for members of the Anson Phelps Stokes and J.G. Phelps Stokes family, descendants of those who started the Phelps-Dodge mining company. Depending on who you ask, the house was built sometime between 1902 and 1909.

After the Great Depression, it changed hands to the Gilbert family. During World War II, Connie Morgan said the FBI raided the home and arrested the Gilberts entire staff for being German spies.

There are so many crazy stories like that about this house, she said. A lot has happened here over the years. There was even a movie made about this house.

The 2009 documentary, Beyond Greenaway: The Legacy, is a film by Sue Gilbert about her childhood spent on the island. Caritas Island was known back then as Greenaway Island. The Morgans re-instated the original name when they bought the property in 1987.

Caritas Island has always been a private residence, but the coastline property is zoned for nonprofit uses like a museum, a beach club, a day camp or an assisted living home. The property can be subdivided into two lots, with 2 acres around the main house, 1.5 acres around surrounding structures and an additional 1.5 acres beyond the seawall.

Conversion of the property would require some zoning approvals, and any new structure could not exceed three stories, Olmsted said.

nora.naughton@scni.com; twitter.com/noranaughton
Rumour has it that NVIDIA is less than a month away from announcing the RTX 3000 series. The next-generation GPUs, which are based on the company's Ampere architecture, are now supposedly slated for release on September 9. The announcement would seemingly be ahead of AMD unveiling its "Big Navi" cards.

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A new launch date for the RTX 3000 series has been offered, this time by GamersNexus. It has been a few weeks since ITHome alleged that NVIDIA planned to unveil its next-generation GPUs on September 17, which would be in line with a late Q3 2020 release that has been speculated about for a while now. Contradictorily, Overclocker.com claimed that this September release date would only apply to AIB cards and that NVIDIA would launch its Founders Edition models in August.

Now, GamersNexus reports that NVIDIA is planning an RTX 3000 series announcement for September 9. If that date is correct, then we should expect NVIDIA to begin publishing teasers within the next three weeks.

It is believed that NVIDIA will use the September 9 event to unveil the RTX 3070, RTX 3080 and RTX 3080 Ti, although only the latter two will be launched that same month. Apparently, the RTX 3070 will arrive in October, with the RTX 3060 scheduled for release in November.
The Democratic primary for the states 22nd Senate District comes down to a newcomer and a three-term incumbent, both of whom say they are taking nothing for granted.

Marcus Brown, a 29-year-old two-term city councilman, took the Democratic nod for the 22nd State Senate District away from incumbent Sen. Marilyn Moore at Mays party nominating convention. The district includes all of Trumbull and parts of Bridgeport and Monroe.

Brown, a junior at the University of Massachusetts, is an employee relations specialist at The Workplace Inc., a regional nonprofit job center. He said he felt good about his chances heading into Tuesdays primary. Still, he said he was taking nothing for granted.

contributed photo /

I think a lot of people feel like its time for a change, he said. People are saying, Hes young and energetic, lets give him a chance.

Campaigning has been unusual because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brown said. In speaking with voters, he said the virus has consistently been at the top of their concerns. And their concerns extended beyond the illness itself to the potential economic fallout from the quarantines effect on the economy.

Hearst Connecticut Media made several attempts to reach Moore. During a brief phone conversation Friday afternoon, she said she was focused on working with municipal leaders to expedite power restoration to tens of thousands of residents still in the dark.

Thats where my priority has to be now, she said.

Contributed /

Moore, 73, and a lifelong Bridgeport resident, is the deputy president pro tempore of the state Senate. She is the Senate chairwoman of both the Human Services and General Bonding committees and vice chairwoman of the Committee on Children.

Last summer, Moore narrowly lost a mayoral primary to Mayor Joseph Ganim.

In previous coversations with Hearst, Moore said she prided herself on her work ethic in the Senate.

I go to Hartford every day with the intention of lifting people up without hurting anyone else, Moore said. I missed only one vote in six years. I stand on my reputation.

On another hot-button issue  the recently passed police accountability law  both candidates agreed the changes were long overdue, and a good start toward the ultimate goal of ending racial disparities in law enforcement.

After months of protests demanding accountability for police, we finally passed legislation that seeks to bring concrete reform to police departments in Connecticut, Moore said in a written statement after the senate approved the bill. It's long overdue and there are still many systemic issues we need to address including police accountability, but I'm proud that the voice of activists and organizers across the state and in our community were heard.

Brown also noted the protests that had led up to the vote, and expressed disappointment with those who had voted against the bill.

Legislators from almost every city and town showed their support and held signs during the protests in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing by Minnesota police, Brown said. Now is the time to prove to us that you believe Black lives matter.

In addition to being the partys endorsed candidate, Brown was recently named a 2020 Gun Sense Candidate by the group Moms Demand Action. The distinction means the group recognizes him as a candidate who will govern with gun violence prevention in mind.

Growing up in a neighborhood plagued by gun violence and grieving over one senseless shooting after another in this country, this issue is close to my heart, Brown said.

Staff writer Michael P. Mayko contributed to this story.
President Donald Trump during a news conference at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., on Saturday. Read more

President Donald Trump may come to Pennsylvania this month to formally accept his renomination for president.

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 tweeted Monday.

That speech would be on Aug. 27, the last day of the Republican National Convention, most of which will be conducted virtually after the coronavirus pandemic scuttled plans for an in-person event. There are legal questions, however, about whether Trump can hold a formal campaign event at either the White House or Gettysburg, both of which are federal property and therefore usually off-limits for explicitly political events.

The convention and Trumps speech have already seen several head-snapping changes. It was originally supposed to be in Charlotte, N.C., then Jacksonville, Fla., before being canceled  so more twists are possible.

Gettysburg and Pennsylvania are critical to Trump, who often compares himself to President Abraham Lincoln, and who knows the Keystone State is one of a handful expected to decide the election. Along with Gettysburgs import as a famous Civil War site and namesake of one of the countrys most storied presidential addresses, the nearby region has one of the largest collections of Republican voters in Pennsylvania.

Trump spoke in Gettysburg a little more than two weeks before Election Day in 2016 and racked up huge margins in nearby York and Lancaster Counties, helping him win Pennsylvania by less than 1% of the total votes cast. That helped seal his national win.

Yet, Trump has drawn criticism for invoking the Civil War in other ways: defending the Confederate battle flag and statues of Confederate generals, which activists have decried as symbols of oppression and racism.

Whos gonna tell him his team lost at Gettysburg, tweeted David Pepper, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party.

Instead of firing off tweets, Trump ought to deliver on a national testing strategy, abandon his reckless executive orders which would slash Social Security and cut weekly unemployment benefits for struggling workers, and stop blocking necessary funding for COVID-19 testing and contact tracing, Pennsylvania Democratic Party executive director Jason Henry said in a statement. Until he does that, Pennsylvania families wont care about his political speeches.

Public polls show Trump consistently trailing Biden in Pennsylvania, a state both parties have emphasized.

Biden has based his campaign headquarters in Philadelphia and held several major events in the state, including recent visits to Lancaster County and the Scranton area. He and Vice President Mike Pence both visited Pennsylvania on the same day last month, and Trump has made regular stops as well.

And on Monday, Lara Trump, the presidents daughter-in-law, launched a statewide Women for Trump bus tour with an event in Montgomery County.

Organizers for the Democratic National Convention, meanwhile, began rolling out their plans for the convention nominating Biden next week, including a planned speech by a western Pennsylvania farmer, Rick Telesz, who supported Trump in 2016, but now says the presidents trade policy has hurt farmers like himself.

The guys a con man, said Telesz, who heads a family dairy, corn, and soybean farm about 50 miles north of Pittsburgh. He kept saying hes working on these new trade deals, youre going to love them, theyre going to be wonderful.  Maybe that sounded good to the general public, but to the farmer, it was a line of B.S.

Telesz, 62, has been an outspoken Trump critic and has participated in events with other Democrats. In an interview Monday, he said Trumps steel tariffs raised the costs of equipment and other inputs to his farming operation, while Chinas retaliatory tariffs on U.S. soybeans cut into his sales.

Trump has promised a new trade deal that he says will benefit American workers and fight Chinese imports.

The Democrats did not specify when Telesz would speak or how large a role he will have in the convention. He was one of nine people who dont work in politics that the party announced for speaking roles in the virtual convention next week.








[ trifecta ] 08.09.20 Three Stories

Overnight

What could possibly have happened to them? the mother said shed asked the doctor. One minute, theyd been fine, the next, they wouldnt wake up. Their brains had shut down, the woman said the doctor said. Their hearts were no longer pumping on their own. Even if they woke up, even if the doctor could get their brains working again, their hearts working again, there was likely to be serious brain damage, the woman said the doctor said. They wouldnt grow up the way other children would. There would be a lot of therapy, a lot of extra care. It looked, the woman said the doctor said, like the girls had suffered an extreme case of heatstroke. It looked like theyd gotten overheated, so much so their bodies had shut down. This was not the sort of thing that just happened. It was a mistake, the woman explained; the two girls had somehow been left in the car overnight in record heat. Someone was supposed to get them out. The girls had been playing in the car, and the mother had told them to stop, and anyway, they knew it was dangerous to play in the car by themselves, the mother said. They didnt stop, she told the police, who told the press. They didnt stop playing in the car, the police told the press the mother had said, and so the mother decided to punish them by locking them in the carthey were, it seemed, too young to know how to unlock the car doors or else they were simply too scared of being punished to do so. Her own mother had once caught her smoking and had made her smoke the whole pack, the woman explained, one cigarette after the other. She knew people who spanked their children. She knew people who got into screaming fights with their children at Wal-Mart. How was this different? This wasnt different. Really, it was just an accident. It was someone elses fault, or else it was no one elses fault. It was a thing that had just happened, the press reported the woman told the police. There was, the press reported, the case of the woman who had put her two boys in the car and then driven it into the lake; shed felt stuck, police said shed said, like her life wasnt her own anymore. There was the story of the woman whod drowned all five of her kids in the bathtub; postpartum depression, the press said her lawyers said her doctors said. There was the one about the woman who drowned her ten-month-old son and his five-year-old brother; afraid of being deported, the press said the womans neighbors said. And there were the women in Chicago and Omaha whod put their babies in shopping bags and then thrown their babies out of high windows. All this was just in the last couple of years; things were always happening. On the news that night, and after the story about the woman and her children, the anchor introduced a reporter who was reporting on a piece of reporting done by a reporter for one of the nations big daily newspapers, a real scoop, it was said, detailing a list of seven words the current administration was seeking to have banned in all future government publications. Because spokespeople from the affected government agencies were officially denying the lists existence, there was no interview to cut away to, and so the reporter simply read from the list in front of a federal courthousegood enough, the producer had said; lets roll. Footage of the reporter flubbing the word vulnerable would later be uploaded to the web and go viral. Ive heard that, because the woman couldnt bear to do itbut not because she was legally barred from doing it; in this country, its innocent until proven guiltythe womans husband had to tell the doctors to take their little girls off life-support. Ive heard its what they would have wanted.





How the Husband and the Wife Parted Ways

This couple, husband and wife, were both in their own ways bad at leaving. The wife, who seemed at such moments not to know what to do with herself, had a habit of staying on long after she announced she and her husband were going, while her husband would often not have said goodbye until just before he stepped through the door, and would be content, in that moment, to wave to no one in particular or else say something forgettable, like See you soon or Thanks for having us. His wife would, meanwhile, have crossed the room to tell her sister they were leaving, and then, while her sister finished her conversation with her doctor friend, and as though she had changed her mind and were staying, this wife would stand there just a bit longer, even after the two women had hugged and promised to get lunch next week and reminded each other about their mothers birthday. Then naturally the wife would see a coworker across the room, a woman she saw five days a week and who, she had complained to her husband, was condescending and stand-offish, and, feeling it would be rude not to at least say hello, would tell her sister and her doctor friendwho had already returned to their conversationgoodbye yet again. Her husband, trying to decide whether to just wait outside, and perhaps because he was, at that moment, thinking hed wanted to have time for a run before work tomorrow or else just that he was tired, had the uncharitable thought that his wife really took far too long to say goodbyea simple thing, he thought, the simplest of thingsand that she also tended to linger long after she had said it because, at some level or in some way, he felt, she wanted people to beg her to stay. Across the room, telling her condescending coworker Were actually just getting ready to go. Great to see you! this wife saw her husband, looking, as usual, terribly unhappy, and wondered what exactly his problem was. Why did he always seemed happiest to be leaving a place? The only thing that made him happier was to already be gone, the experience over. She thought that really it was that he liked his fantasy that he would be missedliked, that is, the idea that someone, somewhere, was wondering what had happened to him, where hed gone. These two warring tendencies, the husbands and the wifes, were at their worst in the mornings before each left for work, when the husband tended to leave before the wife could tell him what to get for dinner when he passed the store, unless, that is, it was a later shift he had that day, a morning when the wife had to leave first, a morning when she waited and waited to leave, sitting at the breakfast table with him, neither one talking, until long after she should have left for work. On such mornings, there was always a moment, after the husband had finally said, Have a good day at work. Love you, just as she was closing the door, when the wife felt that, if she didnt answer, her husband would feel insulted, like she was making a point of not saying I love you back, but also thinking that if she stayed even one more second to say so, she would miss her bus and be forty minutes late. When she was at work, she realized, she never thought about her husband unless a coworker asked about him, and, in fact, that almost never happened.





Fascinating and Disgusting

The mans post about being part of the demographic recently announced as the one most likely to commit suicide was, one of this mans friends wrote, part of a pattern of behavior that could kindly be called attention-seeking. That is to say, this friend went on to write, that the post itself was designed to elicit what she called life-affirming responses from those seeing it, which responses the man in question would then no doubt criticize as blandly or blithely life-affirminga locution the woman chose precisely because the man had used it in the past, always in dismissive and derogatory ways. He did this, she wrote, to make himself feel better about himself by making others feel worse about themselves. This was what he did. This man was posting in this way to generate precisely the response he claimed was most worthless and maliciously benign. Such behavior, the woman pointed out, was, on the face of it, absurd. In fact, the woman wrote, this mans behavior online was, as she well knew, in marked contrast to his behavior in lifeonline, he tended to be combative, while in life, he was aloof, shy. The woman was, as it happened, writing a short essay on these two aspects of personalitycombative online, aloof in personclaiming they were really two sides of the same coin. She was not, she emphasized, writing about a failed relationshipnot at allbut, also, she would really prefer not to disclose the nature of her relationship with this man. Though the woman had no training in psychology apart from a freshman-year intro course (shed done wellan A-, and this was back when an A- meant something, she wrote the editor), she considered herself an experienced observer of human behavior, and she was both fascinated and disgusted by the post and what she perceived as its intent. Furthermore, she wrote, she anticipated writing quite a bit more on the subject, and not only on that subject. She had already planned out chapters of an e-book on: Why Meeting People Online Is Risky and How to Do It Successfully; How to Conduct Oneself When Meeting Someone for the First Time that One Has Corresponded with Online; Proper Social Media Etiquette After a First Date; Honesty and Dating Profile Pictures; When Changing a Relationship Status Update Isnt Mutual and What to Do About It; What Not to Say to a Manic Depressive; How to Get Out of a Gaslighting Relationship, and maybe as many as thirteen others (she was specific in the proposed number though she was also careful to note there was no significance in the choice of thirteen). Such a project would likely take her as long as a month, maybe even stretching into two! she wrote. It really was a fascinating and disgusting subject, and didnt the editor, who hadnt so far bothered to reply to her previous queries, agree? Perhaps there had been some miscommunication, she added. Perhaps he simply hadnt gotten those previous queries. (She did not think it was worth mentioning that her proposed essay on #thedress hadnt worked outshed finally clicked over to the picture after sending her proposal and saw it was blue; what was the big deal?) Perhaps the editor didnt realize what exactly he was ignoring, the commercial potential of such work. Perhaps the editor felt the publication was somehow above such matters. Was there personal animus? Was there chauvinism? She didnt like to accuse. Unlike her previous emails, this one got a response: Out of the Office, the subject line read. I know youre not out of the office, she wrote, Ive seen your posts. The chain of emails that followed would, one suspects, be rich in insight.
Kevin Roche and I contributed the 3,000-word article on the experience of COVID-19 in Minnesota to the flagship Center of the American Experiment publication Thinking Minnesota. Our article is published under the title False Alarm at pages 36-41 of the current (Summer) issue, posted online in PDF form here. Its quite an issue.

I wrote a first draft of the article this past May for publication in mid-July. Borrowing from the text of our original draft, I wanted to take the liberty of highlighting the ten theses with which we begin the article. I think they hold up and may shed some light on where we are now, especially for those who get their information from the mainstream media:

 It became obvious to us early on that the epidemic presented a risk of fatality to nursing-home residents with serious medical conditions. They represent some 80 percent of all COVID-19 fatalities and have done so since very early on. Moreover, their deaths are attributed to COVID-19 without further ado if they had been diagnosed with the disease.

 Adding in others who died with serious medical conditions outside nursing homes accounts for almost all the rest of the fatalities. Those with serious underlying medical conditions  both in and out of congregate living settings  account for roughly 98 percent of all deaths attributed to the disease.

 The median age of all decedents is approximately 83. The disease presents almost no risk of death to the relatively young and the relatively healthy.

 If those with serious medical conditions were warned of the risk and ordered to act appropriately, the rest of the state could be set free to go about its business.

 This is an option that Governor Walz has rejected on the assertion that the disease places all of us at risk. This statement is false in the relevant sense.

 The serious underlying medical conditions that place older Minnesotans at elevated risk of death from COVID-19 are set forth in paragraph 2 of Walz Executive Order 20-55: chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma, serious heart conditions, immunocompromised systems (caused by cancer treatment, smoking, bone marrow or organ transplantation, immune deficiencies, poorly controlled HIV or AIDS, or prolonged use of corticosteroids and other immune weakening medications), severe obesity (body mass index of 40 or higher), diabetes, chronic kidney disease requiring dialysis, and liver disease. By our calculation, these conditions affect approximately 15 percent of Minnesotans.

 Most Minnesotans who contract the virus are asymptomatic. Testing of the exposed population testing positive at the Worthington meatpacking plant showed that 90 percent were asymptomatic.

 Although it gets lost in the torrent of words in his public comments, Governor Walz has asserted that the measures he has taken only delay the inevitable. According to former state epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, whom Walz has advertised among his brain trust, the virus will infect some 70 percent of Minnesotans. The virus will continue to spread until a critical mass  that 70 percent  reaches immunity. [The percentage to herd immunity may be lower, but the point remains the same.]

 Governor Walz imposed his statewide shutdown on the assertion that 74,000 Minnesotans would die of COVID-19 without it. If he didnt know any better, this was at the least an epic mistake. He owes the state an apology.

 If any of these basic points come as a surprise, we note that the failure of the Minnesota media rivals that of Governor Walz.
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Linkedin Gemma Holliani Cahya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, August 11 2020

The governments decision to allow more schools to reopen has drawn strong criticism from pediatricians and teachers who have been calling for schools to stay focused on distance learning to prevent children from contracting the coronavirus disease.

Despite daily increases of infections in Indonesia, the government expanded on Friday a school reopening policy for schools in COVID-19 yellow zones, or moderate-risk areas. The decision comes only a month after schools in green zones, or low-risk areas, were given the green light to reopen.

The Federation of Indonesian Teachers Associations (FSGI) said the change risked creating new infection clusters at schools. The group has received reports of at least 180 teachers and students from across the nation who have tested positive for the virus.

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10.08.2020 LISTEN

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is asking the government to be bold and render a detailed account of revenue generated from the botched operations of the Power Distribution Services (PDS).

According to the opposition party, governments decision to terminate the fraudulent contract with PDS has led to a huge loss of state funds that must be properly accounted for.

At a media engagement, the NDCs National Communication Officer, Sammy Gyamfi argued that the partys audit shows how PDS accrued revenue to the tune of GHS 1.5 billion that has not been declared by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).

From our checks, the total amount of monies PDS collected from electricity consumers in the form of electricity bills was over GHS 1.5 billion, but we have not heard any official communication from the Akufo-Addo government even though it's been well over a year since the notorious PDS concessionaire arrangement was terminated because of a fraudulent demand guarantee. For this matter, Ghanaians and electricity consumers ought to know the amount of money we paid to that fraudulent entity called PDS.

Additionally, the NDC is demanding from the government the list of persons who were behind the fraudulent deal together with findings of investigations conducted into the saga.

Since the Minister for Energy, honourable Peter John Amewu told Ghanaians that the insurance guarantee PDS presented for the takeover of the over 20 billion worth of assets of ECG, which allegedly issued the said guarantee, who were those who perpetrated this fraud, and what actions has President Akufo-Addo taken to ensure that they answer for this fraud? Sammi Gyamfi quizzed.

---citinewsroom
ABINGDON, Va.  Charles Michael Mike Owens focuses on the historic buildings of Abingdon with a passion.

On Aug. 3, the 59-year-old optometrist became the newest member of the Abingdon Town Council. Owens was chosen by the council members to replace Al Bradley, who resigned in June due to health concerns.

Im pretty laid back, Owens told the Bristol Herald Courier. Ill listen to people. I look at both sides. And I think they recognized that in me.

In Sullivan County, Tennessee, Owens grew up in the Emmett community. His father, Charles Owens, taught biology at Virginia Highlands Community College while his mother, Faye Owens, served as a secretary for Sunrise and Cold Spring elementary schools, as well as Sullivan East High School. His wife of 17 years, Barbara Owens, is a physical therapist who grew up just outside of Atlanta.

Today, Owens is an optometrist in Abingdon and Clintwood for Eye Physicians of Southwest Virginia.

Prior to being named to the council, Owens served for seven years on the towns Historic Preservation Review Board.

Its a tough board to be on, said Owens, who was placed back on that board at the August Town Council meeting. You have to tell people no a lot. We have guidelines, and people want to skirt around the guidelines.

Still, Owens says hes passionate about the historic district in town. And Im hoping we can expand it, he said.

One of my personal passions is to improve and expand the historic district, Owens said. With Abingdon being a tourism town now, one of the things that people enjoy is the historic district. And I think we need to save some of these historic buildings that are not protected now.

This year, due to coronavirus concerns, Abingdon has been plagued by a downturn in tourism  with the shutdown of the Barter Theatre, lower hotel occupancy rates, a lower number of diners at restaurants and the cancellation of festivals.

I know the town is going to be in a tough position, as far as budget cuts, Owens said. Abingdon gets a lot of its tax revenue from tourism. ... Nobodys traveling. And nobodys going out to eat like they used to. Were going to have to make some decisions within the next year or two. And Im hoping with my experience I can help with that.

Owens has lived in Abingdon for 32 years.

Ive become passionate about the town, he said. I think its a great place to live, and, hopefully, we can help improve it and keep it on the upward path.

Owens appointment to Town Council spans less than one year; the term ends with the certification of a special election on May 4.

Though Owens has never run for council, he is already contemplating whether he will mount a campaign next spring to keep his newly appointed seat.

I think this is a good way for me to test the waters to see if Im helpful, to see if I enjoy it and to see some success for the Town Council and the town, Owens said.

I think that I would run, Owens added. If it looks like Im not doing a good job, then Ill not run. And I think the community will let me know that.

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Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has enables its customers who own electric vehicles to obtain all transactions including EV Green Charger registration, charging, and billing and settlement on a trusted blockchain eco-system.



This enables faster, safer, and more efficient transaction management, as well as saving time and effort, a Dewa statement said.



Dewa adopts the latest Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies and disruptive technologies to provide green and innovative solutions that build a sustainable future. This consolidates Dubais position as a capital for the green economy and sustainable development. The blockchain system for EV owners provides a single platform with high availability. It provides an integrated agile governance framework that supports transparency among all stakeholders, said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dewa.



Through the EV Green Charger initiative, Dewa strives to encourage the use of environmentally friendly electric vehicles to protect the environment. Dewa provides more than 240 EV stations across different locations in Dubai.



It also provides free charging for non-commercial EV owners until 31 December 2021. This is exclusive to Dewas public charging stations and does not apply to home chargers. Commercially registered users such as government, semi-government, and private organisations are being charged a tariff of 29 fils per kilowatt hour.  TradeArabia News Service
Students who appeared for the Tamil Nadu SSLC class 10th examination 2020 will get their results today as Tamil Nadu Directorate of Government Examinations (DGE) is scheduled to announce the scores at 9.30 am.

Once declared, students can check their scorecrad on the official website of the board, 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. The students will have to download the TN SSLC Result app on their smartphone in order to access the result. 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.

A total of 9.7 lakh candidates appeared for the Tamil Nadu Class 10 exams, which were held from March 27 to April 13.

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.

Tamil Nadu SSLC Result are usually released in late April or early May
Laurel Phizacklea, now aged two, wasnt expected to survive birth after doctors diagnosed her with exomphalos. (SWNS)

Laurel Phizacklea wasnt expected to survive birth after doctors diagnosed her with a major exomphalos - a condition which occurs when the baby's abdominal wall does not form during pregnancy.

This meant that Laurel was born with her stomach, liver and bowel on the outside of her body.

But now aged two, Laurel - together with parents Kelly, 30, and Sean, 34 - is looking forward to the operation next year that will enable doctors to reinsert the organs into her body.

Most babies with the condition have the operation done at birth, but due to the unusually large size of Laurels exomphalos, doctors said she wouldnt be able to have them internalised until she is three.

Read more: New mums reveal impact lockdown has had on their pregnancies

Kelly, a volunteer supporting parents in neonatal care, and Sean, a car dismantler, from Cambridge, Cambs, were offered a termination following the scan but after much agonising decided not to. Their daughter, defying doctors predictions, was born at Addenbrookes Hospital on June 6, 2018.

Laurel was left with a protruding bump from her stomach which her parents have to wrap in bandages to support her external organs, in case the weight of them were to pull anything else out of her body.

Laurel was left with a protruding bump from her stomach which her parents have to wrap in bandages to support her external organs. (SWNS)

Skin has formed around the organs, and Laurel can eat, drink and go to the toilet like any other toddler - but her parents have to keep a close eye on her as any injuries to the exomphalos would be irreparable.

The bump doesnt bother Laurel, who loves to cradle her exomphalos when her bandages are removed for bath time, often stroking it and saying ah tummy.

Read more: Dani Dyer shares reality of migraines as an early pregnancy symptom

Kelly said: I dont know how we remained positive throughout my pregnancy with Laurel.

It really looked as if she wouldnt survive birth - but Sean and I never gave up hope and she has done us so proud.

Laurel is a true inspiration and amazes us every day.

Kelly and Sean discovered they were expecting their first child in October 2017.

Story continues

It was after attending their 12-week scan to get their first glimpse of their baby that they were told something was wrong.

They said that our baby's organs were on the outside of the body, Kelly said. I couldnt believe that was even possible.

Doctors explained that the couples unborn child had exomphalos - a type of abdominal wall defect which occurs when a childs abdomen does not develop fully while in the womb.

Early in all pregnancies, the intestine develops inside the umbilical cord and then usually moves inside the abdomen a few weeks later.

In exomphalos, the intestines - and in this case the stomach, liver and bowel - remain inside the umbilical cord but outside the abdomen.

Doctors also determined that Kelly and Seans baby had a spinal deformity - and the pair were offered a termination.

We couldnt quite believe what we were hearing when they offered us an abortion, Kelly said.

People kept saying: Its OK, you can try again - but I didnt want another baby.

I was so in love with this baby and we knew we would do everything we could for her.

After a consultation at Addenbrookes Hospital the pair went home and shut themselves away and just cried and cried.

Kelly had to attend a scan every two weeks to monitor the progress of her unborn child.

The presence of exomphalos signals an 80 percent chance of other birth abnormalities, so Kelly underwent numerous tests in order to detect them.

She had to endure three echocardiograms to assess Laurels heart, an MRI to look at Laurels spine, Chorionic villus sampling - which is a biopsy of the placenta - to scan for chromosomal defects and frequent ultrasounds to review the size of the exomphalos.

These scans highlighted that as well as exomphalos, their child had a hole in the heart and congenital scoliosis - a spinal deformity.

In the scan it showed Laurel not only had exomphalos, but also a hole in the heart. (SWNS)

Three weeks before Laurels birth, doctors also discovered the exomphalos had doubled in size - prompting medics to take both Kelly and Sean aside to tell them their daughter would not survive birth.

We were so close and had been through so much already, Kelly said.

Hearing that was devastating - but they told us they would do everything they could to save her, despite the very slim odds of her survival.

Although I knew it was very real and incredibly scary, part of me always thought: This wont happen to me, I wont let it.

On June 6th 2018, surgeons performed a classic caesarean. This gave them more room to remove baby Laurel, as they had to be extra careful not to rupture her external organs.

Doctors warned both Kelly and Sean not to expect to hear their baby cry - so when they heard her cries both were overcome with relief.

When we heard her cry out I couldnt believe it, Kelly said.

Both Sean and I just burst into tears.

We knew it was far from the end of it - but to hear her cry was a huge relief and from that moment we knew she was a fighter.

Their daughter Laurel was born weighing a healthy 7lb 5oz, and put straight on a ventilator.

We saw a glimpse of her as she was wheeled past, Kelly said.

I was just so relieved shed got through the birth.

After seven hours, Kelly and Sean were finally able to meet their daughter properly for the first time.

Her tummy was swaddled in bandages, Kelly said.

We knew to expect it to look different - so we werent scared at all."

It wasnt until Laurel was a month old that Kelly got to hold her for the first time, as she had to remain on her back with the exomphalos suspended to avoid any complications.

Kelly and Sean were provided with a room at the hospital by the Sick Childrens Trust so they could be there 24/7 with their little girl.

Doctors worried that Laurel wouldnt be able to breathe on her own, as it is common in exomphalos cases for the lungs not to have formed properly - but luckily for the family, Laurel proved doctors wrong.

After just three-and-a-half-months in hospital, Laurel was able to return home.

We knew shed need the big operation further down the line, but just having her home was so special, Kelly said.

We quickly realised she was an adventurous baby, so knew wed need to keep an eye on her so she wouldnt damage her exomphalos.

Surgeons warned the couple that if Laurel damages her external organs, theres nothing they can do - so the family are patiently waiting until Laurel turns three and can have her organs internalised.

If inserted into the body too soon, and when her frame is too small, the diaphragm wouldnt be able to cope with the sudden lack of space with which to operate.

As it is, Laurel will have to learn how to breathe again when she undergoes the operation at the beginning of 2021.

Even though we try to make sure shes sensible and careful, its so hard with a two-year-old, Kelly said.

She still tries to jump off the arm of the sofa, and loves being in a muddy puddle splashing about outdoors.

Shes a bit of a daredevil - which can be a little stressful but thats all part of why we love her!

Although it will be a relief for both Kelly and Sean when they dont have to worry about their daughters every move, they do worry that it will cause a certain amount of separation anxiety for the tot.

She loves her tummy so much, Kelly said.

She rubs it in the bath when I take the dressing off to wash her and says ah tummy.

Its very cute, and she couldnt be prouder of it.

But I do worry about how shell react when its not there anymore.

Laurel will undergo the operation at Kings College Hospital, London, where a surgeon has taken an interest in her case.

It is a scary thought, and there are definitely concerns, Kelly said.

But Laurel has already been through so much, and I am sure she will continue to take everything in her stride.
Top aerospace companies are plotting a 1billion bailout fund to help suppliers stricken by the virus crisis.

The fund would help small companies that have been left crippled by collapsing demand for aircraft and parts, amid restrictions on flying, which has left many planes unused.

European aerospace giant Airbus is reportedly among the backers.

Grounded: The fund would help small companies that have been left crippled by collapsing demand for aircraft and parts

The scheme is being organised by industry body ADS Group, which wants the Government to match private funding.

The organisation of the fund comes after BAE Systems boss warned of the impact the pandemic was having on small firms, creating a headache for their bigger customers.

The air travel collapse is sending shockwaves through supply chain businesses, which often also make defence parts or technology. Demand is not expected to pick up soon.

BAE boss Charles Woodburn previously told the Mail he was 'very mindful' of the supply chain and firms were 'facing some tough times'.
Auburn's Owasco Elementary School has a new principal.

The Auburn Enlarged City School District on Monday announced the hiring of Laura Evans to lead the school. Evans has most recently been directing the Ithaca City School District's literacy and pre-kindergarten program.

Evans fills the vacancy created by the June departure of Jeremy Moore, who resigned citing personal reasons after a year on the job. Jonathan Roberts, an assistant principal at Auburn Junior High school, has been serving as interim leader at Owasco Elementary this summer.

The district said Evans' experience includes starting out as a teacher in Ithaca before working 23 years with the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland. Her time in Maryland included serving as the supervisor of elementary integrated curriculum, "where she developed curriculum and led professional development for hundreds of teachers and principals," an Auburn press release said.

"As the Owasco principal, Evans is excited to work together to provide high quality teaching and learning for the whole school community. According to Evans, providing access to quality academic and social emotional learning for young people requires collaboration and teamwork. Evans cannot wait to meet the Owasco community and get started."

Evans' annual salary will be $93,000. The Auburn board of education approved her appointment at its July 28 meeting.

Evans returned to upstate New York from Maryland to be closer to family.

We have many relatives in the area and have enjoyed swimming in Owasco Lake for many years, so it will be an honor to serve at the elementary school named after such a lovely lake! Evans said in the press release.

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Mau : , Aug 10 (IANS) Just over a fortnight after the Supreme Court in slain gangster Vikas Dubey's case observed "don't resort to further encounters to eliminate dreaded gangsters", a father has questioned the Uttar Pradesh Police STF action after his son was killed in an encounter.

Baldutt Pandey, father of Hanuman Pandey, who was shot dead in an encounter in Lucknow on Sunday, has raised questions on the 'murder' of his son.

"My son had been acquitted in all cases and did not have any criminal case registered against him. Where was the need for an encounter? Besides, he was picked up by the STF from our house on Saturday night and shot dead on Sunday," he told reporters. This was after apex court's observation on Uttar Pradesh Police's modus operandi in the Dubey case was made on July 22.

Baldutt Pandey, a retired army personnel, said that his wife was ailing and undergoing treatment at the King George's Medical University (KGMU). "My son was taking care of my wife all this while. His encounter is something that the Yogi government should explain," he said.

SSP STF Sudhir Singh, meanwhile, said that five persons, including Hanuman Pandey, were trying to flee in an Innova. "We managed to corner Hanuman but four of his accomplices fled," he said.

Hanuman was shot by STF and taken to the hospital where the doctors declared him brought dead.

Baldutt Pandey also said that he was unaware of the fact that his son carried a reward of Rs one lakh on his head.

Meanwhile, a petition is being filed by one Vishal Tiwari in the Supreme Court in which the petitioner is seeking an impartial judicial probe into the encounter.

Dubey and five of his aides were killed in encounters with Uttar Pradesh Police between July 3 and July 10, after the slain gangster and his men ambushed and killed eight policemen in Bikru village on the intervening night of July 2 and 3.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 18:54:37|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities on Monday launched parallel inspection and law enforcement operations against illegal fishing in the waters of the Yangtze River.

The operations will be jointly carried out over 15 days by the public security and fishery departments and relevant law enforcement authorities along 40 water areas most prone to illegal fishing.

Monday's operations saw the seizure of over 700 kg of catch involved in 43 illegal fishing cases.

The operations are part of a three-year campaign against illegal fishing in the Yangtze River basin launched in late June by the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in a bid to push ahead with a fishing ban along the country's longest river starting from the beginning of this year. Enditem
Senior British officers in the Hong Kong police force could face legal action in the UK on torture charges after activists said on Monday that they plan to proceed with a private prosecution.

The officers are accused of directly engaging in torture against pro-democracy demonstrators, or directing others within the force to carry out the crimes.

Torture has allegedly been carried out in police stations and on the streets, with a specific incident cited at Hong Kong's Citic Tower during protests in June 2019.

The prosecution is being brought by a team of prominent activists and lawyers, who are using a JustGiving page to try and raise 200,000 to employ a full-time legal team.

They claim three of the six Hong Kong regional commander police posts are filled by British nationals, who were installed just before former the colonial power handed the territory over to the Chinese.

They says the prosecution can be carried out in London as torture is an offence which has universal jurisdiction under British law.

A team of prominent activists and lawyers are using a JustGiving page to try and raise 200,000 to employ a full-time legal team

They claim that torture has allegedly been carried out in police stations and on the streets, with a specific incident cited at Hong Kong's Citic Tower during protests in June 2019

'The people of Hong Kong have suffered sustained brutality at the hands of the Hong Kong Police Force,' said Luke de Pulford, a member of the human rights group, Hong Kong Watch.

'Despite clear evidence of excessive force, no officer has been disciplined. Many of those officers are British, and as such, they are subject to British law.'

None of the officers who could face prosecution have been named.

Another of those trying to bring about the prosecution is Nathan Law, a young democracy activist who recently fled to London from Hong Kong after China imposed a controversial security law on the territory in June.

The law was introduced to quell widespread and often violent pro-democracy protests, sparking criticism from Western nations and sanctions from the United States.

The legal action, if it goes ahead, will be led by London-based lawyers Edmunds Marshall McMahon, which describes itself as the 'only specialist private prosecution law firm' in the country.

It comes as Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai was arrested in a raid on his newspaper office today under the city's draconian new security law.

Lai, 71, was led away in handcuffs and arrested along with six others on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces - one of the new offences under the law - and fraud.

Protesters gather inside the Citic Tower during a protest in Hong Kong in June 2019

The editor of Lai's Apple Daily paper said its journalists would not be intimidated by the raid after staff posted a live-stream of dozens of police on their premises.

However, the Committee to Protect Journalists said the raid 'bears out the worst fears that the law would be used to suppress critical pro-democracy opinion and restrict press freedom'.

China insists the law is necessary to restore order after last year's mass protests, but critics say it tramples on the freedoms guaranteed to Hong Kong after its handover from Britain in 1997.

Beijing's new law targets secession, subversion, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces, leading to fears it would be used to silence criticism.

Under arrest: Jimmy Lai (centre), the media tycoon behind pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, was arrested by police in Hong Kong today

Raid: A fleet of police officers wearing masks conduct a raid inside Apple Daily headquarters on Monday in one of the most high-profile operations under the new security law

It also toppled the firewall between the mainland's Communist Party-controlled courts and Hong Kong's vaunted independent judiciary.

The law's introduction has coincided with ramped up police action against democracy supporters.

Bejing also responded with criticism after Britain announced plans to open up a path to citizenship for nearly three million Hong Kongers.

In response to the introduction of the controversial national security law in Hong Kong, Foreign Minister Dominic Raab last month announced that residents would be offered a 'route to citizenship', an extension of the six-month allowance to five years.
New Delhi: On Rhea Chakraborty's WhatsApp chat claim in which Sushant Singh Rajput allegedly told the actress that his sister Priyanka was "evil and manipulative", his other sister Shweta Singh Kirti has posted videos defending the family. The post features two old videos of Sushant from an interview in which he said he was "close to all his sisters, but Priyanka gets him."

When Sushant was asked who he had a "Pavitra Rishta" with, he took Priyanka's name.

"He admits he was closest to his sister Priyanka (Sonu Di) because she gets him... #Warriors4SSR #justiceforsushant #godiswithus," Shweta captioned her post.

Shweta's niece Mallika Singh (her eldest sister's daughter) also said that Sushant and Priyanka were "truly inseparable".

Rhea, who has been accused of abetment to suicide by Sushant's family, on Sunday shared screenshots of her alleged conversation with the actor, in which he had expressed concerns about Priyanka, calling her "evil and manipulative".

ALSO READ: Sushant Singh Rajput called his sister 'manipulative', claims Rhea Chakraborty in screenshots of her chats with actor

In the chat shared by Rhea, Sushant said that he believed his sister was "manipulating 'Sid Bhai'", apparently referring to his friend- roommate Siddharth Pithani. Meanwhile, he also praised Rhea's family and called them "epic".

Meanwhile, Rhea, her brother Showik will on Monday appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning in connection with the money laundering probe. Their father Indrajeet Chakraborty has also been summoned. Rhea and Showik have already been quizzed, this will be their second visit to the ED office.

Sushant was found hanging at his residence in Bandra on June 14.
Lux Mundi has announced that, due to financial complications, the association is unable to continue to maintain its ecumenical centre in Fuengirola. The centre in Calle Nueva will cease to function from 1 September, when the charity will move to a smaller premises to enable it to continue to function with greatly reduced overheads.

More information : www.luxmundi.org

Lux Mundi, which has been serving the local international community for almost 50 years, recently held a series of meetings with the patrons who oversee the administration of the centre; the Bishop of Malaga and the Jesuits. All have stressed the importance of keeping the ecumenical centre open, as well continuing the pastoral assistance it provides to the large community of foreigners, especially those in need.

Like many charities along the Costa del Sol, Lux Mundi's financial situation has worsened as all fundraising activities had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The organisation will now move its headquarters to the Parroquia de Nuestra Senora del Carmen in Calle Maria Josefa Larrucea (Fuengirola).

Lux Mundi has stressed that the second-hand shop in Calle Nueva will still be open from Tuesday to Friday between 10 am and 1pm in order to provide income, although it is unable to accept donations.

Lux Mundi will continue to work closely with Caritas Espanola - an organisation that carries out charitable and social activities in Catholic churches throughout Spain - in order to continue to offer help to those in need, especially the homeless. However, in order to reduce costs further, the centre will only operate during the mornings.

The charity has sent out a desperate appeal for volunteers and financial assistance to continue to offer a meeting point where unity is promoted by means of helping others.

President Gloria Uribe Cifuentes said, "Lux Mundi needs support now more than ever. We badly need money and manpower, and so we are sincerely appealing to the goodness of every one of our volunteers and friends to help us in our straitened circumstances. We are continuing to review the situation in the hope and expectation of finding a long-term solution to our financial problems."

Uribe expressed the charity's sincere appreciation for the support the expat community has provided since it was founded in 1973, saying, "Lux Mundi wants to inform every one of our current situation and to especially thank them for the support they have given to us, both financially and by participating in our activities. Without this help it would have been impossible for us to carry out our work in previous years.
It might be hard to believe, but September is just around the corner. Before you know it, we will be back to uniforms, school runs and of course, school lunches.

While the thought of pulling out the trusty Tupperware might fill you with dread, there are some simple ways that you can make the whole process more enjoyable.

Its all about finding healthy, easy options that work for you and your family. To find out more, we caught up with Caroline Gunn, registered nutritionist with The National Dairy Council. Here are Carolines top five tips for fuss-free lunches.

1. Get the kids involved

An easy way to make lunchtime more exciting is to get the kids involved the night before. Even talking to your kids about what goes into their lunchbox can make them feel more in control.

"That doesnt mean you have to give them free rein," Caroline explains. "You can get them involved and allow them to make choices while also setting some boundaries. You might let them choose options within the same food group; for example, a wholegrain pitta pocket or wholegrain bread, an apple or a banana. Its giving them a bit of control, but without infinite options!"

Another way to help children get involved is to cook and bake together.

"We might all be sick of banana bread by now," Caroline laughs, "but there are plenty of delicious recipes out there suitable for the lunchbox: veggie muffins, homemade soups, mini omelettes or hummus spreads to name a few. It can be a really nice way to spend time with your kids. Learning cooking skills can also teach kids about where their food comes from, which is really important as well."

2. Use the food pyramid as a guide

If youre unsure what to put in your childs lunchbox, use the food pyramid as a handy guide to consider their needs across the day.

"The food pyramid divides up our food into groups based on the nutrients they provide and is a guide for those aged 5 years and older," explains Caroline. "Ideally, youll want an abundance of fruit and veg across the day. You should be aiming for five to seven servings. That might seem like a lot but if you incorporate them into each meal or snack that they have, it can be very easily done.

"The next section is the wholegrain carbohydrates, such as bread, cereals, potatoes and rice which provide energy and fibre. These foods are also really important for our concentration throughout the day. Four to seven servings are recommended per day, depending on factors such as your childs age, size and activity levels.

"Then you have the dairy shelf which includes milk yogurt and cheese. Its recommended that children aged five to eight years have three servings per day. Between the age of nine to 18, five servings are recommended from this food group. Its so important to get calcium in because their bones are rapidly growing and developing. Milk also provides protein, iodine and B vitamins. Thats why we run the School Milk Scheme. Its a really convenient and affordable way of supplying subsidised milk to registered schools and they can also avail of free fridges, exclusive resources and competitions.

"Then you have the protein shelf. You need two servings per day from that across the day. That can include things like chicken, tuna, eggs and pulses."

3. Plan ahead

Have you ever arrived at school and realised you forgot to pack the lunches? Dont worry, it happens but one way to avoid it is to work your lunchbox prep into other meal times.

"If you can, start to think about the lunches the evening or night before," states Caroline. "You can weave it into other meal prep. If youre chopping peppers or carrots for your dinner, cut some extra for the lunchboxes. Vegetable sticks are a great snack for kids. If youve got some leftover wholegrain rice, you could turn that into a lovely rice salad or extra vegetables can be blitzed into soup."

Planning a few meals at once  from the shopping list stage to the prepping stage - can save you a lot of time and hassle.

4. Think about presentation

Presentation is something that you should never underestimate. You dont need to cut your childs cucumbers into flowers or origami their sandwiches but you should make sure their food is ready to grab.

"We have so many wonderful options now for colourful and easy-to-open Tupperware," Caroline explains. "If you have younger kids, you dont want them to spend lunchtime struggling to open things. Time can also be limited in the classroom because they want to eat quickly and get out and play. You want the food to be as accessible as possible."

5. Dont worry if food comes home

If you spend time making a lovely lunch for your child, it can be disheartening if it comes home untouched. But, it shouldnt automatically cause for concern.

"Lunch is so important," Caroline admits. "It makes up about a third of your childs energy and nutritional needs but you do need to factor it in around the day. Childrens portion size will vary and you need to tailor their lunchbox based on their age and individual needs. Their appetite can also vary from day to day. If the lunchbox comes back and only half of it is eaten, try not to go into panic mode straightaway. However, if it becomes a repeated pattern, you can sit down with the child and see whats going on."

Enter the National Dairy Councils fantastic Moo Crew competition to win 3 x 100 National Book Token vouchers. Simply check out the Moo Crew website to get the best tips on how to prepare your childs lunchbox, answer a simple question and be in a with a chance to win.

The School Milk Scheme is managed by The National Dairy Council and funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with the support of the European Union.

Sponsored by
A Chicago native, Blandin came to STL airwaves in July 2017 after a three-year stint in Birmingham, Alabama.

Before that, he had toiled at stations in Alabama, South Carolina and Virginia. And before that, he worked for years as an assignment editor in Baltimore and Washington.

Blandin is a Marine Corps veteran, having served on active duty from 1998 to 2002 and then in the Reserves from 2002 to 2006.

"Im so grateful for my time at KMOV, my colleagues and the love viewers have shown me," Blandin said in an interview Monday.

"I wanted to stay in the market a while. But God sent something my way. The call was unexpected. It made sense during the pandemic to say yes and make the move," Blandin said.

Also exiting from the newsy STL airwaves is Jenna Barnes of KSDK (Channel 5), who has announced that she will be departing our fair burg to take a job at WGN in Chicago.

Before arriving here in October 2017, the native Virginian worked for five years at Spectrum News cable television in North Carolina after graduating from Boston University and Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
The deadline to extend Brexit negotiations expired in June this year, so it is now certain that the United Kingdom (UK) will leave the European Union on December 31. This is the only certainty that economic actors in this four-year drama can hope for at this time as the region struggles to come to terms with the Covid-19-induced economic slump.

Negotiations on a new trade deal appear stalled over such issues as fishing rights, workers rights, and checks on cargo. If no deal is reached when the deadline lapses, a basic set of rules under the World Trade Organization will come into ...
Express News Service

BENGALURU: The percentage of students who passed the Karnataka state board Class 10 exam, also known as the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) exam, has dropped to 71.8.

As many as 8,11,050 candidates had attempted the examinations across the state from June 25 to July 4 amid the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state.

The government had conducted the examination following safety protocols and disallowed candidates with COVID-19 from writing it. 331 additional block exam centres were also created to facilitate

18-20 persons per room.

Even so, the overall pass percentage fell by about two points compared to the previous year. In 2019, the pass percentage was 73.7 out of 8,25,468 students.

No candidate was denied a chance to write the exam due to lack of transport, said the minister for Primary and Secondary Education Suresh Kumar, who attributed the drop in the pass percentage to the uncertain environment prevailing around the examinations.

"Students were unsure whether or not the exam would be held, even close to the exam date," he said.

Girls outshine boys

77.74 percent out of 3.85 lakh female pupils passed the exam this year while 66.41 percent of the 4.25 lakh male pupils cleared it.

Govt schools fared better than aided schools

Government schools in the state registered a 72.79 pass percentage, while aided schools had a figure of 70.60 per cent and unaided schools 82.31 per cent.

SC, ST students perform poorly

Scheduled Caste students registered a 68.58 pass percentage and Scheduled Tribe students registered a figure of 69.2. This was below the average percentage of all categories, which was 71.2 percent. Meanwhile, the general category registrered a 74.99 pass percentage.

Students can view their results on the websites www.kseeb.kar.nic.in and www.karresults.nic.in Results are also sent on their mobile phones via SMS.

Consolidated marksheets and provisional marks card will be provided on August 11 at 11 am through school login of KSEEB, said a note by the education department.
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

TORONTO, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- African Gold Group, Inc. (TSX-V: AGG) (AGG or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has closed, on an oversubscribed basis, the second and final tranche of its previously announced C$10,000,000 non-brokered private placement financing of common shares (the Offering) for gross proceeds of C$5,474,000 (the Final Tranche). Together with the closing of the first tranche of the Offering, the Company raised gross proceeds of $11,084,000.

I am very pleased to report the over-subscribed closing of the second and final tranche of the $10 million private placement with significant support from existing and new institutional investors, says Danny Callow, Chief Executive Officer of AGG. We will use these funds to focus on our Phase 3 exploration drilling programme, which we plan to start in early September. We have only drilled 4km of more than 30km of shear zones on our concessions, and we will be targeting rapidly increasing our resources and reserves with this programme. This additional drilling will complement the robust Definitive Feasibility Study published in July.

Pursuant to the Final Tranche, the Company issued 21,976,000 units of the Company (each a Unit and collectively, the Units) at a price of C$0.25 per Unit for gross proceeds of C$5,494,000. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company and one half of a common share purchase warrant (each whole common share purchase warrant, a Warrant). Each Warrant will entitle the holder to acquire one additional Common Share of the Company at an exercise price of C$0.40 until August 10, 2022.

In connection with the closing of the Final Tranche, the Company has paid aggregate finders fees of $231,587.50 in cash and 926,350 finders warrants (Finders Warrants) to certain finders. All securities issued under the Final Tranche are subject to a statutory hold period ending on December 11, 2020.

Story continues

Certain directors and officers of the Company purchased or acquired direction and control over a total of 2,410,000 Units under the Final Tranche. The placement to those persons constitutes a related party transaction within the meaning of TSX Venture Exchange Policy 5.9 and Multilateral Instrument 61-101 -Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101) adopted in the Policy. The Company has relied on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 in respect of related party participation in the placement as neither the fair market value (as determined under MI 61-101) of the subject matter of, nor the fair market value of the consideration for, the transaction, insofar as it involved the related parties, exceeded 25% of the Companys market capitalization (as determined under MI 61-101). Further details will be included in a material change report to be filed by the Company.

The securities offered under the Offering have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any State in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

AGM Results

The Company is pleased to announce that its 2020 annual and general special meeting of shareholders was held on August 6, 2020 (the Meeting). A total of 15,842,788 common shares, representing 15.14% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company, were represented at the Meeting. The following resolutions were approved at the Meeting:

Danny Callow, Scott Eldridge, Jan-Erik Back, Pierre Pettigrew and John Begeman were elected directors of the Company for the ensuing year.

McGovern Hurley LLP, Chartered Accountants, were appointed as auditors of the Corporation for the ensuing year and the directors were authorized to fix the auditors remuneration.

The Companys existing stock option plan for the ensuing year, reserving for grant options to acquire up to a maximum of 10% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Corporation calculated at the time of each stock option grant, was approved.

The special resolution to change the name of the Company from African Gold Group, Inc. to Avion2 Gold Inc., subject to regulatory approval and TSX Venture Exchange approval, was approved.

The Company would like to thank all of its shareholders for their continued support, stated Mr. Callow. In particular, as Mr. Bharti did not stand for re-election at the Meeting, I would like to thank Mr. Stan Bharti for his tireless efforts and guidance in setting the Company on the path to success.

Option Grant

The Company has granted a total of 6,375,000 stock options to certain directors, officers and consultants of the Company pursuant to the Companys stock option plan. All options vest immediately, and each stock option may be exercised at a price of $0.28 per option for a period of five years from the date of grant. This grant of options is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Webinar

African Gold Group is hosting an investor webinar to discuss upcoming Phase 3 drilling program at our flagship Kobada Gold Project, located in Southern Mali. The investor webinar will take place on Tuesday, August 18th, 2020 at 10:00 am (EDT). Management will be available to answer questions following the presentation. Online registration and participation details may be found at the following link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7Rh89Xp1TbGm64XTRZ5AAw

About African Gold Group

African Gold Group is a Canadian listed exploration and development company on the TSXV (TSX V: AGG) with its focus on developing a gold platform in West Africa. Its principal asset is the Kobada Project in southern Mali. For more information regarding African Gold Group visit our website at www.africangoldgroup.com .

For more information:

Danny Callow

President and Chief Executive Officer

+(27) 76 411 3803

Danny.Callow@africangoldgroup.com

Scott Eldridge

Non-Executive Chairman of the Board

(604) 722-5381

Scott.Eldridge@africangoldgroup.com

Daniyal Baizak

VP Corporate Development

(416) 861-2267

Daniyal.Baizak@africangoldgroup.com

Cautionary statements

This press release contains forwardlooking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forwardlooking information includes, but is not limited to, statements regarding, the intended use of proceeds of the Offering, other matters relating to the Offering and the grant of stock options of the Company. Generally, forwardlooking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forwardlooking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of AGG to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forwardlooking information, including but not limited to: receipt of necessary approvals; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; future prices of mineral prices; accidents, labour disputes and shortages and other risks of the mining industry. Although AGG has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forwardlooking information. AGG does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act) or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

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.




Closure of the Canada-U.S. border due to the COVID-19 outbreak has led to a large increase in the amount of narcotics being seized, and while drugs travel Niagara highways, the number of overdoses is also on the rise.

On June 14, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Buffalo Field Office reported an increase of 4,000 per cent in drug seizures since March 21, which was when COVID-19 led to the two countries agreeing to close the border to non-essential travel.

In the span of those four months there were 286 seizures totalling more than 8,700 pounds of narcotics. In comparison, during the same span last year there were 549 seizures but the weight of narcotics was about 216 pounds.

Aaron Bowker, public affairs liaison at the Buffalo Field Office, said the trend of incidents is down with passenger travel restricted at the border.

But were seeing a larger increase in these larger shipments of marijuana and other types of narcotics, such as counterfeit Xanax, he said, which has led to an increase in total weight.

With trade between Canada and the U.S. continuing during the pandemic, these seizures heavily involve the trucking industry and material moving through express consignment.

The Buffalo Field Office encompasses 16 ports across the State of New York, and Bowker said its different types of narcotics at each port that are being seized. Specifically in the Buffalo area, its large amounts of marijuana.

Since the June 14 Buffalo Field Office report, there have been two large seizures.

On June 29, at the Peace Bridge, U.S. border officers seized a northern border record of 9,472 pounds of marijuana. The street value was estimated at more than US$20 million.

The second large seizure took place July 24, in which 2,959 pounds of marijuana was seized again at the Peace Bridge, with street value estimated at more than US$6 million.

The Canada Border Services Agency was not available to comment for this story, citing a high volume of requests.

But Bowker called the relationship between the Canada and U.S. border organizations excellent and said both sides are involved in the border enforcement security task force.

That (task force) allows for the information sharing and the investigations to be on both sides of the border, Bowker said.

Being a border region puts Niagara in the position of having drugs travel along roadways between the U.S. and other parts of Ontario, and while the Canada border services is seeing an increase in marijuana seizures, substance users in Niagara are getting their hands-on unsafe street narcotics.

Niagara Regional Police Services superintendent Brian Ash said there is collaborative work done with border services.

It isnt necessarily unique to Niagara, as many of the incoming guns and drugs that are potentially entering Niagara illegally are destined for other areas of Ontario or Canada, he said.

The Niagara police uses its street crime units to respond and investigate drug trafficking, and they are able identify the trends in the local drug culture based on information garnered through those investigations.

Glen Walker, executive director of Positive Living Niagara, said most of the drugs the organization hears about are coming from the Toronto area.

Positive Living front-line workers work directly with substance users in Niagara to help with safe supply and provide important information about street drugs.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Walker said theyve also noted a different trend.

Weve noticed and people have been talking about changes in the drug supply due to COVID, he said. Theres some limitation of whats out there; people have sort of been cooking up different variations of drugs.

The number of people using drugs hasnt increased, but the number of overdoses has, Walker said.

Weve been very concerned about whats in the supply now that there seems to be people being very creative in what theyre adding to the drugs and certainly a lot of our clients arent really aware whats in them and theyre overdosing.

Positive Living has a steering committee for its Overdose Prevention and Education Network of Niagara involving 30 members including participation from Niagara Regional Police, public health and Niagara emergency medical services.

There is an internal alert system that is sent out to notify Positive Living front-line workers of any trends in the drug supply and issues that clients should be advised on, for example, certain side effects that could be involved with a drug.

Walker said a there have been a few alerts issued in the last few months based on certain tainted drugs.

The fact that weve got all these illicit drugs, theres no control of what comes into the region, Walker said.

He said national chiefs of police have been calling for the decriminalization for minor possession, which would improve the rate of users willing to call 911.

Only about 20 per cent of Positive Living clients will call 911 for an overdose due to fear of police involvement.

Ash said police leaders collectively have recognized that substance use and addiction should be a public health issue.

In keeping with this recognition, rather than arresting and charging individuals who are in possession of small quantities of illicit drugs for personal use, police leaders are advocating that there should be greater access to health care, treatment and social services on a local, provincial and national level to assist people dealing with substance use or addiction, Ash said.

To solve the issue of substance use in Niagara, Walker suggests focusing on safe supply.

Are there other alternative drugs that can be prescribed for people, can we increase access to that so people dont have to use drugs off the streets and can we get some supervision?

The number of people overdosing alone is concerning, so eliminating the stigma so people can talk to loved ones and begin a dialogue will allow users to be more comfortable to reach out for help. Walker said word of mouth is very important among Positive Livings clients.

As for eliminating the source of drugs, Walker called that a challenge of its own.

The problem when you eliminate the source is something else pops up, he said. People with an addiction have an addiction. If you change the supply, theyll find something else.

Walkers suggestion is for those with a close relationship to users to talk to them and help them into supported treatment programs, and to let the police focus on tackling the drug supply issue.
UW Sales Program Named Top Program for Fourth Consecutive Year

The University of Wyoming Center for Professional Selling recently was recognized by the Sales Education Foundation magazine as a Top Sales Program for sales education for the fourth consecutive year.

To be considered for this honor, sales programs must offer a minimum of three sales-specific classes; receive accreditation from an external source; and have university recognition of the program.

The Center for Professional Selling has been offering a degree concentration in professional sales and sales management for the past four years under the leadership of Mark Leach, the Mendicino Family Chair in Sales and Salesmanship in the College of Business. The sales program will launch a Bachelor of Science degree in business with a major in professional sales and a business minor in professional and technical selling this fall.

According to a survey of sales managers, sales program graduates ramp up 50 percent faster than their non-sales educated peers. They also experience 30 percent less turnover. Sales graduates are prepared for their roles through highly specialized education featuring cutting-edge technologies, notes the Sales Education Foundation website.

The Center for Professional Selling is committed to preparing UW students for success in our changing business world, Leach says. Through our new major and minor, sales students develop essential skills to effectively engage and develop relationships with targeted customers while managing a pipeline of business.

The Center for Professional Selling has over 100 students enrolled in sales classes at any given time during the academic year, and the number of students will continue to grow with the newly established major and minor in professional sales. Students enrolled in these programs are invited to a variety of corporate engagement activities throughout the year. These include sales competitions; classroom guest speakers; mock interviews; and a sales and marketing career fair specifically created for students looking for internships and full-time positions in sales.

The Center for Professional Selling affords corporate partners the opportunity to engage with top sales students; build brand awareness; and examine student potential, commitment and fit for their organizations. Students benefit from the professional development and networking opportunities provided by the center, preparing them for future careers, says Chris Haller, the centers director.

By developing partnerships with committed and involved sales organizations, the Center for Professional Selling will become a hub for the co-creation of value and opportunity between students and industry, Haller adds.

Students seeking additional information on the sales program can email the College of Business at salesctr@uwyo.edu. Sales organizations wanting to learn more about the Center for Professional Selling can email Haller at chris.haller@uwyo.edu or call (307) 766-4157.

About the Center for Professional Selling

The center is dedicated to excellence in sales education and advancing the sales profession. It supports selling and sales management professions; delivers innovative sales instruction; provides students numerous industry engagement opportunities; and conducts research that advances the field of sales.

The center serves students by enhancing their marketable skills in sales and sales leadership. It serves the UW College of Business and the state of Wyoming by developing critical industry alliances and providing prepared and in-demand talent to the workforce.

For more information about the UW Center for Professional Selling, visit www.uwyo.edu/mgtmkt/sales/.
Two former US soldiers have been sentenced to 20 years in prison by a court in Venezuela for their role in a failed plot aimed at overthrowing President Nicolas Maduro. Their contractor, Jordan Goudreau, remains at large, last known location, Miami, US.

The two mercenaries, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, admitted to taking part in the May 4 operation in legal proceedings. They were found guilty of conspiracy, trafficking in illegal arms, and terrorism.

Named Operation Gideon, the failed mission was launched from training camps in Colombia, leaving eight dead. 66 people were captured and jailed. The two US citizens were arrested in the fishing community of Chuao.

The incident triggered claims in the country that US-backed opposition politician Juan Guaido had authorised the attack.

Guaido and US officials have denied any role in the plot. LINK

Most Western corporate media has already buried the documentary trail leading directly from the mercenaries to Guaido and his co-plotters. However, the evidence is clear on this point, as examined in detail by several reports. US Army special operations veteran Jordan Goudreau claimed he organized the coup plot, which he called Operation Gedeon, together with a retired Venezuelan Major General (Cliver Alcala).

The two ex-US soldiers claimed during interrogation by Venezuelan authorities that their mission was to secure the Maiquetia international airport, kidnap Maduro, and transport him to the United States.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused Washington and Bogota of involvement, stating in a televised address:

[Colombian] authorities in Riohacha, Barranquilla and Alta Guajira were aware of the mercenaries presence and the training camps. Any independent investigation would reveal the Colombian governments involvement in this armed incursion against Venezuela.

Venezuelan authorities also drew attention to a contract in which the Venezuelan opposition hired Goudreaus Florida-based private security firm, Silvercorp, to overthrow the Maduro government in exchange for a US $213 million fee. Opposition leader Juan Guaido, as well as advisors Juan Jose (J.J.) Rendon and Sergio Vergara, appear as signatories in a copy leaked by Goudreau.

The terms of the extraordinary agreement  according to which the Service Provider Advisors will advise and assist Partner Group in planning and executing an operation to capture/ detain/remove Nicolas Maduro (heretoafter primary objective), remove the current regime, and install the recognized Venezuelan President Juan Guaido  have been published online by the Washington Post.

The agreement includes details regarding the oppositions payments to Silvercorp in addition to the firms future role in counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics activities under a Guaido administration. The paramilitary forces were also to deploy anti-personnel mines, strike infrastructure and other economic targets.

The Trump administration issued has denied any involvement in Operation Gedeon, as have Colombian officials.

Many however consider it likely that the US had prior knowledge of the operation. The Wall Street Journal published a report citing anonymous sources who claimed that the CIA and Colombian intelligence monitored paramilitary training camps headed by Alcala in Colombia. LINK
The man convicted of one of the states most gruesome killings, known as the Pine Hill Massacre, died in a state prison Saturday, according to Department of Corrections (DOC) records.

Louis Giambi, who was convicted in 1984 of killing William and Catherine Stuart and their 3-year-old daughter, Sandra, in their Pine Hill home, died Saturday at the age of 83.

Giambi died while serving three life sentences.

The 1982 murders at first left the community puzzled as there was no apparent motive for why William Stuart, an insurance investigator, and Catherine Stuart, a teacher at a local college, were ambushed and killed in their Camden County home.

More than a year after the Stuarts were killed, Giambi, and others, were arrested on drug charges, and authorities then became aware that Giambi had been hired to kill a man in 1982 who was set to testify at an unrelated criminal case.

Giambi, wearing a stringy wig, leather gloves and armed with a handgun, went to a Pine Hill development on April 17, 1982, to carry out the hit, but entered the wrong home and killed the Stuarts. According to UPI, he busted through the familys back door and lined up the couple and their daughter in the bathroom and shot each of them in the face.

The 3-year-old was clinging to her fathers pants, Camden County Assistant Prosecutor Dennis Wixted said at the time.

The familys 5-year-old daughter was unharmed in the attack.

While in jail on the unrelated charges, Giambi detailed the crime to his cellmate. Authorities also had him on wiretap discussing the murders.

Giambi was indicted in Camden County in December 1983 on 52 charges related to the murders. He subsequently was found guilty after a three-week trial of murder, conspiracy, distribution of a controlled dangerous substance, unlawful transfer of firearms, tampering with witnesses and informants and bribery.

He was sentenced to three life sentences. He maintained his innocence and appealed his conviction, but it was upheld, according to court documents.

An attorney or family member of Giambis could not be reached for comment.

The Stuarts 5-year-old daughter, who was unharmed in the attack, told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2016 that she sat in the dark in a nearby bedroom as Giambi shot each of her three family members in the face with a silenced .22-caliber handgun.

I hope he rots in there, Miriam Smith told the newspaper. She could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.

The DOC did not respond to a request for comment on how Giambi died or which prison he was incarcerated in when he died Saturday.

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Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com.
Let me be clear: The investigation by my committee of allegations of conflicts of interest within the Obama administration related to Ukraine policy and of allegations of corruption within the Obama administration affecting the 2016 election is focused on documents and officials from U.S. government agencies and a U.S. Democrat-linked lobbying firm, he said. We have not taken, nor do we possess, the documents from Ukrainians that Democrats keep claiming.
A beautician who has been left relying on food banks during lockdown has accused the government of 'leaving the industry to rot'.

Becky Gencer, from Leeds, appeared on This Morning to say she has been left fearing eviction and is now relying ion food banks having been massively impacted by restrictions in place due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile Blink Brow Bar founder Vanita Parti warned restrictions are leading customers to seek treatments from 'very dangerous' rogue traders.

At the end of July, Boris Johnson said the scheduled August 1 return of close contact services like beauticians who might perform treatments such as administering fillers, threading eyebrows or facial waxing, has been pushed back to August 15 'at the earliest'.

Becky Gencer, from Leeds, slammed the government during an appearance on This Mornign today as she accused politicians of 'leaving the beauty industry to rot'

While hairdressers have been allowed to work since July 4, and manicurists were given the go-ahead on July 13, any treatments on the face were still off-limits, so for five months Becky, who offers procedures such as lip fillers and semi-permanent brow tattooing through her business, Beautopia North, had been unable to work.

Becky, who has been in the industry for over 10 years, said: 'It's majorly affecting me now and I've never been in this situation before. In this period of lockdown, I'm 20,000 down.'

She said: 'When I thought we could reopen, I was really, really excited to be reopening.

'I spent 1,600 getting stock in. I couldn't afford it but I knew I'd be getting that money back.'

Becky, who has an 11-year-old and a five-year-old, estimated that within the first week of reopening, she could have earned 5,000.

Meanwhile Blink Brow bar founder Vanita Parti warned restrictions are leading to 'very dangerous' rogue traders as 'people jump on the band wagon to make some money' from those desperate for their beauty treatment

Becky added: 'All the government does is talk about the people they have helped but they're missing out on the thousands of people that they've not helped.

'They're just ignoring us. They're just not doing anything. They're laughing at us in parliament. We're strong, entrepreneurial women and we've been overlooked.'

Meanwhile Vanita explained: 'We're fortunate, so we're a bigger business who has been able to furlough, but in August, we can't do that anymore.

'I've got 250 girls desperate to get back to work and they wont let us open our doors.'

Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes appeared stunned as Vanita and Becky said they were 'desperate to work' but haven't been able to do so since March

She said: 'They have a responsibility to independents that have fallen through the net and businesses like ours that say if you're not going to let us work, you're going to support us financially.'

'My business is 10 million revenue making business. We want to get back to work and contribute.

She added that she felt the government didn't 'understand' the differences between treatments on offer from beauticians, saying: 'Come and understand what we do. We're safe, we're a hygienic sector, we always have been.

'It makes no sense that a man can go and get is beard trimmed and a woman can't get her face seen to.

Vanita went on to say she felt the government 'didn't understand' the differences between sections of the beauty industry

'We wear a mask, a visor, gloves, and the customer wears a mask. A man when he's trimming his beard does't wear a mask. It's complete nonsense.'

Meanwhile Becky revealed she'd been left relying on her savings to survive during the pandemic.

She said: 'Luckily I had some savings that I've been saving up for a deposit for a house.

'I've been living off my savings which has lasted five to six months but now I've not got any savings left.

'I'm in a position where I'm having to visit food banks. I'm embarrassed to say that.'

Vanita added that some beauticians are now working 'underground' and called the practice 'very dangerous'

'What are the government going to do? How are they going to help us? I'm ready to work, I want to work, I'm just not being allowed to work.'

Meanwhile Eamonn went on to ask about people who had been going 'underground' to seek out treatments, with Vanita calling it 'very dangerous.'

She said: 'We're the professionals, we should lead by example and I know for a fact that many of our customers are trying to get treatments any which way.

'It brings on rogue traders and people jumping on the band wagon to make some money.'

When can beauty salons open? After the infection rate doubled in July, ministers and scientists are increasingly weary of a second onslaught of the virus, which is seeing a resurgence in several other countries. At the end of the month, with less than 24 hours notice, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced he was back-pedalling on his plan to allow a number of businesses, including the remaining parts of the beauty industry, to reopen on August 1. Many have criticised the policy as sexism because male-dominated arenas, such as pubs, betting shops, barbers, cricket grounds and golf courses are open, but beauty salons are not. A man can get his beard, nasal hair and moustache trimmed, while not wearing a mask, but a woman cant have a brow or lash treatment while wearing one. Advertisement

Calling the policies 'non-sensical', she added: 'The government need to know that we are going to do this properly.'

'The fact there's been a spike in the R rate is not down to us because we've been closed.'

Becky added: 'I would say [to Boris Johnson] if you can't let us work, give us a reason or just support us.

'They're leaving us to rot now, it's completely unfair. Why ar they letting pubs open and not us? There is no reason for it.'

Images shared on Twitter revealed that dozens of barbers have been applying wax, without wearing the proper PPE, to the beard, lip and eyebrow area of several men. Pictured, First Class Barbers in Kent

Current government guidelines bans close contact beauticians such as administering fillers, threading eyebrows or facial waxing (pictured left, a man having his nose hair waxed, and right, a man with wax on his nose, cheeks, ears and eyebrows)

Their appearance on the programme comes days after the government's decision to postpone the re-introduction of facial beauty treatments was branded 'sexist' after pictures emerged online of barbers waxing their male client's facial hair.

While plans to allow facial treatments have been postponed, images shared on Twitter revealed that dozens of barbers have been applying wax, without wearing the proper PPE, to the beard, lip and eyebrow area of their clients.

In a desperate plea to the Prime Minister, beauty influencer Caroline Hirons, 50, from London, collated a series of social media posts from the past week.

Twitter users reacted with anger over the snaps and branded it 'sexist' that close contact beauticians such as administering fillers, threading eyebrows or facial waxing, have remained banned.

London-based traditional barbers Crown Barbers shared an image of one of their clients being waxed on his cheeks and around his mouth

In a desperate plea to the Prime Minister, beauty influencer Caroline Hirons, 50, from London, collated a series of social media posts showing men being waxed. Pictured, Sajs Turkish Barbers in Birmingham

One now removed post, from London Barbers Club, which Caroline claims was posted on Sunday, showed a man with wax on his nose, cheeks, ears and eyebrows.

Meanwhile another re-posted image from Findik's Turkish Barbers, in Bournemouth, revealed a barber posing for a selfie with his mask around his neck, after just having administered wax to a clients nose.

Tory MP Caroline Nokes, Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, previously said it was 'not a level playing field' between the two types of grooming.

Last month, she said: Its definitely not a level playing field for female beauty versus male grooming. Weve seen barbers trimming brows and trimming beards.

Even if it looks like I could get my eyebrows done at a barbers this weekend, Ill wait until its deemed OK to go to a salon.
Wife of Missing Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Gao Zhisheng Calls For Help From International Community

Renowned Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng has been missing since 2017. Gaos wife Geng He and their young son and daughter fled to the United States 11 years ago. They havent seen Gao since then and have not heard from him in the last three years.

Day after day, month after month, year after yearon August 13, it will be three yearsevery day I yearn for a call from him, and want to tell him about the hardship of raising our children Where is Gao Zhisheng? When can I expect this call? Geng He told The Epoch Times in a recent interview.

Geng said his whereabouts and life are uncertain and she hoped that European political leaders and others in the international community would pay attention to his case.

After the CCP virus outbreak this year, Geng said she became even more worried about Gao.

I worry that during the pandemic they [authorities] will infect him with the disease, and then let him disappear by this way. Every day, I worry. As soon as I stop working, I immediately think of him. It suddenly jumps into my mind, and then I call his older brother, but there is still no news.

Geng said she considers the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) itself as a virus that has infected the whole world. And through this pandemic, the world has come to see the CCP more clearly, she said.

She also expressed gratitude to European leaders for paying attention to Gaos plight.

Let these people who share the same values work together to change China! I hope the international community will pay attention to his fate, she said.

I think Europe has really learned about the CCP through this epidemic, and hopefully [they] will know that the persecution of people like Gao Zhisheng, who have been trying to change China for the sake of the Chinese people, still continues, she added.

The European Union has recently criticized the Chinese regime for spreading disinformation about the pandemic and exacerbating the public health crisis.

Known as the Conscience of China, Gao, a self-taught lawyer, represented Chinese citizens who experienced persecution, including practitioners of the spiritual group Falun Gong. Since late 2004, he repeatedly sent letters to senior CCP officials, demanding changes to the suppression of Falun Gong and other oppressed groups.

Since 2006, Gao has been repeatedly kidnapped by police, severely tortured and imprisoned. His wife and children have also been threatened by authorities. In 2009, Geng He fled China with her children in a daring escape. They now live in the United States.

After Gengs escape, Gao was taken away by police from his home in Shaanxi Province, and his whereabouts was unknown for nearly two years. In 2011, he briefly appeared in Beijing and was interviewed by the Associated Press about the cruel torture he had suffered in detention.

In December 2011, the Chinese authorities issued an English-language announcement, saying that Gao was sent back to prison to serve another three years. Gao was then missing for another 22 months. He was released from prison in 2014 and directly placed under house arrest.

Gao went missing again in August 2017. Since then, Geng has called Gaos older brother many times for news or information about her husband, but according to the brother, the authorities are very evasive.

His older brother frequently visits the police station in Yulin city, Shaanxi, but one moment, they will tell him [Gao] is in Beijing and need to ask for instructions from higher-ups. The next moment, they say he is in Yulin, and that they dont know where he is either, Geng said.

After Gaos last disappearance, lawyers Zhang Lei and Yan Xin visited the Beijing Prison Administration bureau and other departments to find out which prison Gao Zhisheng was being held in, but they were refused on grounds that they didnt provide a notification letter that was sent to family members. However, according to Geng, their family never received any written notice about Gaos detention. The lawyers also visited the police bureaus of Yulin City and Jia County, and received no answers there either.

Geng said that both Gaos and her own families in China have been harassed by local authorities.

The harassment, the intimidation, the persecution of our family hasnt stopped these ten years, Geng said. She said the familys ID cards had been confiscated by authorities to prevent them from leaving the area and campaigning on Gaos behalf. Her brother-in-law, who was terminally ill with cancer before he died in 2015, often needed prescription painkillers. To be able to purchase the drugs, he had to borrow his ID card from the local police station every time and send it back afterwards.

Geng said authorities also tricked her mother into handing over the keys to Geng and Gaos house in Beijing. Officers told her mother, who was taking care of their home, that they needed the keys because they had to fix the sewer in the building, Gao said. They have not returned the keys since taking them about eight years ago, she said.
The Gulf Cooperation Council has sent a letter to the United Nations endorsing an extension of an arms embargo on Iran, which the United States has vehemently argued must not be allowed to expire.

The Arab nations comprising the council -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- sent the letter on August 9.

The letter, signed by General-Secretary Nayef al-Hajraf on behalf of the bloc, said that since the Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2015, Iran has not ceased or desisted from armed interventions in neighboring countries, directly and through organizations and movements armed and trained by Iran.

It would therefore be inappropriate to lift restrictions until Iran abandons its destabilizing activities in the region and ceases to provide weapons to terrorist and sectarian organizations.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Musavi condemned the letter and called it an irresponsible statement that serves U.S. interests, Iranian state TV reported.

Musavi also criticized the Gulf Arab countries for being among the largest arms buyers "in the region and the world.

The UN banned Iran from buying major foreign weapons systems in 2010 amid tensions over its nuclear program. The embargo has kept Iran from purchasing foreign-made conventional weapons like fighter jets, tanks, and warships.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned that allowing the embargo to expire would further destabilize the Middle East, put Israel and Europe at risk, and endanger U.S. lives. The United States will seek a UN Security Council vote this week to extend the embargo, Pompeo said.

The U.S.-drafted resolution seeks to extend the embargo, 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 after its unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal in 2018.

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.
Dublin, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Connected Vehicle and Parking Space Industry Landscape - Growth, Trends, Forecasts (2020-2025)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The connected vehicles and packing space market are expected to witness a growth at a CAGR of 22.3% over the forecast period (2020-2025). While fully automated vehicles are moving towards a widespread scale, it is in the transition phase where connected cars are expected to dominate the market for at least the next 20 years.



Over the years, the development of connected vehicle has been taking place and is expected to be a huge technological advancement which will allow the vehicles to communicate with their surroundings. This will further fuel the trend from car ownership to more mobility-related services. In urban areas, particularly, the decline in the number of vehicles is expected to reduce dramatically. According to the ADAC automobile association in Germany, the adoption of a private car to decline by close to 30% by 2040.



Key Market Trends



Connected Passenger Car Vehicle Market is Expected to Grow Significantly

The rising automotive sales and increasing production of autonomous vehicles across the world are driving the automotive industry. According to VDA (The German Association of the Automotive Industry), the sales of automotive worldwide, in 2019, reached 65.5 million units. Moreover, according to UBS, the global market for autonomous vehicles manufacturing and sales is expected to reach USD 243 billion by 2030. Such high growth in automotive sales might lead to potential growth for the market during the forecast period.

Additionally, to seize growth opportunities in autonomous vehicles, critical automotive manufacturing companies across the world are extensively investing in production expansion. For instance, in November 2019, Volkswagen announced to start the construction of its new connected vehicle production facility in its Chattanooga site in the United States. With an investment of over USD 800 million, the company plans to start production by 2022. It also plans to create a new battery pack assembly facility on the site.

Last year, BMW also declared an investment of over EUR 1 billion for building a new car manufacturing facility in Hungary. These expansions are expected to fuel the demand for the global automotive inertial systems market.

Story continues

Europe is Expected to Hold the Largest Market Share in Parking Industry

The smart city projects in Europe are looking forward to the enhanced mobility solutions with an aim to reduce pollution, congestion, time for passengers in search of parking spaces, and improve accessibility. The European Union has mentioned that the digitization, and working in tandem with appropriate political strategies are the main pillars for improving parking efficiency and offer new parking services to serve better cities' Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP).

Dynamic pricing is one of the ongoing pricing strategies offered by most of the parking space providers in the region. The dynamic pricing has been standard practices in many industries - e.g., in the airline and hotel industry. To make the parking space easily available, these providers are revamping parking policies and updating zoning rules to induce and encourage clean mobility oriented developments.

Over the past ten years, the parking sector has experienced the introduction of several technological innovations such as dynamic information systems, mobile apps to find, pay, and reserve, automated number plate recognition (ANPR) systems, sensors, cameras for paid parking. Oslo (Norway) and Madrid (Spain) are some of the cities that recently commenced both on-street and off-street parking with a dynamic pricing model.

Competitive Landscape



The connected vehicles and parking space industry are more inclined towards a consolidated market with few major and established players operating and holding major market share. Due to the high investment cost needed for entering the market, there is a high barrier to entry in the market. Some of the recent developments made by key players in the market are as follows.

May 2020 - Volkswagon AG has announced to invest over USD 2.2 billion for its electric vehicle venture with a Chinese partner in a USD 1.1 billion deal, and another USD 1.1 billion for battery manufacturing in China. With this expansion, the company will be the biggest shareholder in battery production globally.

May 2020 - Parklio barriers have been set up in 42 reserved parking spaces in front of nine hotels in Split to help prevent further misuse of these parking spaces.

Reasons to Purchase this report:

The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format

3 months of analyst support

Key Topics Covered:



1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Study Assumptions and Market Definition

1.2 Scope of the Study



2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY



3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY



4 MARKET DYNAMICS

4.1 Market Overview

4.2 Market Drivers

4.3 Market Restraints

4.4 Industry Value Chain Analysis

4.5 Porters 5 Force Analysis

4.5.1 Threat of New Entrants

4.5.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers/Consumers

4.5.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

4.5.4 Threat of Substitute Products

4.5.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry

4.6 Assessment on the Impact of COVID-19 on the market



5 EMERGING TECHNOLOGY TRENDS



6 MARKET SEGMENTATION

6.1 Connected Vehicles Market

6.1.1 Type of Vehicles

6.1.1.1 Passenger Car

6.1.1.2 Commercial Vehicles (LCV, MCV and HCV)

6.2 Parkinng Space Industry

6.2.1 Parking Category

6.2.1.1 Off-Street

6.2.1.2 On-Street

6.2.2 Type of Parking Space

6.2.2.1 Residential & Work Private Property

6.2.2.2 Non-regulated Public Access

6.2.2.3 Off-street open-air barrier regulated

6.2.2.4 Off-street purpose built regulated



7 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

7.1 Company Profiles

7.1.1 Connected Car Vendors

7.1.1.1 BMW AG

7.1.1.2 Audi AG

7.1.1.3 Daimler AG

7.1.1.4 Tesla, Inc.

7.1.1.5 Volkswagen AG

7.1.2 Parking Space Providers

7.1.2.1 Conduent

7.1.2.2 Indigo Park SA

7.1.2.3 Amano Inc

7.1.2.4 Swarco AG

7.1.2.5 Q-Free ASA



8 INVESTMENT ANALYSIS



9 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE TRENDS



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/xtvznj

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900




A leading Member of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), Mr Bright Akwetey, has urged the delegates of the partys forthcoming congress to elect him as the flag bearer of the party to enable him to secure a resounding victory and form the next government.



He pledged that he would lead the party with integrity, represent the interest of the CPP and not use the partys platform for self-aggrandisement.



I will commit myself and work assiduously to promote the interest aimed at securing victory for the CPP to form the next government in 2021 and bring relief to the majority of the people, he said.



Mr Akwetey, a renowned lawyer who is contesting the CPP flagbearership for the fourth time, stated this in an interview after he presented his nomination forms at the partys headquarters together with the nomination fee.



The CPP has been weakened systematically and continuously by the frailty in leadership where those who have led the party have subsumed our objectives under the whims of other political parties, he said, and added that many leaders put their interest over the collective interest of the people they intended to serve.





He urged the delegates to consider him as the candidate who would be committed to service for the party and country, merit before money and would put the youth ahead in all that the party would engage in.



He further urged the delegates to shun the style of politics by both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that had not helped the nation.



Youth development



Under a CPP administration, the youth will be given opportunities to realise their full potential to assist in lifting the country out of the woods, he said.



The CPP is coming to power to build a strong and progressive society in which people will have decent accommodation, free and quality education from primary school through to secondary to the tertiary institutions, he said.



He alleged that in recent times the various presidential candidates that the party had voted for at its congresses had not fought to represent the interest of the party, win the elections and form a CPP government but had been working in the shadows of either the NPP or NDC.



Parliament



He urged the delegates to look for materials worth going to Parliament and represent the views and aspirants as well as defend the interest of the ordinary Ghanaian and ensure that they would put Ghana first.



Vision



Mr Akwetey said his vision, which was derived from the Seven-Year Development Plan by Dr Kwame Nkrumah, was to establish in Ghana a strong and progressive society in which no one would have any anxiety about the basic means of life, about work, food and shelter.



He said he would want to see a Ghana where poverty and illiteracy no longer existed and disease was brought under control and where the educational facilities would provide all the children of the country with the best opportunities for the development of their potential.



Next

Source: Graphic.com.gh









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Featured Video
A United Airlines flight was searched on the tarmac at Newark Liberty Airport after a passenger made a bomb threat on board.

An unidentified passenger on United Flight 2304 arriving at the New Jersey airport just after 4.30pm had threatened there was a bomb on board, authorities said.

'The crew reported one of the passengers had made a threat,' a spokeswoman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey confirmed to DailyMail.com.

A Twitter user uploaded a picture showing a convoy of emergency vehicles at the New Jersey airport on Sunday evening.

A United Airlines flight (pictured) was searched at Newark Airport after a passenger made a bomb threat on board, reports suggest

A Twitter user uploaded images (pictured) showing a convoy of emergency vehicles at the New Jersey airport on Sunday evening

Images from the social media post show a staircase rolled up to the airplane's opened door as K9 units were brought in to search for a possible bomb

Images (pictured) from the K9 investigation were also posted in a report by the Lakewood Scoop about the bomb threat on the flight

Luggage is pictured being inspected by bomb-sniffing dogs in an image posted with a story by the Lakewood Scoop about the bomb threat

The spokeswoman said that the passenger was taken to a hospital, but did not have more information on why the person was taken, or if they were injured.

A spokesperson for United Airlines told DailyMail the person who made the threat was taken to a hospital for a medical emergency that was not specified.

No injuries were reported and no other information was available.

A police officer is seen walking through the aircraft in an image posted in a report by the Lakewood Scoop of the bomb threat. A pilot's announcement on the plane informed all on board about the passenger's threat, according to the Lakewood Scoop

A pilot's announcement on the plane informed all on board about the passenger's threat, according to a report by the Lakewood Scoop.

A suspect was seen in video posted by Lakewood Scoop being led off the plane as K-9 units were brought in to inspect luggage that was lined up on the tarmac.

Once the bags were cleared, they were returned to passengers, the Lakewood Scoop reported.
Chennai, Aug 10 : The lead reinsurer of Air India Express' insurance account has approved the claim for the total loss of AI Express' Dubai-Kozhikode aircraft, which crashed in Kozhikode on Friday evening, said a senior industry official.

"Like the consortium of primary insurers, a consortium of reinsurers has insured the aircraft of Air India and its subsidiaries like Air India Express. The lead reinsurer, AIG London, has approved the hull claim (claim for loss of aircraft). Other reinsurers in the consortium will also give their approval," the senior official with one of the four insurers told IANS preferring anonymity.

A consortium of four public sector insurers -- New India Assurance, National Insurance Company Ltd, Oriental Insurance Company Ltd and United India Insurance Company Ltd -- has insured the fleet of about 170 aircraft belonging to Air India and its subsidiaries, including Air India Express.

The airline has taken policies covering the aircraft or hull and liability for third party and passengers.

According to the official, the lead reinsurer has also estimated the interim liability/claim to be paid for the total loss of the aircraft.

The official said the loss adjustor has been intimated. Normally the name of the loss adjustor is also part of the reinsurance contract and in this case it is Charles Taylor Adjusting, London.

The ill-fated Boeing aircraft has been insured for $50 million and Air India Express will get the claim amount.

"The aircraft hull insurance is an 'all risk policy'. The risk explicit risk exclusions define what is covered. Many of the exclusions like war, terrorism risk, and claims deductible can be covered for a premium," the official said.

As a part of the claims procedure, the insurers/reinsurers will call for documents like the accident investigation report, aircraft maintenance log book and pilot log book, among others.

The official also said that Boeing -- the manufacturer of the aircraft -- will also be interested in the accident to know the reasons behind the mishap.

It may be recalled that the ill-fated Air India Express skidded off the runway of the Kozhikode airport and fell into a valley before breaking into two pieces, killing 18 persons and leaving scores injured.

As the aircraft is now a total loss, scrap value will be calculated and adjusted against the claim amount.

In the case of passenger liability or compensation to be paid to the passengers or the legal heirs of passengers, a legal team will be there to ascertain the legal position of the claimant.

Passenger liability also covers the baggage value.

The compensation to the passengers will be calculated as per the Montreal Convention.

Industry officials told IANS that the direct claim hit for the consortium of four insurers will be only about 10 per cent of the aircraft value.

The balance value of the risk has been reinsured with Indian reinsurer GIC Re -- 5 per cent obligatory cession and 85 per cent with reinsurers with the lead underwriter, AIG, London.

The total premium earned from Air India was about $36 million.

The share of New India in the premium and claims will be 40 per cent and the balance 60 per cent will be shared equally by National Insurance, Oriental Insurance and United India.

According to the official, the total liability under the liability policy taken by Air India is about $750 million. The compensation to be paid to the passengers will be as per the Montreal Convention.

The official said the total commercial aviation insurance market in India with about 510 aircraft will be about $90 million.

"The risk is concentrated on a small base while the value is very high," the official said.
Former President Pranab Mukherjee has tested positive for coronavirus. In a tweet the former President says that he was found positive at the hospital when he had gone for a separate medical procedure. Mukherjee has asked people who came in contact with him recently to get themselves tested.

In a tweet, Mukherjee said, "On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for COVID-19 today. I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19."

On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for COVID19 today.

I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19. #CitizenMukherjee Pranab Mukherjee (@CitiznMukherjee) August 10, 2020

Pranab Mukherjee is the latest prominent personality to have been detected with coronavirus. Home Minister Amit Shah was also recently detected with coronavirus. He has been tested negative now, he tweeted later. Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had also tested positive for coronavirus.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit are some other senior leaders who have been tested positive in recent times. The Bachchan family, excluding Jaya Bachchan had tested positive for COVID-19, after which they were admitted to the hospital.

India's COVID-19 tally zoomed past 22 lakh on Monday with a single-day spike of 62,064 cases. According to the Health Ministry, there are a total of 22,15,075 coronavirus cases, including 6,34,965 active cases and 15,35,744 cured in india. The death toll climbed to 44,386 with 1,007 more fatalities.

Also read: Amit Shah tests negative for coronavirus, tweets Manoj Tiwari
Maharashtra and Delhi governments submitted petitions that they will not conduct the final term exams at state universities as per the UGC circular. Supreme court has now granted time to the UGC to respond.

The Supreme Court on Monday granted time to the University Grants Commission (UGC) to respond to the affidavits filed by Maharashtra and Delhi governments, in which they submitted they will not conduct the final term exams at state universities as per the circular.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the UGC, submitted that Maharashtra and Delhi have filed an affidavit and have taken a decision that they will not conduct the examination in state universities and have cancelled the exams. Mehta said that it was against the UGC rules. UGC is the only body that can prescribe rules for conferring a degree. States cannot change rules. Its not in the interest of students to not have exams.

A bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan, granted time to Mehta to file a response to the affidavits filed by Maharashtra and Delhi and adjourned the matter for further hearing on August 14. Mehta said that the students have to continue preparing for exams and that if exams are not conducted, the students will not be granted degrees. He said that degrees wouldnt be recognised if there is no exam.

Also read: KMAT 2020: Know all about Karnataka Management Aptitude Test 2020

Also read: Banaras Hindu University admissions: Entrance test rescheduled, find out details here

The counsel for the petitioner told the court that the UGC guideline for holding exams before the end of September is not legal or constitutionally valid.

The apex court was hearing a batch of petitions challenging a UGC circular dated July 6 which mandated the universities across the country to conduct the final term exams by the end of September. The pleas sought the cancellation of the final term exams in view of COVID-19.

Also read:Centre likely to reopen schools and colleges in phased manner from September: Report
A BBC podcast host has revealed she was banned from saying 'oh my god' on her show and wasn't able to refer to herself as 'queer' in a video filmed for the broadcaster, adding that the Corporation only cares about 'not seeming offensive to old white people'.

Comedian Sofie Hagen, 31, who is originally from Denmark but lives in London, hosts the Bad People podcast which dissects criminal cases.

She has also hosted Radio 4 specials and starred in videos for the broadcaster.

In a Twitter thread on Saturday, she said 'it's very clear where the BBC's priorities lie' and accused the corporation of racism.

It comes as the BBC finally apologised nearly two weeks after a white presenter said 'n****r' in a news report, which saw more than 18,000 people complain.

Comedian Sofie Hagen, 31, who is originally from Denmark but lives in London, hosts the Bad People podcast which dissects criminal cases. In a Twitter thread on Saturday, she said 'it's very clear where the BBC's priorities lie' and accused the Corporation of racism

The BBC was slammed after social affairs correspondent Fiona Lamdin said the highly-offensive term while covering a racist hit-and-run attack on a black NHS worker on July 29.

Yesterday, 11 days after the initial report was made, the broadcaster's director-general Lord Tony Hall said they 'made a mistake' and 'should have taken a different approach'.

In a lengthy Twitter thread written before their apology yesterday, Sofie wrote: 'So a white BBC Newsreader is allowed to say the N-word on television whilst, on our BBC Sounds podcast, we were told not to say '"oh my god" because it could offend some listeners. Last year, I was told I couldn't say "queer" in a BBC video even though I was describing myself.

'I mean... The fact that I even have to say this is beyond me... I am NOT saying that if they're allowed to say the n-word then I should have been allowed to say whatever I wanted. I am saying that the BBC only care about "not being offensive" when it comes to old white people.

The BBC was slammed after social affairs correspondent Fiona Lamdin (pictured) said the highly-offensive term while covering a racist hit-and-run attack on a black NHS worker on July 29

In a lengthy Twitter thread the presenter accused the Corporation of racism and said they only care about not being offensive when it comes to old white people

'That if they censored "oh my god" and "queer" but not the N-word, it is very obvious what their priorities are. To make it absolutely 100% clear: white people should NEVER say the N-word. BBC News is not exception.

'I also think I should be allowed to say "Oh my god'". I ended up being very insisting re: "queer" and if I remember correctly, they ended up allowing it. But this is NOT about me.

'It's the fact that BBC didn't apologise despite getting 18,000 complaints BECAUSE it was DEFINITELY offensive to black people. But they would not have someone say "oh my god" or "queer" because that MIGHT OFFEND some white people. The point is racism.

What does the BBC guidelines say? According to the BBC's editorial guidelines on language the guidelines differ depending on context and the speaker. They state: 'The effect of strong language depends on the choice of words, the speaker and the context. 'Different words cause different degrees of offence in different communities as well as in different parts of the world. Over time, public attitudes shift and this is assessed through research. 'The use of strong language must be editorially justified, and signposted if appropriate, to ensure it meets audience expectations, wherever it appears. Strong language is most likely to cause offence when it is used gratuitously and without editorial purpose, and when it includes: sexual swearwords

terms of racist or ethnic abuse

terms of sexual and sexist abuse or abuse referring to sexuality or gender identity

pejorative terms relating to illness or disabilities

casual or derogatory use of holy names or religious words and especially in combination with other strong language. Advertisement

A BBC spokesperson told FEMAIL: 'Listeners will have heard these words and phrases used in our content, including in Sofie's BBC Ideas video that she refers to in her tweet.'

In a video for BBC ideas published in May 2019, called 'The Funny Thing about being fat' the comedian says 'queer people' are not being represented in the body positivity community.

Sofie, who made headlines in 2018 when she accused Cancer Research of fat-shaming for it's campaign to raise awareness of the links between obesity and cancer, added that she felt it wasn't producers who stopped her from using the terms.

'Both times (for me) it was a matter of 'official BBC guidelines' or just someone higher up. The producers have usually been super nice and understanding,' she added in another tweet.

Sofie, who made headlines in 2018 when she accused Cancer Research of fat-shaming for it's campaign to raise awareness of the links between obesity and cancer, added that she felt it wasn't producers who stopped her from using the terms

While the BBC initially defended their use of the N-word in the report, the broadcaster made a U-turn yesterday and admitted wrongdoing.

In an email sent to all BBC staff, Lord Hall said: 'This morning I brought together a group of BBC colleagues to discuss our news coverage of the recent shocking attack on an NHS worker. I wanted us to look at the issues raised by the reporting and the strength of feeling surrounding it.

'We are proud of the BBC's values of inclusion and respect, and have reflected long and hard on what people have had to say about the use of the n-word and all racist language both inside and outside the organisation.

'It should be clear that the BBC's intention was to highlight an alleged racist attack. This is important journalism which the BBC should be reporting on and we will continue to do so.

Fiona Lamdin, left, used a racially offensive slur during a news broadcast on July 29. Yesterday, 11 days after the initial report was made, the broadcaster's director-general Lord Tony Hall said they 'made a mistake' and 'should have taken a different approach'

'Yet despite these good intentions, I recognise that we have ended up creating distress amongst many people.

'The BBC now accepts that we should have taken a different approach at the time of broadcast and we are very sorry for that. We will now be strengthening our guidance on offensive language across our output.

'Every organisation should be able to acknowledge when it has made a mistake. We made one here. It is important for us to listen - and also to learn. And that is what we will continue to do.'

Ms Lamdin used the offensive term when covering the collision between a Honda Accord and a 21-year-old man in Bristol.

While the BBC initially defended their use of the N-word in the report, the broadcaster made a U-turn yesterday and admitted wrongdoing. In an email sent to all BBC staff, Lord Hall (pictured) said they 'made a mistake'

Lamdin shocked viewers during the 10.30am clip for BBC Points West when she said: 'Just to warn you, you're about to hear highly offensive language.'

She added: 'Because as the men ran away, they hurled racial abuse, calling him a n****r.'

BBC guidance says strong language should not be used before the 9pm watershed, but the N-word is usually seen as too rude to ever air.

June Sarpong, the BBC's director of creative diversity, welcomed the decision, saying she is 'glad' that Lord Hall has 'personally intervened to unequivocally apologise'.

Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy praised Lord Hall for the move, adding: 'But once again it has taken a direct intervention by the DG to overturn a mistake on race previously defended by the BBC's editorial policy managers.'

Larry Madowo, a US correspondent for the BBC's World Service, also commented on the move, saying that despite being black he had previously not been allowed to use the racist term in an article when quoting an African American.

'But a white person was allowed to say it on TV because it was "editorially justified",' he said.

This is not the first time Lord Hall has made an intervention following a backlash over the BBC's handling of discussions around race in its news output.

In September, he reversed a ruling by the corporation's Executive Complaints Unit after it said BBC Breakfast host Naga Munchetty breached editorial guidelines when she condemned comments made by Donald Trump after he told female Democrats to 'go back' to their own countries.

On Saturday, BBC Radio 1xtra presenter Sideman (pictured) announced that he was quitting the Corporation over the broadcast

On Saturday, BBC Radio 1xtra presenter Sideman announced that he was quitting the Corporation over the broadcast.

Announcing the move on social media, he said the news report represented an 'error of judgement', adding it 'feels like a slap in the face to our community'.

After Sideman, real name David Whitely, announced his decision, a BBC spokesman said on Saturday that while they were 'aware that [the report] would cause offence' it was important to explain the alleged context of the incident.

The broadcaster has also previously revealed that the decision was taken by a team of people which included senior editorial figures.
Panaji, Aug 10 : The Aam Aadmi Party in Goa on Monday held a street protest in the state capital against last week's induction of two sons of former Chief Minister and sitting Congress MLA Ravi Naik into the BJP.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the protest, Goa AAP general secretary Pradeep Padgaonkar said that the "political games" during the ongoing spike in Covid-19 cases was costing the state dearly.

"Both parties have cheated Goa. Despite being the single largest party after the 2017 elections, the Congress sold their MLAs to BJP, allowing BJP to form an illegitimate government against the mandate of the people," Padgaonkar said.

Last week, Ritesh and Roy, two sons of Congress MLA from Ponda assembly constituency Ravi Naik, joined the BJP causing a minor political stir. The duo was inducted into the party on August 6.

The AAP has maintained that the "unholy alliance" between the two parties was costing the state and its people dearly, especially during the ongoing pandemic. Goa is currently witnessing a swift escalation of Covid-19 cases, with 506 persons testing positive, "the highest yet", on Sunday alone.

"We condemn this unholy alliance, where MLAs and workers of the Congress are being taken into the BJP lock stock and barrel at a time when the state is facing a pandemic which has reached serious proportions," Padgaonkar said.

Since the 2017 state assembly elections, 13 Congress MLAs have quit the opposition party and joined the BJP.
The United States calls on the Russian Federation to stop violating the rights of Crimean Tatars in the occupied Crimea and to withdraw from sovereign Ukrainian territory.

"On International Day of the Worlds Indigenous Peoples, we call on Russia to cease its cruel violations of the human rights of Crimean Tatars and to withdraw from sovereign Ukrainian territory," the embassy posted on Twitter.

The United States has once again emphasized that Crimea is Ukraine.

The International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples is celebrated annually on August 9 in accordance with the UN General Assembly resolution of 23 December 1994.

In the spring of 2014, Russia invaded part of Ukraine's territory - the Crimean Peninsula. On March 16, 2014, a "referendum" on the status of the peninsula was held in Crimea and Sevastopol, as a result of which Russia announced Crimea a part of the Russian Federation.

At the same time, Ukraine, the European Union, the United States and other countries did not recognize the results of the vote in the "referendum" and imposed sanctions on Russia.

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Destination Toys in Jacksonville hosted Dominic Pace on Saturday, providing the opportunity for Star Wars fans to see one of the actors from the series The Mandalorian. Pace plays Gekko the Bounty Hunter on the Disney Plus series and has been touring in support of small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Linkedin (Reuters) Sanaa  Mon, August 10, 2020 15:43 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cdc84d 2 Art & Culture Yemen,UNESCO,Old-City-of-Sanaa Free

Houses in Yemen's UNESCO-listed Old City of Sanaa are collapsing under heavy rains, as months of floods and storms assail a country already reeling from war, food shortages and disease.

The distinctive brown and white mud brick houses of Sanaa's historic neighborhoods, which date from before the 11th century, have long been under threat from conflict and neglect.

Muhammad Ali al-Talhi's house partially collapsed on Friday as heavy rain battered Sanaa, leaving the six women and six children of his family homeless.

"Everything we had is buried," he said surrounded by ancient debris and mud, appealing for help to find shelter.

Aqeel Saleh Nassar, deputy head of the Historic Cities Preservation Authority, said citizens today do not maintain these old buildings as in the past, leading to cracks and weakness.

Read also: Bombed and looted: Yemen battles to save its heritage

Around 5,000 of the towering buildings in the old city have leaky roofs and 107 have partially collapsed roofs, he said. The authority has been working with UNESCO and other funds to preserve some.

This year's exceptionally heavy rains, which began mid-April and last into early September, have added to what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Five years of war have killed more than 100,000 people, and left 80% of the population reliant on aid and millions on the brink of famine.

On top of the new coronavirus, which is believed to be spreading largely undetected, heavy rains spread diseases like cholera, dengue fever and malaria.

The Iran-aligned Houthi authorities who have controlled Sanaa since ousting the internationally recognized Saudi-backed Yemeni government in late 2014, appealed this week to UNESCO to save the city's heritage.

They said around 111 houses had partly or completely collapsed in recent weeks.

Sanaa resident Adel San'ani on Saturday told Reuters he saw five houses severely damaged this weekend.

"The families have no shelter. A local bank launched a campaign to distribute plastic sheeting to act as roofs," he said.
Chinese company Huawei said that the company is facing a shortage of smartphone chips due to US sanctions and will have to stop making new devices by mid-September.

The company lost access to America suppliers for key components due to which the company is facing shortages according to a report by Associated Press.

 Reuters

The company has been in the middle of a long-running dispute between the U.S. and China over technology and security. The U.S. has accused Huawei of having backdoors in their networking systems that could be accessed by the Chinese government.

The U.S. government placed the company on an Entity List which prohibits American companies to do business with Huawei or sourcing components for their products. This also resulted in Huawei phones not being able to support Google applications and the Play Store for devices sold outside of China.

 Reuters

The executive order by President Trump was extended to May 2021 and the US Commerce Department blocked the acquiring of semiconductors by Huawei as a part of an amended export rule.

The rule also prevents foreign manufacturers of semiconductors who use American software and technology in their operations for manufacturing their products. This includes the worlds biggest semiconductor manufacturer i.e. TSMC who halted orders from Huawei silicon unit.

Even though the ban has persisted over a year, Huawei still managed to beat Samsung as the worlds largest smartphone company. Huawei shipped more phones between April and June than any other company according to a report by Canalys.

 MensXP/Akshay Bhalla





However, with the way things are going; Huawei may have depleted their stock of smartphone chips that were purchased before the ban was imposed.

It seems like Huawei has finally run out of its stock of smartphone chipsets and will probably have to halt smartphone production until the company gets its hands on more chipsets.

Source: Associated Press
10:33

Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has suspended two senior executives of AirAsia India for a period of three months over 'safety violations', said a senior official on Tuesday.





The suspension was carried out a week ago, the official said. In June this year, one of the AirAsia India's former pilots -- who runs a YouTube channel called Flying Beast -- alleged violations of safety norms by the low-cost airline.





'We had issued a show cause notice to two AirAsia India executives -- Head of Operations Manish Uppal and Head of Flight Safety Mukesh Nema -- in June only. It has been decided now to suspend them for a period of three months,' the DGCA official said.





AirAsia India did not respond to PTI's request for a statement on this matter. Captain Gaurav Taneja, a popular Youtuber, tweeted on June 14 that he has been suspended by AirAsia India 'for standing up for safe operations of an aircraft and its passengers'.





On June 15, he posted a detailed video on YouTube titled 'Reasons behind suspension from my pilot job'.





Taneja alleged in the video that the airline has asked its pilots to do 98 per cent of landings in 'Flap 3' mode, which allows it to save fuel.







He said if a pilot does not do 98 per cent of landings in 'Flap 3' mode, the airline considers it a violation of its standard operating procedure (SOP).







Flaps are part of wings of an aircraft and they are engaged to create a drag during a landing or a take-off.





Taneja gave the example of the Imphal airport, where the plane descends more steeply as compared to other airports when approaching for landing.





He said when an aircraft is coming down steeply, it needs to have a drag so that it remains slow, and in these circumstances a pilot has to do a 'Flap full' landing.





'In order to achieve targets, what would people do? They will do Flap 3 landings without giving consideration whether it is safe or unsafe.





'This directly impacts the passenger safety,' he had claimed in his YouTube video.





'If something happens during a Flap 3 landing, then the question would be asked to the pilot if he or she cares more about saving fuel or 180 passengers' lives, Taneja had said.





On June 15, the DGCA said on Twitter that it had taken note of the concerns raised by some stakeholders 'against a particular airline and its approach to safety'.





'(The) DGCA has already started an investigation into the issues flagged and shall take appropriate action based on the outcome of the said investigation,' it added.





Senior DGCA officials had confirmed on June 15 itself that AirAsia India was under investigation after Taneja's allegations. -- PTI


A short while ago, the defenders of Mount Amulsar were apprehended while playing dodgeball in front of the National Assembly of Armenia.

While being apprehended, the participants of the demonstration had clung to the metal bars of the gates of the National Assembly and didnt want to be apprehended, but police officers pulled them from the bars and apprehended them.

The gates of the National Assembly are closed. Security officers told Armenian News-NEWS.am that the gates have been closed for technical reasons.

The participants of the demonstration are expressing their solidarity with the residents of Jermuk and nearby communities for their just and unwavering struggle that they have been leading for over two years. They also demand that the positive conclusion given to the Environmental Impact Assessment of Mount Amulsar in 2016 be repealed and that exploitation of Mount Amulsar is canceled once and for all.

The organizers recall that exploitation of the Amulsar gold mine will lead to contamination of the surrounding environment and water resources, deterioration of the health and living conditions of people and elimination of biodiversity.
It was 2016 and Amanda Septimo, a 29-year-old Bronx native and labor organizer, wanted to represent her borough in a legislative body, but her first run for office slammed into a wall: She was bounced from the ballot during a special election for the New York City Councils 17th District. Septimo was running to replace the scandal-plagued Maria del Carmen Arroyo. The county party backed Rafael Salamanca Jr., who went on to win the election instead of her. Septimos error that got her removed from the ballot was that she circulated her petitions under the banner of an independent body called Democratic Values, which New York City Board of Elections commissioners stated would cause confusion among voters, since its name was similar to that of an existing political party.

Malik LeGare So Septimo set her sights on the 84th Assembly District, where shed have to knock off longtime incumbent Assembly Member Carmen Arroyo, the mother of the former council member Septimo had run to replace.

But then she met with then-Bronx Democratic Party Chair Marcos Crespo. According to Septimo, Crespo called her consideration for the seat naive and told her to learn a thing or two about a chamber before I try to join it.

The further and further I get away from that conversation, the more I'm aware of how men just don't get called naive. Its just not what happens, Septimo told City & State. I think sexism in politics and in the Bronx, like every other place, is really insidious. It's not like, Oh, thats sexism, but it sort of infiltrates how interactions go, how conversations go. That's probably one of my most vivid memories that really went on to shape a lot of my relationship with the party and with Crespo for these last few years. Crespo did not respond to a request for comment.

The Bronx has been run mostly by male politicians and legislators over the years, with the exception of a few women who have risen to higher offices or held onto their seats for a long time, such as Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, Assembly Member Carmen Arroyo and Assembly Member Latoya Joyner, who serves as a kind of second-in-command to Crespo on the county committee.

I think sexism in politics and in the Bronx is really insidious. Its not like, Oh, thats sexism. But it sort of infiltrates how interactions go, how conversations go.  Amanda Septimo, Democratic Assembly nominee

Critics say that the Bronx Democratic Party is, like other party machines, an organization full of entrenched politicians whose leadership stands by incumbents through thick and thin  rather than welcoming younger, more progressive Democrats into the fold. Whether intentional or not, that wait-your-turn mentality can discourage women from running for office in the Bronx, maintaining the county Democratic Partys reputation as a boys club, several Bronx lawmakers and activists told City & State.

But over the past few years, the Bronx Democratic Party establishment has sustained body blows that could transform the makeup of the party from the bottom up  all the way from district leader up to the partys chair.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. announced in January that he would be dropping out of the 2021 mayoral race and will be retiring at the end of his term. Crespo quickly followed suit, announcing he would not be running for reelection to his Assembly seat and that he would be stepping down as party chair. Meanwhile, nine of the 24 newly elected district leaders in the Bronx, who elect the county Democratic Party boss, were not backed by the party itself, Gothamist reported.

Celeste Sloman Possible replacements for Diaz or Crespo include lawmakers such as City Council Member Vanessa Gibson, who would be the Bronxs first female and first Black borough president if elected. Two relatively new Assembly members  Latoya Joyner and Karines Reyes  have been floated as potential successors to Crespo as county party boss. And thanks to incumbent Assembly Member Carmen Arroyo being kicked off the ballot before the recent primary, Septimo  a progressive candidate backed by the Working Families Party  is going to be her replacement in the 84th Assembly District after all. (In that district, which includes the neighborhoods of Mott Haven, Hunts Point and parts of Highbridge, as in most of the Bronx  which is New York Citys most Democratic borough  the Democratic primary is essentially the election.)

Nearly a year out from the 2021 citywide elections, all but two of the Bronxs nine City Council seats have female candidates. With a long list of women running for elected office in the Bronx this year and next, the borough could soon see not only more female lawmakers than ever before, but women rising to the most powerful positions within the county Democratic Party.

There have traditionally been two ways of getting involved in Bronx politics, according to Septimo. Either youre born into it, or you work your way up in the Bronx Democratic Party and get tapped to run for office. Arroyo has been in office for 26 years, and her daughter was in office between 2005 and 2015. (The pair was once accused of siphoning cash into family-run nonprofits.) Diaz Jr. first won a seat in the Assembly at age 23, while his father, City Council Member Ruben Diaz Sr., followed him into elected office a few years later, and the two have been fixtures in the Bronx for decades. Rep. Jose E. Serrano, who is planning to retire at the end of his term after 30 years in Congress, has a son, Jose M. Serrano, who has been a member of the state Senate since 2004.

But two years ago, the Bronxs political party began to steadily break down, allowing more opportunities for female insurgents. In 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ousted 10-term incumbent and party-backed Rep. Joseph Crowley in a district spanning Queens and the Bronx. That same year, Alessandra Biaggi defeated state Sen. Jeffrey Klein, who ran the Independent Democratic Conference. Both Crowley and Klein were enmeshed in the Bronxs boys club, which developed a reputation in some circles for barring entry to women. Together with the Bronx boss, Marcos Crespo, the two most powerful Democratic machines have frequently endorsed men when faced with qualified female candidates to choose from, Alexis Grenell, a political consultant, wrote in the Daily News in 2018, referring to both the Bronx Democratic Party and the Queens Democratic Party, which Crowley then ran.

In an emailed statement, a representative for the Bronx Democratic Party denied a lack of support for female candidates. The notion that The Bronx Democratic Party is unsupportive of women running for office is not only unfounded but contrary to reality given the women this organization has endorsed and helped elect over the years, the statement read, citing their support of Assembly Members Nathalia Fernandez and Reyes, who both replaced men. The county party has the most control over picking judges, and women are a majority of judges in the Bronx: 11 of the 16 Bronx Civil Court judges are women, and 16 of the 31 Bronx Supreme Court justices are women.

In response to the suggestion that they only back party-aligned candidates, the spokesperson pointed to Reyes, who had no ties to the organization and previously worked as a nurse, activist and union representative.

But the number of female lawmakers in the Bronx is still paltry: Only two women represent the borough in the City Council, out of nine council seats. Four of the 11 Assembly members from the Bronx are women. One lucky lady currently represents the Bronx in the state Senate, out of five districts. Ocasio-Cortez is the only woman out of the four members of Congress with a portion of their district in the Bronx.

The pages of the Bronx Democratic Partys website showing photos of elected officials look more like a fraternity class picture than a body representative of a borough that is 53% female. Scroll too quickly and youll miss the women.

Some women in the Bronx say that limits the effectiveness of the current political leadership. Women tend to be more empathetic and willing to work with groups that they don't necessarily agree with, and I think that's very much needed, Reyes said. We have a lot of single mothers in the Bronx or single parent households, kind of juggling that experience of being a woman and going to work, getting an education, providing for our families and having to climb the social ladder that oftentimes wasn't built for people  not just that look like us but (who) are female. Reyes also argues that with women in charge there could be perhaps less patronage, because that tends to be kind of the boys club scenario.

In fairness to the Bronx, women are underrepresented in all of those legislative bodies. Of the councils 51 members, just 12 are women. In the Assembly, just 48 of the bodys 150 seats are filled by women, while 19 out of 63 state senators are women.

When we finally have the courage to move forward and say, I am running for office, then you have the political machines who are like, No, its not your turn. Wait your turn.  Janet Peguero, Bronx borough director of Amplify Her

But its not just a lack of female lawmakers that gives the Bronx Democrats a reputation for being an old boys club. Its the voting records and alleged behavior of some of those old boys themselves. Crespo, for example, voted against same-sex marriage in 2011, though he would later say he regretted the vote. Crespos socially conservative record also included votes against womens reproductive rights, and he once sponsored a bill that would require parental notification of abortion.

New York City Council Member Andy King, who represents neighborhoods including Baychester, Co-op City and Williamsbridge, has faced multiple sexual harassment accusations in the council. Klein was also accused of sexual harassment by a former staffer.

NY Senate Media Services In 2018, in an encapsulation of the Bronx machines hostility to challengers, City Council Member Mark Gjonaj stood outside a Biaggi campaign event yelling Shame! through a bullhorn, leading a small crowd of protesters. (Gjonajs protest was nominally about Biaggis stance on a street renovation, but Gjonaj  who has had a number of ethical scandals  was also a close ally of Kleins.)

And then theres Diaz Sr., whose reputation for outspoken social conservatism precedes him, including a long history of opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion rights. That outspokenness has at times included a number of homophobic statements and comments suggesting he wouldnt report sexual harassment if he witnessed it in the council.

But the departure of some of those old boys is accompanied by a wave of more diverse lawmakers. Ritchie Torres, an openly gay council member, won the Democratic primary to replace retiring Rep. Jose E. Serrano in his South Bronx congressional seat, defeating 11 opponents, including Diaz Sr. The Bronx Democratic Party remained neutral, endorsing no candidates in the primary. Diaz Sr. announced last month that he is retiring from politics.

As the party points out, however, it has sometimes backed female candidates. Reyes, who was elected to the Bronxs 87th Assembly District in 2018 after the seat was left vacant by current state Sen. Luis Sepulveda, said that she has seen both sides of the party. It's no secret that the Bronx had a reputation for being a boys club, Reyes said. I think some of that is true and some of that is just kind of what has become the narrative around how it operates. The party, for example, supported Reyes when she decided to run. The party also supported District Attorney Darcel Clark in 2015  the first female district attorney in the borough and, until recently, the only one in New York City. Clarks election was not without controversy, though. Party leaders were criticized at the time for maneuvering to place her in the position in a way that avoided a primary challenge. Even if it becomes a co-ed club, its still a club.

Gibson, who is leaving the council in 2021 and is now running for borough president, said she has also felt supported by the party. Democratic clubs and political organizations  the history of them  have really been dominated by men, she said. But not all of them have excluded women. I've enjoyed the support of the county organization through the years. But then there are other women that have not had the support of county organizations.

But even if the party hasnt been entirely patriarchal across the board, Reyes suggested female candidates suffered from a patronage system that mostly benefited male candidates. Overall, there was still kind of a patronage structure  based on past relationships that a lot of the leaders had  that created obstacles for women to run, Reyes said.

Biaggi, who unseated Klein without the partys backing in 2018, called these loyalty silos. I think a lot of women, up until 2016 and maybe even 2017, 2018, really felt like they were not welcome in the Bronx county organization, Biaggi said. What we've seen, I think, historically in the Bronx, is the same people selecting who runs, deciding when it's important for that person to run, and then supporting that person in their run and when they're elected.

I think a lot of us have come to the realization that we cant wait for people to give us permission to do things  particularly when it comes to the urgency of social movements.  Assembly Member Karines Reyes

Biaggi said that when she challenged Klein in 2018, she was essentially told a version of wait your turn by the party establishment. One of the things that I was questioned on was, How could you be a state senator? How could you run for the seat? You were never a district leader, she recalls. I had gone to law school, practiced law in the government twice, ran a national operation for a political campaign across 50 states and all these other things. It was just so clearly indicative to me of the mindset, which is very fixed. If you're looking at how do you make the world better, how do you transform the world  a fixed mindset does not get you there. In that race, the Bronx Democratic Party endorsed Klein, demonstrating just how far the party would go to protect its own boys  even if that boy happened to have led the Republican-aligned IDC.

Submitted photo Janet Peguero, the Bronx borough director at Amplify Her, a progressive organization working to elect more women in New York City, suggested that the wait your turn directive is another barrier on top of what some call the ambition gap. Some studies have reported that women are less likely than men to consider running for office, and that young women are less likely to believe theyre qualified to do so. While thats starting to change  a record number of women ran for Congress in 2018, and that number increased this year  the mindset can be a tough one to overcome. Even when you are qualified, we feel like we need to do a little bit more. And so we hold ourselves back for years to continue to develop that canvas, Peguero said. When we finally have the courage to move forward and say, I am running for office, then you have the political machines who are like, No, its not your turn. Wait your turn.

The county party says it is inclusive and is working to increase the gender equity of its elected officials. By no means is The Bronx Democratic Party satisfied with the number of women represented in elected office and looks forward to helping to elect more women, a representative for the party said in the emailed statement. The Bronx Democratic Party will always strive to be an inclusive organization regardless of sex, sexual orientation, race, or religion. To suggest otherwise is to disregard facts.

Theres some more good news in store for female candidates unwilling to wait their turn. The vacating of the three powerful positions now held by Diaz Jr. (Bronx borough president) and Crespo (chair of the county Democratic Party and Assembly Member for the 85th District in the East Bronx) opens a window of opportunity for women to step into those roles for the first time. Gibson has already declared her intention to run for borough president, as has her City Council colleague, Fernando Cabrera. A handful of other lawmakers have dipped their toes in the water, or are rumored to be running, including Assembly Member Nathalia Fernandez and City Council Member Andrew Cohen.

Either Gibson or Fernandez would be the first woman to hold the position, if elected. Asked whether she believes the next borough president should be a woman  whether its her or someone else Gibson rejected the idea of candidates being reduced to their gender. I certainly don't want to promote myself as an African American woman. Everyone can look at me and see that, she said. She wants the next borough president to be qualified and committed to solving the boroughs challenges, noting that among the most pressing issues for the Bronx is the fact that the borough has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic. If that candidate happens to be a woman and a woman of color, then I think it's an added benefit.

For the party boss position Crespo is vacating, a handful of possible successors have also emerged, including Reyes, Joyner and their colleague in the Assembly, Victor Pichardo. Reyes, who would be the first woman and first Dominican American to serve in the post, told City & State that she is still on the fence about vying for the position. I actually had a conversation with Assemblyman Pichardo, because he did express that he wanted it, and he seemed to be very actively working towards it, she said.

But that was before a new slate of district leaders were elected  the members who vote for the party chair  many of whom represent the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Now we have a new kind of class of district leaders that may not necessarily vote in his favor, Reyes said. And that has changed where I stand. Reyes said that she is still considering a bid of her own, but that she would support Pichardo if he is able to consolidate support among the district leaders. Representatives for Pichardo did not respond to a request for comment.

Representatives for Joyner did not comment directly on whether she is also vying for the role, but said in an emailed statement that she has always felt included and supported by the Bronx Democratic Party.

With many council members on their way out in 2021  including a handful in the Bronx  a number of female candidates could dramatically improve the chambers gender equity. That includes candidates to replace Torres, such as Ischia Bravo, district manager of Bronx Community Board 7, and Elisa Crespo, an education liaison for Diaz Jr. who would be the councils first out trans member if elected. (Elisa Crespo is not related to Marcos Crespo.)

Theres also Amanda Farias, a former City Council staffer, who is running for Diaz Sr.s seat after losing to him in 2017. We (women) get told, You're too young or, You should be more focused on starting a family, and other things that I resent, Farias told City & State. But, you know, this boys club, old-school politics mentality (of Bronx politicians) is attached to that lens, and it's outdated, and that's why we need new leadership.

Bronx District Leader Marjorie Velazquez, who ran against then-Assembly Member Mark Gjonaj for City Council in 2017 (and has filed to challenge him again after losing by less than 400 votes), told City & State that women have always run in Bronx elections, the only difference now is that theyre getting the attention that theyve always deserved. But after losing her election, she decided to join the boards of both Amplify Her and the Broad Room  an activist organization for women and gender nonbinary individuals  to help women interested in politics get elected. It was about getting women involved in politics and letting them know that these boys are going to take care of each other, so fuck it, we should do the same, Velazquez said.

Farias also feels that in the past, the lack of support that women received from the party impacted many womens desire to run for office. The only pathway in was getting permission (from the party), Farias said. I think that for a lot of us that have run for office, looking back at the years before us, the women that decided to run without permission were somewhat pushed off to the side or put on a naughty list or something like that.

While female candidates still have a long way to go in the Bronx, Reyes said that she believes that the days of the Bronx boys club are numbered. I think regardless of whoever rises to the occasion of becoming the party chair, people are demanding something completely different, she said, referring in particular to the partys penchant for endorsing incumbents or those who wait their turn.

I think a lot of us have come to the realization that we cant wait for people to give us permission to do things  particularly when it comes to the urgency of social movements and where we want our community to go politically. We just kind of have to seize the moment and do it, Reyes said. Worst-case scenario, you decide to run and you lose. But we've seen that, oftentimes, we fare pretty well.
(CNN)  A Hong Kong media tycoon known for his support of the city's pro-democracy movement and criticism of China has been arrested on suspicion of "colluding" with foreign forces, according to local police.

The offense was created by a new national security law imposed on the city by Beijing last month. Lai's business partner Mark Simon said the tycoon was arrested early Monday.

Seven men in all, aged between 39 and 72, were arrested, according to a police statement, on charges including collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security, and conspiracy to commit fraud. The statement did not name any individual, but a spokesman told CNN that Lai was among them and that he had been arrested on suspicion of collusion.

The "police investigation is still underway, and we cannot rule out the possibility that more people will be arrested," it added.

According to public broadcaster RTHK, those arrested include several top executives at Apple Daily  potentially a major blow to the newspaper's operations in the city.

Later Monday morning, a livestream uploaded to Facebook by Apple Daily showed police searching the company's newsroom. A police spokesperson confirmed to CNN that the agency had a search warrant to enter Apple Daily's office.

Under the new security law, which was imposed on the city by Beijing last month, the offense of colluding with foreign powers carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Lai has strong ties to Washington and has lobbied for the United States to take a harder line on China. What he has done to contravene the law since it passed is unclear.

This isn't Lai's first clash with Hong Kong authorities. He was arrested and faced charges earlier this year in connection with a protest march in August 2019. In June, Lai was charged with inciting people to take part in an unauthorized assembly over an annual candlelight vigil in remembrance of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. The vigil was banned by police this year.

Lai's latest arrest, though, is among the first since the security law was imposed on July 1. The law criminalized subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. Late last month, four members of a student-led pro-independence group were arrested for alleged secessionist offenses on social media. Ten people were also arrested during a protest on July 1.

The Hong Kong government has defended the law as necessary to protect national security. It has been denounced by human rights groups, the European Union, and the United States as overly broad and restrictive of the city's civil liberties.

On Friday, the US Consulate General in Hong Kong and Macao said in a statement that "we have repeatedly raised our grave concerns about the effect this ill-defined, vaguely worded, and far-reaching law would have on Hong Kong."

Lai's arrest also comes as tensions between the United State and China over the national security law continue to escalate. Washington imposed sanctions Friday against Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and 10 other Chinese and Hong Kong officials for undermining the city's autonomy.

Newspaper mogul

A former clothing magnate, Lai founded Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper in 1995 -- two years before Hong Kong was handed over from British to Chinese control. Modeled visually on USA Today, the paper caused a minor revolution in the city's media landscape, sparking a price war and drastically changing how rivals operated as they struggled to keep up with Lai's flashy tabloid sensibilities.

While focusing on celebrity gossip and other tabloid fare, since the handover the paper has emerged as one of the fiercest critics of the local government and Beijing. It has openly supported the pro-democracy movement and anti-government protests, printing flyers and posters in its pages that people can cut out and take to marches.

This drove the 71-year-old Lai to a place of prominence within the opposition movement, and made him a figure of loathing for pro-Beijing politicians and media in the city.

Though his media influence has arguably waned in recent years, along with that of the traditional pro-democracy parties, his profile has if anything grown, courtesy of a campaign by Chinese state media to paint him as one of a "gang of four" behind anti-government protests which broke out last year.

Lai's closeness to right-wing politicians in the United States  he met with Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and then National Security Adviser John Bolton in July last year  has been used by Chinese state media to paint the entire protest movement, along with Apple Daily and similar media, as US-controlled.

The People's Daily  the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party  claimed at the time that Lai was part of a quartet of "secretive middlemen and modern traitors," as Beijing tried to blame the unrest in Hong Kong on foreign forces.
Reopening of Bluefin Tuna 2020 & Tagging Programme

The Bluefin Tuna Open Season has now recommenced. To date the total amount of Bluefin Tuna Thunnus thynnus landed this season stands at approximately 13.6 tonnes.

The Total Allowable Catch (TAC, or quota) has been increased in accordance with the recent increase in quotas set by ICCAT (the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) to 19.81 tonnes.

Anglers are reminded that the landing point is at the North Mole (No. 1 Jetty), and that all tuna and billfish catches must be reported and weighed at the landing point where vessels will be able to dock. The landing point will be manned from 09:00 to 14:30 (Monday-Saturday). Any catches landed from 14:30 to sunset must also be reported and weighed at the landing point by contacting the on-call landing point staff on mobile number 54020033. This service will also be operational on Sundays and public holidays.

The DESHCC would also like to remind anglers that the practice of popping for tuna, which has been known to cause serious injury to dolphins, will not be allowed inside the Dolphin Protection Zone which is within the Bay of Gibraltar and approximately north of Rosia Bay. Other fishing methods will continue to be allowed within the Dolphin Protection Zone. Anglers targeting Bluefin tuna are advised that casting any lines close to dolphins, which are protected species, may result in their fishing licenses being revoked. Anglers, like all other boats users, must adhere to the Cetacean Protocol http://www.thinkinggreen.gov.gi/uploads/biodiversity/2018-Cetacean_Protocol.pdf and must not approach within 60metres of dolphins or whales.

A new development is the setting up of a Bluefin Tuna tagging programme in conjunction with fishing clubs. Applications from interested persons to participate can be downloaded from http://www.thinkinggreen.gov.gi/biodiversity/marine/fishing-regulation

Completed application forms should be sent electronically to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The closing date will be Wednesday 12th August 2020. Only applicants with a valid Class K license will be considered. Successful applicants will be required to pay a 50 fee to cover the tagging equipment and induction course. The tuna tagging programme will have a strict set of conditions and a permissible list of equipment which can be used for the tag and release of Bluefin Tuna. Tagging procedures will be explained to the successful applicants in the induction course. More details will be released shortly.
While over a week ago it was looking as if Turkey might back down on its ambitious oil and gas exploration aims in the eastern Mediterranean amidst global pressure, especially coming from the EU and US, President Erdogan is defiant once again, announcing Friday the resumption of energy exploration work that Greece and Cyprus says violates their territorial waters.

Emerging from Friday prayers at Hagia Sophia - which Turkey recently declared a mosque (in another shot aimed at Greece) - Erdogan said: "We have started drilling work again," and added, "I dont think we are obligated to talk to those who do not have rights in the areas of maritime powers.

Via Reuters

Erdogan said a seismic survey ship is currently en route to the disputed region to continue its energy exploration.

The Turkish president's comments were also seen as a firm rejected of a recent Greece and Egyptian deal defining their exclusive economic zones in contradiction to Ankara's interpretation.

Turkey denied the agreement as "null and void"  which means Turkey's expansionist claims are being contested by pretty much every Mediterranean country, also including Israel. The exception of course, is the Tripoli-based Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), which lately inked its own agreement with Turkey defining broad swathes of the Mediterranean as within Turkey's rights.

Turkey has sought to argue that the so-called Turkish Republic of Cyprus, which remains unrecognized internationally, gives it expansive rights encompassing the whole of Cyprus.

Via Anadolu Agency

Meanwhile Greece has complained of weekly illegal Turkish military incursions of its airspace, in a situation that is becoming militarized by the week.

Lately Greek forces have been on 'high alert' after Athens promised it would never let Turkish ships encroach of Greek maritime territory. The EU has also threatened sanctions over the past month as the crisis has grown.

By Zerohedge.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
By Akbar Mammadov

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has congratulated Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on his victory in the presidential election, the president's press service reported on 10 August.

During the phone call, Aliyev congratulated Lukashenko on his convincing victory in the presidential election and wished him success in his work for the prosperity of the Belarusian people and the country's development.

In turn, the Belarusian president expressed gratitude to Ilham Aliyev for the attention and congratulations.

Hailing the successful development of friendly relations, which are based on strategic partnership between the two countries in a variety of areas, the heads of state expressed their confidence that bilateral ties would continue to expand.

During the telephone conversation, issues related to the prospects of various areas of cooperation were also discussed.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Monday, August 10, 2020 at 3:00PM

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Seth Rogen has built a career mostly composed of comedies of all kinds, from stoner films to dysfunctional family dramedies. In his past decade of work only Take This Waltz and Steve Jobs can be considered dramatic. In An American Pickle, directed by Brandon Trost and written by Simon Rich, Rogen does not leave his comedy roots but instead, digs deeper with the humor and comic storytelling.

An American Pickle is about Herschel Greenbaum (Rogen), a Jewish man from 1919 Russia who moves to New York with his wife Sarah (Successions Sarah Snook) in search of a better life after an anti-Semitic attack on their hometown. However, an accident in a pickle factory causes him to be brined for 100 years. After waking up in 2019, he connects with his only living relative Ben (also Rogen)...

A violent altercation in the cemetery where his wife is now buried becomes the start of a rift between the two that goes to extremes.

While having to play two roles is already juicy material, Rogen achieves a surprising amount of maturity in this film. Herschel is a fascinating creation: outside of the films fantastical setup, this character harbors insecurity, romantic euphoria, and then disappointment. Seth Rogen gives his best performance to date.

In some ways, this star turn is a transformation; not entirely physical since we can still clearly see the recognizable actor underneath the beard, but speaking a different language with a distinct cadence and a new timidity in his body language. This range of emotions is wonderfully encapsulated in the first eight minutes of the film depicting his life before he gets pickled. There is real character building in these scenes, grounding the film in surprising emotional gravitas.





The eight minute introduction is an inspired collage of warmth and humor despite the films heightened version of reality. John Guleserians cinematography provides this prologue with a distinctly hyperreal atmosphere. Meanwhile, Nami Melumads lush music (with themes by Michael Giacchino) helps bring the film to life with vibrant energy which will be carried throughout the film, seamlessly threading its tones of fantasy, humor, and reflection.

The absurdist idea of a man being pickled serves as a way into its generation gap theme. Upon meeting with his grandson Ben, Herschel realizes that the world around him is vastly different from 100 years ago. This is where the film significantly veers away from its existential exploration of losing track of time and space. While it initially suggests a restrained approach on the topic, it quickly becomes an intentionally puerile battle between Herschel and Ben. The comedy still works mainly because Rogen commits to it, now with the challenge of playing two characters that are vastly different.

Pushing the fish-out-of-water trope even further, the film explores not only his temporal dissociation to his environment, but also his antiquated ideologies and how that turns his character into a social pariah. Highlighted by the corresponding sensationalism of social media, the film deftly critiques societys penchant for instant information without proper contextualization and understanding.





One remarkable scene depicts Herschel in public spouting rigid and outdated gender norms that eerily echoes Trumps language on occasion. However, Herschels remarks do not necessarily come from ingrained hate but from his detachment to the current discourse.

The last section of the film attempts to unite the haywire tone of the majority of the film with the reflective vibe of the prologue. This ultimately ties the film together in a satisfying, if abrupt, way. However, one is left to wonder if what the film could have been if it stayed on the path it set out earlier in the film. Ultimately, what we have is an entertaining (double) showcase for Seth Rogen embracing his Jewish heritage in his finest hour as an actor. B
After two years investigating Western Australia's freight needs, the state government is mulling a plan to close Fremantle Port in 2032, Premier Mark McGowan has revealed.

Announcing funding for the next stage of planning for a new land-backed Kwinana container port, Mr McGowan said the long-touted 'outer harbour' expansion would "set our state up for the next century".

Preliminary designs for a new outer port in Cockburn Sound.

Although the new port would not be operational until 2032, $97.3 million would be spent on environmental approvals, port planning and design, buying property for the transport corridor and developing a business case to seek federal government funding.

All up, a Kwinana container port would cost between $4-4.7 billion, Ports Minister Alannah MacTiernan said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 01:01:51|Editor: huaxia

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ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian Minister of Heath, Lia Tadesse on Monday commended Chinese tech firm ByteDance for donating COVID-19 medical supplies.

Tadesse made the remark during a ceremony held in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to receive a donation of 100,000 COVID-19 testing kits donated by Bytedance.

"My sincere appreciation to Bytedance for their generous donation of 100,000 COVID-19 testing kits worth 1.3 million U.S. dollars," said Tadesse.

"The donation of COVID-19 testing kits will enhance our response and combat campaign against the COVID-19 pandemic," said Tadesse.

ByteDance, founded in 2012, is owner of the popular video sharing application Tik Tok which has hundreds of millions of users around the world.

The COVID-19 medical supplies donation ceremony was also attended by Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia Tan Jian, who affirmed his country's commitment to help Ethiopia in its anti-COVID-19 fight.

Ethiopia, Africa's second-most populous nation with about 107 million people, confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 13. The east African country has so far recorded 23,591 COVID-19 cases, out of which 420 cases have resulted in deaths. Enditem
The government has jailed over fifty people for continuing to participate in the weekly demonstrations that began in February 2019 to overthrow the FLN party, which had held onto power since the 1960s. The actual demonstrations were halted in March with the imposition of covid19 quarantine measures. That did not stop all the protestors as many continued their activity online, especially on Facebook. There the discussion was more detailed and diverse than the agenda the weekly protests backed.

The physical demonstrations forced out the then current FLN president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika and that led to free elections at the end of 2019. The weekly demonstrations, nicknamed the Hirak, continued and were outlawed by the new government. That convinced many Hirak supporters that the demonstrations should continue because there were still government practices that needed to be changed. About the same time the actual demonstrations were halted by covid19, the government was demonstrating more hostility towards the complaints, many of them justified, that Hirak participants had.

The Facebook Hirak featured the Islamic parties more prominently as many of the leaders of those parties spoke from exile in the West (mainly France) and were unable to participate in the physical Hirak. No so in the online version and that upset a lot of the Hirak members from Algeria. The Islamic parties still reminded Algerians of the horrific 1990s war against Islamic terrorists, whose goal was to establish a religious dictatorship. The Islamic parties had won a fair election in 1990 and the FLN refused to be replaced by Islamic politicians. The fighting was horrific and destroyed most popular support the Islamic parties once had. Many of the surviving Islamic terrorist fighters and leaders fled into exile. Some continued their Islamic terrorism while others switched to non-violent Islamic politics. The most prominent example of the latter is the Moslem Brotherhood, and while the Moslem Brotherhood has been successful at getting elected, they soon lose power when their radical fringe starts demanding a religious dictatorship. Islamic party leaders insist they can prevent that from happening, most Algerians dont believe it and dont believe Islamic party politicians will be any better at dealing with corruption and bad government than the secular Moslem politicians.

The current government has devoted a lot of effort to identifying all the participants in these online Hirak activities and sought to arrest those still in Algeria. France wont even consider arresting and extraditing the Hirak posters living in France. Free speech and all that. The irony is not lost on the Algeria-based Hirak members. In Algeria it is still popular to criticize France for its colonial era crimes. Yet France remains a model for what Algeria would like to be. The newly elected government is going after corrupt officials and businessmen but has not yet proved that the new officials are any more effective and less corrupt than the old bunch. Arresting Hirak online critics and journalists who appear to support those critics does not inspire confidence among most voters.

It is not yet clear how well the government has handled the economic crises caused by the covid19 pandemic. In addition to shutting down much of the local economy for months, the virus also caused a worldwide economic recession and kept oil prices down. That was bad for Algeria, where 90 percent of government spending is paid for by taxes on the oil exports. This year the GDP is expected to shrink at least five percent and that means more unemployment. How well the new government handles this mess will determine how successful they are at getting reelected, assuming the elections process is not corrupted once more. That was now the ousted FLN party remained in control for decades.

The few remaining Islamic terrorists in Algeria remain dormant, as they have since the covid19 virus showed up. Same with smuggling activity, especially from the south (Mali). The army continues to conduct its patrols in areas where there has been Islamic terrorist or smuggler activity and there has been less to find. That wont last but none of the troops are very upset at the lack of violence and danger.

August 8, 2020: The government is further reducing the restrictions imposed to slow the spread of covid19. This is mainly to get the economy going again, which most Algerians see as more important that reducing the threat of more covid19 infections. The reduced restrictions will not allow the return of public demonstrations.

In late May Algeria knew of about 8,400 citizens who had come down with the covid19 coronavirus and since then the number of confirmed cases has increased to nearly 36,000. So far Algeria has suffered about 800 confirmed cases per million population and 30 deaths per million. Thats much less than the world average of 94 deaths per million. Algeria has one of the worst national health systems in the world and among Arab nations ranks 17th out of 21. What blurs these statistics is the fact that not all nations really know how many have caught the virus or died from it.

Neighbors Tunisia had 143 cases per million and four deaths per million. For Morocco it is 899 and 13, Libya is 702 and 17. Egypt is 931 and 49 while Mali is 126 and six.

August 5, 2020: Italian foreign aid groups are warning international aid donors to be wary of donating anything to the Tindouf refugee camps in southwestern Algeria (Tindouf Province). Local police have a growing problem with the many supporters of Islamic terrorism living in these refugee camps for people from Western Sahara. Algeria has long tried to avoid confronting the growing problem with Islamic terrorists and criminal activity in these camps. That is changing as is the Algerian attitude towards Polisario. This is partly the result of what happened in early 2018 when Algeria assured neighbor Morocco and the UN that it no longer had anything to do with Polisario, a group of Moroccan terrorists that Algeria helped create decades ago. Then an Algerian Air Force transport crashed on takeoff in April 2018 and among the 257 dead were 26 Polisario members. The transport was taking off from a base near the Algerian capital carrying mainly military personnel. This was more than an embarrassment, it confirmed the accusations that Algeria could not be trusted when it came to Polisario, and perhaps other matters as well. For example, Algeria is one of the few Sunni majority Arab countries that supports the Syrian Assad government. Algeria is a major customer for Russian weapons and admirer of current Russian politics, as in the creation of a president for life in what is supposed to be a democracy. That was very similar to what Algeria had from the 1960s to 2019. Back (before 1991) when Russia was the Soviet Union the Russians backed Algerian efforts to support and encourage Polisario and thereby weaken neighbor Morocco. That was because Morocco was, and still is, a centuries old monarchy and a more efficient government than the democratic dictatorship in Algeria. Morocco has accused pre-2019 Algerian leaders of being lying hypocrites and in 2018 the UN and many other nearby nations were agreeing with that. This was one of the reasons the FLN lost power in 2019.

Polisario has always caused problems with neighboring Morocco and the problem got worse in 2013. Algeria and Morocco recalled ambassadors and there was talk of escalation. This made cooperation in counter-terrorism efforts (or anything else) with Morocco impossible. Meanwhile Polisario provided Islamic terrorists safe haven in Polisario refugee camps in Algeria (90,000 refugees) and Mauritania (24,000). This is all connected with the declining prospects of Polisario, which has been in bad shape since 1991. Back then, Morocco finally won its war with Polisario Front rebels, who were seeking independence for the Western Sahara (a region south of Morocco).

Polisario remains powerful in Mauritania, where the rebel group has official recognition and maintains several refugee camps. In the beginning (the 1960s) Polisario was so well-subsidized by Algeria, back when Algeria was a radical state, that Polisario still had enough diehards out there to keep lots of people in Western Sahara unhappy. This situation has also provided recruits and sanctuary for al Qaeda and other Islamic radicals. Since the 1990s the UN has been trying to work out a final peace deal between Polisario and Morocco. During the 1990s Algeria said it cut off all support for Polisario. But that, and UN efforts to mediate the differences, have just not worked. The contested area is largely desert with a current population of less than 600,000. Logic would have it that the area is better off as a part of Morocco. But there are still thousands of locals who would rather fight for independence than submit to Morocco.

Some resistance is tribal and cultural, with the Moroccans seen as another bunch of alien invaders. The area was administered until 1976 as a Spanish colony. Most Western Saharans have made peace with Moroccan rule, especially since Morocco has been spending a billion dollars a year on infrastructure and other improvements and doing so for decades. Western Sahara is a much nicer place because of that. Polisario still has several thousand armed men based in the refugee camps and refuses to accept Moroccan rule of Western Sahara. Polisario has become an outlaw organization with no real purpose. If the fighting breaks out again Morocco could defeat Polisario, but Polisario still has a sanctuary in the Algerian refugee camps. There Polisario discourages any talk of peacefully returning to Western Sahara, even though a growing number of the camp residents are quietly doing that. The refugee camps have become police states run by Polisario and tolerated, until now, by Algeria. As more veteran Algerian Islamic terrorists are captured or surrender the information they provide keeps pointing back to Polaisario as a major source of support for AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) and its lucrative smuggling (drugs, people, weapons) from the south into Algeria. Polasario was hoping to avoid a major confrontation with Algerian security forces over this that is becoming more difficult to do.

July 30, 2020: Turkey arrested and agreed to turn over to Algeria Guermit Bounouira, a retired Algerian army officer who had fled Algeria in March, with his family. That rapid exit was to avoid embarrassing questions about what Bounouira while working for his late boss, Ahmed Salah, the military supreme commander who persuaded long-time president Bouteflika to resign in April 2019. Salah died unexpectedly of a heart attack on December 23rd. Salah was thought to be in reasonably good health for a man of 79. He was buried two days later and left the newly elected president with one less potential obstacle to the fundamental political changes most Algerians want.

Salahs successor, Said Chengriha, was appointed by the new president and is seen as loyal to the goals of the new government. Former aides to Salah were a different matter. Bounouira was the private secretary for Salah and lost his job when Salah died. It turned out that Bounouira had quietly collected a large number of secret documents and even items not written down while working for Salah. Bounouira had already used that information to get rich and feard discovery. That is why he fled to Turkey and quickly began the process of becoming a Turkish citizen. Bounouira was in touch with a lot of other exiled Algerian officers and government officials wanted for corruption. The Algerian government was eager to get custody of Bounouira and Turkey was eager to reduce Algerian criticism of the Turkish military operations in Libya. Bounouira was in front of an Algeria court by August 3rd. Suddenly there was less Algerian criticism of what was going on in Libya. That might not last long if it turns out Bounouira provided Turkey with a lot of sensitive information in order to expedite becoming a Turkish citizen. Meanwhile Bounouira is being charged with embezzlement, selling secret documents and confidential information from the Ministry of National Defense as well as consorting with Algerians wanted by the courts but had fled the country. In addition, Bounouira is also suspected of using his position to illegally acquire property in Algeria and abroad. Turkey also has a lot of investments in Algeria and is a major trading partner (about three billion dollars worth a year) and would rather see that increased than reduced because of what is going on in Libya. That happened quickly as Algeria warned that Egyptian plans to arm Libyan tribes with heavy weapons to fight the invading Turks would turn Libya into another Somalia. Libya will never become another Somalia but Libyans are concerned about returning to the status of a province of the Turkish empire.

Algeria has no interest in sending Algerian troops to Libya as peacekeepers or to eject the Turkish invaders. Like all the other North African countries, except Egypt, Algeria wants a peaceful settlement to the fighting in Libya. With the recent (since late 2019) Turkish intervention peace in Libya may be later rather than sooner.
The Ghana Education Service (GES) has withdrawn its decision on some 14 final-year students to ban them from writing the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).



GES sacks 14 final-year students



The Ghana Education Service has been highly criticized for its decision on some 14 final-year students identified in various videos that have gone viral on social media inciting and participating in vandalism on various school campuses after sitting for their first 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).



In a statement announcing the punitive measures, the GES said the sanctions are meant to deter others from such acts of vandalism.



President Nana Addos intervention



President Nana Akufo-Addo has directed the Minister of Education, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh, to engage the Ghana Education Service (GES) to reconsider its decision to ban some 14 dismissed final-year senior high school students.



A statement signed by the Director of Communication at the Presidency, Mr. Eugene Arhin, said: Even though the acts of indiscipline undertaken by these students are intolerable, acts which have led to their subsequent dismissal from school, President Akufo-Addo is of the firm belief that dismissal alone is enough punishment and would serve as enough deterrent against future acts of indiscipline.



GES U-turn



The Director-General, Kwasi Opoku Amankwa in a statement said after a crunch meeting has said that the students will now be allowed entrance to the exams hall to write the rest of their papers.



The under-listed students are permitted to write their WASSCE in their respective schools," the statement noted.





Attached is the full statement . . .

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Both physical gold and gold futures effectively found strong support above $2000 an ounce. Physical gold closed off by approximately $9.40 and is currently bid at $2026. Concurrently gold futures, basis the most active December 2020 contract gained $8.00 and is currently fixed at $2036. In trading overseas yesterday gold opened lower in Australia, however any selloff was short-lived as market participants were able to move gold futures and spot higher buying the initial dip. The December contract of gold futures traded to a low of $2027.80 before recovering and closing higher on the day.

However, silver did not face the strong selling pressure that was evident in gold. Silver futures basis the most active September contract gained 6.21% today, with a net gain of a $1.71. This took the precious white metal above $29 an ounce, closing at $29.25. Silver has almost tripled in price from the lows of mid-March when market forces briefly took pricing below $12 per ounce. Currently silver has been moving up and closing higher for the last consecutive nine weeks.

Both gold and silver have been highly supported by dollar weakness. Both metals have been reacting to the massive quantitative easing initiated by the Federal Reserve along with other central banks. This had the net effect of reducing the value of many core currencies including the U.S. Dollar.

Market participants were also focusing on if a stimulus bill can be agreed upon by members of the house. However, this weekend President Trump signed an executive order.

Now increased tensions between the United States and China have been added to the mix of underlying fundamental support for both precious metals. Today China announced new sanctions in retaliation of similar measures by the United States which imposed actions against Hong Kong.

According to MarketWatch, Chinas move comes as tensions between the U.S. and China, partly centered on Beijings perceived handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and national-security laws being imposed in Hong Kong, have been escalating on a number of fronts, including the decision by the superpowers to force the closures of respective consulates in Houston and the southwestern Chinese city of Chengd.

According to Mark DeCambre, markets editor at MarketWatch, Investors also were watching developments around additional funding from the government to help Americans who have lost jobs due to the deadly pandemic, after Congressional negotiations failed to reach an agreement on aid last week and Trump on Saturday signed executive orders that aim to pause the collection of payroll taxes, provide help on rent, assist with student-loan payments and extend a portion of additional unemployment benefits that had lapsed at the end of last month.

These fundamental events that have been at the root of the massive gains in both gold and silver remain. These factors should continue to be highly supportive of both metals. While gold seems to be consolidating, silver continues to surge forward as it tries to catch-up with the new record highs in gold. That being said silver at $29 is still $21 away from its all-time record high.

For those who would like more information on our services simply use this link.

Wishing you as always good trading and good health,
The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has just held a consultation session with businesses about proper strategies for e-government development in the period from 2021  2025, with a vision to 2030.

A business is introducing its digital traffic map. (Photo: SGGP)

It is identified that this process must be strongly linked to digital transformation and smart city establishment and ensure cyber security as well as national digital sovereignty.

According to Mr. Nguyen Phu Tien, Deputy Director General of the Authority of Information Technology Application (under MIC), to answer the request by the Government in Resolution No.01 (issued on January 1, 2020) about e-government forming, MIC has already finished the draft for e-government development strategies.

The draft states that an e-government must become a pillar in the new socio-economic model in that it will closely connect with both the digital economy and society so as to customize services to the needs of each individual, business.

Therefore, this e-government needs to strongly link to digital transformation and smart city establishment and ensure cyber security as well as national digital sovereignty.

In other words, all activities of state offices must be digitalized; these offices will use suitable digital technologies and database to make sensible decisions on society management, with a clear focus on citizens and businesses; transparency in administrative procedures and citizen participation in state activities must be increased; digital culture and habits should be formed; a harmony between united and divided models must exist; and the architecture frame of the Vietnamese e-government must be strictly observed.

Certain major goals of this strategy until 2025 include 100 percent of online public services having the 1-time identification feature and online payment; an administrative procedure being done completely online, except those which legally require real presence of subjects; 100 percent of national databases (land use, population, business registration, finance, insurance) becoming the foundation for e-government development via there common sharing nationwide; 80 percent of state offices providing open data to offer timely public services to the public; 50 percent of examination activities by state units being done in the digital environment.

The draft also mentions the development of an e-government has a mutual effect on the growth of domestic digital technology enterprises. These companies should master open platforms to serve the new e-government via administrative service provision.

Representatives of Viettel Solutions, VNPT-IT, VietnamPost, FPT IS, CMC, Vietnam Association for Information Processing, Vietnam Digital Communications Association, Vietnam Free Open Source Software Association (VFOSSA), and related IT associations agreed that it is necessary to build a suitable e-government development strategy that corresponds to the global tendency and connects with smart city establishment, digital transformation process.

Chairman of VFOSSA Nguyen Hong Quang praised the draft for its detailed direction on forming an e-government towards a digital version later, a great contribution to improving management tasks of the Government in Industry 4.0.

Secretary General of Vietnam Association for Information Processing confirmed the importance of this strategy draft, saying that it has clearly displayed the active role of digital technology enterprises in e-government development via breakthrough details like assigning them to the tasks that were formerly done solely by state offices.

He hoped that this draft will soon be perfected for implementation so that Vietnam can change from a traditional environment of applying IT to a digital one in order to form a digital nation in the near future. SGGP

Tran Luu  Thanh Tam

Vietnams e-government initiatives showing worth Vietnams efforts to develop a pro-business e-government have earned applause from the international community, especially amid a surge in the pandemic hurting economic growth.
Netchex updates mobile app to enhance the employee experience

This week, Netchexa payroll and HR technology companyreleased an update to their mobile app designed to improve the employee experience. Developed with todays on-the-go and ever-shifting workforce in mind, the updated app simplifies, yet enhances the employee experience by making everyday payroll, time and attendance, benefits, and other HR-related functions easier to access anytime and anywhere.

Netchex clients and their employees can harness the power of the Netchex system from their phone or mobile device, which allows them to clock in and out, check their schedule, request time off, view paystubs, review benefits summary, and complete HR tasks, as well as access company news, files, directory, links, and more.

Employers are always looking for ways to improve the employee experience and increase engagement. And because todays workforce isnt necessarily sitting at a desk from 9 to 5 anymore, it makes it that much more difficult, explained Netchex CEO, Will Boudreaux. By making the full Netchex system available to employees on their mobile devices, employers can ensure that they have the access and means to manage their employee experience daily.

Some of the employee-focused features included in this update include:



New mobile employee Dashboard with simple navigation to all employee pages

Easier-to-use punch in/out timeclock

Improved timecard view that makes editing and approving timecards easier

Instant access to payment history, including a visual breakdown of your paycheck

Biometric sign-in with fingerprint or facial recognition

The Netchex employee experience mobile app is available for download now in the Apple App and Google Play stores.

The app update is just the latest effort from Netchex towards bettering the client experience and improving employee engagementsomething businesses always struggle with, especially now, during the ongoing pandemic. Last month, Netchex released a new feature called Helping Hands, which facilitates company-wide charitable campaigns and enables employees to make donations via automatic payroll deductions.

About Netchex:

Founded in 2003, Netchex has become one of the industrys fastest-growing payroll and HR service providers. Netchexs single-source solution is a cloud-based, end-to-end platform for managing the employee lifecycle from hire to retire. With powerful, yet easy-to-use technology and award-winning customer support, Netchex currently services over 4,000 clients. Headquartered in Covington, LA, Netchex has offices in Atlanta and Dallas with representatives nationwide. Please visit https://netchex.com for more information.
Less than 36 hours before the Boston Bruins were set to open the 2020 playoffs against the Carolina Hurricanes, they were missing their Rocket Richard Trophy winning forward and their Vezina Trophy finalist goalie.

David Pastrnak and Tuukka Rask both werent on the ice for Bruins practice Monday as Boston wasnt able to leave its roster upheaval behind them in the round robin seeding games.

They are unfit to participate. I expect theyll be on the ice tomorrow, Bruce Cassidy said.

His team will face the Hurricanes, Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Game 1 of their first round best-of-seven playoff series.

Rask missed the first round-robin game after a cough triggered some added coronavirus caution inside the bubble. Pastrnak missed much of return to play camp as he was forced to spend additional time in quarantine upon return from the Czech Republic.

If Rask cant go, Jaroslav Halak would start in goal. He shut out the Hurricanes in December in the Bruins only meeting with Carolina this season.

Well see how it goes. ... Hes starting tomorrow night. Hes looked sharp the last two games, Cassidy said. Hes tracking pucks well. Hes seeing the puck. I like where his game is at right now. ... We plan on using him tomorrow night. I believe hell be ready to go and play well.

Karson Kuhlman filled in for Pastrnak alongside Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. The other three lines remained intact from Sundays loss to Washington.

Cassidy praised defenseman Connor Cliftons effort against the Capitals, but if his practice lineup is an indication, hes going back to the same three pairs that he used against Philadelphia and Tampa Bay.

Matt Grzelcyk, who was always expected to return, was back with Jeremy Lauzon on the No. 3 pair.

No. 4 Boston Bruins vs. No. 6 Carolina Hurricanes Schedule

Tuesday - Game 1: Boston vs. Carolina at 8 p.m. (NESN, NBCSN, 98.5 FM)

Thursday- Game 2: Boston vs. Carolina at 8 p.m.(NESN, NBCSN, 98.5 FM)

Saturday - Game 3: Boston vs. Carolina at noon (NBC, 98.5 FM)

Monday Aug. 17 - Game 4: Boston vs. Carolina at 8 p.m. (NESN, NBCSN, 98.5 FM)

Wednesday Aug. 19 - Game 5: Boston vs. Carolina at TBA

Thursday Aug. 20 - Game 6: Boston vs. Carolina at TBA

Sunday. Aug. 23 -Game 7: Boston vs. Carolina at TBA

All games are at Scotiabank Arena with no fans.

#NHLBruins practice lines:



Marchand  Bergeron  Kuhlman

DeBrusk  Krejci  Kase

Ritchie  Coyle  Bjork

Nordstrom  Kuraly  Wagner

Lindholm



Chara  McAvoy

Krug  Carlo

Grzelcyk  Lauzon

Moore  Clifton



Halak

Vladar



Absent: Rask, Pastrnak. pic.twitter.com/oXKWOPIkXI  Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) August 10, 2020

Related content:

Boston Bruins, Carolina Hurricanes first round playoff series schedule set, Game 1 is Tuesday

Boston Bruins will be No. 4 seed, will play Carolina Hurricanes in first round of playoffs, after losing to Capitals
Why Software Should Be Free

The existence of software inevitably raises the question of how decisions about its use should be made. For example, suppose one individual who has a copy of a program meets another who would like a copy. It is possible for them to copy the program; who should decide whether this is done? The individuals involved? Or another party, called the owner?

Software developers typically consider these questions on the assumption that the criterion for the answer is to maximize developers' profits. The political power of business has led to the government adoption of both this criterion and the answer proposed by the developers: that the program has an owner, typically a corporation associated with its development.

I would like to consider the same question using a different criterion: the prosperity and freedom of the public in general.

This answer cannot be decided by current lawthe law should conform to ethics, not the other way around. Nor does current practice decide this question, although it may suggest possible answers. The only way to judge is to see who is helped and who is hurt by recognizing owners of software, why, and how much. In other words, we should perform a cost-benefit analysis on behalf of society as a whole, taking account of individual freedom as well as production of material goods.

In this essay, I will describe the effects of having owners, and show that the results are detrimental. My conclusion is that programmers have the duty to encourage others to share, redistribute, study, and improve the software we write: in other words, to write free software.(1)

How Owners Justify Their Power

Those who benefit from the current system where programs are property offer two arguments in support of their claims to own programs: the emotional argument and the economic argument.

The emotional argument goes like this: I put my sweat, my heart, my soul into this program. It comes from me, it's mine!

This argument does not require serious refutation. The feeling of attachment is one that programmers can cultivate when it suits them; it is not inevitable. Consider, for example, how willingly the same programmers usually sign over all rights to a large corporation for a salary; the emotional attachment mysteriously vanishes. By contrast, consider the great artists and artisans of medieval times, who didn't even sign their names to their work. To them, the name of the artist was not important. What mattered was that the work was doneand the purpose it would serve. This view prevailed for hundreds of years.

The economic argument goes like this: I want to get rich (usually described inaccurately as making a living), and if you don't allow me to get rich by programming, then I won't program. Everyone else is like me, so nobody will ever program. And then you'll be stuck with no programs at all! This threat is usually veiled as friendly advice from the wise.

I'll explain later why this threat is a bluff. First I want to address an implicit assumption that is more visible in another formulation of the argument.

This formulation starts by comparing the social utility of a proprietary program with that of no program, and then concludes that proprietary software development is, on the whole, beneficial, and should be encouraged. The fallacy here is in comparing only two outcomesproprietary software versus no softwareand assuming there are no other possibilities.

Given a system of software copyright, software development is usually linked with the existence of an owner who controls the software's use. As long as this linkage exists, we are often faced with the choice of proprietary software or none. However, this linkage is not inherent or inevitable; it is a consequence of the specific social/legal policy decision that we are questioning: the decision to have owners. To formulate the choice as between proprietary software versus no software is begging the question.

The Argument against Having Owners

The question at hand is, Should development of software be linked with having owners to restrict the use of it?

In order to decide this, we have to judge the effect on society of each of those two activities independently: the effect of developing the software (regardless of its terms of distribution), and the effect of restricting its use (assuming the software has been developed). If one of these activities is helpful and the other is harmful, we would be better off dropping the linkage and doing only the helpful one.

To put it another way, if restricting the distribution of a program already developed is harmful to society overall, then an ethical software developer will reject the option of doing so.

To determine the effect of restricting sharing, we need to compare the value to society of a restricted (i.e., proprietary) program with that of the same program, available to everyone. This means comparing two possible worlds.

This analysis also addresses the simple counterargument sometimes made that the benefit to the neighbor of giving him or her a copy of a program is cancelled by the harm done to the owner. This counterargument assumes that the harm and the benefit are equal in magnitude. The analysis involves comparing these magnitudes, and shows that the benefit is much greater.

To elucidate this argument, let's apply it in another area: road construction.

It would be possible to fund the construction of all roads with tolls. This would entail having toll booths at all street corners. Such a system would provide a great incentive to improve roads. It would also have the virtue of causing the users of any given road to pay for that road. However, a toll booth is an artificial obstruction to smooth drivingartificial, because it is not a consequence of how roads or cars work.

Comparing free roads and toll roads by their usefulness, we find that (all else being equal) roads without toll booths are cheaper to construct, cheaper to run, safer, and more efficient to use.(2) In a poor country, tolls may make the roads unavailable to many citizens. The roads without toll booths thus offer more benefit to society at less cost; they are preferable for society. Therefore, society should choose to fund roads in another way, not by means of toll booths. Use of roads, once built, should be free.

When the advocates of toll booths propose them as merely a way of raising funds, they distort the choice that is available. Toll booths do raise funds, but they do something else as well: in effect, they degrade the road. The toll road is not as good as the free road; giving us more or technically superior roads may not be an improvement if this means substituting toll roads for free roads.

Of course, the construction of a free road does cost money, which the public must somehow pay. However, this does not imply the inevitability of toll booths. We who must in either case pay will get more value for our money by buying a free road.

I am not saying that a toll road is worse than no road at all. That would be true if the toll were so great that hardly anyone used the roadbut this is an unlikely policy for a toll collector. However, as long as the toll booths cause significant waste and inconvenience, it is better to raise the funds in a less obstructive fashion.

To apply the same argument to software development, I will now show that having toll booths for useful software programs costs society dearly: it makes the programs more expensive to construct, more expensive to distribute, and less satisfying and efficient to use. It will follow that program construction should be encouraged in some other way. Then I will go on to explain other methods of encouraging and (to the extent actually necessary) funding software development.

The Harm Done by Obstructing Software

Consider for a moment that a program has been developed, and any necessary payments for its development have been made; now society must choose either to make it proprietary or allow free sharing and use. Assume that the existence of the program and its availability is a desirable thing.(3)

Restrictions on the distribution and modification of the program cannot facilitate its use. They can only interfere. So the effect can only be negative. But how much? And what kind?

Three different levels of material harm come from such obstruction:

Fewer people use the program.

None of the users can adapt or fix the program.

Other developers cannot learn from the program, or base new work on it.

Each level of material harm has a concomitant form of psychosocial harm. This refers to the effect that people's decisions have on their subsequent feelings, attitudes, and predispositions. These changes in people's ways of thinking will then have a further effect on their relationships with their fellow citizens, and can have material consequences.

The three levels of material harm waste part of the value that the program could contribute, but they cannot reduce it to zero. If they waste nearly all the value of the program, then writing the program harms society by at most the effort that went into writing the program. Arguably a program that is profitable to sell must provide some net direct material benefit.

However, taking account of the concomitant psychosocial harm, there is no limit to the harm that proprietary software development can do.

Obstructing Use of Programs

The first level of harm impedes the simple use of a program. A copy of a program has nearly zero marginal cost (and you can pay this cost by doing the work yourself), so in a free market, it would have nearly zero price. A license fee is a significant disincentive to use the program. If a widely useful program is proprietary, far fewer people will use it.

It is easy to show that the total contribution of a program to society is reduced by assigning an owner to it. Each potential user of the program, faced with the need to pay to use it, may choose to pay, or may forego use of the program. When a user chooses to pay, this is a zero-sum transfer of wealth between two parties. But each time someone chooses to forego use of the program, this harms that person without benefiting anyone. The sum of negative numbers and zeros must be negative.

But this does not reduce the amount of work it takes to develop the program. As a result, the efficiency of the whole process, in delivered user satisfaction per hour of work, is reduced.

This reflects a crucial difference between copies of programs and cars, chairs, or sandwiches. There is no copying machine for material objects outside of science fiction. But programs are easy to copy; anyone can produce as many copies as are wanted, with very little effort. This isn't true for material objects because matter is conserved: each new copy has to be built from raw materials in the same way that the first copy was built.

With material objects, a disincentive to use them makes sense, because fewer objects bought means less raw material and work needed to make them. It's true that there is usually also a startup cost, a development cost, which is spread over the production run. But as long as the marginal cost of production is significant, adding a share of the development cost does not make a qualitative difference. And it does not require restrictions on the freedom of ordinary users.

However, imposing a price on something that would otherwise be free is a qualitative change. A centrally imposed fee for software distribution becomes a powerful disincentive.

What's more, central production as now practiced is inefficient even as a means of delivering copies of software. This system involves enclosing physical disks or tapes in superfluous packaging, shipping large numbers of them around the world, and storing them for sale. This cost is presented as an expense of doing business; in truth, it is part of the waste caused by having owners.

Damaging Social Cohesion

Suppose that both you and your neighbor would find it useful to run a certain program. In ethical concern for your neighbor, you should feel that proper handling of the situation will enable both of you to use it. A proposal to permit only one of you to use the program, while restraining the other, is divisive; neither you nor your neighbor should find it acceptable.

Signing a typical software license agreement means betraying your neighbor: I promise to deprive my neighbor of this program so that I can have a copy for myself. People who make such choices feel internal psychological pressure to justify them, by downgrading the importance of helping one's neighborsthus public spirit suffers. This is psychosocial harm associated with the material harm of discouraging use of the program.

Many users unconsciously recognize the wrong of refusing to share, so they decide to ignore the licenses and laws, and share programs anyway. But they often feel guilty about doing so. They know that they must break the laws in order to be good neighbors, but they still consider the laws authoritative, and they conclude that being a good neighbor (which they are) is naughty or shameful. That is also a kind of psychosocial harm, but one can escape it by deciding that these licenses and laws have no moral force.

Programmers also suffer psychosocial harm knowing that many users will not be allowed to use their work. This leads to an attitude of cynicism or denial. A programmer may describe enthusiastically the work that he finds technically exciting; then when asked, Will I be permitted to use it? his face falls, and he admits the answer is no. To avoid feeling discouraged, he either ignores this fact most of the time or adopts a cynical stance designed to minimize the importance of it.

Since the age of Reagan, the greatest scarcity in the United States is not technical innovation, but rather the willingness to work together for the public good. It makes no sense to encourage the former at the expense of the latter.

Obstructing Custom Adaptation of Programs

The second level of material harm is the inability to adapt programs. The ease of modification of software is one of its great advantages over older technology. But most commercially available software isn't available for modification, even after you buy it. It's available for you to take it or leave it, as a black boxthat is all.

A program that you can run consists of a series of numbers whose meaning is obscure. No one, not even a good programmer, can easily change the numbers to make the program do something different.

Programmers normally work with the source code for a program, which is written in a programming language such as Fortran or C. It uses names to designate the data being used and the parts of the program, and it represents operations with symbols such as + for addition and - for subtraction. It is designed to help programmers read and change programs. Here is an example; a program to calculate the distance between two points in a plane:

float distance (p0, p1) struct point p0, p1; { float xdist = p1.x - p0.x; float ydist = p1.y - p0.y; return sqrt (xdist * xdist + ydist * ydist); }

Precisely what that source code means is not the point; the point is that it looks like algebra, and a person who knows this programming language will find it meaningful and clear. By contrast, here is same program in executable form, on the computer I normally used when I wrote this:

1314258944 -232267772 -231844864 1634862 1411907592 -231844736 2159150 1420296208 -234880989 -234879837 -234879966 -232295424 1644167167 -3214848 1090581031 1962942495 572518958 -803143692 1314803317

Source code is useful (at least potentially) to every user of a program. But most users are not allowed to have copies of the source code. Usually the source code for a proprietary program is kept secret by the owner, lest anybody else learn something from it. Users receive only the files of incomprehensible numbers that the computer will execute. This means that only the program's owner can change the program.

A friend once told me of working as a programmer in a bank for about six months, writing a program similar to something that was commercially available. She believed that if she could have gotten source code for that commercially available program, it could easily have been adapted to their needs. The bank was willing to pay for this, but was not permitted tothe source code was a secret. So she had to do six months of make-work, work that counts in the GNP but was actually waste.

The MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab (AI Lab) received a graphics printer as a gift from Xerox around 1977. It was run by free software to which we added many convenient features. For example, the software would notify a user immediately on completion of a print job. Whenever the printer had trouble, such as a paper jam or running out of paper, the software would immediately notify all users who had print jobs queued. These features facilitated smooth operation.

Later Xerox gave the AI Lab a newer, faster printer, one of the first laser printers. It was driven by proprietary software that ran in a separate dedicated computer, so we couldn't add any of our favorite features. We could arrange to send a notification when a print job was sent to the dedicated computer, but not when the job was actually printed (and the delay was usually considerable). There was no way to find out when the job was actually printed; you could only guess. And no one was informed when there was a paper jam, so the printer often went for an hour without being fixed.

The system programmers at the AI Lab were capable of fixing such problems, probably as capable as the original authors of the program. Xerox was uninterested in fixing them, and chose to prevent us, so we were forced to accept the problems. They were never fixed.

Most good programmers have experienced this frustration. The bank could afford to solve the problem by writing a new program from scratch, but a typical user, no matter how skilled, can only give up.

Giving up causes psychosocial harmto the spirit of self-reliance. It is demoralizing to live in a house that you cannot rearrange to suit your needs. It leads to resignation and discouragement, which can spread to affect other aspects of one's life. People who feel this way are unhappy and do not do good work.

Imagine what it would be like if recipes were hoarded in the same fashion as software. You might say, How do I change this recipe to take out the salt? and the great chef would respond, How dare you insult my recipe, the child of my brain and my palate, by trying to tamper with it? You don't have the judgment to change my recipe and make it work right!

But my doctor says I'm not supposed to eat salt! What can I do? Will you take out the salt for me?

I would be glad to do that; my fee is only $50,000. Since the owner has a monopoly on changes, the fee tends to be large. However, right now I don't have time. I am busy with a commission to design a new recipe for ship's biscuit for the Navy Department. I might get around to you in about two years.

Obstructing Software Development

The third level of material harm affects software development. Software development used to be an evolutionary process, where a person would take an existing program and rewrite parts of it for one new feature, and then another person would rewrite parts to add another feature; in some cases, this continued over a period of twenty years. Meanwhile, parts of the program would be cannibalized to form the beginnings of other programs.

The existence of owners prevents this kind of evolution, making it necessary to start from scratch when developing a program. It also prevents new practitioners from studying existing programs to learn useful techniques or even how large programs can be structured.

Owners also obstruct education. I have met bright students in computer science who have never seen the source code of a large program. They may be good at writing small programs, but they can't begin to learn the different skills of writing large ones if they can't see how others have done it.

In any intellectual field, one can reach greater heights by standing on the shoulders of others. But that is no longer generally allowed in the software fieldyou can only stand on the shoulders of the other people in your own company.

The associated psychosocial harm affects the spirit of scientific cooperation, which used to be so strong that scientists would cooperate even when their countries were at war. In this spirit, Japanese oceanographers abandoning their lab on an island in the Pacific carefully preserved their work for the invading U.S. Marines, and left a note asking them to take good care of it.

Conflict for profit has destroyed what international conflict spared. Nowadays scientists in many fields don't publish enough in their papers to enable others to replicate the experiment. They publish only enough to let readers marvel at how much they were able to do. This is certainly true in computer science, where the source code for the programs reported on is usually secret.

It Does Not Matter How Sharing Is Restricted

I have been discussing the effects of preventing people from copying, changing, and building on a program. I have not specified how this obstruction is carried out, because that doesn't affect the conclusion. Whether it is done by copy protection, or copyright, or licenses, or encryption, or ROM cards, or hardware serial numbers, if it succeeds in preventing use, it does harm.

Users do consider some of these methods more obnoxious than others. I suggest that the methods most hated are those that accomplish their objective.

Software Should be Free

I have shown how ownership of a programthe power to restrict changing or copying itis obstructive. Its negative effects are widespread and important. It follows that society shouldn't have owners for programs.

Another way to understand this is that what society needs is free software, and proprietary software is a poor substitute. Encouraging the substitute is not a rational way to get what we need.

Vaclav Havel has advised us to Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. A business making proprietary software stands a chance of success in its own narrow terms, but it is not what is good for society.

Why People Will Develop Software

If we eliminate copyright as a means of encouraging people to develop software, at first less software will be developed, but that software will be more useful. It is not clear whether the overall delivered user satisfaction will be less; but if it is, or if we wish to increase it anyway, there are other ways to encourage development, just as there are ways besides toll booths to raise money for streets. Before I talk about how that can be done, first I want to question how much artificial encouragement is truly necessary.

Programming is Fun

There are some lines of work that few will enter except for money; road construction, for example. There are other fields of study and art in which there is little chance to become rich, which people enter for their fascination or their perceived value to society. Examples include mathematical logic, classical music, and archaeology; and political organizing among working people. People compete, more sadly than bitterly, for the few funded positions available, none of which is funded very well. They may even pay for the chance to work in the field, if they can afford to.

Such a field can transform itself overnight if it begins to offer the possibility of getting rich. When one worker gets rich, others demand the same opportunity. Soon all may demand large sums of money for doing what they used to do for pleasure. When another couple of years go by, everyone connected with the field will deride the idea that work would be done in the field without large financial returns. They will advise social planners to ensure that these returns are possible, prescribing special privileges, powers, and monopolies as necessary to do so.

This change happened in the field of computer programming in the 1980s. In the 1970s, there were articles on computer addiction: users were onlining and had hundred-dollar-a-week habits. It was generally understood that people frequently loved programming enough to break up their marriages. Today, it is generally understood that no one would program except for a high rate of pay. People have forgotten what they knew back then.

When it is true at a given time that most people will work in a certain field only for high pay, it need not remain true. The dynamic of change can run in reverse, if society provides an impetus. If we take away the possibility of great wealth, then after a while, when the people have readjusted their attitudes, they will once again be eager to work in the field for the joy of accomplishment.

The question How can we pay programmers? becomes an easier question when we realize that it's not a matter of paying them a fortune. A mere living is easier to raise.

Funding Free Software

Institutions that pay programmers do not have to be software houses. Many other institutions already exist that can do this.

Hardware manufacturers find it essential to support software development even if they cannot control the use of the software. In 1970, much of their software was free because they did not consider restricting it. Today, their increasing willingness to join consortiums shows their realization that owning the software is not what is really important for them.

Universities conduct many programming projects. Today they often sell the results, but in the 1970s they did not. Is there any doubt that universities would develop free software if they were not allowed to sell software? These projects could be supported by the same government contracts and grants that now support proprietary software development.

It is common today for university researchers to get grants to develop a system, develop it nearly to the point of completion and call that finished, and then start companies where they really finish the project and make it usable. Sometimes they declare the unfinished version free; if they are thoroughly corrupt, they instead get an exclusive license from the university. This is not a secret; it is openly admitted by everyone concerned. Yet if the researchers were not exposed to the temptation to do these things, they would still do their research.

Programmers writing free software can make their living by selling services related to the software. I have been hired to port the GNU C compiler to new hardware, and to make user-interface extensions to GNU Emacs. (I offer these improvements to the public once they are done.) I also teach classes for which I am paid.

I am not alone in working this way; there is now a successful, growing corporation which does no other kind of work. Several other companies also provide commercial support for the free software of the GNU system. This is the beginning of the independent software support industryan industry that could become quite large if free software becomes prevalent. It provides users with an option generally unavailable for proprietary software, except to the very wealthy.

New institutions such as the Free Software Foundation can also fund programmers. Most of the Foundation's funds come from users buying tapes through the mail. The software on the tapes is free, which means that every user has the freedom to copy it and change it, but many nonetheless pay to get copies. (Recall that free software refers to freedom, not to price.) Some users who already have a copy order tapes as a way of making a contribution they feel we deserve. The Foundation also receives sizable donations from computer manufacturers.

The Free Software Foundation is a charity, and its income is spent on hiring as many programmers as possible. If it had been set up as a business, distributing the same free software to the public for the same fee, it would now provide a very good living for its founder.

Because the Foundation is a charity, programmers often work for the Foundation for half of what they could make elsewhere. They do this because we are free of bureaucracy, and because they feel satisfaction in knowing that their work will not be obstructed from use. Most of all, they do it because programming is fun. In addition, volunteers have written many useful programs for us. (Even technical writers have begun to volunteer.)

This confirms that programming is among the most fascinating of all fields, along with music and art. We don't have to fear that no one will want to program.

What Do Users Owe to Developers?

There is a good reason for users of software to feel a moral obligation to contribute to its support. Developers of free software are contributing to the users' activities, and it is both fair and in the long-term interest of the users to give them funds to continue.

However, this does not apply to proprietary software developers, since obstructionism deserves a punishment rather than a reward.

We thus have a paradox: the developer of useful software is entitled to the support of the users, but any attempt to turn this moral obligation into a requirement destroys the basis for the obligation. A developer can either deserve a reward or demand it, but not both.

I believe that an ethical developer faced with this paradox must act so as to deserve the reward, but should also entreat the users for voluntary donations. Eventually the users will learn to support developers without coercion, just as they have learned to support public radio and television stations.

What Is Software Productivity?

If software were free, there would still be programmers, but perhaps fewer of them. Would this be bad for society?

Not necessarily. Today the advanced nations have fewer farmers than in 1900, but we do not think this is bad for society, because the few deliver more food to the consumers than the many used to do. We call this improved productivity. Free software would require far fewer programmers to satisfy the demand, because of increased software productivity at all levels:

Wider use of each program that is developed.

The ability to adapt existing programs for customization instead of starting from scratch.

Better education of programmers.

The elimination of duplicate development effort.

Those who object to cooperation claiming it would result in the employment of fewer programmers are actually objecting to increased productivity. Yet these people usually accept the widely held belief that the software industry needs increased productivity. How is this?

Software productivity can mean two different things: the overall productivity of all software development, or the productivity of individual projects. Overall productivity is what society would like to improve, and the most straightforward way to do this is to eliminate the artificial obstacles to cooperation which reduce it. But researchers who study the field of software productivity focus only on the second, limited, sense of the term, where improvement requires difficult technological advances.

Is Competition Inevitable?

Is it inevitable that people will try to compete, to surpass their rivals in society? Perhaps it is. But competition itself is not harmful; the harmful thing is combat.

There are many ways to compete. Competition can consist of trying to achieve ever more, to outdo what others have done. For example, in the old days, there was competition among programming wizardscompetition for who could make the computer do the most amazing thing, or for who could make the shortest or fastest program for a given task. This kind of competition can benefit everyone, as long as the spirit of good sportsmanship is maintained.

Constructive competition is enough competition to motivate people to great efforts. A number of people are competing to be the first to have visited all the countries on Earth; some even spend fortunes trying to do this. But they do not bribe ship captains to strand their rivals on desert islands. They are content to let the best person win.

Competition becomes combat when the competitors begin trying to impede each other instead of advancing themselveswhen Let the best person win gives way to Let me win, best or not. Proprietary software is harmful, not because it is a form of competition, but because it is a form of combat among the citizens of our society.

Competition in business is not necessarily combat. For example, when two grocery stores compete, their entire effort is to improve their own operations, not to sabotage the rival. But this does not demonstrate a special commitment to business ethics; rather, there is little scope for combat in this line of business short of physical violence. Not all areas of business share this characteristic. Withholding information that could help everyone advance is a form of combat.

Business ideology does not prepare people to resist the temptation to combat the competition. Some forms of combat have been banned with antitrust laws, truth in advertising laws, and so on, but rather than generalizing this to a principled rejection of combat in general, executives invent other forms of combat which are not specifically prohibited. Society's resources are squandered on the economic equivalent of factional civil war.

Why Don't You Move to Russia?

In the United States, any advocate of other than the most extreme form of laissez-faire selfishness has often heard this accusation. For example, it is leveled against the supporters of a national health care system, such as is found in all the other industrialized nations of the free world. It is leveled against the advocates of public support for the arts, also universal in advanced nations. The idea that citizens have any obligation to the public good is identified in America with Communism. But how similar are these ideas?

Communism as was practiced in the Soviet Union was a system of central control where all activity was regimented, supposedly for the common good, but actually for the sake of the members of the Communist party. And where copying equipment was closely guarded to prevent illegal copying.

The American system of software copyright exercises central control over distribution of a program, and guards copying equipment with automatic copying-protection schemes to prevent illegal copying.

By contrast, I am working to build a system where people are free to decide their own actions; in particular, free to help their neighbors, and free to alter and improve the tools which they use in their daily lives. A system based on voluntary cooperation and on decentralization.

Thus, if we are to judge views by their resemblance to Russian Communism, it is the software owners who are the Communists.

The Question of Premises

I make the assumption in this paper that a user of software is no less important than an author, or even an author's employer. In other words, their interests and needs have equal weight, when we decide which course of action is best.

This premise is not universally accepted. Many maintain that an author's employer is fundamentally more important than anyone else. They say, for example, that the purpose of having owners of software is to give the author's employer the advantage he deservesregardless of how this may affect the public.

It is no use trying to prove or disprove these premises. Proof requires shared premises. So most of what I have to say is addressed only to those who share the premises I use, or at least are interested in what their consequences are. For those who believe that the owners are more important than everyone else, this paper is simply irrelevant.

But why would a large number of Americans accept a premise that elevates certain people in importance above everyone else? Partly because of the belief that this premise is part of the legal traditions of American society. Some people feel that doubting the premise means challenging the basis of society.

It is important for these people to know that this premise is not part of our legal tradition. It never has been.

Thus, the Constitution says that the purpose of copyright is to promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts. The Supreme Court has elaborated on this, stating in Fox Film v. Doyal that The sole interest of the United States and the primary object in conferring the [copyright] monopoly lie in the general benefits derived by the public from the labors of authors.

We are not required to agree with the Constitution or the Supreme Court. (At one time, they both condoned slavery.) So their positions do not disprove the owner supremacy premise. But I hope that the awareness that this is a radical right-wing assumption rather than a traditionally recognized one will weaken its appeal.

Conclusion

We like to think that our society encourages helping your neighbor; but each time we reward someone for obstructionism, or admire them for the wealth they have gained in this way, we are sending the opposite message.

Software hoarding is one form of our general willingness to disregard the welfare of society for personal gain. We can trace this disregard from Ronald Reagan to Dick Cheney, from Exxon to Enron, from failing banks to failing schools. We can measure it with the size of the homeless population and the prison population. The antisocial spirit feeds on itself, because the more we see that other people will not help us, the more it seems futile to help them. Thus society decays into a jungle.

If we don't want to live in a jungle, we must change our attitudes. We must start sending the message that a good citizen is one who cooperates when appropriate, not one who is successful at taking from others. I hope that the free software movement will contribute to this: at least in one area, we will replace the jungle with a more efficient system which encourages and runs on voluntary cooperation.

The word free in free software refers to freedom, not to price; the price paid for a copy of a free program may be zero, or small, or (rarely) quite large. The issues of pollution and traffic congestion do not alter this conclusion. If we wish to make driving more expensive to discourage driving in general, it is disadvantageous to do this using toll booths, which contribute to both pollution and congestion. A tax on gasoline is much better. Likewise, a desire to enhance safety by limiting maximum speed is not relevant; a free-access road enhances the average speed by avoiding stops and delays, for any given speed limit. One might regard a particular computer program as a harmful thing that should not be available at all, like the Lotus Marketplace database of personal information, which was withdrawn from sale due to public disapproval. Most of what I say does not apply to this case, but it makes little sense to argue for having an owner on the grounds that the owner will make the program less available. The owner will not make it completely unavailable, as one would wish in the case of a program whose use is considered destructive.
The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine has to improve analytics, enhance strategic and operational work, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said during the presentation of new Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense Kyrylo Budanov.

"It is necessary to enhance the strategic and operational components, improve analytics and the quality of the information collected," the presidential press service said on Monday, citing Zelensky.

The president also noted the importance of developing a new National Intelligence Program for 2021-2025.

"Key things must be enshrined in it: providing units with modern weapons and equipment, switch to NATO standards in collecting, processing and providing intelligence information, introducing modern approaches to personnel training," he said.

Zelensky also drew attention to the importance of reviving the fighting spirit of the Ukrainian military intelligence, and wished the military intelligence officers strength, wisdom, endurance "and always be one step ahead of our enemies."

Kyrylo Budanov said that Ukraine faces such challenges as the growing influence of hybrid wars, global spread of false stories and the presence of an enemy on our land.

"Today, the military intelligence of Ukraine faces the following tasks: an increase in the influence of intelligence in the field of international relations, the return of the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and bringing to justice the persons who brought the war to our homeland," the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense said.

Budanov sets himself the task of raising the professional level of employees, introducing new technologies, enhancing analytics to predict risks and take special actions.
Examination Results to be Issued Electronically

This year schools will be issuing students A Level and GCSE results via email. A Level results are due to be released on Thursday 13th August at 9am and GCSE results will be released on 20th August at 9am.

Next Thursday all students will receive their A Level results simultaneously. Bayside, Westside and the College will be posting on their online platforms instructions and guidelines for students on how to proceed. Information will also be available on the Department of Educations website www.education.gov.gi

Students who are awaiting results are urged to refer to their schools online platform for further guidance and information. Students will be asked to make sure that their school has a current functioning email address to which their exam results should be sent. Those students who have not provided an email address will be asked to do so via the schools online platforms or will be phoned by the school requesting an address for the results. It is important that students ensure that schools have their current email address to which exam results should be sent.

Schools will be providing a post-exams service as they always do. This will include post-results advice, enquiries about University applications or queries regarding the appeals process and the autumn exam series. Senior staff will be available at each school dealing with online students enquiries. There will be a triage system and students will be contacted by school staff in order to address any queries that are brought to the schools attention. Where necessary, students will be allocated appointments at specific times in order to access any support, advice or assistance which they may need. Students will be given detailed information of their schools processes via internal communication on each schools online platform.

The electronic release of results to all students at the same time will ensure that those students who have not met their entry requirements for University will now be able to start their online clearing applications straight away.

These examination results mark the culmination of two years of studying and it is indeed a celebratory occasion. However, Govt are appealing to students to act in a mature and responsible way when celebrating their results and to follow Public Health guidelines at all times.
Android 11 is a hot topic right now for all Android smartphone users. In a recent development, as per 9to5Google, Google is now sending out user surveys regarding Android 11 Beta 3 before the final stable rollout.

Google is putting the final touches on the almost-baked Android 11 OS. It delivered the Android 11 Beta 3 update last Thursday for all the Pixel devices, including Pixel 2, 3, 3a, and 4.

However, Google does not want to rush things before the final product comes out the next month. The Android 11 Beta 3 update brought tons of new additions like the Android 11 Easter Egg, new Media settings, new emojis, redesigned Power menu, forced 90Hz for Pixel 4, and much more.

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And now the company wants user feedback on the Android 11 Beta 3. Via this survey, users can point out the bugs and glitches which they want Google to fix in the Android 11 OS in its stable version.

This Google user feedback survey regarding Android 11 Beta 3 includes 10 metrics to rank the current OS

Google has collected user feedbacks via surveys throughout the Android 11 beta program. Besides, it wants the final say from the users before the company gets all set to release the Android 11 OS, the next month.

The survey starts off by thanking the users for their active participation in the feedbacks throughout the beta program. After which the users have to confirm their device and build number.

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Once that is done, the next page reveals the 10 features on which users have to rate their satisfaction. These 10 features/metrics include stability, performance, battery, camera, call quality, WiFi connectivity, and more.

After punching your satisfaction levels to each of the features, there is a question that asks whether you would recommend Android 11 Beta 3 to your friends or family in the current state.

This next question is how this beta build compares to the previous Android 11 beta build. There are 4 options to choose from i.e. Better, Same, Worse and I didnt try the previous beta build.

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The final two questions are related to the top issues faced while using Android 11 Beta 3 and whether you would like to provide additional feedback for your experience.

Android 11 stable update is due in September

Google releases its new OS every year in the month of September. And it is confirmed that the Android 11 stable update will debut the next month.

So, via this user feedback survey, Google is giving its audience a final chance to raise issues regarding Android 11 OS. If you want to check out the complete Google survey on Android 11 Beta 3, you can head here.
Even with online learning, student behavior is a focus for both teachers and parents. (Unsplash/Annie Spratt)

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Teachers and parents caught off guard earlier this year by the explosion of online learning in the face of COVID-19 must be ready to work together to support students for the fall semester.

So says Purdue University education leader Nancy Marchand-Martella, who has studied support systems for students and at-risk learners.

Teachers need to ensure they have a social presence, she said. Going online in some capacity needs to include reaching out and touching base with students and constantly checking in to immediately answer emailed questions.

Even at the university level, the best online classes are those that have a high degree of social presence where the student interacts with the professor and even other students.

At any level, social interaction helps students feel like they are a part of the class and someone cares about them, said Marchand-Martella, the Suzi and Dale Gallagher Dean of Purdues College of Education.

Online learning remains a large part of school for students across the country as a result of the pandemic. Some schools are opting for virtual education only through the fall semester. Others are doing a hybrid model, mixing virtual and in-person classes. Still others are solely in-person.

Marchand-Martella said it will be even more important to have one or more parents or guardians in the home reinforcing what is being taught in a virtual environment. Someone should check the homework and provide corrective feedback to the student.

This school year will be one of those where it does takes a village, she said. You need the teacher, but you need the parents or even an older sibling helping their younger brothers and sisters with some of the online lessons and homework if help is needed.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked the No. 6 Most Innovative University in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at purdue.edu.

Writer, Media contact: Brian Huchel, bhuchel@purdue.edu. Working remotely but will provide immediate response.

Source: Nancy Marchand-Martella, nmarchand-martella@purdue.edu. In addition to phone interviews, the dean is available for interviews via Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or Webex.

Journalists visiting campus : Journalists should follow Protect Purdue protocols and the following guidelines:
The Sri Lankan government's efforts have been successful in completely curbing the social spread of the coronavirus and the country has not witnessed a single community case for the last nearly three months, head of the Covid-19 task force said.

Lt General Shavendra Silva, who is also the Army Commander, said that all the positive cases since April 30, including over 500 at the Kandakadu drug rehabilitation centre, were those who contracted the virus from Sri Lankan expatriates whose return was facilitated by the government.

We haven't found a single case within the community since April 30, Silva told reporters.

We have been able to completely curb its social spread, he said

Silva said that various rumours were being floated of a second wave of infections since the detection of positive cases from the drug rehabilitation centre two weeks back, when over 500 people were put under quarantine.

The government halted the repatriation of its citizens from various countries from July 14 in view of the increasing number of cases.

We decided to delay the process of returnees in order to make the quarantine facilities available to tackle any possible spike from the drug rehabilitation centre contacts, he said.

Silva said that around 20,000 people, who were repatriated, have been quarantined and another 5,000 returnees are currently under quarantine.

Sri Lanka's coronavirus tally stands at 2,764 with 11 deaths. Around 600 patients are currently undergoing treatment in hospitals. The country lifted its Covid-19 lockdown in June.

Silva's statement came as the Opposition parties raised fears of a second wave while expressing dissatisfaction over the government's ability to handle the pandemic.

The Opposition's call to postpone the August 5 parliamentary elections due to a possible second wave was rejected.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 21:17:18|Editor: huaxia

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ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Officials in Ethiopia's Benishangul Gumuz regional state announced on Monday they have arrested 121 people suspected of involvement in a recent deadly attack.

In a press statement, Benishangul Gumuz regional state communications affairs office, said the 121 suspects are accused of involvement in a recent deadly attack that left at least 13 people dead.

In July, unidentified gunmen killed 13 civilians and injured several others in Benishangul Gumuz regional state.

"Federal and regional security forces recently conducted a joint security operation to apprehend suspects behind the recent attack, and 121 people have been arrested in the security operation accused of various offenses ranging from suspected direct role in the recent attack to criminal negligence," said the statement.

Ethiopian officials have previously stated the attack had an ethnic focus with all the dead being ethnic Amharas who have settled in the region in the last several decades.

Benishangul Gumuz Regional State, located in Western Ethiopia along the Ethiopia-Sudan border, hosts Ethiopia's largest development project the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is under construction on the Blue Nile River with a construction cost of close to 4.7 billion U.S. dollars.

Ethiopia follows an ethnic federalism model, which has been credited with giving self-governance rights to more than 80 ethnic groups that make up the country's estimated 100 million people.

However, critics claim that the ethnic federalism model magnifies ethnic diversity at the expense of national unity, leading to occasional ethnic tension and clashes. Enditem
(Newser)  Maeson Howard, a formerly healthy 10-year-old California boy, has been critically ill for weeks with a rare syndrome that doctors believe is linked to COVID-19. Family members aren't sure how he became illbut they are pleading for visitors to stay away from South Lake Tahoe. The boy's father, Corley Howard, has written to lawmakers urging them to limit traffic to the area. The resort town can attract tens of thousands of visitors on summer weekends, and Howard says every vacation rental in his neighborhood is hosting people from out of town. "I get it, we chose to live in a tourist town, but the timing is not right," he says, per the Tahoe Daily Tribune. "The numbers dont really show whats going on. It doesnt seem like the right time to be putting people on boats and campgrounds."

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Doctors believe Maeson, who is being treated at UC Davis Children's Hospital, is suffering from "multisystem inflammatory syndrome," a rare condition that has been observed in children with COVID-19, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. He started feeling sick on July 28 and was hospitalized four days later with symptoms including a high fever and vomiting, according to a GoFundMe campaign set up to help the family. City officials say they are keeping a "close eye" on the influx of visitors, but Howard, who says his family practiced mask-wearing and social distancing, has urged officials to do more to limit arrivals. "People should think twice about packing the family in the camper and coming up here, because I dont think its that safe," says Howard, per KCRA. (Read more coronavirus stories.)
Olivia Munn has found herself back on the market, after her split with boyfriend Tucker Roberts.

But the Oklahoma City-born actress appears to be enjoying single life, in her own quirky way.

She put on a leggy display in denim short shorts Sunday, as she pretended to hitchhike at a roadside veggie stand for an Instagram photo op.

Not hitchhiking: Olivia Munn put on a leggy display in denim short shorts Sunday, as she pretended to hitchhike at a roadside veggie stand for an Instagram photo op

The 40-year-old paired her Daisy Dukes with a grey crop top, which showed off her taut midriff.

She finished the look with gold-framed aviators, a floral-print face mask and a pair of yellow leather sandals.

Munn cocked her hip and held up her thumb, but she clarified: 'Don't worry, I wasn't hitchhiking... I was posing for Insta.'

She stood next to a handmade 'local tastes better' sign, also posting photos of the charming veggie stand.

Eating local: She stood next to a handmade 'local tastes better' sign, also posting photos of the charming veggie stand

Uber has arrived: The Predator actress later shared another photo of herself preparing to get into an animated silver convertible, writing: 'Now, back to pretend hitchhiking...'

Calling quits: She's reportedly been single all year, but her breakup with Tucker Roberts, 30, was only confirmed over the weekend (pictured in November, 2019)

The Predator actress later shared another photo of herself preparing to get into an animated silver convertible, writing: 'Now, back to pretend hitchhiking...'

She's reportedly been single all year, but her breakup with Roberts, 30, was only confirmed over the weekend.

According to US Weekly, the couple broke up at the end of 2019, a year after they were first romantically linked.

The split came shortly after they made their relationship Instagram official back in November of last year.

Munn posted a photo of them in costume as characters from the HBO show The Righteous Gemstones at a Halloween party.
U.S. COVID-19 cases passed a grim new milestone of 5 million on Sunday with soaring new infections, further highlighting the deep-rooted problems of U.S. society and casting doubt on Washington's behavior amid the ravaging pandemic.

The United States has registered 5,041,473 cases and 162,913 deaths as of 0000 GMT on Monday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

There are few signs that the spread is slowing down in the United States.

HUGE LOSS OF HUMAN LIFE

Even though it enjoys the greatest economic strength and one of the most advanced medical systems in the world, the United States became the hardest-hit country soon after the global outbreak of the pandemic.

Early warnings from other parts of the world did not prompt the country to take timely measures and make coordinated efforts to fight the virus.

COVID-19 has now become the leading cause of death in the United States, killing more people per day than cancer or heart disease, according to a graph published in Newsweek on April 9. The disease has killed more Americans than the Korean War, Vietnam War, War in Afghanistan and Iraq War combined.

Some U.S. politicians' disregard for human life, the deep-rooted racial inequity as well as the ever-widening wealth gap have exacerbated the dire situation.

In order to downplay the scope and danger of the pandemic, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that the United States has one of the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates in the world.

However, the reality is that the United States has a mortality rate per 100,000 higher than many other countries, including Canada, Germany, France and the Netherlands, according to a recent article published by The Hill.

"But Trump is not focused on those numbers" and he has been fixated on a figure called the case fatality rate (the percentage of people who die after contracting COVID-19) in order to confuse people and cover up the extremely high rate of deaths as a proportion of the population, according to the article.

What's more, the country's vulnerable groups, including the elderly, the poor, African Americans and Latino Americans, have borne the brunt of COVID-19 and remain most at risk.

In at least 23 U.S. states, a majority of deaths were linked to nursing homes, according to The New York Times. As of July 15, deaths in long-term care facilities accounted for more than 42 percent of the country's pandemic fatalities.

Ben Shapiro, editor-in-chief for The Daily Wire, an American right-wing news website, suggested in an interview on April 30 that old people's lives are not worth saving.

"If somebody who is 81 dies of COVID-19, that is not the same thing as somebody who is 30 dying of COVID-19 ... If grandma dies in a nursing home at age 81, that's tragic and it's terrible, also the life expectancy in the United States is 80," he said.

Minority populations have also been disproportionately hardest hit by the coronavirus in the country.

However, despite the call of public health experts to prioritize minority communities in tackling the virus, the Trump administration has not taken enough actions.

As of June 12, non-Hispanic black persons had a rate of infection of or death from the coronavirus approximately five times that of non-Hispanic white persons, while Hispanic or Latino persons had a rate approximately four times that of non-Hispanic white persons, said the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a statement on June 25.

POLITICIZATION OF PANDEMIC PREVENTION

The pandemic in the United States has provided not a platform for cooperation among politicians, but a battleground for them to grapple with each other.

As the COVID-19 cases surge across the United States, Republicans and Democrats increasingly view the disease in starkly different ways, according to a report published on June 25 by the Pew Research Center.

Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are about twice as likely as Republicans and Republican leaners to say that masks should be worn always. Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to say that masks should rarely or never be worn, according to the report.

The wide split between different political factions has not only prevented U.S. citizens from acting in accordance with the preventive guidelines, but also hindered the whole country from forming a comprehensive anti-pandemic plan.

Instead of following scientists' and public health experts' advice and listening to the voice of the masses, some U.S. politicians chose to prioritize their own political interests.

Few Americans want to see their local schools reopen for in-person instruction as usual or even with minor adjustments considering the severe COVID-19 situation, said a new poll released on July 22.

Only 8 percent of Americans say their local K-12 schools should open for in-person instruction as usual and 14 percent think schools can reopen with minor adjustments, showed the survey conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

However, Trump and his administration are pressuring schools to reopen in the fall, threatening to withhold federal funding from schools that do not comply, because reopening schools is seen as a crucial step to restarting the country's economy for his reelection campaign.

Witnessing the government's inability and bigotry in tackling the coronavirus crisis, more than 1,200 U.S. scientists have signed an open letter, accusing the Trump administration of denigrating "scientific expertise."

They also warned that "the dismissal of scientific evidence in policy formulation has affected wide areas of the social, biological, environmental and physical sciences."

"In a perfect world, this unprecedented pandemic would have been an occasion for Americans to put aside their differences and rally around the flag ... But overall, the pandemic has served to deepen polarization, and that is likely to get worse as time goes on," Francis Fukuyama, a famed political scientist, wrote in a recent article titled "The Wages of American Political Decay."

BLAME GAME

Since the onset of the pandemic, the Trump administration has been addicted to a blame game, heaping baseless accusations against China and the World Health Organization (WHO) to divert Americans' attention away from the virus.

Labeling the virus as the "China virus," the Trump administration claimed it was lab-made in Wuhan and blamed China for hiding the truth, despite the fact that China immediately briefed the WHO, the United States and other countries after it identified the COVID-19 outbreak.

On Jan. 12, China released the whole genome sequence of the coronavirus, which has proved critical for diagnosis and treatment of the disease globally.

The conspiracy theory claiming that the novel coronavirus was made in the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China has also been rejected by top scientists around the world.

Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University, said that "my judgement continues to be that (COVID-19) is consistent with a naturally occurring source," according to The Washington Post.

Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University, also told The Washington Post there is no evidence to support "the idea that this (the virus) is released deliberately or inadvertently."

Studies on the origin of the virus have overwhelmingly shown that the novel coronavirus originated naturally rather than from any institution.

The WHO, which was created to improve health globally, has also been targeted by the Trump administration.

To the astonishment of many American experts, the administration has begun to withdraw from the WHO last month, accusing it of being too close to China and having mishandled the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. move deals a blow to the fragile global cooperation on pandemic control.

France and Germany decided to quit talks on reforming the WHO because ironically, the United States, despite its decision to leave the organization, still attempts to lead the negotiations, the Reuters reported on Friday.

"Nobody wants to be dragged into a reform process and getting an outline for it from a country which itself just left the WHO," a senior European official was quoted by the report as saying.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, chief of the WHO, said on Thursday that the COVID-19 pandemic can not be defeated in a divided world, and he hopes the United States will "reconsider its position" on the decision to withdraw from the organization.

"Now it's time to work together, it's time to focus on fighting the virus. So I hope the U.S. will reconsider its position," the WHO director-general said at the Aspen Security Forum via video link. Enditem
New Delhi: Indian government is planning to promote the manufacturing of selected products, especially in areas where China enjoys a big share in the global market, as part of efforts to reduce imports and push exports, said minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday.

"The government aims to attract foreign investments in pre-identified areas, promote joint ventures and support local businesses to expand India's share of global markets," Gadkari said at a virtual conference, Reuters reported.

"There is an opportunity for India in sectors where China enjoys a big share in the global market," he said.

In the last few months, the government has announced production-linked incentives for manufacturing of electronics, medical devices and pharmaceutical products while putting restrictions on imports of Chinese products.

Gadkari's statement comes close on the heels of Ministry of Defence preparing a list of 101 items for which there would be an embargo on theit import.

"This is a big step towards self-reliance in defence. It also offers a great opportunity to the Indian defence industry to rise to the occasion to manufacture the items in the negative list by using their own design and development capabilities or adopting the technologies designed and developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to meet the requirements of the Armed Forces in the coming years," said Ministry of Defence on Sunday.

The list is prepared by MoD after several rounds of consultations with all stakeholders, including Army, Air Force, Navy, DRDO, Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and private industry to assess current and future capabilities of the Indian industry for manufacturing various ammunition/weapons/platforms/equipment within India.

Almost 260 schemes of such items were contracted by the Tri-Services at an approximate cost of 3.5 lakh crore between April 2015 and August 2020. With latest embargo on import of 101 items, it is estimated that contracts worth almost four lakh crore will be placed upon the domestic industry within the next five to seven years. Of these, items worth almost 1,30,000 crore each are anticipated for the Army and the Air Force while items worth almost 1,40,000 crore are anticipated by the Navy over the same period.

The list of 101 embargoed items comprises of not just simple parts but also some high technology weapon systems like artillery guns, assault rifles, corvettes, sonar systems, transport aircrafts, light combat helicopters (LCHs), radars and many other items to fulfil the needs of our Defence Services. The list also includes, wheeled armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) with indicative import embargo date of December 2021, of which the Army is expected to contract almost 200 at an approximate cost of over 5,000 crore.

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By Express News Service

CHENNAI: In a tragic incident, four youngsters from Tamil Nadu who were studying medicine in Russia allegedly drowned in the Volga river on Saturday.

Police said one of the students was from Chennai. He has been identified as M Stephan, 20, from Otteri. The others are Mohammed Ashiq of Tarapuram, Ramu Vignesh of Thittakudu and Manoj Anand of Thalaivasal in Salem. All the four were pursuing medicine at Volgograd Medical University.

Sources said on Saturday night, a few students including the four had gone to take a swim in the river, when one of them allegedly drowned. The others who went to rescue him also drowned.

A few hours later, the bodies of all four were washed ashore. Local police in Russia retrieved the bodies and informed the students' families through the embassy. The family members have requested the Chief Minister to hasten the process of bringing the students' bodies back home.

"Directions have been issued to bring back their remains back home at the earliest," Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said on Monday.

He said that he has directed senior government officials to immediately get in touch with the External Affairs Ministry and the Indian embassy in Russia, and arrange for bringing back the bodies of the four.

Expressing his heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the bereaved families, Palaniswami said he was "extremely anguished" over the news of the death of the four students on August 8.

Palaniswami today assured that senior government officials were carrying out his instructions on coordinating with the external affairs ministry and Indian embassy in Russia, to arrange for bringing back the bodies.

(With inputs from PTI)
Pinecrest, CA  The state has approved a change that will give Tuolumne County more water security during drought periods.

The California State Water Resources Control Board has for many years required Pinecrest Lake to maintain a minimum water level of 5,608 feet until Labor Day. The reservoir is a major supplier for the Tuolumne Utilities District. The rule has created challenges during times of drought. For example, in 2014 TUD mandated that customers reduce consumption by 50-percent in order to ensure there is enough water to meet the needs of residents.

Over the past 11 years the district has been studying the issue and working to persuade the state to allow more flexibility.

As part of the change just approved by the water board, if the end of spill (when snowmelts ends) comes after July 15 the level must still remain above 5,608 feet prior to Labor Day.

However, if end of spill happens between July 1-14 it can drop to 5,606. If it happens between June 25-30 it can go to 5,605 and if it is June 18-24, it can go to 5,603.

TUD General Manager Ed Pattison says, It is a victory for the residents of Tuolumne County to ensure water supply reliability, and it will have minimal impact on recreation.

TUD had requested the flexibility to drop as low as 5,600 feet, noting that there would be no significant or unmitigable impacts to recreation at that level.

During wet years the 5,608 ft. rule is not a problem, as the district first pulls water from Lyons Reservoir, and later from Pinecrest.

Negotiations Continue With PG&E About Infrastructure:

On a related note, TUD is still in negotiations with PG&E to eventually acquire Pinecrest Reservoir, Lyons Reservoir, the Phoenix Power House, the Tuolumne Main Canal, and related water rights.

Pattison adds, It is a huge effort that has been underway for the last couple of years, and we expect it will take another couple of years. Were working through the negotiations of what that acquisition is going to look like, and how were going to operate and maintain the facilities for Tuoumne County.
Sanjay Dutt, who was admitted to Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai on Saturday after complaining of breathlessness, has now been discharged. He returned home on Monday afternoon and was seen waving at the paparazzi stationed outside his house.

On Saturday, Sanjay tweeted that he had tested negative for Covid-19 but would be kept under medical observation. Just wanted to assure everyone that Im doing well. Im currently under medical observation and the Covid-19 report is negative as well. With the help and care of the excellent doctors, nurses and staff at Lilavati hospital, I should be home in a day or two. Thank you for your well wishes and blessings. Please stay safe, everyone, he had written.

Priya Dutt, Sanjays sister, had told PTI that the actor went to the hospital for a regular check-up. He was admitted to Lilavati Hospital around 4.30-5 pm for a regular check-up as he was feeling a little breathless. They did a Covid-19 test and the result was negative. We have kept him in the hospital so that he gets all of his tests done. He has gone for a full check-up. I think he will come home on Monday, she had said.

Also read | Tanuj Virwani admits cliques exist in Bollywood: I dont think everything over here functions solely on merit

Sanjay, who was last seen in Ashutosh Gowarikers period drama Panipat alongside Arjun Kapoor and Kriti Sanon, has a number of projects in his kitty. He will be seen next in Sadak 2, which is scheduled for a direct-to-digital release on Disney+ Hotstar on August 28.

Directed by Mahesh Bhatt, Sadak 2 also stars Pooja Bhatt, Alia Bhatt and Aditya Roy Kapur. It is a sequel to the 1991 film Sadak, starring Sanjay and Pooja.

Apart from Sadak 2, Sanjay will be seen in Bhuj: The Pride of India, which is also slated for an OTT release on Disney+ Hotstar. He also has Torbaaz, Shamshera and Prithviraj in the pipeline.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Photo Illustration by Kristen Hazzard/The Daily Beast / Photo Getty

America's 30,000 private schools have used their political might to divert billions of dollars in federal COVID relief from public schools starved of local and state assistance, using the pandemic to substantially expand their decades-long push for public funding far beyond their valuable basic privileges of tax-exemption and deductible donations.

Billions of dollars have been effectively transferred to private schools, most of them Christian, in an unprincipled effort with devastating consequences for low-income students.

The accelerated pace of aid has been a heads we win, tails you lose proposition, saddling the school districts most in need of state and federal assistance with under-funding and over-regulation while the private school sector literally profits from outsized government aid and deregulation.

Two-thirds of private schools are under religious, overwhelmingly Christian, sponsorship. The remainder are secular independent schools. Despite substantial reserves, this sizable subsector actively secured forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans intended for small businesses. Such prestigious schools as St. Ann's in New York, where tuition costs over $50,000 per year for its 1,000 well-heeled pupils, received between $5-$10 million in assistance. St. Andrew's Episcopal School, which Barron Trump attends, has an endowment of $9 million and tuition exceeding $44,000 for upper grades yet still received approximately $9 million from the PPP. Sidwell Friends School, the alma mater of Chelsea Clinton and Malia and Sasha Obama, cashed in for $5 million.

Catholic schools account for a fifth of American private schools. According to data crunched by the Associated Press, by aggressively promoting the payroll program and marshaling resources to help affiliates navigate its shifting rules, the Catholic Church was among [PPP's] biggest winners, hauling in at least $1.4 billion so far in 2020 COVID-related taxpayer aid and perhaps in excess of $3.5 billion using a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules that allowed it to access money from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Much of this money went to support clergy and religious instructiona historic expansion of religious support despite existing tuition, tax advantages, and targeted public aid programs previously secured by their lobbyists including remedial reading and math instruction, curricular materials, technology, transportation, special education, security, and a host of other subsidies worth millions to individual schools and billions to the private school sector.

Story continues

Not satisfied with gaining extensive PPP support, private schools have shape-shifted from schools to private businesses to schools again in order to double dip from a second federal package, the CARES Act. There, Congress targeted $1.6 billion for public school districts. But buoyed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' strained interpretation of the Act, private schools across America are now demanding diversion of a disproportionate amount from public schools to private coffers. While the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has determined that the aid is meant for low-income students, the private school community has claimed its share should be calculated on a per pupil basis for their entire enrollment, whatever their family income. Moreover, they demand that private schools be fully funded before public schools see their first dollar of the remainder. This "off the top" scam is the way private schools annually get to the head of the line for billions in federal Title I remedial education aid.

Beyond these federal policies disproportionately favoring private schools, this term's Supreme Court decisions in cases brought by private school plaintiffs in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue and Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru favored religious school claims to increased state aid and civil rights law exemptions. In Espinoza, the court dismissed constitutional Establishment Clause concerns forbidding government's favoring religion when it held that already vast state and federal aid to secular private schools could not exclude religious schools under the co-equal Free Exercise Clause. The case opened vast new avenues for public aid promoting religious instruction even while such aid had already been widely available for sundry secular purposes.

While garnering this assistance, private schools might be imagined to be subject to reasonable public policy concerns like anti-discrimination laws. This term's companion religion case, Our Lady of Guadalupe, substantially curtailed already politically loose regulatory controls by allowing religious schools to discriminate based on sex, disability, age, and other categories by broadening a blanket ministerial exception from discrimination claims for employees even tangentially involved in religious instruction. By providing this loophole, the court allowed the firing of a teacher with breast cancer and another deemed too old (and high-salaried).

Private schools' resentment of the least public oversight is staggering. A state law in New York requiring all schools to meet standards of substantially equivalent secular instruction has been stymied by independent and religious schools alike for the audacity of the state to assure they teach English, math, science, social studies, and the arts. Private schools are exempt from New York's Dignity for All Students Act that prohibits public schools from discriminatory conduct. Shielded by the exemption, a Black student was disciplined at a Catholic school for wearing dreadlocks, hardly a religious proscription. Similar outrages abound. In Arkansas, a 6-year-old was forbidden by her day-care center from wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt. A private school in Ohio created a student drug test requirement that would have failed constitutional muster if instituted by a public school.

Yet the boundaries of private school entitlement grow ever broader. We might as well call private schools public private schools given the taxpayer dollars they increasingly claim. The basic American tenet of public schools supported by taxpayers for the common good with an opt-out for parents willing to pay the freight of their private choice is being left behind in a selfish bid for public support with no strings attached. This scam needs to be called out, whether it be excessive corporate bailouts or bountiful private school subsidies. This looting of the public treasury without accountability must stop now.

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GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Blandford Nature Center will soon debut their newest wildlife addition and first porcupine.

Timmy the porcupine was brought to the nature center by Cathy Lindstrand, a doctor of veterinary medicine, and her boyfriend and longtime wildlife enthusiast Thom Russell.

The couple dropped Timmy off last week after meeting with wildlife experts who determined this would be the best move for the 4-month-old porcupine.

Timmy has found himself attached to the human touch and no matter how fast you would walk to get away from him, he was sure to follow, Russell told MLive. He became more of a puppy than a porcupine and this was a problem.

The family who found Timmy near Mount Pleasant less than 24 hours after he was born contacted the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Lindstrand, who provides free wildlife care to the DNR, began caring for Timmy shortly after.

Although most porcupines are normally shy and thrive in solitude, Timmy was different, Lindstrand said.

He really had no interest in looking for food, she told MLive. He really just wanted to climb up your leg and stay with you.

Most newborn porcupines typically follow their parents but he didnt have that support in the wild, Lindstrand said. Over time, Timmys attachment to the couple grew.

Lindstrand said she knew he would not be able to fend for himself if they released him like they typically do once an animal is in good health.

After the couple searched for an appropriate place to care for Timmy, they ultimately decided Blandford Nature Center was the best fit. There, Timmy can live up to 30 years in captivity while providing education to families in the Grand Rapids area.

Lindstrand has served the Mount Pleasant area for over 20 years through her clinics and nonprofit organization Isabella Feline Adoption and Wildlife Center. She spends much of her time caring for injured wildlife or those found without parents including squirrels, geese, rabbits and more.

The wildlife dont have a whole lot of options, theres no shelters ... theyre no different than domestic animals, they all have their own personalities, Lindstrand said.

The couple believes the nature center is what is best for Timmy and say they are confident he will be released into a natural habitat in the future once he is ready.

The nature center is expected to announce Timmys arrival on its Facebook page once Timmy gets acclimated and is ready for visitors.

Visit blandfordnaturecenter.org or the Blandford Nature Center Facebook page for announcements regarding the naming contest for the young porcupine.

More on MLive:

Police investigate after Kalamazoo Black Lives Matter mural splattered with white paint

Michigan boys return lost wallet with $364 inside

Police seek missing, endangered man who left adult foster home
In the Great Lakes region we can get set for what I call waterspout season. The summer weather leading up to today could lead us into a banner waterspout season. As of last week, weve already seen a record amount of waterspouts.

Waterspout over Lake Erie, off of Lorain, Ohio on Wednesday, August 5, 2020. Photo courtesy Jeffrey Paul.

The waterspout set-up is pretty simple, and very similar to a lake-effect snow situation. Cold air aloft blowing over warm water surfaces, with some added switching of wind directions, and we have the makings of a waterspout outbreak.
Even before the pandemic, congestion already exacted a huge financial toll, costing the New York region an estimated $20 billion a year in lost worker productivity and higher fuel and operating expenses, according to the Partnership for New York City, a leading business group.

If transit riders stay away in significant numbers, that would also erode fare revenue from a public transit system facing its worst financial crisis in decades.

At the same time, New Yorks ambitious plan to cut down on traffic by imposing a fee on cars and trucks entering the busiest parts of Manhattan has stalled. That congestion pricing plan, which was expected to start early next year and raise money for public transit, has been delayed for at least a year by a federal review.

Weve been talking about traffic and congestion for years and we havent done enough about it, said Carlo A. Scissura, the president and chief executive of the New York Building Congress, a trade association for the building industry. Now, were at a moment of reckoning. We need to come together and have a plan for moving forward.

Brad Lander, a councilman from Brooklyn, is supporting parents who want to use streets around schools for classes and activities. Youre reimagining your citys open spaces in a way that it feels like it belongs to people on foot and on bikes, he said. It feels, in my opinion, like a crusade for a more sustainable city.

In northern Manhattan, dozens of restaurant owners are fighting to keep a temporary outdoor dining plaza on Dyckman Street. We need it to survive, said Susana Osorio, who pays $63,000 a month in rent for her two restaurants.

At Roof Top Republica, there is outdoor seating for 100 customers under twinkling lights, three times more than inside the small Dominican restaurant. The owner, Victor Sanchez, 52, said he is selling more meals than before the pandemic.

I think it should be a permanent thing, he said. Theres going be a fight for the streets, definitely.
There he goes again.

When it was reported late last week that one of our nations top intelligence officials had determined that Russia has been working to damage former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic Partys presumptive presidential nominee, and help keep President Donald Trump in the White House for the next four years, anyone who has been paying even a modicum of attention to our nations chief executive knew what was coming. Because Trump is that predictable. And he didnt disappoint those in the prognosticating set.

Here was our nation's president, in answer to a question on Friday about the intelligence findings: "The last person Russia wants to see in office is Donald Trump, because nobody's been tougher on Russia than I have, ever."

Um, really?

A couple of questions for those who believe such drivel and continue to back the real-estate mogul turned politician: Name a single move he has made in the nearly 43 months he's been in office that could be seen as being tough on Russia. Name a single statement he's made over that same period that was critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

(Hint: Don't waste a whole lot of time, because you won't find anything.)

Though the same intelligence report asserted that China would like to see Biden defeat Trump, there was no equivalence, as Beijing has a preference, while Moscow is doing Trumps dirty work. Which didnt stop the Trump supporters from acting as though one was just like the other. Its not.

Four years back, Russia worked to aid Trump even as it tried to damage Hillary Clinton, then the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. This was the view of the nation's entire intelligence community. It was the view of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. It's pretty much the view of anyone and everyone save Trump and his defenders, who choose not to believe what they don't wish to believe.

From the first, Trump dismissed the findings of Russian interference on his behalf as a "hoax." Then, any probe of Russian interference was a "witch hunt." Now, with reports that the Kremlin is once again up to its old tricks, he's saying the same old thing.

And his supporters blindly stand by their man.

The American people, without foreign interference, are supposed to choose their leaders. Trump clearly doesnt understand this, or at least doesnt care.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 18:48:59|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The National Supervisory Commission, China's top anti-corruption watchdog, has brought back a total of 3,848 fugitives from abroad since it was established in early 2018, according to a report.

The work report on fugitive repatriation and return of criminal proceeds was submitted Monday by the National Supervisory Commission to an ongoing session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.

Nearly 10 billion yuan (about 1.44 billion U.S. dollars) of illegal funds have also been brought back from abroad, said the report.

Since a nationwide supervisory reform kicked off in late 2017, China has established supervisory commissions at national, provincial, city and county levels across the country to handle duty-related law violations and crimes.

According to the Constitution and the supervision law, the National Supervisory Commission shall be responsible to the NPC and the NPC Standing Committee, and shall accept their oversight.

This is the first time the NPC Standing Committee has heard a work report of the National Supervisory Commission. Enditem
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 10) The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a measure which will grant scholarships to aspiring medical students amid the pandemic.

Voting 245, lawmakers on Monday passed House Bill 6756, or the "Medical Scholarship and Return Service Program Act."

Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, one of the measures authors, said the proposed law is the answer to the lack of doctors in rural areas.

The measure would also address the lack of physicians in areas hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, as scholarship recipients could be asked to serve in hot spots.

Under the bill, a medical scholarship and return service program will be provided to deserving students in state universities and colleges or in private higher education institutions from regions which do not offer a medical course.

Only one scholar from each municipality may be accepted. Financial assistance will include free tuition and other school fees; book, clothing, accommodation, and transportation allowance; internship fees; medical board review fees; annual medical insurance; and other education related-miscellaneous subsistence or living allowances.

The applicant must be a Filipino citizen, a graduate or graduating student of a prerequisite course for a doctor of medicine degree, must have passed the entrance examination and complied with other requirements in the state or private college or university where he or she intends to enroll, and must have obtained a national medical admission test score mandated by the Commission on Higher Education and the cut-off required by the state or private school where he or she plans to enroll.

The mandatory return service upon integration into the medical service system will be for at least four to six years for those under the four-year program, and seven years for those who have availed of the five-year program.

The proposed law would oblige a graduate to serve in his or her town for at least four years. Refusal would mean he or she would have to return twice the amount the government spent for his or her medical degree.

The House passed HB 6756 on second reading last Wednesday.
In Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese perhaps chose the Rajapaksa family because they were enamored by the way prominent brothers, Mahinda and Gotabaya, ruthlessly quelled the LTTE in 2009. AP Photo

The overwhelming victory of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) in the August 5 elections to the island nations Parliament is a triumph of Sinhala Buddhist majoritarianism and a consolidation of power by the Rajapaksa family.

It just follows a popular political trend across the globe, wherein people with power and privilege hunger for more power and more privilege and hand over governments on a platter to politicians whom they believe would do that for them.

In Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese perhaps chose the Rajapaksa family because they were enamored by the way prominent brothers, Mahinda and Gotabaya, ruthlessly quelled the LTTE in 2009. Or do the people believe that as a large family of rulers another brother Basil and Nirmal, son of Mahinda, included  the Rajapaksas would do a better job in showing minorities their place?

Whatever it is, political trends that lead to the concentration of power in the hands of a family yanks democracy off the feet of nations.

With such a brute majority in Parliament, the brothers are only likely to make sweeping constitutional changes to enhance the authority of the President and to continue ruling the country for a longer time. There are also indications that they would fashion the government on the lines of a military regime.

Already Gotabaya, who came in as President in November, has appointed many serving and former military officers to key bureaucratic posts.

Since Gotabaya stormed into government by stoking ethnic Sinhala nationalism and SLPP has now romped home exemplifying such a majoritarian agenda, the ruling family would have no qualms about subjugating the minorities, Muslims and Tamils in particular.

And when the minorities look up to the government for an assurance to realise their legitimate aspirations, the pardoning of military officers charged with war crimes during the end of the civil war in 2009 by the Rajapaksas can be least assuring.
L ondoners heading out to the great British countryside for their staycations may be shocked on country walks by how desolate much of it currently looks.

Intensive farming practices mean that, after the harvest, our wheatfields can resemble a lunar landscape. Stubble and parched earth run right up to the hedgerows, with greenery and wildflowers not getting a look in.

One of the few positives possibly to emerge from Brexit has been Michael Goves pledge that, unshackled from Europes Common Agricultural Policy, we can reward farmers for using fewer chemicals and adopting more environmentally sustainable practices.

But that risks being undercut if, in our gallop to sign trade deals, we allow the import of food produced without such high standards.

For, allowing in crops grown cheaply with chemicals such as bee-killing pesticides, illegal in the UK, forces our farmers to farm more intensively to compete.

The influential Institute for Government today warns that our trade negotiators are rushing so quickly to secure trade agreements that they risk dropping the good regulatory standards that will mark out British products as being superior.

That would have an appalling long-term impact on UK industry.

Not only that, but its hypocritical to boast about our own high standards while allowing those with poor practices to continue selling here.

Its not just unsustainably grown crops, or Americas famous chlorinated chickens, that we risk welcoming into our shops.

The IfG warns the US wants to have energy efficiency requirements relaxed on computer screens; to erode standards on getting chemicals approved; to scrap prohibitions from using geographical names such as parmesan.

Could an Iowa pig farmer soon make Melton Mowbray pork pies?

Government needs to make a far clearer statement, with agreements across government departments, of what our red lines are. That would make it harder for bigger countries to push our negotiators around during the haggling around the margins of Free Trade Agreements (where most of the bad stuff happens).

Talks should be less secretive, allowing more parliamentary scrutiny of what our negotiators are agreeing.

The pace of negotiations should be slowed until we get the groundwork right. Negotiating, as we now are, four completely new deals and 18 rollovers of existing EU deals is simply too much. Particularly as were still trying to reach a comprehensive settlement with the EU.

Its understandable that a Brexiteer government wants to strike these deals quickly. It wants to tell the sceptical half of the UK: we told you so.

But if we agree them in haste, we will surely repent them at leisure.
One way to cut back on deforestation in the Amazon rainforest - and help in the global fight against climate change - is to grant more of Brazil's indigenous communities full property rights to tribal lands. This policy focus is suggested by a new University California of San Diego study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Led by UC San Diego political science researcher Kathryn Baragwanath, the study uses an innovative method to combine satellite data of vegetation coverage in the Amazon rainforest, between 1982 and 2016, with Brazilian government records of indigenous property rights. The study found significantly reduced deforestation rates in territories that are owned fully and collectively by local tribes - when compared to territories that are owned only partially by the tribes or not at all. The average effect was a 66% reduction in deforestation.

The Amazon accounts for half of the Earth's remaining tropical forest, is an important source of the biodiversity on our planet and plays a major role in climate and water cycles around the world. Yet the Amazon basin is losing trees at an alarming rate, with particularly high levels in recent years, due to a combination of massive forest fires and illegal activities.

Who owns the Amazon, meanwhile, is hotly contested, with numerous actors vying for the privilege. Some private entities go ahead with illegal mining or logging, for example, to demonstrate "productive use of land" and thereby gain title to that land. At present, about 2 million hectares of indigenous land are still awaiting official designation as tribal territories.

Also debated is whether collective property rights are effective in curbing deforestation. These rights are granted to indigenous peoples in Brazil through a complex and lengthy constitutional process, and are distinct from the private property rights most of us are more familiar with.

UC San Diego's Baragwanath and co-author Ella Bayi, now at Columbia University, say "yes, collective property rights are effective" - if you focus your analysis on the final stage of the titling process in Brazil (which can take up to 25 years to complete), or the point at which tribes gain full property rights.

Full property rights give indigenous groups official territorial recognition, enabling them not only to demarcate their territories but also to access the support of monitoring and enforcement agencies, the researcher say.

"Our research shows that full property rights have significant implications for indigenous people's capacity to curb deforestation within their territories," said Baragwanath. "Not only do indigenous territories serve a human rights role, but they are a cost-effective way for governments to preserve their forested areas and attain climate goals. This is important since many indigenous territories have yet to receive their full property rights and it points to where policymakers and NGOs concerned about the situation in Brazil should now focus their efforts."

###

Baragwanath is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science in UC San Diego's Division of Social Sciences. Bayi is now a political science graduate student at Columbia University. The PNAS study began as Bayi's senior honor's thesis when she was an undergraduate student at UC San Diego and Baragwanath was her T.A.
Laois GP Dr Sumi Dunne from Portarlington has welcomed the new regulation on wearing facemasks in Ireland, effective from today Monday, August 10.

Dr Dunne spoke on RTE's Morning Ireland radio show to urge everyone to comply and use masks properly.

Pulling down a mask to the neck while talking or eating and then pulling it back up could lead to infection, as the neck could have been exposed to the virus, she said.

Speaking on behalf of the Irish College of General Practitioners, she said that more people are coming to surgeries for Covid-19 testing, and for other health issues, and asked for people to continue to do so.

She said hands must be washed before putting on a mask, touching the handles. It must fit snugly against the sides of the face, covering the chin, and be made of several layers, then placed in a ziplock bag for washing.

She has also tweeted support.

.In keeping with public health advice - it is important to wear facecoverings/masks appropriately

When you want to eat/drink remove it completely

Do not bring it down to the chin #avoidchinstraps pic.twitter.com/5uOhbAp5Je  Sumi Dunne (@DrSumiDunne) August 9, 2020

Face coverings are now mandatory in shops, shopping centres and other indoor settings in all parts of Ireland. Shoppers who refuse to wear coverings will face fines of up to 2,500 and a potential prison stint.

The new rules also apply to indoor retail settings including hairdressers, libraries and cinemas, or anywhere where it is not possible to keep a 2 metre distance inside.

Children under 13 and people with a disability or physical or mental illness are exempt.

The announcement was made last week by Taoiseach Micheal Martin, along with the decision to postpone the further reopening of businesses planned for August 10th.
In the evening, police arrested pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow Ting on charges of inciting secession under the same law, according to tweets by fellow activist Nathan Law, who left Hong Kong for Britain soon after the law took effect. An earlier post on Chows official Facebook page said police had arrived at her home and her lawyers were rushing to the scene, and a separate post later confirmed that she had been taken away by police.
GROUPS OF parents and other anti-communist organizations condemned the acquittal of about 15 leaders of the Communist Party of the Philipp...
What did President Donald Trump know about the novel coronavirus, and when did he know it?

Trump says China, the World Health Organization, and his intelligence briefers misled him or failed to warn him about the virus. But his statements in January and February, juxtaposed with what advisers were telling him and saying publicly, show that he repeatedly lied. He vouched for Beijings truthfulness despite being advised not to. He parroted Chinese President Xi Jinpings false assurances and defended Xis suppression of information. Long after WHO declared a global emergency, Trump shrugged off the virus. At every turn, he focused not on the public health threat but on protecting his trade relationship with Xi.

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Here is a chronology of what Trump saidand what he knewin January and February. (For events beyond February, see our related story here.) This timeline focuses on his relations with China during the two crucial months that seeded the epidemic in the United States.

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Prelude: On June 29, 2019, Trump meets with Xi in Japan. As recounted by Trumps thennational security adviser, John Bolton, Trump turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to Chinas economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure hed win. He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome.

Jan. 3, 2020: Doctors in China inform Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that a new coronavirus might be responsible for recent pneumonia cases in China. Redfield tells Alex Azar, the secretary of Health and Human Services. Azars office informs the National Security Council.

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Early January: Intelligence briefers put a detailed explanation of the problem  in the Presidents Daily Brief. The explanation focuses on troubling signs of a new virus spreading through the Chinese city of Wuhan, and the Chinese governments apparent efforts to conceal details of the outbreak.

Jan. 9: At a campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio, Trump boasts that hes about to sign a lucrative trade deal with China: a big, beautiful monster$40 [billion] to $50 billion to our farmers.

Jan. 10: Trump tells Fox News that hes angling for a second trade deal with Xi. We have a great relationship with China right now, so I dont want to speak badly of anyone, he says. He deflects a question about Chinas human rights violations, explaining, Im riding a fine line because were making  great trade deals.

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Jan. 13: The World Health Organization reports that the virus has spread beyond China.

Jan. 14: At a rally in Milwaukee, Trump says hes about to sign the trade deal with China, massively boosting exports of products made and produced right here in the great state of Wisconsin.

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Jan. 15: Trump signs the deal and praises Xi. 250 Billion Dollars will be coming back to our Country, he tweets. We are now in a great position for a Phase Two start.

Jan. 16: Around this date, according to Politico, Azar tried to share an urgent message with the president: The potential outbreak could leave tens of thousands of Americans sickened and many dead. Politico says that according to three people briefed on the conversations, Trumps aides mocked and belittled Azar as alarmist, as he warned the president of a major threat to public health.

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Jan. 17: In a CDC briefing, Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, predicts that as more countries test for the virus, Were going to see additional cases all around the world.

Jan. 18: Azar phones Trump to talk about the virus. Multiple accounts of the call say that Trump insisted on talking about e-cigarettes before discussing the virus. The Wall Street Journal, citing officials who were briefed on the call, reports that Trump dismissed coronavirus concerns as alarmist.

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Jan. 1920: Chinas chief health investigator publicly reports multiple cases that show the virus is spreading from human to human.

Jan. 21: The CDC reports the first documented infection in the United States. The agency also acknowledges growing indications that limited person-to-person spread is happening. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, tells Voice of America that the virus has been found to spread with high efficiencyone person in China infected 15 othersand that cases have been detected in Thailand, Japan, South Korea, and France. Clearly, its starting to disseminate in a much wider way, he warns.

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Jan. 22: Trump says the CDC has briefed him and China is in very good shape. In a CNBC interview, Joe Kernen asks the president, Are there worries about a pandemic? No, not at all, says Trump. We have it totally under control. Kernen asks about reports that Beijing is hiding information: Do you trust that were going to know everything we need to know from China? Trump replies: I do. I have a great relationship with President Xi. We just signed probably the biggest deal ever made. He says hell begin talks on a second deal with China very soon.

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Jan. 2223: China shuts down Wuhan. This drastic response alarms the White House. On Jan. 23, national security adviser Robert OBrien, joined by a CIA analyst, briefs Trump on the virus. In this briefing, according to a White House official who speaks later to NPR, Trump was told that the coronavirus was potentially going to spread globally.  The Washington Post reports that during this time frame, Trumps advisers told him that Beijing was not providing accurate numbers of people who were infected or who had died.

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Jan. 24: Messonnier says the CDC expects more cases in the U.S., including human-to-human transmission. Hours later, Trump tweets, China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well.

Jan. 2526: Chinas health minister announces that the outbreak is accelerating and is being spread, in part, by hidden carriers.

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Jan. 28: Trump gets another intelligence briefing. He is told that China is withholding data and that the virus is spreading outside of China. At a press conference, Azar says: The president and I have been speaking regularly about this outbreak, and I have been speaking with the senior officials at HHS and the White House multiple times each day since the outbreak began to represent an international threat. The president is highly engaged in this response and closely monitoring the work were doing to keep Americans safe.

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That evening, at a rally in New Jersey, Trump says he has signed a fantastic new trade agreement with China that will boost New Jersey exports and defend New Jersey jobs.

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Jan. 29: White House trade adviser Peter Navarro circulates a memo warning that the virus could lead to a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans. According to the New York Times, when aides raised [the memo] with Mr. Trump, he responded that he was unhappy that Mr. Navarro had put his warning in writing.

Jan. 30, morning: In an Oval Office meeting, Azar and other officials urge Trump to suspend travel from China. The Wall Street Journal reports that according to the presidents aides, he was reluctant to sign off on the proposal, concerned about the signal it would send to markets and his relationship with Xi. Trump was skeptical, says a New York Times account of the meeting. The two countries were in delicate trade negotiations. Was this the time to provoke China? he asked. And what about the consequences on the economy?

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Jan. 30, afternoon: The CDC announces the first instance of person-to-person spread in the United States. Shortly afterward, WHO declares a public health emergency  over the global outbreak of novel coronavirus. But two hours after WHOs declaration, Trump tells an audience in Michigan: Were working very strongly with China on the coronavirus  We think we have it very well under control.  We think its going to have a very good ending for it. So that, I can assure you.

Jan. 30, evening: Azar, backed by Fauci and Redfield, phones Trump again to talk about the virus. The New York Times, in an article based on dozens of interviews with current and former officials, reports that Azar directly warned Mr. Trump of the possibility of a pandemic. But Trump responded that Mr. Azar was being alarmist.  Stop panicking, Mr. Trump told him.

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Jan. 31: Delta Air Lines and American Airlines announce that theyre suspending flights from China. United Airlines tells the White House it plans to do the same but will hold off on announcing it if Trump goes first. Trump, eager to claim credit for acting to contain the virus, announces a forthcoming suspension within hours.

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Feb. 1: In a Fox News interview recorded for the Super Bowl, Sean Hannity asks Trump: Were now up to our eighth case in the United States. How concerned are you? Trump replies: Well, we pretty much shut it down coming in from China. In reality, the suspension, which applies only to foreign nationals, isnt scheduled to begin until the next evening.

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Feb. 3: Messonnier says that based on the growing volume of exported cases to countries around the world and reports of person-to-person spread outside China, including the United States, the CDC is preparing as if this were the next pandemic.

Feb. 7: Trump tweets: Just had a long and very good conversation by phone with President Xi of China. He is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus. Trump continues: Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation. A reporter asks Trump, Are you concerned that China is covering up the full extent of coronavirus? The president replies, No. As evidence, he says the CDC is working with Chinese authorities.

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Feb. 10: In a Fox News interview, Trish Regan asks Trump about China: Whats your sense of their transparency right now, whether theyre being more accommodating in terms of telling us whats going on? The president replies that they have everything under control. He repeats that U.S. experts are in China and can vouch for Beijings candor. Its going to be fine, he says.

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That night, at a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, Trump says he has signed a trade agreement with China that will defeat so many of our opponents. I spoke with President Xi about the virus, he reports, and its going to all work out fine. Trump says it looks like by April, as the weather warms, the virus miraculously goes away. He doesnt mention that he got this idea from Xi in their Feb. 7 call.

Feb. 12: Messonnier says its premature to assume that the virus will die out as the weather warms. Fauci cautions against wishful thinking and worries that as we get more travel-related cases, the threat of this becoming more diffuse is great.

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Feb. 13: In an interview with Geraldo Rivera, Trump says he has spoken with Xi again. We think, and we hope, based on all signs, that the problem goes away in April, he says. The April date is very important. Rivera asks, Did the Chinese tell the truth about this? You never know, says Trump. But he tells Rivera, in Xis defense, that if you were running China, you wouldnt want to run out to the world and go crazy and start saying whatever it is, cause you dont want to create a panic.

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Feb. 16: Fauci says that with more than 500 documented cases in 24 countries, several of which are starting to get to the second and third transmission, the virus is on the verge of being declared a global pandemic.

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Feb. 18: Trump posts several tweets against a proposal to restrict U.S. technology sales to China. He denounces the National Security excuse and insists, I want China to buy our jet engines. Later, a reporter asks Trump about the virus: Some people dont seem to trust the data coming out of China. Are you worried about that? Trump retorts, Look, I know this: President Xi loves the people of China, he loves his country, and hes doing a very good job.

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Feb. 19: In Arizona, an interviewer asks Trump, How confident are you that China is being 100 percent honest with us when it comes to this scary virus? Im confident that theyre trying very hard, Trump replies. I know President Xi. I get along with him very well. We just made a great trade deal. Trump goes on: I think the numbers are going to get progressively better  I think its going to work out fine. He repeats that the virus will subside when we get into April.

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Feb. 20: Fauci warns that there are likely many, many more infections than we realized in China. He worries that the U.S. infection count might be artificially low because, due to a shortage of tests for the virus, were not looking for it properly. He notes that this happened in China: The virus proliferated for weeks under the radar screen, while authorities didnt recognize it.

Feb. 21: Messonnier says the virus has become a tremendous public health threat to the United States.

Feb. 24: Trump tweets, The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.  CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!

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Feb. 25: The National Center for Medical Intelligence, in a bulletin circulated within the U.S. government, declares the virus an imminent threat. Messonnier tells reporters that new data show there will be community spread in the United States. The only question now, she adds, is exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness. Fauci concurs that based on the latest data, Its inevitable that this will come to the United States. The stock market plunges.

Feb. 26: Trump phones Azar, rages at Messonnier for scaring the stock market, and threatens to fire her. He seizes control of press briefings on the virus. He is told that the CDC has found evidence of community spread in the United States. But hours later, as he briefs reporters, he doesnt mention this. Instead, he claims that U.S. infections are going very substantially down, not up and that within a couple of days the case count will be close to zero. We have it so well under control, he says.

Feb. 28: At a rally in South Carolina, Trump says there are still only 15 infections in the country. He accuses the press of hysteria and says criticism of his response to the virus is a hoax. In an interview, he derides Democrats for telling him to spend more money preparing for the pandemic. They say, Oh, he should do more,  he complains. Theres nothing more you can do.

Feb. 29: In his final press briefing of the month, Trump says the virus has brought the U.S. and China together. We just did a big trade deal. Were starting on another trade deal, he says. Theyve been talking to our people, weve been talking to their people, having to do with the virus. No, our relationship with China is very good. Maybe its closer because of whats happened here.

For more of Slates news coverage, subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts or listen below.
In contemporary Ireland it is tempting to think that religion is passe. Escaping the Ireland of the 1950s is the predictable mantra, and this is hailed as a good thing by the commentariat. Such is the atavistic disdain for religion. This is hardly surprising given what we know about the Catholic Church in times gone by in this country.

What is surprising, however, is that even those who have never been involved with religion in any way join with the opponents. In any other sphere, one would at least expect that having a strong opinion on a particular aspect of life would have its origin in the experience of the individual concerned, rather than being sourced from what others say.

Indeed, "the lived experience" is currently considered more relevant as a basis for opinion that any other element in areas as diverse as politics, race or gender. Hostility to religion has been reinforced by high-profile celebrities like Ricky Gervais, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Fry and John Lennon, to name but a few.

The Pew Research Centre defines itself as "a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world". It measures opinions and trends in areas as diverse as online dating, gender and migration.

Although based in the US, it has a global reach. It recently published a huge study on belief in God and morality. The interviewers questioned over 38,000 people in 34 countries. Ireland was not included. It also examined the importance, or otherwise, of God and prayer in people's lives, and in particular focused on whether any of these measures had changed since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

It was hardly surprising that there was a God divide on the question of whether belief in God was necessary for morality. 51pc said no while 45pc answered in the affirmative. There were large regional variations, with Sweden having the lowest at 9pc answering yes, followed by France (15pc), the UK (20pc) and Netherlands (22pc). In America there was a difference between Canada (26pc) and the USA (44pc) in those who agreed there was a connection between religious belief and morality.

Countries like Indonesia, Tunisia, Kenya and most of the developing economies had huge percentages answering in the affirmative. Even in the former Soviet Union, the figure varied from 14pc to 50pc, with Russia showing the highest percentage.

The general picture was that the more secular and wealthier countries were, the less likely they were to identify a connection between the God/morality question.

It is difficult to understand what these responses mean since even many believers indicated that belief in God was not necessary in order to be a good person. With such a black-and-white question, I too would have answered in a similar vein.

Opinion polls rarely delve more deeply than the simple yes/no answer. If they had probed more, would the responses have been more nuanced? It is possible to believe that it is not necessary to believe in God to be good, but that it helps, especially when life becomes problematic.

There is evidence that religious belief protects against suicide. After all, having an explicit set of rules and agreed values is psychologically easier than having to work out what is right and wrong in an individualised way, in the countless situations confronting society. Knowledge of these values can assist our conscience in determining right and wrong.

The survey also asked questions about the importance of religion in people's lives and the divide was also obvious in this, but less so than with the morality question. In Europe, 49pc reported that it was very or somewhat important, while in Asia some 66pc agreed.

In both Russia and the Ukraine the figure was over 60pc, a big increase since 1991 when the Soviet Union dissipated. The opposite has occurred in the rest of Europe.

Among the African and South American countries studied, the figure ranged between 80pc and 90pc. In most countries, God was reported to play an important part in people's lives.

So what, you might ask? It was the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who said "God is dead. God remains dead. We have killed him" in respect to the influence of the Enlightenment. And Stalin had the idea for an "atheist five-year plan" from 1932 to '37 so as to eliminate all forms of religious expression in the USSR.

Between 1927 and 1940 the number of Orthodox churches in Russia fell from almost 30,000 to less than 500. Surely these men must now be turning in their graves at the results of this survey. Their major public statements were wrong.

The results suggest that as the population of Western Europe dwindles and migration inwards gathers apace from Africa, Asia and South America to support our economies, the likelihood is that Europe will see a resurgence in the religious animus.

As we can see from this survey, and particularly from Russia and Ukraine, the religious impulse is tenacious, despite propaganda and oppression. This change was paralleled in the life of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who abandoned his Marxist beliefs and turned to the Orthodox Church to sustain him, saying: "Men have forgotten God."
The three countries have recently established a new format of cooperation, the Lublin Triangle.

Foreign ministers of Ukraine, Lithuania, and Poland have released a joint statement on the latest developments in Belarus following the presidential election held on August 9.

The three countries have recently established a new format of cooperation, the Lublin Triangle, according to the press service of Ukraine's diplomacy.

"As Foreign Ministers of Lublin Triangle States, we are deeply concerned with escalation of the situation in Belarus after the presidential elections and call upon the authorities to refrain from the use of force and to release all those detained last night," the statement reads.

The top diplomats note the essential nature of respect for fundamental freedoms and human rights, including democracy and rule of law, for "further development of independent and sovereign Belarus, which we fully support".

Read alsoUkraine, Poland, Lithuania agree on new format of interaction

The foreign ministers stress that it's only by means of dialogue that the current situation can be resolved "for the benefit of the people and the state of Belarus".

The three countries remain open for "any assistance or good offices in facilitating this dialogue", the joint statement underlines, stressing the importance of Belarus's prosperity for the entire Europe.

"We are all interested in continuing mutually beneficial dialogue as well as cooperation based upon democratic values and focused on creating conditions for a common and stable future," the ministers conclude.

Belarus protests - background

On August 9, the presidential election was held in Belarus.

The CEC released official exit polls: 80.23% voted for the incumbent Alexander Lukashenko, 9.9% - for Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, 1.68% for Anna Kanopatskaya, 1.13% for Sergei Cherechnya, and 1.04% for Andrey Dmitriev, while 6.02% voted against all candidates.

On the evening of August 9, thousands of Belarusians took to the streets in a spontaneous act of protest. Clashes erupted with security officials.

In Minsk, law enforcement fired rubber bullets at protesters. According to human rights activists, about 300 people were detained, dozens were wounded and hospitalized, while one person reportedly died after being hit by a service vehicle.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus has refuted information about the person's death.

Lublin Triangle
Tran Viet Hung, the CEO and founder of Got It, a platform that connects students with teachers who help them through schoolwork, shared with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper his early stages of embarking on a startup.

Got It has become one of the most well-known apps among its kind, once reaching second place on App Stores most downloaded list.

It has raised millions of U.S. dollars in investment, but Hung said things were not always so easy.

While taking time to acknowledge some of their notable achievements, Hung shared that he and his coworkers have also made a lot of mistakes that he hopes he can help other entrepreneurs avoid.

What is Got It?

Got It is an educational platform that was officially launched in January 2014. Two years later, it became the second-most downloaded app on the App Store, just behind Apple's iTunes U app.

Got It helps users, mainly school and collge students, look for the answers and solutions to their exercises quickly via their smartphone.

When a student posts their schoolwork online, the app connects them with an expert in the field who helps guide them through solving the problem, usually within ten minutes.

Got Its experts come from many parts of the world, primarily the Philippines, India, South Africa, Eastern Europe, and the U.S.

Apart from providing a useful platform for students to ask questions and get answers, the app also helps many educational experts around the world increase their income by becoming an online tutor during their free time at any time and anywhere.

Determination in face of hardship

Tran Viet Hung graduated from the University of Iowa over ten years ago with a computer science degree. He then continued pursuing a Ph.D. in computer science at the same university.

With an inclination to start a business, he created his first startup Tutor Universe in 2011 in the state of Iowa as an online network of tutors. Got It, his second app, was created in 2013.

My first version of the educational app was a failure and my most painful experience, Hung said.

The app didnt have many users and investors refused to renew their funding. On top of that, the co-founder withdrew from our project. I felt as if the whole world was against me at that time."

Although the ordeal did not discourage him, it caused him to think everything over before trying again.

He was determined to start over by rebuilding the app from the ground up, making it more user-friendly.

Even though Hung was determined to make it work, he still faced the same hardships any tech startup in Silicon Valley faces, including bankruptcy.

Hung said he was on the verge of bankruptcy at least three times, even putting aside US$1,000 at one point in case he had to use it to go back home because of going belly up.

U.S. law stipulates that only when a company has enough money to pay the employees can it require them to go to work, explained Hung.

I experienced a few weekends when I didnt know how I would manage to have the money to pay my employees the following week.

"If I hadn't found the solution to that, I would have asked them not to come to the office on Monday.

"Fortunately, I was eventually able to address those problems."

The happiest moment for Hung was when Got It passed the product-market fit test, which means that there was a market demand for what his startup was selling and people were willing to pay for it.

We had had a lot of ideas, done many surveys, and made numerous mistakes. In the end, everything was solved, resulting in a product that users found useful and would use again and again, Hung said.

Giving back

Although he is often overwhelmed with his business and work as an advisory board member of Vietnams National Committee on Education and Training Innovation, Hung also has time to spend on contributing to many community activities.

Most recently, he and other Vietnamese alumni of American universities helped found STEAM for Vietnam, a non-profit organization that provides Vietnamese students with high-quality knowledge in STEAM fields for free.

STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math. It is an approach to teaching and learning in which STEM education principles are taught through the arts.

Science and technology now appear in every aspect of our lives. So I believe in the future, anyone who does not have knowledge of those subjects could be considered illiterate, Hung said.

Apart from that, to have a competitive edge, future generations will also have to have a background in general knowledge, which will help them deal with future problems that may come up, especially ones that are expected to be more complex than those that were facing at the moment."

That is why STEAM for Vietnam focuses on all five aspects of STEAM, providing learners with comprehensive knowledge, the Got It CEO added.

The non-profit organization has been operated by Vietnamese volunteers who are both working and studying in STEAM fields all over the world.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
The government in Lebanon has resigned over last weeks explosion that caused over 200 deaths.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced the resignation of the government in a TV broadcast, the BBC reports.

PREMIUM TIMES reported the explosion last Tuesday, caused by stored 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate.

There has been mounting anger in Lebanon, which was already troubled by worsening economic situation, against the government.

Many residents blamed the government for storing such large amount of the ammonium nitrate, used for fertiliser but also for bomb-making, in a residential area.

There have been protests in the country against the government.
(Newser)  A rising progressive politician trying to pull off a congressional upset is suddenly caught up in a controversy that might derail his plans. The politician is 31-year-old Alex Morse, the mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts, and the youngest openly gay mayor in the country, reports the Washington Post. In addition to serving as mayorhe was first elected at age 22Morse was an adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts from 2014 to 2019. Now the university is investigating allegations that Morse abused his position by having inappropriate sexual relationships with male college students and made others uncomfortable through interactions on social media, reports the Boston Globe. The allegations came to light in the Daily Collegian, which reported on complaints lodged by the student organization the College Democrats of Massachusetts.

story continues below

On Sunday night, Morse issued a lengthy statement on Twitter in which he strongly denied the central part of the allegations and emphasized that all of his relationships have been consensual. "I have never used my position of power as Mayor and UMass lecturer for romantic or sexual gain," he wrote, adding that he's certain the university investigation will clear him of any ethical wrongdoing. However, he acknowledged that some of the students he engaged with felt uncomfortable with their interactions. I am sorry for that, Morse wrote. This is unacceptable behavior for anyone with institutional power. Morse wrote that he is staying in the congressional race, suggesting that he was the victim of the "invocation of age-old anti-gay stereotype." He is trying to unseat longtime Democratic incumbent Rep. Richard Neal in next month's primary. (Read more Holyoke stories.)
I spoke with a San Diego cop recently. He is of color. For purposes of this article, I will call him Ben the cop. I was interested in getting his take on black Lives Matter. In doing so, I learned a truth that has, not surprisingly, not been reported by our local San Diego news stations. It's the simple answer to the question, why have cities like Portland and Seattle boiled over to unmanageable levels but not a city like San Diego?

Sure, San Diego, or at least technically one of its suburbs, La Mesa (54% White, 22% Hispanic, 8% African, 6% Asian), was caught off guard initially and had a night of rioting that resulted in some buildings, including a bank, being burned to the ground (sparked within days of George Floyd, by a viral video of a young, smart but foul mouthed black man being, from my point of view, unfairly profiled and arrested by a white cop, and this cop is no longer working for the city in any capacity). But since then, despite largely attended downtown marches and protests, the crowds have not escalated the rioting to a great extent.

He said it's because they have not been allowed to.

As one telling of the broken window theory goes, if you don't put up with small infractions, the perpetrators will be less likely to graduate to more harmful or destructive crimes. Ben the cop says the San Diego police have not allowed the protests to escalate.

Ben the cop grew up in the rough section of a California town. When he was young, he remembered many times seeing shootings up close, including drive-by shootings.

At first he would duck and cower, but along with their frequency, he soon became numb to them to the point that he would just stand and watch and marvel at the spectacle. Violence was just an accepted aspect of his surroundings growing up. One of his relatives, a law-abiding young man, was unjustly killed during a retaliation of sorts by gang types. His relative was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Ben the cop joined the San Diego police later than many, after a successful career with a private-sector company. Ben has much customer-facing experience in his prior career. He actually says the primary reason to become a cop was because he likes people  that and the prospect of getting to do a lot of the cool and challenging things he associated with being a cop.

Ben the cop, of color, says that what happened to George Floyd was wrong, and he does not personally know any cop that thinks that what happened to him was not wrong.

Ben the cop has been working the front lines, coming face to face with the postGeorge Floyd protesters. Most of the time, the protesters would shout at and name-call him and his fellow police officers. But unlike some of his fellow officers, Ben would offer to verbally engage protesters in discussions. He would generally pick out only one protester at a time to dialogue with. But with his offer to talk came a couple of rules. First, when it was his turn to talk, the protester could not interrupt him. Second, the discussion had to be only between the two of them. He did not want a discussion to devolve into a fruitless one-against-many shouting match. If these rules were not adhered to, he would cut the conversation off cold and retreat to the front line with the other officers. More often than not, he would have a reasonable conversation with the protester, civil to the point that the protester himself would often wave off fellow protesters who tried to interject into the conversation.

Ben said that, unlike the direction of other big cities, San Diego has actually recently increased police spending, much of it allocated for increased police training. I told him that I felt that training was no substitute for good instincts, and he agreed but nevertheless said training does help them do their jobs, and the more training they get to handle and de-escalate touchy situations, the better they will do exactly that.

Ben the cop says, of course, yes, all black lives matter. He also agrees that all lives matter. But when I asked about a couple of the underlying beliefs of the Black Lives Matter movement, he was not in agreement. He acknowledges that the number of unjust killings of citizens by cops in a year is a very small number, especially when matched against the number of encounters (millions) annually that cops have while doing the often dangerous job they are paid to do. And he denies that people of color are being unfairly singled out and targeted. He also said some things that if said publicly by a white cop in today's bubble of wokeness, would get that cop fired. Ben, a cop of color, said that, based upon his experience when dealing with suspects, the group that he knows he will most likely see incorrigible and/or violent behavior from are blacks. The group that he is next most likely to have such issues with are Hispanics. And in third place, Whites.

But we all know that the protesters are of all colors. Ben the cop witnessed some very aggressive protesters early on in downtown San Diego, emboldened by the "successful" level of destruction achieved during the nearby La Mesa protests. Heck, some of the San Diego protesters were likely veterans of the La Mesa protests. Ben does not know why exactly, he speculated perhaps because we have a Republican mayor in San Diego, but the San Diego cops were allowed to bring their A game. When the protesters tried throwing bricks and bottles they were responded to immediately with rubber bullets. Body shots. He said you do not want to aim at legs as you are more likely to miss as they are narrower than bodies and often in scampering motion. Word must have gotten around among the protesters because the violence levels had noticeably dropped from the first night to the second night and were next to nothing by the third night. Cops being allowed to do their jobs protecting property, people, and themselves.

Image credit: Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.
KAMLOOPS, B.C.Two vessels collided on the South Thompson River Saturday, sending two people to hospital, police said as they probed the incident.

At about 3:30 p.m., police were called to assist after two vessels collided on the river east of the Pioneer boat launch in Kamloops, B.C., according to an RCMP statement.

A slow-travelling ski boat was heading east, according to a preliminary investigation, when a jet boat that was also travelling east quickly approached from behind. The operator lost control and crashed into the lead vessel, the statement read.

A male and female passenger were taken to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops. The injured passengers were reported to be sitting on the lower back deck of the ski boat when the vessels collided. One of the passengers injuries were initially believed to be serious.

The boaters made it to shore, and police and fire services were able to respond quickly as they had boats on the river for a Float the River event.

According to witness accounts, it was remarkable that no one was seriously injured or killed, the statement reads.

Alcohol was not a factor in the crash, police said.

Police seized the vessels and are continuing their investigation to establish what if any charges may be supported.

Read more about:
Another attempt to cap the blowout of an Oil India Limited (OIL) natural gas well, which has been on fire since June 9 in Upper Assams Tinsukia district, failed on Monday due to technical glitches.

The blowout preventer (BOP) stack was successfully placed over the wellhead. While BOP stack alignment job was underway to insert the studs, one of the two bull lines connected to the Athey Wagon, which was lifting the BOP stack, came out from the socket due to the impact of excessive heat, said an OIL statement.

From the safety point of view and stability required for alignment of the BOP stack on the wellhead, experts decided to safely remove the BOP stack from the wellhead. Operations will resume after carrying out necessary rectification jobs, it added.

The BOP is a specialised valve --- a device used to seal control and monitor oil and natural gas wells to prevent blowouts, or the uncontrolled release of gas or oil from a well. They are usually installed in stacks of other valves.

An Athey Wagon is a device used to place the BOP stack, which weighs around three tonnes. It consists of a track-mounted boom lift with a hook on one end that is used to place the BOP stack on the wellhead.

On July 31, experts were attempting to place the BOP stack on the wellhead when the Athey Wagon toppled over leading to the suspension of work on capping the blowout.

The gas well had a blowout on May 27, when workover operation, or maintenance work, to locate a new gas reservoir was underway. While efforts to cap the blow out were underway, the well suddenly caught fire on June 9 and two firefighters were killed in the blaze that is yet to be doused.

Installation of the BOP is the penultimate task needed to complete the operation. Once the BOP is installed, the process of killing the well starts immediately.

According to OIL officials, that is done by injecting a kill fluid, a sludge-like specially prepared mud, into the well slowly to push the gas from the well back to the reservoir. The process takes around two-three days, as the fluid needs to fill the entire length of the 3.5-kilometre deep well.

Initially, OIL had said that the well would be plugged in a month. Later, the deadline was extended to July 7. But floods, technical glitches, and burn injury of three foreign experts while attempting to douse the fire have led to several delays.

Since the Baghjan well is located close to Dibru Saikhowa National Park (DSNP) and the ecologically-sensitive Maguri Motapung Wetland, there were fears of environmental damage to the area due to the blowout and fire.

Several studies by different agencies are underway to measure the extent of the damage.

In June, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had ordered the formation of an expert committee to probe the blowout and subsequent fire and assess the damage caused to human life, wildlife, and the environment because of the industrial disaster.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Utpal Parashar Utpal is an assistant editor based in Guwahati. He covers all eight states of North-East and was previously based in Kathmandu, Dehradun and Delhi with Hindustan Times . ...view detail
The biggest tourist success story of modern times has been Spain. When my elder brother - coincidentally, but happily in the circumstances, called Carlos - used to go to Malaga in the 1960s, it was just a fishing village where the ass and cart was the local means of transport. Prices were low and life was simple.

Spain was formally classified, according to the European historian Tony Judt, as "backward". Many British people also boycotted it because (a) it was headed by Franco until 1975 and (b) they objected to the cruel tradition of the bullfight. Actually, I'm with those cranky old animal lovers here: I think the corrida is absolutely horrible, and I don't care if Ernest Hemingway was a fan. When I attended a bullfight in Spain, I earnestly hoped the bull would defeat the matador, and if this exhibitionistic display of machismo ended with the guy being gored, then bravo to the bull!

The nicest thing about Argentina was that as soon as it won independence from Spain, it banned the corrida. And one of the best things about football is that as soccer's popularity rose in Spain, the bullfight's popularity declined. And then the astonishing success of Spain's tourism industry was also a major factor in changing the country.

Tourism as a mass industry began in the late 1950s: in 1959, Spain had three million visitors, which was already considered remarkable. By 1973, this had risen to a fantastic 34 million. By 2018, this number had more than doubled to an all-time high of over 82 million. More than 18 million British people visited Spain, plus 11 million French and 11 million Germans - and over two million Irish, which is getting on for half the population. Spain had become the second-most visited country in the world. The country, said Michael Portillo in a recent TV documentary on great railway journeys of Europe, is going through a "golden age" right now.

Alas, that has been paused. Spain's extraordinary ability to attract tourists has been catastrophically hit by the pandemic, as it leads the 'red list' of countries inadvisable to visit.

Others have been hit as well, but Spain's dependence on the tourism industry is colossal. Is it goodbye Costa Brava, Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol for the foreseeable future? It seems so.

But what made Spain such a phenomenal tourist success? At the beginning, it was because it was so underdeveloped and unspoilt.

I stayed in Sitges near Barcelona as a teenager in the 1960s and sat on a semi-deserted beach desultorily trying to amuse the children I was minding at the time. I thought the place might be nice if it had more people.

Soon enough, these glorious beaches would be thick with people: Spain would mean raves in Ibiza, while Benidorm became a byword for budget holidays, and Marbella, down by Malaga, was high chic.

Spain had tapas bars - a great invention where you could snack continuously on delicious little mouthfuls - and fabulous late-night eating, as the populace prepared to start the night at 10pm. It had street life and the flamenco and it was the source of one of the most refreshing habits of humankind, the siesta, which might be used for actual rest or for a session of canoodling.

Spain had vivacious, extrovert people who, as tourism grew, could speak more English, but the Spanish language itself seemed sufficiently accessible for most visitors to get by - hola and por favor and adios and a few more like that went a long way (along with English, Spanish is the most widely spoken global language, perhaps because it is accessible. And there is the little matter of the Spanish Empire). But behind the cheap holidays of sun, sand, sea, sangria and the sound of the castanets, Spain also had a deep cultural hinterland which we understood.

The Irish links with Spain go back to the Armada (and probably before), to Galway's trading links with the Iberian Peninsula and the Irish College at Salamanca, a beacon in Penal times.

In the 20th century, Spain had a continuous demand for Irish governesses, their stories beautifully chronicled by Kate O'Brien - a noted Hispanophile - and Maura Laverty, who added delicious Spanish food to the text.

Spain is, after Jerusalem and Rome, a prime place of pilgrimage - last year, the Camino de Santiago attracted over 300,000 pilgrims, from 200 countries (in the 1980s, only a couple of hundred walked it). Avila, linked with St Teresa of that name, was a huge attraction - author Vita Sackville-West was a devotee. As was Montserrat, where St Ignatius Loyola lay down his sword before the image of the Blessed Virgin in 1522 and founded the Jesuit order. The stunning Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona is the most visited monument in Spain, though George Orwell thought it so hideous he wished the anarchists had destroyed it.

I had the Prado museum and Madrid's other fabled galleries on my bucket list to visit any day now. Will it be any year now? Hopefully.

Spain is a great country of huge contrasts, dramatic extremes and glittering culture, and it would be tragic for its people if the current crisis devastated its tourism.
Country star Chris Stapleton has a new area date for his All American Road Show tour.

Originally scheduled for Aug. 1 at the Xfinity Centre in Mansfield, MA, the performance has been moved to Oct. 2, 2021.

Tickets purchased for the original date will be honored. Ticket information is available through Live Nation at livenation.com.

Stapleton debuted as a solo artist in 2015 with his release Traveller, which went to number one on the U.S. album charts.

He has gone on to win multiple CMA awards and a Grammy for Best Country Album.

Shop for concert tickets here: StubHub, SeatGeek, Ticketmaster.
This is the first part of a two-part article. The second part will be posted Tuesday, August 11.

The next milestones in the 2020 elections are fast approaching, with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to name his running mate this week, the Democratic National Convention opening next Monday and the Republican convention the week after.

This is an appropriate occasion to review the political program advanced by Biden, and rebut the incessant claims by the media that the Democratic nominee, and the party as a whole, have moved to the left and that there exist wide, even unbridgeable differences between the Democrats and Republicans on virtually every significant political issue.

Since the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination ended in March, with the decision of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to quit the race and endorse the former vice president, the claims of a shift to the left by the Democrats have become a media drumbeat.

These claims are usually coupled with suggestions that Sanders exerted political pressure through joint committees set up by the Biden campaign to cover six major areas, including climate change, criminal justice reform, education, health care, immigration and the economy.

Joe Biden (Flickr.com, Gage Skidmore)

The conclusions of these committeeseach staffed by five Biden representatives and three Sanders representativeshave been submitted to the platform committee for the Democratic National Convention and an 80-page draft platform assembled, made public July 21.

While the Biden campaign flatly rebuffed some of the signature proposals of Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warrenno Medicare for all and no Green New Deal, for examplethere were concessions made in terms of incorporating language and even some specific policies in areas like forgiveness of student loan debt.

But the effort to promote this process, both by Sanders himself and his pseudo-left apologists, has obscured a more fundamental feature of the emerging Biden campaign: its complete subordination to corporate America and to the demands of the military-intelligence apparatus.

This has not involved any internal reorientation for the candidate himself. On the contrary, Biden is a deeply reactionary figure who personifies the role of the Democratic Party as a venue for Wall Street and the CIA to reach agreement on the next steps for American imperialism.

It was only a year ago that Biden was caught on tape reassuring wealthy donors at a fundraising event in Manhattan, No ones standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change if he won the Democratic nomination, defeated Trump in 2020 and was sworn in as president in January 2021.

Throughout the Democratic presidential primary contest, Biden campaigned as the candidate who would restore what he called a normal America, i.e., America as it was under the administration that preceded Trump, with Barack Obama as president and himself as vice president.

The draft Democratic platform

This theme is underscored in the draft Democratic Party platform, which refers to the Obama-Biden Administration a dozen times, always in the most flattering terms, and presents a picture of American life in the years 2009-2016 that is unrecognizable to anyone who actually lived through this period of deep economic crisis, endless austerity and wage-cutting, and continuing wars and other imperialist atrocities.

The harking back to the halcyon days of Obama-Biden leaves out one overriding political question: If the Democratic administration was such a success, how was it possible for the Republicans to take control of Congressthe House of Representatives in 2010, then the Senate in 2014and finally win the White House under Trump in 2016?

We shall return to that question later on.

The Democratic draft platform is perhaps most remarkable for what it avoids rather that what it discusses. The word capitalism, for example, does not appear in the 80-page draft. There is no reference to the 2008 financial crash, to the bailout of Wall Street, to the forced bankruptcy of the auto industry and the cutting of wages for newly hired workers by 50 percent, or to the protracted stagnation in jobs and living standards, all hallmarks of the Obama-Biden administration.

In the arena of Obama-Biden foreign policy, there is no mention of drone missile strikes or assassinations, the US-NATO war on Libya, the US encouragement of the Saudi war in Yemen, Obamas pivot to Asia, involving the deployment of US warships and warplanes against China, the US-backed coup in Honduras, or the US-backed coup in Ukraine, spearheaded by fascists and anti-Semites.

Much of the platform consists of liberal-sounding boilerplate about economic and social justice, expanded access to health care, saving the environment and restoring an economy that works for everyone (a rhetorical tip of the hat to Sanders here). But the actual proposals are far more modest than Sanders demagogy: a $15-an-hour minimum wage; a public option to be added to the Affordable Care Act; making sure investors pay the same tax rates as workers, (not exactly a radical redistribution of wealth); rejoining the Paris Accord on global warming, a purely cosmetic gesture; and some forgiveness on student loan debts after borrowers have made payments for 20 years (half their working life!)

The platform begins with a brief section on the coronavirus pandemic, the overriding public health and social issue confronting the entire population of the country. This perfunctory passage says nothing about the campaign to force workers back to their jobs in unsafe workplaces, or the reopening of the schools. It does not advocate any new lockdown or other emergency action to save the millions of lives now threatened.

The language is peculiarly out of touch with the real conditions facing working people. In states and cities across the country, too many parents are being forced to choose between keeping their jobs and keeping their children safe, the platform reads, offering expanded child care as a solution. Actually, workers are concerned that it is their jobs that are putting their lives and the lives of their children in danger.

The grand total of four pages on the coronavirus is dwarfed by subsequent passages elaborating on measures to build up the fortunes of minority and female entrepreneurs, which is a veritable obsession of the platform.

When Marxists characterize identity politics as the politics of the black, Hispanic and female petty-bourgeoisie, this is not just a phrase, but a sociological reality: the Democratic platform calls on the government to equalize established pathways for building wealth for individuals from these social groups, and develop policies that provide seed capital in order to access the economic security of asset ownership.

In class terms, the Democratic Party does not seek to reduce the class wealth gap, the yawning social gulf between the multimillionaires and billionaires at the top of society and everybody else. It aims only to close the racial wealth gap, in other words, to bring a thin layer of blacks, Hispanics and women into the privileged upper class, where they can join in the exploitation of the entire working class, black, white, Hispanic and immigrant.

Biden and Wall Street

Biden indulges in a bit of anti-Wall Street rhetoric from time to time, but always within careful limits, and always with a nod and a wink to his real constituency, the super-rich, to let them know that this is just election-year demagogy that will have no real consequences.

In May, as trillions in federal relief funds flowed to Wall Street and corporate America, the Biden campaign criticized the Trump administration for carrying out what is now the largest corporate bailout in American history in a way that is systematically rigged in favor of big businesses, the wealthy, and the financial sectorand against the working people and middle class families.

This was an apt enough description, but the statement did not acknowledge that the CARES Act, which funded the bailout, was passed 96-0 by the Senate and by a voice vote in the Democratic-controlled House. Biden later told a group of wealthy backers that as a result of the popular backlash against the bailout there would have to be some financial sector reforms, and that he would look at the institutional changes we can make, without us becoming a socialist country or any of that malarkey.

Other domestic policy proposals combine the most meager possible reform proposals with an occasional pie-in-the-sky promise (presumably drawn from the Sanders-Warren camp) that no one in the Biden campaign or the congressional Democratic leadership takes seriously.

Thus, the section on poverty fulminates, In the wealthiest country on earth, it is a moral abomination that any child could ever go to bed hungry. True enough, but then why did the Obama-Biden administration cut food stamps? Biden now promises to increase benefits, and to remove barriers that keep the formerly incarcerated from accessing food assistance. Dont starve those just released from prison: What a monument to Democratic Party generosity!

The health care section pledges to build a health care system that is driven by the needs of patients and the people who care for them, instead of the profit motives of corporations. However, Biden proposes to leave these profit-seeking corporationsdrug companies, hospital chains, equipment manufacturers, insurance companiesin charge of the provision of health care. The platform adds, Democrats will fight any efforts to cut Medicare benefits, and support finding financially sustainable policies [my emphasisPM] to expand Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing. In other words, when pigs fly.

One of the grosser hypocrisies of the platform is a brief declaration on press freedom: Democrats roundly reject President Trumps denigration of the free and independent press, which has endangered reporters lives, helped fuel conspiracy theories, and deepened distrust between Americans and their government. But it was the Obama administration that prosecuted more journalists and whistleblowers than any other US government in history, including jailing Chelsea Manning and initiating the campaign against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.

On immigration, the Democratic platform speaks of righting the wrongs of the Trump administration. Presumably this language was chosen to avoid discussing the wrongs of the Obama-Biden administration, which deported more undocumented workers than any previous administration and pioneered the methodsinternment camps, separation of parents and childrenthat Trump has developed full blast.

Biden calls for reforming the leadership and training of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, i.e., not for their abolition, not even the abolition of the BORTAC special forces unit unleashed in the city of Portland last month.

Significantly, in an interview last week with journalists from the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Biden was careful to distance himself from the suggestion that his professed opposition to Trumps border wall meant that a future Biden administration would tear it down.

There will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration, number one, he said. Then he declared his support for using surveillance technology instead of a physical wall. Im going to make sure that we have border protection, but its going to be based on making sure that we use high tech capacity to deal with it. And at the ports of entrythat's where all the bad stuff is happening.

To be continued.
Leanne Campbell was working two part-time jobs until COVID-19 hit. In mid-March the restaurant where she earned her main source of income as a server, closed its doors. So did the clothing shop, where she worked a second job.

When the economy recently opened up again, Campbell went back to work at the store, but the restaurant still hasnt recalled her.

During the shutdown, Campbell has been collecting the Canada Emergency Relief Benefit (CERB), giving her roughly the same income she made before COVID. The 38-year-old Stoney Creek mother of two expects her last payment this month.

After that, she fears she will be out more than half her pre-COVID income as Ottawa transitions CERB to Employment Insurance (EI) next month. Under the EI rules, Campbell figures she would have her clothing store earnings clawed back. But if she quit that job while she waits to go back to serving, she wouldnt be entitled to EI because quitting is against the rules for that program.

That puts her among about 2.9 million Canadians who will see their income lost or cut unless Ottawa amends the EI program, says a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) released on Monday.

It says that 82 per cent of the 4.7 million Canadians who were on CERB on Aug. 2 will receive less or nothing under the current EI rules. Fifty-seven per cent of those at risk will be women.

The majority will be the low-wage earners who have already suffered disproportionately from the COVID-19 recession in sectors such as hospitality, retail, airlines and the arts, said the reports author, senior economist David Macdonald.

Unless the EI rules change, 2.1 million CERB recipients would be completely cut off. Nearly half of those are still working in a reduced capacity.

There are 972,000 people who make less than $1,000 a month and therefore can receive CERB, but wouldnt be able to receive EI, as you have to be completely unemployed with no wage income to get EI, says the report.

The CCPA recommends Ottawa ease the transition to EI, something Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has committed to doing, by taking the following steps:

Create a minimum benefit of $500 a week (the same as CERB) or increase the income replacement rate to 75 per cent of earnings for low-income earners who are eligible for EI.

Speed EI along by offering the first payment on an attestation basis, meaning no documented proof of employment status would be required initially, as was done with CERB so people arent left without benefits while they gather their employment records.

Alter EI to include gig workers and self-employed Canadians.

Macdonald says the government needs to revamp EI so it incorporates the best elements of CERB.

One of the upsides of CERB was, because it was so quick and because it was more generous, it likely had a big impact on consumer spending. Lower-income households that would have otherwise dramatically cut back their spending didnt, he said.

Many of the people moving to EI will make substantially less  $200 less a week. Over three-quarters of a million will make $300 rather than $500 a week. That will certainly have an impact on their spending. Many of these are in industries that arent coming back without a vaccine, said Macdonald.

There are about 2.1 million people who dont qualify for EI because they make over $1,000 a month or they havent met the EI criteria for number of hours worked.

The EI rules should be changed to require only 300 hours of work for those whose unemployment term begins after March 15, says CCPA.

Parents who quit to look after youngsters when schools and daycares closed wouldnt be covered by EI because they werent fired or laid off. That relatively small number of 18,000 could grow depending on how school and child care shakes out in the fall, he said.

Macdonald said there were 500,000 people in July who were still officially employed but werent getting any hours of work. It could be October before they realize they dont qualify for EI and gather up the documentation that says they have officially been laid off their jobs, he said.

CERB was prospective. It wasnt retrospective so on Aug. 2, people got the payment for August that was meant to go all the way to Aug. 29. On EI, you had to wait all the way to Aug. 29. So the month elapsed then they would pay you the previous months payments. Thats another way EI will be slower and harder to access, said Macdonald.

He said the CCPA report paints a worst-case scenario.

I dont think were going to end up in a worst-case scenario. But I dont think all these people will be adequately covered, he said.

Campbell says that, as things stand, EI is a no-win situation for her: If I keep working part-time I dont get EI. But if I quit I cant get EI.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 01:31:01|Editor: huaxia

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BERLIN, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Monday that he had complained to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the threat of sanctions against a German port company due to the Nord Stream 2 project.

Maas said he spoke with Pompeo over phone on Sunday to complain about the decision by three U.S. senators who threatened the German port operator Faehrhafen Sassnitz with sanctions over its support of the Russia-Germany gas pipeline project.

In their letter which got published on Friday, the three senators warned that the port operator could destroy its future financial viability if it does not cease all cooperation with companies working on the pipeline stretching 1,230 km from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea.

"I mentioned it in a telephone call yesterday and expressed my surprise and displeasure," said Maas on Monday in Berlin.

Washington and Berlin have long been at odds at the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

U.S. President Donald Trump has long voiced his discontentment about the Nord Stream 2 project, complaining about Germany's large payment to Russia on energy and "delinquency" on military spending.

German government and officials have repeatedly condemned the U.S. sanctions and Washington's extraterritorial administration.

Last week, Bundestag economic committee chairman Klaus Ernst called on the German government to consider countermeasures and, if necessary, implement punitive tariffs against the U.S. LNG gas. Enditem
Washington, Aug 10 : US President Donald Trump has denied reports that the White House had contacted South Dakota's Republican Governor Kristi Noem about adding his face to the iconic Mount Rushmore, it was reported.

Taking to Twitter on Sunday, Trump called the reports "fake news," though he added that it "sounds like a good idea to me", The Hill news website reported.

The President was referring to a report by The New York Times that said a White House aide had contacted Noem's office last year to ask about the process for adding new Presidents to Mount Rushmore.

The report was carried by other news outlets, including CNN.

In his tweet, Trump said: "This is Fake News by the failing @nytimes & bad ratings @CNN. Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me." Mount Rushmore features the 60-feet high faces of four US Presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

The monument was carved into the granite rock face between 1927 and 1941.

The land the memorial lies on, the Black Hills of South Dakota, was taken from the indigenous Lakota Sioux by the US government in 1800s.
EDITORS NOTE: Leonard Pitts is on vacation.

Having made his name in real estate, it is oddly appropriate that President Donald Trumps reelection efforts have steered him into a new version of panic peddling.

Panic peddling or blockbusting describes the now-illegal practice of persuading property owners to sell cheaply out of fear that people of another race, ethnicity or income group are going to move in and bring down property values. Then the unscrupulous peddler sells the same property for a higher price, most likely to a member of the feared minority group, and reaps the profits.

Trump isnt selling property this time. Hes selling himself.

I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood he boasted in a tweet Wednesday during a visit to West Texas.

Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down. I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule. Enjoy!

Right. Have a ball. He was referring to his scrapping of a government program  Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing  initiated by his old foe President Barack Obama that tries to reduce racial and economic segregation in suburban areas. In other tweets, Trump has warned that his likely Democratic opponent Joe Biden will destroy your neighborhood and your American Dream.

Well, as some folks used to say, There goes the neighborhood.

I was covering issues of housing discrimination and unscrupulous real estate agents back in the early 1970s when young Donald Trump, his father, Fred, and their Trump Management company were being sued by the Justice Department for discriminating against Black applicants for their apartments. The Trumps settled the case two years later after trying unsuccessfully to countersue the Justice Department.

Perhaps a sense of payback helped move Donald Trump to dump the AFFH rule that Obama put in place. The rule requires housing agencies and communities that receive federal housing and development funds to report steps they are taking to promote residential desegregation under the 1968 Fair Housing Act, a cause for which Martin Luther King Jr. marched in Chicago.

Will Trumps new panic pitch work? Curiosity drove me to call Alexander Polikoff, lead counsel since the late 1960s on the landmark Gautreaux public housing case. That long-running case led to the first Section 8 federal housing vouchers that help low-income, elderly and the disabled afford decent housing in the private market.

Yet, despite the past successes of Section 8, Polikoff, who has co-authored a concise new book titled A Brief History of the Subordination of African Americans in the U.S., told me in a phone interview with regret that he thinks Trumps panic-peddling ploy may just work.

The three-word phrase that raises more alarm in headlines than any other, he told me, is low-income housing. 

Sure, countless studies may show that low-income Section 8 rentals do not necessarily lead to crime, more poverty or lowered property values. But some people will never be convinced, he said. NIMBY (not in my back yard) is still strong.

Still, Polikoff agreed with me that public attitudes have changed a lot since the 1960s  fortunately for the better.

For example, in 1973 the General Social Survey and The Washington Post found that 64% of white Americans said they would vote for a law allowing homeowners to discriminate in selling their house. In 2014, that portion shrunk to only 28% while 70% thought such discrimination should be legally barred.

Sure, Trumps panic pitch may be music to a lot of peoples ears. But he also embarrasses a lot of people, including many in his own party. Having rejected advice to reach out and expand his political base, he has chosen instead to dig deeper into his base and speak primarily to people who already agree with him.

Meanwhile, countless others care more about what gives him less comfort: the coronavirus pandemic and the countrys recent economic collapse. I dont think his approach is a winning one. But thats why we have elections.

E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.
Professor Wisdom Akpalu, the Dean of School of Research and Graduate Studies, GIMPA, has said the marine fish stock is overexploited through artisanal fishers and industrial trawlers activities.

He noted that the sector is at the verge of collapse if nothing was done to salvage it.

He said the fishing industry contributed substantially to the Ghanaian economy, which employed about three million people and sustained livelihoods, hence the need for urgent redemption measures to avoid ecological collapse and safeguard sustainable income for artisanal fishers and the entire value chain.

Prof Akpalu was speaking during a presentation of research findings in Accra on measures to spur economic growth across all sectors of the economy to an Eminent Panel, which will rank all interventions and establish priorities for a prosperous future as part of the "Ghana Priorities" project.

The project is an initiative being spearheaded by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) in collaboration with the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, an award-winning international think tank.

Prof Akpalu proposed three policy interventions; replacing illegal fishing nets, reducing the over 13,000 canoes to 9,000, and providing entrepreneurial skills training and subsidies to fishers who would lose their sources of livelihoods to venture into fish farming.

He also called for the installation of video devices in trawl vessels to monitor harmful illegal fishing practices.

He expressed the optimism that the aforementioned interventions would produce positive returns on investment and improve livelihoods.

The Ghana Priorities project seeks to place premium on the best policies for the country's future based on cost-benefit analysis.

With regards to measures to promote industrial transformation, Prof Peter Quartey, the Director, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana, outlined some key interventions to boost industrial growth.

He said government and other donor agencies needed to support management consulting services that could significantly improve factory operations and processes in areas such as quality control, human resources, inventory, and sales.

He noted that every cedi spent on improving management practices would bring a return six times higher than the original investment for large enterprises, and almost 10 times higher for medium-sized companies.

Prof Quartey said medium scale enterprises must have access to credit adding; "Financing for businesses and companies could be promoted in Ghana by ensuring better surveillance of the credit referencing system, better address systems, improving the quality of information available to lenders and enforcing a reward and sanctions regime.

"These measures would create nearly 12 cedis worth of benefits to society for every cedi spent," Prof Quartey said.

The renowned Economist noted that providing capital grants to selected micro enterprises was estimated to generate benefit seven times higher than the original investment.

Prof Robert Darko Osei, the Vice Dean, School of Graduate Studies, UG, explained that agriculture was a significant contributor to the Ghanaian economy and an important source of employment, with over 40 per cent of the working population engaged in farming.

He said despite growth and development dynamics, which was witnessing gradual shifting away from the agriculture sector towards industry and services, agriculture still formed a crucial part of the Ghanaian economy, and a necessary vehicle for poverty alleviation and ensuring food security.

Prof Osei noted that increasing agricultural output could be achieved through three main mechanisms; increasing arable lands under cultivation, improving crop yield, and reducing post-harvest losses.

Dr Festus Ebo Turkson and Dr Priscilla Twumasi Baffour, both lecturers at the University of Ghana, introduced the pedagogical approach of 'Teaching at the Right Level,' which targets instruction to the specific learning needs of children by splitting them into class groups based on learning levels rather than age, for one or two hours per day.

They said the better learning outcomes resulting from this approach would be worth 1.5 per cent of earnings over students' lives, with every cedi spent generating social benefits worth eight cedis.

The research team that studied the cost/benefit indicators of using improved/certified seeds and fertilizer, irrigation and mechanisation to increase yields, and expanding warehousing capacity to reduce post-harvest losses recommended that subsidising fertiliser would benefit the nation four times than its initial cost.

After hearing presentations from the 28 teams of economists from Ghana and abroad over the course of three days, the Eminent Panel, including Nobel Prize recipient, Finn Kydland and six distinguished national economists, will rank all interventions and establish priorities for a prosperous future.

The Panel will present its findings on Monday, August 10.

---GNA
Mumbai:

The country needs a strong national encryption policy (NEP) before going cashless in post-demonetisation era to ensure safety of smart card users, according to IPS officer and IT expert Sanjay Pandey.



India needs a strong encryption policy before going digital all the way, Pandey, Deputy Commandant (Home Guards), Maharashtra, told PTI.



The algorithm currently used in India to encrypt the data was declared obsolete by the US way back in 2000 and therefore we need a strong encryption arrangement before going digital, the 1986 IPS officer, a computer science graduate from IIT, said.



Earlier, a National Encryption Policy draft was drawn up in late 2015. This was, however, withdrawn due to certain concerns raised by the experts and public.



Since then, there has been no serious attempt made in that direction, he said.



Guidelines issued to Internet Service providers (ISP) in 1999 mandated use of 40-bit encryption by the ISPs. But the use of 40-bit encryption in current times is too easy to be broken by hackers. This use of weak encryption exposes the data which travels through the Internet in India, he said.



Pandey was sent to USA and UK to study computer use for analysing crime and criminal data and was also entrusted with the work of computerising the modus operandi bureau of the crime branch and computerised information about arrested and convicted criminals.



Hackers may have gathered the sensitive information of the cards being used by the people at ATMs and PoS and we should not be surprised if the hacking starts taking place after March next year, because there is cap on withdrawal on cash right now, said Pandey.



He said there is also the risk of EMV cards being prone to skimming and attacks, where data from magnetic strip on them easily reads through a tampered Automated Teller Machine (ATM) or PoS machine.



Apart from coming up with National Encryption Policy mandating use of strong encryption, acceptance of India in the Wassenaar arrangement would make our country eligible to get and use best available encryption technology which will not only prevent skimming and malware attacks but also provide better security and safety to citizens in their day to day ATM and PoS usage, he said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
In this photo illustration, a mobile phone featuring the TikTok app is displayed next to the Microsoft logo on Aug. 3, 2020 in New York City. (Cindy Ord/Getty Images)

Microsofts Extensive Ties to Beijing Could Muddy TikTok Discussions, Experts Say

The future of TikTok is in the crosshairs as the app faces a September ban from the United States unless its parent company sells it to Microsoft or another U.S. company. But Microsofts decades-long ties to Beijing could muddy the waters.

The video-sharing app, which is wildly popular among American teens, has come under bipartisan scrutiny over national security and privacy concerns in relation to its ownership. TikTok, which was acquired by Beijing-based ByteDance Technology Co. in 2017, is estimated to have tens of millions of active users in the United States.

The crux of the concern is that under a 2017 national intelligence law, Chinese companies are required to provide their data to the ruling Communist Party. While some experts are optimistic that a Microsoft purchase will bring an end to alleged backdoor data mining, others say the companys own extensive ties with Beijing are a cause for concern.

President Donald Trump has recently taken a firm stance on Chinese apps. On Aug. 6, he issued executive orders that ban transactions with TikTok and social media app WeChat after Sept. 20. The orders also ban transactions with ByteDance and WeChats parent company, Tencent Holdings.

As the potential reality of a full-fledged ban approaches, small-scale restrictions are already taking place. The Senate recently unanimously approved a bill introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that bans government employees from using TikTok on government devices.

The State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and the Transportation Security Administration have already barred TikTok on government devices, and in December 2019, the U.S. Army blocked its soldiers from using the app. Lt. Col. Robin Ochoa, an Army spokeswoman, told Millitary.com that it is considered a cyber threat.

The Epoch Times recently reported that more than 130 employees at ByteDance are part of a Chinese Community Party (CCP) committee embedded in the company. Many of the employees work in management positions, according to internal documents. ByteDance, founded in March 2012, set up its Party committee in October 2014.

Extensive Presence

Scott Watnik, litigation partner at U.S. law firm Wilk Auslander and co-chair of the firms cybersecurity practice, said the anxieties surrounding a Microsoft purchase are well warranted.

It is no secret that Microsoft has had a presence in China since 1992, Watnik told The Epoch Times. Microsoft enjoys special status in China as the only Western company China permits to operate a search engine and a social media company within its borders: Bing and LinkedIn.

Under Beijings great firewall policy, both these companies have been censored inside China. Zhang Yiming, the founder of Bytedance, also used to work for Microsoft and has an estimated net worth of more than $16 billion.

As Microsofts own website touts, the companys most complete subsidiary and largest R&D center outside the United States is in China.

Microsofts website also boasts that in early 2015, the company was recognized by Fast Company magazine as one of the Worlds Top 10 Most Innovative of 2015 Companies in China. It was also included as one of the Companies Remaking the Chinese Economy.

By operating in China, Microsoft thus makes a Faustian bargain: It gets billions in profits and market share in the most populous country in the world, but in return it must cede to Beijings demands for government censorship, and limits on free expression and user privacy in connection with its online platforms, Watnik said.

On what level can an American company who enters into a Faustian bargain of this sort be trusted? Can a United States company that has already engaged, and continues to engage, in the Faustian bargain be trusted to cease such activity?

Other major companies such as Google, meanwhile, have exited China in protest over government censorship and alleged hacking by the regime. Given Microsofts extensive presence inside China, Watnik said he believes the CCP has the ability to exert leverage over Microsoft by implementing policies and regulations that could reward or punish Microsofts business operations in China.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has attempted to quash concerns, saying in an Aug. 2 statement that the company would ensure that all private data of TikToks American users is transferred to and remains in the United States.

TikTok also has repeatedly claimed that it stores all U.S. user data in the United States with backup redundancy in Singapore.

There are also critics of a Microsoft purchase in the higher levels of the administration. White House adviser Peter Navarro told CNN: Whose software does the Peoples Liberation Army in China run on? Microsoft. The Chinese Communist Party, whose software do they use to do all the things they do? Its Microsoft.

So, this is not a whitehat company thats an American company. Its clearly a multinational company thats made billions in China, that enables Chinese censorship through things like Bing and Skype.

If Microsoft wants the TikTok deal to go through, executives might want to consider divesting from China, Navarro said.

Beijing used to utilize Microsofts Windows operating system in their military, however it is moving to replace it with a new operating system independently developed by China.

TikTok recently garnered more than 2 billion downloads on Google Play Store and Apples App Store globally, according to Sensor Tower Store Intelligence.

According to the research firm, the app received the most downloads for any app ever in the first quarter of this year when it accumulated more than 315 million installs.

Blair Brandt, a Republican strategist and political adviser, said the fact that Microsofts software is being used by the CCP certainly makes you second-guess things.

We cannot assume, at least on face value alone, that their ownership of TikTok will naturally prevent the privacy violations we were originally concerned about, he told The Epoch Times. The devil will be in the details.

Selling TikTok to an American firm is a great compromise, but we do have to look at what buyers provide the right track record and level of integrity.

All sales of Western technology and tech manufacturing to China should be banned to protect national security, according to Casey Fleming, chairman and CEO of intelligence and security strategy firm BlackOps Partners.

He believes there will be no change to Beijings espionage practices even if it agrees to Microsofts acquisition.

Again, all technology used or created by the CCP is to keep the communist regime in power, he told The Epoch Times. Think total control.

By law, Chinese companies are required to set up Communist Party units within their offices to ensure that business policies and employees toe the Party line.

A spokesperson for Microsoft told The Epoch Times via email that the company doesnt have anything to share, in response to a written query.

A TikTok spokesperson didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Moving Forward?

Rob Behnke, CEO at Halborn, a cybersecurity firm working with emerging technologies, told The Epoch Times that at this point its not even speculation, that TikTok sends U.S. data to China.

So a change in management will change this and hopefully the backdoors will be closed should this end up actually happening, he said. This is more so about data privacy than security, though.

A successful acquisition would just mean that it would be a U.S. company spying on Americans, rather than the Chinese, Behnke said. He called the recent U.S. rhetoric around the app purely a political play.

The concerns around TikTok come amid broader anxiety over forced technology transfers from U.S. companies to Chinese authorities and intellectual property theft.

China has built up its technology largely on what it has stolen from the West, with costs of intellectual property theft amounting to an estimated $600 billion a year.

Trump has described TikToks presence in the United States as a landlordtenant relationship and that his administration holds all the cards. Mark Grabowski, an associate professor specializing in cyber law and digital ethics at Adelphi University, said it would be a relief to know that under a Microsoft purchase the Chinese regime would at least no longer be able to directly exploit TikTok to spy on Americans.

But Im not sure Microsoft is the answer, he told The Epoch Times. Theyre part of the so-called Frightful Five or group of American tech giants that have accrued a tremendous amount of power.

I also worry whether Microsoft will impose censorship on TikTok. Theyve included speech restrictions in their Terms of Service for other products, such as Office 365, that go well beyond whats required by law.

While Microsoft is believed to be one of the main players, Twitter also has expressed interest in an acquisition.

Robert J. Bunker, adjunct research professor at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, said the TikTok saga is part of a wider issue, a battle to decide the landscape of the internet.

I think the United States should fight for the future of a liberal-democratic influenced global internet by both engaging and containing China in this regard, he told The Epoch Times. Hence Microsoft and other U.S. companies should purchase TikTok, Zoom, and other potentially CCP-linked business entities.

Nicole Hao contributed to this report.
Bishop John Stowe giving his support to the LGBT+ community in a video message: (Center on Religion and Culture - YouTube)

A Kentucky bishop has claimed Donald Trump cannot be pro-life, because he is only concerned about himself.

Reverend John Stowe, the Lexington Diocese Bishop in Kentucky, questioned the presidents stance on abortion during a Facebook Live panel with Catholic organisation Pax Ramona.

For this president to call himself pro-life, and for anybody to back him because of claims of being pro-life, is almost willful ignorance, the reverend said when asked about the churchs role in Novembers presidential election.

He is so much anti-life because he is only concerned about himself, and he gives us every, every, every indication of that, Mr Stowe added.

During an interview with The World Over on 23 June, the president criticised presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden for his stance on abortion, while he claimed that he is pro-life.

Im pro-life; hes not, and the Democrats-look who hes putting on the court, he said. Im pro-life. The Democrats arent. Nobody can say that Biden is. Look at his stance over the years.

Mr Stowe added during the discussion that he agrees with comments made by Pope Francis about what it means to be pro-life, after the religious leader himself doubted the presidents beliefs.

According to the National Catholic Reporter, in 2017 Pope Francis said: I have heard the President of the United States speak, and added: He presents himself as a pro-life man. If he is a good pro-lifer, he should understand that the family is the cradle of life and you must defend its unity.

Mr Stowe said that his interpretation of the Popes comments are that we cant claim to be pro-life if we support the separation of children from their parents at the US border, if we support exposing people at the border to Covid-19, because of the facilities that were in.

He added: If we support denying people who have [the] need to adequate healthcare access to that health care, if we keep people from getting the house or the education that they need, we cannot call ourselves pro-life.

Story continues

In the past few weeks, the president has repeatedly claimed that the Democrats and Mr Biden are anti-religion, while on the campaign trail.

In an interview with Fox Business host Lou Dobbs earlier this month, the president said of the Democratic Party: Theyre against oil and gas. Theyre against guns, and I guess theyre against God, and added: Theyre against religion, theyre against the bible, certainly.

Those comments followed a speech he made last Thursday, where Mr Trump took aim at the former vice president and claimed that he is against god.

He said that the presumptive Democratic candidate has no religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God. Hes against God. Hes against guns. Hes against energy-our kind of energy. I dont think hes gonna do too well in Ohio.

Read more

Kavanaugh urged Supreme Court to avoid rulings on abortion, Trump docs
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 15:13:30|Editor: huaxia

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ISLAMABAD, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- A blast hit Pakistan's southwestern Chaman city on Monday, killing at least four people and leaving 10 others injured, police and local media said.

According to police in the area, a government vehicle came under attack near the Mall Road area of Chaman, in southwestern Balochistan province.

Rescue teams, police and security forces have reached the site and shifted the injured to a nearby hospital.

The nature of the blast is not known yet. No group or individual has claimed the blast yet. Enditem
UPDATE (2:10 p.m.): The New York Posts Joel Sherman reports the Yankees plan to promote Clint Frazier.

Hes back. Maybe.

Outfield prospect Clint Frazier hinted Monday that he is about to rejoin the New York Yankees.

Frazier tweeted a gif from the movie Toy Story which shows the character Buzz Lightyear busting out from under a pile of characters.

Introducing Yankees Insider: Get exclusive news, behind-the-scenes observations and the ability to text message directly with beat writers

Frazier posted a similar tweet on July 31, 2019, following the MLB non-waiver trade deadline, as the Yankees decided to hold on to the former first-round draft pick.

Frazier would take the place of infielder Thairo Estrada, who was optioned to the clubs Triple-A camp after Sundays 4-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.

Buy Aaron Judge Yankees gear: Fanatics.com, MLBShop.com, Lids

Estrada had joined the club after slugger Giancarlo Stanton landed on the injured list following his left hamstring injury during Saturdays doubleheader at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Injuries are nothing new for Stanton. He suffered a right calf strain during spring training that was expected to keep him out a while, but the coronavirus stopped the sport for four months, giving Stanton time to recover before Opening Day.

Stanton missed the bulk of last season with a biceps tear, as well as shoulder, knee and quad injuries. As a result, he played in just 18 regular-season games.

As for Frazier, he started the 2020 season on the Yankees Opening Day roster but was demoted after just two games. At the time, Frazier was struggling for at-bats with a glut of outfielders in pinstripes. But Stanton went down just two days after the club demoted Miguel Andujar, leaving New York thin in the outfield.

(NJ Advance Medias Brendan Kuty contributed to this report.)

Get Yankees text messages: Cut through the clutter of social media and text during games with beat writers and columnists. Plus, exclusive news and analysis every day. Sign up now.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
By Express News Service

SALEM: After a Salem youth studying medicine in Russia succumbed to floods there, his parents met Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami at his residence on Sunday and sought help to bring his body to the district.

A Manoj Anand (24) from Aragalur near Thalaivasal was a final year medical student. On Saturday, Manoj Anand and his friends from Tamil Nadu have gone to Volga River.

While a few of them managed to escape, four students from Tamil Nadu, including Manoj, died in the sudden floods. The CM has assured to do the needful.
California Department of Public Health Director and State Health Officer Dr. Sonia Angell speaks at a press conference in Sacramento, Calif., on Feb. 27, 2020. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Top California Health Official Resigns Amid Questions About COVID-19 Data

Californias public health director resigned Aug. 9 as state officials struggle to deal with a computer system failure that led to inaccurate COVID-19 case numbers.

Dr. Sonia Angell announced her departure in a message to colleagues. She didnt give a reason for her resignation but mentioned the pandemic.

Since January, when we got word of repatriation flights arriving from Wuhan, China, our Department has been front and center in what has become an all-of-government response of unprecedented proportions to COVID-19. Not one of our staff has gone untouched by the changes that have occurred. Not in our professional lives or our personal lives, she wrote.

Angell, who directed the state Department of Health, praised health workers for stepping up and getting work done.

California health officials discovered a system failure last week that led to inaccurate COVID-19 case numbers and case positivity rates.

COVID-19 is a disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

The system failure also prevented counties from having some of the data they need to monitor and respond to the virus in their communities, Dr. Mark Ghaly, Californias health secretary, told reporters in a virtual press conference on Aug. 7.

A stylist from Grey Matter LA cuts a clients hair, both wearing facemasks, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in Los Angeles, on Aug. 4, 2020. (Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images)

Officials blamed temporary changes put in place after a server outage on July 25.

A separate problem, in which the state failed to receive data from one of its largest commercial labs, stemmed from the state not renewing the labs certificate.

Ghaly, in announcing an investigation, told reporters that officials are aware that people at the state Health and Human Services and Department of Public Health were knowledgeable of some of these challenges.

The current system isnt built for the large volume its processing during the pandemic, and officials have accelerated the development of a new system.

Angell, a former deputy commissioner at New York Citys Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year to head Californias Department of Health.

I want to thank Dr. Angell for her service to the state and her work to help steer our public health system during this global pandemic, while never losing sight of the importance of health equity, Newsom said in a statement on Aug. 9.
The man found burning next to a West Side Highway late Sunday was dead before he was set on fire, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said Monday during a news conference.

According to Salazar, an individual initially called 911 at around 11 p.m., thinking it was a vehicle fire before discovering it was a body that was burning. Almost 30 feet of the area around the body was also set on fire. Accelerant was found on the scene, the sheriff said.

Salazar described it as a gruesome scene next to the access road near the 10300 block of U.S. 90. The man had significant trauma to his body and was dumped in the grassy area near the field, the sheriff said.

The victim has not been identified and there are no suspects, but Salazar said there are several pieces of evidence at the scene he believes will lead them to those responsible.

FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox

The dump was hastily done, and there is almost a sense of desperation with the suspects, Salazar said. There was a lot of evidence left behind that we are hoping will help us. ... I am cautiously optimistic.

The victim is described as a white or Hispanic male in his mid-30s to mid-40s.

Patrol officers could be seen collecting evidence on the opposite side of the highway. Salazar said traffic around the area of U.S. 90's interchange with Loop 1604 will be interrupted as investigators continue to search the area.

BSCO is asking anyone with information to contact the department at 210-335-6070 or email bscotips@bexar.org. There will also be a reward for information posted by Crime Stoppers later today.

Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news and general assignment reporter for MySA.com | taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway
Sydney Guerrette, founder of Be The Change Youth Initiative, has traveled the United States encouraging youth to serve their communities. Through a partnership with Songbirds Foundation, Ms. Guerrette is combining her love for music and empowering youth as she rallies them to help raise $10,000 for the Songbirds Foundations Guitars for Kids Program.

In 2016, for her 15th birthday, Ms. Guerrette wanted to grant the wish of a child through Make-A-Wish America. Unable to raise the money on her own, she asked her friends to help through the simple act of doing the things they love. Four years later, the 18-year-old has traveled across the country encouraging youth to use their gifts and talents to help others. Through the simple acts of painting, reading, and building Legos, they have raised almost $50,000 for various organizations, including Make-A-Wish America, Hands and Feet Project, and To Write Love on Her Arms.

As part of her current partnership with Songbirds Foundation, Ms. Guerrette is combining two of her passions: music and kids.

I have two passions in life: creating music and encouraging kids to use their gifts to serve their

communities," said Ms. Guerrette. "Right now, more than ever, Im committed to empowering youth to see how important their voices are and how, when we work together, we can create a positive change in the world. Our partnership with Songbirds Foundation is even more important because the gift of music has had a profound impact on our family. My brother Braydens struggle with depression and suicidal ideation was such a dark time for our family, but music helped him process his thoughts and communicate his pain. It was such an important part of his healing process and one of the reasons we want to support Guitars for Kids.

Songbirds Foundations Guitars for Kids program was created to restore and revive the school music experience, providing students with the basic fundamentals and a diverse range of playing styles and techniques. Students also develop their social-emotional capacity as they learn to work through social, health, and life issues with certified music therapists. While working in groups, students create friendships and establish musical bonds with other players. This type of group interaction is essential for kids who have experienced bullying or have atypical developments

such as autism, Down syndrome, or Aspergers, said officials.

"Over the past five years we have seen hundreds of kids grow through music and overcome some major life obstacles, said Reed Caldwell, executive director of Songbirds Foundation. We are so proud to be able to provide a robust musical education to students all over the state. It is super cool to see kids like Sydney and Brayden deciding to give back and help us accomplish our goals.

To support Be The Change Youth Initiatives Fundraising Initiative, there are four ways to get involved:

1. Encourage a child between the ages of 5 and 17 to use their gifts and talents to help. Be

The Change Youth Initiative has created an easy-to-follow packet to help make the fundraising process simple: https://www.bethechangeyi.com/downloadsffp

2. Invite Ms. Guerrette and her brother to share more about the Songbirds Foundation Initiative and the importance of encouraging youth to use their gifts and talents to serve their community. Using their own gifts, Sydney and Brayden will share their stories, personal struggles and original music, including a song written specifically for Songbirds Foundation. Fill out the Event Form here: https://www.bethechangeyi.com/eventform

3. Purchase a T-shirt created specifically for this Initiative. One hundred percent of the profits from the sale of the Love is an Action T-shirt goes directly to the fundraising goal. You can view the shirt here: https://www.bethechangeyi.com/shop/love-is-an-action-t-shirt

4. Donate directly to the Songbirds Foundation. All donations through this link will go towards the fundraising goal of $10,000: https://donorbox.org/bethechange

You can catch Sydney and Brayden performing at Chattanooga Unite every Saturday from 4-6 p.m. (Tennessee Riverpark at 4301 Amnicola Hwy, Chattanooga, TN 37402) For more information on the Fundraising Initiative visit https://www.bethechangeyi.com/songbirds
New York, NY, August 10, 2020  The Association for Computing Machinerys Special Interest Group on Data Communication (ACM SIGCOMM) today announced highlights of SIGCOMM 2020, its annual flagship conference. The five-day conference, considered the leading venue on the applications, technologies, architectures and protocols for wired and wireless networks, will be held virtually for the first time in its 50-year history from August 10-14.

The SIGCOMM conference attracts researchers and practitioners from around the world who present work on all aspects of data communication networks and network systems. Topics explored include everything from advances in programmable switches and the ability to program them to supporting video applicationsa very timely topic.

SIGCOMM 2020 features its largest-ever program of 53 innovative papers, along with 43 posters, 19 demos and 10 industrial demos. In addition, the main conference program includes a Best of CCR session and exciting industrial speakers.

2020 will likely be remembered for the COVID-19 pandemic and its tremendous global impact, said Program Co-chair Sujata Banerjee, VMware Research. The contributions of the academic and industrial networking community have enabled us to stay connected in these difficult times. Because the research collaborations and new ideas that come out of SIGCOMM are so essential to todays world, we were determined to stay on track with the event. Far from being curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to the efforts of our research community, this years program will be our most extensive to date.

Our community of networking and computer communications researchers is perhaps best-positioned to develop a leading-edge virtual conference, added ACM SIGCOMM 2019 General Co-chair Henning Schulzrinne of Columbia University. Weve designed the conference to foster a good deal of personal interactions that will hopefully lead to new collaborations. Another bright spot of this years conference is that, because it is virtual, many more people will be able to participate. We are looking forward to seeing how an-all virtual worldwide event will showcase and incubate research in an entirely new way.

2020 ACM SIGCOMM HIGHLIGHTS

Visit the SIGCOMM 2020 Program Page for a full list of research papers, workshops, and events.

Keynote Address/SIGCOMM Lifetime Achievement Award

This year, SIGCOMM is recognizing two Lifetime Achievement awardees who will both be presenting keynote speeches at the conference. The award recognizes major contributions to the field of communication networks.

Amin Vahdat (Google Inc.)

The annual SIGCOMM Award will be presented to Amin Vahdat for groundbreaking contributions to datacenter and wide-area networks. The title of Vahdats keynote address is Coming of Age in the Fifth Epoch of Distributed Computing: The Power of Sustained Exponential Growth.

Lixia Zhang (University of California, Los Angeles)

The annual SIGCOMM Award will be presented to Lixia Zhang for her many insights into data network architectures and the interactions between network components. The title of Zhangs keynote address is Learning the Art and Science in Internet Protocol Designs.

Research Papers (Partial List)

Switch Code Generation using Program Synthesis

Xiangyu Gao, Taegyun Kim, Michael D. Wong, Aatish Kishan Varma, Anirudh Sivaraman (New York University); Divya Raghunathan, Aarti Gupta (Princeton University); Pravein Govindan Kannan (National University of Singapore); Srinivas Narayana (Rutgers University)

Writing packet-processing programs for programmable switch pipelines is challenging because of their all-or-nothing nature: a program either runs at line rate if it can fit within pipeline resources, or does not run at all. This paper presents a compiler, Chipmunk, which formulates code generation as a program synthesis problem. Chipmunk uses a program synthesis engine, SKETCH, to transform high-level pro- grams down to switch machine code.

A Computational Approach to Packet Classification

Alon Rashelbach, Ori Rottenstreich, Mark Silberstein (Technion)

Multi-field packet classification is a crucial component in modern software-defined data center networks. In this paper, the authors describe an efficient training algorithm that guarantees the correctness of the RQ-RMI-based classification.

Concurrent Entanglement Routing for Quantum Networks: Model and Designs

Shouqian Shi, Chen Qian (University of California, Santa Cruz)

Quantum entanglement enables important computing applications such as quantum key distribution. The authors present a comprehensive entanglement routing model that reflects the differences between quantum networks and classical networks as well as a new entanglement routing algorithm that utilizes the unique properties of quantum networks.

bf4: towards bug-free P4 programs

Dragos Dumitrescu, Radu Stoenescu, Lorina Negreanu, Costin Raiciu (University Politehnica of Bucharest)

Recent verification work has made advances in finding bugs in P4 programs before deployment, but it requires that the programmer specifies table rules that are possible at runtime. The authors present bf4, a novel verification approach for P4 programs that uses a mix of static verification, code changes and runtime checks to ensure that the deployed P4 program is bug free.

Neural-Enhanced Live Streaming: Improving Live Video Ingest via Online Learning

Jaehong Kim, Youngmok Jung, Hyunho Yeo, Juncheol Ye, Dongsu Han (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST))

Live video accounts for a significant volume of todays Internet video. Despite a large number of efforts to enhance user quality of experience (QoE) both at the ingest and distribution side of live video, the fundamental limitations are that streamers upstream bandwidth and computational capacity limit the quality of experience of thousands of viewers. To overcome this limitation, the authors have designed LiveNAS, a new live video ingest framework that enhances the origin streams quality by leveraging computation at ingest servers.

Turboboosting Visible Light Backscatter Communication

Yue Wu, Purui Wang, Kenuo Xu, Lilei Feng, Chenren Xu (Peking University)

Visible light backscatter communication (VLBC) presents an emerging low power IoT connectivity solution with spatial reuse and interference immunity advantages over RF-based (backscatter) technologies. State-of-the-art VLBC systems employ COTS LCD shutter as optical modulator, whose slow response fundamentally throttles its data rate to sub-Kbps, and limits its deployment at scale for use cases where higher rate and/or low latency is a necessity. To address this problem, the authors have designed and implemented RetroTurbo, a VLBC system dedicated for turboboosting data rate.

Sirius: A Flat Datacenter Network with Nanosecond Optical Switching

Hitesh Ballani, Paolo Costa, Raphael Behrendt, Daniel Cletheroe, Istvan Haller, Krzysztof Jozwik, Fotini Karinou, Sophie Lange, Kai Shi, Benn Thomsen, Hugh Williams (Microsoft Research)

The increasing gap between the growth of datacenter traffic and electrical switch capacity is expected to worsen due to the slowdown of Moores law, motivating the need for a new switching technology for the post-Moores law era that can meet the increasingly stringent requirements of hardware-driven cloud workloads. The authors propose Sirius, an optically-switched network for datacenters providing the abstraction of a single, high-radix switch that can connect thousands of nodesracks or serversin a datacenter while achieving nanosecond-granularity reconfiguration.

Akamai DNS: Providing Authoritative Answers to the World s Queries 

Kyle Schomp, Onkar Bhardwaj, Eymen Kurdoglu, Mashooq Muhaimen (Akamai Technologies); Ramesh K. Sitaraman (University of Massachusetts at Amherst/Akamai Technologies)

The authors present Akamai DNS, one of the largest authoritative DNS infrastructures in the world, that supports the Akamai content delivery network (CDN) as well as authoritative DNS hosting and DNS-based load balancing services for many enterprises. The authors also convey insights from operating the production system that are of value to the broader research community.

Workshops

Teaching and Learning Computer Networking During the Pandemic and Beyond

The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a massive, unanticipated, rapid, and near universal switch from face-to-face to completely online teaching and learning at colleges and universities around the world. There's been a tremendous amount of innovation, improvisation, and learning-by-doing around the world. This workshop will be an opportunity to identify challenges, discuss solutions, and share knowledge and experience.

Secure Programmable Network Infrastructure (SPIN 2020)

The 1st SPIN workshop aims to provide a forum for the community to come together and rethink fundamental questions in Internet security. The Internet was not designed with a secure foundation. However, as more and more applications rely on secure network services, the importance of network security has grown significantly.

Traffic Manipulation (ManTra 2020)

The ManTra workshop provides a forum for researchers, practitioners, network operators, and the Internet standards community to present and discuss the state of the art in traffic manipulation attacks and countermeasures. The workshop considers different types of attackers, from very strong ones such as the corrupt operators and MitM adversaries to weak off-path attackers and different type of attacks, all that utilize manipulation of traffic for achieving the attack goal, as well as the defenses against them.

NetAI 2020 workshop provides a forum for networking researchers to present and share their latest research on building self-driving networks and coupling the technological advances in networking with scientific innovations in AI and ML.

Network Application Integration/CoDesign (NAI 2020)

Today, more than 4 billion users (half of the global population) and 20 billion devices are online  the exponential growth of the connected people and devices are expected to continue over the next years. However, the general-purpose and best-effort model of the Internet is challenged due to the ever-growing demand for more complex applications with stricter application-specific requirements. How can we deliver 4k videos to everybody (including the rest 4 billion people)? How can we ensure ultra-low latency for applications such as self-driving cars and cloud gaming? This workshop examines the contributions to the design principles and real implementations of systems that enable network-application co-design.

Hot Topics in Video Analytics and Intelligent Edges (HotEdgeVideo 2020)

Cameras are everywhere! Analyzing live videos from these cameras has great potential to impact science and society. This workshop calls for research on various issues and solutions that can enable live video analytics with the role for edge computing. Topics include low-cost video analytics, network design for video streams, and video analytics for social good, among many others.

Optical Systems Design (OptSys 2020)

Optical equipment is a fundamental component of modern systems. Today, nearly all wide-area, metro, and data center communications are carried over optical technology making optics a billion-dollar industry. Optics is poised to play an even bigger role in next-generation networks. The OptSys workshop focuses on the design and implementation of optical networked systems for the next-generation Cloud infrastructure.

Evolution, Performance, and Interoperability of QUIC (EPIQ 2020)

The transport protocol QUIC has emerged from a proprietary effort undertaken by Google to a next generation transport protocol being standardized in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). This workshop will explore novel ideas and future directions of QUIC and its interaction with applications and networks.

The N2Women workshop aims to foster connections among the under-represented women in computer networking and related research fields. The N2Women workshop has three main goals: Connect newer generations of networking women researchers with the community and create mentorship relationships; Create a research forum in which students and junior researchers learn and discuss current trends in networking, present their research and receive feedback; Engage a diverse body of junior researchers in the field.

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About SIGCOMM Conference

ACM SIGCOMM is the annual flagship conference of ACM's Special Interest Group on Data Communications. It serves as ACMs professional forum for the discussion of topics in the field of communications and computer networks, including technical design and engineering, regulation and operations, and the social implications of computer networking. The SIG's members are particularly interested in the systems engineering and architectural questions of communication.

About ACM

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.
A San Francisco Superior Court judge on Monday granted Californias request for a preliminary injunction to make the states Uber and Lyft drivers into employees. The 34-page order was scathing about the ride-hailing companies prolonged and brazen refusal to comply with California law, namely AB5, the new gig-work law that makes it harder for companies to claim that workers are independent contractors.

The ruling is the biggest defeat Uber and Lyft have suffered in their quest to keep drivers as freelancers, which both companies say is key to their future. However, it is likely to have little immediate impact.

Judge Ethan Schulman stayed his injunction for 10 days. The companies will appeal it and seek a longer stay before the 10 days are up. An appeals court likely would hear their emergency motion quickly. Uber said it expects to be granted the longer-term delay and does not anticipate any near-term changes to its business. No matter what, it could not hire tens of thousands of drivers in a matter of days, it said.

Drivers do not want to be employees, full stop, Lyft said. Well immediately appeal this ruling and continue to fight for their independence.

The vast majority of drivers want to work independently, and weve already made significant changes to our app to ensure that remains the case under California law, Uber said in a statement.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and three city attorneys had sought to force the ride-hailing companies to immediately reclassify their drivers under AB5. Becerra and the city attorneys of San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego sued Uber and Lyft in May, saying they were depriving drivers of the protections and benefits of employment. They sought a preliminary injunction even before the case goes to trial.

Schulman said there was an overwhelming likelihood that Becerra and the city attorneys would prevail on their claim that Lyft and Uber are misclassifying drivers. Defendants contrary arguments lack merit, he wrote, calling out glaring inconsistencies such as the companies saying that AB5 does not apply to them even as Uber filed a suit saying that AB5 had targeted it.

Our state and workers shouldnt have to foot the bill when big businesses try to skip out on their responsibilities, Becerra said in a statement. Were going to keep working to make sure Uber and Lyft play by the rules.

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera addressed Uber and Lyfts contention that employment would require rigid scheduling. There is no rule that prevents these drivers from continuing to have all of the flexibility they currently enjoy, he said in a statement. Being properly classified as an employee doesnt change that.

AB5 established an ABC test that says workers are employees unless A) they are free from a hiring entitys control, B) perform work outside the hiring entitys usual business, and C) have an independent business doing that kind of work.

Schulman said that Uber and Lyft flunk all three tests, scoffing at their attempts to say that they are not in the transportation business.

Its this simple: Defendants drivers do not perform work that is outside the usual course of their business, Schulman wrote. Defendants insistence that their businesses are multi-sided platforms rather than transportation companies ... flies in the face of economic reality and common sense.

Schulman said substantial public harm would result without an injunction forcing reclassification since drivers would be deprived of minimum wage, workers compensation, unemployment insurance, paid sick leave and paid family leave.

Schulman acknowledged that complying with the injunction will not be inexpensive or easy. There is no question that (Uber and Lyft) will have to change the nature of their business practices in significant ways, he wrote.

Along with other gig companies, Uber and Lyft are pursuing a $110 million November ballot measure, Proposition 22, asking California voters to keep drivers as freelancers who are entitled to some earnings guarantees and benefits. DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates, the other Prop. 22 backers, are not named in the California lawsuit but presumably would be affected by whatever precedent it sets. (Uber has purchased Postmates in a deal that will close next year.)

Now Playing: Demonstrators in a car caravan honk and post grievance notes, hang banners and show support for app-based drivers outside the home of Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on Wednesday, June 24, 2020 in San Francisco, Calif. Video: San Francisco Chronicle

Ultimately, we believe this issue will be decided by California voters and that they will side with drivers, Lyft said.

The companies point to surveys, such as ones by the blog The RideShare Guy, that most drivers prefer to stay freelance even while they complain about the companies pay and treatment of them  and even while many have stopped driving during the pandemic because of plunging ridership and their own fears of contagion.

Sacramento politicians and special interests keep pushing these disastrous laws and lawsuits that would take away the ability of app-based drivers to choose when and how they work, even though by a 4:1 margin drivers want and need to work independently, Jan Krueger, a retiree who drives with Lyft in Sacramento, said in a statement for the Yes on 22 campaign. Well take our case to the voters to protect the ability of app-based drivers to work as independent contractors, while providing historic new benefits like an earnings guarantee, health benefits and more.

The No on 22 campaign, which is backed by organized labor, had a rejoinder from Lyft driver Edan Alva.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

For years, workers have been organizing and speaking out against our mistreatment by billion-dollar gig companies who have refused to obey the law, Alva said. The mistreatment we face is so severe that justice can no longer wait. Today, the court sided with workers and not corporations. Thousands of misclassified gig workers will receive the wages, benefits, protections and employee status they are legally owed. It is abundantly clear that Uber and Lyft now must comply with the law.

Uber and Lyft want Becerras lawsuit postponed until after voters weigh in on Prop. 22, as well as until a federal court rules on a separate Uber lawsuit challenging AB5s constitutionality.

Schulman flatly rejected that request.

Defendants are not entitled to an indefinite postponement of their day of reckoning, he wrote. None of defendants pleas for further delay is persuasive.

Uber had sought to sever its case from that of Lyft, saying that recent changes it made, such as letting drivers set fares as multiples of its base fare, strengthened its case that AB5 does not apply to it.

Schulman rejected that also. The Peoples claims against Defendants are nearly identical and considerations of judicial economy and efficiency support their resolution in a single action, he wrote.

Uber and Lyft maintain that their independent contractor model for drivers is allowed under AB5, and that their businesses and drivers themselves depend on that flexibility. Switching drivers to employees would cost the money-losing companies millions of dollars, which they say could result in higher prices and less availability for consumers.

The companies also say reclassification would force them to jettison most of their drivers, particularly those who work just a few hours a week.

When over 3 million Californians are without a job, our elected leaders should be focused on creating work, not trying to shut down an entire industry during an economic depression, Uber said.

California is also pursuing other ways to enforce AB5 against Uber and Lyft, such as a lawsuit filed this month by the state labor commissioner, Lilia Garcia-Brower, alleging that the two companies committed wage theft by willfully misclassifying drivers as independent contractors instead of employees.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid
A n RAF plane was drafted in to carry out surveillance missions over the Channel today as the Government steps up efforts to prevent migrants crossing into the UK from France.

The A400M Atlas flew from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire to provide surveillance for the Border Force and Coastguard who can intercept boats.

The Ministry of Defence said the aircraft, which flew from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, is an "initial offer of assistance" to the Home Office.

Between Thursday and Sunday, more than 677 people, including at least one toddler, made it to the UK across the Dover Strait. This morning, the Border Force patrol boat Hunter stopped an inflatable dinghy off Dover carrying around 20 Syrian migrants. One occupant could be seen bailing out water with a plastic container from the boat which was sitting low in the water in choppy conditions.

More than 4,000 migrants are thought to have reached the UK this year in small boats.

Last year Home Secretary Priti Patel vowed that the crossings would have become an infrequent phenomenon by now.

An official request has been made to the Royal Navy for help and a former Royal Marine, Dan OMahoney, has been appointed clandestine Channel threat commander. Immigration minister Chris Philp is going to Paris this week for talks on the crisis.

A group of people thought to be migrants crossing The Channel in a small boat headed in the direction of Dover, Kent / PA

Sir David Normington, a former Home Office official, told BBC Radios Today programme that the solution was to persuade French officials to intensify efforts to stop illegal migrants leaving the coast, or patrolling the coastline within French territorial waters, because once they get into British territorial waters they are likely to end up being landed in Britain.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The best solution is if we can persuade the French to intensify efforts to stop illegal migrants leaving the French coast or patrolling the coastline within French territorial waters, because once they get into British territorial waters they are likely to end up being landed in Britain and then claiming asylum, so the only solution to this is to work with the French to persuade them to intensify their efforts to stop illegal migrants."

Seas early on Monday were said to be choppy / PA

Asked about talk of an additional 30 million to help the French fund patrols, he said: Well, if it takes money to help the French increase their resources and their manpower then that will have to be done. Theres a long history of Britain putting money into resources for the French on the French coast.

On deploying the Royal Navy, he said: Im a bit sceptical about it  If the Navy is going to push boats back, it will have to go into French water to do that, and then you can only do that with the permission of the French government.

He added: A lot of these migrants want to come to the UK and will do everything they can to avoid being documented or claim asylum in another country."

Care Minister Helen Whately described the situation as unacceptable and said it "absolutely needs to stop".

She was asked on BBC Breakfast if the navy was going to be brought in and said: I know that options are being looked at to how we make sure that we stop this passage of boats across the Channel and the Home Secretary has appointed Dan O'Mahoney, a former Royal Marine, to lead the efforts on this front and will look at all the best ways to do so."

Asked if the Government was considering the Australian push back model where the boats would be taken back to France, she replied: Not as far as I know. We shouldnt suggest there are any simple or easy answers to this.

She added: We are seeing an unacceptable number of migrants coming across the channel at the moment. Its a worrying situation in fact. Its a dangerous journey to take and it also involves migrants paying people smugglers to take them across.

We need to bring this to an end. The Home Secretary is determined this will not be a viable route to the UK.
NEW YORK, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Siguler Guff, a multi-strategy private equity investment firm with over $14 billion of assets under management, announced today that the Firm has further strengthened its credit investment platform with the hiring of Ray Miller and Prashant Rai. Messrs. Miller and Rai will work closely with the broader Siguler Guff credit team under the leadership of Michael Apfel, who joined the Firm as a Managing Director and Head of Credit in December 2019. Siguler Guff's credit-related strategies include special situations, distressed, and other niche credit strategies.

Siguler Guff's credit platform has raised over $7 billion of committed capital, and has been investing in opportunistic credit-related strategies for approximately 20 years, realizing attractive risk-adjusted returns for its clients across multiple economic cycles.

In making the announcement, Mr. Apfel said, "We see significant opportunities for our credit-related strategies given the enormous dislocation that is reshaping many industries as corporate debt levels rise and EBITDA declines. We are, therefore, pleased to welcome Ray Miller and Prashant Rai to the firm, each of whom bring differentiated credit expertise that will be highly additive to the firm and our investors. Over the last several months, Siguler Guff has continued to expand its credit-related investment platform and we are well situated, with extraordinary resources, to evaluate and execute on a host of attractive investments spread across our focused strategies. This includes esoteric and overlooked opportunities within the credit universe."

Drew Guff, Managing Director and Founding Partner of Siguler Guff, said, "We believe this is a moment in time to further build and leverage our global, integrated credit platform. Our firm is well positioned to source and execute attractive investment opportunities. The expertise of our professionals and our long-standing track record of investing through multiple economic cycles and within diversified credit strategies over the past two decades is compelling."

Bios of Ray Miller and Prashant Rai

Ray Miller joins Siguler Guff as a Principal. He brings to the firm approximately 15 years of public and private investment experience across special situations, distressed, and credit strategies. Prior to joining the Firm, Mr. Miller was a Principal at MHR Fund Management LLC, a $5 billion private equity firm that invests in distressed and undervalued middle market companies and assets, which he joined in 2011. Mr. Miller was responsible for originating and executing off-the-run special situations and credit investment opportunities across a wide variety of industries including aviation services, aircraft and engine leasing, industrials, mortgage lending, and specialty finance. While at MHR, Mr. Miller was actively involved in forming partnerships with experienced industry management teams to establish, scale, and monetize niche platform companies focused on acquiring or lending against specialized assets or businesses. Previously, Mr. Miller was an associate at Guggenheim Partners Investment Management LLC, investing across the capital structure in a variety of industries.

Mr. Miller has served as a board or committee member for numerous companies and currently serves as a director of Navistar, Inc., a leading manufacturer of trucks and buses, and was formerly a director of Erickson, Inc., a leading aerospace manufacturer and global provider of aviation services. He holds a B.B.A., with high distinction, from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Prashant Rai

Mr. Rai joins Siguler Guff as a Vice President, focused on the Firm's special situations, distressed, and opportunistic credit strategies. Mr. Rai's primary responsibilities include investment sourcing, due diligence, and ongoing management. Mr. Rai has approximately 6 years of experience within restructuring, distressed and special situations. Before joining Siguler Guff, Mr. Rai was an investment analyst at Mangrove, a special situations investment fund investing across the capital structure with an emphasis on corporate restructuring, liquidations and litigation. Previously, Prior to joining Mangrove, Mr. Rai was an Associate in the New York office of Weil, Gotshal and Manges LLP where he advised debtors and creditors on in-court and out-of-court restructurings. Mr. Rai's responsibilities at Weil included structuring and negotiating plans of reorganizations or liquidation and litigating deal-determinative issues such as valuation, plan feasibility, and preference and fraudulent transfer actions. Mr. Rai also worked in the San Francisco office of Morrison & Foerster LLP as a litigator where he advised on complex tax disputes across multiple jurisdictions and industries.

Mr. Rai holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School with honors as a James Kent Scholar and a B.A. with honors from the University of California Los Angeles.

About Siguler Guff:

Siguler Guff is a multi-strategy private equity investment firm which, together with its affiliates, has over $14 billion of assets under management. With 25 years of investment experience, Siguler Guff seeks to generate strong, risk-adjusted returns by focusing opportunistically on market niches. Siguler Guff's core investment strategies include opportunistic credit, small business private equity, distressed real estate and emerging markets. Siguler Guff's investment products include direct investment funds, multi-manager funds and customized separate accounts targeting specific areas of compelling opportunity. Headquartered in New York, Siguler Guff maintains offices in Boston, London, Moscow, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Houston, Texas. To learn more about Siguler Guff, please visit www.sigulerguff.com.

Media contact:

Jeffrey Taufield / Daniel Yunger

Kekst CNC

212.521.4800

SOURCE Siguler Guff

Related Links

http://www.sigulerguff.com


The Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan has announced the three-year project to modernise the Kadyrinskaya Hydropower Plant (Kadyrinskaya HPP-3) has been completed on time.

The modernisation was in cooperation with a leading Chinese hydropower enterprise and a team of Chinese specialists. The project cost was $27.6 million, and capital was provided through a $9.8 million Eximbank loan from the Peoples Republic of China and $17.8 million from Uzbekistans own funds.

This project is one of several ongoing investment projects to both construct new hydropower plants and modernise existing ones. It is part of Uzbekistans ambitious national energy strategy seeking to generate a quarter of all electricity from renewable sources by 2030. The strategy aims for 3.8 GW of hydro energy, 5 GW of solar energy and up to 3 GW of wind energy.

The project, which commenced in December 2017 following a Presidential Decree, was completed on time despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. During the last months of the project, employees and contractors worked around the clock under special quarantine conditions.

The successful completion of the project was marked in a ceremony attended by foreign partners and representatives from the Kadyrinskaya HPP-3 plant and JSC Uzbekhydroenergo, Uzbekistan's state hydropower producer and developer.

Sherzod Khodjaev, Deputy Minister of Energy of Uzbekistan, said: The modernisation of the Kadyrinskaya HPP-3 plant is a great step forward in making effective use of Uzbekistans hydropower potential and forming a unified system for managing water and energy resources.

Progress in Uzbekistans hydropower industry will increase energy efficiency and the contribution of renewable energy to the countrys energy balance.

Modernisation of the plant has increased its capacity from 13.23 MW to 15.34 MW and average annual power output to 124.4 million kWh.

The main hydraulic equipment was produced by Dongfang Electric International Corporation, the Chinese state-owned manufacturer of power generating equipment, with assembly and installation executed by highly qualified international and Uzbek specialists.

Design workstreams executed by specialists from JSC Hydroproject, technical equipment produced and delivered by JSC Suvsanoatmash and JSC Uzbekgidroenergostroy assisted with construction of individual elements. Tradearabia News Service
While Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri may be correct in saying that provision of EMAS is not mandatory in a civil aerodrome as per ICAO guidelines, but experts point out that this hasn't stopped countries from using this additional safety feature in their airports.

EMAS stands for Engineered Material Arresting System and is also called an arrester bed. It's a bed of engineered material laid out at the end of the runway, that helps arrest and brings to a halt an aircraft that has overrun.

ICAO is a UN agency that sets standards for the international aviation industry. While some of its recommendations are mandatory, others are advisory.

"Kozhikode airport is equipped with a Runway End Safety Area (RESA) as per ICAO guidelines on safety. Engineered Material Arrestor System (EMAS) provides safety benefit if less than standard RESA length is available or at Airports where RESA cannot be provided due to constraints," Puri said on Twitter.

The Minister added that both Airports Authority of India and industry regulator DGCA had evaluated the option to install EMAS at Kozhikode and Mangalore airports - tabletops where last two major aviation mishaps have taken place. But the idea was dropped "considering the complexities of post-installation maintenance & issues related with immediate replacement of product."

A Moneycontrol story had highlighted the importance of EMAS and how it could have prevented the tragedies in Mangalore, in 2010, and now in Kozhikode.

One of the reasons airports have hesitated to use EMAS is the high price tag of Rs 100 crore. And also the fact that it has to be completely replaced if an aircraft does overrun the runway, and ploughs into the EMAS.

That's the reason airports opt for runway end safety area, or RESA, which extends from the runway and can be as long as 90m. The RESA helps if the aircraft has overrun or during undershoots.

International acceptance

"Yes, having EMAS is not mandatory, as per ICAO. But that hasn't stopped countries such as the US, Spain, France and Germany to have it. Even in Asia, countries such as China and Saudi Arabia have it," said a senior industry executive, who didn't want to be named.

The US has the maximum number of EMAS installations. As on April 2019, EMAS was installed at 112 runway ends at 68 of the country's airports. There have been multiples instances where an aircraft after having overrun a runway was brought to a halt because of EMAS.

A study by FAA, the aviation regulator in the US, said about 450m of RESA is required to capture 90 percent of the overruns. This is against the ICAO recommendation for airports to have RESA of 240 metres, which was done at Kozhikode airport.

Interestingly, at Kozhikode, the runway was shortened to give away to the RESA.

SKYbrary, an electronic repository on aviation safety and promoted by several organisations, including ICAO, additionally says:

"As such, it may be an alternative to a RESA where the topography precludes the full recommended length of a RESA or it may be used in addition to a full-length RESA where precipitous terrain immediately follows the end of the RESA."

Precipitous terrain is the main risk factor in table-top airports like those in Kozhikode and Mangalore.

The cost factor

Though Puri hasn't specifically commented on the cost of an EMAS, it has been a big factor for airports to hesitate committing to the safety instrument.

Interestingly, a 2016 study by an aviation expert has shown that EMAS actually ends up saving money, in fact, about a billion dollars

The report, by Rob van Eekeren - a pilot turned safety expert, studied 10 runway overruns that needed EMAS to bring the aircraft to a stop. "Mitigating identified risky runways through improving the runway infrastructure can be a very cost-effective way to reduce the risk for human injury, loss of life, property and equipment damage," he said.
PIGGS PEAK  Emotions were high during the funeral of the young man who was shot by the police in a case of mistaken identity, to the point that his family cursed the officer responsible.

A family member of the deceased said the officer only had three months to live. The relative stood up to speak inside a tent where other mourners had gathered in readiness for the late Simanga Mpilas funeral. Mpila was shot dead while visiting Lomshiyo around Ntfonjeni Inkhundla. It is alleged police officers were looking for an alleged rapist but are said to have mistaken Mpila for the suspect. The police, however, claimed to have acted in self-defence after Simanga wrestled with a law enforcer who was carrying a gun.

Funeral

During the funeral, the family member said they had given the police only three months and thereafter, God should take him. He cannot continue to live after doing this, three months is all we give him, said the relative, to which some of the mourners murmured in agreement. Simanga had been raised as an orphan since both his parents died when he was young.

The funeral started at Simangas parental home but as it is under siSwati custom, his body was not taken into the homestead because of the manner in which he had died. His funeral was characterised by song as well as an animated send-off by fellow members of the Jericho Church, who carried his coffin. The coffin was initially taken out of the tent by relatives before handing it over to the members of Simangas church. The members of the church were seen running with the coffin on the way to the graveyard. They jogged with the coffin led by Bishop Msombuluko Magagula of the Zibonelo Jericho Church.

At some point, while on the way to the graveyard, which was about 100 metres away from the homestead, the church members put the coffin on a mat then danced around it and would sometimes touch it while in song. This process lasted for several minutes as it also continued at the graveyard. According to Bishop Magagula, Simanga had converted from the Zion church to become a member of the Red Gown sect. Magagula said Simanga had initially approached a man whom he described as Mdluli, informing him that he had a dream about a certain bald headed pastor.
The Public Relations Department of the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia reports that the Office is observing the protest held against exploitation of Amulsar gold mine in front of the National Assembly today and that several citizens have called the Offices hotline to report cases of apprehension of citizens holding a protest.

Taking into consideration the calls and the results of monitoring of social media, by the assignment of the Human Rights Defender, rapid reaction groups have left for the police stations in districts of Yerevan to see the apprehended citizens.

The Ombudsmans representatives will hold talks with the apprehended citizens to learn how their rights are being ensured and the grounds for their apprehension.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

With the rise of genomic sequencing, health technology companies are promising parents they can detect rare metabolic disorders in newborns who, despite a healthy appearance, may need immediate treatment.

Now, scientists from UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley and Tata Consultancy Services are offering the first comprehensive assessment of how sequencing stacks up to the older screening technology, tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), that California uses to analyze the blood spots taken at birth for rare disorders, known as inborn errors of metabolism. They found that, when used alone, sequencing comes up short, missing some sick babies, while flagging many healthy ones for unnecessary follow-up testing. But sequencing can still be useful in cases that look suspicious but were not clearly identified by MS/MS.

"There has been a lot of publicity about universal sequencing for newborns," said Jennifer Puck, MD, professor of pediatrics at UC San Francisco and co-senior author of the study, published Aug. 10, 2020, in Nature Medicine. "But claims that sequencing is the key to health have been made without the support of rigorous studies."

Accuracy is essential when it comes to newborn screening. If cases are missed, seriously ill babies will go without prompt treatment for diseases that require urgent attention, such as phenylketonuria (PKU), which causes cognitive impairment when left untreated. But referring healthy babies for expert care is wasteful and puts families through unnecessary stress.

This study used a technique called whole-exome sequencing to look for mutations in 78 genes that are known to be involved in the 48 metabolic disorders for which every California newborn is screened. These diseases are rare, affecting about 150 of the estimated half a million babies born each year in California, and there are no signs when babies are born that they are going to get sick.

Since screening is meant for asymptomatic individuals, in this case newborns, it's very different from using sequencing as a diagnostic aid for patients with a medical problem that has already been detected.

"All of the prior studies of the utility of exome sequencing have started with a patient already in front of a doctorin other words, a patient with a problem," Puck said. "You start with a clue in hand, a person with a particular difficulty, and you're trying to see if there's an underlying genetic reason for that. When you switch to screening mode, you don't have any clues. Most newborns look perfectly healthy."

Inborn metabolic disorders provided a unique opportunity to benchmark the performance of whole-exome sequencing, because it could be compared with California's well-established newborn screening program, which has been using MS/MS since 2005. These disorders have been well studied, and they are known to be caused by changes in a limited set of genes, most of which have been identified. So when they embarked on the study, the team had expected that sequencing technology might do better than the state's MS/MS screening method.

The state's current method looks for clues in babies' blood that something is wrong. The team found that the dried blood spots, which are taken at birth and then stored, could be used years later to analyze DNA. This provided a comprehensive view of nearly all the babies born in California with inborn errors of metabolismabout 1,334 of the nearly 4.5 million babies who were born in the period under study, from July of 2005 to December of 2013.

The team found that the standard MS/MS screening found 99 percent of babies with metabolic disorders, with a false positive rate of just 0.2 percent. But whole-exome sequencing would have found only 88 percent, missing about 160 of the 1,334 California babies who were ultimately diagnosed with metabolic disorders, while incorrectly identifying about 8,000 babies each year as being in need of urgent evaluation by a metabolic disease specialist.

The scientists said the shortcomings of the sequencing approach could have several causes.

"These are well-studied single-gene conditions, but that does not mean we have found all the genes associated with them," said first author Aashish Adhikari, Ph.D., a member of UCSF's Institute for Human Genetics and UC Berkeley's Department of Plant and Microbial Biology. "Additional genes could be involved, as well as additional biological and environmental factors that may limit our ability to predict disease from DNA sequences alone."

Another problem is that these diseases are so rare that scientists haven't had many sequences to examine. Also, California's newborns are from highly diverse genetic backgrounds, with many variants that have never before been analyzed, since previous studies have emphasized people of Northern European ancestry. To analyze these new variants and predict their impact, the team had to develop a special computational pipeline.

But if whole-exome sequencing has limited use as a standalone primary screen, the study demonstrated that it still can be used to make a definitive diagnosis in cases where MS/MS showed something might be wrong, but doctors were unsure of what it was. And sequencing may yet prove useful in identifying newborns with treatable conditions that current screening methods cannot find.

"If the current mass spectrometry testing comes out unclear, sequencing could reveal a gene variant that solves the mystery," said Steven Brenner, Ph.D., professor at UC Berkeley, a member of UCSF's Institute for Human Genetics, and co-senior author of the study. "Sequencing to screen additional carefully vetted disorders could enable timely treatment of some children with conditions that presently go unrecognized until it's too late for optimal intervention."

Explore further New approach improves detection of diseases at birth

More information: Adhikari, A.N., Gallagher, R.C., Wang, Y. et al. The role of exome sequencing in newborn screening for inborn errors of metabolism. Nat Med (2020). Journal information: Nature Medicine Adhikari, A.N., Gallagher, R.C., Wang, Y. et al. The role of exome sequencing in newborn screening for inborn errors of metabolism.(2020). doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0966-5
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.
Aug 10 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

Headlines

Singapore charges Wirecard agent with falsification of accounts https://on.ft.com/2Cczkt0

UK criticised for 'unforced errors' on trade deals https://on.ft.com/2PDWGLg

One in three British employers plan job cuts in third quarter, survey finds https://on.ft.com/30JYoRL

Overview

Singaporean businessman with multiple links to Wirecard AG has been charged with falsification of accounts, marking the first set of charges issued by the city-state since it kicked off an investigation into the collapsed German payments company last year.

The UK government has made "unforced errors" by rushing into trade discussions with third countries before resolving its regulatory position on key issues such as food standards, according to The Institute for Government.

One in three British businesses are weighing job cuts in the third quarter of 2020 as the government's coronavirus furlough scheme winds down, according to a study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

(Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)
A National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Kochi on Monday rejected the bail application of main accused in Kerala gold smuggling case Swapna Suresh and ordered that provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act will remain in the case.

Meanwhile, investigating the UAE leg of the case, a team of NIA officials reached Dubai on Sunday night to interrogate a key accused , Faisal Fareed , currently in custody of the police there, and pick up evidence gathered by the authorities there, people familiar with the matter said.

Apart from Fareed, who is believed to be the man who sent gold in diplomatic baggage from Dubai, the two-member NIA team will question a few other suspects who have been taken into custody by Dubai police, the officials said.

One of the officials, who asked not to be named, said that Fareeds firm was contracted in the UAE to clear and send diplomatic baggage to India. It is suspected that Fareed also set up a network of hawala dealers and couriers to help sell the gold once it was in Kerala. Fareed is an Indian hailing from Keralas Thrissur but resides in UAE.

The anti-terror probe agency , last month, also approached Interpol seeking a blue notice against Fareed. A blue notice is issued to collect additional information about a persons identity, location or activities in relation to a crime. Investigations by NIA have revealed that Fareed forged the seal and emblem of the UAE embassy to ensure diplomatic protection for the baggage and the gold coming here was to be used for terror activities.

During its stay in Dubai, NIA team will also seek details of shell companies, which were used for transferring the money, as well as hawala operators linked to gold smuggling. UAE authorities are believed to have carried out some investigation into the matter on Indias request and will likely to hand over their findings to the NIA team.

In Kochi, where the bail application was heard last week, Sureshs counsel opposed the invoking of UAPA against her, saying no terror angle was involved and the case only dealt with economic offences but Assistant Solicitor General P Vijaykumar , appearing for NIA contended that major proceeds from the smuggling were diverted to fund anti-national activities. After a week-long hearing, unusual in bail petitions, the court posted the decision for Monday.

This is the first time UAPA is being imposed in the country in a smuggling case. Earlier smuggling came under the Customs Act but after the amendment in UAPA, money laundering and serious economic offences that affect countrys stability also come under it. True, this is first time UAPA is implied in smuggling case, said Supreme Court lawyer M R Abhilash.
Zelensky said Ukraine's military intelligence should improve analytics and enhance strategic and fieldwork.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has ordered to develop a new National Intelligence Program for 2021-2025.

"Key things must be enshrined in it: providing units with modern weapons and equipment, switching to NATO standards in collecting, processing and providing intelligence data, as well as introducing modern approaches to personnel training," he said while introducing new chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine's Defense Ministry Kyrylo Budanov, as reported by the presidential press service.

Zelensky said Ukraine's military intelligence should improve analytics and enhance strategic and fieldwork.

Read alsoNew intel chief notes greater influence of hybrid warfare, global disinformation on Ukraine

The president also drew attention to the importance of boosting Ukrainian military intelligence's morale.

"I sincerely wish you personally and all your subordinates to continue with dignity the glorious traditions of the Ukrainian army and intelligence," he said, addressing Budanov.

Moreover, Zelensky wished the military intelligence officers strength, wisdom, endurance and asked them to "always be one step ahead of our enemies."

Background

On August 5, 2020, Zelensky appointed Budanov chief of military intelligence. He replaced Vasyl Burba, who had been in office since 2016.

The President's Office noted that the reshuffle is needed to reformat and intensify the agency's work, in the search for and toward the implementation of modern approaches and views on addressing security issues.
On Monday, Carlisle police filed murder charges against Davone Unique Anderson, 25, in connection with the deaths of two women.

Officials will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. to provide updates on Andersons arrest and the case. You can watch here.

PRESS CONFERENCE: Police in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania have filed first-degree murder charges against a 25-year-old Carlisle man they say killed two women he had been romantically involved with. One of those women was six weeks pregnant. Posted by PennLive.com on Monday, August 10, 2020

Anderson is charged with the murder of both Sydney Parmelee and Kaylee Lyons, who were classmates and 2014 graduates of Carlisle High School. According to police, Anderson was romantically involved with and fathered a child with both women.

On July 5, police said they found Parmelee, 23, dead from a gunshot wound to the head when reporting to a 911 suicide call on the 100 block of E. Louther St. in Carlisle. A police investigation later found that Parmelee died as a result of a homicide, they said.

On July 30, Lyons, 23, was found at the same location with a gunshot wound to the head, police said. She was rushed to Hershey Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead the next day, police said. According to police, Lyons was six weeks pregnant at the time of her death.

Anderson is charged with two counts of first degree murder, one count of first degree murder of an unborn child, two counts of endangering the welfare of children, two counts of persons not to possess firearms and one count of theft by receiving stolen property.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order designed to help people struggling financially due to the coronavirus pandemic. The order, however, does not include another round of stimulus payments.

Trumps executive order includes: the suspension of payroll taxes; $400 a week in unemployment payments (a $200 cut from the previous $600 with $300 from the feds and $100 from the states); deferrals on student loan payments through the end of the year; and efforts to minimize evictions at federal housing. The president signed the order after Congress failed to reach a compromise on a broader coronavirus relief package.

Both Republicans and Democrats have indicated they are in favor of another round of stimulus payments. The last stimulus provided $1,200 for individuals earning up to $75,000 and $2,400 for married couples filing jointly who earned up to $150,000, with amounts reduced based on incomes of $99,000 for single filers and $198,000 for joint filers. The stimulus also provided $500 for each qualifying child.

The decision on a second stimulus wasnt included in Trumps order and must come through Congress, either as stand-alone legislation or as part of a broader bill. Both parties have plans that include direct payments U.S. residents but are far apart when it comes to how much will be spent  GOP proposing a $1 trillion package compared to $3 trillion for Democrats.

In other words  theres no official second stimulus payment yet.

Here are the latest coronavirus headlines:

U.S. tops 5 million COVID-19 cases

The number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. has topped 5 million.

Data collected by John Hopkins University shows 5,036,387 coronavirus cases in the U.S. with 162,851 deaths. According to tracking by CNN, it took the U.S. 99 days to reach 1 million cases, 43 days to hit 2 million, 28 days for 3 million and 15 days to surpass 4 million on July 23. The number has jumped to 5 million in 17 days.

Five states account for more than 40% of U.S. infections  California, Florida, Texas, New York and Georgia.

Georgia 7-year-old dies of coronavirus

A Georgia 7-year-old with no known underlying conditions has died from coronavirus. The boy is the youngest person in the state to die from COVID-19.

Authorities said the boy was infected with the disease after attending a Savannah, Georgia church service where he was in contact with two senior members of the congregation who were also stricken with the virus and later died.

The boy reportedly suffered a seizure while showering and was rushed to the hospital where he later died.

New Yorks testing positivity rate falls to record low

New Yorks COVID-19 testing positivity rate has fallen to its lowest level so far during the pandemic.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the positivity rate is now .78%, after hovering around 1% since early June. The states positivity rate peaked at nearly 47% in April before testing became widely available. New York state reported 515 new COVID-19 cases and 7 deaths in the state on Saturday with the number of ICU patients  131  the lowest since March 16.
ALBANY  The recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld a Trump administration regulation allowing employers and health insurers to opt out of contraception coverage has energized the abortion rights movement, leaders say, even though it does not affect strong abortion-access laws in states including New York, which last year adopted the Reproductive Health Act.

We know that people have been paying attention to what the Trump administration has been doing, in terms of rolling back access to reproductive health care, National Institute for Reproductive Health President Andrea Miller said. "I think you're already starting to see it manifest in the [2018 mid-term and presidential primary] election results. We expect that it will be an important part of the consideration that voters have when they go to the polls in November.

Miller said support for reproductive health care in New York has grown as the Trump administration has threatened abortion and contraception accessibility by attempting to dismantle protections in the Affordable Care Act and nominating anti-abortion judges to the Supreme Court.

The July Supreme Court ruling, which allows employers with religious objections to be exempt from providing health care insurance that includes contraception coverage, is the latest example of decisions that energize the abortion rights movement in New York rather than demoralize it, she said.

The issue of reproductive health rights, particularly access to abortion, was really hot on the agenda, and it was a really big part of the reason that the state Senate flipped [from Republican control to a Democratic majority], Miller said. Then in early 2019, the RHA passed. That would never have happened had it not been clear that voters, increasingly younger voters, were turning out in greater numbers and driving the concern.

The Reproductive Health Act, along with the Comprehensive Contraception Coverage Act and the Boss Bill, emphasize womens right to access abortion, receive contraception coverage and provides protections to New Yorkers from federal intrusion.

Anti-abortion groups also say they are strengthened by this ruling. The Catholic Bishops of New York state said the Affordable Care Acts contraceptive mandate was an intrusion into the religious liberty rights of all religious employers who were focused to pay for something contrary to their ethical and religious beliefs.

We are grateful for the current administrations efforts to protect religious freedom and to exempt religious organizations from the contraceptive mandate, Kathleen Gallagher, director of Pro-Life Activities for the New York state Catholic Conference, said in an email. At the same time, we hold grave concerns with regard to other ways in which the current administration is attempting to undo and wipe away essential parts of the Affordable Care Act, which will leave more American uninsured and without access to basic health care.

But the Affordable Care Act and state laws dont leave enough room for religious freedom, religious groups say. Vincent Bonventre, a law professor at Albany Law School, thinks women are entitled to the right to choose. However, he also believes it is an organization's right to sustain their religious freedom by not offering abortion insurance coverage.

While the anti-abortion versus abortion-rights debate seems clear-cut, Miller suggests the values can co-exist through thoughtful laws and insurance policies.

It is possible to create narrowly tailored exemptions that protect conscience that also ensure you are not barring or undermining access to care, Miller said. I think it really does a disservice to religious communities to assume you cant hold both religious views and a belief in peoples right and ability to make decisions that are best for themselves and their families around reproduction.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Other religious organizations, including the Religious Coalition For Reproductive Choice, agree with Miller and contend the Supreme Courts ruling is immoral as it prioritizes religious freedoms of the employer and neglects those of the employee.

[The upholding] is an imposition of one set of religious views on masses of individuals, said Rev. Cari Jackson, who is the coalition's director of spiritual care and activism. Corporations should be required to provide, as part of their insurance package, reproductive health care benefits.

Jackson thinks both contraception and abortion should be covered by employers because privacy of conscience supersedes all other encyclicals in Catholicism. She also compared the current conflict to a belief by theological Christian nationalists that same-sex marriage was an infringement on their religious freedom.

In 2017, the latest year for which numbers are available, approximately 105,380 women received abortions in New York, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The research center also estimated 8% of women in the state do not have abortion clinics in their counties. Organizations like the National Institute for Reproductive Health say that number indicates they still have work to do.

There are still barriers and disparities when it comes to geographic access and there are issues with some insures who still dont cover these services, and thats why some people fall through the cracks, Miller said. We need to address where services are available and if there are opportunities to make services available through other means, like telemedicine.

While advocacy groups rely on creativity to offer more solutions, Miller said the best way the public can continue their support is by voting.

Editor's note: Andrea Miller is the president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health. An earlier version of this story misstated her affiliation.

Megan Sauer is a reporter for the Medill News Service and journalism master's degree student at Northwestern University.
TAIPEI, Taiwan  An ongoing visit by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to Taiwan will likely exacerbate mounting tensions between Washington and Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.

From the South China Sea to TikTok, Hong Kong and trade, China and the U.S. find themselves at loggerheads just three months ahead of the American presidential election. In a throwback to the Cold War, the two recently ordered tit-for-tat closures of consulates in Houston and Chengdu and rhetorical sniping has become a daily occurrence.

The Trump administration added to those frictions by sending Azar to Taiwan, making him the highest-level U.S. official to visit the self-governing island since formal diplomatic relations were severed in 1979 in deference to China.

This visit represents an acknowledgement of the United States and Taiwans deep friendship and partnership across security, economics, health care, and democratic open transparent values, Azar said Monday in Taipei, the capital.

Beijing has been ratcheting up pressure on Taiwan, but thats just one area in which its increasingly assertive foreign policy and the accompanying push-back from Washington have taxed diplomacy on both sides.

Washington drew Beijings ire last month when it parted with years of ambiguity by explicitly denying most of Chinas maritime claims in the strategically vital South China Sea. China says it owns the waterway and that activity in the area by the U.S. Navy, including sailing ships close to Chinese-controlled islands, threatens regional peace and stability.

Other disputes center on economic and human rights issues.

A two-year-old tariff war has buttressed U.S. actions targeting Chinese institutions and officials. Washington has been campaigning to exclude Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from the U.S. and its allies, a push China sees as a bare-knuckled attempt to restrain its development as a global technology power.

The U.S. says Huawei is beholden to Chinas ruling Communist Party and threatens to compromise personal data and the integrity of the information systems in the companies in which it operates. China says there is no proof of that.

President Donald Trump stepped-up the technology confrontation last week with an executive order banning dealings with the Chinese owners of consumer apps TikTok and WeChat, possibly leading to their becoming unavailable in the lucrative U.S. market.

The U.S. has sanctioned Chinese companies and officials over the alleged persecution of Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang and has now turned its eye toward stricter Chinese control in Hong Kong.

As Azar was preparing to meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday, Hong Kong police arrested newspaper publisher and leading opposition figure Jimmy Lai as part of a crackdown on voices questioning Beijings policies toward the former British colony, now a semi-autonomous Chinese city.

Washington has moved to withdraw trading and other privileges granted to Hong Kong in response to Chinas imposition of a sweeping national security law seen as an attack on free speech and political activism. China has denounced such actions as infringing on its domestic political affairs and Beijing-backed officials sanctioned by Washington, including the citys leader Carrie Lam, appeared over the weekend to laugh-off the penalties.

Human rights complaints are a long-standing source of tension between the sides, and Trump has added to them with repeated allegations that China covered-up the initial outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The accumulated accusations against Beijing have observers saying Trump is hoping mistrust of China will boost his re-election chances come November. Democratic rival Joseph Biden has substantial foreign policy experience and has spent time with Chinas leader Xi Jinping, but underlying differences between the sides are expected to continue no matter who wins the election.

Beijing has protested Azars visit as a betrayal of U.S. commitments not to have official contact with the island. Azars visit was facilitated by the 2018 passage of the Taiwan Travel Act, which encouraged Washington to send higher-level officials to Taiwan after decades during which such contacts were rare.

I would like to stress again that the Taiwan issue is the most important and sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Monday. What the U.S. has done seriously violated its commitment on the Taiwan issue.

Warmer American relations with democratic Taiwan are largely a result of strong bipartisan support in Congress, but also appear to show how the Trump administration is willing to defy Beijings threats and promote an alternative to Chinese Communist Party authoritarianism.

At the start of Mondays meeting with Tsai, Azar said the islands success in dealing with COVID-19 was a tribute to the open, transparent, democratic nature of Taiwans society and culture.

An island of 23 million people, Taiwan moved swiftly and aggressively to contain the coronavirus and has recorded just 277 reported cases and seven deaths from the illness.

Since taking office in in 2016, Tsai has angered Beijing with her refusal to recognize Chinas claim to the island. Beijing has in turn cut contact with Tsai and brought increasing diplomatic, economic and military pressure against her, poaching away several of its few remaining diplomatic allies and excluding Taiwan from international gatherings such as the U.N. World Health Assembly.

Such moves have increased already considerable bipartisan sympathy for Taipei in Washington and prompted new measures to strengthen governmental and military ties.

Azars visit will put further pressure on China-U.S. ties, but wont be seen as entirely unprecedented by Chinas leaders, said Shi Yinhong, an expert on international relations at Beijings Renmin University

Of course, there will be very negative impact on China-U.S. relations, especially under the circumstances that China and the U.S. have fallen into confrontation in almost all areas, Shi said.

Beijing will respond with diplomatic protests and seek to prevent the further expansion of relations between Taipei and Washington, Shi said.

Azars visit is serious, but it is not extraordinary, Shi said.
Amazon could be eying the former spaces of ailing shopping mall anchors as future sites for its distribution hubs.

A report by the Wall Street Journal on Sunday stated the e-retailer and Simon Property Group Inc., the largest mall owner across the United States, have been in discussions about using spaces previously occupied by Sears and J.C. Penney. The department-store chains have both filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and as part of their plans have been closing dozens of stores nationally.

For Amazon, more fulfillment centers near residential areas would speed up the crucial last mile of delivery. For Simon, turning over what was once prime mall space to fulfillment centers shows it would be willing to relinquish a way to bring in more mall foot traffic while securing a steady tenant, MarketWatch.com reports.

The discussions have been ongoing between both parties long prior to the coronavirus pandemic, multiple published reports say. Talks, however, have been accelerated by the decline of malls and the boom in e-commerce, according to the reports.

Simon malls currently includes somewhere in the ballpark of 63 J.C. Penney and 11 Sears stores. Sears left the Whitehall Mall in Whitehall Township sometime this past winter but J.C. Penney remains in operation at Lehigh Valley Mall, also in Whitehall.

Simon Property Group at one time partnered with Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT) to own the Whitehall Mall but PREIT later joined hands with Washington Prime to become joint owners. PREIT sold its share in December 2014, making Maryland-based Washington Prime Group its full owner.

New York-based Lividini & Co., the public relations firm handling Lehigh Valley Mall, did not immediately return a request Monday morning for information about Simons discussions with Amazon. An Amazon Operations spokeswoman would not comment on the reports.

Amazon has a policy of not commenting on rumors or speculation, Rachael Lighty, a spokeswoman for Amazon Operations, said.

Kimberly Green, vice president of investor relations and corporate communications for Washington Prime, said the same.

We do not comment on market rumors, Green said.

Simon Property could rent the space at a considerable discount compared to what it charges another retailer, estimating that rent could be as low as $4 per square foot for Amazon, while warehouse rents average about $10, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The coronavirus pandemic has significantly impacted the brick-and-mortar retail industry. Last month and as the region settled into the green phase of Gov. Tom Wolfs reopening plan, Lehigh Valley Mall was a grim scene of darkened lights, empty shelves and signs on front door. There were about a dozen total vacancies among retailers and food establishments and other stores not ready to open doors just yet.

Amazon, however, seems to be boosted by the pandemic.

Amazon on July 30 registered nearly $89 billion in sales and $5 billion in profit for its second annual quarter, setting company records on both figures and blowing away Wall Street expectations as shutdowns pushed more shoppers online. Amazon typically uses its warehouses to store everything from books and clothing to kitchenware and electronics until delivery to area patrons.

Its unclear how many stores are under consideration for Amazon, and it is possible that the two sides could fail to reach an agreement, those briefed on the matter told The Wall Street Journal. Its also not the first time the e-retail giant has occupied mall real estate for its hub expansions.

Amazon last year acquired a large space at the former site of Rolling Acres Mall in Ohio and transformed it into a distribution center, according to the Beacon Journal. Also in 2019, Amazon launched a new service called Counter, allowing customers to pick up Amazon packages from various retail stores including Rite-Aid.

In neighboring Berks County, Amazon already has plans to open another 1-million-square-foot fulfillment center at 3563 Mountain Road in Upper Bern Township, near Hamburg. That fulfillment center is expected to open by early 2021 and employ more than 1,000 full-time employees with pay starting at $15 with full benefits, Amazons Lighty said last week.

Once opened, the Berks County location will be Amazons third location within the Lehigh Valley job market. It already operates a fulfillment center on Van Buren Road in Palmer Township that ships large items and two facilities in Upper Macungie Township filling smaller orders.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com.
Samsung is providing more options and features to young customers, and has announced a new feature called AltZLife. This feature allows users to keep their images, videos, or any other file, safe and private.

AltZLife will provide enhanced privacy to users that seek it. Currently though this new feature is only available for the users of Samsung Galaxy A71 and A51.

Moreover, the feature will make its way to Galaxy A71 and A51 via a software update on August 10, 2020. As per the official post, the AltZLife feature will allow users to quickly switch between normal and private mode.

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This can be quickly done by double-pressing the power button. Furthermore, the on-device AI will also suggest its users move private content to the Secure Folder.

79-percent of Gen Z customers have content which they want to be secure and private

Samsung research reveals that around 79-percent of its young customers have content which they do not want anyone else to see. These include images, videos, private chats, and more.

Moreover, young customers, or Gen Z users, do not want to share that data with anyone else. This is where the AltZLife feature comes into play.

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Under the Make for India initiative, AltZLife has two components, i.e. Quick Switch and Content Suggestions. These features are developed by engineers at Samsung R&D Institutes in Bangalore and Noida.

The company also stresses the fact that Samsung is looking to develop features catering to Indian audiences, developed by Indians across its Samsung R&D centers in the country.

After developing the AI-based features for the Galaxy A series like Alive Intelligence which offers a multi-language keyboard, smart crop, finder, etc, AltZLife is the next step in that direction.

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AltZLife has two components, i.e. Quick Switch and Content Suggestions

As already mentioned, AltZLife has two features. Quick Switch basically allows the Galaxy A51 and A71 users to switch between two instances of the same app, i.e. normal mode and private mode, easily.

Users can switch to private mode simply by double-tapping the power button. However, note that authentication is required to enter into private mode. Returning to normal mode does not require authentication.

Meanwhile, the Content Suggestions feature of the AltZLife is an AI-based app in the Secure Folder. Using the in-built AI, this feature will automatically suggest the user move private images to the Secure Folder.

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And to get suggestions, users need to simply select specific faces or images as private and move them to the Secure Folder. Once this is done, the AI will identify the relevant images from the entire gallery and suggest you move them over as well to keep them private.
Extortion attempt against small Playa del Carmen business gets man arrested

Playa del Carmen, Q.R.  A male subject was arrested after being reported for attempted extortion. The arrest took place early Saturday morning during a routine police patrol in the Mision de las Flores subdivision of Playa del Carmen.

Police reported seeing a man surrounded by a group of people after he had allegedly entered a small grocery store and threatened the owner, demanding a cash payment for floor rights. A threatening note from the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion was also allegedly left behind for the small business owner.

Nearby residents were quick to surround to young man, who was laying on the sidewalk when police happened upon them. They intervened in the group and, after hearing details, arrested the young man.
Industry Update

Appointment

10 August 2020

Danny Vorwerk

Appointed General Manager

At Steigenberger Hotel Berlin , Germany

Danny Vorwerk is originally from the Netherlands, and the most recent appointments he has held have been Operations Manager at the Steigenberger Hotel Amsterdam and Financial Controller Netherlands for Deutsche Hospitality. After studying for a Bachelor degree in Hotel Management at the Hogeschool Notenboom in Hilversum, Mr. Vorwerk launched his professional career by securing various positions at NH Hotels in the Netherlands and Belgium. He finally arrived at Steigenberger after roles at BCN Utrecht and as Financial Controller Europe for the Azimut Hotel Group.

Deutsche Hospitality Deutsche Hospitality brings together five separate hotel brands under a single umbrella. Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts has 60 hotels housed in historic traditional buildings and lively city residences and also offers health and beauty oases set at the very heart of nature. more information

Recent Appointments at Deutsche Hospitality Avlok Singh - General Manager 30 November 2021  Avlok Singh has been appointed general manager for the first time in his 14-year career. He has been chosen to lead the new IntercityHotel Dubai Jaddaf Waterfront, which opened on Thursday, November 25, 2021). read more

Hans-Rudolf Rutti - General Manager 28 October 2021  Steigenberger Hotels AG has confirmed the appointment of Hans-Rudolf Rutti as new General Manager of the Steigenberger Grandhotel Belvedere with effect from 1 November 2021. Mr. Rutti was born in Switzerland and is held in high esteem internationally as a hotelier. read more
(Natural News) The Russian collusion hoax was the most blatant attempt to remove a duly-elected president from office in the history of our country.

Granted, the criminal investigation into the alleged co-conspirators of that coup attempt is still ongoing, but few Americans really expect anything to come from U.S. Attorney John Durhams probe anyway except more wrist slaps and a report detailing all of the uncharged criminality that occurred.

Kind of like when then-FBI Director James Comey read through a list of classified info violations Hillary Clinton allegedly committed for which she was never charged (because, we would later find out, Comey wanted her to win the 2016 election, not Donald Trump).

Now, a new effort is underfoot to launch a second coup attempt against Trump (because why not, since no one was prosecuted for the first one). A supposed bipartisan group called the Transition Integrity Project which claims to be interested in ensuring that the 2020 election is fair and accurate is really just a front for deep state operatives who plan on the opposite. (Related: ABOVE THE LAW: FBI head James Comey declares Hillary Clinton will not be prosecuted.)

The National Pulse laid out the details in an extensive report published earlier this month:

The Transition Integrity Project (TIP) appears to be another establishment-sanctioned offensive to nullify the Trump presidency akin to impeachment and the Russian collusion hoax. Now, however, TIPs paramount concern is President Trumps refusal to relinquish the presidency should Democratic candidate Joe Biden win given the potential for a botched election resulting from mail-in ballots and coronavirus.

The breathless media coverage of TIP in the last few days has hailed the groups bipartisanship, but a National Pulse investigation has found that the group is anything but. In reality, its another globalist front comprised of Soros staffers, linked to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and appears to exist for the express purpose of backing Bidens claims to the White House in an event of a disputed election in November.

There are other indicators that the Democrats and their deep state allies are planning to throw the election results so much in doubt that even if the president comes out on top they will make it appear as though his victory is illegitimate.

The Biden campaign has already hired or retained some 600 lawyers which officials claim are on board to prevent Trump fro stealing the election but who are, in reality, planning on stealing it for Biden.

Also, the Left-wing Marxist media is playing its role, too. Outlets like The Washington Post are running stories saying the same thing  that Biden is so far out in front right now there is no way he can lose, but for Trump stealing the election results.

In a garbage propaganda piece under the headline, What if Trump loses but insists he won? The Washington Post published what was clearly a piece written by a deep state psyops expert:

On his present trajectory, President Trump is heading for a whopping defeat in November. The Economist says theres nearly a 99 percent chance that Joe Biden will win more popular votes and around a 90 percent chance that he will win more electoral college votes. But what if Trump wont concede defeat? That is a nightmare scenario for our democracy that could make the 2000 showdown over Floridas hanging chads seem like a grade-school dispute by comparison.

In reality, the Trump campaigns internal polling  as well as a super-accurate prediction model  point to the president winning a big electoral majority. The Post has it exactly backwards: Stony Brook professor Helmut Norpoths model predicts a 91 percent chance that Trump wins, not Biden.

What is happening is insidious as well as unprecedented. The Marxists who have taken over the Democrat Party will literally stop at nothing to steal power and then wield it with an iron fist, exacting their revenge on Trump and any American who voted for or supports him.

Sources include:

Local12.com

TheNationalPulse.com

NaturalNews.com

USAToday.com
A relative of a Covid-19 patient queues to recharge oxygen tanks for their loved ones at the regional hospital in Iquitos, the largest city in the Peruvian Amazon, Peru.

The head of the World Health Organization warned Monday of a huge gap in funding to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there was a "vast global gap" between the organization's ambition for a fund, known as the "Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator" (or ACT-Accelerator), and the funds already pledged to fight the virus.

"We have to fundamentally scale up the way we are financing the ACT-Accelerator and prioritize the use of new tools," Tedros said at the global health body's latest media briefing in Geneva.

"While we're grateful for those that have made contributions, we're only 10% of the way to funding the billions required to realize the promise of the ACT Accelerator," he said.

The ACT Accelerator was launched in April 2020 and is attempting to bring together governments, health organizations, scientists, businesses and philanthropists to speed up an end to the pandemic by supporting the development and distribution of the diagnostics, vaccines and treatments needed.

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which is tracking the amount of money pledged globally to fight the virus, including funding under the ACT Accelerator initiative, says that $9.9 billion has been pledged to date.

Tedros said that the funding needed for vaccines alone was over $100 billion. While a lot of money, the figure was "small in comparison to the 10 trillion dollars that have already been invested by G-20 countries in fiscal stimulus to deal with the consequences of the pandemic so far," he said.

Tedros said the total number of registered coronavirus cases worldwide would hit 20 million this week (to date, the number of cases stands at 19,877,261). The number of confirmed fatalities stands at 731,570, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Acknowledging the suffering caused by the pandemic, Tedros said there were "green shoots of hope," nonetheless.

"No matter where a country, a region, a city or a town is  it's never too late to turn the outbreak around," Tedros told the news briefing.

"There are two essential elements to addressing the pandemic effectively: Leaders must step up to take action and citizens need to embrace new measures," he said, emphasizing that the best way to beat the virus was to suppress it.

"My message is crystal clear: suppress, suppress, suppress the virus."
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The COVID-19 pandemic caused many farmers in the US to give up on their corn crop before it was even in the ground.

The 1,250 acres (506 hectares) of irrigated fields are the most valuable on Troy Schneiders farm in eastern Colorado, as corn yields in his county typically come in more than three times higher on those fields than dryland ones.

But this year, with the economy contracting and demand for corn-based biofuel falling off, Schneider is not planting any cash crops under the sprinkler system on 125 of those irrigated acres. He calculated it would make more financial sense to grow grass for his cows.

With the economy shut down and lack of driving, it drove the price down too much, he said. Why even take a chance? You are going to lose money on everything.

Farmers routinely make changes to their acreage intentions as the calendar advances, substituting in different crops if the weather mucks up their original plans. But leaving the ground bare is new territory for US farmers who typically plant fencerow to fencerow, trying to squeeze profit out of every available acre.

The most recent acreage data from the government showed corn and cotton plantings, in particular, were far below initial expectations, with corn seedings registering, in June from March, the greatest drop in 37 years.

US government data show corn and cotton plantings, in particular, were far below initial expectations, with corn seedings registering, in June from March, the greatest drop in 37 years. [Adrees Latif/Reuters]

The coronavirus pandemic caused many farmers to give up on their corn crop before it was even in the ground. When calculating their plans for 2020, they had viewed corn as the crop most likely to turn a profit as continuing tensions with China threatened to roil the soybean export programme, even after Beijing and Washington signed a phase-one trade deal in January.

A US Agriculture Department report issued in March showed that farmers had planned to seed 96.999 million acres (39.2 million hectares) of the yellow grain, which would have been the second-highest since the Great Depression.

But demand for ethanol, a corn-based biofuel blended into petrol, cratered as COVID-19 cases spread across the country and people stayed home. That caused corn markets to slump just as farmers were firing up their tractors for planting season. When USDA issued its June acreage report, corn plantings had dropped 5.1 percent from the March intentions, reflecting the 10.3 percent drop in prices.

US supplies of corn stood at the second-highest level in 31 years last fall and the stockpiles were expected to swell even further after this years harvest. There is so much corn on hand that even some unusual purchases of US corn from China in recent weeks failed to lift prices, with futures CZ0 sinking to contract lows in early August.

Cotton plantings also were sharply lower, with farmers dropping seedings by 10.9 percent from their March intentions of 13.703 million acres. Cotton prices dropped 30 percent during planting season as global shutdowns roiled demand for new clothing.

With the economy shut down and lack of driving, it drove the price down too much. Troy Schneider, farmer in eastern Colorado

Unfortunately, the drastic decline in cotton prices and the increased uncertainty in commodity markets are damaging an already tenuous economic situation for producers, Jody Campiche, vice president, economics and policy analysis at the National Cotton Council, said in an email to Reuters News Agency.

Analysts said the drop in acreage is likely a one-time occurrence for farmers trying to avoid steep losses.

I think this may be a one-off year, said Michael Cordonnier, president of consultancy Soybean and Corn Adviser. You had the pandemic. There was just a general economic malaise. It just made everybody risk-averse.

A shift in government subsidies also may have contributed to farmers decision to leave some fields fallow.

Coronavirus aid payments were based on farmers year-earlier output, a change from the Trump administrations trade aid programme meant to compensate farmers for lost sales to China. Those payments, based on planted acreage in both 2018 and 2019, encouraged growers to get crops in the field even when market prices did not support planting.

That incentive is gone in 2020.

It costs money to put a crop out, said Jim Gerlach, president of US broker A/C Trading. It is better to make nothing than to lose money.
Graphics: GT

The US chip ban that is set to be effective from mid-September might spell the end for production of Huawei's self-developed Kirin chips, and it could also dampen the competitiveness of the company's high-end phones in the key domestic market as its share in overseas consumer markets shrinks amid US sanctions, Chinese analysts said.

The Kirin series of chips will not be produced after September 16, and Huawei's Mate 40 series will become the last flagship to carry its brilliant Kirin chips, with the new Kirin 9000 onboard, Richard Yu Chengdong, chief executive of the company's consumer business group, said on Friday during a China Info100 summit.

Huawei is rapidly running out of its high-end chips, according to Yu, adding that the firm's mobile phone business is having a hard time and Huawei's full-year shipments will be less than the 240 million units it shipped in 2019, given the chip supply situation.

The US government put Huawei on its Entity List in May 2019, which required US companies to obtain a license to export domestically produced chips and software. On May 15 this year, Washington toughened the rules by requiring licenses for sales to Huawei of semiconductors made abroad with US technology, with a 120-day buffer period that will expire on September 16.

"A halt of production of its self-developed chips might deal a heavy blow to its domestic phone sales, especially the high-end series, as it may lose advantages over its Chinese counterparts without the features offered by its own chips," Ma Jihua, an industry analyst and a close follower of Huawei, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Yu also disclosed at the forum that the reason Huawei achieved revenue growth amid the US' intensified sanctions in the first half was the increasing proportion of high-end product sales.

Sales revenue from its consumer business division accounts for more than half of the total. This segment has been the most important source of revenue overall, as well as profit and cash flow, and indeed overall growth for Huawei, in recent years.

"Huawei's chip stockpile may last for up to one year," an industry insider, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Global Times on Sunday. After that, it would depend on chip purchases from other firms.

Analysts said that the rare expression of weakness coming from a Huawei executive like Yu may on the one hand give a clue as to how difficult the situation is as the US chip ban comes closer. On the other hand, it may also indicate the firm has mapped out a solution and is ready to cope with whatever comes from the US.

The company will continue to look for substitutes for its own chips from MediaTek and Samsung, and also meanwhile try to ramp up research and development to become a manufacturer on its own, Ma said.

Huawei will start using two processor solutions starting initially from the upcoming Mate 40, and MediaTek and Samsung may be its two choices, insiders close to Huawei told the Global Times.

The Wall Street Journal reported that US chip firm Qualcomm has been putting pressure on the Trump administration to allow it to sell components to Huawei, saying current restrictions risk channeling revenue to foreign competitors rather than preventing the Chinese company from obtaining the products.

"But the Trump administration has already become aware that it can't kill Huawei, so it's adopting a 'dragging Huawei behind strategy' to prevent it from getting ahead of its US counterparts," Ma said.

The Chinese firm has been moving against the headwinds in recent months. According to a report from TrendForce sent to the Global Times, Huawei is set to surpass Sweden's Ericsson to become the largest supplier in the mobile base station equipment market this year. For the first time, Huawei in the second quarter unseated Samsung to become the top smartphone vendor globally.

"Had it not been for the US restrictions, Huawei would have surpassed Samsung in mobile phone shipments last year," Yu said.

Yu's comments also tell everyone that any company could be the next Huawei, amid the Trump administration's unreasonable and arbitrary crackdown, which goes against business rules, analysts said.

"We hope to provide a platform that allows everyone to continue to develop without being controlled by others  for not only companies from China, but also those from Europe, Japan, South Korea and the world to build a digital and intelligent platform for the new economic era, and let our roots grow deep," Yu said.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo rejected calls for an independent investigation into deaths of coronavirus patients in state nursing homes, saying such an investigation would be political.

The state has seen over 32,000 deaths from coronavirus, with at least 6,500 of those deaths among residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities. However, if a nursing home resident dies of coronavirus after having been transferred to a hospital, the fatality is not listed in state records as a nursing home death. This practice has led to speculation that the death count among nursing home residents is higher than reported.

I wouldnt do an investigation [into nursing home deaths] whether or not its political, Cuomo said at a press conference. I think youd have to be blind to realize its not political.

The governor dismissed allegations that the state had not adequately protected nursing home residents from coronavirus.

Just look at where it comes from and look at the sources and look at their political affiliationsand look at what publications raise it and what media outward networks raise it, Cuomo said.

Critics have pointed to a March executive order, signed by Cuomo and supported by state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, mandating that nursing homes readmit coronavirus patients even if those patients were not fully recovered, which may have driven coronavirus outbreaks in the facilities. The New York Department of Health released its own report concluding that outbreaks in nursing homes were driven primarily by visitors and caregivers who had themselves already been infected.

This is a conflict of interest for the health department to investigate its own poor decisions, State Assemblyman Ron Kim, who represents Queens, said in early July. For them to say that the decision of sending COVID-19 patients from hospitals into nursing did not contribute to increasing infections is ludicrous.

State Democratic lawmakers have opened an investigation into the deaths.

Story continues

[Cuomo] has spent a lot of time pointing fingers at other people rather than taking ownership of his own mistakes and really thoughtfully addressing the problem, State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, a Democrat representing parts of the Bronx and Westchester, said in June.

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Houses in Yemens UNESCO-listed Old City of Sanaa are collapsing under heavy rains, as months of floods and storms assail a country already reeling from war, food shortages and disease.

The distinctive brown and white mud brick houses of Sanaas historic neighbourhoods, which date from before the 11th century, have long been under threat from conflict and neglect.

Muhammad Ali al-Talhis house partially collapsed on Friday as heavy rain battered Sanaa, leaving the six women and six children of his family homeless.

Everything we had is buried, he said surrounded by ancient debris and mud, appealing for help to find shelter.

Aqeel Saleh Nassar, deputy head of the Historic Cities Preservation Authority, said citizens today do not maintain these old buildings as in the past, leading to cracks and weakness.

Around 5,000 of the towering buildings in the old city have leaky roofs and 107 have partially collapsed roofs, he said. The authority has been working with UNESCO and other funds to preserve some.

This years exceptionally heavy rains, which began mid-April and last into early September, have added to what the United Nations describes as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.

Five years of war have killed more than 100,000 people, and left 80% of the population reliant on aid and millions on the brink of famine.

On top of the new coronavirus, which is believed to be spreading largely undetected, heavy rains spread diseases like cholera, dengue fever and malaria.

The Iran-aligned Houthi authorities who have controlled Sanaa since ousting the internationally recognised Saudi-backed Yemeni government in late 2014, appealed this week to UNESCO to save the citys heritage.

They said around 111 houses had partly or completely collapsed in recent weeks.

Sanaa resident Adel Sanani on Saturday told Reuters he saw five houses severely damaged this weekend.

The families have no shelter. A local bank launched a campaign to distribute plastic sheeting to act as roofs, he said.
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Uttarakhand government has set up a Herbal Museum in Chamoli district in a bid to promote the conservation of rare and endangered indigenous medicinal plant species.

The museum has been set up by the Herbal Research Development Institute (HRDI), an autonomous body, said officials.

Chandrashekhar Sanwal, director, HRDI, said that there was a need for such a museum, following an uptick in the demand for herbal products across the world.

Herbal renaissance is occurring is a global concept, as herbal products are considered safer than synthetic modern drugs. Looking at the importance of medicinal and aromatic plant-based natural products, HRDI has developed a national-level Herbal Museum at Mandal in Gopeshwar area of Chamoli district, said Sanwal.

The museum has 36 medicinal plants such as Kutki, Kuth, Chippi, Gandrayan, Tejpatta, large cardamom, among others.

The museum aims to promote medicinal and aromatic plants, which are important for developing pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, herbal disinfectants, repellents and culinary herbs-based natural products.

Sanwal said that research and development activities have also been undertaken to develop various categories of traditional, medicinal and aromatic plant-based natural products at the museum.

HRDI is a nodal agency of Uttarakhand State Medicinal Plant Board, which was established at Gopeshwar in 1989 for conservation, development and sustainable utilisation of the valuable medicinal and aromatic plant resources of the region.

Uttarakhand, which is spread over 53,000 square kilometres (sq km), including over 46,000 sq km is hilly terrain, has over 7,000 species of plants of which more than 1,100 are of medicinal value.

The institutes primary objective is to co-ordinate medicinal and aromatic plants activities carried out by various government agencies, farmers, research institutes, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and other stakeholders.

The institute focuses on the cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants, survey and conservation of medicinal and aromatic plants, research on agro-technique, bio-diversity, biotechnology and genetic improvement of medicinal plants and many such activities.

Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Sunday tweeted, praising the institutes efforts to conserve medicinal species in the hill state and called it a useful tool for the youths and farmers.

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Lawmakers in Washington state are pressuring Washington and Ottawa to explain the decision-making behind border-crossing restrictions, as residents of one geographically isolated community continue to have problems accessing the U.S. mainland.

Four members of Congress wrote to acting U.S. Ambassador to Canada Richard Mills on Monday urging him to work with the Trudeau government "to provide more transparency" on how rules may be eased and to advocate for "a phased approach" to reopening.

The Washington Democrats also pressed the case of Point Roberts, Wash., an exclave that sits just below the 49th parallel at the tip of the Tsawwassen peninsula and borders British Columbia. The 1,300 residents must cross the Canadian border twice by car to access the rest of the state.

Were fundamentally under house arrest," said Christopher Carleton, fire chief of Whatcom County's District 5, which includes Point Roberts. "Some people are not able to leave our community.

The issue: The Canada Border Services Agency "prevents non-essential travel of American citizens between Point Roberts and the mainland, which isolates that community from the rest of Washington and the country," said Reps. Suzan DelBene and Rick Larsen and Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray.

DelBene, whose district includes Point Roberts, said the interpretation of rules is so restrictive that even when constituents are permitted to cross the border, they must do so alone, effectively prohibiting companions on medical visits or helping hands on essential errands.

Communities across the northern border have seen their economies tank since Canadians aren't traveling to the U.S. for gas, groceries and entertainment.

Folks really want to make sure that theres consistency and transparency so theyre able to move back and forth and do essential things in their lives," DelBene told POLITICO.

CBSA didn't immediately comment. U.S. Customs and Border Protection referred questions to the State Department, which has yet to respond.

Story continues

Specific ideas: The lawmakers urged Mills to collaborate with the Canadian government on a solution that addresses public health and access concerns. U.S. travelers can safely travel between Point Roberts and the mainland since they can cross through both the Boundary Bay and Peace Arch border crossings without having to exit their vehicles, they wrote.

Point Roberts residents could produce driver's licenses or other documents proving residency to CBSA to allow them to cross, they added.

Point Roberts residents should be viewed by Ottawa and Washington as more in line with Canada, given its geography and lack of confirmed Covid cases, Carleton said.

What's next: The current limitations on nonessential travel over the U.S.-Canada land border expire Aug. 21. They're widely expected to be extended, at least in some capacity.
Incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko is leading in the Belarus presidential election, according to data coming from the regions, preliminary results are expected by 2am on Monday, Central Election Commission Chairperson Lidiya Yermoshina said.



According to her, four districts of the Brest region have reported that Lukashenko secured 79.69% of the vote (his main rival Svetlana Tikhanovskaya got 3.8%), winning 90% in four districts of the Gomel region (Tikhanovskaya got 3.2%). In eight districts of the Grodno region, 92.7% of the voters cast their ballots for Lukashenko (3.89% for Tikhanovskaya). In the Mogilev region, four districts, 93.8% supported Lukashenko. None of the above came second there with 3.3%.



"I expect that by 02:00 we will have preliminary results from across the country," TASS cited Yermoshina as saying.



The presidential election was held in Belarus on August 9. Exit polls give incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko over 70% of the vote. His main rival, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is winning between 6.8% and 10.1%. The voter turnout was 84.05% as of 20:00 on Sunday.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Athens, Greece  Mon, August 10, 2020 09:57 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cbe294 2 World Greek,flood,natural-calamities,natural-disaster,torrential-rain Free

A baby was among seven people who died as torrential rains and floods swept the Greek island of Evia, damaging dozens of houses and blocking roads, authorities said Sunday.

The eight-month-old baby was found dead in a house in the village of Politika on Sunday, said a spokesman for firefighters involved in rescue efforts. The baby's parents were unharmed.

Hours earlier, a man and woman in their 80s were found unconscious by firefighters in two houses in the same village, the spokesman said. They were confirmed as dead at the hospital.

Two other people who died, a 74-year-old man and a 73-year-old woman, were from the village of Bourtsi, the ANA news agency reported.

The five dead were among an earlier official toll, which also listed one person as missing, following torrential rains late Saturday and early Sunday.

In a new toll, firefighters said seven people had died -- but gave no immediate details of who they were -- and that one person remained missing.

One woman was found after being reported missing.

The ANA news agency said a helicopter had spotted the missing woman, who had been swept away by the floodwaters from her home in Bourtsi.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis voiced his "profound pain for the loss of lives" and said he would visit Evia, Greece's second largest island after Crete, on Monday.

'A nightmare'

Torrents of water blocked roads in the west of Evia, which lies about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Athens. Some tourists were unable to leave one campsite on the island, ANA reported.

"We are experiencing a nightmare, we are using every possible means" to combat the floods, said Ana Fanis Spanos, a lawmaker from the central Greece region.

Storm Thalia battered several regions of mainland Greece Saturday, though the weather was improving on Sunday.

Hundreds of homes were flooded in Politika and several surrounding villages. Blocked roads prevented fire trucks from reaching the affected sites.

Two rivers burst their banks and filled roads with mud, local authorities said. The ground floors of many houses were flooded.

Manos Anastasiou, a hotel employee in Politika, told AFP how astonished he was at seeing so much rain in such a short time.

"I'm 51 years old and it's the first time I have seen something like this," Anastasiou said.

About 100 firefighters and two helicopters as well as the coastguard were deployed to rescue those trapped.

Deputy minister for civil protection Nikos Hardalias, who visited Politika Sunday morning, said more than 350 millimeters (13.8 inches) of rain fell in six hours.

"Everything happened so suddenly. It's a disaster," he said while expressing concern about climate change.

Flooded homes are a frequent occurrence in Greece due to a lack of adequate controls over construction and planning.

In November 2017, floods killed 24 people in Mandra, a village in an industrial region 30 kilometers west of Athens. Torrents of mud poured down over thousands of buildings, homes, shops and factories.
Canadian pastor jailed in Myanmar for holding church service amid lockdown

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A court in Myanmar has sentenced a Canadian pastor to three months in jail after he held in-person church services in defiance of a government-mandated ban on mass gatherings.

Pastor David Lah, 43, and his colleague, Myanmar national Wai Tun, were charged in April with violating Myanmars Natural Disaster and Management Law by holding services in the city of Yangon, the AFP reports. Though based in Toronto, Lah was born in Myanmar and often returns to his motherland to preach.

On Thursday, both men were convicted of breaking administrative rules and given a three-month hard labor sentence, Maung Soe, a judge at Yangon's Mayangone Township court, told reporters.

"The judge also took into consideration the time he's already spent in detention, so he could very well be released in the next few days or weeks even," Al Jazeera's Florence Looi said in her report from Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Myanmar imposed a ban on mass gatherings in mid-March in response to the novel coronavirus. However, 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 said, according to video footage of the event. "The only person who can cure and give peace in this pandemic is Jesus."

Weeks later, about 20 people connected to his gatherings tested positive for the novel coronavirus, including Pastor Lah. However, it's possible that attendees contracted the virus elsewhere.

The preacher was arrested after recovering from the illness in May and faced up to three years in jail. On Thursday, a waiting crowd of the preacher's followers erupted into cheers and celebrations at the news of his reduced sentence, according to the AFP.

About 6% of Buddhist-majority Myanmar's population identifies as one of the various Christian denominations in the country.

Religious persecution watchdog International Christian Concern previously reported that because of Lahs actions, many Christians in Myanmar face criticism and have sensed hostilities toward them in the Buddhist majority country.

Christian leaders have appealed to citizens to work together to fight COVID-19 in unity and love as anti-Christian sentiment surges on social media, ICC said. They also urged people not to post and share fake news, photos and videos on Facebook that may be offensive to religion.

Open Doors ranks Myanmar at No. 19 on its 2020 World Watch List of the countries where it's most difficult to be a Christian.

Government restrictions on places of worship in the wake of COVID-19 have sparked controversy in recent months, with some pastors accusing civil leaders of usurping a role that they don't have.

Megachurch Pastor Ed Young previously told The Christian Post that while the issue is "complex," 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, the Texas-based pastor said. 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.

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.

I just don't want us to lose our boldness and I don't want the church to mail it in," he said. "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.

Just 12% of Americans said they attended a house of worship from mid-June to mid-July, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. Among Evangelical Protestants, a 62% majority says houses of worship should be held to the same standards as other businesses and organizations.
OTTAWA COUNTY, MI  Two people were seriously injured after a crash Sunday, Aug. 9 in Olive Township, north of Holland, according to the Ottawa County Sheriffs Office.

The incident began around 11:15 a.m. when deputies responded to a two-vehicle personal injury crash at 144th Avenue and Tyler Street.

An investigation has revealed a Ford F-150 driven by an 18-year-old Holland man was headed west on Tyler Street and failed to stop for a stop sign.

The truck hit the passenger side door of a Chevy transport van driven by a 26-year-old West Olive man.

The impact forced both vehicles off the road. The van overturned and ended up on its side, police said.

The truck driver and a 16-year-old passenger were transported to a local hospital after they suffered serious injuries.

The driver of the van and a 17-year-old passenger suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were also transported to a local hospital for treatment.

The van had six additional occupants, but none of them were injured in the crash, police said.

The crash remains under investigation.

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India is considering investing Rs 10,000 crore for building a transshipment port at Great Nicobar Island in the Bay of Bengal to provide shippers an alternative to similar ports in the region, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday as he inaugurated the first undersea optical fibre project to provide high-speed internet to Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The 2,312-kilometer-long submarine optical fibre cable from Chennai to Andaman and Nicobar Islands, laid at a cost of Rs 1,224 crore, will provide "better and cheaper connectivity", he said.

"There is a proposal to build a transshipment port at Great Nicobar at an estimated expenditure of about Rs 10,000 crore. Large ships can dock once this port is ready," he said at the inauguration ceremony held through video link.

The dedicated container transshipment terminal at the strategic port locale in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands along the Bay of Bengal coastline offers two geographical advantages - proximity to the busy east-west international shipping route that can facilitate shorter transits and greater economies of scale, and deep natural water depths that can accommodate the latest generation of mega-ships.

The transshipment port would enable big ships to anchor and raise India's share in maritime trade as well as create new job opportunities, he said.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands Administration had last year floated an expression of interest for the container transshipment terminal with the Free Trade Warehousing Zone in South Bay, Great Nicobar Island to provide Indian shippers an alternative to Colombo, Singapore and Port Klang (Malaysia) transshipment ports.

The Prime Minister said Andaman & Nicobar will be developed as a hub of port-led development as it is at a competitive distance from many ports of the world.

As India looks to establish itself as an important player in global supply and value chain, it is very important to strengthen the network of waterways and ports, he said adding legal bottlenecks in the development of port infrastructure are also being removed continuously.

The government's focus, he said, is also on promoting ease of business and simplifying maritime logistics.

He referred to in-principal approval being given for building a deep draft greenfield seaport on the west coast and work starting on a deep draft inner harbour on the east coast.

While blue economy like fisheries, aquaculture, and seaweed farming will accelerate the development of Andaman and Nicobar, the government is making efforts to have more facilities at the Islands.

The undersea cable will help boost tourism as it will provide better mobile and internet connectivity on the Islands, he said.

"From Chennai to Port Blair, Port Blair to Little Andaman and Port Blair to Swaraj Dweep, this service has started in large part of Andaman Nicobar from today," Modi said adding it will boost 4G mobile services and digital services like tele-education, telehealth, e-governance services and tourism on the Islands.

Besides Port Blair, it will connect other islands namely Swaraj Dweep (Havlock), Long Island, Rangat, Little Andaman, Kamorta, Car Nicobar, and Greater Nicobar.

According to official data, an internet speed of 400 gigabytes (Gb) per second will be provided at Port Blair and for other islands, it will be 200 Gb per second.

Undersea cable linking the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with Chennai was laid before time despite the difficult situation, Modi said.

The work of laying undersea cable has been executed by BSNL in a record time of less than 24 months.

Besides mobile and internet connectivity, physical connectivity through road, air, and water is also being strengthened, he said referring to two big bridges and widening of National Highway No.4 being undertaken to improve road connectivity between North and Middle Andaman.

He said the Port Blair Airport is being enhanced to handle a capacity of 1,200 passengers. Along with this, the airports are ready for operations in Diglipur, Car Nicobar, and Campbell-Bay.

Seaplane services will start once water aerodrome infrastructure including passenger terminal and floating jetty is ready at Swaraj Dweep, Shaheed Dweep, and Long Island, he said adding four ships being built at Kochi Shipyard shall be delivered soon to improve the water connectivity between the islands and the mainland.

The Prime Minister said that when India is moving forward with the resolve of self-sufficiency and is establishing itself as an important player in the global supply and value chain, it is very important to strengthen our network of waterways and our ports.
Jimmy Lai, the high profile chairman of Next Gen and founder of Apple Daily, was arrested on the morning of August 10 on allegations of collusion with foreign powers. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) calls on the Hong Kong government to stop intimidating dissidents and drop all charges against Jimmy Lai.

Jimmy Lai, known to be critical of the Hong Kong government, was arrested at his house at around 7 a.m. Police also arrested Jimmy Lais son and other members of Lais media group. Next Media Group publishes Apple Daily, a widely-known pro-democracy newspaper and website.

Jimmy Lai, who supported pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong last year, is being held under the controversial new security law. The law, which came into effect on June 30, allows the authorities to punish protesters and diminish Hong Kongs autonomy. The laws 66 articles remained secret until it was passed. Under the articles, authorities can criminalise any act of subversion, any actions deemed to undermine Beijings authority as well as any act of collusion with foreign powers.

In an interview in mid-June, Lai has described the new law as a death knell for Hong Kong and it will supersede or destroy our rule of law and destroy the international financial status. Although he has stated he is prepared to go to prison, he has worried that authorities would target his journalists.

This is not the first arrest for Lai. He was also arrested on June 11 on incitement charges relating to the Tiananmen commemoration vigil. On April 18, he was arrested and charged for his role in the unlawful assembly during the Hong Kong protests in 2019.

The IFJ said: The authorities must stop all the forms of intimidation against the media and supporters of democracy. The IFJ urges the Hong Kong government to immediately release Jimmy Lai and drop all charges against him.
Voters in the Philadelphia region will soon have a new way to cast their ballots.

Some of Pennsylvanias largest counties are planning to create satellite election offices, where voters could request and submit a mail ballot on the spot, according to officials. That would provide for the first time a form of in-person early voting that is easily and widely available to all voters in those counties  at a moment when the coronavirus, a surge in voting by mail, and troubling post office delays have cast a shadow on the very process of conducting the 2020 presidential election.

Philadelphia election officials hope to set up 17 such early voting sites, including at their main office at City Hall, if they can secure funding to do so and overcome other hurdles. Montgomery County officials are planning five locations, including at the county government office in Norristown. Delaware County officials have already approved two sites, in Upper Darby and Media, and are likely to approve a third in Chester. They are also hoping to create a portable office that can travel around Delaware County. And Bucks County officials will vote this week on a plan to set up three voting sites at government buildings in Quakertown, Doylestown, and Levittown.

These election offices would allow voters to bypass the various logistical challenges of voting by mail or at the polls, and also make it easier to avoid Election Day crowds while the pandemic has raised fears about traditional in-person voting.

If those counties get their plans off the ground, more than 2.5 million Pennsylvania voters will have the option of visiting a new county election office to cast a ballot in person before Nov. 3.

These mail-in voting centers allow us to reach a group of people who either wont vote if they dont feel safe going to a polling place because of the coronavirus or  they wont vote because theyre uncomfortable voting by mail, said Delaware County Councilmember Christine Reuther. They want that sense of voting in person. This is really about trying to maximize access, trying to maximize safety when voting.

Chester County said it has no plans to follow suit. Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh, has yet to make a decision.

Unlike traditional early voting, in which people use voting machines the same way they would at polling places on Election Day, Pennsylvanias method uses mail ballots. Under a new Pennsylvania law enacted last year, any voter is allowed to vote by mail. And in addition to requesting a ballot online or through a form in the mail, voters in any county can go to their county election office and request a mail ballot that is printed and given to them there. They can then fill out the ballot and return it immediately.

While the law makes this option available at all county election offices, it may not be feasible for one office to handle a large number of voters, especially in more populous cities and suburbs. So the Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees elections, has encouraged counties to set up the satellite offices, including in areas that historically see low turnout or long lines.

 READ MORE: Pennsylvanias nightmare 2020 voting scenario  and how to prevent it

But the implementation of a new voting method comes as officials struggle to pull off one of the most difficult elections in memory. The coronavirus has affected virtually all elements of election administration, including an increase in mail ballot requests that has far exceeded what was expected under the new law. So most counties dont plan to tout the ballot-on-demand option to voters or to set up satellite sites.

There can be significant technical and logistical hurdles to setting up additional offices. They have to securely connect to the states voter registration system, keep a supply of blank ballots or correctly and quickly print there, ensure that ballots are kept secure, and have enough trained staff to process voters and troubleshoot problems.

Its much different from just hiring a couple temps and saying, Heres a computer and heres a ballot thing, have fun. You have to train people, said Nick Custodio, deputy under Lisa Deeley, chair of the Philadelphia City Commissioners, who run elections.

Officials in several small- and medium-sized counties said they were not exploring the possibility of setting up satellite offices, citing the financial and logistical challenges. The benefits, they said, may not be worth the costs compared with larger, denser counties.

Custodio said Philadelphias satellite offices would cost more than $100,000 each to equip and run  meaning it would cost more than $1.5 million for the 15 locations the city commissioners are hoping to set up in addition to their existing two offices.

Its not like you just pop a tent and get it there, because then you just create yourself a backdoor into the states voter registration system, Custodio said. So you still want to make sure that [you do] all of these things youre doing to maintain your security against bad actors.

Other counties have it easier.

Bucks County is fortunate: We have government service centers that already brick-and-mortar exist, said Gail Humphrey, the countys chief clerk. The infrastructures already there, I just need to throw a server, a human, and a printer in it.

Similarly, Reuther said, Delaware Countys already approved sites will be in government buildings with existing infrastructure. A third location is still being planned. The county is also considering a unique pop-up method in which staff would set up equipment in locations such as schools, libraries, and community centers. They would be available by appointment.

The areas of the county we would be targeting are areas where we saw either low utilization of mail-in voting or where people had a lot of difficulty leaving their communities to get to the polls, and Im thinking specifically a lot of our senior communities, Reuther said.

Delaware County, like some others, is pursuing funding from nonprofit groups to supplement whatever local, state, and federal money will be available.

Before the pandemic, Montgomery County had planned to set up on-demand mail voting in the main elections office in Norristown for the primary, said Lee Soltysiak, the countys chief operating officer and chief clerk. Now hes trying to set up the Norristown office and four others.

The four satellite offices are likely to be available only on weekends, Soltysiak said, because the buildings are in use during the week and wouldnt have enough space to allow for social distancing.

Pennsylvania finally started to catch up with the times to make more of these voting options available, Soltysiak said. And I think its incumbent upon all of us as election officials to make them available.
Now that the New Mexico Supreme Court has affirmed the state can levy hefty fines against businesses that defy public health orders, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has a real opportunity to lower the rancor by greatly reducing the $5,000 fines faced by 16 small businesses.

The governor, obviously annoyed by the handful of businesses that has brazenly and recklessly defied public health orders, prevailed in the case in no uncertain terms. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday the states Public Health Emergency Response Act allows it to impose civil penalties of up to $5,000 a day for violations of health orders. That case has been closed, although the Supreme Court left undecided whether companies are entitled to compensation from the state if they are forced to close or operate at limited capacity.

In the wake of the court victory, the governor should take the high road. New Mexicans have had enough bickering between Democrats and Republicans over the coronavirus in the past four months. Republicans have been critical of the governors actions, saying she hasnt consulted with businesses, state lawmakers and others before imposing crushing business restrictions. Democrats support many of her actions, pointing to lower COVID-19 case numbers than our neighbors. Still, the governor at times seems to target family-owned businesses, such as shaming a well-known Hobbs eatery during one of her recent press briefings by super-imposing blue masks on the unmasked faces of restaurant workers and patrons and broadcasting the image across the state. What about the parties, pickup games and protests so prevalent at parks, Civic Plaza and outside residences, in clear violation of the governors mass gathering restrictions? No shaming of these folks.

That said, the governors announcement Thursday that the states quarantine requirements had been amended was a positive step as coronavirus infection, hospitalization and death rates drop. The current health order requires people arriving from out of state, whether New Mexicans or not, to self-isolate for 14 days or the duration of their stay. This meant New Mexicans who go see a doctor, dentist or optometrist in Lubbock, Texas, had to quarantine for 14 days after coming home. The amended health order removes the mandatory self-quarantine requirement for those who leave the state for medical care and for those who leave the state for less than 24 hours for parenting responsibilities, such as child visitations. Unfortunately, she hasnt taken up U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrichs suggestion to exempt from the 14-day quarantine those who test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of coming to New Mexico.

The governor also announced Thursday that in-person visits to nursing homes would be allowed under strict limits. And late last week, the state Health Department announced changes that allow family members or guardians of developmentally disabled persons to do outdoor visits with loved ones in group homes, and for therapists to resume face-to-face sessions with clients. About 200 family members signed a letter to the governor requesting the restrictions be relaxed, saying many people were being isolated from those who care about them the most. The governor responded to their concerns.

Lujan Grisham said Thursday: The state shouldnt have to fine anybody. Shes right, even beyond how she meant it. Just because the state can levy fines of up to $5,000 a day doesnt mean it has to. Extending an olive branch to the 16 businesses facing the enormous fines and instead levying the same $100 fines others have gotten would be a magnanimous gesture that could help bring New Mexicans together.

Fighting coronavirus needs to be a bipartisan effort, not a wedge issue. The more the governor listens to and responds to concerns, the more effective she will be in leading the state through the crisis.

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.
E-commerce companies cannot deny their responsibilities behind the rampage of fake books on their platforms.

Fake books are very easy to come by on e-commerce platforms

This was shared by Nguyen Duc Hung, deputy director of TGS Law Firm, who pointed to Article 36.8 of Decree No.52/2013/ND-CP on e-commerce which stipulates that the responsibilities of traders or organisations providing e-commerce trading floor services include taking timely remedial measures upon detection or receipt of reports about business acts in violation of the law on the e-commerce trading floor.

If e-commerce companies do not disclose, prevent, and remove the items from their platforms in time, they violate the regulation, Hung said.

Thus, the abundance of fake books on Shopee and Sendo heavily implies that the platforms are failing to dispense the legal obligations.

As of early this March, the copyright department of local book publisher First News detected more than 43 Facebook pages and nearly 70 e-commerce vendors selling fake books. Moreover, the firm found more than 116 YouTube channels uploading audiobooks illegally.

In a recent response to VIR, Nguyen Van Phuoc, CEO of First News, said that it is planning to file lawsuits on e-commerce platforms that abetted the prolonged trading of fake books.

Phuoc in a Facebook post recently called attention to the many vendors selling fake books on Shopee and Sendo, with many offering items that violate the copyrights of First News, Alpha Books, and other publishers.

Previously, speaking at an event, Phuoc revealed that the publisher contacted the platforms to report the issues in hopes that the offending vendors would be removed but were rebutted. The representatives of the sites said that they are platforms only letting sellersSe operate a business, with 13 per cent commission on their revenue. Therefore, they are not responsible for the performance of the vendors.

First News prints only one version of a book, however, fake book sellers have many versions with very low prices. First News has 1,000 books but has to compete with more than 3,000 fake and smuggled books, said Phuoc. Readers and dealers find it increasingly difficult to distinguish fake and authentic books due to the mounting skills of counterfeiters.

This has resulted in an 80 per cent plunge in customer footfall at its bookshops, according to First News.

Other publishers like Kim Dong and Alphabooks, Nha Nam, and Dong A are in the same situation.

Kim Dong and Dong A purchased several books for which they hold the copyright from e-commerce sites. Not unexpectedly, all the items were fake. Both of them sent notices to their customers to keep an eye out and avoid forgeries. The publishers said that they have no better solutions for the issue.

Nha Nam even uploaded a video helping customers to distinguish authentic and fake books on its Facebook fan page.

According to the publishers, only about 0.001 per cent of local readers could recognise authenticat books, which is the reason behind the rampage of fake books in the market.

Facing queries about fake books, a representative of Sendo told VIR that it regularly rechecks all book items traded on its platform to ensure compliance with Sendos strict requirements, which include vendors getting licenses to export and import printed materials from the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Echoing this, the representative of Shopee told VIR that the company will collaborate with local authorities to inspect the related violations. At the same time, the platform also asserts that it is doing all in its power to crack down on vendors selling fake and smuggled goods or items violating intellectual property rights as soon as receiving reliable reports, following Decree No.52/2013/ND-CP and Circular No.47/2014/TT-BCT.

We only partner with genuine sellers who can submit the requisite documents and materials proving that the items they put on sale are authentic, said the representative, adding that to date, Shopee has yet to receive reliable allegations from First News.

Along with Vietnam, publishers across the globe are fighting for their rights that have been threatened by fake book sellers.

Newswire CNBC cited Cengage  a digital content publisher specialised in online textbooks stated that its revenue from textbook business dropped by 17 per cent in 2017 with the main reason being the spike in fake textbooks and illegally distributed e-books.

Michael E. Hansen, CEO of Cengage said that it suffers about $70-100 million in damages a year. What changed is just the amount of counterfeits in the market has spiked over the last 18 to 24 months. The more we started to dig in and do test purchases, the more we came across, in some cases, a staggering number of counterfeits in certain marketplaces. VIR

An Nhien

E-commerce titans step up fake product fight Overseas e-commerce companies Lazada and Shopee may lose their positions in Vietnam if they keep demonstrating limitations in protecting consumers from low-quality and fake goods.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has shifted the post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (post-UTME) screening for the 2020 admission processes till September 7 in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in the country.

The board said the shift in the date of the admission process from the earlier announced August 21 was to accommodate candidates who would be taking part in this years school-based Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE).

The Board Registrar, Ishaq Oloyede, made this known on Monday, after a consultative virtual meeting with Vice Chancellors, Rectors, and Provosts of tertiary institutions.

He said, the view of JAMB is that while we go on consulting at a point when it becomes necessary for a decision, we should all come together and make decisions.

Presently as you are aware, WAEC starts the Senior School Certificate Examination on Aug. 17, it will go on till Sept. 7.

Similarly, on Sept. 2 or thereabout, NABTEB will commence its own examination that will go on till Oct. 15, and immediately after that, NECO starts from the 5th to Nov.18.

Rather than making candidates run, particularly, when they will have to write their school certificate exam in different towns and rush to universities elsewhere for post-UTME, like somebody rushing from Sokoto to Ibadan for post-UTME, we believe as a custodian of the highest sector of the education system, we should avoid that, Mr Oloyede said.

The JAMB boss said institutions whose post-UTME screening was mandatory for candidates would have to spread such exercise in two phases.

For those institutions who want to take post-UTME, that cannot be earlier than the 7th of September and it will be held twice  from 7th September to 4th of October, and then it will be held for the second time on the 18th of November to mop up those who are taking their school certificate examination, he said.

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Mr Oloyede, who commended the various submissions of heads of tertiary institutions during the meeting, said institutions that conducted admissions without the administration of any-post UTME screening, should also ensure candidates whose SSCE results would be released toward the end of the year were not denied participation in the admission exercise.

He said the board had withheld results of candidates that sat for the 2020 UTME at Correctional Service Centres (prisons) over suspected infractions.

There are candidates who took exams in the correctional centres that we know are not prisoners, so we wrote to the correctional centres to explain how that happens, because we did not want non-prisoners to take advantage of the concessions we give to inmates, Mr Oloyede said.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the virtual meeting attracted 488 participants from across all states in the country.

It was attended by JAMBs Director of Administration, Aliyu Muhammed; Director of Finance, Muktar Bello; Director of Information Communication Technology, Fabian Okoro; Director of Information, Fabian Benjamin, among others.

(NAN)
By Susan Russell

The recent incident involving a black bear in West Milford who had access to a refrigerator in a garage highlights New Jerseys ongoing poor management. It is enormously fortunate that the homeowner is safe. Had Senators Stephen Sweeney (D-3) and Steven Oroho (R-24) not blocked 2012-2014 Bear Smart legislation addressing trash containment, the incident and the bears death likely could have been avoided.

In six long-term studies, Colorado state biologists have upended bear management. their findings:

Increasing bear-human conflicts do not mean the bear population is growing but that bears are adapting to take advantage of urban expansion.

This will compel a rethinking of Colorados current approach of boosting bear hunting based on the number of conflicts reported in an area. If bears arent multiplying, heavy hunting could hurt the species.

During the study, Colorado authorities worked with Durango officials to put bear-proof trash cans at homes in some neighborhoods. They found that this reduced bear-human conflicts. In areas without bear-proof cans, conflicts increased sharply.

This research will go a long way toward taking the guessing out of how to better manage black bears and reduce conflict, U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher Stewart Breck told The Denver Post. The question is whether or not people will listen.

In parts of the U.S. and Canada, bear towns are serious about garbage. Biologists agree that living with black bears means battening down the hatches when it comes to garbage and human-derived foods  and using the force of law to get residents to comply.

Voluntary compliance has proved both illusory and unfair to responsible residents. In a neighborhood where nine homeowners use bear-resistant bins and one does not, bears will continue to visit. Feeding bears, via trash or bait, can lead to food conditioning, habituation to humans, conflicts, property damage, reduce bear range, and increased physical size and reproductive rates

The Division of Fish and Wildlifes enforcement of the 2002 Bear Feeding Law remains poor. The statute is riddled with loopholes and, arguably, unclear language. By extension, local ordinances; where they exist, are vague and largely unenforced. The baiting of bear and of deer near homes is all too common. A deer bait station is a bear bait station.

In the United States, the governments of Teton County, Wyoming; Teton County, Idaho; Eagle County, Colorado, Aspen, Colorado; and Juneau, Alaska have mandated bear-resistant bins and dumpsters. Aspen officials advise that the ordinances are in place to ensure your safety and the safety of our wildlife. When wildlife has access to trash, it brings them closer to our homes, creating a potentially dangerous situation for animals and people. Boulder, Colorados bear safe ordinance requires all trash and curbside compost to be secured from bears at all times until collected by a waste hauler in the western part of the city. Residents access a downloadable map of the area where bear-resistant containers are mandatory.

When bears are nearby, residents should be required to use expert-approved containers. These bins cost between $200 for a 95-gallon cart and $39 for a 20-gallon cart  and even less when purchased in bulk. Bearicudas approved, 95-gallon Kodiak is fully automated and requires only a single driver  the driver need never leave the truck. Haulers can retrofit dumpsters for a one-time fee of $100-$175, depending on size. Based on cubic yards, model and manufacturer the cost of a new dumpster is between $1,099 to $2,225.

The Bear Smart Legislation introduced by former Senator Raymond Lesniak was based on sound science. It required campgrounds, closed communities and municipalities located in bear habitat to institute and enforce bear-resistant trash programs. Like Boulder, townships would require bins only in areas with higher conflict. The money collected in fines would go to the municipalities that enforce the ordinances. The bill would also restrict baiting of bear and deer in bear habitat.

New Jerseys 2010 reduction of home safety buffers for bow hunting to 150 feet in residential neighborhoods has led to increased baiting for deer in backyards  in bear country. Public and private bait and shoot areas often abut residential neighborhoods.

Living with bears is not a numbers game. The number of reported bear problems often does not correspond to the number of bears in an area. In 2002, the number of such complaints was high in Florida, despite a low bear population. Canadian authorities believe that climate and natural food availability, not hunting, are responsible for the ebb and flow of the black bear population.

We also must consider whether were shooting the problem bears? Findings in Wisconsin, Ontario, Pennsylvania and now Colorado suggests that we are not. Based on 10 years of data, researchers in Wisconsin concluded that the age and sex of bears killed by hunters differed significantly from those of bears trapped at nuisance and complaint sites.

New Jerseys unscientific population reduction approach randomly baits and kills bears, the overwhelming majority of whom have never approached a human or a home.

Although bears are usually harmless, people should always avoid any kind of interaction with black bears. New Jersey public policy should, and can, reflect the science. The first step is to secure our trash. By working together, township and state legislators can make the difference.

Susan Russell is the wildlife policy director of the Animal Protection League of New Jersey.

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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...
SIPTU have called for the provision of safe and adequate toilet facilities for bus drivers.

In a letter to the National Transport Authority (NTA) they said the need for proper toilet facilities for bus drivers has intensified as a result of the Covid-19 emergency.

SIPTU Sector Organiser, John Murphy, said it has become a serious health and safety issue in recent months. Many toilet facilities have closed as a result of Covid-19, and as a result drivers are forced to return to the bus depot to use toilet facilities.

The pandemic has resulted in many facilities, previously used by the women and men who drive our buses, being closed or unavailable due to the necessary restrictions imposed to contain the virus," he said.

The effect of the current situation is that in the absence of toilet facilities across the network bus drivers must return to their depots to avail of toilet facilities. This situation has on occasion led to delays or the cancellation of services.

He added: Toilet facilities are a basic right that should be provided for all bus drivers. SIPTU representatives are insisting this matter is addressed urgently.

"During the Covid-19 emergency these women and men have provided an excellent public service and deserve to be provided with facilities which will allow them to continue their work in a professional and safe manner.
(Natural News) According to US social engineers, science has morphed into an abomination worse than an inconvenience.

(Article by Ben Bartee republished from TheDailyBell.com)

This brigade of invisible hands that surreptitiously directs the day-to-day activity of American Empires permanent underclass (you and me) recently declared science to be racist.

This latest appalling move constitutes an assault on our most basic of civilizing institutions; the fundamental, indispensable nature of science to a healthy society cannot be overstated.

Objective truth  careful, methodical empirical study, AKA science  is a North Star that has steered entire populations away from ignorance, destitution, and slavery into enlightenment, brotherhood, and prosperity.

The scientific method  the process of creating hypotheses, testing them through experimentation, then applying the results to the existing pool of knowledge  is the lynchpin of progress in all its forms. There is no possibility of technological, economic, or social advancement without reliance on a wealth of empirical evidence documenting what works and what doesnt to create a functional society.

The foundations of a stable, prosperous society are built on years of trial and error. Science, above all, builds lasting societies.

The scientific method, apart from simply conferring knowledge, instructs us in how to think if we aim to successfully apply newly discovered scientific truths to the practical improvement of our lives.

As Valenti Rull puts it:

Science is not only necessary for humanity to thrive socially, environmentally and economically in both the short and the long term, but it is also the best tool available to satisfy the fundamental human thirst for knowledge, as well as to maintain and enhance the human cultural heritage, which is knowledge?based by definition.

Naturally, a tool of progress so cherished by us as heirs of the Enlightenment is equally abhorred by the social engineers perched atop the social hierarchy. The American Empires bureaucrats, it should come as no surprise, see no utility in a science-literate population.

Groups of people who have been taught how to think critically are dangerous to despots. The same sad history of suppression of knowledge can be observed throughout history in the prohibitions against American slave literacy, the infamous book-burnings of Nazi Germany, and the heretic trial of Socrates as far back as Ancient Greece.

Although each of these historical events was predicated on a unique set of circumstances, they all have one element in common: an educated peasantry does not serve the interests of the powerful.

Despotic suppression of knowledge is nothing new. Only the tools of the oppressor class have evolved.

Vigilant observers have predicted the rise of an anti-science ethos filtered down to the masses from on high for some time.

The mechanisms by which the ruling class undermines the role of science in modern Western society are insidious. Dissecting their deceit requires taking a step back to consider the intertwining cause-and-effect of relevant government positions and initiatives.

In true Orwellian fashion, the overseers in the social engineering class simultaneously celebrate the essential role of science in public while undermining its practice under cover of darkness.

The engineers understand, as Orwell described in 1984, the crippling effect of doublethink on critical thinking skills.

Take, for example, the recent COVID-19 misinformation campaigns of the ruling class and their servants in the medical establishment.

While hiding behind the facade of a sincere public health official, Dr. Anthony Fauci consistently emphasizes the central role that he claims to believe science should play in the pandemic response.

Fauci, in his fainting-couch theatrics, has characterized the American publics refusal to heed his advice as unfortunate and frustrating.

Meanwhile, out of the other side of his mouth, Fauci dispenses wholly unscientific advice that he knows to be misleading. He lies.

On June 23, Fauci admitted on a livestreamed podcast that he had knowingly lied to the American public in March when he said that masks could not prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Fauci offered no apology for his pseudoscientific, intentional misleading of the American public. Recently, when asked about his COVID-19 lies, Fauci replied I dont regret anything I said.

We see, in this example and countless others from 2020 alone, that population-level gaslighting is the favorite revisionist tool of the technocracy.

Alas, the time has come: the woke SJW mob, which functions as the infantry corps of the Empire, has now declared that science is irredeemably racist.

The social sciences  although considered soft as opposed to the hard disciplines of physics and chemistry  are nonetheless real sciences in the sense that they rely on empirical data gathering, open analysis and interpretation of data, and a self-corrective mechanism of peer review. Without these features, a scientific discipline becomes vulnerable to manipulation.

The social engineers took over the academic social sciences decades ago. One would be hard-pressed to find a professor in a sociology department at a US university who would openly admit to being anything other than a progressive. Try it out yourself.

Just as trenchant observers warned, the 2020 political upheaval initially sparked by the murder of George Floyd has ballooned into a free-for-all against Western civilization itself. Under the cover of the revolutionary political climate, the establishment and their loyal army of SJW activists have finally come to fulfill a long-standing goal: to remake the hard sciences in their own image.

In a graphic published by the African American Natural History Museum as part of its initiative called Talking About Race, the Smithsonian publicly submitted to social justice ideology.

The craven racism of the Smithsonian masquerading as woke revelation.

In its rambling, excruciatingly reductionist racist tirade spanning thousands of words, the Smithsonian claimed that civilization is a racist dog-whistle that really means white society.

Furthermore, the nuclear family model is a feature of white supremacy (apparently implying that other races do not form nuclear families). Finally, it claims that the scientific method itself is a cornerstone of white domination.

Inch by inch, the technocrats erode the footing on which Western civilization stands.

Ben Bartee a Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs. Contact him via his portfolio or on LinkedIn.
Steve Cathey

Why are you the best candidate for the job?

I have been in private business since 1977 working for a major oil company for 17 years, then starting my own oil and gas consulting business in 1994. I have seen the booms and busts in the business and have survived through both the expansion of the booms and the contraction of the busts. The booms are easy. It is managing through the busts that require sound business management and being able to make the hard, not necessarily popular, decisions to keep the doors open. I have been able to do that and that type of decision making is what is needed on the City Council.

What are the most pressing issues facing our community? How will you address them?

One of the issues is money, government accounting and how monies are allocated/committed and spent. We tried to inform the public via The Council Minute (which was my idea) on K2 TV as a public service announcement but management after a few episodes, dropped the idea. Unfortunately, there is so much false information on social media it is hard to trust, so I am still looking for options to transmit factual information to the public in a timely manner. Another issue is traffic and the lack of personal responsibility in the use of mobile devices, following speed limits, running of red lights and following double left turn signage and lane usage. I really would not like to pressure the police department for tougher enforcement but 

How should local government deal with revenue declines due to the economic downturn?

From legislation passed during the last session, local government has more options for local sales tax additions similar to the current fifth cent. However, before going down that road (and hopefully not making that turn) we need to look hard at where we are currently spending the peoples money. As an example, I know the citizens of Casper like the trail system. It was recently stated in the Star-Tribune that I did not like trails. That was an incorrect conclusion. I like the trail system as much as others. However, in uncertain economic times, we do not need to be spending taxpayer money expanding the trail system while freezing employee wages, furloughing employees and deferring $2.9 million in infrastructure repairs and replacements.

Michael McIntosh

Why are you the best candidate for the job?

As a Casper native, I have a lifetime of love for the people in our community. I have a deep understanding of what our people deal with in their lives. As a local business owner, I have over 20 years as a financial and management consultant, and I have guided many small business owners in Casper to create businesses that thrive; this gives me a unique perspective on how city government can help or hurt local businesses. My background in business and finance is well suited to handle the citys money responsibly. Through my past experiences serving on several Boards, including President of the Board for Wyoming Housing Network and Treasurer for Joshuas Storehouse, I have been able to serve a wide variety of my fellow Casperites. My years of involvement in our community through the Rotary Club of Casper as well as through our church and family, has prepared me for this next step in serving the people of Casper.

What are the most pressing issues facing our community? How will you address them?

Some of the issues facing Casper at this time are a high crime rate due to the meth addiction in our city, rising unemployment and the COVID-19 shutdown bankrupting small businesses and devastating our city budget. Serving as a City Councilman, I will listen to the concerns of our citizens and work together with other council members to find the best solutions possible for these issues. As a business owner, I will share my knowledge and experience to help us find solutions that will work in the real world, not just on paper.

How should local government deal with revenue declines due to the economic downturn?

As Casper deals with revenue declines, we will have to face difficult decisions head-on in order to protect the livelihoods of our citizens. It is paramount in these times that we, as Casper leaders, are mindful of how these decisions affect every citizen in our city. With my background in accounting and business, I know that I will be an asset during these discussions.

Woody Warren

Why are you the best candidate for the job?

During my time as a Retail Manager, I have learned that in order to run a successful business, you have to listen to your people. You have to make their voices heard, then take their ideas and concerns, and make them actionable. One must serve. I have been a successful manager for 17 years (13 of them in Casper), and will translate the idea of Servant Leadership to the office if elected.

What are the most pressing issues facing our community? How will you address them?

I believe the most pressing issue facing our community is to attract and retain new business. As it stands right now, we have too many local restrictions (government involvement), on who can and will sustain a successful enterprise. Taking a hard look at our codes and zoning ordinances, examining which ones are still viable and what ordinances are holding us back is vitally necessary. We need to make some tough calls as a community, and we need to do them together!

How should local government deal with revenue declines due to the economic downturn?

We need to take a hard look on how to bring in and sustain both local business while trying to attract new businesses. If the recent downturn has taught us anything, it is time to rethink the citys business model.

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The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked a federal judge to block Californias net neutrality law. The DOJ argues that the federal law preempts the states, according to a Reuters report.

The case dates back to 2017, when the Trump Federal Communications Commission (FCC), under the leadership of Chairman Ajit Pai, voted 3-2 to repeal the Obama-era internet regulations. Those regulations barred internet service providers (ISP) from blocking or throttling traffic, or offering paid fast lanes to certain websites.

The state of California challenged the FCCs decision arguing that it is unlawful and would harm the public interest. The state passed a new law in August 2018 that upheld those net neutrality principles at the state level. Several large tech companies and consumer groups supported this move.

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However, in its reversal decision, FCC had prevented states from rolling out their own net neutrality rules. So the state agreed not to enforce the new regulations until a final court decision on the FCC repeal. Now, before California enforces its own net neutrality law, the Justice Department has filed an amended complaint seeking a preliminary injunction to block the western US state from being able to do so while the case is pending.

The original FCC decision was, well, unsurprisingly applauded by all major American ISPs. It gave them sweeping powers to recast how Americans use the internet, as long as they disclose any changes they make. That said, service providers are yet to change how users access the internet or at least announce any changes. The new rules took effect in June 2018.

Justice Department asks the court to block California net neutrality law

A US appeals court in October last year upheld the FCC repeal of the Obama-era net neutrality rules. However, the court also ruled that the federal agency did not have the legal authority to prohibit states from passing their own law that may reinstate those net neutrality regulations at the sate level.

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But, despite that ruling, the DOJ has argued in an amended complaint that Californias net neutrality law is preempted by federal law. It violates the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution.

California is said to be reviewing the DOJs filing. The state attorney generals office said they look forward to defending Californias state net neutrality protections, the report says. The state reportedly has until mid-September to respond and file briefs supporting its net neutrality law. Reuters reports a decision on the DOJ filing isnt expected until late October.
The remains of Vanessa Guillen were handed over to her family in Houston via a funeral home on Monday, and her memorial service will take place on Friday, the familys lawyer said.

The Texas Rangers delivered the remains to the funeral home today, said attorney Natalie Khawam.

A memorial service will take place at Cesar Chavez High School in Houston, where Spc. Guillen attended, Khawam said.

Luis Landa, principal of Cesar Chavez High School, said he is glad that the family decided to have the memorial at the school.

I know its very, very difficult for the family, and they must be going through quite a bit right now, Landa said. He said that there are many students and staff members who knew her extremely well and loved her, and they want to be here for the family.

The Guillen family received Vanessas remains 110 days after she was murdered by another soldier inside an armory room in Fort Hood on April 22, according to investigators.

Well get to see her today for the first time since she died, said her sister Mayra Guillen. Today I get her back home.

The family said that receiving the remains has been a long-awaited step in their grieving process, and said they complained about the delay during their visit to the White House on July 30.

The family told President Donald Trump at the meeting that they werent able to have a funeral for Vanessa because the Texas Rangers and the FBI had custody of the remains and said that they could not turn them over because the case was still under investigation.

The Guillen family is grateful that the president helped expedite Vanessas remains back to her family so they can have a funeral and properly bury her body on Saturday, Khawam said.

We have had everything prepared for the funeral, Gloria Guillen said in a recent interview with the Chronicle. She said she was planning to have two ceremonies for her daughter, a public and a private one, although full details were not yet available.

The family decided to use a custom-made casket donated to them that has elements meaningful to the Mexican-American soldier and her family including images of the flags of the United States and Mexico and the Virgin of Guadalupe.

olivia.tallet@chron.com

Twitter: @oliviaptallet
KYIV -- Ukrainian Ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova says Russia is currently holding 133 Ukrainian citizens on politically motivated charges, including 97 Crimean Tatars.

In an August 10 post on Telegram, Denisova said 112 Ukrainian citizens "are being illegally held on the territory of the Russian Federation and temporarily occupied Crimea, while restriction of movement has been imposed on the rest, and they have to permanently stay in the places of their residence."

Denisova also said 62 wives of the jailed men remain in Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula. She said they need Ukraine's support for their children to receive an education in their native languages. She also said 11 children urgently required medical assistance.

"I call on President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to do everything possible to [secure the] release [of] Ukrainian political prisoners [in Russian custody] and ask the Ukrainian government to secure proper social protection for their families," Denisova wrote.

Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they describe as a campaign of repression by the Moscow-imposed authorities in Crimea.

The Russian-installed officials have been targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar community and others who have spoken out against Russia's military occupation and illegal annexation of the region.

In its annual report on religious freedom worldwide, released in April 2019, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said Russian-installed authorities in the occupied region "continued to kidnap, torture, and imprison Crimean Tatar Muslims at will."

Russia seized control of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 after sending in troops, capturing key facilities, and hastily staging a referendum that has been dismissed by more than 100 countries as bogus and illegal.

Moscow also supports pro-Russian separatists in a war against Ukrainian government forces that has killed some 13,200 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.
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ICICI Bank has taken possession of Mantri Developers' 30,000 square feet (sq ft) corporate office in Bengaluru over non-payment of dues, a notice issued by the bank said.

Mantri Developers said in a statement that the project against which it took the loan from the bank has got sufficient cash flows to repay its loan obligations. The company is also seeking re-schedulement of the loan.

In a newspaper advertisement published over the weekend, the bank informed that it has taken possession of Mantri House under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act (SARFAESI).

The bank said it had issued a demand notice on November 22, 2019 to the borrower Shore Dwellings Pvt Ltd (formerly known as Mantri Dwellings Pvt Ltd) to repay 53.62 crore within 60 days. Having failed to recover the amount, ICICI Bank took possession of the property on August 4, the notice said.

The borrowers having failed to repay the amount, notice is hereby given to the borrower and the public in general that the undersigned (ICICI) has taken possession of the property described herein below in exercise of powers conferred on him/her under sub-section (4) of the Section 13 of the said Act read with Rule 8 of the Security Interest (Enforcement) Rules 2002 on this the 04 day of August of the year 2020, ICICI Bank said in the newspaper advertisement.

"The borrower in particular and the public in general is hereby cautioned not to deal with the property and any dealings with the property will be subject to the charge of ICICI Bank for an amount of Rs 53.62 crore and interest thereon," the notice added.

The land parcel is located at No 41, Vittal Mallya Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka, measuring land area of 12,551.25 sq ft along with the building having built up area of 30,268 sq ft.

"Due to current recessionary trend in the real estate business, sales couldn't happen as per projections given at the time of loan sanctioned, hence bank expressed their inability to release funds from balance undrawn 70 crore limit and classified account as NPA, and subsequently issued the possession notice," the company said in a clarification.

..Shore Dwellings Private Limited (formerly Mantri Dwellings Private Limited) has got sufficient cash flow in the said project to repay its loan obligations. The surplus amount receivable in the project covers more than four times the current outstanding amount, the clarification said.

The company confirms that there should be no concern for any stakeholders in the said project or with Mantri Group at large. The company is engaged with ICICI Bank seeking re-schedulement of loan and will find a suitable resolution for the same soon, the clarification added.

Sushil Mantri is the promoter of Mantri Developers. The company has several projects in Bengaluru. Over the past two years, some of the projects have been delayed.

A National Green Tribunal order in 2016 had imposed a fine of Rs 117 crore against the company for encroaching on a lake and destroying wetlands in Bengaluru for developing its project Mantri Agara.

Earlier this year, it was reported that developers Prestige Estates Pvt Ltd and RMZ Corp were in talks to jointly buy the project for about Rs 1,500 crore.
Alyssa Milano has opened up about one of the horrifying symptoms shes experiencing as a result of her months-long battle with coronavirus.

The Charmed star went public with her battle in an interview on CNN last week, while also expressing her anger, anxiety, and sadness at the COVID-19 testing process in the US.

Alyssa Milano says she's a COVID-19 "long hauler." Photo: Reuters

On Sunday, Alyssa took to Twitter to share a video of herself brushing her wet hair, demonstrating the hair loss associated with COVID-19.

Please take this seriously. Wear a damn mask, she told viewers after pulling out several clumps of hair from one brushing.

A recent survey found more than a quarter of people who survive COVID-19 are reporting hair loss with many saying their hair loss is severe. Of the 1500 people questioned in the Survivor Corp Facebook group, 27 per cent of people recovering from coronavirus said theyd experienced hair loss.

Hair loss has also been common among people in isolation, though stress is the more likely culprit there.

Alyssa brushed out clumps of hair in the video. Photo: Twitter

The actress previously tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies, despite other results for the virus, symptoms of which she experienced in April, coming back negative.

I vacillate between anger, anxiety and just complete sadness, Alyssa told CNN. And just one day after her interview with Chris Cuomo, she was back in the hospital.

According to a post shared Saturday, the activist visited an emergency room on Friday to rule out a blood clot after experiencing real heaviness in her chest.

No clot was found, but is sharing how the health scare and resurgence of symptoms illustrate what its like to be a COVID-19 long hauler.

This virus sucks, Alyssa wrote, posting a selfie taken from her hospital bed. Please take it seriously.

Alyssa was then in hospital again. Photo: Twitter

The 47-year-old also invited fans to share their own coronavirus experiences, sending supportive comments to those detailing their symptoms.

In response to one question, she tweeted that she suspected she had originally contracted the virus while traveling. In another tweet, she shared that she still gets night sweats every so often.

Story continues

But many have cast doubt on her health claims, citing her negative test results.

When one Twitter user accused her of lying, Alyssa stood her ground, tweeting, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Why would I f*****g lie about having a virus?

Additional reporting by Erin Donnelly.

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.
Donald Trump said on Monday he might deliver his GOP nomination acceptance speech at the Gettysburg battlefield where more than 7,000 Americans died during the Civil War, floating the idea after stoking racial tensions for months.

Asked about the president's announcement in a tweet as she began a press briefing, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany ignored Mr Trump's description of all protesters objecting to racial inequality as "thugs" and "anarchists" by claiming: "The president has done a lot to bring this country together."

Her comment came after Mr Trump again urged local officials in Portland to deploy National Guard troops into streets there to quell protests that often turn violent.

On Sunday night, city officials declared the scene a riot and allowed local police officers to use some force to calm the situation.

Mr Trump also last week, in an interview with Axios, refused to say the late Congressman John Lewis, who was injured during Civil Rights Era protests, was a hero. He also refused to say Mr Lewis' life story was an inspiring one.

The president, who opted against paying his respects while Mr Lewis' casket was lain in state at the US Capitol, instead said he did not know Mr Lewis, and criticised him for skipping his Inauguration speech and his addresses to a joint session of Congress.

As he has for years, Mr Trump has criticised professional athletes, many of whom are black, for protesting racial inequality by kneeling during the national anthem.

He delivered a June speech, amid a major shift in public opinion on issues of race, that was widely taken as a pro-police speech that failed to address black America's concerns about law enforcement officers treatment of people of colour.

Joe Biden, the former vice president and the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, has said Mr Trump is America's first racist president.

But Mr Trump often claims he has done more for black Americans, citing pre-Covid unemployment figures, than any other US chief executive. He has largely dropped his line during public events that Abraham Lincoln, who ordered all black slaves freed, might have done more.
HARTFORD  A 39-year-old man was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison for his leadership role in a New Haven drug trafficking ring, according to the U.S. attorney for Connecticut.

Jermayne Butler, 39, was sentenced Monday to 78 months in prison, followed by four years of supervised release.

Butler, who is also known as Main, Main Live and Liver, was the leader of an organization that sold crack cocaine and oxycodone in the New Haven area, U.S. Attorney John Durham said in a press release on Monday.

A 2017 investigation by the FBIs New Haven Safe Streets/Gang Task Force, which included physical surveillance, resulted in 13 controlled purchases of narcotics, and court-authorized wiretaps on multiple phones, Durham said.

Between August and November 2017, investigators made six controlled purchases of crack from Butler, Durham said.

A wiretap investigation revealed that Butler was obtaining bulk quantities of crack from others and distributing the drug through a network of street-level dealers, Durham said.

Butler also conspired with others to distribute oxycodone, Durham said.

Butler and several of his associates were arrested on Feb.6, 2018. During the raids, police said they seized 100 grams of crack, seven firearms, ammo and nearly $14,000 in cash.

On Feb. 8, 2018, a grand jury in New Haven returned a 30-count indictment charging Butler and 18 other individuals with various offenses. All have since been convicted.

Butler, whose been convicted of multiple drug-related crimes, pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute crack.

Butler, who is released on a $200,000 bond, is to report to prison in 90 days.
Kravchuk says that he has not communicated with Medvedchuk for five years, considers his position on Donbas unacceptable

Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on the settlement of the situation in Donbas, first president of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk said that the position of Head of the political council of the Opposition Platform  For Life party, MP Viktor Medvedchuk on Donbas is unacceptable for Ukraine, but not excludes communication with him in the future.

"For five years I have not talked with Viktor Medvedchuk even by phone. For five years," Kravchuk said, answering a question about relations with Medvedchuk, who was his close political associate for a long time.

According to Kravchuk, the position taken by Medvedchuk on Donbas cannot be supported by Ukraine, because it puts Ukraine in a difficult position.

"I am in favor of using the experience of both Ukrainian politicians and various Ukrainian political forces to coordinate the interests of Ukraine with the interests of Russia, because it is present there. In particular, to coordinate them first of all, with the people who live there. That is, I am not exclude communication with Medvedchuk, but this does not mean at all that I am ready to sign any document that will be proposed by that political force," he said.

The head of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG does not know whether he would like Medvedchuk to take part in negotiations to resolve the situation in Donbas.

"I do not know, I first need to figure it out. I have only been working as head of the Ukrainian delegation for five days. When you meet with me at least in a month, I will be able to answer your question," Kravchuk said.
Overall, regional public health experts pointed to some promising signs of improvement, such as declines in average hospital admissions.

Dr. Alex Garza, the head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, warned not to get complacent.

"Were seeing some encouraging data," Garza said at his Monday press briefing. "But were far from having this under control. And its really too premature to even think about removing some of those restrictions that are already in place."

Area hospitals reported 35 new virus-related admissions Monday, compared to 34 a day prior. The average number of daily admissions over the past week  41  is now far better than recent daily spikes into the 50s, but remains above 40, the threshold above which experts say is unsustainable for the regional healthcare system.

Garza also said that the local "reproductive rate" for the virus has nudged below another crucial threshold, dropping to 0.96  meaning that, on average, every person infected spreads to 0.96 others. If that number stays below one, the outbreak will dwindle; if it exceeds one, the outbreak will grow.
MINSK, Belarus - A protester died amid clashes between police and thousands of people gathered for a second straight night Monday in Belarus after official results from weekend elections  dismissed by the opposition as a sham  gave an overwhelming victory to authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Interior Ministry spokesman Alexander Lastovsky said the victim was part of a crowd of people protesting results of Sundays presidential vote. The protester intended to throw an explosive device, but it blew up in his hand and killed him, Lastovsky said.

The death came amid demonstrations in at least four areas of Minsk that met with a harsh response from police who tried to disperse protesters with flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets. Near the Pushkinskaya subway station, some 3,000 protesters tried to build barricades.

Lukashenkos hardline rule began in 1994 and his victory would extend it until 2025. He derided the opposition as sheep manipulated by foreign masters.

Dozens were injured and thousands detained hours after Sundays vote, when police brutally broke up mostly young protesters with tear gas, water cannons and beat them with truncheons. Rights activists said one person died after being run over by a police truck  which authorities denied.

Election officials said Lukashenko won a sixth term in office with 80% of the vote, while opposition challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya got 10%. Tsikhanouskaya submitted a formal request for a recount to the Central Election Commission.

After submitting the request, both Tsikhanouskaya and her spokeswoman remained unreachable. Upon leaving the commissions headquarters she said I have made a decision, I must be with my children.

It was unclear if her statement meant that she was heading abroad to reunite with her children, whom she had earlier sent to an unspecified European country after receiving threats.

On Monday evening, scattered groups of opposition supporters began gathering in downtown Minsk, chanting Freedom! and Long live Belarus! A heavy police contingent blocked central squares and avenues, moving quickly to disperse protesters and detained dozens.

Later, about 1,000 protesters gathered near a big shopping mall in downtown Minsk before being dispersed by police. The Viasna rights group said protesters also gathered in several other Belarusian cities, including Brest, Mogilev and Vitebsk, where detentions also took place.

The police crackdown drew harsh criticism from European capitals and will likely complicate Lukashenkos efforts to mend ties with the West amid tensions with his main ally and sponsor, Russia.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that the election was not free and fair and added: We strongly condemn ongoing violence against protesters and the detention of opposition supporters.

Lukashenko, whose iron-fisted rule since 1994 has fueled growing discontent in the ex-Soviet nation of 9.5 million, warned that he wouldnt hesitate to use force again. He argued that the protesters met a due response overnight after injuring dozens of police officers and attempting to take control of official buildings in several Belarusian cities.

We will not allow them to tear the country apart, he said.

The 65-year-old former state farm director asserted that the opposition was being directed from Poland and the Czech Republic, adding that some groups in Ukraine and Russia could also have been behind the protests.

They are directing the (opposition) headquarters where those sheep dont understand what they want from them, he said in a dismissive reference to Tsikhanouskaya and her campaign.

Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek dismissed Lukashenkos claim, saying his country has not organized any protests.

The Interior Ministry said 89 people were injured during the protests late Sunday and early Monday, including 39 law enforcement officers, and about 3,000 people were detained, some 1,000 of them in Minsk.

Tsikhanouskaya, a 37-year-old former English teacher without any prior political experience, entered the race after her husband, an opposition blogger who had hoped to run for president, was arrested in May. She has managed to unite fractured opposition groups and draw tens of thousands to her campaign rallies  the largest opposition demonstrations since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

We dont agree with (election results), we have absolutely opposite information, Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press on Monday. We have official protocols from many poll stations, where the number of votes in my favour are many more times than for another candidate.

The coronavirus-induced economic damage and Lukashenkos swaggering response to the pandemic, which he airily dismissed as psychosis, has fueled broad anger, helping swell the opposition ranks. The post-election protest, in which young demonstrators  many of them teenagers  confronted police, marked a previously unseen level of violence.

Internet and mobile networks went down after the polls closed as authorities tried to make it more difficult for protesters to co-ordinate.

The more they beat us, the less we believe in the official results, said Denis Golubev, a 28-year-old IT specialist who joined the protests.

The European Union condemned the police crackdown and called for an immediate release of all those detained.

In a joint statement, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and the EU commissioner responsible for relations with Europes close neighbours, Oliver Varhelyi, lamented that the election night was marred with disproportionate and unacceptable state violence against peaceful protesters.

Belarus EU and NATO neighbours, Poland and Lithuania, also issued strong rebukes. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on European Unions leaders to convene an extraordinary summit to support the Belarusian peoples democratic aspirations.

The U.K. Foreign Office also urged Belarusian authorities to refrain from further acts of violence following the seriously flawed presidential elections.

In the early 2000s, the United States and the European Union slapped sanctions against Lukashenkos government, but they lifted most of the penalties in recent years after Lukashenko freed political prisoners and allowed some opposition protests.

The Trump Adminsitration has recently sought to improve long-strained ties with Lukashenko, who some officials believe could be a valuable partner in countering Russian influence in eastern and central Europe. In early February, Pompeo became the first U.S. chief diplomat in more than 25 years to travel to Belarus, and offered to sell U.S. oil and gas to the country to reduce its dependence on Russian energy.

The administration has also nominated an ambassador to Belarus who, if confirmed, would be the first to the country since 2008.

Throughout his tenure, Lukashenko has tried to exert pressure on the Kremlin with the prospect of normalizing ties with the West in a bid to win more Russian subsidies. But the violent crackdown now appears likely to derail Lukashenkos hopes for those ties as Russia exerts pressure on its small neighbour.

Moscow this year cut supplies of cheap oil to Belarusian refineries, depriving the country of an estimated $700 million in revenues from oil product exports. Russia-Belarus ties were further strained last week, when Belarusian law enforcement agencies arrested 33 Russian private military contractors and accused them of planning to stage mass riots.

Moscow has rejected the charges. Russian President Vladimir Putin called Lukashenko Friday to mend the rift, and quickly congratulated him Monday on winning the vote. The Belarusian leader also received congratulations from Chinese President Xi Jinping and heads of several ex-Soviet nations.

___

Associated Press journalists Jim Heintz, Vladimir Isachenkov and Daria Litvinova in Moscow, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Matthew Lee in Washington, Danica Kirka in London, Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Frank Jordans in Berlin and Karel Janicek in Prague contributed to this story.
Kodak's $765 million government loan to become a pharmaceutical company has been put on ice while the government investigates allegations of wrongdoing after shares skyrocketed by 1,000 percent and netted $30 million for the CEO who received stock options the day before the deal was announced.

Shares in the photography business plummeted more than 40 percent before Wall Street's opening bell Monday after the US International Development Finance Corporation announced 'serious concerns' have led it to put the lucrative deal on hold.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has now launched a probe into the company's disclosure of the loan and into allegations of insider trading after Chief Executive Jim Continenza bagged 1.75 million stock options in the hours leading up to its announcement.

This marks a major blow for the struggling film firm just weeks after it secured the deal with the Trump administration to make pharmaceutical goods to help plug the gap in the nation's drug supply chain.

Kodak's $765 million government loan to become a pharmaceutical company has been put on ice while the government investigates 'allegations of wrongdoing' after shares skyrocketed by 1,000 percent and netted $30 million for the CEO who received stock options the day before the deal was announced

The US International Development Finance Corporation announced late Friday the deal with Kodak had been halted while a probe is carried out.

'On July 28, we signed a Letter of Interest with Eastman Kodak. Recent allegations of wrongdoing raise serious concerns. We will not proceed any further unless these allegations are cleared,' the federal agency tweeted.

'We remain committed to working together with other government agencies to address critical shortfalls in America's pharmaceutical supply chain.'

White House economic advisor Peter Navarro on Friday tweeted that he was 'very disappointed' with the allegations against the firm.

The New York-based company is facing a probe from the SEC over its announcement of the deal on July 27 and into stock options granted to Kodak executives the same day.

The US International Development Finance Corporation announced late Friday the deal with Kodak had been halted while a probe is carried out

The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday reported that the SEC investigation is at an early stage and may not produce allegations of wrongdoing by Kodak or any individuals, according to people familiar with the matter.

Kodak also announced it had launched an internal investigation Friday.

This came after Senior Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Continenza Tuesday citing 'serious concerns' about the company's 'lack of pharmaceutical experience' and about the timing of the stock options.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren had called on the SEC to investigate potential insider trading at the firm blasting the events 'just the latest example of unusual trading activity involving a major Trump administration decision.'

On July 28, Donald Trump announced Kodak would receive a $765 million federal loan to produce ingredients to make pharmaceuticals in the US as part of an effort to reduce the nation's reliance on other countries for generic drugs.

Chief Executive Jim Continenza bagged 1.75 million stock options in the hours leading up to the announcement of the government deal

The president called the deal - the first of its kind under the Defense Production Act - 'a breakthrough in bringing pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the United States.'

'Our 33rd use of the Defense Production Act will mobilize Kodak to make generic, active pharmaceutical ingredients,' Trump said.

'We will bring back our jobs and we will make America the world's premier medical manufacturer and supplier.'

Through the deal, Kodak said it was launching a new pharma division that could eventually make a quarter of all active ingredients used in generic drugs.

It is not clear if the deal meant the company would be working on drugs to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

It then emerged that several top executives had been awarded millions in stock options the day before the official announcement.

Continenza and three other top Kodak executives were awarded stock options that included the right to buy Kodak stock at $3.03, $4.53, $6.03, and $12 per share until February 2026.

The CEO was the primary beneficiary, having been awarded 1.75 million options with 981,707 shares purchased at a stock price of $3.03 per share.

When news of the government deal broke, Kodak's shares - which had been trading under $2 - soared more than 1,000 percent.

Within 48 hours of the options grants, shares stood at $60 and the executives' newly awarded stock options had reached a total value of $50 million.

Shares in the photography business plummeted more than 40 percent before Wall Street's opening bell Monday after the US International Development Finance Corporation announced 'serious concerns' had led it to put the lucrative deal on hold

Continenza alone bagged a potential profit of $30 million.

The timing of the trading immediately raised eyebrows with data from FactSet showing the total 1,645,719 shares exchanging hands that day dwarfed the average daily trading volume of 236,479 for the previous year.

The company's disclosure of the deal has also been called into question after it announced the news to local media in Rochester, New York, on July 27 - the day before the government's announcement.

The company then backtracked asking media sites to take the news down and claimed it 'forgot' to include an embargo and 'did not intend for the news to be published.'

But by this point, stocks were already up 25 percent - while the executive stock options were changing hands.

The loan to Kodak comes at a time when the Trump administration has been looking to bolster the ability to produce drugs and their raw materials in the United States after the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the industry's dependence on China and India for its supply chain.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, August 11 2020

Gibran Nicholau Papadimitriou, 18, arrived at The Jakarta Posts studio earlier this year, carrying some of his collection of wayang kulit (leather puppets) and wayang golek (three-dimensional wooden puppets).

Dressed in dalang (puppeteer) attire, comprising loose lurik shirt, kain jarik (traditional Javanese cloth) and blangkon (traditional Javanese hat), Gibran then sat crossed-legged on the floor.

When the camera rolled, Gibran moved his wayang and spoke a dialogue in Javanese. There was no stage lighting to dim nor a gamelan set, but his very brief performance brought life to the Posts studio.

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by Pierre Balanian

Thousands of young people are busy clearing the city of debris and rubble; they help elderly people to survive; they offer water and food paying with their own money or collected from friends and relatives. Young Syrian refugees also join in efforts. A Syrian Protestant pastor, a Muslim who converted to Christianity, offers sandwiches and bottles of water to the displaced.

Beirut (AsiaNews) - The city razed by a near-atomic bomb - the 4 August explosions were equal to one tenth the strength of the Hiroshima bomb - is paralyzed and devastated; the effort underway to restore some quasi normality to its appearance is mammoth.

The army is everywhere, but it has to give priority to maintaining security, avoid looting, protect sensitive sites, ensure traffic and the passage of emergency vehicles.

The Civil Defense is committed to extracting bodies from under the rubble, welcoming colleagues from all over the world, coordinating the work.

The politicians are engaged in meetings to find a modus vivendi, first of all among themselves, to then respond to the conditions set by the international community: the French president Emmanuel Macron was its spokesman and ambassador, explaining the conditions under which Lebanon can access new loans, lifting the sanctions imposed on the country.

Meanwhile, the city is covered with debris, glass, trees crossed by explosions, houses without walls that like a gloomy stage display what remains visible of a life suddenly interrupted; balustrades, balconies, walls, buildings and bridges that are in danger of falling at any moment.

Elderly and lonely people who wish to clear their homes but lack the strength or the courage do not know where to start. They cry, pray, hope, hiding their faces in their hands out of shame, pain, helplessness.

In this scenario of desperation, the true strength of a people has risen, its future, new, clean, dynamic energy, not a slave to political or economic interests: its young people.

They rushed from everywhere, from the north, from the south, from the mountains, organized in small groups of friends, armed with sweeping brushes, shovels, gloves and bags, they sleep in the open, work without speaking, without boasting, they act in silence, without a leader, without a coordinator, disorganized but the effects they produce are astounding.

They clean, fill bags, sweep streets and sidewalks, public buildings, clinics, hospitals, places of worship: like bees or ants they work tirelessly, without criticizing, ready to comfort anyone who suffers, hugging, offering water, sandwiches, fruit, hot meals.

Stalls have sprung up every 10 meters, offering bottles of water, food, fruit: all collected with their own initiatives, donations from families, friends, relatives.

"Why are we here?", explains Leila Mkerzi, a twenty-year-old wearing a T-shirt from the Order of Malta, "Because it is our duty. If we wait for the state alone to think of everything we just delay the bleeding". And she takes her brush back to sweep the staircase leading from Jemmeizeh to Ashrafieh.

Another group, three young people with a lady, are in front of a shop: they buy brushes, bags and gloves with their own money. The merchant does not give them any discounts. We don't want anything, we just want to live, says one of the young boys. Then his mother, Mrs. Rita Freim, intervenes immediately: We don't think anymore, our heads are completely empty, we don't count on anyone anymore; no one from abroad has ever done anything concrete for us. What is the world doing? They send us two or three aid planes, they assuage their conscience and then leave. What did Macron come to do? Another farce. I have no more hope. And as she is about to clean up she specifies: I have no hope, but they - the young, yes. And I help them because they are still alive.

In the streets of devastated Beirut, there are tens of thousands of young people: school friends, university students, scouts, parishioners, Muslims, Christians. A group of young people from Chouf refuses to say which of them is Druze; a group of Armenians from Bourj Hammoud, another destroyed neighborhood, claim: We are Lebanese and that's it.

Most of these young people were born after 2005-2006. They have not known the horrors of the civil war, but they have seen deprivation and failed governments; they lived without electricity, drinking water, work.

Orderly, willing, they want to create a better country with their own hands, a better future without expecting anything from abroad. Sure, they hope to get some support or help, but if it doesn't come, they'll do what they can with their own strength.

They also include young Syrian refugees in Lebanon. It is not their country, but pain and the will to change unites them with the Lebanese.

I saw only one religious, in a clergyman who distributed sandwiches and bottles of water to the displaced: he is a Syrian Protestant pastor from Afrin (northern Syria, occupied by the Turks).

His name is Hassan: he was a Muslim, converted to Christianity. I see Christ in each of these people who today suffer, have no roof and are hungry, he says before disappearing into the crowd of desperate people who crowd the center of Beirut.

In support of the people of Beirut and Lebanon, in support of Caritas Lebanon, AsiaNews has decided to launch the "In aid of devastated Beirut" campaign. Those who want to contribute can send donations to:

- PIME Foundation - IBAN: IT78C0306909606100000169898 - Institution identification code (BIC): BCITITMM -

Clause: "AN04 - IN AID OF DEVASTATED BEIRUT"
A former Marine doesnt just count her chickens, she counts on them to keep her anxiety and pain in check.

But as FOX56 WOLF-TV reports, the township where she lives has been pecking away at her feathered form of emotional support. Now the ex-Marine is fighting back.

In a zoning flap over her fine feathered friends in Kingston Township, Luzerne County, Lauren Holton has armed herself with a therapists letter saying shes approved to have emotional support animals, including her four chickens: Licorice, Butterscotch, Truffle, and Caramel, FOX56 reports, adding:

The ex-Marine also has marshaled an online petition to try make a town ordinance banning chickens in the Shavertown area go the way of the Dodo bird. At last report, more than 1,300 people had attached their chicken scratch to the fowl-favorable document.

But this isnt the only Pa. town where feathers have flown over people wanting to keep chickens as pets. Heres another place were fowl ran afoul of ordinances, only to have a familys 18 chickens come out as champions.

Details on the ex-Marines chicken crusade from FOX56:

The chicken have only been a part of her life for about a month, but already they're family.

Holton served in the Marine Corps, mainly doing clerical work, for five years, including a deployment to Afghanistan.

Carpal tunnel syndrome, actually Ive surgery on my hands. Ive had numerous shot injections into my spine. Im going to have to have spinal surgery at some point, Holton told FOX56 of her ongoing ailments made easier by her birds.

She said those maladies -- on top of anxiety, depression, PTSD and more -- have built up through the course of her life. She was left utterly exhausted and in constant pain.

Then, she helped rescue four chickens and things began looking up and flying high  progress now threatened if those chickens are forced the fly the coup due to the township ordinance banning them.

"There are people who believe it's right for them for pets, for therapy animals, for self-sustainment," Holton told FOX56. "They should have a right to have these animals. Just like they do to cats and dogs."

The next zoning meeting is set for August 13.

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Registered sex offender accused of stalking Pa. community, videotaping women and children in stores

The Offices Dwight Schrute back in Scranton, Pa. -- sort of

Road rage at red light results in fist fight at intersection: Pa. police

Pa. police hunt hit-and-run motorcyclist who injured girl on skateboard

Pregnant Pa. woman says she was punched in the face due to her race: Why did you do that?

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
(Natural News) The overwhelming humidity of the Chinese summer was not enough to stifle the ardor of the crowds of 20-somethings honoring Mao Zedong, the founding father of Communist China, thats how a disgusting Tuesday morning article in The Washington Post began. The headline of the shameful propaganda piece declared: Trump views Chinas Communist Party as a threat. Young Chinese see it as a ticket to a better future.

(Article by Kyle Drennen republished from NewsBusters.org)

The leftist rags Beijing bureau chief Anna Fifield excitedly described how indoctrinated Chinese youth flocked to the giant statue of a young Mao  Chinas equivalent of Mount Rushmore  staring out over the Xiangjiang River. She marveled at how one young university student jostled on a recent day for the perfect selfie with the Great Helmsman.

Deciding that being an apologist for Chinas brutal Communist regime was more important that being an actual journalist, Fiffield completely ignored the fact Zedong was responsible for the deaths of 65 million people as his heinous Great Cultural Revolution brought about widespread famine, imprisonment, and executions.

The Post article briefly fretted: After seven decades in power, the ruling party has faced potentially existential challenges over the past year, from pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and an economic slowdown to a devastating coronavirus and, most recently, once-in-a-generation floods that have wreaked destruction across central China.

Fifield then breathed a sigh of relief:

But far from diminishing its stature at home, as some in the Trump administration appear to believe, the partys response to some of these crises has helped solidify the support of existing and aspiring members  or at least neutralized grumbling. Chinese who were complaining in February about the partys coronavirus coverup reflect more positively on their experience now that they can see, through the American example, how much worse it could have been.

After noting how the Trump administration is taking aim at the Communist Party, the so-called reporter turned to a party mouthpiece to deliver anti-American talking points:

Wang Wei, a professor at the Hunan provincial branch of the Communist Party School, said Pompeos comments revealed the Trump administrations worry about China eclipsing the United States. This just shows that they fear a stronger Communist Party and a stronger China after we showed our might in the battle against the coronavirus epidemic, she said.

Showing what a true embarrassment she is to her profession, Fifield actually touted benefits of toeing the Communist Party line: Party membership means better education prospects and better jobs, more politically advantageous marriages and nicer apartments. For many, it is a ticket to a brighter future.

Its really no surprise that the Post would publish this drivel, since for years it has included propaganda inserts in the paper titled ChinaWatch, prepared by state-run media, China Daily. Those publications routinely deliver rambling from the Communist regime and cheer Comrade Mao.

In December, The Washington Free Beacon uncovered that China Daily repeatedly violated federal law by not disclosing to U.S. government the millions of dollars it has spent on such propaganda inserts in major American newspapers.

Sadly, the Posts Tuesday article was just the latest chapter in the long, pathetic history of American media outlets serving as cheerleaders for Communism.

Read more at: NewsBusters.org or WashingtonPosted.news
As a result of a powerful explosion this week in Beirut, Ukrainian citizen William Azar was killed, Ambassador of Ukraine in Lebanon Ihor Ostash said.

"He was only 32. He was going to get married. Not so long ago he visited the embassy to take part in the voting. The young promising economist left the KPMG office, heading home. A terrible explosion took the life of Ukrainian citizen William Azar," the ambassador wrote on his Facebook page late Saturday night, August 9.

Earlier, the Ukrainian Embassy in Lebanon and the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported that according to the available information, there are no Ukrainian citizens among the seriously injured as a result of the explosions in Beirut. "There are some families whose property, houses, apartments were damaged. There are also minor injuries, cuts, bruises [for citizens of Ukraine], but there are no serious victims yet. So far, we are talking about assistance in restoring houses or apartments. Today there are no serious problems associated with the threat to life for Ukrainians, "the Ukrainian ambassador to Lebanon said on the air of one of the Ukrainian television channels on August 5.

As of the evening of August 9, the Lebanese Ministry of Health, citing updated data, reported that the number of victims of the explosion in Beirut had reached 6,000. Earlier, information was received about 5,000 injured residents of the capital. In addition, some 158 people killed, some 21 missing.
At least eight rockets were seen in the sky, heading toward the Mediterranean Sea, said AFP journalists in the coastal strip, which has been under Israeli blockade for more than a decade

The Gaza Strip's rulers Hamas fired rockets into the sea on Monday after repeated exchanges of fire with Israel in recent days, Palestinian security sources and eyewitnesses said.

At least eight rockets were seen in the sky, heading toward the Mediterranean Sea, said AFP journalists in the coastal strip, which has been under Israeli blockade for more than a decade.

The interior ministry of the Palestinian enclave under Hamas control since 2007 referred to "an act of resistance".

The rockets were a "message" to Israel to let it know that armed groups in Gaza will not "remain silent" in the face of an Israeli blockade and "aggression", a source close to Hamas told AFP.

The source noted that Monday's rocket fire coincided with the recent launch of incendiary balloons into Israel.

In the past week, such balloons have flown three times from Gaza into Israel, each time triggering retaliatory strikes against Hamas positions.

The latest came Sunday night when the Israeli military announced that one of its aircraft had struck at a Hamas observation post in northern Gaza.

Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008.

Despite a truce last year, backed by the UN and Egypt, the two sides clash sporadically with rockets, mortar fire or incendiary balloons from Gaza and retaliatory strikes by Israel.

Palestinian analysts say fire from Gaza is often aimed at pressuring Israel to give the green light for the transfer of Qatari financial aid into the strip.

According to the World Bank, around 53 percent of Gaza's population lived below the poverty line just before the COVID-19 crisis.

That number could rise above 60 percent due to economic fallout from the pandemic, says the bank.

So far 78 cases of coronavirus, including one death, have been recorded in the enclave of two million people, where schools reopened this weekend after a five-month shutdown.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.

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By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 08/10/2020



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[ Spoiler Warning: This report contains spoilers revealing if Deavan and Jihoon are still together or whether the couple have broken up.]

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So did Jihoon and Deavan work things out, or has the couple split and gone their separate ways?

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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

star Deavan Clegg has decided to give Jihoon Lee another chance despite his lies on Season 2 of : The Other Way, so did the couple work things out and stay together or have they split?Deavan was a 22-year-old from Salt Lake City, UT, when she met Jihoon, a 29-year-old mobile phone dealer from Seoul, South Korea, on a dating app.Deavan and Jihoon used a translating app to communicate with each other every day for three months, and then Jihoon traveled to America to meet Deavan in person as well as her young daughter Drascilla from a previous relationship. Drascilla was three years old at the time and will turn five this month.Deavan and Jihoon were smitten with each other right away and had an intimate encounter, which resulted in a surprise and unplanned pregnancy. Deavan was nervous about having a child with a man who lived in another country, and this was going to be Jihoon's first child.Jihoon and Deavan found out they were expecting after six positive pregnancy tests confirmed their suspicions on the day he was leaving to return to South Korea in 2018.After Deavan won the approval of Jihoon's parents -- which took weeks and a lot of effort from Deavan -- Jihoon proposed marriage during a lunch at a Las Vegas restaurant. He also intended to return to America just two months later for Deavan's scheduled C-section.However, Deavan learned the baby had to be delivered early because she had high blood pressure, and unfortunately, Jihoon said it would be too expensive to cancel his flight and buy a new ticket to the United States.Deavan therefore welcomed her son Taeyang in April 2019 without Jihoon by her side, and Jihoon admitted he was "a very bad father" at first.Jihoon eventually made his way to the United States to meet his son, but he had lost his job and lacked "financial responsibility," which really worried Deavan.Jihoon told Deavan not to worry and their future would be bright, but she was greatly disappointed when she first moved to South Korea with her son. (Drascilla stayed in the United States so Deavan could get settled first and make sure life would be good for her daughter).Deavan expected Jihoon to have landed a full-time job and an apartment for them, but he was still living in his parents' house and broke the news they'd continue living there for a few months.Deavan said it was "unacceptable" to be stuck sharing a one-bedroom apartment with a newborn and Jihoon's parents, but Jihoon explained he was in debt.Jihoon apparently owed $30,000 (which included interest on a loan he had taken out to pay the original $15,000 fine) due to illegally selling used and lost phones, but at the time of their conversation, he said he had his debt down to $5,000.Despite the major red flags, Deavan and Jihoon still filed marriage papers so she could reside in Jihoon's country permanently. And three weeks later, they had a traditional Korean wedding ceremony.Deavan documented her relationship with Jihoon in Summer through Fall 2019 on social media and started a small T-shirt business with Jihoon that was doing well at the time.But Deavan unfortunately suffered a miscarriage with her third child. She announced on Instagram in October 2019 she had lost a baby.On Season 2 of : The Other Way, Deavan lamented how she was exhausted and overwhelmed raising two children by herself.Deavan therefore flew back to South Korea with the intent of living there permanently and Jihoon helping to raise her children. Deavan packed condoms because she said she didn't want to get pregnant again, and her mother Elicia joined her for the trip to assist with Drascilla and Taeyang.Deavan rented her family an apartment for one month until Jihoon could get them settled in a new place, and she just hoped Jihoon was telling the truth this time and would have "his sh-t together."Deavan was about to be in for a rude awakening because Jihoon had "exaggerated" about how much money he was making."I don't really have a job," Jihoon admitted to the cameras. "I have a side job doing deliveries and it goes by the hour. It's a part-time job. I lied to Deavan because if I not have money, then Deavan's not come to Korea."Jihoon's friends and even his father thought Jihoon was making Korean men look bad.Deavan then arrived in South Korea, which marked her second attempt to move there permanently. Jihoon hadn't seen Deavan in two months, and he said he was very excited to see her.Once Deavan saw the apartment they'd be living in and Elicia appeared disgusted, Jihoon's mother scolded her son for not checking the apartment before Deavan and her family traveled.The place was broken down in a bad neighborhood, and Elicia vented she was "totally losing [her] sh-t." Deavan described the apartment building as "the ghetto of Korea," and her apartment had no stovetop or living room.Elicia pulled Jihoon aside and gave him a piece of her mind by saying she had expected him to behave like a man and find a safe place for her daughter and grandkids to live.Elicia appeared to be on the verge of tears and complained, "I am extremely disappointed in Jihoon," and Deavan was also "extremely angry" at her husband."It just feels like I'm doing all the heavy lifting in this relationship and he has done nothing so far," Deavan noted in a confessional. "It's just to the point where I can't do it anymore."Deavan was clearly tired of Jihoon's empty promises, and Jihoon acknowledged the situation was a mess and he had failed to earn back Deavan's trust. He called himself a total "idiot," and Deavan vented, "All the things I was worried about were true."The pair tried to communicate through a language-translating piece of technology but it wasn't translating correctly and so the pair couldn't have a clear conversation."If I would have known you didn't have money, I wouldn't have came here," Deavan said. "Why do you keep lying to me?""To be honest, I wanted you to come here fast," Jihoon said. "If you're worried about money, you can leave here."Jihoon asked Deavan to stay for a few months and give him another chance, but she refused to stay in the apartment and threatened to leave when her mother was scheduled to leave South Korea.Deavan was furious and cried because she had nothing at home to go back to but she didn't have a good reason to stay in South Korea either.Jihoon claimed he earned around $2,000-3,000 a month, but Deavan had been working 17 hours a day while raising two kids. She thought Jihoon working a part-time job so he could "take more naps" was "ridiculous."Jihoon's mother apparently managed his money so he couldn't spend it on himself, and so he told Deavan that he was saving for a new house."It sounds like you didn't want to spend your money so you let me spend all my money, and now we're here and I don't have anything. I don't have money, I don't have a car," Deavan told Jihoon."I gave up everything for you, but you couldn't give up some time to work harder to help. My life is not a game. I have sacrificed a lot and you've sacrificed nothing, and I at this point, have lost all trust. If you loved me and the kids, you would've helped."Jihoon replied, "You're right, I am so sorry. But I do love you.""I don't think I want to be together anymore after this," Deavan noted. "I am going to get a hotel tonight with just my mom so I can be alone with the kids and think."Jihoon realized it was probably "game over" for him and this was the "last straw" for Deavan.Jihoon vented about how he had been living his life "all wrong" and felt like "a loser," and he was scared to lose Deavan.Meanwhile, Deavan's mother Elicia believed Deavan had made a huge mistake in moving her family to South Korea, and Deavan was beginning to think she was right. Deavan couldn't speak the language or even order for her kids at a restaurant.Deavan considered using the rest of her money to return to America, but she wanted answers and figured the only way to do that would be to sit down with Jihoon and his mother, who was controlling Jihoon's finances."If this conversation doesn't go well, I will leave and go back to America and never speak to [Jihoon] again," Deavan said."If I were to make the decision, we'd be on the plane right now," Elicia confessed.Deavan then met Jihoon and his parents at a restaurant to get to the bottom of what was going on. Jihoon ignored Deavan at first at the restaurant, which Deavan couldn't believe, but Jihoon said he couldn't even face his wife because he felt so bad about his behavior.Deavan and Jihoon then communicated through a translator, and Jihoon apologized for being selfish and explained his money was in his mother's bank account for safekeeping, which Jihoon's father dubbed "a mistake" since his wife and baby needed money.Jihoon said his mother had his money because he was afraid of making another mistake, and the translator changed his words to, "I'll make another mistake. I'll waste that money again."Jihoon was so frustrated with the translator, and when he asked Deavan for another chance, the translator failed to relay that information.Jihoon grew furious and then he and his parents started shouting at each other about how to communicate with Deavan, but all Deavan could comprehend was that Jihoon was yelling."They seem like they're very angry at me," Deavan said.Jihoon wanted to explain that his mother had his money so he couldn't spend it on himself, but he was just shouting the words in Korean at Deavan and she couldn't understand.Deavan said it was "disgusting" how Jihoon had lost his temper, and she said, "You made me give up my life to come here. You scammed me; you tricked me. My life is ruined now."Jihoon's mother laughed, and then Deavan said in tears, "This isn't a joke. I don't want to do this. They think it's a joke. I want to end this. I don't want to do this anymore. I am uncomfortable."With that being said, Jihoon stormed away from the table and said Deavan was pissing him off."Am I a joke?" Jihoon vented. "I'm not a f-cking joke... I am really serious -- more than Deavan. F-ck this!""I don't want to be here right now," Deavan told the cameras.There was clearly a huge misunderstanding and the couple just couldn't communicate.When the pair tried to talk things out, Jihoon admitted he didn't take his relationship with Deavan seriously because of the distance between them."F-ck you. I don't ever want to talk to you again. Don't ever talk to me again!" Deavan cried. "Apparently my pregnancy was not serious. You obviously f-cking didn't love me."Deavan told the cameras everything she had believed was "a lie" and she felt "broken." She said Jihoon just wanted to have fun and she felt like she had been scammed.Deavan cried with her face in her lap and Jihoon repeated how he felt "embarrassed," but Deavan said she wouldn't even consider forgiving Jihoon unless he could place the $3,000 he said he had saved into her hands.Deavan explained it wasn't about the money -- she just needed to see that Jihoon wasn't lying and she could trust him.Jihoon therefore ran to a nearby ATM and completed the task, which Jihoon's mother apparently found ridiculous."[This is] kid's play," Jihoon's mother said. "If we give her $100,000, will she finally see the truth?"But Jihoon said he'd be willing to do anything to keep Deavan in his life. In fact, he told the cameras Deavan could take "everything" from him if it meant staying in South Korea with his family.Deavan just asked Jihoon to take her back to her hotel room so she could "crawl into a hole and disappear." She felt she had "ruined" her life and her children's lives over a romance.But the next day, when Deavan had some time to cool off, she chose to give Jihoon another chance and use the $3,000 he had given her to rent an apartment for one month.Deavan was willing to give Jihoon one month to change his ways and show he cared through his actions, not just his words."Let's fix it," Jihoon told his wife."No, you fix it," Deavan responded.At the beginning of : The Other Way's second season, Deavan was shown waiting out the coronavirus pandemic while living in South Korea.The footage filmed earlier this year, around February or March, and was seemingly intended for TLC's : Self-Quarantined spinoff.Deavan shared how COVID-19 was "very serious" where she was staying in South Korea. She said South Korea was the second country with the most infected people and so she and Jihoon were in quarantine in an apartment together.Deavan admitted her daughter Drascilla was going stir crazy and her son Taeyang couldn't play outside."They're predicting 60 percent of the country could get the virus, and that's really scary. Everyone is in panic mode, and I don't know what to do," Deavan told her Diary Cam.( : The Other Way then flashed back to seven months earlier, when Deavan was preparing for her move to South Korea with her two kids.)Although Deavan and Jihoon were just together a few months ago, Deavan's mom Elicia revealed in late July that Deavan had returned to the United States and was quarantining separately from Jihoon.Elicia posted a photo of her granddaughter Drascilla on July 20, and in the comments section, she wrote Deavan has been "stuck" in America with her two kids while Jihoon remains in South Korea, according to In Touch Weekly."She is visiting here, but the travel restrictions have forced her to be here longer," Elicia wrote, adding, "[Deavan and Drascilla] are stuck here until travel restrictions are lessened because of the virus."Elicia saying Deavan is "visiting," "stuck" and "forced" to be in the U.S. longer that anticipated suggests Deavan is trying to get back to South Korea to be with Jihoon again, so it appears the couple is still together despite the distance between them right now.And Jihoon seemingly misses his wife and children, as he took to Instagram on July 19 with an image that read, "If love is deep, longing becomes pain."Earlier in July, Jihoon seemingly gave away he and Deavan are still together when he lashed out at trolls on Instagram, saying is in his past and he now has a job that supports his family, meaning Deavan and her two kids.After posting several hashtags, Jihoon wrote, "To people who ask me to get a job, I'm always so kind to people who are kind to me first. But to those who are rude to me, I'm an assh-le to them. Distinguish between show and reality. And the show is in the past."Jihoon continued, "I've said countless times that I have a job. My job is to deliver food. I earn enough money to take care of my family. If you read this and you tell me to get a job, from now on, I'm thinking of you as a goldfish with a memory of three seconds.""I'll just ignore it and block it," he added. "Cuz I don't want to talk to fish, yeah think about it how crazy huh?! Bye."Jihoon's post served as the caption to a screenshot of him slamming a hater."I'm working right now... You need to be logical. Don't be so old. I have a job. And my side job blocks a b-tch like you."There was also evidence in June on social media that Deavan and Jihoon were still going strong, at least at the time.On June 17, Jihoon posted a funny picture of Deavan holding a large box of condoms, and Deavan commented, "Jihoon knows how to work it whoot whoot."Given the box said the condoms were "small pecker condoms," Deavan clarified, "Hahahahaha haha everyone knows it was a joke."And a few days earlier, Deavan posted a selfie of herself modeling in a really nice home or apartment."Loving this dress. Super cute. #90dayfiance #90daytheotherway #fashion #tattoos #morningvibes," Deavan captioned the June 14 photo.One follower commented, "Omg she's back in the states!!??"And then Deavan confirmed, "Just visiting," suggesting her permanent residence is still South Korea.Deavan also confirmed in the comments section of her post she is "definitely not pregnant" again.In addition, Deavan often adds the hashtags #southkorea and #deavanandjihoon to her Instagram posts.Going back to early June, Deavan conducted an interview with Access in which she said she was really excited for fans to see more of her relationship with Jihoon on Season 2 of : The Other Way."It's very exciting. I'm so excited to continue my journey and share my journey. I'm really, really excited that people get to see me and Jihoon and more of that aspect, because I think on Season 1 people didn't get to see too much of us," Deavan said."But this time, everyone will get to see that and this beautiful journey. You guys are going to see definitely some of our lowest points and some of our highest points, so it's going to be worth the watch."Deavan assured Access that Jihoon "loves [being a father].""It's definitely a life-changing thing for him and I think he's very happy with it, even though it was a surprise to both of us. But he absolutely loves both kids," Deavan shared.Despite the ups and downs in her relationship with Jihoon, Deavan called starring on the with him "a great experience" that was "life-changing."Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 22:08:27|Editor: huaxia

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CHICAGO, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- At lease one security guard was shot and is in serious condition as hundreds of people swept through several downtown business areas in the U.S. city of Chicago city early Monday, smashing windows, looting stores, and confronting police.

At one point the looters exchanged gunfire with police, local news daily Chicago Tribune reported Monday.

The looting began shortly after midnight. People darted through broken store windows and doors along Michigan Avenue carrying shopping bags full of merchandise. Cars dropped off more people as the crowd grew.

People were seen running out of a bank through its smashed windows. Crowds repeatedly tried to bash in the windows of an Omega watch store, and a group of people went in and out through a broken window of a Louis Vuitton store, local media reported.

Police officers stopped several people when shots were fired from a passing car early in the morning, and the police returned fire. No officers were shot but a squad car was hit by a rock. It was not known if anyone in the gunman's car was shot, the local newspaper quoted Chicago police spokesman Tom Ahern as saying.

The widespread five-hour vandalism continued into daylight hours. Police made several arrests and recovered at least one gun.

The Chicago Transit Authority has suspended train and bus service into downtown during the morning rush; the Illinois state police blocked off ramps from expressways; bridges across the Chicago River were raised; all major avenues and streets in downtown Chicago have been closed.

It remains unclear what sparked the looting and vandalism. Enditem
Kim Kardashian is one of those A-list celebrities who have received death threats in the past few years.

As one of the most famous media personalities, Kim has everyone's eyes on her whenever she does something online or in public. Currently, she has over 183 million followers on Instagram and 66.2 million followers on Twitter, proving that netizens are interested in her day-to-day life.

However, her fame also affects the level of her safety and security.

For instance, Kim learned the hard way that people know her moves and her locations after a robbery incident at gunpoint in Paris in 2016.

The robbers reportedly grabbed Kardashian and tied her up with plastic cables inside a private apartment during the Paris Fashion Week. They also put tapes over the star's mouth and around her legs before they robbed her and locked her in a bathroom. The culprits reportedly haven taken $11 million worth of jewelry.

During that time, her bodyguard accompanied her sisters, Kourtney and Kendall, and left her alone.

Although it sounded terrifying already, the "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" star has faced more scary ordeals after receiving multiple death threats.

Kim Kardashian's Death Threats After Supporting Israel

In 2012, Israelis and Palestinians started to shoot at each other with rockets in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and airstrikes in Gaza.

In relation to the crisis, Kim said "praying for everyone in Israel" in a since-deleted tweet,

Although Kim Kardashian's death threats started to emerge after tweeting it, she posted another statement saying that she was "praying for everyone in Palestine and across the world!"

To her fright, she took down the tweets and released an apology message on her blog.

"I decided to take down the tweets because I realized that some people were offended and hurt by what I said, and for that I apologize," she wrote. "I should have pointed out my intentions behind these tweets when I posted them."

Threats From Justin Bieber's Fans

One of the most shocking and alarming Kim Kardashian death threats occurred in 2010, and they were all from Bieber's fans.

Before Bieber married Hailey Baldwin, he had not been shy about making Kim K his girlfriend. He did not even miss the chance of taking a picture with her when the two met at the White House Correspondents' dinner in Washington, D.C.

Later that night, the "Yummy" hitmaker posted the picture on his Twitter page and called her his "girlfriend."

However, his fans expressed their anger towards the media personality, and their meeting ignited death threats toward Kim.

On the following week, Kim K tweeted, "Seriously Biebs! @JustinBieber I'm getting death threats from your fans! This is unBeliebable!!!"

Kanye West's Alleged Assault Victim Threatened Kim K

Kim also suffered from threatening remarks from a young man whom Kanye West allegedly assaulted.

The young man reportedly screamed "I will kill you!" at Kim and called her a "sl*t" before unloading a slew of terrible racial slurs on her.

As the rapper faced battery charges over the teen's claims, Kim also pursued criminal charges against the young man and his death threats for her.

READ MORE: Kim Kardashian Kids: Everything You Need to Know About the Kardashian-West Children
The running mate for John Manama for the 2020 elections Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang is beginning a tour of the Greater Accra Region today, Monday, August 10.

According to a statement from the National Democratic Congress Greater Accra Regional Secretariat, she will tour the Shai Osudoku constituency to deliver her message of hope and total transformation when NDC takes over power in January 2021.

She is expected to also pay a courtesy call on the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs as well as the Shai Traditional Council before proceeding to interact with market traders in the Dodowa market.

The statement further indicated that she will hold a mini-rally at Rama Town in Dodowa.

Before rounding up her itinerary, Prof. Opoku Agyemang who also doubles as the first Female Vice-Chancellor of a University in Ghana will address a mini-rally at Rama Town with strict observation of the U.N. Prescribed COVID-19 Safety Protocols, the NDCs Greater Accra Regional Secretariat said.

The NDC running-mate earlier last month embarked on a similar tour in the Central Region.

Over a period of three days, she made a first stop at her hometown, Komenda, in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem District, where she paid a visit to the Chief and spoke to the excited crowds that desperately wanted to see her and hear from her.

She also visited Mrs. Effie Amissah-Arthur (mother of the late Vice- President H.E. Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur).

Professor Opoku-Agyemang proceeded to call on the family of the late President John Evans Atta-Mills, who warmly welcomed her back home.

She then paid a courtesy call on the Central Region House of Chiefs with her entourage, where they were welcomed by Nananom led by Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi, Vice President of the National House of Chiefs before meeting with some community leaders from the Central Region to listen to their concerns, challenges, and hopes for the future.

---citinewsroom
Potential Tenneco Inc. (NYSE:TEN) shareholders may wish to note that the Independent Director, Thomas Freyman, recently bought US$231k worth of stock, paying US$7.70 for each share. We reckon that's a good sign, especially since the purchase boosted their holding by 79%.

View our latest analysis for Tenneco

Tenneco Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Notably, that recent purchase by Thomas Freyman is the biggest insider purchase of Tenneco shares that we've seen in the last year. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, at around the current price, which is US$8.17. Of course they may have changed their mind. But this suggests they are optimistic. We do always like to see insider buying, but it is worth noting if those purchases were made at well below today's share price, as the discount to value may have narrowed with the rising price. In this case we're pleased to report that the insider purchases were made at close to current prices.

In the last twelve months Tenneco insiders were buying shares, but not selling. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

Tenneco is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket.

Insider Ownership of Tenneco

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Insiders own 1.9% of Tenneco shares, worth about US$13m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Tenneco Tell Us?

Story continues

The recent insider purchases are heartening. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. However, we note that the company didn't make a profit over the last twelve months, which makes us cautious. Insiders likely see value in Tenneco shares, given these transactions (along with notable insider ownership of the company). So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for Tenneco you should be aware of, and 1 of these is a bit concerning.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

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.
Noise is the main obstacle to building large-scale quantum computers.

To tame the noise (interference or instability), scientists need to understand how it affects an entire quantum system.

Until now this information was only available for very small devices or subsets of devices.

Work by Dr Robin Harper and colleagues published today in Nature Physics develops algorithms that will work across large quantum devices.

They demonstrate this by diagnosing the noise in an IBM Quantum Experience device, discovering correlations in the 14-qubit machine not previously detected.

Dr Harper said: "The results are the first implementation of provably rigorous and scalable diagnostic algorithms capable of being run on current quantum devices and beyond."

Dr Harper is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sydney Nano Institute and part of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems.

###

INTERVIEWS

Dr Robin Harper | robin.harper@sydney.edu.au

Professor Steven Flammia | steven.flammia@sydney.edu.au

MEDIA ENQUIRIES

Marcus Strom | marcus.strom@sydney.edu.au | +61 423 982 485

DECLARATION

This work was supported in part by the US Army Research Office, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS), the Government of Ontario, and the Government of Canada through the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) and Transformative Quantum Technologies (TQT), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Industry Canada.

RESEARCH ARTICLE available on request.

'Efficient learning of quantum noise', Nature Physics, DOI: 10.1038/s41567-020-0992-8

Authors: Robin Harper1, Steven Flammia1,2 and Joel Wallman3,4

1 Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems, School of Physics, University of Sydney

2 Yale Quantum Institute, Yale University, USA

3 Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Canada

4 Quantum Benchmark Inc, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Alkali Rye, now open in Oakland, promises to be a different sort of beverage shop  one that pays just as much attention to non-alcoholic drinks as to booze, and one the prioritizes producers from underrepresented backgrounds.

From business partners Jessica Moncada Konte and Kori Chen, Alkali Rye replaces Alchemy Bottle Shop at 3256 Grand Ave. Alchemy had been one of the Bay Areas leading craft spirits retailers, but owners Tova Herman and Peter Mustacich closed it in December. The biggest difference between Alchemy and Alkali Rye, says Moncada Konte, is we are really a beverage shop as opposed to just a bottle shop, with plans to open an espresso and matcha bar, plus shelves of homewares and other little snacky things.

The shop quietly opened five weeks ago, but its been a long time coming. Moncada Konte has wanted to open a beverage store in Oakland for years; shed originally wanted to call it Proof, and she ran a Kickstarter to help crowd-fund it. But two different leases fell through, and by the time she had partnered with Chen and found the Alchemy space, the name Proof started to feel a little stale, she says.

Chen came up with the name Alkali Rye, a type of native California grass that grows in the Oakland hills. We wanted to recognize the fact that all of these drinks come from plants, he says.

Both business partners have deep roots in the East Bay food and drink scene. Moncada Konte has worked at Chez Panisse and tended bar at restaurants including Camino and Flora. Her father, Keba Konte, is the founder of Oaklands Red Bay Coffee  a fast-growing company known for its candied yam lattes. Chen is Red Bays former chief operations officer and the owner of Piano Black Trade Co., an importer of organic Japanese matcha.

Part of our mission is to have this deeper engagement about where the drinks that we love come from, Chen says. Theyve told all their distributors that theyre going to prioritize products made by BIPOC, women and queer people, and produced by sustainable methods. Vinny Eng, the former wine director of Tartine Manufactory in San Francisco, helped out with the wine selection, which includes bottles from Black winemakers like Andre Mack from Oregon, Artie Johnson from Napa and Krista Scruggs from Vermont.

The spirits shelves at Alkali Rye have a particular focus on agave spirits like mezcal and aromatized wines like vermouth. The selection is designed for people who want to make simple, low-alcohol cocktails at home, Moncada Konte says: I like three-ingredient cocktails.

The beer fridge will rotate through different offerings; right now, theyre featuring the brews of Crowns & Hops, a Black-owned brewery near Los Angeles. Alkali Rye has already sold out of the brewerys imperial stout, part of the international Black is Beautiful campaign, and has moved on to its hazy IPAs.

While many restaurants remain closed in the Bay Area, relying on takeout or small outdoor dining sections to stay afloat, Chen and Moncada Konte are trying to help out. On Thursdays Alkali Rye serves as the pickup location for San Francisco restaurant Rintaros bento boxes. And on weekends, theyre selling snack packs  cheese, pate, fruit, baguette  made by the chefs of Friends & Family, a new Oakland restaurant.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Opening a store during the COVID-19 partial shutdown has its share of challenges, of course. The matcha and espresso service that Chen and Moncada Konte had dreamed of  a fun, casual, standing-bar-style setup  is on hold, for example.

But in another sense, they feel lucky. In a weird way, neighborhood shops and corner stores fit really well within this COVID world, Chen says. Strangely, thats been very validating for us.

Alkali Rye. 3256 Grand Ave., Oakland. Open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. 510-488-3637 or www.sipalkalirye.com

Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicles wine critic. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley Instagram: @esthermob
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas: AP

Chinas foreign ministry said it would apply sanctions against 11 American politicians and officials, including US senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, starting on Monday.

It follows the Trump administrations move on Friday to impose sanctions on 11 Hong Kong and Chinese officials whom it accused of curtailing political freedoms in the city.

Mr Cruz and Mr Rubio spearheaded recent legislation aimed at preventing goods produced by forced labour being bought or imported by US companies  and to mandate that the US government sanction anyone who knowingly engages in forced labour in Xinjiang.

Republican congressman Chris Smith  who introduced legislation condemning Chinas treatment of the Uighurs and accused president Xi Jinping of presiding over genocide  is also among the 11 officials sanctioned.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of US-based campaign group Human Rights Watch, Michael Abramowitz, the head of American think tank Freedom House, National Endowment for Democracy president Carl Gershman, are also on the list.

Chinas foreign ministry has not yet specified what form the latest sanctions would take.

In response to the USs wrong behaviours, China has decided to impose sanctions on those individuals who behaved badly on Hong Kong-related issues, said ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.

Beijing first said sanctions would be imposed on against Mr Cruz, Mr Rubio and Mr Smith last month, after Washington penalised senior Chinese officials over the treatment of Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang region.

Chinas ministry of foreign affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying revealed the retaliatory move on 13 July, without giving any details of what the sanctions would entail.

Ms Hua said US sanctions were a serious interference in Chinas internal affairs, severe violation of basic norms governing international relations, and grave harm to China-US relations.
Taipei, Aug 10 : US Health Secretary Alex Azar met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday, becoming the highest-ranking American politician to hold a meeting on the island after over 40 years in a move that has irked China.

Besides the President, Azar is also scheduled to meet Minister of Health Chen Shih-chung, reports The Taiwan Times.

None of Azar's team are required to follow Taiwan's normal quarantine guidelines to prevent COVID-19 infected individuals from entering the country.

Reacting to the meeting, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian urged "the US side to stop official interactions and contact of all kinds, as well as the upgrading of substantive relations with the island", Xinhua news agency reported When the visit was announced last week, the spokesman had said that "China firmly opposes any official interactions between the US and Taiwan" and "not to send any wrong signals to 'Taiwan independence' elements to avoid severe damage to China-US relations".

However, Azar, who arrived on the island on Sunday, said there were "three overarching themes" for the visit, reports the BBC.

"The first is to recognise Taiwan as an open and democratic society, executing a highly successful and transparent COVID-19 response," he said.

"The second is to reaffirm Taiwan as a long partner and friend of the US.

"The third is to note that Taiwan deserves to be recognised as a global health leader with an excellent track record of contributing to international health," the Health Secretary added.

Although Washington does not have a formal diplomatic relationship with Taipei, the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act allows the US to sell arms to the island, and commits it to "close relations", said the BBC report.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The State Liquor Authority (SLA) and State Police Task Force handed out violations to 60 establishments -- four of which are located on Staten Island -- that were found to be out of compliance with coronavirus (COVID-19) mandates over the weekend, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The violations were issued after the SLA and task force visited 2,294 restaurant/bars in New York City and on Long Island on Friday and Saturday, said Cuomo during a Sunday conference call with the media.
TORTOLA, British Virgin Islands, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orca Energy Group Inc. (Orca or the Company) (TSX-V: ORC.A, ORC.B) is pleased to provide the following operational update on its current activities in Tanzania and the appointment of two corporate brokers. All currency amounts in this news release are in United States Dollars ($) unless otherwise stated.



Tanzania

On August 3, 2020 Orca signed a contract with China Petroleum and Technology Development Company (CPTDC) for the design, supply, installation and commissioning of natural gas compressors within the Songas gas processing facility on Songo Songo Island. The compressors will work in harmony with the previously installed refrigeration to address declining reservoir pressure and ensure maximum production levels can be sustained, subject to demand, through to the end of the Production Sharing Agreement in 2026. The compressors are forecast to cost a total of $38 million of which circa $6 million was expended in 2019 and $19 million will be incurred over the remainder of 2020. The compressors are scheduled to be operational by the end of Q2 2022.

Orcas careful management of the operational team on Songo Songo Island has enabled it to maintain production throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Orcas Additional Gas sales averaged 50.6 million standard cubic feet a day (MMcfd) for Q2 2020 (Q2 2019: 56.6 MMcfd) and 53.5 MMcfd for the six months ended June 30, 2020 (six months ended June 30, 2019: 59.5 MMcfd). Gas sales were impacted by sustained and significant rainfalls that enabled the Tanzania Electricity Supply Company (TANESCO) to operate its hydro facilities at high utilization rates. The country is now entering the dry season and gas demand is expected to increase for the remainder of the year. Despite the lower demand for gas from the power sector, TANESCO has continued to pay back its arrears during the first six months of the year. Orca continues to benefit from a strong balance sheet, with cash and short-term bonds of $106.1 million as at June 30, 2020.

The Company is preparing for the workover of onshore well SS-10 in early 2021. A decision on whether to conduct remedial work on two of the older onshore wells, SS-3 and SS-4 will be taken on completion of a major subsurface review of the Songo Songo gas field that will be finalized during Q4 2020. This review, which includes a re-build of the static and dynamic reservoir models, will enable the Company to assess whether the workover of SS-3 and SS-4, or the drilling of new infill wells will be preferable over the remainder of the license period. The review will also incorporate the latest trends in pressure measurements to allow a full re-assessment on the contingent and prospective resource potential and associated economics of drilling and developing the natural gas in the areas known as Songo Songo North and Songo Songo West.

Corporate

To further increase Orcas visibility and help communicate Orcas strategy, the Company has engaged Canaccord Genuity Limited (Canaccord) and Investec Bank plc (Investec) to provide advisory and corporate broking services. As part of the mandate, Canaccord and Investec will introduce Orca to respective institutional investor bases, particularly in Europe and Africa.

Nigel Friend, CEO of Orca commented:

Despite the challenging macro backdrop, we are very pleased with Orcas performance in the first six months of 2020. We are well placed to finance and deliver a number of essential capital projects which are critical to sustaining gas production in Tanzania through to the end of the license period. The Government of Tanzania has shown a long-term commitment to natural gas through its investment in gas infrastructure and we will continue to develop the Songo Songo field with our partner, the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation, to fuel economic growth and prosperity in country.

We are delighted to have engaged Canaccord and Investec who are expected to help the Company expand its institutional investor bases in Europe and Africa. They will also assist us with communicating the success of our project in Tanzania and the long-term investment case of the Company. I look forward to keeping our shareholders appraised of developments over the coming months.

For media enquiries:

Celicourt (PR)

Mark Antelme

Jimmy Lea

Orca@celicourt.uk

+44-20 8434 2643

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Information

Certain information regarding Orca set forth in this news release, including but not limited to: the compressors' ability to ensure maximum production levels are sustained through to the end of the Production Sharing Agreement in 2026; the forecast cost of the compressors and Orca's ability to pay in the remainder of 2020; the compressors' scheduled operational date; expected gas demand; the workover of onshore well SS-10 and the potential remedial work on wells SS-3 and SS-4; the completion of the subsurface review of the Songo Songo gas field in Q4 2020; and Canaccord and Investec's ability to introduce Orca to institutional investor bases; the Company's position in the market; and Orca's intention to continue to develop the Songo Songo field constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. The words "may", "will", "would", "should", "could", "expects", "plans", "intends", "trends", "indications", "anticipates", "believes", "estimates", "predicts", "likely" or "potential" or the negative or other variations of these words or other comparable words or phrases, are intended to identify forward-looking information. Forward-looking information, by its very nature, involves inherent risks and uncertainties and is based on several assumptions, both general and specific. Orca cautions that its assumptions may not materialize and that current economic conditions render such assumptions, although believed reasonable at the time they were made, subject to greater uncertainty. Such forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results or performance of Orca to be materially different from the outlook or any future results or performance implied by such information.

The forward-looking information contained in this new release is provided as of the date hereof and the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable Canadian securities laws.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo holds a mask during a briefing in New York City, on July 6, 2020. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

Cuomo Rejects Calls for Probe Into New York Nursing Home Deaths

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday rejected calls for an independent probe into the deaths of COVID-19 patients in New York nursing homes, claiming demands for such an investigation are politically motivated.

State politicians on both sides of the aisle have called for an investigation into what role, if any, a controversial executive order may have played in fueling deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Virus. The order, signed by Cuomo on March 25, forced nursing homes to admit partially recovered COVID-19 patients without requiring a test to verify if they were virus-free.

I wouldnt do an investigation, Cuomo said at a press conference, adding that youd have to be blind to realize its not political.

Just look at where it comes from and look at the sources and look at their political affiliations  and look at what publications raise it and what media outward networks raise it, Cuomo added.

Cuomo has repeatedly rejected links between the since-repealed policy and the 6,500 or so nursing home deaths in the state. A New York State Department of Health study (pdf) corroborated this stance, concluding that it was infected nursing home staff that fanned the spread.

This study highlighted a critically important fact that the overwhelming majority of hospital patients sent back into nursing homes were not only medically stable, they were no longer contagious, and that 81 percent of the nursing homes receiving COVID patients from New Yorks hospitals already had the virus, said Michael Dowling, CEO of Northwell Health, in a release.

New York Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said at a press conference following the release of a report that admission policies were not a significant factor in virus-related nursing home deaths, and called attempts to blame the fatalities on the March 25 executive order a false narrative.

However, questions have been raised about the reliability and impartiality of the study.

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), who heads a House subcommittee on the COVID-19 crisis, said in a letter to Cuomo last month that besides being dubious on its face, this conclusion was reached through a flawed methodology.

Disappointingly, it also casts aspersions on our heroic frontline nursing home workers in the process, Scalise added.

Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi pushed back against the claims in Scalises letter: Were used to Republicans denying science but now they are screeching about time, space and dates on a calendar to distract from the federal governments many, many, embarrassing failures. No one is buying it.

This is a conflict of interest for the health department to investigate its own poor decisions, State Assemblyman Ron Kim, a Democrat, said in early July. For them to say that the decision of sending COVID-19 patients from hospitals into nursing did not contribute to increasing infections is ludicrous.

Defending his administrations policies on the virus, Cuomo pointed out the pandemic curve in terms of both new infections and new deaths has flattened.

You look at where New York is as a percentage of nursing home deaths, Cuomo also said. Its all the way at the bottom of the list of states.

New Yorks nursing home death toll could be 25 percent higher than the official tally, however, according to an analysis by the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, a conservative think tank.

Meanwhile, Harvard University health care policy professor David Grabowski told NBC New York in an interview that he believes the March 25 directive fanned the flames of the outbreak in nursing homes but was probably not the main factor.

Did the policy increase fatalities in the state? Grabowski said of the executive order. It probably did. I just dont think it was the primary driver.
Ive always been more interested in the talent of craftspeople than in some massive emerald, says Cicolini, now 47. Perceptions of Indian craft have deteriorated over the last 50 years, but if you think back to the 18th century, when Gainsborough was painting portraits of aristocratic women in Kashmiri shawls, it was considered superlative  I wanted to remind people that it remains so. From the beginning, she has collaborated with Kamal Kumar Meenakar, one of Jaipurs last remaining masters of meenakari  the practice of enameling intricate designs on metal, which was introduced from Persia in the 17th century. Hes an artist, she says of Meenakar, who takes her sketched designs, technical drawings and the occasional wax maquette and returns them as fully formed pieces contained in small wax-sealed tin boxes wrapped in calico. In his hands the enamel becomes a miniature painting. While meenakari was traditionally confined to the underside of a necklace or earring, Cicolini positions it center stage, conjuring sculptural, oversize 23.5-karat gold rings hand-painted in enamel with abstract motifs drawn from patterns in textiles, ceramics and antique Chinese screens and inset with large colored stones including mandarin garnets and pink and green tourmalines in classic Indian uncut polki forms. Her bold, scholarly style has won her a devoted following and a coveted place at the fashion boutique Dover Street Market.
An attacker could use $300 worth of off-the-shelf equipment to eavesdrop and intercept signals from satellite internet communications.

The academic researcher James Pavur, speaking at Black Hat 2020 hacking conference, explained that satellite internet communications are susceptible to eavesdropping and signal interception. Attackers could use cheap equipment like a basic home-television gear that goes from $300 to spy on the internet traffic for high-value targets.

When a satellite ISP attempt to establish an internet connection for a customer, it beams that customers signals up to a geostationary satellite using a narrow communications channel. Then the signal is sent back down to a terrestrial receiving station and routed to the internet.

The response signals are sent back using the same channel, the transmission downlink between the satellite and the user will be a broadcast transmission that contains the larger volume of customers traffic simultaneously in order to optimize the costs.

A critical difference is that were going to send [downstream signals] in a really wide beam, because we want to cover as many customers as possible, and satellites are very expensive, explained Pavur. So radio waves carrying a response to a Google search will reach our customer in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean; but they will also hit an attackers dish in, say, Ghana.

Pavur explained that nation-state actors could use very expensive equipment in installed ground stations to eavesdrop on satellite communications. However, he demonstrated that it is possible to spy on satellite internet connections using basic home-television consumer equipment.

The boffin used a common flat-panel satellite dish and an off-the-shelf PCIe satellite tuner card to realize the listening station. Pavur pointed out that professional PCIe tuner cards cost between $200 and $300, but it is possible to use less reliable and cheaper versions that go for $50/$80.

The researchers explained that an attacker could spy on specific satellites, whose locations are public, by pointing them with the dish. Then they could use software like EPS Pro to discover internet feeds.

Were going to point our satellite dish at a spot in the sky that we know has a satellite, and were going to scan the Ku band of the radio spectrum to find signals against the background noise, Pavur explained. The way well identify channels is by looking for distinct humps in the radio spectrum; because they stick out against the background noise, we can guess that theres something going on there. Well tell our card tune to this one, and treat it as a digital video broadcasting for satellite feed. After a few seconds we get a lock on that feed, meaning we successfully found a connected satellite.

Once discovered a feed the attacker have to record it and analyze the collected data in order to determine whether the traffic is related to an Internet connection or a TV feed. Pavur explained that this check is quite simple, he just looked for the presence of the string HTTP which is associated with Internet traffic and not in a TV feed.

Once the attacker has identified a satellite internet connection he can record it and then parse it for valuable information. The feed are transmitted in MPEG video streaming format or the generic stream encapsulation (GSE) protocols.

MPEG is easy to parse using commonly available tools like Wireshark, while GSE leverage more complicated modulations that make it hard for cheap hardware to parse the stream.

Pavur and his colleagues noticed that most of the traffic they collected resulted in corrupted files, for this reason, they developed a tool called GC Extract to extract IP data out of a corrupted GSE recording.

What this means is that an attacker whos listening to your satellite signal gets to see what your internet service provider would expect to see: Every packet that comes to your modem, every BitTorrent you download, every website you visit, Pavur said. But it gets even worse if we look at enterprise customers, because a lot of them were operating what was essentially a corporate land network over the satellite feeds. For example, imagine a cruise line that has a bunch of Windows devices aboard it ships. This Windows local area network with all that internal LDAP traffic and SDP traffic will be broadcast over the satellite link, giving an eavesdropper perspective from behind the firewall.

Pavel explained that attackers could also collect information even when the traffic is encrypted. The analysis of DNS could reveal the users Internet browsing history while the analysis of TLS certificates could allow fingerprinting the servers the user connected.

The researcher presented some real cases in which he was able to access data sent on satellite internet connections.

The researchers and his Oxford team disclosed their findings to the test victims and ISPs.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation released a private threat-intelligence notification following the presentation of the results of the research.

However, recently conducted research discovered man-in-the-middle attacks against maritime VSAT signals can be conducted with less than $400 of widely available television equipment, a presenting opportunities to a wider range of threat actors to potentially gain visibility into sensitive information. reads the notification published by the FBI.

The internet is a weird web with devices and systems that are connected in ways that you can never predict, you might connect to a secure Wi-Fi hotspot or a cell tower, but the next hop could be a satellite link or wiretapped Ethernet cable, Pavur concluded. Having the right, the ability and the knowledge to encrypt your own data, and to choose to do that, is critical to protecting against this class of attack, whatever domain you think about it in.

The Presentation Slides are available here:

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs  hacking, satellite)

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The suit alleges that while voting is a fundamental, constitutional right that is central to our democracy, Pritzker violated this right by signing into law a partisan voting scheme that is designed to harvest Democratic ballots, dilute Republican ballots, and, if the election still doesnt turn out the way he wants it, to generate enough Democratic ballots after election day to sway the result.
Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai was arrested in a raid on his newspaper office today under the city's draconian new security law.

Lai, 71, was led away in handcuffs and arrested along with six others on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces - one of the new offences under the law - and fraud.

The editor of Lai's Apple Daily paper said its journalists would not be intimidated by the raid after staff posted a live-stream of dozens of police on their premises.

However, the Committee to Protect Journalists said the raid 'bears out the worst fears that the law would be used to suppress critical pro-democracy opinion and restrict press freedom'.

China insists the law is necessary to restore order after last year's mass protests, but critics say it tramples on the freedoms guaranteed to Hong Kong after its handover from Britain in 1997.

Under arrest: Jimmy Lai (centre), the media tycoon behind pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, was arrested by police in Hong Kong today

Raid: A fleet of police officers wearing masks conduct a raid inside Apple Daily headquarters on Monday in one of the most high-profile operations under the new security law

Apple Daily staff were ordered to leave their seats and line up so police could check their identities as officers conducted searches across the newsroom.

At one point Lai was present, in handcuffs and surrounded by officers. Police said the search was conducted with a court warrant which was shown to staff.

Chris Yeung, president of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, described the police action as 'shocking and terrifying'.

'This is unprecedented, and would be unimaginable only one or two months ago,' he said.

Apple editor Law later sent a note to staff telling reporters to 'stand by their posts' as he vowed to get the latest edition printed despite the raid.

Lai's two main titles - the Apple Daily and the digital-only Next magazine - openly back democracy protests in a city where competitors either support Beijing or tread a far more cautious line.

The two publications have been largely devoid of advertisements for years as brands steer clear of incurring Beijing's wrath.

China routinely calls him a a 'traitor' and a 'black hand' behind last year's protests.

Allegations of Lai colluding with foreigners went into overdrive in state media last year when he met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence.

Speaking in June, he described Beijing's new security law as 'a death knell for Hong Kong' and said he feared authorities would come after his journalists.

'I'm prepared for prison,' he said, two weeks before China's rubber-stamp parliament approved the new law over the head of Hong Kong's legislature.

A crowd of people inside the Apple Daily offices today as media tycoon Jimmy Lai and six others were arrested on suspicion of breaching the new law

Jimmy Lai (centre) is escorted by police officers inside the Apple Daily offices in Hong Kong

Beijing's new law targets secession, subversion, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces, leading to fears it would be used to silence criticism.

It also toppled the firewall between the mainland's Communist Party-controlled courts and Hong Kong's vaunted independent judiciary.

The law's introduction has coincided with ramped up police action against democracy supporters.

About two dozen - including Lai - have been charged for defying a police ban to attend a Tiananmen remembrance vigil in early June.

Lai and many others are also being prosecuted for taking part in last year's protests, the largest outbreak of unrest since the city's return to Chinese rule.

Last month a dozen high-profile pro-democracy figures were disqualified from standing in local elections for holding unacceptable political views.

Critics of the new law say it violates the principle of 'one country, two systems' which means Hong Kong is guaranteed freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland.

Washington last week responded by imposing sanctions on a group of Chinese and Hong Kong officials - including the city's leader Carrie Lam.

China says the security law is its own internal affair and has criticised other countries for their interference.

Bejing also responded with criticism after Britain announced plans to open up a path to citizenship for nearly three million Hong Kongers.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai is one of Beijing's fiercest critics
India has conveyed to Russia that it expects an early end to its military stand-off with China for a greater success of the forthcoming BRICS and SCO summits, which President Vladimir Putin will host a couple of months later with both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping likely to attend.

With Moscow quietly holding back-channel talks with both India and China to help the two neighbours resolve the continuing stand-off along the disputed boundary between them, New Delhi has conveyed to the Russian Government that an early and complete withdrawal of the front-line troops by the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) from the face-off scenes in eastern Ladakh would help set the stage for a greater success of the BRICS and the SCO summits.

Also Read | Indian, Chinese army officials discuss DBO, Depsang Y disengagement

A source in New Delhi told the DH that while India would surely take part in both the BRICS and the SCO summits, it would expect that the stand-off between its army and the Chinese PLA would end soon without casting a shadow over the forthcoming multilateral conclaves to be hosted by Russia.

The annual summits of the BRICS (a bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) this year were initially scheduled to be held at St. Petersburg in Russia in July. The Russian Government, however, postponed both the summits in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Also Read | Indian Army makes govt reject China's Pangong Tso pullback terms

Moscow is currently planning to hold the summits in October. Though Putin is keen to host Modi, Xi and other BRICS and SCO leaders in St. Petersburg, the summits may also be held through video conference if the pandemic does not abate by then.

New Delhi of late had discussions with Moscow about preparations for the forthcoming summits as well as about the continuing stand-off along the India-China LAC.

Foreign Secretary, Harsh V Shringla, on August 4 had talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Igor Morgulov, over the phone. A spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi later said that they had discussed the BRICS and SCO summits and exchanged views on various regional and international issues of mutual interests. He, however, did not provide details of the discussion between Shringla and Morgulov.

Also Read | India-China tension: Hiding the truth from the public?

Moscow is currently planning to hold the summits in October. Though Putin is keen to host Modi, Xi and other BRICS and SCO leaders in St. Petersburg, the summits may also be held through video conferences, if the pandemic does not abate by then.

New Delhi of late had discussions with Moscow about preparations for the forthcoming summits, as well as about the continuing stand-off along the India-China LAC.

Foreign Secretary, Harsh V Shringla, on August 4 had talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Igor Morgulov, over the phone. A spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi later said that they had discussed the BRICS and the SCO summits and exchanged views on various regional and international issues of mutual interests. He, however, did not provide details of the discussion between Shringla and Morgulov.

Shringla on August 5 also had talks with Moscows envoy to New Delhi, Nikolay Kudashev.

Also Read | Amid China's aggression, Pompeo, Jaishankar discuss Quad meet

New Delhi drove home the point during its recent engagements with Moscow that since India and China were members of both the BRICS and the SCO, the military stand-off along the disputed boundary between the two might overshadow the summits. While the stand-off is a bilateral issue for India and China to resolve between themselves, an early and complete withdrawal of the troops from the face-off scenes and de-escalation of tension between the two BRICS and SCO members would surely help make the ambience more cordial and the summits more effective and productive, another source in New Delhi said.

Russia has been publicly maintaining that India and China should resolve the stand-off through bilateral talks. It, however, has been quietly in touch with both the nations and has been trying to defuse tension between them.

Chinas aggressive moves to unilaterally alter the status quo along its disputed boundary with India triggered the stand-off in early May. The two sides early last month mutually agreed on a process of disengagement or phased withdrawal of the front-line troops from the face-off scenes. It, however, remained stalled for the past three weeks, particularly because the Chinese PLA declined to withdraw troops completely from several areas along the LAC, including Depsang Y junction, Gogra Post and the northern bank of the Pangong Tso.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar may visit Moscow next month for a meeting of the BRICS Foreign Ministers. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is also likely to attend the meet, which would be hosted by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Jaishankar did join Lavrov and Wang for a Russia-India-China (RIC) video conference on June 23  just a few days after the violent face-off between the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA in Galwan Valley resulted in casualties on both sides and escalated tension between the two nations.

Soon after the June 15 clash in Galwan Valley, Moscow had got in touch with both New Delhi and Beijing to make sure that the tension between India and China does not cast a shadow on the pre-scheduled video conference among the RIC Foreign Ministers.
TikTok is facing an uncertain future  and the popular app may be effectively banned in a few weeks by the Trump administration in the U.S.  but its still plowing ahead as if all systems are go.

Last month, TikTok announced the formation of a new Creator Fund to support creators who are building careers on the short-form video platform. Thats initially seeded with $200 million for the first year, growing to $1 billion in three years in the U.S. to reach hundreds of thousands of creators, according to the ByteDance-owned company.

On Monday, TikTok announced the first 19 recipients to get money from the Creator Fund. The group includes Spencer X (Spencer Polanco Knight), a beat-boxer from Manhattan who has more than 40 million followers on TikTok, and top YouTuber David Dobrik, who has over 20 million TikTok followers.

Others getting money from the TikTok Creator Fund include beauty and makeup influencer Avani Gregg (@avani, 24 million TikTok followers), comedian Ross Smith (@rosssmith, 11 million), photographer Alex Stemplewski (@alex.stemp, 9.6 million), and Brittany Tomlinson (@brittany_broski, 5 million).

A rep for TikTok was unable to provide information about how much money each individual creator has been granted. All TikTok U.S. creators will be eligible to apply for Creator Fund money when the application process opens in-app in mid-August. To be eligible, users must be 18 years or older, have at least 10,000 followers, have accrued at least 10,000 video views in the last 30 days, have an account in good standing and post original content in line with TikToks Community Guidelines.

This Fund was created for you, for your creativity, your passion, and your tenacious spirit to connect with others, Vanessa Pappas, GM of TikTok North America, Australia and New Zealand, wrote in a blog post. We invite you to turn your creativity into an opportunity to earn a livelihood, pursue another career, or simply, to be rewarded for doing what you love.

Story continues

The 19 creators who have been selected for the first grants from the TikTok Creator Fund (by their TikTok account name) are: acooknamedmatt, alex.stemp, avani, brittany_broski, cheyennejazwise, daviddobrik, doctor.jesss, dreadknotwoodshop, feelgoodfoodie, heyeliza, justmaiko, lgndfrvr, lifeofadoctor, marstruck, mattgresia, onlyjayus, rosssmith, spencerx and tonyyounmd.

Theres a very real question, however, if TikTok will still be in business in the U.S. five weeks from now.

Donald Trump has issued an executive order that would outlaw business dealings with TikTok in the U.S. by Sept. 20 if parent ByteDance cant close a deal with an American buyer for TikToks U.S.-based business by then. The president invoked national security concerns for the ban, noting that Chinese authorities could demand ByteDance fork over any TikTok user data.

Microsoft last week confirmed that it has been exploring a TikTok acquisition and Twitter reportedly has held preliminary talks about a possible merger with TikTok. Meanwhile, TikTok has threatened to fight Trumps order in court and is reportedly set to file a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging the move as unconstitutional.

Disclosure: Variety has received funding from TikToks Creative Learning Fund to produce content for the platform.
An app that can measure fitness at home by hospital out-patients is being shared for free by its Malmo University developer. Such technology could be vital in reducing the number of appointments high risk groups must attend.

Timed Walk has been developed by the researcher Dario Salvi at the University's research centre, Internet of Things and People (IOTAP). The app has now become of great interest during the corona pandemic.

The user can download the app to their phone for free and then, with the help of the GPS, can measure how far they walk in a certain period of time." Dario Salvi, Researcher, Malmo University

It started when Salvi worked with technology development and mobile health at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering of the University of Oxford.

A cardiologist that treats a lung disease that causes the blood vessels in the lungs to become too narrow, asked him to develop an app.

"The six-minute walk is a standard test and is used in a number of medical conditions to measure fitness. The patient has to walk back and forth in a hospital corridor while medical staff measure how many metres they walk," says Salvi.

Thanks to the app, the patient can now take the test as and when they choose, somewhere near their home instead of at a hospital. Salvi, who specialises in software engineering and hardware prototypes for healthcare, explained that the app was developed before the current corona pandemic.

"Now the hospitals want as few patients as possible. I had published my paper about the app we developed in Oxford, when people started calling from Canada, Australia, Ireland, USA, UK  from hospitals and pharmaceutical companies."

Salvi decided to make a new, slightly simpler and completely free version of the app and release it via IOTAP. He also released the algorithm free for others to develop further. The app gathered interest from researchers at King's College and Oxford in the UK, University of British Columbia, Canada, University of Pennsylvania, USA, and from pharmaceutical companies.

"The cardiologist has sent it to colleagues, and I know there is also interest in our regional hospital. Even when this is over, there may still be a need for remote solutions and to be able to share information with your doctor."

Salvi and IOTAP are currently developing a platform for mobile-based health research, Mobistudy, which was originally started in Oxford. The platform will function as a test bed for various technologies that can be used in healthcare.
FGE reports the arrest of a man for attempted homicide

Chetumal, Q.R.  The Quintana Roo State Attorney Generals Office reports the detainment of Jose J for the crime of attempted homicide. The Fiscalia General del Estado (FGE) says the arrest was made in compliance with a warrant issued against Jose J for attempted homicide in the municipality of Othon P. Blanco.

Police say the events occurred in June of this year in a canteen in the town of Lazaro Cardenas where the defendant arrived, who, with a firearm, injured the adult victim who was a relative of the now detainee.

The FGE reports the arrest was carried out in the streets of the town of Lazaro Cardenas, after which, he was transferred to the Social Reintegration Center.
More evidence of an industrial hemp bust appeared this week as Great Eastern Hemp seeks to unload a Broome County building it bought last year to process CBD.

Sale of the Johnson City industrial site comes eight months after the company sealed a $2.2 million deal to acquire the property with the expectation of outfitting the former sheltered workshop for hemp processing and storage. It marks the second enterprise to drop plans to process industrial hemp in Broome County.

The decision by Great Eastern Hemp to pull out of the business in the Binghamton region further deflates what was expected to be an industrial resurgence in the area driven by wide adoption and escalating sales of oils derived from the low-THC variant of the cannabis plant.

"I don't know if it speaks to the state of the industry," said Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Endwell, Broome County, who has been a state leader in pushing the development of the hemp business.

"It speaks more to their business planning."

There's a simple reason for the change of direction: Industry economics cratered, said Brian Haynes, a spokesman for Great Eastern Hemp.

"There's enough manufacturing and processing now to satisfy the market," Haynes said. "You can buy extracted, high-quality product cheaper than you can manufacture it."

Hemp boom goes bust in New York

Farmers across New York jumped into the crop last year, planting an estimated 6,000 acres to be used in the production of CBD  a substance claimed, without clear scientific evidence with the exception of one approved use, to cure a variety of maladies.

Some crop promoters were projecting prices as high as $30,000 an acre for the crop, leading to peaked interest in the long-depressed agricultural community.

However, with little or no processing in the state, much of the crop went unused as no market developed of the raw product.

Last year's crop  at least the bales that have not spoiled  still lies in warehouses. This year, estimates indicate less than one-third of last year's acreage was planted across the state.

In the spring, Southern Tier Hemp dropped its plan to develop a hemp processing plant at the former Gannett Central New York printing plant in Johnson City.

It failed overcome a deed restriction that severely limited uses at the 100,00-square-foot site next to Walmart. Binghamton University is now in the process of buying the site to use as a library annex.

CBD, or cannabidiol, is derived from the cannabis plant with low levels of the psychoactive THC, the substance that produces the marijuana high.

Another development that could jump-start industry in New York is the approval of adult-use marijuana, which could get the green light from the state Legislature next year after stalling this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Where other hemp processing sites stand in the Southern Tier

Meanwhile, construction at the Canopy Growth "hemp industrial park" in Kirkwood, unveiled to much celebration last year, appears to be moving slowly.

Canopy said it will invest up to $150 million in its first U.S facility with representatives expressing optimism the operation eventually could generate hundreds of jobs, starting with 200 at the 46 Pine Camp Drive facility.

However, Great Eastern Hemp's decision to forgo CBD production calls into question initial optimistic scenarios painted by county and state officials about the industry's potential.

An offering flyer for 60 Lester Ave. lists the Great Eastern Hemp property at $2.95 million, touting a fully insulated warehouse, 61,000 square feet of space, and proximity to Binghamton University's new Health Science campus.

Lupardo blames stalled progress on a still-developing regulatory process.

New York is expected to release industry rules early next month that will, in addition to licensing growers and processors, require seller licensing in an attempt to clean up a retail market that is believed to be rife with illegitimate products.

"When you're doing something that's brand new, you learn things along the way," Lupardo said.

One small-scale hemp processing operation, Kaelen Castetter of CSG Hemp, is still moving forward.

It expects to be producing branded CBD salves, creams, tinctures and roll-ons under the name of "Empire Standard" using material from his drying facility at the former Kmart on Binghamton's North Side.

Production is contained in a converted storage trainer at the Modern Marketing Concept office in Kirkwood. Seven people will be employed by the venture.

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A Michigan man who was repeatedly stabbed in the neck during a dispute over masks that he was not part of, has died almost a month after the attack.

John Duncan III was stabbed on 14 July in a Quality Dairy store in Windsor, Michigan, by a man who refused to wear a face mask to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The Lansing State Journal reports his son as confirming that he died on Saturday.

The incident happened at approximatley 6.45am when a store employee confronted Sean Ruis of Grand Ledge about not wearing a mask in the store.

Only two days before, a mandate from Governor Gretchen Whitmer that masks must be worn in all businesses had gone into effect.

Initial reports said that Mr Duncan, who was wearing a mask, and Mr Ruis had a confrontation over masks, but Quality Dairy representatives clarified later in a Facebook post that Mr Duncan was an innocent bystander.

The assailant had been asked by a staff member to wear a mask in the store and he refused, according to the Quality Dairy statement. He then attacked the other gentleman. At no point did the injured gentleman address the assailant in any way. Contrary to some reporting, the injured man did not confront the assailant, follow him outside or even speak to him.

Mr Ruis stabbed Mr Duncan in the neck a number of times and threatened both employees and customers present in the store.

One employee locked herself in her car and called 911. Mr Ruis left the store and drove away.

Approximately thirty minutes later an Eaton County Sheriff's Department deputy had the assailant pull over in Delta Township.

Mr Ruis got out of his vehicle and approached the deputy holding two knives and a screwdriver, according to Michigan State Police.

Bodycam footage shows the weapons, which the officer ordered him to drop.

As he came closer to the deputy he tried to grab her gun and she fired multiple rounds at him.

Mr Ruis died later that day during surgery. An investigation into the death by the Michigan State Police is pending.

Governor Whitmer lamented the politicisation of mask-wearing when she addressed the stabbing of Mr Duncan in a news conference.

I cannot ever pretend that I understand someone who would become murderous over wearing a piece of cloth on your face, but what I can say is that violence is never the solution, she said.
The United States has lavished praise on Taiwan's response to the coronavirus crisis, kicking off the highest-level meetings between the two governments in decades amid intensifying geopolitical tensions with China.

The meeting between US Health Secretary Alex Azar and Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen is set to further strain relations with Beijing, which maintains Taiwan is a renegade province that belongs to China.

US Health Secretary Alex Azar, left, listens as Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen talks on Monday. Credit:AP

Azar is the highest-ranking US cabinet official to visit Taiwan since 1979 after decades of convention saw minimal official contact to appease the Chinese Communist Party. Taiwan and China split after years of civil war forced China's former government, the Kuomintang, to withdraw to Taiwan in 1949.

Azar said on Monday that he was representing the White House. "It is a true honour to be here to convey a message of strong support and friendship from President Trump to Taiwan," he said.
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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 21:59:33|Editor: huaxia

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ISTANBUL, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Russian tourists started to flock into Turkey's Mediterranean province of Antalya on Monday after four months of a break amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of 11 charter planes, carrying tourists from several Russian cities, landed at the Antalya airport, the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB) said.

"We are expecting a total of 23,000 Russian visitors to Antalya today," Firuz Baglikaya, head of the TURSAB, told Xinhua, adding that the regular daily flow of tourists from Russia is significantly increasing the morale of tourism professionals.

Baglikaya said that the travel agencies and the tourism industry in Turkey were among the sectors that suffered the most from the pandemic under the travel bans imposed to curb the fast spread of the pandemic in March.

Turkey hosted a total of 45 million tourists last year and expected a higher number for this year by hosting more Russian tourists before the pandemic erupted.

However, only 4,006 Russian travelers have visited Turkey in June, down from 1.03 million last year in the same month, according to data released by Turkey's Culture and Tourism Ministry.

"The tourist arrivals are now increasing again especially from our main markets ... offering hope for the future of the sector," Baglikaya said.

Meanwhile, strong measures have been taken in Antalya's terminal against the coronavirus, local media said, showing photos of the Russian tourists passing through thermal cameras.

Airport officials have continuously warned the tourists to obey the social distancing rule, wear masks all the time, and use hand sanitizers, which were installed in many spots at the terminal, according to press reports.

"I had a difficult time because of the pandemic. Now, I don't want to think anything, but a vacation," a Russian tourist was quoted as saying in a video aired by the NTV broadcaster.

Additionally, the Bodrum and Dalaman airports in Turkey's southwestern province of Mugla have started to welcome Russian tourists as of Monday, according to the TURSAB.

"We have been informed that 735 charter flights from Russia are planned to arrive at Dalaman Airport until the end of October," Baglikaya said, adding that a total of 1,100 Russian tourists would arrive at the airport on Monday alone.

Turkish and Russian authorities had earlier decided to resume the air travel between the two countries, a move that had prompted hope among Turkish tourism representatives for the future of the sector.

The COVID-19 cases in Turkey reached 240,804 on Sunday, with a death toll of 5,844, according to the latest official data. Enditem
Fayaz Wani By

Express News Service

SRINAGAR: The BJP OBC Morcha district president for central Kashmir Budgam Abdul Hamid Najar, who was shot at and critically injured by militants yesterday, succumbed to injuries in a Srinagar hospital on Monday morning.

Najar, who had sustained bullet injuries in the abdomen and leg, succumbed to injuries in SMHS hospital in the morning today.

Najar was critically injured after militants fired from close range towards him near his residence at Mohiendpora in Budgam at around 5.30 am yesterday while he was on the morning walk.

Najar is the second BJP worker to be killed by militants since August 4. There have been three attacks on BJP workers by militants since August 4.

A BJP panch Arif Ahmad Shah was injured in militant firing in Kulgam in south Kashmir on August 4 while on August 6, BJP sarpanch Sajjad Ahmad Khanday was gunned down by militants in Kulgam.

Last month, BJP district president Waseem Bari, his father and brother were gunned down by militants near their shop in Bandipora district.

After the targeting of BJP workers and leaders by militants in the Valley, many party workers have resigned. The party has also asked the government to provide security to its workers facing militant threat.
By PTI

SRINAGAR: Nearly a dozen BJP workers in Kashmir have resigned from the party following recent attacks on village-level leaders by militants, which prompted the party to suggest 'hostel-type' secure accommodation for its members and their families in each district in the Valley.

Worries have escalated after Abdul Hamid Najar, BJP's OBC 'morcha' district president from Budgam, died at a hospital early on Monday, a day after he was shot at in his village.

Admitting that several party workers, most of them lower-rung activists, have resigned over the last few days following the recent attacks on BJP panchayat members and sarpanches, a BJP leader said some were from Budgam district in central Kashmir.

Letters and videos of several BJP workers announcing their resignations or disassociation with the party have been posted on social media platforms.

The BJP leader said three party workers, including two panchayat members and a sarpanch from Kulgam district of south Kashmir, have resigned from the party. "There is one from Handwara, one from Kupwara and one from Sopore as well," he added.

BJP media in-charge Manzoor Bhat dismissed the resignations as of no consequence. "These all are lower rung workers. This will not affect the party," Bhat told PTI. However, he said the party has taken serious note of the attacks on its workers and has suggested that secure accommodation be created for its members and their families in all districts.

BJP Jmmu & Kashmir general secretary (organisation) Ashok Koul raised the matter with party's national president JP Nadda and the union territory's party unit now believes that something will be done to secure its members, Bhat said.

"We brought the matter to the notice of Nadda and have already sought enhanced security cover for our workers. Some of our workers from places like Kulgam are given accommodation in Srinagar but their family lives in Kulgam so they cannot remain here, Koul said.

"We have therefore sought secure accommodation for our workers in their respective districts. We believe something is being done on this and it will take shape in the coming few days," he added.

Several BJP leaders and workers have been provided security or individual secure housing but most have said they have to take care of their family as well and cannot live without them. "Also, they cannot work by living in another district. So we have suggested that to stop such killings, hostel-type accommodation, like headquarters, be created in every district to accommodate BJP workers and their families," Bhat said.

He said that the hostel-type accommodation can provide a secure environment for hundreds of workers, even from other political parties. He added that providing individual security to political workers is very difficult.

The attack on Najar followed the killings of Wasim Bari, former BJP district president of Bandipora, and his father Bashir Ahmad and brother Umar Bari last month in North Kashmir. A BJP panch was shot at and injured on August 4 while a sarpanch from the party was shot dead two days later in south Kashmir's Kulgam district.
The tax-free weekend set aside by Texas lawmakers each August to help families get ready to go back to school is traditionally a shopping frenzy. Stores promoted back-to-school deals, parents drew up lists of essentials and shoppers rushed to save 8.25 percent sales tax on school clothes, supplies and backpacks over the three-day event that many families highlighted on their calendars.

But this year, the two-decade-old holiday lacked urgency and adrenaline because many children arent returning to the classroom as the coronavirus pandemic spreads. They dont need new jeans or shoes or backpacks to sit in front of laptops all day.

Shopping this weekend around Houston felt pretty much like any other pandemic weekend with plenty of parking available and many stores able to control foot traffic without requiring patrons to wait outside. Several shoppers said they werent even aware it was tax-free weekend.

Jamie Bamba, an accountant for an oil and gas company in Houston, normally takes her seven nieces and nephews to shop for backpacks and other school supplies on tax-free weekend. But not this year because they will all be going to school from home.

With this going on with back-to-school, I didnt even bring it up, she said.

Consumers are expected to spend an average $529 on back-to-school expenses which is about 2 percent more than last year, according to a survey by the consulting firm Deloitte.

But as the virus spreads consumers are shifting their priorities, spending 10 percent less on clothes and 13 percent less on school supplies this year, according to the survey. Instead, theyre spending 38 percent more on computers and 4 percent more on electronic devices and subscriptions.

The shift is coming at a bad time for retailers already struggling with bad debt. Just in the past month several revered retailers have filed for bankruptcy protection including the department store chain Lord & Taylor, the mens clothing stores Men's Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank and womens clothing chains Ann Taylor and Lane Bryant.

Retailers are also heading into the critical back-to-school season trying to make up from lost sales from government issued stay-at-home mandates. The Salted Hippie Boutique in the historic section of League City that carries womens and childrens clothing and accessories is still trying to catch up from being closed for about six weeks this spring.

But owner Lidia Ferrufino had high hopes for tax-free weekend, a time when Texans could buy most clothing, footwear, school supplies and backpacks that cost less than $100 without paying sales tax.

I was kind of looking forward to a rush, she said. But it turned out to be no different from any other weekend over the last few weeks.

To promote social distancing, Texas expanded tax-free sales to include eligible items bought online. And cloth masks were included too this year.

Michelle Kirkland, owner of Vivian Lane designs in Dallas, was hoping to capitalize on both new developments by catering to those who dont want to go into a store just yet but also need to protect themselves.

She launched a line of handmade masks this spring after having to put her portrait photography business on pause and named the company after her grandmother who taught her how to sew. She sells every one she makes from her website online with about half the sales outside of Texas.

The biggest sellers for kids is a bold geometric black and red mask and for adults, a gold botanical in burgundy, said Kirkland. A specially designed plus-sized mask has been a surprisingly good seller, she said.

I thought there would be an uptick for back-to-school, she said.

But the shopping surge didnt come and the weekend turned out like many others.

lynn.sixel@chron.com

twitter.com/lmsixel
SAN DIEGO, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- GoSite, the platform helping small businesses transition their operations online, is excited to announce it has closed its $16 million Series A fundraising round. The capital investment comes from a diverse group of investors and entrepreneurs who believe GoSite holds a unique position to provide small businesses with the technology needed to manage their business online.

GoSite provides a platform for small businesses that traditionally operate offline, such as landscapers, hair salons and auto repair shops. With GoSite's platform, these businesses can engage with customers more effectively online not just in the digital era, but in this unprecedented time when small businesses are being asked to close their physical doors.

Customer Acquisition Momentum

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many small businesses to make difficult decisions, including whether to keep their doors open and how to safely serve their communities. Many have adopted GoSite to stay open for business online. The company has seen a 70 percent increase in new merchants joining the platform since March, proving that businesses are turning to GoSite to support them so they can continue to provide their services and keep virtual doors open for their customers.

"Small businesses are facing difficult challenges right now and nothing is more important than making sure we are doing everything possible to help them," said Alex Goode, CEO. "We want to enable businesses to continue to operate and grow online, so we create technology to make that as easy and effective as possible".

Capital Raise

The $16 million Series A round was led by San Diego's Longley Capital, and included substantial participation from Stage 2 Capital, Ankona Capital, Serra Ventures and SaaS Ventures, as well as a strong network of current and former technology entrepreneurs. GoSite is using the capital to expand its national footprint and hire talent, as well as further develop innovative products and services for small businesses.

Key New Hire, Expanding Team

An accomplished executive, Frank Auger has assumed the role of Chief Customer Officer at GoSite. He joins GoSite after a decade-long tenure at Hubspot where he ran customer success and services functions, and most recently served as Chief Information Officer. Joining GoSite at a significant moment in the company's growth, Auger brings specialized leadership to guide customer experience and expansion of the company's global footprint.

This summer, GoSite was named to Inc. Magazine's 2020 Best Places to Work list, recognized for vibrant company culture, deep employee engagement and stellar benefits  the only San Diego business in its category to make the list.

Earlier this year, GoSite broke into Comparably's coveted national rankings for both best company culture and best CEO:

GoSite  Top 50 Ranked Small/Mid-Size Companies for Best Company Culture.

Alex Goode , CEO, GoSite  Top 50 Best CEOs in Small and Midsize Companies

, CEO, GoSite  Top 50 Best CEOs in Small and Midsize Companies Alex Goode , CEO, GoSite - Top 50 Best CEOs for Diversity in Small and Midsize Companies

, CEO, GoSite - Top 50 Best CEOs for Diversity in Small and Midsize Companies Alex Goode , CEO, GoSite - Top 50 Best CEOs for Women in Small and Midsize Companies

GoSite builds creative hiring pathways to leverage local talent and support job growth in San Diego and the communities served by its customers.



Key hiring and community growth accomplishments:

Created more than 200 new jobs in 18 months at GoSite's San Diego headquarters

headquarters Powered over 6,000 small businesses on the platform with customers in every state

Sourced, developed and retained tech talent through groundbreaking creative hiring pathways, leveraging regional academic institutions

Industry-leading approach to customer service and product development is staffed to meet the evolving needs of small businesses nationwide

For more information about careers at GoSite, visit gosite.com/careers

About GoSite

GoSite is a robust digital platform for the 12 million small businesses providing local services in the U.S. The platform helps these businesses make the transition from offline to online by giving them everything they need to connect with customers in the digital era. The all-in-one, cloud-based platform and mobile app transforms the way they run their business by making it easier for their customers to attract and transact with their business online. Learn more at www.gosite.com.

CONTACT: Katie McCormick Lelyveld, 312-533-1038

SOURCE GoSite

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Donald Trump has tweeted that it 'sounds like a good idea' to put him on Mount Rushmore, after the New York Times claimed that a White House aide reached out to the governor of South Dakota to discuss the plan.

The president, who has long floated the idea, denied on Sunday evening that he had ever requested having himself added to the monument.

But, he said, it was a fine idea, given his accomplishments.

'This is Fake News by the failing @nytimes & bad ratings @cnn,' he tweeted, in response to the article.

'Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me!'

Donald Trump, pictured at Mount Rushmore on July 4, has long mused about adding himself

On Sunday evening he tweeted that he supported the idea of adding him to the monument

The request by the White House aide was made last year, a Republican official told The New York Times.

The White House, asked about the request, did not deny that it had taken place, and instead replied that it was a federal, not state, monument.

Trump first raised the prospect of having his face carved on the historic site soon after he took office, in January 2017.

Kristi Noem, who at the time was a Congresswoman representing South Dakota, said he mentioned the idea during that first meeting.

'He said: "Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand,"' Noem recalled.

'I shook his hand, and I said: "Mr President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore."

'And he goes: "Do you know it's my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?" '

The July 4 rally was a triumph for Governor Kristi Noem, who had long lobbied for him to visit

Noem said she thought he was joking.

'I started laughing,' she said. 'He wasn't laughing, so he was totally serious.'

Later that year, Trump raised it again - this time in public, at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, in July.

'I'd ask whether or not you think I will someday be on Mount Rushmore, but here's the problem: If I did it joking, totally joking, having fun, the fake news media will say 'he believes he should be on Mount Rushmore,' he said.

'So I won't say it, OK? I won't say it.'

Maureen McGee-Ballinger, public information officer at Mount Rushmore, told The Argus Leader that workers are asked daily whether any president can be added.

For years, people have suggested Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, among others. A website has been set up advocating for Obama.

McGee-Ballinger said it was impossible.

'There is no more carvable space up on the sculpture,' she said.

Trump watches as jets perform a fly over to celebrate July 4 in South Dakota

Maureen McGee-Ballinger, Mount Rushmore spokesman, said there is no more carvable space

'When you are looking on the sculpture, it appears there might be some space on the left next to Washington or right next to Lincoln.

'You are either looking at the rock that is beyond the sculpture (on the right), which is an optical illusion, or on the left, that is not carvable.'

Mount Rushmore was started in 1927, and never completed. Work ended with the death of sculptor Gutzon Borglum in 1941.

Noem, who in 2018 was elected the first female governor of South Dakota, had long hoped that Trump would visit her state for the July 4 fireworks at the site.

When he did, this year, she presented him with a four-foot replica of the site, which included his image carved alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

Noem was rewarded for her efforts with a trip on Air Force One after the July 4 event.

The attention, however, led to rumors that the 48-year-old had her eye on Mike Pence's job as vice president.

Noem addressed the crowds at the July 4 rally, praising the president for the job he was doing

Noem, 48, is a rising star in the Republican party and is rumored to be after a cabinet role

Three weeks later Noem flew to Washington DC to meet with Pence and, the paper reported, reassure him that she was not interested in his job.

There is no suggestion that Trump is looking to replace him.

Yet Noem is seen as a rising star in the Republican party.

The governor has installed a TV studio in her state capitol, become a Fox News regular and started taking advice from Trump's former 2016 campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who still has the president's ear.

Next month, she'll address a county Republican dinner in Iowa.

'There seems like there might be some interest on her part  it certainly gets noticed,' Jon Hansen, a Republican state representative in South Dakota, said of Noem's positioning for national office.

Lewandowski said Noem was a star who 'has a huge future in Republican politics.'
Spaulding Youth Center students participate in equine therapy programs. Spaulding is honored to receive this grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, said Susan C. Ryan, President & CEO of Spaulding Youth Center. These programs give our students the chance to participate in a fun activity while creating positive therapeutic outcomes."

Spaulding Youth Center is excited to announce it has received a $15,000.00 grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. This grant was funded by gifts from the Charitable Foundations Daisy Hale Fund. The grant will directly support Spauldings equine therapy programs.

Horseback riding and horsemanship serve as a unique and effective form of therapy for Spaulding children and youth facing behavioral, emotional and physical challenges. Children create an emotional bond with the horses and participating in this activity encourages them to build social skills and confidence in a positive atmosphere. Spaldings board-certified behavioral analysts (BCBAs) use Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) to develop and monitor plans for each student to build structure, set goals and promote skill acquisition based on their individual needs and abilities. The grant funding will cover the costs associated with transportation, instruction and materials. Historically, Spaulding students have received programming from both Back in the Saddle Equine Therapy Center (BITS ETC) and Lakes Region Riding Academy, and Spaulding intends to continue both collaborations.

Located in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, BITS ETC is a 501(c)3 non-profit that offers therapeutic riding and equine-assisted activities for people living with disabilities in central New Hampshire. BITS ETC was the first facility in the Northeast to be licensed by SpiritHorse International to offer its award-winning curriculum of special use for riders on the autism spectrum.

Lakes Region Riding Academy, located in Gilford, New Hampshire, is home to Spauldings Healing with Horses program. The program provides residential students the opportunity to experience horseback riding in an intimate, calming setting. Students receive personal lessons from founder Julie Lawrence once a week for a four-week session and learn about the care and maintenance of horses.

Spaulding is honored to receive this grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, said Susan C. Ryan, President & CEO of Spaulding Youth Center. The funds directly support our participation in equine therapy programs in partnership with BITS ETC and Lakes Region Riding Academy. These programs give our students the chance to participate in a fun activity while creating positive therapeutic outcomes. We thank the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation for continuing to support our mission.

Visit https://www.nhcf.org/ to learn more about the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

ABOUT SPAULDING YOUTH CENTER

Spaulding Youth Center is a leading provider of services for children and youth with neurological, emotional, behavioral, learning and/or developmental challenges, including Autism Spectrum Disorder and those who have experienced significant trauma, abuse or neglect. Services include academic, residential, clinical, community based, foster care, and family support. Established in 1871 and known as Spaulding Youth Center since 1958, our scenic hilltop campus is located on nearly 500 acres in Northfield, NH and welcomes boys and girls from ages 4 to 21 from around the state of New Hampshire and beyond. Spaulding Youth Center is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit. For information about Spaulding Youth Center, visit http://www.SpauldingYouthCenter.org.

ABOUT THE NEW HAMPSHIRE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION

The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation is New Hampshires statewide community foundation, founded in 1962 by and for the people of New Hampshire. The Foundation manages a growing collection of nearly 2,000 funds created by generous individuals, families and businesses, and awards nearly $40 million in grants and more than $6 million in scholarships every year. The Foundation works with generous and visionary citizens to maximize the power of their giving, supports great work happening in our communities and leads and collaborates on high-impact initiatives. For more information, please visit http://www.nhcf.org or call 603-225-6641.


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A maskless woman was filmed falsely telling a grocery store worker she could be prosecuted for telling customers to wear masks - insisting that she was from an organization called the Freedom to Breathe Agency.

The now-viral video shows the woman claiming shes from the 'agency', which she says protects people's constitutional rights and makes sure civil and federal laws are not broken.

It happened on Friday afternoon in Orange County, when supervisor Liz Chavez, 31, confronted two women without masks.

They refused, and identified themselves as being from the FTBA and handed Chavez a piece of paper saying she could be sued.

You personally need to take this to your manager because you personally can be sued for this, OK?, one of the women says.

You are putting yourself into major legal liability  you personally.

The document stated she could go to prison for up to five years and could be fined up to $10,000.

The video has since been viewed more than one million times on social media.

The Freedom to Breathe Agency is - unsurprisingly - not a real government agency, and appears to exist solely as a private Facebook group.

Chavez told BuzzFeed she thinks the woman wanted a confrontation: I just want to say people really need to be nice to these grocery workers, we work our butts off during this pandemic. Just give us a little break, its just our store policies, were following the rules. We dont need to be attacked every day.

Story continues

The FTBA came under scrutiny earlier this year, distributing fraudulent face mask exemption cards.

The Department of Justice said in a statement that the cards were not issued or endorsed by the government.

Do not be fooled by the chicanery and misappropriation of the DOJ eagle, said US Attorney Matthew GT Martin in a statement.

Read more

Do face masks stop the spread of coronavirus?

Why face masks with valves are being banned

Are face masks with ear loops less safe than other models?

Bella Hadid gives middle finger to NYPD for not wearing face masks
How to Prevent and Fix "Maskne"

Maskne Is the Result of 2021's Must-Have Accessory

The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service.

When 2020 got off to its start, who would have thought that the hottest (and in some cases mandatory) new accessory would be face coverings?

Well, here we are still, in 2021, living our new normal with new issues, especially when it comes to prolonged mask use. If your skin has felt more irritated, you've noticed clogging pores, you have redness and inflamed skin, or just generally lost its glow, theres good reason for that. Its called maskne and theres real science behind why skin reacts the way it does when covered by fabric for long periods of time.

What Is Maskne?

Simply put, mask breakouts and mask induced acne, or maskne  the new shorthand for acne resulting from wearing a face mask (mask acne)  is the result of skin irritation when the hair follicles on your face get clogged by oil, dead skin cells, makeup, dirt, and bacteria. It used to be a problem primarily dealt with by athletes who wore helmets, pads, and straps, but now has transferred to those who get similar friction from a face mask.

RELATED: Designers Are Making Face Masks for You and Frontline Workers

Ive seen a large surge in mask-related skin complaints recently, including itching, irritation, rashes, and facial acne, says Dr. Y. Claire Chang, board-certified cosmetic dermatologist at Union Square Laser Dermatology in New York City.

Heat, sweat, and moisture build up under the mask, which further aggravates those clogged pores and creates ideal conditions for bacteria growth. The pores become inflamed and you get a classic case of acne mechanica  a pimple, whiteheads, blackheads, and general inflammation in the nose, cheeks, and perioral areas.

How to Prevent Maskne Breakouts

The first place to start in the battle against maskne and its resulting skin problem is with the fabric of your reusable mask or disposable mask. Advanced facial aesthetician Dr. Tara Francis suggests a fabric mask such as a linen cloth mask, 100% cotton mask, or even a silk mask for those with an acne-prone or particularly sensitive skin type. Synthetics such as polyester and nylon are less breathable, therefore harboring greater potential for facial irritation.

Also, if youre going the reusable mask route, wash your every mask regularly.

Wash once per day using a hypoallergenic detergent at 140-degree F heat or higher, Francis says. Storing your clean mask hygienically and safely is just as important.

I always say prevention is the best treatment, Chang adds.

Using a gentle cleanser or a simple salicylic acid cleanser to wash away excess sweat, dirt, and bacteria is crucial to limiting potential for the irritation that leads to acne breakouts. Chang notes to stay away from harsh scrubs or physical exfoliation which can strip your otherwise healthy skin of its natural protective oils and cause further irritation.

When you do choose to exfoliate, opting for a gentle exfoliation provided by salicylic acid or glycolic acid will help rid skin of dead skin cells without stripping, leaving behind healthy skin. Following up with a moisturizer helps repair the skin barrier, while providing a protective barrier to reduce friction.

If youre in a safe place to do so, removing your mask for 10 to 15 minutes every few hours can help let your skin breathe and slow down some of the aggravation as well.

How to Treat Maskne Breakouts

The best maskne treatment is prevention, but if youve tried these steps and have particularly oily skin or you are still finding pesky acne, its time to consider stronger options.

Chang says that a benzoyl peroxide cleanser once or twice a day can treat acne by reducing inflammation and fighting acne causing bacteria. Something like Differin Daily Deep Cleanser is an over-the-counter acne treatment that delivers 5% benzoyl peroxide, which is just as effective as 10% maximum-strength benzoyl peroxide, but with less irritation and dryness.

If youre finding just one or two breakouts, a spot treatment might be your best bet. ZitStickas Killa and Hyperfade patches are small patches that adhere directly to the specific acne spot and have been shown to reduce the actual breakout and the subsequent scarring within 12 to 24 hours. These little spot treatment patches are perfect to wear under a mask for hours, since you know they'll be hidden away.

Of course, maskne treatment follows many of the same rules as general acne treatment. What works for one person may not work for another and everyones face has a different tolerance to both natural and synthetic products. It's always best to have a chat with your dermatologist when addressing new skin problems or changing up your skincare routine. (Don't have a dermatologist? This is a great resource to help you find one.)

Skincare Products to Help Control Maskne

Incorporating a few specific products into a limited daily regimen can help keep masknes progression at bay and help control the issues that come with regular mask wear.

Herbivore Blue Tansy Invisible Pores Mask

Herbivore pore perfecting natural face mask is made for oily skin and acne prone skin. By using fruit enzymes, blue tansy essential oil, hyaluronic acid, and aloe, it is specifically formulated to unclog pores, reduce excess oil, and soothe skin without drying skin out.

$48 at Amazon.com

Differin Daily Deep Cleanser with Benzoyl Peroxide

You may have heard of Differin as the unofficial acne experts known for the prescription retinoid that really shows acne who's boss (and can leave behind some really dry skin) but now, not only is the cream available over-the-counter in retinol form, there are complementary products to pair with it as well. (Kind of like Proactiv, but with prescription strength retinol.) This is a more traditional approach to daily skin care using benzoyl peroxide to bust up a blemish  or a few.

$10.44 at Amazon.com

ACURE Incredibly Clear Mattifying Moisturizer

A readily-available, natural option thats free from a variety of harsh chemicals and focused on general moisturizing day and night, ACURE is a vegan and cruelty-free solution ideal for oily skin or for those dealing with an inflammation or skin condition resulting from face masks.

$16.99 at Amazon.com

So if maskne is your major skin issue, or you found yourself dealing with acne before masks were a part of our culture, these tips and products will get your skin acclimated to this new normal we are all trying to figure out as we go. It's just takes patience, practice, and of course, wearing your mask.

You Might Also Dig:

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Jaipur, Aug 10 : Political circles in Rajasthan were on Monday agog with talks of a likely resolution to the crisis arising out of rebellion by Congress MLAs owing allegiance to Sachin Pilot. Congress sources claimed that the Pilot camp lawmakers will meet Rajya Sabha MP KC Venugopal during the day and even meet with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi thereafter.

The Congress sources said that veteran party leader Ahmed Patel had pitched in to resolve the issue that had threatened the survival of the Ashok Gehlot government after the Pilot camp raised a banner of revolt over the state leadership.

The Congress had sacked Pilot as Deputy Chief Minister and the Rajasthan Congress President. So far, Gehlot has stayed put in the CM chair amid claims and counter-claims on attempts to poach MLAs.

On Sunday night, a Congress Legislature Party meeting was held in a Jaisalmer hotel, where MLAs from the Gehlot camp are lodged. In this meeting, they held mixed views on taking back the rebels into the party fold.

While a few MLAs suggested that the rebel camp leader should be taken back in view of the "wafer-thin margin" of the Gehlot government over the opposition in the Assembly, others were not ready to budge and were not in favour of taking back the Pilot followers.

Meanwhile, the Gehlot camp in Jaisalmer is keeping a wary eye on any development in Delhi vis-a-vis the proposed meeting.

A senior Congress worker confirmed to IANS that a few Ministers from Rajasthan had hints to the meeting and that the views of party MLAs were sought ahead of the scheduled meeting on reinducting Pilot and his loyalist MLAs.
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Linkedin Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 10 2020

President Joko Jokowi Widodo will not appeal a Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN) ruling that annuls his approval to the dismissal of General Elections Commission (KPU) commissioner Evi Novida Ginting Malik.

Presidential expert staff member Dini Shanti Purwono said Jokowi respected the ruling and would follow up on it.

The President will issue another decree to revoke a decree stipulating Evi Novidas dismissal as a KPU commissioner, Dini said on Friday.

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Face coverings are mandatory in shops from Monday - we answer some of the questions around the new regulation.

Q. What do the rules say?

A. From Monday, the use of face coverings in certain indoor settings, such as shops or shopping centres, will be mandatory.

Q. Will I be fined or punished if I don't comply?

A. In theory yes, in practice it is highly unlikely. It is unclear who - if anyone - will enforce the new regulations.

The Department of Health said breaches "could attract a fixed penalty notice of 60 (reduced to 30 if paid within 14 days)". But the PSNI has said its officers will not enforce the wearing of masks, but will "engage, explain and encourage people to make the right choices".

Wearing a face covering has been mandatory on public transport for almost a month, but no fines have been issued. It is unclear if the PSNI has even spoken to anyone about non-compliance.

Retail unions have said their members will not enforce the rule. Major retailers in England and Scotland have not challenged shoppers either.

Q. What should I do when I see people not wearing face coverings?

A. Nothing. Official guidance urges shoppers not to challenge anyone who does not cover up. It states: "It is important that we all respect one another and remember that the reasons for not wearing a face covering may not always be visible."

Q. Who does not have to wear a face mask?

A. Exemptions include if you are under the age of 13, if you are an employee of the shop or shopping centre, temporarily if a member of staff or employee or a police officer asks you to remove it to check your identity, if you have a reasonable excuse not to.

Q. What is a reasonable excuse?

A. Guidelines outline a range of circumstances where people may have a 'reasonable excuse' not to wear a face covering in a shop or shopping centre, such as if it is distressing or you have a relevant medical condition.

These include:

To seek medical assistance or to provide care to someone who needs assistance

To avoid injury, illness or escape from harm

If you have a physical or mental illness or impairment, or a disability that means you cannot put on, wear or remove a face covering

If putting on, wearing or removing a face covering would cause you severe distress

If travelling with, or providing assistance to, someone who relies on lip reading to communicate

If you need to remove it to avoid harm or injury or the risk of harm or injury to yourself or others

To eat, drink, or take medication

If you are asked to remove your face covering by a police officer or other official.

Q. What if I cannot wear a face covering?

A. There is no need to get a letter from a doctor or the government to show that you do not need to wear a face covering.

If you have a condition which means you cannot wear a face covering you only need to say, if asked, that you cannot wear a face covering because you are exempt.

Q. Where should I wear a face covering?

A. From Monday, it is mandatory to wear a face covering in "a relevant place", which the Department of Health defines as generally meaning "a shop or shopping centre".

It adds "As well as ordinary day to day shopping for items such as clothes, food or electrical goods, a face covering is required in any other indoor place where goods or services are available to buy or rent. This includes, for example, a bookmakers, a food takeaway business or a dry cleaner."

Q. Where do I not need to wear a face covering?

A. It is not mandatory to wear a face covering in a business that is able to maintain social distancing by using a system of ticketing or appointments. This might include, for example, a cinema, a hairdresser or a solicitor's office. You do not have to wear a face covering in a bank or a business that operates like a bank. The guidance accepts there are circumstances where it is not possible to wear a face covering. These include:
Lebanons prime minister has announced his governments resignation after widespread public anger at the devastating Beirut port explosion.

The decision by Hassan Diab follows a weekend of anti-government protests that saw clashes with security forces firing tear gas at protesters.

In a televised address on Monday evening, Mr Diab blamed systemic corruption for the blast that killed at least 163 people and injured about 6,000 others.

According to some reports quoting Beirut city governor Marwan Abboud, at least 210 people have died and 110 are still missing.

The explosion is believed to have been caused by a warehouse fire that ignited a massive pile of ammonium nitrate stored in the port since 2013.

Mr Diab, who was a university professor at the American University of Beirut before he took the job, directed his anger at the countrys political parties and politicians who preceded him, accusing them of hiding the dangerous stockpile for seven years.

Recommended How Beirut firefighters were left to tackle port blasts blind





"I declare today the resignation of this government. May God protect Lebanon," he said repeating the last phrase three times.

They [the political class] should have been ashamed of themselves because their corruption is what has led to this disaster that had been hidden for seven years, he added.



In the brief televised speech, he said he is taking "a step back" so he can stand with the people "and fight the battle for change alongside them".



"I have discovered that corruption is bigger than the state and that the state is paralysed by this [ruling] clique and cannot confront if or get rid of it."

Local media later reported that he arrived at the presidential palace to formally submit his resignation to President Michel Aoun.



Under Lebanese law, Mr Aoun will call for mandatory consultations with parliament to name a new prime minister, in the interim the current government will be resigned to caretaker status until a new one is formed.





Lebanons beleaguered government had faced mounting pressure from angry citizens to step down after it emerged the explosion was caused by a fire igniting a 2,750-tonne poorly-stored stockpile of explosive ammonium nitrate that the authorities knew about.

The fury has only mounted as the government has been accused of doing little to help the 300,000 people who were made homeless or whose businesses and livelihoods were destroyed.



Although there were mounting calls for resignation, Mr Diab seemed unwilling to leave office and only two days ago made a televised speech in which he offered to stay on for two months to allow for various factions to agree on a roadmap for reforms. But the pressure from within his own Cabinet proved to be too much; over the last 24-hours three ministers had already resigned.

Beiruts streets have been rocked by protests over the last two days, as demonstrators and members of the security forces have clashed outside parliament as well as several ministries citizens tried to occupy.

The explosion, centred at Beirut port, is believed to be one of the single largest non-nuclear blasts in modern history. Losses from the blast are estimated to be between $10bn to $15bn.



In Tripoli, Lebanon's impoverished second city, local media reported that people celebrated Mr Diab's announcement by firing in the air.



Mr Diab's government was formed after his predecessor, Saad Hariri, stepped down in October in response to nationwide protests amid a rapidly escalating financial crisis. It took months of bickering among the leadership factions before they settled on Mr Diab. His government, which was supported by Hezbollah and its allies was widely seen as one-sided.



Public works minister Michel Najjar, said: "I hope that the caretaking period will not be long because the country cannot take that. Lets hope a new government will be formed quickly. An effective government is the least we need to get out of this crisis."



Additional reporting from agencies
Star Trek Beyond (Credit: Paramount)

The planned reboot of the Star Trek movie franchise is said to have been shifted to the back burner, according to reports.

Both Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter cite sources at the Paramount Studio revealing that a proposed movie from Noah Hawley, the creator of the Fargo TV series, has been paused.

Read more: Chris Pine in line for The Saint reboot

It's said that among the reasons for the delay is that the plot Hawley was working on pivoted on a universe-ravaging virus, which may not sit well given the current global pandemic.

It's also said that due to the pause in development, Hawley could be lost as the project's director.

Noah Hawley (Credit: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

The project was not the only potential avenue for the iconic sci-fi property.

It was reported back in 2017 that Quentin Tarantino was working with Mark L. Smith, writer of The Revenant, on a one-off movie.

Reportedly, it was based on episode of the original series which played out on an Earth-like planet in a 20s-eque gangster setting.

Another option for the franchise was thought to be reuniting the cast from the J.J. Abrams-created franchise, with Chris Pine as James T. Kirk, and a potential Chris Hemsworth returning to play Kirk's father.

Read more: Sir Ian McKellen treats Sir Patrick Stewart to birthday sonnet

However, such a project would have to reckon with the tragic loss of Anton Yelchin, who played Pavel Chekov in the Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond, but who died in 2016.

Hawley hinted that he would have been bringing in a brand new cast rather than re-use the cast of Abrams' movies.

The TV iteration of the show appears to be in better health, however, with Star Trek: Discovery emerging in 2017, and Star Trek: Picard seeing Sir Patrick Stewart returning to reprise his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, airing earlier this year.

A second season is expected to start filming soon, once coronavirus restrictions have been lifted in California, with a release plotted for late 2020 or early 2021.
Businesses that have business interruption insurance should also be able to recover lost income resulting from the inability to operate, though only about 40% of businesses have that coverage, according to the association. Unlike the big court battles brewing over coverage of income losses due to COVID-19, insurers are unlikely to reject claims related to looting as long as it results from physical damage to property.
General view of Blenheim Drive in Newtownards, Co. Down, where a number of shots were fired at a property late on Sunday night. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye

Police are investigating after shots were fired at a home in Newtownards.

It happened on Blenheim Drive in the Westwinds area on Sunday at around 11.30pm.

It was reported that a number of shots were fired through the front door of the house.

Police said there were no injuries and enquiries are continuing to establish the circumstances surrounding this incident.

Detectives appealed to anyone who witnessed anything suspicious in the area at the time of the incident, to contact them in Bangor on 101 quoting reference number 2558 09/08/20.

Alternatively, information can also be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 anonymously.

You can also submit a report online using our non-emergency reporting form via http://www.psni.police.uk/makeareport/
WASHINGTON (AP)  Joe Bidens controversial remarks about race this week risk alienating young Black voters who despise President Donald Trump but are not inspired by his Democratic rival.

When pressed by Errol Barnett of CBS News on whether hed taken a cognitive test, Biden responded that the question was akin to asking the Black reporter if he would take a drug test to see if youre taking cocaine or not?  Are you a junkie?

In a later interview with National Public Radios Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Biden seemed to draw distinctions between Black and Hispanic populations in the U.S. Unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things, he told the Latina reporter.

Full Coverage: Election 2020

He later walked back the comment.

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Black voters as a whole delivered the Democratic nomination to Biden, powering his commanding win in the South Carolina primary, which rescued his floundering campaign. But that success was heavily dependent on older Black voters. In a general election where Democrats say no vote can be taken for granted, young Black activists and elected officials say this weeks missteps could make it harder to get their vote.

Trump is terrible, and hes a racist, and we have to get racists out of the White House. But then Biden keeps saying racist things, said Mariah Parker, a 28-year-old county commissioner in Athens, Georgia. It doesnt make me feel much better that we actually will have an improvement for the Black community with one president over the other.

Most Black voters view Trump as someone who exacerbates racial tensions and are unlikely to support his campaign in large numbers. But those who sit out the presidential election could sway the outcome in closely contested states.

AP VoteCast data illustrates the generational divide Biden is confronting.

Across 17 states where AP VoteCast surveyed Democratic voters during the primary, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won 60% of voters under 30 overall, to Bidens 19%. And while Biden was strongly supported by African American voters overall, Black voters under age 30 were slightly more likely to support Sanders than Biden, 44% to 38%.

A Washington Post-Ipsos poll conducted in June suggested that while Biden had majority support among Black voters aged 18-39, there was skepticism about Biden himself. Among Black Americans under age 40 that were polled, 32% said they didnt feel he was sympathetic to the problems of Black people. And 24% of respondents under 40 said they felt Biden is biased against Black people, in contrast to much lower percentages for middle-aged and senior respondents.

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Part of the challenge for Biden, said activist Kristin Fulwylie Thomas, is the perception among young Black voters that hes too moderate to deliver on issues that are important to them. The 31-year-old managing director of Equal Ground, an Orlando-based group working to boost turnout among Black voters across Florida, said she hears this concern from voters across the state.

What Im seeing and what Im hearing among young black voters is that Biden was not their first choice, so folks are not excited to vote for him this November, she said.

Every gaffe makes it harder for Biden to generate that excitement.

Michigan State Rep. Jewell Jones, 25, said that hes seen a number of Bidens comments on Black voters, along with his past support for the 1994 crime bill that contributed to mass incarceration of Black Americans, pop up on social media and raise questions among his peers.

Young people are really holding people accountable these days, he said. Anything that comes up that they think is questionable, theyll challenge.

Jones said the issue with young Black voters is not necessarily skepticism about whether or not hes able to do the job.

Young people today want to know, are politicians hearts in the right place? he said.

The Biden campaign says theyre working hard to reach out to young Black voters, and point to events hosted by their young voter outreach coalition, League 46, as well as outreach geared specifically towards historically Black colleges and universities and Black sororities.

Pennsylvania State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, who is 30, pointed to Bidens clarification as a key difference between the former vice president and Trump.

Its such a contrast to actually have a leader, and hopefully a president, thats going to hold himself to a high standard, he said.

Kenyatta, who has endorsed Biden, said hes spoken to the former vice president about issues affecting young people and that his ability to listen and understand that, and then put forward policy that addresses those concerns is going to be pivotal to us.

Indeed, Biden has put out proposals focused on Black economic mobility, which include pledges to steer federal money and tax credits to small business and economic development programs for minority-owned firms and disadvantaged neighborhoods.

On criminal justice reform, hes called for a federal ban on police choke holds, national standards for police use of force, and a new federal police oversight commission. Hes also embraced proposals to forgive some student loan debt and offer some free college.

But on a number of key issues being pushed by some young Black activists  like defunding or dismantling police forces, Medicare for All, and legalizing marijuana  Biden has thus far declined to embrace the most progressive policies.

Some of the enthusiasm gap has to do with a generational split on voting within the Black community that has little to do with Biden, said Leah Daughtry, a Black operative who has twice served as CEO of the Democratic National Convention.

For my generation and older, voting was this thing that was this great privilege because we didnt always have it, she said, noting that at 55, she was part of the first generation of Black women to get the right to vote. For younger Black Americans, they dont have the lived experience of not being able to.

Daughtry said that she was willing to give Biden a pass on his comments after listening to the full interview, but young voters might not be so forgiving.

For young people  when they see the one quote it would appear to confirm to them, or solidify questions in their mind about the vice presidents intent and goals, she said. And the best we can hope for is they will do further research. At worst you have some who will say it adds to their reasons for disillusionment.
The Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak this week, as the Earth passes through debris left behind by comet Swift-Tuttle.

The shower actually started in mid-July but won't reach its full illumination until the Earth passes through the bulk of the debris between August 11 and August 13.

The event is one of the high points in the celestial calendar, particularly for the northern hemisphere with up to 100 shooting stars an hour filling the sky

The meteors, mostly no bigger than a grain of sand, burn up as they hit the atmosphere at 36 miles per second to produce a streak of light.

A long exposure shows stars behind a tree during the annual Perseid meteor shower near the town of Mitzpe Ramon, Israel

The meteors are known as the Perseids because they seem to dart out of the constellation Perseus, and can be seen with the naked eye anywhere in the world.

If skies are clear, the Perseid meteor shower should be visible across the UK from around midnight until 5.30BST, according to Royal Museums Greenwich.

The celestial show will be visible both north and south of the equator, although those in mid-northern latitudes will be treated to the best views.

This means the United States, Europe, and Canada will be able to see the Perseids at their best, according to astronomers.

Stellar views of the meteor shower will also be visible from Mexico and Central America, Asia, much of Africa, and parts of South America.

The Royal Museums Greenwich recommends checking the forecast before setting off as there is rain and thunderstorms predicted for much of the UK this week.

You will be able to see the shower anywhere the skies are clear, but there are places you can get a better view by avoiding moonlight or street lighting.

The meteors are called Perseids because they seem to dart out of the constellation Perseus and can be seen with the human eye anywhere in the world

'Reduce the amount of light pollution in your field of view,' the museums said.

'This could mean heading out to the countryside, a nearby park or even do something as simple as turning your back to street lamps if you are not able to go anywhere,' they wrote.

Astronomers recommend giving your eyes at least 15 minutes to adjust to the dark to catch more of the fainter meteors - and don't look at your phone.

NASA advises against telescopes or binoculars because the naked eye is sufficient.

Meteors can generally be seen all across the whole sky, so there's no need to look in any particular direction.

Stunning nature in action: A meteor of the Perseids meteor shower burns up in the atmosphere behind a huge statue of a bison near the village of Petkovichi, Belarus, 12 August 2019

When asked about the best way to view the Perseids meteor shower, Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office said: 'All you've got to do is go outside, find a nice dark spot, lie flat on your back and look up.

'You don't want binoculars. You don't want a telescope. You just use your eyes.'

Those who want to capture the celestial event with a camera should use a tripod to ensure their image is not blurred.

For the best results, take a long-exposure shot, lasting from a few seconds to a minute and keep the camera stable.

NASA's Bill Cooke warns against setting the exposure any longer than that, otherwise you'll pick-up the rotation of the stars, which could block out streaks from meteors.
Covid-19 is on the rise in Spain, France, Britain, and Germany, as Europe braces itself for a potential second wave of viral infections.

As the number of Covid-19 cases is approaching 20m worldwide with 750,000 deaths, some European countries have witnessed a resurgence in viral outbreaks in recent weeks.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has confirmed rising infection rates in Belgium, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom but said that death rates remain stable.

Elsewhere the number of Covid-19 cases hit 5m in the US over the weekend and is continuing to rise in South America, Russia and India.

The UK is close to surpassing Spain for number of Covid-19 cases in Europe

The recent Covid-19 outbreaks in the midlands, which have resulted in local restrictions being put in place in Kildare, Laois, and Offaly, have resulted in Ireland now having a higher 14-day incidence rate than the UK.

Data published by the John Hopkins University, however, shows that the UK has the highest Covid-19 death toll in Europe at 46,000 deaths and that case numbers are continuing to rise there as well as in Spain, France, and Germany.

In the UK, 6,265 new cases and 373 deaths were confirmed in the past week and the UK is close to surpassing Spain for the highest number of cases in Europe at 313,000.

In Spain close to 26,000 new infections were confirmed in the past week, bringing total cases to 314,000 to date. The Catalonia region in the north of the country is worst affected by current outbreaks and remains in lockdown.

France is also experiencing a rise in Covid-19 outbreaks, with just over 10,000 cases confirmed in the past week. To date, 235,000 cases and 30,000 deaths have been recorded in France since the beginning of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the green list of countries is expected to be reviewed next week. Estonia, Finland, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and the Slovak Republic, are currently on the list and travellers are not required to restrict their movements on returning to Ireland. Cyprus and Malta were removed from the green list last week .
A Xiaomi Mi 10i device has been spotted in MIUI 12 code that could indicate a new release is on the cards for the Indian market. Its possible that the mystery Mi 10i smartphone will actually end up being a rebranded Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite, which was released in April of this year for other markets.

Working For Notebookcheck Are you a techie who knows how to write? Then join our Team! English native speakers welcome! News Writer (AUS/NZL based) - Details here

Unsurprisingly, the MIUI 12 code has been dissected and there has been an interesting spot, as shared by the_tech_guy on Twitter. In code relating to the camera app, there is mention of the identifying stamp shot on Mi 10i. A codename is also associated with this potential Xiaomi Mi 10i: tocoin. As toco is the codename given for the Mi Note 10 Lite then it seems logical to presume that the in part of tocoin refers to India.

If a Xiaomi Mi 10i is a rebranded Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite then shoppers in India will be treated to an impressive device that only cuts a few corners off the budget upper-class Mi Note 10. The Lite version of this particular Xiaomi smartphone comes with a quad-camera setup featuring a 64 MP main sensor and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G.

However, there is always the possibility that Xiaomi will simply not launch any Mi 10i device, which would not necessarily be a bad thing considering how convoluted the OEMs lineup is becoming, especially with more releases coming very soon. But that hasnt stopped some having a guess at how much a Xiaomi Mi 10i would cost for the Indian market, with mention of 24,000 (US$320) being a possible price point. The Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite can currently be picked up from 249 (US$325) for the 6 GB + 64 GB model.
Former Bachelor contestant Bill Goldsmith has made sexist comments about Bachelor in Paradise star Alisha Aitken-Radburn.

Alisha, 26, declared her love for Glenn Smith, 32, during Sunday night's finale of Paradise, which was filmed in December - but it's believed they subsequently split and 'hooked up' with other people, before deciding to get back together.

Taking to Instagram on Sunday, Bill shared a Daily Mail Australia article about the pair's brief break, and wrote: '"Hooked up" @DailyMailAU you are being too kind.'

Controversial: Former Bachelor contestant Bill Goldsmith (pictured) has made sexist comments about Bachelor in Paradise star Alisha Aitken-Radburn

'Wait until you hear the full details hahaha,' he added, alongside the squirting water and eggplant emojis and the hashtag #SheWasThirsty.

Interestingly, Bill made no mention of the fact that Glenn had also hooked up with Helena Sauzier during his break from dating Alisha.

During Friday's episode of the So Dramatic! podcast, the host revealed that Glenn and Alisha had called it quits shortly after leaving Fiji and during this time they both 'hooked up' with different people.

Yuck: Taking to Instagram on Sunday, Bill shared a Daily Mail Australia article about Alisha and Glenn Smith's brief split after filming Paradise, and wrote: '"Hooked up" @DailyMailAU you are being too kind. Wait until you hear the full details hahaha'

'Glenn was at a bucks party in Perth, and met up with Helena at a club and they ended up kissing a couple of times that night,' she said.

Alisha then 'hooked up' with another Bachelor in Paradise star, Scott Fuller, before she and Glenn 'called it even' and reconciled.

'They managed to patch things up,' the podcast host said. 'They're back together now and stronger than ever.'

Drama: During Friday's episode of the So Dramatic! podcast, the host revealed that Glenn and Alisha had called it quits shortly after leaving Fiji and both 'hooked up' with different people. They later reconciled are now happily living together in Perth

During Sunday's finale of Bachelor in Paradise, Alisha and Glenn declared their love for one another and officially became boyfriend and girlfriend.

In a video shared to the show's Instagram account, the pair confirmed that they were not only still dating nine months later, but were also living together.

Alisha revealed she had moved to Perth to be with her partner, and that the couple were sharing a house with Glenn's twin brother, Neil, and his boyfriend, Marty.
Imperial Valley News Center

American Darknet Vendor and Costa Rican Pharmacist Charged with Narcotics and Money Laundering Violations

Washington, DC - A dual U.S.-Costa Rican citizen and a Costa Rican citizen, both of whom reside in Costa Rica, were indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia for their illegal sales of opioids on the darknet.

The seven-count indictment charged David Brian Pate, 44, a U.S. and Costa Rican citizen, and Jose Luis Fung Hou, 38, a Costa Rican citizen, with counts of conspiring with persons to distribute controlled substances, distribution of controlled substances, conspiring with persons to import controlled substances, conspiring to launder money, and laundering of monetary instruments.

As alleged in the indictment, the defendants helped fuel our deadly opioid drug epidemic by hiding behind the darknet and cryptocurrency to profit from the sale of illicit opioids into the United States, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Departments Criminal Division. Fortunately, by working with our law enforcement partners across the United States and overseas, we were able to uncover this darknet opioid market and bring to justice those responsible.

These charges are a warning to drug traffickers worldwide that neither the shroud of the darknet or of virtual currency can hide their illegal activities from the vigilance of U.S. law enforcement, said Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin for the District of Columbia. We are firmly committed to combatting the problem of opioid abuse and breaking through sophisticated cyber-enabled barriers employed by criminals to hide their activities.

The opioid epidemic is a crisis crippling many families in this country, said Special Agent in Charge Kelly R. Jackson of the IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) Washington D.C. Field Office. This international group profited off of peoples addictions, revictimizing them when they were already vulnerable. This group purposely distributed opioids that did not contain a safety additive and prevented inhalation of the drug. Years ago when drug dealers and traffickers moved to the darknet and started using virtual currency to conceal and expand their network, CI also moved our playing field to the darknet to bring groups like this to justice.

Todays case is a great example of how the DEA has infiltrated the darknet and, together with our law enforcement partners, proven that every criminal attempting to sell these deadly drugs is within the reach of the law, said Special Agent in Charge Jesse R. Fong of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrations (DEA) Washington Field Division.

The indictment alleges that Pate illegally purchased narcotics, including OxyContin and morphine pills, primarily from Fung, a pharmacist in Costa Rica. Pate would launder payments to Fung to purchase narcotics. Pate then sold these narcotics on numerous darknet markets, including Silk Road and AlphaBay, in exchange for bitcoin. Pate utilized various online monikers including buyersclub on darknet markets, online forums, and bitcoin exchanges. Pate advertised that he was selling the old formula of OxyContin, which did not contain tamper-resistant features such as a crush-proof feature that prevented a user from inhaling or injecting the pills after pulverizing them.

The indictment further alleges that Pates darknet sales involved him sending bulk shipments of narcotics in pill form from Costa Rica, often concealed in tourist souvenirs such as maracas, to co-conspirator re-shippers in the United States. Pate would then send the re-shippers a list of customer orders, which included customers names, the customers shipping address, and the quantity of pills they purchased. The re-shippers created smaller packages of pills, which they then mailed to the customer. Once the shipments were received by the customer, the darknet market would release funds in bitcoin, which were held in escrow until the transaction was completed, into Pates account on the darknet market. Customers paid Pate over 23,903 bitcoin for these darknet market sales. The co-conspirators also laundered payments in the form of bitcoin and international wire transfers.

The charges in the pleadings are merely allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

IRS-CI Cyber Crimes Unit, DEA, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated this case. The Justice Departments Office of International Affairs and Costa Rican authorities provided assistance.

The case is being handled by Trial Attorney C. Alden Pelker of the Criminal Divisions Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Zia M. Faruqui and Laura Crane of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia, Paralegal Specialist Brian Rickers and Teesha Tobias, and Legal Assistant Jessica McCormick. Additional assistance has been provided by former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Youli Lee and Kara Traster, and Paralegal Specialist Toni Anne Donato.
Shortly after an interview with Ebrun, in which ZongTeng Group CEO, Kabicy Wang put forward the idea of "New Infrastructure," came the most exciting news in cross-border e-commerce in China in the post-pandemic era. The leading cross-border e-commerce logistics company, GoTen's parent company has secured a total of 500 million yuan (over $70M) in Series C1 funding round. This is one of the world's most significant financing events in the cross-border industry in recent years, which will allow the group to develop its business worldwide, and propel GoTen's dropshipping service.

ZongTeng Group's $70M in Series C1 Funding Round

ZongTeng Group has successfully completed 2 funding rounds in the past two years, raising over 1 billion yuan in total.

This time, Taikang Insurance Group led the financing, which was followed by Xiamen C&D Inc., Zheshang Group, Fuzhou Financial Holding, Ancheng Capital, while China Renaissance played the role of exclusive financial consultant. The funding success is great proof that ZongTeng Group's businesses are considered promising, favored by investors.

Investment director in Taikang Asset highly recognizes ZongTeng Group, "ZongTeng Group is one of the most competitive enterprises in cross-border e-commerce logistics in China. It has set up a positive ecological cycle and high barriers to entry. With great potentials, ZongTeng will likely to stand out in the competition in the world."

China Renaissance Executive, Zhang Hui also indicates that through the funding, ZongTeng Group will further develop its service network and maintain its leading position in the cross-border industry with three core businesses, namely, overseas warehouses, international special lines, and e-commerce services.

More info about ZongTeng Group: https://youtu.be/r-PvJ7QgW5Q

Predominant Overseas Warehouses & Special Line Logistics

ZongTeng Group's current business scale is indispensable with visionary business plans and experience accumulated in the e-commerce business field since 2007. Early before the boom of special line logistics and overseas warehouses, in 2015  2016, YunExpress under ZongTeng Group managed to set up special line businesses extensively. Meanwhile, medium-sized and large-sized products began to go abroad.

Many problems have been exposed by the pandemic, among which is unstable delivery that makes ZongTeng Group's competitive advantages stand out. It is because placing the goods nearer to customers can better ensure satisfaction. In fact, few enterprises are like ZongTeng Group, which has excellent warehousing and special line logistics services in its portfolio. The solid foundation has made for its consecutive successes in funding, so as the latest one.

Further Development & New Opportunities for GoTen's Dropshipping Service

Nevertheless, all of the cross-border logistics giant's overseas warehouses exceed the full capacity amid the coronavirus spread. According to the head of the group, that's the reason why "New Infrastructure" will be the priority after weathering the crisis.

"After the pandemic, we will build new infrastructure, including new warehouses and a more widespread logistics network, trying our best to finish what should be done in the next 2  3 years within the next year or even next half a year. In particular, we'll complete and improve our e-commerce order fulfillment process, by targeting warehouse sorting, main transport routes, clearance capacity, and last-mile delivery after landing to provide better services to our customers."  Kabicy Wang

Undoubtedly, the 500 million funding success will fuel their pursuit of G2G (Global to Global) business objectives.

All ZongTeng Group's big customers, online sellers who transport goods with YunExpress and store them in their GoodCang overseas warehouses can seamlessly connect to GoTen Dropshipping Platform for more opportunities of product distribution.

Furthermore, an increasing number of dropshippers can benefit from ZongTeng Group's G2G strategy. They can take advantage of GoTen.com which offers top-selling profitable dropshipping products, fast and free delivery from overseas warehouses, 24/7 customer support to save warehousing costs, and logistics costs while ensuring maximum customer satisfaction.

The prosperity of cross-border e-commerce will come eventually as "New Infrastructure" springs up for a complete set of better e-commerce services.

About GoTen

GoTen.com is a professional dropshipping wholesale supplier under ZongTeng Group since 2007. It benefits from all ZongTeng's supply chain resources, including GoodCang, YunExpress, and WorldTech.

Since the launch of GoTen global site, GoTen Dropshipping Platform attracts thousands of visitors worldwide every day, registering considerable surges in sales with 20,000+ profitable SKUs. Additionally, based on big data-based research, its free product recommendations aim to make dropshipping easier on Amazon, eBay, Wish, Walmart, and other online marketplaces.

No membership fees, no credit card needed, only minutes to get started. GoTen makes it easier for everyone to launch and boost their online business.

More info about GoTen Dropshipping Platform: https://youtu.be/5OmgXhYUYXU

Contacts

Website: https://www.goten.com

For press: press@goten.com

For sales: support@goten.com

Company: Eteng Technology Limited
When the eye isn't getting enough oxygen in the face of common conditions like premature birth or diabetes, it sets in motion a state of frenzied energy production that can ultimately result in blindness, and now scientists have identified new points where they may be able to calm the frenzy and instead enable recovery.

In this high-energy environ, both the endothelial cells that will form new blood vessels in the retina -- which could improve oxygen levels -- and nearby microglia -- a type of macrophage that typically keeps watch over the retina -- prefer glycolysis as a means to turn glucose into their fuel.

Medical College of Georgia scientists have shown that in retinal disease, the excessive byproducts of this inefficient fuel production system initiate a crescendo of crosstalk between these two cell types. The talk promotes excessive inflammation and development of the classic mass of leaky, dysfunctional capillaries that can obstruct vision and lead to retinal detachment, says Dr. Yuqing Huo, director of the Vascular Inflammation Program at MCG's Vascular Biology Center.

The major byproduct of glycolysis is lactate, which also can be used as a fuel, for example, by our muscles in a strenuous workout. Microglia also need some lactate from the endothelial cells. But in disease, the lactate is in definite oversupply, which instead supports this destructive conversation between cells, says Huo, corresponding author of the study in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

"This is a major problem in our country, loss of vision because of compromised oxygen for a variety of reasons," says Dr. Zhiping Liu, postdoctoral fellow in Huo's lab and the study's first author. "We hope this additional insight into how that process destroys vision, will enable us to find better ways to intervene," Liu says.

In a low-oxygen environ, endothelial cells produce not only a lot of lactate, but also factors that encourage nearby microglia to be more active, and to use glycolysis to get more active, Huo says.

In reality, microglia don't need the encouragement because they already also seem to prefer this method of energy production. But the extra lactate sent their way does spur them to produce even more energy and consequently even more lactate, Huo says.

The normally supportive immune cells also start overproducing inflammation-promoting factors like cytokines and growth factors that promote blood vessel growth or angiogenesis, which, in a vicious loop, further turns up glycolysis by the endothelial cells, which are now inclined to proliferate excessively.

"The reciprocal interaction between macrophages and (endothelial cells) promotes a feed-forward relationship that strongly augments angiogenesis," they write.

The destructive bottom line is termed pathological angiogenesis, a major cause of irreversible blindness in people of all ages, the scientists say, with problems like diabetic retinopathy, retinopathy of prematurity and age-related macular degeneration.

"Our eyes clearly do not have sufficient oxygen, and they end up trying to generate more blood vessels through this process called pathological angiogenesis, which is really hard to control," Huo says.

The excessive sprouting and proliferation of endothelial cells is central to the destruction, and glycolysis is central to their sprouting and proliferation but the exact mechanisms that trigger all the glycolysis and crosstalk between endothelial cells and microglia have been unknown, they write.

"In all these conditions, there is something wrong with the tissue that causes the blood vessels to not behave properly," says coauthor Dr. Ruth B. Caldwell, cell biologist in the Vascular Biology Center. "It's a bad state," she says, which they want to help normalize.

As they are finding more about how the conversation goes bad between these two cells, they are seeing new logical points to do that. When they knock out the most potent activator of glycolysis, called Pfkfb3, from the microglia, lactate production clearly goes down and the cells no longer aid production of dysfunctional capillaries. Conversely, expression of both the messenger RNA that enables production of Pfkfb3 and lactate are significantly higher in the cells when oxygen levels are low.

Agents that stop these cells' over-the-top use of glycolysis could be good therapeutic approaches, they say. Blocking excessive lactate production could be another. Stopping the microglia from lapping up too much lactate also significantly suppresses pathological angiogenesis in their lab studies. Agents that normalize endothelial cell growth might work as well.

While genetic manipulation was used for much of their lab work to date, the scientists are now looking at chemicals that might work at these various points. A problem is that many drugs that suppress glycolysis have numerous unwanted effects, so they are working to more selectively intervene. They note that since the use of glycolysis by macrophages is critical to support of a healthy immune response, localized inhibition should yield the desired response without affecting the immune response.

Current treatments for abnormal blood vessel development and related leaking and swelling include suppressing vascular endothelial growth factor, or anti-VEGF, which, as the name implies, is a key factor in endothelial cell growth, may require ongoing injections in the eye and gets decent results in conditions like diabetic retinopathy. But anti-VEGF therapy really does not facilitate repair, says Caldwell. The scientists have early evidence their intervention strategies may, because they intervene earlier and help normalize the "bad" environment. "We get repair and restoration," Caldwell says.

Huo and his colleagues are among those who have shown that glycolysis is critical to the sprouting of endothelial cells and that mice lacking Pfkfb3 have impaired angiogenesis.

Endothelial cells, which line all our blood vessels, are one of the first things laid down when we make new blood vessels. In the retina, they start making tiny tunnels that ideally will become well-functioning capillaries, blood vessels so small that a single red blood cell may have to fold up just to get through. These thin-skinned blood vessels are the point where oxygen, fluid and nutrients are provided to body tissue, then blood gets routed back through the venous system to the heart where the process starts anew.

Endothelial cells grow accustomed to glycolysis when they are helping make our bodies in the early, no-oxygen days during development, Huo says.

The usual job of microglia includes keeping an eye out for invaders, like a virus, and keeping connections between nerves, called synapses, trimmed up.

###

Caldwell and Huo also are faculty members in the James and Jean Culver Vision Discovery Institute at Augusta University and the MCG Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy.

The research was supported by the American Heart Association and the National Eye Institute.

Read the full study here.

A confocal image of pathological angiogenesis.
The future of The Ellen DeGeneres Show in Australia is looking uncertain, after Channel Nine confirmed it had yet to acquire the broadcast rights for the next season.

The American talk show, which has aired on Nine since 2013, is currently the subject of an internal investigation by WarnerMedia after multiple staffers alleged that bullying, racism and sexual harassment were rampant behind the scenes.

In light of the ongoing controversy, a Nine spokesperson said on Monday that the network had not committed to airing the program after the end of its seventeenth series.

'We aren't currently contracted to the next season,' a representative said.

End of the road? The future of The Ellen DeGeneres Show in Australia is looking uncertain, after Channel Nine confirmed it had yet to acquire the broadcast rights for the next season

Nine also won't be screening new episodes from the current season, which Ellen is recording in self-isolation from her $27million mansion in California, because they are best-of episodes.

'In the end, they were running best-of iso compiles which we weren't contracted to acquire,' the spokesperson added.

Instead, the network is screening reruns from before the coronavirus pandemic forced production to move from the studio to Ellen's home.

What will happen? The American talk show, which has aired on Nine since 2013, is currently the subject of an internal investigation by WarnerMedia after multiple staffers alleged that bullying, racism and sexual harassment were rampant behind the scenes. Pictured: Ellen DeGeneres (right) being interviewed by Tracy Grimshaw (left) on A Current Affair in 2013

Nine had actually stopped airing Ellen's self-isolation broadcasts back in April, and replaced them with the American sitcom Kevin Can Wait.

But the network resumed airing repeats of The Ellen DeGeneres Show a week later.

It comes after multiple staffers stepped forward to accuse the 62-year-old host and her senior executives of perpetuating a 'toxic work environment'.

The program's parent company, WarnerMedia, has launched an investigation after a handful of employees went public with their grievances.

Last month, one current and ten former employees accused the three executive producers of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Ed Glavin, Mary Connelly and Andy Lassner, of 'bullying'.

When approached for comment on these allegations, a Nine spokesperson said: 'We are awaiting the findings of the internal inquiry.'

Will Ellen get boned? In light of the ongoing controversy, a Nine spokesperson said on Monday that the network had not committed to airing the show after the end of its seventeenth series

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.

On July 30, 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.
Health officials carry out COVID-19 testing on citizens at a makeshift facility erected in Namdaemun Market, central Seoul, Monday, following an outbreak of infections at the marketplace. / Yonhap





By Jun Ji-hye







COVID-19 infections traced to a church have spread to Namdaemun Market, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Seoul, the health authorities said Monday. This is renewing concerns over mass infections while the number of new cases here has hovered between 20 and 43 a day, since the beginning of the month.







According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), the country added 28 new cases Sunday, bringing the total caseload to 14,626.







Among the 28, 17 were locally transmitted infections, including 11 reported in the densely populated capital, and five in the surrounding Gyeonggi Province.







At least nine were tied to the Namdaemun Market.







The authorities confirmed that the first confirmed case in the marketplace was a person who worked there and a member of a church in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, which reported seven additional patients that raised the total infections tied to the church to 31 as of noon Monday.







S. Korea reports 34 new coronavirus infections S. Korea reports 28 new coronavirus infections 3 new mutated COVID-19 strains detected in S. Korea After the confirmation of the first infection in the marketplace Friday, the KCDC carried out coronavirus testing on 20 merchants who worked on the same floor. Seven tested positive.



One of the family members of the first patient was also confirmed to have COVID-19.



The authorities are bracing for more patients tied to the marketplace as they are still conducting testing on people who came into contact with those infected.



Another church in Goyang added one more infection, raising its related caseload to 21.



"We are deeply worried about the church cases as infections have spread to large-sized marketplaces, day care centers and door-to-door sales," Yoon Tae-ho, a senior health ministry official in charge of containment measures, said during a media briefing.



"We once again ask churches to comply with the government's COVID-19 guidelines such as wearing face masks and not offering group meals."



Yoon noted that the government will, if necessary, enhance guidelines on large marketplaces once an epidemiological investigation into the cases linked to Namdaemun Market is completed.



Meanwhile, imported cases slightly increased to 11, Sunday, after having fallen to six, Saturday. Before this, cases coming from overseas had been in double digits for more than 40 consecutive days.



Among the 11 imported infections, six were detected at airports or seaports, while five tested positive during their 14-day self-quarantine period.



By country, three cases came from the United States, followed by two from the Philippines and two from Bangladesh. Four others each came from Russia, Bangladesh, Finland and Burkina Faso.




New Delhi: Bringing respite to lakhs of students who had appeared in the Tamil Nadu SSLC class 10th examination 2020, the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Government Examination, TN DGE announced the TN SSLC or TN 10th Result 2020 on Monday.

The results have been declared on the official website tnresults.nic.in, dge1.tn.nic.in and dge2.tn.nic.in. The results can also be accessed through alternative websites like - dge2.tn.nic.in, manabadi.co.in, schools9.com.

This year, the pass percentage was recorded at 100 percent. Tamil Nadu governement has passed all students.

A total of 9.7 lakh candidates appeared for the Tamil Nadu Class 10 exams, which were held from March 27 to April 13, out of which over 4.71 lakh male students and over 4.68 lakh female candidates and 6,235 differently abled candidates passed the exam.

Since 2018, the state board has not been announcing the exam's topper list to eliminate any kind of unhealthy competition. This year too, the board will not provide any topper list. However, the DGE announces the district wise pass percentage and highest percentage.

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 can also be accessed via an app. The students will have to download the TN SSLC Result app on their smartphone in order to access the result. 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 SSLC class 10th examination 2020 got cancelled due to the pandemic. The exams were scheduled from March 27 to April 13 originally.

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami had earlier said that the result this year will be based on 80% of the marks for SSLC examination would be based on the marks scored by the students in their half yearly and quarterly examinations. As for the remaining 20%, the marks would be awarded based on the attendance of the child in the school.

Tamil Nadu SSLC Result are usually released in late April or early May.
Its associations with Queen  the rock band  are undeniable, thanks, ah-ah, to the soaring theme tune.

But camp Eighties sci-fi classic Flash Gordon has been revealed to have strong links to the other Queen  Her Majesty.

The cosmic romp, featuring Brian Blessed as the winged extraterrestrial Prince Vultan, is said to be our monarch's favourite film.

Camp Eighties sci-fi classic Flash Gordon has been revealed to have strong links to the other Queen  Her Majesty. Brian Blessed is pictured above as Prince Vultan

The claim has been made by the larger-than-life actor, who famously booms the line that has become his catchphrase: 'Gordon's alive!'

Talking to Edith Bowman on Yahoo Movies, Blessed said: 'The Queen, it's her favourite film, she watches it with her grandchildren every Christmas.'

The late Max von Sydow is pictured above as Emperor Ming the Merciless in the film

The 83-year-old then impersonated Her Majesty's voice in the interview, saying: 'You know, we watch Flash Gordon all the time, me and the grandchildren. And if you don't mind, I've got the grandchildren here, would you mind saying 'Gordon's alive'?'

He added: 'Everywhere I go, they all want me to say 'Gordon's alive!'. The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, horses and queens, and prime ministers, they all want me to say, 'Gordon's alive!', it's their favourite film.'

Blessed's interview in which he made the hard-to-credit claim about the Queen was part of a promotional tour for the 40th anniversary reissue of the film.

He did not detail how or when he learned about her supposed love of Flash Gordon.

The actor, who has also starred in Z-Cars, I Claudius and The Black Adder, met the monarch in 2016, when he was awarded an OBE for services to the arts and charity.

Off screen, Blessed has tried to climb Everest, undergone Russian space training and claims to have sparred with the Dalai Lama.

Interviews with him are rarely short of extraordinary revelations  he has described how he helped deliver a baby in a park and enjoyed a close relationship with Agatha Christie despite a 46-year age gap.

The Queen's favourite film was previously said  by its writer Willy Russell  to be Shirley Valentine.

The 1989 romcom stars Pauline Collins as a Liverpool housewife who falls in love with Greek tavern owner Tom Conti.
A team from the Italian fire service continued their work in Beirut, Lebanon, on August 9, assisting local authorities in the wake of a devastating blast that killed at least 154 people and injured thousands more on August 4.

According to the fire service, they were working to combat the chemical risk following the explosion, taking air and sea water quality samples.

This video shows a damaged ship at the port and scenes from the burned-out interior. Firefighters entered the hold and put out the residual flames, they said.

Lebanon declared a two-week state of emergency and three days of mourning for victims of the blast. Protesters marched on government buildings on August 8 showing their anger over the governments handling of the situation. Credit: Vigil del Fuoco via Storyful
On the most senior visit by an American official in more than four decades, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar hailed Taiwans democracy and praised President Tsai Ing-wens response to the pandemic in comments likely to stoke tensions with China.

It is a true honor to be here to convey a message of strong support and friendship from President Trump to Taiwan, Azar said when meeting Tsai in prepared remarks. He called Taiwans democracy an inspiration to the region and the world and said he wanted to use the visit to learn about how our shared democratic values have driven success in health.

In comments to reporters, Azar said that Taiwan was so scarred by Chinas lack of transparency during the SARS outbreak in 2003 that its people didnt trust information coming from Beijing or the World Health Organization. He also said that the US has fought for Taiwan to be included as an observer in the World Health Assembly, the WHOs decision-making body.

Tsai called it highly regrettable that China has blocked Taiwan from participating in the World Health Assembly, saying her government could help countries fight the disease. The decision to bar Taiwan from participating in the WHA is a violation of the universal right to health, she said.

Taiwan has been a rare global success story in containing Covid-19, as the US grapples with one of the worlds worst outbreaks. In keeping with Taiwans stringent anti-virus procedures, Azars delegation is abiding by measures including multiple tests for Covid-19, mandatory daily temperature checks and wearing masks at all times. Hes also scheduled to speak with Taiwans health minister on Monday and hold a press briefing, according to a person familiar with the situation.

The visit has drawn Chinas ire as the US challenges Beijing on a range of fronts, from the early handling of the virus to Chinese-owned technology companies to a new security law for Hong Kong. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin last week said Beijing was firmly opposed to the trip, calling Taiwan the most important and sensitive issue in China-US relations.

The trip comes days after President Donald Trump moved to ban Tencent Holdings Ltd.s WeChat and TikTok, owned by Bytedance Ltd., sending shock waves through the global tech industry amid increased fears of a push for decoupling the worlds biggest economies. The Trump administration has also led the way in condemning China over its crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, where media tycoon Jimmy Lai was arrested on Monday.

Azars visit has little to do with the virus and is primarily aimed at sending a message to Beijing as it increases diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan, according to Jonathan Sullivan, director of China programs at the Asia Research Institute and an associate professor at the University of Nottingham.

There is a confidence in Taiwan, which this demonstration of American support will buttress, that it can live with Chinese pressures, limited as they are, especially during a moment when the backlash to Chinese assertiveness is growing around the world, he wrote in an email.

Taiwan has rejected Chinas criticism of Azars visit, saying on Thursday that Beijing was a global troublemaker.

What the Chinese government can do is stop making irresponsible remarks on the international stage and stop interfering with Taiwans dealings around the world, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said at a briefing Thursday. What the Chinese government can do is return politics to the people, listen to the voices of the people, and understand the needs of the people because the 1.4 billion people of China and Hong Kong deserve freedom.

Azars trip coincided with a visit by former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori to pay his respects to the late President Lee Teng-hui, who led Taiwan from dictatorship to democracy in the 1990s and reshaped its relationship with China.

In a meeting with Tsai on Sunday that could further worsen Japan-China ties, Mori conveyed Prime Minister Shinzo Abes condolences while the Taiwanese president said she hoped the two sides can work together to combat the virus. The group included Abes younger brother, Nobuo Kishi, who is also a lawmaker in his ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
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Linkedin Belseran Christ (The Jakarta Post) Ambon, Maluku  Mon, August 10, 2020 17:18 526 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066ce404a 1 National American,Tourist,Ambon,Maluku,diving,yacht,SAR,search-and-rescue,SAR-mission,Basarnas Free

An American tourist and professional diving instructor has reportedly gone missing while diving with her husband in Ambon Bay, Maluku.

Ambon administration secretary Antoni Latuheru said the victim, Carol Marie Lakien, 56, better known as Laila, had come to Ambon with her husband, Kevin Scott Pool, and stayed at a hotel in Amahusu village, Nusaniwe district.

[Lakien] is a professional diving instructor. She went to Ambon on a private yacht with her husband, and they often dove in Ambon Bay, Antoni told reporters.

Antoni said the couple had been in Ambon since March and had not been able to go back to the United States due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Pool, Lakiens husband, said both of them were diving instructors and had come to Ambon on a vacation as they could not return to their home country yet.

He explained that, when the incident happened on Friday, bad weather struck as they were about to dive. Not long after that, the bad weather died down, and at 9 a.m. Kevin decided to dive first, before his wife.

An hour later, he said, his wife had joined him.

Later, Pool reportedly rose to the surface and waited for Lakien on their yacht, called Aquabago, but after several hours, she was still missing. He then called for help from local authorities.

Djunaidi, head of the Ambon Search and Rescue Office, said his office had been alerted and set out on a rescue effort at 1:39 p.m. with the help of local residents.

The search was suspended due to bad weather and resumed on Saturday.

On Saturday, Djunaidi said, a joint team of 20 professional divers from the Indonesian Navy, the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) in Ambon, the Maluku Polices water and air unit (Polairud) and a diving association was deployed to search for Lakien.

The divers were divided into three teams with a focus on the location where Lakien was reported missing.

We added personnel on the second day because of the changing currents and weather conditions, he said, adding that the search was still ongoing. (syk)
Is Kamala Harris a natural born citizen?

It is no secret that Harris wants to be Joe Biden's vice president. The junior senator from California clearly sees an opening to her real objective: the presidency of the United States. With Biden surprisingly outlasting the other anti-American socialist candidates, Harris recognizes that Biden's age and declining cognitive abilities pose a glorious opportunity to resurrect her presidential ambitions. After all, there is an good chance that the bumbling, incoherent Biden might have to resign or be removed in his first term and his V.P. would succeed him. Even if Biden managed to miraculously finish his first term, it is unlikely that he would or could run for a second.

Harris would love to "back door" her way into the presidency, especially given the fact that her vacuous campaign was an unmitigated disaster, and any future presidential ambitions looked to be a virtual impossibility only a few months ago.

But not so fast. Harris is constitutionally ineligible to be VPOTUS (12th Amendment) or POTUS (Article 2). She is not  nor can she ever be  a natural born citizen, the highest standard of citizenship mandated by the Constitution for the president and commander-in-chief. The Founding Fathers wanted a higher standard of citizenship for the POTUS because they did not want any competing allegiances with foreign governments.

Harris was born in Oakland, California on October 20, 1964, to an Indian citizen mother and a Jamaican citizen father. Thus, Harris is a native-born American citizen, or a citizen pursuant to what I refer to as the anchor baby provision of the 14th Amendment.

I wrote to Senator Harris on Dec. 4, 2017, expressing that the presidential eligibility clause, Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 mandates that the president must be a natural born citizen. She and her campaign replied with a form letter that purposely ignored the issue.

But wait, there is more! Harris may be a native-born American citizen by the accident of her birth and in my opinion an erroneous 14th Amendment interpretation, but she is also a citizen of Jamaica.

Under Chapter 2 of the Constitution of Jamaica, a person born in Jamaica after August 5, 1962, or born outside Jamaica after that date to a parent who is a Jamaican citizen, is automatically considered a Jamaican citizen at birth. Furthermore, under current Jamaican legislation, citizens of Jamaica can hold multiple nationalities. And this status does not prohibit serving in the legislature of Jamaica!

Imagine that: a vice president or president of the United States with concurrent citizenship with another foreign government  a person with clearly divided loyalties and an ability and opportunity to participate in governmental proceedings of another country, travel on another country's passport, and legally take up residence in that country.

Specifically, Chapter 2 (entitled Citizenship) of the Jamaica Constitution, Section 3C states:

Every person born outside Jamaica shall become a citizen of Jamaica - on the sixth day of August 1962, in the case of a person born before that date; or on the date of his/her birth, in the case of a person born on or after the sixth day of August 1962, if, at that date, his/her father or mother is a citizen of Jamaica by birth, descent, or registration by virtue of marriage to a citizen of Jamaica.

Harris was born Oct. 20, 1964, and her father was a citizen of Jamaica at the time of her birth. Therefore, the law of Jamaica is clear: Kamala Harris is a citizen of Jamaica, pursuant to Section 3Cb of the Constitution of Jamaica.

And what about citizenship of India? Harris's mother was a citizen of India and, to the best of my knowledge, never actually became an American citizen. Does Kamala qualify for Indian citizenship, too?

No, she does not. Under Indian law, dual citizenship is not allowed. However, Indian law does allow persons of Indian origin certain benefits and privileges. A PIO (persons of Indian origin) card may be issued to those holding U.S. passports, who can prove their Indian origin up to three generations before along with spouses of Indian citizens or persons of Indian origin.

The PIO card is valid for fifteen years and provides the following benefits:

 exemption from registration at a Foreigners' Regional Registration Office (FRRO) for periods of stay less than 180 days

 enjoy parity with non-resident Indians in economic, financial, and educational fields

 acquire, hold, transfer, or dispose of immovable properties in India, except for agricultural properties

 open rupee bank accounts, lend in rupees to Indian residents, and make investments in India, etc.

 being eligible for various housing schemes under the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) or the central or State governments

 their children can obtain admission in educational institutions in India in the general category quota for non-resident Indians

It should be noted that PIO cardholders are not entitled to the following:

 the exercise of any political rights

 visits to restricted or protected areas without permission

 mountaineering, research, and missionary work without permission.

It would be interesting to find out if Harris ever held or currently holds a PIO card.

Thus, Kamala Harris, United States senator, former candidate for the president of the United States, and current prospective candidate for vice president in the upcoming election, has competing foreign citizenship with the country of Jamaica and preferential status with the country of India.

If Harris is picked by Biden, what does that say about the vetting process? Americans would be asked to vote for a ticket that has a foreign citizen candidate  precisely the type of candidate that the Founding Fathers were trying to preclude. What sense does that make? The whole purpose of Article 2 and the natural born citizen requirement is to ensure that the president and commander-in-chief have no foreign influence whatsoever.

Clearly, Kamala Harris has no respect for the Constitution. Her lack of transparency regarding her background combined with her naked political ambition is an affront to all law-abiding citizens and those who seek to uphold the Constitution. Others from both parties have chosen to subvert Article 2 in the past three election cycles. As I said to Senator Harris in my letter more than two and a half years ago, it is time for the American people to be fully informed as to how the elite media and our complicit so-called representatives have subverted the intent and true meaning of the Constitution.

Image: Mobilus In Mobili via Wikimedia Commons.
At least one protester is reportedly in critical condition in hospital and more than 100 arrested following clashes between police and demonstrators after the Belarus presidential election.

Protests have sprung up in the capital Minsk ever since a state-run TV exit poll suggested autocratic leader Alexander Lukashenko had secured re-election and extended his 26-year rule in the Eastern European nation.

The official results announced on Monday claimed the president won 80 per cent of the vote, while the main opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanouskaya only secured 9.9 per cent.

Videos on social media have shown extensive violent clashes between protesters and the security forces, with tear gas, rubber bullets, flash grenades and water cannon used to try and disperse crowds of Belarusians angry at what they believe was another rigged vote.

Valentin Stefanovic, from the human rights advocacy group Spring 96, earlier told the Reuters one person had been killed after a police van rammed into a demonstrator in Minsk. Yet opposition media in Belarus have reported the protester remains in intensive care in hospital.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

A video circulating on social media by protesters in Belarus appears to show the moment a vehicle, which cannot be clearly identified, runs over someone in the midst of tear gas explosions.

Mr Stefanovic also suggested about 120 people had been detained so far, according to his organisations initial data.

Pro-regime forces not wearing uniforms have also been filmed running into the crowds and beating people up, sometimes dragging them into unmarked vans before driving away.

Several journalists, including some reporting for Western outlets, have been attacked and detained.

Outside of the capital Minsk, protests have also broken out in cities including Brest, Gomel, Grodno and Vitebsk, where riot police have also tried to force people off the streets.

Ms Tsikhanouskaya, who only ran for office after her husband was arrested, has claimed the election result was rigged in favour of Mr Lukashenko and declared I will believe with my own eyes. The majority was for us.

Support for the opposition candidate had soared ahead of the vote as younger Belarusians grew frustrated at economic stagnation and Mr Lukashenkos dismissive approach to the coronavirus pandemic.

Ahead of casting her own ballot, the former teacher said she hoped the police would refrain from attacking her supporters, but the incumbent president had vowed retribution for those who opposed him.

As he voted, he had said: Do you want to try to overthrow the government, break something, wound, offend, and expect me or someone to kneel in front of you and kiss them and the sand onto which you wandered? This will not happen.

No independent election monitors were allowed into Belarus to oversee the poll and no election result since Mr Lukashenko came to power in 1995 has been recognised by international observers as free or fair.
Google Home speakers were recording users when they were not meant to. (Getty)

Google has admitted that its Home speakers were recording users even when they hadnt said wake words such as OK Google, due to an error this year.

For privacy reasons, the devices normally dont listen until they hear the wake words designed into them  and are supposed not to record until that point, Protocol reported.

But users on Reddit started to get notifications when their Google Home devices had recorded events such as glass breaking, The Register reported.

The alerts were normally offered only to users who subscribe to the Nest Aware home security service.

Google said the feature had been accidentally turned on due to a software update.

Read more: Google admits workers listen to some Google Home recordings

A Google spokesperson told Yahoo News UK, We are aware of an issue that inadvertently enabled sound detection alerts for sounds like smoke alarms or glass breaking on speakers that are not part of a Nest Aware subscription.

The issue was caused by a recent software update and only impacted a subset of Google Home, Google Home Mini, and Google Home Max speakers.

We have since rolled out a fix that will automatically disable sound detection on devices that are not part of Nest Aware.

Google announced its subscription Nest Aware service in May.

The company said in a blog post: "Your Nest speakers and displays will notify you if a critical sound is detected, like a smoke alarm or glass breaking, by sending an alert to the Home app.

"From there, you can hear an audio clip or listen live within the Home app to confirm the alarm."

Read more: Apple could still go higher after hitting $1.5 trillion valuation

Google this month bought a 6.6% stake in home security firm ADT, betting on the home security companys strong customer base and an army of technicians to drive sales of its Nest devices.

ADT said the two companies would work on ways to package popular Google products like Home Mini, Nest Thermostat and Nest Wifi with ADTs strength in installation and maintenance.

Story continues

Later this year, we will begin integrating Google devices and make them available for installations to our customers, ADTs CEO Jim DeVries told Reuters.

We will exclusively support Nest products, DeVries said, adding that the companies will build products together and start rolling them out next year.

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK News
Mass looting and rioting broke out in Chicago on Sunday night after a reportedly armed black suspect in his "late teens or early 20s" was wounded in a shootout with police in Englewood.



Any excuse to loot will do.







Witnesses described seeing "hundreds" of cars driving around the city hitting up high-end store after high-end store to loot.





8/9/20 Chicago riots and looting Credit: Jasmyne Bennett on FB Live pic.twitter.com/44OGax8MH1  Liz Jones (@LizJone26271417) August 10, 2020



Rioters tried to hit police with their cars:





Rioters in Chicago tried to hit some cops with their car. #ChicagoProtests pic.twitter.com/awy1xkozph  Simulation Warlord (@zerosum24) August 10, 2020



A cop was hit in the face with a giant object to cheers.





Cops are being attacked in Chicago tonight.



Chicago is in total chaos and Mayor Lori Lightfoot hasnt said sh&t. pic.twitter.com/Pc2me5x8Dl  Digital Forests (@DigitalForests) August 10, 2020



There were shots fired:





Massive looting all over downtown #Chicago. I swear, they have hit every and any store they wanted.  pic.twitter.com/71NXM9U0hc  Simulation Warlord (@zerosum24) August 10, 2020



Looters lived-streamed on social media:





How dumb do you have to be to live stream yourself looting. #Chicago pic.twitter.com/uQ1gOWlxyK  Digital Forests (@DigitalForests) August 10, 2020

Looter shouts I cant breathe as she runs through store looking for something to remove security tags. #Chicago pic.twitter.com/uElON1OYmf  The Columbia Bugle  (@ColumbiaBugle) August 10, 2020



How does this fit with the media's narrative that black people are "terrified" that police will shoot them at any moment for any reason without the slightest provocation?





8/9/20 Chicago Credit: Taeshia Rochon (Sadly, the livestream ended) pic.twitter.com/a2mBQwd5sO  Liz Jones (@LizJone26271417) August 10, 2020



Do any of these folks look "terrified" that police are going to shoot them at any moment just for the "crime" of "being black"?





There are literally hundreds of looters in Chicago right now, hitting all the stores. pic.twitter.com/rXpdhZFEOZ  Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 10, 2020

Insanity, and this is over a police shooting of an armed suspect. #Chicago pic.twitter.com/JVheab3Bxx  Simulation Warlord (@zerosum24) August 10, 2020

Lots of people stealing bread for their families tonight in Chicago. Boxes and boxes of bread #Chicagoriots pic.twitter.com/Ea6bdyWEuG  Jimbo Slice (@jconroysd) August 10, 2020



Rioters were seen egging each other on to attack police.





Chicago police try to maintain law and order as looters hit luxury stores. pic.twitter.com/jvx8jC9GC2  Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 10, 2020



Do any of these folks look like they're grieving over someone being shot?





Video a friend on IG posted of looting in #Chicago happening right now. #ChicagoScanner pic.twitter.com/8etKmIn13U  Brian Dawe (@DJBrianDawe) August 10, 2020

Chicago streets flooded by looters. Came in cars. Rampant looting of all luxury stores in downtown. I made this video from my room pic.twitter.com/AuNgkpA7dm  Muneeb Alam (@Muneeb_Alam) August 10, 2020

8/9/20 Chicago Walgreens looted. Watch Chicago PD pull up. Credit: Josh MBK Bryant pic.twitter.com/BUPAv48sWZ  Liz Jones (@LizJone26271417) August 10, 2020



This is the gun police say was dropped by the shooter in Englewood.





Offenders firearm recovered by police after firing at Officers. Officers returned fire striking the offender. Offender transported to U of C Hospital. pic.twitter.com/UQPmfP3a35  Tom Ahern (@TomAhernCPD) August 9, 2020



Justice for #WhatsHisName!



Follow InformationLiberation on Twitter, Facebook, Gab and Minds.




Authorities are searching for a man who possibly drowned at a Winslow Township lake on Sunday.

Around 3:45 p.m., police received a report of man swimming at Penbryn Lake who went under the water and never resurfaced, Winslow Township police said. The lake is part of a 354-acre wildlife management area administered by the Division of Fish and Wildlife.

Search and rescue efforts were suspended around 8:30 p.m. due to poor light conditions and resumed Monday morning, authorities said.

The New Jersey State Police (NJSP) Aviation Unit, NJSP TEAMS Unit, Winslow and Waterford Township Fire Departments and Camden County Central Communications are assisting with the search and recovery efforts.

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

Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo.
(Natural News) The residents of Louisville, Kentucky, have denounced the tactics employed by the local Black Lives Matter (BLM) chapter to sway local business owners, noting in a protest that the activists are using methods similar to those used by the mafia.

The protest, staged by the citys substantial Cuban-American population, was conceived as a way to push back against the demands sent by the Black Lives Matter crowd to the citys business owners.

The demands, which were circulated by activists since early July, had several key points that were purportedly aimed at uplifting the lives of the Black families in the area.

As noted in the list sent by the activist group, they demand that the citys business owners must increase the percentage of Black people on their staff to 23 percent or more, purchase at least 23 percent of their inventory from Black retailers or donate 1.5 percent of new sales to Black Local Organizations, as well as implement diversity training at least twice a year.

In addition, the activists demanded that business owners acknowledge the harm that they allegedly brought upon Black people who were displaced because of gentrification in certain parts of downtown Louisville decades ago.

According to the activists, business owners who fail to comply with their demands by August 17 will be bombarded with negative reviews and social media posts.

These demands, according to Ahamara Brewster, the leader of the Revolutionary Black Panther Party, who attended the protest in support of the Cuban American community, are unethical. (Related: Goya Foods, Red Bull prove companies can RESIST woke mobs  whos next?)

Thats not how you handle business. If you want help from someone, theres a way of going about it, being diplomatic about it. But you dont threaten anybody, Brewster said.

One business owner, Fernando Martinez, has publicly denounced the letters demands on Facebook, where he described them as mafia tactics used to intimidate business owners.

There comes a time in life that you have to make a stand and you have to really prove your convictions and what you believe in. All good people need to denounce this. How can you justified (sic) injustice with more injustice? said Martinez, who operates a restaurant in the area, La Bodeguita de Mima.

According to Martinez, his public denouncement of the letter has led many individuals to harass him, with some even calling him a bigot and a racist.

How can I be called a bigot and a racist when my family is Black? When my son is gay? Martinez said in an impassioned speech during the protest, adding that his restaurant is open for anybody who wishes to come in.

If youre gay, this is your home. If youre Black, this is your home. If youre white, this is your home. If youre human, this is your home, Martinez said after regaling the crowd with his life story.

In his speech, Martinez stressed that the Cuban-American community is not an enemy of the Black Lives Matter movement and its ideals.

We need to come together as a community. Were not an enemy of the Black community. Were all people and we come in all colors, Martinez stated.

Sadiqa Reynolds, president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League, however, mentioned on social media that she disagreed with Martinez on several points, primarily his decision to focus on himself.

According to Reynolds, instead of responding to the demands of the group  even in the negative  and affirm their plight, Martinez chose to highlight his own life, adding that she could not understand why he would choose to do so at this specific point in time.

Some business owners have responded to say, we understand your hurt but we were not part of a gentrification plan. We cant meet this demand but here you do have a point and we can improve, Reynolds said, adding that while disagreeing with the strategy employed by the other party is acceptable, organizing against their valid claims isnt.

We all must be a part of the solution. While we can appreciate disagreeing with the tactic or strategy  to organize against the sentiment is unacceptable, Reynolds stated.

Community organizers: We are not a threat!

Talesha Wilson, the community organizer who helped draft the list of demands sent by the local Black Lives Matter chapter, said the protest organized by Martinez and other Cuban-American business owners was premature and a temper tantrum that could have been solved by a conversation.

In fact, Wilson said, Martinezs restaurant, La Bodeguita de Mima, was already given an A grade for racial equity by protesters, adding that she and other community organizers and activists are still going to work with other businesses who are yet to receive a similar grade.

Phelix Crittenden, an activist who works with Black Lives Matter Louisville, also noted that their goal with their letter was not to threaten the citys business owners, but to bring attention to the displacement of the citys many Black residents after a housing project was demolished during the early 2000s.

The housing project, Crittenden said, was replaced with mixed-income housing, which resulted in only 41 of the original 635 displaced families returning.

Much like Crittenden, Wilson also decried the labeling of their letter, noting that they only classified their goals on the list as such because gentler language would have been ignored.

We are in a society where we have to demand to exist, Wilson said.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

Courier-Journal.com

TheHill.com

FoxNews.com

WDRB.com
Roman Kemp broke down in tears live on his Capital Breakfast radio show on Monday as he returned to work following the death of the show's producer, Joe Lyons.

The presenter and his co-stars Sian Welby, 33, and Sonny Jay, 27, took time off from the show last Tuesday after hearing the sad news.

And Roman, 27, took the decision to talk to viewers about how he was feeling on Monday as he paid tribute to his 'best friend' Joe. His cause of death has not been revealed.

'He was our best mate': Roman Kemp broke down in tears live on air on Monday as he returned to work at Capital Breakfast following the death of producer Joe Lyons

Breaking down, he said: 'We wanted to share some really sad news. I never thought Id have to do this ever.

'Last Tuesday, very suddenly, we lost one of our best friends. Our producer Joe, he was a member of the Capital Breakfast family.

'We are trying to process this all together. We wanted to share this news with you.'

Roman continued: 'Joe had worked for Global, the parent company, for nine years.

Sad news: Joe, known on the show as Producer Joe has sadly passed away - his cause of death has not been revealed - this was his last Instagram post, shared on June 20

Painful: Roman struggled to contain his emotions during the show

'He was the very first person I met when I walked through the door. I remember thinking he was a bit of a Del Boy.

'He was with me right from my very first show. He taught be everything. I dont know sitting in a radio studio without him.'

Discussing their close bond, Roman added: 'Hes the person Id sit here and rinse constantly.

'He loved dogs. Obsessed with his daily step count. Never ironed his clothes. He loved his family so much. His dad Ivan, his mum Celia, his sister Lou.

'He did love his friends his fans, he did have fans. The thing he loved most of all was doing this show, you listening.

Roman said of his friend: 'He loved dogs. Obsessed with his daily step count. Never ironed his clothes. He loved his family so much. His dad Ivan, his mum Celia, his sister Lou'

'He was like a genius coming up with these ideas. He was driven by the reaction from you every day.'

Roman's mother, Shirlie Kemp wrote on Joe's final Instagram post, shared on June 20, 'God Bless you Joe .... you were and always will be so loved.'

Fellow Capital Breakfast presenter Vick Hope, took to Instagram on Monday morning to pay tribute to Joe.

Sharing a series of pictures of them, she wrote: 'Our Joe. My JoeJoe. My special, magical, beautiful friend. We signed off every message with "I love you, buddy", and yet Im worried I still didnt tell you enough.

Devastated: The radio host, 27, and his co-stars Sian Welby and Sonny Jay (all pictured) came off air mid-way through their radio show on Tuesday after learning the heartbreaking news

Hearbroken: Sian broke down in tears as Roman paid tribute to Joe on Monday

'I really do love you, bud, so so much. We all do. I hope you know that. We are so lucky to have known you. The world is a better place for having had you in it. And now the stars have gained an extraordinary gift in you. Look at everything you made, Joe. Everything you achieved, what you built, who you inspired.

'Your talent and creativity are so immense, but more than that you are the kindest, most hilarious, caring, fun, fiercely loyal and spectacular person any of us had the pleasure of meeting. You really are the best one we ever knew. Our friend. My friend.

'For the last four years you have been my solace, my rock, my confidante. Ive told you all my secrets, and you said youd take them to the grave. And now it seems you did just that, and it breaks my heart.

'Words cannot describe this pain, it doesnt make sense and itll take time to process. I keep repeating: Not you, please not you. But now youre at peace, youre in a better place. Im going to miss you Joe Lyons, so much.'

She continued: 'Thank you for every crab dance, every "youre embarrassing us babe", every cereal box game, every 5am-er at a houseparty were not invited to, every "bah bah", every undersized chino, every photobomb courtesy of your a**e, every cocktail we shook in your flat or evening spent in my yard doing things we shouldnt on a school night, every club we sat in the corner of scheming, every time we were back and ready to do it all over again, every single damn laugh, every hug that meant the world because you made me feel safe and understood.

'And thank you for being my favourite valentine. We met our match in each other. Ive never encountered anyone else as weird and as wild, and together we were chaos.

'Wherever you are I hope youre causing chaos there too. We never wanted the party to end, and I dont believe this one is over either; Ill just see you at the afterparty. Until then, I love you, buddy. My thoughts are with your parents and Lou; Ro, Sonny and the team; Olly and everyone who loves you.'

Poignant: Fellow Capital Breakfast presenter Vick Hope, took to Instagram on Monday morning to pay tribute to Joe
TAMPA, Fla. - La Tropicana Cafe has been a cornerstone of Tampas historic Latin-influenced Ybor City neighbourhood since the 1960s, well known as a gathering spot where movers and shakers and even mobsters mixed with construction workers over Cuban coffee and sandwiches.

Now its doors are likely closed for good, like so many other bars and restaurants done in by the coronavirus pandemic.

Every neighbourhood loses something precious when local eateries and hangouts get shuttered, but as infections spread and the economic fallout continues, the loss of iconic establishments like La Tropicana is particularly hard to swallow.

In Tampa, if you were a politician, La Tropicana was where you would show up, said Patrick Manteiga, editor and publisher of La Gaceta, a local newspaper that publishes in English, Spanish and Italian. For years, his father, Roland Manteiga, kept a corner table reserved for himself, with a special red telephone to call in scoops.

There are photos of the elder Manteiga with Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, Florida Govs. Bob Martinez and Lawton Chiles, and local politicians of all stripes. It was also frequently reported in local media that Tampas longtime mob boss, Santo Trafficante Jr., sometimes stopped by.

La Tropicana become a favourite hangout. You could go in, talk a little politics, get your name in the paper, Patrick Manteiga said. If youre a powerbroker trying to have lunch on the cheap, it was the place to go.

The Ybor City landmark is hardly alone in shutting down for good. Iconic spots from San Francisco to New York also wont be back.

Restaurants are traditionally low-margin businesses in high-rent locations, with little in cash reserves. They depend on liquor markups and high cash flow to sustain their overhead, but revenues have plummeted nationwide as fears of infection and public health requirements keep customers away.

More than half the nearly 24,000 restaurants that have closed since the pandemic began will not reopen, the Yelp online business review service found in a July 25 economic report.

In San Francisco, the 83-year-old Louis Restaurant with stunning views of the Pacific Ocean, is among them.

To wait out this pandemic was financially unreasonable, the restaurant said last month.

In Forest Hills, New York, the Irish Cottage pub closed permanently in May, posting its farewell hopes on Facebook after serving food and drink for six decades.

60 years of Good Cheer. My mom would say ... Theres no use crying in your beer. May the fond memories & good times shared by our Patrons of the Irish Cottage burn bright in their hearts forever more, the post said.

One of the most venerable landmarks to close is New Yorks Paris Cafe, which has been at the South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan since 1873. Through no fault of anyone but the outbreak of this virus, we are unable to forge a way forward that makes economic sense, its owners said.

Up for sale in Austin, Texas, is a former gas station converted in 1933 into a restaurant and music venue called Threadgills, where the many acts that performed there in the 1960s included an unknown University of Texas student named Janis Joplin, before she became a superstar.

Thank you for making Threadgills a part of Austins DNA and supporting us over the years, the restaurant said on its website.

Another well-known Florida spot, the Caribbean restaurant Ortanique on the Mile in Coral Gables, decided after 21 years to shut down.

Now, with deep regret and pain, we recognize it is impossible to continue in this current environment, Ortaniques owners said in July, adding they are so bitter that COVID-19 has taken down a Coral Gables institution.

Some culinary landmarks are hoping to make it. Mannys Cafeteria and Delicatessen in Chicago vows to stay open after 78 years, using online appeals to encourage customers to come for takeout.

Last month, customers lined up around the block after Mannys posted this on Twitter: We are struggling. This isnt a joke. Support your fav deli for dinner tonight. Thx.

After the crowds arrived, Mannys put this on Facebook: Chicago! Youve outdone yourself. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts (and stomachs of course).

One of those customers was David Axelrod, former senior advisor to President Barack Obama.

Mannys is a Chicago institution, Axelrod tweeted. Ive been going there for forty years to clog my arteries and clear my head! If youre looking for great deli in and around Chicago, give em a try! Food is delicious!!

For regular customers or sometime visitors, historic restaurants and bars have made lasting memories for so many people as they crossed paths with celebrities or, like Joplin, the soon-to-be famous. Patrick Manteiga, for one, says they cant truly be replaced. You just lose those little pieces of history, he said.
Cypress-Fairbanks ISD students are headed back to campuses Sept. 8, but many teachers don't think it's a good idea as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

KHOU (CBS 11) reported that dozens of teachers are planning to protest the district's reopening plans at Monday night's board meeting, asking for in-person learning to be pushed back or for officials to give teachers a remote option.

BACK TO SCHOOL: These are the COVID-19 safety protocols for 17 Texas universities and colleges for fall

"It's the difference between life and death," Jennifer Freestone, an English teacher at Jersey Village High School, told KHOU. "It's just not safe for (the students). It's not safe for me. Why would I take these students that I love and put them in a place where they could get something that could kill them?"

Cy-Fair ISD is planning for on-campus learning "with numerous health and safety protocols," according to its website. The district is also offering CFISD Connect, a remote option for students that follows the same curriculum, calendar, grading procedures and attendance policies as on-campus classes.

The district says 40,000 out of 118,000 students have elected to attend classes in-person, with nearly two-thirds of the student body opting to learn remotely.

While classes don't begin until Sept. 8, Cy-Fair teachers are required to report back to work for professional development Friday.

"We are fortunate that our board approved a later start date of Tuesday, Sept. 8, allowing us to extend the training days for teachers as well as providing additional time to monitor the community spread of the virus," Cy-Fair ISD officials said in a statement. "Professional development provides teachers the opportunity to become familiar with the new CFISD Connect remote platform, as well as the numerous and significant health and safety protocols we are implementing for students who elect to receive instruction on campus."

But many teachers believe more time is needed before in-person learning can start again. They are calling on officials to push the start date back by eight more weeks as COVID-19 cases continue to surge.

COVID-19 UPDATES: Texas passes 500,000 cases

"I love teaching, but I don't love it as much as I love my family and staying alive," Mackenna Coffey, a theater teacher at Aragon Middle School, told KHOU.

Texas surpassed 500,000 COVID-19 cases over the weekend. The Houston region has reported 2,073 deaths from coronavirus.
Philadelphia police investigate the scene around 38th and Poplar Street, by the Clayborn Lewis Community Center Playground. Six people were shot there just before 9:30 p.m. on Saturday night in one of the most violent weekends of the summer. Read more

Philadelphias surge in gun violence continued over the weekend, with at least 25 people being shot on Saturday and Sunday, including two 11-year-old boys wounded in separate incidents, police said.

One of the boys was wounded in a triple shooting Sunday night in Grays Ferry. The other was shot near a playground Saturday night in Olney. Both suffered graze wounds and were in stable condition, according to police.

The bloodshed also included gunfire at a playground that injured six people, a shooting in East Mount Airy that killed a 25-year-old man, another man being shot overnight Sunday after leaving an Airbnb in Center City, and an incident in which two bullets struck the door of an officers patrol car, police said.

It was the latest in a series of exceptionally violent outbursts during the citys most bloody year in more than a decade. And it came just days before City Council plans emergency hearings on how and why shootings keep increasing.

On Monday, almost 100 residents, activists, and city officials  including Mayor Jim Kenney and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw  gathered for two hours outside City Hall to rally against the violence and call for change.

We live in a city where, day in and day out, African American men and women are shot and murdered, and [if] we go about our lives, then shame on us, City Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson said. We have a lasting commitment to make sure not one more young persons life is taken by gun violence in this city.

Kenney said it was time for the city to rededicate itself to curbing gun violence, saying: We want to make sure that we listen to, and that we follow through with, the things were hearing today.

Through Sunday, police statistics show, at least 1,139 people have been shot in Philadelphia this year  a 36% increase over the same span last year and an annual pace higher than any since at least 2007. Only five days this year have passed without a shooting in the city, and on at least 111 days, five or more people were shot.

On some days, the number of people shot could have been enough to overwhelm a hospital emergency room: On May 31 and June 1, for instance, at least 37 people were wounded by gunfire, and 23 people were shot on July 5, the most in a single day since at least 2013.

Those were just the worst days of three terrible months. More than 180 people were shot in May, 201 were shot in June, and 215 were shot in July, according to city statistics. The next-highest monthly tally over the last five years was in August 2015, when 162 people were shot.

The victims this year have included at least 102 people under age 18, according to an Inquirer analysis, a tally that will soon surpass the number of kids shot in the city over all of last year.

The rise in shootings has also led to a spike in homicides, unsurprising in a city where murders are overwhelmingly committed with guns. Police say 259 people have been killed in the city this year. Thats a 31% increase over the same date last year and the highest pace since the mid-1990s, when the city regularly recorded more than 400 homicides per year.

Police reported an arrest in only one of the weekends cases: the shooting of the officers car. They did not identify the man taken into custody, but said he injured another officer who tried to arrest him as he was riding away on an ATV.

Johnson has scheduled emergency hearings for Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the rise in shootings and possible efforts to combat it. Testimony is expected from leaders in the Police Department and District Attorneys Office.

The weekends violence occurred in neighborhoods across the city, and was most intense Sunday, when at least 14 people were shot in 11 incidents, police said.

That includes the triple shooting that wounded one of the 11-year-old boys, police said. Gunfire erupted on the 1500 block of South Napa Street in Grays Ferry about 7:50 p.m. A 31-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman were also injured. Police said they were hospitalized in stable condition.

About an hour earlier, in East Mount Airy, 25-year-old Shaquan Gleaves was fatally shot on the 100 block of East Sharpnack Street. Police said Monday they believe two men fired at him from a moving car. No arrests had been announced.

About 4:40 a.m. Sunday, a 33-year-old man told police he was shot in a shin after walking away from an Airbnb on the 1000 block of Arch Street in Center City. The man told officers he then walked to a bus stop on the 1000 block of Market Street to call 911. He was hospitalized in stable condition, police said.

Saturday night, just before 10, an 11-year-old boy suffered a graze wound from a bullet near a playground in Olney, police said.

And about a half-hour before that, six people were shot  three women, ages 59, 18, and 24, and three males, ages 17, 18, and 18  on a playground near the Philadelphia Zoo. All were hospitalized in stable condition, police said.

Police did not report any motive or arrests. Outlaw called the incident senseless and said: These acts of lawlessness have no place in our communities.

The violence continued Monday afternoon, when police reported five shootings in about four hours.

In one, on the 1100 block of South Peach Street in Kingsessing, a 29-year-old man was killed after he was shot once in the chest, police said.

At the rally outside City Hall, Dorothy Johnson-Speight, founder of the anti-violence group Mothers in Charge, said collective action was required to help turn the tide.

Nobodys safe until were all safe, she said. Wheres the damn outrage?
The TrueConnect 2 are the successor to the acclaimed TrueConnect from the Glasgow-based audio brand RHA. The new model may look identical to the previous one but RHA claims several improvements under the hood, including a much longer battery life, better ingress protection, more microphones, redesigned buttons, and more robust connectivity.

At $150, the TrueConnect 2 are priced similar to popular offerings from other major brands. This means they need to be competitive with some of the industry heavyweights while also rising above the increasingly common low-priced alternatives from the Chinese brands. Let's see if the TrueConnect 2 can do that.

Design

As mentioned before, the TrueConnect 2 look identical to the original TrueConnect. If you know what those are like, then you'd be glad RHA decided to leave the design alone.

For those who haven't seen the original, the TrueConnect 2 come in a fantastically well-built charging case with rubberized plastic and a sturdy metal enclosure. The opening mechanism for this case is perhaps the most unique I have come across. Depending upon how you hold it, you can either have the metal bracket on top rotate out of the way to reveal the earbuds underneath or you can flip the plastic body from underneath the metal bracket and have the insides flip towards you like an old-fashioned tape deck.

Either way, the mechanism is super satisfying to operate, with a smooth movement and firm sound at each end of the travel. Holding it in your hand, it's nearly impossible to not use it as some sort of fidget cube.

On the outside, we find three LED indicators for the battery inside the case. There's also a USB-C connector for charging.

The insides are lined with the same soft-touch material as the outside. Here we can find the two earbuds nestled quite securely with magnets.

Moving on to the earbuds, they again share the same design as their predecessors. The design is distinctive, with short stalks and lumpy speaker enclosures. The backs of these have a touch-sensitive surface to control various functions on the earphones. This is a departure from the original TrueConnect, which featured physical buttons that needed to be pressed in. The TrueConnect 2 can be accessed with a gentle touch.

However, this also means that it's now quite easy to trigger a function on these while handling the earphones. Usually, you'd end up accidentally playing/pausing the music and occasionally may even bring up the voice assistant on the phone with a long press.

RHA has also improved the ingress protection on the TrueConnect 2. They are now IP55 rated against dust and water, as opposed to the IPX5 rating for the TrueConnect.

The TrueConnect 2 come with three sizes of silicone ear tips. There are two pairs of small size, three pairs of the medium, and two pairs of large size. Why the extra pair of mediums? Who knows. They do come mounted on a nice stainless steel plate inside the box with the third pair of mediums attached to the earphones.

Overall, in terms of design and build quality, the TrueConnect 2 are exceedingly well-designed. The case alone deserves some sort of award for its design and slick operation.

Comfort

The TrueConnect 2 are somewhat uncomfortable when it comes to putting them on and off. The design of the ear tips causes a strong suction inside your ears, which feels quite uncomfortable at first. You also need to be careful to remove them to avoid further shock due to the sudden change in air pressure. It seems the design can't vent internal pressure successfully or has been designed intentionally to suppress external sounds. Either way, not a fun pair to put on, especially for those who already dislike wearing in-ear earphones.

Once on, however, you can wear them for hours. It takes a while for the pressure inside your ears to equalize but once it's done you can forget about wearing them as they are barely noticeable. It's a shame the process of putting them on and off isn't as nice as they can be quite comfortable while in use.

Software and features

The RHA TrueConnect 2 do not come with a companion app. This means they have a limited feature set and the firmware cannot be updated.

The earbuds feature a single 6mm dynamic driver. They have Bluetooth 5.0 support where each earbud connects directly to the source device, which is an improvement over their predecessor. There is, however, no multi-device pairing nor any way to quickly switch between the current and last paired device. The TrueConnect 2 support AAC alongside SBC, which was an odd discovery as the website only mentions support for SBC.

The touch controls on either earbud support a range of functions. A single tap will play/pause from either earbud. A double-tap will skip forward on the left earbud and increase volume on the right earbud. A triple tap will skip back on the left earbud and reduce the volume on the right earbud. A short press and hold will activate the voice assistant on the phone. A long press initiates pairing mode but you need to disconnect from the currently paired device first.

As with most truly wireless earbuds, you can use just one of the earbuds for voice calls and using the voice assistant.

The TrueConnect 2 don't have sensors built-in to detect when they are worn, which means you can't remove them to pause the music nor can you put them back in to continue playing.

Performance

The RHA TrueConnect 2 are decent-sounding earphones. The sound signature leans more towards a neutral sound but doesn't quite get there. But people who prefer a neutral sound will likely find these more appealing than those who want a more colored bass or treble-heavy sound.

The bass response is fairly lean. There is a good presence in the upper and mid-bass regions but the low-end lacks the rumble and thump you get from a more well-rounded bass response. I tried swapping out the ear tips in case there was an issue with the seal but things didn't change.

Things continue to be a mixed bag with the mids. There's a good presence in the lower-mid, which makes male vocals sound reasonably forward and distinct in the mix. Unfortunately, there is a drop in the upper-mids, which pushes female vocals and some instruments in the background and makes you want to turn up the volume to hear things more clearly.

The treble also loses some of the energy in the low-treble range, which seems to continue from the mid-range depression. However, there seems to be a bump in the higher ranges of the audio spectrum, which adds a layer or sibilance and sizzle, that accentuates all the S and T sounds. This is usually not that distracting but can be quite aggressive on some tracks.

The overall sound signature still comes across as fairly balanced. But there is a somewhat veiled nature to the sound due to the suppressed upper mids, which robs it of detail and overall volume.

Another issue with the sound is the lack of soundstage. It's a very narrow sound that makes it seem contained within the confinements of your head. Most recordings tend to take a monophonic character and only tracks with a really wide stereo soundscape open up a bit on these earphones. Usually, I advise against it but you might be better off enabling whatever surround sound option your phone shipped with to get a more open soundstage on the TrueConnect 2.

The microphone performance on the TrueConnect 2 is quite decent. RHA claims to have improved the mic performance over the previous generation model by adding a second mic on each earbud. The audio is reasonably clear for voice calls.

Latency in audio is subpar. Even with videos, there is a noticeable delay between the video and the audio synchronization. With games, it's even more noticeable as the audio is tied to your inputs.

Battery Life

Battery life is one of the major improvements in the new TrueConnect 2. RHA claims 44 hours of total battery life, which is a result of a claimed 9.5 hours of continuous use out of the earbuds and an additional 34.5 hours out of the case over 4 recharges.

In my testing, the earbuds went on for 9 hours of continuous, which is pretty great for truly wireless earbuds and one of the best figures we have seen. What this means is that you can pretty much count on never having to worry about running of juice while still listening. It's unlikely your listening session will last beyond continuous 9 hours, which means you will end up charging them well before they run out.

The earphones take about 70 minutes to charge completely and the case itself takes about 3 hours to charge.

Verdict

For $150, the RHA TrueConnect 2 are a reasonably good pair of truly wireless earbuds. Their key advantages are stellar build quality and design and impressive battery life for a pair of truly wireless earbuds. They also block a surprising amount of background noise passively and the audio quality, while not exceptional in any way, is also quite decent overall.

Unfortunately, some issues hold them back. The audio latency is on the higher side, which makes them unsuitable for watching videos and playing games. I missed the convenience of just taking them out of the ear to pause the music, a feature that several other TWS earphones offer in this price range. The touch-sensitive controls on the side are quite easy to trigger while handling the earphones. And lastly, I also didn't find them very comfortable, at least when it came to putting them in my ear.

So that's the lowdown on the RHA TrueConnect 2. Now you can decide if these work out for you based on your usage. I'd still choose the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ as they are better in most ways than the TrueConnect 2 while being a bit cheaper but if you fancy the design of the TrueConnect 2 or its case then I wouldn't blame you.

Pros

Excellent design and build

Great battery life

Impressive passive noise cancellation

Cons
Police have seized 2.74 kilograms (kg) of banned heroin, which is worth around Rs 3 crore, on Sunday following the seizure of fake Indian currency notes (FICNs) allegedly smuggled from Pakistan.

Anand Sharma, superintendent of police (SP), Barmer, told media persons on Sunday evening that five people had been arrested for running an FICN racket.

We got a tip-off about the contraband and raids were conducted at Khandu Khans house in Bhanwar village. We recovered 1.74 kg heroin from his house, the SP said.

During interrogation, Khan named Mula Ram of Bamarala Der village as his accomplice. Another kg of heroin was recovered from Rams house. The market value of the seized contraband is around Rs 3 crore, he added.

The seized narcotics could be a part of a bigger consignment and the police suspect that Pakistan is involved in the cross-border smuggling of heroin.

Some police officers said five kg of heroin was dumped in an agricultural field near the Indo-Pak border and half of the consignment was sent to Sanchore in Jalore and Jodhpur.

Earlier, police had seized Rs 500 FICNs on August 4 after a bank tipped them off.

Later, Akbar Khan of Paradiya village was arrested and Rs 6.55 lakh FICNs were found in his possession. Sawan Khan, Bacchu Khan, Badal Khan, and Ajij Khan are the other persons arrested for running the FICN racket.

In the past seven months, the police have busted two Pakistan-sponsored FICN rackets, worth Rs 12 lakh, in Barmer.

Akbars uncle Roshan Khan is based in Pakistan and is the supplier of FICNs. He is suspected to be behind the smuggling of drugs as well, the police added.

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Ukraine will not allow itself to interfere in the U.S. elections and spoil relations with the United States, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

"It is never, under any circumstances, acceptable to interfere in any way in the sovereign elections of another country. I assure our partners once again that Ukraine did not allow and will not allow itself in the future to meddle in the elections and thereby undermine our sincere partnership of trust with the United States," he wrote on his Facebook page.

According to him, preventing Ukraine from being drawn into U.S. domestic policy is a matter of national security.

"I believe that citizens of Ukraine, to put it mildly, should refrain from any activity related to the presidential elections in the United States and should not allow themselves to try to solve any of their personal political or business problems using this. Ukraine's reputation is worth much more than the reputation of any of our politicians," Zelensky wrote.

He expressed hope that Ukraine's international partners would also have the "same respectful attitude towards the sovereign right of Ukraine to internal affairs and the internal choice of its priorities."

op
BEIRUT: Lebanon Cabinet on Monday (August 10) resigned over last week's devastating explosion at the Beirut port which left 160 people dead and almost 6,000 injured.

The country's health minister Hamad Hassan was quoted by AP reporters as saying, "The whole government resigned." He added that Prime Minister Hassan Diab will head to the presidential palace to hand over the resignation in the name of all the ministers.

The massive blast at Beirut port on August 4 devastated large parts of the city. The explosion is believed to have been caused by a fire that ignited a 2,750-ton stockpile of explosive ammonium nitrate. The material had been stored at the port since 2013 with few safeguards despite numerous warnings of the danger.

The result was a disaster Lebanese blame squarely on their leadership's corruption and neglect. The blast killed at least 160 people and wounded about 6,000, in addition to destroying the country's main port and damaging large parts of the capital.

State Security had compiled a report about the dangers of storing the material at the port and sent a copy to the offices of the president and prime minister on July 20. The investigation is focused on how the ammonium nitrate came to be stored at the port and why nothing was done about it.

About 20 people have been detained over the blast, including the head of Lebanon's customs department and his predecessor, as well as the head of the port. Dozens of people have been questioned, including two former Cabinet ministers, according to government officials.

The incident led to public outrage at the government and Lebanon's long-entrenched ruling class. Protests were planned outside the government headquarters to coincide with the Cabinet meeting after large demonstrations over the weekend that saw clashes with security forces resorting to firing tear gas to control the unruly mob.
A broken storefront window is seen after parts of the city had widespread looting and vandalism, on 10 August 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. Police made several arrests during the night of unrest and recovered at least one firearm: (2020 Getty Images)

Shots were fired in downtown Chicago, as police clashed with police in Portland and Ferguson on the anniversary of Michael Browns death at the hands of a Missouri police officer.

Early Monday morning, hundreds of protesters smashed windows, stole from shops and clashed with police in downtown Chicago, following an incident on Sunday afternoon.

Shots were also fired at the police at one point and officers fired back, but nobody was injured in the incident, according to police spokesman Tom Ahern.

The unrest that mainly took place in the citys Magnificent Mile shopping district begun just after midnight, and followed dozens of protesters clashing with police earlier in the day after officers wounded a man in Englewood, just 10 miles from downtown Chicago.

Residents were misinformed that the police had fatally shot a child, which led to an angry crowd forming in the neighbourhood on Sunday, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The incident in Englewood occurred on the sixth anniversary of the death of 18-year-old Mr Brown, who was killed by officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, on 9 August 2014. His death sparked weeks of protests and helped form the Black Lives Matter movement.

In July, it was announced that Mr Wilson will not be charged for Mr Browns death, and peaceful protests and memorial services were held in his honour on Sunday.

A small demonstration in honour of Mr Brown outside the police headquarters in Ferguson also turned ugly when riot place used batons and pepper spray to make a series of arrests.

At a separate protest in tribute to Mr Brown in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday, at least eight people were arrested, as police appeared to use flash grenades and pepper sprayed a demonstrator.

Police clashed with protesters in numerous states in the US on Sunday, including in Portland, where a small group of demonstrators marched to the Portland Police Association building and blocked roads and started fires.

Over the weekend, at least 33 people were arrested during protests in Portland, while two police officers were treated in hospital, as five others reported injuries.

Story continues

Black Lives Matter protests have been taking place in Portland and the US as a whole for the last two months, following the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis.

Mr Floyds death sparked protests in every state in the US in opposition to police brutality against African Americans, and protesters in Portland have called for reform of the citys police department

Last month, the Trump administration deployed federal agents to the city after the federal courthouse had become a target of nightly violence.

Despite previously supporting protests, mayor Ted Wheeler called for violence to stop on Thursday after after some demonstrators started a fire outside the Police Bureaus East Precinct building.

Although they are not attracting the same crowds as they did in July when federal agents patrolled the city, some protests in Portland have become more violent in the last week, as other peaceful demonstrations continue separately.

In reaction to more violence over the weekend, president Donald Trump tweeted that Portland should use the National Guard to stop protesters.

He tweeted: Portland, which is out of control, should finally, after almost 3 months, bring in the National Guard. The Mayor and Governor are putting peoples lives at risk. They will be held responsible. The Guard is ready to act immediately. The Courthouse is secured by Homeland!

Portland, which is out of control, should finally, after almost 3 months, bring in the National Guard. The Mayor and Governor are putting peoples lives at risk. They will be held responsible. The Guard is ready to act immediately. The Courthouse is secured by Homeland!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2020

The National Guard was deployed in multiple states across the US during protests in June and July, but so far Portland has not used them, despite the Trump administration deploying federal agents to protect the courthouse last month.

On Sunday, during a pro-police rally in Seattle, Black Lives Matter protesters clashed with members of alt-right group the Proud Boys, outside Seattle City Hall.

The Proud Boys, which is a male only organisation with a history of white supremacy, clashed with anti-racism protesters after marching through a crowd of them who were there to demonstrate against racial inequality and police brutality.

Punches were thrown as protesters were injured on both sides, and one Black Lives Matter protester was pepper-sprayed by a member of the Proud Boys, according to KOMO News.

Louisville, Kentucky, also saw unrest over the weekend, as 12 protesters were arrested on Saturday as rubbish bins were set on fire and drivers were targeted by demonstrators, according to the Courier Journal.

Black Lives Matter protests coincided with other demonstrations against police brutality and racial inequality in Louisville in May, after Breonna Taylor was killed when police broke down her door in an attempted drug raid, and shot her eight times. No narcotics were found in her residence.

Police spokesman Lamont Washington confirmed that eight of the 12 arrested on Saturday were charged with felonies, while the other four were charged with misdemeanours.

This evening, protesters, during their march, blocked roadways, surrounded vehicles that tried to avoid the protest, shot paintballs (at) passing motorists, destroyed property at 4th Street Live while it was occupied with patrons, set trash cans on fire, and then continued to Jefferson Square, Mr Washington told the Journal.

Based off these actions, the assembly was deemed unlawful.

On Saturday, at a rally that demanded justice for Ms Taylor, Mr Browns father, Michael Brown Sr said that he was dying inside, according to the Daily Mail.

Speaking about Ms Taylors death, he said: I can only imagine what the family goes through every day when they wake up not seeing those smiles. No talk. No hugs, and added: Those things will definitely kill you from the inside out.

We might look OK in the face, but we dying in the inside.

Read more

Ferguson officer wont be charged for 2014 Michael Brown killing
Bollywood actor Rhea Chakraborty reached the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office on Monday morning for another around of questioning in the money laundering case linked to actor Sushant Singh Rajputs death. The actor was accompanied by her brother Showik Chakraborty. Rhea Chakrabortys previous questioning with the ED went on for nearly eight hours. Rheas father Indrajit Chakraborty is also likely to be questioned by the ED officials on Monday.

The ED had questioned Rhea once on Saturday following which she was called back on Monday. The ED had questioned her brother for nearly 18 hours on Saturday. As per reports, Showiks questioning went on till around 6:30 am on Sunday morning.

Chakraborty has filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding the CBI probe to be stopped. A hearing has been set for August 11 in the Supreme Court in the case.

Also read: Sushant Singh Rajputs sister Shweta responds to Rhea Chakrabortys chat revelation

According to sources in the investigation agency, the officials have got hold of electronic evidence in connection with the case and are also investigating phone records of conversations between Rhea, her father and brother, news agency ANI reported.

The CBI has also collected documents related to the actors death from Bihar Police. The ED has also asked the late actors friend, Siddharth Pithani, to appear before the agency on August 8.

After the actors father, KK Singh, filed an FIR against Rhea in Bihar on July 28, the agency registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) in the case on July 31. The agency has registered a case against six accused, including Rhea, in connection with Rajputs death who was found dead at his Mumbai residence on June 14.
Over the weekend, you might have noticed the white Chemical Bank banners were removed from signs, revealing the outward integration of the brand into what is now TCF Bank.

Chemical Bank  which was founded in Midland in 1917 as Chemical State Savings Bank  was purchased by TCF Financial Corporation and the merger was closed in August 2019, forming Michigans largest national bank holding company.

Were certainly very excited for TCF in the region. We look forward to continuing to be an essential part of the Great Lakes Bay Region with 500-plus employees in the area, said Market President Jordan Summers. I would say the employees here in the community were all obviously legacy Chemical Bank employees and were very proud of that heritage, while also ... excited to continue as the new brand as well. So, a lot of excitement from the team as we roll out the new brand.

As of Monday, Aug. 10, TCFs primary banking subsidiary, TCF National Bank, rebranded all its banking centers across TCFs footprint under the TCF Bank name, and all consumers share a common digital banking and mobile app experience, branded as TCF Bank.

Approximately 200 banking centers in Michigan and Ohio that previously operated as Chemical Bank were impacted by the name change.

We have spent the past year integrating our technology systems to provide a best-in-class digital experience for our customers both on our website and through our mobile app, while also upgrading the back-end systems to meet the new TCFs needs today and well into the future, said Tom Shafer, president and chief operating officer of TCF Bank, in a statement. I am very proud of our teams efforts to support our integration activities in the face of unexpected challenges, including a pandemic, working from home, civil unrest and a historic flood in Midland, Michigan, home to some of our key operations. This was not an easy task  but our teams ability to execute our strategy despite the hardships reflects the power of our purpose and beliefs.

Now, the integration is complete and TCF is sharing its new tagline, Whats in it for We. This announcement follows a $1 billion loan commitment for five years to minority communities and minority-owned and women-owned small businesses in addition to multiple other financial commitments.

Today is a historic day for the new TCF, and we want all of our customers to know that with the final step complete in the merger of equals, we remain deeply committed to the communities where we live, work and serve, said Craig R. Dahl, president and chief executive officer, TCF Financial Corporation, in a statement.

In addition, there is some good news coming for Sanford bank customers. The branch location will be rebuilt, after flooding in May had rendered the previous building unsafe and the site was demolished.

There is no timeline yet for the opening of the new center, as the process is in the initial site development stages.

Were excited to be part of the rebuild in Sanford as we look to move the community forward, Summers said.

Also locally, the flood relief loan program has come to an end, with 94 interest-free loans totaling $908,500 distributed to area residents affected by flooding.

A lot of folks were grateful for the opportunity, which you know, we were glad to provide the opportunity, but we were really pleased with some of the feedback that we got in regard to the ease and speed of the process, Summers said.

In addition to local developments, TCF Financial Corporation is building a new headquarters in Detroit. The financial holding company has $50 billion in total assets and is the largest bank based in Michigan offering consumer and commercial banking, trust and wealth management, and specialty leasing and lending products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients.

TCF has approximately 475 banking centers primarily located in Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota with additional locations in Colorado, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. TCF also conducts business across all 50 states and Canada through its specialty lending and leasing businesses.
Magnetic hyperthermia therapy (MHT) as a noninvasive local treatment strategy is able to ablate tumors using an alternating magnetic field (AMF) to heat up magnetocaloric agents (e.g., magnetic nanoparticles) administered into the tumors. For clinical applications, there is still a demand to find new magnetocaloric agents with strong AMF-induced heating performance and excellent biocompatibility. In addition to magnetic nanoparticles, whose AMF induced heating mechanism is mainly due to the heating power of relaxation loss, bulk conductors such as metals can also be heated under an AMF by the eddy current effect, in which an induced current is generated when a bulk conductor is placed in an AMF. Therefore, it would be significant and interesting to use the eddy thermal effect of bulk metal for tumor ablation. As a kind of biocompatible and biodegradable material, magnesium (Mg) and its alloys have been extensively used in the clinic as an implanted metal.

Recently, the eddy thermal effect of the magnesium alloy (MgA) could be employed for MHT to effectively ablate tumors was reported by Profs. Zhuang Liu and Liang Cheng from Soochow University. Under low-field-intensity AMFs, MgA rods could be rapidly heated, resulting in a temperature increase in nearby tissues. Such AMF-induced eddy thermal heating of MgA could not only be used to kill tumor cells in vitro, but also be employed for effective and accurate ablation of tumors in vivo. In addition to killing tumor tissue in mice, VX2 tumors of much larger sizes growing in rabbits after implantation of MgA rods could also be eliminated after exposure to an AMF, illustrating the ability of MgA-based MHT to kill large-sized tumors. Moreover, the implanted MgA rods showed excellent biocompatibility and ?20% of their mass was degraded within three months. This work not only broadens the application of MgA in biomedicine, but also provides a new strategy for accurate and effective tumor treatment under a low-field-intensity AMF in a minimally invasive manner, applicable even for deep-set and large tumors. Considering the wide clinical use of implantable MgA devices, such a strategy holds great promise in clinical translation.

###

This research received funding from the National Basic Research Programs of China (973 Program), the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

See the article:

Biodegradable magnesium alloy with eddy thermal effect for effective and accurate magnetic hyperthermia ablation of tumors

Nailin Yang, Fei Gong, Liang Cheng*, Huali Lei, Wei Li, Zongbin Sun, Caifang Ni, Zhanhui Wang, and Zhuang Liu*

Natl Sci Rev 2020; doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwaa122

https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/ nwaa122

The National Science Review is the first comprehensive scholarly journal released in English in China that is aimed at linking the country's rapidly advancing community of scientists with the global frontiers of science and technology. The journal also aims to shine a worldwide spotlight on scientific research advances across China.
Northern Ireland's biggest businesses have seen sales rising by more than 10% over the last year with four ranking turnover of over 1bn, it has been revealed.

The Ulster Business Top 100 Companies 2020 list with A&L Goodbody shows turnover has grown to 27.5bn from 24.9bn, across our largest businesses - up 10.4%. This year's double-edition magazine is now out.

The list has showcased the performance of the biggest firms from right across Northern Ireland, ranked by turnover, for more than 30 years.

Meanwhile, pre-tax profits have also risen in line with sales - up around 10% across the companies on the list, when compared with year-on-year figures. Profitability increased from 935.6m to 1.03bn.

The majority of the company accounts cover 2019 and the end of 2018 so any impact from coronavirus and lockdown is not be reflected in the overall performances.

And poultry processing giant Moy Park has topped the list for the ninth year in a row, with turnover of 1.58bn, while pre-tax profits now sit at 70m.

There are around a dozen new entrants to this year's list.

The new arrivals include World Travel Centre Ltd, Creagh Concrete Products Ltd and Morgan Fuels & Lubes Ltd.

Michael Neill, head of Belfast office at law firm A&L Goodbody, sponsor of the Top 100, said: "On behalf of all at A&L Goodbody, congratulations to each of this year's Ulster Business Top 100 Companies.

"We wish you every success in the coming year as you embark upon your respective journeys to recovery post Covid-19.

"As an international law firm with offices in Belfast, Dublin, London and the US, we have been working closely with many of these Top 100 Companies in recent months, advising on both domestic and international matters impacted by Covid-19.

"We have been inspired not only by their drive and agility but, most of all, their resilience and determination to overcome adversity yet again."

Ulster Business editor John Mulgrew said: "The performance of some of Northern Ireland's leading firms continues to cement our position on the business map - especially given the wide breadth of companies which call here home.

"And while over the course of more than 30 years this list has been through the boom times, as well as tough periods following the 2008 recession, the next couple of years are likely to be the most difficult many of them have ever faced.

"But many of those companies on the list, and across Northern Ireland as a whole, have the resilience and the ability to weather such challenging times, and Ulster Business will be there as a guide along the way."

Sales within the Top 100 have reached their highest recorded levels of 27.5bn up from a like for like figure of 24.9bn for the year before.

Another indicator of the strong sales performance across the listing is that just 19 of the companies have posted reduced sales year-on-year.

For the first time, four of the businesses posted sales in excess of 1bn, Moy Park Ltd retained its long-standing top spot, followed by W&R Barnett Ltd, Glen Electric Ltd and Dunbia Ltd - accounts for Glen Dimplex cover an 18-month period.

With a turnover of 27.5bn producing profits of 1,029m the companies produced a pre-tax margin of 3.7%.

A total of 104,210 people are employed by Northern Ireland's Top 100 Companies, an increase on the 85,744 employed by the companies in the 2019 listing.
President Donald Trump listens to a question from a reporter during a briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington on Aug. 3, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Trump Attorneys: Manhattan DA Still Trying to Justify Harassment of President Over Tax Records

President Donald Trumps legal team on Monday pushed back against the Manhattan district attorneys suggestion that it is pursuing an investigation into possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization.

In a new court filing, Trumps attorneys argued that New York Country District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. is still fishing for a way to justify his harassment of the President when he cited several newspaper articles to justify his subpoena for the presidents tax returns as part of a grand jury probe.

Trumps legal team filed a new complaint in late July to challenge the subpoena in order to prevent Vance from obtaining access to eight years of the presidents tax returns and other financial records from his accountants. They argued that the subpoena was widely overbroad and issued in bad faith, which amounted to a form of harassment against the president.

Vances office last week sought to dismiss the challenge, arguing that the complaint merely regurgitates allegations and arguments this Court has rejected before.

Trumps lawyers accused the district attorney of refusing to confront the claims detailed in the new complaint and instead inappropriately asked the court to consider extrinsic evidence that suggested that the scope of the grand jury investigation may be broader than previously known to justify the subpoena. They claimed that this move was done in violation of the federal rules of civil procedure.

At no pointin this motion or in any public filinghas the District Attorney ever claimed that the topics discussed in these reports were the impetus for his investigation or are otherwise related to it, the lawyers argued (pdf).

Lobbing incendiary articles into the record may be sufficient to trigger a breathless news cycle, but such misdirection falls woefully short of what is needed for dismissal. If anything, it shows that the District Attorney is still fishing for a way to justify his harassment of the President.

The lawyers went on to argue that even if the court considers the evidence, the district attorney has never fully disclosed the scope of the grand jury investigation and the fact that there are public allegations of possible criminal activity is not sufficient justification for the subpoena.

If the District Attorney convened the grand jury in order to investigate allegations discussed in these articles, he couldve said so, they argued. But the bare fact that there were public allegations of possible criminal activity, which is all these citations show, provides no insight into whether the grand jury is in fact investigating them and whether they were a basis for issuing this subpoena.

In a second court filing on Monday, the lawyers sent a letter (pdf) to the federal judge telling him that if chooses to consider Vances suggestion that prosecutors are investigating the bank and insurance fraud allegations, then the court should ask for the district attorney to disclose the details of the grand jury probe, including showing whether each item in their subpoena is relevant to the probe.

When the subpoena was issued, Vance was reportedly investigating hush money paid to two women during the 2016 presidential campaign: adult film performer Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in connection with the two women.

Trump has been fighting Vances subpoena since September 2019, arguing that the president enjoys absolute immunity from state criminal process under the Constitution. The district court denied Trumps application for an injunction over the subpoena and dismissed the case in October 2019. The 2nd Circuit also denied the presidents request for relief.

Trumps lawyer argued in the Supreme Court that a sitting president has absolute immunity from state criminal subpoenas because compliance with them would impair the performance of his presidential duties. The federal government, which was also involved in the case, argued that a state grand jury subpoena for personal records of a sitting president should meet a higher standard of need.

The Supreme Court in July rejected (pdf) both arguments and said no citizen, not even the President, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding. However, the top court left the door open for the president to seek recourse, suggesting that Trump could still challenge the subpoena on other grounds.
Nurses at the Cite-de-la-Sante Hospital in Laval, Montreals largest suburb, staged a sit-in Friday, July 31. They were protesting dire working conditionsincluding chronic understaffing and forced overtimethat have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sit-in was part of a growing series of demonstrations and work stoppages that have taken place at health care institutions in Quebec and throughout Canada in recent months.

Many of these protest actions have been organized on Facebook by rank-and-file workers, acting independently of the unions. Like their counterparts in the United States and internationally, these workers have been impelled to act by unsafe working conditions, in particular the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE).

The palpable anger of health care workers is bound up with growing opposition among all sections of the working class to the ruling elites disastrous response to the health emergency and the economic fallout from the pandemic. But far from channelling this combative sentiment into a working class counteroffensive after decades of capitalist austerity, the unions are doing all they can to stifle and politically neuter it.

This was purpose of an op-ed column written by Jeff Begley, president of the FSSS-CSN, Quebecs largest health care workers union. Published last Tuesday in Le Devoir, a Montreal daily, the article was co-signed by many local FSSS-CSN union presidents.

It made extremely limited criticisms of the actions of the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ)-led provincial government with the aim of pacifying the scorching anger of rank-and-file hospital and CHSLD (nursing home) workers over the governments criminally negligent response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But a careful examination of the letters contents can only fuel the growing rank-and-file rebellion against the unions impotence and misleadership.

Under the title Repeating the mistakes of the first wave is not an option, the article echoes the lie that the pandemic took Canadian authorities by surprise and that their catastrophic handling of the crisis is simply due to mistakes. In reality, it is the result of a deliberate policy of putting profit before human lives.

For years, the various levels of government in Canada and Quebec ignored the repeated warnings of public health experts, epidemiologists and other scientists about the dangers from, and growing risk of, a global pandemic, and continued and intensified the budget cuts that have ravaged the health care system for decades. This was all the more criminal given that outside of East Asia, Canada was the country to experience the worst outbreak of the 2002-3 SARS epidemic, thereby exposing the devastating consequences of austerity and health care privatizations

For two critical months after the novel coronavirus had been identified at the beginning of 2020 as a major health threat, the federal Liberal and provincial governments did nothing to protect the population and front-line health care workers. Although the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a global health emergency on January 31 for the coronavirus, the federal Liberal government waited until March 10 to even request the provinces to identify potential shortages of key medical supplies, such as ventilators and PPE.

In their Le Devoir column, Begley and the other FSSS-CSN officials attempt to sow illusions in the CNESST (Quebecs Health and Safety Commission), calling on it to force employers to increase protective measures at work. The CNESST is an integral part of the capitalist state. Its role is to protect employers from heavy lawsuits in the event of workplace accidents, and provide injured and even permanently maimed workers with meagre compensation. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the CNESST has rejected the vast majority of complaints from workers who have invoked their right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions. Half of its board of directors is made up of senior union officials, such as CSN (Confederation of National Trades Unions) Vice President Caroline Senneville and QFL (Quebec Federation of Labour) President Daniel Boyer.

Begleys letter also promotes the lie that the CAQ government, which combines anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim chauvinism with an agenda of privatization and austerity, can be relied on, or at least pressured into, prioritizing working peoples lives and livelihoods over the profits of Quebecs capitalist elite. The government, public health authorities and CNESST must take responsibility, declares Begley.

Begley makes no specific demands to address workers concernsnot even for the provision of N95 masks and other vital PPE to all hospital and CHSLD workers, or for the lifting of the emergency decrees under which the government, in the name of fighting COVID-19, has given itself the power to override all collective agreements in the health care sector and effectively conscript workers.

This only underscores that the unions will not lift a finger to protect the workers they purport to represent in the face of a pandemic that has already killed almost 9,000 people in Canada, including 5,695 in Quebec; infected more than 13,500 Quebec health care workers; and caused a global health, economic and social disaster.

Instead, Quebecs unionsand this is as true for the QFL and CSQ (Centrale des syndicats du Quebec) as it is for the CSN  intend to continue and deepen the policy of close collaboration with the CAQ government that they have followed since the beginning of the pandemic.

The unions immediate response to the eruption of COVID-19 in Quebec was to proclaim their readiness to work closely with the government, and agree to an indefinite suspension of negotiations to renew collective agreements for 550,000 Quebec public sector workers. Later, when the government reversed course, on the calculation it could exploit the crisis to impose further contractual rollbacks, the unions agreed to work toward three-year interim agreements in which all questions pertaining to staffing, workloads and work rules are set aside, thereby locking in the existing ruinous working conditions for a further three years. For the past four months, the unions have kept their members in the dark, while they negotiate behind closed doors with the CAQ government on this basis.

In his article, Begley did not so much as mention the ministerial emergency orders (decrees) the government has used to reorganize workplace tasks, eliminate summer vacations, and otherwise abrogate health workers rights. That is because the unions have no intention of opposing, let alone organizing defiance of these orders, just as they have done nothing against the steady deterioration in working conditions over the past decades and the repeated use, under Liberal and Parti Quebecois governments, of emergency anti-strike laws to impose concession contracts.

Canadas union leaders have backed Justin Trudeaus federal Liberal government in its bailing out of big business and the financial aristocracy with hundreds of billions of dollars, while providing working people who have lost their jobs and income because of the pandemic with a mere $2,000 per month. The unions are also supporting the reckless back-to-work campaign being mounted by all levels of government even as the pandemic continues to spread.

The treacherous role that the unions have played during the pandemic is the continuation of their decades-long suppression of the class struggle. Since the 1980s, they have systematically isolated and sabotaged workers struggles, while politically tying them to pro-austerity and pro-war parties, from the Parti Quebecois, Bloc Quebecois and Trudeaus Liberals, to the NDP.

With the pro-capitalist unions unable and unwilling to defend their interests, health care workers must take matters into their own hands to protect their own health and lives and those of the public. The fight against a resurgence of the deadly COVID-19 virus depends on workers own initiativethe formation of workplace safety committees, entirely independent of the unions.

These rank-and-file committees must establish and enforce measures to protect workers, patients and their families in health care facilities (including ensuring adequate PPE and staffing levels and humane scheduling) on the basis of what is necessary from the standpoint of health and safetynot what the government and management claim is financially affordable. They must demand a massive reinvestment of resources in health care and the protection of all workers from the economic consequences of the pandemic as part of a broader political struggle for a workers government committed to socialist policies.

Through these committees, health care workers will be able to forge close ties with working people throughout the public sector and industrynot only in Quebec, but in the rest of Canada, the US and internationallywho are facing the same big business assault on jobs, working conditions and their lives.

We urge workers who want to establish such rank-and-file health and safety committees to contact the World Socialist Web Site.
Students at a nursery in Thailand can be seen playing separately in small screened-off play areas in a series of remarkable new photos.

The images, which were taken on Monday, show the level of health precautions taken by the Wat Khlong Toey School in Bangkok, which welcomed its 250 students back to the classroom in July.

The kindergarten had been closed since mid-March after authorities in Thailand issued a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus.

As well as setting up enclosed play areas, the school has set up plastic screens around the students' desks and has marked out socially-distanced boxes on the floor for pupils to stand in.

There are also now temperature scanners in the nursery's entrance, with soap dispensers located outside each classroom.

Some other schools in Thailand have also taken stringent measures in a bid to lower the risk of pupils and staff catching coronavirus.

Sam Khok school, which is located around 30 miles north of the Thai capital, asked its almost 5,000 students to self-isolate at home for 15 days returning for the new term, according to its headteacher.

Pupils stand in socially distanced boxes that are marked out in a classroom at Wat Khlong Toey School in Bangkok, Thailand, on August 10, 2020. (Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images ) (Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images)

Once students arrive at school, teachers hand face masks to them because its mandatory to wear them, said Chuchart Thiengtham.

The head teacher also added face shield were used by pupils for some activities.

The pictures from Wat Khlong Toey School in Bangkok came on the same day that the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that schools had to be safe before they could reopen.

Director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: "We all want to see schools safely reopened but we also need to ensure that students, staff and faculty are safe. The foundation for this is adequate control of transmission at the community."

"My message is crystal clear: suppress, suppress, suppress the virus," he added.

Additional reporting from Reuters
Vietnam logged zero new COVID-19 cases on Monday morning, the first time in over 10 days.

The Southeast Asian country has documented 841 coronavirus infections since January 23, when it registered the first-ever patient, the Ministry of Health said.

Three hundred and seventeen of the total are imported cases quarantined upon arrival.

Eleven have succumbed to COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, while 395 have beaten the pathogen to date.

Vietnam reported no new patients from 6:00 pm on Sunday to 6:00 am on Monday, the first time in more than ten days.

The health ministry has confirmed 384 cases traced to Da Nang, a beach city in central Vietnam, since July 25, when the first domestic infection was logged there after Vietnam had gone 99 days without any community transmission.

The virus has spread from the beach city to 14 other provinces and cities.

Health authorities in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the countrys economic hubs, are conducting aggressive contact tracing to screen tens of thousands of people having returned from Da Nang since last month.

Vietnam is quarantining 182,267 people who came into close contact with infected patients or entered the country from virus-battered regions at the time of writing.

The health ministry gives COVID-19 updates at 6:00 am and 6:00 pm every day.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Vick Hope put on a brave face as she appeared on Monday's episode of This Morning shortly after sharing a heartfelt tribute to her late friend Joe Lyons.

Joe was the producer of Capital Breakfast where Vick previously worked, while host Roman Kemp returned to the show on Monday after learning of his friend's death last Tuesday.

Vick, 30, announced a competition on the ITV chat show shortly after penning a post about Joe and sharing a photo of the pair together to her Instagram Stories.

Return: Vick Hope, 30, put on a brave face as she appeared on Monday's episode of This Morning shortly after sharing a heartfelt tribute to her late friend Joe Lyons

The TV presenter, who left Capital Breakfast in February, appeared via link in Norfolk where she told viewers about an opportunity to win 40,000 and a luxurious lodge.

She then had a chat with a chef who had crab dishes for her and appeared again later on Loose Women.

Mere hours before, Vick had shared an emotional tribute to Joe as she fondly remembered the time they had spent together.

Sharing a series of pictures of them, she wrote: 'Our Joe. My JoeJoe. My special, magical, beautiful friend. We signed off every message with "I love you, buddy", and yet Im worried I still didnt tell you enough.

Friends: Joe was the producer of Capital Breakfast where Vick previously worked, while the show's host Roman Kemp returned on Monday after learning of his friend's death last Wednesday

Back at work: Vick announced a competition on the ITV chat show shortly after penning a post about Joe and sharing a photo of the pair together to her Instagram Stories

'I really do love you, bud, so so much. We all do. I hope you know that. We are so lucky to have known you. The world is a better place for having had you in it. And now the stars have gained an extraordinary gift in you. Look at everything you made, Joe. Everything you achieved, what you built, who you inspired.

'Your talent and creativity are so immense, but more than that you are the kindest, most hilarious, caring, fun, fiercely loyal and spectacular person any of us had the pleasure of meeting. You really are the best one we ever knew. Our friend. My friend.

'For the last four years you have been my solace, my rock, my confidante. Ive told you all my secrets, and you said youd take them to the grave. And now it seems you did just that, and it breaks my heart.

'Words cannot describe this pain, it doesnt make sense and itll take time to process. I keep repeating: Not you, please not you. But now youre at peace, youre in a better place. Im going to miss you Joe Lyons, so much.'

Tribute: Mere hours before, Vick had shared an emotional tribute to Joe as she fondly remembered the time they had spent together

She wrote: 'Our Joe. My JoeJoe. My special, magical, beautiful friend. We signed off every message with "I love you, buddy", and yet Im worried I still didnt tell you enough'

Special person: Vick wrote a poignant post about what Joe had meant to her

She continued: 'Thank you for every crab dance, every "youre embarrassing us babe", every cereal box game, every 5am-er at a houseparty were not invited to, every "bah bah", every undersized chino, every photobomb courtesy of your a**e, every cocktail we shook in your flat or evening spent in my yard doing things we shouldnt on a school night, every club we sat in the corner of scheming, every time we were back and ready to do it all over again, every single damn laugh, every hug that meant the world because you made me feel safe and understood.

'And thank you for being my favourite valentine. We met our match in each other. Ive never encountered anyone else as weird and as wild, and together we were chaos.

'Wherever you are I hope youre causing chaos there too. We never wanted the party to end, and I dont believe this one is over either; Ill just see you at the afterparty. Until then, I love you, buddy. My thoughts are with your parents and Lou; Ro, Sonny and the team; Olly and everyone who loves you.'

'He was our best mate': Roman Kemp broke down in tears live on air on Monday as he returned to work at Capital Breakfast following Joe's death

Roman broke down in tears live on his Capital Breakfast radio show on Monday as he returned to work following Joe's passing.

The presenter and his co-stars Sian Welby, 33, and Sonny Jay, 27, took time off from the show last Tuesday after hearing the sad news.

And Roman, 27, took the decision to talk to viewers about how he was feeling on Monday as he paid tribute to his 'best friend' Joe. His cause of death has not been revealed.

Sad news: Joe, known on the show as Producer Joe has sadly passed away - his cause of death has not been revealed - this was his last Instagram post, shared on June 20

Painful: Roman struggled to contain his emotions during the show

Breaking down, he said: 'We wanted to share some really sad news. I never thought Id have to do this ever.

'Last Tuesday, very suddenly, we lost one of our best friends. Our producer Joe, he was a member of the Capital Breakfast family.

'We are trying to process this all together. We wanted to share this news with you.'

Roman continued: 'Joe had worked for Global, the parent company, for nine years.

'He was the very first person I met when I walked through the door. I remember thinking he was a bit of a Del Boy.

Roman said of his friend: 'He loved dogs. Obsessed with his daily step count. Never ironed his clothes. He loved his family so much. His dad Ivan, his mum Celia, his sister Lou'

'He was with me right from my very first show. He taught be everything. I dont know sitting in a radio studio without him.'

Discussing their close bond, Roman added: 'Hes the person Id sit here and rinse constantly.

'He loved dogs. Obsessed with his daily step count. Never ironed his clothes. He loved his family so much. His dad Ivan, his mum Celia, his sister Lou.

'He did love his friends his fans, he did have fans. The thing he loved most of all was doing this show, you listening.

'He was like a genius coming up with these ideas. He was driven by the reaction from you every day.'

Roman's mother, Shirlie Kemp wrote on Joe's final Instagram post, shared on June 20, 'God Bless you Joe .... you were and always will be so loved.'

Devastated: The radio host, 27, and his co-stars Sian Welby and Sonny Jay (all pictured) came off air mid-way through their radio show on Tuesday after learning the heartbreaking news
The Dormaa-Ahenkro Divisional Police Command has confirmed the death of a 36-year old man in a clash between supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).



The police have arrested three suspected persons allegedly involved in a clash at Nkrankwanta in the Dormaa West District of Bono Region.



The three suspects - Ali Musah, aged 33, Ibrahim Acquah, 33 years, and Amos Aning, aged 38 have been remanded into Police custody to assist in investigations.



Chief Inspector Augustine Kingsley Oppong, the Bono Regional Police Commands Public Relations Officer (PRO) told the Ghana News Agency on Monday in Sunyani.



Chief Inspector Oppong said on Saturday, August 8, 2020, at about 1735 hours, the Police Officer on duty at the Electoral Commissions (EC) for the mop-up registration exercise reported a clash between the NPP and the NDC supporters that resulted in three persons sustaining gunshot and cutlass wounds.



The three victims - Kwame Grutan, 33 years, Gabriel Eliasu, aged 45 and Kofi Larbeth, 36 years who got injured in the clash were rushed to the Nkrankwanta District Hospital for treatment but Larbeth died later at the Dormaa-Ahenkro Presbyterian Hospital, he said.



The body of deceased had since been deposited at the Presbyterian Hospital mortuary, pending autopsy whilst Grutan and Eliasu were responding to treatment, C/Insp. Oppong said



He added that a Mitsubishi pick up and a motorbike with an unknown registration number were set ablaze and a Ford Tundra was also damaged.



The police PRO said the Bono Regional Police Command has expressed condolence to the family of deceased and appealed to the general public to assist Police with concrete information that would lead to the arrest of other perpetrators in the incidence.

Source: GNA









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For the Soper family, living near the estuary of the Shoalhaven River on the NSW South Coast, 2020 is proving to be a year of natural calamities after the region was hit by bushfires in January and then a series of floods.

"This is probably one of the worst floods we've had," Greg Soper said, after trudging through floodwaters that surround his house at Bolong Road near Shoalhaven Heads. "It came up pretty quick and it hit us fast."

Greg and Amanda Soper walk through the floodwaters on their property near Shoalhaven Heads. Credit:Kate Geraghty

The family's younger son Chase, fearful of the rising waters around the 40-hectare farm, had already crept into his parents' bed only for the flood alert to go off at 2am on Monday, hours earlier than expected.

A scramble then followed to get their 50 horses and cattle and expensive farm machinery away from the rising waters. Most of their silage, though, "just floated away" and the spring crop was mostly lost, Mr Soper said. "We've certainly been doing it tough this year."
Simon Cowell has undergone surgery after breaking his back falling off his new electric bike.

The 60-year-old music mogul was riding the bike in the courtyard of his Los Angeles home when the accident occurred.

His spokesperson told BBC News Cowell entered surgery on Saturday evening (local time).

"He's under observation and in the best possible hands," she said.

It's reported Cowell was testing out the bike when the fall occurred.

British broadcaster Piers Morgan wished Cowell a "full and speedy" recovery, saying it sounded like a "nasty accident".
This week, former Vice President Joe Biden is expected to announce his female running mate. Whoever she is, she will be poised to clear centuries-old hurdles of gender discrimination and possibly racial prejudice too, in one general election campaign sprint.

She will be scrutinized, praised and pilloried, but at the moment of her announcement, she will be a more powerful person for ascending to the top of a list of extraordinary contenders and for what she might become: vice president and president.

Biden deserves credit for constructing and executing a search unlike any in American history. Instead of sprinkling high-ranking, bold-faced names of women politicians among the preferred men on his VP list, he decreed a women only list. And with that, he changed the vice presidential selection process forever.

Future presidential nominees will be more inclined to ask who has not been considered, whose worldview and experience is not represented? Where are the hidden talents? Biden showed us in the biggest way possible that if youre willing to dive into pools you have not swum in before, you can find more talent than you ever imagined.

But the almost-Democratic nominees bold stroke also has far-reaching consequences for the women who were on the list and not selected, for all women who aspire to high office and for all women whod like their talents taken into account.

More than a dozen women were named as still in the running over the past few weeks. Counting others mentioned early on and some who withdrew, like Amy Klobuchar, the number of women considered by the selection committee is likely much larger.

How did he find them? Simple, he looked. If you dont look, you can't see. If the search for a future vice president can turn up more than a dozen strong contenders, when women are only 26% of the U.S. Senate, 23% of the House of Representatives and 18% of governors, how much more difficult will it be now for any search committee to say, We just couldnt find any qualified women for the job or We just couldnt find a qualified woman of color whod be a good fit?

For the dozen or so women who headlined this search, introductions, biographies and Wikipedia entries will forevermore note they were on the list. The visibility afforded them in the review process can itself multiply opportunities. These are formidable women, and if a panel of former senators, mayors and distinguished policy experts concluded they could run the country, theres probably something to that.

Some of the women were well-known before the search and others were new to the national political stage. Sens. Tammy Duckworth, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Maggie Hassan, Tammy Baldwin and governors Gina Raimondo, Michelle Lujan Grisham and Gretchen Whitmer along with former National Security Adviser Susan Rice were already likely to be considered for Cabinet and executive positions in a Biden administration. Now, it is more likely that they will also be on short lists to head major foundations, corporations and internationally renowned American universities.

Reps. Karen Bass and Val Demings, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and former gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams will likewise come to mind for those in search of extraordinary leaders, where before they may not have been top of mind.

Such is the power of being seen.

This novel search for a running mate has also given every one of these women reason to consider running for president. Something about them made smart people think they could be president. Now, they may take that idea more seriously. And they should. The search highlighted their leadership abilities and conferred celebrity. And that is enormously valuable for women who aspire to high office.

Research by the Barbara Lee Family Foundation over decades of tracking women who run for governor, identified the challenge female candidates for executive office have accessing power broker networks. Male leaders in professional, industrial and labor circles have sometimes been reluctant to support and slow to fund womens campaigns for the top job in their states, particularly in primaries.

Seeing a female candidate as a chief executive has not come easily.

With this groundbreaking search for a vice presidential nominee, it has been impossible not to see the breadth of talent and variety of skills the women considered so clearly posses. A picture has now been drawn, a blank filled in, and it will be much easier to see a president who looks like them.

Because Joe Biden made us look.

Mary Hughes is a co-founder and president of Hughes & Company, a strategic communications and political consulting firm in Palo Alto. She has been a leader in establishing programs to recruit and train women to run for public office.
AXA SA is considering a sale of its Singapore business as it seeks to raise funds divesting peripheral operations, according to people familiar with the matter.

The French insurer is working with an adviser on the potential sale, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. The Singapore unit, which offers life and property and casualty insurance, could draw interest from rivals seeking to expand in Southeast Asia, the people said. It generated 615 million euros ($723 million) of revenue in 2019, according to AXAs annual report.

A sale process could start as soon as the next few weeks, the people said. No final decisions have been made, and theres no certainty the deliberations will lead to a transaction, the people said. A representative for Paris-based AXA declined to comment.

AXA and a local partner are also considering a potential sale of their life and general insurance venture in Malaysia, which could fetch about $650 million, Bloomberg News reported last year. AXA said this month that an agreement it struck to sell its AXA Life Europe business to Cinven had been terminated after certain conditions werent met.

Chief Executive Officer Thomas Buberl is trying to shift AXAs focus on property and casualty insurance following its $15.3 billion purchase of XL Group Ltd. in 2018. Since then, the CEO has been reviewing options for smaller businesses across the world, including in the Middle East, to help pay for the XL deal.

Profit at AXA sank in the first half as it booked a 1.5 billion-euro charge for claims related to COVID-19. AXA also warned of further shocks from the pandemic, scrapped growth targets and canceled a payout to shareholders.

Dealmaking in the insurance industry has remained resilient amid a slowdown in broader mergers and acquisitions activity amid the coronavirus pandemic. Insurers have been involved in $99 billion of acquisitions this year, up 77% from the same period in 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics AXA XL
MINSK, Belarus - A protester died amid clashes between police and thousands of people gathered for a second straight night Monday in Belarus after official results from weekend elections  dismissed by the opposition as a sham  gave an overwhelming victory to authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/8/2020 (527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A protester speaks to police as they block the road during a rally after the Belarusian presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020. Police and protesters clashed in Belarus' capital and the major city of Brest on Sunday after the presidential election in which the authoritarian leader who has ruled for a quarter-century sought a sixth term in office. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

MINSK, Belarus - A protester died amid clashes between police and thousands of people gathered for a second straight night Monday in Belarus after official results from weekend elections  dismissed by the opposition as a sham  gave an overwhelming victory to authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Interior Ministry spokesman Alexander Lastovsky said the victim was part of a crowd of people protesting results of Sundays presidential vote. The protester intended to throw an explosive device, but it blew up in his hand and killed him, Lastovsky said.

The death came amid demonstrations in at least four areas of Minsk that met with a harsh response from police who tried to disperse protesters with flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets. Near the Pushkinskaya subway station, some 3,000 protesters tried to build barricades.

Lukashenko's hardline rule began in 1994 and his victory would extend it until 2025. He derided the opposition as sheep manipulated by foreign masters.

Police block the road to protect against demonstrators after the Belarusian presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, late Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020. Police and protesters clashed in Belarus' capital and the major city of Brest on Sunday after the presidential election in which the countrys longtime authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled for a quarter-century, sought a sixth term in office. (AP Photo)

Dozens were injured and thousands detained hours after Sunday's vote, when police brutally broke up mostly young protesters with tear gas, water cannons and beat them with truncheons. Rights activists said one person died after being run over by a police truck  which authorities denied.

Election officials said Lukashenko won a sixth term in office with 80% of the vote, while opposition challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya got 10%. Tsikhanouskaya submitted a formal request for a recount to the Central Election Commission.

After submitting the request, both Tsikhanouskaya and her spokeswoman remained unreachable. Upon leaving the commissions headquarters she said I have made a decision, I must be with my children.

It was unclear if her statement meant that she was heading abroad to reunite with her children, whom she had earlier sent to an unspecified European country after receiving threats.

On Monday evening, scattered groups of opposition supporters began gathering in downtown Minsk, chanting Freedom! and Long live Belarus! A heavy police contingent blocked central squares and avenues, moving quickly to disperse protesters and detained dozens.

A police officer detains a protester during a rally after the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020. Police and protesters clashed in Belarus' capital and the major city of Brest on Sunday after the presidential election in which the authoritarian leader who has ruled for a quarter-century sought a sixth term in office. (AP Photo)

Later, about 1,000 protesters gathered near a big shopping mall in downtown Minsk before being dispersed by police. The Viasna rights group said protesters also gathered in several other Belarusian cities, including Brest, Mogilev and Vitebsk, where detentions also took place.

The police crackdown drew harsh criticism from European capitals and will likely complicate Lukashenkos efforts to mend ties with the West amid tensions with his main ally and sponsor, Russia.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that the election was not free and fair and added: We strongly condemn ongoing violence against protesters and the detention of opposition supporters.

Lukashenko, whose iron-fisted rule since 1994 has fueled growing discontent in the ex-Soviet nation of 9.5 million, warned that he wouldnt hesitate to use force again. He argued that the protesters met a due response overnight after injuring dozens of police officers and attempting to take control of official buildings in several Belarusian cities.

We will not allow them to tear the country apart," he said.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, candidate for the presidential elections, reacts during a news conference after the Belarusian presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. The country's central election commission said that with all ballots counted, Lukashenko, who has led Belarus for 26 years, took 80.23% of the vote and his main opposition challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, had only 9.9%. "We don't recognize these results," Tsikhanouskaya, a former English teacher and political novice, told reporters Monday. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

The 65-year-old former state farm director asserted that the opposition was being directed from Poland and the Czech Republic, adding that some groups in Ukraine and Russia could also have been behind the protests.

They are directing the (opposition) headquarters where those sheep don't understand what they want from them, he said in a dismissive reference to Tsikhanouskaya and her campaign.

Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek dismissed Lukashenko's claim, saying his country has not organized any protests.

The Interior Ministry said 89 people were injured during the protests late Sunday and early Monday, including 39 law enforcement officers, and about 3,000 people were detained, some 1,000 of them in Minsk.

Tsikhanouskaya, a 37-year-old former English teacher without any prior political experience, entered the race after her husband, an opposition blogger who had hoped to run for president, was arrested in May. She has managed to unite fractured opposition groups and draw tens of thousands to her campaign rallies  the largest opposition demonstrations since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Protesters give a first aid to a wounded man, injured by shrapnel from a smoke grenade, during clashes with police after the Belarusian presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, late Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020. Police and protesters clashed in Belarus' capital and the major city of Brest on Sunday after the presidential election in which the authoritarian leader who has ruled for a quarter-century sought a sixth term in office. (AP Photo)

We dont agree with (election results), we have absolutely opposite information, Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press on Monday. We have official protocols from many poll stations, where the number of votes in my favour are many more times than for another candidate."

The coronavirus-induced economic damage and Lukashenko's swaggering response to the pandemic, which he airily dismissed as psychosis, has fueled broad anger, helping swell the opposition ranks. The post-election protest, in which young demonstrators  many of them teenagers  confronted police, marked a previously unseen level of violence.

Internet and mobile networks went down after the polls closed as authorities tried to make it more difficult for protesters to co-ordinate.

The more they beat us, the less we believe in the official results, said Denis Golubev, a 28-year-old IT specialist who joined the protests.

The European Union condemned the police crackdown and called for an immediate release of all those detained.

In a joint statement, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and the EU commissioner responsible for relations with Europes close neighbours, Oliver Varhelyi, lamented that the election night was marred with disproportionate and unacceptable state violence against peaceful protesters.

Belarus' EU and NATO neighbours, Poland and Lithuania, also issued strong rebukes. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on European Unions leaders to convene an extraordinary summit to support the Belarusian people's democratic aspirations.

The U.K. Foreign Office also urged Belarusian authorities to refrain from further acts of violence following the seriously flawed presidential elections.

In the early 2000s, the United States and the European Union slapped sanctions against Lukashenko's government, but they lifted most of the penalties in recent years after Lukashenko freed political prisoners and allowed some opposition protests.

The Trump Adminsitration has recently sought to improve long-strained ties with Lukashenko, who some officials believe could be a valuable partner in countering Russian influence in eastern and central Europe. In early February, Pompeo became the first U.S. chief diplomat in more than 25 years to travel to Belarus, and offered to sell U.S. oil and gas to the country to reduce its dependence on Russian energy.

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The administration has also nominated an ambassador to Belarus who, if confirmed, would be the first to the country since 2008.

Throughout his tenure, Lukashenko has tried to exert pressure on the Kremlin with the prospect of normalizing ties with the West in a bid to win more Russian subsidies. But the violent crackdown now appears likely to derail Lukashenko's hopes for those ties as Russia exerts pressure on its small neighbour.

Moscow this year cut supplies of cheap oil to Belarusian refineries, depriving the country of an estimated $700 million in revenues from oil product exports. Russia-Belarus ties were further strained last week, when Belarusian law enforcement agencies arrested 33 Russian private military contractors and accused them of planning to stage mass riots."

Moscow has rejected the charges. Russian President Vladimir Putin called Lukashenko Friday to mend the rift, and quickly congratulated him Monday on winning the vote. The Belarusian leader also received congratulations from Chinese President Xi Jinping and heads of several ex-Soviet nations.

___

Associated Press journalists Jim Heintz, Vladimir Isachenkov and Daria Litvinova in Moscow, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Matthew Lee in Washington, Danica Kirka in London, Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Frank Jordans in Berlin and Karel Janicek in Prague contributed to this story.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 22:21:17|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank said on Monday it has approved 16.2 billion Kenyan shillings (about 150 million U.S. dollars) in credit to help improve tenure security and access to basic services for 1.7 million Kenyans living in selected urban informal settlements.

The funds will be used for the second phase of the Kenya Informal Settlements Improvement Project (KISIP2), which seeks to enhance infrastructure and livelihoods support and community engagement to assess and address risks, including the impacts of COVID-19, said Camille Lampart Nuamah, World Bank operations manager and acting country director for Kenya.

"Rapid urbanization and an increasing share of the poor living in urban areas have outpaced services and infrastructure provision, and this project will contribute to reducing this infrastructure and services gap," Nuamah said in a statement.

The project will also cushion urban informal settlement residents who depend on daily earnings against the negative socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.

According to the World Bank, upgraded infrastructure under the KISIP2 will improve access to basic services such as clean and safe water; mobility within the informal settlements; access for emergency vehicles; and the resilience of communities in instances of disasters. Enditem
This report provides detailed analysis of the growth trends among each of the segments as well as accurate forecasts in terms of the value and volume.

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Browse in-depth TOC on "Vertical Farming Market"

202 - Pages

126  Tables

37  Figures

Global Vertical Farming Market Overview

The rise in the awareness about sustainable farming due to an increase in urbanization and less availability of fertile land is one of the prominent driving factors for the market growth. The increasing preference for locally grown food with higher nutrients in the urban areas supplements the also fueling the growth of the market. With the growing advancements in technology, factors such as automation and the implementation of artificial intelligence in various industry sectors are leading to an increased rate of urbanization. Labor cost is one of the highest operational costs for a vertical farm contributing around 25% of the total cost. By reducing labor costs, companies can reduce product costs and increase margins. Therefore, by integrating robots and automation in indoor agriculture practices is likely to propel the growth of the market. The concept of vertical farming has been developed based on its potential to provide large populations concentrated in urban areas with locally grown food  and to meet the demands of a growing population worldwide. Due to the challenges and costs of transporting fresh crops to larger cities, urban farmers have realized the potential in utilizing existing square meters in tall city buildings and producing crops locally. The degree of urbanization is above 50% as of 2018, indicating the extent of urbanization that is occurring in regions worldwide. With this increasing urbanization in both developed as well as developing regions, the horizontal land area that can be used for applications such as farming is drastically reducing. The approach that can be employed to battle this limitation is vertical farming. Thus, it can be suggested that increasing urbanization is aiding the further progression and development of vertical farming. Moreover, other factors such as growing demand for high-quality food without any pesticides or herbicides, and independent farming technique with very less impact of climatic conditions and the possibility of growing vegetables and fruits in a limited space have been driving the market for the global vertical farming market

The major players in the market are Signify, AeroFarms LLC, Sky Greens PTE. LTD., Illumitex Inc., Everlight Electronics Co.Ltd., American Hydroponic Systems Inc., Vertical Farm Systems, Hort Americas, LLC.

Verified Market Research has segmented the Vertical Farming Market on the basis of Structure, Component, and Geography.

Vertical Farming Market by Structure

Building-Based Vertical Farms



Shipping Container Vertical Farms

Vertical Farming Market by Component

Irrigation Component



Lighting



Building Material



Sensor



Climate Control

Vertical Farming Market by Geography

North America



U.S





Canada





Mexico



Europe



Germany





France





U.K





Rest of Europe



Asia Pacific



China





Japan





India





Rest of Asia Pacific



ROW



Middle East & Africa

&



Latin America

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Schools are about to reopen. Parents have debated whether kids should return to school and attend classes or if remote learning should continue.

A school district in Illinois has released its guidelines regarding online classes.

In its student and family handbook, the school indicated that pajama pants or slippers would not be allowed. The manual says that students should follow the regular school dress code.

Specifically, the handbook says, "Hats, caps, bandanas, hoods of any type, sweatbands, sunglasses, pajama pants, slippers, or shoes with wheels attached to the bottom shall not be worn in the buildings."

READ ALSO: Viral Video: High School Principal's Parody Aims to Help Students Cope with the Coronavirus Pandemic





The reopening of schools this fall in Illinois

The school district that imposed the no pajamas policy has 33 school campuses.

On August 31, a hybrid model of learning will be implemented. Every week, there will be two days that students would come to school buildings. The other three days will be spent in school through online classes.

Aside from this setup, parents may opt to have a full-time remote education.

READ ALSO: Emotional Health: 5 Things Teens Can Do to Avoid Feeling Miserable [According to Experts]





In a report by NBC News, the school district spokesperson, Bree Hankins, said that the enforcement would be a light touch. She added, "Our hope is that students approach remote learning as they would in a classroom setting, to the extent possible given each student's individual circumstances. However, we understand the interpretation of the dress code in a remote learning environment will differ than in a normal school setting."

Hankins added that the No pajama rule is not intended to be disciplinary. Also, the school would address any concern about the dress code with the students and their families.

READ ALSO: 4 Tips to Parents for Kids' Return to Schools During the Pandemic





Reactions on the no pajama rule in Illinois

The rule stated in the 90-page student and family handbook for the school year 2020 to 2021 gained contradicting reactions from parents.

Some people on the Internet agree that even while at home, students would still need to follow structure.

However, there are questions on how the school will implement these rules.

On the other hand, some feel that this will only put more restrictions for students to learn.

READ ALSO: 6 Interesting summer activities for kids before the school reopening
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 9)  Sagada broke its COVID-free streak on Sunday, after one of the frontliners in the municipality was confirmed to have been infected with the virus.

The patient is a 29-year-old male with no history of travel, according to mayor James Pooten Jr.

In an advisory, Pooten said all COVID-19 monitoring hubs located in Pegeo, Payag-eo and in Taccong will be temporarily closed for decontamination on Monday, August 10, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

No person will also be allowed entry and exit to and from the municipality for further contact tracing purposes. A COVID-19 monitoring hub will be established in Danom area for the implementation of such, he said.

Nearly 130,000 cases of the disease have been recorded by health officials nationwide as of August 9. Of this number, 2,270 have died, while over 67,000 have recovered.
WASHINGTON - A brain imaging study of veterans with Gulf War illness (GWI) and patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) (sometimes called myalgic encephalomyelitis), has shown that the two illnesses produce distinctly different, abnormal patterns of brain activity after moderate exercise. The result of the Georgetown University Medical Center study suggests that GWI and CFS are distinct illnesses, an outcome that could affect the treatment of veterans with Gulf War illness.

The findings were published today in the journal Brain Communications. While it is estimated that CFS affects 0.2-2% of the U.S. population, GWI is a multi-symptom illness that affects about 25% to 30% of the approximately 700,000 military personnel who participated in the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War.

The two illnesses share many symptoms, including cognitive and memory problems (often described as "brain fog"), pain, and fatigue following mild to moderate exercise. Some medical institutions, including the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA), list CFS as a symptom of GWI (called chronic multisymptom illness associated with service in the Gulf War by the VA).

"Our results strongly suggest that GWI and CFS represent two distinct disorders of the brain and therefore CFS is not a symptom of GWI," says Stuart Washington, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow and first author on the study. "Combining of two different disorders could lead to improper treatment of both." Washington works in the laboratory of James Baraniuk, MD, professor of medicine at Georgetown.

In the study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) revealed that the brains of veterans with GWI and those of patients with CFS behaved differently when performing the same memory task after moderate exercise. Veterans with GWI showed a decrease in brain activity in the periaqueductal gray, a pain processing region within the brainstem, and in the cerebellum, a part of the brain responsible for fine motor control, cognition, pain, and emotion.

On the other hand, patients with CFS showed increased activity in the periaqueductal gray and in parts of the cerebral cortex related to maintaining vigilance and attention. In healthy subjects, these areas of the brain had no changes at all.

A previous study published by this same research group also suggested that the two illnesses are distinct. It showed that exercise causes different changes to the molecular makeup of cerebrospinal fluid in veterans with GWI and patients with CFS.

"Now that CFS and GWI have been shown to affect different regions of the brain, these regions can be more closely examined using neuroimaging and other techniques to further our understanding of the similarities and differences between the two illnesses," says Baraniuk. "Once this new information is adopted broadly, diagnoses and treatments for both disorders should improve."

###

The authors wish to thank the veterans and patients who participated in this research. In addition to Washington and Baraniuk, authors include Rakib U. Rayhan, Richard Garner, Destie Provenzano, Kristina Zajur, Florencia Martinez Addiego, and John W. VanMeter.

The authors report no competing interests.

About Georgetown University Medical Center

As a top academic health and science center, Georgetown University Medical Center provides, in a synergistic fashion, excellence in education -- training physicians, nurses and other health care professionals, as well as biomedical scientists -- and cutting-edge interdisciplinary research collaboration, enhancing our basic science and translational biomedical research capacity in order to improve human health. Patient care and clinical research is conducted with our clinical partner, MedStar Health. GUMC's mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on social justice and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis -- or "care of the whole person." GUMC comprises the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing & Health Studies, Biomedical Graduate Education, and Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Designated by the Carnegie Foundation as a "very high research activity university," Georgetown is home to a Clinical and Translational Science Award from the National Institutes of Health, and a Comprehensive Cancer Center designation from the National Cancer Institute. Connect with GUMC on Facebook (Facebook.com/GUMCUpdate) and on Twitter (@gumedcenter).
Pakistan's notorious spy agency ISI is recruiting women Over Ground Works (OGW) to attack security forces in Jammu and Kashmir oin order to protect terrorists from the Indian security agencies.

It has been revealed from the report of security agencies that since the terrorists in Kashmir are finding it tough to receive funds from Pakistan due to strong steps taken by Indian government, the ISI has devised a tiffin box plan to fund the terrorists.

Recently, Jammu police had arrested a young man from a Doda who used to send money to Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists using tiffin boxes. Police has foiled a major plan of the terrorists by seizing Rs 1.5 lakh from tiffin box which was in possession of the arrested man.

According to a security agency official, the ISI is taking help of women OGWs to protect the terrorists from the security agencies. The female OGW takes the group of terrorists from one place to another as the presence of females help the terrorists in dodging the security agencies. According to experts, in some cases, it has been seen that the women OGW also help the terrorists who have managed to infiltrate Kashmir through Line of Control.

According to security agencies, the ISI has instructed the terrorists to refrain from using the mobile phones and stay in touch with other terrorists or their commanders through the code words. Not only this, the terrorists have been asked to keep a low profile so that the Indian security agencies could not gather intelligence about them easily.

The security agencies have said in their reports that a large number of terrorists are currently stationed near the Line of Control and are looking for opportunities to inflitrate inside India with the help of Pakistani Army. It is learnt that around 380 terrorists are present at launching pads near LoC and Pakistani army has been resorting to regular ceasefire violation in order to help these terrorists enter India.

According to the exclusive information received by Zee News, the Pakistan army has also activated BAT (Border Action Team) in many border areas to attack Indian security forces. Several terrorists have also been spotted in Pakistani army camps in areas adjacent to the LoC.
The Samsung Galaxy M51 might launch very soon. Over the past few weeks, the upcoming mid-range smartphone has received certifications from the FCC, Wi-Fi Alliance, and Bluetooth SIG. Now, support pages for the handset have started popping up on Samsungs official websites.

Samsung has published product support pages for the Galaxy M51 on its official websites for Kazakhstan and Russia. The support pages themselves dont reveal anything about the handset but they do confirm the existence of the phone.

Product support pages going live on official websites also indicate an imminent launch. The model number SM-M515F/DSN further confirms that the phone will be available in a dual-SIM variant as well.

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Galaxy M51 support pages go live, may launch next month

The Galaxy M51 was initially reported to make its debut in India last month itself. However, Samsung delayed the launch because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company is now reportedly preparing for a September launch of the new mid-range smartphone.

Although were still a good few weeks away from an expected official announcement, we already know a lot about this handset. We are expecting a massive 6.7-inch Full HD+ punch-hole display which may not be a Samsung-made panel. Reports are that the South Korean behemoth could use OLED screens from a Chinese supplier, possibly CSOT, in some of its mid-range phones including the Galaxy M51.

The Galaxy M51 could also feature a Snapdragon 730 processor with 6GB/8GB of RAM and 128GB internal storage. The phone will obviously run on Android 10 with Samsungs One UI on top. The presence on the Single Take camera feature suggests that itll be One UI version 2.1 or newer. Whether the company will offer a full-fledged One UI or only the Core version is still a mystery, though.

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The upcoming mid-ranger is getting a 64-megapixel quad-camera setup at the back. Along with the main shooter, there will be a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera, a depth-sensing camera, and a macro sensor. The exact specifications of the latter two sensors, as well as that of the front-facing camera, is not known yet.

Samsung is also upping the battery game by offering a humongous 7,000 mAh battery pack with the Galaxy M51. Itll charge at 25W speed via a bundled USB-C charger. This will be the first time Samsung is offering a USB-C charger with a mid-range smartphone.

Other key Galaxy M51 specs include an in-display fingerprint sensor, NFC, a 3.5mm headphone jack, GPS, and Bluetooth 5.0. More details about the handset should surface online in the coming weeks as we inch closer to its launch.
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An Illinois school district's dress code for students choosing to learn remotely amid the coronavirus pandemic doesn't necessarily want students lounging in their PJs for class.

Under an updated handbook from Springfield Public Schools, students who participate in online classes for the 2020-2021 school year will be subject to the district's current dress code  which prohibits pajama pants.

The new changes, which also forbids hoods, sunglasses and bandanas, has upset some parents, many of whom believe the no-pajama dress code is a little too strict.

"I made the decision for my kids to be at home, and I dont really see how any district can come in and say what my kid cant wear in my house," parent Elizabeth Ballinger told local news station WCIA. "I dont think they have any right to say what happens in my house.I think they have enough to worry about as opposed to what the kids are wearing. They need to make sure theyre getting educated.

Another parent added, "They get good grades so worry about teaching not clothes. As long as they are covered up who cares?

RELATED: Florida Teacher Writes Her Own Obituary to Protest the State Reopening Schools amid Coronavirus

In a statement to NBC 5, Springfield Public Schools claimed that the dress code "will be flexible."

"Our hope is that students approach remote learning as they would in a classroom setting, to the extent possible given each students individual circumstances," the district said in a statement. "However, we understand the interpretation of the dress code in a remote learning environment will differ from a normal school setting. It is understandable that during remote learning our dress code will be flexible."

The district also said it has no plans to punish students who do not abide by the wardrobe guidelines.

"We do not intend to be punitive or to prescribe what students wear at home during remote learning, especially in this period of uncertainty and adjustment for students, families and staff," the statement continued. "If there is a specific concern as it relates to dress code, we will address it individually with the student and their family."

According to ABC 7, roughly 14,000 students attend Springfield schools. The school year will begin on Aug. 31 with a combination of online and in-person classes.

As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from CDC, WHO, and local public health departments. To help provide doctors and nurses on the front lines with life-saving medical resources, donate to Direct Relief here.
Gov. Ned Lamont Sunday signaled that Connecticut will press forward with in-person learning this fall, without saying whether the state plans to provide regular testing of staff members or students.

During a segment on CBS Face the Nation Sunday, Lamont extolled the states low transmission rate of COVID-19 as a sign Connecticut schools are ready to reopen.

I think if Connecticut cant reopen, I dont know who can around the country, Lamont said.

Schools will ensure everyone wears a mask, install Plexiglass partitions where needed, and will separate classes from one another  making sure that one 5th grade class doesnt party with another 5th grade class, the governor said.

And I think were going to give our kids the best shot for in-classroom education, he added.

Pressed about what the states plan is to regularly test staff members and students, Lamont said teachers are able to get a test for free, but didnt give any plans for the state to provide testing.

We have 160 testing centers, any teacher that wants to, go get a free test, Lamont said. Recommending maybe some of them do that before the start of the school year.

The governors remarks came as school districts around the country are beginning to welcome students back this week some in person, others virtually.

Last month, New York City schools submitted a plan that would see students returning to school for part of the week while learning remotely on other days.

When host Margaret Brennan brought up that numbers from the governors office showing 143,000 students simply didnt log on during distanced learning this spring, Lamont called the number a tragedy.

I do not want a lost year. And everybody says lets not go back to school until its perfectly safe, until we have a vaccine, until 100 percent of the people are vaccinated. I worry that could be a lost year of education, the governor said.

In the event schools have to return to virtual classrooms this fall, Lamont said the state has bought 100,000 Chromebooks as a backup plan.

Asked about unemployment, the governor was dismissive of an executive order by President Trump Saturday that would extend unemployment benefits of $400 a week to those affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

The plan, which would give people $200 less than they had been receiving, instantly drew scrutiny from observers for side-stepping congress ability to determine federal tax policy.

On Sunday, Lamont said the plan would cost Connecticut $500 million between now and the end of the year.

Look, I can take that money from testing, I dont think thats a great idea, I can take that money from mass disinfecting from our schools, I dont think thats a great idea. In fact I think the Presidents plan is not a great idea, Lamont said.
A crowd of around 200 that marched on a police union building in North Portland on Sunday evening was quickly pushed back and scattered by police in the citys 74th night of protests.

Police declared the gathering a riot as officers advanced on retreating protesters, some of whom threw objects at police, video from the scene showed. At one point, a large firework exploded between the groups. Police responded by firing crowd control munitions.

Police said a mortar injured two officers and cited direct attacks on officers in declaring the demonstration a riot.

Sixteen people were arrested, including Black activist Demetria Hester, who leads Mothers United for Black Lives Matter and is a regular presence at Portland protests. Hester is the survivor of a hate crime committed by MAX train murderer Jeremy Christian in 2017 and testified against him in his trial.

She, like others arrested in the demonstration, faces misdemeanor accusations of disorderly conduct and interfering with a peace officer.

The event came a day after protests Saturday night in the same area that were mostly peaceful until a small group of people lit a fire inside the police union building. Saturdays standoff, which lasted into early morning hours Sunday, prompted police to declare a riot and advance on the crowd using impact munitions and physical force, a pattern thats unfolded on several recent nights in which a small group provoke police by damaging property and throwing objects at officers.

Sunday set up a potential repeat of the prior nights hostilities, though with a smaller crowd. About 200 people marched from Kenton Park to the Portland Police Association office on North Lombard Street shortly before 10 p.m.

Minutes after protesters arrived outside the union office, police warned demonstrators via loudspeaker not to participate in criminal activities. The warning also was posted on Twitter.

Demonstrators blocked off blocked access at North Lombard Street and Fenwick Avenue using dumpsters and fences dragged into the street from nearby. At least one dumpster was set on fire.

Shortly before 10 p.m., police declared the gathering an unlawful assembly.

Minutes later, police in riot gear advanced on the crowd, which began to retreat down North Denver Avenue. Video showed officers hit by small thrown objects. At one point, a large firework exploded between the police line and the retreating protesters. Police also fired crowd-control munitions.

Around 10:10 p.m., police declared the gathering a riot and officers appeared to arrest several people on the street.

Marchers returned to Kenton Park, where they had gathered. A little before 10:30 p.m., police followed the group into the park and appeared to make more arrests. The crowd had largely scattered, and police left the park.

The event unfolded in less than an hour.

A small crowd of about two dozen returned to the police union building by 11 p.m. Police arrived minutes later, ordered those gathered to leave and appeared to make an arrest.

Portland Police and Oregon State Police officers formed a line around the building as protesters stood by, then departed around 11:45 p.m. Protesters remained, milling about in the street.

Late the night before, a small group of demonstrators lit a fire inside the Portland police union building, sparking the riot declaration from police, who ordered everyone to leave the area. The fire was quickly extinguished.

Police advanced on the group and hundreds of others gathered, pushing them into the heart of the Kenton neighborhood.

Protesters piled together wooden items from downtown Kenton, such as picnic tables and road barrier signs, to build a large barricade across Denver near Schofield Street. In the early morning, someone lit part of the barricade on fire, and police advanced again. The back-and-forth continued until well after 1 a.m.

Some neighbors came out to help clean up the debris on Denver Avenue and put out fires on the barricade in the road.

Terrance Moses, the chair of the Kenton Neighborhood Association, who is Black and owns a business nearby, expressed dismay in a statement posted by the associations Facebook page. This doesnt have anything to do with the cause, so I want to implore all of you to stop this nonsense, he said.

Police said they had made nine arrests late Saturday and early Sunday. Among those detained was Kathleen Mahoney, a protest observer from the ACLU who was one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that resulted in arrest protections for journalists and legal observers.

Police also said that three officers were injured, including two who were transported to a hospital and released soon after. Police did not describe the nature of any of the officers injuries. However, an Oregonian/OregonLive journalist saw one officer limping away from the crowd while getting assistance from other officers.

Widespread protests against systemic racism and police violence began 74 days ago, shortly after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.

The focus of the largest nightly protests has turned from the downtown Portland Police headquarters, then the nearby federal courthouse, to roving marches that usually end outside police precincts and facilities throughout the city. The headquarters of the Portland Police Association, the union for frontline police officers, has also become a target for demonstrators. On two occasions, including Saturday, someone has broken into the union building and lit a small fire inside.

The crowds, which ballooned as federal officers arrived in Portland to protect the federal courthouse and quell the protests, have grown smaller but more confrontational after the federal officers disappeared from public view.

Portland police have responded with crowd-control munitions and other force, usually in response to protesters they say are trespassing, lighting fires or vandalizing the facilities.

Mayor Ted Wheeler, Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell and others in the community have said that they support Black Lives Matter but condemn the violence of some protestors at the nightly demonstrations.

If you are a nonviolent demonstrator and you dont want to be part of intentional violence, please stay away from these areas, Wheeler said. Our community must say that this violence is not Portland, that these actions do not reflect our values and these crimes are distracting from reform, not advancing.

But during a virtual town hall held Sunday evening, several people involved in the nightly protests, including Hester and the writer Mac Smiff, disagreed, saying the protests were still necessary.

Smiff called the changes that local officials have committed to insubstantial or performative.

Well be in these streets until we can feel the change in our bodies, he said.

Sunday afternoons planned protests included a Black Lives Matter protest outside Nike headquarters in Beaverton, a sign-waving protest in Northeast Portland, and a family march in downtown Portland. A Black Lives Matter rally is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in St. Johns, and the nightly rally outside the Multnomah County Justice Center downtown is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

-- The Oregonian/OregonLive
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

Read more about:
Job Title: Governance

Manager Apolou

Organization: Mercy

Corps

Duty Station: Uganda

Reports to: Animal health Manager  Apolou Activity

About US:

Mercy Corps is a

leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is

possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world,

we partner to put bold solutions into action  helping people triumph over

adversity and build stronger communities from within. Working

in Uganda since 2006, Mercy Corps has applied market-driven solutions to

communities across the country, equipping individuals and households with the

knowledge, skills and confidence to generate improvements in their access to

markets, livelihoods, health, nutrition, and security, in order to improve

their overall resilience.

About USAID Project:

Mercy Corps is

implementing a five year USAID funded food and nutrition security Activity

called Apolou in Karenga, Kaabong, Kotido, Amudat and Moroto Districts. In

addition to this funding, Mercy Corps was awarded funding for an Animal Health

for Resilience Activity on Animal Health interventions and policy in the

Karamoja sub-region through USAIDs Resilience Challenge Fund. Activities will

be focused on Kaabong and Amudat Districts. The overall goal of the Animal

Health for Resilience Activity is to increase veterinary governance and

increase public and private investment in disease prevention, surveillance,

control, and response systems to strengthen productive assets for improved

resilience in Karamoja.

Job Summary: The Governance Manager plays a key role in the

implementation of a five-year, $46 million USAID funded Food for Peace Activity

to support agriculturalists, agro-pastoralists, and pastoral households living

across the districts of Amudat, Kotido, Kaabong and Moroto in the Karamoja

sub-region of Uganda. The program has four strategic objectives, and the

Governance Manager will oversee strategic objective one:



Inclusive

and effective governance contributes to improved food and nutrition security



Improved

health and nutritional status of pregnant and lactating women, children under

five, and adolescent girls in targeted districts



Improved

WASH conditions among targeted households



Adolescent

girls, adolescent boys, women and men access diverse and secure livelihoods,

through improved capacities and strengthened market systems.

The Governance

Manager position focuses on providing capacity building, expert technical

support, oversight and direction of the Governance thematic area of the

Karamoja Food Security and Nutrition Activity. The Governance Manager will be

responsible for developing and implementing the Governance Sector work plan and

ensuring the Governance team in each of the four field offices are implementing

their respective activities on-scope, on-time and on-budget. Activities will

include developing and rolling-out a comprehensive program strategy to build

the operational, technical and financial capacity of local civil society,

engage government and increase coordination among formal and informal

stakeholders, and mobilize communities to undertake collective action. The

position will based in Moroto with operational oversight in Districts of

Operation.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Program

Implementation and Quality



Work

with local CSOs to develop inclusive capacity building strategies and plans

focusing on technical and networking capacities



Supervise

the organizational development of local partner organizations using Mercy Corps

Organizational Capacity Index and Capacity Development Planning process.



Lead

joint mapping of formal and informal governance structures for development and

peace building in Karamoja in collaboration with key stakeholders.



Ensuring

coordination and integration of governance into other thematic sector

activities and planning. The governance component of the program is

foundational to many of the activities implemented in the other sectors.



Develop

curricula to strengthen the capacity of government and traditional leaders in

community engagement skills, including facilitation, consultation, negotiation,

and participatory planning and budgeting.



Convene

and facilitate meetings between governance structures at different levels and

across geographies, as well as between parallel government and traditional

non-state structures in order to promote communication and collaboration within

government as well as between government and traditional non-state authorities.



Build

the capacity of Mercy Corps staff to implement governance activities.



In

collaboration with the M&E team, monitor and evaluate governance

activities.



Liaise

with local and regional government officials, traditional leaders, local NGOs

and civil society organizations, and other relevant stakeholders to ensure

support for and acceptance of Mercy Corps programs, coordination with actors

working on related issues, and cross-learning.



Gather/analyze

data and complete assessments to determine community needs and priorities



Work

with programs, country/regional teams, and technical support units on

development of strategies.



Provide

technical guidance and support the development of activities to increase

womens participation and youth civic engagement.



Provide technical

support and develop program activities to strengthen social accountability,

grievance redress and feedback mechanisms.

Representation



As

required by the Technical Director, liaise with and represent the programs

Governance components to regional, district and local government officials,

civil society/community leaders, political parties and other key stakeholders.



Ensure

close coordination and information sharing with consortium partners,

sub-grantees, local government and other implementers, as well as with other

Mercy Corps programs.



Establish

and maintain professional and productive relationships with communities and

local government.



Serve as

key focal point for Apolou problem solving at regional and district levels as

required.

Team management



Develop

the capacity of the team, deepen understanding of their roles and assist with

career development.



Assist

team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance &

reach objectives.



Promote

accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback

informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.



Create

and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to

achieve excellence.



Hire,

orient and lead team members as necessary.

Finance, Compliance

and Operations Management



Oversee

the smooth flow of routine program support functions (e.g., finance,

administration, logistics) in the field office and compliance with Mercy Corps

and donor policies and procedures.



With the

support of the Sn Operation Manager ensure adequate operational systems are in

place to provide for program.



Manage

program budget(s) as Primary budget holder.



Strictly

follow Mercy Corps Fraud and Corruption Prevention guidelines.

Organizational

Learning



As part

of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our

understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and

relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5%

of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as

themselves.



Participate

in the agency-wide governance practitioners cohort and engage in learning and

sharing events facilitated by the Governance and Partnerships Technical Support

Unit



Accountability

to Beneficiaries



Mercy

Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability,

specifically



to our

beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and

development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal

partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:



The

ideal candidate must hold a Bachelors degree required. M.A, M.S., M.Sc., or

equivalent in a field related to Governance or International Development

preferred.



10 years

of experience providing increasingly proficient technical support in the

Governance field of expertise that includes:



Preparing

writing and analysis on program development.



Demonstrating

strong theoretical and applied knowledge of the field of expertise.



Using

integrated approaches and applying systems thinking.



Practical

field experience, typically over the course of 2 years, that includes:



Managing

and implementing successful programs in the field.



Delivering

Capacity Building curriculum or other processes for field teams



Managing

staff and developing work-plans



Willingness

and ability to travel frequently to Mercy Corps project sites and field

locations, including traveling to insecure environments, is required.



Familiarity

with USAID.



Fluency

in English is required.

How to Apply:

All candidates who

wish to join Mercy Corps in this capacity should apply online at the link

below.

Click

Here

Deadline: 10th August 2020

For more of the

latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
Yessenia* rounded the corner one afternoon in March when she saw a group of four young men beating another. They saw her too. Its the teacher! she remembers one yelling before they scattered.

The boy they left behind was so badly beaten that at first Yessenia did not recognize him as one of her students at the grade school where she taught in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital.

If I hadnt showed up they would have killed him, she says.

But any consolation from knowing she might have saved the boys life would be short lived. Two days later, she saw another group of young men she did not recognize near the school where she worked. Unable to avoid them on the street, she said, Good morning," and kept her eyes down.

Later that night she heard the suspected members of a street gang or mara - who commit crimes ranging from extortion to robbery and murder - had tried to kidnap a 21-year-old man before police arrived to rescue their would-be victim.

Everyone has a story about a family whose home has been burned down or a son recruited by the gangs.

The gangs frequently murder witnesses to their crimes. Yessenia had witnessed two crimes in as many days and knew she would be pegged as a police informer if charges were ever filed.

Racked with fear and anxiety, she stopped eating and sleeping and developed high blood pressure. She put in for a transfer and fled the school where she had taught for 12 years without telling anyone the real reason.

The 56-year-old is now one of tens of thousands of Hondurans who have become displaced within the borders of their Central American homeland by raging gang violence. A government report released last year estimated that 174,000 people were displaced internally in the decade to 2014. A growing number have also sought asylum abroad.

A resident walks in the El Bosque neighbourhood in central Tegucigalpa. The area is among many in the Honduran capital considered dangerous because of the presence of local gangs known as "maras."  UNHCR/Tito Herrera

Children play in a small community in the city of Tegucigalpa.  UNHCR/Tito Herrera

The front page of daily newspaper La Tribuna leads on the murder of a university student the previous day in Tegucigalpa.  UNHCR/Tito Herrera

Communities such as La Era in Tegucigalpa city are in constant danger of gang violence.  UNHCR/Tito Herrera

While she was still at the school Yessenia received frantic phone calls from parents of students desperate to get their children transferred to schools outside the crime-wracked neighbourhood. She says 60 students left the school between March and May, nearly half of those registered for classes. The school's director also fled.

Families in San Pedro Sula, the countrys second-largest city which in 2014 recorded the highest homicide rate in the world, live with the same fears. Residents of the citys crime-blighted Rivera Hernandez neighbourhood said many neighbours were abandoning their homes for the United States and Mexico.

Speaking with community members there, nearly everyone had a story about a family whose home had been burned down, a son who was recruited by the gangs, a relative who had been killed or fled.

San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second-largest city, recorded the highest homicide rate in the world in 2014.

They were leaving in droves, says Dolores,* the principal of a school there. These days, she says they lose about ten students a year who have to give up school because of threats or violence from the maras.

One of those students is Maria*. The 16-year-old loved going to school but says she had to give up her dream of studying finance when a local gangster wanted her as his girlfriend.

"I knew that if I went with him and things went bad, it would be very bad for me, she says. There are seven different gangs vying for control of Rivera Hernandez. In a place where gangs battle for territory block by block to extort businesses, association with a mara could be a death sentence if she walked down the wrong street.

Maria tried to rebuff the gang members advances, but he was persistent. He waited for her outside the school. He followed her. Afraid she might end up forced into a relationship with him or raped, Maria did the only thing she could to avoid him: she stopped going to school.

A UNHCR staff member greets a local resident at the Augusto Alvarado Castro community center in San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second-largest city.  UNHCR/Tito Herrera

The sign outside a gun repair shop in San Pedro Sula reads: "Don't let this happen to you, come visit us."  UNHCR/Tito Herrera

Students walk home from school in the community of 6 de Mayo in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Local schools have become a recruiting ground for street gangs.  UNHCR/Tito Herrera

A mural in San Pedro Sula shows flowers emerging from a gun barrel. In 2014, the gang-ravaged city had the highest murder rate in the world.  UNHCR/Tito Herrera

UNHCRs representative in Honduras, Andres Celis, says the kind of violence displacing, or otherwise disrupting, the lives of people like Yessenia and Maria is a challenge for the government to address. There are mechanisms for someone to seek protection from the state but each case is handled on an ad hoc basis.

For that reason, UN Special Rapporteur on Internally Displaced Persons Chaloka Beyani recommended Honduras take steps to create a system that clearly outlines the governments response for someone fleeing violence, including a safe way to declare themselves displaced, and providing shelter and relocation.

But before such a system could be successful, the government must work to re-establish trust between the police and communities. The same fear that drives people from their homes keeps them from seeking help, believing that any visibility could threaten their life. This is especially true when the displaced see the police and other government authorities as complicit with the maras.

The same fear that drives people from their homes keeps them from seeking help.

So far, Honduras is the only country in Central America to give formal recognition of the forced displacement of its citizens by gang violence. It has pledged to draft legislation by the end of this year to formalize mechanisms to provide protection to those fleeing violence. In the meantime, however, the state faces gaps in its ability to provide basic protection and resources to those in need.

The UN Refugee Agency is responding with steps including the provision of technical assistance to Government and local authorities to develop and implement national legal frameworks and public policies for the protection of people displaced by violence. Other steps include monitoring high-risk areas of internal displacement, as well as working to improve reception conditions.

"We cant wait for the situation to continue intensifying, Celis says. The government of Honduras called UNHCR and acknowledged there is a problem with forced displacement here. When they call, we have to answer."



*Names have been changed for protection reasons.


Mumbai, Aug 10 : Music director Karan Kulkarni, who composed the background score of the recent digital releases "Shakuntala Devi" and "Raat Akeli Hai", says that creating the essence of a story through its background music is nothing less interesting than composing a song.

"I would say each has its challenges. When it comes to a song, one can also hear it separately from the film. But when we are working on a background score of a film, of a story or a scene, we have to capture the essence of the story. This is a different challenge," Karan told IANS.

Asked about how a conversation with the film's director helps him get the tone of the story right, he said: "Making background score of a film is really collaborative work. To give you an example, I have also worked with Hansal Mehta, creating the background score of 'Shahid' and 'Aligarh'. His narration of the story, the way he was talking about the character of Professor Siras in 'Aligarh', how could I convey that through one tune? So, I based the score loosely on Puriya Dhaneshri, an Indian classical raga. At times the character of the raga is in sync with the character. It was a dark space where the character was in.

"In 'Shakuntala Devi', (director) Anu (Menon) wanted a specific sound, also the era...so the instrumentation, the treatment of the film, we were following that." As a composer, Karan has also worked in films like "Peddlers" and "Shahid", besides composing the background score in films like "Tumhari Sulu", and "Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhaan".

He also scored the background music of the recent web series, "Breathe: Into The Shadows".

At a time when Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman has spoken of people ganging up against him in Bollywood, how does Karan survive? "I don't complain as long as I work in different projects, not always films, though. I also believe that once normalcy surfaces, instead of going back to the rat race we should remember the lesson that greed can only last that long, after that it is unhealthy. Spoiling someone's work will not build one's career." He said various outlets of work have come up now.

"New avenues such as web series, shows, films, digital campaigns are coming up, opportunities for musicians are growing. Greed will not take us anywhere, our work will do!" Karan signed off.
TDT | Manama

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa asserted yesterday that Bahrain is following up, through the Foreign Affairs Ministry, on all Arab, regional and international efforts related to the rebuilding of brotherly Lebanon, following the blast that rocked its capital Beirut last week.

His Majesty King Hamad, who is the Royal Humanitarian Foundation (RHF) honourary president, said this as he received at Al Safriya Palace yesterday HM the Kings Humanitarian Works and Youth Affairs representative and RHF board of trustees chairman His Highness Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

Royal Court Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Royal Court Follow-up Minister Shaikh Amed bin Atiyatulla Al Khalifa, and Foreign Minister Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani were also present. HM the King reviewed with HH Shaikh Nasser the valuable efforts being exerted by the RHF to deliver urgent relief aid to Lebanon, to support its brotherly people and alleviate their plight following last weeks incident, appreciating the RHFs achievements so far.

HM King Hamad praised the noble efforts made by the RHF, affirming Bahrains support for and solidarity with the brotherly Lebanese people under the difficult circumstances they are going through, which embodies the fraternal relations between the two countries and their peoples.

HM the King wished the Lebanese people every success in overcoming their current ordeal and enjoying security, peace, stability and prosperity. HM King Hamad said that members of Bahrains Lebanese community are with their country, appreciating their contributions to the Kingdoms comprehensive development march, alongside citizens.

HM the King praised the humanitarian role played by the RHF, under the leadership of HH Shaikh Nasser, to provide aid and assistance to brotherly and friendly countries going through such circumstances. HH Shaikh Nasser expressed deepest thanks, appreciation, and gratitude to HM the King for his continuous noble humanitarian initiatives to deliver relief aid to stricken people.

The royal noble initiatives reflect the Kingdoms honourable stances towards others, based on the fraternal and humanitarian relations binding all countries and peoples of the world, HH Shaikh Nasser said.
There was "absolutely nothing" Baton Rouge police officer Howie Lake II could have done to prevent fellow officer Blane Salamoni from fatally shooting Alton Sterling in 2016, Lake's attorney argues in a new court filing.

But a lawyer for Sterling's three youngest children and their mother said Monday he completely disagrees with that statement and will oppose Lake's attempt to be dismissed from a lawsuit that Sterling's family filed three years ago.

+6 Alton Sterling wrongful death lawsuit set for trial March 1 Barring a settlement, the trial of the Alton Sterling wrongful death lawsuit will begin March 1, nearly five years after the man was fatally s

Lake's attorney filed a motion Thursday asking a Baton Rouge district judge to dismiss Lake from the wrongful death suit that the Black man's family filed against both White officers, the city-parish and others.

Lake, who tased Sterling and helped wrestle him to the ground but did not fire his gun, claims his actions on July 5, 2016, were reasonable and that he did not use excessive force against Sterling.

Lake and then-officer Salamoni had responded to an anonymous 911 caller who claimed a man matching Sterling's description threatened him with a gun outside the Triple S Food Mart on North Foster Drive, authorities have said.

Salamoni fatally shot Sterling, 37, during a struggle that ensued. The shooting ignited nationwide protests.

+2 State Supreme Court says Sterling family lawyers can see officer's psychological evaluation Former Baton Rouge police officer Blane Salamoni's preemployment psychological evaluation must be turned over to attorneys for the family of A

Lake's attorney, Kyle Kershaw, argues in his motion that the 911 dispatch provided Lake with the "reasonable suspicion necessary to briefly detain Sterling for questioning and further investigation."

"Because the reasonable suspicion concerned the possession and use of a firearm, Ofc. Lake also had the right to frisk Sterling for weapons. This gave Ofc. Lake the right to request that Sterling put his hands in a safe place (on a nearby vehicle) for the officer's safety and that of others," Kershaw contends.

He notes in the motion that Lake's request was met with resistance by Sterling.

"Instead of compliance, Sterling turned away and at no time did he willingly place his hands on the vehicle as requested," Kershaw states.

Two cellphone videos taken by bystanders captured the graphic conclusion of the roughly 90-second encounter. Salamoni can be heard yelling "gun" in the brief video clips just before he shoots Sterling six times.

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Lake retrieved a loaded .38-caliber revolver from Sterling's pocket just after the shooting and both officers told investigators they thought Sterling was reaching for the weapon, federal authorities have said.

Kershaw writes that the Sterling family "cannot prove that Ofc. Lake's actions were the cause-in-fact of Mr. Sterling's death.

"There was absolutely nothing that Ofc. Lake could have done to prevent the shooting of Sterling by Ofc. Salamoni," Kershaw adds.

Michael Adams, one of the lawyers for Sterling's youngest children and their mother, said Monday that Lake arrived at the Triple S Food Mart before Salamoni, who shortly after reaching the scene drew his gun and pointed it at Sterling's head.

Adams said Lake did nothing to try to de-escalate the situation.

"That's what Howie's going to have to answer for," Adams said.

The lawsuit claims that during the deadly encounter, Salamoni and Lake ignored department policies and training. It also alleges the shooting exemplified longstanding problems of racist attitudes and excessive force among Baton Rouge police officers.

Salamoni was fired in 2018 by current Police Chief Murphy Paul but appealed and in a settlement last year was allowed to resign. Lake last fall dropped his appeal of a three-day suspension he received for his actions and remains on the police force.

Federal and state prosecutors determined there was insufficient evidence to bring charges against Salamoni and Lake.

The lawsuit is scheduled for trial March 1, but the East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council is slated Aug. 26 to consider a $5 million settlement. If the measure is approved, it would authorize the Parish Attorney's Office to offer the settlement to Sterling's family with dollars appropriated from the city-parish's Insurance Reserve Funds.

For Alton Sterling's 5 children, Baton Rouge Metro Council will consider a $5M settlement The East Baton Rouge Metro Council is set to consider a $5 million settlement in the civil lawsuit against local leaders filed on behalf of Al

Protests in the days after the shooting led to nearly 200 arrests. Just days after Sterling's funeral, a lone gunman from Kansas City, Missouri, opened fire on officers at an Airline Highway business near police headquarters July 17, 2016, killing two city policemen and an East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputy and wounding three other officers.
This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.
IndusInd Bank has invoked pledged shares in Williamson Major group companies  acquiring 5,683,320 shares in Eveready Industries India and 7,832,253 shares in McLeod Russel India, thus reducing promoter shares in these firms.

"It is surprising that pledged shares are being invoked at a time when value is being created," sources told Business Standard, noting that the move may be led by brightening prospects of debt resolution.

With this, the private lender has acquired 7.82 percent and 7.50 percent shares in Eveready Industries and McLeod Russel, respectively. Promoter holding in both companies has consecutively fallen to around 7.25 percent and around 18.32 percent, respectively.

Also read: IndusInd Bank up 2%, Eveready hits 52-week high as bank acquires stake in battery maker

The shares in Eveready Industries and McLeod Russel were pledged against outstanding dues of holding company -- Seajuli Developers & Finance, which had raised most of the funds during the past year for McNally Bharat Engineering.

Promoter holding in Eveready Industries and McLeod Russel stood at 42 percent and 31 percent, respectively, till last year.

Prior to this, promoter share in Eveready Industries fell to 15.07 percent in July after the Burman family (Dabur India promoters), who have been buying into the company since March 2019, emerged as its largest shareholders with 19.84 percent stake. The last tranche acquired through open market operations was 8.48 percent and the stock has since risen over 80 percent since, it said.

India Ratings (Ind-Ra) earlier this month raised Eveready Industries long-term credit ratings from IND BB to IND BB+ with a positive outlook, which it said reflected the companys improved liquidity position and sustained profit in FY20. The positive outlook anticipates managerial or board representation from the Burman family, it added.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 00:01:07|Editor: huaxia

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LUSAKA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Zambia risks being overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases due to continued failure by people to adhere to preventive measures, a leading agency responsible for fighting the pandemic said on Monday.

Victor Mukonka, director of the Zambia National Public Health Institute, said a survey conducted has established that the weakest point in Zambia's response to the pandemic was related to compliance.

In remarks delivered at a daily COVID-19 briefing, the official said the country has seen the positivity rate increasing from the initial three percent to the current 30 percent.

"The virus is now ahead of us. We are seeing increased cases and deaths and if we don't act we will be overwhelmed," he said.

According to him, the government will soon focus on providing adequate preventive information at the individual level and urged the media to play a leading role.

"The fight is still on. It is not just government fight. It requires the other side to respond as well," he added.

The country, he said, will continue seeing increased cases due to the windy condition currently obtaining.

Minister of Health Chitalu Chilufya said during the same briefing that the country could not continue with business as usual as the cases and deaths have continued escalating.

He said the country needs to ramp up its response to the fight against the pandemic, adding that community engagement is crucial.

The government, he said, will soon deploy police officers in public places to enforce public health measures on the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Zambia recorded 125 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours out of 454 tests, which brought the cumulative cases to 8,210. Enditem
Hailey Bieber showcased her enviably toned stomach on Monday in a tiny white crop top from an Australian fashion label that costs just $55 - a far cry from the eye-watering designer price tags she usually opts for.

The 23-year-old wife of Justin Bieber wore the 'Easy Days' lace-up bralet from White Fox Boutique with a pair of mid-rise denim shorts in a selfie posted to her Instagram story.

Made from broiderie anglaise cotton, the top has short frilled sleeves and a perilously low cut front that ties between the breasts, exposing the entirety of the chest and midriff save for the nipples.

Hailey, who was born in Arizona but now lives in a $12million Beverly Hills mansion with her music icon husband, is the latest American celebrity to wear White Fox after Khloe Kardashian and Paris Hilton posted photos in the brand earlier this year.

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Hailey Bieber wears the $57 'Easy Days' crop top from Australian fashion label White Fox Boutique in a photo posted to her Instagram story on August 10

While the skimpy cut is certainly not to everyone's taste, it's been endorsed by some of the world's biggest influencers.

Top Queensland fitness model Skye Wheatley has shared several seductive Instagram shots dressed in the 'lace-up milkmaid bra' in recent months.

The provocative design has also reached the UK, where London blogger Liana Tambini has worn it with a matching $55 skirt.

The top is made in sizes extra small through extra large, but medium is already sold out online.

Similar styles are available from Verge Girl, a fast fashion brand launched by Brisbane sisters Daniella Dionyssiou, 32, and Natalia Suesskow, 30, when they were teenagers in 2007.

Queensland fitness model Skye Wheatley (left) and London influencer Liana Tambini (right) wear the 'Easy Days' crop and matching 'Bucket List' skirt from White Fox Boutique

Texas style blogger Chrystal Saint-Clair wears the 'Easy Days' crop in black

Poll Would you wear a 'lace-up milkmaid bra'? Yes No Would you wear a 'lace-up milkmaid bra'? Yes 35 votes

No 60 votes Now share your opinion





The 'lace-up milkmaid bra' is the latest piece of risque clothing dominating the fashion industry, with 'men's' boxer shorts worn as high-waisted hot pants and 'napkin' tops among the hottest trends this year.

Style-conscious women have taken to wearing flimsy strips of fabric tied with string as backless tops, leading sartorial giant Who What Wear to christen it the 'napkin'.

The silhouette is reminiscent of the '90s scarf tops which were square silk scarves folded into triangles and knotted around the bust.

But the modern reinvention is even riskier, held in place only by barely-there straps looped around the neck and back.

Chicago fashion influencer Dana Nozime wears a 'napkin' top from Australian label All Things Golden in an Instagram photo on March 11

Not much there: French fashion blogger Marta Cygan wears a black 'napkin' top which exposes her back and sides

Not for the faint of heart, the revealing design exposes every inch of the back and a generous glimpse of the chest - ruling it out for conservative dressers.

Still, all the 'cool' labels are selling them, with daring designs available from I Am Gia, Trois and current 'It' brand, Cult Gaia in various flesh-flashing materials.

And all the 'cool' girls are snapping them up, including Melbourne model Shanina Shaik who paired a blush pink 'napkin' from Australian designer Natalie Rolt with white linen pants for a dinner in St Tropez on July 25.

That appears to be the sartorially accepted way of styling the trend, tempering its overt sexiness with tailored trousers or loose-fitting jeans.
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Africas foremost multilateral trade finance institution, is supporting the advancement of Mozambiques energy industry and economy by committing up to $400 million in guarantees and direct lending to the Area 1 LNG Project.

The total Project is estimated to cost about US$24 billion and is set to be the largest private foreign direct investments in Africa, and one of the largest LNG projects in the world. It will play a key role in Mozambiques economic growth and support the wider region.

The US$400m financing will be used to partially finance the project development activities required to extract natural gas offshore, its transfer to onshore processing facilities and then its conversion to LNG for export to various markets around the world.

The Mozambique Area 1 LNG project is an integrated LNG development that will initially comprise two LNG liquefaction trains  each capable of processing 6.44 million metric tonnes a year. The initial development is expected to produce more than sixteen trillion cubic feet of gas and ninety-three million barrels of condensate over the 30-year development and production period.

A key focus is for the project to be developed in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner and that it operates responsibly, protecting the environment, as well as the health and safety of the public, employees and contractors. Investment into the region will create jobs, increase the standard of living and is expected to drive long-term sustainable economic growth for the country and the region.

The US$400 million commitment to the project is in line with Afreximbanks strategy of promoting intra-African trade as well as industrialization and export development. The guarantee is done jointly with Export Credit Insurance Corporation of South Africa SOC Limited (ECIC) which has enabled significant African contribution to the overall financing of the Project. This joint collaboration is offered under the South Africa-Africa Trade and Investment Promotion Programme (SATIPP), launched in 2018, to promote and expand trade and investments between South Africa and the rest of Africa.

In line with Afreximbanks strategy of using partnerships to promote trade and investments in Africa, Afreximbank is once again deploying its ECA-Plus guarantee, offered under the Afreximbank Guarantee Programme (AFGAP), to support this project. The ECA-Plus Guarantee, facilitates collaboration between Afreximbank and global export credit agencies where Afreximbank uses its guarantee to share risk with ECAs in African related transactions and projects by way of co-guarantees and re-guarantees. The objective is to help create capcacity, reduce risk and unlock capital for African trade and investments.

Prof. Benedict Oramah, President of Afreximbank, said: We are confident the Mozambique LNG project will create opportunities for the people of the country and drive sustainable economic growth. We believe that the success of projects such as this will create a precedent through which other development projects in Africa can secure funding and gain international traction. We are delighted to be one of the key stakeholders involved in this project which will accelerate the rate of growth of intra-African trade. Tradearabia News Service
T eachers and pupils in London were today urged to walk or cycle to school if they can to help stop a second Covid-19 wave hitting the capital.

Schools minister Nick Gibb issued the direct plea to youngsters, their parents and staff to plan school journeys without using public transport as the Government made it a national priority to get all pupils back into the classroom in September.

The return to school, and to work for many more adults, has particular challenges in London given the widespread use of public transport.

Speaking to the Evening Standard, Mr Gibb said: In London, although Tubes, trains and buses have almost returned to full service with social distancing still in place, we need many people who would normally take public transport to consider an alternative.

I am now making a direct appeal to every school staff member and student who lives or works in London: plan now how you will get to school or college, and if it is possible for you to walk or cycle rather than get the bus a few stops, please do.

This is an opportunity for everyone who lives, works or travels to their education in London to pull together as a community and play their part in making sure everyone can get to school, college or work safely  and those seats in public transport are for those who really need them because of the distance they need to travel or because they are less able to find alternative ways to travel.

Scientists are clear that the risk of transmission of coronavirus in and from primary schools is small. However, they are divided over how much secondary schools could fuel a rise in Covid-19. New daily positive cases have passed more than 1,000 for the first time since June, according to figures announced yesterday.

Ministers and other experts strongly believe that getting pupils back to school is in their interests, when balancing the Covid-19 risks and educational and social benefits, particularly for many youngsters from more deprived backgrounds.

Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: Its increasingly clear that older children, teenagers, probably transmit as much as adults but schools themselves play very little role.

They are a closed setting but we see very few large outbreaks in schools and there is very little transmission from child to child, or child to adult.

The professor of adolescent health at the UCL Institute of Child Health in London added: Much of the transmission in schools is from adults bringing it in, particularly staff.

Professor Neil Ferguson, who drew up a key report for the initial lockdown in March, believes reopening primary schools is unlikely to spark a rise in infections.

However, the professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London raised concerns last week that if all pupils go back to secondary schools this could fuel the number of cases and push up the R number for infections by between 0.2 and 0.5.

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Ministers are coming under growing pressure to introduce a regular testing regime in schools, but health minister Helen Whately said today the Governments medical and scientific experts were not at the moment advising this.

There are widespread warnings, including from government scientific advisers, that the test and trace system needs to be improved rapidly or there might have to be trade-offs to keep schools open, such as closing pubs and non-essential shops.

Boris Johnson today visited the Premier Education Summer Camp at Sacred Heart of Mary Girls School in Upminster, where he tried his hand at archery. He also went to nearby St Josephs Catholic Primary School, where he saw how teachers had sought to make the premises Covid-safe.

The Prime Minister said he hoped schools would not have to close as a result of local action. I very much hope that doesnt happen for any pupils but clearly what we are doing ... is to have local measures in place and local test and trace to introduce restrictions where thats necessary. But the last thing we want to do is to close schools
Joy Ghansahs image froze, her face in a perpetual smile as her online class of Oakland kindergartners waited for her to say something, to talk about the stuffed animal in her lap or to read them a book.

The little girl wearing a tiara squirmed. The little boy in a superhero suit fidgeted. Another boy hid behind his moms long hair.

Seconds ticked by in silence for the new Sankofa United Elementary students until Ghansahs Wi-Fi kicked in again and she came back to life on the screen.

This was not how a first day of school was supposed to be. There were no crying kindergartners clinging to parents Monday morning, no loud shouts across the playground or hugs after a long summer apart. The hallways were still at the North Oakland school, with chairs stacked upside down on desks in the classrooms.

It is definitely unprecedented; its a unique way of starting and just plain weird, said Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell. You know its the first day; theres kind of the butterflies, but youre still at home.

Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

Oakland Unified, with one of the earliest start dates in the state, offered something of a first look at what the new school year would look like. The vast majority of Californias 6 million students will attend class from afar until the pandemic eases enough to return to an in-person academic environment.

For now, the districts 36,000 students will attend school remotely, their teachers and classmates nothing more than images filling little boxes on their computer screens for an hour or two a day. And for the first week, most students are spending only about 30 minutes each day online with their teachers for check-in and attendance, with assignments sent via email or Google Classroom.

By the end of the school day Monday, more than 21,000 students had logged on at some point during the day, although more attendance reports were still coming in, district officials said. In addition, teachers held 2,040 Zoom sessions.

The first day of school is a really exciting time and that isnt different, said Dennis Guikema, principal of the school, a new merger between Sankofa and Kaiser Elementary. Its too bad its virtual. We cant be together in person.

Guikema said teachers and district officials had worked hard to get ready for distance learning, and they were doing their best to create welcoming and supportive environments for students online.

About half the schools 230 students will need to borrow a computer  and there were enough in stock to make that happen, he said. In the spring, many students didnt have a device or Wi-Fi or had to share with siblings or working parents. That has to change, he said.

We want to make sure the families have the technology for their children to use exclusively, he said.

Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

In the coming weeks, the city is expected to give out 25,000 laptops to Oakland families through the Oakland Undivided campaign  computers they can keep, Guikema said.

On Monday morning, parent Amna Asghar stood in a short line in the Sankofa parking lot to get a Chromebook for her second-grade daughter, Ava, who stood at her side.

It was an odd way to spend the first day of school, she acknowledged.

Thats just the way of the world right now, she said, adding that it was a little sad and confusing for her daughter. She was ready with her backpack and I told her she wouldnt need it.

But a lack of devices wasnt the only issue Monday. Many teachers and families were plagued by technology glitches: lost passwords, bad Wi-Fi, garbled conversations and often more than one person talking at once because of streaming delays.

Many parents had to juggle Zoom sessions for more than one child amid work schedules and other obligations.

Nicole Hayes, head custodian at Hillcrest School, has 13-year-old twins entering eighth grade at Elmhurst Middle School. Keeping them active and engaged has been challenging amid her own work schedule and other family issues.

Im overwhelmed, she said as she picked up meals for her children at Sankofa, one of 22 district food distribution sites. Its frustrating and mind-boggling.

Parent Eleza Jaeger also felt the stress of a first day of online school.

She had to toggle between each of her daughters separate first days on Zoom, with Hazel, 9, in fourth grade, and Rhye, 6, in first.

That fresh, new school year feeling  were not feeling that, she said, And (were) kind of missing it.

Exacerbating the frustration for families was a lack of clarity on what the average online school day will look like for students. The district and labor officials have not yet reached an agreement on working conditions for teachers, including the length of the workday or how many hours of live instruction will be expected of educators.

COVID Resources Coronavirus Map Tracking COVID-19 cases across the Bay Area and California.

An agreement on distance learning in the spring, after schools closed in mid-March, reduced the teacher workday to four hours and had no live instruction requirements. Many students never saw their teachers again, even online, with class assignments posted and turned in online.

Oakland Unified spokesman John Sasaki said Monday that negotiations are ongoing and the district is hoping to ensure teachers are interacting with students more this fall, although the amount of time is still part of the talks.

District officials were expected to update the status of the talks Monday afternoon.

San Francisco schools will require teachers to participate in at least two hours of live instruction per day.

Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

Peter Wilson, a fourth-grade teacher at Sankofa, said he plans to teach live online for at least two hours a day, often in small groups to give focused attention to his students.

He met with his students via Zoom from his classroom on the second floor, the Wi-Fi so sketchy that he vowed to teach from home Tuesday.

I wish they were here, he said after his online session ended.

His classroom was cluttered with boxes of books and all the chairs were upside down on top of desks.

Its a new style of teaching, he said. We gotta do what we gotta do.

He noted that parents were concerned about the lack of live teaching in the spring. He had told them things would be different this fall.

We are teaching this year, he told them. Yeah, we are teaching.

Jill Tucker and Annie Vainshtein are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com, avainshtein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Jilltucker, @annievain
Places of worship say the pandemic has meant greater participation from older adults in their services  thanks, in large part, to virtual offerings.

Were seeing new faces (online), said pastor Karen Milley from Crossfire Assembly, adding that seniors have been attending more consistently.

Places of worship often provide a sense of community to older adults and can help reduce isolation. While the pandemic shut down many houses of worship, faith communities found new ways to reach members and offer support during uncertain times  including personal phone calls, virtual programming and care packages. Now, while some spaces are beginning to open up, faith leaders say they plan to keep up many of their new offerings after seeing success in reaching their elders.

Milley said shes seen an increase in attendance through virtual services  hers is one of several places planning to continue livestreaming after in-person gatherings resume.

Jagtar Singh, the main director of Gurdwara Shaheedgarh Sahib, says they began livestreaming their services on Facebook to help the Sikh community stay connected. He plans to continue the livestreaming to help seniors participate who couldnt normally because of health issues or poor weather.

Although Temple Anshe Sholom remains closed to in-person services, Rabbi Jordan Cohen says attendance has doubled in the virtual Friday worship services, primarily among older members. Seniors make up a large portion of the synagogues membership, he says, adding that maintaining an online presence will help seniors stay connected to the temple who might not otherwise be able to.

Particularly during your dark and cold winter months, people would not come out and we just accepted that in the past, but were realizing now how much they still want to participate, he said.

But Cohen says there were challenges along the way to their recent success, including providing tech support to his members, and even getting home internet to some who couldnt afford it.

He says there were roughly 37 people out of his 1,000-member congregation who were doubly isolated because they didnt have access online. A partnership with Hamilton Jewish Family Services helped provide those people internet.

Rev. Paul Luth from St. Georges Church found a new way to stay connected with his congregation. He recorded all his services and emailed the audio to his members. For those who didnt have an email, he burned the recordings on a CD and mailed it to them. He adds that the church also ordered CD players for those who didnt have them.

St. Georges Church is also among multiple faith communities who maintained contact with their members through personal checkup calls.

People say that they really appreciate the personal touch that is afforded by a phone call or getting something actually in the mail with your name on it, he said. Theres a certain appreciation for that kind of communication, especially among seniors.

Sayed Hashemi, president of Ibrahim Jame Mosque, says the pandemic taught him about the importance of staying in touch with his members. But he still feels many challenges trying to stay connected with the seniors in his community because many of them dont use technology.

The mosque plans to form a committee to make regular contact with seniors by phone, he says.

A mosque is a place where seniors belong.
New Delhi, Aug 10 : Former Union Minister P Chidambaram, a native of Tamil Nadu, has come out in support of DMK MP Kanimozhi, who had tweeted about an incident at an airport wherein she was asked about her citizenship, and pointed to his own experiences.

"The unpleasant experience of DMK MP Kanimozhi at the Chennai airport is not unusual. I (too) have experienced similar taunts from government officers and ordinary citizens, who insisted that I speak in Hindi during telephone conversations, and sometimes even face to face," Chidambaram said.

The former Union Minister said: "If the Centre is genuinely committed to both Hindi and English being the official languages of India, it must insist that all central government employees are bilingual in Hindi and English." While non-Hindi speaking recruits to central government posts quickly learn functional spoken Hindi, why cannot Hindi-speaking recruits to these posts learn functional spoken English?" the senior Congress leader asked.

Meanwhile, the BJP has dismissed her allegation as 'electoral stunt'. BJP General Secretary (Organisation) BL Santhosh tweeted to counter Kanimozhi's charge, saying that "assembly elections are 8 months away ... campaign starts".

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
China announced Monday it is levying sanctions against Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and nine other U.S. business figures and Republican politicians in 'retaliation' for actions taken against Hong Kong.

The move to escalate tensions with the U.S. came just after the arrest in the semi-autonomous Chinese city of anti-Beijing media tycoon Jimmy Lai, the most high-profile move by Communist authorities yet to clamp down on critics using a new 'security' law.

The list includes other Republican senators Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton and Pat Toomey, all of whom have spoken out against Beijing in recent weeks.

It also includes human rights groups who have criticized China's security laws in Hong Kong.

Also sanctioned are National Endowment for Democracy President Carl Gershman; National Democratic Institute President Derek Mitchell; International Republican Institute President Daniel Twining; Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth; and Michael Abramowitz, President of Freedom House.

The exact nature of the sanctions was not disclosed. None of the politicians have Chinese financial ties.

China announced Monday it is placing unspecific sanctions against 11 U.S. politicians and business officials, including against Texas Senator Ted Cruz (left) and Florida Senator Marco Rubio (right)

Under arrest: Jimmy Lai (centre), the media tycoon behind pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, was arrested by police in Hong Kong today

Notably the 11-person list does not include any of Donald Trump's administration or campaign officials or any of his family members or business associates.

Sticking to Republican lawmakers rather than administration officials is less likely to escalate tensions with the White House directly.

The sanctions were announced by China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian who said the 11 individuals 'performed badly' on issues in Hong Kong. Both Cruz and Rubio have been outspoken critic

'The relevant actions of the U.S. blatantly intervened in Hong Kong affairs, grossly interfered in China's internal affairs, and seriously violated international law and the basic norms of international relations,' Zhao said at a daily briefing on Monday.

'China urges the U.S. to have a clear understanding of the situation, correct mistakes, and immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and interfering in China's internal affairs,' the spokesperson continued.

Rubio issued a snarky response to the new sanctions in a Twitter post Monday.

'Last month #China banned me. Today they sanctioned me,' he wrote. 'I don't want to be paranoid but I am starting to think they don't like me.'

The 11 Americans named by the ministry are exactly the same number of Hong Kong and Chinese officials placed on a sanctions list by the U.S. last week over the crackdown.

Beijing placed a travel ban on Rubio, Cruz and Smith last month after Washington announced similar measures against Chinese officials linked to measures taken against Muslims in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang.

The move comes as tensions continue to rise between Washington and Beijing.

Last month China's consulate in Houston, Texas was closed as lawmakers denounced a hoard of spying operations out of the diplomatic campus.

China issued new national security law in Hong Kong last month, leading to new sanctions from the U.S. and widespread criticism from U.S. officials both politically and in business. Here pro-China supporters protest Saturday against the U.S. sanctions outside the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong

China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian (pictured) announced the sanctions on Monday, claiming the 11 individuals 'performed badly' on issues concerning Hong Kong

After diplomats and all other consulate employees were given a few days to vacate the premises, images of them burning documents and other material in the courtyard of the building emerged.

The standing committee of China's national legislature passed the National Security Law last month, bypassing the city's Legislative Council and the public, where such legislation has faced stiff opposition for years.

The move came in response to months of sometimes violent anti-government protests last year that Beijing said were encouraged by foreign forces in a bid to overthrow Chinese rule over the former British colony that was handed over to Chinese rule in 1997 under a 'one country, two systems' framework meant to last until 2047.

China insists the law is necessary to restore order after last year's mass protests, but critics say it tramples on the freedoms guaranteed to Hong Kong after its handover from Britain in 1997.

Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai is arrested by Chinese authorities in raid on his newspaper office under new security law

Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai was arrested in a raid on his newspaper office today under the city's draconian new security law.

Lai, 71, was led away in handcuffs and arrested along with six others on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces - one of the new offences under the law - and fraud.

The editor of Lai's Apple Daily paper said its journalists would not be intimidated by the raid after staff posted a live-stream of dozens of police on their premises.

However, the Committee to Protect Journalists said the raid 'bears out the worst fears that the law would be used to suppress critical pro-democracy opinion and restrict press freedom'.

China insists the law is necessary to restore order after last year's mass protests, but critics say it tramples on the freedoms guaranteed to Hong Kong after its handover from Britain in 1997.

Raid: A fleet of police officers wearing masks conduct a raid inside Apple Daily headquarters on Monday in one of the most high-profile operations under the new security law

Apple Daily staff were ordered to leave their seats and line up so police could check their identities as officers conducted searches across the newsroom.

At one point Lai was present, in handcuffs and surrounded by officers. Police said the search was conducted with a court warrant which was shown to staff.

Chris Yeung, president of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, described the police action as 'shocking and terrifying'.

'This is unprecedented, and would be unimaginable only one or two months ago,' he said.

Apple editor Law later sent a note to staff telling reporters to 'stand by their posts' as he vowed to get the latest edition printed despite the raid.

Lai's two main titles - the Apple Daily and the digital-only Next magazine - openly back democracy protests in a city where competitors either support Beijing or tread a far more cautious line.

The two publications have been largely devoid of advertisements for years as brands steer clear of incurring Beijing's wrath.

China routinely calls him a a 'traitor' and a 'black hand' behind last year's protests.

Allegations of Lai colluding with foreigners went into overdrive in state media last year when he met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence.

Speaking in June, he described Beijing's new security law as 'a death knell for Hong Kong' and said he feared authorities would come after his journalists.

'I'm prepared for prison,' he said, two weeks before China's rubber-stamp parliament approved the new law over the head of Hong Kong's legislature.

A crowd of people inside the Apple Daily offices today as media tycoon Jimmy Lai and six others were arrested on suspicion of breaching the new law

Jimmy Lai (centre) is escorted by police officers inside the Apple Daily offices in Hong Kong

Beijing's new law targets secession, subversion, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces, leading to fears it would be used to silence criticism.

It also toppled the firewall between the mainland's Communist Party-controlled courts and Hong Kong's vaunted independent judiciary.

The law's introduction has coincided with ramped up police action against democracy supporters.

About two dozen - including Lai - have been charged for defying a police ban to attend a Tiananmen remembrance vigil in early June.

Lai and many others are also being prosecuted for taking part in last year's protests, the largest outbreak of unrest since the city's return to Chinese rule.

Last month a dozen high-profile pro-democracy figures were disqualified from standing in local elections for holding unacceptable political views.

Critics of the new law say it violates the principle of 'one country, two systems' which means Hong Kong is guaranteed freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland.

Washington last week responded by imposing sanctions on a group of Chinese and Hong Kong officials - including the city's leader Carrie Lam.

China says the security law is its own internal affair and has criticised other countries for their interference.

Bejing also responded with criticism after Britain announced plans to open up a path to citizenship for nearly three million Hong Kongers.
Moroccan bank goes live with Fusion Trade Innovation and Fusion Corporate Channels to provide corporate customers with access to services online

LONDON, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Finastra has announced that CIH Bank, a Moroccan-based commercial bank, has gone live with Fusion Corporate Channels and Fusion Trade Innovation, to digitize its end-to-end corporate banking services. The solutions are automating the bank's trade and supply chain finance services, providing its corporate customers with access to services online, rather than in-branch. The solutions reduce manual processes, helping the bank to become more efficient and agile, grow its customer base by providing a more seamless digital customer experience and ultimately, generate new revenue streams.

CIH Bank was founded around 70 years ago, with an initial focus on real estate financing. It has since evolved into a broader commercial bank, while retaining its traditional expertise in real estate and tourism project financing.

"CIH Bank has strong links with the business community in Morocco. By digitalizing our corporate services, we're making sure that these customers are receiving the best service possible, from the comfort of their homes or offices," said Oussama Tazi, Director of International, CIH Bank. "The ongoing pandemic made the requirement for this transition even more apparent as we needed to remove every manual step from the banking process and ensure business continuity for our customers. With Finastra's solutions in place, our customers can now fully manage their operations online, without having to visit a bank branch."

With Fusion Corporate Channels, CIH Bank is able to unify trade services under one portal. By integrating with its clients' existing procurement, finance and enterprise resource planning systems, it can analyze transactional behavior and derive greater value from its customers, resulting in a much stronger customer experience. As well as transactional services, the omnichannel solution opens the door for mobile banking, host to host connectivity, and personalized enquiries from a secured environment. Fusion Trade Innovation, Finastra's market-leading trade finance solution, enhances the bank's comprehensive digital trade capabilities via built-in workflow features and also improves services by providing a smart user interface.

Serge Tohme, Managing Director for MENA and Turkey at Finastra said, "In spite of the ongoing pandemic, and not being able to work onsite, the teams from CIH Bank and Finastra worked closely together to implement close to 70% of the project remotely, with the other 30% having been completed before lockdown. With the solutions now in place, CIH Bank has the ability to drive significant revenue growth through enhanced customer service and access to further innovation. We are excited to support CIH Bank on this journey of digital preparedness and business growth."

CIH Bank worked with the Finastra Services team to implement the software using the Fusion Adopt program, which allowed implementation of the majority of the project remotely, despite the challenging circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For further information, watch the full interview with CIH Bank here.

For further information please contact:

Harriet Pickering

PR Manager, EMEA

T +44-(0)20-3320-5317

Eharriet.pickering@finastra.com

Caroline Duff

Global Head of PR

T +44-(0)20-3320-5892

Ecaroline.duff@finastra.com

finastra.com

About Finastra

Finastra is building an open platform that accelerates collaboration and innovation in financial services, creating better experiences for people, businesses and communities. Supported by the broadest and deepest portfolio of financial services software, Finastra delivers this vitally important technology to financial institutions of all sizes across the globe, including 90 of the world's top 100 banks. Our open architecture approach brings together a number of partners and innovators. Together we are leading the way in which applications are written, deployed and consumed in financial services to evolve with the changing needs of customers. Learn more at finastra.com

Corporate headquarters

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United Kingdom

T: +44-20-3320-5000

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Intensified rainstorms predicted for many parts of the United States as a result of warming climate may have a modest silver lining: they could more efficiently water some major crops, and this would at least partially offset the far larger projected yield declines caused by the rising heat itself. The conclusion, which goes against some accepted wisdom, is contained in a new study published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Numerous studies have projected that rising growing-season temperatures will drastically decrease yields of some major U.S.crops, absent adaptive measures. The damage will come from both steadily heightened evaporation of soil moisture due to higher background temperatures, and sudden desiccation of crops during heat waves. Some studies say that corn, which currently yields about 13 billion bushels a year and plays a major role in the U.S. economy, could nosedive 10 to 30 percent by the mid- to late century. Soy-the United States is the world's leading producer-could decline as much as 15 percent.

Since warmer air can hold more moisture, it is also projected that rainfall will in the future come more often in big bursts, rather than gentle downpours-a phenomenon that is already being observed in many areas. Many scientists have assumed that more extreme rains might further batter crops, but the new study found that this will probably not be the case. The reason: most of the projected heavier downpours will fall within a range that benefits crops, rather than passing the threshold at which they hurt them.

"People have been talking about how more extreme rain will damage crops," said lead author Corey Lesk, a PhD. student at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Obsevatory. "The striking thing we found was, the overall effect of heavier rains is not negative. It turns out to be good for crops."

That said, the effects will probably be modest, according to the study. It estimates that corn yields could be driven back up 1 or 2 percent by the heavier rains, and soy by 1.3 to 2.5 percent. These increases are dwarfed by the potential losses due to heat, but even a few percent adds up when dealing with such huge quantities of crops. And, the researchers say, "Our findings may help identify new opportunities for climate-adaptive crop management and improved modeling."

The team reached their conclusions by studying hour-by-hour rainfall patterns recorded by hundreds of weather stations in the agricultural regions of the U.S. West, South and Northeast each year from 2002 to 2017. They then compared the rainfall patterns to crop yields. They found that years with rains of up to about 20 millimeters an hour-roughly the heaviest downpour of the year on average-resulted in higher yields. It was only when rains reached an extreme 50 millimeters an hour or more that crops suffered damage. (20 millimeters an hour is about three-quarters of an inch; 50 is about 2 inches.) Moreover, years in which rain came mainly as mere drizzle actually damaged yields.

The researchers outlined several possible reasons for the differences. For one, drizzle may be too inefficient to do much good. In hot weather, it can mostly evaporate back into the air before reaching subsurface root zones where it is needed; in cooler weather, it might remain on leaves long enough to encourage the growth of damaging fungi. "There are only a fixed number of hours of rain you can get in a season," said Lesk. "If too much of them are taken up by useless drizzle, it's wasted."

Heavier storms on the other hand, are better-at least up to a point. These allow water to soak thoroughly into the soil, carrying in both moisture and artificial fertilizer spread on the surface. It is only the most extreme events that hurt crops, say the researchers: these can batter plants directly, wash fertilizer off fields, and saturate soils so thoroughly that roots cannot get enough oxygen.

To study the effects of future potential rainfall patterns, the researchers used basic physical models to estimate how much heavier rains might become under different levels of warming. They found that in most cases, more rain would, as expected, come in bigger downpours-but these heavier rains would fall within the fairly wide range where they are beneficial. The most extreme, damaging rains would also increase-but would still be rare enough that the greater number of beneficial rainfalls would outweigh their effects.

Because the study averaged out statistics over vast areas, and many other factors can affect crop yields, it would be hard to say exactly what the effects of future rainfall will be in any one area, said Lesk. "No single farmer would use a study like this to make decisions on what to plant or how," he said. But, as the paper concludes, the results "suggest that beyond extreme events, the crop yield response to more common rainfall intensities merits further attention."

###

The study was coauthored by Ethan Coffel of Dartmouth College and Radley Horton of Lamont-Doherty. Funding came from the U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Interior, and U.S. Geological Survey.

Scientist contact: Corey Lesk, lesk@ldeo.columbia.edu

More information: Kevin Krajick, Senior editor, science news, The Earth Institute. kkrajick@ei.columbia.edu | 212-854-9729

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is Columbia University's home for Earth science research. Its scientists develop fundamental knowledge about the origin, evolution and future of the natural world, from the planet's deepest interior to the outer reaches of its atmosphere, on every continent and in every ocean, providing a rational basis for the difficult choices facing humanity. http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu | @LamontEarth

The Earth Institute, Columbia University mobilizes the sciences, education and public policy to achieve a sustainable earth. http://www.earth.columbia.edu.
Feffer, who has managed the park for 32 years, said he has never seen crowds like the size of which came during hot July weekends. There is not enough staff to hold visitors at the entrances until enough leave to allow more in. At this point, there are no plans to reopen weekends.
Consumer durables major and on Monday announced setting up of 700 Usha Silai schools in aspirational districts and calamity prone areas of select states.

The schools will be set up in Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand under phase-II of the flagship initiative 'Mission Swavalamban'.

Under the phase-I of the initiative, 1,000 Usha Swavalamban Silai Schools were set up in five states - Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana. 200 schools were up and running in each state in 2019, it said.

The objective of these schools is to skill rural women in sewing and stitching to financially empower them and make them 'homepreneurs', it added.

"We are sure these 700 new Silai Schools in the Government of India shortlisted aspirational districts/ calamity affected areas will go a long way in making a real impact by training thousands of people, improving their lives and the lives of their families," CEO Dinesh Chhabra said.

These schools will pave the way for a better tomorrow by developing rural women as entrepreneurs in their own right, and an earning power that helps them meet their aspirations. It underscores the company's commitment to skill people in order to create a more equitable world, he said.

chairman and managing director Mohammad Mustafa, said, "In the second phase besides tailoring skills, we shall impart exposure on entrepreneurship and life skills. This aligns with our Mission Swavalamban which intends to spread entrepreneurship culture, family being the focal point."



The bank will continue to leverage partnership for including the excluded as also serving the unserved. "We firmly believe that strengthening villages through enterprise enabler steps is important for the mission of Atma Nirbhar Bharat," he added.

At Usha Silai Schools, training will be imparted on various aspects of stitching along with maintenance and repairing of sewing machines by expert trainers of

The women entrepreneurs successfully completing the training program will be provided with a Usha Sewing machine (leg paddle driven), a certificate, a training-kit, and a Usha Swavalamban Silai School Signage board, the company added.

The Silai School program, initiated in 2011, is a pan India community based rural initiative of Usha International Ltd.This social initiative is aimed at empowering women from marginalized sections of the communities residing in the remote hamlets, habitations and villages of India.

Presently, there are 23,000 Silai Schools across India, 100 in Nepal and 20 in Sri Lanka and three production centers in Bhutan.

(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 petrol station operated by the Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex). (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi - New policies are in the making to allow foreign firms to gain greater footing in Vietnam's petrol retail market, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

Government Decision 83/2014/ND-CP, for the first time, considers giving the green light to domestic petrol retail firms to sell up to 34 percent of their shares to foreign buyers. The sales must also be inspected and approved by the MoIT before taking effect.

In recent years, as domestic firms pushed for equitisation many have become part-owned by foreign firms including the Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) with 8 percent owned by foreign partners, PetroVietnam Oil Corporation (PVOIL) 20 percent and Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical 34 percent.

Tran Duy Dong, head of the MoIT's domestic market department, said while the country encouraged foreign firms to invest in the domestic market, the Government must reserve the role of market management, explaining the MoIT must inspect and approve sales of shares by domestic firms.

The 34 percent ceiling posed little threat to national energy security as domestic firms would still control the businesses, said expert Dr Dinh Trong Thinh. Meanwhile, having foreign firms in the petrol market is one of the fastest ways for Vietnam to build a market economy.

Vu Vinh Phu, former deputy director of Hanois Department of Industry and Trade, said the 34 percent ceiling allows firms to attract foreign investments and along with them, modern technologies to improve the quality of products and services while maintaining control of the market.

Phu said there was a need to improve transparency and fairness to encourage foreign firms and the Government must ensure a level playing field for all. He also called for petrol prices to be adjusted more frequently (down to a 10-day cycle or fewer compared to the current 15-day) to better reflect the international market's price movement.


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That release could not be found.
Germany's center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) on Monday confirmed Finance Minister Olaf Scholz as their candidate for Chancellor at next year's elections.



"Now it's out," Scholz tweeted on Monday. "I look forward to a fun, fair and successful election campaign."

SPD leaders Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans also confirmed the nomination on Twitter with identical statements, saying that Scholz had the "Chancellor aura." They also acknowledged that picking Scholz, who is a divisive figure in the party, may not be a popular choice.



"We know that this decision represents an unexpected turn of events for some," the two party leaders said. "We ask you to have faith in our path. We are determined to walk this path together."

The party, which for decades vied with Merkels Christian Democrats to dominate the political scene, has not won a national election since 2002 and now languishes a distant third in most polls behind the conservatives and the upstart Greens, Reuters reported.
By Express News Service

MADURAI: Special Sub-inspector of Police Pauldurai, one of the 10 accused arrested in the Sathankulam custodial death case, died due to COVID-19 at Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) in the wee hours on Monday.

Earlier on July 5, 56-year-old Pauldurai was arrested in connection with the alleged custodial torture and the subsequent death of of Thoothukudi father-son trader duo Jeyaraj and Benicks at Sathankulam police station in June.

Pauldurai who was lodged in Madurai Central Prison, tested positive for COVID-19 on July 24 and was shifted to the GRH for COVID-19 treatment.

Weeks into his treatment, three days ago, Pauldurai's wife Mangayarthilagam submitted a petition to the Madurai Commissioner of Police (CoP) Prem Anand Sinha on August 8, requesting permission to take her ailing husband to a private hospital in Kanniyakumari (her native place) for treatment.

In her petition, she stated that stated that "there has been no improvement in his health condition and it has become critical recently."

At this juncture, Pauldurai breathed his last at the GRH around 2.30 am on Monday.
AICC spokesperson Randeep Surjewala on Tuesday said that dissident MLAs should give up the hospitality of the BJP and the security of Haryana police if they want to hold a dialogue with the party.

Asked whether the doors for dissidents are open, Surjewala said that they should first hold a dialogue with the party on the condition that the legislators should give up the security of Haryana police in Manesar, and the hospitality and friendship of the BJP.

Read: Ashok Gehlot seeks CBI, ED raids against Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat

He also said that Bihar police's interference in connection with a probe into actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death was unfair because it was the jurisdiction of Maharashtra Police.

"Bihar police cannot interfere in the jurisdiction of Maharashtra police. Such a situation may lead to anarchy, because enforcing law in a state is the responsibility of the state government," he told reporters outside Hotel Suryagarh where the party MLAs are staying.
(Natural News) The corporate and left-wing media completely ignored the story last month about a 24-year old mother, Jessica Whitaker, who was killed by Black Lives Matter supporters in Indianapolis, Indiana after an alleged argument over the term All Lives Matter.

(Article by Allum Bokhari republished from Breitbart.com)

Analysis by the nonpartisan bias-checker Ground News, which tracks coverage of news stories and assigns a bias rating to stories based on coverage or lack of coverage from partisan media, found that national coverage of the story came nearly exclusively from right-wing or center-right publications.

As Breitbart News reported, the story was originally reported by local media, but went largely ignored by the national press until it was picked up by the Gateway Pundit.

From Breitbart News story at the time:

Jessica Whitaker, a 24-year-old mother of one, was with three friends by a canal in Indianapolis in the early hours of July 5 after a 4th of July celebration when a confrontation occurred between her group and a group of Black Lives Matter supporters, allegedly over racial language. Whitakers fiancee, Jose Ramirez, told local news that during a brief argument, someone in the opposing group said Black Lives Matter, to which one of Whitakers group  possibly Whitaker  responded All Lives Matter. The victims father told the Gateway Pundit that the Black Lives Matter group brandished guns during the confrontation, prompting Ramirez to do the same. The situation de-escalated and both groups withdrew, but Ramirez said the Black Lives Matter supporters later ambushed their group under a nearby bridge, shooting Whitaker dead.

The only left-leaning sources to cover the story were a British left-wing newspaper, the Mirror, and the New York Daily News.

Ground News analysis found that 78 percent of the coverage of the story came from the right.

Outlets rated right-leaning or right-wing by Ground News that covered the story include Breitbart News, The Gateway Pundit, The Blaze, Summit News, ZeroHedge, InfoWars, and NewsWars.

The story was also covered by Fox News, One America News, Newsmax, the Daily Caller, and the Daily Wire, something that has not yet been noted in Ground News report, and would push the percentage of coverage even further to the right.

Read more at: Breitbart.com
Spread Across a Variety of its Products

TOCCOA, GA / ACCESSWIRE / August 10, 2020 / Galaxy Next Generation, Inc. (OTCQB:GAXY) ("Galaxy" or the "Company), a provider of interactive learning technology solutions, is pleased to announce that it is receiving new orders and additional potential interest for a range of its products, from interactive panels to Cov-Shield, a clear plexi-glass barrier for personalized workspace for the U.S. education and business markets.

Galaxy has sold over $250,000 in Cov-Shield products in the past month, since just launching the product in late-June. The expanded customer base for Cov-Shield has come from multiple new states including Louisiana, Kentucky, Rhode Island, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Illinois and Florida.

The Company has extended its reach for the Cov-Shield line of products by signing up four new resellers. These new resller partners are not specifically technology providers to schools, but rather supply schools with everyday facilities needs.

Outside of the Cov-Shield line, Galaxy is completing several summer installs for its interactive panel line of products. This week alone we will be completing and invoicing for over $600,000 in revenue.

Gary LeCroy, Galaxy's Chief Executive Officer, commented, "As we continue to grow and expand, we are excited about our opportunity to help schools in their needs during Covid-19, in and outside of the classroom."

About Galaxy Next Generation, Inc.

Galaxy Next Generation (OTCQB:GAXY) is a provider of interactive learning technology solutions that allows the presenter and participant to engage in a fully collaborative instructional environment. Galaxy's products include Galaxy's own private-label interactive touch screen panel as well as numerous other national and international branded peripheral and communication devices. Galaxy's distribution channel consists of 22+ resellers across the U.S. who primarily sell the Company's products within the commercial and educational market. Galaxy does not control where resellers focus their resell efforts, although generally, the K-12 education market is the largest customer base for Galaxy products - comprising nearly 90% of Galaxy's sales.

For additional information, please visit our website at: www.galaxynext.us.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based on the current plans and expectations of management and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could significantly affect the company's current plans and expectations, as well as future results of operations and financial condition. A more extensive listing of risks and factors that may affect the company's business prospects and cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the reports and other documents filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Investors Contact:

IR@GalaxyNext.us

p888-859-1274

SOURCE: Galaxy Next Generation, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/600928/Galaxy-Next-Generation-Encountering-Increase-in-Demand-From-Expanded-Customer-Base-in-Multiple-New-States
Last October, Ibrahim Bouaichi sexually assaulted Karla Dominguez with whom he reportedly had been in a relationship. He was charged with six felony counts and held without bond in an Alexandria, Virginia jail.

In April, a judge, Nolan Dawkins, ordered the release of Bouaichi due to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Bouaichi was 33 years old. The virus probably posed about the same threat to his health as the flu. Moreover, there had been no cases of the virus at the Alexandria jail.

Bouaichis lawyers argued that visits to the jail had been curtailed and that they needed to meet with their client. But all trials had been postponed.

The lawyers apparently did not seek relief from the curb on their ability to visit Bouaichi. Instead, they insisted on his release.

Judge Dawkins ordered Bouaichi to stay at home, to leave only to meet with his lawyers, and to have no contact with Dominguez, his victim. But the judge did not order electronic monitoring of Bouaichi.

Less than a month after his release, police officers spotted Bouaichi in his car at a Wendys drive-through. He rammed his car into one of their cruisers.

For this, he was charged with multiple assault counts and drunk driving. But after spending one night in a Maryland jail, Bouaichi was released on bond.

You can probably guess the rest of the story. In late July, Dominguez was shot to death in Alexandria. The police issued a warrant for the arrest of Bouaichi on the charge of murder. He fled. When the police finally spotted him and moved in for the arrest, he killed himself.

Our criminal justice failed Karla Dominguez, just as it consistently fails the victims of thugs and predators like Ibrahim Bouaichi. As Bill Otis puts it, the operative ideology is victims-are-collateral-damage-so-thats-how-the-cookie-crumbles. In this case, that ideology trumped even the need to protect women from violence.
Announcement of Periodic Review: Moody's announces completion of a periodic review of ratings of ArcelorMittal

Global Credit Research - 10 Aug 2020

Frankfurt am Main, August 10, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has completed a periodic review of the ratings of ArcelorMittal 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.

ArcelorMittal's Ba1 corporate family rating (CFR) balances the company's currently weak credit metrics for the assigned rating with its strong liquidity profile. The assessment positively incorporates measures taken by the company to strengthen its liquidity in the currently challenging market environment, such as adapting production, operating costs and capital spending to materially reduced demand levels, besides prudent working capital management. ArcelorMittal's liquidity profile is further bolstered by sizeable committed long-term credit facilities and the $2 billion issuance of common shares and mandatorily convertible notes in Q2 2020.

Story continues

The rating is underpinned by ArcelorMittal's leading positions in the US, Europe and Brazil and broad geographical and product diversification of its operations. Constraining factors include ArcelorMittal's exposure to cyclical end markets, mainly construction and automotive, with the latter facing particular challenges amid the coronavirus pandemic. The rating also incorporates risks associated with the integration of recent acquisitions and the currently very low visibility on a sustained demand recovery after the containment of the coronavirus spreading.

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 Steel Industry published in September 2017. Please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

This announcement applies only to EU rated and EU endorsed ratings. Non EU rated and non EU endorsed ratings may be referenced above to the extent necessary, if they are part of the same analytical unit.

This publication does not announce a credit rating action. For any credit ratings referenced in this publication, please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for the most updated credit rating action information and rating history.

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S ir Elton Johns blue Gucci tracksuit is expected to fetch more than 3,000 when it goes up for auction next month.

The designer outfit is one of many prized items of music memorabilia set to go under the hammer at the MusiCares Charity Auction, hosted by Juliens Auctions next month.

A bomber jacket belonging to Sir Tom Jones  made from black velvet and with "Tom" embroidered in gold  is also expected to generate more than 3,000.

Meanwhile, clothes worn on stage by Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne are set to go for somewhere between 4,600 and 6,100, while a Fender California Coast ukulele signed by Billie Eilish has been given a predicted price-tag of between 1,500 and 3,000.

Shell (out) suit: Sir Elton's blue attire is expected to earn more than 3k at auction / Julien's Auctions/PA Wire

A Gibson SG Standard 61 guitar in vintage cherry and signed by Led Zeppelins Robert Plant and Black Sabbaths Tony Iommi (3,000-4,600) is also on offer.

The best albums of 2020 so far 1 /14 The best albums of 2020 so far Getty Images Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia Future Nostalgia arrived at the end of March, a ray of light to pierce the lockdown gloom. It was a shot at writing something timeless, taking strands of classic disco and Eighties synth-pop and putting them through a slick, modern filter. On standout tracks such as Dont Start Now and Cool, Dua Lipa hit her target. More than anything though, this was something defiantly fun, a heartening reminder that there are brighter times ahead. Getty Images Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher It would be easy to label Punisher as a sad album, because it is, with heartache and despondency always within an arms reach. But to simply call it that would be to grossly undersell it  the album, also out today, is cathartic, nostalgic, surreal, grounded, darkly comic and, more often than not, weepingly beautiful. The disarming vocals are morbidly quotable (The doctor put her hands over my liver /She told me my resentments getting smaller) and confirm the 25-year-old Bridgers as one of her generations deftest writers. Getty Images for Tibet House Tame Impala - The Slow Rush It took some time to fall in love with Kevin Parkers latest album as Tame Impala. Its layers were dense and meticulously produced, a product of the Australians dogged perfectionism, but when they did eventually unravel, the albums brilliance was revealed in vivid colour. There was squelchy hip-hop and tap-dancing piano on Borderline, alluring sophisto-funk on Breathe Deeper, and dizzying disco on One More Year. Parkers lyrics were typically conflicted, stuck between past and future, but musically, hed never sounded so assured. AFP via Getty Images Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters Fiona Apples fifth album was eight years in the making, and sounded as if it had been simmering for all that time. It was inescapably personal, rattling with homemade percussion, grinding against Apples visceral vocals as she retold traumas of sexual abuse and toxic relationships. But it all coalesced to give momentum to a magnificent release of tension, the sound of a furiously convinced artist. Kick me under the table all you want, she asserted, I wont shut up. Getty Images Run The Jewels - RTJ4 When Killer Mike, one half of Run The Jewels, wrote Walking In The Snow (You so numb, you watch the cops choke out a man like me) he was remembering the tragic death of Eric Garner in 2014. It should have been retrospective; instead, it was hideously prophetic, arriving on RTJ4 amid the George Floyd protests. But these were wide-lens raps  joined by partner El-P, they fired lyrical missiles at the racist police and ruling elite, interspersing it with cutting quips and dark humour. Painful, prescient, and hugely powerful. Getty Images for DIRECTV J Hus - Big Conspiracy Big Conspiracy was the sound of an artist taking his time. The eclectic beats, largely provided by chameleonic producer Jae5, avoided the usual bombast for something understated. The lyrical gaze was sharp, ranging from the legacy of slavery to the grind of everyday life, all of it recounted with clever wordplay. It wouldnt be a Hus album without tales of at least one sexual conquest  the song Cucumber provides it  but all in all, never has the east Londoner been so searingly composed. Getty Images for Nike Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways Bob Dylans 39th studio album, released today, might just be one of his greatest. Before this, eight years had passed without any new original music. Had the old master lulled himself into retirement? The surprise release of a 17-minute song about the JFK assassination did away with any doubts. Its a densely lyrical album, a poetic and historical tapestry, proving that, at 79, the Nobel Prize-winner is still at the peak of his songwriting powers. AFP via Getty Images Georgia - Seeking Thrills Georgias exhilarating second album landed back in January (oh, those halcyon days) and was the sound of an artist brimming with new-found conviction. Arriving five years after her debut, she had finally found her voice  quite literally, shunning the over-produced vocals of before  and a winning musical formula: retro-tinted dance pop, pairing the throbbing echoes of Chicago house with sharp modern melodies. Hollie Fernando Orlando Weeks - A Quickening Former Maccabees frontman Orlando Weeks took a mature step away from his indie-rock past on his debut solo album, supplanting it with soft, cloudy atmospheres. A Quickening covered his impending fatherhood, and all of the unknowingness that comes with it. It was minutely intimate  Ill be your blood sugar, he pledged to the unborn child  with his vocals at their most tender and innocent. Jackson Bowley Laura Marling - Song For Our Daughter Another album to ease the pandemic blues, Laura Marling had initially planned an August release, but brought it forward to April. It had an effortlessly classic sound to it  the folky tones of Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake chimed throughout  but this album was undoubtedly Marlings own. Her vocals were soaring, sardonic and soothing, singing with all the wisdom of an artist who, still only 30, now has seven albums worth of experience behind her. Getty Images

MusiCares was established by the Recording Academy, the body which oversees the Grammys, to help people in the music industry. Designated lots will share proceeds with MusiCares and the Grand Ole Opry Trust Fund.

The MusiCares Charity Auction takes place on September 9 live in Beverly Hills and online at juliensauctions.com

Additional reporting by PA
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Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 10, 2020 08:25 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cb5204 1 Editorial school,school-reopening,student,study-from-home,pembelajaran-jarak-jauh,pembelajaran-tatap-muka Free

Many fear that the prolonged closure of schools in an effort to contain COVID-19 will exacerbate already yawning inequalities, but the governments plan to resume in-person education in areas where virus transmission remains unabated is dangerous.

The government revised a joint ministerial decree on Friday to allow schools in yellow zones  areas with moderate COVID-19 risk  to reopen. This policy clearly defies international guidelines, which prescribe school reopening only if local transmission of COVID-19 is under control.

Read also: Govt to allow schools outside green zones to reopen

A month before, the government said it would allow only schools in COVID-19 green zones  areas with no recorded COVID-19 transmission  to reopen.

Over that period, however, infections in Indonesia have surged, although partly because of larger-scale testing and tracing. The decision to allow students in yellow zones to go back to school and meet their friends and teachers risks worsening local transmission, putting a heavier burden on the nations limited healthcare facilities and workers and, in the long term, slowing the economic recovery.

Currently 57 percent of the student population lives in red (high-risk) and orange (moderate risk) zones and the remaining 43 percent in green and yellow zones across 276 regencies and cities.

The stark difference between Indonesia and countries where students have returned to school  like Japan, South Korea and Israel  is that control of the virus continues to elude Indonesia. Even in the countries that have been able to manage infections, parents remain wary of letting their children attend in-person classes, regardless of strict health protocols. In certain cases, such as one in Israel, schools were closed again after reopening because students and teachers got ill.

Japan, known for its conservative approach to COVID-19, has reopened schools with extra caution. In addition to daily temperature checks, mandatory mask-wearing and social distancing rules, most students go to classes on an alternating schedule to minimize crowding.

Epidemiologists have warned that reopening schools, as well as the economy, will give the virus a route of contagion and will increase the opportunities it has for transmission, no matter if schools comply with health protocols. This possibility is even higher among children who are not well-informed about how the virus is transmitted.

Dicky Budiman, an epidemiologists from Griffith University in Australia, has urged the government to postpone in-person education until the end of 2020, citing the relatively unreliable data about the pandemic in the country.

Read also: Most Indonesians want schools, colleges to reopen despite pandemic: Survey

An increasing number of children between the ages of 5 and 14 are catching COVID-19 throughout the world. Data from Ourworldindata.org shows that children of that age group account for 6.8 percent of the total number of recorded cases in Indonesia, well above the global average of below 5 percent. The figure could rise if in-person education resumes.

We might have already reopened schools and the economy if the government had responded quickly and effectively to the virus from the outset. But the government has now laid blame on everyday people and has deployed the military and police to discipline them.
Why the fuss? The US, Taiwan and China -- a guide A 2018 view of the new building of the American Institute in Taiwan, which serves US interests on the island despite the lack of formal diplomatic relations

Why has the United States' 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 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-defence 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.

Story continues

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 precisely that meant.

Only 14 nations, all in the developing world, and the Vatican still recognise Taiwan.

Beijing has tried hard to stop any international recognition for the island.

The United States, while recognising 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 centre 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.

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Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion at this hour. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times.

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People jumping just on draft EIA not fair, says Prakash Javadekar

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Sanjay Dutt discharged from hospital after two days, returns home

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IPL 2020: Patanjali considering bidding for title sponsorship

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Honda Jazz 2020 to feature stylish looks; pre-launch bookings now open

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Fenty Skin: Rihanna shares her skincare routine, how she maintains the glow and more



Rihanna is an icon, on or off-screen. She has this way of leaving you absolutely tongue-tied, whether it is through her music, her fashion sense, wit, or her self-proclaimed bad girl image. It is safe to say that we are yet to come across a field where she has not dominated. Read more.

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Sensex, Nifty Highlights on August 10: Sensex and Nifty ended on a bullish note on Monday, extending last week's gains amid positive global equities. Sensex ended 141 points higher at 38,182 and Nifty gained 60 points to 11,274. Last Friday, Sensex ended 15 points higher at 38,040 and Nifty gained 13 points to 11,214. Meanwhile, April-June quarterly earnings announcements by Titan, Power Grid, IPCA Labs, Bank of Baroda, AstraZeneca Pharma, TTK Prestige will also set the tone for the stock market today.

Here's a look at the updates of the market action on BSE and NSE today

3. 55 PM: Closing session

Sensex and Nifty ended on a bullish note on Monday, extending last week's gains amid positive global equities. Sensex ended 141 points higher at 38,182 and Nifty gained 60 points to 11,274.

3. 33 PM: Nifty technical outlook

Commenting on Nifty's outlook, Manish Hathiramani, proprietary index trader and technical analyst, Deen Dayal Investments said," We have kept above the 11250 level which is a bullish sign. The Nifty should attempt 11500 as its next price target. The support continues to be at 11100."

3. 20 PM: Market outlook

Commenting on market's outlook, S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities said,"Todays Trade was characterised by heightened activity in Defence & Pharmaceutical stocks, the former due to the proposed changes being implemented favoring domestic producers and the latter due to earnings beat on the quarterly results. On the broader market too, we witnessed investor interest across stocks in the Sugar sector as large integrated sugar complexes have demonstrated success in their Distillery operations".

3.00 PM: Dr. Reddys Labs - Q1FY21 result update

Commenting on Dr. Reddys Labs - Q1FY21 result, Centrum Broking said," DRL is better poised to scout more brand acquisition deals focused in India even beyond Wockhardt, given the net-cash balance sheet. DRL CGMP compliance status is at best level, as EIRs have been received for all pending facilities. Given the all positive outlook on the business and improving financials we have increased the multiple for the stock to 25x FY22E. Earnings have been increased slightly by 2%/ 5%, for FY21E/FY22E, respectively. We maintain our Buy recommendation on DRL with target price at Rs 5,200. DRL is trading at 25.5x FY21E EPS of Rs177.6 and 22x FY22E EPS of Rs205.4.

2. 48 PM: Pfizer Q1 reuslt update

Commenting on Pfizer - Q1FY21 result, Centrum Broking said," Pfizer's management is hopeful of achieving in-line or slightly better growth than its MNC peers. Meanwhile, management has highlighted its focus on protecting minority shareholder interest. FY21E expected to be subdued given the impact of pandemic and Up-John transaction. However, we believe FY22E could be better on both revenue growth and margin front. The key risk on the stock remains Prevnar13 status and any further expansion of NLEM portfolio in the domestic market. At CMP of Rs 4,391 the stock trades at 31x FY21E EPS Rs 140.5 and 33x FY22E EPS of Rs 134.2. We maintain our Buy rating on the stock with target price of Rs 5,000, valued at 37x FY22E.

2. 23 PM: Mahindra & Mahindra share price climbs to new 52-week high

The share price of Mahindra & Mahindra gained over 6% to a touch a new 52- week high on Monday's opening trade after the company reported its performance for the Q1FY21.

Mahindra & Mahindra registered a 97% YoY fall in its net profit to Rs 67.8 crore for the quarter ended June 2020, as against Rs 2,259.74 crore in the same period last year. M&M said profit before the exceptional gain of Rs 29 crore fell 96% YoY to Rs 39 crore for the quarter.

Following the result update, Mahindra & Mahindra stock touched an intraday as well as new 52-week high of Rs 640.55, rising 6.65% on BSE as against the earlier closing of Rs 600.60 on BSE. M&M stock has gained after 2 days of consecutive fall.

1. 44 PM: Real estate sector update

Speaking on outlook for real estate sector Raman Gupta, Director - Branding & Construction, GBP Group said, "Reverse migration among the working professionals from metros and NRIs will lead to increase in demand of property in Tier II and tier III cities. Talking especially about the northern region, Tricity and its peripheries are witnessing an upsurge laying the foundation for a market that is going to grow exponentially from here.Also, India is on its path of becoming the manufacturing hub, it will create significant demand for office spaces, business parks and other commercial complexes in the coming years."

1. 23 PM: Defence stocks rally

Shares of defence companies were rallying on Monday's opening trade after India's Ministry of Defence announced over the weekend banning of 101 defence weapons and military platform items.

Bharat Heavy Electronics Limited (BHEL), Larsen & Toubro, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bharat Forge were trading higher, following the reports as the ban could bring an additional impetus for India's defence companies.

1. 11 PM: Saudi Arabia cuts off oil supply

Pakistan has not received oil on deferred payments from Saudi Arabia since May as a deal signed between the two close allies for provision of $3.2 billion worth of the fuel under the arrangement expired two months ago. The $3.2-billion Saudi oil facility was part of the $6.2-billion Saudi Arabian package announced in November 2018 to ease Pakistan's external sector woes, the Express Tribune reported.

Saudi Arabia cuts off oil supply to Pakistan over delayed payments

12. 50 PM: DIVI Labs hist all time high today

Divi's Laboratories share price hit an all-time high in trade today after the pharma firm reported better-than-expected earnings for the quarter ended June. Share price of Divi's Laboratories climbed 16% to a fresh high of Rs 3,228 against previous close of Rs 2,748 on BSE. The stock has climbed 72.44% since the beginning of this year and risen 91.13% in one year.

Divi's Laboratories share price climbs 16% on strong Q1 earnings

12. 28 PM: Earnings Today

Titan, Power Grid, IPCA Labs, Bank of Baroda, AstraZeneca Pharma, TTK Prestige, Akzo Nobel, KEC International, HEG, Cochin Shipyard, Ujjivan Financial Services, Equitas Holdings, Aban Offshore, Coffee Day Enterprises and Caplin Point Labs, among others will announce their Q1 results today.

12.09 PM: Sobha Q1 results update

Commenting on 1QFY21 results of Sobha, Yash Gupta, Equity Research Associate, Angel Broking sad," Sobha Ltd reported a washout quarter for Q1FY21. Consolidated revenue from operations for Q1FY21 stood at Rs 350 crores down by 70% YoY from Rs 1,176.7 crores in Q1FY20. Revenue from real estate down by 73.6% at Rs 222.9 crores and revenue from contractual & manufacturing down by 61.7% at Rs 127 crores.Total area sold for the quarter at 0.65 Mn sq ft as compared to 1.06 Mn sq ft in Q1FY20 down by 39%.Booking value for the quarter stood at Rs 488 crore.Profit after tax for the quarter stood at ?6.6 Crore down by 92.7% as compared to Rs 90.6 Crore in Q1FY20.We remain cautious on the sector as well as on the company as demand is likely to be impacted due to covid 19. The company also has debt of Rs 3,021 crores which will weigh on the stock."

11. 56 AM: Divi's Lab Q1 result

Commenting on 1QFY21 results of Divi's Lab - Yash Gupta, Equity Research Associate, Angel Broking said,"Divi's Laboratories reported an excellent set of numbers in Q1FY21. Consolidated revenue from operations for Q1FY21 stood at Rs 1,730 crores up by 48.8% YoY from Rs 1162.8 crores in Q1FY20.Gross margins stood at 63% in Q1FY21 up by 190 bps from 61.1% in Q1FY20.EBITDA up by 80.9% YoY to Rs 700 Crores as compared to Rs 387 Crores in Q1FY20. Due to increase in profit margins and saving in other expenses and employee cost.Profit after tax for the quarter stood at Rs 492 Crore up by 80.% as compared to Rs 272 Crore in Q1FY20. Company posted above expected set of numbers for the quarter."

11. 47 AM: Supreme Court hearing today on AGR dues today

Market anaysts said investors will be also looking out for AGR hearing decision by Supreme Court today at 2 PM. If Supreme Court approved desired time line to repay AGR dues then will be positive for Telecom player like Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and Banks also, those who have given loan to telecom companies.

Big day for Airtel, Vodafone Idea! Supreme Court to give verdict on payment tenure of AGR dues

11. 34 AM: Rupee opens flat

Indian rupee, the local currency opened on a flat note at 74.96 per US dollar on Monday's opening bell, tracking weakness in Asian peers even as domestic equities started on a positive note.

The rupee opened weak at 74.96 at the interbank forex market, down 3 paise over its previous close of 74.93. The domestic unit, however, soon pared the losses and was trading 2 paise higher at 74.91 against the greenback.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.11 per cent to 93.32.

Rupee opens flat at 74.96 per dollar amid weakness in Asian currencies

11. 27 AM: Top gainers and losers

M&M, followed by L&T, Kotak Bank, SBI, Bajaj Finance, Sun Pharma, ITC and HDFC duo. On the other hand, Maruti, Tata Steel and Nestle India were the laggards.

11. 18 AM: Market rises further

Sensex and Nifty traded on a bullish note on Monday, extending last week's gains amid mixed global equities. Sensex was trading 358 points higher at 38,393 and Nifty gained 112 points to 11,326.

11.02AM: Cipla shares gain over 6%

Cipla share price gained over 6% today after the firm reported a 26.58 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit in June quarter. Cipla share price rose 6.64% in early trade to fresh 52 week high of Rs 777 against earlier close of Rs 728.60 on BSE.

Cipla stock price has risen 8.09% in one week, 20% in one month and 60.52% since the beginning of the year. Cipla stock opened with a gain of 4.78% at Rs 763.40 on BSE.

Cipla share price hits 52-week high after sales propel Q1 net profit

10. 41 AM: Gold outlook

Geojit Financial in its commodity report said," As long as prices stay above $2000 expect rallies to continue with next upside targets are seen at $2080/2145 levels. However, an unexpected turn below $1920 could negate the extreme bullish outlook and may see corrective selling pressure. For MCX Gold Oct futures, the brokerage targeted resistance at 55,480 and support at 54,000. For MCX Silver August future, resistance is placed at Rs 76,120/81,000, while the support is at 71,500.

10. 33 AM: Gold trades near record high

Gold futures on Multi Commodity Exchange on Monday were trading Rs 210 lower at Rs 54,999 per 10 gm against the previous close of Rs 54,789 per 10 gm. Gold August Futures touched an intraday high of Rs 55,080 today. Gold Futures has touched an all-time high of Rs 56,191 in the previous session.

Silver September futures was trading Rs 960 higher at Rs 75,120 per kg today, after hitting a lifetime high of Rs 77,949 in Friday's session.

Gold prices at all-time high of Rs 57,008, silver continues to rise

10. 23 AM: Nifty technical outlook

On Nifty near term trend, Angel Broking in its Technical derivatives report said," In our opinion, the way markets are placed, this week would be quite crucial and hence, one should be keeping a close eye on few key levels. Although the market has managed to recover well, it would be a daunting task surpassing the sturdy wall of 11300-11350. Till the time it is not conquered successfully, we advocate some caution. On the downside, a move below 11100 would lead to immediate correction towards 10950 - 10880."

10. 14 AM: Coronavirus toll

Worldwide, there are 200 lakh confirmed cases and 7.33 lakh deaths from the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak. In India, the nnumber of infected cases has risen to 22 lakh, including 0.44 lakh fatalities.

10.00 AM: Gold outlook

On recent gold prices, Hareesh V, Head Commodity Research at Geojit Financial Services said," Rising pandemic cases and escalating US-China tensions continue to lift the safe haven demand of gold and thus prices of the commodity. However, with dollar gaining strength after the key US employment numbers and a near record high prices are likely to calm down major buying sentiments."

For technical outlook on London spot, he added," As long as the support of $1980 remains undisturbed, expect rallies to continue with immediate resistance seen at $2080 followed by $2280 levels later. A direct drop below $1880 could negate the outlook and take prices lower."

9. 52 AM: Overseas gold

Spot gold hit a record high of $2,075.2 per ounce today and last stood at $2,064. Spot gold hit a record high of $2,072.50 on Friday. Meanwhile, Comex gold was trading 0.75% higher at $ 2,024 per ounce, after hitting an all-time high of 2,063 in the previous week. Spot gold was down 0.3% to $2,028.90 per ounce, while US gold futures rose 0.6% to $2,039.20.

This was on back of bounce in dollar, amid data showing US nonfarm payrolls increased 1.763 million in July

Silver also followed trend and fell 1.2% to $27.96 per ounce, after hitting a seven-year high of $29.8384 per ounce last week. Silver has gained 60% so far this quarter, overseas.

9. 44 AM: Market outlook for the week

Expressing views on the week ahead, Vinod Nair added, "Global markets are awaiting and will definitely be impacted by the heightened US-China tensions and imminent Chinese reaction. Heightened Chinese aggression could have a negative impact on our markets in the near term. However, there could be a silver lining for Indian markets in the long term, with global investors hesitating to invest in Chinese companies. For lack of options, some of this money could find its way into Indian companies, provided the right ecosystem is built. Earnings specific action will likely continue next week, with indices searching for direction in the near term. Accumulation continues the best strategy."

Sensex, Nifty end flat as coronavirus cases surpass 2 million mark

9. 25 AM: Global markets

In Wall Street, the S&P 500 retreated from a near six-month high on Friday amid sharp slowdown in US employment growth data.

Overseas, Asian stocks were trading lower on Monday as investors kept one eye on flaring tensions between the United States and China with President Donald Trump's move to ban WeChat and TikTok. Investors also kept cautious on US fiscal stimulus after talks between the White House and Democrat lawmakers broke down. Japanese and Singaporean markets are closed for public holidays.

9. 18 AM: FII and DII action

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 397.32 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 438.62 crore in the Indian equity market on 7 August,

9. 12 AM: Stocks to watch today on August 10

Cipla, IndusInd Bank, Siemens, Punjab & Sind Bank, Concor among others are the top stocks to watch out for in Monday's trading session

Stocks in news: Cipla, IndusInd Bank, Siemens, Punjab & Sind Bank, Concor

9. 08 AM: Opening bell

Sensex and Nifty opened on a bullish note on Monday, extending last week's gains amid positive global equities. Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could rise 30 points at the opening bell. Sensex was trading 279 points higher at 38,301 and Nifty gained 84 points to 11,299.

9.00 AM: Global cues

Traders will also keep a track on global markets as the United States is likely to announce another round of stimulus this week. The relief package, which is being discussed between lawmakers, is likely to boost market sentiments domestically and globally.

8. 55 AM: Market update for week ahead

Going ahead, analysts expect market to see some correction amid uncertain environment in wake of rising coronavirus cases. With Reserve Bank policy announcements are already out, investors will keep an eye on macro data, US-China tensions and coronavirus cases which will set tone for the markets. Development on a fresh stimulus package in the US will also be watched closely by the traders.

Share market update for week ahead: 7 things you need to know before opening bell

8. 40 AM: Nifty outlook

RelianceSmart Money in its daily note said," NSE-NIFTY resumed its weekly rising trend and regained 11,200 mark. In the last week, the index lost once out of five trading sessions and reported rise of 1.3%. Due to further rise in the index, its key technical indicator has remained in favour of bulls. This could lead the index towards its upper band of the narrow range (placed at around 11,340 level) and then at around 11,435 mark. In case of decline, the index will initially find support around its 20-day EMA and then around its 200-day SMA, which are now placed at 11,005 and 10,850 levels, respectively.

As for the day, support is placed at around 11,160 and then at 11,106 levels, while resistance is observed at 11,250 and then at 11,286 levels."

8. 30 AM: Closing on Friday

After a volatile trading session, Sensex and Nifty ended on a flat to positive bias on Friday, amid weak global markets. Investors' sentiments were also tepid as domestic coronavirus cases surpassed the 2 million mark.

Sensex ended 15 points higher at 38,040 and Nifty gained 13 points to 11,214.

During last week, Sensex has risen 433 points or 1.15%, while Nifty has gained 140 points or 1.27%

Stock Market Highlights: Sensex ends 15 points higher, Nifty at 11,214; UPL, Bajaj twins top gainers
The family of a two-year-old boy killed in the explosion that devastated the Lebanese capital of Beirut will fly home to Western Australia later this week.

Isaac Oehlers is so far the only known Australian victim of the explosion at Beirut's port that killed at least 157 others and injured thousands more.

Premier Mark McGowan has confirmed the family will return to WA via Doha in coming days.

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Isaac Oehlers is so far the only known Australian victim of the explosion at Beirut's port that killed at least 157 others and injured thousands more

He says they might be allowed to quarantine at home given the boy's mother has a health condition.

'It may well be that,' he told reporters on Monday.

'We are being very careful about what measures we put in place for quarantine in the state. We're not going to take any risks.

'But it's obviously a circumstance where her condition and what they have been through means that we need to tread very carefully.'

WA has some of the toughest border restrictions in the country following the global coronavirus pandemic declared earlier this year.

All returned overseas travellers are required to enter hotel quarantine unless they secure an exemption.

Last week's explosion was fuelled by 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had been stored at Beirut's port for six years

The explosion has led to unrest on the streets of Beirut as protesters call for the people responsible to be held to account

'Plans are being put in place around the family to make sure that there's appropriate quarantine safety measures and also take into account their very tragic circumstances,' Mr McGowan said

'That's a process that's ongoing.'

There are about 5000 Australians in Beirut and more than 230,000 Australians with Lebanese heritage.

Last week's explosion was fuelled by 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had been stored at Beirut's port for six years.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday said it was a 'horrific accident' and could not rule out further Australian deaths from the disaster.
The death of late Senator Buruji Kashamu, formerly representative of Ogun East in the National Assembly, has continued to generate unusual controversies. The controversies signify a shift from the conventional fanfare of shielding the evils of a man and saying positive things about the dead even under pretense which appear to represent the legacy of Senator Kashamu.

Some individuals were not comfortable with former President Olusegun Obasanjos letter to Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State where he pointed out that life and history of the departed have lessons for those of all us on this side of the veil.

The former President recalled that Senator Esho Jinadu (Buruji Kashmu) is his lifetime used the maneuver of law and politics to escape from facing justice on alleged criminal offence in Nigeria and outside Nigeria. But np legal, political, cultural, social or even medical maneuver could stop the cold hand of death when the Creator of all us decides that the time is up.

Another stakeholder in the Nigerian project has expressed that people who deserved no respect while they were alive also deserves none after death. He argued that there is no pint of shedding tears in respect for a man who at best, should be happy death was better than serving time in a US jail. The stakeholder considered it unnecessary or undeserving that Dr. Reuben Abati had to wept over the death of Buruji while on Channels Television.

However, as much as an individual may be bad, there will always be a few persons who benefit from such individual and will always show solidarity at death no matter the public judgment.

The stakeholder, accordingly, declared: if Nigeria must make any progress, we as a people must shed the weight of our foolishness.

We must purge ourselves of the correctness in showing respect for the dead, who while alive were people that deserved none.

I really would not have bothered about making any comment on the death of Kashamu Buruji, an individual I find not deserving of one, except for the pathetic show by Reuben Abati on Channels TV, shedding tears in respect for a man who at best, should be happy death was better than serving time in a US jail.

Just last week, I questioned the tributes and honour given to Ismaila Funtua, only to have a worse example of celebrating the dead pop up in Buruji, a man of questionable character and whose extradition was filed by the US in 2018 over drug trafficking charges.

Buruji as I will continue to call him, because he does not earn my respect to call him Senator, has no immunity, but has fought his extradition to go clear his name.

Like most Nigerian Tokunbo Criminals who are elected officers today, he claimed it was a case of mistaken identity.

But isnt going over to America to answer to the charges, the best way of clearing the issue and name?

Buruji fought to make that opportunity impossible and while living under the cloud of being a drug baron, the society celebrated him.

The National Association of Nigerian Students, honoured him with its Man of the Year Award and he served out a full term in the Senate.

You would have thought that with his past, he should have been left to live out his life in the shame of being a wanted man, but no, not in a society like ours where we must give opportunity to revere criminals and immortalize their criminality in flowery tribute.

Honestly, if not for Reuben Abati, I would have let it go, but to see him shed tears for Buruji and call him mentor really stuck in my craw.

So, Buruji is now the measure of who and what we should aspire to be?

I can understand NANS seeing Buruji as a role model after all a lot of them aspire to being drug barons or whatever else it takes as long as kin sa ti lowo, but my heart sank hearing the words uttered by Reuben Abati.

It was doubly numbing because it evidently was not a simple matter of correctness, in not speaking ill of the dead, but he really meant it.

Thank God, people like Reuben are not Him, because if they were, Buruji would not only have escaped jail, and would have cheated death.

This stakeholder appeared to have similar observations and conclusion like former President Obasanjo.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Cloudy with showers of rain and wet snow this morning. Morning high of 42F with temps falling to near 20. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Low 13F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 09:18:37|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese paleontologists have found new evidence of how ancient humans domesticated wild plants, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

The discovery was made at the Yahuai Cave site, in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where plant remains dating back 30,000 years have been examined by researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology under the CAS, the Institute of Archaeology under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and several other institutes.

Researchers at the site examined phytoliths -- microscopic silica bodies that persist long after the plants have decayed -- and found that ancient humans living at the site used and domesticated different plants during different periods. These included elm trees, bamboo, palm trees and Oryza -- a genus within the grass family that includes rice.

The 16,000-year-old Oryza phytoliths provided key evidence for the domestication of wild rice by ancient humans.

The stoneware discovered at the site showed that the region, due to its mild climate at that time, was a refuge for people from the north seeking to survive extreme climate events.

The study was published in the journal Science China Earth Sciences. Enditem
Sitaram Kesari liked carbonated fizz drinks. His favourite was Limca. And he liked having it through a straw, making loud gurgling sound in his attempt to draw in the last dregs.

Towards the fag end of his career at Congress headquarters at Delhis Akbar Road, the veteran leader realised politics offers no free cold drinks; or even one last sip to the vanquished.

Kesari had managed the party treasure chest for decades. The least he would have expected was time to pack up his bags and an honourable send-off.

Sonia Gandhi had joined the Congress party a year back and had decided to campaign for the party in 1998 general elections.

In the second week of March, Kesari called one of his general secretaries for a meeting. Despite repeated reminders, the office-bearer in question did not turn up. So Chacha Kesari, as he was fondly called, decided to walk down the corridor at 24 Akbar Road to enquire about this inordinate delay.

The general secretary was in a conversation with someone over phone, discussing the agenda for the Congress Working Committee meeting later that month.

The CWC did meet. On the Ides of March, it passed a resolution requesting Sonia Gandhi to take over the reins of the party from 82-year-old family loyalists.

As in this case, political coups and transition of power can be bloodless and swift. Or a long-drawn affair. The BJP went through the process from 2009 to 2013 till the party settled the leadership issue in favour of Narendra Modi.

For the Congress, however, the transition of power from Sonia Gandhi to the successor has remained in suspended animation for more than five years now.

On Monday, August 10, Sonia Gandhi completes one year in office of her second term. She took over after Rahul Gandhi decided to quit in the face of electoral drubbing in the general elections.

The party since has lost power in one state. In another, it is tottering on the brink. Dissidence in both states has been led by ambitious young leaders.

Citing these cases, a section in the party feels the Gandhi scion has put his trust in people who are willing to jump ship at the first opportunity. There is also a palpable discomfort over lack of intra-party communication in chalking out party line on crucial issues like Chinese incursion, governments response to Covid-19 et al.

The old-timers blame Rahuls advisors for the current state of affairs. KC Venugopal, a trusted Rahul lieutenant is general secretary in-charge of organisation. Earlier this year, he was sent to RS from Rajasthan.

This group would either want Sonia Gandhi to continue as president with full authority and executive powers. Or even if she were to hand off the reins to her son after one year in office, there should be a broad discussion and debate before the party takes a considered view on issues at hand. More than Rahul, it is Rahul Gandhis team which is in the crosshairs.

The Gandhi scion had demitted office last year after the May 2019 Lok Sabha election defeat. His team has though asserted itself in the last few months. Rahul has taken a strident position on Chinese incursions, released online videos of his conversation with experts on the impact of Covid-19 on economy. Even some key political appointments to the position of Gujarat and Delhi Congress presidents has a firm stamp of team Rahul.

Thus, Rajiv Satavs reported outburst at a meeting of Rajya Sabha MPs seeking to fix accountability for the 2014 electoral debacle does not come as a surprise. Satav, an MP from Maharashtra, is the former Youth Congress president handpicked by Rahul. He seems to be pinning the blame for the partys current state of affairs on the advisors who ran the show from 2004 to 2014.

With Sonia Gandhi listening, a majority of those who matter in the current scheme of things reportedly kept mum. They fielded Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab Shamsher Singh Dullon to articulate their grievances: that their contribution to the party cant be set aside in one fell sweep.

Not that that this meeting was bereft of customary return-Rahul chorus. PL Punia el al struck the chord.

In fact, there has never been any opposition from the old guards on handing over the reins of the party to Rahul. A non-Gandhi as the head of the Congress can further complicate matters.

The unrest is more about the way the MP from Wayanad is conducting his politics. The lack of confidence is more on the advisory board than the leadership itself.

A comparison is being drawn between how the old team managed the party between 1998 and 2014 with Sonia at helm. And the plight of the Congress under the new political mangers.

Last May, Rahul Gandhi insisted on demitting office. And opposed the appointment of a Gandhi family member as his replacement.

But when Mukul Wasniks name was floated for the top post in AICC, Sonia Gandhi had to step in to fill in the void.

With the interim president completing her one year in office, are the two sides preparing for a showdown after a protracted game of brinkmanship? Are these signs that things may come to a head sooner than later?

Or is the brouhaha all about attempts to maintain the status quo?
Former Indian Air Force chief BS Dhanoa on Monday said the country needs innovators in all spheres to promote self dependence in the defence sector.

Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa (retd) was addressing a national webinar on Valour of Indian Air Force as a motivator for the young generation in times of Covid-19, organised by the department of psychology, Panjab University.

The governments decision to ban import of 101 defence items is good for the domestic industry and will make them compete and excel, he said.

He added that information dominance and self-sustainability are of utmost importance to deal with threats to national security.

Dhanoa, who as the IAF chief presided over Balakot air strikes in Pakistan, said the motivation of armed personnel even in peacetime should be an example for citizens, particularly young generations, to tide over pandemic-induced adversities.

The need of the hour is to bring about behavioural change to courageously face the new normal, he added.

PU vice-chancellor Raj Kumar said the young generation has always looked up to armed forces as a motivational symbol of sacrifice and bravery.
Several leading media organizations in Armenia have demanded that the countrys law-enforcement agencies conduct a serious probe into an incident in which former Chief of Police Vladimir Gasparian obstructed the professional activities of an RFE/RL Armenian Service (Azatutyun) crew working on an environmental story near Lake Sevan over the weekend.

In a joint statement disseminated on Monday the Committee To Protect Freedom of Expression, the Yerevan Press Club, the Asparez journalists club and seven other organizations stressed that the former senior official, who is notorious for his violent conduct, must be held accountable in accordance with the law.

During his time in office as chief of police Vladimir Gasparian stood out through his arrogant attitude towards media representatives and in some cases through his cruelty, the statement said, referring to several such incidents in the past, notably the 2015 and 2016 protests in Yerevan, when more than 40 journalists and cameramen were targeted by police and were subjected to physical violence and illegal persecution.

The statement also made a mention of another incident in which the then chief of police grossly insulted a local websites reporter which then drew anger from the journalistic community.

All this went unpunished, and, apparently, that is the reason why today the former chief of police continues to show indecent behavior towards journalists, the organizations stressed.

Gasparian, who served as chief of Armenias police for seven years before being dismissed after the regime change in May 2018, drove his vehicle in the direction of RFE/RL reporters, almost running over them, after seeing that they were filming in the lakeside area where his house is presumably located.

Gasparian threatened the reporters, using phrases like Ill shoot you and Ill kill you, and, using offensive language, he also demanded that the reporters not show his house in their report.

RFE/RLs Armenian Service reported the incident to police.

We are horrified at this attack on our Armenian Service reporters, by no less than a former chief of police, RFE/RLs acting President Daisy Sindelar said on August 9.

The reporters were covering a story of significant public interest when Mr. Gasparian nearly struck them with his vehicle, threatened to kill them, and forced them to erase their footage, Sindelar said.

We demand that police investigate the incident, and that Mr. Gasparian be held accountable for endangering journalists who were simply doing their jobs.

The RFE/RL reporters were working on a follow-up story after Armenias newly appointed environment minister said last week that authorities planned dismantling illegally constructed facilities and houses located near Lake Sevan.

According to media reports, a number of houses belonging to several former high-ranking officials, including Gasparian, are affected by the decision.

On Sunday, in connection with the incident, the Armenian police formally opened a criminal case under Article 164.3 of Armenias Criminal Code (Obstruction to the legal professional activities of a journalist accompanied with threats to the life or health of a journalist or his/her relative), which is punishable by between 3 and 7 years in prison. Investigation is currently underway.
While Australia has performed relatively well in its response to the COVID-19 epidemic overall, theres no doubt we have failed older Australians.

While any loss of life is tragic, a total of 290 coronavirus deaths is relatively low by world standards, but these fatalities are inordinately concentrated among residents of aged care homes.

As of Sunday, 203 people had died in our aged care centres. That is 68 per cent of Australian COVID-19 deaths, one of the highest rates in the world.

Peter Rozen QC, counsel assisting the royal commission into aged care, highlighted these dreadful numbers on Monday, which was the first day of what is likely to be a harrowing week of hearings into the sectors response to the pandemic.

Even though we had had reasonable success controlling the spread of the disease in many parts of the community when it came to protecting this most vulnerable group, we had failed, the commission heard.
The Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) will declare the Secondary School Level Certificate (SSLC) or Class 10 results 2020 on Monday (August 10). The results will be announced at 3:00 pm today on the official website of the board  karresults.nic.in or kseeb.kar.nic.in.

However, candidates will be able to check their results on the board websites only after 3:45 pm as the link will go active only after that.

The minister for primary and secondary education of Karnataka, Suresh Kumar on August 7 confirmed on social media about the timing of the Karnataka class 10th results declaration.

Around 8.48 lakh students registered for the SSLC exams this year. The exams were supposed to be conducted from March 29 but got delayed due to COVID-19 lockdown. Later, the exams were held on June 25 till July 3.

Once the Karnataka SSLC results 2020 are declared, students can check their scorecard by following these simple steps:

Step 1: Visit the official website i.e. karresults.nic.in

Step 2: Find Direct Link for SSLC Results 2020 Karnataka Board

Step 3: Input your exam roll number and other details asked on the page

Step 4: Verify the details against your hall ticket and submit them on the website

Step 5: Your SSLC Result 2020 Scorecard will be displayed on the screen

Step 6: Download PDF Softcopy or take a printout for future reference

Apart from the official website, different private websites will also host the Karnataka SSLC result 2020. Students, however, are advised to check their results from an official source.

Around 8.43 lakh students appeared in the SSLC board exams in 2020.

This year, the exams were held from March 27 but the KSEEB had to be postpone the exams in view of the coronavirus induced lockdown. The Karnataka SSLC exams were later conducted from June 25 to July 4, following safety measures.
Pakistan resorted to unprovoked firing and shelling on the Line of Control (LoC) on Monday in Jammu & Kashmir's Poonch district, continuing its series of ceasefire violations.

Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Devender Anand said, at about 10.15 a.m. Pakistan initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and shelling with mortars along the LoC in Balakote sector of Poonch district.

"The Indian Army is retaliating befittingly", the spokesman said.

One terrorist was killed and two injured on Sunday when alert Army troops foiled an infiltration bid on the LoC in Poonch district.

So far this year, 23 civilians have been killed and over 100 injured in more than 2,720 ceasefire violations by Pakistan on the LoC.
Based on the inputs received from eyewitnesses, the Uttar Pradesh police has released three sketches of a man who is accused of brutally raping a six-year-old girl in Hapur district.

According to police, the girl was playing outside her house on Thursday when the accused picked her up and forcibly took her on his bike. The girl was later left in a grievous condition in a field.

The condition of the victim, who is undergoing treatment in a Meerut hospital, is said to be "extremely critical" as she has received "multiple injuries". A doctor said that the girl is conscious, but is very scared.

The superintendent of police said that five teams are looking for the accused. Search has also been intensified in nearby villages and at the borders, while CCTV footage of the surrounding areas is being examined, he added.

ThePrint quoted Pawan Kumar, circle officer (CO) of Garhmukteshwar in Hapur, as saying that the sketches have been prepared on the basis of inputs received from two women who had seen the girl being forced to sit on the bike.

The rape victim's family has filed a case against "an unknown person", but police say that the accused may also be being known to them.

CO Pawan Kumar was quoted as saying that the police were informed about the kidnapping only about four or five hours after the incident, whereas the family should have informed them immediately. By the time they reported the incident to the police, the accused had escaped.
The deadline for schools in Massachusetts to submit final plans for reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic was originally scheduled for Monday, but the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has granted schools more time.

The deadline is now Aug. 14.

Final plans must include an analysis of facilities with a goal of 6 feet of social distancing, however, 3 feet is the minimum acceptable distance. Plans must also include strategies for transportation and a remote learning plan for families who prefer to keep their children at home.

Some school districts have already announced plans for the fall. Springfield Public Schools will operate remotely, the school committee announced last week.

Of course, we want to get our children back in schools as soon as possible, but our decision must be based not only on educational aspects, but also public health, medical aspects and the science of COVID-19, Mayor Domenic Sarno said.

Schools in Springfield may transition to a hybrid model after the first marking period. A hybrid model developed by district officials proposes assigning the majority of students into two groups: one to attend class in person Mondays and Tuesdays, and the second group to attend class Thursdays and Fridays. Days out of the classroom, students would learn remotely.

In Boston, the district released models last week that included a hybrid plan as well as a model that was fully remote.

Boston education officials said they have yet to make a final decision on which model they will choose, but that a full return to in-person classroom learning is impossible given the necessary social distancing protocols for reopening.

Boston Public Schools is the largest school district in Massachusetts, with more than 50,000 students enrolled in grades pre-kindergarten through 12th grade last year across more than 100 schools.

Worcester, like Boston, also proposed two models, one hybrid and one remote.

For the hybrid model, students assigned to cohorts, and roughly a quarter of normal classroom capacity will be permitted in any school building at a time. The in-person instruction would begin after students start the year with 10 weeks of remote learning, though high-risk students will have opportunities to continue in-person learning.

Under the remote plan, students would engage in synchronous learning four days a week, which will include group work and individual instruction, with breaks throughout the day. Students will also participate in virtual field trips in addition to art, music and physical education classes.

As schools across the country prepare to start classes, the American Academy of Pediatrics released new data on Sunday that showed nearly 100,000 children tested positive for coronavirus within the last two weeks.

The report, which revealed data from 49 states, Puerto Rico and Guam, said there were 97,078 new cases of coronavirus in children from July 16 to July 30. The total represented an increase of about 40% compared to the total number of cases among children, the American Academy of Pediatrics said.

Within Massachusetts, the report showed that there are 6,903 cases in people ranging in age from 0 to 19. Out of all coronavirus cases in the state through July 30, 5.9% were children. The rate of infection was 443 per 100,000 - a rate nearly identical to the national average of 447.

Related Content:
YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, ARMENPRESS. On the 100th anniversary of the signing of Treaty of Sevres, Armenian scholars are holding the Treaty of Sevres and the Armenian Question forum at the National Academy of Sciences in Yerevan.

Vice President of the academy Yuri Shukuryan read Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyans address to the forum.

Greeting the participants of the conference, the Prime Minister expressed profound gratitude for organizing the important event.

The Treaty of Sevres has a significant place in the modern history of the Armenian people. Its no coincidence that it remains subject to scientific studies and research. Therefore, it is highly important for the unbiased studies conducted by our scientists of this one-century old document, the events and developments preceding and succeeding its signing, to be accessible to both our people and the broad international community, the prime minister wrote in his welcoming remarks.

PM Pashinyan stressed that the Treaty of Sevres is a historical fact and it remains such up to this day.

Speaking about the importance of the treaty, the PM noted that it was signaling the end of the cursed years. Like the Treaty of Versailles in Europe, the Treaty of Sevres was forming a new system of inter-state relations in the region. [The treaty] was introducing new principles and values, it was establishing not only peace but also justice in [Western Asia].

Pashinyan says the core of the treaty was the principle of self-determination and equality of nations. The treaty was ending the centuries-old slavery imposed by empires and was giving independence and freedom to peoples of the region.

Moreover, by providing the right to establish national states in historic territories, it was creating favorable conditions for the coexistence of Muslim and Christian peoples in the region, for peaceful coexistence and preservation of civilizational diversity of the region and their further development. Second, the Treaty of Sevres is the international document that recognized and affirmed Armenias independence. The Republic of Armenia was acting as a legally equal party to this treaty. Centuries after losing independence, the Armenian government was for the first time signing an international treaty with great powers. The Republic of Armenia was being recognized in the defined borders of the treaty as a full member to international relations and a legally equal subject to international law, the PM said.

PM Pashinyan emphasized that through being party to the treaty Armenias and the Armenian peoples contribution to the allied victory in WWI and establishment of peace was also being recognized. The treaty was emphasizing and duly appreciating the Armenian peoples role in international relations and the post-war governing of the world.

Third, Article 89 of the Treaty of Sevres was stating and affirming the Armenian peoples historic and undisputed relation with the Armenian Highlands, where the Armenian people were born, lived and shaped statehood and culture for millennia. And finally, the Treaty of Sevres was signed in the years following the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian people were subjected to the cruelest and inhumane sufferings, with huge losses. Whereas, the Treaty of Sevres was paving the way for overcoming of consequences of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Question was receiving a just resolution through the creation of an independent statehood in the historic home of the Armenian people, historic justice was being restored, and favorable conditions were being created for the restoration of the economic and demographic potential of the Armenian people. Although the Treaty of Sevres wasnt fulfilled, it continues existing as a historic fact, our duty is to remember it, realize and preserve its meaning, Pashinyan said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
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.
TN SSLC Result 2020: 6,235 differently abled students pass

Out of the total 9.3 lakh students who have passed the Tamil Nadu SSLC Exam, 6,235 are differently abled.

TN SSLC Result 2020: Check top-5 performing districts

The top five performing districts are:

KANYAKUMARI

TIRUNELVELI

TUTICORIN

RAMANATHAPURAM

SIVAGANGAI

TN SSLC Results 2020: Kanyakumari district tops

Out of all the districts in Tamil Nadu, Kanyakumari has topped with the highest pass percentage

TN SSLC Results 2020: 4.7 lakh boys and 4.6 lakh girls pass

Out of the 9.39 lakh students who have passed the Tamil Nadu SSLC exam, 471759 are boys and 468070 are girls.

TN 10th Results 2020: 9.39 lakh students clear SSLC exam

A total 9,39,829 students were registered for the TN SSLC exam. All of them have been promoted based on their half-yearly and quarterly exams. The state government also gavde 20% weightage for attendance of students.

TN SSLC Results 2020: All students promoted

As per reports, 100% students have passed the exam. As the TN Board had to cancel the class 10th exam, it was decided to promote all students without exam. Students are evaluated on the basis of their performance in their quarterly and half-yearly exams and attendance.

Tamil Nadu SSLC Result 2020 available at tnresults.nic.in

Students can now check their results at tnresults.nic.in. Click here to check scores.

TN SSLC Result 2020 declared, check direct link here

Tamil Nadu DGE has declared the SSLC Results on its official website. Heres the direct link to check scores online.

TN SSLC Result 2020: NO merit list

Tamil Nadu DGE does not release merit list or topper list.

TN SSLC Result 2020: Steps to check scores

1. Visit the official websites at tnresults.nic.in, dge.tn.gov.in, dge1.tn.nic.in.

2. Click on the link that reads download TN SSLC Result

3. Key in your registration number, roll number

4. Your results will be displayed on the screen

5. Download and take its print out for further reference.

TN SSLC Result 2020 : Keep admit cards handy

TN SSLC Result 2020 is likely to be out in few minutes. Students should be ready with their admit cards to check their scores online.

TN SSLC Result: Girls outscored boys in 2019

In the year 2019, girls had outperformed boys this year in Tamil Nadu board results. A total of 97% girls passed against 93.3% boys.

TN SSLC Results 2020: What is the minimum passing marks

Students are required to score a minimum of 35 marks out of 100 in each subject to pass the TN SSLC examination. For subjects with practical examination, students must score 20 out of 75 marks in theory paper and 15 out of 25 marks in practical paper to pass.

TN SSLC Result: Tiruppur was top performing district last year

The top three districts in terms of pass percentage in the year 2019, were Tiruppur with 98.53%, Ramanathapuram with 98.48% and Namakkal with 98.45%.

TN SSLC Result: Check subject-wise pass percent of 2019

Last year, the subject wise pass percentage in Tamil Nadu 10th result 2019 was 96.12% for Language, 97.35% for English 96.46% for Maths, 98.56% for Science and 97.07% for Social Science.

TN SSLC Result: Check school wise pass percent of 2019

Last year, the school wise pass percentage was 92.48% for government schools, 94.53% for government aided schools , 99.05% for metric schools, 95.42% for co-ed schools, 96.89% for girls and 88.94% for boys.

TN SSLC Result 2020: Check last year pass percentage

Last year, the overall pass percentage for the Tamil Nadu board Class 10 examination was 95.2%. The pass percentage for male candidates was 93.3% and for girls it was 97%.

TN SSLC Result 2020: Provisional marksheets will be provided from Aug 17

According to reports, the students of TN SSLC exam will get their provisional mark sheets from August 17 to 25.

TN SSLC Result 2020: How marks will be evaluated

80% of marks will be evaluated on the basis of performance of students in quarterly and half-yearly exams and 20% will be based on attendance, as per the government.

TN SSLC Result 2020: Exams were deferred thrice

Initially, the TN SSLC exam was scheduled to be held from March 27 to April 13. It was later postponed and the board decided to hold the exam from June 1 to 12. The exam was further postponed. It was then scheduled to b e held from June 15 to 25. However, the Madras High Court asked the board not to risk the lives of nine lakh students and hence the exam was cancelled.

TN SSLC Result 2020: Class 10th exam was cancelled due to Covid-19

Tamil Nadu board had cancelled the class 10th exam and decided to promote the students on the basis of average marking assessment scheme.

Tamil Nadu class 11th result was declared on July 31

DGE Tamil Nadu had declared class 11th results on July 31. Over 7 lakh students had taken the exam out of which 96.04% have passed

TN HSLC Result was declared on July 16

On July 16, DGE Tamil Nadu had declared HSLC Results in which 92.3% students passed.

TN SSLC Result 2020: Alternative websites to check scores, if official website crashes

Usually after the results are declared, the official websites crashes due to heavy traffic. In that case students can check their scores on these alterative websites: examresults.net or indiaresults.com

TN SSLC Result 2020: Where to check scores

Tamil Nadu SSLC Results will be available on the official websites at tnresults.nic.in, dge.tn.gov.in, and dge.tn.nic.in. Students can check their results after it is declared.

TN SSLC Result 2020 expected today

The Directorate of Government Exam (DGE) Tamil Nadu is expected to declare class 10th or SSLC Result today at 9.30 am
Recently, interest in Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) has increased as TikTok is being banned or threatened to be restricted in several countries. The Vice President of ExpressVPN observed that there was an increased number of governments around the globe that were trying to control the access of information to their citizens.





VPNs are used to access blocked sites and services, therefore they are used by a lot of people around the world. ExpressVPN has over 3000 servers across 94 countries. There was a 10% increase in its week-over-week traffic following the announcement of a potential ban on TikTok by the U.S. government. Similarly, the service in Australia and Japan also experienced a 41% and 19% increase in traffic, respectively, after their governments made the same announcement. In India, the service experienced a 22% WoW jump in traffic. In Hong Kong, as a result of the enactment of the national security law, TikTok voluntarily pulled out and ExpressVPN saw an increase of 10% in traffic growth.





According to a Hong Kong media scholar, VPN is no ''magic bullet'' as governments can make it hard for citizens to access VPNs by removing them from local app stores. In order for someone to register in another regional app store, it still won't be a convenient process as they will have to face obstacles such as the requirement of a local credit card. Similarly, governments can also illegalize the use of VPN services by imposing fine on users and even imprisoning VPN vendors.

Moreover, there are some challenges that can not be tackled even after gaining access to a VPN service alone. For instance, in some cases users may be required to remove their local SIM card along with using the VPN service.





Selecting alternatives to the banned apps may not provide a pleasant experience either. For example, there are no competitors of TikTok that can match its user experience or for users of the Chinese owned messaging app WeChat in America, the app is the only way for them to stay connected with friends and family in China, where major Western social networks are not available.





Bans on certain apps force people and businesses to adapt to service shutdowns or have restricted access to the free and open internet. Telegram founder, Pavel Durov, pointed out that the U.S. government's action to ban TikTok is setting a ''dangerous precedent'' that is harming the internet as a truly global network.




A 13-year-old boy, who allegedly murdered his father at Adanse Pipiiso in the Adanse Asokwa District of the Ashanti region, has been arrested.



The fugitive minor reported himself to the police together with his mother, Madam Grace.



The suspect and his mother fled after he cut his father's hand leading to his death.



Fifty-year-old Kwaku Akromah was rushed to a nearby hospital and was later pronounced dead.



Superintendent Fii Ochil, the District Police Commander, told Class News the incident occurred on Friday, August 7, 2020, when the boy was struggling with his father over GHS70.



The father, Supt. Ochil said, had sent the son to buy him something and was demanding his change, which led to the incident.



Superintendent Ochil revealed that the suspect is being processed for court.



The body of the deceased has since been deposited at the Eastland Mortuary at Adanse Adiembra awaiting autopsy.









Source: Class News









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 appointment of Manoj Sinha, a former union minister and a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, as the new lieutenant governor of Jammu and Kashmir, replacing bureaucrat GC Murmu, has raised expectations that political activity in the region, suspended since it was stripped of its special status and converted into a Union territory (UT) a year ago, is on the verge of being revived.

Regional parties in J&K have a long list of demands starting with a resumption of a dialogue between them and the central government.

Three days after Parliament passed bills to effectively revoke Article 370, which conferred special status on J&K, and Article 35A, which empowered the state legislature to define permanent citizens for whom government jobs and property ownership was reserved, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 8, 2019, assured people of the erstwhile state that they would elect their own political representatives.

Your representative will be elected by you; he will be one of you. The MLAs would be elected just as they used to be elected earlier. The cabinet would just be as it used to be earlier. The chief ministers would just be as they were before, the PM said.

The erstwhile state was converted into two UTs, J&K and Ladakh, with effect from October 31.Unlike J&K, Ladakh will not have its own legislature.

A year later, although a host of political leaders including two former chief ministers National Conferences Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah have been set free from detention that began on the eve of the constitutional changes pushed through on August 5 last year, political activity largely stays suspended.

A third former CM and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader, Mehbooba Mufti, continues to be in detention and most leaders said they are still not allowed to leave home without the permission of the police.

The appointment of career politician Sinha as lieutenant governor, announced on August 6, is being read as a signal that the Centre is keen to revive political activity and pave the way for the beginning of a new political chapter following the formation of the UT. The former state has been without a government since the collapse of the PDP-BJP coalition in June 2018. The process of electing a new assembly cannot start before the process of delimitation exercise, mandated by the J&K Reorganisation Act, is complete.

Churn

The political landscape of J&K itself is in the midst of a churn. The regional parties, National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are grappling with the conditions imposed by the changed scenario, the Congress is barely noticeable and the BJP has been aggressively trying to expand its footprint in the UT, particularly in the Kashmir Valley.

A new political entity, the Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party, led by Altaf Bukhari , a former minister, created some buzz. but is yet to emerge as an alternative to the regional parties, while the Jammu and Kashmir Political Movement (Independent) came and went in a flash. Parties that were launched in recent times, including the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Movement started by former IAS officer Shah Faesal, and Sajjad Lones J&K Peoples Conference barely found a mention after their founder-leaders were placed under detention. Lone was set free recently and on Monday, Faesal told India Today that he is ending his short gig with politics.

Political vacuum

Soon after taking over, Sinha told journalists in the Valley that there is a need to establish a dialogue with the common people of Jammu and KashmirThere will be no discrimination against anyone and there should be peace and stability, he said.

The governors statement has not enthused the local politicians, who complain of being sidelined. Wahid Para, spokesperson for the PDP who was in detention until recently, said: We are battling for space and freedom of leadership. Kashmir is leaderless and representatives are restricted from speaking and moving freely. Theres silence and absence of political activity. On one hand, they talk of Naya Kashmir and on the other hand Kashmiris are feeling left out since no one is talking to us. I wonder what Governor Sahib will do.

Davinder Rana, a spokesperson of the National Conference, said the lieutenant governors political experience should serve to act as a bridge between the people and the administration. His political experience will only be useful if he can use it to reach out to the people at the grassroots, understand them and their aspirations and convey these to the policymakers in Delhi who, in turn, can draft policies that meet the aspirations of the people and lead to their political social and economic empowerment with dignity and honour, Rana said.

Former CM and NC leader Omar Abdullah recently wrote that he would not be contesting polls till the statehood of J&K is restored.

While the BJP says the political vacuum is temporary, Sanjay Kumar of the Centre for Studies of Developing Societies said it is too early to even say there is a vacuum in the UT. We cannot say regional parties have lost significance unless there is an election to prove so. And political activity has been put on hold so that the centre gets full control of the region.

A senior BJP leader, however, asserted that political activity in the UT will be revived. Whenever there is a political vacuum, new leadership emerges, the leader said on condition of anonymityPost-Independence, an attempt was made to make the people believe they were special, but at the same time there were no deliverables, the BJP leader said. The leader did not reject the possibility of old alliances being rekindled and leaders who have been written off getting back in the saddle.

Constitutional changes

While people in the UT, particularly in the Valley, have questioned the outcome of the reorganization, criticising the government for failing to check terror attacks, provide internet services and create jobs , the government has defended the move by pointing to the benefits that have reached the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, Gorkhas, West Pakistani Refugees and Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir displaced persons, who were excluded from caste-based reservation in jobs and educational institutions, voting rights in the state and property rights.

There has been a change. Unheard voices of the Gujars and the Bakarwals, the refugees are now being heard. Discrimination that existed for decades has ended, so the benefits outweigh the concerns that a section of people and politicians in the Valley have about the scrapping of Articles 370 and 35A, said the BJP leader quoted above.

The PM too has been critical of Articles 370 and 35A for having given nothing but secessionism, terrorism, nepotism and widespread corruption on a large scale to Jammu-Kashmir and as a weapon used by Pakistan to flare up the emotions of some people.

Removing Valleys hegemony

In Jammu, where the scrapping of the special status drew a mixed response but the demand for restoring statehood is unequivocal, the BJP says delimitation, which will add more assembly seats to the Jammu region, will change the political fortunes of the region. The hegemony of the Kashmiri politicians will be over and the regional aspirations of Jammu will no longer be ignored, said a local BJP leader.

There is nothing on the ground to suggest that. In the absence of a statutory arrangement in place to press for equal sharing of resources and jobs between the two regions, Jammu could still be at the mercy of whichever party comes to power, said former bureaucrat and commentator KB Jandial.

BJPs national general secretary P Murlidhar Rao said the polity of J&K will now be redefined. Politics will now have to adhere to the true spirit of the Indian Constitution and the definition of secularism will have to be reflected in the Valley. The practice of delegitimizing and derecognising the minorities in the Valley will end.

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Key indices are trading with sharp gains in early trade on buying demand in index pivotals. At 9:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 315.08 points or 0.83% at 38,355.65. The Nifty 50 index was up 96.55 points or 0.86% at 11,310.60.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.48%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.06%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, is strong. On the BSE, 1330 shares rose and 520 shares fell. A total of 90 shares were unchanged.

Stocks to watch:

Telecom stocks will be in focus as the hearing in Supreme Court on the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues will be held today, 10 August 2020.

Stocks in news:

Cipla jumped 5.15% after consolidated net profit rose 20.85% to Rs 577.91 crore on 8.46% rise in total income to Rs 4,411.61 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

Siemens fell 1.27%. Siemens reported consolidated net loss of Rs 1.90 crore in Q1 June 2020 as compared to net profit of Rs 250.10 crore in Q1 June 2019. Total income fell 57.03% to Rs 1,417.90 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

Container Corporation of India slumped 10.48% after consolidated net profit dropped 75.16% to Rs 60.61 crore on 27.36% fall in total income to Rs 1,251.50 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

REC rose 2.13% after consolidated net profit rose 22.29% to Rs 1,845.30 crore on 20.44% rise in total income to Rs 8,450.36 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

Amber Enterprises India lost 4.43% after the company reported consolidated net loss of Rs 22.45 crore in Q1 June 2020 as compared to net profit of Rs 61.22 crore in Q1 June 2019. Total income fell 78.87% to Rs 262.49 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

Shipping Corporation of India surged 6.58% after the company reported consolidated net profit of Rs 336.87 crore in Q1 June 2020 as compared to net loss of Rs 28.90 crore in Q1 June 2019. Total income rose 22.39% to Rs 1,197.82 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

Bata India fell 0.95%. Bata India reported consolidated net loss of Rs 100.89 crore in Q1 June 2020 as compared to net profit of Rs 100.97 crore in Q1 June 2019. Total income dropped 79.2% to Rs 187.12 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

Global Markets:

Overseas, Asian stocks were trading lower on Monday as investors kept one eye on flaring tensions between the United States and China and another eye on US fiscal stimulus after talks between the White House and Democrat lawmakers broke down. Japanese and Singaporean markets are closed for public holidays.

In US, the S&P 500 retreated from a near six-month high in choppy trading on Friday with data showing a sharp slowdown in US employment growth, while US-China tensions escalated with President Donald Trump's move to ban WeChat and TikTok.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed two executive orders banning WeChat, owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent, and TikTok in 45 days' time while announcing sanctions on 11 Chinese and Hong Kong officials.

Trump signed a series of executive orders to extend unemployment benefits after talks with Congress broke down. The orders would provide an extra $400 per week in unemployment payments, less than the $600 per week passed earlier in the crisis.

In economic data, the US economy added 1.8 million jobs in July, far fewer than in May and June, according to government data released Friday. The unemployment rate fell to 10.2% from 11.1% in June, still slightly worse than the depth of the global financial crisis in October 2009. However, the Labor Department said some workers continue to be misclassified, and the jobless rate would have been a full point higher than reported.

Back home, domestic equity benchmarks ended a lackluster session with tiny gains on Friday. Gains were capped due to weakness in IT shares. Rising coronavirus cases also dented sentiment. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex gained 15.12 points or 0.04% at 38,040.57. The Nifty 50 index rose 13.90 points or 0.12% at 11,214.05.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 397.32 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 438.62 crore in the Indian equity market on 7 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.)
As students prepare to head back to school, a new study will be tracking the rate of novel coronavirus spread among children and their families.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) is looking at transmission among nearly 2,000 households across the US.

Researchers hope to determine the percentage of children who become infected, how many adults subsequently contract the virus, and if infection differs between children who have asthma or other allergic conditions and children who do not

It comes as several studies and anecdotal reports have been published over the last month, which have found that children of all ages have become infected, and then pass the disease on to their family members.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease will be looking at coronavirus transmission among nearly 2,000 US households. Pictured: Elementary school students in masks walk to class from the gym to begin their school day in Godley, Texas, August 5

Researchers will track the percentages of children who become infected and household members who subsequently catch the virus. Pictured: Elementary school students walk to classes in masks to begin their school day in Godley, Texas, August 5

'Our schools are little mini microcosms of our cities that they're in - what's happening in cities is what's going to happen in schools,' lead author Dr Tina Hartert, a professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, told The Wall Street Journal.

'Until there is definitive data one way or the other, we have reason to believe from decades of data from other respiratory viruses that children are very good transmitters. There isn't a lot of reason to believe that that wouldn't be the case with this virus.'

President Donald Trump has been pushing for schools across the country to fully reopen for the fall semester.

He called recommendations about school reopenings made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 'very tough and expensive guidelines' on Twitter earlier this month.

Trump also threatened to cut funding if learning institutions do not fully reopen.

However, public health experts have said that schools need to prepare with more than social distancing and masks but also by testing students and staff and, if someone tests positive, determining how long they quarantine for.

Some countries have been successful, such as Norway and Denmark, but many - including France, Israel and South Korea - have had to close schools after reopening due to spikes in infections.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is an outlier, calling for in-person classes in the fall, issuing a statement that says 'schools are fundamental to child and adolescent development and well-being.'

But a recent report from the organization found that about 97,000 children contracted COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, in the last two weeks of July.

That is a 40 percent increase from the total number of cases before the 14-day study period.

What's more, a CDC report found that at least 260 campers and staff members became infected with coronavirus at a Georgia sleepaway summer camp in June.

Health officials say some camp employees were required to wear cloth masks but campers were not, and that large groups of children slept in poorly ventilated cabins and likely spread infectious droplets in the air while singing or cheering.

While some reports have heightened the awareness of children becoming infected, others have raised the risk of their family members.

A study from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at more than 59,000 contacts of 5,706 COVID-19 patients in South Korea from January 20 to March 27.

They found the highest COVID-19 rate among household members was for children between ages 10 and 19 with 18.6 percent testing positive.
Hold on parents we're going back-to-school. We need to get real and formulate a plan of action to keep our faith, sanity and bodies in check as we face another school year. Beyond the fun of buying school supplies and cute outfits, there are other tools to help you prepare for another year. Transform the beginning-of-the-school-year jumble into a mastery with the following 7 practical tips.

Set pragmatic academic goals.

Get a head start.

Shop early for school supplies.

Get organized.

Take care of yourself.

Use the slow cooker.

Reward yourself.

Most parents push their kids too hard to help them academically. While having prodigies is great, you need to be realistic and set small goals for your child. Learning doesn't always come fast for all kids, so do yourself a favor and curtail ambitions. Many children who are pressured may withdraw from you and teachers. "If you constantly demand A's from your child, you may be sending the wrong message," psychologist Peggy Tsatsoulis suggested. Kids have enough pressure at school with their workloads. If they don't receive an "A" be okay with the "B" instead of freaking out. This takes the pressure off everyone and will create less anxiety in the house.Start setting up a routine by doing a practice run. Take on the challenge now rather than waiting until the last minute. Get your up child early enough so that they can adapt to the new routine and reward their diligence. This also includes meeting teachers ahead of time and learning your kids class schedules. Do some groundwork with the teachers and be open in sharing the goals you have for the semester.Teachers face a difficult job and can't keep kids and the parents happy all the time. Share your appreciation with them ahead of time and drop a thank you note during the year as this can go a long way.This might be too late, but keep in mind that if you shop throughout the year for school supplies you won't have to deal with the last-minute rush. Purchase items on clearance and create a cabinet for supplies ahead of time. You don't need to buy brand-name items if the teacher asks for Crayola, go for the off-brand if it's on sale.Do an end of the week purge of backpacks and gym bags with your child. Junk will accumulate like loose paper, books and empty food wrappers. Getting rid of non-essential items will cut down on clutter and help you find what is needed. Donna Goldberg, director of The Organized Student proposed to designate pockets for books, pencils, projects and use folders with labels to stay on track. This will teach your child to create healthy habits for years to come. Also, start adding doctor visits, play dates and other meetings into your digital calendar by prioritizing them. You can also display a calendar to use and attach important documents to it during the week as things can easily become lost.Most weeks you won't have time to even eat, but if you have 20 minutes go for a walk or run before everyone wakes up. Exercise can be an outlet to deal with stress, fatigue and can help the body fight bacteria off better.Be aware that you also need to keep your composure when you child has a tantrum before you leave in the morning as this a typical trademark of kids. Take a deep breath and take your mind to another place because your stress will fuel kids negative behavior. If you're eating healthy and have an outlet for anxiety, you will be better equipped to handle situations like a cantankerous child.Make dishes ahead of time to ease the stress of making sure people eat during the week by using the slow cooker. The Frugal Girls recommend their orange chicken recipe to help busy parents. Prepare this before you leave for work in a slow cooker and dinner will be ready when you get home. For the ingredients, you will need 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts,  cup Smuckers Sweet Orange Marmalade, a  cup of Sweet Baby Rays Original BBQ Sauce and 2 Tbsp. of soy sauce. The instructions are simply to cook the chicken in the slow cooker for 6 hours on low. After 6 hours on low, drain juices from slow cooker. Mix together barbecue sauce, orange marmalade and soy sauce. Pour mixture over chicken and cook on high for 30 more minutes. By preparing meals ahead of time, you will save more money and stress less.During the initial weeks of running around like a mad person, go out for dinner, see a movie or hold a Mexican night on Friday for everyone to join in. Then take time for yourself by getting a massage or reading a magazine. During the transition of going back-to-school as a family, there will be an obvious need to have something to look forward to.You don't need to drive yourself insane this year. With a little preparation and determination, back-to-school doesn't have to be a encumbrance.
This photograph taken on September 28, 2017, shows a smartphone being operated in front of the logos of Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon web giants.

India's plan to regulate "non-personal" data has jolted U.S. tech giants Amazon, Facebook and Google, and a group representing them is preparing to push back against the proposals, according to sources and a letter seen by Reuters.

A government-appointed panel in July recommended setting up a regulator for information that is anonymized or devoid of personal details but critical for companies to build their businesses.

The panel proposed a mechanism for firms to share data with other entities  even competitors  saying this would spur the digital ecosystem. The report, if adopted by the government, will form the basis of a new law to regulate such data.

But the U.S.-India Business Council, part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, calls imposed data sharing "anathema" to promoting competition and says this undermines investments made by companies to process and collect such information, according to a draft letter for the Indian government.

"USIBC and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are categorically opposed to mandates that require the sharing of proprietary data," says the USIBC's previously unreported letter, which is likely to be completed and submitted in coming weeks to India's information-technology ministry.

"It will also be tantamount to confiscation of investors' assets and undermine intellectual property protections."

A USIBC spokeswoman had no comment on the draft letter. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce didn't respond to Reuters queries.

The head of the panel, Kris Gopalakrishnan, a founder of Indian technology giant Infosys, said the group will work with the government to review input from the industry.

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet's Google did not respond to requests for comment. The report is open for public comments until September 13.

India's plan to regulate non-personal data is the latest irritant for U.S. tech companies that have been battling tighter e-commerce rules and data storage norms that several countries are also developing.

New Delhi and Washington are already at odds on such issues, as well as over digital taxes and tariffs.

The USIBC draft letter says "forced data sharing" will limit foreign trade and investment in developing countries, and the panel's proposals run against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's calls for U.S. companies to invest in India.

The lobby group expresses concern about the panel's recommendation to mandate local storage for non-personal data, describing this as a "dramatic tightening" of India's international data transfer regime.

"These are far-reaching concepts that would have a significant impact on the ability of both Indian and multinational firms to do business in India," Washington-headquartered law firm Covington & Burling said in a note prepared for the USIBC, which was also seen by Reuters.

The law firm did not respond to a request for comment.

The Indian panel has listed research, national security and policymaking among purposes for which such data should be shared. Three sources said tech executives participated in several meetings in recent weeks to discuss concerns over the report.
World leaders promise an aid package after the huge Beirut blast, as clashes again erupt in the city.

Clashes broke out in Beirut for a second day running Image copyrightEPA



International donors have pledged a quarter of a billion euros in aid for Lebanon five days after the explosion which devastated a swathe of Beirut.

But an online donor summit arranged by France called at the same time for reforms to be made.

The blast at a warehouse holding over 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate has focused local outrage on perceived government corruption and incompetence.

Clashes have broken out for a second day running in Beirut.

Young people calling for the government to quit threw projectiles at police and shops in central Beirut, and protesters attempted to storm barricades barring access to the parliament building. A fire broke out at the scene.

Police in riot gear used tear gas as darkness fell, echoing similar scenes during protests on Saturday.

Fifteen government leaders at the donor summit, spearheaded by French President Emmanuel Macron, promised "major resources", according to a statement.

"Assistance should be timely, sufficient and consistent with the needs of the Lebanese people," it said, adding that help must be "directly delivered to the Lebanese population, with utmost efficiency and transparency".

The donors were prepared to help Lebanon's longer term recovery if the government listened to the changes demanded by the country's citizens, the communique said.

President Macron's office said France had received pledges worth 252.7m ($297m, 227m) from the summit.

Officials estimate the explosion caused up to $15 billion (11.5bn) of damage.

It left at least 158 people dead, 6,000 injured and 300,000 homeless. It emerged that the ammonium nitrate had been left at the port warehouse for six years despite repeated warnings it was dangerous.

Lebanon is in the midst of its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, with daily power cuts, a lack of safe drinking water and limited public healthcare.

The currency collapsed and Lebanon defaulted on its debt in March. Talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a $10bn bailout have stalled.

It is feared that the effect of the explosion on the economy could significantly worsen the prospects of recovery.

The government has begun losing ministers critical of its failings.

Environment Minister Damianos Kattar was the second to leave the cabinet on Sunday, bemoaning a "sterile regime that botched several opportunities".

His resignation followed that of Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad, who cited the failure to reform and the "Beirut catastrophe" as her reasons for going.

Who pledged what?

Among promises made during the summit were:

European Union - extra 30m ($35m, 27m), on top of 33m promised earlier

UK - additional 20m; 5m aid package announced earlier this week

Germany - 10m; 1.5m earlier

France - reconstruction material, medical and food aid

Spain - to send wheat, shelters, medical supplies

Switzerland - $4.38m

US - $15m so far

Qatar - $50m

Kuwait - $40m

Denmark - 20m

Norway - 6.5m

The United Nations has said more than $100m (76m) is needed for both emergency humanitarian aid, such as food and water, and the rebuilding of infrastructure, including hospitals and schools.

The summit took place online due to the coronavirus pandemic.

President Macron, speaking from his summer residence in southern France, called for "an impartial, credible and independent inquiry" into how the disaster was allowed to happen.

France is the former colonial power, and Mr Macron was the first world leader to visit Beirut in the days after the blast.

But Lebanese President Michel Aoun has already ruled out an international investigation.

Alluding to Saturday's protests, the French president said it was up to the government "to respond to the aspirations that the Lebanese people are expressing right now, legitimately, in the streets of Beirut".

But he added that neither violence nor chaos should prevail, adding: "Lebanon's future is at stake."

President Trump also joined the summit and echoed calls for a transparent investigation, saying the US would be able to assist, according to a White House statement.

"The president called for calm in Lebanon and acknowledged the legitimate calls of peaceful protesters for transparency, reform, and accountability," the statement said. BBC
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Be careful when youre cooking with red onions.

A salmonella outbreak linked to red onions has now affected at least 640 people nationwide in 43 states, including five cases in New York, according to the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA). There have been 85 hospitalizations linked to the outbreak, and no deaths have been reported.

The FDA, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Canadian, state and local partners, are investigating the multi-state outbreak of salmonella newport infections. The FDAs traceback investigation is ongoing, but has identified Thomson International Inc. of Bakersfield, Calif., as a likely source of potentially contaminated red onions.

On Aug. 1, Thomson International Inc. recalled all varieties of onions that could have come in contact with the potentially contaminated red onions, due to the risk of cross-contamination, the FDA reports. Recalled products included red, yellow, white and sweet yellow onions shipped nationwide from May 1 to Aug. 1.

Onions were distributed in bulk cartons and mesh sacks to wholesalers, restaurants and retail stores in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Canada.

The onions were sold under these brand names: Thomson Premium; Thomson International; Tender Loving Care; El Competitor; Hartleys Best; Onions 52; Majestic; Imperial Fresh; Kroger; Utah Onions; Food Lion.

Products containing the recalled onions are being identified and recalled, as well, the FDA said. Giant Eagle and Taylor Farms have recalled products containing recalled onions, and the U.S. Department of Agricultures Food and Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) published a list of Ready-to-Eat Meat and Poultry Products Containing Recalled Onions.

The investigation is ongoing to determine the source of contamination and if additional products are linked to illness.

Consumers, restaurants and retailers shouldnt eat, sell, or serve recalled onions from Thomson International Inc., or products containing recalled onions. If you cant tell if your onion is part of the recall, or your food product contains recalled onions, you shouldnt eat, sell, or serve it, and should throw it out.

The FDA recommends anyone who received or suspects having received recalled onions use extra vigilance in cleaning and sanitizing any surfaces and containers that may have come in contact with recalled products to reduce the risk of cross-contamination. That includes cutting boards, slicers, countertops, refrigerators and storage bins.

Consumers with symptoms of salmonella should contact their health-care provider.

Most people infected with salmonella develop diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after eating contaminated food. The illness usually lasts four to seven days, and most people recover without treatment. See your health-care provider if youre concerned about symptoms such as high fever, diarrhea or frequent vomiting that prevents keeping liquid down, according to the CDC.

In some people, the illness may be so severe that the patient needs to be hospitalized. Salmonella infection may spread from the intestines to the bloodstream and then to other places in the body. Children younger than 5 years old, pregnant women, adults 65 and older and people with weakened immune systems are more likely to have a severe illness.

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New Delhi, Aug 10 : In a tragic incident near Khalsa College in North Delhi, a Police Head Constable posted with a Prakhar vehicle died after it was hit by a speeding car on Sunday night.

On the August 9-10 night at about 1.30 a.m. the Honda City car rammed into the Prakhar vehicle near Khalsa College. The impact was such that the Prakhar vehicle overturned and skidded for 10-15 feet.

The driver of the Honda City, Tushar a resident of Model Town, was found to be driving in an inebriated state.

"Head Constable Wazir Singh, 50 years, was stuck inside the vehicle, Driver Amit with the help of passersby rescued him. He was shifted to the Trauma Centre, Civil Lines where he succumbed to his injuries during the course of treatment," said DCP North Monika Bhardwaj.

Driver of the Prakhar Constable Amit also sustained several injuries.

"In the MLC of accused smell of alcohol has been opined by doctors. A case u/s 279/337/304 (2) IPC has been registered," the officer said.
The November general election is one of the most anticipated in years, with the presidency at stake and both parties in bitter battles to take back the U.S. Senate and House. Partisan sentiment is running so high that yard signs saying Im so gonna vote are a common sight in San Antonio neighborhoods.

But the voting will take place amid a highly contagious pandemic, and that has officials and candidates concerned that fear of the coronavirus will cause many voters to stay home.

Bexar County commissioners think they can help ease those fears. Among the ideas that will be discussed at a meeting Friday:

Expanded drive-thru voting services.

Expanded drive-thru voting services. Mega vote centers at locations such as the AT&T Center so social distancing would be assured for those voting in person.

Mega vote centers at locations such as the AT&T Center so social distancing would be assured for those voting in person. Keeping at least one polling location open 24 hours a day for part of the early voting period for first responders and others who work odd shifts.

Keeping at least one polling location open 24 hours a day for part of the early voting period for first responders and others who work odd shifts. Leasing or buying more voting machines and recruiting more election judges and poll workers to increase the number of in-person polling sites.

Leasing or buying more voting machines and recruiting more election judges and poll workers to increase the number of in-person polling sites. Providing at least 10 locations for dropping off mail ballots.

Providing at least 10 locations for dropping off mail ballots. Sending applications for mail ballots to every person 65 or older whos registered to vote in Bexar County, an estimated 250,000 people.

On ExpressNews.com: Early voting in pandemic will look different

Commissioner Justin Rodriguez is spearheading the effort to get these proposals moving. Final decisions on how elections are run are made by county Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen, with guidance from commissioners. The county pays for the voting process.

The county used gloves, pencils and finger cots to facilitate noncontact voting in the July 14 runoff elections, with transparent dividers allowing election officials to scan drivers licenses and other ID cards without touching them.

But general elections in Bexar County in presidential election years have historically generated a 57 percent turnout  much higher than the 10 percent in the runoff.

We have to be, I think, a little bit aspirational here, but I think also pragmatic about the realities of this COVID environment were dealing with, and that means not just protecting the election workers but obviously making sure that the voters feel safe if they have to go and vote in person, Rodriguez said in explaining why he made his suggestions.

For example, he said, if we use an AT&T Center or an Alamodome or the Convention Center, you can certainly maximize space so that people are at least 6 feet apart in a climate-controlled area.

William Luther /San Antonio Express-News

Rodriguez has support for the ideas he and his staff developed, including some backing from Republican Commissioner Kevin Wolff, although Wolff disagrees with the mail ballot drop-off locations and expanding drive-thru voting.

Some drive-thru voting is allowed now; under current state law, certain voters, such as those who have a physical handicap, are allowed to vote in their vehicles with the help of election workers. Party poll watchers also are allowed to be present.

Wolff said Dr. Ruth Berggren, director of the University of Texas Health Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics and the countys lead adviser on the coronavirus, has discouraged additional drive-thru voting because of the required presence of others.

Dr. Berggren has already recommended against this so as not to endanger election officials or voters, the commissioner said.

As for the drop-off locations, Gov. Greg Abbotts proclamation extending the early voting period also allows mail-in ballots to be hand-delivered during early voting, which is Oct. 13 to 30, or on Election Day, Nov. 3.

Wolff points out, however, that a ballot cant just be dropped off; state law requires that the voter present an ID and sign a roster when hand-delivering their ballot. Doing so, the commissioner said, helps prevent voter fraud.

County Judge Nelson Wolff, on the other hand, said he supports the concept of drop-off locations but recognized that it would be against current regulations.

Theyd have to change the rules for that to happen, but other states do that, the county judge noted.

On the issue of mega centers, both Judge and Commissioner Wolff see the advantages.

Commissioner Wolff noted that the county already has agreements with the AT&T Center for County Commissioner Precinct 4, with the Alzafar Shrine for Precinct 3 and Concepcion Sports Complex for Precinct 1. One is still needed in Precinct 2, he said.

Not everyone supports the mega centers, however.

Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

Madhu Sridhar, president of the League of Women Voters of the San Antonio Area, said voters from poor and minority neighborhoods may have a hard time getting there.

We should be having more voting centers spread out so that all voters can conveniently vote, Sridhar said. How about minority people who, even going to the closest voting center, they have to take two buses? How are they going to reach these convention centers? Its not fair, its not convenient for all voters.

Rodriguezs proposal to lease or purchase more voting machines and recruit and train more election judges and poll workers is necessary to expand the number of early voting and Election Day vote centers, as he suggested.

With the countys new ExpressVote system, used for the first time in a statewide constitutional amendment election last November, voters registered in Bexar County are allowed to cast a ballot at any polling site on Election Day.

But the county had to reduce the number of polling sites in the July 14 runoffs after about a dozen election crews opted not to work that day, concerned about COVID-19. Abbots emergency order requiring face coverings when in public exempts Texans who are voting, prompting worries from election workers, many of whom are in their 70s and considered at high risk of complications if they are infected with the virus.

Mail ballots

In suggesting that applications for mail ballots be sent to all voters 65 and older, Rodriguez also requested they be sent with prepaid return postage. A cost estimate wasnt immediately available.

But it looks like the county might save that expense; the Texas Democratic Party launched an initiative Monday to mail applications to every voter 65 and older in the states five largest counties, and that includes Bexar.

Elections are won or lost with vote by mail, said Manny Garcia, party executive director. Now more than ever, to have our seniors vote safely, voting by mail is the best option for them.

Tom Reel /Staff file photo

The total of 1.75 million ballot applications that the party will have sent out when the initiative is completed is something of an admission by the party that its lawsuit seeking to expand vote-by-mail access to all Texans is unlikely to succeed.

As of now, voters younger than 65 must have a reason for voting by mail, such as a disability or a trip out of town that prevents them from showing up at the polls in person.

On ExpressNews.com: Turnout for runoff could be phenomenal, despite pandemic, July heat

Rodriguez also is proposing at least one 24-hour site during the early voting period that would be open at least one or two days, primarily for emergency personnel and others who work odd hours or cant get to the polls during the day.

He said he offered his suggestions in response to severe spikes of COVID-19 positive cases.

My guess is its going to be north of 60 percent this time, Rodriguez said of the November turnout. And so weve got to make sure were completely prepared. And that means doing things differently than weve done in the past.

Callanen, the elections administrator, was unavailable for comment. Judge Wolff said hes in favor of Rodriguezs proposals.

I think all of his ideas are good, Wolff said.

Scott Huddleston covers Bexar County government and the Alamo for the San Antonio Express-News. To read more from Scott, become a subscriber. shuddleston@express-news.net | Twitter: @shuddlestonSA
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 22:06:04|Editor: huaxia

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Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, attends the second plenary meeting of the 21st session of the 13th NPC Standing Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 10, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling)

BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese national lawmakers met on Monday morning to deliberate a draft decision and multiple reports at a plenary meeting during the 21st session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.

Li Zhanshu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, attended the plenary meeting.

Lawmakers heard the explanations to a draft decision on conferring the national medal and honorary title to individuals who made outstanding contributions to fighting the COVID-19 epidemic.

The State Council submitted to the session a report on implementing the innovation-driven development strategy and promoting the enforcement of the Law on the Progress of Science and Technology, and a report on the law enforcement of public security organs.

According to the public security report, public security organs nationwide have improved their law enforcement and fulfilled their duties in accordance with the law, and have effectively maintained social stability.

The National Supervisory Commission submitted a work report on fugitive repatriation and return of criminal proceeds. A total of 7,831 fugitives on suspicion of duty-related violations were brought back from overseas from 2014 to June 2020, according to the report.

Lawmakers heard a report on the implementation of the decision on completely banning the illegal trade and consumption of wildlife and the enforcement of the Wildlife Protection Law. Affirming the implementation of the decision and the law, the report proposed further improving laws related to wildlife protection.

Lawmakers also reviewed a report on the enforcement of the Law on Promoting Agricultural Mechanization and a report on the research project for the compilation of the 14th Five-Year Plan.

In the afternoon, Li also presided over a meeting of the Council of Chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee to hear reports on bill deliberations.
Sanjay Dutt, who was admitted to the Lilavati hospital in Mumbai on August 8, 2020, after complaining of breathlessness, has now been discharged. Sanjay was photographed by the paparazzi, when he returned home on August 10.

Sanjay Dutt     ;   Viral | FilmiBeat

On Saturday, Sanjay had tweeted about being hospitalized on account of breathlessness. He had stated that he had tested negative for COVID-19.

"Just wanted to assure everyone that I'm doing well. I'm currently under medical observation and the Covid-19 report is negative as well. With the help and care of the excellent doctors, nurses and staff at Lilavati hospital, I should be home in a day or two. Thank you for your well wishes and blessings. Please stay safe, everyone," Sanjay had tweeted.

His sister Priya Dutt had told PTI, "He was admitted to Lilavati Hospital around 4.30-5 pm for a regular check-up as he was feeling a little breathless. They did a Covid-19 test and the result was negative. We have kept him in the hospital so that he gets all of his tests done. He has gone for a full check-up. I think he will come home on Monday."

Talking about work, Sanjay was last seen in Ashutosh Gowarikar's period drama Panipat, which also starred Kriti Sanon and Arjun Kapoor. He has a number of projects lined up next, including, Sadak 2, Bhuj: The Pride Of India, Torbaaz, Shamshera and Prithviraj.

Sadak 2 will be Sanjay's next release. A sequel of the 1991 film Sadak, Sadak 2 also stars Alia Bhatt, Pooja Bhatt and Aditya Roy Kapur.

(Image source: PTI)

ALSO READ: Sanjay Dutt Admitted To Hospital After Developing Breathing Issues, Tests Negative For COVID-19

ALSO READ: Happy Birthday Sanjay Dutt: 5 Best Films Of Bollywood's Original Bad Boy With A Heart Of Gold


After 45 dolphins got stranded in Wellfleet got stranded Sunday, a group of volunteers did their best to save the animals.

About 50 volunteers from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) worked together to save the dolphins in a stretch of beach in Wellfleet known as The Gut, the Cape Cod Times reported.

It was a sad scene to see them out of the water, unable to swim, Stacey Hedman, global marketing strategy manager for IFAW, told the newspaper.

Most of the dolphins were moved to deeper water using two boats and pingers, the Cape Cod Times reported. Some were rescued using beach-ready stretchers and released at Duck Harbor Beach, but two had to be euthanized.

More volunteers will continue watching from the shore on Monday to make sure the dolphins dont get stranded again, the newspaper reported.

Last week IFAW reported that a bottlenose dolphin named Boomer who was rescued on July 4 is still transmitting 32 days post-release.

UPDATE: We're happy to report the bottlenose dolphin named Boomer who was rescued on July 4 is still transmitting 32 days post-release! Our Marine Mammal Rescue team worked tirelessly to save this adult male stranded in Lewis Bay, Yarmouth, Massachusetts. pic.twitter.com/0S0ziFzaz9  ifaw (@ifawglobal) August 6, 2020

The dolphin rescued off of Yarmouth is IFAWs second bottlenose dolphin to be satellite tagged but the first to survive this long post-release.

The animal received a thorough health assessment, IV fluid treatments and other supportive care, IFAW tweeted.

Over the past 32 days he has traveled as far north as Maine, the organization tweeted.

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Yavatmal: Prominent farmers leader and Maharashtra MoS status Govt Panel Chief Kishore Tiwari on a unique "lie down agitation" on a main road in Pandharkawada town of Yavatmal district on Aug 10, 2020. He is protesting against misinterpretation of Un Image Source: IANS News

Yavatmal: Prominent farmers leader and Maharashtra MoS status Govt Panel Chief Kishore Tiwari on a unique "lie down agitation" on a main road in Pandharkawada town of Yavatmal district on Aug 10, 2020. He is protesting against misinterpretation of Un Image Source: IANS News

Yavatmal: Prominent farmers leader and Maharashtra MoS status Govt Panel Chief Kishore Tiwari on a unique "lie down agitation" on a main road in Pandharkawada town of Yavatmal district on Aug 10, 2020. He is protesting against misinterpretation of Un Image Source: IANS News

Yavatmal: Prominent farmers leader and Maharashtra MoS status Govt Panel Chief Kishore Tiwari on a unique "lie down agitation" on a main road in Pandharkawada town of Yavatmal district on Aug 10, 2020. He is protesting against misinterpretation of Un Image Source: IANS News

Yavatmal: Prominent farmers leader and Maharashtra MoS status Govt Panel Chief Kishore Tiwari on a unique "lie down agitation" on a main road in Pandharkawada town of Yavatmal district on Aug 10, 2020. He is protesting against misinterpretation of Un Image Source: IANS News

Yavatmal : , Aug 10 (IANS) Prominent Shiv Sena leader and farm activist Kishore Tiwari launched a unique agitation by lying down on a main road in Maharashtra's Pandharkawada town to protest against what he called "illegal enforcement of lockdown" in the ongoing Unlock phase, here on Monday.

The President of Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavlamban Mission (VNSSM) Tiwari spread a bedsheet on a main road junction and lay down in the afternoon, attracting a large crowd, and even the local police.

"Since the past five months, the economy is in shambles. People have no jobs, no source of income and shops and businesses are shut. The central and state governments have already started Unlock in phases, but it is not seen in Pandharkawada," Tiwari told IANS, while lying on the bedsheet.

He said that whenever new Covid cases are detected in the town, the local authorities and police immediately seal large areas and declare containment or isolation zones covering big localities for at least three weeks.

"This is totally uncalled for. There are banks, shopping areas, residential localities which are shut down due to the local administration and police orders. Such series of long restrictions on public movement are not seen even in Mumbai, Pune or Thane, the three cities worst-hit by Covid-19," fumed Tiwari.

While the police cajoled him to give up his agitation, a local medical team came and checked Tiwari's health.

He warned that unless all "unnecessary restrictions" are lifted by Monday night, he would launch an indefinite hunger strike at the same spot.

Yavatmal has reported 1,466 cases and 44 deaths till date, besides 960 recoveries and the rest are 'active cases'.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Getting a flu shot is more important this fall than ever, public health experts say.

A bad flu season with high numbers of hospitalizations, combined with COVID-19, could overburden hospitals across the country.

You do not want to have the flu and COVID-19 at the same time, said Joan Hall, a communicable disease epidemiology coordinator at Summit County Public Health.

And while theres some suggestion that mask wearing and social distancing measures in other countries lessened the flus impact, Americans arent taking COVID-19 seriously enough to make that happen here.

The fall and winter of 2020 and 2021 are going to be probably one of the most difficult times that weve experienced in American public health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield said.

The flu vaccine is not 100% protection against the illness, but it will lessen symptoms and make it less likely that youll have to be hospitalized, said Dr. Amy Edwards, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at University Hospitals.

If everyone wears a mask, and everyone gets a flu shot, we could get through, Edwards said. We need people to stay as healthy as they can.

You cant use fear of catching COVID-19 in your doctors office as an excuse for not getting a flu shot. The chance of coming into contact with coronavirus in a health care setting is low, Edwards said. Health care providers wear masks, and surfaces are cleaned regularly. Procedures are in place to avoid crowded waiting rooms.

Gatherings of friends and family, as well as crowded bars and restaurants, are contributing to COVID-19 spread now, Edwards said. The upcoming flu season will be the first in which coronavirus and influenza will be circulating together.

Influenza and COVID-19 have similar symptoms, meaning that people who think they have COVID-19 but really have the flu could clog up the health-care system this winter. Patients will need to be tested for both influenza and COVID-19. The tests use some of the same equipment, placing a strain on supplies, Edwards said. UH is also stocking up on personal protective equipment and the reagents needed for influenza and COVID-19 testing.

The pediatric unit at UH is looking at expanding its COVID-19 unit, and working on ways to quickly determine which viruses a child has, so that young patients can be properly isolated in the hospital, Edwards said.

The previous 2019-20 flu season was winding down just when COVID-19 began to spread. In Cuyahoga County, last flu season started in late December, peaked in February and was active until mid-March, according to the Cuyahoga County Board of Health.

Cuyahoga County had 39 flu-related deaths through mid-May, which was slightly below the five-year median.

The coronavirus shutdown in March caused a drop-off in the number of flu cases in some areas of Ohio, Hall said. Now that businesses are open, its hard to say whether pandemic measures such as wearing masks and washing hands will result in a mild flu season, Hall said.

In the Southern Hemisphere, where winter arrived about two months ago, theres no sign that the flu season has started, the World Health Organization reported recently. Health officials credit the decline to strict adherence to mask wearing, travel restrictions, and social distancing in many Southern Hemisphere countries.

Mask-wearing and social distance rules could shorten the flu season here, as well. Masks may be more effective against flu, because flu spreads in larger droplets.

But lets be real  how good are Americans at it? Edwards asked. She doubts that pandemic hygiene measures would be followed strictly enough in this country to eradicate the flu season.
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's Top Glove Corporation <TPGC.KL> said on Monday it had begun making remediation payments to migrant workers who were employed by the world's largest medical glove maker before 2019, when it put in place ethical recruitment practices.

The United States is a major market for medical gloves, which have seen huge demand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and last month the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) placed a detention order on imports from two of Top Glove's subsidiaries.

Such action is normally taken by the CBP against companies suspected of using forced labour. Foreign workers are often charged a fee by employment agents to land jobs in Malaysia, a debt they then work to pay off.

Top Glove said in a stock exchange statement that it had made the first remediation payment of 4.4 million ringgit ($1 million).

"The total remediation fee to be paid is estimated at 53 million ringgit, subject to finalisation with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)," it said, adding that it "continues to actively engage with the U.S. CBP towards resolving the Withhold Release Order (WRO) expeditiously".

It had earlier said it had made progress in engagement with the CBP and hoped to resolve the matter this month.

Smaller rival Hartalega Holdings Bhd <HTHB.KL> earlier said that from the fourth quarter it will reimburse up to a total of 40 million ringgit in recruitment fees previously paid by migrant workers to employment agents.

Another rival Supermax Corporation Bhd <SUPM.KL> said its net profit for the quarter ended June 30 had risen from 15.06 million ringgit to 399.62 million ringgit.

It said this was its "best quarterly financial performance" and had been driven by an exponential rise in demand for gloves and an increase in production capacity, which it plans to almost double by the end of 2022.

($1 = 4.1930 ringgit)

(Reporting by Liz Lee; Editing by Alexander Smith)
Mayor Lori Lightfoot rejected calls for the National Guard to patrol Chicago in the wake of overnight looting downtown while defending herself on Monday from criticism that her administration failed to protect the city.

Again, no, we do not need federal troops in Chicago, period, full stop, Lightfoot said. Im sure the president will have his way with this incident but Im calling upon him to do the things that we do need, such as making changes to the nations gun laws.

The mayors comments came after hundreds of people swept through the Magnificent Mile and other parts of downtown Chicago early Monday, smashing windows, looting stores, confronting police and at one point exchanging gunfire with officers, authorities said.

The looting began shortly after midnight as people darted through broken store windows and doors along Michigan Avenue carrying shopping bags full of merchandise. Cars dropped off more people as the crowd grew. At least one U-Haul van was seen pulling up.

More than 100 people were arrested as of 9 a.m., according to Chicago Police Supt. David Brown. Thirteen officers were injured during the unrest, including a sergeant who was hit by a bottle. A civilian and private security guard were shot and wounded.

City officials said the seeds for the violent crime spree were sewn on social media Sunday afternoon following an officer-involved shooting in the Englewood neighborhood. Officers shot and wounded a 20-year-old man Sunday after he fired shots at them while being chased, authorities said.

At a news conference later Monday, after criticism from Lightfoot and Brown at an early morning news conference, Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx warned against trying to get an overly simplistic answer for what caused the overnight mayhem.

The quest for a simple answer or a this must have caused this is not a legitimate quest she said. We have to be thoughtful and Im not here to tell you what the answer is.

Going forward, Lightfoot and Brown said they will work to keep the downtown area restricted from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. for as long as is necessary.

Heres the latest on overnight looting in Chicago and the aftermath:

9:30 p.m.: Black Lives Matter protest: We dont need police. We need care.

About 100 people gathered outside the Central District station on Monday evening in a demonstration organized by Black Lives Matter Chicago. Several protesters held a banner that read, Our futures have been looted from us ... loot back.

Ariel Atkins, an organizer, said the demonstration was put together as a response to the police-involved shooting Sunday in Englewood, where a 20-year-old man was injured after police said he fired shots at officers, and to support and seek the release of those who were arrested during the downtown looting that followed.

Theres no such thing as a bad protester, Atkins said. Also, (were) demanding that police be defunded. Police should not be here. They should not exist, especially because were giving them all this money to beat and terrorize us. Were giving them all this money when its like were in an actual pandemic and people need care right now, but youre giving them police.

We dont need police, she said. We need care.

Read more here. Paige Fry

Englewood residents say downtown looting should not tarnish their neighborhood. I dont believe its fair.

Joyce Brown had just left the University of Chicago Medical Center, joyful her grandson would recover from being shot, when she heard about the looting downtown early Monday.

We saw it on the news and I said, What are they looting for? " said Brown, 65. It didnt take long to figure out.

Her 20-year-old grandson Latrell Allen had been shot several times by police a day earlier after allegedly pointing a gun at officers near his home in Englewood. I said to my husband, Jimmie, I believe they did the looting because of what happened to Latrell.

While the family has doubts about the police version of the shooting, Brown said she cannot condone the looting that left 13 police officers injured, two people shot, more than 100 arrested and stores up and down the Magnificent Mile trashed  and once again cast a harsh light on a South Side community that has been making gains in its struggles against poverty and violence.

I dont agree with the looting because thats just an excuse to get what they want, Brown said. That was wrong about the looting, but the same way they feel about looting, I feel about our grandson.

While long-simmering distrust of police and growing tensions from the pandemic may have helped fueled the looting, Brown insisted its still no excuse.

The alderman who represents Englewood fears its residents will now be unfairly tarnished as looters.

We have so many good people, so many wonderful people in this neighborhood, and we just hope that all that energy gets recognized, said Ald. Stephanie Coleman, 16th. I dont know how that narrative (about the looting) started. Its an easy assumption to make, but when you start making those connections, you have to be really careful because thats reflecting on the people in this neighborhood. And in this case, I dont believe its fair.

Read more here. Will Lee, Annie Sweeney and John Byrne

8:20 p.m.: States Attorney Kim Foxx bristles at insinuation her offices handling of earlier cases emboldened looters

After looters caused mayhem on the Magnificent Mile early Monday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and police Superintendent David Brown pointed fingers at a now-familiar target: Cook County prosecutors and judges.

Without naming States Attorney Kim Foxx, Lightfoot called on prosecutors not to let suspects cycle through the system without consequences. And Brown went so far as to imply that looters reoffended this weekend after getting away with the same crimes during the widespread unrest earlier this year, eliminating any deterrent.

(Suspects) get released, many charges get dropped, and so they feel emboldened to do it more, he said. Once prosecution and sentencing comes up, theres no consequences.

But Foxx, who is no stranger to accusations that she is soft on crime, flatly rejected that narrative at a news conference Monday. Her office has not dropped any looting cases related to recent unrest, she said, calling for a response beyond a sound bite and a finger point.

Read more here. Megan Crepeau and Dan Hinkel

7:56 p.m.: Theres gonna be looting going on: Long night of unrest follows Englewood shooting

At 11:07 p.m. Sunday, a Chicago police dispatcher relayed the first indication that chaos was about to return to the city.

We just wanted to give yall a heads-up that we got a call from an anonymous individual that theres gonna be looting going on at 87th and the Dan Ryan, she said.

The anonymous caller was correct, but the shopping center break-in was just a taste of what was to come. Within an hour, a caravan of cars headed to the Loop for an early morning looting spree that marked the worst night of unrest in Chicago since the police brutality protests of late May boiled into violence.

Heres how a night of unrest unfolded. Chicago Tribune staff

6:49 p.m.: In the wake of Englewood police shooting, a father of 5 goes viral on Twitter with a heartfelt video highlighting role activists played in defusing tensions between neighbors and police

Social media stardom took Joseph Williams by surprise. The South Side community activist doesnt even have a Twitter account.

But a college students video of Williams talking about how he and other local volunteers defused tensions at the site of the police shooting Sunday in Englewood has garnered more than 125,000 views, with comments such as Good man right here and If you want to know whats happened in Chicago, here is a great eye witness.

I feel good that we were able to shine a light on some of the truth, because there are always two sides to the story, said Williams, 31, founder of the childrens literacy nonprofit Mr. Dads Fathers Club.

I feel good to be able to share some of the intel from the boots on the ground. I was excited to tell people about how we came together as organizers and activists to help protect that community.

Social media has played a variety of roles in the aftermath of the Englewood police shooting, which left a 20-year-old man who allegedly fired at police wounded. In addition to high points such as Williams citizens perspective on police action and community organizing, there have been lows such as false reports that police had shot and killed a 15-year-old.

Whats clear, said Kishonna Gray, a University of Illinois at Chicago assistant professor of communication, and gender and womens studies, is that were hearing voices that wouldnt have had a platform 30 years ago, when a few mainstream news reports would have sketched out the facts of the case.

Read more here. Nara Schoenberg

6:43 p.m.: Man charged in Englewood shooting that sparked Sunday night looting in downtown Chicago

A 20-year-old Englewood man who allegedly fired on police  and was shot by officers in return  was charged with attempted murder Monday, according to a news release from Chicago police.

Latrell Allen, of the 5600 block of South Aberdeen Street, is expected to have a bond hearing Tuesday on two counts of attempted murder and one count of unlawful gun possession.

Allen allegedly fired shots at officers about being chased on a block not far from Allens address. He was was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center and is expected to survive, authorities said, but it is unknown whether he will be able to attend court in person.

Widespread false claims about the shooting, including one that said police shot a young teenager, allegedly gave rise to a heated scuffle at the scene Sunday afternoon and then fueled social-media messages urging people to head downtown and loot.

Allen pleaded guilty to burglary last year and was sentenced to probation, records show. He also faces a pending misdemeanor reckless conduct and child endangerment case from earlier this year, according to court records.

Read more here. Megan Crepeau

3:35 p.m.: Overnight on the Magnificent Mile: Timeline of what Tribune reporters saw

More than 100 people were arrested early Monday following looting and vandalism through the Magnificent Mile and other parts of downtown Chicago.

Thirteen officers were injured during the unrest, including a sergeant who was hit by a bottle. A civilian and private security guard were shot and wounded. It took police officers roughly four hours to get the downtown back under control.

Read more here. Chad Yoder and Kori Rumore

2:47 p.m.: Police respond to reports of West Side looting

Police early Monday afternoon responded to reports of people looting on the West Side, with police numbers growing as the afternoon went on.

People who gathered in the area said police came to the area because of reports of looting near Madison Street and Pulaski Road.

People began throwing rocks and bottles at police and more police arrived. Then more people arrived and using a SWAT team, deploying pepper spray gas a few times and using a BearCat to move people away from Madison Street.

Chicago police attempt to secure the shopping district around the intersection of Madison St., and Karlov Ave., after reports of looting on Aug, 10, 2020. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

Things had started calming down at Madison and Karlov before police started moving into nearby neighborhood.

By mid-afternoon there had been several rounds of confrontations between police and people in the area.

Police from at least five different districts plus detectives were in the area.

At least one car had bricks thrown in a window.

Peter Nickeas

2:39 p.m.: Employees were closing up for evening when bricks hurled through window at Roots Handmade Pizza in the South Loop

Workers were in the midst of closing for the night early Monday when a couple pieces of brick were hurled through the front window of Roots Handmade Pizza in the South Loop, at 744 S. Dearborn St. Fortunately, no one was physically injured, said co-owner Greg Mohr, although at least two staffers were said to be freaked out by the incident.

After seeing that there were people working in the store, Mohr said the instigators fled.

Mentally two staff especially are really shaken up, so were gonna address that and take care of that. If they need to get some help, well do that also, he said. Its already obviously a weird time to be working and doing all these things, and then that happens, it sucks, so were doing what we can.

Mohr said the break-in occurred about 2 a.m. Monday morning. He had heard about some unrest in the area but hadnt heard specific reports in the South Loop before then.

Employees immediately called the police and the restaurants private security partner, and the latter soon arrived to watch the storefront for the remainder of the night. Mohr said he was eventually instructed to call 311 to file a police report.

Eventually (the police) did come, but they wouldnt take a police report. They were told not to take a police report, because they wanted to keep cops patrolling, he said. Even this morning, later in the morning, they were still just told to patrol and not take a report per se. We were told to call 311 if we wanted to file a report.

Roots is open for dinner service Monday after boarding its storefront. Mohr said he is prepared to change plans, though, if any staff feels unsafe.

At the end of the day, we lucked out in a lot of ways. It could have been a lot worse, he said.

Adam Lukach

2:34 p.m.: One real estate exec worries the looting will discourage businesses from bringing workers back to the office

Much of the damage on Michigan Avenue and State Street is at the base of office towers, whose owners have been implementing widespread safety measures to welcome back workers, said Kevin Purcell, president of leasing and management services at MB Real Estate. His firm manages 20 million square feet of commercial buildings in downtown Chicago.

We really thought we had turned the corner, and we were seeing people coming back to offices again, Purcell said. I hope this doesnt cause office tenants to add to their concerns about coming downtown to work in this pandemic. If more people stay away, more of these retailers will suffer.

Many of the hardest-hit stores have been large national chains, but property owners and managers worry that repeated break-ins will cause retailers of all types to rethink their presence downtown, Purcell said.

I was already concerned as it relates to COVID that a lot of these retailers that contribute to the vibrancy of downtown are already suffering, and many are not coming back, Purcell said.

There are entrepreneurs who are not going to take that risk now, and lenders that will not extend loans to these businesses. There also are high-profile, deep-pocketed retailers who might decide its just not worth it. Theyre paying so much rent and so much in taxes. Im concerned.

Ryan Ori

1:51 p.m.: Downtown access will again be restricted 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday into Tuesday. What to know about bridge lifts, bus, train and travel on expressways, city streets

As police activity and unrest subsided in downtown Chicago, emergency officials Monday morning said the city was reopening blocked expressway entrance ramps, restarting Chicago Transit Authority service into downtown, and lowering bridges in time to ward off the worst for commuters.

But in updates to residents about the looting that prompted the emergency measures  aimed at keeping people away from the city center after dark  state and city leaders said access to downtown again would be restricted Monday night.

Read more here. Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas

1:39 p.m.: Foxx responds to city officials criticism

At a news conference Monday, after criticism from Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Police Superintendent David Brown, Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx warned against trying to get an overly simplistic answer for what caused the overnight mayhem.

Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx speaks during a news conference, Aug. 10, 2020, after overnight looting in Chicago's Loop and other neighborhoods. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

The quest for a simple answer or a this must have caused this is not a legitimate quest she said. We have to be thoughtful and Im not here to tell you what the answer is.

And she defended her offices record on cases involving looting suspects. Her office has not dropped any of the looting-related felonies it approved after unrest in late May and early June, she said.

And 71 percent of cases brought during the last concentrated period of public unrest were misdemeanors or city ordinance violations, not felonies, she said.

Foxxs office did implement a policy encouraging prosecutors to drop certain protest-related charges related to the fallout over George Floyds death. But those low-level cases should not be conflated with burglary charges connected to looting, she said.

It does not serve us to have dishonest blame games when all of our hearts are breaking by what we are seeing, she said.

Megan Crepeau

Kim Foxx drops more felony cases as Cook County states attorney than her predecessor, Tribune analysis shows

12:57 p.m.: In wake of downtown looting, Mayor Lori Lightfoot says Chicago does not need National Guard help

Mayor Lori Lightfoot rejected calls for the National Guard to patrol Chicago in the wake of overnight looting downtown while defending herself on Monday from criticism that her administration failed to protect the city.

Lightfoot said she spoke with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and neither believes the National Guard is needed at this time. The city has been working with the state police, she said.

Lightfoot also preemptively criticized President Donald Trump, who has previously threatened to send in federal agents to intervene in Chicago street crime. He recently sent a bunch of agents to the city as part of Operation Legend, which Lightfoot said she supports as long as its operating through U.S. Attorney John Lausch.

Again, no, we do not need federal troops in Chicago, period, full stop, Lightfoot said. Im sure the president will have his way with this incident but Im calling upon him to do the things that we do need, such as making changes to the nations gun laws.

Read more here. Gregory Pratt and John Byrne

11:47 a.m.: Art Institute closes for the day due to Loop shutdown and unrest

Among major cultural institutions, none reported sustaining damage. Only the Art Institute, located on Michigan Avenue, reacted. It closed for the day Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday are normal closure days since the museum reopened late last month.

We wanted to ensure that you knew that the museum will be closed today, Monday, August 10, the museum wrote in an email to patrons. We regret if this impacts a planned visit today. We expect the museum to reopen soon and will update the website accordingly.

The decision to close was also impacted by the city limiting access to the Loop in response to Sunday nights events.

The unrest in Chicago overnight and early this morning, as well as the transit shutdowns today, challenged the ability of staff needing to come in early to prepare the museum for opening, so the decision was made to leave the museum closed for the day, spokeswoman Kati Murphy said via text.

MCA Chicago, located close to the hard-hit Water Tower Place area, was already scheduled to be closed until Friday under its new, pandemic hours. On the Museum Campus, Shedd Aquarium and Field Museum were open Monday, while Adler Planetarium has never reopened since closing in mid-March.

Steve Johnson

11:40 a.m.: Loop, Near North stores hit overnight, some after were vandalized and looted earlier in the summer

Monday morning, stores were scrambling to board up windows that were destroyed. The sound of power drills driving nails into wooden boards echoed along Wabash Avenue, occasionally being drowned out by L trains rattling overhead.

Jewelry stores appeared to be hit the hardest. At least five jewelry stores were vandalized along Jewelers Row on Wabash Avenue.

Koorosh Daneshgar, owner of Wedding Bands & Company, a jewelry store on 2 N. Wabash Ave., was dismayed Monday morning after his jewelry store was vandalized for the second time in the last few months.

A Chicago police officer stands inside Diamonds on Wabash, one of several jewelry stores damaged after looting in the early morning hours of Aug. 10, 2020. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

Daneshgar said he reviewed his store security footage and that there were nearly 50 people in his store overnight. The jewelry was in a safe, but the looters still destroyed showcases, windows and computers, he said.

Its hard to describe, Daneshgar said. The Mayor has to do something. This is unacceptable.

Among the jewelry stores looted and with smashed windows:

Chicago Landmark Diamond Center, 1 N. Wabash Ave.

Wedding Bands & Company by Koorosh, 2 N. Wabash

Windy City Diamonds, 1 S. Wabash

Chicago Jewelry Mall, 7 S. Wabash

Diamonds on Wabash, 15 S. Wabash

Police vehicles with their flashing emergency lights activated were positioned Monday morning up and down State Street downtown.

Among other stores hit were:

T-Mobile, 129 N. Wabash Ave. The window was smashed out with the shattered glass was spilled out onto the sidewalk. But the stores metal shutters were pulled down.

Staples, 111 N. Wabash. A window was smashed out, but by 8:30 a.m., workers were on site to boarded up the broken window.

CBD Kratom, 28 E. Randolph St. All of the stores windows were shattered. The shelves inside the store were toppled over, and the counter was smashed. Shortly before 8:45 a.m., two store employees began cleaning up the store.

Macys on State Street, 111 N. State St., had one window broken, and other stores in the area were boarding up, but in many cases, their doing so appeared to be preemptive, as there were no signs of damage.

Javonte Anderson

11:38 a.m.: Three local Binnys stores damaged by looting

Binnys Beverage Depot employees spent Monday morning cleaning up heavily damaged stores, a little more than two months after doing so in the aftermath of the looting that followed George Floyds killing at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

Were getting a little too comfortable with the rapid response to incidents like this, Binnys vice president Bradley Stein said from the store near Clybourn Avenue.

This is not something we want to become proficient in.

The store at 1720 N. Marcey St. was strewn with broken glass, cigars and other debris.

The previous break-in created close to $1 million in property damage and theft, Stein estimated. He said it was too early to know the extent of Monday mornings looting, but extensive damage included shattered glass inside and outside the store  including to the rare and collectible room, where bottles valued as high as $15,000 are stored.

Brad Stein, a vice-president with Binny's, vacuums up shards of glass and spilled wine after looters broke in and took expensive bottles of champagne and wine from their River North location on Aug. 10, 2020. Three stores were damaged in last night's spree. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

It kind of took us by surprise, Stein said. It was very targeted. They definitely knew what they wanted. Were making the assumption these guys had been here before. I wouldnt be surprised if it was the same crew from the first time.

Binnys stores in the South Loop and River North also were damaged, Stein said.

The 50,000-square-foot store near Clybourn is one of the largest and highest-grossing among the family-owned companys 42 stores, all in Illinois.

Large Apple and Best Buy stores were among several other businesses on and around Clybourn that were damaged.

Its difficult to see our city taking these hits like this, Stein said.

Binnys Marcey Street store closed for almost a week after the first incident, and a closure of at least a few days is expected again to repair damage and take inventory, Stein said. Binnys is not considering closing the store permanently, Stein said.

Were proud that we employ 90 people at this location, and if this went away that would be 90 people out of work, Stein said. Thats not going to happen. We just have to understand how we can prepare for this going forward. We have made some adjustments since the last time. Some worked, some didnt.

Ryan Ori

11:27 a.m.: Pritzker says he reached out to Lightfoot to offer state help

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday he reached out to Mayor Lori Lightfoot overnight to offer the states help, and Illinois State Police closed local expressway on-ramps and off-ramps where necessary for the city of Chicago.

Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly has been in touch with Chicago Police officials, and we want to make sure that were doing everything we can to support the city as we did back in May and June when looting and mayhem was occurring back then, Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference in Chicago.

Criminals need to be held accountable, theres no doubt it, Pritzker said. I have, of course, been an advocate for police accountability and for reforms, significant reforms. Having said that, these were criminals  people who broke in, and were shooting at people. We had 13, I believe, 13 Chicago police officers who were injured last night. This is criminal activity and those criminals need to be held accountable.

Jamie Munks

11:20 a.m.: Gift shop that had just reopened following May looting is hit again

Less than a week ago, jewelry and gift store Crosell & Co. reopened following looting in May. Early Monday morning, the store at 25 E. Huron St. was hit again.

The situation Monday wasnt as bad as last time, owner Dianne Crosell said as she stood outside of her shop in front of the smashed double-paned glass door. In May, looters broke in through a window and took most of her inventory. Monday, it was mostly just the damage from broken glass.

Still, it will be hard to rebuild again, Crosell said. Insurance helped last time, but she said there is a limit. Crosell opened the business in 2006, and shes worried about the long-term damage repeated lootings and a pandemic will have on businesses in the city.

If this keeps happening, why is anyone going to stay? she said. Theyre ruining the city of Chicago.

Dianne Crosell, owner of Crosell & Co., speaks about the damage to her shop following early morning looting on Aug. 10, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

Next door at Jonathan Adler interior design, the windows were smashed in. Manager Dwight Culber said the store was lucky.

Were mostly home furnishings. Its larger scale stuff thats harder to pick up and take away, he said. Overall, the store is still intact.

At open U-Haul sat parked, back open, nearby on Huron Street. It had a flat tire, and nothing was in the back except a few bandanas and a bag of Skittles. Culber said he thought the U-Haul had been used for the looting, but then abandoned because of the flat tire.

A few blocks over on Michigan Avenue, workers sawed and drilled as they boarded up broken windows.

Passersby were hit with blasts of cold air pouring out of broken windows from air conditioned shops. At Ralph Lauren, workers used snow shovels and push brooms to clean up a broken display window. But besides the broken glass, the clothes and other merchandise in the window appeared untouched.

Ally Marotti

11:11 a.m.: Black-owned business hit on Near North Side

Patsy Mullins stepped over broken glass and shelves and black jewelry mannequins Monday morning while carpenters affixed particle board to the glassless front door of her store in the Near North neighborhood.

Mullins has owned the store, Accessorize, for nearly 20 years. Its normally full of accessories, hats, handbags and anything else ladies need to get ourselves together. It was one of dozens downtown that were looted overnight.

I just dont know what the next move is going to be, she said. Im out of work. Theyve destroyed everything, theyve taken all the merchandise that I have to sell, then this requires an investment of money to rebuild and replenish. Mullins, who is African American, has lived in Chicago since 1979. She has customers whove been with her the whole time, since she opened her shop.

Monday morning, she sat inside her store trying to reach police and surveying the damage.

Patsy Mullins looks over the damage inside her boutique Accessorize that was cleaned out during looting in the Near North neighborhood early on Aug. 10, 2020. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

This is my livelihood, for 20 years. Im not sure what Im going to do, she said. Im just still in shock, still stunned.

No room of her shop was spared. Looters even emptied a small storage closet in the bathroom at the back of the store.

Jewelry, handbags, clothing, all of its gone, she said. Trying to get business open and thriving again, its been a mess. I dont know what this means. This is my livelihood.

Mullins, 71, described it as mob activity, not just street gangs at work. She noted how organized it seemed and how some looters were using tools to gain entry to places, just like the looting in late May and early June. Her store was spared then because it had already been boarded up following a burglary in April, during the beginning of the pandemic.

Its not just people looting, she said.  Lets dig to the root of the problem, lets not look at the surface and pretend that its all those looters of those whatever  and Im not absolving them from their criminal behavior and their participation, truly they need to be disciplined  but we need to get to the bottom of this otherwise well this problem will never be solved and it will continue again and again.

Mullins noted the potential political implications of the looting, it being an election year, and her fiance Bruce Carey said this didnt have anything to do with the Black Lives Matter movement.

This is strictly criminal activity, planned by criminal gangs, in order to loot. These are pandemic times. There is no money in the streets, he said. 118 million people are unemployed and a store owner like her cant get stimulus money because Congress is holding it up.

Carey, 67, said he thinks the mayor is doing the best she can, but wants to know how she can help businesses here. He noted the circumstances conspiring against Mullins  high rent, no foot traffic, nobody to purchase merchandise, the still unresolved insurance claim from the April burglary and now looting overnight.

He said they dont support defunding police, but does support reassessing police so they arent as militarized. He doesnt support the use of federal officers like what happened in Portland. He said small businesses need police protection.

Thats a political issue, he said, noting that whats happening here could potentially end up in a loop on Fox News. Were Black, we understand that, we face that pressure the same. But you also understand the systemic conditions that have helped create that. The pandemic has  no kids have summer jobs, all these kids on the street. Youre fed through media, social media, to want materialism. Gucci, Burberry. The criminals are taking advantage. This is a way for them to rob, steal, not get caught.

Peter Nickeas

10:49 a.m.: Neighbors help clean up near North and Clybourn

Near North and Clybourn avenues, several stores had been looted overnight, and neighbors came out to help clean up looted stores.

Omeid Seid, 38, has lived in the area for five years.

We woke up, didnt realize what had happened, Seid said. Having a young kid we walk through this area regularly.

We saw what happened last time rather than sit around and watch it on TV we thought we would get out and try to help.

Gary Tedeschi also showed up to help.

I was inspired by people who showed up first, Tedeschi who came out after seeing people on the news helping with cleanup efforts. I saw people, they were showing this on the news, and I was inspired.

Dozens of electronic security tags litter the parking lot shared by Ulta, Best Buy and CVS, 1000 W. North Ave., all of which had been looted overnight.

Residents had mostly cleaned up the area by 8:15 a.m., loading cardboard boxes, bags stuffed with Styrofoam, broken TVs and other trash.

Volunteers brought out pickup trucks and dump trucks to help in the cleanup.

Peter Nickeas

10:30 a.m.: Owner of Central Camera, the iconic Loop business hit by looting in May, struggles to understand overnight destruction

Don Flesch, the owner of the Loops iconic Central Camera, was on his way downtown Monday morning to check on his 121-year-old business, which is still being renovated after being burned and looted in late May.

Im going to see if our sign is OK, he said.

Flesch, the third-generation owner of the shop, gained widespread internet support for keeping his cool after his family business burned last time, refusing to be angry at the people who destroyed it. He said he understood the sentiment behind the unrest that swept the city less than three months ago. Monday morning, though, he was struggling to comprehend what had fueled the overnight destruction.

Why? Whos behind it? he wondered. Its not really a sensible thing, except somebody wants to cause distress and disrupt this country.

Flesch said he worries the most recent looting will slow down the citys recovery. The looting and destruction in May was as a double whammy for Chicagos businesses, which had just begun to reopen after the pandemic forced them to shut down.

However, by 8:30 a.m. Monday, Flesch said he had already heard of neighbors coming out to help clean up. He took that as a sign of optimism and hope.

Ally Marotti

10:27 a.m.: Herbal Care Center dispensary closes Monday as a safety precaution

The Herbal Care Center marijuana dispensary closed Monday as a safety precaution following the looting that hit Michigan Avenue and other downtown areas overnight.

We will evaluate day by day from here and will continue to send out updates as we have them, said a text alert from the dispensary.

The Herbal Care Center, which is north of the Pilsen neighborhood, was heavily damaged in the looting in late May that followed the death of George Floyd. It re-opened in early July.

Ally Marotti

9:48 a.m.: Aftermath of looting in downtown Chicago: 13 cops injured, two people shot, more than 100 arrests, Mag Mile trashed

More than 100 people were arrested as of 9 a.m., according to Chicago Police Supt. David Brown. Thirteen officers were injured during the unrest, including a sergeant who was hit by a bottle. A civilian and private security guard were shot and wounded.

What occurred in our downtown and surrounding communities was abject criminal behavior, pure and simple, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. And there cannot be any excuse for it. Period.

City officials said the seeds for the violent crime spree were sewn on social media Sunday afternoon following an officer-involved shooting in the Englewood neighborhood. Officers shot and wounded a 20-year-old man Sunday after he fired shots at them while being chased, authorities said.

The man was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center and is expected to survive, Brown said.

More than an hour after the shooting, police and witnesses said a crowd of about 30 people faced off against officers holding a police line near 56th and Aberdeen streets. Authorities said someone fed false information to the angry group, including that police shot and wounded a child.

During a scuffle, one officer was hit with pepper spray and a second officer suffered a minor shoulder injury. Two people were arrested and a police car was shattered by a brick, police added.

A large number of officers cordoned off streets in nearly every direction until the mood of the crowd cooled off. But by that time, Brown said, messages began appearing on social media encouraging people to head downtown.

The looting and vandalism began shortly after, with people streaming in and out of high-end stores. Some could be seen throwing merchandise into rental trucks and other large vehicles before driving away.

This was not an organized protest, Brown said. Rather this was an incident of pure criminality. This was an act of violence against our police officers and against our city.

Read more here. Paige Fry, Jeremy Gorner, Gregory Pratt, Megan Crepeau and Stacy St. Clair

8:18 a.m.: Commuting? CTA, roads reopening, bridges going down as overnight looting subsides downtown

As police activity and unrest subsided in downtown Chicago, emergency officials Monday morning said the city was reopening blocked expressway entrance ramps, restarting Chicago Transit Authority service into downtown, and lowering bridges, even as some streets were remaining closed.

Looting, which overnight had been centered in the Streeterville and North Michigan Avenue area, was beginning to die down as authorities worked to reopen after some of the citys swankiest stores were hit. Some closures remained in effect downtown Monday morning, and Cook County courts except for bond court were to be closed Monday.

The expressway closures began in early morning and were ending just before 7 a.m. as police were able to quell some of the unrest, according to Trooper Gabriela Ugarte, an Illinois State Police spokeswoman.

Read more here. Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas

(Updated 7:35 a.m.) 3:33 a.m.: Chicago police return fire as looters hit Mag Mile, smashing windows and confronting officers

Hundreds of people swept through the Magnificent Mile and other parts of downtown Chicago early Monday, smashing windows, looting stores, confronting police and at one point exchanging gunfire with officers, authorities said.

The officers had stopped several people on Lake Street near Michigan Avenue when shots were fired from a passing car around 4:30 a.m., nearly five hours into the widespread vandalism, according to police spokesman Tom Ahern. No officers were shot but a squad car was hit, he said. It was not known if anyone in the gunmans car was shot.

Ahern said other officers were injured through the night. Earlier, an officer was seen slumped against a building by Grand and Wabash avenues as other other cops tended to him. It was unclear what had happened to him. Ahern had no details on the injuries.

Read more here. Paige Fry and Jeremy Gorner

6:14 a.m.: After sunrise

5:24 a.m.: Bridges into the Loop raised

Bridges along the Chicago River are raised on Aug. 10, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

4:48 a.m.: Police and crowd get into shouting match

3:57 a.m.: Officer attended to at Grand and Wabash

3:21 a.m.: Looting and vandalism in downtown Chicago

2:30 a.m.: Police chase people out of Macys
Rajesh Asnani By

Express News Service

JAIPUR: Congress rebel Sachin Pilot met Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi in what is seen as an attempt to end the ongoing political crises just before the crucial Rajasthan Assembly session scheduled from August 14.

Sources say they were engaged in a discussion for over one and a half hours.

A formula to engineer Pilot's return to the Congress fold is being explored, but the party has made it clear that there will be no discussion about the post of Chief Minister. Sources also say that it has been stated that if Pilot wants to return, he will have to wait for some time before adjustments are made.

There was no official statement on the meeting from the Congress or from the Pilot group.

ALSO READ | Ashok Gehlot writes to Rajasthan MLAs, urges them to 'stand with truth' and 'save democracy'

According to sources, the meeting was initiated by the High Command itself. It helped that all the MLAs of the Pilot group have repeatedly said their displeasure is not with the party, but with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

The reasons for the reconciliation are two-fold. First, the Special Operations Group (SOG) has submitted the final report in the MLA horse-trading case. Second, the legislators are relieved by the removal of the sedition charges.

Significantly, the rebel MLAs, camped in Manesar for the past one month, have not been able to meet the Congress High Command and former president Rahul Gandhi even once. So, this meeting is considered to be very important. The MLAs from the rebel camp do not want to leave the Congress party.

Earlier, there was a demand that action be taken against the Sachin Pilot faction during the Congress Legislature Party meeting in Jaisalmer on Sunday. The MLAs of the Gehlot faction were the ones insisting on this. But the top Congress leaders in Delhi seem to be in a mood to reconcile with the rebel camp.

Earlier, the Congress State president Govind Singh Dotasara while talking to the media on Monday afternoon stated that state party unit is not in touch with the Pilot camp and the decision on them will be taken by the High Command. He also clarified that Ashok Gahlot will remain the Chief Minister for his entire term.

Meanwhile, unhappy over the developments in the Congress camp, the BJP left no opportunity to attack Congress on the issue.

ALSO READ | Rajasthan BJP shifts MLAs in Gujarat amid poaching fears, internal rift

"This has brought the real face of Congress in front of everyone . While clearly revealing the weaknesses of Congress High command. Rahul Gandhi is taking continuous U-turns on the issue. How will he be able to decide about Rajasthan? Congress has spent 10 crores on the boarding and lodging of MLAs, on this exercise," said Satish Poonia state BJP president.

ALSO SEE:
Princess Dianas tragic death on Aug. 31, 1997, was shocking and horrifying to people across the globe. However, it would forever change the lives of the princess sons, Prince William and Prince Harry who were just 15 and 12 at the time.

The princess had been a doting mother to her sons, exposing them to all aspects of life even if that meant breaking royal tradition by taking them to amusement parks, fast food restaurants, and charitable ventures. She wanted to show them that not everyone was as privileged as they were.

Even after she and Prince Charles separated in 1992, eventually divorcing in 1996, they remained doting co-parents. Both the princes have spoken openly about how they were deeply affected by their mothers death and how it affected their mental health. In fact, Prince Harry still carries a lot of animosity about it.

RELATED: Why Fans Think Prince William and Prince Harrys Feud Is A Result of Princess Dianas Death

Prince Harry and Prince William remember the last time they spoke to Princess Diana

In the last days of her life, Princess Diana was vacationing with her boyfriend, Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed. Theyd returned to Paris after vacationing on Al-Fayeds yacht in the South of France. The princess was set to return to London the next day.

Sometime in the late afternoon, Princess Diana called Balmoral Castle in Scotland where Prince Harry and Prince William were staying with their dad. When the princess called, the boys were playing and inadvertently rushed her off the phone. It would be the last time the boys spoke to their mother.

In the 2017 documentary, Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy, Prince Harry recalled, If Id known that was the last time Id speak to my mother, the things I would have said to her.  Looking back on it now, it is incredibly hard. Prince William agreed. He said, If Id known what would happen, I wouldnt have been so blase about it. But that phone call sticks in my mind quite heavily.

RELATED: Is Megxit What Princess Diana Always Wanted for Prince Harry?

Prince Harry blames the media for Princess Dianas death

Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in the early hours of the next morning as paparazzi chased her car through the streets of Paris. As she lay dying in the street, photogs continued to snap photos. To this day, Prince Harry has never gotten over the medias involvement or response to the tragedy. ITV anchor Tom Bradby explained to Good Morning America,

The really important thing I think and the real difficulty is they just have entirely different parallel narratives about a whole bunch of stuff. One of which is about their mothers death. Harry feels quite simply that the press killed his mother and is now in danger of trying to damage his wife. William has a more nuanced view of that. He thinks that yes, their mother did have a very hard time, but also she made a mistake in allowing the press in and he just is absolutely adamant that that shouldnt happen and he thinks that sometimes his brother is too open and then tries to close up, and that doesnt work.

The Prince of Wales with Prince William and Prince Harry outside Westminster Abbey at the funeral of Diana, The Princess of Wales on September 6, 1997 | Anwar Hussein/WireImage

Prince Harry is still very angry about Princess Diana death

One of Prince Harrys main reasons for pulling the trigger on Megxit was to protect Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and their son Archie from the media. It stems from the pain that he felt regarding the loss of Princess Diana. In 2008, there was an inquest into the death of Princess Diana.

The jury determined that Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed were unlawfully killed by a combination of the paparazzi following them, as well as by the driving of their chauffeur Henri Paul, The Guardian reported. At the time, Prince Harry and Prince William released a statement saying, We agree with their verdicts and are both hugely grateful. However, the royal family didnt do much more. Royal reporter Duncan Larcombe told Ok! Magazine that from Prince Harrys view, a statement was enough he said,
But due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the entire island of Luzon being placed under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ), Nissan had to delay the sales launch of the 370Z even further. In total, if we count the 370Z's world premiere at a new generation Z-car at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show, the car has been delayed for almost 12 years.

Back in March, Nissan Philippines Inc. announced that the 370Z will be arriving in the country. To be available either in either Premium trim or in the more powerful NISMO version, the two-door coupe was originally meant to be available in April 2020 .

It's better late than never, and NPI has just announced that the all-new 370Z (as well as the 370Z NISMO) is now available in the country via select dealerships. Serving as a sibling to the flagship GT-R, the 370Z delivers a distinct exterior design, a sporty interior, and a naturally-aspirated V6 capable of delivering over 340 PS.

Starting with the outside, the 370Z gets a long hood, short deck design reminiscent of Z cars in the past. The boomerang-inspired headlights and taillights have become a staple look on the coupe and benefit from bi-Xenon HID and LED lighting, respectively. Also worth mentioning on the 370Z is the huge 19-inch forged alloy wheels from Rays Engineering which give the car an unmistakable look. It also gets dual exhausts, a sleek rear spoiler, LED daytime running lights, and distinct front and rear bumpers.

Under the hood, the 370Z is powered by a 3.7-liter VQ37 V6. It makes 332 PS along with 363 Nm of torque. Power is then sent to either a six-speed manual gearbox with Synchrorev matching technology or a seven-speed automatic with paddle shifters. Complementing the powerful V6 are the following  sport-tuned dampers, sport brakes, limited-slip differential, and a carbon fiber composite driveshaft.

Want more out of the 370Z? There's the more powerful NISMO version which packs a slightly souped-up 3.7-liter V6. Instead of just having 332 PS with 363 Nm of torque, NISMO massaged the V6 to crank out 344 PS along with 371 Nm of torque. The 370Z NISMO is only paired with a seven-speed automatic gearbox and is complemented by Black Magnesium paddle shifters.

For improved handling, the NISMO version also packs a strut tower brace, performance dampers, and 19-inch forged alloy wheels with a twin-spoke design.

Other extras made available on the 370Z NISMO include Recaro sport seats, steering wheel wrapped in leather and Alcantara, a red NISMO tachometer, and NISMO badging all around.

370Z Premium M/T - PhP 2,779,000

370Z Premium A/T - PhP 2,879,000

370Z NISMO A/T - PhP 3,888,000
Left Behind films celebrate 20th anniversary with special trilogy edition

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The Left Behind" trilogy, based on the No. 1 New York Times bestselling book series of the same name, is filled with narratives seen in today's headlines: conspiracy theories, misinformation campaigns, censorship, and a deadly virus spreading worldwide.

The successful series, produced by Cloud Ten Pictures, sold more than 10 million copies on VHS/DVD 20 years ago. This year, Cinedigm is releasing a digitally remastered "Left Behind" special edition that will be available on Sept. 1.

Each film went through a 4K scan and a color upgrade to improve the 20th anniversary edition. Along with the new and improved visual experience, Left Behind will now include several never-before-seen bonus features, including access to a full-length documentary where biblical scholars and theologians discuss their views on the rapture.

The world we see on the news every day is scarier and more uncertain than it has been in at least a generation, said Left Behind screenwriter, producer and Cloud Ten Pictures founder Paul Lalonde, in a statement shared with The Christian Post. The world foretold in the Bible and dramatized in the Left Behind films has never been more real than it is now. Its really happening, exactly as the Bible predicted thousands of years ago.

The movies are known for their message of warning, preparedness and salvation. And star popular actors Kirk Cameron and Louis Gossett Jr.

The fear and uncertainty of the book of Revelation comes to life in the 'Left Behind' trilogy. Millions vanish, the society is in chaos, evil is lurking, the world is at war; this is the premise for the ground-breaking faith-based trilogy, the special edition description reads. The anniversary release features all three iconic films: 'Left Behind,' 'Left Behind: Tribulation Force' and 'Left Behind: World at War.'"

Directed by Vic Sarin, Bill Corcoran and Craig R. Baxley, the Left Behind" trilogy will be a two-disc release.

The following is a breakdown of the special features included:

Disc 1

Left Behind: The Movie

Mass hysteria grips the world when millions of people suddenly vanish into thin air. The rapture prophesied in the Bible has happened, and those left behind scramble to find the truth in a world of turmoil and deception.

Left Behind: The Movie bonus

Hollywood premiere special  lost and found scenes!

Left Behind II: Tribulation Force bonus

Unearthed cast and crew Interviews

Extra behind-the-scenes B-roll footage

Left Behind: World at War bonus

Kirk Camerons candid interview on sharing the Gospel

B-roll of cast and crew filming scenes at "secret hideout" set

Lou Gossett Jr. is a Class Act

Disc 2

Left Behind II: Tribulation Force

Journalist Buck Williams (Kirk Cameron) and his Tribulation Force try to warn the world that their new world leader is not the Messiah, he is the exact opposite  the one the Bible calls the antichrist!

Left Behind: World at War

The world is now united under one man, Nicolae Carpathia (Gordon Currie) and the violence and mayhem seems to be under control. But with the help of Buck Williams, American President Gerald Fitzhugh (Lou Gossett Jr.) fights back against the supernatural plot to deceive to world.
Rev Samuel Kobia, chairman of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, answers questions from the public.

Prosecuting hate speech, it seems, is very difficult considering that NCIC has to date not had a single conviction from the many cases that have gone to court. This has emboldened politicians and their supporters to continue spewing hate as they seek votes. What makes hate speech difficult to prosecute? Joylene Amutabi, Kapenguria

The commission has had four convictions in cases of hate speech and ethnic contempt. Those convicted are Allan Wadi (Nairobi court), Fedelis Motwovita (Kithimani court), Hassan Abdi Noor (Machakos court) and Gichiri Ndua (Nairobi court). Nonetheless, there are challenges including interference of witnesses by suspects, in some cases hostility of the witnesses, technicalities of digital evidence and its admissibility in courts.

However, we have developed a handbook on investigation and prosecution of hate speech, which has been used to enhance the capacity of investigators and prosecutors across the country. It is important to note that the commissions mandate is to investigate cases of hate speech while the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions handles prosecution.

Notably, over 15 cases have been settled through conciliation, as mandated by the NCI Act 2008. The commission has continued to use various ways in the fight against hatemongers including sensitisation where members of the political class and the public in general are informed of the negative effects of hate mongering to the society and economy in general.

In partnership with the National Police Service, we have equipped over 2,000 police officers across the country with monitoring gadgets that include body-worn cameras and camcorders. The commission continues to monitor the social media space, political rallies and social gatherings to identify hate mongers.

Clashes over land are a major hindrance to the peace, love and unity we all desire. How are you working with the National Land Commission (NLC) and other agencies to resolve such grievances? Gabriel Changwony, Kitale

The commission has established linkages with the NLC, Ministry of Lands and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission in its endeavour to address the root causes of such conflicts. The process is slow but rather steady. We remain optimistic that some results will be realised in due cause.

We have elections in the next two years. Why is NCIC ineffective in taking action on hate speech, particularly against politicians? Raphael Obonyo, Nairobi

The commission has put in place elaborate measures to deliver peaceful elections in 2022. These include the review of NCI Act 2008 to strengthen the commissions work.

The commission, together with other partners, has reactivated the Uwiano Platform for Peace to co-ordinate electoral-violence reduction initiatives. Uwiano Platform for Peace remains a critical vehicle for managing electoral violence in the country.

In addition, the commission is working closely with parliamentary committees to enhance peace. We will continue to train police investigators as well as sensitise members of the political class and political parties on the need to uphold peaceful processes.

The creation of NCIC was to partly implement the Agenda Four items of the National Accord following the 2007/2008 post-election violence. To what extent would you say that the commission has fulfilled its mandate? Brian Irungu, Nairobi

The task of consolidating national cohesion in Kenya is a momentous one. This is because changing attitudes, mindsets and thinking is not an event but a process. Nevertheless, the commission has made major strides in this area for the past 10 years.

It has invested a lot in building the capacity of Kenyans to appreciate each other and their own country, to embrace constructive ways of resolving the inevitable conflicts that arise between communities, to demand for inclusive political representation and to practice values that engender national unity. Indeed, I say without the fear of contradiction, that today Kenya is much better off than it was in 2007/2008.

Ethnic inequalities pose a huge challenge to national cohesion. What are you doing to ensure ethnic equality and justice in civil service? Raphael Obonyo, Nairobi

The commission has advised government on how these ethnic disparities can be addressed within the civil service through the following ways: First, entrench fair and inclusive recruitment policies.

The commission has lobbied the adoption of fair and inclusive employment policies in public institutions aimed at reducing discrimination on ethnic, racial and religious grounds by defining specific strategies to enhance inclusion of minority groups within the workplace. Fourteen public universities and 22 State corporations have adopted these policies.

Second, we provide evidence in court cases. Being the only accurate database on ethnic composition within the public service, the commission has supported ethnic inequality cases that have been brought forth by citizens against public institutions that have flouted the provisions of the law.

A case against Migori County benefited from the commissions dataset. Third, compliance notices. The commission issues compliance notices to all institutions that contravene the law, that is, Section 7(2) of the NCI Act and Section 65 of the County Government Act. And fourth, fame and shame.

The commission recognises and awards public establishments that comply with Section 7 of the National Cohesion and Integration Act. On the other hand, it publishes a list of the non-compliant institutions on its website. These institutions are also submitted to the parliamentary committees on national cohesion.

There have been cases of some musicians producing songs containing hate speech but despite them being taken to court, their items are still accessible on the Internet. Is it possible for your commission to work with Internet service providers to pull down these pieces even as you pursue the court route? Dickson Murimi, Kirinyaga

The commission is only mandated to investigate if the song or any other hateful comment on social media has violated the NCI Act 2008. After obtaining credible evidence and witnesses to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt, the commission compiles a file with recommendations to the Director of Public Prosecutions for advice. The hateful comments or song can only be pulled down if the case has met the threshold after a full hearing before a court of law, suspect found guilty and convicted.

Your commission has been running Peace clubs in learning institutions, which have been very instrumental in mentoring the young people to cultivate virtues towards patriotism and humanity. With the closure of these institutions, has your commission seen it fit to reach out to the patrons of these clubs to enable them engage their members virtually? Komen Moris, Eldoret

Amani Clubs in institutions is a long-term programme started by NCIC and the Ministry of Education in 2014. The aim of Amani Clubs is to promote good relations, harmony and peaceful co-existence among students themselves and between schools and their neighbouring communities.

So far, over 1,500 clubs have been established across the country. To address the challenges posed by Covid-19, the commission and the Amani Clubs National leadership have established WhatsApp platforms at national, county and sub-county levels.

The WhatsApp platforms are the forums through which the patrons, who are teachers in charge of Amani Clubs, continue to use to promote peace and cohesion related matters.

In addition, the commission has established an interactive Amani Club web portal that has content on Amani Clubs and offers an excellent platform for patrons and teachers to engage and interact on issues of peace, cohesion and integration.

NCIC has actively been engaged in peace and reconciliation efforts in Nakuru County that birthed the Peace Accord of 2012. What do you have to say about the current on and off hostilities between local communities that have resulted in deaths and destruction of properties? Dan Murugu, Nakuru

The current ethnic conflict and animosity is unfortunate. Our engagement in 2012 was fruitful. For instance, the 2013 General Election in the county was peaceful. There was significant reduction in animosity between the communities.

The Peace Accord was fully embraced and implemented by the communities. It was a locally-owned and driven peace and reconciliation process. However, the current violent conflict in some parts of Nakuru County has elicited concern not only to the commission but also to all the stakeholders.

Therefore, in July 2020, we convened a peace dialogue meeting with various stakeholders, including the affected communities, who agreed to an immediate ceasefire and end to the conflict. We shall continue to work closely with other stakeholders to ensure peace and calmness is restored in the region.

Covid-19 pandemic has brought about untold challenges, including the growing stigma associated with the virus. How can NCIC intervene and help communities accommodate those who have recovered from the virus? Kate Musyimi, Kitengela

Stigmatisation of Covid-19 positive people has become disturbingly common. According to the Health Digest, stigmatisation and fear of quarantine are hindering Kenyas fight against the virus.

The greatness of a cohesive society, such as Kenya wishes to become, is judged by the way it treats the most vulnerable of its citizens  among whom are those stigmatised on account of being Covid-19 positive. There are at least three ways of intervening to alleviate the situation.

First is awareness-building for the general public, which should be carried out in a concerted manner under the leadership and co-ordination of the Ministry of Health. Second is to prepare communities and families for supporting the re-integration of Covid-19 recovered patients.

Community leaders, including Nyumba Kumi, religious leaders and community-based organisations, are best placed to undertake such a responsibility. Third is the provision of psychological support to the victims of social stigma. This is the soft side of the war on Covid-19. For us to win the war, all citizens must contribute.

What policy initiatives is the commission implementing that could lead to a peaceful, harmonious and integrated Kenyan society? Andrew Maranga Ratemo, Nairobi

The commission uses the 4Rs framework to advocate for policy interventions. These are redistribution, recognition, representation and reconciliation. NCIC believes that all policies should be evidence-based.

Redistribution covers all policies surrounding the sharing of public resources by county and national governments, which must be done equitably.

Recognition focuses on policies that enhance the inclusion of all ethnic, racial and religious groups in Kenya.

The commission acknowledges that a shared vision for Kenya will be established once all groups are recognised. The commission seeks the recognition of minority communities such as the Makonde as well as the inclusion of others such as the Nubi and Kuria in social economic processes.

Representation covers policies that focus on political representation of all citizen groups. It also ensures the elimination of discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, race, religion and social origin.

Reconciliation focuses on policies that seek to enhance community and national healing. This includes an early warning and rapid response framework that can churn out conflict warning before violence breaks out.

Courtesy/Nation
Before heading to a small backyard family gathering a couple of weeks ago, Alex Pollard made a very 2020 stop: the COVID-19 assessment centre.

The 23-year-old Mississauga choreographer wanted some extra peace of mind before seeing some older family members, even though he was still careful.

I went just to be safe, he said, to do my part before getting together with anyone.

This kind of proactive testing before an event, trip, or even a date, is something many are choosing this summer, without symptoms or exposure. But experts caution, while its great people are getting tested, a negative result doesnt mean you can party like its 2019.

Its something Andrew Kennedy, patient care manager of Sunnybrook hospitals assessment centre, has been seeing a lot of since Ontario opened up testing guidelines in late May.

The province has been consistently processing more than 25,000 tests daily, sometimes more than 30,000. Kennedy said they are seeing four to five times the volume they were seeing in April at Sunnybrook, where you dont need an appointment. This sometimes means theres a line, but it moves pretty quickly, he added.

William Osler Health Systems Brampton and Etobicoke assessment centres have also been busy, said spokesperson Donna Harris in an email. They conducted over 38,000 tests in July compared to just over 10,000 in April, and in mid-June moved the Peel Memorial site to South Fletchers Sportsplex in Brampton, to accommodate more people.

The official guidelines still say that anyone who has even one symptom, is worried theyve been exposed, or is at risk through their employment, can get a test, according to Health Ministry spokesperson David Jensen.

But Kennedy said theyre not turning anyone away, anyone who wants to get tested gets tested. Before the guidelines were opened up, people were coming who had symptoms or exposure, but since then were seeing more people looking for proactive, clearance to be able to do something.

That could be a family gathering, or even a wedding where the bride and groom have asked everyone to get tested before coming.

He believes people got this idea around the time the province announced visitors to long-term-care homes could come if they tested negative. At the assessment centre they counsel them that a test is just a snapshot in time and doesnt mean youre 100 per cent COVID free.

Its not a free pass to go do whatever you want.

The issue, said Colin Furness, assistant professor at the Faculty of Information and Dalla Lana School of Public Health, is that you could get a negative result, either because the virus was just not present at the back of your nose during the swab, or youre still incubating it. One recent Toronto study found the nasal swabs picked up about 89 per cent of infections.

I dont want to say to people dont get tested, you want people to get tested, but when they use it as a badge of, I must be fine I got tested, thats a problem, Furness said.

Its not the same as getting an HIV test, for example, because (with COVID-19) you can be fine one day and not the next.

It does depend on the circumstances, and there is a big difference between testing to be extra careful, and using it as an excuse to go to a huge indoor party without social distancing. But even when changing households, for example, a better strategy would be to isolate for 14 days. Even seven would be better than nothing, Furness said.

Its commendable, said Shannon Majowicz, an associate professor with the University of Waterloos School of Public Health and Health Systems, that people are thinking about how to live and work and play in the safest way possible.

But she recommends they follow public health guidelines, and not seek out extra testing without symptoms or possible exposure. A negative result is not permission to ignore masks and physical distancing.

On the one hand, its wonderful that we have such capacity for diagnostic testing, said Isaac Bogoch, Infectious Disease Specialist at the University of Toronto and University Health Network. Ontario has come a long way in boosting capacity after an initial backlog restricted testing at the beginning of the pandemic.

Thats a win, and the fact that people can just waltz in to a diagnostic testing centre and get a test done is tremendous. The fewer barriers to diagnostic testing the better.

But at an individual level, the test is only as good as peoples behaviour in the proceeding few days before the test, and a negative result might provide a false sense of security.

All of this prophylactic testing does provide the province with more data to get a sense of how much COVID is lurking in the population, added Furness.

But it would be better if it was being done more strategically, as deliberate randomized testing for high-risk groups. For example, testing waiters and bartenders to get a picture of transmission in restaurants and bars as most of Ontario moves into Phase 3.

Pollard, for one, plans to get tested proactively every couple of weeks as he opens up his City Centre Dance studio, even though hell still be wearing a mask and taking other safety precautions.

After a 45-minute wait at the Credit Valley Hospital drive-thru assessment centre, the whole process was very smooth and he got his negative results back online just 24 hours later. He wants to be as responsible as possible, given he lives with his older parents, and also downloaded the COVID app.

Regular testing should be a thing. I feel it makes sense as things are going to be opening up and were going to be back out. I just feel like you may as well, he said.

Charles Wilson, who got a test before heading to a socially distanced Sudbury wedding over the Civic Holiday long-weekend, agrees.

He chronicled his testing on social media to demystify the process and show others that its no big deal.

If youve had water squirted up your nose, youve been in more pain than getting a COVID test, he said.

Wilson had the test to put the bride and groom and their mostly local guests at ease, although he still wore a mask and the whole event was socially distanced. The 35-year-old also plans to get regular tests every couple of weeks as he heads back to work at Durham College. But he understands what it doesnt say.

What that test tells me is, as of 9:03 a.m., the SARS-CoV-2 virus is not in my respiratory system. It doesnt mean its not going to be there at 9:04 a.m., he said.

Its not an insurance policy. Its not a parachute. Its not a seatbelt.
(Newser)  Kamala Harris for vice president? No thanks, says former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown in a new op-ed. Brown is a fan of Harris, and he acknowledges that if Joe Biden wins the election, she'd have a place in history as the first-ever female VP. However, "the glory would be short-lived," he writes in the San Francisco Chronicle. The vice presidency is often "a dead end" to a person's political career, and while the veep is in office, the situation is not much betterhe or she "has no real power and little chance to accomplish anything independent of the president."

story continues below

So what to do? Should Biden ask Harris to be his running mate, she should "politely decline" and instead ask to be considered for the position of attorney general, Brown says. "From atop the Justice Department, the boss can make a real mark on everything from police reform to racial justice to prosecuting corporate misdeeds," he writes. "And the attorney general gets to name every US attorney in the country. Thats power." Plus, as a bonus, Harris as AG gives her "enough distance from the White House to still be a viable candidate for the top slot in 2024 or 2028." Click for his full column. (Read more Kamala Harris stories.)
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A team led by scientists from the University of Manchester has discovered how our genome controls the development of many of the organs critical to human life.

The study, published in Nature Communications, casts crucial light on the little understood stretches of DNA that sit between genes.

The work will help scientists and clinicians explain why some babies and children are born with conditions like "hole in the heart."

The research was funded by the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council in the UK and involved collaborators in Cambridge and Seville in Spain.

While our 30,000 or so genes hold the code to create every protein in every one of our cells, amazingly this accounts for only about 2% of the DNA, all of which is made up of chemical units called bases. Historically, we used to dismiss the rest of the DNA as "junk."

Since then scientists have realize this vast genetic landscape of so-called non-coding DNA98% of our genomeactually holds the secrets for controlling how each gene is turned on or off in perfect order.

And that explains how one genome can create each of our different tissues. The problem was, until now, scientists knew little about how this happened at the key stage when human organs are first put together.

Increasingly, where patients are born with conditions affecting their heart, kidneys, brain and limbs but haven't got an obvious fault in one of their genes, they are having their whole genome read quickly and efficiently by "Next Generation Sequencing" (NGS).

However, scouring the 3 billion of so bases for the single problem is massively challenginglike searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Adapting the same NGS technology, the team has been able to home in on only those parts of the non-coding genome that were functional and discovered it to be about 3% of the total.

By narrowing down the critical areas so significantly and accurately, the work will hopefully help doctors in how they make new diagnoses for patients.

The work also helps us to understand the fundamentals of organogenesis, the key phase during weeks five to eight of pregnancy when the body's tissues are first assembled from rudimentary progenitor cells.

At this point, ensuring only the right genes are switched on in each different location is vital. We now know the precise patterns of this genetic regulation for each of the organs.

The researchers double-checked their findings in developing zebrafish and laboratory stem cells to show the critical non-coding segments of human DNA could light up green fluorescent protein appropriately, even in fish.

Professor Neil Hanley from the University of Manchester and a doctor at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust led the project.

He said: "Fingers crossed this new atlas on the deepest secrets of our genome will help scientists and doctors pinpoint previously unsolved genetic changes, helping to explain to patients and parents where things might have gone wrong. And in time, we hope it will begin the process for working out how we might be able to avoid this happening in the future."

He added: "What was striking was not just how particular sets of critical genes were turned on at the right time in the right place but how critical it was for the wrong genes to be shut off. In effect, you could tell as much about the heart by understanding why it wasn't a kidney or a lung. We hope this new level of understanding will really help stem cell researchers benchmark the authenticity of the cells they are growing in the laboratory."

Explore further Comprehensive catalogue of the molecular elements that regulate genes

More information: Dave T. Gerrard et al. Dynamic changes in the epigenomic landscape regulate human organogenesis and link to developmental disorders, Nature Communications (2020). Journal information: Nature Communications Dave T. Gerrard et al. Dynamic changes in the epigenomic landscape regulate human organogenesis and link to developmental disorders,(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17305-2
When it comes to Donald Trump, the one thing you can absolutely count on is that you absolutely cannot count on him.

Just one month ago, the American president officially celebrated the new United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, touting it as the largest, fairest and most advanced trade deal every reached by any country, and it will bring enormous prosperity.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wisely opted to forego those festivities in Washington, D.C. Its possible he was aware even then that the ever-fickle Trump was already plotting to launch a new trade war with his northern neighbour.

And thats what Trump did last Thursday in announcing new tariffs on Canadian aluminum, in violation of the spirit, if not letter, of the new trade deal he so lavishly and recently praised.

While the move will hurt millions of people on both sides of the border, Trump hopes it will help him, his Republican party and their increasingly precarious re-election hopes. How selfish can he get?

Trumps justification for slapping a 10-per-cent tariff on most Canadian aluminum as of Aug. 16 is, like so many of his other arguments, a rotten fish wrapped in a tissue of lies.

First, he alleges theres a surge in Canadian aluminum entering the U.S. When the two countries resolved a previous trade dispute in 2019, both sides agreed the U.S. could reimpose tariffs on Canadian steel or aluminum if there was a sudden surge in either product.

The Grand-Canyon-wide hole in Trumps defence of his latest tariffs is that there is no surge in Canadian aluminum exports to the U.S. Canadian metals producers as well as most of the American industry agree on that. In fact, overall imports from Canada are on par with their levels in 2018, when Trump imposed the first round of his politically-motivated tariffs.

Second, Trump says the new aluminum tariffs are necessary for the national security of the U.S. What clap-trap. Shipments of Canadas raw aluminum are hardly packed with electronic devices that hack into Pentagon secrets.

On the contrary, those shipments promote Americas economic security by providing a product that U.S. manufacturers need and cannot be solely supplied by the domestic aluminum industry. Ford Motor Co., relies on Canadian aluminum. So, too, does the U.S. military.

Far from benefitting Americans, Trumps new tariffs will ensure that U.S. products that use Canadian aluminum cost more to make and buy. Thats bad for American consumers as well as manufacturers that use Canadian aluminum. Meanwhile, this trade dispute is escalating. A day after Trump announced his tariffs, the Canadian government unveiled retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products, a reasonable defensive response but one that could sting Canadian consumers.

More costly goods, new trade barriers, rising protectionism  these are lead weights on the economies of both Canada and the U.S. as they struggle to escape from the pandemic-induced recession.

But sadly, there is method to Trumps madness. With just three months before the next presidential election, hes badly trailing in public opinion polls. He needs an enemy around whom he can rally his dwindling band of supporters. Canada, which he accuses of taking advantage of us, as usual, is a convenient scapegoat.

Trumps ploy might even work in places like Kentucky, where Century Aluminum Co., which lobbied for the tariffs, is located and where Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is in a tight race for re-election.

Whatever good the Canadian governments pushback accomplishes, real salvation can only come on American Election Day. The best way to get rid of these mutually-destructive trade wars is for American voters to get rid of Trump. Oh, may that happen.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 21:14:02|Editor: huaxia

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COPENHAGEN, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- An employee at Arla Foods Dairy Center in Hobro, north of Denmark, has tested positive for COVID-19, while 15 others were sent home for quarantine, the company said in a press release on Monday.

The Denmark-based international cooperative dairy group made the decision to send the employee home, as well as 15 fellow workers who may have been in contact with the infected, according to the press release.

In addition, Arla announced their intention to test the other 400 employees at the dairy center.

"As the infection picture looks in Denmark right now, we see no reason to take any chances...That's why we have asked the health authorities for help to get it done as quickly as possible so that we can slow down any chain of infection before it starts," said Aase Andersson, the company's senior press officer, in the release.

According to Arla, production at the dairy center will continue unchanged.

Meantime, the requirement to wear a face-mask on all public transport within the city limits of Aarhus, Denmark's second-largest city, will apply from Aug. 11 to Sept. 1, according to an executive order issued from the Ministry of Health and the Elderly on Monday.

"In order to prevent and curb the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in connection with a specific outbreak of infection in Aarhus Municipality, travelers who begin or end a journey in Aarhus Municipality must have their mouths and noses covered by using face masks for public transport," stated the executive order.

Since last Friday, confirmed COVID-19 cases in Denmark has risen to 373 with one death, bringing the total infections to 14,815. To date, death toll in the country reached 620, according to the daily update from Statens Serum Institut on Monday. Enditem
Two persons, said to be drug addicts, were arrested for snatching a gold chain from a 72-year-old woman in Sector 15 on July 27, police said on Monday.

The accused have been identified as Gurdarshan Singh alias Jashan, 23, of Bheora village in Ropar and Jagmeet, 25, of Rasidpur village in Chamkaur Sahib.

With their arrest, police claimed to have solved four cases of snatching and theft.

Gurdarshan is wanted in a snatching case registered in Phillaur, Punjab, while Jagmeet is wanted in seven cases including theft, snatching, robbery in Punjab and Nalagarh.

Both the accused are drug addicts, said Rajiv Kumar, station house officer at Sector 11 police station.

CCTV footage provided initial clue

On July 27, two miscreants snatched a gold chain from a 72-year-old woman in Sector 15. The victim, Shakuntla Sharma, was returning home from the market when an unknown pedestrian snatched her chain. The police were informed, who visited the spot. A case under Sections 379A and 356 of the Indian Penal Code was registered at the Sector 11 police station.

The CCTV footage provided the initial clue of the accused. Police arrested Gurdarshan who was roaming in Sector 15 market to attempt another snatching. It was on his disclosure, the police arrested his accomplice Jagmeet and recovered a motorcycle (bearing Punjab registration number) from their possession. Their accomplice is still at large.

Accused involved in post office theft

During the investigation, it came to light that the accused had stolen 15,000 from Sector 11 post office. The accused broke into the post office at Sector 11 on the intervening night of May 20/21and stole 15,000 in cash.

On April 22, 10,000 was stolen from a house in Sector 15 when its owner Meena Devi was sleeping. On November 25, 2019, the accused had snatched wallet containing 1,200 from a student in Sector 15 market.
By Patricia Rossetti

Pennsylvanias 14 public cyber charter schools have been in the news lately, as thousands of families seek to enroll their children for the new school year.

Parents are choosing public cyber charter schools because we know how to educate students online. We have been teaching children in virtual classrooms for 20 years now. We know what works. We know what doesnt work.

As innovators in public education, our cyber charter leaders want to help all schools with their virtual education programs. Specifically, we want to make sure every brick-and-mortar school  district, private or charter  can educate students online if schools are closed again this fall.

In response to our efforts to help, some of our opponents in traditional schools and the General Assembly have sought to cut state funding for our students and stop families from enrolling in our schools. They fear competition. They want to force students who live in their districts to attend the schools they determine, not the ones their parents choose.

There is a better way. School district officials should let us help them improve their online programs so they can retain students who wish to learn virtually. This cooperation has worked for dozens of schools that have sought our assistance, guidance and expertise since the pandemic shut down schools. Our cyber leaders offered to work with any school at no cost to them.

At PA Distance Learning, we have spent the last several months working with many brick-and-mortar schools on improving their online education programs. For example, we helped a Christian school in Luzerne County with online technical support and parental training programs. We helped a brick-and-mortar charter school in Harrisburg in making sure its students could submit their work efficiently online.

We also helped a Pittsburgh-based charter school with its online assessments for reading and math, so it could establish the benchmark grade levels of its new students entering the school. We worked with a charter school in Pottsville to improve its online synchronous and asynchronous academic program. Recently, we worked with the Diocese of Pittsburgh to allow it to create a long-term plan for its blended learning and online programs.

PA Distance Learning isn't the only public cyber charter school helping brick-and-mortar schools. Many of my colleagues from other cyber schools have held seminars, webinars and meetings with educators from traditional schools.

In addition, the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools held its "Summer Webinar Series," which was attended by 1,000 educators, including many from school districts and intermediate units. The topics included student engagement in an online learning environment and strategies to flatten the "digital divide" for students without access to high-speed internet or appropriate devices for learning.

We in the charter school community believe all of us in education need to work together to ensure every student has an opportunity to learn during the pandemic. Cyber charter leaders see it as our duty as educators to help students learn, no matter what school they attend.

It is my hope that school district officials and their legislative supporters now have an understanding of what it takes to teach students online. I also hope they will stop seeking to hurt charter families with arbitrary funding cuts and enrollment caps.

School district officials should collaborate with us, not attack us, to ensure they can teach students beyond the classroom. We in the charter school community are ready to lend a hand.

Patricia Rossetti is the CEO of PA Distance Learning Charter School, a statewide public cyber charter school based in Sewickley, Pa.
Workers at a Kmart warehouse distribution centre in the western Melbourne suburb of Truganina walked off the job on Friday after management failed to reveal details about a COVID-19 outbreak at the site.

Management refused to provide information about positive test results, leaving workers in the dark about the potential danger they faced.

The giant warehouse, where hundreds of people work, supplies Kmart stores across the southern states of Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia and is operated by logistics company Toll.

The COVID-19 positive workers were employed by labour hire company, Tusk Group. According to the Age newspaper, three workers were advised to self-isolate as they were suspected of being in close proximity to someone who last worked on July 31 and was found to be positive for COVID-19 last Wednesday.

After closure for cleaning on Thursday afternoon, the warehouse restarted operations on Friday. Workers then staged a walkout and their health and safety representatives issued a stop work notice.

The Truganina distribution centre [Credit: Google Maps]

The United Workers Union (UWU) reported that the COVID-19 positive worker was the second case at the warehouse. UWU Logistics Director Matt Toner said: Contact tracing at the site has been disturbingly inadequate. Only three other workers have been told by Toll to self-isolate. They came to this decision after reviewing CCTV footage and asking the employee who he remembers talking to.

Six names appeared on a list designated COVID-19 positive, but management refused to provide details of when and where these workers had been on site.

According to the UWU: Fifty workers complied with the stop workand were threatened by Toll as they did so. Toll announced over the loudspeaker that workers complying with the stop work would be disciplined  management stood in the exits and said the workers would be disciplined and not paid if they left.

This corporate intimidation comes after similar threats against other groups of workers taking action to defend themselves against the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, laundry workers at Spotless in Dandenong South went on strike in protest against being made to wash soiled hospital linen without adequate protections. The company rushed to the Fair Work industrial relations court in an attempt to force them back to the plant.

Warehouses, like meatworks and nursing homes, have become dangerous places for workers in this pandemic. Breakneck picking quotas are imposed on warehouse workers, making safe work practices often impossible. Toll management claimed they were staggering shift changes, temperature testing employees and supplying masks and hand sanitiser, but the eruption of numerous infections in the industry demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the limited measures put in place.

A cluster of 45 coronavirus cases has occurred at the Linfox distribution centre in Truganina, just 4 kilometres from the Kmart warehouse. At the similarly nearby Woolworths Liquor distribution centre in Laverton North, 240 workers refused to work last Monday morning after hearing that a co-worker had tested positive to COVID-19 three days earlier.

There was another COVID-19 cluster of 60 workers at the Woolworths Mulgrave distribution centre, and up to 60 employees at other Woolworths' facilities.

Resistance to the dangerous conditions is expanding. This morning, more than 60 workers at a Mitre-10 facility in the Melbourne suburb of Derrimut began strike action after a worker tested positive on Monday. According to the union, Mitre-10 has been compelled to close two warehouses at the site and send all workers home with pay for testing.

Melbourne is now subject to a Stage 4 lockdown and the rest of Victoria has Stage 3 restrictions imposed. Daily numbers of new cases in Victoria are fluctuating around three to four hundred. Sustained community transmission with no known source forced the government to act to impose restrictions including a nightly curfew enforced by police and army personnel. Today a record 19 deaths from the virus were announced in Victoria, following yesterday's previous high of 17.

Despite the alarming situation, unnecessary warehouse operations have been permitted to continue. The only restriction imposed by the state Labor government is that staff numbers are meant to be reduced by one-third of their usual levels.

Many of the largest warehouses in Melbourneemploying thousands of workers, many of them casualsare located in the municipality of Wyndham. It has the highest number of COVID-19 cases of any local government area in Australia, a total of 1,600 cases, of which 910 are currently active.

The high proportion of casuals employed through labour hire companies like the Tusk Group at the Kmart warehouse means that workers can spend a day or two at one site then the next day at another warehouse, thereby increasing the risk of spreading the virus.

Kmart stores are closed in Melbourne, reflecting their non-essential character, but the government still allows the corporation to operate its warehouse to supply online sales and interstate and regional stores that are not closed. These stores could be supplied from other locations where there are no infections, but the overriding concern of the company and the government is not workers health but continued profit making.

Inside the Kmart warehouse (Credit: Google Maps)

Kmart is owned by Australias largest conglomerate, Wesfarmers, which runs retail, chemicals and coal mining operations and employs 105,000 people. It had a 2019 net profit, after tax, of $1.9 billion. As well as its highly profitable 234 Kmart stores across Australia and New Zealand, Wesfarmers owns Bunnings, Officeworks and Target, among other businesses.

The trade unions, including the UWU, are complicit in the government-corporate drive to allow certain non-essential industries, including warehouses, to continue operations amid the pandemic. No united action of all warehouse workers has been organised to address unsafe conditions and halt punitive threats by corporate management.

Warehouse and other workers need to organise rank and file safety committees, independently of the trade union bureaucracy, and develop the widest discussion within the working class on the necessary measures to save workers lives, including strike action. A safe workplace ought to be a basic social right, but amid the pandemic this can only be recognised through an industrial and political struggle against the corporations and their political servants.
President Trump on Monday took aim at Senator Ben Sasse, accusing him of foolishness over the Republican senators criticism of Trumps executive actions over the weekend intended to provide economic relief for Americans in the absence of a legislative solution from Congress.

RINO Ben Sasse, who needed my support and endorsement in order to get the Republican nomination for Senate from the GREAT State of Nebraska, has, now that hes got it (Thank you President T), gone rogue, again. This foolishness plays right into the hands of the Radical Left Dems! Trump wrote in a Monday morning tweet, branding Sasse as a Republican in Name Only or RINO.

Sasse on Saturday became the first Republican to criticize the presidents executive actions on coronavirus relief, calling them unconstitutional slop. The executive orders, which came after negotiations between lawmakers stalled on another coronavirus stimulus bill, included extending the expanded unemployment benefits Congress approved in March, deferring payroll taxes, and rent and student loan payment assistance.

The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop, the Nebraska Republican said in a statement.

President Obama did not have the power to unilaterally rewrite immigration law with DACA, and President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law. Under the Constitution, that power belongs to the American people acting through their members of Congress, Sasse continued.

Sasses remarks on the executive action put him at odds with GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who praised the orders as a necessary action.

Struggling Americans need action now. Since Democrats have sabotaged backroom talks with absurd demands that would not help working people, I support President Trump exploring his options to get unemployment benefits and other relief to the people who need them the most, McConnell said.

More from National Review
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty

President Donald Trump continues to push states to reopen schools. But senior officials working on the federal governments response to the pandemic are increasingly worried about the rush to open schools as case numbers continue to climb.

Over the last several weeks Trump and his closest advisers have insisted that children will suffer mentally and emotionally if classrooms remain closed. Trump has pressed forward with his call to reopen schools and colleges as part of his campaign to reopen Americas economy. This things going away. It will go away like things go away, Trump said of the virus during a recent Fox & Friends interview, adding that children were virtually immune.

Despite significant outbreaks in the south and the southwestern parts of the country, Trumps coronavirus task force has supported the presidents demands. On calls with the nations governors, Vice President Mike Pence, task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield have asked governors to consider reopening schools because, they claimed, it could be done safely. But officials said little about exactly how local officials could ensure students do not contract the virus during school hours. In one call with governors, Secretary of Education Betsy Devos seemed to deflect concerns about transmission, saying risk is embedded in everything we do, from learning to ride a bike, to the risk of getting in a space capsule and getting shot off in a rocket into space.

Now, senior officials working on the governments efforts to try to contain the virus say they are increasingly worried state officials, particularly those in the southern portion of the country, are not seriously considering the health risks associated with reopening. Officials said they have in recent days raised the issue directly with White House officials, requesting the administration ramp up the messaging about the potential risks, particularly for those counties experiencing a case positivity rate of 5 percent or more. (In New York, where the governor has recently committed to reopening statewide, that rate is just 0.78 percent.) So far those officials close to the president have pushed back on the idea of spending time on warnings; some instead suggested dedicating additional air time to underscoring the presidents leadership on the governments virus response.

Story continues

Officials fears are rooted in part on the fact that the White House has not accurately addressed concerns that gathering hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of students at a time in schools may not be safe. Its increasingly clear that COVID-19 spreads most easily in enclosed spaces like schools, and a growing body of research shows that children are better carriers of the coronavirus than originally thought.

If you have Trump going out there and saying everything is fine theres a risk that thats what people are going to think going back, one senior official said. Theres a real possibility that counties wont implement all the measures outlined in the CDC guidelines and will just say, Look, were doing the best we can and thats it. Theres no one to enforce that stuff.

Officials said they are particularly worried about an uptick in cases in schools that have not yet developed concrete plans to implement proper social distancing, including grouping students in cohorts to better track potential outbreaks. Those fears were exacerbated Sunday with the news of nine positive cases emerging at a school in Georgia where days earlier pictures of crowded hallways circulated on social media.

This is exactly what I was afraid of, another senior official said, referring to the positive cases emerging in the Georgia school. This is inevitably going to happen when we send kids back to school. But the real question is whether school districts are prepared for this and whether they will take it seriously.

When asked for comment on this story Judd Deere, a White House spokesperson, said: Not only does the president want to see schools open safely but so do teachers, students, parents, and health professionals. We cannot allow our childrens mental and social development to be held hostage.

On July 23, the CDC issued guidelines for schools recommending teachers and administrators group students in cohorts over an extended period of time to limit contact, use extra school space to diminish class sizes, and require students wear masks as well as educate students about best hygiene practices. According to two officials with direct knowledge, the CDC is currently working on an additional document with recommendations for schools on how to better protect teachers and administrators from contracting the virus. One official described it as an update and said the agency has been working on the document for several weeks.

Even with additional guidelines, officials said they do not foresee the White House or the coronavirus task force raising the alarm on the risks for children and teachers before school opens for the fall semester.

So much emphasis has been put on supporting this idea of getting kids back to school that they arent going to backpedal down, one of the officials who spoke to The Daily Beast said.

Over the last month Pence and Redfield have spent a significant amount of time on calls with governors and in television interviews promoting the message that the federal government, and the CDC guidelines in particular, should not be viewed by local leaders as an impediment to reopening schools. We dont want to be the reason you dont open schools, Pence told governors on a private call in July, saying the federal government would ensure states had the resources they needed to teach children in person starting in September.

Redfield told governors in early July that it was never his recommendation schools stay closed and that he did not want the CDC to be the reason why they didnt open. He repeatedly told governors that the guidelines were not prescriptive.

Some officials, including Birx, have spoken up in recent weeks about the risks to counties experiencing an increase in positivity rates and hospitalizations. In a recent interview with CNNs Dana Bash, Birx said she agreed with the CDCs recommendations that schools should conduct virtual learning under certain circumstances. Those guidelines, though, only call for the consideration of virtual learning. Birx said that if there is high case load and active community spread  were asking people to distance learn at this moment.

Her comments marked a significant departure from the White Houses public stance on school reopenings. The following day, Trump took to Twitter, denouncing Birx, calling her pathetic.

Since then, theres been an unwillingness on the part of senior officials working with the task force and the White House to speak up publicly about the potential for outbreaks in schools and the need to divert additional resources to local communities to contain the spread.

There are already signs that some state officials are not planning on implementing the strictest of protocols come September.

In Tennessee, Gov. Bill Lee told reporters last week that the state would adhere to the CDCs guidelines to the degree that we can. Lee told Channel 5 in Nashville that his administration will require students to remember if they have come into contact for more than 10 minutes with a classmate who tests positive. Lee said only those individuals would be required to quarantine, not the entirety of the cohort, which the CDC recommends.

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Microsoft is looking to acquire parts of TikTok's international operations. Bill Gates seems to think the deal is a 'poison chalice'. Reports state that the deal is still in the preliminary stage

Microsoft announced that that company was looking to acquire parts of social media app TikToks operations in the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand with a few reports even hinting at a complete purchase of all TikTok assets by Microsoft. Most reports seem to state that Microsoft is still in the preliminary stage of the massive deal. But according to an exclusive interview on Wired, Bill Gates is not really a fan of the deal.

Bill Gates is wary of the Microsoft and TikTok deal

In the interview, he says that the deal between Microsoft and TikTok is a poison chalice. Harsh words! This looks to be Microsofts first foray into the social media business and will face still and ruthless competition from companies like Facebook and Twitter. The whole deal is a bit strange and complicated and the interview does a good job of explaining Gates position on the issue.

TikTok was almost banned in the US but disaster was averted when Microsoft made a pitch to buy the troubled social media app. The deadline for the entire process is September 15. Bill Gates does note that this is not a simple and straightforward plan.

In other TikTok news, the app was banned in India along with 58 other Chinese-based apps. In fact, Japan has been considering banning the controversial app as well. If youre feeling the loss of TikTok, you can also check out Instagram Reels, which is an alternative to TikTok.
Census count

I realize that Democrats and Republicans see illegal immigrants differently. To simplify, Democrats tend to see them as people running from oppression and murder who want better lives for their children and who contribute to our economy, working and paying taxes for which theyll never receive benefits. Their presence is illegal (civilly, not criminally), but understandable. Its the best of the few options they have.

Republicans tend to see them as President Trump describes them: as criminals and rapists who are invading our country to steal jobs from Americans and somehow qualify for benefits that the rest of us dont get. They should all be deported immediately, consequences be damned. They shouldnt have come here in the first place.

If Ive misrepresented the Republican view, I welcome a correction. I dont like thinking that my friends and neighbors are that negative about people they dont actually know.
President Donald Trump in a Monday afternoon Tweet said hes considering delivering his acceptance speech as the Republican presidential nominee at Gettysburg National Military Park.

Trump said the White House is the other possible location.

We will announce the decision soon!, Trump wrote.

The speech will be made on the final night of the Republican National Convention, which takes place Aug. 24-27.

The White House didnt immediately reply to emailed questions about what the event would look like in terms of crowd size and what federal, state or local permission might be needed.
Tech giant Atlassian has announced that all workers will be allowed to do their jobs from wherever they choose, even after the coronavirus pandemic is over.

The Australian company will not require workers to return to the office if they would prefer to keep working from home, in a bid to focus on 'outcomes, not clock hours'.

In an internal blog post to staff members on Friday, co-CEO Scott Farquhar said Atlassian is starting immediately with the new policy called TEAM Anywhere.

'Let's face it, 2020 has been a year of huge change for all of us. How we work has changed forever and we must pioneer this change,' Mr Farquhar wrote.

Co-CEO's of Atlassian Scott Farquhar (left) and Mike Cannon-Brookes (middle) along with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian arrive to a press conference in Sydney in June

Tech giant Atlassian (co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and wife pictured) has announced that all workers are allowed to do their jobs from wherever they choose, even after the coronavirus pandemic is over

'While COVID-19 has turned our worlds upside down, it's also accelerated goals Atlassian has had for some time.'

'For years, we've been working as a highly distributed global company, experimenting with fully remote teams, and iterating on practices that are essential for building diverse distributed teams.'

Mr Farquhar co-founded the company in 2002 along with Mike Cannon-Brookes after the pair met while studying at the University of New South Wales.

'It has also presented us with an amazing opportunity to keep pushing further on this flexible way of working-and stretch our imaginations to build what work could look like and how we can clear barriers for us to do the best work of our lives,' he said.

Atlassian said the removal of geographic barriers will enable it to 'reach great talent beyond' the office, and has developed its own collaboration software to allow people to work together from disparate locations.

In an internal blog post to staff members on Friday, co-CEO Scott Farquhar said Atlassian is reinventing how it works and is starting immediately with the new policy called TEAM Anywhere

The Australian company is no longer requiring workers to return to the office everyday in a bid to focus on 'outcomes, not clock hours' (stock)

'Our products help teams collaborate from anywhere, and our practices and learnings can help usher our customers into the future of work with us,' Mr Farquhar wrote.

'We need to walk the walk - one mile in front of our customers. We need to run into the obstacles before they do, and clear them by building world-class solutions.'

The new policy is targeting new employees no matter where they lived and are allowing staff to choose where and when they work.

Atlassin co-founders Scott Farquhar, Mike Cannon-Brookes, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Minister Stuart Ayres arrive for the announcement of a new Tech hub for Sydney

Despite the commitment to remote work, Atlassian was spending $1billion on buildin an office tower in Sydney's CBD.

The 180-metre-tall building with 40 storeys will be overlook Sydney's Central Station and be the tallest 'hybrid timber' tower in the world once completed.

Atlassian's new headquarters will have a capacity for 4,000 staff and was scheduled to be completed by 2025.

Tech giant Atlassian has unveiled plans to build a record-setting $1billion tower in Sydney's CBD as part of a joint venture with the NSW Government

Mr Farquhar said the company was hoping to build a 'long-term' work-space.

'Technology can turbo-charge Australia's recovery. That's why we're building this precinct. We want to create jobs, ideas and innovation,' Mr Farquhar said.

'This will be home to thousands of workers and the best new ideas. If you want to work in tech - this is the place you will want to be.'
Photograph: James D Morgan/Getty

Apple has imported clothes  probably uniforms for staff in stores  from a company facing US sanctions over forced labour at a subsidiary firm in Chinas western Xinjiang region, shipping records show.

The details come a week after Apples chief executive, Tim Cook, told the US Congress he would not tolerate forced labour or modern-day slavery in the companys supply chains.

An Apple spokesman said the company had confirmed none of its suppliers currently source cotton from Xinjiang, but declined to comment on whether they had done so in the past.

The US government in July imposed sanctions on Changji Esquel Textile, a unit of the Hong Kong garment group Esquel, along with 10 other Chinese companies for alleged human rights violations in the Xinjiang region, including forced labour.

The sanctions bar the companies from buying US technology and other goods. The US commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, said they aimed to prevent US products being used in the Chinese Communist partys despicable offensive against defenceless Muslim minority populations.

Esquel has denied allegations of abuse. We absolutely have not, do not, and will never use forced labour anywhere in our company, it said in a statement, pledging to appeal its inclusion on the list, and adding that an international audit in 2019 confirmed there was no modern-day slavery at the factory.

A month before the sanctions were announced, Esquel had sent a shipment of womens cotton and elastane knit shirts to Apple Retail stores in California, the database run by the global shipping information provider Panjiva showed. Those records were identified by the Tech Transparency Project.

Esquel supplies many major US clothing companies including Patagonia, Nike and Tommy Hilfiger. But Apples relationship with the firm has not received much public scrutiny, even though it stretches back years.

Documented in trade publications, and confirmed by shipping databases and Esquel itself, it appears to have mostly focused on uniforms worn by staff in Apple stores.

Story continues

Until recently, Esquels website listed Apple as a major customer, according to a report published in March by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) into Chinese companies using forced labour in Xinjiang to supply global brands.

In 2014 Apple and Esquel agreed to produce more sustainable uniforms using 100 metric tonnes of recycled cotton waste, the industry publication Just Style reported.

That same year Esquel shipped more than 50,000 units to Arvato Digital Services, a logistics company that works with Apple, Panjiva records show. Apple was listed on shipping records as the contact party.

In 2018, a presentation at an industry conference by Esquels chief executive, John Cheh, highlighted Apple as a major customer of the firms Vietnam arm, providing pictures of blue and red staff uniforms produced in its factories.

Those units are not on the sanctions list, but the shirts they produced likely included cotton grown in Xinjiang, the region where Chinese authorities persecution of mostly Muslim minorities has included forced labour.

Apple said in a statement: Esquel is not a direct supplier to Apple but our suppliers do use cotton from their facilities in Guangzhou and Vietnam. We have confirmed no Apple supplier sources cotton from Xinjiang and there are no plans for future sourcing of cotton from the region.

But the spokesman declined to say where those factories source their raw cotton. Guangzhou is a major Chinese city where there is no cotton farming, and Esquels public documents do not refer to any cotton farming in Vietnam.

The garment company prides itself on vertical integration, producing much of the cotton used in its garments itself; the same presentation by Cheh listed factories across Asia, and offices around the world  but only Xinjiang as a site for cotton farming, ginning and spinning.

Further notes listed five locations where the firm operated inside Xinjiang. One was Changji, the location of the sanctioned subsidiary.

Related: US imposes sanctions on Chinese 'state-within-a-state' linked to Xinjiang abuses

Another was Kashgar, where for more than two decades Esquel had a joint venture with the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a paramilitary government organisation that was also sanctioned by the US government in July, over its alleged role in the perpetration of abuses.

Esquel sold its stake in the Xinjiang White Field Cotton Farming company in April, three months before XPCC was sanctioned. It has not said how it will replace the particular type of high-quality cotton (extra-long staple cotton) that the joint venture provided. The XPCC produces about one-third of Chinas cotton.

James Millward, professor of history at Georgetown University in Washington DC and the author of Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang, said the entire regions economy had been contaminated by Chinese communist party policies, with at least 1 million people held in internment camps, many pushed into forced labour.

Theyve tainted supply chains, have tainted the very idea of Xinjiang, he said. It is such a deeply entrenched, and broadly enmeshed system of oppression they have created, that has involved hundreds of companies in China and outside of China.

Even if the companies own factories can be certified free of forced labour, they are often working with  or with authorisation from  the local governments managing the abuse.

Theyre doing business with the province, theyre doing business with local administrations, theyre doing business with the XPCC, all of which are running concentration camps and all of which are involved in moving people in concentration camps into one kind of coerced or involuntary labor or another, he said.

Apple came under the spotlight over alleged use of forced labour by a supplier when the original sanctions list came out because of its relationship with the tech firm Nanchang O-Film Tech, which makes cameras for some iPhones. Cook visited a company factory in southern China in 2017, according to the ASPI report.

Testifying to Congress last week, Cook described forced labour as abhorrent. We wouldnt tolerate it [slave labour]. We would terminate a supplier relationship if it was found, he said, adding that he would be keen to work on legislation to ban forced labour.

Millward said foreign companies would need to ramp up due diligence to keep forced labour out of their supply chains, particularly in the garment industry.

The way corporates have been thinking about it generally is, Well, I dont have any factories in Xinjiang, so I cannot be involved, but that is no longer enough.

You have to see if any of the companies youre dealing with are themselves dealing with Xinjiang. And maybe take it, you know, two or three steps removed because thats how particularly the textile industry is. You go from from fibre to filament to fabric to clothing, and its very hard to trace all of that all along the way.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - IAC/InterActiveCorp. (IAC) announced its accumulation of a 12% interest in MGM Resorts International (MGM) for an aggregate of approximately $1 billion. IAC said it has a very long-term view of this investment and will be open to all the opportunities it presents. 'We will be a minority investor in MGM, but given the size of our financial commitment, we'd welcome the opportunity to contribute to MGM's success in any number of areas,' said Joey Levin, CEO of IAC. IAC operates Vimeo, Dotdash and Care.com. It has majority ownership of ANGI Homeservices, which includes HomeAdvisor, Angie's List and Handy. The company is headquartered in New York City. Shares of MGM Resorts were up 15% in pre-market trade on Monday. 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.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson's Review of China's Diplomatic Outcomes This Year and Preview of the Next Priorities

2020/08/10

1

COVID-19, which broke out at the beginning of this year and has since then spread across the whole world, has become the most serious public health crisis since the end of WWII. It has delivered a ruthless blow to the international community and posed unprecedented challenges to mankind. As a responsible major country, China, in the spirit of putting people and life first, has rallied efforts nationwide and achieved major strategic results in epidemic prevention and control at home. While fully committed to domestic anti-epidemic efforts and resumption of economic activities, China's diplomacy adheres to the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind and upholds international humanitarian principles. China has been fighting shoulder-by-shoulder with other countries in this common battle against COVID-19. President Xi Jinping has conducted heads-of-state diplomacy to relay the strongest message that the international community is working together to overcome the current difficulties. China has donated 50 million US dollars to the WHO and provided emergency medical supplies to more than 150 countries and international organizations. We actively plan and develop relations with major powers. We have firmly and rationally dealt with wanton US oppression. Under the strategic guidance of Chinese and Russian heads of state, bilateral relations have achieved new progress. China-Europe relations have maintained the overall theme of cooperation. We have pursued all-round and all-sector neighborhood diplomacy and sought continuous improvement in relations with neighboring countries. Our solidarity and cooperation with developing countries including in Africa, the Arab world, Latin America and elsewhere have been cemented. We advocate for the building of a community of health for all mankind and the establishment of a more just and reasonable international governance system. We firmly defend national sovereignty, security and interests and effectively forestalled risks and challenges in the external environment. We practice the principle of diplomacy for the people and innovated special consular protection operations overseas to convey the motherland's love and care. China's anti-epidemic diplomacy, with one touching episode after another, opened a new chapter of major power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics and made new contribution to world peace and development.

2

Since the new China was founded more than 70 years ago, no matter how the international situation changes, China has always followed an independent foreign policy of peace. This remains unchanged and will not change. China has always held high the banner of peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit, adhered to the purpose of its foreign policy of safeguarding world peace and promoting common development, unswervingly developed friendly cooperation with other countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and promoted the building of a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation.

China is committed to peaceful development. We respect the right of people in all countries to independently choose their own development path. We have no intention to engage in systemic competition or ideological confrontation with any country. Rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is an invincible trend. A prosperous China is what people aspire for. But no matter how far China goes, we will never seek hegemony or expansionism. It is a historical rule that a country seeking hegemony will eventually be on the wane. China has never thought of or opted for pursuing hegemony when growing stronger. China upholds international fairness and justice, and opposes the imposition of will on others and interference in others' internal affairs. We do not export "the Chinese model" or demand other countries replicate China's practice. We never base our development on the sacrifice of others' interests, nor do we ever give up our own legitimate rights and interests. It is China's sincere hope that all countries can join hands in pursuing peaceful development.

China is committed to an opening-up strategy, and our friendly cooperation with other countries is deepened while we open up wider to the world. Opening up is a fundamental state policy. China sticks to opening-up, promotes BRI cooperation, and is ready to share our development opportunities with the whole world. China explicitly rejects protectionism, firmly upholds a multilateral trade system and an open world economy, consistently increases our assistance to other developing countries, especially the least developed countries. Our determination to achieve win-win cooperation and common development with all countries remains unchanged and unshakable whatever incidents we encounter.

China is committed to developing partnerships and expanding the convergence of interests with other countries. China calls for a partnership that is equal-footed, peaceful and inclusive. It follows a new path of state-to-state relations featuring dialogue instead of confrontation and partnership instead of alliance. We believe that partnership can be formed between like-minded countries, as well as between countries seeking common ground while shelving differences. China has actively promoted coordination and cooperation among major countries, worked hard to build a framework of major-country relations featuring overall stability and balanced development, deepened relations with its neighbors in accordance with the principle of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness and the neighborhood foreign policy of building friendship and partnership with its neighbors, and strengthened solidarity and cooperation with other developing countries in the spirit of upholding justice while pursuing shared interests and the principle of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith. China has established diplomatic relations with 180 countries and partnerships of various forms with over 110 countries and international organizations. We are ready to conduct friendly cooperation and make friends with other countries and jointly make new and greater contributions to mankind.

China is committed to multilateralism and global governance featuring extensive consultation, joint contributions and shared benefits. In the face of ever-emerging global challenges, we believe that solidarity and cooperation are the most powerful weapon of the international community. China upholds the equality of all countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, advocates democracy in international relations, maintains that international affairs should be resolved through consultation among all countries, and supports greater representation and voice of developing countries in international affairs. China firmly opposes unilateralism, hegemony and power politics, and firmly supports the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order guided by international law. China has actively participated in the reform and development of the global governance system and played its role as a responsible major country in the world.

3

The most important thing we could learn from COVID-19 is that the life, health and development interests of people in different countries are closely connected; humanity is in fact a community with a shared future. China will remain committed to world peace, global development and international order and work together with other countries for a community with a shared future.

China stands ready to strengthen international cooperation on prevention and control until the pandemic is defeated all across the world. We will actively explore establishing joint prevention and control mechanisms and cooperation in R&D of drugs and vaccines. We will provide assistance to countries in need to help block cross-border transmission as soon as possible. We will also continue supporting WHO's work to improve global public health governance and create a community of health for all. China stands together with the vast majority of countries in rejecting ideological bias and synergizing anti-epidemic efforts to the maximum.

China firmly rejects the US hegemonic bullying and power politics and remains prepared to work with the US in the spirit of no conflict or confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation and build a relationship based on coordination, cooperation and stability. At the same time, China will defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, its legitimate development interests, and its national dignity and standing in the world as a major power which the Chinese people have worked so hard to earn. Although some radical forces in the US have been creating incidents and trying to push our two countries to the brink of a "new Cold War", China's policy towards the US has maintained consistency and stability. We believe the two sides need to hold candid and effective dialogues and take concrete measures to manage differences and focus on promoting practical cooperation in various fields. This is in line with the two peoples' shared interests and the aspiration of the international community.

China will actively develop relations with major powers. Following the strategic guidance of the Chinese and Russian heads of state, we will deepen anti-epidemic and practical cooperation, enhance strategic coordination on major international and regional affairs, and bring our comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era to a greater height. We always view relations with the EU from a strategic and long-term perspective and stand ready to work with it to strengthen dialogue and cooperation, advance major political agenda and jointly support multilateralism and address global challenges to ensure the steady and sustained development of China-EU relations. We will actively plan for and move forward exchange and cooperation with Japan in the next stage and broadly in the post-pandemic era to resume and expand mutually-beneficial cooperation and inject new impetus into this relationship. We stand ready to work with India to safeguard peace and stability along the border and maintain the steady development of bilateral ties.

China will continue to deepen strategic mutual trust and interests integration with neighboring and developing countries. We will uphold a neighborhood diplomacy featuring amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness and advance the building of a community with a shared future with neighboring countries. We will work towards signing the RCEP within the year and accelerate negotiations on the China-Japan-ROK FTA to promote regional economic integration. Guided by the concept of upholding justice while pursuing shared interests and the principle of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith, we will further enhance solidarity and cooperation with developing countries. We will continue to do our utmost to support Africa and the developing world in fighting the pandemic and resuming socioeconomic development. We will stand firmly for international fairness and justice, uphold multilateralism and safeguard developing countries' legitimate rights and interests.

China will take a more active part in reforming and improving global governance. We will stand with the international community to defend WWII outcomes and reject attempts to turn back the wheel of history. We support giving full play to the core role of the UN and abiding by international law and basic norms of international relations. China will work with cooperative partners to follow the principle of consultation and cooperation for shared benefits, and support open, green and clean development to make the Belt and Road a model of cooperation, health and development for all involved. We will work with other countries to expand channels of exchange, enhance macro policy coordination, and jointly deal with global recession to build a post-pandemic world featuring peace, stability, openness, diversity and win-win cooperation, and advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
Orchard Road in June 2020. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)

SINGAPORE  The Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed 188 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of Monday (10 August) noon, taking the countrys total case count to 55,292.

Of the cases, there is one community case, 12 imported cases and 175 foreign workers residing in dormitories.

The community (case 55350) is a 60-year-old Singaporean man who had been identified as a contact of a previously confirmed case, and had been placed on quarantine earlier. He was tested during quarantine to determine his status.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained stable at an average of two cases per day in the past two weeks. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also remained stable at an average of one case per day in the past two weeks.

Amongst the 12 imported cases, one is a Singaporean and three are Singapore permanent residents (cases 55205, 55284, 55286 and 55336) who returned to Singapore on 29 July from India, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Another five (cases 55283, 55287, 55353, 55354 and 55355) are work pass/work permit holders who are currently employed in Singapore. They arrived in Singapore from the Philippines on 29 July.

The remaining three (cases 55226, 55285 and 55328) are dependants pass holders who arrived from India on 27 July and 28 July.

All of them had been placed on 14-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore, and were serving their SHN at dedicated facilities.

Over 49,600 discharged; none in ICU

With 694 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Monday, 49,609 cases  some 89 per cent of the tally  have fully recovered from the infection.

Most of the 112 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while none is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

A total of 5,544 patients with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive are isolated and cared for at community facilities.

Apart from 27 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 15 others who tested positive for the virus were determined to have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another four, whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.

Story continues

Only cases where the attending doctor or pathologist attributes the primary or underlying cause of death as due to COVID-19 infection will be added to the COVID-19 death count, said the MOH in previous press releases, adding that the method of assessment is consistent with international practices for classifying deaths.

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COMMENT: A strange, subdued and necessary NDP in a time of COVID-19

On The Mic: Environmental lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic
As if pregnancy isnt hard enough, now expecting mothers also have to deal with COVID-19. Its not that they are necessarily at higher risk than others  data is largely unavailable still to determine the impact of the virus on pregnancies. But, the lack of data suggests pregnant women are taking extra precautions to avoid risk  there have been fewer than 16,000 confirmed cases among pregnant women in the U.S. (less than a third of a percent of the total confirmed cases).

Still, there are still situations where women have to go out into the wild world of COVID-19, like seeing their OB-GYN for routine pregnancy check-ups. With the advances the pandemic has driven in telehealth and the use of remote technologies, its hard to imagine at least some of these in-person visits cant be handled remotely. Indeed, many doctors are leveraging virtual visits to discuss lab results and other routine follow-ups with their patients.

But soon-to-be moms still need office visits. Ultrasounds are just one example. So, how do they manage to ensure they stay safe? Soon, it may mean staying at home with a new device from an Israeli startup. PulseNmore has developed a remote handheld ultrasound device that allows women to perform scans at home. The small device docks to smartphones and uses advanced navigation and AI to help women easily perform ultrasounds. It's just the latest innovation in telehealth, which has been driven to the forefront of healthcare recently with widespread success.

With the new technology that even further extends the value of connected health, women will be able to perform their own ultrasounds at any time. OB-GYNs can view the scans and review them with patients either in real time through telehealth platforms, or they can be stored for doctors to review at a later time.

At home tele-ultrasound scanning is a major leap forward in digital medicine and prenatal health," says Dr. Elazar Sonnenschein, Founder and CEO, PulseNmore. "We have successfully miniaturized the traditional ultrasound system to create a solution that is both affordable and accessible for expectant families.

The ability to perform ultrasounds remotely gives future mothers and their families another layer of security in keeping their families safe during uncertain times. it goes further than that, though. Once this pandemic is finally over, the tool will make it much easier for women to perform the scans and communicate with their OB-GYNs conveniently and without having to dedicate time during work days for office visits.

Doctors will find themselves for more office time for those patients who have needs that absolutely have to be addressed in-person, and the remote scanning capability could make enable them to identify complications earlier, when they can be managed more easily.

Clalit Health Services is Israel's largest HMO and one of the largest public HMOs in the world, with 4.6 million insured members. It is the first healthcare provider to purchase the device, having signed a multi-year agreement to provide tens of thousands of its pregnant members with PulseNmores product. It believes the device will significantly reduce the number of ER visits by providing vital pregnancy information to healthcare providers to allow them to confirm a babys health.

PulseN.ores device is currently undergoing FDA review for use in the United States.

Edited by Erik Linask
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Work continues on various fronts for social justice reforms within the city, including the police departments use-of-force policy set to undergo further review this week.

Police Chief Annette Mecklenburg has already announced an outright ban on the use of choke holds, like the one applied to the neck of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. Floyds death sparked an unprecedented wave of national protests.

After more police violence was exhibited at a protest in downtown Cleveland on May 30, two peaceful Cleveland Heights marches and demonstrations were successfully staged in June, drawing more than 500 participants to each -- including city officials who wanted to establish a dialogue from the outset.

"All policies are under review," Mecklenburg said Friday (Aug. 7). "It is going to take some time to get through all of them" with outside consultants, although some of the drafts have already been posted on the city's website.

Mecklenburg has pointed out that the Cleveland Heights Police Academy does not teach choke or strangle holds, which she plans to outlaw explicitly in departmental policy.

"Fellow officers have a duty to intervene when they see excessive force (taking place)," Mecklenburg said at a July 11 town hall forum. "While that's not yet spelled out in our 'use-of-force' policy, it will be. Officers still have a duty to protect a person's civil rights."

Other proposed changes include additional emphasis and training on bias-free policing, de-escalation tactics and use of body-worn cameras, as well as new policies on community engagement, officer discipline, domestic violence, hiring practices and sexual assault.

Citizens' task force

While they are on August recess, Cleveland Heights City Council members Davida Russell and Mike Ungar have been laying the groundwork for a citizens task force that will be formed as a result of the actionable July 6 resolution condemning police violence and structural, institutional and systemic racism.

"I don't want it to be just about police reform," Russell said on Sunday (Aug. 9). "I want this task force to address systemic racism in housing, business and all aspects of the community," as the council resolution states.

As the remaining members of the Public Safety and Health Committee after the March resignation of the chair, Councilwoman Melissa Yasinow in March, Russell and Ungar have not yet decided how many task force members there will be and how the process will work.

But we want it to be transparent, with members from all walks of life, and not a heavy-duty application process, Russell said, adding that she wants at least 25 people on board.

This would allow for the group to break off into subcommittees dealing with police reform and addressing various forms of racism in the community, so we can try to bridge that gap, wherever it may be, she said.

From there, "we will be putting together an initial platform to bring to council for approval," Russell said.

According to the resolution, some items the task force may consider are the establishment of a community police oversight body; requiring an annual or more often accountability analysis regarding use of force by our officers; and conducting more effective training in community policing, among others.

Youth involvement

Russell also would like to see younger community members appointed to the task force, including representatives from the Heights Youth Council, which organized the June 3 Protest for Peace, along with the Citizens for a Safer Heights.

The protest helped to open the dialogue with the city, as Mecklenburg, Russell and City Manager Tanisha Briley, among others, joined in the march around Severance Circle to City Hall.

Russell said she asked organizers Avery Pope, Tyler Thompson, Yidiayah Box and Mikaiah Truitt what they wanted, and they said a meeting with city officials.

I said, When do you want it? And we set it up from there, Russell recalled, telling them they also needed to talk to their peers.

In addition to getting a meeting with Mecklenburg the following week, Russell set up two town hall meetings at the Front Row Metroplex (formerly the Regal Cinemas) on June 27 and July 11 as part of her ongoing You Talk, I Listen community forum series instituted when she took office in January.

There was also a second march held June 14 by the Safer Heights coalition -- Russell could not take part due to a prior speaking engagement -- followed by an online forum organized through the local nonprofit and community development corporation Future Heights.

Briley and Mecklenburg hosted a virtual Meet Your Police Forum on June 25, with more than 100 residents tuned in to the online 90-minute webinar. A 28-page question and response document has since been posted on the citys website from that forum.

Box, a student at Hiram College, noted that while they have met with considerable success so far, the ongoing coronavirus public health and safety emergency has made it difficult to get out in the community and continue the dialogue.

Russell managed to organize a Zoom meeting with national labor leader William Lucy, who was involved not only with Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike in 1968, but also in bringing Nelson Mandela to the United States for a tour after Lucy co-founded the Free South Africa Movement.

"I want these young people to succeed in making change in the community, and they deserve a great deal of credit," Russell said. "At the same time, I think that understanding the whole process will give them patience."

Cleveland Heights Councilwoman Davida Russell was recently awarded the 2020 Shirley Chisholm Breakthrough Leadership Award by the Summit for Civil Rights project.Courtesy of Davida Russell

Shirley Chisholm award

Russell has also had to be patient as she recovers from surgery, and hopes to be back in time for a special council meeting tentatively set for later in August to further discuss filling the Yasinow vacancy.

In the meantime, Russell learned last month that she was being honored -- virtually -- at the annual Summit for Civil Rights with the 2020 Shirley Chisholm Breakthrough Leadership Award.

When organizers called with the news and she said she was currently recuperating at home, "they told me 'we need you to get to your computer in the next 15 minutes.' So my daughter came over and helped me get set up."

Although she had just started on Cleveland Heights City Council, the award also recognized her more than 20 years as Northeast District president of the Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE), encompassing 11 counties.

"I was so overwhelmed and I'm still elated, just in awe with it," Russell said.

While Chisholm is best known for being the first Black woman elected to Congress (1968) and the first to run for president (1972), Russell learned that they had a lot of things in common, including her membership in the National Congress of Black Women -- which Chisholm founded.

And the U.S. Census was one of the first things she strongly advocated as a U.S. congresswoman, said Russell, who helped launch the Count Me In initiative to get an accurate population count in Cleveland Heights for 2020 -- as well as local jobs for census workers.

Read more from the Sun Press.
Ever wonder what your friends from Friends  Rachel, Chandler, Joey, Monica, Phoebe, and Ross  might be up to these days?

Show star Lisa Kudrow gave that question some thought and heres what she had to say, specifically about the character she portrayed: ditzy, New-Agey Phoebe Buffay.

Lisa Kudrow (top row, 2nd from left) with the rest of the cast of Friends | Reisig & Taylor/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Lisa Kudrows favorite episode of Friends

Lisa Kudrow, who made quirky cool as Phoebe Buffay, spoke in a Reddit AMA on the episode of Friends she considered her favorite. She was, at the time, promoting her series, The Comeback.

The Halloween party that Sean Penn appeared in, she said at the time. For a lot of reasons. Number one was it was the first show we shot after 9/11. And that whole week, while driving in LA, people would pull up, and give me a very sad look, and a quiet thank you for making them laugh.

RELATED: Which Friends Actor Has the Highest Net Worth: Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, or David Schwimmer?

The actor elaborated on the topic with Television Academy Foundation in 2012. It seems her favorite episode changes with each interview she grants, and thats quite all right.

I mean, there were a lot [of favorites], she said. I have favorites that didnt really involve me much. Like Thanksgiving episodes were fantastic. I loved the first one, where Monica is really competitive, thats the first time, with Rossall of their flashbacks cracked me up.

Lisa Kudrow thought she might only get a recurring role on Friends

In her conversation with Television Academy Foundation, the mother of one recalled her audition for the comedy and her assumption that she might not be considered for anything more than a once-in-a-while character.

RELATED: Why Sherri Shepherd Wasnt Asked To Return To Friends Despite a Memorable Role

Everyone was talking about this one pilot, she said, called Friends Like These?I went straight to the producers, which was goodit went well, and then I had to go in and Jimmy Burrows is directing and I was like, Oh God, he hates me, I mean I got fired from Frasier. He was directing and he was the one saying, This isnt working.'

And I did, I auditioned for him and he sees it. He doesnt crack a smile, nothing. He just says, No notes, which either means, forget it or its fine the way it is. Then I get called back againAnd I got it.

What she thinks Phoebe would be up to today

The question came up in her interview as to whether there would ever be a reunion of the characters.

The 57-year-old actor quickly said, No. I dont know. [Series creators] Marta [Kauffman] and David [Crane] would have to write it.

And then, what would it be? I just cant imagine what that would be. Because we were already setting off. Monica and Chandler had twins, werent they moving to Connecticut or something? And Phoebes with Mike. I cant imagine what shes like now, she said.

Mike came from money. I picture her in a way just being that really sweet mom who does too much at the school. I could see her being that person now.
Srinagar:

Two militants have been killed by security forces in the 36-hour gunbattle in Bijebhara area of Anantnag district of Kashmir which ended on Friday.

The bodies of the two militants were recovered from the debris of the house at Arwani in Bijbehara area after security forces blew up the building using explosives, a police official said.

He said one of the bodies was severely burnt. However, an army official said they were still sifting through the debris and a final statement on the incident will be issued once the operation was called off.

One army jawan was injured in the gunfight that began in the early hours on Thursday. Security forces had cordoned off the area on Wednesday evening following information about presence of Lashkar-e-Toiba militants there.

A 24-year-old youth died allegedly after being wounded by a stray bullet near the site of encounter.

Arif Shah, a resident of Sangam area of Anantnag district, was hit when security forces were dealing with a group which was indulging in stone-pelting near the encounter site, the official said.

However, locals alleged that Shah was killed in security forces action against protesters.

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An Edmonton mother is warning families to lock their doors and windows at night, especially if a teenage girl is part of the family.

Six years ago, Susan and her 14-year-old daughter were victimized when Gordon William Adams broke into their house overnight. Susan's identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban.

Adams is a convicted sexual predator. According to parole board documents, he has a "long-standing and well-established sexual deviancy toward masturbating with stolen, used underwear of adolescent females."

In 2016, Adams was convicted of breaking and entering Susan's home along with break and enter with intent at another house where a 15-year old girl lived.

He served every day of his seven-year sentence and the Correctional Service of Canada had no choice but to release him in late July.

The Edmonton Police Service issued a public warning when he was released, stating they have reasonable grounds to believe he will commit another sexual offence.

"Adams has a history of surveilling homes that belong to unknown women, including children under 16-years, breaking and entering the houses to steal female undergarments and watching the sleeping victim," EPS said in its news release.

"Adams also has a history of voyeurism and exhibitionism perpetrated against young women."

Susan told CBC News that Adams' release from prison has opened up old wounds for her and her daughter, because she felt much safer when he was behind bars.

'I kind of became a prisoner in my own home'

Susan's life changed forever the night her tiny box terrier suddenly began to bark ferociously at 3 a.m. in September 2014.

She knew she had closed her bedroom door, so she was confused when her other dog entered the room and also began to bark and growl.

"I happened to look up and I did see a silhouette, but I just assumed it was my son," she said.

Supplied/'Susan'

The noise woke up Susan's daughter, who had a bedroom on the main floor. Susan and her 10-year-old son had bedrooms in the basement. Eventually, they all went back to sleep.

Story continues

The next day, while Susan was making supper, she noticed the window over the kitchen sink was open more than usual and the screen was missing.

Then she noticed a footprint on the wall just below the window and a trail of pine needles leading to her daughter's room.

"It was very unsettling," she said. "Somebody was there that night and it didn't click until the next day."

She reported the incident to police. A couple of weeks later, EPS detectives told her Adams had been arrested and charged. Officers also revealed his deviancy and troubled criminal history.

In 2008, Adams was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to several charges including sexual assault, break and enter with intent to commit sexual assault and sexual assault with a weapon.

'I could barely leave the house'

Susan's life began to spiral out of control. She began to have panic attacks.

"I ended up getting worse to the point I could barely leave the house," she said. "I would just be in a grocery store and I'd have to leave my full cart. I kind of became a prisoner in my own home."

She began to stay awake all night so she could watch the kitchen window and make sure everything was locked and secure. Susan slept during the day while her children were at school.

She went on disability leave and ultimately quit her job.

Her daughter developed obsessive-compulsive tendencies.

"Every night she would routinely go and check all the doors, all the windows, all the locks," Susan said. "Then about 10 minutes later, recheck it. 10 minutes later, recheck it again."

Susan asked for monetary compensation from the Criminal Injuries Review Board, but was turned down because break and enter is not a crime listed in their regulations.

It was yet another blow for Susan and her family as they struggled emotionally and financially.

"It made me really mad that basically she would have had to have been molested or assaulted or something in order for them to help us," she said.

Both Susan and her daughter sought therapy and they currently remain on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications.

'Be vigilant and remember his face'

Close to the end of his sentence in 2020, the parole board rejected an early release.

"You remain a very high risk for sexual re-offending," the March decision states.

"You remain a high risk to public safety and low reintegration potential. You have no community supports, no employment and overall no release plan prepared."

Adams made no submissions to the parole board. He was released from prison four months later.

According to Edmonton police, the 38-year-old will face a number of strict court-ordered conditions, including a curfew and an order to stay away from any places where children under the age of 18 are likely to congregate.

He will not be allowed to possess any weapons, pornography or female underwear.

Edmonton police will appear in court on August 25 to seek a two-year judge's order that will allow the Behavioural Assessment Unit to constantly monitor Adams and would require him to report to the unit regularly.

Your victim pool is adolescent females -Parole Board of Canada

Adams once told the parole board he was addicted to sex.

"The adrenaline rush and power and control are important factors in your offending," a 2019 parole board decision states. "You confirmed that your victim pool is adolescent females as you are more readily able to exert power and control over this population."

The parole board members asked Adams if he ever had any thoughts of strangling or murdering one of his victims.

"You responded by saying that your heart tells you that you do not think you would but in your head you know that it is a possibility," the decision states. "Your strategy in dealing with your victim pool while in the community is to walk away."

Susan isn't convinced Adams will be able to walk away.

"Some people just can't be fixed," she said. "Just be vigilant and remember his face."
Major conglomerates are donating money to assist flood victims across the country.

Hyundai and SK said Sunday that they donated W2 billion each to the Korea Disaster Relief Association (US$1=W1,186). LG donated W2 billion to the Community Chest of Korea.

Hyundai staff also visited several flood-stricken areas to offer free car repairs, while workers at SK affiliates are volunteering to help those affected.

Samsung already donated W3 billion last week to help flood victims.
'Actor Kristen Wiig has teased that her role of antagonist Cheetah in the much-anticipated Wonder Woman 1984 will go through "different evolutions". In DC Comics, the character of Cheetah is feline-esque with strength and speed to make her Wonder Woman's worthy adversary.

"There are different evolutions to my character. I will leave you with that," Wiig said in an interview with InStyle. In the Warner Bros. movie, directed by Patty Jenkins, Wiig will face off actor Gal Gadot's titular superhero. The movie also features actors Chris Pine and Pedro Pascal.

Wiig said for a superhero nerd like her, it was dream come true to work on the second installment in the Wonder Woman franchise. "I'm a superhero nerd, so this is my dream. I've always wanted to have superpower; It was all very secretive. I went out to London to test for it, which was one of the most nerve-racking things of my life," she said.

"After that, Patty and I met for a drink and really hit it off. I didn't hear anything for a while when I got home, so I flipped out when I got the part," the Bridesmaids star said detailing her casting process. The 46-year-old actor said she never imagined starring in a superhero movie at this age.

"I never thought I'd get the chance to be in one of those movies. I'm in my 40s, and I'm not known for being this type of actor. I would look around the set and think, I can't believe I'm in this." Wonder Woman 1984 is scheduled to be released on October 2.

SHD.
States and local governments that administer funds awarded by the U.S. Department of Education must give qualified religious organizations the same consideration they give nonreligious groups when they award subgrants, new guidance from the agency says.

The guidance, announced by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos Friday, also creates a federal process for individuals and organizations to file complaints under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Too many misinterpret the separation of church and state as an invitation for government to separate people from their faith, DeVos said in a statement. In reality, the First Amendment doesnt exist to protect us from religion. It exists to protect religion from government.

The document largely restates the Trump administrations previously announced positions on religion and education, including those mentioned in a January executive order on religious freedom . It also cites a June ruling in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue , in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Montana prohibition on families from using state tax-credit scholarships at religious schools was an unconstitutional violation of religious freedom.

When awarding federal education grant funds, the Education Department and its grantees cannot discriminate against otherwise eligible recipients by disqualifying them from a public benefit solely because of their religious character, the guidance says.

For example, the directive says, religious organizations must not be left off provider lists for grant recipients, like those participating in Upward Bound college transition programs, solely because those programs are religious.

But that doesnt mean such organizations can use federal funds worship, religious instruction, or proselytization, the guidance says, adding that participation in explicitly religious activities must be voluntary for any beneficiaries of federal aid.

Blaine Amendments

The Espinoza Supreme Court case centered on a so-called no aid clause in the Montana Constitution that prohibits the state from directing public funds to religious organizations. Thirty-eight states have such rules, which are sometimes called Blaine Amendments.

The Departments guidance says states cant use such rules to as a basis to deny faith-based organizations contracts or grants under Department regulations. The directive applies to federal funds awarded by the department, as well as state funds that are comingled with those federal funds, the document says.

Complaint Process

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act is a 1993 federal law that says government shall not substantially burden a persons exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability.

The new guidance outlines a process under which participants in Education Department programs can complain if they believe they faced discimination in violation of that law.

Photo: Getty

Follow us on Twitter @PoliticsK12 . And follow the Politics K-12 reporters @EvieBlad @Daarel and @AndrewUjifusa .
LONDON, Aug. 10, 2020 /PR Newswire/ -- The Commonwealth of Dominica will be one of six countries in the Eastern Caribbean to receive financing worth EC$200,000 from the United Kingdom's Caribbean Security and Stability Fund. The British High Commission in Barbados announced on August 7th that the funding seeks to facilitate remote operations of the Magistrates Courts during the pandemic.

The Dominican government will be able to purchase more remote equipment and services, including printers, laptops, mobile phones, scanners and online conferencing subscriptions. This will allow the courts to make a smooth transition to the digital delivery of essential services. It will also limit the disruption to the criminal justice process while following the jurisdiction's social distancing rules to lessen virus transmission.

According to a release issued by the British High Commission on August 5th, "this support will reduce the risk of spreading the virus, prevent courts from being shut down as a result of spread and limit any delays in the criminal justice process by ensuring that these essential services are still provided to the public."

Dominica has had only 18 COVID-19 cases and no related deaths. The country is also on the UK's quarantine-free list, meaning that those who have only been to Dominica for two weeks do not have to self-isolate in the first 14 days of their arrival in the UK.

"Safety, security and the rule of law are pillars that make Dominica such an appealing choice for law-abiding applicants and families looking to obtain second citizenship in a modern democracy," says Paul Singh, Director of London-headquartered government advisory CS Global Partners. Dominica's Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme has been ranked as the world's best for three years by the CBI Index, published annually by the Financial Times' PWM magazine.

The island has high regard to CBI due diligence to ensure it attracts individuals with clean records and high integrity. After passing the necessary security checks, applicants can make a qualifying contribution of US$100,000 to the Economic Diversification Fund or invest at least US$200,000 in a pre-approved real estate project.

The revenue generated from the Programme supports major housing, infrastructure, green energy, education and healthcare development across the island. CBI also supports Dominica's ambition to become "the world's first climate-resilient nation," as pledged by Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit.

[email protected], www.csglobalpartners.com

SOURCE CS Global Partners
By PTI

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday questioned actor Rhea Chakraborty and her family members for about nine hours in connection with a money laundering case linked to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Rhea, her brother Showik and father Indrajit Chakraborty reported at the office of the central probe agency in the Ballard Estate area around 11 am in response to their scheduled summons for Monday.

Rhea, escorted by women personnel of Mumbai Police, and Showik were seen exiting the ED office shortly after 9 PM.

During the day, the agency also grilled Shruti Modi, the business manager of Rhea and Rajput and the late actor's friend and roommate Siddharth Pithani.

Pithani, an IT professional, had told various news channels that he was present in the Bandra flat on June 14 when the 34-year-old actor allegedly hanged himself.

Pithani, who Rajput used to call 'Buddha', is stated to be living with Rajput for about a year, and had earlier recorded his statement with the Mumbai Police as part of its accidental death report (ADR) probe in the case.

While Rhea, her father and Modi have been questioned for a varied length of time earlier, Showik has been grilled by the agency for about 30 hours till now.

He had left the ED office around 6:30 am on Sunday after an overnight questioning session that began around noon on Saturday.

Rhea (28), the prime accused in the case, was questioned for about eight hours on Friday.

The ED had also questioned the chartered accountants (CAs) of Rhea and Rajput and the deceased actor's house manager Samuel Miranda in the past.

The agency is understood to have questioned Rhea, who stated in her petition to the Supreme Court that she was in a live-in relationship with Rajput, about her friendship with the late actor, business dealings and the developments that took place over the last few years between them.

The ED's line of questioning, officials said, is revolving around Rhea's income, investments, business and professional deals, and links.

Also under the ED's scanner is a property located in the city's Khar area and another in Raigad district of the state, both linked to Rhea, for the source of purchase and ownership.

Agency sources have said they "want more answers" from Rhea over the alleged mismatch between her income, expenditure and investments.

They said while Rhea has filed Income Tax Returns stating an income of about Rs 18 lakh in the recent past, the value of her investments is reportedly higher.

Her father, they said, is a retired defence personnel who gets a pension of about Rs 1 lakh per month.

The sources said Rhea told the agency that she had made the property investments from her income, savings and has also taken bank loans.

Rhea has been accused by Rajput's father of abetting his son's suicide and she had initially refused to appear before the agency citing her appeal pending before the Supreme Court that is slated to be heard on August 11.

Her lawyer Satish Maneshinde had said Rhea is a law-abiding citizen and would cooperate with the probe.

She has filed a petition in the apex court requesting that the case lodged by the Bihar Police against her be transferred to the Mumbai police.

Rhea, through her lawyer, also shared a picture of a note on Saturday which she claimed was written by Rajput to express his gratitude towards her and her family.

She also shared a photograph of a water sipper, which is a piece of movie merchandise from Rajput's 2019 film "Chhichhore".

"The only property of Sushant that I possess," she said in a message sent along with the photo to the media.

The ED, during the questioning sessions, is learnt to have confronted Rhea, Showik and Modi with certain bank statements that purportedly show transfer of small amounts into Showik's accounts from those of Rajput and Chakraborty.

Rajput's 74-year-old father K K Singh, who resides in Patna, had on July 25 filed a complaint with the Patna police against Rhea, her parents (including mother Sandhya Chakraborty), Showik, Rajput's manager Samuel Miranda, Shruti Modi and unknown persons accusing them of cheating and abetting his son's suicide.

The CBI had re-registered this FIR as a fresh case on Thursday and named as accused the same people.

Singh also alleged financial irregularities in bank accounts of his son.

In the complaint, Singh alleged that an amount of Rs 15 crore was siphoned off from Rajput's bank account in one year to accounts of persons not known or connected to the late actor.

Under the ED's scanner are also at least two companies linked to Rajput and some financial deals involving Rhea, her father and Showik, who are stated to be directors in these companies.
In this file photo, Chris Patten, Hong Kong's last British governor, speaks at The Foreign Correspondents Club to promote his new book in Hong Kong, on Sept. 19, 2017. (Vincent Yu/AP Photo)

Arrest of Media Tycoon Most Outrageous Assault Yet on Hong Kongs Free Press: Patten

The arrest of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai was the most outrageous assault yet on what is left of Hong Kongs free press, the last British governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten has said.

Lai, founder of the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper and the Next Digital media group, was arrested Monday morning under the Hong Kongs new national security law. Lais two sons, Lai Gin-yan and Chow Tat-kuen, were also apprehended by police.

Media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, founder of Apple Daily (C) is detained by the national security unit in Hong Kong on Aug. 10, 2020. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Following the arrests, at least 100 police officers raided the headquarters of Apple Daily, sifting through files on desks, lining up staff for identification, and searching through the newsroom.

The arrests of Jimmy Lai, his sons, and his media colleagues, and the raid by more than 100 police officers of the headquarters of his media group, are a further major attack on Hong Kongs freedoms and way of life, Lord Patten said in a statement released by NGO Hong Kong Watch.

Patten served as governor or Hong Kong from 1992 until the handover of sovereignty to China in 1997.

Can you imagine the newsrooms of @nytimes or @guardian encounter something like this? After HK police arrested @JimmyLaiApple, hundreds of police were sent to Apple Daily office without the search warrant. pic.twitter.com/mia12rSYyP  Joshua Wong   (@joshuawongcf) August 10, 2020

This is the most outrageous assault yet on what is left of Hong Kongs free press, Patten said.

It will cause considerable anxiety to all who consider freedom of opinion and freedom of the press to be essential for Hong Kongs survival as an international financial hub.

The arrests will be regarded by a growing number of people as another large step towards turning Hong Kong into a replica of Beijings police state, he added.

At 71 years old, Lai is one of a few remaining Hong Kong elite openly vocal about supporting the citys pro-democracy movement.

In 2019, Lai met U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to discuss the erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong.

Benedict Rogers talks to The Epoch Timess American Thought Leaders program in July 2019. (The Epoch Times)

To arrest one of the most moderate, peaceful and internationally respected voices for democracy in Hong Kongon charges of collusion with foreign powerssends the message that no one is safe in Hong Kong unless they stay completely silent and do exactly as Xi Jinpings brutal regime says, said human rights activist and China expert Benedict Rogers, who chairs Hong Kong Watch.

The international community cannot let this stand, he said in the statement. Unless the Chinese Communist Party regime steps back from the brink, it has put itself on a collision course with the free world.

Rogers urged the British government to impose immediate targeted Magnitsky sanctions against Hong Kongs Chief Executive Carrie Lam, as well as other Hong Kong and Chinese officials accused of human rights abuses in the former British colony.

The Trump administration on Aug. 7 sanctioned Carrie Lam and 10 other Hong Kong and Chinese officials for undermining the citys autonomy and freedoms.

The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets the officials possess, and generally bar Americans from doing business with them.

Yinyin Liao, Cathy He, and Eva Fu contributed to this report.
Police could be set targets for the number of rape cases they refer to prosecutors in an attempt to reverse the alarming fall in trials.

The Crown Prosecution Service may also be given quotas for how many suspects they take to court under the plans being considered by Downing Street.

Rape prosecutions have fallen to their lowest level since records began, figures showed last month.

A total of 2,102 reached court in 2019-2020  a 59 per cent decline since 2016. This was despite reports of rape increasing by a third to 55,130. Since 2016-17, referrals from the police to the CPS have plummeted by 40 per cent.

The controversial new targets will be set by the Prime Minister's crime and justice task force, according to The Guardian. They will propose the CPS prosecutes a greater proportion of rape cases every year.

The controversial new targets will reportedly be set by the Prime Minister's crime and justice task force

The full details are expected to be announced later this year.

The CPS normally sets its own targets for different crimes.

The move would be the first time it has been subject to a Government-imposed target for rape prosecutions and could lead to a row.

An end-to-end review of how the criminal justice responds to rape and sexual violence is expected to report back later this year.

A Government spokesman said: 'We are determined to restore faith in the justice system and give victims of rape the confidence everything will be done to bring offenders to justice.

'We will continue to work with the police to look at ways to improve their role in the investigation and prosecution of rape.'

Last month the CPS was accused of being 'too slow' in its plans to boost conviction rates.

Police could be set targets for the number of rape cases they refer to prosecutors in an attempt to reverse the alarming fall in trials

Last month the CPS was accused of being 'too slow' in its plans to boost conviction rates. Victims Commissioner Dame Vera Baird said it lacked the drive to turn around its record of handling rape cases, which she said was 'utterly shameful'

Victims Commissioner Dame Vera Baird said it lacked the drive to turn around its record of handling rape cases, which she said was 'utterly shameful'. She added: 'There is no complexity in why rape prosecutions have crashed.

'It is a policy by CPS to take only rock-solid prosecutions as set down in a CPS document in 2016/17. The DPP could reverse that immediately and he has been asked to do so by rape campaigners for the entire time he has been in post.'

Low conviction rates among rapists have been blamed on the way in which cases are investigated.

Campaigners have complained about 'digital rape' which allows police to go through the phones and social media accounts of victims. The policy has led to some dropping their allegation.

In November, it was revealed prosecutors had been operating towards a 60 per cent conviction target.

The disclosure fuelled fears they were not taking cases to court unless they were an easy win.
The arrest of the administrator of the Empressleak website, said to be a revenge pornographic website administered from Ghana has been confirmed by the Cyber Crime Unit of the Ghana Police.



The suspect, Anderson Ofosu Hene Amin alias Mario G., aged 35 years, has been accused by the police of using the website to publish the nude pictures and videos of people and extorting money from them.



He was arrested in a joint operation by the Cyber Crime Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department and the Ministry of Communications.



He is said to have operated the website for the past five years from his home in Osino, in the Eastern Region.



He has been charged with the offence of obscenity, child ponogragraphy, extortion of money and money laundering.







Source: graphiconline.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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According to the productreview.com.au website, Australian Seniors is the top-ranking car insurance provider in Australia, achieving ratings of 4.6 for transparency, 4.7 for value for money, and 4.7 for customer service. Notably, of the 92 people the website reported as having made a claim, 88 had their claim approved.

Australian Seniors car insurance policies are underwritten by Hollard with comprehensive, third-party property damage and third party, fire and theft cover options available. Legal liability cover can be included up to $20 million, while roadside assistance is available as an optional extra.

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AWN received ratings of 4.7 for transparency, 4.7 for value for money, and 4.7 for customer service on productreview.com.au. Customers commended the insurers quick response to enquiries, excellent service, and efficient claims process.

AWN is known for its mechanical breakdown insurance, which provides coverage for various vehicles, such as cars, motorbikes, scooters, motorhomes, and caravans. Its other products and services are general insurance, administration and claims management, roadside assistance, asset protection, and training programmes.

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Youi Pty Ltd achieved ratings of 3.9 for transparency, 3.8 for value for money, 4.1 for customer service, 3.9 for timeliness, and 3.6 for job satisfaction. Customers found it easy to set up their insurance policies and make a claim as the staff were friendly and informative throughout the process. The free roadside assistance is also a big hit among customers as many other insurers charge for this service in a separate agreement.

Youi is a wholly owned subsidiary of OUTsurance International Holdings Pty Limited, which is part of the Rand Merchant Insurance Holdings Group (RMIH). It underwrites its policies, and its products include car, motorcycle, caravan and trailer, building and contents, watercraft, and business liability insurance.

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Budget Direct achieved ratings of 3.9 for transparency, 4.1 for value for money, 4.0 for customer service, 4.0 for timeliness, and 3.8 for job satisfaction. Customers were able to take out their insurance quickly, thanks to easy-to-understand policies and a hassle-free process.

Budget Direct is a general insurance company that employs over 1,300 people, serves nearly nine million customers, and has partnership agreements with hundreds of car repairers and building contractors in Australia. Policyholders can make a claim 24/7 and can customise their coverage by adding one or more optional features, including hiring a car following an accident or flood cover for their home.

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Integrity Extended Warranties received ratings of 3.8 for transparency, 3.9 for value for money, and 4.0 for customer service. Customers were satisfied with the quality and affordability of their policies. Some policyholders who filed a claim multiple times did not experience any problems, thanks to the polite staff and fast process.

Integrity Extended Warranties maintains long-term associations with leading companies in the industry such as Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV) and Lumley Insurance. Its coverage plans are Absolute and Endurance. The Absolute coverage plan is available from motor dealers and provides a similar level of cover as the manufacturers warranty after expiration. Meanwhile, the Endurance plan is a listed components and parts warranty with one- to five-year term cover for cars regardless of age and distance travelled.

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Real Insurance Pty Ltd received ratings of 3.5 for transparency, 3.8 for value for money, 3.7 for customer service, 3.6 for timeliness, and 3.9 for job satisfaction. Satisfied customers commended the insurer for processing claims and repair requests quickly and professionally.

Real Insurance claims to be the first Australian insurer to launch pay as you drive car insurance and the first insurer worldwide to launch a trust-based model of this type of insurance. It allows customers to include additional coverage in their policy for added security or keep their premium affordable by choosing the basic coverage.

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Eric Insurance achieved ratings of 3.5 for transparency, 3.6 for value for money, and 3.7 for customer service. Customers were satisfied with the insurers affordable policies and polite staff who are said to thoroughly educate clients about the products.

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Huddle Insurance has over 35,000 active members and a small army of Huddle Bots, AI-powered bots that use algorithms to source useful data to support customers 24/7. Its car insurance line comprises comprehensive and third-party property plans that have various benefits and optional features. The comprehensive plan covers loss or damage to the policyholders car and damage to someone elses property or car. Meanwhile, the third-party property plan only covers damage to other peoples vehicles or property.

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Woolworths Insurance received ratings of 2.3 for transparency, 2.6 for value for money, 2.4 for customer service, 2.3 for timeliness, and 2.6 for job satisfaction. Satisfied customers noted the insurers cost-competitive policies and superior claims process.

Woolworths Insurances car insurance products include drive less pay less; third-party property, fire, and theft; third-party property damage; and comprehensive car insurance. Woolworths drive less pay less offers comprehensive cover for part-time drivers. The third-party property (fire and theft) plan covers all benefits of third-party property damage as well as theft or attempted theft, malicious damage, and fire.

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SGIO received ratings of 2.3 for transparency, 2.4 for value for money, and 2.5 for customer service. Some customers who have been with the insurer for many years vouched for excellent customer service, affordable policies, and a smooth claims process.

SGIO is an insurance company backed by the Insurance Australia Group (IAG), one of the largest general insurers in Australia and New Zealand. Its car insurance line offers a variety of plans to suit consumers needs, such as comprehensive; comprehensive plus; third-property damage; third-party fire and theft; and veteran, vintage, and classic vehicle.

(Updated September 7, 2021)
Being a Claris Partner speaks to our ongoing commitment to bring innovative services to our clients. Not only do we help clients create a software strategy for their business, we also partner with them to bring their vision to life.

FUSION OF IDEAS, a Southern California technology company offering business solutions through immersive brand experiences and software mapping and development solutions, announces its new status as a Claris Partner.

As a Claris Partner, FUSION OF IDEAS is an authorized reseller of Claris products and trained to utilize its integration platform, Claris Connect. An Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS), Claris Connect provides powerful automation to streamline businesses by making everyday apps work better together without having to write complex code.

In todays age of digital transformation, companies want options when it comes to finding the most appropriate software solution for their business, said Tyler Harmor, chief technology officer at FUSION OF IDEAS. The best solution can be a custom-developed app that fits their business needs, or it can be an integration solution to optimize existing SaaS solutions.

During the opening keynote of Claris Engage 2020, Claris Vice President of Sales Ryan McCann expands on the importance of the Claris Partner program, noting FUSION OF IDEAS as an example partner.

We are proud to build relationships with high caliber partners like FUSION of IDEAS. This partnership illustrates the types of companies that trust Claris to help achieve their clients vision for digital transformation, said McCann.

Harmor added, Being a Claris Partner speaks to our ongoing commitment to bring innovative services to our clients. Not only do we help clients create a software strategy for their business, but we also partner with them to bring their vision to life.

FUSION OF IDEAS App Development Mapping Services is an offering that helps organizations and entrepreneurs determine the best software solution for their business needs. The 2-5 week guided process allows clients to invest time upfront to navigate through their software deployment strategy. Clients receive a deployment recommendation based on their business goals, deliverables that can be shared with stakeholders, and a comprehensive scope of work for their software strategy.

For more than a decade, FUSION OF IDEAS has been transforming the way companies are conducting business through the use of technology. It developed its first custom application for the New York Public Library in 2012 and has since been building software solutions for businesses to simplify workflows and create efficiencies. For more information about FUSION OF IDEAS application mapping and custom development services, visit http://www.fusionofideas.com/mapping. ;

About FUSION OF IDEAS

Founded in 2003, FUSION OF IDEAS helps businesses integrate devices and maximize mobility in their organizations through brand experiences, integration logistics, and custom app development. For over a decade, FUSION OF IDEAS has established key relationships with device manufacturers to service the most significant brands in the world. Through an endless pursuit to evolve with technology and a passion for attention to detail, FUSION OF IDEAS has come to be known as the most innovative and comprehensive mobile solutions provider. For more information, visit http://www.fusionofideas.com, and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

About Claris International Inc.

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PM Hassan Diab announces resignation of his government, says the system of corruption is bigger than the state.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab has announced his resignation almost a week after the massive explosion that devastated the capital, Beirut, killing some 200 people and wounding 6,000 others.

Lebanons Justice Minister Marie Claude Najm, Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad, and Environment Minister Damianos Kattar have all resigned from their posts.

Lebanese police fired tear gas to try to disperse rock-throwing protesters blocking a road near Parliament in Beirut on Sunday in a second day of anti-government demonstrations triggered by last weeks devastating explosion.

International leaders joined a virtual donor conference led by France and the UN in the aftermath of the devastating explosion, pledging nearly $300m in humanitarian assistance that will be directly delivered to the Lebanese population.

US President Donald Trump has announced that the US will give substantial aid to Lebanon, but did not specify how much.

The IMF said it is willing to redouble efforts to help Lebanon after the devastating explosion, but said all of the countrys institutions needed to show willingness to carry out reforms.

Here are the latest updates:

Monday, August 10

19:30 GMT  France urges rapid formation of new Lebanese government

France has called for the rapid formation of a new government in Lebanon shortly after premier Hassan Diab stepped down over the deadly Beirut port blast.

The aspirations expressed by the Lebanese in terms of reforms and governance must be heard, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement.

The priority must be the rapid formation of a government that can live up to the expectations of the people, whose mission will be to meet the main challenges of the country, especially the reconstruction of Beirut and reforms without which the country will plunge into economic, social and political chaos, he said.





18:20 GMT  UN food chief: Beirut could run out of bread in two weeks

The head of the UN food agency said hes very, very concerned Lebanon could run out of bread in about 2 and a half weeks because 85 percent of the countrys grain comes through Beiruts devastated port  but he believes an area of the port can be made operational this month.

David Beasley, who is in Beirut assessing damage and recovery prospects, told a virtual UN briefing on the humanitarian situation following last weeks explosion in the Lebanese capital that at the devastated site, we found a footprint that we can operate on a temporary basis.

Working with the Lebanese army, we believe that we can clear part of that site, Beasley said. Well be airlifting in a lot of equipment, doing everything we can.

Beasley said he had met with Cabinet ministers  who all resigned later Monday  and told them the UN needs absolute cooperation now, no obstacles because people on the streets are angry and said they need international help but please make certain that the aid comes directly to the people.

17:50 GMT  Investigation: Excessive force used against Beirut protesters

Enraged over a massive blast in Beirut last week, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of the capital on Saturday to call for accountability and the downfall of the countrys ruling class.

A large number of protesters threw stones and other projectiles. They faced tear gas, rubber bullets, and birdshot fired from shotguns.

Through analysis of videos and images of the security response by the army and men in plain-clothes on the day, and examination of medical documents and interviews with doctors who treated the wounded, Al Jazeera established that security forces violated international standards on the use of force.

Read more here.

17:40 GMT  Lebanons Aoun accepts govt resignation, asks Diab to stay on in caretaker capacity

Lebanese President Michel Aoun has accepted the resignation of the prime ministers government, following last weeks devastating explosion in Beirut port and asked it to stay on in a caretaker capacity until a new cabinet is formed, a televised announcement said.

Lebanons Prime Minister Hassan Diab submitting his resignation to Lebanons President Michel Aoun [Reuters]

16:45 GMT  Lebanon PM Hassan Diab resigns amid anger over Beirut blast

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab has announced his resignation almost a week after a massive explosion that devastated the capital, Beirut, killing some 200 people and wounding 6,000 others.

Diab made the announcement in a televised address to the nation on Monday.

He said that this crime was a result of endemic corruption and called for the trying those responsible for the deadly blast.

Read more here.

14:35 GMT  Lebanons govt under pressure to resign after Beirut explosion

Lebanons government is almost certain to step down after four ministers quit and at least three more promised to do so if Prime Minister Hassan Diab did not announce the resignation of the cabinet himself.

Tensions have been boiling over in the country following a massive explosion that on Tuesday tore through the capital, Beirut, killing some 200 people and wounding 6,000 others.

Justice Minister Marie Claude Najem was the latest minister to announce her resignation Monday, while Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni arrived to a cabinet session with his resignation letter but held on to it until after the session.

Read more here.

13:50 GMT  Lebanon PM to announce govt resignation soon: Minister

Lebanons Prime Minister Hassan Diab will soon announce his governments resignation, the health minister was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

Diab was set to deliver an address to the nation at 7:30 pm local time, his office said.

13:20 GMT  Lebanons finance minister resigns

Lebanons Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni, a key negotiator with the IMF over a rescue plan to help Lebanon exit a deep financial crisis, has resigned over last weeks devastating Beirut port blast, local media reported.

11:50 GMT  Egypt moves dangerous materials from airports after Beirut blast

Egypts civil aviation ministry said that after Lebanons massive explosion last week it was moving dangerous materials held at airports nationwide to more secure locations.

The ministry is taking precautionary measures with regards to dangerous materials, either immediately releasing them or transferring them to safe storage spaces well outside the range of airports and residential areas, it said in a statement.

The statement referred to materials held in cargo bays and storage warehouses in Cairos airport and all airports nationwide, without specifying which kind of materials would be moved.

11:05 GMT  Death toll from Beirut explosion rises to 200

More than 200 people are believed to have been killed by Tuesdays devastating explosion, Beiruts governor has said.

Marwan Abboud said dozens were still missing, many of them foreign workers.

10:45 GMT  Lebanons security chief questioned by judge

A Lebanese judge has began questioning the heads of the countrys security agencies over last weeks devastating blast in Beirut.

Judge Ghassan El Khoury began questioning Major General Tony Saliba, the head of state security, according to state-run National News Agency. It gave no further details, but other generals are scheduled to be questioned.

About 20 people have been detained over the blast, including the head of Lebanons customs department and his predecessor, as well as the head of the port. Dozens of people have been questioned, including two former cabinet ministers, according to government officials.

10:00 GMT  Lebanons cabinet under pressure as ministers quit

Lebanese protesters have called for a rally outside Baabda palace to demand President Michel Aoun to step down after resignations by several ministers, with the justice minister the latest to go.

A cabinet meeting is scheduled for today amid reports that the whole government might resign. If a total of seven ministers resign, the cabinet would effectively become a caretaker government.

Some Lebanese doubt change is possible in a country where sectarian politicians have dominated the country since the 1975-90 civil war.

It wont work, its just the same people. Its a mafia, said Antoinette Baaklini, an employee of an electricity company that was demolished in the blast.

09:25 GMT  Lebanon justice minister resigns

Lebanese Justice Minister Marie Claude Najm said in a statement she had presented her resignation from the government, citing the catastrophic explosion at the port of Beirut.

Najm said she was resigning out of my conviction that staying in power in these conditions, without fundamental change to the system, will not lead to the reform which we worked to achieve.

She called on the rest of the government to resign, and said she had also pressed for early elections due to the scale of Lebanons crisis.

Third minister resigns Justice Minister Marie Claude Najm #Lebanon  Zeina Khodr (@ZeinakhodrAljaz) August 10, 2020

07:45 GMT- In Pictures: Damaged homes, shattered dreams in Beirut

Farah Mahmoud, wrapped in Lebanese national flag, checks her parents destroyed apartment after Tuesdays explosion in the seaport of Beirut [Hassan Ammar/The Associated Press]

Tuesdays massive explosion in Beirut tore through thousands of homes, blowing off doors and windows, toppling cupboards, and sending books, shelves, lamps and everything else flying.

Within seconds, more than a quarter of a million of the Lebanese capitals residents were left with homes unfit to live in.

There are estimates that say 6,200 buildings were damaged.

See more pictures here.

06:40 GMT  Iran says Beirut blast should not be politicised

Iran said countries should refrain from politicising the massive blast in Beirut last week, adding that the United States should lift sanctions against Lebanon.

The blast should not be used as an excuse for political aims  the cause of the blast should be investigated carefully, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi told a televised news conference.

If America is honest about its assistance offer to Lebanon, they should lift sanctions.

06:10 GMT  Blast destroyed landmark 19th century palace in Beirut

The Sursock palace, built in 1860 in the heart of historical Beirut on a hill overlooking the now-obliterated port, is home to beautiful works of arts, Ottoman-era furniture, marble and paintings from Italy  collected by three long-lasting generations of the Sursock family.

The house in Beiruts Christian quarter of Achrafieh is listed as a cultural heritage site, but Roderick Sursock  owner of Beiruts landmark Sursock Palace  said only the army has come to assess the damage in the neighborhood. So far, hes had no luck reaching the Culture Ministry.

In a split second, everything was destroyed again, says Sursock.

Hello, this is Linah Alsaafin taking over the blog from my colleague Ted Regencia.

04:20 GMT  Nine Lebanese MPs, two ministers resign from government

Nine members of parliament and two ministers have so far resigned from their position in Lebanon, according to an Al Jazeera tally.

Manal Abdel Samad, the information minister, and Damianos Kattar, the environment minister, resigned their posts on Sunday as the government comes under heavy pressure following the explosion on Tuesday.

So far, 9 MPs & 2 ministers resigned since #Beirut blasts, #Lebanon MPs:

Marwan Hamadeh

Paula Yaacoubian

Nadim Gemayel

Samy Gemayel

Elias Hankash

Neemat Ephrem

Michel Moawad

Dima Jamali

Henry Helou Ministers:

Manal Abdel Samad, information

Damianos Kattar, Environment  Saad Abedine (@SaadAbedine) August 9, 2020

04:04 GMT  Explosion created 43-metre deep crater

The huge explosions that killed 158 people in Lebanons capital Beirut last Tuesday left a 43-meter deep crater at the site, according to local reports. The huge crater lies near a granary destroyed in the blast, filled with seawater.

The explosions at Beiruts port also injured more than 6,000 people and devastated nearly half the buildings in the city.

02:15 GMT  Trump promises substantial aid to Lebanon

US President Donald Trump has pledged that his administration will give substantial aid to Lebanon, but did not provide details.

On a humanitarian basis, we have to do it. We have to do it. Its, you know, you can almost say how does a country survive such a tragedy? This was at a level that people over there, they said, is at a level that weve never seen before.

An emergency donor conference on Sunday raised pledges worth nearly 253 million euros ($298 million) for immediate humanitarian relief.

02:05 GMT  Beirut governor says many bodies still unidentified

Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud has said several foreign workers and truck drivers remain missing following the explosion and are assumed to be dead.

In an interview with Al Jadeed TV station, Abboud added that many of the fatalities are still unidentified, and that it could take time to complete the identification of the remains.

According to reports, an estimated 45 of the people killed in the blast were Syrian nationals, working in the service sector in the country.

Sunday, August 9

20:37 GMT  IMF chief renews call for reforms

Kristalina Georgieva, the head of the International Monetary Fund, warned Lebanon again it would not get any loans from the institution unless it reformed its government.

Current and future generations of Lebanese must not be saddled with more debts than they can ever repay, she said during the pledging conference.

That is why, she said, the IMF requires debt sustainability as a condition for lending, adding that the financial system must be solvent, too.

19:32 GMT  Environment minister steps down

Environment Minister Damianos Kattar said in a statement that he was stepping down, becoming the second minister to quit over the explosion.

In light of the enormous catastrophe  I have decided to hand in my resignation from government, Kattar said, adding he had lost hope in a sterile regime that botched several opportunities.

19:21 GMT  Will explosion cause a humanitarian disaster?

Lebanon was in a dire state even before the enormous explosion which wrecked much of Beirut.

The government is bankrupt, the currency is almost worthless, and millions of Lebanese are jobless. The explosion made things worse by destroying the main port for a nation heavily reliant on food imports.

Some 300,000 people made homeless in Beirut have received little help from the government. Lebanon is also home to 1.5 million Syrian refugees. How will aid organisations deal with the challenge?

Find out more here or watch Inside Story below.

18:14 GM  Aid summit raises $300m to be given directly to people

A host of nations have pledged nearly $300m in humanitarian assistance to Lebanon at a conference aimed at rallying international support for the crisis-hit country.

The sums will be routed through the UN, international organisations and NGOs, rather than the Lebanese government  in line with the demands of large swaths of the Lebanese public who fear the funds would be lost to corruption.

Read more here.

French President Emmanuel Macron, top, discusses aid to Lebanon via video connection with world leaders [EPA]

16:07 GMT  Demonstrators hurl stones at police in second day of protests

Protesters hurled rocks at security forces blocking a road near Lebanons parliament in a second day of protests against the government.

Reuters News Agency reported that hundreds were converging on a main square where thousands of Lebanese protested on Saturday against a political elite they blame for the countrys economic and political woes.

On Saturday, more than 700 protesters were wounded in clashes with riot police who used tear gas and live bullets in a bid to disperse crowds.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 05:40:28|Editor: huaxia

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ALGIERS, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Algeria and Spain on Monday highlighted efforts between the two countries to develop security cooperation during Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska Gomez's visit to the North African country, official APS news agency reported.

During the talks between Algerian Interior Minister Kamal Beldjoud and Grande-Marlaska, they exchanged views on the shared interests of the two countries in the security and civil protection fields, especially the issue of illegal immigration.

Beldjoud also underlined joint efforts between the two countries to fight drug networks, particularly in the terms of information exchange.

For his part, the Spanish minister highlighted cooperation in the security field to fight organized crime and terrorism in the region, as well as in the areas of civil protection and road safety. Enditem
City Budget Projections Improve Slightly, No Job Losses Expected The Hillsboro City Council met in a regular session Tuesday night, August 4, and continued discussing budget projections for the upcoming fiscal year.



City Manager Frank Johnson reported that while the city is still facing a substantial decline in revenue like other cities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, projections have improved somewhat as sales tax revenue recovers.



Johnson said that there is no tax rate increase proposed in the draft of the city budget, and no employees will have to be laid off under the proposal. However, Johnson explained that new employees are unlikely to be hired for open positions in the next budget year to address the shortfall.



"There are some currently open positions that we aren't going to fill until revenues come back, but nobody is going to lose their job," Johnson said.



The proposed budget estimates an overall decrease in sales tax of 15% due to COVID-19 impacts, which amounts to a decline of about $471,000. This is an improvement over the initial 20% projected decline when budget discussions began.



Property tax revenue is expected to increase by about two percent, or $169,500, based on a 97.5% collection rate. This is due to an increase in appraised values and a reduction in the interest and sinking portion of the tax rate moved to the maintenance and operation portion of the rate.



In total, the city's general fund budget has been decreased by approximately $783,900 in the current draft of the document.



In addition to the sales tax decline, other decreases in revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic have been projected in ambulance service collections, hotel/motel occupancy tax revenue, police fines and water service late fees, among others.



COVID-19 has also had an impact on the expenditures side of the draft spending plan. Some of the effects across departments include a decrease in training and travel expenses and a drop in other expenses due to the proposed personnel hiring delays.



Trimmed expenditures throughout multiple departments will help the city address the shortfall related to the pandemic.



The council also held a public hearing and first reading of a proposed ordinance to rezone property at the southeast corner of North Waco Street and Julatka Street from single-family residential to light industrial.



The owner of the property, which is located across from a heavy industrial area and next to Ridge Park Cemetery, made the request to reflect how the property has been used in the past. The light industrial zoning classification would provide a transition between heavy industrial uses to the west and residential uses to the east, in keeping with the citys comprehensive land use plan.



The owner plans to place a temporary building on the property for a potential lessee to use as a business office, according to the request.



The council voted to select Traylor & Associates of Tyler for administration services relating to the citys grant application and project implementation for the 2020 Texas Community Development Block Grant.



Kimley-Horn & Associates of Dallas was selected for engineering services related to the grant project, if it is awarded.



The grant would provide funding for downtown sidewalk improvements that address handicapped accessibility.



City Manager Frank Johnson said that the city has identified 15 locations downtown where sidewalks need repairs to comply with handicapped accessibility standards.



The maximum grant amount is $500,000, and a $75,000 local contribution will be required to maximize the citys scoring on the application.



This opportunity is an excellent one to allow us to address these problem locations with a relatively small contribution from the city, Johnson said.



The needed work ranges from minor repairs to major reconstruction. The Texas Department of Agriculture requires that the city procure a grant administrator to assist with the project.



The next regularly scheduled meeting will be Tuesday, August 18, at Historic City Hall.


Thiruvananthapuram, August 10 : CPI rajya sabha MP Binoy Viswam has come out against the central governments draft environmental impact assessment (EIA) notification 2020.

Alluding to the CPI(M)-led LDF governments silence on the draft notification, the CPI leader said that the left government should not forget its commitments.

The Kerala government should set an example for India by spelling out a clear stand on the issue. Otherwise, the left fronts image would take a beating, Mr. Viswam told a private news channel on Monday.

The LDF government has drawn flak from some quarters for maintaining a studied silence on the draft EIA notification brought out by the union ministry for environment, forest, and climate change to replace the existing notification issued in 2006.

The deadline for submitting suggestions on the draft notification ends on August 11. The LDF government has not even reportedly convened a meeting of activists, environmentalists and other stakeholders to deliberate on the draft notification.

Meanwhile, congress MP Rahul Gandhi has also slammed the EIA draft notification, terming it a disaster. Mr. Gandhi lamented that the new notification would reverse the hard-fought gains achieved in environmental protection, adding it proposed to silence vulnerable communities that would bear the brunt of the environmental degradation it would unleash.

An EIA ascertains the potential environmental impact of a proposed project. The new draft EIA notification has drawn flak from environmental activists for what they alleged as the watering down of important environmental protections contained in the 2006 notification.
(Photo : United States Government/Wiki Commons) Former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb projected that COVID-19 deaths in the United States could reach 300,000 by the end of 2020. (Photo : REUTERS/Mike Blake) Student activist Kahlila Williams leads a march during a national day of protest and resistance to demand a safe, scientific, racially just and fully funded approach to reopening schools during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Los Angeles, California, U.S., August 3, 2020.

Former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration Dr. Scott Gottlieb projected that COVID-19 deaths in the United States could reach 300,000 by the end of 2020.

"We're definitely going to be somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000," Gottlieb told CBS' Margaret Brennan in a televised interview adding that the number would depend "on what we do."

With more than 5 million COVID-19 cases in the US, Gottlieb warns that the country may face a third wave of the virus that will be more difficult to control, according to the Insider. He said many rural areas seemed to be pretty relaxed with this crisis because they remained "untouched" by the virus. Some indications of such a trend can be seen in the West and Midwest, which is more difficult to control if coronavirus spreads in these vulnerable rural areas. These locales may not be prepared enough for the virus since they have not experienced it yet.

Meanwhile, recent spikes in coronavirus cases were seen after governors have lifted business restrictions and stay-at-home orders throughout the summer, forcing various states to have restraints on restaurants, bars, and other indoor facilities.

Read also: Meningitis Vaccine Is Now a Must for High School Seniors Even with Distance Learning Implemented

Children are not immune to COVID-19

President Donald Trump continues to downplay the risk of coronavirus on children as he told "Fox and Friends" that they are "almost immune" to COVID-19.

The former FDA chief debunked Trump's claim saying "children are not immune" to coronavirus. He mentioned that 86 kids have already died after testing positive of COVID-19. The CDC has also recorded 570 cases of the multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children and more have been hospitalized. Also, out of the 5 million COVID-19 cases in the U.S., around 338,000 were children.

In a Daily Mail report, the American Academy of Pediatrics has recorded 97,000 COVID-19 cases on children between July 16 and July 30.

Dr. Tina Hartert of Vanderbilt University says increased testing of children will be the key to determining their role in transmitting the virus before schools reopen this month. Although more schools have decided to switch to online classes for the first part of the academic year, the Trump administration allows K-12 schools to hold in-person classes.

Hartert leads a government-funded study where DIY testing kits were shipped to some 2,000 families, which are taught how to collect samples that were sent back to a central repository.

While Los Angeles and San Diego, two of the largest school districts in California, have decided to start the school year via remote learning, New York Mayor Bill De Blasio said parents only had until the evening of August 7 to register their children for either in-person classes, online learning, or even a hybrid system.

Ideally, teachers and children are tested before they go into a classroom. However, Gottlieb noted that the U.S. has no capacity to continuously do testing. "We need to implement more low-cost tests, tests that could be done at the point of care or the point of school or work," he said.

Meanwhile, CDC data shows people who tested positive for COVID-19 are no longer contagious 10 days after the onset of symptoms, although they will continue to shed the virus for a time.

Also, almost 50% of the cases in the U.S. are asymptomatic, which he said are likely to spread the virus." Gottlieb added that a person probably becomes "most contagious right before you develop symptoms," but once they had symptoms after some days, their ability to spread the virus has probably declined.

Read also: Chinese Study Finds Wuhan Patients Still Suffer From Lung Damage Three Months After Recovering from Coronavirus

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A new study in Nucleic Acids Research, published by Oxford University Press, suggests a possible effective treatment strategy for patients suffering from prion disease.

Prion disease is a rapidly fatal and currently untreatable neurodegenerative disease. While prion disease is quite rare, it typically causes rapid neurodegeneration. About 300 cases of prion diseases are reported each year in the United States. The most common form of prion disease that affects humans is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, popularly known as Mad Cow Disease, is another prion disease. Prion diseases are caused by disrupting the structure of a normal human prion protein, producing toxic clumps in the brain. Because prion protein is central to disease, reducing levels of prion protein in patients is a promising therapeutic approach.

Senior author Sonia Vallabh learned that she carried a mutant form of the prion protein gene prior to switching careers to become a patient-scientist and advocate for treatment. She and her coworkers had previously observed that antisense oligonucleotides that reduce levels of prion protein can extend the survival of animals infected with misfolded prions. While these initial data were promising, many critical questions remained before therapeutic development could be possible.

Research teams led by Vallabh at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Holly Kordasiewicz at Ionis Pharmaceuticals, and Deb Cabin at McLaughlin Research Institute, report the results of preclinical studies of an antisense therapy against prion disease. In this new work, using an expanded set of prion protein -targeting antisense oligonucleotides, the authors have laid the basis for full scale clinical development. This research shows that, across multiple treatment paradigms, reducing levels of prion protein in prion-infected lab animals significantly extends their survival.

Researchers here showed that reducing levels of prion protein can triple the survival of prion-infected animals. Even reducing prion protein levels by a small amount, which should be easier to achieve clinically, resulted in significant survival benefits.

Reduction of prion protein is effective across prion strains and across a battery of different treatment timepoints. The researchers show that reducing prion protein is effective before any symptoms are seen. They also demonstrate, for the first time, that a single dose of a prion protein -lowering treatment can reverse markers of disease even after toxic clumps have formed in the brain.

"While there are still many steps ahead," said Vallabh, "these data give us optimism that by aiming straight at the genetic heart of prion disease, genetically targeted drugs designed to lower prion protein levels in the brain may prove effective in the clinic."

###

The article, "Prion Protein Lowering is a Disease-modifying Therapy Across Prion Strains, Stages, and Endpoints" is available to the public on August 10th.

Direct correspondence to:

Sonia M Vallabh

Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research

Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

415 Main St.

Cambridge, MA 02142

svallabh@broadinstitute.org

To request a copy of the study, please contact:

Daniel Luzer

daniel.luzer@oup.com

Funding: Studies at the Broad Institute were supported by the Next Generation Fund at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Prion Alliance, direct donations to Prions@Broad, the National Institutes of Health (F31 AI122592), the National Science Foundation (GRFP 2015214731), and an anonymous organization. Studies at McLaughlin Research Institute were supported by Prion Alliance and Ionis Pharmaceuticals. Studies at Ionis Pharmaceuticals were funded by Ionis Pharmaceuticals.
Rose Carlyle was trying to write a novel about twins  and then she discovered her sister, Madeleine, was doing the exact same thing.

"I felt a chill because that was my idea," Carlyle, who was a law lecturer until she this year turned to writing full-time, says. "I was gaping at her, horror-stricken. I was thinking, 'I want to write it', but it felt like we had both come up with the idea. And then she said 'you write it  I'll help you'."

Debut novelist Rose Carlyle. Credit:Jane Ussher

The sister act meant the chills of horror were confined to the pages of Carlyle's debut thriller The Girl in the Mirror. The book  published in Australia last week, sold internationally and with a film deal in the works  is about twins Iris and Summer.

Their troubled relationship reaches tipping point when the envious Iris offers to help her sister and her husband sail the family yacht from Thailand to the Seychelles.
P olice are appealing for information after a Transport for London worker was assaulted at a north London station.

A man who was attempting to travel with no ticket at Wembley Central railway station started making abusive comments towards a member of rail staff working at the gate line at 11.50am on July 8.

Police said the man forced his way through the barrier and pushed the member of staff before leaving the station.

The British Transport Police (BTP) released a CCTV image today of a man they say may have information that could help their investigation.

It comes after, in a separate incident, a TfL worker was racially abused and chased at Canada Water station after telling a customer he could not board a train with his bicycle.

After being told he could not board the train, the suspect allegedly racially abused the member of staff and threatened him with harm.

Anyone who recognises the man who may have information about the Wembley Central station incident is asked to contact BTP by texting 61016 or calling 0800 40 50 40.

In both cases, quote reference number 186 of 08/07/2020. Alternatively, people can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
An Australian doctor has revealed the exact meals she is eating while in lockdown in Melbourne this week.

General practitioner Dr Preeya Alexander said that having a plan of what you're going to eat and when is key, after premier Daniel Andrews announced tough new stage four restrictions, including an 8pm curfew and a 5km travel radius.

The GP said cooking every night will help your sanity during a lockdown, while making enough dinner to get your family through two meals will also reduce the burden associated around having to make every meal at home.

This week, Dr Alexander said there is a focus around 'rainbow-coloured, vegetable-packed' meals like spinach gnocchi and her mother's dahl.

An Australian doctor has revealed the exact meals she is eating while in lockdown in Melbourne this week (Dr Preeya Alexander pictured)

Dr Alexander (pictured) said it's key to have a meal plan and make each dinner double up for the following night so you're not cooking every single day

Dr Alexander's meal plan this week begins on Wednesday, where she intends to make a spinach gnocchi for her family that will feed them all on Wednesday and Thursday evening.

'Spinach gnocchi is an easy, vegetarian, rainbow-filled favourite in this house,' Dr Alexander said.

She then said they will enjoy some takeaway on Friday, before making dahl for Saturday and Sunday night.

Monday and Tuesday is Willy's fish tacos, while Dr Alexander said she will limit any alcohol consumption to just three nights in order to avoid too much stress on her body.

'Remember, we're aiming for plenty of alcohol-free days, if you do consume alcohol (mainly for our brains in this stressful patch),' she wrote.

All of the doctor's dishes (pictured) are rainbow-coloured and vegetable-packed for added health

What is the shopping list for the spinach gnocchi? * Three x 500 gram packets of gnocchi * Large bunch of spinach or silverbeet * Garlic * Onion * Generous tablespoon of cream Advertisement

To make the spinach gnocchi, you'll need to get your hands on three x 500 gram packets of gnocchi, a large bunch of silverbeet or spinach (frozen spinach works too), garlic, onion and a generous tablespoon of cream.

Dr Alexander said you'll also need to buy both some grated cheddar and Parmesan chees.

Then, blitz up the spinach in a blender, adding the chopped garlic, onion and cream and making a sauce for the gnocchi.

'Given some issues finding meat at the moment this weeks menu is hopefully achievable for most people in lockdown,' Dr Alexander said.

'But please improvise - if you have different veggies in your house to what I've listed, use them and give them a whirl.'

Among the meals in the doctor's (pictured) list is spinach gnocchi and her mother's trusted recipe for dahl

What is the shopping list for the dahl? * A cup of yellow lentils * A dash of turmeric powder * One chopped carrot * One chopped tomato * A handful of spinach or silverbeet * One onion * Garlic * Ginger * A dash of stock powder * Cumin * Rice or roti wraps * Greek yoghurt to serve Advertisement

To make her 'mother's dahl' recipe, you'll need a cup of yellow lentils, a dash of turmeric powder, one chopped carrot, one chopped tomato, a handful of spinach, one onion, some garlic and ginger.

Furthermore, make sure you have a dash of stock powder, cumin, rice or roti wraps and some Greek yoghurt to serve.

'Ideally soak the yellow lentils in a cup of water for one hour before cooking to speed up the process,' Dr Alexander said.

Then, simply add all of the ingredients to a large pot with some boiling water and soak until cooked, stirring occasionally.

'All the meals are I'm making this week are kid friendly and filled with rainbows (also known as veggies) so it's good for your brain and body in lockdown,' Dr Alexander said.

'The meals are designed to be lasting two days so we don't have to cook every single day.'

Finally, Dr Alexander shared what you will need for the fish tacos.

She said you should buy white fish like basa fillets, lemon or lime juice (from a bottle is fine), coriander, cayenne pepper or chilli powder, olive oil, half a white cabbage and three or four tomatoes.

You should also buy red onion, jalapenos, sour cream, Greek yoghurt, cumin powder and wraps or tortillas.

Simply cook the fish, combine the rest of the ingredients and fill inside a wrap or tortilla for a dish the entire family will enjoy.

Melbourne has been plunged into a stage four lockdown following a steep rise in coronavirus cases (pictured), with tough restrictions including an 8pm curfew and a 5km travel radius.

What are Dr Alexander's tips for surviving lockdown? 1. Go on one hour daily walks outside. 2. Cook healthy meals with no more than five ingredients: Dr Alexander urged Victorian residents to 'improvise' the ingredients they already have in their home to avoid racing back to the supermarket. 3. Drink alcohol mindfully a maximum of three times per week. 4. Mental health checks: Dr Alexander suggested organising regular Zoom or FaceTime catchups with family and friends. 5. Treat yourself to cake, chocolate or chips, within reason. Advertisement

Dr Alexander (pictured) shared her tips for surviving lockdown for a second time - including getting an hour outside for a daily walk and limiting alcohol consumption

Previously, Dr Alexander shared her guide for surviving lockdown for a second time - with her tips including daily one hour walks, drinking mindfully and treating yourself to cake within reason.

Dr Alexander told Victorian residents it's 'okay to feel overwhelmed right now' as she urged everyone to do 'mental health check ins' with family and friends.

'Honestly, we knew these level of restrictions were coming (they had to in order to get this under control) but words like "state of disaster" and "curfew" evoke anxiety,' she said.

'It is okay to feel c*** or overwhelmed - but talk to someone... on Zoom or FaceTime - reach out.'
Priti Patel will today demand French co-operation in a massive new blockade of the Channel to crack down on the migrant crisis.

The Home Secretary will refuse to hand over any more taxpayers money to fund operations on French soil unless Emmanuel Macrons government steps up action on illegal crossings.

The French will also be expected to accept deportations of larger numbers of migrants who cross illegally, as well as failed asylum seekers, as part of a potential 30million deal.

The tide is high: One of the men uses a tub to empty water. The UK will also urge the French to fingerprint migrants in the Calais camps

In proposals being outlined at a summit in Paris with Home Office minister Chris Philp this morning, it is understood the UK will set out how it hopes migrant boats can be barred from crossing the strait.

Royal Navy vessels and Border Force patrol boats will be used to block their path, even deploying nets to entangle propellers and floating booms, it is understood.

French patrol boats, which currently escort migrant boats across the Channel, will be expected to take part in the operation to return the small ships to French beaches, officials said.

In a further demand, more migrants who reach British shores should be sent straight back to France.

Priti Patel will today demand French co-operation in a massive new blockade of the Channel to crack down on the migrant crisis. She is pictured on a visit to Dover

However, it is understood the proposed deal will not set a target for the number of deportations.

The UK will also urge the French to fingerprint migrants in the Calais camps.

Migrants biometrics will then be uploaded to an existing EU database, known as EURODAC, so that anyone who later claims asylum in the UK can be returned under EU rules.

In the last five years the UK has given France 114million to fund operations against illegal migrants and people traffickers. But numbers are spiralling, with more than 4,300 arriving so far this year compared to 1,850 in all of 2019.

Yesterday British military assets were deployed for the first time to tackle the flow of small boats, with an RAF aircraft carrying out a surveillance flight. Miss Patel also boarded a police launch from Dover to witness operations.

The number of illegal small boat crossings we have seen recently is totally unacceptable, she said.

Our operational partners are dealing with complex challenges associated with them and collectively with the French we need to make this route unviable.

Across Government we are absolutely committed to shutting down this route and we will bring down the criminal gangs that facilitate these illegal crossings.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has told military chiefs to leave no stone unturned. As an initial offer of support, an RAF Airbus A400M Atlas was sent to monitor the coast.

The Home Office has appointed a former Royal Marine to head up operations. Dan OMahoney accompanied Miss Patel on her patrol yesterday.

The PMs official spokesman said: We are currently bound by the [EUs] Dublin Regulations for returns and they are inflexible and rigid  for example, there is a time limit placed on returns, its something which can be abused by both migrants and their lawyers to frustrate the returns of those who have no right to be here.

At the end of this year we will no longer be bound by the EUs laws so can negotiate our own returns agreement.

It came as a group of 23 Conservative politicians called for tougher action, urging ministers to do whatever it takes.

Prepare to board: The crew of the Border Force cutter secure the rubber dinghy mid-Channel. In the last five years the UK has given France 114million to fund operations against illegal migrants and people traffickers

But French politicians questioned the feasibility of any plan which would involve Royal Navy vessels turning back migrants.

MP for Calais, Pierre-Henri Dumont told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: We are already trying to do whatever we can, but if youve got dozens of crossings a day, thats very difficult for us to stop a boat. It only takes five minutes to have a small boat at sea full with migrants, with a coast of 300km to monitor. Asked about the Royal Navy getting involved, he said: Technically speaking that wont change anything.

Yesterday an inflatable dinghy carrying around 20 Syrians was met by Border Force patrol boat Hunter at about 7.15am with the White Cliffs of Dover in sight.

It means more than 730 have arrived so far in August, including a daily record of 235 last Thursday. Miss Patel vowed last year that crossings would become an infrequent phenomenon by now.

How one tiny dinghy made it all way to UK

Crowded together in a dinghy just inches above the waves, they are the latest of thousands of migrants to make the perilous crossing from northern France this year.

The small rubber vessel sat low in the water as it carried its 20 or so desperate passengers, all wearing orange lifejackets.

It was powered across the narrow Dover Strait by a single outboard engine after the migrants had set off early in the morning from the French coastline.

Were over here! The young passengers aboard the crowded dinghy smile with relief after being spotted

Sea spray showered them at every buffeting turn, and one man repeatedly bailed out water using a plastic container in an attempt to keep the packed boat afloat.

Eventually they were seen by a UK Border Force cutter, HMC Hunter, about halfway out across the worlds busiest sea route.

When asked where they were from, the migrants shouted back to the cutters crew that they were from war-ravaged Syria and heading for Dover.

They were picked up and brought back to Britain, wearing face masks they had been given to protect them and their rescuers from coronavirus.

Boris could toughen up laws on seeking asylum

By David Barrett, Home Affairs Correspondent for the Daily Mail

Boris Johnson signalled his support for major reform of the asylum system yesterday.

Boris Johnson signalled his support for major reform of the asylum system yesterday. He called for a fresh look at laws which make it very, very difficult to return migrants who have come to Britain blatantly illegally

He called for a fresh look at laws which make it very, very difficult to return migrants who have come to Britain blatantly illegally.

Escalating his rhetoric, he described the migrants Channel crossings as a very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do.

It comes after the Mail revealed in May that Home Secretary Priti Patel wanted to see new laws which would streamline the asylum process.

Under the proposed changes, failed asylum seekers would be required to lodge all their arguments at the beginning of an appeal.

The move would stop them delaying their deportation by making a series of claims in the courts under different elements of human rights laws.

At present, it is thought only around 1 in 40 of the migrants who come to Britain illegally are being sent back.

The PMs backing means such legislation is now highly likely to go ahead.

Mr Johnson said: Be in no doubt whats going on is the activity of cruel and criminal gangs who are risking the lives of these people taking them across the Channel, a pretty dangerous stretch of water in potentially unseaworthy vessels.

We want to stop that working with the French, make sure that they understand that this isnt a good idea, this is a very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do. But then theres a second thing weve got to do and that is to look at the legal framework that we have that means that when people do get here, it is very, very difficult to then send them away again even though blatantly theyve come here illegally.

Mission accomplished: Wrapped in towels and wearing covid face masks, they arrive in the UK

He added: Weve got a problem which is that there are people who want to come from around the world to this country because obviously its a great place to be. Theres no doubt that it would be helpful if we could work with our French friends to stop them getting over the Channel.

Lisa Doyle, of the Refugee Council, said last night: Its incredibly disappointing to hear the Prime Minister using such inaccurate and inflammatory language to describe men, women and children who are desperate enough to make perilous journeys across the busiest shipping channel in the world. Seeking asylum is not a crime and it is legitimate that people have to cross borders to do so.
A 40-year-old man was driving while intoxicated with his two young children in the car when his vehicle slammed into an SUV, causing a fiery wreck in North Brunswick, officials said Sunday.

Christopher L. Mertens, of Monmouth Junction, was charged with aggravated assault, assault by auto and endangering the welfare of a child, among other offenses stemming from the late Saturday crash, according to the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office.

Mertens was driving a 2018 Infiniti Coupe southbound on Route 1, near Route 130, shortly before 9 p.m. when his vehicle rear-ended a 2003 Chevrolet Blazer, causing it to roll over and catch fire, the prosecutors office said in a statement.

The driver of the Blazer, a 19-year-old Chesterfield man, was being treated at St. Barnabas Hospital for burns he suffered from the crash, authorities said. His passenger, a 21-year-old Suffern, New York, woman was treated for her injuries and released from a local hospital.

Mertens children were also taken to an area hospital, according to the statement. The ages and conditions of the two children were not immediately available. Mertens, authorities said, was arrested Sunday.

Authorities asked anyone with information to call township Patrolman Jason Zier at 732-247-0922 ext. 316 or prosecutors office Detective Jonathan Berman at 732-745-4328.

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

Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the world's most fabled car races, will be contested behind closed doors in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Scheduled to run between 19 and 20 September, it will be the first time in the 88-year history of the event that spectators will not be at the Circuit de la Sarthe in western France.

The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and the Sarthe Prefecture, which organise the race, said fears over the rising numbers of coronavirus infections had forced the decision.

Over the last few weeks, we have looked at many ways in which we could hold our event in September with fans present, albeit in limited numbers, said ACO president Pierre Fillon.

Given the constraints involved in organising a festival-scale event over several days in the current situation, there were still too many question marks regarding health and safety.

Disappointment

Fillon added: We know that our fans will be as disappointed as we are by this decision but, with public health in the balance, it really wasn't a difficult call to make. You don't compromise where safety is concerned."

The endurance test, which has inspired several films including the 1971 cult Le Mans starring Steve McQueen, attracted more than 250,000 people in 2019.

Former Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso was part of the Toyota Gazoo Racing team that claimed the title for a second consecutive year.
By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijans State Oil Company (SOCAR) has discussed the importance of improvement of the corporate management system within the company.

In the companys board meeting held at SOCAR Tower building on August 7, the participants exchanged views on further accelerating of transformation into a modern digital company and ensuring profitability of operational and investment projects based on the effective market economy model.

It was stated during the meeting that over the past 15 years, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan has turned from a local national company into an international one, and implemented a number of mega projects of global and regional significance.

Additionally, it was noted that earlier SOCAR worked with McKinsey & Company to develop a new strategy until 2035 and plans to present it to the government in the near future.

The main principles of the strategy are sustainable development of the company, application of an improved effective management system, ensuring social and environmental responsibility, assessment of fuel and energy needs of the country and debt management along with ensuring the profitability of the company. Thus, for this purpose, it is necessary to improve the management model as a whole, to centralize functional management, to achieve flexibility in our operations and, most importantly, to simplify bureaucratic processes.

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
Liquor flowing down the Yamuna was too tempting a catch for some people in a Haryana town to ignore, despite the river's swollen level.

Some residents of Radaur town in Yamunanagar district jumped into the river to lay their hands on plastic bottles of country-made liquor floating in it.

Police officials said that a large number of liquor bottles were found floating in the river. As the news spread in the area, a large number of people gathered there. A few of them jumped into the river to take out some of the bottles.

"Someone might have dumped the bottles in the river. We are investigating the case," a police official said.

A local priest named Swami Maheshshram said he tried to dissuade the locals, warning that the liquor might be spurious, but some still went ahead to "net" their share.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 10, 2020) - Palladium One Mining Inc. (TSXV: PDM) (FSE: 7N11) (OTC: NKORF) (the "Company" or "Palladium One") is pleased to report that the final data from the 2020 winter Induced Polarization ("IP") geophysical program, suggests the Kaukua South anomaly extends for over 5.5 kilometers ("km") (Figure 1). Additionally, the Phase 1 drill program has now restarted at the Lantinen Koillismaa ("LK") PGE-Cu-Ni Project, located in north-central Finland.

President and CEO, Derrick Weyrauch commented, "Kaukua South has become a key focus for the Company. The existing Kaukua Deposit is robust and contained within 1 kilometer of strike length, while Kaukua South may now have a strike length of over 5.5 kilometers. This suggests the potential to add significant, near surface, tonnage to existing NI 43-101 open pit resources and could materially increase conceptual mine throughput and/or a conceptual life-of-mine plan. We are eagerly awaiting results from the now resumed drill program."

The Greater Kaukua Area of the LK project is shown in Figure 1 and illustrates the new, most western, IP anomaly of Kaukua South that is open for expansion. Additionally, the Summer 2020 proposed drill hole locations to test the IP chargeability anomalies discovered in 2020, are shown in red, while H1 2020 drill holes are shown in black.

Figure 1. Greater Kaukua Area showing a plan view of the 2008 and 2020 IP surveys. The newly expanded Kaukua South Zone, and Murtolampi Zone are outlined by a dashed red line.



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

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6502/61307_38876db4641a79a4_001full.jpg

Kaukua South will be a central focus of the renewed drill program. The final data from the winter IP geophysical program comprised a reconnaissance line located ~1.5km east of the Kaukua Deposit. This reconnaissance line detected a strong chargeability anomaly which appears to be the western extension of the Kaukua South anomaly.

Story continues

The Kaukua South zone was known to be open to west with the westernmost hole having the highest grade intercept within the zone, 33.0m @ 1.9g/t Palladium Equivalent ("Pd_Eq"), (1.05 g/t Pd+Pt+Au ("PGE"), 0.74 g/t Pd, 0.24 g/t Pt, 0.07 g/t Au, 0.17% Cu, and 0.13% Ni, in hole KAU08-035). This reconnaissance line suggest that the Kaukua South anomaly extends for at least another 1.5 kilometers to west of hole KAU08-035, for a total length of greater than 5.5 kilometers (Figure 1).

Qualified Person

The technical information in this release has been reviewed and verified by Neil Pettigrew, M.Sc., P. Geo., Vice President of Exploration and a director of the Company and the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Palladium One

Palladium One Mining Inc. is a palladium dominant, platinum-group-elements (PGE), copper, nickel exploration and development company. Its assets consist of the Lantinen Koillismaa ("LK") and Kostonjarvi ("KS") PGE-Cu-Ni projects, located in north-central Finland and the Tyko Ni-Cu-PGE and Disraeli PGE-Ni-Cu properties in Ontario, Canada. All projects are 100% owned and are of a district scale. LK is an advanced project targeting disseminated sulphide along 38 kilometers of favorable basal contact. The KS project is targeting massive sulphide within a 20,000-hectare land package covering a regional scale gravity and magnetic geophysical anomaly. Tyko is a 13,000-hectare project targeting disseminated and massive sulphide in a highly metamorphosed Archean terrain. Disraeli is a 3,100-hectare project targeting PGE-rich disseminated and massive sulphide in a highly productive Proterozoic mid-continent rift.

The Kaukua deposit of the LK project hosts a pit-constrained resource of 635,600 Pd_Eq ounces of Indicated Resources grading 1.80 g/t Pd_Eq* ("palladium equivalent") contained in 11 million tonnes (@ 0.81g/t Pd, 0.27g/t Pt, 0.09g/t Au, (1.17g/t PGE), 0.15% Cu & 0.09% Ni), and 525,800 Pd_Eq ounces of Inferred Resources grading 1.50 g/t Pd_Eq contained in 11 million tonnes (@ 0.64g/t Pd, 0.20g/t Pt, 0.08g/t Au (0.92g/t PGE), 0.13% Cu, & 0.08% Ni), (see press release September 9, 2019).

*Pd_Eq is calculated using the following metal prices (in USD) of $1,100/oz for Pd, $950/oz for Pt, $1,300/oz for Au, $6,614/t for Cu and $15,432/t for Ni.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Derrick Weyrauch"

President & CEO, Director

For further information contact:

Derrick Weyrauch, President & CEO

Email: info@palladiumoneinc.com



Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release is not an offer or a solicitation of an offer of securities for sale in the United States of America. The common shares of Palladium One Mining Inc. have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration.

Information set forth in this press release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address a company's expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could", "should", or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, risks associated with project development; the need for additional financing; operational risks associated with mining and mineral processing; fluctuations in palladium and other commodity prices; title matters; environmental liability claims and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the absence of dividends; competition; dilution; the volatility of our common share price and volume; and tax consequences to Canadian and U.S. Shareholders. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/61307
Daniel Cordier is one of only four still alive known as the Companions of the Liberation, working to free France from the sway of Nazi Germany from 1940 alongside Jean Moulin. France's prime minister Jean Castex paid a special tribute to him on Monday, on the occasion of his 100th birthday.

"Daniel Cordier is 100 today. He was only twenty when, alongside Jean Moulin, he took many risks so that we would live freely," wrote French Prime Minister Jean Castex on Twitter.

"Today, let us honour the resistance fighter, the companion of the Liberation, but also this unique story which became History," continued the text, posted beside a photo of Cordier as a young man.

Cordier celebrated his birthday with a small gathering at his apartment in Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes).

Born in Bordeaux 10 August, 1920, Cordier grew up hearing the stories of those who fought in the Great War of 1914-1918.

He did not accept the defeat of French forces against Hitler's Germany in 1940 and chose to join the Resistance, led by General Charles de Gaulle who made his famous call to arms from London.

Cordier left for England in June 1940 was trained in resistance techniques at the French base in England and became a radio operator.

Parachuted into Lyon, in the free zone in July 1942, he met Jean Moulin, alias Rex, at the restaurant Le Garet. Moulin was a legendary figure of the Resistance, but Cordier only found out about the extent of his role after the war.

Cordier was taken on as personal secretary to Moulin, who he described as "always wanting to see what was going on, who was coming and going, he was always on the alert."

Cordier handled all correspondence and radio contacts between Moulin and the headquarters in London.

The men, who came from different backgrounds formed a formidable partnership which would end up influencing Cordier's political choices and his career later in life.

After Moulin was arrested and tortured to death in 1943, Cordier returned to England, where he became an art dealer.

He also wrote two notable historical books on Moulin's exploits during the Resistance after thirty years of silence, as well as his own memoirs under the title Alias Caracalla published in 2009.

Marking the 80 years since de Gaulle's call on 18 June, the British prime minister Boris Johnson named the four 'companions of the Liberation' (Edgard Tupet-Thome, Pierre Simonet, Hubert Germain and Cordier) honorary members of the Order of the British Empire.

Daniel Cordier was presented with this honour by Ed Llewellyn, the UK ambassador to Paris in July 2020.
BeachLife Festival returns to Redondo Beach in May with Sheryl Crow, 311, Black Pumas, Vance Joy, Cold War Kids, Lord Huron and more.
Jimmy Lai, a media tycoon and critic of the Chinese Communist Party, was arrested on Monday. Lai's company Next Digital publishes Apple Daily, a fiercely pro-democracy newspaper that regularly takes on the Hong Kong government and the Chinese leadership.

Continuing with the ruthless suppression of the dissenting voices in Hong Kong since the national security law was imposed, Jimmy Lai, a media tycoon and critic of the Chinese Communist Party, was arrested on Monday on charges of collusion with a foreign country.

The New York Times reported that Lais company Next Digital publishes Apple Daily, a fiercely pro-democracy newspaper that regularly takes on the Hong Kong government and the Chinese leadership. He is denounced by Chinese officials, pro-Beijing news outlets in Hong Kong, and Chinas state-run news media.

According to Apple Daily, 72-year-old Lai was being investigated on charges of partnering with a foreign country. Besides Lai, his two sons have also been arrested on charges of violating company business code. The New York Times quoted Mark Simon, a senior executive with Next Digital, as saying that Lais sons had no involvement with Apple Daily, thus indicating the fact that the authorities are probing into Lais private investments as well.

Also Read: Chinas entry into Iran will destabilise Middle East: Mike Pompeo

Also Read: Beirut explosion: Protestors storm govt ministries, demand regime change

Meanwhile, several senior employees of Next Digital are being questioned. The Hong Kong Police tweeted, So far, 7 people, aged between 39 to 72, have been arrested on suspicion of breaches of the National Security Law. Offences include collusion with a foreign country/external elements to endanger national security, Article 29 of the NSL. Investigation is underway.

The media mogul was earlier arrested in February for participating in unauthorised protest last year. He faces charges for joining an unauthorised vigil on June 4 to mark the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown by Beijing, the New York Times reported.

In one of his articles published by The New York Times, he wrote, I have always thought I might one day be sent to jail for my publications or for my calls for democracy in Hong KongBut for a few tweets, and because they are said to threaten the national security of mighty China? Thats a new one, even for me.

The draconian law is aimed at crushing dissent in the erstwhile British colony which saw massive pro-democracy protests last year. The legislation, which came into effect on July 1, punishes what Beijing terms secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference with up to life in prison.

Several countries have suspended their extradition agreements with Hong Kong in the wake of imposition of the controversial security law. Germany has decided to suspend its extradition treaty with Hong Kong, Foreign Minister Heiko Mass, said on Friday (local time) after the erstwhile British colony decided to postpone legislative council elections.

China earlier announced the suspension of Hong Kongs extradition treaties with Canada, Australia and Britain after the three countries announced similar decisions in protest to controversial new security law.

Also Read: Mauritius declares environmental emergency as oil spill crisis worsens
Iran wants the United States to lift sanctions against Lebanon and wants other countries to refrain from politicising last weeks Beirut explosion that killed at least 158 people and left more than 6,000 wounded.

Irans comments on Monday come a day after international leaders pledged $300m in humanitarian assistance to Lebanon following the devastating explosion that also left more than 300,000 people homeless in the capital city.

The blast should not be used as an excuse for political aims  the cause of the blast should be investigated carefully, Irans Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi told a televised news conference on Monday.

If America is honest about its assistance offer to Lebanon, they should lift sanctions.

Demonstrators march past a damaged building holding flashlights honouring the victims of the explosion at Beirut port that devastated large parts of the capital [Felipe Dana/The Associated Press]

The international aid announced on Sunday would be directly delivered to the Lebanese population and offered support for an impartial, credible and independent inquiry.

Lebanese authorities must now implement political and economic reforms demanded by the Lebanese people and which alone will enable the international community to act effectively alongside Lebanon for reconstruction, said French President Emmanuel Macron, who chaired the virtual donor conference.

Macron visited Beiruts shattered streets on Thursday, two days after the chemical explosion in the dock area. Asked about the visit, Mousavi said: Some countries have been trying to politicise this blast for their own interests.

The explosion, whose mushroom cloud reminded many of an atomic bomb, left a 43-metre-deep (141-foot) crater at Beiruts port, said a security official, citing French experts working in the disaster area.

It was triggered by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which had been stored at a port warehouse since 2013.

Protests, resignations

Protesters have taken to the streets of Beirut to vent their fury at their government, which they accuse of negligence following evidence that authorities knew about the ammonium nitrate and did nothing for six years.

Police and the army responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, resulting in hundreds of protesters being wounded. At least one policeman has been killed, security forces said.

Those who died paid the price of a state that doesnt care about anything except power and money, said protester Tamara, 23, whose friend Rawan, 20, was killed in the blast.

Its not enough that ministers resign, said her friend Michel. Those who put the explosives there must be held accountable. We want an international tribunal to tell us who killed [Rawan].

Al Jazeeras Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said people are disillusioned because they are up against a militarised state.

Protesters are not under any illusion that changing or getting rid of the political and security establishment that has been in place for decades is going to be easy, she said, speaking from the capital Beirut.





The protesters demand the wholesale removal of Lebanons ruling class, which they see living in luxury while millions endure job losses, deepening poverty, power blackouts and mountains of rubbish piling up in the streets.

Two ministers, Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad and Environment Minister Damianos Kattar, resigned from their posts over the weekend, leading embattled Prime Minister Hassan Diab to propose early elections in order to break the impasse that is plunging Lebanon ever deeper into political and economic crisis.

Nine other members of parliament have also stepped down, but according to Khodr, those in power are adamant about keeping the government in place.

There were reports that other ministers wanted to tender their resignation, but after intense negotiations behind closed doors, a minister belonging to the Hezbollah camp emerged and said: We are not resigning, the government is still standing, and we will continue to carry out our duties and responsibilities towards our people, she said.
The Shetland Islands have been picked as the location for the UK's first commercial rocket launch in 2021 when Lockheed Martin will put a small satellite into orbit.

The island of Unst has been picked as the location of a spaceport and Lockheed Martin is moving its 23.5 million grant to the island.

If the spaceport on the small Scottish island is given planning permission by local authorities, the move could see dozens of new jobs generated in the area.

Lockheed Martin are using its UK Space Agency grant to identify a vertical rocket launch site and pending planning permission that will be the Shetland island.

According to Lockheed Martin the first satellite launched from the UK will be used to collect data from space that will 'help drive growth across the country'.

The island of Unst has been picked as the location of a spaceport and Lockheed Martin is moving its 23.5 million grant to the island, Mail on Sunday reports

The Sutherland Space Hub project is continuing but planning restrictions placed on the development mean only 12 launches can happen per year.

Much like the UK has multiple airports, with different airlines operating hubs out of various sites, the same is likely to be the case for future British spaceports.

Spaceports, such as Sutherland, will also be designed to work with multiple launch operators with several companies looking at the UK to launch rockets.

A UK Space Agency spokesperson said: 'We continue to support the ambitions of all potential spaceport sites including Space Hub Sutherland and Shetland Space Centre, as well as the companies wishing to launch from these sites.

'The UK Space Agency considers any proposed changes to grants very carefully to ensure our funding delivers long-term value to the UK.'

John Neilson, from Lockheed Martin, said they were proud to be working with Highlands and Islands and Shetland Space Centre on vertical launch operations.

An announcement about planning permission for Shetland is due to be made later this month by the official bodies involved in the multimillion-pound project.

The news of Shetland's success will come as a blow for those behind a rival 17.3 million scheme in the Highlands at the Sutherland spaceport site.

British rocket firm Skyrora is also working with Shetland spaceport on the planning application to build the launch facility.

CEO, Volodymyr Levykin, said: "Skyrora is supporting and collaborating with all the vertical spaceports in the UK.

'Our mobile launch complex allows Skyrora to be flexible and well be ready to launch from any spaceport in 2022.'

The company is planning to launch its Skylark Micro rocket from Iceland later this month as part of a test programme ahead of future UK launches.

Much like the UK has multiple airports, with different airlines operating hubs out of various sites, the same is likely to be the case for future British spaceports

If the spaceport on the small Scottish island is given planning permission by local authorities, the move could see dozens of new jobs generated in the area

It is only two months since Space Hub Sutherland received planning permission for their project, and a decision last week by the Scottish Government not to call in the plans for a public inquiry was interpreted as a green light.

Lockheed Martin is expected to continue to work with Sutherland, but will move the bulk of its business and grant funding to Shetland.

Provided the site earmarked for the spaceport on Unst is given planning approval, it is thought likely that the first rocket launch will take place at the end of next year.

Mr Neilson told the Mail on Sunday in Scotland: 'With a project of this complexity, we continually review our plans to maximise the chance of mission success.

'Project updates will be provided as and when programme milestones are achieved.'

A decision to move their focus is thought to have followed tests which found more rockets could be launched, with a wider range of payloads, from Shetland.

Industry sources say Lockheed Martin likely see both sites as complementary, with each offering different types of launched for a range of clients.

A full planning application for the Shetland Space Centre is expected to go before the local authority within the next two months.

They will build three launch pads at Lamba Ness and Saxa Vord - one to be operated by Lockheed Martin and two smaller ones to be used by other interested companies.

It is understood the local landowner and crofters have given the project their backing, as has the 600-strong island community.

An insider told the Mail on Sunday: 'For a spaceport to thrive, it needs to get to a critical mass of launches over a period and Shetland is able to deliver more than twice the capacity than Sutherland.'

They told the paper that it all came down to geography and physics - you can't fly rockets over centres of population or oil installations.

'Rocket companies have discovered with the Sutherland site they would be left having to make a dog leg turn to avoid everything,' the insider said.

'That is still feasible but you'd need a bigger rocket and a smaller payload, so the economics of it fall away quickly.'

While the entire island community of Unst support the spaceport plans, residents living around the proposed Sutherland site are divided.

This is due to its threat to peatland and wildlife on the A'Mhoine peninsula.

Unst sits 150 miles off the tip of the Scottish mainland with a population of about 600 and is already the most northernly inhabited part of the British Isles.

A number of companies are looking to operate from various UK space ports including Orbex (pictured) and Lockheed Martin

The island is very remote - it takes a 12-hour ferry journey or a short flight from Aberdeen and then two ferry crossings from Mainland to Unst.

Unst is a 46-square mile outcrop, usually more popular for its giant cliffs, jagged sea stacks and bird-watching and was once a Viking stronghold.

The satellites will be about the size of a washing machine and will cover everything from high speed broadband to information gathering.

Unst is also proving a popular choice due to its high latitude giving it an unobstructed route to space - no flight route or military aircraft testing.

Also, satellites passing overhead on their 90-minute circumnavigation of the globe are visible for longer in Unst's skies - aiding collection of data.

An established oil and gas industry has meant Shetland's infrastructure is already fit to rival any major hub and the spaceport will be built at Lamba Ness and Saxa Vord, where there were Ministry of Defence sites.

Scotland makes more satellites than any country outside of the United States but companies - such as Spire Global and Clyde Space - at present have to ship their satellites from Glasgow to the US and Kazakhstan.

Unst is in competition with the Highlands site of Sutherland (pictured) and Lockheed Martin will still work with Sutherland to launch some rockets

The island is very remote - it takes a 12-hour ferry journey or a short flight from Aberdeen and then two ferry crossings from Mainland to Unst

The government has aimed to grow the UK's share of the global space market to 10 per cent by 2030 and has already awarded grants totalling 40 million.

These grants have been designed to establish commercial vertical and horizontal small satellite launches from British spaceports.

As part of this move the government purchased a 45 per cent stake in bankrupt satellite company OneWeb for 382 million.

It's not just vertical launches, Newquay, in Cornwall, is thought to be favourite still to win the 'space tourism' race, eventually offering the first suborbital flights to those wanting to boldly go on holiday to somewhere out of this world.

Among those interested in the site are Sir Richard Branson's Virgin company, which is planning horizontal launches from Virgin Galactic sister firm Virgin Orbit.

Other spaceport contenders which were offered cash from a UK Government development fund in 2018 are Prestwick in Ayrshire, North Uist, in the Western Isles, Campbeltown, in Argyll and Llanbedr in Gwynedd, Wales.
An attempt by Kuapa Kokoo Cooperative Cocoa Farmers & Marketing Union Limited (KKFU) to embark on a face-saving PR gimmick following the airing of the Missing Kilos expose by Accra-based Joy News, has backfired, with COCOBOD exposing their lies.



Kuapa Kokoo has denied any wrongdoing, insisting that they have never cheated farmers by adjusting their weighing scales.



In a statement cited on modernghana.com trying to discredit the New Crusading Guide and Today newspaper story over the Missing Kilos which has sparked an uproar in Kuapa Kokoo over GH5,000,000.00 stolen cash, has gotten the Executive secretary of the farmer-based Union, Mr. Nelson Adubofour, badly exposed.



Mr. Adubofour had debunked claims that cocoa farmers have been cheated for a long time, reasons for an uproar with some farmers of the cooperative union.



He averred that the publication carried by the New Crusading Guide and Today newspaper on Friday which found its source from the airing of Joy News Missing kilos, is never true.



He contended that the stolen cash of about GH5,000,000 by one Eric Fiifi Cudjoe, who is the husband of the President of Kuapa Kokoo Cooperative Farmers Cocoa & Marketing Union, Madam Fatima Ali, is also false. The stolen money (about GH5,000,000.00) is already in the public domain.



Eric Fiifi Cudjoe was the Unions District Depot Manager at Sefwi Akontombra in the Western Region.



According to Kuapa Kokoo, they are a reputable cocoa producer co-operative which has a proven track record since its establishment in 1993 and has never cheated on it, gallant cocoa farmers.



The management insists that the company sees this diabolic agenda being pursued by some detractors who want to tarnish the good image of Kuapa Kokoo.



The New Crusading Guide newspaper as reputable and a respected press-out after intercepting this concocted information from who so ever brought it to them should have cross-checked the information properly to get the side of the company (Kuapa Kokoo) before coming out with such publication, Mr. Nelson Adubofour noted.



He adds that as a reputable cocoa-producing Organisation they are focused on assisting their over 100,000 cocoa farmers throughout the country to support them but not to cheat them in any way.



The company is also seriously mobilizing funds for 2020-2021 cocoa season and preparing projects for farmers livelihood but not interested in individuals with selfish parochial interest, he added.



The leadership of the organization wishes to reiterate that their core values which are encapsulated in the Co-operative principles would not be flagged to support anyone's interest.



Mr. Nelson Adubofour continued, The organization is focused on delivering sustainable programs geared towards providing a medium for the social, economic and political empowerment of cocoa farmers and also to enhance the participation of women in the decision-making process at all levels of operations in the organization. And finally encourage environmentally sustainable cocoa production processes. This is the mandate of Kuapa Kokoo.



However, our source at the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) provides evidence that Kuapa Kokoo was sanctioned alongside the other Licensed Buying Companies. Kuapa Kokoo was made to pay over GH12,000.00 in 2019 with the other LBCs paying according to the number of scales they have.



Inside sources say COCOBOD in one of its preliminary inspection tour of the LBC sheds in 2018 uncovered how the LBCs were using the weighing scales to steal from the farmers.



They then commissioned the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) to perform a thorough inspection of all weighing scales used at the LBC sheds to gather empirical evidence on the extent of the problem of scale adjustments.



Based on the report from the GSA, which found that the practice was systemic, management settled on two solutions: a preventive reform measure and a punitive measure.



Under the preventive measure, COCOBOD will import the GSA recommended electronic sealable weighing scales which meet a set of tamper-proof standards to give at a cost to the LBCs. This is to ensure that the measure is rolled out quickly and that there is a common standard for all. LBCs will be required to use the new scales only.



A letter from COCOBOD addressed to all the LBCs to that effect dated November 25, 2019, a copy of which is in our possession stated in part that The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) intends to facilitate the introduction and use of only the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) approved weighing scales for the cocoa purchasing operations. You may recall that the Ghana Standards Authority per a letter GSA/MED/LMD/114.4 gave an indication on the permissible weighing scale for the cocoa purchasing operations. In their communication, the Ghana Standards Authority gave a deadline of June 2020 for the industry to implement its decision and recommendations on weighing scale. To ensure that we work to meet this deadline, COCOBOD requests all LBCs to furnish us with the number of societies each company operates for the internal marketing operations.



The punitive measure was to surcharge the LBCs with the monetary equivalent of the aggregated weight from cocoa sheds across the country that the LBC in question may have short-changed the unsuspecting farmers.



Following the findings of the GSA, all the LBCs including Kuapa Kokoo, were surcharged.



The denial by Mr. Adubofour and the subsequent expose of his lies by COCOBOD has left some of the farmers wondering who the Executive Secretary of the Union is protecting.



I have been following the news in the media and the denial by Mr. Adubofour. Clearly, COCOBOD has exposed them and one can see a clear cover up agenda by the Union to protect the President against helping to retrieve our GH5,000,000 from the Sefwi Akontombra Depot Manager, Akwasi Ntow (not his real name), a farmer in Ankasa in the Western Region quizzed.



The secretly filmed documentary which was aired on August 3 and 4, 2020, showed how some licensed cocoa buyers have been illegally adjusting their weighing scales to steal 5 to 11 kilos of cocoa on each bag of cocoa weighed.



The standard weigh of cocoa per bag is 64 kilos. However, some licensed cocoa buyers through their own doings, have illegally adjusted their weighing scales for each bag of cocoa to now weigh 69 to 75 kilos.



The difference, according to the Chairman of the Jomoro Cocoa Farmers Association, represent 30% loss of profit per each bag of cocoa weighed.



We are working for no profit. All our profits go away. We are discouraged because we dont even know who to talk to. COCOBOD too is not helping us, he noted.



Mr. Stephen Nyarko, a cocoa farmer commenting on the issue said the adjustment of the weighing scale is worrying and therefore wants the Ghana Standards Authority to move in and check all the weighing scales the licensed cocoa buyers are using.



We want accurate and standard scales, he stressed.



The airing of the documentary has irked some cocoa farmers who are members of the Kuapa Kokoo Cooperative Cocoa Farmers & Marketing Union, with many questioning whether they still have a good future in the leadership style of Madam Fatima Ali after demonstrating her ineptitude in championing their course.



The farmers are furious that their Union President whom they had placed high hopes in her has persistently disappointed them by focusing too much on her own personal gains and alleged malfeasance with her husband while enjoying protection from the Managing Director of Kuapa Kokoo Limited, Samuel Adimado.



All efforts to get the leadership of Kuapa Kokoo including Madam Fatima Ali and Mr. Samuel Adimado, to comment on the issue proved futile.





The farmers who pleaded anonymity for fear of being victimized contend that since March 15, 2018 when Madam Fatima Alis husband, Eric Fiifi Cudjoe was arrested by the Ejisu Police and subsequently arraigned before court on the charge of fraudulent breach of trust after stealing about GH5,000,000.00 belonging to the farmers, the Union President has done little to retrieve the money while the MD of Kuapa Kokoo Limited, who is the complainant in the said case, is still protecting them. Ironically, the story was first published by the same modernghana.com.

Source: New Crusading Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Our goal from day one has been to help people return to their lives as safely as possible, said Vipin Ahlakha, President of Aria Diagnostics. The software application from Leaf is a valuable complement to our diagnostic testing and laboratory services. A single test result is certainly useful, but organizations require a comprehensive view to track results and have information to help keep peoples safety first as the country and the state reopen.

Chad Hankinson, President at Leaf Software Solutions noted that, Proactive testing and tracking provides businesses, schools, higher ed institutions, and many others with the tools needed to keep safety as the top priority for their operating procedures. It makes good business sense, as does the collaboration with ARIA.

As a result of this partnership, organizations may use ARIA Diagnostics for on-site testing as well as several drive-through locations along with the Leaf test tracking application as one comprehensive solution. The tracking application from Leaf has capabilities that include an executive dashboard, individual compliance and monitoring, test tracking, system generated alerts and reminders, 360-degree views, as well as field level auditing. By using the Microsoft Power Platform, the developers at Leaf created a flexible solution that may be repurposed and customized to add value to organizations seeking to track virtually any process, such as policy and procedure testing, compliance, and skills testing.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 10)  Nearly 7,000 new coronavirus cases were reported by the Department of Health on Monday, again breaking the countrys COVID-19 record for single-day spike.

The country broke its August 4 record with 6,958 more infections added to the latest tally  5,394 detected in the last three days and the other 1,564 part of the validation backlog.

These brought the national case count to 136,638, wherein 66,186 are active cases or currently ill patients, according to the DOH.

Sixty percent or 4,163 of the new patients are from Metro Manila, according to the case report. The DOH added that Laguna registered 400, Rizal 363, Cavite 312, and Bulacan 178.

It further detailed that 254 new cases were reported among returning overseas Filipinos.

Recoveries also rose by 633, with the tally of survivors reaching 68,159. Meanwhile, the disease has claimed the lives of 24 more people, bringing the death toll to 2,293.

The DOH noted that of the newly reported deaths, six occurred in August, 11 in July, while seven in April to June.

Before the release of Monday's case updates, National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chairman Delfin Lorenzana said he believes Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal are likely ready to ease lockdown rules by August 19.

READ: Metro Manila, 4 provinces may be ready to ease to GCQ by next week, Lorenzana says

However, he did not discount the possibility that the strict protocols may be extended, should there be an observed increase in the number of new cases.

"There is a chance kung talagang tataas nang grabe, siguro more than 6,000 to 10,000 per day ang bagong case, kailangan i-extend ang MECQ," he told CNN Philippines Monday afternoon. "Pero ako ay optimistic na bababa pa ito as we near August 18."

[Translation: There is a chance for an extension if it spikes drastically to 6,000 to 10,000 cases daily. If this happens, then we need to extend the MECQ. But I am optimistic it will continue to go down as we draw closer to August 18.]

Both Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire and President of Philippine College of Physicians Dr. Mario Panaligan, meanwhile, said it is too early to give an assessment of the effectiveness of the MECQ.

They said at least two to three weeks are needed to see the full impact of the lockdown.

Meanwhile, public health advocate Dr. Mikey Vergara suggested that students should be asked to volunteer as contact tracers to further ramp up the national governments contact tracing efforts.

But Vergara clarified that students should be provided with proper personal protective equipment and medical care before engaging in contact tracing because of the high risk of COVID-19 exposure.

We really have to put up a strong offensive against the coronavirus. We really need to contact trace more, Vergara told CNN Philippines Rico Hizon on Monday.

Three more Filipinos abroad also tested positive for the virus, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs. The tally of infections among overseas Filipinos reached 9,757, with 5,790 recoveries and 708 deaths.

Globally, more than 731,000 people have died from COVID-19, out of over 19.8 million people who have fallen ill, according to the Johns Hopkins University. The data also shows 12.1 million people or around 60 percent of all patients worldwide have recovered.
IT sector would be a good defensive bet in the portfolio, but the valuation appears fair post the recent rally, Shridatta Bandwaldar, Head of Equity, Canara Robeco, said in an interview with Moneycontrols Kshitij Anand.

Edited excerpt:

Q) July has been an impressive month for investors with both Sensex, and Nifty climbing above crucial resistance levels. We saw mild profit booking towards the close of the month, but would momentum change in August?

A) Predicting near term returns is almost impossible. At the current junction, the focus is more on accessing pace of underlying demand recovery as the economy opens more and moreover next quarter or two from the lockdown and its implication for earnings of different sectors and companies.

Having said that, from the valuation perspective we are trading at 18xFY22, which to us looks fair and thus we see limited upside in the near term at indices levels.

But, the sectoral rotation and outperformance will continue as investors get incremental sector and company-specific data points.

Q) We have seen some massive outperformance from the IT pack. What is fuelling the rally, and what should investors do now?

A) Recent IT rally has been driven by, 1) better-than-expected quarterly numbers and guidance from most companies, 2) IT is levered to developed countries, which are expected to witness earlier demand recovery driven by huge fiscal push, 3) WFH trend at the margin will increase the need for IT spend from the customers and 4) Offshoring trend might increase as clients focus on costs in this environment.

Looking ahead, the sector would be good defensives bet in the portfolio but the valuation appears fair post the recent rally.

Q) Are there any stocks/sectors that investors could include in their portfolio to safeguard from volatility?

A) We remain invested in Healthcare, IT, select FMCG and exporters to protect portfolio from meaningful downside volatility.

Q) 2020 gave an opportunity for investors to build their portfolio at a reasonable price. What factors should one consider for value investing?

A) We are happy to see Indian retail investors participating in the market when it was at an attractive valuation. However, given the lack of research at retail investors' end, we will advise them to use a mutual fund route rather than investing directly in securities. Investing directly in securities needs a lot of in-depth research over the period.

Q) We are also heading towards the Independence Day as well. Sticking to the theme, how can investors attain financial freedom especially at the time when there is a lot of uncertainty, and equity markets have rallied without any meaningful change in fundamentals?

A) Achieving financial freedom through investing in equities needs a huge amount of discipline. Equities as an asset class will always outperform other asset classes over a period.

Investor has to remain focused on the medium to long term goals and has to continue with a pre-decided sum of SIP plan through 5, 10, 15 years to achieve that financial freedom.

There will always be some or the other uncertainty in markets, which will make investors nervous  the key is to not extrapolate near term challenges for a longer horizon.

Q) What is your view on the recent results which have come out from India Inc. for the June quarter? They have not been as bad or the commentary from the management seems comforting. Or, was the Street discounting the worst before?

A) Quarterly earnings have generally been better than what the consensus was building in. This is also partly the reason, why you witnessed a rally in several sectors and companies post results.

Most sectors have displayed good cost mitigation ability during when revenues were down between 15-70 percent. The next few quarters would give better indication on-demand recovery.

Q) People say that history never repeats but rhymes. Leaders of the past might not lead the future. So which according to you could lead the rally on D-Street?

A) It is almost impossible to predict that today. Having said that, consolidation of market shares would be a big theme and we would keenly watch it to identify the next winner sector and companies.

Q) PM Modis assurance to the financial sectors was a positive sign. What is your call on the financials? Do you think that investors could contra bet on this sector as the worst seems to be factored in?

A) If COVID gets resolved faster than anticipated on timeline, financials and discretionary might surprise positively. These are also the sectors with the highest uncertainty and low investor expectations for FY21/22. Financials as a sector will also witness huge consolidation on the asset side over the next 3-5 years.

Q) What are you factoring in from the RBI for the rest of the year? More easing?

A) We think RBI has done pretty well in terms of providing rate cuts and liquidity to the market in this challenging time. We do expect some more easing this year.

Q) Maruti Suzuki posted loss for the first time since IPO. What is your call on the auto space? Which sectors according to you can turn out to be a dark horse?

A) The auto sector has been witnessing a weak volume trajectory over the last 6-8 quarters, driven by slowing economic activity and retail consumption. We see the auto sector reviving at the margin in 2HFY21/FY22, driven by better rural demand and increased private transportation needs due to COVID.

Sector, where the investor expectations are really low, can prove to be a dark horse over the next 1 year. These sectors could be one or more from Auto, Financials, Discretionary consumption, Cement, etc.

: 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.
US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, the most senior official to visit Taiwan in 40 years, met the islands President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday, praising her governments response to the coronavirus pandemic and offering US President Donald Trumps strong support.

China, which claims the democratically ruled island as its own, has condemned Azars trip as a threat to peace and stability and promised unspecified retaliation.

Washington broke off official ties with Taipei in 1979 in favour of Beijing. The Trump administration has made strengthening its support for the island a priority, and has also boosted arms sales.

Its a true honour to be here to convey a message of strong support and friendship from President Trump to Taiwan, Azar told Tsai in the Presidential Office, standing in front of two Taiwanese flags.

Azar is visiting to strengthen economic and public-health cooperation with Taiwan and support Taiwans international role in fighting the pandemic, but the visit is taking place against a backdrop of heightened tensions between the United States and China over issues not only relating to the pandemic, but also trade, Hong Kong and the crackdown in Xinjiang.

Taiwans response to COVID-19 has been among the most successful in the world, and that is a tribute to the open, transparent, democratic nature of Taiwans society and culture, he told Tsai.

Douglas Paal, a former head of the American Institute in Taiwan, Washingtons de facto embassy, said the Trump administration was still paying heed to Chinas red line  that no US official handling national security visit Taiwan  but the timing of the visit was key.

Sending him to Taiwan shows respect for the old framework while putting a finger in Chinas eye at the same time, Paal told the AFP news agency.

The fact that they didnt choose to send a national security adviser or someone else suggests they are trying to come as close as possible to Chinas red line but dont want to cross it.

Health concerns

The US, which has had more coronavirus cases and deaths than any other country, has repeatedly clashed with China over the pandemic, accusing Beijing of lacking transparency.

Taiwans early and effective steps to fight COVID-19 have kept its case numbers far lower than those of its neighbours, with 480 infections, including seven deaths. Most cases have been imported.

Tsai told Azar his visit represented a huge step forward in anti-pandemic collaborations between our countries, mentioning areas of cooperation including vaccine and drug research and production.





Taiwan has been particularly grateful for US support for its campaign to attend meetings of the World Health Organizations (WHO) decision-making body the World Health Assembly, and to allow it greater access to the organisation.

Taiwan is not a member of the WHO due to Chinas objections, which claims the island is a province of the mainland.

Id like to reiterate that political considerations should never take precedence over the rights to health. The decision to bar Taiwan from participating in the WHA is a violation of the universal rights to health, Tsai said.

Azars visit will last three days and will also include talks with his health counterpart Chen Shih-chung and Taiwans Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.

The last US cabinet minister to visit Taiwan was in 2014 when the then-head of the Environmental Protection Agency led a delegation.
The Old Trafford giants are looking to make the 20-year-old their marquee signing this summer, but Dortmund are holding out for a fee in the region of 120million euros.

BVB set August 10  the day they travelled to their pre-season training camp  as the deadline for a deal to be agreed, although United have long expected talks to go beyond that.

Yet with nothing in place and Dortmund ensconced in Bad Regaz, Switzerland, Zorc confidently announced on Monday afternoon that Sancho would not be going anywhere.

We are planning around Jadon, he said. He will be a BVB player next season.

The decision is final. Last year, we adjusted Jadons salary to match his performance development. While doing so, we also extended the length of the contract until 2023.

Zorcs revelation that Sanchos contract has three years left to run and not two as many originally thought surprised, but it is understood United are not giving up on a deal  even if they find BVBs decision to work through the players agent unusual.

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There is also growing frustration at Old Trafford about the pace of discussions, while player and agent fees are a not inconsequential issue that need ironing out.

To be honest, weve been rather astonished at some of the stories weve read in the past few weeks and have been  as you may have noticed  very relaxed about the whole situation, Zorc added.

Id like to take this opportunity to ask the media to be slightly more considerate of the fact the boy is only 20 years old. Not every rumour should be pursued  its better to stick to the facts.

Sancho has flourished in Germany since joining Dortmund from Manchester City in a 10million deal in 2017.
Rally rivals set to face off

BANGKOK: Confrontation between anti-government protesters and opponents who constantly warn them to stop dragging the high institution into their activism is feared as both sides plan rallies outside parliament this morning.

politics

By Bangkok Post

Monday 10 August 2020, 09:15AM

Anti-government demonstrators rally near the Democracy Monument in Bangkok mid last month. Photo: Wichan Charoenkiatpakul / Bangkok Post

The anti-government movement is led by the Free People and the Student Union of Thailand, while the royalist movement is headed by the Archeewa Chuay Chart (Vocational Students Helping the Nation) group and another group calling itself the Association of Students of Thailand.

The two sides have both announced their plans to rally outside parliament at 10am today (Aug 10), reports the Bangkok Post.

The anti-government side is demanding the government stop threatening people who come out to exercise their democratic rights and freedom.

The group has criticised injustice and disparities in society, urged a rewrite of the constitution and House dissolution.

The other side, meanwhile, accuses the first side of having a hidden agenda, which targets the high institution, and warning anti-government protesters to stick to their claimed goal of finding a way out of the countrys political crisis.

The anti-government side has asked its supporters to rally outside parliament the morning before they gather again at Thammasat Universitys Rangsit campus at 5pm when thousands of people, mostly university students, are expected.

Lt Gen Nuntdach Makswat, a former executive of Action Coalition for Thailand and former supporter of the now-defunct Peoples Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), on Sunday claimed on Facebook that the royalist side had announced todays peaceful rally before the other side did.

We plan to simply read our statement, sing the national anthem and the royal anthem, and disperse peacefully, he said.

But the other group with conflicting beliefs later announced they would gather at the same place, apparently with the intent to pick a fight.

He said he had resigned from the party and now acts on his own in this movement.

Panatsaya Sitthichirawatthanakun, a leader of the university students planning to gather at Thamamsat this evening, said she expects between 5,000 and 10,000 to converge. The purpose of the gathering is to oust the government, she said.

Jatuporn Prompan, chairman of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), meanwhile, warned the government that any unreasonable delay of the charter rewrite coupled with worsening economic hardship may lead to a crisis.

If they aim to actually start out in November [date of the next parliamentary election], that will in reality become a countdown to Thailands next disaster as anti-government protests already look set to escalate from Aug 16 onwards, he said.

The anti-government movements have announced they will carry out a major rally on Aug 16.

Human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa, who was released on bail in a sedition case brought against him in connection with a July 18 anti-government gathering at the Democracy Monument, has vowed the Aug 16 rally will be at full steam no matter what will happen.

He on Sunday reiterated his determination to fight on even if that means he will end up in jail again and urged the anti-government movements supporters to turn up at the Aug 16 rally on Ratchadamnoen Avenue.

He was arrested on Friday along with Panupong Chadnok, known as Mike Rayong, one of the young people who held posters denouncing Gen Prayut when the prime minister visited his hometown of Rayong.

Mr Arnon, who has represented several pro-democracy activists in the past, earlier created a stir when he gave a speech at a rally near the Democracy Monument on Aug 3.

In the speech, he touched on the relationship between the monarchy and the constitution.

While anti-government rallies took place in Chiang Mai, Nakhon Ratchasima and Maha Sarakham on Sunday, the Student Union of Thailand posted on Facebook that three protest leaders in Phitsanulok had been missing since Sunday at noon.

They were believed to have been in border patrol police custody in the province to prevent Sundays rally from succeeding.

However, Move Forward MP of Phitsanulok Padipat Santipada said the 31st Company, the Border Patrol Polices unit in the province, told him there had been no arrests of the student leaders.
Saudi Aramco's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Amin H Nasser said the oil major is still working on a deal to invest in Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Bloomberg reported on August 8.

At the 43rd Annual General Meeting held virtually on July 15, RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani said the deal with Saudi Aramco had not progressed as per the earlier timeline. This was due to unforeseen circumstances and the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.

"Nevertheless, we at Reliance value our over two-decade-long relationship with Saudi Aramco and are committed to a long-term partnership," Ambani had said.

Saudi Aramco on August 8 announced that its second-quarter net profit dived due to a sharp drop in oil prices as the COVID-19 pandemic hampered global demand.

"Strong headwinds from reduced demand and lower oil prices are reflected in our second-quarter results," the CEO said.
The National Youth Organizer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye has called on Ghanaians to disregard former President John Dramani Mahama's statement that he has no intention to cancel the Free SHS policy of the Nana Akufo-Addo government.

John Mahama on Saturday, August 2020, during a visit to the Overlord of Dagbon, Yaa-Naa Abukari II debunked claims that he will abolish the free Senior High School (SHS) programme being implemented by the governing NPP if he comes to power.

Free Senior High School education has come to stay. If anybody tells you that I, John Dramani Mahama, son of E.A Mahama will abolish Free SHS when I come, tell the person he is a bloody liar. What I am against is the poor implementation of the free SHS which is creating great inconvenience for the parents, for the students and for the teachers and the point I have made is that we can make it better.

If this government had followed our plan of continuing with the 200 new Senior High Schools that we were building, we will not have the current situation that we have in our free SHS plan.

But Mr. Nana Boakye in a press statement said Mr. Mahamas recent comment is driven by ill-faith.

The seeming endorsement given to Free SHS policy by Mr. Mahama is driven by ill-faith, deception and opportunism borne out of Mr. Mahama and the NDC's innate tendencies to subtly associate themselves with goods things to benefit unduly from same.

He further questioned where the former president will get the funding from for the Free SHS policy since he cancelled trainee allowances due to funding challenges during his tenure as president of the country.

If Mr. Mahama couldn't pay trainees' allowances in that he had to insensitively cancel it. Where would he get over GHc2 billion to fund free SHS? Ghanaians should consider Mr. Mahama's statement as comic relief because he (Mahama) couldn't find few millions of cedis to reimburse three (3) consecutive terms' Feeding Grants to keep Second Cycle Institutions in the northern part of Ghana opened.

Below is the full statement from Nana B

THE YOUTH MUST KNOW SERIES

PRESS RELEASE

9th August 2020

JOHN MAHAMA DOES NOT BELIEVE IN FREE SHS; HE WILL COLLAPSE THE FREE SHS POLICY WHEN GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY

Reference to Mr. John Dramani Mahama's dishonest and opportunistic disposition relative to the implementation of the Free SHS Policy, the National Youth Wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) wishes to bring clarity to the matter, lay the facts bare, and expose the mischief and contempt therein.

It would be recalled that on Saturday, 8th August 2020, Mr. Mahama paid a courtesy call on the Overlord of Dagbon, Ya-Na Abukari II, during which he (Mr. Mahama) made a deceptive statement that Free Senior High School education has come to stay. He stated, If anybody tells you that I, John Dramani Mahama, will abolish Free SHS when I come into power tell the person he is a bloody liar.

The Youth of the NPP finds this statement very deceptive and we wish to respond as follows:

1. That the general belief among Ghanaians that Mr. Mahama will scrap the Free SHS Policy in the extremely unlikely event that he becomes President again is NOT the creation of any individual or group of persons but the explicit engineering of Mr. Mahama himself as evident in his actions and utterances from 2008 to yesterday as stated forthwith.

2. That it is on record that Mr. Mahama and the NDC in 2012 sponsored over 46 radio and television adverts against the Free SHS policy.

3. That Mr. Mahama on November 23, 2012, told the people of Okere in the Eastern Region that Free SHS will collapse the education system of Ghana.

4. That Mr. Mahama on October 1, 2018, reiterated his aversion to Free SHS, stating that it is unthinkable to spend 2 billion Ghana cedis on free SHS and that it is seriously constricting government's budget and therefore when he becomes President, it will undergo a review.

5. That Mr. Mahama on November 25, 2017, stated that Lalasulala Free SHS will fail.

6. That Mr. Mahama at the NDC's Tarkwa unity walk strongly rejected the Free SHS policy stating that It is unwise to implement it.

7. That Mahama on his presidential primaries tour said to Akufo-Addo Free SHS is not working

It is important to note that the stern opposition to the Free SHS policy witnessed over a decade is deep-rooted in the NDC. Every single member of the NDC including high ranking leaders have, over time, opposed and worked against the implementation of the Free SHS Policy as catalogued below:

1. On October 16. 2018, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang said free SHS is not working and that Ghanaians are complaining.

2. The General Secretary of the NDC, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah is on record to have said on October 1, 2018, that Free SHS is shambolic and that it will have to be scrapped.

3. The National Chairman of the NDC, Elder Ofosu Ampofo also on 18th December 2018 said: free SHS is bogus because double Track system is causing teenage pregnancy.

4. The then Minister of Education, Lee Ocran, on 10th September 2012 said Free SHS can only be possible in 2032, in 20 years time.

5. NDC MP for Adaklu, Kwame Agbodza, on June 19, 2018, said Over concentration on Free SHS stifling funds meant for other sectors of the economy

6. Felix Kwakye Ofosu on May 14, 2018, had this warning for the government You cant use oil money to fund Free SHS

8. Mahama Ayariga, on September 26, 2016, said Choose Mahamas education policy, it is better than Akufo-Addos Free SHS.

The seeming endorsement given to Free SHS policy by Mr. Mahama is driven by ill-faith, deception and opportunism borne out of Mr. Mahama and the NDC's innate tendencies to subtly associate themselves with goods things to benefit unduly from same.

If Mr. Mahama couldn't pay Trainees' allowances in that he had to insensitively canceled it, where would he get over Ghc2 billion to fund free SHS? Ghanaians should consider Mr. Mahama's statement as comic relief because he (Mahama) couldn't find few millions of cedis to reimburse three (3) consecutive terms' Feeding Grants to keep Second Cycle Institutions in the northern part of Ghana opened.

It's even pathetic that Mr. Mahama failed to make a pesewa available to pay for his shambolic Progressively Free Education and E-Blocks. It took President Akufo-Addo to pay for the gargantuan debt inherited in the Education sector encompassing Progressively Free SHS, E-Blocks, Supply of Vehicles, Chalks, Textbooks among others.

It is instructive to note that the Nana Addo led NPP Government does not need the incompetent and insensitive Mahama to remind us that Free SHS is working and has come to stay.

The massive endorsement from Religious leaders, Traditional leaders and the testimonies about the Free SHS policy from parents and well-meaning Ghanaians coupled with the dozens of successfully implemented economic and social policies provide enough grounds for Ghanaians to vote for the NPP to prevent the NDC from destroying these transformative and progressive policies in future.

The young people in Ghana are grateful to the President, HE Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his visionary leadership that has seen over 1.2 million Ghanaians access second cycle education free of charge.

Thank you.

Signed

Henry Nana Boakye (Esq)

(NPP, National Youth Organizer)

---citinewsroom
Former AMP chairman Catherine Brenner says cultural issues are a key problem corporate Australia needs to tackle as the once-venerable group faces a raft of difficult internal challenges.

Ms Brenner, who left AMP in 2018, weighed in on AMP's ongoing cultural issues on Monday after being cleared by the corporate watchdog in its investigation into breaches by the group aired at the banking royal commission, including the company had lied to the regulator at least 20 times.

Catherine Brenner is looking to the future after putting AMP behind her. Credit:Tamara Voninski

Her comments came as AMP lurched into another crisis, after it emerged its chief executive Australia Alex Wade had left suddenly amid allegations of unspecified conduct breaches. His departure followed an investor outcry over the promotion of another senior executive, Boe Pahari, despite allegations of inappropriate conduct towards a female staffer. AMP has pledged to improve its handling of issues after an outcry by its staff.

Ms Brenner said that improving AMPs culture was of utmost importance when she was appointed chairman in 2016 - a time when AMP was already under investigation by the corporate watchdog.
Blue Flint Ethanol is considering wheat and corn leftovers as it continues efforts to find new fuel and power sources.

The plant is co-located with Great River Energys Coal Creek Station coal-fired power plant, near Underwood in McLean County. Coal Creek is scheduled to close in 2022. Blue Flint, owned by Midwest AgEnergy, uses waste steam from Coal Creek as the energy for the refining process.

Blue Flint recently was awarded $155,000 from the states Agricultural Products Utilization Commission to conduct research and a feasibility study to use biomass as its fuel source. The group better known as APUC funds developers of North Dakota farm-related products, helping in such areas as research and marketing.

"We've been looking at a multitude of technologies, and a multitude of fuel options, as we look to repower the facility and extend its life," Midwest AgEnergy CEO Jeff Zueger told Prairie Public.

The biomass would include wheat straw and corn stover -- the wheat stems and the corn leaves, stalks and cobs left in a field after harvest.

"It certainly indicates there's enough biomass in the region around Underwood to support fueling our facility, from a thermal needs perspective," Zueger said.

The company also is looking at natural gas as a potential fuel source.

"Based on the APUC grant, we're moving ahead with a more detailed engineering design and analysis to understand the capital and the technologies, so we can make a decision around whether biomass will be part of our future, or we move ahead with natural gas," Zueger said.

He remains optimistic about the future of Blue Flint.

"From the capacity to bring in natural gas, to bring in a water supply, to provide the technology that will allow us to remain a low-carbon fuel producer, all looks very favorable," Zueger said. "So I would say the likelihood that we will go ahead with a repower is very high."

But Zueger said the final decision rests in the hands of the Midwest AgEnergy board of directors.

Midwest AgEnergy also owns the Dakota Spirit ethanol plant in Spiritwood, east of Jamestown.

Great River Energy announced in May that it plans to close Coal Creek in 2022 after years of financial trouble at the McLean County facility and an unsuccessful search for a new owner, despite efforts to essentially give the plant away. The facility is the largest coal-fired power plant in North Dakota.

State officials have said they want to try to find a new owner. If that task were successful, it could involve a project to capture the facilitys carbon emissions and store them underground. Such an effort is already in the works at Blue Flint Ethanol, as the facility recently received a $3.4 million state grant to support a study of the technology.

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As this assault on basic freedoms in Hong Kong unfolded, many activists for democracy in that community like myself, and an uncountable many other Americans, have watched from afar  and have shown solidarity through our smartphones and Twitter. But now, as my experience shows, you dont have to be in Hong Kong to get yourself in trouble. Your next retweet could earn you a prison sentence.

Article 38, as presented to the world, can seem outlandish in its claim to have the right and capacity to reach across the globe and arrest critics anywhere.

Might Hong Kong agents be deployed on Capitol Hill to arrest members of Congress who voted last November for the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act? Could they arrest the American president and other officials who, in support of Hong Kong, imposed sanctions on the Chinese Communist Party for its encroachment and suppression there?

If Article 38 is read literally, thats the threat. How ludicrous. But that doesnt make the crackdown harmless.

For example, I fear that I can no longer travel to Hong Kong, or to any countries with active extradition treaties with the Hong Kong administrative government or with China, without risking arrest and extradition. I cannot speak to my elderly parents in Hong Kong without opening them to investigations and invasive searches by the police.

I wont be the only person sought by China for punishment of some sort. And if I can be targeted, any citizen of any nation who speaks out for Hong Kong can be, too.

Some of us can recall John F. Kennedys Ich bin ein Berliner speech delivered in a divided Berlin in 1963, when he assured Germans and the rest of the world that the United States stood for their freedom. By proclaiming himself a Berliner, Kennedy cast West Berlin as the great testing ground of Western courage and will for self-government, the front line in the battle between the Communist East and the free West.
Gloria Ferrer Sparkling Trio with New Packaging

Sonoma Brut, Blanc de Noirs Rose, and Blanc de Blancs

Sonoma Brut, Blanc de Noirs Rose, and Blanc de Blancs

SONOMA, Calif., Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gloria Ferrer is pleased to share a comprehensive update as part of its overall re-positioning of the brand and its renewed focus on cultivating Carneros Quality & Sonoma Style at every touchpoint of the consumer experience.



PACKAGING REFRESH

First, Gloria Ferrer has updated the look and feel of its core sparkling rangethe flagship Sonoma Brut, non-vintage Blanc de Noirs Rose, and non-vintage Blanc de Blancs.

The Gloria Ferrer design has always been an homage to its founding in 1986; but as a winery, the team has learned, evolved, and continuously challenged themselves to create the highest quality sparkling wines, says Mayacamas Olds, General Manager of Gloria Ferrer. Working with the global design team under the leadership of our global CEOs, Dr. Andreas Brokemper and Pedro Ferrer, we were inspired to create something that feels fresh and beautiful, mirrors the premium sparkling wine inside the bottle, and reflects the authenticity and roots of Gloria Ferrer.

The team also debuted an updated website in February 2020 in order to match this new aesthetic while improving the overall site usability and ecommerce experience.

NEW CLUB TIERS

Additionally, the winerys club offerings have been re-designed to include the Sonoma Collective, Circle Bar Collective, Carneros Cellar Collective, and Estate Collective.

The most notable change is the introduction of the Sonoma Collective tier, created for those new to sparkling wine in mind. Each quarter, members of this collective can customize their shipment from a hand-picked selection of non-vintage sparkling and estate still wines.

We created the Sonoma Collective because we wanted to offer a taste of the Gloria Ferrer experience for consumers who are unable to visit us as frequently as theyd like, especially at a time when we were all sheltering in place, adds Olds. Giving our loyal club members the flexibility to customize their shipments across all club tiers was an easy decision.

Story continues

UPDATED EXPERIENTIAL OFFERINGS AND SEASONAL PAIRINGS

Furthermore, the winery is debuting a new food menu this fall, which will be updated seasonally so visitors can enjoy the bounty of Sonoma while appreciating the versatility of Gloria Ferrer wines.

All of our experiences at the winery, whether youre enjoying a traditional tasting flight with iconic vineyard views from our Vista Terrace, a rustic picnic in the vineyards, or pairing elevated comfort food classics like grilled cheese, are built around giving our visitors a true taste of local Sonoma, says Olds. Our ultimate goal is for visitors to experience the Sonoma lifestyle, and to come away feeling relaxed and rejuvenated.

REGENERATIVE ECONOMY INITIATIVE

Looking ahead, Gloria Ferrer is making advances toward a regenerative economy to help grow its business and the long-term sustainability of its community.

Olds explains, We have already begun by ensuring we work with local suppliers whenever possible; participate in our community development; improve our sustainability measures in the vineyards and our energy consumption and creation in the winery; and listen to our employees and community to creatively address challenges.

Creating a regenerative economy is a long-term initiative that will enable Gloria Ferrer to create jobs at living wages, support its local economy, and share its high-quality, sustainably produced wines with all consumers.

About Gloria Ferrer

A pioneering history and approach to Pinot Noir have made Gloria Ferrer Caves & Vineyards a leader in California sparkling wine for over 30 years. Founded in 1986 in Sonoma, California by the Ferrer family of Spain, Gloria Ferrer combines the best of sparkling winegrowing history with the bounty of the Carneros winegrowing region using time-honored traditional method winemaking and centuries-old sustainability practices.

About Freixenet Mionetto USA

Freixenet Mionetto USA, the United States subsidiary of Henkell Freixenet, offers a comprehensive portfolio of premium, iconic sparkling wine brands from renowned producers around the world. Led by quality and innovation, the company ranks in the top three sparkling wine companies and number one globally.

Freixenet Mionetto USA is the exclusive agent for the most prestigious wine estates in the world. These producers are benchmarks within their respective regions and categories. The portfolio includes Freixenet (Penedes), Freixenet Prosecco (Veneto), Mionetto (Veneto), iL Prosecco (Veneto), Segura Viudas (Penedes), Gloria Ferrer (Sonoma), WindVane (Sonoma), Mia (Barcelona), Henkell (Wiesbaden), Schloss Johannisberg (Rheingau), Alfred Gratien (Champagne), Gratien & Meyer (Loire), Bollicini (Italy), i heart Wines (Global Brand), Castello di Monsanto (Tuscany), Monrosso (Tuscany), Pertinace (Piedmont), Rocca Sveva (Veneto), Alto Vento (Veneto), Cavas Hill (Penedes), 50 Riesling (Rheingau), Rene Barbier (Catalonia), Ferrer Family Wines (Spain), and Katnook Estate (Coonawarra).

Media Contacts: Suzie Kukaj-Curovic Claire Gibbs Director of PR and Corporate Communications Associate PR Manager Suzie.Kukaj@fxmusa.com

Claire.Gibbs@fxmusa.com

718.596.3339 Ext. 3133 718.596.3339 Ext. 3130

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d63c6e67-8d54-4159-83aa-f89b253151d3




New Delhi: India will send relief and humanitarian supplies to Lebanon as the country deals with the aftermath of the Beirut blast that killed more than 200 people.

India's envoy to United Nations TS Tirumurti said, "India has just recently sent Lebanon essential medical items to combat COVID-19. We are immediately sending more relief and humanitarian material of medicines, foodstuff and other essential items to do whatever we can to alleviate the difficulties on the ground. We are discussing with the Government of Lebanon on how we can contribute further."

He was speaking at United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs UNOCHA meeting on Lebanon.

Extending India's condolences to Lebanon on the "terrible human tragedy", Tirumurti said, "We are shocked by the loss of human lives and the widespread destruction this has caused in Beirut. We pray for strength to families to overcome their great loss."

Recalling his visit to the city of Beirut in 2019 and Indias close relations, including through "our peacekeepers" in United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), he added, "I admire the resilience of the people and the dedication of the rescue workers to cope with this tragedy."
Obama tells world to unite against Libya bloodshed

US President Barack Obama has urged the world to unite to hold Libya accountable for a vicious protest crackdown, stiffening a US response that critics had cast as too mild.

US President Barack Obama makes a statement on Libya with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the White House in Washington, DC

In his first televised response to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi\'s decision to unleash vengeance on demonstrators, Obama reached out to US allies on Wednesday and promised to deploy a "full range of options" to halt "outrageous" bloodshed.

Obama spoke as Washington was considering fresh sanctions and other steps against Libya, and as political pressure mounted for a tougher response.

The administration\'s careful previous line on violence that a former Libyan minister said had killed 1,000 people appeared to be dictated by fears that American diplomats and citizens in Libya could face reprisals.

But by late Wednesday, a US-chartered ferry with a capacity of 575 passengers was riding out bad weather in Tripoli harbor ready to cast off on an evacuation mission to Malta.

"The suffering and bloodshed is outrageous, and it is unacceptable," Obama said at the White House.

"So are threats and orders to shoot peaceful protesters and further punish the people of Libya. These actions violate international norms, and every standard of common decency. This violence must stop."

Obama defended his administration against claims its response to the latest wave of unrest crashing across the Middle East, had been too tempered.

"Over the last few days my national security team has been working around the clock to monitor the situation there and to coordinate with our international partners about a way forward," he said.

Human Rights First international policy advisor Neil Hicks welcomed Obama\'s response, saying it "sends an important signal that the United States stands with those demanding their human rights."

But he urged Washington to impose targeted sanctions on Kadhafi and others close to him, lead efforts to impose multilateral sanctions on the regime, suspend all US exports to Libya and call for an arms embargo and a no-fly zone.

Though officials said sanctions were among options being discussed, it was unclear whether calls for NATO to establish a no-fly zone over Libya to protect civilians were on the table.

Obama did not mention Kadhafi, who has ruled for four decades and frequently defied the United States, by name.

In an angry rambling speech on Tuesday, Libya\'s ruthless and unpredictable leader threatened to purge opponents "house by house" and "inch by inch" and vowed to fight to the finish.

"The army is still very strong," Kadhafi\'s son Saadi Kadhafi told the Financial Times. "If we hear anything, we will send some battalions. When people see the army, they will be afraid."

Seeking to corral international action on Libya, Obama said that in such a volatile situation, it was "imperative" for nations to speak with one voice.

He dispatched Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to a ministerial-level meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.

"Like all governments, the Libyan government has a responsibility to refrain from violence, to allow humanitarian assistance to reach those in need and to respect the rights of its people," Obama said.

"It must be held accountable for its failure to meet those responsibilities and face the cost of continued violations of human rights."

Obama\'s call to US allies appeared to be a signal that Washington, which has sought to avoid injecting itself into the Middle East revolts, preferred the safety in numbers of multilateral action.

Europe had already moved to isolate Kadhafi, readying sanctions that one diplomat said could include an assets freeze, a travel ban, an arms embargo and the legal pursuit of those involved in violent repression.

Washington lifted sanctions on Libya in 2004 under a deal that helped the former pariah state back into the global community after it gave up its nuclear and chemical weapons programs.

Influential US lawmakers, including Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, a Democrat, and his Republican counterpart in the House of Representatives, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, have called for fresh sanctions.

But US officials apparently feared that robust rhetoric on the crisis could have made the plight of Americans even more perilous than that of other foreigners, given the tortured recent history between Washington and Tripoli.

In 1986, then president Ronald Reagan sent US warplanes to bomb Libya in retaliation for the bombing of a discotheque in West Berlin. Kadhafi\'s adopted daughter was killed in the raids.

Libya\'s former justice minister Mustapha Abdeljalil told the Swedish daily Expressen that Kadhafi had then personally ordered the bombing of a US Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, that killed 270 people.
IN MEMORIAM: NNPA Salutes the Memory and Legacy of Publisher Imogene McDaniel Harris

Imogene McDaniel Harris, November 20, 1931  July 22, 2020

The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) expresses sincere condolences to the family of Mrs. Imogene McDaniel Harris (R.I.P.), the distinguished publisher of the Gary INFO Newspaper (founded in 1963) who passed on July 22, 2020.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., President and CEO of the NNPA stated, I have personally known the Harris family in Gary, Indiana for decades. Today our extended NNPA families of Black owned newspapers across the nation pause to salute the outstanding memory and legacy of NNPA publisher Imogene Harris. We pledge to keep her spirit alive as we rededicate to continue to sustain the Black Press of America during these challenging times.

Newspaper publisher, educator, community activist, matriarch Imogene Harris, 88, of Gary, Indiana, completed her earthly assignment Wednesday, July 22, 2020 after a lingering illness.

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Imogene was born in the city she devoted a lifetime of love to Gary, Indiana, on November 20, 1931, the child of Lohney L. and Geneva Scott McDaniel. She graduated from Gary Roosevelt High School and briefly attended Hampton Institute (University) in Hampton, Virginia. Imogene continued on to receive a Bachelor of Science degree from Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana.

Imogene joined in nuptial bliss with her soulmate James Templeton (J.T.) Harris, Jr. on September 1, 1951. Their blessed union lasted 51-years until J.T.s transition to glory in 2001.

Imogene taught in the Gary Public School System for many years, first, at Froebel School, followed by Norton Elementary School as a third-grade teacher, and then she served as Head Librarian at Lincoln Elementary School.

Imogenes calling in life was partnering with J.T. to run the family businesses  Harris Printing Company (established in the 1950s) and Gary INFO Newspaper (founded in 1963). They diligently produced a publication that became the voice of African Americans throughout Northwest Indiana for more than four decades.

Imogene was a compassionate mentor, sage, and friend to people of all ages. Harris Printing Company and Gary INFO generated opportunities that contributed to the growth of existing Black businesses as well as the aspirations of budding entrepreneurs, writers, photographers, and printers.

From newspaper boys and girls trying to earn pocket change, to eventual affluent and successful individuals around the nation, The Shop, as Infos midtown location was affectionately known, was more than a place for workers to hone their craft, it was a launching pad for life.

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A lifelong resident of Gary, Imogene was a member of Delaney Memorial United Methodist Church which is now Christ Memorial Methodist Church. Memberships included the Gary branch NAACP, the Gary Urban League Guild, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Betu Nu Chapter (1962). Imogene was recognized by the NNPA and maintained a collegial relationship with the founding members of the (NNPA) that was founded in 1940. Harris was also a founding member of the Lake County Association of Black Communicators.

Her many lifetime accolades included the Drum Major Award presented to her and J.T. by the Gary Frontiers Service Club, for their commitment to eliminate inequality, prejudice, and racism. They also proudly received a Congressional Record from the Hon. Indiana State Representative Peter J. Visclosky in 1994 for their commitment to instill equality and justice throughout the City of Gary.

Imogene will be fondly remembered by all for her dedication to excellence, her deep compassion, unswerving principles, thoughtful leadership, devotion to family and community, and loyal friendship.

Imogene is survived by two loving and devoted daughters Temple-Jene Harris Fleming (Joseph) and Gaylyn Harris. The pride of her heart, her five grandchildren, Lavon Robin Fleming, Lateefah Shariene Fleming, Joseph Harris Fleming, and Terilyn Marshelle Fleming; great-grandson Nathaniel Joseph Williams; sister-in-law Emma Harris (Lorenzo), godchildren Calvin, Daresia and Cheryl Pruitt, committed goddaughter Djuana Anderson, and a host of nieces, nephews, and friends. Imogene is preceded in death by her parents and her sister Levevian McDaniel Benton (Norman).

The family will hold a Memorial Service to remember the life of Imogene at a future date where her transition will truly be celebrated. Arrangements are being handled by Guy & Allen Funeral Home in Gary, IN.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- After seeing their neighborhood in need, several young Staten Island women came together to bring a community fridge to Mariners Harbor.

The seven women started the COMEunity Fridge, located at the corner of Forest Avenue and Amity Place.
The New Juaben South Municipal branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has urged Ghanaians to continue to adhere to the COVID-19 safety protocols to stop its spread.



Mr Joseph Tawiah Mensah, the Constituency Chairman of the party in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said, although lots of the restrictions made by government were lifted, citizens should continue to adhere to all to curb the spread of the virus.



He said disease was real and urged them to continue to wash their hands under clean running water, use alcohol-based hand sanitizers, where there was no water and keep a distance of about 2 metres at all social gatherings.



He also encouraged people to visit the nearest health facility anytime they were unwell.



On the new voters registration exercise, the Constituency Chairman showed appreciation to all Ghanaians including party agents and Electoral Commission (EC) officials in the municipality for recording success stories from the exercise.



He said since there would be no rallies and major campaigns during this election, the NDC would get the list of their members through their party agencies at the various registration centres and do a house-to-house campaign.

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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My constituents have also raised concerns that recent delays in mail delivery are part of the administrations broader effort to erode the effectiveness of, and confidence in, voting by mail, Warner wrote to DeJoy.

Ellen Weintraub, head of the Federal Election Commission, told CNN on Monday that voting by mail is safe.

But she also said there is a substantial chance that the results of the presidential election and some down-ticket contests might not be resolved on Nov. 3.

Let me just tell everybody were all going to need to take a deep breath and be patient this year, Weintraub said. There is a substantial chance we are not going to know on election night what the results are, possibly for the presidency, but maybe for many other races that are important to people.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, second left, waves to media as he arrives at Taipei Songshan Airport in Taipei, Taiwan. (AP)

Taipei: Why has the United States' 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 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-defence 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 precisely that meant.

Only 14 nations, all in the developing world, and the Vatican still recognise Taiwan.

Beijing has tried hard to stop any international recognition for the island.

The United States, while recognising 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 centre 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.
SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- Report from the coronavirus pandemic trenches, by Robin the dog:

I think that she is getting smarter about why the yard is important. Before this pandemic, she would bolt down a cup of coffee (something I have never begged for) and dash out of the house. Now, she lingers in the yard when I am out there on official business.

One day, five different birds came very close to us. I know how to be still; this knowledge is deep in my bones from the wolves that are my ancestors. And she hadnt even put out the seed from her favorite store yet. I think the birds know that this is a comfortable place, so they stay a while.

On the whole, I am not the noisy type; mainly, I save my barking for those herds of deer. I know: All the Hillcrest cities are hard at work trying to figure out what to do that is both humane and practical. In the meantime, I bark to protect my turf.

And this keeps me in good barking condition, overall, from the low growl to the high, excited yap. Im sure I have at least a three-octave range, but Ive never been tested, and the only audition I needed to tolerate was the one at the animal shelter. I passed, and that is why I live here now.

But overall, the birds and other creatures -- like the baby bunny and the hungry groundhog -- enjoy the hushed sounds these days. I know I like it. I can even hear the stream -- I think its part of the Euclid Creek Watershed, not that Im all that good with geographical names. Who needs the names when one runs on an inner GPS, like I have?

My fellow dogs in this area dont mind that there are fewer cars -- or know actually what cars are -- but weve got to admit: They can be scary. Try crossing the street with those things coming at you from all directions and two unleashed dogs on your tail!

Yes, it happened to me, which is why my mom is really big on the importance of leash laws. I was terrified, but I was smart. I got back home. And you know what? A couple in a car followed me to make sure I was safe. How kind is that!

My family never forgot that moment, but since they didnt get the name of the couple, they could not follow up. If they are reading by any chance, thank you!

Back to the birds. They are bright colors, and dont seem to eat much, but one I have not figured out is that noisy woodpecker, the one that probably has an awful headache but keeps on banging.

Birds are kind of sweet, actually, and one of them has the same name I do -- Robin.

In these worrisome times, I pace myself, and I think my mom is learning this art, too. She seems to hear and see things more acutely, and she didnt rush me when I stuck my nose in the deer dung and began to eat. This is a time-tested tool in the hunt, but its not without risk.

Unfortunately, I heaved up the remnants an hour later. It will be a while before Im allowed to do this again. But the wild strawberries in the yard: She even shows me where they are!

Things that smell that sweet are amazing. I dont know why people think dogs dont like sweet things. Daisies, daffodils: Humans and I have that penchant in common. I am happy just to sniff. Unless I know its edible from long experience. Dandelions, for instance. They taste better than you think, and I give thanks for that. And in fall, those tasty acorns!

She was surprised the first autumn after she brought me home from the pound that I lick the morning dew from fresh grass. (I still do it.) And that I can even catch a fly or a grasshopper for a quick snack. See, she had a lot more to learn from me than she thought.

Of course, she learned that though I could catch it, I would spit out a frog; thats too rich for my taste.

I had something to teach her about how to survive. And she had something to teach me about love.

These quieter days, I wonder what she dreams about. I dream about the fly, the grasshopper, the daffodil, the water bowl -- in any order. I dream of how she scratches my nose or rubs my underside or calls me good girl. I remember how lonely I feel when she is gone and how I am reborn every time she enters the door.

But now she is inside again, so I lay under her desk near her feet while she writes. I think its called writing, but its an odd thing she does with her paws. Its kind of like digging. Or scratching. She is trying to get at something, and she cannot stop.

Minutes, even hours, can pass, and she is totally absorbed. I need to be on duty at such times -- to guard her from any small animals that might try to enter the house, to warm her feet, to let her know I have her back.

And truth be told, I feel safe there. From time to time, she stops her work, puts on John Denver, and picks me up for shmoosy. That means cuddle time. She will pet me and rock me to the music, and I cannot thank John enough for creating music especially designed to add so much love to my life.

Once, I ran into the room when she started that music, and she told me that The World Wildlife Federation Presents was on the screen. It was as if I knew that animals rock. I cannot read yet, but I like the colors on the computer screen and they change as I sit on her lap.

My life is much fuller now that she is home more. But Ive got to admit: I wish shed share a little more of that Caesar salad she likes to make for lunch.

Enlighten us. Sun Messages readers, please send announcements and events of interest to those in the seven-city Hillcrest area to mariashinestewart@gmail.com

For additional Hillcrest-area news click on Sun Messenger.
It has been more than a year since the U.S. government imposed sanctions on various services offered by HUAWEI and now, they may be running into real trouble as current U.S. sanctions will block HUAWEI from working with TSMC to produce their high performance HiSilicon Kirin chips. This will affect HUAWEI in the smartphone segment in both global and Chinese markets.

During an event for HUAWEIs upcoming flagship, the Mate 40, it was revealed that the smartphone may be the last HUAWEI device to be equipped with a HiSilicon Kirin chipset. After September 15, 2020, according to the sanctions placed HUAWEI will no longer be able to use U.S.-developed technology from September 15, 2020, and that includes TSMCs fabrication technologies.

HUAWEI has already received and stocked their orders of the Kirin chip for the Mate 40, so they should be on track to release the smartphone later this year. However, future HUAWEI smartphone releases are uncertain at the moment, in which case, HUAWEI will find it difficult to compete even in their Chinese home market.

TSMC not only produces HiSilicon Kirin Chips for HUAWEIs smartphones, they also produce networking processors for 5G base stations, their AI chips, and their server chips. All of this would come to a halt after September 15th, 2020. As an alternative, HUAWEI may be looking into purchasing chips from MediaTek and Unisoc. Latest WSJ report also says that Qualcomm is looking for U.S. government permission to sell SoCs to HUAWEI.

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An anti-extradition bill protester is detained by riot police during skirmishes between the police and protesters outside Mong Kok police station, in Hong Kong, on Sept. 2, 2019. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

UK Rights Activists Seek to Prosecute British Expatriate Officers for Torture in Hong Kong

Three senior British expatriate officers in the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) could face a private prosecution over allegations of torture against pro-democracy protesters, an international coalition of activists, lawyers, and organizations announced on Monday.

Following their initial investigation, the informal coalition is now seeking to build up the case further before filing the lawsuit in the UK, and has started a crowd-funding campaign to fund the case. Over a third of the 200,000-pound ($261,660) goal had been reached within hours.

The group said that after an extensive process of evidence gathering and investigation, its satisfied that theres a case against three British HKPF regional commanders, who cannot be named at this time for legal reasons.

These officers allegedly have engaged in and are responsible for the offense of torture inflicted upon pro-democracy protesters, the coalition said in a statement.

They have not just played a key role in the crackdown ordered by Beijing, they have directly overseen it.

Accountability in Hong Kong Near Impossibility

A police officer raises his pepper spray handgun as he detains a man during a march against the national security law at the anniversary of Hong Kongs handover to China from Britain in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

The coalition said that the police violence in Hong Kong reached grotesque proportions, including beating, stamping, sexual assault, and rape, but that its nearly impossible to prosecute police brutality in Hong Kong. Therefore, the planned lawsuit in Britain is one of the only options to bring human rights abusers to justice, the group said.

Given the lack of any means for holding the HKPF accountable for their actions in Hong Kong, a private prosecution of senior British officers in the jurisdiction of England and Wales under universal jurisdiction provisions presents one of the only options for forcing those responsible to answer for their crimes, the coalition said.

Hong Kong Watch fellow Luke de Pulford and former Hong Kong legislative councillor Nathan Law in London. (Courtesy of Luke de Pulford)

Luke de Pulford, a fellow of the NGO Hong Kong Watch, and Nathan Law, a former Hong Kong legislative councillor, are leading the coalition of organizations in their pursuit of a prosecution.

BREAKING: backed by @nathanlawkc and a coalition of orgs I have commissioned @emmprosecutions with @MichaelPolakLaw to pursue a private prosecution against certain British expat police officers in #HongKong for torture. Please donate to the legal fund: https://t.co/9PjUoy32DH pic.twitter.com/AnRD50ORhI  Luke de Pulford  (@lukedepulford) August 10, 2020

The people of Hong Kong are suffering greatly. One of the worst aspects of this suffering is that none of the perpetrators have been held to account, de Pulford said in a statement.

Having reviewed hundreds of hours of video and written evidence, there is no doubt in my mind that British police officers have played an indispensable role in the brutalizing and oppression of the people of Hong Kong. If the UKs moral and legal commitment to upholding the rights of Hong Kong people cannot extend to making its own citizens answer for their crimes, it is no commitment at all.

This is a very important caseand a huge team effort from many who cannot be named. The last months have shown that accountability in Hong Kong is a near impossibility. British police may be able to act with impunity in Hong Kong, but they cannot escape British law, he wrote on Twitter.

de Pulford also called for witnesses to come forward with more testimonies to help overcome the considerable obstacles to justice.

Last November, Ms. X, an 18-year-old woman in Hong Kong published a statement via her representative law firm alleging that she was gang-raped by a group of police officers while detained inside the Tsuen Wan police station.

She also criticized the police for leaking information about her case to the media, accusing them of discrediting her and diminishing any prospect of a successful prosecution.

Police arrest a Hong Kong protester after a Chinese flag was removed from a flag pole at a rally in support of Xinjiang Uyghurs human rights in Hong Kong, China on Dec. 22, 2019. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

The China 2019 Human Rights Report (pdf) published by the U.S. State Department this March identified police brutality against protesters and persons in custody as one of the significant human rights issues.

The report said the Hong Kong government took steps to prosecute and punish officials who committed human rights abuses but resisted widespread calls for a special inquiry into alleged police brutality that occurred during the demonstrations.

In a report (pdf) published Aug. 4 on the treatment of aid workers during the protests, lawmakers of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong said the HKPF had breached international humanitarian law and principles, international human rights, and the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

Nicole Hao and Alexander Zhang contributed to this report
The ceremony took place in the Urakami Cathedral, which was almost destroyed by the bombing of 9 August 1945. The city is the heart of Christianity in the country. 140,000 died instantly, among them 8,500 of the 12,000 local faithful. The Popes criticism of the use of nuclear weapons.

Nagasaki (AsiaNews) - Yesterday morning, with a ceremony in Urakami city cathedral, the Catholic community commemorated the victims of the nuclear attack in Nagasaki. On August 9, 75 years ago, at 11.02, the Japanese city was hit by an atomic bomb dropped by a US bomber. The air raid took place three days after the one on Hiroshima. After the double attack, the Tokyo imperial government accepted the surrender imposed by the allied powers, ending the Second World War.

A public commemoration took place together with Mass. Only 500 people participated, 10% of those who had last year, because of the prevention measures against Covid-19. In his speech, the local mayor, Tomihisa Taue, asked the government to take the initiative to ban the use of nuclear weapons.

At least 74,000 inhabitants died instantly in Nagasaki (140,000 in Hiroshima); thousands more died in the following days and years due to radiation and severe burns. These included the great radiologist Paul Takashi Nagai. Among the victims there were 8,500 of the 12 thousand Christians who lived in the city.

Nagasaki is the heart of Christianity in Japan. Between the 17th and 18th centuries, the city was home to many Christians persecuted by the imperial authorities. The Urakami church, one of the largest in Asia, is located 500 meters from the hypocenter of the atomic explosion. It was almost razed to the ground, and rebuilt in the following years. The head of a statue of the Virgin, scarred by the explosion, is preserved in the building (see photo).

Last year Pope Francis visited Nagasaki and Hiroshima, criticizing the use of nuclear weapons, which he considered immoral. The pontiff also launched an initiative in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), approved by the United Nations Assembly in 2017, but not yet ratified by many states, including Japan.
National

GoI officials, NSCN (I-M) leaders hold meeting in Delhi

A prayer being held before the meeting between Government of India officials and NSCN (I-M) delegation in Delhi, Monday.

Spl. Correspondent NEW DELHI, AUG 10 (NPN) | Publish Date: 8/10/2020 1:18:49 PM IST

Senior Government of India (GoI) officials and NSCN (I-M) leaders on Monday held an informal meeting in the national capital, Delhi.

Government of India was represented by senior officials from the Intelligence Bureau-- additional director, A.K. Mishra and joint director (North East), M.S. Tully and NSCN (I-M) delegation led by Th. Muivah, general secretary and chief negotiator of the group.

Highly placed sources informed that Nagaland Governor and Centres Interlocutor for Naga peace talks, R.N. Ravi is also scheduled to meet the NSCN (I-M) delegation. Ravi arrived Delhi on Monday and is scheduled to meet the NSCN (I-M) leaders.

As reported earlier, highly placed sources informed Nagaland Post that the negotiating parties were likely to hold the meeting after August 15 (Independence Day celebration).

Sources also said that some significant development can be expected by September.

Meanwhile, it may be mentioned that Assam Finance minister and convenor of North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) in a tweet on August 5 stated, ...I received a call from Hon HM Sri @AmitShah to discuss about issues pertaining to enduring peace in #NorthEast. Despite being in hospital his commitment to work is unwavering. This sets a benchmark for us all. India is proud to have you as Home Minister Sir. Admiration!

It may also be pertinent to note that Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio and Himanta Sarma had also met in Delhi last week. It was not known what was discussed at the meeting, however, the meeting assumes significance against the backdrop of Sarmas tweet.

It may be recalled that Th. Muivah, accompanied by his wife and others, left for Delhi by a chartered flight on July 20.

A 5-member NSCN (I-M) delegation left for Delhi via Guwahati on August 6 and later another 9-member delegation of senior NSCN (I-M) leaders left for Delhi from Dimapur on August 7 by a chartered flight.
Researchers at a university in the Republic of Ireland are calling on the public to take part in a study which will examine whether recreational waters contain dangerous antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

The study is being launched after the team found potentially deadly bugs in the waters around Galway.

Scientists at NUI Galway want 300 people to volunteer for the project, which will also explore how superbugs get into human populations.

The team of researchers plan to test two different groups of 150 people, one made up of those who regularly use lakes, rivers or seas, the other comprising those who rarely enter the water.

Dearbhaile Morris, the lead investigator on the project, said that antibiotic-resistant bacteria are often harmless, unless they get into a wound, the bladder or the blood.

"This mostly happens in sick or vulnerable people with weaker immune systems, such as those in intensive care, the very old or the very young, and special antibiotics are then required for treatment, as ordinary antibiotics do not work," she said.

Dr Liam Burke, who will also be working on the study, said that superbugs are common in recreational water because of the increased use of antibiotics in humans and animals, and because sewage and manure ends up there.

Despite the country having some of the cleanest bathing waters in Europe, raw sewage is still being released in more than 30 places.

Dr Burke added: "If hospital waste ends up in the sea, it will more than likely contain antibiotic-resistant bacteria or a slurry stream from a farm ends up getting into the water or river, then there is potential for that to contain a high level of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Recommended UK girl first to have deadly superbug infection treated with virus

"As the superbugs have been exposed to antibiotics, they needed to develop a mechanism to resist it. They don't cause problems in healthy people if they stay in the gut, but if they get out of your gut by not practising good hygiene, then you could spread them around the home.

"A young child or elderly person could then pick it up."

Anyone over the age of 18 in Ireland can take part in the study.
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New South Wales recorded 14 new coronavirus infections on Monday, while a concerning new map reveals the Sydney suburbs with the highest count of active cases.

Of the new cases, one is in hotel quarantine, another is from Victoria and 11 are locally acquired and linked to known cases. One mystery case was locally acquired but had no links to any known clusters.

NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant on Monday encouraged the state's residents to avoid large gatherings, social mixing and excessive movement while the virus bubbles away.

Dr Chant also confirmed that five new cases have been confirmed at Tangara School for Girls in Cherrybrook, with the school's secondary campus closed until August 21.

A map published by NSW Health the postcode with the highest number of active COVID-19 cases is 2145, which has reported 68 cases, with 23 still active.

The postcode covers the western Sydney suburbs of Constitution Hill, Girraween, Greystanes, Mays Hill, Pemulwuy, Pendle Hill, South Wentworthville, Wentworthville and Westmead.

A map released by NSW Health shows the Sydney areas with the highest number of active cases. The worst postcode is 2145 (dark green, western Sydney including Greystanes, 23 active cases). Other postcodes with a high amount of active cases included 2170 (light green, Liverpool and surrounds, 11 active cases) and 2011 (yellow, Kings Cross and surrounds, 7 active cases)

Anyone who has visited the following areas in the past 14 days advised to monitor for symptoms Bankstown City Plaza Bankstown LGA Bonnyrigg Cabramatta Campbelltown LGA Carnes Hill shops Cumberland LGA Fairfield LGA Liverpool LGA Mt Pritchard Parramatta LGA Perisher Potts Point area Prestons Wetherill Park Advertisement

Meanwhile the postcode 2170 - which includes Casula, Casula Mall and Chipping Norton in Sydney's southwest - has a total of 44 cases, with 13 active.

In the city's far west, Abbotsbury, Bossley Park and Edensor Park have a total of 37 cases, with 17 active as of Monday.

Harris Park and Parramatta have recorded 23 cases, with 17 still active, while Carnes Hill, Cecil Hills and Elizabeth Hill has 11 active cases left from a total of 30.

The western Sydney suburbs of Ashcroft, Busby and Cartwright have seven active cases left from a total of 21 since the pandemic began in mid-March.

Bondi Beach in the eastern suburbs was a COVID-19 hotspot during the first wave, with a total of 116 cases. Now the affluent suburb has just three active cases.

Further south the 2560 postcode which includes Airds, Ambarvale and Appin also have 11 active cases.

NSW Health on Monday warned anyone who lives in or has visited a number of areas across Sydney in the past 14 days to monitor for symptoms.

Danger zones include Bankstown City Plaza, Carnes Hill shops, Cabramatta, the Potts Point area and Perisher.

Symptoms to watch out for are a scratchy throat, runny nose, fever and body aches.

NSW Health also revealed a growing cluster of cases associated with Tangara School for Girls in Cherrybrook, in Sydney's north

Of the new cases, only one was a returned traveller in hotel quarantine. Pictured: A passenger from Melbourne arrives in Sydney on Saturday

Anyone who visited the following venues advised to immediately self-isolate and get tested Glebe: Jambo Jambo African Restaurant, 7pm to 10:30pm on Friday 31 July 2020 Hamilton: Bennett Hotel, 5:30pm to 10pm on Friday 31 July Hamilton: Sydney Junction Hotel, 11pm on Saturday 1 August to 1:15am on Sunday 2 August Jesmond: Hotel Jesmond, 7pm to 9pm on Wednesday 29 July Lambton: Lambton Park Hotel, 8pm to 9pm on Thursday 30 July New Lambton: Bar 88 - Wests New Lambton, 5pm to 7:15pm on Sunday 2 August Newcastle: Hamilton to Adamstown Number 26 bus, 8:20am on Monday 3 August Potts Point: The Apollo, Wednesday 22 July to Sunday 26 July (The period has been extended by two days to include Wednesday 22 July and Sunday 26 July.) St Leonards: Fitness First, 9am to 10:30am on Monday 27 July Surry Hills: Hotel Harry (Harpoon Harry), 2:15pm to 11pm on Sunday 26 July Sydney: Burrow Bar, 9:45pm to midnight on Saturday, 1 August Wallsend: Wallsend Diggers, 9pm to 11pm on Wednesday 29 July and 9pm to 11pm on Thursday 30 July Advertisement

Meanwhile, a western Sydney primary school has closed after a student tested positive to COVID-19, while NSW has recorded 14 new cases of the virus.

All Bonnyrigg Heights Public School students are learning from home on Monday as the school helps NSW Health trace the close contacts of the student and conducts cleaning.

All staff and students are asked to self-isolate in the meantime.

Dr Chant also confirmed that five new cases have been confirmed at Tangara School for Girls in Cherrybrook, with the school's secondary campus closed until August 21. The five new cases were in four students and a contact of a previously confirmed case.

St Agatha's Catholic Church in Pennant Hills is also undergoing deep cleaning after a parishioner on August 5 and 6 tested positive to the virus, as is PharmaSave Pharmacy in Cherrybrook after an infected employee worked on August 6.

The worker, who wore a mask during their shift, was one of 10 new COVID-19 cases recorded on Sunday, with just one in hotel quarantine and two under investigation.

NSW Health has also advised staff who had contact with a Hornsby Hospital healthcare employee to self-isolate for 14 days after the staffer worked in the emergency department on August 6 from 11am to midnight while infectious.

The worker wore a mask at all times while in contact with patients and was asymptomatic at the time but became unwell after their shift.

NSW Health has also advised staff who had contact with a Hornsby Hospital healthcare employee to self-isolate for 14 days after the staffer worked in the emergency department on August 6 from 11am to midnight while infectious.

The worker wore a mask at all times while in contact with patients and was asymptomatic at the time but became unwell after their shift.
An air crash is not the result of a single event in isolation; it is a chain of events that lead to a disaster. This was seen during the two previous crashes in India  the 2010 air crash at Mangalore and the 2000 tragedy at Patna.

As the focus shifts back to flight safety and airports in India with the recent crash of the Air India Express IX1344 at Kozhikode, it is important that we learn and act on past mistakes.

The crash of Alliance Air B737-200 at Patna raised questions about the airport. The relatively shorter runway at the airport along with high temperatures in summer months make the airport risky. The most popular solution of runway extension is not feasible at Patna since it has a protected biological park at one end, and a major railway line at another!

While most airports in the country have some or the other obstructions such as concrete structures on the approach path, in Patna there were trees that could grow to obstruct a landing and it required complex permissions to prune them.

About eight years ago, the regulator had come up with a proposal to allow only turboprop flights in Patna, as a measure of flight safety. This idea did not move beyond the proposal stage and today Patna is one of the top airports in the country in terms of passenger traffic.

Air Force Station Bihta  30 kilometers from existing Patna airport - will have a new civil enclave that will serve as a second airport for Patna. While this has been in the pipeline for last four years, it is far from reality as of today. Also, a second airport may take care of the traffic congestion at the older airport, but not the safety aspect.

In 2010, IX-812 crashed in Mangalore. The table-top runway at Mangalore came in focus and so did many others. A recommendation to increase the runway length remains unheeded, without much being done since then.

While Patna, Mangalore and Calicut are civil airports, things could be complex for air fields controlled by the armed forces. Airports like Pune, Goa, Jamnagar or Gwalior were primarily designed keeping in mind the needs of operating fighter jets. Thus, these airports have obstructions like a safety end, at the ends of their runways. For years, there has been demand to have another airport at Pune, Goa, Vizag or Patna but little has moved as the country battles challenges related to land acquisition and resettlement.

There are multiple airports in the country which were classified as airports which pose a safety risk. Much has also been said and written about table top runways and while table top runways are not risky per say, the risk is higher in case of a runway excursion. But little has been done.

Need for transparency & continuity

The Narendra Modi-led government in its second term now has put aviation in focus with ambitious schemes like RCS  UDAN. While the scheme's focus is to connect the unconnected and under-connected, the government has also been taking credit of the growth in air traffic and increase in commercial fleet even after the demise of Jet Airways. The government has also had its focus on transparency.

The initial days saw the Prime Minister using technology to bring in transparency; right from having a dashboard of attendance at various departments being made public, to every department looking at ways to share real time information with the public.

In the first term, when Jayant Sinha was Minister of State for Civil Aviation, a portal was launched to file and track complains  Air Sewa. There also was a mobile application and by the end of the term of the government, an enhanced version was also out.

While Sinha was dropped from the second term, Air Sewa also disappeared! It speaks volumes about continuity and accountability  assuming that the portal and mobile application wasnt developed for free. While it is common to see schemes being dropped when governments change, this became a case of dropping something that was being pushed on every occasion  just because the minister changed!

Need for more accountability

From every disaster, there has to be a learning and improvement  without which we could potentially be staring at another disaster. With the regulator DGCA revamping its website and the Civil Aviation Ministry also updating its regularly, it is time to have details on airports.

For instance, what is the safety status of an airport, risk assessment and a time line towards improving anything highlighted as a risk. This has to be detailed out, with information on the accountable manager, and responsibilities should be fixed in line with the citizen charter, to ensure a turnaround time is known and tracked.

Pressure groups who work to attract airlines to their cities should also work towards ensuring that all safety measures are in place and efforts are undertaken to ensure safe operations at their favorite citys airport.

The problem with transparency reforms is that  it is easier said, than done!

Ameya Joshi runs the aviation analysis website Network Thoughts.
Householders have been urged to be vigilant for markings on their properties which criminals may be using to single out for burglaries or thefts of dogs.

A number of community alert groups across the county have urged people to be aware of the practice and to contact gardai if necessary.

Gangs have been known to 'mark out' properties for accomplices so that the same vehicles or individuals won't be seen in the same area twice.

Marks with aerosol paint or chalk are often left on front walls or cable ties may be attached to gates to tip off a would-be burglar that it is a potential target.

There has been a surge in thefts of dogs in recent weeks, possibly because a demand for pets that began during the lockdown has inflated prices for the animals on online market sites in Ireland and the UK.

Last week, gardai seized ten dogs believed to be stolen following a search in Rathkeale.

They included Labradors, Springer Spaniels, English Setters, Cavalier King Charles and Huskies which were cared for in a local shelter while the owners were traced.

In late July, Gardai seized two stolen male springer spaniel dogs in Castleconnell, Co Limerick despite two men claiming they owned them.

One of the pets was later returned to its rightful owner in Co Cork.

In July, gardai seized eight dogs believed to worth in the region of 5,000 when they stopped a van exceeding the speed limit on the M8 motorway in Co Tipperary.

Also in June, Gardai in Cork seized 22 dogs during a search operation at locations in Gurranabraher and Knocknaheeny.
After an aneurysm left Deborah Martin hospitalized in 2001, her then-13-year-old son Antonio A Tone Wilsons shining face helped her recover.

Every time I opened my eyes at the hospital, he was always there, Martin said. He would say, Mama, you are going to be OK. Mama, you are going to be OK. Mama, I love you.

Three days after Wilson, 32, was shot to death in the 5900 block of Bedford Drive in Beaumont, Martin said she could not go home, knowing that Wilson would not be there when she opens her eyes.

Hundreds of people showed up at Charlton Pollard Park for a balloon release late Sunday afternoon to remember and honor Wilson. Many wore shirts that had Justice for A Tone written on them. The multicolored balloons represented the color in which Wilson lived his live, family said.

Albert Turner said while in high school, he and Wilson were always in competition to see who could throw the biggest parties.

I was one year older than Tone, Turner said. I was considered the best out here. One day, we ended up throwing parties on the same night. He beat me.

It was the first time in my life that anyone beat me. He was smart. He let everyone in for free.

He didnt do it to make money. He took a loss financially just to outdo me. I told him that it doesnt count if he didnt make money.

The two party titans later got together and considered the prospect of joining forces.

From that day on, we started getting our groups together, Turner said. It started off as just throwing events at night clubs.

Every time our names are together, the fire marshals have to come out because of the amount of people we can pull.

Within years, the two turned their attention away from club promotion to focus on community-driven events.

We started looking at things like Hoops for Toys and feed-the-homeless drives, Turner said.

Weve done a back-to-school drive for the past eight years. We went from just two guys that like to throw parties to two guys that love to take care of the community.

Turner said while he had the business mind, Wilson brought the heart. On social media, posts dedicated to Wilson ended with #HeartofBMT. Many reminisced on the several times photos of Wilsons elaborate Halloween costumes left the internet abuzz.

For Halloween 2015, Wilson wore a wig and a diaper and recreated the cover for Biggie Smalls Ready to Die. The picture was shared by Amber Rose and amassed more than 100,000 likes on Instagram. The following year, Wilson recreated a photo of a rapper Tupac Shakur in a bathtub covered with jewelry.

He loved Halloween, Turner said. He would plan months in advance. He was already prepared for this year. He had three ideas he was going to choose from, but he was absolutely ready for it.

Martin said Wilson was set to begin a new job today after being laid off from a construction company in Louisiana because of the coronavirus pandemic. She said Wilson, who has a 2-year-old son, was a safety manager and was always looking for new ways to grow.

He wasnt the life of the party, he was the party, she said. I dont care where he went or what he was doing. It could be sad, but he lit up the room. There was never a dull moment with him.

Beaumont police asked that people in the area where the shooting occurred check their cameras for anything that could aid police in the investigation. As of Sunday evening, no arrests have been made and BPD had not released a potential motive behind the shooting.

Wilsons death marked the citys 10th homicide.

I feel as though (the shooters) knew who he was, Martin said. Beaumont knows him. I feel as though he knew who shot him.

My prayer is that God saves them and heals them. I want justice to be served and that God touches their hearts. Why you take my sons life? I dont know. I dont know what you gain from it, but as his mother, Im asking the Lord to touch your heart.

chris.moore@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/chris_moore09
Universities should keep places open until pupils complete their A-level exam appeals, the Government said last night.

In a lifeline for teenagers who fear they may lose out under the controversial new assessment system, universities minister Michelle Donelan wrote to vice-chancellors urging them to show flexibility.

She said youngsters should not have to put their future on hold because of a sluggish appeals process and that, where possible, places should be kept open for teenagers trying to win a new grade.

In a lifeline for teenagers who fear they may lose out under the controversial new assessment system, universities minister Michelle Donelan wrote to vice-chancellors urging them to show flexibility. Pictured: Stock photo of graduates lining up for their degree

And in another sign of turmoil in the A-level system, Nicola Sturgeon last night issued an extraordinary apology for her governments approach to exams in Scotland. In a shock U-turn, the humiliated First Minister signalled thousands of pupils would get new grades after an outcry over the way that their papers had been assessed.

Details will be announced later today, but Miss Sturgeon promised teenagers in Scotland would now get the grades they feel they have worked for and earned.

Her announcement immediately ratcheted up the pressure on exams watchdog Ofqual to revise the nearly identical grading system south of the border.

Yesterday the Daily Mail revealed that thousands of A-level pupils in England and Wales could miss out on their first choice university because of the way the appeals system will work.

While they have been told that their appeals will need to be resolved by September 7, exams boards have suggested they may not have completed their review of grades until more than two weeks later. This means pupils could potentially miss out on a university place while waiting for the results of their appeal.

In her letter to vice-chancellors, Miss Donelan urged them to extend some flexibility to those affected, writing: Where you are aware that a students grade may change as the result of an appeal, I would encourage you, where possible, to hold their place until they receive the result of that appeal.

She also suggested that pupils who successfully appealed would be exempted from any number caps on individual courses, allowing universities to fill the courses through clearing but still keep places open.

There are growing fears of chaos on Thursday when this years A-level results are revealed. Pupils did not sit exams this year because of the coronavirus crisis, being graded by their teachers instead.

However, the grades will be moderated centrally to ensure results overall are not inflated  leading to fears that thousands could see their results downgraded. This could trigger a flood of appeals and create turmoil in the university admissions system.

3,600 cash bribes to fill degree places via clearing By Sarah Harris for the Daily Mail Top universities are offering cash bribes as high as 3,600 and preparing to slash entry grades in a desperate scramble to fill degree places. They are luring students who enter the clearing system  where applicants achieve lower grades than they expected  with scholarships. Others are giving away laptops or paying applicants 1,000 if they make the institution their firm choice. The University of Sheffield, a member of the prestigious Russell Group, will pay students 3,600 each if they accept an offer through clearing The move comes as universities compete for students amid a drop in international applicants, which will affect income. Many home students could also defer their places until next year. But education experts condemned the tactics and urged teenagers to put incentives to one side when they receive their A-level results this Thursday. The University of Sheffield, a member of the prestigious Russell Group, will pay dozens of students 3,600 each if they accept an offer through clearing. Students applying for one of the 40 scholarships must have a household income of 50,000 or less. Derby University is offering scholarships worth 1,000 for the first time this year, and Northampton University is offering new undergraduates a free laptop, 500 off their accommodation or 500 in credit vouchers for on-campus eateries, bars and shops. But institutions vigorously defended their schemes yesterday. Sheffield University said students can apply for the scholarships earlier in the year, but that some are kept aside for clearing. Professor Mary Vincent, interim deputy vice-president for education at the university, said its important to us that cost is not a barrier to education so our students from lower-income families arent disadvantaged when it comes to applying for financial support and have access to the same opportunities as students who apply earlier in the cycle. A spokesman for Derby University said its scheme rewards academic achievement, and a Northampton University spokesman said the laptop offer removes students concern of having to buy their own device before joining. UCAS chief executive Clare Marchant predicted yesterday that 80,000 applicants could find a place via clearing this year  up from 73,325 last year. Advertisement

While pupils need to meet university offers by September 7  a deadline already extended once by UCAS  exam boards nervous of being swamped with grade challenges have refused to commit to the timeframe.

None of the big three exams boards  AQA, OCR and Pearson Edexcel  have provided assurances to the Mail that they would be able to meet the date, because of concerns over the number of appeals likely following the standardisation process that could downgrade 40 per cent of teacher-submitted grades.

Miss Donelan also said that institutions should also take a holistic view of pupils who miss out on their offers, in an apparent acknowledgment that this years grades may be unreliable.

She added: Nobody should have to put their future on hold because of this virus. That is why I am urging universities to be as flexible as possible in their admissions and to hold places for those whose grades are being appealed.

Last night Westminster sources insisted there were no plans to mimic the Scottish governments backtracking, and that the grade adjustment system being used in England was the best option in a horrible situation.

They added that unlike in Scotland, pupils in England could retake as many papers as they wished in October, and keep the highest result. They also pointed to examples of entire classes being awarded A*s as showing the need for standardisation.
Ukraine could resume water supplies to Crimea in the event of a humanitarian disaster, but for the local population only, not industry, which would not be possible for a number of reasons, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said in an interview with Radio Liberty publicized on Saturday.

Asked on what conditions Ukraine could resume water supplies to the peninsula, Shmyhal said: "In case of a need to provide people with water, if there is a humanitarian catastrophe. Ukraine, of course, will provide Ukrainians with water and everything necessary - medications, food, and so on - wherever [they are], be it Crimea or some other place."

The same will not be possible for Crimea's industrial needs, he said.

"From the standpoint of industrial supply, today there are a number of (. . .) physical constraints, from the Crimean canal being shut, and there have been several investigations, including by journalists, that supplying water to Crimea would not be possible today because of the existing infrastructure, which needs investment and repair, to the fact that we are not going to supply water to our occupiers, occupier troops, for military bases. That is not possible," Shmyhal said.
Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - Civil society organizations, trade unions and private sector associations in The Gambia have called on all citizens, associations and all stakeholders to recommit themselves to the fight against COVID 19
A bomb targeting a vehicle from Pakistan's Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) exploded in a busy market in southwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border on August 10, killing at least five people and wounding 10 others, police and hospital officials said.

Responsibility for the attack in the troubled border town of Chaman was claimed by Jamaat ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, in a message circulated to journalists in Pakistan.

Authorities say the bomb had been attached to a motorcycle and detonated by remote control.

Zakaullah Durrani, the deputy chief of the Chaman city police, told RFE/RL that all those killed by the explosion were civilians.

Durrani said two members of the ANF also were wounded in the blast and that a total of seven wounded victims had been hospitalized in critical condition.

Security forces and police cordoned off the area. Residents said several shops and vehicles were damaged.

Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the attack.

The incident follows violence by Pakistani troops who opened fire at a rally in Chaman organized by minority Pashtun workers who were demanding the reopening of the nearby border crossing into Afghanistan. The security forces killed at least three people and wounded 13 in that confrontation.

Shortly after security forces fired on the rally, Pakistani and Afghan troops in the area also exchanged fire. Both sides accused the other of firing first.

Afghan officials said nine people were killed in the cross-border fire.

The border crossing near Chaman has been closed since March due to the coronavirus pandemic, preventing Pashtun residents from crossing into Afghanistan to work as day laborers.

With reporting by AP and dpa
To convince people to cooperate, she has to get them to trust her. She has to convince them that they might be infected, even if they have no symptoms. Oh, yes, shell say, Ive been hearing that a lot. She has to let people curse at her and hang up; then she has to call them back the very next day. And if she wants them to heed her advice, she has to listen, really listen, to how scared they are that if they stay home from their jobs, they might not be able to feed their families.
Atlantic waters off the south coast of Ireland, through to the English Channel and southern North Sea have experienced significant warming over the past 40 years, and further increases in sea temperatures are expected.

Computer projections up to the year 2090 suggest increases in abundance of warm-adapted species such as red mullet, Dover sole, John Dory and lemon sole, and decreases in cold species such as cod, monkfish and megrim.

Lead author Dr Katherine Maltby, who undertook the research while at UK's Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), said: Our results show that climate change will continue to affect fish stocks within this sea region into the future, presenting both potential risks but some opportunities that fishers will likely have to adapt to.

Consumers can help fishers take advantage of these fishing opportunities by seeking out other fish species to eat and enjoy.

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Co-author Louise Rutterford, from University of Exeter, said: We know from working with fishers that warmer water species are appearing in catches more.

Bringing together their on-the-ground experiences with studies like ours will help inform future management decisions that enable sustainable exploitation while supporting fishers adaptation.

 The paper, Projected impacts of warming seas on commercially fished species at a biogeographic boundary of the European continental shelf, is published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.
Ontario doctor Kulvinder Kaur Gill has been criticized by fellow physicians and others after a series of tweets that they say spread misinformation about COVID-19.

CBC has reviewed two email complaints about Gill's tweets, including one by a family doctor to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, which sets regulatory standards for doctors in the province.

One of her tweets, from Aug. 6, stated: "#Humanity's existing effective defences against #COVID19 to safely return to normal life now includes: -Truth, -T-cell Immunity, -Hydroxychloroquine."

That tweet has since been taken down for violating Twitter's rules. Twitter doesn't confirm what rules a specific tweet may have violated when it has been taken down. Many doctors also replied critically to Gill's tweet.

Hydroxychloroquine is a drug used to treat malaria and some autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. It has been touted by U.S. President Donald Trump as a potential fix for COVID-19. However, the drug has been shown to be ineffective in combating the virus, according to a major study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Medical bodies such as the Canadian Pediatric Society say hydroxychloroquine has no significant benefit in fighting COVID-19. Health Canada has not authorized hydroxychloroquine to treat or cure COVID-19 and has warned Canadians about products making false and misleading claims. It says hydroxychloroquine can have serious side effects. Only recently did Health Canada authorize, with conditions, remdesivir to treat severe cases of COVID-19.

On Aug. 4, Gill tweeted "If you have not yet figured out that we don't need a vaccine, you are not paying attention," adding the hashtag #FactsNotFear. Gill identifies herself as Kulvinder Kaur on her Twitter profile.

Another of Gill's tweets on the same day states, "There is absolutely no medical or scientific reason for this prolonged, harmful, and illogical lockdown."

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Kulvinder Kaur Gill/Twitter

Gill operates a clinic in Brampton, Ont., and she has over 22,000 followers on Twitter. She is also the president and co-founder of Concerned Ontario Doctors, a self-described grassroots group that has been critical of the Ontario Medical Association, the organization that represents 34,000 of the province's doctors.

All practicing physicians in the province are legally mandated to pay dues to the OMA, though they do not have to be members of the group. The Concerned Doctors of Ontario did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Gill and others have said the OMA attempts to muzzle doctors, and it refuses to be financially transparent and accountable to its members.

According to the CPSO, Gill's specialty is pediatrics.

Gill did not respond to CBC News's multiple requests for comment. On Twitter, she said,"There are always opposing views in medicine  historically many have led to some of the most significant medical advances.

"In a democratic society: there must always be open, constructive, public debate. Voices of Physicians & Scientists must never be attacked, censored or silenced."

Gill has also retweeted another doctor, Simone Gold, who claimed there was a financial incentive to discredit hydroxychloroquine as a treatment. Gold's tweet was taken down for violating Twitter rules, but not Gill's retweet.

Gold was one of the doctors in a 40-minute long video that went viral at the end of July, which promoted hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19. At least 17 million people saw one version of the video, though both Facebook and Twitter removed copies from their platforms.

Twitter temporarily suspended the account of Donald Trump Jr. for posting the video until he deleted the tweet.

George Frey/Reuters

'This is a threat to me in my practice'

Alex Nataros, one of the people who filed a complaint with the CPSO, is a family doctor in Comox, B.C. He disagrees with Gill's opinions.

"This is a threat to me in my practice and my professional integrity here in British Columbia," he said of Gill's tweets on hydroxychloroquine. "It's a threat to my 1,500 patients to have a Canadian licensed physician promoting misinformation that is harmful."

He said many of his patients are older and may already have health issues, and he spends a lot of time re-educating his patients about the pandemic.

"I spent too much of my time every day debunking what they've read on Facebook or read on Twitter or in Instagram," he said.

Nataros's views are echoed by Michelle Cohen, a family doctor in Brighton, Ont.

"She is promoting some misinformation that's quite dangerous, especially considering that we are in the middle of a public health crisis," said Cohen, who tweeted her concern at the CPSO, though she did not file a formal complaint.

Cohen said that Gill's tweets are setting the stage for people to reject a vaccine that could be very helpful.

WATCH | Hydroxychloroquine trials halted, researchers focus on other COVID-19 treatments:

Gill says she is being 'defamed'

In an email to CBC News, the CPSO said it doesn't comment on ongoing investigations.

"It's important that physicians recognize the influence they may have on social media, particularly when it comes to public health. The CPSO believes questioning the value of vaccinations or countering public health best practices during COVID-19 represents a risk to the public and is not acceptable behaviour," wrote a spokesperson for the CPSO.

"Physicians who are found to be spreading misleading medical information that may bring harm towards patients can face practice restrictions or suspension for their actions."

On Sunday, Gill tweeted that she "will not abide being defamed" and has retained legal counsel.

She also said, "#Groupthink is dangerous. Well-intentioned people make irrational or detrimental decisions spurred by urge to conform or the belief that dissent is impossible."

"It is often fuelled by a cult of personality ahead of critical thinking and dissent is silenced with threat of reprisals," she wrote.
A Fort Bend man is determined to see a monument, which he calls "a direct slap and insult to African-Americans of Richmond and Fort Bend," removed  but the city isn't making it easy for him.

The monument reads, in part, Capable county government and their fellow citizens have reared this monument to their memory and as a promise to them that their principles shall be maintained for all time to come." It pays tribute to white supremacists H.H. Frost, L.E. Gibson and J.M. Shamblin, three members of a group called the Jaybirds that dedicated their time to overthrowing the Woodpecker Republican stronghold and denying Blacks the right to vote or run for office.

But questions remain regarding who actually owns the statue that sits on the property near Richmond City Hall, according to the Houston Chronicle.

If its abandoned, nobody owns it. Why cant I own it? Tre Davis said to the Chronicle.

Richmond's City Manager Terri Vela said the monument's ownership has shifted over the years between Fort Bend County and Richmond City. But in a July letter to Davis, the city [of Richmond] said they have "constructive possession" over it  and banned him or anyone associated with him from removing it.

A Change.org petition to remove the monument, organized by Katy resident Taral Patel, has garnered almost 2,000 signatures and also led to the statue being covered and a historical plaque with community input being added.

These men are not my heroes: Controversial Richmond statue covered following petition for removal

"In the heart of Americas most diverse county, a monument honoring post-Confederate leaders is memorialized next to Richmond City Hall," Patel's petition says."This major public monument glorifies the values of the Jaybirds and white supremacy reflecting their support of the Confederacy, an insurgent movement against our country, which is an affront to all Americans."

Patel wrote that the petition is to show city officials that there is strong support in Richmond, and elsewhere, to have the monument removed from their community.

A survey will be available until Aug. 21 to determine what will become of the monument, a history spokesperson told KTRK.

In the meantime, Davis told the Chronicle he will also be pushing ahead with his plans to have the statue removed. He said he would like to see it placed in the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the lynching museum in Alabama or the Bullock Texas State History Museum.
Marie Thompson, left, planned the brutal attack at the property of her ex-partner in Newcastle in 2017. (Northumbria Police/ Google Maps)

A woman has been jailed for eight years after she plotted for a gang to raid the home of her ex-boyfriend and torture him into handing over cash and bank details.

Marie Thompson, 46, planned the brutal attack, which took place at the property of her ex-partner in Newcastle in 2017.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how she had broken up with the 42-year-old, who has not been identified, in 2015 before moving to her new home in Warwickshire.

The two stayed in contact and on 26 July, 2017, Thompson returned to the North East to visit his home in Walker.

But during her stay two masked men gained entry to the property and launched a sustained and brutal assault on her ex-partner while Thompson stood by and watched.

The men bound the victims hands and attacked him with knives. The victim had no inkling that Thompson was involved in the attack.

Marie Thompson, 46, was jailed for eight years after planning the brutal attack. (Northumbria Police)

The man sustained multiple stab wounds after being tortured by the men into handing over cash and his bank details.

They eventually fled the house and said they were going to kidnap Thompson  before trying to douse their victim in alcohol and set him on fire.

Police were called and a search operation was launched to locate Thompson, who was thought to have been taken by the men.

Detectives visited one of Thompsons friends in Walker and quickly discovered evidence that she had conspired with associates in the Midlands to carry out the violent burglary.

Thompson, of Rugby, Warwickshire, was arrested at her home in Rugby three days later, and was charged with conspiracy to commit robbery.

She admitted the charge and was brought before Newcastle Crown Court on Friday, where she was jailed for eight years.

Thompson returned to Newcastle to visit her ex-boyfriend's home on in Walker after moving to Warwickshire. (Google Maps)

Detective Constable Carol Davison of Northumbria Police said: This was a violent and sustained attack that left the victim with a number of serious injuries.

He was understandably terrified and thought he was going to die as he was repeatedly attacked by the masked men.

When the attack was eventually over he was very distressed as he thought his ex-partner had been kidnapped by a gang of violent thieves.

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Unbeknown to him, Marie Thompson was involved in hatching the plan that had left his body peppered with stab wounds.

She was eventually tracked down and a haul of evidence was gathered that ultimately proved she was complicit in the plot to rob her ex-partner.

Now she is facing a lengthy spell behind bars and I hope that it brings some comfort to the victim knowing that justice has been served.

Thompsons partner at the time of the offence, Mark Gibson, 53, is currently wanted by police in relation to the robbery.
While revenue generation from property taxes is not significantly impaired in FY2021, CPS faces some property tax challenges in the near future, budget documents state. Alongside the COVID-19-related decline in assessments from the Cook County Assessors Office which will impact pension levy revenues, there would be a potential impact if the pace of new construction slows from current trends. In line with the statewide decline in corporate income tax revenues, Personal Property Replacement Tax (PPRT) revenues are budgeted to decline by $20 million compared to the FY2020 budget.
KAMPALA  The recently released Global HIV and AIDS statistics show that

Uganda is among the front runners in reducing new HIV infections.

Hon Esther Mbayo, Minister for Presidency while addressing the press on August 10 at the Uganda Media Center revealed that there are still disparities in HIV prevalence among the various districts.

For a long time the epicentre of HIV was Rakai alongside other thriving urban centres and many districts in Uganda such as those along the highways and rapids commercialization in the Karamoja region did not have any cases of HIV infection. However, to date, every district in Uganda has cases of HIV, she said.

Mbayo added that because the achievements in reducing HIV prevalence have not been shared equally between districts, it is important that we act with urgency to achieve our goal of Ending AIDS in Uganda by 2030she said.

HIV infection in Uganda is gendered with prevalence being higher among women at 6.8% than men at 4.2%. 2.8% among young women and 1.1% among young men.

Amongst older adolescents and young people, prevalence is almost four times higher among females than males.

Despite numerous HIV prevention interventions, there is increased engagement in risky sexual behavior including multiple sexual partners, low condom use among those engaging in high risk sex and decline in age of sexual debut; widespread self-stigma, low uptake of couple testing, and significant proportions of people, especially men living with HIV, who do not know their HIV status.

We need to implement behavior change interventions and disseminate messages for HIV prevention to reduce HIV infections; pay attention to the vulnerabilities and risk factors in the general population apart from concentrating on only the urban hot spots and also roll out the local funding sources such as the One Dollar Initiative to ensure sustainability of the response if we are to End AIDS as a public health threat by 2030,said Mbayo.

She added that, In order to ensure we are on track to End AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) will be convening the Annual Joint AIDS Review on 26th and 27th August where we will be assessing whether we achieved the targets we set out in the National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan for 2015/2020 so that we can strategize to ensure we achieve our goal of Ending AIDS by 2030.

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One of the givens in modern American politics is that the media despise President Trump. Except for Fox News, which gives him a fair shake, the rest of the American media have a hatred so intense that, no matter the story, they have to give it an anti-Trump twist.

No wonder jokes circulate that if Trump announced he'd found a cure for cancer, the media would instantly lambaste him for taking work away from doctors. That's why it was so funny to see Brian Stelter and a guest applaud themselves for their fair-mindedness.

We already know that journalists hew left  way, way left. Of those American journalists who donated to a presidential candidate in 2016, well over 96% donated to Hillary Clinton. As a general matter, outside 2016, journalists overwhelmingly donate to Democrat causes.

A recent study also revealed that journalists live in a bubble even smaller than conservatives initially thought. We assumed that they lived in a leftist bubble. It turns out, though, that they live in a subset of that bubble, one we could call the "leftist journalist bubble":

Journalists in Washington, D.C., have long been accused of living in a "Beltway bubble," isolated from the broader public, talking too much to each other. Their interactions on Twitter, however, show them congregating in even smaller "microbubbles," says a recent study. The journalists within each communicate more among themselves than with journalists outside the group. That means Beltway journalism "may be even more insular than previously thought," say study authors Nikki Usher and Yee Man Margaret Ng, "raising additional concerns about vulnerability to groupthink and blind spots."

When it comes to Trump, the mainstream media's negativity has reached heights unseen in all previous presidential administrations. By January of this year, before the hysteria ratcheted up even more over coronavirus, the media's Trump coverage was 93% negative.

That's the background. And now for the video that would surely win an award (if there were one) for the least self-aware people in America:

.@brianstelter: "When you see entire media companies essentially exist to tear down Joe Biden, is there an equivalent of that on the left, tearing down Trump?"@emarvelous: "There really isnt." pic.twitter.com/JlMkqAQeIW  Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) August 9, 2020

Stelter defended the video clip by saying he and his guests were discussing talk radio, not news radio, but that's a no-go. What got everyone's attention, and that he cannot walk back, is the fact that he and his guest are so certain that no one on the left would ever engage in purely negative reporting about a presidential candidate.

I've watched the video three times now and still find it hysterically funny. I also find it frightening. Whether we like it or not, the American media still have a disproportionate say in the way Americans view themselves, their country, and their political leaders.

The fact that the people behind the media are the equivalent of a pack of dogs endlessly sniffing each other's rears in the search for reportable news signals a country in swift decline. Donald Trump, to his great credit, has been challenging them every step of the way, but, despite 73% of Americans distrusting the media, at least half the country is still swayed by what journalists say.

Image: Trump press conference by the White House Flickr feed, public domain.
- Hyundai's dedicated EV brand IONIQ embodies company's smart mobility vision

- Company aims to offer connected lifestyle experience to customers with IONIQ brand models

- Hyundai will introduce three innovative IONIQ EV models over the next four years, starting early 2021 with IONIQ 5, a midsize EV CUV based on the concept '45'

- IONIQ EV models will be built on the E-GMP platform

- IONIQ brand embodies Hyundai's commitment to provide connected lifestyle solutions

- Hyundai celebrated the brand launch by turning the London Eye into a giant letter 'Q' with electric lights

SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai Motor Company today announced the launch of its new IONIQ brand dedicated to battery electric vehicles, opening a new chapter as a leader in the era of electrified mobility. Under the IONIQ brand, Hyundai will offer customer centric EV experiences centered on connected lifestyle solutions in line with Hyundai's vision of 'Progress for Humanity'.

Experience the interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8759551-hyundai-ioniq-ev-brand/

Under the IONIQ brand, Hyundai Motor will leverage its industry-leading manufacturing know-how in EVs to introduce three new dedicated models over the next four years with more innovative models to follow. The creation of IONIQ brand is in response to fast-growing market demand and accelerates Hyundai's plan to lead the global EV market.

To fulfill IONIQ's brand mission, Hyundai will combine its current EV capabilities - such as ultra-fast charging, spacious interior, and battery-supplied power - with future innovations that combine design, technologies and services to integrate in-car and out-of-car experiences for a seamless journey.

"The IONIQ brand will change the paradigm of EV customer experience," said Wonhong Cho, Executive Vice President and Global Chief Marketing Officer at Hyundai Motor Company. "With a new emphasis on connected living, we will offer electrified experiences integral to an eco-friendly lifestyle."

Rebirth of IONIQ

Hyundai first introduced the term IONIQ, which fuses "ion" and "unique", when it announced Project IONIQ, a long-term research and development project focused on eco-friendly mobility. Based on the project, Hyundai in 2016 introduced a vehicle named IONIQ, the world's first and only model to offer a choice of three electrified powertrain options - hybrid electric, plug-in hybrid and battery electric - within a single body type. Now, IONIQ represents Hyundai's growing commitment to sustainability and innovation and will be instrumental in achieving the company's clean mobility goals.

IONIQ 5 / IONIQ 6 / IONIQ 7

Hyundai will be launching a range of numerically named EVs under the new brand, with the even numbers used for sedans and the odd numbers for SUVs.

The first model under the IONIQ brand will be the IONIQ 5 midsize CUV that will launch in early 2021. IONIQ 5 is based on the concept EV '45', which Hyundai unveiled at the International Motor Show (IAA) 2019 in Frankfurt as a homage to its very first concept car. IONIQ 5's designers took inspiration from the past and integrated it with cutting-edge parametric pixels, a unique design element that Hyundai designers will continue to incorporate into future IONIQ models.

In 2022, Hyundai will introduce IONIQ 6 sedan, which is based on the company's latest concept EV 'Prophecy', unveiled in March; followed by IONIQ 7, a large SUV in early 2024. Prophecy's iconic exterior design is characterized by its aerodynamic silhouette of perfect proportions.

Likewise, IONIQ vehicles' designs will have a common theme of 'Timeless Value'. The vehicles will be inspired by past models, but they will be a bridge to the future.

E-GMP platform

IONIQ brand models will sit on an Electric Global Modular Platform, known as E-GMP, that will enable fast charging capability and plentiful driving range.

The EV-dedicated platform will allow Hyundai to reimagine the vehicle interior as "smart living space" with highly adjustable seats, wireless connectivity and unique features such as a glove box designed as drawers. The platform paradigm shift will extend into the user interfaces that will be simple, intuitive and ergonomically designed to help occupants feel at ease.

London Eye Event: IONIQ Campaign

Hyundai has celebrated the launch of IONIQ by turning the London Eye into a giant letter "Q" using electric lights just before the official reopening of the famous attraction.

This marks the first event of the 'I'm in Charge' brand campaign, which promotes empowerment of the environment and diverse lifestyles through IONIQ.

A video of Hyundai turning the globally famous London Eye into a huge 'Q' can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/PL1scZfgrDA.

Information about IONIQ Brand can be found at: www.hyundai.com/worldwide/en/brand/ioniq-launch

More information about Hyundai Motor and its products can be found at:

http://worldwide.hyundai.com or http://globalpr.hyundai.com
All organizations wrestle with chronic phishing attacks that are the primary vectors through which malicious actors breach systems and spread malware.

Most phishing attackers deliver their payloads on networks by crafting spoofed emails that look like they come from legitimate, authoritative senders. Those look-alike emails instead derive from domains deployed solely for malicious purposes. Its virtually impossible for most email recipients to detect the differences between real and spoofed email accounts, making phishing an intractable and seemingly never-ending problem for users and organizations alike.

Now computer science researchers have discovered eighteen new vulnerabilities in how email systems authenticate senders. Vern Paxson, Professor of Computer Science at UC Berkeley and Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at Corelight, Jianjun Chen, Post-Doc researcher at the International Computer Science Institute and Jian Jiang, Senior Director of Engineering at F5 (Shape Security), presented the result of their research at Black Hat last week in a talk entitled You Have No Idea Who Sent That Email: 18 Attacks on Email Sender Authentication.

Subject to interpretation

As the researchers point out in their academic paper, to combat email spoofing, email servers employ several simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) extensions, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, to authenticate the senders purported identity for displaying in email clients assurances of the senders validity. It is the composition of these different software components to construct these assurances that have vulnerabilities that enable attackers to engage in the impersonation.
The Multnomah County District Attorneys Office declined to prosecute Portland activist Demetria Hester on Monday and criminal charges against her were dismissed a day after Portland police arrested her and several others at a protest.

Hester greeted several protesters outside the Multnomah County Justice Center after her release Monday afternoon. In a brief, emotional speech, she told protesters she would never stop demanding justice.

This is about our future, this is about peace, Hester told a crowd of about 50 that gathered outside the Justice Center, many holding Free Demetria signs. Our peace of mind to walk down the street and care for each other again. Peace to go to your neighbors and say, I love you. What do you need?

KGW live-streamed the speech.

Watch Live: Leaders from the Black Lives Matter movement speak in Portland Leaders from the Black Lives Matter movement hold a news conference in Portland. Posted by KGW-TV on Monday, August 10, 2020

Hester was charged with second-degree disorderly conduct and interfering with a police officer, and she spent Sunday night in police custody. On Monday, Multnomah County DAs office spokesman Brent Weisberg said the court would dismiss the charges.

The prosecution decline decision was in the interest of justice upon reviewing the police reports in this matter, Weisberg said in an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Hester, a regular presence at protests who has been at the forefront of Portland demonstrations as a leader of the Moms United for Black Lives group, was one of 16 arrested outside the Portland Police Association building Sunday night, after authorities declared a riot.

Hester is also the survivor of a hate crime in 2017, when Jeremy Christian attacked her and threatened her after she confronted him for yelling racial slurs and hate speech on a MAX train. When Hester reported the crime to Portland police, they didnt take Christian into custody. The next day, Christian stabbed three men on a MAX train after a similar rant, killing two of them.

In her speech Monday, Hester told listeners to remain firm in their demands. She told the crowd to call for three things  reparations for Black people, writing in Teressa Raiford for mayor on election ballots, and writing in a Black woman for president.

We do not have to settle, she said. Write in Teressa Raiford. And we need to choose a Black woman president. We can write her in.

Several other activists spoke after Hester, including members of the Moms United for Black Lives group.

Demetria Hester leads a group of moms during a Portland protest on July 30, 2020. Mark Graves/Staff

Activist Elisha Warren said they are raising money for several of the members to travel to Washington D.C. for the March on Washington, which will fall on the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jrs march on the capital.

Hester ended her speech leading the crowd in chants of stay woke and reparations.

We are here for this revolution, she said. If youre here, do your part.

Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame are developing a new technique using artificial intelligence (AI) that would improve CT screening to more quickly identify patients with the coronavirus. The new technique will reduce the burden on the radiologists tasked with screening each image.

Testing challenges have led to an influx of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 requiring CT scans which have revealed visual signs of the disease, including ground glass opacities, a condition that consists of abnormal lesions, presenting as a haziness on images of the lungs.

"Most patients with coronavirus show signs of COVID-related pneumonia on a chest CT but with the large number of suspected cases, radiologists are working overtime to screen them all," said Yiyu Shi, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Notre Dame and the lead researcher on the project. "We have shown that we can use deep learninga field of AIto identify those signs, drastically speeding up the screening process and reducing the burden on radiologists."

Shi is working with Jingtong Hu, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, to identify the visual features of COVID-19-related pneumonia through analysis of 3-D data from CT scans. The team is working to combine the analysis software with off-the-shelf hardware for a light-weight mobile device that can be easily and immediately integrated in clinics around the country. The challenge, Shi said, is that 3-D CT scans are so large, it's nearly impossible to detect specific features and extract them efficiently and accurately on plug-and-play mobile devices.

"We're developing a novel method inspired by Independent Component Analysis, using a statistical architecture to break each image into smaller segments," Shi said, "which will allow deep neural networks to target COVID-related features within large 3-D images."

Shi and Hu are collaborating with radiologists at Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital in China and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where a large number of CT images from COVID-19 pneumonia are being made available. The team hopes to have development completed by the end of the year.

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
Americans love a good story, and if its a tall tale, all the better. But the stories we tell about our own history are often incomplete, at best, or outright deceptions at worst.

A new book from an Oregon-born reporter outlines what he says actually happened to the middle class over the past half century -- the truth, lies and omissions by our political leaders -- and explains why a true economic recovery and rebirth of the middle class will require more opportunities for women and people of color first and foremost.

On the latest episode of Beat Check with The Oregonian, Jim Tankersley, who covers the economic and tax policy for the New York Times, talks about his new book.

Its called The Riches of This Land and hell be appearing at Powells virtually on Aug. 19 at 6 p.m.

Tankersley grew up in McMinnville and was a reporter for The Oregonian before landing in Washington DC, where he has worked for the Washington Post, Vox and now the Times.

We talked about what President Donald Trump gets, and doesnt get about the middle class, why immigrants are so important to our nations past and future economy, and what hes learned from years crisscrossing the country. We also discussed what he  and the media overall  got wrong in the lead up to the 2016 election.

Heres the full episode:
Kolkata: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday (August 10) has written a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, urging her to take steps to undo justice being done to West Bengal farmers.

The letter reads, "It is distressing to note that 70 lakh farmers continue to be denied benefits of PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi. Farmers in the state have already lost Rs 8,400 crores benefit which was their due and right."

"While each farmer all over the county has so far received Rs 12,00, our farmers have been denied of this legitimate right on account of insensitivity and confrontational stance of state govt. I have flagged the issue to you and the administration severally," the West Bengal Governor further said.

According to him, "PM Kisan is a Central Govt scheme with 100% funding from Govt of India and is operational from December 1, 2018. The amount is directly transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries, there being no middlemen or commission, the amount directly goes to the farmer."

He said that the state government only required to identify the farmer family so as to avail the benefit of the scheme.

"I fail to understand why this not been done by the State Govt. This unfortunate lapse, painfully harmful to the interests of the farmers. This 'cruel joke' and historic injustice on the farmers should make me realise that governance has to be for the benefit of the people at large," the governor added.

Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar concluded that "Under the PM Kisan, so far the farmers in the country have received about Rs 92,000 crores and no amount has come to our State. This calls for soul-searching and immediate amends. I urge you to take steps to undo this injustice to our fanners."
At least six people on Monday were reportedly killed and more than a dozen wounded in a bomb blast in South-Western Pakistan, an official said.

A bomb planted on a motorbike went off in the heart of the city of Chaman, which borders Afghanistans Kandahar province.

According to the regional police official, Mohammad Iqbal, at least six people were killed and 20 others were wounded in the blast.

Im afraid the number of dead will go up, he said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast, so far.

Violence by Islamist militants and ethnic Baloch rebels has recently surged across Pakistan, especially in Balochistan, the largest and most volatile province of the country. which borders Afghanistan and Iran.

The province faces a multifaceted threat from jihadist groups, including the Taliban, Sunni sectarian militants targeting Shiite Muslims, and nationalist insurgents seeking the independence of their province.

However, attacks against workers from other provinces, especially those working on projects initiated by China under a 62-billion-dollar investment plan, were common.

Balochistan has seen a surge in terror attacks in recent months, with militants attacking a luxury hotel, a military convoy and members of the minority Shiite community.

(dpa/NAN)
What underlying fundamental trends can indicate that a company might be in decline? A business that's potentially in decline often shows two trends, a return on capital employed (ROCE) that's declining, and a base of capital employed that's also declining. This combination can tell you that not only is the company investing less, it's earning less on what it does invest. Having said that, after a brief look, Excelsior Capital (ASX:ECL) we aren't filled with optimism, but let's investigate further.

What is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Excelsior Capital:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)  (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.11 = AU$5.3m  (AU$60m - AU$9.6m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2019).

Therefore, Excelsior Capital has an ROCE of 11%. On its own, that's a standard return, however it's much better than the 8.5% generated by the Electrical industry.

Check out our latest analysis for Excelsior Capital

roce

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for Excelsior Capital's ROCE against it's prior returns. If you'd like to look at how Excelsior Capital has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

The Trend Of ROCE

In terms of Excelsior Capital's historical ROCE movements, the trend doesn't inspire confidence. Unfortunately the returns on capital have diminished from the 15% that they were earning five years ago. Meanwhile, capital employed in the business has stayed roughly the flat over the period. Since returns are falling and the business has the same amount of assets employed, this can suggest it's a mature business that hasn't had much growth in the last five years. So because these trends aren't typically conducive to creating a multi-bagger, we wouldn't hold our breath on Excelsior Capital becoming one if things continue as they have.

Story continues

The Bottom Line On Excelsior Capital's ROCE

In summary, it's unfortunate that Excelsior Capital is generating lower returns from the same amount of capital. In spite of that, the stock has delivered a 31% return to shareholders who held over the last five years. Either way, we aren't huge fans of the current trends and so with that we think you might find better investments elsewhere.

Excelsior Capital does come with some risks though, we found 3 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 1 of those is potentially serious...

For those who like to invest in solid companies, check out this free list of companies with solid balance sheets and high returns on equity.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
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Linkedin Amber Wang and Shaun Tandon (Agence France-Presse) Taipei, Taiwan  Mon, August 10, 2020 13:45 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cd2336 2 World US,Taiwan,diplomatic-relations,US-China,US-China-tension Free

A US cabinet member met Taiwan's leader Monday during the highest level visit from the United States since it switched diplomatic recognition from the island to China in 1979, a trip that Beijing has condemned.

Health Secretary Alex Azar is in Taipei for a three-day visit to promote shared democratic values and the island's success in taming the coronavirus.

His trip comes as relations between the United States and China are in tumult, with the two sides clashing over a wide range of trade, military and security issues, as well as the pandemic.

China, which insists Taiwan is its own territory and vows to one day reclaim it, has described Azar's visit as a threat to "peace and stability".

On Monday morning, Azar met President Tsai Ing-wen, who advocates the island being recognized as a sovereign nation and is loathed by China's leaders.

"Taiwan's response to COVID-19 has been among the most successful in the world, and that is a tribute to the open, transparent, democratic nature of Taiwan's society and culture," Azar told Tsai.

Tsai thanked the US for supporting its bid to be part of the World Health Organization (WHO), a body Beijing keeps the island frozen out of.

"Political considerations should never take precedence over the rights to health," Tsai said, calling Beijing's refusal to let Taiwan join "highly regrettable".

Azar brushed off China's criticism when asked about Beijing's anger over his visit.

"The message that I bring from the US government is one of reaffirming the deep partnership the United States has with Taiwan in terms of security, commerce, health care and shared common values of democracy, economic freedom and liberty," he told reporters before his meeting with Tsai.

Azar has previously been critical of Beijing's response to the coronavirus, which began in central China, as well as the WHO.

It was a theme he repeated on Monday.

"[Taiwan] knew very early on... to not trust some of the assertions coming out of there (Beijing) or validation from the World Health Organization," he said.

As well as meeting Tsai, Azar will hold talks with his counterpart Chen Shih-chung and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.

Testing China

Taiwan has become a poster child for defeating the coronavirus thanks to a well-honed track and tracing program as well as firm border controls.

Despite its proximity and economic links to China it has recorded fewer than 500 infections and seven deaths.

In contrast the US has recorded the most deaths in the world with more than 160,000 fatalities.

Critics have accused US President Donald Trump of ramping up criticism of China as a way to divert from growing public anger over his administration's coronavirus response, especially as he fights for re-election in November.

Washington remains the leading arms supplier to Taiwan but has historically been cautious in holding official contacts with it.

Throughout the 1990s the United States sent trade officials to Taiwan with regularity.

Douglas Paal, a former head of the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington's de facto embassy, said the Trump administration was still paying heed to China's red line -- that no US official handling national security visit Taiwan.

The difference this time, he said, is the context, with Azar travelling at a time when relations between Washington and Beijing have hit a new low.

"Sending him to Taiwan shows respect for the old framework while putting a finger in China's eye at the same time," Paal said.

"The fact that they didn't choose to send a national security advisor or someone else suggests they are trying to come as close as possible to China's red line but don't want to cross it."

The last cabinet minister to visit Taiwan was in 2014 when the then head of the Environmental Protection Agency led a delegation.

But Washington has billed Azar's visit as the highest level trip made by a senior administration official since the diplomatic switch.
The coronavirus pandemic has limited the people's ability to travel through international flights. Even domestic travels are highly discouraged from curbing the further spread of the coronavirus disease.

The transport and tourism industry were also affected by the economic fallout brought by pandemic. Furthermore, COVID-19 cases in states across the U.S. are increasing day by day.

It makes you wonder if there are any other options for escaping the threats of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some might even consider another country, and this might be possible if you are rich.

Super-rich families are using their money to cross borders that would otherwise be closed to them. It can be done through investment migration programs offered by other countries, according to a CNN report.

Investment Migration

The investment migration is a process wherein passport applications are based not on nationality or citizenship, but wealth.

Investment migration programs also allow nations to allow citizenships to individuals in exchange for a substantial investment. These programs have been widely used, especially in the last decade.

Demand for alternative residence and citizenship rights has been a factor for thousands of individuals applying for them each year. These are also known as "golden visas." It allows the super-rich to diversify their business portfolio by moving their money into another country while receiving its benefits.

Dominic Volek, Head of Asia for global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners, said people want alternative citizenship for a Plan B.

"They are also concerned about healthcare and pandemic preparedness because, of course, this may not be the only pandemic in our lifetime. Wealthy people don't plan for five to 10 years -- they plan more than 100 years in advance, in terms of wealth and wellbeing," Volek said in a report.

The Henly & Partners noted that the recent rise in interest in investment migration might be linked to the pandemic.

The firm saw a 49 percent increase in queries between January and June this year. Applications also rose by 42 percent compared to the last quarter of 2019, with the first quarter of 2020.

How Much Is Needed for Investment Migration?

You can apply for an investment migration program in Australia if you are ready to cash out around $1.35 million. Investors eyeing to move to New Zealand will need around $1.9 to $6.5 million.

Volek said that New Zealand's program is pretty flexible in terms of what you invest in, as long as it is not for personal use. Volek also said that many of the people who applied for New Zealand's investment migration program had allotted their investments to off-grid commercial farms.

The investment migration program has seen an increase in Americans, Indians, Nigerians, and Lebanese applicants over the past nine months.

American applicants have risen to 700 percent in the first quarter of 2020, compared to the last quarter of 2019. Super-rich from China and the Middle East have also joined the investment migration program.

Check these out:

Federal Immigration Agency Sets Potential Furlough Date to August 3

5 Facts Immigrants Should Know About the Latest US Immigration Restrictions

Immigration News Today: Obama Advisers Recommend Veto of Anti-Sanctuary City Bill S. 2146
TROY, Mich., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As the country prepares for a new twist on the school year, Goldfish Swim School, a leading premier learn-to-swim concept that centers on child development, has announced the launch of its 'From Backstrokes to Back-to-School' community school supply drive benefiting teachers nationwide. On average, teachers spend $500 out of their own pockets to help bring much needed school supplies into their classrooms  Goldfish Swim School is here to help. Throughout August and September, participating Goldfish Swim Schools are encouraging members and non-members alike to contribute to the school supply drive. Those who donate will be entered into a raffle to win various prizes from their local school such as free lessons, Jump Start Clinics, snacks, swag and more.

While the pandemic disrupted school schedules and routines, teachers rose to the occasion by flipping their curriculums to a virtual format while finding new ways to engage and educate their students. As a brand that understands and celebrates the importance of childhood development, Goldfish Swim School commends their work and has sought out a way to give back and show appreciation this back-to-school season. Participating locations will be collecting a full list of school supplies that will be sanitized and donated to local elementary schools. Please see below for a list of participating Goldfish Swim School drop-off locations. Be sure to contact your local school for details on contact-less drop-off dates.

"We understand first-hand how challenging it has been to navigate the pandemic while continuing to educate children through our swims lessons and programs that help to build life skills both in and out of the water," said Chris McCuiston, CEO and co-founder of Goldfish Swim School. "Teachers have so much on their plates right now as they prepare to safely reopen their classrooms this fall, the last thing they should have to worry about is paying out of their own pockets for classroom school supplies. Our community has been such a tremendous support to us throughout these trying times, this is just another small way we can all rallying together, united on the importance of child enrichment, as we aim to make a positive impact this back-to-school season."

There are many parallels between swim lessons and learning in the classroom  understanding patience, following directions, comprehension, teamwork and building friendships. As the world begins to dip its toes into the new normal and safely return to daily routines, Goldfish Swim School remains committed to educating children and families on the importance of water safety while building life skills. For schools returning via distance or virtual learning, Goldfish Swim School has created a series of at-home activities , rolled out ' Goldfish At Home '  free, virtual swim-inspired exercise videos that could serve as P.E. credit, and converted its in-person W.A.T.E.R. Safety Presentations to an online platform that teachers are encouraged to pursue for their classes  all allowing the opportunity for learning to continue at home.

As Goldfish Swim School has reopened its 100+ locations through its Safer. Stronger. Together.  initiative, the safety and wellbeing of students, guests and team members remains the top priority. While the brand has always taken great pride in the cleanliness and safety of its schools, each individually owned and operated facility has been working closely with their local health authorities and in accordance with Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines on reopening plans to ensure the safest environment possible. While protocol varies school-to-school, notable adjustments have been made to class sizes, sanitization procedures and school policies to ensure social distancing and to abide by local health department regulations. Families can enroll their children, ages four months to 12 years, in a wide range of swim lesson and water safety instruction that utilizes the brand's proprietary curriculum, The Science of SwimPlay, a play-based learning philosophy conducted in a fun and safe environment.

For more information on Goldfish Swim School, please visit https://www.goldfishswimschool.com/ .

About Goldfish Swim School

Founded by husband and wife team Chris and Jenny McCuiston, Goldfish Swim School provides swim lessons and water safety instruction to infants and children ages four months to 12 years. Classes are offered by specially trained instructors in a safe, child-friendly and fun environment using their research-based philosophy called The Science of SwimPlay. Headquartered in Troy, Michigan, Goldfish Swim School was established in Birmingham, Michigan in 2006, and opened its first franchise location in 2009. Recently, the brand was recognized by Entrepreneur in its Franchise 500 ranking, Franchise Times' 2020 Fast & Serious List, and Inc. Magazine's 2019 Top 5000. Goldfish Swim School is currently in the process of expanding franchise opportunities throughout North America, with more than 100 schools open, and an additional 100+ in development in more than 34 states and Canada.

Media Contact: Kelly McNamara, Fishman PR, 847-945-1300, [email protected]

SOURCE Goldfish Swim School
Davies Appoints Business Development Officer and Senior VP

Davies Claims Solutions has hired Glenn Backus as chief business development officer and Tyson Ware as senior vice president, head of adjusting and innovation.

Backus has 25 years of experience in insurance, primarily working in technology and claims, the Nashville, Tenn.-based company said in a press release. He began his career at Corporate Systems, where he worked with employers and insurance carriers to automate processes and delivery risk information. Backus also developed claims management and reporting solutions for third-party administrators and insurance carriers, pools and associations while working for Marsh.

Ware started his career as a software developer after graduating from Mount Union University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems. After years of building software solutions for the health care industry, he joined Frontier Adjusters in 2007 as a lead software developer. He joined the ranks of senior management and played a key role in business operations, business development, and information technology.

Davies said it has made a series of key appointments after naming Matt Button as chief executive officer of its North American Claims Solutions arm. The company also appointed James Heath as group chief risk officer and Jeff Chang as general counsel.

Global Risk Hires Systems Architect

Global Risk Solutions has hired Chris Heywood as chief systems architect.

Heywood has more than two decades of experience in system architecture, software and technology services supporting insurance claims, the Miami-based company said. Before joining GRS, he was founder and partner at 99i LLP, an information technology consultancy where he led a team that developed numerous projects for claim incidents in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and North America.

At GRS, Heywood will collaborate with the firms leaders on strategic technology planning and execution, guide the technical design and architecture of new and evolving systems, lead GRS data science and machine learning initiatives, and provide technical guidance to GRS global Cyber Risks unit. He will be based in London and report to Mark Stergio, GRS Global Chief Information Officer.

I have had a strong relationship with GRS professionals for over two decades, and we worked together on a major oil spill in Nigeria that generated over 80,000 claims, Heywood said in a press release. In the years since, it has been my pleasure to work with the GRS team on other large projects, including Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon incident.

Fraud Coalition Appoints Communications Director

The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud has appointed Arinze Ifekauche as director of communications.

Before joining the coalition staff, Ifekauche was communications director for the Maryland Democratic Party. He also helped elect Marilyn J. Mosby as states attorney for Baltimore City in 2014, the coalition said.

Ifekauche wrote an internationally televised speech where Mosby announced charges against the police officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray, the coalition said.

Arinzes law enforcement, public policy and grassroots advocacy experience will go far in helping us communicate effective anti-fraud message to consumers and the fraud fighting community, says Executive Director Matthew J. Smith.

Ifekauche has coordinated communications efforts at the state, local and federal levels Maryland.

Founded in 1993, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud is a nonprofit alliance of insurers, consumer groups and government agencies combating all forms of insurance fraud.
HOLYOKE  Two more Holyoke city councilors weighed in Sunday on the recent revelations that Holyoke Mayor Alex B. Morse had sexual relationships with students at the university where he was an adjunct lecturer.

Michael J. Sullivan, an at large councilor, is the second member of the board to call for Morses resignation. He joined Ward 5 Councilor Linda Vacon, who said Saturday that Morse should step down immediately.

Ward 2 Councilor Terence Murphy said Sunday that Morse should take an unpaid leave of absence as mayor while the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where Morse taught a political science course, investigates whether he violated federal Title IX laws on sexual harassment and discrimination.

The turmoil comes in the final weeks before a hotly contested Democratic primary in which Morse is challenging longtime incumbent and chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal.

The College Democrats of Massachusetts and its chapters at UMass Amherst and Amherst College sent a letter this week disinviting Morse from future events, alleging that he engaged in a pattern over several years of using his position of power for romantic or sexual gain  including sexual relationships with students at UMass and other schools in the Five College Consortium.

Morse, 31, said the relationships were consensual. In a statement, he described the challenges of finding his way as a young, openly gay public official in a small city. He has acknowledged that he should be cognizant of my position of power.

Sullivan said he was shocked to learn of the revelations and said he was in full support of the UMass investigation.

Separately, I will be working with members of our City Council to begin our own investigation into any violations of municipal statutes, ordinances, or policies, he said.

Sullivan initially said Saturday that the matter was between Morse and Neal, and that he had no intention of getting in the middle of it.

Murphy, meanwhile, said that while he hadnt endorsed Morses congressional bid, he had supported Morse in several mayoral campaigns  but that he would not do so again. He called on Morse to take unpaid leave during the UMass investigation.

This would allow city business to be conducted without the distraction of the investigation, Murphy wrote. He also encouraged any city employees or volunteers to report any similar concerns regarding Morse.

Morse taught at UMass Amherst for several years, most recently in 2019. It is not clear whether any of the relationships involved students who were in or had taken his classes.

At large councilors Rebecca Lisi and James M. Leahy both said Saturday that they want to see the findings from the UMass review.

I will reach out to my colleagues on the board to determine if any actions are needed, Leahy said.

Holyokes City Council has 13 members. The Republican / MassLive have asked all of them for comment on the matter.

Holyoke Councilor Juan Anderson-Burgos said he supports Morse and will continue to do so.

The change in representation that Alex represents is still much needed, for our district and the country, and I dont believe the actions that have been reported are compelling enough to forget that, Anderson-Burgos wrote.

Related Content:

Correction: A councilor has called for Morse to take unpaid leave  not paid leave, as an earlier headline said.
Fears are growing today that France will be added to the UK's quarantine travel list within days, leaving thousands of Britons facing weeks in isolation upon their return.

Ministers are believed to be planning new measures for a swathe of countries that also includes Switzerland, Poland and the Netherlands amid a surge in European coronavirus cases.

They could join Spain and its islands on the list of countries where returnees will face 14 days of self-isolation, possibly putting their jobs at risk.

It came as Boris Johnson warned that ministers will 'not hesitate' to impose a quarantine system for travellers from other countries to the UK if needed.

Speaking on a visit to a school in Upminster, Essex, he said: 'I don't want to advise people about their individual holidays, individual decisions, they should look at the travel advice from the Foreign Office clearly.

'But what I will say, and I hope people would expect us to do this, in the context of a global pandemic, we've got to keep looking at the data in all the countries to which British people want to travel.

'Where it is necessary to impose restrictions or to impose a quarantine system, we will not hesitate to do so.

Boris Johnson warned that ministers will 'not hesitate' to impose a quarantine system for travellers from other countries to the UK if needed

Rising cases: Spain has suffered a severe spike in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, as this graph shows, while France, Germany and Italy have also seen upticks in new infections

People wear protective face masks in front of the Eiffel Tower, as part of measures to contain the spread of coronavirus in France

Boris Johnson takes aim at unions amid bid to 'sabotage' reopening schools next month Boris Johnson told teachers today they have a 'moral duty' to help schools reopen next month as he faced a standoff with unions. The PM warned it is 'not right' that pupils should spend more time out of the classroom, reiterating his determination for a full return when term begins. While he was careful to praise the work done by teachers and unions to make schools 'safe' in time for the move, he added: 'It is our moral duty as a country to make sure that happens.' The intervention - as he tried his hand at archery on a visit to a school in Upminster - came as unions were accused of a bid to sabotage the government's plans with a 200-item list of safety demands. The National Education Union has provided its half a million members with a 'checklist' of Covid-secure measures, saying they should 'escalate' complaints if they are not being followed. There have also been calls for pupils to be taught on a week on, week off rota. But Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a member of Sage, said studies had suggested children were 'very minor players in the transmission overall' of the virus. And he insisted teachers were not at significantly higher risk than any other workers. Ministers have also played down calls for teachers and pupils to be routinely tested whether or not they have symptoms. Advertisement

'It's been a huge effort for the entire population of this country to get the disease down to the levels that we are currently seeing, but we do not want reinfection and that's why we've got to keep a very, very close eye on the data in destinations around the world.'

Spain has already been hit with new travel restrictions in a blow to its tourism-reliant economy, while there are fears that France, Germany or Holland could be put back on the UK's quarantine list after spikes in cases there.

Summer holidays have been blamed for rising cases in Germany and Italy, while France has tightened its face mask rules in tourist hotspots such as Paris and the Mediterranean resort of Saint Tropez.

However, Europe has yet to see a major spike in deaths or hospital cases, amid signs that many of those testing positive are young and less vulnerable to the disease.

France has piled up 10,002 new cases in the last week, the highest number since April and a sharp increase from 7,391 the week before.

The government's Covid-19 scientific council warned last week that France could 'at any moment' lose control over the spread of the disease.

Some French towns are now requiring face masks outdoors, including the Mediterranean resort of Saint-Tropez and other tourist areas.

Paris and Marseille, the two largest cities in France, have both ordered mask-wearing in crowded outdoor areas such as open-air markets and the banks of the Seine.

Asked if France could be added to the quarantine list, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'We keep the data for all countries and territories under constant review.

'Any decisions to update the exemptions list will be informed by the latest health data and we can and will act rapidly. We have been updating the exemptions list on a weekly basis in order to make sure that it reflects the changes in the international health picture.'

He added: 'If there is a need to act very rapidly in order to protect public health, then we wouldn't hesitate to do so.'

He went on: 'Unfortunately, during this pandemic there isn't a risk-free way of travelling overseas. The population's made a huge effort to get the disease down to the levels that we're seeing in the UK and if we feel that we need to act in relation to the travel exemptions list then we'll do so.'

He continued: 'While we can amend the list at any time and we can remove countries from the exempt list, if there's a sustained improvement in the health situation in a particular country we can reinstate exemptions or add some new ones.'

Thousands of Britons visit popular resorts such as Biarritz (pictured) every year

'Bonfire of jobs' with a THIRD of firms planning lay offs this autumn as figures are set to show the economy has formally gone into recession

Fears are mounting of a 'bonfire of jobs' amid warnings a third of firms are planning to lay off staff this autumn.

Shock research found huge numbers of companies expect to axe roles in the third quarter of the year as coronavirus hammers the economy.

Many of the cuts are set to come from hospitality businesses such as hotels, restaurants and cafes, as well as shops that were already on the brink before the pandemic.

The hit emerged in a survey carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) with recruiter the Adecco Group.

Labour demanded the government ditches plans to scrap the furlough scheme entirely from October, forcing employers to take on the full costs of staff wages again.

Meanwhile, figures released this week are due to confirm that the UK has formally entered recession - with a second quarter of GDP contracting. And official jobs data are scheduled for tomorrow.

The number of firms that cut 20 or more roles during June was up fivefold compared to last year, rising to 1,778. Pictured: Stock photo of an upset businessman

GDP figures due to be released this week are set to show that the UK has entered a technical recession - with two consecutive quarters of contraction. The Bank of England predicts that the downturn will be the worst in a hundred years (chart pictured)

Figures on Wednesday are widely expected to show the economy contracted massively during the second quarter following the imposition of the virus lockdown.

That comes after output declined in the first three months of the year. Two successive quarters of contraction officially marks a recession, which would be the first since the financial crisis hit.

Separate figures from the Insolvency Service have indicated that more than 139,000 jobs were lost in June.

The number of firms that cut 20 or more roles during June was up fivefold compared to last year, rising to 1,778.

And economic figures due this week are due to underline the scale of the problems, with jobs figures and the latest GDP estimate coming within days.

There are fears that huge numbers of people working from home is causing damage as businesses that rely on busy offices  from sandwich shops and pubs to dry cleaners and hairdressers  are deprived of custom.

Sandwich shop chains Pret a Manger and Upper Crust have already axed thousands of jobs between them, with Pret yesterday asking staff to accept reduced hours.

The Bank of England said last week that the UK economy is likely to shrink by nearly a tenth over this year

The Bank predicted that GDP will have been down by more than a fifth in the second quarter

200,000 people forced to retire early Nearly 200,000 people over 50 have dropped out of the workforce and become economically inactive since the outbreak, a study suggests. Inactivity levels have increased more in recent months among over-50s than any other age group, said jobs and community site Rest Less. A separate study from the Centre for Ageing Better and the Learning and Work Institute also found roughly 2.5million over-50s had been furloughed and 377,000 of those face the prospect of losing their job entirely. Stuart Lewis, of Rest Less, said: 'In the wake of the toughest job market in decades, there has been a significant rise in the number of workers over 50 who have lost hope in finding a job and feel forced into an early retirement that many simply cannot afford.' Advertisement

Gerwyn Davies, of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), said businesses were now facing the prospect of rising costs as the Government winds down its jobs furlough scheme.

He added: 'For many firms, the problem is that revenues are simply not coming in. There is undoubtedly going to be a lot of job losses.'

Firms that revealed plans to lay off staff in June included Royal Mail, Jet2, HSBC, Jaguar Land Rover, Centrica and the Restaurant Group, owner of Frankie and Benny's.

Similar announcements followed from other big names in July, such as Marks & Spencer, Boots and John Lewis.

High Street businesses have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, with lockdown measures dramatically reducing visitor numbers and forcing 'non-essential' shops to close for months.

But the jobs bloodbath is expected to intensify when the Government's furlough scheme winds down in October.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been urged to extend the scheme for specific sectors that have been worst hit but has so far resisted pressure to do so.

Shadow business minister Lucy Powell called for the Government to 'urgently rethink their rigid approach', which will see the furlough scheme end entirely in October.

'The unpredictable nature of this virus means that public health measures must be flexible and responsive, but it surely follows that economic measures must be the same,' the Labour MP said.

'It's clearly illogical and unfair to prevent businesses from opening their doors, cutting them off from any income, and to cut their furlough lifeline at the same time.

'They've said they can't save every job, but we're seeing a jobs bonfire. They need to target their support at the hardest-hit sectors or be responsible for another wave of mass redundancies.'

As part of plans to set an example and get the country moving again, the Government has told civil servants  four fifths of whom are still working remotely -to get back to work in central London or risk losing their prestigious Westminster offices.

Treasury officials are said to be considering mass sell-off of the Government's buildings in the capital before this autumn's spending review.
Angelina Jolie has asked that the private judge overseeing her divorce from Brad Pitt be disqualified from the case because of insufficient disclosures of his business relationships with one of Pitts lawyers.

In a filing in Los Angeles Superior Court, Jolie said Judge John W Ouderkirk should be taken off the case she filed in 2016 because he was too late and not forthcoming enough about other cases he was hired for involving Pitt lawyer Anne C Kiley.

It says that during the Jolie-Pitt proceedings Judge Ouderkirk has failed to disclose the cases that demonstrated the current, ongoing, repeat-customer relationship between the judge and respondents counsel.

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It adds that Ms Kiley actively advocated for Judge Ouderkirks financial interests in moving  over the opposing partys opposition  to have his appointment (and his ability to continue to receive fees) extended in a high-profile case.

Pitt and Jolie, like other high-profile couples, are paying for a private judge in their divorce case to keep many of its filings and the personal and financial details sealed, though some legal moves must be made within standard court procedure.

Jolies filing emphasises that a private judge must follow the same rules of disclosure and conflict of interest as other judges.

The filing says it doesnt matter if Judge Ouderkirk is actually biased. Under California law disqualification is required so long as a person aware of the facts might reasonably entertain a doubt about Judge Ouderkirks ability to remain impartial.

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Jolies lawyers have sought in private proceedings to have Judge Ouderkirk disqualify himself, but the filing says Pitts side has insisted on keeping him.

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The Hollywood couple were declared divorced, and the Pitt was dropped from Jolies name, in April 2019 after their lawyers asked for a bifurcated judgment, meaning two married people can be declared single while other issues, including finances and child custody, remain.

Because most of the documents have been sealed, it is not clear what issues remain unresolved, but Jolie filed papers in 2018 saying Pitt was not paying sufficient child support, which his lawyers disputed, calling the filing an effort to manipulate media coverage of the split.

Jolie, 44, and Pitt, 56, were a couple for 12 years and married for two until Jolie filed for divorce in 2016. They have six children.
New Delhi, Aug 10 : Former President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said that he has tested positive for coronavirus and asked his contacts to self-isolate and get tested for the virus.

"On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for Covid-19 today. I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self-isolate and get tested for Covid-19," the former President said in a tweet.

Soon after veteran Congress leader Mukherjee shared the news, wishes for his speedy recovery started pouring in.

Union minister and Lok Janshakti Party leader Ramvilas Paswan tweeted, "I am worried about the news of former President Pranab Mukherjee ji testing positive for Covid-19. I pray to God for your speedy recovery." Former Union minister Milind Deora, Delhi Congress chief Chaudhary Anil Kumar and several other leaders also wished for the speedy recovery of Mukherjee.

The news of the former President testing positive for Covid-19 comes on a day when India reported a spike of 62,064 fresh cases on Monday taking the total tally to 2,215,074. With more than 1,000 fatalities in the last 24 hours, 44,386 people have now lost their lives in the fight against the deadly virus in India.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
"When it's all said and done, I don't even know my own native tongue," he said in the piece, which went viral in 2013. "And if I can't speak myself, I can't think myself. And if I can't think myself, I can't be myself. And if I can't be myself, I will never know me. So Uncle Sam, tell me this: If I will never know me, how can you?"
If youre walking along in the rainforest, you might see straight through this stunning creature, and thats exactly what the glasswing butterfly intends for you to do. This brush-footed butterfly that is native to Central and South America has the most attractive feature: its transparent wings, which resemble a clear window.

Naturally, these transparent wings confer a huge advantage to this butterfly due to its incredible ability to disappear into the background while flying or feeding on flowers.

Many butterflies found in the tropical rainforests across Latin America, from Chile to Mexico, have a wide range of strategies to avoid predators. Some butterflies have brownish and gray markings to be able to blend in with tree barks. Others, like the famous Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), have bright, splashy colors or striking patterns that suggest potential toxicity to predators. However, the glasswing butterfly is unique in its own way. There arent a lot of things that are just trying to be invisible like the glasswings, UC Berkeley researcher Aaron Pomerantz told KQED.

But how do these exotic species pull off the trick to fade from their hungry predators sight despite having clear wings?

While glasswing butterflies (Greta to) do have a splash cutting across orange and black, their main defense lies in their transparency.

Even as caterpillars, glasswings are mostly transparent, which is due to a lack of pigmentation. A video from KQED states that you can see through parts of its exoskeleton, offering a glimpse into their recent meal. Additionally, the exoskeleton is made of a thick material called chitin.

The caterpillar then emerges from the chrysalis after a week, and adult glasswing butterflies get their signature transparent wings due to a lack of pigmentation and some very special scales, which when seen up close resemble microscopic hair.

The function of the scales that are present on the transparent section of the wing is to allow these butterflies to have a strong, rigid wing that is also resistant to water.

In the specific case of the glasswing, its lack of pigment and hair-like scales allow light to pass through without getting reflected. However, these windows to the world wouldnt safely serve their function if they were shiny.

This is where an even more unique adaptation comes into play, known as nanopillars. The surface of the glasswing butterflies wings are covered with them, and these tiny towers are composed of wax. These structures are so small that theyre smaller than a wavelength of light, Pomerantz said. Theyre just really, really, really tiny.

The rough texture of these countless little nano-towers means that light isnt reflected back the way it would be on a completely smooth surface. Its these nanopillars that have given scientists like Pomerantz hope for new anti-glare technologies.

Underscoring the usefulness of this technology, Pomerantz said, I think everyone can relate to light bouncing off their glasses or their phone screens and things like that. For his part, he believes that further research into the glasswings nanopillars could increase the efficiency of solar panels, a vital energy source of the future.

Were interested in bioinspirationthings that weve learned from nature, and applying it to our technologies and our products, he says. When youve seen the glasswing butterfly up close and personal as he has, its not hard to see why hes so inspired.

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Epoch Inspired newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter
Parliament on Monday passed the University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development Bill that would give legal backing to the proposed conversion of the Kumasi Campus of the University of Education, Winneba, after late industrialist, Akenten Appiah-Menka.



Parliament on Monday passed the University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development Bill that would give legal backing to the proposed conversion of the Kumasi Campus of the University of Education, Winneba, after late industrialist, Akenten Appiah-Menka.



The suggestion to name the university after the late Appiah-Menka is because of his enormous contributions to industry in Ghana.



The university, when established, will award doctorate degrees in technical and vocational education training (TVET) with the potential of transforming TVET education in the country.



The University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development Bill is currently before Parliament with the hope of converting the UEWs Kumasi Campus into a fully-fledged University dedicated to the training of teachers and equipping them with the relevant competencies for teaching in technical and vocational education and training institutions.



Contributions at the second reading of the bill supported the naming of the proposed university.



Second deputy Majority Chief Whip Moses Anim Parliament had: The name of the university has to be named after Appiah-Menka. Mr. Speaker when we do that, I dont think weve done anything wrong.



Appiah-Menka was an all-rounded person.



He was a trained lawyer. At the age of 32, he was the Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry under Prof. Busias government, and astute politician at that level.



Minority Chief Whip Muntaka Mubarak supported the move and said: This is a very laudable initiative. A former MP and a former industrialist. Even though hes past and gone, my uncle, Appiah-Menka has been one of the early industrialists in our country. I remember the Apino soap very well. It was a common name.



Unfortunately, today many of the industrialists are struggling and import most of their raw materials.



The late Appiah-Menka, was one of the founders of the Dankwa-Dombo-Busia tradition, from which the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was born.



An astute entrepreneur and businessman, he founded the Apino Complex, manufacturers of the popular Apino soap.



He died Tuesday, 13 February 2018 at age 84.



Mr Appiah Menka served as a Minister of State in the Second Republic.



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in December 2019 announced that the Kumasi campus of the University of Education would become an autonomous institution under the name, University of Skills and Entrepreneurial Development.



At a sod-cutting ceremony for the construction of a Technical Examination Unit at the College of Technology Education, the President noted that plans were advanced make the school an autonomous institution.



The purpose of the University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development Bill, 2020 is to establish an outstanding internationally acclaimed educational institution dedicated to training of teachers to equip them with the relevant competences for teaching in technical and vocational education and training institutions.



The bill comprises 45 clauses; and seeks to prioritise training of teachers to provide them with the relevant knowledge and aptitudes to create the necessary condition for effective and efficient training of students.

Source: GNA









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Media firmNew Delhi Television Ltd(NDTV) on Monday reported a 54.68 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 7.55 crore for the quarter ended June.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 16.66 crore during the April-June period a year ago, said in a BSE filing.

Revenue from operations dropped 33.68 per cent to Rs 72.73 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 109.67 crore earlier.

Total expenses fell 54.68 per cent to Rs 64.64 crore as compared to Rs 93.96 crore in Q1 FY20.

Shares ofNDTV settled at Rs 34.55 on BSE on Monday, down 0.29 per cent.

(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.)
(TNS) - As colleges across Connecticut prepare to welcome students and staff back to campus, the surrounding towns are bracing for potential coronavirus outbreaks both on- and off-campus.Officials in three Connecticut towns  Mansfield, West Hartford and Windham  wrote recently to state officials, asking them to reinstate stricter gathering restrictions in their towns to avoid potential super-spreader events.As host communities for large numbers of students, we believe it is absolutely necessary to have further restrictions on outdoor and indoor gatherings to protect the health of both our permanent residents and our student residents, the letter says.In Middletown, Mayor Ben Florsheim said he worries what might happen if Wesleyan students flout social distancing rules.Wesleyan is a big house-party, dorm-party school, said Florsheim, a 2014 graduate of the university. And those could be incubators for this virus if people are not smart about it.In Connecticut and elsewhere, young people have represented a growing share of COVID-19 cases, amid stories of teenagers and 20-somethings spreading the disease through unsanctioned gatherings. From July 5 to Aug. 1, people under 30 represented 43% of Connecticuts cases, up dramatically from earlier in the pandemic. In total, since March, young people have accounted for only about 18% of cases.Colleges and universities in Connecticut have submitted a variety of plans for testing and social distancing on campus. Yale and Wesleyan each plan to test students twice weekly throughout the fall semester. UConn and other schools have committed to lesser levels of testing, including an initial screening for all students who return to campus.Though one recent study suggests schools should test students as often as three times a week, Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a recent press briefing with Gov. Ned Lamont that hed been mostly impressed by universities back-to-school plans. Connecticut college towns should be all right, Fauci said, as long as schools handle the virus effectively.Youve got to be careful if youve got people coming in from outside, said Fauci, who is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. But I think if they maintain the guidelines theyve put together for people coming back, they should be fine.If universities reopening plans go awry and the coronavirus begins spreading on their campuses, they also maintain the ability to backtrack and initiate a shutdown. But some town officials say the shutdown criteria is too vague to be comforting.Just days before some campuses are slated to welcome students back, uncertainty still abounds. Last week, Johns Hopkins University announced that it had decided to move all its classes online, while UMass Amherst also switched tactics and decided not to allow many students back on campus.Off-campus concernsTo buttress universities plans, some host municipalities are taking their own action.In their letter to Commissioner James Rovella of the states Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, the towns of Mansfield, West Hartford and Windham requested that the state reimpose stricter limits on gatherings. The towns specifically requested outdoor events be limited to 20 people, and indoor events to 10. Currently, the states reopening plan allows for outdoor gatherings of up to 100 people and indoor gatherings up to 25.While the colleges and universities are including initial quarantine and testing measures for on-campus housing and classes, we have an obligation to take appropriate measures to protect all of our communities, the letter says.Ben Shaiken, the deputy mayor of Mansfield, said the town sees large UConn parties every school year. This year, though, those parties could pose added threat.Its something that we deal with every year. Its part of being a college town, Shaiken said. With COVID, those events become significantly more concerning.In West Hartford, Town Manager Matt Hart and Mayor Shari Cantor said theyre less concerned because their local universities  including the University of St. Joseph and the University of Hartford  mostly have students living directly on campus.Still, the specter of off-campus parties looms.We know there is risk when you bring people together. Theres no question, Cantor said. To young people: Lets keep each other safe. We can all do our part to protect each other.Expectations and enforcementUConn Dean of Students Eleanor Daugherty said the university is setting clear expectations with students about what is and is not allowed.Weve done messaging on appropriate gatherings, and weve been very clear on inappropriate [gatherings], Daugherty said. Its OK for four people to be on a porch hanging out. Its not OK to have a gathering with 200 people.When UConn students first arrive back to campus, all residential students will be required to self-quarantine for 14 days. All students, whether they live on or off campus, will also be required to be tested for COVID-19 before they attend their classes.During those first two weeks, Daugherty said, the university will provide activities such as scavenger hunts, book clubs and virtual recreation activities. Students wont congregate in large numbers  at least not at university-sanctioned events.If there are large parties or other unsafe gatherings that violate the universitys expectations, Daugherty said she expects the state police who patrol the area to intervene. If an incident is then referred from the state police to UConn, the university may also take action.But Shaiken worries UConn hasnt planned enough enforcement action and is relying too heavily on the assumption that most students will do the right thing.I dont think its a reasonable expectation for anyone to have that someones going to follow the rules all the time, Shaiken said. What happens when people who are supposed to be quarantining decide to go to a party?In Middletown, Florsheim said hes cautiously optimistic about students willingness to comply with Wesleyans requirements, having spoken not only with the university administration but also the student government.It makes me think that at least some students  and hopefully thats a representative group  are thinking about the impact they are going to have when they get there, said Florsheim. The message is going to be better received in some way when its coming from your friends and your peers.Dr. Tom McLarney, Wesleyans chief medical director, described a number of additional precautions, including different levels of quarantine, twice-weekly testing, extra distance in classrooms and dining halls and a mask requirement even in dorms. Additionally, Wesleyan students wont be allowed to leave campus and visit the rest of Middletown during their first two weeks on campus, McLarney said.[Wesleyan students] are an extremely caring group of people who look out for each other, he said. So Im optimistic that they for the most part will comply with this.Nimble and responsiveShaiken said he worries, too, about what UConn would do if its campus did begin to see a coronavirus outbreak.Daugherty and UConn chief financial officer Scott Jordan said the universitys reopening plan doesnt include a quantitative, clear-cut threshold at which the school would move online or enact other safety measures. Instead, the university will continually monitor its ability to isolate infected or possibly infected students and to conduct contract tracing when positive cases are found.If UConn finds itself unable to effectively isolate students and identify new coronavirus cases, then it would need to step back, they said.We have not predetermined a count, a number, Jordan said at a July meeting of the Mansfield town council. Well be prepared to shut down should we decide that were no longer able to manage.Daugherty said the plans fluidity on that count is not a bug, but a feature.The strength of the plan is its ability to be nimble and responsive, Daugherty said. That is our strength, that we have plans in place and we have the ability to be nimble, including making the decision to close.Wesleyan has a similar, non-numeric plan  the universitys reopening guidelines say it may close its campus if its isolation space begins to fill up with infected students. Wesleyan will also monitor disease indicators such as hospitalizations and test availability, and ultimately work alongside local officials on any closing or lockdown decisions, according to its plan.Cantor, the West Hartford mayor, also worries about the lack of clear thresholds for the colleges in her town, and said she hopes to see additional guidance from either the state or the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.There are some questions that we need answered, Cantor said. Even in our public schools, we dont have guidelines. What if there is a positive case? What if there are five positive cases? Do you close?Gov. Lamont has endorsed allowing college students back on campus, as long as schools test frequently and follow the states protocol. But he has also pointed to plans for undoing that decision, if needed.I think we can do it safely, Lamont said. If we cant, were going to change course.Emily Brindley can be reached at ebrindley@courant.com. Alex Putterman can be reached at aputterman@courant.com.2020 The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.)Visit The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.) at www.courant.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The chairmen of the General Fund budget committees in the Alabama Legislature said today they have deep concerns about how Alabama could pay the 25% share of a $400 unemployment benefit President Trump has proposed in an executive order.

Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, who chairs the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund, said hes not sure the state can afford to pay the match, partly because theres no firm estimate on the cost.

We know 25%, but mathematically, I dont know how we get an estimate, Albritton said. That hasnt been done yet. So, I am concerned that this will put a grave strain on Alabamas finances.

The president issued the executive order Saturday after Congress failed to reach an agreement on a new coronavirus relief package, including help for the millions who have lost their jobs because of the pandemic.

The $600 a week federal unemployment benefit approved by Congress earlier in the pandemic expired at the end of July. In Alabama, the federal payment came in addition to the maximum state benefit of $275 a week.

Rep. Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, who chairs the House Ways and Means General Fund Committee, said the Alabama Department of Labor and the state Finance Department are crunching the numbers on the cost of the state match under Trumps order.

But at first glance it doesnt look like that we could do it, Clouse said. Certainly couldnt do it until the end of the year. Maybe for a couple of months.

Clouse said the state could use some of the $1.9 billion it received from Congress through the CARES Act, a coronavirus relief bill, to pay the matching funds. But he said there were already discussions about using as much as $350 million to $400 million in CARES Act money to replenish the states unemployment compensation trust fund, which needs an infusion to sustain its ability to pay the $275 weekly state benefit.

Tara Hutchison, communications director for the Alabama Department of Labor, said the unemployment compensation fund has gone down from $750 million to a little more than $200 million over the course of the pandemic.

At current expenditure levels, we expect the fund to remain solvent for about two more months, Hutchison said in an email. At that point, we would borrow from the feds in order to continue paying regular (unemployment compensation.)

Hutchison said the Department of Labor is working with Gov. Kay Iveys office on ways to to replenish the fund, but no decision has been made.

In a tweet this morning, the Department of Labor said it expects more guidance from national authorities and the governors office on Trumps order.

Ivey press secretary Gina Maiola said in an email today: As we continue working to get Alabamians safely back to work, we are exploring the options we have available to provide the necessary assistance. The governor along with the Department of Labor are closely evaluating the most recent directions now.

Albritton said the state budget outlook has remained stable despite the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic. Tax revenues that support the General Fund revenues are up about 9% over last fiscal year and state education revenues are essentially flat compared to last fiscal year.

But with this new obligation thats been put upon us, weve got to find an answer to that. And Im concerned about finding it, he said.

And not just the 25%. Our unemployment monies are being depleted. They were quite healthy earlier on, but with the monies that weve been paying and continue to pay out, that continues to be a drain. Theres a lot of pieces moving here and weve got a get a grasp of this pretty quick.

Clouse said one priority is to avoid a situation where businesses have to pay more to support the unemployment compensation fund.

The main goal right now is getting businesses to hire these people back that have lost their jobs through no fault of their own since this pandemic started, Clouse said. So, I dont think us or any other state would want to do anything that would discourage businesses from bringing these employees back.

Officials in other states are having similar concerns and discussions about Trumps order and the cost.

According to the Associated Press, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, said on CBS Face the Nation that it would cost the state $500 million for the rest of the year and called Trumps plan not a good idea.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, praised Trumps effort but declined to say whether his state would participate.

Were looking at it right now to see whether we can do this, he said.
(Photo : (Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)) SAN ANSELMO, CALIFORNIA - JULY 28: 3M brand N95 particulate respirators are displayed on a table on July 28, 2020 in San Anselmo, California. 3M reported second quarter earnings that fell short of analyst expectations and showed overall sales falling 12.2 percent to $7.18 billion despite a ramp-up in sales of N95 face masks due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

Yes, you read it right, the 7-in-1 'Instant Pot' used mostly for pressure and slow cooking, rice, and steaming can now be used to disinfect and sterilize an N95 mask killing the Novel coronavirus in less than 50 minutes, experts share.

Daily Mail reports that researchers from the University of Illinois found that this kitchen equipment is useful in the kitchen and for other unconventional uses, most notably is its usage for sterilizing an N95 mask.

The Instant Pot can disinfect and sterilize a mask, or more, using its standard cook function that runs for 50 minutes. This cook function produces 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius) that is said to be enough in killing the virus. Instant Pot uses "dry heat," making it ideal for disinfecting the mask, inside and out.

N95 masks use materials including stretchable or garterized materials that lose their flexibility in the span of its use. Researchers list this as one of the concerns of the medical community that frowns on reusing said masks. The effectivity of the mask's filtration significantly reduces if components have reduced performance or functions compared to when it is brand new.

This process enables users to safely reuse the mask, unlike the CDC's recommendation of using it for just an extended period. Researchers added that this process is more effective than using an ultraviolet light in sanitation.

ALSO READ: Ex-FDA Chief: US Could Face Third Wave of Coronavirus That is Difficult to Control, Deaths Could Reach 300,000 by Yearend

Instant Pot and the Coronavirus

This home remedy uses the "Instant Pot" that adds a new feature on its long list of functions, including pressure cooking, steaming, rice cooking, slow cooking, sauteing, yogurt making, and warming. Its unique and latest feature, sterilizing the deadly pandemic virus, COVID-19.

The University of Illinois researchers exhibited the proper sterilization process in a YouTube video to help the medical community and even people who use the N95 masks for protection against the pandemic.

Researchers advise people to put a towel on the Instant Pot's surface to avoid direct heat or contact on the body. The masks only need the heat to go "through and through" to effectively kill any virus, especially COVID-19, that occur the mask's surface and its filters inside.

"Any sanitation method would need to decontaminate all surfaces of the respirator, but equally important is maintaining the filtration efficacy and the fit of the respirator to the face of the wearer," Vishal Verma, a researcher of the Insta Pot from the University of Illinois said.

The team then tested the mask's fit and deemed that the Instant Pot method helps preserve it. This process helps in decontaminating the mask, maintain its component's integrity to ensure proper fit to the wearer's face, and overall sanitize the product.

N95 Masks

The N95 mask is said to be the most effective in filtration and protection against harmful particles found in the air. The mask is used globally against the coronavirus and is designed to completely seal-off the nose and mouth area from contamination. N95s are what most medical personnel and professionals use but is currently lacking in stock due to the global crisis.

"A cloth mask or surgical mask protects others from droplets the wearer might expel, but a respirator mask protects the wearer by filtering out smaller particles that might carry the virus" Civil and environmental engineering professor Thanh 'Helen' Nguyen said to Daily Mail.

FDA, however, frowns on public use of the mask, saying that cloth masks that have functional layers of protection are enough for the shortage of N95s directly affect the medical community mostly.

ALSO READ: China: New DEADLY Bunyavirus Re-emerges as the Country Grapples with Bubonic Plague Death





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For many investors, the main point of stock picking is to generate higher returns than the overall market. But in any portfolio, there are likely to be some stocks that fall short of that benchmark. We regret to report that long term FBL Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:FFG) shareholders have had that experience, with the share price dropping 49% in three years, versus a market return of about 44%. The more recent news is of little comfort, with the share price down 36% in a year. But it's up 5.9% in the last week. We would posit that the recently released financial results have driven this rise, so you might want to check the latest numbers in our full company report.

View our latest analysis for FBL Financial Group

To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.

During the three years that the share price fell, FBL Financial Group's earnings per share (EPS) dropped by 9.6% each year. The share price decline of 20% is actually steeper than the EPS slippage. So it's likely that the EPS decline has disappointed the market, leaving investors hesitant to buy. The less favorable sentiment is reflected in its current P/E ratio of 10.89.

The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

It's probably worth noting that the CEO is paid less than the median at similar sized companies. But while CEO remuneration is always worth checking, the really important question is whether the company can grow earnings going forward. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on FBL Financial Group's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. We note that for FBL Financial Group the TSR over the last 3 years was -38%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

Story continues

A Different Perspective

Investors in FBL Financial Group had a tough year, with a total loss of 30% (including dividends), against a market gain of about 19%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 3.2% over the last half decade. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 1 warning sign with FBL Financial Group , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges.

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.
Queen Letizia showed off her summer style as she visited the birthplace of XVIII century Spanish priest and friar of Franciscan Order, Junipero Serra in Petra, Mallorca.

The Spanish royal, who was accompanied by King Felipe VI and their daughters Crown Princess Leonor, 14, and Infanta Sofia, 13, appeared in good spirits as they continued their summer break in the Balearic Islands.

The holiday is the family's first public appearance since former King Juan Carlos announced he was leaving Spain amid the ongoing corruption scandal.

Sayn-Wittgenstein has been placed under investigation in relation to audio recordings of a meeting between herself and retired Spanish police commissioner Jose Manuel Villarejo at her home in 2015.

The 82-year-old revealed on Monday that he had decided to leave Spain to help his son, the current King Felipe VI, 'exercise his responsibilities'.

But sources claimed it was King Felipe who cast his father out to save his family from 'certain happenings' relating to Juan Carlos's relationship with his former German mistress Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein - with some fearing he might not come back.

In the recordings, she allegedly claimed Juan Carlos received a secret commission for helping to win a 5.5 billion Saudi rail deal.

Villarejo asked for a meeting under the pretense that Spain's intelligence services were plotting to implicate her in criminal activity and went on to leak the tapes of their conversation to the media.

The Spanish Royals (pictured) visited the birthplace of XVIII century Spanish priest and friar of the Franciscan Order Junipero Serra in Petra, Mallorca

The family's summer break is their first public appearance since former King Juan Carlos announced he was leaving Spain amid the ongoing corruption scandal. Pictured left to right: King Felipe, Crown Princess Leonor, Infanta Sofia and Queen Leitiza

But Letizia, 47, looked in good spirits today as she donned a chic belted red dress with a plunging neckline and espadrilles for a trendsetting seasonal look, while also putting safety first in a face mask.

The royal styled her glossy brunette hair straight with a slightly off-centre parting, similarly to how her daughters had opted to wear their own.

Infanta Sofia, 13, braved the outing in a white play-suit and sandals with the support of a crutch after injuring her right knee and requiring stitches.

She was seen at times being assisted by her sister as she walked through the streets of Petra.

Queen Letizia stunned in a sleeveless red dress and espadrilles, coordinated with a red and white canvas bag. Pictured: The Royal alongside her daughters

Crown Princess Leonor, 14 opted for a leaf print dress, alongside an equally well groomed King Felipe VI.

The family who are staying at the Marivent Palace during their time in Mallorca, were seen admiring historic artifacts at the birthplace, museum and convent of Fray Junipero Serra in Petra.

Their tour began with sightseeing of the notable figure's birthplace on Barracar Alt Street, before journeying to the museum created by Pare Serra Friends Association in 1959.

The site is home to paintings, medals, prints, photographs and other items of significance related to Fray Junipero Serra's work in the American missions.

Infanta Sofia, 13, (pictured) walked with the support of a medical crutch during the visit to the historical site after injuring her right knee

Crown Princess Leonor, 14 (pictured left) who was wearing a leaf print dress, assisted Infanta Sofia throughout the day

The Spanish Royals had their photographs taken next to the stone plaque commemorating the presence of their time in Petra and signed the museum's book of honour.

They then visited the last place where Pare Serra is said to have preached before going to America, Santuari de la Mare de Deu de Bonay.

The family said their goodbyes to the authorities who joined them throughout their tour, while viewing the sanctuary which dates back as far as the seventeenth century.

Locals wearing face masks gathered in the streets to snap photographs of the royals as they practiced socially distanced greetings.

The Spanish Royals put safety first by wearing face masks throughout the day and practiced social distancing as locals gathered in the street

Queen Letizia placed her arm around Infanta Sofia as she guided her during the visit to the birthplace of XVIII century Spanish priest and friar of Franciscan Order Junipero Serra in Petra

During the day King Felipe VI also met with the President of the Government of the Balearic Islands Francina Armengol and other politicians including President of the Parliament of the Balearic Islands Vicenc Thomas, at the Royal Palace of Almudaina in Palma.

Felipe VI became King of Spain in 2014 following the abdication of his father Juan Carlos whose whereabouts is currently unknown.

The Spanish Royal Household has declined to comment on Juan Carlos's location since he announced that he was going into exile last Monday.

It has been alleged that the former King is hiding out in a 10k-a-night suite at a luxury Abu Dhabi hotel after fleeing amid the ongoing corruption scandal.

Felipe VI who has been king of Spain since 2014, also took time to meet a number of politicians during the day as his father's exile continues to dominate headlines

King Felipe VI appeared polished in navy trousers and a mint green shirt, as he interacted with those gathered at Petra

The Spanish royals who are staying at the Marivent Palace arrived in Mallorca for their summer break at the weekend

Spain's former king Juan Carlos (left) was banished from the country by his son (right) - the reigning King Felipe VI - amid the latter's corruption scandal, sources claim

Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, pictured above in 2019, is the former mistress of Spain's Juan Carlos
The head of Irans insurance regulation agency said European insurance companies, not Iranian ones, should pay compensation for the loss of a Ukraine International Airlines passenger aircraft shot down near Tehran in January.

The Ukrainian plane is insured by European companies in Ukraine and not by Iranian companies. Therefore, the compensation should be paid by those European companies, Gholamreza Soleimani, head of Irans Central Insurance Organization, said Monday, according to Irans state-news affiliated Young Journalists Club. Reuters first brought the quote to light.

Soleimanis comments did not touch on compensation for the families of the 176 people who died in the crash, a matter of ongoing negotiation between Iranian officials and representatives of the countries who lost citizens in the incident.

Neither Soleimani nor a representative for the agency he oversees immediately responded to Al-Monitors requests for comment.

Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 en route from Tehran to Kyiv in January amid intense military tensions with the United States.

Irans government initially said pilot error caused the plane to burst into flames before later admitting that Irans military had shot it down, claiming it had been mistaken for a missile. Iranian officials apologized and cited human error.

The incident occurred some four hours after Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles against US troops in Iraq in retaliation for the Trump administrations assassination of top IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.

Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky said in February that his government had rejected Tehrans offer to pay $80,000 to each family, saying it was not enough. Attorneys representing the families of the flights Canadian victims are seeking more than $1 billion.

Swedens Foreign Minister Ann Linde said in July that her government had signed a memorandum of understanding with Iranian officials to begin working toward compensation for affected families.

International investigators successfully downloaded voice recordings and other data from the flights black boxes in France last month. A top Ukrainian diplomat said the data revealed illegal interference with the passenger plane.

Ukraines Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that talks with an Iranian delegation in Kyiv days later were constructive but suggested that obtaining compensation from Iran may prove difficult.

We will achieve justice, no matter how much time and effort it costs, Reuters quoted him as saying.
Love Island Australia's Erin Barnett has revealed her painful battle with scoliosis, sharing graphic X-rays of her back.

Erin took to Instagram to share the picture of her wayward spine, before explaining her complicated battle with the condition.

'I remember when I use to complain of back pain when I was younger and I was told it was probably from carrying my backpack to and from school,' she said.

Troubles: Love Island Australia's Erin Barnett, 25, (pictured) has revealed her painful health condition as she shared confronting X-rays of her twisted spine to Instagram on Monday

Erin went on to explain she was has a bent spine and was diagnosed with scoliosis at just 17-years-old.

'I saw a surgeon who told me I was too old for a back brace and the option to have surgery to straighten my spine is up to me,' she said.

She continued: 'The surgeon said he can't guarantee I will be pain free after surgery, he even mentioned I could possibly be in more pain.'

Erin said she decided against it, due to the risks.

Battle: 'I saw a surgeon who told me I was too old for a back brace and the option to have surgery to straighten my spine is up to me,' Erin said, explaining the scoliosis

'The risks for spine surgery are HUGEEEEEEEEE. I decided I wouldn't go ahead with surgery because I was so afraid I may end up paralysed if something went wrong.'

The beauty went on to say she manages the treatment with a chiropractor along with a strong painkillers and hot baths.

'What I find helps somewhat is seeing my chiropractor 2-3 times a week,' she wrote.

Too many risks: 'The risks for spine surgery are HUGEEEEEEEEE. I decided I wouldn't go ahead with surgery because I was so afraid I may end up paralysed if something went wrong'

'Sometimes strong painkillers and a hot bath helps too, my back pain is always at a decent 7/10 every day.'

Erin is known for her candid online persona, sharing her physical and mental struggles with cellulite last month.

Sharing two photos, Erin explained that she had taken both pictures five seconds apart, and the difference in her appearance was due to angles and posing.

Perspective: The 25-year-old explained her battle with cellulite last month, sharing a side-by-side of herself in underwear

While showing off her backside in black underwear, she wrote in the caption: 'CELLULITE CELEBRATION.

'I took these photos five seconds apart! In the LEFT photo, I'm pushing my hips backwards and slightly bending my knees. In the RIGHT photo, I'm pushing my hips forward and locking my knees. ITS ALL ABOUT DEM ANGLES GURLS!'

She continued: 'I know I have a lot of young girls who follow me on here; so I thought I'd just show errrrbody my booty and remind the world that we ALL have cellulite SOMEWHERE. IT'S NORMAL.

Inspired: Erin shared an inspiring message about cellulite last month

'Some may have none, some may have a little & some may have heaps. Either way, IT'S NORMAL!'

Erin explained that learning to love her body has been a long process for her, too.

Erin rose to fame on Love Island Australia in 2018.

Former flame: In 2018, Erin was coupled up with now ex-boyfriend Eden Dally (left) on Love Island and they made it to the grand finale together

She was coupled up with her now ex-boyfriend Eden Dally and they made it to the grand finale together.

But they missed out on winning the show and the $50,000 cash prize, which went to Grant Crapp and Tayla Damir instead.

Two years on after filming Love Island, Erin is in a long-term relationship with a man named Mick Russell - and is even a stepmother to his children.
Even today, the Treaty of Sevres is still current. If there is political will, any state having signed the Treaty can make a historic and political decision and ratify the document, paving the way for other states to do the same. This is what Head of the Department of History of the Armenian Cause and the Armenian Genocide of the Institute of History at the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia Armen Marukyan said during the scientific conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Sevres today.

According to him, the Treaty of Sevres, as well as Wilsons Arbitrary Verdict and the Pan-Armenian Declaration (adopted on January 20, 2015) serve as a strong historical and legal basis for Armenians claims.

Marukyan didnt accept the view that Woodrow Wilsons Arbitrary Verdict is unacceptable since the Treaty of Sevres hasnt been ratified and entered into force.

What is also current is the fact that Soviet historians have stressed the idea of replacing the Treaty of Sevres with the Treaty of Lausanne several times, but this doesnt correspond to reality. What is also inadmissible is the claim that the Treaty of Sevres is merely a historic document and isnt current. It is safe to state that today, Turkeys economy is growing thanks to the belongings seized from the Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians and Jews. The Treaty of Sevres offers specific mechanisms for returning real estate and personal properties to the rightful owners, the historian stated.

Marukyan recalled that, according to the Treaty of Sevres, the Turkish authorities recognized the government of the Young Turks as a terrorist organization, that is, a political evaluation was given.
Brazils coronavirus death toll has surpassed 100,000, with the countrys affliction showing no signs of abating as most cities reopen shops and restaurants.

The nation became the second in the world to reach the grim milestone by official counts, 10 weeks after the United States.

The virus, initially dismissed by president Jair Bolsonaro as a little flu, took three months to claim the lives of 50,000 people in Brazil, and just 50 days to kill the next 50,000.

More than three million infections have so far been identified in the country of 310 million inhabitants, with nearly 50,000 new cases registered in 24 hours on Saturday  although the true figures are likely far higher due to insufficient testing.

Brazils Supreme Court and Congress, both of which have criticised Mr Bolsonaros handling of the pandemic, declared three and four days of national mourning for the 100,000 dead, respectively.

The president, who has recently recovered from the virus, did not comment publicly.

Experts have lamented that the countrys response to the virus remains fractured, with Mr Bolsonaro having previously opposed regional and national lockdown measures and even attended a protest which called for the military to take power from Congress over proposed stay-at-home orders.

With two health ministers having resigned in less than a month over disagreements with the presidents dismissive and pro-economy approach, Brazils health mininstry is currently helmed by an army general with no public health experience, who has abandoned the call for social distancing.

As local officials turned their focus to reopening the economy, protesters in Rio de Janiero marked the latest milestone by projecting 100,000 victims of Bolsonaro onto the side of a building, with others mourning the deaths by placing red balloons, crosses and Brazilian flags in the sand on Copacabana beach.

In a video streamed to Facebook on Thursday night, Mr Bolsonaro said: I regret all the deaths, its already reaching the number 100,000, but we are going to find a way out of that.

Meanwhile, public health experts bemoaned Brazils collective anaesthesia over the virus, which was likened to previously apocalyptic events. the possible eventual impact of which was likened to the mass deaths caused by diseases brought to the Americas by European colonisers.

We should be living in despair, because this is a tragedy like a world war. But Brazil is under collective anaesthesia, Dr Jose Davi Urbaez, a senior member of the Infectious Diseases Society, told Reuters.

The governments message today is: Catch your coronavirus and if its serious, there is intensive care. That sums up our policy today.

Alexandre Naime, head of Sao Paulo State Universitys department of infectious diseases, added: We dont know where it will stop, maybe at 150,000 or 200,000 deaths. Only time will show the full impact of Covid-19 here.

He said the only comparison may be diseases brought by colonisers, such as smallpox, which decimated indigenous populations when Europeans first arrived in the Americas, adding that Brazil today seems equally resigned to the deaths still to come.

Additional reporting by agencies
The head of the WHO today said there were 'green shoots of hope' in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic even as the world nears 20million cases.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was 'never too late to turn the outbreak around' as he urged countries to 'suppress, suppress, suppress' the disease so that society could be re-opened.

In a rare piece of international praise for Britain's handling of the crisis, Tedros hailed Boris Johnson for ordering parts of the North of England back into lockdown after a spike in infections there last month.

Tedros also praised New Zealand for eliminating community transmission, and mentioned the UK, Germany and France as countries that 'were able to suppress' the virus by taking action - despite a worrying rise in cases in all three.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (pictured) said today that there were 'green shoots of hope' in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic

Speaking at a media briefing today, Tedros said countries including Britain and France were 'now using all the tools at their disposal to tackle any new spikes'.

'Over the last few days, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson put areas of northern England under stay at home notifications, as clusters of cases were identified,' he said.

'In France, President Macron introduced compulsory masking in busy outdoor spaces of Paris in response to an increase in cases.

'Strong and precise measures like these, in combination with utilising every tool at our disposal are key to preventing any resurgence in disease and allowing societies to be reopened safely.

'Even in countries where transmission is intense, it can be brought under control by applying an all of government, all of society response.

'Chains of transmission have been broken by combination of rapid case identification, comprehensive contact tracing, adequate clinical care for patients, physical distancing, mask wearing, regular cleaning of hands and coughing away from others.

'Whether countries or regions have successfully eliminated the virus, suppressed transmission to a low level, or are still in the midst of a major outbreak; now is the time to do it all, invest in the basics of public health and we can save both lives and livelihoods.'

The lockdown in the North of England caused controversy after it was abruptly imposed on the eve of Eid al-Adha in an area with a large Muslim population.

The government was criticised for a lack of clarity over the new rules, which were announced just hours before they took effect.

Britain yesterday recorded more than 1,000 new cases in a day for the first time June, while Germany and France have also seen alarming spikes in cases.

Italy too has seen higher numbers of infections in recent days after recovering from Europe's first major virus outbreak in February and March.

WHO chief Tedros praised Boris Johnson (pictured today) for taking 'strong and precise measures' to lock down parts of the North of England

Rising cases: Spain has suffered a severe spike in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, as this graph shows, while France, Germany and Italy have also seen upticks in new infections

In Britain, Number 10 is also pushing to re-open schools for the autumn term, but Tedros warned that countries 'must remain vigilant' when they do so.

'We all want to see schools safely reopened but we also need to ensure that students, staff and faculty are safe. The foundation for this is adequate control of transmission at the community,' he said.

'My message is crystal clear: suppress, suppress, suppress the virus. If we suppress the virus effectively, we can safely open up societies.'

Discussing the global spread, he said: 'This week well reach 20 million registered cases of COVID-19 and 750,000 deaths.

'Behind these statistics is a great deal of pain and suffering. Every life lost matters. I know many of you are grieving and that this is a difficult moment for the world.

'But I want to be clear, there are green shoots of hope and no matter where a country, a region, a city or a town is  its never too late to turn the outbreak around.

There are two essential elements to addressing the pandemic effectively: Leaders must step up to take action and citizens need to embrace new measures.'

Tedros specifically praised New Zealand after it marked 100 days with no community transmission of the disease, saying the country was a 'global exemplar'.

Tedros praised New Zealand and its prime minister Jacinda Ardern (pictured) after the Pacific country marked 100 days with no community spread of the disease

The Pacific country shut its borders when it had relatively few cases, allowing society to re-open almost completely when domestic transmission was crushed.

New Zealand has seen only 1,569 cases and 22 deaths in total.

The WHO director-general also hailed Rwanda for 'strong leadership' and effective policies including free testing which have limited the spread of the disease.

Tedros also said that more than $100billion would be needed to distribute a vaccine for Covid-19 if and when it becomes available.

'This sounds like lot of money and it is. But its small in comparison to the $10trillion that have already been invested by G20 countries in fiscal stimulus to deal with the consequences of the pandemic so far,' he said.

Scientists around the world are racing to develop an effective vaccine, which is seen as the only certain way of bringing the pandemic to a standstill.

Advanced trials include an project based at Oxford University in partnership with drugs giant AstraZeneca and partly funded by the UK government.

Some of the most advanced vaccine candidates are undergoing trials in Brazil, which has piled up more than 100,000 deaths from the disease.

Researchers can get results faster by testing vaccines where active virus spread is rampant.
'Welcome back': Cong leaders hail Rajasthan crisis 'resolution' after Pilot-Rahul meet

India

pti-Deepika S

New Delhi, Aug 10: Several Congress leaders 'welcomed back' Sachin Pilot on Monday after the former Rajasthan deputy chief minister's meeting with Rahul Gandhi that signalled an 'amicable resolution' of nearly a month-long political crisis in the state.

Soon after his patch-up talks with senior Congress leaders, Pilot on Monday night said he has never hankered after posts and his was a fight for principles.

After the 'nikamma jibes, peace, brotherhood returns to Rajasthan Congress

Sachin Pilot meets Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi amid reconciliation talks | Oneindia News

'Welcome back Sachin. A constructive and enjoyable phase of Rajasthan building awaits,' senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi tweeted after the party issued a statement saying Sonia Gandhi has decided that the AICC will constitute a three-member committee to 'address the issues raised by Pilot and the aggrieved MLAs and arrive at an appropriate resolution thereof'.

Singhvi also congratulated Rahul Gandhi and his tireless team, including K C Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala and Ajay Maken, and added 'not to forget political instincts of (Ashok) Gehlot which rarely fail him'.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, 'The political crisis in Rajasthan Congress stands resolved amicably by the intervention of none other than Rahul Gandhi himself.' 'This is reflective of steadfast unity in Congress party and the commitment of Congress legislators to never fall prey to BJP's evil designs to defeat democracy,' he told PTI.

Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said he was very happy that finally the efforts of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi 'resolved the dispute of Rajasthan Congress'.

'Now everyone should fulfill the promises made to the people of Rajasthan,' he said.

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said the path of reconciliation is the best for Pilot and 'for all of us'.

Hailing Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi for their efforts, Congress leader Jitin Prasada said, 'We have managed to keep one of our own, Sachin Pilot, with us.' 'This is the democratic spirit of our party @INCIndia where there is room for dissent and debate,' said Prasada, who is considered a leader of the party's young brigade.

Rajasthan crisis: CM Ashok Gehlot slams BJP, says it is trying to topple the government

Congress spokesperson and another young leader Jaiveer Shergill said at the end of the day, all is well for the Congress and 'all in the well for BJP'.

Reacting to the development, Haryana Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi said he was extremely heartened to hear the news.

'India needs good people with good hearts and good intentions in government. Let's do our bit,' he said on Twitter, adding, "We are stronger together.' Delhi Congress vice president Abhishek Dutt thanked Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Ahmed Patel, K C Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala and Ajay Maken for the development.

'Sachin Pilot bhai had made it very clear from Day 1 that he was never joining BJP,' he said.

After his meeting with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, the party said Pilot will 'work in the interest' of the Congress and its government in Rajasthan. The meeting between Rahul Gandhi and Pilot at the former party chief's residence, where Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was also present, lasted two hours during which they had a 'frank, open and conclusive' discussion, the party said.
Many Italian businesses were forced to shutter - Alessandra Benedetti - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

Five Italian Italian lawmakers were granted 600 bonuses aimed at struggling workers hit by the coronavirus pandemic, according to local reports on Monday, sparking outrage.

The scandal stemmed from a report in Italian daily La Repubblica, which said five lawmakers from different parties  including the hard-Right League  had requested and obtained the 600 payment designed for self-employed and casual workers forced to stay at home by the pandemic.

The monthly bonus - issued in March and April - was part of a financial relief package approved by the government at the peak of the Covid-19 crisis, when Italian authorities were forced to impose a nationwide lockdown to try to contain the deadly spread.

Italy has been among the worst-hit countries by coronavirus in Europe, with over 35,200 deaths nationwide.

The applications for the bonuses, which were made through the website of Italys social security office INPS, made the site crash in just a few hours, as millions of Italians requested the payments.

According to La Repubblicas findings, three lawmakers from the far-right League, one from the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and one from the centrist Italia Viva party, exploited the emergency situation to request the bonus, despite the fact they retained their salaries.

The report sparked fury in Italy, with citizens enraged by evidence that Italian lawmakers  who usually earn over 12,000 # a month  resorted to a relief measure targeted to the poor and unemployed.

The bonus scandal is just the latest involving the Italian political class, known for frequent episodes of corruption and abuse of power.

The incident is even more striking as it involves populist parties  like the League and the Five Stars  which have always been very vocal against the privileges of the political elite, engaging in battles to cut the lawmakers' benefits and salaries.

The names of the lawmakers involved in the scandal have not been published for privacy reasons, but all the main political leaders have called for them to come out, reimburse the money and then step down.

Five Star's Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio, whose party has been the main champion of a new law that aims at cutting the number of MPs in parliament, was quick to criticise the politicians who claimed the money.
By Susan Heavey and Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON/Morristown, NJ (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Sunday said they were open to restarting COVID-19 aid talks, after weeks of failed negotiations prompted President Donald Trump to take executive actions that Democrats argued would do little to ease Americans' financial distress.

Discussions over a fifth bill to address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic fell apart on Friday, a week after the expiration of a critical boost in unemployment assistance and eviction protections, exposing people to a wave of economic pain as infections continue to rise across the country.

Trump on Saturday sought to take matters into his own hands, signing executive orders and memorandums aimed at unemployment benefits, evictions, student loans and payroll taxes.

Trump told reporters in New Jersey before returning to Washington on Sunday that his suspension of the collection of the payroll tax could be made permanent. He said doing so would have no impact on Social Security because reimbursement would be made through the general fund.

Trump, noting that Democrats want to resume stimulus discussions, said the White House would be willing to talk to them again "if it's not a waste of time."

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, called Trump's orders a "series of half-baked measures" and accused him of putting Social Security, the government pension plan for the elderly, "at grave risk" by delaying the collection of payroll taxes that pay for the program.

"This will have zero impact on Social Security," Trump said.

"It may be permanent, we're looking into it," he added. "We'll take it out till the end of the year and then I'm going to make a decision as to, number one, an extension, and number two, make it permanent and no reimbursement."

Trump's move came as the number of U.S. cases of COVID-19 rose past 5 million. More than 160,000 Americans have died. Trump's orders also raised questions about the legality of bypassing Congress' constitutional powers to tax and spend.

Story continues

On Sunday, both Pelosi and Mnuchin appeared willing to consider a narrower deal that would extend some aid until the end of the year, and then revisit the need for more federal assistance in January. That would come after November's election, which could rebalance power in Washington.

"Let's pass legislation on things that we agree on," Mnuchin told Fox News in an interview. "We don't have to get everything done at once. ... What we should do is get things done for the American public now, come back for another bill afterwards."

Pelosi dismissed Trump's orders as unconstitutional and "illusions" that would not quickly or directly help Americans. She said separately to "Fox News Sunday" that a deal between congressional Democrats and the White House was essential.

"Right now, we need to come to agreement," she said, adding that Democrats could shorten the length of time aid is provided in order to bring the bill's costs down closer to the Trump administration's proposal.

"We could talk about how long our provisions would be in effect, so we can take things down -- instead of the end of September of next year, a shorter period of time -- and we'll revisit all of it next year anyway," said Pelosi, whose fellow Democrats control the U.S. House of Representatives.

Mnuchin appeared open to consider the idea, telling Fox: "Anytime they have a new proposal, I am willing to listen."

$2 TRILLION GAP

The House passed a $3.4 trillion coronavirus support package in May that the Republican-led Senate ignored for weeks before putting forward a $1 trillion counteroffer.

Democrats, pushing hard to keep a $600 per week unemployment benefit, which is a supplement to state jobless payments, and deliver more funds to cash-strapped states and cities battered by the pandemic, had offered to meet Republicans halfway to close the $2 trillion gap -- a move the White House rejected.

On Sunday, Mnuchin urged lawmakers to accept the money the administration was willing to lay out now to help schools reopen, boost local coffers and help the jobless, even if it fell short of Democrats' goals.

While it remained unclear whether there would be formal legal challenges to Trump's orders, some legal and tax experts said his actions took few concrete steps to provide immediate relief.

"It's basically nothing," Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law, said of Trump's move directing his Cabinet to look at the issue of evictions.

Trump's memo on unemployment aid did not extend benefits under the current system, but instead authorized a separate system that would have to be paid for in part by the states, which are already struggling to pay benefits amid a wave joblessness not seen since the Great Depression.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNN on Sunday it was unclear how states would come up with the additional money, while Mnuchin on Fox said, "They can either take that out of the money we've already given them or the president can waive that."

Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, vice chair of the National Governors Association, said states cannot afford to pay 25% of unemployment costs as outlined by the president. "It's simply impossible," Cuomo wrote on Twitter.

Trump's memo calling on companies to defer withholding payroll taxes changed the deadline for when such taxes were due but did not eliminate them. It would rely on employers' compliance and does not help Americans who are out of work.

A fourth memo allowed borrowers to defer payments on student loans.

Pelosi declined to say whether Democrats would challenge the legality of Trump's actions in court.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Jeff Mason; Additional reporting by Christopher Bing, Brad Heath and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Mary Milliken, Daniel Wallis and Leslie Adler)
Ruling Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Hae-chan bangs the gavel during the party's Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul, Monday. The ruling party is reviewing a possible introduction of a fourth extra budget to deal with the damage from weeks of sustained rainfall. Yonhap



By Jung Da-min



The ruling bloc is reviewing the option of introducing a fourth extra budget, as many regions have been hit hard by weeks of heavy rain.



It signals a change from its earlier stance which was to refrain from seeking any more supplementary budgets, as the government has issued three this year, already raising concerns over fiscal soundness.



As the extent of damage from torrential downpours and landslides has been increasing, members of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said, Monday, the government is urged to review the introduction of an extra budget to help with recovery.



The government currently has about 2 trillion won ($1.7 billion) left in its emergency fund for this year after allocating money earlier to deal with the COVID-19 situation.



"The ruling party and the government will hold a high-level meeting as soon as possible to discuss recovery measures, including whether to pay out of the reserve fund or allocate another extra budget," DPK leader Lee Hae-chan said during the party's Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly.



Another Supreme Council member Rep. Park Kwang-on called for a swift introduction of emergency funds to regions hit hard by the heavy rains. "The National Assembly should take the initiative to review an extra budget and propose it to the government if the remaining emergency fund is not enough to cover repair expenses," he said.



"The government introduced an extra budget of 4.1 trillion won in 2002 when the country was hit by a typhoon and another extra budget of 2.2 trillion won in 2006 for damage caused by another typhoon."



Political watchers expect the passage of the fourth extra budget to be processed smoothly as the need for another extra budget was first raised by opposition parties.



Minor opposition People's Party leader Ahn Cheol-soo first proposed the idea last week during a party meeting. "We need to use the natural disaster relief fund and the emergency fund, but if it is not enough to cover the damage recovery from the continued heavy rains, we need to allocate an extra budget for natural disaster relief," Ahn said.



He said although the government has already introduced extra budgets three times this year, this time the extra budget for natural disaster relief would be different in its nature.



Kim Chong-in, emergency committee chief of the main opposition United Future Party (UFP), also expressed support for the idea, saying, "The flood damage is too severe and if there is no budget left for the damage recovery work, there is no other way than introducing another supplementary budget."



But political watchers also pointed out that a fourth extra budget would be a burden on the government's fiscal soundness. The National Assembly passed and the government approved a 35.3 trillion won third extra budget, the biggest-ever extra budget, just a month ago. The total amount of the three extra budgets reached 59.2 trillion won, and this pushed up Korea's national debt to 839.4 trillion won this year, up by 98.6 trillion won from last year.




BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European stocks were modestly higher on Monday after U.S. jobs data beat forecasts and a report showed China's factory deflation eased in July, adding to signs of an economic recovery.



However, markets were off their day's highs amid a fresh flare-up in Sino-U.S. tensions and continued uncertainty about a deal on a U.S. stimulus package.



Amid mounting tensions between Washington and Beijing, U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar offered President Donald Trump's strong support for democratic Taiwan.



China said it will impose sanctions on 11 U.S. citizens in response to similar measures from Washington on Chinese and Hong Kong officials.



In economic releases, a survey showed that investor morale in the euro zone rose for a fourth consecutive month in August.



Sentix's index for the euro zone improved to -13.4 from -18.2 in July. That marked the highest reading since pre-lockdown times in February.



The pan European Stoxx 600 was up 0.1 percent at 364.01 after rising 0.3 percent on Friday. France's CAC 40 index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 rose about 0.3 percent, while the German DAX slid 0.1 percent.



Technology stocks were coming under selling pressure, with Infineon Technologies losing 1.4 percent and Dialog Semiconductor declining over 2 percent.



Cloud and ICT provider QSC advanced 1.5 percent after its second-quarter consolidated net loss narrowed to 5.1 million euros from 5.5 million euros in the first quarter.



Porsche Automobil Holding fell over 2 percent. The company, which holds the majority stake in German auto maker Volkswagen AG, reported that its first-half Group result after tax was a loss of 329 million euros, compared to prior year's profit of 2.38 billion euros. Volkswagen shares were down 0.7 percent.



Speed-train maker Alstom declined 1.7 percent. The company, which is in deal to buy Bombardier Transportation, said it remains convinced of the strong strategic rationale for the acquisition.



The company also said it is confident in its ability to restore in the medium term the profitability and commercial performance of the business.



BP Plc shares rallied 2.2 percent and Royal Dutch Shell gained 1.5 percent as oil prices rose on hopes that the worst may be over for fuel demand.



AVEVA Group added 1.8 percent. The information technology company confirmed that it has entered into discussions with OSIsoft, LLC regarding a potential acquisition.



Clarkson shares surged 11 percent. After delivering a robust first-half performance, the shipping services provider said it would pay the equivalent of the deferred 2019 final dividend as an extra payment along with this year's interim dividend.



FirstGroup soared 5 percent and Go-Ahead Group shares rose over 2 percent. The public transport giants have welcomed the announcement from the Department for Transport regarding extended funding of bus services in England, to be provided by the U.K. government.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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ALBANY - When John Mannion first ran for state Senate in 2018, he vied for the influential endorsement of the states largest labor union - the Civil Service Employees Association.

At the time, Mannion was challenging Bob Antonacci, a Republican running for the 50th Senate District. Mannion lost the CSEA endorsement to Antonacci that year. But this time around, he snagged the CSEA nod from Republican challenger Angi Renna. The 50th Senate District seat has been vacant since the beginning of the year, after Antonacci resigned for a judgeship. A special election to fill the seat was canceled earlier this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For me it means a lot, Mannion said. I consider myself a strong advocate for working people and I do know a lot of CSEA members. Therefore, to have earned this endorsement from the hardworking members of a well-respected organization and who do a lot of good for our area - and have through this crisis - means a lot to me.

Mannion is one of 49 Democrats running for state Senate who received endorsements from powerful labor unions, like CSEA and the New York State AFL-CIO, ahead of Novembers general election. Mannion received both CSEA and AFL-CIO endorsements.

The CSEA declined to release a full list of their endorsements, however candidates confirmed they had received letters of support Friday. The AFL-CIO, a labor union representing 2.5 million workers across the state, announced nearly 200 endorsements in congressional and state legislative races, the overwhelming majority for Democratic candidates.

AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento pointed to the candidates support for working New Yorkers as key to climbing out of the economic and health crisis facing the nation from the coronavirus.

Now more than ever, as COVID-19 leaves a trail of destruction through the health and economic security of working people, we need elected officials who will stand up and fight for workers both now and in the months and years ahead, Cilento said in a statement included with the endorsement list. We endorse these candidates with great confidence that they understand the priorities of union members and will take-on the issues important to all workers while helping to build-up the middle class.

But key districts within the Hudson Valley, North Country and the Central and Western New York regions could be flipped blue if Democratic candidates succeed in November, which could possibly lead to Democrats having a supermajority in the Senate - giving senators the ability to override vetoes from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo - should they capture at least 42 seats.

CSEA spokesman Mark Kotzin declined to comment on the labor union's endorsements, but emphasized that the CSEA supports a balance of legislators from both sides of the aisle.

"We endorse, not by party, but by support on issues," he said. "We have a long, proud history of making sure we support candidates from all parties based on their support for our issues."

However, over the last five years, the CSEA has donated almost exclusively to Republicans running for state Senate while primarily donating to Democrats in the Assembly. Political insiders also say the CSEA has favored Republicans for state Senate seats in the past.

Mannion, who is a teacher's union member and leader himself as a high school advanced biology teacher in Camillus, said endorsements from these organizations can help encourage more support for his campaign.

I know that organizations like CSEA know how to engage their own members, and theres really no substitute for that, he said. So getting an endorsement from a well-respected organization like that means that their members are going to pay attention.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

In another vacant Senate seat, currently represented by Republican Sen. Betty Little who is not seeking reelection, both the CSEA and AFL-CIO have endorsed Democrat Kimberly Davis over Republican and Assemblyman Dan Stec. The Democratic candidate for the 46th Senate District - currently represented by Republican George Amedore who is not seeking reelection - also nabbed the endorsements of the two labor unions.

Meanwhile, endorsements from the New York State United Teachers, NYSUT, strayed slightly from the other labor unions - endorsing Stec, Mannion and Michelle Hinchey - two Democrats - in their respective districts.

Hinchey, the daughter of the late Congressman Maurice Hinchey, said she grew up in a union household - her grandfather helped unionize cement plant workers and many of her family members work in union jobs.

Supporting and protecting working class households is why Hinchey is running, she said. The district, which covers the Hudson Valley and parts of the Capital Region, also has many union employees who deserve a seat at the table, Hinchey said.

Its important that we have more upstate Democratic voices in the room, she said. CSEA folks live in our community and district. We want to make sure they have a voice in the room.

While Democratic candidates' swing districts may have garnered support from the influential unions, many Republican incumbents secured support as well, including Sen. Jim Tedisco. He also received an endorsement from NYSUT.

"Im proud to be a strong voice for working people and continue to have the support of organized labor and receive these endorsements," Tedisco said. "As a former public school teacher, I come from a blue-collar family: my dad worked for 30 years at the GE foundry in some of the toughest conditions imaginable. Not a day goes by that I dont think of my father, and not a day goes by as a senator that I dont stand up for the proud working men and women who make New York the Empire State."
A former head of MI6 warned ministers today that allowing their children to use TikTok could put them at the mercy of Chinese spies.

Nigel Inkster said that the controversial social media app could provide a backdoor for Beijing to steal secrets from high-ranking members of the Government.

He spoke as ministers came under pressure from China hawks to take action again the platform, which has more than 3.5million active users in the UK alone.

Donald Trump last week issued executive orders effectively banning the video sharing app and messaging service WeChat from the US unless it comes under new ownership.

Using national emergency powers, Trump on Thursday night signed the orders, which give TikTok parent ByteDance 45 days to sell the app, and bar WeChat from the US after the same time period.

TikTok has strenuously denied having links to the autocratic communist regime in China. But Mr Inkster, who led the foreign intelligence service until 2006, said that as long as its owners were based there, it would be seen as a risk.

'Where the Chinese intelligence services are very strong is in identifying non-obvious entry points to certain targets,' he told the Telegraph.

'They have shown a lot of skill in this regard.'

Nigel Inkster said that the controversial social media app could provide a backdoor for Beijing to steal secrets from high-ranking members of the Government

He spoke as ministers came under pressure from China hawks to take action again the platform, which has more than 3.5million active users in the UK alone

However, a National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) later said: 'We do not recognise this as a significant additional security risk.'

Microsoft has emerged as the most likely buyer of the US operations of TikTok, which would avoid it being effectively banned on national security grounds.

A deal would be in line with Microsoft's stance toward China where the firm has a sizeable presence - unlike fellow US tech heavyweights such as Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google which appear to have given up on China's consumer-facing market with its miscellany of government strictures.

Microsoft employs roughly 6,000 people in the country, with offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Suzhou.

Its flagship Windows operating system is widely used, though revenue has long been crimped by piracy.

But Twitter has approached ByteDance to express interest in a deal as well. Experts raised doubts over Twitter's ability to put together financing for such a large acquisition, after word of the talks was first reported Saturday by the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter.

It is far from certain that Twitter would be able to outbid Microsoft and complete such a transformative deal in the 45 days that President Donald Trump has given ByteDance to agree to a sale.

Twitter has a market capitalization of close to $30 billion, almost as much as the valuation of TikTok's assets to be divested, and would need to raise additional capital to fund the deal.
Caution about COVID-19 has made Alexandra Hammonds trial HSC very different to the exams she has sat before. Supervisors could not walk between desks as they usually would, so students with queries had to visit a question station at the front of the room.

If they forgot a pen or broke a pencil, the supervisor was not allowed to hand them a replacement. And when time was up, "we hand in papers then we must sanitise our desks," said Ms Hammond, who attends North Sydney Girls' High School.

The coronavirus pandemic has already had an impact on Alexandra Hammond's HSC. Credit:James Brickwood

As COVID-19 case numbers continue to worry health authorities, there are also fears the pandemic will have further impacts on the Higher School Certificate, which could include students attending exam centres despite being ill with COVID-symptoms.

Trial exams can be postponed, as they have been at Tangara School for Girls after students were sent home when cases were identified this week. "HSC Trial exams will commence a week later, on Monday, August 24," the school said in a statement.
A man stabs his brother over an expensive Egyptian cotton pillowcase, their struggle seems absurd but sometimes emotion can run wild over premium pillowcases. Oddly, the accused,who is a university worker, get away with the crime he commited.

According to the prosecutors, 56-year-old Mark Oliver was involed in a row with his younger sibling Andrew, and he stabbed him twice. Other additional injuries were three knife wounds. The incident happened in their residence in Gosport, Hampshire, reported the Daily Mail.

Both brothers were staying with their mother when the fight happened. One would call the argument immature since it is merely a fight over a pillowcase. What was unusual is the ferocity of both siblings who are already over 50-years, yet still acting like teenagers.

Evidence of the stabbing consists of footage taken after the incident has been released recently. This was done after the Crown Prosecution Service gave their judgment on the case.

Jean Oliver, their mother spoke to the police about the deadly argument. She informed that those involved did not see the matter straight over freshly washed Egyptian cotton pillowcases. Both siblings fought over who it belonged to, and the courts characterized it as a non-sensical and trivial thing to fight over, cited Read Sector.

The unnecessary violence of the struggle lead to the death of father-of-two, Andrew, aged-53, who acquired fatal wounds inflicted by his older brother.

Also read: Disgruntled Lover Fatally Shoots Woman While She's Driving With Her Children

The accused, Mark, was apprehended by the police for the stabbing of his brother. Soon after, a trial that lasted for ten-days held at the Winchester Crown Court, Hampshire went on. After the ten-days and nine hours and 16 minutes of hearing the evidence of the case, the accused was judged not guilty of stabbing his brother to death, confirmed MEAWW.

In the footage that was taken by the officer's body-cameras, the accused with his bloody face was seen as officers asked questions. This was part of the evidence used by prosecutors during trial.

The surviving sibling said that it was not murder, but self-defense as his brother attacked him. He said that Andrew was going overboard, and it alarmed him. A knife was used in self-defense, the accused added.

Mrs. Oliver, 86, who stayed with them, remarked to the police that both men got their sheets and other things.

She added that it sounded absurd and foolish, that lately her son Andrew has been missing sheets.

According to her, the Egyptian pillowcase has been laundered and asked Mark if it was his. He said it is.

When the older brother took the sheets, the younger one said it was his. Ironically, she added it was the pillowcases not sheets.

Amanda Westcumb, their sister was taken aback by what happened and was bothered about the incident, telling the police that it was not usual.

Related article: Man Jailed for Killing Girlfriend After He Lied About Her Suicide on Highway

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SEOUL The Red Cross has been training more than 43,000 volunteers to North Korea, including to the locked-down city of Kaesong, to help fight the novel coronavirus and provide flood assistance, an official with the relief organisation said on Monday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared an emergency last month and imposed a lockdown on Kaesong, near the inter-Korean border, after a man who defected to the South in 2017 returned to the city showing coronavirus symptoms.

Heavy rain and flooding in recent days have also sparked concern about crop damage and food supplies in the isolated country.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has built an extensive network of North Korean volunteers to help residents in all nine provinces to avoid the virus and reduce damage from floods and landslides, spokesman Antony Balmain said.

Hundreds of homes have been damaged and large areas of rice fields have been submerged due to heavy rain and some flash flooding," Balmain said.

In Kaesong, which was grappling with both the lockdown and floods, IFRC volunteers were providing 2,100 families most at risk with relief items includingA tarpaulins, kitchen sets, quilts, hygiene kits and water containers.

Families are being supported withA psychological first aid and awareness activities to maintain hygiene and stay healthy," Balmain added.

Kim has also sent special aid packages to Kaesong, and state media reported on Monday that grain supplies from Pyongyang had arrived in another flood-ravaged county he visited last week.

North Korea has not confirmed any coronavirus cases but has enforced strict quarantine measures. South Korea has said there is no evidence the returning defector was infected.

The IFRC last month provided North Korea with kits designed to run up to 10,000 coronavirus tests, alongside infrared thermometers, surgical masks, gowns and protective gears.

In South Korea, at least 32 people have died after 49 days of monsoon rains, the countrys longest since 1987, caused flooding, landslides and evacuations.

(This story corrects headline and pars 1 and 4 to say volunteers were trained, not sent.)

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
Hong Kong political groups have expressed support for the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) in making a decision for the sixth Legislative Council (LegCo) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to continue operation.

To decide on the HKSAR LegCo matter by the NPC Standing Committee is a power entrusted by the Constitution and the Basic Law, and such arrangement takes into account the situation in Hong Kong and will ensure the normal legislative operation and orderly social and economic development in Hong Kong, they said.

The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) said in a statement that the LegCo vacancy for the next year is an important constitutional issue that concerns Hong Kong's overall interests and people's well-being.

As the Basic Law does not stipulate solutions to the matter, it is necessary and proper for the NPC Standing Committee to decide on the solutions at the constitutional level, the DAB said.

The DAB said it believes the upcoming decision will ensure the effective operation of the LegCo in the coming year and lay the foundation for Hong Kong to fight the epidemic, revive the economy and improve people's livelihood.

Ng Chau-pei, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, expressed gratitude for the central authorities' understanding on and support for the postponement of the LegCo election due to the COVID-19 outbreak and believed the NPC Standing Committee will make a legitimate and fair decision that gives priority to the lives and health of Hong Kong residents.

The Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong (BPA) said the decision can only be made by the NPC Standing Committee as the HKSAR government is unable to address the LegCo vacancy itself.

A timely decision by the NPC Standing Committee is necessary to ensure the normal operation of the society and the administration of the HKSAR government, as well as the continued prosperity and stability of Hong Kong, the BPA said.

The Liberal Party of Hong Kong also supported the postponement of the LegCo election to safeguard public health and ensure a fair election, and said the decision of the NPC Standing Committee will ensure the normal operation of the HKSAR LegCo and the government, and not affect the Hong Kong society and its economy.
Elizabeth and Andrei Castravet are spending time with Andreis friends and family in Moldova on 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After. Elizabeth seems pretty comfortable in the Eastern European country. And in a recent fan Q & A, the reality star revealed that she would consider living in Andreis home country on one condition.

90 Day Fiance stars Elizabeth and Andrei | via Instagram

Elizabeth and Andrei are in Moldova for their second wedding on 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After

Andrei and Elizabeth have been talking about having a dream wedding for sometime. And on this season of 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After, the couple is seen planning their nuptials in Andreis home country of Moldova.

But the wedding isnt the only reason Andrei and Elizabeth are visiting Moldova. They want their daughter Eleanor to meet Andreis side of the family, and they also want her to be baptized in his church.

RELATED: 90 Day Fiance Stars Andrei and Elizabeth Insist Colt Is a Really Sweet Guy Whos Just Struggling With Love

Elizabeths family isnt impressed with Moldova

When Elizabeth told her family she was going to get married in Moldova on 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After, they werent exactly thrilled. Her sisters were upset over the last minute plans. And after they searched the internet, they told Elizabeth that Moldovas police corruption and tourist kidnappings make it the scariest place on Earth.

Moldova is not dangerous at all, Elizabeth retorted. I understand that my sisters have concerns about the timing and, what are we going to do with our children? she then told producers. But then, some of the comments that theyre making are just ignorant.

And when Elizabeths dad and brother, Chuck and Charlie Potthast land in Chisinau, they dont have many nice things to say about the city. They are very critical of the airport after their bags go missing, and they arent impressed with the lack of sun.

Yeah, not a good start, no bags, Charlie says in a confessional. Its cold and dreary. Its not Tampa.

RELATED: 90 Day Fiance: Elizabeth Defends Andrei and Explains Why He Comes Off Really Mean

Elizabeth says she would live in Moldova on one condition

Her family may not be big fans of Moldova, but ever since Elizabeth arrived in Andreis home country, shes been nothing but respectful and appreciative of the language, the food, and the culture. And in a recent Instagram Q & A with fans, the 90 Day Fiance star revealed that she wouldnt mind living there, as long as she is proficient in the language.

I love Moldova, Elizabeth said in her Instagram session. I think the country is so great. Its beautiful. The people are very nice, warm, welcoming. The food is amazing. And its just, the lifestyle is just different there, and I like it. 

And I would live there, she added. I would just like to be fluent in Romanian first.

When a fan asked her about being unable to travel due to COVID-19 precautions, Elizabeth noted that she and Andrei have been hoping to go back to visit his parents. We really want to visit Moldova again, because we obviously miss his family, and Eleanor needs to see her family over there.

Fans can see Elizabeth and Andreis Moldovan adventure unfold as this season of 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After continues.
DOVER, England (Reuters) - British border agents brought ashore migrants in the port of Dover on Monday after picking them up from an inflatable boat as they crossed the Channel, the latest in a surge of crossings that is causing political tensions with France.

Taking advantage of hot weather and calm sea conditions, more than 500 migrants have reached England since Thursday, many in overloaded rubber dinghies.

A Reuters photographer in Dover saw a Border Force boat arrive carrying a group of migrants wearing life jackets. A blue inflatable dinghy was towed in by a separate vessel.

What is going on is the activity of cruel and criminal gangs who are risking the lives of these people, taking them across the Channel...in potentially unseaworthy vessels, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told broadcasters.

We want to stop that, working with the French.

The Home Office, or interior ministry, has said it would return as many migrants as possible to France. Immigration minister Chris Philp is due to meet his French counterpart in Paris this week.

France says it has already deployed extra resources and that many boats are being intercepted before they cross.

Stephen Hale, chief executive of the charity Refugee Action, said the numbers crossing the sea to Britain - about 4,000 so far this year - were tiny in the context of what he described as a global refugee crisis.

This is serious for the people concerned, but its a modest movement by international standards and its certainly something that Britain can cope with, he told Reuters, contrasting the situation with that of Lebanon, which has a million Syrian refugees.

France received 138,000 asylum applications last year, more than three times the 44,200 that were received by Britain, according to Eurostat.

Many of the migrants seeking to reach Britain come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and countries in Africa, fleeing poverty, persecution or war. Some stand a chance of being granted asylum, while others, considered illegal economic migrants, are unlikely to be allowed to remain in Britain.

SEND OUT THE NAVY?

 Britains interior ministry has asked the military to help deal with the migrant boats, although it has not explained what it wanted them to do.

French lawmaker Pierre-Henri Dumont, who represents the Calais area across the Channel from Dover, dismissed the idea as an attempt by British ministers to show some kind of muscle.

My question is: what for? If a small boat full with migrants is entering the British waters, is the British navy going to shoot at them? he said in a BBC interview.

Johnson said it was very difficult to send people away when they had arrived illegally, suggesting he wanted that to change.

We need to look at the legal framework that we have, all the panoply of laws that an illegal immigrant has at his or her disposal that allows them to stay here, he said.

Any attempt to change the rules could be complicated by Britains exit from the European Union. As things stand, most EU accords still apply during a transition period that will end on Dec. 31.

Dumont said after that, Britain would no longer be able to send migrants back to EU countries as that was only possible under an EU scheme.

That will cause a huge increase in the number of migrants trying to cross the Channel, he said.

Hale said the government was presenting the situation on the south coast as a crisis when it was not.

Restrictions on international travel since March due to the coronavirus have also shut down a government scheme that allowed Syrian refugees to come to Britain from Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, he added.
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Linkedin Moch. Fiqih Prawira Adjie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, August 11 2020

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin has said the government is mulling merging several state-owned Islamic banks  banks that offer services that are sharia-compliant  to unify their power and boost their global rating.

The state-owned Islamic banks in talks to be merged are PT Bank BRI Syariah, a subsidiary of Bank BRI, PT Bank Syariah Mandiri, a subsidiary of Bank Mandiri, and PT Bank BNI Syariah, a subsidiary of Bank BNI.

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A historic country manor where Doctor Who was filmed has been restored to its former glory and has gone up for sale for 2million.

The 170-year-old Fields Manor, near Newport in South Wales, featured prominently in the classic 2007 episode, Blink, starring David Tennant as the Doctor, and Carey Mulligan as Sally Sparrow.

It served as Wester Drumlins - a spooky old house that is invaded by the Weeping Angels, who are a race of 'quantum-locked' predatory creatures who appear as statues which get closer to their victim every time they blink.

Fields Manor was in a dilapidated state when award-winning developer Paul Priestley acquired it.

The crumbling Grade II-listed house had cracked window panes and invading pigeons and tree roots, but his company worked painstakingly to make sure the heritage of the building was preserved in the restoration.

A historic country manor where Doctor Who was filmed has been restored to its former glory and has gone up for sale for 2m. The 170-year-old Fields Manor, near Newport in South Wales, featured prominently in the classic 2007 episode, Blink

The episode Blink starred David Tennant as the Doctor, and Carey Mulligan (left) as Sally Sparrow. Fields Manor served as Wester Drumlins (right) - a spooky old house that is invaded by the Weeping Angels, who are a race of 'quantum-locked' predatory creatures who appear as statues which get closer to their victim every time they blink

Fields Manor was in a dilapidated condition when award-winning developer Paul Priestley acquired it - before beginning a mammoth restoration project

The 19th century property is now a stunning six-bedroom home with a wealth of period features and modern touches, and is on the market through estate agents Mr and Mrs Clarke

Fields Manor was initially one large house built for William Evans, mayor of Newport, who had become very wealthy as a result of the huge expansion of the city - but was split into two at the turn of the century

The crumbling Grade II-listed house had cracked window panes and invading pigeons and tree roots, but his company worked painstakingly to make sure the heritage of the building was preserved in the restoration

Mr Priestley worked closely with a conservation officer to restore the property. (Above, one of the bedrooms)

In Blink, the Doctor (David Tennant, above) appears in a video-taped recording in which he appears to be having a one-way conversation - during which he utters his now famous 'wibbly wobbly timey wime-y stuff' line

It is now a stunning six-bedroom home with a wealth of period features and modern touches, on the market through estate agents Mr and Mrs Clarke.

The show returned to the house in the middle of the restoration project to film part of another episode, using the house's cellars in the episode Knock Knock (2017) when Peter Capaldi played the Doctor and David Suchet starred as the Landlord.

Fields Manor was built in about 1850 on the site of an older farmhouse, of which the original cellars still remain.

It was initially one large house built for William Evans, mayor of Newport, who had become very wealthy as a result of the huge expansion of the city - but was split into two at the turn of the century.

Fields Manor has been used as a film location on several occasions, most notably for Doctor Who.

Mr Priestley worked closely with a conservation officer to restore the property. Each individual piece of the orangery was restored or recreated by craftsmen, reglazed and the floor re-laid with some of the original quarry tiles

On the ground floor, there is a kitchen/dining room, drawing room and morning room, as well as the glass orangery

The first floor has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, with another three bedrooms and two bathrooms on the second floor, as well as a tower room and a balcony

Mr Priestley said: 'When we first saw the manor in 2015, it was obvious it was a unique property with huge potential, but getting her back to her former glory was a huge task needing delicate hands'

It has an imposing Jacobean front door and an octagonal tower entrance leading into the reception hall, which has a walkover glass panel looking down into the cellar.

On the ground floor there is also a kitchen/dining room, drawing room, morning room and the glass orangery.

The first floor has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, with another three bedrooms and two bathrooms on the second floor, as well as a tower room and a balcony.

The cellar can be used as a cinema room, games room or gym, as well as a wine cellar, a laundry room and utility room.

Outside it has easily maintained grounds with mature trees including an ancient oak believed to be the oldest in the area.

There is also a double garage and studio room with underfloor heating.

Mr Priestley said: 'When we first saw the manor in 2015, it was obvious it was a unique property with huge potential, but getting her back to her former glory was a huge task needing delicate hands.

It has an imposing Jacobean front door and an octagonal tower entrance leading into the reception hall, which has a walkover glass panel looking down into the cellar

Fields Manor was built circa 1850 on the site of an older farmhouse, of which the original cellars still remain. The cellar can be used as a cinema room, games room or gym, as well as a wine cellar, a laundry room and utility room

'We replaced the roof slates, matching the original fish scale design. We scoured the country for period-matched features to find just the right piece. Bathstone features and mullions [vertical divisions between windows] were repaired or replacements hand-carved from scratch,' said Mr Priestley

'Over 20 years, the house had been crumbling into disrepair under its scaffolding shell.

'The window panes cracked, flocks of pigeons invaded, tree roots crept through the air vents and sent up shoots through the floorboards.

'But under the grime and damage, we could see the bones of a beautiful building - the quarry-tiled floor, the flight of stone stairs, the arched doorways, the iron balustrades, the stained glass. This had obviously once been a wonderful home, a grand residence.

'We worked closely throughout with the local conservation officer to ensure the history and heritage of the building was preserved.

Some of the floorplans for Fields Manor. Among the features restored to their original glory were the roof slates

'Chimneys and gables were taken apart stone by stone and put back together using heritage techniques.

'We replaced the roof slates, matching the original fish scale design. We scoured the country for period-matched features to find just the right piece. Bathstone features and mullions [vertical divisions between windows] were repaired or replacements hand-carved from scratch.

'We knew that we couldn't cut corners when dealing with a house like this. The house had been ravaged by time and neglect. There was a constant need to revise plans. But now it is finished - beautifully restored and full of light and warmth.

'We felt throughout the whole project that we were working with the house, revealing her underlying beauty while giving her a new lease of life for the new age.'

One of the ornate bathrooms. There is also a double garage and studio room with underfloor heating

Pictured, the upstairs landing of Fields Manor. Outside, it has easily maintained grounds with mature trees including an ancient oak believed to be the oldest in the area
Japanese carrier creates an ecological disaster in Mauritius' pristine beaches after spilling 1,000 tonnes of crude oil. According to Daily Mail UK's latest report, the country's leader warned that the cracks of the ship might totally break it into half, leading to the worse scenario.

Ecological Disaster in Paradise! #MauritiusOilSpill pic.twitter.com/QQ8m9LVvjs  OceansAsia (@oceansasia1) August 9, 2020 The MV Wakashio, a Japanese owned Panamanian flagged empty bulk carrier enroute from China via Singapore to Brazil, ran aground on July 25 at Poite d'Esny in S. #Mauritius

Also Read: Canada's Arctic Meltdown: Collapsing Lost 40% Ice Mass in Two Days, Result of Arctic Amplification

The catastrophic oil spill forced thousands of Mauritius volunteers to create ways to contain the crude oil from swamping the pristine ocean and beaches, on Sunday, Aug. 9. The accident happened two weeks ago after the bulk carrier MV Wakashio ran aground.

Also Read: NASA's Satellite Image of Beirut Explosion Reveals the Eerie Damage It Caused

The government had no choice but to declare an unprecedented environment emergency since the ship has been seeping fuel into a protected marine park, boasting unspoiled mangrove forests, endangered species, and coral reefs. Local authorities fear that the rough sea could further destroy the Japanese vessel, which ran aground on July 25, since their attempts to stabilize and pump 4,000 tonnes of fuel from the tanker's hold have failed.

It was reported that the ship only started leaking crude oil this week. The country's Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said that emergency team and response crews were able to stop the leak as of the moment. However, they are still preparing for any worst scenario.

"The risk of the boat breaking in half still exists," said Jugnaught, after the cracks grew, which could lead to greater ecological disasters.

Damage could already be done

After France deployed a military aircraft and naval vessel from nearby Reunion Island, Japan confirmed that it would send a six-member expert team to help control the oil spill. Mauritius issued an appeal for international help to prevent any swamping in the pristine beaches.

Fuel spilling from a Japanese bulk carrier that ran aground on a reef in Mauritius two weeks ago is creating an ecological disaster, endangering corals, fish and other marine life around the Indian Ocean island, officials and environmentalists say. pic.twitter.com/SikpxTUbwH  TruckDriverHiro (@DriverHiro) August 10, 2020

The volunteers are marshalling along the coastline, creating improvised floating barriers stringed together using straws. Mitsui OSK Lines, which operates the Japanese vessel, claimed that the shipwreck spilled 1,000 tonnes of fuel oil.



"We are terribly sorry," said Akihiko Ono, the shipping firm's vice president, in an apology via Daily Mail UK. Akihiko said that they would make all-out efforts to help Mauritius to resolve the problem.



However, the conservationists said that the tanker's crude oil could already do the damage. The large scale of the disaster was revealed by aerial footages, showing that the oil has already spread across the azure seas around the marooned cargo ship. The region's fabled lagoons and inlets were also affected by the ship accident.



For more world-news, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.



Also Read: Beirut Update: Burning Military Missiles, Not Ammonium Nitrate is the Reason of Explosion? That's What Expert Says

This article is owned by TechTimes,

Written by: Giuliano de Leon.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Set in Lithuania at the tail end of Communist rule, Bojena Horackovas Walden offers a bittersweet look at a group of youths on two sides of a generational change.

Selected as a part of Cannes ACID sidebar and making its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival, the film follows its withdrawn protagonist Jana across two timelines  both as a 17-year-old who falls in with a roguish crowd as she prepares to go west on a student visa, and then as middle-aged woman who has returned to her native city after spending 30 years in France.

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Both narrative strands move forward with the limpid focus of a short story, and both culminate at a secluded lakefront retreat Janas rakish teenage boyfriend calls Walden.

Its classic structure, showing one character at two different points, Horackova tells Variety. But I liked that both took place around the lake I was inspired by the films of Eric Rohmer, and I wanted the film to have another dimension, something tied to the lake, to nature and to the melancholic spirit of life.

The filmmaker sought to emphasize those elements of nature and emotion  with the lakes name a very knowing wink to the book by Henry David Thoreau and the film by Jonas Mekas  in order to circumvent an all too easy narrative trap.

I didnt want to make something one-note and political, Horackova explains. I wanted to depict Eastern Europe at this specific period, and to do so with characters that werent expressly activists, that werent dissidents. They had other preoccupations.

When you see these young characters moving toward an uncertain future  and we know how it turns out  that gives an air of melancholy. And so I wanted the film to hew more toward that direction  about that landscape, that lake, those memories that betray us  than toward something political about Eastern Europe.

Indeed, the Czech-born, France-based filmmaker picked the Vilnius setting precisely because the Lithuanian experience echoed her own formative years, without quite mirroring them.

Story continues

I didnt want to go back to my home country, to make an autobiographical film, she continues. The two countries had the same position toward the USSR  they were both small satellites  but theres no direct connection. The story takes place in Lithuania, I myself am Czech, and the film closes on a Polish poem. I wanted these different voices from the East to mix it up a bit.

The filmmaker chose Lithuania in part thanks to the support of local filmmaker Sarunas Bartas, who offered to house the modest production, who appears in a small cameo in the film, and whose daughter, Ina Marija Bartaite, serves as the films lead actress.

The wistful Bartaite  previously seen in Bartas 2015 film Peace to Us in Our Dreams  carries the brunt of the narrative as the 17-year-old Jana, with Horackovas unfussy camera capturing the characters growing infatuation with the amiable crook Paulius (Laurynas Jurgelis) as she prepares to leave for a different life. Meanwhile the aged-Jana (Fabienne Babe) serves as a kind a Greek chorus, retracing her path in a framing device set in the present day.

I wanted the present day scenes to contrast against [those set in 1989], says Horackova. I wanted this present to reframe and recontextualize the past, casting it a different light than what we had seen. What she lived and how she recounts it might be a little bit different. Almost as if her memories had betrayed her, in a way.

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The simplest way to benefit from a rising market is to buy an index fund. When you buy individual stocks, you can make higher profits, but you also face the risk of under-performance. For example, the Auckland International Airport Limited (NZSE:AIA) share price is down 36% in the last year. That falls noticeably short of the market decline of around 4.2%. Longer term shareholders haven't suffered as badly, since the stock is down a comparatively less painful 7.6% in three years. It's down 1.2% in the last seven days.

Check out our latest analysis for Auckland International Airport

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.

Unfortunately Auckland International Airport reported an EPS drop of 18% for the last year. This reduction in EPS is not as bad as the 36% share price fall. So it seems the market was too confident about the business, a year ago.

The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).

We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Having said that, most people consider earnings and revenue growth trends to be a more meaningful guide to the business. Dive deeper into the earnings by checking this interactive graph of Auckland International Airport's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What about the Total Shareholder Return (TSR)?

Investors should note that there's a difference between Auckland International Airport's total shareholder return (TSR) and its share price change, which we've covered above. The TSR attempts to capture the value of dividends (as if they were reinvested) as well as any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings offered to shareholders. Dividends have been really beneficial for Auckland International Airport shareholders, and that cash payout explains why its total shareholder loss of 35%, over the last year, isn't as bad as the share price return.

Story continues

A Different Perspective

Auckland International Airport shareholders are down 35% for the year, but the market itself is up 4.2%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Longer term investors wouldn't be so upset, since they would have made 7.1%, each year, over five years. If the fundamental data continues to indicate long term sustainable growth, the current sell-off could be an opportunity worth considering. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. For instance, we've identified 4 warning signs for Auckland International Airport (1 is a bit unpleasant) that you should be aware of.

Auckland International Airport is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at this free list of growing companies with insider buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on NZ exchanges.

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.
BJP MLA in Bihar and deceased actor Sushant Singh Rajputs cousin Neeraj Kumar Babloo on Monday demanded an apology from Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut for his comments on the actors father and threatened to file a defamation suit.

Talking to media persons in Patna, Babloo said it was a highly condemnable comment from an MP of Maharashtra.

How can you make such a comment in such a sensitive case without knowing the facts. If need be, I will file a defamation case, he said.

Raut is the executive editor of the Shiv Senas mouthpiece Saamana newspaper, where he has a weekly column.

In his column, Raut has claimed that the actor didnt share good relations with his father K K Singh. I have received such information. How many times did Rajput visit his father in Patna in the last few years? he asked.

Raut also went on to say Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey was working for a political party and alleged he tried to contest an election on a BJP ticket. What can you expect from such a police force? he asked.

Rajputs maternal uncle R C Singh said an attempt is being made to divert the direction of CBI inquiry. He said Rajput had a very good relationship with his father and his father had not remarried, as alleged by Raut.

BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand also alleged that the Maharashtra government tried to destroy evidence of Rajputs death and demanded that the CBI conduct a narco-test on Raut and Aditya Thackeray.
(Natural News) Following the disbandment of the Portland Police Bureaus (PPB) Gun Violence Reduction Team (GVRT), the city has seen a 100 percent increase in criminal incidents, mostly gun-related violence.

The intensity of the riots in Portland has forced the citys elected officials to capitulate to some of the demands of Antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement. This includes defunding and eventually abolishing the police. In particular, the Portland City Council  comprised entirely of Democrats  reduced the size of the PPB. This meant disbanding the GVRT, which took effect on July 1.

In the month of July alone, the city recorded 15 homicides, significantly higher figures than those between January 1 to the end of June, when there were only nine murders in Portland. The latest killing occurred on July 28, when a 34-year-old woman was stabbed to death in northeast Portland. The PPB has also stated that this is the highest number of killings they have had in a month in over three decades. In addition, the PPB reported that they recorded a total of 63 shootings from July 1 to 26, compared to just 28 in the same month last year.

Thats very concerning, said PPB Chief Chuck Lovell at a recent virtual press conference. I mean, to know that many people have been killed in such a short period of time.

Loss of GVRT a critical blow to citys ability to fight against gun violence

Lovell also made a direct connection between the GVRTs disbandment and the struggles the PPB had to endure since the end of May.

The loss of the team, Lovell said, has forced the bureau into a position where we have to really look at what resources we can bring to bear, absent that structure that we had with the Gun Violence Reduction Team. Lovell added that they have had to re-resource the department because of the teams disbandment.

At a different interview, Lovell stated that the loss of the team had a diminishing effect on how quickly and efficiently the bureau was able to investigate shooting incidents.

The GVRT was composed of 34 handpicked and specially trained PPB officers. They operated with a $5.7 million budget, which will now be diverted into programs that will increase police accountability. Some of the money will also be invested back into the citys Black and Brown communities.

Portland groups appalled by rise in violence

Laurie Palmer, the founder and CEO of Go Get Your Child, a violence prevention nonprofit, said that the violence in Portland is really out of control.

Ive never seen in such a short time so much violence affect so many families, she added.

Palmer also disagrees with the Portland City Councils decision to disband the GVRT, as she firmly believes that a lot of the shooting incidents would probably not have occurred if they were still active, especially since Palmer believes that they help get guns off the street. She also argues that the city council rushed the disbanding of the GVRT and, as a result, was unable to enforce a system that will help the PPB take on the teams former responsibilities.

Sam Sachs, founder and CEO of the No Hate Zone, a nonprofit promoting racial equality in Portland, agrees. Sachs even stated that he would be more than happy to reform the GVRT if it meant that the team would return to protecting the city. He even agreed that a lot of reforms need to be passed in Portland; however, the presence of the GVRT is necessary because their absence is making the problem [of violence] even worse. (Related: Violent left-wing demonstrators were going to behead a pig in the streets but their plan was foiled by Portland police.)

Palmer and Sachs have stated that they want city leaders to come up with a proper plan to address the increase in violence and to stop it.

It has been over two months since the beginning of the engineered rioting in the United States, and it is showing no signs of stopping. Keep up with the latest developments in crime-infested cities like Portland, Seattle and Chicago by subscribing to Rioting.news.

Sources include:

BigLeaguePolitics.com

KPTV.com

OregonLive.com

TheEpochTimes.com
Kansas City Pandemic Surveillance Stays Losing

KC-area city, county health departments struggle with contact tracing KANSAS CITY, Mo. - City and county health officials across the Kansas City area are having a difficult time with contact tracing. Kansas City, Missouri, Health Department Director Dr. Rex Archer said the department is actively adding contact tracers, including 15 who were hired earlier this week, and he expects to add another 30 within the next few weeks now that federal CARES Act money has been released by the Jackson County Legislature.

Show-Me Hipster Piggy Future For Missouri

How two former vegetarians revived a 5,000-year-old pig breed in the hills of Missouri About 100 Meishan pigs grace the land at Odd Bird Farm, which includes a small organic vineyard, as well as all the corn, alfalfa, acorns and tasty foraging plants needed to feed the heritage hog breed in the self-contained environment.

Kansas Fakes Inspiration

Kansas Democrats pin hopes on former GOP lawmaker in targeting first U.S. Senate win in generations TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Democrats are pinning their unusually high hopes for winning a U.S. Senate seat in Kansas for the first time in almost 90 years on a retired doctor and former Republican who vexed conservatives with her support for Medicaid expansion and abortion and LGBTQ rights. State Sen.

International Hotness

Rihanna Covers All 'Harper's Bazaar' September Issues Globally Rihanna is on the cover of not one, not two, but 26 September issues from across the globe this year - thanks to Harper's Bazaar. The 32-year-old performer, beauty and fashion mogul and style icon appears on every single one of the title's international editions for September 2020, photographed by Gray Sorrenti and creative directed by Jen Brill.

CRAFTING PPE BLING!!!

Israeli jeweler makes $1.5M gold, diamond-encrusted coronavirus mask MOTZA, Israel - An Israeli jewelry company is working on what it says will be the world's most expensive coronavirus mask, a gold, diamond-encrusted face covering with a price tag of $1.5 million. The 18-karat white gold mask will be decorated with 3,600 white and black diamonds and fitted with top-rated N99 filters at the request of the buyer, said designer Isaac Levy.

Check The Big Picture Light Show This Week

How to see the 2020 Perseid meteor shower, one of the best of the year, as it peaks It's early August, which means the annual Perseid meteor shower is active, and it's about ready to peak. The Perseids are one of the best, brightest batches of shooting stars, and it feels like we could use them now more than ever to add a little wonder and distraction into these pretty dismal times.

Veep Rejection?!?!

Former San Francisco mayor urges Kamala Harris to 'politely decline' VP slot, aim for AG instead Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown has urged Sen. Kamala Harris to "politely decline" a spot on Joe Biden's ticket if the 2020 presumptive Democratic nominee chooses her as his running mate.

Media Crackdown

Hong Kong media tycoon arrested under new national security law A Hong Kong media tycoon known for his support of the city's pro-democracy movement and criticism of China has been arrested under the new security law imposed on the city last month, which bans "collusion with foreign forces."

2020 Election Suspect

White House Says China Is Targeting U.S. Election With Cyberattacks, But Pelosi Says Threats From Russia And China Are 'Not Equivalent' After the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a report Friday warning of ongoing interference activities by China, Russia and Iran to disrupt the 2020 election, White House National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said Sunday that China "has been expanding its influence efforts," while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that actions from China and Russia are "not equivalent."

Amazon Retail Takeover

Amazon reportedly wants to take over JCPenney and Sears stores to turn malls into giant fulfillment centers Amazon is in talks with the biggest mall owner in the US to take over retail space and turn them into giant Amazon fulfillment centers, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The deal could involve Amazon taking over spaces formerly occupied by Sears and JCPenney, both of which have filed for bankruptcy and closed dozens of stores.

Home Team Pay Cut

Kansas City Chiefs WR Sammy Watkins on accepting pay cut: 'It was very important to stay here' Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Sammy Watkins said he agreed to a restructured contract that resulted in a pay cut because he wanted one thing. "It was very important to stay here," Watkins said Sunday in a press conference.

Wild Weather This Week

Weather Blog: Active week of August weather ahead FAIRWAY, KS (KCTV) -- The rainiest months, historically speaking, of the year are behind us. May, June, and July typically deliver just under 15 inches of rain every year. Between May 1 and July 31 of this year, we picked up 15.62 inches of rain.

We start the morning withmaking herself handy as we take a peek at community news, pop culture and top headlines . . .is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . .
For all educators, the start of this school year will be daunting. But for substitute teachers, there are, in many ways, even more question marks.

School districts are increasingly choosing to start the school year remotely, which could reduce the need for short-term substitutes. But for districts that are doing in-person instruction at least some days of the week, substitutes will be in high demand. Theres already a substitute shortage in many places. And with precautions in place that ask teachers to quarantine after COVID-19 exposure and stay home with any mild symptoms, administrators are expecting to need a long roster of substitutes.

Yet many substitutesin particular, those who are at high-risk for complications from COVID-19are weighing the costs of going back: Doing so means theyll be exposing themselves to a great number of people, under inconsistent safety protocols, and for little pay and potentially no health benefits.

Substitute teachers [are] going to be stepping into a classroom usually because somebodys sick, said Amanda von Moos, the co-founder and managing director of Substantial Classrooms, a national nonprofit focused on improving substitute teaching. The biggest question on everybodys mindwhat I would call an unspoken questionis who is going to be comfortable stepping into that situation? And what would help somebody be comfortable stepping into that situation?

Even for the school districts that are choosing to start the school year remotely, there are still big questions to be figured out. In the spring, as schools abruptly shuttered and teachers quickly pivoted to remote learning, substitute teachers were largely sidelined. Many districts stopped paying their day-to-day substitutes .

Health Concerns

Von Moos said the average age of substitute teachers varies from district to district. In some communities, most of the substitutes are retired teachers. In others, theyre mostly parents of school-age children. Recent college graduates who are looking for their first teaching job often turn to subbing, too.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that individuals older than 65 are at higher risk for COVID-19, as are those who are immunocompromised or have other underlying health conditions, including diabetes. People with conditions like asthma, pregnancy, or high blood pressure may also be at increased risk.

For Marvin Goetz, a long-time substitute teacher in Fort Myers, Fla., and the president of the Lee County Association of Professional Substitute Teachers, the choice on whether to return to the classroom was clear: Hes 86 years old, and his wife is in poor health. He left the classroom in December, when he heard of the coronavirus outbreak in mainland China, after 25 years of substitute teaching and six decades in education altogether.

I dont want to bring anything home, he said. When youre working with children [in elementary and middle grades], none of them have a hanky. And you know what they do, they wipe their noses on their sleevesand what better way to spread a virus.

These concerns are echoed by substitutes across the country. Angela Nottingham, a 7th grade social studies teacher in Huntington, W.Va., said choosing a long-term substitute to fill her classroom while shes on maternity leave this semester was challenging. She had to pick from a pre-approved list, but many were retired teachers who are at high risk and didnt want to come back. At least one younger substitute said she couldnt take on a long-term assignment because of child-care challenges brought on by the coronavirus.

Another told Nottingham that she wasnt doing this job for the money, and her love for substituting didnt outweigh the potential health risks.

I sub because its something I enjoy doing, but I dont want to do this long-term and be committed to this and then get sick, the substitute said, as Nottingham recalled.

Meeting the Demand

Even before the pandemic, many districts reported difficulties finding enough substitutes to fill teacher vacancies. But this fall, the demand for substitute teachers has skyrocketed, said Nicola Soares, the president of Kelly Education, which partners with school districts across the country to provide staffing.

Some larger districts are asking Kelly Education to double or triple its pool sizes of substitute teachers, alongside temporary food and nutrition workers, school nurses, and secretarial staff, she said.

Even though some substitutes say theyre unwilling to go back, Soares said she thinks there will be enough people to fill the positions. The national average unemployment rate is just over 10 percent, and some of those workers might be interested in subbing. For instance, she said, someone who was laid off from a STEM career would be a wonderful candidate to teach a science or math class.

Also, Soares said, some graduating high school seniors or college students might want to take a gap year or a leave of absence from college, given the pandemic and the possibility of classes going online. Those people could serve as substitute teachers for a year, she said. About half of states, including Florida and Georgia, only require substitutes to have a high school diploma, according to Kelly Educations data.

In Downers Grove, Ill., Janice Schwarze, the principal of North High School, is expecting to have a substitute shortage this year, as her district plans to have students come to school some days and learn from home the others. Its hard to find enough substitutes in normal years, she said, and many of her usual substitutes are retired teachers.

Schwarze also expects that shell have a higher volume of teacher absences because if a teacher is showing any symptoms of COVID-19, such as a cough or sore throat, she will have to stay home out of caution. Before the coronavirus pandemic, teachers would often come to school with mild ailments , she said.

To help fill those gaps, Schwarze is reassigning some school staff memberslike one-on-one paraprofessionals or the director of the testing centerto serve as teachers assistants. If a teacher is well enough to teach remotely, he or she will teach from home via webcam while the teachers assistant supervises and monitors behavior in the classroom.

Also, Schwarze told school administrators not to schedule meetings in the mornings, because theyll likely have to jump into a classroom to fill any unexpected vacancy.

Everybody will be pitching in, she said.

Limiting Exposure

Personal relationships and clear communication will be critical pieces of recruiting substitutes this school year, Substantial Classrooms von Moos said. Substitutes need to feel confident that they will be kept in the loop with health and safety protocols.

In our research, all the positive stories come back to when theres a strong relationship because a sub works frequently with a school, von Moos said. I think this moment is really an extreme version of that: What are the campus norms around health and safety?  You need to trust a school if youre going to go in.

To help substitutes feel more comfortable going to work, districts should assign them to a specific school, von Moos said, adding that this is best practice even in non-pandemic times, as it helps substitutes build stronger relationships with the students and faculty. But now, it will help reduce the number of people a substitute is exposed to over the course of a work week.

I am concerned about having to go into a bunch of different buildingsI dont want to be working in a different building every day, said Allie, a substitute teacher in Missouri, who asked that her last name be withheld.

She already has a long-term assignment lined up, but when that ends, she will only accept jobs that are in one school building to limit her exposure to others. That could be a financial hit if daily jobs are not available in that school, she said, but its a sacrifice shes willing to make in order to protect herself.

In some places, substitutes work for multiple districts in a metro area. Maddie Fennell, the executive director of the Nebraska State Education Association, said different districts in the same city have different policies on maskssome require them, some dont. That adds an extra layer of uncertainty and risk for substitutes, she said.

Another point of concern: In many districts, substitutes dont receive health insurance or paid sick days. The national average daily pay rate for substitutes is about $100, but that varies by district and region. Kelly Educations Soares said in the Northwest, the average pay rate is about $130 a day, while districts in the Southeast pay closer to $88 a day.

Increasing pay could entice substitute teachers to return to work this fall, she said.

We need to be thinking of substitute teachers as essential workerstheyre doing the same job as teachers, Soares said.

However, that might not be in the budget for many cash-strapped school districts, which are having to lay off teachers as they grapple with both budget cuts and extra expenses for safety precautions.

Learning Curve

Already, 17 of the countrys 20 largest school districts have chosen to start the school year remotely, according to EdWeeks database . Those districts probably wont need as many day-to-day substitutes as in previous years, von Moos said. Teachers might not need to take as many absences if theyre working remotely, and they could also set up students to do independent work for a day or two.

But von Moos said she expects districts that are fully remote will still need medium- and long-term substitutesand those educators will need to be trained in remote instruction.

Forty-four percent of administrators and school board members say their districts dont offer any professional development to their substitutes in normal school years, according to a nationally representative survey that was conducted by the EdWeek Research Center in December and January and sponsored by Kelly Education.

How do we help subs be able to do this if were all learning? von Moos said. The challenges are enormous.
(Natural News) Absolutely.

Thats what Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said after being asked if he would send his grandchildren back to school in the fall amid concerns about the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

Its not public health versus opening the school versus reopening schools and the economy. Its public health versus public health, Redfield said during an appearance on Good Morning America.

Redfield also noted that keeping schools closed could have negative public health consequences, adding that school districts should work with the agency in order to implement its guidelines for reopening. (Related: Coronavirus-enforced remote schooling hurts Americas most vulnerable students.)

In its latest guidelines, the CDC advises K-12 school administrators to teach, monitor and enforce social distancing, handwashing, daily health checks and disinfecting processes.

The CDC says that schools should use the new guidelines while working with state and federal officials in order to develop best practices for their communities in heading off the spread of COVID-19. Aside from a general readiness assessment checklist, the guidelines also include planning and implementation for responding if someone becomes sick in their community.

If the school confirms that a person with coronavirus has been in their facilities, the guidelines state that staff and students should be dismissed for at least two to five days. During these times, virtual learning should be used.

One of the most important things is going to be the role of face masks and the role of social distancing in those classrooms, he added.

The new guidelines have come under fire from President Donald Trump. In a recent tweet, the president said the new recommendations were very tough and expensive and that he would be meeting with the agency regarding the matter.

I disagree with @CDCgov on their very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools. While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things. I will be meeting with them!!!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 8, 2020

Despite this, the agency said that it stands by its nine-page checklist, saying that it will provide additional information to help parents and teachers. The guidelines are not mandatory, Redfield added; therefore, communities should not use them as a reason to postpone school reopenings.

The issue of whether schools can reopen comes as parts of the country are seeing an increase in new coronavirus cases. The U.S. currently has a total caseload of 4,032,430 and 144,223 deaths as of reporting time, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. After hitting the Northeast early this year, the coronavirus has made inroads and is now affecting southern and western states. Health authorities reported more than 69,000 new cases and 1,101 deaths Wednesday, among the highest figures on record.

In particular, states that have moved to reopen their economy  including Texas, Florida and Arizona  have either paused plans to move further or reversed course. To note, Washington, Arizona, Florida and Texas have walked back on some of their reopening plans, while California has imposed rollbacks on hotspots like Los Angeles county.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned last week that the administration isnt doing enough to contain the pandemic, saying that daily cases could reach 100,000 if this continues.

On Wednesday, he doubled down on his statements, saying the coronavirus may never be eradicated, even with the good public health measures in place. Faucis comments are at odds with Trumps own pronouncement during a recent White House briefing, when he reiterated his claims that the virus will simply disappear.

The virus will disappear. It will disappear, Trump added.

Pandemic.news has more stories about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

Sources include:

TheHill.com

Newsweek.com

Twitter.com

CDC.gov

Coronavirus.JHU.edu

CNBC.com
CHANDLER, Ariz., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Security infrastructure in place at sensitive nuclear sites around the United States will soon be reexamined and enhanced.

On July 21, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021. This bill includes a provision spearheaded by Congressman Greg Stanton that would require the U.S. Air Force to verify that it is using field-proven forced entry, ballistic and blast resistant (FEBR) barrier systems that include multiple reactive countermeasures for protection against the dedicated adversary threat.

ArmorWorks Enterprises, Inc., an Arizona-based defense and security company specializing in innovative survivability and protective technologies, has successfully developed, manufactured and installed a system that meets these requirements at other nuclear warhead storage, maintenance and production facilities. These ArmorWorks systems have been implemented successfully for the past 15 years.

"Congressman Stanton's efforts will help elevate ArmorWorks' proven effective FEBR systems. ArmorWorks has designed, produced, tested and installed the world's most effective security infrastructure to defeat a 'dedicated adversary,' which is the highest current threat level at some of our nation's most sensitive nuclear facilities. We are optimistic that the U.S. Air Force will select our FEBR security barriers and systems to keep the rest of our nuclear infrastructure safe and secure," said Brad Wiggins, ArmorWorks CEO.

The provision will require the Air Force to brief the House and Senate Armed Services Committees within 90 days of the enactment of the NDAA on efforts by the Secretary of the Air Force to harden and modernize its nuclear weapons storage and maintenance facilities. Because ArmorWorks has one of the only designs that has been proven to be effective in operation for over a decade, its system is likely to be the leading candidate for selection, based on the criteria described in the bill.

"Selection of the superior FEBR systems provided by ArmorWorks will bring an increased number of high paying technical and manufacturing jobs to the Chandler, AZ, area and will support an expanded number of supporting companies that provide engineering, testing, fabrication and construction work in our area," said Kevin Mulrenin, Chief Marketing Officer at ArmorWorks.

The Senate passed its version of the NDAA on July 23. The differences between the two bills will be worked out in conference before being sent to the president's desk for signature.

About ArmorWorks

A progressive defense and security company specializing in innovative survivability and protective technologies, ArmorWorks designs, develops, tests, and produces a wide array of secure doors, vaults, seats, vehicles, and structures that protect people and sensitive materials. Our patented products range from protective vehicle seats to blast- and forced entry-resistant doors to impenetrable vehicle armor and 3D camouflage systems.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Kevin Mulrenin

Chief Marketing Officer

586-943-9907

[email protected]

https://www.armorworks.com/

SOURCE ArmorWorks Enterprises, Inc.


By Michael Shannon





From day one the Trump HR operation has been the Chernobyl of Human Resources. Instead of hiring some of the 63 million people who voted for Trump, the administration made a point of hiring people for whom the Trump administration was a bit beneath their dignity.







At least a few of the appointee failures could have been solved by having all new hires attend an orientation that consisted solely of watching a 2016 Trump campaign rally in full. That would have been the first exposure to the issues that won the election for Trump for many and would have served to put them on notice regarding the administration's priorities.







Now, as Trump's first term draws to a close, the administration is finally taking steps to punish wayward appointees. Although in typically Trump fashion, it isn't a systematic effort. Instead, Trump became aware of the betrayal when a group of little people decided they weren't going to lie down and take it.







The story begins in Tennessee. The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally-chartered corporation created by FDR during the depths of the Great Depression. The TVA's goal was to control flooding by harnessing the rivers for hydroelectric power and then generate economic development.







Like most government behemoths, TVA long-ago lost sight of its mission as a U.S. entity supposed to help U.S. citizens. The new CEO, Jeff Lyash, evidently decided he was tired of creating jobs in Tennessee and wanted to start growing careers in Thiruvananthapuram.







The Chattanooga Times Free Press found Lyash intended to import tech workers from India, using the H1-B visa program, to replace 200 US citizens already doing the job.







This is callous, corporate arrogance at its most corrupt. An organization created by Congress to aid Americans has no more business importing foreign serfs to replace citizens than the USPS has hiring drug mules to deliver the mail.







The H1-B visa scam is a popular in corporate suites because this government-sponsored wage-reduction program that's an ideal solution for tech executives who don't like to travel.







Instead of shipping jobs overseas, cynical U.S. corporations violate U.S. law to bring the workers here.







Problem solved. The boss doesn't have to worry about drinking the water and the U.S. wage scale is now identical to that of Bombay. The part of the law that says visas are only to be used for jobs the company can't fill domestically is winked at by everyone, except the 200 Americans doing the work previously at TSA who get fired.







Most of the time companies force citizens to train the foreigners who have come to take their job, which is like ISIS making captives sharpen swords. The company keeps the terminated employees quiet by forcing them to sign non-disclosure agreements if they want to receive severance.







The employees at TVA decided to fight back. They met with the president and after the meeting Trump finally laid down the law firing two members of the board, "So, let this serve as a warning to any federally appointed board. If you betray American workers, then you will hear two simple words: You're fired. If the TVA does not move swiftly to reverse their decision to rehire their workers, then more board members will be removed."







TVA's response indicates Trump must keep firing. Lyash has no intention of changing his policy. In his breathtakingly arrogant and duplicitous response to the president he let fly with a burst of HR jargon, "We have a rigorous decision-making process that includes dialogue with the impacted union and an appeals process that is still underway. No potentially impacted employee from TVA will be let go until that entire process is complete."







If Lyash intends to obey the president there is no need for an "appeals process" because he would simply stop giving U.S. jobs to foreigners and rehire the citizens. What's more, the "appeals process" is simply a method of delaying until after the election when Lyash hopes Trump will be gone and he can tell the citizens who stood up to him not to let the door hit them in the behind.







This is the bureaucrat swamp mindset that Trump has faced since he took office. It's an indictment of his lack of seriousness that he didn't drop and continue dropping the hammer on these popinjay potentates from the day he took the oath of office.







Lyash personifies the 'I'm all right Jack' mentality of our corporate titans. When he took over as president of Ontario Power Generation, he booted some Canadians out of a job, so why should he care if U.S. little people get fired?







Trump should make him care. That's why Trump was elected. It shouldn't have taken Trump four years to take action.







) is a commentator and public relations consultant, and is the author of "A Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times." This article was distributed by Cagle Cartoons Inc.



Michael Shannon ( mmpr@gmail.com
- Jubilee Party's vice-chairman David Murathe asked Kenyans to be ready for Raila Odinga as president in 2022

- A section of youths from Mt Kenya dismissed Murathe's support for Raila insisting the region was fully behind Deputy President William Ruto

- The youths said endorsement of Raila by Murathe was aimed at fulfilling individual interests at the expense of millions of Kenyans

A section of Mt Kenya youth leaders have faulted Jubilee Party vice-chairman David Murathe's move to endorse Opposition leader Raila Odinga for presidency in 2022.

The young leaders drawn from six counties of the vote-rich region said they would be backing the presidential bid of Deputy President William Ruto as envisioned by the party leadership during the 2017 General Election campaigns.

READ ALSO: Mbunge Didmus Barasa ataka Jubilee imuadhibu David Murathe kwa kusema Raila tosha

Mount Kenya Youth Alliance chairman Moses Mwenda. Photo: Moses Mwenda.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Nairobi woman quit marriage after learning husband was garbage collector, not airport employee

Led by their chairman Moses Mwenda, the youth group asked Murathe to desist from making unilateral decisions on matters that affect the community and region as a whole.

"We want to distance, disassociate and denounce that endorsement made by Murathe. As Mt Kenya Youth Alliance we are firmly behind the presidential aspiration of Deputy President William Ruto and nobody should purport to have the monopoly of dishing endorsements to other entities unknown to us," said Mwenda.

Jubilee Party Vice-Chairman David Muratrhe. Photo: David Murathe.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Steven Runo: Kenyan don bags 2020's Royal Society Africa Prize for best scientific research

The former Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and Mount Kenya University (MKU) student leader argued that the endorsement of Raila by Murathe was aimed at fulfilling individual interests at the expense of millions of Kenyans.

"As young people and hustlers of this country we are not interested in the perpetuation of power among the oligarchy and we will not support such an arrangement. Our candidate is William Ruto because he represents our aspirations and dreams.

You have heard all the false things they have said about Ruto just to taint his image and make him look bad before the public. It won't change a thing, and we are ready to face them in 2022," he added.

Mwenda's sentiments were backed by his counterparts Denis Nthumbi and Godfrey Maina Karobia.

"Murathe should know Kenyan presidential position is not about rewarding interests. This time round we are not going to allow cartels dictate Kenyans on who to elect because of their interests.

Kenya is at 50+ and Kenyans no longer need any advice or direction from any political cartel who have been auctioning desperate, hungry, jobless innocent Kenyans as votes for 2022...Instead, people who became president should work their ways to deliver jobs to many jobless young people," said the youth leader.

READ ALSO: Magazeti ya Jumatatu, Agosti 10: Raila aanza kupuuza simu ya Canaan na kupokea ya Jerusalam

Murathe stirred a political storm on Saturday, August 8, when he rooted for a Raila presidency in 2022.

The Jubilee Party official who is known to be President Uhuru Kenyatta's confidant said time was ripe for Kenyans to reward the former premier with the top seat after years of struggle for democracy and good governance.

"I think it is time Kenyans rewarded the years of struggle of Raila Amollo Odinga. They owe it to him. Its like Mandela, and 2022 will be a Mandela moment.

And we would also like to tell him (Raila) to be a transitional president who will then nurture the young generation to take over in 2027, he said during an interview with KTN.

READ ALSO: Makueni, West Pokot ranked happiest counties in Kenya

His position was supported by Central Organisation of Trade Union (COTU) boss Francis Atwoli who claimed Raila would win the 2022 presidential contest by 10am if he agrees to vie.

I have endorsed his proposal. Historically the person who has suffered for this country is Raila Odinga. I can tell you if he (Raila) agrees to run, by 10am he would be the president, said Atwoli.

Ruto's allies, however, dismissed the endorsement as inconsequential and insignificant to their the DP's presidential bid.

Let by Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei, the Tanga Tanga leaders claimed Murathe's sentiments were only meant to blindfold Raila's allies to continue supporting Uhuru and his agenda.

"The essence of the endorsement is to ensure Raila remains peaceful. For us who support William Ruto, the comments are a walk in the park if Raila will be the opponent, said Cherargei.

Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei. Photo: Samson Cherargei.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Rashid Abdalla gushes over his wife Lulu Hassan rocking figure hugging outfit: "Mpenzi mtangazaji"

Interestingly, Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu, a close ally of Uhuru, also disagreed with Murathe's remarks.

Ngunjiri termed the endorsement premature and presumed the Jubilee vice-chairman was only sharing his opinions.

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I was rejected by my father three times- Tony Cruize | Tuko TV.

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Linkedin Budi Sutrisno (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 10, 2020 19:48 526 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066ce7e14 1 National rape,rape-case,rape-survivor,rape-victim,South-Tangerang Free

Police in South Tangerang, Banten, have arrested a rape suspect who had remained at large for nearly a year since the victim filed the report on the day the assault reportedly took place.

South Tangerang Police head of criminal investigation Adj. Comr. Muharam Wibisono said the suspect, identified only as RI, had been arrested at his residence in the Parigi area of Pondok Aren on Saturday evening.

We have questioned the perpetrator since the arrest, and he has confessed his action. The confessions he made were identical to the details the victim had reported, Muharam told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

The incident came to light recently after the alleged victim turned to social media to express her frustration over the protracted investigation into the case that reportedly happened in August last year.

In an Instagram post that has since gone viral, the victim said RI was a stranger who had suddenly entered her house in the morning of Aug. 13.

She wrote that she initially mistook the man for someone she knew since she had only just woken up. When she followed him to her dressing room, she realized that the man was a stranger she had never seen.

Read also: Rape survivor shares story on social media after police investigation stalls

She said the man subsequently beat her with what she believed was a piece of metal until she was almost unconscious and raped her.

On the same day, the victim said, she was taken to a hospital for a physical examination for a police report that she filed shortly after. She also said RI had texted her that day to apologize, before also threatening her.

I would not have [shared this post] if the police had taken action, but by law, I do not have enough evidence to put this [expletive] in jail, so all I can do is expose him, she wrote in the caption of the post, in which she also posted pictures of CCTV footage purportedly showing the perpetrator.

In the Instagram post, she also showed several screenshots of texts and nude photographs that the alleged perpetrator reportedly sent to her.

Muharam, however, claimed that the victim had not included RIs texts to her in her police report. He said the investigation had taken a long time as the police needed to find and confirm the identity of the suspect.

So, it was not a lack of evidence that hindered the investigation. We had the victims report, information from the witnesses and a physical examination result, which were enough to identify a criminal offense, he said.

Read also: Indonesian lawmakers are biggest enablers of nation's rape culture

But we did not have the suspects identity. And when we did have a name, with the help of the polices cybercrime unit, we had to confirm that it was the right person, he added.

Human rights activists have raised their voice over this case, reiterating the importance and urgency of passing the sexual violence eradication bill (RUU PKS), which has been removed from this years priority legislation list by the House of Representatives.

Uli Pangaribuan of the Legal Aid Foundation of the Indonesian Womens Association for Justices Jakarta office previously told the Post that the victim had contacted the foundation for legal assistance. Uli regretted that the police provided no updates to the victim since the report had been filed.
Business magnate and philanthropist Bill Gates has criticised the United States administrations response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, saying that the slow testing rate and lack of fair access to individuals is mind blowing.

Speaking to CNN on August 9, the Microsoft co-founder called the US' testing protocols insanity. Pointing to long queues for COVID-19 tests, Gates said only very wealthy people have access to quick-turnaround tests.

Its mind-blowing that you cant get the government to improve the testing because they just want to say how great it is, Gates said.

He added that the country has employed a very inequitable way to get the most worthless test results of any country in the world despite paying billions of dollars.

Gates further said that the US testing process had created incentive for these commercial guys to have long lines because  you pay as much for the late result as the timely result. No other country has the testing insanity  because they (government) wont talk about fixing it, because they think that theyve done a competent job.

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

Follow our LIVE blog for the latest updates of the novel coronavirus pandemic

The 64-year-old said that lack of a national lockdown had resulted in states that had no COVID-19 cases in the first wave, reporting large number of infections in the second wave.

Comparing US' response to that of the European Union (EU), Gates said that lack of restrictions and no emphasis on wearing of masks had contributed to increased cases.

Gates' criticisms echo statements made by various public health officials, who say that the countrys delayed testing has impeded contact tracing and isolation of infected individuals.

President Donald Trump, however, has so far resisted any criticism, defending his country's testing strategy as the best in the world.
TORONTO, ONTARIO / ACCESSWIRE / August 10, 2020 / Trichome Financial Corp. (the "Company" or "Trichome Financial") (CSE:TFC) is pleased to announce the voting results from its annual general meeting on Friday, August 7, 2020.

Each of the six nominees listed in the Management Information Circular were elected as directors of the Company.

Furthermore, MNP LLP was appointed as the Company's auditors.

Meeting materials are available under Trichome Financial's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

About Trichome Financial Corp.

Trichome Financial is a specialty finance company focused on providing flexible and creative credit solutions to the global legal cannabis market. Trichome Financial was created to address the lack of credit availability in the large, growing and increasingly complex cannabis market. Trichome Financial's experienced founders and management team has a unique edge to capitalize on proprietary deal flow and industry insight while developing a first mover advantage as a global cannabis focused specialty finance company. Trichome Financial provides customized financing solutions across the industry value chain to support growth, capital expenditures, mergers, acquisitions, working capital and other needs. Leveraging the combined resources and knowledge of its founders, it is able to offer significant value-added financial, product, market and operational support to its partner companies.

For further information about Trichome Financial please visit us at www.trichomefinancial.com or @trichomefinance on Twitter and refer to the joint information circular of Trichome Financial and 22 Capital dated May 29, 2019 which is available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

READER ADVISORY

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; and the delay or failure to receive board, shareholder or regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Except as required by law, Trichome Financial assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein. 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 United States Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

Contact Information

Michael Ruscetta, CEO

Telephone: (416) 467-5229

Email: info@trichomefinancial.com

Marc Charbin, Investor Relations

Telephone: (416) 467-5229

Email: marc.charbin@loderockadvisors.com

SOURCE: Trichome Financial Corp

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/601073/Trichome-Financial-Announces-Results-of-AGM-Voting
Confusion over the reopening of schools continued Monday, when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo threatened to keep more than 100 districts closed for in-person instruction this year because they did not submit plans to the state, including the Williamsville and Lewiston-Porter districts.

But officials in Williamsville said the district did submit its plans on time to the state Education Department.

It did not, however, realize it needed to send its plans to the state Health Department, as well. It did so on Monday, a spokesman said.

The governor also called out Lew-Port, but district officials said they, too, submitted plans on time  to both state departments.

We definitely did that, said Paul Casseri, the districts superintendent.

Casseri said he has no idea why the state Health Department didnt receive it.

I couldnt begin to tell you, he said. Either the submission didnt go through or whatever happened on their end, who knows. But it wasnt like I was the only one  there were 107. Thats a fair number out of 700 school districts.
A salmonella outbreak linked to onions has expanded to 43 states and Canada, prompting a recall from a producer in California and various grocery chains, health officials said.

As of Sunday, there had been 640 reported salmonella cases, including 85 hospitalizations, tied to the outbreak, the Food and Drug Administration said. Many of the reported cases were in the Western states of Utah (90); Oregon (85); California (76); and Montana (52). There have also been 41 cases reported in Illinois.

The Public Health Agency of Canada reported 239 cases with 29 hospitalizations as of Friday. No deaths have been reported in Canada or the United States.

The F.D.A. identified the likely source of the outbreak as red onions from Thomson International, a produce supplier in Bakersfield, Calif. Last week, the producer recalled red, yellow, white and sweet onions shipped since May 1 because of the risk of contamination. The F.D.A. has started an investigation at the company.
ISTANBUL  The Greek Foreign Ministry called on Turkey to stop what it deemed illegal gas exploration activities in the eastern Mediterranean Monday amid a potentially dangerous escalation between the two nations over contested maritime claims in the region.

Greece will not be blackmailed. It will defend its sovereignty and its sovereign rights, the ministry said in a statement.

The developments come after Turkey issued a navigational communication known as a Navtex Monday, stating the seismic research vessel Oruc Reis would be conducting surveying activities south of the Greek island of Kastellorizo until Aug. 23. At the same time, Turkey began two days of naval exercises Monday southeast Kastellorizo and the island of Rhodes.

On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Turkey would resume its search for energy resources in the region following the breakdown of informal talks between Ankara and Athens, which had been in negotiations to resolve longstanding maritime delimitations between Greek islands and mainland Turkey.

Negotiations were shelved after the Athens government signed a maritime boundary agreement with Egypt Thursday, negating previous territorial claims by Ankara established in a November memorandum with Tripolis Government of National Accord (GNA) in Libya.

We were engaged in talks with Greece for the last two and a half months in Berlin and had even agreed on a joint statement but Greece announced its deal with Egypt just a day before it, presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin told CNN Turk in an interview Sunday. It is out of question for us to approve any move that will condemn Turkey to the bay of Antalya and exclude it from the eastern Mediterranean. But we still prefer to solve issues through dialogue.

Now, as Turkish vessels are dispatched near Greek territorials waters with the Greek navy on standby, a dangerous game of brinkmanship is underway in the eastern Mediterranean that analysts say could quickly escalate if leaders on both sides do not reengage in diplomatic negotiations.

As I understand it, Greek admirals have orders to prevent drilling in disputed areas, especially in the region near Crete, Erol Kaymak, a professor of political science and international relations at Eastern Mediterranean University in Northern Cyprus, told Al-Monitor. He continued, It seems there is a concern that the moment a drill touches the sea basin it confers rights onto Turkey. On the other side, Turkey is not deterred. So, yes, this could very well lead to further escalation.

Naval mobilizations by both nations are extremely worrying, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said in a statement Sunday. Borrell, who has worked to mediate Turkey-Greece tensions in recent months, said maritime boundaries should be defined through dialogue and urged both sides to reengage in negotiations.

Despite the escalation, some analysts said the lapse in bilateral talks may be temporary. Zenonas Tziarras, a researcher at the PRIO Cyprus Centre and co-founder of Geopolitical Cyprus, said Turkish officials likely needed to save face by responding to the Greece-Egypt agreement for domestic and international audiences.

If [Turkeys] activities remain within areas that are not delimited, it is likely that tensions will not lead to any hot incidents, especially if external actors like the United States and Germany try to once again play a de-escalating role, Tziarras told Al-Monitor.

In late July, previous Turkey-Greece tensions subsided following a phone call between Erdogan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The conversation is alleged to have fostered diplomatic negotiations between the two nations, and the United States is also believed to have soothed discord at the time by holding joint exercises with the Turkish navy on July 29.

While current tensions stem from the Egypt-Greece agreement, Tziarras said it is too early to dismiss the possibility of new dialogue in the near future.

Turkey is not as annoyed with the Egypt-Greece deal as it likes to show because it leaves open the prospect for a Turkey-Egypt and Greece EEZ boundary, he said, using the acronym for an exclusive economic zone in which states claim rights over resources.

He said the Greece-Egypt agreement could prove beneficial for all sides as it directly disputes the arbitrary Turkey-GNA EEZ deal, creates an important legal and political precedent and sets the foundations for further maritime zone settlements in the area  be it through bilateral [or] multilateral negotiations or arbitration.

Still, Ankara officials claim Greeces many islands, some of which sit just a few kilometers off Turkeys coast, bestow Athens with unjust territorial sovereignty over what they see as Turkeys continental shelf. Speaking to reporters in Lebanon during a weekend visit, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara would continue to seek diplomatic solutions despite the Greece-Egypt agreement, which his ministry deemed null and void upon announcement.

Firstly, no one can accuse us of causing tension, Cavusoglu told reporters. Plus, nobody can urge us that we cannot deploy our vessels to said regions. Even though they urge, we wont listen. Because its now obvious that its Greece who does not want dialogue.

At the heart of the matter is the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which defines nations maritime rights and upholds current Greek territorial claims in the Aegean and Mediterranean seas via the nations many islands. Turkey is not a signatory of the UNCLOS and some Ankara officials claim they are not legally bound by the agreement.

By pursuing gas exploration activities in contested areas, Turkish leaders are seeking to prompt negotiations with Greece to address perceived unfairness in Turkeys maritime claims, according Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, Ankara director for the German Marshall Fund.

Turkey wants to sign a maritime delimitation agreement with Greece and is using coercive diplomacy to bring Greece to the negotiation table, Unluhisarcikli told Al-Monitor. While Unluhisarcikli framed recent events as Ankara responding to Anthens maximalist approach with its own maximalist approach, he also believes current tensions would likely subside with the third-party mediated talks in the near future.

Armed conflict between Turkey and Greece is strongly against the interests of NATO and the interests of the United States, Unluhisarcikli told Al-Monitor. I think there will be stop mechanisms.
W orkers fed up staring at endless Zoom calls with colleagues in tiny, pixelated boxes on a laptop screen are being offered a high-resolution alternative  a holographic co-worker beamed directly into the home.

"Holoportation" firm Portl has developed a human-sized booth that could reinvigorate Covid-era working from home life  or feel just a little too invasive for some.

The machines, about as big as a red phone box, can be equipped with technology to allow real-time video conferencing with high-definition representations of other people.

There is also an artificial intelligence-programmed upgrade package enabling conversations with historical figures and deceased relatives, so long as the necessary memory data is held on its hard drive.

The device uses a 4K clear screen to create depth perception for more lifelike video / Portl

Portl founder David Nussbaum, whose previous company digitally resurrected rapper Tupac Shakur and 80s US president Ronald Reagan, said the booth could help connect families that havent seen each other in months due to shielding in the pandemic.

Each hologram booth is seven feet high (2.1m), five feet wide (1.5m) and two feet deep (0.6m).

It uses a stretched transparent LCD 4K screen embedded into a lightbox to help imply 3D-depth inside the space.

The person whose likeness is seen by the recipient records their footage in front of a white screen via a webcam.

US-based Portl said the invention encourages free-flowing conversations with life-sized holograms beamed into a freestanding device.

Prices starting at about 45,000 for the machines, rising to 64,000 for an AI add-on called StoryFile, which specialises in archiving hologram recordings so future generations might question a historical figure or discover more about the life of a late relative through an interactive recorded conversation.

Portl founder David Nussbaum in front of the white screen needed to record the projection / REUTERS

Heather Smith, chief executive of StoryFile, said: It allows you to look at an individual, feel as if theyre there, feel their presence, see their body language, see all the non-verbal cues and feel as if youve actually talked to that individual.

A smaller desktop version of the device is planned for the future, which the company said should be cheaper, and could resemble a high-res version of Princess Leia beamed from R2-D2 in Star Wars.

In 1977, Star Wars: A New Hope wowed audiences with a holographic talking message

Dave Collins, co-founder of Londons PowerStation Studios, said: I could see a new version of the internet cafe where people go to a business to holo-conference with their family, which would be great in a mid-pandemic world.

But will it replace Zoom? Not yet. The ability to have multiple people, screen-sharing and chat at a very affordable price makes Zoom the winner for now."
The decline is mainly due to stagnant output, a rise in domestic consumption, and insufficient investment

Algerias gas exports will drop to 26 billion cubic metres per year in 2025 from 45 billion in 2020, energy minister Abdelmadjid Attar told Ennahar TV.

Exports in the period 2025-2030 will be between 26 to 30 billion cubic metre per year, Attar told Ennahar.

The decline is mainly due to stagnant output, a rise in domestic consumption, and insufficient investment.

Algerias gas exports peaked in 2005 at 64 billion cubic metres.

It exported 51.4 billion cubic metres in 2018.

Algeria derives 95% of its foreign revenue from oil and gas sales.

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To get to the village of Lokolama, in the Equateur province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), one must catch a plane from the capital Kinshasa to the city of Mbandaka and then drive for hours on bumpy roads into the dense rainforest of the Congo Basin. The village has 510 inhabitants who have maintained their traditional lifestyle for generations.

The remoteness and inherent calm of the village can lead one to assume it has been easy for members of the Indigenous community living there to hold on to their traditional way of living. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. For decades, the inhabitants of Lokolama, like many other Indigenous communities in the DRC, have been forced to live with the permanent fear of losing their forest  their precious home  to logging corporations.

During colonial rule, and even after independence, governments in central Africa have acted as if the only path to development in the region was through felling trees on an industrial scale. Successive governments in the DRC followed a similar strategy. The countrys first forest code, accepted in 1941, for example, allowed for forest concessions to be given exclusively to logging corporations, negating the rights of Indigenous peoples on their ancestral lands.

The states persistent pro-corporate and anti-community approach to forest management  coupled with decades of political instability, civil war and a consequent culture of corruption and impunity  resulted in forest-dependent Indigenous communities being forced to live in a state of constant uncertainty and fear.

Something changed in 2002. Following decades of relentless campaigning by Indigenous communities and environmental activists, the DRC government finally agreed to include in its forest code the possibility for communities to also obtain legal titles to their forestland.

It took another 17 years for an Indigenous community to obtain a forest concession, but in March 2019, authorities finally handed the title deed for 10,000 hectares of forests surrounding the village of Lokolama to the local chief, Joseph Bonkile.

Encouraged by their monumental legal victory, which made them the first Indigenous community in the DRC to receive a forest concession from the state, the locals swiftly started working on a plan to efficiently manage their lands.

Acknowledging the size of the task at hand, Chief Bonkile and Valentin Engobom, the president of the management committee of the forest concession for the village, asked Greenpeace and local organisations for guidance in coming up with ways to generate income while protecting the forest. With financial and organisational support from these environmental groups, they conducted a biodiversity survey to identify any features of particular conservation importance in their forest. They also recently completed a simple management plan for their forest, and are now awaiting approval from the state.

While the community made considerable progress in achieving their goals in a short period of time, the past few months have been tough. Though no one among the Indigenous people living in the village has tested positive for COVID-19 so far, the coronavirus pandemic had a significant negative impact on their lives and forest management plans. Transport disruptions made it difficult for Indigenous communities to access basic necessities. Moreover, due to the economic crisis triggered by the pandemic, financing for their plans to sustainably develop their forest lands also became hard to get.

The people of Lokolama need extensive financial support to implement a successful system of community forest management and meet the legal requirements that come with holding the deeds for extensive forest lands. Raising money for such a cause, in the DRC and internationally, is significantly harder now due to the pandemic and the consequent economic crash.

But these new challenges did not cause community members to lose hope and give up on their dreams to set up a system that would benefit locals while protecting the environment. After all, for years they have faced any obstacle and adversity with the optimistic motto of yes, we can.

We have spent about three months to explore the richness of our forest. Each of us used our specific knowledge  We have identified what we will do and not in our concession that benefits all, making gains without destroying our forest and compromising the future of our children  We are ready  The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted our program, but its a question of time, Engobo told me.

For decades, destructive policies that prioritise development and profit above everything else guided the management of the worlds second-largest rainforest in the Congo Basin. These policies not only trashed forest lands that are crucial for the long-term survival of humanity, but also caused large-scale displacement and persistent abuse of Indigenous peoples living there.

Countless reports by civil society organisations, including Greenpeace Africa, have captured the systemic human rights violations faced by peoples who have lived in the forest for centuries, sometimes millennia.

Indigenous peoples are the ideal forest guardians. Research shows that they achieve conservation results at least equal to those of government-run protected areas  with a fraction of the budget. Uprooting Indigenous communities from their forest homes, therefore, leaves the forests biodiversity and carbon stocks at higher risk.

In 2002, the DRC paved a new and promising path to genuine local development by amending its forest code to allow Indigenous peoples, such as the inhabitants of the village of Lokolama, to manage the lands they call home. The country is now slowly turning the page on an unjust and harmful era in which Indigenous peoples had very little influence on the fate of their forests. But the fight is not yet over.

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the devastating impact it has had on the global economy, is threatening to derail the Indigenous communities plans to sustainably and justly manage their forests. The people of Lokolama, and other Indigenous communities in the DRC who are also working to secure forest concessions, need the help of the international community more than ever.

We should not allow the pandemic to delay the essential inclusion of Indigenous peoples as equal partners in forest management.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 10, 2020) - Nutritional High International Inc. (CSE: EAT) (OTC Pink: SPLIF) ("Nutritional High" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed a purchase agreement for the sale of Calyx Brands and NH Distribution California Inc. and Calyx Brands Inc.("Calyx") to DB12 LLC ("DB12").

Calyx is a distributor of cannabis and cannabis derived products, which holds a Type 11 distribution license from the Bureau of Cannabis Control of the State of California, which permits distribution of medical and adult use cannabis, and cannabis products from manufacturers to dispensaries.

The sale of Calyx was a directive established by the Company as part of the strategic review process. Through completing a sale to a strategic partner, Calyx will have access to funding and a significant source of flower product to supplement it's product offering and profitably grow the business.

The transaction involves a sale of 100% equity interest in Calyx in exchange for the assumption of approximately $7 million in liabilities and a minority ownership position in DB12. The Company will also have the ability to earn additional equity interest conditional on growth in branded revenues.

"Through retaining minority ownership in DB12, Nutritional High will continue to have access to the California market for distribution of our own brands, potentially significant upside associated with ownership of the larger and more integrated DB12 operation, while continuing to improve our balance sheet," said John Durfy, CEO of Nutritional High. "We are very pleased to partner with DB12 and look forward to a successful partnership."

Closing of the transaction is subject to a number of conditions which are expected to be met within 30 days however there can be no assurance that the transaction will close in this period or at all. If completed, the sale will result in the Company no longer consolidating the Calyx business into its financial statements.

Story continues

About Nutritional High International Inc.

Nutritional High is focused on developing and manufacturing branded products in the cannabis industry, with a specific focus on edibles and oil extracts for medical and adult recreational use. The Company works exclusively in jurisdictions where such activity is permitted and regulated by state law.

The Company has a strategy for acquisitions in extraction, production and sales sectors of the cannabis industry. Nutritional High has brought its flagship FLI edibles and vape product lines from production to market in various markets including Colorado where its FLI products are manufactured by Pale Verde, LLC.

For updates on the Company's activities and highlights of the Company's press releases and other media coverage, please follow Nutritional High on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or visit www.nutritionalhigh.com.

For further information, please contact:

Robert Wilson

Chief Financial Officer

Nutritional High International Inc.

416-666-4005

Email: rwilson@nutritionalhigh.com

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR OTC MARKETS GROUP INC., NOR THEIR REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDERS HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements and information based on current expectations. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. Risks that may have an impact on the ability for these events to be achieved include completion of due diligence, negotiation of definitive agreements and receipt of applicable approvals. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be correct. We assume no responsibility to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.

The Company's securities have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or applicable state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold to, or for the account or benefit of, persons in the United States or "U.S. Persons", as such term is defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act, absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in the United States or any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as required by law. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking information expressed in this press release include, but are not limited to: obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals including acquiring and renewing U.S. state, local or other licenses, the uncertainty of existing protection from U.S. federal or other prosecution, regulatory or political change such as changes in applicable laws and regulations, including U.S. state-law legalization, market and general economic conditions of the cannabis sector or otherwise.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/61395
Related UN still waiting for Houthi approval to visit decaying oil tanker off Yemen

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit on Monday called on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to immediately interfere to enable a UN team to assess a neglected tanker off Yemen.

In a statement, the pan-Arab body chairman warned of the horrible destruction similar to Lebanon's Beirut blasts if the UN-led technical assessment and repair mission couldn't start the maintenance work onboard the Safer oil tanker off the coast of Ras Issa.

The maintenance work aims to avoid a possible catastrophic spill of 1.1 million barrels of crude oil.

At the end of May, water reportedly entered the engine room of the permanently anchored tanker, which could have led to disaster, but a temporary fix was applied at that time.

The tanker had served as floating oil storage and offloading vessel that is moored in the Red Sea before most of the crew deserted it after the Houthi rebels took over the area about five years ago.

"The indifference of the Houthis regarding the possible catastrophe reflects the rebels' carelessness about the suffering of the Yemeni people and the group's readiness to escalate the sufferings by keeping their influence and power," it added.

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Two thirds of fines handed to drivers for using mobile phones at the wheel have been referred to a government's debt collection agency since a sharp increase in the financial penalty was introduced.

From the start of February, the Queensland government raised the fine for driving while on a phone from $400 to $1,000 and made it four demerit points instead of three.

A total of 1569 of the 2,300 fines issued since then have been referred to the Queensland Treasury's debt collection body State Penalties Enforcement Registry, the Courier Mail reported.

wo thirds of fines handed to drivers on their mobile phone since the $1,000 fine was created have been referred to a debt collection agency (stock image)

Queensland's Transport Minister Mark Bailey (pictured) said the $1,000 fine sent a message about the seriousness of the 'reckless behaviour'

A total of 20,665 fines related to mobile phones are currently being dealt with by the body - worth around $7.8million.

Queensland's Transport Minister Mark Bailey said no-one should think that putting off payment would somehow be a way to dodge the penalty.

'Even if your fine is referred to SPER, youll still need to pay it eventually, he said.

'You also lose four demerit points, and another eight if you're caught a second time in 12 months.

'Those points cannot be deferred, and for most people will mean they will lose their license on a second offence.'

Mr Bailey said the sharp increase in the fine sent a message about the seriousness of the 'reckless behaviour'.

'If you or someone you love loses their life because of driver distraction, you cannot get that life back.

'The message is simple: put down the phone.'

He said the measures were so effective that Western Australia had followed in Queensland's footsteps and introduced the $1,000 fines.

Mr Bailey said the efficacy of the law was reflected in the fact that the number o Queenslanders killed due to driver distraction had dropped from 54 in 2019 to just two so far in 2020.

He added that last year 13,280 Queenslanders were caught using their phones while behind the wheel while only 2,300 people had been caught since the new penalties were introduced.

The Queensland Government raised the fine of driving while on a phone to $1,000 and four demerit points from a $400 fine and three demerit points on February 1, 2020 (stock image)

The increased penalties mean that learner drivers and P-platers could lose their licence from just one offence.

Cyclists are also fined $1,000 for using their phone while riding their bike but will not have any demerit points issued.

Anyone caught using their mobile phone within 12 months will be hit with another $1,000 fine with eight demerit points.
Pakistan court orders 14-y-o Christian girl to return to Muslim man who kidnapped her

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A 14-year-old Christian girl was in tears after a judge ordered her to return to the Muslim man who abducted her at gunpoint during the COVID-19 lockdown and forcibly married and converted her to Islam.

Catholic teenager Maira Shahbaz, who was abducted in April, had recently been allowed by a lower court to leave her captors home and stay at a womens shelter until her case was heard by the Lahore High Court.

However, Judge Raja Muhammad Shahid Abbasi ruled this week that she must return to the home of the married man who kidnapped her, and who the judge referred to as her "husband," on the basis that she had converted to Islam, according to the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern.

Witnesses said they saw Maira in tears in the court after the verdict on Tuesday, according to the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

With this ruling, no Christian girl in Pakistan is safe, a family friend and advocate, Lala Robin Daniel, was quoted as saying.

The order is unprecedented and will likely mean Maria will never return to her family, Shazia George, a Pakistani human rights activist, told ICC. The decision to make a child bride stay with her abductor will add more misery to the case. Courts must ensure that the victims of forced conversion and child marriage are able to have their statements recorded without any duress or threat so perpetrators are brought to justice.

The Christian girl was abducted at gunpoint by Mohamad Nakash and two accomplices while she was walking home in the Madina Town area in Faisalabad District. According to witnesses, the abductors forced Shahbaz into a car and fired gunshots into the air as they fled the scene, ICC reported earlier.

Nakash, a married man, was recently accused of presenting a false marriage certificate to the lower court that said Maira was 19 years old and they had wed in October 2019. The document not only failed to provide proof of consent from Nakashs first wife, with whom he has two children, but the Muslim cleric whose name is listed on the certificate had denied involvement in the sham marriage.

After Marias mother presented her daughters birth certificate to the lower court as proof that she was underage, Faisalabad District and Sessions Judge Rana Masood ordered that Maira be allowed to leave Nakashs home and be placed in a womens refuge, known as Dar ul Aman, until the Lahore High Court heard her case.

Mairas family lawyer Lala Daniel, earlier said that had Maira been ordered to stay in Nakashs home, she might have been forced to become a sex worker.

A 2014 study by The Movement for Solidarity and Peace Pakistan estimated that about 1,000 women and girls from Pakistans Hindu and Christian community were abducted, forcibly married to their captor, and forcibly converted to Islam every year.

The issue of religion is also often injected into cases of sexual assault to place religious minority victims at a disadvantage, ICC said. Playing upon religious biases, perpetrators know they can cover up and justify their crimes by introducing an element of religion.

The U.S. State Department has designated Pakistan as a country of particular concern for engaging in or tolerating egregious and systemic abuses of religious freedom. Pakistan has also been ranked as the fifth-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution on Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List.
When Marlow Carrels headed off to college at Montana State University in 2004, he thought he was destined to become a teacher someday.

Instead, he joined the ROTC program, spent more than a decade in the Army and Reserves as a specialist in chemical weapons and warfare, completed a five-year seminary program and then served as a military chaplain.

The latter, he says, is greatly needed in the military spectrum.

It is simply so there is someone who can help you see the good when you feel as if your entire world is surrounded by the bad, Carrels said in an interview this week.

Carrels is now pastor of the Gold Hill Lutheran Church in Butte, having moved here from Westby, Montana in late May. His life, needless to say, has taken turns he never expected.

I thought I was going to be a music or English teacher and I ended up with an English Lit degree and went to the Army to be a chemical officer, and I swore up and down I was going to do that for the rest of my life, Carrels said.

Carrels was a military brat growing up. He was born in Kansas, lived in Germany, Washington state and Texas, and went to grade school and high school in Belgrade before going to college in Bozeman, where his mother is from.

I fell in absolute love with the chemical world, he said. It was really fun for me to try to do the math and graphing how a plume is going to be associated with chemical weapons and what the downwind hazards are and whether theres persistent or non-persistent hazards.

I weirdly fell in love with it, which is strange because nobody likes chemical.

Carrels was commissioned as chemical officer upon graduating from MSU, meaning he was educated in chemical warfare, chemical weapons, biological weapons, radiological weapons, nuclear weapons and high-yield explosives.

He was stationed with the 110th Chemical Battalion in Fort Lewis, Washington, where he was assistant leader of a team whose main purpose was to make safe and remove chemical weapons wherever found, be it stateside or elsewhere, combat zone or not.

The U.S. agreed to eliminate its chemical stockpile in a 1997 and Carrels says he got to witness some of that taking place. But training was also a big part of the job.

They trained soldiers here and abroad, including those in South Korea, on how to react to chemical warfare or incidents. One scenario involved what to do if a chemical weapon went off at the Olympics, but they ran the gamut.

One would be we just found it and it never went off, what do we do? Carrels said. Or we found it and it did go off, what do we do? How do we deal with the aftermath? How do we decontaminate people, how do we triage people who were contaminated?

We had one (training scenario) where a biological warfare virus was released in the states and what do we do, how do we react?

Carrels returned to Montana in 2011 and became a National Guard commander for the 631st Chemical Company out of Missoula and Anaconda. The unit was in a rebuilding phase and Carrels had to get younger kids to understand the significance of their field.

Chemical in general is one of those things we train for all the time, because if we are doing our job, something extremely serious has happened, he said. Unlike the infantry, who is trained to do their job in order to do their job, we are trained for our job in hopes we will never do our job.

It was during a long conversation with a military colleague that his life veered onto another path.

He had recently read Whether Soldiers, Too, Can Be Saved, written by Martin Luther in 1526 and given to Carrels by a military chaplain, and got into a long discussion about it.

It was this weirdly theological conversation of where we are going as soldiers, where the enemy is going as soldiers, are we doing a bad thing, a moral thing, Carrels said. A couple of days later he came and talked to me and said, I want you to get out of my Army, go and become a chaplain and come back to us.

He dismissed the idea at the time, but a couple of years later, was talking to his wife, Nikki, and said he wanted to get out of active duty, become a chaplain and come back.

Thus began a five-year seminary through Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, some of it online while living in Townsend and Sand Springs, Montana. During his last year in the program, he rejoined the Reserves in 2016 as a chaplain candidate and in 2017, a chaplain stationed with the 411th Ordnance Battalion in Billings.

Although it was still part-time Reserve duty, Carrels said, soldiers would call anytime they had issues.

We worked with soldiers who had suicidal ideation all the time in between drill on weekends, domestic disputes, in some cases spiritual stuff, he said.

He recalls one soldier who was really worked up because he had just started college and suddenly there were all these religions open to him and he didnt know how to find meaning. He explored many, including Islam and teachings from Buddha, and talked about them with Carrels.

One thing about being an Army chaplain is its not my job to convert, its my job to converse, he said. Im not there to be the best Lutheran chaplain. Thats certainly part of my identity, but my goal is to make space for you to be able to worship however you need to worship.

There were moments like that and also moments when you are sitting in a staff meeting and everyone wants to know why so-and-so thought they were going to kill themselves and if you dont have a good answer, thats not a good thing.

A back injury forced Carrels to leave military service in 2019, and after serving as a pastor in Westby, a small town on the Hi-Line in northeastern Montana, he applied for an open pastor position at Gold Hill Lutheran Church in Butte.

He got the post and he and his wife and their 8-year-old daughter, Samantha, moved here in late May. He hasnt been able to meet with all of his 150 church members up close, but has served through social media, phone calls and Sunday services where parishioners stay in their cars and listen to Carrels and an organist through FM radio.

Butte, he says, is like no other community he has been in.

This is such a strange and lovely town, he said. We have the problems of a big city, but we arent. We have the history of an East Coast city, but we arent an East Coast City.

We have this amazing divide between the haves and have-nots and people actually recognize it. Unlike other places, it is not swept under the rug. You have people on the same block making six figures  and people living next to them barely making $600, and they recognize that and help each other out.

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The ASEAN flag is hoisted in Hanoi to mark the bloc's 53rd founding anniversary (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi  The ASEAN Foreign Ministers have issued a statement on the importance of maintaining peace and stability in Southeast Asia. Following is the full text of the statement:

We, the ASEAN Foreign Ministers, on the 53rd anniversary of the establishment of ASEAN, recall the aspirations of the 1967 ASEAN Declaration to promote regional cooperation in the spirit of equality and partnership, and contribute towards peace, progress and prosperity in the region.

We note with satisfaction the achievements made by ASEAN in the past 53 years, in particular the progress in the realisation of a rules-based, people-oriented, and people-centred ASEAN Community.

We reaffirm our strong commitment to ensuring the effective implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, and sustaining the momentum of ASEAN Community building beyond 2025.

Having closely followed the growing uncertainties resulting from the changing geo-political dynamics in the regional and global landscape, noting with concern that these may have detrimental ramifications for the region, and acknowledging that without peace and stability, sustainable progress and prosperity would be unattainable, we, the ASEAN Foreign Ministers:

1. Reiterate our commitment to maintaining Southeast Asia as a region of peace, security, neutrality and stability, and strengthening peace-oriented values in the region in line with international law.

2. Reaffirm the need for ASEAN to remain united, cohesive, and resilient in promoting its purposes, principles, and common interest as enshrined in the ASEAN Charter.

3. Further reaffirm the importance of upholding the purposes and principles of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) as well as in the Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality Declaration, and the Declaration of the East Asia Summit on the Principles for Mutually Beneficial Relations.

4. Call on all countries to exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability, to refrain from the threat or use of force, and to resolve differences and disputes by peaceful means in accordance with international law.

5. Call for the continued building of strategic trust and mutual confidence among countries through continued dialogue, win-win cooperation and practical confidence building measures to create a peaceful environment conducive for sustainable growth.

6. Commit ourselves to strengthening ASEAN Centrality and encourage the constructive engagement of ASEANs external partners, through ASEAN-led mechanisms such as the East Asia Summit (EAS), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus), in building mutual trust and confidence as well as an open, transparent, inclusive and rules-based regional architecture.

7. Reaffirm the objectives and principles of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) and encourage external partners to work with ASEAN in promoting the AOIP and undertaking cooperation on the key areas of cooperation identified in the Outlook to enhance mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual benefit through ASEAN-led mechanisms.

8. Reiterate our commitment to supporting multilateralism founded on the principles of the UN Charter and anchored in international law, while emphasising a multilateral approach in addressing emerging challenges and actively shaping a more effective rules-based multilateral architecture that is capable of tackling pressing common regional and global issues.
She said she was inspired to begin the work after seeing the racism Asian Americans experienced at the beginning of the pandemic  as Republicans made blaming China for the virus a political strategy, and as President Trump continued calling the novel coronavirus the Chinese virus  in addition to the nationwide protests calling for racial justice and police reform after the killing of George Floyd.
For the first time in nine years, a train carrying grain has arrived in Damascus, delivering 1,000 tons reports SANA.

After a nine-year of suspension, the first grain-carrying train loaded with 1,000 tons of wheat arrived on Saturday in Damascus countryside from Tartous Port, paving the way for the resumption of the rail traffic between the capital, the central and coastal regions, particularly transporting food materials.

Transport Minister Ali Hammoud said, in a press statement, that the train set off from Tartous Port, carrying 1,000 tons of grain, and arrived on Saturday morning at the Sbaineh silos in Damascus countryside paving the way for the resumption of the rail traffic.

Hammoud appreciated the efforts exerted by the workers and technical cadres of the General Organization for Railways and the General Company of Railway Construction for rehabilitating and maintaining the railway line extending from al-Nasriyah to Sbaineh in Damascus countryside.

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.
Winshuttle EnterWorks to Present Scott Taylor-The Data Whisperer in Live Webcast The road to Data Management ruin is paved with good intentions, and this must-see, live webinar will offer Data Leaders specific means to improve both strategically and tactically.

Winshuttle EnterWorks, the industry-leading Master Data Management (MDM) and Product Information Management (PIM) platform, announced today it will present a live webinar featuring Scott Taylor-The Data Whisperer on Tuesday, August 11th at 11:00 am EST (8:00 am PST). Titled Telling Your Data Management Story with the 3Vs: Vocabulary Voice and Vision, the webcast will explore how Data Leaders can create a compelling narrative to evangelize how data programs enable the strategic intentions of their Enterprise.

We are thrilled to present Scott Taylor-The Data Whisperer, a globally recognized thought-leader and consultant on the strategic value of proper data management, said Kerry Young, Vice President and General Manager of Winshuttle EnterWorks. The road to Data Management ruin is paved with good intentions, and this must-see, live webinar will offer Data Leaders specific means to improve both strategically and tactically.

While Data Leaders know that data management and governance will help grow, improve and protect their businesses, many have trouble articulating that value in a way that resonates with Business Stakeholders and secures proper funding. In this session, data management professionals will learn practical tips to:



Understand the Role of Data Storytelling and Data Literacy Efforts;

Prove Data Management is Critical and Macro-Trend Agnostic; and

Leverage the 3Vs of Data Storytelling: Establish accessible Vocabulary, Harmonize to a common Voice, and Illuminate the business Vision.

For more information and to register for the webcast, please visit the Winshuttle EnterWorks website.

About Scott Taylor

Scott Taylor-The Data Whisperer is a globally recognized thought leader and consultant on the strategic value of proper data management. As Principal of MetaMeta Consulting, he provides Data Evangelism-as-a-Service to help enterprises and tech brands tell their data story by focusing on the WHY of business alignment rather than the HOW of technical implementation.

About EnterWorks

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Pope Benedict XVI resigned seven years ago, a radical move from a leader viewed as the supreme conservative. Yet, he's still draws interest and controversy. At least publisher Bloomsbury Continuum is counting on it, with the November 17 release of an English translation of German journalist Peter Seewalds first book in a two-volume set, Benedict XVI: A Life. With unparalleled access to Benedict, Seewalds interviews with the former pope have garnered headlines in the past, as the pontiff expressed muted criticism of the Church and his successor Pope Francis. Over the past several years Seewald has had a spate of books written in a spirit of sympathetic collaboration with Benedict, but his upcoming 496-page Volume One: Youth in Nazi Germany to the Second Vatican Council 1927-1965, offers something different: an exhaustive and scholarly overview of the first third of Joseph Ratzingers life, ending four decades before hed be elected pope.

Published in Germany last April, the biographys English translation was edited by Robin Baird-Smith who says that Seewald is objective. Sympathetic but objective. He does not try to hide the truth. Baird-Smith points out that in Benedict XVI: A Life Seewald considers controversial aspects of his subjects biography, including his youth in Nazi Germany, and his reserved personality. According to detractors, Benedict is stern and severe; his supporters say that he is shy and withdrawn. But all agree he lacks the media-friendly charisma of his predecessor John Paul II and his successor Francis.

Who then, other than scholars, would be in the market for a door-stopper about the Pope Emeritus? Bloomsbury sees a wider audience ahead. According to the publisher, they are printing an initial release of 50,000 copies, with a publicity campaign aimed specifically at religious Catholic readers.

Former journalist David Gibson, now director of the Center for Religion and Culture at Fordham University and a frequent Benedict-critic from the left, sees the Pope Emeritus as a fascinating subject for even the casual reader. Now to get a flesh-and-blood portrait of someone imbued with such a remarkable lineage  Saint Peter, infallibility and all that  seems new, and very much part of the cultural zeitgeist. While Francis has drawn acolytes among the more liberal wings of the Catholic Church, and beyond, Benedicts reputation has (rightly or wrongly) endured as being a staunch conservative, a doctrinaire traditionalist. Yet when he resigned, he was the first pope to do so in almost six centuries. For a pontiff regarded as conservative in not just matters of theology and politics, but also personality, the abdication was rather amazing. Especially for a man so closely associated with tradition. People want to know whats up with that, says Gibson.

A Controversial Icon

Benedicts paradoxically tradition-shattering retirement is part of the reason, Gibson argues, that biographies of the former Pope, and treatments of his voluminous theological writings, have been unusually popular. Works such as John Allen Jr.s Pope Benedict XVI: A Biography of Joseph Ratzinger (written several years before the resignation), Elio Guerrieros Benedict XVI: His Life and Thought, and Gibsons The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World approached the former pope from a variety of doctrinal perspectives. His appeal seems less in who he is, or was, as in what he represents, says Gibson, He is an icon of conservatism for many, and an object of scorn and criticism for many others.

That culture war lens for looking at Benedict and Francis, however, cant totally account for the Pope Emeritus continued popularity as a publishing subject. Baird-Smith agrees with Gibson that the media has often configured Benedict as a sort of doctrinal Rottweiler, but he emphasized that that simplification does a disservice to the subtlety of the former popes thought, as he views Benedict as unquestionably the most intellectually gifted Pontiff of the post war years. For many Catholics, to write Benedict off as the voice of the right wing in a culture war with Francis on the left is too facile, an ideological binary that over-simplifies.

The Rev. James Martin S.J., editor of the Jesuit magazine America and author of Learning to Pray: A Guide for Everyone, says, the two popes arent conservative or liberal as much as they are simply popes in different ways. For readers with a theological sensibility, drawn to books like Seewalds biography, this nuance matters. Equally important is that long before he was Pope Benedict XVI, he was the theologian Joseph Ratzinger, one of the most important Catholic thinkers of the contemporary era. Knowledgeable readers are responding to that as much as to his papacy.

An Elegant Writer

Fr. John Fessio S.J., the founder and former editor of Ignatius Press, as well as a doctoral student of Ratzingers when the later was a theology professor at the University of Regensburg in the 1970s, says that people are often drawn to Popes involved in historical movements, figures like the controversial World War II Pope Pius XII or Pope John Paul II who confronted the Soviet Union, but that Benedict doesnt exist in a historical nexus which would make him naturally interesting to readers. But Benedict remains an object of readers fascination for a different reason  because he was a talented writer and thinker in a way that other popes arent, says Fessio. And Martin says that the Pope Emeritus is a master communicator, and an elegant writer who probably reached as many people through his books as through his encyclicals and papal pronouncements.

It's a side of Benedict that those committed to the caricature of him as "God's Rottweiler" might not find recognizable, but its a sort of literary charisma that his dedicated readers are attracted towards. He wrote over 60 books, including his landmark trilogy collectively published under the title Jesus of Nazareth which interpreted the life and teachings of Christ. Anthony J. Ryan, the marketing director at Ignatius Press, which has published scores of books by or about Benedict including English translations of most of Ratzingers works, calls Benedicts writing style accessible, readable and appealing.

The most popular of these works arent easily slotted into a culture wars narrative. Many readers drawn to treatments of Benedict such as Seewald's arent just those that agree with him, but simply those that take a serious man seriously. Most intellectuals can appreciate him said Fessio, even if you disagree with him. Maybe especially if you do.
ALBANY  Online portals for school reopening plans tripped up East Greenbush, Brunswick, Troy and Shenendehowa schools, landing them on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's list of 107 districts in New York that failed to submit proposals by July 31.

Any district that has not submitted a plan by the end of the week will not be allowed to reopen its buildings in the fall, Cuomo said in a call with reporters Monday afternoon.

"How they didn't even submit a plan is beyond me," Cuomo said.

Spokespersons for the school districts said they received confirmation emails after submitting reopening plans to the state last month and have reached out for clarity about why they were never received by the Department of Health.

In the case of East Greenbush and Shenendehowa schools, two of the largest suburban districts in the region, the mix-up stems from duplicate submission forms for the state Department of Health (DOH) and the state Education Department, which have each put out their own recommendations.

The state Education Department guidance largely focuses on educational continuity and standards while the DOH document creates a baseline for health and safety in schools, but at times the directives overlap or contradict each other.

The East Greenbush Central School District district submitted its plan through the state Education Department but apparently failed to complete a second form with the Department of Health.

"We were notified earlier today that our district, among others in the Capital Region, (was) included on a list that had not submitted a reopening plan," East Greenbush spokesman Mark Adam said in a statement. "After seeking clarification from the state as to why we were included on this list, we completed a required companion survey and submitted it to the NYS Department of Health. We anticipate being removed from the list of non-compliance."

The DOH guidance includes specific links for the public, private and charter schools to submit their reopening plans. At the bottom of the document, there is also a link for districts to affirm their receipt of the guidance.

Shenendehowa officials shared a screenshot showing they had submitted their reopening protocols to SED and that they had filled out the affirmation linked at the bottom of the DOH form.

Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi maintained that the list of districts out of compliance was accurate because they had failed to submit their plans with the Department of Health.

"Despite clear guidance provided to these schools, which included a link to the DOH portal, some districts in follow-up calls said they filed with the State Education Department  which is not an executive agency  but didn't file with DOH," he said in an emailed statement. "Others filled out an affirmation certifying that they would be abiding by the state's reopening guidance, but didn't actually submit their plan, something many of these districts are now rectifying.

The state continues to review plans. Districts that are found to be out of compliance will get a letter from the Department of Health on Monday and a follow-up call naming the sections of their plans that are deficient, in which case they will have until Friday to amend their plan, Cuomo said.

The governor also reminded districts they must complete the three to five public sessions with parents and teachers and post their plans for remote learning, testing and contact tracing on their website by Aug. 21 to be in compliance with standards established by the State.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Cuomo first announced the requirements on Friday when he cleared schools to reopen in the fall.

Most school districts are doing temperature screenings at the door, but say they will rely on local departments of health to make decisions about contact tracing and testing.

Cuomo on Friday said the screenings could not detect the asymptomatic spread of the virus, so school districts should clearly outline a mechanism for COVID-19 testing, including whether it is done at school or by local agencies.

Local school leaders said that the idea that schools would administer COVID-19 tests  or even require them  is counter to guidance from the state Education Department (SED), which states, "it strongly recommended that schools comply with CDC guidance and not conduct COVID-19 testing or require testing or antibody testing of students or staff members."

Ballston Spa Central Schools Superintendent Ken Slentz said the governor's remarks on Friday were "a bit of a turn" from what districts had previously been advised.

"This is not our area of expertise so we want to be very careful how we manage this," he said. "The department of health, I think they are going to be a little be overwhelmed with this, but they have a critical role in this so we will be deferential but collaborative with them.

Cuomo's office notes that the state Health Department guidance, which does not specify how testing should be conducted, supersedes the document from the Education Department and was intended as a "mandatory baseline of health and safety protocols for school districts to follow."

Districts must have a plan in place for testing related to symptomatic or exposed individuals, whether in school or through the local health department, that includes timely delivery of results and any ensuing testing of additional individuals," spokesman Jason Conwall said. "Additionally, any positive cases must be tracked through established contact tracing protocols and in coordination with the local health department. DOH guidance allows districts to implement additional testing protocols.
Now add racial prejudice, and things get even worse, especially given President Trumps well-documented history of attacking women of color. Like, the congresswomen of The Squad, whom last summer he told to go back to their countries of origin (though three of the four were born in the United States). His particular antipathy for Black female reporters, such as PBSs Yamiche Alcindor, is another tell.
The largest mall owner in the US is in talks to turn ailing Sears and JC Penney Stores into Amazon distribution warehouses.

Simon Property group has been grappling with empty retail space at malls across the country as anchor department stores took a major hit during the pandemic and e-commerce boomed.

Now the mall company is in talks with Jeff Bezos' Amazon to convert stores formerly or currently occupied by JC Penney or Sears into distribution hubs, as both chains filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and have been closing dozens of stores across the country, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Simon Property group, the largest mall operator in the US, is in talks to turn ailing Sears and JC Penney Stores into Amazon distribution warehouses. A distribution staion in Staten Island, New York above

Simon Malls has 63 JC Penney stores and 11 Sears stores, according to its recent public filing in May.

Similarly Lord & Taylor filed for bankruptcy early this month, Neiman Marcus Group Ltd filed in May and Nordstrom Inc closed 16 stores in recent months.

Its not clear just how many stores are under consideration for the Amazon transformation and its possible they wont reach an agreement at all.

In the pandemic malls were temporarily closed then reopened with heavy restrictions including masks and limited crowds.

For Amazon the Simon deal is a logical effort that would bring distribution hubs near residential areas to speed up delivery times.

Simon Malls has 63 JC Penney stores and 11 Sears stores, according to its recent public filing in May

Both chains filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and have been closing dozens of stores across the country

Simon will have to surrender key space to Amazon which would break away from the former model of relying on giant, glossy department stores to draw customers and foot traffic in.

While having an Amazon fulfilment center in a mall could lead to co-tenancy clauses, landlords say it's better than having the space vacant.

But other vendors may fear the Amazon deal as it would disrupt business and wont attract new, curious shoppers.

Simon would likely rent the space at a discount to what it would charge another retailer.

Warehouse rents are typically less than $10 a square foot. Depending on when leases are signed some department store rents can be as low as $4 a square foot or as high as $19 a square foot.

Amazons growth, especially amid the pandemic, would make it a reliable tenant, something malls need in the current economic climate.

Overall Simon owns 204 properties in the US and has faced a difficult couple of years with retail closures.

Alternatively, Amazon has also been in talks with multiple mall landlords about putting its coming grocery-store chain in JC Penney locations

Today a number of US malls are already doing business with Amazon such as renting parking lots to Amazons van fleets.

But having an indoor location would be a first for a major mall operator offering prime retail space to the e-commerce giant.

'To replace department stores, mall owners considered schools, medical offices and senior living. With the current pandemic, industrial is the only thing left now,' Camille Renshaw, the chief executive officer of B+E, a real-estate investment brokerage firm said.

Most stores at malls already run as mini-fulfillment centers to speed up the delivery of online purchases, as the pandemic temporarily suspended in-person shopping and curbside pickup became an effective alternative.

Alternatively, Amazon has also been in talks with multiple mall landlords about putting its coming grocery-store chain in JC Penney locations, one source said.

Simon and Brookfield Property Partners are putting a joint bid for JC Penny, taking over the chain to give themselves control over the store space and rights to make changes to the parking structure.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 09:49:14|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. COVID-19 cases passed a grim new milestone of 5 million on Sunday with soaring new infections, further highlighting the deep-rooted problems of U.S. society and casting doubt on Washington's behavior amid the ravaging pandemic.

The United States has registered 5,041,473 cases and 162,913 deaths as of 0000 GMT on Monday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

There are few signs that the spread is slowing down in the United States.

HUGE LOSS OF HUMAN LIFE

Even though it enjoys the greatest economic strength and one of the most advanced medical systems in the world, the United States became the hardest-hit country soon after the global outbreak of the pandemic.

Early warnings from other parts of the world did not prompt the country to take timely measures and make coordinated efforts to fight the virus.

COVID-19 has now become the leading cause of death in the United States, killing more people per day than cancer or heart disease, according to a graph published in Newsweek on April 9. The disease has killed more Americans than the Korean War, Vietnam War, War in Afghanistan and Iraq War combined.

Some U.S. politicians' disregard for human life, the deep-rooted racial inequity as well as the ever-widening wealth gap have exacerbated the dire situation.

In order to downplay the scope and danger of the pandemic, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that the United States has one of the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates in the world.

However, the reality is that the United States has a mortality rate per 100,000 higher than many other countries, including Canada, Germany, France and the Netherlands, according to a recent article published by The Hill.

"But Trump is not focused on those numbers" and he has been fixated on a figure called the case fatality rate (the percentage of people who die after contracting COVID-19) in order to confuse people and cover up the extremely high rate of deaths as a proportion of the population, according to the article.

What's more, the country's vulnerable groups, including the elderly, the poor, African Americans and Latino Americans, have borne the brunt of COVID-19 and remain most at risk.

In at least 23 U.S. states, a majority of deaths were linked to nursing homes, according to The New York Times. As of July 15, deaths in long-term care facilities accounted for more than 42 percent of the country's pandemic fatalities.

Ben Shapiro, editor-in-chief for The Daily Wire, an American right-wing news website, suggested in an interview on April 30 that old people's lives are not worth saving.

"If somebody who is 81 dies of COVID-19, that is not the same thing as somebody who is 30 dying of COVID-19 ... If grandma dies in a nursing home at age 81, that's tragic and it's terrible, also the life expectancy in the United States is 80," he said.

Minority populations have also been disproportionately hardest hit by the coronavirus in the country.

However, despite the call of public health experts to prioritize minority communities in tackling the virus, the Trump administration has not taken enough actions.

As of June 12, non-Hispanic black persons had a rate of infection of or death from the coronavirus approximately five times that of non-Hispanic white persons, while Hispanic or Latino persons had a rate approximately four times that of non-Hispanic white persons, said the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a statement on June 25.

POLITICIZATION OF PANDEMIC PREVENTION

The pandemic in the United States has provided not a platform for cooperation among politicians, but a battleground for them to grapple with each other.

As the COVID-19 cases surge across the United States, Republicans and Democrats increasingly view the disease in starkly different ways, according to a report published on June 25 by the Pew Research Center.

Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are about twice as likely as Republicans and Republican leaners to say that masks should be worn always. Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to say that masks should rarely or never be worn, according to the report.

The wide split between different political factions has not only prevented U.S. citizens from acting in accordance with the preventive guidelines, but also hindered the whole country from forming a comprehensive anti-pandemic plan.

Instead of following scientists' and public health experts' advice and listening to the voice of the masses, some U.S. politicians chose to prioritize their own political interests.

Few Americans want to see their local schools reopen for in-person instruction as usual or even with minor adjustments considering the severe COVID-19 situation, said a new poll released on July 22.

Only 8 percent of Americans say their local K-12 schools should open for in-person instruction as usual and 14 percent think schools can reopen with minor adjustments, showed the survey conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

However, Trump and his administration are pressuring schools to reopen in the fall, threatening to withhold federal funding from schools that do not comply, because reopening schools is seen as a crucial step to restarting the country's economy for his reelection campaign.

Witnessing the government's inability and bigotry in tackling the coronavirus crisis, more than 1,200 U.S. scientists have signed an open letter, accusing the Trump administration of denigrating "scientific expertise."

They also warned that "the dismissal of scientific evidence in policy formulation has affected wide areas of the social, biological, environmental and physical sciences."

"In a perfect world, this unprecedented pandemic would have been an occasion for Americans to put aside their differences and rally around the flag ... But overall, the pandemic has served to deepen polarization, and that is likely to get worse as time goes on," Francis Fukuyama, a famed political scientist, wrote in a recent article titled "The Wages of American Political Decay."

BLAME GAME

Since the onset of the pandemic, the Trump administration has been addicted to a blame game, heaping baseless accusations against China and the World Health Organization (WHO) to divert Americans' attention away from the virus.

Labeling the virus as the "China virus," the Trump administration claimed it was lab-made in Wuhan and blamed China for hiding the truth, despite the fact that China immediately briefed the WHO, the United States and other countries after it identified the COVID-19 outbreak.

On Jan. 12, China released the whole genome sequence of the coronavirus, which has proved critical for diagnosis and treatment of the disease globally.

The conspiracy theory claiming that the novel coronavirus was made in the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China has also been rejected by top scientists around the world.

Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University, said that "my judgement continues to be that (COVID-19) is consistent with a naturally occurring source," according to The Washington Post.

Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University, also told The Washington Post there is no evidence to support "the idea that this (the virus) is released deliberately or inadvertently."

Studies on the origin of the virus have overwhelmingly shown that the novel coronavirus originated naturally rather than from any institution.

The WHO, which was created to improve health globally, has also been targeted by the Trump administration.

To the astonishment of many American experts, the administration has begun to withdraw from the WHO last month, accusing it of being too close to China and having mishandled the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. move deals a blow to the fragile global cooperation on pandemic control.

France and Germany decided to quit talks on reforming the WHO because ironically, the United States, despite its decision to leave the organization, still attempts to lead the negotiations, the Reuters reported on Friday.

"Nobody wants to be dragged into a reform process and getting an outline for it from a country which itself just left the WHO," a senior European official was quoted by the report as saying.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, chief of the WHO, said on Thursday that the COVID-19 pandemic can not be defeated in a divided world, and he hopes the United States will "reconsider its position" on the decision to withdraw from the organization.

"Now it's time to work together, it's time to focus on fighting the virus. So I hope the U.S. will reconsider its position," the WHO director-general said at the Aspen Security Forum via video link. Enditem

(Xinhua writers Ma Qian and Luo Jun in Beijing also contributed to the story.)
"I know that this morning, Belarusians have awakened in a new country," opposition presidential candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya said in a postelection statement on August 10. "And I hope that [this day] will bring only good news."

Superficially, this "new country" in many ways resembles the old one -- a controversial presidential election that bore all the hallmarks of having been manipulated and falsified produced an official result of around 80 percent support for incumbent strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Angry protests were put down with brutal force, as the opposition candidate urged security forces to show restraint while refusing to accept an official tally she said did not reflect the choice voters made.

But in other ways, Belarus does indeed appear to be a new country, one in which opposition to the 65-year-old Lukashenka, who has ruled the country since 1994, is broader and more confident than ever before.

"Belarusians are in general pretty rational and cautious people, and they aren't inclined to sudden, dangerous movements," said Belarusian journalist Dzmitry Navosha, who is a co-founder of the Sports.ru website "But regarding their ability and willingness to influence the way life is organized in the country and to influence the government, fortunately, some fundamental changes have begun."

"It is interesting to discuss why this has taken so long and what was necessary to make it happen," Navosha added in an interview with RFE/RL's Russian Service. "My version is that the people who want change had to come to the realization that they are the majority.... People only gain the confidence and power to demand their rights at the moment when they form a clear majority."

The election was held against the background of a contracting economy and Lukashenka's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which he repeatedly dismissed as "mass hysteria."

Following the presidential election in 2010, Belarusian security forces cracked down brutally on an opposition demonstration in Minsk, rounding up hundreds of demonstrators and seven of the candidates whom the fractured opposition ran against Lukashenka.

Ten years later, on the night after polls closed in the August 9 election in which Lukashenka was seeking a sixth term, Belarusian security forces detained about 3,000 people, only about one-third of them in Minsk. The other detentions took place in about 33 other locations across the country, according to the Interior Ministry.

'Silent Majority'

Belarusian political analyst Artsyom Shraybman told RFE/RL's Belarus Service that there were two key differences between the current events and those of a decade ago.

"The resources of the security forces are diluted," he said. "They have had to disperse people from polling stations, and they cannot concentrate all their forces in Minsk because they need to leave assets in the regions and protect administrative buildings. As a result, the crackdown has not been focused on one location."

In addition, Shraybman said, the protesters this time around had a clearer conviction that Lukashenka did not win the election and this is a "powerful motivation."

"Now, apparently, a large number of people believe that they can change the government by taking to the streets," he concluded.

A key to this transformation has been an important shift by the opposition -- one that seems to have occurred at least in part by force of circumstances imposed by the government.

In past elections, broadly speaking, the "pro-Russian" Lukashenka has been opposed by a "pro-European" opposition that oriented itself toward Belarusian-speaking "patriots" and wrapped itself in the symbols of independent Belarus, analysts say.

But in 2020, one leading opposition figure was the barred and arrested would-be candidate Viktar Babaryka, a former head of the Russian-controlled Belgazprombank, while other leading opposition figures such as former ambassador to Washington Valer Tsapkala and Tsikhanouskaya have eschewed anti-Russian statements.

The opposition campaign was conducted almost exclusively in Russian, the most inclusive language in the country, as it is used at home by about 70 percent of the population.

"From the beginning these [opposition] candidates did not orient themselves toward the Belarusian nationalist community but oriented themselves primarily toward those who were economically and socially disenchanted with Lukashenka -- the silent majority," Warsaw-based political analyst Pavel Usov said.

Usov added that Belarus was seeing the awakening of an electorate that for a long time, either passively or actively, supported Lukashenka. It is an electorate "for whom matters of nationality and sovereignty and national symbols are not as important or immediate as questions of well-being, stability, and economic growth -- which was also the case in 1994," when voters first elected Lukashenka as a candidate of change.

This "silent majority" of Belarusians might be best symbolized by 73-year-old writer Svetlana Alexievich, who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 2015. She writes exclusively in Russian, yet draws her literary and cultural antecedents from both the Belarusian and the Russian traditions and is an outspoken advocate of Belarus's sovereignty.

"Lukashenka thought he could deceive this silent society, that he could tell tales, scare them with fear," she told RFE/RL in an interview in late July. "Nothing like that happened. A new generation has grown up [and] middle-aged people have regained consciousness. These are not the same people who existed 26 years ago when Lukashenka began to rule."

Belarusian economist and political commentator Syarhey Chaly said he was surprised by the turnout on August 9. "Many of those who came to vote this time were being politically active for the first time," he told Current Time, a Russian-language television network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. "They never voted before and never participated in any demonstrations. These were people who previously had been apolitical."

In the run-up to the August 9 vote, Lukashenka's government barred all the significant would be opposition candidates -- Babaryka, Tsapkala, and Tsikhanouskaya's popular vlogger husband, Syarhey -- from running. For the opposition, this had the salutary effect of uniting it around the candidate who was allowed to run, Tsikhanouskaya.

Moreover, the government's move -- which may have resulted from what critics charge is deep-seated sexism that prevented it from taking Tsikhanouskaya seriously -- fundamentally transformed the campaign. Tsikhanouskaya openly disavowed any pretensions to the presidency and ran essentially on one basic promise -- to hold a free and fair presidential election as soon as possible after taking office.

Instead of a traditional race between differing candidates with defined platforms, the 2020 election became a choice between having the right to choose and not having the right to choose.

"Right now we are seeing the rising up of a civic nation in which people are rejecting the idea that has long been pounded into them that 'nothing depends on us and we are no one and everything is decided from above and we are just little people,'" journalist Navosha said. "Now they are expressing their rights and demands and their desire to influence what happens in their country."

'We Are The Government'

Navosha argued that the coronavirus pandemic may have played an important role in solidifying this civic nation.

"I think the origin of this civil society was when thousands of people collected millions of dollars and created a complex logistical system to provide necessary supplies to distant rural hospitals, which the government was not doing," he said. "Essentially, they created a parallel Health Ministry, and, by the way, a significant number of those people are now working in the campaigns of the opposition candidates."

"So they ask themselves what they need such a government for," he added. "They are saying, 'We are the government and we are going to do what we want.'"

Minsk-based economist Chaly agreed, saying that the emerging situation will be perilous for Lukashenka to handle. "To be honest, I do not know what the authorities can do now," he said. "What can be done with a nation that has for the first time realized that it was victorious, and the election was simply stolen?"

The main thing that has changed since Lukashenka was able to suppress the postelection protests in 2010, Chaly added, is that "now the majority knows that they are the majority."

"They know that the election was stolen," he added. "And a return to ordinary life -- I can't imagine how that will be possible."

Written by Robert Coalson based on reporting by Yuri Drakakhrust of RFE/RL's Belarus Service, with additional reporting by RFE/RL's Belarus Service, Russian Service, and Current Time
A more recent publication of this set of statistics is available. Latest publication: New orders in manufacturing 2021, November

Published: 10 August 2020

New orders in manufacturing fell by 11.8 per cent year-on-year in June

According to Statistics Finland, the value of new orders in manufacturing was 11.8 per cent lower in June 2020 than twelve months earlier. During January to June, orders decreased by 11.3 per cent from the year before. Orders have declined continuously for six months.

Annual change in new orders in manufacturing (original series), % (TOL2008)

In June, enterprises in all manufacturing industries received fewer new orders than twelve months ago. In the metal industry, new orders decreased by 8.3 per cent from the previous year. In the chemical industry, orders declined by 11.6 per cent and in the industry of the manufacture of paper and paper board products by 22.6 per cent from one year ago.

When interpreting these statistics, it should be borne in mind that they typically show strong fluctuations by month. Even new orders of substantial value are not examined over extended time periods but for the statistical reference month only.

Change in new orders in manufacturing 6/2019 6/2020

The index of new orders in manufacturing describes development in the value of new orders received by enterprises for commodities and services that are meant to be produced by establishments located in Finland. These statistics are based on non-probability sampling, in which the basic observation unit is an enterprise or a kind-of-activity unit. The sample comprises monthly 400 to 450 enterprises or their kind-of-activity units. Index point figures and annual change percentages are published monthly for four industry categories. The time series start from January 2005 and their base year is 2015 (2015=100). The index figures may become slightly revised as new data accumulate and enterprises report changes to their data. Due to supplementations, the latest 12 months are revised in the releases. A detailed description of the statistics and the calculation method are included in the quality description on the home page of the statistics.

Source: New orders in manufacturing 2020, June. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Jussi Haavisto 029 551 3341, Maarit Makela 029 551 3324, volyymi.indeksi@stat.fi

Director in charge: Mari Yla-Jarkko

Publication in pdf-format (253.5 kB)

Updated 10.8.2020

Referencing instructions: Statistics: New orders in manufacturing [e-publication].

ISSN=1798-6737. June 2020. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 19.1.2022].

Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/teul/2020/06/teul_2020_06_2020-08-10_tie_001_en.html
NEWARK, NJ  The following news release comes courtesy of BRICK Education Network. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site.

BRICK Education Network (BEN) is among a short and impactful list of non-profit organizations based in major cities across the country chosen by global advocate against poverty and racial inequities, the Harlem Childrens Zone (HCZ), to join forces in the ongoing COVID-19 response in hard hit communities of color. The nationwide initiative is part of a $50 million COVID-19 relief and recovery effort, of which $26 million has been committed through The Audacious Project at TED.

One of six cities across the nation selected, BEN is the only partner organization in the tri-state area and Northeast region. It will receive an initial $2 million as one of HCZs partnering institutions with the goal of securing an additional $2 million to further provide COVID-19 related aid.

As the only African-American led charter management organization in New Jersey, serving students and families in Newark, BENs model, like HCZ is rooted in a holistic approach providing families with financial, food, housing, employment, medical and mental health resources and services -- through its two- generation support division, the South Ward Promise Neighborhood (SWPN).

BEN is humbled and honored to be selected by the Harlems Childrens Zone, said Dominique Lee, Founder and CEO of BEN. We directly serve over 1,800 students and their families in our schools and indirectly serve over 2,000 kids and families through neighborhood-based programming. The support from HCZ and The Audacious Project will allow us to continue doing the critical Covid relief work Newarks South Ward residents desperately need now more than ever.

BRICK Education Networks clear vision of unlocking the limitless potential of our young people by removing barriers to success resonates with me given the work we do in Harlem. COVID-19 poses one of the greatest threats to communities of color all across the nation, so we are excited to partner with BEN Founder and CEO, Dominique Lee, and the BEN team to ensure that communities in Newark are equipped with vital resources and information to tackle COVID head on, said Harlem Childrens Zone CEO Kwame Owusu-Kesse. Also assisting BEN in scaling its efforts are a distinguished group of national partners including the NAACP, StriveTogether, and PolicyLink. Together, they will leverage their collective reputations as community advocates and organizers to raise awareness and identify solutions to the racial disparities magnified during this unprecedented time.

Dont forget to visit the Patch Newark Facebook page. Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com

This article originally appeared on the Newark Patch
Since the coronavirus was first detected in China in December 2019, nearly 20 million people worldwide have become infected and over 700,000 people have died, including 160,000 in the United States. Over 32 million people in the United States are now unemployed, exceeding records which have stood since the Great Depression.

Over that same time, Amazons value on the stock market has nearly doubled from $867 billion dollars to $1.61 trillion. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos personal net worth has skyrocketed to $192 billion, including a $13 billion increase during a single day last month. This points to two interconnected processes: the devastating impact of the virus on human life on the one hand, and the engorging of the super-rich on a massive run-up in share values, driven by a massive government bailout on the other.

The first reported cases of COVID-19 at Amazon were two workers in Milan, Italy, March 1. Two days later workers in Seattle, Washington, tested positive for the virus. As time elapsed, the virus spread, infecting more and more Amazon workers, with confirmed cases in Germany, Spain, France, Poland, USA, etc.

Jeff Bezos (Photo credit: Flickr.com/jurvetson)

Amazon, which utilizes state-of-the art warehouse robots and surveillance technology, gave its workers surgical masks and gloves which were often recycled as protection from COVID-19. Warehouses were not disinfected properly, non-essential items were being shipped, workers worked in cramped conditions; inevitably, many began to show up sick.

The anger bubbling up among Amazon workers could no longer be contained and a wave of strikes washed over warehouses and delivery stations around the world in late March and April. Here is an incomplete list:

 March 17: Workers begin strike at Amazons Castel San Giovanni Warehouse in Italy

 March 18: Workers begin walkout at Amazon Piacenza Warehouse in Milan, Italy

 March 18: 250-300 workers in Saran, France

 March 30: 300 workers near Florence, Italy

 March 30: Strike in JFK8 in New York City and delivery station in Chicago

 April 1: DTW1 warehouse in Romulus Michigan

 April 20 - April 26: 300 workers called out in facilities throughout the United States

In March and April there were also strikes by Amazon workers in Spain, but the exact dates are unable to be verified. Strike action was planned by Polish workers, but this was halted by the trade unions. Trade unions for German workers began closed negotiations with Amazon, as tensions began to boil within the rank and file, and in late June more than 2,000 Amazon workers in Germany launched a two-day strike in six facilities.

For all of the Amazon workers, from American workers to workers in Germany, the role of the unions has been to contain their fighting spirit, feed illusions of reform, and ultimately tire out workers into accepting Amazons terms and conditions of employment. This fact finds clear expression in the  May Day Strike , a protest stunt manufactured by the Democratic Party, the trade unions and corporate news media like the Business Insider.

Amazon spheres in Seattle (Photo credit: Joe Mabel/Wikipedia)

The suppression of resistance by the trade unions has allowed Amazon to continue to gobble up smaller firms and expand its tentacles all over the world.

The virus has proven to be a great boon for the transnational corporation, accelerating the shift towards online shopping. Amazon dominates this market, accounting for over half of ecommerce sales in the US and 13 percent globally in 2019.

COVID-19 forced its competitors in physical retail to shut down, and sales for online shopping have sharply increased, with the company recording a 26 percent jump in first quarter revenue.

Amazon used the boost in revenue and demand to hire over 175,000 workers, and increase their investments on building capacity, tools, and services over the course of 2019 and 2020 to over $30 billion.

Even before the pandemic, the companys logistics arm was set to surpass the combined delivery volume of the United Parcel Service and FedEx by 2022. COVID-19 has accelerated this process by allowing Amazon the opportunity to purchase logistics fleets at fire-sale prices. It acquired 2,300 trucks to launch a new fleet of larger carriers in order to expand its delivery operations, for a total of over 20,000 trucks servicing North America. The company announced the leasing of 12 Boeing 767-300 converted cargo aircraft, bringing its total fleet to 82. It has built dozens of new delivery stations throughout the United States, which are staffed by Amazon Flex-Drivers, independent contractors akin to Uber drivers, who are responsible for last-mile delivery, allowing the company to fulfill and expand its free two-day shipping for Amazon Prime members.

In addition, it will add 33 new fulfillment centers this year in the US, increasing storage capacity by more than 35 million cubic feet. An average fulfillment center occupies about 1 million cubic feet, which is the equivalent of the space physically occupied by 600,000 people. A similar expansion will take place worldwide, and the company is rapidly moving forward with the expansion of its grocery business.

As its business expands, Amazon is increasing investment in labor-cutting technologies. Its planned fulfillment center in Sydney, Australia, will be its largest in the world and manned by 2,000 robots, requiring only 800 workers for maintenance. In an average warehouse in North America, about 1,600 workers are needed. Amazon has also acquired the self-driving technology company Zoox for more than $1.2 billion in June. This comes after the companys investment in electric vehicle startup Rivian and investments in Aurora Innovation, a startup focused on the development of self-driving trucks.

Amazons immense technical expertise has led it to further integrate itself into the US military and domestic surveillance apparatus, which is offering lucrative contracts to tech firms as it prepares itself for large-scale war, primarily against China and Russia, and turns towards authoritarian forms of rule to control its domestic population.

According to a report published by the nonprofit Tech Inquiry, since 2016 Amazon has agreed to more than 350 subcontracts from the military and federal enforcement agencies like the FBI and ICE.

Breana Avelar, a processing assistant, holds a sign outside the Amazon DTW1 fulfillment center in Romulus, Michigan April 1, 2020 (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

The company recently announced the establishment of a space unit called Aerospace and Satellite Solutions, led by former US Air Force Major General Clint Crosier. The unit is responsible for the development of rocket launches, human spaceflight support, robotic systems, mission control operations, space stations, satellite networks and more. Bezos Blue Origin also has a NASA contract worth $579 million.

After the 10-year Jedi Contract, which is aimed at overhauling and modernizing the US militarys internet infrastructure, was awarded to Microsoft over the frontrunner Amazon, a federal judge ordered the halting of this work in February, allowing Amazon time to present its case and potentially win the contract.

While tens of millions became unemployed due to COVID-19, with countless facing evictions and food insecurity, the US state has poured trillions of dollars into Wall Street through the Federal Reserve. Amazons growth has allowed Bezos wealth to skyrocket from about $120 billion in early February to $190 billion today.

The owners of Amazon have profited immensely during the pandemic on the exploitation of Amazon workers risking their lives. The company has been hiding infections, taking away workers temporary raises, and using the tens of millions of unemployed workers as justification for getting away with it all.

If youre an Amazon worker and want to share your comments and get in touch with us, please contact the International Amazon Workers Voice today.
Last week she urged all her fans to wear a mask, only to be awkwardly caught out without one.

But former WAG Phoebe Burgess made sure to pop on a disposable face covering for a childcare drop-off on Monday.

Phoebe set out to prove she was following her own advice as she took her two children, Poppy, three, and Billy, one, to daycare in Sydney.

Mask on! Last week she urged all her fans to wear a face mask, only to be awkwardly caught without one. But former WAG Phoebe Burgess made sure to pop on a disposable surgical mask for a childcare drop-off on Monday

The Bowral-raised beauty opted for a more casual look than normal, wearing a pair of black tights with a matching hoodie and Converse sneakers.

The Ostelin ambassador covered up from the cold with a beige trench coat, along with a $1,720 black Prada bag, which she wore as a crossbody.

Stylish: The Ostelin ambassador covered up from the cold with a beige trench coat, along with a $1,720 black Prada bag, which she wore as a crossbody

Phoebe finished the look by wearing her blonde hair tied in a messy bun and minimal makeup.

The Southern Highlands fashionista was caught in an embarrassing blunder last week when she advised NSW residents to wear a mask.

Casual: The Bowral-raised beauty opted for a more casual look than normal, wearing a pair of black tights with a matching hoodie and Converse sneakers

Later, the beauty was later stepped out noticeably without one.

Phoebe uploaded a snap of herself wearing a mask on her Instagram Stories, adding the caption: 'Staying safe... It might not be mandatory, but it's #trending. Wear yours too.'

This comes after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian issued a 'strong recommendation' for people to wear masks to avoid the spiralling coronavirus crisis, which is currently plaguing Victoria.

Mum life: Phoebe carried Poppy in her arms while walking from her white Range Rover

Masks are mandatory in Victoria following a surge of COVID-19 cases, with Premier Daniel Andrews announcing a state of disaster earlier this month.

Melbourne is gripped by Stage 4 lockdown with an 8pm curfew, schools shut down, weddings banned, and citizens restricted to a 5km radius from their home.

COVID infections continue to surge in the city, with 322 cases of coronavirus announced in the last 24 hours of testing.
Seven months into the coronavirus pandemic, more than 20 million people have been infected across the world, data from worldometers.info has revealed.

COVID19, the potentially dangerous pneumonia-like disease caused by the coronavirus and said to have emanated from a local Wuhan market to spread to over 200 countries, have also claimed over 700, 000 lives.

The latest grim milestone came on Sunday night, about five months after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus a pandemic. When made that declaration on March 11, there were 118,000 confirmed cases and 4,000 deaths.

The new tally came as the U.S. cases surpassed five million and with India registering a record 1,007 fatalities in the past 24 hours.

Four months ago on April 2, the world crossed a million cases. Thirteen days later on April 15, two million cases had been recorded and on April 22 the tally reached 2.5 million.

When the number of infections crossed 10 million on July 1, WHO head, Tedros Ghebreyesus, said the worst was yet to come. He warned that the virus would infect many more people if governments did not start to implement the right policies.

The disease has gripped Europe, the United States and Southeast Asia and is beginning to ravage Africa and South America too.

There is no vaccine yet for coronavirus and the pathogen has been mutating in its pattern of spread. A study found that deadly disease can spread through the air and remains contagious for hours.

Statistics

As of the time of filing this report, there are 20, 055, 099 confirmed cases across the globe, data from worldometers.info, an online dashboard that tracks global confirmed coronavirus cases.

The U.S. continues to lead the world in the number of confirmed cases, having about a quarter of the global tally, followed by Brazil with about three million cases and India with more than two million.

Russia is fourth with nearly 900, 000 cases while South Africa, the most impacted African country, is fifth globally with over 550, 000 infections.

READ ALSO:

There are 6,403,755 active cases as of the time of reporting. Of that number, about 6,338,949 (99 per cent) are in mild conditions while only 64,806 (one per cent) cases are in serious or critical conditions.

Meanwhile, about 12,916,783 people have recovered after treatment worldwide.

Death toll

The global deaths from coronavirus complications reached 734, 561 after India set a record of 1, 007 fatalities in the last 24 hours, data from worldometers.info showed.

Some experts believe the death toll could be higher as many people suspected of the disease die without being tested.

Countries have continued to report inadequate testing kits for potential patients of the virus.

The United States which already has the highest number of reported infections in the world 5,200,313 also has the highest death toll of about 165, 000.

There has been an uptick in fatalities in Brazil with over 100, 000 deaths so far recorded.

Africa

Despite crossing a million milestone of infections on Friday, Africa is the least affected region so far, accounting for only about five per cent of global cases.

Over 23, 000 people have died in the continent of over a billion.

These include the former Chief of Staff to Nigerias President Muhammadu Buhari; the former president of the Republic of the Congo, Jacques Joachim Yhombi-Opango; and Somalias former prime minister Nur Hassan Hussein.

The African Centre for Disease Control (ACDC) said Monday that the continent has reported 1, 047, 218 cases and 23, 253 deaths, about five times lower than the U.S. figures alone.

Significantly, a third of all infected persons  733, 375  have recovered and have been discharged after treatment.

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But while Africa is faring better compared to other regions, concerns have shifted from the daily rise of infections to the economic downturn, plummeting oil and commodity prices, and an imploding tourism sector occasioned by the restrictions put in place to contain the disease.

The virus has spread to all 54 countries in Africa, stretching already fragile healthcare systems and crippling economies.

The pandemic has triggered the continents first recession in 25 years, according to the World Bank.

Thousands of workers have been rendered redundant with several businesses closing up.

About 20 million jobs are at risk in Africa due to the impact of the contagion, according to an African Union (AU) study.

Sub-Saharan Africas biggest oil producers, Nigeria and Angola alone could lose $65 billion in income, the report indicated.

In a bid to halt the havoc on their economies, several African countries have eased lockdown measures, despite rising levels of infection and a general lack of testing capacity across the region.

Nigeria

Confirmed coronavirus infections in Nigeria have surpassed 46,000, with about 945 deaths.

Despite concerns that the virus is spreading largely undetected because of a lack of testing, government buildings have opened, as have places of worship, and travel is now permitted between states.

The authorities are also reopening schools and pubs, but parks remain closed.

Nigeria, Africas most populous country, has tested only about 320,000 of its over 200 million people.
Beirut: toll from August 4 blasts deadliest since 1983

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, AUGUST 10 - At least 220 people have been reported killed and 7,000 wounded in the August 4 explosions in Beirut, the deadliest incident in the Lebanese capital for nearly four decades. On October 23, 1983, a double suicide attack claimed by the Islamic Jihad organization, which many have identified with the then-emerging Hezbollah, killed 346 people. The majority of the victims were US soldiers (241) and French military personnel (58) who were in the country as part of an international mission deployed during the Lebanese civil war (1975-90). (ANSAmed). (ANSA).




Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 22:49:22|Editor: huaxia

Video Player Close

TEHRAN, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Monday warned against "political exploitation" from the recent explosions in Beirut.

It is "unacceptable" for various groups, individuals, and countries to use the Beirut tragedy as an excuse for their political objectives, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said during his weekly press conference on Monday.

Any judgment about the cause of the incident should be based on the results of a thorough investigation, said Mousavi.

The Iranian spokesman referred to the western sanctions on Lebanon, saying that if those countries want to help Lebanon, they should first lift the sanctions they have imposed on the Lebanese people and government.

The explosions in Beirut's port area on Tuesday left at least 158 people dead and more than 6,000 injured. Enditem
Chinese air force jets briefly crossed over the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait on Monday and were tracked by Taiwanese missiles, Taiwans government said, as US health chief Alex Azar visited the island to offer President Donald Trumps strong support.

Azar arrived in Taiwan on Sunday as the highest-level US official to visit in four decades, a trip condemned by China which claims the island as its own, further irritating Sino-US relations.

China, which had promised unspecified retaliation to Azars trip, flew J-11 and J-10 fighter aircraft briefly onto Taiwans side of the sensitive and narrow strait which separates it from its giant neighbour, at around 9 am (0100GMT), shortly before Azar met Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwans air force said.

The Chinese aircraft were tracked by land-based Taiwanese anti-aircraft missiles and were drive out by patrolling Taiwanese aircraft, the air force said in a statement released by the defence ministry.

ALSO WATCH | Amid China tension, India & Japan talk business as Delhi seeks investments

The incursion was only the third time since 2016 that Taiwan has said Chinese jets had crossed the straits median line.

Amid deteriorating relations between Washington and Beijing, the Trump administration has made strengthening its support for the democratic island a priority, and boosted arms sales.

Its a true honour to be here to convey a message of strong support and friendship from President Trump to Taiwan, Azar told Tsai in the Presidential Office, standing in front of two Taiwanese flags. Washington broke off official ties with Taipei in 1979 in favour of Beijing.

Azar is visiting to strengthen economic and public-health cooperation with Taiwan and support Taiwans international role in fighting the pandemic.

Taiwans response to COVID-19 has been among the most successful in the world, and that is a tribute to the open, transparent, democratic nature of Taiwans society and culture, he told Tsai.

Taiwans early and effective steps to fight the disease have kept its case numbers far lower than those of its neighbours, with 480 infections, including seven deaths. Most cases have been imported.

The United States, which has had more coronavirus cases and deaths than any other country, has repeatedly clashed with China over the pandemic, accusing Beijing of lacking transparency.

Tsai told Azar his visit represented a huge step forward in anti-pandemic collaborations between our countries, mentioning areas of cooperation including vaccine and drug research and production.

Taiwan has been particularly grateful for US support to permit its attendance at the World Health Organizations (WHO) decision-making body the World Health Assembly, and to allow it greater access to the organisation.

Taiwan is not a member of the WHO due to Chinas objections, which considers it a Chinese province.

Id like to reiterate that political considerations should never take precedence over the rights to health. The decision to bar Taiwan from participating in the WHA is a violation of the universal rights to health, Tsai said.
Co Armagh man Aaron Brady has been found guilty of carrying out the credit union robbery in which Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe was shot dead over seven years ago.

The accused is on trial charged with capital murder and robbery at Lordship credit union on January 25, 2013.

It is the prosecution's case that the accused fired the fatal shot which killed Adrian Donohoe (41) during the armed raid.

Brady (29), of New Road in Crossmaglen, denies this and says he was moving laundered diesel waste cubes at a yard in Cullaville, south Armagh, at the time of the robbery.

This afternoon the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict on the second count of robbery.

They have been deliberating for nearly 13 hours.

Mr Justice Michael White instructed the jury that they can continue deliberating on the charge of capital murder and that he will accept a majority verdict.

The jury were asked to return on Tuesday morning to continue their deliberations.
Belarus main opposition candidate has rejected the official result of the presidential election that handed a landslide victory to the countrys authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday, hours after security forces violently crackdown on protests who had challenge the result.

There were chaotic scenes in Belarus capital Minsk Sunday night, as hundreds of riot police and interior ministry troops used armored vehicles, stun grenades and rubber bullets against thousands of demonstrators protesting the election.

Dozens of protesters were injured, at least one seriously, while authorities said around 3,000 people were detained.

Protests break out across Belarus following contested election as police crack down on demonstrators

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the key opposition challenger to Lukashenko, told a press conference Monday morning that the vote had seen massive fabrication and that she was the winner of the election.

We dont recognize the results of the election. We have seen the real ballot results. We call on those who believe that their vote has been stolen not to keep silent, Tikhanovskaya said.

PHOTO: MINSK, BELARUS - AUGUST 09: Protesters and riot police clash during a protest against Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's claim of a landslide victory on August 9, 2020 in Minsk, Belarus. (Misha Friedman/Getty Images)

She called on authorities now to hold negotiations for the peaceful transfer of power and her campaign said they would seek to use all legal means to have the result reassessed.

The government aren't listening to us, it has completely broken with the people, but I should repeat that we are for peaceful transitions and the government ought to think about now how to handover power through peaceful means, because at the moment they only have one way -- violence against their own people, Tikhanovskaya said according to the local Belarus news outlet, Tut.by

Tikhanovskaya stopped short of calling explicitly for more protests, but other opposition social media channels urged people to join a new demonstration on Monday evening in Minsk.

In the posts, people were urged to buy helmets and other protective gear from building supplies stores, as well as first aid equipment, in anticipation of fresh violence from the police.

Story continues

The posts also called for a national strike to begin on Tuesday with the demand that fresh elections be held without Lukashenko.

Belarus central elections commission on Monday said preliminary results showed Lukashenko received a huge 80.24% of the vote, with Tikhanovskaya receiving just 9%.

Tikhanovskaya has become the head of a swelling protest movement in Belarus that, before the election, attracted the biggest political demonstrations in the country since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The protests has meant the election this year is seen as the biggest challenge Lukashenko-- often referred to as 'Europe's Last Dictator"-- has faced in his 26 year-rule.

PHOTO: Demonstrators rally after the Belarusian presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, late Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020. (AP)

Tikhanovskayas supporters, as well as most outside observers, believe the election saw widespread ballot rigging.

Tikhanovskayas campaign has claimed ballots checked at polling stations in Minsk show her winning in reality by five to six times against Lukashenko. They also pointed to a record number of early votes -- 40% of voters -- as suggesting there had been massive falsification.

'Europe's last dictator' up for reelection, faces unprecedented challenge to his rule

Lukashenko on Monday immediately dismissed the idea of any negotiations with the opposition and was unapologetic about the crackdown on demonstrators.

I warned there wont be a Maidan, no matter who wanted it, Lukashenko said, according to Belarus' state news agency, referring to Ukraines popular revolution in 2014 that toppled an autocratic president. And so it has to be quietened down, to be calmed down. The response will be adequate. We will not allow them to blow up the country.

Lukashenko accused demonstrators of deliberately provoking police and accused several European countries of directing the opposition. He said the election on Sunday had meant to be a holiday.

You understand, its a holiday. And somebody wanted to spoil this holiday. We saw them -- they showed themselves ever brighter this night. From Poland, Britain, the Czech Republic, there were calls, directing our, forgive me, our sheep, Lukashenko said.

The European Union expressed concerns about the situation in Belarus. The European Councils president Charles Michel wrote on Twitter calling on Belarus authorities to respect freedom of assembly and basic human rights. Polands prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki called for an emergency EU summit to be held on the situation.

Lukashenkos re-election was quickly recognized by China and by Belarus key ally Russia. President Vladimir Putin was among the first to send a message to Lukashenko congratulating him on his victory. Relations between the Kremlin and Lukashenko have been strained recently, as the Belarusian leader has turned more towards Western countries as a counter balance to a more overbearing Russia.

Lukashenko had improved relations with Europe and in particular the United States after being a pariah for years following another crackdown after a presidential election in 2010. The U.S. restored diplomatic relations with Belarus last year and an American ambassador was due to arrive soon in Minsk for the first time in a decade.

The new crackdown and allegations of a stolen election could now pose a challenge to that rapprochement.

PHOTO: Presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya casts her ballot at a polling station during the presidential election in Minsk on August 9, 2020. (Sergei Gapon/AFP via Getty Images)

Some analysts had thought the Kremlin might remain distant from Lukashenko during any political crisis, frustrated by his recent refusal to accept greater integration with Russia.

Putins swift congratulations, however, suggested Moscow has no interest in seeing him pushed from power by protests, although Putins message also emphasized the Russian president's hope that Lukashenko would now facilitate greater integration in all spheres between the two countries.

Lukashenko cracked down harshly on opposition protests following an election in 2010, jailing key opponents and violently dispersing street protests. Observers though have said the scale of popular dissent this year is significantly larger than then.

Tikhanovskaya, who spent election day an undisclosed location over fears she might be arrested, has stopped short of calling for fresh demonstrations yet and it was unclear whether she would join those planned on Monday.

The internet in Belarus, which was partly shutdown on Sunday, was still greatly slowed down on Monday making communications difficult.

Another of her allies, Veronika Tsepkalo on Sunday left to Moscow where her husband, another opposition leader, Valery Tsepkalo was already in self-exile with their children. She has said she would return to Belarus.

Belarus opposition rejects election results amid calls for more protests originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Rape and related sexual violence happen every day in many parts of Nigeria. But it is more prevalent in environments where structures needed for the protection of the victims are missing. Places like camps for persons displaced by Boko Haram or any other kind of conflict leave the female-child particularly more vulnerable to rape.

In the past years, there have been rising concerns over the spike of rape and related sexual violence on female inmates of internally-displaced persons (IDPs) camps as well as those living outside the camps.

Teenage and underage girls are daily abused but hardly do the survivors or their families speak out. The society they live in would instead pressure survivors not to press for charges, or the parents would rather keep quiet to protect the dignity of the girl-child growing up. Many would instead look unto God for justice because they could not afford the process of litigation. As such, most of such cases die at the police station.

Fatima, 16, is the mother of a one-year-old son. She was barely 14 when she was raped and became pregnant. Even at 16, she is still too young to nurse the child, Adamu.

As she spoke to the PREMIUM TIMES reporter, her son sat on her laps. She struggled to hold onto Adamu, who kept jumping and giggling as he fondled his little mothers face and attempted to pull off the veil covering her head.

I dont know where his father is at present; I havent seen him for over two years now, she said with her sad face looking down.

Muhammadu is the father of Adamu, but he is not my husband  he can never be my husband because he raped me.

He did not only rape me; he also asked four of his friends to strip me naked, held my hands and my legs while he forced himself on me and defiled me, she said in tears.

Not a stranger

Muhammadu, the young man, whose surname Fatima does not know, was not a stranger to her. The two of them were internally displaced persons from Bama, one of the local government areas worst affected by the Boko Haram insurgency. When the outlawed armed Islamic militia rained terror on various communities about four years ago, the entire town of Bama, which is the headquarters of Bama local government, and its surrounding communities were sacked. The residents fled to Maiduguri, the state capital.

Most of the IDPs who survived the Boko Haram carnage of 2016 took refuge in Bakasi 1 and Bakasi 2 IDP camps located on the outskirts of Maiduguri along Bama road. It was at the IDP camp that Muhammadu met Fatima, an orphan whose parents died in an attack by Boko Haram. She was living with a maternal aunt in Bakasi Camp when Muhammadu began to make love advances towards her.

Amina Alhassan [PHOTO CREDIT: Premium Times  Abdulkareem Haruna]

Since when I was 14 years old, he said he wanted to marry me. I developed affection towards him, and we later became friends, she said.

Every evening Fatima, in spite of her age, would quickly finish her chores, take her bath, put on some makeup, and wait for Muhammadu to come lurking around the dark corner behind their house.

Maintaining a distance, they would chat romantically about their future as spouses. Sometimes, Muhammadu would bring her little gifts like roasted meat, sweets, and other snacks. Sometimes he would give her some money.

He wanted to marry me and I looked forward to being his wife, she said.

As tradition demands, there would be no sexual relationship until he paid her dowry.

But her aunt did not approve of their relationship.

When Muhammdu made his intention known to my aunt and her husband, my aunt said it would never happen. When Muhammadus relatives came to see the husband of my aunt to ask for my hands in marriage, the husband told them he had no say in such matters, that my aunt, his wife, should be the one to be consulted.

When they approached my aunt with the matter, she told them bluntly that she wont give her daughter to a Kanuri person  because she felt those who killed my parents were Kanuris.

But Muhammad kept sending emissaries to ask for my hands in marriage, and my aunt kept turning them back.

So after the third attempt, Muhammadu became angry and mobilised some boys to pelt stones into our apartment in protest against my guardians not letting him marry me.

Days later, I started hearing though some of his friends that he threatened that he wouldnt spare me should he lay his hands on me. He threatened that he would either beat me up or abduct me. For that reason, I became scared. I had to stop going out of our house.

But one evening, when I ventured out to fetch water for my aunt, Muhammadu attacked me. I never knew he had been monitoring my movement.

Muhammadu and some of his friends grabbed me and dragged me to a dark place and he forced himself on me while others were holding my hands and my legs.

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After raping me, they all left me crying on the floor and ran away. Some days later, Muhammadu called me on the phone to tell me that he knew he had left something inside me and that no matter how long it takes, he was coming back to get what belonged to him; or I will look for him to give him what belonged to him.

He said he had fled to Lagos. It was some months later that I discovered I was pregnant.

Fatima said her love and affection vanished the moment Muhammadus friends began to drag her, ripping off her clothes.

Betrayed Love

The teenage girl recounted how she once loved the rapist who impregnated her.

Before he raped me, I was in love with him; but each time he came around our house, my aunt would beat me up for going out to see him. Despite the beatings from my aunt, I still loved Muhammadu, because he repeatedly told me he would make me happy and play the role of my dead parents for me. I never knew he was lying to me all the while. I never knew he is as bad as Boko Haram, she said.

Fatima had told Muhammadu how Boko Haram forced her and her stepsisters and their mother to watch them kill their father.

I told Muhammadu all that he needed to know about my family; I told him how my mother died in an earlier attack by Boko Haram; and also told him how Boko Haram returned to attack our town; and how my father, who was hiding with us in the house, was dragged out and taken to the backyard of our home; and how the Boko Haram gunmen told him to dig his own grave after which they ordered him to lay inside the shallow grave he dug, and they shot him dead.

I told Muhammadu how the gunmen told my little sisters and me to bury our father by covering up the grave with sand.

We cried, but they threatened to kill us if we didnt bury him with the sand. So we tried our best to cover up the grave before they left our house. Our stepmother was sick and not mentally stable; so I had to lead them to a neighbours house who said he too was about to leave the town and he asked us to join them. But as we waited for him to drive out his car, the Boko Haram gunmen shot him dead too.

Rampant abuse

Her guardian mother refused to accept her with her pregnancy. Hence they left the camp without her. She struggled alone with the pregnancy and delivered her son all by herself.

A womens rights activist, Hamsatu Allamin, got to hear the story of Fatima. Having listened to her story, Mrs Alamin who runs a foundation that fights for justice for women whose husbands remained missing after being arrested by soldiers as Boko Haram suspects, decided to adopt Fatima and her son.

Mrs Hamsatu Allamin [PHOTO CREDIT: Premium Times  Abdulkareem Haruna]

According to Mrs Alamin, Fatima is a courageous child who dared the odds to come out and share her story.

There are hundreds of cases of rape survivors who would rather remain silent and continue to suffer the trauma of being raped than to come out to face the shame of the society knowing that someone had raped them, she said.

Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES in Maiduguri, Mrs Allamin said she had lost count of reported cases of women, girls and especially minors who were raped.

In the camps, the case is a pathetic situation; it happens every day, and people dont come out to say it, she said.

It is an appalling situation in the IDP camps; people dont say it, but for us who work there and in some host communities, we do hear and witness a lot of cases of abuse, especially of young girls and minors.

Little girls in an IDP camp [PHOTO CREDIT: Premium Times  Abdulkareem Haruna]

In 2014, we had to insist that males and females be separated when the first batch of IDP arrived Maiduguri because the cases of rape became so wild.

I recall that we took the women to Yerwa Government Secondary School, where they stayed for some time. Because at that time, women and girls dared not come out even at night to ease themselves  they would be raped.

And by the time IDPs came to overwhelm the city of Maiduguri, we had thousands of women who are either widows or spinsters and teenage as well as under-aged girls wandering the streets in a very vulnerable manner, begging for alms and offering to do anything to feed. People take advantage of them, either using money or food to seduce them or even carry out raping and other sexual abuses.

In most of the cases, you see parents feigning ignorance to the abuses faced by their children; you see a mother who cannot stand the shame of telling the world that her child was raped by an adult or officials saddled with the responsibility of taking care of the IDPs.

Mrs Alamin recalled how a local government chairman from Northern Borno told her, most disturbingly, that at a single camp, they have over 300 pregnant women and girls and the majority of them got pregnant because they were either raped or induced to have sex.

Women in Borno IDP camp [PHOTO CREDIT: Premium Times  Abdulkareem Haruna]

Mrs Allamin said many unwanted babies were found abandoned in the refuse dumps or near the public toilets.

Each time we try to find out, we discover that most of these unprepared mothers had their pregnancies as a result of being raped. We have cases of girls who said they dont want the babies because they were gang-raped; as such, they could not say who the father of the child would be.

I have a case of a 15 years old rape survivor. The girl was one of the unaccompanied children who arrived at the camp after their community was attacked and displaced by Boko Haram.

An officer of the Nigeria police mobile force who was working in the camp, took her into his custody, pretending to be providing for her until he impregnated her. The girl, at such a tender age, suffered from the pregnancy. She had delivered the baby, a boy, and he is almost a year old now.

We reported the case at the state headquarters, but before the baby clocked two months, the police transferred the officer out of Borno State. We dont know where the officer is right now, but the girl is now with her child and every day she vents her anger and frustration on the poor child.

Not only girls, even adult women too

Mrs Alamin recalled the story of a woman whose brother-in-law, a Boko Haram member, killed her husband and her father-in-law and then took her two sons away to the forest.

The woman, out of love for her children, dared all consequences and followed her children into the woods, she said.

There, after a series of sexual abuses, one of the insurgents married her. She still did not find her children. The man who forced her to be his wife told her he knew her children were in Timbuktu forest, and he promised to bring them back to her if she would remain his wife. She obliged, and the man went to the Timbuktu and came back with the boys after spending about three weeks.

The woman took advantage of a military raid on the camp to escape with her children to Maiduguri.

The woman underwent a series of post-trauma counselling and medical checks during which they diagnose her to be HIV positive.

Despite her medical condition and for the fact that the lady is beautiful and one who takes care of her body, a member of the Civilian-JTF in charge of that camp, who also is HIV positive came out to say he wanted to marry her. He deceived her and got her pregnant again. After discovering that she was pregnant, the man ran and abandoned her.

She was later taken in by the Alamin Foundation where she continued to get the supports she needed until delivered.

We have many cases of children raped, but sadly their parents wont allow them to have undue publicity because they fear the consequences that come in the form of rejection, stigma in the society.

(Support for this report was provided by Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism with funding support from Free Press Unlimited.)
200 Hong Kong Police Officers Raid Local Newsroom Following Jimmy Lai Arrest

Hong Kong sees threats to its free press

A mass crowd of about 200 police officers swept through the newsroom of Apple Daily, a Hong Kong media known for its critical coverage of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Hong Kong government. The owner of Apple Daily is media mogul Jimmy Lai, an outspoken pro-democracy activist in Hong Kong. The raid immediately followed his arrest on Monday morning.

Can you imagine the newsrooms of @nytimes or @guardian encounter something like this? After HK police arrested @JimmyLaiApple, hundreds of police were sent to Apple Daily office without the search warrant. pic.twitter.com/mia12rSYyP  Joshua Wong   (@joshuawongcf) August 10, 2020

Apple Daily live streamed a mass squadron of police officers marching into Apple Dailys headquarters in southeastern Hong Kong. The livestream showed police sifting through files on desks, lining up staff for identification, and searching through the newsroom.

Apples live video also revealed a handcuffed Jimmy Lai being walked through the office by police officers after being arrested at his home. He was charged on suspicion of collusion with a foreign country or external elements to endanger Chinas national security, according to a statement released by the Hong Kong Police force.

At least 18 Police vans were counted at the entrance of Apple Dailys headquarters during the raid in photos by RTHK, Hong Kongs public broadcaster.

The Police entered and searched a building in Tseung Kwan O in accordance with a warrant issued by a magistrate to gather evidence for offenses related to national security, a police statement announced on Facebook.

It remains unclear what exact actions prompted the police to raid Apple Dailys newsroom or charge its owner for collusion with external forces.

Police Action Threatens Hong Kongs Free Press

Reports have also surfaced of Hong Kongs police blocking media outlets from reporting from the scene of the raid.

In a video captured by local broadcaster RTHK, a police representative explained that they only permit reporter from media that havent hindered police operations in the past to enter the premises.

The barred media included Reuters, AFP, Associated Press (AP), NowTV, Initium Media, Stand News, and inmediahk, according to reports by the journalists from respective media organizations.

During this time, Li Kwai-wah, the senior superintendent of the National Security Department briefed the media on Lais arrest and the raid of Apple Dailys offices. Barred media were unable to directly report his comments. Some reporters who were allowed to stream his press conference were barred from asking any questions.

In his statement, Li said that the police would refrain from searching news-related materials in Apple Dailys headquarters. But his statement was at odds with Apple Dailys livestream, in which police officers were seen searching the desks of reporters in the newsroom.

The police have not yet responded to The Epoch Times request for comment.

Mondays events have raised widespread concern about the state of press freedom in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Journalists Association Chair Chris Yeung said the police search was horrendous in a statement at the scene of the raid, calling on the citys journalists to prepare for the worst.

I think somewhere in third-world countries, we might expect such suppression of press freedom. I just didnt expect it to be in Hong Kong, he said.

International Outcry

When asked about Lais arrest, Taiwans Premier Su Tseng-chang told reporters, China should not treat Hong Kong this way. We still urge the Chinese government to keep its promise and respect Hong Kongs democracy and freedom.

The raid and Lais arrest follow months of international concern after the CCP enacted sweeping national security laws for the former British colony. Critics worry that the laws give way for the CCP to crackdown on Hongkongers freedoms after a year of tumultuous protests borne out of anger at the government.

On July 30, the government disqualified more than a dozen pro-democracy candidates from running in election. A day later, the citys chief executive Carrie Lam postponed the upcoming legislative elections for a year, citing COVID-19 concerns.

U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo declared that the United States will not stand idly by while China swallows Hong Kong.

On Sunday, the United States joined Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom in a joint statement condemning the Hong Kong governments handling of its local elections. The statement called on Hong Kong to reinstate disqualified candidates and hold the elections as soon as possible to Sept. 6.

We express deep concern at Beijings imposition of the new national security law, which is eroding the Hong Kong peoples fundamental rights and liberties, the statement read.

This article has been updated with the latest information.
Tehran, Aug 11 : Iran's Foreign Ministry warned against "political exploitation" from the recent explosions in Beirut.

It is "unacceptable" for various groups, individuals, and countries to use the Beirut tragedy as an excuse for their political objectives, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said during his weekly press conference on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Any judgment about the cause of the incident should be based on the results of a thorough investigation, said Mousavi.

The Iranian spokesman referred to the western sanctions on Lebanon, saying that if those countries want to help Lebanon, they should first lift the sanctions they have imposed on the Lebanese people and government.

The explosions in Beirut's port area on Tuesday left at least 158 people dead and more than 6,000 injured.
The United States on Sunday reached the extraordinary milestone of five million coronavirus cases as President Donald Trump was accused of flouting the constitution by unilaterally extending a virus relief package.

The US has been hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic, recording nearly 163,000 deaths -- by far the highest of any country, ahead only of Brazil, which on Saturday became the second country to pass 100,000 deaths.

The global death toll is at least 727,288 since the novel coronavirus emerged in China last December, according to a running tally from official sources compiled by AFP.

Nearly 20 million cases have been registered worldwide -- probably reflecting only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

As around much of the globe, the small African country of Malawi on Sunday imposed tight social restrictions to try to contain the disease, shutting all bars and churches, while hot weekend weather drew crowds in Europe to the beach.

In Washington, the new virus relief package -- announced by Trump on Saturday after talks between Republican and Democrat lawmakers hit a wall -- was "absurdly unconstitutional," senior Democrat Nancy Pelosi told CNN.

Fellow Democrat and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, appearing on ABC, dismissed Trump's unilateral measures as "unworkable, weak and far too narrow."

But with the nation's economy still struggling to dig itself out of an enormous hole, Democrats appeared skittish about any legal challenge to a relief package they see as seriously inadequate.

The four executive orders Trump signed Saturday at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey will, among other things, defer payroll taxes and provide some temporary unemployment benefits.

The president was seen as keen to show himself taking decisive action ahead of a November 3 election that could see him ousted from office, with polls showing a large majority of voters unhappy with his handling of the crisis.

On Sunday night, Trump blamed what he called Democratic stubbornness for his being forced to take executive action.

"The Democrats were unwilling to do anything," Trump told reporters as he boarded Air Force One to return to Washington.

"It was time to act," he said. "We have to get money out to the people."

- Summer crowds -

Democrats say the president's orders infringe on Congress's constitutional authority over the federal budget.

But Pelosi demurred when asked about possible legal action, saying, "Whether (it was) legal or not takes time to figure out."

White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow defended the new measures.

"Maybe we're going to go to court on them. We're going to go ahead with our actions anyway," he said.

Trump's Democratic opponent in the presidential election, Joe Biden, tweeted that five million coronavirus cases was "a number that boggles the mind and breaks the heart.

"It shouldn't have gotten this bad," he said.

The US on Sunday had added 47,197 new cases in 24 hours, with 532 additional deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

US fatalities now total 162,913, and the number of infections is 5,041,473, the Baltimore-based university said.

Elsewhere, growing infections in and around Paris prompted French officials to make face masks compulsory outdoors in crowded areas and tourist hotspots in the city and surrounding areas from Monday.

The mask will be obligatory for all those aged 11 and over in "very crowded zones," said a police statement, including the banks of the Seine River and more than 100 streets in the French capital.

As temperatures soared across western Europe, holidaymakers crowded beaches at the weekend despite warnings about the risk of infection.

Local authorities in Germany warned that some beaches and lakes would be closed if there were too many people.

Belgian police meanwhile arrested several people Saturday at the resort of Blankenberge after a brawl broke out on a beach between officers and youths they had told to leave for refusing to respect virus safety measures.

Around 5,000 people demonstrated in Vienna for increased financial support for nightlife and relaxing coronavirus regulations.

In Peru, indigenous people armed with spears and angry over what they consider government neglect of their communities in the pandemic assaulted a settlement for oil workers deep in the Amazon, triggering a clash with police that left three natives dead, the government said Sunday.

Back in the US, in another burst of defiance over health warnings, thousands of bikers converged on a town in South Dakota for what is billed as the largest cycle gathering in the world.

In past years, the 10-day rally in Sturgis has drawn hundreds of thousands of bikers to socialize, drink and party together -- raising fears among some locals that this year's version could be a superspreader event.

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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Fears of an ecological catastrophe keep mounting despite massive local clean-up operation under way in island nation.

A Japanese ship that ran aground on a reef off Mauritius two weeks ago has now stopped leaking oil into the Indian Ocean, but the island nation must still prepare for a worst-case scenario, Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said late on Monday.

Conservationists said they were starting to find dead fish as well as seabirds covered in oil, increasing fears of an ecological catastrophe despite a massive local clean-up operation that includes making floating booms from leaves and human hair.

Jugnauth said the leak from a damaged oil tank on board the stricken vessel, the MV Wakashio, had stopped but that the ship still had 2,000 tonnes of oil in two other, undamaged tanks.

The salvage team has observed several cracks in the ship hull, which means that we are facing a very serious situation, Jugnauth said in a televised speech, parts of which were made available to Reuters news agency by his office.

We should prepare for a worst-case scenario. It is clear that at some point the ship will fall apart.

Mauritius has declared a state of emergency and former colonial ruler France has sent aid in what environmental group Greenpeace said could be a major ecological crisis. Japan has also sent help.

Tourism is a major contributor to the Mauritius economy, generating 63 billion rupees ($1.6bn) last year.

Local volunteers make absorbent barriers of straw stuffed into fabric sacks to contain oil from the MV Wakashio tanker [Laura Morosoli/EPA]

We are starting to see dead fish. We are starting to see animals like crabs covered in oil, we are starting to see seabirds covered in oil, including some which could not be rescued, said Vikash Tatayah, conservation director at the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, a nongovernmental organisation.

The nearby Blue Bay Marine Park, known for its corals and myriad fish species, has so far escaped damage, but a lagoon containing an island nature reserve, the Ile aux Aigrettes, is already covered in oil, he said.

At least 1,000 tonnes of oil is estimated to have leaked so far, with 500 tonnes salvaged.

Mauritians are making booms out of sugar cane leaves, plastic bottles and hair that people are voluntarily cutting off and floating them on the sea to prevent the oil spill spreading, island resident Romina Tello told Reuters.

Hair absorbs oil but not water, Tello, founder of Mauritius Conscious, an eco-tourism agency, said by phone.

Videos posted online showed volunteers sewing leaves and hair into nets to float on the surface and corral the oil until it can be sucked up by hoses.

Deep apology

A spokesman at Mitsui OSK Lines, which operates the MV Wakashio, owned by another Japanese company, Nagashiki Shipping, told AFP news agency it would send a team of experts as soon as Tuesday if they tested negative for coronavirus.

Nagashiki Shipping deeply apologise to the people of Mauritius and will do their utmost protect the environment and mitigate the effects of the pollution, the Wakashios owner said in a statement Monday.

Police are expected to take statements from the captain and crew of the Wakashio after launching an investigation. Detectives boarded the ship on Sunday and seized the log book and black box.

Pressure is mounting on the government to explain why more was not done in the two weeks since the vessel ran aground.

Mauritius and its 1.3 million inhabitants depend crucially on the sea for food and eco-tourism, having fostered the countrys reputation as a conservation success story and a world-class destination for nature lovers.

The spill is a double blow for tourist operators who had hoped foreign tourists could soon return.

The Indian Ocean nation has no active cases of coronavirus and had declared a wary victory after a long stretch without any new infections, but its borders remain closed.
Justice Democrats, the progressive political action committee with a track record of helping to unseat longtime incumbent Democrats, still lists Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse among its supported candidates as of Monday morning, a day after Morse pledged to continue his primary fight against U.S. Rep. Richard Neal amid allegations he engaged in inappropriate relationships with college students.

The national progressive group, which helped elect U.S. Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, endorsed Morse a year ago. According to the Center for Responsive Politics OpenSecrets.org, Justice Democrats spent at least $100,000 supporting Morses congressional run, including a positive TV ad posted to the groups YouTube page five days ago.

Morse, 31, was elected the youngest and first openly gay mayor of the city nine years ago. He has challenged Neal on corporate donors and is advancing a progressive agenda including Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.

He has faced backlash since the College Democrats of Massachusetts and its chapters at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Amherst College released a letter last week alleging that he used his position of power for romantic or sexual gain, including sexual relationships with students at UMass and other schools in the Five College Consortium.

Morse says the relationships were consensual and that he did not violate any university policies.

Two Holyoke city councilors have called for Morses resignation, and another called on Morse to take an unpaid leave of absence as the University of Massachusetts Amherst reviews whether his actions while a lecturer violated federal Title IX laws on sexual discrimination and harassment.

Justice Democrats did not respond to requests for comment. Hes the third challenger candidate featured on the groups website.

Another progressive political action committee, Fight Corporate Monopolies, has spent $300,000 running ads against Neal, but on Sunday evening the group told MassLive it does not endorse candidates.

According to allegations first reported by the Massachusetts Daily Collegian, Morse, who teaches political science at UMass, matched with students as young as 18 on dating apps like Tinder and Grindr. The college groups did not outline a timeline of the allegations or detail how many students had relationships with Morse, or if any of them had taken his class.

The UMass College Democrats announced that they disinvited Morse from future events. The university said it has no plans to rehire Morse, who is not a current employee but served as an adjunct instructor in urban government and politics, teaching the course between 2014 and fall 2019.

In a statement a few days ago, Morse apologized and said he needs to be more mindful of his own position of power.

In another statement released Sunday and posted on Morses Twitter account, Morse pledged to stay in the race but acknowledged that supporters and endorsers may have legitimate concerns about these allegations, and I understand if they feel the need to rescind their support.

Morse went on to say that he never used his position of power, either in politics or as a lecturer, for romantic or sexual gain or to take advantage of students.

I have never used my position of power as Mayor and UMass lecturer for romantic or sexual gain, or to take advantage of students, he said. I have never violated UMass policy. Any claim to the contrary is false. As Ive acknowledged, I have had consensual relationships with other men, including students enrolled at local universities that Ive met using dating apps.

My statement on the last 48 hours. pic.twitter.com/2RU5ht6jZ8  Alex Morse (@AlexBMorse) August 10, 2020

The College Democrats of Massachusetts said Sunday neither Neal nor his campaign  nor anyone affiliated with the Morse campaign  had orchestrated the release of the letter with the allegations.

Related Content:
Clash at Pro-Police Rally in Colorado Leads to 3 Arrests

Three people were arrested and another was cited after fights broke out during a pro-police rally in Colorado over the weekend, authorities said.

Police supporters and counter protesters gathered in Fort Collins on Aug. 8. Some time later, physical disturbances broke out between members of the different groups, the Fort Collins Police Department said in a statement.

Video footage captured at the scene showed the groups facing off, shouting expletives at each other. The pro-police group appeared to be forcing the other group, which was clad in Antifa-like clothes, from a cul-de-sac.

We are currently marching the Antifa commie [expletive] out of the neighborhood, the man filming said.

At one point, about a dozen people started scuffling in a drainage ditch. One man carrying an American flag used it to stab a black-clad man, while others shouted that one of the counter-protesters was using a knife.

About 2 minutes later, police officers pulled up in cruisers and sprinted over; they made several arrests.

Its important to know that there were active aggressors on both sides, Fort Collins Police Chief Jeff Swoboda said in a video statement.

It wasnt clear which groups the demonstrators were affiliated with.

A 25-year-old woman was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest; a 42-year-old man was arrested for disorderly conduct; and a 37-year-old man was arrested for disorderly conduct and possession of an illegal weapon. A 42-year-old man was cited for criminal tampering.

Some people who had been fighting left the scene before police arrived.

Police officials are reviewing video and working to identify those people. They asked the public to contact the department with any information.

In a separate statement, Swoboda said officials respect peoples right to peacefully assemble.

Truly supporting a cause means representing its values. Committing crimes in our community is not a way to support the police. We stand for safety, period. We want all of our community members to feel safe here in Fort Collins and we reject any form of hate, he said.
In an exceptionally close election, especially one that's likely to be rife with fraud, every vote truly counts. That's why it's disheartening, as a Trump-supporter, to see conservatives refuse to support Trump because they find his persona off-putting. This sentiment is especially strong among evangelical Christians because Trump's personal life for so long fell short of traditional Christian moral principles.

Wayne Grudem, the distinguished research professor of theology and biblical studies at Phoenix Seminary in Arizona, apparently got an earful from a friend who believes that one cannot be a faithful Christian and support Trump. Grudem wrote his friend a letter explaining how it's entirely possible to support Trump without abandoning one's faith. And then, thankfully, he published the letter (minus personal details) at Townhall.

"Letter to an Anti-Trump Christian Friend" is a detailed, but still easy to read, defense of Trump as the most conservative president in a generation. Grudem opens his letter by explaining that people cannot attack Trump's personality and morals while insisting that his politics and policies are irrelevant to their hostility to him.

In fact, says Grudem, Trump's policies are the most important thing. His private life may have been unsavory, but nothing he did crossed the line that would make it impossible for him to serve the nation. It's Trump's policies that matter, and Grudem, a Republican beginning in 1964 when he read Phyllis Schlafly's A Choice, Not an Echo, says Trump's policies are good for America.

At a religious level, Grudem argues that Christians have a duty to the country in which they live, and that duty is to influence the world for good. While Christians cannot intentionally sin to achieve their goals, they can support political candidates whose policies benefit all Americans and who help create a nation consistent with Grudem's values  and they can do so even if the candidate, as is the case with Trump, is an imperfect human being.

To my mind, the most crucial point Grudem makes is that there is no perfect candidate on the ballot. Instead, the candidates present package deals:

The question now facing the nation is not, "Does Donald Trump have an exemplary moral character?" or, "Does Donald Trump have flaws?" or even, "Do I like Donald Trump?" The question is, "Which of two package deals is better for the nation?" (a) Donald Trump and Republican policies or (b) Joe Biden and Democratic policies? There are no other choices. The nation will either have the option (a) or option (b) as a whole package for at least the next four years, and probably longer. If I withhold support from Trump, that makes it easier for Biden to win, and thereby for Democratic policies to bring (in my opinion) great destructiveness to the nation (more specifics below.) In making a choice between package (a) and package (b), questions about a candidate's character of course are relevant. But, to my mind, the question is not, "Does Donald Trump have flaws?" but rather, "Is Donald Trump so clearly unsuited to be president that our only valid choice is to accept package (b) and the great damage to the nation that (in my opinion) will flow from Joe Biden and Democratic policies?" When I ask the question in that way, the answer is clearly No, and it isn't even close. Package (a) is far preferable.

Nor is a third-party vote an option because it doesn't erase the reality of Package A and Package B. If you don't want Biden and the Democrats, you must vote for Trump and the Republicans.

Grudem also addresses the fact that people think that, in his second term, Trump will suddenly go wild and crazy as president. He points out, first, that Trump's popular support would collapse. Without that support, he cannot govern. Next, Grudem notes that every paranoid fantasy in the lead-up to Trump's first term has failed to be realized. (The same can be said for the leftist paranoid fantasies about concentration camps and the like. The leftists responded not by seeing reason, but by creating new paranoid fantasies daily.)

Grudem reminds his audience that those evangelical voters who like Trump do so because of his policies  and then provides a laundry list of policies that should lighten every conservative's spirits.

As I said, it's a long article, but it's easy to read, and it makes vital points that should help reluctant voters separate Trump the man (whom I've grown to appreciate and admire) from the Trump the president (whom every conservative should support).

Shy Trump-supporters, the ones who won't talk to pollsters, may mean Trump will have a huge win in November. That's pretty iffy, though. What's more important is convincing every conservative who dislikes Trump that it's time to put that dislike aside because the alternative is Biden. If they didn't like Obama's presidency, they're really going to hate Biden's, given that he has become a senile figurehead for a hard-left agenda.

Image: White House Flickr feed, public domain.
More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what theyre doing, said Barack Obama during an online commencement address to graduates of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in mid-May.

Obama was referring to the Trump administrations handling of the COVID-19 business. Obamas claim then, and has been ever since, that the Trump administration has been encouraging Americans to do what feels good, whats convenient, whats easy rather than imposing a draconian nationwide lockdown.

In fall 2014, however, it was Obama who was scolding Americas governors, Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo most notably, for being too restrictive in their handling of the Ebola outbreak. Not surprisingly, the media took Obamas side. During his famously scandal-free eight years, just about every move Obama made was the right one. Democrat or not, if he tangled with Obama, even Cuomo was wrong.

As the Atlantic reported at the time, The White House and senior public health officials made little secret of the fact their displeasure with Christie, a Republican, and with Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, a Democrat, after they hastily announced a new policy on Friday in which returning health workers would face mandatory 21-day quarantines.

Ebola was inarguably more frightening than COVID. If the death rate for the latter is roughly 1 percent, the death rate from the former, certainly in Africa, hovered in the 50-60 percent range, and unlike COVID-19, it did not spare children.

Obama was unfazed. "America cannot look like its shying away, because people are watching what we do," said Obama. "America, in the end, is not defined by fear. Thats not who we are. We dont just react based on our fears. We react based on facts, and judgments."

In reality, Obama was less interested in the facts than that certain people were watching, namely those in Africa and elsewhere who looked to Obama as the spiritual leader of the third world. The diseases African provenance prevented Obama from putting facts first.

At the time, too, no one really knew what the facts were. As the Atlantic reported, Despite the presidential prodding, the federal government is continuing to send somewhat of a mixed message. The article linked to new and detailed guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control that were as ambiguous as any as they have put out in the last six months.

As with everything we have done to respond to the threat of Ebola both at home and abroad, we have been guided by the best science available, claimed the CDC. The problem for governors like Christie and Cuomo is that the science seemed to change daily.

If Christie could afford to blow off the White House, Cuomo could not. When the White Houses idea of a policy based on science failed to align with New York States, Cuomo had to jump. In late October 2014, the New York Times reported critically on Cuomos second striking shift in public posture within 72 hours.

After urging calm on Thursday night, the Times reported, then joining Mr. Christie to highlight the risks of lax policy on Friday, Mr. Cuomo on Sunday night appeared to try to dial back his rhetoric and stake out a middle ground.

From the beginning, the Trump administration has attempted to stake out something of a middle ground on COVID, allowing the individual states to make decisions based on their specific circumstances.

From day one, however, Trump has faced a mainstream media that has criticized virtually every decision his administration has made while recklessly peddling the fear that they studiously refrained from peddling while Obama was president. The folks in charge of the nations disease control under Trump, however, were the same ones who were in charge under Obama, Anthony Fauci most visible among them.

In her bold public resignation from MSNBC, producer Ariana Pekary described this ratings-driven phenomenon as a cancer, one that eats away at the integrity of all major media reporting.

This cancer risks human lives, even in the middle of a pandemic, wrote Pekary. The primary focus quickly became what Donald Trump was doing (poorly) to address the crisis, rather than the science itself. As new details have become available about antibodies, a vaccine, or how COVID actually spreads, producers still want to focus on the politics. Important facts or studies get buried.

They say that the only real difference between the American mainstream media today and the old Soviet Pravda was that Pravda readers knew they were being lied to. This is true enough, but there is an important second difference. The editors of Pravda never aspired to destroy the economy that made their living possible.

@jackcashills forthcoming book, Unmasking Obama, is available for pre-order at Amazon.
He has received his fair share of backlash following the discovery that he informed ex Chrishell Stause over a text message that he would be filing for divorce back in November last year.

But that didn't stop Justin Hartley from making it Instagram official with his new ladylove.

The 43-year-old actor's new girlfriend Sofia Pernas, 31, seemingly posted an image of the hunky This Is Us star leaning on a marble countertop and holding a cigar and iced beverage in his hand.

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It's official: Justin Hartley and Sofia Pernas seemingly made it Instagram official

Messy: He has received his fair share of backlash following the discovery that he informed ex Chrishell Stause over a text message that he would be filing for divorce back in November last year

Another indication that it was indeed Justin in the photo was a Chicago Bears hat in the background as Hartley is a noted devotee. She captioned the image 'Easy like Sunday mornin'.'

Justin also took to the social media to share a snap of himself cuddling up with his dog in the pool while wearing that same aforementioned Bears trucker cap and he shared the similar caption of: 'Paisley like Sunday mornin'.'

Back In May, Hartley and Pernas were photographed sharing a kiss in Los Angeles just six months after filing for divorce from his wife in November.

'Easy like Sunday mornin'': Pernas, 31, seemingly posted an image of the hunky This Is Us star leaning on a marble countertop and holding a cigar and iced beverage in his hand

'Paisley like Sunday mornin'.: Justin also took to the social media to share a snap of himself cuddling up with his dog in the pool while wearing a Chicago Bears trucker cap which could be seen in Sofia's post along with a similar caption

They not only had appeared on The Young And The Restless together from June 2015 to May 2016 but it has also been claimed that Hartley's new girlfriend Sofia was 'close friends' with his ex Chrishell.

Sofia and Chrishell, 38, met on soap opera The Young and the Restless in 2016 where they were also both introduced to Justin.

The two kept in touch with both actresses continuing to interact on social media with the latest correspondence taking place in February, just three months before Justin was caught kissing Sofia.

Tangled web: Justin and Sofia not only had appeared on The Young And The Restless together from June 2015 to May 2016 but it has also been claimed that Hartley's new girlfriend was 'close friends' with his ex Chrishell, Hartley and Stause are seen in July 2019

Interesting: Sofia and Chrishell, 38, met on soap opera The Young and the Restless in 2016 where they were also both introduced to Justin (seen in July 2016)

Sofia and Chrishell were said to have been 'close friends for years', according to The Sun.

And the two actresses appeared to have a good friendship on social media as they would regularly like or comment on each other's posts.

Meanwhile, as Hartley has been lambasted across social media over his 'divorce text' revelation, it seems Chrishell had mixed feelings about the support she received on Twitter after seemingly sticking up for her ex when she felt that Justin, 43, was starting to get 'bullied' on social media.

Close: The two actresses appeared to have a good friendship on social media as they would regularly like or comment on each other's posts (Sofia commenting on a video of Chrishell and Justin in 2018)

Gushing: In 2016, Chrishell flooded Sofia's Instagram with a collection of comments following their stint together on The Young and the Restless

Birthday love: On a birthday snap of Sofia in July 2016, Chrishell gushed: 'You are the absolute CUTEST!!!! Happy Birthdayyyyyyyyy!!!!!' followed by three heart emojis

Going WAY back: In February 2016, Sofia also shared a fun picture of herself with Justin at LA's CBS Television City

Latest one: The latest correspondence took place in February just weeks after Justin filed for divorce and three months before he was caught kissing Sofia. Chrishell had liked a photo of Sofia working out in Thailand with a sword

'I SO appreciate all the love you guys have given for #SellingSunset,' she tweeted over the weekend, adding: 'That being said, some of you are attacking a certain person in defending me. I appreciate the sentiment because certain things made me mad too. But I hate feeling like someone is getting bullied.'

Chrishell had originally responded to a slew of funny and supportive tweets over the weekend, including one that referred to her ex as 'Justin Fartley.'

'Someone is getting bullied': Chrishell Stause reacts to fans SLAMMING ex Justin Hartley on social media

Writer Ira Madison wrote 'This n**** Justin Hartley TEXTED Chrishell that he was divorcing her?!?' to which Chrishell responded: 'Me trying to keep it classy and not like your tweet.'

She also responded to a GIF that showed the iconic Sex and the City movie scene where Charlotte berates Mr. Big for ditching Carrie at the altar.

But it seems as though the reactions were getting too intense for the reality star as she then backtracked and asked fans of the show not to be nasty and to stop bullying.

Reaction: Chrishell stoked fans when she responded to this tweet in jest, which referred to her ex as 'Justin Fartley'

Walking back: Chrishell then tweeted that the reaction had gone too far, asking fans to play nice

Calming it down: It seemed Chrishell felt the reaction to Justin had gone too far

In happier times: Fans reacted in outrage over the weekend, after watching Selling Sunset where Chrishell revealed Justin told her about their divorce over text

Fans had gone wild watching the episode where Chrishell reveals to her costar Mary Fitzgerald that the This Is Us actor sent the bad news on text message, explaining: 'He text me that we were filed,' she said, adding: 'Forty-five minutes later, the world knew.'

Stause went on: 'I talked to him right after because I thought that must be a joke. But that was kind of the end of the communication.'

'When I found out, I was minutes before leaving the house for work so I immediately just grabbed a few things and I just got out of there as fast as I could," the former soap star said.

Bad news: Selling Sunset's Chrishell Stause has tearfully revealed how she first found out that her husband Justin Hartley was filing for divorce, after he sent her the news via a text message

'I don't think I really knew where I was going or what I was going to do, but I just had to leave.'

'I'm just kind of in shock with it all,' the former daytime TV star added through tears.

News of Stause and Hartley's divorce emerged last November, with the 43-year-old actor citing irreconcilable differences in his legal filings.

At the time sources say the split came as a complete surprise to Chrishell.

Split: News of Stause and Hartley's divorce emerged last November. The pair are seen inn January 2019 above

There is some dispute over the timeline of the breakup.

In divorce filings This Is Us star Justin listed the date of separation as July 8.' She claims November 22, the day he filed, was the actual date of separation, however.

Making things murkier, the pair made several public appearances together following Justin's claimed date of separation, seen together at the Emmy Awards in September 2019, the Veuve Clicquot Polo game in October 2019, and a Hollywood Reporter-hosted pre-Golden Globes bash in November of that year.


US President Donald Trump has denied reports his administration reached out to the governor of South Dakota about adding him to Mount Rushmore.

Last year, a White House aide contacted Kristi Noems office asking about the process of carving additional presidents onto the monument, the New York Times reported, citing a Republican official familiar with the conversation.

Mr Trump has since responded to the report, calling it fake news but adding the suggestion sounds like a good idea.

Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 and a half years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me! he wrote on Twitter.



What would it be like if President Donald Trump was added to Mount Rushmore? Let's check it out.
WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said Monday that he has subpoenaed the FBI to produce documents to his committee related to the Trump-Russia investigation.

The Wisconsin senator also defended a separate investigation he is leading into Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and Ukraine, even as Democrats say the probe has the effect of amplifying Russian propaganda and as U.S. intelligence officials say they have assessed that Russia is working to denigrate Biden ahead of the November election.

Johnsons Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is one of multiple Republican-led Senate panels scrutinizing the FBIs investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Another, the Judiciary Committee, has released a series of documents in recent weeks aimed at discrediting the probe, including material on Sunday that the chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham, said raised questions about whether the FBI had misled Congress about the accuracy of information it received during the investigation.

The subpoena demands that the FBI produce by Aug. 20 the records that it gave to the Justice Department inspector generals office, which concluded in a report last December that the Russia investigation had been opened for a valid reason but that the FBI had made significant errors during its surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser.

The FBI said in a statement that it had received the subpoena and that the bureau had already been producing documents and information for Johnsons committee. As always, the FBI will continue to co-operate with the Committees requests, consistent with our law enforcement and national security obligations, the statement said.

In a separate statement on Sunday, the FBI said it was continuing to co-operate with the Judiciary Committees investigation.

The FBI also said it had surged resources to be able to continue producing documents to the committee on a rolling basis.

Johnson publicized the subpoena along with a more than 5,000-word open letter in which he sought to explain the basis for his scrutiny of the Russia investigation and to defend his Biden probe against allegations that he was amplifying Russian disinformation.

I felt it was important to provide this explanation of my investigations because of the concerted and co-ordinated attacks on my efforts that I have interpreted as a brush back pitch to deter my actions and preemptively marginalize my committees findings, Johnson wrote in an email sent to reporters.

He said he was concerned that the media was preparing to taint his committees findings as an extension of Russian propaganda. Democrats in recent weeks have expressed alarm about the probe, and a statement Friday by William Evanina, the U.S. governments chief counterintelligence official, called out by name a pro-Russia Ukrainian lawmaker who has spread leaked recordings about Biden meant to undermine the Democrats campaign.

Johnson denied Monday receiving information from that lawmaker, Andrii Derkach, or being part of any Russian disinformation effort.

As always, almost all of the documents we are seeking and will make public are from U.S. sources, Johnson wrote in the letter.

The Biden-Ukraine issue is a politically freighted one, particularly after President Donald Trump urged his Ukraine counterpart in a July 2019 phone call to investigate Biden and his son Hunter, who was a paid board member of a Ukraine gas company called Burisma Holdings. That phone call formed the basis of Trumps impeachment by the House in December. He was acquitted by the Senate in February.

Hunter Biden has denied using his influence with his father to aid Burisma, and Biden has denied speaking with his son about his overseas business dealings.

Trump and his allies have raised questions about Bidens move as vice-president in 2016 to pressure the Ukrainian government to fire its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who had previously led an investigation into Burismas owner.

Biden was representing the official position of the U.S. government, a position that was also supported by other Western governments.

____

Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 10

By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend:

The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe with the assistance of the WHO office in Uzbekistan delivered another batch of humanitarian cargo to the country, Trend reports citing UzDaily News Agency.

The aid was purchased by WHO headquarters through the Global Fund for Solidarity and Response to COVID-19 for a total of about $300,000.

More than 500 oxygen concentrators were delivered by a flight from Istanbul, Turkey. At the end of the week, another shipment of laboratory consumables is expected to arrive.

Since the coronavirus outbreak, the World Health Organization has regularly sent humanitarian supplies to Tashkent. In July 2020, three shipments worth over $4 million were delivered to the country. The first batch consisting of 619,400 face shields and 2,176,000 surgical masks, arrived on 8 July, and personal protective equipment for medical workers was received on 17 July.

The cargo is intended for transfer to the Agency for Sanitary and Epidemiological Welfare under the Ministry of Health of Uzbekistan.

The first case of coronavirus infection in Uzbekistan was detected on March 15 in the laboratory of the Research Institute of Virology; it was an Uzbek woman who returned from France. The Ministry of Health later announced that her son, daughter, husband and grandson also tested coronavirus-positive.

The outbreak of the coronavirus began in the Chinese city of Wuhan (an international transport hub), at a fish market in late December 2019.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government today said that it fully supports the Central People's Government's (CPG) imposition of sanctions against 11 people from the US and will facilitate the enforcement in accordance with the law.

In response to the so-called sanctions introduced unreasonably by the US Government against officials of the CPG and the Hong Kong SAR Government days earlier, which represent blatant and barbaric interference in the People's Republic of China's internal affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced sanctions against 11 people from the US.

In a statement, the Hong Kong SAR Government said that such a countermeasure is necessary for safeguarding the nation's interests and it fully supports the move.

It pointed out that in recent months, the US passed laws and pronounced an executive order targeting Hong Kong under the pretext of human rights, democracy and autonomy, blatantly deviating from international laws and basic norms governing international relations and ignoring the rampant violence in Hong Kong in the past year.

The Hong Kong SAR Government stressed that the US also smeared the National Security Law, displaying in full its double standards and hypocrisy and seriously damaged bilateral relations.

The CPG and the Hong Kong SAR Government had repeatedly expressed firm opposition to the US' acts. The CPG also emphasised that it reserved the right to take countermeasures.

The Hong Kong SAR Government described the so-called sanctions by the US as a shameless and despicable act that is resented by Hong Kong people and the whole nation.
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova said that police efforts to restore order were continuing overnight, but wouldnt say how many people were detained. On Monday morning, Belarus Investigative Committee opened a criminal probe into mass riots and violence toward police officers. What has happened is awful, Tsikhanouskaya told reporters Sunday. Police block the road to protect against demonstrators after the Belarusian presidential election in Minsk late on Sunday. Credit:AP An AP journalist was beaten by police and treated at a hospital. At Minsks Hospital No. 10, an AP reporter saw a dozen ambulances delivering protesters with fragmentation wounds and cuts from stun grenades and other injuries.

It was a peaceful protest, we werent using force, said 23-year-old protester Pavel Konoplyanik, who was accompanying his friend who had a plastic grenade fragment stuck in his neck. No one will believe in the official results of the vote, they have stolen our victory. Konoplyanik, whose legs were also cut by fragments of police grenades, said he didnt want to leave the country but feared that he might have no other choice. Protesters provide first aid to a wounded man during clashes with police after the presidential election in Minsk early on Monday. Credit:AP Two prominent opposition challengers were denied places on the ballot, but Tsikhanouskaya, the wife of a jailed opposition blogger, managed to unite opposition groups and draw tens of thousands to her campaign rallies, tapping growing anger over a stagnant economy and fatigue with Lukashenkos autocratic rule. Lukashenko was defiant as he voted earlier in the day, warning that the opposition would meet a tough response.

If you provoke, you will get the same answer, he said. Do you want to try to overthrow the government, break something, wound, offend, and expect me or someone to kneel in front of you and kiss them and the sand onto which you wandered? This will not happen. Loading Three journalists from the independent Russian TV station Dozhd were detained and deported after interviewing an opposition figure. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose assessments of elections are widely regarded as authoritative, was not invited to send observers. Tsikhanouskaya had crisscrossed the country, tapping into public frustration with a worsening economy and Lukashenkos swaggering response to the pandemic.

Belarus, population 9.5 million, has reported more than 68,500 coronavirus cases and 580 deaths but critics have accused authorities of manipulating the figures to downplay the death toll. Lukashenko has dismissed the virus as psychosis and declined to apply measures to stop its spread, saying a lockdown would have doomed the already weak economy. He announced last month that he had been infected but had no symptoms and recovered quickly, allegedly thanks to playing sports. He also recommended vodka for the virus. Yet for some voters, Lukashenkos long, hard line rule was a plus. He is an experienced politician, not a housewife who appeared out of nowhere and muddied the waters, retiree Igor Rozhov said. We need a strong hand that will not allow riots. Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen, reporting from Minsk, said the capital was "a city filled with anger and frustration" and described "hectic scenes" that "Minsk hasn't witnessed before".

"They're very defiant but also very scared because riot police are out in force. They are detaining people right in front of us so people are spreading around trying to get away from police," Vaessen said. Lukashenko, 65, a former Soviet collective farm boss, faced unprecedented protests against his rule before the vote, after opposition groups united behind Tsikhanouskaya, 37, when other contenders were either jailed or kept off the ballot. The stay-at-home mother, who ran after her husband Sergei, a political blogger, was detained and barred from the race, drew huge crowds at rallies nationwide. For the opposition, "the main thing is to accept defeat", Central Election Commission Chairwoman Lidia Yermoshina said of the preliminary results on state TV.

Turnout was 84 per cent, the Tass news service reported, citing the commission, which is due to publish official results on Monday. The result compares to 83 per cent won by Lukashenko in 2015 elections. Opposition activists have complained that high levels of early voting recorded ahead of polling day was an indicator of ballot fraud. The European Platform for Democratic Elections reported that observers had been restricted and detained during early voting. Some observers reported at least one polling place counted more voters than had walked in from the street.

Three other candidates were also on the ballot in the nation of 9.4 million, located between Russia and the NATO states of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Portraying himself as a guarantor of stability but criticised by the West as dictatorial, Lukashenko says the opposition protesters are in cahoots with foreign backers to destabilise the country. "Lukashenko a priori made it clear that he intends to retain his power at any cost. The question remains what the price will be," said political analyst Alexander Klaskovsky. Wedded to a Soviet-style economic model, Lukashenko has struggled to raise incomes and living standards in recent years. He also faced anger over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which he dismissed as a "psychosis" while suggesting drinking vodka and playing ice hockey as remedies. Tikhanouskaya's rallies have drawn some of the biggest crowds since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and on Sunday she arrived at a polling station with hundreds of supporters chanting her name.
PHILADELPHIA -- (Aug. 10, 2020) -- According to a study by The Wistar Institute, breast cancer cells starved for oxygen send out messages that induce oncogenic changes in surrounding normal epithelial cells. These messages are packaged into particles called extracellular vesicles (EVs) and reprogram mitochondrial shape and position within the recipient normal cells to ultimately promote deregulated tissue morphogenesis. These findings were published today in Developmental Cell.

"It is well known that cancer cells 'talk' to their neighboring normal cells all the time and this is important to promote cancer progression," said study lead author Dario C. Altieri, M.D., Wistar president and CEO, director of the Institute's Cancer Center and the Robert & Penny Fox Distinguished Professor. "How that happens and what signals are being transferred from one cell to another are still very much open questions. A better understanding of this process may give us important clues about how tumors hijack nearby normal cells to promote disease recurrence."

For their studies, Altieri's team cultured breast cancer cells in a low-oxygen setting to mimic a condition known as hypoxia, which is a hallmark of the microenvironment surrounding most solid tumors, and studied the EVs released by these cells.

EVs are tiny structures enclosed in a double membrane layer and released by most cells to transfer different molecules and information to other cells. As such, vesicles are an important means of intercellular communication. In this study, researchers focused on small EVs (sEV) that are between 30 and 150?nm in size.

To dissect the effects of sEVs produced by cancer cells on normal neighboring cells, researchers incubated normal breast epithelial cells with sEVs released by cells maintained in hypoxia. They observed an increase in the ability of normal recipient cells to migrate in culture, which in turn correlated with a redistribution of their mitochondria to the cell periphery. This is consistent with the role played by mitochondria in supporting cell motility, previously described by the Altieri lab.

In addition to modulation of mitochondrial behavior, the research team discovered that sEV released by hypoxic breast cancer cells induced major changes in gene expression in the normal recipient cells, with activation of multiple pathways of cell motility, cytoskeletal organization and cell-to-cell contact. Additionally, sEV-treated cells exhibited reduced cell death and increased pro-inflammatory responses.

Altieri and colleagues went on to identify Integrin-Linked Kinase (ILK) as the main signaling component packaged in sEVs, responsible for both mitochondrial changes and increased migration of recipient cells.

In turn, activation of ILK signaling profoundly affected normal tissue morphogenesis. Using 3-D cell models of normal mammary gland development, the team observed that exposure to sEVs from hypoxic cancer cells caused a general disruption of the normal mammary gland architecture and induced multiple traits of oncogenic transformation, including morphological changes, deregulated cell proliferation, reduced cell death, and appearance of markers of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a process that confers mobility to cancer cells and the capacity to migrate from the primary site.

"Our findings indicate that breast cancer cells may use sEVs to enable both local and distant disease progression," said Irene Bertolini, Ph.D., first author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow in the Altieri lab. "Based on these observations, we suggest that therapeutic targeting of ILK or mitochondrial reprogramming may provide novel strategies to disrupt these pro-tumorigenic changes in the microenvironment."

###

Co-authors: Jagadish C. Ghosh and Andrew V. Kossenkov from Wistar; Sudheer Mulugu from Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania; Shiv Ram Krishn and Lucia R. Languino from Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University; Valentina Vaira from Fondazione IRCCS Ca? Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy and University of Milan, Italy; and Jun Qin and Edward F. Plow from Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic.

Work supported by: National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants P01 CA140043, R35 CA220446, R01 HL58758, and R50 CA211199; Additional support was provided by the Italian Minister of Health. Core support for The Wistar Institute was provided by the Cancer Center Support Grant P30CA010815.

Publication information: Small Extracellular Vesicle Regulation of Mitochondrial Dynamics Reprograms a Hypoxic Tumor Microenvironment, Developmental Cell (2020). Online publication.

The Wistar Institute is an international leader in biomedical research with special expertise in cancer, immunology, infectious disease research, and vaccine development. Founded in 1892 as the first independent nonprofit biomedical research institute in the United States, Wistar has held the prestigious Cancer Center designation from the National Cancer Institute since 1972. The Institute works actively to ensure that research advances move from the laboratory to the clinic as quickly as possible. Wistar's Business Development team is dedicated to accelerating the translation of Wistar discoveries into innovative medicines and healthcare solutions through licensing, start-ups and creative collaborations. wistar.org.
"The research side is pretty clear that there a lot of challenges with virtual teams," Lemoine said. "Beyond the personal advantages of flexibility and work/life balance, there arent really a lot of advantages for organizations."

One of the challenges for organizations, he said, is measuring how productive their virtual teams are.

"Research has found that organizations and managers are really bad at assessing performance of virtual teams," Lemoine said. "Its hard to keep track of whos doing what, how much has the team progressed, because were not used to that. Were used to doing it when weve got everybody right in front of us and we can talk to them face to face."

Some of the things co-workers are accustomed to in an office setting  for instance, sharing a creative thought that pops up during a meeting  are harder to do on video conference calls, when everyone is routinely asked to mute themselves at the start, he said.

Research has shown virtual teams struggle with relationship building, which can be important for making employees feel comfortable with bringing up ideas with others or saying when they think something is wrong and needs fixing, Lemoine said.
The province announced 35 new cases of COVID-19 Sunday, marking the second highest number of increased cases in Manitoba on record.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/8/2020 (527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province announced 35 new cases of COVID-19 Sunday, marking the second highest number of increased cases in Manitoba on record.

The only time Manitoba saw a spike higher than this was on April 2, when the province announced 40 new cases.

There are now 182 active cases in the province. Six are in hospital, and three are in intensive care. Manitoba has had 542 cases overall. The five-day test positivity rate sits at 1.45 per cent.

"These cases are a reminder that COVID is not done with us yet here in Manitoba," said Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitobas chief provincial public health officer.

In addition, Roussin said at Sunday's news conference that the current five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is 1.45 per cent. On Saturday, it was 1.23 per cent.

"We've been here before and we never have been helpless against this virus," he said.

So far, 100,830 tests have been conducted in the province.

Forty of the provinces active cases are in Brandon. Twenty of the cases announced Sunday are from the Prairie Mountain Health region; seven were confirmed to come from "a business in Brandon," Roussin said.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832 later stated in an email theyd been informed of eight more positive cases of COVID-19 at the Maple Leaf Foods plant in Brandon.

"We still dont see evidence of workplace transmission," Roussin said. "However, case investigations are continuing."

Roussin added the meat plant is going beyond public health guidelines by having a larger number of workers self-isolating than recommended. Public health officials, provincial agricultural officials and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are keeping tabs on the situation, Roussin said.

In total, 18 Maple Leaf Foods workers in Brandon have tested positive for COVID-19 so far, Janet Riley, the companys vice president of communications and public affairs, said in a written statement.

"Fortunately, all of these team members are recuperating at home," Riley wrote.

There have been 131 Brandon employees that have tested negative for the novel coronavirus, Riley said.

"Public Health officials support our view that our workplace remains safe and that there is no reason to suspend operations: simply put, based on all the evidence, COVID-19 is not being spread at our plant," Riley wrote.

She said the plant will stay open as long as it can provide a safe work environment and the facility is not a source of transmission.

"We will continue to be vigilant using our robust pandemic protocols including daily health and temperature screening, mandatory face coverings and careful social distancing," Riley wrote.

Representatives from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832, which represents close to 2,000 of the meat plants 2,300 workers, is still calling for the plant to temporarily close down.

"These new cases strengthen our call on Maple Leaf Brandon to close for a one-week period until all test results are in, and the situation is under control," Jeff Traeger, the unions president, stated in an email.

Brandon Mayor Rick Chrest said the citys cluster of cases is concerning.

"I know that residents of Brandon are concerned, and some are frightened, and we need to again emphasize the message that Dr. Roussin provides  that we are not helpless in this, and we havent been helpless all along," Chrest said.

People need to follow the fundamentals, such as hand sanitizing, physical distancing, staying home when sick and getting tested if you have symptoms, Chrest said.

He said hes seen an uptick in people wearing masks, but the trend began before the cluster of cases grew in Brandon.

"We follow the health experts advice and have done so from the beginning," Chrest said, adding that the community had low case counts until this cluster.

"This is not really the fault of anyone," he said. "It just shows how easy it is, if a case gets into a group of people, it can rapidly spread."

The province announced 10 new cases in the Southern Health region, four new cases in Winnipeg and one new case in the Interlake-Eastern health region.

Of the 100,830 tests conducted in the province so far, 756 tests happened Saturday.

Roussin said while many of the new cases are linked to the clusters in Brandon and southern Manitoba, there is a small number of cases considered community transmission, and investigations are ongoing.

He repeated that people should avoid crowded indoor places and that masks should be worn when social distancing cannot be maintained.

He said Sunday that officials may not be able to identify the origin of the Brandon cluster, although it was suspected to have started with a person who had travelled to Eastern Canada. Last week, Roussin said the person may have self-isolated in their home, but had contact with family members in the home who didn't self-isolate.

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In early July, there were two weeks with no new cases announced. Roussin said Sunday that the virus never left the province. "We've always remained at risk," he said.

He pointed out the new cases are related to the clusters or their contacts.

"This is what happens when... there are situations where there is potentially crowding or a lot of contacts.

He said although widespread restrictions and shutdowns were put in place in March to stop the spread of the virus in the province, it would be unrealistic to revert back to that strategy now.

"We really want to be in a place where we can live with this virus and not need to have dramatic restrictions as we once required."

gabrielle.piche@freepress.mb.ca
Average charges for residents of public nursing homes were 62% higher than private alternatives, a watchdog in Ireland said (Joe Giddens/PA).

Average charges for residents of public nursing homes were 62% higher than private alternatives, a watchdog in Ireland said.

A difference amounting to more than 500 euros a week in 2018 was attributed to better pay and conditions and higher staff to resident ratios, the HSE said.

Rates for public nursing homes were based on prior-period operating costs and bed occupancy levels, whereas those for private nursing homes were agreed by negotiation.

Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy published a report which said: Over the period 2010 to 2018, the average weekly charge rate in public nursing homes was consistently higher than the average weekly charge rate for private and voluntary nursing homes.

In 2018, the average for public nursing homes was 1,564 euros per week.

The agreed average maximum price chargeable for private or voluntary homes was 968 euros per week.

The HSE has attributed the difference to better pay and conditions for staff in public nursing homes, including the implementation of national pay awards.

It also pointed to the higher proportion of maximum dependency residents and greater costs associated with older buildings used as nursing homes, which typically were not purpose built for long-term residential care.

The audit office said: Some public nursing homes located in rural or isolated areas may not be commercially viable.

However, the HSE has not undertaken formal analysis of these cost drivers.

A report from the auditor surrounding the operation of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme, known as Fair Deal, was published on Monday.

It was established in 2009 to provide financial support to residents towards the cost of care and is administered by the HSE.

Budgets were allocated to public nursing homes based on the calculated weekly charge rate.

Funding deficits may arise for homes where the occupancy rate is less than expected or if current operating costs are higher than the prior period costs.

For 2018, additional funding of 23 million euros was required from other Exchequer resources to meet such deficits.

The Minister for Health has appointed the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) to negotiate with individual private and voluntary nursing homes the weekly charge rates to be applied to their Fair Deal residents.

The audit office found a lack of documented guidelines to support NTPF staff involved in those negotiations.

It said: It was also unclear how criteria set by the NTPF influence the negotiation process and the charge rates arrived at.

A review of the price negotiation system commissioned by the Department has been completed but has not yet been published.
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
ATFX Connect is crowned "Best Institutional Forex Broker" at the annual Wealth and Finance Fintech Awards

LONDON, Aug. 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ATFX Connect announced that it has been named the Best Institutional Forex Broker in the annual Wealth and Finance Fintech Awards. Hailed as a leading awards organisation honouring excellence in financial technology for three consecutive years, The FinTech Awards recognises the hard work and creativity of fintech companies, startups, technologies and products.

The company has set the standard for innovation and creativity within the Forex industry, and this award is a testament to the skill, ingenuity and vision of the global team. To advance from nominee to winner, candidates demonstrated expertise in a given area, dedication to client fulfilment, noteworthy performance or commitment to innovation.

Wealth & Finance International is a magazine providing fund managers and institutional private investors with the latest industry news across both traditional and alternative investment sectors. They also provide daily news and features in conjunction with a host of top-level advisors, experts and businesspeople.

This prestigious award serves as a milestone in the company's history and is indicative of ATFX's evolution from a retail-oriented broker to a rapidly growing Fintech company with the capability to facilitate and partner with a range of more diversified clients.

Head of Operations at ATFX Connect, Matt Porter, said: "Given the challenges in the retail arena at the time of launch, it made sense to expand our offering to institutional clients. We're thrilled with the reception ATFX Connect has received in the market up to now, especially with the extreme turbulence caused by the COVID-19 pandemic."

ATFX's management team has constantly reiterated their commitment to building the best institutional platform based on cutting-edge technologies developed by the firm's dedicated IT team, in collaboration with external partners.

Legal: ATFX Connect is a trading name of AT Global Markets (UK) Limited and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom. FCA registration number (760555).

HIGH RISK INVESTMENT WARNING: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs / Spread betting work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Legal: AT Global Markets (UK) Limited is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom.FCA registration number (760555). Registered Office: 1st Floor, 32 Cornhill, London EC3V 3SG, United Kingdom. Company No. 09827091

Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 75.12% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs / Spread betting with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs / Spread betting work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. Please read the full risk disclosure on pages 42-45 of our Terms of Business.

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Ukraine needs to enshrine the legislative definition of indigenous peoples and the status of Crimean Tatars.

"The settlement of this issue is long overdue, and we must finally solve it. We can say with confidence that we will definitely celebrate this holiday of solidarity in free Bakhchisaray and throughout Crimea," President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky stated on the occasion of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, the President's Office posted on Facebook.

The efforts are made to enshrine the legislative definition of indigenous peoples and the status of the Crimean Tatar people as indigenous, Zelensky stressed.

Since the start of temporary occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, the issue of protection of the rights and legislative definition of the special status of the Crimean Tatar people in Ukraine has become even more relevant, the President noted.

"That is why our common task now is to protect the rights of Crimean Tatars, assist in the comprehensive development of language, culture, and preservation of the identity of the people who now cannot fully develop in their historical homeland - Crimea," the President said.

He added that it was very important for Ukraine to do everything possible to "restore the rights of the Crimean Tatar people as the indigenous people of Ukraine."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine stressed the importance of drafting laws on indigenous peoples, the status of Crimean Tatars, and regulations to improve financial support from the state for the cultural development of indigenous peoples.

The International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples is celebrated annually on August 9 in accordance with the UN General Assembly resolution of 23 December 1994.

In the spring of 2014, Russia invaded part of Ukraine's territory - the Crimean Peninsula. On 16 March 2014, a "referendum" on the status of the peninsula was held in Crimea and Sevastopol, as a result of which Russia announced Crimea a part of the Russian Federation.

Ukraine, the European Union, the United States and other countries did not recognize the results of the "referendum" and imposed sanctions on Russia.

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Its not yet clear, but it may depend on if theyre sick. Children younger than 5 with mild-to-moderate Covid-19 have higher concentrations of the virus in their upper airway than older children and adults, doctors in Chicago reported in July. This could make them more infectious. However, another study published in Nature found the vast majority of infected kids in this age group dont have symptoms, which reduces their likelihood of transmitting the virus. In another, much-cited study of 5,706 coronavirus patients and their contacts in South Korea, researchers concluded that children younger than 10 spread the virus within a household at the lowest rate, but those age 10 to 19 were more likely to spread it than even adults. The study had limitations. As with similar studies, the researchers first identified an infected person and then tested that persons contacts, which means they cant be certain who started the chain. Plus, the study was conducted while schools were mostly closed. In the U.S., school closure was associated with a 62% drop in Covid-19 cases and 58% decline in deaths, researchers in Cincinnati reported in July. They acknowledged that the trends were largest in states with a low cumulative incidence of Covid-19 at the time schools were shut, and that its possible some of the reduction was due to other measures.
 Flash

Less than 90 days from the U.S. presidential election, the country's COVID-19 cases surpassed 5 million on Sunday while public opinions remain sharply divided over the government's response to the pandemic.

The number of U.S. confirmed COVID-19 cases rose to 5,017,150, with the national death toll reaching 162,635 as of 12:34 p.m. local time, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

The hardest-hit U.S. state of California reported 555,797 cases, followed by Florida with 532,806 cases, Texas with 497,915 cases and New York with 420,860 cases, the data showed. Other states with over 180,000 cases included Georgia, Illinois, Arizona and New Jersey.

Relief bill deadlock

The grim milestone came as White House officials and Democratic lawmakers remained deadlocked over a new relief bill. President Donald Trump signed four actions on Saturday, trying to move around Congress and assert executive power.

One of the actions would extend extra unemployment benefits through the end of the year at a reduced level of 400 U.S. dollars per week, instead of the 600 dollars approved by Congress in late March, which expired at the end of July.

Trump said the reduced level of extra benefits would give people "a great incentive" to go back to work. The new order also demands that states cover 25 percent of the 400-dollar weekly benefits.

"Instead of passing a bill, now President Trump is cutting families' unemployment benefits and pushing states further into budget crises, forcing them to make devastating cuts to life-or-death services," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement.

Tougher situation ahead

An influential model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington has projected there will be 295,011 COVID-19 deaths by Dec. 1 in the United States.

The country's actual number of COVID-19 cases may be 6 to 24 times higher than reported, according to a recent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

With the virus still spreading, the Trump administration has continued to push schools to reopen in the fall. School reopening is seen as a crucial step to restarting the country's economy for his reelection campaign.

In a Friday opinion piece on The New York Times (NYT), President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Neel Kashkari and Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, urged policymakers to commit to a more restrictive lockdown, state by state, for up to six weeks to crush the spread of the virus to less than one new case per 100,000 people a day, whereas the country currently reports 17 new cases per 100,000 people a day.

Widening political difference

According to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll of 730 adults on July 29-30, only 34 percent of Americans said they approved the president's handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

"It's no mystery how America got here," the NYT editorial board said in an opinion on Saturday.

The Trump administration's response to the pandemic has been "disjointed and often contradictory, indifferent to science, suffused with politics and eager to hand off responsibility to state leaders. Among the states, the response has also been wildly uneven," it said.

The pandemic has also intensified political and ideological differences in U.S. society. Liberal media argued that the public should stay indoors and children should stay home from school until there is a vaccine. In contrast, conservative media contended that people should take proper safety precautions, but life should go on as usual.

Conservatives voiced their belief that left-leaning media put irrational emphasis on the number of cases, which critics said had stirred panic and led to poor government decisions, while liberals said conservative media had not taken the deadly virus seriously enough and this could endanger peoples' lives.

The divide was even larger between Republicans who described themselves as being conservative and Democrats who described themselves as liberals, according to a report from the Pew Research Center.
Panaji, Aug 10 : Maharashtra needs to boost its Covid-19 testing capacity, as well as increase the number of isolation centres in a big way, in the wake of rising infections and death rate, Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis said on Monday.

Fadnavis, who paid a courtesy call on Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in Panaji, also said that the flood situation in Maharashtra needs to be monitored closely in wake of the havoc caused by heavy rains in the western state last year.

"The corona situation in Maharashtra is serious... What is serious is that the rate of infection is also increasing rapidly. Maharashtra also accounts for 42 per cent of the deaths in the country," Fadnavis said.

"The situation as of now is very serious. There is a need to increase testing and increase isolation centres in a big way. We are telling this to the government constantly," the former Maharashtra Chief Minister said.

Commenting on the flooding caused by heavy rains in Mumbai and other areas in the state, Fadnavis said that the situation needs to be monitored closely.

"Mumbai has seen heavy rain and it has caused a lot of flooding. Levels in Kolhapur had gone very high but have come down in the last two days. It needs to be monitored," Fadnavis said.

"What we observed last time was that especially in Kolhapur, Satara and Sangli, due to heavy rains and water logging, a lot of damage was caused to life and property," Fadnavis said.

The former Chief Minister however refused to comment on the investigation of the Mumbai Police into the mysterious death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Earlier on Monday, Fadnavis had inaugurated a Covid laboratory in Sindhudurg district in south west Maharashtra and is scheduled to leave for Mumbai by air from the Dabolim International Airport in Goa later.
Graduate students from China pose for photos before the Columbia University Commencement ceremony in New York, the United States, May 22, 2019. /Xinhua

Editor's Note: Pan Deng is a member of the Academic Committee at Charhar Institute, executive director of the Latin America Law Center of China University of Political Science and Law, and distinguished professor at the Center for Latin American Studies at the Southwest University of Science and Technology. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Affected by the pandemic and concerned with the visa restrictions imposed by the U.S. government on students from China, after the end of China's annual college entrance exam, many Chinese students have second thoughts about studying in the United States.

The academic communities against political interference

Against this background, some American universities are still looking for ways to roll out favorable admission policies for Chinese students. For example, Pacific University has provided academic merit scholarships to Chinese students with outstanding performance at the college entrance exam.

China has been the largest source of international students in the United States for 10 years in a row. According to data released by the Institute of International Education in November 2019, international students contributed 44.7 billion U.S. dollars to the American education sector that year, of which Chinese students accounted for more than one-third.

Many American universities pay special attention to the maintenance and development of the Chinese international student market, and expand the enrollment of Chinese students through various means.

However, many policies coming out of the White House in recent years run counter to this wish. On the one hand, it rolled out policies to control the number of international students and reduce their access to STEM programs. On the other hand, it tightened up the visa application process for Chinese students.

Before some Chinese students return to China, they would face interrogation in the U.S. and get their electronic devices examined by the security personnel. In June 2020, the U.S. government issued a proclamation, on the pretext of national security, to suspend the entry of certain Chinese students and researchers as non-immigrants.

The education, science and liberal arts communities in the United States have expressed strong doubts over the decoupling policies adopted by the United States government in their respective fields of exchanges in recent years.

In 2019, according to Xinhua News Agency, after U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies imposed unwarranted restrictions on normal education and scientific and technological exchanges between China and the United States, 60 American teaching and research organizations and 150 leading U.S. researchers jointly called for an end to the suppression.

The president of Columbia University was joined by his colleagues from other universities to publish signed articles and make public speeches to express their opposition to unreasonable demands made by the government.

In July 2020, after the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) changed the rules for issuing international student visas during the fall semester, top universities such as MIT and Harvard sued the U.S. government.

The U.S. actually benefits from Chinese students

American universities should favor Chinese students for many reasons, and increased tuition income is just one of them. Chinese students are often hardworking. Apart from learning knowledge at school, they also participate in local scientific research programs. Chinese students have always been important participants and enablers of American scientific and technological progress.

Since its reform and opening-up policy began in 1978, China has always adopted a policy of "easy come and easy go" for Chinese students studying abroad, and many of them have chosen to stay in the U.S. for work after graduation. As a country of immigrants that pays special attention to attracting global talents, the United States has always regarded training international students as a process of selecting and shaping the future talents it needs.

While selecting and cultivating outstanding overseas students, American universities are also training and reserving talents for the development of the American society.

More importantly, the friendship between peoples holds the key to solid state-to-state relations. Studying abroad is the best way to learn about another country's society and culture. Since the normalization of diplomatic ties, Chinese people, especially the academia, have been generally positive towards the United States. Scholars and students returning from the United States have played a very important role in shaping public opinions in China.

As some politicians have misled and even forced the hand of the incumbent administration to introduce measures to limit the people-to-people exchanges between China and the United States for their own interests, the growth in the number of Chinese students studying in the U.S. has been declining year by year.

Against this background, more and more Chinese students choose to study in Europe and China's neighboring countries. At the same time, academic exchanges in some areas between the two countries have fallen to the trough, and the opinions and attitudes of the Chinese intellectual community towards the U.S. are gradually changing.

Academic exchange is an intrinsic part of the trend of global development and is the common aspiration of professionals. Therefore, it shall not be politicized or meddled with. U.S. politicians often make hypes and set up barriers just to win political votes, but they forget that the U.S. people are also beneficiaries of this exchange.




Investors eligible to execute the North-South Expressways component projects under the public-private partnership (PPP) format must be financially capable, have experience and propose the lowest amount of State funding.

Vehicles travel on an expressway. Investors eligible to execute the North-South Expressways component projects under the PPP format have to be financially capable, have previous experience and propose the lowest amount of State funding - PHOTO: VNA

To assess investors, the ministry will apply a method related to the State capital contribution to the projects, which means that investors who tap the smallest amount of State funding to develop the projects will be preferred, said Bui Quang Thai, deputy head of the ministrys PPP Department, reported Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper.

After some 20 days of bidding forms being issued, the project management units under the ministry have sold 14 applications to investors who passed the first preliminary qualification round for five component projects of the expresswaythe National Highway 45-Nghi Son, Nghi Son-Dien Chau, Dien Chau-Bai Vot, Nha Trang-Cam Lam and Cam Lam-Vinh Hao.

After buying the bidding forms, investors will have 60 days to prepare and submit the bidding documents. The open bidding is set for September 20, after which the bidding documents will be evaluated, according to Thai.

The ministry will negotiate and sign contracts with winning bidders in December this year to break ground for these components in early 2021 and put them into operation in 2023, the official added.

Although participating investors already had their experience and capacity assessed in the preliminary qualification round, the ministry will keep reviewing the qualifications of investors through further bidding rounds.

In the bidding invitations, the ministry specified that the winning bidders will have six months to mobilize credit capital starting from the date they signed the contracts and will cancel the contracts and confiscate the contract guarantee if the investors fail to seek bank loans by the deadline.

The guarantee is equivalent to 1-3% of the contracts value as regulated in the Law on Bidding. These requirements are in line with the Governments Resolution 20/2018 aimed at addressing the inadequacies of previous build-operate-transfer projects and ensuring the projects will be implemented as scheduled and that only qualified investors participate in them. SGT

Vietnam to start building North-South Expressway in September The three sub-projects set for construction in September are sections of Mai Son  National Highway No.45, Vinh Hao  Phan Thiet, and Phan Thiet  Dau Giay.
Shia LaBeouf may be heading towards a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe if a new rumor is proven to be true.

The 34-year-old actor, who is coming off his role in director David Ayer's controversial film The Tax Collector, is reportedly being considered by Marvel Studios to play Moon Knight from the Marvel comics.

The character will be used in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's upcoming X-Men reboot, according to an unconfirmed report from We Got This Covered.

MCU move: Shia LaBeouf may be heading towards a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe if a new rumor is proven to be true

X-Men: The character will be used in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's upcoming X-Men reboot, according to an unconfirmed report from We Got This Covered

The report reveals that LaBeouf is still being considered by Marvel Studios, though he's reportedly not one of their top choices anymore.

There is no indication yet who the studio's top choice to portray Moon Knight, or if the character is even confirmed for the X-Men reboot.

Moon Knight debuted in the Marvel Comics in Werewolf By Night #32 which was published in August 1975.

Considered: The report reveals that LaBeouf is still being considered by Marvel Studios, though he's reportedly not one of their top choices anymore

The character was created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin, who has often drawn comparisons to DC's Batman.

Both characters are eccentric billionaires who use their wealth to fund their crime-fighting activities and pay for their high-tech equipment.

Unlike Batman, though, Moon Knight has actual super-human abilities, drawing his power from the strength of the moon such as super strength and endurance.

Moon Knight: The character was created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin, who has often drawn comparisons to DC's Batman

The character, born Marc Spector, also created several different alternate identities, such as his billionaire persona Steven Grant and a lowly cab driver Jake Lockley, which keeps him tied into the streets and crime elements he's fighting.

He has been a member of several different superhero groups such as the Avengers, Secret Avengers, West Coast Avengers, Marvel Knights and Heroes For Hire.

There is no indication how many of these multiple identities will be featured in this X-Men movie reboot project.

Groups: He has been a member of several different superhero groups such as the Avengers, Secret Avengers, West Coast Avengers, Marvel Knights and Heroes For Hire

LaBeouf is coming off David Ayer's The Tax Collector, which was released last week, and two movies from last year, Honey Boy and The Peanut Butter Falcon.

He also has Pieces of a Woman that is currently in post-production, where he stars alongside Sarah Snook and Vanessa Kirby.

The actor is also attached to star in Don't Worry, Darling from director Olivia Wilde, who also stars with Florence Pugh, Chris Pine and Dakota Johnson.

New movies: LaBeouf is coming off David Ayer's The Tax Collector, which was released last week, and two movies from last year, Honey Boy and The Peanut Butter Falcon
Meghan Markle has been open about her feelings towards her husband, Prince Harry, since the beginning.

Prince Harry and Meghan are always showing off their love, and they hardly ever shy away from PDA.

Meghan Markle Warned Not to Wear a Personalized Necklace

However, the bombshell book "Finding Freedom" revealed how the Duchess of Sussex "burst into tears" after receiving an alarming and irrational warning when she attempted to wear a personalized necklace.

In an episode of "Royally Obsessed" podcast, royal commentators Rachel Bowie and Roberta Fiorito tackled one of the book's shocking claims. It revealed how a palace aide warned Meghan for wearing a gold chain with two small letters on it -- M for Meghan and H for Harry.

Bowie called the incident "over the top" and expressed her disbelief over the warning.

"What I think was crazy was that immediately she was reprimanded," Fiorito added. "She got a call from senior Palace aide saying wearing necklaces like that only encourage the photographers to pursue her and create more headlines.

Per Fiorito, Meghan broke down in tears to a friend soon after she received the feedback. She also compared it to "a damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation that hurt the duchess.

Meanwhile, Bowie said: "I also feel like you have to zoom in so much on the photos to see the necklace. So, I am surprised that Palace aides were so against her wearing something like that when you really have to look so closely to see it."

The royal commentators also defended Meghan since she was not even sending an overt message like wearing a shirt with a huge "Harry and Meghan forever" statement on it.

In the end, they called the warning a little over the top, especially when it made the Duchess of Sussex feel frustrated and emotional afterward.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Romance

During the same podcast last week, the two royal experts discussed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's whirlwind and controversial romance.

"The book talks about Harry being swept off his feet, it was so fast," Bowie said. "I can't believe that the Botswana trip was one month in, I guess we kind of already knew the timeline around that."

Fiorito mentioned how crazy it is to think that the dates following their July meeting changed everything instantly.

"I know he was so smitten, they were both caught by surprised at how quickly they fell in love according to the book," she went on.

Prince Harry surely had an abrupt marriage with Meghan since they only dated less than two years before they decided to settle down. This even caused Prince William to question if the Duchess of Sussex was really fit to become part of the royal family since his brother barely knew her.

However, according to former royal butler Paul Burrell in his interview with Closer Magazine, Prince Harry got immediately attracted to Meghan simply because she shares many similarities with her late mother, Princess Diana.

"Both women who would always stand up for what they believe in and wouldn't be pushovers," the former butler added.

READ MORE: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Still Leaching UK Taxpayers, Claims Royal Critic
Third Point recently released its Q2 2020 Investor Letter, a copy of which you can download here. The fund posted a return of 10.8% for the quarter, underperforming its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index which returned 20.5% in the same quarter. You should check out Third Points top 5 stock picks for investors to buy right now, which could be the biggest winners of the stock market crash.

In the said letter, Third Point highlighted a few stocks and PG&E Corp (NYSE:PCG) is one of them. PG&E Corp (NYSE:PCG) is a natural gas company. Year-to-date, PG&E Corp (NYSE:PCG) stock lost 16.3% and on August 7th it had a closing price of $9.10. Here is what Third Point said:

"Third Points involvement in PG&E began in late 2018, when the Companys bonds traded to distressed levels following the tragic Camp Fire. The Companys bankruptcy filing was prompted by the need to access liquidity and settle outstanding wildfire claims in an organized manner. We believed PG&Es core business remained in a strong position reflecting a classic good business/bad capital structure restructuring and made it the firms largest distressed position. By early 2020, the company reached an agreement to restructure the business and as part of that exit plan, the company needed to raise approximately $26 billion in new capital including $9 billion in new common equity. The exit financing was used to settle insurance and victims claims relating to the 2017 and 2018 wildfires, repay some preand postpetition creditors, and contribute to the new Wildfire Fund. Third Point participated in the common equity offering as a cornerstone PIPE investor. PG&E is the 6th largest U.S. utility by ratebase and has no unregulated exposure. The bankruptcy addressed the companys outstanding legacy liabilities and repositioned the balance sheet for investment and growth. PG&Es fundamentals position it at the high end of the utility industry, with equity rate base growth of approximately 8% and EPS growth of 812% driven by strong investments in infrastructure to serve customers safely and reliably while also reducing the companys carbon footprint and providing customers with energy choice. Yet PG&Es valuation is a fraction of its peers: it trades at under 8x 2022 earnings versus the regulated utility peer set at 18x. The shares have traded poorly (down ~5%) since exiting bankruptcy due primarily to technical factors that are extremely common in these situations. We expect this sharp discount to diminish as the company goes through the normal process of finding an institutional shareholder base, as well as hires a permanent CEO and continues to address prior operational deficiencies. Alternatively, some attribute the extreme discount to peers to potential wildfire risk but the regulatory regime has substantially changed since PG&E filed for bankruptcy. In addition to restructuring the balance sheet and addressing past liabilities, emergence from bankruptcy allows PG&E to fully access the elements of the enhanced wildfirerelated regulatory framework under AB1054. The largest component of this is the new Wildfire Fund, which provides all investorowned utilities in California an insurance policy to address future catastrophic wildfire claims in a timely fashion. Funded to withstand 10+ years of potential wildfire liabilities, the Wildfire Fund provides a threeyear rolling cap on shareholder liability estimated by PG&E at around $2.4 billion, which only applies if the utility fails to act prudently. Most important, however, is PG&Es focused commitment to an investment in wildfire safety. The company is spending approximately $3 billion per year to reduce wildfire risk through system hardening, vegetation management, and enhanced inspections. The company has also invested in weather stations and cameras to spot potential fires early and sectionalized the grid to reduce customer disruptions caused by the Public Safety Power Shutoff process. In addition, the company has started to adopt stateoftheart technology such as drones provided by Third Point Ventures portfolio company PrecisionHawk and is partnering with Palantir to use AI for further risk mitigation and network efficiency. On a positive green note, the company also recently announced a partnership with Tesla to build a lithiumion battery storage system. These investments and PG&Es commitment to ESG best practices should reduce environmental risk over time, while the Wildfire Fund should protect the states investorowned utilities who act responsibly on climate change."

Story continues

electricity, pylon, network, lines, tower, steel, caution, high, grid, power, engineering, watt, infrastructure, cable, light, supply, distribution, voltage, technology, energy, volt,

chungking/Shutterstock.com

Last month we published an article revealing that PG&E Corp (NYSE:PCG) exits bankruptcy.

In Q1 2020, the number of bullish hedge fund positions on PG&E Corp (NYSE:PCG) stock decreased by about 4% from the previous quarter (see the chart here), so a number of other hedge fund managers don't seem to agree with PG&E's growth potential. Our calculations showed that PG&E Corp (NYSE:PCG) isn't ranked among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.

The top 10 stocks among hedge funds returned 185% since the end of 2014 and outperformed the S&P 500 Index ETFs by more than 109 percentage points. We know it sounds unbelievable. You have been dismissing our articles about top hedge fund stocks mostly because you were fed biased information by other media outlets about hedge funds' poor performance. You could have doubled the size of your nest egg by investing in the top hedge fund stocks instead of dumb S&P 500 ETFs. Below you can watch our video about the top 5 hedge fund stocks right now. All of these stocks had positive returns in 2020.

Video: Top 5 Stocks Among Hedge Funds

At Insider Monkey we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. With Federal Reserve creating trillions of dollars out of thin air, we believe gold prices will keep increasing. So, we are checking out gold stocks like this small gold mining company. We go through lists like the 10 most profitable companies in America to pick the best large-cap stocks to buy. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. You can subscribe to our free enewsletter below to receive our stories in your inbox:

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
Australian war hero Teddy Sheean will be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross following an expert panel's review.

Sheean died in 1942 when HMAS Armidale was sunk by Japanese bombers in the Timor Sea.

The 18-year-old strapped himself to an anti-aircraft gun and fired at enemy planes as the ship went down and is credited with saving the lives of 49 crewmates.

Australian War hero Teddy Sheean (pictured) will be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross 78 years after saving the lives of 49 crewmates when he strapped himself to an anti-aircraft gun and fired at enemy planes as his ship sunk

His nephew Gary Ivory has spent decades fighting for the World War II sailor to receive the highest military honour.

Mr Ivory shed tears of joy when he heard his uncle had finally been recommended for the Victoria Cross.

'I am stoked to be here today, I'm just wanting to jump in the air,' he told reporters in Hobart on Monday.

'I just wish now that my mother was here to enjoy this with me, but I'm sure she is up there with Teddy.'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison established an independent panel earlier this year after Sheean was denied the prestigious award.

The panel found the Tasmanian was wronged and deserved the recognition.

'There is compelling new evidence in support of higher recognition for Sheean,' Mr Morrison told reporters in Canberra.

'Sheean was done a substantial injustice in consideration of his actions in the original decision-making period in 1942 to 1943.

An independent panel found Sheean (Dale Marsh's painting of Teddy Sheean pictured) deserved the prestigious award after he was denied earlier this year

'Sheean's courageous sacrifice of his life to save his shipmates makes him eligible for the Victoria Cross for Australia and the highest level of recognition should be accorded in this exceptional case.'

Mr Morrison has contacted the Queen to recommend Sheean be given the Victoria Cross and is confident she will agree.

Former defence minister and Australian War Memorial director Brendan Nelson chaired the expert panel.

He wants people suffering through the coronavirus pandemic to take heart from Sheean's story.

'I would say to all Australians as we live through the most significant adversity in our lifetimes, approaching the 75th anniversary of the Second World War, let Teddy Sheean inspire us to be a people that are selfless, caring and brave,' Dr Nelson said.

Tasmanian Veterans' Affairs Minister Guy Barnett has for many years worked with Mr Ivory to advocate for the posthumous award.

Mr Morrison has contacted the Queen to recommend Sheean be given the Victoria Cross (pictured) and said he is confident she will agree

Mr Barnett said the recommendation was vindication for Sheean's sacrifice, mateship and courage.

Federal Veterans' Affairs Minister Darren Chester said he could not imagine a more worthy recipient.

'After decades of debate, this is a Victoria Cross for the people,' Mr Chester said.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese has for months called for Sheean to receive the award for gallantry.

'This is a welcome change of heart from the government and it shouldn't have required a review of the review to come to this determination,' Mr Albanese told reporters in Sydney.
BALTIMORE, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- AssetBook announced the release today of Pulse by AssetBook, containing enhanced features for portfolio monitoring and reporting. AssetBook continues to develop innovative portfolio management solutions for wealth advisors, leveraging years of experience in building powerful, secure and scalable applications. Built on an open API, Pulse seamlessly integrates as an additional technology component for financial advisors looking to take control of their tech stack and have access to the most robust pure-play portfolio reporting platform in the market. Pulse helps advisors monitor and understand their key business metrics such as AUM, fee revenue over time, and monitor their top investment holdings and global allocation all from one intuitive dashboard. As a result, advisors are able to seamlessly grow their business with data readily available at their fingertips.

Features include client servicing and portfolio reporting enhancements, a client portal and document center, client billing and fee automation, cash management monitoring and fee debiting, asset allocation monitoring and compliance, and tax management and planning.

Rick Adkins, CFP of $660 million RIA Arkansas Financial Group said "The Pulse platform is the most innovative and well-thought out portfolio management system we've ever experienced. It has a clean, crisp look and the Client Dashboard is a real asset when we are on the phone with clients. AssetBook has been essential to the growth of our firm."

Rob Major, founder of AssetBook, said, "AssetBook's Pulse platform will revolutionize the way that advisors think about portfolio management and reporting systems. Pulse's best-of-breed approach gives firms the power to customize their tech stack using our open API and rich integrations, all in the most attractive and user-friendly platform available today."

This latest release is one key milestone in the product development roadmap for AssetBook.

Miguel Zakharia, AssetBook's Chief Technology Officer, said, "We focused on developing a platform that has an intuitive interface that helps advisors get to the right data quickly. Also, our new API extends our capabilities to offer more meaningful integrations with best-of-breed partners."

As part of the Pulse launch and for a limited time, AssetBook is offering a promotion, whereby they will buy out the remaining portion of a contract for any client that joins AssetBook prior to contract expiration.1

About AssetBook

AssetBook was founded in 2006 by industry pioneers in portfolio reporting and practice management for advisors in the financial sector. AssetBook's mission is to help advisors solve the daily challenges they face through assessment and diagnosis of their portfolio management and reporting, and key business metrics. AssetBook is powered by a skilled and tenured team that collectively has over 320 years of experience in the financial services industry. As a result, AssetBook's clients have a 95% satisfaction rate and have grown an average of 698% over a 5-year period. For more information or to schedule a software demo, please visit www.AssetBook.com.

1 Terms and conditions apply

Contact: Rob Major

[email protected]

SOURCE AssetBook

Related Links

https://www.assetbook.com/


Konnie Huq has revealed how she 'kicked off' when she discovered Blue Peter co-hosts Matt Baker and Simon Thomas were being paid more than her on the programme.

The London-born star, 44, who is is married to Charlie Brooker, the creator of Black Mirror - a dystopian drama about the dangers of technology, is best known for presenting Blue Peter from 1997 to 2008,

Speaking to the Telegraph, she revealed she was earning 'in the high 20,000s in 1997' before she learnt that her co-presenters Matt Baker and Simon Thomas were being paid more.

She said: 'So I kicked off, fought for my rights and upped my salary. Because Id done maths as part of my degree, I made sure I got all the back payments with compound interest.'

Konnie Huq, 44, has revealed how she 'kicked off' upon hearing that Matt Baker and Simon Thomas were paid more than her for presenting Blue Peter

The presenter went on to reveal how she stayed at Blue Peter for more than 10 years in the 'stable, steady job.'

She explained that it allowed her to get onto the property market and building up her savings in a career which can often be 'tricky financially.'

Konnie, who describes herself as anti-consumerist, added that buying a flat in London was the best investment she had ever had.

She called it a 'stable investment', adding: 'Working in the media is unstable, so the flat has worked very well and is a good safety net.'

Konnie worked as a presenter on the programme for over a decade (pictured, with Simon Thomas, Matt Baker and Zoe Salmon)

Meanwhile she revealed that she is 'not worried about getting the best deal' and explained how she charges 'really low rent' for her tenants.

After a public vote, Konnie was crowned the nation's favourite Blue Peter presenter of all time in 2017.

She has enjoyed a varied career since leaving the show in 2008, presenting The Xtra Factor, presented the One Show and wrote a short film, Ahmed & Mildred.

Konnie met husband Charlie, 47, ten years ago when she appeared in an episode of his Screenwipe on BBC1 in 2008. The couple have two children together.

The star, 44, who is best known for presenting Blue Peter from 1997 to 2008, is married to Charlie Brooker, the creator of Black Mirror. They are pictured together earlier this week at the Upstart Crow press night at the Gielgud Theatre in London

Earlier this year, Konnie's husband paid tribute to the TV star and their two sons, revealing his whirlwind romance with her as he said becoming a parent changed him for the better.

The talented writer told BBC 4's Desert Island Discs that marrying Konnie in a Las Vegas ceremony after just nine months was 'the best decision' he had ever made.

The pair also share Covey, seven, and wed in 2010.

Of the loved-up pair's marriage Charlie said: 'That was absolutely the right time. It was weird because, for years, I'd not known if I'd wanted kids or a family, that seemed like something that other people did, I couldn't perceive of that as a future.

'And then Konnie came along and quite early on she said "I want kids and a family" and this sort of thing, and I heard myself going "OK", and sort of thought, "oh, right, why have I said that?" It was the best decision I ever made.'
A COVID-19 testing site will open up near the U.S.- Mexico border later this week, San Diego County officials said.

The COVID-19 testing site is planned to be set up just outside a San Ysidro pedestrian crossing in San Diego, California, where thousands of people crossed the border every day.

According to an Associated Press report, the planned COVID-19 testing site is the first to be set up in one of the world's busiest pedestrian international border crossings.

The location is also thought to be the closest to the U.S- Mexico border in any state, Los Angeles Times reported.

As quoted by ABC San Diego, County Supervisor Greg Cox said Wednesday that the testing site would be at San Ysidro Port of Entry's PedWest crossing. It will serve around 200 COVID-19 tests daily.

On regular days, the crossing sees around 20,000 people enter the U.S., but the number had gone down with the pandemic.

County officials are hoping that the effort will help in their data-driven, community-led strategy to slow the spread of the COVID-19 in South Bay communities.

The disproportionate spread of the virus along South County regions know it is no secret to officials. Cases in these regions continue to climb as the rest of the country combats the virus.

They said some of the factors that add to the increase in cases include differences in access to health care, a large portion of the population is essential workers, and the lack of affordable housing.

Role of Border Proximity

County officials said having a testing site near the border is going to play a positive role in their fight against the pandemic.

San Diego County itself has a high case rate, with nearly 32,000 cases among its 3.3 million residents. It also tests much higher than the state to its south, Baja California.

Of the 3.3 million residents in Baja California, 14,200 of them are positive of COVID-19.

The two states are linked daily by travel that flows through the border, from both directions.

The travel takes place because, even though there are travel restrictions on non-essential activity, many of those who cross the border are essential workers in healthcare, public agencies, and restaurants.

Testing for Essential Workers

County officials know that essential workers are having difficulty finding time to get tested, even though their group is at higher risk of contracting the virus.

The new testing site is designed to serve the essential workforce, with an expected operating cost of $309,000 per month. Essential workers coming from Mexico are going to be offered the tests at the appointment-free, walk-up site, said Cox.

This will add to the Customs Border Protection officials' efforts to look for symptoms of the virus but don't perform testing of their own.

The new testing site will run from Monday to Friday and will accept its first walk-up patients early in the morning, as this time, workers are likely to cross the border.

It is also near San Ysidro Transit Center, making it easy for nearby residents to come in.

Want to read more? Take a look at these!

The Essential Role of 'Promotoras' in Latino Communities Amid the Pandemic

Los Angeles COVID-19 Hospitalizations Continue to Decline

CDC: Hispanic, Latino Children Are More Likely to Have COVID-19
Cardboard cutouts are life size replicas of a person, typically famous, perfect for parties, events, and photoshoots, as Amazon describes for a cardboard cutout of President Trump. As Amazon explains, these cutouts are easy to assemble, stand on their own, wont break or damage easily and best of all come with a 30-day money back guarantee.

Joe Biden is a cardboard cutout candidate. He was easy to assemble. He did no work on his own with his handlers at CNN and MSNBC assembling his candidacy out of the ash heap of the Democrat primaries.

YouTube screen grab

Granted Bidens primary opponents were as far left as he was, but they at least were functioning at a normal cognitive level. They could give speeches and interviews in a coherent manner without tripping over each sentence and inserting their foot in their mouth every time they spoke.

Unfortunately Crazy Bernie won the first two primaries, Iowa and New Hampshire, with Biden finishing a distant fourth, and the Democrat establishment took matters into their own hands as they did four years ago. Biden then started winning votes, at least the smiling cardboard cutout did, and the DNC dragged him across the finish line.

The Biden cutout wont break easily as long as it is kept safely in a basement, away from large gatherings, speeches, debates, or even media interviews. Unfortunately, this cutout doesnt come with a money back guarantee. Those investing millions of dollars in the Biden cardboard cutout wont get their money back when Trump gets reelected.

Biden the candidate might fare better as a pull string doll, preprogramed with catchy phrases to spout every time his wife, or the real forces behind his candidacy, and potential presidency, pull his string. Clever and novel short utterances like, Trump is a racist, Trump hates immigrants, or Trump is Putins puppet could be on rotation from Bidens mouth when his string is pulled, just as they are from CNN anchors.

Any of those hackneyed claims would have better than Bidens recent interviews. In the space of a few days, he managed to contradict himself on cognitive testing, itself a failed cognitive test, and insulted blacks, not once but twice.

In early July at a press conference before a handful of Democrat operatives pretending to be journalists, Biden was asked, Have you been tested for some degree of cognitive decline? Failing immediately,

Biden first tried to interrupt the reporter and began calling him a lying dog-faced before chuckling and letting him finish the question. He then answered, Ive been tested, and Im constantly tested.

As expected, there was no follow up question as to who tested Biden and what the results were, unlike reporters wanting to know every question Trump was asked in his cognitive test. He has yet to be asked what a dog faced pony soldier is.

This week, Biden forgot what he told the dog faced pony soldier reporter a month ago and did a complete 180. When a CBS reporter asked Biden if had taken a cognitive test, Biden had a different answer, "No, I haven't taken a test. Why the hell would I take a test? Come on, man.

Aside from the non-woke gender ignorance of calling the reporter a man, without hearing any gender pronouns ahead of the interview, or knowing if the reporter was binary or non-binary, cis or trans, or any of the other gender qualifiers so relevant to the Democrat base, Dementia Joe failed a basic cognition test by not knowing if he was even tested.

To paraphrase John Kerry, Biden was for constant cognitive testing until he was against it. Ironically, he shows his cognition, or lack of, every time he opens his mouth. Not content with showcasing his mental decline, he doubled down on his long history of racism.

During his recent Come on man interview, he asked the reporter, Are you a junkie? In fairness Biden, he might have confused the reporter with his son Hunter, actually a junkie, just as he confused his wife and sister a few months ago.

In Racist Joes world, blacks are junkies. Exceptions are the articulate, bright, clean and nice looking blacks like Barack Obama. Or the poor kids who are just as bright as white kids. Dont forget his recent Breakfast Club interview where he told a largely black audience, If you have a problem figuring out whether youre for me or Trump, you aint black.

Biden so liked the taste of his right foot in his mouth that he decided to nibble his left foot a few days later. In another interview he answered that the Latino community in the United States was diverse, "unlike the African American community with notable exceptions." What exceptions?

Did he mean the black, clean, and articulate Barack Obama, who if you use CNNs logic in describing George Zimmerman, is actually a white African American as Obamas mother was white.

Despite downplaying Bidens comments, the media was forced to acknowledge, as ABC News did that Bidens, Pattern of blunders could impact support within the Black community.

Impact indeed. Rasmussen Reports, in their July 19-23 poll of US likely voters found 40 percent total support among blacks for President Trump. With Republican presidents typically capturing around 10 percent of the black vote, imagine if Trump gets 20 percent, half of the Rasmussen approval number? Can you say landslide?

We are told white suburban women voters are offended by Trumps tweets and demeanor and wont vote for him. Dont be so sure as BLM and Antifa invade their suburban enclaves, encouraged by the Democrat party. They may prefer Trumps tweets to a Molotov cocktail through their living room window.

Expect Basement Biden to be a kept hidden away from the public  interviews, debates, speeches, and rallies. The more he talks, the worse it is for him and his campaign. Regardless of which woman of color he chooses for his running mate, Biden is at the top of the ticket. Yet he is a phantom candidate, only allowed in public for brief glimpses, compared to Trump giving hour long press conferences daily.

The election is a binary choice  Trump versus Biden. America versus non-America. Law and order versus mayhem and destruction. Prosperity versus poverty. The flag versus the fist. Tweets versus terror.

Biden and the Democrats are on the losing end of these choices and the more America sees and hears the modern Joe Biden the worse for him and his electoral prospects.

He will be kept tucked away in his basement and the cardboard cutout Joe will emerge to smile and wave at Democrats and Never-Trumpers so eager to see America decline into a second world nation. Not only will we have a cardboard cutout president but also a cardboard cutout nation.

Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a Denver-based physician and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in American Thinker, Daily Caller, Rasmussen Reports, and other publications. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Parler, and QuodVerum.
Night and weekend curfew in Jammu and Kashmir 2022: Know guidelines, rules: What is allowed, what is not

New law to protect land rights of people of J&K soon

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Aug 10: The Centre is considering bringing in new legislation to protect the land rights of the native people of Jammu and Kashmir.

A Bill to this effect is expected to be tabled in Parliament soon. This is an important move and is aimed at addressing the concerns of the citizens of the Union Territory after. Article 370 was abrogated on August 5 last year.

There has been a marked fear among the locals regarding the settlement of outsiders in the UT, following the abrogation of the Article. There is also an air of distrust and insecurity over the settlement of people from the other states.

Article 370 scrapped: Here is what has changed in J&K over a year

Land rights for the locals of Jammu and Kashmir is coming up. Work is on to enact a new law that would allay all fears of people of Jammu and Kashmir, an official privy to the developments told PTI.

Pranab Mukherjee tests Covid-19 +ve | Former President tests positive | Oneindia News

Once the legislation is passed by Parliament, the fear of losing rights over land will be over in Jammu and Kashmir, the official cited above also said.

Following the abrogation of Article 370, there has been a 26 per cent increase in minority scholarships.
Several employees of the French charity Acted were among those killed by gunmen during a tourist trip in southwestern Niger on Sunday, the NGO told AFP.

"Among the eight people killed in Niger several of them were Acted employees," the group's lawyer Joseph Breham said.
Germanys Social Democrats on Monday proposed Olaf Scholz, the finance minister and their most popular politician, to run to succeed Angela Merkel in next years national election, when her fourth and final term is expected to end.

The decision marks a comeback for the former Hamburg mayor, who was last year defeated by two left-wing outsiders in the race to lead their Social Democratic Party (SPD), which is the junior partner in Ms Merkels conservative-led ruling coalition.

Now its official, Mr Scholz wrote on Twitter. The party leadership have unanimously nominated me as chancellor candidate. I look forward to a fun, fair and successful campaign.

It is not yet clear who will be the conservatives candidate for chancellor. Ms Merkel has said she will not contest the next election after leading Germany since 2005.

Mr Scholz faces a stiff challenge. The SPD, which for decades vied with Ms Merkels Christian Democrats (CDU) for dominance of German politics, has not won a national election since 2002 and now languishes a distant third in most opinion polls behind the conservatives and the upstart Greens.

Mr Scholz is Germanys third most popular politician behind Ms Merkel and one of her possible successors as CDU leader, health minister Jens Spahn.

The Social Democrats will be hoping that Mr Scholzs transformation, during the coronavirus pandemic, from austere custodian of the public purse to free-spending paymaster in charge of a massive economic stimulus programme, will bolster their support in next years election.

Olaf Scholzs nomination is a good decision at the right time, Gerhard Schroeder, Germanys last SPD chancellor, told the Handelsblatt newspaper. Mr Schroeder left office in 2005 and has been a harsh critic of recent SPD leaders.

Mr Scholz was nominated as chancellor candidate by the SPD co-leaders, Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans.

In what some saw as a recognition of the steep challenge ahead for the SPD, Walter-Borjans on Sunday conceded what had once been inconceivable  that alongside the Greens, the party would be open to govern in coalition with the Left party, heirs to the Communist Party of the former East Germany.

Reuters
Boeing has offered Air India support and is likely to soon send a technical team to examine debris of the Boeing 737-800 aircraft which crashed on August 7 at the table-top airport in Kerala's Kozhikode city.

The company in a statement said it is prepared to provide a technical team to assist the US National Transportation Safety Board, as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) of India conducts its investigation, said a report by Mint. This is in accordance to ICAO Annex 13 guidelines, it added.

The move comes after the Civil Aviation Ministrys Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on August 9 said it has recovered the planes black box and will retrieve transcripts from it to investigate the incident.

Indias Director General of Civil Aviation Arun Kumar told ANI, We are going to talk to Boeing to examine the aircrafts original equipment for defects. Adding that only a thorough and unbiased probe would reveal what happened.

AAIBs Aurobindo Handa did not respond to queries, the report said.

The aircraft maker further expressed deepest condolences to family and friends of the deceased and said they hoped for swift recovery of passengers and crew who were injured, as per the report.
The families of victims of Taliban atrocities have reacted angrily to news that their killers could soon walk free as Kabul and the Taliban discuss freeing hundreds of prisoners as part of a peace deal to end the near 20-year conflict.

Under the peace deal beteen the Afghan government and the Taliban, 400 inmates accused of serious offences, could soon walk free.

The government accepted the advice of a "loya jirga", a grand assembly of elders, on Sunday to release the hard-core Taliban prisoners, paving the way for long-awaited peace talks aimed at ending almost two decades of conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people.

"This is a very happy day. Based on the information I have the intra-Afghan talks would begin within two to three days after the release of the 400 Taliban prisoners," former President Hamid Karzai told the gathering.

The prisoners' fate had been a crucial hurdle in launching peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban armed group.

"The decision of the loya jirga has removed the last excuse and obstacles on the way to peace talks," said Abdullah Abdullah, who is leading the government's peace process and was appointed head of the elders' assembly.

The prisoner exchange was part of a US-Taliban agreement signed in February, which saw Washington agree to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in return for a pledge from the insurgents to hold peace talks with Kabul.

Unpopular move

The government of Ashraf Ghani has released almost 5,000 Taliban inmates already to kickstart the talks, but had baulked at freeing the remaining 400 prisoners demanded by the Taliban.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has pushed for the detainees' release, while recognising the decision would be "unpopular".

The prisoners consist of 44 insurgents accused of "high-profile" attacks against citizens from the United States and other countries, including France.

The family of a French woman murdered in Afghanistan said Saturday they could not accept the release of her killers.

Story continues

Bettina Goislard was working for the UN refugee agency when she was killed in 2003 in Ghazni, south of Kabul, by two men who are on the list of Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government and may be set free.

"Such a decision to free (them) made on the basis of horse-trading would be, to us, her family, inconceivable," Bettina's parents, brother and sister said in a statement.

As well asBettina's two killers, there are some 150 others who have been sentenced to death for serious crimes.

No redemption

In Australia, the families of three Australian soldiers killed by a rogue Afghan prisoner in a "green on blue" attack in 2012 have been advised by the Department of Defence that the killer appears certain to be released under the Afghan-Taliban prisoner swap deal.

The Afghan sergeant named Hekmatullah was charged with killing Lance Corporal Stjepan Milosevic, Sapper James Martin and Private Robert Poate.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday wrote to US President Donald Trump, pleading with him to prevent the killer walking free from Kabul's Pul-e-Charkhi prison.

US politics

Lawmaker Belquis Roshan, an outspoken women's rights activist, protested against the prisoners' release, unfurling a banner reading: "Redeeming Taliban is national treason."

The messages might be falling on deaf ears however. President Donald Trump, up for re-election in November, has repeatedly said that he wants to end America's longest war, starting by reducing troop levels in the country to below 5,000 by mid-2021.

Experts say the intra-Afghan talks, which are hinged on the controversial release of militant prisoners, provides Trump with the security guarantees he needs to wind down the US operation.
Janmashtami, the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna, is celebrated in various parts of the country with great enthusiasm. The festival is celebrated with most fervour in Mathura which is said to be his birthplace. Janmashtami 2020 will be celebrated on two days  11 and 12 August.

Janmashtami, the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna, is celebrated in various parts of the country with great enthusiasm. The festival is celebrated with most fervour in Mathura which is said to be the birthplace of Lord Krishna. Krishna Janmashtami 2020 will be celebrated on two days  11 and 12 August.

Krishna is believed to be the eight avatar, or incarnation, of Vishnu. He is said to be born on the eighth day of the Krishna Paksha in the month of Bhadrapad according to the Hindu calendar. As per Drik Panchang, devotees observe fast on this day and abstain from consuming grains until the next day sunrise. Krishna Janmashtami is also known as Krishnashtami, Gokulashtami, Ashtami Rohini, Srikrishna Jayanti and Sree Jayanthi.

This is marks the 5,247th birth anniversary of Lord Krishna.

Janmashtami 2020: Date and Puja timing

Janmashtami Tithi - 11 August

Nishita Puja Time - 12:05 am to 12:48 am of 12 August

ISKCON will be celebrating Krishna Janmashtami on 12 August, reported Mumbai Mirror. According to the report, spokesperson Parijata Devi said that devotees will be able to view e-puja and abhishek online. According to the spokesperson, devotees will also be able to hear Janmashtami Katha, stories about Krishna's birth, that is being broadcast online daily in the morning and evening.

According to The Indian Express, people sing devotional songs and maintain vigil at night since it is believed that Lord Krishna was born at midnight.

The idols of Lord Krishna are cleaned with milk, ghee, curd and decorate with new clothes and ornaments. The idol is then placed in a cradle to symbolise the birth of the lord.

According to legend, Krishna was the eighth son of Devaki and Vasudeva.

Devaki was the sister of Mathura's cruel king Kansa and it was prophesied that her eighth son would be the cause of his death. The moment Kansa got to know about the prophecy, he had both Devaki and Vasudeva imprisoned and one by one, killed all their sons until Krishna was born.

On the night Krishna was born, a divine voice instructed Vasudeva to take Krishna to Vrindavan where he would be safe. The voice revealed that once Vasudevas eighth born grows up, he can come tackle the Kansa and free Mathura of its miseries.

Vasudeva travelled from Mathura to Vrindavan crossing Yamuna river on foot carrying Krishna on top of his head, braving the stormy night. Krishna spent his early years in Vrindavan in the care of Yashoda and Nand.

Krishna devotees keep a fast on the day of Janmashtami. As per believers, one should only have a single meal before the auspicious day. On the day of the festival, devotees abstain from partaking any kind of food and break their fast on the next day. Consuming grains is a strictly avoiding during Janmashtami fasting.

Janmashtami, which is celebrated across India, sees different regions adding their own flavour to the festivities. Mathura and Vrindavan in North India witness celebrations in a grand scale as it is believed that Lord Krishna was born in Mathura and grew up in Vrindavan. Krishna Leelas and Raas Leelas also take place narrating the life of Lord Krishna in the forms of plays and dance recitals.

In Maharashtra, the festival is celebrated by organising Dahi Handi competitions that conclude with prize distribution ceremonies, while in Gujarat's Dwarka devotees decorate household temples, sing devotional songs and prepare sweetmeats for the God.

In Tamil Nadu, people observe fast and decorate the floor with beautiful patterns made of rice batter called kolams. Young boys in Andhra Pradesh dress up as Krishna and devotees chant mantras and sing devotional songs as well.

In Odisha and West Bengal, the festival is also called Sri Krishna Jayanti and is celebrated by fasting and reciting the tenth chapter of the Hindu scripture of Bhagavata Purana until midnight. The next day sees Nanda Utsav. In Manipur the celebrations see fasting, recitation fo scriptures and the Raslila dance performances.
Rajasthan government is planning to join hands with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to support MSME units in the state. Under the arrangement, the SIDBI would set up a Project Management Unit (PMU) to provide assistance to certain cluster-based sectors like textiles in Bhilwara and handicrafts in Jodhpur, a state government official said.

In a meeting with the state government officials held on August 10, SIDBI representatives highlighted various clusters where they would like to work and how they would reach out to small entrepreneurs, using their expertise for providing consultation, appropriate solutions and guidance for availing benefits under current schemes.

With the active participation of the consultants provided by SIDBI, the cluster level challenges of MSMEs would be easier to address and MSMEs will also be able to avail benefits under relevant schemes, Archana Singh, Commissioner- Industries said.

The objective is aimed at achieving a vibrant and synergised MSME (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises) ecosystem in the state. Under this initiative, the partnering agency of SIDBI will be identifying the Institutional constraints, factor constraints, and demand constraints for MSMEs in the state, she said.

In a set timeline, the team deputed by SIDBI will be creating a strategy of cluster-based value chain for resource optimisation, setting up of a resource centre for cluster-level consultation and a help desk as well as empowerment of the concerned Industry Associations.

It will be working as an effective bridge between MSMEs and the government for understanding ground-level challenges that MSMEs are facing and creating an ideal ecosystem for the ease of doing business, she added.
The list of sites blocked in MYANMAR includes many websites that did not fall under the categories adult content or fake news

Original post at: https://www.qurium.org/alerts/myanmar/internet-blocking-in-myanmar-secret-block-list-and-no-means-to-appeal

In March 2020, The Ministry of Telecommunications (MoTC) issued a directive to all operators in Myanmar with a secret list of 230 sites to be blocked due to the nature of the content; adult content and fake news. The order was based on article 77 of the Telecommunications Law and the MoTC directive stipulated that the list of blocked sites was confidential and could not be made public. If an operator publicized the list, it would be in violation of the directive and local law. However, the block list included many websites that did not fall under the categories adult content or fake news. Several legitimate and acknowledged media related to minority ethnic groups and news focusing on the Rakhine state were found on the list.

Telenor Myanmar  an attempt to resistance

There are four operators in Myanmar: state-owned Myanma Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), Qatar based Ooredoo, military-aligned Mytel, and privately owned Telenor Myanmar. Telenor initially challenged the blocking, and on March 23, Telenor Myanmars spokesperson said:

Telenor Myanmar has not complied with the request to block sites in the category of fake news as it has not been able to establish sufficient legal basis for this part of the request. Telenor Myanmar believes in open communication and regrets if any inconvenience is caused to the customers

However, dialogue with the authorities made it clear that non-compliance with the directive would have implications on the companys ability to service the public says Cathrine Stang Lund, Acting VP Communications at the Telenor Group, Singapore. In April 2020, Telenor complied with the directive and blocked ALL sites on the block list. In a press release from April 22, Telenor stated:

Telenor has assessed that the risk involved in not following the directive as regards fake news is likely to have wider implications in terms of servicing the public. Hence, the remaining sites have been blocked bringing the total count to 230.

Five months later, several legitimate and trusted news sites such as Mandalay In-Depth News, KarenNews and Voice of Myanmar, remain blocked in Myanmar.

How is the blocking implemented?

In collaboration with the civil society organization Myanmar ICT for Development Organization (MIDO), Qurium has investigated the blocking methods implemented by Telenor Myanmar and the state-owned operator Myanma Posts and Telecommunications (MPT).

During the joint research with MIDO, traffic was recorded from Telenor (AS133385) and MPT inside Myanmar (AS9988) to a number of blocked legitimate news sites that had been classified as fake news. Our findings show that both Telenor and MPT block websites using DNS tampering. MPT is ignoring the DNS requests to the blocked domains, while Telenor is redirecting them to an IP address outside of the country.

Telenor  redirects blocked users to anonymous foreign server

.pw domains are inexpensive and often used by spammers.

The blocking mechanism of Telenor is curious and requires a bit of attention. Telenor redirects all users attempting to access a blocked domain to an inexpensive VPS outside of Telenors own infrastructure under a non-Telenor domain. The VPS (IP address 167.172.4{.}60) is hosted in Digital Ocean, Singapore under the domain urlblocked.pw, a domain purchased in late March 2020 for less than 2 USD.

According to Stang-Lund at Telenor Myanar, the reason for using an external domain hosted in Singapore as landing page is to protect the users. She says this (decision) is based on a holistic evaluation, including privacy considerations, as user data on attempted access is outside of Myanmars jurisdiction.

However, when redirecting blocked users to a Digital Ocean VPS in Singapore (outside of Telenors infrastructure), Telenor puts the readers in greater risk as the traffic leaves Telenors control and travels via several unknown operators. Qurium has requested a clarification from Telenor Myanmar on why Telenor did not place the block page within its own infrastructure (but outside of Myanmars jurisdiction), but have not received an answer.

Telenors anonymous block page under the obscure domain urlblocked.pw.

The block page provides the user a brief message in Burmese and English. The message does neither indicate that it is coming from Telenor nor provide means to appeal the blocking decision.

Sorry, this URL is not available from Myanmar. You have tried to access a web page which has been blocked as per directive received from the Ministry of Transport and Communications Myanmar..

Cathrine Stang-Lund explains Since the authorities have not provided a complaint or appeal mechanism, nor contact details, Telenor Myanmar is unfortunately unable to provide that on the landing page. Any appeal should be made to the authorities. Adding this information to the block page would increase the transparency and trustworthiness of Telenor Myanmar.

The block page uses the domain urlblocked.pw registered the 26th of March 2020 with a free Lets encrypt certificate.

Domain Name: URLBLOCKED.PW Registry Domain ID: D180106494-CNIC Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.namesilo.com Registrar URL: https://www.namesilo.com Updated Date: 2020-03-31T03:01:23.0Z Creation Date: 2020-03-26T02:55:00.0Z Registry Expiry Date: 2021-03-26T23:59:59.0Z Registrar: NameSilo, LLC

To confirm the domain ownership, Qurium tried to reach the domain owner via an online form provided by nic.pw. A month later, no response has been provided.

The mail account hostmaster@urlblocked.pw, published as contact details in DNS, bounces all incoming mails.

Blocking without accountability

There are several aspects of the Internet blocking in Myanmar that raise questions. In this section we have collected the open questions that still are unanswered.

Why does not the MoTC release a public list of all blocked sites? How come that the block list is secret? Why does not MoTC provide a complaint or appeal mechanism, or at least contact details for questions regarding the blocking? Why did Telenor decide to use a VPS hosted in a third party provider to host the blocking page instead of using a server within the Telenor infrastructure? Why is this VPS hosted outside Myanmar, implying that visitors to blocked sites are redirected to a server outside of the jurisdiction of Myanmar? Why did Telenor register the domain urlblocked.pw without a proper contact information? Blocked websites have no means to identify and contact the organization responsible of the blocking and exercise their rights to object. Internet blocking is normally requested by the Ministry of Transport and Communication, but in order to force operators to implement the blocking, a legal decree is required. Did the operators receive such a decree from the Ministry of Justice of Myanmar?

Circumvention of Internet blocking

To circumvent Internet blocking of legitimate news sites, human rights organizations and LGBTQI initiatives, Qurium has developed the mirroring service Bifrost. Bifrost creates live-mirrors of WordPress sites, and pushes the content to large cloud storage services like Google or Amazon, which are too expensive for governments to block. In the case of Myanmar, Qurium has chosen to mirror In-Depth News Mandalay, a legitimate local news site focusing on the Mandalay region. The news site was blocked in March 2020 under the category fake news, after being openly critical against military violence and government corruption.

Further reading  OONI research report

For further reading on current situation of Internet blocking in Myanmar, we recommend the article Myanmar blocks websites amid COVID19 published by OONI in May 2020.

About the author:

About the authors  Contacts:

Forensic report: Tord Lundstrom, Qurium Media Foundation < t@virtualroad.org >

Media: Clara Zid, Qurium Media Foundation < info@virtualroad.org >

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs  hacking, Myanmar)

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(TNS)  The Toledo, Ohio, Police Department is working to secure funding for approximately 195 more body cameras for its officers.Such an acquisition would give TPD a total of 574 cameras, which would allow every officer who interacts with the public to be outfitted with a camera, Lt. James Brown told Toledo City Council last week.A proposal to require all TPD officers be outfitted with body cameras was introduced to council in June, and along with several other items related to police reform, that piece of legislation was sent to committee.The intention is for the Community-Police Relations and Reform Committee , formed in response to calls for police reform in the wake of George Floyds death in Minneapolis, to take the proposals into consideration and determine the best way to implement changes to policing in Toledo.Independent of the proposed legislation, Toledo police Chief George Kral has said it is his goal to get every officer whos out on the street outfitted with a body camera.All field officers received Getac body cameras in 2018, but currently neither Special Weapons and Tactics officers nor members of the gang task force have them.TPD is also in the process of transferring the storage of body camera footage to Getacs cloud service instead of its own servers. The cost of using the cloud service is about $280,000 annually.The reason for switching to the cloud service is simply because the police department is running out of electronic storage, Lieutenant Brown told council.We were doing this on our own servers, and especially with the addition of the purchase of new cameras, theres not enough space to manage our server any longer, Lieutenant Brown said.Lt. Kellie Lenhardt, the police departments spokesman, said hundreds of cameras are running consistently and the department has to keep the footage in accordance with public-records laws. Over time, it adds up to a lot of footage.From November through last month, TPD used 96 terabytes of storage, Lt. Lenhardt said.Moving storage off-premises also would protect the department against server crashes that could cause problems for camera footage, the spokesman said.Council is scheduled to vote on authorizing the funds for the transfer during its meeting Tuesday.
McDonald's says it's suing Stephen Easterbrook, the CEO it ousted last year over an inappropriate relationship with an employee, alleging Monday that he covered up relationships with three other employees and destroyed evidence.

The company now wants to reclaim millions of dollars in compensation paid to Easterbrook.

"McDonald's does not tolerate behavior from employees that does not reflect our values," said McDonald's President and CEO Chris Kempczinski, who was promoted following Easterbrook's departure, in a message to employees Monday.

The lawsuit puts a spotlight  again  on a years-long reckoning over sexual harassment at Chicago-based McDonald's and its 39,000 restaurants. In the U.S. alone, more than 50 workers have filed separate sexual harassment charges against McDonald's with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or in state courts.

Leaders with Fight for $15, which supports higher wages and unions for fast food workers, said Monday that McDonald's should use any money it recoups from Easterbrook for worker-led programs that combat sexual harassment.

In his message to employees, Kempczinski said he is committed to making sure that employees are "encouraged and comfortable coming forward with information about any behavior that doesn't align with our values."

McDonald's also told workers Monday it is conducting a global survey and listening sessions to assess the current state of its corporate culture. The assessment will be completed and shared with employees in November, McDonald's Chief People Officer Heidi Capozzi said in a message obtained by The Associated Press.

McDonald's fired Easterbrook last November after he acknowledged exchanging videos and text messages in a nonphysical, consensual relationship with an employee. Easterbrook told the company that there were no other similar instances. An initial search of his cellphone confirmed that.

Based on what the company knew at the time, McDonald's board approved a separation agreement "without cause" that allowed Easterbrook to keep nearly $42 million in stock-based benefits, according to Equilar, which tracks executive compensation. Easterbrook also collected 26 weeks of pay, amounting to compensation of about $670,000.

According to the lawsuit, McDonald's received an anonymous tip in July that Easterbrook had engaged in a sexual relationship with another employee. After an investigation, McDonald's confirmed that relationship as well as two other physical, sexual relationships in the year before he was fired. Easterbrook also approved a special grant of restricted stock, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, to one of those employees, the lawsuit said.

The company said Monday that Easterbrook removed evidence of those relationships  including sexually explicit photos and videos sent from corporate email accounts  from his cellphone, preventing investigators from learning about them prior to his firing. But that evidence remained on the company's email servers.

McDonald's didn't say why those servers weren't checked during its initial investigation. In the lawsuit, the company says it relied on Easterbrook  its highest ranking executive  to be truthful.

"That reliance caused the company injury," McDonald's said in the lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in Delaware, McDonald's said it would not have terminated Easterbrook without cause if it had known of the additional relationships.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Tim Hubbard, an assistant professor of management at the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, said firing a CEO with cause can lead to protracted, expensive legal battles, which is why boards try to avoid it. Easterbrook's case seemed clear-cut, he said.

But Hubbard applauded McDonald's for reopening the investigation when new information came forward. He said McDonald's experience may teach other companies not to reach severance agreements without a thorough investigation.

"That's my big hope with this thing, that we learn from it," he said. "Companies are not going to settle for this anymore."

McDonald's is now attempting to block Easterbrook from exercising his stock options and said it will seek compensatory damages.

It's unclear how much Easterbrook might have to pay. In the lawsuit, McDonald's says Easterbrook's separation agreement makes clear that his 2018 and 2019 equity awards may be forfeited if the company determines he has engaged in "detrimental conduct." Easterbrook was awarded more than $29 million in stock-based compensation in those two years.

Telephone and email messages seeking comment were left with Easterbrook's attorney.

Easterbrook and his wife divorced in 2015, the same year he became McDonald's CEO. Easterbrook, who is British, began his career with McDonald's in 1993 when he served as a finance manager in London.

McDonald's has taken steps to halt harassment in its ranks. In 2017, Easterbrook assured McDonald's board that he and other executives were completing anti-harassment training. Last October  a month before Easterbrook was fired  McDonald's introduced a new harassment training program for its 850,000 U.S. employees. But franchisees  who own 95 percent of McDonald's U.S. restaurants  aren't required to offer it.
A pedestrian has cheated death after he was struck on his head by a spanner falling from a tower block in China.

The six-inch sharp tool was accidentally dropped by a technician who was installing an air conditioner outside a flat eight storeys up in north-eastern Chinese province Liaoning, reported local media.

The injured man, 50, is said to have been in stable condition after doctors removed the metal wrench lodged in his head during a three-hour operation.

The six-inch sharp tool was accidentally dropped by a maintenance worker who was installing an air conditioner outside a flat eight-storeys up in north-eastern Chinese province Liaoning, reported local press. The mechanical tool can be seen in an X-ray scan stuck in the mans head

The injured man, 50, is said to have been in stable condition after doctors removed the metal wrench lodged in his head. The picture released by local media show the injured citizen with the sharp wrench stuck in his head as he sat on the ground while holding the wound

The terrifying incident occurred on Thursday afternoon in Liaonings provincial capital, Shenyang, according to Chinese media.

The unnamed pedestrian was walking down the street with his colleague when the spanner suddenly fell and hit the mans head.

His co-worker said that they looked up and saw a maintenance worker who was installing an air conditioner outside an eight-storey flat of the residential building.

The installer was also in shock [after the incident happened]. He was looking down while sitting on the platform, the mans colleague told Liaoshen Evening News.

Media reports did not specify the height of the flat. But an eight-storey flat is usually 24 metres (79 feet) above the ground.

The six-inch sharp tool was accidentally dropped by a maintenance worker who was installing an air conditioner outside a flat eight-storeys up in north-eastern Chinese province Liaoning

The pedestrian was rushed to a local hospital after his horrified co-worker called for an ambulance. The terrifying incident occurred on Thursday afternoon in Liaoning, China

Gruesome pictures released by Chinese media show the injured citizen with the sharp wrench stuck in his head. One of them sees the man sitting on the ground while holding the wound with his hand, appearing to be in pain.

The pedestrian was rushed to a local hospital after his horrified co-worker called for an ambulance.

When we saw the patient, he was conscious, Dr Bao Min, a neurosurgeon at the Shenjing Hospital, told Pear Video. He could move around his arms and legs. [He] only suffered some headaches.

After conducting a CT scan, doctors found that the 15-centimetre (six inches) long wrench had speared through the patients skull.

We could also see a lot of fractured bones. So the situation was very dangerous, Dr Bao added.

The mechanical tool can be seen in an X-ray scan stuck in the mans head with the rotary fasteners rammed through his skull.

The pedestrian (pictured left) was rushed to a local hospital after his horrified co-worker called for an ambulance. He was scheduled to undergo an emergency operation to remove the tool

After a three-hour emergency operation, surgeons successfully removed the spanner from the pedestrians head.

The patient is said to have been in stable condition following the surgery. He will remain in the hospital for further treatment, according to the doctors.

During the first stage of the treatment, the patient did not suffer any major bleedings or hemiplegia. This was already e fortunate part out of all the misfortunes, Dr Bao told the local paper.

The patient has a strong body and a thicker skull. Therefore the spanner did not cut too deep. It would have been even more dangerous if it was a woman or a child, the medic said.
A business report revealed that the coronavirus pandemic has caused a loss of four million visitors to local travel companies,

as a result of which some 90% of the HCMC-based ones had to suspend their operations, while 90% of employees from three-to-five star hotels had to opt for unpaid leave.

The beach in Danang City - PHOTO: DAO LOAN

In Hanoi, 764 hotels have shut their doors and the room occupancy of three-to-five star hotels has been only 8%.

These numbers indicate how the novel coronavirus outbreak has greatly affected the tourism industry. Now, businesses are looking for practical solutions.

At an online meeting, which saw the participation of representatives from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism and businesses on July 8, the businessmen said they could not manage by themselves anymore and needed the support of the Government.

Accordingly, in Hanoi, tourist arrivals decreased by 75-80% since the pandemic broke out once again in Vietnam two weeks ago, while some 28,000 employees had to stop working. In the beginning of July, Quang Ninh Province attracted 100,000 visitors, but from July 26 to August 6, there were only 1,000 tourists left.

Meanwhile, VietJet Airs flights have decreased by 70-75%. Sun World, a member of Sun Group, lost three million guests, equivalent to VND1,000 billion, in the past six months. It is expected to lose an additional one million visitors in August.

Businesses have run out of money. They need financial support, noted Vo Anh Tai, Deputy General Director of Saigontourist Group.

He suggested that the tourism administration body should raise its voice to help businesses and workers overcome difficulties, focusing on financial and taxation solutions.

How to survive is of the most importance at present, noted Phan Xuan Thanh, Chairman of the Quang Nam Tourism Association, adding, We need money to continue to run our companies. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism needs to urge the Government to introduce interest-free loans so we can pay salaries to our staff.

At the meeting, some businesses believed that the disease is being well controlled and tourism would recover quickly. Lessons from the previous stimulation campaign showed that the domestic market demand is large. So, the market would soon recover if the industry is well prepared during the current period.

For instance, in the past three months, VietJet Air reported a robust growth against the peak period during the Tet holidays thanks to big promotions. The private airline is preparing for another stimulus package at very good prices.

Vu The Binh, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, also shared the same view, stating that the most important thing now was to keep businesses alive and wait for the market to recover.

A representative from Vietnam Airlines also spoke about the second stimulus campaign. Vietnamese people will tour again once the Covid-19 outbreak is controlled, so the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism should prepare its communication strategy to attract customers.

As for tour cancellations and delays, Nguyen Thi Khanh, Vice chairwoman of the HCMC Tourism Association, said over 30 localities nationwide have supported travel companies in HCMC by refunding deposits. SGT

Dao Loan

Tourism sector takes steps to recover market amid new COVID-19 outbreak The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) is making preparations for a recovery of the tourism market amid a new COVID-19 outbreak.
Jim Newell: On Friday, talks between Democratic negotiators and Republican negotiators on a major coronavirus relief bill collapsed after two weeks of essentially no progress. Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, wanted to spend north of $3 trillion on a wide range of programs and Republicans were only willing to spend $1 trillion on a narrower range. On one of the biggest sticking points aloneaid for state and local governmentsthe sides were hundreds of billions of dollars apart. Democrats offered to meet Republicans in the middle, but Republicans instead decided to go ahead with some smaller executive actions from the president, which he released Saturday.

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So, Jordan. What, uh, now? Is this the end of it?

Jordan Weissmann: I mean, I think were in a pretty bleak place right now. Donald Trump has released these executive orders, which he told the members of his country club would take care of pretty much this entire situation. Obviously, thats not true. Nobody even remotely tuned in to Earths frequency believes that these things will do much good for the economy, or families who are trying to figure out how to make rent. Even if its legal, and states can actually get it up and running, the weird unemployment extension he MacGyvered together only has enough funding to last for about five weeks. But Trump thinks hes solved the recession. And as someone I was talking to on the Hill pointed out, that means we probably arent going to get an actual bill until somebody in the administration breaks it to Trump that, actually, those orders he signed did jack squat and were facing an emergency.

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Which, given the White House staffs reputation for cold, sober analysis and truth telling to the president, might in turn mean were fucked until the market crashes.

Jim: Yeah, the executive actions look worse with each read. On the UI extension, there are the impossible logistics of getting it up and runningwere still waiting on guidance from the feds about how this will even workand then theres the question of whether states will accept it, since it requires a 25 percent match from states that are all completely broke. The eviction language is entirely hazy about further studying the idea. And what business is going to stop withholding payroll tax when they have little certainty that Congress would eventually waive whats owed at the end of the year? I do think that Trumps EO got Republicans out of a difficult negotiating position and is, temporarily, helpful for them politically. But if (when) these actions prove not to work, some sort of talks will have to pick up again. I dont know how long that process will take to play out.

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Jordan: Right. And in the meantime, there actually appear to be zero negotiations right now.

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Jim: Yes. The House is out until mid-September. The Senate is in session this week, but they have no votes and there are probably like four senators in town.

Jordan: I mean, I think people in Washington are starting to take seriously the possibility that there actually just wont be another bill, which is an outcome so bad that I actually cant really wrap my mind around it. (Theres a therapy term for that, right?)

Jim: I think well get a sense of whether theres going to be another bill over the next month as we see how the distribution of blame plays out in the public. Democrats negotiated pretty aggressively because they felt comfortable on the politicsthat Republicans, who are trying to protect both the presidency and a Senate majority, would need to bend to them. Which leads me to another hot burning question in the Discourse: Did Democrats overplay their hand? Even if they were comfortable with the politics of no-deal (and well see how that turns out), they really do need help for their states.

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Jordan: Before answering that question: I think that no matter what happened, unless Pelosi got Republicans to cave and accept a $3.4 trillion deal, people would be second-guessing her strategy. Usually the left gets on her case for giving in too easily. But I literally learned about Trumps executive order announcement from a left-wing journalist tweeting about how shed been outfoxed. Which seemed silly, given that all Trump is actually doing is letting some people get evicted right now. BUT ANYWAY  no, I dont think Pelosi overplayed her hand.

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At the end of talks, she and Schumer offered to come down $1 trillion if the GOP went up $1 trillion. And Mnuchin and Meadows said no dice. And the reality is that a $1 trillion bill, like what Republicans asked for, is completely insufficient given what were facing right now. It just wouldnt be worth accepting.

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So for once, Democrats held firm and refused to be the responsible ones. I think that was the correct decision. But I dont know. You?

Jim: I agree! I was just asking to test if youd gone soft.

Jordan: LOL. No. This shit is radicalizing me.

Though I realize Im saying that from an intensely privileged place where Im not personally facing eviction, so I dont envy Democrats who actually have to do this negotiating. Do you think Pelosi and Schumer had any idea the GOP would take its ball and go home?

Jim: Pelosi and Schumers leverage came from 1) Republicans being so divided, meaning McConnell and the White House would need mostly Democratic votes to move anything; and 2) Republicans needing a bill to protect the presidency and Senate majority. I am not sure that they anticipated the White House taking an executive action path that tempered their leverage in the latter category. But, if these executive actions dont meaningfully mitigate public suffering, then Republicans will be back to needing a bill.

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Jordan: But what if  what if they just decide that they dont need it? I dont know, maybe Im just too deep into conspiracy theories about the Postal Service at this point.

But what if Mitch McConnell just decides the polling is going to be terrible no matter what, and literally the only hope the party has is to keep people from voting anyway?

In which case, avoiding a deal, and making sure Democrats cant do anything about whats happening with vote by mail, which they want funding for in the legislation, actually serves their purposes? I know Im three steps from tinfoil-hat territory here, but [gestures broadly at everything].

(Also, this I realize slightly undercuts my position that Democrats needed to take a firm negotiating stance. Im a storm of clashing emotions right now.)

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Jim: I think an appropriate big-picture question here is: How cooked do Republicans think Trump is? I feel like Ive been hearing a lot more bold declarations against spending from people like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Rick Scott when Ive been going up to the Senate the last month, and am getting major 2024 vibes. They want their hands clean for the next year when Republicans are out of power and its time to talk about how the party has Lost Its Way. But Trump hasnt given up on his reelection, and McConnell has said hell put whatever agreement the White House reaches with Democrats on the floor.

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I just think if you see Trumps numbers have reached new lows in a month because there hasnt been meaningful action, there will be action.

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Jordan: So either Trumps polling drops, or stock prices start to dropassuming that investors havent priced in the possibility of no deal. (Which I dont think they have. Because stocks keep shooting up like everythings dandy.)

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Jim: Judging by today, seems like the markets have still priced in a deal being reached? Is this right? Not a big stocks guy over here.

Jordan: I am not a big stonks guy either. But yeah, it seems like Wall Street is still sort of just assuming that Washington will pull something together before everything collapses so terribly that large companies actually feel the shocks.

I had this one grim back-and-forth with a Hill aide where they were actually worrying stocks might only fall gently by, like, a couple hundred points at a time over a month or two, because if the Dow doesnt lose like a gajillion points in a day Congress doesnt notice.

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Jim: Its true, the one catalyzing economic metric in Congress is the Dow having a 1,000-point loss because it means they have personally lost a noticeable amount of money that day.

Jordan: I mean, the one other saving grace herethough I hate to call it thatis that small businesses are also fucked. Big corporations got a permanent bailout via the Fed, but a lot of small- and midsize companies have been banking on either a new round of PPP or a successor program. Without it, theyre in a lot of trouble, and that could put a little pressure on the GOP to act.

But, again, Trump thinks he solved everything, and Mark Meadows certainly isnt going to tell him otherwise.

Jim: That goes back to the issue of Republicans needing a bill by conventional political considerations  but also maybe deciding they dont need a bill.

I think this comes down to either one side getting pounded over the next month and moving toward the others position, producing a deal, or a muddled picture and the usual blame-game talking points carrying us through the election. Also, the stonks.

Jordan: Stonks.

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For obvious reasons, the presidential race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden is sucking up most of the attention span of Democratic voters. The man in the White House is frankly tearing the country to pieces, and he must be turfed out of office.

However, there are good reasons for the Democrats to focus most on downballot races  particularly the control of state legislatures. A "State of the States" report from Aaron Kleinman at the Future Now Fund  a deep dive into the state of both national and local politics of the moment  shows how neglected state politics is both considerably easier to influence and also controls much of the foundation of national politics. Democrats have clawed back some of the appalling state-level losses that happened during the Obama years, but it will be critical to not be distracted by Trump and keep pushing in the states.

To start with, any presidential race is hard to influence  and especially so in 2020. The election is overwhelmingly going to turn on how people judge Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the economic collapse, and the nationwide outbreak of protests against racial injustice. Democratic ads and so forth can influence that process somewhat, but the actual reality of what is happening is far more important.

Despite the fact that presidential elections have been getting ever-more ridiculously expensive over the years, an individual dollar of spending is all but useless in a presidential race. The advertising markets are saturated, the media covers every single twist and turn of the campaign, and as a result, most people's attitudes are heavily baked in.

Now, that is somewhat less true for Senate and House races. These campaigns are not as expensive as the presidential race, but they do get a great deal of attention, and moving the political needle there takes considerable time and effort.

But at the state level, there is a lot of very cheap low-hanging fruit. Where citizens are being constantly blasted with information about the presidential race, most people do not even know who their state legislators are. A few thousand dollars to spend on mailers, local ads, phone banking, and so forth can be the difference between victory and defeat. And in the few states where the partisan balance is relatively close, a measly $100,000 and some social media posts from the right people could conceivably flip control of a legislature. "Just a little bit of attention goes a long way to win majorities in state chambers," Kleinman told The Week.

Story continues

Should the party win control of state government (or disrupt Republican control), they could of course influence state policy  passing the Medicaid expansion, rolling back vote suppression, increasing taxes on the rich, and so on. Crime policy deserves special attention, given how the George Floyd protests have focused enormous attention on police brutality and mass incarceration. Rolling those back will require taking control of states, since that is where most crime policy is made.

But additionally, state political structures have enormous influence over national politics. This is a census year, and there is therefore an opportunity for next's year's legislatures to undo some of the grossly unfair gerrymandering that Republicans have done over the years. Kleinman provides a very detailed picture of every swing state, both in the demographics that seem most promising for Democrats and the specific races that are both possible and most important to win. For example, gaining control of the Florida House and disrupting the Republican gerrymander "could be worth five U.S. House seats for a decade," while doing the same in Texas might net the Democrats another five to seven seats. In other words, Democrats might get 120 seat-years in the House through a comparatively modest investment of time and effort.

Now, those on the left might be rather suspicious of the Democratic Party establishment following this advice, given their terrible record of both losing at the state level and not doing anything when they do win power. But the handy thing about Kleiman's analysis is that it works as a guide for any organization with a bit of cash, some volunteers, and a good candidate or two. (The Democratic Socialists of America, for instance, have gotten quite good at picking off state races, particularly in New York.)

Democrats are of course going to spend a lot of money and time on the presidential race. It's simply too big to ignore. But they ought to save some space for state races even during the national campaign. Republicans have caught Democrats napping far too many times in state contests, and used the victories to rig future elections. Biden or other party bigwigs simply mentioning some of the key swing campaigns could tip Democratic candidates into victory, where they could undo Republican cheating, and thereby help the party to actually pass things through Congress. If the party is really serious about cleaning up this smoking national ruin, that is what they must do.

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The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program offers a unique opportunity for foreign nationals to obtain permanent resident status in the United States. While the program remains one of the fastest ways to permanently immigrate to the United States, there are still many obstacles to overcome during the EB-5 process and multiple factors each investor should consider. Before beginning the EB-5 process, investors should be aware of the following concerns.

The Potential for Risk

The EB-5 program requirements demand that all EB-5 investments remain at risk during the investment period. The level of risk, however, is not stated. Each EB-5 investor should consider how much risk they are willing to take on with their investment.

Investors typically prioritize immigration over financial gain. For these investors, it is important to carefully evaluate which EB-5 projects have the lowest immigration risk. If an investor is concerned with their return on investment, they should consider which EB-5 projects offer the lowest financial risk. Ultimately, it is up to each EB-5 investor to determine the type and amount of risk they are willing to tolerate and to carry out comprehensive due diligence.

Managerial Interests

For investors with management experience or interest, it is possible to invest directly into an EB-5 project. This can allow the investor to retain control over the project, influencing the projects success. This route of investing may ease the stress of taking on risk because the investors managerial skills could limit risk and create a larger return on investment.

Finding the Right Regional Center

EB-5 investors who have no interest in managing their EB-5 projects can invest through one of the many qualified EB-5 Visa projects, sponsored by a USCIS approved regional center. Although the investor does not retain direct control over their funds, this may be more convenient for investors that do not want to take on the responsibility of managing a full EB-5 project. This route also frees up the investor from certain job creation requirements. When investing through a regional center, the regional center managers are responsible for the success of the EB-5 applicants investment. Therefore, it is important for investors to choose a reputable regional center with managers they trust.

When considering investing through a regional center, it is also important to select a high-quality regional center. Regional centers are being terminated at a surprisingly high rate, with 44 regional centers losing their regional center status between March and May 2020. It is vital that EB-5 investors choose a reputable regional center to work with to avoid jeopardizing their future in the United States.

Choosing the Best Source of Funds

All EB-5 investors are required to prove that their investing capital was acquired from legal sources. Investors must document all sources of their funds in their I-526 petition. By working with an immigration attorney, investors can ensure that they choose funds from sources that are easier to trace, saving time and possibly speeding up the adjudication process.

Additional Fees and Costs

The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program requires a minimum investment of $1.8 million, or $900,00 if the project is in a targeted employment area (TEA). Unfortunately, this sizeable investment does not include the additional fees and costs investing through the program entails. EB-5 investors should be aware of the following additional fees:

Immigration attorney fees

I-526 and I-829 petition filing fees

I-488 petition filing fees for applicants within the U.S.

Regional center administrative fees for those who choose to invest through a regional center

Relocation costs

U.S. state and federal taxes

Potential Benefits of the EB-5 Program

Aside from the possibility of obtaining a U.S. green card, participating in the EB-5 program can offer many other benefits to investors and their families. For example, if planning to attend a university, EB-5 investors, along with their spouse and unmarried children younger than 21, may qualify for in-state tuition benefits. Additionally, if investors frequent the United States for personal or business reasons, establishing a U.S. residence could save on future travel costs.
Like many Americans, Ive spent the past few weeks catching up on home-repair projects and brushing up on my backyard grilling skills. Indeed, my yard has never looked so good, and my friends and family have had their fill of burgers and hot dogs.

Standing in front of a kettle-type grill filled with glowing charcoal and flipping burgers in between sips of cold beer is as American as it gets.

As is often the case when I have free time, I ask myself, How did this get here? Specifically, how did cooking meat on a simple backyard appliance over burning chunks of compressed wood become an American pastime?

The story begins in 1919 in Michigan. By then, the Ford Motor Co. was producing up to a million cars a year thanks to the introduction of the assembly-line process. Each car included wood parts, so Henry Ford asked a relative, E.G. Kingsford, to help with sourcing enough wood. Kingsford acquired timberland in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and Ford built a saw mill there.

Ford eventually faced a problem common to all saw mills: what to do with all the scrap and waste material like sawdust. Specifically, how could he make extra profit from it? At the same time in Oregon  home to a huge timber industry  a chemist named Orin Stafford invented a way to bind sawdust and other materials into a block or briquette that could be safely burned for cooking.

Ford licensed the process, had none other than Thomas Edison design a factory next to the sawmill to make charcoal briquettes and started selling bags of Ford Charcoal at car dealerships right alongside Model Ts. Fords plan was to encourage people to buy more cars so they could drive to the countryside and have picnics where the charcoal would be used to cook the food.

Alas, the Great Depression and World War II put a damper on consumer spending, so Fords foray into grilling never quite took off. In 1951, an investor group bought the charcoal business from Ford and renamed it Kingsford Charcoal, after Fords relative who helped create it.

Around that same time, a salesman at Weber Bros. Metal Works in Chicago named George Stephen became frustrated with the grills he used to cook for his large family. Known as braziers, these are the grills you often see at parks with a box to contain the charcoal and a steel grate on top to hold the meat. The problem for Stephen was that without a top, cooking in inclement weather was impossible. Why not add a cover to the brazier?

At the time, Weber Bros. Metal Works was known for building buoys used for water navigation. The devices used half-domes of metal for the top and bottom. Stephen adapted the dome shape to a grill design, and the classic kettle-shaped Weber grill with a half-dome cover was born. He eventually bought the company and renamed it the Weber-Stephens Products Co.

Starting in the 1960s, the Mad Men of Madison Avenues advertising agencies took over the promotion of backyard barbecues on behalf of the grill and charcoal makers.

For example, in the July 13, 1967, Houston Chronicle, an article about grilling was conveniently located next to a Weingartens supermarket advertisement for all manner of beef roasts, Farmer Brown franks and Hormel sliced bologna.

The breathless article declared, The old barbecue kettle is the new status symbol! It has reached the top rung of the social ladder.

A barbecuing expert named Martha Weber who also happened to be the home consultant for the Weber-Stephens Products Co. proclaimed that the sale of charcoal briquettes mounted with the popularity of the covered barbecue kettle is indeed a new status symbol and (the kettle grill) has turned into a swank home furnishings piece to be used in the loveliest outdoor and indoor settings. No details were provided on how the grill might be used in indoor settings.

And so it went in the golden age of advertising of the 1960s and 70s: If you wanted to be a truly prosperous American, it was your duty to cook meat from your local supermarket in your backyard using a Weber kettle grill filled with Kingsford Charcoal. And its been that way ever since.

jcreid@jcreidtx.com

More Information Love the smell of wood smoke in the morning? Join J.C. Reid, Alison Cook and Greg Morago as they discuss barbecue culture with special guests by subscribing to the Chronicle's BBQ State of Mind podcast on Apple's Podcasts, or visit houstonchronicle.com/bbqpodcast. See More Collapse

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Serum Institute to make Covid-19 vaccine available at $3 per dose

Serum Institute of India (SII), the worlds largest vaccine manufacturer by volume, will make available Covid-19 vaccine at an affordable ceiling price of $3 per dose, in partnership with Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

SII has entered into a new partnership with Gavi and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to accelerate the manufacture and delivery of up to 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines for India and low-and middle-income countries (LMICs).

The collaboration will provide upfront capital to SII to help them increase manufacturing capacity now so that, once a vaccine, or vaccines, gains regulatory approval and WHO prequalification, doses can be produced at scale for distribution to India and LMIC as part of the Gavi COVAX AMC mechanism as early as the first half of 2021.

The arrangement also provides an option to secure additional doses if the vaccines pillar of the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator sees a need for it.

The funding will support at-risk manufacturing by SII for candidate vaccines from AstraZeneca and Novavax, which will be available for procurement if they are successful in attaining full licensure and WHO Prequalification. SII has set an affordable ceiling price of $3 per dose.

The arrangement also provides an option to secure additional doses if the vaccines pillar of the ACT Accelerator sees a need for it.

"In an attempt to make our fight against Covid-19 stronger and all-embracing; SII has partnered with Gavi and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to advance the manufacturing and delivery of up to 100 million doses of future Covid vaccines for India and low and middle income countries in 2021, said Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India.

SII has a long history of successful partnerships with governments as well as Gavi and pharmaceutical companies to manufacture vaccines that protect against meningitis, severe diarrhoea, pneumonia and measles.

India has a proven track record of manufacturing safe and cost-effective vaccines not only for India, but for the world. Over the last decade, Government of India has encouraged innovation, and supported the Indian vaccine industry to manufacture high quality, affordable indigenous tools and products to benefit India and the world. We are very happy to see SII enter this global partnership to respond to the global health crisis posed by Covid-19, Dr Renu Swarup, secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, said.

India's has demonstrated consistent capability in delivering on low-cost and high-quality medical research, while also maintaining technical and scientific rigour. ICMR is deeply supportive of our cutting edge vaccine research and manufacturing prowess, of which SII is one prominent example. This partnership signifies yet another step in Indias efforts to bolster the fight against this global pandemic, Dr Balram Bhargava, director general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), commented.

The Gavi COVAX AMC, which is currently seeking at least $2 billion in initial seed funding, will meet at least part of the cost of procurement for the vaccine doses. Last week the Gavi board agreed the final list of 92 countries that will be supported by the AMC. Under the new collaboration, AstraZenecas candidate vaccine, if successful, will be available to 57 Gavi-eligible countries.

Novavaxs candidate, if successful, will be available to all 92 countries supported by the AMC. The collaboration between Gavi, SII, and the Gates Foundation supports the efforts of the ACT Accelerator's vaccines pillar, also known as COVAX, co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), to accelerate the development of Covid-19 vaccines and ensure rapid, global access to them. Decisions around investment in manufacturing are taken in close collaboration between these three lead organisations of the COVAX pillar.

Under the COVAX umbrella, Gavi is leading the COVAX Facility, which provides governments with the opportunity to benefit from a large portfolio of Covid-19 candidate vaccines using a range of technology platforms, produced by more manufacturers across the world, with a bigger market to provide security of demand. The facility is reinforced by the AMC, which provides funding for vaccines for lower income countries.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, via its Strategic Investment Fund, will provide at-risk funding of $150 million to Gavi, which will be used to support the Serum Institute of India to manufacture potential vaccine candidates, and for future procurement of vaccines for low- and middle-income countries via Gavis COVAX AMC.

The deal builds on a Memorandum of Understanding between AstraZeneca and Gavi, announced in June, which will guarantee 300 million doses of AstraZenecas candidate vaccine to the wider COVAX Facility, to be supplied upon licensure or prequalification. These two deals can help guarantee access to early doses for the most vulnerable on a truly global scale.

Serum Institute of India Pvt, Ltd (SIIPL) is the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced and sold globally (more than 1.5 billion doses), supplying the world's cheapest and WHO accredited vaccines to as many as 170 countries. It was founded in 1966 with the aim of manufacturing life-saving immunobiological drugs, including vaccines, worldwide.
Transformation strategy gains traction

Net Revenue of $110 million increases 22% over Q1 FY20

Net Loss of $128 million; Adjusted EBITDA loss of $92 million narrows versus Q1 FY20

Established leadership position in growing cannabis-infused beverage segment; shipping +1.2mm cans to Canadian provinces since launch

Strengthened foothold in U.S. market with launch of shopcanopy.com

SMITHS FALLS, ON, Aug. 10, 2020 /CNW/ - Canopy Growth Corporation ("Canopy Growth" or the "Company") (TSX: WEED) (NYSE: CGC) today announced its financial results for the first quarter fiscal 2021 ended June 30, 2020. All financial information in this press release is reported in millions of Canadian dollars, unless otherwise indicated.

"We're proud of our strong first-quarter performance, despite unprecedented volatility and uncertainty in the market and across the globe," said David Klein, CEO. "We grew our revenue year-over-year and are seeing market share improvement, notably achieving number one market share in cannabis-infused beverages in the Canadian market. We are implementing a renewed corporate strategy with the appointment of a new leadership team which will focus on delivering quality products to our consumers, positioning our business for continued growth. The proposed retooled Acreage announcement refocuses our entry for the evolving U.S. market, where we are seeing increased momentum."

"Following our previously announced restructuring actions, we have substantially reduced our expense and cash burn in this quarter in addition to reducing headcount by over 18% since beginning of this calendar year. Our marketing and R&D investments are being re-allocated to programs with high-return potential in order to drive sales," added Mike Lee, CFO. "Our gross margins in the quarter came in below our expectations due to under-utilization of our large-scale infrastructure. We've already proven we can deliver 40%-plus gross margin and are confident that we can return to that level as we work toward higher capacity utilization across our facilities as demand for our cannabis products continue to grow. In the meantime, we are focused on further optimizing our operating footprint through a full end-to-end strategy that looks at people, process, technology, and infrastructure that we believe will lead to best in class margins over time."

First Quarter Fiscal 2021 Financial Summary



Net revenue Gross margin

percentage Adjusted

gross margin

percentage1 Net loss Adjusted

EBITDA2 Free cash

flow3 Reported $110.4 6% 7% $(128.3) $(92.2) $(180.1) vs. Q1 2020 22% (1,400) bps (1,300 bps) 34% 1% 51% 1 Adjusted gross margin percentage is a non-GAAP measure. See "Non-GAAP Measures". 2 Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure. See "Non-GAAP Measures". 3 Free cash flow is a non-GAAP measure. See "Non-GAAP Measures".

First Quarter Fiscal 2021 Corporate Financial Highlights

Revenues : Net revenue in Q1 2021 increased by 22% versus Q1 2020 driven by higher medical cannabis sales in Canada and Germany , strong Storz & Bickel ("S&B") vaporizer sales and the benefit of a full quarter of contribution from acquired businesses C 3 (acquired in April 2019 ) and This Works (acquired in May 2019 ) that were reflected for a full quarter in Q1 2021. Excluding the impact from acquired businesses, net sales growth increased 9% versus Q1 2020. The growth was partially offset by a decline in Canadian Recreational cannabis revenue due to restricted retail operating environment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and increased competition in dried flower-based products.

: Net revenue in Q1 2021 increased by 22% versus Q1 2020 driven by higher medical cannabis sales in and , strong Storz & Bickel ("S&B") vaporizer sales and the benefit of a full quarter of contribution from acquired businesses C (acquired in ) and This Works (acquired in ) that were reflected for a full quarter in Q1 2021. Excluding the impact from acquired businesses, net sales growth increased 9% versus Q1 2020. The growth was partially offset by a decline in Canadian Recreational cannabis revenue due to restricted retail operating environment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and increased competition in dried flower-based products. Gross margin : Gross margin was 6%. Adjusted gross margin, excluding inventory step-up costs, was 7%, down 1,300 bps versus Q1 2020. Gross margin was impacted by lower production output as well as manufacturing variances and inventory adjustments.

: Gross margin was 6%. Adjusted gross margin, excluding inventory step-up costs, was 7%, down 1,300 bps versus Q1 2020. Gross margin was impacted by lower production output as well as manufacturing variances and inventory adjustments. Operating expenses : Total SG&A expenses declined by 23% versus Q1 2020, driven by year-over-year reductions in Sales & Marketing expenses, partially offset by higher General & Administrative (G&A) and Research & Development ("R&D") expenses. Sales & Marketing expense decline of 25% reflects lower compensation expenses resulting from corporate restructuring actions taken earlier in the year, delayed or cancelled marketing activities and reduced travel-related expenses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. G&A expenses increased 2%, while R&D expenses rose 61% mainly driven by research studies that commenced in Q2 and Q3 2020 and increased activities to support Cannabis 2.0 product development. Share-based Compensation expenses decreased 65% over Q1 2020.

: Total SG&A expenses declined by 23% versus Q1 2020, driven by year-over-year reductions in Sales & Marketing expenses, partially offset by higher General & Administrative (G&A) and Research & Development ("R&D") expenses. Sales & Marketing expense decline of 25% reflects lower compensation expenses resulting from corporate restructuring actions taken earlier in the year, delayed or cancelled marketing activities and reduced travel-related expenses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. G&A expenses increased 2%, while R&D expenses rose 61% mainly driven by research studies that commenced in Q2 and Q3 2020 and increased activities to support Cannabis 2.0 product development. Share-based Compensation expenses decreased 65% over Q1 2020. Net Loss : Net loss of $128 million in Q1 2021, a $66 million narrower loss versus Q1 2020, was driven by higher revenue and lower SG&A expenses.

: Net loss of in Q1 2021, a narrower loss versus Q1 2020, was driven by higher revenue and lower SG&A expenses. Adjusted EBITDA : Adjusted EBITDA loss was $92 million in Q1 2021, compared to a loss of $93 million in Q1 2020.

: Adjusted EBITDA loss was in Q1 2021, compared to a loss of in Q1 2020. Cash Position: Cash and Short-term Investments amounted to $2.0 billion at June 30, 2020 , unchanged from $2.0 billion at March 31, 2020 reflecting the investment of approximately $245 million by an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ) to exercise warrants in the Company offset by the EBITDA loss and capital investments.

Business & Operational Highlights

Significant progress on our strategic priorities and organizational design: Key activities included implementing new organizational structure and aligning resources to reflect a new strategy, initiating end to end supply chain review, and rolling out dried flower quality improvement programs.

Key activities included implementing new organizational structure and aligning resources to reflect a new strategy, initiating end to end supply chain review, and rolling out dried flower quality improvement programs. Strengthened competitive positioning in Canada recreational market :

: Completed a national repositioning of Twd. dried flower value brand; our dollar share increased nearly 5pts in value flower in the province of Ontario during the latest 4-weeks ended July 19, 2020 .

during the latest 4-weeks ended .

Company's Rec 2.0 products accounted for 13% of total Canada B2B sales in Q1 2021; Four Ready-to- Drink ("RTD") cannabis beverages under Tweed, Houseplant and DeepSpace brands available nation-wide in the Canadian recreational market; over 1.2 million beverage units have been shipped since late March 2020 .

B2B sales in Q1 2021; Four Ready-to- Drink ("RTD") cannabis beverages under Tweed, Houseplant and DeepSpace brands available nation-wide in the Canadian recreational market; over 1.2 million beverage units have been shipped since late . Stepped up activities in the U.S. market to drive accelerated revenue growth :

: Launched shopcanopy.com ("ShopCanopy") ecommerce site in current quarter; ShopCanopy provides a one-stop shopping destination for the Company's growing portfolio of CBD products in the U.S.



BioSteel RTD non-CBD beverages in new environmentally friendly Tetrapak packaging is now available for sale online in the U.S; we are actively engaging with major retailers in an effort to expand distribution of BioSteel products to key markets across the U.S.



Expanded distribution of S&B vaporizer products in the U.S.



Final preparations underway for the launch of Martha Stewart branded health and wellness CBD products expected in the coming weeks.

branded health and wellness CBD products expected in the coming weeks. The Company and Acreage Holdings, Inc. ("Acreage") entered into a proposal agreement to amend the terms of the existing arrangement between the Company and Acreage (the "Amended Arrangement"), that reaffirms the Company's path to the U.S. THC market when federally permissible; the Amended Arrangement is subject to, among other things, Acreage shareholder approval and court approval.

Continuing to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on the health and safety of our employees, business continuity and supporting our communities. To date, there has been minimal disruption to production and supply chain, all of our 22 corporate-owned retail stores have re-opened and our liquidity position remains strong.

First Quarter Fiscal 2021 Financial and Operational Review

Revenue by Channel

(in millions of Canadian dollars, unaudited) Q1 2021 Q1 2020 vs. Q1 2020







Canadian recreational net revenue





- Business to business1 $34.9 $38.9 (10%) - Business to consumer $9.3 $10.6 (12%) Canadian recreational net revenue $44.2 $49.5 (11%) Canadian medical net revenue2 $13.9 $11.7 19% International medical revenue $20.2 $10.5 92% All other revenue $32.1 $18.8 71% Net revenue $110.4 $90.5 22% 1 Includes excise taxes of $7.2 million (Q1 2020 - $11.5 million). 2 Includes excise taxes of $1.4 million (Q1 2020 - $1.4 million).

Revenue by Form

(in millions of Canadian dollars, unaudited) Q1 2021 Q1 2020 vs. Q1 2020







Canadian recreational revenue





- Dry bud1 $40.1 $60.8 (34%) - Oils and softgels1 $7.7 $8.2 (6%) - Cannabis 2.0 products2 $7.0 $- NM - Other revenue adjustments3 $(3.4) $(8.0) 58% - Excise taxes $(7.2) $(11.5) 37%

$44.2 $49.5 (11%) Global medical revenue





- Dry bud $10.2 $7.2 42% - Oils and softgels $25.0 $16.4 52% - Cannabis 2.0 products2 $0.3 $- NM - Excise taxes $(1.4) $(1.4) 0%

$34.1 $22.2 54%







All other revenue $32.1 $18.8 71% Net revenue $110.4 $90.5 22%

1 Excludes the impact of other revenue adjustments. 2 Cannabis 2.0 products include cannabis-infused chocolates, cannabis-infused beverages, and cannabis vape products (including power sources such as rechargeable and compact batteries, ready-to-go vape pens, and cartridges/vape pods) 3 Other revenue adjustments represent the Company's determination of returns and pricing adjustments, and relate to the Canadian recreational business-to-business channel.

Canadian Cannabis

Canadian medical revenue increased 19% from Q1 2020. The year-over-year increase due primarily to the prior year quarter being impacted by the transition of medical customers to the Spectrum Therapeutics online store and limited supply of medical cannabis medical products, as well as higher average basket size we saw in Q1 2021.

Recreational B2C net sales declined 12% over the comparative period due primarily to the restricted cannabis retail operating environment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including full closure of our corporate owned store for the first half of Q1 2021, and upon reopening with click & collect/curbside pick up and reduced hours.

Recreational B2B net sales declined by 10% from Q1 2020 primarily as a result of increased competition driving lower market share in dried flower, partially offset by new cannabis 2.0 products and reduced provisions for returns.

International Cannabis

C 3 revenue in Q1 2021 increased 75% over Q1 2020 due to the recognition of a full quarter of revenue in Q1 2021 (compared to approximately two months of revenue in Q1 2020 following the acquisition of C 3 by the Company in April 2019 ) and growth of the Dronabinol market in Germany . C 3 revenue increased by 17% on an organic basis, adjusted for the timing of acquisitions.

revenue in Q1 2021 increased 75% over Q1 2020 due to the recognition of a full quarter of revenue in Q1 2021 (compared to approximately two months of revenue in Q1 2020 following the acquisition of C by the Company in ) and growth of the Dronabinol market in . C revenue increased by 17% on an organic basis, adjusted for the timing of acquisitions. Dried flower sales in Germany grew 181% in Q1 2021 over Q1 2020 due to increased supply and patient demand.



Strategic Acquisitions

S&B vaporizer revenue in Q1 2021 increased 74% over Q1 2020, benefiting from expanded distribution in the United States and broader product portfolio.

and broader product portfolio. This Works sales in Q1 2021 increased 160% over Q1 2020 due in part to the recognition of a full quarter of revenue in Q1 2021 (compared to less than a month of revenue in Q1 2020 following the acquisition of This Works by the Company in May 2020 ). This Works sales declined by 13% on an organic basis, mainly due to the closure of retail stores as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first quarter fiscal 2021 and first quarter fiscal 2020 financial results presented in this press release have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

Webcast and Conference Call Information

The Company will host a conference call and audio webcast with David Klein, CEO and Mike Lee, CFO at 10:00 AM Eastern Time on August 10, 2020.

Webcast Information

A live audio webcast will be available at:

https://produceredition.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1343663&tp_key=96c72fd568

Replay Information

A replay of the call will be accessible by webcast, until 11:59 PM ET on November 8, 2020, at

https://produceredition.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1343663&tp_key=96c72fd568

Non-GAAP Measures

Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure used by management that is not defined by U.S. GAAP and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Adjusted EBITDA is calculated as the reported net loss, adjusted to exclude income tax recovery (expense); other income (expense), net; loss on equity method investments; share-based compensation expense; depreciation and amortization expense; asset impairment and restructuring costs; and charges related to the flow-through of inventory step-up on business combinations, and further adjusted to remove acquisition-related costs. The Adjusted EBITDA reconciliation is presented within this news release and explained in the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q to be filed with the SEC.

Adjusted Gross Margin and Adjusted Gross Margin Percentage are non-GAAP measures used by management that are not defined by U.S. GAAP and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Adjusted Gross Margin is calculated as gross margin excluding charges related to the flow-through of inventory step-up associated with business combinations. Adjusted Gross Margin Percentage is calculated as Adjusted Gross Margin divided by Net Revenue. The Adjusted Gross Margin reconciliation is presented within this news release.

Free Cash Flow is a non- GAAP measure used by management that is not defined by U.S. GAAP and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. This measure is calculated as net cash provided by (used in) operating activities less purchases of and deposits on property, plant and equipment. The Free Cash Flow reconciliation is presented within this news release and explained in the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q to be filed with the SEC.

About Canopy Growth Corporation

Canopy Growth (TSX:WEED, NYSE:CGC) is a world-leading diversified cannabis, hemp and cannabis device company, offering distinct brands and curated cannabis varieties in dried, oil and Softgel capsule forms, as well as medical devices through the Company's subsidiary, Storz & Bickel GMbH & Co. KG. From product and process innovation to market execution, Canopy Growth is driven by a passion for leadership and a commitment to building a world-class cannabis company one product, site and country at a time.

The Company's medical division, Spectrum Therapeutics is proudly dedicated to educating healthcare practitioners, conducting robust clinical research, and furthering the public's understanding of cannabis, and has devoted millions of dollars toward cutting edge, commercializable research and IP development. Spectrum Therapeutics sells a range of full-spectrum products using its colour-coded classification Spectrum system as well as single cannabinoid Dronabinol under the brand Bionorica Ethics.

The Company operates retail stores across Canada under its award-winning Tweed and Tokyo Smoke banners. Tweed is a globally recognized cannabis brand which has built a large and loyal following by focusing on quality products and meaningful customer relationships.

From our public listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange to our continued international expansion, pride in advancing shareholder value through leadership is engrained in all we do at Canopy Growth. Canopy Growth has established partnerships with leading sector names including cannabis icons Snoop Dogg and Seth Rogen, breeding legends DNA Genetics and Green House Seeds, and Fortune 500 alcohol leader Constellation Brands, to name but a few. For more information visit www.canopygrowth.com.

Notice Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, which involve certain known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements predict or describe our future operations, business plans, business and investment strategies and the performance of our investments. These forward-looking statements are generally identified by their use of such terms and phrases as "intend," "goal," "strategy," "estimate," "expect," "project," "projections," "forecasts," "plans," "seeks," "anticipates," "potential," "proposed," "will," "should," "could," "would," "may," "likely," "designed to," "foreseeable future," "believe," "scheduled" and other similar expressions. Our actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those anticipated. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statement was made.

Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to:

the uncertainties associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, including our ability to continue operations, the ability of our suppliers and distribution channels to continue to operate, and the use of our products by consumers, and disruptions to the global and local economies due to related stay-at-home orders, quarantine policies and restrictions on travel, trade and business operations and a reduction in discretionary consumer spending;

laws and regulations and any amendments thereto applicable to our business and the impact thereof, including uncertainty regarding the application of U.S. state and federal law to U.S. hemp (including CBD) products and the scope of any regulations by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (the "USDA") and any state equivalent regulatory agencies over U.S. hemp (including CBD) products;

expectations regarding the regulation of the U.S. hemp industry in the U.S., including the promulgation of regulations for the U.S. hemp industry by the USDA;

expectations regarding the potential success of, and the costs and benefits associated with, our acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances and equity investments;

the plan of arrangement with Acreage Holdings, Inc., as may be amended pursuant to the Proposal Agreement, including the consummation of such acquisition

the grant, renewal and impact of any license or supplemental license to conduct activities with cannabis or any amendments thereof;

our international activities and joint venture interests, including required regulatory approvals and licensing, anticipated costs and timing, and expected impact;

the ability to successfully create and launch brands and further create, launch and scale cannabis-based products and U.S. hemp-derived consumer products in jurisdictions where such products are legal and that we currently operate in;

the benefits, viability, safety, efficacy, dosing and social acceptance of cannabis, including CBD and other cannabinoids;

the anticipated benefits and impact of the CBI Group investments in us (the "CBI Group Investments");

the potential exercise of the warrants held by the CBI Group, pre-emptive rights and/or top-up rights in connection with the CBI Group Investments, including proceeds to us that may result therefrom or the potential conversion of notes held by the CBI Group in connection with the CBI Group Investments;

expectations regarding the use of proceeds of equity financings, including the proceeds from the CBI Group Investments;

the legalization of the use of cannabis for medical or recreational in jurisdictions outside of Canada , the related timing and impact thereof and our intentions to participate in such markets, if and when such use is legalized;

, the related timing and impact thereof and our intentions to participate in such markets, if and when such use is legalized; our ability to execute on our strategy and the anticipated benefits of such strategy;

the ongoing impact of the legalization of additional cannabis product types and forms for recreational use in Canada , including federal, provincial, territorial and municipal regulations pertaining thereto, the related timing and impact thereof and our intentions to participate in such markets;

, including federal, provincial, territorial and municipal regulations pertaining thereto, the related timing and impact thereof and our intentions to participate in such markets; the ongoing impact of developing provincial, territorial and municipal regulations pertaining to the sale and distribution of cannabis, the related timing and impact thereof, as well as the restrictions on federally regulated cannabis producers participating in certain retail markets and our intentions to participate in such markets to the extent permissible;

the future performance of our business and operations;

our competitive advantages and business strategies;

the competitive conditions of the industry;

the expected growth in the number of customers using our products;

our ability or plans to identify, develop, commercialize or expand our technology and research and development initiatives in cannabinoids, or the success thereof;

expectations regarding revenues, expenses and anticipated cash needs;

expectations regarding cash flow, liquidity and sources of funding;

expectations regarding capital expenditures;

the expansion of our production and manufacturing, the costs and timing associated therewith and the receipt of applicable production and sale licenses;

the expected growth in our growing, production and supply chain capacities;

expectations regarding the resolution of litigation and other legal proceedings;

expectations with respect to future production costs;

expectations with respect to future sales and distribution channels;

the expected methods to be used to distribute and sell our products;

our future product offerings;

the anticipated future gross margins of our operations;

accounting standards and estimates;

expectations regarding our distribution network; and

expectations regarding the costs and benefits associated with our contracts and agreements with third parties, including under our third-party supply and manufacturing agreements.

Certain of the forward-looking statements contained herein concerning the industries in which we conduct our business are based on estimates prepared by us using data from publicly available governmental sources, market research, industry analysis and on assumptions based on data and knowledge of these industries, which we believe to be reasonable. However, although generally indicative of relative market positions, market shares and performance characteristics, such data is inherently imprecise. The industries in which we conduct our business involve risks and uncertainties that are subject to change based on various factors, which are described further below.

The forward-looking statements contained herein are based upon certain material assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection, including: (i) management's perceptions of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments; (ii) our ability to generate cash flow from operations; (iii) general economic, financial market, regulatory and political conditions in which we operate; (iv) the production and manufacturing capabilities and output from our facilities and our joint ventures, strategic alliances and equity investments; (v) consumer interest in our products; (vi) competition; (vii) anticipated and unanticipated costs; (viii) government regulation of our activities and products including but not limited to the areas of taxation and environmental protection; (ix) the timely receipt of any required regulatory authorizations, approvals, consents, permits and/or licenses; * our ability to obtain qualified staff, equipment and services in a timely and cost-efficient manner; (xi) our ability to conduct operations in a safe, efficient and effective manner; (xii) our ability to realize anticipated benefits, synergies or generate revenue, profits or value from our recent acquisitions into our existing operations; (xiii) our ability to continue to operate in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the pandemic on demand for, and sales of, our products and our distribution channels; and (xiv) other considerations that management believes to be appropriate in the circumstances. While our management considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to management, there is no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct.

By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. A variety of factors, including known and unknown risks, many of which are beyond our control, could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release and other reports we file with, or furnish to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and other regulatory agencies and made by our directors, officers, other employees and other persons authorized to speak on our behalf. Such factors include, without limitation, the risk that the COVID-19 pandemic may disrupt our operations and those of our suppliers and distribution channels and negatively impact the use of our products; consumer demand for cannabis and U.S. hemp products; that cost savings and any other synergies from the CBI Group Investments may not be fully realized or may take longer to realize than expected; future levels of revenues; our ability to manage disruptions in credit markets or changes to our credit rating; future levels of capital, environmental or maintenance expenditures, general and administrative and other expenses; the success or timing of completion of ongoing or anticipated capital or maintenance projects; business strategies, growth opportunities and expected investment; the adequacy of our capital resources and liquidity, including but not limited to, availability of sufficient cash flow to execute our business plan (either within the expected timeframe or at all); the potential effects of judicial or other proceedings on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows; volatility in and/or degradation of general economic, market, industry or business conditions; compliance with applicable environmental, economic, health and safety, energy and other policies and regulations and in particular health concerns with respect to vaping and the use of cannabis and U.S. hemp products in vaping devices; the anticipated effects of actions of third parties such as competitors, activist investors or federal, state, provincial, territorial or local regulatory authorities, self-regulatory organizations, plaintiffs in litigation or persons threatening litigation; changes in regulatory requirements in relation to our business and products; and the factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2020 filed with the SEC on June 1, 2020. Readers are cautioned to consider these and other factors, uncertainties and potential events carefully and not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are provided for the purposes of assisting the reader in understanding our financial performance, financial position and cash flows as of and for periods ended on certain dates and to present information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future, and the reader is cautioned that the forward-looking statements may not be appropriate for any other purpose. While we believe that the assumptions and expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable based on information currently available to management, there is no assurance that such assumptions and expectations will prove to have been correct. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date they are made and are based on the beliefs, estimates, expectations and opinions of management on that date. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, estimates or opinions, future events or results or otherwise or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking statements, except as required by law. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release and other reports we file with, or furnish to, the SEC and other regulatory agencies and made by our directors, officers, other employees and other persons authorized to speak on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements.

Schedule 1

CANOPY GROWTH CORPORATION CONDENSED INTERIM CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (in thousands of Canadian dollars, except number of shares and per share data, unaudited)













June 30, 2020

March 31, 2020 ASSETS Current assets:







Cash and cash equivalents

$975,870

$1,303,176 Short-term investments

1,060,901

673,323 Restricted short-term investments

16,436

21,539 Amounts receivable, net

72,578

90,155 Inventory

389,800

391,086 Prepaid expenses and other assets

98,362

85,094 Total current assets

2,613,947

2,564,373 Equity method investments

58,654

65,843 Other financial assets

273,624

249,253 Property, plant and equipment

1,508,668

1,524,803 Intangible assets

444,199

476,366 Goodwill

1,929,418

1,954,471 Other assets

17,320

22,636 Total assets

$6,845,830

$6,857,745









LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY Current liabilities:







Accounts payable

$89,368

$123,393 Other accrued expenses and liabilities

82,981

64,994 Current portion of long-term debt

22,570

16,393 Other liabilities

124,757

215,809 Total current liabilities

319,676

420,589 Long-term debt

477,836

449,022 Deferred income tax liabilities

45,816

47,113 Liability arising from Acreage Arrangement

285,000

250,000 Warrant derivative liability

287,122

322,491 Other liabilities

168,239

190,660 Total liabilities

1,583,689

1,679,875 Commitments and contingencies







Redeemable noncontrolling interest

81,600

69,750 Canopy Growth Corporation shareholders' equity:







Common shares - $nil par value; Authorized - unlimited number of shares;

Issued - 370,865,639 shares and 350,112,927 shares, respectively

6,724,245

6,373,544 Additional paid-in capital

2,520,371

2,615,155 Accumulated other comprehensive income

152,415

220,899 Deficit

(4,431,737)

(4,323,236) Total Canopy Growth Corporation shareholders' equity

4,965,294

4,886,362 Noncontrolling interests

215,247

221,758 Total shareholders' equity

5,180,541

5,108,120 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity

$6,845,830

$6,857,745

Schedule 2

CANOPY GROWTH CORPORATION CONDENSED INTERIM CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (in thousands of Canadian dollars, except number of shares and per share data, unaudited)













Three months ended June 30,



2020

2019 Revenue

$119,088

$103,391 Excise taxes

8,672

12,909 Net revenue

110,416

90,482 Cost of goods sold

103,921

72,192 Gross margin

6,495

18,290 Operating expenses:







Selling, general and administrative expenses

135,392

145,647 Share-based compensation

30,685

87,362 Asset impairment and restructuring costs

12,794

- Total operating expenses

178,871

233,009 Operating loss

(172,376)

(214,719) Loss from equity method investments

(7,189)

(1,833) Other income (expense), net

48,205

32,768 Loss before income taxes

(131,360)

(183,784) Income tax recovery (expense)

3,038

(10,267) Net loss

(128,322)

(194,051) Net loss attributable to noncontrolling interests and

redeemable noncontrolling interest

(19,821)

(8,182) Net loss attributable to Canopy Growth Corporation

$(108,501)

$(185,869)









Basic and diluted loss per share

$(0.30)

$(0.54) Basic and diluted weighted average common shares outstanding

363,763,347

346,779,156

Schedule 3

CANOPY GROWTH CORPORATION CONDENSED INTERIM CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (in thousands of Canadian dollars, unaudited)













Three months ended June 30,



2020

2019 Cash flows from operating activities:







Net loss

$(128,322)

$(194,051) Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities:







Depreciation of property, plant and equipment

17,415

13,587 Amortization of intangible assets

16,632

7,165 Share of loss on equity method investments

7,189

1,833 Share-based compensation

30,685

87,362 Asset impairment and restructuring costs

12,794

- Income tax (recovery) expense

(3,038)

10,267 Non-cash foreign currency

8,688

2,834 Change in operating assets and liabilities, net of effects from purchases

of businesses:







Amounts receivable

17,577

13,506 Prepaid expenses and other assets

(16,059)

(24,009) Inventory

(10,772)

(50,716) Accounts payable and accrued liabilities

3,755

(12,582) Other, including non-cash fair value adjustments

(75,090)

(13,486) Net cash used in operating activities

(118,546)

(158,290) Cash flows from investing activities:







Purchases of and deposits on property, plant and equipment

(61,547)

(211,824) Purchases of intangible assets

(3,088)

(7,692) Proceeds on sale of intangible assets

18,337

- (Purchases) redemption of short-term investments

(382,486)

687,818 Investments in equity method investments

-

(2,824) Investments in other financial assets

(2,564)

(29,414) Investment in Acreage Arrangement

-

(395,190) Recovery of amounts related to construction financing

10,000

- Payment of acquisition related liabilities

(4,511)

(21,447) Net cash outflow on acquisition of noncontrolling interests

(125)

- Net cash outflow on acquisition of subsidiaries

-

(425,024) Net cash used in investing activities

(425,984)

(405,597) Cash flows from financing activities:







Payment of share issue costs

(595)

(74) Proceeds from issuance of shares by Canopy Rivers

92

86 Proceeds from exercise of stock options

4,722

16,077 Proceeds from exercise of warrants

244,990

427 Issuance of long-term debt

4,439

- Repayment of long-term debt

(6,345)

(98,207) Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities

247,303

(81,691) Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents

(30,079)

(18,620) Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents

(327,306)

(664,198) Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period

1,303,176

2,480,830 Cash and cash equivalents, end of period

$975,870

$1,816,632

Schedule 4

Adjusted Gross Margin1 Reconciliation (Non-GAAP Measure)



Three months ended June 30, (in thousands of Canadian dollars, unaudited)

2020

2019 Net revenue

$110,416

$90,482









Gross margin, as reported

6,495

18,290 Adjustments to gross margin:







Charges related to the flow-through of inventory

step-up on business combinations

1,213

- Adjusted gross margin1

$7,708

$18,290









Adjusted gross margin percentage1

7%

20%









1 Adjusted gross margin and adjusted gross margin percentage are non-GAAP measures. See "Non-GAAP Measures".

Schedule 5

Adjusted EBITDA1 Reconciliation (Non-GAAP Measure)











Three months ended June 30, (in thousands of Canadian dollars, unaudited)

2020

2019 Net loss

$(128,322)

$(194,051) Income tax (recovery) expense

(3,038)

10,267 Other (income) expense, net

(48,205)

(32,768) Loss on equity method investments

7,189

1,833 Share-based compensation2

30,685

87,362 Acquisition-related costs

1,394

13,182 Depreciation and amortization2

34,047

20,752 Asset impairment and restructuring costs

12,794

- Charges related to the flow-through of inventory

step-up on business combinations

1,213

- Adjusted EBITDA1

$(92,243)

$(93,423)









1Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure. See "Non-GAAP Measures". 2 From Statement of Cash Flows.









Schedule 6

Free Cash Flow Reconciliation1











Three months ended June 30, (in thousands of Canadian dollars, unaudited)

2020

2019 Net cash used in operating activities

$(118,546)

$(158,290) Purchases of and deposits on property, plant and equipment

(61,547)

(211,824) Free cash flow1

$(180,093)

$(370,114)









1Free cash flow is a non-GAAP measure. See "Non-GAAP Measures".

SOURCE Canopy Growth Corporation

For further information: Laura Nadeau, Media Relations, [email protected]; Judy Hong, Vice President, Investor Relations (USA), [email protected]; Tyler Burns, Vice President, Investor Relations (Canada), [email protected]

Related Links

canopygrowth.com


Not long ago, the Bronx seemed to have New York Citys last powerful political machine. Brooklyn had long been in decline, and the 2018 upset of then-Rep. Joe Crowley rocked the Queens Democratic Party, which he had run as party chair.

In the Bronx, by contrast, Carl Heastie had ascended to the role of Assembly speaker, then-state Sen. Jeff Klein had shared control of the state Senate, and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. was on a path to becoming New York Citys first Latino mayor.

However, Klein is now out of power and Diaz is set to retire, and another local power broker  Assembly Member Marcos Crespo  resigned as Bronx Democratic Party chair. Meanwhile, upstarts like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi and New York City Council Member Ritchie Torres are shaking up the party.

In the midst of all the upheaval, City & State identified the top 10 elected officials in the boroughs evolving power structure.

1. Carl Heastie

Assembly Speaker

New York State Assembly

Even as his Assembly moves further left and adds new members from outside traditional Albany hierarchies, Carl Heasties speakership is secure. Yet, the past two years have challenged Heasties Bronx Democratic Party unlike any other period during his time in office. His closest Bronx allies are retiring, and three friendly congressional seats have been lost to independent progressives since 2018. How and when he responds to the anti-establishment fervor will shape the borough for years.

2. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Congress Member

Ron Adar/Shutterstock

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez continues to assert herself prominently in national conversation while, back home, her 2018 victory continues to pay dividends. Justice Democrats and Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Jamaal Bowman, helping him defeat Rep. Eliot Engel, the second time in two elections that a Democratic congressional mainstay lost in the Bronx. Her endorsement of Samelys Lopez in the 15th Congressional District was less successful: Lopez finished fourth in a crowded race.

3. Ritchie Torres

New York City Council Member

Emil Cohen/New York City Council

Ritchie Torres will likely be heading to Washington as the nations first openly gay Black representative, along with Mondaire Jones. He would get there on a path forged entirely by himself, a progressive independent of the establishment and left-wing factions battling for power in the Bronx. Torres already is making noise on Capitol Hill, criticizing a tradition that bars members from joining both the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

4. Rafael Salamanca Jr.

New York City Council Member

As the chair of the New York City Council Land Use Committee and a Bronx Democratic Party loyalist, Rafael Salamanca Jr.s influence is far-reaching. His opposition to the mayors Southern Boulevard rezoning torpedoed the effort. During his first term, Salamanca brought 5,000 new affordable housing units to his district alone. When Corey Johnson leaves the council, Salamanca will be a top contender to replace him as speaker, especially if the Bronx Democrats enthusiastically back him.

5. Darcel Clark

Bronx District Attorney

Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office

Electorally, Darcel Clark is more secure than any district attorney in New York City. But as the first Black woman in her position, she will have to navigate scrutiny both externally and from within her own ranks as debates over criminal justice reform rage on. Despite positioning herself as a reformer, Clark is close with the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, her top donor, and the thousands of union members who work in her jurisdiction.

6. Jeffrey Dinowitz

Assembly Member

Photo via <a href="http://nyassembly.gov/mem/Jeffrey-Dinowitz/photos" target="_blank">New York Assembly</a>

In June, Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz dispatched an underfunded progressive challenger by more than 20 percentage points, his only competitive race since his first victory in 1994. Next year, Dinowitz hopes to see his son win the City Council race in the 11th District. His most immediate challenge is the feud between the influential Ben Franklin Reform Democratic Club and state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, who is starting her own local political club.

7. Jamaal Bailey

State Senator

Jamaal Bailey is ready for this moment. His aggressive criminal justice reform agenda figured prominently in the majoritys plans. In the wake of George Floyds death and the ensuing civil unrest, Baileys efforts have taken center stage. Section 50-a, the law that shields police disciplinary records, was repealed. What comes next will go through Baileys Codes Committee and will need to be championed by his mentor, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.

8. Ruben Diaz Jr.

Bronx Borough President

Philip Vukelich

For more than 20 years, the Diaz family has been synonymous with Bronx politics. The three-term borough president amassed a war chest before dropping out of the 2021 New York City mayoral race in January, ending his bid to be the citys first Latino mayor. Ruben Diaz Jr. will likely not stray far from the Bronx, but he could be on Gov. Andrew Cuomos short list if U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is nominated to Joe Bidens Cabinet.

9. Vanessa Gibson

New York City Council Member

Official NYC Council Photo by William Alatriste

Vanessa Gibson wants to be the Bronxs first Black borough president, and she has the cachet to do it. A protege of Aurelia Greene, who first helped unite the boroughs Black and Latino communities, Gibson will likely be the Democratic Partys preferred candidate. As a council member, she negotiated the Jerome Avenue rezoning, blocked the new borough jail from her district and served as the first woman of color to chair the Public Safety Committee.

10. Jamaal Bowman

Democratic Candidate, 16th Congressional District

Guerin Blask

Jamaal Bowman consolidated progressive support, gained national attention and earned the support of many Obama foreign policy alums in his primary campaign to topple House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Eliot Engel, who has served in Congress for more than 30 years. Although not technically an elected official, the Bronx middle school founder is poised to win in November  and will have to walk the walk and attempt to address the issues that plague the Bronx.
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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Taipei, Taiwan  Mon, August 10, 2020 18:00 526 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066ce525f 2 World US,Taiwan,US-China,US-China-tension,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-vaccines,pandemic,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,novel-coronavirus Free

US Health Secretary Alex Azar said on Monday that any US vaccine or treatment for COVID-19 would be shared fairly with the rest of the world, once the US need has been satisfied.

There are more than 200 COVID-19 vaccine candidates in development around the world, including more than 20 in human clinical trials. US President Donald Trump has vowed to have a shot ready before year's end, though they typically take several years to develop and test for safety and effectiveness.

"Our first priority of course is to develop and produce enough quantity of safe and effective FDA-approved vaccines and therapeutics for use in the United States," Azar told reporters while on a visit to Taiwan.

"But we anticipate having capacity that, once those needs are satisfied, those products would be available in the world community according to fair and equitable distributions that we would consult in the international community on."

He did not elaborate.

Azar also said that the United States' decision to leave the World Health Organization (WHO) did not mean less international involvement for his country in global public health.

"The United States has always been and will remain the largest funder of global public health in the world," he added.

"After our departure from the WHO, we will work with others in the world community to find the appropriate vehicles for continuing to support, on a multilateral and bilateral basis, global public health on the order that the United States has done in the past."
By Echo Wang and Paresh Dave

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp's <MSFT.O> bid to carve out parts of TikTok from its Chinese owner ByteDance will be a technically complex endeavor that could test the patience of President Donald Trump's administration, according to sources familiar with the setup.

Trump has given Microsoft until Sept. 15 to put together a blueprint for an acquisition that safeguards the personal data of Americans stored on the short-video app, and he has issued an order to ban it if there is no deal by then.

Microsoft is negotiating a transition period that will give it time to ringfence TikTok technologically from ByteDance after they agree to a deal, Reuters reported on Aug. 2.

The clean break that Trump and lawmakers envision could take a year or more, some of the sources said.

TikTok is functionally and technically similar to ByteDance-owned Douyin, which is available only in China, and shares technical resources with it and other ByteDance-owned properties, people familiar with the matter said.

ByteDance started working on their technological separation several months ago amid scrutiny from the U.S. government, a source familiar with the process told Reuters. It began planning for a split as part of a strategy to shift its power from China, Reuters has reported.

While the code for the app, which determines the look and feel of TikTok, has been separated from Douyin, the server code is still partially shared across other ByteDance products, the source said. The server code provides basic functionality of the apps such as data storage, algorithms for moderating and recommending content and the management of user profiles.

To ensure uninterrupted TikTok service, Microsoft would likely need to rely on ByteDances code while it reviews and revises the code, and moves to a new back-end infrastructure to serve users, according to cyber security expert Ryan Speers at River Loop Security, which provides services including cybersecurity due diligence for deals.

Story continues

Any continuing technical or operational reliance of the U.S. business on the Chinese company after the sale generally would have been unacceptable to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), said Aimen Mir, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury responsible for CFIUS, now a partner at the law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

In the past, CFIUS has required adoption of increased protections pending a sale, including separation of the U.S. business from foreign sellers to the furthest extent possible, he said.

Another challenge Microsoft faces is how it will transfer what is viewed as TikTok's secret sauce, the recommendation engine that keeps users glued to their screens. This engine, or algorithm, powers TikTok's "For You" page, which recommends the next video to watch based on an analysis of user behavior.

TikTok uses recommendation algorithms that are independent from Douyin, according to two sources familiar with the matter. But what makes it tick is the content and user information that is fed into the algorithm.

"Algorithms are not worth anything without the data," said Jim DuBois, a former Chief Information Officer at Microsoft. DuBois is a venture adviser at Ignition Partners. "Segmenting the data for those countries is a significant task."

Microsoft's negotiations for the acquisition of the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Australia operations of TikTok complicates a separation. Not only would TikTok have to be separated from ByteDance, it would have to be broken up from TikTok's other regions. This adds to the technical challenges because of the amount of data involved.

"The biggest part is separating the user data - both content and data about users," DuBois said, noting hard disks of data would likely need to be transferred between ByteDance and Microsoft.

TikTok had said its user data was stored in the U.S., with a backup in Singapore, separate from the rest of the company.

The proposed timeline makes consummating a deal very challenging, said Karen C. Hermann, a deal lawyer at Venable LLP: "It can sometimes take months and months just to identify the business needs of the divested business, what IP and other assets it uses exclusively, and what assets and IP it shares with other businesses in the company group."

(Reporting by Echo Wang in New York and Paresh Dave in San Francisco; additional reporting by Katie Paul in San Francisco; editing by Kenneth Li and Grant McCool)
Posted: 'Thank you Claire Fletcher for your painting for Beatrice on her birthday'

Shared an illustration of the royal and gushing post on the princess' birthday

Sarah Ferguson has called Princess Beatrice a 'natural angel of kindness and goodness' as she shared an intimate birthday portrait of the royal.

The Duchess of York, 60, posted an illustration of the Queen's granddaughter on her Instagram page last night as the youngster celebrated her 32nd birthday.

Shared a snap of the painting online, Fergie thanked illustrator Claire Fletcher for the picture of Beatrice on her birthday, writing: 'She is a natural angel of kindness and goodness, so this little painting sums it all up.'

Her comments come weeks after the princess, who is ninth-in-line to the throne, tied the knot to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, at a secret ceremony at her parent's home of the Royal Lodge in Windsor.

Sarah Ferguson, 61, called her daughter Princess Beatrice a 'natural angel of kindness and goodness' in a gushing Instagram post as she shared an illustration of the royal yesterday

In the painting, Princess Beatrice can be seen from behind as she walks barefoot through a field of grass.

Meanwhile the royal appears to have swept her auburn locks into a pony tail and wearing a large pair of colourful wings made of flowers.

While it is not known when the picture was painted, the outfit is remarkably similar to one worn by the royal on the eve of her wedding to Edo last month.

Sharing a snap of the illustration, Fergie wrote: 'Thank you Claire Fletcher for your painting for Beatrice on her birthday.'

While it is unknown when the illustration was painted, the royal's striped outfit is remarkably similar to one worn on the eve of her wedding last month (pictured, on her wedding evening with Princess Eugenie)

Sharing the illustration online, the Duchess of York wrote that the royal was 'a natural angel of kindness'

Princess Beatrice's celebration come just weeks after the princess, who is ninth-in-line for the throne, tied the knot to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, at the Royal Chapel of All Saints, in the grounds of Royal Lodge, in Windsor Great Park.

Beatrice married on Friday 17th July wearing both a tiara and vintage dress generously lent to her by her grandmother.

The wedding bridged three Royal generations  with Princess Beatrice becoming a stepmother to Edo's son Wolfie, four, who acted as both best man and page boy alongside his two young cousins.

Beatrice's sister Eugenie, 30, was maid of honour.

The Duchess shared the snapshot on her Instagram page as Princess Beatrice celebrated her 32nd birthday yesterday (pictured, the Duchess of York)

The celebrations come just weeks after the princess, who is ninth-in-line for the throne, tied the knot to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi (pictured, together), at the Royal Chapel of All Saints, in the grounds of Royal Lodge, in Windsor Great Park

A small party was held afterwards at Royal Lodge, Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York's Windsor home, with many of the 20 guests staying overnight  some in glamping pods outdoors.

The photographs were released the following day to ensure that they did not overshadow the ceremony to confer a knighthood on Captain Tom Moore, the former Army officer who raised 33 million for charity in a sponsored walk leading up to his 100th birthday in April.

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

The couple celebrated their wedding on July 17 and have since been seen by eagle-eyed tourists driving together in the south of France on their honeymoon

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

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

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

It is understood that they are planning a trip to Lamu Island, off Kenya, where Edos family own a home and where he took Beatrice in the early days of their romance.

The property developer fell for the Princess after meeting her at the wedding of her sister Princess Eugenie to Jack Brooksbank in October 2018.
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According to a new report published by Polaris Market Research the worldwide kitchen appliances market is anticipated to reach USD 340.9 billion by 2026. In 2017, the refrigerator segment dominated the global market, in terms of revenue. North America is expected to be the leading contributor to the global market revenue during the forecast period.

The changing lifestyles and hectic schedules of the working professionals lead to growing demand for kitchen appliances. Consumers prefer kitchen appliances, which are easyto-operate and facilitate faster cooking. Rising disposable income is one of the factors responsible for the growth of the market. Increasing propensity of consumers to spend on appliances to lead convenient lives has also resulted in an increased demand for kitchen appliances.

Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/kitchen-appliances-market/request-for-sample

The other factors responsible for the growth of the market are convenience in fast cooking and healthy food consumption. Players in the market are launching cooking appliances which enable faster cooking while keeping the nutrients of food intact. Introduction of energy efficient cooking appliances equipped with multiple cooking functionalities are available in the market to cater to the consumers in the market. Moreover, the increasing trend of smart appliances would also encourage manufacturers to launch innovative kitchen appliances, which are compact and easy-to-use.

There has been a considerable increase in middle class and young working population across the globe. Rising female working population and busy schedules of people have led to an increasing demand of kitchen appliances. Increase in the number of social gatherings coupled with growing need for quick and efficient kitchen activities has boosted the market. Growing purchasing power of individuals has led to increased spending on consumer goods. Rising disposable income enables consumers to purchase multipurpose and easy-to-operate kitchen appliances to simplify and ease their kitchen activities. Consumers generally opt for stylish and technologically advanced kitchen appliances, which complement their living standards. Market players are introducing new products equipped with advanced features at affordable prices to cater to the growing consumer demands.

North America generated the highest revenue in the market in 2017, and is expected to lead the global market throughout the forecast period. The high living standards along with high disposable income in the region encourage consumers to purchase kitchen appliances to simplify kitchen activities. The growing adoption of smart technologies and home automation systems is further expected to augment market growth in the region. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at a significant rate during the forecast period owing to the increasing population and improving living standards.

Browse for full research summary: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/kitchen-appliances-market

The different types of kitchen appliances include cooking appliances, refrigerators, dishwaters, and others. In 2017, refrigerators accounted for the highest market share owing to increasing need to conserve edible items at a range of different temperatures. Consumers prefer to use energy efficient refrigerators owing to growing environmental concerns. Introduction of advanced refrigerators equipped with smart technologies is expected to drive the market in the future.

The various end-users of kitchen appliances include residential and commercial users. In 2017, residential users accounted for the largest share in the global market, and are estimated to grow at a substantial rate during the forecast period. Residential consumers are increasingly spending on kitchen appliances to simplify kitchen chores and lead comfortable lives. Household consumers are opting for kitchen appliances, which are energy efficient and have minimal space requirements. In addition, improvement in living standards has encouraged consumers to buy technology-driven and luxury kitchen appliances. Integration of technologies such as Internet of Things and smart technologies into kitchen appliances is expected to provide growth opportunities in the coming years.

The well-known companies profiled in the report include Whirlpool Corporation, Robert Bosch GmbH, LG Electronics, AB Electrolux, Haier Group Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, Samsung Electronics, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Sharp Corporation. These companies launch new products and collaborate with other market leaders to innovate and launch new products to meet the increasing needs and requirements of consumers.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio  As Larry Householder ascended to power in the Ohio Statehouse, he had a powerful ally from Cleveland who backed his work and contributed to his campaigns.

Prominent Cleveland businessman Tony George and his family gave nearly $120,000 in contributions to Householder over the past four years, just as Householder returned to state politics and rose to become the speaker of the Ohio House, records show.
T he number of people to have died with coronavirus in the UK has risen by 21.

The Government said 46,526 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus as of 5pm on Sunday.

Separate figures published by the UKs statistics agencies show there have now been 56,600 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The Government also said that in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Monday, there had been a further 816 lab-confirmed cases. Overall, a total of 311,641 cases have been confirmed.

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It comes after a further seven people were confirmed to have died in UK hospitals after testing positive for coronavirus.

Six of those people were in England, with one in Northern Ireland. There were no further deaths in Wales or Scotland.

The latest figures bring the total number of deaths recorded in UK hospitals to 34,044.

The patients who died in English hospitals were aged between 65 and 93. All had known underlying health conditions. No deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.

The region with the highest number of deaths was the South East with four.

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There were also two deaths in the North East and Yorkshire but all other regions of England recorded no deaths for the same time period, including the North West, where local lockdown measures are in place around Greater Manchester.

The total of seven new deaths is higher than last Monday, when five people were reported to have died in hospitals after testing positive for the virus.

It comes after Boris Johnson urged schools and teachers' unions to work together "to ensure that our schools are safe" from coronavirus in time for the start of the next academic year.

The Prime Minister told reporters: Its not right that kids should spend more time out of school. Its much much better for their health and mental wellbeing - obviously their educational prospects if everybody comes back to school full-time in September.

"It's our moral duty to make sure that happens."
A San Antonio kindergarten teacher has died as a result of COVID-19, officials said.

Melissa Martinez, who taught at Rogers Academy in the San Antonio Independent School District, died Wednesday morning.

"Ms. Martinez was an amazing teacher and genuine person," said Zada Fowler, principal of Rogers Academy, in a statement.

READ ALSO: San Antonio officials holding town hall to address concerns, confusion over school reopenings

"She was passionate about her students, creative beyond measure, and always willing to help anyone in need. She loved being a teacher and it showed in her smile and beautiful laughter. She is loved immensely and will be greatly missed by the Will Rogers Academy Family."

Martinez completed her sixth year with SAISD last school year, according to the district. She was last on campus the first week of June. Counseling support has been offered to her colleagues.

"We hold her family and friends in our hearts during this difficult time," SAISD said in a statement.

Martinez's death follows the loss of Carmen Canales, a teacher at Ogden Academy, who died in late July. Canales, who had taught at the school for three years, was the first SAISD employee to die of COVID-19, officials said.

Michelle Villarreal, a cafeteria manager at Leon Valley Elementary School, also died in late July. A family member wrote on GoFundMe that COVID-19 claimed her life. The school said in a statement that "her love and legacy will remain in many hearts forever."

On Wednesday, Flour Bluff ISD, a school district in Corpus Christi, announced the death of its superintendent. David Freeman's sister had said on social media that he was in intensive care with COVID-19.

"We are heartbroken and grief stricken over the sudden loss of our fearless leader," the district wrote on Facebook. "Dr. Freeman had been battling health issues over the past few months."
Unveils first-of-its-kind RF 01  RFH 02+ disposable face masks range to offer advanced protection to frontline industrial workers

KARAM, Indias leading Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) manufacturing company based in Noida, has launched its Disposable Face Masks range to offer protection against viruses, bacterial microorganisms, dust, pollen and smoke.

Bearing in mind the ongoing pandemic, the brand has introduced first-of-its-kind RF 01  RFH 02+ Disposable KARAM Face Mask range with an aim to offer quality, comfort and affordability to frontline industrial workers.

The product was virtually launched by Mr. Hemant Sapra (President, Global Marketing) and Mr. Rajesh Nigam (President, Technical) at KARAM Industries in the august presence of Mr Amitabh Kant - CEO, NITI Aayog and renowned actor and television host Manish Paul who also hosted the entire launch event.

KARAM has introduced 8 variants of disposable masks designed to filter air contaminants which helps the user to breathe germ-free air. The new mask range is made of light weight, sweat absorbent Polypropylene material that comes with adjustable nose clip for a comfortable fit.

These masks are equipped with innovative wrap-around design which covers full face down to the chin. Designed to offer advanced protection at extended hours to frontline and industrial workers, these mask comes with three key aspects  Elastic ear loop, Exhalation Valve and Elastic headband to offer ultimate comfort during prolonged usage.

With increasing number of COVID-19 cases, the company has expanded its PPE portfolio with disposable face mask range as extended use or re-use of masks decreases the level of safety. The mask ensures durability of 12-hours (cumulative) with single use for different industrial workers and can also be used for daily activities.

Catering to the growing demand of face masks, KARAMs face mask will be is available for purchase across India, at all e-commerce websites including Amazon and Flipkart starting August 10th, 2020. The masks will also be made available across retail outlets and medical stores.
The owner of a Montgomery business who was arrested last week on child sex crimes now faces more charges in a different Alabama County.

David Phillip Justice, owner of Mr. Sandman Mattresses and Furniture, has been arrested in Blount County. District Attorney Pamela Casey confirms Justice is charged with one count of first-degree sodomy and 20 counts of sex abuse of a child under the age of 12.

The 68-year-old Justice was arrested Aug. 5 in Montgomery on two counts of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12. He was released from the Montgomery County Detention Center Friday after posting $60,000 bond.

He was then transferred to Blount County. According to charging documents, Justice admitted to touching a young girls genitals both under and over her clothing at least 20 times over the course of two years. The victim was 8 years old when the abuse started.

Casey requested that Justice be held without bond until a hearing, which is set for Tuesday. First-degree sodomy is a Class A felony and sex abuse of a child under 12 is a Class B felony.
Thailand's ailing economy, particularly its tourism and agriculture sectors, is poised to get a boost from new rules that ease the private cultivation and sale of medical marijuana.

The Cabinet amended the Narcotics Act on Aug. 4, pending Parliament's approval, to allow private medical operators -- a category including some traditional medicine practitioners and farmers -- to grow and trade the crop including for both export and import. The move expands a cornerstone policy of Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who bet that the controlled legalization of marijuana would boost the wellness, travel and agriculture sectors.

The latest plan will lift limits imposed when the country in 2018 became the first in Southeast Asia to legalize medicinal use of the herb. It also follows the opening in January of a medical-marijuana clinic in the Health Ministry facilities that offer free medicine to its patients. This does not include the 147 authorized clinics in the country that are currently able to prescribe it.

"Thailand is already a tourist destination for many foreigners, and marijuana will be another attraction for the country and for medical tourists," Marut Jirasrattasiri, director general of the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine, said in an interview. Private medical practitioners with licenses will gain the right to "grow, produce and export marijuana," he said, adding that Thai farmers will gain "more options for income."

Priority will be given to Thai investors, Marut said.

"We want to use Thai money for now, especially collaboration between the government and communities to enhance knowledge, research and production," Marut said. "We don't want foreigners to come in and invest, then reap all the benefits."

The agriculture and tourism sectors are crucial to the local economy. About a third of Thais make their living from rice alone, according to the Thai Rice Exporters Association. Meanwhile, the wellness tourism sector generated domestic expenditures of $12 billion in 2017, more than the combined amounts in Indonesia and Malaysia, according a report by the Global Wellness Institute.

Thailand's economy is likely to contract 8.5% in 2020 amid the global coronavirus pandemic, the biggest decline projected in Asia.

"This will allow more patients to have access to medical marijuana for their ailments and to increase awareness of medical marijuana in Thailand," Traisuree Taisaranakul, a government spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Marijuana cultivation and dispensing is currently done solely by government agencies or closely regulated organizations. The plant remains a category-five drug, meaning recreational use is forbidden. Illegal possession could trigger a 10-year prison sentence and "trafficking" is a crime punishable by life imprisonment or the death penalty.

"In the next stages, both Thais and foreigners will have the opportunity to be treated with medical marijuana, but only after the covid-19 pandemic has passed and inter-travel restrictions lifted," Marut said. "Marijuana has always been Thailand's crop, and all the foreign countries love it."

The majority of Thailand's 23 exchange-traded health-care operators, led by Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Pcl, Bumrungrad Hospital Pcl and Samitivej Pcl, derive a significant portion of their revenue from foreign patients, with emphasis on those from China, Myanmar and the Middle East.
Indias newly-acquired five Rafale fighters are practising night flying in the mountainous terrain of Himachal Pradesh so that the Golden Arrows squadron with its Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile and SCALP air-to-ground stand-off weapon will be ready if the situation deteriorates on the 1,597 km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Ladakh sector, people familiar with the matter said.

The first batch of Rafale fighters, which landed at the Indian Air Force air base at Ambala on July 29, are fully operational with the first 18 platforms to be placed in Ambala and the next 18 fighters to be based in Hasimara air base near the border with Bhutan. India has contracted to purchase 36 jets made by Dassault Aviation, South Block officials said.

A government official said the top-of-the-line fighter jets are staying away from the LAC lest the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) radars in occupied Aksai Chin identify their frequency signatures and use it to jam in the worst case scenario.

Also Read: Rafale is a game changer, Chinese J 20 does not come close, says former air chief Dhanoa

Military aviation experts, however, say that Rafales can also be used for training in Ladakh sector as all these fighters are equipped with programmable signal processors (PSP) or the capacity to change signal frequencies in the event of hostilities.

Even though the Chinese PLA have placed their electronic intelligence radars on mountain tops in the occupied Aksai Chin area for a clear line of sight, the war-time signature of Rafale will be different from that in practise mode. The PLA aircraft detection radars are good as they have been manufactured keeping the US air force in mind, said an expert.

The Rafale jets are armed with Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missiles, MICA multi-mission air-to-air missiles and Scalp deep-strike cruise missiles  weapons that will allow fighter pilots to attack air and ground targets from standoff ranges and fill a significant capability gap.

Also Read: Rafale vs J-20: Ex-IAF chief Dhanoa calls Chinas bluff with two simple questions

The Meteor missiles have a no-escape zone believed to be three times greater than that of current medium-range air-to-air missiles. The missile system, powered by a unique rocket-ramjet motor, has a range of over 120 kilometres.

The SCALP is a deep-strike cruise missile with pinpoint terminal accuracy through its highly accurate seeker and target recognition system.

Even though the India-China diplomatic and military interlocutors are in constant dialogue for total disengagement of troops in eastern Ladakh, the three services are not only focused on western sector but also the remaining part of the LAC as well as the high seas. Last week, Army Chief General MM Naravane made it clear to central and eastern army commanders that they should not be caught by surprise by the PLA on the LAC and should be in the highest state of military preparedness.

The Indian Navy has also been told to monitor the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean to ensure that Chinese PLA warships are kept at bay from the Indian seaboard and island territories. The surface and undersea assets are on operational alert with Chinese ships being monitored from Malacca Straits to Gulf of Aden.

Even though the Chinese PLA air activity has reduced in the Ladakh sector as compared to the first week of July post Galwan flare-up, the Indian Air Force is taking no chances and is tracking the air movements, particularly at Lhasa Gonggar airbase in the Tibet region and Hotan airbase in Chinas Xinjiang region.

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Rome  Mon, August 10, 2020 19:01 526 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066ce5cf6 2 News Italy,Alpine,Mont-Blanc,travel,tourism Free

An Italian Alpine resort on Sunday lifted a state of alert declared last week over fears that a chunk of glacier on the Mont Blanc mountain range might crash down on them.

Around 15 people who were evacuated can now return to their homes in Courmayeur and traffic in the Cap Ferret valley is permitted again, said a statement from town officials.

Climate change has been increasingly melting the world's glaciers, creating a new danger for the town of Courmayeur, a resort community in Italy's Aosta Valley region, near the French border.

The town was put on high alert on Wednesday as a block of ice estimated at about 500,000 cubic metres -- the size of the Milan cathedral, one official said -- from the Planpincieux glacier risked falling and threatening homes.

But on Sunday, town officials announced that all security measures had been lifted.

Some locals were dismissive of the closure, and said it further hit a tourism season already affected by the coronavirus measures.

But the mayor's office said again on Sunday: "The evacuation was necessary and inevitable because of the glacier risk."

While regretting what it said was the alarmist tone of some news coverage, officials insisted that the threat to the town had been real.

During a recent helicopter flypast, an AFP reporter saw a gaping chasm on the lower part of the Planpincieux, from which two cascades of water flowed towards the valley, as it hung from the mountainside like a gigantic block of grey polystyrene.

In September and October last year, the Planpincieux glacier also threatened a partial collapse, after which extra surveillance measures were put in place.

A study last year by Swiss scientists found that Alpine glaciers could shrink between 65 and 90 percent this century, depending on how effectively the world can curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 19:40:55|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The recently signed maritime border demarcation agreements between Egypt and Greece will enhance Cairo's economic and petroleum resources, allowing Egypt to explore for oil and natural gas in its exclusive economic zones in the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, Egyptian experts said.

Egypt and Greece signed on Aug. 6 an agreement on the demarcation of the maritime borders between the two countries and setting up an exclusive economic zone between them in the Mediterranean Sea.

The deal allows both Egypt and Greece to maximize the use of available resources in the exclusive economic zone between them, particularly the potential oil and gas reserves.

This is the third maritime demarcation agreement that Egypt signed as it had previously signed an agreement with its Mediterranean neighbor Cyprus in 2013, and another in 2016 with Saudi Arabia to demarcate their maritime borders in the Red Sea.

The signing of the agreement with Cyprus allowed Egypt to discover the "Zohr" field, the largest natural gas field in the Mediterranean, whose daily production exceeds three billion cubic feet of natural gas.

This field helped Egypt achieve self-sufficiency in gas and resume exports.

Egypt also announced in May the signing of agreements with three foreign companies to explore for oil and gas for the first time in the Red Sea, which experts see as one of the fruits of signing the maritime border demarcation agreement with Saudi Arabia.

"Signing agreements to demarcate the maritime borders brings many economic benefits to Egypt, within the framework of enhancing its oil and natural gas resources," Medhat Youssef, a petroleum expert, told Xinhua.

Youssef, a former head of the Egyptian General Petroleum Authority, said that Egypt used to face a problem before the maritime borders were demarcated, such as the fear of foreign companies to work in the exclusive economic zones "because they might be disputed areas."

"Egypt, before signing these agreements, was not able to launch bids for oil and gas exploration because this could lead to border disputes and huge financial losses for companies," the expert explained.

Regarding the Egyptian-Greek agreement, Youssef said the agreement guarantees that no border disputes will occur between the two countries sooner or later, "which gives international companies great confidence to work in the exclusive economic zone of Egypt."

The expert affirmed that the area between Egypt and Greece is very rich of oil and natural gas resources.

"The recently signed Egyptian-Greek agreement will attract international oil and gas exploration companies...we will soon hear about Egypt signing agreements with big companies to explore for oil," Youssef revealed.

Meanwhile, Tarek Fahmy, professor of political science at Cairo University, said signing these agreements preserves Egypt's rights in the region.

"The border demarcation agreement between Egypt and Greece recognizes the rights of both parties, and will enable Cairo to start exploration for oil and gas, similar to what it did after signing the agreement with Cyprus," the expert told Xinhua.

He explained that the agreement will also enhance Egypt's petroleum resources as well as its ability to be a regional energy hub during as Egypt has great potential in this field.

"Cairo's establishment of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum will greatly serve Egypt and the member states, and the agreement with Greece will constitute a new stage within the framework of this forum," Fahmy said.

For his part, ambassador Gamal Bayoumi, a former assistant foreign minister, told Xinhua that signing the Egyptian-Greek agreement is an important legal development that would enable both countries to well use their resources.

Through the agreement, he explained, Egypt conveyed messages to many parties, mainly investors who want to invest in this region.

He added that Egypt would send the United Nations a copy of the agreement, which would boost Egypt's oil resources and secure the gas pipeline that Egypt is trying to build in order to export gas to Europe.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described on Friday the deal as "worthless," noting Turkey has resumed energy exploration activities in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Enditem
The Ghana Education Service (GES) has justified why the final year students who disrespected the President rightly deserved the punishment meted out to them.



Some students of the Tweneboah Koduah, Juaben Senior High Schools and Sekondi College have been dismissed and barred from writing their WASSCE examinations after recording videos of themselves casting diatribes at President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and others vandalizing their school propeties.



The students engaged in these acts because they couldn't write their Integrated Science examination and blamed the President for their failure.



This is because they were given past questions to serve as a guide for them to write their exams but they rather relied on the past questions and were left with disappointment when the questions didn't appear in the final exams.



The GES also surcharged the students who destroyed the school properties and there are some that their case has been referred to the Police for further investigation and sanctions.



Making his submissions on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', the Director-General of GES, Prof. Kwesi Opoku Amankwa disclosed that the students of Tweneboah Koduah and Juaben SHSs had ''bribed'' some of their invigilators ahead of the exams but the authorities got a wind of it and changed the teachers who were supposed to invigilate them.



On the part of one student named Nicholas Cobbinah of Sekondi College, Prof. Opoku Amankwa narrated how obstinate the student is, saying his action (insulting the President) was the third time of insubordination.



He revealed, on two occasions, he (Nicholas Cobbinah) had carried out an assault on some students in his school and his case was reported to the Police.



''Before they went home around 25th February, he beat a Form 2 student for the child to lose six set of teeth. The case was filed at the Police and the offender was prepared for court but the offender's parents settled the issue with the victim's family. They fixed the teeth for the school child. What is even more painful is, when you read the report, the child's gum is said to have been badly impacted, thereby making it difficult for the teeth to be fixed properly...He also headbutted another school child and blood started oozing from the victim's face'', he stated.



The GES Director noted it is in view of all these and other similar incidents that informed the decision by the education authority to sanction the students accordingly.



He however added that the GES has taken notice of the President's plead for leniency but was glad that the President didn't direct that they cancel the punitive measures other than to let the students write their exams.



According to him, the students can partake in the final examinations but are not allowed to write their papers in their schools.



He directed them to go and write in WAEC designated offices.



He also stressed that the other punishments like payment for full cost of the damaged school properties are still in effect.





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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Australia had its deadliest day in the coronavirus pandemic, with 19 fatalities in the state of Victoria.

The number of new infections climbed by 322, Victorias health department said in a tweet on Monday. The new record of fatalities eclipses the previous high of 17 announced Sunday, the majority of which were related to care homes for the elderly.

While Australia enjoyed early success in flattening the curve of infections, Victoria is at the center of a renewed outbreak. The nations second-most populous state is experiencing some of the strictest social-distancing measures in the western world, crippling economic activity there and shaking confidence across the nation.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews is facing criticism for lapses in the quarantine system and problems with tracing that allowed the virus to reemerge and spread. National Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has called on the state government to explain the serious failures in quarantine arrangements.

Victorians are entitled to know more and to get the answers, Frydenberg said on Saturday.
Police across China have nabbed more than 43,000 suspects while handling over 24,000 criminal cases in a special crackdown that started in May, the Ministry of Public Security said Sunday.

In the special crackdown targeting law violations related to food and drug safety, intellectual property rights, and wild animals and plants, among others, the ministry said that more than 7,400 dens were demolished and over 3,000 criminal groups busted.

Chinese police have dealt with over 4,700 cases and detained over 9,000 suspects in relation to illegal conduct jeopardizing the health of people and infringing the rights of enterprises and customers.

Another 3,100 suspects were arrested for manufacturing and trading counterfeit and shoddy anti-epidemic supplies and drugs, the ministry said.

In addition, about 8,600 cases related to crimes against environmental resources, and more than 2,100 cases involving counterfeiting were handled by police across the nation over the course of the crackdown.
Rows of destroyed trucks at the site of last weeks explosion (AP/Bilal Hussein)

A Lebanese judge has started questioning the heads of the countrys security agencies over last weeks devastating explosion in Beirut as another cabinet minister resigned in protest.

Judge Ghassan El Khoury began questioning Major General Tony Saliba, the head of State Security, according to the state-run National News Agency. It gave no further details, but other generals are scheduled to be questioned.

Meanwhile, justice minister Marie-Claude Najm, who was sprayed with water and verbally attacked last week while visiting a damaged area, has handed her resignation to the prime minister, the news agency said. She is the third cabinet minister to resign over the blast.

Expand Close Rescue workers search for more victims following the explosion (AP/Bilal Hussein) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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A cabinet meeting is scheduled for Monday, amid speculation the government could resign en masse. If a total of seven out of the 20 ministers resign, the cabinet would effectively become a caretaker government. At least nine MPs have resigned.

The August 4 blast killed 160 people and wounded around 6,000, in addition to destroying the countrys main port and damaging large parts of the capital. Losses from the blast are estimated to be between 8 billion to 12 billion, and nearly 300,000 people were left homeless in the immediate aftermath.

The explosion is believed to have been caused by a fire that ignited a stockpile of explosive material that had been stored at the port since 2013. The disaster has been widely blamed on years of corruption and neglect by the entrenched political leadership that has governed Lebanon since its 1975-1990 civil war.

About 20 people have been detained over the blast, including the head of Lebanons customs department and his predecessor, as well as the head of the port. Dozens of people have been questioned, including two former cabinet ministers, according to government officials.

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The investigation is focused on how 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in fertilisers, came to be stored at a warehouse in Beiruts port for six years, and why nothing was done about it.

State Security had compiled a report about the dangers of storing the material at the port and sent a copy to the offices of the president and prime minister on July 20.

On Sunday, world leaders and international organisations pledged nearly 230 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Beirut in the wake of the devastating explosion, but warned that no money for rebuilding the capital would be made available until Lebanese authorities commit themselves to the political and economic reforms demanded by the people.

Protesters have clashed with security forces over the past two days in Beirut. The demonstrators blame the explosion and a severe economic crisis on the ruling elite and are calling for sweeping political change. Similar demonstrations last autumn fizzled out after several weeks.
A British man has been paid 8,000 a year since 1998 to be the official wizard of the city of Christchurch in New Zealand.

Ian Brackenbury Channell, who goes by the simple name of The Wizard, has been a regular sight in the South Island city for decades since he arrived in the 1970s.

He spends most of his time in the citys main square in front of the cathedral dressed in long dark robes and a pointed hat, heavily bearded and carrying a staff.

But the resemblance to Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings films, which were shot in New Zealand, is coincidental and Mr Channell insists his role is much more than just amusing tourists.

Since 1998, he has been the city of Christchurchs official wizard, paid NZ$16,000 a year by the City Council to provide acts of wizardry and other wizard-like-services as part of promotional work for the city of Christchurch, according to a spokesman for the council, speaking to CNN.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Each year this involves around 200 hours of work promoting local events, encouraging tourism, and welcoming dignitaries to Christchurch.

Over the years he has become a fixture of Christchurch, even acquiring his own page and rating on TripAdvisor, and often appears at civic events in the town.

He told CNN he saw his role as being a provocateur, satirising the establishment. Every day the world gets more serious, so fun is the most powerful thing in the world right now, he said.

Most of his time in Christchurchs city squares is spent speaking on philosophy and engaging the public in his ideas on everything from climate change to the supposed inequities of New Zealands census.

His journey into wizardry began when he was working at a university in Australia in the 1970s, when he began to try and inject more fun and absurdity into his classes. He found a mostly chilly reception from the university authorities and eventually his then-wife, who left him over his increasingly full-time commitment to being a wizard.

But across the sea in New Zealand he found a more receptive atmosphere. Before he was taken onto the council payroll, he was recognised by the countrys Art Gallery Directors Association as a living work of art in the 1980s.

Mr Channell is paid $10,000 a year, partly to appear at civic events such as this memorial to the victims of the Christchurch mosque shootings (Getty Images)

The city of Aucklands art gallery has even formally added him to their collection, citing the medium of his art as artists corporeal presence and its value as priceless. In 2009 to mark his place in Christchurchs civic life he was awarded the Queens Service Medal.

Although he has not legally changed his name, Mr Channell has secured both a British passport and a New Zealand drivers licence, both made out in the name of The Wizard.

His website even features a photograph of a letter he says he received from the Prime Minister of New Zealand in 1990 asking him to become the Wizard of New Zealand, Antarctica and relevant offshore areas, adding no doubt there will be implications in the area of spells, blessings, curses, and other supernatural matters that are beyond the competence of mere Prime Ministers.

Mr Channell, who is now aged 87, is beginning to wind down his duties as the citys wizard but for the last six years has taken on an apprentice, Ari Freeman, who hopes to inherit the mantle one day.

Mr Freeman, a 39-year-old musician who leads a psychedelic funk band, is not sure if the council will employ him under the same terms as Mr Channell when he finally hangs up his wizards hat and staff.

I want the wizard phenomenon to continue, and I will totally fulfil that role, he told CNN. It takes someone to do something unusual to poke their head in to create a zeitgeist change. And those people are magicians.
Kate Garraway in the Smooth Radio studio in London. (Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images)

Kate Garraway has revealed she feels bad for enjoying herself on Good Morning Britain while husband Derek Draper remains in hospital following his coronavirus battle.

The presenter told GMB viewers it is a difficult balance to strike while Draper, 52, is in a minimally conscious state.

Draper was hospitalised after contracting COVID-19 back in March, and though he no longer has the virus, it has had a severe impact on his body.

Read more: Ben Shephard 'loved' having Kate Garraway back on GMB

Garraway was urged by doctors to return to work, and has been a regular on GMB since her return last month.

Speaking to co-host Adil Ray on Mondays show, she said: I feel conscious of not... I know everyone has been so lovely and concerned for him, and it's difficult, isn't it.

There's so many people out there with people who are sick that you don't want to talk about it on Good Morning Britain all of the time.

"It's then not cheering up everybody that's trying to cope with COVID.

"But then on the other hand last week when we were having fun and games, you feel almost bad because you think, 'Im laughing and hes still there in a minimally conscious state,' it's a difficult balance.

Kate Garraway with husband Derek Draper and their children at Heathrow Airport after the 2019 series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! (Steve Parsons/PA Images via Getty Images)

Updating viewers on Drapers progress, Garraway admitted his recovery is still a waiting game.

She added: "I'm worried about him and he still has lots of challenges.

Read more: Kate Garraway wanted to donate plasma to help husband

"Challenges in terms of food, challenges with everything, lungs and everything, and we just want him to wake up.

"The nurses are putting this show on in the morning for him, in the hope that it might trigger something.

"It's a waiting game, but at least I am lucky that I have the chance to wait, because he is still with us."

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV from 6am.
Women are rushing to buy a $20 pair of white denim jeans from Kmart which cinch the waist and conceal 'problem' areas around the bottom and thighs.

The trousers, which also come in beige and khaki green, sit above the hips and hang loose over the legs, an ultra-flattering silhouette that makes almost every body shape look slimmer and more defined.

Australian fashion influencers have been raving about the jeans on Instagram, with Canberra blogger 'This is Genevieve' branding them one of the most versatile pieces in her wardrobe.

Similar jeans are available from Australian clothing brand Everlane, but those will set you back $102  more than five times the price of Kmarts bargain design.

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Canberra fashion blogger 'This is Genevieve' wears the $20 Wide-Leg Jeans from Kmart

The jeans (left, on blogger Genevieve and right, on Kmart's website) are high-waisted and hang loose over the legs, a flattering silhouette for almost every body shape

'When I was younger I wouldn't be caught dead wearing wide leg jeans,' Genevieve captioned an outfit shot of her wearing the style.

'Strictly skinny jeans only  fast forward to now and I can't get enough of them!'

One follower replied: 'Love this, been dying for some white jeans!'

'Love the whole look,' said another.

The jeans are cropped three quarters way down the legs, making heeled ankle boots the perfect accessory

Similar jeans from clothing brand Everlane (pictured) cost $102 - more than five times the price of Kmart's bargain design

While some sizes have already sold out, the cotton and elastane pants are still available in 8 and 12 through 20 on Kmart's website.

And they're not the only Kmart jeans that are fast becoming firm favourites among Australian fashionistas.

Last week, Brisbane mother-of-two Nienke Cassidy claimed the $25 'Feel Good' jeans are the 'best denim' she has ever owned, unrivalled in its ability to flatten and sculpt the lower stomach area like lycra shapewear.

The $25 Feel Good jeans (right) helped Nienke Cassidy feel supported and sculpted around her lower stomach

Ms Cassidy first spotted the pants in a Facebook post where women were raving about their comfort and affordability.

She told Daily Mail Australia: 'I kept them in mind ever since. I've always searched for jeans that are really high waisted and supportive in the front but couldn't find any I loved.'

So when she saw them in-store, she bought two pairs at once. Ms Cassidy said she hopes to buy more before they sell out.


The Queen's official tea supplier has shared its secrets to making the perfect cuppa - including warming the teapot with hot water first and letting it sit for four minutes.

English firm Twinings has been supplying the British monarchy with tea since 1837, when it was first 'honoured' by Queen Victoria.

Speaking to Town & Country magazine, Stephen Twinings, the brand's director of corporate relations, and the 10th generation of his family in the business, said: 'We've had the honor of supplying every successive British King and Queen from that day to the very current day.'

The Queen's official tea supplier, Twinings, has shared its secrets to making the perfect cuppa - including warming the teapot with hot water first and letting it sit for four minutes. Pictured: The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in Windsor in June

How to make the perfect cup of tea, according to the Queen's official supplier English firm Twinings has been supplying the British monarchy with tea since 1837, when it was first 'honoured' by Queen Victoria. And now, the brand has revealed its secrets to making the perfect cuppa. If using a teapot, it suggests warming it with hot water first before getting rid of that liquid. Then, fill your kettle or teapot with cold water and boil it. Once the water is boiled, it should be poured immediately over the tea bag. It's recommended brewing time is four minutes and when including milk, Twinings suggested that it should be added to your mug before any tea. Advertisement

And while he wouldn't reveal Her Majesty's favourite brew, he did suggest how to create the best cup of black tea - explaining that the trick is to leave it to sit for at least four minutes.

For those wanting expert results, you must first warm your teapot with hot water before getting rid of that liquid, according to the brand.

Then, fill the device with fresh cold water and it heat to its boiling point before immediately pouring it over your tea bag.

Over-boiling your water will make your tea taste 'flat', according to Twinings.

The brand also insists that tea shouldn't be judged on its look.

It explained: 'Colour comes more quickly, but flavour takes a bit longer to develop.'

The company's recommended brewing time is four minutes, but added: 'The best cup of tea is the one you like the most.'

And when including milk in your cuppa, Twinings suggested that the liquid should be added to your mug before any tea.

'When adding milk, pour it into the cup before adding your tea.

'This allows the milk to cool the tea, rather than letting the tea heat the milk,' it said.

Confirming that the company does continue to hold multiple royal warrants, Stephen added: 'The first rule of doing business with the Royal households is of course confidentiality.'

Speaking to Town & Country magazine, Stephen Twinings (pictured), the brand's director of corporate relations, and the 10th generation of his family in the business, recalled the company's long history with the monarchy

A warrant from the Queen means that a company has supplied her and her household with some of its products for at least five years out of seven and is generally seen as a mark of excellence.

It is rumoured that the Queen's favourite cuppa is Earl Grey tea, taken with a little milk and no sugar.
(Newser)  Soon after the Georgia high school whose crowded hallway was captured in a viral photo announced nine students and staffers had tested positive for COVID-19, a second announcement: North Paulding High is going online. Digital learning will be in place for at least two days, the superintendent announced Sunday, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fox 5 Atlanta. "On Monday and Tuesday, the school will be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, and the district will consult with the Department of Public Health to assess the environment and determine if there (are) any additional close contacts for confirmed cases who have not already been identified," he said in a letter to parents. He added that they will be notified by Tuesday whether the school will reopen Wednesday.

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Six students were among those who tested positive for the coronavirus after the school reopened for in-person classes last week; the aunt of two of those students tells the AJC one of her nephews came home from school Monday having lost his sense of smell, and soon tested positive. His brother also came down with virus symptoms and tested positive. "They sat in class all day long with no masks and not social distancing, their aunt says. And I have no idea how many kids they came into contact with." The superintendent says the number of positive cases could rise once pending test results come in, 11 Alive reports. Meanwhile, the student who shared the photo tells CNN she has been receiving threats from other students. (The school changed its mind about suspending her, though.)
ELKO  Union firefighters lost their complaint to the Nevada Government Employee-Management Relations Board alleging that the Elko County Fire Protection District failed to bargain in good faith during labor negotiations.

The order issued in July and discussed at the Aug. 5 meeting of the Elko County Board of Fire Commissioners was in favor of the fire district, and said the complainant shall take nothing by way of its complaint. In other words, no fees or costs were awarded the union.

I believe the opinion says it all, Cash Minor, assistant Elko County manager and chief financial officer, said in an Aug. 6 email.

Elko County Manager Rob Stokes told the fire board  which is made up of Elko County Commissioners  at its Aug. 5 meeting the state boards decision was unanimous, and he understood it was unusual for the board to issue a 50-page opinion.

In the legal opinion on the unions allegations of bad faith bargaining and failure to comply with requests for information in a timely manner, the state boards findings included that it didnt see the information issue as an indicator of bad faith bargaining, especially because the union received the information.

Also, the opinion states that the complainant failed to present substantial evidence of fraud, deceitful action or other dishonest conduct by the fire district, and says that simply a failure to reschedule meetings within five working days, in connection with the conduct of the parties as a whole, does not lead this board to find bad faith bargaining.

The opinion says there was a two-month delay in bargaining meetings between the union and the fire district but it details the fire districts reasoning.

Although the opinion sides with the fire district, the state board cautioned that further delays would most likely have resulted in a bad faith determination.

The International Association of Fire Fighters Local 5046s president, Matthew House, issued a statement Aug. 8 that the association is, of course, disappointed with the EMRBs decision.

But we are far more disappointed that Elko County decided, rather than meet with the firefighters and have a conversation, that it would be more productive to defend their actions that were on the verge of conduct not to be tolerated in bargaining relations and teetered on the line of bad faith bargaining, which cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, he said.

House was quoting from the EMRB opinion.

As the EMRB also stated in their decision, while the respondent (fire district) genuinely believed the issues before it would negatively affect respondents budget and the ability to pay increases, they could have approached negotiations with that stance, he said.

Local 5046s complaint and the EMRBs subsequent opinion against the union are separate from the ongoing dispute over firefighter pay and health benefits.

A fact-finder report that favored the unions side in bargaining was not binding, and the contract issues are slated for arbitration, Amanda Osborne, director of Elko Countys personnel department, told the fire board at the Aug. 5 meeting.

The union earlier won a battle when the firefighters complained that Elko County Commissioners were tucking fire district business into their regular county meetings, rather than holding separate meetings as the Elko County Fire Protection District Board. The district now holds fire district meetings under a separate agenda.

Elko County, fire district and union representatives testified months ago at the state boards hearing on the union complaint to the state board.

The EMRB opinion provides background that says that prior to Jan. 1, 2015, Elko County relied on the Nevada Division of Forestry for fire suppression activities in the county, but after the Nevada Legislature determined in 2014 that it could no longer provide all-risk services, the county created the fire district.

Initially, the fire district was funded out of the Elko County general fund, but in July 2018, the county commissioners voted to establish a tax district. The fire district also participates in the Wildlife Fire Protection District managed by the Nevada Division of Forestry and pays to do so.

The opinion states that while the fire district was negotiating with NDF in 2019, contract negotiations were starting between the firefighters and the fire district, but the fire district needed time to negotiate with NDF, which sought more than $1 million a year from the fire district.

The board of fire commissioners last week voted to contribute $600,000 for the 2020-21 fiscal year, the same amount the district paid for the wildland fire program in the fiscal year that expired June 30.

The first negotiations between the firefighters and fire district started in March 2019, and then there were disputes over meeting dates and meeting delays, followed by the fire districts declaration that it didnt have the ability to cover the financial changes sought by the union, according to the EMRB opinion.

The fact finder report was the next step, with the report concluding that the fire district could afford the unions demands.

The board has not held that the act of declaring an inability to pay amounts to bad faith bargaining, the opinion states, noting the union contended the inability to pay should not have taken three months.

After the fact-finding report, the firefighters and fire district went to arbitration.

The arbitration was slated for March and then April 30 and May 1 but has been purportedly delayed due to the health crisis, the opinion states.

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison has recommended Australian war hero Edward "Teddy" Sheean be given a posthumous Victoria Cross, after an expert panel found there was "maladministration" in the original decisions not to award him the nation's highest military honour.

The federal government earlier this year rejected the findings of the Defence Honours and Awards Appeal Tribunal report, which unanimously recommended Ordinary Seaman Sheean receive the VC for his heroics when HMAS Armidale was sunk by Japanese bombers in the Timor Sea in 1942.

Seaman Edward "Teddy" Sheean - a victim of HMAS Armidale which was sunk off Timor by Japanese planes in 1942. Credit:Jack Atley

At the time, Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said the tribunal "did not present any new evidence that might support reconsideration of the valour inquiries recommendation".

The 18-year-old strapped himself to an anti-aircraft gun as the vessel went down and is credited with saving the lives of 49 crew during the height of World War II. He shot down at least one aircraft, before dying at his gun.
Fake books are very easy to come by on e-commerce platforms

This was shared by Nguyen Duc Hung, deputy director of TGS Law Firm, who pointed to Article 36.8 of Decree No.52/2013/ND-CP on e-commerce which stipulates that the responsibilities of traders or organisations providing e-commerce trading floor services include taking timely remedial measures upon detection or receipt of reports about business acts in violation of the law on the e-commerce trading floor.

If e-commerce companies do not disclose, prevent, and remove the items from their platforms in time, they violate the regulation, Hung said.

Thus, the abundance of fake books on Shopee and Sendo heavily implies that the platforms are failing to dispense the legal obligations.

As of early this March, the copyright department of local book publisher First News detected more than 43 Facebook pages and nearly 70 e-commerce vendors selling fake books. Moreover, the firm found more than 116 YouTube channels uploading audiobooks illegally.

In a recent response to VIR, Nguyen Van Phuoc, CEO of First News, said that it is planning to file lawsuits on e-commerce platforms that abetted the prolonged trading of fake books.

Phuoc in a Facebook post recently called attention to the many vendors selling fake books on Shopee and Sendo, with many offering items that violate the copyrights of First News, Alpha Books, and other publishers.

Previously, speaking at an event, Phuoc revealed that the publisher contacted the platforms to report the issues in hopes that the offending vendors would be removed but were rebutted. The representatives of the sites said that they are platforms only letting sellersSe operate a business, with 13 per cent commission on their revenue. Therefore, they are not responsible for the performance of the vendors.

First News prints only one version of a book, however, fake book sellers have many versions with very low prices. First News has 1,000 books but has to compete with more than 3,000 fake and smuggled books, said Phuoc. Readers and dealers find it increasingly difficult to distinguish fake and authentic books due to the mounting skills of counterfeiters.

This has resulted in an 80 per cent plunge in customer footfall at its bookshops, according to First News.

Other publishers like Kim Dong and Alphabooks, Nha Nam, and Dong A are in the same situation.

Kim Dong and Dong A purchased several books for which they hold the copyright from e-commerce sites. Not unexpectedly, all the items were fake. Both of them sent notices to their customers to keep an eye out and avoid forgeries. The publishers said that they have no better solutions for the issue.

Nha Nam even uploaded a video helping customers to distinguish authentic and fake books on its Facebook fan page.

According to the publishers, only about 0.001 per cent of local readers could recognise authenticat books, which is the reason behind the rampage of fake books in the market.

Facing queries about fake books, a representative of Sendo told VIR that it regularly rechecks all book items traded on its platform to ensure compliance with Sendos strict requirements, which include vendors getting licenses to export and import printed materials from the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Echoing this, the representative of Shopee told VIR that the company will collaborate with local authorities to inspect the related violations. At the same time, the platform also asserts that it is doing all in its power to crack down on vendors selling fake and smuggled goods or items violating intellectual property rights as soon as receiving reliable reports, following Decree No.52/2013/ND-CP and Circular No.47/2014/TT-BCT.

We only partner with genuine sellers who can submit the requisite documents and materials proving that the items they put on sale are authentic, said the representative, adding that to date, Shopee has yet to receive reliable allegations from First News.

Along with Vietnam, publishers across the globe are fighting for their rights that have been threatened by fake book sellers.

Newswire CNBC cited Cengage  a digital content publisher specialised in online textbooks stated that its revenue from textbook business dropped by 17 per cent in 2017 with the main reason being the spike in fake textbooks and illegally distributed e-books.

Michael E. Hansen, CEO of Cengage said that it suffers about $70-100 million in damages a year. What changed is just the amount of counterfeits in the market has spiked over the last 18 to 24 months. The more we started to dig in and do test purchases, the more we came across, in some cases, a staggering number of counterfeits in certain marketplaces.
A policeman run over by a car thief five days before the horrific death of PC Andrew Harper has backed calls for tougher sentences.

PC Gareth Phillips suffered a shattered pelvis when he was hit by a criminal in a hijacked police car last August.

He said he was totally behind the campaign launched by PC Harpers widow for police killers to receive an automatic life sentence with no parole.

PC Gareth Phillips suffered a shattered pelvis when he was hit by a criminal in a hijacked police car last August

PC Harper, 28, was dragged to his death as he tried to stop three teenage thieves fleeing with a stolen quad bike.

His killers were convicted of manslaughter  not murder  and last week two of them were told they will only serve two-thirds of their 13-year jail terms.

But PC Phillips said: I think they should serve their full sentence. He added the campaign by PC Harpers widow Lissie was amazing  I fully support it.

PC Phillips said: Something needs to change, because people dont seem to have any qualms any more with assaulting police officers, or the paramedics who were stabbed the other week.

To have some backing or support from the court network through sentencing would be a huge step forward.

PC Phillips was driven over by repeat offender Mubashar Hussain, 29, when he was stopped in a stolen Range Rover in Moseley, Birmingham.

Hussain managed to jump into an unmarked police BMW and reversed over PC Phillips, pinning him under the vehicle. The thief then sped away at up to 97mph before being caught by an armed unit and was later sentenced to 12 months in jail.

PC Harper, 28, was dragged to his death as he tried to stop three teenage thieves fleeing with a stolen quad bike

PC Phillips, whose wife is a police officer, still suffers pain every day and has only recently returned to duty working in a control room.

He said he had not viewed footage of the incident.

I tend not to think about the day to be honest, because for me its more about going forwards and trying to get better, he added.

Last week Mrs Harper, 29, launched a campaign for Andrews Law to ensure that any criminal who kills an emergency worker receives a whole life tariff.

PC Harper died just a few weeks after his wedding in July last year when he became tangled in a strap attached to the car of the three thieves he tried to stop fleeing in Stanford Dingley, Berkshire.

Home Secretary Priti Patel is said to be sympathetic to an increase in the penalty for police killers.

Mrs Harper has won support from Northamptonshire Chief Constable Nick Adderley, who wants whole life terms for those who set out to commit a crime in which an officer is killed.
This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it weekdays.

The U.S. governments proposed ban on Chinese apps like TikTok and WeChat plays into technologists fears that the internet utopia is crumbling.

The worry is that instead of a world brought closer together by the internet, a tech fight between the United States and China threatens to further splinter the digital world along country borders.

I share those concerns. But let me explain why a splintered internet isnt so novel, or necessarily a horrible thing.

First, the internet was never as global or interconnected as the ideal. What we mean when we talk about a unified global internet is a history in which the internet was dominated by America, with U.S. companies and U.S. values infusing the world. The exception was China, which operated a parallel internet world.
BERLIN A German woman appears to have killed her four-year-old twin girls near the Swiss village of Utikon and then committed suicide, Zurich authorities said Monday.

Police said a passer-by found all three in a car in a wooded area near the village, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) west of Zurich at 7:30 a.m.

Rescue crews rushed to the scene but found the 30-year-old and the two girls dead on arrival.

Further details were not released and the investigation was ongoing.

Utikon municipality leader Christ Linder told the local Blick newspaper that so far there are no indications the woman had any link to the town.

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
Homewares retailer Adairs has reported a huge jump in sales and profit for the 2020 financial year, in part thanks to a significant stimulus from the governments JobKeeper program.

Shares in the company soared as much as 16.7 per cent to a new all-time high of $3.24 after the retailer released its unaudited full-year accounts, which showed a 12.9 per cent jump in full-year sales to $388.9 million, with like-for-like sales rising 15.9 per cent. Adairs' shares finished the trading day up 11.3 per cent at $3.05.

Statutory net profit after tax rocketed up 19 per cent to $35.3 million, and Adairs' net debt reduced to just $1 million, down from $8.2 million at the end of the 2019 financial year.

Adairs chief executive Mark Ronan. Credit:

The better-than-expected result was helped by $11.3 million in wage subsidies claimed from the Australian and New Zealand governments, which stripped $5.3 million out of the retailer's cost of doing business as some staff continued to work while being paid under the scheme.
PHOENIX  By now, youve probably heard it more times than you can count: One of the simplest ways to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection is to wash your hands.

But for the nearly one in three Navajo Nation households without indoor plumbing, thats easier said than done.

People (here) call it a luxury to be able to have running water, said Yolanda Tso, a Navajo Nation member and community advocate. I dont really believe that should be considered a luxury in this day and age, especially in this country.

WATERED founder Yolanda Tso demonstrates the operation of a hand-washing stations to Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez. Photo: Navajo Nation OPVP

Tso founded WATERED  Water Acquisition Team for Every Resident & Every Dine  to help fill gaps in water access on the reservation, which this summer eclipsed New York in per-capita coronavirus infection rates, according to CNN . She started raising funds to purchase hand-washing stations for families in need in April and began deliveries in June.

Tso said she knows her small-scale, donation-dependent operation cant fix the broader infrastructure problems on Navajo land. In 2018, the Indian Health Service told Congress the tribe had more than $450 million in unfunded water needs

But she hopes it can help even the playing field for a population infectious disease specialists say has a higher-than-average risk of contracting COVID-19.

At this moment, its going to help people be able to accomplish those goals of protecting themselves, Tso said.

Impact of federal relief funding unclear

As of Aug. 4, the Navajo Health Department had reported 9,156 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in a population of about 175,000  more infections per 100,000 residents than any state in the country, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The reservation also had a death toll higher than that of 16 U.S. states , with 463 residents lost to the disease by that date.

Navajo officials have proposed spending about $300 million of the $714 million theyve received in federal CARES Act funding on water infrastructure to help slow the spread of COVID-19, according to a release from Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nezs office.

But restrictions require officials to spend CARES Act funds by the end of the calendar year, and Navajo officials say it likely would take at least two years to get a substantial water infrastructure project off the ground.

Even if the federal government grants the spending extension Navajo leaders have requested, the extra time would not address the immediate needs of families without running water.

The total number of #COVID19 positive cases for the Navajo Nation is 9,308 as of August 9, 2020. Nearly 6,900 have recovered from the #Coronavirus on the largest reservation in the United States. #Arizona #NewMexico #Utah @NNPrezNez @NNVP_Lizer https://t.co/oYIn1wm6J9  indianz.com (@indianz) August 10, 2020

Thats where Tso and other Navajo volunteers come in.

WATEREDs team has delivered hand-washing stations to more than 110 households on the 27,000-square-mile reservation as a stopgap measure, Tso said.

The stations include reusable 5-gallon jugs and 5-gallon buckets for catching used water, and WATERED provides liquid hand soap, toilet paper, paper towels and disinfectant.

The group relies on donations to cover supply and travel costs, Tso said, and some local companies have made in-kind contributions to increase WATEREDs efficiency and reach. The Glendale moving company State 48, for instance, provided a delivery truck to transport of the stations.

These families dont have the ability to get a main source of stopping the spread of COVID as easily as most other communities, State 48 owner Amanda Lindsey said.

Pandemic prompts important access conversation

Annie Lascoe of DigDeep, a nonprofit that works to address water needs on the reservation and elsewhere, described water access as a deeply entrenched racial justice issue.

White households are 19 times as likely as Native households to have running water, according to a 2019 report from DigDeep and the Water Alliance that argued rural and tribal community members understand the historical barriers to access better than outsiders.

When were looking at Indigenous peoples rights, Indigenous communities around the world are the ones that are preserving all of our natural resources, Lascoe said, citing the Navajo philosophy of to ei iina  water is life.

Yet Native populations are the No. 1 communities that are also deeply impacted by entrenched systems that have robbed them of access to those resources, she said.

Indeed, the U.S. government has repeatedly left tribal officials out of key water-policy negotiations, despite the 1908 Winters Doctrine promising federally reserved water rights to Indigenous communities.

These are hands-free hand wash stations that have the potential to help stop the spread of 80% of infectious diseases.... Posted by The Watered on Sunday, August 2, 2020

Navajo leaders in recent years have pursued water settlements at the state level in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, but the Navajo Department of Water Resources continues to point to a  lack of adequate domestic and municipal water  as one of the nations biggest challenges.

Tso said she would would never choose a pandemic to have these conversations, but its so important for people to understand that even though we live in 2020 and we think of America as this superpower, we still have people who are living in conditions that are subpar.

We have to be able to lift each other up, she said. Thats the only way were going to make it out of this together.

This story is made possible through a partnership between the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at Arizona State University, with the support of the Henry Luce Foundation. It originally appeared on Cronkite News and is published via a Creative Commons license

Join the Conversation
A look at the shareholders of Magna International Inc. (TSE:MG) can tell us which group is most powerful. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies. Companies that have been privatized tend to have low insider ownership.

Magna International has a market capitalization of CA$20b, so it's too big to fly under the radar. We'd expect to see both institutions and retail investors owning a portion of the company. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutions own shares in the company. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholder can tell us about Magna International.

See our latest analysis for Magna International

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Magna International?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

Magna International already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone, since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Magna International's earnings history, below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Magna International. The company's largest shareholder is T. Rowe Price Group, Inc., with ownership of 5.3%. Beutel Goodman & Company Ltd. is the second largest shareholder owning 4.3% of common stock, and Hotchkis and Wiley Capital Management, LLC holds about 3.2% of the company stock. Additionally, the company's CEO Donald Walker directly holds 0.006253 of the total shares outstanding.

Story continues

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no one share holder has a majority.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Magna International

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Magna International Inc.. The insiders have a meaningful stake worth CA$206m. Most would say this shows a good alignment of interests between shareholders and the board. Still, it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public holds a 35% stake in MG. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Magna International that you should be aware of.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
KEY FACTS 2:36 p.m. The NHL says it has had no positive COVID-19 test results in its first two weeks in secure zones in Edmonton and Toronto.

10:13 a.m. The head of the World Health Organization predicted that the number of people infected by the coronavirus will hit 20 million this week.

9:10 a.m. Windsor-Essex will move into Stage 3 of reopening on Wednesday

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Sunday. This file is no longer updating. Click here to read the latest. Web links to longer stories if available.

6:15 p.m. Only two theatres, two drive-ins and an open-air cinema will physically show movies during the Toronto International Film Festival.

The festival announced the limited venues on Monday, which include the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the Isabel Bader Theatre, the Visa Skyline Drive-In at CityView, the RBC Lakeside Drive-In at Ontario Place and the West Island Open Air Cinema at Ontario Place.

TIFF says most festival selections this year will be screened online via its Bell Digital Cinema.

In keeping with physical distancing measures required due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be reduced capacity at the Lightbox cinemas, the Isabel Bader and the outdoor screens.

But TIFF says even the online screenings will have limits.

The digital screenings are geoblocked to Canada and will be viewable on home TV screens using Chromecast or a new TIFF app, which will be available in the Apple App Store on Sept. 9. Digital movies will be watermarked, either forensically or visibly, to prevent piracy, the festival says.

5:54 p.m. As of 5 p.m. Monday, Ontarios regional health units are reporting a total of 42,224 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19, including 2,824 deaths, according to the Stars latest count.

The province-wide increase in the last 24 hours, up 133 reported infections, was the largest single-day count since late July.

Daily cases reports have been falling steadily since the province saw a brief spike late last month, and had been at its lowest rate of new infections since before the pandemic first peaked in Ontario in the spring.

That rate jumped slightly Monday, up to an average of 95 cases per day over the last seven days  still well down from a mid-April peak of nearly 600 daily.

The day saw double digit-case counts in Ottawa, with 20 new cases, Toronto (18 cases), Peel Region, Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent (all at 11 cases) and in Hamilton (10 cases).

Several of Ontarios health units do not report case data on weekends, which means Mondays can often see higher than normal case counts.

Meanwhile, the province once again reported no new fatal cases Monday.

The vast majority of the provinces COVID-19 patients have recovered; the province lists fewer than 4,000 active cases of the disease.

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.

3:42 p.m. The Hockey Hall of Fame has postponed its 2020 induction ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ceremony was originally scheduled to take place Nov. 16 in Toronto.

The 2020 class of forward Jarome Iginla, winger Marian Hossa, defencemen Kevin Lowe and Doug Wilson, Canadian womens goaltender Kim St. Pierre and longtime general manager Ken Holland was announced by the Hockey Hall of Fame in June.

In a release Monday, the hall said rescheduling plans for the induction celebration will be addressed at its board of directors meeting on Oct. 29.

Hockey Hall of Fame chair Lanny McDonald said the most likely scenario is to postpone the ceremony to November 2021, either by waiving the 2021 election or combining the 2020 and 2021 classes.

McDonald said the hall has ruled out a virtual induction ceremony.

3:28 p.m. Maple Leaf Foods says 23 employees at its meat processing plant in Brandon, Man. have tested positive for COVID-19.

But neither the company nor Manitoba public health officials believe transmission is happening within the workplace.

Manitoba chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin says there is a cluster of 64 cases in Brandon, east of Winnipeg, and that there is evidence of some community transmission.

He says imposing stricter regional restrictions is on the table, but theres nothing specific in the works right now.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832, which represents 2,000 Maple Leaf workers in Brandon, has called for the plant to be shut down until the spread is under control.

Maple Leaf vice-president Janet Riley says the workplace is safe and theres no reason to suspend operations.

Simply put, based on all the evidence, COVID-19 is not being spread at our plant, she said in an emailed statement.

It is important to note that 144 members of our Brandon plant team have tested negative for COVID-19.

Manitoba reported 16 new cases on Monday, bringing the provincial total to 558.

3:08 p.m. Antonio Banderas says he has tested positive for COVID-19 and is celebrating his 60th birthday in quarantine.

The Spanish actor announced his positive test in an Instagram post on Monday. Banderas said he would spend his time in isolation reading, writing and making plans to begin to give meaning to my 60th year to which I arrive full of enthusiasm.

I would like to add that I am relatively well, just a little more tired than usual and hoping to recover as soon as possible following medical instructions that I hope will allow me to overcome the infection that I and so many people in the world are suffering from, wrote Banderas.

Earlier this year, Banderas was nominated for the Academy Award for best actor for his performance in Pedro Almodovars Pain & Glory.

3:08 p.m . Mississippi legislators have returned to the state capitol for the first time since a coronavirus outbreak in early July hospitalized several legislators and killed one person.

Mississippis state health officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, said Monday that 49 total legislators tested positive in the outbreak  more than one-fourth of the entire body.

Lawmakers left the building July 1 after working there throughout the month of June, many without wearing masks or following social distancing regulations. The first cases in the group were confirmed in the early days of July.

The health officer said at least four legislators were hospitalized and three required intensive care. Dobbs said that at least 12 others, including lobbyists and staff, were infected, including one non-legislator who died.

Among those who tested positive in the heavily Republican body are the GOP presiding officers, House Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann.

2:36 p.m. The NHL says it has had no positive COVID-19 test results in its first two weeks in secure zones in Edmonton and Toronto.

The league says it administered 7,245 tests in its second week, from Aug. 2-8, with no positive results.

In the first week, from July 27 to Aug. 1, the league says it had no positive results in 7,013 tests.

Testing is done daily on all 52 members of each teams travelling party.

Eight of 24 teams have now been eliminated and have exited the secure zones.

Players and staff in the secure zones are separated from the general public and no fans are in attendance at games.

2 p.m. Mayor John Tory, at todays COVID-19 news conference from City Hall, says the total number of cases in Toronto is now 15,532, an increase of 18 new cases.

1:52 p.m. Quebecs updated back-to-school plan requires students in Grade 5 and up to wear masks in all common areas of school buildings, except classrooms.

Education Minister Jean-Francois Roberge said today the governments new strategy aims to make communication between teachers and students as easy as possible.

Roberge says each classroom will be its own bubble, and students will not be required to maintain a two-metre distance with their classmates.

And while all elementary and high school students will be expected to return to school at the end of the month, children with significant health problems will be offered a remote learning option.

Roberge says in order to protect children from harm, schools need to fully reopen in order to offer students the ability to properly socialize and learn.

Quebec reported one new death in the past 24 hours attributed to COVID-19 and 98 new cases of the virus  the lowest daily number of cases since July.

1:42 p.m. The British government is laying off 6,000 coronavirus contact tracers and deploying the rest to work in local teams, in an acknowledgment that the centralized track-and-trace system is not working well enough.

The U.K. has been criticized for failing to keep track of infected peoples contacts early in the pandemic, a factor that contributed to the countrys high death toll of more than 46,500, the most in Europe.

Since May the country has rapidly set up a test-and-trace system to try to contain the outbreak, recruiting thousands of staff in a matter of weeks. But the system, which relies on telephone call centres, has failed to reach more than a quarter of contacts of people who have tested positive for the virus.

Some frustrated local authorities have set up their own contact-tracing networks, which have proved more effective because they know communities better and can go door-to-door if needed.

The national test-and-trace program said Monday it was officially adopting that localized approach. Some 6,000 contact tracers will be laid off this month, and the remaining 12,000 will work with local public health authorities around the country.

The government also abandoned plans to create a contact-tracing phone app, but says it will be reintroduced in some form in the near future.

1:42 p.m. Greeces culture ministry is closing down the Museum of the Ancient Agora, a major archaeological site in central Athens, for two weeks after a cleaner there was diagnosed with COVID-19.

A ministry statement Monday said the museum would be comprehensively disinfected, while the actual site of the Ancient Agora, which was the administrative, political and social centre of the ancient city, will remain open.

Greek sites and museums are open to visitors, with the wearing of masks obligatory in museums.

The closure also comes as Greece has announced 126 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the last day, bringing the countrys total to 5,749, and one more death for a total death toll of 213 amid a spike in daily infections.

Of the new cases, 17 were migrants who arrived on the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos who arrived from the nearby Turkish coast.

The government announced new measures Monday to curb the spread, including orderings bars, restaurants and cafes in several regions to shut between midnight and 7 a.m. Other measures include requiring those arriving in the country from land borders, as well as those flying in from several European countries, to have proof of a negative coronavirus test.

12:20 p.m. Ontario reported 115 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, ending a seven-day stretch with fewer than 100 new infections a day.

It was a sharp increase from 79 new cases Sunday and 70 on Saturday as health officials keep a close watch on daily tallies with most of the province in Stage 3, where the risk of spread is higher if people do not take proper precautions such as physical distancing and wearing face coverings.

Health Minister Christine Elliott cautioned against reading too much into a one-day jump in the case count.

While a slight uptick and an end to our steak, we shouldnt lose sight of the fact that thanks to your efforts the trend in the province remains downward, she said on Twitter as Premier Doug Fords government allowed Windsor-Essex to move to Stage 3.

Over the weekend, the active number of cases across the province dropped below 1,000 for the first time since the virus peaked and now sits at 994, the Ministry of Health said in its daily status report based on figures reported by health units at 4 p.m. the previous day.

Eighteen of Ontarios 34 public health units had no new cases and 10 regions had fewer than five new infections. The highest numbers were 20 in Ottawa, 19 in Peel and 16 in Toronto.

Read more from the Stars Rob Ferguson: Ontario ends weeklong streak of COVID-19 cases below 100

12:18 p.m. The federal Liberals are defending their decision to have the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. oversee a rent-relief program for small businesses struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The opposition Conservatives have questioned why the CMHC, rather than the Canada Revenue Agency, was asked to run the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program, given the revenue agency manages several other pandemic-related support programs.

Finance Minister Bill Morneaus spokeswoman Maeva Proteau says the CMHC was considered the best fit because it deals with mortgages and understands Canadas real estate market.

She says going with the Crown corporation was seen to be fastest because it could make payments to businesses without requiring new legislation, which would have further delayed the rent program.

The CMHC later contracted mortgage firm MCAP to administer the rent program  another choice the Tories have questioned, since an executive vice-president at the company is married to Katie Telford, chief of staff to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Prime Ministers Office says Telford followed proper ethical procedures when it came to the governments dealings with MCAP, while the Liberals and CMHC say the $84-million contract was awarded independent of any political involvement.

12 p.m. From the most romantic spots along the Seine to popular shopping streets, residents and visitors in Paris were required to wear face masks in some outdoor areas of the French capital starting Monday amid an uptick in reported coronavirus cases.

Police are authorized to issue a 135-euro ($159) fine to people who do not follow the new public health requirement.

One location covered by the measure is the banks of the Canal Saint-Martin, among the citys most popular outdoor spots for lunch or an aperitif with friends.

In the morning when there is nobody on the canal, I think it is a bit of a drastic measure, lawyer Helene Rames said after the face mask rule took effect.

But it is true that at night and on the weekends, you can see many young people here close to each other, which is scary, she added. If its for the health of our elders then lets wear it.

11:56 a.m. Thailand is making plans to allow at least 3,000 foreign teachers to enter the country, even as it continues to keep out tourists and tightly restricts other arrivals to guard against new coronavirus infections.

Attapon Truektrong, secretary-general of the Private Education Commission, said Monday that those who have registered include teachers returning to their jobs after leaving during the pandemic, as well as newly employed teachers.

The teachers, who come from countries including the Philippines, New Zealand, the United States and Britain, will have to be quarantined for 14 days after arrival. Thailand barred scheduled passenger flights from abroad in early April

Thailand hosts many international schools and there is a general shortage of qualified teachers of English and other non-Thai languages.

11:56 a.m. Students have begun returning to some Florida university campuses as the state reports its lowest number of new daily cases in more than a month.

Classes for new students started Monday at Stetson University. Students moved into dormitories over the weekend at the DeLand campus as well as at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

In Orange County, public school students started the school year with two-weeks of online learning. At the end of the month, they will get to choose between continuing with virtual learning or going to in-person classes.

Meanwhile, Florida reported 4,155 new coronavirus cases on Monday, the smallest daily caseload increase since the end of June.

11:56 a.m. The number of day-to-day increases in new COVID-19 infections in Italy dropped significantly on Monday. But frequently numbers provided by the Health Ministry on Mondays tend to be on the low side, reflecting often incomplete reports from regional public health offices during the weekend.

Still, the 259 cases nationwide registered in the 24-hour period ending on Monday evening was a steep decrease from the 463 infections registered on Sunday.

Outstripping northern Lombardy, the region which had by far suffered the brunt of the pandemic, were Emilia-Romagna, also in the north, and Lazio, the south-central region which includes Rome.

Lazio health authorities said at least nine of its latest 38 cases were confirmed in tourists who returned from vacations on the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Spains Ibiza. Sicily and Puglia, two southern Italian regions popular for its beaches, also registered more cases than in Lombardy.

11:56 a.m. The incoming president of the United Nations General Assembly has praised Pakistan for quickly containing the coronavirus, saying the South Asian nations handling of the pandemic is a good example for the world.

The Turkish diplomat Volkan Bozkir made his comment Monday at a news conference in the capital, Islamabad.

Bozkir was recently elected as the president of the 75th session of the U.N. General Assembly.

Upon his arrival in Islamabad, he met with the countrys prime minister, Imran Khan, who wants international financial institutions and rich nations to give a debt relief to poor countries whose economies have badly been affected by the new virus.

Bozkirs visit comes amid a steady decline in COVID-19 deaths and infections in Pakistan.

Pakistan reported its first confirmed case of coronavirus in February and in March it imposed a nationwide lockdown, which has gradually been lifted in recent weeks. Pakistan on Monday reported 15 fatalities from coronavirus in the past 24 hours, raising its total COVID-19-related fatalities to 6,097.

11:56 a.m. Veterans who werent given military funeral rights when they were buried during the coronavirus pandemic have been given a final salute at the Fargo National Cemetery.

United Patriotic Bodies and Fargo Honor Guard volunteers were at the cemetery Saturday when three rifle volleys were fired and taps were played individually for 14 different families of veterans.

United Patriotic Bodies Cmdr. Jason Hicks says the salute is an honour and a duty to those who sacrificed for their country.

Gary Varberg came to the cemetery to honour his brother, Roger Nelson. KVLY-TV reported that the two served in Iraq together and decades in the National Guard.

Nelson was just one of the many veterans who wasnt given military rights and honours when he was buried during the global pandemic.

This means we get to say our final goodbye to our brothers and sisters, Fargo Honor Guard Chaplain Russel Stabler said.

11:56 a.m. The family of a fourth worker who died from the coronavirus during an outbreak at Tyson Foods largest pork processing plant is suing the company over his death.

The lawsuit says that Isidro Fernandez, of Waterloo, Iowa, died April 26 from complications of COVID-19, leaving behind a wife and children.

The lawsuit is similar to one filed in June by the same lawyers on behalf of the estates of three other deceased Waterloo employees.

The lawsuits allege Tyson put employees at risk by downplaying concerns and covering up the outbreak to keep them on the job. They allege the company failed to implement safety measures, allowed some sick and exposed employees to keep working, and falsely assured the public that the plant was safe.

The company says the workers deaths are tragic but that it vigorously disputes the allegations. Tyson says that it worked during the pandemic to follow safety guidelines and has invested millions of dollars to keep workers safe.

11:56 a.m. Greeces government has announced additional restrictions aimed at curbing a flare-up of coronavirus cases that has led to a spike of new daily infections and an increase in the number of critically ill people in the country.

Deputy government spokeswoman Aristotelia Peloni said Monday that as of Aug. 17, anyone arriving in Greece by plane from Spain, Holland, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Sweden will have to provide proof of a negative coronavirus test taken up to 72 hours before arrival. Proof of negative tests will also be required for anyone entering the country by land, including Greek citizens and permanent residents.

All events with standing customers or spectators, such as concerts, are cancelled across the country. Bars, restaurants and cafes will be shut from midnight to 7 a.m. in several locations, including the popular tourist destinations of Mykonos, Paros, Antiparos and Santorini, among others.

After managing to keep infections and deaths at low levels following an early lockdown in the initial phase of the pandemic, Greece has seen a recent surge in cases. On Sunday, Greece announced 203 new confirmed coronavirus cases, bringing its total to 5,623, with an overall death toll of 212.

11:56 a.m. Denmarks health minister says the virus is on its way back, and has announced local measures to contain it.

We are intervening with local measures that are fitted to local needs, Magnus Heunicke told a news conference on Monday. We are doing that to avoid a total lockdown of the country.

Increases in the number of cases were reported in Aarhus  Denmarks second-largest city  and in six other places geographically spread across the country of nearly 6 million.

Since Sunday, Denmark has recorded 76 new cases, totalling 14,815 cases and 620 deaths. More than half of the new cases are in Aarhus,

The decision comes after Aarhus made it mandatory as of Monday to use face masks on public transportation.

10:18 a.m. The Quebec government is set to unveil its COVID-19 strategy for a return to class today as schools prepare to reopen in less than a month.

Education Minister Jean-Francois Roberge has been under pressure to provide updated details, as other provinces have done in recent weeks.

Parents have raised several concerns including questions about remote learning, smaller class sizes and details of how another COVID-19 shutdown would be handled.

Under Quebecs back-to-school strategy announced in June, the government said students across the province would return to class full time from pre-school to Grade 9, with in-class bubbles of six children and physical distancing.

Teachers would move between classrooms and maintain a two-metre distance from students.

For students in Grades 10 and 11, the current plan offers them the choice to go back full time or attend classes in person once every two days.

School boards are responsible for creating contingency measures should a COVID-19 outbreak occur.

Roberge, Health Minister Christian Dube and Dr. Horacio Arruda, Quebecs director of public health, will take part in todays news conference in Montreal.

On Friday, Arruda explained the general approach to the return to school.

If our expectation is to have no cases in schools, thats nearly impossible, he said.

He added it is more important to make sure COVID-19 outbreaks are not widespread in schools when they do occur.

10:13 a.m. Germanys foreign minister says it is critical that any vaccine developed for the coronavirus is made available to everyone around the world.

Heiko Maas spoke with his counterpart from South Korea, Kang Kyung-wha, during her visit to Berlin on Monday, and said they both agreed that we need more worldwide co-ordination to shoulder the challenges, not less.

Both South Korea and Germany have been lauded for being able to quickly and effectively slow the spread of the virus in their countries, but Maas cautioned that we are still in the middle of the pandemic.

He says in order to overcome it, the question of how drugs and vaccinations are distributed after their development will be central.

It is a human imperative that they be made available quickly and to as many people as possible, and not just those who can afford it, Maas said.

10:13 a.m. The head of the World Health Organization predicted that the number of people infected by the coronavirus will hit 20 million this week, including about 750,000 deaths.

In a briefing on Monday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged that behind these statistics there is a great deal of pain and suffering but said there were still green shoots of hope no matter what stage in an outbreak a country or region might be. He offered no new strategies to combat the virus but said again that leaders must step up to take action and citizens need to embrace new measures, pointing to New Zealand as an example for the world. The country recently marked 100 days with no local spread of the virus.

Tedros said that recently adopted measures in countries including Britain and France, which have imposed targeted lockdowns and mask-wearing strategies in the last week, were a good example of specific strategies needed to curb a new upsurge in cases.

10:13 a.m. The head of the German Teachers Association is calling for coronavirus masks to be made compulsory in the classroom.

Heinz-Peter Meidinger told the newspaper Passauer Neue Presse that whoever wants full lessons cant avoid compulsory masks.

In an interview published Monday, Meidinger pointed out that most of Germanys 16 states require basic mouth and nose coverings in supermarkets, public transport and at large events, but not in schools.

So far, only Germanys most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, requires students and teachers to wear masks during lessons, though some others are considering such a move.

In Berlin, where students return to school Monday, masks are only required outside the classroom.

10:13 a.m. New locally transmitted cases of coronavirus in China fell to just 14 over the past 24 hours, the National Health Commission reported Monday. The low figure was offset, however, by 35 cases brought into the country by Chinese travellers from overseas.

All the cases of local transmission were in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, whose main city Urumqi is the centre of Chinas latest outbreak. Tightened restrictions on travel, widespread testing and a lockdown on some residential communities appear to have been effective in bringing down numbers of new infections in Urumqi, while a separate outbreak in the northeastern city of Dalian seems to have run its course.

Chinese hospitals are currently treating 802 people for COVID-19, 41 of them in serious condition, while another 290 people are under observation while being isolated for showing signs of having the virus or for testing positive without displaying symptoms. China has reported a total of 4,634 fatalities from the disease among 84,668 cases.

Hong Kong reported another 72 cases and five deaths as it continues to battle a new wave of infections with tightened rules on indoor dining and obligatory mask wearing in public settings. The semi-autonomous southern Chinese city has reported 52 deaths among 4,079 total cases.

10:13 a.m. Former Indian President Pranab Mukherjee says he has tested positive for the coronavirus.

Mukherjee, 84, said Monday that he found out he was positive when he went for a routine health check-up. He requested all those who came in contact with him in the last week to isolate themselves and get tested.

Mukherjee was Indias president between 2012 and 2017.

Over the last few weeks, several political leaders in India have either tested positive for the coronavirus or gone into quarantine.

India has reported nearly 2.3 million cases of coronavirus, the third-highest number in the world after the United States and Brazil. At least 44,386 people have died.

The country has been reporting an average of around 50,000 new cases a day since mid-June.

10:12 a.m. Ontario is reporting 115 new cases of COVID-19. Health Minister Christine Elliott says 28 out of 34 public health units are reporting five or fewer cases, with 18 of them reporting no new cases. On Sunday, the province processed 22,275 tests.

9:42 a.m. (updated): The Windsor-Essex region will join the rest of Ontario in Stage 3 of the provinces reopening plan on Wednesday.

The provincial government made the announcement Monday morning.

Outbreaks among migrant workers on farms in the region had previously held Windsor-Essex back from Stage 3.

Other parts of the province entered Stage 3 on July 17, 24, and 31.

Ontarios chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams, says he made the decision based on positive local trends.

Those include lower transmission of COVID-19, a significant increase in testing and the local public health units capacity to conduct rapid case and contact management.

Read the full story from the Stars Robert Benzie

9:10 a.m. Windsor-Essex will be allowed to move into Stage 3 on Wednesday, the Ontario government says. In a press release, it says the decision was based on positive local trends of key public health indicators, including lower transmission of COVID-19, ongoing hospital capacity, public health capacity to conduct rapid case and contact management, and a significant increase in testing.

8:10 a.m. The emergencies chief for the World Health Organization said that COVID-19 doesnt seem to follow the seasonal patterns that some viruses exhibit, making it harder to control.

Unlike other respiratory viruses like influenza that spread mainly in the winter, the coronavirus pandemic is accelerating in the summer. Thats despite earlier predictions from some scientists and politicians it would fade in the heat.

This virus has demonstrated no seasonal pattern as such, said Dr. Michael Ryan at a press briefing on Monday. What it has clearly demonstrated is that if you take the pressure off the virus, the virus bounces back, he said. Ryan said the U.N. health agency continues to advise countries even where COVID-19 appears to be under control, such as those in Europe, to maintain measures to slow virus spread.

He called for countries where transmission remains intense, such as Brazil, to adopt measures so that communities have the necessary support they need to implement strategies like social distancing, wearing masks, and self-isolating if they have symptoms.

7:36 a.m. Iran shut down a newspaper on Monday after it published remarks by an expert who said the official figures on coronavirus cases and deaths in the country account for only 5 per cent of the real toll.

Mohammad Reza Sadi, the editor-in-chief of Jahane Sanat, told the official IRNA news agency that authorities closed his newspaper, which began publishing in 2004 and was mainly focused on business news.

On Sunday, the daily quoted Mohammad Reza Mahboobfar, an epidemiologist the paper said had worked on the governments anti-coronavirus campaign, as saying the true number of cases and deaths in Iran could be 20 times the number reported by the Health Ministry.

He also said the virus was detected in Iran a month earlier than Feb. 19, when authorities announced the first confirmed case. He said they held up the announcement until after the commemorations of the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and parliamentary elections earlier that month.

The administration resorted to secrecy for political and security reasons, he said, and only provided engineered statistics to the public.

He also criticized testing efforts and warned of a renewed outbreak next month as universities hold entrance exams and people mark major Shiite holidays.

Irans Health Ministry has reported a total of nearly 330,000 cases and 18,616 deaths, including 189 fatalities in the last 24 hours.

6:18 a.m.: Decades of progress in one of modern historys greatest achievements, the fight against extreme poverty, are in danger of slipping away because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The world could see its first increase in extreme poverty in 22 years after whittling it down to 10% of the population, further sharpening inequalities.

Up to 100 million more people globally could fall into the bitter existence of living on just $1.90 a day, according to the World Bank. Thats well below any reasonable conception of a life with dignity, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty wrote this year. It comes on top of the 736 million people already there, half in just five countries: Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Congo and Bangladesh.

6:09 a.m.: After nearly a decade of doing keg stands in university lectures, funnelling beers next to police and provoking hockey dads, theyve become two of the most recognizable personalities for young people in North America: Jesse Sebastiani and Kyle Forgeard, a pair of heavy-drinking, hard-talking Ontarians, better known as Nelk.

Boasting nearly 5.5 million subscribers on YouTube alone, their provocative prank videos  which have led to arrests  have garnered more than 700 million video views. On Instagram, flanked by a crew of abrasive, hypermasculine personalities, Nelk broadcasts their brand of pranking and partying to more than 3.4 million followers (including Drake and Justin Bieber).

But the crews actions during the COVID-19 pandemic, which include organizing packed brotests to push California to open its gyms, lavish partying and constant travel within the U.S., are being criticized by fans who want them to set a better example.

Read Ted Frasers full story on the Canadian pranksters and how their dangerous decision to party during the pandemic is good for business.

6 a.m.: On the line from Windsor, twin sisters Mesia Walker and Nena Buduhan are laughing in that way you laugh when youve reached the end of your rope. Laughing to keep from crying.

Walker and Buduhan are the owners of two yoga studios  Modo Yoga Windsor and Modo Yoga Tecumseth  in the only part of the province where yoga studios are still prohibited from opening.

While every other region in Ontario has moved forward into Stage 3 and is able to reap the economic benefits of a broader reopening, Windsor-Essex has been left behind, largely due to a series of COVID-19 outbreaks among migrant farm workers in the towns of Kingsville and Leamington.

Tension is growing between the business community  anxious to reopen like the rest of the province  and public health officials, who say Windsor-Essex still isnt ready.

Read the full story here from the Stars Brendan Kennedy.

5:31 a.m.: As they struggle to salvage some semblance of a campus experience this fall, U.S. colleges are requiring promises from students to help contain the coronavirus  no keg parties, no long road trips and no outside guests on campus.

No kidding. Administrators warn that failure to wear masks, practice social distancing and avoid mass gatherings could bring serious consequences, including getting booted from school.

Critics question whether its realistic to demand that college students not act like typical college students. But the push illustrates the high stakes for universities planning to welcome at least some students back. Wide-scale COVID-19 testing, quarantines and plexiglass barriers in classrooms wont work if too many students misbehave.

5:20 a.m.: India has registered a record 1,007 fatalities in the past 24 hours as fresh coronavirus infections surged by another 62,064 cases.

The Health Ministry says the total fatalities touched 44,386 on Monday.

The number of positive cases reported so far are 2,215,074. At least 634,935 patients were still undergoing treatment.

India has recorded more than 60,000 cases of the virus daily in the last four days and more infections than any other country in the world for six consecutive days. It has averaged around 50,000 new cases a day since mid-June.

India has the third-highest caseload in the world after the United States and Brazil. It has the fifth-most deaths but its fatality rate of about 2% is far lower than the top two hardest-hit countries.

5:15 a.m.: Sri Lanka has started reopening schools nearly five months after they were shut down to contain the spread of the virus. The governments move to reopen schools from Monday comes as health authorities say that they have successfully brought the coronavirus under control.

Under the reopening plan, students in grades 5, 10, 11, 12 and 13 will attend school every day because they need to be prepared to for government examinations. Students in grades 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8 will attend a single day per week, while students in grades 4 and 9 will come two days per week. Sri Lanka has reported 2,841 coronavirus cases and 11 deaths.

5:12 a.m.: Chinas number of local transmissions fell to just 14 but was offset by 35 new cases among Chinese travellers coming from overseas. All of the new local cases reported Monday by the National Health Commission were in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, whose main city Urumqi is the centre of Chinas latest outbreak.

China has reported 4,634 fatalities from the disease among 84,668 cases. Hong Kong reported another 72 cases and five deaths as it continues to battle a new wave of infections with tightened rules on indoor dining and obligatory mask wearing in public settings. The semi-autonomous Chinese city has reported 52 deaths among 4,079 total cases.

Monday 5:10 a.m.: Australia has reported fewer new daily cases from its virus hotspot in the city of Melbourne than on any single day since last month. But it has also reported the nations highest daily death total since the virus outbreak began.

The state of Victoria reported 322 new infections and 19 new deaths on Monday, with 14 of the deaths connected to outbreaks at aged-care facilities.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was more hopeful now that cases are stabilizing in Victoria than he has been at any time over the past week.

But state premier Daniel Andrews cautioned that not too much could be read into a single days worth of data, and that some of the states most stringent lockdown measures had only come into effect at midnight Sunday.

The number of new cases was the lowest recorded in Victoria since July 29.

Sunday 9:30 p.m.: Quebec reported 104 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday along with three further deaths linked to the virus.

The total number of infections in the province stood at 60,471.

Of the three deaths announced by health authorities, two were reported in the past 24 hours while the other dates back before Aug. 1.

The province has seen total of 5,695 deaths since the pandemic began.

Sunday 8:35 p.m. The federal Liberal government has handed over thousands of pages of documents related to the WE controversy to a House of Commons committee, which lawyers are now vetting for personal information and cabinet secrets.

The finance committee demanded the documents last month as it probes whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus relationship with WE Charity influenced the governments ill-fated decision to have the organization run a federal student-volunteer program.

Committee members are hoping the documents will shed light on the discussions that led to the decision to have WE run the Canada Student Services Grant, before the deal was cancelled amid controversy in early July.

People are asking a lot of questions, NDP finance critic Peter Julian said in an interview. Theres been a lot of contradictions in testimony. So the documents should be revealing a lot more of what the real answers are.

Yet while the Liberals turned more than 5,000 pages over to the committee ahead of Saturdays deadline, it wasnt clear when they would be released to members as committee lawyers go through them to prevent the release of protected information.

We dont know, Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre said during a news conference on Sunday when asked when committee members would get the documents. We have asked. They have not given us the timeline.

Committee chairman Wayne Easter, a Liberal MP, predicted the documents would be released in the coming days to members as additional lawyers from the public service have been brought in to help review them for cabinet secrets and other information.

Even after the documents are released, however, there will could be disagreements about why certain information was withheld.

Sunday 5:45 p.m.: New Zealand on Sunday marked 100 days since it stamped out the spread of the coronavirus, a rare bright spot in a world that continues to be ravaged by the disease.

Life has returned to normal for many people in the South Pacific nation of 5 million, as they attend rugby games at packed stadiums and sit down in bars and restaurants without the fear of getting infected. But some worry the country may be getting complacent and not preparing well enough for any future outbreaks.

New Zealand got rid of the virus by imposing a strict lockdown in late March when only about 100 people had tested positive for the disease. That stopped its spread. For the past three months, the only new cases have been a handful of returning travellers who have been quarantined at the border.

It was good science and great political leadership that made the difference, said professor Michael Baker, an epidemiologist at the University of Otago. If you look around the globe at countries that have done well, its usually that combination.

Click here to read more of Sundays coverage.
Representational picture

High-end luxury properties offered a glimmer of hope to Hyderabad realtors hit by the unprecedented drop in sales due to the coronavirus outbreak. While most buyers stayed away from the property market, luxury villas - priced between Rs 5 crore and Rs 12 crore - solid like hotcakes in the city. The buyers were mostly doctors, NRIs, businessmen and senior executives.

While residential sales to a decade-low of 974 units during April and June, about 100 premier units were sold in Hyderabad during the period. In 2019, the city sold over 4,000 houses during the April to June period, the Times of India reported.

Duplex villas located on the city's outskirts - Gopanpally, Narsingi, Gandipet - with price tags of Rs 5 crore to Rs 9 crore were most popular. Super-luxury apartments, costing Rs 10 crore to Rs 12 crore, too, found many takers.

Some buyers preferred villas outside the city due to the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic.

Track this LIVE blog for latest updates on the novel coronavirus pandemic

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

"I was on the lookout for a property for some time. With the COVID-19 pandemic, I realised it would be better to live a little away from the city. So, we purchased a G+2 villa," said a surgeon working with a popular corporate hospital.

The family will soon move into a Rs 6 crore customised home in Narsingi, which is about 20 km away from the city centre. The house is spread over 5,500 square feet.

An NRI, based in the US, also invested in a property worth Rs 9 crore in Gopanpally along with eight others, in July. She plans to settle there after moving back to India.

"Each of these centrally air-conditioned villas has a private swimming pool, fully-equipped dry kitchen and other top-end fixtures," said Praveen Guniganti, dealing with the luxury project.

Hyderabad realtor Sumanth Reddy, President of the National Association of Realtors said there is an increase in demand for bigger homes.

"Buyers who can afford larger homes, want their families to be safe and comfortable post the pandemic. Moreover, this segment of buyers is never driven by the current market sentiment," Reddy said.

Meanwhile, deluxe apartments, priced between Rs 3 crore and Rs 5 crore, too, did brisk business. Particularly those that are either ready-to-move or nearing completion.

"As many as 65 of the total 154 units we sold in June were high-end. Thats a great number, considering the slowdown," DS Prasad, director, Aparna Constructions - a leading real estate firm of Hyderabad - told TOI.
From actor Rhea Chakraborty plea in Bollywood star Sushant Singh Rajputs death case to a petition against the merger of six Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs with Congress in Rajasthan, the Supreme Court is slated to take up a number of high-profile cases in the coming days.

The Patna police has filed an FIR against Chakraborty based on a complained by Rajputs father. The apex court will take up the actors plea seeking transfer of case to Maharashtra from Bihar.

On Monday, a three-judge bench headed by justice Arun Mishra will pronounce its order in a 2009 contempt case against advocate Prashant Bhushan. The case was initiated against Bhushan for a remark he made in 2009 on past chief justices of India (CJIs). Bhushan had refused to apologise for his statement but offered an explanation to the court regarding his controversial remark.

Another important case listed for hearing is a plea by Rajasthan BJP MLA Madan Dilawar seeking disqualification of six MLAs who were elected to the state assembly on the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket in 2018 and but merged with the Congress in 2019.

Dilawars plea was rejected by assembly speaker CP Joshi on July 22. He had then challenged the speakers decision before the Rajasthan high court. The HC issued notice to the speaker but declined to stay his decision. Dilawar then approached the SC challenging the HC.
Restaurants Canada recommends a path forward to relaunch the countrys vital foodservice sector in its pre-budget submission to the federal finance committee

Cumulative Job Losses by Industry between March and July 2020

Cumulative job losses by industry between March and July 2020 (in thousands of jobs)

Cumulative job losses by industry between March and July 2020 (in thousands of jobs)

TORONTO, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Restaurants Canada has tabled its pre-budget submission to the federal finance committee, advocating for continued support to help the foodservice industry through the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.



Many of the measures that the federal government has introduced over the last few months have provided a lifeline to restaurants during these extraordinarily challenging times, said David Lefebvre, Restaurants Canada Vice President, Federal and Quebec. But with colder months approaching, the foodservice sector will need continued assistance to keep fulfilling its critical role within the Canadian economy.

Recommendations for restarting Canadas vital foodservice sector

Not only was the foodservice industry among the first and hardest hit by the impacts of COVID-19, the sector will also be among the slowest to recover.

While the latest Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada reveals foodservice employment rose by 100,500 jobs in July, the sector is still more than 300,000 jobs short of where it was in February. No other industry comes close to continuing to face this level of shortfall.

Given this reality, Restaurants Canada is calling on the federal government to extend and strengthen support for foodservice businesses in the following areas so they can continue contributing to Canadas recovery in 2021.

1) Assistance with labour costs, rising debt and cash flow

The following programs should continue to be available in 2021 to support foodservice businesses still struggling to operate under ongoing restrictions:

The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS)

The Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA)

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These COVID-19 response measures have made a meaningful difference in the short term and should be extended and strengthened to support business continuity over the longer term.

Restaurants Canada also recommends changes to the tax regime to further support businesses struggling with cash flow. Simplified rent relief provided directly to businesses is also needed.

2) Red tape reduction for small and medium-sized businesses

Restaurants Canada is recommending that any new legislation and measures that were put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic be reassessed to consider the new economic realities for businesses.

Hurdles to doing business should be limited wherever possible while small and medium-sized enterprises continue to struggle to remain operational under ongoing restrictions.

3) Targeted foodservice sector support

Sector-specific measures are needed to address some of the unique challenges that restaurants and other foodservice businesses have endured due to COVID-19. Restaurants Canada has provided a number of recommendations based on input from its members.

All recommendations contained in the full submission from Restaurants Canada can be consulted here: info.restaurantscanada.org/hubfs/2021%20Federal%20pre-budget%20submission_Restaurants%20Canada.pdf

A thriving foodservice sector is critical to Canadas recovery from COVID-19

Restaurants and other foodservice businesses are the fourth-largest source of private sector jobs and number 1 source of first jobs for Canadians, typically employing 1.2 million people.

Restaurants support a wide variety of supply chain businesses, indirectly supporting more than 290,000 jobs.

Restaurants typically spend more than $30 billion per year on food and beverage purchases, playing a critical role for Canadian farmers and the agri-food sector.

About Restaurants Canada

Restaurants Canada is a national, not-for-profit association advancing the potential of Canadas diverse and dynamic foodservice industry through member programs, research, advocacy, resources and events. Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadas foodservice sector was a $93 billion industry, directly employing 1.2 million people, providing Canadas number one source of first jobs and serving 22 million customers across the country every day. The industry has since lost hundreds of thousands jobs and could lose as much as $44 billion in sales in 2020 due to the impacts of COVID-19.



For more information, contact:

David Lefebvre

Vice President, Federal and Quebec

Restaurants Canada

T: 613-325-3298

DLefebvre@restaurantscanada.org

Marlee Wasser

Manager, Communications and Stakeholder Relations

Restaurants Canada

T: 416-649-4254

Toll-free: 1-800-387-5649 ext. 4254

media@restaurantscanada.org

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/64efec98-6d9d-4943-8c5f-20cfe0f8c01a




Governors say Trumps order on pandemic relief would wreck state budgets.

Governors across the United States struggled on Monday with how to make good on President Trumps order that their economically battered states deliver billions more in unemployment benefits to jobless residents.

Democrats were harshly critical of Mr. Trumps order, which he signed on Saturday night after talks with Congress on a broad new pandemic aid package collapsed. But even Republican governors said the order could strain their budgets and worried it would take weeks for tens of millions of unemployed Americans to begin seeing the benefit.

Congress initially provided a $600-a-week supplement to unemployment benefits when the coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the United States in March. But that benefit lapsed on July 31, after talks between the White House and Congress broke down. Republicans had pushed for a $400 supplemental benefit, Democrats said it was not enough, and so on Saturday Mr. Trump ordered the $400 benefit  but said it was contingent on states to come up with $100 of that on their own.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York told reporters on Monday that Mr. Trumps order would cost his state about $4 billion by the end of the year, making it little more than a fantasy. He said that no New Yorker would see enhanced unemployment benefits because of the president.
Yet in these latest negotiations, the presence and influence of Trumps fourth White House chief of staff, according to Democrats, significantly complicated matters. They felt they could work with Mnuchin, whose relative ease at dealmaking with Pelosi and Schumer also opened him up to grumbling from Republicans who deemed him too eager to reach an agreement more beneficial to Democrats than to the Republican Party. In turn, Republicans felt Democrats were too obstinate, unwilling to budge from their initial $3.4 trillion offer that would almost certainly not pass the GOP-controlled Senate, much less get signed into law.
French firefighters extinguish a fire in a burning field of wheat during harvest season in Aubencheul-au-Bac, France, July 21, 2020. Picture taken July 21, 2020. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

On a farm in France, firefighters beat down the flames that had turned a field of wheat black, but they were too late to save the combine harvester. Caught in the blaze, it belched out flames and thick smoke while the farmer looked on helpless.

Crop and forest fires are a ritual of summer in France, but a warming climate has meant the risk has increased and the danger zone has expanded from southern France to the north, scientists say.

The blaze in July that destroyed the combine harvester was in a district near the border with Belgium where, farmers say, worrying about wildfires is something new.

Its an occurrence that we werent seeing four or five years ago here, said Benoit Vaillant, who with his family runs a different farm in the same region of northern France.

Scientists who track forest and crop fires in France say that last year saw a small decline in the surface area affected, and this year has not seen any exceptional increase.

But they say that is largely down to good fortune; while this July was the driest in about 60 years in France, that has not coincided with the winds that stoke fires.

But if the drought persists and if there is a lot of wind, the situation could quickly get worse, said Eric Martin of Frances National Institute of Agriculture Research.

The fundamental precursor for fires, according to scientists, is how much moisture there is in vegetation. And studies show that the moisture level has been dropping year by year, in step with rising temperatures.

Vaillant said last year the moisture content of the straw he grows on his farm dropped to 9%.

That means that the straw is drier than the Sahara air, he said. And so you put a spark in there and it catches fire, and with a bit of wind, its fanned and stoked.
Hilary Swank is on a three-year mission to Mars in Netflixs trailer for its upcoming space-travel drama series Away.

Although Swanks character has dreamed her entire life of being on the first mission to the red planet, the journey comes with a painful sacrifice  she has to leave her young daughter and husband behind and watch for years as they struggle without her.

Created by Andrew Hinderaker and executive produced by Jason Katims and showrunner Jessica Goldberg, Away premieres on Sept. 4.

Also Read: Get to Know Andy Forssell, the Maestro of HBO Max

Here is the synopsis:

Away is a thrilling, emotional drama on an epic scale that celebrates the incredible advancements humans can achieve and the personal sacrifices they must make along the way. As American astronaut Emma Green (Hilary Swank) prepares to lead an international crew on the first mission to Mars, she must reconcile her decision to leave behind her husband (Josh Charles) and teenage daughter (Talitha Bateman) when they need her the most. As the crews journey into space intensifies, their personal dynamics and the effects of being away from their loved ones back on Earth become increasingly complex. Away shows that sometimes to reach for the stars, we must leave home behind.

You can watch the Away trailer above and read Netflixs character descriptions for the series below.

Emma Green (Hilary Swank)

Emma Green is an American astronaut and former Navy pilot. She is the commander of the first mission to Mars. She is a headstrong, empathetic and highly intelligent astronaut and leader. She is married to Matt Logan, a chief engineer at NASA. Emma and Matt have a 15-year-old daughter, Lex.

Matt Logan (Josh Charles)

Matt Logan is a NASA engineer whose wife Emma Green is commanding the first mission to Mars. He faces the already enormous challenges of dealing with the mission from home, while trying to raise their teenage daughter on his own.

Alexis Lex Logan (Talitha Bateman)

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15-years-old Lex is the daughter of astronauts Emma Green and Matt Logan. Like her father, Lex is supportive and proud of her mothers three-year mission. She struggles with coming of age while her mother is on the mission and her father faces his own struggles.

Also Read: 'Trollhunters' Animated Movie From EP Guillermo Del Toro to Hit Netflix in 2021

Misha Popov (Mark Ivanir)

Misha Popov is a Russian cosmonaut and engineer on the mission to Mars alongside Emma Green. The most experienced member of the crew, Misha doesnt lack for ego, but secretly struggles with the personal sacrifices he made to get to space.

Dr. Kwesi Weisberg  Abban (Ato Essandoh)

Kwesi Weisberg-Abban is a British citizen from Ghana. Kwesi (pronounced Kway-Si) is good-humored, modest, and a man of deep faith. Hes a world-renowned botanist and carries with him the hope of growing life on Mars.

Ram Arya (Ray Panthaki)

Ram Arya is an Air Force fighter pilot from India. While the other astronauts are forced to reckon with their attachments to earth and their families, Ram is quite alone in the world.

Lu Wang (Vivian Wu)

Lu Wang is a chemist and astronaut representing China. She is intelligent and pragmatic but below her focused exterior, she has a complex personal life. She is married with a young son.

Melissa Ramirez (Monique Curnen)

Melissa Ramirez is a former astronaut who is Emmas Crew Support Astronaut. Her job is to be Emmas Liaison To Earth. Melissa gave up her own career as an astronaut to support her special needs child, but she is there for Emma and her family. She takes care of Lex in Matt and Emmas absence.

Read original story Netflix Away Trailer Sends Hilary Swank on 3-Year Mission to Mars, but Theres a Sacrifice (Video) At TheWrap
New Delhi: Ministry of Railways on Monday (August 10) clarified on reports stating that India Railways has cancelled all regular trains till September 30 amid coronavirus concern.

The ministry tweeted, "Some section of media is reporting that Railways has cancelled all regular trains till 30th September. This is not correct. No new circular has been issued by Ministry of Railways."

"Special Mail Express trains shall continue to run," it added.

Some section of media is reporting that Railways has cancelled all regular trains till 30th September. This is not correct. No new circular has been issued by Ministry of Railways. Special Mail Express trains shall continue to run.  Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) August 10, 2020

Notably, India on Monday reported 62,064 coronavirus cases taking the total count of cases over 22 lakh. The day`s death toll also crossed the thousand mark to 1,007 with the cumulative toll going up to 44,386.

Union Health Ministry said that the country`s COVID-19 count includes 6,34,945 active cases and 15,35,744 cured/discharged/migrated patients.

It further said that the COVID-19 recoveries crossed the 15 lakh mark with the highest single-day recoveries of 54,859 in the last 24 hours.

A total of 15,35,743 patients have recovered from the disease so far in the country and the number of recoveries exceeds the number of active cases by over nine lakh.

The ministry said that COVID-19 infection still remains concentrated in 10 states that contribute more than 80 per cent of the new cases. Maharashtra, the worst affected state by the pandemic, reported 9,181 new COVID-19 cases along with 6,711 discharges and 293 deaths today.
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was arrested on Monday under Beijings new national security law for the city, sending a chill across the global financial hub.

Lais arrest, for suspected collusion with foreign forces, is the most high-profile under the security legislation, which has been widely condemned by Western governments and international human rights groups who say it will crush freedoms in the former British colony.

Lai, 71, has been one of the most prominent democracy activists in the Chinese-ruled city and an ardent critic of Beijing, which imposed the sweeping new law on Hong Kong just before midnight on June 30.

Police also raided the headquarters of Lais media company, Next Digital, which publishes the Apple Daily tabloid.

Here is what people are saying about the days events:

Foreign Correspondents Club, Hong Kong:

The arrests, and the raid on the newsroom, are a direct assault on Hong Kongs press freedom and signal a dark new phase in the erosion of the citys global reputation, the FCC said in a statement.

Just as troubling as the arrests was the subsequent police action at the Next Digital offices, where uniformed police entered and set up cordons with orange tape, questioned journalists and took down their identifying information, and were seen rifling through notes and papers on reporters desks.

The Hong Kong Police Force blocked several local and international media outlets from a press briefing at the Apple Daily headquarters about the events.

Jeremy Laurence, spokesman for the office of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet:

We repeat our calls for the authorities to monitor and review the operation of the security law and to amend it if necessary to ensure there is no scope for its misuse to restrict human rights guaranteed by international law and the Basic Law of Hong Kong.

Amnesty Internationals Asia-Pacific Regional Director, Nicholas Bequelin:

The arrest of Jimmy Lai for allegedly colluding with foreign powers is a disturbing demonstration of how the Hong Kong authorities intend to use the new national security law to threaten press freedom.

Nathan Law, democracy activist who fled Hong Kong:

Crazy arrests, Law tweeted. The end of freedom of press in Hong Kong. The national security law is quashing the freedom of our society, spreading politics of fear.

Hong Kong Democratic Party:

The public searches of the media offices have had a shocking effect on the industry ... freedom of the press and expression are at stake, it said in a Facebook post.

Hong Kong Journalists Association chairman Chris Yeung:

The search is horrible, I believe many journalists wouldnt expect this, Yeung told reporters.

I think somewhere in third-world countries there has been such kind of press freedom suppression, just didnt expect it to be in Hong Kong.

Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of Global Times, which is published by the Peoples Daily, the official newspaper of Chinas ruling Communist Party:

The arrest reflects that the (HK government) wasnt intimidated by U.S. sanctions, which actually are pushing HK civil servants further to Beijing, Hu said on Twitter.

In the future, the sanctions will also push the hearts and minds of entire HK society to the Chinese mainland, promoting Chinas unity.

Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang:

China should not treat Hong Kong this way. Taiwan is paying very close attention to the situation in Hong Kong and cares about the people of Hong Kong, Su told reporters in Taipei.

We still urge the Chinese government to keep its promise and respect Hong Kongs democracy and freedom.

Steven Butler, Asia program co-ordinator of the Committee to Protect Journalists:

The arrest of media tycoon Jimmy Lai bears out the worst fears that Hong Kongs national security law would be used to suppress critical pro-democracy opinion and restrict press freedom, Butler said in a statement. Jimmy Lai should be released at once and any charges dropped.
The Beirut blast, which killed at least 200 people, destroyed numerous buildings across the city and was felt as far as Cyprus. Lebanese officials have reported economic losses of US$15 billion, most of which is uninsured.

Swiss Re estimated the insured losses at the Tianjin blast at around US$2.5 billion to US$3.5 billion, with at least 116 fatalities.

Drawing a comparison with Tianjin, you will see significant insured losses, Ghislain Le Cam, director of analytics at AM Best, was quoted as saying in the report.

Meanwhile, an insurance industry insider that requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue said that insured losses in the Beirut blast could be between US$2 billion and US$3 billion.

Munich Re, AXA, and Allianz have said that it is too soon to provide estimates about the Beirut blasts impact.

The Beirut explosion destroyed many residential and commercial properties, including hotels and restaurants. According to observers, these will make up a large part of incoming insurance claims.
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex hoped to take a step back from their royal duties and escape the spotlight. While Queen Elizabeth was supportive of their decision, she was also firm. One royal expert explained how the queen beat Prince Harry and Meghan in a war of words with her swift response to their announcement.

Queen Elizabeth II, Meghan Markle, and Prince Harry | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Prince Harry and Meghan Markles announcement surprised many

In January 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan shocked the world when they announced their plan to take a step back from their royal duties and split their time between North America and the UK. The Sussexes felt the pressure of the negative media attention and hoped to have a more peaceful life moving forward.

We have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution, the couple announced on Instagram. We intend to step back as senior members of the royal family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen.

We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages, their statement noted.

RELATED: Queen Elizabeths Reaction to Prince Harry and Meghan Markles Exit Sends a Strong Message About Who Is in Control

Queen Elizabeth dealt with the matter quickly

The Sussexes desire to step away from the spotlight wasnt entirely surprising given their interviews for the documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, but their announcement was reportedly a surprise to the queen.

In the documentary The Queen: In Her Own Words (via Express), royal editor Ingrid Seward shared, The statement came as a complete surprise to the queen. She knew that they werent happy, she knew that they were in talks with her advisors but she had no idea they were going to put out their own statement.

Experts believe that the queen felt it was important to release her own statement to indicate she had control of the Sussexes exit discussions.

In the documentary, The Queen: Duty Before Family?, royal author Tom Quinn said that Queen Elizabeths swift action was necessary. The queen would have been aware that this was a storm, that if it wasnt dealt with quickly it could blow up into something really damaging, he explained.

Queen Elizabeth won the war of words with a firm statement

Queen Elizabeths initial reaction to Prince Harry and Meghans proposed plan sent a clear message to the public before the rumors could take off.

In the documentary The Queen: In Her Own Words, narrator Andrew Scarborough explained how the queen was able to take control. In 2020 she beat Harry and Meghan in a war of words and proved herself to be the queen of social media, he said.

Scarborough added, Although the queen had been caught off guard, a brief and concise tweet posted just hours later revealed that discussions were at an early stage. In just 34 friendly words, the queen had taken back control of the situation.

Her statement was succinct and effective: Discussions with The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are at an early stage. We understand their desire to take a different approach, but these are complicated issues that will take time to work through.
Senior officials of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government opposed and condemned on Sunday the so-called U.S. sanctions against heads of Chinese government agencies responsible for Hong Kong affairs and officials of the HKSAR.

Chief Secretary for Administration of the HKSAR government Matthew Cheung said in his blog on Sunday that the HKSAR government will not be intimidated and will fully support the central government in taking countermeasures.

Hong Kong affairs are China's internal affairs and foreign interference will never be allowed, Cheung said.

Cheung condemned the United States for disclosing the personal information of related officials, which not only infringed upon privacy and threatened personal safety but also violated international laws and basic norms governing international relations.

Financial Secretary of the HKSAR government Paul Chan said in an online article that the so-called sanctions exposed the hegemonic and bullying mindset of the United States and stressed that there is no room for compromise in safeguarding national security.

After suffering from prolonged violence and separatism last year, Hong Kong was able to stabilize quickly in recent months thanks to the national security law enacted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Chan said.

However, while claiming to respect human rights, democracy and freedom, the United States imposed the so-called sanctions on the pretext of the law and doxxed related officials by publishing their personal information, including identity numbers and addresses.

Chan dismissed concerns about the so-called sanctions and said with the solid support of the country, Hong Kong will be stronger and more competitive.

Under "one country, two systems," Hong Kong's advantages will certainly continue to remain and Hong Kong will make great progress in the process of joining the national development, Chan said.

Cheung, the chief secretary for administration, said Hong Kong's unique advantages are not a gift from western countries and the so-called sanctions will not contain Hong Kong's long-term prosperity.

As long as the COVID-19 epidemic is controlled, Hong Kong's society and economy will return normal and Hong Kong's future will still be full of opportunities, Cheung said.
Khaled Drareni, editor of Casbah Tribune website and reporter with TV5 Monde, sentenced to three years in prison.

An Algerian journalist who played a prominent role in covering the countrys pro-democracy movement last year has been jailed for endangering national unity and inciting an unarmed gathering.

Khaled Drareni, editor of Casbah Tribune news website and correspondent of TV5 Monde and media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), was sentenced to three years in prison, his lawyer said on Monday.

Drareni had been in detention since late March. Along with sending him to prison, the court in capital Algiers also ordered the journalist to pay a fine of 50,000 dinars (about $400), according to the National Committee for the Release of Detainees.

During the trial, which was held by video conference because of the coronavirus, Drareni, 40, denied wrongdoing and said he was only working as an independent journalist and exercising his right to inform.

His supporters said the verdict was reminiscent of the tightly controlled era of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was pushed out by the mass demonstrations and whose successor promised a more democratic, open leadership.

While a new president was elected in December, the pro-democracy Hirak movement is seeking deeper change in a nation whose rulers have been shadowed by the army since it gained independence from France in 1962.

Weekly protests rocked Algeria for nearly a year since the popular movement began in February 2019 and came to a halt in March this year when the authorities banned the demonstrations to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Arbitrary and absurd

In their case against Drareni, prosecutors cited a Facebook post in which he said the Algerian political system had not changed since the election of Abdelmadjid Tebboune as president, and that the journalist shared a call by multiple political parties for a general strike.

Khaled Drareni was only doing his job of informing citizens. He did not commit a crime, one of his lawyers, Fetta Sadat, told The Associated Press news agency.

The verdict is proof that Algerian justice is not free but an instrument in the hands of power that can be used to intimidate Algerians, he said.

The RSF dismissed Mondays verdict as arbitrary and absurd and called it judicial persecution against a journalist who is the honour of his country, urging global mobilisation in his support.

At least one other Algerian journalist is currently awaiting trial, according to the media watchdog, which ranked Algeria 144th out of 180 countries in its 2020 Press Freedom Index.
Thats not a lot of relief  maybe only 6% less on your property tax bill for local schools  but its a surprising reversal from the year ago, when nothing got done in addressing the states perennial problem of high property taxes.

I think there was a recognition that we couldnt fail, that we had to put something together, said Sen. John Stinner of Gering, one of the architects of the compromise.

Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, another of the seven, credited Scheer for keeping us in a room until we got an agreement.

No ones particularly happy, but everyones going home with something, Linehan said.

The deal included an update of the states tax incentives program for growing businesses, called the ImagiNE Act, and a pledge to come up with $300 million in state money for the NExT project at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, provided the project also gets commitments of $1.3 billion in federal and private dollars. The project has been billed as a game changer for Omaha and the state, one that will create a national center for response to pandemics, natural disasters and bioterrorism. More than 8,000 permanent jobs, paying upward of $70,000 a year, would be created.
Heather Morris has shared an emotional video reflecting on the loss of her former Glee co-star Naya Rivera.

Morris, who played cheerleader Brittany in the series, shared the clip on Instagram over the weekend.

She said she had felt a pressing need to connect with Glee fans, a month after Riveras accidental drowning in Lake Piru, California.

I have been feeling very heavy lately. Ive been feeling this aching in my heart to connect with my fans, to connect with everybody whos been feeling a little lost, a little confused during this time, Morris told viewers.

She acknowledged the importance of the on-screen relationship between Brittany and Riveras character, Santana, saying it was for many fans a gateway into your current life and an inspiration to become your best self.

I want you to know that that was never lost on me, she added. It was never lost on Naya. We both knew how special that was.

Morris shed tears as she further reflected on Rivera and Glees legacy.

I just know how important our relationship was to you all, and I know a lot of you feel very lost and very far away from what happened, maybe a little bit confused, she continued.

...I want to thank you all for being such advocates and so supportive of Santana and Brittanys relationship, because without you guys it never would have existed.

She offered words of support to grieving fans, telling them: I want you to know that we are all here with you, that grief looks different on everybody, and I want you to be gentle and kind to yourself during this time.

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Morris said that she has found solace in writing and talking to her late co-star.

Rivera died aged 33 on 8 July in an accidental drowning after renting a boat with her young son and heading out onto the waters.
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA)  Senior members of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Monday slammed their own party following a number of high-profile graft cases relating to the distribution of Covid-19 funds and equipment
An aged care worker battling coronavirus in a Melbourne hospital after she was left gasping for air says she was 'gambling' her own life for her patients.

Maria Bradford, a personal care assistant at Estia Aged Care in Ardeer, began to suffer sudden COVID-19 symptoms after arriving home from work last Wednesday.

The 48-year-old had returned negative results for her twice weekly coronavirus tests and did not have a temperature.

But Ms Bradford's condition quickly deteriorated on the night of Wednesday August 5 and her fiance Robert Smith was forced to phone for an ambulance.

Maria Bradford, a personal care assistant at Estia Aged Care in Ardeer, is being treated for coronavirus in hospital

Ms Bradford was taken to hospital on Wednesday August 5 after she was unable to breathe

'Maria works in aged care, caring for the elderly. On Wednesday she had a severe asthma episode. Her medication wasn't working at all,' Mr Smith told The Philippine Times.

'I called for an ambulance, and she was struggling to breathe and was burning up. Prior to this there were no real symptoms.'

Ms Bradford, a mother who has worked in aged care for 20 years, is receiving treatment in Melbourne's Sunshine Hospital in St. Albans. Mr Smith said she remains on oxygen around the clock.

Victoria is currently battling 7,869 active COVID-19 infections, with 1,765 active cases related to aged care facilities. There are 146 coronavirus cases associated with Estia Aged Care Facility in Ardeer.

Ms Bradford speaks to her partner Robert Smith via a video call. He cannot visit her in hospital

Of the record 19 deaths reported in the state on Monday, 14 patients were linked to outbreaks in aged care facilities.

Ms Bradford, who described her COVID-19 infection as a 'killer', has now learned the extent of the dangers being on the frontline.

'I am always there for my patients  I love them with my own heart,' Ms Bradford told The Herald Sun.

'I am gambling my life for them.'

Ms Bradford returned a positive coronavirus test the day after she was admitted into hospital. She was advised by doctors her lung capacity was at just 40 per cent.

'I am so short of breath. It just got me so quick. It's very vicious,' she said.

There are concerns for Ms Bradford's health as she has both asthma and diabetes.

Ms Bradford has not been able to see Mr Smith since she was admitted into hospital but the couple communicate via video calls.

Mr Smith said his partner has put her health at risk for her job and her loved ones are praying for her recovery.
The Supreme Court on Monday said further hearing was required in the 2009 criminal contempt case against activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan and journalist Tarun Tejpal and adjourned the matter till 17 August

The Supreme Court on Monday said further hearing was required in the 2009 criminal contempt case against activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan and journalist Tarun Tejpal and adjourned the matter till 17 August, according to several media reports.

"We need to check whether statements made regarding corruption amount to contempt of court. Thus, we need to hear the matter," the Supreme Court bench said, as per Bar and Bench.

A bench, headed by Justice Arun Mishra and comprising Justices BR Gavai and Krishna Murari, said that it will hear the matter and deal with the issue of whether comment on corruption against judges per se amounted to contempt or not, as per PTI.

The top court had in November 2009 issued a contempt notice to Bhushan and Tejpal for allegedly casting aspersions on some sitting and former top court judges in an interview to news magazine. Tejpal was then editor of the magazine.

On 4 August, the apex court had made clear to Bhushan and Tejpal that it would hear the case against them, if it does not accept their explanation" or "apology in the matter.

A bench of justices Arun Mishra, BR Gavai and Krishna Murari had said that the court has not received the explanation/apology submitted by Bhushan and Tejpal and would pronounce its order on whether to accept them or not. "Explanation/apology submitted by Prashant Bhushan/Respondent No.1 and Tarun Tejpal/Respondent No.2, have not been received so far. In case we do not accept the explanation/apology, we will hear the matter. We reserve the order," the bench had said.

During the brief hearing conducted through video conferencing at 11 am, the bench told senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for Bhushan that there are freedom of speech and expression and the contempt of court.

"You have stood for freedom of speech and expression but it may be the case that you might have crossed the thin line of contempt. How do we save the grace of this system? I want to know from you as an amicus so that we can avoid this conflict. Suggest us some way out as the system also belongs to you," the bench said.

Dhavan said that late jurist Ram Jethmalani, while appearing in the case for Bhushan, had suggested something which if accepted can keep at rest the entire controversy. The bench said it does not want to curtail the freedom of speech and expression but for the contempt there is a thin line.

Justice Mishra then asked the court staff to mute the audio and make a phone call to Dhavan. The bench, which then assembled after nearly two hours, took other matters listed for the day. However, it resumed the hearing in the case at around 2.30 pm.

Later in the day, a statement was issued to media by Bhushan's office saying that the bench instead of an open court hearing in the morning spoke to the counsel for the respondents Rajeev Dhavan and Kapil Sibal over WhatsApp calls.

It said that the judges told the counsels that they wanted to put an end to the matter to protect the dignity of the court and of the judges. The statement said that the bench therefore asked the parties to issue statements tendering their apologies.

Accordingly, his office said that the statement was made by Bhushan to the apex court on 4 August. The statement said that advocate Prashant Bhushan refused to tender an apology but agreed to issue the statement.

"In my interview to Tehelka in 2009 I have used the word corruption in a wide sense meaning lack of propriety. I did not mean only financial corruption or deriving any pecuniary advantage. If what I have said caused hurt to any of them or to their families in any way, I regret the same. I unreservedly state that I support the institution of the judiciary and especially the Supreme Court of which I am a part, and had no intention to lower the prestige of the judiciary in which I have complete faith. I regret if my interview was misunderstood as doing so, that is, lower the reputation of the judiciary, especially the Supreme Court, which could never have been my intention at all," Bhushan's statement sent by his office read.

It added that Tejpal's statement made to the court apparently contained a conditional apology for the offense it had caused the institution of the Supreme Court, as mentioned by senior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for Tejpal during the hearing.

Bhushan's office said that the court, however, reassembled in the afternoon and when Justice Mishra indicated that the top court may pass an order holding that any statement of corruption in the judiciary would amount to per se contempt, he was told by Dhavan, that such a finding cannot be and should not be rendered without hearing the parties.

The earlier discussion over WhatApp was only regarding whether the proceedings could be dropped in the light of the statements. Therefore Dr Dhavan told the court, if the Honourable judges wanted to render any finding on whether the interview amounted to contempt or not, they would have to hear the parties fully, on facts and law. The court thereafter reserved judgment, the statement of Bhushan's office said.

On 24 July, the top court had adjourned the hearing after senior advocates Rajeev Dhavan and Kapil Sibal representing them sought time to prepare. The matter was listed after nearly eight years and the last hearing in the matter was held on May 2012.

On 22 July, the top court had issued notice to activist-lawyer in the suo motu contempt proceedings initiated against him for his alleged derogatory tweets against the judiciary, saying his statements prima facie "brought the administration of justice in disrepute".

While referring to recent tweets by Bhushan, the apex court said these statements are prima facie capable of "undermining the dignity and authority" of the institution of the Supreme Court in general and the office of Chief Justice of India in particular, in the eyes of public at large.

With inputs from PTI
On the line from Windsor, twin sisters Mesia Walker and Nena Buduhan are laughing in that way you laugh when youve reached the end of your rope. Laughing to keep from crying.

Walker and Buduhan are the owners of two yoga studios  Modo Yoga Windsor and Modo Yoga Tecumseth  in the only part of the province where yoga studios are still prohibited from opening.

For the past five months theyve been doing what they can to keep their eight-year-old business afloat  livestreaming classes online, holding small outdoor classes when weather permits  but with each day the Windsor-Essex region remains stuck in Stage 2, survival becomes a little more difficult.

Were getting more desperate, Buduhan says. Were really fighting to stay alive.

While every other region in Ontario has moved forward into Stage 3 and is able to reap the economic benefits of a broader reopening, Windsor-Essex has been left behind, largely due to a series of COVID-19 outbreaks among migrant farm workers in the towns of Kingsville and Leamington.

Tension is growing between the business community  anxious to reopen like the rest of the province  and public health officials, who say Windsor-Essex still isnt ready.

Dr. Wajid Ahmed, the regions medical officer of health, said in a phone interview on Saturday that the decision to move the region into Stage 3 is the provinces, not his, but he is mindful of the costs of the economic disruption.

I am deeply concerned about everything, not only the health impact, but also the social, economic and mental health impact on everyone in the region, he said. Im completely aware of what the potential impacts and risks are, but we are just trying to balance that risk. We dont want to set ourselves up for failure after all the good things that we have done so far.

Windsor-Essex has the highest rate of COVID-19 infections in Ontario, but after a large spike of infections in June and July, cases have been trending downward in recent weeks. There has been an average of just five new cases per day over the last seven days.

Ahmed said if the current trend of single-digit case counts continue, hes confident the province will soon allow the region to move into Stage 3, but he declined to estimate a timeframe.

We are confident that with everything that we have right now, we should be able to move forward to Stage 3 as soon as the province allows us to go.

Some local businesses fear they might not make it much longer.

There is a lot of frustration here, says Rakesh Naidu, president and CEO of the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce. Businesses are struggling. Every day is a big challenge.

With every day the region remains in Stage 2, Naidu said, local businesses face additional pressure. The more we delay, the more theyre going in a direction from which getting back will become more and more difficult.

With the U.S. border closed to non-essential travel, the local economy is also facing the added loss of its usual cross-border tourism from nearby Detroit, he said.

Naidu would like to see the province allow the less-affected parts of the region  namely the areas outside of Kingsville and Leamington  to move into Stage 3, as it did when it allowed parts of the region to move into Stage 2.

If some businesses are allowed to open, even partially, as we take care of the pockets with high-infection rates in our region, I think that would be something that we would welcome.

In addition, Naidu said businesses in Windsor-Essex should be given a longer timeframe to access some of the government-assistance programs, such as the employee wage subsidy.

That way they are not at a disadvantage (compared to businesses in other regions) that have been allowed to open and are able to use these programs.

Ahmed said the biggest issue continues to be the congregate living areas of migrant workers, but with recent improvements aimed at reducing the risk of transmission on farms he believes any future outbreaks can be effectively contained and will not lead to spillover into the broader community.

Workers in the agri-farm sector account for nearly half of Windsor-Essexs more than 2,300 cases. Three migrant workers have died after contracting COVID-19 in Ontario this year, two of them from farms in Windsor-Essex. There have been allegations of crowded living conditions and farm owners ignoring mandatory quarantines.

In June, the province announced a three-point plan to reduce the risk of infection on farms in Windsor-Essex, primarily with proactive, on-site testing. Ontario also recently sent its Emergency Medical Assistance Team  a kind of hospital SWAT team  to Windsor-Essex to assist the local health unit.

The federal government, meanwhile, announced a $59 million investment on July 31 aimed at supporting temporary foreign workers by improving living quarters and increasing inspections, among other things.

Advocates say the problems faced by migrant workers are structural and cannot be addressed with piecemeal investments.

We welcome all measures to protect the well-being of migrant workers, especially regarding improving housing conditions and strengthening inspections and enforcement, said Santiago Escobar, a national representative for the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which runs a migrant workers support centre in Leamington. But all these changes are meaningless if these workers dont have access to labour rights.

Escobar cited laws that prevent migrant workers from unionizing, closed work permits that tie them to a single employer and the lack of a path to permanent residency as the major obstacles to improving their working conditions.

Jim Brophy, an occupational health researcher and former director of the Occupational Health Clinic for Ontario Workers, said that even with the recent attempts to address outbreaks on farms, not enough is being done to protect migrant workers.

You would think that given whats happened on the farms that youd have ministry inspectors there pretty much 24-7, he said. Not only is it horrible, you know, for the health of these afflicted individuals, but were facing a pandemic here. Were facing the danger of widespread disease throughout the community.

While the agricultural sector is the main driver of infections in Windsor-Essex, its not the only type of workplace experiencing outbreaks in the region. Of the 11 active workplace outbreaks in Windsor-Essex, six are in agriculture and five are in construction or manufacturing, according to the latest figures posted by the health unit. (The health unit defines an active workplace outbreak as two employees testing positive within a reasonable timeframe.)

Brophy said Ontarios occupational health regulatory system is completely broken and as more and more workplaces reopen it poses a real danger for industrial communities like Windsor, which is home to a lot of jobs where physical distancing is difficult or impossible.

If the public thinks that the government is actively and aggressively engaged in protecting the health and well being of workers, whether its in hospitals, farms, grocery stores or industrial workplaces, I think theyre mistaken.

Walker and Buduhan are hopeful the province will allow Windsor-Essex to move into Stage 3 sooner rather than later. Theyve already drained their emergency funds and theyre running out of ways to keep the business going. If we look at it for too long we get really, really scared, Walker said.

They know Stage 3 wont be the end of their struggles. Even when theyre allowed to partially reopen, it will be a long time before they regain their pre-pandemic business. But it will give them something to build on.

We need more than Stage 3 right now, Walker said. We need help.
After the killing of five party workers in two months by terror groups stoked panic among its cadre in the Kashmir Valley, the Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sought more secure living spaces for senior functionaries and public representatives at the panchayat and district levels.

According to a party functionary who spoke on condition of anonymity, the demand for safe spaces in Srinagar and other district headquarters was placed before BJP president JP Nadda last week.

There is a clear targeted killing of BJP workers; the party is working on measures that will be taken to address the concerns of the workers in the Valley. For now, they have been urged to remain cautious and avoid travelling unless it is urgent, said a senior BJP leader in Delhi.

There are intelligence inputs that attacks could intensify in the run-up to Independence Day, the functionary said.

Since the killing of Ajay Bharti, a Congress man and the sarpanch of Lukbawan village in south Kashmirs Larkipora area in June, five BJP workers have been gunned down.

The victims include Wasim Bari, his brother Umar Bashir and father Bashir Ahmed, who were all shot outside their shop in Bandipora in July. Sarpanch Sajad Ahmad Khanday was killed in Kulgam on Friday and on Monday, party worker Abdul Hamid Najar in Budgam succumbed to bullet injuries he suffered in an attack.

Six others have been injured in attacks, said a BJP functionary based in Kashmir.

While a number of Sarpanchs and block development council (BDC) officials have been provided accommodation away from their home districts and villages, local BJP leaders believe there is a need to consider construction of safe houses at district headquarters where their families can be housed as well.

When the panchayat member of the BDC visit their homes they become sitting ducks for terrorists. There is no doubt that the number of panchayat representatives runs into thousands, and providing security will be difficult; but some steps have to be taken to assure the workers who have opted to work for the development of the people, said the Kashmir-based BJP functionary quoted above.

Killing of political workers in the Valley started soon after the eruption of terrorism in the former state in the late-1990s. The National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party claim to have lost hundreds of party workers to terror attacks over the past three decades.

Hina Bhatt, who contested the 2014 general elections on a BJP ticket and is currently the vice chairperson of the Khadi Village Industries Board, said political party workers on the ground are a soft target and their killing is used to send a message to discourage others from joining the political mainstream.

When the NC and the PDP were in power, their workers and functionaries were targeted; now it is the BJP workers who are being attacked. A lot of people in the Valley are joining the BJP, which is a setback for the terror groups, she said.

The increase in attacks against political workers, Bhatt said, is also retaliation against a crackdown on terrorists in the Valley. In the last one year so many terrorists have been killed, so this is the easiest way to demoralise those who support the government and party workers.

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Director-General of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr. Eric Nana Agyemang Prempeh has expressed worry about the refusal of residents especially those living around river banks to relocate.



According to him, efforts to relocate these residents have proved futile but they are trying their possible best to have them relocate.



He has however urged them to relocate from the spillage of the Bagre dam.



Speaking in an interview with Peace FM's midday News, he explained that they have received information from authorities in Burkina Faso and have confirmed the spillage of the Bagre dam which is scheduled to take place today (Monday).



"Though we are finding it difficult to have these residents relocate, we are still trying our best to make them understand the need for them to relocate because the spillage is expected to cause more havoc," he added.



Swathes of farmlands have been consumed by floodwaters whilst lives are under threat. The situation looks very bad.



Watch video below





It has become the tradition, NADMO issues a flood alert ahead of the opening of the dam every year and warned residents along the two rivers that the combined effects of rising water levels in the White Volta and the opening of the dam could leave thousands of people affected by flooding and, therefore, urges the residents to move their valuables to higher ground for their safety

Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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NEW YORK (AP)  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday called for a big expansion of U.S. government curbs on Chinese technology, saying that it wants to see untrusted Chinese apps" pulled from the Google and Apple app stores.

Outside experts called Pompeo's proposal vague and possibly illegal.

Pompeo called out popular video app TikTok and the messaging app WeChat, which people in the U.S. use to communicate with others in the U.S. and China, as significant threats to the personal data of American citizens, not to mention tools for CCP content censorship. CCP refers to the Chinese Communist Party.

The U.S. government has already been cracking down on Chinese technology companies. For instance, it has long singled out telecom equipment provider Huawei, encouraging allies not to use its equipment in their high-speed 5G wireless networks and banning U.S. telecom companies from using government funds for equipment and services from Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese telecom equipment provider.

Citing national security concerns, it has also barred Google from providing its Android apps such as Google Maps for Huawei phones. The Federal Communications Commission is considering barring operations of Chinese telecom companies China Telecom and China Unicom, which provide services in the U.S., due to national-security concerns.

President Donald Trump has also threatened to ban TikTok, although the legal basis for such a move remains uncertain.

Its a PR stunt. No specifics. Its an objective, George Washington University professor Susan Ariel Aaronson said by email.

Eurasia Group analyst Paul Triolo said the U.S. government is trying to push its allies and companies to stop using Chinese gear and software at all levels of their communications networks, from the internet backbone to app stores. That includes calling for companies to yank their apps from Huawei's app store, which advertises that it contains apps from European and U.S. companies like travel service Booking and Amazon.

The legal authority for the administration to take action against apps and app stores is unclear, Triolo write in a research note. The State Department did not immediately a question seeking information about the legal authority the administration could use to justify such measures.

The initiative is meant to force countries and companies to choose sides between the U.S. and China, Triolo said. He expects many companies and governments to resist.
An October Surprise in the United States is now almost inevitable, because that will be U.S. President Donald Trumps last chance to get re-elected legitimately. He might try to cling to office even if he loses the vote, but it would be a lot easier and neater if he actually won a majority in the electoral college on Nov. 3.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/8/2020 (527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

An "October Surprise" in the United States is now almost inevitable, because that will be U.S. President Donald Trumps last chance to get re-elected legitimately. He might try to cling to office even if he loses the vote, but it would be a lot easier and neater if he actually won a majority in the electoral college on Nov. 3.

"October Surprise" is the U.S. political term for a fake crisis, usually involving foreigners, that is "discovered" by a president trailing badly in the polls in the last few weeks before an election. All other issues are forgotten, Americans rally around the flag, and the incumbent wins on a surge of patriotism. Or thats the theory, at least.

The same thing happens elsewhere too, of course, and not necessarily in October. Thats when it needs to happen to win a U.S. presidential election, but there was a "July Surprise" in Belarus last month (because of the countrys Aug. 9 election).

Alexander Lukashenko, the strongman who rules Belarus, recently "discovered" Russian mercenaries in his country. They were unarmed and on their way to Istanbul, but Lukashenko says there is a plot: "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 centre of Minsk is already obvious." Only I can save our country! Vote for me!

Trump will need something like that, because otherwise the coronavirus is going to kill him politically. This was not true as recently as early June, because until then the United States was not performing especially badly in dealing with the pandemic.

It looked a lot worse because of Trumps bizarre behaviour  the endless, shameless lies, the narcissism, the suggestions that people should inject bleach, etc.  but in terms of COVID-19 deaths per million people, the American fatality rate was still lower than any other major western countries except Germany and Canada.

The U.S. was late to go into lockdown, but so were they all, at least compared to most Asian countries. Until recently, if you were a Trump supporter, you could still believe he was doing a good job.

It was Trumps rush to end the lockdown, not all the earlier nonsense, that did the real damage. He believed that he would lose the election if the economy didnt revive, but by opening up too fast he managed to revive the pandemic at the same time.

The numbers tell the tale. Last week, America recorded its 160,000th death from COVID-19. Thats almost a quarter of all the coronavirus deaths in the world. Much worse, U.S. deaths are still going up while deaths elsewhere in the developed world have fallen steeply. Thats almost entirely due to Trump.

Take Canada, for example. Its very similar to the U.S. in economy and demography, but different in social and political terms. Canada has universal health care and a much less drastic divide between the rich and the rest, for example, which probably explains why Americas cumulative death rate per million is 484, while Canadas is only 237.

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The history is therefore an American death rate twice as high as Canadas: not great, but not utterly awful. By now, however, Canada has managed to get its deaths down to 10 a day, whereas America is back up around 1,000 a day. Even allowing for Canadas much smaller population, that is 10 times worse. This is what coming out of lockdown too early did to the United States, and it is all down to Donald Trump.

The pandemic is raging again in the United States, and there may be a quarter-million deaths there by election day in November. In the U.S., "deaths per million" are going up three per day, which means that the U.S. will overtake Chile (now 509) in less than two weeks, Italy (582) in a month, Spain (609) in five weeks. It might even catch up with the U.K. (682) by election day.

Most of those newly dead Americans will be over 60, so probably Trump supporters. Their relatives and friends are bound to notice eventually. Joe Bidens lead over Trump in the polls has already widened to 10 per cent, and there is probably no good news Trump could engineer in the remaining 90 days that would be big enough to turn that number around.

His only hope, therefore, is to manufacture some really bad news: a restaged "Gulf of Tonkin" incident with China, perhaps, or a terrorist "threat" so humongous that it gives Trump a pretext to declare martial law nationally. Or maybe he will arrange the premature certification of a magical new COVID-19 vaccine so he can roll it out just before the vote. If it kills a lot of people later on, who cares? He won.

Trump knows that if he loses the election he will spend the rest of his life in court, possibly even in jail. An October Surprise is practically guaranteed. It isnt over yet.

Gwynne Dyers latest book is Growing Pains: The Future of Democracy (and Work).
Heather Heidelbaugh, a Pittsburgh trial attorney, is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, right, a Montgomery County Democrat seeking a second term this year. Read more

Heather Heidelbaughs first television commercial as the Republican nominee for Pennsylvania attorney general takes aim at the not-so-distant political ambitions of her incumbent opponent, Democrat Josh Shapiro.

Ill keep our community safe, keep politics out of the office, and serve my full term, Heidelbaugh says to the camera, sticking the landing on that last phrase.

Shapiro is widely expected to run for governor in 2022 when Gov. Tom Wolfs second term wraps up.

How widely? Clout asked Wolf about that future race for governor on Election Day last year. Thats my guy there, Wolf said, nodding toward Shapiro, who declined to comment about 2022.

 READ MORE: Pro-Biden groups have spent twice as much on TV in Pennsylvania as pro-Trump groups

Heidelbaugh, a Pittsburgh trial lawyer, has staffed her election squad with veterans of U.S. Sen. Pat Toomeys campaigns. Toomey is seen as mulling a bid for the Republican nomination for governor in 2022.

Any hits Heidelbaugh lands on Shapiro in the 12 weeks between now and the Nov. 3 general election could, by proxy, help Toomey in a race two years from now. Her campaign said its spending $200,000 to air the ad on television in the Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Wilkes-Barre media markets.

Shapiros camp, asked if he has ever promised to serve a full second term, responded: The promise AG Shapiro makes is to wake up every day focused on protecting people over powerful special interests. There are too many important battles to wage right now to be speculating about what might happen in politics years from now.

 READ MORE: More from Clout: Retired Philly cops want to counter-punch George Soros for boosting Larry Krasner

Shapiro holds a significant cash advantage, reporting $4.14 million in his campaign account as of June 22, while Heidelbaugh had $208,871.

Heidelbaugh is getting a boost from the Commonwealth Leaders Fund, a political action committee founded and funded by conservative activists. The PAC, which gave her $50,000 in June, has booked $435,000 worth of air time to support her, according to the ad tracking firm website Advertising Analytics.

 READ MORE: Trump says he might give his Republican renomination speech in Gettysburg

The rest of Heidelbaughs ad serves as an introduction to voters of a candidate who lacks strong name recognition. Her personal story is about overcoming early struggles in life.

My dad left us when I was just eight, she says. I know what its like to grow up hungry, to go to bed cold, to get knocked down and to get back up. I understand the problems people face. And I know how to help.
Ann Konkel waves as she poses with balloons on her 105th birthday last month at St. Josephs hospital.









When the family of a former nurse and longtime volunteer in Hamilton invited the public to celebrate her 105th birthday by sending that many cards, they didnt expect to receive nearly 2,000 of them.

Ann Konkel reached the milestone on July 14, and her family says the cards are still coming.

(Its) unbelievable, theyre from people Ive never seen before I dont think, said Konkel.

Born in the Netherlands in 1915, Konkel lived through both world wars and the Spanish flu pandemic before moving to Hamilton in 1952. She was living in the same house until a few months ago when she had a fall and was admitted to hospital. To help boost her spirits, her granddaughter Laura invited people to send 105 cards for her birthday. She was surprised at the response.

Its the most amazing experience, she said in an interview. My grandmother has loved every moment of it.

Many of the cards Konkel received decorate the wall of her hospital room, says her daughter-in-law Robin Konkel. She adds they were made by people of all ages and walks of life, including a child who previously had a liver transplant and even the ambassador of the Netherlands. Two people from a penitentiary also made and decorated cards for Konkel. One woman wrote a 10-page letter.

Some of the cards contained original artwork, Robin says, adding that many people sent a loonie and a nickel in their cards for Konkels 105th year. The response has left the family touched.

Im speechless and Im in awe, said Robin. We read them to her and she loves it. Shell keep saying, For me?

Having previously been a teacher and principal in Europe, Konkel worked as a cleaning lady when she came to Canada. She later switched careers to become an operating room nurse at what is now Juravinski Hospital, even treating Ticats players after their games.

She spent a lifetime in community service, cooking and serving meals at Good Shepherd on Mary Street and volunteering at St. Stanislaus Roman Catholic Polish Church.

The idea for the cards was inspired by Toronto World War Two veteran Fred Arsenault, who asked for 100 cards for his 100th birthday in March, said Laura. He ended up receiving more than 90,000 cards.

Its just so magnificent, said Laura. Especially in COVID-19 when going to the post office and getting a card and just being involved in this is so much more difficult, it was so extraordinary.
Even with increased safety protocols in place, some Christian camps could not keep out COVID-19 this summer.

Week after week, the headlines tracked the outbreaks: 82 cases at Camp Kanakuk in Missouri, an evangelical camp that draws kids from 10 states. Dozens at a church camp in Keller, Texas, and more at Allaso Ranch in Hawkins, Texas, where kids worshiped together unmasked. At least 54 people at Springs Ministries Summer Camp in Michigan tested positive. Another 25 campers and staff, all under 20, caught the virus at Trout Creek Bible Camp in Oregon.

Then, a Centers for Disease Control investigation revealed the largest case: a single YMCA camp session in Lake Burton, Georgia, where 260 of the 597 campers and staff members (44%) contracted the virus within days.

According to the Christian Camping and Conference Association (CCCA), the outbreaks represent a minority of its 870 member camps, only 7 percent of which had reported confirmed COVID-19 cases among campers or staff last month. Camp High Harbor, the YMCA camp in Georgia, is not a CCCA member.

CCCA has encouraged our members who have chosen to open to stringently follow the CDC guidelines and to adhere to local health department regulations, CCCA president Gregg Hunter said. The report out of Georgia punctuates that need with an emphasis on the need for vigilance in mask-wearing.

As CT previously reported, camps wrestled with regulations and risks in the spring, and many opted to cancel in-person programing (62% of camps overall, according to a survey by camp technology platform CampMinder). Some, like Kanakuk in Missouri, opened but then canceled when the coronavirus situation changed.

Even though Camp High Harbor started sending home campers the same day they learned of the positive COVID-19 test, it wasnt enough to contain the spread. The camp had organized the campers into smaller groups, encouraged social distancing and hand washing, and required staff to wear face masks, but failed to follow several key recommendations. It had not required campers to wear masks, had not opened windows and doors when campers were inside, and had held activities that included daily vigorous singing and cheering.

This investigation adds to the body of evidence demonstrating that children of all ages are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection and, contrary to early reports, might play an important role in transmission. The multiple measures adopted by the camp were not sufficient to prevent an outbreak in the context of substantial community transmission, the CDC report said.

The outcomes from summer camp during the pandemic can be worrying for schools preparing to reopen for the fall in some places.

Is the Georgia summer camp episode a harbinger of whats to come if in-person classrooms resume in the fall? The Washington Post editorial board wondered. The Georgia summer camp outbreak is a warning that children may not be spared sickness, nor the adults around them.

But the American Camping Association (ACA) disputed the assertion that the situation at Camp High Harbor spells doom for schools that bring students back to the classroom.

More than 3,000 day and overnight camps are running in-person programming for children across the US this summer," said Tom Rosenberg, CEO of the ACA (a quarter of its members are faith-based camps). Camp directors reported that many children arrived feeling anxious, out of shape, or disconnected. They desperately soughtand ultimately foundthe belonging, independence, and resilience they have needed for months. If schools are going to be successful this fall, they must act on what weve learned at camp this summer.

Even with truncated or adjusted camp sessions, many Christian leaders agreed.

Parents and campers have been so grateful for the opportunity to safely gather and encounter God in new ways, said Deanna Christensen, executive director of Cross Trails Ministry, which operates two camps in West Texas. The theme for this summer was Tales of an Epic God, which turned out to be a great theme for the time we are in.

Cross Trails delayed the start of camp by two weeks, operated at 50 percent capacity, and reported no COVID-19 cases, yet called off the camp for the summer after three camp sessions as the number of cases surged in nearby Austin and San Antonio, and the state of Texas issued more stringent guidelines for overnight camps.

Outside Houston, Camp Cho-Yeh had 13 coronavirus cases among 1,001 campers, all of which were reported after leaving camp. President and CEO Garret Larsen still counts 2020 as a successful summer. Cho-Yeh initially canceled summer programming in March, but decided in June to open the camp on a smaller scale.

With cabins filled to half capacity, the Cho-Yeh experience was more intimate than before, and Larsen believes campers appreciated it after months in isolation. At the conclusion of one camp session, parents reported to Larsen that the smile they saw on their daughters face was the first they had seen in months.

The resounding theme among our camper parents has been that the benefit of camp far outweighs the risk of COVID-19 for our campers, Larsen said.
Tidelands Health is allowing hospitalized patients to be visited by a patient support partner, with the health system announcing it will allow one adult support partner per hospitalized patient with certain restrictions and precautions at Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital, Tidelands Georgetown Memorial Hospital and Tidelands Health Rehabilitation Hospital.

Carl Lindquist, spokesperson from Tidelands Health, said they were able to allow this new visitation because of the Safe in Our Care protocols established during the beginning of June.

These protocols include additional plexiglass shields and glass doors, stricter hygiene and cleaning procedures, e-visits and adding a safe care navigator in the lobby.

"With our Safe in our Care protocols in place, we are able to safely allow visitation because we know how important support from loved ones is to our patients," Lindquist said.

The patient support partner can be any adult designated by the patient, according to Lindquist. Each patient may designate one support partner for the length of their hospital stay. Family members may not switch out after a selection is made.

Those in COVID-19 isolation may not be visited by a support partner out of concerns for everyones safety.

The designated patient support partner must adhere to additional guidelines to reduce the spread of the coronavirus:

For inpatients, the support partner may visit between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily.

The patient support partner may not visit any area of the hospital other than the patients room.

The cafeteria is not open to patient support partners. Plan ahead to bring needed food and drink.

In the emergency department, a patient support partner may be allowed when certain medical criteria are met.

Tidelands Health understands the value of family support for our patients, and we have established strict safety guidelines for the protection of our patients, visitors and team members, said Dr. Gerald Harmon, vice president of medical affairs at Tidelands Health.

All support partners will be screened for COVID-19 symptoms. This includes a temperature check before entry is allowed. Those with a temperature over 100 degrees will not be permitted to enter.

A face mask must be worn at all times.

Anyone coming to the hospital for an appointment should arrive early to allow extra time for the screening process.
BLACKSBURG  Town officials are proposing measures that would scale back some reopening plans and aim to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 among Virginia Tech students.

The Town Council has been asked to approve an emergency ordinance that would generally limit public and private gatherings to no more than 50 people and require that food and drinking establishments not remain open to the public after midnight.

The ordinance, which would go into effect this upcoming Wednesday, would be set to remain in effect for approximately three months. Town council is slated to vote on the measure Tuesday night.

I think a good way to think about this is it pushes Blacksburg back to phase two, where we were previously, Mayor Leslie Hager-Smith said in reference to the states multi-phase reopening.

Phase three of the states reopening, which went into effect last month, eased previous restrictions on public gatherings, which are currently capped at 250 people.

Phase three also lifted specific capacity restrictions at stores and restaurants, but left the social distancing requirements.

Blacksburgs proposed ordinance does re-introduce a 50% capacity limit at restaurants. Hager-Smith, however, said that condition would lead to few capacity changes at most town restaurants due to the social distancing requirements.

Blacksburgs consideration of tougher restrictions to try to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 comes as neighbor Radford deciding to ban gatherings of more than 50 people through Aug. 31.

On Monday, Radford City Council is expected to go over a tabled ordinance that would require the wearing of face masks in public.

A general face mask while in public requirement is in Blacksburgs ordinance.

Like in Radford, however, a key group that Blacksburgs ordinance addresses is college students, a substantial chunk of the towns population that is expected to return to the Tech campus in the coming days.

Hager-Smith said the town is working with some student-affiliated entities to help enforce the measures.

One of those entities, the mayor said, is a group largely made up of apartment owners.

If a student is found flagrantly violating masking rules or having large gatherings, that student could lose their lease, she said, referring to one potential consequence that she said the apartment group supports.

The town has also spoken with Techs Dean of Students Office, which has agreed to issue code violations to students not following Blacksburgs ordinance, Hager-Smith said.

When I say we forged an alliance here, I mean all parties in the community are pulling in the same direction here, she said.

Echoing comments recently made by Police Chief Anthony Wilson, Hager-Smith said the town is not trying to write tickets or hurt more feelings.

Thats not the point, she said. We want to see Virginia Tech students the way we know they can be.

Hager-Smith said students and the rest of the community need to take these necessary steps and adapt to the new normal if they want to return to the familiarity of years past.

Penalties for violations of Blacksburgs ordinance would come in the forms of misdemeanors.

There would, however, be exceptions to some measures.

For example, the 50-person gathering limit would not apply to religious and wedding ceremonies and expressive activity  protests and demonstrations  on public streets and sidewalks.

Restaurants would also be able to provide delivery and take-out services after midnight.

Town officials said they have discussed the ordinance with restaurant operators.

Mike Soriano, an owner of several Blacksburg restaurants, said he finds the proposed measures reasonable.

On conditions such as the 50% capacity limit, he echoed Hager-Smiths point about how he doesnt anticipate a significant change due to the existing social distancing requirements. He said restaurants are lucky to hit even 40% capacity under those requirements.

That wont really affect any restaurants that I know of, Soriano said.

Soriano owns Champs Cafe and Sports Bar, Avellinos, the Wikiteria Market & Cafe at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center and the Our Daily Bread location in Blacksburg, an operation that he runs as part of a partnership.

Soriano said he also sees some benefits with the midnight curfew for restaurants.

For one, he said ending the sale of alcoholic beverages at an earlier time  a proposal that was considered  could prompt patrons who are not quite ready to call it a night to seek out larger parties at apartments. He said thats less likely to occur after midnight, which he added in the long run helps with the COVID-19 mitigation efforts.

Soriano said he anticipates the midnight curfew to affect business. But again, he said he still sees some safety benefits there.

Soriano said standards set by the food and beverage establishments become tougher to enforce the more the night progresses.

If we were to go after midnight, and not be able to control whats going on, the consequences of that are worse, he said.
The former school principal failed in his bid to overturn his convictions.

A former primary school principal jailed for repeated indecent assaults on a boy has failed in a bid to overturn his convictions.

Richard Samuel Hazley, 54, was challenging a finding that he subjected one of his ex-pupils to years of abuse.

But judges at the Court of Appeal in Belfast rejected claims that the majority guilty verdict was unsafe.

In September last year Hazley, with an address at Railway Street in Poyntzpass, Co Down, was convicted of 14 counts of indecent assault following a jury trial at Downpatrick Crown Court.

He was sentenced to two years in custody, a further two years on probation and disqualified from working with children or vulnerable adults indefinitely.

The offences were committed on dates between 1993 and 1999 - all before the victim's seventeenth birthday.

He received private tutoring from Hazley and began to regularly stay over at his home from the age of 11, the court heard.

In evidence the injured party said on one occasion he was sleeping in the defendant's bed and woke to discover him touching his private parts.

Other incidents involved Hazley watching the boy shower and helping to dry him and put talcum powder on.

In 2017 the victim, by then aged in his thirties, reported the alleged sexual assaults to police.

Hazley was arrested and interviewed under caution.

During questioning he was asked if the boy had ever slept in his room, but never offered a simple denial.

Instead, he responded by saying the child "may have chosen to nip in or something", and offering further no comments.

At trial Hazley provided a different answer, emphatically stating that the injured party never slept in his bed.

Jurors also heard evidence about other alleged incidents when the teacher and student were together.

The complainant stated that Hazley provided a bottle and watched him urinate if he needed to go to the toilet while in his car.

He also claimed the defendant had a so-called "special drawer" containing pornographic material and condoms in a spare bedroom.

Hazley's lawyers contended that the jury should have been warned about alleged inconsistencies in the complainant's account.

A second ground of challenge centred on the failure to give a direction on bad character evidence about the alleged urinating and drawer incidents.

However, the Court of Appeal rejected defence submissions and ruled that Hazley's credibility was substantially undermined by not simply denying to police that the boy ever slept in his bed.

Lord Justice Stephens confirmed: "We consider that none of the matters raised on behalf of the applicant, either separately or in combination, give rise to any significant sense of unease about the safety of the convictions."

Although the court also dismissed claims the overall four-year sentence imposed had been manifestly excessive, the term was altered due to "wholly exceptional circumstances".

Hazley will instead now serve three years on probation after spending a year in custody.
The Democratic Convention will feature a lineup of everyday American speakers, including Pennsylvania farmer Rick Telesz who voted for Donald Trump in 2016

The Democratic National Convention speakership lineup features several everyday Americans, including a farmer from Pennsylvania who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 as a new poll shows likely voters in the swing state favor Joe Biden.

'Over the last several months in planning this convention, we had two goals in mind: to include more Americans than ever before, and to ensure that all Americans see themselves reflected in what they were viewing,' Stephanie Cutter, the 2020 Democratic National Convention Program Executive, said in a press release announcing nine of the speakers.

Rick Telesz, who runs a farm in Western Pennsylvania, is one of those speakers.

While he voted for Trump in 2016, he is supporting Joe Biden in November, claiming Trump's trade war has threatened his farm, which has been in his family for generations.

The slew of everyday American speakers for the Demoratic convention comes as a new poll released Monday shows likely voters in both Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, two crucial swing states, favor the former vice president.

In Pennsylvania, Trump won the 2016 presidential election there with 48.2 per cent of the vote.

A new CBS News/YouGov poll taken August 4-7 shows that among 1,225 registered voters in Pennsylvania, 49 per cent will likely vote for Biden in November compared to the 43 per cent who say they will cast their ballot for Trump.

The announcement of a slew of everyday American speakers for the convention lineup comes as a new poll shows presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden winning in some key middle America swing states that went red in 2016

In Pennsylvania, Biden holds 49 per cent support from likely voters compared to the 43 per cent that say they would vote for Trump in November

Forty-eight per cent of likely voters in Wisconsin, another red swing states, say they would cast their ballot for Biden compared to the 42 per cent who will vote for Trump

Wisconsin also went red in 2016 with 47.2 per cent voting for Trump compared to the 46.5 per cent who voted for Hillary Clinton.

Of the 1,009 registered voters in Wisconsin who participated in the new survey, 48 per cent say they will go for Biden to the 42 per cent who favor Trump.

Ten per cent more voters in Pennsylvania say they think the presumptive Democratic nominee would handle the coronavirus pandemic better than the president has, and in Wisconsin 47 per cent say Biden would handle the outbreak better than the 32 per cent who said Trump.

In 2016 Hillary Clinton was widely criticized for ignoring middle America and everyday American voters, specifically in battleground swing states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

While campaigning in 2016, Clinton visited 37 states, while Trump made stops at 45.

The Democratic Party is taking a different approach for it's convention this time around, making sure everyday Americans are represented at the four-day event.

'There are people from all parts of the country, all walks of life  different professions, different financial situations  all dealing with similar things. It's really the story of what's happening across America right now,' Cutter told The Washington Post of the lineup.

Biden announced last week that he won't be traveling to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the location of the Democratic Convention later this month, due to the prevailing coronavirus crisis and recent spikes in confirmed cases.

Instead, he will make his speech from his home state of Delaware as speakers are also encouraged to make their remarks remotely.

Telesz will bring a Pennsylvania farmer's voice to the virtual stage and Milwaukee will still have a voice with elementary school teacher Luz Chaparro Hernandez and retired educator Julie Buckholt delivering speeches.

Hernandez will speak on education in the age of coronavirus and Buckholt will focus on speaking about her positive experiences with the Affordable care Act.

Speakers will also join from Fort Myers, Florida; Reno, Nevada; Indianapolis, Indiana; Sedona, Arizona; Lake Orion, Michigan and Atlanta, Georgia.
Bear Grylls has revealed that filming was briefly suspended on his new TV series due to participants facing life-threatening injuries.

The presenter and wilderness survival expert was filming Worlds Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji for Amazon Prime Video, when the incident happened.

For Worlds Toughest Race, Grylls oversaw 66 competing teams from 30 different countries as they raced 671km across the country of Fiji.

In an interview with Metro, Grylls revealed: There were so many people on the ground, so many moving parts, competitors spread out over such a huge area, in such remote tides with crazy weather on occasions  theres a lot to go wrong.

And with all wilderness disasters, it only takes three or four small, inconsequential things and suddenly youve got a disaster on your hands.

The host said that there were a few occasions in which teams became trapped in remote ravines that were inaccessible by helicopter, as well as flash floods, big storms and rising water levels.

Grylls described the situation as very touch and go.

We actually at one point had to shut the race down and stop it, he said. I think it was eight hours or so, which is pretty rare for us to have to do that. But peoples lives are on the line, we had people we did have to airlift out, with really serious life-threatening infections.

Thats the thing about Worlds Toughest Race  youve got to look after yourself all the time, he added. You take your eye off the ball and you get a little cut, and you think its inconsequential, and before you know it, a day in, your legs ballooned up. People can die super easily like that.

The series launches on Amazon on Friday 14 August 2020.
Presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya describes herself as 'a symbol of change' for Belarus, which has been under strongman rule for nearly three decades

Stay-at-home-mother Svetlana Tikhanovskaya never thought she would run for president or become the leader of the Belarusian protest movement.

But in a tale worthy of Hollywood, in a matter of weeks the 37-year-old has gone from a political unknown to the strongest challenger to Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko, who claimed an overwhelming victory in a presidential election on Sunday.

Tikhanovskaya says the result of the vote has been rigged and called on Lukashenko to go peacefully and stop using force after police cracked down on protesters.

"I consider myself the winner of this election," she said on Monday.

Tikhanovskaya said she contested the election to get her jailed blogger husband out of prison and win much-needed freedom for the ex-Soviet country of 9.5 million people.

"I love Belarusians and I want to give them an opportunity to have a choice," she said ahead of the vote.

Tikhanovskaya, an English teacher by training, only made the decision to stand for president in May.

Her husband Sergei Tikhanovsky -- a popular 41-year-old YouTube blogger -- had been detained and could not submit his own presidential bid in time.

The electoral commission allowed Tikhanovskaya to stand, dropping two stronger opposition candidates.

Despite a lack of political experience, she quickly emerged as the country's top opposition figure, with tens of thousands taking to the streets to support her bid.

In speeches, Tikhanovskaya has called herself an "ordinary woman, a mother and wife" and pumped up crowds with calls for change.

"I have become the embodiment of people's hope, their longing for change," she told AFP in an interview ahead of election day.

She said she was standing despite receiving threats.

Her husband has been accused of plotting mass unrest and collaborating with Russian mercenaries, claims Tikhanovskaya has called "very scary."

Their five-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son have been taken abroad for their own safety.

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She said the separation from her children -- including her son who is hearing impaired -- was difficult.

Tikhanovskaya stressed that if elected, she would free her husband and other detained opposition figures and hold fresh polls.

- 'Joan of Arc' -

Her bid has prompted scepticism from some, while others have compared her to historical heroines.

The Village, a Minsk-based news site, called her "an accidental Joan of Arc," the 15th-century French peasant who helped achieve a pivotal military victory against the English before she was burned at the stake.

"You're a wife of a Decembrist!" one supporter shouted at a rally, referring to 19th-century aristocrats who followed their husbands into Siberian exile.

Hesitant in early television appearances, Tikhanovskaya has won praise for recent speeches.

Allocated live slots on state television, she listed alleged lies by Lukashenko's regime, repeating: "They won't show you this on television".

"Unexpectedly her first speech on television was strong, without false notes or weak points," wrote opposition newspaper Nasha Niva.

Tikhanovskaya's simple but direct speeches have prompted lengthy cheers at crowded rallies.

"Are you tired of enduring it all? Are you tired of keeping silent?" she asked supporters recently.

"Yes," the crowd roared.

She has accused Lukashenko of showing blatant disregard for the people during the coronavirus epidemic, which the strongman has dismissed as a hoax.

Tikhanovskaya says that she lacks the "massive charisma" of her husband, who has travelled round Belarus interviewing ordinary people for hard-hitting videos.

- Charlie's Angels -

Image-wise, she pulled off a transformation with help from two women with more experience.

These are Veronika Tsepkalo, whose ex-diplomat husband Valery Tsepkalo was barred from standing, and Maria Kolesnikova, campaign chief of ex-banker Viktor Babaryko who was also dropped from the polls and is in jail.

The two women flanked her at rallies -- with one Belarusian news outlet nicknaming them "Charlie's Angels".

The women wore t-shirts with a design featuring their signature gestures: Tikhanovskaya's punched fist, Kolesnikova's fingers in a heart shape and Tsepkalo's victory sign.

Tikhanovskaya grew up in Mikashevichi, a small town south of Minsk.

With top grades she studied to become a teacher of English and German in the historic city of Mozyr. It was there she met her future husband, who owned a nightclub.

am-as/mm/pma
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 13:00:25|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai speaks at a dialogue in Grand Rapids, the United States, on Feb. 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Ping)

"It's not fair to make such allegations without giving any evidence and to accuse China of not giving American companies a level playing field while at the same time they themselves are denying Chinese companies such a level playing field. This is extremely unfair," Cui Tiankai said.



WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The United States should stop making groundless allegations against Chinese companies including TikTok and give them a level playing field, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai has said.

"I don't think there's an evidence that any company is giving such information to the Chinese government. People make these allegations, but they never show any evidence," said Cui in response to the U.S. government's allegations that TikTok might give its data to the Chinese government when he was attending the 2020 Aspen Security Forum on Aug. 4.

"Very often we hear complaints here that we don't give a level playing field to American companies. But more and more, I believe we should complain Chinese companies are not having a level playing field here," he said.

"There is such a degree of political intervention, government intervention into the market. There's such a discrimination against Chinese company. These companies are just private companies," the ambassador said.

The logo of TikTok is displayed on the screen of a smartphone on a computer screen background in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, Aug. 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

"It's not fair to make such allegations without giving any evidence and to accuse China of not giving American companies a level playing field while at the same time they themselves are denying Chinese companies such a level playing field. This is extremely unfair," he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order banning any U.S. transactions with Chinese tech firm ByteDance, owner of TikTok, starting in 45 days.

TikTok has been downloaded over 175 million times in the United States and over 1 billion times globally, according to the executive order, which claims that the app automatically captures "vast swaths of information" from its users, posing risks to U.S. national security.

A similar executive order has also been issued for WeChat, a messaging and social media app owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent. 
Russian and Turkish airlines will restart flights from Russia to the Turkish resort cities on Monday, the Federal Air Transport Agency said in a statement.



"The program of international flights will be expanded tomorrow. On August 10, flights of Russian and Turkish carriers will restart, and they will fly Russians to the resort cities of Dalaman, Bodrum, and Antalya," the Prime news agency cited the statement as saying.



Rossiya Airlines, Nordwind, Red Wings, Ifly, and Ural Airlines will fly to Turkey from St. Petersburg, and the same carriers, excluding Rossiya Airlines, will fly from Rostov-on-Don. The airlines will also fly from Moscow together with Aeroflot, S7 Airlines, Pobeda, Royal Flight, Icarus, and Azur Air, the agency said.



The Turkish airlines that will fly between the cities include Turkish Airlines, Pegasus Airlines, and Corendon Airlines.



Since the relaunch of international flights on August 1, airlines have carried out 128 flights from Russia to Turkey and the U.K., carrying more than 38,500 passengers, the agency added.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th August, 2020) Germany, France and Italy have targeted companies from Turkey, Kazakhstan and Jordan to apply economic sanctions over violation of the 2011 internationally-agreed arms embargo to Libya, German news agency DPA reported on Monday, citing EU sources.

In mid-July, the three EU countries said they were prepared to apply sanctions against countries and entities violating the UN arms embargo on Libya, but did not specify which countries could be sanctioned.

According to the report, the list includes three companies from Turkey, Kazakhstan and Jordan as well as two individuals from Libya implicated in providing ships, aircraft or other logistics for the transport of weapons to Libya.

While until now no concrete countries or Names have been specified, the French Foreign Ministry said in mid-June that the main obstacle for the peace process in Libya was the breach of arms embargo by Turkey.

An international conference on Libya was held in Berlin in January, where participating countries have agreed to respect the arms embargo as a measure of non-interference in the Libyan civil conflict. Yet, the warring parties have accused each other of collusion with foreign governments, including those which have agreed to the pact.
Harrowing police body camera footage shows how a noise complaint in Arizona turned into a fatal police shooting where a man playing video games was shot in the back seconds after opening his front door.

On May 21 around 10pm Phoenix police knocked on the door of Ryan Whitaker, 40, following a complaint about noise from an upstairs neighbor.

Whitaker answered the door with a 9mmgun in hand because he heard a stranger knock on his apartment door in the middle of the night earlier that month, according to AZCentral.

He had been playing video games with his girlfriend Brandee Nees when he answered the door and was killed in less than a minute.

Ryan Whitaker, 40, was shot in the back by police seconds after opening his front door

In July Phoenix police released 30-minute video footage from Officer John Ferragamo's bodycamera showing the moment Officer Jeff Cooke shot Whitaker in the back at least two times. Whitaker's gun pictured circled in red

The footage, which blurred his face, showed Whitaker put the gun behind his hand after realizing cops were at the door

He then slowly goes on the ground but within three seconds was fatally shot

When he opened the door he was confronted by two Phoenix police officers and they were surprised by the sight of his firearm.

Just three seconds later Phoenix Officer Jeff Cooke shot Whitaker in the back at least two times at point-blank range, killing him.

The horrific police shooting was just one of several in the police department this year that has reawakened criticism of the forces use of deadly force.

Following public outrage over Whitakers death the police department released 30-minute bodycam worn by Officer John Ferragamo in July who was on the scene with Cooke.

'The Phoenix Police Department knew from the night of the shooting that this was a false and exaggerated 911 call,' Matthew Cunningham, the Whitakers family lawyer, said.

Those two 911 calls complained about people screaming at each other and the caller said he couldnt sleep because of the noise. The second call alleged the shouts escalated into a physical fight.

'It could be physical. I could say yeah if that makes anybody hurry on up. Get anybody here fast,' the caller said to the 911 dispatcher.

After shots fired Whitakers girlfriend walks out shouting, 'Why did you guys shoot him?' She said they were making salsa and playing video games when cops knocked on the door

In the bodycam footage the officers are seen mocking the caller for not giving enough helpful information and insisting officers come quickly.

When they get to Whitakers door and knock, Whitaker opens it with his gun visible in his hands then he quickly takes a couple steps out of the apartment as Ferragamo flashes a light in his face.

Ferragamo repeatedly yells, 'Hands' after seeing the gun.

Whitaker then gets on his knees and raises his left hand and puts the gun behind his back, then Cooke fires into Whitakers back.

Whitakers family says he put the gun down on the ground and was still shot.

After shots were fired Whitakers girlfriend walks out shouting, 'Why did you guys shoot him?'

'He just pulled a gun on us, maam,' Cooke replies.

'Because it's dark and someone just knocked on the door,' she yells back.

Nees asks the officers why theyre there and they say they received a call about a fight between them.

Nees says that Whitaker heard a knock on his door in the middle of the night a few days earlier but when he looked through the doors peephole, whoever knocked was gone.

She said that on another occasion a woman who used to live in the complex knocked on his door asking for help because she got into a fight with her partner.

Earlier that day Whitaker had attended the graduation of his daughter (right)

A petition named Justice for Ryan demanding answers into why police acted so quickly with force as racked up over 21,000 signatures

She said they were playing Crash Bandicoot on PlayStation and making salsa when the cops knocked.

'Literally we were making salsa and playing Crash Bandicoot, so there may have been some screaming,' she said. 'It wasnt domestic violence or anything.'

Nees tells the cops that Whitaker had gone to his daughters high school graduation earlier that day.

In the police report, Cooke claimed he shot Whitaker because he feared for his life.

Ferragamo told another cop at the scene he wouldve done the same thing.

In the wake of George Floyds death at the hands of Minneapolis Police Officers, law enforcement forces across the country are facing criticism for use of excessive force.

Whitakers shooting is one of 11 Phoenix police shootings in 2020, five of which were fatal.

Now its up the Maricopa County Attorneys Office to determine whether theyll file criminal charges against Cooke.

A petition named Justice for Ryan demanding answers into why police acted so quickly with force as racked up over 21,000 signatures.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is increasingly trying to run against a Joe Biden of his own making.

Rather than look for campaign ammunition in the former vice president's long track record of politically vulnerable votes and policy proposals, Trump has instead chosen to describe Biden as a godless Marxist bent on destroying the country with a radical agenda that would make Che Guevara blanch.

The caricature is one that neither Biden's critics nor supporters recognize - but it's one Trump continues to promote.

To hear Trump tell it, the former vice president and longtime U.S. senator is "the most extreme left-wing candidate in history." Biden is going to "abolish the police" and "abolish the suburbs." Biden is even "against God."

In lobbing such extravagant attacks on Biden, Trump has concocted a profile of the presumptive Democratic nominee at odds with much of Biden's personal and professional life - a cartoonish depiction so distant from the reality of Biden that the hits don't always resonate.

"Generically, can you successfully paint a caricature of your opponent and be rewarded at the polls? Yes," said Pia Carusone, a Democratic ad maker. "But you can't just do that without understanding the greater context that the attack is falling in, and we're in the middle of a health and economic catastrophe and people are very pessimistic about what they're hearing from candidates and elected leaders."

The most effective political attacks, said Ken Goldstein, a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, are often the ones that heighten an existing concern or voter perception about an opponent.

"There is certainly this notion that a bunch of wizards sit around and come up with this caricature and then spend hundreds of millions of dollars to drive the caricature, but it only really works if there is some kernel of truth to it," Goldstein said.

For instance, Goldstein added, the criticism of Al Gore as a serial exaggerator during the 2000 presidential race was effective because Gore did have a habit of embellishing or misspeaking - claiming he and his wife were the inspiration for the younger lovers in the 1970 book "Love Story," or saying that he "took the initiative in creating the Internet" - and his opponents exploited that weakness.

Biden's lack of discipline as a speaker, combined with his lengthy political career, means the Trump campaign has plenty of potential material on the former vice president, but so far has failed to spin those data points into one or two distinct and negative narratives, Goldstein said.

"The skill is translating a big opposition research book into a coherent theme, and they've not succeeded in that," he said.

Some attacks - including Trump's recent assertion that Biden is hostile to religion - seem to land far from their intended target.

"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 Thursday in Ohio. "He's against God. He's against guns."

Asked about Trump's seemingly incongruous attack on Biden - who was raised Irish Catholic, attended Catholic schools and still frequently carries rosary beads in his pocket - Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh noted that Biden has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood's political arm and pointed to his positions on issues such as federal funding for abortions and school choice.

"These are things that people with strongly rooted religious beliefs disagree with," Murtaugh said.

Trump and his team also have repeatedly tried to paint Biden as a radical socialist, despite polls showing that Biden was viewed as relatively moderate within the Democratic primary field.

In part to account for the perception of Biden among some Democrats as insufficiently progressive, Trump allies have taken to portraying him as an empty vessel for the extremist wing of the Democratic Party.

The president has tweeted several times the sentiment that Biden is simply "a Trojan Horse for the Radical Left Agenda." And a new ad by the Trump campaign ominously warns, "The radical left has taken over Joe Biden and the Democratic Party. Don't let them take over America."

Murtaugh explained the campaign's theory of the case: "Joe Biden is a shell of a candidate, and the left knows it and they're filling him with their ideas."

Jason Miller, a senior adviser for the Trump campaign, said that regardless of Biden's record, he has now fully embraced the most liberal tenets of the Democratic Party.

"Biden has adopted the policies of the radical left, and that's everything from taxes to the Green New Deal to killing millions of American energy jobs to open borders to being soft on crime," Miller said. "I've never seen a Democratic nominee take a leftward lurch after they've secured the nomination, but I'm not going to talk him out of it."

Both Miller and Murtaugh pointed to a new ad from a pro-Biden super PAC, which features Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., touting Biden's progressive credentials. "Whether it is health care, whether it's the environment or climate change, whether it's education, whether it's in the economy, Joe Biden would be the most progressive president since FDR," Sanders says in the 30-second spot, referring to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Nonetheless, sometimes even Trump seems unconvinced by own argument against Biden. Speaking at a rally in Tulsa in June, the president seemed to undermine his claims that Biden would lead the country down a socialist path.

"Joe Biden is not the leader of his party," Trump told the crowd. "Joe Biden is a helpless puppet of the radical left, and he's not radical left. I don't think he knows what he is anymore, but he was never radical left."

The Trump campaign has simultaneously tried to depict Biden as both overly harsh on fighting crime - a reference to the 1994 crime bill that he helped write - and too soft on crime, likely to defund the police and allow protesters to run rampant in the streets.

Trump Facebook ads warn of "dangerous MOBS of far-left groups" rioting and wreaking "mayhem" across the country. And an ad released last month shows an elderly woman home alone, unable to reach the police as an intruder breaks into her home and attacks her.

"Both things are true," Murtaugh said. "Joe Biden wrote the law that led to the incarceration of generations of Black men and now he is too weak to stand up to the anti-police extremists in his party."

Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo said the Trump attacks are so outlandish that they defy credulity.

"When you're just throwing spaghetti against the wall, and mindlessly creating cartoon versions of characters that don't exist, no one is going to believe you," Ducklo said. "Turns out shouting angry lies not based in reality is a pretty bad way to try and distract from your horrific job protecting American lives during a pandemic that continues to spiral out of control on Donald Trump's watch."

Carusone said Trump's attacks are missing the mark in part because they don't take into the account the deadly coronavirus pandemic - which has left more than 159,000 Americans dead - or the ongoing racial justice protests.

"They seem to be using cheap and easy stuff that could maybe work in a congressional race somewhere where the stakes don't feel as high, but we're choosing the leader of the free world and people are suffering the very real consequences of a lack of leadership," Carusone said.

This is the very contrast the Biden campaign hopes to draw, an adviser said, largely refraining from directly attacking Trump in favor of highlighting stark contrasts between what they say is Trump's mishandling of the pandemic, compared to the promise of Biden's steady leadership.

Rita Kirk, a professor of political communication at Southern Methodist University, said that in part because of the pandemic, Trump has found himself pivoting from his early attacks on Biden as "Sleepy Joe" to ones more rooted in fear.

"We weren't really afraid of somebody who was just Sleepy Joe, but we might be afraid of someone who is going to take away our guns," Kirk said.

Yet fear-based attacks, especially when the public is already fearful amid the pandemic, can also backfire as too much, Kirk said.

The Trump campaign has continued to mount intermittent attacks challenging Biden's mental acuity - though the president ranks lower than Biden among voters on the issue. A July Fox News poll found that 47% of registered voters said Biden has the mental soundness to serve effectively as president while 39% said he did not; on Trump, 43% said the president was mentally sound versus 51% who said he was not.

Yet as Trump and his team have raised questions about Biden's mental prowess, they have also arguably lowered the bar for Biden's coming debate performances against Trump.

And so, this week, Trump's advisers started trying to raise expectations, even if that means undercutting one of their attack lines against Biden.

"Joe Biden is actually a very good debater," Miller told The Washington Post. "He doesn't have as many gaffes as he does in his everyday interviews."

- - -

The Washington Post's Scott Clement contributed to this report.
The middle-aged woman working the till was frosty when I went to pay for a dress I found among the Aran jumpers that adorned the shelves of an old-school department store in a popular west Cork town.

I was wearing a mask as I browsed through the shop, which was empty save for two or three others, and couldn't understand what caused her to be so rude.

It wasn't until I met up later with my friends from New Zealand, who have been living in Dublin for the past 18 months on a working holiday, that the penny finally dropped.

Despite the advice of a friendly local woman who suggested we call into a popular pub/restaurant to book a table for dinner later on, we were told by the restaurant manager that they don't accept reservations. We would only get a table on a first-come-first-served basis.

That seemed reasonable enough, although a bit odd considering the town was far from the bustling hotspot it would normally be on a Friday in high summer. But to be on the safe side, we went back around 6pm to see if we could get a table.

A party of about five were ahead of us in the queue and I asked them how long they had been waiting. They replied that they had 'confirmed reservations' and were just waiting to be seated.

I thought this was odd, considering what the manager had told us earlier. Then I noticed a blackboard outside advising customers to ring ahead to book a table.

The manager was also less than welcoming when he saw us again. This was despite us being three middle-aged adults with two demure, well-behaved teenage girls who were all respectfully dressed, sober, and just looking for a meal.

After about 10 minutes, he grudgingly found us a table, even though the place was nowhere near as busy as we expected it to be.

And then it dawned on me: it was our accents.

I am from Toronto, Canada, originally and never lost my American-sounding twang, even though I've lived in Ireland for 20 years.

My Kiwi friends obviously still have their distinctive accents.

But to a casual/cynical observer, we could have been fresh off a flight from the US or Australia - both Covid-19 hotspots.

And it appears we were given the cold shoulder because it was just assumed that we were foreign tourists flouting the two-week self-isolation rule upon arrival in Ireland.

The irony of it wasn't lost on us.

The only reason we were even there is because a staycation in Ireland was the only safe holiday option for us, as the pandemic continues to rage around the world.

I have a holiday home in a remote rural village in Canada, which I can't visit this summer due to the extremely stringent 14-day quarantine regulations there, in which it is strictly forbidden to even stop for petrol or groceries upon arrival.

You are also forbidden from having any visitors, or leaving the place of quarantine for any reason other than a medical emergency.

And if you are not at home when police come knocking on your door to make sure you are abiding by the rules - and they will - you can face fines of up to a staggering 750,000 Canadian dollars, which equates to 475,000. Yes, you read that right.

As for my Kiwi friends, the visit to west Cork was their last trip in Ireland before they faced a gruelling journey back to New Zealand and the grim prospect of effectively being under house arrest for a fortnight. They are being put in a government-sanctioned quarantine hotel with extremely strict limits on their freedom and movements.

So my advice to anyone working in the beleaguered hospitality or tourist sectors is to please give those of us with 'foreign' accents the benefit of the doubt.

Don't just assume we are selfish Covidiots who are flouting the rules and potentially spreading the virus.
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Linkedin Mushtaq Mojaddidi and Rashid Durrani (Agence France-Presse) Kabul/Kandahar, Afghanistan  Mon, August 10, 2020 16:30 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cdf9b4 2 World Taliban,Afghanistan,peace-talks,prisoners,exchange,Afghan-war Free

The Taliban said Monday they were ready for peace talks with the Afghan government, as authorities announced that the release of hundreds of militants accused of serious offences would begin in the next few days.

The fate of some 400 Taliban prisoners has been a crucial hurdle in launching peace talks between the two warring sides, which had committed to completing a prisoner exchange before negotiations could start.

On Sunday, thousands of prominent Afghans approved their release at the end of a three-day "loya jirga" -- a traditional Afghan gathering of tribal elders and other stakeholders sometimes held to decide on controversial issues.

"Our stance is clear, if the prisoner release is completed, then we are ready for the intra-Afghan talks within a week," Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told AFP.

Shaheen said the first round of talks would be held in Doha, Qatar.

"The Afghan government will start releasing the 400 Taliban prisoners within two days," National Security Council spokesman Javid Fasial told AFP.

The prisoner exchange was a key part of a deal signed by the Talban and the United States in February, which saw Washington agree to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in return for a pledge from the insurgents to hold peace talks with the Kabul government.

The much-delayed talks are aimed at ending the almost two decades old conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people.

Shaheen said the Taliban delegation for peace talks would be led by Abbas Stanekzai, who was the group's chief negotiator in talks with Washington ahead of the February deal.

Brutal attacks

The Afghan government has released almost 5,000 Taliban inmates already, but authorities had baulked at freeing the final 400 prisoners demanded by the Taliban.

The prisoners are accused of serious offences including killing scores of Afghans and foreigners, with 44 insurgents of particular concern to the United States and other countries for their role in "high-profile" attacks.

In its final resolution, the jirga said it approved releasing the militants "to remove the hurdles for the start of peace talks, stopping bloodshed, and for the good of the public".

The jirga urged the government to monitor the freed prisoners to ensure they did not return to the battlefield and demanded an immediate and lasting ceasefire in the country.

But Shaheen said the ceasefire would form part of the agenda during the negotiations with the Afghan government.

The family of French aid worker Bettina Goislard, who was murdered in Afghanistan in 2003, said they would not accept the release of her killers, who are on the list.

"Such a decision to free [them] made on the basis of horse-trading would be, to us, her family, inconceivable," Bettina's family told AFP.

Not all those who attended the jirga favored the release of militants.

Lawmaker Belquis Roshan, a prominent women's rights activist, had protested against their release on the first day of jirga, unfurling a banner that read: "Redeeming Taliban is national treason."
Business Secretary Alok Sharma and the City referee the Takeover Panel need to keep an eagle eye on Softbank's efforts to offload Cambridge-based smart chip pioneer Arm Holdings to US tech outfit Nvidia.

When Softbank's wheeler-dealer Japanese boss Masayoshi Son spent 24million buying Arm in July 2016 he made a series of binding commitments to the newly installed government of Theresa May designed to assuage concern that Britain's most valuable tech enterprise would be undermined, or even worse destroyed, by uncaring foreign ownership.

Under a deal agreed by Downing Street to fast track the sale and limit political objections, Softbank promised that over a period of five years it would double the size of Arm's workforce in the UK and increase the number of employees overseas.

Pledge: Softbank boss Masayoshi Son promised that over a period of five years it would double the size of Arm's workforce in the UK and increase the number of employees overseas

The Japanese firm also pledged to keep Arm's global HQ in Britain and to ensure that the ratio of skilled tech employees to the rest of the workforce would be maintained.

Monitoring these binding commitments has been a nightmare. Softbank's ownership of Arm was weakened when it hived off the company into its Vision Fund and proceeded to sell 25 per cent to Saudi Arabia and brought in other outside investors.

Even more disturbing was the sale of the majority of Arm's China subsidiary, responsible for 20 per cent of group profits, to Chinese investors.

The result has been a bare knuckle board fight as Beijing has sought to install regime-friendly directors.

Most recently, as a prelude to an Arm disposal, Son has hived off two offshoots to other enterprises in his empire.

Such inter-company transactions are generally frowned upon in governance circles especially when the sums involved are obscured.

In spite of accumulating huge wealth from his early backing of China's Alibaba internet sensation, Son lost his magic touch with blind backing for WeWork which came close to collapse.

To recoup losses, Son is engaged in a big sell-off of investments, including Arm.

The initial intention was a flotation, and in what would have been a snub to the London Stock Exchange it looked as if New York was likely to win the mandate.

The favoured route now is a trade sale to gaming chip specialist Nvidia, based in New York but with big California operations.

It is unclear whether the stipulations in terms of jobs and HQ imposed on Softbank at the time of the Arm purchase would survive in a 25billion offload.

As worrying is that the commitments made by Softbank run out in July 2021. The mismatch between the time scale it takes to develop complex technology, such as software incorporated in a microchip, and the ease with which companies are bought and sold in Anglo-Saxon capitalism could not be greater.

Sharma's predecessor at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Andrea Leadsom, made a big error when she refused to block the sale of aerospace pioneer Cobham.

Boris Johnson's government is seeking to recover British-owned satellite skills, some of which were present within Cobham.

Sharma should intervene immediately to ensure the Softbank promises made in 2016 are honoured, and should seek an extension of the jobs and HQ promises from any new owner.

Anything short of that would be a betrayal of the Government's plans to fire up R&D and the white heat of UK technology.

Comeback kid

The rambunctious return of founder Julian Dunkerton to fashion outfit Superdry in April 2019 looked fraught with danger.

But at a moment when so many fashion chains have tumbled into insolvency as Covid-19 hastened their demise, Superdry is showing resilience.

Admittedly sales fell by 24 per cent in the quarter ending on July 25, but given this was the period when the pandemic was at is most savage this is not a bad outcome.

The quirky firm restricted sales losses with the help of a 93.2 per cent uplift in online purchases. It also managed to put in place a 70million new credit facility with the help of HSBC. Investors piled back in and the shares soared 20 per cent.

Yatta! (We did it).

Northern lights

Sheffield-based developer Henry Boot is not giving up on city centres. It has just spent 10million on a redevelopment property in the up and coming St John's area of Manchester.

It plans to redevelop the soon-to-relocate Manchester College site into 170,000 sq ft of commercial space.

Levelling up...
A pump jack operates at sunset in an oil field in Midland

By Timothy Gardner and Devika Krishna Kumar

(Reuters) - Energy companies have begun taking back millions of barrels of oil from the U.S. government's emergency stockpile after renting storage in the facility to help manage a glut of crude this spring after energy demand collapsed during COVID-19 lockdowns, a Department of Energy website showed on Monday.

Since Aug. 1, the companies have taken back 2.2 million barrels of oil of the 23 million barrels they agreed to store in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, from April through June. The companies have until March 31, 2021 to take back the oil after renting the space for a small fee.

Nine oil companies including Exxon <XOM.N>, Chevron <CVX.N> and Alon USA [ALJON.UL] rented the space from the reserve, a series of underground salt caverns on the Texas and Louisiana coasts, an Energy Department official said in April.

An oil trader said that at least two companies, Exxon and Atlantic Trading & Marketing Inc (ATMI), a U.S arm of French oil major Total SA <TOTF.PA>, had taken back the 2.2 million barrels.

The taking back of the oil from the SPR might slow commercial inventory drawdowns as companies prioritize selling the barrels, market sources said.[EIA/S]

Exxon had won the lion's share of the total space while ATMI had won about 600,000 barrels of storage space, another trade source said.

Exxon did not immediately comment and an ATMI spokeswoman declined to comment.

Oil prices collapsed in the spring due to the pandemic's crushing of fuel demand at the same time that major crude producers Saudi Arabia and Russia engaged in war over oil market share.

President Donald Trump tried to help domestic oil producers manage the oil price hit by ordering Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette to fill the SPR to the top, or purchase about 77 million barrels of oil. But Congress failed to fund that order, leaving the department with little choice but to rent space in the facility.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington and Devika Krishna Kumar in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)
The San Antonio City Council this week will consider approving a ballot initiative that would dedicate a portion of sales tax dollars to workforce development.

COPS/Metro and the 37 organizations it represents encourage city leaders to approve this measure as the next step in not just the economic recovery of the city but as an important opportunity to address the economic segregation that continues to plague our communities generation after generation.

Having settled a dispute with VIA Metropolitan Transit for access to a 1/8-cent sales tax for workforce development, Mayor Ron Nirenberg has opened the door to the next major step toward building a good jobs economy. City leaders can present voters with a strong and viable framework to expand the recently adopted CARES workforce program over four years with a potential investment of $154 million. With this investment, another 40,000 high-wage earners could be added to our economy. Working closely with employers such as Brooks City Base, Port San Antonio and other businesses willing to pay a living wage with benefits, the city will place highly skilled workers with certificates earned through the Alamo Colleges into jobs that will rebuild our economy and transform their families.

Since the onset of the pandemic, COPS/Metro with our allies, Project QUEST and the Alamo Colleges, have led the way to ensure San Antonians whose lives have been shattered by the economic free fall can re-enter the workforce equipped with new skills and good salaries. This month, the workforce development program supported by CARES and the city of San Antonio began accepting applicants whose jobs went on hiatus or completely disappeared. These applicants are supported with critical wraparound services that include a stipend, child care, transportation, tutoring and counseling, like the highly successful services provided by Project QUEST, which is recognized nationally for its high graduation and job placement rates. The Alamo Colleges will play a vital role in this program, using Project QUESTs model along with partnerships that will strengthen and expand its capacity to serve displaced workers.

To be successful, the new Education and Workforce Program will need to adhere to a set of standards like the CARES recovery program, whose primary focus is meeting the needs of the participants. Addressing those needs must be the focal point of decision-making, not business as usual. This means providing quality wraparound services, including a 1-to-100 ratio of counselors to participants, ensuring job placement upon program completion and connecting graduates with jobs that pay a living wage with benefits. And the overall policy direction and management of the program must reside within city government, along with participants, educators and community members who can offer insight into program implementation.

Approximately 160,000 workers have been displaced due to the pandemic. The lions share of the funding should be directed toward them. While the majority of tax dollars will be dedicated to workforce development, funds could also go to participants with some college credits who want to complete their degrees. If the higher education institutions adequately address their needs, it is possible a fair number of college graduates could result from a small investment into this pathway. However, using public dollars to offer the same programs and services that previously failed these same students will not do. This is not a scholarship program; it is a jobs program.

City leaders have the opportunity to change the economic trajectory of San Antonio for generations to come. Dont squander this opportunity.

Sonia Rodriguez and Virginia Mata are leaders with COPS/Metro Alliance.
Wendy's new breakfast menu is already making up eight per cent of its sales, despite the coronavirus pandemic cutting into morning business because of mandated lockdowns.

The new breakfast menu was launched on March 2, two weeks before coronavirus-mandated lockdowns ended the morning commute for many Americans.

The lineup includes a morning version of its Baconator sandwich and a Frosty-ccino coffee drink.

But while rivals McDonald's, Dunkin and Starbucks have reported struggles with morning sales, Wendy's have been quick to trumpet the success of their new menu.

Wendy's saw breakfast become 8 per cent of its second quarter sales, despite the coronavirus pandemic cutting into morning business because of mandated lockdowns. A Wendy's employee is pictured serving a drive through customer in Richmond, California

A new Wendy's breakfast menu that includes a morning version of its Baconator sandwich (left) and a Frosty-ccino coffee drink (right) still resonated with customers, analysts said

Analysts say Wendy's choice of going with non-traditional items for its breakfast menu played into the chain's favor against the impacts of the virus.

'With not much else to do, some consumers welcome the opportunity to try a fun new menu item during this crisis,' Mintel food service analyst Jill Failla said.

'This trial gives them something to talk about with family, friends and on social media,' Failla told CNN.

Falla told CNN those were 'relevant menu trends', with appeal to younger people.

Wendy's, reporting on its success Monday, said it was banking for breakfast to account for as much as 10 per cent by the end of the year.

'We could not be more pleased with our breakfast daypart since its launch in early March,' Wendy's CEO Todd Penegor said in an earnings call. 'Interest in breakfast hasn't faded.'

Shares of Wendy's stock were just under $22 in mid-day trading on Monday.

Shares of Wendy's stock, which have risen since mid-March, were just under $22 in mid-day trading on Monday

Meanwhile, rivals like McDonald's, which had to drop its popular all-day breakfast menu to save costs during the pandemic, reported a much bumpier ride during the second quarter.

Chris Kempczinski CEO of the world's largest fast food restaurant chain, said in an earnings call last month that breakfast 'was one area of pressure', primarily from new competitors in the morning, CNN reported.

The chain in its latest earnings report announced that it will close 200 locations in the US after sales dropped by 30 per cent due to lockdowns limiting operations to drive-thru and delivery.

In response, McDonald's said it will delay dining room re-openings for at least another month and will spend heavily to convince people to come back, particularly for breakfast.

McDonalds has seen business struggle during lockdowns, with breakfast 'one area of pressure'

Meanwhile, competitors Dunkin' and Starbucks said they also have seen business drop in the mornings with fewer customers coming because of mandated COVID-19 lockdowns.

Starbucks estimated that it lost $3.1 billion in revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic, CNBC. Despite the losses and the continued impacts of COVID-19, the chain planned to still open 130 new locations globally.

Kevin Johnson, the company's CEO, described the lockdowns impact on morning commutes as a headwind, CNN reported.

Meanwhile, Dunkin which also has struggled in the mornings, announced it will close 800 locations in the US permanently after suffering a 20 per cent loss in second quarter revenue.

The losses again come as COVID-19 lockdowns meant fewer customers were stopping at Dunkin' stores on their way to work.

The Canton, Massachusetts,-based company said the closings will impact 'low-volume sales' stores that only represented about 2 per cent of US sales in 2019.

Same-store sales still improved 'sequentially throughout the quarter' CEO Dave Hoffmann, said in a press release. He credited new menu items designed to appeal to customers who now frequent Dunkin' stores later in the day'.
Former Bachelor in Paradise star Tenille Favios has spoken out after she was dragged into Ciarran Stott's messy break-up with Kiki Morris.

After Sunday night's season finale, Kiki alleged on the So Dramatic! podcast that her romance with Ciarran began to fall apart when she discovered late last year that he was still in contact with Tenille, with whom he'd previously shared flirty texts.

Pulling her further into the couple's split, Ciarran said on The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Monday morning that he had recently 'caught up with Tenille in Brisbane'.

Breaking her silence: Former Bachelor in Paradise star Tenille Favios (pictured) has spoken out after she was dragged into Ciarran Stott's messy break-up with Kiki Morris

Responding to these claims on Instagram Stories on Monday, the Greek-Australian beauty said: 'A lot of what is being said is just bulls**t.

'Unfortunately, I've been dragged into this bulls**t and everyone just wants to put my s**t on the street and everyone is messaging me that they're disappointed in me.'

'So I'm just going to have to spill the tea on what is actually happening or what went down, which is not a lot,' she added.

It comes after Kiki gave a blistering account of the circumstances that led to her split with Ciarran, telling the So Dramatic podcast: 'Everything was great, until it wasn't, and then it was terrible.'

Claims: After Sunday night's season finale, Kiki (pictured) alleged on the So Dramatic! podcast that her romance with Ciarran began to fall apart when she discovered late last year that he was still in contact with Tenille, with whom he'd previously shared flirty texts

Tangled web: Pulling her further into the couple's split, Ciarran (pictured) said on The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Monday morning that he had recently 'caught up with Tenille in Brisbane'

According to Kiki, their relationship began to crumble when she discovered that the former Army rifleman was still texting Tenille, who appeared on season two of Bachelor in Paradise last year.

The shocking revelation came to light on New Year's Day, when Kiki and Ciarran were attending a party at fellow Paradise star Jackson Garlick's house.

When Tenille showed up at the front door, the 32-year-old glamour model knew straight away something was amiss.

Hitting back: Responding to these claims on Instagram Stories on Monday, Tenille said : 'A lot of what is being said is just bulls**t. Unfortunately, I've been dragged into this bulls**t and everyone... is messaging me that they're disappointed in me'

Coming soon! Tenille has vowed to 'spill the tea on what is actually went down' with Ciarran

'[I said to Ciarran], "Why are you still talking to the girl you were trying to pursue when you first met me?"' Kiki said.

She added that Tenille's arrival at the party 'turned into a huge argument', during which Ciarran 'went ballistic' and 'threatened to leave'.

The couple later embarked on a make-or-break holiday to Townsville in an attempt to salvage their relationship.

Gossip: According to Kiki, her romance with Ciarran began to crumble when she discovered that he was still texting Tenille, who appeared on season two of Bachelor in Paradise last year

But Kiki said she felt like a 'stranger' next to Ciarran the whole time, and she decided to end things once they returned to Sydney.

She said: 'I told him, "If you're going to continue to treat me like this, I feel like a stranger in my home walking on eggshells around you. I think you should leave."

'I went to the gym, I got home from the gym [and] all of his stuff was packed at my back door and he goes straight to Melbourne.'

'You shouldn't be doing that': Kiki claimed that Tenille's arrival at Jackson Garlick's New Year's Day party 'turned into a huge argument', during which Ciarran 'went ballistic'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 19:46:13|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) voiced strong support on Monday for the counter-measure against the United States by the foreign ministry.

A spokesperson of the liaison office stressed that no concessions will be made on major issues concerning China's sovereignty, security and development interests, adding that the so-called sanction against some Chinese officials by the U. S. Treasury Department is full of absurdity.

"The false claim that 'the United States stands with the people of Hong Kong' is a huge lie and joke," the spokesperson said. "The way out for Hong Kong lies in the correct implementation of 'one country, two systems'. Hong Kong's future lies in being with its strong motherland." Enditem
UPDATED at 4:30 p.m. Sunday with the capture of both chimpanzees.

JEFFERSON COUNTY  Two chimps that got loose from a facility south of Festus on Sunday have been safely caught, police confirmed.

Authorities, including Jefferson County deputies and workers with Critter Lane Petting Zoo in Valles Mines, created a perimeter around the animals near the sanctuary they escaped in the 12300 block of Highway CC at about 12:45 p.m.

Jefferson County Sheriff's Office spokesman Grant Bissell said the male chimp was tranquilized on a neighboring property at about 2:30 p.m. and the female chimp was secured at 3:45 p.m. Both chimps have been examined by a veterinarian following their tranquilization.

Authorities said an unsecured lock on the animal enclosure was to blame for the escape. During the escape, a woman at the facility received minor injuries. she refused medical treatment. No other injuries were reported.

This isn't the first time a chimpanzee has escaped this facility, Bissell said. One of these same chimps escaped just a few weeks ago.
(Repeats to additional subscribers)

By Rod Nickel and Hallie Gu

WINNIPEG, Manitoba/BEIJING, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Canadian canola prices have soared to the highest in nearly two years, despite a diplomatic dispute between Ottawa and Beijing, as exporters find roundabout ways to reach top oilseed buyer China.

Chinese authorities have since March 2019 blocked canola shipments by two Canadian exporters, an action they took after Canadian police detained a Huawei Technologies executive in late 2018 on a United States warrant.

The dispute however, has not spoiled China's appetite for canola, which is mainly processed into vegetable oil. While China is buying less from Canada directly, it has bought canola oil instead from Europe and the United Arab Emirates, with some of that oil made from Canadian canola, traders said.

ICE canola futures on Tuesday hit the highest nearby price since October 2018. Prices of China's rapeseed oil, another name for canola oil, have also rallied, partly because of limited Canadian supply.

"Profits are extravagant. Anyone who has the resources to import (canola oil) will definitely buy," said a manager with a China-based canola importer.

"It is like gold oil now."

Canadian canola exports to China fell 45% year over year during the 11-month period through June, however total canola exports have jumped 9%, helped by a tripling of sales to France and double the shipments to the UAE.

Canada is the world's biggest canola producer, and the yellow-flowering plant earned farmers C$8.6 billion ($6.42 billion) last year, the most of any crop.

China meanwhile boosted canola oil imports from Europe, Russia and Australia, with some of that oil made from Canadian canola, said another China-based trader.

The price rally left farmer Mary-Jane Duncan-Eger, who grows canola near Regina, Saskatchewan, "super-mystified," considering that Canada is heading for a bumper crop.

To lock in high prices, she pre-sold 50% of her anticipated harvest, up from the 30% she usually pre-sells at this time of year.

"I'm pretty happy. As long as someone is buying it, I don't care who."

Story continues

Global canola oil demand has prompted Canadian crushers - who include Archer Daniels Midland Co and Bunge Ltd - to process canola at a brisk pace, said Brian Comeault, commodity risk manager with Cargill Ltd's Canadian marketing service MarketSense.

Exporters are also selling more seed to the UAE, where crushers produce oil to sell to China, he said.

Bad crop weather and insect attacks in Europe have also lifted prices.

Rapeseed production in the European Union and Britain is expected near the 13-year low seen in 2019.

This has led European importers to scour other countries for supplies, especially those with weaker currencies that make purchases more profitable, consultancy Strategie Grains said in a report.

"Canadian canola has the biggest edge," it said. "Competition among importing countries will probably be fierce over the coming months." ($1 = 1.3387 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Hallie Gu in Beijing, Gus Trompiz in Paris and Michael Hogan in Hamburg Editing by Marguerita Choy)
Jimmy Lai accused of colluding with foreign powers in most high-profile arrest yet under new security law.

Media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been arrested under Hong Kongs national security legislation, and his newspaper raided, as he was accused of colluding with foreign powers in the most prominent arrest since China imposed the controversial law just over a month ago.

Lais Apple Daily reported that 10 police officers arrived at the 72-year-olds home at about 7am (23:00 GMT on Sunday), and later began livestreaming a raid on its headquarters by scores of police who could be seen looking through piles of papers including on reporters desks.

Mark Simon, a senior executive at Lais Next Media group, said on Twitter that the tycoon was being arrested for collusion with foreign powers at this time.

The police confirmed the arrest of seven people aged between 39 and 72.

Offences include collusion with a foreign country/external elements to endanger national security, Article 29 of the NSL.. Investigation is underway, the force posted on its official Twitter account. Article 29 relates to alleged offences, including receiving any kind of support  directly or indirectly  from people overseas, and carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Lais is the most high-profile arrest since China imposed the security legislation, triggering condemnation from activists within Hong Kong as well as from Western countries who feared the law would be used to crack down on critics and stifle reporting.

Police now at Apple Daily building. Executing Search Warrent on 2nd floor, Newsroom floor.  Mark Simon (@HKMarkSimon) August 10, 2020

Police officer flipping through materials on the desk of a senior editor in @appledaily_hk HQs. When chief editor Law Wai-kwong asked where the search warrant is and what they are looking for, an officer asked him to "ask someone more senior, I am only executing the order". pic.twitter.com/sH0NQXeamO  Xinqi Su  (@XinqiSu) August 10, 2020

This sends out a very negative message and, of course, it must have a chilling effect on people who would want to speak out and particularly on the news media, veteran Democratic Party politician Emily Lau told Al Jazeera. This is a very, very disturbing development.

On Friday, the United States imposed sanctions on top officials from China and Hong Kong, including chief executive Carrie Lam, accusing them of curtailing the territorys freedoms.

The arrest of media tycoon Jimmy Lai bears out the worst fears that Hong Kongs National Security Law would be used to suppress critical pro-democracy opinion and restrict press freedom, Steve Butler, the Asia programme coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement. Jimmy Lai should be released at once, and any charges dropped.

Hong Kong police raided the offices of Next Media and Apple Daily in Hong Kong after arresting the groups founder Jimmy Lai under the territorys National Security Law [Apple Daily via Reuters]

Postponed elections

Hong Kong was a British colony for more than 100 years before it was returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under the so-called one country, two systems framework that was supposed to ensure the territorys significant autonomy for at least 50 years.

Officials from Hong Kong and China have claimed the new law will not target freedom of speech or curtail the freedoms of people living in the territory.

Democracy activist Joshua Wong condemned Lais arrest, and described the police raid as the end of press freedom and the darkest day for journalists.

I strongly condemn the latest arrest of @JimmyLaiApple. https://t.co/ekwoiSqxnm  Joshua Wong   (@joshuawongcf) August 9, 2020

.@JimmyLaiApple being taken away from his home by police this morning. This is the 4th time hes been arrested this year, the 1st time under NSL. #CCP is trying to destroy #HK & strip away HK peoples basic rights at a ferocious pace. pic.twitter.com/HimUCnZJe4  Kong Tsung-gan /  (@KongTsungGan) August 10, 2020

Lai moved into publishing in 1990 after a successful career running clothing chain Giordano and founded the pro-democracy Apple Daily, which also has a Taiwan edition, in 1995. He was arrested earlier this year on charges of illegal assembly after taking part in the mass protests that began in the territory in June last year. On Friday, he was among a group of people charged for taking part in the annual June 4 commemoration of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Police stand guard outside the headquarters of Apple Daily and Next Media after the Monday arrest of Jimmy Lai when of the territorys most prominent supporters of democracy [Tyrone Siu/Reuters]

Before the security legislation was announced, the protests had calmed as the coronavirus pandemic took hold and the government restricted the size of public gatherings. On August 1, Lam said Septembers highly-anticipated Legislative Council elections would be postponed by a year because of the virus.

The United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, earlier on Monday issued a joint statement saying they were gravely concerned at the decision to delay the poll as well as the unjust disqualification of candidates. The national security law was eroding the rights and freedoms of people in Hong Kong, it added.





We support the legitimate expectations of the people of Hong Kong to elect Legislative Council representatives via genuinely free, fair and credible elections, the countries foreign ministers said, urging the government to reinstate the eligibility of the disqualifiied candidates and enable elections to be held as soon as possible.

Wong was one of the candidates barred from standing in the election.

Only half the seats in the 70-member council are chosen by direct election, with 30 reserved for special interest groups and the remaining five occupied by district councillors who are popularly elected. The democracy camp won a landslide victory in those polls, which were held last November.
As per the official post by TikTok, the executive order by Trump administration has not gotten down well with the social media giant. As a matter a fact, TikTok is threatening legal action against the order.

On Thursday, President Trump issued an executive order. This order bans TikTok and WeChat from continuing the operations in the US if they are not sold by their Chinese-parent companies.

However, the order does not state the exact amount of money from the sale, that needs to go to the US Treasury Department. Microsoft is at the forefront of buying TikTok. Notably, a report suggests that Microsoft is interested in a global takeover of TikTok.

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But due to the recent executive order, the acquisition needs to speed up. Because there is just 45 days time for TikTok to detach themselves from China-owned parents.

TikTok criticized the executive order stating it was issued without any due process

In the official blog post, TikTok has cited the US government executive order as a shock. Furthermore, TikTok also claimed that the order relies on unnamed reports and was issued without any due process.

Meanwhile, the company also shared its frustration on facing repeated negligence by the administration. It says that Trumps government did not take its plea of working with appropriate officials to devise a solution for this issue, seriously.

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TikTok reiterated that it does not share any user data with the Chinese government. Furthermore, the post states that TikToks Transparency Center is a way of proving their case, which no other peer company has done, as of yet.

Besides, the post also points out TikToks willingness to selling its US business to an American company. This, we expect, is basically directed towards the current acquisition talks with Microsoft.

TikTok eyeing legal action against Trump administration

With nowhere to go, TikTok is eyeing legal action against Trumps executive order. Matter of fact, TikTok stressed on the fact that it will pursue all actions necessary to prove their case. Besides, this will be done to ensure that the law is not bent, and the company is treated fairly.

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Trumps executive order states that this app could allow China to spy on US government employees. And the personal data can be used to blackmail or run misinformation campaigns by Beijing.

TikTok and Microsoft have time till September 15 to strike a deal. If they fail to do so, TikTok will get banned in the US. Although TikTok, time and time again, has denied the administrations allegation of sharing data with the Chinese government, things does not look good for the social media app.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Washington is "deeply concerned" by fresh efforts by Russia to target foreign media operating there.

In a statement issued on August 10, Pompeo said a a recent draft order published by Russia's state media regulator would "impose new burdensome requirements" on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America, which he said already faced "signficant and undue restrictions."

"We remain troubled by the ongoing crackdown on independent press in Russia and call on Russia to uphold its obligations and OSCE commitments to freedom of expression," Pompeo said, referring to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

In July, Russia's federal media regulator, Rozkomnadzor, issued a draft order that would require all media outlets registered as "foreign agents" to identify that fact in published or broadcast materials.

The new order would supplement a 2017 law on designating foreign-funded media as "foreign agents." After that law was adopted, the Justice Ministry listed VOA, several services of RFE/RL, and Current Time as "foreign agents." Current Time is the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

Failure to abide by the new requirements could result in fines of up to 100,000 rubles ($1,400) or 15 days in custody for individuals. Organizations could be fined up to 5 million rubles ($70,000).

Acting RFE/RL President Daisy Sindelar said on July 23 that the proposed order was intended to further restrict the media in Russia and to instill fear in their audiences.
A young man who was allegedly murdered in the Coromandel had just become a father.

Bayden Williams, 20, of Tairua, was found dead on Kopu-Hikuai Rd in the Coromandel Peninsula on Wednesday night. Williams was the eldest of four children, with two younger sisters and a brother.

A 23-year-old man appeared in Hamilton District Court on Thursday, charged with Bayden's murder, and has been remanded in custody.

Baydens boss at Tairuas Gull service station, and close friend, Damian Fletcher, says Bayden was a gentle soul who never got angry or said a bad word about anyone.

He came to me as a young 16-year-old and I watched him turn into an awesome young man.

He was just the softest, most loving, respectful, the kindest-hearted kid you would meet. He was going to be a brilliant father, he just had so much love and life to him.

He says Williams had embraced becoming a father to a little boy in the last year and was excited about becoming a new dad.

He would have raised such a loving child. And that is a testament to his parents. He would have passed that down to his son.

Damian says Bayden was a real fun-loving kid, who had a good laugh and a cheeky sense of humour.

A Givealittle page has been set up to help with the family with the funeral costs.

They cant believe it and just hearing the way he used to speak to his siblings there was always so much love. 

Damian had seen Bayden at work on Wednesday and says the staff are struggling to come to terms with what happened.

Theres no replacing a kid like Bayden, weve got a Gull family and its like one of the wings has been snapped off it. Hes just left such a hole (in) the Gull family and the Tairua family as well.

-Stuff/
New Delhi, Aug 10 : The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a big shift in the insurance preference for customers. While the pandemic has made corporates take up the responsibility of providing insurance coverage to their employees by subscribing to group insurance plans, the financial uncertainty the pandemic has created has pushed back individuals from buying into insurance.

In the month of July, group annualised premium equivalent (APE) has reported a strong performance, with 50.3 per cent year-on-year growth.

APE is the sum of annualised first-year premiums on regular premium policies and 10 per cent of single premiums on the new business written during any period.

According to a research report by Emkay Global Financial Services, the share of private players on the APE basis continued its sequential improvement at 49.2 per cent (44.2 per cent in June'20) in July against the peak of 60.2 per cent in February 2020. The share of Retail APE stood at 55.2 per cent against 61.6 per cent in February (before the impact of Covid-19).

"Private players finally managed to bring back their APE growth momentum on y-o-y basis after reporting a steep decline in the last four months. However, growth is mainly contributed by group businesses, whereas the retail individual business is still lagging, with a 7.1 per cent y-o-y decline (similar to a 7.0 per cent fall in June 2020)," the report said.

The data clearly shows the path that insurance business is taking as new premiums are coming from group side while retail subscription still remains slow.

Among listed players, HDFC Life reported positive trend with growth of 12.5 per cent in APE in July 2020 to Rs 710 crore with a sharp sequential recovery after de-growing for four straight months on a y-o-y basis. Growth was majorly contributed by group single premiums, which grew by 106 per cent on a month-on-month basis (+63 per cent y-o-y).

Max Life witnessed modest decline of 2.9 per cent y-o-y to Rs 350 crore while SBI Life witnessed decline of 3 per cent y-o-y to Rs 890 crore. Its Retail APE de-grew by 14.4 per cent y-o-y to Rs 720 crore.

On the other hand, IPRU Life reported APE de-growth of 10.8 per cent y-o-y to Rs 610 crore on a received premium basis in July 2020. Retail APE at Rs 380 crore decreased by 36.5 per cent y-o-y and group APE at Rs 230 crore grew by 175.9 per cent y-o-y.
A heartbroken daughter whose mother and sister were shot dead by her abusive stepfather when she was just ten years old has told of her horrific ordeal for the first time.

Chelsea Chambers, now aged 19, fled through her bedroom window after her mother Christine's crazed ex-partner David Oakes broke into their home armed with a shotgun, an axe and a can of petrol in Braintree, Essex.

He threatened to kill Christine, their two-year-old daughter Shania, and Chelsea and said he would burn the house down before ordering the terrified mother to strip and torturing her for hours.

He made Christine cut off her own hair and threatened to put her 'in a wheelchair'.

Terrified Chelsea was able to escape out of her bedroom window and run for help - but Oakes, a bouncer, had shot both Christine and little Shania at point-blank range and turned the gun on himself in a botched suicide bid before police arrived.

Heartbroken Chelsea Chambers (left) whose mother Christine and two-year-old sister Shania (right) were shot dead by her abusive stepfather when she was just ten years old has told of her horrific ordeal for the first time

Oakes and Christine had been due to attend a scheduled hearing over custody of their daughter, two-year-old Shania, on June 6, 2011 - the day after the attack.

Now Chelsea is speaking for the first time about the harrowing double murders of her mother and sister.

She said: 'I hated David Oakes from the moment I first saw him. And I was right to. He ruined my life.'

Chelsea met Oakes when her mother - who was no longer with Chelsea's father Ian Flitt - brought him home and announced: 'This is my new boyfriend.' It wasn't long before he moved in.

Chelsea Chambers (left), now aged 19, fled through her bedroom window after her mother Christine's crazed ex-partner David Oakes (right) broke into their home armed with a shotgun, an axe and a can of petrol in Braintree, Essex

'He asked me to call him dad, but I told him that I already had a dad who lived up the road. There was something about him that gave me the creeps, but he made mum happy so I just avoided him.

'At first they seemed happy but then they began arguing and I saw him hit her. It was over something silly, but it quickly became a regular thing. I begged her to leave him but then she became pregnant with Shania and things seemed OK for a while.'

But the couple continued to argue until Christine asked him to leave and they began a bitter custody battle over Shania.

He let himself into the house the night before they were due to appear in court.

'We were in mum's room and watched Family Guy before we all fell asleep together in her bed. The next moment I heard a noise and when I opened my eyes I saw David standing over us,' Chelsea said.

'We suspected he had a spare key and usually blocked the door with a curtain pole, but that night we forgot.

Terrified Chelsea was able to escape out of her bedroom window and run for help - but Oakes, a bouncer, had shot both Christine (pictured holding Chelsea as a baby) and little Shania at point-blank range and turned the gun on himself in a botched suicide bid before police arrived

'He said he was going to kill us all and burn the house down. He had a big duffel bag out of which he pulled his shotgun, axe and a can of petrol.

'I grabbed a phone and tried to hide under the bed to call the police but he yanked me out and smashed the phone with the barrel of the gun.

'He told mum to take off her clothes and Shania and I sat on the bed screaming. David then ordered mum downstairs while I comforted Shania.'

After getting her little sister back to sleep, Chelsea crept to the top of the stairs to listen to what was happening below.

Oakes and Christine had been due to attend a scheduled hearing over custody of their daughter, two-year-old Shania (left), on June 6, 2011 - the day after the attack. Right: Christine and Shania's grave

'I heard David smash the TV with the axe and he threatened to cut off mum's nipples. He was hitting her and making her chop off her hair.

'He threatened to put mum in a wheelchair and said she'd have to wheel herself behind mine and Shania's coffins.

'I remember thinking we are all going to die and began to cry. They heard me and he said "go shut your daughter up". Mum came upstairs. She was topless with clumps of hair missing and blood coming out of her mouth.

'She held me tight and whispered in my ear to go and get help. She said she was proud of me and that she would always love me and would see me soon. Then she went back downstairs.'

Brave Chelsea quickly put on her trainers, and climbed out of her second floor bedroom window to run to her father's house five minutes' up the road.

After her father's death, Chelsea spiraled into depression. Luckily, she then met her boyfriend Billy Hartland, 21 (pictured together)

'I banged on Dad's window, gasping for breath. It was 3am and he was surprised to see me.

'I could hardly speak and burst into tears saying: "It's David. He's going to kill them." Dad rang the police who sent officers to mum's and to us.

'We were taken to a police station and waited for news. We waited all night. It wasn't until the next morning that we were told he'd killed them both.

'I felt guilty for not waking up Shania. I could have caught her from the bottom and saved her but I was trying to save her and mum.'

Chelsea was comforted by Mr Flitt, who had split from her mother when she was three. They had two other children together, Levi, 25 and Guy, 21 who lived with Mr Flitt.

'Mum was hilarious and my best friend,' she said. 'She was 38 and loud. She had a one of a kind laugh and we were so close. We used to sunbathe on the trampoline together.'

But Chelsea's childhood changed after Christine started a relationship with Oakes. 'I never knew what she saw in him - he was fat and ugly while she was so pretty,' she said.

Despite lavishing Christine with holidays to Turkey and jewelry, Oakes soon turned vicious.

He struck Christine in front of Chelsea for the first time when she was seven.

'It was over nothing - he said she'd embarrassed him while out for a drink. I was shocked and screamed but mum said it would never happen again.'

However, Oake's violence intensified. Chelsea said she once saw her mother's feet lift from the ground as Oakes strangled her against the bathroom door.

'I jumped on his back and he flung me into a wall. He let go of mum and she was unconscious. I sat begging for her to wake up.'

The scared youngster became used to her mother wearing sunglasses inside.

Oakes even targeted Chelsea. She was once pelted with a can of beans which hit her eye.

Chelsea was given a glimmer of hope that things might change in February 2008 when Christine became pregnant with Oakes' baby.

Billy and Chelsea (pictured) who live in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, are now planning to travel the world before starting a family

'I'd always wanted a little sister and she was amazing. I loved looking after her and as she grew she was always so happy. I remember one time where we were picking berries in a field and she fell into a thorn bush and came out laughing.'

After six years, Christine finally left Oakes but she had to get a restraining order against him as he was threatening to kill her and kidnap Shania.

Oakes sent dozens of death threats in the week before the murders. Christine called the police but Oakes was not taken into custody.

Chelsea had to give evidence via videolink one year after her ordeal in April 2012 at Chelmsford Crown Court - aged just 11.

She said: 'I was nervous and clutching a little teddy. David was apparently ill the day I gave evidence which I thought was pathetic. He was a coward.'

Oakes was given a life sentence after unanimously being found guilty of both murders by the jury but he died of cancer aged 51 - just four months into his jail term.

Chelsea, who now works at McDonald's, said: 'I was furious when I heard that.

'I wanted him to have justice for tearing our family apart and I wanted him to feel a tenth of the pain and heartache he has caused me, which I will have to live with for the rest of my life.

'I wanted him to languish in jail and have to relive that night over and over confined to a cell.

'Four months of suffering is not anywhere near what he deserved.

'He was the most selfish, cowardly, disgusting human I have ever come across and I pray that he is rotting in hell.'

Chelsea was comforted by her father Ian Flitt, who had split from her mother when she was three. They had two other children together, Levi, 25 and Guy, 21 (pictured with Chelsea) who lived with Mr Flitt

Chelsea was awarded 21,500 in compensation for the police failings when she turned 18. She said Essex Police 'could and should' have done more to protect her family.

Chelsea added: 'If the police had acted beforehand and responded to David's death threats my mum and sister would still be here today.'

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said after the murders that Essex Police missed opportunities to arrest Oakes before he killed Christine and Shania.

In 2015, while living with her mother's sister Jeanette, Chelsea suffered more tragedy when her father died of a heroin overdose.

She recalled: 'I thought I was the unluckiest person in the universe. I loved Dad so much - he got me through losing Mum and Shania.'

After her father's death, Chelsea spiraled into depression. Luckily, she then met her boyfriend Billy Hartland, 21.

The pair, who live in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, are now planning to travel the world before starting a family.

Chelsea said: 'Billy is amazing and a great listener. I've opened up to him about my past and he's supported me in every way.

'I can't wait to start our own family and give them an amazing life and home and tell them all about how amazing their nan and auntie were.

'I want to make my mum proud so she can smile down at me from above.'

After deciding to share her story for the first time, Chelsea set up a GoFundMe page to help her move from a youth hostel and into her own flat.

To donate to her page, click here.
This article will reflect on the compensation paid to Jordan Kaplan who has served as CEO of Douglas Emmett, Inc. (NYSE:DEI) since 2005. This analysis will also look to assess whether the CEO is appropriately paid, considering recent earnings growth and investor returns for Douglas Emmett.

See our latest analysis for Douglas Emmett

Comparing Douglas Emmett, Inc.'s CEO Compensation With the industry

Our data indicates that Douglas Emmett, Inc. has a market capitalization of US$5.9b, and total annual CEO compensation was reported as US$9.4m for the year to December 2019. That's a fairly small increase of 8.0% over the previous year. We think total compensation is more important but our data shows that the CEO salary is lower, at US$1.0m.

On comparing similar companies from the same industry with market caps ranging from US$4.0b to US$12b, we found that the median CEO total compensation was US$6.0m. Hence, we can conclude that Jordan Kaplan is remunerated higher than the industry median. Moreover, Jordan Kaplan also holds US$79m worth of Douglas Emmett stock directly under their own name, which reveals to us that they have a significant personal stake in the company.

Component 2019 2018 Proportion (2019) Salary US$1.0m US$1.0m 11% Other US$8.4m US$7.7m 89% Total Compensation US$9.4m US$8.7m 100%

Talking in terms of the industry, salary represented approximately 15% of total compensation out of all the companies we analyzed, while other remuneration made up 85% of the pie. Douglas Emmett sets aside a smaller share of compensation for salary, in comparison to the overall industry. It's important to note that a slant towards non-salary compensation suggests that total pay is tied to the company's performance.

A Look at Douglas Emmett, Inc.'s Growth Numbers

Douglas Emmett, Inc.'s earnings per share (EPS) grew 47% per year over the last three years. Its revenue is up 3.6% over the last year.

This demonstrates that the company has been improving recently and is good news for the shareholders. It's nice to see revenue heading northwards, as this is consistent with healthy business conditions. Moving away from current form for a second, it could be important to check this free visual depiction of what analysts expect for the future.

Story continues

Has Douglas Emmett, Inc. Been A Good Investment?

Since shareholders would have lost about 16% over three years, some Douglas Emmett, Inc. investors would surely be feeling negative emotions. This suggests it would be unwise for the company to pay the CEO too generously.

To Conclude...

As previously discussed, Jordan is compensated more than what is normal for CEOs of companies of similar size, and which belong to the same industry. However, we must not forget that the EPS growth has been very strong, but shareholder returns  over the same period  have been disappointing. Although we don't think the CEO pay is too high, considering negative investor returns, it is more generous than modest.

We can learn a lot about a company by studying its CEO compensation trends, along with looking at other aspects of the business. That's why we did our research, and identified 4 warning signs for Douglas Emmett (of which 2 don't sit too well with us!) that you should know about in order to have a holistic understanding of the stock.

Important note: Douglas Emmett is an exciting stock, but we understand investors may be looking for an unencumbered balance sheet and blockbuster returns. You might find something better in this list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
The federal government has raised the prospect of spending more on income support if needed to deal with a second wave of the pandemic as Labor warns cuts to the dole would rip millions of dollars out of the retail sector.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann reaffirmed plans for the JobKeeker wage subsidy to start scaling back from September, but left the door open for extensions to the scheme if the pandemic worsens.

Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

"We do need to transition out of this historically unprecedented crisis level, fiscal support and get the economy into the new normal in an appropriately phased transition," Senator Cormann said.

But Labor spokeswoman for families and social services Linda Burney warned reducing JobSeeker back to the original rate would cut $326.9 million worth of fortnightly spending from the retail sector. This includes $80.1 million in Victoria and $95.8 million in NSW.
The vaccination drive signals a step toward widening access to a treatment that remains hard to obtain in China.

A remote part of North China has become the first place on the Chinese mainland to administer free vaccines against a virus that causes cervical cancer, but women nationwide continue to face high barriers to access.

Authorities in Jungar Banner, a county-level jurisdiction in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, began inoculating almost 10,000 schoolgirls between 13 and 18 years old against the human papillomavirus (HPV) at the start of August as part of a womens health campaign, according to a statement posted on the local health bureaus WeChat account.

The shots protect against a common sexually transmitted type of virus that can cause cancers of the cervix, genitals, anus and throat. Cervical cancer killed about 48,000 women in China in 2018, according to a report published last year by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an intergovernmental body affiliated with the World Health Organization (WHO).

The vaccination drive signals a step toward widening access to a treatment that remains hard to obtain in China. While HPV vaccines have been available at public hospitals since 2016, scarce supplies, high prices and patchy public awareness have thwarted widespread inoculation.

Part of the problem stems from Chinas medical approval procedures, which critics have lambasted as grindingly slow.

Although the first HPV vaccines appeared as early as 2006, China only approved the sale of Cervarix, a two-valent vaccine developed by British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a decade later. Two-valent vaccines guard against two strains of HPV.

In 2017, China approved a four-valent HPV vaccine produced by the U.S.-headquartered Merck & Co. called Gardasil.

At the time, public health systems in many developed countries were already phasing out the two- and four-valent vaccines and replacing them with Gardasil-9, a Merck-developed treatment effective against nine varieties of HPV. China eventually approved Gardasil-9 in 2018.

Last year, the country approved its first domestically produced HPV vaccine, a two-valent shot that officials said would grant women an alternative to using foreign-made treatments.

Qiao Youlin, a professor at a cancer hospital affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, told Caixin that authorities in Jungar were administering the GSK vaccine.

In recent years, health experts and government officials in China have put pressure on the government to commit to a nationwide HPV vaccination scheme.

At the Two Sessions annual political meetings in May, Yu Luming, a member of the countrys top political advisory body, proposed inoculating all girls in China between 9 and 14 years old, in line with WHO guidelines.

But when asked if the Jungar project might be extended nationwide or incorporated into government immunization programs, Qiao said great difficulties still stood in the way of a larger rollout, with the exception of certain cities.

Problems accessing HPV vaccines on the Chinese mainland spur many women to travel to Hong Kong and other territories whose health systems have made the treatments more freely available.

They buttress a thriving outbound medical tourism market worth $10 billion a year, according to the research firm Global Growth Markets.

Contact reporter Matthew Walsh (matthewwalsh@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
It was about 3pm on Friday afternoon when rumours of an impending lockdown began circulating on the streets of Kildare town amid the terrifying surge of Covid-19 cases in the county's three meat processing plants.

Everyone's worst fears were confirmed at that evening's press conference when Taoiseach Micheal Martin delivered the gloomy news that a trio of counties would be subject to a localised lockdown for two weeks.

The sense of anger, confusion and fear was palpable in the commuter town of Kildare as locals tried to come to terms with getting a public slap on the wrist for something that had happened behind closed walls and was beyond their control.

And for many of the businesses that were only starting to see the light again after a tough few months, the move was described as "devastating". A terrible sense of deja vu prevailed.

Read More

Hotels, cafes, restaurants and those bars serving food that only opened on June 29 suddenly found themselves having to pull down the shutters once again and deny themselves the last of the summer trade.

Much of the anger appeared to be directed towards the centrally located Kildare Chilling Company, the source of more than 150 cases which confirmed it had shut its doors on Saturday.

Brian Flanagan, who owns Silken Thomas pub and guest house, believes the authorities should have acted quicker to get the spike in the meat-processing factories under control. Like many others, his venue quickly reverted to click-and-collect.

"Prior to Friday, the mood in the town was very good. We were all getting back to a level of normality. Then when we got the news, the mood totally changed. For certain sectors of the community, there's a lot of fear which is understandable, whether they're a bit older and more susceptible to Covid and from the business community side of things, there's a lot of frustration," he said.

He compared the conditions in Ireland's meat factories to those that had existed in our nursing homes in terms of the level of danger they presented. The fact that those companies had sparked the localised lockdown was, for many, "a tough pill to swallow".

"Again like the nursing homes, they should have realised they were high-risk areas. We're at the point now where for these three factories, it's like a bomb has fallen on top of them," he continued.

"But the worry is not only those sites, it's where those employees live and how they live; whether they're grouped in large numbers in houses or direct provision centres, it's concerning. I believe what we're doing now is the right thing to do, but I do not believe it should have got to this point. Unfortunately, Kildare, Offaly and Laois will be the test cases on how to manage these outbreaks going forward."

Just a short distance away from Kildare Chilling Company, the normally bustling Kildare Village shopping outlet was eerily quiet. Business had been brisk but in an unwelcome hark back to the original lockdown, Garda check-points set up early on Sunday afternoon started turning away motorists who were clearly not from the area.

Newstalk broadcaster Susan Keogh was stopped by a garda near Kilcullen on her way back from working in Dublin's Marconi House - but says she feels fortunate to still have a job.

As a parent to daughter Faith (8), she's also fearful for the schools in the area, given that they are due to open in just three weeks' time.

"Everyone acknowledges we're in the middle of a global pandemic so I don't think there's anyone unreasonably annoyed about the lockdown; it is what it is. The vast majority of people go along with it but the messaging has been wrong," she said.

More clarity was needed with regards to the number of cases in the meat-processing factories and whether those being tested were self-isolating while awaiting test results.

She is worried for her elderly parents who live in Kildare town and have started cocooning again.

Ms Keogh also found it unusual that the Curragh races went ahead yesterday, albeit behind closed doors, despite the gloomy mood that prevailed.

She said this would have jarred with a lot of locals who woke up on Saturday morning to find they had lost their jobs and had to go back on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Beirut, Lebanon  Mon, August 10, 2020 07:50 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cb221e 2 World Lebanon,Beirut,Beirut-blast,Beirut-explosion,Ammonium-nitrate Free

The huge chemical explosion that hit Beirut's port, devastating large parts of the Lebanese capital and claiming over 150 lives, left a 43-meter deep crater, a security official said Sunday.

The blast Tuesday, which was felt across the county and as far as the island of Cyprus, was recorded by the sensors of the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS) as having the power of a magnitude 3.3 earthquake.

It was triggered by a fire in a port warehouse, where a huge shipment of hazardous ammonium nitrate, a chemical that can be used as a fertilizer or as an explosive, had languished for years, according to authorities.

The huge blast also wounded at least 6,000 people and displaced more than 300,000 from their destroyed or damaged homes.

The revelation that the chemicals had languished for years like a ticking time-bomb in the heart of the capital has served as shocking proof to many Lebanese of the rot at the core of the state apparatus.

Demonstrators on Sunday called for renewed anti-government rallies after a night of angry protests saw them storm several ministries before they were expelled by the army.

It was a new tactic for a protest movement that emerged last October to demand the removal of a political class long accused of being inept and corrupt.

"The explosion in the port left a crater 43 meters deep," the Lebanese security official told AFP, citing assessments by French experts working in the disaster area.

The crater is much larger than the one left by the enormous blast in 2005 that killed former prime minister Rafic Hariri, which measured 10 meters across and two meters deep, according to an international tribunal investigating his murder.

French rescue and police teams are among a much larger group of international emergency response specialists that has flooded into Lebanon to ease pressure on local authorities unable to cope with the disaster relief on their own.

Qatari, Russian and German rescuers are also working at the port blast site.
Government is set to decentralize births and deaths registry system as part of efforts to build a robust registration system using emerging technologies.

The move comes after the passage of the Registration of Births and Deaths Bill 2020, which was presented and read the first time in Parliament on Thursday, July 16, 2020 by the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), Hajia Alima Mahama.

Background

In a memorandum accompanying the bill, the minister stated that one of the major priorities of government is to improve the system and processes for the collection and collation of vital information, particularly information on births and deaths for national development.

According to her, vital registration in Ghana started in 1888 with the registration of deaths under the Cemeteries Ordinance of 1888 which was subsequently amended in 1891.

Birth registration was first introduced in Ghana in 1912 following the passage of the Births, Deaths and Burials Ordinance 1912. The 1912 Ordinance was subsequently repealed with the passage of a new Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1965 (Act 301) to respond to the post-independence births and deaths registration needs of the country.

The registration of Births and Deaths Act 1965 (Act 301) established the Births and Deaths Registry as a centralized department within the MLGRD to develop the registration system and make it compulsory nationwide.

The core mandate of the registry under the law is to collate and keep accurate and reliable information on all births and deaths occurring in the country, as well as provide certification for the two events.

Government said the provisions in the current births and deaths law had become obsolete with the passage of time and indicated that Act 301 does not provide for the registration of surrogate births, notification of births and deaths by supervising professionals, as well as the use of electronic technology for the capture, transmission and storage of births and deaths data.

The integration of the Births and Deaths Registry with other government agencies, including the National Identification Authority (NIA), the Electoral Commission (EC), the passport office, health facilities and MDAs is also weak, she pointed out.

The Committee on Local Government and Rural Development said the Births and Deaths Registry currently has a total of 332 personnel operating in 413 registration centres nationwide.

Chaired by the Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, the committee has noted that this development falls short of the international minimum standards required by the United Nations of a registration centre to every five thousand persons in the population.

This meant that with Ghana's population estimated at 30,000,000 people, a minimum of 6,000 registration centres is required to provide effective births and deaths registration services to Ghanaians.

Operating with the current 413 registration centres has created a service delivery deficit which continues to affect national planning due to inadequate data on registered births and deaths in the country, the committee reported.

It added that registration coverage was, therefore, very low making it difficult for the registry to make any meaningful demographic analysis for the nation. The estimated coverage for registered births as of 2001 was 17 per cent.

---Daily Guide
More diphtheria infections confirmed in Quang Tri

The central province of Quang Tri has reported eight more diphtheria cases, comprised of children aged between 1 and 12.



According to Do Van Hung, Director of the provincial Department of Health, the patients are from Son Ngan Village in Gio Linh District.

A diphtheria testing sample being taken



Hung added that the department is defining people who had close contact in order to have them tested. Meanwhile, sterilisation has also been conducted in vulnerable areas. The province will also ensure children are vaccinated.



At present, the patients are being quarantined at the districts medical centre.



Earlier, on August 6, a nine-year-old girl in Song Ngan was found to have contracted diphtheria, becoming the first patient in the village.



In early July, Vinh Linh District in Quang Tri also detected five diphtheria cases that have all been discharged from hospital following their recovery.



The disease has affected many localities in Vietnam, particularly the Central Highlands.



Children in Vietnam aged below two are given free five-in-one vaccine shots that include diphtheria.



Diphtheria, which can be prevented with vaccination, is an infection caused by the Corynebacterium diphtheria bacterium. It spreads through the air and direct contact.
LEASING

Sydney

SRG Global Limited has leased a 100 sq m office suite at 64 Clarence Street from Fidinam for $875 per sq m gross. No lease term was disclosed. The site currently has two additional fully fitted floors of 212 sq m available, priced to lease between $580-$625 gross effective with full fit outs in place. Chelsea Anstee, Colliers International negotiated the lease.

St Marys

A supplier of concrete and steel to the building industry, Meshcrete will relocate to a new, 2,460 sq m base at 1/107 Dunheved Circuit for a net rent of $120 per sq m. It has signed a three-year lease, with an option for a further five years. CBREs Janet Joljian, Matthew Alessi and Brendan Wein secured the lease on behalf of the private vendor, with Robert Tappouras from PRD Commercial.
SV Krishna Chaitanya By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Even as concerns were expressed over the hazardous ammonium nitrate stored in Manali, a safety audit of Madras Fertilizers Limited (MFL) has exposed chinks in its operation and the plant is found to be operating without adequate monitoring systems, including ammonia sensors, in place.

The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) had directed for a safety audit of MFL following an order from the southern bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT), which took suo moto cognizance of the ammonia leak incident in May this year that was reported by The New Indian Express.

The audit team has made critical observations and recommended around 20 measures. "Damaged buildings, damaged roofs with erosion and corrosion of pipe lines and support structures and elevated platforms can result in serious accidents. To ensure safety, suitable isolation should be provided till they are rectified or removed from service," the audit report said.

The report also highlights that there are some parts in the plant operating system which may undergo fast deterioration or fail and get damaged unexpectedly due to slippages in preventive maintenance schedules and due to various process deviations. "It is therefore recommended to have an 'FMEA study' by maintenance experts and also to develop a planned maintenance schedule and control plan for the plant and the identified critical equipment as per the study," it says.

The study will be conducted by IIT Madras. Madhav Kumar, associate professor from Environmental and Water Resources Division, will commence the monitoring work from August.

The NGT bench, comprising Justice K Ramakrishnan and expert member Saibal Dasgupta, has granted IIT Madras three months time to submit the report and posted the matter to November 25, 2020.

After the May ammonia gas leak incident, TNPCB directed MFL to restart the unit only after installation of at least two ammonia sensors at the rear end of the unit in the direction of the village where the complaint was received, but MFL restarted the unit without any installation. However, it was reported that MFL placed a purchase order. "The delivery was getting delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic," an MFL official told The New Indian Express and also in the official response to TNPCB that was recorded by the tribunal.

MFL was to install a total of 11 new ammonia sensors on or before June 2020 since the existing 10 ammonia sensors were not functioning since 2016 due to Cyclone Vardha. The plant was also asked to restore the Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Systems (CAAQMS). Out of 5 CAAQM stations, four are not in operation. Also, the Electromagnetic Flow Meter (EMFM) was not connected to Care Air Centre, TNPCB and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

MFL informed the TNPCB that outputs from EMFMs are available locally but could not be uploaded due to outdated model instruments. Hence latest EMFMs will be procured by December 2020.

MFL was in operation continuously during the COVID-19 lockdown period as per the directions of the Department of Fertilizers to meet the fertilizer demand of farmers since it comes under essential commodities and produces about 1,200 tonnes per day of urea. The incident, MFL claimed, happened during maintenance shutdown of the plant.

The sequence of events presented by MFL says that on May 14 at 7.30 pm, a Cooling Water Pump bearing failure was noticed and the urea plant was shut down as per normal safe shutdown procedure. "During safe shutdown, we found mild passing in Pressure Safety Valve (PSV) in idle Ammonia Reflux pump discharge and it was isolated. The ammonia vapour was let out to the atmosphere through a closed circuit with proper dilution. This is the usual practice being followed by all the fertilizers companies in India, as per national and international standards in case of line passing," officials said.

Ammonia smell complaint was received over the phone at 8.30 pm from the nearby Mathur resident area. Immediately MFL officials visited the spot and observed no ammonia smell and the message was conveyed to TNPCB officials," MFL officials claimed. However, Mathur residents complained that the leak was severe and caused eye irritation, nausea and breathlessness. Locals had complained about similar leaks from MFL several times in the past.
No mask, no entry.

That's the latest word from Dollar Tree and Family Dollar, weeks after they said that they would request, but not require, that customers wear masks in stores.

As of Aug. 10, Dollar Tree Inc., which owns the two chains, says it will now be enforcing a mask requirement for all customers at all of its locations. On their websites, both companies say the new mask requirement was to comply with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

The latest decision comes as major national retailers like Walmart, Target, Costco, Home Depot and Lowes have decided to make face coverings mandatory.

In early July, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar said shoppers, vendors and employees must wear face coverings, before reversing course two weeks later. The chains then said it would only require customers wear masks if mandated by state or local rules.

USA Today reports it is unknown when exactly the latest face mask order went into effect.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 00:35:23|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The European insuring firms should pay compensation for the Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed in Iran's air space in January, an Iranian insurance official announced on Monday.

"The Ukrainian plane is insured by European companies in Ukraine and not by Iranian companies," said Chief of Iran's Central Insurance Organization Gholamreza Soleimani.

"Therefore, the compensation should be paid by those European companies," Soleimani was quoted as saying by Tehran Times daily.

The Ukrainian passenger plane was hit by Iranian missiles after taking off in Tehran's air space on Jan. 8, killing all 176 people on board. Iran said that its forces "accidentally" shot the plane down.

On July 24, an international team in Paris completed the preliminary investigative analysis of the data extracted from the black boxes of the plane.

Iran's Minister of Transport and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami said on Sunday that the final report on the Ukrainian plane crash will be published soon. Enditem
The scene at Sullatober Square in Carrickfergus where the PSNI and Army bomb experts are dealing with a security alert. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye

A viable device has been found in Carrickfergus following a security alert which forced some residents from their homes.

Police were called to the scene following the discovery of the device near Sullatober Square in the town, which has now been taken away for further examination by army technical officers.

Police thanked the community for their patience during the alert, during which cordons were put in place and a number of homes were evacuated.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101, quoting reference number 659 10/08/20.
The deadly August 4 explosion pushed the country further to the brink, forcing PM Diabs government to quit.

Lebanons prime minister has announced his governments resignation, less than a week after a huge explosion tore through capital Beirut, causing unprecedented public outrage.

The blast at Beiruts port on August 4 killed at least 171 people, with some 30 others missing and more than 6,000 wounded. Anger over the incident spilled on to the streets with thousands demanding major reforms in the country.

For many common Lebanese, the explosion was the last straw in a protracted crisis over the collapse of the economy, corruption, waste and dysfunctional governance.

On Monday, Prime Minister Hassan Diab quit along with his cabinet, saying the blast was the result of endemic corruption in Lebanon.

Here is a timeline of how the events unfolded:

August 4

A fire is reported at Beiruts only port, leading to the explosion that killed dozens  many other dead were buried in rubble and found later  and destroyed properties and buildings in the vicinity and several kilometres away.

The explosion displaced some 300,000 people, leaving the city with billions of dollars in damage.

Firefighters at the port after the explosion on August 4, 2020, in Beirut, Lebanon [File: Fadel Itani/NurPhoto/Getty Images]

August 5

Diab declares a two-week state of emergency in Beirut, effectively giving the military full powers to tackle what was the worst such accident in Lebanons history.

Lebanons High Defence Council, which brings together the president and all major security agencies, declares Beirut a disaster-stricken city.

Diab reveals the port contained almost 3,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had been stored for six years after a ship brought it in 2013.

August 6

French President Emmanuel Macron visits the scene of the blast in Beirut, promising he would convene an international conference with the European Union, the United States and regional countries to gather the much-needed humanitarian aid.

Macron warns 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.

Protests break out across Lebanon as angry demonstrators demand revenge over the deadly explosion.

Meanwhile, Judge Fadi Akiki, a government representative at Lebanons military court, says 16 port employees were arrested over the incident.

August 7

The death toll from the explosion rises to 157 and 5,000 wounded, according to the Lebanese officials.

Boris Prokoshev, the former captain of the ship that brought almost 3,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate to Beirut, says Lebanese authorities were very well aware of the dangers posed by the vessels cargo.

The EU releases 33 million euros ($38m) for Lebanon to cover immediate costs and emergency services.









August 8

Prime Minister Diab calls for early elections, saying it was the only way out of the countrys crisis. He says he will introduce a draft bill proposing early polls.

Lebanons Kataeb Party, a Christian group which opposed the Hezbollah-backed government, announces the resignation of three of its MPs from parliament.

Protesters storm various government buildings in Beirut, including the foreign ministry, as riot police fire tear gas to break up the crowds.

More than 700 people reportedly wounded in the protests and one policeman killed.

August 9

International leaders join a virtual donor conference led by France and the United Nations, pledging nearly $300m in humanitarian assistance that will be directly delivered to the Lebanese population.

Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad submits her resignation, saying the country had reached a point of no return and that Diabs government had failed to live up to peoples expectations.

She becomes the first among cabinet ministers to quit over the tragedy. Later that day, Environment Minister Damianos Kattar also resigns from his post.

August 10

Iran says other countries should refrain from politicising the Beirut blast and demanded that the US should lift sanctions against Lebanon.

The head of the UN food agency says he was very, very concerned Lebanon could run out of bread in less than three weeks because 85 percent of the countrys grain came through Beiruts devastated port.

Towards the end of the day, Diab announces his governments resignation in a televised address, in which he says he was taking a step back so he could stand with the people and fight the battle for change alongside them.

President Michel Aoun accepted the resignation and asked Diab to continue in a caretaker capacity until a new government is formed.
Stakeholders in Mental Healthcare are calling for collaboration between the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs and the National House of Chiefs to uproot the evil of lynching alleged witches.



The stakeholders want an effective and efficient strategy that would include a systematic education of chiefs and other traditional rulers, spiritualists, prayer healers, traditional priests, opinion leaders and youth leaders.



These views were expressed at the launch of the maiden edition of the Ghana Psychology Week 2020 on Monday in Accra.



The celebration themed, Making Psychology Relevant to Ghanaians Before, During and After the COVID-19, aimed at creating awareness of the contribution of the Ghana Psychology Association (GPA) and also share perspectives on new developments that could be explored to address the myriad of issues.



Dr Akwesi Osei, Chief Executive Officer of the Mental Health Authority, stated that the Association must lead the charge from systematic education to disband and abolish the witches camps.



This practice has a long history but the bottom line is that some people are believed to be witches and the only way the society thinks they can deal with them is to eliminate them, lynch them, he said.



Dr Osei said the issue was worrying and underscored the need for GPA to take up until a lasting solution was found.



In the past, nobody considered the role of Psychology, it was not even in the structure of the Ministry of Health but now any occurrence or hideous crime the opinion of the Psychologist is sort to find out the psychological twist. I must say the media also has done well, he said.



Professor Joseph Osafo, the Head of Psychology Department of the University of Ghana said the GPA had offered support services to people who were affected in key national events including the June 3 fire/flood (twin) disaster, the kidnapping of the Takoradi Girls, Galamsey, Gas Explosion, and COVID-19 pandemic.



The Association, he said had provided training for school counsellors, judges, police, clergy, students, medical personnel, traditional leaders on suicidal behaviour.



The services we provided in all these events including conducting cutting-edge research, advocacy, psychoeducation programes, individual psychotherapies, policy brief and co-management crisis are helping society, he said.



Professor Osafo said to reduce conflict before, during and after the December general election there was the need to develop a psychology of tolerance where issues, hate speech, vitriolic language, pre-social and intergroup behaviours, would be addressed.



Dr Erica Dickson, President of the GPA said a psychologist had played a key role in the fight against COVID-19 by providing psychological first aid and helping to deal with the stigmatisation of recovered persons and their families in the community.



Our role is only beginning, it is anticipated that the psychological footprints that would be left by the pandemic will be greater. We will be at hand to support at every step of the way, she said.



Dr Dickson said the Association was poised and ready to initiate, collaborate and go into partnerships that would seek to improve the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of the public to help in the recovery of individuals and institutions.



Mr Adjetey Anang, a Popular Ghanaian Actor, urged the creative industry to support the GPA by focusing on productions and other creative channels to educate people on mental issues.

Source: GNA









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Dhaka, Aug 10 : Bangladesh spinner Mosharraf Hossain has tested positive for novel coronavirus and is currently quarantined at home. His father had tested positive for the deadly virus before him.

"My father tested COVID-19 positive earlier and he was admitted in the ICU of the CMH hospital," Mosharraf was quoted as saying by 'The Daily Star'. "Later I also experienced some symptoms and tested coronavirus positive. My health is fine so far and I have isolated myself at home.

"My wife and my child however tested negative and they are living with her parents." The 38-year-old had contracted brain tumour last year and had undergone intense treatment for the same for four months. He was hoping to make a comeback to the domestic circuit this year after recovering from his illness.

Mosharraf has so far played just five ODIs in his international career, picking four wickets. He made his international debut against South Africa in 2008 in Chattogram and his last ODI came against England in Dhaka in 2016.

He has been a heavyweight in the domestic circuit in Bangladesh, picking 392 wickets in 112 matches and had taken 120 wickets in 104 List A matches. He has also got two first class centuries to his name.
If President Donald Trump delivers his nomination address at Gettysburg National Military Park, it could involve an outdoor crowd of no more than 250  the state-imposed limit due to the pandemic.

The Gov. Tom Wolf administration late Monday responded to the possibility of Trump coming to Gettysburg to deliver his address following his formal nomination as the Republican presidential candidate on Aug. 27.

Trump announced on Twitter on Monday afternoon he is considering delivering the address at Gettysburg. He said its been narrowed down to two possible locations, with the White House being the other.

He wrote We will announce the decision soon!

A spokesman for the military park and Eisenhower National Historic Site on Monday afternoon said he didnt have details on things such as what the address would entail in terms of number of people involved, whether it would be open to the public and whether any special permission is required.

Trumps campaign didnt immediately respond to questions.

The Wolf administrations statement noted the park is managed by the National Park Service. But it said all gatherings in Pennsylvania, including those held on federal land, should abide by the Commonwealths restrictions, which have proven to mitigate COVID-19.

It said limitations on large gatherings and requiring face masks in public places has allowed Pennsylvania to escape the severe COVID-19 resurgences happening in many states.

We hope and expect that the President will abide by these commonsense restrictions that will protect the health and safety of the community around Gettysburg and throughout Pennsylvania, the statement said.
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The seventh model in the Redmi K30 series, the Redmi K30 Ultra, is all set to be released today (11 August), announced Xiaomi via Weibo. The launch will mark the 10-year anniversary of Xiaomi and will also see the launch of Mi 10 Ultra.

The features of these high-end phones have been leaked online several times in the past but it looks like the confirmed specs of the two smartphones are here. 91Mobiles in partnership with renowned tipster Ishan Agarwal, have revealed the colour options, RAM and other configuration.

While the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra anniversary edition will reportedly come in four different configurations, the Redmi K30 Ultra will see three variants. Mi 10 Ultra will be released in China in 8 GB RAM + 128 GB, 8 GB RAM + 256 GB, 12 GB RAM + 256 GB and 16 GB RAM + 512 GB options. It is expected to come in three colour variants - Ceramic Black, Bright Silver, and Transparent - to choose from.

It is likely to come with a 4,500 mAh battery that supports 55 W wireless charging, 120 or 144 Hz display and 100 W or 120 W wired charging facility.

The Redmi K30 Ultra is expected to feature an AMOLED display with a high refresh rate of 120 Hz. This data has been backed up by a report by Gizmochina as well. Other than this, the 6.67-inch full HD smartphone will have three RAM or storage variants - 6 GB + 128 GB, 8 GB + 128 GB, and 8 GB 512 GB.

The anniversary edition of Redmi K30 Ultra will be available in three colour options, namely Black, White and Mint Green. It will be powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ chipset. With a 4,400 mAh battery, the phone will offer 33 W fast charging. A 64 MP quad camera will be fitted at the back with a 20 MP front camera. According to the 91Mobiles report, it will arrive at an expected price of Rs 34,999.
(CNN)  White House aides reached out to South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem last year about the process of adding additional presidents to Mount Rushmore, the New York Times reported.

According to a person familiar who spoke with the Times, Noem then greeted Trump when he arrived in the state for his July Fourth celebrations at the monument with a four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore that included his face.

Noem has noted before Trump's "dream" to have his face on Mount Rushmore, the Coolidge-era sculpture that features the 60-foot-tall faces of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

According to a 2018 interview with Noem, the two struck up a conversation about the sculpture in the Oval Office during their first meeting, where she initially thought he was joking. "I started laughing," she said. "He wasn't laughing, so he was totally serious."

"He said, 'Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand, and so I shook his hand, and I said, 'Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore.' And he goes, 'Do you know it's my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?'"

Trump also toyed with the idea of adding himself to Mount Rushmore in 2017 at a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio.

During his July Fourth speech to supporters in South Dakota, Trump fiercely defended Mount Rushmore -- which activists and native tribal leaders have long criticized for its history and purpose -- saying it will "stand forever as an eternal tribute to our forefathers, and to our freedom."

"As we meet here tonight there is a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought so hard for," Trump warned.

A White House official noted to the New York Times that Mount Rushmore is a federal, not a state monument.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "New York Times: White House reached out to South Dakota governor about adding Trump to Mount Rushmore."
With New York City on the cusp of cutting $1 billion from the Police Department, a city councilwoman, Vanessa L. Gibson, told her colleagues that enough was enough.

She acknowledged that some Council members, spurred by the movement to defund the police, were seeking to slash even more from the departments budget. But she pointed out that her constituents did not agree.

They want to see cops in the community, Ms. Gibson said.

They dont want to see excessive force. They dont want to see cops putting their knees in our necks, she said. But they want to be safe as they go to the store.

Ms. Gibson is not a conservative politician speaking on behalf of an affluent district. She is a liberal Black Democrat who represents the West Bronx, and her stance reflects a growing ideological rift over policing in one of the countrys liberal bastions.
Security staff detain a shoplifting gang member in a tense moment caught on camera.

Tonight's episode of Shoplifters: At War With the Law, which airs on Channel 5 at 9pm, follows the security team of the Coventry's West Orchards Shopping Centre as they work to track thieves operating in stores.

Cameras followed as the team caught a Romanian man who is part of an organised crime unit well practised in avoiding detection and stealing stolen goods.

The man is found with 1,000 in stolen goods on him, after he was spotted 'browsing' and bagging expensive perfumes at a department store.

Shoplifters: At War With the Law, airing at 9pm on Channel 5 tonight, follows the security team of the Coventry's West Orchards Shopping Centre. In tonight's episode, they arrest a man they suspect is part of a gang, and explain why it's harder to catch gang members than 'run-of-the-mill' shoplifters

The security staff explained that gangs were trickier to deal with than other shoplifters, because they used tactics to remain discreet and were harder to pin down because they often worked in groups.

Team member Paul explained how gangs liked to operate around the shopping centre.

'When you have shoplifting happening with organised crime units, there almost always out in teams,' he said. 'You'll have one who's watching from the other end of the store, on the phone, constantly.

'You have another one that's watching in store watching the staff, and another going around selecting all the items that are to be taken.

'It's a lot more harder to deal with, unfortunately, it's a lot harder to detect as well.'

Team leader Mark was watching from the control room where he received a warning about a suspicious man in the department store's beauty section. The man was 'selecting' a large amount of perfumes and putting them in his bag.

The team was shocked to find the man had nicked 1,000 worth of product from a department store's shelves

The team acted fast and moved in to arrest the man moments after he stepped out of the store, holding the bag of stolen goods.

Upon interrogation, the security team started to suspect that the man was part of a gang.

The man's registered address was located 200 miles away, which alerted the team to fact he might not be an 'opportunistic' thief, but part of an organised structure.

Mark said that if the shoplifter was caught having stolen more than 200, he would be handed to the police.

The team then found out that the suspected thief had managed to nick 1,000 worth of products during his spree.

The thief was handed to the police, arrested, and escorted out of the premises. We learned he was made to carry out 200h of unpaid work

The haul confirmed the team's suspicions that the man was part of some criminal endeavour, as shoplifters who act alone often nick no more than 100 to 200 at most.

'When they are part of a gang, it does make it harder, because first of all, you don't know how many more there are, you go in blind,' said security agent Lee.

The shoplifter caught by the team was handed to the police, who confirmed he was part of a gang that had been causing them a lot of grief, worked with rough sleepers to get their hands on products, and had cost store around the region thousands of pounds in stolen goods.

The thief was arrested and escorted out of the mall, as security agents' rejoiced 'one off the streets.'

Paul admitted than catching a gang member was more excited than catching 'a run-of-the-mill' opportunistic shoplifter.

The man, who was not identified, was sentenced a tight curfew between 7am and 7pm and was made to carry 200 hours of unpaid work.

Shoplifters: At War with the Law airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 5.
Facebook has uncovered thousands of groups and pages, with millions of members and followers, that support the QAnon conspiracy theory, according to internal company documents.

The tech giant has been under immense pressure to clamp down on hate speech and dangerous conspiracy theories, both of which are found in abundance on the site.

Last year the company announced new policies to reduce the visibility of vaccine misinformation on its platform, including rejecting advertising and excluding groups and pages from search results that spread 'vaccine hoaxes.'

Facebook has since June been studying the QAnon movement - a wide-ranging, unfounded conspiracy theory that says that Donald Trump is waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipping pedophiles in government, business and the media.

Supporters of the QAnon theory protest in Oregon in May. Facebook has conducted an internal investigation into the conspiracy theorists, and found that millions back the group

Facebook has come under pressure to clamp down on hate speech on its platform

Several Republican candidates for Congress have openly expressed support for QAnon, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, who recently declared that QAnon was 'a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this supposed global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out.

In July, a Facebook spokesperson told NBC News that that company was investigating QAnon as part of a larger look at groups with potential ties to violence.

On Monday the results of Facebook's internal investigation, reviewed by NBC News, showed that QAnon sites and groups had proliferated on the platform.

The top 10 groups identified in the investigation collectively contain more than one million members, with totals from more top groups and pages pushing the number of members and followers past three million.

It is not clear how much overlap there is among the groups.

The investigation is likely to inform what, if any, action Mark Zuckerberg decides to take against QAnon.

Cartoons promoting QAnon circulate widely on Facebook, and are being investigated

QAnon supporters have been prevented by Google from selling their wares

Believers in the conspiracy theory see Donald Trump as taking on a cabal of Satanists

An announcement about Facebook's ultimate decision is also expected to target members of 'militias and other violent social movements,' according to the documents and Facebook employees who spoke to the broadcaster.

A small team working this summer across several of Facebook's departments found 185 advertisements that the company had accepted 'praising, supporting, or representing' QAnon, according to an internal post shared among more than 400 employees, and obtained by NBC.

The ads generated about $12,000 for Facebook and four million impressions in the last 30 days.

A Facebook spokesperson said the company has routinely enforced its rules on QAnon groups.

Last week, Facebook removed a QAnon group with nearly 200,000 members 'for repeatedly posting content that violated our policies.'

QAnon supporters rally in Portland, Oregon, in August 2019, showing their support for Trump

Some of Trump's supporters believe in the QAnon theory, and show their faith at his rallies

'Enforcing against QAnon on Facebook is not new: we consistently take action against accounts, Groups, and Pages tied to QAnon that break our rules,' the spokesperson said.

'Just last week, we removed a large Group with QAnon affiliations for violating our content policies, and removed a network of accounts for violating our policies against coordinated inauthentic behavior.

'We have teams assessing our policies against QAnon and are currently exploring additional actions we can take.'

On Sunday The Daily Telegraph reported that Google is blocking shopping searches related to QAnon.

In July, Twitter announced it had banned 7,000 QAnon accounts for breaking its rules around platform manipulation, misinformation and harassment.

Twitter also said it would no longer recommend QAnon accounts and content, would stop such content from appearing in trends and search, and would block QAnon's internet links.
New Delhi: Former president Pranab Mukherjee said on Monday that he has tested positive for COVID-19.

"On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for COVID19 today," he tweeted.

"I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19," Mukherjee said.
The Congress on Monday decided to form a high-level committee to look into the grievances of all its rebel leaders in Rajasthan after Sachin Pilot met former party president Rahul Gandhi to end the revolt in the state unit that threatened the survival of the Ashok Gehlot government, people familiar with the development said.

They have had a frank, open and conclusive discussion. Shri Sachin Pilot has committed to working in the interest of the Congress party and the Congress government in Rajasthan, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said in a statement hours after Sachin Pilots hush-hush meeting with Rahul Gandhi on Monday.

Venugopal said Congress president Sonia Gandhi had decided to set up a three-member committee to address the issues raised by Sachin Pilot and the aggrieved MLA and arrive at an appropriate resolution thereof.

Congress leaders said the panel will have senior leaders as members and will hear all the sides and also go into the details of the political turmoil in the state unit before submitting its report to the high command.

The pact ends the uncertainty for the Rajasthan government run by Ashok Gehlot that had been teetering on the edge for a month ever since Pilot and his group of 18 lawmakers parked themselves in Delhi and Gurugram in early July. Gehlot, who has claimed the support of 102 MLAs in a 200-member assembly, is due to face a trust vote when the state assembly meets on 14 August.

Also Read: Will welcome rebels back if Cong high command forgives them: Ashok Gehlot

The support from Sachin Pilots camp gives him the cushion that he had lost when Pilot left with his lawmakers loyal to him, reportedly irked over summons received from the police probing a sedition case against people who wanted to bring down the Gehlot government. The rebellion cost Pilot and two of his loyalist members their cabinet berths.

Pilot, who was the states deputy chief minister and state Congress chief, was also evicted from the two posts. As his camp refused to respond to appeals to head back home from the Congress, Gehlot let it be known that the two of them hadnt been on talking terms for 18 months and accused Pilot of plotting with the BJP for six months to pull down his government.

It is not clear if Pilots next role in the party would have anything to do with Rajasthan or Gehlot. Asked if Rajasthan will be out of bounds for Pilot, the functionary said, We are not aware of any promise given to him by Rahul Gandhi. What transpired between them at the personal level is not known to us.

The functionary quoted above also said that many rebel leaders, including seven-time legislator Bhanwarlal Sharma, had established contact with Congress general secretary in-charge of organisation KC Venugopal on Sunday and subsequently met Gehlot on Monday to assure him of his support.

He claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not play ball as its house is divided in Rajasthan and there were also apprehensions that some of its legislators were not keen to go with Pilot and other rebel Congress leaders.

With BJP a divided house and the Congress taking a strong stand, the rebel legislators were feeling the heat and that is why they started approaching our central leadership, he added.

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Lisa Rinna from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is sending her co-star Garcelle Beauvais a warning. Although they both were friendly when season 10 of the show started, their relationship spiraled by the end. Beauvais has remained close with Denise Richards while Rinna is the one putting the latter on blast. After Beauvais made a shady comment about her daughter, Rinna is now firing back.

Garcelle Beauvais and Lisa Rinna | Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for IMDb / Nicole Weingart/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Garcelle Beauvais throws shade

RHOBH Season 5 continues to air on Bravo and in the latest episode 13, the ladies were out in Rome, Italy. During one of their dinner scenes, Kyle Richards asked Rinna about her sexy Instagram videos and what her mother thinks of them.

I do a lot of stuff on Instagram because Lois watches Instagram. So she sees everything, Rinna said. She has an iPad. Even though I know Im being ridiculous, I always know that she gets to see everything and the girls. I think it really is great for her.

In her confessional, Beauvais throws shade toward Rinna invoking her daughters eating disorder.

I love that Lisas free enough to do the videos and be dancing, but dancing nearly naked is not a choice for me if I had a daughter that had body issues, the Coming To America actress said.

RELATED: RHOBH: Brandi Glanville Explains Why She Revealed Denise Richards Hookup Claims

How did Lisa Rinna react?

After the episode aired on television, Rinna took to Instagram to share comments made by fans agreeing with what they said about Beauvais.

I love Garcelle but her comments [about] Lisa Rinnas IG and daughters eating disorder felt nasty, read one of the tweets. Thats mom shaming at its worst. We are already so hard on ourselves. I felt bad for any parent watching whose had to live [through] the hell of a childs eating disorder.

A second tweet read: Exactly, the only person that comment hurt was Amelia [Gray Hamlin]. If Garcelle wants to take a dig at Rinna, its fair game. But using the eating disorder to make the dig was a low blow. [In my opinion] its so brave of Amelia to be public [about] her anxiety and other mental health struggles at that age.

RELATED: RHOBH: Lisa Rinna Takes Jab at Denise Richards, Weve Never Run From the Truth

The latter comments were followed a day later by other cryptic messages posted by Rinna on Instagram Stories.

Youre crying about your sh** being put out there, wait until they go after your kids, she posted. Dont say I didnt warn you.

Rinna is bringing up all the drama surrounding Denise Richards, as well as Beauvais talking about her daughter during the RHOBH confessional.

Is this a warning? Yes, Rinna posted in a second story.

RELATED: RHOBH: Lisa Rinna Calls Garcelle Beauvais Tacky and Fans Explode

How do we know its directed at Garcelle Beauvais?

The ladies of RHOBH recently filmed their reunion and Beauvais recently talked about what went down. One interesting bit was what the actress said Rinna told her about how it is for second-season Housewives.

At the reunion, Rinna said, Your first season is always nice and pleasant and the second [season] they come for you. I said, Is that a warning? And she goes, Yes! Beauvais said during her SiriusXM interview.

The same language Rinna used on her Instagram story was what Beauvais said she used at the reunion.

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
Lenovo has been supporting 4 million IT employees throughout the lockdown period and has also been focusing on services and support initiatives for customers and businesses during these difficult times.

As a brand, Lenovo is bringing out more and more innovation out for customers through privacy features and support. Lenovo is making PC solutions for everyone in India.

Also read: Design is not a self-serving self-expression: Ashwini Deshpande

The company recently launched the IdeaPad Slim 3i. In conversation with Adgully, Amit Doshi, Chief Marketing Officer, Lenovo India, speaks about the brands vision with the new device and how it fits into todays device ecosystem.

What made you launch a new series of laptops in the current situation? Whats the idea behind it?

As an agile brand, we have been able to quickly adapt to the COVID-19 situation by supporting our customers by ensuring their productivity, learning and business continuity is maintained. We also saw a huge uprise in the demand for laptops and PCs during the enforced lockdown, which propelled the launch.

Lenovo has been consistently introducing new form factors and experiences for all consumer segments to meet all demands. Speaking about this new series of laptops, we launched the latest range of IdeaPad Slim 3i and IdeaPad Gaming 3i for the consumer lifestyle and gaming sectors, respectively. We launched the IdeaPad Slim 3i to ensure the Thin and Light form factor is accessible to customers from every segment. With extra attention to security, this laptop is extremely suitable in the current situation for users who are studying virtually or working from home during this pandemic.

Tell us about the communication done to support this launch.

We believe in having a flexible approach, with the right mix of traditional, digital, and social media platforms which are suitable for the current times. Our communication for this launch revolved around informing the consumers to get ready for #TheSmarterFit with the FIT defining the Fast, Intuitive and Trust elements which IdeaPad Slim 3i boasts of.

What are the challenges faced in distribution in the current scenario?

We are looking at various initiatives across purchase and after sales support to ensure that the customer experience does not get compromised. Keeping all government guidelines and safety norms in mind, we are emphasising on services such as contactless delivery and in-house repair options. We also initiated an extended customer support service for all PC brands during the lockdown.

What are the marketing channels that are working best for Lenovo? How have your media plans changed since the onset of the pandemic?

Our long-term marketing strategy is hinged on the right equilibrium between traditional and digital media. Since the onset of pandemic, television and online channels have seen a tremendous surge in consumption and our focus has shifted to mostly virtual properties.

How has your sector been affected and has reacted to COVID-19 pandemic?

The PC and laptop industry has seen exponential demand during this pandemic. We observed a spike in demand for PCs as work from home and learn from home trends started emerging and paved way for edutech opportunities. Lenovos priority has been to fulfil these customer requirements at the earliest and help them seamlessly adapt to such unnatural situations. During the lockdown, we had also launched a free online education platform, SmarterEd, which matched learners from classes V-XII with volunteer teachers.

Since laptops arent essential products, how are people taking to this new launch?

The pandemic and lockdown has increased the overall adoption of laptops due to the work and learn from home needs. Individuals are treating it as an essential device as it is one of the key tools for staying connected while being productive virtually. We have also seen a steady increase in the demand for thin and light consumer laptops such as IdeaPad Slim 3, ever since the lockdown was lifted. This is because of the growing dependency on online classes and remote learning methods for school students.

How has Lenovos performance been since the pandemic began? What have your sales/spends been like?

Our online sales have seen a significant increase during this pandemic. We have also observed a spike in both online and offline PC sales, since the market opened up post the national lockdown.

What is the kind of communication that Lenovo is maintaining with the consumer keeping the pandemic in mind?

Our customers are our utmost priority, and we had introduced a number of services to support our customers during these unprecedented times. During the pandemic, we launched the free OEM support for all PC brands (not just Lenovo). We also recently launched PC Pal: https://www.lenovopcpal.com/#/, which is a brand agnostic offering, where we advise buyers on the right configuration and they can then choose the brand of their preference.

What does the Post-COVID-19 era look like for Lenovo and whats the way forward for you?

We believe its still too early to state any long-term commitments. However, we will ensure that we and our partners are fully prepared to support customers and adapt to the forthcoming situation.
San Francisco police have arrested three suspects in connection with two unrelated fatal shootings, one from earlier this year and another in 2018.

San Francisco police on Thursday took into custody Newman (Stanislaus County) residents Cirrena Degara, a 30-year-old woman, and Teron Davis, a 33-year-old man, after linking the pair to a shooting on the 1000 block of Pine Street in Nob Hill on April 1.

The victim, identified by the San Francisco medical examiners office as 36-year-old San Francisco resident Achour Chouadra, died of his injuries April 13.

Degara was booked into San Francisco County Jail on suspicion of murder and shooting a firearm from a vehicle, and Davis was booked on suspicion of murder, shooting a firearm from a vehicle and possession of a firearm to commit a felony.

Also on Thursday, police arrested Priest Banks, a 32-year-old San Franciscan, for the Christmas Eve 2018 killing of a man who was gunned down in his vehicle in the India Basin neighborhood.

At 1:22 a.m. on Dec. 24, 2018, police responded to a report of shots fired on the 1300 block of Evans Avenue. Upon arrival, officers discovered a vehicle had been involved in a collision at Evans Avenue and Mendell Street, with a man inside suffering from gunshot wounds.

Despite life-saving efforts by police and paramedics, the victim  identified as 32-year-old Jovan Reed of San Francisco  was pronounced dead at the scene.

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.

Banks, who was in custody for an earlier shooting incident and a separate firearm arrest, was booked Thursday on suspicion of murder with a gang enhancement.

Though arrests have been made, police said the cases remain active and anyone with more information can contact the departments 24-hour tip line at 415-575-4444, or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD.

Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 10 : Even as six more bodies including those of three children were recovered from the debris of the landslide that flattened 20 houses of tea estate workers in Kerala's Idukki district, confusion still prevails about the actual number of those missing.

With the recovery of six more bodies the death toll in Thursday night's landslide which occurred about 30 km from the popular tourist destination of Munnar has reached 49.

The incident occurred where four rows of estate workers' houses attached to the Tata Tea estate were completely destroyed in the landslide.

In all there were said to be 73 people residing in those houses.

Of these 73 people, 49 are dead, 12 have been rescued and are currently under treatment in various hospitals and hence 12 more are missing. However, some witnesses claim there were 83 people in all at the estate lines, which means the number of missing would be 22.

Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and two of his former cabinet colleagues who visited the site on Monday wished that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had visited the place, as it would have given the grief stricken people a sense of confidence.

Ruling Left Democratic Front convenor A. Vijayaraghavan, who was at the spot, said the Opposition is trying to whip up emotions by complaining that Vijayan has not come so far.

"He (CM) did not come because of the inclement weather, but the rescue work is going on very well. The rescue work will not be over till the last body has been found," said Vijayaraghavan.

Top leaders of the Congress and the BJP including Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan have visited the accident site.

The two opposition parties have also expressed reservations about the way the ex-gratia relief was distributed by Vijayan when he gave Rs 10 lakh to the families of all the passengers who lost their lives in the Air India Express accident at Kozhikode, and only Rs 5 lakh to the kin of those who lost their lives in the landslide.

Vijayan however said that what was announced for the landslide victims was the first tranche and they have no problems with providing more money, depending on their need which includes homes and other relief.
Discussions have taken place about the building of a new teaching facility at Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry.

The facility would link up with the new Magee medical school to train future doctors.

The Derry News has learned that plans for a capital build project at the Derry hospital are at an early stage but have been costed.

The development comes shortly after the news emerged on Friday that Ulster Universitys Graduate Entry Medical School (GEMS) is now recruiting students for September 2021 intake.

The Western Trust has and will be the main partner to the medical school.

Professor Louise Dubras, who will lead the course, appeared at a Western Trust board meeting to update members on the GEMS on August 6.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Alan Moore, Director of Strategic Capital Development, offered a hearty congratulations to Prof. Dubras.

He made reference to on-site teaching facilities at Altnagelvin Hospital which were included in the business case.

In response, Prof. Dubras said: We costed in to our business case the requirement for a capital build at Altnagelvin Hospital to determine the amount of money that would be required for that.

What our expectation is, is that we wish to work with the Trust and Queens University Belfast (QUB) to have a building which serves everybody and I think its really important that this is not two universities, two buildings and duplication of everything.

Were not big enough to do that and it doesnt provide good education, the only way that this will work well as we move forward is to have a provision which covers all undergraduate education and that enables post-grad activity to take place there.

Thats really important for students to see and work with foundation year doctors and doctors at other stages of their training so that what you have as a Trust is a culture of education and growing educational excellence in the area  and a single place, which is the hub, is where it needs to happen.

TENACITY

Addressing the meeting on behalf of the Trust, Dr Catherine McDonnell expressed her admiration for Prof. Dubras patience and tenacity over the past two years for sticking with the project to deliver a medical school in the North West.

She said it is extremely important to the hospital in terms of stabilising the medical workforce and creating local jobs.

To clear up some confusion there may be about the nature of the medical school Prof. Dubras pointed out that its not a post-graduate medical school for people who are qualified as doctors and doing a masters degree.

She explained that this school will accept students who will be trained as doctors and their degree could have been in any subject as long as they achieved a 2:1.

It will be situated within the faculty of Life and Health Sciences.

The medical school is about supporting local young people and improving the economic potential of the region and tackling long-term social deprivation.

Work is ongoing to refurbish buildings at the Magee campus in readiness for students next year.

Prof. Dubras said staff recruitment is an interesting area and people have already expressed an interest in coming to Derry to work.

Chairman of the Western Trust board, Sam Pollock, said he believes the medical school will help attract staff to address the ongoing issue of agency costs.

Director of Performance and Service Improvement, Mrs Teresa Molloy, said there has been extensive interest from partner organisations such as Fermanagh and Omagh Council about the long-term benefits it could bring.

EARLY STAGE

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.

At last week's meeting Prof. Dubras pointed out how the medical school will start off with 70 students and discussions are continuing with The Executive Office to increase that to 100.

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.

The new School of Medicine at Magee will address departmental recommendations by providing access to medical education in the North West, positioning the Derry City region as an attractive place to study and work.

Students will benefit from access to clinical placements across the full range of general practice, medical and surgical specialities with primary care-based experience from week one.

This will enable students to develop knowledge and appreciation of the interconnectivity between primary, secondary, social and community-based healthcare.

A spokesperson for Ulster University confirmed: Ulster University continues to engage with local partners including the Western Health and Social Care Trust on medical education.

Discussions around joint additional training sites are at a very early stage and no plans have yet been agreed.
A senior police official said that the cause of death was yet to be ascertained but all eleven appeared to have died by suicide after consuming some chemical

Jodhpur: Eleven members of a family of migrants from Pakistan were found dead at a farm in Rajasthan's Jodhpur district on Sunday morning, police said.

A person of the family, however, was found alive outside the hut they lived at Lodta village of Dechu area, an officer said. "But he claimed to have no idea about the incident, which is believed to have happened in the night," said Superintendent of Police (Rural) Rahul Barhat.

"We are yet to ascertain the cause and means of death. But apparently, all the members appeared to have committed suicide by consuming some chemical in the night," Barhat said.

He said there was a smell of some chemical around in the hut, suggesting that they consumed something.

The family belonging to the Bhil community had come to India from Pakistan's Sindh province in 2015 on a long-term visa. They had been living at the Lodta village farm, which they had hired for farming, for the past six months.

"There was neither any injury mark on any of the bodies nor any evidences of any foul play," the SP said. "But we have roped in a forensic team and a dog squad before arriving at any conclusion," he said.

Preliminary investigation indicated that there was some dispute in the family over some issue. "Once we interrogate the survivor, we would be in a position to find out what led to this incident," he said.

According to a police officer, the victims lived under threat from the family of their daughter-in-law, the wife of Kewal Ram (35), the surviving member of the victim family.

"She has been living with her family in Jodhpur for the past some time due to some dispute," said the police officer, citing this as a possible trigger for their suicide.

According Kewal Ram (35), they had dinner between 9 pm and 10 pm on Saturday night and went to sleep. "I went to guard our crop from animals and slept there," he said. In the morning, when he came back, he found all his family members dead.

"I then called my nephew who rushed to the spot with some other persons and informed police," said Kewal Ram, expressing his ignorance about the incident.

Those, who died have been identified as Budharam (75); his wife Antara Devi; son Ravi (31); daughters Jiya (25) and Suman (22); grandsons Mukdash (17) and Nain (12); Laxmi (40) and three minor sons of Kewal Ram.

The bodies have been sent for autopsy in Jodhpur and a medical board has been constituted to find out the cause of their death. "There was neither any injury mark on any of the bodies nor any evidences of any foul play," the SP said. "But we have roped in the forensic team and a dog squad to arrive at any final conclusion."
Former President John Dramani Mahama, the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), on Sunday announced a $10- billion accelerated infrastructural plan to drive jobs and entrepreneurial agenda when elected in December elections.



Dubbed the BIG PUSH, the fund would be injected into infrastructural development, and according to the NDC Election 2020 Flagbearer, it will involve the construction industry, engineering and other professionals, and will bring a lot of artisans and everybody back into work.



We are looking at what I call the BIG PUSH, injecting some $10 billion to revamp the roads sector, complete the remainder of the 200 Community Day Senior High Schools, finish all the hospital projects that have been left abandoned, and construct bridges to open up the country, former President Mahama said.



A statement issued by the NDC Campaign Team, signed by Mr James Agyenim-Boateng, which was copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said the major plank of the second coming of Mr John Dramani Mahama as President is to deliver jobs to our young people.



The NDC Flagbearer, who had been visiting and meeting traditional rulers and various interest groups in Savannah, Northern, Oti, and Volta Regions, also announced that delivering jobs to the young people would be a major floorboard of his next government.



If we do not do this urgently, we have a ticking time bomb on our hands. Everything and every policy will be focused on creating jobs for young people, Mr Mahama stated.



The NDC Flagbearer said his Agenda One Million Jobs would also see the creation of between 300,000 and 400,000 jobs a year, in both the private and public sectors.



It is a very well-thought-out plan and will be the central promise of our manifesto, he added.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will launch 'Atma Nirbhar Bharat Saptah' on Monday. Also, MoD will introduce import embargo on 101 items beyond given timeline to boost indigenisation of defence production.

It is time for India to make more indigenous weapons, to make the country self-reliant, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said here on Monday. Addressing an event to mark the Atma Nirbhar Saptah, the minister pointed out that necessary steps would be taken to make the country self-reliant in defence structure, investment infrastructure, manufacturing of weapons in the future.

Todays event is focussed on facilities for modernisation, up-gradation and new infrastructure that will help in our indigenous capability building, Singh said.

Pointing out at Sundays announcement that the government has come out with 101 items that will not be purchased from outside, he said, Am happy to announce that for the first time we have come out with the list of 101 items, which we will not import, we call this list as a negative list.

Also read: Sushant Case latest: Rhea, family to be grilled by ED again today

Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi has given a clarion call for a self-reliant India based on the five pillars, i.e., Economy, Infrastructure, System, Demography & Demand and announced a special economic package for Self-Reliant India named Atamnirbhar Bharat.  Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 9, 2020

Taking cue from that evocation, the Ministry of Defence has prepared a list of 101 items for which there would be an embargo on the import beyond the timeline indicated against them. This is a big step towards self-reliance in defence. #AtmanirbharBharat  Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) August 9, 2020

Also read: After Idukki landslide kills 43, IMD issues heavy rainfall warning for various districts in Kerala

In the coming days, we will include more items so that we can save imports worth crores of rupees. Our defence PSUs and ordnance factories are working in this direction. These industries are the backbone of our forces, the minister further said.

If we become capable of manufacturing things within India itself, then we will be able to save a large section of capital of the country. With the help of that capital, around 7,000 MSMEs associated with defence industry, can be encouraged, he added.

The minister observed that while self-reliance does not mean that it would cut off from the rest of the world, but it was equally important for any nation to be self-dependent.

While our country is walking hand-in-hand with rest of the globe, it has the capability to carve a niche for itself, added Rajnath.

Also read: India to embargo import of 101 defence items: Rajnath Singh
Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

The United States has officially surpassed 5 million cases of COVID-19, and projections show the increase likely won't slow down any time soon.

While businesses remain open (with restrictions) and students, faculty and staff prepare for the return to school and work, Texas has recorded 502,147 confirmed virus cases and 8,868 deaths since the pandemic began.
Hours after Abdul Hamid Najar was shot by militants, four BJP leaders in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam resigned from the party on Sunday

District president of Budgam BJP Abdul Hamid Najar was shot at by terrorists on Sunday succumbed to his injuries. (PTI Photo)

Budgam: District president of Budgam BJP Other Backward Class (OBC) Morcha, Abdul Hamid Najar, who was shot at by terrorists on Sunday, succumbed to his injuries, according to the party's Jammu and Kashmir unit on Monday.

"Abdul Hamid Najar, district president of Budgam BJP Other Backward Class (OBC) Morcha, was shot at by terrorists yesterday, has succumbed to his injuries," said BJP Jammu and Kashmir.

He was shifted to a hospital after being fired upon on Sunday.

Hours after Abdul Hamid Najar was shot by militants, four BJP leaders in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam resigned from the party on Sunday.

Among those who resigned are the party general-secretary Budgam and the general-secretary MM Morcha Budgam.

Earlier on August 6, BJP sarpanch Sajad Ahmad Khanday succumbed to injuries after he was shot by terrorists in Kulgam.

In July, former Bandipora BJP president Wasim Bari, his father and brother were killed by terrorists.
Regulatory News:

Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) ("PSH") today announced that it has purchased, through PSH's agent, Jefferies International Limited ("Jefferies"), the following number of PSH's Public Shares of no par value (ISIN Code: GG00BPFJTF46) (the "Shares"):

Trading Venue: London Stock Exchange Ticker: PSH Date of Purchase: 10 August 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 24,638 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 1,902 pence 24.88 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 1,894 pence 24.78 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 1,897 pence 24.82 USD Ticker: PSHD Date of Purchase: 10 August 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 13,634 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 24.85 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 24.80 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 24.81 USD Trading Venue: Euronext Amsterdam Ticker: PSH Date of Purchase: 10 August 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 24,344 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 24.90 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 24.75 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 24.83 USD

PSH will hold these Public Shares in Treasury. The net asset value per Public Share related to this buyback is 36.12 USD 27.60 GBP which was calculated as of 31 July 2020 (the "Relevant NAV"). After giving effect to the above buyback, PSH has 193,906,812 Public Shares outstanding, or 199,881,708 Public Shares calculated on a fully diluted basis (assuming that all Management Shares had been converted into Public Shares at the Relevant NAV). Excluded from the shares outstanding are 17,049,938 Public Shares held in Treasury. The prices per Public Share were calculated by Jefferies.

The number of PSH Management Shares and the one special voting share (held by PS Holdings Independent Voting Company Limited) have not been affected.

About Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd.

Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) is an investment holding company structured as a closed-ended fund that makes concentrated investments principally in North American companies.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200810005700/en/

Contacts:

Media

Camarco

Ed Gascoigne-Pees Hazel Stevenson +44 020 3757 4989, media-pershingsquareholdings@camarco.co.uk
Many readers of this blog might not know anything about the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally held in South Dakota. It has not been cancelled and wearing masks, not that it would make a difference in behaviors, is not required. This year only half, 250,000 people, are expected to attend the event. Note that the entire population of South Dakota is just a little bit south of 860,000 people.Where do these people come from -- everywhere! Riders will come from thousands of miles away and even from other countries. What do they do when they get there? One word: "Party!" Think of the event as a multi-day frat party for seniors. As the Harley-Davidson company can tell you, sales are down due to younger generations of potential riders not taking up the "open road" on a bike. Perhaps there will be more canes in the bars. Useful in a fight!Here's a description of the event fromIn unscientific terms, riders will travel across the United States, with those who already have COVID-19 stopping in bars, restaurants and hotels. Then they will spend multiple days in crowded indoor and outdoor spaces with other thousands of people in intimate contact. After spreading the virus around, they will get back on their bikes for the ride home. Those infected will then repeat the spread on their trip across multiple states.Watch for a significant spike in hospitalizations in South Dakota in the coming weeks.
Universities and colleges have also been closed for physical classes until January 2021 but can continue holding virtual instruction and graduations. Over the past two decades, private schools  from kindergartens to high schools  have mushroomed across Kenya. About one-fourth of schools in Kenya are private  supported by private entrepreneurs, religious organisations and non-profit organisations. Some are startups backed by Bill Gates, Microsoft's founder, and Mark Zuckerberg, head of Facebook. Private schools charge fees ranging from tens of dollars per year to tens of thousands of dollars. Mutheu Kasanga, chair of the Kenya Private Schools Association, in Nairobi. Credit:Khadija Farah/The New York Times Kenya, like other countries, has been struggling with how to prevent the coronavirus from spreading while keeping schools and the economy humming. After strict restrictions kept the case count low, the country eased limitations on movement and has in the last month seen a sharp rise in cases. It has reported 26,436 infections and 420 deaths, but that may be a vast undercount because of lack of access to mass testing.

When the government shut down schools in March, it introduced remote lessons streamed over radio, television and videos posted on YouTube. However, for the vast majority of students, many in poor and rural households, remote learning was not an option. They didn't have access to television, laptops, the internet or even the electricity to power these gadgets. This was the reality facing Johnian Njue, 17, a 10th-grader who lives in Nairobi but attends a public boarding school in Kwale county in Kenya's southeast. Raised by a single mother in the Mathare slum, Johnian had been attending the school on a rugby scholarship. Johnian Njue, 17, who was unable to access remote classes when schools closed because his home has no internet and patchy electricity, in Nairobi, Kenya. Credit:The New York Times At home, with patchy electricity and no telephone, textbooks or internet, he said he has received little to no instruction from his teachers and has not been able to access the line-up of remote classes. And Johnian has had to take care of his two younger siblings who are at home while his mother is out  which distracts him, he said, even when he wants to study on his own.

Several of his friends from the neighbourhood, he said, have started abusing drugs, snatching bags and pick pocketing, and were not interested in studying together. "They say, 'There's no need of reading. We will repeat the classes next year,'" he said. But he added, "I feel bad. I want to finish school." His experience bears little resemblance to that of 11-year-old Verisiah Kambale. Since March, Verisiah, a fifth-grader at the private Makini School in Nairobi, has taken her classes, including mathematics, science and even physical education, through live video instruction. She interacts with her teachers and has also been able to talk to her classmates during class breaks. After school, she takes online classes in music theory and clarinet. She and her brother have the support of their parents, who are both working from home.

Billian Okoth Ojiwa, who founded a community centre where volunteer teachers help students study while schools are closed, in Nairobi. Credit:Khadija Farah/The New York Times Verisiah said that even though she misses in-person classes, she is enjoying studying at home, being with her parents  who used to travel a lot  and having time to write and draw. She is even compiling a book of stories about 11-year-olds' experiences of the coronavirus pandemic. "I have been studying and working hard," Verisiah said. "I don't want to repeat classes." Even after the government cancelled the rest of the school year, some private schools continued holding online classes and charging fees. This has helped them to stay afloat and afford to pay rent and the salaries of tens of thousands of teachers, cooks, librarians and lab technicians, said Mutheu Kasanga, chair of the Kenya Private Schools Association. At least 124 private schools are facing closure because of financial constraints brought over by the pandemic.

Kasanga said she was aware that the pandemic has exposed a "digital divide" that was purely based on the socioeconomic status of parents. But instead of scrapping the entire school year  a move she described as "punishing the children" for the outbreak  she said education officials should have invested in practical solutions to keep children in school, like prioritising internet connectivity to remote areas. Loading "As a country, we needed to rally around our poor people and ensure that every household is able to cater to the education of their children," she said. By not doing that, she added, "we have failed as a country." Susannah Hares, co-director of the global education program at the Centre for Global Development, a research group, said the decision to keep schools closed until January was "understandable" because public school classrooms are crowded, and many lack facilities for hand-washing. But the move, she said, is "likely to be devastating for children" because the poor will be at a disadvantage and some will not come back when schools reopen. In addition, she predicted there would be more teenage pregnancies and, without school food programs, more hunger.

Kenya's government acknowledged the challenges inherent in closing schools, including unequal access to learning platforms, a possible increase in domestic violence against children and the likelihood that dropout rates will rise. Loading Magoha said last week that the ministry would launch a community program that would pair teachers with students who don't have access to education. However, some parents with children in private schools aren't waiting for the government to reopen schools next year. Some are considering moving their children to British, French or other private foreign schools in Kenya, which still plan to give their students foreign standardised tests at the end of this academic year. Students who pass those tests can advance to the next grade, while students who were supposed to take the Kenyan tests  now cancelled  will be left behind. "In a worst-case scenario, come January, what if the government isn't ready to open schools?" said Verisiah's mother, Serah Joy Malaba. Changing to a foreign private school, she said, is "something we've thought about."Johnian Njue, 17, who was unable to access remote classes when schools closed because his home has no internet and patchy electricity, in Nairobi, Kenya

That's not an option for students like Adhiambo who are in public schools and whose parents cannot afford the thousands of dollars charged annually at private schools. For a few days a week, she goes to a local community centre where volunteer teachers help her review her course work. "At least I am lucky," she said of the study sessions. "My friends don't even have this." The New York Times
Imperial Valley News Center

National Security Advisor Robert C. OBrien on Lebanon

Washington, DC - Under the direction of President Donald J. Trump, the United States is delivering critical emergency aid to Lebanon following Tuesdays horrific event in Beirut. The first wave of United States relief, coordinated between the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, the Department of Defense, the Department of State, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) includes food, water, and critical medical supplies.

The United States, through the support of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, will continue to work closely with authorities on the ground in Lebanon to identify further health and humanitarian needs and will provide further assistance in the period to come. USAID is deploying a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) today to Beirut to assist in the coordination and delivery of humanitarian assistance.

The United States extends our condolences to all of the families of those lost in this tragedy. We stand firmly with the people of Lebanon and will continue to offer our full support through this difficult time.
Indiana police arrested two teens who were allegedly plotting Columbine-style massacres at several schools.

John L Schultz IV, 18, and Donald V. Robin Jr., 17, were both charged with conspiracy to commit murder as well as intimidation, authorities told ABC57.

A confidential informant told a Rochester police officer that Schultz and his friends were plotting a massacre at school, officials said in an affidavit.

Schultz was waiting for class to restart again because he could then kill as many as they can and kill themselves just like Columbine, according to the report. The county prosecutor also said they wanted to mimic the Columbine shooting, WSBT reported.

Columbine likely refers to the April 1999 shooting that left 15 dead at Columbine High School in Colorado. Students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were identified as the suspects.

Authorities searched the two Indiana teens Facebook pages and homes, saying that they posed a threat. Their posts and private messages suggested Schultz and Robin were allegedly planning shootings at Rochester High School and Caston High School, reported WSBT.

Like the Columbine shooters, the two teens also bought trench coats, got tattoos of guns with quotes from the two killers, listened to music about the massacre, and used Klebold and Harris as their profile pictures, prosecutors told the outlet.

So I mean, anytime anyones obsessed with Columbine, yes, its a fine line between free speech and when you cross the line, but I think in this case, clearly what they had done was going to interfere with the occupancy of a school, said Fulton County Prosecutor Michael Marrs.

I mean, we wouldnt have asked for a warrant for that, thats a first amendment freedom, said Chief Deputy Prosecutor Rachel Arndt. But when it goes so far as to start making a plan and taking an overt act and furtherance of that plan, thats where we ask for warrants and we do something about it.
The thing about Kiesha (played so wonderfully by Birgundi Baker) is that even before this, she could be prickly. Kevin is the one family member she seemed to have the closest bond with, but she doesnt seek him out  is it because she wants to protect him or she thinks he cant understand? For a brief moment it looks like a friend from school might be a welcome distraction, but her visit only makes things worse when she casually tells Kiesha about some of the nasty gossip that sprung up around her disappearance. The quickness to laugh or smirk at a Black womans pain and trauma, it makes no sense but, infuriatingly, it happens all the time. Megan Thee Stallion experienced some of that in real life recently and she had to go on Instagram and plead for people to extend her some compassion and humanity; I dont see Kiesha ever being that vulnerable in public, but you better believe shes going to remember the way people let her down.
Falls Church, Va.  Whether President Donald Trump has the constitutional authority to extend federal unemployment benefits by executive order remains unclear. Equally up in the air is whether states, which are necessary partners in Trumps plan to bypass Congress, will sign on.

Trump announced an executive order Saturday that extends additional unemployment payments of $400 a week to help cushion the economic fallout of the pandemic. Congress had approved payments of $600 a week at the outset of the coronavirus outbreak, but those benefits expired Aug. 1 and Congress has been unable to agree on an extension. Many Republicans have expressed concern that a $600 weekly benefit, on top of existing state benefits, gives people an incentive to stay unemployed.

But under Trump's plan, the $400 a week requires a state to commit to providing $100.

Many states are already facing budget crunches caused by the pandemic. Asked at a news conference how many governors had signed on to participate, Trump answered: If they dont, they dont. Thats up to them.

Aubrey Layne, secretary of finance for Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, said in a phone interview Sunday he believes it would be feasible for Virginia to participate in such a program if states are allowed to use money that's been allocated to them under the already passed CARES Act. He said his preliminary understanding is that states can do so, but he and others are waiting to see the rules published.

The better solution, Layne said, would be for Congress to pass legislation.

Its ludicrous to me that Congress cant get together on this, he said. I think it would have been better for the president to use his influence in those negotiations, rather than standing on the sideline and then riding in like a shining knight.

Indeed, details about the program became confused on Sunday. On CNNs State of the Nation White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said conflicting things about whether the federal money was contingent on an additional contribution from the states. Initially Kudlow said that for an extra $100, we will lever it up. We will pay three-quarters, and the states will pay 25 percent. In the same interview, though, he later said that at a minimum, we will put in 300 bucks ... but I think all they (the states) have to do is put up an extra dollar, and we will be able to throw in the extra $100.

A clarifying statement from the White House said the funds will be available for those who qualify by, among other things, receiving $100/week of existing assistance and certify that they have lost their jobs due to COVID-19.

Several advocacy groups that follow the issue, though, said it's clear the way the executive order is structured that the federal money will be contingent on states making a 25 percent contribution.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, called the plan an impossibility.

I dont know if the president is genuine in thinking the executive order is a resolution or if this is just a tactic in the negotiation, Cuomo said. But this is irreconcilable for the state. And I expect this is just a chapter in the book of Washington COVID mismanagement.

In Connecticut, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont said on CBS Face the Nation that the plan would cost his state $500 million to provide that benefit for the rest of the year, and called Trumps plan not a good idea.

I could take that money from testing  I dont think thats a good idea, Lamont said.

On CNN, Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine praised Trump for issuing the order.

Hes trying to do something. Hes trying to move the ball forward, DeWine said.

Still, he was noncommittal about whether Ohio would participate.

Were looking at it right now to see whether we can do this, he said.

Christina Stephens, a spokeswoman for Democratic Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said: Right now we are reviewing the Presidents order to determine exactly what the impact to the state would be.

In Maryland, Michael Ricci, spokesman for Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, said in an email that we will wait on new guidance from US Department of Labor before looking at any (unemployment insurance) changes.

In Minnesota, Department of Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove said his agency is awaiting further guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor.

And in Michigan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a press release that Trump cut federal funding for unemployed workers and is requiring states that are facing severe holes in our budgets to provide 25% of the funding.

On ABCs This Week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it an unworkable plan.

Most states will take months to implement it, because its brand new. Its sort of put together with spit and paste. And many states, because they have to chip in $100, and they dont have money, wont do it, Schumer said.

Many states struggled to adjust outdated computer systems to accommodate the $600 payment, which along with the massive influx of new claims resulted in long delays in providing benefits. Reprogramming the computers again to accommodate the new amount could result in similar glitches.

On ABC, Kudlow said that many of those outdated systems have since been upgraded.

I dont think there will be a huge delay. Labor Department has been working with the states. The states are the ones that process the federal benefits before. So, I dont see any reason why it would be all that difficult, he said.
Wisconsin Officer Assaulted by Protesters, Shot Fired Into Home: Officials

Police in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, said a large group of protesters targeted the private home of a police officer, identified as Joseph Mensah, attacking both him and his girlfriend.

A group of between 50 and 60 people vandalized Mensahs home near 100th Street and Vienna Street in Wauwatosa, located near Milwaukee, said the Wauwatosa Police Department in a news release. The incident occurred at around 8 p.m. on Saturday.

Mensah tried to speak with the group, according to the office. However, he was ultimately physically assaulted outside of his home, the office said.

When officer Mensah retreated into his home, armed protestors approached the rear door and a single shotgun round was discharged by a member of the group into officer Mensahs backdoor, the release said. The Wauwatosa Police Department received assistance in disbursing the crowd from numerous neighboring agencies.

Officials said the investigation into the case is ongoing.

The police department wrote that the Wauwatosa Police Chief Barry Weber and other staff members met to discuss the incident.

Steps have been taken to ensure the safety of Officer Mensah and the City of Wauwatosa community. This on-going investigation is urgent and a priority to the Wauwatosa Police Department, the office wrote in a statement on Monday afternoon.

Mensah, meanwhile, issued a statement on Saturday, saying that I was unarmed and was trying to defend my property, and the property of my girlfriend, according to Fox6. We were both assaulted, punched, and ultimately shot several times.

He added that a shotgun round missed me several times (sic), without elaborating. Its not clear if he was injured.

The irony in all of this is that they chanted Black Lives Matter the entire time, but had zero regard for any of the Black children that live there or me, a Black man, Mensah said on Facebook.

According to the Fox affiliates report, Mensah was involved in the shooting deaths of three people. Two of the shootings were ruled justified.

The Wauwatosa Common Council suspended Mensah by unanimous vote in the officer-involved shooting death of Alvin Cole in February. The case is still being reviewed.

The citys mayor, Dennis McBride, noted that armed protesters approached the rear door and one fired a shotgun round into his back door in Saturdays incident at Mensahs home.

In recent weeks, various groups have protested in Wauwatosa, demanding that Officer Mensah be fired. The City of Wauwatosa has always supported and protected the right to peaceful protest. Last nights event was not a peaceful protest; it was criminal behavior. If the perpetrators of this criminal behavior are identified, they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law, he said.
Three-tier cakes, crisp morning suits, elegant floral arrangements and an extensive guest list - these were all the tell-tale signs of a society wedding.

But sticking just to tradition doesn't appear to cut it for today's young couples with colourful wedding dresses and informal invitations being adopted in recent nuptials.

Tatler has looked at what constitutes a society wedding' today and said it includes embracing guests with standout, more informal looks, with some even opting for androgynous attire.

Blue-blooded couples have also latched onto foreign customs from America, such as clapping in church and father-of-the bride speeches, according to the British society bible.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, young royals including Prince Harry, Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice all embraced some of these key trends.

Here, FEMAIL speaks to wedding experts who reveal the several aspects now accepted in society nuptials that would've previously been avoided.

Colourful wedding dresses are here to stay

Flower power: Princess Maria Theresia von Thurn und Taxis wowed in a Vivienne Westwood golden-rose print during her wedding to British artist Hugo Wilson in 2014, pictured

'Gone are the days of just white or Ivory, wedding planner Charlotte Ricard-Quesada, Founder of La Fete, told FEMAIL.

'More and more brides, whether society brides or not, are deciding to be their true selves on their big day. Making decisions that make them happy and best represent them.

'And obviously a crucial aspect of this is the dress itself! On a normal day you would pick out the dress or outfit that reflects what you want to portray of yourself, so why would your wedding day be any different?'

Society brides that have adopted this trend include model Poppy Delevingne who married long-term partner James Cook in 2014.

She sported a stunning wildflower embellished gown for her second dress, while Princess Maria Theresia von Thurn und Taxis wowed in a Vivienne Westwood golden-rose print during her wedding to British artist Hugo Wilson in the same year.

Back in 2013, British actress Keira Knightley opted for a pale grey tulle Chanel couture during her wedding to musician James Righton in the South of France.

Androgynous outfits are in

Model Cara Delevingne caused a stir with traditionalists after turning up to her friend's Princess Eugenies wedding in a top hat and tailoring, pictured

It appears well-heeled lovebirds have embraced guests wearing glitzier outfits, with some even going for androgynous chic.

Model Cara Delevingne caused a stir with traditionalists after turning up to her friend's Princess Eugenies wedding in a top hat and tails.

Wedding expert Charlotte says: 'Guest outfits becoming more unique and special is definitely a product of the rise of Instagram and those snapshots taken at the event which showcase everyone's outfits.

'Guests see this as a moment for them to look and feel their best too. Dressing for a wedding as a guest in your 30s is more or less like when you used to dress to go clubbing in your early 20s. You still need that excuse to glam up and be unique.'

Hats are out, and fascinators are in

Hats have been replaced by fascinators and playful headpieces, such as the headband worn by Cressida Bonas (pictured) at the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank in 2018

'Society weddings definitely tend to stick more to tradition, but hats are being slowly replaced by fashionable fascinators and statement hair pieces in favour of modern trends,' said wedding expert Samantha.

Invitations are less formal Lavinia admitted: 'I work with many couples who don't feel comfortable with the traditional formal wording of a wedding invitation, even if their big day is truly English and traditional in itself. 'Nowadays, brides are more conscious as they do not want their parents to be formally inviting all their guests even if they are paying for the whole occasion. 'Instead of "Mrs & Mrs" the wording tends to be more relaxed such as "We" or " X & Y with their families". 'This may well be due to couples wanting to step away from certain old fashion traditions or perhaps, it is due to the groom's family wanting to contribute more to the whole occasion, which once upon a time was unheard of.' Advertisement

'In fact, when it comes to the gents, youll likely only see a hat on the driver and maybe the groomsmen if youre lucky.

'But for women  hats are part of the fun and its competition to see who can wear the most stylish creation.'

Meanwhile, Lavinia suggest headbands were taking over from hats, explaining: 'There are still certain weddings where hats are a must, and let's face it, who doesn't love a hat!

'However, headbands have now taken over, with many female guests opting for a slightly larger, designed headband instead of a hat.

' When looking at the guests sitting down in a church, it certainly tends to be the older guests, such as the parent's friends, who are wearing hats, not the younger ones.

'Younger guests enjoy pairing their outfits with headbands from designers such as Jennifer Behr or even smaller more quirky colorful hat options as they can be a lot more fun.'

Guests are going bolder, glitzier and more standout

Lavinia Stewart-Brown, founder of Stewart-Brown-Events, a boutique wedding and events consultancy based in London, thinks guests at well-heeled nuptials have more freedom to embrace daring and eye-catching fashion styles.

'These days, it certainly seems acceptable for guests and even the bridal party to be less formal at weddings,' she told FEMAIL.

'We are seeing a lot of jumpsuits on ladies, and it is becoming a bit of a trend globally for the bridesmaids to wear them, either in patterns or in one solid block colour.

'The same goes for sequins and shorter dresses. Today's fashion is a lot more experimental and certain styles are acceptable nowadays whereas they weren't for previous generations.

'The same goes for the male guests who once would have worn tails, now seem to wear more suits, especially during the summer.'

Wedding expert Samantha Kelsie, agreed, adding: 'Guests are definitely making more of an entrance. Fashion is everything, and the current generation of wedding guests arent about to lose their style in honour of tradition.

'Part of the fun of receiving a wedding invitation is deciding what outfit to wear, and with the current trends in modern fashion, were a far cry away from the traditional top hats and tails styles of the 90s.

'Many couples do still offer a dress code with their invitation, and there are still those in favour of black tie on their day, but with many more couples now designing a laid-back approach to their wedding, with a festival feel and an emphasis on fun, the pressure to dress formal is becoming much more relaxed.'
Admin of Telegram channel to stand porno peddling trial in Russias Vologda

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

18:02 10/08/2020

MOSCOW, August 10 (RAPSI)  The Vologda City Court will hear a public porno peddling case against the Police Ombudsman Telegram channels admin Igor Khudyakov, attorney Maxim Pashkov has told RAPSI.

According to the lawyer, expiry of the statute of limitations was only 27 days away.

In July, Khudyakov was released from detention because an investigator of major crimes took such a decision due to the charges mitigation.

Khudyakov was placed in detention in late May. He was arrested on April 23 in Volgograd and charged with illicit production and distribution of materials with sexual content by a group of people.

According to Pashkov, the case was opened over publication of sex photos of a VKontakte female user in a closed chat. Searches were conducted in his premises, after which Moscow police reported a new criminal case over porno peddling against Vladimir Vorontsov, the creator of the Police Ombudsman Telegram channel.
(Natural News) Scientists recently found evidence of an unknown ancestor of humans whose DNA is present even in people living today. Their findings, published in the journal Plos Genetics, were derived from a novel algorithm that allowed scientists to map the lineages of early humans and the interbreeding events that occurred between them.

Among the ancient ancestors included in the study were the Neanderthals and the mysterious Denisovans. Neanderthals are the extinct species of humans that populated vast areas of Eurasia and went extinct about 30,000 years ago. Denisovans, on the other hand, populated Siberia and are lesser-known than Neanderthals.

Scientists first found out about the existence of Denisovans in 2008 when a fragment of a girls pinky finger was found in a Siberian cave. But recent research suggests that this species/sub-species interbred with Neanderthals as well as with Homo sapiens  modern humans.

Neanderthals, on the other hand, have accounted for one to four percent of human genes in people from Asia, Europe and Oceania. About 20 percent of the Neanderthal genome is estimated to be preserved across all modern humans today.

DNA of unknown ancestor present in todays humans

For the present study, the researchers compared the genomes  the complete set of genes in a cell  of two Neanderthals, one Denisovan and two modern African individuals. The samples from modern Africans were selected because they are known not to have any Neanderthal and Denisovan genes.

Using the novel algorithm, they captured recombination events in which segments of chromosomes  which are made up of DNA  from one individual get passed onto the chromosome of another. The researchers added that the algorithm enables them to identify DNA that was deeply buried by a series of interbreeding events.

Results show that one percent of the Denisovan genome came from genes of an unknown archaic ancestor, which resulted from an interbreeding event roughly a million years ago. In turn, about 15 percent of the archaic interbreeding sequences found in Denisovans are present in people who are alive today.

The team suspects that this mystery ancestor might be Homo erectus, an extinct hominin that emerged in Africa about two million years ago and migrated out of the continent. They explained that Homo erectus likely overlapped in Eurasia with the ancestors of Denisovans and Neanderthals.

However, the DNA fragments found were tiny and the genome of Homo erectus has never been sequenced. Thus, the mystery ancestor could have been an entirely different, unknown human ancestor.

Complex picture of human ancestry

The researchers also found evidence suggesting that Homo sapiens mated with Neanderthals between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago, supporting earlier research that found the two interbred earlier than previously thought at 47,000 to 65,000 years ago. As a result, about three percent of the Neanderthal genome came from Homo sapiens.

Our best conjecture is that an early group of anatomically modern humans left Africa then encountered and interbred with Neandertals, perhaps in the Middle East, said co-author Adam Siepel of the Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory.

He added that the lineage from this mating either died out or was absorbed by Neanderthals. Otherwise, they could have gone back to Africa. (Related: Were Neanderthals in California the first Americans?.)

A picture is emerging of a series of distinct but related populations moving around the globe and frequently interacting with one another, with occasional interbreeding events that produced hybrid offspring, said Siepel.

It further appears, said the researchers, that ancient human species mated whenever they are present at the same time in the same place.

Such interbreeding could have weakened some hybrid offsprings fitness for survival. But it is apparent from the study that many of them survived and reproduced, painting a complex picture of human genealogical history that is preserved even in todays humans.

Artifacts.news has more on recent discoveries on humans early ancestors.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.UK

ScienceAlert.com

Nature.com 1

Nature.com 2 [PDF]

LiveScience.com
London coronvirus

DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP via Getty Images

Scientists say the UK government must fight misinformation to convince people to get a vaccine.

Just 30% of Brits told an opinion poll that they would definitely get a coronavirus vaccine.

16% said they were unlikely to get a vaccine or definitely wouldn't.

The researchers said conspiracy theories and public mistrust were fuelling vaccine skepticism.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson last month said anti-vaxxers were "nuts."

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Less than a third of British people say they would definitely get a coronavirus vaccine, with scientists warning that the UK government and social media companies must fight misinformation for a vaccine to be widely accepted.

New research by pollsters Ipsos Mori and Kings College London university found that 30% of people in the UK said they were certain to get a vaccine for COVID-19 if it became available.

23% said they were very likely and 20% said they were fairly likely.

However, 16% of respondents said they were either unlikely to get a vaccine or definitely wouldn't.

Of those respondents who said they definitely wouldn't get a vaccine, 36% said they believed "too much fuss" is being made of the virus, which has led to nearly 47,000 deaths in the UK, while 34% said the UK government was attempting to control the population by making people wear face masks.

Scientists behind the research said there was a clear link between opposition to a vaccine and social media as a source of news. 27% of respondents who said they got their news from Whatsapp said they would be unlikely to get the virus.

Professor Bobby Duffy, director of the policy institute at Kings College London, warned that skepticism towards vaccines was fueled by conspiracy theories and a lack of public trust in politicians and science.

He said: "Misperceptions about vaccines are among our most directly damaging beliefs and they're clearly influencing people's intentions during the coronavirus crisis.

Story continues

"While one in six in the UK say they are unlikely to, or definitely won't, get a potential vaccine, this rises to around a third or more among certain groups, with a clear link to belief in conspiracy theories and mistrust of government, authority and science.

"Vaccines are one of our greatest achievements and there is a great deal of faith that we'll eventually develop one for COVID-19  but more still need to be convinced of how important it could be for ending this crisis."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently said anti-vaxxers are 'nuts'

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock last month said anti-vaxxers were "threatening lives."

Pippa Fowles/10 Downing Street/Handout via REUTERS

Duffy told Bloomberg that a "simple communications approach" is not going to be enough to convince people to get a vaccine, advising Boris Johnson's UK government to team up with social media companies to combat misinformation.

"The study shows how uncertain large proportions of the population are about vaccines, and how much this is connected to where they get their information, but also their broader underlying beliefs and values.

"We'll need tailored messages for different groups, and to engage social media platforms to contain and remove blatant conspiracy theories."

Prime Minister Johnson last month said people who opposed vaccines  or anti-vaxxers  were "nuts."

Matt Hancock, the UK's health secretary, last month urged members of Parliament of all political parties to stand "shoulder to shoulder" against anti-vaxxers. "Those who promulgate lies about vaccines that are safe and have been approved, they are threatening lives," he said.

Johnson's UK government has ordered millions of doses of potential vaccines.

It has ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine being developed by Oxford University, which is regarded as the frontrunner in the global race to produce a coronavirus vaccine.

Read the original article on Business Insider
U.S. defense chief confirms troops in Afghanistan reduced below 5,000 in months

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper confirmed on Saturday that U.S. troops in Afghanistan would be reduced to less than 5,000 by the end of November.

"We're going down to a number less than 5,000 by the end of November. We need to brief Congress from what that looks like," Esper told Fox News in a Saturday night interview.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump revealed the force reduction plan in an interview with Axios.

When asked how many American troops will be in Afghanistan on presidential election day in early November, Trump said it would be "probably, anywhere from 4,000 to 5,000."

The Pentagon said in mid-July that the United States maintained its force level in Afghanistan at mid-8,000s, meeting the conditions of the U.S.-Taliban deal signed in late February.

According to the agreement, the United States would reduce its forces in Afghanistan to 8,600 within 135 days till July 13.

The agreement also called for a full withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan by May 2021 if the Taliban follows the deal, including severing ties with terrorist groups.

U.S. invasion of Afghanistan has caused over 100,000 deaths, including civilians, Afghan security forces, Taliban forces and U.S. troops. Trump has sought a full withdrawal from Afghanistan. Enditem
49 Virginia state lawmakers who wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, urging him to call for the Chinese Communist Party to end its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, on July 29, 2020. (The Epoch Times)

49 Virginia Lawmakers Call for End to Torture, Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong in China

Forty-nine Virginia state lawmakers recently drafted a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, urging him to raise awareness about the plight of persecuted faith group Falun Gong in China.

This July marked 21 years of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)s suppression of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice with meditative exercises and moral teachings based on truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.

First introduced in China in May 1992, the practice grew in popularity. By 1999, 100 million people in Chinaor about one in 13 Chinesewere practicing Falun Gong, according to Chinese state reports.

Then-head of the CCP Jiang Zemin launched a brutal persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, with authorities rounding up practitioners and detaining them inside prisons, jails, and brainwashing centers. Thousands have since died under torture, according to Minghui.org, a U.S.-based website that documents the persecution.

Letter

The lawmakers described in the letter the torture methods used by authorities, as described by Falun Gong survivors currently residing in Virginia.

Left in death bed with four limbs tied. Handcuffed and hung in painful position. Violently force-fed. High-voltage electric shock. Not allowed to sleep for three days, the letter recounted.

The letter was signed by 12 Virginia state senators and 37 Virginia state delegates, representing about 35 percent of the states legislature.

The letter that 49 Virginia state lawmakers wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, dated July 29, 2020. (Provided to The Epoch Times)

David Bulova, a Democrat representing Virginias 37th House Districtthe heart of Fairfax, Virginiaexplained that he was compelled to take action after meeting with local practitioners.

Meeting[them] made it very, very real, and made me want to actually do something in order to be able to draw attention to the situation, Bulova said.

David Bulova, delegate representing Virginias 37th House District in the heart of Fairfax, Va. (Courtesy of David Bulova Office)

He added that he and his colleagues hoped to use the considerable moral and economic forces in order to be able to draw attention and demand changes, and planned to send the letter to the Virginia governor and health commissioner as well.

In the letter, the lawmakers urged: We ask for your [Pompeos] leadership, and the considerable leverage of the United States, to ensure that next year we are not observing 22 years of persecution.

Surviving Torture

Ma Chunmei, 51-year-old, is from northeast Chinas Jilin Province, and she experienced the torture the delegates letter talks about. She escaped from her home country in 2006 and lives in Virginia now.

Ma said she almost died several times in Chinese labor camps from 1999 to 2006.

She testified on Capitol Hill on May 26, 2016: They [prison guards] tied my four limbs on an iron bed, pushed a rubber tube into my stomach to forcibly feed me salty corn paste in November 1999. They intentionally pushed and pulled the rubber tube which was very painful. My body reacted naturally and threw out the corn paste, which was mixed with blood.

Ma Chunmei testifies on Capitol Hill on May 26, 2016.. (Epoch Times)

Ma said she was abducted by security four times and sent to a labor camp twice. She was tortured by electric shock batons, beatings, being suspended by handcuffs, the death bed (all four limbs are stretched out to the four corners of an icy-cold metal bed) for three days, brutal forced feeding, and injections with poisonous drugs.

When I was tied upon the death bed, the pain was beyond the limit that my body could bear. When I was released after being tied there three days, I was paralyzed and like a dead person, Ma said.

The authorities forced Mas husband to divorce her, and she lost custody of her son and ownership of the family business.

The letter also highlighted allegations that forced organ harvesting was occurring in China, with prisoners of conscience, including Falun Gong practitioners, as the source of organs.

The lawmakers called for the U.S. government to increase education efforts among Americans so as to reduce the demand for this immoral practice.

Organ transplants are a marvel of science and can be a selfless gesture that gives the gift of life. However, organ transplants should never be conducted under force or duress, the letter stated.

In June 2019, an independent peoples tribunal in London concluded, after a yearlong investigation, that forced organ harvesting has taken place in China for years on a significant scale, with Falun Gong practitioners as the main source of organs. In its final judgment in March, the tribunal said this human rights crime was still in practice, stating that the tragically unchecked action allowed many people to die horribly and unnecessarily.

Allegations first emerged in 2006, when a human rights group and two witnesses from China described the practice within the countrys concentration camps.

Since then, independent researchers have published reports with more evidence of organ harvesting taking place in China.

Most recently, transplant ethics experts raised concerns about the swiftness in a Chinese hospitals procurement of organs to conduct lung transplant surgery on patients whose lungs were damaged by COVID-19.
India on Sunday dismissed the controversy over the birthplace of Gautam Buddha, saying External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's remarks were "about our shared Buddhist heritage" and there's "no doubt" that the founder of Buddhism was born in Nepal's Lumbini.

'No doubt that Buddha was born in Nepal'

During a virtual event titled "India@75 Summit: Collaborating for a New Self-reliant India," organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Saturday, S Jaishankar said, "Who are the greatest Indians ever that you can remember?", adding, "I would say one is Gautam Buddha and the other is Mahatma Gandhi."

He was mentioning about India's moral leadership and how Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi's teachings are still relevant. However, the Nepalese media quoted him as saying that Buddha was an Indian.

"EAM's remarks yesterday at the CII event referred to our shared Buddhist heritage. There is no doubt that Gautam Buddha was born in Lumbini, which is in Nepal," External Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said in the response to a media query on Jaishankar's remarks.

'The entire international community is aware'

Nepal's Foreign Minister in a statement said that it is a well-established and undeniable fact proven by historical and archaeological evidence that Gautam Buddha was born in Lumbini, Nepal. Kathmandu's Foreign Minister also recalled that Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi himself during his visit to Nepal in 2014, while addressing Nepal's Legislature-Parliament, had said that "Nepal is the country where the apostle of peace in the world, Buddha, was born."

READ | Nepal resumes airing all Indian news channels after ban for 'hurting country's sentiments'

"It is true that Buddhism spread from Nepal to other parts of the world in the subsequent period. The matter remains beyond doubt and controversy and thus cannot be a subject of debate. The entire international community is aware of this," the Nepal ministry added.

READ | Nepal to send India its 'updated map' with Kalapani, Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura

Former Prime Minister and senior leader of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal Madhav Kumar Nepal said the alleged statement made by Jaishankar that Buddha was a great Indian is baseless and objectionable. Similarly, Nepali Congress spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma also said, "Lord Buddha was born in Nepal."

READ | Nepal PM Oli wants Ram Mandir built in his country; claims evidence proving the birthplace

The latest row over Buddha comes against the backdrop of Nepal publishing a new political map that included Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura, as part of Nepalese territory. Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli had in July claimed that the birthplace of Lord Rama, is in Nepal and that Lord Rama was Nepali. He repeated the claim mere days earlier.

READ | 'Gurkha agreement legacy of past': Nepal calls for revision of pact with India & UK

(With agency inputs)
Schools in Southeast Texas continue to take different approaches to reopening this week, with Orangefield ISD welcoming back the majority of their students in-person, and Port Neches-Groves ISD hosting an in-person freshman orientation.

(The coronavirus) is not the forefront of our mind, but it is definitely something that we consider when we make decisions, Orangefield ISD Superintendent Shaun McAlpin told The Enterprise. A lot of what we are focusing in on is our protocols and procedures and our health guidelines. We feel if we follow those and parents are aware of what is expected and are screening, and we are looking out for one another than individuals wont put each other in difficult situations.

On campus, McAlpin said teachers and students were excited to be back.

A lot of very smiling faces that we could see on the young ones that dont have to wear a mask, but all of the adults were out and ready to go, he said. I think all the kids are excited to be back.

The return kicks off a week with districts returning across the region, including Lumberton, Hardin-Jefferson and Vidor this week.

The district of less than 2,000 expected about 300 students to utilize the online option.

Students who enrolled online wont be able to return to campus until the end of the 6-week grading period Sept. 22, McAlpin said, adding the program is designed to limit the amount of printing.

I encourage any parents having issues to reach out to their campuses, or the COVID-19 email that we have set up, we will get back to them pretty quickly, he said.

The email the district has set up is covid19@orangefieldisd.com.

Overall, school officials said the online program rolled out smoothly.

While Port Neches-Groves ISD, the only district in the region not to offer an online option, doesnt start until next week, they held a socially-distanced freshman orientation Monday afternoon.

We are expecting around 250-300 kids, PN-G High School Principal Scott Ryan told The Enterprise. We are requiring masks and socially distancing.

The district also trimmed down the activities from past years, and held the parent portion of the event in the gym instead of the auditorium to provide ample space.

Some parents expressed concern earlier this summer about the return to campus, while others are confident that the school will be safe for their return.

My daughter is looking forward to it, Telisha Seymour, whose daughter will be a freshman this year, said. I am not at all worried about the virus.

Seymour said her eldest daughter, who lives in California, has contracted the coronavirus.

She has mild symptoms, no fever and says it is just like having a bad cold, Seymour said, adding that she feels the threat of the virus has been overblown for political reasons. My only fear is that the schools will shut down even if a kid has the common cold.

Parents at OISD were also weary of some of the precautions, and the impact it would have on their children.

I though about my son throughout the day and how he wouldn't be able to sit by his friends at lunch and just be a kid, Tesha Click, who has a 10-year-old son in the district said. Although I believe the virus is real, I do think there has been some exaggeration of the number of people affected by this which has scared so many individuals.

As of July 29, Orange County had 1,020 coronavirus cases.

Some of the larger districts in the region are taking a more cautionary approach, with the superintendents of both Port Arthur and Beaumont ISD appearing on a podcast over the weekend to share their reopening plans and concerns.

Beaumont ISD, which has a student population of around 18,000 in a normal year, will stay online for at least the first four weeks.

On the podcast, BISD Superintendent Shannon Allen said if it were up to her, they would be online even beyond that.

I just want to make certain that our community understands we are doing what we are required to do by the Texas Education Agency, she said. Because honestly if we had our choice, based on whats happening right now, we wouldnt even open school right now. But we are required to have a 5-day a week in-person option for elementary and middle school students.

isaac.windes@hearstnp.com

twitter.com/isaacdwindes
Hamilton criminal cases at the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) have set precedents on wiretap evidence, given the wrongfully convicted the right to sue police, cemented the constitutional rights of youth, guided judges instructions on the credibility of jailhouse informants and addressed the tainting of witnesses.

Now another local case will give the country clarity on the law of self-defence.

On Thursday, the SCC granted leave to appeal to Peter Khill, accused of second-degree murder in the shotgun death of an unarmed man named Jonathan Styres, who was breaking into his truck.

Khill testified he thought his life was in danger. The Crown argued if Khill had stayed inside and called 911, the homicide would not have happened.

A jury acquitted Khill, the Crown then won an appeal for a new trial and now Khill is taking it to the SCC.

Here are some past Hamilton cases heard by The Supreme Court of Canada:

A Supreme Court of Canada case in 1988 involving Frank Papalia, front left with sunglasses, set a precedent on wiretap evidence, favouring Hamilton Police Hamilton Public Library

R v Papalia (1988)

Frank Papalia was the brother of Hamilton Mob boss John Papalia.

He was accused, along with others, of conspiring to defraud the federal Canadian Home Insulation Program in 1979.

Police bugged some of the cars belonging to the suspects.

The trial judge tossed out the wiretap evidence, saying police hadnt specified they were installing listening devices in cars when they applied for authorization.

The Crown appealed the ruling, arguing the car bugs were covered by wording allowing them to intercept communications at further locations than those specifically named, including Johns Railway Street headquarters.

The Crown won. The defence took it to the SCC which upheld the lower court decision and the wiretap evidence was admitted.

R v Buric and Parsniak (1997)

Jure Buric and John Parsniak were charged with first-degree murder in the 1981 contract killing of drug dealer Steven Costantini.

The first trial ended in a hung jury in 1992. The second trial resulted in acquittals.

The Crown successfully appealed and the SCC upheld that decision. It overruled the controversial decision of trial judge Stephen Glithero to exclude the Crowns star witness, Luciano Pietrorazio, from testifying. Pietrorazio was leader of the notorious Barton-Sherman gang in the 1970s.

Glithero found Pietrorazio, who admitted to planning the hit, was tainted because police gave him intelligence on the earlier murder of his rival gang leader.

The SCC ruled Glithero erred in concluding that tainting was a question of admissibility rather than weight.

Despite the ruling, the Crown withdrew the charges, saying the challenge to Pietrorazios credibility could not be overcome.

R v Hill (2007)

Jason George Hill spent two years in jail for bank robberies he did not commit.

At the Supreme Court, he personally lost the chance to sue Hamilton police, but enshrined the right for wrongfully convicted individuals to sue police.

At the time, the ruling made Canada the only common-law country in the world where police have a duty of care to the suspects they investigate.

Hill, who was Indigenous, was the only non-white person included in a police lineup. He was arrested in 1995 and accused of being the Plastic Bag Bandit, responsible for a string of local bank robberies. He was jailed, but the robberies continued.

Police eventually found the real Plastic Bag Bandit and Hill was exonerated.

The SCC found there was no negligence by Hamilton police. However, it also recognized police are not immune from liability for negligence.

R v Brooks (2000)

Jurors can decide if a police informant is credible.

That was the Supreme Courts decision when upholding the conviction of Frederick Brooks in the murder and sexual assault of his girlfriends daughter.

Brooks was charged with the first-degree murder of 19-month-old Samantha Johnings.

Brooks and the girls mother had access to the child the night she was killed in 1992.

An autopsy concluded she died of repeated blows to the head. Her blood was on Brooks clothing and his semen was on her blanket.

Semen from Samanthas biological father was also found on a toy in her crib.

Two jailhouse informants, in custody with Brooks, told police he confessed to killing Samantha.

According to SCC documents: One unsuccessfully sought a lighter sentence in return for his testimony  The other had a history of substance abuse and a psychiatric history highlighted by suicide attempts, paranoia, deep depression and a belief in clairvoyant ability. Both had histories of offering to testify in criminal trials.

Brooks lawyers argued the trial judge should have given the jury a warning to treat evidence from unsavoury witnesses with caution. The Ontario Appeal Court agreed and ordered a new trial.

The SCC, however, ruled that a warning is at the discretion of the judge. The court restored Brooks conviction.

Jonathan Romero, 18, died afer he was sucker punched by a 17-year-old while Christmas shopping at Lime Ridge Mall in 2008. A ruling on this case at the Supreme Court settled an issue on youth sentencing. Handout Copy Photo

R v D.B. (2008)

In 2003, Jonathan Romero, an 18-year-old Barton Secondary student, was Christmas shopping at Lime Ridge Mall.

He was sucker-punched by a 17-year-old, identified as D.B. by the court. Romero fell, hit his head and died.

D.B. pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

The law at the time was that the teen would automatically be sentenced as an adult because of the violence of his crime and he would have no publication ban on his identity.

Defence lawyer Dean Paquette challenged that reverse onus as unconstitutional.

The trial judge agreed and sentenced D.B. as a youth.

The Quebec Court of Appeal reached the same conclusion on a case it heard, however the British Columbia Appeal Court disagreed on one of its cases.

The SCC settled the issue by striking down the reverse-onus provision in the D.B. case, supporting the principle that young people are immature and should not be held to adult standards.
Motorcyclists, some coming from hundreds of miles away, fill the streets of Sturgis, South Dakota, as part of a huge cycle rally

Shrugging off the five million coronavirus cases now tallied on US soil, thousands of motorcyclists are converging this weekend on a small South Dakota town for what is billed as the biggest cycle gathering in the world.

In past years, the 10-day rally in the town of Sturgis has drawn hundreds of thousands of bikers to socialize, drink and party together -- raising fears among some locals that this year's version could be a superspreader event.

For now, the north-central state is far from the hardest-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic -- Meade County, where Sturgis is located, has registered only one virus death, according to state health officials -- but some of the bikers pouring into the area are coming from distant states far more afflicted.

South Dakota, site of the famed massive sculpture of four former presidents on Mount Rushmore -- where President Donald Trump held a rally last month -- is one of the few to have never ordered a lockdown or insisted on mask-wearing.

Attendees in Sturgis are being encouraged, but not required, to wear masks. Few appeared to be doing so.

- 'God, guns and Trump' -

People attending the huge motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, gather for drinks under a tent, with no effort at social distancing

So far, as the town's Main Street fills with bikes and bars fill with bikers, there is scant evidence of social distancing. Visitors to this 80th edition of the cycle rally already greatly outnumber the 6,000 residents of Sturgis, wedged into the South Dakota hills.

The rally has long been a huge economic boon to Sturgis, and vendors were taking full advantage of it on Sunday.

They peddled T-shirts marked "I survived corona" or "God, guns and Trump" or bearing a photomontage of the president wearing a leather jacket and making an obscene gesture.

While some locals worried about the two-wheeled invaders, the state's governor warmly embraced them.

"We're excited for visitors to see what our great state has to offer!" tweeted Kristi Noem, a Republican and strong Trump supporter.
Gas companies will partner with Hyundai to supply refuelling infrastructure for hydrogen-powered cars in Australia next year in a bid to accelerate the take-up of the zero-emissions fuel technology.

Energy infrastructure giant Jemena and Wesfarmers-owned Coregas have been in talks with carmaker Hyundai to supply "green hydrogen"  generated from wind and energy power  for a re-filling station in Sydney's Macquarie Park.

The Hyundai Nexo is the first hydrogen-fuelled vehicle to be certified by the Australian government for use on the road.

There is little doubt among the world's largest energy companies and automakers that fossil fuel-guzzling cars will be increasingly shunned by consumers and even banned in some jurisdictions.

Fuel-cell vehicles that use hydrogen  and emit only water and heat  have been overshadowed by the vastly greater and ever-increasing mainstream success of electric battery-powered cars like Teslas. Hydrogen vehicles account for less than 0.1 per cent of vehicles produced each year.
Jacksonville City Council is scheduled to meet in regular session by 7 p.m. today in the Municipal Building, 200 W. Douglas Ave. The meeting will follow a 6 p.m. workshop.

Among items on the agenda are:
The police federation chief representing the officers who stopped MP Dawn Butler's car described allegations of institutional racism as 'bonkers', declaring 'Yet again we have been thrown into the limelight for just policing without fear or favour'

Ken Marsh, the Metropolitan Police Federation chairman, said the officers involved were 'fed-up' the force had been put in the spotlight again.

And he told MailOnline he wanted the body worn camera film of the stop to be released to the public so it could decide itself about the stop.

Mr Marsh said: 'I would call for the release of the footage so everyone make their own mind up. The Met is so far from being institutional racist it's bonkers. It's just a comment that is wheeled out by people.

'They won't allow the body worn camera footage to be released, a member of the public can film my colleagues and put it on social media and put it around the world.

'We are pushing for it, I want it out there as much as anyone.

'They stopped the car because this is our job.

'The officers are fine, I haven't personally spoken to them but one of my reps has. They are just fed-up that yet again we have been thrown into the limelight for just policing without fear or favour.'

It came as Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted Scotland Yard was not racist but said it should act with 'fairness and equality' after it apologised to Dawn Butler for a 'racially profiled' vehicle stop in Hackney.

He spoke out as she again questioned why police pulled over her and her friend as they drove through London, adding 'all I can tell you factually is I'm black, my friend is black and he's got a fairly decent car'.

The MP for Brent Central yesterday accused the police of racially profiling her after she was pulled over while driving in East London.

Scotland Yard said the stop was a result of an officer having 'incorrectly entered' the car's registration plate into a computer to wrongly identify it as a vehicle registered to Yorkshire, but did not explain why the search was carried out in the first place.

Downing Street insisted this afternoon Boris Johnson did not share Ms Butler's view that the Metropolitan Police was 'institutionally racist'.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'No, I don't think the PM would take that view of the Metropolitan Police.

'The Met, like police forces across England and Wales, are working very hard tackling issues such as knife crime and drugs.'

The MP for Brent Central (hand seen left) filmed her heated confrontation in Hackney with two officers in a stop and search that sparked the PM to urge police to show 'fairness and equality'

Earlier in the day Mr Johnson spoke during a visit to a school in east London, on the subject and stressed: 'The police have made a statement saying that they made a mistake.

'They have spoken to the occupants of the car but it's obviously very, very important that the Met continue to do everything that they can - as indeed they do - to show that they are serving every part of our country, every part of our community, with fairness and equality.'

Ms Butler, 50, herself confirmed officers had told her and the driver they had put their registration number into the system and it had come back registered in north Yorkshire.

She said: 'The police came back and said oh yes the car is registered to you in your name, then the other guy, the younger police officer was asking me if I lived in London, what I was doing in the area, if I was going out where was I going, and I found that quite invasive and I was saying 'It's none of your business where I am going why is that relevant to stopping and searching'.

'I still don't why the police punched the number plate into their system, I don't know what raised their suspicion all I can tell you factually is I'm black, my friend is black and he's got a fairly decent car.'

Ms Butler filmed her heated confrontation in Hackney with two officers, who she claims demanded to know what was in the back of car.

After being left 'irritated and angry', she has branded the Metropolitan Police 'institutionally racist

What is a Section 1 'stop-and-search' order? And why is it controversial? 'Stop-and-search' is a police power to stop, question and search a person who is suspected of doing something illegal, including carrying drugs. Section 1(2)(a) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 provides police officers with the power to stop and search any person, vehicle, or anything which is in or on a vehicle, for stolen or prohibited articles, points and blades, or fireworks. Prohibited articles include offensive weapons and articles with which a person is going equipped to steal or cause criminal damage. Section 1(2)(b) gives the accompanying power to detain individuals and vehicles for the purpose of conducting a search. Section 1(3) specifies that the power only applies where the officer has reasonable grounds to suspect that the relevant article will be found. In 2017-18 there were 3 stop and searches for every 1,000 white people, compared with 29 stop and searches for every 1,000 black people. Advertisement

She told the BBC: 'I said to my friend what's happening and he said they're stopping us and I thought 'wow okay' and I thought I better start recording, this will make interesting research because just a few days earlier I was saying to Cressida Dick that stop and search doesn't work and racially profiling people doesn't work

'The police came over and he said the car was registered, he asked my friend's name and where he lived and where the car as registered to and he told him and he said that the car was coming up on their system as being registered in north Yorkshire and he was like 'I can't help you it's my car I know I have registered it', he said 'here you go, here's my driving licence', gave him his driving licence and he offered his driving licence because he gets stopped all the time.'

After being left 'irritated and angry', she yesterday branded the Metropolitan Police 'institutionally racist'.

She said: 'We were two black people in a car, driving through Hackney, and they thought they'll stop us.

'You can drive anywhere you want to. I mean we don't have a police state that says you're not allowed to drive from Brent to Hackney or from Chingford to Brent, you can drive anywhere you want.'

She added she had agreed to meet with local police bosses to discuss 'taking the bias out of the system.'

'It's about time we changed the system so it works for everyone and it's effective,' she told BBC Breakfast.

Ms Butler  who in 2015 became the third black woman to be elected an MP after Diane Abbott and Oona King - only yesterday called on Scotland Yard commissioner Cressida Dick to resign for failing to stamp out racism.

Her footage shows a uniformed constable standing outside her car, while a female officer's voice is heard off camera.

The MP says: 'I've been doing a lot of work with the police on stop and search, and how the police are stop and searching, and actually the way you do it and the way you profile is wrong.

'Because what you do is, you create an environment where you create animosity.

'And it's irritating because you cannot drive around on a Sunday afternoon whilst black because you're going to be stopped by the police.'

Speaking to Sky News, she said: 'The institution is racist. One of the other police officers came and said 'I can't see what's in the back of your car'.

'You don't need to see what's in the back of the car. Why do you need to see what's in the back of the car? What's that about?

'So there is an institutional racism in the police, we know that, and it needs to be taken out. It's cancerous and it needs to be cut out out of the police force. It's urgent, it's really urgent.'

Labour's Dawn Butler has railed on social media after being pulled over by police in East London

The MP said: 'I wasn't going to go live with this at all, but because the other police officer inflamed the situation so much, I was getting irritated and angry at the way she was approaching me.

'It's such a bad way to treat people. It's exhausting, and tiring and mentally draining.

'This is a police service that is supposed to police everyone, and I understand there are issues that need to be dealt with.

'But deal with it in an equitable way, don't deal with in an unfair way, in a bias way or a racist way.'

Scotland Yard explained the car was stopped because an officer 'incorrectly entered' its registration into a police occupier and identified it as a vehicle registered to an address in Yorkshire.

'Upon stopping the vehicle and speaking with the driver, it quickly became apparent that the registration had been entered incorrectly and was registered to the driver in London,' a statement said.

'Once the mistake was realised the officer sought to explain this to the occupants; they were then allowed on their way.'

The statement did not explain why the registration was entered in the first place.

After the stop, former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said: 'This is so unsurprising. When will the Metropolitan Police give up on racial profiling?'

Shadow Lord Chancellor David Lammy tweeted 'big hugs' to his Labour colleague

Left-wing commentator Owen Jones sent his well wishes to Ms Butler on Twitter

Left-wing commentator Ash Sarkar sent her condolences to the Labour MP

A Met chief superintendent had earlier confirmed there had been a police stop and that the MP had expressed her 'concerns'.

Chief Superintendent Roy Smith said: 'I've just spoken with Dawn Butler by phone.

'She has given me a very balanced account of the incident. She was positive about one officer and gave feedback on others & the stop.

'We are listening to those concerns and Dawn is quite entitled to raise them.'

After the stop, former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said: 'This is so unsurprising. When will the Metropolitan Police give up on racial profiling?'

Kate Osamor MP tweeted to her backbench Labour colleague: 'Hope you're ok?'

Labour leader Keir Starmer added: 'I reached out yesterday to Dawn Butler to discuss the incidence she reported and to offer our support. All allegations of racial profiling must be taken extremely seriously by the Metropolitan police.

'It is imperative that the Black community have trust and confidence in our police. The abuse Dawn has received over social media is wrong and must be condemned.'

Ms Butler, who served as Jeremy Corbyn's shadow minister for women and equalities, yesterday hit out at Metropolitan Police officers who rubbished the notion children should be invulnerable to arrest.

In a scathing rebuke, she tweeted: 'The problem is you are arresting children going for a bike ride or going to the shops for a loaf of bread.

'Not all African-Caribbean boys should be viewed as criminals! I should be surprised the police liked this but sadly I'm not.'

And in an article published yesterday, she called on Scotland Yard Commissioner Cressida Dick to resign for failing to stamp out 'institutional racism' within her ranks.

She wrote in Metro: 'In case anyone doubts the experiences of people of colour, the statistics are stark.

'The Met are four times more likely to use force on Black people. They have stopped and searched the equivalent of one in four young black men in London during lockdown.'

She added: 'At this most pivotal time the commissioner thought it appropriate to say that 'institutionally racist' is not a 'useful way to describe' the force, which is not only unhelpful but offensive.

'It is quite telling. Cressida Dick appears to be incapable of tackling this long-known problem, and incapable of showing solidarity with those people who suffer from it the most, so she should resign.'

The Metropolitan Police said it is looking into the episode and Ms Butler could not be reached.

This week Ms Butler was named by Vogue magazine as one of the 25 most influential women shaping 2020 for her support of Black Lives Matter protests.

She described her backing of the Marxist anti-racism movement as having led to threats of attack on her office and staff having 'drastically escalated'.

Last month Great Britain sprinter Bianca Williams and her partner Ricardo dos Santos were pulled from their car and handcuffed in front of their three-month-old son.

Nothing was found in the search and the Met referred itself to the police watchdog while Cressida Dick was forced to apologise for the 'distress' caused.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct has launched an investigation into whether officers in England and Wales racially discriminate against ethnic minority people.

The latest official statistics for stop and search showed a disparity rate of 4.3 for all black, Asian and minority ethnic people and 9.7 for black people.
Media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, founder of Apple Daily is detained by the national security unit in Hong Kong - Reuters

Britain has accused China of using the new Hong Kong national security law as a "pretext to silence opposition" after the arrest of leading media tycoon and protester, Jimmy Lai.

Mr Lai's detention for suspected collusion with foreign forces is the highest profile arrest yet under the new law in Hong Kong, widely seen as a crackdown on the semi-autonomous city's freedoms by China.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said Britain was "deeply concerned" by the arrest, which also saw Mr Lai's newspaper's offices raided.

"This is further evidence that the national security law is being used as a pretext to silence opposition," he said. "The Hong Kong authorities must uphold the rights and freedoms of its people."

Around 10,000 people had earlier tuned in to watch a police raid on the office of Apple Daily, a Hong Kong tabloid published by Mr Lais media company, Next Digital.

Ryan Law, the editor-in-chief of Apple Daily, defied police warnings to stop filming as 200 officers streamed into the newspaper's headquarters, ignoring questions over what legal grounds they had for entering and removing plastic boxes as evidence.

Officers demanded the few employees there produce identity documents and register with police. Staff were seen standing by newsroom desks decorated with bright pro-democracy protest posters, including one reading: "Who's afraid of the truth!"

Among the others arrested were two of Mr Lai's sons, young pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow and Wilson Li, a former activist who describes himself as a freelance journalist working for Britain's ITV News.

Prominent Hong Kong democracy activist Agnes Chow looks out of a car window while being driven away by police from her home after she was arrested under the new national security law in Hong Kong - AFP

Mr Lai, long an outspoken critic of Beijing, is the most prominent pro-democracy activist to be arrested so far under the national security law.

He is also a British citizen, and the first foreign national to be arrested under the new law, imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong, which punishes activities China considers subversion, secession, terrorism and foreign collusion, with up to life in prison.

Story continues

As of this time the police are in the homes of Mr. Lai and his son executing search warrants.

-

Other members of the group have been detained or taken in for questioning. Its a press scrum at Mr. Lais home now so info locally will come out.

-  Mark Simon (@HKMarkSimon) August 10, 2020

On Friday, the US sanctioned 11 top officials, including city chief executive Carrie Lam, for their role in curtailing liberties in the Chinese territory.

China on Monday announced unspecified sanctions against 11 US politicians and heads of organizations promoting democratic causes, including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who have already been singled out by Beijing.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Monday said those sanctioned had "performed badly" on issues concerning Hong Kong, where China has cracked down on opposition voices following its imposition of a national security law in the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city last month.

'Brazen assault'

Benedict Rogers, co-founder of Hong Kong Watch, an advocacy group, said the arrest of Mr Lai plus the office raid is one of the most brazen assaults on basic freedom of expression and freedom of the press since the national security law was imposed."

The move sends the message that no one is safe in Hong Kong unless they stay completely silent, he said. In light of these arrests, I urge the United Kingdom and all democracies to follow the recent action by the United States and impose immediate targeted Magnitsky sanctions.

Many have criticised the national security law for crushing freedoms in the semi-autonomous city, meant to be guaranteed for 50 years after the former British colony was returned to Beijing rule in 1997. Chinese authorities, however, have said the law is necessary to bring stability after mass protests roiled the city last year.

Before Monday, 15 others had been arrested under the new legislation. Although there havent been mass arrests as many feared, the imposition of the law itself has already spurred a number of changes in the city.

Prominent activists, like Joshua Wong, have stepped down from their positions in political parties, while others, like Nathan Law, have fled abroad including to the UK.

Many Hong Kong residents have also deleted social media posts or made their profiles private over fear that personal commentary online could be deemed as breaching the national security law.

Officers are seen examining staffers' desks inside Apple Daily's HQ, contradicting assurances from the National Security Department's Steve Li that journalistic materials would not be searched. Clip: Apple Daily via StandNews. In full: https://t.co/fJM6JmxV6n pic.twitter.com/JPLk7PuCAQ  Hong Kong Free Press HKFP (@HongKongFP) August 10, 2020

Popular protest slogans and songs have also been declared illegal and banned at schools, while books have cleared off shelves in public libraries.

Over the weekend, Beijing made it illegal to fly the Chinese flag upside down in amendments to a separate law that bans activities deemed to desecrate the flag. Protesters have before set fire to the Chinese flag or thrown it into Hong Kongs Victoria Harbour, acts the authorities deemed to disrespect the flag.

Chinese state media praised Mr Lais arrest on Monday, labelling him a riot supporter and modern traitor, and calling for severe punishment.

Mr Lai was already facing charges in Hong Kong, including for inciting others to participate in an unauthorised assembly last year during a string of mass protests that lasted for months.

As such, he hasnt been allowed to leave Hong Kong  and told the Telegraph in July vowed he wouldnt do so, even if he could.

They send cars to follow me, to intimidate me, they have people telling me its not just prison for life; you can be shot, he said.

If I leave I would disgrace myself and undermine the democratic movement. I would be a fool to leave, Mr Lai said. I will be here in Hong Kong until the last day.
The Tennessee Wars Commission, the Tennessee Historical Commission program devoted to preserving the states significant military history, has announced that they will begin accepting grant applications on Sept. 1 for the Tennessee Wars Commission Grant Fund.The Tennessee Wars Commission Grant Fund provides funding for the preservation, protection, promotion and interpretation of Tennessees military heritage ranging from the French and Indian War through the American Civil War.In 2019, the Tennessee Wars Commission awarded a total of $109,680.00 to six applicants. Last years TWCGF-supported projects focused on researching, interpreting, and expanding the narrative at historical sites to include stories of African American contributions during the Civil War, the role of Civil War contraband camps in Memphis, and stories of the enslaved community at a Tennessee historic house museum. Other projects funded the purchase of replica Civil War-era artillery for battlefield parks, as well as expanding living history and educational programs.Since 1994, this grant program has funded over one hundred different projects preserving and interpreting the military legacy of Tennessee and Tennesseans. The Wars Commission grant fund is an opportunity for Tennessee communities to enhance their war-related history through the preservation, acquisition, interpretation, and archaeology, of sites and structures related to the various wars, furthering our collective knowledge of these historical sites and events, said Wars Commission Program Director Nina Scall.While matching funding is not mandatory for the TWCGF, it is highly encouraged. The deadline for submissions is Nov. 15. The grant application process is digital. Create an account and complete the application at https://tdec.smartsimple.com/s_Login.jsp.For questions regarding the grant process or application procedure, contact Nina Scall, program director of the Tennessee Wars Commission via email at Nina.Scall@tn.gov.
Netflix has now launched its user interface in Hindi.

This enables Netflix members who prefer Hindi to easily discover, access and enjoy their favourite Indian and international films and series. The complete Netflix experience in Hindi, from sign up to search rows, collections and payment, is available across all devices on mobile, TV and web.

Netflix members can switch to the Hindi user interface from the Language option in the Manage Profiles section on their desktop, TV or mobile browsers. On Netflix, members can set up to five profiles in each account, and each profile can have its own language setting. Netflix members outside India will also have the option to switch their user interface to Hindi.

Delivering a great Netflix experience is as important to us as creating great content. We believe the new user interface will make Netflix even more accessible and better suit members who prefer Hindi, said Monika Shergill, VP-Content, Netflix India.

Netflix original Indian films and series include Sacred Games, Bulbbul, Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai and Mighty Little Bheem. The company recently announced Ludo, A Suitable Boy and Mismatched and the upcoming film Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl (pictured) which will release on August 12.
A Tauranga home goods store has stopped selling the Confederate flag after receiving complaints about what it represents.

The flag was removed from AJs Emporium last month, but previously the store had sold the item for the past 10 years.

Tauranga woman Yasmin says she complained because the flag is an absolutely foul symbol of racism and white supremacy.

The Rotorua Stockcar Club recently announced it would no longer fly the Confederate flag after drawing criticism from Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon.

AJs director Ange Dunn told The Weekend Sun she doesnt believe the flag is a symbol of racism.

She says the store sells a variety of flags including country flags, rainbow flags and the Maori flag.

I am sure we all have something in our lives that offends others, but I thought we lived in a democratic world.

We sell a large variety of flags which if you think about it some people would be offended by - the German flag would offend Jews.

She says the Tauranga store has more than 2000 customers each week and they have only received two complaints about the flag over the past 10 years.

Yasmin, who first complained alongside her partner in-store on July 21, says it was a struggle to have the flag taken down at AJs Emporium.

After AJs staff members declined her initial request, she followed up with Fraser Cove Management and then property management company Silverfin.

Yasmin says she was angry and disheartened when staff refused to remove the flag initially.

Being told that the Confederate flag means different things to different people just doesnt cut it. There is only one explanation for that flag.

AJs Emporium in Rotorua has run out of stock of the confederate flag, Ange says.

She wouldnt confirm whether or not they plan to order in more stock.

Fraser Cove asset manager Marie Mischewski says they have no control over AJs Emporium as the building is managed by Silverfin.

However, after receiving complaints she passed them over to the property manager.

Eventually I got hold of Silverfin and told them this is something for them to sort - which they have.

Silverfin would not say whether they asked AJ's to stop selling the Confederate flag. However, a staff member says they were made aware of complaints.

A spokesperson for the Human Rights Commission says AJs Emporirum should consider whether they want to continue stocking the Confederate Flag.

People have the right to freedom of expression. However, it is important for people to be thoughtful about how they express themselves or what symbols they choose to associate themselves with.

Around the world there is a public debate about racism represented by historical symbols and monuments. The Confederate flag is politically loaded and has been known to be used by white supremacist groups.

Both NASCAR and the state of Mississippi have decided to stop using the Confederate flag since the death of George Floyd, as has the Rotorua Stockcar club, says the spokesperson.
The death by a thousand cuts that gives this documentary from Ramona S. Diaz its title is the death of democracy  a slow wounding that eventually makes the democracy too weak to survive. And while that assessment, offered by the journalist Maria Ressa, refers to the Philippines under Rodrigo Duterte, the absorbing and multipronged A Thousand Cuts presents the country as a test lab for autocracy  and suggests that its experiments have a high potential to travel.

Refreshingly, the film is not simply a profile of Ressa, who founded the news site Rappler and has fearlessly chronicled the abuses of Dutertes presidency and the violence it has encouraged against purported drug dealers and addicts, but a kaleidoscopic dissection of how information courses through the country. It illustrates social medias capacity to deceive and to entrench political power.
Delhi Police on Monday checked vehicles of commuters as security has been tightened in the national capital ahead of the Independence Day.

The police teams were seen checking vehicles at India Gate and Connaught Place. Security forces are conducting vehicular check in all the parts of Delhi-NCR.

On Sunday, the Indian Armed Forces (Tri-Service) Band gave a musical performance at North Block during the ongoing celebration of the 74th Independence Day.

The 74th Independence Day celebration will be marked by musical performances by the bands from the Army, Navy and Indian Air Force, as per the defence ministry. These performances are intended as gestures of gratitude and appreciation of the nation towards the Corona warriors who have been steadfastly fighting to stop the spread of the Coronavirus in the country even at the risk of their lives, said the ministry of defence in a press release.

Military and Police Bands will also perform in Imphal, Bhopal and Jhansi on August 12. The final performance of the series will be held on August 13 in Lucknow, Faizabad, Shilong, Madurai and Champaran, it stated.
Delhi police arrested a 31-year-old junior statistical officer working with the ministry of labour and employment and one of his aides for supplying pistols manufactured in ordnance factories to criminals based in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi on fake arms licences.

The weapons were sold through various gun shops to criminals without verification of arms licences and no record of buyers was maintained, senior officers said.

The arrested government officer was identified as Insar Khan from Baghpat in UP, who was working as a junior statistical officer in the ministry of labour and employment in Delhi. Police identified Khans aide as Paras Chopra, 36, from Karnal, Haryana. He owns a gun shop in Karnal.

Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Bhisham Singh said they received information on August 4 that a consignment of illegal arms was being supplied from UP to Delhi and would be delivered near India Gate.

Based on the information, a raid was conducted at a location on Tilak Marg and a suspect later identified Insar Khan was held and one 0.32 bore automatic pistol made in ordnance factory of Kolkata. A magazine and five live cartridges were recovered from Khan, the DCP said.

During interrogation, the police found he worked in the ministry. Khan said he collected the pistol from Deepak, a criminal from Baghpat, UP. He said they buy automatic pistols from a gun house on a fake arms licence. A raid was conducted at the identified gun house from where 14 live cartridges and one magazine were recovered. Khan disclosed the name of his associate as Paras Chopra, police said.

The DCP said Khan joined the government job in 2012. His first posting was at Pune from 2012 to 2015. He was transferred to Delhi in 2015. He was arrested in 2012 in a case of SSC paper cheating by Lucknow police, he said.
CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal, the first overseas greenfield project of Cosco Shipping Ports Limited (CSP), has announced the start of a direct, weekly service to several ports across Europe and the Indian Subcontinent.

Operating from Abu Dhabi Ports flagship deep-water port, Khalifa Port, where the terminal was established as part of a 35-year agreement with CSP, and serving as a regional base for Cosco Shipping Ports global network of 37 ports, the new direct service will be served by a fleet of eight vessels on rotation, ranging in capacity between 10,000 to 13,000 TEU.

Direct exports from Abu Dhabi to the ports of Rotterdam, Hamburg, London, Antwerp, and Le Havre, will consist primarily of polymers while returning vessels will carry a mix of general and project cargo imports. The ports of Karachi, Nhava Sheva, and Mundra will also benefit from the new service.

Naser Al Busaeedi, Deputy CEO, CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal, said: More than a year on since CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal officially launched, we are now well-positioned to bring our direct service offering to a global audience.

Our new services will significantly increase the movement of cargo exports and imports between Abu Dhabi, Europe and India, providing our customers with solutions to tackle their international shipment needs, as well as the opportunity to target new markets.

Mohamed Eidha Tannaf Al Menhali, Acting Director, Khalifa Port, said: This new dedicated service marks an important strategic step in Abu Dhabi Ports vision to transform Khalifa Ports end-to-end logistics capability.

The ability to connect with some of the worlds most important maritime hubs in Europe and the Northwest Indian Subcontinent will enhance Abu Dhabis reputation as a leading facilitator and enabler of global trade in the 21st century.

Not only does this announcement bolster our existing partnership with Cosco Shipping Ports Limited (CSP), but it also ensures our other customers will be well positioned to broaden their horizons by engaging with new trading and logistics opportunities all around the world.

Since its inception, CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal has facilitated the local manufacturing, warehousing, and logistics sectors to not only flourish within the emirate of Abu Dhabi, but to also expand their reach across markets in the Middle East, Africa, and beyond.

The direct services are expected to lend additional support to customers across the region and clients of the Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad), providing faster transit and competitive rates for their import and export activities.

With expectations that the new offering will increase CSP Abu Dhabi Terminals weekly handling of cargo, the development is also expected to help add more feeder services from CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal.

In April 2020, on the passing of the first anniversary of its soft launch, CSP Abu Dhabi Terminals AED1.1 billion deep-water semi-automated container terminal marked several milestones including the handling of over 540,000 TEU.

The close of April also saw the terminal achieve more than 1 million hours without lost-injury time (LTI), a feat that was realised thanks to CSPs adoption of several global HSSE best practises including strong compliance with health and safety protocols within the working environment, and a drive to continuously improve safety performance across the entirety of the organisation.

Forging ahead, CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal will continue to monitor the performance of its direct service to Europe, along with other service patterns, and based on market conditions and business requirements, adjustments to vessel deployment, port calls, and even the launch of other regional services will be considered, the statement said. - TradeArabia News Service
Katherine Schwarzenegger, 30, has welcomed her first child with husband Chris Pratt, 41.

Katherine' brother Patrick confirmed the birth to ET on Sunday, while at a market in Santa Barbara, CA.

'They're doing great -- just got her a little gift,' said the 26-year-old actor, who could be seen 'carrying a package with a pink ribbon.'

Although Patrick did not disclose the baby's gender or the exact date of birth, parents Maria Shriver, 64, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, 73, as well as the remaining Schwarzenegger siblings, paid a visit to Katherine and Chris' residence on Friday.

Welcome! Katherine Schwarzenegger, 30, has welcomed her first child with husband Chris Pratt, 41; Katherine and Chris pictured in 2019

Maria returned later that day to spend some more quality time with her daughter, who may or may not have given birth sometime that day.

According to ET's source, Chris was reportedly seen at a Santa Monica-area hospital on Friday.

The couple's pregnancy was confirmed by Maria on May 1, when Pratt appeared as a guest on her Instagram Live series #HomeTogether.

'You're gonna have another beautiful family member,' said Shriver to Pratt at the time.

Days later, Katherine was spotted for the first time with a visible baby bump, while out walking her dog.

Though this is Schwarzenegger's first child, Pratt already shares a seven-year-old son Jack with ex wife Anna Faris, 43.

Confirmed: Katherine' brother Patrick, 26, confirmed the birth to ET on Sunday, while at a market in Santa Barbara, CA; Katherine pictured on July 23

Ready to pop: Days prior to the birth of their newborn, the Jurassic World star uploaded a snapshot of himself and his pregnant wife with the caption: 'Ready to pop, still don't stop'; Chris and Katherine pictured on Instagram on August 1

News of Katherine's pregnancy came just 10-months after her wedding to Chris, which took place in June of 2019.

He had proposed to Katherine in January of that year, less than a year after they began dating in June of 2018.

Days prior to the birth of their newborn, the Jurassic World star uploaded a snapshot of himself and his pregnant wife with the caption: 'Ready to pop, still don't stop.'

In the photo, Katherine looked heavily pregnant in a black tank top and leggings as she posed prom style with Chris.

Expecting: The couple's pregnancy was confirmed by Maria on May 1, when Pratt appeared as a guest on her Instagram Live series #HomeTogether

Caught: Days later, Katherine was spotted for the first time with a visible baby bump; Katherine pictured on May 3

He continued: 'Top of the mountain today. Kinda grateful it didn't go down on the trail tho to be real.'

On Friday, Katherine's dad Arnold expressed to Fox 11 that 'it's going to be really, really exciting' becoming a grandfather for the first time.

Chris and Katherine were first linked in 2018, after they were spotted canoodling in Santa Barbara, CA.

Seven months prior, Chris filed for divorce from wife Anna Faris after eight-years of marriage, citing 'irreconcilable differences,' according to TMZ. They asked for joint custody of their son Jack who was five-years-old at the time.

Round two: Though this is Schwarzenegger's first child, Pratt already shares a seven-year-old son Jack with ex wife Anna Faris, 43; Anna, Jack, and Chris pictured in 2017

Chris and Katherine made their first PDA in July of 2018, followed by numerous family hangouts with the Schwarzenegger's and the Pratt's, which were documented on social media.

The couple did not confirm their relationship status until December of 2018, a little over a month after Chris' divorce from Anna was finalized, as reported by E! News.

The confirmation came in the form of 'Happy Birthday' post from Chris to Katherine, which included a photo collage of the brunette beauty.

'Happy Birthday Chief! Your smile lights up the room. I've cherished our time together. Thrilled God put you in my life. Thankful for the laughs, kisses, talks, hikes, love and care,' wrote the Parks And Rec alum.

Confirmed: The couple did not confirm their relationship status until December of 2018, a little over a month after Chris' divorce from Anna was finalized, as reported by E! News

Engaged: Chris had proposed to Katherine in January of 2019, less than a year after they began dating in June of 2018

On January 9, Chris proposed to Katherine, which he proudly announced to his 28.8million Instagram followers.

'Sweet Katherine, so happy you said yes! I'm thrilled to be marrying you. Proud to live boldly in faith with you. Here we go!' captioned Pratt.

He included a photo of himself and Katherine embracing that gave his followers a clear view of the giant rock on her finger.

They moved in together shortly after getting engaged.

First time grandfather: On Friday, Katherine's dad Arnold expressed to Fox 11 that 'it's going to be really, really exciting' becoming a grandfather for the first time; Katherine and Arnold pictured in 2011

Katherine and Chris were married on June 8 of 2019 during what was described as 'an intimate ceremony' in Montecito, CA.

Katherine's parents Arnold and Maria - who split in 2017 after 31-years of marriage - also share daughter Christina, 29, and sons, Patrick, 26, and Christopher, 22.

The Terminator star has a 22-year-old son named Joseph Baena, whom he fathered with former nanny Mildred Patricia Baena, 59, while still married to Maria.
New Hampshire's governor said New Yorkers are pouring into the state due to high taxes and fear for their safety amid the Covid-19 crisis.

"We're booming," New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu told CNBC. "People are coming from all across the country, especially in the Northeast. You're in New York, you have a mayor who doesn't know what he's doing. You have years of terrible policy out of Albany. People have choices, and 2020 is driving them to those decisions. It's like they put a big sign on the Brooklyn Bridge that says, 'The last one out, turn out the lights.'"

New Hampshire's real estate is selling quickly, Sununu said, adding that he's getting frequent calls from companies looking to relocate to the "Live Free or Die" state.

One issue some of his state's new residents may face is that they are continuing to work for out-of-state employers, since many companies are allowing people to work from home to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The Republican governor said New York, Massachusetts and other high-tax states are "pickpocketing" New Hampshire residents by taxing out-of-state employees who are no longer commuting into their states to work.

Sununu said his state attorney general is reviewing a decision by Massachusetts to continue taxing employees who used to commute to Massachusetts but have been working from home in New Hampshire during the pandemic. He said high-tax states such as New York have no right to tax people who don't live or work in their state.

"When it comes to New York, Massachusetts, California trying to pick the pockets of people in New Hampshire, we're going to stand up to them," Sununu said. "They're coming after our citizens, and we're going to put up a fight."

In March, Massachusetts established a rule that would tax out-of-state workers who used to commute to Massachusetts. The rule was recently extended, possibly until the end of the year. The state said the rule was aimed at helping companies avoid having to overhaul their payroll systems.

Sununu said it is unfair to residents of his state and it may be illegal. Before Covid, more than 80,000 New Hampshire residents commuted to Massachusetts  many to Boston.

Taxpayers can often get a credit on their state taxes for taxes paid to another jurisdiction. But New Hampshire has no broad-based income tax, so its residents can't apply a credit from Massachusetts taxes. The top income tax rate in Massachusetts is 5.05%.

"You don't start taxing people across the border," Sununu said. "You don't create new rules and gimmicks."

The fight is the first of many likely to erupt between states over how to treat former commuters during the pandemic. Every state has different rules on how they typically treat out-of-state workers. But the most aggressive states, such as New York and California, have said that they will continue to enforce their out-of-state tax policies  even if those former commuters are no longer making the trip to the office.

With so many states strapped for revenue, some workers could end up getting double-taxed by the state they used to work in and the state they're living and working in during the pandemic.

It's unclear if the New Hampshire efforts will wind up in court. The state has a long history of vigorously defending its residents from other tax claims, not always successfully. It fought efforts by other states with sales taxes to require businesses outside of their borders to collect and remit a sales tax on their behalf. New Hampshire eventually had to comply with the Supreme Court's 2018 decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, although the state legislature requires any state or local taxing authority to notify the New Hampshire attorney general first.

Tax experts say the situation raises a larger question about how states will tax workers in a new era of remote work.

"In New Hampshire's case, you have taxpayers whose residence and place of work is now in New Hampshire and they're not setting foot in Massachusetts," said Jared Walczak, vice president of state projects for the Tax Foundation. "Massachusetts is arguing that because their office space is still there, they can tax them."

For New York, the costs of any change or federal law could be costly. It collects nearly one-fifth of its tax revenue from commuters. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said that efforts by Congress  including a proposal from Sen. John Thune  to restrain states' abilities to tax out-of-state workers "could be very costly" to New York City.

Yet Walczak said New York's concerted efforts to tax people who don't live in New York and haven't been working there could backfire over the longer term, leading companies to relocate their offices to lower-tax or no-tax states.

"If a much larger percentage of a company's workforce is remote, the location of their office matters less and less," he said. "So if you're a small firm in Manhattan, and now 80% of your workforce is teleworking, and your employees are getting double-taxed, there may be a really strong argument for relocating to New Jersey or another state, where your employees are only taxed once."
BEIRUT  Lebanons prime minister stepped down from his job Monday in the wake of the catastrophic explosion in Beirut that has triggered public outrage, saying he has come to the conclusion that corruption in the country is bigger than the state.

The move risks opening the way to dragged-out negotiations over a new Cabinet amid urgent calls for reform. It follows a weekend of anti-government protests after the Aug. 4 explosion in Beiruts port that decimated the facility and caused widespread destruction, killing at least 160 people and injuring about 6,000 others.

In a brief televised speech after three of his ministers resigned, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said he and his government were stepping down.

May God protect Lebanon, he said, repeating the last phrase three times. As he spoke, protesters demonstrated in the streets near parliament for a third straight day.

The moment typified Lebanons political dilemma. Since October, there have been mass demonstrations demanding the departure of the entire sectarian-based leadership over entrenched corruption, incompetence and mismanagement.

But the ruling oligarchy has held onto power for so long  since the end of the civil war in 1990  that it is difficult to find a credible political figure untainted by connections to it.

Diab blamed corrupt politicians who preceded him for the earthquake that has hit Lebanon.

They (the political class) should have been ashamed of themselves because their corruption is what has led to this disaster that had been hidden for seven years, he added.

I have discovered that corruption is bigger than the state and that the state is paralyzed by this (ruling) clique and cannot confront it or get rid of it, said Diab, who was a professor at the American University of Beirut before he took the job.

After the catastrophe, Diab had sought to stay on for two months to organize new parliamentary elections and allow a map for reforms. But the pressure from within his own Cabinet proved to be too much. With the mass resignation, the call for early elections appears dead, so the same factions will debate on forming a new Cabinet.

Diabs government was formed after his predecessor, Saad Hariri, stepped down in October in response to the demonstrations. It took months of bickering among the leadership factions before they settled on Diab.

His government, which was dominated by the Hezbollah militant group and its allies and seen as one-sided, was basically doomed from the start, tasked with meeting demands for reform but made up of all the factions that reformers want out.

Now the process must start again.

I hope that the caretaking period will not be long because the country cannot take that. Lets hope a new government will be formed quickly, Public Works Minister Michel Najjar said. An effective government is the least we need to get out of this crisis.

The pressure from the streets  and from French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited Beirut last week after the blast  could push the political factions to put aside their differences and form a unity government. Diabs government largely excluded Hezbollahs opponents, the Eurasia Group said in an analysis, adding that the factions may now see the need to carry out greater reform.

The group said a government of independent experts could be created, although Hezbollah is a main obstacle to that since it fears that would eventually lead to the group being forced out of the political system.

The weekend protests saw clashes with security forces firing tear gas at demonstrators.

The explosion is believed to have been caused by a fire that ignited a 2,750-ton stockpile of highly volatile ammonium nitrate that had been stored at the port since 2013 with few safeguards despite numerous warnings of the danger.

The result was a disaster that the Lebanese people blame squarely on their leaderships corruption and neglect. Losses from the explosion are estimated at $10 billion to $15 billion, with nearly 300,000 people left homeless.

On Monday, a French chemical expert working at the shattered port told The Associated Press that his team is working to secure at least 20 potentially dangerous chemical containers there after finding one that was leaking.

He also said there are flammable liquids in other containers as well as batteries and other products that could increase the risk of an explosion, describing huge containers tossed around the port by the powerful blast. The expert identified himself only as Lt. Anthony in accordance with French government policy.

The last decision by Diabs government before its resignation was to refer the case of the explosion to the Supreme Judicial Council, which handles crimes infringing on Lebanons national security as well as political and state security crimes. The Supreme Judicial Council is Lebanons top judicial body.

A judge on Monday questioned the heads of the countrys security agencies. Public Prosecutor Ghassan El Khoury questioned Maj. Gen. Tony Saliba, the head of State Security, according to state-run National News Agency. It gave no further details, but other generals are scheduled to be questioned.

State Security had compiled a report about the dangers of storing the material at the port and sent a copy to the offices of the president and prime minister on July 20. The investigation is focused on how the ammonium nitrate came to be stored at the port and why nothing was done about it.

Najjar, the public works minister, said he learned about the materials presence 24 hours before the blast, receiving a report about the material and holding a meeting with port officials before calling its chief, Hassan Korayetem.

I wrote a report in the morning the explosion happened in the evening, Najjar said. Asked why he only learned of it the day before, Najjar said, I dont know. Truly I dont know.

About 20 people have been detained after the blast, including the head of Lebanons customs department and his predecessor, as well as the head of the port. Dozens of people have been questioned, including two former Cabinet ministers, according to government officials.

On Sunday, world leaders and international organizations pledged nearly $300 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Beirut, but warned that no money for rebuilding the capital would be made available until Lebanese authorities commit themselves to the political and economic reforms demanded by the people.
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 and sniper rifles.
One way to satisfy a yen to travel in these lock-down times is to explore the foreign cuisines. The newly published cookbook, "A Feast of Serendib," (Mascot Books, $40) offers a trip to the far-away island of Sri Lanka.

Located in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal and southeast of the Arabian Sea, the food on this island at the nexus of trade routes has evolved from a variety of culinary influences.

Author Mary Anne Mohanraj explains that her own family is of the Tamil ethnic, cultural and language group, who came to the island more than 2,000 years ago. Their cooking is different than the Hill Country Indian Tamils who were brought to the island work on coffee and tea plantations in the 19th and 20th century, although some also came independently as merchants and traders.

Tamils are a minority today, when the majority of the 21.6 million Sri Lankans, are Sinhalese, with significant groups of Moors, Malays and indigenous Veddahs, Mohanraj writes.

Add to this three waves of colonization: Portuguese, arriving in 1505, Dutch in 1602 and British in 1802.

The result is a fascinating cuisine.

Mohanraj came to the U.S. with her family at the age of 2. Although she grew up eating "rice and curry every night," she writes, she "had only a tenuous connection to the food culture of the homeland."

As a college student, she began to write "A Feast of Serendib" ("serendib" is an old Persian name for Sri Lanka), as a gift for her mother.

"My mother had to make many adaptations when she came to America in 1973," Mohanraj recounts. "She used ketchup instead of tomatoes, for example, because she didn't have access to coconut milk and cow's milk didn't have sufficient sweetness.

She adds, "When I gave my mother the finished books, she was pleased but also immediately started pointing out where I'd gotten things wrong. I threatened to do a second edition of the book with 'Amma's Corrections' all through it in red. I still think it would have been a good book, but she didn't go for it."

Instead, the book rested for more than a decade until now when Mohanraj, married to a white American whose family has been here "for enough generations that he's not sure exactly where all his ancestors came from," and mother of a daughter named Kaviarasi, an old Tamil word for "queen of poetry," decided to resurrect it.

"For those of us attenuated from the food of our grandparents and great-grandparents, learning to cook this food, in its many iterations, can feel like filling a hole in your heart," she writes.

So -- what is the food of Sri Lanka?

"I am often asked what is characteristic of Sri Lankan food and how it differs from Indian food," Mohanraj writes. "The second question is difficult because it's usually Americans asking me and they're used to Americanized Indian food, which is often fairly generic and water-down -- not actual food from India, which is dramatically different, depending on whether you're talking Mughal-influenced North Indian cuisine (or) mostly vegetarian Gujarati, etc."

Central to the cuisine, she writes, is dark-roasted curry powder, goraka (a fruit similar to tamarind, not used, however, by her Tamil family), red rice, plenty of chili heat, curry leaves, coconut milk, shredded coconut, dried Maldive fish and "a touch of tang from vinegar, tomato, tamarind or lime.

"We also eat a wide variety of fish, poultry and meat dishes, which I think is somewhat unusual in South Asia, given religious prohibitions, but can be traced to a long-standing multi-ethnic and multi-religious population.

"A Feast of Serendib" contains a rich assortment of recipes for curries (everything from Fried Liver Curry to Ripe Jackfruit Curry), chutneys, and Sri Lankan French toast (Bombatoast) but it also introduces much less familiar dishes with wonderful names like Hoppers, Uppuma, Idyappim and Falooda.

The first three are grain dishes, and the latter a Sri Lankan version of boba tea. Just saying the words is like a glimpse into a new world.

Of "hoppers," also called "appam," Mohanraj writes: "If I had to pick the perfect Sri Lankan meal, this would be it. There's nothing like breaking off a crisp piece of hopper, dipping it into a broken egg and scooping up some curry and a bit of seeni sambol. Delectable.

"These rice flour pancakes have a unique shape. Fermented batter is swirled in a special small hemispherical pan so you end up with a soft spongy center and lacey, crispy sides -- that contrast is the true glory of the hopper. Typically, you'd make one egg hopper per person, plus another plain hopper or two and maybe a sweet hopper to finish up."

Mohanraj notes that you can buy instant hopper mix online, which "doesn't require overnight planning," but she includes directions for making hoppers from scratch.

Hoppers/Appam

2 cups South Asian rice flour (or a mix of rice and wheat flour)

1 tsp. sugar

Pinch of baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups coconut milk

Eggs for egg hoppers

Extra coconut milk and jaggery (a sugar made from concentrated sap of palm trees; brown sugar plus a little molasses will approximate the flavor

Mix the first five ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl, cover, and set in a warm, turned-off oven to ferment overnight. (In a cold climate, fermentation may not occur without help; preheat the oven to 250 degrees, turn it off and put in the covered bowl.)

Mix again, adding water if necessary to make a thin, pourable batter.

Heap a hopper pan (or a regular frying pan) to medium. Grease if it's non-stick. When it's hot, pour about 1/3 cup batter into the center. Pick up the pan immediately and swirl the batter around coating the surface. The sides of the hopper should end up with holes in them, thin, lacy and crisp. If the batter is coating the pan more thickly, mix in hot water to thin it down.

Cover and let cook 2-4 minutes. You'll know it's ready when the sides have started to brown and the center is thoroughly cooked. A silicone spatula will help get the hopper out of the pan.

For egg hoppers, after swirling, crack an egg in the center before covering. The egg will cook as the hopper does, finishing in about 3-4 minutes.

For sweet hoppers, after swirling, add a tablespoon of coconut minut and a teaspoon of jaggery to the center of the pan, then cook as usual.

Mohanraj's book is filled not only with recipes and photos, but a genuine joy. "We come together with other Sri Lankans -- homelanders and diaspora, Sinhalese and Tamil, Buddhist and Hindu and Christian and Muslim -- over delicious shared meals," she writes. "Sri Lanka has been a multi-ethic society for over 2,000 years, with neighbors of different ethnicities, languages, religions, living side by side. We try to teach our children to be welcoming to all, to share our unique cultural traditions. That is part of what it means to be Sri Lankan, what it has always meant."

"Can we choose the good parts of our culture to cherish and leave the darker aspects behind? I hope so. I hope food can help provide a pathway there. Come together at our table, sharing milk rice and pol sambol, paruppu and crab curry. Linger over the chai -- just one more cup. Eat, drink and share joy."

Watch now: A cooking lesson with Mary Anne Mohanraj, author of "A Feast of Serendib"

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Uttarakhand reported its worst week in the fight against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) with maximum fresh cases and deaths since the first infection was reported in the state on March 15.

Uttarakhand reported 2,185 cases and deaths of 42 Covid-19 positive patients between August 2 and August 8, as per official records. Before this, the state had reported 1,685 cases in the third week of July and 20 deaths in the last week of July.

The state also reported testing of more than 31,000 samples and over 1,600 recoveries, which are also the highest so far for any week.

On Sunday, 230 fresh Covid-19 cases took Uttarakhands tally to 9,632. Seven Indian Army personnel from Rudraprayag district also tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday.

Eight Covid-19 patients died in the state on Sunday of which one was due to coronavirus and others died due to co-morbidities.

A total of 125 Covid-19 patients have died in Uttarakhand till now with 20 deaths attributed to the viral, according to the health officials. The remaining casualties were attributed to co-morbidities and other causes, added health officials.

A total of 6,134 infected people have recovered successfully, bringing the recovery rate in the state to 63.68%.

Haridwar district reported 127 of the 230 fresh Covid-19 cases on Sunday, followed by Dehradun (34), US Nagar (19), Nainital (16), Tehri (11), Rudraprayag (8), Champawat (7), Uttarkashi (4), Pauri (3) and one case from Chamoli district.

Of the cases reported on Sunday, travel history was not available at the time of the release of the bulletin for 104 cases while, 114 cases were contacts of earlier detected positive patients.

Haridwar district has so far reported a total of 2,111 cases - the most cases in the state, followed by Dehradun (2,031), US Nagar (1,723) and Nainital (1,507).

Also, 171 Covid-19 patients were discharged from different hospitals in the state on Sunday with maximum of 56 in Haridwar district.

The doubling rate of cases, based on the last seven days data, now, stands at 23.46 days, while the infection rate is at 4.91%. The state has so far tested over 2.09 lakh samples while 9,700 results are awaited.

Uttarakhand currently has 459 containment zones in eight districts including maximum 371 in Haridwar district.

An official from Uttarakhand governors secretariat tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday, informed officials.

Nitin Upadhyay, deputy director for information with the Raj Bhawan, said Governor Baby Rani Maurya was on leave the past week and did not come in contact with the patient.

She did not attend office and did not come in contact with the official who tested positive, so she will not be going in quarantine, but we are still taking all the precautions. The Raj Bhawan is closed for two days (Sunday and Monday) and complete sanitisation is being done by the concerned authorities, said Upadhyay.
Trendlines Medical Shanghai partners with Chinese medical companies, governmental programs, and entrepreneurs to develop novel medical technologies for the Chinese and global markets.

SHANGHAI and MISGAV, Israel, Aug. 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Trendlines Group Ltd. (the "Company" and together with its subsidiaries, "Trendlines" or the "Group") (SGX: 42T) and (OTCQX: TRNLY), an Israel- and Singapore-based investment group focused on inventing technologies and creating medical device and agrifood companies, announced that it has expanded its activities to Shanghai with the establishment of Trendlines Medical Shanghai Innovation Center ("Trendlines Medical Shanghai"), which has recently started operations.

Trendlines Medical Shanghai leverages Trendlines' innovation strengths and experience in the medical device industry and its unique incubation model in Israel and Singapore. Combining Israel's technological and innovation capabilities, together with Chinese medical companies' targeted R&D projects, and partnerships with government funds, Trendlines Medical Shanghai will incubate and commercialize new companies to answer China's and global healthcare needs. Trendlines Medical Shanghai will bring outstanding medical device portfolio companies established by Trendlines in Israel and Singapore to the Chinese market.

Trendlines Medical Shanghai is located in the China-Israel Innovation Hub in Shanghai's Putuo District ("CIIH"). CIIH focuses on innovation through joint ventures. CIIH is positioning itself as a platform for R&D, technology exchange, and business incubation, focused on needs from local medical device companies.

The Trendlines Group Chairman and CEO, Todd Dollinger, commented, "We believe that our strengths and experience in bringing medical device technologies from idea to commercialization, together with China's strong engineering and production capacity, combined with enormous market demand, creates fertile ground for the success of Trendlines Medical Shanghai. We look forward to growing our China operations in Shanghai and bringing together Israeli, Singaporean, and Chinese talent to fulfill our mission of improving the human condition."

Trendlines Medical Shanghai CEO Tony Lou remarked, "An international financial center, Shanghai has an abundance of resources, including world-class medical facilities and prestigious universities and R&D institutions that provide a strong foundation for the development of innovative medical devices. Joining forces with Trendlines utilizes the respective advantages of China and Israel to bring new medical products to market."

About The Trendlines Group

Trendlines is an investment group that invents, discovers, invests in, and incubates innovation-based medical and agrifood technologies to fulfill its mission to improve the human condition. As intensely hands-on investors, Trendlines is involved in all aspects of its portfolio companies, from technology development to business building. Trendlines' shares are traded on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX: 42T) and in the United States as an American Depositary Receipt (ADR) on the OTCQX (OTCQX: TRNLY).

Contact:

Eddy Wang

[email protected]

Phone: +86.13381037955

SOURCE The Trendlines Group
SHANGHAI, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- It is now halfway through 2020, the whole world has changed a lot increasing daily need for masks, the continuously changing way of skincare, the declining demand for makeup and so on. In fact, not just the individuals are part of this changing world. The whole beauty circle is in an unstable manner, too. So what will be the new trend for cosmetics? What kinds of makeup trends are coming up? ELLE will find out for consumers.

1, "Homemade skincare routines" is the leading trend.

No need for skincare or makeup when having a mask on? Of course not. There is an evidently increasing demand for "Homemade skincare routines" when it is inconvenient to go to any beauty salons and barbershops recently. According to the data, in the UK, sales of facial masks and beauty tools have distinctly increased by 100%. Besides, hair masks and hair products have also increased by 185% over the same period last year. "Homemade skincare" seems to be everyone's essential skill, which leads to convenient beauty product coming onto the market. With a tendency towards online socialization, everyone is focusing on the scope of the screen. It is universal to everyone that makeup will only be partly shown in cameras. So everyone can rediscover the joy of boldly applying makeup on their face.

2, Perfect foundation is a must under the mask.

Foundation is the essential basic of the whole make up. Recent years, consumers have no longer stick on to one single appeal for foundation products. Instead, it tends to be refined and more delicate. On the basis of long wearing and naturally thin, consumers pursue a foundation with higher coverage appeal or even has skin-nourishing effect as skincare products. They are looking for "all-in-one" foundation that can fully meet their demand such as, Lancome Absolue Cushion Compact and Estee Lauder Double Wear. Of course, once they find their own perfect foundation, consumers will not easily shift it. For those classic ones, they can survive all the times and never fade out even though the trend is always changing.

3, Planned purchase will soon replace impulse buying.

Consumers all chase for the trend of "Taupe" a few years ago. However, they hardly use them after several times. Now consumers are no longer easily "fascinated" by the trend. They will ask themselves several questions before purchasing. How practical is the product? Is it versatile? Is there any added value besides the makeup effect? Does the brand care about environmental protection? These will be the base and premise of choosing cosmetics in the future. Consumers are even looking for advanced design in cosmetics. Products with added values will bring them great pleasure. For example, Rouge Dior Trafalgar 999 and TOM FORD ROSE PRICK are more than just beauty products. They are more like the delicate artworks from designers' hands.

4, Consumers pay close attention to their hairstyle.

With masks covered up, consumers pay more attention to the overall style than just their face. Hair salon, manicure and fragrance will become the popular categories in the future, which are undoubtedly an upgrade for cosmetics and makeup. Following the trend of "Homemade skincare routines", hair mask products, such as L'oreal Paris Oleor, give consumers a chance to experience salon service at home. It must be a boom in the future.

In a word, consumers can see the core spirit of the new trend forecasting in cosmetics  "New Familism Epicure", which derived from women's wisdom and creativity. It is an independent and spontaneous attitude, a willing to voice out and the spiritual power to enjoy ourselves. What they expect is not only a perfect user experience, but also a high level of artistic expression that can convey confidence, aesthetics and life attitude.

Recently, cooperating with #Tmall makeup week#, ELLE has launched ELLE x Tmall Makeup Week Authoritative List, with a total of selected 10 products which are one of the top brand products accordingly among their categories. The overall list is finalized by authoritative media ELLE according to the trend of makeup. Referenced by Top Recommendations by Tmall with a good stock of word-of-mouth recommendation from hundreds of millions of users and supported by 50 professionals and specialists, the authoritative list is cooperatively released.

In addition, professionals from ELLE beauty editorial team also contribute with their keen professional vision and market sensitivity. Combined with the public praise recommendation from Taobao, the company release a list of Top Recommendations. Besides, a list of Promising Brands with great market potential is released as well.

These brands are the winners for ELLE x Tmall Makeup Week. Congratulations to LANEIGE, Estee Lauder, Lancome, KISS ME,

L'oreal Paris, TOM FORD, DIOR, BOBBI BROWN, MAC, CHANEL are recognized in ELLE x Tmall Makeup Week Authoritative List. PERFECT DIARY, Florasis, Carslan, CHIOTURE, Judydoll, Mistine, Sisley Paris, 3CE, COLORKEY, Little Ondine are recognized in ELLE x Tmall Makeup Week Top Recommendations List.

At the same time as the list was released, The Fashion Museum of Tmall Makeup Week was launched in Huaihai TX in Shanghai from July 23rd to 30th. It was the grandest social carnival after the 2020 epidemic, which satisfied everyone's desire to go shopping. Cheng Xiaoyue, Lin Shanshan, Teng Yujia and other twelve Tmall beauty live broadcast hosts arrived at the scene. They joined in the cross-border fashion show of makeup and appareled well for the 8-day activity. Moreover, four original Chinese designers and brand directors GROTTO, HXXXXS, Gu Liang Ji Ji and JW PEI attended the opening show during ELLE x Tmall Makeup Week. They also presented a variety of niche design handbags that are popular among celebrities and fashionistas according to the makeup style. The Trend Intelligence Bureau and Makeup Week jointly launched the "Experimental Party Club" theme show in Huaihai TX.

The year of 2020 means a lot to everyone. Fashion goes with The Times. 2020 ELLE x Tmall Makeup Week explores the new trend of cosmetics, with a close eye on the new possibilities in cosmetics. Let's live with the new trend and always stand by with the new trend of cosmetics.

SOURCE ELLE China
Hundreds of partygoers were filmed dancing and drinking on a beach as a DJ played techno music - despite tough COVID-19 restrictions prohibiting gatherings.

Footage of the illegal gathering has surfaced on social media, days after police were called to Wangetti Beach, near Cairns in Far North Queensland, to break up a party of about 300 people.

Three people were arrested during Saturday morning's festivities, including a 35-year-old man who was charged with possession of a dangerous drug, stolen property and public nuisance.

Two 23-year-old men were charged with drink driving.

The group have held two separate parties held over two weekends on the same beach in Cairns

Three people were arrested during Saturday morning's festivities, including a 35-year-old man who was charged with possession of a dangerous drug, stolen property and public nuisance

The majority of the party guests were international backpackers, the ABC reported.

The party wasn't the first of its kind, either. A similar gathering was held on the same beach the week earlier.

On social media this week, several people have shared photos and videos of the two separate parties.

One of the guests who boasted of attending both parties took to Instagram on Monday to share a news article written about the gathering.

The article branded attendees 'Covidiots' for breaching COVID restrictions.

'They talk about us,' he wrote alongside several laughing emojis.

Current gathering limits in Queensland restrict any more than 100 people from gathering at an outdoor function.

Indoor gathering limits at private premises remain at 100 as well.

Hundreds of partygoers were filmed dancing and drinking on a beach as a DJ played techno music - despite tough COVID-19 restrictions prohibiting gatherings

Drone footage of the party was uploaded on social media at the weekend

The majority of the party guests were international backpackers, ABC reported

Acting Superintendent Mark Linwood said he was concerned about the potential impact of the illegal parties.

'COVID-19 and the threat it poses to all Queensland communities is real,' he said.

'It is everyone's responsibility to ensure they are practising effective social distancing and following the directions as set out by the Chief Health Officer.'

He also congratulated police on their swift response after complaints were made about the gathering.

'When police attended [the crowd] did become a little bit hostile so we called for backup,' Supt Linwood said.

'Police have done an incredible job to negotiate with everyone and resolve the situation and keep the community safe.

Supt Linwood said COVID-19 breaches would be further investigated.

In addition to the fines which were handed out, the Cairns Regional Council also issued fines for illegal camping.

On social media this week, several people have shared photos and videos of the two separate parties

The party started at sunset and went well into the evening, until police broke it up

On social media this week, several people have shared photos and videos of the two separate parties
By Michael Georgy and Ellen Francis

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's prime minister announced his government's resignation on Monday, saying a huge explosion that devastated Beirut and triggered public outrage was the result of endemic corruption.

The Aug. 4 detonation at a port warehouse of what authorities said was more than 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate killed at least 163 people, injured more than 6,000 and destroyed swathes of the Mediterranean capital, compounding months of political and economic meltdown.

"Today we follow the will of the people in their demand to hold accountable those responsible for the disaster that has been in hiding for seven years," Prime Minister Hassan Diab said in a speech announcing the resignation.

He blamed the disaster on endemic corruption and said those responsible should be ashamed because their actions had led to a catastrophe "beyond description".

"I said before that corruption is rooted in every lever of the state but I have discovered that corruption is greater than the state," he said, pointing to a political elite for preventing change and saying his government faced a brick wall on reforms.

While Diab's move attempted to respond to popular anger about the blast, it also plunged Lebanese politics deeper into turmoil and may further hamper already-stalled talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a financial rescue plan.

The talks, launched in May, were put on hold due to inaction on reforms and a row between the government, banks and politicians over the scale of vast financial losses.

President Michel Aoun accepted the resignation and asked Diab's government - formed in January with the backing of Iran's powerful Hezbollah group and its allies - to stay as a caretaker until a new cabinet is formed, a televised announcement said.

At the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump said the explosion had triggered what he called "a revolution," but did not comment further.

Story continues

Ahead of Diab's announcement, demonstrations broke out for a third day in central Beirut, with some protesters hurling rocks at security forces guarding an entrance leading to the parliament building, who responded with tear gas.

For many ordinary Lebanese, the explosion was the last straw in a protracted crisis over the collapse of the economy, corruption, waste and dysfunctional governance, and they have taken to the streets demanding root-and-branch change.

"The entire regime needs to change. It will make no difference if there is a new government," Joe Haddad, a Beirut engineer, told Reuters. "We need quick elections."

The system of government requires Aoun to consult with parliamentary blocs on who should be the next prime minister, and he is obliged to designate the candidate with the greatest level of support among parliamentarians.

Forming a government amid factional rifts has been daunting in the past. Now with growing public discontent with the ruling elite over the blast and a crushing financial crisis, it could be difficult to find a candidate willing to be prime minister.

After former premier Saad Hariri stepped down in Oct. 2019 amid anti-government protests over perceived corruption and mismanagement, it took more than two months to form Diab's government.

Diab's cabinet was under severe pressure to step down. Some ministers had already resigned over the weekend and Monday while others, including the finance minister, were set to follow suit, ministerial and political sources said.

Diab said on Saturday he would request early parliamentary elections.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Aoun has said explosive material was stored unsafely for years at the port. In later comments, he said the investigation would consider whether the cause was external interference as well as negligence or an accident.

The cabinet decided to refer the investigation of the blast to the judicial council, the highest legal authority whose rulings cannot be appealed, a ministerial source and state news agency NNA said. The council usually handles top security cases.

Lebanese, meanwhile, are struggling to come to terms with the scale of losses after the blast wrecked entire areas.

"The economy was already a disaster and now I have no way of making money again," said Eli Abi Hanna, whose house and car repair shop were destroyed. "It was easier to make money during the civil war. The politicians and the economic disaster have ruined everything."

The Lebanese army said on Monday that another five bodies were pulled from the rubble, raising the death toll to 163. Search and rescue operations continued.

Anti-government protests in the past two days have been the biggest since October, when angry demonstrations spread over an economic crisis rooted in pervasive graft, mismanagement and high-level unaccountability.

An international donor conference on Sunday raised pledges worth nearly 253 million euros ($298 million) for immediate humanitarian relief, but foreign countries are demanding transparency over how the aid is used.

Some Lebanese doubt change is possible in a country where sectarian politicians have dominated since the 1975-90 conflict.

"It won't work, it's just the same people. It's a mafia," said Antoinette Baaklini, an employee of an electricity company that was demolished in the blast.

(Additional reporting by Laila Bassam and Samia Nakhoul in Beirut, Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Angus MacSwan, William Maclean, Richard Pullin)
JK Rowlings publisher invited a transgender activist group to edit a court report covering a free speech ruling.

The writer of the legal article said it was effectively destroyed due to extensive feedback from trans rights charity Mermaids.

The move by Hodder Education, part of Hachette, saw Ian Yule resign as chairman of the editorial board of A-level Law Review magazine, for which the article was written.

In June, Harry Potter author Miss Rowling expressed deep concerns about transgender activism in an essay. It led to some staff at Hachette involved in her new childrens book, The Ickabog, staging a rebellion.

JK Rowlings publisher invited a transgender activist group to edit a court report covering a free speech ruling

Mr Yules article was a summary of a case in which the police were likened to the Gestapo or the Stasi for their response to an accusation that businessman Harry Miller, 55, had posted transphobic tweets.

Officers visited his workplace to tell him the tweets  including one saying I was assigned mammal at birth, but my orientation is fish. Dont mis-species me  were recorded as a non-crime hate incident after receiving a single complaint in 2019.

High Court judge Mr Justice Julian Knowless ruling in February found the forces actions were a disproportionate interference with Mr Millers rights to freedom of expression and his tweets were lawful.

In June, Harry Potter author Miss Rowling expressed deep concerns about transgender activism in an essay

However, bosses at Hodder Education felt readers of the court report might find it offensive and referred it to Mermaids, according to The Sunday Times.

The charity was asked to suggest examples we can use to counteract the tone and opinions in the piece and to suggest changes to anything you feel is untrue, unfair and/or offensive.

Mermaids head of policy reportedly responded with four typed pages of feedback saying the article doesnt come over as balanced.

The publisher is said to have already deleted two-thirds of the original article because it had to be very careful how we present certain views.

Mr Yule, 72, said: This article contained little or no commentary by me, and no comments whatsoever on the issue of transgenderism.

My article did not express my own thoughts or beliefs but was a straightforward and accurate report of a High Court judgment.

Mr Yule said the publishers behaviour was far beyond parody, adding: If the judgment of a respected High Court judge is likely to upset such students and their teachers, they have no business studying or teaching this subject.

Hodder Education said: In editorial disputes, it is good practice to go to an external body for a second opinion. [Mr Yule] chose not to engage with the Mermaids review or, for the most part, our edits.

Miss Rowling, 55, has been targeted by trans activists after mocking an online article using the words people who menstruate instead of women.
Chandigarh, Aug 10 : Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday appealed to the people of the state to fight the coronavirus pandemic in unison and with morale like that of a soldier.

"Back in my Army days, I had learnt a very important lesson that when we fight together we don't get battle fatigue," he said in a tweet.

"I urge all Punjabis to come together against Covid-19 for it's a long fight and we'll need to inspire one another and, importantly, keep up our morale." On the Chief Minister's directive, the state Medical Education and Research department has set up four new Covid-19 viral testing labs to enhance the daily testing capacity of 4,000 tests from the next month with 1,000 tests per day per lab.

Also, the total viral testing capacity in three medical colleges in Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot cities would be ramped up to 5,000 tests per day per college by August 31, an official spokesperson told IANS.

He said this initiative would go a long way to fight the pandemic as early diagnosis is key to contain and curb the spread of the disease.

Over 6.15 lakh tests have been carried out in the state till date.

Punjab has so far reported 23,903 cases with 586 deaths.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
BANGKOK Over two days of video calls earlier this month, about a dozen students from Thailandas Kasetsart and Mahanakorn universities debated whether to break a taboo that could land them in jail: openly challenging the countryas powerful monarchy, according to two people on the calls.

Protesters on the streets and online have made a growing number of veiled references to King Maha Vajiralongkorn over the last few months as they push for greater democracy, but nobody had dared make a public call for changes at the palace.

The students discussed on the calls a Harry Potter wizard-themed protest and considered stopping short of open confrontation by only mentioning He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," a reference to Potteras archenemy in the J.K. Rowling books, the two participants said.

The argument for a clearer a but riskier a statement won out.

On the evening of Monday, Aug. 3, human rights lawyer Anon Nampa, 35, took the stage at Bangkoks Democracy Monument and called for the palaces powers to be curbed, an extremely rare event.

aNo otherA democratic countries allow the king to have this much power over the military,a he told about 200 protesters, with police standing by as he spoke. aThis increases the risk that a monarchy in a democracy could become an absolute monarchy.a

While the country has been roiled by decades of political turmoil, street protesters have not previously sought changes to the monarchy, which the constitution says must be held in a position of revered worship."

Any form of challenge to the monarchy was extremely rare under Vajiralongkorns father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in 2016 after 70 years on the throne.

Neither Anon nor any of the protesters have been charged with breaking Thailandas alese majestea law, which punishes criticism of the monarchy by up to 15 years in prison.

However, on Friday Aug. 7 police said Anon was taken into custody and charged with several offences relating to a separate protest on July 18, including raising unrest and disaffection amongst the people,a which carries a maximum seven-year sentence.

Anon has denied all charges, said his lawyer Weeranan Huadsri. He was freed on bail on Saturday.

The Royal Palace declined to comment on the protests or the more outspoken calls for royal powers to be curbed.

Defence Ministry spokesman Kongcheep Tantrawanit said: aDont draw the monarchy into conflict, it is not appropriate. The monarchy is a centre of unity for the Thai people.aA A

SWEPT UNDER THE RUG

Anonas open call for reform underscored the scale and speed of change in Thailand as some members of a new generation take on an establishment tied to the close relationship between the palace and the army. The king, a former army officer, is officially commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

aThis is an issue that people want to talk about,a said Patsalawalee Tanakitwiboonpon, a 24-year-old engineering student at Mahanakorn University who helped plan and spoke at the protest on Monday. aIt has been swept under the rug for so long.A So we think it is better if we can talk about this issue rationally and in the open.a

The latest series of protests have grown from a handful of peaceful, online-organized flash mobs, mostly on university campuses, to dozens of street demonstrations across Thailand and millions of people following hashtags online such as #FreeYouth.

The reaction from authorities, so far, has been limited. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who first took power in a 2014 military coup, told reporters on Aug. 4, the day after Anonas speech, that the government was open to talking to the students. He said on June 15 that the king had requested no prosecutions under the lese majeste law.

Army chief Apirat Kongsompong was not so conciliatory. In a speech to cadets on Aug. 5, he said: A COVID is a curable disease, but hating the nation, hating ones own country, this a disease that is not curable."

On Aug. 4, the day after the protest, Anon told Reuters he was anot too worrieda about being arrested. He had planned to speak out about the monarchy at two further protests in coming days, according to his Facebook page.

The police said in a statement on Friday that Anon and another organizer were arrested because it had received complaints about the July 18 protest and that an investigation was under way. Police declined to say who had complained or describe the nature of the complaints.

The police did not explain why Anon had not been charged under the lese majeste law for his speech at the Aug. 3 protest.

BOUND IN HISTORYA A

Even though King Vajiralongkorn spends much of his time in Germany, his image is pervasive in Thailand. Gold-framed royal portraits look down on city streets. Cinemas play a royal anthem at which audiences are traditionally expected to stand.

Many Thai conservatives say the bond between the monarchy and army is a guarantee of stability. The military strongly supports the palaces position asA Thailandas highest moral authority, with its head taking an unprecedented public oath last year to only support a government that backs the monarchy.

Some analysts say the military uses its close association with the monarchy to justify its prominent role in Thai politics. Ex-army chief Prayuth has appointed three retired military leaders to cabinet positions and more than a third of Senate seats are held by current or former military officers.

Meanwhile, the king has strengthened his constitutional powers since he took the throne in 2016. In his speech, Anon gave two examples of the king accruing powers he described as incompatible with democracy: Prayuthas government transferring two army units to the kingas personal control in 2019 and moving the crownas vast property holdings into the kingas name in 2017.

Yes, I am afraid, but if we dont come out to talk about what is necessary then the problems will continue,a said student Thanapol Panngam, 27, one of the organizers of Mondayas protest.

So far, only a handful of the dozens of student protest groups have openly criticised the monarchy, but they are united in demanding change after a disputed election last year which allowed former junta leader Prayuth to retain power. Critics say the election was pre-determined by rules written by the military that automatically gave Prayuth a significant number of votes. Prayuth says the vote was fair.

Our main ideology is to promote democracy," said Jutatip Sirikhan, 21, president of the Student Union of Thailand, which has helped organise the protests and has not criticised the palace.

The protests took off around the beginning of this year after courts banned the opposition Future Forward party, which had emerged from obscurity to a surprisingly strong third place in elections, helped by wide youth support for its call to end the militaryas dominance over the countryas politics.

Hows the weather in Germany?" read one placard at one of the first campus protests in Bangkok in February, a seemingly innocuous question but one that most Thais would recognise as a reference to Vajiralongkorn spending more time in Bavaria than Bangkok.

Then the new coronavirus halted the protests as Thailand locked down.

But from their phones and laptops back home, the activists kept up the pressure online - and with it the questioning of the monarchy.

In March, #whydoweneedaking? was used more than 1 million times on Thai-language Twitter. A Thai-language Facebook group that often mocks the monarchy has attracted more than 850,000 members.

During the lockdown, the students were also planning their next moves. There were Zoom meetings that would include more than a dozen people, and they would go on for hours," recalled Jutatip.

Protesters reappeared on the streets in force on July 18, spurred on by anger at economic pain caused by the collapse in tourism due to the coronavirus and the apparent kidnapping of an exiled Thai activist - the latest of several to disappear. Human rights groups say Wanchalearm Satsaksit, 37, was grabbed by unknown assailants in Cambodia in June and has not been seen since. The government and military have denied involvement.

BACK TO THE 70s

The latest youth-led demonstrations resemble pro-democracy student movements of the 1970s, some analysts say.

Thailand has seen repeated cycles of military intervention: there have been 13 successful coups since the end of absolute royal rule in 1932. King Bhumibol intervened in 1973 and 1992 to quell tensions after crackdowns by military rulers killed protesters.

Not all young Thais are on the same side. Pro-democracy protests have been met with royalist defenders of the government staging their own, smaller rallies.

aMany Thais have been concerned about offensive things against the monarchy,a said Totsapol Manoonyarat, a royalist former vocational student who said he was inspired by love of the king to join a counter-protest in Bangkok.

Stark divisions pose a dilemma for the government, some analysts say.

If they crack down on critics, they risk creating a backlash," said Matthew Wheeler, senior Southeast Asia analyst for the International Crisis Group. But if they let it slide, theres a risk the taboo will crumble."

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
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on August 10, 2020

2020/08/10

China Daily: William Evanina, the director of the US National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said in a statement on August 7 that Russia, China and Iran are trying to interfere in the 2020 US election. The US believes that China does not want Trump to win reelection because it views him as "unpredictable". He added "China has been expanding its influence efforts ahead of election to shape the policy environment in the US, pressure political figures it views as opposed to China's interests, and deflect and counter criticism of China," pointing to Beijing's criticisms on the US administration's response to the COVID-19, its closure of the Chinese consulate general in Houston, and its stances on issues like Hong Kong, South China Sea, Huawei and TikTok. China believed that it could influence the US election in this way. Do you have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: The general election of the United States is its internal affair and China has never interfered in it and has no interest to do that in the future. At the same time, we have repeatedly said that those in the US should immediately stop the trick of dragging China into their domestic politics.

As for the specific content of the statement you mentioned, I must point out that some US politicians always measure others by their own yardsticks and repeatedly use hypothetical or future tenses such as "could" and "try" to smear China without any real evidence. These people should talk and act professionally and responsibly, as they need to think about their credibility and their country's reputation, and stop making slanderous remarks about China.

As for the US claim that China's increased public criticism of the US government is to influence the US election, its logic is simply absurd and ridiculous. It was the US side that interfered in China's internal affairs and undermined China's interests first. China only reacted with just and necessary responses.

I would like to stress that China's policy towards the US is consistent. We are committed to achieving non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation with the United States. That said, we will firmly safeguard China's sovereignty, security and development interests. This policy has not changed.

Macau Monthly: On August 9, Former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa has been sworn in as the country's prime minister in the capital Colombo. What is your comment?

Zhao Lijian: China congratulates Mr. Rajapaksa on his swearing-in. Premier Li Keqiang has sent a congratulatory message to him.

The friendly ties between China and Sri Lanka go back a long way. In recent years, the China-Sri Lanka strategic cooperative partnership based on sincere mutual assistance and ever-lasting friendship has made great strides, and bilateral cooperation in various fields has been expanded and deepened. In particular, in the face of the COVID-19, the two governments and the two peoples have been supporting and assisting each other. Our friendship has been consolidated and elevated amid our joint efforts against the pandemic.

Prime Minister Rajapaksa has long been committed to promoting friendly ties with China. China sets great store by its relationship with Sri Lanka. We stand ready to strengthen our traditional friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation with Sri Lanka and move forward bilateral relations to deliver greater benefit of the two countries and the two peoples.

People's Daily: China said it will take necessary measures to facilitate foreign nationals' entry to China for essential economic, trade, scientific and technological activities. What steps has China specifically taken in terms of visa issuance?

Zhao Lijian: The Chinese government has suspended entry for most foreigners holding valid visa or residence permit starting from March 28, but at the same time we've facilitated visa applications of foreign nationals seeking entry for essential economic, trade, scientific and technological activities or out of emergency humanitarian needs. Recently, as the situation has been brought under control in many countries, people are looking forward to making foreign trips. Thus, China is relaxing in an orderly and gradual manner visa restrictions for foreigners entering China to resume economic activities and for other essential purposes. One more point to highlight is that for those who hold valid visa or residence permit but need visa renewal, Chinese embassies and consulates will provide them visa service for free.

APP: According to reports, Afghanistan's grand assembly of elders, the consultative Loya Jirga, has approved the release of the last batch of 400 Taliban prisoners, paving the way for intra-Afghan dialogues. Do you have any comment on that?

Zhao Lijian: The release of prisoners is an important step for the Afghan government and Taliban to establish mutual trust and initiate intra-Afghan talks. The Afghan government and people deliberated and agreed on this important decision through the consultative Loya Jirga in accordance with their rules of procedure. China welcomes that and believes it follows the principle for the Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process and will contribute to realizing intra-Afghan talks.

The Afghan situation has come to a crucial juncture. All relevant parties should follow through on their promises and agreements with Afghanistan to ensure the situation there remains stable and orderly. China will continue to play a constructive role in promoting the political settlement of the Afghan issue and the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

Shenzhen TV: Alex Azar, the United States Health and Human Services Secretary, arrived in Taiwan and kicked off his visit yesterday. He met with Tsai Ing-wen this morning and plans to meet more officials. What is your comment?

Zhao Lijian: China consistently and firmly opposes any official interactions between the US and Taiwan and has made stern representations with the US side over this issue.

I'd like to reiterate that 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 its political foundation. What the US has done contravened its own promises on the question. We urge the US to adhere to the one-China principle and the three joint communiques, stop having official interactions of any kind with Taiwan, make no attempts to change the nature of its relationship with Taiwan, and handle Taiwan-related issues prudently and properly to avoid severe damage to China-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

CCTV: On August 6, many Russians received phone messages about the US Department of State offering a reward of $10 million for information on interference in US elections. The US embassy in Russia confirmed that these messages were sent by the US government. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the US is seeking selfish gains by inciting Russians with deception and propaganda. She added that US Department of State's report on "Russia's pillars of disinformation and propaganda" violates freedom of speech, which is another US attempt to control media activities and an example of US smearing of Russia's political roadmap. Do you have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: I have noted relevant reports. What is not in short supply in today's world is disinformation, slanders and rumors. In the face of these disturbances, all countries should adhere to objective and just stances, respect facts and reject stigmatization, no matter in what form it may take. We should create a healthy and reasonable atmosphere for international relations to survive and thrive.

Xinhua News Agency: As the international landscape is undergoing changes unseen in a century, the unprecedented pandemic also hit mankind unawares, posing new challenges to the diplomatic work of all countries. How do you comment on China's diplomatic work as of today? Looking ahead, what will China's diplomatic priorities be?

Zhao Lijian: COVID-19 has engulfed and impacted the whole world since its outbreak early this year. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is fully committed to domestic epidemic prevention and control and resumption of economic activities. We have actively planned and developed our relations with other major countries, responded rationally to the unreasonable pressure the United States has piled on China, made new progress in advancing China-Russia relations under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, and sustained cooperation as the main tone of China-EU relations. We will continue to improve relations with neighboring countries, strengthen solidarity and cooperation with other developing countries, advocate the building of a community of common health for mankind, firmly uphold China's sovereignty and security interests, and endeavor to fulfill the purpose of diplomacy for the people.

China has always pursued an independent foreign policy of peace, and will always be a builder of world peace, contributor to global development and defender of the international order. This has not changed and will not change. Looking ahead, China's diplomacy will focus on the following priorities:

China will strengthen international cooperation in epidemic prevention and control, actively explore the establishment of joint prevention and control mechanisms with other countries, carry out cooperation in drug and vaccine research and development, provide assistance to countries in need to the best of its ability, and improve global public health governance.

For China-US relations, we stand ready to work with the United States to build a relationship on coordination, cooperation and stability in the spirit of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, but we will never submit to its bullying and power politics. We will firmly safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, uphold our legitimate development rights and interests, and defend our major country status and national dignity that the Chinese people have won through unremitting efforts. Although some extremist forces in the United States continue to stoke trouble, trying to push China-US relations into the so-called "New Cold War", China maintains continuity and stability in its policy towards the US. We believe that China and the United States need to have candid and effective dialogues, take concrete actions to manage differences and focus on and advance practical cooperation in various fields. This serves the common interests of the two peoples and meets the common expectations of the international community.

For China-Russia relations, China will adhere to the strategic guidance of the heads of state of the two countries and push China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era to a higher level. For the China-EU relationship, we will look at it from a strategic and long-term perspective and work for its steady growth. For the China-Japan relationship, we will actively plan and promote exchanges and cooperation between the two sides to inject new vitality into its development. For the China-India relationship, the two sides should jointly safeguard peace and security in the border areas and maintain steady and sound development of bilateral ties. We will continue to deepen strategic mutual trust and expand shared interests with our neighbors and other developing countries.

China will take an even more active part in the reform and improvement of global governance, give full play to the United Nations' central role, follow international law and basic norms governing international relations, and work with other countries to build a community with a shared future for mankind.

AFP: The foreign ministers of five western countries issued a joint statement yesterday, urging Hong Kong to hold the legislative council elections as soon as possible. The five countries are the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. They also warned authorities in Hong Kong not to undermine the democratic process. Has China protested to these five countries?

Zhao Lijian: China deplores and rejects the joint statement on Hong Kong by the foreign ministers of the Five Eyes. It is another evidence of their interference in China's internal affairs and Hong Kong Legislative Council election. China has made stern representations with the relevant countries.

Hong Kong is China's special administrative region and its Legislative Council election is China's local election and purely Hong Kong's internal affair. No foreign government, organization or individual has any right or reason to interfere.

The Hong Kong SAR Government's decision to postpone the election in the face of the raging pandemic is a justified and necessary step to ensure people's safety and health and a safe, fair and just election. Elections have been put off in other parts of the world due to the pandemic and other disasters, and the Hong Kong SAR government followed this practice in making this legitimate, reasonable and lawful decision. To my knowledge, more than 60 countries and regions have postponed national or local elections due to COVID-19. For example, the UK announced in March that local elections in places like England originally scheduled in May would be postponed to May 2021. It is typical double standards that the Five Eyes chose to interpret the Hong Kong SAR government's decision in a twisted political way.

With regard to the Law on Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong, I need to remind certain countries of the fact that at a recent UNHRC session, 70 countries supported China's formulation of the law and condemned interference in China's internal affairs by using Hong Kong as a cover. This reflects the common voice and just position of the international community. The Five Eyes can by no means represent the international community.

Beijing Youth: Former US national security adviser Brent Scowcroft recently passed away. Do you have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: General Brent Scowcroft was a renowned US statesman and diplomat, and an old friend of the Chinese people. China deeply mourns his passing and expresses sincere condolences to his family.

General Brent Scowcroft played an important and positive role in the establishment and development of China-US relations and made relentless efforts to promote exchanges and cooperation between the two sides. We will never forget the important contributions he made to bilateral ties between China and the US.

Bloomberg: On Friday, Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee Yang Jiechi called for close cooperation with the US on trade, defense, global warming and North Korea. That's followed an earlier statement of Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi who told Xinhua News Agency that China wasn't interested in a diplomatic war. So my question is, from the above, can we conclude that China wants to take a more conciliatory approach to how it responds to US actions? And will this approach be the one employed between now and the US presidential elections? Is Beijing concerned that taking such a stance could be construed as a weakness by Washington?

Zhao Lijian: Regarding China-US relations, Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee published a signed article and State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had given an exclusive interview. Here I want to illustrate three points:

First, to maintain and stabilize China-US relations bears on the well-being of the people of our two countries and the world at large, as well as on world peace, stability and development. History fully proves that cooperation is the best choice for both sides. Second, out of prejudice and hatred towards China, some politicians in the US have recently fabricated all kinds of lies to maliciously smear China and deliberately distort and completely negate the history of China-US relations over the past 50 years. The international community has seen this clearly. As for the wrong words and deeds of the US side, China will not sit idly by, still less allow such a plot to succeed. Third, China's policy stance on developing China-US relations has been consistent and maintains a high degree of stability and continuity. At the same time, we are also ready to face some setbacks in China-US relations. China is always ready to work with the United States in the spirit of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation to promote bilateral relations based on coordination, cooperation and stability, but in no way will we let our sovereignty, security and development interests be violated to the slightest degree.

A consensus that should be shared by China and the United States is that we must respect history, look to the future, and firmly safeguard and stabilize China-US relations; we need to stay on the right course, keep pace with the times, and maintain the right direction of China-US relations. We hope that the United States will work with China bearing in mind the interests of mankind, recognize the trend of the times, fulfill its responsibilities as a major country, manage differences on the basis of mutual respect and expand cooperation on the basis of mutual benefit so as to bring China-US relations back to the track of sound and stable development.

CCTV: On August 7, the US State Department and Department of the Treasury announced sanctions on 11 officials of the Central Government and the Hong Kong SAR under the pretext of undermining Hong Kong's autonomy. What is China's response?

Zhao Lijian: Such behavior openly meddles with Hong Kong affairs, blatantly interferes in China's internal affairs, and gravely violates international law and basic norms governing international relations. China firmly rejects and condemns it.

Reacting to the erroneous move by the US side, China has decided to impose sanctions on the following individuals with egregious behaviors on Hong Kong-related issues, effective today: US Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton and Pat Toomey, Representative Chris Smith, and Carl Gershman, President of the National Endowment for Democracy, Derek Mitchell, President of the National Democratic Institute, Daniel Twining, President of the International Republican Institute, Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, and Michael J. Abramowitz, President of Freedom House.

I must stress again that since Hong Kong's return to the motherland, "one country, two systems" has achieved enormous success. Hong Kong residents enjoy unprecedented democratic rights and freedoms in accordance with law. This is an objective fact no unbiased people will deny. In the meantime, there are new risks and challenges in the implementation of "one country, two systems", the most prominent of which is the heightened national security risk. When national security in Hong Kong is undermined and confronted with real threats and the SAR government had difficulty in completing national security legislation on its own, the Central Government took decisive measures to establish and improve at the state level a legal system and enforcement mechanisms to safeguard the Hong Kong SAR's national security. The Law on Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong targets a very small number of criminals who gravely jeopardize national security and protects the law-abiding Hong Kong residents, who represent the vast majority.

Hong Kong is part of China and its affairs are entirely China's internal affairs which allow no foreign interference. We urge the US to grasp the situation, correct its mistake, and immediately stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs.

The Global Times: In Belarus, the incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko has won the presidential election, according to preliminary results. What is China's comment?

Zhao Lijian: President Xi Jinping has sent a congratulatory message to President Lukashenko. As a comprehensive strategic partner and iron-clad friend, China always respects the choice of the Belarusian people. We believe that under the leadership of President Lukashenko, Belarus will make greater achievements in various undertakings of national development. China attaches great importance to developing its relations with Belarus and is ready to work with Belarus to continuously deepen bilateral ties and cooperation in various fields.

The Paper: A follow-up question on US sanctions on Hong Kong. We noted that Hong Kong officials including Chief Executive Carrie Lam and officials in charge of the HKSAR's departments of administration, finance and justice all responded, calling the US sanctions shameless and despicable, and blatant and barbaric interference in Hong Kong affairs. Some pointed out that the US falsely accused Chinese companies of data leak, but the US Treasury is disclosing personal information of 11 officials in the name of sanctions, which violates respect for privacy as the US claims to champion. According to the Hong Kong Social Sciences Research Centre's statistics, 65.7% of the surveyed Hong Kong residents expressed opposition to any sanctions by the US. Do you have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: The US gross interference in China's internal affairs and unscrupulous sanctions have met with unanimous strong opposition and condemnation from the Chinese people, including those in Hong Kong. The egregious and hegemonic behavior of the US has been denounced by all. Relevant officials have publicly stated their "fear nothing" position in the face of the sanctions, which speaks volumes of the character of the Chinese people.

Intimidation will never work on the Chinese people. The so-called sanctions by the US will only further expose their hegemonic bullying and double standards and give the international community another laughingstock and farce to mock at.

Let me share with you some of the responses made by Chief Executive Carrie Lam and others. Carrie said that according to the information released by the US side, she is supposed to live in Victoria House, but that is the official residence of the Chief Secretary for Administration's Office. Who can imagine that the US side cannot even get the Chief Executive's address right? Teresa Cheng, HKSAR Secretary for Justice said that it is an honor to serve the country and personal interest pales in front of the motherland and the people. With the strong backing of the country, she fears nothing at all. US sanctions are wasted efforts.

I want to give them a big "Thumb Up" on behalf of the Chinese people.

China Review News: According to the New York Times, a recent C.I.A. assessment to the White House concludes that there is no evidence the Chinese intelligence authorities have intercepted TikTok data or used the app to bore into smartphones. Daniel Castro, Vice President of the US think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said "there is no security justification for banning an app merely because it is owned by a Chinese company"; "Allegations of security risks should be backed by hard evidence, not unsubstantiated innuendo". Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also said recently that the US actions against TikTok are "a blatant example of unfair competition" that violated WTO rules. What's your comment?

Zhao Lijian: China stands firmly against the US practice of abusing national security concept and state power to wantonly suppress non-American businesses like TikTok. This violates market principles and WTO rules. Such blatant bullying and political manipulation has been seen through and condemned by the international community including people in the US, which is what it deserves.

We urge the US side to correct its hysterical and wrong actions, come back to market principles and WTO norms, and stop unjustified suppression and discriminatory restriction targeting Chinese companies.

Reuters: First question, you just announced some sanctions against US officials. Are they effective today? Second question, Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was arrested today in Hong Kong under the national security law for suspected collusion with foreign forces. Can the foreign ministry specify in what ways did Lai collude with foreign forces? Third question, Chinese fighter jets crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait this morning. Is this China's countermeasure for the visit by US health chief Azar to Taiwan?

Zhao Lijian: On your first question, these sanctions take effect as of today.

On your second question, Hong Kong is governed by rule of law. We support SAR law enforcement authorities in discharging their duties in accordance with law.

On your third question, I would refer you to the defense department.
New Delhi, Aug 10 : The University Grants Commission (UGC) told the Supreme Court on Monday that degrees would not be recognised if no examinations are held for final-year students even as the country was facing coronavirus crisis.

The UGC response was conveyed by its counsel, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, on a batch of pleas that challenged the UGC schedule for final-year university exams before September 30.

Mehta contended before a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan that it's not in the interest of students to not hold exams. He asked the top court for time to file a reply to Delhi and Maharashtra governments' affidavits, wherein they said they had decided to cancel the exams in state universities.

The petitioners' counsel contended that the UGC guideline for holding exams are "not legally or constitutionally valid".

Mehta argued that Delhi's and Maharashtra's decisions to cancel exams in their respective state universities are against the UGC rules.

He argued that the UGC is the only body that can prescribe rules for conferring a degree, and the state governments cannot change the rules.

The counsel for one of the petitioners replied that there is complete inconsistency in the Ministry of Human Resource Development and UGC guidelines.

The top court adjourned the hearing till Friday, after the UGC asked for time to respond to the affidavits filed by Delhi and Maharashtra.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
China imposed sanctions on 11 US citizens including legislators on Monday in response to the US imposition of sanctions on 11 Hong Kong and Chinese officials accused of curtailing political freedoms in the former British colony.

Among those targeted were Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley and Pat Toomey and Representative Chris Smith, as well as individuals at non-profit and rights groups.

"In response to that wrong US behaviour, China has decided to impose sanctions on individuals who have behaved egregiously on Hong Kong-related issues," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular press briefing on Monday.

He did not specify what the sanctions entail.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated sharply in recent months over issues ranging from trade, to Hong Kong and China's handling of the novel coronavirus.

China's sanctions of the 11 US citizens is the latest in a tit-for-tat round of measures between China and the United States over accusations of rights abuses and interference.

The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam as well as the city's current and former police chiefs, under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump.

Those sanctions freeze any US assets owned by those people and generally bar Americans from doing business with them.

The US lawmakers targeted by China on Monday have been vocal critics of a new national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in late June, expanding its authority in the financial hub.

Last month, China announced sanctions against Cruz, Rubio, Smith and other US officials after the United States penalized senior Chinese officials over the treatment of Uighur Muslims in its Xinjiang region.

Beijing's latest measure includes sanctions against the heads of five US-based, non-government organisations - the National Endowment for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the International Republican Institute, Freedom House and Human Rights Watch.

All five groups had been subjected to sanctions in December in connection with their positions on Hong Kong.
Protesters on Sunday called for an end to the Spanish monarchy after the sudden departure of the former king Juan Carlos from the country this week amid a corruption scandal.

Juan Carlos, who abdicated in 2014 in favour of his son Felipe, abruptly announced his decision to leave on Monday but there has been no official confirmation of where he went, setting off an international guessing game.

"We have to clean up the system of corruption and we should start with the crown," said Jose Emilio Martin, a bus driver, who was among about a hundred protesters in Madrid on Sunday.

Protests against the royal family have spread across Spain since the ex-monarch's dramatic exit, with about 100 republicans demonstrating in Valencia on Sunday and more protests planned in Majorca this week during King Felipe VI's visit to the island.

A poll by SigmaDos published on Sunday in the conservative newspaper El Mundo found 63.3% of those questioned felt it was a bad idea for the 82-year-old ex-monarch to have left, while 27.2% agreed with his departure.

Some 80.3% said they thought Juan Carlos should face any potential legal proceedings. The poll, carried out between Aug. 4-6 after he left, found 12.4% said he had nothing to answer for and 7.3% did not voice an opinion.

Despite the disapproval, reflecting Juan Carlos' sinking popularity in recent years, some 69.2% of those questioned in Sunday's poll said he played an important role in the transition from dictatorship to democracy after the death of Francisco Franco in 1975, while 24.4% said he played "little or no" role.

In June, Spain's Supreme Court opened a preliminary investigation into Juan Carlos' involvement in a high-speed rail contract in Saudi Arabia, after Switzerland's La Tribune de Geneve newspaper reported he had received $100 million from the late Saudi king. Switzerland has also opened an investigation.

The former monarch is not formally under investigation and has repeatedly declined to comment on the allegations.

Juan Carlos's lawyer said on Monday his client was at the Spanish prosecutor's disposal despite his decision to leave.

The pro-monarchist newspaper ABC reported on Friday that Juan Carlos had travelled by private plane from Spain to the United Arab Emirates on Monday.

Other media have said he is in the Dominican Republic or in Portugal. Officials there have said they have no knowledge of him arriving.

A Spanish government spokeswoman declined on Sunday to comment on his whereabouts. His lawyer and the royal palace have all this week declined to say where Juan Carlos is.

News website Niusdiario.es posted a photograph https://www.niusdiario.es/nacional/casa-real/exclusiva-nius-foto-llegada-rey-emerito-juan-carlos-aeropuerto-abu-dabi-emiratos-arabes-unidos_18_2990670271.html on Saturday that it said showed him walking down the steps of a plane at an airport in Abu Dhabi. If confirmed, it would be the first image published of the ex-king since his departure.

United Arab Emirates officials and the Emirates Palace Hotel did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday.
By Akbar Mammadov

Turkey will send another package of medical aid to Azerbaijan over the fight against COVID-19.

Thus, medical supplies will be delivered to Azerbaijan in accordance with the agreement signed on providing assistance in the field of health between the Azerbaijani and Turkish governments on July 6.

The agreement on providing medical supplies to Azerbaijan was renewed by the order of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on August 5.

The medical aid package includes 30 Hi-Flow ventilations, 35,000 coveralls, 50,000 N95 masks, 100,000 surgical masks, 5,000 medical protective glasses, 200,000 gloves, 40,000 boxes of various medicines (Tamiflu and hydroxychloroquine).

The medical supplies will be supplied to Azerbaijan "as a gesture of friendship and goodwill, reads the agreement.

It should be noted that the first package of medical aid from Turkey was sent to Azerbaijan in the fight against coronavirus infection on 6 July. That package included 30 devices of IVL, 55,000 coveralls, 50,000 masks 95, 100,000 surgical masks, 5,000 protective glasses, 200,000 gloves and 40,000 boxes of the various medicines used for the treatment of a virus.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The 2020 Bachelor Locky Gilbert has claimed he found "The One" after his appearance on the show this year and with the premiere date steadily approaching his ex-girlfriend is sharing a brutal warning to his chosen lady.

Love Island's Jordan Cayless, who dated Locky for three years, revealed to New Idea that she believes he only signed up to be on the show for the publicity.

Locky Gilbert's ex-girlfriend Jordan Cayless has issued a warning to his chosen lady, saying he's only on the show for publicity. Photo: Instagram/JordanCayless

She also revealed that the reality star cheated on her during an overseas trip while the pair were living together in Bali.

Locky went on an overnight trip to Singapore and the next day Jordan received a message from a woman claiming she had slept with him.

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"I was at home working on our business, and I got a message from a girl on Instagram saying she was so sorry to do this, but she thought that I should know that she went home with Locky that night," she said.

Jordan spoke to the woman on the phone and she revealed that she had asked Locky several times whether he was single or not and he claimed not to have a girlfriend every time.

Jordan dated Locky for three years before he cheated on her in Singapore one night. Photo: Instagram/JordanCayless

"Locky still denies this. But they ended up going back to her place and they slept together twice," she added.

Jordan packed up her life in Bali and moved back home to Perth.

She told the magazine that she did notice a number of red flags but at the time simply ignored them.

"I did trust him, a bit too much. But there were a lot of little red flags in our relationship, little messages Id see with him being flirty or inappropriate with girls," she said.

Jordan added that she would always end up forgiving him, but now she wonders how she put up with it.

While she wasn't shocked to see that Locky would be The Bachelor, she was certainly surprised to hear him say that he's the type to propose on the show. However, she believes he'd happily do it for "the publicity and ratings".

Story continues

Jordan said she was surprised to hear Locky say that he's the type to propose on the show, saying he'd only do it for publicity. Photo: Instagram/LocklanGilbert

"Im not surprised [he's the Bachelor]  dating 24 girls is like Lockys dream come true. Hes always wanted to be the Bachelor  hes even mentioned it to me before. He just loved girls wanting him and Im honestly nervous for who he ends up with," she explained.

Jordan warned the woman Locky has chosen that he's only on the show for the attention and to "be that guy walking down the street who is the Bachelor".

She added that she doesn't believe that Locky will end up getting married or having children with the woman he has chosen.

Jordan is currently dating fellow Love Island star Gerard Majda.

Jordan is now dating fellow Love Island star Gerard Majda. Photo: Instagram/BodyMajic

Locky revealed to the magazine that he "made a mistake" while with Jordan, which deeply hurt her and their relationship.

However, he added that he learned from the experience with Jordan and loves the woman he's chosen and has never felt this way with anyone else before.

He finished by saying he's happy she's found someone and wishes her all the best.

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The coronavirus pandemic is surging through the Southeast, and some of the nations worst clusters have been in parts of Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, where hospitals have reported nearing or even reaching full capacity in their ICU wards.

For some nurses who work in those ICUs, the sight has been horribly familiar. During the early days of the pandemic in April and May, nurses from around the country traveled to New York to help out with its urgent need. After a couple nightmarish months, the pandemic subsided in the city, and the nurses returned home with the hope they would leave the experience behind them. But now, as states that seemed to have been spared in the early days of the pandemic have reported weeks of near-record numbers, nurses have come to fear a repeat of New York.

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One of those nurses is Kristina Ng. For five years, Ng had worked in the operating room of an ophthalmology practice and as a home-care nurse in Houston, where she was born and raised. When the pandemic hit, Ng traveled to Brooklyn to work in a hospital there for a little over a month. When she arrived home, she decided to carry on her work as an ICU nurse, treating COVID-19 patients. Slate spoke to Ng to learn what its like to work in two hot spots, months apart and halfway across the country.

Molly Olmstead: What took you to Brooklyn?

Ng: The practice that I work for is all ophthalmology, and the majority of the cases are elective. Because of the crisis, the state of Texas had stopped all elective surgeries during that time. That meant that I wasnt working for over a month.

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I told myself before this quarantine happened, I was done with ICU. I had my son, and I didnt want to work the long 12-hour shifts anymore because I wouldnt have time with him. But I felt like I really needed to help. I was trying to find a job back in the hospitals here in Houston, but everywhere, there was a hiring freeze. A lot of hospitals were not taking admissions, unless it was related to COVID or suspected COVID, because they were trying to keep those beds open in case there was this influx of COVID coming in. So they just didnt need all those nurses, with all these empty beds.

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My husband works, but he also has an internship for school, and I didnt want him missing out on his future career to just go to work somewhere. I said, I want you to finish school and focus on your internship, and Ill just do anything [I need] to do. I thought to myself, What better place, if Im going to go back to the ICU to help, than the epicenter of where its happening? I needed to go and help where they needed it the most.

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What was it like in Brooklyn?

I was assigned to a very small community hospital. It was a very old hospital. My first day, two nurses and I, we opened up a brand new unit to become a COVID ICU. And we didnt get training. We were told that we werent going to get an orientation because there was just no time. We got there and they said, OK, youre going to go to the second floor. So wed go there, and its a completely empty unit, and theyre like, OK, we want you guys to turn us into an ICU, were going to start getting patients in three hours. We dont even know where the bathroom is.

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The hospital was being run pretty much by residents. There werent very many attending physicians with, you know, 15-, 20-plus years experience running around. And a lot of the things that people were saying, like, OK, this new medication is great for COVID, or research currently shows that this has some successwe werent doing any of that, at least in the hospital that I was at. Like proning, turning a patient on their stomach to get the lungs a breakthey werent doing that as often. Here in Houston, they are keeping up with current research and studies.

Why was that the case in Brooklyn?

I really think about that a lot. I think the clinical education people who are typically there to help educate about new and upcoming ways of doing things were still in quarantine. [And]

I think there was also a lack of resources. We didnt have the right equipment. They had an old pediatric unit, and we were opening it up as a COVID ICU. Whatever you find in the supply closet, you just have to make do with what you have. So we found a bunch of IV pumps. And we thought, Oh my God, this is great. But what we shortly found out a few hours later was that those pumps are set for pediatric patients. So when we take adult patients that have to be maxed out on lifesaving IV medication through a pump, we couldnt always max them out.

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What sticks out to you in your memory from that time?

Of all the patients I took care of in New York, I only had one survive. And shes not the model patient that you would think. She was 91 years old. She had all these other comorbidities, so she wasnt the healthiest. I did not think that she was going to make it when she came to me on my first day in New York. She was not responsive, she was on a ventilator, she did not look good. But towards the middle of my time in New York, she started to wake up. She really surprised all of us. When I first arrived home, I had been keeping in touch with her. And to my knowledge, shes still doing very well.

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What was it like coming back to Houston?

I went into quarantine for two weeks. My son has congenital heart defects, so I chose to quarantine at a hotel close to the house. While I was there, I had a lot of time to think. My experience in New York really changed my mindset, because working there made me realize how much I missed the acute care side of things. I felt more comfortable when I felt like I was really helping.

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When you returned to nursing, how was it treating COVID patients for a second time?

Its like night and day. First of all, the hospital is clean and up-to-date. There arent COVID patients literally laying around everywhere. Everybody has their own private room. And you have experienced doctors and nurse practitioners at your disposal whenever you need them.

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[But] my first week at this new hospital, I did a terminal withdrawal on two different patients in one week. And they both had COVID. Youre used to dealing with death and dying and the grieving process, and youre used to having these really hard talks with family, but when you do it so often, it gets even more stressful than you would imagine. But it hasnt been as crazy [as New York] here in Houston, at least not where Im at. My fear is that when the people here continue to not take it seriously, its going to head that way.

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Were there any parts of it that have been harder in Houston?

The hardest thing is the fact that these patients that Im taking care of since Ive been back in Houston are really alone. I mean, thats not something new or different from New York, but I think because its my home state, my home city, it hits home a lot more for me than it did in New York. This hospital that Im working at is literally down the street from where I live. And it just becomes very real that it could be my neighbor, it could be my own family member that this is happening to. And its that, I think, that will make me remember all of this: just the normalcy of it, if that makes sense. That it could just be anyone.

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Are there any lessons you brought from New York to make Houston easier?

To be honest with you, I had a really hard time in New York. Death doesnt bother me, but when I was in New York, I was dealing with it every few hours. I couldnt even make my patients comfortable when they were dying. I just started thinking, this is the best that we can do. I started changing to, like, war-zone time. You can only save the patients that you can, and if you did your best, then thats all they can do. And it did get easier. So now that Im back home, I have all these resources, and Im very grateful for that. But I also know how to try and make it work if I dont. Im more adaptable now.

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What do you want people in Houston to know?

The units are completely full. I can tell you that the vast majority of the patients in my unit are COVID-positive patients. Its very bad here, a lot of Houston is not taking it seriously. And I noticed that when I first came home from New York and I was in quarantine, a lot of people thought, This is not as big of a deal as what happened in New York, and theyre only showing you the bad things on TV. But the bad things are real. I have an older co-worker who is a nurse practitioner here in Houstonhe worked in the ICU, and he himself now has COVID. And I can guarantee you that he wore the best PPE available to health care workers. He is the best NP Ive ever worked with. And hes fighting for his life. Hes not doing well. So when I see people here talk about how this is a hoax or make it politicalit really is an insult to a lot of health care workers. We see people dying all the time.

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An aide in Donald Trumps White House reached out to South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem last year about the process of adding additional presidents to Mount Rushmore, the New York Times reported.

The questions came after Noem, a Republican, met Donald Trump at the White House in 2018 during her gubernatorial campaign. In an interview with South Dakota newspaper Argus Leader at the time, Noem said that he asked her about adding his face to the monument.

I shook his hand, and I said, Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore,' she told the paper. And he goes, Do you know its my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?'

Also Read: Trump Signs Executive Orders He Says Will Provide $400 in Extra Unemployment Benefits

I started laughing, she said. He wasnt laughing, so he was totally serious.

But apparently the president might have been serious after all. And the Times reported that when Trump visited Mount Rushmore last month as part of his Fourth of July tour, Noem presented him with a four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore with Trumps face added to it.

Late Sunday, Trump tweeted that the Times report was fake news  but added, sounds like a good idea to me!

Mount Rushmore has become a target of criticism among Native Americans, particularly the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, on whose land the monument was built.

Nothing stands as a greater reminder to the Great Sioux Nation of a country that cannot keep a promise of treaty then the faces carved into our sacred land on what the United States calls Mount Rushmore, said the tribes chairman, Harold Frazier. The United States of America wishes for all of us to be citizens and a family of their republic yet when they get bored of looking at those faces we are left looking at our molesters.

During his Fourth of July speech, Trump defended Mount Rushmore: As we meet here tonight there is a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought so hard for, he warned. Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children.

Read original story White House Asked South Dakota Governor About Adding Trump to Mount Rushmore (Report) At TheWrap
The quarantine introduced amid the COVID-19 pandemic did not have the best effect on the lives of little Europeans. Children locked up in their homes for two months did not attend school and were deprived of normal communication with their peers. Some have suffered abuse, including on social media, Euronews reported.

The European Commission is concerned about this fact. Children living in EU countries are exposed to sexual and pornographic materials on the internet.

According to Ylva Johansson, European Commissioner for Home Affairs, the pandemic has exacerbated the issue:

The EU envisages the creation of a European center for the fight against child sexual abuse - the organization of a crime prevention network, and the formation of a reliable legal framework that fully utilizes the existing EU legislation in the field of combating sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children.

Brussels indicates that it is striving to resolve these issues as soon as possible.

The European Commission hopes that the proposed initiatives will be effective and that Europe will continue to play a leading role in the fight against abuse and violence against minors.
The Greater Accra Police Command has confirmed a bomb explosion that occurred at the La Beach on Wednesday, August 5, leaving four children injured in the process.



A statement issued in Accra by Deputy Superintendent of Police, Madam Efua Tenge, Head of Public Relations Unit, Greater Accra Region said all the four children had since been treated and discharged.



It said the explosion occurred when the children were playing along the La Beach.



The statement advised parents not to leave their children without the needed parental guide, now that they were home.



Similarly, children should be discouraged from handling unfamiliar objects, it added.



The Police advised the public, especially parents and community leaders to be wary of strange objects they chanced upon and immediately draw the attention of the police for the appropriate response.



It said the Police should be notified of strange objects in their vicinities by calling the Police Emergency numbers 191, 18555 or 112.

Source: GNA









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Rajasthan president Satish Poonia on Monday asked Chief Minister to quit on moral grounds, saying he is the villain of the political crisis unfolding in the state.

He said the crisis reflected the weakness of the high command and exposed the party's character before people once again.

Poonia also raised the issue of the MLAs' stay at hotels for the past month, claiming nearly Rs 10 crore has been spent on it. He held the "infighting" in the party responsible for it.

I had said on day one that it is the infighting of the and they kept running from one place to another. There should be an audit of it in 'janta ki adalat', Poonia told reporters at the party office here.

Lashing out at the chief minister, the state chief said, In this entire episode, the one who is actually a villain tried to become a hero. should quit as the chief minister on moral grounds as it would lead to the solution of a lot of problems."



He also accused the government of failing to deliver on its promises.

There are many unemployed people in the state. Rajasthan has become a crime capital. The government should have taken care of it as well, he said.

Rajasthan is witnessing a political crisis, triggered by the rebellion of dissident Congress leader Sachin Pilot and 18 MLAs loyal to him against Chief Minister

The Congress has accused the of horse-trading to topple its government in the state, a charge rejected by the opposition party.

(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.)
WOOD RIVER  The Madison County Health Department on Monday announced 19 opportunities for COVID-19 community testing sites in addition to the five testing sites at stationary locations throughout Madison County and the IDPH Regional Testing Site in East St. Louis.

Through Sunday, Aug. 16, Madison County is hosting the State of Illinois for COVID-19 Community Testing Sites from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. The sites are sponsored by the Health Department and Madison County Leadership Council Faith Alliance.

The testing sites are for adults and children six months or older, regardless of whether they are showing symptoms. No appointment is needed but masks are required, and those tested must have a valid phone number because they will receive results by telephone.

The tests will be done using a nasal swab. Because of lab delays, it may take up to a week to get results. People are being asked not to call for results.

Times and locations include:

 Monday, Aug 10: Quad City/Mt. Nebo Complex (former Harris Elementary School), 1634 Seventh St., Madison.

 Tuesday, Aug 11: First United Presbyterian Church, 201 E. Church St., Collinsville.

 Wednesday, Aug 12: Tabernacle MB Church, 2621 Amelia St., Alton.

 Thursday, Aug 13: Venice Township Building, 910 Madison Ave., Madison.

 Friday, Aug 14: Korte Rec Center, 1 Nagel Drive, Highland.

 Saturday, Aug 15: Deliverance Temple Inc., 1125 E. Sixth St., Alton.

 Sunday, Aug 16: Madison County Administration Building, 157 N. Main St., Edwardsville (rear parking lot at the corner of Second and Clay streets) Edwardsville.

Throughout the summer, a partnership of organizations have worked together to provide weekly COVID-19 Community testing sites across Madison County. They will continue their efforts over the coming months and have additional dates and locations scheduled through September at this point.

Sponsoring agencies for these testing sites include: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Nursing, SIHF Healthcare, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, and Madison County Health Department.

These sites operate from 9 a.m. to noon at various locations. The rules and requirements are similar to the community testing sites.

For information visit www.madisonchd.org.

Testing sites include:

 Alhambra City Park, Alhambra, Aug. 11 and Sept. 1.

 Americas Central Port, Granite City, Aug. 13 and Sept. 3.

 Gordon Moore Park North, Alton, Aug. 18 and Sept. 8.

 Fairmount Park, Collinsville, Aug. 20 and Sept. 10.

 Korte Stadium, SIUE, Aug. 25 and Sept. 15.

 Korte Rec Center, Highland, Aug. 27 and Sept. 17.

In addition to these COVID-19 Community Testing Sites, there are 5 stationary locations offering COVID-19 Testing in Madison County as well. The times of operation and criteria for testing vary by site. It is strongly encouraged to review the information online for each site and consider calling them with further questions. These stationary testing sites include:

 SIHF Healthcare Testing Site  Wood River.

 Respiratory Care Clinic of Bethalto  Bethalto.

 HSHS Medical Group  Troy.

 MedExpress  Collinsville.

 Anderson Hospital (Healthcare Building at 159 & 162)  Maryville.

Detailed information for each of these Testing Sites can be found at https://www.co.madison.il.us/departments/health/corona_virus.php under the Testing Options Section or on the Madison County Health Department COVID-19 Dashboard on the Testing Sites Tab.

The Illinois Department of Public Health operates a COVID-19 Testing Site 7 days a week at the Jackie Joyner Kersee Center, Argonne Drive, East St. Louis. This Testing Site is open to anyone for testing, with or without symptoms; free of charge; no need for a doctors note; and walk-up and drive-thru services are available. Site may close due to weather conditions or in observance of a state holiday. For more details about this site, visit: https://dph.illinois.gov/testing.
Many have accused the country's leaders of the alleged negligence and corruption that could lead to the disaster.

Lebanon's government has stepped down against the background of mounting public anger over the explosion that devastated parts of Beirut and left more than 200 people dead on August 4.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab made the announcement in a TV address on the evening of August 10, BBC News reported.

Many have accused the country's leaders of the alleged negligence and corruption that could lead to the disaster. Beirut for the third day in a row has been seeing vast protests and clashes with riot police.

Beirut explosion: background
(Newser)  Some advice from Simon Cowell: "If you buy an electric trail bike, read the manual before you ride it for the first time." The America's Got Talent creator tweeted the advice Sunday, the day after he broke part of his back testing the bike in the courtyard of his Malibu home. The 60-year-old was in surgery for five hours on Saturday and had a metal rod put in his back, the BBC reports. Cowell also tweeted a "massive thank you" to all the nurses and doctors who treated him at a Los Angeles facility, describing them as "some of the nicest people" he has ever met. Variety reports that Cowell will miss the first two live shows of America's Got Talent, which air this Tuesday and Wednesday. (Read more Simon Cowell stories.)
Clorox is manufacturing nearly 1 million disinfectant wipes on a daily basis and shipping them to stores as the company has rushed to meet demand during the coronavirus pandemic.

Stores across the country have often been sold out of the cleaning wipes since the outbreak of coronavirus at the start of the year, and the company has struggled to keep up with the massive demand.

But Clorox CEO-Elect Linda Rendle says they have ramped up production, and hope to have shelves filled again.

'In terms of wipes, we are making more disinfectant products than we ever had before.'

'Since January, we've been able to make more than 100 million disinfecting products than we ever had before,' she said.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: CEO of Clorox on demand for disinfectant wipes, supply chain and restocking. We are making more disinfecting products than we ever have before.@RobinRoberts https://t.co/pyyjXXeO0I pic.twitter.com/YY5MIYZhsJ  Good Morning America (@GMA) August 10, 2020

Clorox is manufacturing nearly 1 million disinfectant wipes on a daily basis and shipping them to stores as the company has rushed to meet demand during the coronavirus pandemic. Pictured is Clorox CEO-Elect Linda Mendle speaking on Good Morning America Monday

'In terms of wipes, we are making more disinfectant products Clorox than we ever had before,' said the company's CEO-Elect Linda Rendle

'Since January, we've been able to make more than 100 million disinfecting products than we ever had before,' Rendle said. Pictured is a container of Clorox disinfecting wipes

'That's a 50 per cent increase,' she told Good Morning America during an interview with Robin Roberts.

'And specific to wipes, we are making nearly 1 million packages of wipes every single day, and shipping them to stores,' Rendle said on the morning program.

Shares of Clorox have risen dramatically year-on-year, and were up 5.81 per cent before markets opened Monday.

hares of Clorox have risen dramatically over the year-ago period and were up 5.81 per cent before markets opened Monday.

Rendle's upbeat report came after the company CEO Benno Dorer told Reuters last week that the world's biggest cleaning products maker has been struggling with overwhelming pandemic-led demand for its top product.

So far, there have been more than 5 million cases of in the US of the coronavirus, which has been blamed for more than 160,000 deaths.

Since the start of global lockdowns, makers of hygiene goods have seen a sustained boom in sales. While California-based Clorox typically holds aside excess supply for flu seasons, it says it has been unable to keep up with a six-fold increase in demand for many of its disinfectants.

The company is currently understocked across much of its portfolio, which includes Glad trash bags and Burt's Bees lip balm.

'People are hurting,' Rendle said, referring to the impacts of the coronavirus on the nation, which has driven up demand for cleaning products. Pictured are the few remaining Clorox disinfecting products on a store shelf in Mountain View, California, earlier this year

Supply for most products, like liquid bleach, will improve dramatically over the next four to six months - but not wipes, Dorer said on Monday.

Clorox products are used in Uber vehicles and United Airlines planes, and are sold by major retailers like Walmart, Amazon and Kroger.

'Disinfecting wipes, which are the hottest commodity in the business right now, will probably take longer because it's a very complex supply chain to make them,' Dorer said.

Many companies in the industry make wipes with polyester spunlace, a material currently in short supply as it is also used to make personal protective equipment like masks, medical gowns and medical wipes.

'That entire supply chain is stressed. ... We feel like it's probably going to take until 2021 before we're able to meet all the demand that we have,' Dorer said.

Dorer had said in May that Clorox expected to see shelves stocked with wipes by this summer.
Australian actor Nathaniel Buzolic has spoken about the terrifying shark encounter that made him quit surfing.

Speaking to News.com.au on Monday, The Vampire Diaries' star said he was about to ride the waves when he noticed a dead shark on the shore at a beach in Byron Bay.

'I was happy about that in some sense  although a dead shark reminds you that they are there,' he said.

'I never felt comfortable sitting on my board again!' Australian actor Nathaniel Buzolic (pictured) has recalled the confronting shark encounter that made him quit surfing

He added: 'And then I walked around the other side to take a closer look and he had been half eaten on his side and I was like "what ate him?"'

Nathaniel explained this moment was confronting and he's felt uncomfortable to go back into the water since.

'If this shark is here and has been eaten by a bigger shark, that's when I realised "you know what? This surfing this is not going to work for my paranoia",' he said.

Terrifying! He said he was about to ride the waves when he noticed a dead shark on the shore at a beach in Byron Bay and it made him feel uncomfortable to go back into the water

'I pretty much called it a day and never felt comfortable sitting on my board beyond the break.'

Meanwhile, Nathaniel plays the role of Richard Lowell in the third instalment of the popular shark franchise Deep Blue Sea 3.

The movie follows Dr. Emma Collins, who is played by Tania Raymonde, and her team as they study the effect of climate change on great white sharks.

Role: Nathaniel plays the role of Richard Lowell in the third instalment of the popular shark franchise Deep Blue Sea 3

In an interview with Stack, Nathaniel said growing up in Australia helped him feel a greater connection to the 'ocean and beach' while filming the movie.

'Bren [Foster] and I learned how to scuba dive, training in California before going on location in Cape Town. We both fell in love with exploring that underwater world,' he said.

He explained: 'If you're sitting on a surfboard, you're like a sitting duck. Whereas if youre underwater in scuba equipment, you have more visibility.'

You can watch The Vampire Diaries on Stan.
A 23-year-old labourer was on Monday sentenced to ten years imprisonment in hard labour after an Accra Circuit Court found him guilty on the charge of defilement.



Selorm Beke had earlier pleaded not guilty.



The court presided over by Mrs. Christina Cann however found him guilty for defiling a 14-year-old girl at Teshie in 2019, at the end of the trial.



Beke is said to have taken advantage of the victim after buying her beer to drink.



Prosecuting, Chief Inspector Kofi Atimbire said, the complainant is the mother of the victim and both reside at Teshie, while Beke resides at Kotobabi near Spintex.



Prosecution said in September last year, the victim decided to go and witness the Teshie Street Carnival, which was taking place at the time.



Prosecution said the victim first went to her mothers friends house where she and and a house help in the house went to purchase prepaid credit.



The Prosecution said on their way Beke approached them and eventually proposed to the victim and dispatched the victims friend.



Prosecution said Beke led the victim into a drinking spot and purchased beer for the victim.



Chief Inspector Atimbire said the victim after drinking the beer became intoxicated and Beke sent her to his wooden kiosk, which served as his sleeping place at Kotobabi, near Spintex.



Prosecution said Beke had sex with the victim and in the morning gave her GHC20.00 for transport home.



He said the complainant who could not find the victim had earlier reported the matter to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit at Nungua.



Prosecution said when the victim got home, she informed the complainant that it was Beke who lured her into his kiosk and had sex with her.



He said the complainant reported the victims ordeal to the DOVVSU where the complainant was issued with a medical report form to seek medical attention for the victim and a full report was submitted on the victim to the Police.

Source: GNA









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Sachin Pilot, the former Rajasthan deputy chief minister who triggered a breakaway from the ruling Congress in the state, reached out to the party leadership in Delhi and held a meeting with Rahul Gandhi on Monday, according to two senior leaders aware of the developments.

It was not immediately clear what was discussed at the meeting that was held in Delhi, one of these people said, adding: However, since they met, a positive outcome is expected. The developments take place exactly a month after Pilot and 18 dissident Rajasthan legislators left Jaipur to rebel against chief minister Ashok Gehlot.

The second leader earlier said that Pilot had sought an appointment with former party chief Rahul Gandhi and that Pilot has been speaking to senior leaders Ahmed Patel and KC Venugopal, in what is being seen as an apparent softening of his stance.

Neither Pilot, nor Rahul Gandhis office commented on the meeting. This is the first time that Gandhi met Pilot since the latter left Jaipur after the Special Operations Group under Gehlots ministry, issued him a show-cause notice in a case involving a plot to bring down the government.

Also read: Betrayers shouldnt be allowed to come back, say Rajasthan Cong MLAs at CLP meet

Pilot has till now insisted on the removal of Gehlot as chief minister as a pre-condition for any sort of rapprochement, while the Congress had asked him and his legislators supporting him to give up the hospitality of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before starting a conversation on resolving the current impasse.

A member of Pilots team, which has been camping in various places from Faridabad to Manesar after spending several days at the ITC Grand Bharat hotel, pointed out that the Congress Legislature Party meeting had completely ruled out a return of the rebels. Pilots rebellion stems from his complaints against the operational style of Gehlot, this person added.

The second Congress leader cited above said that while that may be the case, with the state government looking reasonably secure, some of the legislators supporting Pilot are becoming restless and want him to reach some sort of understanding with the partys central leadership.

Also read: Six days before Rajasthan showdown, Vasundhara Raje meets Rajnath Singh

While the Gehlot camp has been claiming the support of 102 legislators in the 200-member House, Pilots has not been able to increase its numbers from 19, although this number was previously claimed to be at least 30 by the former deputy chief minister and his aides.

Mondays developments come against the backdrop of the Congress suggesting, at least at the state level, that ties with Pilot are set to be severed. The general secretary in-charge of Rajasthan, Avinash Pande, on Sunday ruled out a return of Pilot and his supporters. In politics, sometimes to save democracy, dil par pathar rakhna padta hai (difficult calls need to be taken), he told the media.

In the run up to the assembly session on August 14 that is likely to feature a floor test, the opposition BJP also shifted 20 of its 72 legislators to Gujarat to prevent any poaching attempts by the Congress.

While Rajasthan BJP chief Satish Poonia denied any internal rifts, former chief minister Vasundhara Raje met party president JP Nadda and defence minister Rajnath Singh last week to discuss the political developments in her state.

The BJP will hold a meeting of its legislators and those belonging to its alliance partner, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) of Hanuman Beniwal on Tuesday, the day Rajasthan high court will hear a petition challenging the merger of six MLAs of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) with the Congress.

These BSP legislators have since moved the Supreme Court seeking transfer of their case from Rajasthan high court to the countrys top court.
Catholic Hospitals have urged chemists and other retailers to stop selling hospital-grade masks to the public to prevent a shortage of stock needed to protect the safety of health workers.

A staff member wears an N95 mask. Credit:Getty Images

The peak body for the not-for-profit hospital network, Catholic Health Australia, said that, while it supports members of the public wearing masks, national stocks of N95 masks needed to be preserved. It said nearly one in eight hospital beds were in Catholic hospitals that were denied access to the national stockpiles of hospital grade masks.

Director of health policy at Catholic Health Australia James Kemp said retailers were selling the masks in large numbers for community use while "hospitals across the country are scrambling to access these life-saving masks".

"There is real pressure on the supply of these masks. Some hospitals in Victoria are reaching out to health providers in less affected states to ask if they can access their stocks of N95 masks," he said. "We are calling on retailers and wholesalers to think twice about sourcing these masks to sell to the public.
We at Reliance value our over two-decade-long relationship with Saudi Aramco and are committed to a long-term partnership, Ambani said

Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser has said the company is 'still working on the deal to invest in Reliance Industries', Bloomberg reported, clearing the air on the agreement between the two companies.

The statement from the Aramco CEO comes after RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani, at the company's annual general meeting in July, said that "due to unforeseen circumstances in the energy market and the COVID-19 situation, the deal has not progressed as per the original timeline."

Ambani had added that "we at Reliance value our over two-decade-long relationship with Saudi Aramco and are committed to a long-term partnership."

At last year's AGM, Ambani had announced that Aramco, the world's biggest oil company, will invest $15 billion in Reliance's oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business, spanning oil refining, exploration and retail besides petrochemicals.

But earlier this, the global energy market was engulfed by uncertainty following the COVID-19 outbreak leading to a delay in the deal's progress.

Ambani's Aramco announcement last year was part of Reliance Industries' plan to become a net debt free company by March 2021 -- an achievement it was able to unlock ahead of schedule by undertaking a spectacular $15.2 billion fund raising drive at its digital unit Jio Platforms.

"Our equity requirements have already been met," Ambani announced at the AGM.

Reliance shares have risen nearly 150 percent since March following the fund raising drive by Jio Platforms.
Peter Andre fears for his elderly parents living in Australia and worries about them needing him amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The father-of-four, 47, told MailOnline it's 'so tough' knowing he's unable to fly across the world to be with his family in case of an emergency, with only Australian citizens permitted to travel to the country.

In an exclusive interview, Pete expressed his concerns, saying: 'What if they need me? It is such an intense feeling.'

'What if they need me?': Peter Andre fears for his elderly parents living in Australia and worries about them needing him amid the coronavirus pandemic

Speaking about his parents, Savva, 87, and Thea, 84, he continued: 'One of the things that freaks me out is up until coronavirus, if my mum or dad called me up and said "you need to get on a plane and you need to come home," it wouldn't matter what was happening here, no job in the world would have stopped me getting on that plane.

'But now it is the first time in their lives that if they needed me, I can't come home. That is so tough. There is still no travel to Australia and unless you're an Aussie citizen you're not allowed to go.

'I speak to my dad pretty much every day. The only saving grace is that my sister is there.

'I know that everyone is in the same position and when you know that I am not singled out. No one from here can go to Australia.'

'I can't come home': In an exclusive interview, the TV star said: 'What if they need me? It is such an intense feeling' as only Australian citizens are currently permitted to travel to the country

'Freaks me out': The father-of-four told MailOnline it's 'so tough' knowing he's unable to fly across the world to be with his dad Savva, 87, and mum Thea, 84, in case of an emergency

Pete, who's a dad to Junior, 15, and Princess, 12, from his marriage to Katie Price, 42, and Amelia, six, and Theo, three, who he shares with wife Emily MacDonagh, 30, said it's been difficult keeping in touch with his parents as they struggle on FaceTime.

He said: 'Still to this day all I can see is the top of my mum's chin, I tell her "mum, lift the phone so I can see the rest of your face" and then I end up just seeing more of the ceiling.

'It is really difficult not knowing when I'll be able to see them again in person.'

In an attempt to keep Princess and Junior occupied this summer, Pete took his children on a one-day voyage to France with P&O Ferries.

Day trip: Pete took his children Junior and Princess on a one-day voyage to France with P&O Ferries last Thursday after they had returned from being in Turkey with their mum Katie Price

Pete's eldest kids had only just returned from Turkey, where their mum Katie broke both her feet and ankles, before taking the trip from Dover to Calais.

Pete said: 'They had just come back from Turkey and then we went to France.

'We left our house at about 9:30am and we drove to Dover, parked the car on this huge ferry and then it felt like I was in a First Class lounge.

'It was an hour and a half from Dover to Calais. The kids were so surprised that we were in France so quickly.

'We came back the same day and I said to them "do you realise you have been in Turkey, England and France within 24 hours."'

Family fun: Pete and his eldest children travelled from Dover to Calais, which was the first time Pete had been abroad since the coronavirus outbreak

Pete's day out to France was the first time he had ventured abroad following the coronavirus outbreak.

His wife Emily has been a dedicated NHS doctor throughout the pandemic and due to her work commitments was unable to join Pete with their children on the trip.

He said: 'This was the first time I've been abroad for five months or longer.

'I was thinking, "what's it going to be like with the social distancing and the hand sanitising" and I must have sanitised around ten times. But I didn't feel claustrophobic on the ferry and it was all completely safe.

'She's so proud': Pete's wife Emily has been a dedicated NHS doctor throughout the pandemic and due to her work commitments was unable to join Pete with their children on the trip

'I called Emily from France and told her we need to go on a day date one day here. It's quite romantic.'

Speaking about his wife's work for the NHS, Pete said: 'She is awesome. She's a very special person to me.

'She just gets on with it. She takes everything in her stride. She's so proud to be working and doing her thing. She says everything in good time, she's so chilled.'

P&O Ferries currently offers direct routes to France, Holland, Northern and Republic of Ireland. Holidays are available for bookings on the P&O Ferries website
Record numbers of Americans are renouncing their citizenship according to numbers reported by a New York accountancy firm.

Bambridge Accountants reports that 5,816 people gave up US citizenship in the first half of 2020  a 1,210 per cent increase on the previous six months in which only 444 cases were recorded.

The first two quarters of 2020 also rank as having the first and second highest numbers on record at 2,909 and 2,907 respectively.

In the whole of 2019, a total of only 2,072 Americans gave up their citizenship.

Bambridge specialises in preparing and filing taxes for US and UK expats, particularly those in creative fields such as acting.

The firm cites the pandemic as a motivating factor for US expats to cut ties and avoid the current political climate and onerous tax reporting.

Alistair Bambridge, a partner at the firm, told CNN: These are mainly people who already left the US and just decided theyve had enough of everything.

He adds: What weve seen is people are over everything happening with President Donald Trump, how the coronavirus pandemic is being handled, and the political policies in the US at the moment.

There are approximately 9 million Americans living outside of the US.

Each year they are required to file tax returns, and report all of their foreign bank accounts, investments and pensions.

Mr Bambridge explains: The current pandemic has allowed individuals the time to review their ties to the US and decide that the current political climate and annual US tax reporting is just too much to bear.

On a positive note, those who have retained their citizenship remain eligible for any stimulus payments authorised by the US government in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Asked about the impact of the November election on the number of people giving up their citizenship, Mr Bambridge said: If President Trump is re-elected, we believe there will be another wave of people who will decide to renounce their citizenship.

In order to renounce their citizenship, Americans must pay a $2,350 government fee, and those based overseas must do so in person at a US Embassy.

Every three months the US government publishes the names of those who have given up their citizenship.

Department of Homeland Security records show that in 2018, the year with the most recent data available, 761,901 people were naturalised as US citizens.
The National Supervisory Commission, China's top anti-corruption watchdog, has brought back a total of 3,848 fugitives from abroad since it was established in early 2018, according to a report.

The work report on fugitive repatriation and return of criminal proceeds was submitted Monday by the National Supervisory Commission to an ongoing session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.

Nearly 10 billion yuan (about 1.44 billion U.S. dollars) of illegal funds have also been brought back from abroad, said the report.

Since a nationwide supervisory reform kicked off in late 2017, China has established supervisory commissions at national, provincial, city and county levels across the country to handle duty-related law violations and crimes.

According to the Constitution and the supervision law, the National Supervisory Commission shall be responsible to the NPC and the NPC Standing Committee, and shall accept their oversight.

This is the first time the NPC Standing Committee has heard a work report of the National Supervisory Commission.
Kena Betancur/Getty Images

McDonalds aired some extremely dirty corporate laundry in public Monday, accusing former Chief Executive Steve Easterbrook of fraudulently hiding details of three physical sexual relationships with employees when the board fired him last November over a separate relationship with a subordinate.

The bombshell documents also say Easterbrook awarded stock valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars to one of the employees. He could be forced to repay a severance deal said to be worth some $40 million.

The allegations were made public Monday in a securities filing, and in documents lodged with Delawares Court of Chancery, and widely reported by outlets, including the Financial Times in London and The New York Times.

The Golden Arches, in seeking to recover Easterbrooks vast payoff, claims that Easterbrook lied about the extent of his inappropriate personal behavior, and that had it known the full facts it would have terminated him for cause, meaning he would have to relinquish his stock options.

Easterbrook, who is British, was hailed as a hero of corporate America after he doubled McDonalds market capitalization after taking over in 2015. However, he was fired in 2019 after he admitted having exchanged explicit text messages and videos with a junior colleague, but said he had never engaged in a sexual relationship with an employee.

The new lawsuit says he in fact had physical sexual relationships with three employees in the year before his termination, that he approved an extraordinary stock grant valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars for one of them in the midst of their sexual relationship, and that he was knowingly untruthful with investigators, the FT reports.

The New York Times says that McDonalds last month received an anonymous tip alleging that Easterbrook had had a sexual relationship with another employee, and that the company began a new investigation. After searching Easterbrooks email account, the company said it found dozens of nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit photographs and videos of various women, including photographs of these company employees, that Easterbrook had sent as attachments to messages from his company email account to his personal email account.

Story continues

The company said the photographs constituted undisputable [sic] evidence that Easterbrook violated the companys prohibition on having sexual relationships with subordinates and that he had lied to the investigators last fall.

Easterbrook has yet to respond publicly to the allegations.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Law Offices of Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP For more information about the class action lawsuit against Marriott International, Inc., call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today.

The San Diego employment law attorneys at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP, filed a class action lawsuit against Marriott International, Inc., alleging that the company violated The Private Attorney General Act by allegedly failing to lawfully calculate and pay their employees correct wages. The class action lawsuit against Marriott International, Inc., is currently pending in the San Diego County Superior Court, Case No. 37-2020-00024021-CU-OE-CTL. To read a copy of the Complaint, please click here.

The lawsuit filed against Marriott International, Inc., alleges the company, failed to reimburse and indemnify the PLAINTIFFS and the other AGGRIEVED EMPLOYEES for required business expenses. Additionally, as a result of their rigorous work schedules, PLAINTIFF and other AGGRIEVED EMPLOYEES were periodically denied their proper meal and rest periods. PLAINTIFF and other AGGRIEVED EMPLOYEES forfeited minimum wage and overtime compensation by working without their time being accurately recorded and without compensation at the applicable minimum wage and overtime rates.

PAGA is a mechanism by which the State of California itself can enforce state labor laws through the employee suing under the PAGA who do so as the proxy or agent of the state's labor law enforcement agencies. An action to recover civil penalties under PAGA is fundamentally a law enforcement action designed to protect the public and not to benefit private parties. The purpose of PAGA is not to recover damages or restitution, but to create a means of "deputizing" citizens as private attorneys general to enforce the Labor Code. As a result of their rigorous work schedules, "PLAINTIFFS and other AGGRIEVED EMPLOYEES were from time to time denied their proper rest periods by DEFENDANT and DEFENDANTs managers."

For more information about the class action lawsuit against Marriott International, Inc., call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today.

Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP is a labor law firm with law offices located in San Diego County, Riverside County, Los Angeles County, Sacramento County, and San Francisco County. The firm has a statewide practice of representing employees on a contingency basis for violations involving unpaid wages, overtime pay, discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination and other types of illegal workplace conduct.

***THIS IS AN ATTORNEY ADVERTISEMENT***
Mariusz Stepien with the sword and objects he discovered at the site. (Crown Office Communications/PA Wire)

A nationally significant hoard of Bronze Age artefacts have been found by a metal detectorist.

Mariusz Stepien, 44, came across a bronze object buried about half a metre underground in June and protected it from the elements while archaeologists spent 22 days investigating the area.

They found a complete horse harness, preserved by soil, and a sword dated to between 1000 and 900 BC in the field, near Peebles in the Scottish Borders.

Mariusz Stepien at the excavation near Peebles, after he found objects believed to be decorative and functional pieces of a Bronze Age harness. (Crown Office Communications/PA Wire)

Parts believed to be decorative and functional pieces of a Bronze Age harness. (Crown Office Communications/PA Wire)

Decorated straps, buckles, rings, ornaments and chariot wheel axle caps were among the items, as was a rattle pendant from the harness.

It is the first such pendant to be found in Scotland and only the third in the UK.

Emily Freeman, head of the Treasure Trove Unit, which oversaw the recovery of the artefacts, said: This is a nationally significant find  so few Bronze Age hoards have been excavated in Scotland.

It was an amazing opportunity for us to not only recover bronze artefacts, but organic material as well.

A sword in its scabbard found during the dig. (Crown Office Communications/PA Wire)

There is still a lot of work to be done to assess the artefacts and understand why they were deposited.

Read more: Tanker spills 1,000 tonnes of crude oil into Indian Ocean

Stepien contacted the unit after he found the items, and the trove has been moved from the site in a large block of soil and taken to the National Museums Collection Centre in Edinburgh.

He said: I thought Ive never seen anything like this before and felt from the very beginning that this might be something spectacular and Ive just discovered a big part of Scottish history.

I was over the moon, actually shaking with happiness.

We wanted to be a part of the excavation from the beginning to the end.

Read more: Two dogs rescued after being left in hot car for 'more than two hours'

An archaeologist working at the site after metal detectorist Mariusz Stepien found the objects. (Crown Office Communications/PA Wire)

Mariusz Stepien stands next to the hoard, ready for transport back to Edinburgh. (Crown Office Communications/PA Wire)

I will never forget those 22 days spent in the field. Every day there were new objects coming out which changed the context of the find, every day we learned something new.

Im so pleased that the earth revealed to me something that was hidden for more than 3,000 years. I still cant believe it happened.

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Freeman added: We could not have achieved this without the responsible actions of the finder or the support of the landowners.

The finder was quick to action when they realised that they had found an in-situ hoard, which resulted in the Treasure Trove Unit and National Museums Scotland being on site within days of discovery.

Treasure hunting has risen in popularity in recent years, a shift some put down to the success of shows such as BBC comedy The Detectorists, starring Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones.

More significant treasure discoveries in Britain

The Staffordshire Hoard

This is the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver ever to be discovered, the troves own website states.

It is made up of fine objects that required a very high level of craft skills to make, the site says.

The hoards items would have belonged to Anglo-Saxon kings and princes, their households and warrior retinues.

Part of the Anglo-Saxon gold displayed at Birmingham Museum. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Religious and animal artefacts, weapon parts and decorative items are among the almost 4,600 individual items and fragments discovered.

They were found near Hammerwich, a village near Lichfield in Staffordshire, in July 2009 by detectorist Terry Herbert.

The amount contains a combined 4g of gold, more than 1.5kg kilos of silver and thousands of garnets.

There is nothing comparable in terms of content and quantity in the UK or Europe, the website adds.

The Vale of York Hoard

Valued at 1m, this was found by David and Andrew Whelan, two metal detectorists, in North Yorkshire in 2007.

The Yorkshire Museum describes the find as remarkable due to its size and quality, making it the most important find of its type in Britain for over 150 years.

A gilt silver vessel from the Vale of York Viking hoard. (Leon Neal/AFP via Getty Images)

The Viking Age treasure contains 67 objects including ornaments, ingots and fragments called hack silver, as well as 617 coins.

Some of the objects come from as far as Afghanistan, as well as Europe.

Among the items is a silver coin, a dirham that was struck at Samarkand in what is now Uzbekistan, a city that sat on the Silk Road trading route.

The coin was traded up the rivers into Russia, then Scandinavia, until it made its way to Yorkshire, the museum added.

The Hoxne Hoard

The Hoxne Hoard is the richest Roman treasure find in Britain, according to the British Museum.

Several precious objects were found in Suffolk in 1992, alongside about 15,000 coins.

The 'Empress' pepper pot from the Hoxne Hoard. (CM Dixon/Print Collector/Getty Images)

They were buried for safety as the Romans control on Britain was being lost, the British Museum said.

It was found by Eric Lawes, reportedly after he went looking for a lost hammer.

Among its treasures is a silver pepper pot that depicts a woman and dates to between 300 and 400 AD.

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Some people have constructively used lockdown to master a musical instrument or learn a new language, but there is another new interest taking hold among house-bound Australians - sex dolls.

Ultra-realistic dolls with life-like skin that mimics human body temperature have been keeping an increasing number of locked-down residents company during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With opportunities for social interaction drying up, sales of 'companion dolls' or 'love dolls' have skyrocketed, with one major distributor saying orders have shot up by 35 per cent since lockdowns started back in March.

Sales of ultra-realistic sex dolls have dramatically increased during the COVID-19 pandemic

This blonde-haired love doll model is named Elsa (pictured) and sells online for $3000

'People don't have the ability to socialise as much as they would have,' Ryan James who runs Southern Treasures told Daily Mail Australia.

'This includes people who choose to remain single, which a lot of my customers are, and those that would normally get out and meet people.'

The dolls have proven a popular companion in the cold winter months because they 'warm up to your body temperature'.

'A lot of people choose to sleep with them and cuddle them rather than having the heater running all night long,' Mr James explained.

Popular American comedian Whitney Cummings once performed a Netflix special with a self-styled sex robot

Imported from China and made from thermoplastic elastomers, the combination of melted rubber and plastic properties gives the feel of soft human skin.

High-end dolls worth about $3000 even have 'imperfections' like pores and skin blemishes built in by manufacturers to make them more realistic.

According to Mr James, the most popular model is a WM doll named Danae which sells online for $3,100.

'That one has a tan complexion with blonde hair and she is wearing an army outfit,' he said.

'It is definitely our most popular one. She is very fit, has a very sporty physique and a C-cup.'

The company have now started to keep a local stockpile of dolls on hand at their Sydney facility so customers do not have to wait two to three weeks for shipping.

The most popular selling model for distributor Southern Treasures is a WM doll named Danae

Danae (pictured) has tanned skin, blonde hair, military-style clothing and sells online for $3,100

The dolls have been a popular companion in the cold winter months because they 'warm up to your body temperature'

'It is definitely our most popular one. She is very fit, has a very sporty physique and a C-cup,' Mr James said

But it is not just items designed for men which have grown in popularity during the coronavirus oubreak.

Sales of sex toys for the female market have also jumped along with male love dolls.

'It is a taboo subject but as time goes on they will start to be accepted a little bit more,' Mr James said.

'We are slowly seeing that relationships aren't for everyone and customers of mine have openly said they have just given up on the whole pursuit of going out, or searching online, to try and meet people.

'People just don't seem to have the time or the drive these days, so something to provide a bit of comfort sexually, and to cuddle up with, they say that is good enough for them.'

But a recent paper by the Australian Psychological Society warns that relationships with flesh-and-blood humans are still vital for good mental health, regardless of synthetic alternatives.

This love doll model by JY Doll is named Aisha (pictured) and sells online for $2,150

It is not just items designed for men which have grown in popularity during the coronavirus oubreak. Sales of sex toys for woman have also jumped along with male love dolls

'Everyone is different in how they will respond to restrictions on social outings and in-person contact,' the paper said.

'The experience of loneliness and ways of coping with it are very individual. Some people enjoy  other people may be struggling with reduced or no in-person social contact.

'But for all of us, social relationships help maintain good mental health, so it is important to maintain some level of contact with our social networks.

'This can be as simple as phoning or writing to a friend to share your experience, using videoconferencing technology to check in with a family member, or spending quality time with people you live with.'
Shopping is practically a religion on streets like Serrano and Ortega y Gasset on Madrids so-called Golden Mile, an area in the upmarket Salamanca district that is home to stylish boutiques and exclusive brands.

Most of the shop assistants on this high-end shopping strip speak English, Mandarin and Spanish. Some stores offer water and even champagne to customers as they walk through the door. Usually, these customers are from Asia and Latin America. But with the Covid-19 pandemic, everything has changed  the rich are also afraid.

Its as though its bad taste to show off wealth in times of crisis Lucia Sainz de Santamaria, patron in Salamanca

Luxury shoppers no longer parade down Serrano street laden with shopping bags. The lines outside Chanel and Pandora Jewelry have vanished.

We could have closed at 6pm, says one member of staff at Pandora, which is known for its charm bracelets and designer rings. Im actually bored and we were always run off our feet before [the pandemic] because we couldnt keep up with demand. No one comes in, not even to look, much less to buy. People from [Spain] think that because this is Serrano, its more expensive and they dont even bother coming.

Lucia Sainz de Santamaria is having a glass of red wine on the sidewalk cafe of Bodega La Lavinia, which gives her a perfect view of Valentino and Celine, two luxury bag stores. I always sit at this table because I love to see all the women come and go with their shopping bags, but now theres no one, she says. Its as though its bad taste to show off wealth in times of crisis.

A stroll through the Salamanca district means passing the luxury shops of fashion brands Chanel and Dior, whose factories in France, Italy and Switzerland have stopped production; Armani, whose centers in the north of Italy closed at the end of February; Spanish jewelers Tous, who have put most of their 4,000 employees on the governments ERTE furlough scheme; and Burberry, which is facing a 50% drop in turnover.

Luciano Ochoa, the director of Innova TaxFree, a company that specializes in tax refunds for foreign tourists, explains that although local commerce is improving, the luxury market has not. The Fitur international tourism fair gave very promising Asian tourism forecasts with a 50% increase in demand until 2025; now it seems like some stores might have to close, says Ochoa, who is also a board member of Salamancas District 41.

Madrid is not a beach destination; instead it attracts cultural, gastronomic and retail tourism, which has a more exclusive public. People come here to spend, says Ochoa.

But the coronavirus crisis is keeping these tourists away. And for now, at least, Madrids Golden Mile has lost its sheen.

English version by Heather Galloway.
A head constable was killed and a constable injured, when a student (19), who was allegedly inebriated, drove his car into Prakhar, an anti-strret crime police van, which was parked near Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College in Delhi Universitys North Campus in the early hours on Monday, the police said.

The errant driver, identified by his first name Tushar, studies in Singapore. He is stranded at his Delhi home in Model Town because of the raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, which has led to the suspension of all international flights since March 22.

Monika Bhardwaj, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) (north), Delhi Police, said that Tushars medical examination has revealed that he was drunk at the time of the accident.

A preliminary investigation has revealed that Tushar was allegedly driving back home after drinking with a friend.

Tushar, who received minor injuries in the accident, has been booked under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). If convicted, he could be jailed for a maximum of 10 years.

Delhi Police has suspended conducting drink-driving tests since March owing to the viral outbreak.

DCP Bhardwaj said head constable Wazir Singh (50) and constable Amit were inside the parked Prakhar van, when Tushar allegedly rammed the police vehicle at around 1:30 am on Monday.

The Prakhar van toppled over and skidded around 15 feet because of the impact of the hit, she added.

Amit, who was behind the wheel, managed to extricate himself out of the van, but head constable Singh was trapped inside the vehicle. He was rushed to Sushruta Trauma Centre, where he succumbed to his injuries during treatment, the DCP added.

Tushar was held by Delhi Police from the accident spot.

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The Afghan government and the Taliban are on the verge of starting peace talks aimed at ending almost two decades of war in Afghanistan after President Ashraf Ghani said that he will approve the release of 400 Taliban militants.



Ghani announced his intention to sign a decree to release the militants on August 9, shortly after the move was recommended by 3,400 prominent Afghans at a three-day Loya Jirga in Kabul.

Afghan government sources have suggested that Ghani is likely to sign the release order on August 10.

The decision came more than five months after Washington and the Taliban made the release of prisoners by both sides a condition for the talks between the militant group and Kabul.



The talks will start in Doha, Qatar, after the completion of the prisoner release, expected in the next few days, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, said on Twitter.



Khalilzad welcomed Ghanis decision and the declaration of the Loya Jirga, a traditional meeting of Afghan tribal elders and other stakeholders convened to decide on controversial national issues.



The parties will embark on a process to reach an agreement on a political roadmap & a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire to end the Afghan war, he said on Twitter.



The United States supports the process to achieve a sustainable peace and the goal of attaining a sovereign, unified, and democratic Afghanistan that is at peace with itself and its neighbors and does not pose a threat to the world, he added.

"We are ready to sit for talks within a week from when we see our prisoners released. We are ready, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Reuters on August 10.

Shaheen declined to commit to a cease-fire as requested by Ghani, saying it will be decided during the talks, not before.



The Afghan delegation is to be led by the former head of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, Masoom Stanakzai. The delegation will include Afghan politicians, former officials and representatives of civil society. Kabul has previously said that five members of the delegation would be women.



Ghani had called for the Loya Jirga, saying that he did not have the authority under Afghanistan's constitution to release the 400 prisoners from Afghan jails because they'd committed violent crimes.



"The decision of the Loya Jirga has removed the last excuse and obstacles on the way to peace talks. We are on the verge of peace talks," said Abdullah Abdullah, who headed the meeting and who is head of the High Council for National Reconciliation.



Kabul already has released 4,600 Taliban inmates out of the 5,000 pledged in the landmark agreement signed in February by the United States and the Taliban.



But Afghan officials have described the remaining prisoners as dangerous. About 200 of them are accused by the Afghan government of masterminding attacks on embassies, public squares, and government offices, killing thousands of civilians in recent years.



The Taliban says it has freed all 1,000 government prisoners it had pledged in the agreement with the United States and insisted on the release of the remaining 400 prisoners.



U.S. President Donald Trump, who is up for reelection in November, has said repeatedly that he wants to end America's longest war, which began after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.



With about three months to go until the election, Trump is eager to fulfill his promise to bring an end to the war and continue withdrawing U.S. troops.



The drawdown will bring the number of U.S. troops to "a number less than 5,000" by the end of November, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in an interview broadcast on August 8.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP
If we want to find a stock that could multiply over the long term, what are the underlying trends we should look for? Firstly, we'll want to see a proven return on capital employed (ROCE) that is increasing, and secondly, an expanding base of capital employed. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. So when we looked at the ROCE trend of Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) we really liked what we saw.

What is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. To calculate this metric for Motorola Solutions, this is the formula:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)  (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.24 = US$1.6b  (US$10b - US$3.5b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).

So, Motorola Solutions has an ROCE of 24%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Communications industry average of 6.5%.

View our latest analysis for Motorola Solutions

roce

In the above chart we have a measured Motorola Solutions' prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

What Does the ROCE Trend For Motorola Solutions Tell Us?

Motorola Solutions is showing promise given that its ROCE is trending up and to the right. Looking at the data, we can see that even though capital employed in the business has remained relatively flat, the ROCE generated has risen by 60% over the last five years. So our take on this is that the business has increased efficiencies to generate these higher returns, all the while not needing to make any additional investments. It's worth looking deeper into this though because while it's great that the business is more efficient, it might also mean that going forward the areas to invest internally for the organic growth are lacking.

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For the record though, there was a noticeable increase in the company's current liabilities over the period, so we would attribute some of the ROCE growth to that. The current liabilities has increased to 34% of total assets, so the business is now more funded by the likes of its suppliers or short-term creditors. Keep an eye out for future increases because when the ratio of current liabilities to total assets gets particularly high, this can introduce some new risks for the business.

Our Take On Motorola Solutions' ROCE

As discussed above, Motorola Solutions appears to be getting more proficient at generating returns since capital employed has remained flat but earnings (before interest and tax) are up. And a remarkable 144% total return over the last five years tells us that investors are expecting more good things to come in the future. Therefore, we think it would be worth your time to check if these trends are going to continue.

On a final note, we've found 4 warning signs for Motorola Solutions that we think you should be aware of.

If you'd like to see other companies earning high returns, check out our free list of companies earning high returns with solid balance sheets 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.
A family from Phoenix, Arizona came up with an original way of punishing their 14-year-old son after he was caught by police speeding in the family car: they made him give away all his possessions.

14-year-old Angel Martinezs parents were celebrating their anniversary in Las Vegas earlier this month when they received a call from police about their teenage son. He had taken the familys Range Rover out for a spin and had disrupted the neighbors. The couple were forced to cut their anniversary celebration short and go home, but they made sure to let Angel know just how happy they were about it. They pretty much emptied the boys room, put all his stuff in the driveway and made him give it all away personally as punishment.

I just wanted to drive but I dont have a license so I just took it, Angel told Fox 10. I can wash the car, and I was like I dont have anything to dry it, so Im gonna take it for one spin until it dries.

Only this wasnt the first time he got in trouble in the past few months, so his parents decided he needed to be taught a lesson. They took out everything in his room, including the furniture set, the TV and his clothes, and put it right in the driveway in front of the house. Then they made Angel sit on the bed with a sign that read Sorry I stole my parents car and was speeding.

We got back to the house. Today, his room is 100% empty, and were giving all his stuff away, Angels father, Ramon, confirmed. Mostly to apologize. Were neighbors as well. He couldve run someone over. Something really bad couldve happened.

Since everything in his room must go, Angel will be sleeping either on the floor or on the living room couch for the time being, but at least he claims that he has learned his lesson.



Its kind of weird, but I think its a fair punishment, Angel told Fox 10.
YEREVAN.  A criminal case has been instituted on charges of obstructing the legal professional activity of a journalist, in connection with the incident between former chief of police Vladimir Gasparyan and a reporter of RFE/RL and an investigation is underway. Armenian News-NEWS.am was informed about this from the information department of the Police of the Republic of Armenia (RA).

To note, on August 8, RFE/RL reported that Vladimir Gasparyan had obstructed the professional activities of their journalists. In particular, while preparing a report on illegal private houses and other structures located on the shores of Lake Shana, the former police chief obstructed the respective work by the RFE/RL crew. He, according to this news agency, drove his vehicle in the direction of these journalists, threatening to run over and physically destroy them, as he cursed at them and demanded not to show his mansion.

And on Sunday, Gasparyan's lawyer Tigran Atanesyan informed that he was going to file a lawsuit on behalf of his client, in connection with the actions of RFE/RL staff. "The RA citizens constitutional rightsthe rights to the inviolability of the residence, the privacy of private and family lifemust be protected from everyone," Atanesyan had noted, in particular.

Later, the lawyer informed that an operative group had left Yerevan for Sevan to detain Vladimir Gasparyan.
Ukraine sees decrease in sales of electric vehicles in July

15:57, 10.08.20 1035

The NISSAN Leaf remains the most popular electric car.
Niamey, Aug 10 : Eight persons including six French tourists and two Nigeriens -- a guide and a driver, have been killed by armed individuals in the Koure area, according to the Nigerien ministry of interior and public security.

The Elysee Palace on Sunday confirmed the incident. "French nationals were killed on Sunday in Niger," President Emmanuel Macron's office told French media and denounced the attack, adding that Macron had spoken over the phone with Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou, Xinhua reported.

The victims, who went to see giraffes in the Koure area about 70 km southeast of Niamey in the Kollo department, Tillabry region, were in a vehicle belonging to a French NGO Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development.

The vehicle was charred by the attackers, said the ministry in a statement, adding that an "investigation and search operations in collaboration with our partners are underway to find the perpetrators of this despicable act and to strengthen security in the area." The Koure area bordering Burkina Faso has for over a year been a new hotbed of insecurity in the extreme southwest of the country.
Literary critics have found any number of ways to divide writers into opposing teams. Isaiah Berlin distinguished between "hedgehogs," who know one big thing -- Tolstoy, Dante -- and "foxes," who know many different things -- Dostoevsky, Shakespeare. Philip Rahv taught a generation of readers to look at American literature as a combat between aesthetic "palefaces" like Henry James and vigorous "redskins" like Walt Whitman. But when it comes to the poetry of the twentieth century, perhaps the most useful distinction is the one between parents and children. Some poets present themselves as fathers or mothers -- thoughtful, serious, eager to claim authority and accept responsibility. Others are determined to remain sons or daughters -- playful, provocative, in love with games and experiments, and defiant of convention in language as in life.

Undated painting of Cummings as a child by Charles Sydney Hopkinson Portrait gift of Marion M. Cummings, 1965. Houghton Library, *65M-72, Harvard College Library, President and Fellows of Harvard College

The most notorious and beloved child in modern American poetry is E.E. Cummings. Even readers who seldom read poetry recognize the distinctive shape that a Cummings poem makes on the page: the blizzard of punctuation, the words running together or suddenly breaking part, the type spilling like a liquid from one line to the next:

"one// t". Copyright  1963, 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust, "the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls". Copyright 1923, 1951,  1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright  1976 by George James Firmage, the lines from "voices to voices,lip to lip". Copyright 1926, 1954,  1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright  1985 by George James Firmage, the lines from "i like my body when it is with your". Copyright 1923, 1925, 1951, 1953, 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust. Copyright  1976 by George James Firmage, the lines from "may i feel said he". Copyright 1935,  1963, 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust. Copyright  1978 by George James Firmage, the lines from "of all the blessings which to man". Copyright 1944,  1972, 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust, from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962 by E.E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.



one t

hi

s snowflake (a

li

ght

in

g) is upon a gra v

es

t one





Cummings was not the first poet to use a typewriter, but as this poem shows, he was the first to take advantage of its power to control the exact spacing and shape of every line, and thus to make a poem's visual appearance as important as its musical rhythms. What looks like a thin trickle of letters becomes, to a reader who has learned Cummings's tricks, a picture in print: the snowflake "alighting" in a twirl, the severe vertical of the "gravestone." This playful tinkering with language is the most obvious and appealing sign of Cummings's originality; as he once wrote, it is "such minutiae as commas and small i's,in which...my Firstness thrives."

But "Firstness" was not just a quality of Cummings's style. With the rebellious enthusiasm of a true poetic "son," he elevated it to a moral and even a cosmic principle: his poems are constantly exhorting us to be original, independent, self-reliant. And he is scornful of everyone who takes refuge in received ideas and conventional standards -- all the cumbersome traditions that parents pass on to their children. This is the constantly repeated message of his poetry:



i mean that the blond absence of any program

except last and always and first to live

makes unimportant what i and you believe;

not for philosophy does this rose give a damn...





"So far as I am concerned," Cummings once declared, "poetry and every other art was and is and forever will be strictly and distinctly a question of individuality....Nobody else can be alive for you; nor can you be alive for anybody else."

Yet this declaration of independence was issued, paradoxically, in the most grandly institutional of settings: from the stage of Sanders Theatre, in one of the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures that Cummings delivered in 1952 and 1953. To compound the irony, this was the very same stage from which Cummings gave a Commencement address at his Harvard graduation in 1915 -- an address that praised "The New Art" in terms calculated to scandalize an audience of proper Bostonians. Throughout his life, Harvard was an inescapable presence in Cummings's moral universe: a place where conventions were imposed and where they could be fought against, a place endowed by the fathers but populated by the sons. To understand Cummings's achievement, and the limits of that achievement, Harvard is the best place to start.

The full scope of the University's role in Cummings's life can be fully appreciated only now, thanks to a new biography of the poet by Christopher Sawyer-Laucanno. E.E. Cummings: A Biography is a definitive account of the poet's turbulent life, a 600-page saga that includes some of the most colorful personalities of the Modernist period: Hart Crane and Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore and John Dos Passos. Cummings, born in 1894, was part of the generation that returned from World War I ready to demolish Victorian illusions and experiment with all kinds of liberation, sexual and social as well as literary. As he told his Sanders Theatre audience in the 1950s, he belonged to "what some wit once nicknamed a 'lost generation,'" whose defining characteristic was a joyful, almost nihilistic embrace of risk. "I don't think we enjoyed courting disaster," Cummings recalled; "I do feel we liked being born."

1915 Harvard graduation photograph Private Cummings at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, 1918 Cummings in a hammock with his father and sister, Elizabeth All photographs and sketches courtesy of the Houghton Library, Manuscripts Department. President and Fellows of Harvard College

Cummings may have resisted the journalistic label of the "lost generation," but his life helped to define its now-mythic itinerary. He was thoroughly disaffected by his wartime experiences, which he described in his autobiographical novel, The Enormous Room. He was glad to escape the regimentation of army life for the artists' playground of Greenwich Village, where he threw himself into writing, painting, and sexual adventure. (Cummings would run through two marriages and many love affairs before settling down with the former model Marion Morehouse, his companion for the last 30 years of his life.) Like so many of his fellow Modernists -- Edmund Wilson, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald -- he made the pilgrimage to Paris in the 1920s, finding it a liberation and a revelation: "an actual marriage of material with immaterial things...an immediate reconciling of spirit and flesh, forever and now, heaven and earth."

For the rest of his life, Cummings would reside in Greenwich Village -- his apartment at 4 Patchin Place became one of the most famous literary addresses in America -- and make regular visits to Paris. And as time passed, his odd-looking poetry, which first appeared in little magazines and ephemeral editions, won an ever-larger readership. It turned out that Cummings's rebellion against social and sexual convention, far from being a lonely fight, brought him exactly in sync with the national mood. His rejection of sexual puritanism, his insistence on the freedom of the individual to think and explore and create, resonated perfectly with the increasing permissiveness of American culture. One might say that Cummings was just a few years ahead of his generation, attacking old values and institutions that were on the verge of surrender. By the time he died, in 1962, he had become perhaps the most beloved and widely read of American Modernist poets. His popularity, like that of his contemporary Edna St. Vincent Millay, owed a great deal to his ability to capture the Bohemian mystique of the Village and the Left Bank, where literary and sexual experimentation seemed to go hand in hand:



i like my body when it is with your

body. It is so quite new a thing.

Muscles better and nerves more.

i like your body. i like what it does,

i like its hows....





The readers who delighted in such poems might have been surprised to learn that, in fact, Edward Estlin Cummings came from the most respectable quarter of Cambridge, Massachusetts. His childhood home was at 104 Irving Street, just a few blocks from where the Science Center now stands. He grew up surrounded by Harvard, and his first playmates were professors' children. As he recalled in his Norton lectures: "Our nearest neighbour, dwelling (at a decent distance) behind us, was Roland Thaxter, primarily the father of my loveliest playmate and ultimately the professor of cryptogamic botany. To our right, on Irving Street, occurred professors James and Royce and Warren; to our left, on Scott Street, transpired professor of economics Taussig."

And Estlin, as he was known all his life, was the son of Edward Cummings, a member of the University's fledgling department of sociology. Genealogy, even more than geography, put Harvard at the center of the young poet's mental and emotional life. As he grew up, his feelings about the world of Harvard and Cambridge were always informed by his strong, conflicting responses to his father, and vice versa. And it is no exaggeration to say that having a father like Edward Cummings -- physically strong and spiritually intrepid, a dominant presence in his home and his city -- helped to make E.E. Cummings one of the eternally rebellious "sons" of modern American poetry.

While Edward Cummings's family had been in Massachusetts since the 1630s, he was hardly a Boston Brahmin. He put himself through high school working as a carpenter and was the first member of his family to attend college. But once he arrived at Harvard, in 1879, he immediately felt at home -- so much so that, with a few interruptions, he stayed there for the next 21 years. After graduating magna cum laude in 1883, he briefly attended the law school, then switched to the divinity school. After earning a master's degree, he went on to study sociology at the graduate school of arts and sciences, where he was a protege of the great philosopher and psychologist William James. It was James who introduced Edward to his wife-to-be, Rebecca Clarke, the granddaughter of a prominent Boston politician; they were married in 1891, the same year Edward joined the Harvard faculty. He would teach at the University for the next nine years, and would live on Irving Street, in Harvard's penumbra, for the rest of his life.

Edward Cummings's decision to join divinity with sociology was perfectly in tune with his Unitarianism, a faith that emphasized good works and philanthropy over doctrine and dogma. The same spirit reigned at Harvard: in 1888, Edward Cummings was awarded the University's first Robert Treat Paine Fellowship, a grant of $600 "to study ethical problems of society and the efforts...to ameliorate the lot of the masses of mankind." This sounds at least as much like a religious calling as a secular science. Indeed, according to Sawyer-Laucanno, Cummings had been disappointed with the Harvard Divinity School precisely because "he found that his interest in ministering to the poor and oppressed did not fit particularly well with the school's program that emphasized theology and pulpit studies over social issues."

Self-portrait, circa 1920 Cumming's sketch of his friend Scotfield Thayer '15, done at the time Cummings was having an affair with Thayer's wife, Elaine Cummings's third and last wife, model and occasional actress Marion Morehouse, in the 1930s Photograph of Cummings in the 1930s by his lifelong friend, J. Sibley Watson '15 Cumming's vuluptuous sketch of Elaine Thayer, who became the poet's first wife

So it made sense that, in 1900, Edward Cummings would finally leave Harvard in order to become the minister of a church famous for its commitment to "social issues." He was asked to take over the pulpit of Boston's South Congregational Church from Edward Everett Hale, one of the most famous philanthropists in America, who had turned his church into a center for activism. Whether as professor or as minister, Edward Cummings represented the best of nineteenth-century Unitarian Boston in general, and of Harvard in particular: its high moral principles, its noblesse oblige, and its confident liberalism.

To be the son of such a man, however, was not easy. One of the most revealing sections of Sawyer-Laucanno's biography deals with Cummings's youthful ambivalence toward his father, drawing on notes that Cummings wrote decades later. In those recollections, the adult poet remembers how overwhelming his father's example seemed, both morally and physically: "My father was a walking Platonic triad -- the good, the true, the beautiful." And the son was desperate to live up to his father's expectations. There even seems to be a hint of this in a diary entry that his mother, Rebecca, wrote when he was just a few days old: "Boy circumcised by Dr. Hildreth -- Bore it very well -- Cried lustily till Edward spoke to him telling him to bear it bravely. [T]hen the boy actually stopped crying."

Whether this was coincidence or precocious obedience, Cummings's awe of his father continued to be a theme of his childhood. In one late-life memoir, he recalled an episode when "I was given a new sled, and went out with my nurse to coast -- the sled, going fast, hit something and threw me off, and I cried: I begged the nurse not to tell my father...I was always afraid of my father." And inevitably, the desire to please his father colored Estlin's feelings about Harvard, where his father and all his neighbors taught, and which he was destined to attend. "As a baby," he told the audience at his Norton lectures, "I sported a white sweater; on which my mother had embroidered a red H, for Harvard." On his third birthday, in 1897, his mother noted in her diary Estlin's fondness for the John Harvard statue: "He is very fond of John Harvard and says 'when I get a 'ittle bigger Mullah, I'm going to be a big college boy and go to college with Fader.'"

That is just what he did -- though by the time Cummings entered the College, in 1911, his father had long since left the faculty. The precocious 16-year-old freshman attended classes while living at home; not until he was a senior did he take a room in the Yard, in Thayer Hall. Still under his father's watchful eye, Estlin seemed to be following faithfully in Edward's footsteps. Like his father, Estlin graduated magna cum laude, and like his father, he stayed on to earn a master's degree.

But unlike Edward, Estlin was no earnest student. He was known, rather, as one of the College's leading aesthetes, a connoisseur of avant-garde painting, music, and literature. He spent his time debating the work of Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell at the Harvard Poetry Society and helping to put together a literary magazine, the Harvard Monthly. The masthead of the Monthly boasted some names that would become famous in the 1920s: Cummings's fellow editors included the novelist John Dos Passos, the critic Gilbert Seldes, and the poet Robert Hillyer. Other editors, like the wealthy Scofield Thayer and J. Sibley Watson, would remain Cummings's friends and patrons throughout his life -- "the truest friends," Cummings declared, "any man will ever enjoy." They were drawn together by their enthusiasm for the most radical trends in modern art and their disdain for their more conventional classmates at the Advocate. Sawyer-Laucanno quotes Malcolm Cowley, who would become famous as a chronicler of the "lost generation":

[T]he Monthly and the Advocate...looked down on each other -- or to be accurate, they nodded to each other coldly from the facing doors of their respective sanctums on the dusty third floor of the Harvard Union. The Monthlies thought that the board of the Advocate...was composed of journalists, clubmen, athletes and disciples of Teddy Roosevelt, a former editor, and not a man of letters among them. The Advocates suspected that the Monthlies were aesthetes (as indeed most of them came to be called), scruffy poets, socialists, pacifists or worse.

Cowley's amused recollection sheds an indirect but significant light on Cummings's life and work. For just as Cummings and his friends made war on the College's philistinism from their office inside the Union, so Cummings's lifelong rebellion against the world of Harvard and Cambridge was decidedly a revolt from within, a matter of family rivalry rather than genuine rejection. It is important to keep this in mind whenever Cummings's poetry mocks Cambridge as the epitome of stifling respectability:



the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls

are unbeautiful and have comfortable minds

(also, with the church's protestant blessings

daughters,unscented shapeless spirited)

they believe in Christ and Longfellow,both dead,

are invariably interested in so many things --

at the present writing one still finds

delighted fingers knitting for the is it Poles?

perhaps. While permanent faces coyly bandy

scandal of Mrs. N and Professor D

....the Cambridge ladies do not care,above

Cambridge if sometimes in its box of

sky lavender and cornerless,the

moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy





This is one of Cummings's best-known poems, and with good reason: it is a wonderful tirade, each detail chosen for its sarcastic bite: the souls that come already "furnished" with ideas and "comfortable" assumptions, residing in passionless, "unscented" bodies. And it reflected Cummings's deeply felt resistance to what he perceived as Cambridge's lifelessness. This is made clear in a letter the poet wrote to his younger sister in 1922, when she was struggling to leave the family home and move to New York:



NOTHING IS SO DIFFICULT AS TO BE ALIVE!!!!!! which is the ONLY THING WHICH YOU CANNOT LEARN ever,from anyone,anywhere: it must come out of you;and it never can,until you have KNOCKED DOWN AND CARRIED OUT all the teachable swill of Cambridge etc.





The physical dimension of "being alive" was as important in Cummings's rebellion against Cambridge as the mental and spiritual. Outwardly, Cummings was a well-behaved young man; according to Malcolm Cowley, "he was intensely shy and private in the Cambridge fashion." Yet as Sawyer-Laucanno reveals, this shyness concealed a strong sexual appetite, which Cummings both longed and feared to indulge. He blamed his repression on what he called "my New England downbringing," which "tried its best to make [me believe] that 'virtue' and volupte are opposites." And his father, the pastor, was the living symbol of that sexual Puritanism. "I led a double life," Cummings recalled, "getting drunk and feeling up girls but lying about this to my Father and taking his money all the time." More generally, he wrote, "FEAR & SEX go together in my life. With sex I associate, also, GUILTINESS."

It was only in his senior year, when he finally moved out of the Irving Street house, that Cummings had the opportunity and the audacity to overcome that guiltiness. As an adult, Cummings would become an emblem of the sexually liberated Twenties. His poetry has a sexual frankness, a delighted naughtiness that still makes it very popular with adolescent readers:



may i feel said he

(i'll squeal said she

just once said he)

it's fun said she... (let's go said he

not too far said she

what's too far said he

where you are said she)...





But in order to achieve that kind of freedom, some confrontation with his "downbringing," and with his father, was necessary -- and Harvard offered the perfect staging ground. Cummings and his friends loved to explore the bars and brothels of Boston. He took advantage of his newfound freedom, as he later recalled, to "roam that surrounding world sans peur, if not sans reproche." It was on one of these expeditions, with his classmate "Tex" Wilson, that Cummings parked his father's car in front of a prostitute's apartment, only to emerge to find it towed away. As Sawyer-Laucanno tells the story, the woman, "thinking she was doing a good deed...rung the Reverend at three in the morning to tell him his car had been seized by the Boston police."

Self-portrait by Cummings, circa 1930

This was a rude awakening in more senses than one. In the ensuing fight, Edward Cummings wailed to his errant son, "I thought I had given birth to a god." This seems like a peculiar bit of hyperbole coming from a minister. But even if Cummings was exaggerating his father's reaction in retrospect, it is true that Cummings senior and junior often thought about each other in quasi-blasphemous terms. In his novel The Enormous Room, which details his experiences in a French detainment camp during World War I, Cummings printed an introduction by his father, which turns the son into an unmistakably Christ-like figure:



He was lost by the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps. He was officially dead as a result of official misinformation. He was entombed by the French Government. It took the better part of three months to find him and bring him back to life with the help of powerful and willing friends on both sides of the Atlantic.





And if Estlin was God the Son, it was only natural for Edward to become God the Father. "My father," the poet recalled as an adult, "is the principal figure of my earliest remembered life; when he cradled me in his arms, i reposed in the bosom of God Himself; & when i rode on God's shoulder i was king of the world. His illimitable love was the axis of my being." It must have been difficult for this God to learn that his only son was, in fact, all too human.

But it was a necessary shock, and it didn't permanently fracture their relationship. To the end of his life, Cummings declared his profound respect for his father. Certainly any father would be proud to receive the kind of encomium Cummings delivered in one of his Norton lectures:



He was a New Hampshire man, 6 foot 2, a crack shot & a famous fly-fisherman & a firstrate sailor (his sloop was named The Actress) & a woodsman who could find his way through forests primeval without a compass & a canoeist who'd stillpaddle you up to a deer without ruffling the surface of a pond & an ornithologist & taxidermist & (when he gave up hunting) an expert photographer (the best I've ever seen) & an actor who portrayed Julius Caesar in Sanders Theatre & a painter (both in oils and watercolors) & a better carpenter than any professional & an architect who designed his own houses before building them & (when he liked) a plumber who just for the fun of it installed all his own waterworks....



In his attitude toward his father and toward Harvard, then, Cummings demonstrated an ambivalence that would leave deep marks on his whole life and work. On the one hand, he cast off his inherited Cambridge earnestness, moralism, and Puritanism. Yet he did all this as a student in his father's university, careful never to rebel so openly that he would be cast out of the community that was his birthright. In fact, it can often seem that Cummings's rebellion is staged specifically for the benefit of his father and his father's world.

And the limits of Cummings's rebellion help to explain the limits of his modernity. Superficially, Cummings is the most radical of poets: no American poet of his generation so fractured the surfaces of poetry. But as the great critic Randall Jarrell wrote, "Even the poems' difficulties are of an undemanding, unaccusing sort -- that of puzzles"; once the reader has gotten accustomed to Cummings's typographical fireworks, there is nothing in the substance of the poems, their ideas and feelings and views of the world, that is genuinely challenging.

In this, Cummings offers a sharp contrast with T.S. Eliot '10, A.M. '11, whose student years at Harvard nearly overlapped with Cummings's, and who came from a similar Unitarian background. (Coincidentally, Sawyer-Laucanno reveals, Cummings and Eliot acted together in a Cambridge Social Dramatic Club production in 1913.) Eliot's poetry offers a profound challenge to the secular optimism of American culture -- above all, to the national reverence for individualism. That is why The Waste Land and Eliot's other great poems continue to be among the most provocative and influential in modern poetry. Cummings's poems, on the other hand, are what Jarrell called "the popular songs of American intellectuals," in the sense that they repeat to us our own most comfortable assumptions -- about love, nature, and the supreme value of the individual.

In the least attractive of his poems, Cummings invites the reader into a mutual admiration society, urging us to feel superior to all the soulless mediocrities who can't share our delicacy of feeling. Cummings's poems and letters are filled with a truly adolescent sense of superiority, curdling at times into misanthropy:



Huge this collective pseudobeast

(sans either pain or joy)

does nothing except preexist

its hoi in its polloi...





Cummings's assurance of superiority, like his failure to genuinely disturb his readers, makes even his most adventurous work seem like the antics of a beloved child, certain that his transgressions will be forgiven. "As for me," he said in his Norton lectures, "I was welcomed as no son of any king and queen was ever welcomed. Here was my joyous fate and my supreme blessing." And he recognized that Harvard, too, welcomed him, even in his rebellion: "As regards my own self-finding, I have to thank first of all that institution whose initial I flaunted unknowingly during my very earliest days." No wonder Harvard invited him back, almost 40 years after he graduated, as a Norton Lecturer. He may have been a prodigal, but he was always its son.

Contributing editor Adam Kirsch '97, book critic of the New York Sun, is the author of the forthcoming The Wounded Surgeon, a study of modern American poetry. Houghton Library houses the Cummings papers: the bulk of his manuscripts and drawings, and his incoming correspondence.

"one// t". Copyright  1963, 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust, "the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls". Copyright 1923, 1951,  1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright  1976 by George James Firmage, the lines from "voices to voices,lip to lip". Copyright 1926, 1954,  1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright  1985 by George James Firmage, the lines from "i like my body when it is with your". Copyright 1923, 1925, 1951, 1953, 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust. Copyright  1976 by George James Firmage, the lines from "may i feel said he". Copyright 1935,  1963, 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust. Copyright  1978 by George James Firmage, the lines from "of all the blessings which to man". Copyright 1944,  1972, 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust, from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962 by E.E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Close to 15 per cent students enrolled in government schools are not "traceable" since the lockdown was announced and have not been attending the alternative classes conducted online or through phones, according to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.

Sisodia, who is also the Education Minister, said efforts are being made to locate these students either physically or telephonically to get them into the system.

"We are conducting full fledged teaching learning either online or through phones and teachers have been instructed to ensure personal involvement with each student. So far, there are maximum 15 per cent students who are not traceable and are not in contact with their schools and hence not attending the classes," Sisodia told PTI.

"I have been reviewing this personally and we have been able to trace few students, for others either they are not staying at the same addresses or their phone numbers mentioned in our records are not traceable. I have asked that School Management Committees (SMCs) should be roped in to track these students. There are certain students who have gone to places like Uttarakhand and Bihar but are still connected with us and are attending the classes and doing assignments," he added.

Asked about a definite number of the students who have not been traced, Sisodia said, "On an average there are 4-5 students in every class who are in this category. Many of them are class 6 students and numbers for other classes are quite low".

There are around 15 lakh students enrolled in over 1100 government schools.

"We started conducting online classes for class 12 students from April 6 and sending e-learning material or activities to those enrolled in classes nursery to eighth over WhatsApp or SMS. The government has also provided a subsidy of Rs 200 for internet packages to all its class 12 students who had registered for the online classes," a senior Directorate of Education (DoE) official said.

The HRD ministry had last month asked states and union territories to ensure that the names of children of migrant workers who returned home during the COVID-19 pandemic are not struck off their school rolls.

Issuing a set of guidelines, the ministry had also directed the states to prepare a database of children who have left the local area for their homes in other states or other parts of the same state.

It also suggested that the state governments may direct all schools to give admission to any child who recently returned to village without asking for any other documents, except for some identity proof.

Universities and schools across the country have been shut since March 16, when the Centre announced a countrywide classroom shutdown as part of measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. A nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, which came into effect the next day and threw economic activities out of gear, rendering many homeless and penniless and leading to an exodus of migrants to their home states.

While the government has largely eased restrictions, schools and colleges continue to remain closed.

(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 number of requests for subscriber information that TikTok says it receives from law enforcement is significantly lower than what U.S. tech giants reportedly field, likely because police are more accustomed to using data from U.S. companies and apps in investigations. TikTok enumerates its requests from law enforcement in a biannual transparency report, the most recent of which says that for the last half of 2019, the company received 100 requests covering 107 accounts. It handed over information in 82 percent of cases. Facebook, by contrast, says it received a whopping 51,121 requests over the same period, and handed over at least some data in 88 percent of cases. A 2018 document found in BlueLeaks titled Law Enforcement Technology Investigations Resource Guide gives police details on how to obtain records from Musical.ly, which was acquired by ByteDance and merged into TikTok that year.

And they show that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security actively monitored TikTok for signs of unrest during the George Floyd protests.

The documents also reveal that two representatives with bytedance.com email addresses registered on the website of the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, a fusion center that covers the Silicon Valley area.

Documents published in the BlueLeaks trove , which was hacked by someone claiming a connection to Anonymous and published by the transparency collective Distributed Denial of Secrets, show the information that TikTok shared with U.S. law enforcement in dozens of cases. Experts familiar with law enforcement requests say that what TikTok collects and hands over is not significantly more than what companies like Amazon, Facebook, or Google regularly provide, but thats because U.S. tech companies collect and hand over a lot of information.

TikToks parent company, ByteDance, is headquartered in Beijing, where the government censors social media content and maintains other forms of influence over tech companies. But a glimpse at what TikTok does in the U.S. underscores that data privacy issues extend beyond China.

Document: Law Enforcement Technology Investigations Resource Guide

In the releases shown in BlueLeaks, TikTok handed over multiple IP addresses, information about the devices used to register for accounts, cellphone numbers, and unique IDs tied to platforms including Instagram, Facebook, or Google if the user logged in using a social media account. (Business Insider first reported the specifics of what TikTok collects.)

It is unclear whether these data releases were in response to warrants, subpoenas, or other requests, and the company would not give details, citing user privacy. All social media platforms are required by law to comply with valid court orders requesting user information, but what they actually provide can vary widely, said Angel Diaz, an expert on national security and technology at the Brennan Center for Justice. Companies also have the right to challenge requests for user data in court  though they often dont do so.

The accounts for which TikTok handed over data in the BlueLeaks dump range from influencers with tens of thousands of followers to people who primarily post for friends. One user contacted by The Intercept said they were unaware that their information had been given to law enforcement. Diaz said that in certain emergency situations, where moderators have a good-faith belief that there is a threat to someones life or a risk of serious physical harm, tech companies may voluntarily turn over information to the U.S. government without notifying the user. TikTok restored access to the account after The Intercept asked the company about it.

We are committed to respecting the privacy and rights of our users when complying with law enforcement requests, said TikTok spokesperson Jamie Favazza. We carefully review valid law enforcement requests and require appropriate legal documents in order to produce information for a law enforcement request.

TikTok has tried to distance itself from its Chinese origins, hiring a former Disney executive as CEO, engaging lobbyists with ties to the Trump campaign, and pledging to add 10,000 positions in the United States. Some of that expansion is apparently coming in the area of cooperation with authorities. TikTok recently sought out a law enforcement response specialist and is currently recruiting a global law enforcement project manager. The team that reviews law enforcement requests is based in Los Angeles, Favazza said.

One satirical TikTok video even got a dedicated intelligence report.

The BlueLeaks documents also indicate that U.S. federal investigators and police  some of whom are themselves enthusiastic TikTok users  increasingly view the app as a useful tool. In the early days of the George Floyd protests, law enforcement used TikTok, along with Facebook, Twitter, and other social media apps, to track protests and dissent.

An FBI report from June 2 titled Civil Unrest May 2020 Situation Report alleged that TikTok was among the apps being used to promote violence. Reporting nationally indicates individuals are using traditional social medial platforms and encrypted messaging applications (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Telegram, Topbuzz.com, Snapchat, Wickr) to discuss potential acts of violence. In lieu of actual examples of physical violence, the document pointed to the doxxing of officers, rumors about false activities, and, cryptically, false reports of violence to incite violence.

Three days later, another FBI dispatch warned, An identified user posted a video on TikTok demonstrating which tab to pull to quickly remove body armor of LEO/military, saying do with this information what you will. The post was gaining significant traction.

One satirical TikTok video even got a dedicated intelligence report, from DHSs Office of Intelligence and Analysis. On May 31, a 19-year-old TikTok user who goes by the handle weirdsappho posted a video riffing off a tweet that comedian Jaboukie Young-White, a correspondent for The Daily Show, wrote after the National Guard was deployed to Minneapolis.

Young-White tweeted, thank god theyre bringing in the army, at a moment when anxiety about the deployment was running high. I would be heartbroken if someone disabled a tank by putting water balloons filled w sticky liquids (esp some sort of sugar/milk/syrup combo) into a glass jar and throwing it at the windshield, rendering it inoperable support our troops. In her video, weirdsappho included some of the replies to the tweet, which expanded on the joke.

The DHS report reprised weirdsapphos video, quoting the tweet and the replies verbatim, without explaining their source or giving context. The intelligence report bore the subject line Social media video provides TTPs  tactics, techniques, and procedures  on how to interfere with the U.S. National Guard during riots, suggesting that the teenager was an imminent threat. The existence of the dispatch was first reported by the online news site Mainer.

In last weeks executive order, Trump cited concerns that TikToks ownership by ByteDance could allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans personal and proprietary information. TikToks track record, and ByteDances obligations under Chinese law, do present unique security concerns. The Chinese state has invested significant resources in using artificial intelligence to monitor and manipulate public opinion, and ByteDance has been brought along in that effort. ByteDance recently established a joint venture with a Chinese state media group, leaving open the possibility that some of its technology might be used for propaganda purposes.

TikToks privacy policy states that the company may share user information with a parent, subsidiary, or other affiliate of our corporate group. Multiple class-action lawsuits have accused TikTok of sending data to China, though TikTok says that the data of U.S. users is stored in Virginia and backed up in Singapore. TikTok has also censored political speech that is disfavored by the Chinese government, including videos about the Hong Kong protests and about the internment in inhumane camps in northwestern China of Uyghurs, an oppressed Muslim minority group. Internal documents previously obtained by The Intercept show that TikTok instructed moderators to suppress posts created by users who were deemed poor, ugly, or disabled. The guides appeared to have been hastily translated from Chinese.

At a moment when were seeing attempts by the administration to draw a contrast in terms of values and ideology with China, these eerie parallels that keep recurring do really undermine that.

The common concern, whether were talking about TikTok or Huawei, isnt the intentions of that company necessarily but the framework within which it operates, said Elsa Kania, an expert on Chinese technology at the Center for a New American Security. You could criticize American companies for having an opaque relationship to the U.S. government, but there definitely is a different character to the ecosystem. At the same time, she added, the Trump administrations actions, including a handling of Portland protests that brought to mind the police crackdown in Hong Kong, have undercut official critiques of Chinese practices: At a moment when were seeing attempts by the administration to draw a contrast in terms of values and ideology with China, these eerie parallels that keep recurring do really undermine that.

Last weeks executive order takes effect 45 days after its issuance. Trump appears to favor ByteDance selling TikTok to an American owner, with Microsoft being the frontrunner. If that happens, some concerns about data privacy with regards to China might be eliminated. But the BlueLeaks documents highlight that without more restrictions in the United States on what companies can collect and hand over to investigators, theres reason to worry about any social media platform, American or Chinese.
A research group from Tel Aviv University (TAU) successfully reduced metastatic spread following tumor removal surgery in colorectal cancer patients. Using a short medication treatment around the time of the surgery, the researchers were able to reduce body stress responses and physiological inflammation during this critical period, preventing the development of metastases in the years following the surgery.

The study, which was published in the journal Cancer on June 13, was led by Prof. Shamgar Ben-Eliyahu from TAU's School of Psychological Sciences and Sagol School of Neuroscience and Prof. Oded Zmora from Shamir (Assaf Harofeh) Medical Center.

During the three-year-long study, researchers monitored 34 patients who received treatment surrounding a colorectal tumor removal surgery. During the pre- and post-surgical period, patients were administered two safe and known drugs: Propranolol (Deralin), an anti-anxiety and blood pressure reducing drug; and Etodolac (Etopan), an anti-inflammatory analgesic. The drugs were administered to the patients for 20 days -- from five days before surgery to two weeks after. Half of the patients received a placebo treatment as a control group.

The results were highly promising. While only 12.5% (2 out of 16) of patients receiving the drug treatment exhibited metastatic disease, the rate of metastases development was found to be 33% (6 out of 18 patients) in the control group, the known rate of metastasis for colorectal cancer patients. Prof. Ben-Eliyahu says that he is highly satisfied with these data, but also states that "despite the impressive results, this treatment must be examined again, in a much larger number of patients, in order to test whether it is, in fact, life-saving."

According to Prof. Ben-Eliyahu, the study of molecular markers in the cancerous tissue excised from the patients showed that the treatment with the medications led to a reduction in the metastatic potential of the tumor and potentially the residual cancer cells. In addition, the drugs triggered some beneficial alterations in the number and type of infiltrating tumor leukocytes (patients' white blood cells), markers that iindicate a reduced chance of disease recurrence.

"When the body is in a state of stress, whether physiological (from surgery) or psychological, this causes a release of high amounts of two types of hormones, prostaglandins and catecholamines," Prof. Ben-Eliyahu explains. "These hormones suppress the activity of the immune cells, indirectly promoting the development of cancer metastases. In addition, these hormones also directly promote the acquisition of metastatic traits in cancer tissue. Our study shows that inexpensive, accessible medication treatment could be used in order to reduce body stress responses and inflammation associated with surgery, which affects the tumor, significantly reducing the risk of metastases that might be detected months or years after surgery."

Following the success of the initial research, Prof. Ben-Eliyahu and Prof. Zmora are encouraging Israeli colorectal and pancreatic cancer patients to apply for participation in a large-scale clinical study now starting across Israel.

###

American Friends of Tel Aviv University supports Israel's most influential, comprehensive and sought-after center of higher learning, Tel Aviv University (TAU). TAU is recognized and celebrated internationally for creating an innovative, entrepreneurial culture on campus that generates inventions, startups and economic development in Israel. TAU is ranked ninth in the world, and first in Israel, for producing start-up founders of billion-dollar companies, an achievement that surpassed several Ivy League universities. To date, 2,500 US patents have been filed by Tel Aviv University researchers -- ranking TAU #1 in Israel, #10 outside of the US and #66 in the world.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 21:19:21|Editor: huaxia

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DHAKA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Huawei Technologies (Bangladesh) Limited inaugurated its annual program of "Seeds for the Future 2020 in Bangladesh" on Monday to develop local information and communications technology (ICT) talents and thorough transfer of knowledge.

The program mainly focuses on bridging the gap between academic and industry knowledge. Selected participants can get insights into the latest developments in the global ICT industry and get the opportunity to enhance their ICT expertise and skills.

The program is also a long-term corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity dedicated to the top STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and ICT students worldwide.

In Bangladesh, students from a number of top leading universities will be participating in the program this year.

The selected students will be attending a five-day online program of cultural and technological training from the Huawei Headquarters of China (Beijing and Shenzhen).

Speaking as the chief guest at the inaugural ceremony, Bangladeshi Minister of State for Information and Communication Technology Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak said, "Youth are the force of any development. Driving them with a positive spirit is very important."

He said this will aid them in helping the country to achieve the Vision of Digital Bangladesh 2021. "We can be very sure that such initiatives will spark their innovative mind, and they can mitigate future shocks or pandemics like COVID-19 in a better way."

Zhang Zhengjun, CEO of Huawei Technologies (Bangladesh) Limited, said, "The most important mechanism for a country is how its new generation is growing up with access to knowledge and increased capacity so that they can contribute to the country in the long run."

He said students of different universities are getting the opportunity to get training at our Huawei University and research and development centers situated in China for the last five years.

"This project is facilitating the students to have knowledge of the world's future technologies like 5G, cloud, and AI era, etc. We want our students to get the best skills so they can innovate and create local solutions that will serve the local needs," he added.

Starting in 2008 globally, the program has been implemented in 126 countries and international organizations worldwide, benefitting over 30,000 students from 500 universities. Enditem
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- New Yorks utility companies handling of outages following Tropical Storm Isaias was unacceptable and the companies will now have to answer to the state under sworn testimony.

As of Monday morning, there were 97 Staten Island homes without power.

At the height of the outages, more than 20,000 customers on Staten Island and 180,000 citywide were without power.

The states legislature announced it will be holding a joint hearing to examine the utility companies  including ConEd  response to the storm.

The hearing will be held on August 17 before the state Senate and Assembly.

Chairman of the Assembly Energy Committee Assemblyman Michael Cusick (D-Mid-Island) said, With thousands of residents in New York without power for days due to Tropical Storm Isaias, it is imperative that we get answers from Con Ed for the damage that has been done and gather information to help prevent such an outage in the future.

Con Edison issued a statement on its website saying restorations for the vast majority of customers were expected by 11 p.m. Sunday in Queens, The Bronx, Staten Island and Brooklyn.

The message continues: About 90% of our customers have received individual estimates for when their power will be restored ... repairs can take many days, especially after a severe storm like Tropical Storm Isaias.

The Parks Department reported that over 900 downed trees had been reported on Staten Island and that the agency was managing nearly 13,000 incoming reports of tree-related issues due to Tropical Storm Isaias, the Advance/SILive.com reported.

Following the storm, New York City Emergency Management established a mobile command center in the parking lot of the Staten Island Mall.

Rep. Max Rose (D-Staten Island/South Brooklyn) criticized Con Ed for not having a presence at the mobile command center.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has also launched an investigation into the response of six utility companies, including Con Edison, he announced last week.

FOLLOW KRISTIN F. DALTON ON TWITTER.
PORTLAND, Ore. - On Saturday, a small group broke into the police union headquarters and threw pieces of flaming wood inside. One night later, police dispersed more than 100 demonstrators long before any more vandalism could occur, declaring an unlawful assembly less than 15 minutes after a crowd arrived at the Portland Police Association building.

Among those arrested in the swift crackdown was a Black activist who survived a hate crime in 2017 and has been a prominent organizer among the Wall of Moms. Demetria Hester, who was attacked by an avowed white supremacist in 2017 the day before he killed two men and grievously injured a third during a hate-filled rant on a light-rail train, was arrested just before midnight on Sunday, police confirmed.

Video shows officers walking into a group of people and telling 46-year-old Hester, "you're under arrest." The woman calmly followed the officers, who loaded her into a police vehicle. She was later charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with a peace officer.

Police made 16 arrests on Sunday night and early Monday morning, charging each person with either disorderly conduct, interfering with a peace officer, or both.

The police bureau said in a statement that the arrests came after someone threw a "mortar" at officers, injuring two and burning through a mask one officer was wearing. They shared photos of officers' injuries and the scorched mask.

On May 25, 2017, Hester was riding home on a light-rail train when Jeremy Christian boarded and began shouting that he was "a Nazi, that he hated all Muslims, Blacks, Jews," Hester later testified in court. She told him to "shut up." When she got off the train, Christian followed her and flung a Gatorade bottle into her face, hitting her in the eye.

When police arrived, Hester pointed out Christian, who was still standing nearby on the light-rail platform. Officers did not arrest him.

JOHN RUDOFF/AFP via Getty Images

The next day, Christian confronted two teenage Black girls on a light-rail train. When three White men intervened to stop him, Christian pulled out a knife and stabbed each of them. Ricky John Best, 53, and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, died of their wounds and Micah David-Cole Fletcher, 21, survived a cut across his throat. Christian was convicted of hate crime, murder and other charges in February.

Since the crime, Hester has been active in Portland politics. She came forward a few months after the attack to share her story and to slam the police and public transit officials for failing to arrest Christian on the night he accosted her.

When President Donald Trump ordered federal agents to downtown Portland in July, Hester joined the Wall of Moms who formed a human barrier between federal officers and activists. She has been one of the Black women leading the Moms United for Black Lives group, which grew out of the Wall of Moms. Hester is also a plaintiff in a lawsuit against federal police contesting their use of aggressive tactics on largely peaceful protests.

Activists decried Hester's arrest late Sunday night.

"PPB just arrested a survivor of the MAX violence," the Council on American-Islamic Relations Oregon tweeted after video of the arrest surfaced on social media. "This is unconscionable and wrong. She must be released now."

Portland police said that Sunday night's quick crackdown, in which police drove the crowd into a residential neighborhood and made multiple arrests in a nearby park, came after people barricaded streets and set a fire in front of the police union building within three minutes of the crowd's arrival.

At past protests, including on Saturday night, police have allowed protesters to block the street and stand around fires set in dumpsters in the road for hours. But on Sunday, police quickly broke up the crowd.

After the crowd thinned, police drove through the Kenton neighborhood with dozens of riot police perched on vans. They shouted at small groups of protesters, urging them to go home.

One of the vans stopped in front of a home where residents had invited a few people to stay on their lawn after the dispersal order. Police dismounted the van and exchanged verbal barbs with the people in the yard, telling them to "go home." Two officers grabbed a pallet of water bottles that the residents had placed in their yard.

When a man shouted at the officers that they were stealing his property, one Portland Police officer responded by accusing him of throwing water bottles at police. A short time later, the riot police returned to the van and drove away.

The residents of the home, who asked not to be named, told The Washington Post they were frustrated by the police actions in their neighborhood.

"I'm stuck, trapped in my own home because [the police] are having a fit," one of the residents said.

After the initial dispersal, a smaller crowd of protesters returned to the police union building and shouted at police, who made a few more arrests but did not use crowd control munitions to chase the group away. Eventually, officers left and the protesters milled around into the early morning hours.
Metallica will offer a live concert up for fans at the end of this month.

As part of the Encore Drive-In Nights concert series, Metallica will be filming the show at a secret location near their Northern California headquarters for airing on Aug. 29 at drive-in theaters.

The performance will feature archival footage from the bands career along with a full live concert.

Three Days Grace will serve as the opening act for the event.

Tickets for the event will be available beginning Aug. 14 through all Ticketmaster outlets including ticketmaster.com and by phone at (800) 745-3000. Tickets are $115 and include admission for up to six people in every car and includes four downloads of Metallicas S&M 2 release.

Area drive-ins that will screen the concert include the Southington Drive-In in Southington, CT, the Northfield Drive-In in Hinsdale, NH, and the Mendon Twin in Mendon, MA.

For more information about tickets and the complete list of drive-ins that will be screening the show, visit the Encore Drive-in Nights website.

Shop for concert tickets here: StubHub, SeatGeek, Ticketmaster.
If children do not return to schools, racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps are expected to widen because of disparities in access to computers, home internet connections and direct instruction from teachers. Homeless children and students with disabilities will also be disproportionately hurt.

But schools are reopening, right?

Governor Cuomo said schools could reopen, but local politicians and superintendents will now decide whether to do so and how.

The approach will most likely not be uniform: Buffalos superintendent has indicated that he may prefer to delay the start of in-person learning until October. In Syracuse, most high school students will probably learn remotely.

In New York City, Mr. de Blasio has called for children to report to school one to three days a week  masks and social distancing will be required  and learn online the rest of the time. But there are concerns about whether there are enough nurses to staff all city school buildings, and some ventilation systems are in urgent need of upgrades.

And all of the school districts plans must be approved by the states Education and Health Departments in the coming weeks.

Will students and teachers show up?

Even if the plans are approved and schools reopen in some fashion, there is a question of whether parents will send their children to class and whether teachers feel safe enough to come to work.

Some teachers in New York City have threatened to stage a sickout. Their union has indicated it might sue over reopening.
Outside groups backing Joe Biden have spent almost twice as much as those supporting President Donald Trump on television commercials in Pennsylvania so far this year.

Democratic political groups have spent almost $21 million on airtime through this week, compared with about $11 million by pro-Trump groups, according to the ad tracking firm Advertising Analytics.

The spending advantage may have helped Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, jump out to an early lead in the campaign. The former vice president has consistently led Trump by a significant margin in polls of Pennsylvania voters, though strategists in both parties expect the race to tighten in the weeks ahead.

Democratic outside groups have reserved an additional $13 million worth of airtime in the fall in Pennsylvania, while their GOP counterparts have booked just $2.6 million.

 READ MORE: Pro-Biden groups have spent twice as much on TV in Pennsylvania as pro-Trump groups

The Democratic groups American Bridge 21st Century and Priorities USA both started airing anti-Trump ads before the Democratic nominating contest was effectively decided.

American Bridge recognized early that the path to 270 electoral votes runs through Pennsylvania, said Kyle Morse, an American Bridge spokesperson. We finished 2019 as the biggest spender and have continued to provide the Biden campaign with the air cover it needs to make its case to voters.

We invested heavily in recruiting former Trump voters, amplifying their stories, and targeting the voters needed to deny Donald Trump the states 20 electoral votes, Morse added. Between now and Election Day, we will continue to hold Trumps feet to the fire.

 READ MORE: Trump says he might give his Republican renomination speech in Gettysburg

America First Action, the principal pro-Trump super PAC, is airing commercials featuring a self-described union member and Democrat who says he wont vote for Biden because of his ban on fracking.

Biden says he would halt drilling on public land but opposes a fracking ban.

Kelly Sadler, a spokesperson for America First Action, said the group was having success targeting former Democratic voters in western Pennsylvania and in the northeastern part of the state.

This was a message that really won us the Rust Belt, Sadler said, describing some union members affinity for Trump. Its still resonating out there today.

 READ MORE: Fact check: No, Biden doesnt want to ban fracking or kill the Pennsylvania jobs it supports

The Trump campaign has spent $10.9 million in the Keystone State thus far, just ahead of Bidens $9.9 million. The Trump campaign paused its TV advertising in Pennsylvania and other states at the end of last month, after the president replaced his campaign manager.

The campaign has since resumed advertising in battleground states like North Carolina, Florida, and Arizona that begin voting earlier than others.

The Trump campaign is set to spend $17 million on the airwaves in Pennsylvania from Labor Day through the Nov. 3 election, according to Advertising Analytics.

The Biden campaign last week said it would spend $280 million on digital and TV ads in more than a dozen states, including Pennsylvania.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 10) Tropical Depression Ferdie blew out of the country on Monday morning, but Metro Manila and parts of Luzon will continue to be drenched by rains, the state weather bureau reported.

In its 11am forecast, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said Ferdie exited at 9 a.m. from the country's monitoring zone or area of responsibility.

As of 10 a.m., the tropical depression was located at 265 kilometers (km) northwest of Laoag City, Ilocos Norte or 315 km northwest of Calayan, Cagayan, maintaining winds of 55 kph and gusts of 70 kph.

Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal No.1 was lifted over parts of Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur.

The rest of Luzon, including Metro Manila will experience rains brought by the southwest monsoon, weather forecaster Aldzcar Aurelio told CNN Philippines New Day.

Meanwhile, Visayas and Mindanao will have a generally fair weather, Aurelio added.

Ferdie is the sixth tropical cyclone for 2020, following Tropical Storm Enteng (international name: Jangmi) which exited the country late Sunday.
A former UK university student who filmed the horrific mushroom-cloud footage of the Beirut blast has described how he was blasted off his balcony and feared he was about to die.

Abdallah Rashidi captured terrifying footage which was viewed by millions after the explosion in the Lebanese capital which has killed at least 163 people.

Like other witnesses, Rashidi started filming when he saw the warehouse on fire at Beirut's port - seconds before the blast.

'When you see the blast slowly approaching you, you think you're dead,' he said. 'People didn't believe the video actually happened when I sent it. It looks like it's from a movie really, it's completely unimaginable. Part of me is still in denial.'

Abdallah Rashidi captured terrifying footage which was viewed by millions after the explosion in the Lebanese capital which has killed at least 163 people

Rashidi, 26, was drinking coffee on his balcony in the Sodeco neighbourhood when he noticed the fire at the harbour.

Despite being several miles away, Abdallah said it was very visible and he began filming on his phone.

He even saw the doomed firefighters going in to try and find the source of the blaze. 'I saw fire trucks attending and putting out the fire,' he said.

Then he felt a huge boom and a cloud of debris began to surge towards him. 'This huge force just came out of the fire,' he said.

'It was slowly expanding, and I just froze. In my head I was just thinking, it's going to hit me.

'You could see buildings getting pulled apart and crumbling. Thoughts flashing through my mind - will it hit me? Will I die?'.

Abdallah's coffee mug shattered, and he was flung several yards back from his balcony into his flat.

'At first I thought I was dreaming, I couldn't believe it was happening,' he said. 'I thought I had died, I couldn't understand what was going on.

'There was this white flash, and I heard people screaming.'

He sent the now infamous video to friends on WhatsApp before it found its way online.

Like other witnesses, Rashidi started filming when he saw the warehouse on fire at Beirut's port - seconds before the blast

According to the health ministry, at least 163 people were killed in Lebanon's worst peacetime disaster, while 6,000 more were wounded.

However, Abdallah and his father Fouad, 54, who was also in his flat napping, were uninjured.

They immediately fled fearing the block would collapse, and drove to the family home south of the city.

'We thought the apartment block could crumble, we were acting on instinct,' he remembers.

'We thought it was the start of a war with the rumours. I blanked out some of my memory.'

The blast is thought to have been caused by a stockpile of ammonium nitrate which had been left unsecured at the port for several years.

The August 4 explosion, which drew comparisons with the Hiroshima atom bomb 75 years ago, even changed the shape of Beirut's Mediterranean coastline.

Many in Lebanon see the blast as a symbol of corruption and incompetence among the country's elite, and protests have broken out in the wake of the disaster.

Abdallah remembers returning to Beirut the next day to a scene out of a horror movie.

'What you see on TV is nothing compared to what you see in person,' he said. 'You can see body parts everywhere, cars on their roofs with people dead inside.

'Seeing all the body parts on the ground was so overwhelming. 'You could see people looking for their families and just seeing body parts scattered everywhere.'

The devastated port of Beirut is seen in an aerial view after the explosion at a warehouse which has killed more than 160 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless

Russian emergency personnel walk on the site of the explosion in the port of Beirut, where rescuers are continuing their recovery efforts nearly a week after the blast

Breaking down as he described the devastation, he said: 'Beirut is a very diverse city, you have Muslims, Christians, Westerners, all living together.

'Churches and mosques are right next to each other, which is wonderful. It's not called the Paris of the Middle East for nothing.

'It has vibrant areas with cafes, incredible food and amazing nightlife.'

The masters student grew up in the Lebanese capital, but always dreamed of becoming an English teacher.

He spent around a year-and-a-half in the UK, studying a masters in English language and linguistics at Coventry. He also taught English to refugees in Britain.

Rashidi left the UK last year and worked for Coventry University as an English lecturer at its new campus in New Cairo, Egypt.

He moved back to Beirut at the start of the pandemic, and is finishing the thesis for his master's degree.

'I want to share awareness, I want people to donate, I want people to help in whatever way they can,' he said.

'The Lebanese people have really suffered enough. 'We were in the middle of an economic crisis, there was political corruption going on.

'Beirut has been destroyed and built again seven times, this looks like it will be the eighth.

'That is a testament to how tough and resilient the people of Lebanon are.

'In the end, everyone needs help, we thrive on human connection. Please, see us and help us, break the barriers of politics and religion and just help your fellow man. Donate, volunteer, do whatever you can.'
I have recently seen a hashtag trending on my Twitter, Instagram and Facebook timeline. The hashtag is #ZimbabweanLivesMatter. Unfortunately, I have been so busy over the past week, so I havent had time to research or find out why the hashtag started or why its trending. I have no idea whats happening politically in Zimbabwe today, but I think it doesnt matter. I think I dont have to know whats happening in Zimbabwe to pen about #ZimbabweanLivesMatter hashtag.

I dont really know where to start, but Zimbabwe is one of the craziest countries on the Face of earth.

I remember when I wrote about Evan Mawarire 4 years ago, I was almost crucified by Zimbabweans, if they could, they would have stoned me to death. My then brother who lives in England called me and said, Jean, you are right, but you have to understand Zimbabweans, they are weird, they are like cockroaches, and have a very short memory span. They are crucifying you now but it will take years to sink that you are right, thats how they work.

This is the most crystal truth my brother ever said to me throughout my life of knowing him, he described Zimbabweans in their truest sense.

Then after I wrote about Mawarire, no matter how much adversity and hostility I faced from Zimbabweans, I continued to stand on the hill and literally prophesy against Zimbabweans with all my heart.

I warned these cockroach people about their so called political activists, two of them, one Fadzayi Mahere, who thinks politics happens on Facebook with likes and selfies. I told them that this Mahere woman will never be in any political office in Zimbabwe, then she viciously went on a Facebook celebritys page and chose that platform to say She will never mention Jean Gasho ever again whilst mentioning me, the irony.

Another so-called called political activist I wrote about 4 years ago was Linda Masarira. I was called all sorts of vulgar names by Zimbabweans, and I was told I was not half the woman Linda Masarira was. All I said was this woman is no political figure, the fact that she has missed priorities in life is proof that she cant lead a country. She cant even take care of her own children, she goes to sleep in streets leaving children as young as 2 without a mother. I was called evil for telling Linda this truth. The comments are still there on social media platforms. Today Linda Masarira is now one of the most hated women in Zimbabwe, now the cockroach Zimbabweans call her names and tell her everything I said about her 4 years ago, when they thought she was an angel. Proving that what I said was right, her children are so out of control, she had to get her own son arrested. Linda Masarira is a proper depiction of what it means to be a Zimbabwean, sadly Zimbabweans cant use her as a mirror to reflect their own-selves.

During the Mugabe era, I wrote so many articles telling Zimbabweans that Mugabe is not your problem. He never was. If anything the man was a prophet, put in power by God to try and redeem the cursed country. Mugabe was an anointed African leader, there will never be anyone like him on African soil, he was the Lion of Africa. To have this man come out of Zimbabwe, should have been a blessing to the country, but alas, the people of Zimbabwe cursed their own prophet.

Like Christ said, A prophet will never be respected among his own people.

I told these people, that do not celebrate Mugabes removal, for there is nothing to celebrate. He was your liberator. But my warnings fell on deaf ears.

I could not believe my eyes as I saw millions of people celebrate Mnangagwas inauguration. They called Constantatino Chiwengwa Soldier Bae. No wonder my brother called Zimbabweans cockroaches. You couldnt make this up could you? I did say Zimbabwe will be worse after Mugabe.

I even told Zimbabweans that be weary of Mnangagwa, Mugabe was more righteous than him. In 2008, Mugabe had had enough and was ready to step down and give the crown to Morgan Tsvangirai, who won the election. Mugabe was an old man, and he wanted out, but it was Mnangagwa who used Mugabes old age, and manipulated him. The old man just wanted to rest. Things only started to go wrong because Grace Mugabe started to talk too much, and they started to plan to out throw Mugabe. And just for the record, Grace Mugabe was never crazy, everything she told Zimbabwe about Mnangagwa was true, and yet she was branded crazy.

Now even Thomas Mapfumo has come out and confirmed this truth.

So Zimbabwe, please stop this madness that #ZimbabweanLivesMatter. The world can never take you seriously because you are a complete joke as a country. An epitome of what it means to be a dysfunctional country you are. You hate your prophets and stone them. You call evil good and call good evil.

And for this reason, God has even delivered you in the hands of your own fellow neighbors South Africans, who treat you like pests, cockroaches indeed. You are the only country in the world who has a powerful neighbor who cant stand them, and mocks them and torments them.

Zimbabwe is todays modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah. The abominations which happen on the streets of Zimbabwean Social media are not seen anywhere in this world. Yes there is perversion throughout the world, but Zimbabwe takes the cup. The people Zimbabwe calls celebrities will give you a picture of everything you need to know about the country. One famous transsexual Tatenda Tatelicious Karigambe, literally defecated and urinated live on Facebook and for that thousand of Zimbabweans hailed him/her as the Queen of Zimbabwe as they said Let her be, her body her rules.

There is no sense of morality within these people. No right, no wrong, everyone does what is right in their own eyes. Another celebrity called Mandla Gumbo, makes couples and Zimbabwean women have sex live on Facebook, as Zimbabweans watch in thousands and cheer.

Then after all this, they now come and say #ZimbabweLivesMatter and expect the world to take them seriously

And its no coincidence that as your so-called hashtag trends, Zimbabwe is making far bigger headlines across the world, you have a puppet president, the father of fools, Emerson Mnangagwa signing to compensate billions to white farmers, (even white people all over the world are shocked by this). Right now Zimbabwe really is a joke of the world

Mugabe is turning in his grave, probably having the last laughand cry as well.

God himself, the Creator has cursed this country.

I stand on this hill and still shout from the wilderness

Create as many hashtags as you want, you are a laughing stock to the world and among yourself so much a number of you are now following me to sayI am no longer Zimbabwean, I denounce my citizenship.

Zimbabwean Lives Matter my foot

What a joke

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Linkedin Michael Georgy (Reuters) Beirut, Lebanon  Mon, August 10, 2020 12:45 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066ccdc07 2 World Lebanon,Beirut,Beirut-blast,Beirut-explosion,anti-government,protest Free

Lebanese police fired tear gas to try to disperse rock-throwing protesters blocking a road near parliament in Beirut on Sunday in a second day of anti-government demonstrations triggered by last week's devastating explosion.

Fire broke out at an entrance to Parliament Square as demonstrators tried to break into a cordoned-off area, TV footage showed. Protesters also broke into the housing and transport ministry offices.

Two government ministers resigned amid the political fallout of the blast and months of economic crisis, saying the government had failed to reform.

Tuesday's explosion of more than 2,000 tons of ammonium nitrate killed 158 people and injured more than 6,000, compounding months of political and economic collapse and prompting furious calls for the government to quit.

Riot police wearing body armor and carrying batons clashed with demonstrators as thousands converged on Parliament Square and nearby Martyrs' Square, a Reuters correspondent said.

"We gave these leaders so many chances to help us and they always failed. We want them all out, especially Hezbollah, because it's a militia and just intimidates people with its weapons," Walid Jamal, an unemployed demonstrator, said, referring to the country's most influential Iran-backed armed grouping that has ministers in the government.

The country's top Christian Maronite cleric, Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai, said the cabinet should resign as it cannot "change the way it governs".

"The resignation of an MP or a minister is not enough ... the whole government should resign as it is unable to help the country recover," he said in his Sunday sermon.

Lebanon's environment minister resigned on Sunday, saying the government had lost a number of opportunities to reform, a statement said.

Damianos Kattar's departure follows the resignation of Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad earlier on Sunday in the wake of the explosion.

Anger boiled over into violent scenes in central Beirut on Saturday. Those protests were the biggest since October when thousands of people took to the streets to demand an end to corruption, bad governance and mismanagement.

About 10,000 people gathered at Martyrs' Square, which was transformed into a battle zone in the evening between police and protesters who tried to break down a barrier along a road leading to parliament. Some demonstrators stormed government ministries and the Association of Lebanese Banks.

One policeman was killed and the Red Cross said more than 170 people were injured in clashes.

'Change the government'

"The police fired at me. But that won't stop us from demonstrating until we change the government from top to bottom," Younis Flayti, 55, a retired army officer, said on Sunday.

Nearby, mechanic Sabir Jamali sat beside a noose attached to a wooden frame in Martyrs' Square, intended as a symbolic warning to Lebanese leaders to resign or face hanging.

"Every leader who oppresses us should be hanged," he said, adding he will protest again.

Lawyer Maya Habli surveyed the demolished port.

"People should sleep in the streets and demonstrate against the government until it falls," she said.

The prime minister and presidency have said 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, which is used in making fertilizers and bombs, had been stored for six years without safety measures at the port warehouse.

The government has said it will hold those responsible to account.

An emergency donor conference in France raised pledges worth nearly 253 million euros ($298 million) for immediate humanitarian relief, the French presidency said.

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 has since been rebuilt.

"I worked in Kuwait for 15 years in sanitation to save money and build a gift shop in Lebanon and it was destroyed by the explosion," said Maroun Shehadi.

"Nothing will change until our leaders just leave."
Credit: Shutterstock

Grattan Institute research published today shows the average 25-year-old woman who goes on to have a child can expect to earn A$2 million less by the time she is 70 than the average 25-year-old man who becomes a father. For childless women and men, the lifetime gap is about A$300,000.

This earnings gap leaves mothers particularly vulnerable if their relationship breaks down.

Unpaid work still falls largely on women

The income gap between mothers and fathers is typically due to women reducing their paid work to take on most of the caring and household work.

Even before COVID-19, Australian women were doing 2.2 fewer hours of paid work on average but 2.3 more hours of unpaid work than men every day.

The following chart shows how women's and men's time use diverges after the birth of their first child. Mothers typically reduce their paid work to take on the lion's share of caring and household work. The change for fathers is less dramatic. They continue their paid work and take on some extra caring.

But habits stick. Even a decade after the birth of the first child, the average mother does more caring and twice as much household work as the average father.

When one parent does most of the caring, they become more confident in looking after the child. They know how to change the nappies, what food the child likes, and when nap time is. This knowledge tends to compound, leaving one parent with most of the parenting load.

Dad leave can help

Policy change can help different habits to form. Evidence from around the worldincluding North America, Iceland, Germany, Britain and Australia  shows fathers who take a significant period of parental leave when their baby is born are more likely to be more involved in caring and other housework years later.

Credit: Grattan Institute, CC BY-ND

But the Australian government's paid parental leave scheme encourages a single "primary carer" model. The primary carer is eligible for 18 weeks of Parental Leave Pay at minimum wage (as well as any employer entitlements).

In 99.5% of cases that leave is taken by mothers. Secondary carer leave, called "Dad and Partner Pay," is two weeks at minimum wage.

Many other countries provide much longer periods of parental leave for fathers and partners, sometimes referred to as "daddy leave," as the following table shows.

Iceland, for example, provides three months' paid leave to each parent and a further three months for them to divide as they wish. Sweden's scheme entitles each parent to three months of parental leave, plus ten months parents can divide as they wish.

The schemes with the highest take-up typically pay 70% or more of the recipient's normal earnings, as opposed to the minimum wage Australia's scheme pays.

But a generous scheme is still no guarantee of success.

Social expectations about different roles for men and women at work and home can still be a barrier. This appears evident in Japan and South Korea. Despite generous schemes offering 52 weeks of leave for fathers, paid at more than two-thirds of normal earnings, just 6% of Japanese fathers and 13% of Korean fathers take parental leave.

A modest policy proposal

For a "daddy leave" scheme to have the best chance of success in Australia, the government would need to spend a lot of money and political capital.

Emulating a best-practice parental leave scheme like Iceland's would cost at least A$7 billion a year.

Credit: Grattan Institute, CC BY-ND

A scheme where government payments are linked to an individual's normal salary would encourage take-up. But the cost would dwarf the A$2.3 billion the federal government currently spends on parental leave, and the biggest benefits would go to wealthy families. Almost all Australian government payments are strictly means-tested, so payments proportional to salary would be a radical policy departure.

One option is a paid parental leave scheme that gives parents more flexibility to share leave. Six weeks reserved for each parent plus 12 weeks to share between them would allow mothers to still choose to take the 18 weeks now provided to primary carers. But families could also make other choices, and fathers would get more time early on to bond with their child and develop their parenting skills.

This would be a relatively cheap reform. If paid at minimum wage like the existing scheme, it would cost at most an extra A$600 million a year.

Baby steps to equality

Reforming Australia's paid parental leave is not the first and best option to increase women's workforce participation. Our research shows changes such as making child care more affordable are likely to deliver more bang for buck.

But there is still a case for modest reforms to parental leave. Though it might not be a game-changer for women's workforce participation, if constructed properly it will have some effect.

This is supported by evidence from Quebec's parental leave scheme. Introduced in 2006, it included five non-transferable weeks for fathers, paid at about 70% of their usual salary. A 2014 study found it led to mothers, on average, doing an extra hour of paid work a day, earning an extra US$5,000 a year.

More fathers taking parental leave is also worthwhile in its own right, promoting greater sharing of the unpaid workload within families and giving fathers more time with their kids.

Think of it as a baby step towards greater time and earnings equality between women and men in Australia.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
 Read the full article on Motorious

One of the cleanest and most original G-bodies you'll find.

GM's G-body cars were some of the most iconic of the '80s with the Chevrolet Monte Carlo being among the more popular of these rear-drive coupes. The fourth-generation Monte Carlo was built from 1981 through 1988, but this 1987 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS that will be up for grabs through Raleigh Classic Car Auctions is by far one of the nicest on the market.

Image Credit: Raleigh Classic Auctions

As if a t-top Monte Carlo SS isn't desirable enough, this '80s muscle car survives today with less than 14,000 original miles after just three documented owners. The auction listing says that this car is 100 percent original and loaded with options, and it shows extremely well from its white paint job and original five-spoke wheels to the burgundy cloth interior and factory AM/FM/cassette stereo system.

The 1987 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS backs up its muscle car style with a 5.0-liter H.O. V8 and four-speed automatic transmission. The overall condition of this Monte Carlo is good enough to be a show piece in a collection, but these cars were also built to cruise making it ideal for showing up in style to Radwood and other '80s and '90s-era car shows. You'll definitely want to cruise with those t-tops off, of course!

Image Credit: Raleigh Classic Auctions

If you're looking for a classic '80s icon that is ready to show, then this 1987 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS time capsule is an amazing find. It will be crossing the auction block at the Raleigh Classic Car Auctions' Summer 2020 Raleigh Classic, which takes place August 21-22, so be sure you're registered to bid.

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STAMFORD  Students will attend classes in person two to three times a week under a plan chosen by Stamford Public Schools for the fall semester.

The plan was one of three options on the table. Others included a full return to school or continuing remote learning full time.

Roughly half of the student population will attend classes every other day. On days when they are not physically in class, students will learn remotely.

The hybrid approach was the most popular among parents, in a survey sent to them this summer, as well as among members of the Board of Education.

Teachers, in a survey conducted by the teachers union, the Stamford Education Association, favored the hybrid model along with a return to distance learning. Educators, however, expressed major concerns about returning to classrooms, which they will have to do with the hybrid system.

Even though the school system has officially decided to go with a partial reopening of classrooms, parents will still have the option of choosing remote learning for their children.

For those students who need extra support  including special education students, English language learners and others  additional in-class days may be provided.

Stamford schools have put out a document briefly detailing the fall plan, which includes a letter from Superintendent Tamu Lucero.

I am sure that many of you are asking, Is it Safe? At the moment, the answer is yes, she wrote.

The plan says schools will be able to reopen as long as health measures are followed, such as social distancing, wearing of masks, hand washing and sanitizing.

Luceros summary also states that the decision was made after listening to advice from Dr. Henry Yoon, medical adviser for the city, as well as medical professionals from the Stamford Health Department and Stamford Hospital.

If in-class teaching and learning is ever deemed unsafe, the system will transition back to a remote learning model like the one used in the spring once school buildings were shuttered due to the spread of COVID-19, according to the superintendent.

One of the main reasons that I believe that we need to announce this decision now is that I recognize how complicated it can be for many families and staff to manage the fluid scheduling associated with a hybrid model, including arrangements for childcare and transportation, Lucero wrote. While families begin their planning, we will continue to finalize the details to reopen our schools.

A parent pop-up webinar is planned for Monday, Aug. 17, to answer questions.

Lucero concluded by writing, Please know that the entire Stamford Public School community is working together to create a solution that will work for our students. I am confident that by working together and embracing the opportunities presented by the hybrid model we will provide all students with a safe and successful school year.

ignacio.laguarda@stamfordadvocate.com
A mask covers the face of the Rocky statue in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Friday, April 17, 2020. Read more

Art lovers will soon be reunited with the Cezannes, Hindu deities, and Wedgwood vases at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The citys big, comprehensive art museum will reopen at the beginning of September, first to members and then to the general public.

Visitors will find a somewhat limited experience developed by the museum in an effort to limit risk of COVID-19 transmission. Access will be restricted to a single entrance, the one on the main buildings north side, where visitors temperatures will be checked. A few galleries will remain closed.

No special events, concerts, or school groups are being booked, and initially there will be no food service. The Perelman annex will remain closed to the public for the time being.

Still, the reopening means the Art Museum can reestablish critical physical contact with patrons for the first time since shutting down in mid-March.

Ill take it. Ill take anything, said Marc J. Syken, a Center City lawyer who, until the shutdown, visited the Art Museum a couple of times a month. I dont go there to eat or shop, but to look at the paintings. As long as it opens and we have access to the galleries, thats wonderful.

Plans call for the museum to reopen to members Sept. 3, 4, and 5, with the general public admitted starting Sept. 6. The Rodin Museum opens Sept. 6 (with no preopening period). The number of visitors will be limited through the use of prepurchased timed tickets, though visitors preferring to not use the timed-ticket system will also be accommodated.

With the reopening, some of the 133 staff members cut in recent months will return. Of the 133, 25 took offers for voluntary separation agreements, and 85 positions were terminated. Now, with the reopening, 22 furloughed staff members will be recalled, a spokesperson said.

The reopening isnt expected to mean full restoration of the museums ticket revenue.

Attendance is expected to be between 1,500 and 1,700 visitors per day, or about half of whats normal, said Jessica Sharpe, the museums chief of membership and visitor operations.

Well start this way, and as we move through the year, we hope we will be in a position to raise those numbers based on demand and where we are with peoples willingness to take part in activities and government regulations for whats permissible.

Blockbuster exhibitions that can substantially boost attendance are not in the offing. The Dorrance Galleries, where temporary shows are mounted, remain closed.

Its painful, but it is our reality, said Sharpe. But it also gives the institution the ability to highlight its collections and the things we have on display on a daily basis. Its an opportunity and a challenge.

Other museums are coming to life. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts plans to reopen to the public Sept. 12. The Franklin Institute reopened July 8, and has generally drawn between 250 and 500 visitors per day, or about 15% of its pre-COVID-19 average attendance.

We had budgeted out a loss for this year, but we believe it is worth it to have that loss knowing that we are able to both physically and online go forward with our mission, said Franklin Institute president and CEO Larry Dubinski.

One question mark for the Art Museum, Franklin Institute, and other cultural groups along the Parkway is the effect of the homeless encampment that has taken up residence near the Rodin Museum (which is administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art). Area residents have complained about the tent city as a source of garbage, vandalism, public nudity, aggressive panhandling, and other kinds of behavior.

The Parkway, this bejeweled boulevard of museums and cultural institutions, has been trashed to the point where its lost its magnetism, said Ed Dougherty, who lives not far from the encampment, in an Inquirer article last week.

Sunday night, two or three tents were set up on the western edge of the Rodins property. Its front steps were strewn with a pillow, blanket, and a few other items.

The city is working to reach an agreement for an amicable resolution to the camps while also actively connecting people experiencing homelessness to the services they need, city spokesperson Mike Dunn said on Sunday, adding that Mayor Kenney has held several productive meetings with camp leadership to listen to their concerns.

An Art Museum spokesperson declined to comment on the encampment.

Even after the Art Museums reopening, COVID-19 safety concerns will keep a few of its works off-limits. One of its most provocative pieces, Marcel Duchamps Etant donnes  a kind of life-size diorama visible only through visitors pressing up against two small peepholes in a wooden door  will not be accessible to the public. Museum staff has not determined a way that would be safe for both visitors and the work of art itself, fearing that mandatory cleaning of the object between guests would be detrimental to the object, said Sharpe.

Visitors throughout the museum are required to wear face coverings and will be reminded to keep safe distancing. The museum wont mark the floor with guides to keep people spaced, but will post recommended capacity numbers within spaces, so they can see there are only supposed to be [for instance] five people in here, so if its good they can enter, said Sharpe. We didnt want to hold anybodys hand and say, You have to go that way. There will be some self-governance, but we are not going to do it with a heavy hand.

Hours of operation have been adjusted, with the museum now closed not only on Mondays, as it traditionally has been, but also Tuesdays.

Though the Art Museum is reopening without a blockbuster, its Horace Pippin show will be extended through December, and Thomas Eakins The Gross Clinic once again takes up residence in mid-September. The museum is also taking the moment to be topical with some smaller shows.

One new exhibition, opening Sept. 16, promises to pack a punch it would not have had six months ago. With photographs by August Sander, Paul Strand, Nicholas Nixon, W. Eugene Smith, and others, Art of Care explores how medical care in the past century has been portrayed through an artistic lens.
A poll topping Green Party councillor has resigned his seat citing the poor pay and conditions.

South Dublin County Councillor William Priestley said it is not feasible to expect council members to make significant spending decision while paying them 17,000 a year plus expenses.

Mr Priestley said he resigned his seat and quit the Green Party after he was offered a civil servant role in An Garda Siochana.

It is 17,000 a year and I think nearly everybody has another job which is self-defeating in a sense that being on the council is something in addition to your main focus and the result of that is people are burning the candle at both ends, he told Independent.ie

If you look at South County Dublin, the budget is something like 250bn and councillors are trusted with overseeing that and youre paying them 17,000 a year and asking them to do it on top of another job, he added.

Mr Priestley said it is not a conspiracy to suggest councillors pay is low to ensure local government is not strengthened.

If you were being cynical you might suggest a good way of ensuring there is not strong local government is setting up the system the way it is at the moment, he said.

If local representatives could really focus on getting things done it might cause trouble further up the line, he added.

Mr Priestley worked as a motivational interview trainer before he accepted the role with the gardai.

The Green councillor topped the poll in the Rathfarnham-Templeogue district in Dublin South West in the 2019 Local Elections.
Photo: (Photo : Photo from the Fcebook page of the King County Sherrif's Office)

Deputy Elliott was on her way home last July 18 when she got flagged down in Auburn, Washington. While trying to sort the mishap, Deputy Elliott was attacked by the man believed to have caused the crash. Fortunately, a group of teens was passing by and helped the deputy.

The King County Sherrif's Office recently awarded the five teens who acted on the situation.

READ ALSO: Viral Video: Teen plays the piano while solving a Rubik's cube





The night of the attack to the deputy

There was a collision of vehicles in Auburn last July 18 at one in the morning. Deputy Elliott was riding her patrol car on her way home when she was called to attend the collision. While Deputy Elliott was checking on the people inside the cars, the person believed to have caused the crash tried to run away.

Deputy Elliott followed this man. She was able to grab the guy and told him that he could not leave.

After telling the man that he was being detained, he attacked Deputy Elliott. He was trying to strangle the deputy with his arms wrapped around Deputy Elliott's head.

READ ALSO: Emotional Health: 5 Things Teens Can Do to Avoid Feeling Miserable [According to Experts]





The group of teens rescues the deputy.

While struggling to get off the man, Deputy Elliott heard a group saying, "Get off of her!"

Immediately, this group of teens took on the suspect. Deputy Elliott was able to get free, and the suspect was on the ground. The five teens were holding the man's shoulders and legs while Deputy Etliott was handcuffing him.

Luckily, there were no severe injuries on the deputy. However, she had a few scrapes and bruises.

READ ALSO: 9-Year-Old Florida Boy Rescued Dad Who Injured Himself After a Dive





The King County Sherrif's Office's gratitude

The Sherrif's office acknowledges the kindness of the five teens who rescued Deputy Eliot.

On August 3, the five young men were awarded the "Medal of Heroism" Award.

In a Facebook post, the King County Sherrif's Office said, "They quite possibly saved her life."

The teens who were awarded are:

Darrell Swilley, 16 years old

Isaiha Sansaver, 17 years old

Dominic Sansaver, 19 years old

Tyran Powell, 18 years old

Kai Tavares, 18 years old

Sherrif Mitzi Johanknecht created this award. It is intended to honor members of the community who have done extraordinary things.

Since the creation of the "Medal of Heroism" Award, this is only the second time that Sherrif Johanknecht has given this award.

In the Facebook post, the Sherrif said, "We can't thank these fine young men enough. They are true heroes."

A lot of those who read the Facebook post applauded the five teen who rescued the deputy. One Facebook user said, "Well done. How proud your families must be and how grateful all of us are that you were so brave."

READ ALSO: Dad and daughter duo create viral videos that show off their talent in dancing
Today is 9th August, 2020 and an International Conference on Assistance and Support to Lebanon was called and held in the French capital, Paris. At the invitation of the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres the blessed Emir of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani participated in the Paris conference via video. Other world leaders participated also in this historic humanitarian conference.

The capital of Lebanob, Beirut was hit by devastating explosion on 4th August, 2020, and since then a series of strong aftershocks has followed. The damage is severe and catastrophic. It is estimated that at least 130 dead and more than 300, 000 injured, according to media reports.

As immediate needs are met and the humanitarian relief operation continues, with Qatar at the forefront, the Lebanese government is struggling to restore the institutions needed for it to function, ensure political stability, and address long-term reconstruction and development planning.

We bring below the unofficial translation of the powerful speech of His Highness Sheikh Tamim Bin Al-Thani, which was delivered to the conference participants via video:

In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

Ladies and Gentlemen,

At the outset, I would like to extend many thanks to our dear friend Emmanuel Macron, President of the Republic of France, and to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, for their invitation to hold this important conference which comes amid extremely grave conditions that the brotherly Lebanon is going through and facing many difficulties. There is no doubt that the convening of this important conference reflects the international communitys resolve to stand beside Lebanon to overcome the catastrophe caused by the terrible explosion in Beiruts port.

We are all aware of the scale of this catastrophe and the tragic and dire situation that the Lebanese people are experiencing as a result of this explosion, in which dozens of victims have lost their lives and thousands others were injured, as well as the massive destruction of buildings and properties and the exacerbation of economic and financial challenges.

Lebanon cannot get over this dire circumstance on its own. Facing this crisis and overcoming its dangerous negative repercussions depends on strengthening national unity, unifying and intensifying governmental and societal efforts in Lebanon and providing all necessary forms of aid, from relief to restoration and reconstruction, by the international community.

The eyes of the brotherly Lebanese people are looking forward to the outcome of this conference, and we appeal to the international community, with all its components, states and organizations, to provide urgent financial assistance and contributions that help Lebanon to overcome the agonizing circumstances it is going through. Dialogue on the internal issues is to be set aside for the Lebanese people's awareness, consciousness and living powers.

In this context, the State of Qatar, in response to what is made imperative on it by its humanitarian duty and the ensuing solidarity from the bonds of brotherhood, and in fulfillment of its duty and commitment to support Lebanon, we will announce in the coming days our contribution to the reconstruction of Beirut through the projects that will be adopted. In the meantime, we, in terms of people and institutions, quickly responded to the call of the brothers in Lebanon and provided urgent relief aid to them that is worth the sum of fifty million dollars as a contribution to the relief operations and alleviation of the suffering of the Lebanese people and overcoming their extremely difficult circumstances. We have also sent an equipped team from the Qatari International Search and Rescue Group and established field hospitals.

In conclusion, I hope that this conference will achieve its desired goals.

May the peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you! END!

Sender:

Fatmata B. Bangura

Acting Prgramme Coordinator

Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation (STBHF)

For and on behalf of volunteers of the Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Foundation (STBHF)
McDonalds is suing its ousted chief executive over accusations he lied to investigators and destroyed records about sexual relationships he had with employees, news outlets reported.

Steve Easterbrook, former CEO of the fast food chain, was fired roughly eight months ago for sexting with a subordinate.

The Watford, England native apologized after the allegations came to light, claiming the relationship was the only intimate one he had with an employee and that it was not physical, The New York Times reported.

However, in a suit McDonalds filed against Easterbrook in state court in Delaware on Monday, the company alleged the former chief executive lied and concealed evidence that he had sexual relationships with three of his subordinates a year before he was ousted, according to the newspapers report.

The international chain is suing Easterbrook for more than $40 million, the amount he was given when he exited the company in November, the outside firm Equilar estimated in 2019.

News about the lawsuit comes after an anonymous tipster lodged an accusation in July that claimed Easterbrook had a physical relationship with another one of his employees while he was running McDonalds, according to the Times.

Through an internal investigation conducted by the fast food chain, the company discovered Easterbrook had engaged in sexual relationships with three subordinates, CNN reported.

The investigation also revealed evidence the former CEO destroyed records to conceal evidence about his behavior, and it offered more details about the initial relationship that led to Easterbrooks ouster.

The investigation confirmed that the alleged relationship had occurred and revealed that it had been a non-physical, consensual relationship involving texting and video calls, the complain read, according to CNN.

The fast food company also found that Easterbrook approved a stock grant worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for one of the employees he was having a sexual relationship, CNN reported.

Easterbrook, who became the CEO of McDonalds in 2015, was replaced after his firing in November by Chris Kempczinski.

Kempczinski sent a memo Monday to employees at the chain about the lawsuit, according to CNN.

We recently became aware, through an employee report, of new information regarding the conduct of our former CEO, Steve Easterbrook, the memo read, according to the news outlet. We now know that his conduct deviated from our values in different and far more extensive ways than we were aware when he left the company last year.
A MOVE by South Oxfordshire District Council to give its head of planning the power to block debate on applications has been branded undemocratic by councillors.

Ward councillors can usually call in planning applications so they can be decided by the councils planning committee rather than an officer.

But Adrian Duffield has been given temprorary responsibility under emergency powers to decide whether to agree to allow this because of the challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic.

Councillors voted by 19 votes to 14 in favour of the move after the the Liberal Democrat/Green coalition that runs the council said he would consult with the chairman and vice-chairman of the committee and ward councillors.

But Henley councillors lambasted the decision at a town council meeting last week.

Councillor Lorraine Hillier, who represents the Woodcote and Rotherfield ward on the district council, said the 10 parishes in her ward had been let down.

It is very undemocratic and Im very sorry that we couldnt do more to change it, she said. Councillor Stefan Gawrysiak, one of three Henley representatives on the council, said he respected Mr Duffield but he was unelected, adding: He should not be in a position whereby he is the final arbiter of a decision against an elected ward councillor.

Councillor Kellie Hinton, the third Henley representative, said: This has done a real disservice to every parish council in South Oxfordshire.

Cllr Arlett said: We fought the corner of democracy at that meeting. Unfortunately, the Liberals and the Greens didnt. They wished to do away with democracy.

Since that meeting a number of councillors from the Liberals and the Greens have been in contact with me personally to say they regret the way they voted but its obviously too late now.

Normally, we can call in a planning application and if the officer in charge of that application foresees a problem they will contact us and we will discuss the application. Normally, you can speak to the officer and they will then go back to an applicant and an amended drawing will come in so the system worked really well. The excuse they are giving now is the planning office has too much work.

Cllr Arlett said the issue was likely to be raised at the district councils next meeting in October, adding: Im sure that common sense will prevail and councillors such as the Greens and Liberals will support us in changing it back to the system we had before.

On Tuesday, the town councils planning committee suggested starting a petition against the changes to the procedure.

But instead Councillor Michelle Thomas, who chaired the meeting, decided to write a letter of objection with the help of planning officer Jodie Rhymes.

Cllr Gawrysiak said that other parishes were up in arms.

Councillor Anne-Marie Simpson, cabinet member for planning, rejected the criticism, saying the move was temporary and would be reviewed by the end of October. She said that despite wild and inaccurate claims by Henley Residents Group and Conservative councillors all planning applications were decided openly and fairly.

Town, district and parish councils will have an opportunity to have their say, she said. If theres a disagreement on the material planning issues the application will still go to committee.

Councils are having to make changes to the the way we work in the response to the covid-19 crisis. This is a temporary measure. Under the covid crisis we have had to make changes to deal with it and were committed to making sure everyone has their voice head on planning applications.

Im disappointed because I think we all need to work together and get through this.

Meanwhile, the district council has decided to return to having public participation at virtual meetings of the planning committee.

It said this was stopped because software used for the meetings meant the council couldnt include invitations to external parties such as town and parish councils.

But opposition parties accused the coalition of a power grab.
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Lebanon's prime minister and his cabinet resigned tonight in the wake of the devastating Beirut explosion which has killed more than 160 people.

Hassan Diab told the nation in a televised address: 'Today we are heeding the people and their demands to hold accountable those responsible for a disaster.'

The Prime Minister blamed a 'corrupt' political class that has ruled Lebanon for more than 30 years for the August 4 explosion, sparked when a warehouse fire ignited 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate that had been stored in the city's port for six years.

Diab praised his government - assembled after previous Prime Minister Saad Hariri stepped down amid protests over corruption - for fighting 'valiantly and with dignity' to reform the country.

But he said that 'I have discovered an apparatus of corruption that is greater than the state,' heaping pressure on Hezbollah-backed President Michel Aoun who will now lead a search for his replacement.

'Between us and change is big powerful barrier,' Diab added as a parting shot.

Hassan Diab told the nation in a televised address: 'Today we are heeding the people and their demands to hold accountable those responsible for a disaster'

Firecrackers thrown by protesters explode in front of riot police amid clashes in the vicinity of the parliament in central Beirut on August 10, 2020

A demonstrator fires firecrackers during a protest in Beirut, Lebanon, August 10, 2020

A Lebanese protester uses a slingshot to hurl stones at security forces amid clashes in the vicinity of the parliament in central Beirut on August 10, 2020, following the deadly Beirut port explosion

A handout picture provided by the Lebanese photo agency Dalati and Nohra on August 10, 2020 shows Prime Minister Hassan Diab (R) submitting his resignation to President Michel Aoun at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut

Lebanese protesters run from tear gas fired by security forces today in Beirut today. Many see the blast as a symbol of corruption and incompetence among the country's elite, and protests have broken out after months of political and economic meltdown.

The devastated port of Beirut is seen in an aerial view yesterday after the explosion at a warehouse which has killed more than 160 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless

A protester throws a tear gas canister back towards Lebanese police during an anti-government protest in Beirut last night

Lebanese protesters clash with security forces for the second evening in a row near an access street to the parliament in central Beirut on Sunday

Several ministers had earlier quit the cabinet amid fury over the blast and the Hezbollah-backed President Michel Aoun - who has rejected calls for an international probe into the disaster - is also facing calls to quit.

The resignations do not force Aoun to step down but they will cause a legislative paralysis in Lebanon's French-inspired system.

Last Tuesday's disaster killed at least 163 people and destroyed swathes of the Mediterranean capital, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.

Explosives expert claims Beirut explosion that killed 160 was caused by burning military missiles - not ammonium nitrate  because the blast cloud was orange not yellow An explosives expert has claimed the Beirut blast was caused by burning military missiles - not ammonium nitrate. Danilo Coppe, 56 and from Parmesan in Italy, is one of the country's leading explosive experts. He believes the August 4 blast, which killed 160 people, wounded 6,000 and destroyed 300,000 homes, was not caused by ammonium nitrate because the colour of the cloud was orange. The explosives expert, nicknamed Mr. Dynamite, explained that when ammonium nitrate detonates, it generates an unmistakable yellow cloud. But videos of the explosion show orange plumes of smoke, Mr Coppe told Corriere. 'There should have been a catalyst, because otherwise it wouldn't all have exploded together. 'You can clearly see a brick orange column tending to bright red, typical of lithium participation. Which in the form of lithium-metal is the propellant for military missiles. I think there were armaments there,' he said. Advertisement

Many in Lebanon see the blast as a symbol of corruption and incompetence among the country's elite, and protests have broken out with tear gas fired on protesters after months of political and economic meltdown.

Much of the fury is directed at the political elite which is backed by Hezbollah, in turn backed by Iran which has called for outside countries to refrain from 'politicising' the disaster.

Diab's cabinet, which was formed in January with the backing of the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah, met on Monday with many ministers wanting to resign.

During the session, 'most of the ministers called on the government to step down,' Sport and Youth Minister Vartine Ohanian said. Another minister said Diab 'is heading towards resignation'.

Health minister Hasan added that Diab would head to the presidential palace to 'hand over the resignation in the name of all the ministers'.

The information and environment ministers quit on Sunday as well as several lawmakers, and the justice minister followed them out on Monday.

Finance minister Ghazi Wazni, a key negotiator with the IMF over a rescue plan, is believed to have gone to the cabinet meeting with a resignation letter.

Lebanon is already seeking $20billion in funding from the IMF and now faces billions more in disaster costs, with losses from the explosion estimated to be between $10billion and $15billion.

At least nine lawmakers have also announced they would quit in protest, as have two senior members of the Beirut local government.

Lebanon's system is modelled on that of former colonial power France, where the president appoints the prime minister and is not required to resign along with the cabinet.

However, Aoun is also under pressure to quit and his portrait was burned by demonstrators who burst into the foreign ministry building during angry protests at the weekend.

The country's sectarian power-sharing system requires the president to be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister to be a Sunni and the parliament speaker to be a Shi'ite.

Prime minister Diab, 61, had said on Saturday that he would request early parliamentary elections.

'The entire regime needs to change. It will make no difference if there is a new government,' said Joe Haddad, a Beirut engineer. 'We need quick elections.'

Last Tuesday's blast is thought to have been caused by a stockpile of ammonium nitrate which had been left unsecured at the port since 2013.

Six days after the enormous chemical blast which was felt as far away as the island of Cyprus, residents and volunteers were still clearing the debris off the streets.

International rescue teams with sniffer dogs and specialised equipment remained at work at 'ground zero' today, where the search is now for bodies and not survivors.

The Lebanese army said today that another five bodies were pulled from the rubble with the help of Russian and French rescue teams, raising the death toll to 163.

The devastating explosion last week. An Italian expert has claimed that the brick red cloud suggests that the blast was not caused by ammonium nitrate and suggested burning armaments had instead caused the blast

Lebanese anti-government protesters try to break through a barrier placed by Lebanese police to block a road leading to the parliament building during a protest in Beirut

Italian firefighters from the NBCR (Nuclear Biological Chemical Radiological) unit inspecting a ship wreck in the port of Beirut

The explosion, which drew comparisons with the Hiroshima atom bomb 75 years ago, has also injured more than 6,000 people and left 300,000 homeless.

The disaster also sparked widespread panic over wheat shortages after 15,000 tonnes of grains were blasted out of the silos.

The cabinet decided to refer the investigation of the blast to the judicial council, the highest legal authority whose rulings cannot be appealed.

Lebanon's president had previously said explosive material was stored unsafely for years at the port.

He said an investigation would consider whether the cause was external interference as well as negligence or an accident.

'There are two possible scenarios for what happened: it was either negligence or foreign interference through a missile or bomb,' he said last Friday.

The shipment of ammonium nitrate was officially destined for Mozambique when it sailed on the cargo ship Rhosus in 2013, but the vessel made an unscheduled stop in Beirut where the chemicals were impounded.

The captain of the Rhosus claims he was told to stop in Beirut to pick up extra cargo - while Mozambique has denied all knowledge of the shipment.

Cypriot police said on Thursday that they had questioned Russian businessman Igor Grechushkin over his alleged links the ship and its cargo.

Russian emergency personnel walk on the site of the explosion in the port of Beirut, where rescuers are continuing their recovery efforts nearly a week after the blast

Beirut's governor said many foreign workers and truck drivers remained missing and were assumed to be among the casualties.

Anti-government protests in the past two days have been the biggest since October, when demonstrators took to the streets over the country's economic crisis.

Protesters accused the political elite of siphoning off state resources after last week mobbing French president Emmanuel Macron with demands for reform.

'If reforms are not carried out, Lebanon will continue to sink,' Macron said after being met at the airport by President Aoun last week.

France has always maintained close ties with Lebanon, which was administered by France under a League of Nations mandate until 1943 when it gained independence.

Officials have estimated losses of around $15billion from the explosion, a bill which Lebanon cannot afford after already defaulting on sovereign debt.

Eli Abi Hanna's house and his car repair shop were destroyed in the blast.

'The economy was already a disaster and now I have no way of making money again,' he said. 'It was easier to make money during the civil war. The politicians and the economic disaster have ruined everything.'

Wreckage lies in front of destroyed grain silos in the port of Beirut, three days after the devastating explosion in the Lebanese capital

A helicopter tries to put out a fire at the scene of last Tuesday's blast, which is thought to have been caused by a stockpile of ammonium nitrate which had been left unsecured at the port since 2013

Some Lebanese doubt change is possible in a country where sectarian politicians have dominated since the 1975-90 conflict.

'It won't work, it's just the same people. It's a mafia,' said Antoinette Baaklini, an employee of an electricity company that was demolished in the blast.

Workers picked up fallen masonry near the building where wall graffiti mocked Lebanon's chronic electricity crisis: 'Everyone else in the world has electricity while we have a donkey.'

'It will always be the same. It is just a political game, nothing will change,' said university student Marilyne Kassis.

An emergency international donor conference on Sunday raised pledges worth nearly 253 million euros ($298 million) for immediate humanitarian relief.

But foreign countries demand transparency over how the aid is used, wary of writing blank cheques to a government perceived by its own people as deeply corrupt.

Some are concerned about the influence of Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Monday that countries should refrain from politicising the port blast. He called on the United States to lift sanctions against Lebanon.

Lebanese, meanwhile, are struggling to come to terms with the scale of losses. Entire neighbourhoods were wrecked.

'It is very sad. We are burying people every day. Forty percent of my church have lost their businesses,' said a priest.
Nearly 600 persons who were part of the rescue operation of the ill-fated Air India Express plane that crashed at Kerala's Kozhikode district on August 7 are currently in quarantine.

As per a News18 report, this includes Malappuram collector K Gopalakrishnan and the CISF personnel who were among the first to reach the crash site at the Karipur airport.

Even though the area falls under a containment zone, locals had rushed in to rescue as many passengers as possible. This included airport staff, volunteers, health workers, police, ambulance driver, media personnel, and even people who rushed injured passengers to the hospitals in their vehicles.

In the rush to save maximum lives, most people could not follow COVID-19 protocols such as social distancing. As a precautionary measure, Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja had urged all those persons who were part of the rescue operation to home quarantine.

It was later learnt that at least two passengers of the ill-fated flight were coronavirus positive at the time of the accident; one of them survived the crash, while the other was among the 18 persons who lost their lives.

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

Shabeer AP, who was a part of the rescue operation, and is currently under home quarantine, recalled the events of the night. He said: We reached the spot after hearing a huge crash sound. When I reached there were already around 10-15 people there. It was raining heavily. Initially, there was a fear of the flight catching fire, but hearing the cries of the passengers, we just forgot everything and tried to rescue the people.

The Air India aircraft had 190 passengers on board and was attempting to land on a tabletop runway in bad weather conditions when it overshot the runway and nosedived into a gorge 35 feet below. The plane had split into three due to the impact, killing both the pilot and the co-pilot on the spot.

Follow our coverage of the coronavirus crisis here
Sunny Bathija, founder of real estate development firm Satya, oversees a diverse group of holdings ranging from suburban strip shopping centers to hotels, warehouses to upscale condominiums in some of Houstons finest neighborhoods.

Born in Chennai, India, he is now involved in half a billion dollars worth of real estate developments across the Houston region, including a 500-acre land development on the former Moran family ranch across from The Woodlands Hills in Montgomery County. Satyas business includes project development, land development, consulting and property management services.

Bathija visited with the Chronicle to talk about Houstons development and his role in it.

Q: How did you get your start in commercial real estate?

A: I used to work for a gas station developer back in 1997-98, and then I got an opportunity to build my own gas station in 99. I used to develop and sell gas stations. One day, I had some excess land. Some told me, Why dont you build a retail center? So, I got into that.

I liked that business because it did not have any of the operations that you had with the gas stations with the employees not showing up. There used to be breakins in the night. You always worried about the safety of your employees. There were always operational problems. I saw retail being less intensive. There were more opportunities in retail. I started buying more land and building more retail center. So far, I think we have done more than 80 retail centers in Houston.

More Information Current projects Satya is involved in the following projects, some in partnership with other developers: Mixed use: Moran Ranch in Willis/Conroe area; Morton Ranch Crossing, Katy area Residential: Giorgetti Houston and The Westmore in Upper Kirby District; The Sophie at Bayou Bend on Memorial Drive Retail centers: 7202 N. Grand Parkway West, Spring; 3011 W. Grand Parkway North, Katy; 3514 Texas 36, Rosenberg; 3244 Meridiana Parkway, Rosharon; 27230 U.S. 290, Cypress See More Collapse

Q: Whats the retail focus?

A: We do street retail, 20,000 square feet of street retail. We saw there was a growing demand for it, especially with growing neighborhoods. We started looking around and we found there was void in the market. Every neighborhood needed the support of a nail salon or a dry clean or a day care. We went looking for those opportunities in the growing markets of the suburbs.

Q: And that led to land development?

A: We started to doing land development, ground leases with McDonalds, Jack in the Box and Wendys. We buy big parcels of land, subdividing them, connecting utilities and selling pads to other retailers. We did 75 acres in Longmeadow Farms, around 20 acres in Gleannloch Farms, 20 to 25 acres in Coles Crossing. I must have done around 40 acres in Fulshear.

Im still developing another 35 acres in Rosenberg. Land development is a big part of our portfolio. We sell land to other developers who dont want to buy big pieces of land. They dont want to worry about how to get utilities and how to go about platting it.

Q: Whats your largest project?

A: Recently we bought Moran Ranch. Its 500 acres. It took us over a year to put together. There were 26 sellers. They had to appoint a trustee through the court who coordinated the sale. Now were working with TxDOT on building a frontage road. We have two miles of frontage on I-45. We just started last year. Right now, were working on utilities, engineering, getting detention, the roadways, driveways, getting it pad ready.

Q: Do you sell your developments?

A: Yes, we sell. We retain a few. We have a fund. Right now we own and operate 16 shopping centers in Houston. We have one office building. We have two hotels, which we are running.

Q: How is the leasing going?

A: Right now, the challenges are two things: to help the tenants without hurting yourself and to retain tenants. Finding a replacement tenant for the tenants who are going out of business, thats a huge uphill task.

As far as the new retail centers are concerned, the last two months have been very dull. But its definitely coming back. We are getting interest from people who want to lease space. People who have been laid off from their jobs want to start their own business.

Q: What types of tenants do you focus on in your retail centers?

A: We have a mixture of 50-50, national tenants and 50 percent maybe franchise nail salons, gyms, day cares, liquor stores. All your neighborhood retail in our retail centers. We dont concentrate on the big boxes: the grocery stores and the clothing stores. Our typical tenants size is from 1,000 to 5,000 square feet.

Q: Have people had trouble paying their rent?

A: In the last few months, yes. We worked with them to give them relief, a couple of months rent. Taking two months rent and dividing it out on the remaining 36 months, so its a few more dollars a month. Most have appreciated that and have availed of that. The national tenants - Sherwin Williams and McDonalds - they kept paying us. They didnt need any relief. Our lenders have given an abatement of our note payments, because of which we were in a position to help our tenants.

Q: How have you changed the focus over the years?

A: When I started in 99, we started with a 200-square-foot rental office space. We grew from there. I started alone. In four months time, I needed some help. My assistant Cindy is now my property manager. I came to this country in 1996. I had brought $2,900 with me. Here I am 25 years later. We are managing half a billion dollars of real estate in Houston.

Q: Why did you leave India to come to Houston?

A: I was longing for opportunities. There was an uncle of mine. He told me the opportunities are great here. I had a six-month-old baby and I said I need to do something with my life. So I came here to the land of opportunity, and it turned out to be the land of opportunity for me.

In 2003, I went out and bought property: 40 acres on Eldridge and Briar Forest in the Energy Corridor. Starbucks, Jack in the Box, all those tenants. I had some extra property. I built a freestanding office property, which was only 3,500 square feet. It was like a luxury going from 200 square feet to 3,500 square feet. We grew out of it, and bought this office building, which is 50,000 square feet. We occupy maybe 7,000 square feet and lease the rest out.

Q: What did you do with that $2,900?

A : I paid my rent deposit. I bought a car for $700. I paid an electricity deposit. My cable deposit. The best part is Ive got the passbook telling me where I spent that $2,900. There were times when I only had $50 in the account.

Q: What fundamental changes will we see in real estate as a result of COVID-19?

A: It is still a changing world. Everyone has relief right now. The tenants are getting relief from the landlords. Everyone is getting paycheck protection loans, disaster loans. Once all these loans were off in the next six months, thats when the reality will come up.

We pushed everyones payment out three or four months. Well know reality of whats going to go down, whats going to stay afloat in the next four months.

A lot of offices are allowing people to work remotely, which means they are going to occupy less office space. They will be downsizing. On the retail, Ive been getting requests from gyms. Because of social distancing, they need a bigger space to keep more space between their machines. Everyone is adapting right now. We do not know the full scenario of that adaptation. Tenants will need more room. Can they afford that rent? These are big question marks. The changes are still very much evolving. There is no real answer to that question yet.

Q: Who are your partners in your developments?

A: My partner in Satya is Ameen Ali, a CPA. Its just two of us. We have investors in our projects. He is a CPA and takes care of the back office, the accounting. Im on the front of the development side. I take care of the development and leasing and brokerage. On the financials, we have more than 50 partnerships going at any one time. We have investors who have been with us the last 20 years now.

Q: Who are your investors?

A: They are individuals who have now become more like family and friends. We dont take any corporate investors. We have repeat investors who have been with us the last 15 or 20 years. These people we have met in the real estate community through friends and family.

Q: What kinds of returns do the investors see?

A: It all depends on the project. There have been returns of 200 percent and there have been returns of around 10 percent. Back in the 2009 and 10 when we had slowdown, the returns were pretty light. The best years around 2004 and 05 and 06 where the returns were very high. The returns are calculated on how long you hold onto a project, so it fluctuates. On average, you tell me a safe return on real estate may be 15 percent. But there are always risks. You could also be losing.

katherine.feser@chron.com

twitter.com/kfeser
At the centre of the partnership is N9's unique organ functional polymer marketed under the umbrella brand VIROBAN

An innovative product has emerged in the Indian textile industry that promises to render viruses such as coronavirus ineffective. The credit to bring this technology goes to N9 World Technologies, a subsidiary of Bengaluru Resil Chemicals, and Consolidated Pathways Inc., USA.

The two firms signed an agreement to build unique Swiss antiviral and antimicrobial technologies into sustainable, cost effective custom blends for India's textile industry.

At the centre of the partnership is N9's unique organ functional polymer marketed under the umbrella brand VIROBAN. The durable antiviral technology from the house of N9 brings hygiene to textile materials, thereby helping improve the fabric's resilience against viruses including Coronavirus.



The VIROBAN N9 XTS-18 creates a highly-cationic charge density on the textiles surface, deactivating the spread of the virus & bacteria upon contact. The technology is highly effective against enveloped and capsid viruses, having proven in reducing infective viruses by 99.99% in ISO 18184 tests.

The technology is designed to quickly prevent transmission of viruses. VIROBAN polymers are highly compatible with other textiles while remaining gentle on human skin.
Qatar Airways resumes services to Adelaide. Image: Qatar Airways

The South Australian capital will become the airlines fifth destination in Australia to resume flights, making Qatar Airways the only international carrier currently servicing five major cities in Australia.

Qatar Airways Group chief executive, Akbar Al Baker said: We are excited to resume services to Adelaide, highlighting our ongoing commitment to the Australian market during this difficult period. With the largest global network in the region and the Best Airport in the Middle East offering seamless and efficient connectivity to destinations across the world, we have been the airline of choice for many Australian Embassies to help bring Australians home. Australian Government data (BITRE) showed during the peak of repatriation efforts, our airline helped take home almost ten times more passengers in and out Australia than our nearest competitors.

We are proud to have been one of the few airlines to never stop services to Australia, even expanding our Australian operations during the crisis, to help repatriate over 170,000 Australians and international travellers with their loved ones and transporting hundreds of tonnes of cargo to maintain vital supply chains for Australian agriculture exporters. The resumption of Adelaide services and the recent launch of new flights to Brisbane demonstrate our long-term commitment to Australia and our guarantee to support Australian passengers and exporters with global connectivity during both good and bad times.

Australian Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment and Senator for South Australia, The Hon Simon Birmingham, said: I am delighted to see the ongoing commitment of Qatar Airways to the Adelaide market. These flights will provide another freight route for South Australian exporters, enabling them to get their high-quality produce onto planes and into the Middle East and Europe.

"While international travel restrictions remain an important line of protection for Australia against COVID-19, the resumption of services will provide another avenue for repatriating Australians and eventually provide a path for international tourists into South Australia when our borders re-open.
National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said in a statement Monday night the Trump administration is "deeply troubled" by the arrest of Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai on suspicion of "collusion with foreign powers."

Why it matters: The arrest Monday of the most prominent person under the new national security law that gives Beijing more powers over the former British colony comes amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and China.

The U.S. has sanctioned Chinese officials, including Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, over the move, which strips key aspects of the territory's autonomy. China hit back on Monday, sanctioning Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, along with nine other American officials.

Details: Lai has been bailed, per the BBC. The 72-year-old's son was also arrested, Lai's pro-democracy newspaper the Apple Daily reports

Mark Simon, an executive at the tycoon's media firm Next Digital, tweeted that police had gone to Lai's home after issuing search warrants before heading to Apple Daily's newsroom to conduct a search.

Hong Kong police said in a statement Monday they searched a building in Tseung Kwan O, where Apple Daily's headquarters are located. They said they had arrested seven people on suspicion of breaching the national security law.

"Offences include collusion with a foreign country/external elements to endanger national security," the police added.

What they're saying: "These reported arrests, following the recent action by the Hong Kong government to unjustly disqualify candidates and postpone the Legislative Council elections, are the latest violations of Beijings commitments to the Hong Kong people and the world," O'Brien said.

"These arrests are also a clear effort to intimidate pro-democracy and political opposition figures and suppress Hong Kongs free and independent media, which have played key roles in the citys character and success."

 Excerpt from O'Brien's statement

Of note: Lai was among a group of activists arrested earlier this year on charges of holding illegal assemblies in August and October related to the massive pro-democracy protests that swept the Asian financial hub last year.

When the national security law was imposed by Chinese lawmakers in June, Lai told the BBC in response that it "spells the death knell for Hong Kong."

Go deeper: With new security law, China outlaws global activism

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
Temperatures reached record-challenging levels across parts of the United Kingdom late last week and over the weekend. Now the heat will help to fuel heavy thundery showers as a storm system moves into western Europe.

On Friday, London recorded the hottest day for August since 2003 as the temperature climbed to 37 C (98 F) in the afternoon.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP

Temperatures already began to trend lower over the weekend, especially across northern and western parts of the United Kingdom as a storm approached from the west. This trend will continue through the middle of the week as an unsettled pattern develops over the British Isles.

The slow-moving storm moved over the region on Monday, sparking widespread thundery showers across much of the isles.

Lingering heat over England and Wales helped to fuel locally heavier thunderstorms, especially into the afternoon on Monday. The strongest storms produced damaging wind gusts, which lead to localized damage, from the Midlands to South West England and Wales.

While a much more isolated threat, waterspouts or an isolated tornado were possible in this area into Monday evening.

Heavier thundery showers were expected to be more widespread across the southern United Kingdom, on Tuesday. The strongest once again posing the threat of flooding downpours, strong wind gusts and isolated hail.

As the storm system lingers over the area on Wednesday, heavy thunderstorms will return and can spread as far north as Scotland.

With several days of downpours set for the region, flooding will be a growing concern into the middle of the week, especially across England and Wales. Any location that receives more than 20 mm (0.79 of an inch) of rain in one day will be particularly susceptible to flash flooding when rain arrives the following day.

Water will first be most likely to pool in low-lying and poor-drainage areas. Some water could settle on roadways after heavy downpours restrict visibility for drivers for a short time; because of this, motorists should use caution driving through some of these thunderstorms.

Stormy weather will also push into northern France into the middle of the week, bringing the threat for thunderstorms in Paris. Like London, Paris has had record-challenging temperatures on and off this summer and reached a sweltering 38.9 C (102 F) on Sunday afternoon.

Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
Norfolk County Ontario Provincial Police are urging safe driving following a two-vehicle crash injuring eight people.

First responders were sent to the collision, 16 kilometres west of Hagersville, just after 11:30 a.m. Monday.

OPP Const. Ed Sanchuck said the police investigation indicated that one car was being driven south on Cockshutt Road and the other was going west on Concession 8 Townsend when they collided in the intersection.

Police video from the scene showed the southbound vehicle on the shoulder of Cockshutt Road. The black sedan sustained damage to the front right. It was occupied by an adult driver and three youth.

The westbound vehicle, a red sedan, left the roadway and struck a tree several metres away. Police video showed damage to the front and rear passenger side doors. An adult driver, an infant, and two young children were in the car.

All eight suffered minor injuries.

Sanchuck said the infant, young children and adult in the red sedan all required hospitalization.

An investigation into the crash is ongoing, Sanchuck said.

In a video statement, Sanchuck urged safe driving.

Please do me a favour, he said. Please make sure you get home safe to your families.

Sanchuck said, in this instance, seatbelts saved some lives.
(Photo : Screenshot From pxhere official website )

After a 15-year-old boy died of bubonic plague in July, a village in Inner Mongolia was on lockdown for fear of the deadly disease spreading. Recently in nearby Baotou, a man had died of multiple organ failure from the same disease.

Bubonic plague is caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria. Fleas and ticks carry the bacteria as it does not harm the host, but becomes deadly when the tiny bugs infect rodents.

Humans coming into contact with dead animals that have been infected, such as rats and squirrels, can get infected too. Other means of infection are coming into contact with infected animal feces, bodily fluids, and rarely, a rodent bite.

Bubonic plague for humans is also deadly, which begins with flu-like symptoms of fever and nausea, as well as swollen lymph nodes. The plague can cause three types of infections: bubonic plague, septicemic plague, and pneumonic plague.

Lymph nodes and other parts of the body may be covered in buboes or severe swelling. If treated right away, usually in a span of 24 hours, patients can recover well with effective antibiotic treatment.





Lockdown in Five Districts

Local authorities from the Bayannur region tracked down the man's home and now a second village has been under quarantine for weeks. A statement from the authorities said, 'Currently, there is a risk of the human plague spreading in our city.' They have begun a comprehensive epidemiological investigation in the village of Suji Xincu, where the man came in contact with the disease.

The Mongolian Health Ministry's warnings of high infections and the deadly disease have caused five districts to undergo lockdown as well. Infected marmots would most likely be from large rodent populations in Altai Mountain, which stretches across the four countries of Mongolia, China, Russia, and Kazakhstan.

Senior official Dorj Narangerel said, 'We urge you to pay special attention to the fact that the pulmonary form of the disease is just as rapid as the coronavirus infection - but it is a disease that can kill people very quickly.' The Chinese-controlled region remains on a level three threat warning since there is a possibility that the outbreak may cause another epidemic alongside the coronavirus pandemic.

Read Also: Colorado Officials Report the First Human Case of Bubonic Plague





Monitored by the WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially been monitoring the recent outbreak since the plague can have a high rate of fatality if left untreated. Margaret Harris said, 'Bubonic plague has been with us and is always with us, for centuries.' Also known as the Black Death, the plague can still be traced in several countries, mostly as an animal disease.

However, outbreaks in the 2000s have occurred in China, India, Peru, Madagascar, and several other countries. Inner Mongolia has the first reported human cases of the plague this year.

So far, the situation is being well managed by local authorities, said the WHO. 'The public should improve its self-protection awareness and ability, and report abnormal health conditions promptly,' said Margaret Harris.

Read Also: After Coronavirus, New Cases of Dengue Fever Appear 24 Hours After Bubonic Plague in China




China Claims Wildlife Sanctuary in Bhutan; India Offers Road Through It

China recently opened a new front in its border disputes with Bhutan by making a territorial claim in the far-eastern part of its Himalayan neighbor, which India has countered with a proposal to build a road through the area.

In June, for the first time, China claimed the 404 square miles of the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, which sits in Bhutans southeastern corner. The area is famous for its red pandas and is home to the Brokpas, Bhutans semi-nomadic highlanders.

Landlocked Bhutan maintains a close relationship with India, which trains its military, protects its frontiers, and guides its foreign policy, making India integral to ChinaBhutan disputes, and China is troubled by that link, experts said. While it doesnt share a border with China, the sanctuary is adjacent to the Indian province of Arunachal Pradesh, which China also claims.

Bhutan learned of Chinas new assertion at a meeting to discuss a potential grant for the sanctuary from an organization that funds sustainable development projects around the world.

Unexpectedly, Chinas representatives to that organization opposed the grant. Their reason: China considers the sanctuary to be disputed territory, said Felix K. Chang, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, in an analysis published on July 29.

Bhutan protested Chinas claim in writing and eventually won the funding, but Chang said the move by China surprised officials in Bhutan.

China and Bhutan share more than 311 miles of the all-Himalayan border and a history of territorial disputes. Bhutan recognizes four areas that are disputed, while China says there are six areas that are disputed (not counting Sakteng), according to Sovereign Limits, a data resource on land and maritime international boundaries.

Experts are surprised at the recent move because China has never claimed any territory along Bhutans eastern border and in more than 35 years of its diplomatic talks with Bhutan, its never mentioned Sakteng.

Bhutan, a country landlocked between the Chinese and Indian borders, recently faced a new claim by the Chinese regime, about the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, which is home to red pandas. (CC BY-SA 3.0/Map image by Wikipedia Commons)

Indias Proximity to Bhutan

Beijing might think that by claiming territory in eastern Bhutan, it could drive a wedge between Bhutan and India or, at least, between those Bhutanese who want to maintain close ties with India and those who prefer a more independent foreign policy, said Chang.

Either way, such a strategy could be seen as putting indirect pressure on India, which recently has been a thorn in Chinas side.

India and China have had an intense standoff along their disputed border since May, which escalated on June 15 at Galwan in the Indian territory of Ladakh into a brawl that left 20 Indian soldiers and an undisclosed number of Chinese soldiers dead. The incident is leading to changes to Indias foreign and economic policies toward the regime in Beijing.

Its likely that China wants to punish Bhutan for allying with India, Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, told The Epoch Times in an email. And by claiming Sakteng, China is also trying to gain strategically as the sanctuary is along the border with Arunachal Pradesh, she said.

China began claiming the 90,000 square kilometers (about 34,700 square miles) of Arunachal Pradesh in 2006, a week before the Chinese regimes leader, Hu Jintao, made a visit to India. That claim is based on Tibet previously ruling Tawang, with the rationale that Chinas claim to Tibet entitles it to all of Tibets former territory.

China refers to Arunachal Pradesh as Southern Tibet.

Tawang is about 2 percent of Arunachal Pradesh. It has an ancient monastery and is an important seat for Tibetan Buddhism. In 1950, Tibet ceded Tawang to India to save it from being occupied by the Chinese Communist Party.

The proximity of Sakteng to the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh makes it particularly attractive for China, Rajagopalan says.

She said China actually doesnt want to resolve its border disputes with India and instead wants to leverage the debates.

As far as India is concerned, an unsettled border is always in Chinas interest because it will keep India off-balance. New Delhi will be off the Chinese hook if the border and territorial disputes are resolved. In fact, as China becomes more powerful, it has less interest in finding a solution to the border and territorial disputes, Rajagopalan said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (C) sits next to Bhutans King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck (2L), the Fourth Druk Gyalpo (2R), Bhutans Queen Jetsun Pema (R) and Bhutans Prime Minister Lotay Tshering (L) while watching a cultural performance at the Tashichhodzong during Modis two-day visit to Bhutan, on Aug. 18, 2019. (Upasana Dahal/AFP via Getty Images)

Road Through Sakteng

After China staked its claim to the Sakteng sanctuary, India reportedly offered to build a road through the area that will cut the distance to the disputed border by 93 miles and would accelerate any movement of Indian troops to the area in response to military moves by Beijing.

This road is proposed from the Indian city of Guwahati to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, according to the Indian daily Economic Times. The Sakteng Wildlife area is sandwiched between Assam, whose capital is Guwahati, and the historic border city of Tawang.

While the proposal isnt new, India has yet to formally communicate the offer to Bhutan, according to the Indian political weekly India Today.

The elected leader of Arunachal Pradesh, Pema Khandu, reiterated an old request to the Indian government in mid-July to take up the matter with Bhutanese officials.

This road is very important for both countries. It will be a win-win situation not just strategically but also in terms of tourism and economically, said Khandu.

Its very unlikely that the Indian government will have formal communication on this matter with Bhutan because its still engaged in disengagement and de-escalation talks with the Chinese after the Galwan incident, according to India Today.

Aparna Pande, the director of the Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia at the Hudson Institute in Washington, told The Epoch Times over a chat platform that while theres been no formal communication, the Indian and Bhutanese administrations are in touch over it.

The fuzziness will remain. India always tries to make sure that Bhutan is given due respect and so anything India says about Bhutanese territory is always behind closed doors and not in open, said Pande.

They will not make that public unless and until both want that made public.

Bhutan takes China head-on, rejects Chinese claims over Sakteng wildlife sanctuary. China now getting isolated even in the region. pic.twitter.com/1SI3PzXrlx  FrontalAssault (@FrontalAssault1) July 4, 2020

Package Deal

The Indian media reports that the Chinese have suggested a package solution to the Bhutanese offering them territories in exchange for what the Chinese want on the western border.

The boundary between China and Bhutan is yet to be demarcated, and the middle, eastern, and western sections of the border are disputed. China has proposed a package solution to these disputes, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Wang Wenbin said when asked about Sakteng on July 21, the Indian newspaper The Hindu reported.

The swap deal is said to be similar to what China had offered to Bhutan in 1996, which the Himalayan nation declined.

Phunchok Stobdan, a former Indian diplomat, told The Epoch Times by phone from New Delhi that China has earlier offered similar exchange solutions to Tajikstan and Kazakhstan and the package solution is basically aimed to trap India.

To bring India to object to it and then accuse India of interfering in Bhutanese affairs  just to trap India in a conflict. This could be one of the ploys. Otherwise, I dont find any logic in raising this particular issue at this moment, said Stobdan.

Obviously, there are other strategic factors of the IndiaChina conflict in the Ladakh sector. Its certainly directly linked with this issue in eastern Bhutan, he added.
Millions could make fresh PPI compensation claims after a series of court rulings.

Banks have already been made to fork out 38billion for mis-selling payment protection insurance (PPI) to customers, with the deadline for free claims passing last year.

But the banks could now face demands for more payouts  even from people who were happy with their policy  after courts found the products were unfair.

The rulings centre on huge commission fees paid to the banks by insurers, which were never disclosed to customers.

Millions could make fresh PPI compensation claims after a series of court rulings on hidden fees

Commission accounted for more than 95 per cent of the policys cost in the most serious cases, according to The Sunday Times.

A Supreme Court ruling previously found that a PPI product sold to a widowed college lecturer, Susan Plevin, was unfair because she had been left in ignorance about its 72 per cent commission fee.

Q&A: Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) Why is PPI a problem? Payment protection insurance policies were designed to cover repayments on loans and credit cards if a borrower was made redundant or found themselves unable to work. But many buyers of PPI policies did not know what they were buying, or might not have been entitled to claim. What was done about it? The compensation floodgates opened in 2011 when the banks lost a landmark court case, spawning an army of claims management firms. In a bid to draw a line under the saga, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) set up a free-to-use claims process and imposed a deadline of last August. So whats new? Recent court rulings have potentially opened the door to yet more claims. Using a 2014 Supreme Court ruling, centred on commission fees paid by insurers to banks, a small number who bought PPI have successfully argued that their policies were unfair and clawed back their cash. What could happen? The ruling could pave the way for millions of new compensation claims. But fresh claims, including by those who have already received partial refunds through the FCA scheme, would have to be made through the courts. Advertisement

And experts said more recent legal claims made against banks could pave the way for millions of new compensation claims, including from people who were denied payments, received only partial refunds or never claimed under the previous scheme.

This is regardless of whether the PPI policy was suitable for a customer or they were happy with it.

As many as 64million PPI policies were sold, mostly between 1990 and 2010, with some 32.4million claims made so far  meaning millions could still be in contention.

The policies were marketed to cover repayments of loans, mortgages and credit cards if customers were unable to do so.

But they were often sold to people who were unable to claim or already had cover, or without their knowledge.

NatWest lost a case earlier this year after a 1,500 claim was made against it.

Store manager Karen Smith, 58, from Cornwall, received an unsolicited refund from the lender worth 529.80, representing a refund of commission over 50 per cent charged on the PPI premiums paid.

She had not realised she was paying commission and so took NatWest to court to claw back more money.

At Bodmin County Court, District Judge Jonathan Stone said the bank provided no information to Mrs Smith that would enable her to discern that it would be receiving commission, but it knew how much commission it would receive.

The inequality of knowledge was total and as a result, of course, the relationship was unfair, he added.

NatWest is appealing against the decision.

A similar claim for 7,954 against Citibank was recently upheld by the High Court but is also subject to an appeal.

In that case, a customer discovered that commission accounted for 95.2 per cent of her policys cost.

Martin Richardson, director of legal services at solicitors MoneyPlus Legal, said new claims against the banks could potentially amount to billions of pounds.

The Financial Conduct Authority ran a compensation scheme for PPI until last August.

Under that, banks were told to refund commission above 50 per cent, but the recent court rulings have ordered them to hand back more than this.

A NatWest spokesman said: This case is the subject of an appeal and so it would not be appropriate to comment further. Citibank could not be reached for comment.
A constable was killed and another injured after a speeding car driven by an inebriated man rammed into their patrolling vehicle in north Delhi in the early hours of Monday, police said.

The impact of the collision was such that the patrolling vehicle overturned, skid for 10-15 feet and Head Constable Wazir Singh, 50, got stuck inside the vehicle, an officer said.

Tushar Gupta, 19, was returning home after meeting a friend when his Honda City rammed into the patrolling vehicle near Khalsa College around 1.30 am, the officer said.

Constable Amit, who was driving the vehicle, rescued Singh with the help of the people and shifted him to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Monika Bhardwaj said.

Amit sustained injuries and has been discharged from hospital, Bhardwaj said.

Gupta, a college student who is a resident of Model Town, was also injured and he has been arrested, the Deputy Commissioner of Police said.

In the medical report, the doctors said the teenager was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident, according to the police.

A case under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 279 (rash driving) and 337 (causing hurt by act of endangering life) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered, the DCP said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 10) The head of the embattled Philippine Health Insurance Corporation remains confident that his name will be cleared in the investigation by the newly-formed multi-agency task force on the alleged irregularities in the agency.

Speaking to CNN Philippines, PhilHealth President and CEO Ricardo Morales said he welcomes the fresh probe which gives authorities the power to conduct lifestyle checks and impose preventive suspensions adding that he has nothing to hide.

Baka mapahiya pa nga ako, makita nila ang bahay ko (I might even get embarrassed when they see my modest house), Morales said in an interview with The Source. I welcome it. I have nothing to hide.

Morales also welcomed the investigations to be conducted by outside agencies, noting the move will be more effective as compared to an internal probe.

Im interested kung anong lalabas (what the results will be). Whether my name is there or not, let the chips fall where they may, he added.

As fresh allegations of corruption continue to hound the state insurer, President Rodrigo Duterte last week ordered the creation of Task Force PhilHealth a team headed by the Justice Department that will investigate PhilHealth executives.

The group will include top officials from the Office of the Ombudsman, Commission on Audit, Civil Service Commission, Office of the Executive Secretary, Office of the President, and the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission, Malacanang earlier said.

The spokesperson of PhilHealth earlier said the agency is also prepared to face the new order for a probe.

Despite the numerous investigations launched by the executive and legislative departments, Morales said the spotlight will provide PhilHealth the platform to improve for the benefit of the Filipino people.

This is an opportunity for PhilHealth. Because it should be elevated to a proper status in our society. This is a vehicle for improving the lives of many Filipinos, the PhilHealth chief said.
On this episode of the Extra Spicy podcast, Korsha Wilson talks about her website and podcast, A Hungry Society, and how shes protected her byline by only taking on writing assignments she believes in. Her focus on Caribbean cuisine and Black foodways at large has been an inspiration to hosts Soleil Ho and Justin Phillips.

Plus: Soleil and Justin compare their writing careers to the acting career of Nicolas Cage.

Listen to the episode by clicking on the player above, and scroll down to read a condensed transcript of Soleil Ho and Justin Phillips full conversation with Korsha Wilson.

Here is a transcript of Soleil Ho and Justin Phillips interview with Korsha Wilson, condensed and edited and for clarity. The interview was conducted on Aug. 4, 2020.

Soleil Ho: How do you make your writing and podcasting work reflect the reality that you want to see? And what is that reality?



I don't know if I had such a clear idea of it in the beginning, it was more just following kind of what I want to see in the world, which was work that centered people and stories that I didn't see being covered that I thought were like foundational to how hospitality works and how this country works.

I recently came up with this rubric for anything that I do. It has to be insightful, joyful, creative, multi-dimensional and nuanced. And any opportunity that comes into my inbox has to go up against that criteria. Does it meet those checkmarks? If it does. I'll do it. If it doesn't, then I'll hand it off to somebody else.

But I think specifically for Black foodways in this country, treating them with respect and curiosity ... I find other writers approach Black foodways with this idea that they already understand it and it's simple and it's not regional or specific. And so for me, it's about rectifying that narrative and adding a bit more nuance to it. And showing that as many Black people as there are in this country, that there are that many stories. And so there's this never-ending supply of things to talk about and things to understand, and different foods to talk about, too.



Soleil Ho: So how do you resist that monolithic tendency that I think people tend to apply to Black foodways, like you said, but also to you as a Black food writer.



Yeah. You know, I turned down a lot of stuff. If you're asking me to write about authentic Southern food: What it is and what isn't. Not me. If you're asking me to rank the best islands in the Caribbean for food, I'm not going to do it. Like, theyre all different. But also ... Jamaicans will come to my house and bite me.

I don't want to be fighting the whole Caribbean. So it requires me being very clear on which stories I'm telling and why I'm telling them  being really clear on the intention  and that helps guide where I end up.



Soleil Ho: To be clear, though, you're turning down financial opportunities, right?



Yeah. I'd rather be broke than morally bankrupt. I don't know. That sounds very grand. But, honestly, I find that if I'm not very clear in my intention and I'm doing it for a different reason, the work isn't that good and I'm not as invested in it. So it's really important for me to be at that point from the job or else it's just not worth it.

Justin Phillips: I had a conversation recently with a group of people talking about how to diversify media. And part of the conversation was about diversifying the sources that they use in stories. And my thought was that you diversify your staff, you won't have to worry about this back end of diversified sources, because they'll come in and already talk to different people than most of your traditional writers would do.

My hope is that there'll be more writers that look like you that'll be hired on staffs and given positions of power. When will that change start to take place? Is the onus on readers? How is this supposed to happen?



I mean, I think some of the onus is on readers. I think readers have a lot more power than they think to demand the stories that they want to see. That doesn't mean you get to harass writers. But I think things are getting better. Again, that's that optimistic side of me.

I think there are more writers of color who are in food right now who are telling these stories, who have a larger platform to share their stories. And I think it does so much good for younger writers of color to see us doing this. To know that this is an option.

Like when I was in middle school, I knew I wanted to be a food writer. And so I actually shadowed a food critic at Washingtonian magazine. And we went to this little Indian restaurant and she talked me through how she would taste different spices. And then afterwards, we were driving to the office and she was talking me through how she remembers the menu and whatever. It was so I could see it. I could see that job, you know what I mean?

And it's hard to emulate something that you can't see. That you never see. You don't know that it's even possible for you. So I think it's a lot of pressure on us. But I think our work is way more subversive than people realize. Because we're not just documenting what's happening right now, but we're also laying the groundwork for future generations to come in and do it, too. And there's plenty of people who laid groundwork for us right now. So it just continues on.



Soleil Ho: Yeah. I mean, I am so excited to be obsolete. To have like the next generation just be like: I don't know what she's talking about anymore. So out of date and like, completely out of touch. I am so eager for that day.

I don't think anybody I'll call you out of touch.

Soleil Ho: I hope so! That we've progressed so far that I am just like the OK Boomer type of person. And Im like: What are these kids talking about anymore, you know? It would be amazing.



Or it'd be nice to be like: Its just Korsha, food writer. Not: Korsha, Black food writer. Maybe we won't need those titles in the future.

Soleil Ho: Yeah, so I'm curious then.  What is the writing that you want to do? I think there's a lot of writing that we feel like we must do. But what is your moon shot like? If you had all the resources, all the esteem, all the privileges that we're all kind of yearning for to enable us to do what we want to do, what would you be doing?



I love this. Speak it into existence. Starting A Hungry Society has really helped me clarify the kind of things I want to see. So like, in Oakland, Sheree Williams runs Cuisine Noir and it's this wonderful, wonderful publication that centers Black food stories. And she's been doing it for 10 years. And the anniversary was in 2019. And I thought: I'm not going to pitch that because somebody else is obviously going to cover that. Like 10 years writing about Black foodways, like obviously I'm way too late to pitch that. And I never saw a piece all of 2019. So I reached out to her and we did a Q&A for my site and she wrote an essay about what it's been like to focus exclusively on Black stories.

And stories like that. Just giving Black culinarians the opportunity to shine and be recognized and talk about why they do what they do. I just want A Hungry Society to be a database for that. So when you Google these chefs, when you Google these people, you don't have to search too hard. You come across them like in their full glory, telling their story, talking about why food matters to them.



Soleil Ho: So it's almost like you want to expand A Hungry Society into this multimedia keystone in the community. Oh, that's cool.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

It's really scary, though. It's just me right now. But yeah, that's the dream. And A Hungry Society actually started as a T-shirt company. They were not good.



But a portion of each sale went to C-CAP (Careers Through Culinary Arts Program), which helps kids go to culinary arts college. And the design ... I thought it was so deep. It was like a can and like a spoon and some chopsticks and a knife. And I was like: Yeah, that's everybody. And it sold like nothing.

So I pivoted. And started the website and then pitched the podcast to Heritage Radio. And they took it. So its been a couple years of the podcast.



Soleil Ho: So you're like halfway to Sheree Williams level.



Well, I don't know about that. She has like a bunch of writers that she pays and that freelance for her, so I'm not there yet. But Ill get there.



Soleil Ho: Very cool. And who would the audience be for that project? Like, how do you envision this being reflected into the community?



I imagine the audience will be people who love food, people who are interested in food stories beyond the trendy neighborhood lists or: This chef just opened up this spot. And: 10 reasons why you need to go here. You know, like actual meaningful [stories] like: This is why this restaurant or this virtual bake shop or this person's story matters right now. And also giving Black culinarians the opportunity to tell it from their perspective too.



Soleil Ho: When you write  if you ever use we or you, or those sorts of direct pronouns. Who's included in that? Who should be?

When you said we my initial reaction was ugh.

Soleil Ho: Is we canceled?

I think it should be. Like, who is we. I do know a little bit of reporting, but mostly essay writing. And so a lot of the time its coming from my perspective as a Black woman, as a Black diner, as someone who used to work in restaurants. So that's the perspective I'm always writing from. And when I think about the audience, I think about like  If I were talking to my mom, or if I were talking to my cousin, what would I say about this place? Like, what does it feel like? Is there something non-food-related that I can use as a comparison that would work? Stuff like that helps.



I think it takes writing out of this basic cliche that food brings us together sort of thing that it has been stuck in for a long time.

Soleil Ho: Why doesn't food bring us together?

Because it's like if it could, then it would have done so by now. We've been using food for a very long time. There is something to be said about the joy that comes from getting with other people. But if we're expecting food to change someone's political views, we know that's not true. There's plenty of people who are anti-immigration and say: Taco Tuesday, it's great!

That's not how it works. Food is always deeply political and deeply personal. And it doesnt soothe any of those things for everyone.



Soleil Ho: Right. Yeah, does the objectivity  the journalistic principle of the view from nowhere  does it fit with food ever? You know, your writing isn't especially objective because it is very mired in your specific subjectivity. Your particular point of view. And to write about food from an objective stance  it seems like that sentiment that you expressed, that food brings us together is an expression of that, too, right? Of an expression that isn't offensive, appeals to everyone, seemingly, but also no one. And it really takes food and food writing like out of its power. Out of any sort of meaning that it could possibly achieve.



Well, I think that's true for the essay or recorded essay format. But if you're talking about a reported piece about labor... I think there is a time and a place for subjectivity in writing.

I think it's definitely the case when you're talking about broader issues within food. If you're trying to talk about a particular dish or if you're talking about a particular dining experience, then I think you do need to very much root yourself and your personal experience of what you're bringing to the table when you approach that thing.

Soleil Ho: So if people want to find you and your work, where do they do that?

So you can go to ahungrysociety.com. You can go to KorshaWilson.com. Or you could go to @AHungrySociety or @KorshaWilson on Twitter and Instagram.



Soleil Ho: Cool. Thank you.
The director of Californias Department of Public Health abruptly resigned on Sunday amid news that a computer system failure resulted in the undercounting of COVID-19 cases in the state.

Dr. Sonia Angell, who was appointed to her role by Democratic governor Gavin Newsom in 2019, announced her resignation in an email sent to department staff on Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reported. She did not give a reason for her resignation in the email.

Since January, when we got word of repatriation flights arriving from Wuhan, China, our department has been front and center in what has become an all-of-government response of unprecedented proportions to COVID-19, Angell wrote. In the final calculation, all of our work, in aggregate, makes the difference.

Last week, state officials discovered that as many as 300,000 records had not been processed by the computer clearinghouse system that was designed to provide local officials with COVID-19 test results reported by labs on a daily basis. The glitch was caused by a computer server outage and the expiration of an electronic certificate for data to be transferred from Quest Laboratories.

The news came as Newsom said at an event on August, 3 that he was optimistic about the states current case numbers, which were lower than some experts had expected. Administration officials maintained that they were unaware of the scope of the problem at that time, though some local officials were sent communications the prior week from the state Department of Public Health regarding a computer system problem, the Times reported.

Secretary of the California Health and Human Services agency announced a full investigation of the glitch on Friday, saying of the state Public Health Department and his agency that We are aware that individuals there were knowledgeable of some of these challenges.

Angells resignation comes as the state surpassed 550,000 coronavirus cases and more than 10,000 deaths. After briefly re-opening much of the state earlier this summer, 38 of Californias 58 counties are now on a watchlist that has forced a second round of business and school closures in an attempt to mitigate the virus spread, the Times reported.

Story continues

Angells role as director of the state Department of Public Health and as the states public health officer will be split between California Health Care Foundation executive Sandra Shewry and California State Epidemiologist Erica Pan.

I want to thank Dr. Angell for her service to the state and her work to help steer our public health system during this global pandemic, while never losing sight of the importance of health equity, Newsom said in a written statement Sunday night.

More from National Review
Jet2 will resume flights and holidays to Cyprus from eight UK airports next week.

The firm announced it will take UK holidaymakers to the eastern Mediterranean country again from August 17.

On July 30 the firm said it had 'no choice' other than to cancel trips to the island due to its 'prohibitive entry restrictions' after it was due to restart flights on August 1.

But flights to Larnaca and Paphos will start departing again from Birmingham, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds Bradford, London Stansted, Manchester and Newcastle airports next Monday.

Cyprus requires arriving visitors to provide evidence of a negative Covid-19 taken within 72 hours of travel - even though people arriving in the UK from the island are exempt from the Government's 14-day quarantine policy.

Jet2 will resume flights and holidays to Cyprus from eight UK airports next week (file image)

Anyone looking to travel must obtain a coronavirus test themselves - although children under 12 are exempt - and results must be dated and timestamped.

WHAT AIRPORTS CAN JET2 HOLIDAYMAKERS FLY TO CYPRUS FROM? From August 17, flights to Larnaca and Paphos will start departing again from: Birmingham

East Midlands

Edinburgh

Glasgow

Leeds Bradford

London Stansted

Manchester

Newcastle Advertisement

Britons wishing to travel to the north of the country must have negative coronavirus test results from between three and five days before their flight to show authorities.

They will then be tested again at the airport before quarantining for seven days. After those seven days are up, a third Covid-19 test will be carried out and, if it is negative, visitors will be allowed to leave a quarantine facility.

Jet2 has reported increased demand for trips to Cyprus in recent weeks.

The firm suspended its operations in the country in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Jet2.com chief executive Steve Heapy said: 'We are delighted to be recommencing our flights and holidays programme to Cyprus from August 17 and looking at the demand it's very clear just how much our customers are looking forward to their well-deserved holidays in the Cypriot sunshine.

'With a great choice of flights and holidays to Cyprus from eight UK bases, not to mention fantastic deals and free child places available, there's plenty of choice and value for those looking to get away for a much-needed break in the sunshine this summer.

'These have been incredibly uncertain and difficult times for everyone, and we have been busy looking after our customers and doing the right thing for them.

'As a result of this, customers know they can trust us to deliver and that's our absolute focus for anyone travelling with us - delivering award-winning customer service and package holidays you can trust.'

Locals and few tourists enjoy the sea at Fig Tree Bay in the southeastern coastal resort of Protaras, Cyprus, on Saturday

Tui, the UK's largest tour operator, has cancelled holidays to Cyprus for UK customers up to and including Friday.

Cyprus may be even more appealing to lockdown-weary holidaymakers looking for a sunny escape than usual as fears that France will be added to the UK's quarantined travel list within days continue to grow.

The move would leave thousands of Brits facing weeks in isolation upon their return.

Ministers are believed to be planning new measures for a swathe of countries that also includes Switzerland, Poland and the Netherlands amid a surge in European coronavirus cases.

They could join Spain and its islands on the list of countries where returnees will face 14 days of self-isolation, possibly putting their jobs at risk.

It came as Boris Johnson warned that ministers will 'not hesitate' to impose a quarantine system for travellers from other countries to the UK if needed.

Speaking on a visit to a school in Upminster, Essex, he said: 'I don't want to advise people about their individual holidays, individual decisions, they should look at the travel advice from the Foreign Office clearly.

Cyprus requires arriving visitors to provide evidence of a negative Covid-19 taken within 72 hours of travel - even though people arriving in the UK from the island are exempt from the Government's 14-day quarantine policy. Pictured: Tourists and locals in Protaras, Cyprus, on Saturday

'But what I will say, and I hope people would expect us to do this, in the context of a global pandemic, we've got to keep looking at the data in all the countries to which British people want to travel.

'Where it is necessary to impose restrictions or to impose a quarantine system, we will not hesitate to do so.

'It's been a huge effort for the entire population of this country to get the disease down to the levels that we are currently seeing, but we do not want reinfection and that's why we've got to keep a very, very close eye on the data in destinations around the world.'

Spain has already been hit with new travel restrictions in a blow to its tourism-reliant economy, while there are fears that France, Germany or Holland could be put back on the UK's quarantine list after spikes in cases there.

Summer holidays have been blamed for rising cases in Germany and Italy, while France has tightened its face mask rules in tourist hotspots such as Paris and the Mediterranean resort of Saint Tropez.

However, Europe has yet to see a major spike in deaths or hospital cases, amid signs that many of those testing positive are young and less vulnerable to the disease.
Kiki Morris has lifted the lid on her acrimonious split from Ciarran Stott, which occurred just weeks after they left Bachelor in Paradise as a couple in December.

Speaking on the So Dramatic! podcast following Sunday night's finale, the 32-year-old glamour model explained that Ciarran, 26, had moved into her Sydney apartment immediately after filming the show.

However, it didn't take long for their romance to turn sour, prompting Ciarran to swiftly move out without warning, Kiki alleged.

No love lost: Bachelor in Paradise's Kiki Morris (left) has claimed that Ciarran Stott (right) left her homeless after abruptly packing his bags following an argument

At the time of their split, Kiki and Ciarran were looking to rent an apartment together and she had already told her landlord she was moving out.

'He basically left me homeless, because I'd already put in notice on my apartment,' she claimed.

'My housemate had moved out. The place [Ciarran and I] were looking to move into I couldn't afford on my own  and he just up and left.'

Moving quickly: Speaking on the So Dramatic! podcast on Sunday, the 32-year-old explained that Ciarran, 26, had moved into her Sydney apartment immediately after filming the show

Earlier in the interview, Kiki gave a blistering account of the circumstances that led to her split with Ciarran, saying: 'Everything was great, until it wasn't, and then it was terrible.'

According to Kiki, their relationship began to crumble when she discovered that the former Army rifleman was still in contact with his old flame Tenille Favios, who appeared on season two of Bachelor in Paradise last year.

The shocking revelation came to light on New Year's Day, when Kiki and Ciarran were attending a party at fellow Paradise star Jackson Garlick's house.

Doomed romance: It didn't take long for their romance to turn sour, prompting Ciarran to move out without warning. At the time, the pair were looking to rent an apartment together and Kiki had already told her landlord she was moving out. Because she couldn't afford the apartment she and Ciarran were looking at, Kiki was effectively left homeless

Where it all went wrong: According to Kiki, things began to fall apart when she discovered that the former Army rifleman was still in contact with his old flame Tenille Favios (pictured)

When Tenille showed up at the front door, Kiki immediately knew something was amiss.

'[I said to Ciarran], "Why are you still talking to the girl you were trying to pursue when you first met me?"' Kiki said.

She added that Tenille's arrival at the party 'turned into a huge argument', during which Ciarran 'went ballistic' and 'threatened to leave'.

'You shouldn't be doing that': Kiki claimed that Tenille's arrival at Jackson Garlick's New Year's Day party 'turned into a huge argument', during which Ciarran 'went ballistic'

The couple later embarked on a make-or-break holiday to Townsville in an attempt to salvage their relationship.

But Kiki said she felt like a 'stranger' next to Ciarran the whole time, and she decided to end things once they returned to Sydney.

She said: 'I told him, "If you're going to continue to treat me like this, I feel like a stranger in my home walking on eggshells around you. I think you should leave."

'I went to the gym, I got home from the gym [and] all of his stuff was packed at my back door and he goes straight to Melbourne.'
Makarand R Paranjape By

A grand temple to Lord Ramachandra in his birthplace, Ayodhya, should be cause for celebration and reverence, rather than politics and polemics. The return of Sri Rama to rule the city of his birth after a long vanvaas, banishment, of 14 years. His defeat of the evil Ravana, who had abducted his wife, Sita. And his reign as the righteous ruler. All these are etched into the very soul of India and the fabric of its eternal consciousness, which we call Sanatana Dharma.

Nor is the narrative of this maryada purushottama, embodiment of rectitude, virtuous monarch endowed with all good qualities, praised by humans and Gods, unknown outside India. The Ramayana story, in its hundreds of versions, has influenced the entire region where Indian culture flourished in the days of yore. Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Korea, Japan. And in more recent times, because the Tulsi Ramayana was so much a part of the interiorised survival toolkit of the girmitiyas, our diaspora of labour, the legend of King Rama spread to even more distant parts of the world, from Suriname to Fiji.

From the dying syllables of mahatmas like Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to the ubiquitous chant that accompanies the already dead on their last journey to the cremation ground and beyond, the name of Rama, some have claimed, is greater than the god-hero himself. The mantra of Sri Rama Jai Rama Jai Jai Rama, credited to Samarth Ramdas, the guru of Shivaji, also links Rama to our struggle for svarajya, freedom from bondage and slavery. When all else fails, we say nirbal ke bal RamaRama is the strength of the weak. Only Rama.

Thats all you need. Rama nama, the name of Rama is the tarak mantra, the surety of safe passage across the treacherous seas of samsara. Rama, thus, is not just a person, real or legendary, but another name for the Supreme Consciousness itself. What better way to return to his capital, Ayodhya, the city of eternal peace, for this great symbol of Indian unity, truth and moral perfection, than through a non-violent, constitutional resolution of the dispute over the shrine commemorating his place of birth? What then of the destruction of the Babri Masjid?

Yes, it was brought down, but it was one mosque as opposed to the thousands upon thousands of temples, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh, ravaged by Islamic conquerors. Have Islamists uttered one word of apology or regret for so much destruction, an entire people, culture, civilisation oppressed and brought almost to extinction? All is justified, still vaunted, by its more extremist proponents. A grand temple to Lord Rama in Ayodhya! An aspiration fulfilled after nearly 500 years of prayers. A movement spearheaded some three decades ago, in independent India, at last coming to fruition. Who would object to it? But such is the contentious nature of our public culture that you will find a headline such as Ram, I will not find you there, shouting at you. But, then, why should it surprise you at all?

Even if its author is Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a respected and learned liberal champion, known both for his courage and good sense. Of course, he is entitled to his opinion. Thats not the point. The question is, what is the basis for his assertion? So, a closer look is called for. The author says, Ram is enough. No need for Sri as a prefix, let alone Jai, or victory. Sri or Siya stands for Ramas spouse, Shakti, or, more specifically Goddess Lakshmi, since Rama is considered an avatar of Vishnu.

The conjoint address of Sri Rama or Siya Rama thus includes his female aspect, like Radha Krishna or Sambashiva (sah-Amba-Shiva, the Lord with his consort, the Divine Mother), typical of Hindu modes of understanding, in which God is the Shiva-Shakti or Yin-Yang compound of Absolute Reality. As Supreme Spirit, formless and timeless, Rama, of course, is everywhere. So how can he not be found in Ayodhya? The notion is metaphysically and theologically preposterous. As the RSS Sarsanghachalak, Mohan Rao Bhagwat, said in his consecration address, Rama resides not just in Ayodhya, but in our manmandir, the temple of our mind and heart.

What commenced in Ayodhya on August 5 was thus an external manifestation or realisation of the temple to Rama already within. How can we then say that Rama should only remain inside, but never be given a proper habitation he so richly deserves in his own city? Is the only good Hindu one who externally and compulsorily appears non-Hindu, who always passively and helplessly complies to the destruction of the symbols of his faith, never having the courage to defend it?

Nobody has waged war in Ramas name. Using specious constitutional arguments to gloss over the terrible history of devastation and violencenearly a thousand years of war and misrule against the very ethos of the landis only a sad testimony to our own hypocrisy and denial. Lets not be such bad losers, dear Le-Lis! The restoration of Lord Rama to his city was effected through judicial means, not street fights or armies of vandals. Come! Ayodhya invites us all to pay homage to the Lord on his triumphant return. Even Mehta, whose version of Rama differs from mine, is most welcome.

Makarand R Paranjape

Director, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. Views are personal

(Tweets @MakrandParanspe)
A Gurgaon-based real estate developer, Signature Global Group, which is into affordable housing projects, plans to launch 10,000 units before March 2021 as per the target it had set in pre-COVID times.

This month it launched over 800 units under the Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojana, a scheme by the Haryana government under which it intends developing two lakh affordable housing units by 2022. The company has invested Rs 400 crore on this project so far.

We acquired the land over a year ago and financial institutions we had lined up before COVID-19 such as HDFC Capital, KKR etc have supported us for this project, Pradeep Aggarwal, Founder and Chairman, Signature Global told Moneycontrol.

He claimed that affordable housing is one segment that has not been badly impacted by the pandemic.

The affordable housing scheme has not been impacted by COVID-19 compared to other asset classes. We intend to launch 1,700 units under the scheme. As many as 832 units have been launched as part of the first phase. We are offering two sizes - 3bhk units spread across 1,081 sqft and 2 bhk spread across 951 sq ft on 100 aq mtr and 88 sq mtr plots respectively. The price for these units is around Rs 45 to 55 lakh, he told Moneycontrol.

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

The company has launched around 19,200 units since last year and intends launching 10,000 more units before March 2021.

Our target of launching 30,000 affordable housing units is on track. We have launched 19,200 units so far and intend launching 10,000 units by March 2021. As many as 5000 units are under the Haryana affordable housing policy and another 5000 are under the Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojana. We would be in a position to launch all 30,000 units by 2021, he said.

The company hopes to achieve the target it had set before COVID-19. In the coming years, affordable housing is here to stay. People have realised the importance of owning a house, albeit a small, affordable one, during the pandemic and that is a positive, Aggarwal said.

As for the additional special liquidity facility announcement by the Reserve Bank of India last week under which Rs 5,000 crore would be lent to NHB, Aggarwal said that this amount is not enough.

It should have been at least Rs 25,000 crore. An amount of Rs 5,000 crore is not enough, he said.

Under this scheme, small non-bank finance companies and micro-lenders, which extend small-sized loans to the poor, and housing finance companies focused on affordable lending are going to get liquidity assistance via Nabard and the NHB, respectively. This is the second support offered to these institutions since the country went into a nationwide lockdown in March. While Nabard got a refinance support of Rs 35,000 crore in April, NHB got Rs 10,000 crore.

Last month, the government came out with guidelines on the affordable rental housing complex (ARHC) scheme that will comprise single bedrooms up to 30 square metres (sqm), double bedrooms up to 60 sqm and dormitory beds of up to 10 sqm carpet areas each.

To address the issue of affordable rental housing for urban migrants/poor through private/public bodies, the government has designed two models. The first model involves ARHCs on government-funded vacant houses and the second involves construction, operation and maintenance of units by public or private entities on their own available vacant land.

Aggarwal said, for this scheme to be successful, there has to be a commitment from an institutional partner like Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) as cheaper funding can only come from such agencies.

Unless such institutions do not have a stake in such projects, the developers may not be willing to participate in this scheme. The second issue is to do with the time that states would take to design these policies, lest these remain mere guidelines.

Also, state governments will have to decide on reasonable rents. No migrant labour will be able to pay up to Rs 6,000 per month as rent. Viability is still a concern, he added.

As for retail plans post COVID-19, Aggarwal said that the companys mall to come up in Vaishali area in Ghaziabad may be delivered by Diwali this year. The firm also plans to launch two more retail properties in the next six to eight months in Gurgaon.
Amid the ongoing investigation in late actor Sushant Singh Rajput's sudden death, his actress-girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty recently released her private chats with the late actor to back her allegations that Sushant and his sister Priyanka Singh were not on good terms.

Rhea alleged that Sushant had expressed his concerns over his sister Priyanka's behaviour towards her.

Now, Sushant's other sister Shweta Singh Kirti has countered Rhea's allegations by sharing a snippet from one of the late actor's interviews, in which he is heard saying that he is close to his sister Priyanka. The video features Sushant saying, "I'm close to everybody, but one of my sisters is very close to me because she gets me. The kinds of things we think are very similar."

Shweta captioned her post as, "He admits he was closest to his sister Priyanka (Sonu Di) because she gets him."

Check out Shweta's Instagram post.

Earlier, Rhea shared a WhatsApp screenshot hinting at a fallout between Sushant and his sister Priyanka. The chat message read, "(To Priyanka) You do this, after the shameful act, making this a coverup to attract attention playing a victim card to the most non negotiable act of molestation under alcohol, well my dear sister, there is our mother and there is god that my mother stood for taught me things, and you have committed a crime according to that. If you're blinded by your ego, God bless you because I'm not afraid and I will continue doing what I've done till now in bringing out the necessary changes in the world. Let the god and nature decide what 'act' is right now."

Further, Rhea alleged that the late actor was worried that Priyanka was trying to influence his roommate Siddharth Pithani to create differences between her and Sushant.

The Jalebi actress shared another WhatsApp screenshot, in which she claimed Sushant wrote to her, "My sister is now manipulating Sid bhai, playing a victim card trying to divert this entire thing (that you and I are letting go) into me physically punishing her for the act. It's such a severe disappointment."

In an interview with Pinkvilla, Sushant's lawyer Vikas Singh had alleged that Rhea Chakraborty had accused the late actor's sister Priyanka Singh of molesting her, which led to friction between the siblings.

He had further claimed that Sushant and Priyanka patched up after a few days, and the whole thing was just a 'mind game' played by Rhea Chakraborty.

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

ALSO READ: Sushant's Friend Kushal Zaveri Takes A Dig At Sanjana Sanghi; Says She Was Quick To Reply To Kangana

ALSO READ: Rhea Chakraborty Releases Page From Sushant Singh Rajput's Diary

(Image Source: India Today)
NEW YORK, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorney Advertising-- Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC notifies investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Airbus SE ("Airbus" or the "Company") (OTCMKTS: EADSY; EADSF) and certain of its officers, on behalf of shareholders 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"). Such investors are encouraged to join this case by visiting the firm's site: www.bgandg.com/eadsy.

This class action seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements that: (1) that Airbus's policies and protocols were insufficient to ensure the Company's compliance with relevant anti-corruption laws and regulations; (2) 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; (3) that, as a result, Airbus's earnings were derived in part from unlawful conduct and therefore unsustainable; (4) the full scope and severity of Airbus's misconduct; (5) 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 (6) 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.

A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to review a copy of the Complaint you can visit the firm's site: www.bgandg.com/eadsy or you may contact Peretz Bronstein, Esq. or his Investor Relations Analyst, Yael Hurwitz of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC at 212-697-6484. If you suffered a loss in Airbus you have until October 5, 2020 to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff.

Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is a corporate litigation boutique. Our primary expertise is the aggressive pursuit of litigation claims on behalf of our clients. In addition to representing institutions and other investor plaintiffs in class action security litigation, the firm's expertise includes general corporate and commercial litigation, as well as securities arbitration. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

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The formation of the Peace and Freedom Front has been announced, who hope to unify the ranks of the Syrian opposition writes Shaam News.

A delegation from the Peace and Freedom Front, newly formed in the areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), held a meeting with the US State Department Envoy to the Eastern Euphrates, Zahra Bailey, and her deputy Emily Brandt at the international coalition base in Hassakeh city last Thursday.

Press sources said that the possibility of front representatives participating in the Kurdish talks and their role in unifying the ranks of the Syrian opposition were on the agenda.

Bailey told the participants that Washington is working towards finding a political solution to the Syrian crisis by putting pressure on the regime and imposing economic sanctions in order to activate the Geneva process in accordance with international resolutions and Resolution 2254. She also said that the US was committed to securing stability in northeastern Syria.

Head of the Political Bureau of the Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO), Gabriel Moushe Gawrieh, who was one of the participants, stated that the foreign ministry coordinator confirmed the American administrations keenness to unify all opposition groups, and their sponsorship of the Kurdish talks dovetails with these endeavors.

He added, For our part, we said that the front supports the Kurdish talks and will work towards good relations with all Syrian opposition parties, in addition to contributing to helping them see eye to eye and preserving the unity of the Syrian negotiating body.

Bailey listened to the vision of the front and their perception of the future of Syria.

According to Moushe, We [ADO] emphasized that the American role in the region constitutes a balancing factor that is going to help to find a comprehensive political settlement. Moreover, we agreed to continue relations and work together to support a political solution in accordance with international decisions.

On Jul. 29, 2020, four Kurdish and Assyrian-Arab political blocs from the city of Qamishli in the countryside of Hassakeh announced the establishment of a new political alliance called the Front for Peace and Freedom, including the Kurdish National Council, the Syrias Tomorrow Movement, ADO, and the Arab Council in the Island and the Euphrates.

The Peace and Freedom Front defined itself as a political alliance that includes parties whose political vision and objectives intersect as a result of in-depth intra-dialogue, in addition to the mutual trust relations that have deepened through a long history of cooperation and converging interests. They also affirmed that their work and the work of the parties under its purview do not conflict with the membership of said parties in the opposition bodies that operate within the framework of the Syrian High Negotiations Committee and other similar frameworks.

The Syrian Legalists Committee commented on the political vision and the basic tasks of the Peace and Freedom Front in a statement which it released in the areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast of the country.

According to the statement, the fronts vision has sectarian goals and objectives that aim to divide Syria into separate peoples and regions in order to implement their desired separatist project.

As per the committee, the international community must not support separatist bodies nor support foreign entities that do not represent the aspirations of the Syrian people, for the sake of peace and stability in Syria. Resistance shall continue in the face of the tyrant and the executioner, according to the text of the statement.

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.
The Centre on Monday asserted that satellite-based phones are being provided for connectivity in 1347 far-flung, difficult and border areas of strategic importance for the Indian Army, and Border Security Force (BSF) among others.

The Satellite-based DSPTs (Digital Satellite Phone Terminal) is also being provided for the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), etc.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that out of these 183 sites are already commissioned and remaining are in process, adding that the Army personnel can talk to their families from their post of duty. "Satellite-based DSPTs (Digital Satellite Phone Terminal) are also being provided at 1347 sites for Army, BRO, BSF, CRPF, ITBP, SSB etc. Out of which 183 sites are already commissioned and remaining are in process," read an official statement.

The government has been taking measures on priority to provide connectivity in the far-flung areas so as to ensure a better quality of life to the people as well as to those who are working in these areas. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a submarine Optical Fiber Cable of the length of 2300 km between Chennai and Andaman Nicobar at a cost of Rs 1,224 crores.

Elaborating the various projects being implemented by Department of Telecommunications Prasad informed that a tender for 354 uncovered villages in the strategic, remote and border areas of the country has been finalised and is under implementation in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, in 144 villages of Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttrakhand, Himachal Pradesh and other priority areas of Gujarat.

These villages have been strategically chosen to cover border area connectivity on the mobile. After commissioning of these villages, there will be no uncovered villages in UTs of J&K, Ladakh for mobile connectivity.

The Union Minister further told that Department of Telecommunications is also working on providing mobile connectivity in villages of 24 aspirational districts of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and remaining 44 aspirational districts for 7287 uncovered villages in Chhatisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh will also be covered for which government approval is under submission.
The New Patriotic Party's (NPP) parliamentary candidate for the Yendi Constituency in the Northern Region, Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama, has renovated the mortuary of the Yendi government hospital and handed it over for use to the hospital's authorities.



The renovation, according to the aspiring Member of Parliament (MP), cost him over GH 350,000, including procurement of some items from China for the fitting of a 12-body-cabinet mortuary freezers.



The morgue is expected to the serve the people of Yendi and its adjourning communities such as Kpandai, Bimbilla, Saboba, Taletale, Zabzugu, Kariga, Wulesi Chereponi Karaga, Gushegu and Mion.



During the handing over ceremony today [Monday, August 10, 2020], Alhaji Farouk Mahama, who is also a son of former Vice President Aliu Mahama, said he will continue to do his best to bring development to Yendi and its environs.



He said the renovated mortuary will provide some reliefs for both the natives and health practitioners at the Yendi government hospital.



He said job creation and woman empowerment will continue to be one of his priority areas in the constituencies.



For his part, the Medical Superintendent of hospital, Dr Ayuba S. Abdulai commended Alhaji Farouk Mahama for the gesture, pledging that the hospital will take a good care of the facility.











Source: graphiconline.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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The year 2020 celebrates the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting womens suffrage; their constitutional right to vote. The womens rights movement however, launched seven decades earlier, right in Central New York.

In the 1840s, women had no legal identity separate from their husbands. They were unable to sign contracts, own property, obtain access to education, get divorced easily, or gain custody of their children after divorce.

Abolitionists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott banded together to organize an event to address these inequalities. With the help of Martha Wright, Mary Ann McClintock, and Jane Hunt, they presented the first womens rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY from July 19 to 20, 1848.

It wasnt the first time that women had argued for the right to vote. It wasnt the first time that there was a convention of women that talked about a womens right to participate in public affairs. Abolitionists had been talking about it for decades, but one of the things that happened in Seneca Falls is that Stanton really made the vote central to womens rights, Carol Faulkner, professor of history and associate dean for academic affairs at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs said.

The Seneca Falls Convention was a regional event which would launch national fight for the social, civil and religious rights of women.

The convention drew hundreds of people to Wesleyan Chapel. Only women were allowed to attend on the first day and over 200 showed up. The second day, men were invited to join. About 40 did, including African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

It was at this convention that men and women debated Stantons Declaration of Sentiments. The Declaration of Sentiments was modeled after the Declaration of Independence and included the provocative assertion: all men and women are created equal.

The manifesto described womens grievances and demands for their Constitutionally guaranteed right to equality as U.S. citizens. This included access to education and job opportunities, more power within the church, and the right to control ones own property and money. Womens suffrage, giving them the right to vote, was the only clause in the document that attendees did not unanimously adopt.

The Seneca Falls Convention was subjected to public ridicule for proclaiming the womens right to vote, however, the resolution marked the beginning of the womens suffrage movement in America. One hundred people signed the Declaration of Sentiments according to the US Census, including 68 women and 32 men.

Lucretia Mott proposed a resolution at the convention that was passed that basically said, we cant do this work without men. This is an issue that both men and women should be interested in and it has an impact on both of them, Faulkner said.

Two weeks later, the Seneca Falls Convention reconvened at the First Unitarian Church of Rochester. This time the movement had an even larger audience.

In 1850, Susan B. Anthony joined the fight. A teacher at Canajoharie Academy, Anthony met Stanton and became a leading figure in the womens rights movement. The two partnered to create the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Anthony also called for the first womens rights convention in Washington, D.C.

Faulkner said while Stanton was interested in issues like religion and marriage, Anthony focused the energy on suffrage and womens independence both financial and political.

After 72 years of organized struggle, American women won the right to vote in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It marked the largest expansion of democracy in American history.

More on Crusade for the Vote

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A Suffrage Army states demands at the front door of a state senator in 1911

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Meet the Upstate suffragette who stood up to Charles Darwin

Matilda Joslyn Gage directed the womens suffrage movement from her Fayetteville home. Then she was written out of history.

Explore the Post-Standards special Womens Suffrage edition from 1915

Syracuse suffragette Harriet May Mills reflects on her time in suffrage movement

New labor of love National Womens Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls opens later this month

Video and podcasts to get smart on the womens suffrage movement

Social justice movement channels spirit of CNY suffragist (Commentary)

Syracuse women rejoice after the Tennessee ratifies the 19th Amendment

Visit key places in the suffrage movement across Central NY (map)
A three-member Central team, which is on a two-day visit to Hyderabad to review the Covid-19 management in Telangana, asked the state government to step up testing for coronavirus and also made a presentation on the Delhi model as an example in containing the virus spread.

Telangana has been reporting a steep rise in the number of Covid-19 positive cases in the last few days. Till Monday, the total number of positive cases in the state has crossed 80,000 with the 1,256 cases in the last 24 hours. The state has also reported 637 deaths so far.

The central team, led by NITI Aayog member Dr Vinod Kumar Paul, held several rounds of discussions with the state government officials, including chief secretary Somesh Kumar.

On Monday, the team, which also consists of senior officials from the Union ministry of health, had a detailed discussion with state health minister Eatala Rajender. The team felt that an increase in testing is crucial to control the pandemic.

The state and central governments would work together on an action plan discussed in the meeting to flatten the curve, Dr Paul said after the meeting.

The Central team made a presentation on the Delhi model to highlight the steps taken towards effective containment.

The chief secretary explained to the Central team that testing had been ramped up in the state in the recent days. Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, during the recent cabinet meeting, directed the officials to increase the testing to 40,000 daily and allotted special funds to handle the Covid pandemic in the state, he said.

The team was all praise for the state government for introducing an innovative mobile application  Home Isolation Telemedicine and Management (HITAM), through which the health of the Covid-19 patients under home isolation is being monitored.

The doctors have been extending telemedicine facility to the patients in home quarantine through HITAM application. The health department is being assisted by a team of senior officers for support on key thematic areas of pandemic management, the chief secretary said.

Paul said that details of the HITAM app would be shared with other states along with all good work done by the state in other areas related to Covid management. He said that Hospital preparedness levels, infection control measures, providing treatment for patients etc were very satisfactory.

The health minister said that the state government was working in close coordination with the central government to control the spread of the virus. The team expressed satisfaction on testing and treatment protocol in the state. The members gave suggestions on prevention of virus in rural areas, an official release by the health department said.
It's midnight, Saturday. Victoria's Health Minister, Labors Jenny Mikakos, is not known for oversharing but she just tweeted she's sorry if what she has done during COVID-19 isn't enough. NSW's Health Minister, the Liberals' Brad Hazzard, is liked by other health ministers, who say he is a regular guy, yet last Thursday he started shouting disgraceful abuse at NSW Opposition Leader Jodi McKay. Where and when no one can see, there is sleeplessness, at the very least. Most likely there are tears, shouting.

This is leadership during a pandemic. Constant surveillance and monitoring. A ticker feed of social media abuse, all day, all night. Failure knocking at the door, begging to be let in. And the politicians have to keep going. Yes, they are paid a lot of money but few people can deal with being under a microscope, 60/24. Eric Burton, chaplain to the federal parliamentary Christian fellowship since 2016, finds himself pretty busy, even with atheists. Its not just Anglicans who come for spiritual and moral support and guidance, but none of them drop in. If he sat in his office, he says he would see no one. Instead, he walks the corridors, dishing out support for those who need it.

Politicians can be reluctant but once they see you are ok, they will open up: political stress, relationship troubles, youngsters with addictions . . . Scratch underneath some of these very confident people and there can be issues of guilt or self-worth or a sense of purpose.
Australia has recorded its deadliest day so far in the coronavirus pandemic but there are hopes Victoria's coronavirus case numbers are finally stabilising after a month of rapid escalation.

The Andrews government on Monday unveiled a raft of measures to reach more vulnerable Victorians, as the state recorded 322 new cases, the lowest daily increase in 12 days, and 19 deaths, the highest number of fatalities since the pandemic began.

Premier Daniel Andrews says there is no "magic number" to determine when restrictions will begin easing. Credit:Joe Armao

While the Premier acknowledged there was "greater stability", he said it was still too early to identify a trend or the impacts of Melbourne's stage four restrictions, which started a week ago.

"I know and understand that everyone wants to know when is this going to end. Everybody wants to know the circumstances in which we're in. And then they would very much like to be able to plot every day the numbers falling to a magic number, as it were, we can't get to that point."
"The tremendous support we have received in the last few weeks just proves the interest and importance of our mission  developing the next-generation face masks to ensure safety and protection in these uncertain times," said Boz Zou, CEO, UM Systems.

UV Mask is a next generation reusable face mask equipped with a double-protection system.

The first layer of protection is a high-efficiency CE-FFP2 disposable air-filter that purifies the air from 95% of particles as small as 0.3 microns (smoke, dust, pollen, etc.).

The second layer of protection is the groundbreaking patent-pending Sterile-Vortex, which inactivates all airborne pathogens and bacteria down to 0.1 microns using the ultra-high intensity UV-C light, providing total protection in real-time as you breathe.

With huge competition in the market, UV Mask has become a subject for discussions of hundreds of professionals from top tier media including Forbes, American Inno, Gizmodo Japan, Yanko Design, CNN Turkey and much more.

All this wouldn't be possible without a dedicated team of scientists and engineers, who successfully united such complicated technical characteristics into futuristic yet extra safe design.

"With over $2 million in funding already secured, the UV Mask is the kind of Kickstarter that I feel secure in recommending."- says Anthony Karcz, Senior Contributor from Forbes.

Developed with the safety of users in mind, UV Mask has been independently tested and certified by the FDA-approved and ISO 17025 accredited SGS Labs. The CE-FFP2 (EU Standards N95 equivalent) passive air filter has been tested according to the EN 149-2001+A1-2009 standards. UV Mask's UV-C light design has also been tested by SGS to be completely safe according to UL1598 CRD (dated 2020-6-29)

UV Mask has entered his final week on Kickstarter. Live until August 14, 2020.

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Kickstarter Link

About UM Systems

UM Systems, a Colorado company, was founded in 2016 as one of Measure Inc.'s global brands, working towards changing lives with science. We believe that now is the time for science-based technological innovation, and everyone should have access to the best. Together, we are an independently funded optical and industrial technology company made up of scientists, engineers, and designers.

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Critical decisions on who will be first to get a possible COVID-19 vaccine have yet to be made, according to the director of Operation Warp Speed, the whole-of-government effort to develop and distribute a safe and effective immunization.

Despite early indications from government officials that the military, the elderly and other groups would get priority, Dr. Moncef Slaoui said he is in the opening stages of organizing an "independent scientific summit" to make recommendations on vaccine distribution, with the goal of keeping politics out of decisions.

Read Next: Ex-Green Berets Sentenced to 20 Years for Venezuela Attack

In an Aug. 6 American Enterprise Institute podcast, Slaoui said he has been in discussions with Dr. Francis Collins, head of the National Institutes of Health, on arranging a scientific summit.

"It's a super important question. It's a critical question. And I can tell you: First, we decided who should not do it," Slaoui said of decisions on vaccination priorities. "That's very important. I think this should not be politically motivated."

He said Collins suggested having the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine lead a summit on the "ethical, epidemiology, and virological vaccinologist discussions around how to best serve the population, with all its diversity, with a new vaccine or new vaccines against COVID-19."

"We are helping to generate the independent information to inform, and the science to inform, those important decisions" on distribution, said Slaoui, the former head of GlaxoSmithKline's vaccines department.

The summit's purpose would be to discuss "how to best introduce new vaccines, who to immunize first, what kind of performance of vaccine is best suited to what kind of population with what we know," he said.

Senior administration officials, speaking on background, have said that Operation Warp Speed would likely give priority to the elderly, those with underlying health conditions, workers in essential businesses and the military.

"Our role, as the federal government, is to ensure anyone who is vulnerable, [who] cannot afford it and desire it, can get it. Those critical to infrastructure get it, essential workers get it, and those associated with national defense get it. That's our obligation," a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said in June.

"I hope we will have enough doses of [safe, Food and Drug Administration-approved] vaccines in the first two months of 2021 to immunize the at-risk populations in the U.S.," Slaoui said, though he could not rule out having it sooner.

"So the data will dictate, the facts will dictate" when a vaccine is ready, he added. "We may have the end point in October. We may have it Nov. 4 -- who knows? We may have it Dec. 15.  That's the answer and to be honest, on a personal basis, I would resign instantly if I was forced to do something that I thought would be inappropriate."

At a White House event in May, President Donald Trump named Slaoui to head up Operation Warp Speed and Army Gen. Gus Perna, a logistics expert and head of Army Materiel Command, to be its chief operating officer.

The task of overseeing the packaging, distribution and delivery of possibly 300 million doses of vaccine by early next year is enormous, but Perna has expressed confidence that the job can be done.

When his appointment was announced in May, he said, "Winning matters, and we will deliver by the end of this year a vaccine at scale to treat the American people and our partners abroad."

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.

Related: US Troops Would Be Among First to Get a Working COVID-19 Vaccine, Officials Say
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Following President Donald Trumps four executive orders signed on Saturday for a new coronavirus (COVID-19) relief package, Sen. Chuck Schumer claims it falls short of necessary measures.

Trumps four executive orders allow supplemental federal unemployment benefits to continue, postponed payroll taxes through the end of the year, allows officials to consider eviction bans, and defers student loan payments through the end of the year.

Schumer says the orders were made without thinking of essential funding necessary for state and local governments to continue operating.

Yesterdays executive orders can be summed up in three words: unworkable, weak and narrow, said Schumer. Among several deficiencies, these orders totally leave out money for our schools to reopen safely, money for state and local governments thats needed to fight fires, pick up the garbage or employ teachers.

Schumer said the payroll order will harm those on social security or Medicare, warning those individuals to watch out in regards to the executive order.

The executive order on unemployment reduces the additional weekly $600 funds to $400. Schumer says the additional funds were all that were keeping families above water.

Despite the fallout with the executive orders, the senator expressed frustration with unrepresented factors that should be included in the COVID-19 package.

The biggest problem with the executive orders is not what they do, but what they dont do, added Schumer.

The New York democrat expressed frustration that the president did not include any action on COVID-19 testing or tracing, which is at the heart of the crisis.

Furthermore, Schumer says there is no funding for personal protective equipment (PPE) for teachers, students, and other school staff.

Sanitation workers, firefighters, bus drivers, healthcare workers and more may be at risk due to a lack of funding for local governments, Schumer claims.

There is also no funding for the census, local post offices, and food assistance, he explained.

Schumer is calling on the White House and Republican party to regroup with Democrats for a more effective deal.

I am calling on President Trump and the GOP to meet democrats in the middle - like we have done in the prior bills  and come up with an agreement that will actually help us get through this crisis, he said.
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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) London, United Kingdom  Mon, August 10, 2020 13:30 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cd0f50 2 World UK,Prime-Minister,Boris-Johnson,school,reopening Free

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said reopening schools in September was a social, economic and moral imperative and insisted schools would be able to operate safely despite the coronavirus pandemic.

His comments follow a study earlier this month which warned that Britain risks a second wave of COVID-19 in the winter twice as large as the initial outbreak if schools open without an improved test-and-trace system.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Johnson said restarting schools was a national priority. Schools would be the last places to close in future local lockdowns, he was quoted by another newspaper as telling a meeting on Thursday.

Schools in England closed in March during a national lockdown, except for the children of key workers, and reopened in June for a small number of pupils.

The government wants all pupils to return to school by early September.

"Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible," Johnson wrote.

The economic costs for parents who cannot work if schools are shut are spiraling, and the country faces big problems if children miss out on education, the prime minister warned.

"This pandemic isn't over, and the last thing any of us can afford to do is become complacent. But now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so," Johnson wrote.

The headteachers' union has criticized Johnson's push and warned that schools will teach pupils on a "week on-week off" basis if there is a resurgence of the coronavirus, and are drawing up a number of contingency plans, according to the Telegraph.

The Sunday Times newspaper reported that Johnson has ordered a public relations campaign to ensure schools open on time.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 21:54:56|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Iran, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan opened a transport route on Monday after trucks left Iran for Uzbekistan though Afghanistan as a part of a pilot project, Tasnim news agency reported.

The route will give Uzbekistan access to the Gulf trade opportunities, Mostafa Ayati, director of Transit Bureau of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), was quoted as saying.

"For the first time, two trucks set off from Iran's Shahid Rajaee Port (in the litoral Gulf) to the destination of Uzbekistan, using Afghanistan as a link route," Ayati said.

The transit passage is a low-cost project which can play a key role in boosting trade and economic cooperation in the region, he said.

According to the report, the three countries had agreed in 2009 to build the transport line to facilitate trade among nations in the region. Enditem
The Indian Army has donated 10 ICU ventilators to the Nepali Army to support its efforts to cope with the Covid-19 crisis, with Indian ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra reaffirming New Delhis commitment to help the people of Nepal in prevailing over the pandemic.

Kwatra presented the ventilators to Nepali Army chief Gen Purna Chandra Thapa, who is also the honorary general of the Indian Army, during a ceremony held at the army headquarters in Kathmandu on Sunday.

The Indian Army has a long record of extending support to the Nepali Army as a first responder for humanitarian assistance and relief. The gifting of ventilators is part of this continued humanitarian cooperation between the two armies, said a statement from the Indian embassy in Kathmandu.
A trans woman who threatened to kill her Orthodox Jewish father with a crossbow for refusing to pay for her gender reassignment surgery has won more than $3million from his deceased estate.

Jessica Joss has been awarded $3.225 million by Victoria's Supreme Court to help pay for her living expenses as well as gender reassignment surgery, something Peter Joss refused to support before his 2017 death.

Ms Joss, now nearly 61, in 1999 threatened to kill her father by storming the family's Melbourne synagogue armed with a crossbow during a bar mitzvah, after which she planned to take her own life.

She did not go ahead with the plot and was not charged. But the woman was admitted as an involuntary patient to a psychiatric facility.

Ms Joss told a psychiatrist her father had threatened to cut off her allowance if she did not abandon a plan to undergo gender reassignment surgery (stock image of surgery pictured)

Ms Joss told a psychiatrist her father had threatened to cut off her allowance if she did not meet certain conditions, including abandoning a plan to undergo gender reassignment surgery.

'She wanted to embarrass her family, publicly and privately, to punish them for not accepting that she was transgender, and also to try to force them into paying what she regarded as her entitlement,' Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said in a recent August judgment.

Ms Joss had an extremely tumultuous relationship with her family and felt emotionally rejected by them.

'The fact that, even now, her family do not really understand and accept that she identifies as a woman, has no doubt been (and continues to be) extremely hurtful to her,' Justice Hollingworth said.

'But the reality is far more complicated than that, and Jessica has contributed substantially to the dysfunction and the breakdown of the relationship by her conduct over many decades.'

At one point, Ms Joss went to Tajikistan because she planned to fight with foreign troops in Afghanistan. She ran out of money and her family helped her come home.

She did not work after 1999 and at the time of her father's death, was receiving a $1600 weekly allowance.

Before his death, he told his daughter he had already given her enough. But Justice Hollingworth awarded Ms Joss about quarter of the deceased estate (stock image pictured)

If she racked up credit card debt, her father paid it. The only thing her parents wouldn't help with was her gender reassignment surgery.

Justice Hollingworth noted Ms Joss could have worked after recovering from her hospital admission and saved up for the surgery herself.

But the woman believed her parents were obliged to foot the bill for it.

'This belief that her parents must pay for her surgery has become the obsession of her life for the past two decades,' the judge said.

Mr Joss left his $12.4million estate to his wife, Judith.

Before his death, he told his daughter he had already given her enough.

But Justice Hollingworth awarded Ms Joss about quarter of the deceased estate.

The judge said Mr Joss owed his child a moral duty because he had allowed her to become financially dependent on him and lose much of, if not all, her capacity to work.

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China on Monday imposed sanctions on U.S. officials and the heads of pro-democracy and human rights organizations in retaliation over U.S. President Donald Trump's sanctions on officials linked to a recent crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong.



Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said 11 politicians and heads of civil organizations would be targeted for unspecified sanctions, including Senators Marco Rubio, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, Pat Toomey, and Ted Cruz, as well as Representative Chris Smith.



The individuals named had "performed badly" on issues relating to Hong Kong, Zhao said. Rubio co-chairs the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), which has produced in-depth research into China's human rights abuses, while Smith is a former co-chair.



Their number equals that of the Hong Kong and ruling Chinese Communist Party officials whose U.S. assets were frozen by the U.S. Treasury last week for implementing a draconian national security law and hampering freedoms and human rights promised to the city by China.



"The relevant actions of the U.S. blatantly intervened in Hong Kong affairs, grossly interfered in Chinas internal affairs, and seriously violated international law and the basic norms of international relations," Zhao told a regular news briefing in Beijing.



"China urges the U.S. to have a clear understanding of the situation, correct mistakes, and immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and interfering in Chinas internal affairs," he said.



Also to be sanctioned were Kenneth Roth, executive director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), Freedom House president Michael Abramowitz, National Endowment for Democracy president Carl Gershman, National Democratic Institute president Derek Mitchell, and International Republican Institute president Daniel Twining.



Further strain on tensions



The arrival of U.S. Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar to the democratic island of Taiwan on Monday, put a further strain on growing tensions between the U.S. and China, which has refused to recognize Taiwan's status as a sovereign state or to rule out an invasion.



Azar met with Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen on Monday, as officials signed a memorandum of understanding on health cooperation during the coronavirus pandemic.



The agreement paves the way for bilateral cooperation in areas such as global health security, digital health, infectious disease prevention, and vaccine development, according to a communique.



Local media said two Chinese warplanes briefly crossed into Taiwan's airspace, citing air force headquarters.



The Shenyang J-11 and Chengdu J-10 aircraft briefly crossed into Taiwan's airspace but retreated after radio warnings were issued, the Republic of China Air Force said in a statement.



Azar is the highest-level U.S. official to visit Taiwan since Washington broke off ties with Taipei in 1979 under pressure from China.



Taiwan, the home of the 1911 Republic of China since the Kuomintang (KMT) lost the civil war to Mao Zedong in 1949, has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, nor formed part of the People's Republic of China.



Beijing insists on a territorial claim on the island, although President Tsai has said the island's 23 million inhabitants have no wish to be ruled by China, and has ruled out any kind of "one country, two systems" arrangement, saying it has clearly failed in Hong Kong, where months of pro-democracy protests were met with the imposition of a draconian security law and the stationing of China's feared state security police in the city.



Beijing slams US visit



In Beijing, Zhao hit out at Azar's visit, which was made possible by the U.S. 2018 Taiwan Travel Act. China sees official visits to Taiwan as a negation of its claim under its "One China" policy.



I would like to stress again that the Taiwan issue is the most important and sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations," Zhao said. "What the U.S. has done seriously violated its commitment on the Taiwan issue."



In remarks ahead of his meeting with Tsai, Azar said the islands success in dealing with COVID-19 was a "tribute to the open, transparent, democratic nature of Taiwans society and culture."



Tsai's administration moved swiftly and aggressively to contain the coronavirus and has recorded just 277 reported cases and seven deaths from the illness.



The United States on Friday announced sanctions against Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and other senior officials for their role in curbing the city's promised freedoms, and in implementing a draconian national security regime.



Announcing the sanctions, the State Department said that the Chinese Communist Party had made it clear that Hong Kong will never again enjoy the high degree of autonomy promised under the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, and that the city will no longer be regarded as a separate jurisdiction from mainland China by the U.S.



The U.S. has banned Americans from any business transactions with those on the list and has frozen their assets, and Hong Kong Democratic Party member and former banking regulator Cary Lo said the order means that local and international banks will be barred from offering deposit accounts, loans, or credit cards to sanctioned individuals.



He said that while the U.S. can't force banks to enforce the sanctions, failure to do so could mean they also face sanctions from the U.S. authorities on their U.S.-dollar business, a large part of most banks' business.



He cited the example of HSBC, which was fined and almost had its U.S. license revoked for failing to comply with U.S. regulations.



Lo said a statement by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) claiming that the U.S. sanctions had no legal basis in Hong Kong was misleading.



"It is ironic that the HKMA, Hong Kong's financial regulator, would misinterpret such a thing," Lo said. "Any country knows that if it wants to do business in U.S. dollars, it must comply with sanctions issued by the United States."



Reported by Man Hoi-tsan, Hwang Chun-mei and Tseng Yat-yiu for RFA's Mandarin and Cantonese Services. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's decision to quit the royal family was prompted by racial 'ignorance' within the monarchy, the author of a new biography about the couple has claimed.

In an interview on Good Morning America, Omid Scobie, one of the co-authors of the hotly-anticipated book Finding Freedom, opened up about the couple's move to the US, explaining that there was no sole reason for the decision - but that racism definitely 'played a role'.

'In terms of ticking those boxes that may ruffle feathers within an ancient institution such as that of the monarchy, she had really ticked all of them,' he said, adding: 'Race did play a role.'

Difficulties: Omid Scobie, the co-author of an upcoming biography about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, has spoken out about the couple's decision to quit the royal family

Motivation: Scobie says that the monarchy's racial 'ignorance' did 'play a role' in the couple's decision to leave the UK and step down as senior royals

Scobie suggests that Meghan never felt comfortable within the royal family - and that she was never made to feel as though she was entirely welcome.

The author went on to detail his own experiences with racial prejudice as a bi-racial man working closely with the monarchy in his role as a royal correspondent, recalling one particularly unpleasant interaction with a senior aide to the Queen.

'I myself have also had moments as a bi-racial royal correspondent within the institution,' he said.

Opening up: Scobie, who co-wrote Finding Freedom with Carolyn Durand, insisted that the couple did not contribute to the book in any way

'I'll never forget the moment an aide, or a senior aide close to the Queen, said to me, "I never would have expected you to speak like that," and that level of ignorance I think perhaps made it very difficult for Meghan.'

Scobie's remarks come just as Prince Harry addressed the desperate need for more diversity and inclusivity, insisting that it will take 'every single person on the planet' to defeat racism in a candid new virtual interview for a civil rights organisation.

Harry, 35, who is currently living in Tyler Perry's $14 million mansion in Beverly Hills with Meghan, 38, and their son Archie, one, is set to speak about the topic in further detail in a new interview for the Color of Change initiative - however in a short clip released on Instagram, he praised the younger generation for 'acting, rather than just saying'.

Speaking with US civil rights leader Rashad Robinson, the royal said: 'As we've discussed before, it is going to take every single one of us, this is not just down to the black community, it's going to take every single person on the planet right now.'

Harry's decision to speak so publicly about the battle against racism is all part of what Scobie recently described as his 'journey to workeness', which, the author says, was guided by Meghan.

In a recent interview with the National Public Radio, Scobie noted that watching Meghan face racial bias was the first time that Harry had witnessed that kind of prejudice towards someone so close to him first-hand, explaining that this sparked the royal's 'journey to wokeness'.

Explosive new book about Harry and Meghans royal exit. @scobie, co-author of #FindingFreedom, gives our @DebRobertsABC an inside look at the couples side of the story. https://t.co/X8P82x9Dsv pic.twitter.com/L9fkvvAPGA  Good Morning America (@GMA) August 10, 2020

Speaking out: The author opened up about his own experiences with racial prejudice as a bi-racial royal correspondent, recalling one unpleasant interaction with a senior royal aide

'Failed': Scobie said that Meghan and Harry were 'failed by the monarchy' and insisted that the royal family missed the chance to embrace 'diversity, inclusivity and representation'

'Harry's journey to wokeness has been very public,' he said.

'We've seen him learning and educating himself along the way, but this experience of witnessing Meghan face racist remarks and commentary would have been the first time he'd seen someone in his life or someone he was particularly close to affected by it in a certain way.

'We talk about some of the more obvious examples in some of the media coverage but I think that the things that have flown under the radar are some of the othering of Meghan we've seen.

'We've sort of seen it repeatedly that she's not one of us. And now, what do they mean by not one of us?

'And I think there are things like that which Harry's really had to become more attuned to and learn to see when it happens in front of him. And Meghan would have been the person that guided him on that journey. '

While Meghan and Harry's decision to quit their roles as senior members of the royal family in favor of a more independent life in the US sparked serious controversy that continues to rage on - however Scobie insisted to GMA that the couple will come out on top in the history books.

He placed blame on the royal family for the couple's move, saying that he believes Harry and Meghan were 'failed by the monarchy', and insisting that when historians examine the moment in years to come, it will be viewed as a missed opportunity for the centuries-old institution to evolve and diversify.

'History will remember them as a couple that were perhaps failed by the institution of the monarchy, where there was this chance to have a woman of color, an American woman of color, in the house of Windsor representing the monarchy just as much as her husband,' he explained.

'That was a chance for the royal family to have diversity, inclusivity and representation in a way that no other moment in their lives could have brought and for them to not have harnessed that is something I'm sure historians will be looking at for years to come.'

Tension: Scobie said that Meghan never felt entirely welcome in the royal family, and that she did not feel as though she received enough - or indeed any - support from Kate Middleton

Falling out: However the author denied that Meghan and Kate had anything to do with the rift between Princes Harry and William, insisting that the brothers fell out on their own

Scobie believes that the couple were left with 'no choice other than to leave', insisting that things had reached breaking point for both Meghan and Harry.

'They had no choice other than to leave because they both knew that it wasn't going to continue should they just carry on as they were,' he said.'

The royal correspondent also called out the 'harsh British tabloids' for the treatment of Meghan, insisting that this contributed, at least in part, to the couple's departure, pointing back to November 2016 when Harry publicly blasted the media's coverage of his then-girlfriend as a sign that the couple were already considering a move away from life within the monarchy.

'I think we had a series of ups and downs with the couple,' Scobie said when asked when things 'took a turn' for Harry and Meghan.

'We only have to look back in the early days of Harry's relationship with Meghan around November 2016 when he issued that statement lambasting sections of the media for racist and misogynistic reporting.'

Meghan and Harry's move to the US also reignited rumors of a serious rift between the Duke of Sussex and his brother, Prince William, with many people suggesting that the Duchess of Sussex may have been to blame for any tension between the once-inseparable siblings.

However Scobie suggests that any falling out between William and Harry was entirely due to the behavior of the brothers, and had nothing to do with Meghan or Kate Middleton, or indeed any uneasiness that may have existed between the two women.

In fact, he believes that the change in the relationship between William and Harry actually came as a result of the younger sibling choosing to break out of the role of 'subservient brother' - which Scobie notes likely prompted a rift between the princes.

'I felt it was important to really dive into this in the book because we had seen Meghan and Kate really blamed for almost driving a wedge between them,' he said.

False: Although Scobie admits that Meghan and Kate never saw eye to eye, he denied rumors that the Duchess of Sussex left her sister-in-law in tears at her wedding to Prince Harry

Rumors: It was reported that Kate had been 'reduced to tears' by Meghan's 'strict demands' for her wedding, but Scobie insists this 'could not be further from the truth'

'They are both men in their 30s and Harry not wanting to play that role of sort of the younger more subservient brother anymore.'

But while frosty relations between Meghan and Kate may not have been to blame for Harry and William's falling out, Scobie does not deny that the two women were never close - and that there was at least some resentment on the Duchess of Sussex's side over how the Duchess of Cambridge treated her when she first joined the royal family.

'These are two women that really have very little in common,' he said.

'I think that being a newcomer and knowing that Kate was once a newcomer, I think there were times - speaking to sources - where Meghan felt she could have [had], or needed, a little bit more support from Kate and didn't get it in some of those important moments.'

Still, he insists that much of the tension between the two women has been over-dramatized in the court of public opinion, addressing one particular report that Meghan had pushed Kate to 'tears' at her wedding to Prince Harry, claiming that it has been completely over-exaggerated.

'When I spoke to the people who were actually there and involved, the first thing they all said, well, there were no tears,' he said - although he did not deny that there was some tension between the two women on the day of the royal wedding.

But as far as Kate breaking down, Scobie insisted it 'couldn't be further from the truth'.

Scobie also address reports that Meghan and Harry 'weighed in' on Finding Freedom through 'secret interviews', insisting that the couple had nothing to do with the stories in the book.

'I know there's a lot of speculation about the couple having sort of given secret interviews for the book and having weighed in, but it really couldn't be further from the truth,' he said.
New Delhi, Aug 10 : The new 'Babri Masjid' in Ayodhya, that is all set to come up in Dhannipur, will not be named after Mughal Emperor Babar. In other words, the new mosque won't be called 'Babri Masjid'. In fact, it won't be named after any emperor or ruler, said Athar Hussain, the Secretary and spokesperson of the newly formed trust Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) which is entrusted with the task of building the mosque in Ayodhya, in an exclusive interview to IANS.

Just days after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath made it clear that he would not attend any events pertaining to the new mosque in Ayodhya, he asserted that the trust would extend an invitation to not just Yogi Adityanath for the ceremony relating to the other community projects that fall under the purview of the upcoming mosque, but also to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Q: What is the status of the trust right now? A: Look, soon after we were provided the land on February 24 this year, immediately the COVID-19 pandemic broke. Things were not as bad at that time as they are today. Meanwhile, the India Islamic Cultural Foundation was founded by the Sunni Waqf Board and was entrusted with building the mosque and adjoining facilities. We held our first virtual meeting on July 19 where we decided on the functionaries and their responsibilities. We still have six vacancies in the trust to fill. Meanwhile, we have already got office space in Lucknow and our PAN cards. However, none of the members have met across the table so far.

Q: When can we expect you to start the construction of the mosque? A: It is very unfair to compare our activity and our speed with the other trust. We have been handed over the papers of the land only on August 2 and there was an event attended by the PM on August 5. We haven't been there since we were given those papers. In a day or two, we will go and formally take possession of the land. Once that's done, we will try to sit across and plan the mosque and some public utility facilities like Indo Islamic Cultural Centres, hospitals among others.

Q: Will the mosque in Ayodhya be called Babri Masjid? A: The Islam we believe in, there is no importance of the name of the mosque. The 'sajdah' that one offers is all that matters. The size, name of the building or structure does not matter. All this hue and cry about the name of the mosque is about identity politics. As far as the religious aspect is concerned, the mosque has nothing to do with the name. But we have deliberated that we will not name the mosque after any emperor or any ruler, that is for sure.

Q: There has been opposition from bodies like the All India Muslim Personal Law Board to taking the land. What's your stand? A: I completely disagree with the argument of the AIMPLB or anybody who is making a similar argument. The issue has gone through the entire judicial process from the lower courts, to the High Court and finally to the Supreme Court. All the stakeholders said in one voice that they will abide by the final verdict. When a mediation committee was constituted, the AIMPLB said they won't be part of such deliberations as they will abide by what the SC decides. Now, it's a contradiction itself.

Q: Recently there was a controversy over Yogi Adityanath saying no if he is invited to the mosque ceremony. Do you wish to still extend an invitation for the other public utilities that are there along with the mosque? A: In Islam, there's no ground breaking ceremony of a mosque. I have gone through the entire Islamic jurisprudence of all 4 schools of thought that cites a precedence. But since we are also providing public utilities like community kitchens or hospitals, the priority of any chief minister of any state is to provide the same. I hope he will come and also contribute to our efforts.

Q: Will there be any ground breaking ceremony for these public utility facilities? A: Yes, once we have a plan, we will definitely have one.

Q: Will an invitation for these utilities also be sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi? A: Public utility facilities are for the entire population. Whosoever is likely to give an impetus to our efforts that includes the Prime Minister, Chief Minister, several other opposition party leaders, NGOs and activists, saints, ulemas and academicians -- we will definitely invite them.

(Anindya Banerjee can be contacted at anindya.b@ians.in)
By Ayya Lmahamad

Some 361 citizens were fined during the period of August 7-9 across the country for violating the strict quarantine regime, the main traffic police department under the Ministry of Interior reported on August 10.

All 361 were fined according to Article 211.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences. Of them 252 were drivers who failed to follow the quarantine regime requirements and 109 were citizens not using facial masks in the public transport. One citizen was subjected to administrative liability.

In the meantime, 6,040 cars, which had sought to leave the territories where the quarantine is imposed, were stopped, and returned back during the reporting period.

Earlier, it was reported that 47,516 citizens were fined in the period of June 21 and August 6 for violating the quarantine regime, 635 drivers were fined during June 14-16 lockdown, while 2,524 drivers were fined during June 6-7 lockdown.

Azerbaijan first introduced quarantine regime on March 24. On August 3, the decision was made to extend until August 31 the strict coronavirus quarantine regime, while cancelling the SMS permit system that would allow citizens leave their homes without obtaining electronic permission.

The strict special quarantine regime will remain in force until 00:00 on 31 August in Baku, Jalilabad, Ganja, Masalli, Mingachevir, Sumgayit, Yevlakh, Absheron, Barda, Goranboy, Goygol, Khachmaz and Salyan regions.

Within the rules established by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Executive Power of Baku city, citizens will be allowed to visit beaches without obtaining permission.

Moreover, on August 8, the decision was taken to allow the activities of some areas of production, trade and services.

The movement of public transport will remain restricted on weekends during the August - from 00:00 on August 8 to 06:00 on August 10; from 00:00 on August 15 to 06:00 on August 17; from 00:00 on August 22 to 06:00 on August 24; from 00:00 on August 29 to 06:00 on August 31.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Another poll delivers fresh good news for Joe Biden this weekend as the former vice president enjoys a decisive lead in two states that were key to President Donald Trumps victory. Biden is leading Trump 48 percent-to-42 percent in Wisconsin, according to the CBS/YouGov Battleground Tracker poll. The same poll shows Biden leading in Pennsylvania with 49 percent, compared to Trumps 43 percent. In 2016, Trump won Wisconsin with 47 percent of the vote while he took Pennsylvania with 48 percent.

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Most of the voters in the two key states arent happy with the direction of the country. Three-quarters of voters in the two states say things in the United States are going badly. And when it comes to handling the coronavirus, 47* percent of voters in each state say Biden would do a better job than Trump. In contrast, only 37 percent of registered voters in Pennsylvania and 32 percent of those in Wisconsin say Trump would do a better job with the pandemic. And it is the pandemic that has turned into the key indicator of which candidate voters support. Biden has a clear advantage among those who are very concerned about contracting COVID-19, while Trump has the support of the vast majority of those who are not at all concerned about getting the coronavirus.

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Although a majority of voters in both states said that Bidens vice-presidential pick isnt particularly important to them, a closer look at the numbers suggests it could have a profound effect on the race. A majority of those who are already committed to backing Biden say his vice-presidential pick isnt important. But, in contrast, among those not voting for Biden but who say they could consider supporting him, 70 percent say the vice-presidential pick is important.

Bidens long-awaited decision on his vice-presidential candidate is expected this week. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee spent the weekend at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and could announce his final decision in the coming days. But considering Biden has already missed deadlines he has imposed on himself for making the pick public, those close to the former vice president are sure to highlight that the only real deadline is the Democratic National Convention, which begins Aug. 17.

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For now all anyone can do is speculate. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, for example, traveled to Delaware last weekend to meet with Biden. Others who are clearly in the running include Sen. Kamala Harris and President Obamas national security adviser Susan Rice. Rep. Karen Bass of California, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth are also believed to still be in the running. Rep. Val Demings from Florida and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham are also reportedly under consideration. Biden made a brief stir Saturday when a Fox News reporter asked him during a bike ride if he had picked a running mate. Yeah, I have, Biden said. When the reporter asked who it was, Biden quipped: You. The Biden campaign later made clear the former vice president was just joking. Cant believe anyone thought we would break this news with FOX while Joe Biden is on a bike ride, Symone Sanders, a senior adviser to Bidens campaign, tweeted.

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Folks, this is clearly a joke. When Vice President Biden has made a decision on who his running mate will be, he will let the American people know. And can confirm, it's not @pdoocy of @FoxNews. https://t.co/iMfqMGepTE  TJ Ducklo (@TDucklo) August 8, 2020
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has put the state's bars on notice that he will shut them down if the establishments and their patrons dont come into compliance with the state's coronavirus restrictions.

The warning came after bars were seen packed with crowds at the weekend - and cops were forced to shut down another wild party that drew hundreds of people to Howell Township.

Murphy tweeted Monday that he wanted bars and patrons to quickly 'get on the same page' before next weekend.

'Im going to give everyone a chance to do the right thing,' Murphy wrote. 'But if we have to shut places down to protect public health, then we will.'

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (pictured) put the state's bars on notice that he will shut them down if the establishments and their patrons dont come into compliance with the state's coronavirus restrictions.

Police in Howell Township, New Jersey, called for more cops to bust another wild party in the state during coronavirus restrictions that attracted more than 300 people and ended with all being told to go home. Pictured are revelers at the Howell festivities Sunday

Howell cops said they also arrested the host of the event, which took on Wilson Drive in the Ramtown section (pictured)

'Consider this your warning before you go out drinking this weekend,' the governor added.

The party in Howell on Sunday attracted more than 300 people, who were all told to go home, according to a statement local cops posted on Facebook.

The Howell Township Police said they also arrested the host of the event, which took place on Wilson Drive in the Ramtown section.

The man was identified as 37-year-old homeowner Ronald Chatman, who was charged with two counts of disorderly persons offenses, CBS2 reported.

Howell police said they requested mutual aid from Wall, Brick, Jackson, Freehold, the Monmouth and Ocean County sheriff offices and State Police 'in response to the 'pop-up' party'.

Pictures released by Howell cops show mask compliance among the revelers was mixed. It was unclear if social distancing was being enforced.

The images also showed the department called out K9 units to help in their response to the party.

Howell police called in mutual aid from Wall, Brick, Jackson, Freehold, the Monmouth and Ocean County sheriff offices and State Police 'in response to the dispersal of approximately 300 people in attendance at a 'pop-up' party'. Pictured are officers arriving on the scene

Howell Township also called out K9 units to assist in busting the wild festivities

'Several patrol units will remain in the area to prevent others from arriving and/or returning and to monitor surrounding streets as there's been reports of stragglers urinating on people's property and vehicles,' police said.

'A majority of those who attended are not local,' authorities added.

Many of the revelers were compliant when asked to leave, but some remained upset they were charged admission by the host to attend the wild festivities.

The state's current COVID-19 safety restrictions limit indoor gatherings to 25 people, or 25 per cent of a room's capacity. 'All attendees at indoor gatherings must wear face coverings and stay six feet apart, according to regulations posted on the state's COVID-19 website.

Gatherings for weddings, funerals, memorial services, and religious and political activities, which are protected under the First Amendment, are limited to 100 people for indoor events, or 25 per cent of a room's capacity.

'Whichever number is lower,' the state's website said. Outdoor gatherings are limited to 500 people and social distancing is required.

However, there are no limits for 'First Amendment-protected outdoor activities, such as political protests of any persuasion or outdoor religious services,' the state said.

The Howell party bust comes after local authorities put a stop to a massive pool party that took place at a Bergen County mansion Aug. 1.

Video from the large gathering showed that many partygoers weren't adequately practicing social distancing.

The event, attended by hundreds and hosted in Alpine, was seen in footage on social media circulated by both the party promoter and party guests.

People wanting to go to the party paid to ride shuttle buses to the residence, where they stood in long lines to wait to get inside, NBC New York reported.

The Howell party bust comes after local authorities put a stop to a massive pool party that took place at a Bergen County mansion (pictured) Aug. 1

Video from the large gathering (pictured) showed that many partygoers weren't adequately practicing social distancing

One person was taken away in an ambulance during the party.

The event was billed as 'The Lavish Experience Pool Party' in advertisements while aerial views of the property showed cabanas that people could use for a price.

One woman and her group paid roughly $1000 so that they could take a bus from Brooklyn to the party. She said social distancing was practically nonexistent.

'I don't know what kind of scheme, or what they was doing, what kind of scam it was, but I don't appreciate how I was treated, how my friends were treated, how packed it was,' the woman said.

Similarly, bars have been packed across the state, including on the Jersey Shore known for attracting vacationers seeking to get away.

Several establishments have been strict about enforcing the rules with patrons, who in some cases are still showing up without facial covering and not practicing social distancing.

Similarly, bars have been packed across the state, including on the Jersey Shore. Several establishments have been strict about enforcing the rules with patrons, who in some cases (pictured) are still showing up without facial coverings and not practicing social distancing

There have been more than 187,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in New Jersey, with 16,000 people killed.

Across the US there have been more than five million cases, and 163,000 deaths.

New Jersey reported five additional deaths and 378 confirmed cases on Sunday as the transmission rates have been on the decline statewide. New Jersey saw seven straight days of fewer cases, but was still above a critical benchmark that indicated the outbreak was expanding, NJ.com reported.
Over three dozen members of the notorious Naveen Khati gang were caught while they were celebrating the release of one of their associates from jail on bail in west Delhis Dwarka in the early hours of Sunday, the police said.

While five of them were arrested for carrying illegal weapons, the others were booked for violating social distancing norms.

The police did not find the released prisoner, identified as Sunny alias Nandi, at the venue. They believe he was among three-four people who managed to scale the walls and escape.

Anto Alphonse, the deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka), said that 23-year-old Deepak was released from jail on bail on Saturday for the treatment of piles. He is accused of a double murder, attacking police personnel and robbery. He is to return to jail on August 30.

To celebrate his release, members of the Naveen Khati gang held a cocktail party at a party lawn in Pochanpur village near Dwarka, the DCP said.

Though they are members of the Naveen Khati gang, they were planning to start their own gangNandi Gang, the DCP added.

But the local police were tipped off about the gathering and surrounded the place. When the gathering got to know of our arrival, they tried to scale the walls of the party lawn and escape. Three-four of them managed to escape while we nabbed 37 others, the DCP said.

The police apprehended four of them for carrying automatic pistols and one for carrying a short hand gun, apart from a dozen bullets, illegally.

The men carrying the weapons were booked under the Arms Act and arrested. These five men have previously been involved in several criminal cases each, the DCP said.

As for the others, the police are verifying their criminal antecedents and for now have booked them for violating social distancing.

We have also booked the owner of the party lawn for allowing the violation of social distancing norms under the Epidemic Diseases Act, another investigator said.
WASHINGTON  President Trump tweeted on Monday that he is choosing between two locations, Gettysburg, Pa., and the White House, for his speech accepting the Republican nomination, scheduled for the night of Aug. 27.

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, Trump wrote, adding, We will announce the decision soon!

Gettysburg was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, which resulted in over 50,000 Union and Confederate troop casualties in 1863. It was a crucial turning point in the war, as Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lees efforts to invade the North were halted. Months later, the battle inspired one of the most famous political speeches in American history, when President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address and praised those who died in support of efforts to keep the country united despite Southern attempts to secede.

Trump previously suggested in an interview on Aug. 5 that he might deliver the speech from the White House. Plans for the Republican National Convention have repeatedly been scaled back due to the coronavirus pandemic. Trumps idea of using the White House prompted criticism  including from some Republican senators  that it would be a violation of the Hatch Act, a 1939 law that limits partisan activity by federal employees. The president has insisted it would be legal for him to deliver a convention speech from the White House complex. Since Trump took office, ethics officials have found multiple members of his administration to be in violation of the act, but there have been few legal consequences.

The Republican convention, which will be capped by Trumps speech formally accepting the partys presidential nomination, was originally scheduled for Charlotte, N.C. Trump moved it to Jacksonville, Fla., after North Carolinas Democratic governor said the event would need to be scaled down due to the pandemic. Late last month, Trump announced that the plans for events in Florida would be scrapped due to surging coronavirus cases there.

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This will be the first election since 1944 in which neither of the major party candidates speaks from the site of the partys convention. Democrats announced in late June that their convention, planned for Milwaukee, would be largely virtual. On Aug. 5, the Democratic National Convention Committee announced that former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, would make his acceptance speech from his home state of Delaware.

President Trump; President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address in 1863. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: AP)

Gettysburg is a highly symbolic choice, particularly amid the renewed debate over racial issues that has gripped the country in recent months. Black Lives Matter protesters who have called for police reform have also sought to topple Confederate monuments in multiple cities. Trump has actively opposed the removal of Confederate monuments and specifically sought to prevent the removal of statues of Lee, who led the Southern military forces during the Civil War.

At her briefing on Monday afternoon, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked what message the president aimed to send with the potential Gettysburg site. She declined to answer apart from suggesting that Trump hopes to highlight efforts hes made to unify the country amid unprecedented challenges.

I wont get ahead of the president as to what his convention speech will look like, but the president has done a lot to bring this country together, McEnany said, adding, He has a strong record of achievement that hell be touting on that day.

Trump discussed the site of his speech during a news conference on Monday evening. The president said he has visited Gettysburg numerous times.

Its the history. Its incredible actually. To me, it was a very important place it is a very important place for our country, Trump said.

Trump also addressed the possibility of the speech being delivered from the White House. He said the West Wing would be the least expensive option and pointed to a shooting that took place outside the building on Monday as evidence of the importance of having a large Secret Service presence.

The White House would be very much easier for Secret Service, said Trump. You see what just went on here.

However, despite his endorsements of both Gettysburg and the White House, Trump indicated other locations could be in the mix.

We have other sites too, Trump said. But i think these would be two really beautiful sites.

This article was updated at 7:04 p.m. with comments from President Trumps news conference.

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Read more from Yahoo News:
Dr. Spinks-Franklin suggested a free downloadable ebook about coronavirus for children, put out in collaboration with the American Psychological Association. I actually read that with one of my patients through our online call, she said. She was just so anxious about coronavirus and we read the book together. Afterward, she said, she was able to articulate how much she learned from the book and what she can do and what her family can do to keep them safe.

If youre worried about your child, you may need some guidance in finding help in this changing landscape of remote therapy and tele-mental health. Often Ill tell people to start with their pediatrician, they often have a sense of whats available, and recommendations around mental health providers, Dr. Vinson said. Insurance companies have really lowered barriers around providing tele-mental health services, she said.

The summer may be a good time to look for a therapist if a child is struggling; as the school year picks up, schedules may fill. Talk to your childs primary care provider, talk to the school, consider reconnecting with a counselor or therapist who has seen your child before. If your child is already taking a medication  for anxiety, for attentional issues, for depression  talk to the doctor who prescribed it to see if an adjustment is indicated.

Remote mental health may be harder with young children, Dr. Kaslow said, though many therapists are finding ways to be really creative, asking children to show their favorite toys and how they play with them, and to talk about their home environments and how theyre feeling.

Dr. Vinson said that for many children with mental health problems, symptoms have gotten more severe. If they were anxious, theyre more anxious, if they were depressed, its harder, if its schizophrenia, the voices went up. Her own work as a child and adolescent psychiatrist has increased, she said, with children needing more help during the pandemic.

Tips for Parents to Help Their Struggling Teens Card 1 of 6 Are you concerned for your teen? If you worry that your teen might be experiencing depression or suicidal thoughts, there are a few things you can do to help. Dr. Christine Moutier, the chief medical officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suggests these steps: Look for changes. Notice shifts in sleeping and eating habits in your teen, as well as any issues he or she might be having at school, such as slipping grades. Watch for angry outbursts, mood swings and a loss of interest in activities they used to love. Stay attuned to their social media posts as well. Keep the lines of communication open. If you notice something unusual, start a conversation. But your child might not want to talk. In that case, offer him or her help in finding a trusted person to share their struggles with instead. Seek out professional support. A child who expresses suicidal thoughts may benefit from a mental health evaluation and treatment. You can start by speaking with your childs pediatrician or a mental health professional. In an emergency: If you have immediate concern for your childs safety, do not leave him or her alone. Call a suicide prevention lifeline. Lock up any potentially lethal objects. Children who are actively trying to harm themselves should be taken to the closest emergency room. Resources If youre worried about someone in your life and dont know how to help, these resources can offer guidance:1. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 (TALK) 2. The Crisis Text Line: Text TALK to 741741 3. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention











Parents need to take their children seriously, Dr. Spinks-Franklin said. This is a very stressful time for adults and children, and we dont want to disregard it when a child tells us how stressed they are, how worried they are.

Cindy Liu, a clinical psychologist in the departments of pediatric newborn medicine and psychiatry at the Brigham and Womens Hospital and the director of the developmental risk and cultural resilience program, said that in a setting in which we are all now accustomed to thinking of the risks of viral infection, its important to consider stress contagion and the risks to those who are most vulnerable, and to families at higher risk because of structural racism and socioeconomic disparities.
The Coalition of Concerned Teachers is urging the Ghana Education Service (GES) not to rescind its decision for the 13 dismissed students sitting for the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) to be charged for the damages caused to their school's properties.

The teachers say, although the decision to dismiss the students was rescinded following the intervention of President Akufo-Addo, the students must be surcharged.

The GES in a statement on August 7 indicated that students in schools where destruction of school properties occurred during the ongoing WASSCE exams will be surcharged for the full cost of damages.

The students' sanctions by the Ghana Education Service (GES) followed reports of violent protests and in some cases, physical assault on examination officials over strict enforcement of anti-cheating rules.

The President of the Coalition of Concerned Teachers, King Ali Awudu told Citi News that the directive to surcharge the students must be in force despite the clemency to have them accepted back in school to complete their exams.

I think that if we will even agree to allow them to continue writing their exams, no form of clemency should be accepted for them not to pay for the properties that they have destroyed. When these students leave the school compound and their testimonials and other things are being given to them, the school authorities should not hide anything. What the students did should be written in their records.

Meanwhile, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) says the GES must consider other forms of discipline that would reform the students rather than dismissing them.

GNAT said students must never be deprived as education as a form of punishment as it may only make them liabilities rather than assets to themselves an society.

In as much as you want to discipline children, we should not take education away from them. That is why the children's act itself indicates that the in the best interest of the child must be protected at all times. In correcting the child, the best interest is education because at the end of the day, the child must be beneficial to himself, society, family and the large world. If we deny a child access to education as a form of punishment, then we are telling them that child labour is the option now, he said.

---citinewsroom
Hong Kong authorities arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai on Monday, broadening their enforcement of a new national security law and stoking fears of a crackdown on the semi-autonomous region's free press. Police were seen carting away boxes of what they said was evidence at Lai's pro-democracy Next Digital headquarters.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 9/8/2020 (527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILE - In this July 30, 2020, file photo, Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, founder of the local newspaper Apple Daily, arrives a district court in Hong Kong. An aide to Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai says Lai was arrested Monday morning, Aug. 10, 2020, under the citys national security law on suspicion of collusion with foreign powers. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

Hong Kong authorities arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai on Monday, broadening their enforcement of a new national security law and stoking fears of a crackdown on the semi-autonomous region's free press. Police were seen carting away boxes of what they said was evidence at Lai's pro-democracy Next Digital headquarters.

In the evening, police arrested pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow Ting on charges of inciting secession under the same law, according to tweets by fellow activist Nathan Law, who left Hong Kong for Britain soon after the law took effect. An earlier post on Chow's official Facebook page said police had arrived at her home and her lawyers were rushing to the scene, and a separate post later confirmed that she had been taken away by police.

Two days after Chinese and Hong Kong officials shrugged off sanctions imposed on them by the U.S., the moves showed Chinas determination to enforce the new law and curb dissent in the semi-autonomous city after months of massive pro-democracy demonstrations last year.

FILE - In this July 1, 2020, file photo, Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai pauses during an interview in Hong Kong. An aide to Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai says Lai was arrested Monday morning, Aug. 10, 2020, under the citys national security law on suspicion of collusion with foreign powers. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)

The arrest of Lai, two of his sons and several company officers and the search of Next Digital marked the first time the law was used against news media. Next Digital operates Apple Daily, a feisty pro-democracy tabloid that often condemns China's Communist Party-led government.

"Raiding a news institution is a severe attack on press freedom and should not be tolerated in a civilized society," Next Digital said in a statement. "Hong Kongs press freedom is now hanging by a thread, but our staff will remain fully committed to our duty to defend the freedom of the press."

Apple Daily's popularity stems from its celebrity news and flamboyant stories, but it is also known for investigative reporting and breaking news coverage. It has frequently urged readers to take part in pro-democracy protests.

On July 1, it condemned the new national security law on its front page, calling it "the final nail in the coffin" for the "one country, two systems" framework under which the former British colony has been able to enjoy much greater civil liberties than in mainland China since its return to Chinese rule in 1997.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, right, who founded local newspaper Apple Daily, is arrested by police officers at his home in Hong Kong, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. Lai was arrested Monday on suspicion of collusion with foreign powers, his aide said, in the highest-profile use yet of the new national security law Beijing imposed on the city after protests last year. (AP Photo)

The British government condemned Lai's arrest, saying authorities are using the new law to quash dissent.

"This is further evidence that the national security law is being used as a pretext to silence opposition," Prime Minister Boris Johnsons spokesman, James Slack, said Monday.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a tweet that he was "deeply troubled" by reports of Lais arrest and that it was proof the Chinese Communist Party has "eviscerated Hong Kongs freedoms and eroded the rights of its people."

The arrests of Lai and Chow came on the same day Beijing announced sanctions on 11 Americans, including six members of Congress, in retaliation for Friday's U.S. sanctions on Hong Kong and mainland officials over Hong Kong policy.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who founded local newspaper Apple Daily, gets into a car after being arrested by police officers at his home in Hong Kong, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. Hong Kong police arrested Lai and raided the publisher's headquarters Monday in the highest-profile use yet of the new national security law Beijing imposed on the city after protests last year. (AP Photo)

And in Chinese-claimed Taiwan, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar became the highest-ranking American official to visit since 1979, fueling an escalating battle between the two nations over technology, security, trade and human rights.

Hong Kong police arrested Lai on Monday morning, an aide to the businessman said, in the highest-profile detention under the new law since it took effect on June 30. Lai, 71, is an outspoken pro-democracy figure who regularly criticizes Chinas authoritarian rule and Hong Kongs government.

Mark Simon, a Next Digital executive and Lais aide, said Lai was charged with collusion with foreign powers.

Hong Kong police said they arrested at least 10 people between the ages of 23 and 72 on suspicion of violating the security law and other offences. They did not release the names of those arrested or provide further details of the charges.

Police officers stand guard outside Apple Daily headquarters as Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who founded local newspaper Apple Daily, is arrested by police officers at his home in Hong Kong, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. Hong Kong police arrested Lai and raided the publisher's headquarters Monday in the highest-profile use yet of the new national security law Beijing imposed on the city after protests last year. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Following Lai's arrest, about 200 police raided Next Digitals headquarters, cordoning off the area, searching desks and at times getting into heated exchanges with staff. What police were looking for in the building wasnt clear, although they later said they took away 25 boxes of evidence for processing.

Lai, who was arrested at his mansion in Kowloon in the morning, was also brought to the headquarters of Next Digital, where he remained for about two and a half hours before police took him away in a car.

"We are completely shocked by whats happening now, with the arrest and followed by the ongoing raid inside the headquarters of Next Digital," said Chris Yeung, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association.

"With the passage of the national security law and the really tough powers given to the police in their operations, we have seen now what we call white terror become a reality, which will affect media organizations and journalists reporting."

Police officers set up a tent outside the Apple Daily headquarters as Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who founded the local newspaper Apple Daily, was arrested by police officers at his home in Hong Kong, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. Hong Kong police arrested Lai and raided the publisher's headquarters Monday in the highest-profile use yet of the new national security law Beijing imposed on the city after protests last year. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Police only allowed journalists from 15 select media to cover the raid from inside the cordoned-off area. They barred public broadcaster RTHK and foreign outlets including The Associated Press, saying only larger local media that had not obstructed or posed a threat to police in the past could enter.

Senior Superintendent Steve Li said the arrests were not politically motivated.

Police unblocked Next Digitals headquarters at midafternoon, with Li saying staff were free to resume work.

Bruce Lui, a senior lecturer in Hong Kong Baptist Universitys journalism department, said authorities are making an example of Apple Daily under the new law.

Police remove evidence from inside the Apple Daily newspaper headquarters after media tycoon and the newspaper's founder Jimmy Lai, who founded local newspaper Apple Daily, is arrested by police officers at his home in Hong Kong, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. Hong Kong police arrested Lai and raided the publisher's headquarters Monday in the highest-profile use yet of the new national security law Beijing imposed on the city after protests last year. (Apple Daily via AP)

"Theyre used as an example to terrify others ... of what can happen if you dont obey or if you go too far," Lui said. "I think other media may make a judgment to censor themselves."

The share price of Next Digital soared over 200% in the afternoon, following posts on a popular online forum encouraging investors to support the company by buying its stock.

The reasons for the charge against Lai weren't clear.

In May, shortly after Beijing announced its intention to pass the national security law for Hong Kong, Lai condemned the legislation in a series of tweets. The state-owned newspaper Global Times called the tweets "evidence of subversion."

FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020 file photo, activists Agnes Chow, left, and Joshua Wong arrive at a court in Hong Kong. Police arrested prominent pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow Ting at her home, on charges of inciting secession under the national security law, according to tweets by fellow activist Nathan Law, who is currently in Britain. A post on Chow's official Facebook page said police had arrived at her home and that her lawyers were rushing to the scene. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

Lai also wrote an op-ed in The New York Times in May stating that China was repressing Hong Kong with the legislation.

"I have always thought I might one day be sent to jail for my publications or for my calls for democracy in Hong Kong," Lai wrote. "But for a few tweets, and because they are said to threaten the national security of mighty China? Thats a new one, even for me."

Lai was arrested in February and April for allegedly participating in unauthorized protests last year. He also faces charges of joining an unauthorized vigil June 4 marking Beijing's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Last year, Lai met U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence and Pompeo at the White House to discuss a controversial bill  since withdrawn  that would have allowed criminal suspects in Hong Kong to be sent to mainland China for trial.

But Hong Kong officials have said the security law, which took effect June 30, would not be applied retroactively. The law is widely seen as a means to curb dissent after anti-government protests rocked the semi-autonomous city for months last year.

The legislation outlaws secessionist, subversive and terrorist acts, as well as collusion with foreign forces in the citys internal affairs. The maximum punishment for serious offenders is life imprisonment.

Taiwan condemned the arrests in a statement, saying they were a tool for the Chinese Communist Party's "political cleansing and hegemonic expansion." It said the law is being abused to suppress freedom of speech, press freedom and the civil rights of Hong Kong people.

___

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
(Newser)  McDonalds says it's suing Stephen Easterbrook, the CEO it ousted last year over an inappropriate relationship with an employee, alleging Monday that he covered up relationships with other employees and destroyed evidence. Easterbrook, according to a lawsuit, approved a special grant of restricted stock, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to one of those employees, per the AP. The company now wants to reclaim hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation paid to Easterbrook on his departure. McDonalds fired Easterbrook last November after he acknowledged exchanging videos and text messages in a non-physical, consensual relationship with an employee. Easterbrook, 53, told the company that there were no other similar instances.

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Based on what the company knew at the time, McDonalds board approved a separation agreement without cause that allowed Easterbrook to keep nearly $42 million in stock-based benefits, according to Equilar, which tracks executive compensation. Easterbrook also collected 26 weeks of pay, amounting to compensation of about $670,000. McDonalds says in a lawsuit that in July, it became aware of sexual relationships between Easterbrook and three other employees prior to his termination. The company said Monday that Easterbrook removed evidence of those relationshipsincluding sexually explicit photos and videos sent from corporate email accountsfrom his cell phone, preventing investigators from learning about them. McDonalds said it would not have terminated Easterbrook without cause if it had known of the additional relationships.

(Read more McDonald's stories.)
On Aug. 9 at 10:20 a.m. EDT (1420 UTC) NASAs Aqua satellite gathered temperature information about Tropical Storm Jangmis cloud tops. Aqua found the most powerful thunderstorms (red) around the center where cloud top temperatures were as cold as or colder than minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 56.6 Celsius). Credit: NASA/NRL

Tropical Storm Jangmi was exiting the East China Sea and moving toward the Sea of Japan when NASA's Aqua satellite measured the strength of the system.

Jangmi formed as a depression on Aug. 8. At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC), Tropical Depression 05W formed about 377 miles northeast of Manila, Philippines. Locally in the Philippines, the depression was known as Enteng. By 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC) on Aug. 9, the depression strengthened into a tropical storm.

On Aug. 9 at 10:20 a.m. EDT (1420 UTC) infrared data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite provided a look at cloud top temperatures in Tropical Storm Jangmi as it was about to move out of the East China Sea. Strongest thunderstorms that reach high into the atmosphere have the coldest cloud top temperatures.

MODIS found the most powerful thunderstorms were around the center of circulation, where temperatures were as cold as or colder than minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 56.6 Celsius). Cloud top temperatures that cold indicate strong storms with the potential to generate heavy rainfall.

On Aug. 10, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted that animated multispectral satellite imagery showed a partially exposed low-level circulation center with building strong thunderstorms in the northwestern quadrant of the storm.

On Monday, August 10, 2020 at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC), the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) noted that Tropical storm Jangmi was located near latitude 34.2 degrees north and longitude 128.7 degrees east, approximately 48 nautical miles south of Chinhae, South Korea. Jangmi was moving at 23 knots (26 mph/43 kph) and had maximum sustained winds of 35 knots gusting to 45 knots (52 mph/ 83 kph).

Jangmi is moving northeast past South Korea and is forecast to move into the Sea of Japan where it is forecast to merge with an approaching mid-latitude elongated area of low pressure (trough) and then become extra-tropical.

Tropical cyclones/hurricanes 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.

Explore further NASA infrared data confirms depression became Tropical Storm Elida
Antonio Banderas has coronavirus

The Mask of Zorro star Antonio Banderas has tested positive for coronavirus, the actor announced Monday. I want to make public that today, August 10, I am forced to celebrate my 60th birthday following quarantine after having tested positive for the Covid-19 disease caused by the coronavirus, he wrote in Spanish. Banderas, also known for Philadelphia, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Spy Kids and the Shrek franchise, said hes feeling relatively well but has been more tired than usual and is spending time reading, writing and resting in isolation.

Quiero contaros lo siguiente... pic.twitter.com/u579iBVLM0  Antonio Banderas (@antoniobanderas) August 10, 2020

Chris Pratt welcomes baby with Katherine Schwarzenegger

Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World star Chris Pratt has welcomed his first child with wife Katherine Schwarzenegger, E! News reports. Her brother, Patrick Schwarzenegger, told ET Sunday that Katherine and the baby are doing great and was getting them a gift, wrapped in a pink ribbon. Its the first child for Katherine, the youngest child of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, and the second for Pratt, who has a 7-year-old son named Jack with ex-wife Anna Faris.

Chris Pratt and Katherine Schwarzenegger have welcomed their first child together, according to multiple sources.



Congratulations to the couple on their new baby girl!  pic.twitter.com/0qydqeZdTT  MTV NEWS (@MTVNEWS) August 10, 2020

MORE BUZZ:

MTV VMAs wont be held at Barclays, will feature outdoor performances ( BB

Kelly Osbourne reveals 85-pound weight loss ( ET

TikTok threatens legal action after Trump order banning it in US ( BB

Jimi Hendrix guitar sells for $216,000 at auction ( RS

Zoe Kravitz slams Hulus lack of diversity after High Fidelity cancellation ( ET

Madonna exits Interscope Records after a decade ( BB

Fargo season 4 with Chris Rock set to premiere Sept. 27 ( RS

Away trailer: Hillary Swank is on a mission to Mars ( ET

Buzz is a daily roundup of entertainment news from movies, TV, music and celebrity gossip.

TV chef Rachael Rays Upstate NY home destroyed by fire (photos) https://t.co/rWUmOemiMy  Geoff Herbert (@deafgeoff) August 10, 2020
Agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection rescued 30 undocumented Mexican immigrants from the locked flatbed of a pickup truck when its driver abandoned it on a residential driveway in Arizona.

CBP agents were alerted of a suspicious vehicle in the border town of Douglas last Monday.

The driver of the pickup avoided the agents when they attempted to stop him, before abandoning the vehicle in the driveway of a home.

Pictured above are some of the 30 migrants who were found trapped inside an abandoned pickup truck in Douglas, Arizona, after U.S. Customs and Border Protection was tipped off about a suspicious vehicle transiting through the border city. The migrants, all from Mexico, were processed and deported

Upon conducting a search of the pickup truck, CBP agents found the large group of men, women and several children crammed inside the locked flatbed.

A CBP spokesperson told DailyMail.com that the driver has not been located.

The undocumented immigrants were detained and processed before they were immediately deported to Mexico under Title 42, which was signed by the White House in March on the heels of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Under Title 42, 'CBP is prohibiting the entry of certain persons who potentially pose a health risk, either by virtue of being subject to previously announced travel restrictions or because they unlawfully entered the country to bypass health screening measures.'

Tucson Sector Chief Roy Villareal said: 'Smugglers have long disregarded the safety of migrants. Now, during the pandemic, they not only risk the lives of migrants, they risk all of our lives by shoving migrants into vehicles without social distancing, without facial masks, and without any regard for the exposure of COVID-19 to other migrants and public at large.

'They show no regard for the lives they exploit, our workforce or the communities our agents strive to protect in the midst of this public health crisis.'
Lugano, Switzerland, 10 August 2020 - The science weekend of the ESMO Congress 2020 will be held as a virtual meeting between 19 and 21 September.

Abstract titles (more than 2,100) are already listed in the online programme, the titles of accepted late-breaking abstracts (around 100 expected) will be made available at the end of August (view the scientific programme). (1)

In order to plan your activities, we kindly ask you to take note of the new embargo schedule for the ESMO Virtual Congress 2020. (2)

Two embargoed press conferences will be held ahead of the Congress days, according to the following timeline:

Press Conference 1, Thursday, 10 September, 12:30-13:30 CEST

Press Conference 2, Thursday, 17 September, 12:30-13:30 CEST

ESMO welcomes media interested in reporting from the ESMO events and on cancer issues. In addition to having access to sessions, e-poster area, virtual exhibition area, and industry satellite symposia, accredited journalists will also have access to the congress webcasts. The webcast provides an opportunity to re-watch presentations, which might be helpful in the preparation of your activities.

To apply for media accreditation, please fill out the ESMO Media Registration Form. (3)

Media representatives are required to observe and abide by the ESMO Media Policy which applies to all ESMO events. (4)

Further information

ESMO Press Office

media@esmo.org

Notes to Editors

Please make sure to use the official name of the meeting in your reports: ESMO Virtual Congress 2020

Official Hashtag: #ESMO20

References

(1) Scientific programme https://cslide.ctimeetingtech.com/esmo2020/attendee/confcal/session/calendar

(2) Embargo schedule https://www.esmo.org/meetings/esmo-virtual-congress-2020/press-media

(3) Media registration form https://esmo.formstack.com/forms/media_registration_form_esmo2020

(4) ESMO Media Policy https://www.esmo.org/newsroom/esmo-media-policy-virtual-meetings

About the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)

ESMO is the leading professional organisation for medical oncology. With more than 25,000 members representing oncology professionals from over 160 countries worldwide, ESMO is the society of reference for oncology education and information. ESMO is committed to offer the best care to people with cancer, through fostering integrated cancer care, supporting oncologists in their professional development, and advocating for sustainable cancer care worldwide. http://www.esmo.org

###
Daniel Dae Kim and James Hong in 2007 (Credit: Ryan Miller/Getty Images)

Lost actor Daniel Dae Kim has raised more than $50,000 (nearly 40,000) towards a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for prolific Asian-American actor James Hong.

Hong, now 91, has appeared in well over 600 credited roles in a career spanning nearly 70 years.

Most famously, he's starred in movies like Chinatown, Big Trouble In Little China, Blade Runner and Airplane!

He's also had prominent voice roles in the likes of the Kung Fu Panda movies (playing Po's father Mr. Ping), as well as Mulan and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

James Hong in Blade Runner (Credit: Warner Bros)

This man epitomises the term 'working actor', and that's not even taking into account all he's done to help further representation for actors of colour, said Kim in his appeal.

Not only was he one of the few who worked steadily when there were even fewer roles than there are now, but he also served the Asian American community by co-creating the legendary East West Players theater company with fellow pioneers like Mako and Nobu McCarthy, just to name a few.



Let's show this man the respect and love his career has merited by getting him a Star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame!

Bryan Cranston, Dustin Hoffman and James Hong seen the world premiere of Kung Fu Panda 3 (Credit: Eric Charbonneau/Invision for Twentieth Century Fox/AP Images)

The fundraiser hit its target in only four days, and Kim will nominate Hong's application for a star in the spring, and provide the money raised for the star's installation and maintenance.

Should his nomination not be accepted for any reason, Kim has said that the money raised will be donated to a charity of Mr. Hong's choosing instead.

We are happy to consider Mr. Hong if he agrees on the nomination in writing, Hollywood Walk of Fame producer Ana Martinez told Variety.
INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bell Techlogix, an Indianapolis based IT managed services company, completed a strong second quarter of 2020, winning several new IT managed services clients, and securing over $40 million in contract signings. New clients include significant wins in the aerospace and defense, manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare sectors, all of which are key industries for Bell Techlogix. The Company's experience supporting clients in highly regulated environments, the attractiveness of their strong portfolio, its highly experienced team, and its client intimate approach were all essential factors that led to the selection and contract awards by these new clients.

Bell Techlogix is recognized in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for being a top provider of Managed Workplace Services in North America, including Service Desk, Field Services, Workstation Engineering, Asset Management, and ITIL cross-functional services (Knowledge Management, Change Management, Problem Management, and Major Incident Management). Bell Techlogix also has a very successful ServiceNow consulting and implementation practice and was selected to configure and implement this leading ITSM platform to meet the specific needs of many of its new clients. Additionally, new clients chose Bell Techlogix to provide Server and Network Infrastructure Services, including helping clients migrate their applications to the Cloud.

"We are proud to be awarded contracts from such prestigious companies, and we are delighted to welcome them to the Bell Techlogix family. We are committed to providing exceptional service quality to our clients and enabling their digital transformation. The first half of 2020 was especially strong for our Company with record growth across many of our service offerings. We achieved strong revenue and profit growth while adding over 50 new employees to our company. Delivering this great result in the middle of the COVID19 pandemic is a tremendous accomplishment. I am very proud of our team and thankful for our loyal and expanding client base," said Ron Frankenfield, CEO, Bell Techlogix.

About Bell Techlogix:

Bell Techlogix, headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, provides transformational Next Generation Digital Workplace and Infrastructure Management solutions to large and mid-market enterprises, as well as the public sector. With services that build, integrate, and support the next wave of operational transformation Bell Techlogix provides a true client partnership and an enhanced digital experience. Bell Techlogix provides a flexible approach that is globally capable but locally oriented that will systematically allow you to achieve growth, cost-savings, and acceleration of your business.

For more information on Bell Techlogix, please visit us on the web at https://belltechlogix.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-2020/, follow us on Twitter, like us on LinkedIn or Facebook.

SOURCE Bell Techlogix

Related Links

http://www.belltechlogix.com


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These are the remote Indonesia people accused of murdering and eating American heir Michael Rockefeller sixty years ago before they renounced cannibalism and turned to Christianity.



The images offer a rare glimpse of the Grand Valley Dani people, an ethnic group located in a remote part of western New Guinea in Indonesia.

Their ancestors are at the centre of the mystery of the 1961 disappearance of 23-year-old Rockefeller, whose great-grandfather was the co-founder of Standard Oil and established one of America's wealthiest dynasties, who travelled to New Guinea to photograph the Dani people and collect their art.

Rockefeller disappeared after a trading canoe that he was travelling in down the cannibal coast of New Guinea capsized while he was collecting the wooden carvings for his father's recently opened Museum of Primitive Art.

Several miles off shore, heavy seas swamped his craft. After a night adrift, Rockefeller set out to swim for the distant shore, leaving his companion Rene Wessing with the fateful words: 'I think I can make it' He was never seen again.

Rockefeller's death was eventually ruled a drowning, but there have long been questions about the official version of events.

A book published in 2014 by Carl Hoffman claims that there is 'clear and abundant' evidence that Rockefeller made it to shore and was killed and ceremonially eaten by the Asmat tribesmen. Rockefeller had also been studying the Dani before he vanished and the two closely-linked tribes inhabit the same region of Indonesia.

Hoffman carried out extensive research in the Netherlands as well as New Guinea researching his book Savage Harvest.

He claims that once Rockefeller made it to shore, the men of the Asmats - a notoriously violent New Guinea tribe - tortured, beheaded and ate Rockefeller in a ritualistic cannibal killing because the Dutch had killed five of their own elite Asmats.

The Dani tribe, another cannibal tribe in western New Guinea, were not discovered until 1938 when they were sighted from an airplane by American zoologist Richard Archbold on an expedition.

The Grand Valley Dani people wield their spears and flags for a Baliem festival ceremony performance, which unites local tribes

The tribesmen became infamous in 1961 after they were accused of killing and eating Michael Rockefeller, pictured here adjusting his camera in New Guinea with Papuan men in background

Holding a cigarette, this smiling Dani leader is covered in silver body paint made ash and pig fat. A pig rib nose ring completes his silvery look

Traditionally, the cannibal Dani tribe take souvenirs from their enemies when killed. This included eating them to gain their strength

One of their customs seen in this photo is the wearing of a Koteka, commonly referred to as a penis sheath

The tribe were cannibals until the 1990s when Christian missionaries stopped the practice, and now the tribe only eat meat on special occasions

They are seen in these photographs wearing traditional silver body paint, pig rib nose rings and penis sheaths.

One photograph captures a smiling Dani tribe leader covered in silver bodypaint made from ash and pig fat, with a pig rib hooked through his nose - and holding a cigarette.

Another image showed the tribe practising war formations and spear throwing at the Baliem festival, held every August, which unites and celebrates the 25,000 population of the Dani people with other local tribes in the highlands.

The images of the tribesmen where captured by photographer and software engineer Roberto Pazzi, 47, of Majorca, Spain, who snapped the shots with a Nikon D600 with 24-85mm.

Originally from Milan, Italy, Roberto captured the Grand Valley Dani people located in Baliem Valley, West Papua, Indonesia.

One of their customs seen in the photos is the wearing of an unusual piece of underwear worn by males - the Koteka - which is commonly referred to as a penis sheath.

The tribe were cannibals until three decades ago, when Christian missionaries stopped the practice, and now the tribe only eat meat on special occasions. They only eat pigs for very important ceremonies such as birth, or marriage.

'I wanted to visit them because they were one of the last tribes to ever be discovered on earth, just 82 years ago, they live in over five-thousand-feet of forest, so were quite hard to find,' said Roberto.

Traditionally, grieving Dani women cut off the tips of their fingers which is meant to symbolise the pain one feels after losing a loved one

A tribesman covered in silver body paint sits wearing a head dress and a pig rib nose ring

The Grand Valley Dani people were not discovered until 1938 when they were sighted from an airplane by American zoologist Richard Archbold

The Dani languages only have two words for colours: 'mili' for cool and dark shades and 'mola' for warm and light colours

The men are losing traditions of penis sheaths by switching them for trousers and women are also covering up with more clothes

'I was shocked to learn that the men are polygamous, but because of financial struggles many men do not have more than two wives.

'Also grieving women who lose the men in their family do cut off the tips of their fingers because it is believed that women do not feel pain as much as men.

'They were also cannibals until the 1990s because they believed if they ate their enemy, they could gain their power.

'But they are losing traditions thanks to globalisation and the Indonesian government.

'The men are losing traditions of penis sheaths by switching them for trousers.

'Meanwhile the women are also covering up with more clothes, but they still do not have any mobile phones or automobiles.

'They do use some gifts they are given; one was playing an acoustic guitar. I brought them sugar and cigarettes and they welcomed me in return.

'Overall it was an unforgettable experience, the cute children were so happy to be playing with nothing, and the men were sceptical at first but there was a lot of respect.

'Unfortunately I didn't interact with the women much to avoid to upsetting men due to their culture.'

Their main crops are banana, sweet potato, and cassava. The hold sweet potatoes in the highest regard, and it is used for bartering, and even in taking a daughter's hand-in-marriage.

The remote tribe, who have over 300 visitors per year according to 2013 estimates, use hot stones to cook their food.

New Guinea's cannibals became infamous in 1961 after they were accused of the murder of Michael Rockefeller, who was the son of then-New York Governor and billionaire Nelson Rockefeller.

In 1961, Michael Rockefeller, son of former US vice-president Nelson Rockefeller, went missing in the valley at just age 23.

He was paddling a 40-foot-long canoe with a Dutch anthropologist when it capsized. His body was never recovered.

The Dani people live in over five-thousand-feet of forest and many now live in tin roofed houses instead of thatched huts
Facebook has launched Facebook Financial, a new group focused on all payments and commerce-related opportunities with Libra co-founder David Marcus at the helm.

Marcus will now head up all payments projects at the tech giant. According to a Bloomberg report published Monday, the project, internally known as F2, is an effort to reorganize commerce strategy at Facebook. Facebook also added former Upwork Inc. Chief Executive Officer Stephane Kasriel to its payments team. Kasriel will report to Marcus as the vice president of payments.

"Today we're creating a new group to look after all things payments/FS [financial services] at Facebook," Marcus tweeted.

One of the many projects that Facebook Financial will oversee includes Facebook Pay, which is Facebooks universal payment feature that the company intends to integrate within all its apps.

Marcus has worked at Facebook for six years, working on Facebook Messenger prior to taking the lead on Libra. Before joining Facebook, he was president of PayPal Holdings Inc. In addition to his new role as head of Facebook Financial, Marcus will also continue to direct the team that is creating Novi, a digital wallet to support the Libra cryptocurrency.

"No changes @Novi, which I'll continue to lead directly," Marcus said in a tweet.

With Facebook Financial, he'll also continue his work on WhatsApps payments front in India and Brazil, among other countries. This is Facebooks latest move to merge its apps and products into a unified experience for its users. The end goal is to grow Facebooks advertising and have users spend more time within the companys platform by having them purchase goods on Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, according to the report.

The company has spent heavily on making WhatsApp a stop for commerce in India and Brazil, and setting up a payment system within the app for those jurisdictions remains an immediate goal. However, as The Block previously reported, the central bank of Brazil suspended WhatsApps payments services just a week after it was launched in June 2020.





 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.
Bank Of Ireland is to reimburse customers who lost money to scammers through a smishing cyber fraud campaign that inserted fake texts into genuine interactions between the bank and account holders.

But what exactly is smishing? How does it work? And what do you need to guard against? Heres a quick guide to the fraudulent activity.

1. How does smishing work?

Smishing attacks can be either crude or sophisticated. In the case of Bank of Ireland and AIB, the fraudsters managed to insert their criminal texts into legitimate text conversations between the banks and their customers.

Read More

Security experts say that this isnt easy to do and sometimes involves manipulation of SMS services called gateways that are often commercially used by big companies. But global security experts have been warning about such vulnerabilities in SMS delivery systems for years.

Once the criminal has entered a pre-existing text chat, the fraudulent text will ask the customer to click on a link, usually by claiming that their card or account has been frozen or that there is some other type of problem that needs quick attention.

2. Is this the same as spoofing?

Theyre related. Spoofing is where you make it seem that an email address, phone number or web address is someone elses - typically that of a legitimate business.

Unfortunately, this is very easy to do at a low level on the internet, ranging from so-called prank services such as Spoofbox, Deadfake and Anonymailer to much more sophisticated bespoke systems.

Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of programming can also get in on the act with a few simple lines of code. In about 10 minutes, its possible to send someone an email purporting to show the email address of almost anyone - private or public - you choose.

3. Are smishing attacks obvious?

Often they are not. Misspelled text messages (or emails) throw up obvious red flags right away. But others, framed in typical banking language and terminology, may not be as clearly fake.

And it is especially hard to spot if its part of what appears to be a pre-existing text conversation.

4. Dont banks often say theyll never ask you to click on something in an email or link?

Not quite: this is also a big part of the problem. Banks sometimes ask you to click on links in emails or texts. It might be a survey, for example.

Furthermore, financial institutions also sometimes call customers and, before clearly establishing their own bona fides, ask customers for personal details for security or data protection reasons. The banking customer experience is full of contradictions when it comes to security principles.

5. How can you guard against smishing attacks?

Most legitimate services will never text or email you with just one or two lines and a link. Even if they do (theyre not supposed to), dont hit the link  contact them back using another means.

In other words, look up their website or phone number to make sure they sent it to you If youre unsure, copy one of the phrases from the text and google it  if its a scam, theres a reasonable chance your Google result will confirm as much.

A foreign number (represented by a + before the number) is also a telltale sign, as are bad spelling and grammar.

6. What kind of other scams are doing the rounds in Ireland?

Theres a regularly recurring fake text message purporting to be from Ros.ie, claiming that a tax return is ready to be claimed. There are also scam texts labelled An Post claiming that a parcel is being held and asking you for 2 plus your bank details to release it.

Then theres the fraudulent Whatsapp drivers licence scam where criminals try to get you to contact the National Driver License Service (NDLS) through WhatsApp to apply for or renew your driving licence at a cost of 200.

Theres even a fake contact-tracing app text around, saying: Someone who came into contact with your tested positive or has shown symptoms for Covid-19 and recommends that you self-isolate. It then asks you click the scam link.
Press Trust of India

Scientists have identified a structure in host cells which the novel coronavirus likely uses to make components that will be assembled into fully infectious viruses, an advance which may lead to the development of new drugs against COVID-19.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, uncovers a coronavirus-specific structure in cells, which may act as a target for much-needed antiviral strategies against this family of viruses.

According to the scientists, including those from the Leibnitz Institute of Experimental Virology in Germany, coronaviruses replicate their large genomes in the host cell's cytosol  the jelly-like material in which the components of the cell are suspended.

They said the viruses replicate by transforming host cell membranes into peculiar double-membrane vesicle (DMV) structures.

In the current study, they noted that the newly made viral genetic material, its RNA molecule, needs to be exported from these DMVs to the cytoplasm to be packaged into complete, infectious forms of the virus.

To date, however, they said no openings to the cytosol have been detected in the DMV replication compartments.

Seeking to understand how viral RNA is exported from sealed DMVs, the scientists, Georg Wolff and his colleagues used a powerful microscopy technique called electron tomography to visualize the middle stage of infection of a cell by mouse hepatitis coronavirus.

They said this virus was used instead of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 due to biosafety constraints for such electron microscopy studies.

The scientists identified a coronavirus-specific crown-shaped structure  a molecular pore spanning the two DMV membranes  that likely plays a role during RNA release from the compartment.

Then using pre-fixed samples of SARS-CoV-2-infected cells, they showed that the structure is also present in SARS-CoV-2-induced DMVs.

According to the researchers, this structure may be a generic complex with a pivotal role in the coronavirus replication cycle, facilitating the export of newly synthesized viral RNA from the DMVs to the cytosol.

"Although the exact mode of function of this molecular pore remains to be elucidated, it may offer a general coronavirus-specific drug target," the scientists noted.
Twitter has approached TikToks Chinese owner ByteDance to express an interest in buying its US operations, according to reports.

Video-sharing platform TikTok has been at the centre of fierce debate in recent weeks and takeover talk.

Last week US Donald Trump ordered firms to stop doing business with TikTok within 45 days over security concerns.

Tech giant Microsoft is the front-runner to buy TikTok but now Twitter has emerged as a possible suitor.

But it remains unclear whether Twitter can afford to buy TikTok from its Chinese owners and can complete a deal within the 45-day window, according to sources quoted in the Wall Street Journal.

The value of TikToks US operations are unclear but estimates put it at tens of billions of dollars.

Twitters market capitalisation is about $29bn (22bn), dwarfed by Microsofts at more than $1.6tn.

But experts believe a possible Twitter deal would face less regulatory scrutiny than Microsofts.

A Twitter spokesman declined to comment on a possible deal while TikTok didnt respond immediately when contacted by the BBC.

Shocked

Last Friday, Mr Trump ordered US firms to stop doing business with the Chinese app within 45 days. The Trump administration claims that the Chinese government has access to user information gathered by TikTok, which the firm has consistently denied.

In response to the US presidents executive order, TikTok has threatened legal action against the US saying it was shocked by the move.

The US government also unveiled a ban on Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat as tensions escalate between the two countries.

Mr Trump said last week he would support Microsofts efforts to buy TikToks US operations if the government got a substantial portion of the proceeds.

He has set a deadline of 15 September for the deal to be completed or the ban will go ahead.

Microsoft said it will move quickly to pursue discussions for TikToks operations in the US, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

Even if the deal goes through, be it Microsoft or Twitter taking a substantial stake in TikTok, what remains to be seen is how both parties are going to move forward operationally, said communications expert Sharon Koh.

It will also take a tumultuous effort for both organisations to meander through the political sensitivities, she added.

----BBC
Kanye West has just received a rather disappointing news with regards to his 2020 U.S. presidential bid.

The Grammy Award winner appears to be having some trouble landing on the official ballot as an independent nominee in his hometown in Chicago, Illinois.

Kanye West Booted Off in His Hometown

It came after the Chicago-born rapper fell short in the number of valid signatures needed to be considered as an independent presidential candidate.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the state's election officials found out that 1,900 of the 3,128 signatures that the music icon submitted were invalid.

In order for the presidential hopeful to put his name in the official ballot, he must submit 2,500 signatures. Unfortunately, the hearing officer only recorded 1,200 valid signatures.

Although it is unclear why the said signatures were considered invalid, TMZ cited that the issues might be due to "fake names, fake addresses, unregistered voters in Illinois or illegible signatures."

On the brighter side, the Yeezy creator still has until August 21 to secure evidence showing that the submitted signatures are legal. However, Ed Mullen, one of the lawyers questioning West's petition, mentioned that he "is virtually certain to be kicked off the ballot."

"In my case against #KanyeWest , IL Bd of Elections records examination today finds him 1,300 valid signatures short of the minimum required, meaning he is virtually certain to be kicked off the ballot in IL," he wrote.

Kanye West Face Charges Over Voter Fraud?

Meanwhile, the "Flashing Lights" artist has to withdraw his nomination in New Jersey amid the accusations over voter fraud, as cited by Fox News.

It came after election lawyer Scott Salmon filed charges against the father-of-four due to signature counterfeit.

"Literally every single signature on there came from the same person. Signatures that were clearly identical signatures where the signed name didn't match the printed name, where there was a first name but no last name, where it included a street address but, no town," Salmon said.

Aside from his hometown, Kanye was also removed in several states as he failed to make it to the official ballot.

These include Michigan, Florida, Texas, South Carolina and 21 other states as the deadline for the petition has ended.

It was reported that the presidential hopeful dropped $30,000 to be included on the ballot, while he spent $35,000 for filing fees to appear in the poll in Oklahoma.

Will Kanye Make It As The Next Us President?

Kanye West has been in the headlines for months after he made his shocking announcement on Twitter regarding his political ambition.

The billionaire music icon, who was once a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, ditched the current U.S. president and even called the presumptive Democratic rival and former Vice-President Joe Biden "not special."

"I'm not saying Trump's in my way, he may be a part of my way. And Joe Biden? Like, come on man, please. You know? Obama's special. Trump's special. We say Kanye West is special. America needs special people that lead. Bill Clinton? Special. Joe Biden's not special," West told Forbes.

It also triggered his marriage woes with wife Kim Kardashian after his controversial first presidential campaign in South Carolina, where he confessed that he and the reality star considered aborting their eldest daughter North.

READ MORE: Kim Kardashian Twitter: 3 Most Controversial Twitter Feud of Kim K -- REVEALED!
A Brisbane magistrate has rejected University of Queensland student and human rights activist Drew Pavlou's quest to file a form of restraining order against Brisbane's Chinese consul-general, citing Xu Jie's diplomatic immunity.

Mr Pavlou lodged the peace and good behaviour application after the diplomat issued a press release condemning an anti-China protest on the university's grounds in July 2019, at which Mr Pavlou was allegedly assaulted.

Suspended University of Queensland Drew Pavlou outside the courts in Brisbane on Monday. Credit:Lucy Stone

Peace and good behaviour orders can be issued to protect a person's right to peace and quiet, free of threats to their wellbeing or quality of life.

Mr Pavlou alleged the press release issued by Mr Xu incited violence against him and was a direct threat to himself.
Kerala plane crash: 56 injured passengers discharged, says AI Express

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Aug 10: The Air India Express said on Monday that 56 passengers, who were injured in the plane crash in Kozhikode, have been discharged from various hospitals after obtaining complete fitness.

Pranab Mukherjee tests Covid-19 +ve | Former President tests positive | Oneindia News

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had said on Saturday that 149 people have been admitted to hospitals, 23 have been discharged, while three are critically injured in the B737 plane crash.

"The Chief Executive Officer, Air India Express Ltd as well as Regional Head-Southern Region continue to remain in Calicut (Kozhikode) to render continuous support to the family members," the airline said in a statement on Monday. "As on date, 56 injured passengers have been discharged from various hospitals after obtaining their complete fitness," it added. Air India Express, a wholly owned subsidiary of national carrier Air India, has only B737 aircraft in its fleet.

On Sunday, the airlines said the mortal remains of 16 passengers, who lost their lives in the plane crash, have been handed over to their families.

The bodies of the pilot-in-command Captain Deepak Sathe and his co- pilot Akhilesh Kumar of the AIE flight, were handed over to their families on Saturday.

Kerala plane crash: 14 passengers critical; probe under way to determine exact cause

The remains of co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar were cremated on Sunday with attendance from all family members as well as officials of Air India and Air India Express at Mathura, his hometown, it said.

The Boeing 737 flight from Dubai with 190 people, including a six-member crew, overshot the tabletop runway during landing at the Kozhikode airport in heavy rain on Friday night, fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two, killing 18 people, including the pilots.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has initiated an investigation with the support of Flight Safety Officials and it will take some time before it is completed, the airline said.

"As regards the deceased passengers, the mortal remains have been handed over to the families with their consent," it said.

"The mortal remains (of Sathe) were honourably received today i.e. 9th August 2020 at Mumbai International Airport by the officials of Air India and Air India Express who were present to receive the family of the deceased captain along with the mortal remains of the Captain," the airline noted.

The prayer meeting was arranged at Air India premises in Mumbai which was attended by senior officials of the national carrier as well as Air India Express, said the statement.

Many pilots, cabin crew and other personnel also joined the prayer meeting, it added.

Transcripts from retrieved black box to be available soon: DGCA on Kerala plane crash

A total of 149 people have been admitted to hospitals. Twenty-three have been discharged, while three are critically injured, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said Saturday after his visit to Kozhikode Medical College, where many of the passengers were admitted.

Air India Express is a wholly owned subsidiary of national carrier Air India.
A storage unit used by Teddys Ice Cream in Dun Laoghaire Harbour was one of five premises hit by closure orders last month after the discovery of rodent droppings.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) today released details of five such orders and two prohibition orders which were served on business in July for breaches of food safety legislation.

The closure order only related to an enclosed food packaging and storage unit used by the well-known ice-cream vendor, which came after an inspection by a HSE officer on July 14.

In their report, they said that evidence of rodent infestation and droppings were noted in the store area. Food packaging and foodstuffs were stored in the area, leaving them exposed to contamination by rodents.

The area was described as very poorly pest-proofed" with numerous holes, gaps and defects noted in the structure allowing potential access to rodents. Poison had been scattered on the floor.

The officer described the scene as a grave and immediate danger to foodstuffs in the unit as rodents can transmit pathogens through their droppings and urine.

A spokesperson for Teddys Ice Cream said that a storage unit for a "small concession at Dun Laoghaire's East pier" was served a closure notice last month.

"This does not impact any other stores. This concession has been closed since the middle of March, to adhere to the Covid-19 Government recommendations," they said.

"Before its closure, the unit was not used to store food for service. The issues outlined are being dealt with and the unit will not be used in the future."

The spokesperson added that they appreciate the strict standards upheld by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and "are committed to implementing them across all our stores and concessions".

"As a family business, we are heartbroken that there has been so much confusion as to the location of this storage unit and want to offer reassurance that this was not in an area that ever served or stored food.

"We will ensure this is not an issue in the future and want to reassure our loyal customers that we will continue to serve our freshly whipped and soft scoop traditional ice-cream in the safest way, while adhering to social distancing.

Other closure orders issued last month related to a Londis in Cabra where an inspector found that raw meat was being cut and packaged in an area where ready-to-eat food is stored.

A poultry storage business in Dublin 15 was also found to be in contravention of food safety regulations after putrified meat unfit for human consumption was being kept at the establishment.

Another premise order to close was the Indian Prince in Portlaoise. The reasons cited by the HSE officer was the discovery of rodent droppings in areas where open packages of food are stored and prepared.

According to Dr Pamela Byrne, FASI chief executive, recent inspections have identified a number of breaches of food legislation related to food safety and hygiene practices.

They have also identified some food businesses operating outside of the law that were not registered or approved.

A number of serious incidents have been identified where authorised officers found people operating out of food premises or vehicles where no adherence to basic food safety and hygiene practices where in place, she said.

A food business was found transporting unrefrigerated meat and meat products in the boot and back seat of a car. On another occasion, a wholesale business was operating in filthy conditions with unfit and out of date food. Another establishment had a significant level of unlabelled and untraceable food on its premises.

She warned that anyone selling food must register with the relevant authorities and adhere to the strictest regulations.
Partnership with veteran owned and operated Connective Human brings awareness to organization's mission of helping build communities

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Trulieve Cannabis Corp. (CSE: TRUL) & (OTCQX: TCNNF) ("Trulieve" or "the Company"), a United States-based leading medical cannabis company, announced today a new partner for their TruVet Program, a monthly program that highlights the many resources available to veterans through local and statewide organizations. Trulieve is working with Connective Human, a veteran owned and operated organization based in Central Florida, throughout the month of August.

The TruVet Program was launched this year with a goal of educating veterans on the accessibility, benefits, and uses of medicinal cannabis. Sponsored outreach programs include veteran non-profits across the nation which offer financial support, educational seminars, product explanation, and connection with local doctors in the area.

For August, Trulieve has partnered with Connective Human, whose core purpose is to connect corporations to nonprofits who encourage change in their communities. The organization hosts custom team building and wellness programs, allowing corporations to collaborate on community initiatives that solve real needs while instilling a connective and inclusive culture.

"A big part of our story is to create and encourage change in our communities, to connect with others and give businesses and nonprofits in our areas the opportunity to grow together. When veterans come back, they often struggle with reintegration; as a veteran myself, I understand how important it is to work with organizations that not only care about the community, but care about and understand the specific needs of veterans," said Connective Human President and Founder, Beau Blouin. "Trulieve matches our mission of connecting with communities and working to encourage diversity and inclusion by offering information and resources. We're honored to partner with them this month and look forward to further connecting with Florida's veteran community."

Currently, veterans are eligible for an in-store discount on Trulieve products. Trulieve also has long-standing partnerships with local veteran organizations throughout the state and encourages patients to inquire about resources at their local dispensary or on our TruVets webpage.

Trulieve also operates a TruVet Facebook Group, which functions as a resource and support group. Created for veterans, as well as their dependents or caregivers, the group helps those seeking further education in the cannabis community and support from fellow veterans.

"More than ever, we're focused on connecting with the communities we call home and sharing the resources available to people across the state. Trulieve's core values include embracing diversity, supporting social equity, and encouraging inclusivity, and aligning with partners like Connective Human supports these values we aim to embody daily," said Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers. "Compassionate care is at our core, and we're honored to work with Connective Human to continue making that possible across the state."

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 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 51 dispensaries in locations across the state from Pensacola to Key West.

The Office of Medical Marijuana Use recently announced the registry had surpassed 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.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of any of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. 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 the securities laws of any state of the United States and may not be offered or sold within the United States (as defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act) unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to an exemption from such registration requirements.

To learn more about Trulieve, visit www.Trulieve.com.

SOURCE Trulieve Cannabis Corp.
Egypt reported 174 new coronavirus cases on Monday, the health ministry announced in a statement, bringing the total number of confirmed infections nationwide to 95,666 cases since the detection of the first case in February.

The country has now registered less than 200 new cases a day for nine days in a row.

Egypts daily toll of new cases dropped below the 200-case threshold for the first time since April on 2 August, with the daily toll hovering between 110 and 178 cases.

The ministry said in the statement that it had recorded 26 new deaths on Monday, bringing the total number of fatalities from the respiratory virus to 5,035.

Figures from the ministry's daily bulletin showed 1,101 recovered patients have been discharged over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries to 53,779.

The decline in infections and deaths comes despite the relaxing of precautionary measures in recent months.

Since late June, Egypt has been phasing out some of the anti-virus restrictions, including lifting a nighttime curfew, reopening restaurants and resuming regular international flights.

However, the government warned last month that it may reinstate measures if the infection rate spikes.

Health ministry, Hala Zayed on Sunday urged citizens to strictly adhere to preventive measures in anticipation of a rise in coronavirus cases, especially with the increased gatherings that took place during this months Eid Al-Adha holiday.

Egypts coronavirus isolation hospitals are set to reopen this week in preparation for a possible second wave of COVID-19, which could possibly hit the country harder than the first wave, manager of Al-Nagila hospital Mohamed Taleb said in televised remarks on Sunday.

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An ex-financial firm CEO who paid $850,000 to get his children into elite universities has described life behind bars as 'torture' as he pleads to be released from jail.

Douglas Hodge, 62, an ex-Pimco boss, pleaded guilty last fall to paying $850,000 in bribes over an 11-year period to ensure his four children were accepted into the University of Southern California and Georgetown University.

He arrived at a federal prison in Otisville, New York, on June 23 and is now demanding that he be allowed to serve the rest of his nine-month sentence at home.

Douglas Hodge (pictured), 62, an ex-Pimco boss, pleaded guilty last fall to paying $850,000 in bribes over an 11-year period to ensure his four children were accepted into elite colleges but now pleads to be released from jail

Hodge's lawyers claim that he was placed in solitary confinement for 29 days and sat in his cell for all but 15 minutes every day, according to the Boston Herald.

Appealing to U.S. Attorney Andrew Lellings Boston office, Hodge's lawyers said: 'The government essentially argues that Mr. Hodge deserves this harsh sentence and the consequences for his family because he is unrepentant.

'The government is wrong; Mr. Hodge has taken complete and sole responsibility for his conduct.'

Hodge's plea for compassionate release or a reduced sentence comes as he claims that being locked up during the coronavirus pandemic is 'torture under United Nations guidelines'.

However, Lelling's office has called Hodge's description absurd.

Prosecutors say that Hodge's claims of being 'torture' are false and explain that he was kept in quarantine for two 14-day cycles as a pre-caution to minimise risks from the virus. Pictured: The Federal Correctional Institution, Otisville

Feds say that all prisoners at the medium-security prison Hodge is kept at can shower three times a week and use the phone twice in that time and are entitled to fresh clothing, water jugs and ice.

Prosecutors say that Hodge's claims of being 'torture' are false and explain that he was kept in quarantine for two 14-day cycles as a pre-caution to minimise risks from the virus.

They also point to Hodge expressing remorse for his action at his sentencing hearing but then publishing an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal where he claims to be the victim.

Judge Nathaniel Gorton has not ruled on Hodge's plea to date and later this month a federal judge in Boston will also rule on whether to accept a plea deal from Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli.
President Muhammadu Buhari met on Monday with North-East governors and security chiefs over the growing insecurity in the region.

The meeting at the State House, Abuja, was also attended by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, and the presidents Chief of Staff, Ibrahim Gambari.

All governors of the region: Babagana Zulum of Borno; Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa; Bala Mohammed of Bauchi; Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe, Darius Ishaku of Taraba and Mala Buni of Yobe were in attendance.

Mr Zulum spoke to journalists after the meeting, and gave a highlight of what they discussed. He was accompanied by Mr Fintiri.

Excerpts:

Mr Zulum: Arising from the North-East governors forum meeting held in Maiduguri on Saturday, we met the president with a view to highlighting the key challenges in the region, especially issues of security, decaying infrastructure especially rock projects. Cases of oil exploration in the region, issues of enhancing river basin development in the region among others. That is the main reason why we met Mr President.

Insecurity

The governments of the region have commended the efforts of the federal government in securing the region. However, we told Mr President that there is a need for the federal government to address the causes of the insurgency, which are not limited to endemic poverty, hunger among others.

One of the root causes is that of access to farmlands, people need to go back to their farmlands, people need to be resettled in their original homes so that they can restart their means of livelihood. This is one of the reasons the insurgents are recruiting more into the sect and therefore creating an enabling environment will enable the people to go about their normal duties will no doubt reduce the cases of insurgency.

FILE: Governors of the Northeastern states arriving at the State House, Abuja for a meeting President Muhammadu Buhari. [PHOTO CREDIT: @BashirAhmaad] President Muhammadu Buhari this afternoon, met with governors of the Northeastern states on security and development at the State House. VP, SGF, CoS, NSA, HMoD, Service Chiefs and other heads of security agencies were in attendance. [PHOTO CREDIT: @BashirAhmaad] President Muhammadu Buhari this afternoon, met with governors of the Northeastern states on security and development at the State House. VP, SGF, CoS, NSA, HMoD, Service Chiefs and other heads of security agencies were in attendance. [PHOTO CREDIT: @BashirAhmaad]

We also recommended that police should be empowered, to be provided with certain state of the art equipment, armoured personnel carrier and so on with a view to bridging the manpower gap that we are having in the Nigerian military.

Your reaction to the recent attack on you has been described as an act of ingratitude, how do you react? Also, there are suggestions that the military was not committed to solving the Boko Haram problem in Borno and the North-East, that they are in fact engaging in a thriving business and as such do not want the insurgency to end. Can you clarify this?

We have had a series of consultations after the attack and I think security is not only about the federal government; there is a need for the federal, states, and the local government to come together with a view to proferring solutions that will end this crisis in the region.

But most importantly, there is war in the region and I think that is why we are here. So I think the government is taking a bold step with a view to ensuring speedy resolution of some of the gray areas that we have in the region.
Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen (R) gestures to US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar during his visit to the Presidential Office in Taipei on August 10, 2020.

U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar offered President Donald Trump's strong support for democratic Taiwan on Monday, telling President Tsai Ing-wen that her government's response to the coronavirus pandemic had been among the world's best.

Azar arrived in Taiwan on Sunday as the highest-level U.S. official to visit in four decades, a trip condemned by China which claims the island as its own, further irritating Sino-U.S. relations. China has promised unspecified retaliation to Azar's trip.

Washington broke off official ties with Taipei in 1979 in favor of Beijing. The Trump administration has made strengthening its support for the democratic island a priority, and boosted arms sales.

"It's a true honor to be here to convey a message of strong support and friendship from President Trump to Taiwan," Azar told Tsai in the Presidential Office, standing in front of two Taiwanese flags.

Azar is visiting to strengthen economic and public-health cooperation with Taiwan and support Taiwan's international role in fighting the pandemic.

"Taiwan's response to COVID-19 has been among the most successful in the world, and that is a tribute to the open, transparent, democratic nature of Taiwan's society and culture," he told Tsai.

Taiwan's early and effective steps to fight the disease have kept its case numbers far lower than those of its neighbors, with 480 infections, including seven deaths. Most cases have been imported.

The United States, which has had more coronavirus cases and deaths than any other country, has repeatedly clashed with China over the pandemic, accusing Beijing of lacking transparency.

Tsai told Azar his visit represented "a huge step forward in anti-pandemic collaborations between our countries", mentioning areas of cooperation including vaccine and drug research and production.

Taiwan has been particularly grateful for U.S. support to permit its attendance at the World Health Organization's (WHO) decision-making body the World Health Assembly, and to allow it greater access to the organization.

Taiwan is not a member of the WHO due to China's objections, which considers it a Chinese province.

"I'd like to reiterate that political considerations should never take precedence over the rights to health. The decision to bar Taiwan from participating in the WHA is a violation of the universal rights to health," Tsai said.
At least six killed and 10 wounded in explosion targeting anti-drug force in the border town of Chaman.

A bomb targeting an anti-drug force tore through a busy market in Pakistans southwestern Balochistan province, killing at least six people and wounding 10 others, police and hospital officials said.

The explosion on Monday took place when an improvised bomb planted in a motorcycle went off in the heart of the city of Chaman, which borders Afghanistan.

A vehicle carrying personnel from a unit tasked with combating narcotics smuggling was believed to be the target, senior police official Razzaq Cheema said.

The explosion killed six passersby and wounded 10 others, two of them critically, he told AFP news agency.

Mohammad Ali, a local police official, said some of the wounded were in critical condition.

Security forces and police cordoned off the area, where residents said several shops and vehicles were damaged.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but ethnic Balochi separatists demanding greater autonomy have been waging a rebellion for years while the province is also riven by sectarian strife and violence by armed groups.

Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the bombing and said he was praying for the recovery of those wounded.

Interior Minister Ejaz Shah said in a statement that such attacks are aimed at spreading fear among the people.

Balochistan has seen a surge in attacks in recent months, with fighters attacking a luxury hotel, a military convoy and members of the minority Shia community.

The mineral-rich province, which also borders Iran, is the largest of Pakistans four provinces, but its roughly seven million inhabitants have long complained they do not receive a fair share of its gas and mineral wealth.

China is investing in the area under a $54bn project known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, upgrading infrastructure, power and transport links between its far-western Xinjiang region and Pakistans Gwadar port in Balochistan.
He was paralyzed from the waist down in 2014, after being sprayed with gunfire while standing at the intersection of 64th Street and King Drive, according to an archived Chicago Tribune article. One of the 13 bullets that struck him damaged his spinal cord and left him confined to a wheelchair, according to the article.
Figure 1

Segilola Gold Project, Osun, Nigeria

Segilola Gold Project, Osun, Nigeria

Figure 2

Leach tank construction progress

Leach tank construction progress

Figure 3

Water Storage Dam and Water Storage Facility

Water Storage Dam and Water Storage Facility

Figure 4

Camp and main buildings

Camp and main buildings

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. WIRE SERVICES

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Thor Explorations Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: THX) (Thor or the Company) is pleased to announce that concrete has been poured on the Segilola process plant site, construction and procurement are progressing on schedule and on budget with first gold pour expected in Q2 2021.



Highlights:

First concrete has been poured at the process plant

Water Storage Facility is at final height and is starting to fill

Detailed design 80% complete

Main Camp buildings are at roof level

Procurement 60% complete, with SAG and Ball mills scheduled for delivery in early 2021

Over 200 members of the local communities have been employed by the project

No Lost Time Injuries to date

COVID -19 monitoring and mitigation measures continue at site

Segun Lawson, President & CEO, stated: Our construction team and EPC contractor, Norinco International Cooperation Limited, are continuing to deliver on our targets in a challenging operating environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I cannot speak highly enough of the professionalism being displayed day in and day out by our workforce and contractors.

Figure 1 is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bcfe67e6-d1db-4b26-b21c-ab1ed7f13110

Construction Update

The first concrete has been poured by Norinco International Ltd (Norinco), the LSTK EPC Contractor, for the foundations for the plant at Segilola and the CIP tank foundation pouring is in process.

Figure 2 is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/92b9df41-d259-4d9a-9506-dd9ff205e79a

The Water Storage Facility has been constructed to final height and the spillway construction is progressing. The facility is filling well and is expected to reach full capacity before the end of the year.

Story continues

Figure 3 is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f1429db9-ad1b-49b5-a562-0ae351ae7ece

Construction at the main camp is continuing with the main buildings at roof level. Handover of the administration, technical services, dining facilities, clinic and recreational facilities is expected in Q4 2020.

Figure 4 is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9f6c452c-b02d-425f-bb0b-8578c0d355b1

Procurement is 60% complete, with vendors re-confirming delivery times. The first shipment of materials recently arriving at Lagos port. Long lead items are scheduled to arrive on site in Q4 2020 and Q1 2021.

Local employment is a key aspect of the Companys development approach and during this initial period over 360 jobs have been created, with 92% being Nigerian nationals and approximately 56% being from the local communities.

The Company has a strong and proactive approach to health and safety and to date the Project completed over 220,000 man hours with no lost time injuries.

COVID-19

As the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic continues to have a global effect, the health and safety of our employees, communities and contractors are our utmost priority. The Company is taking steps and precautions to address the effects of the pandemic responsibly and to limit potential exposure to the rapidly changing situation. Measures have been put in place to monitor and mitigate against the spread of COVID -19 which includes testing, monitoring, and all-round practices of cleanliness and washing to ensure any instances of COVID-19 are instantly monitored and identified. A handbook has been provided for all personnel and both HSE teams from Thor and Norinco continue to report on this on a daily basis following constant monitoring. All government and regulatory rules are also adhered to.

Exploration

Both the contracted RC and diamond rigs have arrived on site and exploration drilling has commenced in parallel with construction. Both rigs will be running concurrently and will be targeting the down dip extension of the Segilola Deposit and satellite targets identified within the licence. The first drilling results are expected in mid-September.

Qualified Person

The above information has been prepared under the supervision of Alfred Gillman (Fellow AusIMM, CP), who is designated as a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approves the content of this news release. He has also reviewed QA/QC, sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information.

Further details can be found on the Companys website: www.thorexpl.com

About Thor

Thor Explorations Ltd. is a Canadian mineral exploration company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties located in Nigeria, Senegal and Burkina Faso. Thor holds a 100% interest in the Segilola Gold Project located in Osun State of Nigeria and a 70% interest in the Douta Gold Project located in south-eastern Senegal. Thor also holds a 49% interest in the Bongui and Legue gold permits located in Hounde greenstone belt, south west Burkina Faso. Thor trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol THX.

THOR EXPLORATIONS LTD.

Segun Lawson

President & CEO

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release does not constitute an offer to purchase securities. The securities to be offered in the offering have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the benefit or account of, a U.S. person, except pursuant to an available exemption from such registration requirements.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Except for the statements of historical fact contained herein, the information presented constitutes forward looking statements within the meaning of certain securities laws, and is subject to important risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, the Companys ability to fully finance the Project, to bring the Project into operation or to produce gold from the Project, and the use of the proceeds. The words may, could, should, would, suspect, outlook, believe, anticipate, estimate, expect, intend, plan, target and similar words and expressions are used to identify forward-looking information. The forward-looking information in this news release describes the Companys expectations as of the date of this news release and accordingly, is subject to change after such date. Readers should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date.While the Company may elect to, it does not undertake to update this information at any particular time.

https://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/ti?nf=NzMzNzE2NSMyNDI1OTc2IzIwOTA1NzE=

CONTACT: For further information please contact: Thor Explorations Ltd Email: info@thorexpl.com Fig House Communications (Investor Relations) Tel: +1 416 822 6483 Email: info@thorexpl.com Blytheweigh Camilla Horsfall / Megan Ray / Rachael Brooks Tel: +44 207 138 3203




A California father is asking tourists to stay away from the region where they live in the northeastern part of the state.

Corley Howard from Tahoe is pleading with local councilors to reconsider their decision to allow tourists into the area after his 10-year-old son, Maeson, became sick with an illness possibly related to COVID-19.

The youngster is currently fighting for his life at UC Davis Children's Hospital in Sacramento where doctors believe he may have multi-system inflammatory syndrome.

Maeson Howard, 10, from the Tahoe Valley in California is suffering from multi-system inflammatory syndrome which many children have suffered after catching the coronavirus

Maeson's father, Corley, is asking local politicians to reverse their decision to allow tourists back into the area around Lake Tahoe as he believes they are bringing the virus back with them

The condition causes an inflammation of the heart, lungs, brain or digestive system along with fever, vomiting and body pain.

The condition known as MIS-C has been noticed in children who also end up infected with coronavirus.

'We do not yet know what causes MIS-C. However, many children with MIS-C had the virus that causes COVID-19, or had been around someone with COVID-19,' the CDC states on its website.

Corley has asked local politicians including the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors and South Lake Tahoe mayor to reconsider allowing tourists into the area.

Corley is pictured with his two children including Maeson, right, his seven-year-old daughter and wife Sarah

Maeson began feeling sick on July 28th and ended up in hospital four days later with body aches, vomiting and a fever

Corley has asked local politicians including the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors and South Lake Tahoe mayor to plead with them to reconsider allowing tourists into the area. Pictured, tourists in July

Howard notes that every single home in the area where he lives has been rented out as vacation property.

'I get it, we chose to live in a tourist town but the timing is not right,' Howard told the Daily Tribune. 'The numbers don't really show what's going on. It doesn't seem like the right time to be putting people on boats and campgrounds. There is too much traffic coming into South Lake Tahoe.'

El Dorado County recently recorded more than 700 confirmed cases of coronavirus with almost 10 per cent of the cases being found in those younger than 17.

Maeson first fell ill on July 28th and has been in hospital since August 1, although he has now started to show signs of improvement.

After suffering from a collapsed lung, Maeson was able to take two deep breaths during his breathing this weekend and no longer needs the assistance of oxygen

'After suffering from a collapsed lung, Maeson was able to take two deep breaths during his breathing test today and no longer needs the assistance of oxygen. The tenderness and pain in his stomach, back and neck have decreased to almost zero and he is no longer suffering from adrenaline rushes and body trembling,' states an update on a GoFundMe page set up to help cover the costs of Maeson's health care.

'Things are starting to look better for this little warrior thanks to his determination to beat this illness, his team of awesome Dr.'s, nurses and all of your goodwill!!'

'It took me a minute to know exactly what to do. Your mind races,' said Corley to the Mountain Democrat. 'We had no idea he was susceptible to this.

'He is a healthy, happy kid. No one deserves this. This is my plight to bring awareness that no one is safe. Getting more people aware is key.'

Local politicians have expressed their concern over young Maeson's condition although have not stated whether they will stop tourists from coming to the area

Howard has said that although he realizes traffic can't suddenly be stopped, he hopes that there can be more discussion, actions and enforcement from officials.

'I want to see our county officials stand up and show some leadership,' he said. 'It's painful to see the complacency. Our community is left suffering.'

El Dorado County District 5 Supervisor Sue Novasel has acknowledged Howard's letter.

'My heart goes out to that family,' Novasel said. 'In the county, we're not machines. Many of us have had personal issues with COVID-19 and we understand.'

Similarly, South Lake Tahoe mayor, Jason Collin, also responded: 'Our hearts go out to Maeson and we are all rooting for him to have a speedy and full recovery.'
On March 7, Brown was arrested and charged with simple assault and misdemeanor threats against Estep. According to court documents in that case, Brown allegedly slapped Estep across her face while she was asleep and later wrapped his hands around her neck and then threatened to kill her after she got out of the bed and ran into the living room.
New Delhi: As the Enforcement Directorate (ED) questions Sushant Singh Rajput's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and her family in a money-laundering probe connected to the actor's death, a few revelations have come to light in the case. As per sources, the IP address of Sushant's company, which he opened along with Rhea, was changed 17 times. Meanwhile, Rhea and her Chartered Account's (CA) statements to the ED team also do not match.

Rhea was summoned by the ED on Friday while her CA Ritesh Shah was quizzed earlier. Sources say that their statements differ largely.

The ED on July 31 registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against Rhea and her family members on the basis of a Bihar Police FIR on the complaint of Sushant's father KK Singh, who alleged that Rs 15 crore was withdrawn or transferred from his son's bank account holding Rs 17 crore.

Of the financial transactions done from Sushant's account, Rhea could not give a clear answer to the ED team.

Meanwhile, ED sources informed Zee News that the IP address of Sushant's company - Vividrage RhealityX Pvt - was changed 17 times. It was Sushant and Rhea's first company, the idea of which was conceptualised by the duo together. Vividrage RhealityX Pvt was opened in September 2019 and Rhea's brother Showik was the director of the company.

The company was registered on a home address in Navi Mumbai. The flat belongs to Rhea and Showik's father Indrajit Chakraborty, who was also called for questioning at the ED office on Monday. Apart from Vividrage RhealityX Pvt, another company of Sushant was registered on the same address.

The flat of 757 sq ft was purchased by Indrajit Chakraborty in 2011 for Rs 53 lakh while Rs 3 lakh stamp duty was paid for the property.

Vividrage RhealityX Pvt was opened in September 2019. Zee News has earlier reported that Rhea had convinced Sushant to appoint Showik the director of the company. Also, the word 'Rhea' was added to the company name on her insistence.

ALSO READ: Did Rhea Chakraborty, brother Showik open Sushant Singh Rajput's companies to launder his money? Explosive details here

In January 2020, Showik, along with Sushant, opened another company, titled Front India for World Foundation.

Days before Sushant's death, Rhea had suspiciously stepped down from her director's post from Vividrage RhealityX Pvt Ltd.

Rhea and Showik are being grilled by the ED for the second and third time, respectively. Rhea's former manager Shruti Modi has also been called for the second round of questioning today.

Sushant was found dead at his apartment in Mumbai's Bandra on June 14. His death case was transferred to the CBI from the state police on August 7.
She celebrated her 27th birthday in style at Nobu Malibu the week before.

And Charlotte McKinney was back out in Los Angeles on Monday as she stepped out for the day.

The 27-year-old Instagram starturnedactress flaunted her slender frame in a chic black dress before driving away in her black SUV.

Back in black: Charlotte Kinney, 27, stepped out in a sleek black dress for a day out in Los Angeles on Monday

Charlotte's long dress reached down to her knees and featured casual pale green straps and trim on the top.

She lightened up her ensemble with gold open-toe heels that strapped around her ankles.

The 5ft7in Fantasy Island actress carried a simple black handbag and blocked out the sun with a slim pair of black sunglasses.

She parted her hair down the middle and let her bright blonde curls cascade down her shoulders.

Standing tall: She lightened up her ensemble with gold open-toe heels that strapped around her ankles and carried a black handbag with her

Earlier on Sunday, Charlotte shared some intimate behind-the-scenes photos on Instagram of her 27th birthday on August 6.

The social media star, who rose to fame after starring in a Carl's Jr. ad aired during the 2014 Super Bowl, showed an expression of shocked delight as her thick vegan chocolate cake arrived while she dined at the swanky Japanese restaurant Nobu Malibu.

'Best cake I've ever had!! Couldn't believe there was no dairy,' she captioned a closeup of the cake posted to her Insta Stories.

She also included some photos from her relaxing trip to the beach earlier in the day with her sister Garland Yi, culminating with a birthday lunch featuring another tasty cake.

'Feeling extremely grateful for all the birthday love and cake,' she captioned the snaps.

Birthday girl: Earlier on Sunday, Charlotte shared some intimate behind-the-scenes photos of her 27th birthday on Instagram

Beach getaway: She showcased her trim frame in a red dotted bikini and a green sarong while enjoying time at the beach earlier in the day with her sister Garland Yi

Yum! The afternoon's celebrations culminated in the first cake of the day

In recent years, Charlotte has been transitioning from her career as an Instagram influencer to an actress.

She was featured in the 2017 Baywatch remake with Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron, as well as the Flatliners remake from the same year, and earlier in 2020 she appeared in Fantasy Island, a horror reboot of the 1970s and '80s TV series.

Her next film, the Pauly Shore vehicle Guest House, is expected to arrive on September 4.

New venture: In recent years Charlotte has been transitioning from her Instagram modeling to acting. She appeared in the horror film Fantasy Island earlier this year; pictured in February

Late last month, Charlotte opened up with Gotham about how Instagram stardom has changed since her days as one of the first people to get famous on the platform.

'I grew up right when Instagram started, and I just used it to post modeling pictures. And now everyone wants to see everything,' she explained.

'They dont care just about pretty pictures  they want to see everything. What Im eating, what Im doing, me looking perfect and also me not looking perfect. I am trying to adjust because now its not just about a pretty Instagram picture.

'I'm trying to grow with how the internet is growing, which is kind of scary, and I definitely have trouble with it.'
Alabama Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth and two Republican leaders in the Legislature have asked the Commission on Presidential Debates to hold a debate between President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden in Alabama before the three debates now scheduled.

Ainsworth, House Majority Leader Nathaniel Ledbetter of Rainsville, and Senate Majority Leader Greg Reed of Jasper signed the letter that was sent to the commission today.

The letter follows a request to the commission by Trumps campaign requesting a debate before the series of three debates begins in late September. The commission rejected that request.

The request from the three Alabama officials, like the one from the Trump campaign, said an earlier debate was needed because many voters will be casting their ballots early.

We must give voters a fair chance in an already unprecedented election, and we ask that you consider adding an additional, earlier debate in Alabama, this September, the Alabama officials wrote. This monumental election will determine the very future of our nation. The least we can do is equip voters with the facts necessary to aid them in electing the next President of the United States.

The commission has scheduled three debates.

Sept. 29 at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland;

Oct. 15 at Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami;

Oct. 22 at Belmont University in Nashville.

The vice presidential debate will be Oct. 7 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

The commission, in its letter rejecting the request by the Trump campaign, said voters are under no requirements to return their ballots before the debates. The commission said less than 1% of voters voted before the debates in 2016.

The commission, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, has sponsored all the presidential debates since 1988.

This story was edited at 7:50 p.m. to correct the name of Sen. Greg Reeds hometown.
Maria Bartiromos Sunday Morning Futures is the only such gabfest I can take any more. The rest have all assimilated themselves to the leftist blob. Marias show is actually worth watching.

Yesterday Maria had Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham on to talk about a false 2018 briefing given by the FBI to the Senate Intelligence Committee on the Steele Dossier. Senator Grahams press release on the newly declassified document bearing on his claims posted here. The document with the briefing talking points is posted as redacted here.

Senator Graham stated in the interview that the FBI was sent over to brief the Intelligence Committee about the Steele Dossier in 2018. According to Senator Graham, the FBI briefer misled the Intelligence Committee consistent with the newly declassified document. Senator Graham is accordingly going to write a letter to [FBI Director] Christopher Wray and ask him who gave the briefing to the Senate Intel Committee in 2018 and how could they be telling the Senate Intel Committee in 2018 a bunch of lies when they knew better

Is Senator Graham saying he doesnt know who gave his colleagues the briefing? Why cant Senator Graham ask one of his colleagues over on the Intelligence Committee who gave the briefing? How can this be a mystery? Is that classified as well?

And why arent any members of the Senate Intelligence Committee exercised about it? Why has it been left to the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to follow up? Maybe someone from Senator Grahams office can drop us a line ([email protected]).

We are never going to get to the bottom of the Russia hoax wrongdoing. Not even close.

FOX News has posted a story on the interview here. The video is via Ian Schwartz/RCP (with transcript).
<! Kano Sharia court sentences man to die by hanging for a blasphemous post on WhatsApp >

By Ramatu Garba

An Upper Sharia Court sitting in Kano on Monday, sentenced a 30-year-old man, Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, to death by hanging after his conviction for blasphemy.

Aminu was found guilty for an audio post made on WhatsApp in February.

The convict , who resides at Sharifai Quarters of Kano Municipal, was dragged before the court by the police on a count charge of inciting religious creed contrary to section 382 (6) of Kano State Sharia Panel Code Law 2000.

The trial Judge, Khadi Muhammad Ali-Kani, said the offence was against the Islamic Law.

Ali-Kani, thereafter, sentenced the convict to death by hanging under section 382 (b) of Kano State State Sharia Panel Code Law 2000.

The Prosecution Counsel, Insp. Aminu Yar-Goje, had earlier told the court that the convict committed the offence on Feb. 28.

Yar-Goje alleged that on the same date at about 8:00 p.m. and 11:50 p.m, the convict with the intention to hurt the feelings of Muslims faithful, made a blasphemous post via a WhatsApp group platform named: Gidan Umma Abiha.

The convict made blasphemous and degrading audio remarks against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), he said.

In his submission before the court, Sharif-Aminu pleaded guilty to the charge.

The court had also sentenced a 17-year-old man, Umar Faruk, to 10-years imprisonment for alleged derogatory remarks on Allah, during a debate on March 4.

The convict, Faruk voluntarily pleaded guilty to the charge.

The trial Judge, Khadi Muhammad Ali-Kani, said the offence contravened Islamic Law, and sentenced the convict to 10-years imprisonment under section 382 (b) of Kano State Panel Code Law 2000.

The court also granted 30-day grace to appeal the judgment.

Related
By Nathan Layne

(Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General William Barr mounted a partisan attack on the Democratic Party in an interview that aired Sunday, claiming the left believes in "tearing down the system" and pursues absolute victory as "a substitute for religion."

Barr also told a Fox News TV host he was worried that an increase in mail-in voting could lead to a contested presidential election in November, sounding in on an issue often raised by U.S. President Donald Trump.

In an interview with conservative pundit Mark Levin, Barr said Democrats had pulled away from classic liberal values and now were akin to the "Rousseauian Revolutionary Party" aimed at destroying the institutions upon which the country was built.

"They're not interested in compromise, they're not interested in dialectic exchange of views. They're interested in total victory," Barr said of the left. "It's a secular religion. It's a substitute for a religion."

The comments come nearly two weeks after a contentious hearing before the House Judiciary Committee in which Barr denied accusations he was doing Trump's bidding by intervening in high-profile cases and sending federal agents into cities.

Barr has come under fire from Democratic lawmakers for sending federal officers to disperse protesters in Portland, Oregon, where some demonstrators have attacked a federal courthouse and others have gathered to speak out against racism and police brutality following the May 25 death of George Floyd.

Barr said police have been unfairly maligned and targeted with violent attacks during nationwide protests, and argued greater attention should be paid to a recent surge in violence in some cities that has led to numerous deaths of Black people.

He said he believed systemic racism existed, but that the "best example" was in education, with public schools consistently failing inner-city youth. He pointed to school choice - a policy endorsed by Trump - as one solution to the problem.

Story continues

"I believe Black lives matter, but I believe all Black lives matter. I also believe that it's not just a matter of protecting their safety from physical harm, it's also providing economic opportunity, which this administration has done," Barr said.

Trump, who trails Democratic challenger Joe Biden in opinion polls, has raised questions about the integrity of the November election and he and his allies have proclaimed without evidence that expanded voting by mail - sought by many due to the coronavirus pandemic - will lead to widespread fraud.

When asked about the push to expand mail-in ballots, Barr said he was "very worried about it."

He said he was fine with "individual cases" where people that have difficulty making it to the polls apply for and receive a ballot in the mail.

"But the idea that you, without any request from the voter, will mail out your voting list, all these thousands and thousands of ballots, is scary because most of those mailings go to a lot of addresses where the people no longer live," Barr said. "They could easily create a situation where there's going to be a contested election."

(This story refiles to fix typo in first paragraph)

(reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
China on Monday sanctioned 11 U.S. politicians and heads of organisations in retaliation for the United States imposing sanctions on Hong Kong officials last week.

The sanctioned U.S. individuals include Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, both senators, who had been previously criticized by Beijing, as well as heads of agencies and non-profits such as Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth and Freedom House President Michael Abramowitz.

The 11 sanctioned individuals behaved badly on Hong Kong-related issues, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in Beijing.

Mr Zhao did not, however, specify what the sanctions consisted of.

The move comes after the U.S. on Friday announced sanctions on officials accused of suppressing freedoms in Hong Kong, including the citys chief executive, Carrie Lam, police chief Chris Tang and justice secretary, Teresa Cheng.

The sanctions were introduced in reaction to Beijings imposition of a new national security law on Hong Kong in late June, and for postponing for one year elections in which the government was expected to fare poorly.

READ ALSO:

The relevant actions of the United States blatantly intervened in Hong Kong affairs, grossly interfered in Chinas internal affairs, and severely violated international law and the basic norms of international relations Mr Zhao said.

Earlier on Monday, Hong Kong police arrested media mogul and outspoken pro-democracy figure Jimmy Lai on accusations of breaching the new national security law.

Police raided the offices of pan-democratic tabloid Apple Daily, which was founded by Mr Lai.

(dpa/NAN)
For a brief moment after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis policeman in late May, some members of the GOP joined calls for change as protests exploded onto streets across the country. That moment is over.

Facing possible electoral calamity, Republicans are now turning to a familiar playbook: stoking fear by trying to redefine the Black Lives Matter movement as a radical leftist mob looking to sabotage the white, suburban lifestyle.

Republicans are using two lines of attack: the Trump administration, candidates in safe red seats and right-wing social media channels seek to label the entire movement Marxist and anti-family as they try to energize their conservative base. Republicans running in swing districts and states, meanwhile, are tying their Democratic opponents to activists demands to defund police departments, while avoiding explicitly mentioning Black Lives Matter. Instead, Republicans running in competitive general election races have focused recent ads on more abstract targets like left-wing radicals" and the "liberal mob."

Its a distinction Democratic pollsters and lawmakers attribute to the dramatic shift in public views on police brutality, and who and what people associate with the declaration that Black Lives Matter. The new broad support for the movement, they say, makes it harder to tie Black Lives Matter to one person, organization or ideology.

People putting Black Lives Matter signs on their lawns, it's not an endorsement of a particular organization so much as a value statement uniting a lot of people from many backgrounds, said Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowksi, whose predominantly white New Jersey district was held by Republicans for decades before he won in 2018.

That hasn't deterred Republicans, who have increased their criticism of the movement over the past month. On the same day President Donald Trump tweeted that Black Lives Matter was a symbol of hate, his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, declared to a group of reporters at the White House that "Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organization  Black Lives Matter has been planning to destroy the police for three years.

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Other Trump administration officials and Republican lawmakers, particularly those running in tough primaries, followed suit, warning, in addition, that the movement wanted to destroy the nuclear family. Fox News hosts, conservative talk radio personalities and think tanks such as The Heritage Foundation joined in, as well. Prager Universitys Black Lives Matter is a Marxist Movement video released this month has over a million views on YouTube and is one of several popular videos it has produced on the topic.

So far, the GOP attempts to discredit the movement have yet to stick. With just under three months until the election, Black Lives Matter has won mainstream support across racial and partisan lines that would have been almost unthinkable six months ago. But the battle to define the movement is not over, as Trump bets he can turn the suburbs, lost to Republicans in 2018, in his favor by attempting to cast a movement for racial equality as a threat to white voters.

We recognize that this is not simply an issue fight, this isn't simply a narrative war  what we think we're experiencing is a social and cultural and political realignment, said Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party and a leader with the Movement for Black Lives coalition. We continue to give that backlash the adequate concern and respect one would give any dangerous opponent, even one that clearly is on the wrong side of history.

Though Black Lives Matter is a decentralized ecosystem that encompasses more than 150 organizations, Trumps allies are trying to wed the entire movement to the personal beliefs of a pair of self-described Marxists who formed the Black Lives Matter Global Network in 2013, in the aftermath of the killing of Trayvon Martin. Many other supporters and leaders organizing under the Black Lives Matter banner  which is now considered to be the largest racial justice movement in the history of the country  dont identify with Marxism.

Trump-endorsed Tennessee Senate candidate Bill Hagerty told POLITICO that Black Lives Matter wants to see the destruction of the nuclear family. Speaking to a TV pundit with ties to white supremacy, Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler recently attacked WNBA players for promoting the "Black Lives Matter message and has repeatedly used the Marxist tag.

Conservative critiques are based on the fact that two founders of Black Lives Matter Global Network, Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza, are self-declared Marxists  a description Cullors used in a 2015 interview. Republicans have also criticized language on the network's website which says one of its missions is to disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement.

Garza and Cullors first made the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag go viral after the acquittal of Martin's killer. Their group also owns BlackLivesMatter.com and has been an advocate of defunding the police.

Yes, Im trained in different economic philosophies, Cullors said in a statement through a spokesperson, but added, I refuse to be reduced to a single clip from an interview that was manipulated for white supremacist and right wing fear mongering. She declined an interview.

Melina Abdullah, a Pan-African Studies professor at California State University, Los Angeles and head of BLM's LA chapter, wrote the passage on the nuclear family that is featured on the BLMGN website. Abdullah explained that it is an affirmation of the African principle that it takes a village to raise a child. It's invoking the idea that all of us are responsible for our collective children.

Republican efforts to assail that statement actually has opened up an important conversation within the Black community, Abdullah said. It hasn't had the backlash that I think that they wanted it to have.

In a sign that the Marxism tag might already be falling flat, Giuliani took his attacks a step further Thursday, falsely accusing BLM activists of being terrorists. "These are people who hate white people," Giuliani said on Fox News. "These are killers."

Some Republican strategists believe that the combination of early summer riots, the controversial stances of some BLMGN members, plus the mainstreaming of defund the police, have given them an opening to diminish Democrats' current electoral advantage. Democrats and BLM organizers point to the polls, describing the GOP strategy as a nakedly racist last gasp that wont gain traction outside the right-wing echo chamber.

The average voter in that swing suburb is not thinking about BLM as [select] leaders of the movement, said Jefrey Pollock, president of polling firm Global Strategy Group, who works with Democrats in swing House and Senate races. They're thinking about the larger conversation that is happening about African Americans and racial injustice.

At the moment, more than 60 percent of Americans support the movement, according to recent polls. And 62 percent of white people say minorities are not treated equally in the criminal justice system  up 18 points since 2014.

Voters in urban areas support the BLM movement by 73 percent, suburban voters by 62 percent and rural voters by 54 percent, according to July Navigator research done by GSG and GBAO Strategies provided to POLITICO.

One senior Republican strategist noted, however, that while support continues to be high, opposition to the BLM movement spiked 9 points in July, according to Civiqs.

Ian Prior, a Republican strategist working to unseat swing district Democrat Rep. Matt Cartwright in Scranton, Pa., acknowledged that BLM is difficult to campaign against but argued that the movement  and Democrats supporting it  has given Republicans an opening on supporting police.

Explaining the difference between the Black Lives Matter movement versus the Black Lives Matter sentiment  theres nuance there and nuance is hard in politics, he said. But support for law enforcement, thats not nuanced and thats where I think youll see a lot of the Republican messaging in tough races.

So far, Republican candidates who are currently airing ads have mostly refrained from directly naming the BLM movement. In ads that aired from May 25 to the end of July, only one GOP ad in a primary race used the words Black Lives Matter, while saying that liberals dont care about Black lives, and another used the term violent thugs, according to an analysis provided by Ad Analytics.

But as primaries pass  dragged out because of the pandemic  and general election races ramp up, Democrats in vulnerable seats are bracing for more Republicans to step up their attacks.

I actually stood up in front of 1,500 people at a Black Lives Matter rally and said explicitly that I disagree with the defund the police slogan, Malinowksi said. And it will not stop them from accusing me of defunding the police because that's just the Republican talking point everywhere this year.

Though, notably, Malinowksis Republican opponent, state Sen. Thomas Kean Jr., attended a BLM rally this summer.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has walked a similar tightrope  embracing protesters urgent condemnations of racial injustice without backing some of their proposed solutions, such as calls to defund the police.

Asked for comment about the co-founders of BLMGM, Bidens campaign pointed to past statements on the campaign trail when he said, I aint a socialist.
- Health CS Mutahi Kagwe urged medics to provide patients and families with accurate COVID-19 results

- On Sunday, August 9, CS Kagwe said rogue medics were giving families whose relatives had succumbed to COVID-19 negative results to facilitate normal burials

- The CS urged people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 to speak out in a move to reduce the stigma that is surrounding the disease

The Ministry of Health (MoH) has announced 492 more cases of COVID-19 cases recorded in the country in the past 24 hours.

Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Mutahi Kagwe said the country's caseload had now jumped to 26,928 from 26,436 reported on Sunday, August 9.

READ ALSO: NASA coalition is dead - Raila

CS Mutahi Kagwe made the remarks on Monday, August 10, while in Kericho county. Photo: MoH.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Nairobi woman quit marriage after learning husband was garbage collector, not airport employee

The new cases were identified following testing of 4,063 samples. So far, since March 2020, the country had tested 358,330 samples.

Some 534 patients, Kagwe said had recovered from the disease pushing the number of patients who had recovered since April 1 to 13,495.

READ ALSO: Waziri Kagwe azungumzia madai kuwa mwanawe alikuwa kwenye party akiburudika kwa vileo

Out of the new discharges, 478 were drawn from home-based care programme while 56 were from various hospitals across the country.

As much as COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease, should one contract it, it is not in itself a death sentence and like any other disease it will be managed by our healthcare workers to the extent possible, said CS Kagwe adding that stigma was still dealing a blow to efforts directed at fighting the pandemic.

READ ALSO: John Stones: Chelsea launch 20m bid for Man City star

Three more patients succumbed from diseases raising the death toll to 423.

The cases reported on Monday were drawn from Nairobi (357), Garissa, (52), Kiambu (37), Kajiado (14), Busia (five) while Baringo had three cases.

Other cases were from Embu (three), Mombasa (three), Muranga (three), Kilifi (two) while Isiolo, Makueni and Uasin Gishu registered a single case each.

During his speech, the CS insisted that it was mandatory for health facilities to provide accurate COVID-19 results to families or patients.

READ ALSO: Makueni, West Pokot ranked happiest counties in Kenya

He urged those who had been diagnosed with the disease to make their status public; a move he said will help reduce stigma associated with the disease.

"Patients deserve to know their true COVID-19 results. For those who have contracted the virus, there is no need to hid.

Inform your friends and relatives that you have it and tell them that you are self-isolating," the CS said urged.

Globally, as of Monday, August 10, the number of infections was 20,046,636 out of which 734,525 were deaths while 12,915,486 were recoveries.

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly.

I was rejected by my father three times- Tony Cruize | Tuko TV.

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The government's farm research institute on Monday said it has started gathering inputs from global research bodies about "mystery seeds" parcels, received from unknown sources in some countries like the US.

"It is a serious matter. Seeds means agriculture. Any seeds with devastating pathogens can threaten our food security. So, we need to be vigilant," Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Director General Trilochan Mohapatra told PTI.

has started interacting with global agriculture research institutes on this issue and is gathering inputs about the suspicious parcels, he said.

Last week, the Union Agriculture Ministry had alerted state governments as well as the seed industry and research bodies to be vigilant about "mystery, suspicious and unsolicited seed parcels" from unknown sources entering into India which can be a threat to the country's biodiversity.

The directive was issued in the wake of thousands of suspicious seeds shipments reported across the world in the last few months, especially in countries like the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Japan and some European nations.

Mohapatra said has also received a directive from the ministry.

He, however, said, "If shipments are coming via sea or air route, obviously our customs officials have to check and see what it is and get isolated. They should send the parcel to appropriate agencies for testing and taking further measures."



ICAR, which does not have access to airports or sea ports, can only pitch in after it receives a sample of "suspicious seeds" for research, he said.

"After it (seeds parcel) is sent to us, we will do proper study and then ascertain what it contains and how dangerous it would be for our Indian agriculture," he added.

ICAR is the apex body for coordinating, guiding, and managing research and education in agriculture in the entire country under the aegis of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

(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.)
Monster Energys Chris The All American Weidman Defeats Omari Akhmedov in Co-Main Event Fight at UFC Vegas 6 in Las Vegas Im back, man. Im back at 185! It feels good. I feel like Im restarting my career, and Im really grateful to have that opportunity. I feel refreshed and renewed. Im super excited about the future. Chris Weidman

Way to make a comeback! Monster Energy congratulates Chris The All American Weidman on his hard-earned victory against Omari Akhmedov at UFC Vegas 6 in Las Vegas on Saturday night. In the co-main event fight inside the UFC Apex facility, the 36-year-old mixed martial arts icon from Baldwin, New York, went the distance in a grueling middleweight division match to clinch the win by unanimous decision after round three.

Saturdays edition of UFC Fight Night was contested as a closed-to-the-public event in the safe environment of the UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas and broadcast live on ESPN+. The event happened amid enhanced safety protocols to curb the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), including pre-fight quarantine and extensive testing for fighters and personnel.

Monster Energys Weidman (15-5-0) came to Las Vegas in need of a win. The former UFC middleweight champion had sustained KO losses in five of his past six fights. Adding to the challenge, his opponent Akhmedov (20-5-1) stepped into the Octagon on a six-fight unbeaten streak.

From the start, Weidman pursued Akhmedov looking for a takedown, but the Dagestani fought off his initial attempts. After landing a series of heavy leg kicks, the decorated All-American collegiate wrestler finally pinned his opponent to the canvas, ending the opening round on heavy ground-and-pound.

The second round proved a test of willpower as Akhmedov responded with a flurry of punches and aggressive takedown attempts. Weidman capitalized on his wrestling skills to defuse Akhmedovs offense but ended up receiving punishing body shots. Weidman finally asserted his dominance in round three, controlling his opponent on the ground and nearly forcing a submission via arm triangle. After the final buzzer, the judges declared Weidman the winner of the tough fight by unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27 and 29-28).

Im back, man. Im back at 185! said Weidman upon winning the co-main event fight at UFC Vegas 6. It feels good. I feel like Im restarting my career, and Im really grateful to have that opportunity. I feel refreshed and renewed. Im super excited about the future.

Saturdays victory against Akhmedov marks Weidmans first win in three years. It brings the MMA icon back in the winners circle after consecutive losses against Dominick Reyes (2019) and Ronaldo Souza (2018).

So, whats next Weidman? With his name back in the win column, Weidman is building momentum towards bigger fights. The top-tier guys, Im coming for you. I know this wasnt the most outstanding win, but its me on the right page and thats a problem for everybody, said Weidman in Saturdays post-fight interview.

While MMA journalists say its too early for Weidman to land a shot at reclaiming the middleweight title, experts predict a bout with current #7 middleweight Derek Brunson in the future. Until then, make sure to tune in next weekend when Monster Energys Daniel Cormier challenges Stipe Miocic for the UFC heavyweight title at UFC 252 on August 15.

Chris The All American Weidman counts amongst Monster Energys elite UFC team along with Rose Namajunas, Jon Bones Jones, Donald Cowboy Cerrone, Jorge Gamebred Masvidal, Daniel Cormier, Dominick Dominator Cruz, Tyron The Chosen One Woodley, Yair Rodriquez, Tony Ferguson, Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Jessica-Rose Clark.

For more on Weidman and Monster Energys MMA athletes visit http://www.monsterenergy.com Follow Monster Energy on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

###

About Monster Energy

Based in Corona, California, Monster Energy is the leading marketer of energy drinks and alternative beverages. Refusing to acknowledge the traditional, Monster Energy supports the scene and sport. Whether motocross, off-road, NASCAR, MMA, BMX, surf, snowboard, ski, skateboard, or the rock and roll lifestyle, Monster Energy is a brand that believes in authenticity and the core of what its sports, athletes and musicians represent. More than a drink, its the way of life lived by athletes, sports, bands, believers and fans. See more about Monster Energy including all of its drinks at http://www.monsterenergy.com.
A paedophile who raped a child in the back of his ute and sent her more than 2,500 texts within three months told police the victim was 'clingy' and wanted sex.

Craig Beck admitted to grooming the 13-year-old schoolgirl in the Gippsland region, north of Melbourne, after getting her phone number in August last year.

On Monday, the County Court heard the 36-year-old sent the girl a series of lewd messages asking her what type of bra and underwear she was wearing.

Beck, who was employed as a cook and electrician before a medical issue forced him to stop working, also asked if they could date on two occasions - requests she 'ignored and deflected', the Herald Sun reported.

A paedophile who raped a child in the back of his ute and sent her more than 2,500 texts within three months told police the victim was 'clingy' and wanted sex

When the victim told him not to sent messages to her phone in case her mother saw, the sex offender appeared at the girl's school and handed her a phone.

Later, Beck saw the girl walking down the street and asked if she wanted to go for a drive.

He took her to a logging plantation where the girl started taking photos of the scenery.

Beck took the phone and said he 'hadn't brought her there for the view' and that he 'needed and wanted her'.

The court heard he said, 'don't give me that look ... I know you want it,' before he forced her into the ute tray and raped her.

He continued to contact the victim after the attack, often arriving at her school during breaks to molest her.

On another occasion, he returned to the lookout with the girl and asked if they could have sex 'again'.

The court heard he said, 'don't give me that look ... I know you want it,' before he forced her into the ute tray and raped her (stock)

Phone records showed Beck contacted his victim 2,567 times between August 1 and November 12 and sent her sexual images.

The offender downplayed his behaviour, telling police the girl was 'clingy' and would call him incessantly if he didn't reply to her messages.

He also claimed the teenager planned the initial sexual encounter two weeks before the act because she wanted her first time to be with someone she knew.

Beck said he voiced concerns to the victim about whether they should continue having intercourse, but the victim 'kept on pursuing' him and told him it would be their 'little secret'.

He pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a child and using a carriage service to transit indecent communication, and will be sentenced at a later date.

He will be a registered sex offender for life.
Tenants across Australia are set to receive further government cash to help them during the COVID-19 crisis as the states plan to extend rent relief.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced in March a six-month moratorium on rental evictions, effectively banning landlords from evicting their tenants.

The national cabinet also drew up a mandatory code of conduct - which expires in September - encouraging landlords and tenants to negotiate rents in times of financial hardship.

Ahead of the federal measures' expiration date, coronavirus-stricken Victoria has suggested it is planning on implementing additional support for struggling tenants.

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Locals are seen gathering on St Kilda Pier with the Melbourne skyline behind them on Sunday. Victoria is among the Australian states to signal an extension to support for COVID-19-stricken tenants as government measures expire in September

A pedestrian wearing a face mask walks at Darling Harbour in Sydney on Tuesday. Commercial tenants could receive help from the state government - which is considering extending the commercial tenancy code in October

'We've supported tenants every step of the way and we'll have more to say soon,' a Victorian government spokesman said.

The Australian Capital Territory has also announced rebates on land rates for landlords, while the New South Wales government is considering an extension to the commercial tenancy code due to expire in the state in October.

The code mostly effects 'impacted' tenants who qualify for the federal government's JobKeeper scheme and had turnover in 2018-19 of less than $50million.

South Australia and Tasmania have both yet to make an announcement on extending rent relief measures but have said they will be weighing up changes before the end of September.

Landlords though are arguing the code should not be renewed beyond the expiry date as rental prices will decrease regardless of whether there is a moratorium in place, The Australian Financial Review reported.

'The reality is there will be less demand for commercial space in the future post-pandemic,' Property Council of Australia chief executive Ken Morrison said.

The Australian Capital Territory has unveiled land rate relief for landlords to help them get through the pandemic (file image of Canberra)

'Of all the pandemic measures put in place, this was the most extraordinary because this was the government requiring one part of the business community to support another part of the business community, with an obligated rental relief requirement.'

Queensland and Western Australia said they are also monitoring rental policies during the pandemic.

No state has ruled out an extension to the government measures.
NIOSH Stresses the Importance of Collecting COVID-19 Case Job Information

Collecting, coding, analyzing and reporting industry and occupation data from COVID-19 cases is crucial to informing public health strategies to reduce the impact of the pandemic on workers. One NIOSH article gives some examples.

Studying the virus in terms of its prevalence among certain industries and types of workers is important to informing and building policies that will best help the public. One NIOSH article elaborates on its previous blog post, Collecting occupation and industry data in public health surveillance systems for COVID-19.

Having data about industry and occupation helps the public health community identify work-related outbreaks and evaluate risks among various groups of workers. While researchers have had to adjust their methods of data collection as science on the virus has evolved, there is a growing effort by public health officials to focus on COVID case job collection.

See another recent post on the topic titled Making Industry and Occupation Information Useful for Public Health: A guide to coding industry and occupation text fields.

The article from NIOSH highlights two recent examples of how collecting and coding job information for cases can be used to ensure worker safety.

What Washington State Learned: Cases by Occupation and Industry

The Washington State Department of Health worked with the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries Safety & Health Assessment & Research for Prevention Program to study COVID-19 cases among occupation and industry. Here are the key findings:

As of July 23, 2020, there were 26,799 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 among Washington residents.
Colonel Elias Gaber of the Lebanese army, who received the cargo, thanked Egypt for its 'swift and valued assistance' to Lebanon and for standing by the Lebanese people in the crisis

A third Egyptian plane carrying aid to Lebanon arrived in Beirut on Monday as part of an airlift aid operation launched by Egypt following the massive explosion that rocked the Lebanese capital last week, Egypts army said in a statement.

The mega blast, which gutted entire neighbourhoods and damaged buildings across the capital, killed 200 people, according to the citys governor. More than 6,000 others were injured and as many as 300,000 were left homeless.

The Egyptian military said the aid shipment includes large quantities of medical supplies and foodstuff.

The Egyptian embassy in Lebanon said the plane was carrying 14 tons of medical aid and flour.

The flour is intended to support bakeries and keep bread production rates steady after Lebanons strategic stockpile of grain in the main grain silo was destroyed in the explosion, the embassy added.

Colonel Elias Gaber of the Lebanese army, who received the cargo, thanked Egypt for its swift and valued assistance to Lebanon and for standing by the Lebanese people in the crisis.

Last week, Egypt launched a direct airlift of medical, food and other supplies to Lebanon under the orders of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

The Egyptian cabinet said on Sunday that authorities are preparing more large shipments, including 16 tons of medical supplies and equipment, 140 tons of foodstuffs, as well as clothes.

Earlier this week, Cairo delivered to Beirut 14 tons of aid, including food and flour. The first planeload of medical supplies sent by Egypt arrived on Thursday.

An Egyptian field hospital in Beirut is also providing aid to victims of the blast.

The devastating blast on Tuesday was the biggest in Beiruts history. Lebanese officials said the explosion was caused by 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse at the port for six years after being confiscated from a ship.

Countries around the world have rallied to offer support to Lebanon, providing aid packages, rescue and medical teams and humanitarian aid. These include Britain, France, the United States, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

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Two schools on the New South Wales south coast have closed after students tested positive for COVID-19.

Batemans Bay High School and Batemans Bay Public School will both be shut for cleaning on Tuesday after one student at each school tested positive for the virus.

All staff and students from both schools have been told to self-isolate while authorities notify close contacts of the patients.

'The school will be non-operational tomorrow for the on-site attendance of staff and students to allow time for the school to complete the contact tracing process and have the school cleaned,' a Batemans Bay High School statement said.

Batemans Bay High School and Batemans Bay Public School (pictured) will both also be shut for cleaning on Tuesday after one student at each school tested positive for the virus

All staff and students from both schools have been told to self-isolate while authorities notify close contacts of the patients. Pictured: Batemans Bay High School

A pop-up clinic will be set up at Hanging Rock between 9am and 5pm until Sunday to meet increased testing demand.

The schools are working with NSW Health to establish close contacts.

NSW health authorities are also working to trace the source of a COVID-19 cluster associated with Tangara School for Girls in Cherrybrook, in northwest Sydney.

There are now 11 cases linked to the independent Catholic school, including seven students and at least one teacher.

The school has closed its secondary campus until August 24 and its junior campus until at least Wednesday after the first COVID-19 case linked to the Opus Dei-connected school - a student - was diagnosed last week.

NSW Health said the source of the Tangara outbreak remained unclear, and all secondary students and staff were in self-isolation and being tested.

Five of the 14 cases reported in NSW on Monday were connected to the school with two more identified after the deadline for case numbers. These will be included in Tuesday's numbers.

Nearby in Pennant Hills, St Agatha's Catholic Church is undergoing deep cleaning after a parishioner who visited on August 5 and 6 tested positive to the virus, as is PharmaSave Pharmacy in Cherrybrook after an infected employee worked on August 6.

In western Sydney, Bonnyrigg Heights Public School will reopen on Tuesday after closing on Monday for cleaning after a primary school student tested positive.

NSW health authorities are also working to trace the source of a COVID-19 cluster of 11 cases associated with Tangara School for Girls in Cherrybrook (pictured)

Kids' Early Learning Quakers Hill remains closed after children were exposed to the virus.

A second student at Our Lady of Mercy College in Parramatta has also been diagnosed with COVID-19, and the school campus is closed.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant has urged people to avoid large gatherings and says older school students are more likely to transmit the virus.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has reiterated the state is on high alert against the spread of the virus, following a huge outbreak in Victoria.
Actor Dan Wyllie will face court this week over an alleged domestic violence incident.

Wyllie (Love My Way, Seachange, Puberty Blues) has been charged with assaulting his wife, director Shannon Murphy (On the Ropes, Killing Eve, Rake, Offspring).

He was arrested at Waverley Police Station on Saturday. NSW Police also took out a provisional Apprehended Violence Order ordering him not to assault, threaten, stalk or harass his wife, or destroy or damage any of her property.

Following an investigation by officers from Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command into an alleged domestic-related assault at a Woollahra home in March 2020, a 50-year-old man was arrested at Waverley Police Station today, a NSW Police spokesperson said in a statement.

Wyllie was released on bail and will appear in court on Wednesday, August 12.

National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line 1800 737 732

Mens Referral Service 1300 766 491

Lifeline 13 11 14.

Source: Daily Telegraph, Sydney Morning Herald
Ask a woman called Karen what she used to think of her name, and youll hear phrases like generic, perfectly serviceable and an easy name.

In 2020, Karen is no longer an easy name. Once popular for girls born in the 1960s, it then became a pseudonym for a middle-aged busybody with a blonde choppy bob who asks to speak to the manager. Now the moniker has most recently morphed into a symbol of racism and white privilege.

A Karen now roams restaurants and stores, often without a mask during this coronavirus era, spewing venom and calling the authorities to tattle, usually on people of colour and often putting them in dangerous situations. And while this archetype had previously been called Permit Patty or BBQ Becky, Karen has stuck.

In fact, many news reports dont even bother to use a womans actual given name. Whitefish Karen (named for her town in Montana) coughed on a couple when they called her out for not wearing a mask inside a grocery store. Kroger Karen, named after the supermarket chain, blocked a black mothers car so the woman couldnt leave the markets parking lot. San Francisco Karen called the police on a Filipino man stencilling Black Lives Matter on his own property.

And, of course, the Queen of Karens  Amy Cooper, also known as Central Park Karen  threatened and fabricated accusations against a black man after he politely asked her to put her dog on a leash, as park rules stated.

For some women with the name Karen, these videos have made them outraged, of course, but also, at times, ashamed.

I remember hearing about names like Becky and thinking, What if this was my name? How would it feel? says Karen Scholl, a 47-year-old writer in Columbus, Ohio, with whom I worked at a college newspaper more than 20 years ago. Its just so embarrassing, honestly. But I cant get bent out of shape. I have no control over it. There are people losing their lives every day. If its the only thing I have to be upset about in this world, then good for me.

Amy Cooper aka Central Park Karen (Christian Cooper/AP)

Karen Chang, a Bay Area resident who works in business management, had shrugged off early memes, but then the Cooper video changed everything for her.

It was very upsetting, but I would sacrifice my name for the visibility and awareness that incident generated, says Chang, who is Asian American. Indeed, she may do just that. She said shes considering changing her name to KC after she and her fiance eventually wed. It has always been a term of endearment.

Chang may be able to change her name, but if one San Francisco Board of Supervisors member, Shamann Walton, has his way, a version of Karen will be immortalised into city law.

In early July, Walton introduced the Caren (Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-Emergencies) Act (presumably he couldnt come up with a suitable word that began with K). The bill would change the citys code to punish people who call 911 and file false, racially biased complaints.

Thats a step too far for Karen Ortiz-Orband, a Boston-area nurse who is of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent. She supports the contents of the proposal but emailed Waltons office urging him to reconsider its title.

Karen is kind of a harsh sound that you can really spit out. And that aligns with the kind of person we are thinking of when we talk about a Karen

I asked him to be mindful of the fact that there are women named Karen and people arent differentiating between the two. And by naming this bill as he has, hes doing exactly what the metaphorical Karen is doing: creating an opportunity for discrimination, says Ortiz-Orband, who is in her late forties.

And before you think: Thats so Karen to complain about Caren, Ortiz-Orband asks you to imagine if it were your name.

Its one thing to make memes, she says. Its another when you start applying it to laws. Youre villainising a name that people actually have, and youre putting these people at risk. When a woman acts like that name, you should use her correct name.

Karen Gormandy, a literary agent and arts studio manager in New York City, says she doesnt take it personally when she hears her name used in these contexts because I assign that meme to white people. Im totally disconnected from it. Im on the receiving end of this misbehaviour, Gormandy, 61, says. I feel as a person of colour I dont need to apologise and explain my name.

Yet she says people sometimes avoid using her name when speaking to her. Some people use Becky instead, she says, laughing.

But why the name Karen?

Robin Queen, chair of the linguistics department at University of Michigan, has looked closely at this question, and her exploration led her to, of all people, comedian Dane Cook.

Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Seyfried in Mean Girls (Paramount/Rex)

His 2005 comedy album contains a riff called The Friend Nobody Likes: There is one person in a group of friends that nobody likes, Cook said, using an expletive to emphasise how much they are, in fact, disliked. They basically keep them there to hate their guts. When that person is not around the rest of your little base camp, your hobby is cutting that person down. As an example of this person, he describes a woman named Karen.

Other antecedents include Amanda Seyfrieds vacant Karen in Mean Girls who racistly spouts to Lindsay Lohans Cady: If youre from Africa, why are you white? A parody account on Reddit from late 2017 based on the rants of a spurned husband is also often cited as an early driver and highlights the sexism of the Karen trope.

Karen Grigsby Bates, senior correspondent for the Code Switch podcast on NPR, says Karens roots are anchored deep in American folklore. Bates  who embarked on this research not because of her name but because the phenomenon was a convergence of gender, race, class, social upheaval and social media in this great big tornado  pointed to the term Miss Ann from the antebellum and Jim Crow periods.

African Americans used the term as code to refer to these unreasonable white women, Bates says. She described Miss Ann as a woman who knew her place in society, was complicit in maintaining it, and who was at the upper end of the hierarchy. Even if she was a nice Miss Ann, she was still upholding this system that said, White womanhood above all else, except white manhood.

Is it Karen to try to protect the name Karen? (ITV)

Researchers also point to the demographic characteristics of the name Karen. According to social security data, Karen soared in popularity in the 1960s, peaking as the third-most-popular baby name of 1965, but never had a resurgence. The archetype is meant to evoke a woman of a certain age, but then again, Linda, Cynthia or Susan would, too.

Thats where the Karen theories get geekily fascinating. Miriam Eckert, who has a doctorate in linguistics and lives in Boulder, Colorado, says that the word Karen contains whats known as a voiceless plosive.

Thats the K sound at the beginning of the word, Eckert says. When you say some consonants, like K or a T, theres a complete blockage of airflow and a sudden release  whereas a name like Cynthia has no stops at all. Karen is kind of a harsh sound that you can really spit out. And that aligns with the kind of person we are thinking of when we talk about a Karen.

But will it always? In 2018  the latest year for which data is available  Karen ranked as the 635th most popular girls name, alongside Elaine and Dallas. Nobody is going to name their kid this now, Gormandy says. Its just going to disappear, and then somebody not knowing the history of any of this might decide its a cool name.

Queen, the linguistics expert, agrees. Maybe in 50 years or so it might come back.

In the meantime, she thinks it could at some point fade from the lexicon. The meaning gets so broad that its going to stop having the same power to make a particular critique, she says, pointing to examples like basic, hot mess and Negative Nancy that faded from the lexicon.

As a moniker, she says: I would be surprised to find it around a decade from now.

 New York Times
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has introduced the newly appointed head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Kyrylo Budanov, to the staff of the agency, the head of state's press service has reported.

"We need to strengthen the strategic and operational components and improve analytical activities and the quality of the information received," Zelensky said.

He also emphasized the importance of drafting a new National Intelligence Program for 2021-2025. According to him, it must include key elements such as equipping units with modern weapons and equipment, the transition to NATO standards in the collection, processing and provision of intelligence data, and the introduction of modern approaches to personnel training.

Zelensky also drew attention to the importance of reviving the fighting spirit of the Ukrainian military intelligence and urged military intelligence officers "to always be one step ahead of our enemies."

Budanov, in turn, noted that Ukraine's military intelligence currently faces the task of increasing the influence of intelligence in the field of international relations, returning the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and seeking justice against those who brought war to Ukraine. In this context, Zelensky set himself the task of raising the professional level of employees, introducing new technologies and strengthening analytical work to forecast risks and take special measures.

On August 5, Zelensky signed a decree appointing Budanov as chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

op
By PTI

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday began a fresh round of questioning of actor Rhea Chakraborty and her family members in connection with its probe in a money laundering case linked to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Rhea, her brother Showik and father Indrajit Chakraborty reported at the office of the central probe agency in the Ballard Estate area around 11 am in response to their scheduled summons for Monday, officials said.

Later, Shruti Modi, the business manager of Rhea and Rajput, also reported at the ED office.

All the four were questioned by the agency on August 7 too.

Post 2 PM, Rajput's friend and roommate Siddharth Pithani also arrived at the ED office and his statement is expected to be recorded too.

Pithani, an IT professional, had told various news channels that he was present in the Bandra flat on June 14 when the 34-year-old actor hanged himself.

Called 'Buddha' by Rajput, he is stated to be living with Rajput for about a year, and had earlier recorded his statement with the Mumbai Police as part of their accidental death report (ADR) probe in the case.

Among those questioned earlier, Showik has been grilled for about 22 hours till now.

He had left the ED office around 6:30 am on Sunday after an overnight questioning session that began around noon on Saturday.

Rhea (28), the prime accused in the case, was questioned for about eight hours on Friday.

The ED also had questioned Rhea's chartered accountant (CA) and Modi the same day.

The agency is understood to have questioned Rhea, who stated in her petition to the Supreme Court that she was in a live-in relationship with Rajput, about her friendship with the late actor, business dealings and the developments that took place over the last few years between them.

The ED's line of questioning, officials said, is revolving around Rhea's income, investments, business and professional deals, and links.

Also under the ED's scanner is a property located in the city's Khar area and another in Navi Mumbai, both linked to Rhea, for the source of purchase and ownership.

Agency sources have said they "want more answers" from Rhea over the alleged mismatch between her income, expenditure and investments.

They said while Rhea has filed Income Tax Returns stating an income of about Rs 14-18 lakh, the value of her investments is reportedly higher.

Her father, they said, is a retired defence personnel who gets a pension of about Rs 1 lakh per month.

The sources said Rhea told the agency that she had made the property investments from her income, savings and has taken bank loans.

Rhea has been accused by Rajput's father of abetting his son's suicide and she had initially refused to appear before the agency citing her appeal pending before the Supreme Court that is slated to be heard on August 11.

Her lawyer Satish Maneshinde had said Rhea is a law-abiding citizen and would cooperate with the probe.

She has filed a petition in the apex court requesting that the case lodged by the Bihar police against her be transferred to the Mumbai police.

Rhea, through her lawyer, also shared a picture of a note on Saturday which she claimed was written by Rajput to express his gratitude for her and her family.

She also shared a photograph of a water sipper, which is a piece of movie merchandise from Rajput's 2019 film "Chhichhore".

"The only property of Sushant that I possess," she said in a message sent along with the photo to the media.

The ED, during the questioning sessions, is learnt to have confronted Rhea, Showik and Modi with certain bank statements that purportedly show transfer of small amounts into Showik's accounts from those of Rajput and Chakraborty.

Rajput's 74-year-old father K K Singh, who resides in Patna, had on July 25 filed a complaint with the Patna police against Rhea, her parents (including mother Sandhya Chakraborty), Showik, Rajput's manager Samuel Miranda, Shruti Modi and unknown persons accusing them of cheating and abetting his son's suicide.

The CBI had re-registered this FIR as a fresh case on Thursday and named as accused the same people.

Singh also alleged financial irregularities in bank accounts of his son.

In the complaint, Singh alleged that an amount of Rs 15 crore was siphoned off from Rajput's bank account in one year to accounts of persons not known or connected to the late actor.

Under the ED's scanner are at least two companies linked to Rajput and some financial deals involving Rhea, her father and Showik, who are stated to be directors in these companies.
Shreehas Tambe, Chief Operating Officer of Biocon Biologics, has been conferred the UAA-ICT Distinguished Alumnus Award (Professional) 2020

Bangalore based Biocon Biologics India Limited, a subsidiary of Biocon Ltd., has recently announced that Shreehas Tambe, its Chief Operating Officer, has been conferred the UAA-ICT Distinguished Alumnus Award (Professional) 2020 for his contribution to the field of biopharmaceuticals.

Founded in 1933, Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai is recognized among the top schools in the world and counts several greats from academia and industry amongst its alumni. The Distinguished Alumnus Awards were instituted in 1990 to recognize the outstanding contribution of its alumni in their respective fields and professions. Some of the past recipients of this coveted award have been Padma awardees like Prof. MM Sharma, Prof. JB Joshi, Dr. RA Mashelkar and Industry Icons such as Mr. Mukesh Ambani (Reliance), Dr. Anji Reddy (DRL), Mr. Kishore Mariwala (Marico) to list a few. Mr. Shreehas Tambe an alumnus of ICT, Mumbai, graduated from the prestigious institute in 1997.

Mr. Shreehas Tambe began his professional journey at Biocon Ltd as a management trainee in 1997 starting out in the R&D department, where he led the design and development of a novel bioreactor that later became Biocons first U.S. patent to be granted and won the National Award for Best Technology of the Year in 2001. He also set up the immunosuppressants franchise bringing innovative automation approaches to address challenging fermentation and complex chemistry problems.
Gunjan Saxena never once veers away from its intent to recount an individual's personal story, staying determinedly intimate even in war scenes.

Language: Hindi

In a defining scene in Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, young Ms Saxena sits discussing her career plans with her father. "Dad, the Air Force needs cadets who are patriots, but I just want to fly planes. In a bid to fulfill my dream, am I being a traitor to the country?"

(Minor spoiler alert) The opposite of treachery is sincerity, the father reminds her, so if she does her work sincerely, she cannot possibly betray the country. "Do you think the Air Force wants people who shout 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'?" he asks. "They want cadets who have a goal, passion and who will complete their training with hard work and sincerity because they are the cadets who will go on to become the best officers and give the country their best. You become a good pilot with sincerity and hard work, and you will automatically be a patriot." (Spoiler alert ends)

In another country or in another age in India, this may have been just a sweet exchange between a supportive father and his daughter. In India 2020 though, where "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" (Hail Mother India) has been weaponised for use against religious minorities and liberals at large, the scene is a sample of brilliant and brave writing. In one fell swoop, it takes down those who have mined love for the country - and this slogan in particular - as an excuse to violently attack the 'other' and also deflates the widespread insistence on romanticising the armed forces as the first destination of the patriot, an insistence long translated into an unwillingness to openly concede that what the defence services are for most young recruits is a practical, attractive career choice (and there's nothing wrong with that). The masterstroke though is that the character speaking these words is an Armyman - those who demand a deification of the Army as proof of loyalty to India will be hard-pressed to counter him. The clincher is that this film is based on true events.

Gunjan Saxena is the biopic of India's first woman combat aviator, an officer who flew helicopter missions in the 1999 Kargil war.

This is an unusual time to write a script on such a subject since nationalism (not to be confused with patriotism) has become a high-pitched, ear-splitting formula that Bollywood has regularly visited in the past six years.

Debutant director Sharan Sharma's Gunjan Saxena is the polar opposite of such triteness: it is low key and gentle of voice.

The crowning glory of the real-life Flight Lieutenant Saxena's achievements came during a war against Pakistan, yet the film avoids loud chest-beating paeans to Mother India, the caricaturing of Pakistanis or dramatic dialogues about the "dushman desh" (enemy country). The writers, Nikhil Mehrotra, Sharma himself and Hussain Dalal (who is credited with additional dialogues) manage this by treating the war scenes almost like a procedural, which in itself is a quiet reminder that defence personnel in reality are human beings at work, not speechifying Hindi film heroes.

What makes Gunjan Saxena a full and complete contrast to the likes of Kesari and Padmaavat is that unlike those films, Sharma and his colleagues do not insinuate an equivalence between India's Muslims and the dushman desh.

Many Hindi films over the years have revolved around sexual violence, but rarely has one chronicled social conditioning in women's career choices, casual misogyny and extreme discrimination at the workplace with such accuracy and detail. Gunjan Saxena has been written by an all-male team, based on extensive interactions with Saxena, her family and others, which should tell you all you need to know about empathy: you do not have to belong to a marginalised social group to develop an understanding of their concerns, you just need to listen and observe without prejudice, condescension or the persecution complex that seems to afflict so many dominant groups worldwide.

Sharma, Mehrotra and Dalal have clearly listened - and well.

Of course this begs the question, why does Amit Trivedi's otherwise on-point, enjoyable soundtrack for Gunjan Saxena have male voices in the majority in an industry where this happens routinely even in films about women?

The script also foregrounds the men in Saxena's life, which is fine to the extent that as women we do find many allies among our male colleagues and relatives, but it is just as true that numerous women support other women although the public discourse would have you believe otherwise. Giving Saxena's father primacy in the script is fair enough since media reports have spoken of how he encouraged her to pursue her ambitions, but I did wonder why the film found no space for a woman ally.

There are only two women of any significance in the narrative, neither of them offers any moral support to the protagonist and as the trailer has already revealed, her mother actively pressures her not to fly. While the Mum's attitude is no doubt a faithful depiction of what happened in truth, (minor spoiler ahead in this paragraph) she is noticeably not given an inner journey towards the acceptance she later abruptly displays, unlike Saxena's brother who too was shown to be discouraging and in whom we witness a natural progression towards a transformation. In fact, the writers ensure that every single recognisable male character in the narrative who severely discriminates against Saxena or traumatises her or does not speak up for her gets a moment of redemption. (Spoiler alert ends)

Did the real Gunjan Saxena have no female allies? Perhaps this lacuna could have been plugged by fleshing out at least a couple of her women colleagues.

Saxena belonged to the first batch of women recruited to the Air Force when it opened its doors in the 1990s. (Note: the film's trailer creates the impression that she was India's first woman IAF officer - she was among the first.) In fact, there was one other female officer, Sreevidya Rajan, with Saxena during the Kargil war, but so little is written in the media about both of them and the few available reports are so conflicting that it is hard to tell from the Internet precisely what Rajan's job profile was in Kargil. From a report filed by senior NDTV journalist Vishnu Som in the 1990s (a report that was the starting point of Sharma's research), it is clear that Saxena flew into combat zones. Material in the news media about Rajan's tasks during the war is elusive, she is not an identifiable character in the film either and for dramatic purposes, women personnel have been excluded completely from the training scenes at the Udhampur Air Force Station and from the war. The equation between Saxena and Rajan could have been a goldmine of insights into the dynamic between women jointly battling bias - erasing Rajan from the story is not just unjust to her, it robbed Gunjan Saxena of a crucial element in its conversation on gender politics.

Elaborating on these missing links could only have further elevated this otherwise intelligently crafted film.

Janhvi Kapoor plays the titular heroine. As with her first film Dhadak, here too she comes across as an actor who lacks a certain zing in her screen presence that gives stars an indefinable X Factor. Maybe her personality will evolve with age, but for now, in terms of look (a neat fit for the actual Saxena) and acting, she is a good casting choice. I particularly enjoyed her approach to the scenes in which Saxena is seen fleetingly celebrating her small forward steps and the girlish innocence she brings to the interactions between the leading lady and her father without reducing the youngster to a cutesy cliche.

Pankaj Tripathi as the heroine's father lends the entire weight of his acting maturity to the role. While a couple of scenes do bear a now-familiar PT signature, he imbues his character with a warmth and understated steely resolve that makes every scene with him special.

Angad Bedi as Saxena's brother, Vineet Kumar Singh and Manav Vij as her seniors, and all the supporting players are excellent. Although full justice is not done to Saxena's mother in the script, the lovely Ayesha Raza Mishra is endearing despite her character's conservatism.

Gunjan Saxena is a well-produced, well-directed film. Nitin Baid's fine editing propels Sharma's storytelling forward without a single superfluous second left hanging around. Aditya Kanwar's credible production design perfectly matches DoP Manush Nandan's camerawork that is rich without any ornamental flourishes incompatible with Sharma's chosen style.

Gunjan Saxena never once veers away from its intent to recount an individual's personal story, staying determinedly intimate even in war scenes, with John Stewart Eduri's controlled background score and Ali Merchant's equally restrained sound design. Trivedi's songs occasionally rev up the film's tempo but in a seamless fashion.

Unlike the recently released Shakuntala Devi, which chose to define a woman super-achiever largely in terms of motherhood, this film does not stray from its focus on Saxena's career goals and struggles for even a moment and is unapologetic about its single-mindedness. (Note: the title is not an infantalisation of a 24-year-old woman by the writers - it is a label that appears to have been bestowed on Saxena when she went to war.)

Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl is so believable that as a woman from a vastly different profession, one that is packed with other women, I still felt like I was watching my own story. When Sukhwinder Singh's voice belted out Kausar Munir's lyrics for the song 'Dhoom dhadaka,' warning men that machismo would be wasted on this firecracker of a woman since she is likely to send their egos packing, I am sure Munir was writing about every woman I know who has fought great odds to make her own road.

Gunjan Saxena is about one remarkable woman, but it is also about every remarkable woman that ever lived. It is poignant and fun, it is shorn of intellectual pretensions but is clever as heck, and I loved it.

Rating: ****
The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) expressed deep sorrow regarding the tragedy that occurred in Beirut, Lebanon.

On August 4, a catastrophic explosion took place at Beirut, Lebanon as a result of reportedly insecurely stored chemicals.

This tragic event resulted in more than 100 deaths and thousands of injuries adding weight to the Lebanon hospitals which already are overwhelmed with the existing burden of a non-stop surge of COVID-19 patients.

Bp Efraim Tendero, Secretary General of the WEA expressed his concern, "We mourn this tragic loss of life and the additional trauma this disaster causes to an already suffering people."

"We stand in solidarity with the residents of Beirut and the nation of Lebanon and call on Christians and churches around the world to join us in prayer."

"Pray for healing and restoration, pray for comfort and peace for those who have lost loved ones, and pray that the cause of the accident can be fully investigated and justice served, so that people can find closure."

WEA's Middle East Coordinator, Rev. Dr Jack Sara expressed hopefulness in a comment, "In the midst of this calamity, we are heartened by the self-less response of churches and believers who are actively reaching out to those in need: helping restore damaged homes and offering space to live for those who have lost everything."

"We pray that God would give wisdom to the leaders of Lebanon to handle the situation wisely and for the churches to be a beacon of light during these dark days," Dr Jack Sara said before proceeding to quote the bible.

"We are reminded of the Psalmist that prayed to God saying: 'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)"
Grana Y Montero S.A.A. (NYSE: GRAM)

Q2 2020 Earnings Call

, 12:00 p.m. ET

Contents:

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Grana y Montero Second Quarter of 2020 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

Presenting today on behalf of the Company are Luis Diaz Olivero, CEO and Dennis Gray, CFO. I would now like to turn the conference over to Luis Diaz Olivero, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Luis Francisco Diaz Olivero -- Chief Executive Officer

Thank you very much. Good afternoon to all attending this conference call.

As we usually do, I will make a brief summary of the relevant highlights of the second quarter of 2020. Then, Dennis Gray, our CFO, will expand on the financial results. We will finally open a Q&A session.

Ladies and gentlemen, second quarter was as anticipated, slow, complicated and difficult. As we have stated in our previous conference call, in which we detailed our three-phase plan to overcome this COVID-19 crisis, as you can see in Slide 4, during this last quarter and as part of the second phase of the plan, we focused on the three main goals. One, minimize the impact on the Company's results on 2020. Despite the fact that most of our E&C projects had very little activity during the last three months, the Company used the time wisely to cut costs, catch up with claims and additional works pending approval and discuss the terms in which to relaunch the projects, including the sharing of the costs originated by the COVID-19 as well as the way future costs generated by the new safety and health restrictions will be handled to complete the projects. The results of such efforts have been reflected in the second quarter results as well as in the forecast that I will share later in this call.

Our infrastructure business has suffered less than the other two since it continued to operate fully although with the restrictions during the whole second quarter. But it still had to deal with the lowest oil price in decades, a heavy reduction on traffic and fuel consumption as well as the law that suspended the collection of tolls in our road concessions. The business unit implemented a cost reduction program in all of its operations that allow all segments to operate under these new conditions reaching, for example, a full operating cost in the oil blocks under $30 per barrel and being able to handle the effect of not having any cash coming from the tolls in Norvial. Also, the oil and gas business is in the process of redefining this Peru-Petro when drilling operations will begin, which we expect to be not early than 2021.

In the case of our real estate business, we were not able to deliver any finalized housing units in quarter. And therefore, we did not record any revenues for the Company in this segment. However, the Company was able to keep selling future units through virtual sales room implemented in the projects. Sales using this mechanism account for 30% of the regular number of units sold before the pandemic. Cost reductions were also implemented in this business unit and this helped to present a nearly null result in the quarter.

As we announced at the end of June, the holding company also underwent a reorganization and implemented a cost reduction plan. We do expect that results of these cost savings and new structure will be reflected in the second semester of this year. With the exception of one E&C project that will not resume operations until the last quarter, as of today, all projects in the Company are in execution and implementing all the new safety standards. Most of the projects returned to execution early in July. And by the end of the month, all projects were gaining speed to what we will have to accept as the new maximum production rate, given the current social distance restrictions and safety protocols linked to COVID-19. The largest challenge to maintain ongoing operations, is the infection rates within projects, which has already been the case in one of the projects. In case of infections, the protocol is to evacuate the project, proceed with a full cleaning of the facilities and restart once permits are clear with the clients. In most of the projects, new contractual terms have been agreed with clients on such negotiations have been recorded in our backlog and forecast, as Dennis will explain later in the presentation.

Two, buy time to face upcoming financial and non-financial deadlines. Since mid-March, the Company implemented a severe discipline to control cash and secure liquidity in all projects under execution or halted during the quarantine. We were successful in securing this situation, thanks to the independent trust funds implemented as part of our operating policy in all E&C projects as well as the collection efforts in all projects and subsidiaries. These efforts allow us to resume operations when needed without additional working capital credit lines. The Company also engaged in refinancing efforts with financial and non-financial suppliers to extend the terms of all non-operating debts that were due during 2020. We have been partially successful, and there are still some pending negotiations.

Access to credit lines or capital market has been limited until the plea agreement has been signed, the event which has been delayed further than the original May 2020 estimate because of the difficulties that our counterparties in the negotiation face to operate. This situation represents a strong challenge in the next month for our cash flows. The Company has been elaborated a financial plan that contemplates several scenarios on the timing of the plea agreement signature, whether it is during 2020 or later. Based on such scenarios, the Company has been contacting different stakeholders in search of a bridge financing that may help the Company to navigate the time until the plea agreement is signed. This is an event that we have defined as necessary to implement the final and definite financial solution defining the plan. As alternate of complementary financing in the plan, the Company may initiate process to divest assets to secure liquidity and search to avoid any potential distress situation. As of today, the Company is searching to preserve its business strategy and all defined core assets. If plea agreement delays further than 2020, and/or the Company is not able to secure a bridge in a reasonable time to pay the payments due or contingencies that may materialize during the next two quarters, then the Company may be forced to change such strategy.

Three, retain and assure critical resources and talent to be able to relaunch the Company in 2021. After 100 days in quarantine, as most companies, we have learned to operate in a different way. Our organization is changing, adapting and new positions with different skills are being created. In this process, we have been careful to identify and retain the new talent needed as well as we are defining our succession plans and contingency plans for any undesired impact of this situation.

With respect to the latter, I regret to report the loss of 14 members of our team because of this pandemic. As of today, more than 1,800 persons have been confirmed positive to COVID-19, which represents close to 15% of our total population. We are taking all necessary precautions and implementing safety protocols in all our projects to prevent the expansion of this situation, which unfortunately, due to the public transportation exposure and the reality of our countries, makes it very hard to control. In all cases, we have secured medical and economical support for our workers in the event they got infected.

Regarding risks that may affect our plan, as we mentioned, we have classified risk in three categories as you can see in Slide 7. External risks, the return to the lockdown, a deeper macroeconomic impact, political and social instability in the countries where we operate, potential volatility of public and private investments, financial health of clients and financial providers as the one we suffered with Bioenergy last quarter in Colombia. Project execution, we have most of the risks mapped in our projects under control. However, some of them such as the fear to return to operation in certain cities as well as the availability of suppliers and subcontractors, are two that are still jeopardizing our operations. Project assumptions, we have improved the reliability of our forecast and projections after this quarter. However, production rates are still uncertain and certain other risks may affect our revenues and defer them to the future affecting, consequently, our gross profit in 2020.

We have updated our forecast for 2020 in Slide 8. New estimated revenues are close to $1 billion, EBITDA will be in the neighborhood of $115 million, net profit will improve from its current loss in around $7 million to $8 million during the second semester, and financial debt levels will close near $460 million. To complete the full depth of the Company, there's a need to have non-financial debt related to the completion of the plea agreement, the settlement of the class action and some other debts disclosed in our audited financial statements, 20-F reports and notes to both reports.

There is a wide variety of assumptions in order to achieve the above-mentioned figures. Among them, E&C is only executing current backlog with already agreed additional costs, oil price at $36 per barrel, at least for the rest of the year, new estimates of traffic for road concessions, and only 65% of the original budgeted real estate units delivered in the year. Consequently, there are a few potential opportunities to improve this forecast. New E&C contracts incorporated during the second semester that increased revenues in the year, additional trips for the metro line due to social distancing and further recovery in oil prices and an increase in storage occupation and fuel consumption in Terminales del Peru.

In Slide 9, I will mention the critical milestones for the third quarter. The Company needs to achieve certain goals during next quarter. Some may be critical and some other important to start 2021 with the right foot. Among them, the following are key goals Company wants to achieve during this quarter: one, secure a bridge loan not shorter than $45 million as defined in our financial plan to face different potential scenarios of such plan; conclude negotiations to lock amounts and terms of payments to be included in the plea agreement; incorporate at least $75 million into the E&C backlog; define the timing to resume mandatory investment plans for Blocks III and IV; and conclude an understanding regarding Via Expresa Sur concession with the Lima municipality.

Regarding the next phase of our plan and looking into next year, we have been working on the definition of the renewed company purpose as well as the purpose of each of the three business units as part of our transformation and providing also [Indecipherable] to our new strategic plan. We expect to complete this plan before defining our budget for 2021. We are also in the final stages of completing the new company brand, which we are considering to launch before year end. This will complete the new company identity. We will continue to uphold the values of truth, transparency and integrity, which have guided all of our actions with a renewed purpose and aspiration. We will relaunch the company with a culture aligned to our values and to our business strategy with ethics at the core.

We keep working hard as a company to overcome the new challenges brought by this sanitary and economic crisis, and we expect to not only survive, but also to prove that all the experience gained during this extended crisis has been incorporated into our process and culture.

Thank you all for your time and your continued support. I now leave you with Dennis for the financial analysis.

Dennis Gray Febres -- Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Luis.

Let's go to Slide Number 12. In terms of revenue, the Group reached revenues for the second quarter of 2020 of PEN1.3 billion. This is a 16.2% lower figure than the one that we reported at the end of the first semester of 2019. The revenues of the Engineering and Construction business unit decreased mainly because to the reduction of the volume of projects under execution in GyM and GMI in Peru, which was partially offset by the increase in sales at Vial y Vives-DSD in Chile. On the other hand, the reduction in revenues in our Infrastructure business unit was mainly explained by lower revenue in GMP as a consequence of reducted or reduced oil prices, especially in the second quarter of the year and a lower volume storage and dispatch at our terminal business units also in GMP.

On the other hand, in Norvial, as a consequence of the social immobilization, the amount of vehicles going through the highway was lower than the one that we reported in the first semester of 2019. Finally, as a consequence also of the measures taken by the government in the second quarter of the year, revenues in Concar were lower because of limited maintenance works executed. Finally, in terms of Line 1 revenues, although operation wise, there was no expectation, revenues are lower than those compared to the second half -- or the second quarter of 2019 because of the absence of works related to the expansion works of Line 1 of the metro, which were concluded last year.

In terms of gross profit, the consolidated number decreased 58.6% mainly due to the reduction in margins at the Engineering and Construction business unit due to the suspension of works related to COVID-19 pandemic and also a provision for the outcome of an arbitration initiated by the supplier of the Cerro del Aguila project, which was announced in the first quarter of this year. And a write-off of an account receivable in Morelco with a client, Bioenergy, a subsidiary of Ecopetrol, because of or due to the initiation of such company's liquidation process. Likewise, gross profit was impacted by the reduction in oil prices and by the reduction in traffic at Norvial, reducing the gross margin from 13.9% in the first semester of last year to 6.9% in this year. Administrative expenses at the end of this semester decreased 23.8% compared to the similar period in last year, reaching a percentage of 5.3% of the sales compared to 5.8% at the end of the second quarter of last year. This decrease is mainly explained for the reduction of expectation of the recovery of non-core expenses and also by the reduction of cost plans that were announced last quarter.

As a result, the consolidated operating income decreased 92.5% in the first semester of this year compared to the similar period last year with an operating margin of 10.9% last year, reducing to 1% this year. In terms of financial expenses, in this semester, we recorded higher net financial expenses, which were mainly explained by a statistical effect because last year, our Infrastructure business unit reported an extraordinary revenue related to the sale of CRPAOS related to the Line 1 of the metro expansion. In this sense, in this semester, financial income was 6.7% compared to 44 -- sorry, PEN6.7 million compared to PEN44.4 million last year. Consolidated net loss in the first semester of this year was 69.8%. The net margin went from 1.7% in the first semester of 2019 to minus 5.1% in the first semester of this year, explained by the results described above.

Adjusted EBITDA in the first semester of this year decreased 51% compared to the same period last year, going from PEN320.9 million to PEN157.1 million. In Slide 13, in terms of backlog, our consolidated backlog stands at $1.3 billion plus recurrent businesses of $523 million, reaching a total amount of $1.8 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2020. This number represents 1.64 years of revenues. Due to the situation caused by COVID-19 pandemic, the scope of the Chichimene contract in Colombia were reduced by $9 million. On the other hand, in Vial y Vives-DSD, the increase in backlog was due to Quebrada Blanca and MAPA projects for the extension of the term of such projects.

Likewise, in GyM, the increase in backlog was related to Marcobre, the modernization project of the Talara refinery and the construction of the Quellaveco tunnel, among other projects in relation to higher costs related to those projects. In the Infrastructure business unit, the increase in recurrent businesses was mainly due to a updated sales estimate for GMP with the newer prices.

In Slide 14, the total amount of consolidated financial debt as of the end of the second quarter of 2020 is $486 million. On the total debt, $98.6 million corresponds to working capital associated to client account receivables and leasings for the acquisition of machinery and equipment. The amount of $294.2 million corresponds to the infrastructure projects, all of them, which are non-recourse-allocated financings for the long term. On the other hand, we have $28.1 million [Phonetic] corresponding to a financing from CS Peru Infrastructure Holdings and $44.1 million for the debt dividend monetization at Norvial and $20.6 million corresponding to the leasing of one of our corporate buildings according to IFRS 16.

The debt at the end of the second quarter of this year decreased 6% compared to the end of 2019, mainly due to the amortization of the debt with CS Infrastructure Holdings in the first quarter of this year. What it is important to mention is that from the amount of debt outstanding, 61% corresponds to debt associated with infrastructure projects, and only 20% is related to working capital debt at the Engineering and Construction and Real Estate businesses.

Going to Slide 15, the Group has a consolidated amount with surety bonds of $431 million at the end of the second quarter of this year, from which 59% corresponds to the Engineering and Construction business, 39% corresponds to the Infrastructure business unit and 2% to the Real Estate business. 83% of the total stock of surety bonds are related to performance bonds for the execution or construction projects or a performance bond for our concession of contracts, basically in our Infrastructure business unit. A smaller amount corresponds to surety bonds for advanced payments, mainly at the E&C business and a smaller percentage is related to finished works performance bonds and other types of surety bonds.

Thank you for your attention. We can start now with the Q&A session.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

[Operator Instructions] This will conclude our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Luis Francisco Diaz Olivero -- Chief Executive Officer

You have a question in there.

Operator

Oh, apologies.

Luis Francisco Diaz Olivero -- Chief Executive Officer

I see it right now.

Operator

Yes. We do have one question and that will come from Canio Corbo with Capital. Please go ahead.

Canio Corbo -- CHL Capital -- Analyst

Yes. Hello. So, my question is, what is the situation going forward with the virus in Peru and how will you be able to manage your current operations? You mentioned it a little bit, but I saw the number of cases today getting high. So, can you give us a little more comment on that?

Luis Francisco Diaz Olivero -- Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Well, most of the projects, as I mentioned in the case of our E&C business are working right now with the proper protocols. Okay. We cannot anticipate right now that any of the projects will need to be halted because of the health situation in particular. We anticipated that we may face punctual infections within the projects. And as it happened, for instance -- and this is public information, it happened with Quellaveco. There was a particular situation, not with us, but with the other subcontractors that got a number -- an important number of persons with the infection. So we have to halt the project. We moved all the people out of the operation. We cleaned the site. We tested all the people again and we restarted all operations or we'll restart all operations next week. So, I think that the Company will have to face a situation in our E&C business, where we will have to be allowed to stop when needed and restart.

In most of these cases, what is going to happen is that, we will have to agree new terms with our customers and we will have to deal with the costs that in this particular case, for instance, since it was a decision of our client to stop the project, he will assume all the costs. So, what is uncertain in the E&C business is probably the amount of revenue that we are going to be able to execute during the second semester because we will have this particular situation jeopardizing the ongoing process of production. In the concessions in particular, we haven't had any problems during the quarantine, and we have designed a particular contingency plan that allows us that most of critical people to operate the concession have backups. And in the event people got infected, then we will get them out of the project and substitute them partially while they will get better.

So, we do not anticipate having any particular problems in such operations. So, it is a complicated situation, yes. But I would like to think positively in the terms that despite the situation that we will have to live with in the next months, we will have to -- we will be able to handle starting and stopping the projects whenever it's needed. But I don't see a situation where everything is being halted again for once. I'm not saying that the government may not decide something like that. But right now, it doesn't seem like that is happening to all the country at the same time. It may happen in a particular region, but not the country all at once as it was in the second quarter.

Canio Corbo -- CHL Capital -- Analyst

Okay. Thanks.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And this will now conclude the question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to management for closing remarks.

Luis Francisco Diaz Olivero -- Chief Executive Officer

Okay. Well, thank you all for attending this conference call. We hope you stay safe and have a good and safe afternoon. Thank you very much.

Operator

[Operator Closing Remarks]

Duration: 31 minutes

Call participants:

Luis Francisco Diaz Olivero -- Chief Executive Officer

Dennis Gray Febres -- Chief Financial Officer

Canio Corbo -- CHL Capital -- Analyst

More GRAM analysis

All earnings call transcripts
Two years ago Sandra Menchaca, a curriculum instructional specialist in math and science at C.E. King Middle School, was in the digital leading and learning masters program at Lamar University. She designed a plan to get more 21st century learning into the classroom, but it wasnt until the coronavirus hit that she was able to have time to use her program.

Two teachers in Sheldon ISD have brought Appy Hour to life, an online virtual meet up for teachers in the greater Houston area who want to join using to learn more about the online platforms they are expected to master. What started with 30 viewers after summer school classes on Fridays jumped to 100 viewers in just a week, and more are anticipated. Menchacas study was based on the idea of putting learning stations in the classroom, which she proposed was the best way for differentiation.

LOCAL: Humble ISD approves phased return to class beginning Aug. 17

Menchaca uses social media to network with other teachers to find what the biggest needs are for online learning platforms. There is a two presenter schedule for each Appy Hour, broken into 30-minute increments from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday. Teachers who have specialized in a Google Classroom compatible app discuss what theyve learned to share with other teachers.

She started early to help teachers find a way to learn about these programs before school starts, but once classes begin she plans to move the courses from every Friday to a once-a-month event.

(Sheldon ISD) provided Google classroom training for most of the teachers. When the pandemic started we kind of were pushed into doing ingenuity and a lot of the teachers and the students alike, and parents, they didnt like it, Menchaca said.

While some teachers had experience with Google, others did not. When the coronavirus hit, that caused parents, students and teachers to have to work to catch up on the systems they were now using to learn and teach. Sheldon ISD will be starting Sept. 8, and then the first four weeks of classes will be held virtually.

It was hard for them to navigate, it was something that you just had to learn. Some teachers had Google experience, some teachers did not, Menchaca said. So it was easier just to teach the teachers that didnt have Google experience Google, and because its compatible and you can log on from anywhere. And so we did provide Google training to those teachers and we decided that was going to be the learning management system that we were going to focus on.

EDUCATION: 'This is dangerous': Faculty at Houston-area colleges worried by return to campus

Sarah Mandela, the campus instructional specialist for ELA and social studies at C.E. King Middle School, is her partner that started Appy Hour with Menchaca. She said learning online at the middle school level might be easier than the elementary school level, but one of the difficulties is not having students in person.

Being teachers, educators, we like that face to face, thats why we do what we do, to see the kids, Mandela said. And so just the challenge of not being able to see your students every day with online learning, and really to be able to have that pulse check with each of them to know if theyre understanding what youre trying to teach them and to have that one on one feedback. So were trying to find ways that we can still give them feedback, and one on one feedback for what theyre learning in the best way possible through this online remote learning.

Successfully implementing online learning platforms

Brett Olmstead, Kingwood Park AP and Dual Credit U.S. history teacher and adjunct U.S. history professor at Lone Star College, created a successful online program for his students based off of his own experiences learning online. He had a full-time job as he was paying for college on his own, which meant he had to take some undergraduate courses online so he could work.

Some of his students who had been struggling to turn in assignments and keep up their grade in his class were far more successful in completing their online program. For the course levels he is teaching, he wants to give his students the closest thing possible to a college experience. Even when he had in-person classes, he would have students take their quizzes online through the Kingwood Park learning system of choice, Schoology, which parents also have access to. When the coronavirus hit, he was able to convert his class to online-only smoothly because they were already used to the system.

Breaking News: Get email alerts from Chron.com sent directly to your inbox

Now that his lessons are online and he welcomes a new year of students, he has his entire fall semester classes online by the first day. He records the lectures, lays out a weekly plan rather than an AP schedule plan, and posts discussion boards. Although teachers are often told to be creative, Olmstead said consistency is key to bring a structure for students. He suggested that there be a point if students reach a certain grade that they are required to attend a virtual tutoring session.

Well step one is you figure out how you want to deliver your lessons and then break them down and create consistency for students, Olmstead said. One of the biggest things you can have is consistency.

Olmstead said online learning teaches self-discipline, time management skills and personal responsibility. As someone who was an adjunct professor at the University of Houston and now at Lone Star College, Olmstead said those are tools that his freshman are lacking when they leave high school teachers who offer reminders and go on to higher education.

If its implemented properly and we have time to prepare for it, obviously teachers need time to prepare, online learning can be almost as effective as face-to-face, Olmstead said. Now, you cant replace (the) face-to-face experience entirely, I understand that.

Top hits: Get Houston Chronicle stories sent directly to your inbox

Atascocita High School health science teacher Sara Hansen said that they have had to adapt their courses, which have a direct relation to the medical field. She found a way to teach online successfully despite normally having a hands-on classroom. The beginning classes have around 25 to 27 students, while advanced classes have about 17 to 20 students. With the virtual and A/B split schedule, she expects about 10 to 12 per class which she says allows for proper social distancing.

In teaching students about the medical field, I typically do a lot of teamwork, group, and hands-on activities. Moving to fully online in the spring was a big change, and it was necessary to come up with alternative ways to teach, Hansen said in an email. That will continue this fall with the combination of virtual and in-person learning. Future medical professionals must be flexible and willing to accept change, so this is a great lesson for them. Students will also not be allowed to attend rotations in medical facilities yet, so we are working on finding new ways to gain these experiences.

savannah.mehrtens@chron.com
Today, from the smartphone we use to the smart assistants that we interact effortlessly with, on a daily basis, often the term AI or artificial intelligence is commonly used.

In fact, so common that we almost dont pay attention to it, and rather take the feature for granted. But you have to admit, AI surely makes our lives a whole lot simpler -- whether its something as simple as text prediction to something as complicated as voice to speech.

Reuters

Meet Dabbala Rajagopal Reddy, more commonly known as Raj Reddy. Hes the pioneer that developed the first speech recognition system called Hearsay-I and helped artificial intelligence to understand, while also interacting with us effortlessly like a real human being.



Early life

According to Wikipedia, Raj Reddy was born in Kattoor, India 19 June 1937, in the state that is now known as Andhra Pradesh. Son of an agricultural landlord, Raj Reddy completed his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy of the University of Madras (now known as Anna University, Chennai), India, in 1958.

Wikipedia

Later he moved to Sydney, Australia to complete his master's degree in technology from the University of New South Wales, in 1960. Here he also worked at IBM Australia as an Applied Science Representative.



Raj Reddy educational qualification

Later he left for the US to complete his doctorate degree in computer science from Stanford University in 1966. He eventually became an assistant professor at Stanford. In 1969 he moved to Pittsburg to become a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University and after 40 years, hes still an integral part of the institution.

Here he was the founding director (for years 1979 to 1991) of the schools Robotics Institute, dean (from 1991 to 1999) of the computer science department. Currently, hes the Mozah Bint Nasser University Professor of Computer Science and Robotics.

Raj Reddy early voice AI research

According to PeoplePill, One of his earliest research was conducted at the AI labs at Stanford, first as a graduate student and later as an Assistant Professor. His research in the field of artificial intelligence focused on perceptual and motor aspects of intelligence like speech, language, vision and robotics.

In the last three and a half decades, Reddy, with his colleagues has created multiple groundbreaking demonstrations of spoken language systems such as voice control of a robot, large vocabulary connected speech recognition, speaker-independent speech recognition, as well as unrestricted vocabulary dictation.

One of these was the Hearsay I -- the first speech recognition system, which is the foundation for all commercial speech recognition programs today. These demonstrations werent just a gimmick but they laid the foundation of the practical importance and potential commercial impact of artificial intelligence technology.

CMU

Awards and accolades

Reddy has received several accolades and awards in his life for his contributions to the field of computing. He was elected to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (of which hes been the president for years 198789), He has also been awarded with the American Academy of Arts and Science, the French Legion of Honour in 1984 and the IBM Research Ralph Gomory Fellow Award in the year 1991,

He was also the first Asian to be awarded the A.M. Turing Award -- the highest honour in computer science -- with American computer scientist Edward Feigenbaum, in the year 1994. The Indian government also offered him with the Padma Bhushan in the year 2001. He is also the winner of the 2004 Okawa Prize by the Okawa Foundation, the Honda Foundation Honda Prize in 2005, and the U.S. National Science Board Vannevar Bush Award in the year 2006.
Former President John Dramani Mahama has described as draconian the punishment meted out to a pastor and some church workers who flouted the laws of the Covid-19 issued by President Akufo-Addo to contain the spread of the infection.



He added that individual including churches have been going through hard times due to the coronavirus pandemic; thus, in order to prevent the country from the rising infection of the coronavirus, the restriction of individuals and collective freedoms in the interest of curbing a pandemic became necessary.



According to him, the outcome of the restrictions have not been pleasant as the law has not treated Ghanaians equally to the extent that political parties flout the same law and get away with it and yet when the church flouts it the punishment is very heavy draconian.



Today, all of us are sitting and wearing masks because we want to prevent our country from the rising infection of the coronavirus and so a restriction of our individual and collective freedoms in the interest of curbing a pandemic is necessary but sometimes I dare say some of the outcomes have not been the most pleasant because we are all equal before the law.



It should not be possible for political parties to flout that same law and get away with it and yet when the church flouts the law the punishment is very heavy and draconian, he voiced out at Keta Krachi in the Oti Region before a gathering.



Buttressing his point on selective justice when it comes to the application of the COVID-19 law, the NDC Flagbearer bemoaned why a pastor and some church workers are still languishing in jail for 4 years for flouting the same law that some members of the NPP flouted with impunity but got away with it.



 . . we have Christian colleagues and a Pastor and some church workers languishing in jail. They were sentenced to jail for 4 years. I believe that that is a very draconian punishment and we must all abide by the law, that is true but we dont engage in selective justice where you apply the law heavily on church workers who flout the law and yet during primaries people were seen flouting the law with impunity; gatherings were not supposed to be about a certain number and yet we saw huge numbers not observing any social protocols and nothing happened to them.



I think that the church workers who flouted the rule and were sentenced have borne punishment enough and if I were your President I would grant them some amnesty and so we all appeal to the President if there is a remission of sentence for these church workers, I think that they have learned their lessons and I think he should apply his power of clemency and release them, he pleaded.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com









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Immigration minister Chris Philp is to hold talks with French counterparts in Paris in an attempt to stem a fresh upsurge in migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.

The Government has been facing increasing pressure from Conservative MPs after fine weather and calm seas saw hundreds take to the water in an attempt to reach the UK.

More than 4,000 migrants have made it so far this year after completing the dangerous voyage across the worlds busiest shipping lane, with at least 597 arriving between Thursday and Sunday.

Border Force officers assist Syrian migrants after they were stopped crossing the Channel (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Boris Johnson on Monday condemned the activities of the cruel criminal gangs who were putting lives at risk, taking people out in potentially unseaworthy vessels.

Home Secretary Priti Patel, who went to see for herself the Border Force operations at Dover, said the UK authorities now needed to work with the French to make the route unviable.

The number of illegal small boat crossings we have seen recently is totally unacceptable, she said.

Today I was in Dover to see how Border Force and other operational partners are tirelessly dealing with the unacceptable number of illegal small boat crossings. I am absolutely committed to making this incredibly dangerous route unviable. pic.twitter.com/KGzBd3CR0X  Priti Patel (@pritipatel) August 10, 2020

Our operational partners are dealing with complex challenges associated with them and collectively with the French we need make this route unviable.

Across Government we are absolutely committed to shutting down this route and we will bring down the criminal gangs that facilitate these illegal crossings.

Officials said that they wanted to build on the joint work already under way, exploring the options for tougher action in France, including stronger enforcement measures, interceptions at sea and the direct return of boats.

Story continues

Home Secretary Priti Patel visiting Dover on Monday (Gareth Fuller/PA)

However the Government was facing criticism from French politicians after the Home Office formally requested the assistance of the Royal Navy to deal with the problem.

Calais MP Pierre-Henri Dumont said it was a political measure intended to show ministers were taking action but warned that it wont change anything.

Meanwhile Downing Street has suggested leaving the EU would allow the UK to draw up a new framework for dealing with migrants, ending the inflexible and rigid requirements to ensure asylum applications are examined and considered.

In further move to show ministers were serious about dealing with the issue, an RAF Atlas A400M surveillance aircraft was deployed over the Channel on Monday with spotters on board to support the Border Force operation.

A RAF Atlas A400M surveillance plane in the skies above Dover (Gareth Fuller/PA)

The latest outcry follows a similar storm last summer when another upsurge in crossings led Mr Johnson to warn Britain was prepared to start sending back those migrants who did make it across.

Ms Patel met the then French interior minister Christophe Castaner in Paris on August 29 last year when they agreed to step up resources to intercept and stop the wave of crossings.

There were suggestions from the French side that the UK could put more money into efforts to tackle the problem, reinforcing its patrols and improving the effectiveness of the three Border Force cutters stationed in the Channel.

It followed an earlier plan drawn up under former home secretary Sajid Javid, including a 6 million investment in security equipment, CCTV coverage of beaches and ports and a mutual commitment to return migrants under international and domestic laws.

In the latest attempt to address the issue, Ms Patel last month hailed a new operational approach after reaching an agreement with newly-appointed French interior minister Gerald Darmanin to create a Franco-British intelligence cell.

Mr Philp also discussed the problem with the French deputy ambassador Francois Revardeaux in a meeting last week.
ISTANBUL/ATHENS Turkey dispatched a vessel to conduct a seismic survey in a disputed area in the eastern Mediterranean, a move which Greece said was illegal and is likely to heighten tensions between the two NATO allies.

The advisory issued by the Turkish navy said the Oruc Reis vessel would operate in the area over the next two weeks.

The two countries are at odds due to overlapping claims for hydrocarbon resources in the region. A similar advisory, or Navtex, last month prompted a dispute that was calmed after the intervention of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, leading Turkey to agree a pause in operations.

But President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday Turkey had resumed energy exploration work in the region as Greece had not kept its promises on the issue.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis chaired a meeting of the government council for defence issues on Monday which examined ways of reaction to the Turkish provocation", the conservative premiers office said.

After the meeting, Greeces foreign affairs ministry issued a statement urging Turkey to immediately cease its illegal activities which undermine peace and security in the region". [L8N2FC225]

Earlier, Minister of State George Gerapetritis told Greek state TV Athens was in full political and operational readiness". He reiterated that Greece stood ready to engage in a constructive dialogue with Turkey on their differences.

The NAVTEX, issued by the Turkish navys office of navigation, covered an area of sea south of Turkeys Antalya and west of Cyprus. It will be in effect between Aug. 10-23.

The Oruc Reis vessel has already reached the location where it will operate after leaving the area where it was anchored off Antalya, Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said on Twitter.

Seismic surveys are part of preparatory work for potential hydrocarbon exploration. Turkey and Greece are also at odds over issues such as overflights in the Aegean Sea and ethnically divided Cyprus.

Erdogans announcement of the new exploration work came after Egypt and Greece signed an accord last Thursday designating an exclusive economic zone between the two nations in the east Mediterranean.

Diplomats in Greece said that agreement nullified an accord reached last year between Turkey and the internationally recognised government of Libya, but Erdogan said Turkey would maintain its agreement with Libya decisively".

(Additional reporting by Michele Kambas and Renee Maltezou in Athens; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Kim Coghill, Jane Merriman and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

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
by Mathias Hariyadi

The victims, who were guests of a Sunni family, were taking part in Midodareni prayers. Three people were injured, including a 15-year-old boy. The police failed to prevent the attack. For the extremists, a Shia ritual was taking place. Indonesias main Islamic organisation slammed the act of intolerance.

Solo (AsiaNews)  Sunni extremists attacked the home of a family hosting a group of Shias taking part in Midodareni prayers. The latter are held on the eve of a wedding, and are attended by neighbours and relatives of the bridge and groom. The guests receive some small gifts.

In this particular case, the ceremony was held at the home of Assegaf bin Jufri, a Sunni, in Metrodana, a village on the outskirts of Surakarta (Solo), in Central Java.

A mob of about 100 people attacked the ceremony yesterday resulting in minor injuries for two adults and a 15-year-old boy.

Despite negotiations" between the host family, the police and the attackers, the attack went ahead.

The vandals interrupted the vigil shouting the Shiism is not "authentic Islam and damaged the house and some vehicles.

According to one eyewitness, the Islamic radicals carried out their attack after rumours spread in the village that a Shia ritual was taking place in the house, not the Midodareni.

Central Java Gerakan Pemuda Ansor (GP-Ansor), a youth group linked to Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesias largest Islamic organisation, strongly condemned the act of intolerance.

"Nobody can take the law into their own hands", said GP-Ansor chief Sholahudin Aly.

Indonesia is the worlds most populous Islamic nation. About one million (0.5 per cent) out of 267 million are Shia. Sunnis represent 90 per cent of the total.
Sushants Sister Shweta Singh Writes Emotional Note For Their Dad, Says She Learnt To Be A Fighter From Him
Saudi Aramco said its still working on a deal to buy a $15 billion stake in Reliance Industries Ltd.s refining and chemicals business, even as lower oil prices force it to slash other investments.

Reliances shares fell in mid-July after Chairman Mukesh Ambani said a transaction had been delayed due to unforeseen circumstances in the energy market and the Covid-19 situation.

A deal with Indias Reliance would help the worlds biggest crude exporter join the ranks of the top oil refiners and chemical makers. State-owned Aramco, which bought chemical firm Saudi Basic Industries Corp. for $70 billion this year, is already a major supplier of crude to India, while Reliance sells petroleum products such as gasoline to the kingdom.

We are still in discussion with Reliance, Aramco Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser said on a call with reporters on Sunday. The work is still on. We will update our shareholders in due course.

A deal could be finalized around the first quarter of next year, according to Deven Choksey, managing director at KR Choksey Investment Managers Pvt. in Mumbai. Aramco will win twice over, he said.

It will get an assured consumer for its hydrocarbon resources, while becoming a 20% partner in a ready-made business of developing a value-added chain in specialty chemicals, Choksey said.

Reliances stock fell 1.3% in Mumbai on Monday, paring its gain this year to 41%. Aramco rose 0.2% to 33.10 riyals in Riyadh.

Aramco reported on Sunday that second-quarter net income was down almost 75% from a year earlier. The coronavirus pandemic halted travel and business, slashing demand for crude and fuel. After the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cut production, Brent prices rebounded from a low of about $16 a barrel in April to nearly $45, though theyre still down 32% this year.

Aramcos downstream unit narrowed its loss in the second quarter. The loss before interest and taxes for the business was $344 million, compared with $866 million a year earlier.

Ambani, the worlds fourth-richest person, said last year that Aramco was set to buy a 20% stake in his companys refining and petrochemicals business, valuing it at $75 billion.

The Reliance transaction would help Aramco reach its goal of more than doubling refining capacity to between 8 million and 10 million barrels a day. The Saudi firm had capacity of 3.6 million barrels a day at the end of last year, including wholly owned plants and stakes in joint ventures. The gross capacity of facilities in which Aramco has stakes was 6.4 million barrels daily.

The company, officially known as Saudi Arabian Oil Co., is working to start the 400,000 barrel-a-day Jazan refinery on Saudi Arabias southern Red Sea coast this year. It also owns the biggest refinery in the U.S. as well as plants in countries such as South Korea and Japan. Its planning several Chinese ventures.

Reliances need for a cash infusion has eased in recent months. The conglomerate raised some $30 billion by attracting investments from the likes of Google and Facebook Inc. into its digital unit, Jio Platforms Ltd., and by selling shares to existing stakeholders.
It is one of the greatest shows of the summer, and its completely free to watch. Its also out in the open air and can be enjoyed alone, with family or a partner whilst avoiding crowds, something the authorities always recommend because of the coronavirus crisis.

The Perseids meteor shower, otherwise known as the Tears of St Lawrence, is an astronomical phenomenon which appeals to thousands of people, who watch the night sky in August each year in the hope of seeing it. The Perseids are minute particles of ice and dust from comets, and they create this spectacular shooting star effect as they pass through the Earths atmosphere.

This year the Perseids have been active since mid-July, but it is in August that they are most visible. Although the name Tears of St Lawrence refers to the 10th of the month, the date on which the Christian saint died, on this occasion the best night to see the meteor shower will be 12th. Not necessarily in the early hours of the morning, either: they should be visible earlier in the evening, just after sunset.

Another advantage of the Perseid shower is that all you need is patience and darkness. They can be seen with the naked eye anywhere away from light contamination and with no obstructions, so it is a good idea to go somewhere outside town centres and other areas where there is a lot of light.

In Malaga province, places such as the mountains of La Axarquia, El Torcal in Antequera, the Serrania de Ronda and even Los Montes de Malaga are the best for watching the Perseid meteor shower, always looking away from where towns are located.
The bulk carrier MV Wakashio ran aground on July 25 with 4,000 tonnes of fuel aboard and began seeping oil last week

Related Grounded Mauritius ship operator apologises for oil leak

Salvage crews raced against time Monday to prevent a second disastrous oil spill off the picture-perfect coastline of Mauritius, with a damaged tanker carrying thousands of tonnes of fuel at risk of splitting apart.

The bulk carrier MV Wakashio ran aground on July 25 with 4,000 tonnes of fuel aboard and began seeping oil last week, staining coral reefs, mangrove forests and tranquil lagoons in an unprecedented environmental catastrophe for the archipelago nation.

More than 1,000 tonnes has already oozed from the ship, its Japanese operator says, causing untold ecological damage to protected marine parks and fishing grounds that form the backbone of Mauritius' economy.

Fuel was being airlifted Monday by helicopter to the shore, but efforts to pump more from the hold were being thwarted by rough seas and strong winds.

The weather, which is also fanning the oil slick further up the coast, is not forecast to improve until evening.

Some fuel has been removed but 2,500 tonnes still remains aboard, said Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, who warned cracks in the hull were worsening, and there was a very real chance the boat could split.

"We are in an advanced fracturing process. The bulk carrier does not have much time ahead of it," said one scientist working on the emergency effort, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Divers have reported fresh cracks in the hull, while creaking sounds from the vessel could be heard from the southeast shore, where a major clean-up operation is underway to remove treacly sludge coating miles of Mauritius' unspoiled coastline.

Japan on Monday dispatched a six-member team, including members of its coast guard, to assist. A French naval vessel with technical advisers aboard arrived Sunday from nearby Reunion, a French Indian Ocean island.

'Deep apology'

A spokesman at Mitsui OSK Lines, which operates the Wakashio, owned by another Japanese company, Nagashiki Shipping, told AFP it would send a team of experts as soon as Tuesday if they tested negative for coronavirus.

"Nagashiki Shipping deeply apologise to the people of Mauritius and will do their utmost protect the environment and mitigate the effects of the pollution," the Wakashio's owner said in a statement Monday.

The bulker struck a reef at Pointe d'Esny, an ecological jewel fringed by idyllic beaches, colourful reefs, sanctuaries for rare and endemic wildlife, and protected wetlands.

Aerial images show the enormity of the disaster, with huge stretches of crystal-clear seas around the marooned cargo ship stained a deep inky black.

Thousands of volunteers, many smeared head-to-toe in black sludge, have marshalled along the coastline since Friday, stringing together miles of improvised floating barriers made of straw in a desperate attempt to hold back the oily tide.

Police are expected to take statements from the captain and crew of the Wakashio after launching an investigation. Detectives boarded the ship on Sunday and seized the log book and black box.

Pressure is mounting on the government to explain why more was not done in the two weeks since the vessel ran aground.

Mauritius and its 1.3 million inhabitants depend crucially on the sea for food and ecotourism, having fostered a reputation as a conservation success story and a world-class destination for nature lovers.

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The Lebanese army said Sunday that hopes have dwindled of finding survivors at the blast site in Beirut following days of search and rescue operations supported by international experts.

"After three days of search and rescue operations we can say we have finished the first phase, which involved the possibility of finding survivors," Colonel Roger Khoury told a press conference.

"As technicians working on the ground, we can say we have fading hopes of finding survivors," added Khoury, who heads a team of military technicians operating at the blast site.

The huge explosion that hit Beirut's port devastated large parts of the Lebanese capital, claimed over 150 lives and wounded some 6,000 people.

At least 21 people remain missing, according to the health ministry.

Their relatives have watched breathlessly as rescuers from France, Germany, Russia, Qatar and other countries assisted Lebanese authorities in their search and rescue efforts.

But none have managed to find survivors, not even eight to nine port employees French experts believed were trapped alive in a control room buried beneath the rubble.

"We worked non-stop for 48 hours from Thursday morning to try to reach this control room. Unfortunately we did not find a single... survivor," said Colonel Vincent Tissier, leader of the French rescue team. In collaboration with other rescue teams, Tissier said they managed to uncover a total of five corpses.

Most Lebanese authorities say Tuesday's explosion was triggered by a fire in a port warehouse, where a huge shipment of ammonium nitrate, a chemical that can be used as a fertiliser or as an explosive, had languished for years.

The revelation that state officials had long tolerated a ticking time-bomb in the heart of the capital has served as shocking proof to many Lebanese of the rot at the core of the state apparatus.

World leaders, international organisations and a seething Lebanese public have pressed for an international probe, but President Michel Aoun has said that calls for such an investigation are a "waste of time."

In Beirut, the fury on the streets has further shaken the embattled government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab, which saw its first cabinet resignation when the information minister, Manal Abdel Samad, quit Sunday.

At least six lawmakers have also quit since the August 4 explosion.
The anti-racism group, Black Lives Matter, has painted its signature slogan on some very prominent streets across America -- but you wont see the message on the street of one Pa. town.

As FOX56 WOLF reports, Stroudsburg Borough Council voted late last week to deny a petition to have the words Black Lives Matter painted on the street around Courthouse Square in the Monroe County seat.

The rejection comes despite the country-wide momentum the anti-racism movement has gained in wake of widespread public revulsion to George Floyds death, with his neck under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, who is now criminally charged along with three others in the case.

BREAKING:

FOX56 reports about 300 people signed a petition on Change.org, calling for Black Lives Matter to be painted on the prominent street in Stroudsburg -- only to be rejected by the council.

Background from FOX56:

Some members of the council said they support the Black Lives Matter movement, but would like to see the message delivered in a different way.

"Maybe a sign of sorts possibly, but not just limited to Black Lives Matter. I mean children matter, religion matters, a lot of things matter," Jim Evanisko, Stroudsburg Borough council member, was quoted by FOX56 as saying.

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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
Gandhinagar, Aug 10 : Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Monday announced a new scheme 'Mukhya Mantri Kisan Sahay Yojana' under which more than 56 lakh farmers in the state facing crop damage due to natural calamities will get compensation without paying any premium.

"The irregularity of rains is the biggest factor in economic loss to the farmers. The state government has decided to implement a scheme where the entire state is covered and none of the farmers are devoid of its benefits like crop loss aid in situations of calamities during kharif season. The scheme will be beneficial to approximately 56 lakh farmers of the state." "Unlike the Centre's crop insurance scheme, where only the farmers who paid a premium could avail the benefits, the 'Mukhya Mantri Kisan Sahay Yojana' will benefit farmers without paying any premium," said Rupani.

The scheme covers drought and excess or unseasonal rain. In cases of drought, those tehsils having rainfall less than 10 inches or where there is a gap of more than four weeks between two rainy days, will be considered as calamity affected.

Those districts in South Gujarat loke Bharuch, Narmada, Tapi, Surat, Navsari, Valsad and Dang, where rainfall of more than 35 inches occurred in 48 hours will be declared as excessive rainfall affected.

During the period between October 15 and November 15, if more than 50 mm rain fell continuously in 48 hours, those areas will be considered affected by unseasonal rain. The benefits of this scheme will be available only to those farmers who have carried out sowing in their fields.

For those farmers with 33 per cent to 60 per cent crop damage, financial help of Rs 20,000 per hectare will be given for a maximum of 4 hectares while those farmers who have incurred more than 60 per cent crop loss will get compensation of Rs 25,000 per hectare up to a maximum of four hectares.

A special portal will be developed where farmers can apply online. They can visit the E-gram centres in villages and get their applications registered. After the application's approval, the beneficiary farmers will get the aid directly transferred into their bank account through DBT. A grievance redressal mechanism for farmers will also be set up and a toll free number will be provided.

The Chief Minister said that the list of calamity affected villages, tehsils and other areas will be prepared by the District Collectors, who will have to submit the list within seven days of the calamity striking, to the state government's Revenue Department. The Department, within a week, will approve the list and issue appropriate orders.
Pastor David Platt asks for prayers after pandemic delays adoption of son

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As the coronavirus pandemic has halted most adoptions from outside the U.S., megachurch pastor and author David Platt is asking Christians to pray that their third adopted child, who turned 4 on Sunday, would come into their family soon.

Today was my sons 4th birthday. But I havent met him yet. We were 5 days away from going overseas to adopt him when travel to his country shut down in early February, Platt, the lead pastor of McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Virginia, wrote on Twitter.

For the last 6 months, Ive been pleading every single day for a way to go to him. As a dad, I would do anything possible to make that happen, continued the author of Radical.

Platt, who at one point was the youngest megachurch pastor in the United States, added, I woke up this morning to new pictures of him in his orphanage, and then I read the first verse that just so happened to be in my Bible reading plan. Jesus told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart  Luke 18:1.

The former leader of the Southern Baptist Conventions International Mission Board then urged Christians to pause for a moment, pray for J.D., and ask God to make a way for him to come into our family.

The National Council for Adoption says over 110,000 children are adopted in the U.S. every year. This includes international adoptions, but their numbers have been far lower. The council estimates that the number of overall adoptions has gone down tremendously due to COVID-19.

International adoptions  are effectively at a standstill, leaving many families in a painful holding pattern, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In 2019, Americans adopted 819 children from China, 298 from Ukraine, 244 from Colombia, 241 from India, 166 from South Korea, 134 from Bulgaria, 130 from Haiti, 116 from Nigeria and 94 from the Philippines among other countries, according to the State Department.

In late January, Platt told The Christian Post, My family and I are about to adopt our fifth child next week. Two of our kids are adopted and this will be our third child that we have adopted.

He said his family was doing an international adoption but he couldnt yet publicly disclose which country the child is from.

At the time of his interview with CP, Platt was a speaker at the annual March for Life where he talked about the harms of abortion.

Platt stressed that there was a need to show the dark realities of whats happening to children and shine a light on the effects of that on women. He urged churches to come alongside women who have abortions in their healing process.

We have many women in our church who have had abortions, he explained. We have outlets where we are doing ministry with them as they walk through a healing process from having an abortion. We have got to make sure we are addressing this issue holistically and not just saying, OK, let me make this political statement and move on. There is so much more.

Platt said he doesnt remember exactly what year the Lord convicted him on the abortion issue, but said that he had already been a pastor for a few years at that time. I just kind of dodged abortion altogether, he explained. I had to repent before the Lord for sitting idly by and not doing anything personally or pastorally to mobilize people to see the value of life according to Gods Word.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 17:23:27|Editor: huaxia

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Students walk to their school in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Aug. 10, 2020. All state-owned schools across Sri Lanka re-opened on Monday after being shut for over a month amid the COVID-19 pandemic which has infected more than 2,800 people in the island country, the Education Ministry said. (Xinhua/Tang Lu)

COLOMBO, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- All state-owned schools across Sri Lanka re-opened on Monday after being shut for over a month amid the COVID-19 pandemic which has infected more than 2,800 people in the island country, the Education Ministry said.

Schools re-opened for all grades under strict health guidelines which included students wearing face masks and maintaining hand hygiene at regular intervals.

Desks in classrooms were also kept at a one-meter distance and students were prohibited from playing in playgrounds or taking part in sports.

The Education Ministry said that schools that has over 200 students will, however, operate classes on separate days in order to maintain a strict social distancing policy and to prevent a large number of students from gathering in one place at the same time.

School canteens were also not permitted to operate until confirmation from health authorities, the Education Ministry said.

All schools in the island nation were shut in mid-March when Sri Lanka detected its first local COVID-19 infection.

Schools were later re-opened for selected grades in July but were closed again following the threat of a fresh outbreak of the virus.

The Education Ministry said they had decided to re-open schools on Monday after no community transmission of the virus had been detected in recent weeks and authorities said the virus was now confined with the quarantine centers only.

Till Monday morning, 2,844 patients were detected in Sri Lanka, out of which 2,593 patients had recovered and been discharged, with 11 deaths reported from the virus. Enditem
Jimmy Anderson has reiterated his desire to continue playing Test cricket for England and put an end to speculation of an imminent retirement.

The record-breaking Test seamer has endured a frustrating summer and the chances are increasing that he may be struggling to reach the magical figure of 600 Test wickets.

Anderson, now 38, is currently on 590 wickets and faces being rested for the second Test against Pakistan at the Ageas Bowl on Thursday. That led to speculation he may retire but he insisted on Monday that he wants to continue playing.

Jimmy Anderson has insisted he has no plans to retire from international cricket just yet

Anderson takes the ball from new-ball partner Stuart Broad during the first Test in Manchester

He said: 'It's been a frustrating week for me personally. I've not bowled very well and felt out of rhythm.

'For the first time in probably 10 years I got a little bit emotional on the field, got a bit frustrated, let it get to me a little bit. It reminded me of when I first started playing, when you get frustrated and a little bit angry you try and bowl quicker and quicker and it doesn't help.

'It was one bad game and I'm sure I'll have another bad game in my career. I just don't want every time I have a bad game for there to be whispers going round that I'm going to pack in.

'For me it's about trying to find a way of dealing with that, dealing with the outside noise. I've done that really well in my career, but it's a little bit different now.

'I want to play as long as I possibly can. If I keep bowling the way I did this week, the opportunity to retire will be taken out of my hands. It will be a selection issue.'

Anderson looked a frustrated figure during England's three-wicket victory last week

Anderson was dropped for the second Test against the West Indies but did play in the final Test of the series and the first Pakistan Test.

He looked a frustrated figure during England's three-wicket victory last week as he only grabbed one wicket across two innings.

England have called up Sussex seamer Ollie Robinson to their bio-secure bubble in Southampton and he will be in contention for a debut against Pakistan, possibly at the expense of Anderson.

Ben Stokes will not be involved in the rest of the Pakistan series as he will be travelling to New Zealand for family reasons but he only bowled in the second innings as he has been struggling with an injury.

Stokes did grab two crucial wickets against Pakistan and Zak Crawley looks like the most obvious candidate to replace him in the side.

The hosts struggled in their first innings against the visitors' ferocious attack and Crawley would come into the batting line-up at three.
Actress Rhea Chakraborty, who has been accused of abetting actor Sushant Singh Rajput's suicide, has filed a new affidavit in the Supreme Court stating unfair trial by media. The actress is one of the prime accused in an FIR filed by Sushant's father KK Singh, along with her parents and brother Showik Chakraborty.

In the new affidavit, Rhea has demanded to stop media trial of Sushant Singh Rajput death case. She has said that despite an open investigation going on in the case, the media has already painted her as an convict.

Rhea, along with her family has also been summoned for the second time by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. KK Singh had accused Rhea of withdrawing Rs 15 crores from Sushant Singh Rajput's account.

ED will be questioning the actress about her friendship with the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, possible business dealings and the developments that took place over the last few years between them. Previously, the actress, along with Showik, chartered accountant Ritesh Shah Sushant Singh Rajput's former manager Shruti Modi were summoned by the ED on August 7. However, Rhea and Showik were summoned again due to their "evasive answers."

Rhea, via her lawyer Satish Maneshinde, had requested for the postponement of the ED summon until the Supreme Court hearing, which was denied. She had filed a petition in the apex court, seeking the transfer of an FIR filed, by Sushant's father against her, from Patna to Mumbai.

The CBI on Thursday took over the investigation into 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.

Sushant Singh Rajput passed away on June 14, 2020 by suicide. He was 34.

This news piece may be triggering. If you or someone you know needs help, call any of these helplines: Aasra (Mumbai) 022-27546669, Sneha (Chennai) 044-24640050, Sumaitri (Delhi) 011-23389090, Cooj (Goa) 0832- 2252525, Jeevan (Jamshedpur) 065-76453841, Pratheeksha (Kochi) 048-42448830, Maithri (Kochi) 0484-2540530, Roshni (Hyderabad) 040-66202000, Lifeline 033-64643267 (Kolkata).
By AFP

World leaders on Sunday pledged more than 250 million euros for disaster-struck Lebanon, conference host France said, with the emergency aid to be delivered "directly" to a population reeling from the deadly port blast in Beirut.

Fifteen government leaders including US President Donald Trump took part in the virtual conference hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and the UN, pledging solidarity with the Lebanese people and promising to muster "major resources" in the coming days and weeks.

A joint statement issued after the meeting in which representatives of nearly 30 countries as well as the EU and Arab League participated, did not mention a global amount.

ALSO READ | Beirut blast: 19th-century 'Sursock Palace' that withstood two world wars, destroyed in this impact

But Macron's office said the total figure of "emergency aid pledged or that can be mobilised quickly" amounts to 252.7 million euros ($298 millon), including 30 million euros from France.

Macron was the first world leader to visit the former French colony after Tuesday's devastating explosion of a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate which killed more than 150 people, wounded some 6,000 and left an estimated 300,000 homeless.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told ZDF broadcaster that "more than 200 million euros of emergency aid have been collected," including 20 million euros from Germany.

'Utmost efficiency and transparency'

The joint statement from the world leaders and their representatives underscored concerns about Lebanese government corruption.

"The participants agreed that their assistance should be timely, sufficient and consistent with the needs of the Lebanese people, well-coordinated under the leadership of the United Nations, and directly delivered to the Lebanese population, with utmost efficiency and transparency," it said.

USAID acting administrator John Barsa also said in a conference call Sunday that American help, some $15 million announced so far, "is absolutely not going to the government."

The donor nations urged Lebanon's authorities to "fully commit themselves to timely measures and reforms" in order to unlock longer-term support for the country's economic and financial recovery.

IN PICS | Lebanon blasts: Terror, devastation hit Beirut as explosion death toll mounts to over 100

And they said assistance for "an impartial, credible and independent inquiry" into Tuesday's explosion "is immediately needed and available, upon request of Lebanon."

The UN said some $117 million will be needed for an emergency response over the next three months, for health services, emergency shelter, food distribution and programmes to prevent further spread of COVID-19, among other interventions.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun, who was also on Sunday's group call, thanked Macron for the initiative.

"Much is needed to rebuild what has been destroyed and to restore Beirut's lustre," the Lebanese presidency quoted him on Twitter as saying.

"The needs are many and we need to address them quickly, especially before the arrival of winter, which will accentuate the suffering of homeless citizens."

Calls for calm

At least 21 people are still missing from the huge blast, and the Lebanese army said Sunday hopes of finding survivors are dwindling.

Lebanese people enraged by official negligence blamed for the explosion have taken to the streets in anti-government protests that have resulted in clashes with the army.

Macron said it was now up to the authorities of Lebanon "to act so that the country does not sink, and to respond to the aspirations that the Lebanese people are expressing right now, legitimately, in the streets of Beirut."

"We must all work together to ensure that neither violence nor chaos prevails," he added. "It is the future of Lebanon that is at stake."

Trump also called for calm, according to the White House, which said he agreed with other leaders on the group call to "work closely together in international response efforts."

"President Trump also urged the government of Lebanon to conduct a full and transparent investigation, in which the United States stands ready to assist," it said.

"The President called for calm in Lebanon and acknowledged the legitimate calls of peaceful protestors for transparency, reform, and accountability."

'Generous help'

Apart from heads of state and government ministers, Sunday's conference was attended by UN aid coordinator Mark Lowcock, representatives of the World Bank, the Red Cross, the IMF, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Israel, with whom Lebanon has no diplomatic relations, did not participate, though Macron said it had expressed a wish to contribute, nor did Iran which wields huge influence in Lebanon through the Shiite group Hezbollah.

Key Arab states in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq and the UAE were represented, as were Britain, China, Jordan and Egypt.

Macron said Turkey, with which France's diplomatic ties have been icy over the Libyan conflict, and Russia had indicated their support for the initiative, though they did not take part in the conference.

According to the UN, at least 15 medical facilities, including three major hospitals, sustained structural damage in the blast, and extensive damage to more than 120 schools may interrupt learning for some 55,000 children.

Thousands of people are in need of food and the blast interrupted basic water and sanitation to many neighbourhoods.

Pope Francis called Sunday appealed for "generous help" from the international community.

France has been sending tonnes of medical and food aid, dozens of search and rescue personnel and forensic experts to aid the investigation, as well as reconstruction materials.

On top of cash aid pledged so far, Egypt and Qatar have promised field hospitals, Brazil said it would send 4,000 tonnes of rice, and Spain 10 tonnes of wheat.

"In these horrendous times, Lebanon is not alone," concluded the conference statement.
MOSCOW -- As election officials in Belarus claimed a landslide victory for incumbent Alyaksandr Lukashenka, and his main challenger rejected that result as rigged, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his counterpart a congratulatory note urging continued cooperation that "fulfills the vital interests of brotherly nations."

Putin said nothing of the protests that unfolded across Belarus the night before, fueled by anger over evidence of vote-rigging and official numbers that flew in the face of an unprecedented show of support for opposition candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya in the weeks leading up to the presidential election. Nor did he mention the violent crackdown that followed.

Belarus's southern neighbor, Ukraine, cited the unrest and called for "dialogue," and the European Union denounced the police violence that left protesters bloodied.

But Moscow was relatively tight-lipped, apparently waiting to see what happens in the unfolding standoff between an authoritarian leader it has helped prop up for a quarter-century and the growing number of citizens opposed to his continued rule.

"Moscow, like pretty much everyone else, assumed that Lukashenka still had a good number of years in him," Mark Galeotti, an expert on Russia's security services at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told RFE/RL. "But this puts Moscow in a difficult situation. They're not making a big deal of it, because they're having to take stock."

Throughout Lukashenka's 26 years in power, Belarus's economic stability has been predicated on billions of dollars in de facto Russian subsidies, including a steady supply of cheap crude oil that Minsk has purchased at a discount and refined for onward export as petroleum products to Europe.

But pressure has grown on Lukashenka to offer more in return. In 2018, Moscow began raising energy prices to eventually match the market rate for exports, cutting off a lifeline that had propped up Belarus's economy and sending it into a precipitous decline that has taken Lukashenka's approval ratings with it -- a phenomenon compounded by public anger over what many citizens see as his inadequate response to the coronavirus.

Even before the current protest wave, the strongman president was under serious pressure from Moscow to integrate with Russia under a union state that has existed largely on paper since the 1990s, in exchange for compensation for the crippling energy price hikes.

Putin's congratulatory note called for closer integration in the union state and increased cooperation under the aegis of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Eurasian Economic Union, and the Collective Security Treaty Organization -- Moscow-dominated regional political, economic, and military groupings -- a scenario that a politically weakened Lukashenka may find increasingly hard to counter. Observers said the terse telegram read more like a to-do list on closer ties with Russia than a piece of warm praise.

Putin has not so much congratulated Lukashenko as presented him [with] terms of re-engagement," Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, wrote on Twitter.

Testing The Waters

Tsikhanouskaya's supporters have mocked the official figures that gave her less than 10 percent of the vote share, and planned more protests across Belarus. But Moscow may be watching and waiting, in part to see how Lukashenka and the security establishment that backs him will respond.

Galeotti pointed to active contact between the security services of Russia and Belarus, with Moscow carefully monitoring the mood in Minsk and particularly the potential for an elite defection -- a situation in which armed representatives of the state might side with the protesters.

"I imagine at the moment [Moscow] is very carefully trying to test out the waters and get a sense of whether the security forces are going to stay loyal," he said. "Because that's going to be the absolutely crucial issue."

For the Kremlin, a familiar leader -- especially one embattled at home -- may be the lesser evil to a reformist replacement president wary of Russia's embrace and prone to integration with the West, even if Tsikhanouskaya and the opposition leaders allied with her are not anti-Moscow.

Meanwhile, Belarus's geographic position, sandwiched between Russia to the east and the EU and NATO to the west, could end up benefiting Lukashenka if he fails to gain real support -- or face a major challenge -- from either.

From his position atop a geopolitical fault line," political analyst Maksim Samorukov, a fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center, wrote in a commentary on August 10, Lukashenka "will weather every storm as long as Russia and the West mistrust him less than they do each other."
Toshiba Corporation, Tohoku University Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization (ToMMo) and Tohoku University Hospital have demonstrated that quantum cryptographic communications technology can provide genomic medicine with a safe, completely secure data management environment. This was achieved by (1) developing a system which applies quantum cryptographic communications technology to clinical sequencing, and (2) using that system to safely transmit cancer genome analysis data (exome sequence data), via online expert panel attended by physicians and other experts to analyze the sequenced data (Figure 1). This is the world's first development and demonstration of a system using quantum cryptographic communication technology in the field of genomic medicine.

Clinical sequencing is a new examination in genomic medicine that uses a next-generation sequencer to read a patients gene sequence at ultra-high speed. The results of the genomic data analysis are then provided to physicians and other experts to assist in patient diagnosis and treatment selection. This system builds on and extends capabilities that Toshiba and ToMMo announced in January of this year, and the achievements of this demonstration are a major step toward a practical system that will provide safe and secure genomic medicine.

This research was carried out as part of the Strategic Innovation Creation Program (SIP) of the Council for Science and Technology and Innovation of the Cabinet Office, "Society 5. 0 Realization Technology Utilizing Light and Quantum" (Quantum Science and Technology Research and Development Organization). Toshiba, ToMMo and Tohoku University Hospital will present the details of the demonstration and the technology at the International Conference QCrypt 2020 (10th International Conference on Quantum Cryptography) on August 10-14.

Figure 1: Overview of the demonstration

Details

In January this year, Toshiba and ToMMo announced on a series of experiments of quantum cryptography transmission that took place in July and August 2019 that succeeded in transmitting whole-genome sequence data for the first time anywhere in the world. Since then, and joined by Tohoku University Hospital, they have advanced the research by focusing on two areas related to clinical sequencing of cancer patients: the type of data that must be kept confidential; and methods to utilize quantum cryptographic technology in data decryption.

Clinical sequencing covers genome analysis data which is highly confidential personal information closely related to ones health and physical condition that must be kept secure. For the same reason, support is also needed for the data generated by online expert panel attended by physicians and experts who share patients genetic data and diagnostic results via remote access.

After considering this, Toshiba, ToMMo and Tohoku University Hospital successfully demonstrated encryption in two areas using quantum cryptographic communication technology:

Real-time transmission of genome analysis data (exome sequencing data) Data transmission for an online expert panel, including analyzing results over conference audio and visual feeds.

Implementation of A:

Transmission of genome analysis data uses a one-time pad cryptography that Toshiba and ToMMo announced in January 2020. Genome data is encrypted as it is sequenced, with a cryptographic key distributed from the quantum key distribution system, and transmitted using the one-time pad. The transmission system is designed for ease of use. Menus on the operators screen allow simple selection of the number of the specimen for analysis, and of the transmission method.

Figure 2. Sample of the developed Web GUI screen

Implementation of B:

A secure environment for expert panel was achieved by setting up two-way transmission of audio-visual signals that is linked to a key management server that stores and manages quantum cryptographic keys. This server receives audio-visual feeds from an on-site conferencing system, uses a one-time pad to encrypt it, and transmits it to another key management server at a different site. It uses the same one-time pad to decrypt encrypted audio-visual feeds from the other site, and transfers it to the in-house conference system. The outcome is a totally secure environment where genome data can be discussed with confidence.

Toshiba, ToMMo and Tohoku University Hospital tested this system from January to July this year. They performed a real-time transmission of 96 specimens of exome sequence data from the genomes of cancer patients of Tohoku University Hospital, and simulated a 65-minute online conference attended by a total of 10 physicians and other medical professionals. The results confirmed that quantum cryptographic communications technology supported large-scale data transfers at the genome scale, and responsive, real-time case conferencing.

These results confirm that quantum cryptographic communications realize secure data transfers and support real-time communications and diagnostics. In addition to providing a secure basis for professionals working in genomic to share and discuss highly confidential personal data, it also points the way to the future development of telemedical services, where patients in remote locations can trust the privacy of consultations with physicians.

Figure 3. Outline of the conference system and pictures of the actual simulation

Overview of the Demonstration

Demonstration base: Toshiba Life Science Analysis Center (Minamiyoshinari, Aoba Ward, Sendai City) Tohoku University Seiryo Campus, Tohoku Medical Megabank Building (Seiryo-machi, Aoba Ward, Sendai City) Tohoku University Hospital (Seiryo-machi, Aoba Ward, Sendai City) Experiment period: January 2020 - July 2020 Transmission information: 96 specimens of exome sequence data (approx. 3.1 terabytes) Data of simulated online conference (approx. 1.4 gigabytes) No. of online conference participants Ten people in all

Toshiba will continue to work toward practical application of quantum cryptography in high security areas, including medical, financial and communications infrastructure. ToMMo and Tohoku University Hospital will continue close collaboration in promoting the use of safe and secure ICT technologies to support medical treatment based on genomic information.
By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CPM state committee has found a favourable political situation evolving after the bhoomi pooja ceremony for the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The state committee meeting here on Sunday discussed the future plans to leverage this.

Party state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that the meeting observed that there would be "changes in favour of the Left". The committee decided to work together with secular forces who face threat from the BJP in other states.

Kodiyeri accused the Congress of taking a soft-Hindutva stand on the issue. "The centre has taken over the works from the temple trust which is a violation of the Supreme Court order. The PM laid the stone for the temple in the presence of UP Governor and chief minister," he said.

"The bhumi pooja with PM's participation has justified the destruction of the Babri Masjid with retrospective effect. Secular forces are apprehensive. The Congress has failed to oppose the BJP or bring the secular forces together," he said.

Kodiyeri said his party's opposition wasn't against a Ram temple coming up. "But this isn't an ordinary temple construction. It is a construction at the site where the Babri Masjid existed," he said.

Kodiyeri said the Congress had taken a soft-Hindutva stand on Babri Masjid demolition and the temple construction. He opined that the IUML was cheating the people by supporting the Congress.

Kodiyeri reiterated his allegation that Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala was taking a helpful stand towards the BJP. He said Chennithala's personal security officer is a former district office-bearer of the RSS. "I wonder why he chose him since there are police officers owing allegiance to the Congress," he said.

Kodiyeri said that the gold smuggling issue has not dented the image of the government. It will not nullify the prospects of the LDF government getting a second term.

The party will organise protest programmes against the new National Policy on Education of the centre. Satyagrahas will be organized in the houses of all party members on August 23 from 4pm to 4.30 pm. He said the Congress and the IUML have failed to oppose the policy though it robs off the existing privileges of the poor, backward classes and the minorities.
China has greeted "old friend" Mahinda Rajapaksa on taking over as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka following a landslide victory and assured him full support, as Beijing looks forward to advancing its strategic cooperative partnership with Colombo.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has greeted Rajapaksa, saying that the Sri Lankan leader has been long committed to promoting the friendship between the two countries. Rajapaksa, during whose previous tenures China made billions of dollars of investments in the island nation, enjoys a close rapport with Chinese leaders for consolidating bilateral ties.

Commenting on Rajapaksa being sworn in as prime minister, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here on Monday that "China and Sri Lanka enjoy traditional friendship and we have been advancing our strategic cooperative partnership based on sincere mutual assistance and ever-lasting friendship. We have been expanding and deepening our cooperation across the board". Significantly Rajapaksa has been greeted by the Central Committee of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) headed by President Xi Jinping.

The CPC's greetings were conveyed to Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party (Sri Lanka People's Front) of Rajapaksa which had emerged victorious in the elections. Conveying the CPC message to Rajapaksa personally, the Charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka Hu Wei said Rajapaksa is an "old friend" of Xi and has assured him to "have confidence in our support," Sri Lanka news portal Colombo Page reported.

Hu met with Rajapaksa and passed on a congratulatory letter from the CPC, expressing heartfelt congratulations to him for winning the general election, it reported. The two sides also exchanged in-depth views on the key areas of cooperation between the two countries in the next stage, as well as the key projects of China's Belt and Road Initiative in Sri Lanka, such as the port city of Colombo and the comprehensive development of Hambantota, the report said.

Rajapaksa has requested that the work on the Port City be expedited and to consider collaborating on drinking water and irrigation projects, the report quoted a statement from the Prime Minister's Media Division. According to official estimates, Chinese loans and investments in Sri Lanka amounted to over USD eight billion.

The huge loans sparked concerns globally after Sri Lanka handed over its Hambantota port to a state-run Chinese firm in 2017 for a 99- years lease as a debt swap amounting to USD 1.2 billion. The Colombo Port City project also funded by China is currently being built along the city's coastline on 269 hectares of reclaimed land.

Rajapaksa in a twitter message thanked Xi; "Thank you for the well wishes from President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party. China's support for Sri Lanka's development spans decades. I'm certain that our long-standing, friendly relations will continue to improve as we enhance our cooperation".
In the video: The satellite showed a large cluster of thunderstorms that persisted across southwest Arkansas through the morning of 08/12/2020.

Here's a look via satellite at the large (and persistent) cluster of storms that blasted southwest Arkansas with lots of rain on Wednesday (August 12). Another potentially big round of rain is in the forecast tonight. #arwx pic.twitter.com/pKhGqq6Pqq
TORONTO, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- When Canadian beauty brand ADOREYES launched in December of 2019, they did not know that 2020 would be a year of global pandemic and lockdowns. Some might assume that this was the worst time to launch a company, but this new Canadian brand has proven them wrong. ADOREYES sales have boomed during these most unprecedented times. Their vegan and cruelty-free beauty products are all made in Canada, and they are now planning to expand their market to the US.

ADOREYES Plus Lashes & Brows Growth Serums feature a Triple Peptide Complex to naturally enhance and support all three phases of the eyelash and eyebrow growth cycle. Merged with Botanical Extracts, Hydro and Vitamin Boost, these serums help to fortify, smooth, condition and boost natural collagen production for healthier and long-lasting lashes and voluminous eyebrows.

Working with Toronto-based beauty experts, ADOREYES created the first peptide-based lash and brow serum on the market, acting on all three hair growth phases to achieve longer, fuller lashes and bolder brows. Combined with vitamins and botanical extracts, their serums offer the most potent and prescription-free alternative to prostaglandins-based serum such as Latisse. Trusted by beauty professionals, the ADOREYES brand has gained loyal followers and encouraged them to visit spas and beauty salons to shop for their products.

Even with the impact the pandemic has had on Canada, they have not stopped growing. While beauty businesses suffered due to lockdowns and restrictions, ADOREYES stepped up and enabled them by selling their serums online and offering help with deliveries and marketing efforts. The outpour of local support during the lockdown has shown that the key to growth relies on three factors: effective products, beauty salon success, and educated customers. The co-founder of ADOREYES, Natalia Haluszka, said "Being a startup during the pandemic has shown that we are more flexible and adjust faster to changing reality. Supporting local Canadian beauty businesses and conducting educational webinars revealed the strength of our beauty community and overwhelming support from our customers that appreciate our dedication to our products and local businesses."

Canada has become a hub to some of the most recognizable cosmetic brands worldwide, and today, ADOREYES announced the launch of ADOREYES Plus Lashes and Brows Growth Serums in the USA. With the promise of genuine quality behind the results and support of beauty professionals, ADOREYES plans further expansion to be announced later this year.

Media Contact:

Natalia Haluszka

Phone: +1 647 526 2130

Email: [email protected]

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ADOREYES Plus Lashes & Brows Growth Serums

ADOREYES Plus Lashes & Brows Growth Serums feature a Triple Peptide Complex to naturally enhance and support all three phases of the eyelash and eyebrow growth cycle. Merged with Botanical Extracts, Hydro and Vitamin Boost, these serums help to fortify, smooth, condition and boost natural collagen production for healthier and long-lasting lashes and voluminous eyebrows.

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"There are things I think we should never learn from the United States, such as obsession with global dominance," Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said during an online interview on August 4.

Cui made the remarks at the 2020 Aspen Security Forum during an online interview with Nicholas Burns, executive director of the Aspen Strategy Group, and Andrea Mitchell, chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News, on issues related to China-U.S. relations.

Noting the benefits for both sides to cooperate with each other, the ambassador said cooperation rather than confrontation "is the choice we have to make."

However, Cui noted there seems to be an "obsession" with global dominance in the U.S. because it is talked about so often in the country.

China, on the other hand, has no intention to seek global dominance, Cui said.

Meanwhile, the diplomat answered questions related to COVID-19, the national security law for Hong Kong, the Xinjiang issue and other issues that have dominated headlines recently.

Medics from north China's Tianjin Municipality wave goodbye before their departure in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, March 17, 2020. /Xinhua

COVID-19 allegations: Where is the evidence?

In response to U.S. President Donald Trump's accusation that China didn't alert the World Health Organization (WHO) soon enough to the human-to-human transmission of COVID-19, Cui presented the fact that China was one of the countries to first report such cases.

"The fact is very clear. The timeline is very clear," he underlined.

"We identified a few cases in Wuhan in late December last year," Cui said. "Very few people, I think nobody in the world knew anything about the new virus. But as soon as we had these cases, we reported to the WHO."

More recently, the U.S. has filed charges against a number of researchers and academics for allegedly trying to steal COVID-19 vaccine information from U.S. technology companies or universities. Cui said the U.S. side made such allegations "without giving any hard evidence."

If people want to make allegations, they have to show evidence, the diplomat rebutted. "It's quite possible that hackers from other countries are trying to infiltrate or attack China's research institutions. This is also possible."

Epidemic is the reason behind delayed HK election

The decision to delay the election in Hong Kong was made by the Hong Kong SAR government, and the reason is the epidemic, Cui explained.

"Because in recent days, people see a significant resurgence of the confirmed cases. This is very alarming," Cui said. "The Hong Kong SAR government decided that if the election goes as planned, the risk, the danger of the pandemic spreading even wider will be very serious. Actually in other parts of the world, maybe dozens of countries or regions have decided to somehow postpone their elections or events like this."

National security law for HKSAR needed to stop violence

"We were forced to enact this law, so the rising violence in Hong Kong could be stopped," Cui said, reiterating the meaning behind the law.

Cui said the law allows people to live in a safer environment while allowing Hong Kong to continue to be an international financial and transportation center. And the system, the policy of "One Country, Two Systems," will continue, Cui briefed.

Over 2 million are held in Xinjiang detention camps? It's fabricated

When asked to comment on the situation with the Uygurs, Cui called data claiming more than 2 million people are being held in detention camps "fabricated."

"This is not United Nations (UN) figure. This figure is fabricated by somebody else, certainly not the United Nations," Cui said, adding they have invited, over the past few years, UN officials, foreign diplomats and journalists to Xinjiang, and none of them supported such claims.

The people in Xinjiang, no matter which ethnic group they belong to, were threatened by rising terrorist and extremist activities. Due to the measures taken over the last few years, "there has been no terrorist attack in Xinjiang," Cui said.

"People are living in a much safer environment. People can really enjoy good life. This is happening to all the people there without any distinction between the ethnic groups."
Aeon Vietnam apologises for mice found crawling on food stall

Aeon Vietnam Co. Ltd. has apologised to customers for two mice that were found crawling on food trays at its mall in HCM City.



The move was made following a picture of the unhygienic state at Aeon Mall Tan Phu had been taken by a customer.

The two mice were found crawling on food trays at its mall in HCM City





A man in HCM City saw two mice on food trays while visiting the mall on the afternoon of August 6.



He did not buy food at the mall and captured the moment which was then sent to Aeon Vietnams fan page raising the issue around food safety and hygiene.



Aeon Vietnam admitted to the mistake and would like to deliver the apology to customers for what happened. We are sorry for this and will take solutions to avoid the same problems in the future, a representative from the company told the Lao Dong Newspaper.



Aeon would clean stalls, food trays and floors. It would also temporarily close Vietnamese food stalls to ensure that they are hygienic.



In terms of food safety, the company said their materials have clear point of origin and tightly checked.



Staff at food stalls have to wear uniform, face mask, gloves and hats which cover their ears during their working hours. They are also not allowed to have their fingernails to be painted. They are also provided with periodic medical check-ups.
Joe Biden (left) and Donald Trump Ron Adar | Echoes Wire | Barcroft Media via Getty Images; Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

Every four years, as we approach the U.S. presidential election, we reflect on the wide-ranging implications of each potential outcome. As is always the case, much is at stake during the current cycle, including how best to address the new and old challenges facing our nation. This year, our economic future  as a nation and individually  will certainly be a top consideration. Our president for the next four years will be tasked with setting the agenda for bringing us out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Depending on whether he ultimately can secure the support of a constantly changing Congress, his approach could have dramatic repercussions.

Similar objectives  different approaches

President Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joseph Biden are both focused on stimulating employment and personal prosperity to restart our economy and overcome the financial hardships endured by so many. And both candidates seem focused on tax policy, infrastructure and other spending programs as the main components of their plans to achieve their economic objectives. The similarities, however, end there, as the candidates' approaches to these subjects are quite different. In turn, financial planning for the election requires careful attention to the plans of each candidate, as well as a thoughtful strategy for anticipating their consequences.

Tax issues

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

The bare-bones tax positions of the candidates are that Trump wants to lower taxes, and Biden wants to raise them. During the 2016 campaign, Trump promised to lower corporate and individual income taxes. In 2017, he signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, making good on that promise. Trump has not yet released an outline of a future tax plan, but he has said he wants to add to and extend the TCJA, much of which is scheduled to phase out by 2025. As for Biden, he has vowed to roll back most of the TCJA, arguing that it was irresponsible and did not stimulate economic growth. Biden has offered a different view on stimulating economic growth. He suggests a $4 trillion tax hike, placing most of the increased burden on businesses and on people earning more than $400,000 annually. More from Your Money Your Future:

Why you might not see a payroll tax cut despite a Trump order

What worries Medicare recipients about costs

Pros warn against making these investing mistakes For corporations, he plans to raise the highest income-tax rate to 28%, from 21%, and impose a minimum tax. For pass-through entities and sole proprietorships, he would phase out the TCJA's 20% deduction for qualified business income. For individuals, Biden wants to raise the top income-tax rate to 39.6% from 37%, cap itemized deductions and increase Social Security taxes on high earners. For those earning more than $1 million, he also wants to raise the capital-gain and qualified-dividend tax rates to 39.6%, from 20%. Along these lines of taxing investment income, he has proposed limiting the ability to engage in tax-deferred like-kind exchanges of real estate and repealing the tax-free basis step-up upon death. For estate and gift tax purposes, he wants to lower the exemption amounts.

Making a financial game plan

So, what does this mean from a financial-planning and strategy perspective? The answer depends on one's perspective on who will win the election and who will control Congress. It also depends on one's view of how long it ultimately will take to enact any new legislation, which could be delayed intentionally if there is any concern it could impede the economic recovery. For those preparing for a Trump victory, current strategies are likely to remain viable.

For those assuming a Biden victory, the following strategies should be considered, especially if the Democrats can take control of Congress. Again, however, some of these strategies may be able to wait if it appears that prospective changes will be delayed. Accelerate the recognition of long-term capital gains for transactions that otherwise might happen over the next few years.

Accelerate ordinary income that can be moved to a lower-tax year, especially compensation income such as bonuses that could be subject to increased social security taxes.

Accelerate itemized deductions (if over the standard deduction).

Accelerate the use of available qualified business income deductions for pass-through entities.

Accelerate like-kind exchanges of real property planned for the near future.

Review and change estate and gifting plans for foreseeable changes involving estate and gift taxes.

Accelerate taxable corporate transactions that otherwise might occur in the near future.

Accelerate the payment by corporations of qualified dividends into lower-tax years.

Infrastructure and other plans

As for other plans, this time we'll start with Biden.

Both President Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden include mass transit like the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority system in their infrastructure spending plans. Robert Alexander | Archive Photos | Getty Images

He wants to put $2 trillion towards infrastructure, with an emphasis on promoting clean energy. The program would largely be funded by the above tax hikes as well as increased "carbon taxes" on industries such as oil and gas. Biden's plans call for investing in mass transit, efficient buildings and transportation, sustainable housing and agriculture, and carbon-free power infrastructure. Health care is also worthy of mention. Biden has not been a supporter of "Medicare for All," but he has been a supporter of expanding the current Medicare program by lowering the age of eligibility. He has also proposed a public insurance option. As for Trump, he has offered a $1 trillion infrastructure package, likely to be funded with fuel taxes. His plan focuses on more traditional infrastructure such as roads, bridges and water systems but also focuses on wireless infrastructure and rural broadband. Like Biden, he supports spending on mass transit and energy, though, on the latter topic, the president has been less vocal on stimulating clean energy solutions and more vocal about energy independence.

Investing around political platforms
Trumps benefit comes via executive order and not through Congress, so states would need a new system to deliver the additional money, which could take months to develop. Oh, and the pool of money Trump plans to use, if distributed among the roughly 30 million people currently unemployed, will run out in about five weeks.
This story will be updated.

A rare storm packing 100 mph winds and with power similar to an inland hurricane swept across the Midwest on Monday, blowing over trees, flipping vehicles, causing widespread property damage and leaving hundreds of thousands without power.

The storm known as a derecho lasted several hours as it tore across eastern Nebraska, Iowa and parts of Wisconsin, had the wind speed of a major hurricane, and likely caused more widespread damage than a normal tornado, said Patrick Marsh, science support chief at the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

It's not quite a hurricane. It has no eye and its winds come across in a line. But the damage it is likely to do spread over such a large area is more like an inland hurricane than a quick more powerful tornado, Marsh said. He compared it to a devastating Super Derecho of 2009, which was one of the strongest on record traveled more than 1,000 miles in 24 hours, causing $500 million in damage, widespread power outages and killing a handful of people.
This chart demonstrates how South Korea was able to limit the number of coronavirus deaths compared to other major countries around the world. Credit: Johns Hopkins

As the world continues to closely monitor the newest coronavirus outbreak, the government of South Korea has been able to keep the disease under control without paralyzing the national health and economic systems. In a new research article published in the American Review of Public Administration, University of Colorado Denver researcher Jongeun You reviewed South Korea's public health policy to learn how the country managed coronavirus from January through April 2020.

Testing Timeline

In January, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in partnership with the Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine and the Korean Association of External Quality Assessment Service, developed and evaluated the real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) diagnostic method for coronavirus.

By February, the diagnostic kit was authorized, and as of March 9, 15,971 kits were produced, capable of testing 522,700 people.

As of April 15, South Korea has tested 534,552 people for coronavirus, which is 10.4 people per one thousand population. South Korea also operated 600 screening centers (including 71 drive-through centers), and more than 90 medical institutions assessed specimens with an rRT-PCR test.

According to You's research, the critical factors in South Korea's public health administration and management that led to success include national infectious disease plans, collaboration with the private sector, stringent contact tracing, an adaptive health care system, and government-driven communication. The South Korean government proactively found patients who contracted coronavirus, disclosed epidemiologic findings of confirmed patients to the public, and provided differentiated treatments based on the severity of symptoms. Unlike other major nations, South Korea has a mostly homogenous cultural and institutional structure, which enabled the policies put in place by the government to become effective.

The Three Major Keys to South Korea's Success

South Korea conducted rigorous and extensive epidemiologic field investigations for coronavirus cases. This process included interviews with patients and triangulation of multiple sources of information (e.g., medical records, credit card and GPS data). The Institute for Future Government's survey in 2020 found that 84% of South Koreans accept the loss of privacy as a necessary tradeoff for public health security.

South Korea is a democratic unitary political system. The local governments have limited autonomy and its public health governance is centralized, enabling South Korean agencies to act quickly to implement policy decisions at the local level. After the MERS outbreak in 2015, the South Korean government expanded legal and administrative boundaries regarding pandemic responses, enabling public administration to acknowledge the different procedures. For example, the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act was amended significantly to prevent infectious disease and secure the public's right to know through surveillance and tracing techniques.

Lastly, the public health budget and flexible fiscal management systems allowed the South Korean government to provide adequate resources. The South Korean government and national health insurance program shouldered the full cost of coronavirus testing, quarantine, and treatment for Korean citizens and noncitizens. Furthermore, on March 17, 2020, the South Korean Legislature passed the supplementary budget of 11.7 trillion KRW ($10.1 billion) in 12 days. The Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare's (KMHW) supplementary budget passed in March 2020 is 3.7 trillion KRW ($3.2 billion), which enabled the KMHW to increase COVID-19 prevention and treatment facilities and to support medical institutions and workers.

United States Viability

"There are many variables to consider when emulating policies from other countries," said Jongeun You. "South Korea's extensive surveillance and contact tracing using ICT (information and communications technology) may not be applicable at the federal level in the U.S. due to different cultural norms."

According to You, what the United States could have adopted from South Korea was its ability to quickly ramp up its testing capacity. As mentioned above, South Korea had testing capabilities by end of January after a fast review from the Korean FDA. In the United States, on February 12, 2020, when public and private labs had not yet received FDA approval for their own tests, the CDC revealed that a CDC-designed test kit contained a faulty reagent.

Public Administrator Implications

You suggests the public administrators need to meticulously document everythingand in a timely manner. Using this information, administrators must go one step further and update policy regarding key lessons learned.

"Though many solutions are emerging, I believe one essential solution for public administrators is to collect documentation about their successes and struggles, and what they hear from citizens and residents about policy implementation and communication."

Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

More information: Jongeun You. Lessons From South Korea's Covid-19 Policy Response, The American Review of Public Administration (2020). Jongeun You. Lessons From South Korea's Covid-19 Policy Response,(2020). DOI: 10.1177/0275074020943708
A woman has been bound to the peace for two years after viciously assaulting another woman inside the confines of Longford Garda Station.

Hannah Meares, 76 St Michaels Road, Longford was issued with the order by Judge Seamus Hughes after the 52-year-old pleaded guilty to assaulting mother of one Amy McDonnell on July 23 2020.

The court heard from Ms McDonnell who said she had been the victim of an unprovoked attack while inside an interview room at the Battery Road facility.

Ms McDonnell added that the accused pulled at her hair and threatened to kill her shortly before gardai intervened and split the pair up.

The incident, it was revealed, happened just four days before Ms McDonnell was left unconscious following a separate attack in Dublin.

Sporting two black eyes as she took the witness stand, Ms McDonnell denied suggestions put to her by Ms Mears solicitor Brid Mimnagh that she had kicked out at the accused in the course of the incident.

I hardly had the energy to move my body, she said, as she pleaded with the court to allow gardai who were present to give their version of what transpired.

Sgt Andy McGauran said he had been on duty on the day of the incident when he noticed a commotion coming from a room directly opposite the stations public office area.

He said upon entry to the room he immediately saw Amy sitting down in front of the accused who was pulling viciously at her hair.

Hannah was seated on a chair and pulling at Amy with her back to her, said Sgt McGauran.

She (Amy) was under a vicious attack.

Ms Mimnagh, in her cross examination, asked Sgt McGauran if he had witnessed her client strike out at the victim.

I didnt see her, but Sgt (Keelan) Brennan did indicate she made a hit to the face.

The court also heard from Garda Milincic who said Ms McDonnell had told her in a statement taken afterwards that she had been boxed in the chin by Ms Meares.

In response, Judge Hughes was handed in video footage from Ms Meares mobile phone which allegedly showed Ms McDonnell at her home openly goading her pregnant daughter to fight.

Ms Meares said she had been present at the garda station on the day to formally lodge a complaint against Ms McDonnell when the alleged assault occurred.

Prior to giving his ruling, Judge Hughes was told Ms Meares had 14 previous convictions to her name.

Judge Hughes said he would be binding Ms Meares to the peace for a period of two years in her own cash sum of 250 before telling her she was getting off lightly for her behaviour.

If there is a breach of it, you will be going to prison, he told her.

And it doesnt matter what she (Ms McDonnell) puts up on Facebook.
Shah Faesal, the 2010 IAS topper from Kashmir who resigned from the civil services to launch his political party last year, stepped down from the J&K Peoples Movements leadership role. Faesal, who has been under detention since August last year, changed his Twitter bio that identified him as the JKPM chief on Sunday evening, triggering speculation that he could exit politics.

Faesal had announced his resignation from the civil services in January 2019 and launched his party, Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Movement, two months later. When parliament scrapped Jammu and Kashmirs special status in early August last year, he was one of the sharpest critics of the move . He was detained under the Public Safety Act soon after when he was on his way to Harvard to pursue a course, released in June this year and placed under house arrest a day later.

But his resignation from government service was never accepted, reportedly because the Centre had initiated disciplinary proceedings against him over his tweets on rape in July 2018.

The central governments website on IAS officers continues to show him as a serving IAS officer. It does not, however, indicate if he was placed under suspension under a rule that automatically deems All India Service officers held in detention for more than 48 hours to have been suspended.

The JKPM, the party that the 37-year-old founded, on Monday confirmed that the change in Twitter bio reflected his changed status in the party.

In a statement released on Monday, the JKPM said Faesal, who trained as a doctor before joining the civil services, had asked the party to spare him from the organisational responsibilities. Dr Shah Faesal had informed state executive members that he is not in a position to continue with political activities and wants to be freed from the responsibilities of the organisation, the JKPM said.

The party has accepted his request so that he can better continue with his life and contribute whichever way he chooses.

Shahs success in the civil services examination had inspired many young Kashmiris to sit for the fiercely-competitive examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission. This year, a record 16 candidates cleared the examination from Jammu and Kashmir, many of them from remote parts of the Kashmir valley.
HOUSTON, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Three veteran litigators have formed a new boutique law firm in Houston to support a wide range of business sectors in complex commercial disputes, intellectual property matters, and corporate transactions. Adept at advocating for plaintiffs and defendants alike, the trio has represented some of the most intriguing and promising start-ups, as well as Fortune 100 companies, while practicing law at major international law firms. They believe the current business environment is an opportune time to launch Cadwell Clonts & Reeder LLP.

"Companies face unprecedented challenges and uncertainties today. We team with clients to craft and implement creative solutions that further their business and legal goals," says firm partner Kevin Cadwell. "And we deliver results with the personalized attention and customized financial arrangements that large law firms find difficult to provide."

The team packs a powerful punch of experience from highly regarded international firms. Mr. Cadwell was a partner with Baker Botts in California and Texas before teaming up with David Clonts and Michael Reeder at the international law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

Mr. Clonts is a veteran of the IP bar, with more than two decades of experience. He ensures that "clients have a thorough understanding of their intellectual property and are prepared either to monetize a portfolio and create an additional revenue stream, or protect against potential exposures that may exist." Mr. Clonts notes that "with the Firm's technical and engineering backgrounds, we are equipped to advocate on behalf of clients in an exceptionally wide range of technical fields."

With the additional financial pressures facing companies during the pandemic, businesses around the world are looking for the strategic guidance that Cadwell Clonts & Reeder was created to provide. "With our new platform, we are nimble and can provide quick solutions, flexible meeting times to accommodate work-from-home schedules, and creative rate structures to handle the very serious obstacles presented by COVID-19," explains Mr. Reeder. "In this setting, we are able to work with the client to provide customized services that help meet business objectives, and we do so in a way that makes financial sense for the company."

"This is an exciting time to capitalize on our combined five decades of trial experience and strategic counsel," said Mr. Cadwell. "We're perfectly positioned to take this step."

Media Contact:

Barry Pound

800-559-4534

[email protected]

SOURCE Cadwell Clonts & Reeder
Editor's Note: Get caught up in minutes with our speedy summary of today's must-read news stories and expert opinions that moved the precious metals and financial markets. Sign up here!

(Kitco News) U.S. border patrol agents arrested a Chinese national with more than USD $28,500 in gold bars after she illegally crossed the Canada-U.S. border, authorities said last week.

A 36-year-old Chinese woman was arrested in Amity, Maine after illegally crossing into the U.S. from Canada. She was carrying 14.25 ounces of gold bars with her, worth more than $28,500, as well as $10,000 in cash.

While conducting operations near Amity, U.S. Border Patrol Agents from the Houlton Border Patrol Station apprehended a 36-year-old Chinese national who was found to have illegally entered the United States from Canada, the authorities said in a statement on Thursday. The Chinese national was placed under arrest for illegal entry into the United States and transported to the Houlton Border Patrol Station for further processing.

She was apprehended on Tuesday and the border patrol agents were able to identity the location of the illegal crossing.

Since then, she has been expelled to Canada.

#USBPMaine agents apprehended a Chinese national who illegally entered the US from Canada. The subject was carrying 14.25 oz of gold bars, valued at over $28,500. The subject was expelled to Canada in accordance with Title 42 USC 265. See the story at https://t.co/WHEVTMvOyx pic.twitter.com/JcgmQ5ISSR  Dennis W. Harmon, Acting Deputy Chief Patrol Agent (@USBPDepChiefHLT) August 7, 2020

It is now known that before illegally crossing into the U.S., the the Chinese national had arrived into Canada legally as a student. She also admitted to knowing crossing the U.S. border illegally and said she was planning to visit a friend in SanFrancisco.

The vigilance, service and integrity of our Border Patrol Agents who continue to apprehend those who are looking to circumvent customs and immigration laws, plays an important role in keeping our communities in Maine and throughout the United States safe, said Houlton Station Patrol Agent in Charge Brent Conley.
Former Buncombe commissioner pleads guilty in equestrian center fraud

ASHEVILLE  Former Buncombe County Commissioner Ellen Madans Frost pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to conspiracy to commit federal program fraud for her involvement in a scheme that used Buncombe County tax dollars to sponsor equestrian activities in North Carolina and Florida, U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray announced.

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Frost, 65, of Black Mountain, was elected as Commissioner for Buncombe County (the County) in November 2012, and continued to serve until December 2018. Beginning in early 2014 through November 2017, Frost conspired with former County Manager, Wanda Skillington Greene, to execute a scheme to defraud the county by misapplying funds allocated to the Countys Economic Development Program to support various equestrian enterprises in North Carolina and Florida, specifically, the Tryon International Equestrian Center in Polk County, and its affiliate, the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, Florida.

According to court documents, in or about 2014, Frost began to speak with Greene about Frosts desire to support the Tryon Center and related equestrian activities on behalf of the County. As a result, Frost and Greene developed a scheme to enter into sponsorship and advertising contracts with the Tryon Center, the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center, and affiliated equestrian enterprises. To pay for the associated expenses, Wanda Greene proposed using monies from the Countys Economic Development Incentive Fund. The equestrian enterprises were unaware of the criminal nature of the scheme, including the lack of authorization for Frost and Greene to enter into these negotiations and agreements without the knowledge and approval of the Board of Commissioners, as required by state law.

Greene and Frost took steps to cover the fraudulent scheme and to hide the countys involvement in these unauthorized sponsorship and advertising contracts, by using the funds to promote the Asheville Regional Airport (the Airport), even though the Airport is an independent entity not governed or funded by the County. In an effort to conceal the fact that the County was the funding source, Greene and Frost ensured that the contracting parties understood that all sponsored events, signage, and advertisements would bear the name and logo of the Asheville Regional Airport, and that no signage or advertisements would be in the name of Buncombe County, even though the County was the paying sponsor.

According to court documents the Countys sponsorship contracts guaranteed access to amenities at the two equestrian venues exclusive to high-level sponsors. Specifically, the Tryon Center contract included access to a Members Only VIP table in an area known as the Legends Club. Entrance to the Legends Club and use of the VIP table was limited to persons whose names were on the admission list. Court records show that Frost ordinarily served as the contact person and approved the use of the County-funded table at the Legends Club. Furthermore, during the 2015 and 2016 seasons at the Tryon Center, Frost repeatedly used the VIP table, and invited her friends and other guests to attend the events.

Following Greenes retirement in June 2017, County employees discovered the Countys payments to the equestrian enterprises. In August 2017, the Board of Commissioners learned of the number and amounts of these payments, when the new County Manager informed the Board of the payments county employees had discovered.

Following her plea hearing, Frost was released on bond. The federal program fraud conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A sentencing date for Frost has not been set.

In making todays announcement U.S. Attorney Murray commended the FBI, IRS-CI and the SBI for their investigation of this case.

John A. Strong, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charlotte Division; Director Robert Schurmeier of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI); and Matthew D. Line, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, Charlotte Field Office (IRS-CI), joined Murray in making the announcement. Assistant United States Attorneys Richard Edwards and Don Gast of the U.S. Attorneys Office in Asheville are prosecuting the case.




The true financial cost of Covid-19 is something India would rather not acknowledge, let alone bear  at least not until the pandemic has played out. That explains why the central bank on Thursday allowed a one-time restructuring of corporate and personal loans that have been under stress ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi put the country under a severe lockdown in March.

Those nationwide restrictions have given way to more localised containment. But with India becoming only the third country after the US and Brazil to zoom past the 2 million infections mark, it will be ...
(FILE PHOTO: AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

By Chanyaporn Chanjaroen, Jan-Henrik Forster and Manuel Baigorri

(Bloomberg) -- Axa SA is considering a sale of its Singapore business as it seeks to raise funds divesting peripheral operations, according to people familiar with the matter.

The French insurer is working with an adviser on the potential sale, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. The Singapore unit, which offers life and property and casualty insurance, could draw interest from rivals seeking to expand in Southeast Asia, the people said. It generated 615 million euros (US$723 million) of revenue in 2019, according to Axas annual report.

A sale process could start as soon as the next few weeks, the people said. No final decisions have been made, and theres no certainty the deliberations will lead to a transaction, the people said. A representative for Paris-based Axa declined to comment.

Axa and a local partner are also considering a potential sale of their life and general insurance venture in Malaysia, which could fetch about $650 million, Bloomberg News reported last year. Axa said this month that an agreement it struck to sell its Axa Life Europe business to Cinven had been terminated after certain conditions werent met.

Chief Executive Officer Thomas Buberl is trying to shift Axas focus on property and casualty insurance following its $15.3 billion purchase of XL Group Ltd. in 2018. Since then, the CEO has been reviewing options for smaller businesses across the world, including in the Middle East, to help pay for the XL deal.

Profit at Axa sank in the first half as it booked a 1.5 billion-euro charge for claims related to Covid-19. Axa also warned of further shocks from the pandemic, scrapped growth targets and canceled a payout to shareholders.

Dealmaking in the insurance industry has remained resilient amid a slowdown in broader mergers and acquisitions activity amid the coronavirus pandemic. Insurers have been involved in $99 billion of acquisitions this year, up 77% from the same period in 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

 2020 Bloomberg L.P.
MILL VALLEY, CA  The U.S. Census Bureau recently 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.

The national response rate is 63.2 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, 64.7 percent of households in the Golden State have responded to the census.

Marin County is ahead of both the state and national averages at 72.4 percent, while Mill Valley's response rate is even higher at 75.3 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 didn't 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.

Bureau chief Dillingham signaled a shift in plans by recently telling members of Congress "the Census Bureau and others really want us to proceed as rapidly as possible."

Dillingham's 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 year's census, it's not too late.

In a move designed to cut costs and keep up with digital lifestyles, the census questionnaire is available at my2020census.gov. Anyone residing in the U.S. can access the online questionnaire.

Joshua Green, a U.S. Census Bureau representative, said hundreds of people are being hired to do door-to-door canvassing in Marin beginning Tuesday.

"It's not too late to respond, and we want everyone to respond before the census takers go out on Aug. 11," he said.

"It's important that we get a complete and accurate count in every community because that data is connected to how much in federal funds that community will be getting for essential services annually for the next 10 years. Every time someone does not respond, money is being lost by that community and sent somewhere else."

Responding to the census is especially critical amid the coronavirus pandemic, he added.

"Billions of dollars in federal funds go to crucial things that will be needed as we all recover from the damage the COVID-19 crisis has done, including hospitals, schools, small business grants and infrastructure," Green said.

Green said all census takers are trained on social distancing protocols and have been issued masks and hand sanitizer for use in the field.



"Census takers will wear the masks when they visit homes and follow all local public health guidelines," he said.

The 2020 census counts everyone living in the U.S. and its five territories. Learn more about how to respond to the 2020 census.

By Patch editors Kristina Houck and Megan VerHelst

This article originally appeared on the Mill Valley Patch
At least 19 killed and two others wounded in attacks on three villages in the troubled province of Ituri.

At least 19 civilians have been killed and two others wounded in attacks on three villages in the troubled eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) province of Ituri, a local chief said on Monday.

The attacks took place on Sunday in the Banyali Kilo area, Innocent Madukadala told AFP news agency, blaming the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO), an armed group accused of ethnic attacks.

They killed 19 people  some were killed by machete and others were shot dead, he said.

CODECO is drawn from the Lendu ethnic group, a predominantly farming community who have historically clashed with the Hema, a group of traders and herders.

The two communities were embroiled in a bloody conflict between 1999-2003 which led to the European Unions first foreign military mission, the short-term Operation Artemis.

Madukadala said five people were killed in the coordinated assault in the village of Lisey, along with two others in neighbouring Tchulu and 12 in Aloys.

Witnesses said six soldiers had been sent to the area, asking people to temporarily leave their homes.

Since December 2017, violence in Ituri has killed nearly 1,000 people and displaced half a million people, according to an International Crisis Group report last month.

The violence escalated after the army launched a crackdown on armed groups in October.

UN human rights investigators in June said at least 636 people had died since the start of the year.

Attacks spread into new areas after CODECO splintered following the killing of its main leader, Ngudjolo Duduko Justin, in March, they said.

The bloodshed in Ituri is part of a patchwork of problems engendered by armed groups in eastern DRC  the legacy of two wars in the 1990s.
Vela's SuperFeed normalized market data now available via IPC's Connexus Cloud and Connexus Labs

LONDON and NEW YORK, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Vela, a leading independent provider of trading and market access technology for global multi-asset electronic trading, today announced the expansion of its strategic partnership with IPC , a leading global provider of secure, compliant communications and networking solutions for the global financial markets.

The partnership will provide IPC customers with access to Vela's award-winning market data solution , SuperFeed, via Connexus Cloud , IPC's flagship financial ecosystem that interconnects more than 6,600 capital market participants across the globe. It will also enable IPC customers, utilizing Connexus Labs, to access an on-demand market data solution to support trading application testing along with third-party product evaluations.

Vela's SuperFeed is a fully-managed, low-latency market data feed that delivers high-quality, normalized real-time data via a single source with industry-leading levels of performance, availability, and reliability. Offering an exceptional blend of fast delivery and a scalable solution, SuperFeed is designed to simplify and speed up clients' access to data. The feed provides coverage to over 150 markets and data sources including all major North American and European exchanges and a growing number of Asia-Pacific venues. Vela continues to make significant strategic investment in SuperFeed coverage to expand the range of data types available, beyond real time and delayed, to include end-of-day and historical data solutions offering more flexibility to clients. Vela's vendor bridge technology eliminates the costs and overheads associated with changing feed providers, enabling a more seamless and rapid migration.

IPC's award-winning Connexus Cloud platform is an unparalleled multi-cloud platform for the global financial markets, an ecosystem that interconnects more than 6,600 diverse capital market participants across 750 cities in over 60 countries. The world's top financial institutions rely on Connexus Cloud for trade execution, order routing, market data delivery, clearing, settlement and accessing trade lifecycle services. IPC's Connexus Labs is a worldwide hosted infrastructure platform that provides testing and evaluation facilitates for fintech firms and innovators to assess how their products, services and applications can be integrated with the IPC product portfolio.

Ollie Cadman, Chief Product Officer at Vela, commented, "We are delighted to expand our partnership and have the strength of IPC as part of our ecosystem connecting SuperFeed to the global financial markets community. Now more than ever, firms are looking to trusted providers and private and public cloud environments to support the growing demand for access to global data sets for business processes such as automation, artificial intelligence and analytics." He continued, "With IPC's Connexus Cloud and Connexus Labs, financial institutions can leverage the power of the cloud for market data to support their electronic trading requirements. This partnership is an exciting step forward in our ongoing strategy to expand access to our services through public and private cloud providers."

Mike Smith, Director of Global Exchange Relations Management at IPC, said, "We are pleased to have Vela's SuperFeed as a part of our market data content offering, as we continue to provide our secure and compliant managed solutions to cater for all our customers' unique trading requirements. The SuperFeed market data service complements our Connexus Cloud offering by providing access to multiple market data feeds from a single place, and delivers the additional benefits of a professionally managed infrastructure and support model."

About Vela

Vela is a leading independent provider of trading and market access technology for global multi-asset electronic trading. Our software enables clients to rapidly access global liquidity, markets, and data sources for superior execution. We help firms successfully differentiate and innovate in an ever-changing, increasingly regulated and fiercely-competitive landscape, while also reducing total cost of ownership.

Vela's ticker plant, execution gateways, trading platform, and risk and analytics software deliver a unique, ultra-low latency technology stack to simplify and streamline electronic trading. We leverage the latest innovations in technology to deliver cutting-edge performance, features and reliability. Our modular stack provides access to a comprehensive set of trading data and risk APIs and can be delivered "as-a-Service" from multiple co-location data centers globally.

With access to more than 250 venues, Vela provides global coverage across all major asset classes. Clients are supported by an award-winning team of technical and business experts available 24x7 from our multiple offices in the US, Europe, and Asia. Vela's clients include traders, market makers, brokers, banks, investment firms, exchanges, and other market participants.

Visit us at www.tradevela.com. Follow us on Twitter @TradeVela.

About IPC

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10.08.2020 LISTEN

Students of the Ndewura Jakpa Senior High Technical School in the West Gonja Municipal Assembly of the Savannah Region who participated in the destruction of school properties during a riot are to pay for the damages caused.

The students demonstrated last Wednesday evening against school authorities because of the strict social distancing and invigilation procedure implemented in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

In the process, some students damaged the new six-unit school block which was built to help end the double-track system for the school.

The West Gonja Municipal Chief Executive, Saeed Muhazu Gibril said the rampaging students will be duly punished after an internal investigation is completed.

He also added that the students found culpable will be made known to the Ghana Education Service for further action to be taken against them.

Those who are going to be found culpable for their involvement in the demonstration and destruction of government property are going to be surcharged. Apart from that, when we finish our investigation, we will forward the names to the GES headquarters for further action to be taken against these students. We are not mincing words on this because the extent of damage they did to school property, you cannot ask the central government to come and do the renovation, he said.

The rampaging students first destroyed the lightening system and plunged the whole school into darkness last Wednesday.

Parts of the ceiling of a new six-unit classroom block that was handed over to the school to end double-track system were also removed.

It took the intervention of the police to stop the students from causing further destruction in the school.

----citinewsroom
Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) is set to hold Annual Joint AIDS Review meeting to assess the achieved targets of the National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan for 2015/2020.

Speaking earlier today, the Minister for Presidency Esther Mbayo said the review will take place on 26th and 27th August. The review is peddled at strategizing to ensure we achieve our goal of Ending AIDS by 2030.

The recently released Global HIV and AIDS statistics show that Uganda is among the front runners in reducing new HIV infections. However, there are still disparities in HIV prevalence among the various districts.

Stories Continues after ad

President of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has been at the forefront in the fight against HIV/AIDS alongside other partners who have supported the National HIV Response such as the Embassy of Ireland, UNAIDS, United States Government among others.

For a long time the epicentre of HIV was Rakai alongside other thriving urban centres and many districts in Uganda such as those along the highways and rapids commercialization in the Karamoja region did not have any cases of HIV infection. However, to date, every district in Uganda has cases of HIV. said Hon Esther Mbayo, Minister for the Presidency.

Because the achievements in reducing HIV prevalence have not been shared equally between districts, it is important that we act with urgency to achieve our goal of Ending AIDS in Uganda by 2030 she said

HIV infection in Uganda is gendered with prevalence being higher among women at 6.8% than men at 4.2%. 2.8% among young women and 1.1 per cent among young men. Amongst older adolescents and young people, prevalence is almost four times higher among females than males. Despite numerous HIV prevention interventions, there is increased engagement in risky sexual behavior including multiple sexual partners, low condom use among those engaging in high risk sex and decline in age of sexual debut; widespread self-stigma, low uptake of couple testing, and significant proportions of people, especially men living with HIV, who do not know their HIV status.

We need to implement behavior change interventions and disseminate messages for HIV prevention to reduce HIV infections; pay attention to the vulnerabilities and risk factors in the general population apart from concentrating on only the urban hot spots and also roll out the local funding sources such as the One Dollar Initiative to ensure sustainability of the response if we are to End AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. She said
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Linkedin Tony Gamal-Gabriel (Agence France-Presse) Beirut, Lebanon  Mon, August 10, 2020 09:47 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cbd8a5 2 World Lebanon,Beirut,Beirut-blast,Beirut-explosion,anti-government,protests Free

Lebanon's political elite faced pressure from all sides Sunday after a deadly explosion blamed on officials' negligence, with the first cabinet resignation over the affair and re-energized protesters vowing more action.

As hopes faded of finding any survivors of Tuesday's blast, social media was flooded with angry posts after a night that saw protesters briefly take over ministries in central Beirut.

A picture went viral on social media showing the city's devastated port, with a low wall in the foreground bearing the spray-painted message: "My government did this."

While it is not known what started the fire that set off a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate, protesters say the disaster could not have happened without the corruption and incompetence that have come to define Lebanon's ruling class.

"Those who died paid the price of a state that doesn't care about anything except power and money," said protester Tamara, 23, whose friend was killed in the blast.

The explosion devastated Beirut and took the lives of at least 158 people. The Lebanese army said Sunday that hopes had dwindled of finding anyone alive.

"We can say we have fading hopes of finding survivors," Colonel Roger Khoury, who heads a team of military technicians at the blast site, told journalists.

The catastrophe has revived the mass anti-government protests that had for months demanded the wholesale removal of Lebanon's political elite, until coronavirus lockdown measures brought an uneasy calm.

On Sunday afternoon, hundreds gathered again in and around Martyrs' Square, a short walk from the epicenter of the blast.

Clashes broke out with security forces who fired tear gas to disperse crowds.

Tear gas, rubber bullets

Demonstrators had briefly taken over several government ministries the previous night, while security forces scuffled with larger crowds of protesters converging on the capital's main protest camp.

Human Rights Watch's Lebanon researcher Aya Majzoub said some security forces had responded by indiscriminately firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

"Instead of deploying the army to help residents clear rubble from their homes, businesses, and communities, the Lebanese authorities chose to deploy them and other security forces against protesters," she said.

The violence injured 65 people, according to the Lebanese Red Cross. Security forces also made 20 arrests, according to a group of lawyers supporting the protests.

The August 4 explosion came with Lebanon already reeling from an economic crisis that has seen its currency collapse, plunging swathes of its population into poverty.

On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris oversaw a UN-backed virtual donors conference to raise aid for the cash-strapped country.

The world must respond "quickly and effectively" to the disaster, Macron warned, urging international cooperation "to ensure that neither violence nor chaos prevails".

In a joint statement issued after the conference, donors pledged the assistance would be "directly delivered to the Lebanese population".

New aid pledges were made while the embattled government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab took another hit Sunday with the resignation of information minister Manal Abdel Samad.

Several lawmakers also quit and local media reported Diab was mulling announcing the government's resignation.

The revelation that Lebanese state officials had long tolerated a ticking time-bomb in the heart of the capital has served as shocking proof to many Lebanese of the rot at the core of the state apparatus.

'Transparent investigation'

The blast wounded a staggering 6,000 people, many bloodied by flying glass as the shockwave tore through the city and left a 43-metre (141 foot) deep crater at Beirut's port.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday called for Lebanon to conduct a "full and transparent investigation" into the explosion, but many have called for an international enquiry.

Diab said Saturday he would propose early elections to break the impasse that is plunging Lebanon ever deeper into political and economic crisis.

The head of Lebanon's Maronite church patriarch Beshara Rai joined the chorus of people pressing Diab's entire cabinet to step down over a blast he said could be "described as a crime against humanity".

The disaster has revived anger at a ruling class seen as living in luxury while millions endure job losses, deepening poverty, power blackouts and garbage mountains piling up in the streets.

Politics in multi-confessional Lebanon is dominated by former warlords from the 1975-1990 civil war who years ago exchanged their military fatigues for suits, or by their offspring and nephews.

While there are Sunni Muslim, Christian and myriad other groups, the most powerful is the Shiite Hezbollah movement.
Jimmy Lai - TYRONE SIU /Reuters

Shares in one of Hong Kong's biggest media firms soared after pro-democracy sympathisers flocked to support its founder Jimmy Lai following his arrest under a controversial new security law.

Next Digital stock skyrocketed by 260pc after dismayed activists used the former British colony's LIHKG web forum to call on investors to support the company.

Mr Lai was arrested on Monday along with other executives of the company and his two sons in the highest-profile detentions since the draconian security law was imposed by Beijing's Communist rulers in June.

Hong Kong police said the men had been arrested on suspicion of "colluding with foreign powers", and raided the publisher's headquarters. Their actions are likely to fuel fresh fears that Hong Kong is becoming a police state where Western business practices and freedoms will not be tolerated.

The crackdown comes days after the US government announced sanctions on Hong Kong and mainland China officials, including the city state's chief executive Carrie Lam, in a move likely to further strain relations between the two superpowers.

A seasoned pro-democracy campaigner who owns popular tabloid Apple Daily, Mr Lai wrote an op-ed in the New York Times earlier this year stating that China was repressing Hong Kong with the security law.

He wrote: "I have always thought I might one day be sent to jail for my publications or for my calls for democracy in Hong Kong. But for a few tweets, and because they are said to threaten the national security of mighty China? Thats a new one, even for me."

Mr Lai was arrested in February and April for allegedly taking part in last year's unauthorised protests. He also faces charges for joining in with a vigil in June to mark the anniversary of Beijing's massacre of Tiananmen Square protestors in 1989.

Mr Lai, 72, founded Next Digital in 1990. The company publishes Apple Daily and Next Magazine, two of the city's most popular publications.

Apple Daily's offices were also raided, but bosses at the pro-democracy paper vowed to keep publishing.
Deaths on Irish roads are now 10pc higher than in 2019 - despite the three-month Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.

Road safety chiefs warned that when the 70pc reduction in national traffic volumes between March and June are taken into account, Ireland is effectively facing a near 20pc hike in traffic fatalities so far this year.

Gardai issued a special August safety plea as roads were thronged as tens of thousands of families opted for 'staycations' because of the pandemic.

The plea came as 87 people have died on Irish roads so far this year.

The number is eight more than in 2019 - an alarming increase of 10pc.

What makes the increase more startling is the fact traffic volumes were slashed by 70pc during the national lockdown, with a resultant decrease in serious accidents.

Collisions

Of the 87 people who died on Irish roads this year, 34 were drivers, 20 were pedestrians, 18 were passengers, 11 were motorcyclists and four were pedal cyclists.

The Road Safety Authority has expressed particular concern over the number of pedestrians, motorcyclists and pedal cyclists dying in collisions.

RSA statistics revealed there has been an increase of almost 15pc in the total number of serious collisions this year compared to 2019.

Garda Assistant Commissioner Paula Hilman - who is charged with roads policing - urged motorists to heed the safety advice.

"Any road death is one too many and we will continue to work together with our partners in road safety to reduce road deaths," she said.

Assistant Commissioner Hilman said it was obvious that, in some cases, motorists had blatantly ignored the rules of the road in respect of speed and the use of drink and drugs.

"The level of endangerment we encountered over the weekend is not acceptable.

"Despite our best efforts to proactively engage and educate drivers, too many are still taking chances and putting people's lives at risk."

In Tipperary, one motorist was found to be driving while under the influence of both cannabis and cocaine.

In Cavan and Monaghan, nine were arrested over the August bank holiday weekend for driving while intoxicated.

Safety

A motorist in Louth was stopped while driving at 203kmh - 83km above the speed limit.

"There is simply no place on our roads for people who do not comply with legislation," she warned.

"Every driver must be responsible, and not just think about their own safety, but the safety of their families and loved ones, and the safety of all road users."
A gas station attendant refills a car at a station in the Saudi capital Riyadh on May 11, 2020. Photo: RANIA SANJAR/AFP via Getty Images

Oil prices rose on Monday, amid hopes that the worst may be over for fuel demand.

Amin Nasser, chief executive of the worlds biggest oil company Saudi Aramco, told reporters on Sunday: The worst is likely behind us.

Nassers sentiment echoes that of the International Energy Agency (IEA), which said last month the worst of the oil market turbulence is behind us.

Meanwhile, Iraq last week pledged to cut its oil output by 400,000 barrels per day, which should support prices by restricting supply in the market.

Brent futures (BZ=F) were up 0.8% to $44.79 (34.30) per barrel on Monday morning, while crude (CL=F) was up 1.2% to $41.75.

The rally buoyed oil stocks. In London, BP (BP.L) was trading 3.5% higher, while Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB.L) was up 2.5%.

Shares in Suadi Aramco (2222.SR) were up just 0.3% in Riyadh. Despite its relatively upbeat outlook and a commitment to pay a dividend, the company reported a 73% slump in second quarter earnings.

Oil prices have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to collapsing demand for fuel as a result of lockdowns around the world.

Crude futures had been trading around $60 per barrel at the start of the year but turned negative for the first time in history in April amid collapsing demand. It came despite production restrictions from OPEC+ nations.

The easing of lockdowns around the world has helped to spur demand for oil, driving a mild recovery for prices. However, demand is still well below 2019 levels and analysts dont expect it to recover to pre-pandemic levels for years.

READ MORE: Coronavirus: Crisis pushes debt levels at UK firms to highest in 13 years

The market is really trading on different bits of news that come out, good and bad, around that demand narrative, said Paul Hickin, associate director of EMEA Oil News at commodities market information provider S&P Global Platts.

Hickin said oil had been trading in a tight price range and S&P Global Platts expects prices to struggle to stay above $40 per barrel in the coming months.

Story continues

Youve got to be careful taking small moves in the market, Hickin said. Really its demand thats the big driver. Where is the market seeing demand going? Theres still huge questions in markets around that.

Hickin said declining demand from India and a recent buying spree from China, which could come to an end, could both put downward pressure on prices. Fears about a COVID-19 second wave and increases in production from OPEC+ nations in the coming months are also potential sticking points.

He added: Weve still got a huge stock global overhang and if youre talking about rebalancing the market, then that needs to be cleared as well.

S&P Global Platts expects the price of Brent to rise to $50 per barrel only by the end of 2021.

UBS analyst Jon Rigby and team wrote in a note on Monday: The narrative is still very much focused on the resurgence of coronavirus infections being the main uncertainty around demand balanced with major stimulus packages.
Care and Feeding is Slates parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? Submit it here or post it in the Slate Parenting Facebook group.

Click here to read Open Book, a Slate series about the new school year.

Dear Care and Feeding,

I currently still breastfeed my 25-month-old toddlerwe were slowly weaning before the pandemic, but now that were almost always in our small city apartment, he reverted and happily nurses whenever he wishes. In general, Ive almost always been happy to breastfeed on demand. Breastfeeding has always been simple and easy for me, and both of my kids enjoyed it.

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We had weaned our oldest, an almost-6-year-old, back when she was a year old. But now she wants to breastfeed! This comes up almost every day. Shes surprised me by latching several times (as in snuck up and jumped my free breast while Im feeding the toddler), and when I gently have conversations about why she would want to breastfeed, she just gets so relaxed and a dreamy look comes over her eyes, and she says Oh, its just so soft, and the milk is so warm and yummy.

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Im completely perplexed! I never pictured having a child this old even be INTERESTED in breastfeeding, let alone be able to articulate her reasoning so clearly. And she really seems so hurt when I try to explain that shes a big girl now and has so many other great things to eat. Shes definitely sad about it. Honestly, I make plenty of milk to indulge her occasionally. But Im completely freaked out about how this may affect her. I mean, which is worse: breastfeeding a 6-year-old and having her realize how odd that is when shes older, or denying a 6-year-old for perhaps no good reason and having her feel rejected and left out?

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My husband and I have tried explaining that big girls get to do so many cool things a 25-month-old cant and gone that route  unsuccessfully. We also tried indulging her with extra attention and hugs and kisses and cuddles, but she just really wants to breastfeed. Weve also given her tons of actual milk (warm too), but it just isnt what shes looking for. If you know of a great way to deny a 6-year-old a working boob that doesnt crush them emotionally during the already stressful situation of a pandemic, or if you think theres even a chance that breastfeeding a kid that old wont create other problems, please let me know!

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My Big Kid Wants to Nurse Again

Dear MBKWtNA,

My very first, very minor, very lighthearted suggestion is to just call your 2-year-old a 2-year-old, because its easier than saying 25/6/7/8 months old, and this way you can stop doing the mental math and no one will make fun of you behind your back. Once they hit 2, you get to just count in half years and full years and its great.

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Do not back down and breastfeed your 6-year-old. You have said no, you have explained why, there is literally no reason to start again. Its always a problem to teach your kid that if they just keep working you, youll give in and say yes to something you have very clearly said no to. Kids her age want lots of things they cant have.

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If she wants more time, more physical affection, more cuddles, go for it. She saw you go back to nursing your toddler because times are stressful and probably thinks its unfair, but its not going to scar her for life. Just hold the line. Shes a big girl and she gets to do big girl things and thats greatshe is too big to breastfeed. I dont have a precise This Is When You Stop Breastfeeding guideline for other peoples children, but I do think 6 is too old, and, more importantly, you said no and you should stick to it.

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Pay lots of good attention to her, and stop responding beyond Honey, we already explained that the answer is no, and this will clear up in due course.

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Slate needs your support right now. Sign up for Slate Plus to keep reading the advice you crave every week.

Dear Care and Feeding,

Im a high school student in a district that has offered an option for in-person learning and an option for online learning/home schooling. My family has chosen to attend school in person for several reasons.

However, everything I read (including this column) says that in-person learning is dangerous and everyone should be online, and hearing/reading this has made me feel guilty about my familys decision. My parents are both teachers who will be required to show up for in-person work, so I would be in charge of overseeing/teaching my three younger siblings (one of whom has special needs), not to mention my own schoolwork. Online school just isnt feasible. How do I get over the guilt I feel every time someone says/I read that returning to school isnt safe?

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Cant Do It Online

Dear CDIO,

Youre a teenager. None of this is your fault. Dont take on guilt for a massive societal issue; you are doing what you have to do, and that is all there is to it. Wash your hands, wear your mask, do your best, and get your education.

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There are always going to be situations where its not possible to follow best practicesyours is one of them. Of course you cant magically supervise three siblings and also succeed at remote learning!

Its very easy for me to say I demand you not feel guilty about this, and I genuinely think you should not feel guilty, but its not a magic wand and you can feel your feelings and thats just fine. I think youre doing the right thing and you should focus on harm reduction around distancing and on your learning and just do your best.

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Wishing you and your family health and peace over the coming months.

 Want more advice from Nicole? Join her every Tuesday at 11 a.m. EDT for Care and Feeding on Facebook Live.

 If you missed Sundays Care and Feeding column, read it here.

 Discuss this column in the Slate Parenting Facebook group!

Dear Care and Feeding,

My family of four has been sharing a room, out of necessity, since my oldest (6) was born (we also have an 18-month-old). Our roommate is moving out, so beginning next month, we will have an additional two rooms to move into. I suggested to my oldest that maybe the room could become his new bedroom, and he has absolutely no interest in it. He suffers from generalized anxiety disorder with some issues around attachment and does not like to be alone, ever. So my husband and I were thinking of moving the family bedroom upstairs and using the new room as an office/workspace while turning our old bedroom into a playroom for the kids.

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When filling my sister in on the situation, she was adamant about him having his own room: Even if it takes months for him to be comfortable there, he needs his own room. According to her, its weird that we share a room, and since we will soon have the space, theres no excuse.

Is it strange for a family to share a room? We all sleep in our own beds. She claims that if we continue this trend, we will end up having a teenager sharing a room with us (which I see as highly unlikelykids change a lot, and by the time we get to teenage years, he will very much want his own room). Im worried about pushing him to sleep in his own room if he doesnt feel ready with his anxiety and attachment issues. I dont feel like 6 is an inappropriate age to room-share with, especially since he wants to.

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While Im not opposed to pushing him to do things outside his comfort zone when they are for his benefit, Im unsure if this falls into this category.

Room-Sharing Mama

Dear RSM,

First of all, separate your decision from your sisters opinion. Its easy to either do something because someone else thinks you should OR dig in and NOT do something because now you have your back up. This is your familypretend shes never said a word on the subject.

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If your son has generalized anxiety disorder, my first port of call would be his mental health care provider (or pediatrician). Ask their opinion! When kids have mental health issues, sometimes we focus on the days and not the years, because its easier to accommodate than create a stressful situation. Sometimes thats the right decision, and sometimes it isnt. This may be the right time to slowly help your 6-year-old build resilience and transition to his own room. Or the professionals who diagnosed him and from whom you are ideally getting resources and support may feel that everything going on in the world makes it worth waiting a bit.

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Whatever you do, make it an informed and conscious choice, not Well, he wants to keep staying in our room, and we dont want to make him more anxious. Tapping in a third party who actually has training and experience in anxiety in children will give you more data.

I hope that you get the answer you need and can manage the situation accordingly.

Should Parents Count Calories for Their Kids?

Dan Kois, Jamilah Lemieux, and Elizabeth Newcamp host this weeks episode of Slates parenting podcast, Mom and Dad Are Fighting.

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Dear Care and Feeding,

I have really bad misophonia. My husband has a mild case and is very understanding of how badly it affects me. My only real trigger is very loud eating/gum-chewing/mouth sounds. And of course, our 6-year-old is an obnoxiously loud eater. Doesnt close his mouth when he chews, speaks with his mouth full, slurps like a vacuum cleanerthe works. We correct it as much as possible, not just because of my issues, but because its just generally good manners. But it doesnt get through to him. He will close his mouth for the rest of that bite, then start all over again.

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I know hes still young, but we cant just let it go. Im at a loss at how to deal with it, thoughobviously, we cant take his food away from him. So what are good ways to correct this and make sure he follows through?

Madness at Mealtimes

Dear MaM,

For you, I turn once again to my best friend, noise-canceling headphones. Just while youre working on table manners. I cant really tell if your son is just a normal, sloppy 6-year-old or if hes eating tomatoes like Denethor, the Steward of Gondor (if the latter, ask him where he was when the Westfold fell).

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I suggest having a friend who has kids and DOESNT have misophonia over to share a meal to tell you. Regardless, kids often eat like monsters, and your job is to parent them through it and out the other side. You just have to keep at it, every time. Close your mouth when you chew. Dont slurp. Finish chewing and then tell us what you wanted to tell us. Everyone has to do this. It feels a million times worse to you because of the misophonia, but not even the infamously cultured French kids start out with exquisite table manners.

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You just have to keep doing it.

Nicole

More Advice From Slate

My husband, our three young children, and I recently went on a vacation with my in-laws. We provided the accommodations. My mother-in-law tries to act more like our childrens mother than a grandmother. She loves her grandchildren, but she is very interfering, judgmental, and disrespectful to me and my husband. On this recent visit she brought a childrens book for our 5-year-old daughter that was missing the last two pages. The book was about a girl who visits her grandmother for the summer every year; my MIL wrote an ending with my daughter that said the girls parents died and she got to live with her grandmother forever. It was written like a happy ending! When we confronted her (away from the children) that it was inappropriate, she blamed our 5-year-old saying it was all her idea. I am so upset I cant even look at this woman; and now she is suggesting we get together again next month to go camping. What should we do?
Will come back to haunt you: Jaishankar in veiled reference to Pakistan

Ahead of big take over UNSC, India adds might to diplomatic network

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Aug 10: India is readying for the big take over as the non-permanent member of the Security Council in January 2021.

India's External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar will personally review India's stint at the UNSC every month. Meanwhile India has appointed an additional deputy permanent representative and a counsellor to hand matters relating to the UNSC. R Ravindran, and IFS officer posted as joint secretary (Central and West Asia) will join at the rank of DPR at the Indian Permanent Mission to the UN at New York. Pratik Mathur, IFS and the deputy secretary (PMO) will join as counsellor, sources familiar with the developments tell OneIndia.

Future of India-China ties depends on reaching 'some kind of equilibrium: Jaishankar

T S Tirumurti is the head of the mission, while Nagaraj Naidu is the DPR. Ravindran and Mathur will join the mission on September 15.

In June India was elected as non-permanent member of the powerful UN Security Council for a two-year term winning 184 votes in the 193-member General Assembly.

China jails critic: Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong media mogul, jailed | Oneindia News

"Member States elect India to the non-permanent seat of the Security Council for the term 2021-22 with overwhelming support. India gets 184 out of the 192 valid votes polled," India's Permanent Mission to the UN tweeted. India will sit in the most powerful UN organ, for two years beginning on January 1, along with the five permanent members China, France, Russia, UK and the US as well as non-permanent members Estonia, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Vietnam.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, August 10, 2020, 16:00 [IST]
It was way back in January that Nadia Bartel, the prominent media and fashion personality and one-time AFL WAG, first had an inkling that matching activewear tops and bottoms in earthy shades were going to be a sleeper hit.

Under the Henne brand she co-owns with her sister and a friend, Bartel planned to launch leggings, crops, sweats and puffers in colours that read like they're straight from a landscape architect's notebook: khaki, slate and clay.

Nadia Bartel says she had the idea of matched tracksuits well before coronavirus. Credit:Ivana Martyn-Zyznikow

Then coronavirus hit, and it seemed all at once, the nation wanted to slide into trackies and hide under the proverbial doona. Instead of being first to market, the range was held up in transit and only launched in late July.

But with Melbourne now in harsh stage four restrictions and other states on a knife edge, Bartel says the delay may have been a blessing as people grew tired with their initial iso-purchases. Most of the styles, which cost between $79 and $250, sold out in the first 24 hours.
US cabinet member meets Taiwan's leader US Health Secretary Alex Azar (2nd L) waves following his arrival at the Sungshan Airport in Taipei

A US cabinet member met Taiwan's leader Monday during the highest level visit from the United States since it switched diplomatic recognition from the island to China in 1979, a trip that Beijing has condemned.

Health Secretary Alex Azar is in Taipei for a three-day visit to promote shared democratic values and the island's success in taming the coronavirus.

His trip comes as relations between the United States and China are in tumult, with the two sides clashing over a wide range of trade, military and security issues, as well as the pandemic.

China, which insists Taiwan is its own territory and vows to one day reclaim it, has described Azar's visit as a threat to "peace and stability".

On Monday morning, Azar met President Tsai Ing-wen, who advocates the island being recognised as a sovereign nation and is loathed by China's leaders.

"Taiwan's response to COVID-19 has been among the most successful in the world, and that is a tribute to the open, transparent, democratic nature of Taiwan's society and culture," Azar told Tsai.

Tsai thanked the US for supporting its bid to be part of the World Health Organization (WHO), a body Beijing keeps the island frozen out of.

"Political considerations should never take precedence over the rights to health," Tsai said, calling Beijing's refusal to let Taiwan join "highly regrettable".

Azar brushed off China's criticism when asked about Beijing's anger over his visit.

"The message that I bring from the US government is one of reaffirming the deep partnership the United States has with Taiwan in terms of security, commerce, health care and shared common values of democracy, economic freedom and liberty," he told reporters before his meeting with Tsai.

Azar has previously been critical of Beijing's response to the coronavirus, which began in central China, as well as the WHO.

It was a theme he repeated on Monday.

Story continues

"(Taiwan) knew very early on... to not trust some of the assertions coming out of there (Beijing) or validation from the World Health Organization," he said.

As well as meeting Tsai, Azar will hold talks with his counterpart Chen Shih-chung and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.

- Testing China -

Taiwan has become a poster child for defeating the coronavirus thanks to a well-honed track and tracing programme as well as firm border controls.

Despite its proximity and economic links to China it has recorded fewer than 500 infections and seven deaths.

In contrast the US has recorded the most deaths in the world with more than 160,000 fatalities.

Critics have accused US President Donald Trump of ramping up criticism of China as a way to divert from growing public anger over his administration's coronavirus response, especially as he fights for re-election in November.

Washington remains the leading arms supplier to Taiwan but has historically been cautious in holding official contacts with it.

Throughout the 1990s the United States sent trade officials to Taiwan with regularity.

Douglas Paal, a former head of the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington's de facto embassy, said the Trump administration was still paying heed to China's red line -- that no US official handling national security visit Taiwan.

The difference this time, he said, is the context, with Azar travelling at a time when relations between Washington and Beijing have hit a new low.

"Sending him to Taiwan shows respect for the old framework while putting a finger in China's eye at the same time," Paal said.

"The fact that they didn't choose to send a national security advisor or someone else suggests they are trying to come as close as possible to China's red line but don't want to cross it."

The last cabinet minister to visit Taiwan was in 2014 when the then head of the Environmental Protection Agency led a delegation.

But Washington has billed Azar's visit as the highest level trip made by a senior administration official since the diplomatic switch.

aw-jta/axn
NGOs are working tirelessly to rebuild Beirut after last weeks devastating explosion, with French President Emmanuel Macron urging donors to act quickly at an impromptu UN virtual conference on Sunday. FRANCE 24 spoke to Patricia Khoder, a Beirut native working for the NGO Care, about the challenge of delivering effective aid in this shattered city.

Less than a week after one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions in history  which left more than 150 dead and around 6,000 injured  the emergency services are still trying to find survivors. NGO staff and volunteers are hard at work, amid an influx of international aid to the Lebanese capital. Khoder took time out of her busy schedule to tell FRANCE 24 about the situation on the ground.

What was your personal experience of the explosion on Tuesday?

I was in the Care offices  in the business district in central Beirut  when it all happened. We heard two big explosions, and we actually thought there was some sort of attack on our building. Then we went outside and saw this huge mushroom cloud in the sky. I immediately went down to the port and I could see that the districts of Gemmayze, Achrafiye, Dora and Mar Mikhael had been blown away  that there was nothing really left there. I put the news on straight away, and I soon realised that Beirut was gone, that my city had been destroyed. I grew up in those neighbourhoods. All of my youth was there.

Im still in shock. Im so numb I cant really feel anything. Ive only slept 12 hours in total since the blast. I cant sleep, I cant even cry; I still havent really processed what happened. Every day Ive found out that someone I knew  of whom I was fond  has died, or that some beloved part of the city has been wiped off the map. It will take a lot of time before I can come to terms with all the destruction and start to mourn.

My work with Care has helped me cope. Ive been totally focused on my mission since Tuesday. Our task of raising funds and delivering food for Beirut is what matters most to me now.

Story continues

>> Beirut is destroyed, my heart is broken: Locals in despair over Lebanon blast

What work have you been doing for the NGO since the blast?

Usually I work as a communications manager, but I have been in the field for two days distributing food for the worst-affected neighbourhoods. These areas are being gentrified, but a lot of poor people still live there, and they have nothing, with nowhere else to go.

We have started distributing food parcels containing rice, flour, pasta and tinned food that you can just eat straight away  seeing as many people in Beirut dont have a kitchen or even a home any more. So weve started with food, but there are plenty of other things we hope to distribute. There are so many things Lebanon needs straight away: medicine (two hospitals were blown up), clothes, beds etc.

We also lack some essential building materials for reconstruction. There is a glass shortage because all the windows in Beirut have been shattered and there isnt enough glass in the country to meet the demand. In the meantime, people are putting up cardboard boxes and plexiglass  while others dont even have the means to do that, and are sleeping in their homes without roofs or windows, staying there so looters dont rob them of what little they have left.

And there are many people who no longer have a home at all. There are 300,000 people living on the streets. But in two months, the first rains will fall, and it will be freezing cold. We will have to find solutions for those people.

>> The strange history of the chemical cargo that caused the Beirut blast

How do you see the future unfolding?

I dont think about the future. Like my city, I have no tomorrow. Theres something about trauma like this which makes it impossible for you to project yourself forward in time. But the Lebanese are strong. I saw that resilience the day after the explosion, when people were out clearing the streets, clearing the debris. It is very difficult to break the will of the Lebanese.

This doesnt make our daily lives any easier. I lived through the civil war in Beirut but I never saw anything on this scale. But what I see around me makes me proud: the solidarity thats arisen from the desire to clean up the mess, rebuild and move forward. I am proud of my people; proud to be Lebanese.

Weve obviously been heartened by all the messages of support from across the world. We need all that hope and the courage that goes with it; we have been living without hope for a long while. It is the international community that will give it back to us. Thats why its necessary to give money to NGOs and Lebanese charities to help the country recover.

This article was translated from the original in French.
Serious security failings at one of the Nightingale courts created to deal with the huge coronavirus backlog of cases have been exposed.

Ten special sites have been set up by Justice Secretary Robert Buckland in an effort to start dealing with more than half a million cases.

However, members of the public have been able to enter the makeshift courtrooms without any security checks.

The Nightingale court in London  the first of its kind to hear criminal cases  carried out security searches on visitors when they first arrived, but later waved them through without checking their bags.

Prospero House is home to the country's first Nightingale Court, set up to deal with the coronavirus backlog, where a Mail reporter was allowed in without going through security

Normally in crown and magistrates courts, fastidious checks are conducted each time someone enters the building.

In another surprising lapse, the Nightingale court does not operate X-ray scans in the same way as many other court complexes.

Only X-rays are able to detect whether an electronic device contains a bomb.

The special London court is housed in a private office building  Prospero House, in Borough High Street.

The security failures are even more shocking because the building is ten minutes walk from London Bridge, the scene of the 2017 terror attack in which eight people were murdered by three Islamist terrorists, and the 2019 attack which left two dead.

Just a mile away on the other side of the River Thames, the Old Bailey is guarded by police police armed with semi-automatic rifles and pistols.

But at the Nightingale, a Mail reporter was repeatedly allowed into the buildings court number one from the street, without even going through security.

Her Majestys Courts and Tribunals Service, which runs the new courts, began an urgent inquiry after the Mail raised the security lapses.

A spokesman said: We take the security at all our courts very seriously.
Joe Biden is likely to reveal his pick for vice president shortly. Aides say they expect a public announcement before next weeks Democratic National Convention.

The Timess Katie Glueck, who has been covering Bidens deliberations, spoke with us about four factors that Bidens allies are discussing as the former vice president makes his choice.

1. A governing partner. The word Biden often uses is simpatico, says Katie. He wants to be aligned with his potential vice president philosophically when it comes to confronting the nations biggest challenges. He also wants to have a candid relationship with the contender.

Those aims have elevated possibilities including Susan Rice, who served in Barack Obamas administration, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, whom Biden met with last week.
It should go without saying that it would be entirely improper for a state official  or a federal official, for that matter  to use the awesome enforcement power of the government to target advocacy organizations with whose policies the official strongly disagrees. That is the kind of politicization of the legal system that President Donald Trump has tried to promote during his four years in office.

It is no answer to this set of concerns to say that the NRA can just leave New York and incorporate itself somewhere else (like Texas, as Trump suggests). And its not primarily that there would be real-world costs in shifting the organizations location.

The very fact of the lawsuit sends  and is presumably at least in part intended to send  a message that conservative political organizations are not welcome in progressive New York. You can see where that leads. Progressive organizations then will not be welcome in conservative states. In both environments, partisan, elected attorneys general, who often aspire to become governors, will develop the practice of targeting nonprofit groups that are politically unpopular in their states.
Peter Kay has penned a new emotional Car Share sketch for a tribute book about the National Health Service.

The comedian, 47, wrote about his character John's cancer scare, with the supermarket assistant manager telling cashier Kayleigh about having a brain scan.

The moving story is published in book Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You, which features 100 tales by celebs in tribute to the NHS.

Touching: Peter Kay has penned a new Car Share sketch which sees his character John telling Kayleigh about a brain cancer scare for an NHS tribute book (pictured the comedian and Sian Gibson in the popular BBC show)

The sketch begins with Peter's character John explaining how he's organising his dad's end-of-life care to Kayleigh.

He tells her: 'I went for a brain scan once it was years ago, I kept getting these really bad headaches.

'My GP said it was sinuses, but being a proper hypochondriac, I thought: "b*****ks, what does he know?" So I booked in for a brain scan.'

John reveals that he was left in tears during the MRI when, after asking the nurse to play Simon & Garfunkel, the first track which came on was The Sound Of Silence.

Hit show: Car Share finished in 2018 but did return for a one-off audio special in April amid the coronavirus pandemic (Peter is pictured in 2017)

'It got worse  in the third verse the lyrics are "silence like a cancer grows". I was in tears. I was ashen when I came out,' says John.

Thankfully, the sketch ends on a positive note, with John explaining that nothing was found by the doctors, and that his GP had been right: his sinuses were the issue.

Peter's new Car Share sketch is included in Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You, which was curated and edited by Adam Kay.

As well as the comedian, 100 other inspirational people came together to share their personal stories about how the NHS has supported them and changed their lives.

End of an era: The final episode saw John and Kayleigh holding hands as they sat on a bus and laughing after one of their rows ended in his car being towed, hinting they were finally going to end up a couple

As a collection the deeply moving, hilarious and hopeful become a love letter to the NHS and the 1.4 million people who go above and beyond every single day.

Other famous faces who contributed to the book include Paul McCartney, Emilia Clarke, Stephen Fry, Dawn French, Sir Trevor McDonald and Graham Norton.

Stories from Ricky Gervais, Sir David Jason, Dame Emma Thompson, Joanna Lumley, Miranda Hart, Dermot O'Leary, Jamie Oliver and Ed Sheeran are also included.

A minimum of 3.09 from the sale of each book will be paid to NHS Charities Together and 0.16 will be paid to The Lullaby Trust.

Popular: Avid fans even starting a petition for a third series of Car Share after it ended, but have had no luck. Peter did release an audio special in April as well as the new sketch in the NHS tribute book (the comedian is pictured as character John alongside Kayleigh in the show)

Peter Kay's Car Share series finished back in May 2018, but did return for a special one-off episode to cheer fans up amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The comedian revealed he had recorded an audio episode of the sitcom, which dropped on Friday, April 10.

Peter said: 'It's a horrific situation right now we're all going through and like so many people I feel compelled to try to do something positive in an attempt to cheer people up in some way.

'Sian Gibson, Paul Coleman and myself got together via t'internet and wrote a new short episode of Car Share. It all happened very quickly - in fact, it didn't exist a week ago.

Tweet: Car Share last aired in May 2018 and told the story of supermarket assistant manager John Redmond and promotions rep Kayleigh Kitson during their time in a company car sharing scheme

'Obviously we weren't able to film anything because of the lockdown but I hope people will use their imagination and enjoy listening.'

Car Share last aired in May 2018 and told the story of supermarket assistant manager John Redmond and promotions rep Kayleigh Kitson during their time in a company car sharing scheme.

The final episode of the very popular series saw John and Kayleigh, played by Sian Gibson, finally getting together and holding hands on the bus.

The co-workers had to take the bus home after they had a row where the door of his red Fiat 500 car was knocked off.

Rare appearance: Peter has not been seen very often in the past two years and was recently forced to announce his Dance For Life tour had been cancelled due to the Covid-19 outbreak (pictured in 2010)

The last scenes saw John and Kayleigh listening to music together on a bus after his car got towed. Kayleigh then rested her head on John's shoulder, causing fans to believe that the pair were finally going to make a go of it romantically.

Avid followers of the show were gutted that the second series had come to an end, with some even starting a petition for a third series.

However, despite fans calling for more on Twitter, the comedian confirmed the Bank Holiday special was the 'definite end', as he feels the show went 'out on a high'.

A huge 6.4million tuned in to watch the last episode - causing both fans and BBC bosses to beg the Manchester native for another series.

Yet, Peter reportedly confirmed at the time that he will not be taking the show further in the future, as he feels it was left in a good place.

What a show: The sitcom surrounded two work colleagues who share a ride to work with the final episode having a huge 6.4million tune in to watch

A source told The Sun: 'He believes great sitcoms should go out on a high like Fawlty Towers. So sadly thats definitely the end, however much fans might beg for more.'

Since the show ended Peter has rarely been seen in public and made his first TV appearance in two years during BBC One's The Big Night In in April 2020, which fundraised during the coronavirus pandemic.

Fans were especially pleased as Peter had been forced to cancelled his Dance For Life tour due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

The comedian broke the news in a statement, less than a month after confirming he would be returning to the stage with his epic dance-a-thon to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

Peter's Dance For Life Tour would have been his long-awaited return to the spotlight after cancelling all of his work commitments in 2017 due to 'unforeseen family circumstances.'

He said: 'Obviously this is disappointing news but well and truly justified given the circumstances. We'll get through this, together and then we'll all have a great big dance for life. Stay safe and look after yourselves and the people around you.'

A further statement from Peter said: 'Due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak and following Government advice, it is with deep regret that the forthcoming Peter Kay's Dance For Life shows are being postponed.

'We are looking to schedule the shows so please hold onto your tickets as they will be valid for the new dates. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause but the safety of the public is paramount.'
A pro-democracy Hong Kong media tycoon was yesterday arrested along with eight other journalists after Chinese officials raided his newspaper offices in the city.

Jimmy Lai, 71, whose net worth is just shy of a billion dollars, was handcuffed and hauled off his premises under the new draconian security law.

ITV News freelancer Wilson Li was among those arrested. The broadcaster said it was seeking information from Chinese authorities.

Downing Street said it was 'deeply concerned' by the detention of journalists under the national security law - which was imposed in June following months of anti-Beijing protests in the city.

Hundreds of police officers search the headquarters of the Next Media following the owner, Jimmy Lai's arrest on Monday

Under arrest: Jimmy Lai (centre), the media tycoon behind pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, was arrested by police in Hong Kong today

Raid: A fleet of police officers wearing masks conduct a raid inside Apple Daily headquarters on Monday in one of the most high-profile operations under the new security law

Lai, 71, was led away in handcuffs and detained on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces - one of the new offences under the law - and fraud.

Lai was among nine men, including his two sons, and one woman detained on charges that include colluding with foreign forces.

This offence under the security law comes with the threat of life in prison.

The editor of Lai's Apple Daily paper said its journalists would not be intimidated by the raid after staff posted a live-stream of dozens of police on their premises.

However, the Committee to Protect Journalists said the raid 'bears out the worst fears that the law would be used to suppress critical pro-democracy opinion and restrict press freedom'.

China insists the law is necessary to restore order after last year's mass protests, but critics say it tramples on the freedoms guaranteed to Hong Kong after its handover from Britain in 1997.

The Prime Minister's spokesman said the Government was 'deeply concerned' over the arrest of Mr Lai and the others.

He added: 'Freedom of the press is explicitly guaranteed in the Sino-British joint declaration and basic law and is supposed to be protected under article four of the national security law.

'This is further evidence that the national security law is being used as a pretext to silence opposition.

'The Hong Kong authorities must uphold the rights and the freedoms of its people.'

Apple Daily staff were yesterday ordered to leave their seats and line up so police could check their identities as officers conducted searches across the newsroom.

At one point Lai was present, in handcuffs and surrounded by officers. Police said the search was conducted with a court warrant which was shown to staff.

Chris Yeung, president of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, described the police action as 'shocking and terrifying'.

'This is unprecedented, and would be unimaginable only one or two months ago,' he said.

Apple editor Law later sent a note to staff telling reporters to 'stand by their posts' as he vowed to get the latest edition printed despite the raid.

Lai's two main titles - the Apple Daily and the digital-only Next magazine - openly back democracy protests in a city where competitors either support Beijing or tread a far more cautious line.

The two publications have been largely devoid of advertisements for years as brands steer clear of incurring Beijing's wrath.

China routinely calls him a a 'traitor' and a 'black hand' behind last year's protests.

Allegations of Lai colluding with foreigners went into overdrive in state media last year when he met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence.

Speaking in June, he described Beijing's new security law as 'a death knell for Hong Kong' and said he feared authorities would come after his journalists.

'I'm prepared for prison,' he said, two weeks before China's rubber-stamp parliament approved the new law over the head of Hong Kong's legislature.

A crowd of people inside the Apple Daily offices today as media tycoon Jimmy Lai and six others were arrested on suspicion of breaching the new law

Jimmy Lai (centre) is escorted by police officers inside the Apple Daily offices in Hong Kong

Beijing's new law targets secession, subversion, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces, leading to fears it would be used to silence criticism.

It also toppled the firewall between the mainland's Communist Party-controlled courts and Hong Kong's vaunted independent judiciary.

The law's introduction has coincided with ramped up police action against democracy supporters.

About two dozen - including Lai - have been charged for defying a police ban to attend a Tiananmen remembrance vigil in early June.

Lai and many others are also being prosecuted for taking part in last year's protests, the largest outbreak of unrest since the city's return to Chinese rule.

Last month a dozen high-profile pro-democracy figures were disqualified from standing in local elections for holding unacceptable political views.

Critics of the new law say it violates the principle of 'one country, two systems' which means Hong Kong is guaranteed freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland.

Washington last week responded by imposing sanctions on a group of Chinese and Hong Kong officials - including the city's leader Carrie Lam.

China says the security law is its own internal affair and has criticised other countries for their interference.

Bejing also responded with criticism after Britain announced plans to open up a path to citizenship for nearly three million Hong Kongers.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai is one of Beijing's fiercest critics
Imphal, Aug 11 : The BJP-led Manipur government on Monday won the trust vote 28-16 in the Assembly following a hectic day-long debate after Chief Minister N. Biren Singh had moved a confidence motion.

Eight Congress MLAs skipped the proceedings of the House, defying the party whip. The Congress MLAs who were present demanded a division but Speaker Y. Khemchand Singh rejected their plea after which angry Congress lawmakers threw chairs in the well of the House.

"We have won the trust vote by voice vote. Whatever the Speaker is doing is as per the rules. The opposition MLAs were in less numbers," Chief Minister Singh told the media after the crucial trust vote.

BJP National General Secretary Ram Madhav congratulated Singh soon after the trust motion got the endorsement of the House.

The advisor to the Chief Minister, Rajat Sethi, said in a tweet: "Devious plans of the Congress to destabilise the government have failed. Congrats CM." The crucial one-day session of the Manipur Assembly was called on Monday to decide on the confidence motion moved by the Chief Minister. The spokesperson of the Opposition Congress in Manipur, Ningombam Bupenda Meitei, said that instead of accepting the no-confidence motion moved by the Congress, the Manipur Assembly has accepted the motion of confidence moved by the BJP government.

Meitei said: "Opposition leader (former Chief Minister) O. Ibobi Singh has categorically stated that the Speaker didn't allow for division of vote despite all the Congress MLAs demanding the same instead of voice vote in the House. The Speaker's action was totally undemocratic." The ruling coalition and the main opposition Congress had issued separate whips to their members to attend the Assembly on Monday and vote following their respective party lines. A noisy scene was witnessed in the House after the BJP-led alliance won the confidence motion.

The Manipur government had plunged into a serious political crisis on June 17 after the four-member National People's Party (NPP), the sole Trinamool Congress MLA, and an Independent MLA withdrew their support while three BJP MLAs quit the party and joined the Congress.

The nine-day-long political crisis ended with the intervention of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national President J.P. Nadda, Meghalaya Chief Minister and NPP national President Conrad K. Sangma and Assam Minister and North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The effective strength of the Manipur assembly is 53, including Speaker Y. Khemchand Singh, following the disqualification of four members, including former minister Th Shyamkumar, and the resignation of three BJP MLAs. The disqualification of Trinamool Congress legislator T. Robindro by the Speaker was stayed by the Manipur High Court.

During the June 19 Rajya Sabha polls, two Congress MLAs had cross voted to ensure the victory of saffron party nominee and Manipur's titular Maharaja Sanajaoba Leishemba.

In the 2017 Assembly elections, the CongressAhad emerged as the single largest party securing 28 seats, but the BJP, which bagged 21 seats, stitched a coalition government with the support of four NPP MLAs, four Naga People's Front MLAs, the lone TMC MLA and an Independent member.

Seven Congress MLAs also joined the BJP subsequently. Demanding the disqualification of the seven MLAs, the Congress had in January this year filed a petition in the Supreme Court, which had asked the Speaker to take appropriate steps.
A lawyer for Mr. Easterbrook didnt respond to requests for comment on Monday.

McDonalds lawsuit also raises new questions, however, about how diligent it was in looking into Mr. Easterbrooks conduct before dismissing him with a generous compensation package. It acknowledges, for instance, that the initial review did not include a thorough search of the executives email account.

One would think that it would be internal investigation 101 to look at all electronic records right away, said Brandon L. Garrett, a professor who specializes in corporate criminal law at Duke University School of Law. The concern, if an investigation doesnt look at emails, is that it was a halfhearted investigation.

Until last fall, Mr. Easterbrook, a native of Watford, England, was regarded as something of a savior at McDonalds. He had worked at the company for nearly two decades before taking its helm in March 2015. The fast-food chain was in a financial slump. Mr. Easterbrook streamlined its businesses, introduced technological innovations like touch-screen ordering and delighted customers by offering all-day breakfasts. The companys shares roughly doubled during his tenure.

But in October 2019, a McDonalds employee notified the company that she was engaged in an inappropriate relationship with Mr. Easterbrook, according to a person familiar with the companys investigation. The employee told the company that she was worried that she would end up getting punished for the monthlong consensual relationship, which consisted of sexually explicit text messages, photographs and at least one FaceTime call with him, but was not physical.

Outside lawyers for McDonalds interviewed Mr. Easterbrook, who confirmed the employees account. He assured the investigators that he had never engaged in a sexual relationship with an employee.

The lawyers examined Mr. Easterbrooks company-issued iPhone 10 and his iCloud account, but did not find evidence of additional misconduct, according to the person familiar with the investigation. They did not review his electronic communications that were stored on McDonalds computer servers.

The board of directors decided to fire him. The question that the directors considered was whether he would be fired for cause  in other words, for an offense such as dishonesty or committing a crime. It was a crucial determination. If Mr. Easterbrook was fired for cause, he would have to relinquish previously awarded compensation, including stock options that he was not yet eligible to cash in.
Elbow are among the bands who are set to give performances in aid of a campaign to raise money for grassroots music venues.

Everything Everything, Public Service Broadcasting and The Slow Readers Club will also give concerts in aid of the Passport: Back To Our Roots fundraising initiative.

The bands will play one-off, intimate gigs at grassroots venues once performances are allowed with no social distancing measures in place.

Expand Close Everything Everything perform live on stage (David Jensen/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Everything Everything perform live on stage (David Jensen/PA)

Elbows Guy Garvey said: This is a simple way of looking after the very roots of British music and will result in some powerful, joyous shows when we can at last see each other again.

Im very proud to be involved.

Tickets to the concerts can be won via a prize draw which runs from August 17 for two weeks.

Tickets for the draws for each show can be bought for a minimum 5 donation to the campaign.

Elbow will perform at Night & Day Cafe in Manchester, while Public Service Broadcasting will play at The Amersham Arms in New Cross, south-east London.

Everything Everything will play at Bedford Esquires and The Slow Readers Club will play at The Trades Club in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire.

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Expand Close The Music Venue Trust will receive 80% of the money raised (Matt Crossick/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp The Music Venue Trust will receive 80% of the money raised (Matt Crossick/PA)

Sally Cook, co-founder of the Passport: Back To Our Roots campaign, said: Its incredibly exciting to see artists supporting the grassroots venues that form the foundation of the UKs live music industry, acknowledging their importance and celebrating the unrivalled experience of watching your favourite bands up close and personal, surrounded by friends and united in appreciation for live music in all its loud and sweaty glory.

The Music Venue Trust (MVT), which represents grassroots music venues, will receive 80% of the money raised.

The remaining 20% will go to the Inner City Music charity, which operates the not-for-profit Manchester venue Band On The Wall.

Last month the MVT warned that large numbers of grassroots music venues will be forced to close as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Government has previously announced a 1.57 billion support package for the arts which will be used to help organisations including music venues, theatres, museums and galleries.

Tickets for the draw will go on sale at crowdfunder.co.uk/passport-back-to-our-roots.
P olice stepped up patrols in the West End today after the shocking machete killing of a teenager in front of horrified shoppers on Oxford Street.

Jeremy Meneses-Chalarca, 17, of Southwark was attacked and chased as a mass brawl broke out on Europes busiest shopping street before being stabbed at about 5.30pm on Saturday.

He is the 10th teenager to be killed in London this year. Three other teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of murder after arriving at a south London hospital with superficial stab injuries.

The three were being questioned in custody today.

Benjamin Teacher, a busker, said: I was performing when a lad standing behind me took out a sheath, and he had a machete.

"One lad came bolting by, and two other lads came bolting by, chasing him. It was three on one, chasing him, with one brandishing a machete in the middle of Oxford Street.

Jeremy Menesses was stabbed to death on Oxford Street / Met Police

Friends visited the scene to pay tribute yesterday, each holding a single yellow flower. One girl, who asked not to be named, said: He was just innocent. We are all his friends and we wanted to lay flowers for him.

Another said: All he cared about was making money for his mum and looking after her. We just cant believe this has happened to him. He was a good person.

Detectives from the Mets Specialist Crime Command are investigating under the command of Detective Chief Inspector Katherine Goodwin.

She said: This attack took place following a fight between a number of males in broad daylight and was witnessed by a large number of horrified onlookers. We have spoken to a number of people already but need anyone who has information, video or images to tell us what they know. Your assistance could prove vital as we investigate this terrible incident.

It is the 79th homicide inquiry opened by police in London in 2020, 10 fewer than by August 10 last year.

Meanwhile, the bodies of a woman and a man in their thirties were found less than a mile apart in a suspected murder-suicide in Dagenham. The woman was found on Whalebone Lane just before 1pm on Saturday. Two hours later, the man was found on Gosfield Road. The womans death was being treated as suspicious.

In another case, a man has appeared in court charged with the murder of a woman whose body was found at 7am in woods at Burnt Farm Ride, Enfield, on Thursday.

Brian Sengendo, 25, is accused of killing Therasia Gordon, 44. He was remanded in custody by Willesden magistrates court on Saturday to appear at the Old Bailey tomorrow.
An anti-corruption court in Pakistan on Monday indicted former president Asif Ali Zardari through video link in a graft case where he was accused of influencing authorities to release loans to front companies. As Zardari could not appear in the court due to illness, the indictment was carried out through video link, which was the first such indictment in the judicial history of the country.

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Nature & Weather

By Ls Cohen Published: August 10 2020

Recognized for the ninth year in a row.

For the ninth year in a row, North Hempstead Town has been recognized as a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation.

According to Arbor Day Foundation website, the Tree City USA program is a nationwide movement that provides the framework necessary for communities to manage and expand their public trees. The designation is given out to towns and cities that have a viable tree management plan and program. The program started in 1976.



To be eligible to be recognized as a Tree City USA community certain requirements must be met such as; having a Tree Board or Department, having a Tree Care Ordinance, having a Community Forestry Program and the observance of Arbor Day.

We are proud to again earn this prestigious designation that exemplifies our track record of enacting successful environmental initiatives, said Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth.
Two people were shot  one of them fatally  after gunfire broke out Sunday in a Luzerne County community.

Police are still looking for the shooter, and neighbors in Hanover Township, near Wilkes-Barre, are concerned about the recent violence.

The shooting occurred around 1:30 p.m. Sunday on Boland Avenue, and police believe one of those who was shot ran about two blocks to Lee Park Avenue, WNEP is reporting.

Both were taken to nearby hospitals. One of them later died, and the other suffered non-life-threatening injuries, WBRE/WYOU is reporting.

Investigators found blood on the pavement as they worked to find out what happened, reports indicate. A Toyota Camry was towed from the scene.

Neighbors are worried about recent violence in the area, pointing to a shooting to gas station several days ago. No one was injured, but investigators believe two people exchanged gunfire during an argument at the gas pumps at the Starr Convenient Mart on Thursday, The Times-Leader is reporting.

Three days ago, shooting at the gas pump? That could have been anybody. Anybodys loved one because somebodys angry with one another and theyre resulting in violence, neighbor Jessica Shortz told WBRE/WYOU.

Other neighbors are uneasy, as well, according to reports.

"I've never seen anything like this happen before around the neighborhood like this," Naz Baldoni, Post Commander of American Legion on Lee Park Ave., told WNEP.

Sundays shooting remains under investigation by Hanover Township police and Luzerne County detectives.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 21:18:19|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of China's State Council on Monday voiced firm support for the Chinese foreign ministry's decision to impose sanctions against U.S. senator Marco Rubio and 10 other U.S. individuals with egregious records on Hong Kong affairs.

A spokesperson with the office said the 11 U.S. individuals, including members of the U.S. Congress and heads of several U.S. non-governmental organizations, have notorious records on affairs related to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of China. These include coming up with Hong Kong-related bills, blatantly supporting "Hong Kong independence" organizations and violent radicals, or smearing the "one country, two systems" and the law on safeguarding national security in Hong Kong by various means.

They have wantonly interfered in Hong Kong affairs, with some of them being responsible for the disturbances following the now-withdrawn ordinance amendments, or U.S. sanctions on China and the HKSAR, said the spokesperson.

Noting that the situation in Hong Kong has improved markedly since the promulgation and enforcement of the law on safeguarding national security, the spokesperson said the Chinese government will remain firmly committed to the implementation of the "one country, two systems" principle, and resolutely oppose interference in Hong Kong affairs by any external forces.

The Chinese government will strictly enforce the law on safeguarding national security in Hong Kong, and strive to maintain prosperity and stability in Hong Kong, said the spokesperson. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 01:51:44|Editor: huaxia

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BERLIN, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Monday that he was in favor of South Korea's participation in a possible Group of Seven (G7) summit in the United States.

At the joint press conference with his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-wha after the meeting, Maas told reporters that "South Korea is one of the countries that are of particular importance globally, that is also our value partners, so I would very much welcome that."

Maas said that he was also open to a long-term expansion of the format of the G7 group. Those involved should talk about that, he said.

The United States is chairing the G7 this year. President Donald Trump originally wanted the summit to take place in Florida in June, then at the president's country house in Camp David, and then in Washington.

However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was not ready to travel to Washington in June because of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump then announced that he would postpone the meeting -- preferably to September -- and would also invite Russia, South Korea, India and Australia.

Maas and Kang met for a strategic dialogue to discuss important current issues, including the cooperation between Germany and South Korea and issues such as COVID-19, according to the German Federal Foreign Office. Enditem
Asanteman Europe Association, a non-profit organization comprising Ashantis in European countries, has donated Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), one of the leading laboratories at the forefront of testing samples for COVID-19 in the country.



The donation, according to the group, is to complement governments efforts in the fight against coronavirus.



The items donated included N95 nose masks, surgical face masks, protective gowns, face shields, examination gloves, bottles of Asanteman Europe customized water through contributions from member associations and individuals touched by the purpose of fundraising giving credit to Asanteman Munich (Germany).



Nana Afia Agyapomaa Bonsu, Queenmother for Asantemanfo in UK presenting the items, said the donation formed part of the Asanteman Europes corporate social responsibility for giving back to their country.



She advised Ghanaians to be conscious of the disease and urged them to abide by the safety protocols instituted by the government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).



Also speaking at the ceremony, Nana Afia Achiaa Deiwaa I, the Queenmother for Asantemanfo in Sweden, said the fight against Coronavirus should not be an individual fight, hence the decision to donate PPEs to to Noguchi Memorial Research Institute.



She also called on all other Ghanaian European groups to support the fight agaisnt the disease and appealed to non-members to join and support the good course of the group.



This is not an individual fight, so all hands should be on deck to win the fight against the virus.



The Group earlier donated Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to Manhyia Palace COVID-19 Humanitarian Relief Project on Wednesday, August 5 at Manhyia to aid Otumfuo Osei Tutu II to curb the disease in the Ashanti Region.



Prof. Abraham Kwabena Anang, Director of the NMIMR, receiving the items on behalf of the institute called for more partnership.



He commended the Asanteman Europe for the kind gesture and assured them the items will be used for the intended purpose.



The Covid-19 is still there and even after treatment, it still has negative effect on the patient; so it is important to follow all protocols in order not to contract the virus. Infection prevention and control protocol must be taken seriously by wearing your face mask, washing of hands with soap under running water and constant using of your hand sanitizer by protecting yourself and the one closest to you.



Asanteman Europe comprises 14 different Associations namely; Asanteman Royals in Dusseldorf, Asanteman Switzerland, Asanteman kuo Sweden, Asanteman Finland, Asanteman Antwerp Belgium, Asanteman Association of Belgium (Brussel), Asanteman Traditional Council-Holland, Asanteman Italy, Asanteman UK, Asanteman Denmark, Asanteman kuro ye Belin, Asanteman Hamburg (Germany), Asanteman Union Dusseldorf, and Asanteman Austria.

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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The COVID-19 pandemic shows no signs of abating, with outbreaks in many spots still occurring across the world. From the start, health organizations and governments were focused on implementing non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) in the absence of any effective antivirals or vaccines. Now, a new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in August 2020 discusses how these NPIs helped to shape the course of the pandemic.

Study: Evaluating the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions for SARS-CoV-2 on a global scale. Image Credit: Cryptographer / Shutterstock

Mostly NPI strategies were shaped by looking back at what worked during the earlier outbreaks of H1N1 flu, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) epidemics. Moreover, the Chinese lockdown implementation bolstered by mathematical models and observations on current trends helped to set up NPI approaches, though these varied by timeline, country, and severity.

Some of the common NPIs included school and workplace closures, social distancing, prohibiting or severely limiting public gatherings, the use of face masks outside ones house, or when interacting with individuals outside ones household, and shelter-in-place orders, neighborhood quarantines, and national lockdowns. All NPIs are designed to reduce the contact between infected and non-infected cases, and thus flatten the curve of new infections. The researchers estimate that about 55% of the worlds population will have experienced some form of isolation as of April end, 2020.

The Effects of NPIs

The measurement of the effects of NPI implementation in a region is challenging in that transmission statistics are always inaccurate. This is due to significant variations in the way testing actually covers a target population, changes in testing strategies at various points, test reporting delays, and differences in the incubation period. As a result, the infected population at a given time point is difficult to assess with accuracy.

The solution some groups have employed is dynamic mathematical modeling. Evidence from such models has concluded that viral spread and COVID-19 deaths are reduced effectively by quarantine. However, these models are based on data from SARS and MERS epidemics, with only limited information on the current pandemic at that time point.

Another study from the European Centre of Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) shows that the NPIs were estimated by experts to have reduced population contacts by 70%. Other studies support this figure, estimating that viral spread dropped by over 80%, and COVID-19 mortality by 3.1 million in the 11 countries of the study.

In yet another preprint paper, researchers found that viral transmission was not affected by lockdowns or social distancing. Instead, the researchers identified a mixture of school closures, the use of face masks, and centralized quarantine as required to control the epidemic rather than full lockdown.

Timeline of daily reported COVID-19 incidence and implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions across different countries (A) and US states (B). Plots are arranged by order of highest cumulative caseload as of May 31st, 2020, and illustrate the timeline of the implementation of quarantine and isolation policies (orange), limits on gatherings (yellow), school closures (green) and universal facemask policies (blue). We excluded other interventions implemented during time-periods of household confinement (red) and specified the date of easing of restrictions (grey) as defined in the methods. NPI timelines are illustrated alongside daily reported cases (grey bars) and the estimated daily Rt (blue line and ribbon representing median Rt and 0.05  0.95 quantiles respectively).

Analysis of Uncertainties

In the current study, the investigators used appropriate methods to capture the uncertainty in the reporting of data and the spread of the virus, to understand the impacts made by each of these measures over the course of the pandemic so far. This allowed them to take into account the later behavioral changes that followed the observation of the outbreak in the first few countries, such as China, South Korea, and several parts of Europe.

NPIs Follow Incidence Rates  Except in the US

The researchers considered only mandatory NPIs implemented over the whole nation (or state, in a federal set up). They finally had 145 events from 26 countries and 34 American states. They found that face masks and mandatory quarantine were often used along with other NPIs. Restrictions were being reduced in over 90% of countries in Europe, and over 70% of states in the US. However, African and South American countries still had several mandatory NPIs.

A striking observation was that unlike most other countries where the implementation or relaxation of such NPIs depended on the degree of control of the outbreak, the US had begun to ease restrictions even while the incidence was still going up in many places.

Earlier and More Drastic NPIs Have Greater Effects

Secondly, they observed that the higher the reproduction number Rt (the number of people to which one infected individual spreads the infection, on average), the higher was the drop in the relative change in Rt in response to the NPIs put in place earlier on in the pandemics course as opposed to later. The measures with the highest impact included lockdowns, limits on gatherings, school closures, and the wearing of face masks. These reduced the Rt by 23%, 10%, 12%, and 17%, respectively.

They also estimated both negative and positive impacts of relaxations where these had been carried out, as well as a 12% decline in the daily Rt over time when any measure was in place. The highest estimated fall in Rt was expectedly associated with stay-at-home policies.

The most significant drop in Rt was linked to the earlier implementation of NPIs, as reported by other modeling studies. However, they found it difficult to untangle the interlinked effects of the successive lifting of each NPI because, more often than not, such measures tend to be applied and lifted in groups.

The researchers operate under the hypothesis that all countries have experienced mass behavioral changes due to the pandemic, which deprives them of any counterfactual scenario to estimate the possible infection rates if no NPI was in place. The overall 12% fall in Rt with time was estimated to represent the impact of all the NPIs and changes in behavior, with a snowballing effect caused by increased global awareness. This makes this decline independent of the type of interventions or the sequence.

Timeline-Dependent Effect

The strong effect of complete lockdowns may be, in part, due to the lingering effect of prior interventions. The 23% reported drop with mandatory household confinement is far below the 81$ reported by other studies. The difference lies in the geographical and temporal variation in those countries since the previous study took place in 11 European countries, which were first affected and had mostly returned to normal by the time of the current study. In contrast, the current study included countries that are still reaching their infection peak, with smaller current drops in the Rt.

Timing Matters in Impact Size

Again, both the current and prior research shows that the current control in Wuhan, for instance, depended on the local restrictions on mobility before the complete lockdown was clamped down, and especially on the early implementation of these measures. Earlier studies have estimated that the number of cases could have gone up or down threefold if the NPIs had been put in place a week later or earlier.

The researchers have pointed out that daily confirmed case number is inaccurate in counting the infected population at any time point due to delayed reporting and inadequate testing. Secondly, without a sufficient gap between successive interventions, the impact of any given measure is lost in the overall impact of measures already in place, given the estimated 5-14 day incubation period.

Thus, the study confirms earlier research, showing that NPIs do reduce the rate of increase in case incidence globally, with earlier implementation being linked to more substantial impacts. This is still seen after adjusting for the time since the first 100 infections.

Implications and Future Directions

The inability to measure the impact of individual measures makes it difficult to predict whether such steps will help to achieve control of the outbreak in countries where the incidence is still going up. This should promote continuing research into the actual effectiveness and best combination of individual NPIs, using the data that is currently being gathered from all over the world. This will help with making decisions to handle the expected resurgence of the pandemic.

*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.
Video footage has emerged showing a lone protester in Belarus facing up to a line of armed vehicles before being taken down with water cannon and detained by police.

The scene, reminiscent of the legendary Chinese protester who faced down a tank during the Tianamen Square unrest, emerged amid widespread clashes last night over the apparent re-election of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.

He is known as Europe's 'last dictator', as Belarusian police detained 3,000 people and at least one person died amid claims the election results had been rigged.

A lone protestor faces off against riot police and a water cannon. 186/https://t.co/5Wlt6lfFg4 pic.twitter.com/zXW3t7e9aw  Rob Lee (@RALee85) August 10, 2020

The lone protester approaches police amid the escalating protests

A water canon is fired and sprays the protester away from the armed vehicles

Riot police block an area after polls closed in Belarus' presidential election, in Minsk on August 9, 2020

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko smiles as he arrives to a polling station for voting during the presidential elections in Minsk, Belarus

Election officials said Monday that President Alexander Lukashenko had won his sixth consecutive term, taking over 80% of the vote.

The protests are fueled by frustration with the country's deteriorating economy, years of political repression and the authoritarian incumbent's cavalier brushoff of the coronavirus threat.

Human rights groups said one person was killed - which the authorities denied - and dozens were injured in a police crackdown on protests that followed Sunday's presidential election.

People take part in a protest against the results of the 2020 Belarusian presidential election

Five candidates contested for the presidential seat, including the incumbent president Lukashenko

The country's central election commission said that with all ballots counted, Lukashenko, who has led Belarus for 26 years, took 80.23% of the vote and his main opposition challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, had only 9.9%.

Opposition supporters believe the election results were rigged and plan to gather in Minsk for more protests on Monday evening.

'We don't recognize these results,' Tsikhanouskaya, a former English teacher and political novice, told reporters Monday.

'According to the data we receive from precincts, we won, and this corresponds with what we saw at polling stations,' she said.

'People stood in lines at polling stations in order to vote for Tsikhanouskaya. I believe my own eyes rather than the data of the central election commission.'

Thousands of people took to the streets in a number of Belarusian cities and towns on Sunday night, protesting the early count suggesting Lukashenko's landslide victory.

Protesters help paramedics to carry a wounded person into an ambulance after clashes with police in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020

They faced rows of riot police in black uniforms who moved quickly to disperse the demonstrators, firing flash-bang grenades and beating them with truncheons.

The brutal crackdown followed a tense campaign that saw massive rallies against Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet nation with an iron fist for 26 years.

Lukashenko has not yet commented on the results or the protests, only saying on Monday that 'the people' should be the cornerstone of any politics, according to the state news agency Belta.

According to the Viasna human rights group, more than 200 protesters were detained, dozens sustained injuries and one died as the result of the clashes with police.

Law enforcement officers escort a man during clashes with opposition supporters after poll closed at presidential election in Minsk, Belarus August 9, 2020

The Interior Ministry said Monday no one was killed during the protests and called reports about a fatality 'an absolute fake.' According to officials, 89 people were injured during the protests, including 39 law enforcement officers, and some 3,000 people were detained.

On Monday morning, Belarus' Investigative Committee opened a criminal probe into mass riots and violence toward police officers.

'What has happened is awful,' Tsikhanouskaya told reporters Sunday.

An AP journalist was beaten by police and treated at a hospital.

At Minsk's Hospital No. 10, an AP reporter saw a dozen ambulances delivering protesters with fragmentation wounds and cuts from stun grenades and other injuries.

European officials urged Belarusian authorities to adhere to standards of democracy and respect the people's civil rights on Sunday.

Law enforcement officers run during clashes with opposition supporters after poll closed at presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, August 9, 2020

Riot police move to disperse demonstrators during a protest after polling stations closed in the presidential elections

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told the BNS news agency on Monday that 'it's difficult to call this election transparent, democratic and free, regrettably.'

Poland's Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Monday morning saying that 'the harsh reaction of the law enforcement forces, the use of force against peaceful protesters, and arbitrary arrests are unacceptable.'

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the meantime, congratulated Lukashenko on his win on Monday, and so did the president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The results of the vote 'indicate the popular support' of Lukashenko's rule, Tokayev said.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a Facebook post Monday it was 'obvious that not everyone in the country agrees with the announced preliminary election results.

'And, as we know, any legitimacy arises solely from public trust,' urging Minsk to refrain from violence and calling for dialogue with the opposition.

Two prominent opposition challengers were denied places on the ballot, but Tsikhanouskaya, the wife of a jailed opposition blogger, managed to unite opposition groups and draw tens of thousands to her campaign rallies, tapping growing anger over a stagnant economy and fatigue with Lukashenko's autocratic rule.

Lukashenko was defiant as he voted earlier in the day, warning that the opposition will meet a tough response.

'If you provoke, you will get the same answer,' he said. 'Do you want to try to overthrow the government, break something, wound, offend, and expect me or someone to kneel in front of you and kiss them and the sand onto which you wandered? This will not happen.'

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose assessments of elections are widely regarded as authoritative, was not invited to send observers.

Opposition supporters protest after polling stations closed at the presidential elections

Tsikhanouskaya had crisscrossed the country, tapping into public frustration with a worsening economy and Lukashenko's swaggering response to the pandemic.

Belarus, a country of 9.5 million people, has reported more than 68,500 coronavirus cases and 580 deaths but critics have accused authorities of manipulating the figures to downplay the death toll.

Lukashenko has dismissed the virus as 'psychosis' and declined to apply measures to stop its spread, saying a lockdown would have doomed the already weak economy.

He announced last month that he had been infected but had no symptoms and recovered quickly, allegedly thanks to playing sports.
BUFFALO GROVE, Ill., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Tolmar Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, today affirmed the full availability of ELIGARD (leuprolide acetate) for injectable suspension in all doses for patients undergoing palliative treatment for advanced prostate cancer. The company confirmed the complete inventory of product supply and also announced a production increase in response to reports of a shortage in the United States for a different leuprolide acetate injection product used in the palliative treatment for advanced prostate cancer. Tolmar has a demonstrated record of providing consistent supply of ELIGARD in the U.S. and globally across approximately 89 countries, with no shortages to date.

On July 24, 2020 and re-verified on August 3, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) listed the Lupron Depot, 3 months, 22.5 mg PDS Kit and 6 months, 45 mg PDS Kit as not available and on backorder in its database of Current and Resolved Drug Shortages and Discontinuations Reported to FDA. The listing indicates the estimated duration of this shortage is currently unknown.

"Tolmar is pleased to step up production in our state-of-the-art cGMP facilities to help ensure that advanced prostate cancer patients across the U.S. won't miss a single injection in their treatment plan," said Anil D'Souza, Chief Executive Officer, Tolmar. "ELIGARD has always been manufactured to the highest quality standards in our Northern Colorado plants, and we are able to fill any short or long-term gaps in the supply of this drug for those who need it."

ELIGARD (leuprolide acetate) for injectable suspension, an FDA-approved palliative treatment for advanced prostate cancer, is given by subcutaneous injection. It is a form of androgen deprivation therapy, which is the standard of care for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. A luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist, ELIGARD reduces circulating testosterone to castration levels to inhibit the growth of cancer cells. It may be administered monthly or in three, four or six-month controlled-release doses. All doses are in inventory.

"During the global COVID-19 pandemic, cancer patients, providers and others in the urology and uro-oncology community should not have an added concern about the supply of a vital medication," continued Mr. D'Souza. "Tolmar has a full inventory of API and the other components of ELIGARD, and the capacity to manufacture sufficient supply of the drug for those who need it at this time."

For more information about product availability or any questions about reported leuprolide acetate product shortages in the U.S. market, please contact Tolmar at 1-877-ELIGARD (1-877-354-4273).

About Tolmar and ELIGARD

Tolmar is a fully integrated pharmaceutical company focused on the innovative development, approval, manufacturing and commercialization of specialty pharmaceuticals. The Company's lead product, ELIGARD, is a gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist indicated for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer.

"Tolmar" refers to Tolmar Holding, Inc. and its wholly owned operating subsidiaries, Tolmar Inc., Tolmar Therapeutics, Inc., and Tolmar Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ELIGARD was developed and is manufactured by Tolmar Inc. Tolmar global headquarters, product development and manufacturing facilities are based in northern Colorado, while TOLMAR Pharmaceuticals' U.S. commercial business is based in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. For more information about the company, please visit www.TOLMAR.com. Information about ELIGARD is available at www.eligard.com.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

ELIGARD (leuprolide acetate for injectable suspension) is a medicine for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. It works by reducing the amount of testosterone in the blood. It is not a cure.

ELIGARD should not be used by anyone who is allergic to any of the ingredients in ELIGARD or to any medicines that reduce testosterone the same way. ELIGARD should not be used by women who are pregnant or may become pregnant. ELIGARD can cause pregnancy loss or harm to an unborn baby if used in pregnant women.

Severe and possibly life-threatening reactions called anaphylaxis have occurred in people receiving ELIGARD.

Increased risk of heart attack, sudden death due to heart problems and stroke have also been reported in men taking ELIGARD. ELIGARD may also affect electrical activity in the heart that can cause an irregular heartbeat. Your doctor will monitor you for heart conditions.

Elevated blood sugar and an increased risk of developing diabetes have been reported in men receiving ELIGARD. Your doctor will monitor blood sugar levels.

ELIGARD causes an increase in testosterone during the first few weeks of therapy and some men may experience new or worsening symptoms of prostate cancer e.g., bone pain, urinary symptoms, or nerve problems such as numbness, during this period. If your cancer has spread to the urinary tract or spine, urinary blockage or pressure on the spine that can lead to paralysis may occur. Your doctor will discuss with you the benefits and risks of taking ELIGARD.

The most common injection site reactions are transient burning and stinging, pain, bruising, and redness. The most common side effects include hot flashes/sweats, fatigue, weakness, muscle pain, dizziness, clamminess, testicular shrinkage, decreased erections and enlargement of breasts. Other side effects, including thinning of bones that may lead to fracture, and rare but serious problems with the pituitary gland in the brain, have been reported with ELIGARD.

Please see Full Prescribing Information for additional important safety information.

SOURCE Tolmar Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.tolmar.com


About 9,000 farmers have been enrolled onto the government flagship programme, the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJs) in the Bawku Municipality of the Upper East Region this year.



This is an increase in the number of beneficiaries from the 7,500 farmers who benefited from the programme in 2019.



Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Bawku, Mr Charles Akwotiga, the Municipal Director of Agriculture stated that all the farmers received their inputs and farming was progressing steadily this farming season.



He said apart from the subsidized fertilizer, which was distributed to the beneficiary farmers, improved seeds of hybrid maize, soyabeans, cowpea and rice among others had also been given to the farmers.



They have increased the quantity of fertilizer for farmers, so if you go round my municipality, you would like the look of the maize crop. This year I have not had any farmer complaining of inability to get fertilizer or that the price is too high. We are hoping to get better yields than last year, he said.



The Municipal Director said his outfit had more farmer groups under the PFJs to access financial support from Rural Banks, to enable them engage in effective farming and added that the farmer groups had increased from 32 in 2019 to 46 in 2020 and out of the 46 groups, 32 were women groups.



He said, What encourages me is that women farmers have also had support from this PFJs, because women who hitherto would not have been able to buy even one bag of fertilizer have been supported. We have grouped these people and sent them to the rural banks and these banks have bought the inputs for them so that they will pay later after harvesting.



Mr Akwotiga noted that the municipality was benefitting from the Rearing for Food and Jobs initiative with about 40 farmers from the area receiving 10 cockerels each.



He noted that 60 farmers had also been selected to benefit from the distribution of the small ruminants including; goats and sheep and each farmer was given five each.



He said all those benefitting from the rearing for food and jobs programme were trained to care for the animals to increase production.

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
Stephen Easterbrook was ousted from McDonald's in November last year after he admitted to exchanging videos and text messages with an employee

A McDonald's lawsuit claims that the company's fired CEO Stephen Easterbrook deleted dozens of nude photos that were sent using his work email and phone as part of a coverup so he wouldn't be caught as the fast-food chain tries to recoup tens of millions of dollars in severance and benefits.

The 53-year-old was fired from his $16 million-a-year job in November last year after he admitted to having an inappropriate relationship with a female employee who he exchanged videos and text messages with.

He in fact had relationships with five women who worked for the company.

Only one of them has been named; PR executive Denise Paleothodoros.

In a lawsuit filed in Delaware on Monday, McDonald's said it had found dozens of nude or sexually explicit photos of women, including the three employees, that Easterbrook sent to his personal email account from his company email account.

'That evidence consisted of dozens of nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit photographs and videos of various women, including photographs of these company employees, that Easterbrook had sent as attachments to messages from his company email account to his personal email account,' the lawsuit says.

McDonald's has accused Easterbrook of deleting the emails and attached photos from his company-issued phone shortly before he was ousted in a bid to prevent investigators from learning about them prior to his firing.

The deleted emails and photos, which were sent in late 2018 and early 2019, remained on a company server unbeknownst to him, the lawsuit states.

'The photos are indisputable evidence that Easterbrook repeatedly violated the companys prohibition of any kind of intimate relationship between employees in a direct or indirect reporting relationship,' the lawsuit says.

Scroll down for video

After he was fired last year, it emerged that Easterbrook had previously escaped censure for another office romance. It came to light that Easterbrook had dated Denise Paleothodoros, 46, when she was assigned to the McDonald's account by her PR firm

Easterbrook (above with Chrissy Teigen in 2017), a divorce and father-of-three from Watford, United Kingdom, joined the company in 1993 and had been chief executive since March 2015. Under his leadership the company's shares nearly doubled in value while sales at its US locations stagnated

'They are indisputable evidence that Easterbrook lied during the investigation into his behavior in October 2019, when independent outside counsel expressly asked him if he had ever engaged in a physical sexual relationship with any company employee.

As part of his 'without cause' severance agreement, Easterbrook was allowed to keep about $40million in stock-based benefits and six months pay, which amounted to roughly $670,000 in compensation, after he insisted there were no other similar instances.

In the complaint, McDonald's said it reopened an investigation last month after receiving an anonymous tip that led to the discovery of sexual relationships between Easterbrook and three other employees in the year prior to his termination.

The company has argued that Easterbrook, a divorce and father-of-three from Watford, United Kingdom, no longer deserved the payout because of his 'silence and lies'.

McDonald's also alleges Easterbrook approved an 'extraordinary' stock grant, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, for one of those employees during their sexual relationship.

The lawsuit also claims Easterbrook lied to investigators by denying any physical sexual relationships with employees.

Easterbrook pictured with Alesha Dixon and Lord Coe at the London 2012 Olympics

Steve Easterbrook was seen for the first time since he was fired from McDonald's in November

Their three daughters remained with their mother Susie, a part-time estate agent and former training boss at PwC, at the 1.3million ($1.67m) family home in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire (pictured)

McDonald's said in the lawsuit that Easterbrook's board-approved separation agreement was based on what the company knew at the time.

The lawsuit says McDonald's would not have terminated Easterbrook without cause if it had known of the additional relationships.

The Brit credited with turning McDonald's fortunes around after profits dived Steve Easterbrook took the helm of McDonald's in March 2015 and quickly set to work to help save the company after it experienced a 15 percent shortfall in profits the year before. Easterbrook helped raise the company's profit margin by more than 12 percent in the first nine months of his takeover, getting margins from 13.62 percent to more than 25 percent. He also got the company's shares to double during his tenure. In the first three months of his time as CEO, Easterbrook regrouped and consolidated market segment by need, instead of by geographic region. He created four market segments for the company - the US, international lead markets, high-growth markets and foundational markets. For example, China and South Korea markets were taken out of the Asia/Pacific/Middle East/Africa region and placed in the 'high-growth' category. Improving food quality was a top priority for Easterbrook. Easterbrook cut several items off McDonald's menu - including a Deluxe Quarter Pounder burger and six chicken sandwiches. He had the chain take out hard-to-pronounce ingredients and announced the limited run of the Sirloin Third Pounder. During the first part of 2016, He got sales to rise more than 5.7 percent. Easterbrook was also a crucial supporter of using fresh beef in the company's burger, a move McDonald's implemented in 2017. The CEO managed to get McDonald's to increase its percentage of franchised stores from 81 percent to 91 percent in less than three years, surpassing his goal to get 4,000 franchised by 2019. This was largely in part because of a deal made to sell 2,740 restaurants in Hong Kong and China to Citic and the Carlyle Group. Easterbrook was already making his mark with the company more than two decades prior to his role as CEO. He joined in 1993 as a financial reporting manager in London before becoming the executive in charge of all McDonald's in the southern UK. In 2006 he was selected to manage all of the UK's operation but would move on to manage the whole northern Europe region (approximately 1,800 restaurants) in less than a year. After a brief hiatus away from the company, Easterbrook returned in 2013 as the senior executive vice president and chief brand officer. Easterbrook worked to repair McDonald's reputation in China after a scandal involving sketchy meat in 2014. He helped roll out customized hamburgers in Australia and in the US. He also helped implement dual-lane drive-thrus at the restaurant and the popular all-day breakfast menu. Advertisement

'Easterbrook's silence and lies - a clear breach of the duty of candor - were calculated to induce the company to separate him on terms much more favorable to him than those the company would have offered and agreed to had it known the full truth of his behavior,' McDonald's said in the filing.

'Had Easterbrook been candid with McDonald's investigators and not concealed evidence, McDonald's would have known that it had legal cause to terminate him in 2019.'

Easterbrook joined the company in 1993 and had been chief executive since March 2015.

He and his wife Susie divorced in 2015 - the same year he relocated to Chicago to become McDonald's CEO. He had previously been based in the UK where he had been the company's head of North Europe.

Under his leadership the company's shares nearly doubled in value while sales at its US locations stagnated.

He had been credited with modernizing the chain, introducing touch-screen kiosks and launching an all-day breakfast menu.

At the time he was pushed out, McDonald's said Easterbrook had violated company policy by engaging in a consensual relationship with an employee.

McDonald's forbids managers from having romantic relationships with direct or indirect subordinates.

In an email to employees at the time, Easterbrook acknowledged he had a relationship with an employee and said it was a mistake.

'Given the values of the company, I agree with the board that it is time for me to move on,' Easterbrook said in the email at the time.

At the time of his firing, lawyers from McDonald's had viewed messages on Easterbrook's company phone but did not thoroughly search his email records.

The second and more in-depth investigation, which was initiated last month, uncovered emails that had been deleted.

It is not yet clear why a thorough search was not carried out the first time.

At the time of his dismissal, the company said Easterbrook was eligible for six months of severance pay, which would have been $675,000.

He was also eligible for prorated payment for hitting 2019 performance targets.

Under McDonald's severance plans, the company says it has the right to claim back any payouts if it determines employees have been dishonest and there is evidence they could have been fired with cause.

McDonald's said this clause in the agreement also applied to Easterbrook.

The company is now attempting to block Easterbrook from exercising his stock options and is seeking compensatory damages.

Easterbrook was replaced by Chris Kempczinski, who joined McDonald's in October 2015 after working in a senior strategic role at Kraft Foods and previously at PepsiCo.

One day after Easterbrook's departure, McDonald's announced that its top human resources executive, David Fairhurst, who joined McDonald's in 2005 and was named chief people officer at the restaurant chain in 2015, had also left.

In an employee memo on Monday, Kempczinski said McDonald's does not tolerate behavior inconsistent with its values and that Easterbrook's conduct 'deviated from our values in different and far more extensive ways' than it had known.

Easterbrook could not be immediately reached for comment.

After he was fired last year, it emerged that Easterbrook had previously escaped censure for another office romance.

Pictured left to right, Aviv 'Vivi' Nivo, venture capitalist and major shareholder in Time Warner, Jack Dorsey, co-founder and chief executive officer of Twitter, and Steve Easterbrook, president and chief executive officer at McDonalds

It came to light that Easterbrook had dated Denise Paleothodoros, 46, when she was assigned to the McDonald's account by her PR firm.

The two-year affair came to light in 2015 but McDonald's concluded the relationship did not violate its policies.

Paleothodoros was removed from the McDonald's account at the time to 'avoid any conflict of interest'.

Easterbrook was replaced by Chris Kempczinski

Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal claimed Easterbrook had frequently flirted with female staff after indulging in an existing culture of after-work hard drinking among employees at McDonalds Chicago headquarters close to where the former CEO has a luxury residence.

Staff said they were alarmed that, even as CEO, Easterbrook continued to fraternize with staff in local bars into the early hours.

Easterbook joined the company in 1993 as a branch manager and after working his way up to become its UK chief in 2006 and then became president of its northern European business, in charge of 1,800 restaurants.

In 2011 he became boss of Pizza Express and then Wagamama in the UK but then went back to McDonald's as Chief Brand Office in 2013.

He then became overall boss in 2015, running the business from its $250million headquarters in Chicago earning $16million-a-year [12million].

He was married to British wife Susie, and the couple have three children. It is not known when they separated but they are believed to have been divorced since he moved to the US.

Under his leadership the company's shares nearly doubled in value while sales at its US locations stagnated.
New Delhi: Rajasthan political crisis ended on Monday (August 10) evening as former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot said that he has no desire for any post but wanted self-respect to remain intact while addressing media persons.

He said, "I've contributed to the party for 18-20 years now. We have always attempted to ensure the participation of people who worked hard to form the government, adding "I had been saying since the beginning that all these things were based on principle. I always thought these things are essential to be raised in the party's interest."

For Deputy CM said "Several things were said, I heard a lot of things. I was surprised by a few things that were said. I think we should always maintain restraint and humility. There is no place for personal malice in politics. We had formed government in Rajasthan after 5 years of hard work."

He also thanked the party chief Sonia Gandhi and said, "Sonia Gandhi Ji heard all our concerns and the governance issues that we raised. Formation of the 3-member committee by the Congress President is a welcome step. I think all the issues will be resolved."

Sachin Pilot also said that "Since past some time some MLAs were in Delhi, there were some issues which we wanted to highlight. I did that in the party's interest."

Prior to Sachin Pilot's statement, KC Venugopal, General Secretary, AICC, told ANI that Sachin Pilot met with Rahul Gandhi and expressed his grievances in detail, adding "They had a frank, open and conclusive discussion. Sachin Pilot has committed to working in the interest of Congress party and Congress government in Rajasthan."

Venugopal further said that following this meeting, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has decided that the AICC will constitute a three-member committee to address the issues raised by Sachin Pilot and the aggrieved MLA and arrive at an appropriate resolution thereof."

Senior party leader Bhanwar Lal Sharma, who supported Sachin Pilot, told media that "There was no camp, nobody was a captive," adding "Bhanwar Lal can never be a captive. I went there willingly, I have come here willingly."

Sharma, who also met Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot today, "I met him. Party is like a family and Ashok Gehlot is its head. If someone gets upset in a family then they don't take food. So I expressed my unhappiness for a month. Now, I don't have any resentment anymore," adding "Party will fulfill all the promises made to people."

Earlier in the day, Sachin Pilot spoke to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra over the phone as the high command assured him of not taking any action against him and sought his support for the Ashok Gehlot camp, sources in the Congress had told Zee News.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi later decided on a "reconciliation" plan as discussions took place regarding the current situation.

On Sunday, Sachin Pilot had met senior AICC leaders and a separate meeting was also fixed with Rahul Gandhi, who on Monday met Pilot where Priyanka Gandhi Vadra remained present. Sachin Pilot explained the circumstances in which he took the drastic decision.

Sachin Pilot and other Congress rebel leaders would come back to the party fold and vote for Ashok Gehlot during the trust vote as the Assembly session is set on begin on August 14.
Life is about the little things.

We all know about Hamiltons big attractions, like the 100 waterfalls, RBG, AGH, Dundurn Castle and the annual Supercrawl. But, if you really want to get the vibe of the city, check out these 10 little jewels we simply love around Hamilton.

1. The west harbour. Theres so much promise for a harbourfront neighbourhood by the recreational waterfront. Stroll, roll, cycle or run all on a shaded path near Macassa Bay.

2. Splash pads. Picture it: sunshine with a rainbow spray while kicking back during the dog days of summer. There are 65 of these little gems open and ready for the pitter patter of little feet. Another is under construction at Victoria Park. And dont forget about our outdoor pools. They are open seven days a week. Though one with some serious history is Lakeland Pool on Beach Boulevard.

3. The hospitals. We have five offering world class health care in the city: McMaster Sick Kids, The General, St. Josephs, Juravinski and St. Peters.

4. Food. Chicago Style Pizza was one of the first establishments in Canada featured on You Gotta Eat Here. And located just across the street on Upper Sherman is Biggies, a dream of an ice cream shop. A small cone at this Hewitts parlour will more than crush that scream for ice cream. Other worthwhile eateries that need checking out  Hutchs, Grandads, Easterbrooks, the Egg & I and HAMBRGR. Whos hungry now?

5. The Tiger-Cats. Yell oskee wee wee anywhere in Canada and people will know you are from the Hammer.

6. The Birks clock. Its close to 90 years old and after some ups and downs, you can find this two-storey high historic clock in the Hamilton farmers market.

7. The Lancaster and Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. Hamiltonians know to listen for it to roll overhead.

8. Van Wagners beach. Sun, sand, swim. Take a picnic with you or treat yourself to some fresh-cut fries.

9. HMCS Haida. While it is currently closed due to the pandemic, the ship is not built for physical distancing, the Haida is home in the harbour. This national historic site just oozes history.

10. Our trails. Hamilton is so much more than just a steel town. There are miles and miles of trails for both serious and leisure walkers. Find your zen among the trees.
An unidentified customer enters the Fishtown post office in Philadelphia, Pa., on May 7, 2020. Read more

The U.S. Postal Service has lately been a political lightning rod. Louis DeJoy, a Trump donor the president appointed as postmaster general in May after rejecting bailout funds for the USPS, has slashed its funding and staffing. Democratic politicians have since called for an investigation into DeJoys changes to the service. Residents are experiencing mail delays nationwide, with some Philadelphia neighborhoods waiting as long as three extra weeks.

Some critics of the USPS have suggested privatizing it, as the United Kingdom did in 2015, to fix inefficiencies. But others say it must be kept a public service. For this debate, The Inquirer asked a U.S. congressman representing Philadelphia and a researcher with the Heritage Foundations Center for the Federal Budget: Should the U.S. privatize the mail?

No: The USPS is a necessary public good.

By Dwight Evans

Critics of the U.S. Postal Service contend that it is outdated, inefficient, and consequently unnecessary. Of course, any system or institution subject to the neglect and disinvestment the USPS has seen over the last few years would grow worn and weary. But the USPS is a public good that must be protected. Given its role connecting people in the COVID-19 lockdown era, its relevance has never been greater.

On Nov. 3, we will participate in the national general election. The stakes on this years ballot are extraordinary. This election, unlike any in the U.S. for over 100 years, will have to be administered under the limitations of a global pandemic. To date, the Trump administration has demonstrated no ability to exercise a national strategy to contain the virus, and we cannot expect it will do so by November.

Accordingly, we must provide as many safe, secure, and public vehicles to participate in democracy as possible. In 2019, Gov. Tom Wolf signed Pennsylvanias first vote-by-mail law. Unlike with absentee ballots, voters no longer need a reason to choose vote-by-mail. It is a right afforded to all eligible Pennsylvanians  a right that can only be effectively exercised with a viable USPS.

The Trump administrations assault on the USPS is significantly undermining citizens ability to receive their mailed ballots and return them in time for their votes to count. In Philadelphia alone, I have received numerous constituent calls reporting their mail is no longer arriving on a daily basis  in some cases down to once a week.

I have also learned that retiring postal employees are intentionally not being replaced, critical letter sorting equipment has been pulled off the floor of our regional processing center, and letter carriers are being asked to work inordinate routes and hours, often putting them in harms way.

These are not just localized trends  such stories are rising from around the nation. Last weeks Michigan primary highlights how the Trump administration is able to disenfranchise voters through Postal Service disinvestment.

Preserving the right to vote is not the only priority defining the USPSs necessity. Millions of Americans rely upon the Postal Service to receive life-sustaining medications. So long as lockdowns or restrictions are necessary, many other essential household items will only reach people if the Postal Service is functional. The USPS is facing an unprecedented parcel volume, and it is unreasonable to expect that volume can be met in a timely way by private carriers alone.

Privatization would disregard the hardworking women and men who make the mail system go. U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans

Moreover, there are important equity and access issues that the Trump administrations push toward privatization fails to consider. The ability to get your mail simply should not be a function of how much you make or where you live.

Privatization would also disregard the hardworking women and men who make the mail system go. Their jobs, benefits, and the service equity they provide will all be endangered. These fine Americans have served as essential workers long before the pandemic became our daily reality. They have trudged through challenging weather, terrain, and hazards daily to deliver our mail. Now they face all of those challenges  plus the invisible, deadly threat posed by the coronavirus. They deserve continued resources and protection, not to be continually maligned.

Government is not the answer for everything, but neither is the private sector. There is a time and place for both. The USPS serves a public good that cannot be adequately nor equitably replaced. It needs to be preserved and strengthened.

Dwight Evans represents Pennsylvanias 3rd Congressional District, which includes Northwest and West Philadelphia and parts of North, South, Southwest, and Center City Philadelphia.

Yes: Privatization should be on the table if it will fix mails structural problems.

By David Ditch

The Postal Service is in trouble is a statement that would find bipartisan agreement. While there are competing estimates regarding when the U.S. Postal Service could go bankrupt, it is likely to occur within the next two years.

As such, Congress must act quickly to prevent a postal doomsday from occurring, and it should not rule out any effective reform options.

The financial problems facing the Postal Service have been building for decades. The spread of electronic messaging has caused consumer demand for first-class mail to plummet by 47% since 2001. Even an increase in revenue from package deliveries hasnt been enough to prevent heavy losses: the organization has lost nearly $78 billion since 2007.

Yet, the struggle to maintain revenue is not the biggest problem facing the Postal Service.

Employee compensation consumes nearly all the revenue in a typical year. These costs have surged to an average of $97,588 per postal worker in 2019, compared with $69,440 for the private sector, per our analysis at the Heritage Foundation. Much of that gap is due to extraordinarily generous retirement benefits, which are currently underfunded by a staggering $120 billion.

Many solutions put forward amount to a blank check designed to maintain an unsustainable status quo. David Ditch

In addition, the Postal Service owns or leases tens of thousands of properties, many of which are retail locations with minimal foot traffic. Post office branches are politically coveted, but unless they serve enough customers, they place a burden on the system.

Many solutions put forward amount to a blank check designed to maintain an unsustainable status quo. A big bailout or a fat annual check from taxpayers would only serve to push the day of reckoning back a few years while further adding to our swollen national debt.

Rather than ignoring the systemic problems facing the Postal Service, legislators should be open to a range of reform options.

On the modest end of the spectrum, the Postal Service should be granted more leeway in controlling its own costs. Congress mandates that USPS deliver mail six days per week, bars it from adjusting employee compensation, and makes consolidating underused retail locations exceedingly difficult. Removing or lowering these legal barriers to cost savings would allow USPS to shrink and hopefully eliminate its annual deficits. Reducing the number of deliveries is especially long overdue given the reduction in volume.

 READ MORE: Destroy the Post Office and you destroy democracy. Maybe thats Trumps plan? | Will Bunch

To bolster revenue, the service should have more ability to develop its real estate portfolio, such as building housing or office space on top of ground-floor retail locations in urban areas. This would require some coordination with local governments, and would be a win-win for both cities and the Postal Service.

A bolder approach would involve following in the footsteps of countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom, which have opened first-class mail to competition, and either partially or fully privatized their legacy delivery agencies.

The robust market for package delivery in America and mail delivery in other countries shows that the private sector is fully capable of providing the service, and has every incentive to address the needs of urban and rural households alike.

Privatization would be a serious undertaking and is unlikely to gain congressional approval soon. However, that doesnt mean we should exclude it from consideration.

National leaders should weigh all available options when deciding the best way to address Postal Service solvency. Ignoring the structural problems, or attempting to paper over them with debt, would be grossly irresponsible.

David Ditch is a research associate specializing in transportation issues for the Heritage Foundations Hermann Center for the Federal Budget.
College students and graduates have looked back on the craziest things they have ever seen in their dorms, with stories ranging from hilarious to downright bizarre.

Residence halls will look much different this fall due to the coronavirus pandemic, which is undoubtedly making people nostalgic for the good ole days when students freely, and sometimes stupidly, went about their business.

In the resurfaced Reddit thread, people happily looked back on the unbelievable things they have witnessed in their dorms, and interesting enough, a lot of the stories involved animals.

Looking back: College students and graduates shared the wild and downright bizarre things they have witnessed in their residence halls in a resurfaced Reddit thread (stock image)

Super story: One person recalled a student getting suspended for climbing the outside of the dorms in a Spider-Man costume

'I was an RA. I had eight residents trap a raccoon and bring it into their dorm to "domesticate" it,' one person recalled. 'Guess what happens when you let a raccoon in the dorm? It f***s s**t up.'

'Someone stole a cow and brought it to the second floor of a dorm building,' another shared. 'Turns out cows don't like going down stairs.'

One would think a cow would be the most unexpected animal to set foot in a dorm, but another Reddit user had that post beat.

'I studied abroad in Australia last semester. We would leave the doors to the residence halls open during the day so they didn't get too hot,' the person explained.

Animal planet: One person recalled seeing a cow on the second floor, while someone who studied abroad in Australia witnessed a kangaroo hop down the hallway

'One day, I heard a huge commotion in the hallway, so I open my door and THERE'S A KANGAROO HOPPING DOWN THE HALLWAY. It went in the door at one end of the hall and hopped all the way through and out the door on the other end. I miss that place.'

Many of the stories were dedicated to student hijinks, and some couldn't help but note that a few of their dormmates didn't make it graduation.

'I once witnessed a man snort a poptart (yes an actual poptart) and fall over two flights of stairs (not down literally did not touch a single step) and then look up to three passing girls and say "sup b*****s,"' one person wrote. 'He did not finish his first semester of college.'

'One of the RAs got fired...I can't remember why,' someone else recalled. 'He had a week to move out of his dorm room, and it coincided with Mother's weekend. Lots of moms visiting campus. He decided to get a keg and invite a bunch of people over as a "f**k you" to his bosses.

Hilarious: Many of the stories were dedicated to student hijinks, including a fired RA who threw a dorm party attended by frat boys, mothers, and grandmothers

'His room was larger than most, since he was an RA. When they broke up the party the people stumbling out were frat bros and drunk moms, and a couple of grandmothers.'

There were also stories of epic revenge plots that were both brilliant and completely disgusting.

'I walked in on a random girl alone in my dorm room. She was squatting over my roommate's pillow and s******g on it,' one person shared. 'I just walked out of the room.'

'One guy peed on a cookie sheet and let it freeze outside in winter,' another recounted. 'He took said frozen sheet of pee and slid it under another guy's door when he wasn't there. All the rooms in that dorm were carpeted.'
The highest-paid chief executive in Australia received an eye-watering $37million salary last year - more than 420 times the average worker's annual wages.

IDP Education CEO Andrew Barkla's $37.76million salary beat the previous record of $36.84million set by Domino's Pizza boss Don Meij in 2017.

The average full-time Australian salary by comparison is $84,968 - but Mr Barkla earns $103,452 a day.

His income has been made public in the latest report by the Australian Council for Superannuation Investors detailing chief executive pay for the 2019 financial year.

Mr Barkla's earnings are also 780 times higher than the Australian median income of $48,360.

His company offers international students placements in Australia as well as English-language tests.

IDP Education CEO Andrew Barkla - whose company provides placements for international students - has topped the list of highest-paid ASX200 CEOs with a salary of $37.76million

Mr Barkla earns $103,452 a day, while the average full-time Australian salary is $84,968 and an average median salary just $48,360

The ACSI said his salary, of which a large portion was based on share options, was the highest since they began recording CEO remuneration in ASX200 companies six years ago.

His earnings represent the first time the head of a company outside the ASX100 has come out on top of the annual list.

The ASX100 is comprised of the largest companies listed on the Australia Stock Exchange.

IDP Education reported in February its stocks had soared by nearly 30 per cent following strong first-half profit growth from English language teaching and testing, as well as student placement.

The student services and education company reported a 42 per cent increase in net profit to $57.7 million for the six months to December 31, while revenue grew by 25 per cent $378.97 million.

Also included in the last financial year's 10 highest-paid CEOs in the ASX200 - which contained no women - was Qantas CEO Alan Joyce with a salary of $12.22million and Rio Tinto CEO JS Jacques who earned $10.32million.

Pictured right with Trade Minister Simon Birmingham. His income has been made public in the latest report by the Australian Council for Superannuation Investors detailing chief executive pay for the 2019 financial year

HIGHEST CEO SALARIES IN AUSTRALIA Andrew Barkla, IDP Education, $37.76million Paul Perreault, CSL, $30.52million Philippe Wolgen, Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals, $20.62million Michael Clarke, Treasury Wine Estates, $19.85million John Guscic, Webjet, $16.5million Greg Goodman, Goodman Group, $14.97million Robert Kelly, Steadfast Group, $14.42million Alan Joyce, Qantas Airways, $12.,22million Colin Goldschmidt, Sonic Healthcare, $11.91million JS Jacques, Rio Tinto, $10.32million Advertisement

Mr Barkla's salary beat the previous record of $36.84million set by Domino's Pizza boss Don Meij (right) in 2017

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce pictured addressing the media on July 22. He came in eighth with a salary of $12.22million

Australian Council of Superannuation Investors CEO Louise Davidson said though company boards were showing 'greater restraint' in awarding their highest salaries.

'More boards are using sensible discretion to rein in outcomes for senior executives,' she said.

'Companies will need to be mindful this year of how remuneration outcomes will be perceived externally, given the widespread impact of the pandemic on investors, staff, customers, governments and other key stakeholders.'
Rhea, her family appear before ED again in Sushant Singh case

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Mumbai, Aug 10: Actor Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik Chakraborty and her father arrived at Enforcement Directorate office in Mumbai for questioning in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput case. All three were directed to appear before the central probe agency on Monday.

In addition to Chakraborty, her brother, Showik Chakraborty, and father, Inderjit Chakraborty, the Enforcement Directorate has also summoned Siddharth Pithani (a friend of Sushant Singh Rajput), who had ignored a summons to appear on Saturday.

Sushant Singh Rajput case: Mumbai police opposes CBI probe in SC

This will be the second time that the agency will question Chakraborty and her father. It will be the third time that her brother will appear.

On Friday Chakraborty was questioned for more than nine hours. She, her brother, and former manager Shruti Modi were questioned in separate rooms at the agency's office in Mumbai, sources said.

On Monday, Rhea, along with her father Indrajit Chakraborty, will be questioned by the ED officials. The ED had questioned Rhea once on Saturday following which she was called back on Monday.

Pranab Mukherjee tests Covid-19 +ve | Former President tests positive | Oneindia News

Chakraborty has filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding the CBI probe to be stopped. A hearing has been set for August 11 in the Supreme Court in the case.

The Enforcement Directorate has filed a money laundering case against Rhea Chakraborty and five others over "suspicious transactions" worth Rs 15 crore. The case was filed after the agency acted on an FIR filed by Rajput's father with Bihar police, accusing Chakraborty of illegally transferring that amount from his son's bank account.

Sources in the agency said money from Rajput's bank accounts had been transferred to Chakraborty but it was nowhere near the alleged one. Agency sources, however, told news agency PTI that they "want more answers" over alleged mismatch in income, expenditure, and investments. Sources close to the actor said the transactions were not unusual, particularly for a couple in a relationship that lived together and went on holidays together.

'Only property of Sushant I possess': Rhea Chakraborty shares two photos

Rajput had also started two companies along with Chakraborty and her family - companies whose "money trail" Bihar police insisted they would follow when questions were raised over their jurisdiction. Chakraborty has repeatedly maintained her innocence in this matter; on Saturday she released two photographs - of a water bottle and a note that she said had been written by Rajput - that she said was the "only property" of the late actor that she had.

This morning the Enforcement Directorate said it had also questioned Chakraborty's brother - for 18 hours in an overnight session starting around noon the previous day. The agency will also question Siddharth Pithani, an IT official who was reportedly out of town during the first summons.

According to PTI, Pithani had told some news channels he was present when Sushant Singh Rajput, 34, died by suicide at his Bandra flat on June 14. At this point, there are two central agencies probing this case - the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI. The CBI case, to be investigated by an elite team dealing with cases like the Vijay Mallya matter, is waiting on the top court's decision on Chakraborty's petition.
As global society reaches for the stars, top U.S. military brass, government leaders and industry representatives are discussing launch of a new space commodities exchange that could facilitate trade and grow the nations technological prowess to maintain U.S. leadership in space.

The exchange could economically stimulate the industry and optimize price and quality standards as products like data from satellites or launch services get traded like commodities, said Col. Eric Felt, head of the Air Force Research Laboratorys Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base. It could include a commitment by the U.S. Department of Defense and NASA to execute $1 billion in existing funding through the exchange.

We could bid on things like satellite components or solar cells for spacecraft, Felt told the Journal. Say we need a satellite picture of a backyard on a specific day and at a specific time. There are some (hundreds of) satellites in orbit, and operators could bid on the opportunity to meet that request.

The exchange is one of six key recommendations contained in a new State of the Space Industrial Base 2020 report, released July 28 by a panel of government experts based on a four-day virtual conference May 4-7 that included 120 space leaders. The DODs new Space Force, the AFRL and the Defense Innovation Unit led the conference, which the local industry association New Space NM organized and hosted.

The report promotes a national, public-private strategy to ensure U.S. dominance as space travels intensifies and as government and industry strive to return to the moon and continue on to Mars and beyond. It calls for whole-of-government, or North Star vision for space industrial development with a presidential task force to execute it.

Other recommendations call for:

 DOD action to protect, support and leverage commerce in space like shipping lanes at sea.

 Financial tools like the proposed exchange and space bonds to stimulate industry.

 A new international framework to partner with allies in space.

 Government and industry efforts to develop the domestic workforce to fill 10,000 science, technology, engineering and math jobs across the nation.

 Military partnerships with commercial space companies to build new technology.

The conference and report reflect a government commitment to strengthen and advance the countrys space industrial base as an integral part of defense strategies, said Peter Wegner, co-chair of New Space NMs executive committee and chief strategy officer at Seattle-based space company BlackSky.

Its recognition at the highest policy levels that a healthy U.S. industrial base is critical to national security and economic security going forward, Wegner said.

The growing emphasis on public-private partnerships means burgeoning opportunities for space companies beyond big legacy firms like Northrop Grumman or Boeing, since the DOD wants to tap into the agile, innovative capacity of startups to rapidly develop new technology. And that bodes well for New Mexico, said New Space NM founder and CEO Casey DeRaad.

We have a bustling startup ecosystem here that could help us emerge as a leader in the new space economy, DeRaad said.
China on Monday sanctioned eleven U.S. citizens, including several U.S. senators, in retaliation for sanctions Washington imposed on Chinese officials and their allies in Hong Kong for their role in stifling political freedoms in Hong Kong.

In response to the erroneous actions of the U.S., China has decided to impose sanctions today on those individuals who behaved badly on Hong Kong-related issues, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a press briefing Monday.

The sanctions target several Republican lawmakers, GOP Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Marco Rubio of Florida, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania as well as Representative Chris Smith. China also said it will sanction Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth, National Endowment for Democracy President Carl Gershman and Freedom House President Michael Abramowitz. Beijing avoided sanctioning Trump administration officials.

The Chinese foreign ministry spokesman did not offer details on the sanctions.

The Trump administration on Friday announced the new sanctions on eleven individuals including Hong Kong Leader Carrie Lam and Chinese Communist Party officials for their work in implementing Beijings policies of suppression of freedom and democratic processes.

As a result of todays action, all property and interests in property of the individuals named above, and of any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by them, individually, or with other blocked persons, that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons, are blocked and must be reported to OFAC, the Treasury Departments announcement read.

In June, China passed a controversial national security law aimed at tightening Beijings control over Hong Kong.

China claims that the national security law is necessary to crack down on separatism, subversion, terrorism, and foreign intervention in Hong Kong. But critics and pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong have warned that the law, which comes after months of pro-democracy demonstrations among residents of the territory, will erase the one country, two systems arrangement between Hong Kong and Beijing, and will erode the civil liberties currently enjoyed by Hong Kong residents, including the right to assembly, a free press, and a judiciary system independent of mainland China.

Story continues

Several individuals have already been arrested Hong Kong on charges related to the national security law.

Hong Kong police on Monday arrested pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai on charges of allegedly colluding with foreign forces, which carries a sentence of up to life in prison. Last month, Hong Kong denied bail to the first person charged under the law, a pro-democracy activist who was charged with terrorism after he carried a Liberate Hong Kong sign and drove his motorcycle into police.

More from National Review
A six-year-old girl, who was allegedly kidnapped and raped from a village of Garh area in UPs Hapur district on Thursday night, is in a critical condition, police said. A search has been launched to trace and nab the culprit.

The girl was kidnapped from outside her home by a masked motorcycle-borne man. After being informed about the incident by the children who were playing with her, the girls family looked for her and failing to find her, they lodged a case of kidnapping against unknown persons with Garh police station.

While a search by police teams failed to locate her, some villagers later spotted an unconscious girl on Mela road and informed the cops. The girl was rushed to the community health centre and later referred to the medical college hospital in Meerut, given her serious condition.

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Hapur, Sarvesh Kumar Mishra said initial investigation indicated that the girl was raped. He added that the sketch of the suspected criminal has been released and various police teams assigned the task of tracing and nabbing the culprit.

The Garh case is the third incident of rape of minors in the last 10 days in the region.

Earlier on July 30, a nine-year-old girl was raped and murdered in a village of Mansoorpur area of Muzaffarnagar district and her neighbour was arrested for committing the heinous crime.

In another incident, an eight-year-old girl was raped and murdered by a villager in a village of Khurja area in Bulandshahr district on July 4.

Attacking the state government, Congress partys west UP incharge and former MLA Pankaj Malik said the law and order had gone from bad to worse in west UP. He demanded that the state government provide security to people instead of diverting peoples attention towards irrelevant issues.
The Syrian Democratic Forces have killed a man, in view of locals, who refused to comply with compulsory recruitment reports Shaam News.

The Asayish militia, the security arm of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), killed a young man during a raid and arrest campaign carried out by the militias as part of their compulsory military recruitment campaigns. The man was killed after he tried to avoid enlisting.

Local websites in the eastern province pointed out that the young man, Hassan Jassim al-Nuaimi, was shot dead by Asayish members in the city of Qamishli in the countryside of Hassakeh on Saturday, which sparked the ire of residents, especially since these incidents have become repetitive, where the militia executes anyone who refuses to enlist.

The same sources pointed out that Nuaimi, 25, was killed in front of the townspeople in an incident that one can consider a field execution. The militias forced the people to leave the site and took the body, which they are still refusing to handover, a day after the incident.

The SDF executed a young man two years ago, in the very same area, who refused compulsory service. There was more than one such incident at a time when the militias never ceased to carry out security operations in the areas they control. The operations include placing restrictions on civilians, arresting them, and stealing their property. The policy of compulsory recruitment by the militias continues to be enforced in what they justify as self-defense.

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.
SINGAPORE, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on the most recent analysis of the Asia-Pacific IoT cybersecurity market, Frost & Sullivan, a world-renowned consulting company, recognized Penta Security for its innovative IoT-based smart security solutions with the 2020 Smart Security Solutions of the Year Award. With more than 23 years of experience in authentication, encryption, network security, and security services, Penta Security has successfully been securing connected environments as the market's first provider of end-to-end IoT-based smart security technology.

Penta Security's unique spectrum of smart security solutions includes smart cars, energy, factory, and home security solutions based on its core technologies. As each environment requires a comprehensive platform that not only includes data integrity and privacy protection but also extendable and diverse systems, Penta Security has adopted a holistic approach to security solutions by extending its offerings to intelligent transport systems, data, devices, and infrastructure management systems.

"One of our main competitive advantages is our ability to customize to deliver the highest level of reliability and protection to our customers' IoT environments while decreasing the vulnerability and risks associated with the new shift," said Seokwoo Lee, CEO and Founder of Penta Security. "The rapid development of the IoT environment is accelerating the number of security threats at an unprecedented rate. Our line of IoT solutions describes our idea used incorporating the 'Secure First, Then Connect' concept that defines the importance of implementing security by design. We expect to expand our security offerings and become a cornerstone of the IoT security market."

Over the past years, the company has partnered with one of the leading telecommunications companies to build security infrastructure for electric meter units in Norway. Furthermore, the company has successfully taken part in building smart factory security infrastructure in South Korea, one of the first countries utilizing smart city technologies in the world, with a renowned hardware chip company. Penta Security is excited to be deeply associated with the IoT security industry through its business expansion in various industries worldwide.

Penta Security was presented with Asian Cyber Security Vendor of the Year by Frost & Sullivan in 2016 for its web application firewall product, WAPPLES. Additionally, the company has successfully spun off its in-house connected vehicle security solution venture AUTOCRYPT as a separate entity in 2019 to expand its solutions worldwide.

About Penta Security

Penta Security Systems Inc. is a leader in web, IoT, and data security solutions and services. With 23 years of IT security expertise in powering secured connections, Penta Security is the top cybersecurity vendor in Asia, as recognized by Frost & Sullivan, and APAC market share leader in the WAF industry. Driving innovations across encryption, authentication, and signature-free firewall detection technology, Penta Security's whole-system approach to security enables resilience in an era of hyper web integration and connectivity. For more information on Penta Security, visit www.pentasecurity.com . For partnership inquiries, email info@pentasecurity.com .

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1226015/Untitled.jpg
The nephew of the man he gifted the spectacles to put them in the mailbox of an auction house

Mahatma Gandhi gave these spectacles away as a gift to a man in South Africa. (Photo: East Bristol Auctions)

London: A pair of eyeglasses that are believed to have once belonged to Mahatma Gandhi are being auctioned, decades after he gave them away as an impromptu gift.

The gold-plated, circular-rimmed spectacles are going under the hammer at East Bristol Auctions later this month. Gandhi was known for giving away "his old or unwanted pairs to those in need or those who had helped him,'' the auctioneers said.

The seller's uncle was working for British Petroleum in South Africa and met Gandhi when the champion of non-violent resistance was taking a tour.

Auctioneers compared the custom-shaped nose bridge of the glasses to others known to have belonged to Gandhi in determining their authenticity.

"It can be presumed that these were gifted by way of thanks from Gandhi for some good deed,'' the auctioneers said.

It's fair to say that the owner didn't quite realize their value: He put them in the auction house's mail slot where they dangled for a weekend, said auctioneer Andy Stowe.

When Stowe explained to the seller--a man in his 80s--that he would place a guide price of of 15,000 pounds ($19,600) on the item, he could sense the shock.

"The line went very quiet for a moment," Stowe said. "I think he thought I was joking.''

The sale date is set for Aug. 21, but pre-sale bids stand at 50,000 pounds. The auction house has received interest from all over the world, particularly India.
DUBLIN, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global and China Telematics-Box (T-Box) Industry Report, 2020" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

T-Box Research: 46.7% of Passenger Cars Carry T-Box in 2020 Q1.

T-Box (Telematics-Box), also called telematics control unit (TCU), is comprised of GPS unit, outer interfaces for communications, electronic processing units, microcontrollers, mobile communication units and memory, enabling interaction between the terminal information in the car, the cloud and the roadside unit (RSU).

Around 2014, the mainstream solution of the first-generation T-BOX was a single-chip solution resorting to a combination of 2G+GPS. From 2015 to 2016, the second-generation T-BOX was added with memory, rich interfaces, and changed to employ Beidou/GPS dual-mode; also it was endowed with such new features as fault diagnosis, low power consumption design, dormant wake-up, SD card expansion, output power, RS232/485, USB and IO interfaces.

Since 2017, T-BOX communication has been upgraded to 4G, and the 4G module -- OPEN CPU technology solution has been prevailing in the industry as it boasts more powerful edge computing capabilities, supports vehicle Ethernet, over-the-air (OTA), fault diagnosis of protocols, Bluetooth, WIFI and other functions, and it even integrates gateways, CAN gateways, etc.

In 2019, 4G T-Box constituted 86% of passenger car OEM T-BOX, and the share rose to 93% in Q1 2020, according to the publisher.

In China, 46.7% of passenger cars were installed with T-Box in Q1 2020, 14.2 percentage points higher than 32.5% in Q1 2019.

By price, the proportion of models worth RMB100,000-150,000 with T-Box rises fastest, from 34% in Q1 2019 to 40% in Q1 2020, largely thanks to Toyota (Corolla, LEVIN), Chevrolet (MONZA), Changan CS75 PLUS, etc.

Among the new models launched in Q1 2020, GAC NE AionS has the most versatile remote functions enabling remote opening and closing of doors, windows and the trunk, remote engine start, remote air conditioning control, remote horns, remote flashing, and remote seat warming. For most models carrying T-BOX, there is universal availability of remote door control, remote horns, and remote flashing, while remote engine start-up, remote air conditioning control, remote seat warming, remote opening and closing of windows and the trunk are gaining ground.

Policies and the market players are pressing ahead with T-Box as a standard configuration.

Circular of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Further Supervision over Promotion, Application and Security of New Energy Vehicles requires that the vehicles listed in the Recommended Model Catalog for the Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles must be packed with T-BOX.

On April 17, 2020, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China released Technical Specifications for Remote Emission Monitoring of Heavy Vehicles (Draft), which explicitly stipulates platform construction of remote emission system for heavy vehicles, T-BOX technology and measurement methodology, communication protocols and data formats.

With advances in Telematics, ADAS and OTA, in-vehicle systems will inevitably be interconnected with the cloud through T-BOX. At the same time, the massive data exchange between in-vehicle systems and remote terminals will beyond doubt fuel 4G T-BOX to head toward 5G T-BOX. Huawei is a leading enabler for 5G T-BOX.

In July 2019, Huawei rolled out the 5G automotive module - MH5000.

In September 2019, Huawei unveiled the next-generation automotive T-Box platform at the Dongfeng Aeolus Smart Cockpit Conference, which substantially improves responsive agility and running speed of the smart cockpit and enabling remote start-up, air conditioning, vehicle control, and vehicle status review. Meanwhile, it features 5G capabilities like high speed and excellent reliability, allowing personalized interactivity such as intelligent scenario modes, voice via cloud, audiobooks and music.

In April 2020, BAIC BJEV's top-range brand ARCFOX installed the Huawei MH5000 T-BOX on its first production SUV - ARCFOX -T.

In May 2020, GAC Aion V pre-sales started. Aion V integrates 5G+C-V2X automotive intelligent communication system and Huawei MH5000.

Flaircomm Microelectronics, a leading Chinese T-BOX supplier, is conducting the IPO on the SSE STAR Market, with a plan to raise RMB239.84 million for 5G T-Box R& D and industrialization projects. The raised funds will be earmarked to develop the 5GNR technology-oriented T-BOX, a fusion of new technologies like CANFD, Ethernet and smart antennas.

However, investors have doubts about Flaircomm Microelectronics whose revenue remains on a downswing over the past two years.

Like gateways, T-BOX, as a key integral of intelligent connected vehicle (ICV), involves OTA and network security. To take the initiative, OEMs tend to self-develop T-BOX software.

Amid OEMs enlarging software development teams, Tier 1 hardware suppliers may turn into standard hardware vendors and have an ever weaker say. It is, indeed, a challenge not only to T-Box vendors but to Tier 1 hardware suppliers.

Key Topics Covered



1 T-Box

1.1 Introduction to T-Box

1.1.1 Definition of T-Box

1.1.2 Main Features of T-Box

1.1.3 T-Box Composition and Technical Principle

1.1.4 T-Box and 5G

1.1.5 5G Remote Control Driving System and Applied Scenarios

1.2 T-BOX Technology Trends

1.3 Analysis of T-BOX Patents

1.3.1 Tendency of T-BOX Patent Authorizations, 2010-2020

1.3.2 T-BOX Patent Types, Origins (Countries) of Technology, 2010-2020

1.3.3 T-BOX Patent Target Market Rankings by Country/Region, and Patent Flows

1.3.4 T-BOX Patent Technology Composition and Technology Keywords

1.3.5 Ranking of T-BOX Patent Filings by Province

1.3.6 T-BOX Patents: Geographical Distribution of Key Technology Branches

1.3.7 Ranking of T-BOX Application Units and Distribution of Technologies Applied by Key Applicants

1.3.8 T-BOX Patent Filings of New Entrants

1.3.9 Most-cited T-BOX Patents, and Innovation Word Cloud



2 T-Box Market

2.1 Global T-Box Market

2.1.1 Global T-Box Market Size

2.1.2 Global T-Box Market Features

2.1.3 T-Box Competition Pattern and Supply Relationship Worldwide

2.2 Chinese T-Box Market

2.2.1 Policies on T-Box in China

2.2.2 Chinese T-Box Market Size (Installations and Installation Rate)

2.2.3 Chinese T-Box Market Features (by Price)

2.2.4 Chinese T-Box Market Features (by Country)

2.2.5 Chinese T-Box Market Features (by Brand)

2.2.6 Chinese T-Box Market Features (by Vehicle Model)

2.2.7 T-Box Market Share at Home and Some T-Box Suppliers

2.3 T-Box Market Trends

2.3.1 Forecast for Global T-Box Market

2.3.2 Forecast for Chinese T-Box Market

2.3.3 Forecast for Global Sales and Ownership of Connected Vehicles

2.3.4 Global and Chinese Telematics Market Size and Penetration Prediction

2.3.5 Global Telematics Cellular Communication Module Shipments and Estimated Shipments of Connected Vehicles

2.3.6 Existing Bottlenecks of T-Box

2.3.7 Telematics and T-Box Development Trend

2.3.8 Next-generation T-Box Trend



3 Study on Remote Control Functions of OEMs

3.1 Comparison of Remote Control Functions between the New Vehicle Model Launches in Q1 2020 (Partial)

3.2 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by Skoda in Q1 2020

3.3 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by Jeep in Q1 2020

3.4 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by BMW in Q1 2020

3.5 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by Mercedes-Benz in Q1 2020

3.6 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by BESTUNE in Q1 2020

3.7 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by BYD in Q1 2020

3.8 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by BUICK in Q1 2020

3.9 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by Cadillac in Q1 2020

3.10 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by Chevrolet in Q1 2020

3.11 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by Toyota in Q1 2020

3.12 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by GAC NE in Q1 2020

3.13 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by Geely in Q1 2020

3.14 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by Lincoln in Q1 2020

3.15 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by Land Rover in Q1 2020

3.16 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by Nezha (HOZON) in Q1 2020

3.17 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by Chery in Q1 2020

3.18 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle in Q1 2020

3.19 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by Volvo in Q1 2020

3.20 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by Hyundai in Q1 2020

3.21 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by Changan OSHAN in Q1 2020

3.22 Remote Control Functions of New Model Launches by Changan Automobile in Q1 2020



4 Global T-Box Suppliers

4.1 LG Electronics

4.1.1 Profile of LG Electronics

4.1.2 Main Products (Vehicle Components) of LG Electronics

4.1.3 T-Box Products of LG Electronics

4.1.4 Latest News of LG

4.2 Continental

4.3 Harman

4.4 Bosch

4.5 Denso

4.6 Valeo

4.7 FICOSA



5 Chinese T-Box Suppliers

5.1 Huawei

5.1.1 Profile of Huawei

5.1.2 Huawei's Presence in Automotive Sector

5.1.3 T-Box Development Course of Huawei

5.1.4 T-Box Solutions of Huawei

5.1.5 Huawei 5G In-vehicle Module MH5000

5.1.6 Application of Huawei T-Box

5.2 Shenzhen Thread Technology

5.3 Flaircomm Microelectronics, Inc.

5.4 INTEST

5.5 SOLING

5.6 PATEO

5.7 Neusoft

5.8 TIAN-NET

5.9 China TSP

5.10 Shanghai Changxing Software

5.11 Steelmate

5.12 Hangzhou Hope Chart IoT Technology

5.13 Yaxon Network

5.14 Gosuncn Technology

5.15 SiRun



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/inxtnu

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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(Micah Fluellen / Los Angeles Times)

In May, Mo Jackson was camping with a friend in Coeur dAlene, Idaho. They woke at 5 to start a fire, make breakfast and  in the midst of a pandemic  experience the peace that comes with an early morning in a secluded spot.

The beauty of that morning moved Jackson to tears. "I had the most clarifying moment. You know, I just thought, I wish everyone could feel this."

Jackson realized that, although they could not help everyone feel more connected to nature, they could get a few more people outside by offering free camping gear. "That day I was like, OK, what can I do to get more Black people outdoors? And I thought, well, I have enough savings to get three camping kits together."

Mo Jackson prepares shipments of BIPOC Camping Kits in Portland, Ore. (Eric Thornburg)

On May 19, Jackson posted on Instagram asking if any people of color wanted a free camping kit. "No need to demonstrate need or anything," Jackson wrote. "Just ask and we can get something out to you."

The kit would include two sleeping bags, a tent and a cooler. Jackson included a Venmo account on Instagram so people could donate to the cause.

The post brought in close to $500, which, combined with Jackson's savings, paid for five camping kits for people who needed gear to get out in nature.

Jackson initially purchased the ready-to-go kits from REI, which cost about $300 each. The kits included quality tents and bags from companies such as Kelty and Wilderness Technology.





Segregation on public lands

Camping is often called Americas favorite outdoor activity. This summer, when many travel options have been eliminated, the go-to vacation has been camping or renting an RV and visiting public lands.

But camping and national parks have a complicated past when it comes to racial equality and equal access for all. National parks have a history of segregation that dates to the 1930s, something that didn't change until the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Almost all U.S. national parks were originally home to Indigenous populations long before they were set aside as parks. Many of those Native American tribes were pushed off their land, often violently, to create an illusion of untouched landscapes.

Story continues

Even the Sierra Club, for the first time, in July openly condemned its founder, John Muir, over racist comments in his writings about Black and Indigenous people. The years of segregation, racism and displacement continue to define national parks and other public lands as predominantly white spaces.

A 2018 study by the Society of American Foresters found that between 2010 and 2014, 94.6% of visitors to national forests identified as white. People who identified as Latino made up 5.7%, and those who identified as Black made up 1.2%.

Jackson's personal experiences bear out those numbers. They grew up camping and hiking but noticed at an early age that not many other families resembled theirs. My dad and I would almost always be the only Black people at any camp we went to, Jackson said.

After sending out the first few BIPOC Camping Kits and getting positive responses from people who had received them, Jackson decided to put out another call on Instagram. By then it was July and much had changed.

Protests had swept the nation in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. Thousands of Americans took to the streets, outraged by the continued disregard for the lives of Black people.





Donations take off

This time the response was much bigger. "People just cared more all of a sudden," Jackson said. More than 600 people reached out and asked for camping kits. Jackson needed more funding and took the campaign to GoFundme , where, as of Aug. 5, more than $55,000 had been raised.

"I think there is a lot of white guilt right now," Jackson said, explaining why donations suddenly took off. "Were all learning and growing; sometimes guilt is part of it too  not that we want guilt and shame, but we do want growth."

Mo Jackson and the BIPOC Camping Kits team ship camping gear to people across the country on Aug. 1. (Eric Thornburg)

Given the rapid rise of interest in BIPOC Camping Kits, Jackson tapped friends Griffin Ripley, B Sanchez and Hayley Harris to help.

"There are so many Black people in the Pacific Northwest, even though people pretend like were not here," said Harris, who works for a nonprofit. Harris has been helping set up BIPOC Camping Kits as a nonprofit.

Harris didnt go camping until she was 18. "I went with one of my white friends and her mom  camping wasnt accessible to me  and I thought it was awesome. But every time I wanted to go camping after that, I had to wait until one of my white friends wanted to go," Harris said.

The disparity in access to the outdoors is particularly frustrating to Harris, who pointed out that those who could most benefit from being in a rural environment have often felt excluded. Being in nature is healing, she said. People who need that healing most are Black and Indigenous people, and the idea that its inaccessible  its just not right.

Harris was excited about Jacksons initiative because she couldn't afford to buy her own gear. Tents are hundreds of dollars, sleeping bags are super expensive, and if youre really going camping, you cant scrimp on gear. You could end up freezing at night, she said.

A smaller outdoors store, Next Adventure , based in Portland, Ore., noticed the initiative on Instagram. Our followers started to tag us in Mos posts, said Devin Kelly, Next Adventures' community relations manager. I contacted Mo and we realized we could help.

It is an ideal partnership. We have always believed in helping support our community in getting outdoors, said Bryan Knudsen, co-owner of Next Adventure.

Mo and their team wanted to step up; we are just thrilled to support them and help more people get outside, said Deek Heykamp, another co-owner. The kits assembled with Next Adventure cost $200 to $250.

On Aug. 1, Jackson and the BIPOC Camping Kits team, along with people at Next Adventure, assembled more than 200 kits at the companys warehouse. Some were customized for people with specific needs or physical disabilities. The kits were shipped across the country Aug. 3.

Jackson had to close the requests for kits once the number reached 600. They will ship the remaining 400 orders in partnership with Next Adventure soon. Jackson will reopen requests for kits once more money has been raised.

One of the first people to reach out to Jackson for a kit was Ale Abreu, who lives in Olympia, Wash. Despite living close to some of the most beautiful outdoors sites in the country, Abreu found camping inaccessible. Im working class, said Abreu. I was intimidated. Did I have what I needed? Would I be warm and comfortable? Camping is an investment, and Ive always had to prioritize other bills.

Abreu received a BIPOC Camping Kit in June. Im really impressed. Its clearly high quality and something I will be able to use again and again.

After Abreu received the gear, Jackson offered to get on FaceTime and demonstrate how to set up the tent. Mo wanted to make sure there was no barrier to me enjoying the equipment, which was another added layer of care, Abreu said.

Abreu used the camping kit to visit the Mt. Rainier area with a friend and is planning a trip to the Columbia River Gorge. I came away from the trip to Mt. Rainier with more confidence in myself  feeling more connected to nature, Abreu said.

Its a precious gift, especially for someone like myself and, I think, for a lot of people of color, Abreu said, because of systemic oppression, because of racism, economics and all these things we have to navigate  it can all result in a de-centering. Camping, Abreu said, allows re-centering in the midst of social and political chaos. Its a moment to catch your breath.

Jackson intends to expand the BIPOC Camping Kits venture. Black and Indigenous people have historically had connections to nature and the land that have been stripped from us, they said. My bigger picture is full solidarity; its going to take all of us coming together to topple these racist systems so we can find our sacred places again, and find peace again, together.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Mr Roland Affail Monney, the President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), has paid a visit to Satellite Africa Network Services Limited (SatAfrik) in Accra.



The GJA President was accompanied by the Organising Secretary of the Association, Mr Albert Kwabena Dwumfuor.



Their visit was to familiarise themselves with the operations of the company.



The two were received by Mr. Harry Sintim-Aboagye, the Chairman of the Board of Directors and management of SatAfrik.



At a meeting with the management of SatAfrik, Mr. Sintim-Aboagye introduced the company as an indigenous Ghanaian company poised to become and remain the most trusted, proactive and reliable brand within Africas Information Communications Technology with footprints in the sub-Sahara Africa region.



He briefed them of the pending ground-breaking at Boi, which he described as a dream come true and first in Africa in giving clients uninterrupted service.



Mr. Sintim-Aboagye expressed gratitude for their visit and appealed to them to use their medium to foster collaboration between SatAfrik and their GJA.



Mr. Affail Monney was excited about seasoned staff at SatAfrik and that the GJA would not hesitate to partner the company in delivering good services to Ghana and Africa as a whole.



Mr. Dwumfuor was full of praise for the establishment of a satellite company in Ghana, saying that Ghana needs new players to contribute competitively to the industry.



Present at the meeting were the CEO, Executive Director and Chief Technical Officer of SatAfrik, Mr. Joseph Mbir, Mr. Charles Odonkor and Mr. Frederick Kumassey respectively.



Satellite Africa Network Services, also known as SatAfrik, began operations in 2014.



It is the exclusive service providers for Intelsat Global which covers the whole of Sub-Sahara Africa.



Services provided by the company include; media platform uplink, downlink, OTT/IPTV, satellite monitoring and tracking, satellite mobile services and cyber security and CCTV.



SatAfrik seeks to become a one stop shop for both producers and consumers in the ICT sector of the rapidly growing African continent.

Source: GNA









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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian sent a congratulatory message to Belarus President Alyaksandr Lukashenka on his re-election in a ballot the results of which are disputed by his opposition challenger.

I am confident that through joint efforts we will continue to strengthen the friendship between our peoples, to expand mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries both bilaterally and within the framework of international organizations and integration associations. On my part I am ready to make every effort to fully realize the potential of relations between our peoples and countries, Pashinian said in his message as quoted by his press office.

Armenian President Armen Sarkissian also congratulated Lukashenka, wishing him good health, success and all the best and the friendly people of Belarus  peace, stability and prosperity.

Belaruss Central Election Commission said preliminary official results from the August 9 presidential election show incumbent President Lukashenka winning a landslide victory with more than 80 percent of the vote, compared to less than 10 percent for his main rival, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

Tsikhanouskaya, who drew tens of thousands of people to her campaign rallies, refused to recognize the preliminary official results announced on Monday.

The ballot in Belarus was followed by a night of violent clashes between police and thousands of protesters who say exit polls and official results from the election commission were rigged.

A human rights group in Minsk said that one protester was killed in the clashes, but Belaruss Interior Ministry denied that.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on August 10 condemned the violence in Belarus, calling on the Belarusian government to accurately count and publish the polls results.

Armenia is a member of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union and Collective Security Treaty Organization both of which also include Belarus.

Other leaders of the alliances, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakhstans President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, have also sent congratulatory telegrams to Lukashenka on his re-election.

Belaruss autocratic leader who turns 66 later this month has occupied the presidential post since 1994.
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is the consortium leader of the EPICUR-Research project which, from now on, will integrate research activities and interaction with society into the European University EPICUR (European Partnership for Innovative Campus Unifying Regions), thus rounding up the tasks of the alliance. The EU Commission is going to fund the project of this international consortium with two million euros over the next three years. Research partners of KIT are the universities of Freiburg, Poznan, Amsterdam, Thessaloniki, Haute-Alsace, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna and the University of Strasbourg.

EPICUR embodies the future vision of an interdisciplinary, diverse, and sustainable European alliance of universities that tackles complex challenges and will strengthen long-term cooperation on a European level, says Professor Thomas Hirth, KIT Vice-President for Innovation and International Affairs. I am pleased that EPICUR Research will help us to complete the knowledge quadrangle of teaching  innovation  research  societal interaction.

The idea behind EPICUR-Research is to initiate and implement novel research alliances. The European Commission also hopes that this project will provide impetus for the future call for proposals for the Horizon Europe research framework program which will be effective from 2021 on and whose financing is currently being negotiated by the heads of state and government of the European Union, the European Parliament and the European Commission under the leadership of the German Council Presidency.

Already in autumn 2019, the eight EPICUR partners from six countries started to build a new kind of European university within the scope of an ERASMUS+ project: teaching and learning in a network of existing universities, virtual mobility of students and teachers, innovative didactic approaches, and the interlinking of regions were the starting points for the alliance, aiming at the creation of an inter-university campus.

This was further facilitated by establishing the Liberal Arts and Sciences study program as an interdisciplinary addition to the contents of the existing range of subjects.



Expanding the knowledge triangle into a quadrangle

With the recently approved research budget, we have, for the first time, the opportunity to map the tasks of a classical university  research, teaching, and innovation  also to the European University EPICUR and handle them there, says Michael Zacherle, KIT EPICUR Project Leader. Dr. Gunter Schmidt-Gess, who is responsible for the project at the University of Freiburg, adds: Our interdisciplinary work at EPICUR is thus gaining in intensity and substance and, of course, in dynamism. Both are convinced that the involvement of civil society in particular will provide fresh impetus to the work of their colleagues. We initiate and promote mutual exchange with different societal representatives. The aim is not only to inform them about the results of our research, but also to find out in advance about the needs  and the apprehensions  of people in the various regions, explain Zacherle and Schmidt-Gess. They say that this will expand the already established knowledge triangle into a knowledge quadrangle. This participatory approach ensures that researchers consider the needs of civil society, companies, authorities, associations, or NGOs right from the outset, so that they will be involved in their research design.

The range of new activities includes the development of a new research and innovation agenda for the European University, the establishment of an EPICommunity, in which researchers in the early stages of their careers are given the opportunity, among other things, to establish (digital) inter-university networks, to take advantage of mobility programs and to present research projects via a database. Furthermore, EPIClusters will be introduced as a new format for cooperation  not only between researchers but also with other societal sectors. Other activities include the exchange of research infrastructures and cooperation with other European universities in terms of content and structure. In combination with blended learning concepts, i.e. the fusion of face-to-face and online formats, and the promotion of the Liberal Arts and Sciences study program, which is aimed at future solvers of socially relevant questions, a mission statement is being created that further develops the tasks of a traditional university and places them in a societal framework.



Alliance of universities capable of responding to complex challenges

The objective of the EPICUR partners is to further strengthen cooperation and to respond to complex challenges jointly. This includes the development of innovative teaching formats inspired by the Liberal Arts and Sciences Education approach, the digital transformation of teaching and the facilitation of student and teacher mobility. The basic idea of EPICUR is that students do not have to move to the partner universities just for one or two semesters, as it has been the case up to now, but can also complete smaller parts of their studies, such as individual courses or seminars, at the other universities by benefitting from virtual methods and blended learning, says Zacherle. The necessary formal and legal foundations for this would still have to be laid. This cannot be achieved within three years, but is a long-term project.



For more information about the European University EPICUR, see: https://epicur.education



Contribution of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD): https://www2.daad.de/der-daad/daad-aktuell/de/76787-europaeische-hochschulen-im-dienst-der-gesellschaft/

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.
GREENWICH  Connecticut voters will finally head to the polls Tuesday for the states long-delayed presidential primary.

In Greenwich, the town will operate all 12 of its regular polling places from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday with new safety procedures in place requiring masks and social distancing.

Greenwich voters who do not know their polling location can find it go online at https://www.greenwichct.gov/1191/Voter-Information-Lookup.

Greenwich has no local or state primaries; the only race on Tuesdays ballot is for president. The states primary had been slated for April but was delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Democratic voters can choose from among former Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. Republicans can vote for President Donald Trump or Roque De La Fuente. Voters in both parties can also choose uncommitted.

The turnout for the Connecticut primary  the last primary in the nation  is unclear, with Biden and Trump expected to receive their partys nominations for president.

A total of 7,085 voters asked for an absentee ballot in Greenwich  4,481 for the Democratic primary and 2,604 for the Republican primary, according to the Town Clerks Department. Its not too late to vote by absentee ballot, but it should be dropped off at one of two secure dropboxes in town  in the Town Hall parking lot and in the police station lobby.

At each of the towns 12 polling location, poll workers will use personal protective equipment and surfaces will be continually sanitized by people working in the newly created position of COVID safety monitor.

Voters must wear a mask inside the polling place at all times as well as outside when they cannot practice social distancing. Voters will also be asked to use hand sanitizer as they enter and exit the polling places to keep door handles and other contact points germ-free.

Additionally, the registrars are asking voters to not linger and move through the voting process efficiently. Privacy booths and folders will be set up for voters, but the town suggested that voters bring a book or flat object to write on when filling out their ballot.

Voters are asked to quickly mark their ballots and slip them into the voting bin. The town announced previously there would be no I Voted Today stickers available.
The Minority in Parliament is demanding an audit of payments made to depositors whose funds got locked up in the financial sector crisis.



After the government said 96 percent of depositors funds have been paid, the Minority said there had been a great breach of the law and due process must follow the payments.



Speaking to the press in Parliament on August 10, 2020, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said his side in Parliament wanted greater transparency and accountability from government.



He noted that the Banks and Specialised Deposits Taking Institutions Act 930 section 130 mandates an inventory report from the receiver one month of taking possession of a bank or specialised deposit-taking institution.



Mr. Iddrisu also argued that the Bank of Ghana is supposed to publish the inventory report in two daily newspapers of national circulation and on the website of the Bank.



We are asking, where is the inventory report on the collapsed banks and on the microfinance and savings institutions? Was it remitted to the Bank of Ghana? If yes, where is it?



He stressed that it was imperative the government respect the letter and spirit of the law in question.



In response to the concerns of the Minority, a Member of the Finance Committee, Anthony Effah says the demand for an audit in the midst of the process is unwarranted



He noted that the Securities and Exchanges Commission says the process for liquidating these companies has to go through the court.



There is a procedure that has to be followed before these companies are wind up. They are still validating some of the claims and the SEC is on top of this.



Mr. Effah added that he was confident that the Auditor-General will definitely audit every sing monies released by the Minister of Finance to any public institutions.



The government commenced a financial sector cleanup in August 2017 which led to the collapse of nine universal banks, 347 microfinance companies, 39 microcredit companies or money lenders, 15 savings and loans companies, eight finance house companies, and two non-bank financial institutions.



The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the revocation of licenses of 53 Fund Management Companies.



The estimated cost of the states fiscal intervention, excluding interest payments to depositors, from 2017 to 2019 was pegged at GHS16.4 billion.

Source: citinewsroom.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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Changes observed in the neural responses to electric stimulation in retinitis pigmentosa animal model. Findings to be used to suggest guidelines for patient selection of retinal prostheses for better performance.

A Korean research team has reported important findings that could potentially improve the performance of retinal prostheses creating artificial vision for blind individuals. The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced that a research team led by Dr. Maesoon Im of the Center for BioMicrosystems, Brain Science Institute had found retinal neural signals arising from electric stimulation are altered depending on disease progression in mice affected by outer retinal degeneration. This research was done in collaboration with the lab of Professor Shelley Fried at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital.

Retinal degenerative diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, primarily destroy photoreceptor cells, which convert light into electrochemical signals, leading to profound vision loss. Currently, there are no available cure for these diseases.

Fortunately, retinal ganglion cells are known to survive those conditions, making "artificial vision" available. An array of microelectrodes can be implanted at the back of the eyeball so that electric pulses applied by those microelectrodes can stimulate ganglion cells to transmit visual neural signals to the brain again. This is the basic working principle of retinal prosthetic devices. Although several retinal prostheses have been commercialized, one of problems preventing broad application has been a huge performance variation across patients due to unidentified reason.

The KIST research team had delved into the potential source of the performance variation and has found the level of disease progression may be critical. They designed a longitudinal study and performed experiments using mice at various stages of retinal degeneration. Those mice lost their vision gradually due to a genetic mutation which is similar to people with retinitis pigmentosa . The researchers recorded electrically-evoked neural activities of retinal ganglion cells from animals at varying ages and tried to correlate those artificial vision signals to the disease progression. They uncovered that both the magnitude and the consistency of the electrically-evoked responses diminished as retinal degeneration advanced.

The response consistency is particularly important for retinal prostheses because they periodically refresh artificial visual percepts using repetitive electrical stimuli. For example, when a retinal prostheses user stares at a letter "K" repeating electrical stimuli need to create neural signals representing "K." Otherwise, i.e. if the response consistency is too low, the electrical stimuli might transmit neural signals meaning different letters such as "L," "R," or "S,", thus making the prosthetic user difficult to correctly interpret what he or she is seeing. The KIST study suggests it is likely to be the case in severly degenerate retinas. Throughout a seriese of experiments to assess the degree of similarities across different neural signals arising from repeated electrical stimuli of a same condition, they found that the response consistency considerably declined with the progressing retinal degeneration while normal retinas showed high consistencies.

Dr. Young-Jun Yoon and Dr. Jae-Ik Lee, the lead authors of the study, said, "Even if a user fixes his/her gaze, their degenerate retina is likely to keep transmitting considerably different neural signals to the brain across repeats of electric stimuli. Probably, it may have caused poor perception of electrically-evoked artificial vision."

"Retinal degenerative diseases exhibit different patterns of progression across patients. Our results suggest that it is crucial to carefully select candidate patients of retinal implants by thorough examinations assesing the progression level of each patient's retinal degeneration," said Dr. Maesoon Im. "We are studying hardware and software approaches for the improved quality of artificial vision for patients at the late-stage degeneration."

###

This research was supported in part by the Institutional Research Program of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and in part by the New Researcher Support Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea, both funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT). This research was also supported by the VA Boston Healthcare System, the National Eye Institute, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The journal article of this study has recently been published online as an Early Access at the IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering.
The police in Andhra Pradeshs Vijayawada city on Monday arrested three top executives of Ramesh Hospital in connection with the fire accident at Swarna Palace hotel in the city which claimed the death of 10 Covid-19 patients and caused injuries to 18 others on Sunday morning.

The arrested were: Dr Kodali Rajagopal Rao, chief operating officer of Ramesh Hospital; Dr Kurapathi Sudershan, general manager; and Pallabothu Venkatesh, coordinating manager of the hospital at Swarna Palace Hotel which was engaged as the Covid care centre.

Vijayawada police commissioner B Srinivasulu said in a statement that the Governorpet police had registered a criminal case, following a complaint from Vijayawada Central tehsildar (block revenue official) Jayasri against the managements of Ramesh Hospital and Swarna Palace Hotel under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 308 read with 34 (acts amounting to culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

A special team of the police led by Vikrant Patil, deputy commissioner of police (law and order) has been constituted to investigate the case. The arrests were made as part of the investigation, the police commissioner said.

Three district level committees involving police, revenue, fire and health officials conducted searches at hotel, hospital and residences of the heads of the two institutions. They seized documents pertaining to the lease agreement. The health department also launched verification of the Covid care centres across the state.

Meanwhile, hospital managing director Dr P Ramesh Babu said in a video message that the safety aspects at the Covid care centre were the responsibility of the hotel management as per the MOU between Ramesh Hospital and Swarna Palace.

We provide treatment to the patients and the centre maintenance should be taken care of by the hotel management, he said. He also revealed that Ramesh Hospital had taken two hotels on lease and had about 200 patients.
Sometimes, consumers just want a flagship and they dont want to spend $1000+ to get one. Enter, the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G  recently sent to Android Headlines for review.

Now, this phone is ambitious, to say the very least. Samsung built the gadget with a goal in mind. And its the very goal listed above. Whether or not it accomplishes that goal is something else entirely. One could split the answer across two very clearly separate categories. Experience and hardware.

On the experience front, Samsung has done something special with the Galaxy A71 5G. It created a 5G-capable device that delivers a very top-tier experience in real-world use. On the hardware front, this is obviously not a flagship at all. And there are a few quirks where that shines through.

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It would be easy to simply cycle through and list off highlights. Its also easy enough to point out where this handset doesnt quite live up to expectations set by the companys lofty goal. But lets take a deeper dive to find out just what this smartphone is like in day-to-day use.

Samsungs Galaxy A71 5G brings refined hardware design with a flagship bent

On the design front, Samsung builds this mid-ranger out of polycarbonates at the back and Gorilla Glass 3 at the front. And the frame material felt the same as that on the back during my review of the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G. On paper, that doesnt sound great. To be honest, it doesnt sound great for any modern smartphone. But the design specs dont give away too much either.

In-hand, the design feels like slightly-softened glass. Samsung seems to have reinforced the plastics to achieve that and the resulting experience is much better for it. The surface is smooth and the underlying prism effect protects against fingerprints or smudges. Dust and other particulates, of course, do still appear. But those are fairly easy to brush off.

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Now, this phone is available in Prism Cube Black, Prism Cube Sliver, and Prism Cube Blue. Samsung sent me the Prism Cube Black variation. As the branding suggests and as shown in the images below, thats a fairly straightforward high-sheen black. But it also does a great job of throwing bands from across the color spectrum, under the right lighting.

In reality, this design goes much further in terms of approaching flagship status too. Not only is the design seamless, in-hand. The ports are all snug and clicky, as are the buttons. The camera hump at the back, while a potential worry spot for some users, and although it does add an off-kilter look when placed screen-side up, shouldnt present any problems either.

Not only does that protrusion help this phone hold up to its flagship aspirations  both in hardware components and aesthetics  it helps protect the camera. Thats because theres an ever-so-slightly-visible lip around the edge. So the glass is never actually resting on anything.

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The overall look and feel of the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G are, summarily, extremely premium. Samsung has managed to ensure that every aspect follows its flagships standards. But its done so in a way that neither drives up cost nor takes too many shortcuts.

This Super AMOLED Display is engineered to impress without pushing the envelope

Moving around to the front, Samsung seems to have put just as much effort into this devices display. Under review of the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G, I never felt as though it wasnt responding as Id want it to. Better still, its bright enough, even at just 70-percent or so, to use outdoors on a bright and sunny day.

At 6.7-inches, theres very little bezel around the panel either. What bezel Samsung did include is minimal and almost perfectly symmetrical. And the company didnt waste that space, including an earpiece behind a thin sliver of a speaker grille at the top.

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The phones size is going to be one of the biggest sticking points for some users, with many actively looking for smaller devices. And, of course, its that bezel that many users are going to take issue with. Most modern phone OEMs, including a number in the budget category, are aiming to eliminate bezels entirely.

The under-display fingerprint reader represents the only other complaint and this one is arguably the biggest. Not only does that seem less accurate than Id expect. It often didnt recognize my fingerprint at all. When it did recognize my print, it took a bit longer than Id expect to open. Now, that wasnt much more than a second. But a second is a long time compared to the fingerprint readers found in the vast majority of other devices.

Samsung offsets that, at least partially, via the use of a Super AMOLED Plus display panel. So contrast and vivid colors really do shine on this phone just as they do on Samsungs flagship Galaxy S-series. Because it set the resolution at 1080 x 2400, those visuals are crisp and clear at all times.

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5G Connectivity is big for this Galaxy A71 but there are caveats

It goes without saying that 5G connectivity is a big part of what sets this phone apart from its non-5G counterpart. And, for Galaxy A71 5G there are two variations on that. Samsung sent me a review unit for the Galaxy A71 5G that works with T-Mobiles network. It also works with other MVNOs. So I didnt have access to and cant speak to how this works with Verizons incomparably-faster, Ultra Wideband network.

For Verizon, the company sells a Samsung Galaxy A71 5G UW.

At least in the region that I was able to test the low-band 5G, that wasnt necessarily a great experience either. Of course, it bears mention that most of my testing was within the confines of a small neighborhood due to ongoing Covid-19 concerns. And 4G LTE connections from T-Mobile arent the strongest either.

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When I tested speed, for instance, I noted 4Mbps from 4G. 5G offered a whole lot more speed at 11Mbps. But it was  when it stayed connected  a much better network to be on for a number of reasons. Not only did it enable quicker downloads. I noticed that latency on the network dropped significantly too.

For the bulk of my testing, that wouldnt stay connected consistently though. And thats likely down to a number of region-related reasons since when I traveled outside of my usual test zone 5G stayed on just fine. Switching between 5G and 4G LTE didnt present a problem either. It was almost instant and call quality remained almost perfect  within reason  through a switch-over.

But the technology also, as noted in the battery segment, drained this phones battery extremely quickly. An hour of online gaming via Call of Duty: Mobile, for instance, dropped my battery by between 25- and 35-percent.

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Setting that aside, Samsung did an excellent job on the rest of the connectivity for this device. Aside from dual-band Wi-Fi 5 support, complete with Wi-Fi direct, and pass-through hotspot features, it includes Bluetooth 5.0. Thats stacked right alongside NFC support and support for just about every geolocation tracking technology currently in use.

The performance was on-point, as expected from a budget-flagship

One of the most noteworthy aspects of this smartphone, or any others in the mid-to-upper echelon of Samsungs A-series, is performance. Well discuss in the next segment just how far Samsung goes with that because providing a flagship experience is obviously its biggest goal with this device. As this review shows, it almost succeeds with that for the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G in all respects.

But the biggest takeaway here is that outside of a few truly heavy tasks such as video editing and photo editing, this phone is an absolute beast.

I never saw any lag in any software from games to system-level apps to intensive apps such as those listed above. I did note that processing photos or videos in a dedicated media editor took a bit longer. And there was some discrepancy in multitasking compared to Samsung flagships.

The most prominent example of that is what happened when I opened up a chat application  in this case, I opened Telegram  and then also opened up the Google Play Store in split-screen mode. I then opened up Google Chrome in a floating window along with a few other apps. When I opened up a game next, the system stuttered and froze for a moment.

I saw a similar problem when using all of those apps and then opening up the Edge Screen tools Samsung includes on its smartphones.

Now, thats not surprising at all. This isnt a flagship phone. But its also easy to get lost in how-flagship like this phone is and forget that fact.

So, although the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G proves more than capable and can still accomplish all of that, its not going to stack quite up to the flagship level. With all of that said, it will come incredibly close. Especially for those who cant afford or who dont want to spend that much to buy a flagship. And it will match up for those who dont need that kind of heavy multitasking.

With Galaxy S-level software features packed in to match

Now, this is a Galaxy-branded device and that already says quite a lot about the software. Summarily, theres plenty of Samsung bloatware pre-installed and much of it is repetitive since it mimics Googles own pre-installed services. But that also means that theres a lot here to love.

For instance, Samsungs Edge Screen toolbar was unendingly useful as always during my review of the Galaxy A71 5G. I primarily utilize the swipe-in-style toolbar for flashlight access and quick access to my most-used apps. So I was able to clean up my home screens and keep things minimal the way I like them.

Beauty and AR filters in the camera app are appreciated too. And those worked just like they do and almost as well as they do on Samsungs flagships.

OneUI 2.1 is, in a word, fantastic. It may not be the slimmest Android 10 overlay around. Samsung pre-installs its own browser, email app, app store, and a ton of other apps. It also packs in Microsofts office apps, Facebook, Linkedin, and a couple of others. Those from third-parties and a few made by Samsung can be uninstalled.

Conversely, everything feels very close to stock, serving as a testament to Samsungs prowess with software. And, where things arent stock, theyre unendingly easy to figure out and use. But, of course, were here to talk about the experience.

Samsung Galaxy A71 5G delivers the same features users have come to expect from Samsungs OneUI. But it also manages to do so smoothly, without hangups. As noted above, the only place I noticed any latency was in intensive multitasking scenarios. Otherwise, everything is buttery smooth. I didnt notice a single bug in the system-level apps, or in any of the plethora of settings or customizations.

The software, summarily, performed exactly as Id expect a flagship to perform.

Dont count on an all-day battery but Galaxy A71 5G does charge fast

Now, ordinarily, having a comparatively terrible battery life is a deal-breaker. But there are good reasons why, during my review, the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G didnt excel in this area. And, at least to some extent, that is going to be easily offset too. So it isnt going to result in the automatic removal of a star from the rating here.

Getting down to brass tacks, this phone lasted a total of 5-hours and 53 minutes in my battery test. For this test, I left settings as they were out of the box for the most part. I didnt turn on any power saving mechanisms, for example. I also didnt turn off the always-on display and I kept 5G running. My screen brightness was, although set automatically, turned up quite high for most of the test because I used the phone outside.

Those factors undoubtedly contributed to lower-than-expected endurance as much as anything else. But, in later testing, I did turn off 5G in the deeper connectivity settings. That improved the battery immensely. And it shows that 5G is a big part of the problem so users will likely want to get ready for that as a new normal. If they want 5G connections, that is.

For clarity, this phone spent 9-hours and 31-minutes on standby, for a total on-time of 15-hours and 24-minutes. 6-hours of standby drained approximately 4-percent from the total battery capacity. And, during my review, gaming killed the battery the fastest. I spent three hours and three minutes watching videos and streaming audio with the screen on. But I only spent an hour and six minutes of gaming.

I used the phone for 1-hour and 13-minutes making calls, messaging, browsing the web, and in other daily activities.

Samsung devices do come with a wealth of options for saving battery. Turning on Android 10s dark mode, for instance, should go a long way toward extending the battery life. So the figures represented here should really be viewed more as an average with the above-listed usage and not as a maximum. This battery could easily have lasted longer. But most users wont go beyond the pre-set settings.

On charging, however, this phone is definitely impressive. Albeit not as impressive as some other gadgets Ive used. 15-minutes on the included Quick Charge charger resulted in no less than 31-percent of the battery being filled. And things really didnt slow down from there for the first half of that. At 30-minutes the battery hit 60-percent. 45-minutes took things to 82-percent and I saw it hit 97-percent at the one-hour mark.

This phone charged up from completely drained in just about an hour and three minutes.

The audio was far better than expected here

Dolby Atmos, a dedicated equalizer, UHQ upscaling, and adaptive sound has all made its way over from Samsungs flagship lineup. In theory, that should equate to a solid audio experience that doesnt disappoint.

The same goes for Samsungs built-in sound separation settings, also found in the Settings app, for ensuring multiple on-device audio sources can be played simultaneously. Thats through separate audio devices.

All of that works precisely as would be expected if this were a Samsung Galaxy S-series handset.

Speaker audio quality was, summarily, much better than I would have predicted for a more budget-friendly smartphone. So this smartphone should be a bit better for listening via the speakers alone.

Now, thats not to say that my review shows the speakers to be a preferable means for listening with the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G. Its not going to be. Neither clarity nor the bass hits are going to be quite up to the level that would be needed for that. Thats not a huge drawback though.

Not only is this entirely common for smartphone speakers across all price categories. In fact, Ive only ever found one smartphone that I would ever recommend for listening without headphones. This one isnt it. But it does stand out among its counterparts in the price bracket.

Here, Samsung has also included both Bluetooth 5.0 and a 3.5mm audio jack too. Samsung isnt forcing users to listen via an obnoxious USB-C dongle, let alone speakers. And the clarity and quality of Bluetooth are a cut above many competitors too.

This camera is great, just dont use the scene optimizer

The camera in the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G is, like everything else about this phone, meant to be at a flagship level. And it is, for the most part.

Now, typically, Id do a basic rundown of features found in the camera software here but theres quite a lot to talk about aside from that here. Under review, the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G didnt quite perform how I expected it to. The features are all there from macro and night modes to a 64-megapixel mode, beauty and AI filters, and a lot more. But theres some discrepancy too.

Namely, those are mostly found in the AI-driven scene optimizer  represented as a swirling icon on the main camera UI. That really needs to be turned off here to get the best shots. Under scenes that had high variability in lighting, the tool appeared to brighten things up a bit too much. In one shot, shown in the camera samples I took via our Flickr gallery, it created a really weird outline around tree leaves and branches.

The latter artifact happened repeatedly when the sky was the backdrop. So users will want to turn off that optimizer via a tap  at least until Samsung fixes the software.

All other shots, with the exception of night mode, turned out great. Especially in macro and 64-megapixel mode. Under thorough testing, both of those specialty modes seemed to work almost flawlessly. So did the normal camera mode. Setting aside special features, color accuracy was spot on in every shot. The detail was high with no artifacts. And the camera both focused and captured quickly.

Night mode was another matter, with shots quickly becoming blurry with any motion as the light dimmed  even incrementally. At the lowest-light levels, the mode became unusable. But most users arent going to be capturing a lot of photos in near-darkness. So thats not really a major caveat at all. And the photos really do speak for themselves.

Is the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G all its hyped up to be?

The question of whether or not this phone is worth the money is a resounding yes. Inarguably, it was already a great device on paper. But this review showed that isnt all there is to the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G either. This phone genuinely does offer a flagship-level performance and features at half the cost of Samsungs current top flagship.

Samsung didnt cut corners. And there are still a few caveats that did exist in my test. Such as with the minor disappointments to be found in the cameras Night Mode, battery life, and slower-than-expected in-display fingerprint scanner. Not one of those is really a deal-breaker with the exception of battery life. And that should improve with software updates as well as through battery-saving features and system-level Dark Mode.

The South Korean tech giant also set this phones price to match the capabilities. $599 is still a lot of money, especially in a global pandemic. But the cost feels more than worth it for what buyers get in return. There simply arent many devices on offer for the same money that offer a similar flagship experience. Let alone with next-gen mobile networking attached.

Samsung Galaxy A71 5G is, as a result, worth every penny of the asking price and more.
Some 4,000 kilometres from home, in the hardscrabble mountains of Guatemala, Ted van der Zalm is trying to help some of the worlds poorest people cope with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But he is running of time and resources to help those who need assistance the most. Without a rapid injection of donations, he said Niagara-based charity, Wells of Hope, will have to shut down a vital meal program in a matter of days, leaving thousands without anything to eat.

Wells of Hope has been working in the Jalapa region of Guatemala for over a decade digging freshwater wells for communities that do not have clean water.

While Wells of Hope has launched other programs aimed at improving the economic lot for the people of the mountains, water remained Van der Zalms primary focus.

Until COVID-19, that is.

Like most other countries, Guatemala has tried to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus with widespread economic and social lockdowns. As was the case in Canada, this put large swaths of the population out of work.

Public transportation has also been shut down, including air travel in and out of the country. Van der Zalm normally returns to Niagara in the summer, but has not been able to leave because of the airport lockdowns.

His children tried to make the drive from Canada to Guatemala to bring Van der Zalm home, but they were turned back at the American border.

There is no indication yet when we can get back to Niagara, Van der Zalm said in a text message on Monday.

For those living in the Jalapa region, who often survive on the extremely low paying, precarious work, the impact of the pandemic lockdown has been devastating.

When the economy was locked down, a lot of these people lost whatever little income they did have, said Van der Zalm. Now they have nothing.

The impact was immediate. Without the kind of government support Canadians enjoy, the people of Jalapa found themselves unable to buy food.

In response, Wells of Hope launched a daily soup kitchen to help feed the people of the region. That meal program now feeds more than 2,000 people a day.

Van der Zalm said in a recent interview that as word spread, people from around the mountains made a daily trek to the Wells of Hope facility for a meal  sometimes the only one they will get in a day.

With public buses not running, Wells of Hope has been covering the fuel costs of a local bus driver to bring people to the soup kitchen each day.

But on Monday, Van der Zalm said the demand for help in Jalapa has strained the charity organizations resources to a breaking point.

If Wells of Hope doesnt bring in a wave of new of donations, Van der Zalm said he will have to shut the meal program down this weekend which would cut those people off from the only source of food they have.

Guatemalas population of around 17 million people has seen 56,605 COVID-19 cases, and more than 2,000 deaths.

For more information about Wells of Hope, including how to donate, go online to https://www.wellsofhope.com/
In his opening statement Azar fluffed the name of President Tsai

Taiwan's opposition party demanded a clarification Monday after a US envoy who is visiting appeared to mispronounce the name of the island's president for her arch rival in China.

Health chief Alex Azar met with President Tsai Ing-wen earlier Monday in the highest level visit to Taiwan since the United States switched diplomatic recognition to China.

In his opening statement he fluffed the name of President Tsai -- pronounced "ts-eye" -- and instead said something closer to "shee".

That sounded uncomfortably close to the pronunciation of Xi Jinping, the president of China, a country that views Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to one day seize it.

A few sentences later, Azar clearly pronounced President Tsai's name correctly.

But the opposition Kuomintang party (KMT), which favours warmer ties with China, jumped on the gaffe.

"The KMT expresses shock and disapproval while urging the presidential office to sternly protest to the US side and clarify that the president of the Republic of China is surnamed Tsai, not Xi," the party said in a statement.

Xavier Chang, Tsai's spokesman, dismissed the KMT's demand.

"There is no doubt Secretary Azar was addressing (her) as President Tsai," he said in a statement.

"We suggest all sides to focus on (Taiwan's) diplomatic accomplishments and anti-pandemic cooperation. Closer Taiwan-US relations is the joint fruit of the efforts made by all people."

Social media reactions were mixed, with some netizens saying Azar's pronunciation sounded like "President Xi", others musing it might have been the word "presidency".

The American Institute in Taiwan, Washington's de facto embassy, declined to comment.

Its transcript of Azar's speech contained the phonetic spelling of Tsai's name as "ts-eye".

aw/jta/je
ANSAmed - Today's events in the Mediterranean

(ANSAmed) - ROME, AUGUST 10 - Following are the main events scheduled today in the Euro-Mediterranean area: BEIRUT - Lebanon PM presents cabinet with draft bill for early parliamentary polls.



ALGIERS - Verdict in trial of journalist and anti-government activists.



DAMASCUS - Lawmakers hold first session after parliamentary polls.



(ANSAmed).




Arnold Schwarzenegger just welcomed his first grandchild into the world.

And the action hero/politician, 73, seemed thrilled about daughter Katherine and son-in-law Chris Pratt's bundle of joy when he headed out into LA on Monday.

Arnie jumped into his cherry red Indian motorcycle for a victory lap around town.

Grandpa Arnie: Arnold Scwarzenegger was seen out for the first time since becoming a grandfather this Monday

The Terminator actor was in proper riding attire, suiting up in a leather jacket, tall boots, and gloves. He protected his noggin with a helmet, finishing off his look with some mirrored sunglasses.

Later in the day his ex-wife Maria Shriver, 64, was pictured out as well. She looked like she had a full weekend and was ready for some rest.

Katherine and Chris' baby news was revealed via her brother Patrick on Sunday.

The second generation actor confirmed things with ET, saying: 'They're doing great -- just got her a little gift' while the outlet caught him at Santa Barbara shop.

Oh baby! News that the action hero/politician's daughter Katherine and son-in-law Chris Pratt's welcomed their bundle of joy emerged on Sunday though exact details have not been pinned down

Cruise or lose: Arnie jumped into his cherry red Indian motorcycle for a victory lap around town

Grandma: Maria Shriver was seen out after stopped by Katherine's house to visit her daughter and granddaughter

There he could be seen 'carrying a package with a pink ribbon,' giving a huge hint about the famous family's latest addition.

Although Patrick did not disclose the baby's gender or the exact date of birth, parents Maria and Arnold as well as the remaining Schwarzenegger siblings, paid a visit to Katherine and Chris' residence on Friday.

Maria returned later that day to spend some more quality time with her daughter, who may or may not have given birth sometime that day.

According to ET's source, Chris was reportedly seen at a Santa Monica-area hospital on Friday.

The couple's pregnancy was confirmed by Maria on May 1, when Pratt appeared as a guest on her Instagram Live series #HomeTogether.

Welcome! Katherine Schwarzenegger, 30, has welcomed her first child with husband Chris Pratt, 41; Katherine and Chris pictured in 2019

'You're gonna have another beautiful family member,' said Shriver to Pratt at the time.

Days later, Katherine was spotted for the first time with a visible baby bump, while out walking her dog.

Though this is Schwarzenegger's first child, Pratt already shares a seven-year-old son Jack with ex wife Anna Faris, 43.

News of Katherine's pregnancy came just 10-months after her wedding to Chris, which took place in June of 2019.

Ready to pop: Days prior to the birth of their newborn, the Jurassic World star uploaded a snapshot of himself and his pregnant wife with the caption: 'Ready to pop, still don't stop'; Chris and Katherine pictured on Instagram on August 1

Expecting: The couple's pregnancy was confirmed by Maria on May 1, when Pratt appeared as a guest on her Instagram Live series #HomeTogether

He had proposed to Katherine in January of that year, less than a year after they began dating in June of 2018.

Days prior to the birth of their newborn, the Jurassic World star uploaded a snapshot of himself and his pregnant wife with the caption: 'Ready to pop, still don't stop.'

In the photo, Katherine looked heavily pregnant in a black tank top and leggings as she posed prom style with Chris.

He continued: 'Top of the mountain today. Kinda grateful it didn't go down on the trail tho to be real.'

Caught: Days later, Katherine was spotted for the first time with a visible baby bump; Katherine pictured on May 3

On Friday, Katherine's dad Arnold expressed to Fox 11 that 'it's going to be really, really exciting' becoming a grandfather for the first time.

Chris and Katherine were first linked in 2018, after they were spotted canoodling in Santa Barbara, CA.

Seven months prior, Chris filed for divorce from wife Anna Faris after eight-years of marriage, citing 'irreconcilable differences,' according to TMZ. They asked for joint custody of their son Jack who was five-years-old at the time.

Chris and Katherine made their first PDA in July of 2018, followed by numerous family hangouts with the Schwarzenegger's and the Pratt's, which were documented on social media.

The couple did not confirm their relationship status until December of 2018, a little over a month after Chris' divorce from Anna was finalized, as reported by E! News.

Round two: Though this is Schwarzenegger's first child, Pratt already shares a seven-year-old son Jack with ex wife Anna Faris, 43; Anna, Jack, and Chris pictured in 2017

The confirmation came in the form of 'Happy Birthday' post from Chris to Katherine, which included a photo collage of the brunette beauty.

'Happy Birthday Chief! Your smile lights up the room. I've cherished our time together. Thrilled God put you in my life. Thankful for the laughs, kisses, talks, hikes, love and care,' wrote the Parks And Rec alum.

On January 9, Chris proposed to Katherine, which he proudly announced to his 28.8million Instagram followers.

'Sweet Katherine, so happy you said yes! I'm thrilled to be marrying you. Proud to live boldly in faith with you. Here we go!' captioned Pratt.

Confirmed: The couple did not confirm their relationship status until December of 2018, a little over a month after Chris' divorce from Anna was finalized, as reported by E! News

Engaged: Chris had proposed to Katherine in January of 2019, less than a year after they began dating in June of 2018

He included a photo of himself and Katherine embracing that gave his followers a clear view of the giant rock on her finger. They moved in together shortly after getting engaged.

Katherine and Chris were married on June 8 of 2019 during what was described as 'an intimate ceremony' in Montecito, CA.

Katherine's parents Arnold and Maria - who split in 2017 after 31-years of marriage - also share daughter Christina, 29, and sons, Patrick, 26, and Christopher, 22.

The Austria-born star has a 22-year-old son named Joseph Baena, whom he fathered with former nanny Mildred Patricia Baena, 59, while still married to Maria.
The Nepalese government of Prime Minister Sharma Oli has mobilised the police to shut down protests and arrest demonstrators denouncing the administrations failure to control the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the most recent official figures, Nepal, with a population of 28 million, has 22,972 confirmed cases and 75 deaths. Thousands of people are currently confined in cramped makeshift quarantine facilities that lack basic sanitation facilities and have now become virus hotpots.

On July 31, youth affiliated with the COVID-19 Nepal: Enough is Enough Facebook group, demonstrated outside the prime ministers residence in the capital Kathmandu.

Members of the social media group denounced government indifference to the plight of the masses and raised concerns about the rising number of suicides across the country. More than 1,200 people killed themselves during the governments 74-day coronavirus lockdown over job cuts and the resulting loss of income.

Protesters demanded that the government health authorities increase the use of the more effective Polymerase Chain Reaction Test, instead of the Rapid Diagnostic Test.

A major reason for Nepals relatively small number of reported infections is the limited testing being carried out. Although the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) government previously claimed it would conduct 10,000 tests per day from July, testing remains at just 4,000 per day, one of the lowest rates in the world.

Demonstrators also demanded proper contact tracing of infected individuals and safer quarantine facilities for women and the oppressed Dalits, who have been harassed and attacked. They also called for financial transparency over the 10 billion rupees the government claims to have allocated for pandemic control.

According to the media reports, police attacked the demonstration, detaining about 50 youth, including random individuals who happened to be in the area. As Aalok Subedi told the Kathmandu Post: I was at Big Mart [a local department store] when the police accosted me and put me in their van.

While those detained were released later that evening, the police attack points to fears by the Stalinist NCP administration that the youth protests will become a rallying point for mass anti-government demonstrations.

Covid-19 Nepal: Enough Is Enough! has over 209,000 Facebook members. The mainly middle-class youth involved in the group are not affiliated with any political party, another indication of the widespread disaffection among Nepali youth with the establishment parties.

The organisation, however, is attempting to divert these youth into futile attempts to pressure the government. Dhirendra Shrestha, 29, told the media, We are not demanding that the government step down but telling it that what they are doing is not enough.

Attempting to politically hijack this movement, the Nepali Congress party has voiced its support for the organisation. Like the Stalinist NCP, Congress governments are equally responsible for the dangerous, rundown state of the Nepali health system.

The July 31 demonstration is one of several protests in recent months. On June 9, around 150 people staged a sit-down protest outside Olis residence. It was attacked by the police using water cannons and batons. Later in June, hundreds of youth took to the streets in major cities around the country.

Responding to widespread anger over the July 31 arrests, Deputy Superintendent of Police Roshan Khadka told the media that his officers would end the random detention of protesters.

These assurances are worthless.

In June, five protestors were arrested for staging a hunger strike at Patan Durbar Square in and on July 30 another group was arrested on their way to file a Right to Information petition with the courts. Police officers did not have warrants for those arrests and the youth were harshly treated while in custody.

The anti-government opposition is not confined to its inadequate response to COVID-19 but also to the governments indifference to the pandemics devastating economic impact on millions of the countrys poverty-stricken citizens. Nepals economy relies almost entirely on tourism and remittances from overseas migrant workers. Revenue from these sources has all but collapsed.

Migrant workers from Nepal, including those unable to return from India and the Gulf State countries, face a dire situation. Despite repeated calls by the Nepali Supreme Court, the Stalinist NCP government has refused to provide any significant assistance to these trapped workers.

Nor has the government provided any serious financial relief to those involved in the tourist industry. The desperate situation facing urban workers, day labourers and the rural poor, as well as small entrepreneurs, including small shopkeepers and the farmers, is appalling.

Confronted with the growing mass discontent, the NCP government has resorted to whipping up chauvinism and religious sectarianism to divert attention from the escalating social crisis. On July 13, Oli claimed that Lord Ram, the mythical Hindu god, was not born in Ayodhya, as claimed by Indias ruling Bharatiya Janatha Party and other Hindu extremists, but in a Nepali village. This was Indian cultural encroachment, Oli declared.

The inadequate and indifferent response of the Stalinist NCP administration to the coronavirus pandemic is not an accident. Like its counterparts throughout South Asia and internationally, the Nepali ruling elite is not interested in the fate of working people and rural toilers confronting the coronavirus disaster but is determined to defend the profit system and further enrich the capitalist class.
MIAMI, FL  It was just a few days after Easter and Passover when Ronald L. Book got a call on a Saturday morning telling him that a 26-year-old man became the first homeless person to die of the coronavirus in the Miami area.



"I literally cried for two days," Book, who chairs the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, shared in an interview with Patch. "We got through  I dont know, six weeks or so, seven  we hadnt lost any lives. I dont even think at that point we had three people, four in the hospitals."

The homeless man, who was living at the Chapman South Homeless Assistance Center, a shelter in rural Homestead outside Miami that borders the Florida Everglades, visited the facility's health clinic with a fever on April 17. He was taken by ambulance to Jackson South Medical Center in Kendall that same day.

"Five, six hours later he was dead," Book said. "I had reached a point where I was convinced we were going to save everybody, not going to lose any lives."

Since then, there have been three more deaths among Miami's homeless population, including two people who sheltered at the same facility. But, if Miami followed the experience of other U.S. cities, there could have been many more deaths.

"Those first weeks it was very common to read stories out of New York and California  about this homeless shelter and that  having 70 people hospitalized today out of one shelter, the next day 40 people, the next day 60 people," Book said.



3 Percent Positivity Rate

New data compiled by the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, which is responsible for administering public funding for 20 organizations that work with the homeless around Miami, finds that Miami's homeless population and the 300 support staff who work directly with them, have had only a 3 percent infection rate since April 1 based on 3,400 tests to date.

Put another way, while Florida's most populous county of 2.8 million people struggles to gain control of a positivity rate hovering around 15 to 20 percent at times, some of the most at-risk people  people who don't always have a place to wash up during the day  appear to be faring much better than the average Miami-Dade resident.

Story continues

A Florida Department of Health mobile unit conducts coronavirus tests of Miami's homeless population and people who work with the homeless.Courtesy Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust.

Officials will be conducting tests and retests on 700 shelter residents and staff at three emergency shelters with nasal swabs provided to the Homeless Trust through the Florida Department of Emergency Management. The test results will be provided by the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade in the coming days.



The state of Florida's mobile COVID-19 testing unit already conducted more than 400 tests on July 15, which confirmed the low positivity rate.

Tests have also been conducted by the Lazarus Project, which focused on unsheltered people with severe mental illness who are among the most service resistant. Miami Fire Rescue conducted other tests as did Camillus Health Concern and Community Health of South Florida.

Book said his organization rejected the use of rapid tests early on, which he feared would have produced too many false negatives.

"I took a load of garbage from people for my unwillingness to take the tests," Book recalled. "A test that throws off false negatives is a garbage test."

People who tested positive for the coronavirus were moved to one of five designated sites as space permitted, including the Dunns Josephine Hotel, an historically Black hotel in the Overtown section of Miami, which welcomed the business opportunity.

Not Without Criticism

Despite the success with respect to the test numbers around Miami, the process was not without criticism. The Dream Defenders organization held multiple demonstrations in Miami to advocate for wider use of hotel rooms during the pandemic.

Many homeless people refused to go to shelters or hotels, according to the trust. The organization's strategy was to get the most vulnerable people off the street and keep them safe.

Samantha Batko, a senior research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., told Patch it will be difficult to sustain the use of hotels and other forms of temporary lodging once the current health crisis has passed.



"Lots of places are doing similar things that Miami did," she said. "They are concentrating on decentralizing or deconcentrating their shelters. They are concentrating on making sure that they are isolating people who get sick. They are concentrating on isolating people who might be in populations who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19."

She pointed to project Roomkey in California and an effort in Austin, Texas, to move people out of shelters during the pandemic while encouraging the homeless to be tested for the virus.

"The number of hotel and motel rooms that are being used in jurisdictions are dwarfed by the overall number of people who are experiencing homelessness," Batko cautioned.

The problem of homelessness will only get worse after the pandemic, she said. More Americans are likely to become homeless once eviction moratoriums are lifted around the country.

Never Imagined Life On Streets

At 63, William Renfroe wasn't always homeless and broke. He said he fell on hard times little more than two years ago when he took a trip from Miami to Richmond, Virginia, with his girlfriend, Joyce. She suffered a medical emergency and never returned.

She started to say she wasn't feeling well, and then dropped to the floor in mid-sentence. "She went to the hospital, and three hours later, she was no longer with me," he recalled. "She passed away in the end of 2018  two years, a month and six days."

He developed a heart condition and battled diabetes, although his diabetes is under control now, but he has not been the same since Joyce's death.

Unable to pay the rent without her wages, he got evicted and found himself homeless.

"I was robbed the third night out," he said. "The only thing I didnt lose was my cell phone."

He said he tried to get back on his feet a number of times since and even landed a 38-hour-a-week maintenance job at the W Hotel on Brickell Avenue in Miami before being furloughed when the pandemic took away 90 percent of the hotel's occupancy.



"I got my clothes. I got my shoes," he said. "If you're going to get out and do this, you've got to look the part .... You can't go in wearing a pair of ragged up nasty shoes you got on the street."

He had a lead on a job that pays $15 an hour as an assistant to an electrician, but he wasn't sure if he could remain sheltered at the hotel if he had to go to work every day outside of the hotel, potentially putting others at risk for the virus. It will take time to save for an apartment even if he gets the job.

"Most of the time they want first month's damage, sometimes two month's damage," he said of the Miami rental market. "I try to get in these senior places, but the garbage comes out you're not 65."



Earlier in life, he spent 26 years working at the American Rolling Mill Company in Ashland, Kentucky, before his job was eliminated by a change in the production process for making steel.

Since the pandemic, Renfroe said he has been tested three times for the coronavirus and the results came back negative each time.

Life on the streets can be bleak and many people lose hope and take their own lives out of despair.

"When youre homeless theres no tomorrow. You see a blind nothing," he said. "Nobody helps you. The politicians talk, but thats what it is  talk."

Eventually, he fears he will have to leave the Dunns Josephine Hotel even if he hasn't landed a job by then.

"Everybody's scared of the coronavirus. I'm 63 years old. What is the difference of dying of the coronavirus, or dying broke, or going back to the street and get sick," he asked. "These people here are super. They're super cool. The bottom line is eventually I'll have to go anyway. The money will run out."

U.S. Surgeon General's Visit To Miami

Book of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust spoke with U.S. Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams during his recent visit to Miami and was quizzed about the low positivity rate among the homeless of Miami. Miami-Dade is considered the epicenter of Florida's coronavirus outbreak with 132,461positive cases and 1,865 deaths.

"He wanted to understand how we managed to keep it that low," Book shared. "It was all about communication, and all about showing people we cared."

The Urban Institute's Batko said early reports from Boston and San Francisco found much higher positivity rates within homeless shelters than those being reported from the Miami area.

"The one that sort of gained the most notoriety  the one that came out of Boston  showed that the spread within shelters was very rapid and extremely prevalent," she said. "It was over a third of people in the congregate shelter tested positive."

In San Francisco, one shelter found a positivity rate around 25 percent. "They did a second round of testing even after doing some decentralization and putting some people in hotels, and they found that it was about 60 percent of people had it," she said.

Despite those disheartening statistics, Batko said, she is aware of another jurisdiction that fared very well but has yet to release its findings.

"I have had conversations with one jurisdiction that made a distinct effort to test a large portion of their unsheltered population, and they, incidentally, did not find any cases of COVID-19," she said, declining to identify the jurisdiction except to say it has a large number of homeless who live outdoors.

Homeless people around Miami have a lower positivity rate for the coronavirus than the general population. Via Miami-Dade Homeless Trust

Growing Numbers Of Homeless Seniors

One of the biggest challenges facing homeless organizations in Miami and others U.S. cities even before the pandemic was how to handle the growing population of seniors who cannot afford to pay market rent.

"The homeless population has been aging somewhat in place for a while now," Batko explained. "It's not that the people who are already homeless are getting older, but there appears to be a cohort of people who were born within about the same decade who have remained at a higher level of vulnerability to homelessness as they've aged."

She said many of those people in the United States have experienced homelessness for the first time.

"People sort of became marginally attached to the workforce, never really gaining a strong foothold within the workforce," she said. "As they've aged, they have maintained stability through being able to work sufficient hours, having partners, maintaining connections with family, but as they got older, perhaps their spouse passed away or their partner passed away, or they are no longer able to work within the industry  if it was a heavy labor industry  or their industry has disappeared."

Some 165 seniors who were living in Miami-area shelters were moved to hotels and other facilities under contracts with the Homeless Trust. They were joined by another 200 seniors who had been living on the streets, according to Book.

"We have had a real problem with senior citizens for the last 20 months or so," Book confided. "We have had senior citizens in our shelters for 900 days, 1,100 days, 1,200 days. Theres something wrong with that. Its not OK. Its not OK. Its bad, and were working hard to do something about it, including working to acquire a building where we could house 75 to 100 (people)."

Moving People With Higher Risk For Coronavirus

Over the course of the pandemic, the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust placed 847 people, including seniors and other people with a higher risk of contracting the virus, in hotel rooms and a leased assisted living facility called Mia Casa in North Miami.



"Wed test them and offer them a hotel room. Even those who wouldnt test, wed offer them hotel rooms," Book recalled. "We then started housing in hotels anyone with underlying health issues. We tried to force all of them to take tests. Most did  some didnt. I think one of the hard challenges was getting those that we were putting in hotel rooms to take the placement and quarantine seriously."

Some people had to be taken out of hotels if they put others at risk through their actions, according to Book.

"You cant just go and come, and go and come, the way you want," Book explained. "We need to send a message. You had to have the discipline."

Part of that discipline was getting the homeless population to understand they must use hand sanitizer or wash their hands at least once every hour. They were given hand sanitizer, as well as sanitary wipes, along with flyers reminding them what to do to survive.

"If you touch the ground. If you touch a wall. If you touch a railing. If you touch a bench, theyve got to wash again in that hour," Book said. "I was frustrated all the time with the mask piece because I really dont believe that I ever fully got the street population to fully embrace the importance of masks. But they wore them. They just didnt wear them as much as I would have liked."

Conference Calls Helped

Another key piece of the pandemic strategy in Miami involved holding almost daily conference calls among the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust and its partner organizations.

Since the trust is responsible for dividing up funding, it has leverage to get the homeless organizations to follow the same rules.

"I fund their programs. They were inordinately cooperative and helpful in those early weeks, for many weeks," Book said. "We were in uncharted territory. None of us knew then what we know now. We knew that we were going to have people that were going to come and go from the shelters during the day.

"We cant just let them back in because you dont know who they were in touch with," he said. "If the message was about mitigating spread, then you had to know when they came back each day: Who did you see? Who did you touch? Who did you talk to? Did you wear a mask? Did you properly socially distance? All of those things we were developing literally as we moved along."

Strategy Paid Off

Book said he knew the approach was paying off when a woman who lives at Lotus House worked on a cleaning crew assigned to the Ruth K. Broad Bay Harbor K-8 Center, which was shut down in mid-March after an aftercare worker tested positive for the virus.

"When she came back to Lotus House that night, late afternoon. Hey where have you been? What have you been doing? 'Well I was cleaning a school.' Where was that school? 'Well it was Bay Harbor Elementary'," Book recalled. "They knew they couldnt let her in. That was the day we knew for sure in those early stages that the questions we were asking  and we had our providers asking  were working."

Mixed Blessing

Sixty-year-old Phillip Roundtree of Miami has tested negative for the coronavirus more times than he can count. He gets tested twice a week  every time he takes chemotherapy for his prostrate cancer.

For him, the pandemic has been sort of a mixed blessing. Because of his medical condition, he must be extra careful to avoid the virus, but if not for the high prevalence of the disease in Miami, he might otherwise not have gotten a room at the Dunns Josephine Hotel three months ago.

"Homelessness is a No. 1 killer," he said. "The coronavirus, when it hit here, for me myself, it's not a bad thing because in some ways, and somehow it has helped me. If it weren't for the coronavirus, I'd probably be out there on the streets somewhere."

At one time he was in the military, but only for a couple of months before being diagnosed with bleeding ulcers. Later, in life he battled a cocaine addiction.

"I grew up here all my life," he shared. "I've never been out of the state of Florida."

Surprisingly, he said, he came from a wealthy family and has worked as a cook, in security and as a nurse's aide.

"I never was homeless a day in my life," he said of his family. "They are all successful. I call them all the time. I got six sisters and I got a brother, every one of them very successful. I call them because I want them to give me hope, share their life with me. But they never call me. I got three grown kids. They never call me."

When The Old Normal Returns



Book said there will come a day when life will return to the old normal for the homeless who have been fortunate enough to ride out the pandemic in a shelter, hotel room or Mia Casa.



"Let's face it, if COVID goes away tomorrow morning, nobody should think Im putting people back out on the streets because Im not," Book insisted. "I will find a way to find housing for a lot of people in relatively short order.

"I dont have housing available right now for everybody, but Ill find it," he said. "Anybody that wants to continue to stay inside, Im not putting them out. Thats the opposite of what we are."

This article originally appeared on the Miami Patch
Quixant PLC - Cambridge-based technology outsourcer for gaming industry - Chief Financial Officer Guy Millward to step down with effect on August 21 to "focus on other challenges". Been part of company for two years since 2018. Quixant has identified interim replacement, but will give further details in due course. Non-Executive Director Nigel Payne to leave board with effect on August 31, after just two months in the role.

Current stock price: 114.00 pence

Year-to-date change: down 50%

By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero is the 15th Emir of Kano from the chain of Sullubawa descendant beginning from the 19th Century. He is barely five months on the throne now but has set out his machinery of reaching-out in motion. He has, this weekend ceremoniously visited Zamfara state, according to him, to reach-out to his traditional friends, Zamfara being a major one amongst them.

When the news of his visit filtered the state capital, Gusau, it was a joyous moment on that cool Saturday evening when his convoy made a lavish entry into that historic city with the Emir of Katsinan Gusau, Alhaji Ibrahim Bello according the Emir of Kano a royal welcome. All the traditional rulers in Zamfara state, led by their Chairman, the Sarkin Zamfara Anka, received the Kano Emir in a classic and characteristic traditional hospitality known to the people of Zamfara.

His Excellency, Governor Bello Mohammed, a long standing friend of the Kano Emir, received him with warm and open arms to the state and hosted him with all the necessary and deserving government hospitality as an August visitor of the people. The Emir had enough time to interact with his colleagues in the state who were all exited to have him in their midst.

During a remarkable and eventful courtesy call, Governor Matawalle commended the versatility of His Royal Highness the Emir of Kano for initiating the idea to reach out to the state because that can only come out from a mind vast in foresight and care for all. He said that today, the North is in dire need of such leaders who will reach-out to bring the people together as one people again so that the past lost glory of the North can be rejuvenated.

He wondered why the North cannot be in the mess it happens to find itself today since its people have chosen to disrespect its traditional institutions and those whom God has bestowed leadership upon. the fact that we have thrown the dignity of our leaders and our elders in the society to the bin has promoted the presently growing indiscipline in the society, leading to all sorts of crimes including robbery and banditry, observed Governor Matawalle.

However, Governor Bello Matawalle believes that all hope is not lost. He believes that we can still make it out if we are really committed. The only way out for the North is to look back and revive those virtues that held the people together and became impenetrable. Matawalle envisions that the basic and fundamental string that held the North together can be traced to the reverence, respect and submission to the guidance and leadership of leaders of the people especially traditional rulers.

Significantly, however, Governor Matawalle took time to inform the Emir of some of the measures he has already taken to address some of these issues. He told the Emir how he ordered this year that no community was allowed to come and pay Sallah homage to the Governor unless it was led by its traditional ruler. By this, only the ruler could address the Governor on behalf of the people and make their request known to him. This gave them the opportunity to be respected as the rightful rulers of the people. Hence, all communities including their local government chairmen, political party leaders, and the wealthy in the area were all led under the auspices of their traditional rulers to the Government House

The governor further revealed that his administration has awarded contracts for the construction of a Government lodge in each of the 14 Local Government Areas of the state. The idea is not only for the Government to have accommodation for visitors to the area but for the Governor to visit the people at the grassroots under the hospitality of the traditional rulers. This will give the traditional rulers the face respect required for people to rally around them for the quest of addressing their needs and problems.

Another major landmark initiative is the RUGA project started in the state to address farmer/hearder clashes which, inadvertently, was allowed to balloon due to the same problems leading to lack of central and control mechanism known to have been bestowed on traditional institutions in the past. This initiative will hopefully address the age-long crises between the Fulani herders and their counterparts, the Hausa farmers. The pioneer RUGA project, nearing completion in Maradun, is a modern concept, complete with designed modern settlement. When completed, it will House a grazing reserve, houses, school, market, hospital veterinary clinic, Police out post, earth dams, water canals, roads and a mini stadium.

But what actually carried the day was the total endorsement on Governor Bello Mohammed and his administration by the visiting monarch. He said that Matawalle deserved the support and co-operation of his people for his excellent achievement in the area of security which brought the present peaceful atmosphere in the state. The Emir believes that the effort is not ordinary, but a calculated blueprint carried out with diligence, honesty and consistency.

Emir Bayero believes that the state is now safe for business, agricultural activities and trade. These are what held the peoples daily life together; and its boost is an assured step to peace and tranquility. Indeed, Zamfara state was once, a state that was the fright of all worldwide for its daily record of wanton loss of lives and property. Today, the tide has changed with Matawalle on the saddle. No doubt, the visit of His Royal Highness is a testimony of the position Zamfara state now holds in the eyes of the North, Nigeria and the World at large.

Bappa writes from Gusau.
- Oba of Benin says he does not have any candidate in Edo election

- The monarch, while receiving the APC flagbearer said he stands with what the people of Edo want

- According to him, the palace does not meddle into politics

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As Edo people plan to elect a new governor, Oba of Benin, the Ewuare NOgidgan II, has revealed that his Palace does not meddle into partisan politics.

Going further, he said he has no special candidate when it comes to who will become governor of Edo state.

He disclosed this on Saturday, August 8, when he received the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the forthcoming election, Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

I want to stress that no matter what anybody might think, we will remain non-partisan because we are expected as we are perceived by our people, because of the expectations of our people, and because of the laid down rules and guidelines of our ancestors, we must be a father to everybody," he said.

The monarch said the palace sees every candidate as children.

We are not expected to lean either way to this or to that, to anybody, because we see every candidate as our children, so we pray for everybody. We cant lean towards a particular candidate, however, only God and our ancestors, know the mind of man, Oba Ewuare stated.

Oba of Benin says he does not have any candidate in Edo election

Source: UGC

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike, alleged that there is an ongoing plot in the Edo state House of Assembly to impeach Governor Godwin Obaseki.

Wike who made the allegation on Friday, August 7, at the government house in Port Harcourt, also accused the APC of being behind the purported impeachment of the speaker, Edo House of Assembly and his deputy.

He said the APC orchestrated the crisis in the Edo House of Assembly to lay the foundation for the impeachment of Obaseki.

The Rivers state governor vowed that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will resist the plot to impeach Obaseki.

He said the APC is trying to impeach Godwin Obaseki because it cannot win the Edo governorship election.

It is now clear to all discerning minds that what is happening in Edo is a prepared script by the sinking opposition APC to intimidate PDP and illegally impeach its candidate, Godwin Obaseki having seen clearly that they cannot win the September, 20, 2020 election without any miracle, Wike said.

The governor called on President Muhammadu Buhari to prevail on the APC to play by the rules and stop the needless violence.

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We'll isolate Wike in an isolation center - Ganduje | Legit TV

Source: Legit.ng
The New Education Policy (NEP) presented by the government recently is being described as a progressive and forward-looking document. There is little to quibble with the broad recommendations in the document. The deeper question to pose is whose interests the reform is going to hurt, and whether this class has enough power to circumvent the reform measures.

Outside the educational hubs of Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, it is not professional educationists, but politicians and their supporters who own and run a large segment of private schools and colleges. Thus, NEP is likely to hurt political class the most. What will happen to various recommendations of NEP when it meets political obstacles in these carefully-built fiefdoms? Will NEP become like many other documents that had the potential to revolutionise things in theory, but failed to accomplish its intended outcomes in practice?

The rapid expansion in the number of colleges and universities in India in the past two decades, as scholars Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Devesh Kapur note, was not because of some huge middle-class pressure or demand, but was driven by the entrepreneurial zeal of politicians. On an average, six new colleges were opened every day including weekends between 2000 and 2015. To put this in a comparative perspective, with way greater resources, the United States (US) was opening only one new college a week at this time. And this has happened when India has one of the most regulated higher education systems. This means that many of these colleges were opened only after the exchange of kickbacks and bribes.

For example, politicians in Uttar Pradesh (UP) have invested heavily in the education sector over the past few years. More than 30% of elected politicians in the state either own a school or a college or both. I collected this data during the fieldwork for my PhD dissertation that examines the power base of political families. The analysis suggests that a politician with 20 years in active political life is three times more likely to own a college. Many of them mention owning colleges in their official biodatas. For example, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member proudly claims on his official website that he runs more than 45 colleges in his district. But this is not unique to either the BJP or UP. What is happening in UP and other north Indian states now has already happened in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh, where politicians in the late 1990s and early 2000s invested heavily in setting up engineering and medical colleges.

Why have politicians invested so much in the education sector? First, some politicians genuinely feel the obligation to help their constituency, especially when the State has failed to deliver. Second, opening schools and colleges increases their social and political prestige. Many of the college buildings I observed during my fieldwork are on illegally occupied prime land that either belongs to the government, the gram sabha or is the disputed property of private individuals. Opening a school or college mitigates some of the bad reputation that comes with illegal occupation of the land. Third, schools and colleges function as sources of patronage for politicians. This patronage can vary from the allocation of admissions to teaching jobs to janitorial positions.

Fourth, educational institutions in smaller towns continuously supply politicians two important instruments to maintain power  money and muscle. Colleges typically function under trusts and are, therefore, not required to follow the same transparency rules as companies. Politicians often give large amounts of money and provide resources to the trusts of their loyalists. Anyone who has read Shrilal Shuklas classic Raag Darbari will attest to this. As researcher and scholar Philip Altbach notes that politicians use educational institutions as a base for their operations. In smaller towns and poorer parts of the country, a college is likely to be the most important institution in the area. All those who receive such favours then oblige politicians by helping their campaigns by mobilising resources and manpower.

Fifth, and more importantly, these private school and college premises not only serve as examination centres for students studying there, but also as centres for various competitive examinations conducted by the state. And this is where the deep nexus of politics-crime-bureaucracy operates. Many of us are familiar with the nakal mafia (a nexus that thrives on providing cheating materials for a fee). Two years ago, a mass cheating incident was recorded on the cellphones in Bihar in which parents and friends of students were photographed climbing school walls to pass on answer sheets. The images captured a cruder form of the organised business of cheating in examinations, where the whole centre is designed to facilitate this illegal operation. This well-oiled business operates not only with the collusion of the local police, as was attested to by the video from Bihar, but also with the collusion of political officials, whose patronage is essential in everything from allocating the examination centre to protecting the mafia by holding off the police.

And that is why one is sceptical of this much-touted policy document, not because one doubts the intent of those who have laboured hard to design it, but because New Delhi continues to be in denial of ground realities in the education sector in large parts of the country.

Rahul Verma is a Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), New Delhi

The views expressed are personal
Seemingly a lifetime ago, the Democrat political class announced a never-before-tried approach to deal with a new infectious disease: America should briefly lock itself down, or as much of America as possible, to spare us the horrors of the next plague. At the same time, the Swedes looked at the same disease, said "meh," and proceeded to act normally. The difference in outcomes is striking.

In March, we first heard the concept of "bending the curve" for the Wuhan virus. The Democrat scientific and political classes had a novel proposal: Because there was a risk that hospitals could be overrun, we would shut America down for two weeks so that hospitals could line up their resources.

That was half a year ago. Once the lockdown was in place, blue-state governors abandoned the concept of "bending the curve" and, instead, embraced the illusory idea of zero cases. Everything they've done since then has been with the unstated premise that they could bring infections down to zero.

That's not what's happened. The moment these states lift the lockdown even slightly, the infections rise again as people who haven't already had the virus catch it for the first time. The governors (and the various local governments within the blue states) then panic and re-lock their states. Their economies are cratering, their education systems are collapsing, and people are getting deeply depressed.

The only exception to this lockdown dance in the blue states has been Black Lives Matter and Antifa. Those groups are free to protest, riot, and roam at will. Thus, even as blue-state governors have locked down constitutionally protected religious services, they won't say a word against tens, hundreds, and thousands of people gathering together in orgies of unconstitutional violence.

In contrast to America, there is a place in which the infection rate is zero, and that's not because it sealed its borders and locked everyone in his home. That place is Sweden.

To its credit, Sweden decided to ignore the experts and aim for herd immunity. Britain had initially intended to go this route. However, when Neil Ferguson, the man who has been wrong about every new infectious disease for decades, predicted millions dying, Britain backed off the idea and embraced lockdowns, too. Even though Ferguson eventually admitted that his Wuhan virus estimates were wrong, by then, governments at home and abroad were locked into their lockdowns.

But not little Sweden. Sebastian Rushworth, a doctor who works in a Stockholm emergency room, has written about the Swedish experiment:

Unlike other countries, Sweden never went in to complete lockdown. Non-essential businesses have remained open, people have continued to go to cafes and restaurants, children have remained in school, and very few people have bothered with face masks in public.

Admittedly, the virus walloped Sweden in March. The people who showed up in the E.R., no matter the reason they appeared (stomach aches, nosebleeds, etc.), tested positive for the virus. Only a few months later, though, everything has changed: no one is showing up in his E.R. with a positive test result. Sweden has gone from 100 deaths per day out of a population of 10 million to 5 deaths per day and dropping steadily.

There's a dose of hard realism in there, too, which is that many of those who died were bound to die soon anyway:

In total covid has killed under 6,000 people in a country of ten million. A country with an annual death rate of around 100,000 people. Considering that 70% of those who have died of covid are over 80 years old, quite a few of those 6,000 would have died this year anyway. That makes covid a mere blip in terms of its effect on mortality.

That sounds cold, but at least those who died in Sweden didn't have their governors herding them into old age homes that functioned like slaughterhouses, where they died alone, without family or friends nearby.

Essentially, Sweden looked at its choices: shut down the whole country and hope for a vaccination that may never come or may not be effective. Meanwhile, the economy will collapse, and people's lives will be destroyed. Alternatively, recognize that the Wuhan virus is not the Black Death, and get on with life.

There's still time for the crazy blue states to make that choice, but they don't want to. The fact is, all this craziness was never about the disease. Once the initial two-week period for a temporary lockdown passed, the blue panic was always about making Trump unelectable for a second term. (This is also true for the Democrats' rigid refusal to accept that we have a mostly effective cure in hydroxychloroquine.) For that crude calculation alone, Democrats deserve to lose every single election in America.

Image: Storkyrkobrinken, Stockholm, by Jurgen Howaldt, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany.
Former Union Minister Shatrughan Sinha and late film actor Sushant Singh Rajput worked in the same Mumbai film industry and also came from the same state of Bihar. The similarity ends here. While Sinha has had a very long innings and has closely identified with his roots winning the title of Bihari Babu, Rajputs career ended abruptly. Actually, till his suicide made headlines, not very many would have known that the talented actor came from Bihar.

Bihars tryst with the Mumbai film industry neither starts with Sinha nor would it end with Rajput. In fact, recently we heard of actor Kum Kum, a heartthrob of the 1950s and 1960s, passing away. She, too, came from Bihar and that too from a landed gentry. Films are not only about actors, they are as much about directors, lyricists, music directors, editors, writers, dress designers, so on and so forth. The list of people from Bihar who made it good and enjoyed a much bigger status than Rajput too is pretty long, with Prakash Jha, Neeraj Pandey, Manoj Bajpai, Sanjai Mishra, Vinay Pathak, Pankaj Tripathi, music director Chitragupt and his sons Anand-Milind, and lyricist Shailendra, to name a few.

Before we take our discussion forward, lets also remind ourselves that the Mumbai Police of today do not have the same social composition they had in the 1970s or may be till the early 1980s. Given the high success rate that students from Bihar have in the civil services examination, it should not surprise anybody that the top echelons of Maharashtra Police have a fair Bihari presence. Similarly, the Bihari presence in bureaucracy and the crucial departments of income tax, central excise and customs, given that Mumbai is the financial capital, is also substantial. In any social structure, there is the downward percolation of influence and it goes without saying, and rightly so, that the Bihari presence in Mumbais ruling oligarchy has helped many a migrant from the eastern state find a toehold in the city.

If one needed evidence, it was all there in the huge mass trying to escape from the city in face of the Covid-19 pandemic or their large presence at Girgaum and Juhu Chowpatty during the Chhath festivities. One of the factors which made the belligerent Maharashtrian sub-nationalism, so identifiable with Mumbai, reconcile to Bihari identity was the influence which people from the state now wield in the different social layers of the metropolis.

Thus, its very surprising that an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, Vinay Tiwari, belonging to the Bihar cadre was ordered to be quarantined on his arrival to investigate the Rajput death case. In addition to the Bihari presence, there also exists a very strong network of the All India Service officers but still Tiwari was not extended social courtesies.

Perhaps because Tiwaris mission in the city was not investigative but political. The agenda of the political masters had more to do with building a passion around Bihari identity and in the process put the role of the Mumbai Police in the dock. No self-respecting police organisation would allow this. So Tiwari faced a piquant situation in carrying out the command of his superiors.

Bihar Director General of Police Gupteshwar Pandey is expected to be an apolitical person. This is not just a matter of perception but a statement of fact. It is another matter he had taken retirement from the police in 2009 to contest the Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket, which he was denied.

In the election year, Bihar goes to polls in winter to elect members of its legislative assembly, when the ruling combine finds its popularity at an all-time low, stoking the fire of Bihari identity and pride certainly is an apposite political idea. Its another matter that Bihari pride and lives of scores of Bihari migrants did not bother the Bihar government when the pandemic broke out in March as it completely disowned them.

Today the Bihar governments performance in fighting the pandemic is nothing to write home about. The lack of preparedness to handle a crisis, which was looming large for some time, is for all to see. Add to this is the annual fury of floods which is making concrete barrages fall like sand banks exposing corruption in the implementation of government projects.

Under the circumstances, attempts to float conspiracy theories around Rajputs death help overcome a very negative narrative about the Bihar government in both the mainstream and social media.

Given the divided opposition and the perception of there being no alternative may still make Chief Minister Nitish Kumar win at the husting. However, by joining the chorus of so-called upholding of Bihari identity, Kumar may well be playing with fire.

Today a Bihari is not only a voter in his home state but part of both administrative structure and subaltern masses, to use Prime Minister Narendra Modis words, from Lakshadweep to Ladakh and from Andaman to Somnath. Raising a cantankerous noise on Bihari identity would prove to be counterproductive for Bihari well-being outside the state. A point which is being grievously missed by the political leadership of the state.

(The writer is a senior journalist and political analyst.)
Some employees had pushed back against Epics plan for them to return to working at its facility. The company is now allowing employees to opt out of the return.
What you need to know when coming to Canada from the U.S.

What you need to know when coming to Canada from the U.S. Use this checklist before crossing the border.

What you need to know when coming to Canada from the U.S. Use this checklist before crossing the border.

What you need to know when coming to Canada from the U.S. Use this checklist before crossing the border. Mohanad Moetaz Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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If youre looking to come to Canada from the U.S., make sure you know what you need to do beforehand and which port of entries are currently open.

In March, Canada put in place travel restriction measures to slow the spread of COVID-19. Canada and the U.S. also announced an unprecedented border closure between the two countries that have since been extended until August 21.

However, some people are exempt from these travel restrictions including:

Canadian citizens;

Permanent residents;

People registered under Canadas Indian Act;

Protected persons;

Immediate family members of Canadian citizens or permanent residents;

Spouses and common-law partners;

Dependent children;

Grandchildren;

Parent or step-parent;

Guardians or tutors; and

Some temporary foreign workers.

Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs

Canadian citizens and permanent residents

If you are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, you must be prepared to quarantine for 14 days and have a quarantine plan.

Upon arrival, if you are showing symptoms of COVID-19, you will be referred to an officer from the Public Health Agency of Canada. You will then be requested to isolate from others for 14 days.

Immediate family members

If you are an immediate family member of a Canadian citizen or permanent resident travelling from the U.S., you must not be showing symptoms of COVID-19. In addition, you must be staying in Canada for at least 15 consecutive days. If you are planning to stay less than 15 days, scroll down to the All other foreign nationals section below. You are expected to provide evidence that you are indeed an immediate family member.

You must also have a quarantine plan.

Temporary foreign workers

Upon arrival in Canada, you must prove that you have a valid work permit or approval letter, and a proof of employment at a Canadian business.

If you do not have a work permit but are employed at a Canadian business, you may be able to apply for a work permit at a port of entry. You must also not be showing symptoms of COVID-19.

All other foreign nationals

If you are not a Canadian citizen, not a permanent resident and not considered an immediate family member (or are planning to stay in Canada for less than 15 days), you must prove that you are travelling to Canada from the U.S. for an essential purpose. You must also prove that you have no symptoms of COVID-19 and have a quarantine plan.

If you are looking to transit through Canada to travel to Alaska, you must follow additional rules.

Travelling to Canada Checklist (applicable to all travellers)

Everyone travelling to Canada, including Canadian citizens and permanent residents, must do the following:

Wear a non-medical mask throughout your trip, if travelling by air.

Be prepared to pass a health check before you board your flight if travelling by air.

Download the ArriveCAN mobile app on your phone and provide basic information. If you do not wish to download a mobile app, you may do this using an online form, or a paper form.

Be prepared to pass a health check by a border services officer or a quarantine officer upon arrival in Canada.

Have a plan to quarantine for 14 days.

Make sure you arrive at an operating port of entry.

Quarantine plan

All travellers to Canada are required to have a plan to quarantine for 14 days. This is mandatory. This plan should include where you are going to stay, how you will travel to your place of quarantine, how you will be getting groceries, and how you will access other services including healthcare.

You must make sure that you do not come in contact with anyone over 65 years old, anyone with underlying health conditions or weak immune systems. You must wear a non-medical mask on your way to your place of quarantine.

You are required:

to go straight to your place of quarantine without stopping;

to not leave your place of quarantine, unless you need medical attention;

to not welcome any guests; and

to not use any outdoor spaces unless they are private.

If you develop symptoms of COVID-19, contact your local public health authority, and extend your 14-day quarantine period to the day you developed symptoms.

If you are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident and are showing symptoms of COVID-19 upon arrival in Canada, you will be requested to self-isolate.

This means that you are required to follow all the quarantine rules. In addition, you must use private transportation, such as your car, to travel to your place of isolation from the port of entry. You are prohibited from using any outdoor spaces, and you must regularly clean any common areas in your place of isolation. If your condition worsens, contact your local public health authority.

Ports of Entry

Before you travel to Canada, you are advised to check which ports of entry are operating. This webpage on the Canadian Border Services Agency website lists all open ports of entry and what services they currently provide.

Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs

 2020 CIC News All Rights Reserved
The Government is seeking parliamentary approval to borrow US$ 1.3 billion to finance the purchase of cocoa for the 2020/2021 crop season.

An additional GHS6.5 million in tax waivers has also been presented to Parliament.

The requests were before the Finance Committee of Parliament on Monday, August 10, 2020.

The house is expected to debate and approve the request or otherwise before it goes on recess later this week.

It will be recalled that the government in 2019 signed the US$1.3 billion loan for the purchase of some 850,000 metric tonnes of cocoa beans from farmers for 2019/2020 crop season.

The amount was a cocoa syndicated loan signed between COCOBOD and some international financial institutions

COCOBOD in 2019 increased the producer price of the beans from GHS7,640 to GHS8,240 per tonne.

With the global fight against COVID-19, most international trading commodities have seen plummeting prices with cocoa also being affected.

The sector is currently in line to benefit from a $600 million dollar loan facility from the African Development Bank.

The agreement for the funds was signed in November 2019, but the money is yet to hit the accounts of the Bank of Ghana, due to procedural arrangements.

COCOBOD hopeful cocoa season won't be impacted by Coronavirus

The Ghana Cocoa Board says it has put in place stringent measures to ensure that the 2020/2021 cocoa season is not negatively impacted by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

According to the regulator of Ghana's cocoa sub-sector, farmers have been supplied with all necessary assistance to keep the production process on track.

Speaking to Citi News, the Chief Executive of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo said farmers were being prepared to take advantage of the critical flowering season.

For this, he said there would be a new emphasis on pruning.

---citinewsroom
Scientists have found out that Jupiters huge moon Ganymede may have the largest impact craters in the solar system. The scientists revisited the observations that were made by NASA missions in the past. Those missions studied the massive moon which is larger than planet Mercury, which is the smallest planet in our solar system.

Ganymede may have the largest impact scar

Space.com reported that researchers have been studying the observations that were made in the past by NASA missions. Reportedly, the scientists found a set of features dubbed furrows that appear on some of the oldest terrains of Ganymede. Earlier, researchers had pointed to the particular furrows as evidence of a large impact which would have been powerful enough to have left scars on Ganymede.

Read Also | NASA's Hubble Telescope Uses Moon As Mirror To Search For Signs Of Extraterrestrial Life

Reportedly, earlier studies showed that the impact was found on an entire side of Ganymede. However, now, new studies have shown that the previous studies underestimated the impact on the moon. Upon revisiting the structures, the new studies reveal that the furrows represent an impact so large as to affect the entire moon.

Image source: Shutterstock

Researchers began to gather data that was collected by NASAs twin Voyager missions. Reportedly, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in the year 1977, to explore the outer planets in our solar system. The new studies are also gathering data from NASAs Galileo mission, which spent 8 years over studying the massive planet and its moons.

Read Also | NASA Locates Helium Structures In Solar Atmosphere, Gathers Full Global Map

The scientists have been reanalysing observations and data about what was referred to as the Dark Terrain. Reportedly, Ganymede possesses dark heavy crated terrains that are older and have been formed over the centuries. It also includes the oldest surfaces on Ganymede.

According to the new studies, the furrows all ripple out from one point, even the ones that are on the opposite side of the moon.

Researches in their new study have revealed that the furrows indicate that the impact event had affected all of Ganymede. New studies also found that quite a large asteroid, at least 50 KM across and possibly 150 KM across could have collided with the moon. This must have left a bullseye series of rings and fractures across the moon.

After centuries of geological process, the rings and fractures have become the furrows and troughs scientists see now. Space.com also reported that if the modeling is correct then the researchers say that they have found the largest impact scar in the solar system. The radius of this scar is 7,800 KM; it is a radius twice the length of the Mississippi River. Currently, the largest known impact system is called Valhalla Crater, which is found on another moon of Jupiter called Callisto.

Read Also | Beirut Blast: NASA's Satellite Images Show Scale Of Destruction; Pics Inside

Read Also | NASA's Juno Mission Spots 'shallow Lightning' Across Jupiter's Cloud Tops

Image credits: Shutterstock
A double murder suspect bought a fridge freezer for the 'sole purpose' of hiding the bodies of two vulnerable women he killed, a court has heard.

The remains of Hungarian Henriett Szucs and mother-of-three Mihrican Mustafa were found by police in a flat in Canning Town, east London, on April 27 last year.

'Manipulative and controlling' Zahid Younis, 35, who was the occupant of the one-bedroom, ground-floor apartment, is on trial for two counts of murder.

The two women had been missing for a long time before the grim discovery - Ms Szucs had last been seen in August 2016 and Ms Mustafa in May 2018.

On the first day of his trial at Southwark Crown Court, the jury was told the alleged victims had been subject to 'very significant violence'.

The remains of Hungarian Henriett Szucs (left) and mother-of-three Mihrican Mustafa (right) were found by police in a flat in Canning Town, east London, on April 27 last year

Prosecutor Duncan Penny QC said that Younis had bought the freezer a short time after the death of Ms Szucs 'for the sole purpose' of concealing her body.

Mr Penny said police had gone to the property looking for Younis when one found a lockable freezer in a cupboard which had flies around it and items stacked on top.

The bodies were discovered after the officers forced the lid of the freezer with a crowbar.

'Prior to their death each of them had been the victim of significant injury, each of them appeared to have been subject to very significant violence,' Mr Penny said.

The women, both in their 30s at the time of their disappearances, had suffered numerous rib fractures, while Ms Szucs had sustained 'dreadful' head injuries and Ms Mustafa's sternum and larynx had been fractured, Mr Penny said.

Forensics officers leaving the flat in Canning Town, east London, while investigating the alleged double murder

Ms Szucs' blood was found on the carpet of the flat and Ms Mustafa's fingerprint on the oven, Mr Penny said.

The court heard that between their deaths and the discovery of the bodies, there were periods when the electricity supply to the flat had been cut off - causing the bodies to start to decompose.

By April 2019, Younis had allegedly become so paranoid about the smell in the flat and the possibility the freezer would be discovered that he had abandoned the address.

When he was detained, Younis told police: 'It's my house, it's my problem, no-one else is involved.'

He later gave a 'no comment' interview.

The court heard the two women were known to have associated with Younis in the weeks leading up to their disappearances, and belongings of each of them were found in the flat.

The two women had been missing for a long time before the grim discovery - Ms Szucs had last been seen in August 2016 and Ms Mustafa (pictured) in May 2018

Both were 'vulnerable women living somewhat chaotic lives', including periods of homelessness and class A drug addiction, Mr Penny added.

Ms Szucs had met the defendant while both were patients at the Royal London Hospital.

She had been taken to hospital after she had been thrown or had fallen from a fifth floor balcony during an incident of domestic violence at the hands of her previous partner, the court heard.

Diary entries understood to be written by Ms Szucs, whose body was found partially dressed in her pyjamas, suggested Younis was 'violent and controlling' towards her, the prosecutor said.

Mr Penny added: 'You will hear that the defendant is indeed a man with the ability and the disposition to manipulate and to seek to control vulnerable women.'

The trial continues.
By Associated Press

DUBAI: Saudi Aramco's net income plunged by 50% in the first half of the year, according to figures published Sunday, offering a revealing glimpse into the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on one of the world's biggest oil producers.

Profits for the first six months of the year plunged to $23.2 billion, half of last years $46.9 billion for the same time period.

The results were announced as Aramco's second quarter earnings dipped to $6.6 billion compared to $24.7 billion during the same time last year, reflecting a staggering 73% drop.

The majority state-owned company's financial health is crucial to Saudi Arabia's stability. Despite massive efforts by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to diversify the economy, Saudi Arabia still depends heavily on oil exports to fuel government spending.

The price of Brent crude hovers just under $45 a barrel, significantly less than before the pandemic but up from a low of around $21 a barrel in April.

Aramco CEO Amin Nasser acknowledged the company's finances were impacted by strong headwinds from reduced demand and lower oil prices" sparked by the pandemic, which halted flights around the world and plunged economies into recession, including Saudi Arabia's.

The company said it will uphold its commitment to pay out dividends of $18.75 billion for the second quarter as part of its promise to pay $75 billion in annual dividends.

Nasser described Aramco's half-year earnings as solid and credited the company's low production costs and operational strength, which helped it to maintain its promised dividend payments.

Aramco was knocked out of its top spot as the worlds most valuable listed company by Apple in recent days. It's stock price gained a little on Sunday, trading at around 33 riyals ($8.80) a share. At its highest, Aramco traded above $10 a share in December and at it lowest slipped to $7.20 a share in March.

Looking ahead, Nasser said the energy market is seeing a partial recovery as countries around the world ease restrictions and reboot their economies.

We are determined to emerge from the pandemic stronger and will continue making progress on our long-term strategic journey, through ongoing investments in our business, Nasser said.

Even before the half-year results were announced, it was clear Aramco's half-year earnings would take a hit with the company's first quarter profits down 25%.

Aramco, which floated a sliver of its shares on the local Saudi stock market last year, had long kept its financial details a closely-held secret until the company began preparations for its market debut.
Bank of Ireland is launching a fraud awareness campaign highlighting tactics deployed by criminals to trick customers into providing their banking details.

Bank of Ireland is also reimbursing customers identified by the bank as being impacted by a targeted text smishing campaign, which dropped fraudulent texts into the genuine Bank of Ireland text thread during Covid-19.

The nationwide fraud awareness campaign will advise customers on how to protect themselves from fraud including through text smishing attacks. Starting this week, the campaign will include emails and letters being issued to customers, reinforced through a social media campaign and extensive fraud advice online.

Smishing is serious criminal activity which targets customers of a range of institutions around the world including banks, postal authorities, social welfare payments and tax collection. While it has been in existence for many years, the volume of smishing has increased significantly over time. Where fraudsters gain access to confidential information, they move quickly to extract funds.

Bank of Ireland work very closely with An Garda Siochana and international authorities to combat fraud. In approximately three in four cases where fraud occurs, Bank of Ireland recovers all or part of the stolen funds, allowing customers to be reimbursed.

Discussing smishing and the new campaign, Gavin Kelly, CEO Retail Ireland, Bank of Ireland, said: Smishing has been around for a long time, but there has been a spike in attacks since Covid-19 with fraudsters clearly recognising an opportunity to target consumers as we spent more time using phones and computers. Bank of Ireland has been working closely with customers for many years on this type of fraud so we understand the distress caused to customers, especially where it hasnt been possible to trace the money, which thankfully is the minority of cases.

We have carried out a review into a recent smishing attack which has managed to defraud a number of customers. These cases have involved criminals inserting a fraudulent text into a thread containing genuine text messages from the bank. This tricked customers into divulging their confidential banking details. However, we also acknowledge that fraudsters have been particularly active during this period and as consumers we have had many other pressing concerns to deal with through Covid-19. Therefore we will be reimbursing the customers for these losses and the bank will absorb the financial impact.

We know that Bank of Ireland can do more to build awareness around fraud and we are committed to doing that. Our new campaign, launching this week, will highlight some of the key threats and tactics. We will continue to focus on the issues around fraud, through our own channels and working collaboratively through the BPFI FraudSMART campaign.

Bank of Ireland will never text, send emails or call a customer looking for their confidential banking details. The process where a fraudster can drop a text into a thread of text messages from any company is a common tactic used by criminals against the customers of banks and other service providers. We continue to work with the telecoms sector on this. If anyone has any suspicions on fraud, we have a 24/7 freephone line to support customers," he added.
Taiwan has detained a Chinese tanker for allegedly illegal entry into its territorial waters, Taiwanese media report, adding that the six-member crew has been arrested.

Taiwan has stepped up coast guard patrols off the western coast of the country to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. Media reports said that the crew of the Chinese tanker, which has remained unnamed, were tested for any outward signs of infection, but none were found.

The incident is likely to fuel already substantial tension between China and Taiwan after China expanded its military and navy activity around the breakaway island in the last few months. The expansion coincided with the action taken by Taiwan to distance itself from the mainland further, first by renaming its air carrierpreviously called China Airlinesand then by highlighting Taiwan on local citizens passports, CNBC reported earlier this month.

This escalation has had some worried that things might deteriorate further, eventually culminating in an open military conflict, not least because Taiwan is also involved in the tension between the United States and China. The U.S. is bound by law to help Taiwan defend itself, and it seems to be taking this duty seriously, increasing its presence in the Taiwan Strait recently, according to CNBCs Huileng Tan.

President Trump has made no secret of his intentions to forge closer links with Taiwan, according to some as one more way to alienate Beijing. The latest instance of this course of action was the visit of U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar to Taiwan. Azar arrived on the island this weekend and is the highest-ranking U.S. government official to visit Taiwan in 40 years.

The Chinese recognize that in the near-term, they do not have the capacity to really retake Taiwan, not only militarily, but in particular economically and politically, Stratfors senior vice president of strategy analysis Rodger Baker told CNBCs Tan.

Yet this does not mean it cannot continue to intimidate the island, which, in turn, seems determined to stay its own course of distancing itself further and further from the mainland.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Pfister expressed concern over increasing cases of the virus and rising statistics, talking to listeners about what they can do to reverse the trend. As of Friday, there were 12, 385 confirmed cases of the virus in Lake County and 427 deaths, while McHenry County has had 3,133 cases and 113 deaths, according to the counties websites.
U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, voiced concerns that policies created by Americas new postmaster general are causing a disastrous wave of mail delays across the country.

Since launching an investigation into the U.S. Postal Service, Peters said hes heard from hundreds of Michigan residents who are receiving lifesaving medicines, bills, checks and election ballots later than usual. Peters and U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Southfield, told reporters Monday they suspect Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Republican donor and businessman without prior experience in the Postal Service, isnt acting in the best interests of Americans who rely on the timely delivery of mail.

Lawrence, the only member of Congress with experience working in the U.S. Postal Service, said delays in mail delivery are especially troubling considering the expected surge in absentee ballots from the Nov. 3 election. Last week, the Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson reported 10,000 ballots were not counted in the August primary because they were delivered too late.

We, unfortunately, have a new postmaster general who has come in with the President of United States daily saying how he does not want vote by mail and who has made it part of his platform in to attack the Postal Service, Lawrence said, adding. Our democracy is being held in the hands of the Postal Service.

The two Michigan lawmakers are troubled by new policies prohibiting letter carriers from taking overtime or making extra trips to deliver mail on time. Lawrence said postal workers are held hostage by the new policies, leading late mail to accumulate in post offices across Michigan.

Carl Blassingame Jr., president of the Michigan State Association of Letter Carriers, said the new changes disrupt the mail.

Its just recently all this has changed, Blassingame said. We have to look at this as what it is. Why all of a sudden Is there a change in the delivery of the mail?

Peters also correlated the reports of mail delays with DeJoys appointment in May. DeJoy was appointed by the Postal Service Board of Governors, which consists of nine governors appointed by Trump.

Peters, who is up for reelection in November, sent two letters to DeJoy seeking clarity on a number of policy changes instituted for what the senator suspects are arbitrary reasons.

The responses we have gotten back are not sufficient and certainly dont talk about what sort of research may have gone into the instituting of these processes, what kind of evidence or what kind of data was actually collected to determine whether or not these policy changes would actually help mail delivery, Peters said.

Lawrence said the U.S. Postal Service was already strained due to an increase in mail volume as more Americans turned to e-commerce as a result of quarantines caused by the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the USPS continues to bleed cash, reporting a net loss of $2.2 billion in the third quarter its 2020 fiscal year ending June 30. The USPS anticipates $11 billion in lost revenue this year.

DeJoy expressed confidence that the USPS could turn our business around and become financially healthy, during a meeting of the USPS Board of Governors last week. He said organizational changes are needed to make the delivery of mail more efficient and eliminate unnecessary overtime costs.

Our financial position is dire, stemming from substantial declines in mail volume, a broken business model and a management strategy that has not adequately addressed these issues, DeJoy said.

DeJoy said expressed a commitment to keep the Postal Service a nonpartisan organization, and said he is fully committed to deliver election mail in a timely manner.

Roscoe Woods, president of the American Postal Workers Union Local 480-481, said DeJoys policies are more focused on cutting costs than ensuring the mail is delivered on time.

Its not the United States postal business, its the United States Postal Service and thats what we do, Woods said.

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.

READ MORE ON MLIVE:

Michigan senator investigating Postal Service delays related to mail-in ballots

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
Alexander Lukashenko has been declared the winner of the 2020 Belarus presidential election with 79.7 percent of the votes, earning him a sixth consecutive term in office, AFP reports.

Having led the country since 1994, the 65-year-old was seen as a favourite candidate heading into Sunday's poll.

The presidential election was seen as a referendum on his 26-year rule, and its campaigns were regarded the most dynamic since 1994.

Over the past 26 years, President Lukashenko never got less than 70 percent of votes.

Lukashenko's main rival Svetlana Tikhanovskaya went into the vote hoping to bank on support from young voters and the upper-middle class.

(CGTN)
Fresh off a pair of wins at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, Respect Our Flag ($4.80) made it three in a row with a sharp 1:50 score in Sunday's (Aug. 9) featured $14,400 top-level pacing event at Harrah's Philadelphia.

Driver Joe Bongiorno hustled Respect Our Flag to the early lead through a :27 first quarter before yielding to Lyons Steel, who handled the bulk of the pacesetting duties. While Lyons Steel controlled a :55.3 half and faced mild outside pressure from Rock The Devil past three-quarters in 1:22.3, Respect Our Flag drafted comfortably in the pocket and awaited clearance.

Once the field turned for home, Bongiorno ducked Respect Our Flag to the open stretch, and the four-year-old Roll With Joe gelding powered clear by one-and-three-quarter lengths under vigorous encouragement. Rock The Devil lasted for second; Lyons Steel finished third after giving way in the final sixteenth.

Breeder Barbara Bongiorno co-owns nine-time winner Respect Our Flag with Bill Lambos and Dionisios Liberatos. Jenn Bongiorno handles the training duties.

Joe Bongiorno and George Napolitano Jr. led all drivers on the card with three wins apiece.

The Jackpot Hi-5 carryover continues to grow, now standing at $20,677.97 in advance of Wednesday's (Aug. 12) card. The Jackpot Hi-5 is a 20-cent base wager available in the fifth race each day, with the carryover only paying out in the event of one unique winning ticket.

Post time for Wednesday's 14-race card is 12:25 p.m. (EDT).

(Harrah's Philadelphia)
Fifteen thousand applications were submitted In just three hours on the day the window opened for receiving applications for the first round of COVID-19 Relief Pennsylvania Statewide Small Business Assistance grants.

That overwhelming response for a share of the $200 million in grant aid to help businesses impacted by the pandemic took the network of Pennsylvania Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), which administered the program, by surprise.

We did not expect the damage from COVID would have been so great and the need would have been so great. I dont know anyone could have predicted how many applications it would draw, said Dan Betancourt, president and CEO of Lancaster-based Community First Fund and chairman of the Pennsylvanias network of CDFIs.

Receiving close to 50,000 applications during the two-week application period requesting $860 million made the CDFIs realize businesses need for help was so great that they decided to distribute all $200 million more quickly in two rounds instead of the original plan to dole it out over four rounds.

On Monday, Gov. Tom Wolf announced the first round would reach nearly 5,000 businesses scattered across all 67 counties. Combined, those businesses would receive $96 million in grants that range from $5,000 to $50,000. Funding for the grant program comes from federal stimulus money provided to the state through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Businesses that were successful in landing a grant will be notified over the coming days following a second review to verify information included in their application, Betancourt said. A full listing of all the businesses that received grants will be available in two to three weeks, he said.

The window for the second and final round of grants from this program opened Monday and runs through midnight on Aug. 28. The winners of the second round of grants will be announced in September. Those who applied for the first round do not need to reapply as their request for money will be rolled over for consideration in the second round.

This is about meeting people where they are, said Sen. John Blake, D-Lackawanna County, during a virtual news conference organized by Senate Democrats, who played a key role in crafting the plan targeted to helping small businesses, including historically disadvantaged ones. This is about the lost revenue between what they made last year pre-pandemic and what they made this year in the midst of this crisis and try to compensate for that loss in order to give them a lifeline.

The grant program directed $100 million to the Main Street Business Revitalization Program and $100 million for the Historically Disadvantaged Business Revitalization Program. A separate $25 million in CARES funding was directed to offer loan payment relief to businesses and to shore up a CDFIs financial position due to a high number of loan defaults.

For both pots of grant money, the competition was stiff.

Betancourt said they received about 20,000 applications from businesses that fell into the historically disadvantaged application pool and 30,000 applications for the Main Street one. The average grant award was about $20,000, with just 15% of the grant awards falling in the $35,000 to $50,000 grant range. The grant awards were determined based on a businesses sales from the prior year.

To qualify for grants, businesses had to have no more than 25 full-time equivalent employees and less than $1 million a year in sales.

Blake assured during the news conference that decisions about which businesses received grants had absolutely zero executive or legislative influence.

Betancourt confirmed that. It was all independent, he said. It was done blindly. We assigned every [applicant] a number and then we ranked them via the scorecard. We ranked each application by county and we came up with the applicants approved for that county. We, at no time, looked at the name of the business while we were approving these grants.

But the scorecard did give priority to certain businesses, which is why personal care businesses including barber shops and hair salons and restaurants accounted for half of the award recipients, he said.

Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Davin said the pandemic probably will prove to be the biggest survival test that small business owners encounter. That particularly is the case for minority-owned businesses that have been disproportionately impacted by it, he said. Thats why Wolf tasked us to offer the funds in a way that will ensure minority-owned and women-owned and other historically disadvantaged businesses have access to it.

In the first round, 2,512 of historically disadvantaged businesses received nearly $47.7 million in grants and 2,412 Main Street businesses received $48.6 million in grants, according to data on the Department of Community and Economic Development website. The website also lists how many businesses in each county received grants from this program.

Administering the grant program taught CDFIs a lesson, Betancourt said. Their institutions are used to being lenders that lend money to businesses that need working capital, not grantors.

What we learned is we should not lend to fund losses. In COVID, you should grant business owners money so that they are not having to take loans for their losses for something they didnt do wrong. It makes sense in this unique time for government to provide grants, he said.

Blake said given the need that small businesses demonstrated exists through their overwhelming response to this program, he urged not only the Legislature but the U.S. Congress to step up and provide more funding so more businesses can be helped.

Every single small business that applied for aid needs aid. Every single one of them, Blake said. The only thing that limits our ability to help them all is additional resources.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.
The European Centre of Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) warned on Monday that the continent is seeing a "true resurgence" in coronavirus cases and recommended that affected countries consider reimposing certain restrictions.

Why it matters: Many European countries, including former global hotspots Italy and Spain, were able to successfully curb the spread of COVID-19 over the summer through stringent lockdown restrictions and a phased reopening. The ECDC warned that the "recent increase" in infections is a result of countries relaxing their social distancing and other mitigation measures.

What they're saying: "Countries that are now observing an increase in cases, after having lifted their control measures following a temporary improvement in the epidemiological situation, should consider re-instating selected measures through a phased, step-wise and sustainable approach," the ECDC said in a "rapid risk assessment."

"Assessment of risk at local level is important, taking into consideration the epidemiological situation, local services and lessons learned regarding the impact of previous measures."

"As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, it is natural for people to become fatigued and reduce compliance with public health measures."

The state of play: Ukraine, Romania and the United Kingdom are among the countries that reported more than 1,000 new cases on Sunday. Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands reported more than 500.
To me, a lot of the divisiveness and the stress and the resignations that are happening right and left are the consequence of the lack of a real national response plan, said Dr. Matt Willis, health officer for Marin County in Northern California. And were all left scrambling at the local and state level to extract resources and improvise solutions ... in a fractured health care system, in an under-resourced public health system.
In a nutshell: Donald Trumps recently signed executive orders prohibiting US transactions with WeChat and parent company Tencent could take a significant bite out of Apple. Cupertino's massive Chinese userbase relies on the app for their everyday lives, and should it no longer be available on iPhones, the handsets annual global shipments could fall by 25  30 percent.

It was last week when President Trump issued orders that would prohibit any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with TikTok owner ByteDance along with WeChat and parent Tencent.

WeChat has become a necessity in China. Not only is it used for its primary function of communications, but it's also a digital payment service, news source, vital for conducting business, and more.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo warns that if the company is forced to remove WeChat from its App Store globally, iPhone shipments could decline by a massive 25 to 30 percent while products such as AirPods and iPads will drop by 15  25 percent. Should the ban only cover the US, handset shipments will fall by just 3 to 6 percent, with other hardware dropping by less than 3 percent.

Kuo recommends investors reduce their holdings in companies part of Apples supply chain, such as LG Innotek and Genius Electronic Optical, such will be the impact of the WeChat ban.

We still dont know the extent of the prohibitions against WeChat and what they will entail. Owner Tencent has full ownership of Riot Games and a 48 percent ownership of Fortnite-maker Epic Games, as well as investments in Tesla, Reddit, Spotify, and others, so a ban could have a huge impact across the industry. A US official did say, however, that the order against WeChat blocks transactions involving the app and is not a broader ban against Tencent, but well have to wait a while before things become clearer. Either way, Apple and many other tech giants will be concerned.
Only 4.3% of America's 22.2 million business owners are Black, according to a February report by the Brookings Institute. And Black-owned businesses launch with about "a third less capital than their White peers and have difficulties raising private investments from mainstream investment systems," reported Brookings. While 7% of White business owners get a loan in their first year of business, only 1% of Black business owners do so.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Black-owned businesses have also been hit the hardest. According to a recent analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, "Black firms have been almost twice as likely to shutter as firms overall." And just 20% of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans went to areas that had the highest concentration of Black-owned businesses, the Fed found.

There are, however, resources available for Black-owned businesses. Here are ten that can help.

One Million Black Women

In partnership with Black women-led organizations, Goldman Sachs' new investment initiative, One Million Black Women will commit $10 billion in direct investment capital and $100 million in philanthropic support to address the dual disproportionate gender and racial biases that Black women face.

Lemon-AID Foundation

Marcus and Bobbi Lemonis created the Lemon-AID foundation to provide greater opportunities to women and minorities by investing in underserved communities and small businesses. Entrepreneurs will be required to know the ins and outs of their business and be prepared to share numbers and prove why they qualify for Lemon-AID when applying.

Grants.gov

Through the grants.gov site, business owners can view over 1,000 federal grant programs, conduct an in-depth search, learn about the application process and ultimately apply.

The Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA)

The Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce that aims to assist minority-owned businesses across the country.

It provides a number of grants and loans for minority-owned firms, including: the Entrepreneurship Education Program for Formerly Incarcerated Persons Grant, the Enterprising Women of Color Grant and the Minority Business Enterprise Inner City Innovation Hub Grant.

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) is a non-profit organization that aims to revitalize communities in need through its programs. It supports Black- and minority-owned businesses across the country through its Small Business Relief grant program. They also offer State-by-state mentorship and support services for small businesses.

The National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC)

The National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) is a non-profit corporate membership organization that supports minority-owned businesses. The NMSDC has a grant program called the Business Consortium Fund, which is intended to support certified minority-owned businesses.

Accion

Accion is a nonprofit organization that provides loans, access to resources and connections to diverse business owners and entrepreneurs. Its application for minority-owned business loans is available on its site.

Backstage Capital

Backstage Capital is a venture capital fund that invests in women, people of color and the LGBTQ community. Its Entrepreneur Investment applications are viewed on a rolling basis.

Foundation for Business Equity (FBE)

The Foundation for Business Equity's Business Equity Initiative supports and provides funding for Black and Latinx business owners.

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the FBE created a "response strategy team" to advise these businesses and created a "Covid-19 emergency fund" aimed to provide flexible loans and crisis response support teams to Massachusetts-based Black and Latinx businesses with revenues of at least $250,000.

Check out: The best credit cards of 2021 could earn you over $1,000 in 5 years

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A Centrelink office in Melbourne's inner east threatened with closure at the start of the coronavirus pandemic has been spared for another six months.

In May, residents were given just two days' notice of the planned closure of the Abbotsford office, with the nearest welfare centre six kilometres away in South Melbourne.

Centrelink call centres and offices have been busy during the pandemic-induced recession. Credit:Wayne Taylor

Community outrage forced a lease extension of three months in May. That was extended by another six months on Monday, according to building landlord Salta Properties.

"Salta Properties today signed a six-month extension of its lease with Services Australia for the property housing the Centrelink at Abbotsford," a spokesman said.
Caracol TV journalist Ricardo Ospina, left, and Mauricio Claver-Carone, senior director of Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council, at a summit in Bogota, Colombia, in 2019. (Gabriel Aponte / Getty Images)

Diplomats from several Latin American and European countries are trying to delay next month's vote on President Trump's nominee to lead a key international development bank, hoping to push the decision into next year, when a new U.S. president could be in office.

Trump broke norms by nominating a U.S. citizen from his National Security Council staff to head the Inter-American Development Bank, a lending agency that finances roughly $12 billion a year in a wide range of projects for Latin America and the Caribbean. For its six decades, the banks presidency was held by a Latin American national. The head of its counterpart organization, the World Bank, is traditionally a U.S. citizen, while the International Monetary Fund is run by a European.

Trump's pick is Mauricio Claver-Carone, a Floridian son of Cuban immigrants who advocates an aggressive U.S. policy toward leftist governments in Venezuela and Cuba.

A lawyer, Claver-Carone has little banking experience, and his appointment is being seen as part of Trumps effort to put Americans in charge of key international organizations. He is also very close to Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.

In a rare move to confront the Trump administration, diplomats from several Latin American and European countries have come out in opposition to Claver-Carone and called for the September annual assembly to be postponed indefinitely. If that fails, some have speculated that opposing countries may skip the meeting, depriving it of the quorum needed for the vote.

Costa Rica, a traditional U.S. ally reluctant to rock the boat with Washington, over the weekend joined Chile, Mexico, Argentina and the European Union, which have either opposed Claver-Carones nomination or urged a delay in the election.

Citing the coronavirus as a reason to postpone, the Finance and Foreign ministries added that they would continue to promote the nation's own candidate, former Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla.

Story continues

Canada has joined the opposition, diplomatic sources said, but has not done so publicly.

The European Union, which holds an advisory role with the IDB, also declared its opposition to Claver-Carone, saying the position should be held by a Latin American national and urging the election be put off.

Chiles opposition is significant because President Sebastian Pinera, a conservative businessman, has been relatively friendly with Trump. Under no circumstance is it reasonable to change the bank leadership at this moment, Pineras foreign minister, Andres Allamand, said last week.

Opponents probably lack the votes needed to defeat Claver-Carone or rally behind one of the rival candidates. Under voting rules, the U.S. controls about 30% of the final determination. Brazil, under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who styles himself as the Trump of the Tropics, has 11%, and Colombia, also a strong ally of Washington, slightly more than 3%  giving the bloc nearly 45%.

NSC officials presented a list of an additional dozen, mostly small Latin American and Caribbean countries that support Claver-Carone.

Arranging a boycott is the way to prevent the election of Claver-Carone, said Mauricio Silva, who retired last year as the bank's executive director for Central America.

Claver-Carone was a chief architect of Trump's policies to crack down on leftist governments in the region and pressure Central American countries to cooperate with the Trump administrations efforts to block migrants and asylum seekers from crossing into the U.S. from its southern border with Mexico.

Silva and others expressed doubt that Claver-Carone would be willing to address topics critical in Latin America but largely ignored by Trump, such as climate change and the promotion of human rights.

There has to be independence, especially from an American administration that has been very polarizing toward Latin America, Silva said.

Claver-Carone, who heads the NSC's Western Hemisphere section, declined to comment.

In an op-ed essay published in several U.S. and Latin American newspapers, Claver-Carone said he could strengthen U.S. commitment to the region and would promote a State Department program called America Crece (America Grows) that advocates infrastructure projects and other private investment to improve conditions in Latin America.

My candidacy for the IDB presidency breaks with history, presents a commitment from the United States to the region, and offers a new approach that seeks to strengthen the banks role, he wrote. As president, my tenure would represent a strategic realignment towards the Americas, improved governance, and a focus on our shared values of inclusion, prosperity, and security.

His confrontational style, however, has frequently been on display. He walked out of the inaugural ceremony of newly elected Argentine President Alberto Fernandez last year because a minister from Venezuelas government was present.

Claver-Carone late last month received a key endorsement from Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the ranking Democrat on the Senates Foreign Relations Committee. Menendez, also a hawk on Cuba, acknowledged he did not always agree with Claver-Carones policy decisions, but he believed Trump's nominee would be able to work across ideological lines in the Western Hemisphere and achieve consensus.

It will also be an essential task, Menendez added, for the next IDB president to commit to working in a bipartisan manner with the next U.S. president and their administration, regardless of party.

But Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), a member of the Senates powerful Appropriations Committee, said a Claver-Carone selection was a mistake. If Joe Biden is elected president in November, his administration would run into conflict with the Trump holdover, potentially jeopardizing future U.S. money for the bank, Leahy said.

Claver-Carone's idea of diplomacy is often to admonish and impose sanctions, which in Latin America more often than not means unilateral sanctions, which have isolated the United States, emboldened those who the sanctions are intended to punish, and harmed people in those countries who we want to help, Leahy said.

The vote to replace the current bank president, Luis Alberto Moreno, a Colombian diplomat who has been in the office since 2005, is scheduled for Sept. 12-13. The term is for five years, but a president can be reelected.




The Autoworker Rank-and-File Safety Committee Network is a national organization of workers throughout the auto industry who have organized to oppose the unsafe return to work by the auto companies and the United Auto Workers. The WSWS Autoworker Newsletter stands ready to assist autoworkers and other workers in establishing safety committees at their own workplaces. Email the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter at autoworkers@wsws.org to learn more.

Autoworkers are being deprived of the most basic information about the spread of COVID-19 in their plants and workplaces.

We know the coronavirus is spreading in the factories, and the so-called safety measures arent stopping it. We see workers get sick on the line. We share what little information we can get using social media and word of mouth. Some of our brothers and sisters will even take it upon themselves to post on Facebook when they test positive to alert others, because they know the companies wont inform anyone.

Work is becoming a daily horror movie. At Ford Dearborn Truck in Michigan last week, two people got sick, and they were whisked away and people on the line didnt know what was going on. At Fiat Chryslers Belvidere plant in Illinois, someone tested positive, and they were also snuck off the line by management.

At Toledo Jeep, we know that 75 workers have tested positive or are waiting for results. There were already at least 44 cases at GM Wentzville by the end of July. The companies keep saying these infections were contracted outside the plants, but why should we believe them?

Workers at the Ford Dearborn Truck plant (Photo credit: Ford media)

Then they have the gall to try blame us for not being careful enough in our daily lives, while they keep us packed together on the lines, unable to social distance, and dont pay us when we have to quarantine.

Its not just the Big Three. At the auto parts plants and suppliers like Faurecia, Lear, Syncreon and others, our brothers and sisters are also being kept in the dark and subjected to the same deadly conditions. And our brothers in Mexico have told us how General Motors simply sends workers who feel sick back to the line, potentially infecting others.

The UAW is doing nothing to help us. When we ask for information or raise our concerns, they defend the companies and try to say that we cant do anything. But its no surprise theyre working with management to cover up the spread of cases, given everything we know about the bribery and crimes theyve engaged in.

The companies and the UAW couldnt care less about protecting workers privacy. All they care about is keeping the lines running. Theyre using HIPAA and privacy laws as a smokescreen, hoping we dont ask too many questions.

The real reason they dont want to admit how many cases are in the plants is because they know theyd have an uprising on their hands if workers knew the full truth.

We say: Workers have a right to know how far COVID-19 is spreading in their workplaces!

We completely reject the justifications given by the companies and the UAW for depriving us of this vital information. Their arguments have no basis in science or public health. All theyre thinking about is profit. How can we protect ourselves or make informed decisions about our health and safety if we dont know where a disease is that can kill us, or kill our families?

We demand the following:

All workers must be immediately notified of any cases of COVID-19 and all areas and shifts that are affected. This information cannot be kept secret from workers.

The companies must keep a total count of positive and potential COVID-19 cases, updated in real time, that is available to all workers.

Workers must have regular, universal testing. Temperature checks and self-reporting symptoms are just so much PR.

We will not be targeted, written up, terminated or harassed in any way for taking time off to get tested and get results, or for raising concerns about safety.

When theres a case confirmed, the factory should be closed for at least 24 hours for deep cleaning, not just the affected area, but the whole plant.

Social distancing must be implemented at all timeswhen entering and leaving the plant and during bathroom, lunch and other break times.

Whenever conditions are not safe, we have the right to collectively refuse to work without any threat of retaliation by management or the union.

The same corporate politicians who forced us back to work before it was safe are now trying to force our children and their teachers to go back to school while the pandemic is even more out of control. Things are only going to get worse until we all stand togetherautoworkers, teachers, nurses and healthcare workers, service workers, transportation and delivery workersand fight for our rights, in the US and in every country.

We call on our brothers and sisters: raise these demands! Share this statement on social media. Join a rank-and-file safety committee or organize one at your plant. Workers deserve to be treated like human beings, not slaves.

Signed,

FCA Sterling Heights Rank-and-File Safety Committee

FCA Jefferson North Rank-and-File Safety Committee

FCA Toledo Jeep Rank-and-File Safety Committee

Ford Dearborn Truck Rank-and-File Safety Committee
Puro Sound Labs is looking to protect consumers ears without reducing quality via its newly-introduced volume-limiting PuroPro headphones.

Not only do these headphones boast hi-fidelity studio audio at a comparatively affordable cost. Theyll also keep listening levels within the appropriate range to not damage the wearers hearing. And, according to Puro Sound Labs, theyll do that without sacrificing anywhere else. Or at least not anywhere thats really important for wireless headphones.

So what, exactly, do PuroPro headphones deliver thats different?

Now, on the outside, PuroPro looks just about like any other pair of cans for listening to audio wirelessly. Theyre minimal and sleek and ship with a hard-cover case. On the inside, theyre designed to protect users ears.

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In terms of how that works, Puro Sound Labs indicates thats via self-limiting volume constraints placed on the headphones. PuroPro headphones wont just let users listen as loudly as they like. The World Health Organization recommends headphone users only listen for up to 8-hours per day at 85dB volume. Or just 50-minutes per day at 95dB. And these headphones will hold users to that.

Quality, conversely, is supported behind the scenes via Puro Balanced Response Curve. Thats a technology that Puro Sound Labs says will protect audio integrity when streaming over Bluetooth 5.0. Specifically, it says the tech delivers clear, crisp vocals but also full dynamic bass. These headphones, the company says, will work great across all genres of music just as with some of the best listening gadgets on the market.

Its also packed that technology in with Digital Noise Reduction Technology. More concisely, thats two adjustable active noise canceling levels at either 15dB +/- 2dB or 32dB +/- 2dB. The system uses 4 mics to that end. And it has a separate fifth microphone for communication.

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For battery life, the headphones perform at 85dB for 28-hours on end with active noise canceling. With that feature turned off, that extends up to 32-hours. PuroPro can last up to 300-hours on standby. Or indefinitely via the included 3.5mm aux port.

Where to buy?

Puro Sound Labs says that the PuroPro headphones are already available to buy too. And they wont cost an arm and a leg either. These wireless headphones are available in both the UK and the US on Amazon.com. In the UK, the wearables have been priced at 199.99. Only the currency changes for US buyers, with the price set at $199.99 on the stateside site.

Buy The Puro Sound Labs PuroPro Headphones
Planning Minister Rob Stokes says the NSW government is working on long-term plans to make better use of streets and public spaces as cafes, bars and restaurants struggle amid the pandemic.

Business groups are urging councils to close streets to traffic and embrace more rooftop venues in a bid to encourage outdoor dining as people increasingly avoid indoor venues.

The state government's 24-hour economy strategy is due to go to cabinet this month, but it will need an overhaul because of new restrictions imposed on venues since the coronavirus crisis hit.

Sydney needs to turn to rooftop bars and outdoor dining as the COVID-19 pandemic hits the night-time economy. Credit:Edwina Pickles

With NSW still on high alert, the Committee for Sydney is leading the call for changes to the way cafes, restaurants and bars operate, saying people would feel safer attending outdoor venues.
The Perseid meteor shower is back this summer, peaking this week in the night sky over Oregon and offering a small slice of astronomical normalcy in an otherwise turbulent time.

Meteors are expected to peak the night of Aug. 11 to 12, according to the International Meteor Organization, with the best viewing coming after midnight through about 4 a.m. Viewing the meteors this year may be hampered, however, by the brightness of the half moon and the lack of organized events around the Portland area.

The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry typically hosts Perseid meteor shower star parties at Rooster Rock and L.L. Stub Stewart state parks, but both have been canceled this year because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Stargazing is not allowed at L.L. Stub Stewart at all this summer, with the park closing to the public at 9 p.m., and all restrooms closing at 7 p.m. to discourage visitors from lingering late into the evening. Rooster Rock also closes to the public at 9 p.m.

Some popular areas to stargaze are closed completely due to the pandemic, including Crown Point and many other spots in the Columbia River Gorge. Before heading out to a stargazing spot, check to make sure it will be open, and consider sticking close to home to comply with Gov. Kate Browns stay home order.

Jim Todd, director of space and science education at OMSI, said people should be able to see some meteors in the city, about one to 10 per hour, but the odds go up significantly under darker skies, where up to 30 meteors per hour may be visible.

More meteors are usually visible in the annual event (about 60 to 100 per hour, in some years), but this year the show will be affected by the moon, which will be in its last quarter and will rise around midnight on the night of Aug. 11.

Todd said OMSI is refraining from suggesting any specific places for people to go watch the meteor shower this year, to discourage crowding and illegal parking.

I just say look toward the northeast, away from the city lights, Todd said. Just be out there, keep your eyes open  and look up.

--Jamie Hale; jhale@oregonian.com; 503-294-4077; @HaleJamesB

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PRESS RELEASE Paris, August 10th, 2020. 5:45pm

YOUR OPERATIONAL LEASING SOLUTION FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION

TOUAX SCA announces that its subsidiary Touax Rail Ltd successfully signed a 81.9 million capital increase to accelerate the development of its freight railcar division in Europe and Asia

Touax SCA announces today that its subsidiary Touax Rail Limited has entered into a final agreement with DIF Capital Partners to increase its capital by 81.9 million to accelerate the development of its long term leasing activities of freight wagons in Europe and Asia.

Touax SCA will remain the main shareholder holding 51% of the capital and 49% will be owned by its new partner DIF Capital Partners, through its DIF Core Infrastructure Fund II.

The transaction will be immediately accretive for Touax Rail Limited as proceeds will be used on the one hand to buy out minority shareholders in two special purpose companies owning c. 4,000 platforms and in Touax Rail India Limited, and to finance the Touax Rail Limited growth by acquiring new wagons. On the other hand, proceeds will be used to repay some intercompany loans to Touax SCA.

The transaction will strengthen the position of Touax Rail Limited in Europe and Asia with a fleet size of c. 6,930 platforms owned and c. 4,080 platforms managed on behalf of third parties, and increase its capacity to grow and finance the needs of its customers.

The transaction is subject to approval by the German Antitrust authorities. Touax expects to close the transaction by the end of September.

Fabrice Walewski, General Partner & CEO of Touax group, says that "We are very delighted to have DIF Capital Partners as partner to accompany the development of our long term leasing activities of freight wagons in Europe & Asia. With this transaction, Touax Rail Limited will strengthen its position in the market."

Carl Jobst von Hoersten, partner and head of DIF Germany added: "This transaction is a unique investment providing exclusive access to the attractive railcar market. Touax Rail is a well-established, asset heavy railcar platform with a robust and resilient business model which is well-positioned for growth. We look forward working together with Touax Rail's highly experienced management team to further grow the platform."

TOUAX Group leases out tangible assets (freight railcars, river barges and containers) on a daily basis worldwide, both on its own account and for investors. With nearly 1.2bn in assets under management, TOUAX is one of the leading European players in the leasing of such equipment.

TOUAX SCA is listed on the EURONEXT stock market in Paris - Euronext Paris Compartment C (ISIN code: FR0000033003) - and is listed on the CAC Small, CAC Mid & Small and EnterNextPEA-PME 150 indices. For further information please visit: www.touax.com

DIF Capital Partners is a leading global independent infrastructure fund manager, with 7.5 billion of assets under management across nine closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF Capital Partners invests in green field and operational infrastructure assets located primarily in Europe, the Americas and Australasia through two complementary strategies:

DIF CIF funds target equity investments in small to mid-sized infrastructure assets in the telecom, energy and transportation sectors.

DIF Infrastructure funds target equity investments in public-private partnerships (PPP/PFI/P3), concessions, utilities and renewable energy projects with long-term contracted or regulated income streams.

DIF has a team of over 145 professionals, based in nine offices located in Amsterdam (Schiphol), Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Paris, Santiago, Sydney and Toronto. Please visit www.dif.eu for further information.

Contact details:

TOUAX ACTIFIN

Fabrice & Raphael WALEWSKI Ghislaine Gasparetto

touax@touax.com ggasparetto@actifin.fr

www.touax.com Tel: +33 1 56 88 11 11

Tel: +33 1 46 96 18 00



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Domestic equity benchmarks came off the day's high in morning trade. The undertone of the market continued to be positive amid positive global cues. US President Donald Trump signed executive actions extending financial relief to Americans hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

At 10:23 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 309.99 points or 0.81% at 38,350.56. The Nifty 50 index added 96.90 points or 0.86% at 11,310.95.

The Supreme Court (SC) will be hearing the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) case later today, 10 August. The apex court on 20 July reserved its order on permitting telecom companies to make staggered payments over 15 years. Bharti Airtel shed 0.46% while Vodafone Idea added 2.27%.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 1.47% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 1.27%. Both these indices outperformed the benchmark Sensex.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1514 shares rose and 688 shares fell. A total of 121 shares were unchanged.

Buzzing Segment :

Shares of eight defence companies rose by 4.6% to 9.6% after defence minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday announced import ban on 101 defence items. Dynamatic Technologies (up 9.65%), Bharat Electronics (up 8.27%), Astra Microwave Products (up 8.2%), Hindustan Aeronautics (up 7.72%), Bharat Dynamics (up 6.9%), Bharat Forge (up 5%), Premier Explosives (up 4.81%) and BEML (up 4.6%) were top gainers in defence segment.

The defence ministry has decided to put 101 items put on embargo to boost indigenisation of defence production. The embargo on imports is planned to be progressively implemented between 2020 and 2024. The deadline has been set for December 2025. The list of 101 embargoed items comprises some high technology weapon systems like artillery guns, assault rifles, corvettes, sonar systems, transport aircraft, light combat helicopters (LCHs), radars and many other items.

Earnings Today:

Among the Nifty stocks, Power Grid Corporation of India (up 1.02%), Shree Cement (up 1.74%) and Titan Company (up 0.69%) will announce their quarterly earnings today.

Among the other stocks, Akzo Nobel (up 0.08%), AstraZeneca Pharma (up 3.16%), Bank of Baroda (up 1.34%), Camlin Fine Sciences (up 2.50%), Cochin Shipyard (up 2.52%), Equitas Holdings (up 0.39%), HEG (up 1.09%), IPCA Labs (up 5.96%), KEC International (up 0.63%), Meghmani Organics (down 0.81%), TTK Prestige (up 0.76%), Ujjivan Financial Services (up 0.37%) and V-Mart Retail (up 1.37%) will announce their quarterly earnings today.

Earnings Impact:

Divi's Laboratories surged 13.58% to Rs 3162.35 after the company's consolidated net profit jumped 81% to Rs 492 crore on a 47% increase in total income to Rs 1748 crore in Q1 FY21 over Q1 FY20. Profit before tax in Q1 June 2020 stood at Rs 661 crore, up by 77% from Rs 373 crore in Q1 June 2019. Forex gain for the current quarter amounted to Rs 5 crore as against a loss of Rs 6 crore during the corresponding quarter of the last year. The company has been able to have near normal operations during the quarter and there was minimal impact due to COVID-19 pandemic.

The company further said that while a significant part of the ongoing capex programs has been completed during the last financial year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been delay in implementing the balance part of the capex programs taken up by the company due to non-availability of workmen of some contractors implementing the projects. It expects to complete the capex programs by second half of the financial year.

Cipla jumped 6.76% to Rs 777.85 after the company's net profit rose 21% to Rs 578 crore on 9% increase in total revenue from operations to Rs 4,346 crore in Q1 FY21 over Q1 FY20. EBITDA margin stood at 24.1% as 30 June 2020 as against 22.7% as 30 June 2019. Cipla said that it has achieved zero net debt position led by strong collections and improved EBITDA.

India business grew by 16% YoY with strong growth across the three businesses. Overall South African business continued the strong growth momentum to deliver growth of 17% on a YoY basis in local currency; private business continues to outpace the market. The US business reported $135 million led by Albuterol ramp-up; 14% QoQ growth.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Soria F, D'Andrea D, Abufaraj M, Moschini M, Giordano A, Gust KM, Karakiewicz PI, Babjuk M, Gontero P, Shariat SF. Stratification of Intermediate-risk Non-muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer Patients: Implications for Adjuvant Therapies. Eur Urol Focus. 2020 Jun 9:S2405-4569(20)30115-2. doi: 10.1016/j.euf.2020.05.004. Online ahead of print.

There is a need for accurate nomograms for predicting oncological outcomes in intermediate-risk nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients. Such accurate tools can be used to guide decision making for appropriate adjuvant therapy.A recent study published by Soria et al. in European Urology Focus described the development of a model that classifies the individual risk of recurrence and/or progression based on several prognostic factors. The investigators also validated the International Bladder Consultation Group (IBCG), model. They built a nomogram to predict PFS select patients who may benefit from adjuvant BCG instead of adjuvant chemotherapy using a multivariable Cox-regression model, a Cox-based nomogram, and decision curve analysis (DCA).In this retrospective study, the investigators included 636 intermediate-risk NMIBC patients. The median follow-up period was 92.3 months (interquartile range IQR 56.3117.5). During this time, the investigators found that 346 (54%) had disease recurrence, and 91 (14%) patients had disease progression. The median time to recurrence was 22 months (IQR 666) and 71 months to progression (IQR 36108). The investigators identified time to recurrence < 1 year as the most important predictor of recurrence-free survival (PFS) (hazard ratio [HR] 86.22). Furthermore, they found that age (HR 1.04, p < 0.001), time to recurrence < 1 yr (HR 3.41, p < 0.001), tumor size > 3 cm (HR 1.51, p = 0.006), and tumor grade G2 (HR 1.73, p = 0.01) are independent predictors of PFS.The authors demonstrated the improved accuracy of their model compared to the IBCG model, which does not consider some of these clinical variables. Using decision curve analysis, the authors show that their model is superior to the strategy of treating all the patients with BCG across threshold probabilities of progression to muscle-invasive disease between 5% and 40%. The authors note the study's limitations, including the lack of external validation in a different cohort.This study is an important contribution towards personalized adjuvants strategies for NMIBC based on a refined nomogram. Prospective testing of these strategies is needed.Written by: Bishoy M. Faltas, MD, Director of Bladder Cancer Research, Englander Institute for Precision Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City, New YorkReference:
The measures to control the spread of crop threatening migratory pest desert locusts have so far been undertaken in more than 5.22 lakh hectares area in 10 states since April, the Union Agriculture Ministry said on Monday.

The control operations are being done by both Locust Circle Offices (LCOs) and state governments, it said in a statement.

On Sunday, some scattered locust adults were active in Barmer, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Nagaur, Churu, Hanumangarh and Sriganganagar districts of Rajasthan and in Kutch district of Gujarat, it added.

According to the ministry, "No significant crop losses have been reported in the states of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Haryana. However, some minor crop losses have been reported in some districts of Rajasthan."



Since April 11, LCOs have done locust control operations in 2,58,406 hectares in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

Whereas the state governments have undertaken control operations in 2,64,491 hectares area in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Bihar.

On August 9 night, the control operations were carried out during day and night time at 46 places in seven districts -- Barmer, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Nagaur, Churu, Hanumangarh and Sriganganagar -- of Rajasthan and one place in Kutch district of Gujarat against hoppers and some scattered adults by LCOs.

Presently, 104 control teams with spray vehicles are deployed in the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, and more than 200 central government personnel are engaged in locust control operations.

Further, 15 drones are deployed at Barmer, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Nagaur and Phalodi in Rajasthan for effective control of locusts on tall trees and in inaccessible areas through spraying of pesticides.

Drones are used in hopper control also. A Bell helicopter has been deployed in Rajasthan for use in the Scheduled Desert Area as per the need. The Indian Air Force is also conducting trials in anti-locust operation by using a Mi-17 helicopter.

As per the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) August 7 update, locust swarms continue to persist in several countries in Horn of Africa and Yemen and summer breeding is in progress on both sides of the Indo-Pak border, the ministry added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The third time has truly proved to be the charm for longtime Standardbred owner John Fodera.

Fodera, who first started owning Standardbreds 59 years ago, finally made it to the Hambletonian winner's circle this past weekend courtesy of Ramona Hill and her gutsy, front-stepping score at the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, New Jersey.



Andrew McCarthy and Ramona Hill, pictured after winning the 2020 Hambletonian. Andrew McCarthy and Ramona Hill, pictured after winning the 2020 Hambletonian.

The 2020 edition of the Hambletonian was the third time that Fodera, of Castleton Corners, New York, entered a Standardbred to contest the coveted stakes. And, with his filly, the third time was definitely the charm for the 75-year-old Fodera, who co-owns Ramona Hill along with Florida's Steve Wienick, Milton, Ontario's Brad Grant, Syracuse's Crawford Farms Racing, and Austin, Texas' Robert Leblanc.

Its the thrill of a lifetime, something a horse owner dreams about. Im still in euphoria," Fodera told silive.com on Monday (August 10), two days after the dust from the victory had settled.

In the 2020 Hambletonian, driver Andrew McCarthy sent the three-year-old daughter of Muscle Hill to the front during the middle half of the $1-million stakes, made the lead and dared her competition to come get her. Ramona Hill's elite counterparts tried their best, but their best just wasn't enough, as the Tony Alagna trainee would go on to trot to a one-length victory in a stakes-record-equalling 1:50.1.

After having owned Standardbreds for decades and finally winning the Hambletonian, Fodera told silive.com that "nothing compares to this" and that "its just a phenomenal feeling."



John Fodera, pictured in the Hambletonian winner's circle after winning the 2020 edition with Ramona Hill. John Fodera, pictured in the Hambletonian winner's circle after winning the 2020 edition with Ramona Hill.

(With files from silive.com)
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's new executive actions to disburse coronavirus relief without Congress sparked confusion and frustration Sunday among businesses, Democrats and state officials, some of whom lamented the moves would not deliver the necessary relief to cash-strapped Americans.

Trump's directives were aimed at offering new unemployment benefits, protecting renters from eviction and postponing the payment of a federal tax. But an array of economists and lawmakers depicted these policies as incomplete, unworkable or legally questionable - raising the prospect that the president's attempt to boost the economy may have a muted impact.

One of the orders allows employees making less than $104,000 to delay until January payment of a payroll tax that funds Social Security and Medicare. Trump added that he would try to change federal rules next year to make the deferred payments into a permanent tax cut - but only if he is reelected.

The tax typically is taken out of paychecks by employers. And businesses, payment processors and economists signaled Sunday, in the absence of a guarantee, that the payroll taxes actually will be absolved, businesses would be unlikely to alter worker paychecks.

"It's a little bit of a leap of faith on an employer's part," said Pete Isberg, the vice president of government affairs for ADP, which processes payments for 40 million workers and 800,000 businesses.

Isberg said it may take months for some businesses to implement a system that can defer payroll taxes for a few months, delaying any potential boost to the economy. "It's not clear employers broadly will adopt this," he added. "It's not clear employees will want to take it even if they qualify."

Unable to swing a deal with Democrats, Trump resorted to executive actions as concerns in Washington intensified about the economic distress - and the political fallout - caused by the pandemic.

"The Lord and the Founding Fathers created executive orders because of partisan bickering and divided government," White House economic adviser Peter Navarro said Sunday on NBC.

But Trump's attempts to circumvent the partisan logjam on Capitol Hill instead may be illustrating the limits of executive power - and the costs that can come from invoking it. In this case, a more long-lasting legislative solution may have been delayed with the White House deciding to act on its own, said Daniel Hemel, a law professor at the University of Chicago in an interview.

"It's a Band-Aid on an open wound," he said Sunday. Trump "can do it, legally, but to provide real lasting relief he needs help from Congress - and if anything, he made that less likely yesterday. Most of us won't see more money in our paychecks, and the millions of families on unemployment will still be in crisis come September."

The coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on the U.S. economy, forcing many businesses to close and lay off workers. Certain sectors, particularly travel, hospitality and retail, have been hit particularly hard. The country has more than 30 million Americans collecting unemployment insurance and has not rehired half the workers who had lost jobs by the end of April, a fact White House officials acknowledged Sunday.

Democrats pounced on the confusion from Trump's executive directives, arguing that the White House should resume negotiations on a broader relief package. Those talks had collapsed last week after both sides dug in on what they believed the package should entail and how much it should cost.

The stalemate resulted in the expiration of a critical economic lifeline to millions of Americans - an extra $600 each week in unemployment benefits that Congress approved in March.

"Unfortunately, the president's executive orders, described in one word, could be paltry, in three words, unworkable, weak, and far too narrow," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Sunday on ABC.

In response to the expiring aid, Trump on Saturday signed an order that would offer $400 a week in federal unemployment benefits. To pay for the program, the president said he would tap $44 billion in federal funds that are allocated for natural disaster relief such as a hurricane or wildfire.

But states would have to contribute $100 a week to each worker's check, with the federal government putting up the rest. Beyond the legal questions surrounding the maneuver, many states are facing severe budget deficits as they fight the coronavirus, and several economists and lawmakers said governors may be unlikely to sign onto the program.

States are asking the federal government to offer as much as $1 trillion in new aid to cover budget gaps. Asked whether Ohio could afford the new unemployment insurance expense, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine replied on CNN: "The answer is, I don't know yet."

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, tweeted: "Executive Orders can't replace legislative actions. States can't pay 25% of unemployment costs. It's simply impossible."

On "Fox News Sunday," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin suggested that the administration could be flexible on the state contribution, saying: "The 25% from the states - they can either take that out of the money we've already given them or the president can waive that."

According to the president's directive, the aid should run through Dec. 6 or until funding runs out. But $44 billion would cover less than five weeks of payments for the ranks of the 30 million Americans who are currently unemployed, several economists noted.

But top administration officials on Sunday appeared confused about when the first checks might be paid. Mnuchin said the jobless benefits could be available "immediately," but White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on CNN that the payments could take a couple of weeks.

Even if state governments sign onto the program, the jobless benefits might be out of reach for Americans in greatest need: Only out-of-work Americans receiving more than $100 a week in state unemployment insurance are eligible for the federal aid. That means those at the bottom of the income distribution - particularly workers who rely on tips and the self-employed - could see no additional federal benefit at all, said Andy Stettner, an unemployment insurance expert at the Century Foundation.

The White House rejected the accusation that its policies would disproportionately hurt the poorest Americans. A spokesman added that the $100-a-week limit was aimed at curbing fraud and making sure those who are receiving the federal benefit have already qualified for an unemployment program. "It's utter nonsense to suggest that the Trump administration is somehow targeting poor people," said Judd Deere, a White House spokesman. "The president is acting where the Democrats are putting people's futures at risk."

One of Trump's other executive orders was aimed at minimizing evictions and foreclosures. But the order does not reinstate a federal eviction moratorium that expired last month. Instead, it calls on the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to "consider" whether it is necessary to temporarily halt evictions. The action fell short of what housing advocates said is needed to keep millions of Americans in their homes.

Trump's directive on the payroll tax break came after the White House pressed Congress for months to include the tax cut as part of a new congressional coronavirus relief package. But the idea repeatedly ran into political resistance, including among Republicans, who questioned at times whether it would create new fiscal headaches for Social Security and the government's rapidly increasing deficit.

Trump on Saturday forged ahead, deferring but not forgiving Americans' payroll taxes from Sept. 1 until the end of the year. Trump stressed that he would seek to make the changes permanent, telling reporters that he would try to "terminate" the payroll taxes Americans rack up between September and the end of the year if he is reelected.

"This will mean bigger paychecks for working families," he said at a news conference in Bedminster, N.J.

But experts said businesses are unlikely to begin deferring tax payments or boosting workers' checks by next month - or, perhaps, at all. As they await additional guidance from the Trump administration, many are bracing for the gargantuan task of rethinking their payment systems, said Mike Trabold, the director of compliance at Paychex, a payment-processing company. He added that federal law also holds companies responsible if the taxes are not properly paid to the U.S. Treasury on time.

"I think what most employers are going to do is not pass this on to their employees," added Josh Bivens, the director of research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. "They're not going to give money to the worker because the government is at some point going to come back for it."

Instead, the costs of Trump's political gambit could prove great, thrusting the hot-button issue of Social Security and the future of federal entitlement programs into the election mainstream. Retirement benefits historically are sacrosanct in American politics, and Trump's mere suggestion he may seek permanent changes to the way they are financed raised immediate concerns that it could lead to lasting changes to the monthly checks paid to seniors.

The AARP, for one, criticized Trump in a statement for actions it said "exacerbates people's already-heightened fears and concerns" about their financial futures.

On Saturday, Trump tried to use the payroll tax announcement to mount an attack on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, arguing that the former vice president and his party would end the deferral, "raising everyone's taxes and taking this away." Biden countered by accusing Trump of trying to "undermine the entire financial footing of Social Security," with the effect of putting Americans' benefits "in doubt."

"I do think the more permanent change, advocating for some kind of permanent reduction or elimination of part or all of the payroll tax, would likely be tough political ground for the president to be on," added Shai Akabas, the director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Sunday insisted that she and Schumer had made significant concessions to get a deal over the course of two weeks of lengthy meetings with Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

"We have to reach an agreement," Pelosi said on "Fox News Sunday." "Children are food-insecure, families are at risk of being evicted, the virus is moving like a freight train."

Pelosi repeated that Democrats had offered to reduce the price of their $3.4 trillion bill by $1 trillion, largely by changing the duration of proposed programs.

But Mnuchin said Democrats had refused to come off their $915 billion request for money for cities and states, a figure he termed "ridiculous." He said that apart from that issue and a dispute over the appropriate level of unemployment insurance, all other major matters had been resolved. On Sunday, he called for passing legislation on the 70% to 80% of issues for which there was agreement, while pursuing the other issues later.

"We don't have to get everything done at once, what we should do is get things done for the American public now, come back for another bill afterwards," Mnuchin said on "Fox News Sunday."

Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill denied that there had been agreement reached on most major issues as Mnuchin had said.

Fox News interviewer Chris Wallace pressed Pelosi on her strategy in negotiations, where she held out for many of the Democrats' demands in hopes the administration would agree, but ultimately they walked away instead and the president acted on his own.

"You're known as a master negotiator, but didn't you mess this one up?" Wallace asked.

"Well clearly you don't have an understanding of what is happening here," Pelosi replied, criticizing the "weakness of the president's executive orders, which don't give the money to an enhanced benefit but put a complicated formula there which will take awhile if at all to accomplish to put money in the pockets of the American people."
Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba and his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud have discussed in a phone conversation trade development and investment cooperation between their countries, as well as a possibility of simplification of the procedure of entering Saudi Arabia for some categories of Ukrainian citizens.

According to the press service of the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine, Kuleba suggested reviving political consultations online between the foreign ministries of Ukraine and Saudi Arabia for the first time over eleven years. His Saudi counterpart agreed to start preparations for the consultations.

The ministers also focused on trade development and investment cooperation between Ukraine and Saudi Arabia, which, in the opinion of Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, has a huge potential.

"Ukraine expects a new impetus for the development of trade and investment cooperation with Saudi Arabia. I believe fulfilment of the potential for trade and economic cooperation will bring noticeable benefits to our countries," Kuleba said.

The minister also discussed possible steps for further simplification of the procedure of entering the kingdom for certain categories of Ukrainian citizens.

The Saudi minister also accepted Kuleba's invitation to visit Ukraine.

"Dmytro Kuleba also confirmed the invitation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to King [of Saudi Arabia] Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to visit Ukraine and was assured that the invitation will be considered as soon as the COVID-19 quarantine restrictions are cancelled," the press service said.

Saudi Arabia is one of Ukraine's important partners in the Persian Gulf. The volume of trade with Saudi Arabia in 2019 was estimated at almost $920 million.

From September 28, 2019, Saudi Arabia introduced multi-entry tourist visas for citizens of 49 countries, including Ukraine.

From August 1, 2020, Ukraine introduced visa-free travel regime from Saudi Arabia citizens.
Peering through the tiny window of a hospital ward, Caitie Scott says goodbye to her mother whom she no idea when she will see again.

Unable to show a smile behind her mask and face shield, the young nurse holds up two gloved hands to show her she is OK.

Tears stream down her mother Sue Scott's face, but her daughter must desperately hold back her own for fear of having to touch her face.

Ms Scott, 27, has volunteered to work in the coronavirus ward of Knox Private Hospital in Melbourne, surrounded by pain, death and loneliness.

Caitie Scott says goodbye to her mother through an inch-wide window in the door to the coronavirus ward in Knox Private Hospital in Melbourne

Ms Scott, 27, described the pain of saying goodbye to her mother Sue Scott (right, with her father on the left) after she volunteered to work in the coronavirus ward

'Seeing me in full PPE, through a locked door that's been sealed with hazard tape, was all too much. She is proud of me, but she is scared,' she said.

'I want to rip off my gown and mask, jump through the door and hug her to make her feel better.

'Instead, I put my hand to the glass and she does the same as more tears roll down her face.'

Every day since she has run between seriously ill elderly patients evacuated from aged care homes across virus-ridden Victoria.

Ms Scott knows that though she will see her family again when the crisis is over, many of her patients never will.

'For some of the people I'm caring for, they haven't physically seen or touched a family member since February, and some may not get that chance again,' she said.

'These people have been kept isolated in their rooms for months, they've only seen masks and gowns, only touched gloves, and only heard their loved ones voices through devices for a few minutes a day.

Ms Scott can't understand why some Victorians complain about having to wear a mask to the shops when she spends her entire day in a proverbial suit of armour

'It's heartbreaking to hold their hand while they cry and see their daily struggle, so I won't shed a tear for my situation, because in this PPE I can't even shed a tear for theirs.'

Ms Scott can't understand why some Victorians complain about having to wear a mask to the shops when she spends her entire day in a proverbial suit of armour.

The bright yellow plastic gowns over her scrubs make the ward feel like a sauna and the sweat make them stick to her exposed skin.

After just a few days she had pressure sores between her thumbs and index fingers because the gloves don't fit properly.

The rest of her hands are raw from vigorously washing her hands and applying hand sanitiser after every patient.

But even the extreme discomfort of wearing the full-body PPE is better than the alternative.

'As soon as you take one gown off after being with a patient, you're not comfortable again until you've put a fresh gown back on and feel protected again,' she said.

'The N95 masks are claustrophobic, cutting into our skin and giving us pressure sores on our noses, cheeks and ears, rashes on our faces, yet we pull them tighter because they're our saving us from the same fate as our patients.

Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, who works at a testing clinic in Melbourne, blames a lack of personal protective equipment for the high rate of infection among those on the front line

'We see each other hurting yet we don't complain, one look at our patients and we don't feel any of our own pain anymore.

'So please, dont complain about those soft masks across your face that you wear for 30 minutes when grocery shopping, and cherish the time at home knowing the air you breathe is clean.'

Other medical workers in Melbourne, where a record 19 patients died on Monday, have also told of the toll PPE takes on their bodies and pleaded with the public to wear masks.

Royal Melbourne emergency nurse Abbey Fistrovic said the public were as much on the front line of the battle against coronavirus as health workers.

'I just saw our numbers which are up again and it's disheartening because I have the mask pushing all over my face and just being highly uncomfortable and [I'm] just thinking, when is this ever going to end?' she said.

American nurse Syndi Lane shared a photo of her in March with heavy bruising from wearing a hospital mask all day

Italian nurse Alessia Bonari also in March shared a photo of her pressure-marked face, while calling on the public to do their bit and stay at home

Another Royal Melbourne emergency department nurse Mel Pearson said health workers were dehydrated because the industrial-grade N95 masks and face shields cannot be removed at all while working.

Despite all these precautions, more than 1,000 of Victoria's more than 8,000 active cases are medical workers infected on the front lines.

Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, who works at a COVID-19 testing clinic in Melbourne, blames a lack of personal protective equipment for the high rate of infection.

'It's a really dire situation, since this whole crisis started we were calling out for good access to good protective equipment - that means masks, that means gowns, that means gloves,' he told the Today show on Monday

'The problem is, it's very patchy.'

Dr Haikerwal said some clinics and treatment centres were relying on donated PPE to have enough for all the staff to stay safe.

This graph shows Victoria's coronavirus infection rate appears to be falling from a peak of 725 cases on Wednesday 5 August

Australian College of Nursing chief executive Kylie Ward told the ABC many nurses were scared as they weren't able to access the equipment when they needed it.

'One of the things I am hearing is the level of guilt because they don't feel like they are doing enough even though they are the spirit of Australia and doing an incredible job, it's the burden that we place upon ourselves in a life of choosing to be a nurse and a life of service.'

A Melbourne nurse who contracted the virus claimed she repeatedly asked the hospital for an N95 mask but was given a surgical mask and a plastic face shield instead.

She was told an N95 mask was unnecessary and feels her health was compromised because she wasn't given adequate safety equipment.
The Special Task Force, Operation Safe Haven (OPSH), which is maintaining peace in Plateau and part of Southern Kaduna and Bauchi States, has arrested eight suspects in connection with the recent killings in Southern Kaduna.

Those arrested are Abubakar Ali, Ali Amadu, Bawa Idi, Umar Dikko, Garba Damons and Mohammed Ibrahim.

Others are: Adamu Joseph and William Barnabas.

Presenting the suspects to journalists on Monday in Kafanchan, the Commander of the task force, Chukwuemeka Okonkwo, a major general, said the arrest was part of the outfits efforts to curtail the killings.

Represented by David Nwakonobi, a colonel and Commander, Sector 7 of the operation, Mr Okonkwo, said six of the suspects were arrested on August 5 in Lere Local Government Area of Kaduna state.

He said the other two were arrested at Chawai, a village on the fringes of Kauru and Zango Kataf local government areas.

He explained that the arrest was based on credible intelligence reports made available to the operation.

In a bid to curb the recent attacks and isolated killings in southern Kaduna, our troops have continued to intensify efforts aimed at curtailing the menace and ensuring peace in the general area.

On August 5, our troops acting on credible intelligence, apprehended six suspected militias at Lere.

One locally fabricated pump action gun, two locally made pistols, one 9mm ammunition, four machetes and two motorcycles were found in their possession.

In a related development our troops in conjunction with members of vigilante group, apprehended two suspects at Chawai, a village between Kauru and Zango Kataf.

One locally pump action gun, three cartridges, two Mobil phones and a dagger were recovered from them, he said.

The commander said the suspects had been profiled and preliminary investigation was conducted, adding that they would be handed over to police for further investigation and prosecution.

Mr Okonkwo also disclosed that one of the militias who was involved in the recent attacks in the area was killed.

His dead body was discovered at Kibori village during rescue operation by our troops.

We also have information on the identity of some of the hoodlums that carried out the last attack; we are on their trail and by the grace of God we will soon get them, he assured

He urged residents of the affected areas to be calm, law abiding and support the military in their bid to restore lasting peace to Southern Kaduna and environs.

(NAN)
Apple introduced Dashboard Mode on CarPlay in iOS 13 last year. The new version of CarPlay offered a split-screen view of a map alongside a music menu. Until now, the feature was limited to Apple Maps on CarPlay. Apple extended Dashboard Mode support for third-party apps with iOS 13.4. Now Google has finally implemented a split-screen interface for Google Maps in CarPlay.

Google Map supports CarPlays Dashboard Mode and will let you access turn-by-turn directions, music controls, and other features like calendar appointments. Before this, Google Map users on CarPlay had to switch between different screens to access multiple features. Needless to say, it was very distracting while driving. Starting today, Google Maps can be accessed by CarPlay users in Dashboard Mode.

Google has also launched a new Google Maps Apple Watch app. The app offers step-by-step directions to previously saved locations directly on the Apple Watch. Google Maps on Apple Watch supports walking, driving, biking and public transit modes. The new Google Maps app for Apple Watch is expected to be available globally in the next few weeks.

Apple extended support for third-party mapping apps on CarPlay from iOS 12. However, third-party mapping apps suffered from CarPlay bugs and didnt work with Siri. Due to these limitations, a majority of CarPlay users stuck to Apple Maps. On iOS 13, Apple introduced Dashboard Mode for CarPlay, and initially, it was available only for Apple Maps. Starting from iOS 13.4, the Dashboard Mode on CarPlay was available for third-party mapping apps.

The CarPlay on iOS 14 has improved a lot. It gets new features like wallpaper support, new categories of the app, Siri improvements, and support for Chinese and Japanese keyboards.

[via Google
Dr.Gyiele Nurah, the Minister of State In-charge of Agriculture, has stressed the need to effectively address the socio-economic barriers inhibiting womens active participation in the agricultural value chain.



He said increasing financial resources was not enough to increase productivity at all levels of the agricultural value chain.



There is therefore, the need for coordinated actions to ensure gender sensitivity and equitable distribution of resources to strengthen womens contribution in the agricultural value chain and boost productivity in the sector.



Dr Nurah made the call at the Second Women in Food and Agriculture (WOFAGRIC) Leadership Training Forum and Gold in the Soil Awards 2020, held for some gallant women farmers in the Ashanti Region.



The programme was organised by Agrihouse Foundation, an agro-based organisation, with support from Canada, absa Bank Ghana and YARA.



It was held on the theme: Transforming and sustaining women in agriculture: the role of public, private and development partners.



It gave the opportunity for a total of 15 women farmers in the Region to be awarded with plaques, citations and boxes of liquid fertilizer.



Dr Nurah explained that women had over the years broadened their involvement in agriculture-producing food crops, tree crops, poultry and livestock, making them strong agents in the food value chain.



Women also work in food processing and packaging, marketing as well as ICT sectors in Ghana and the women are transforming agriculture to a more resilient and sustainable one, he emphasized.



He was optimistic that women could be key agents of change and help in achieving the targets in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), which aims at ending hunger and improving nutrition by 2030, if they were given the needed attention to increase pace in agriculture production.



Dr Nurah said the governments flagship programme in agriculture had women at its core, adding that, together with development partners and other private sector stakeholders, the government was prioritizing the training of women especially, in the adoption of modern agricultural techniques that were tailored in local conditions.



He said such training sessions should be backed by the provision of extension services, storage facilities, dual infrastructure and communication technologies, access to markets and credits and support in the building of stronger organisations and farmer cooperatives.



Dr Nurah commended Agrihouse Foundation for supporting women in agriculture and said it was in line with the governments efforts at encouraging more women and youth to go into agriculture.



Ms. Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, the Founder and Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, said women who were crucial resources in agriculture and the rural economy faced constraints that reduced their productivity.



She said their efforts were hampered by the lack of augmenting factors such as education, improved technology, markets and other productive resources.



Ms Akosa said the awards were to recognise the contribution of women in the agricultural value chain and encouraged them to continue to work hard to increase production and food security.



Madam Cecilia Akoka, the overall winner of the Gold in the Soil Awards 2020 and a farmer from Nkwankwa in the Offinso North District, encouraged the youth to venture into agriculture.



She stressed the need for support for women in agriculture to help them mentor young people to venture into agriculture.

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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According to reports in the South African technology press, the long-planned migration of operator Cell Cs network traffic to rival operator MTN is definitely happening  but there may be a few more hurdles yet.

This will be a three-year transition towards a full national roaming arrangement under which MTN will carry all of Cell Cs network traffic. Before investment in this strategy is significantly increased, however, MTN Group will want to be satisfied that Cell Cs financial situation has stabilised.

The first phase of the roaming agreement involved the sale of excess capacity in peri-urban and rural areas to Cell C. The second phase will open up roaming in urban areas and lead the way for Cell Cs radio access network traffic to transition onto MTN infrastructure.

Cell C will, apparently, still run a core network, as only its last-mile radio access network will use MTNs infrastructure.

Nevertheless, this approach would offer a clear saving for Cell C. Winding down its radio access network would allow it to decommission its tower infrastructure, which it would therefore no longer have to manage.

Where this would leave Cell Cs status as an operator is hard to say. It insists it is not going to become an MVNO. Cell C CEO Craigie Stevenson has been quoted on South African IT website MyBroadband as saying: We have got our own spectrum, licence, number range, brand, customers and core billing.

Precisely how the system will work in practice and what the spectrum will be used for is not going to be clear, however, until Cell Cs financial position is sorted out.

Cell Cs recapitalisation is key, as is paying back the money it owes to MTN for its ongoing roaming agreement; Cell C appears to be three months behind with this payment.

However, both parties are optimistic that the new business model will eventually be implemented.
Nollywood actor, Yemi Solade shared his thoughts about the Nigerian movie industry which he said is now filled with Yahoo boys and prostitutes.

The veteran actor in an interview with The Tribune, accused the gatekeepers of Nollywood of allowing unprofessionals to fill up spaces meant for those who truly have the passion for the craft.

Read what Solade said below;
People returning from Da Nang - the outbreak of COVID-19 - register for testing (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi  Vietnam reported another 29 COVID-19 cases on August 9 afternoon, taking the national count to 841, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

All of the new patients are related to the central city of Da Nang, the current pandemic hotspot.

Of the total cases, 317 are imported who were quarantined right after their arrival

There are currently 178,695 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients or entering Vietnam from pandemic-hit regions are being quarantined nationwide, including 5,252 at hospitals, 27,798 at other concentrated quarantine facilities, and 145,645 at home.

As many as 395 of the total patients have made full recovery. Among those under treatment, nine have tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 that causes the disease once, and 37 others at least twice.
The Ministry of Education will hold a meeting with the Ghana Education Service (GES) today to consider the directive by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to reconsider the dismissal and barring of 14 final-year students from writing the rest of their papers in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo directed the Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, to engage the GES on the issue because the errant students deserved a second chance.



Confirming the meeting with the GES yesterday, Dr Opoku Prempeh said: I will meet with the GES tomorrow morning and take it from there, he told the Daily Graphic.



The Director-General of the GES, Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, confirmed that the minister had scheduled a meeting with him for this morning.



Since this is a presidential request, our meeting will discuss all the issues and come up with the modalities to carry it out, he said.



Students not affected



However, Daily Graphic sources within the ministry and the GES have indicated that the dismissed students will not be affected, since they will not miss any subject.



The sources explained that although the GES dismissed the students for indiscipline, it barred them from writing the papers in their schools and not entirely from sitting the examination.



The action meant that the examination body would arrange for them to take the papers from specially arranged locations.



Today, students majoring in Agricultural Science will write Crop Husbandry Practicals 3 and Animal Husbandry Practical 3, while Visual Arts students will be writing Sculpture.



Tomorrows papers will be for Home Economics, Visual Arts and Agricultural Science students, with subjects including Crop, and Animal Husbandry and General Knowledge in Arts (G.K.A).





Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Jewelry and General Agriculture papers will be written on Wednesday, August 12.



Second chance



President Akufo-Addo explained that although it was the intolerable acts of indiscipline by the 14 final-year students which led to their dismissal and other punitive measures, the students deserved a second chance.



A statement signed by the Director of Communications at the Office of the President, Mr Eugene Arhin, said the President believed that dismissal alone was enough punishment.



"Even though the acts of indiscipline undertaken by these students are intolerable acts, which have led to their subsequent dismissal from school, President Akufo-Addo is of the firm view that dismissal alone is enough punishment and will serve as enough deterrent against future acts of indiscipline," the statement said.



It added that the President was of the view that everyone deserved a second chance in life, and was thus, hopeful that the students would be allowed by the GES to take their final examination as scheduled.



Indeed, all other punishments imposed by the relevant authorities should remain in place, the statement noted.



GES



Last Friday, the GES dismissed 14 senior high school (SHS) students from their respective schools and also barred them from writing their remaining papers over various acts of vandalism and acts of indiscipline at their respective examination centres.



After writing the Integrated Science paper, which they said was very difficult, some of the students vandalised school property, others were also seen in foul-mouthed tirade directed at high-profile personalities including President Akufo-Addo. Videos of their abuse have since gone viral on social media.

The students were from different schools.



Affected students



Five of the students are from Battor SHS; three students each from Sekondi College and Juaben SHS were also dismissed.



The School Prefect and two other students of Tweneboa Kodua SHS were also asked to pack out of the school compound.



The GES also directed the dismissed students to leave their respective compounds with immediate effect and all students in schools where properties were destroyed surcharged.



Their results are to be withheld until the students make full payment of the properties damaged.



Students in the above schools destroyed furniture, smashed bowls containing evening meals in the dining hall, attacked invigilators, journalists, demonstrated and issued threats to school authorities for being firm on invigilation during the exam.



Three teachers from Tweneboa Kodua SHS, Kade SHTS and Sekondi College have also been interdicted and barred from invigilating the WASSCE, pending investigations.

Source: graphiconline.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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McDonald's sues ex-CEO for allegedly lying about sexual relationships McDonald's said former CEO Steve Easterbrook 'destroyed information regarding inappropriate personal behavior'

McDonald's sued former CEO Steve Easterbrook for allegedly lying about inappropriate sexual relationships with employees Monday, the latest twist in a corporate #MeToo saga that has rocked the fast-food giant.

Easterbrook -- who is British -- was dismissed in November 2019 over his "poor judgment" in engaging in a consensual relationship with a member of staff in violation of company policy.

McDonald's said it had subsequently learned that Easterbrook lied "and destroyed information regarding inappropriate personal behavior" and relationships with three other employees.

It added that the 53-year-old had provided stock worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to one of those employees.

The chain is seeking to recover compensation and severance benefits paid to the executive under the terms of his departure last year, according to a securities filing.

The lawsuit, which alleges that Easterbrook committed fraud by misleading the company over the separation agreement, has been filed in a state court in Delaware.

"(He) was knowingly untruthful with McDonald's investigators," says the complaint, which also shed new light on the relationship that led to his departure.

It had been "a non-physical, consensual relationship involving texting and video calls," the filing says.

"Easterbrook told McDonald's investigators that the relationship was the only one of an intimate nature he had ever had with a McDonald's employee. And he asserted that he had never engaged in a physical sexual relationship with any McDonald's employee," it adds.

But in July this year, McDonald's received an anonymous tip-off that Easterbrook had engaged in a sexual relationship with someone who worked for him while he was CEO.

An internal investigation found evidence of that relationship, and of two others, McDonald's said.

Story continues

"That evidence consisted of dozens of nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit photographs and videos of various women, including photographs of these company employees," the filing says.

It adds that Easterbrook had sent the photographs, which were allegedly taken in late 2018 and early 2019, as attachments to messages from his company e-mail account to his personal e-mail account.

Easterbrook, who was appointed CEO in March 2015, was widely credited with boosting the burger chain's fortunes.

In 2018, his base pay was $1.3 million and his total compensation including bonus and stock options was $15.9 million.

Easterbrook's separation agreement included six months' severance pay, plus stock options.

- Union complaint -

Equilar, a compensation consulting firm, has estimated his exit package at around $40 million.

Easterbrook was replaced by Chris Kempczinski, who joined McDonald's in October 2015 after working in a senior strategic role at Kraft Foods and previously at PepsiCo.

One day after Easterbrook's departure, McDonald's announced that its top human resources executive, David Fairhurst, who joined McDonald's in 2005 and was named chief people officer at the restaurant chain in 2015, had also left.

In May, an international group of labor unions filed a complaint against McDonald's for what it called systematic sexual harassment at the fast food chain's restaurants around the world.

The complaint, filed with the Dutch national contact point for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, was the first of its kind to target a multinational company, the International Union of Foodworkers said.

The document cites witness testimony of "attempted rape, indecent exposure, groping, and sexual offers."

McDonald's said at the time it would review the complaint, stressing that the food giant was a "people-first company."

Its stock price closed down by 0.23 percent in New York Monday.

bur-pdh/ft
Retired Officer Daril Cinquanta and the fugitive Luis Archuleta, also known as Lawrence Pusateri - Denver Police Department/FBI

A retired US police officer has revealed how he finally managed to track down a man who escaped jail after shooting him almost five decades ago.

Officer Daril Cinquanta first encountered Luis Archuleta in Colorado in 1971, when the notorious criminal shot him in the stomach.

Archuleta was jailed over the shooting, but managed to escape from prison three years later after feigning an illness to secure a hospital visit.

It was an escape from a Hollywood script, Mr Cinquanta said, complete with a hostage, a getaway car, an accomplice with guns.

When Mr Cinquanta learned of his attacker's escape, he made it his mission to track him down.

Years of calling contacts for potential leads led Mr Cinquanta to San Jose, California in the 1980s, but the trail appeared to run cold.

Undeterred, Mr Cinquanta continued his search for his attacker and was rewarded with a tip off this June, 47 years after Archuleta went on the run.

The tip came from an anonymous caller who suggested Archuleta was now living under the alias Ramon Montoya at an address in Espanola, New Mexico.

Mr Cinquanta's research revealed that Mr Montoya had been charged with drunk driving in 2011 and a search of the police database showed that his mug shot matched Archuleta.

I couldnt believe it, Mr Cinquanta told CBS Denver. Ive been chasing the guy all of this time, and dead end after dead end after dead end.

Mr Cinquanta, who is now retired, alerted the local police force and the FBI, who tracked down Archuleta, now 77, and arrested him on August 5.

The FBI said Archuleta had been living under an alias for around 40 years - EPA

According to the FBI, the fugitive had been living under the alias of Ramon Montoya for almost 40 years, living in a modest home in New Mexico. Mr Cinquanta, who already has a reputation as a "super cop" after publishing a memoir about his time in law enforcement, said he was "revelling in the fact that I got him".

However Mr Cinquanta's own policing career has not been without controversy. In 1989 he and a fellow officer were charged with setting up crimes to entrap suspects. Mr Cinquanta, who pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree misconduct, maintains that the accusations were untrue.

He left the police force soon afterwards to start his own private investigation company - and continue his hunt for the man who had shot him.

It was like unfinished business, he told the New York Times. Cops and robbers. I felt it was worthy to try to get him, and I did.
Photo: (Photo : Screenshot from Instagram)

Every second Sunday of August, the world celebrates Gay Uncles Day. The celebration started in 2016.

"Guncles" or the gay uncles are always loved by their nieces and nephews.

There are not many stories about the experiences of "guncles" or gay uncles. However, a guncle, Glenn Garner, just recently published a book that includes tips, wisdom, and anecdotes of his skills as a guncle to 22 nieces and nephews. The book is entitled "The Guncle Guide."

In the book, he discussed how being a gay uncle changed his perception of parenthood.

READ ALSO: Khary Payton Introduces Son, Karter [Who Was Born a Female]

A Sneak Peek to The Guncle Guide

In an article published by TODAY, a chapter of the book was shared with the readers.

Chapter 9 of Garner's book: The Guncle/Father, talked about his experience taking care of his sister's twins. It was an enjoyable and exciting experience for Garner. He first picked the kids at preschool and brought them home to the playroom. The two kids were having fun until they started picking on each other.

READ ALSO: Dad from California Makes Ice Cream to Keep His Family and Community Happy

Garner shared that he succeeded in stopping the twins from hitting one another. However, they started crying uncontrollably, which made things worse.

Even though it was difficult for Garner to calm down the twins, he discovered something about himself. He said, "I didn't even know how to take care of myself yet, but I was overcome with this sense of paternal love. It was as if in that moment, my big gay version of a biological clock had begun ticking."

READ ALSO: Teen's Coming Out Video to Her Mom Goes Viral On TikTok

The Gay Uncles Day

In 2016, the unofficial celebration of Gay Uncles Day started when Simon Dunn, a former rugby player, posted on Instagram a photo of him and his nephews on the beach. That photo was posted on August 10, 2016. In an interview with Instinct Magazine, Dunn said that he wanted to normalize the role of guncles or gay uncles. He said, "My goal in promoting this day of celebration is to normalize the role of the gay uncle, cousin, brother... whatever, in the family and in society." On that same day, a lot of celebrities followed Dunn's initiative. The list includes Anderson Cooper.

Since 2016, the Gay Uncles Day is celebrated every second Sunday of August.

READ ALSO: Mother Shows Support to Daughters at Pride Every Year For 5 Decades [She Always Brings the Same Sign]
A high school in Georgia that shot to national attention this week, after photos of the packed school corridors with mask-less students went viral, has announced that it is temporarily switching its lessons to online-only.

North Paulding High School confirmed six new cases among students and three infections of staff members, less than a week after school resumed.

On Sunday Brian Otott, Paulding County Schools Superintendent, said that the school would be closed on Monday and lessons would be online.

In a letter to parents, Otott said Monday and Tuesday will be used to clean and disinfect the school.

North Paulding High School confirmed nine cases of COVID-19 this week, and will go online

Images shared earlier this week showed few students wearing masks in the crowded hallways

Brian Otott has announced that North Paulding High School will switch to online classes

Parents will learn Tuesday evening if in-person classes can resume later in the week.

'Hopefully we can all agree that the health and safety of our students and staff takes precedence over any other considerations at this time,' said Otott in his letter, which was obtained by Atlanta-area news outlets.

One of the students who took the viral photos, Hannah Watters, 15, was initially suspended over posting the images.

The school later reversed its decision on Watters' suspension.

Hannah Watters photographed the corridors

'This morning my school called and they have deleted my suspension,' Watters said.

'To be 100 percent clear, I can go back to school on Monday. I couldn't have done this without all the support, thank you.'

Watters had earlier said the school told her she was being suspended for violating the code of conduct by using a cellphone and social media in school hours and violating student privacy by photographing them.

Following the publication of the photos, a whistleblower hotline has been created by a local representative to allow students and staff to raise concerns about the safety measures being taken in their schools.

The 15-year-old tweeted on Friday morning that her suspension had been reversed

Georgia House Rep Beth Moore has called for students and staff to share their stories

Angie Franks told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that two of her nephews were among the six students to test positive at the school this week.

One of the boys returned home from school Monday with no sense of smell and was immediately taken to be tested.

His brother also began to display symptoms and they were confirmed with coronavirus Wednesday.

They have since been quarantining at home but Franks voiced concern about the other students that may have exposed Monday.

The letter sent by Principal Gabe Carmona to parents confirming the new cases

The school has confirmed far more cases than any other in the district since July 1

'They sat in class all day long with no masks and not social distancing,' Franks said. 'And I have no idea how many kids they came into contact with.'

She added that they had not been encouraged to wear masks in classrooms and hallways, and that the boys had not understood the gravity of the situation.

It comes as WSB TV Atlanta reports that the school has confirmed 23 coronavirus cases since July 1, far more than any other schools in the district.

There have been 53 cases reported since the start of July in Paulding County schools but the majority only have one confirmed case.

Schools did not begin in-person tuition until August 3.

In response to the viral images, Georgia State House Rep. Beth Moore established an anonymous whistleblower email account Friday for students, teachers and administrators to send pictures, videos and testimonials of the situation in their schools.

She has since posted several worrying claims that one school county board has tested positive for coronavirus and that in another school, teachers have yet to be supplied with protective and cleaning equipment.

Georgia state rep Beth Moore shares clams a school county board member has coronavirus

She has established a whistleblower hotline and is sharing teachers' stories

One teacher claimed the staff have not been supplied with the cleaning products needed

'This tweet has only been up for 1 hour & already I've received a disturbing tip of a county school board member testing positive, not telling anyone, & going to lunch at a restaurant a few days later,' she wrote in a tweet Friday.

'It's the same failure of leadership at the state & federal level.'

One teacher in Gwinnett claimed that teachers were forced into an in-person meeting, where not everyone wore masks and those who attempted to social distance were told to move closer.

'My principal is wonderful and I feel she is being pushed to do things that she knows aren't right or feasible either,' the teacher wrote.

Another teacher from the same district claimed the school's custodian was almost in tears telling teachers that they did not have enough cleaning supplies to give teachers for their classrooms.

'He said that if it is not provided soon, he will leave because he doesn't want to feel responsible for people getting sick or God forbid - dying,' they wrote.

They added that teachers had not been told where to isolate students if they are confirmed to have coronavirus during school hours and that no extra custodial staff have been hired to assist with the extra cleaning.

Video shared to social media earlier this week showed the crowded hallways

A series of photos showed the bustling corridors at North Paulding High School

In the photos, which were taken on Monday and Tuesday, fewer than half of the students shown are wearing masks.

There is no statewide mask mandate in the state of Georgia.

Watters told CNN that she posted the photos because she worried about the safety of students and teachers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

'I was concerned for the safety of everyone in that building and everyone in the county because precautions that the CDC and guidelines that the CDC has been telling us for months now, weren't being followed,' Watters said.

She went on to reference the late John Lewis by saying: 'I'd like to say this is some good and necessary trouble.

'My biggest concern is not only about me being safe, it's about everyone being safe because behind every teacher, student and staff member there is a family, there are friends, and I would just want to keep everyone safe.'

In the Cherokee County School District, staff and students at one school were forced to begin another 14-day quarantine this week after a second-grader tested positive after their first day back.

On Saturday, Georgia confirmed the death of a seven-year-old boy from coronavirus complications who had no preexisting conditions. He has contracted the virus after attending church.

The state now has more than 216,600 cases and over 4,199 deaths with an 11.92 percent positivity rate.

More than 3,100 new cases were confirmed on Sunday, and 13 deaths.
Some 23 Ivorian nationals would be put before court today, Monday, August 10 for participating in the just ended voters registration exercise in Ghana.

The 23 persons were among 66 alleged Ivorians who were arrested last week in the Banda District of the Bono Region in possession of the new Ghanaian Voter ID cards. 34 of the alleged suspects were identified as Ghanaians.

Nine out of the 66 alleged Ivorians however escaped while they were being sent to Sunyani.

The Second in Command of the Ghana Immigration Service in the Bono Region, Chief Superintendent Henry Ackah disclosed this in a Citi News interview.

The people who were arrested actually live in a town called Hampi in Ivory Coast and we advised that they bring them to Suhum for proper profiling. So when they were bringing them, on their way, their vehicle broke down and in an effort to get another vehicle, some of them fled so in all they brought 66. Nine escaped. But we profiled the remainder and we realized that out of the number are Ghanaians.

So when we interviewed them, we realized that more than half of them actually came from Ghana but some of them have actually settled there. I didnt do the interview alone, so we had people who could speak French and the dialect around the area. So we got 34 of them being Ghanaians but 23 of them are Ivorians. So weve handed them over to the police for prosecution and will be sent to court on Monday, August 10, 2020.

Two foreigners jailed for acquiring new voters' ID card

Last week, two foreign nationals were sentenced to two years each in prison by the Keta Circuit Court for unlawful acquisition of the Ghana Voter Identity (ID) card.

The two, Mr Okafor Wale, a 47-year old Nigerian and Mr Yao Dieu-Donne Evoda, a 22-year old Togolese, were each convicted on charges of registering for Ghana Voter ID card when not qualified and a prohibited immigrant.

The Police Commander said upon interrogation, the confessed his nationality and mentioned their Togolese accomplice.

They were arrested and subsequently handed over to the Police for action.

We sent them to court on July 13. The second appearance was on July 27 on which day the court took their plea and deferred pronouncement on the case to July 30. They got two years each on all the counts which run concurrently, he said

---citinewsroom
President Donald Trump takes questions from the media on the tarmac at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, on Aug. 9, 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump: Nomination Acceptance Speech Will Be in Gettysburg or DC

President Donald Trump will give a speech accepting the Republican 2020 nomination in either Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, or the District of Columbia.

Trump announced Monday that GOP officials have narrowed the number of possible locations to twothe battlefield in Gettysburg, or the White House in Washington.

We will announce the decision soon! Trump wrote on Twitter.

The Battle of Gettysburg is known as a crucial turning point in the Civil War. The Union won the battle, ending Confederate Gen. Robert E Lees second invasion of the north.

The president first revealed last week that the speech could be broadcast from the White House, citing the cost of movement of personnel.

Were thinking about doing it from the White House because theres no movement and its easy, he said. I think its a beautiful setting and we are thinking about that. Its certainly one of the alternatives.

The original plan was to hold all Republican National Convention activities in Charlotte, North Carolina, but the plan was scuttled by harsh restrictions imposed by state officials because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A revised plan for Trump to give his acceptance speech in Jacksonville, Florida, was called off because of the rise of COVID-19 cases in the state.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden planned to travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to accept that nomination, but also announced last week that he wouldnt go.

Instead, Biden plans to accept the nomination somewhere in his home state of Delaware.
Dallas, Texas, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Parker University is proud to announce that on Friday, August 7, 2020, the Board of Trustees received the John W. Nason Award for Board Leadership. Ron Parker, who serves on the board of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), came to Dallas to personally present the award.

The AGB is the premier organization representing higher education governing boards nationwide. Earlier this year, AGB announced that the Parker University Board of Trustees was one of six boards chosen to receive the 2019-2020 John W. Nason Award for Board Leadership.

The Nason Award, established in 1992, is presented with TIAA to higher education boards that demonstrate excellent leadership and initiative. The Nason Award honors leader John W. Nason, who served as the chair of the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council and helped more than 4,000 interned students continue college studies across the nation during World War II.

American City Business Journals reports that Parker University is the fastest-growing college in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. Parker University is also the fourth-fastest growing college in Texas. When the average five-year growth rate for colleges in Texas was 9 percent for the 68 colleges compared, Parker University grew by 46 percent. To fuel this growth, Parker University has expanded on its initial offering of a Doctor of Chiropractic degree to include new degrees such as neuroscience, functional nutrition, anatomy, strength and human performance, and more.

Amongst 30 nominations, Parker University was chosen to receive this prestigious award that highlights critical work performed by boards that represent public and private institutions, statewide systems, and institutionally-related foundations. There are numerous reasons that Parker Universitys board received this award.

For example, when the university suffered severe damage from a tornado that hit Dallas in October 2019, the Parker University Board of Trustees immediately deployed resources to restore operations. The show of leadership resulted in little downtime, so students could resume studies without serious interruption.

President of Parker University, Dr. William E. Morgan, DC, says, To some who viewed the destruction of the tornado, it seemed as though our institution was finished, but the Board of Trustees, who possess a spirit of courage and perseverance, saw the possibilities and a vision for a renewed Parker University.

The AGB adds, Prior to this, the board had already shown decisive leadership in enabling the transition from a small single program college to a fully-comprehensive university. The board overcame internal challenges to become more focused and successfully developed a new strategic plan that inspired a spirit of adventure and exploration at the university.

With a commitment to providing an outstanding chiropractic education and a mission to create highly-qualified and respected professionals in science, business, education, and health-related disciplines, Parker University moves forward in the pursuit of higher health.

About Parker University

Parker University, the fourth-fastest growing college in Texas, according to the Dallas Business Journal, was founded in 1982 by Dr. James William Parker (formerly Parker College of Chiropractic). Today, Parker University has 1,500 students and 27 academic programs, including its famed chiropractic program, along with masters degrees in neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, and functional nutrition. Currently, Parker Universitys chiropractic cohort is the second-largest of any campus in the world.

About the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB)

The AGB is the premier membership organization that strengthens higher education governing boards and the strategic roles they serve within their organizations. Through their vast library of resources, educational events, and consulting services, and with nearly 100 years of experience, AGB empowers 40,000 AGB members from more than 2,000 institutions and foundations to navigate complex issues, implement leading practices, streamline operations, and govern with confidence. AGB is the trusted resource for board members, chief executives, and key administrators on higher education governance and leadership.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  The U.S. Treasury Department has fined Capital One $80 million for careless network security practices that enabled a hack that accessed the personal information of 106 million of the bank's credit card holders.

The Comptroller of the Currency said in a consent order Thursday that Capital One failed in 2105 to establish effective risk management when it migrated information technology operations to a cloud-based service.





. . .
WASHINGTONAs the internet lit up last month with prominent Latinos vowing to boycott Goya pinto beans, Adobo seasoning and other products after the companys CEO lavishly praised U.S. President Donald Trump, a backlash quickly developed on social media.

Accounts identified as belonging to Latino social media users voiced outrage about politically correct mob bullying and exploiting people of colour.

In an online virtual war room run by a group called Win Black/PaLante, activists immediately grew suspicious.

Close inspection revealed that thousands of the posts were not coming from disaffected Latinos at all, but bots.

The Win Black/PaLante activists cooked up a counteroffensive, including a mock Goya foods label that exposed recipes for disinformation and distorting facts.

The ads and a corresponding educational campaign aimed at arming Black and Latino voters with tools to detect and avoid online manipulation were launched into cyberspace with help from a network of more than five dozen advocacy groups, some with massive social media followings.

As a scourge of faux facts, viral hoaxes and social media charlatans continues to afflict American politics, a counter-insurgency is beta testing an arsenal of weapons to fight back.

This was not happening in 2016, said Ashley Bryant, a co-founder of the Win Black/PaLante campaign, referring to the intensive surveillance and response to disinformation. We now have this around-the-clock pulse of analysis and targeting.

Black and Latino voters are a persistent target and primary focus of disinformation efforts, whether from homegrown provocateurs or foreign agents meddling from abroad.

A Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into the potent propaganda campaign that Russias state-sponsored Internet Research Agency ran during the 2016 presidential race found that no single group of Americans was targeted by IRA information operatives more than African-Americans.

Posing as activists for Black Lives Matter and affiliated groups, foreign agents sought to exploit anger over police violence and economic inequality. The orchestrated campaign aimed to alienate Black voters from the political system and, thereby, suppress the Black vote.

The online suppression efforts have only grown since then, experts say, and they are increasingly aimed also at Latinos, as their power to influence U.S. elections expands.

The major social media platforms and scholars who study them, meanwhile, are struggling to get a real-time handle on the evermore sophisticated tactics of the propagandists, which are constantly shifting, as well as what might work to counteract them.

We really dont know what to tell people about what is most effective, said Kate Starbird, a disinformation scholar at the University of Washington.

Experts are constantly debating what works. Starbird noted that there is disagreement about at what point disinformation should be confronted and when those targeted by it are better served by not calling attention to it. Thats opened the door for a wide range of groups to try out different strategies.

Win Black/PaLantes strategy is to flood cyberspace with their own counterprogramming in an effort to inoculate voters against viral disinformation. Their content has so far reached 400 million views, according to the groups own tracking.

These organized disinformation campaigns to stop us from voting take the same path as poll taxes, said Andre Banks, the other co-founder of Win Black/PaLante. They are artificial barriers aimed at limiting our political power, he said. Fighting this is hard. But it turns out to be pretty easy when compared to losing our political power.

The challenge is vexing. Calling out misinformation and disinformation runs the risk of amplifying it, so the groups campaigns often avoid specific mention of the propaganda they are fighting.

And it is not always clear who the enemy is. Rooting out the source of propaganda  whether it is a troll farm in the Philippines using hundreds of aliases or homegrown activists operating in the open  can take days or weeks, time that the organizers dont have.

Several days a week the campaigns war room of nearly a dozen activists assembles over Zoom, where they comb through the latest data about what disinformation is taking hold and hatch strategies for rapidly combating it.

In a recent session that took place soon after Kanye West announced hed run for president, the organizers assumed hed be the focal point of that days blizzard of propaganda targeted at Black voters.

Instead, tracking reports showed the followers of conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who is running for Congress as a Republican in a heavily Democratic district in Florida, had reached 10.8 million Twitter users with attacks aimed at alienating voters from Black-led political movements.

The group drafted a plan to engage advocacy groups in Florida to counter that narrative with social media messages that emphasized the gains that Black leaders have made for voters and the broad public support for movements like Black Lives Matter.

While donors to the Democratic party and progressive groups have invested heavily in tracking and confronting disinformation during this political cycle, Banks said he worried that too much of the focus was on winning over middle-of-the-road swing voters in target, battleground states.

We wanted to make sure the new research and technology was mobilized for the Black and Latinx voters who are often forgotten about and left out of the conversation until the last minute, he said.

The effort complements that of bigger advocacy organizations like Color of Change, which is using its political action committee to engage 9 million members online and to hit back against propaganda.

The effectiveness of all this mobilization may not be clear until long after election day.

The tools being used are designed around what we know is out there, Starbird said. But the disinformation actors are innovating. And those tools built in response to the last campaign cycle may not fully take into account what is happening right now.

In the background of all this experimentation is a public campaign to press the big social media platforms. Even after Facebook and Twitter have lately stepped up their intervention against disinformation, purging abusers of their policies and flagging even some of Trumps posts for false claims and inciting violence, the lack of regulation and transparency enables propaganda to flourish.

A lot of responsibility lies on the shoulders of the companies, said Samuel C. Woolley, project director for propaganda research at the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas.

Without buy-in and co-operation from the social media companies, it is really difficult to comprehensively detect online propaganda campaigns, he said. The proprietary nature of their algorithms for how data spreads makes it difficult to be as effective as we would like.

As groups like Win Black/PaLante do the granular work of trying to match the most prolific propaganda with countermessaging, other organizations, including Color of Change and a non-profit launched by some veteran Democratic activists called Accountable Tech, are ratcheting up their campaigns to force more action by the platforms.

Most of these corporations are well behind where they should be, said Arisha Hatch, vice president at Color of Change. There is a lot of real fear out there about the implications of not checking this sort of behaviour.

Back in the trenches of the Win Black/PaLante war room, there is hope those efforts will succeed, but the activists are not counting on it. They are trying to manipulate the algorithms in real time, with a goal of using their own messages to drown out content that threatens to suppress the vote.

Were building an echo chamber of Black and Latinx partners, said Banks.

This is not just about going tit for tat. It is about flooding the algorithm and driving the conversation.

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PITTSFIELD  Massachusetts State Police looking for a 57-year-old Pittsfield man who has been missing for a week conducted a two-day search of the Mount Greylock Reservation over the weekend.

William Malloy was last seen on Aug. 2 and failed to show up for a new job on Aug. 3. He also missed a scheduled visit with his family in New York on Thursday. He was reported missing on Saturday and police went to check his home and found his car was not there, said David Procopio, spokesman for the Massachusetts State Police.

After locating his car parked at a trailhead to Mount Greylock State Reservation, State Police, Adams Police and Department of Conservation and Recreation rangers searched the area on Saturday evening but did not find Malloy or any evidence of him, Procopio said.

Police and rangers resumed the search on Sunday, adding k-9 units from state and local police and the Berkshire Search and Rescue Team. The searchers again did not find any evidence of Malloy, he said.

His car was located at a trailhead off Gould Road in the town of Adams, near the Greylock Glenn part of Mount Greylock State Reservation, Procopio said.

The State Police detective unit from Berkshire County is now investigating Malloys disappearance.

Anyone who may have seen Malloy since Aug. 2 or has any information about his location is asked to immediately call State Police in Cheshire at 413-743-4700 or call 911, he said.
Nonprofit affordable housing developer Jamboree Housing Corporation hires Jim Francis, leader in finance and banking industry, as new Chief Financial Officer to oversee $3.2+ billion asset portfolio. Given my passion for affordable housing, Im thrilled to join one of Californias leading nonprofit affordable housing developers. Jamborees reputation is exceptional, and I look forward to using my experience and knowledge to help guide the organization through this period of immense growth.

Jamboree Housing Corporation announced today that Jim Francis, a leader in the finance and banking industry, has been hired as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and will provide executive oversight of and strategic leadership to Jamborees $3.2+ billion asset portfolio. Laura Archuleta, President and CEO of Jamboree, noted that Franciss professionalism, focus on technology integrations, and wealth of industry experience will be integral as Jamboree continues to expand upon the companys 30+ years of success.

Jim brings a distinctive skillset to this role, having served in executive roles overseeing consumer banking, commercial banking, and operations/technology. Given Jamborees history of creative financial partnerships, and our recent Northern California expansion, Jim will provide invaluable insight into Jamborees financial transactions and operations, said Archuleta. As CFO, he will oversee the companys asset management, IT, and accounting teams.

Francis brings to Jamboree more than 25 years of banking expertise and a comprehensive knowledge of debt and equity transactions, tax credit investments, underwriting, residential mortgage, and commercial and consumer lending. He joined Union Bank in 1986 and co-founded its Community Development Finance division in 1995, overseeing the divisions expansion across the West Coast and the origination of more than $3 billion in debt and equity financing for the development of affordable housing. He has served as a Managing Director for three different Union Bank divisions since 2010.

Given my passion for affordable housing, Im thrilled for the opportunity to join one of Californias leading nonprofit affordable housing developers. Jamborees reputation in this space is exceptional, and I look forward to using my experience and knowledge to help guide the organization through this period of immense growth, said Francis.

Well-known for his community involvement and leadership in the housing industry, Francis has served as a board member of the California Community Reinvestment Corporation and as a President and Board member of the Affordable Housing Investors Council, an organization comprised of the nations largest Low-Income Housing Tax Credit investors. He also served on the board of Union Bank Foundation and currently serves on the board of Father Joes, a nonprofit that serves San Diegans experiencing homelessness and poverty. Francis received his bachelors degree in economics from the University of California at Davis.

ABOUT JAMBOREE: Founded in 1990 and celebrating 30 years of Building for Good, Irvine, CA-headquartered Jamboree Housing Corporation is an award-winning, broad-based nonprofit housing development company that develops, acquires, renovates and manages permanently affordable rental and ownership housing throughout California for working families, seniors and people with special needs. A leading community development organization, Jamboree is committed to sustaining excellence with high quality affordable housing that benefits the environment, the economy and local communities. It currently has $1.1 billion in affordable housing projects in its development pipeline and a portfolio value of $3.2 billion that includes the development of and/or ownership interest in 9,000+ homes in more than 96 California communities. Currently, Jamboree offers resident services that foster learning, health and wellness, and community building at 34 Jamboree communities with designated staff at each location. For more information, visit jamboreehousing.com and follow Jamboree on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @JamboreeHousing.
On Tuesday, the federal judge in that case is scheduled to hear arguments on whether to order ICE to stop transfers in and out of the facility and whether to appoint a third-party public health expert who could determine if physical distancing requirements are being met, if there is enough personal protective equipment available and if the facilitys overall conditions are safe.
New Delhi:

Uttarakhand High Court has ordered ban on liquor in Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Chamoli districts from next financial year. HC has also ordered ban on liquor and tobacco products within 5 kms of Sikh shrines.

The sacred portals of Hemkund Sahib, one of the most revered Sikh shrines are located in Uttarakhand. High Court has also put stay on Central govts decision to shut down HMT factory in Haldwani.

The Upper Court has asked the Centre to reply within 4 weeks. This decision comes just before Assembly elections in 2017 .

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Photo: (Photo : Photo by Julia M Cameron from Pexels)

Gone are the days when parents should only worry about stuff like school supplies during their kids' return to school.

Nowadays, a list of what parents should do as schools reopen became a little longer.

Parents should also take all the precautionary measures to ensure that their kids will be safe from the coronavirus. As many would say, these preventive measures are already the new normal.

READ ALSO: 7-year-old girl donates $20,000 worth of multicultural educational materials in California

According to health experts, parents will be playing an essential role in ensuring that kids are safe, and the coronavirus will not drastically spread in schools. Here are four health tips for parents as kids return to school:

Provide the kids with facemasks

Studies have shown that wearing masks have slowed down the spread of the coronavirus.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has repeatedly reminded the public about wearing masks. Children should do the same, mainly since they will be confined in a classroom with other kids who are also possible carriers of the coronavirus.

Whether kids are going to wear cloth face masks or disposable ones, it would also be nice if they are provided with an extra facemask. This way, they can change the facemask if the ones they are wearing get wet.

READ ALSO: Dad's comics about school reopening sparks debate among parents and teachers

Check the kids' wellness every morning

Their parents should religiously check kids' temperature before they leave for school. According to Chatham County Nurse Manager Tammi Brown, children with a temperature higher than 100.4 should be kept home.

Brown adds, "They should also assess for symptoms every morning before they go to school." If the children show any of the following symptoms. then they should no longer attend classes:

Sore throat

cough

diarrhea

nausea.

READ ALSO: 6 Interesting summer activities for kids before the school reopening

Parents should be honest about their kids' well-being.

In the past, parents can still send their children to school even if they are not feeling well. However, in the new normal, this should not be the case.

Pediatrician, Dr. Ben Spitalnick says that parents should be honest about their children's well-being.

Dr. Spitalnick says reminds parents, "Be honest with school and yourself. If you're sick, stay home from work, if your child is sick, let the school know and keep them home."

Provide enough supplies for the kids

Now that sanitizing is a must, kids should also have enough resources to sanitize when necessary.

Parents should think of giving their kids hand sanitizer. Also, for kids to clean their desks and other things, they should have some wipes handy. They can do this at the beginning and end of every day to stay safe from the coronavirus.

READ ALSO: Bridging the gap: teachers visit families under a bridge to teach children
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The results of the current study is published in the journal. The study uses a new, low-cost approach to estimate the incubation periods in infected people who had developed symptoms. This was applied to confirm 1,084 COVID-19 cases in people who had history to travel to Wuhan, or who were residents of Wuhan.The approach is better as it relies on public database of dates of infection, and uses statistical methods to reduce recall bias.The new approach helped to measure the average incubation period as 7.75 days, with only 10 percent of the patients showing an incubation period of 14.28 days.The findings may not apply to later cases in other parts of the world where the virus may have mutated. It may also challenge health authorities who rely on the standard 14-day quarantine.By providing health authorities with a potentially more accurate figure for the incubation period, the results could inform guidelines for containment efforts such as quarantines and studies investigating the disease's transmission.the Chinese researchers wrote.they added.Source: Medindia
Trump says US wont protect Germany as it pays Russia billions for energy

US President Donald Trump has defended his decision to pull out almost 12,000 troops from Germany by invoking its gas imports from Russia. Washington has recently ramped up its efforts to block the deliveries.

Workers prepare pipes with concrete cover for the Nord Stream pipeline at a factory in Mukran on the Baltic island of Ruegen.

Germany pays Russia billions of dollars a year for Energy, and we are supposed to protect Germany from Russia. Whats that all about? Trump tweeted, shortly after Defence Secretary Mark Esper said the US would move out some 11,900 US soldiers from Germany, as opposed to the initial plan to withdraw some 9,500 personnel.

Trump has also cited the long-running row over NATO contributions, accusing Germany of failing to fork out its fair share of the costs for the military alliance.

Also, Germany is very delinquent in their two per cent fee to NATO. We are therefore moving some troops out of Germany! Trump added, referring to the alliances minimum spending requirement for member states.

In a statement on Wednesday, Esper announced that around 6,400 US troops would return to home soil from Germany, while another 5,600 would be redeployed to other European countries, namely Italy and Belgium. While that leaves a 24,000-strong US contingent in Germany, opponents of the drawdown have fumed over the proposal, blasting Trump for fracturing a seventy-five year alliance for no reason.

The plan did not sit well with the host country as well, with Berlin arguing the withdrawal would deal a blow to NATOs role in Europe. Contrary to Trumps claim that the planned pullout wouldstrengthen the alliance, enhancing its deterrence of Russia, German politicians see it as a move that will only drive a wedge deeper between Berlin and Washington.

Unfortunately, this puts a burden on the German-American relationship, said Markus Soeder, the Bavarian Prime Minister and the leader of a party closed allied to Merkel  the Christian Social Union.

The US and Germany have been increasingly at odds due to Washingtons attempts to arm-twist Berlin into abandoning the Nord Stream 2 pipeline initiative. The construction of the energy route was halted last year after the US threatened vessels involved in the project with biting sanctions. Earlier this month, the US stepped up its pressure campaign, saying it would impose sanctions on anyone investing or working on the construction or maintenance of the pipeline in the future.

Germany has so far defied American efforts to bully it into ditching the project, accusing Washington of encroaching on Berlins sovereign right to choose its preferred source of energy.

A recent analysis by energy consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie suggested that European consumers would see gas prices plummet by up to twenty-five percent after Russia starts pumping the blue fuel though the 1,200 km underwater route. The completion of the Russian pipeline, however, is projected to cost suppliers of US own liquefied natural gas (LNG) a dime, with the firm saying thatlost revenues for upstream US gas producers could be significant.

RT  Russia today
Britain's first roundabout that gives priority to cyclists has been forced to close just days after its launch.

A car hit an unfinished beacon on the controversial 2.3million system and left workmen with no choice but to shut it for three nights to examine the damage.

It is feared the impact may have caused underground structural problems to the pole.

The Dutch-style roundabout in Cambridge gives right of way to cyclists who go around it on an outer ring, although they need to check that cars stop.

Zebra crossings on each approaching road also mean that vehicles have to give way to pedestrians.

A car hit an unfinished beacon on the controversial 2.3million system in Cambridge (pictured) and left workmen with no choice but to shut it for three nights

Some critics fear it could become an accident blackspot as it is the only roundabout of its type and they question whether drivers will know that cyclists have right of way.

But locals said the incident had nothing to do with the new system, which opened ten days ago.

The motorist drove off despite damage to their vehicle.

The Fendon Road roundabout has been dogged by controversy, with delays to completion and costs spiralling from 800,000 to 2.3million.

It had been due to be finished in April, but was officially opened just 10 days ago on 31 July.

Sam Davies, 51, of neighbourhood organisation Queen Edith's Community Forum, told The Times that the crash was unfortunate but was not due to the new design.

The Dutch-style roundabout (above) gives right of way to cyclists who go around it on an outer ring, although they need to check that cars stop

Zebra crossings on each approaching road also mean that vehicles have to give way to pedestrians

She said: 'It's interesting because a lot of the questions have been around driver behaviour and it's a bit of bad driver behaviour which has instigated the need for this closure.

'I am not a great fan of the roundabout but I would struggle to pin this closure on the county council.

'It's a bit of bad luck for them but also a bit of bad luck for the residents who endured weeks of night time working to get the job finished.

'Now during the hottest week of the year, when everyone has got their windows open, we will have more disturbed nights.'

A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesman said the roundabout will be closed overnight until tomorrow.
Gunmen on motorcycles killed eight people including a group of French aid workers as they visited a part of Niger popular with tourists for its wildlife, officials said.

"There are eight dead: two Nigerians including a guide and a driver, while the other six are French," the governor of the Tillaberi region told AFP on Sunday.

France confirmed its nationals were among the dead, without giving a figure.

French aid group ACTED said several of its workers were among those killed during a tourist outing.

"Among the eight people killed in Niger, several were ACTED employees," the NGO's lawyer Joseph Breham said.

The burnt-out vehicle of eight people, including French aid workers, that was attacked by unidentified gunmen in southwest Niger. Source: AFP

It is believed to be the first such attack on Westerners in the area, a popular tourist attraction in the former French colony thanks to its unique population of West African or Niger giraffes.

"We are managing the situation, we will give more information later," governor Tidjani Ibrahim Katiella said, without indicating who was behind the attack.

A source close to Niger's environmental services said the assault took place at around 11:30 am six kilometres east of the town of Koure, which is an hour's drive from the capital Niamey.

"Most of the victims were shot... We found a magazine emptied of its cartridges at the scene," the source told AFP.

One woman managed to escape but was later caught and killed, the source added.

"We do not know the identity of the attackers but they came on motorcycles through the bush and waited for the arrival" of the group.

The source said the victims' vehicle belonged to ACTED, which was later confirmed by Niger's home ministry.

'Barbaric act'

The source also described the scene of the attack, where bodies were laid side-by-side next to a torched vehicle, which had bullet holes in its rear window.

The office of French President Emmanuel Macron said he spoke on the phone with his Niger counterpart Mahamadou Issoufou.

Both leaders condemned the "cowardly" attack.

In Paris, a spokesman for the French army said France's Barkhane force, which fights jihadists in the Sahel region, had provided support to Niger's forces.

Story continues

A map of Niger locating the attack on the French tourists in Koure. Source: AFP

An AFP reporter at the scene confirmed that French fighter jets flew overhead later Sunday as Niger's army searched the vast wooded area.

Forensic police were collecting samples ahead of the bodies being moved before night fell, the reporter added.

Neighbouring Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita meanwhile strongly condemned the "barbaric act".

He lamented that "violent extremism" was still rife in the Sahel region "despite the merciless war waged by national armies, the G5 Sahel joint forces and the Barkhane force".

'Not considered dangerous'

Around 20 years ago, a small herd of West African giraffes, a subspecies distinguished by its lighter colour, found a safe haven from poachers and predators in the Koure area.

Today they number in their hundreds and are a key tourist attraction, enjoying the protection of local people and conservation groups.

"We all go to Koure on weekend outings because it's very easy to access," a Western humanitarian source based in Niamey told AFP.

"Everyone goes there, even ambassadors, diplomats, teachers... it is not considered a dangerous zone at all. There are NGOs protecting giraffes there."

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a media conference at the end of an EU summit in Brussels. Source: AAP

However, the Tillaberi region is in a hugely unstable location, near the borders of Mali and Burkina Faso.

The region has become a hideout for Sahel jihadist groups such as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS).

The use of motorcycles has been totally banned since January in an attempt to curb the movements of such jihadists.

Numerous Europeans have been abducted or killed in the volatile region.

Two young Frenchmen, Antoine De Leocour and Vincent Delory, were killed after being kidnapped by jihadists from a restaurant in Niamey in 2011.

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.
Sana Shakil And Ritwika Mitra By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Lockdowns and containment zones in at least a dozen states havent made a substantial difference in the fight against Covid-19.

An analysis of data shows that these states are slipping on three distinct parameters  growth rate (the rate at which infections grow), doubling time (the time for the total infections to double) and positivity rate (percentage of people, out of the number of people tested, who are found positive)  during Unlock 2.0 in July.

Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Tripura fared badly in July despite imposing either a complete, partial or mini shutdowns. Rajasthan, Punjab, Chandigarh are the other regions which did badly during Unlock 2.

Public health expert and epidemiologist Jammi N Rao said: Lockdown delays the spread of the infection. At some point, we will have to unlock and unless we have put in place the means to inhibit the person-to-person spread, the epidemic will resume.

Oomen John, a public health specialist at The George Institute for Global Health, pointed out that every positive case needs a strong response.

Some states have ramped up testing while they have also gone for a very strong in-person contact tracing, isolation, containing the points of infection, said John.

Epidemiologist Giridhara R Babu attributes higher infection levels to large population density with poor testing and public health measures. Heres how five states fared in July:

Andhra Pradesh

(14-day complete lockdown in some places from July 18)

The state has the second highest number of active cases in the country and is placed third in terms of total Covid-19 infections by July 31.

The virus has spread to all 13 districts of the state, reveals data.

While the government ramped up testing by about 111% by July-end, a steady eightfold increase in the tally of active cases by July 31 as compared to July 1 shows the efforts did not yield dividends.

In July, the growth rate climbed to 7.42%  among the highest in the country  from 4.69% in June and the doubling time in July decreased from Junes 14.9 days to 9.43 days  the second worst doubling rate in the country.

Karnataka

(Capital Bengaluru and both urban & rural districts were put under lockdown for nine days - July 14-July 22)

In the all-India tally of both active and new cases in June, Karnataka remained on the seventh position, but by July-end, the state had the third highest active cases.

In the tally of total infections too, Karnataka climbed to the fifth position. While the tally of daily cases remained under 1,000 for all of June except two days, June 28 and June 29, in July, the state started with a new record almost every other day.

From a total of 16,514 cases on July 1, the state ended with 1,24,115 cases. Following the lockdown, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said lockdowns were not effective.

Uttar Pradesh

(Weekend lockdowns from July 10)

The countrys most populous state went from bad to worse in July and saw an increase in the growth percentage of Covid-19 from 3.50% in June to 4.16% in July.

The doubling time decreased from 20 days in June to 16.82 days in July. The positivity rate increased from 1.81% on July 1 to 3.82% on July 31.

The northern state also climbed three positions up in the all-India tally of active cases despite introducing weekend lockdowns.

West Bengal

(Under partial lockdown since July 23)

The state ranked ninth in the tally of active cases in June, but moved upwards to the sixth position in July owing to a higher growth and positivity rates.

While the state recorded 19,170 cases on July 1, by the end of the month, it recorded 70,188 cases, registering a growth rate in July at 4.26% compared to Junes 3.96%.

There was a two-fold increase in the number of active cases. However, the state managed to improve its doubling time significantly from 1.67 days in June to 16.43 in July.

Bihar

(Under complete lockdown since July 16)

Bihar was nowhere near the list of 10 most affected states in June, by July-end, it found itself on 10th position with a total 50,987 cases and at the seventh position in the tally of active cases with 17,038 cases, recording a six-fold increase from July 1 when the state had only 2,320 active cases and 10,204 infections.

The growth percentage of infections surged to 5.31% in July from 3.14% in June.

The doubling rate reduced from Junes 22 days to 13 days in July. With a spike in the number of cases, Bihar decided to impose a state-wide lockdown. CM Nitish Kumar recently said the state was at threat due to high population density.
Industry Update

Appointment

10 August 2020

Richard Engelmayer

Appointed General Manager

At Steigenberger Hotel Cologne, Germany

56-year old Richard Engelmayer completed vocational training in the occupation of cook before securing his first managerial position as Assistant Food & Beverage Manager at the Steigenberger Airport Hotel Frankfurt in 1993. After various stints as Food & Beverage Manager, Deputy Director and Hotel Manager at the same hotel, Mr. Engelmayer went on to become its General Manager between 2013 and 2018.

Deutsche Hospitality Deutsche Hospitality brings together five separate hotel brands under a single umbrella. Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts has 60 hotels housed in historic traditional buildings and lively city residences and also offers health and beauty oases set at the very heart of nature. more information

Recent Appointments at Deutsche Hospitality Avlok Singh - General Manager 30 November 2021  Avlok Singh has been appointed general manager for the first time in his 14-year career. He has been chosen to lead the new IntercityHotel Dubai Jaddaf Waterfront, which opened on Thursday, November 25, 2021). read more

Hans-Rudolf Rutti - General Manager 28 October 2021  Steigenberger Hotels AG has confirmed the appointment of Hans-Rudolf Rutti as new General Manager of the Steigenberger Grandhotel Belvedere with effect from 1 November 2021. Mr. Rutti was born in Switzerland and is held in high esteem internationally as a hotelier. read more
(Paragraphs 3-6 have been added)

KYIV. Aug 10 (Interfax-Ukraine)  The inter-factional deputy association "For Democratic Belarus" intends to register in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine a statement on non-recognition of the presidential elections in Belarus.

"We are preparing the statement on non-recognition of the presidential elections in Belarus for registration in the Verkhovna Rada and we ask our colleagues to support it," Head of the inter-factional deputy association Oleksiy Honcharenko (the European Solidarity faction) said in the statement at a press conference in the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Monday.

According to the statement, the existing facts of violations during the election campaign in Belarus and the elections itself testify to a complete non-compliance with international standards of transparent, free and fair expression of will.

"We call on the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine not to recognize the results of the 2020 presidential elections in Belarus," the association said in the statement.

The inter-factional association condemned the use of force against the citizens who came out to peaceful protest, expressed sympathy for the family of the deceased activist and all the victims, and also called on the Belarusian authorities and personally President Alexander Lukashenko to dialogue with the protesters and cease the violence.

MP Yulia Klymenko (the Holos faction) said that the statement will be registered in the parliament on Monday.
It is believed to be the first such attack on westerners in the area, a popular tourist attraction in the former French colony thanks to its unique population of giraffes

Niamey, Niger: Eight people, including employees of a French aid group, were killed on Sunday by gunmen riding motorcycles in an area of Niger that is home to the last West African giraffes, officials said.

"There are eight dead: two Nigeriens including a guide and a driver, while the other six are French," the governor of the Tillaberi region told AFP.

The French presidency confirmed that its nationals were among the dead, without giving a figure.

The French aid group ACTED said several of its workers were among those killed during a tourist outing.

"Among the eight people killed in Niger, several were Acted employees," said the NGO's lawyer Joseph Breham.

It is believed to be the first such attack on Westerners in the area, a popular tourist attraction in the former French colony thanks to its unique population of West African or Niger giraffes.

"We are managing the situation, we will give more information later," governor Tidjani Ibrahim Katiella said, without indicating who was behind the attack.

A source close to Niger's environmental services said the assault took place at around 11:30 am (1030 GMT) six kilometres (four miles) east of the town of Koure, which is an hour's drive from the capital Niamey.

"Most of the victims were shot... We found a magazine emptied of its cartridges at the scene," the source told AFP.

"We do not know the identity of the attackers but they came on motorcycles through the bush and waited for the arrival" of the group. The source added that the victims' vehicle belonged to ACTED.

"Barbaric act"

The source also described the scene of the attack, where bodies were laid side-by-side next to a torched vehicle, which had bullet holes in its rear window.

In Paris, a spokesman for the French army said France's Barkhane force, which fights jihadists in the Sahel region, had provided support to Niger's forces.

An AFP reporter at the scene confirmed that French fighter jets flew overhead later Sunday as Niger's army searched the vast wooded area.

Forensic police were collecting samples ahead of the bodies being moved before night fell, the reporter added.

The office of President Emmanuel Macron said he spoke on the phone with his Niger counterpart Mahamadou Issoufou.

Neighbouring Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita meanwhile strongly condemned the "barbaric act".

He lamented that "violent extremism" was still rife in the Sahel region "despite the merciless war waged by national armies, the G5 Sahel joint forces and the Barkhane force".

"Not considered dangerous"

Around 20 years ago, a small herd of West African giraffes, a subspecies distinguished by its lighter colour, found a safe haven from poachers and predators in the Koure area.

Today they number in their hundreds and are a key tourist attraction, enjoying the protection of local people and conservation groups.

A Western humanitarian source based in Niamey said "we all go to Koure on weekend outings because it's very easy to access".

"Everyone goes there, even ambassadors, diplomats, teachers... it is not considered a dangerous zone at all. There are NGOs protecting giraffes there," the source told AFP.

However, the Tillaberi region is in a hugely unstable location, near the borders of Mali and Burkina Faso.

The region has become a hideout for Sahel jihadist groups such as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS).

The use of motorcycles has been totally banned since January in an attempt to curb the movements of such jihadists.

Numerous Europeans have been abducted or killed in the volatile Sahel.

Two young Frenchmen, Antoine De Leocour and Vincent Delory, were killed after being kidnapped by jihadists from a restaurant in Niger's capital Niamey in 2011.
Brenda Perez took a job as a server at Mamey in part, she said, because of the cautious way Mr. Patel has managed the original Ghee. The chef ended indoor dining at the restaurant in early July, just before the county mandated it.

The way they responded to the virus this entire time has been very responsible, said Ms. Perez, 37, whose boyfriend works at Ghee. They care about their employees and how they feel.

In June, as the coronavirus outbreak in Florida grew more worrisome, Mr. Patel and Mr. Alkassar asked Mr. Piazza, the restaurant groups executive chef, to quarantine at home. Mr. Piazzas wife had just tested positive for the coronavirus, as had their nanny and the nannys husband.

When this happened, Niven was like, Stay home, Mr. Piazza said.

Even after tests for his wife came back negative, though, the team insisted that Mr. Piazza remain home, to guarantee a healthy chef in case others fell sick.

Mr. Piazza, whom Mr. Patel refers to as my right hand, has spent the time testing recipes and writing (and rewriting) menus for Mamey.

The hotel is a big deal for a lot of people, Mr. Piazza said Mr. Patel told him. Youre the only guy who I would trust here if something happened to me.
GUJCET 2020: More than 1.25 lakh candidates have registered for the GUJCET 2020 exam of which over 49,000 have applied for medical stream and more than 75,000 have registered for non-medical stream.

GUJCET 2020: The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSEB) will release the Gujarat common entrance test (GUJCET) 2020 admit card on its website  gujcet.gseb.org  by 14 August.

The exam will be conducted on 24 August. It was initially scheduled to be held on 22 August but has been postponed in light of the Ganesh Chaturthi and Samvatsari festivals.

More than 1.25 lakh candidates have registered for the GUJCET 2020 exam of which over 49,000 have applied for medical stream and more than 75,000 have registered for non-medical stream.

A report by Times Now said that the board had earlier said that the admit card will be made available 10 days before the date of the exam.

Applicants will be able to download the hall ticket by entering their registered mobile number or email address and date of birth of application number.

Careers 360 said that the GUJCET admit card will have the details of the exam date, time, address of the test centre and other important details.

Candidates appearing for the exam will have to carry their hall ticket along with valid photo identity proof at the examination venue.

The entrance examination is conducted for admissions to engineering and pharmacy courses in Gujarat. The exam tests candidates knowledge of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics for engineering courses and Physics, Chemistry and Biology for pharmacy courses.

To attempt Physics and Chemistry, candidates will get 120 minutes and to complete Mathematics or Biology section, they will be allotted one hour.

There are 40 questions from each subject and each question carries one mark. GUJCET takes place in three mediums  Hindi, English and Gujarati. Those who have passed Class 12 are eligible for GUJCET 2020.

How to download GUJCET Admit Card 2020 online:

Step 1: Go to the official website- gujcet.gseb.org

Step 2: Enter your registered mobile number or email ID and date of birth or application number and other login credentials

Step 3: Press on 'Search Hall Ticket' button

Step 4: The admit card will appear on your screen. Download and take a printout.
Lord Empey was told the report may not be released

Families of IRA victims have been left dismayed after learning the Government may not publish a report which was expected to boost efforts to win compensation for those affected by Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi's sponsorship of terrorism in Ireland.

Unionist politicians are now seeking an urgent meeting with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to press for the details of the Shawcross report to be released.

Former journalist William Shawcross was appointed as the Foreign Secretary's special representative on the issue last year and asked to advise on how much compensation should be sought and how best the UK Government can support efforts to obtain redress from the Libyan government.

The United States is among several countries which have already received compensation for victims, having secured $1.5bn in 2008.

But when Lord Empey, former leader of the Ulster Unionists, asked the Foreign Office when the Shawcross report would be published, he was told that "ministers will consider the report in detail in due course, including whether to publish any elements of it".

The response also said that while the Government was committed to giving the report the necessary attention, its "main effort has been focused on our response to the Covid-19 pandemic".

Lord Empey said he was "outraged" that other countries had secured compensation but "the UK hasn't even asked for any and expects victims to pursue private legal action against Libya".

"The UK needs to get some backbone if we are to succeed here," he said.

DUP Westminster leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said an urgent meeting with the Foreign Secretary was now required.

"The victims are entitled to know what he has concluded, what recommendations he has made and that action will be taken by the Government on their behalf," he said.

It was reported last year that the UK Government has collected 17m in tax on 12bn of frozen Libyan assets.

There is now deep alarm at the possibility Mr Shawcross's recommendations may not see the light of day and that, according to Kenny Donaldson of Innocent Victims United, will cause a deep sense of frustration.

"The truth is that the UK Government has never prioritised the UK victims," he said.

"This report must be made public. Victims have the right to examine the contents.

"I have spoken to a number of victims impacted and they are appalled by the contempt with which the UK Government is treating them.

"The UK Government must take immediate steps to have the report published and a delivery action plan must now be put in place."

Earlier this year First Minister Arlene Foster urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to make compensating the victims a priority for his Government.

After a February meeting with Mr Shawcross, the DUP leader told him that victims wanted action from the Government and not sympathy.

IRA atrocities linked to the Libyan supply of Semtex include the Enniskillen Remembrance Day bombing in 1987 and the 1996 London Docklands blast.

Jonathan Ganesh, who was badly injured in the London bomb and now heads the Docklands Victims' Association, said he was "confused, devastated and heartbroken".

"Covid-19 is not an excuse for any Government to refuse to publish a completed report that victims of terrorism desperately need to bring closure," he said.

Ihsan Bashir, whose brother Inam died in the Docklands attack, said he felt the "UK victims of Gaddafi/IRA terrorism have been treated like rubbish".

Colin Parry, whose son Tim (12) was killed in the 1993 Warrington bomb attack, said the fight for compensation has "never been a high priority" for the UK.

He described the Government's approach as "shameful" and said that many victims have died while waiting for British Governments to "support them by seizing frozen Libyan assets held in UK banks".

And Suzanne Dodd, whose father Stephen Dodd was a police officer killed in the 1983 Harrods bombing, said the Government "should be ashamed".

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: "We are committed to supporting the victims of these horrific attacks.

"The Government is considering the recommendations in the report and will decide on next steps."
GLENS FALLS  Despite critics' concerns that President Donald Trump acted unlawfully when he signed an executive order extending additional unemployment benefits, fellow Republican and supporter Congresswoman Elise Stefanik said she backs the president's efforts on unemployment during the pandemic.

Speaking Monday at Glens Falls Hospital, the congresswoman from the 21st district said that Trumps executive order will have an impact regardless. The order calls for supplementing unemployment with an additional $400 a week, of which states will have to contribute $100. She also blamed Democrats for not finding a compromise with Republicans who wanted to reduce the extra - now expired - $600 a week to the unemployed to $200, or 70 percent of previous wages.

I disappointed Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi and Leader (Chuck) Schumer walked away, Stefanik said. There were multiple proposals from Republicans to come to a compromise. I still think Congress needs to act on a bipartisan funding bill  But Im happy the president acted when there was an unwillingness on Pelosi and Schumer's part to negotiate on the multiple proposals put forth.

Stefanik was speaking with the press after announcing she secured $44.4 million for Glens Falls Hospital - $21 million of Medicare Advance payments and $23.4 million in provider relief fund through the CARES Act.

But most of her discussion with the press centered on Trump, who she defended during his impeachment hearings in December. Since then, she rose to national prominence and was appointed one of six New York campaign chairs for the presidents re-elections. Though known as a moderate, she said her connection with Trump will not tarnish her reputation for independence. Rather, she said their association could lock in her chances to win because Trump is "polling higher in the district that ever before" and that he won with a coalition of Republicans, Democrats and independents in 2016, just like she has done since 2014.

I continue to see support for President Trump growing, Stefanik said. We have more volunteers in this district than ever before. We have more success with grassroots success than ever before."

She also said she delivers for the district, referencing Monday's hospital announcement, which was attended by administration and hospital staff who praised Stefanik's efforts and presented her with a proclamation.

Voters in my district know that my number one priority is to deliver results, Stefanik said. My ability to work effectively with this president has helped me deliver results for this district, like today.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

In the past, Stefanik appeared frustrated with Trump, including inaction when dealing with foreign interference in elections. On Monday, she appeared more confident that foreign actors will not impede Novembers election. She cited a bill she shepherded that entails driving funds to state Board of Elections to ensure updated and secure election technology is in place. She also took credit for funding going to cyber command and capabilities that, among other things, can monitor and take down social media trolls. And she emphasized Russia is not the only country to watch.

Also China, Iran and North Korea, she said.

Finally, when asked about her support for the Black Lives Matter movement, she said we need to clearly focus building on stronger community relationships with communities that are frankly underserved.

She also backs a bipartisan bill that bans choke holds and requires sharing of information on bad actors in police departments.

Clearly as a nation, we need to focus on criminal justice and focus on our police departments so they have the very best training, she said.
Apple suppliers in Hong Kong and China declined on Monday, after analysts predicted Donald Trump's ban on WeChat could lead to a sharp drop in iPhone shipments, as the American technology giant may have to remove the popular app from its App Store.

On the mainland, Shenzhen-listed Luxshare Precision Industry, which derives 55 per cent of its income from Apple, plunged by as much as 7.7 per cent in early trading, before paring some of the losses, to close 2.3 per cent lower at 52.43 yuan. GoerTek, a producer of the AirPods wireless earbuds, fell 1.6 per cent to 38.01 yuan.

Hong Kong-listed AAC Technologies, which counts on Apple for 40 per cent of its revenue, dived 5.6 per cent to HK$57.8. AAC makes acoustic components for Apple's iPhones, iPads and watches.

Handset assembler BYD Electronic International, which analysts expect to start supplying Apple as soon as this year, plummeted 7.5 per cent to HK$31. Sunny Optical Technology, a maker of camera modules also expected to become an Apple supplier, retreated 2.8 per cent to HK$140.7.

US President Donald Trump issued an executive order last week banning any transaction related to the Chinese social media app WeChat and its parent firm, Tencent Holdings, starting 45 days from Thursday. This would have far-reaching consequences for Apple, analysts say, as the company generated 16 per cent of its US$59.7 billion revenue from the Greater China region in its third financial quarter.

"The US government's blacklisting of WeChat would have the greatest impact on iPhone among Apple's products," said TF Securities International analyst Kuo Ming-chi, who has become famous for his accurate predictions about Apple's product development, in a report published on Sunday.

In the worst case scenario, in which Apple would be forced to remove WeChat from its App Store globally, iPhone's annual shipments could decline by 25 to 30 per cent as a result of the ban, Kuo said.

Story continues

"As WeChat has become a necessity for life in China that incorporates functions from messaging to payment, digital business, socialising and news, we believe Apple's product shipment in China would decline significantly if this came true," he said.

In the most optimistic case, however, Apple may only have to remove the app within the US, which would translate into a slight decrease of 3 to 6 per cent in iPhone deliveries globally, according to Kuo.

Shares of Apple retreated by 2.3 per cent to US$444.45 in New York on Friday following the announcement.

The plunge marked a drastic change in sentiment, coming just days after the market was buoyed by Apple's stunning financial third-quarter results. Investors piled into Apple suppliers listed in Hong Kong and China after iPhone sales were estimated to have soared in China by 225 per cent from the previous quarter by research firm CINNO.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Arizona News

Phoenix, Arizona - With the health of students, teachers, and staff as their top priority, the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) and the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) have partnered in the development of guidance to support the safe reopening of in-person learning in Arizona schools.

Per Governor Duceys June 23 Executive Order, Arizona: Open for Learning, ADHS has established benchmarks in collaboration with local public health officials and education partners to guide decisions by public school districts and charter schools on when to offer virtual, hybrid, or in-person instruction amid the current COVID-19 pandemic. Benchmarks are classified into minimal, moderate, and substantial transmission categories as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and align with the Arizona Department of Education's Roadmap for Reopening Schools.



In the newly released Benchmarks for Safely Returning to In-Person Instruction, ADHS recommends schools consider county-specific public health benchmarks that provide recent information about community transmission. This document is designed to be used in conjunction with ADEs Roadmap. These include benchmarks around new cases, diagnostic test percent positivity, and COVID-19 related hospitalizations measured through syndromic surveillance. For initial reopening of a hybrid based model that offers both virtual and in-person learning, ADHS recommends the following county-level benchmarks:

Cases: a two-week decline in weekly average cases OR two weeks below 100 cases per 100,000 population

Diagnostic test percent positivity: two weeks with positivity below 7%

COVID-19-Like-Illness Syndromic Surveillance: two weeks with less than 10% of hospital visits due to COVID-like illness

Our focus is ensuring that Arizona students and teachers have a safe and successful academic year, even though it may look different because of the ongoing pandemic, Governor Ducey said. We know the critical services that in-person instruction provides for our children. These benchmarks use public health data guided by recommendations from county, state, and federal experts to inform our schools on implementing a safe return to the classroom.

A dashboard available at http://azhealth.gov/schoolsCOVID19 indicates whether counties meet the recommended benchmarks for initial reopening of in-person learning in schools. ADHS recommends that all three benchmarks fall into the moderate or minimal transmission ranges before schools in a county consider a hybrid approach of virtual and in-person learning. When one or more benchmark categories are in the range of substantial transmission, ADHS recommends that schools work with their local health departments and start preparing for virtual learning. Data on the dashboard will be updated weekly on Thursdays.



The public health benchmarks released today by the Arizona Department of Health Services provide our school communities much needed clarity on the safe reopening of schools, said Kathy Hoffman, Superintendent of Public Instruction. While it is clear that Arizona is not currently ready to resume traditional in-person or hybrid learning, we now have clear goals for knowing when it is safer to return to the classroom amid COVID-19. I urge all school leaders to use these benchmarks to make safe decisions about learning in this school year.



ADHS has developed materials offering schools guidance on subjects such as what to do when someone is found to have COVID-19 symptoms. For children, ADHS materials include instructions on wearing masks, washing hands, physical distancing, and understanding COVID-19 symptoms.



As a mother and public health professional, I know that getting kids back in the classroom safely is important to their overall health, said Dr. Cara Christ, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services. The level of COVID-19 transmission in the community is an important factor, along with the health of our health care system, in determining when it is safe to begin in-person instruction.



The agency has also partnered with Embry Womens Health and several Valley school districts to offer no cost testing for students, staff, their families, and the community. ADHS will continue to expand community testing throughout the state.



For more information about schools and COVID-19, visit www.azhealth.gov/schoolsCOVID19.
By Laman Ismayilova

Underwater world is a really amazing place filled with wonders. It is home to a diverse group of wonderful sea creatures.

Russian Information and Cultural Center invites you to take part in an exciting journey to the depths of water.

The Cultural Center in Baku has hosted a virtual exhibition "Odyssey of the Worlds".

The exhibition is dedicated to the study of the depths of the sea, underwater expeditions of deep-sea manned by MIR deep-submergence vehicle. The exhibition is available on Facebook.

The Russian Information and Cultural Center has previously showcased "Dioramas of the Victory Museum" prepared by the Museum of the Great Patriotic War.

The exposition featured six dioramas depicting major battles of the Great Patriotic War such as "The Battle of Stalingrad"," The Battle of Kursk", "Siege of Leningrad" and others.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Stockebrand said, As an industry, were at a point where we have more data than ever before, yet many still struggle to leverage that data in strategic ways to facilitate real-time one-to-one communications with an increasingly cross-platform audience. Were excited to start changing that!

Directive, a next-gen and award-winning performance marketing agency for software brands has hired Rodrigo Stockebrand as the VP of Client Strategy.

In this role, Stockebrand will guide the operational culture, improving the quality and consistency of Directives deliverable, and grow revenue through the success of Directives clients. He will be a critical part of the agencys vision to elevate Directive into the upper-echelon of performance marketing agencies.

With over 15 years in the industry, Stockebrand has experience as a professional search engine optimization and marketing (SEO/SEM) and digital analytics practitioner, trainer, and consultant.

His work spans most of the Fortune 500 websites, including previously leading the Global SEO team at Amazon Music, as well as leading SEO projects for companies like Beats by Dre, American Express, Starbucks, Nike, Hugo Boss, Travelocity, Pottery Barn, KPMG, Carnival Cruises, and several others.

CEO and Co-founder, Garrett Mehrguth said, We couldnt be more grateful to bring Rodrigos expertise, passion for data, and continuous nature to learn to our team at this time. He will accomplish great things.

Stockebrand said, As an industry, were at a point where we have more data than ever before, yet many still struggle to leverage that data in strategic ways to facilitate real-time one-to-one communications with an increasingly cross-platform audience. Were excited to start changing that!

Additionally, Stockebrand is a frequent writer and speaker at industry events, and teaches digital marketing specialization courses at universities in South Florida, Lima, Santiago, Madrid, Toronto, and London.

For more information about this hire or Directive, please reach out to Ashton Newell at anewell@directiveconsulting.com.

About Directive:

Directive is a next-gen performance marketing agency that software brands trust to scale their business. Directive specializes in organic and paid search services, which are driven by a dedicated team of specialists who utilize data to drive strategy for clients ROI goals to flourish.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Austin, Texas; Directive has expanded with offices in major markets including Los Angeles; San Francisco; New York City; Orange County, CA; and London. In 2019, Directive ranked in the top 500 in the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies in the U.S. Additionally, Directive is certified as a Great Place to Work for 2020.

In 2019, Directive launched two products, Pulse and Institute. Pulse is the first search marketing database of its kind, while Institute is a step-by-step online digital learning system to drive more sales to any business.

To learn more about how Directive empowers companies to exceed their search marketing and sales goals, visit:

https://directiveconsulting.com/ or on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
New Delhi, Aug 10 : In the Sushant Singh Rajput case, the late actor's girlfriend and actress Rhea Chakraborty has moved a fresh plea in the Supreme Court, complaining that the media was unfairly holding a trial and pronouncing her guilty.

She also urged the top court to ensure that she is not be made a scapegoat of political agenda in the wake of the Bihar elections scheduled later this year.

For the reasons set out hereinabove, it is submitted that the transfer of investigation to the CBI by the Bihar Police is illegal, the plea said. However, the petitioner reiterated that she had no objection if the court referred the matter to the CBI and even if the CBI propbes the matter, the jurisdiction will still be with the courts in Mumbai, and not in Patna.

Rhea argued that actors Ashutosh Bhakre and Sameer Sharma too had committed suicide like Sushant in the last 30 days, but there was not even a whisper in the media about these two cases.

The hearing on the matter is listed for Tuesday. Earlier, Rhea had moved the top court seeking transfer of the case against her from Patna to Mumbai.

"Actors Ashutosh Bhakre (32) and Sameer Sharma (44) also reportedly committed suicide in the last 30 days, but there isn't even a whisper about the cases in the corridors of power. But in Sushan't case, the Chief Minister of Bihar is reported to be responsible for registering an FIR in Patna," said the additional affidavit filed by Rhea.

She insisted that the sad incident of the death of Sushan, who hailed from Bihar, unfortunately occurred just in the wake of Assembly elections in Bihar. "Due to this, the matter is being blown out of proportion," said the affidavit.

Rhea also said that the issue is being blown out of proportion by the media. "Media channels are examining and cross-examining all the witnesses in the case. The petitioner has already been convicted by the media even before foul play could be established behind Sushant's death.

Extreme trauma and infringement of privacy of the rights of the petitioner is being caused due to constant sensationalisation of the case," said the affidavit.

Rhea also told the apex court that she should be protected, and not made a scapegoat of political agenda.

Latest updates on Sushant Singh Rajput Death Mystery

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
A suspected intruder in an apartment complex who was confronted by a passer-by knocked the man unconscious with a punch, breaking his jaw and robbing him of his phone, a court was told.

Paul Burnett (33) is accused of assaulting and injuring the man, who got up off the ground, followed him and held him until gardai arrived.

Judge Deirdre Gearty granted him bail despite garda objections and adjourned the case at Dublin District Court.

Mr Burnett, of Annamoe Drive, Cabra, is charged with assault causing harm to the man, robbing him of his mobile phone and trespassing.

The court was told the incident happened at Cross Guns Quay apartments in Phibsboro on July 23.

Objecting to bail, the prosecuting garda said the alleged victim had accused Mr Burnett of trying to steal a bicycle from the complex.

Mr Burnett punched the man in the face, knocking him out and to the ground. He suffered a fracture to his jaw, the court heard.

Roof

The garda said the accused stole the man's phone and ran off before being stopped by the alleged victim, who detained him and waited for gardai to arrive.

The man said he saw the accused discard the phone by throwing it on to the roof of a shed at Shandon Lane.

Gardai called the number and heard it ringing.

The garda alleged the accused was caught red-handed less than 200 metres from the scene.

Questioned by the defence, the officer accepted it was the alleged victim who first approached the accused.

The defence said the accused suggested he was taking a "short-cut home", that the alleged victim hit him first and he had a black eye.

He said proposed witnesses in the case all knew each other and "chased Mr Burnett in a van".

Under bail conditions, the accused must sign on at a garda station and stay out of the area of the alleged offences except for reasons agreed by the court.

He is to have no contact with the alleged victim.
The economy is still in the tank, the novel coronavirus pandemic is raging on (at least in the United States and especially in Texas) and renters are even more worried about getting evicted. On Saturday, President Donald Trump signed a slew of executive orders. One of them mentioned evictions. Heres a breakdown of where eviction policy and aid stands now, nationally and locally:

Q: Does the presidents executive order stop evictions or give more aid?

A: No. Nothing in the text of the order extends the old eviction moratorium or gives more money to either landlords or tenants to stave off evictions. (White House economic Larry Kudlow said during a Sunday CNN appearance that there would be no evictions, but nothing in the order explicitly says so.)

Q: What does it actually say?

A: The order instructs different federal agencies to consider rental assistance or an eviction freeze. None of it requires action.

Q: But wait. Didnt we have a federal eviction moratorium already?

A: Yes. As part of the CARES Act, certain federally backed landlords couldnt serve tenants with an eviction notice until July 25. But thats expired.

Q: So how well did the CARES Act work?

A: By an Urban Institute estimate, the CARES Act stood to impact at least 12.3 million rental units. But it didnt come with an enforcement mechanism or consequences for landlords who violated it. New research on Harris County evictions estimates that nearly 24 percent of evictions filed during the CARES Act period were actually illegal. (The Houston Apartment Association disputes the lead researchers definition of what units were covered. If you want more of that nerdiness, click here.)

Q: I live in Houston. Do we have any local protections?

A: Not anymore. The Texas Supreme Court put a moratorium on (most) evictions moving forward in court, but that ended in May. Most Harris County justices of the peace are not moving forward with evictions filed due to the coronavirus, but thats a personal choice on the judges parts. Theres no formal, countywide order. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has received a draft of a grace period ordinance, but he will not put it on the City Council agenda.

Q: Whats a grace period? Does anyone in Texas have it?

A: A grace period essentially buys time for renters who cant pay because of the pandemic to come up with the money or find somewhere else to go. Its meant to slow down the eviction process so that people dont end up on the street. Austin passed a 60-day grace period ordinance back in March. Dallas County had a grace period that just ended.

Q: Didnt Ken Paxton say something about that?

A: Yes, but so far it doesnt matter. Ken Paxton (the Texas attorney general) issued an opinion that cities and counties cant stop evictions under their local disaster declarations. But thats an opinion and nonbinding, so it doesnt have any immediate impact. It could matter, though, in lawsuits.

Q: Then what is being done to prevent renters from being evicted and to ensure landlords still can make money?

A: Houston and Harris County have a joint Housing Stability Task Force, which was announced in June. The City of Houston is adding $20 million to its rent relief program ($15 million from federal funds, $5 million from private donors). If a landlord receives funding for just one tenant, then they cant evict any tenants for the entire month of September.

Q: I need rental assistance. Where do I go to sign up?

A: The portal will open sometime in the next two weeks. Landlords will be able to apply first, then tenants. Tenants will qualify based on need and vulnerability: Unlike the citys last round of rental assistance, it wont be first-come, first-serve.

Q: Wait a second  I still have questions.

A: Cool. Send them over: Im at sarah.smith@chron.com. If I dont know the answers, I can ask somebody who does.
This project will bring additional electricity to Phuket thereby improving the lives of citizens. Out of the TATA Projects led consortium's 110-km stretch, about 80-km was executed by TATA Projects and the remaining by its partner. The company utilised drone technology for stringing of transmission lines thereby reducing timeframe and avoiding manual work.f

Speaking about the project, Vivek Gautam, COO - TATA Projects Ltd, said, "We are proud to complete this important transmission line project which is a true testimony of our top-notch expertise and vast experience. With successful completion of our second transmission line project in Thailand, we have once again proved our execution capabilities not only in India but also around the world. Going forward, we shall continue to deliver projects on-time, using world-class project management techniques and uncompromising standards of safety."

All tower foundations were completed using ready mixed concrete which is a symbol of 100 per cent concrete quality. Additionally, TATA Projects also prepared approach roads for ready mixed concrete trucks.

A unique aspect of this project is that it is the first 500 KV Transmission line passing from Phang-nga province. Phang-nga is a province in Southern Thailand, bordering the Andaman Sea on the West Coast of the Malay Peninsula.

Prior to this Surathani - Phuket transmission line project, TATA Project led consortium had successfully executed an 80-km stretch of 500kV Roi Et 2 - Chaiyaphum 2 Transmission Line project in August 2019. It was the company's first successfully executed transmission line project in Thailand.

About TATA Projects Limited

TATA Projects is one of the fastest growing and most admired infrastructure companies in India. It has expertise in executing large and complex urban and industrial infrastructure projects. TATA Projects operates through its four Strategic Business Groups (SBGs) namely Industrial Systems SBG, Core Infra SBG, Urban Infra SBG, and Services SBG.

The company provides turnkey end-to-end solutions to set up power generation plants, power transmission & distribution systems, fully integrated rail & metro systems, commercial buildings & airports, chemical process plants, water and waste water management solutions, complete mining and metal purification systems.

The company is driven to deliver projects on-time, using world-class project management techniques and has uncompromising standards for safety and sustainability.

Media Contact:



Sandeep Menezes

[email protected]

+91-9920074163

Manager Marketing Communications

TATA Projects Ltd.

Naresh Sharma

[email protected]

+91-9010680747

Head Marketing Communications

TATA Projects Ltd.

SOURCE TATA Projects Limited
Ironscales, a Ramat Gan, Israel-based self-learning email security solutions, closed an $8m Series B extension funding round.

The round, which added to the $15m previously contributed by current investor K1 Investment Management, was led by Chicago-based venture and growth capital firm Jump Capital. As a result of the partnership, Jump Capital Partner Saurabh Sharma will join the Ironscales Board of Directors. Saurabh leads IT Infrastructure and Application Software investments for Jump Capital and brings a diverse background in investing, operations and product management. In addition, Matthew McNulty joined as SVP of Worldwide Sales.

The company plans to use the funds to further accelerate its growth strategy through market expansion and ongoing research and development of its email security platform.

Led by Eyal Benishti, founder and CEO, Ironscales provides security professionals and end users with an AI-driven, self-learning email security platform to stop phishing attacks by using the most decentralized threat protection network. Already in 2020, the company has scaled its North American sales and marketing teams, expanded into new territories and launched a number of platform updates and new tools available to customers and partners.

FinSMEs

10/08/2020
Actor D. L. Hughley has weighed in on the well-being of Kanye West, saying that while he believes the rapper has clear issues, he has accused him of being 'conveniently mentally ill.'

West, 43, first acknowledged his bipolar disorder in 2018, a condition that is associated with episodes of mood swings ranging from depressive lows to manic highs and can be controlled with medication.

The rapper's wife Kim Kardashian West hinted last month that his struggle with bipolar was to blame for his recent erratic behavior, that has seen him embark on an unlikely bid for presidency and get emotional at his first campaign rally in South Carolina while discussing abortion.

Speaking out: Actor D. L. Hughley has accused Kanye West of being 'conveniently mentally ill' saying the rapper is 'not so ill that he can't take $5 million in PPP'

During a virtual event with FanRoom Live host Chanel Omari, Hughley - who recently revealed that he tested positive for COVID-19 - said of West, 'there is no doubt that he suffers from some level of mental illness' adding that he believes it is 'a big problem in our community.'

However, Hughley said he does not believe West's struggles is why he makes derogatory remarks about historical figures such as Harriet Tubman, who West controversially said 'never actually freed the slaves.'

'[Mental illness] isn't why he's disrespectful to our history,' Hughley said, hinting that he believes West only chooses to speak about people 'he knows he can get away with.'

Emotional: Kanye pictured at his July campaign rally in South Carolina where he spoke about abortion while crying on stage. West suffers from bipolar disorder.

Hughley then questioned in the chat how West can be a 'disruptor' in the political world, or how he can make businesses decisions relating to his billion-dollar Yeezy empire, if he is mentally ill.

'He's not so ill that he can't [take] $5 million in the PPP payments,' Hughley said. 'So he seems to be conveniently ill when it serves his purposes. And I think he, to me, Kanye West is exactly like Donald Trump. So it would make sense that they're attracted to one another.'

Hughley added that with his billion dollar wealth, West has 'the access and the wherewithal to help himself.'

Claims: Actor D.L. Hughley - pictured last December - recently revealed that he has tested positive for COVID-19 and has spoken out about Kanye West in a new interview

'So whatever he's going through... he could mitigate a great deal of it by accessing the help that is so readily available as many times as people pray for Kanye,' he said.

The actor said he is praying for West to get help and get better, and shouldn't be 'rewarded' his erratic behavior.

Hughley appeared to criticize the rapper for making clothes in his Yeezy line 'to look like homeless people' and then to sell it for 'hundreds of dollars.'

Troubled: Actor D.L. Hughley has said he hopes that Kanye West gets the proper help he needs

He concluded: 'So if we, while we're praying for people that can help their selves, let's save a little prayer for people that can't.'

Last week, West appeared to suggest that he's running a spoiler campaign against Joe Biden after getting approved for Colorado's ballot, but saying: 'I'm not running for president... I'm walking.'

President Donald Trump subsequently denied any involvement in the effort by West to get on the ballot in presidential battlegrounds  amid a skein of revelations about GOP-connected officials aiding the effort.

When asked directly if he was running to hurt Democrat Biden's campaign West, running as an independent, had earlier told Forbes he was 'walking', adding: 'Walking...to win.'

The Grammy award winner was later probed on the fact it is not possible for him to win in 2020, suggesting he is running as a distraction. Vocal Trump supporter West replied: 'I'm not going to argue with you. Jesus is King.'

He did not confirm who was helping to run his strategy. But when asked about harming Biden's chances, West replied: 'Im not denying it; I just told you.'

West later tweeted his '2020 VISION' sharing a mood board of images including Jesus, an eagle and a map of the United States with West written across it. He wrote: 'THE GOAL IS TO WIN.'
By Trend

Former US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Richard E. Hoagland has commented on distortion of his remarks by Voice of Americas (VOA) Armenian Service about Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

First, it is important to note that my interview with VOAs Armenian Service was in English, as is this interview with Trend. To be precise, I said that, in my personal view, a UN protectorate could  not should  be established, meaning that it is one possible option. Second, I would like to emphasize that I was speaking as an informed private American citizen; I was speaking neither for the U.S. government nor for the Caspian Policy Center where I am currently a member of the board of directors, he told Trend.



Hoagland pointed out that now, having been the interim U.S. Co-Chair for the OSCE Minsk Group for nine months in 2017, he necessarily learned a great deal about Nagorno-Karabakh and the history of this prolonged conflict in which one country illegally by international standards occupies and claims the sovereign territory of another country.

The OSCE has worked since 1994 to find a solution for this tragic problem. The United Nations has passed four Security Council resolutions about N-K. A road-map for a solution exists in what are called the Madrid Principles. More recently, there is a similar roadmap for resolution called the Lavrov Plan. Any kind of eventual solution  short of, God forbid, outright war  will require compromise, he said.

Hoagland went on to add: So we have to ask, do we want this difficult situation to continue in perpetuity, with the occasional tragic loss of life and further destruction of property? From a humane point of view and for the children of the next generation, the answer has to be no. The United Nations exists, in part, to find peaceful solutions for seemingly intractable problems. That is why one possible future solution that could provide a modicum of face-saving to both sides could come from the United Nations. Will it happen? Honestly, I doubt it. But it is worth asking the question.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The death has occurred of Mary O'Brien (nee Grimes), Friarstown, Crecora.

Peacefully, at University Hospital Limerick, surrounded by her loving family, following a short illness. Mother of the late Owen. Very deeply regretted by her loving husband Willie, sons Batt, Tom, Nick and Liam, daughters Mary, Margaret, Lucy, Catherine and Caroline, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, grandchildren, brother Joe, sister Kathleen, nephews, nieces, the extended Grimes and O'Brien families, friends and neighbours.

May She Rest in Peace

Requiem Mass Wednesday (August 12th) at 2pm in St. John the Baptist Church, Fedamore, with Funeral afterwards to Taylor's Cross Cemetery. In compliance with current guidelines, Mary's funeral Mass will be confined to family only.

House strictly private please. Messages of sympathy may be expressed through the condolence section on rip.ie or mass cards and letters of sympathy can be sent to Cross's Funeral Directors.

The death has occurred of Irene (Catherine) Neville (nee Hannigan) Leixlip, Co. Kildare and formerly of Foynes.

Peacefully, in the loving care of the staff at St. Francis Hospice, Blanchardstown. Irene, beloved wife of the late Brian and dear mother of Eoin, Cormac, Brid and the late Rory. Sadly missed by her loving family, sisters Josephine, BB and Eileen, her daughter-in-law Sandra, her grandchildren Aoife, Ciaran and Conor, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, relatives and friends and former colleagues at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown.

Ar dheis De go raibh a h-anam

Due to Government advice and restrictions regarding public gatherings and to protect our most vulnerable family members and our friends, a private family funeral will take place. We look forward to meeting everyone at a celebration of both Irene and Brians life at a later date.

Those who would have liked to attend Irenes funeral, but due to current restrictions cannot, can leave your personal messages for the family on rip.ie Condolences or on https://www.cunninghamsfunerals.com/death-notices.

The funeral cortege will leave Oaklawn Close on Wednesday (August 12th) at 12.15pm, routing through Oaklawn, passing St. Marys GAA Club Green Lane, en route to the Church of Our Ladys Nativity, Leixlip.

Irenes Funeral Mass may be viewed by following the link below on Wednesday the August 12th 2020 at 1pm. http://oln.ie/site/live-webcam/

Family flowers only, please. Donations if desired to St. Francis Hospice, Blanchardstown.

The death has occurred of Liam Downey, 25 Garryowen Road, Limerick City; late of Richmond RFC, Garryowen FC and St Johns Brass & Reed Band.

Liam died peacefully at University Hospital. Beloved husband of Lucy and dearest father of Lucy, Rita, Dermot and Brian. Sadly missed by his loving wife, family, sons-in-law Pat & J.J. Leahy, grandchildren Aisling, Aoife, Ava, Meadhbh and Clara, brothers Paddy & Kieran, extended relatives & close friends.

May his gentle soul rest in peace.

Requiem Mass will take place in St. Johns Cathedral on Thursday (13th Aug.) at 11 am. Watch Mass Live. Burial after in Mount St. Lawrence (Extension) Cemetery. Liams Funeral Cortege will pass his home on Garryowen Road after Mass on Thursday for neighbours and friends.

Family flowers only please: donations, if desired, to UHL Cardiac Unit, c/o Griffin's Funeral Home.

In compliance with current guidelines, the funeral will be restricted to family members and close friends only.

Messages of sympathy may be expressed through the rip.ie condolences section, through the death notices section of our website: www.griffinfunerals.com or by post to Griffins Funeral Home.

The death has occurred of Rev Fr. Richard (Dick) Crowe, Dooradoyle, and formerly of Towerhill, Cappamore.

Peacefully, at St Paul's Nursing Home. Predeceased by his parents and brother John. Sadly missed by his sisters Kathleen Halpin, Knocklong and Maura Collins, Ardagh, brothers-in-law William and Sean, nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, grand-nephews, cousins, relatives and many friends. Bishop Brendan Leahy, priests and all the religious of the Limerick Diocese. The Sisters of Bon Secours de Troyes, Dooradoyle, and personal assistant Alice.

May He Rest in Peace

Funeral will arrive at St. Paul's Parish Church, Dooradoyle, Tuesday (August 11th) at 4:00 pm. Requiem Mass Wednesday (August 12th) at 11:30 am. With burial afterwards in Ballinure Cemetery, Murroe.

Please adhere to the National Guidelines on Covid-19, and social distancing. Messages of sympathy may be expressed through the condolence section on rip.ie or Mass cards and letters of sympathy can be sent to Cross's Funeral Directors.

The death has occurred of James (Jnr) Clancy, Ballyneale, Ballingarry and founding member and current club secretary of Ballingarry AFC.

Unexpectedly. Deeply regretted by his parents Jimmy (Snr) and Kitty, loving wife Maria nee (Hoyne), children Megan, Nathan and Abbie, brother, sisters, mother-in-law, brothers-in-law, sister-in-law, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, the Hoyne family (especially Sean in New Zealand), relatives, neighbours, work colleagues in Wyeth Nutrition and many friends in Ballingarry AFC.

May He Rest In Peace

Arriving for 1.30pm Requiem Mass at The Church of The Immaculate Conception, Ballingarry on Wednesday, August 12th. Private cremation afterwards at Shannon Crematorium.

Funeral Mass viewed live at www.churchservices.tv/ballingarry

In compliance with Covid-19 guidelines regarding public gatherings, James' Funeral Mass will be strictly limited to 50 people. Sympathies may be expressed using the condolence link on rip.ie or by post to O'Grady's Funeral Directors, Ballingarry, Co. Limerick.

House strictly private. No flowers please. Donations, if desired, to Ballingarry AFC lotto and new field development. https://play.clubforce.com/play_newa.asp?ll_id=763&PC=0&RP=#Anchor

Thank you for your understanding during this difficult time.
By Express News Service

KOZHIKODE: Within one-and-a-half years, Sarah has lost her husband and daughter in two different accidents. While her husband Ahammed Hajji died in an accident in front of her home on March 27 last year, daughter Manal Ahammed died in the Karipur plane crash last Friday.

Manals husband too bears a twin pain as he lost their unborn child along with his soulmate.

While boarding the Dubai-Kozhikode Air India Express flight, Manal was five months pregnant and the couple was preparing to celebrate their first wedding anniversary on August 17.

Everyone in the family had lots of dreams and expectations, says Atif Usman, Manals husband. Atif recalled that, while seeing her off, his wife was happy but concerned about the risk of Covid-19.
(Newser)  A woman awaiting trial on a murder charge has received unexpected support from California's top prosecutor. Attorney General Xavier Becerra has filed a brief with the court calling for the case against Chelsea Cheyenne Becker to be dropped, CNN reports. Becker gave birth to a stillborn child last September and was charged with murder after an autopsy discovered methamphetamine in her child's system. "Our laws in California do not convict women who suffer the loss of their pregnancy," Becerra said in a statement, "and in our filing today we are making clear that this law has been misused to the detriment of women, children, and families." The Kings County prosecutor said he had no notice that the attorney general was going to intervene. Keith Fagundes said he "can only conclude that he has not been properly briefed on the facts of this case."

story continues below

The district attorney argued that the prosecution isn't over a stillbirth, "it is a case about a mother's overdose of a late-term viable fetus." The defendant, who lost a bid to have the charges dismissed, has the support of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, per the Los Angeles Times. "It is outrageous that Ms. Becker has been incarcerated since November of 2019 for a nonexistent crime," its executive director said. The ACLU and medical organizations, including American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, joined another brief seeking to have the charges thrown out. The ACLU also endorsed the brief from Becerra, who wrote that the case could "subject all women who suffer a pregnancy loss to the threat of criminal investigation and possible prosecution for murder." (Read more stillborn stories.)
The fossil fuel industry keeps pushing to pipe more gas into Connecticut, but fossil gas is part of our past. The train has left the station but the power companies dont get it. If we let them have their way, we will be stuck with pipelines and plants that arent needed, and we will keep paying for them for years.

In the past, gas was seen as an inexpensive and safer alternative to coal and oil to fire our electrical plants. And in the days of Buicks and Oldsmobiles, that would have been true. But today is a very different story.

A new report from the Acadia Center concludes that under any scenario, New Englands traditional reliance on natural gas to fuel electrical plants will diminish from 45 percent to approximately 10 percent by 2030, making any investment in new gas pipelines or plants unnecessary and costly to ratepayers.

The enormous shift from natural gas to renewables will result from environmental policies in every New England state to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make significant reductions in the cost of renewable solar and wind energy.

Connecticut has committed to a reduction of greenhouse gases by 45 percent by 2030 (and to a carbon-free grid by 2040), and Massachusetts has committed to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The cost of generating wind power has dropped 70 percent over the past years, and utility-scale use of solar has dropped even further  by 90 percent.

That means gas is no longer the less expensive alternative, and the trend will continue for years.

The traditional cost-savings from gas has been flipped around, with renewables becoming both more cost-effective and clearly the path forward.

Existing gas-fired plants will be underused, and new plants, such as the one proposed in Killingly, along with new pipelines, will simply not be needed.

Two scenarios through 2030 were studied  continued expansion of natural gas supply and generation capacity versus no new investment in gas infrastructure. Under either scenario, dependence on gas would drop from 45 percent to 10 percent.

That means new gas plants and pipelines may face enormous financial pressure, and could face bankruptcy, leaving ratepayers with the bill. If fossil gas is only needed to meet a tenth of New Englands energy needs, then planned fossil-fuel plants, and possibly existing ones, could have problems meeting their financial obligations, the report warns.

From now until 2030, the expansion of renewables without new investment in natural gas would result in a cumulative cost savings of about $620 million, clearly challenging the former assumption that fossil gas offers cost savings.

Furthermore, more reliance on fossil gas means more dollars flowing out of Connecticut. For example, in 2017 spending on fossil gas imported from outside the region amounted to $1.4 billion. No new gas would keep those dollars within the region and result in a net job gain through construction and maintenance of solar and wind powered generators.

And the cost of gas fluctuates everyday, based on factors we have no control over. Solar and winds supply cost is steady  zero.

The report suggests a number of recommended actions and implications, including:

Additional fossil gas generating capacity is unnecessary. New fossil gas plants may be unable to sell their electricity, leaving stranded costs for ratepayers to cover. Construction of new fossil gas plants should be opposed under all circumstances.

Fossil gas delivered through new pipelines will not offer any cost savings.

Renewable electricity will provide a huge role in enabling states to meet their carbon-reduction mandates.

The long-term impacts of climate change on health and the economy create additional costs that must be considered in any expansion of fossil gas. Families living near fracked gas development sites have an increased risk of cancer and other diseases, and are overwhelmingly from communities of color with low incomes.

The future of fossil gas power in New England will be a challenging one. Many decisions influencing what the grid will look like in the next 10 years have already been made, which makes the remaining decisions even more important. Taking any missteps could potentially cost consumers money while locking in additional dangerous greenhouse gas emissions well beyond 2030.

Martha Klein served as past chair of the Connecticut Sierra Club Chapter and is a current Executive committee member chapter. She lives in Norfolk.
In this episode, senior culture writer Nathanael Cooper is joined by national science reporter Liam Mannix to discuss the international progress in creating a COVID-19 vaccine.

Our supporters power our newsrooms and are critical for the sustainability of news coverage.

Becoming a subscriber also gets you exclusive behind-the-scenes content and invitations to special events. Click on the links to subscribe to The Sydney Morning Herald or The Age.
One mystery that solar farms have been experiencing is finding thousands of dead birds in an area that is known to be environmentally friendly.

According to a Wired report, various utilities, academics, and environmental organizations came together to form the Avian Solar Working Group in 2013 to resolve the mystery of avian deaths at American solar facilities. Duke Energy lead environmental scientist Misti Sporer said there were minimal studies done on the impacts of solar on birds.

Sporer works as an electric utility in North Carolina and the coordinator of the working group. Nobody knew what it means after seeing a dead bird and getting the data on deaths of birds at solar facilities is challenging.

A study done and published in Science Direct in 2016, estimated that between 37,800 and 138,600 birds have died at solar energy facilities in the U.S. annually. While the number is less than .1% of the avian deaths from fossil-fuel power plants either by electrocution, poisoning, or collisions, researchers predict the number to rose by nearly triple as planned solar farms surge.

To know the link between solar facilities and bird deaths, the Department of Energy awarded the Illinois-based Argonne National Laboratory researchers a $1.3 million contract to develop artificial intelligence that will study avian behavior at industrial-scale solar facilities across the country.

"The important thing is to reduce solar's environmental impact," said lead researcher Yuki Hamada, a biophysical scientist at Argonne. He added that the renewable energy industry wants to understand and mitigate these avian issues.

Read also: Tesla Launches Solar Panels for the Eco-Conscious Market

Artificial intelligence tapped to resolve the solar farm mystery

To start with, the AI is tasked to count dead birds. However, implementing the system at a solar facility is loaded with various technical issues, particularly with teaching the machine how to recognize different kinds of birds. This would require having a good grasp on the "birdness" that the algorithm can pick the data when birds fly overhead or land on a solar panel.

Read also: You Can Now Generate Electricity from Shadows Using a 'Reverse Solar Panel'

Argonne's software engineer Adam Szymanski said they are enhancing machine-vision software, which was initially designed to detect small drones that do not have wings or legs. While this algorithm is relatively simple, using it to detect birds will require labeling birds in thousands of images as part of training the algorithm.

Also, the location of the solar facilities entails various challenges. These infrastructures are usually in the middle of nowhere with limited internet bandwidth or even electricity, which contradicts the common belief that solar facilities have power. "They do not have power outlets connected to the panels," says Szymanski, so the birding algorithm has to be incredibly resource-efficient.

To make it work, the Argonne team is using Boulder AI's commercial hardware, which is used for monitoring pedestrian and vehicular traffic. It is a small camera system that will be attached to a solar panel. It would catch all data, which will be processed on-site.



Initially, cameras are trained to identify birds correctly. Then, they will be taught to discern avian behaviors like perching, dropping, colliding, or flying overhead.



On August 10, the Argonne team is collecting training data from cameras that were set up at two solar facilities in Illinois. These data are vital for researchers who seek for answers to avoid avian morbidity at solar facilities.Sporer said "this technology allows us to get a glimpse into a world we don't normally see" that would allow us to operate with the least impact on wildlife.



The project is set for expansion to other commercial and government solar sites across the U.S., but the pandemic froze the plans.

Read also: [VIRAL] Running Ostrich Dies Due to Stress, After Attempting to Run Away During COVID-19 Lockdown

This article owned by Tech Times

Written by CJ Robles

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
If the name Duff Goldman isnt ringing a bell right away, you might remember him as that cake guy from Ace of Cakes since thats where he got his start back in 2006. Since then, he has been building a veritable TV empire.

He stars in numerous shows including Cake Masters, Duff Till Dawn, Sugar Showdown, Worst Bakers in America, and Buddy vs. Duff, which features Duff competing head to head against the Cake Boss himself, Buddy Valastro.

Since Food Network also has a habit of asking hosts from one show pop up as guest judges on another, Goldman (better known simply as Duff) also seems to show up unexpectedly on other shows to weigh in with his expertise. But what do we know about his expertise exactly?

Everyone knows Duff can bake an amazing cake, but given the number of places hes been asked to judge, some fans have been wondering: Can Duff Goldman actually cook, and if so, what are his credentials?

Duff Goldman didnt originally study the culinary arts

Pastry chef Duff Goldman | Aaron Davidson/Getty Images for SOBEWFF

When Duff was going to college at the University of Maryland, Baltimore Country, he wasnt yet working on his cake empire. Instead, he studied history and philosophy, managing to receive a degree in both. However, he must not have found what he was looking for that way because he eventually went to study at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, which is located in Napa Valley, California.

Hmmwonder if that means Duff knows a thing or two about pairing wine with cakebecause wed watch that show!

Unsurprisingly, his specialty was pastry, which is why he is often introduced as a pastry chef. But Duff had to study all aspects of culinary arts to get his degree. After graduating, he had some high-profile jobs, working at well-known restaurants like The French Laundry, Todd Englishs Olives, and the Vail Cascade Hotel.

Once Duff had cut his teeth with these high brow gigs, thats when Duff went back to Baltimore to set up Charm City Cakes. He actually competed on Iron Chef before Ace of Cakes even became a show, so Duff definitely has the culinary chops to back up his celebrity.

Charm City Cakes actually started from Duff Goldmans home

RELATED: Food Network Fans Really Want Cake Boss Buddy Valastro to Stop Talking

Duff was living in Charles Village in Baltimore when he started Charm City Cakes. When they first got off the ground, they didnt have a commercial kitchen space so he was doing everything out of his own home. In the beginning, he only had two assistants to help him out.

As the business grew, they eventually expanded to their own location, hired a bunch of people, and began developing super innovative cake-making techniques that made Duff Goldman one of the biggest names in cakes if not the entire food industry.

Everyone wanted a Duff cakeincluding President Barack Obama, who commissioned a cake from Duff for his second inaugural ball back in 2013. They have since expanded with a west coast location as well, as fans of his shows can tell you.

Duff Goldman just dropped a BIG announcement

Duff got married to a woman named Johnna Colbry back in 2019. Just a few days ago, they announced some huge news: Duff and Johnna are expecting their first child.

Yes, a little baby Duff is on the way, and this adorable couple announced their big news on Instagram in a pretty delightfully Duff wayusing baked goods, of course!

The post showed the couple posing near home in Topanga, California with some regular sized muffins and one mini muffin. Were sure that the next year is going to be quite the roller coaster for everyonebut it will be a joyful one for Duff and his growing family either way.
By Akbar Mammadov

The first stage of the "TurAz Qartali-2020" joint tactical-flight exercises of the Azerbaijani and Turkish Air Forces is underway, the Defense Ministry reported on August 9.

During the exercises, the Air Force pilots have performed tasks to prevent the activities of the imaginary adversary, to detect and destroy its various objects, moving and stationary armoured vehicles, including other targets that suddenly appear.

Thus, exemplary training flights were held in the training area of the helicopters, which were brought to full readiness.

Earlier, on the same day special units were also involved in the first stage of the joint Azerbaijani-Turkish large-scale tactical exercises.

At this stage of the exercises, the special forces trained in combat operations to arrive at the designated areas by helicopters, to assault on important strategic and military facilities by covertly moving through various relief terrains, as well as to seize advantageous positions.

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 were 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
Editorial

Judicial discrimination:

Police treated differently

Two weeks ago, three police officers were fined but spared a jail sentence for a 2017 incident for the assault of a disability pensioner named John when they, along with three other officers, attended his home in Preston, Victoria.

Senior constables Brad McLeod, John Edney, and Florian Hilgart were found guilty of a combined six charges over their use of force against the pensioner.

It was revealed, however, that McLeod had been involved in another incident mere months later in 2018 when Renaud Kobrinsky had called for an ambulance for his suicidal friend only to have the police show up instead. Kobrinsky was told to fk off and was threatened with arrest when he asked why law enforcement and not paramedics had arrived. Nothing as of yet, has been done in regards to this incident.

Regarding the 2017 incident, Magistrate Cathy Lamble noted she was horrified by images of [the victim] on the ground with six police officers restraining him. However, despite her own admission that they acted completely inappropriately she believed that the three officers had suffered enough due to the lengthy court proceedings and media coverage which resulted in the officers not being recorded with a conviction and instead paying fines of $1,000 (Edney and Hilgart) and $3,500 (McLeod).

According to The Age, in addition to being restrained, the disability pensioner was struck to the leg with an extendable baton, punched in the stomach, had his head stood on and capsicum spray used on him from close range. He then had water blasted in his face from a high-pressure hose. [] After using the capsicum spray, McLeod asked John: Did you like that? Did you like that? Smells good, doesnt it? 

This is exactly the kind of behaviour that thousands across the country are protesting against in the Black Lives Matter Movement. Two weeks ago, a I Cant Breath Black Lives Matter rally was held in Sydney. Attendees to the rally were fined as much as Edney and Hilgrat were despite the rally adhering to social distancing laws and installing highly-detailed COVID-19 safety plans such as ensuring protesters register their details prior to attending (to allow for easy contact tracing), handing out masks and hand sanitisers.

And if you think NSW courts are just shy on handing out convictions  youre wrong. Late last month, Greens staffer Xiaoran Shi was convicted and fined after spray-painting No Pride in Genocide on the Captain Cook statue in Sydneys Hyde Park which resulted in a $1,760 fine.

The preferential treatment received by cops in our justice system is no mistake. As the law enforcement arm of the state, their interests in protecting bourgeois democracy run in direct conflict with those of the working-class and its most maligned elements. And it is because of this conflict that protesters receive heavy-handed punishments and the special bodies of the state do not, at least not without immense pressure from society (as we have witnessed with the death of George Floyd by officer Darren Wilson).

Justice needs to happen now. It bears constant repeating that nobody has been held responsible for the over 400 Black deaths in custody since 1991. However, we cant just stop at wanting justice for what has happened. Serious changes to law enforcement need to be made. We need to continue the fight against police brutality in Australia and ensure that those who yield the batons and guns are held to account and that the powers that law enforcement holds are severely curbed so that our rights are not arbitrarily infringed when we chose to speak out.
TV chef Rachael Ray is thanking first responders after a fire at her Upstate New York home Sunday night.

Thank you to our local first responders for being kind and gracious and saving what they could of our home. Grateful that my mom, my husband, my dog were all okay. These are the days we all have to be grateful for what we have, not what weve lost, she wrote on Twitter Monday.

Ray added that she lost her phone and thanked all those who sent well wishes and concerns, but wouldnt be able to return texts and calls for a while.

The Warren County Sheriffs Office said multiple fire crews were called to a home owned by the celebrity cook in Lake Luzerne. Photos showed flames shooting through the roof of the house, located near Lake Vanare in the Adirondacks region.

Witnesses told The Sun Community News that the house was destroyed by the blaze, believed to have started as a chimney fire around 7:30 p.m. Sunday. The fire was fully involved and the house couldnt be saved, one person at the scene said.

Seeing some of the first pictures of the fire at the Lake Luzerne home of @rachaelray and it does not look good. Photos: Hot Shots Fire Videos. @WNYT pic.twitter.com/6XzPQwC29q  Mark Mulholland (@MulhollandWNYT) August 10, 2020

Warren County Sheriff Jim LaFarr said no one was hurt in the fire.

A spokesperson for Ray told ET that she, her husband John Cusimano, and their dog Bella were all safe following the incident.

The house is unfortunately damaged and we dont yet know to what extent, the rep said.

Brian LaFleure, director of emergency services and fire coordinator for the county, told CNN that officials are working to determine the cause of the fire, which mostly damaged the main house on the property. Its nothing suspicious, he added.

Ray had been producing live cooking segments for her daytime talk show during the coronavirus pandemic from the home. The TV series, The Rachael Ray Show, is now on summer hiatus.

Ray, 51, is a Glen Falls, N.Y., native who has hosted the syndicated Rachael show since 2006. Shes also written cookbooks, published the magazine Every Day with Rachael Ray, and hosted television shows like 30 Minute Meals, Rachael Rays Tasty Travels and Rachael Rays Kids Cook-Off.
Among the 50 entrepreneurs and teams named as winners are either advanced manufacturing companies such as BYD Company Ltd., Samsung (China) Semiconductor Co., Ltd., Shaanxi Fast Auto Drive Co., Ltd, or cultural and tourism enterprises like Datang Everbright City Management and Operation Team, Shaanxi Changhenge Performing Arts and Culture Co., Ltd. and others. It is worth noting that, as the president of Xi'an Janssen, a multinational pharmaceutical company that has rooted in Xi'an for 35 years, Asgar Rangoonwala, received this honor. He said in a later interview: "The development of Xi'an Janssen benefits from Xi'an's continuous optimization of investment services and business environment, which further strengthens Xi'an Janssen's confidence in taking root in Xi'an and serving China."

In the first half of this year, by advancing the economic and social development while conducting pandemic prevention and control, Xi'an ranks No. 1 among China's sub-provincial cities in three major economic indicators including the GDP growth rate, the growth rate of industrial added value of large-scale enterprises, and the growth rate of fixed asset investment. This achievement owes to tens of thousands of companies and entrepreneurs in this city as well as its open and inclusive development philosophy.



Wang Hao, a member of the Standing Committee of CPC Shaanxi Provincial Committee and the Secretary of CPC Xi'an Municipal Committee, said that Xi'an will strive to create a first-class business environment, provide the most considerate, heartwarming, and sincere services, and establish a clear guiding principle of respecting, caring for and supporting entrepreneurs to allow them to have a sense of honor, be in a high social position, and get material benefits.



For a very long period in the history, Xi'an, an ancient city in western China, had always been China's commercial and trade center. It was also the center of the world economy before the Industrial Revolution. Time has changed over the past thousands of years, but this ancient city has always been full of vitality and maintained a strong momentum of development.



The "Mayor's Special Award" is a special award that was set up in this April by Xi'an in order to further encourage entrepreneurs, teams and individuals to focus on the advanced manufacturing industry and cultural tourism to build up a economically powerful city. The award can be applied for by a variety of enterprises such as industrial system constructors, innovation-driven companies, and those who attract large investment and run strong projects. It aims to serve the construction of Xi'an's modern industrial system and the national central city in China. Individuals and teams who won the "Mayor's Special Award" will receive a cash prize of CNY 500,000.



Image Attachments Links:

Link: http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=368927

Caption: On August 5, the award ceremony of the "Mayor's Special Award" that is designed

to recognize outstanding contributions to the development of Xi'an was held in

the city.

SOURCE Xi'an Municipal People's Government
Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani issued a decree on Monday to pardon and release about 400 controversial Taliban inmates, the Presidential Palace confirmed.

The palace tweeted that Ghani signed the decree late Monday evening for pardon of punishment of convicted Taliban prisoners, who are included in the 5,000 prisoners listed by the Taliban group.

The move came one day after participants of a 3,400-member Loya Jirga, or the Grand Assembly, voted for the release of 400 hardcore Taliban inmates.

A peace deal agreement signed between the United States and Taliban in Qatar in February required the Afghan government to free 5,000 Taliban inmates in exchange for Taliban's release of 1,000 soldiers or government staff.

Since early March, the Afghan government had released 5,100 Taliban inmates and Taliban freed 1,000 Afghan soldiers or government staff.

Under the agreement, US and NATO-led coalition forces would leave Afghanistan by July next year depending on whether the Taliban outfit meets the conditions envisaged in the agreement, including severing ties with foreign terrorist groups.

However, the presidential palace said provisions of the issued decree about Taliban pardon do not prevent individuals from suing for their right.

It was not immediately known when the 400 Taliban inmates will be freed.

According to unnamed officials, following the release of 400 Taliban inmates, the long-delayed peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government will begin later this month.

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" " Delivery services often have toll-free numbers.  Paul Hawthorne/ Getty Images

With its infuriatingly catchy TV jingle and your expanding waistline, it's only a matter of time before you pick up the phone and punch in 1-800-ULOSEIT. Faster than you can say "eclair," you're speaking with a weight-loss consultant in Virginia Beach from your home in Boise, at no cost to you. What happened between dialing the number and being connected to the weight-loss consultant?

Once you dial the number, the Service Switch Point (SSP) in the telephone network recognizes it as toll-free by its 800 prefix, prompting it to query the Service Control Point (SCP) that has the routing instructions the weight-loss center (the toll-free subscriber) requested. In the example above, the instructions were to route all calls to the Virginia Beach office and charge that number for the call. Just like that, the call is completed. [source: SMS/800].

Advertisement

In 1967, AT&T rolled out the first 1-800 toll-free numbers. In the United States, these numbers are known as toll-free, in the rest of the world, they're known as freephone numbers.

Since toll-free numbers were introduced, the demand for the service, basically a call-forwarding plan that reverses charges to the called party, has soared. As of February 2008, there were more than 24 million working toll-free phone numbers in North America. In 1996, as the supply of 1-800 numbers became exhausted, 888 toll-free numbers were introduced [source: SMS/800]. Today, toll-free numbers can have 800, 888, 877 and 866 prefixes. All these numbers work in exactly the same way. When the 866 prefix is depleted, the 855 prefix will be rolled out.

Why are toll-free numbers so popular? A memorable toll-free number can serve as a primary source of advertising and marketing. Construction company Asphalt Sources, Inc., for example, reduced its annual advertising costs by more than $27,000 by downsizing its Yellow Pages ad and leasing a 1-800 number. As a result, it reported an increase in profitability [source: Asphalt Contractor, March 2006].

Are the FCC regulations really enforced? Are toll-free numbers effective marketing tools? How do you get the toll-free number of your choice? Go to the next page to find out.
Cybersecurity insurance company Elpha Secure and Sterling New Age Cyber have partnered to launch ES-1000, an all-inclusive, complimentary cybersecurity package. A business would generally spend in excess of $300 per user annually for the protections offered by ES-1000, said Geraldine DelPrete, president of programs for SterlingRisk.

From the moment a policy is bound, Elpha Secure focuses on mitigating risk and cyber threat, DelPrete said. In addition to performing its initial ES Threat Metric network assessment, Elpha Secure has now rolled out ES-1000, a robust alignment of cyber assessment services, educational resources and expert consultation, all at no additional cost. We see it as a game-changer, elevating cybersecurity insurance to a central role in meeting a companys total cybersecurity needs. The fact that the new service is delivered at no additional cost to clients demonstrates our commitment to forging a leadership position in the industry.
(Newser)  It's not the usual problem you'd expect from the sale of a $41 million mansion in a swanky part of Paris: Renovation workers found a corpse in the basement. And now work has been suspended while police conduct a murder investigation, reports the Guardian, which rounds up the strange tale from French-language sources including Le Monde and Le Parisien. The discovery was made after an investment bigwig named Jean-Bernard Lafonta paid the hefty sum for the mansion once lived in by playwright and poet Francois Coppee. The place, though, has been vacant for more than three decades and, as these photos show, it needs serious work. That's exactly what was happening when workers found the corpse in the basement as they removed wood and debris.

story continues below

Police think the remains have been there about 30 years, but one part of the mystery has been solved: Based on papers found with the body, they have identified him as Jean-Pierre Renaud, described by police as an itinerant with a drinking problem. It seems he ended up in the mansion after it became abandoned, and it turned into a murder case when investigators discovered knife marks and broken bones. "We could imagine a fight with someone else living on the margin," says one police source. "But its unclear whether he died in the mansion or was brought there, and we may never find out who was responsible. Its quite possible the murderer is himself now dead." (Read more Paris stories.)




Cooking for people I love, creating deliciousness out of fresh ingredients, browsing through cookbooks for inspiration, perusing grocery shelves for choice items and writing about my expat life enriched by food. That's what I do here.



Leave me a comment or write me at foodlustpeoplelove [at] gmail [dot] com.
ALGIERS, Algeria - An Algerian journalist who played a prominent role in covering the countrys pro-democracy movement last year was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for inciting unauthorized demonstrations and attacking national unity.

Dozens of journalists and activists in the Hirak movement protested outside the courthouse, demanding freedom for Khaled Drareni. His supporters said the verdict was reminiscent of the tightly controlled era of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was pushed out by the mass demonstrations and whose successor promised a more democratic, open leadership.

Drarenis arrest in March drew widespread condemnation among protesters and media watchdog groups such as Reporters Without Borders. Drareni worked with the organization, led the news website Casbah Tribune and drew a widespread social media following for his coverage of protests that helped bring down Bouteflika.

Along with sending him to prison, the court in Sidi MHamed ordered the journalist to pay a fine of 50,000 dinars (about $400), according to the National Committee for the Release of Detainees.

During the trial, which was held by videoconference because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Drareni denied wrongdoing and said he was only working as an independent journalist and exercising his right to inform.

Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF, dismissed Mondays verdict as arbitrary and absurd and called it judicial persecution against a journalist who is the honour of his country, urging global mobilization in his support. At least one other Algerian journalist is currently awaiting trial, according to RSF.

Mass demonstrations brought down Algerias long-time president and his entourage in April 2019. While a new president was elected in December, the pro-democracy movement is seeking deeper change in a nation whose rulers have been shadowed by the army since it gained independence from France in 1962.

In their case against Drareni, prosecutors noted a Facebook post in which Drareni said the Algerian political system hadnt changed since the election in December of Abdelmadjid Tebboune as president, and that Drareni shared a call by multiple political parties for a general strike.

Khaled Drareni was only doing his job of informing citizens. He did not commit a crime, one of his lawyers, Fetta Sadat, told The Associated Press. The verdict is proof that Algerian justice is not free but an instrument in the hands of power that can be used to intimidate Algerians.
Aamir Khan has jetted off to Turkey to resume the shoot of his upcoming film, Advait Chandans Laal Singh Chaddha. Pictures of him at one of the international airports in Turkey are being widely shared online by fan clubs. He is seen dressed in a grey sweatshirt and black pants, and appears to be smiling for the photos behind his blue face mask.

While Aamir has landed in Turkey, his co-star Kareena Kapoor Khan was spotted out and about in Mumbai on Sunday with her son, Taimur Ali Khan. It is not known if and when Kareena will join Aamir for this schedule.

Laal Singh Chaddha, which has Aamir playing the titular role, is an official remake of the critically-acclaimed Hollywood blockbuster Forrest Gump. He will be sporting different looks in the film, which will show Laal Singhs journey across decades.

In March, the Punjab schedule of Laal Singh Chaddha was cut short abruptly due to the coronavirus pandemic. The shoot will now be resumed after nearly five months.

NEW PIC@aamir_khan resumes #LaalSinghChaddha shoot in Turkey pic.twitter.com/vjheNtCqde  Aamir Khan Official FC Kolkata (@AamirFanKolkata) August 8, 2020

Also see: Sushant Singh Rajputs sister Shweta responds to Rhea Chakrabortys chat revelation, shares video of actor praising Priyanka

Aamir announced Laal Singh Chaddha in a media interaction on his birthday last year. I have always loved Forrest Gump as a script. It is a wonderful story about this character. It is a life-affirming story. It is a feel-good film. It is a film for the whole family. Its a wonderful film so I really like it, he had said. He had also said that he would lose around 20 kilos for Laal Singh Chaddha.

Last year, in an interview with Hindustan Times, Aamir opened up about the challenges of the role, originally essayed by a 30-year-old Tom Hanks. Not really. [In Forrest Gump] if you see each running shot, its not more than 30 seconds. Woh cut karke sequence mein lagta hai ki woh char saal bhaga. So, thats not a worry. The challenge is actually getting the sur of the character right, he had said.

Produced by Aamir Khan Productions and Viacom18 Motion Pictures, Laal Singh Chaddha was scheduled to hit the theatres on Christmas. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, it looks like the film has been delayed to next year.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Crowds of protesters demanding an end to the rule of 'Europe's last dictator' clashed with police on the streets of Belarus last night.

The clashes came after state-approved exits polls claimed Alexander Lukashenko had won a landslide victory to retain the presidency he has held since 1994.

Outraged opposition supporters came out in their thousands to demonstrate in disbelief that the repressive strongman had secured 79.7 per cent of the vote, as according to the official figures.

A law enforcement officer drags a man during clashes with opposition supporters after poll closed at presidential election in Minsk, Belarus August 9, 2020

Opposition supporters scuffle with law enforcement officers after poll closed at presidential election in Minsk, Belarus August 9, 2020

A couple rides on a scooter in front of law enforcement officers blocking a street after poll closed at presidential election in Minsk, Belarus August 9, 2020

A man laying on the ground receives assistance during clashes with opposition supporters after polls closed at the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, August 9

Police detain a man during clashes with opposition supporters after polls closed at the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, August 9, 2020

Police fired stun grenades at the crowds of people who had taken to the streets of capital city Minsk.

Protesters clapped, honked their car horns and shouted 'victory' in solidarity with the opposition.

Lukashenko, who was a collective farm manager under the Soviets, has repeatedly come under fire for his record on human rights through his five terms of office.

More recently he has been targeted for his cavalier attitude to the Covid-19 pandemic which he dismissed as a case of mass 'psychosis'.

Protesters run through smoke during a protest after the Belarusian presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020. Police and protesters clashed in Belarus' capital and the major city of Brest on Sunday after the presidential election in which the authoritarian leader who has ruled for a quarter-century sought a sixth term in office.

Protesters help paramedics to carry a wounded person into an ambulance after clashes with police in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020

People run during clashes with opposition supporters after polls closed at the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, August 9, 2020

The 65-year-old leader has suggested that the virus could be staved off by drinking vodka and spending time in saunas.

Critics had hoped he would be succeeded by former English teacher Svetlana Tikhanovskaya who seemed to hvae posed the biggest threat to his leadership in years.

The mother-of-two only entered the race after her husband, Sergei Tikhanovsky, an anti-government blogger who had intended to run himself, was jailed.

But exit polls indicated Ms Tikhanouskaya had received just 6.8 per cent of the vote.

Riot police block an area after polls closed in Belarus' presidential election, in Minsk on August 9, 2020

Law enforcement officers run during clashes with opposition supporters after poll closed at presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, August 9, 2020

Law enforcement officers escort a man during clashes with opposition supporters after poll closed at presidential election in Minsk, Belarus August 9, 2020

She cast doubt over the fairness of the election after more than 1,300 activists and journalists were detained in the lead-up to Sunday.

Referring to the crowds of people chanting her name, she said last night: 'I believe my eyes, and I see that the majority is with us.'

Military vehicles, soldiers and police patrolled Minsk yesterday while the internet went down in an apparent attempt to disrupt opposition social media communications.

A government official claimed that no protesters had been injured.
Some say volatility, rather than debt, is the best way to think about risk as an investor, but Warren Buffett famously said that 'Volatility is far from synonymous with risk.' When we think about how risky a company is, we always like to look at its use of debt, since debt overload can lead to ruin. We can see that TClarke plc (LON:CTO) does use debt in its business. But should shareholders be worried about its use of debt?

What Risk Does Debt Bring?

Debt and other liabilities become risky for a business when it cannot easily fulfill those obligations, either with free cash flow or by raising capital at an attractive price. If things get really bad, the lenders can take control of the business. While that is not too common, we often do see indebted companies permanently diluting shareholders because lenders force them to raise capital at a distressed price. By replacing dilution, though, debt can be an extremely good tool for businesses that need capital to invest in growth at high rates of return. When we examine debt levels, we first consider both cash and debt levels, together.

View our latest analysis for TClarke

What Is TClarke's Net Debt?

As you can see below, at the end of June 2020, TClarke had UK15.0m of debt, up from none a year ago. Click the image for more detail. However, its balance sheet shows it holds UK22.5m in cash, so it actually has UK7.50m net cash.

A Look At TClarke's Liabilities

The latest balance sheet data shows that TClarke had liabilities of UK86.3m due within a year, and liabilities of UK32.8m falling due after that. On the other hand, it had cash of UK22.5m and UK70.9m worth of receivables due within a year. So it has liabilities totalling UK25.7m more than its cash and near-term receivables, combined.

This deficit is considerable relative to its market capitalization of UK40.9m, so it does suggest shareholders should keep an eye on TClarke's use of debt. This suggests shareholders would be heavily diluted if the company needed to shore up its balance sheet in a hurry. While it does have liabilities worth noting, TClarke also has more cash than debt, so we're pretty confident it can manage its debt safely.

Story continues

In fact TClarke's saving grace is its low debt levels, because its EBIT has tanked 29% in the last twelve months. When a company sees its earnings tank, it can sometimes find its relationships with its lenders turn sour. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. But ultimately the future profitability of the business will decide if TClarke can strengthen its balance sheet over time. So if you want to see what the professionals think, you might find this free report on analyst profit forecasts to be interesting.

But our final consideration is also important, because a company cannot pay debt with paper profits; it needs cold hard cash. TClarke may have net cash on the balance sheet, but it is still interesting to look at how well the business converts its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to free cash flow, because that will influence both its need for, and its capacity to manage debt. During the last three years, TClarke produced sturdy free cash flow equating to 66% of its EBIT, about what we'd expect. This free cash flow puts the company in a good position to pay down debt, when appropriate.

Summing up

Although TClarke's balance sheet isn't particularly strong, due to the total liabilities, it is clearly positive to see that it has net cash of UK7.50m. And it impressed us with free cash flow of UK7.6m, being 66% of its EBIT. So we are not troubled with TClarke's debt use. The balance sheet is clearly the area to focus on when you are analysing debt. But ultimately, every company can contain risks that exist outside of the balance sheet. To that end, you should be aware of the 5 warning signs we've spotted with TClarke .

If you're interested in investing in businesses that can grow profits without the burden of debt, then check out this free list of growing businesses that have net cash on the balance sheet.

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 Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijans State Oil Company and UKs Petrofac have signed an agreement to provide support services for the transfer of technical operations over the South Caucasus Pipeline that takes gas from Azerbaijans Shah Denis field to Turkey.

Under the agreement signed by SOCAR Midstream Operations Limited and Petrofac's Engineering and Production Services Department, SOCAR has accepted the maintenance of the South Caucasus Pipeline from BP. The new agreement provides services to support the transfer of operational assets.

The scope of work provided for in the contract includes: technical inspection of the gas pipeline and other facilities during the transition period, provision of technical support during preparation of the transition plan, implementation phase and operations preparation plan.

Earlier it was reported that BP Exploration Limited has transferred the technical operator of the pipeline to SOCAR Midstream Operations since March 20, 2020.

The South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) was built to export Shah Deniz gas from Azerbaijan to Georgia and Turkey. The pipeline starts from the Sangachal terminal near Baku. It follows the route of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) crude oil pipeline through Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey, where it is linked to the Turkish gas distribution system.

The pipeline has been operational since late 2006 transporting gas to Azerbaijan and Georgia, and starting from July 2007 to Turkey from Shah Deniz Stage 1.

The 42-inch (1,070 mm) diameter gas pipeline runs through the same corridor as the BakuTbilisiCeyhan pipeline until Erzurum, where BTC turns south to the Mediterranean.

The Southern Gas Corridor is an initiative of the European Commission for a natural gas supply route from Caspian and Middle Eastern regions to Europe. The goal of the Southern Gas Corridor is to reduce Europe's dependency on Russian gas and add diverse sources of energy supply. The route from Azerbaijan to Europe consist of the South Caucasus Pipeline, the Trans- Anatolian pipeline, and the Trans- Adriatic Pipeline.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Stained Glass Window Design Competition

Gibraltar Cultural Services, on behalf of the Ministry for Heritage and Culture, is launching a competition for the design of a stained glass window that will adorn and enhance the Central Hall.

The Central Hall was originally built as a church, known as South Barracks Chapel, ceasing to be such in the mid 1900s. The Eastern end of the church housed the Altar against the backdrop of a trio of stained glass windows. The windows remain, but the stained glass does not. It is the stained glass that will be the subject of this competition. The project is supported by the Gibraltar Heritage Trust.

Individual artists are encouraged to be creative with their choice of theme and design. They are required to provide a written element to be submitted alongside their design outlining the rationale behind their inspiration. The design will need to take into account the overall building and the structural elements of the window.

A panel of judges will select the winning entry, with the design in turn created into a full scale window that will be on permanent display at the Central Hall.

Gibraltar Cultural Services is very enthusiastic about this project given that the Central Hall is currently being refurbished and will soon become a prominent venue in Gibraltars cultural and social calendar. A full size stained glass window will enhance this historic site further and also contribute to the growth of Gibraltars cultural identity.

Entry forms, rules and templates are available from the John Mackintosh Hall reception, the City Hall reception or online on www.culture.gi

The closing date for receipt of entries is Friday 25th September 2020.

For any enquiry please contact Gibraltar Cultural Services, Events Department, City Hall, Gibraltar on telephone +350 20067236 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Press Statement

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says that it is a sad commentary for

President Muhammadu Buhari, who won election on a free ballot in 2015 to

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contemplate or bemoan how he could have used security agencies to

undermine the integrity of the electoral process in our country.

Nigerians are aware that in the 2019 presidential election, such

despotic and oppressive tactics were deployed to circumvent the

electoral process and the wishes of Nigerians.

As a party, the PDP hopes this is not a foreplay of what the APC and

Buhari Presidency is planning to exert in the Edo and Ondo governorship

elections scheduled for September and October 2020 respectively.

Nigerians witnessed the overrunning of Ekiti, Osun, Kogi, Bayelsa and

Kano states by the APC using compromised security officials and thugs.

In Kogi State, a police helicopter was used to disperse the electorate,

who were on the queue to perform their civic duties on Election Day.

Mrs. Salome Abuh, a frontline woman leader of the PDP, was burnt to

death by members of the APC in the Kogi State election. Till date, no

member of Mr. Presidents party has been interrogated or arraigned for

that murder.

Contrary to Mr. Presidents expressed concerns, Nigerians have never

witnessed the level of electoral impunity seen under his administration.

Nigeria is standing before the global community on Edo and Ondo

governorship elections and the President must advise his party to allow

INEC to carry out its responsibilities without interferences.

Signed:

Kola Ologbondiyan

National Publicity Secretary
Business activity in Northern Ireland returned to growth in July following months of decline - but while orders and output are in positive territory, the bigger picture is less rosy.

That was the bottom line in Ulster Bank's July Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which tracks changes in four major economic sectors.

It said that overall output for businesses here expanded for the first time in 17 months to 54.5.

On a scale from zero to 100, anything above 50 signals an increase on the previous month.

However, firms reduced prices for the fourth time in four months and employment continues to decrease, albeit at a lower rate than other UK regions.

A closer look at figures shows that retail, construction and manufacturing activity rose in July to 63.4, 60.0 and 59.8 respectively. Services fared worse with a reading of 45.6.

Richard Ramsey, Ulster Bank chief economist Northern Ireland, said: "A further easing of lockdown restrictions in July helped secure growth in private sector activity for the first time in 17 months. Last month's expansion (54.5) was the fastest rate of growth in two years.

"New orders also rose, albeit modestly, for the first time since January 2019. This is driven solely by a pick-up in demand in the domestic market.

"The PMI data suggest that a two-speed recovery has emerged across the UK, which is closely linked to the speed at which lockdown restrictions have been lifted. All of the UK regions, bar Scotland, saw a return to growth in July. Northern Ireland's recovery has lagged behind England. Similarly Wales and Scotland trail further behind Northern Ireland."

Mr Ramsey said strong rates of output growth in three of the four sectors here marked "merely a rebound from abnormally low levels".

"Perhaps surprisingly, the services sector continued to contract at a significant rate. While over one-third of services firms saw a month-on-month rise in activity in July, an even greater number (40%) reported a fall. Clearly some firms have benefited from the reopening of the economy," he said.

"However, others are finding that their recently completed work is not being replaced by new business at a sufficient rate.

"Demand conditions may have improved but the squeeze on profit margins has intensified. Local firms have reduced their prices for the fourth time in five months in order to secure new work. This is despite the significant rise in input costs, notably Covid-19 related expenditure such as personal protective equipment (PPE).

"Despite a pick-up in demand, Northern Ireland, along with all the other UK regions, continued to reduce their staffing levels at a rapid rate. Although the pace of job losses amongst local firms was less marked than elsewhere. The phasing out of the furlough scheme is anticipated to lead to further redundancies in the months ahead.

"While the return to growth is welcome news it merely marks the start of a long road to recovery. There remains a huge gap relative to pre-pandemic levels of output/activity. Bridging this gap will take years not months."
A Robin Williams documentary has come to town. Entitled "Robin's Wish," it detailed the devastating condition that not only frightened the actor but even the medical professionals.

According to Express UK, Robin Williams has confessed in his final months that he is no longer himself. A Neurology professor said the condition was so bad he is amazed that the actor could even walk.

The new documentary involves Susan Schneider, Robin Williams' wife, the actor's colleagues, and medical experts who came by his case - all talking bout the difficult last months the kind actor and well-loved comedian underwent. They called him a "freaking warrior."

These were all hidden, so Robin Williams truly suffered in secret from the public eye. It's presently being aired out to the public in the form of a documentary, however, so that people can become more understanding of what the "Aladdin" and "Mrs Doubtfire" actor had gone through. ti won't be nice to see or hear, but it would certainly be informative.

At the very least, it will erase some of the wrong reports about why he died. Some still believe that he died because he had addiction issues leading him to commit suicide. The detailed accounts of his last days would erase all doubts on people's heads that he was suffering from a little-known form of dementia called Lewy Body Dementia. This has some harrowing effects that even professionals are gravely worried about.

Back in 2014, his death was ruled a suicide, but there were no clarifications as to why he would take his own life, leading to many speculations.

A Professor of Neurology, Bruce Miller, shared that, "Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) increases anxiety, self-doubt... delusions that have never been present in someone.... It really amazed me that Robin could walk or move at all."

Adding to this scary information, the documentary also has his wife saying nearly every region of the actor's brain was under attack. As a result, he felt himself disintegrating and yet regardless of all the pain and probably panic within, he still managed to battle his inner turmoils and put forward a brave face.

"He was a freaking warrior. He was blessed with what his heart was capable of, in the midst of fear," Susan shared.

Williams' wife added that putting a brave face certainly was not easy because he was not losing his memories, he was also dealing with all sorts of disorders simultaneously. He was "confronted with anxiety, paranoia, insomnia, scary altered realities, and a roller coaster of hope and despair," Susan detailed.

She added that it was not until her husband died that the condition was ever revealed. She said that their medical team has relentlessly pursued cures for symptoms but never really attained any gain. When Robin passed, and an autopsy was finally performed, the source of his terror was a terror for medical professionals themselves.

The realization of what he had may come too late, but Susan said it finally made sense what Robin Williams went through because it all matched with science. To help people avoid the same lack of understanding and awareness, they believe a documentary is necessary. Hence, Robin's Wish."
Leaders of the American Association of University Professors of Oregon ask our national and state political leaders to support higher education at this crucial moment and ensure that state investments in higher education continue to meet the COVID-19 challenge, rebuild the economy and protect the most vulnerable Oregonians. Faculty across the state are already demonstrating their resiliency in switching on a dime to deliver remote education to tens of thousands of Oregon students. Faculty and academic professionals at some Oregon institutions have already agreed to significant sacrifices and negotiated temporary pay cuts as measures to save jobs and meet the fiscal crises confronting our nation, our state and our universities. Today, we stand ready to continue our vital work as educators and researchers across the state.

Now is the time to join other states in accessing our robust rainy day fund and at the same time revisit the discussion about the Oregon tax kicker, disconnect Oregon from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) loophole for wealthy business owners, and reform our tax codes which privilege the rich and corporations. Additionally, our university administrators should work with state and campus leaders to implement a one- time levy on the university endowments by tapping unrestricted endowment funds or by redirecting endowment earnings to crucial student services or instructional budgets.

Michael Dreiling, Eugene

Dreiling is president of the American Association of University Professors of Oregon and is writing on behalf of the groups executive committee
Tragedy struck in Ikere Ekiti, the second-largest city in Ekiti State and about ten minutes drive from Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State Capital, as two university undergraduates were crushed to death by a truck.

It was gathered that the victims; Ojo Hezekiah Abidemi (25) and Ojo Ayomide (21), were students of University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ekiti State College of Education, Ikere Ekiti Campus.

Sources close to the victim who preferred to remain anonymous told journalists that the victims were making moves on Sunday evening to travel to Akure, Ondo State capital to see their parents when the fatal accident happened.

The eye witness said it took the intervention of spirited individuals to stop some rampaging youths, who wanted to set the truck ablaze.

According to the eye witness, the two students were on a motorcycle and were going to Akure when they collided with a truck and died on the spot.

The victims had branched to buy fuel at a petrol station and when they left and entered the road, a moving truck which was on a high speed overran them and the two died instantly.

Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti Command, ASP Sunday Abutu, said the two were killed by a moving truck and their bodies had been deposited in the morgue. Abutu said: it was sad and unfortunate that two young men could be killed due to avoidable accident.

Preliminary investigation revealed that it was a case of collision and we appeal to motorists and other road users to always exercise restraint on roads.

He added that the driver of the truck had been arrested and detained by the police.

Follow Us on Facebook  @LadunLiadi; Instagram  @LadunLiadi; Twitter  @LadunLiadi; Youtube  @LadunLiadiTV for updates
Max Verstappen took another victory last weekend and that's the ninth in his career. He outperformed Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas on good tyre management and that got a lot of praise. This victory also goes into the books as one with a great story and that actually applies to almost all of his victories.

Nine victories for Verstappen

In the new episode of Crashen in the Kitchen, Robert Doornbos says: "He has nine in total and yesterday was number nine and only one came from pole position", in response to Rob Kamphues who says that Verstappen wins time and again in a situation where one day later you think: "He always wins and half the time you think: 'This can't be done'."

"One came from pole position and that was in Brazil," continued Doornbos. "Then he was so dominant. The rest is just all with a special story. This is self-created", the former F1-driver refers to Germany, Austria and other races that Verstappen managed to win spectacularly.

"This was decided on Saturday, we choose a different strategy and we are going to win him," concludes Doornbos.

Fully send it

Well over half the race said Verstappen over the radio to his engineer: "So basically we're just going to fully send it", which means it's actually already done. According to the two gentlemen, that shows that Verstappen is extraordinary, because even then he was more or less sure of his business where he doesn't have the best material on paper.

The same is also said about the other radio moments of Verstappen. At first he said he didn't want to drive like an old grandmother and later he asked his engineer if he had drunk enough and washed his hands. For Herman den Blijker, cook on duty, that is almost astonishing. "What's on your mind then? You can't do that, can you? That's not human, that man."

In other words, that kind of fun at that high speed while trying to win a race in the king's class of motorsport... that's what makes Verstappen stand out and makes it special as a driver.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 10)  The government said one of the countrys biggest quarantine facility is expected to start operating this month in Paranaque City.

The first phase of the 525-bed isolation facility located at Nayong Pilipino is expected to open on August 25, COVID-19 testing czar Vince Dizon said on Monday. This facility will cater mild and asymptomatic patients only, he said.

The facility is bigger than the World Trade Center quarantine facility, which has 502 beds, and the Philippine Arena facility which has 300 beds.

This is in line with efforts to increase the countrys isolation capacity, which is now at 70 percent, and in preparation in case Metro Manila will return to a more relaxed general community quarantine mid-August, Dizon said.

He added that the public can expect more facilities to be built in the coming weeks not only for Metro Manila, but also for Bulacan, and Calabarzon.

Earlier, the government said 22 mega-quarantine facilities for mild and asymptomatic COVID-19 patients are expected to open in the capital in two to three weeks.

READ: DPWH eyes completion of 22 new COVID-19 isolation facilities by August

On July 30, the health department said five of the 15 big quarantine facilities in Luzon already reached danger zone in terms of beds for COVID-19 patients. This means a 70 to 100 percent utilization of facilities catering to such patients.
Microsoft Corp. founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said its mind-blowing that the U.S. government hasnt improved COVID-19 testing that he described as slow and lacking fair access.

Youre paying billions of dollars in this very inequitable way to get the most worthless test results of any country in the world, Gates said on CNNs Fareed Zakaria GPS on Sunday. No other country has this testing insanity.

A variety of early missteps by the U.S. and then the political atmosphere meant that we didnt get our testing going, he said.

Gates cited long lines at commercial labs and delays in obtaining test results, meaning that you pay as much for the late result as the timely result. Meanwhile, very wealthy people have access to these quick-turnaround tests, he said.

Its mind-blowing that you cant get the government to improve the testing because they just want to say how great it is, Gates said.

Public officials have regularly cited delays in testing results in the U.S. as an impediment to quick contract tracking and isolation of people infected with the virus.

President Donald Trump has defended the U.S. record on testing as the best ever, the best in the world, telling Fox News last week that half of the countrys testing is short-term.

Gates reiterated that he expects the U.S. to largely get through the pandemic by the end of next year as therapeutics and a vaccine become available.

In a Bloomberg interview last week Gates said hes funded vaccine development efforts by AstraZeneca Plc, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax Inc.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged more than $350 million toward COVID-19 research. Much of that has gone toward funding research and manufacturing capacity that will help a vaccine be distributed globally.



Yueqi Yang of Bloomberg News wrote this story.

2020 Bloomberg News

Visit Bloomberg News at www.bloomberg.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Sara Sampaio couldn't be happier while on holiday back in her home country of Portugal.

The top model, who grew up in the coastal city of Porto in the northwest, has been making her way around the gorgeous landscape with some friends for the last couple of weeks.

And to the delight of her 7.5 million Instagram fans and followers, she has been sharing a number of photos during her trip, which has included showing off her statuesque figure in bikinis.

Mother Nature's wonders: Sara Sampaio, 29, stunned in a red bikini during one of her latest stops during her visit back in her home country of Portugal

In two of her latest posts on Sunday, the Portuguese model, 29, shared a series of snaps of herself soaking in some of Mother Nature's wonders in a red bikini.

She stared straight into the camera as she sat on a big rock with crystal clear water surrounding her for one, and in another she snuggled up next to friend Natacha Padrao Ribeiro, who looked lovely in a black two-piece number.

'Rediscovering my insanely beautiful Portugal! This is Geres! One of my favorite places in Portugal,' she caption her first two-picture post just hours earlier of herself laying back in her revealing number on top of an even bigger rock.

There's also another angle of her sitting with the water moving past her.

Lovely: The top model also laid back in her revealing number on top of an even bigger rock

Gal pals: Sampaio also snuggled up next to friend Natacha Padrao Ribeiro, who looked amazing in her black two-piece number

Zen moment: The Portuguese beauty also shared another angle of her sitting with the crystal clear water moving past her

Sampaio and her pals also shared some photos of their visit to the capital city of Lisbon.

For this part of her trip she showed off her long gams in cutoff denim shorts and a sleeveless white t-shirt.

'No better guides in Portugal,' one friend headlined a snap of three of them looking down on the beautiful landscape.

Another one of her childhood mates posted a group photo with the caption: 'The old gang reunited.

Sampaio had been sequestered at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic at home with long-time boyfriend, Oliver Ripley, and her beloved dogs.

Casual: Sampaio showed off her gams in cutoff denim shorts and a sleeveless white t-shirt
As concerns increase amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Whitney Reddick, a 33-year-old teacher in Jacksonville, Florida, is not in favor of returning to work on Aug. 20 -- and she has taken a creative approach to get her point across.

"With profound sadness, I announce the passing of Whitney Leigh Reddick," her mock obit, posted to Facebook, reads. "A loving and devoted teacher, mother, daughter, wife, aunt, and friend to all whose lives she touched, on August 7th, 2020."

Reddick continues by mentioning her parents, her longtime classmate turned husband, Evan, and their 14-month-old son, Talon.

"Talon turned 14 months the month his mother passed. Being so young his memories of her will fade and he will only have those that were captured in film. He will have a hole only a few children bear. However, more now than ever before," the obit says.

BACK TO SCHOOL: UN Chief outlines 'bold steps' to get students on track after COVID-19 led to widest disruption ever

Florida's Department of Education issued an executive order stating that all schools must open for at least five days a week. "We have a moral imperative to do our absolute BEST to return #FLschools to full operation by August. Our childrens education & our economy are all depending on us to make a collaborative effort to reopen our school campuses," the Department said in a tweet last month.

In Reddick's hypothetical obituary, she states she died alone in isolation and on a ventilator at a Jacksonville hospital. It remembers her as a lover who fought for what she believed in, stood up to injustice, embraced those who differed from her and truly listened when spoken to.

"However, even though she shouted from the rooftops, attempted to be unemotional, and educated herself in facts and science, she succumbed to the ignorance of those in power," the obit reads as it begins to close. "She returned to work, did her best to handle all the roles placed on her shoulders; educator, COVID-security guard, human shield, firefighter, social worker, nurse, and caregiver but the workload weakened her, and the virus took hold. Whitney was taken from us. Yes, of course too soon, but we are the ones left with holes in our hearts, missing how big hers was."

The mock obit requests that everyone send their condolences to Governor Ron DeSantis, Mayor Lenny Curry and the Duval County School Board and Superintendent, who, in this case, are responsible for making the decision to reopen schools as the pandemic continues.

The state of Florida reported 4,155 new cases of coronavirus on Monday, and 91 deaths, according to WPLG Local10 news. Health department data indicates that there have been 536,961 confirmed cases and 8,277 resident deaths statewide since the start of the pandemic.
By Panu Wongcha-um and Kay Johnson

BANGKOK, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Over two days of video calls earlier this month, about a dozen students from Thailands Kasetsart and Mahanakorn universities debated whether to break a taboo that could land them in jail: openly challenging the countrys powerful monarchy, according to two people on the calls.

Protesters on the streets and online have made a growing number of veiled references to King Maha Vajiralongkorn over the last few months as they push for greater democracy, but nobody had dared make a public call for changes at the palace.

The students discussed on the calls a Harry Potter wizard-themed protest and considered stopping short of open confrontation by only mentioning "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," a reference to Potters archenemy in the J.K. Rowling books, the two participants said.

The argument for a clearer  but riskier  statement won out.

On the evening of Monday, Aug. 3, human rights lawyer Anon Nampa, 35, took the stage at Bangkok's Democracy Monument and called for the palace's powers to be curbed, an extremely rare event.

No other democratic countries allow the king to have this much power over the military, he told about 200 protesters, with police standing by as he spoke. This increases the risk that a monarchy in a democracy could become an absolute monarchy.

While the country has been roiled by decades of political turmoil, street protesters have not previously sought changes to the monarchy, which the constitution says must be held "in a position of revered worship."

Any form of challenge to the monarchy was extremely rare under Vajiralongkorn's father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in 2016 after 70 years on the throne.

Neither Anon nor any of the protesters have been charged with breaking Thailands lese majeste law, which punishes criticism of the monarchy by up to 15 years in prison.

However, on Friday Aug. 7 police said Anon was taken into custody and charged with several offences relating to a separate protest on July 18, including "raising unrest and disaffection amongst the people, which carries a maximum seven-year sentence.

Story continues

Anon has denied all charges, said his lawyer Weeranan Huadsri. He was freed on bail on Saturday. The Royal Palace declined to comment on the protests or the more outspoken calls for royal powers to be curbed. Defence Ministry spokesman Kongcheep Tantrawanit said: Don't draw the monarchy into conflict, it is not appropriate. The monarchy is a centre of unity for the Thai people.

SWEPT UNDER THE RUG

Anons open call for reform underscored the scale and speed of change in Thailand as some members of a new generation take on an establishment tied to the close relationship between the palace and the army. The king, a former army officer, is officially commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

This is an issue that people want to talk about, said Patsalawalee Tanakitwiboonpon, a 24-year-old engineering student at Mahanakorn University who helped plan and spoke at the protest on Monday. It has been swept under the rug for so long. So we think it is better if we can talk about this issue rationally and in the open.

The latest series of protests have grown from a handful of peaceful, online-organized flash mobs, mostly on university campuses, to dozens of street demonstrations across Thailand and millions of people following hashtags online such as #FreeYouth.

The reaction from authorities, so far, has been limited. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who first took power in a 2014 military coup, told reporters on Aug. 4, the day after Anons speech, that the government was open to talking to the students. He said on June 15 that the king had requested no prosecutions under the lese majeste law.

Army chief Apirat Kongsompong was not so conciliatory. In a speech to cadets on Aug. 5, he said: "COVID is a curable disease, but hating the nation, hating one's own country, this a disease that is not curable."

On Aug. 4, the day after the protest, Anon told Reuters he was not too worried about being arrested. He had planned to speak out about the monarchy at two further protests in coming days, according to his Facebook page.

The police said in a statement on Friday that Anon and another organizer were arrested because it had received complaints about the July 18 protest and that an investigation was under way. Police declined to say who had complained or describe the nature of the complaints.

The police did not explain why Anon had not been charged under the lese majeste law for his speech at the Aug. 3 protest.

BOUND IN HISTORY

Even though King Vajiralongkorn spends much of his time in Germany, his image is pervasive in Thailand. Gold-framed royal portraits look down on city streets. Cinemas play a royal anthem at which audiences are traditionally expected to stand.

Many Thai conservatives say the bond between the monarchy and army is a guarantee of stability. The military strongly supports the palace's position as Thailands highest moral authority, with its head taking an unprecedented public oath last year to only support a government that backs the monarchy.

Some analysts say the military uses its close association with the monarchy to justify its prominent role in Thai politics. Ex-army chief Prayuth has appointed three retired military leaders to cabinet positions and more than a third of Senate seats are held by current or former military officers.

Meanwhile, the king has strengthened his constitutional powers since he took the throne in 2016. In his speech, Anon gave two examples of the king accruing powers he described as incompatible with democracy: Prayuths government transferring two army units to the kings personal control in 2019 and moving the crowns vast property holdings into the kings name in 2017.

"Yes, I am afraid, but if we don't come out to talk about what is necessary then the problems will continue, said student Thanapol Panngam, 27, one of the organizers of Mondays protest.

So far, only a handful of the dozens of student protest groups have openly criticised the monarchy, but they are united in demanding change after a disputed election last year which allowed former junta leader Prayuth to retain power. Critics say the election was pre-determined by rules written by the military that automatically gave Prayuth a significant number of votes. Prayuth says the vote was fair.

"Our main ideology is to promote democracy," said Jutatip Sirikhan, 21, president of the Student Union of Thailand, which has helped organise the protests and has not criticised the palace.

The protests took off around the beginning of this year after courts banned the opposition Future Forward party, which had emerged from obscurity to a surprisingly strong third place in elections, helped by wide youth support for its call to end the militarys dominance over the countrys politics.

"How's the weather in Germany?" read one placard at one of the first campus protests in Bangkok in February, a seemingly innocuous question but one that most Thais would recognise as a reference to Vajiralongkorn spending more time in Bavaria than Bangkok.

Then the new coronavirus halted the protests as Thailand locked down.

But from their phones and laptops back home, the activists kept up the pressure online - and with it the questioning of the monarchy.

In March, #whydoweneedaking? was used more than 1 million times on Thai-language Twitter. A Thai-language Facebook group that often mocks the monarchy has attracted more than 850,000 members.

During the lockdown, the students were also planning their next moves. "There were Zoom meetings that would include more than a dozen people, and they would go on for hours," recalled Jutatip.

Protesters reappeared on the streets in force on July 18, spurred on by anger at economic pain caused by the collapse in tourism due to the coronavirus and the apparent kidnapping of an exiled Thai activist - the latest of several to disappear. Human rights groups say Wanchalearm Satsaksit, 37, was grabbed by unknown assailants in Cambodia in June and has not been seen since. The government and military have denied involvement.

BACK TO THE 70s

The latest youth-led demonstrations resemble pro-democracy student movements of the 1970s, some analysts say.

Thailand has seen repeated cycles of military intervention: there have been 13 successful coups since the end of absolute royal rule in 1932. King Bhumibol intervened in 1973 and 1992 to quell tensions after crackdowns by military rulers killed protesters.

Not all young Thais are on the same side. Pro-democracy protests have been met with royalist defenders of the government staging their own, smaller rallies.

Many Thais have been concerned about offensive things against the monarchy, said Totsapol Manoonyarat, a royalist former vocational student who said he was inspired by love of the king to join a counter-protest in Bangkok.

Stark divisions pose a dilemma for the government, some analysts say.

"If they crack down on critics, they risk creating a backlash," said Matthew Wheeler, senior Southeast Asia analyst for the International Crisis Group. "But if they let it slide, there's a risk the taboo will crumble." (Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Kay Johnson in Bangkok Editing by Matthew Tostevin and Bill Rigby)
Revisiting Our Silver and Gold Predictions  Get Ready For Higher Prices

If you have been following our research into Gold and Silver over the past years, then you were already prepared for the recent rally that has taken many investors by surprise. This year, 2020, Gold and Silver are set up to have their best year of price appreciation over the past 40+ years. It is no consequence that this is taking place right now. Our cycle research and our predictive modeling systems have helped us stay well ahead of this move. In fact, way back in early 2019, we were already warning this type of price move would take place and suggesting a target price level of $3750 for Gold was not out of the question.

OUR GOLD PREDICTIONS CAME TRUE

This article will review some of our past research posts to help you better understand what is really happening in precious metals right now. One of our most visited research articles in 2019 was related to our prediction that Gold would rally from $1240 to well over $1700 before the end of 2019 based on our Adaptive Dynamic Learning (ADL) predictive modeling system.

Our predictions at that time shocked many traders because the global markets were not expecting precious metals to rally in this manner reflecting a renewed fear trade setting up. The idea that Gold could rally nearly 40% at a time when the global markets appeared to be driving growth and gains was alien to most people. Yet, here we are with Gold attempting to break above $2000 and our $1700 price prediction being a thing of the past.

SILVER GOES INTO FULL SUPER-HERO MODE

Later in 2019 our research team published the infamous Silver Super-Hero article. This article suggested that Silver was deeply undervalued at a $15 price level, especially at a time when we believed Gold would begin to skyrocket higher. We pushed this article out in September 2019 attempting to alert our followers to the incredible opportunity setting up in Silver.

One highlight of this article was that Eric Sprott, of www.SprottMoney.com (https://www.sprottmoney.com/eric-sprott ) picked up on our research and highlighted it in many of his podcasts over the past 12+ months. Eric is a renowned gold bug and recently mentioned in one of his podcasts that the Technical Traders is one of his favorite researchers of precious metals due to the accuracy of our predictions.

Before you continue, be sure to opt-in to our free-market trend signalsnow so you dont miss our next special report!

Whenever someone like Eric Sprott picks up on our research and confirms our efforts, it is like winning an award from another seasoned and experienced trader/researcher. With Erics help, many other metals traders learned of our research and predictions  which further added to our accolades and credibility related to our precious metals research.

The recent breakout move in Silver also added to the win column of our incredible research and predictions. When Gold moved above $1800 per ounce Silver suddenly sparked to life and rallied to levels near $24 in an instant. This huge upside move in silver sent a shock-wave out to metals traders  you better start paying attention to what is happening in precious metals (and particularly Silver) because this is just getting started.

CYCLES, SETUPS & THE EVENTUAL PEAK IN METALS

Part of our research delves into cycles and broader price patterns. When we discuss patterns and cycles that are setting up, we want you to consider how these powerful events can turn into incredible opportunities for skilled technical traders and how you should be preparing for these events.

Near the end of 2019, we published a research article about the 7-year cycle that was just starting in Gold and how traders needed to prepare for this pattern. Remember, by this time, we had been warning and suggesting that Gold and Silver would begin to skyrocket higher for well over 12+ months. It was just a matter of time before the fuel was ignited and prices started to climb.

The COVID-19 virus event was the event that suddenly questioned longer-term sustainability and global market capabilities. We were aware of this new virus and the potential for global problems in early January 2020, yet the metals markets ignored the real risk. It was not until February/March that traders started paying attention to the true risk factors related to this global event. Yet in December 2019 we were warning of the risks:

Be prepared for a surprising spike in volatility in early 2020 with a moderately strong potential for an early 2020 downside price rotation which prompts a new price trend and possibly an early test of support (near 280 on the SPY chart). 2020 is going to be a fantastic year for skilled traders  get ready for some incredible price action.

Currently both Gold and Silver are moving moderately higher after the explosive upside breakout move recently. Our researchers believe another wave of higher price levels will engage both Gold and Silver over the next 30+ days where Gold will target the $2300 level and Silver will target the $33~$35 level. It wont end there either. Both Gold and Silver are moving in measured price waves it appears. As risks continue to become evident, we believe that Gold will eventually target the $3350+ level and Silver will eventually target the $75 to $85+ level. These targets are very likely to happen before the end of 2020.

Where is the peak in Gold and Silver? Based on our research we believe Gold will peak somewhere above $3750 per ounce and Silver will peak somewhere above $120 per ounce. It is not too late to get positioned for this incredible rally in precious metals if you have not already done so.

Get our Active ETF Swing Trade Signals or if you have any type of retirement account and are looking for signals when to own equities, bonds, or cash, be sure to become a member of my Passive Long-Term ETF Investing Signals which we are about to issue a new signal for subscribers.

Chris Vermeulen

www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

Chris Vermeulen has been involved in the markets since 1997 and is the founder of Technical Traders Ltd. He is an internationally recognized technical analyst, trader, and is the author of the book: 7 Steps to Win With Logic



Through years of research, trading and helping individual traders around the world. He learned that many traders have great trading ideas, but they lack one thing, they struggle to execute trades in a systematic way for consistent results. Chris helps educate traders with a three-hour video course that can change your trading results for the better.



His mission is to help his clients boost their trading performance while reducing market exposure and portfolio volatility.



He is a regular speaker on HoweStreet.com, and the FinancialSurvivorNetwork radio shows. Chris was also featured on the cover of AmalgaTrader Magazine, and contributes articles to several leading financial hubs like MarketOracle.co.uk

Disclaimer: Nothing in this report should be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any securities mentioned. Technical Traders Ltd., its owners and the author of this report are not registered broker-dealers or financial advisors. Before investing in any securities, you should consult with your financial advisor and a registered broker-dealer. Never make an investment based solely on what you read in an online or printed report, including this report, especially if the investment involves a small, thinly-traded company that isnt well known. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report has been paid by Cardiff Energy Corp. In addition, the author owns shares of Cardiff Energy Corp. and would also benefit from volume and price appreciation of its stock. The information provided here within should not be construed as a financial analysis but rather as an advertisement. The authors views and opinions regarding the companies featured in reports are his own views and are based on information that he has researched independently and has received, which the author assumes to be reliable. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content of this report, nor its fitness for any particular purpose. Lastly, the author does not guarantee that any of the companies mentioned in the reports will perform as expected, and any comparisons made to other companies may not be valid or come into effect.

Chris Vermeulen Archive

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, joined by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, speaks to reporters in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, July 29, 2020.

Top Democrats on Sunday criticized President Donald Trump's executive actions on coronavirus relief as "absurdly unconstitutional" and "way off base."

The measures, which Trump signed on Saturday and sidestep Congress after lawmakers failed to reach a deal on Friday, provide an additional $400 per week unemployment benefits among other relief measures such as a temporary payroll tax cut.

Trump said the federal government would fund most of the benefits with disaster relief money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He also called on states, many of which are already suffering from budget shortfalls due to the pandemic, to cover a quarter of the cost.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., lambasted the move in interviews with "Fox News Sunday" and CNN's "State Of The Union."

Pelosi called the president's actions "unconstitutional slop," referencing a statement made a day earlier by Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb.

"While he says he's going to do the payroll tax, what he's doing is undermining Social Security and Medicare, so these are illusions," she said on "Fox News Sunday." Social Security and Medicare are funded through payroll taxes, which Trump on Saturday also vowed to slash permanently if he's re-elected.

In an interview on CNN, Pelosi called the measures "absurdly unconstitutional" but she would not say whether Democrats would mount a legal challenge as they previously indicated.

"Something's wrong," she said. "Either the president doesn't know what he's talking about ... or something's very wrong here about meeting the needs of the American people at this time."

In an interview on "This Week" on ABC, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., declined to discuss whether he thought Trump's move was illegal, saying instead that "it doesn't do the job."

"The president's executive orders, described in one word, could be paltry, in three words, unworkable, weak, and far too narrow," Schumer said, adding that they are "a big show, but it doesn't do anything."

Schumer also said the payroll tax cut was "way off base."

"Employers are just going to continue to withhold the money  I've talked to some  because they don't want their employees to be stuck with a huge bill in December," Schumer said. "So it's not going to pump money into the economy."

In an interview with MNSBC on Sunday, 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton called Trump's actions "a stunt" that would hurt "every American."

"It's a stunt, there's no doubt about it," she said. "It's most likely ... unconstitutional, bypassing Congress to spend money that he has no authority to direct."

Clinton also criticized the effect that a payroll tax cut would have on Social Security and Medicare, which are significantly funded through those taxes.

"It's going to hurt not just elderly Americans but every American," she said.
The money to rebuild Lebanon's shattered capital will come only with the same change demanded by mourning protesters in Beirut, said world leaders and international organizations on Sunday after a global aid teleconference. Over 30 conference participants offered emergency humanitarian aid and pledged help for a "credible and independent" investigation into last week's Beirut explosion, another key demand of the Lebanese crowds who took to the streets Saturday and Sunday.

In Beirut, a Lebanese Cabinet minister resigned amid signals that the embattled government may be unraveling in the aftermath of the devastating blast that ripped through the capital on August 4 and raised public anger to new levels. Manal Abdel-Samad's resignation, in which she cited failure to meet the people's aspirations and the Tuesday blast, was followed by a swirl of reports that other ministers were also resigning.

If seven of the 20 ministers resign, the Cabinet would effectively have to step down and remain in place as a caretaker government. Closed-door meetings into the night and a flurry of phone calls between Prime Minister Hassan Diab and several ministers followed her announcement.

The political haggling put off more resignations, and a Cabinet meeting is planned Monday. Meanwhile, four more lawmakers announced Sunday they were resigning from the 128-seat parliament, joining four others who declared it earlier. Parliament is also due to convene later this week.

As the political negotiating took place, protesters converged again on the parliament area Sunday afternoon, setting off another night of violent demonstrations. Hundreds of protesters clashed with security forces, attempting to breach the heavily-guarded parliament.

Security forces responded with tear gas and chased the protesters in the streets of downtown, in a smaller repeat of the scene from the night before.

The protesters blame the ruling elite for the chronic mismanagement and corruption that is believed to be behind the explosion in a Beirut Port warehouse. Hundreds of tons of highly explosive material were stored in the waterfront hangar, and the blast sent a shock wave that killed at least 160 people, wounded nearly 6,000 and defaced the coastline of Beirut, destroying hundreds of buildings.

"In these horrendous times, Lebanon is not alone", participants to the conference co-organised by France and the United Nations said in their final statement. The participants to the donors' teleconference promised to provide emergency aid, focusing on medicine and hospitals, schools, food and housing.

The donors, who pledged nearly $300 million, warned that no money for rebuilding would be made available until Lebanese authorities "fully commit themselves to timely measures and reforms expected by the Lebanese people." They also promised the aid will be coordinated by the UN and delivered directly to the Lebanese people, in a clear indication that no money is going to the government and its coffers.

French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country once governed Lebanon as a protectorate, said "we have to do everything we can so that violence and chaos do not win the day." The explosion of August 4 was like a thunderbolt. It's time to wake up and take action. The Lebanese authorities now have to put in place ... political and economic reforms.

Amid the teleconference participants were President Donald Trump, Jordan's King Abdullah II, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and other top officials from China, the European Union and the Gulf Arab countries. The disaster fueled angry demonstrations Saturday where protesters set up gallows and nooses in central Beirut and held mock hanging sessions of cut-out cardboard images of top Lebanese officials.

Demonstrators held signs that read "resign or hang." One police officer was killed and dozens of people were hurt in confrontations that lasted for hours and where security forces used rubber bullets to disperse the crowds. On Saturday and in a new expression of rage, protesters also fanned out around the city, storming a couple of government ministries and briefly declaring the foreign ministry as the headquarters of their movement.

In the economy and energy ministries, the protesters ransacked offices and seized public documents claiming they would reveal how corruption has permeated successive governments.

"Given the magnitude of the catastrophe ... that shook the nation and hurt our hearts and minds, and in respect for the martyrs, and the pains of the wounded, missing and displaced, and in response to the public will for change, I resign from the government," Abdel-Samad said in her resignation letter.

In the country where civil war raged for 15 years, few, if any, have been held accountable for it and most of the warlords remain in power or leading powerful political factions. On Sunday, France's ambassador to Lebanon said his country is taking part in the investigation of the August 4 blast.

Bruno Foucher tweeted that 46 officers are operating as part of the judicial investigation. That probe was started by a French prosecutor after a national of France, Jean-Marc Bonfils, was killed in the blast and others injured.

It is "a guarantee of impartiality and speed" in the investigation, Foucher tweeted.
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As the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and the devastating impact it wielded on the global economy are here to linger, blue-collar workers in Ho Chi Minh City are prepared to take on any kind of jobs available to make ends meet.

More than 20 million people have been infected with the coronavirus globally, with around 734,000 virus-related deaths.

In Vietnam, where there are 841 COVID-19 cases against a population of over 96 million, the pandemics economic impacts are already strongly felt  the urban unemployment rate in the second quarter was at a ten-year high of 4.46 percent, according to the General Statistics Office.

Another 60,000-70,000 people in the Southeast Asian country will lose their jobs each month until the end of the year, mostly in tourism, services, construction, transport and manufacturing, in the worst-case scenario, Deputy Minister of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs Le Van Thanh told VnExpress.

Job-hopping to survive

Is your place hiring? Hook me up, Im unemployed now, Thanh Tuan, a 28-year-old hailing from the central province of Quang Ngai, said to his friend on the phone as he packed his stuff, preparing to return his rental room before hitting the road to pursue a new job.

He used to work at a frozen food factory in the Tan Tao Industrial Zone of Ho Chi Minh City, but was recently laid off as the business struggled to find new orders after the COVID-19 upheaval.

I just called my friend who is working in an advertising sign firm. He cast doubt whether I can do the job. I totally can. [I am a] jack of all trades, no trade is impossible for me, Tuan affirmed.

Due to the pandemic, returning to his hometown is not an option for Tuan at the moment.

After leaving my hometown for work, I cant just return with empty hands, so I must try to make money and survive in this city, he elaborated.

In regard to the new job, he expects to earn VND6 million (US$258) per month installing LED lights and embossed lettering on shop signs.

Tuan is by no means an isolated case. There are many odd-jobbers struggling to find a stable job, who have no choice but to jump intermittently between vacancies.

Take Tan Luc, a 24-year-old from the Mekong Deltas Ben Tre Province, as an example: after spending two years working in a shoemaking factory, he entered a phase where he could not find stable work, putting labor in at various jobs from porting cargo to driving trucks before coming to work for a beverage bottling facility.

During the pandemic, all companies are more or less exasperated. Places that I used to work for have all been closed now, so we have to devise ways to get a new job, Luc said.

Luckily enough, I can do every kind of job. Were there to be something I dont know, I would ask the boss. I hope that the current job can be stable so I dont have to find another one, he added.

Thanh Tuan works on a shop sign at an advertising workshop after being laid off from his previous full-time job. Photo: M.L. / Tuoi Tre

Dinh An, a 32-year-old from north-central Thanh Hoa Province, was cruising the streets of Ho Chi Minh City on his motorbike after being made redundant at an incense stick manufacturing workshop in Binh Tan District.

The lay-off was attributable to the slump in business orders that the workshop was facing in the pandemic, which in turn pushed An to the streets looking for each and every recruitment notice.

I dropped my resume everywhere, yet some pay too low while others are not recruiting at this time, so I decided to do manual labor, An said.

I have dabbled for two months so far, experiencing a total of six jobs. I first became an Internet cafe attendant, then a parking lot guard for a coffee shop. Both had to cut down on personnel due to the lack of patrons, he said.

I got in to work for a cold cut manufacturing facility but had to quit as well. Then came the construction worker gig, which paid by daily roll. Once the project was completed, I had to quit. I turned to doing car washes for a few days, but that did not work out as well. Now I am looking for places that are hiring so I can apply, An explained.

Hard work pays off

Minh Quang, aged 28, is a native of the Central Highlands Dak Lak Province. He used to work for a shoe factory in the southern industrial hub Binh Duong Province before facing a lay-off.

He has since had to get by in Ho Chi Minh City through an array of blue-collar jobs, from assisting a crab wholesale spot on Phan Anh Street, cultivating ornamental trees for a shop in Go Vap District to barbering for a shop on Thanh Thai Street in District 10 and now being a guard for an apartment building.

COVID-19 has upended the livelihood of many people, and us blue-collar workers are the ones who suffered the most. I've fared a little better than others since I can take on all kinds of jobs, whereas some of my friends are out of work, staying at home with nothing better to do, Quang said.

Workers are seen assembling clothes at a garment factory in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: M.L. / Tuoi Tre

Hoang Quy, aged 34, was working for a welding workshop in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City before it went out of business. Quy is now a barber working for a shop in the citys Binh Tan District.

Blue-collar workers like me are not educated enough to do jobs that require calculation and abstract thinking. Yet I can definitely do it as long as its manual labor, no matter how hard and arduous it is, Quy acknowledged.

This pandemic would put a burden on everyone, yet people who are hardworking will eventually make it through, he added.

People with more skills in hand, who have endurance and are not afraid to get their hands dirty would have way more job prospects. Jacks of all trades will not stay unemployed for long, Quy opined.

Joking around with his words, he continued to show his optimistic vision: As the pandemic is still raging unpredictably, people are losing jobs every day, odd-jobbers like us might be the ones with the best careers at the moment.

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The Qalaa Holdings Scholarship Foundation (QHSF) has awarded scholarships to 198 students in total with 15-20 on average each year for the past 14 years uninterrupted.

Announcing the recipients of its 14th annual round of scholarships, QHSF said in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, it has elected to limit the number of recipients for this years class to three.

The reduction in the number of scholarships aims to curb the effect of potential disruptions to programmes of study which may leave students with the inability to reap the full benefits of their experience.

The three recipients of this years scholarships will be pursuing post-graduate studies in the United Kingdom in the fields of finance, psychology and law at London Business School, UCL, and Queen Mary University respectively.

Our mission through the Foundation is to invest in the development of talented youth with great potential who will one day become business leaders in their respective fields and shape the future of our country, said Ahmed Heikal, Chairman and Founder of Qalaa Holdings.

Qalaa Holdings and QHSF remain as committed as ever to promoting the foundations work by further investing in education, which we view as a key pillar to Egypts sustainable socio-economic development.

The Foundations decision to limit the number of recipients this year was due to circumstances beyond our control and the general environment of uncertainty that has prevailed since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, commented Hisham El-Khazindar, Qalaa Holdings Co-Founder and Managing Director.

Our ultimate aim is to offer the scholars an opportunity to broaden their horizons not only through their studies but through their overall experience, which may not be possible with travel restrictions and online learning. We are nonetheless pleased to be able to continue with the programme on a smaller scale during this exceptionally challenging year.

Over the years we have managed to endure much upheaval, but we have remained committed to our mission despite the challenges and I am confident that we will be able to make it through the current turbulence. We hope to compensate for the limited number of scholarships next year as things start going back to normal, by increasing our number of scholars to allow more talented individuals to benefit from this opportunity, said Yasmine El Dorghamy, Director of QHSF.

Covid disruptions have resulted in travel restrictions, delays in document processing and the inability to conduct in-person classes at many academic institutions.

QHSF is Egypts largest private sector funded scholarship programme for outstanding Egyptian students seeking to pursue post-graduate studies at some of the worlds leading universities, on the condition of returning to Egypt and contributing to its economy.

QHSF, which was founded in 2007 with an endowment that ensures its sustainability, seeks to offer promising students from across the country the opportunity to pursue post-graduate studies at some of the worlds most prestigious universities. Following the completion of their studies, QHSF scholars are required to return to Egypt to work for a minimum of two years.

The foundations alumni have since launched businesses and pursued careers, creating valuable impact across several key fields including education, architecture, renewable energy, and archeology, among others.

Qalaa Holdings is a firm believer in human capital development and education as the key to sustainable development. In addition to the invaluable role that QHSF has played over the years to support the aspirations of our youth, we have maintained a number of initiatives to promote educational development across Egypt. Alumni of our programmes have graduated to become pioneers in cutting-edge business and cultural initiatives that are reshaping the face of entrepreneurship in Egypt, said Ghada Hammouda, Chief Sustainability and Marketing Officer at Qalaa Holdings. Despite the challenges and limitations that we are currently facing due to Covid, it is extremely important to have continuity and maintain all of these programmes in some capacity until things once again return to normal.

It is notable to mention that we ensure inclusiveness and gender parity across all our social development programmes. QHSFs 198 scholars represent a diverse cross-section of the Egyptian society with an equal number of scholarships awarded to males and females from 15 governorates across Egypt who have pursued studies in more than 34 disciplines at 69 of the worlds most renowned universities in Europe and the United States, she added. -- Tradearabia News Service
Chhattisgarh government has decided to provide urban forestland under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, to the tribals and other traditional forest-dwellers for household purposes.

The Bhupesh Baghel-led government on Monday claimed that Chhattisgarh is the first state in the country to provide such an entitlement.

Its a matter of pride and satisfaction that Jagdalpur Municipal Corporation (JMC) is the first in the country, which has provided land entitlement under Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, to urban tribal residents, CM Baghel stated via a social media post.

The government cited that 11 families, who are living under the jurisdiction of JMC, were given the rights on Sunday.

For providing rights of urban forestlands, the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 and the guidelines of the Central government issued in 2015 were followed by the state government. On a pilot basis, 11 tribal families were given pattas for urban forestland for household purposes. There are about 4,500 tribals and other traditional forest-dwellers, who have applied for the rights over urban forestlands ... The process of recognising their forest rights have been initiated. Soon, other eligible families will be handed over similar land rights, stated a press release issued by the state government.

On Sunday, the pattas were handed over to the beneficiaries by the Bastars Member of Parliament (MP) Deepak Baij.

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, recognises rights on forest land of tribals and other traditional forest-dwellers in both rural and urban areas. The process of recognising individual forest rights on the forestlands of the urban area in Chhattisgarh is a welcome step. However, there is a need to implement the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, more effectively and in a coordinated manner throughout the state, said Alok Shukla, a tribal rights activist and the convener of Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan (CBO), a pressure group.

An official from the Chief Ministers Office (CMO) told HT that the entitlement would be given to tribals across the state.

The state government is working on the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. Our aim is to benefit each and every tribal family amid the hard times triggered by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, said the official.

Chhattisgarh public relations (PR) departments record showed that 4,84,975 individual and community forest rights certificates have been distributed to tribals to date spread over 50.16 lakh acres of forestland.

The state govermment also claimed that Chhattisgarh tops the list in handing out forest rights certificates, followed by Madhya Pradesh (2,56,99), Maharashtra (1,72,116), Odisha (4,43,000), and Gujarat (93,704).

So far, in individual claims, recognition was given to over 9.18 lakh acres of land and 4,41,429 forest rights certificates were distributed. Another 40.97 lakh acres of land in community claims were settled and 43,546 forest rights certificates were distributed, said a PR official.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ritesh Mishra State Correspondent for Chhattisgarh. Reports Maoism, Politics, Mining and important developments from the state. Covered all sorts of extremism in Central India. Reported from Madhya Pradesh for eight years. ...view detail
Part of the marching contingent from the Singapore Armed Forces at the National Day Parade on 9 August 2020. (PHOTO: Nicholas Yong/Yahoo News Singapore)

SINGAPORE  It was an experience akin to being in the Upside Down, that otherworldly alternate dimension in popular Netflix series Stranger Things, where everything looks familiar, but nothing is quite what it seems.

All the old favourites were present and accounted for at National Day Parade 2020, from the Red Lions to the mobile column in the heartlands to a military parade at the Padang, albeit scaled down and spread out across different venues, in light of the ongoing pandemic. Overarching the Padang event was the comforting bass tones of veteran deejay William Xavier, who has been the parade announcer multiple times.

But in light of safe management measures, the audience at the Padang  comprising COVID-19 frontliners, essential workers, political office holders and Members of Parliament  was only 150-strong. They were even told not to sing out loud, but instead to show our respect by singing the national anthem in our hearts, as co-emcee Shauna Caroline Santa Maria put it.

The usual annoyingly upbeat emcees, who are always eager to instruct the audience in how to display their patriotism, were somewhat downcast this time. Even the sound of applause was conspicuously missing, with the audience instead told to wave their little Singapore flags to welcome the entrance of President Halimah Yacob.

The result  a strange, surreal and subdued event that did not quite satisfy anyone  at least not this reporter.

I have covered NDP multiple times since 2009, alongside tens of thousands of onlookers. More often than not, the proceedings skew towards the camp and the garish in a manner that is invariably divisive. But as I observed proceedings in the baking heat at the Padang, this years edition seemed eerily mundane by comparison.

Something to celebrate

In Stranger Things, the Upside Down is haunted by a monster called the Mind Flayer, which corrupts everything it touches. We too have our own monster to deal with in the shape of the maddening, mysterious coronavirus, which has consumed just about every aspect of our lives.

Story continues

There is no question that 2020 has been an awful year, with billions suffering all over the world. The socio-economic impact will be felt for a long time to come, while hundreds of thousands of migrant workers remain largely confined to their dormitories in Singapore. Meanwhile, the vexing question of our leadership succession in still up in the air.

But even though the budget for NDP  and sometimes its very existence  has often been questioned, it was clear that Singaporeans were in a celebratory mood. Perhaps they had simply had enough of all the doom and gloom, and needed a break from it all.

They lined the roads in their thousands to welcome the mobile column, with scant regard for the one-metre rule or the warnings of safe distancing ambassadors. Reports on social media even said that some ambassadors were booed for trying to enforce the rules.

Meanwhile, many Singaporeans held their own gatherings at home where they watched the live broadcast, while others flocked to the 10 islandwide locations where fireworks were set off. Again, safe distancing was nowhere in sight for the latter.

Perhaps Lawrence Wong, co-chair of the multi-ministry task force on COVID-19, was right. When asked last month about the raucous crowds that gathered on Polling Night, he told reporters, No amount of enforcement can work if the whole country wants to go for a celebration. How? What amount of enforcement will be effective if everyone is in a celebratory mood and want to go out and have a big party?

Why have an NDP at all?

Back in May, NDP ExCo chair Brigadier-General Frederick Choo had declared that NDP would be an unyielding reminder that Singapore will keep going even amid the ongoing pandemic. We believe that as long as there's a Singapore, there will be an NDP, and NDP is our way of saying in a firm manner that Singapore will keep going on. COVID-19 will not deter us.

Pandemic fatigue has already set in. With no end in sight to safe distancing or contact tracing and a case count that continues to go up by the day  more than 55,000 in Singapore infected as of 10 August  there is a danger of Singaporeans becoming reckless and throwing caution to the wind.

The NDP has historically been the largest nationalistic event of the year, with a budget running into the tens of millions. It serves to reinforce the age-old historical narrative of Singapore, and to enhance the legitimacy of the only ruling party that the country has ever known. It is a celebration for the whole country, and a point of pride for people to be reminded of how far Singapore has come.

In these pandemic times, NDP2020 was more than politically expedient. It was a necessary, and comforting, reminder of better times.

The ones keeping us safe

Ultimately, it was only right that this years parade was dedicated to frontline and essential workers: Healthcare personnel, transport workers, supermarket staff and more.

In his National Day message, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong paid tribute to them and the thousands of ordinary Singaporeans who volunteered to serve on the frontlines. These selfless acts have made all the difference to our response to COVID-19, said Lee.

Nirmala Nair, 62, a senior nurse manager at Ang Mo Kio Polyclinic who was present at the Padang, told reporters that the tribute paid to frontline workers was a special moment which she would treasure for years to come. Nair, who attends to potential COVID-19 patients showing respiratory symptoms, has been in the profession for 40 years.

Many out there have been keeping our country safe (behind the scenes), and I feel so proud to be one of them.

I asked if she was hoping for a more tangible tribute to healthcare workers, like higher pay. Stressing that she was of a different generation and only speaking for herself, Nair said emphatically, Never. I never did. Nothing can trade off the saving of lives. No money can.

There is a long way more to go before normalcy returns to our lives. But just as NDP harkens to a shared community, Lees allusion to a shared ordeal that will toughen a whole population and unite a people struck a chord.

Nevertheless, perhaps it is best to leave the last word to a netizen who  referring to the growing number of COVID-19 cases here  cheekily commented, Well done 55k, happy 55th birthday Singapore.

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TORONTO - The chief executive of Barrick Gold Corp. said Monday the companys strategy for spending money is unchanged despite a run up in gold prices that boosted second-quarter results and prompted an increased dividend.

Mark Bristow said he is actively guarding against temptation to change course.

First of all, the way you do it, is you dont blow your brains out, like what happened to the industry in 2010 to 2015, he said in response to an analysts question about the companys discipline.

We still allocate capital at US$1,200 (per ounce). The budget number is only for us to forecast revenues. ... What is happening today is fast-forwarding the Barrick strategy.

Despite reaching its target of selling US$1.5 billion in non-core assets after its merger with Randgold announced in the fall of 2018, Barrick is continuing to field offers and is finding increased interest in its smaller assets because of the high gold price, Bristow said.

In Toronto, Barricks shares rose by as much as 3.6 per cent to $39.93 on Monday before falling to $38.84, up 0.7 per cent, at about 1 p.m. EDT.

The miner, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported a second-quarter profit of US$357 million, up from US$194 million in the same quarter last year, as revenue reached US$3.06 billion, up from US$2.06 billion a year ago.

Barrick also announced an increase in its quarterly dividend by 14 per cent to eight cents per share.

The companys realized gold price rose by 30 per cent to US$1,725 per ounce, up from US$1,317 in the same quarter last year.

On an adjusted basis, Barrick earned 23 cents per share for the quarter, versus nine cents per share a year ago, and ahead of analyst expectations of 19 cents per share according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

In a note, National Bank analyst Mike Parkin attributed the earnings beat to higher-than-expected realized prices for gold and copper.

The results came despite production interruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially at Barricks Veladero mine in Argentina where a nationwide quarantine and severe winter weather delayed work on a leach pad expansion and powerline project.

Production is running below guidance at higher costs per ounce and, due to ongoing pandemic-related restrictions, remains at 85 per cent of capacity, Bristow said.

He warned that the novel coronavirus still poses a major risk for the companys mining operations around the world going forward, noting that Barrick recently tested its entire workforce at the Kibali mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo for COVID-19.

The big thing now is settling down our operations, he said.

Our biggest challenge is constantly reminding the communities and our host countries and state governments that COVID is still there ... we need to maintain proper discipline protocols.

Barrick said it is on track to achieve annual production within its 2020 guidance range.

It said second-quarter results show year-to-date gold production of 2.4 million ounces, the mid-point of its 4.6 million to five million ounce annual guidance.

Copper production in the second quarter was 120 million pounds, up from 97 million in the year-earlier period.

By Dan Healing in Calgary

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 10, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:ABX)
Vijayawada, Aug 10 : A day after a fire in a Covid facility being run in a hotel here left 10 people dead, the Andhra Pradesh Police on Monday arrested three officials of a private hospital, including its chief operating officer.

The accused were booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. They were allegedly found neglecting the pertinent needs of electrical repairs which could have been instrumental in averting the accident.

The arrested include Dr Kodali Raja Gopala Rao, Chief Operating Officer of Ramesh Hospitals Ltd who had secured permission from authorities for running Covid facility in Hotel Swarna Palace.

Dr Kurapati Sudarshan, General Manager and in charge of the Swarna Palace paid COVID care centre and Pallabothu Venkatesh, night manager of Swarna Palace were also arrested.

While investigating the accident and all relevant angles concerning it, the tehsildar, Vijayawada Central, unearthed some major lapses on part of the hospital management.

In his police complaint, the revenue official stated that Hotel Swarna Palace and Ramesh Hospitals had knowledge of electrical defects in the hotel, and since rectification of defects involved huge amounts, they avoided the repairs.

The complaint said the incident occurred because of the hotel and hospital management not taking the necessary precautions and preventive measures.

Based on this complaint, the police filed a case against the management of Swarna Hotel and Ramesh Hospitals under the relevant sections of thee Indian Penal Code.

Officials said the permission to convert the private hotel into a Covid facility was accorded to Ramesh Hospital, based on the guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare in April. "The letter according permission to the private hospital to make this facility at Swarna Hotel operational, clearly states that the management has agreed to follow all the Government guidelines issued concerning the same." A committee led by Joint Collector, L. Siva Shankar has been tasked with the responsibility of executing an administrative enquiry into the accident to determine whether the accident or the damage caused by the same could been averted if the authorities had been more diligent. The committee has been asked to submit a report within 48 hours.

Two more committees have also been constituted to probe the incident. While the Health Department panel comprises the CEO, Arogyasri and the Director, Medical Education, the Home Department has also set up a separate committee to study the fires.
The federal government must move a 68-year-old man with multiple health issues from a Melbourne immigration detention centre because he's at risk of being infected with COVID-19, a court has ordered.

Compliance with the interim order made on Monday by Federal Court Justice Bernard Murphy is being watched by human rights law advocates who've been arguing the commonwealth has a duty of care in such cases.

The court heard evidence group detention settings are unsafe for people at high risk of developing COVID-19.

Under the interim order, the Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton is expected to authorise the man's removal from the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation (pictured)

The man had been living in the community for almost 10 years with his family and was detained in late 2019 after an adverse security assessment was made against him, relating to a business he operated overseas almost 15 years ago.

Under the interim order, the Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton is expected to authorise the man's removal from the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation.

The court ordered that 'as soon as reasonably practicable, but in any event by no later than 1.00 pm on 13 August 2020, the respondents cease to detain the applicant at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation centre'.

Where the man is taken is at the minister's discretion and Justice Murphy has ordered the minister to give the man's lawyers 24 hours notice.

Given the order terms, this is likely to happen by Wednesday, unless appealed.

According to the man's lawyer Sanmati Verma, from Clothier Anderson Immigration Lawyers, the commonwealth's next move is clear.

'The court's decision makes it clear the commonwealth is unable to ensure the safety of vulnerable people such as our client in detention,' she said in a statement.

Human rights law groups have called on Mr Dutton to release the man back into the community.

'Medical experts have warned for months about the risks of COVID-19 in immigration detention in Australia,' Human Rights Law Centre legal director David Burke said in a statement.
Samantha Rise, of Police Free Penn, leads a group of protesters to the University of Penns police department during a rally in Philadelphia on Sunday. Read more

Through face masks, roughly 150 people chanted calls to defund the police and to bring justice for West Philadelphia residents whom city police teargassed in May. They marched from Drexel Universitys bronze dragon statue at 33rd and Market Streets to the front door of the University of Pennsylvanias police building to protest the presence of the campuses officers as Philadelphia police attacked residents along the 52nd Street corridor.

Tianna Williams, president of Drexels Black Action Committee, said policing is infected by biases and systemic racism and does not protect Black communities, including students.

For too long, students, and particularly Black students, have been placated, silenced, and traumatized when expressing their concerns of policing on campus, she said to the crowd. Our concerns about profiling, officer conduct, and administrative responses are met with shallow apologies and temporary fixes. For too long, the West Philadelphia community that we live with have not only had to deal with the exploitation and gentrification of Drexel University and UPenn, but terrorization from the Philadelphia Police Department, the Drexel University Police Department, and Penns police department.

Groups consisting of students, faculty, and alumni at the universities, as well as Black Lives Matter Philadelphia, Reclaim Philadelphia, Drexels community legal clinic, Philadelphia Jobs with Justice, and other community groups organized Sundays rally.

On May 31, as city residents protested the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, Philadelphia police launched tear gas canisters that choked residents in their homes. Campus police officers from Drexel and Penn showed up to assist city officers that day, although the universities have said their private, tuition-funded departments didnt use tear gas, rubber bullets, or pepper spray as the city department did.

Newly formed groups including Police Free Penn and Drexel Community for Justice are renewing calls for the defunding of the campus police departments as part of a national call for the redirecting of funds away from policing and toward education and social services. Community activists say the events along 52nd Street have accelerated longstanding calls for change in how the departments operate and treat residents in the areas surrounding the campuses.

Safety doesnt mean more police, Samantha Rise, a community activist and program director of the nonprofit Girls Rock Philly, said to the crowd. It means more [community] resources.

 READ MORE: Penn, Drexel officers presence on 52nd Street renews calls to defund campus police

During the demonstration at Drexel, a few drivers read the banners and honked in support. But one pulled over and got out to confront the protesters. You dont want someone to protect you? she asked. In reply, Rise said the people can protect themselves and denounced the militarization of police departments. Protesters shouted down the driver, who after a couple of minutes, got back in her van and drove away.

As protesters marched from Drexel to Penns police building, they chanted, Who protects us? We protect us! Who protects students? We protect students! Who protects teachers? We protect teachers!

In response to the protesters demands, Niki Gianakaris, Drexels executive director of media relations, pointed to the steps the school is taking, including creating an anti-racism task force and a Drexel Center for Black Culture, and starting an independent review of the Drexel police by former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey. (Organizers of Sundays rally said they didnt want Ramsey involved, in part because of his ties to the Philadelphia Police Department, which they also want to defund.)

The university has heard the concerns being raised within the Drexel community and is continuing to develop ways to foster productive dialogue and work collaboratively to find solutions, the university said in a statement Sunday.

The groups that assembled are demanding the universities immediately reduce funding to their police departments by 50% and dissolve the forces by 2025; make payments in lieu of taxes to the Philadelphia School District and the city as restitution; publicly release public safety budget data; and disclose financial and partnership agreements with city police. Penn withdrew funding to the Philadelphia Police Foundation in June.

 READ MORE: 'I couldn't breathe': Inside the West Philly neighborhood the police teargassed

The groups also want Penn to fire Maureen Rush, head of the schools police force, vice president for public safety for the last two decades, and a former Philadelphia police officer.

In a statement, the university said it was extremely fortunate to have Rush.

The Penn Police Department is regularly ranked as the best university police department in the country, Penn said in the statement. This is due in great measure to the extraordinary leadership of Maureen Rush, who is highly regarded and respected by all who know and work with her.

 READ MORE: Philly police actions on 52nd Street under investigation, but distrust of cops keeps some witnesses silent

Sergio Cea, an organizer at Reclaim Philadelphia and a Democratic committee person in the 46th Ward, said the Penn police department always says safety and security is a shared responsibility.

I didnt feel safe or secure on May 31, he said. And, to be honest, I dont ever feel safe and secure with police in my community, period.

He said he saw the spirit of shared responsibility play out on May 31 through neighbors who protected Black-owned businesses with their bodies, and neighbors and community activists who went to the scene with medical supplies and water.

Only in West Philadelphia did you see police in militarized tactical gear shooting tear gas canisters down residential neighborhoods, suffocating our community members who were doing what the government told them to do  stay home, stay safe, Cea said. Ask the families that had tear gas seeping into their homes, burning their kids eyes: Did they feel safe?
On a farm at the edge of Everglades National Park in Florida, Timea Hunter trains people to ride horses. There, she has held plenty of horse-riding classes, parties, and other events. So, with her childrens school building closed, she asked herself: Why not also use the farm as a classroom?

This year, her son and daughter will have distance learning through their usual school. But Hunter and four to six other families also plan to hire a teacher who can provide in-person classes on the farm.

The farm has a very nice outdoor eating area, Hunter told The Associated Press, or AP. It also has a small play area for children and big tables where they can study under the trees.

We are not educated [in how] to do this, she said. So, everybody is saying, What are we going to do? How are we going to do it?

In the United States, the coronavirus health crisis has hurt hopes of quickly reopening schools nationally. Now, some parents are hurrying to hire private teachers for small groups. The race to set up these learning pods threatens to worsen educational inequities.

In some cases, parents are paying thousands of dollars each to include their children in pods. They are promising teachers $40 to $100 an hour or more. Three weeks after a Facebook group on learning pods formed, it has more than 30,000 members. And it has launched several smaller groups in states and cities. New websites have been born, offering to connect families with teachers.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has called learning pods luxuries that are not a choice for parents who earn low wages.

We hear these different things about some parents are going to create their own learning pods and all this other stuff, DeSantis said at a recent discussion on education. He said that such programs are going to depend on the financial means of parents. When you have working-class parents, they really do need to have a choice, he added.

Hunter said distance learning was extremely hard on her 9-year-old son  and on her. She said the teacher met with the class once a week. Parents were responsible for the rest of the teaching. Now she also worries about a younger daughter who is entering her first year of school.

Among those considering work as a pod teacher is Jeanette Matas who, like many, has concerns about going back to her job as an educator. The 42-year-old works as reading teacher in Miami. While teaching online classes, she has seen her 6th-grade and 7th-grade students taking care of younger brothers and sisters. Matas says such situations give students from lower-income families an unequal deal.

Her grandmother died of COVID-19 after her caregiver infected her. And her own third-grade daughter has suffered from lung infections that kept her away from school for weeks. So Matas is thinking of taking a year away from her job, getting hired to teach her own pod and bringing her children.

Matas said the coronavirus has deeply affected her family and she does not want to go back to the usual classroom.

Some see the pods as a necessary and even creative solution to the crisis facing the U.S. educational system.

It is civil society in action, said Lindsey Burke. She directs the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative policy organization. The Center pushes for school choice policies that permit use of public money in private or alternative schools.

Tina Cheuk is an education researcher at California Polytechnic State University. She says she is troubled by the move toward learning pods and the push to pay for them with money meant for public schools.

That decision will have consequences for public education, Cheuk said. Not only would it take money from public education. But the pods threaten to replace teachers with college students or retirees, she noted.

Cheuk added that choosing to be in a pod may seem innocent but ignores the effects on public education.

A group of Oakland, California school administrators wrote about their concerns in an open letter. It told parents that health experts suggest limiting in-person contact. The school officials also noted the possibility of causing some students to feel left out. That is especially true for those who may see or hear of others learning together while they remain alone, the letter said.

Some parents are forming learning pods with neighbors they already know. Others are contacting social media groups to help identify wider choices. This raises questions about the safety and quality of such schooling.

Melissa Cedeno works as a digital marketer in Miami, Florida. The 37-year-old is also a parent with two young boys in grade school. Cedeno is seeking to put together a small learning group. On Facebook, she wrote that she is searching for other children and a teacher to help students with their local schools online programs. Her Facebook ad said parents would be able to observe the classes through the camera inside her home. That way, they know their children are safe. And Cedeno said she would do background investigations on the teaching candidates.

Atlanta, Georgia, parent Nikolai Pizarro de Jesus has homeschooled her 12-year-old son since he was very young. Recently, she has been helping families plan more socio-economically accessible pods by connecting them with experienced homeschooling families.

She is hopeful that discussions about learning pods will increase peoples understanding of inequalities that have long existed in public education.

Im Alice Bryant.



The Associated Press reported this story. Alice Bryant adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

hire  v. to give work or a job to someone in exchange for wages or a salary

pod  n. a long, thin part of some plants that has seeds inside

luxury  n. a condition or situation of great comfort, ease, and wealth

grade  n. a school in the U.S. for young children (or) a level of study that is completed by a student during one year

alternative school  n. a school with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional

consequence  n. something that happens as a result of a particular action or set of conditions

open letter  n. a letter, often critical, addressed to a particular person or group of people but intended for publication.

background investigation  n. a process a person or company uses to verify that a person is who they claim to be.

accessible  adj. able to be used or obtained
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 17:45:47|Editor: huaxia

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The Chinese government is pushing for a 10-year fishing ban on key areas of the Yangtze River to protect biodiversity in the country's longest river. Find out what changes have taken place in aquatic food markets and restaurants in Nanjing, a city in the lower reaches of the Yangtze.
Nicola Sturgeon told Boris Johnson today that he must 'abide by all the advice' on Scotland's lockdown when he takes Carrie Symonds and baby Wilfred on their first family holiday in the country.

Mr Johnson, 56, his 32-year-old his fiancee and their three-month-old son are expected to go to Scotland for a 'paternity holiday' next week that could reportedly include some time camping.

The choice of Scotland, where the Tories are struggling ahead of next year's Holyrood elections, marks the latest attempt by Mr Johnson's administration to support the union and the domestic holiday industry.

At her daily press conference today, Ms Sturgeon urged him and anyone else coming for a 'staycation' to follow local advice.

She said: 'Whether it's the Prime Minister or anyone coming to Scotland, I can't wait for the date where I can say ''everyone come to Scotland and holiday'' because we're over the worst of this virus but right now we need to encourage everybody whether they're living in Scotland or visiting Scotland to take great care.

'So, whether it's the Prime Minister or anybody else, when you're in Scotland - and you should hopefully be doing this wherever you live - abide by all the advice.'

The trio will journey north for some family time away from No10, Mr Johnson's first vacation wince the pandemic struck

At her daily press conference today, Ms Sturgeon said urged him and anyone else coming for a 'staycation' to follow local advice.

The choice of Scotland, where the Tories are struggling ahead of next year's Holyrood elections, marks the latest attempt by Mr Johnson's administration to support the union and the domestic holiday industry

She added: 'If we all do that where we are then we've got the best chance of keeping it under control.'

Ms Sturgeon also joked she hopes the weather will be nice for the Prime Minister, who is said to be visiting with his fiancee Carrie Symonds and young son Wilfred.

She said: 'I hope the weather stays reasonably good for him, although I cannot promise that and refuse to take any responsibility for it.'

Later in the briefing, the First Minister said she will not be able to take a holiday herself this year due to the return of the Scottish Parliament this week.

She said: 'I'm fully occupied with what we're doing at the moment.'

Mr Johnson and his family will journey north for some family time away from No10, his first vacation since the pandemic struck.

They are to camp for some of the trip north, according to the Sun. The POM's official spokesman decline to confirm the report and said more details of the trip would be announced 'closer to the time'.

But the PM will not entirely be getting away from the coronavirus battle, as his reported choice of holiday reading will keep his mind very much on the problem at hand.

The PM, a well-known classicist, is said to have chosen On The Nature of Things (De rerum natura), by the first century BC Roman philosopher Lucretius among his getaway literature.

The six-part work includes a study of the Plague of Athens, which devastated the Greek city state in 430BC, killing up to 100,000 people.

Mr Johnson and his wife-to-be last holidayed on the Caribbean island of Mustique at Christmas

Mr Johnson and his wife-to-be last holidayed on the Caribbean island of Mustique at Christmas. Since then the pandemic has struck, he himself has been hospitalised and he has become a father for the sixth time.

But his holiday comes at a time when the Government is facing a mounting crisis over plans to reopen schools to all pupils in September.

Mr Johnson told teachers today they have a 'moral duty' to help schools reopen next month as he faced a standoff with unions.

The PM warned it is 'not right' that pupils should spend more time out of the classroom, reiterating his determination for a full return when term begins.

While he was careful to praise the work done by teachers and unions to make schools 'safe' in time for the move, he added: 'It is our moral duty as a country to make sure that happens.'

The intervention - on a visit to a school in Upminster - came as unions were accused of a bid to sabotage the government's plans with a 200-item list of safety demands.

The National Education Union has provided its half a million members with a 'checklist' of Covid-secure measures, saying they should 'escalate' complaints if they are not being followed. There have also been calls for pupils to be taught on a week on, week off rota.

Fears are also mounting of a 'bonfire of jobs' amid warnings a third of firms are planning to lay off staff this autumn.

Shock research found huge numbers of companies expect to axe roles in the third quarter of the year as coronavirus hammers the economy.

Many of the cuts are set to come from hospitality businesses such as hotels, restaurants and cafes, as well as shops that were already on the brink before the pandemic.

The hit emerged in a survey carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) with recruiter the Adecco Group.

Labour demanded the government ditches plans to scrap the furlough scheme entirely from October, forcing employers to take on the full costs of staff wages again.

Meanwhile, figures released this week are due to confirm that the UK has formally entered recession - with a second quarter of GDP contracting. And official jobs data are scheduled for tomorrow.
Bahrain-based NGN International, a full-fledged systems integrator and Group-IB, a global threat hunting and intelligence company, have warned of a significant increase in the number of scams that involve brand abuse around the world.



Banks, government organizations, and private companies should remain vigilant and continue improving awareness of this type of fraud.



Brand impersonation scams that aim to steal money or sensitive data are on the rise worldwide. In July, the Twitter accounts of major US tech figures, companies, politicians, including Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Apple and others were hijacked by the attackers, who tweeted about a cryptocurrency giveaway on their behalf.



Despite that fake crypto giveaways are old hat, the scammers managed to receive more than $120,000 in BTC from the deceived users in just hours, according to Group-IBs estimates. This became possible due to the illicit use of brands that people know and trust.



Fraudulent schemes evolved drastically, and fraudsters became smarter and more often abuse brands these days. They no longer use a single phishing page which exploits legitimate brand names to collect money or credentials, as such resources are too easy to detect and shut down. The fraud schemes are now more targeted, personalized, involve multiple stages, and the infrastructure they rely on is more distributed and resilient to tracking and blockage.



The most recent example is a Rabbit Hole fraud, detected by Group-IBs experts in different locations. The scheme has multiple stages and exploits big brand names as a bait to lure victims into actual phishing websites. Unlike traditional phishing, the brands are abused on a single resource disguised as harmless surveys or promo pages that promise the reward. Once the victim completes such a survey and leaves an email address, they receive a link to the actual phishing website, where a CVV code or other payment data are stolen.



According to Group-IB, the most characteristic manifestations of brand abuse are fraudulent websites, fake and phishing websites, fake mobile apps and unauthorized advertising, said Yaqoob Al Awadhi, CEO at NGN International. Every brand is susceptible: a bank, a retail, or even an oil or gas company. The fraudsters tend to hikack strong, widely recognized and trusted brands with a loyal customer base.



The market researchers suggest that nearly 64% of users who have faced brand abuse online will never return to that brand  their trust in it has been undermined. For companies, this can cause significant loss in customer and other stakeholders trust, reputational and direct financial losses which affect the sustainability of business.



Its extremely critical that individuals and companies follow all precautions to protect themselves against brand impersonating fraud, especially in light of the (COVID-19) pandemic that accelerated the digital transformation and expansion in digital financial services and online shopping. Al Awadhi added.



In order to promptly protect companies, institutions and organizations in Bahrain against abuse of their brands NGN International has teamed up with Group-IB to offer a technological service designed to detect and eliminate threats to brands online called Group-IBs Brand Protection.



Andrey Busargin, Deputy CEO for Brand Protection and Anti Piracy at Group-IB, explained that Brand Protection identifies attacks on the brand online and detects fraudulent schemes no matter how complex they are. The service significantly expands attack analysis and prevention capabilities. Social media communities illegally using a corporate brand are detected and closed as well.



Simply blocking fake pages or accounts impersonating brands is like trying to kill the Hydra: with every resource blocked, new resources appear, said Busargin. Effective monitoring and blockage of brand abuse can only be achieved with the automated machine-learning powered brand protection system fuelled by regularly updated knowledge base about cybercriminals infrastructure, tactics and tools.  TradeArabia News Service
10.08.2020 LISTEN

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Dormaa West, Ali Maiga Halidu has denied reports his driver was among the persons who fired gunshots during the violence at Nkrankwanta in the Bono Region.

Supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) clashed in the Bono regional community over the weekend leading to the death of one person.

One vehicle and motorbike were burnt amidst gunshots with two others injured. Three persons have also been arrested as a result.

In the recent development, Alidu Halidu told Citi News that no civilian fired a gunshot at the scene.

The weapon the NDC and NPP guys had was just a catapult. None of them had a gun on them. All the gunshots that happened on Saturday were done by the security. I have repeated this in all my meetings with the security agencies and now they are aware. In fact, my boys have identified the soldiers who did that. Weve identified the police officers who shot at the car so its not true. When we were at the morgue, any security person from the police command or BNI who came to the morgue to see the body of our late brother said this was done by either a policeman or military man.

The MP, who has been accused of fueling the incident, claims he was only alerting his agents about a group of Ivorian nationals who were approaching the Electoral Commission (EC) offices to register for the Voters ID card.

We use motorbikes to patrol the town to see if theres a place where they could camp them. We alert the immigration people, theyll go there, arrest them, and send them back to Cote dIvoire. This is what theyve been doing for the entire period. Nothing of this sort has happened. There are no gunshots. The worst it took is when the guy on Thursday came and butchered one of our guys. So when our guys were chased into the bush, the NDC guys came out of the bush, burnt the car and motorbike and walked to our party office to vandalise the place, he insisted.

The Police, however, say there is relative calm in Nkrankwanta as three persons have been picked up to assist in investigations.

The Bono Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Chief Inspector Augustine Kingsley Oppong, said, I can tell you that the security situation is relatively calm. And I want to paint this mental picture to everybody that the people there are not in any way fighting each other. The NPP and NDC are those people who are engaging in that. So the first day the community members heard that the 39-year-old Kofi Labatu is dead, there was a little fear in the people. But I can tell you that everything is calm and people are moving about freely.

---citinewsroom
Contact tracers are bracing for a COVID-19 cluster at a Sydney girls' high school to grow as Premier Gladys Berejiklian urged non-government schools and other organisations to stick to COVID-safe protocols.

The number of COVID-positive people linked to Tangara School For Girls at Cherrybrook in Sydney's north-west swelled to 11 on Monday, affecting as many as eight families including seven students, three household contacts and one teacher.

NSW reported 17 new cases  14 in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday  and three cases who tested positive on Monday morning: a Tangara student and teacher, and a second student at Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta.

NSW Police took legal action against 17 people for breaking COVID Public Health Orders over the weekend, including a 31-year-old man who escaped from Sydney Airport hotel quarantine and took a train to Newcastle.
A business in Tullamore has asked the questions everyone who is locked down in Offaly, Laois and Kildare want the Government to answer.

In a post on Instagram, kids activity centre Playtown raised a host of question that no one in power has yet answered.

The questions sum up the concerns of businesses and members of the public across the three counties.

These are the questions posed:

We Always Try To Maintain Positivity In All Of Our Posts Even As Recently As Yesterday But We Feel That We Need To Speak Out & Ask One Simple Question - WHY????

- WHY Do Government INSIST That We Close But Only SUGGEST That A Company With An Outbreak Close

- WHY Do We Have To Close But A Company With An Outbreak Can Continue To Open Even Whilst Awaiting Results Of Tests

- WHY Do We Follow Strict Cleaning Protocol Including Sanitising, Cleaning & Steaming Regularly Including Up To 4 Closed Periods Between Every Play Session Daily And Be Forced To Close But A Company With An Outbreak Be Allowed One Deep Clean And ReOpen?

- WHY Do We Put In Place PRIOR TO OPENING Strict Measures (www.playtowntullamore.ie/Covid-19) Based On Us Reading And Digesting All Advice Out There And Be Forced To Close But A Company With An Outbreak Be Allowed To Continue To Open Whilst Government Discuss Potential Measures Required With The Relevant Meat Company Auhorities?

- WHY Is Divide / Blame Being Generated Throughout Ireland? Leo Varadkar Is Correct When He Said This Morning That This Is Not Nice To See And That People Can Be Doing Everything Right And Still Be Unlucky. However, WHY Then Are Government Creating Divide By Insisting A Family Business Close But A Company With An Outbreak Are Allowed To Open?

- WHY Are Garda Given The Power To ADVISE People Not To Travel Be It Into Or Out Of Offaly / Ireland But Not Insist On It But We As A Business MUST Close

- Why Is It Ok For A Playground With Self Responsibility ie No Sanitising Stations / Cleaning Protocols To Open But We With All Of Our Protocols In Place Not Be Allowed

We Will Continue To Do All Asked Of Us Both As A Family & As A Family Business To Protect Everyone But We Just ASK:

- WHY Are We Not All In This Together?
IMPROVISING  It wasnt their usual presentation this time. The Friends of the BPO, volunteers who support the Buffalo Philharmonic, had to go outdoors to award their annual scholarships Friday at Kleinhans Music Hall, with an assist from BPO music director JoAnn Falletta.

This years winners, all going on to study music in college this fall, include violinist Leah Streety from Iroquois High School, who will attend Butler School of Music at the University of Texas; tuba player Stephanie Magera from Clarence High School, who will go to Eastman School of Music in Rochester, and cellist Benjamin Mekinulov from Amherst High School, who will study at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
The number of people needing hospital treatment for coronavirus infections has plummeted since the peak of the outbreak in the UK.

In the seven days leading up to August 5, 375 people were hospitalised with Covid-19 in England, compared to 18,638 between March 28 and April 3.

While the number of patients in hospitals would be expected to drop as cases decline and the virus fades out, data suggests fewer people are getting severely ill.

The proportion of coronavirus patients who need hospital care - regardless of the true number - seems to be falling.

Since late April, when testing first started to become available outside of hospitals, the proportion of positive cases being hospitalised has dropped from around a quarter to less than 10 per cent, averaging seven per cent - just one in every 14 - over the past week.

Experts say better treatments, more hospital capacity and some levels of immunity may have helped push down the need for hospital care.

Survival rates have improved, too, with eight in 10 intensive care patients now making it through their illness, up from fewer than half in April.

The NHS faces a huge backlog of non-coronavirus patients after emptying its hospital wards to prepare for a surge in people sick with Covid-19. Falling levels of hospitalisations could help the health service get back on its feet if the virus remains under control.

Hospital admissions are now making up a smaller percentage of total new coronavirus cases, data shows, falling from more than a quarter at the end of April, when widespread testing began, to less than 10 per cent in August

The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 in England peaked at 17,172 on April 12, and the number of people on ventilators was highest on the same day, at 2,881.

This has since plummeted by 96 per cent to 638 people in hospital on August 7, and 98 per cent to 57 people on ventilators.

Patients on ventilators are usually the most ill and have to be hooked up to the life support machine to help them breathe by forcing air into their damaged lungs.

HAS SUMMER MADE COVID-19 WEAKER? Scientists believe the warmer summer months have crippled the virus' potency and stunted its spread. Studies have shown that powerful ultraviolet (UV) light can destroy Covid-19 particles within minutes of being coughed or sneezed into the air or onto surfaces. This greatly reduces the amount of viral load that manages to infect someone. In many patients, the severity of their illness is determined by how much virus gets into their respiratory system. It's thought that humidity also plays a role in weakening Covid-19. A study led by King's College London found a 1C increase in temperature is linked to a 15 per cent decline in deaths caused by the coronavirus. Cells lining the airways are less resilient in the cold, experts say, and people spend more time indoors which increases the risk of the virus spreading because they are closer together and touch more of the same surfaces. Some scientists also believe vitamin D, made in the body when exposed to sunlight, boosts the immune system and helps fight off viruses - making them less likely to fall critically ill with Covid. Advertisement

The most new admissions to hospitals happened on March 31 when there were 3,099 people taken into hospital with the disease.

On August 5 - the most recent day for which there is data - just 21 people were admitted.

That was the lowest figure so far in the epidemic and represents just three per cent of the 820 new cases that had been diagnosed each day, on average, over the last week.

That percentage - the number of hospital patients compared to the average number of people diagnosed over the past week - shows approximately how many officially tested people become so ill that they need to go to hospital.

Testing for people outside of hospital first became available on April 23, at which time around a quarter of people testing positive were hospital inpatients.

This has now been consistently at 10 per cent or lower since July 29, suggesting fewer people are now getting severely ill.

Professor Anthony Gordon, an intensive care expert at Imperial College London, said vulnerable people - those more likely to end up in hospital - were more likely to have got ill at the start of the epidemic before, or early in, the lockdown.

Data from intensive care units shows that survival rates of critically ill patients have improved drastically.

When the first report from the Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre (ICNARC) was published in April, 51.6 per cent of ICU patients had died.

But in the most recent report, which includes all hospitalised patients up to July 30, the death rate has dropped to 38.7 per cent, and in July alone it was just 20 per cent, the Express reported.

Professor Gordon told the Express: 'As this was a new disease we learnt quickly how to treat it and doctors very quickly adjusted.

'Clinical trials in this country have developed new evidence to know the best treatments. Use of steroids - dexamethasone - I think that has helped improve outcomes.

'More recently we've seen as the surge has eased that we're treating fewer patients. That has eased the pressure on healthcare, particularly on intensive care units.'

As well as the development of treatments and a better understanding of the disease - less stress on the NHS may mean people are getting better care.

The total number of people in hospital with Covid-19 in England peaked at 17,172 on April 12 and has now dropped to just 638 on August 7

The number of people on ventilators was highest April 12 at 2,881, and has since dropped to 57 on August 7

Professor Gordon added that, at the height of the crisis, 'The normal intensive care beds were overwhelmed.

'We had to expand the use of intensive care into other areas in the hospital.

'We were absolutely pushed to the limit and now that has eased. There are far fewer patients who are critically ill now and that makes it much easier to look after these seriously ill patients.'

Accurately measuring the proportion of people who catch the coronavirus and then need hospital treatment is impossible because many people never get tested because they don't get sick enough, meaning they don't show up in statistics.

Looking back over time this problem is made worse by the Government's testing strategy, which meant that almost nobody outside of a hospital could get a Covid-19 test between March 12 and April 23.

During that period and before, when there were more infected people than tests available, the number of patients in hospital was usually higher than the number of cases.

A time delay between people getting sick and ending up in hospital also makes the data hard to interpret.

People do not usually become seriously ill for days or even weeks after testing positive.

This means that comparing hospital admissions and positive tests on the same days is not accurate - many hospital patients, if they were tested before going to hospital, were likely counted in statistics days earlier.

Although there has been positive progress in hospital numbers and deaths tumbling, new cases of coronavirus are beginning to creep up again.

Lockdown has lifted across much of the UK and people are allowed to socialise indoors and to visit pubs and shops, all of which increase the risk of transmission.

Despite cases rising - there were more than 1,000 diagnosed yesterday for the first time since June - hospital admissions continue to fall.

The 21 people admitted on August 5 is the lowest on record and the number has risen above 100 only once since July 16.

The total number of people in hospital is also at its lowest level so far, at 638, down from 1,821 on July 7 and 4,325 on June 7.

Dr Ron Daniels, a critical care doctor at University Hospitals Birmingham, said he thought a resurgence in the number of people in hospitals was 'highly unlikely'.

He told the Express: 'The pubs have been open for over a month, people have been socially interacting heavily during that time and the natural history of this disease is that if you contract the virus and you're going to end up in hospital, you're pretty much in hospital within 15 days.'
A Fairfield Ludlowe High School junior was killed in a car crash in Rhode Island Sunday, according to officials.

In a statement, Headmaster Greg Hatzis said 16-year-old Jake Panus died as a result of the accident on Block Island. Hatzis later said there were five Ludlowe students in the car at the time of the crash.

With a heavy heart we offer our sympathy and prayers to the family and friends of Fairfield Ludlowe High school junior Jake (Jackson) Panus, who passed away on Sunday as a result of a car accident, Hatzis said. Jake was a good student, a good friend to many, and a good teammate to the football and lacrosse teams he played on.

Rhode Island State Police said another juvenile passenger was seriously injured. They did not immediately release his name, the identities of the other passengers or the juvenile girl who has been arrested on charges including driving under the influence of liquor or drugs.

According to Fairfield Police Capt. Robert Kalamaras, the department was contacted by Rhode Island State Police about the incident on Sunday.

Fairfield police were notified late (Sunday) afternoon that one of the victims involved in the collision was a resident of Southport, Kalamaras said. We assisted with the notification process to the family at the request of the Rhode Island State Police.

Rhode Island State Police said troopers and New Shoreham Police responded to a serious motor vehicle crash around 12:30 p.m. Sunday. They said one male, now identified as Panus, died and a juvenile male passenger was flown to the hospital with serious injuries.

A female juvenile operator was identified at the scene and she is being held at the Rhode Island Training School and will be presented to Family Court on Tuesday, state police said.

The driver, who was not identified, was charged with driving under the influence of liquor or drugs resulting in death, driving under the influence of liquor or drugs resulting in serious bodily injuries, driving to endanger, resulting in death and driving to endanger, resulting in serious bodily injury.

State police said the crash remains under investigation.

In a statement, Hatzis said Panus attended Bridgeport Regional Vocational Aquaculture School for part of his day and Ludlowe for the rest. He said the school would be providing counseling sessions, both in-person and virtually, to friends who are in need of support.

As a school community, we mourn Jakes tragic death, and will do whatever we can to support those who are hurting as a result, he said.

Staff writer Jim Shay contributed to this report.
Dina Khrennikova/Bloomberg

Oil posted the biggest gain in a week in New York amid signs that the U.S. may move forward with another economic stimulus deal that could bolster consumption.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that there are areas where compromise over a massive aid bill is possible and a fair deal could be agreed upon. Meanwhile, a recovery in the U.S. is seeing some momentum: new Covid-19 cases have decelerated by the most since the start of the pandemic and applications for unemployment benefits dropped to a pandemic low.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 21:02:56|Editor: huaxia

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MANILA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines surged to 136,638 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported record high 6,958 new daily cases on Monday.

The DOH said that the number of recoveries further rose to 68,159 after 633 more patients have survived the disease.

The death toll also increased to 2,293 after 24 more patients have succumbed to the viral disease, the DOH added.

Metro Manila topped the five regions or provinces with the highest number of daily cases reported on Monday with 4,163, followed by Laguna province, south of Manila, 400; Rizal province, east of Manila, 363; Cavite province, south of Manila, 312; and Bulacan province, north of Manila, 178.

The release of Monday's case bulletin was delayed for hours "due to an unexpected system error that caused the non-inclusion of new cases in the database," the DOH said. But it added that "the problem has been addressed."

Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano, vice chair of the coronavirus task force, said the government is "still in control" of the situation amid the spike of COVID-19 community infections in the country.

Ano said the government's focus now is to "extricate" mild and asymptomatic COVID-19 patients from home quarantine and bring them to isolation facilities to prevent further transmissions.

"Many of the infected persons in hot-spot areas are under home quarantine and they continue to infect family members and the people in the community," he said, adding that these people can become super spreader of the virus.

Ano also stressed the need to fast-track the government's contact tracing efforts.

"We have to isolate and test these people but sometimes we are too late because they have already infected many people before we are able to test and isolate them," Ano said.

Ano said 50 percent of those that tested positive for the virus in Metro Manila and Laguna province are quarantined at home.

"Those people promised to stay at home and quarantine but they are really violating the quarantine protocols probably wittingly or unwittingly. (They) are violating the home quarantine (protocols), infecting members of their families," Ano said.

He said that some homes don't have rooms or bathrooms for the isolated patient, forcing them to mingle with the rest of the family members including those with the elderly and people with comorbidity.

Ano also lamented that some people refused to get tested because they don't want to be taken to isolation facilities.

Secretary Vivencio Dizon, the deputy chief implementer of the government's response against COVID-19, said a lot of the country's COVID-19 cases "are mild and asymptomatic, up to 98.5 percent to 99 percent."

Dizon stressed the need to be prepared in case of an upsurge in COVID-19 cases if the lockdown restrictions are further loosened.

Public Works Undersecretary Emil Sadain said the Department of Public Works and Highways has finished a total of 300 quarantine facilities all over the country, and is constructing 95 more for completion this month until the early part of September. "These facilities have a total capacity of around 13,000 beds," he added.

The Philippines imposed in mid-March strict lockdown measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. But despite the nearly five-month lockdown, the Philippines continues to grapple with surging infections especially after the restrictions were eased in June.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte reimposed stricter lockdown measures in Metro Manila and outlying provinces of Laguna, Cavite, Rizal and Bulacan on Aug. 4-18 restricting the movement of some 27 million people.

Duterte is expected to decide this week whether to retain or ease the restrictions in Metro Manila and adjacent provinces.

"It entails a delicate balancing of protecting and saving people's health to protecting and saving the economic health of the nation," Duterte's spokesperson Harry Roque said. Enditem
New Mexico is front and center in a new global race to dominate space, and its creating huge commercial opportunities for the emerging space industry here and elsewhere.

The U.S. Department of Defense is rapidly standing up its new Space Force, approved in December by President Donald Trump as the sixth branch of the military. And, by and large, the DOD is turning to private industry to provide the 21st-century technology needed to maintain U.S. leadership as the world moves to conquer the final frontier.

New Mexico is playing a key role in those efforts, thanks to its long history as a hub for military-related space development through a myriad of DOD space entities at Kirtland Air Force Base, plus critical research, development and testing infrastructure provided by the states national laboratories and installations like White Sands Missile Range.

The militarys efforts, in turn, are helping to build the states industrial base through emerging Air Force and Space Force partnerships with new and existing companies, and through DOD and civilian efforts to connect innovative technology firms with defense-related opportunities.

Simultaneously, a new age of commercial-led human space travel is transforming the state into a global center for space-related activity through Spaceport America in southern New Mexico, and through Virgin Galactics plans to fly paying passengers to the edge of space. Those efforts, too, are boosted by public-private partnerships with civilian entities like NASA, and by military contracts for companies to test new technologies at the spaceport.

Its a parallel military and civilian process, but one fundamentally connected through development of modern, cutting-edge technology. And its paving the way for low-cost access to space, which in coming years could make travel to the moon and beyond an everyday reality, said Col. Eric Felt, who heads the Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland.

Its a perfect storm thats coming together, spurred by broad national interest in doing things in space, and by technology development thats reached a new level of maturity, Felt told the Journal. Declining costs and new capabilities have reached a tipping point. Were seeing a technology nirvana now  and New Mexico is at the center of a lot of it.

NM and the DOD

Most public attention is focused on commercial space and the activities gaining momentum at Spaceport America.

In contrast, not many people are aware of New Mexicos central role in developing DODs new Space Force, said Matt Fetrow, director of the Air Force Research Laboratorys Tech Engagement Office in Albuquerque.

The DOD and the Air Force have moved quickly and aggressively to set up the Space Force, but it surprises folks here to learn about those efforts in New Mexico, Fetrow said. People ask what, if anything, is happening here. But the Space Vehicles Directorate  which is the technology arm for space-related development  is part of the Space Force now, and its based at Kirtland.

So is the Space & Missiles Center and the Space Rapid Capabilities Office, among other entities. All are directly involved in developing, testing and operating the militarys existing and emerging space systems, Col. Felt said.

That emerging technology will provide the backbone for Space Force operations, more so than any other branch of the military, and nearly all of it will be built by private industry in partnership with the DOD.

The vision is for the Space Force to be the most tech savvy of all the services to keep ahead of adversaries, Felt said. And its not just what we (the military) develop, but all the emerging commercial technology, which accounts for about 80% of todays technology development. Only about 20% comes from the government now  a total reversal from the 1960s  and were looking at how to tap into that 80%.

Private sector role

To do that, the DOD is aggressively reaching out to private industry. The Air Force began a technology accelerator program in 2017 for innovative startups and others to compete for funding to build new products and services. And in July, the Air Force announced a new International Pitch Day in partnership with U.K. defense agencies for companies to compete next November for funding to fast-track new space innovations.

AFRL New Mexicos Tech Engagement Office has partnered with the ABQid business accelerator on an annual Hyperspace Challenge that launched in 2018 to pair private firms with military specialists seeking help on space-related technologies. Companies work for three months to develop solutions to complex problems, culminating in a week-long accelerator with cash prizes and opportunities to pursue contracts.

This fall, the accelerator will focus on building autonomous controls for satellites.

That implies a lot of software development, and New Mexico has great computer science and software businesses that we hope to engage, Fetrow said.

Faster contracting

The Space Vehicles Directorate also created a new rapid acquisition capability last year  the Space Technology Advanced Research, or STAR, program  to streamline contract awards through rapid review and approval of proposals, said STAR acquisition senior advisor John Beauchemin.

The basic principle is to mine industry for innovation, Beauchemin said.

Two Albuquerque companies won contracts through STAR since the spring. SolAero Technologies, which makes robust solar systems for spacecraft, received $4.5 million to develop automated processes for building solar modules to speed production and lower costs, said Michael Riley, Space Vehicles Directorate deputy program manager for advanced space power.

Engineering firm Applied Technology Associates won $16.9 million to develop technology to enable satellites to use higher frequency communication bands for increased data transfer, and to improve optical communications for satellites to share information.

Those technologies and others under development will benefit both space defense systems and commercial industry going forward, said SolAero president and CEO Brad Clevenger. As the government pumps more money into private enterprise, it strengthens industry, while also building new products that commercial entities can use.

The government is often the driver for new technology that, if successful, can also be sold to commercial customers, Clevenger said.

Tougher tech

Todays defense-related space development is focused largely on resiliency, making current systems more robust to withstand potential attacks from adversaries, while also creating new capabilities for military operations in space and on the ground. And many of those new technologies could have immense impact on society in general.

The Space Vehicles Directorate, for example, is now working with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado and industry partners to build platform technology to collect solar energy in space and beam it to Earth for use anywhere across the globe. That would allow the military to supply power on demand for warfighters or installations in remote places, but it also has huge potential commercial applications, said James Winter, project manager for the Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research project.

Its essentially gridless power you can plug into in places where theres no infrastructure, Winter said. Thats a potential game changer.

A new Navigation Technology Satellite, NTS-3, which the DOD will launch in 2022, could greatly bolster the U.S. Global Positioning System. The Naval Research Laboratorys NTS-1 and NTS-2 satellites flew in the 1970s and led to GPS.

NTS-3, being built by three private contractors, will substantially upgrade space-based position, navigation and timing techniques to withstand interference, Col. Felt said.

Today someone can jam our systems using a jammer the size of a coffee cup, Felt said. That creates real vulnerability. This new technology will make our systems much more resilient.

Other DOD projects could focus on placing satellites in non-traditional orbits, such as very low-Earth orbit using new propulsion systems to keep craft aloft, or in areas near the moon and even slightly beyond to expand space domain awareness as NASA and commercial companies develop new lunar and deep-space missions.

New Space NM, an industry association that launched in 2018 to help build the states commercial space industry, is working to connect local companies with all the emerging opportunities, said New Space CEO Casey DeRaad.

Theres exponential growth and opportunities that New Mexico is well-positioned to take advantage of, DeRaad said. Theres so much going on and its happening so fast, its hard to keep up with it all.
US President Donald Trump isnt telling the full story when it comes to executive orders on coronavirus relief payments and health care.

Over the weekend, the president suggested that his move to bypass Congress with executive action calling for up to $400 in weekly unemployment assistance would mean immediate cash in hand for laid-off Americans during the pandemic. Theres no guarantee of that. His own economic adviser acknowledged Sunday that various details remained to be worked out, including contributions from the states, and that legal challenges appeared likely.

And on health care, Trump said he would pursue a major executive order to require health insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions, something that has never been done before. Actually, its been done before with Obamacare, a law that Trump is seeking to invalidate.

The claims came in a week where truth took a beating, on topics from mail-in voting to the virus threat.

A look at the claims and reality:

EXECUTIVE ORDERS

TRUMP, on how quickly laid-off U.S. workers would get up to $400 a week bonus payments under his executive order: It will be rapidly distributed.  Theyre going to see it very soon. news conference Saturday.

THE FACTS: An imminent payment is unlikely, if one comes at all.

It is an open question how many people will receive the $400 weekly benefit, which is one-third less than the $600 previously provided by the federal government, and how long it might take to arrive. Trumps executive order seems to leave it up to the states to decide whether to participate and also asks them to cover 25%, or $100, of the cost, a major hurdle when their budgets are already under severe strain.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Sunday insisted the first checks could come in a couple of weeks, but acknowledged that the administration had yet to fully canvass the states to see if they would be able to afford their payment share. Kudlow also allowed that the executive action could wind up in court. Several lawmakers have questioned the legality of the orders, which bypass legislation that would need to be approved by Congress. On Saturday, Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., called the theory behind the executive orders unconstitutional slop.

We think we can do it, Kudlow told ABCs This Week.

But there was a new wrinkle Sunday night: Trump told reporters that states could apply for federal dollars covering all or part of the $400 payments. He said decisions would be made on a state-by-state basis.

The previous supplemental unemployment benefit of $600 per week expired at the end of July.

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TRUMP, on whether he was expecting legal challenges to his orders: I didnt say that. No, no. I didnt say that. news conference Saturday.

THE FACTS: He did say it.

At his news conference a day earlier in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump said: Yeah, probably we get sued, but people feel that we can do it.

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TRUMP: Over the next two weeks, Ill be pursuing a major executive order requiring health insurance companies to cover all preexisting conditions for all customers. Thats a big thing.  This has never been done before. news conference Friday.

THE FACTS: No executive order is needed to protect people with preexisting medical conditions because Obamacare already does that and its the law of the land. If Trump persuades the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional, its unclear what degree of protection an executive order would offer in place of the law.

The Obama health law states that a group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage may not impose any preexisting condition exclusion with respect to such plan or coverage.

Other sections of the law act to bar insurers from charging more to people because of past medical problems and from canceling coverage, except in cases of fraud. In the past, there were horror stories of insurers canceling coverage because a patient had a recurrence of cancer.

Its dubious that any president could enact such protections through an executive order, or Obama would never have needed to go to Congress to get his health law passed. Likewise, President Bill Clinton could have simply used a presidential decree to enact his health plan, or major parts of it, after it failed to get through Congress.

Republicans were unable to muscle their replacement through Congress when they controlled the House and Senate in 2017 during Trumps first year. Various GOP bills would have offered a degree of protection for people with preexisting conditions, but the proposed safeguards were seen as less than what the law already provided. The general approach in the Republican legislation would have required people to maintain continuous coverage to avoid being turned down because of a preexisting condition.

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VETERANS

TRUMP: Our vets are very special. We passed Choice, as you know Veterans Choice  And theyve been trying to get that passed for decades and decades and decades, and no president has ever been able to do it. And we got it done. news conference Saturday.

THE FACTS: This is one of Trumps most frequent falsehoods. Hes incorrect that he achieved Veterans Choice when other presidents couldnt. President Barack Obama achieved it in 2014. Trump expanded it.

The program allows veterans to see a private doctor for primary or mental health care at public expense if their VA wait is 20 days (28 for specialty care) or their drive to a VA facility is 30 minutes or more.

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FOREIGN INTERFERENCE

TRUMP, on the threat from Russia, China and Iran of meddling in the U.S. presidential election: The biggest risk that we have is mail-in ballots.  Its much easier for them to forge ballots and send them in, its much easier for them to cheat with universal mail-in ballots. news briefing Friday.

THE FACTS: Mail-in ballots arent the biggest risk for foreign interference.

Trying to influence a federal election through mail-in ballots would probably mean paying thousands of U.S. citizens, carefully selected in pivotal states, who are willing to conspire with a foreign government and risk detection and prosecution.

Far easier and cheaper would be a social media campaign seeking to discourage certain groups of people from voting, which is something the FBI has warned about. Or a cyberattack on voter registration data that would eliminate certain voters from the rolls. That could cause havoc at polling places or election offices as officials attempt to count ballots from people who are missing from their voter databases.

On Friday, William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, warned about foreign interference and said Russia was already trying to undercut Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Evanina cited in part Kremlin-linked figures who are seeking to boost President Trumps candidacy on social media and Russian television.

Last month, Attorney General Bill Barr raised the possibility that a foreign country could print up tens of thousands of counterfeit ballots. He argued they would be hard to detect, but thats been disputed by election experts.

Absentee and mail-in ballots are printed on special paper and must be formatted correctly in order to be processed and counted. Ballots are specific to each precinct, often with a long list of local races, and would be identified as fraudulent if everything didnt match precisely.

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VOTING FRAUD

TRUMP: You look at some of the corruption having to do with universal mail-in voting. Absentee voting is OK. Axios interview released Monday.

VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: Absentee balloting is perfectly acceptable. You have to apply for an absentee ballot, signatures are checked, its confirmed, it is a long tradition.  But this universal mail in voting where youre going to see literally ballots showered all across the state  it is ripe for fraud. Fox News interview on Aug. 3.

THE FACTS: Trump and his vice president are making a false distinction. Mail-in ballots are cast in the same way as absentee mail ballots, with the same level of scrutiny such as signature verification in many states.

In more than 30 states and the District of Columbia, voters have a right to no excuse absentee voting. That means they can use mail-in ballots for any reason, regardless a person is out of town or working. In Florida, the Legislature in 2016 voted to change the wording of such balloting from absentee to vote-by-mail to make clear a voter can cast such ballots if they wish.

More broadly, voter fraud has proved exceedingly rare. The Brennan Center for Justice in 2017 ranked the risk of ballot fraud at 0.00004% to 0.0009%, based on studies of past elections.

Five states relied on mail-in ballots even before the coronavirus pandemic raised concerns about voting in person.

Trump is simply wrong about mail-in balloting raising a tremendous potential for fraud, Richard L. Hasen, an elections expert at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law, wrote recently. While certain pockets of the country have seen their share of absentee-ballot scandals, problems are extremely rare in the five states that rely primarily on vote-by-mail, including the heavily Republican state of Utah.

In an apparent turnabout, Trump later in the week urged voters in Florida to vote by mail despite his rhetoric against the practice, arguing in a tweet that its system is safe and secure, tried and true. Florida is a must-win state for Trump, where Democratic requests to vote by mail have been surging higher.

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STEPHEN MILLER, White House senior adviser: Heres a shocking thing for your audience to consider. Nobody who mails in a ballot has their identity confirmed. Nobody checks to see if theyre even a U.S. citizen. Think about that. Any any foreign national, talk about foreign election interference, can mail in a ballot and nobody even verifies if theyre a citizen of the United States of America. Fox News interview on Aug. 3.

THE FACTS: Hes incorrect to assert that measures arent in place to confirm a voters identity or prevent fraud with mail ballots.

Ballots typically require voters to provide identifying information such as a birth date or Social Security or drivers license number. In most states, voters also sign the back of the envelope, which is then verified with the signature on their voter registrations.

Many jurisdictions use a bar code on the envelope, which is used to help states identify any duplicate ballots and also let voters know if their ballot was received.

Miller ignores separate built-in safeguards for mail-in ballots. The ballots, for instance, are generally sent to registered voters, who have to provide identifying information at the time of registration, such as an address, birth date and proof of citizenship.

In Millers hypothetical scenario of a foreign national improperly casting a vote, that ballot would be flagged and rejected for not having a signature on file or for failing to match one that is. Based on the envelopes bar code, state voting officials also could identify and eliminate any duplicate ballots, whether they were submitted mistakenly or fraudulently.

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NEVADA VOTING

TRUMP, on mail ballots: Theres no verification of signatures. So they dont even know whos going to sign this. They have literally a clause that you dont have to verify the signatures that they dont have to do it. remarks Wednesday.

THE FACTS: Not true. Nevadas existing law requires signature checks on mail ballots. A new law also spells out a process by which election officials are to check a signature against the one in government records.

In Nevadas June primary, nearly 7,000 ballots were thrown out due to mismatched or missing signatures.

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MERCEDES SCHLAPP, Trump campaign senior adviser: Even come Election Day, you could still cast a ballot three days later if you dont have a postmark, or seven days later if you have a postmark.  Say you vote for Joe Biden, then you find out in Nevada that President Trump wins. You can go to your family members, you can go to your colleagues and say, Guess what, do you still have that mail-in vote? Lets cast it, because you can cast it several days after the election. CNN interview Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Its a distortion for her to assert that Nevada voters could still cast ballots several days after the election.

Under the new law, ballots must be postmarked or cast by Election Day to be counted. Election officials are given up to seven days to receive and count those ballots after the election. That additional time for receipt is routine practice in many states for overseas and military voters who submit ballots by mail.

Separately, the law states that if a mail ballot is received up to three days after the election, it can be counted if the date of the postmark is unclear or missing. The aim is to provide enough time for delivery and processing of ballots that are properly mailed on Election Day, though the Trump campaign alleges in a lawsuit filed this past week that the three-day provision would allow some ballots to be improperly mailed after the election and then counted.

That scenario is not the same as granting wide license to cast ballots several days after the election, as Schlapp asserts.

The campaigns suit acknowledges that the window for alleged mischief is small because most mail in Nevada already takes at least one or two days to arrive. Some of those ballots may display postmarks showing they were sent late, which would disqualify them.

___

TRUMP: What theyre going to do is blanket the state, anybody that ever walked, frankly, will get one. Fox News interview Wednesday.

THE FACTS: His imagery of any living being in Nevada receiving a mail-in ballot, regardless of age or other eligibility factors, is false.

The new law requires that ballots be sent to active registered voters. Active registered voters are generally those with a current address on file with their local elections office.

There are additional requirements to be registered to vote. In Nevada, a person must be a U.S. citizen and resident of the state, at least 18 years old, not currently in state or federal prison, and not found to be mentally incompetent to vote by a court.

___

NEW YORK VOTING

TRUMP, on two Democratic congressional primaries: They dont know what happened to them, is there fraud, is there  its a disaster. news briefing Tuesday.

THE FACTS: While there were vote-counting delays, theres no evidence of fraud in the two Democratic congressional primaries in New York City that Trump refers to, which were won by city council member Ritchie Torres and Rep. Carolyn Maloney. Nor did Trump offer any proof of fraud.

New York state decided to allow anyone to vote by mail in the June primary because of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 400,000 people voted by absentee ballot in New York City, a figure that was 10 times the number of absentee ballots cast in the 2016 primary.

Opening and counting those ballots by elections officials took weeks. New York Citys Board of Elections ultimately certified the results six weeks after the election.

___

CORONAVIRUS

TRUMP, asked if a vaccine for COVID-19 could become available before the election: I think in some cases, yes possible before, but right around that time. Im rushing it. I am. Im pushing everybody. interview Thursday on the Geraldo Rivera radio program.

THE FACTS: Hes offering a more ambitious timeline than his health experts and omitting key facts.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the governments top infectious diseases expert, has said he is cautiously optimistic that a coronavirus vaccine will be ready by early next year. Even then, Fauci made clear that the vaccine would not be widely available right away.

Ultimately, within a reasonable period of time, the plans now allow for any American who needs a vaccine to get it within the year 2021, Fauci told Congress last month.

Under White House orders, federal health agencies and the Defense Department are carrying out a plan to deliver 300 million vaccine doses on a compressed timeline. That will happen only after the Food and Drug Administration determines that one or more vaccines are safe and effective. Several candidates are being tested.

The push for a speedy vaccine has drawn concern from some scientists that the White House will pressure U.S. regulators to approve a vaccine before its ready.

In an op-ed this past week, FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said his agency will not be influenced by any political pressure and will make decisions based solely on good science and data.

___

TRUMP: Children are almost and I would almost say definitely but almost immune from this disease, so few. They dont have a problem, they just dont have a problem.  And Ive have watched some doctors say theyre totally immune. Fox news interview Wednesday.

THE FACTS: They arent immune. Although its true that children are less likely than adults to develop COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has nevertheless counted more than 250,000 infections by the virus in Americans younger than 18, or roughly 7% of all cases.

The number of kids who have been infected but not confirmed is almost certainly far higher than that, experts say, because those with mild or no symptoms are less likely to get tested.

Trump overlooks severe COVID-19 illnesses and some deaths of children in the U.S., even though kids in general tend to get less sick from it than adults do. He also glosses over the fact that kids can spread disease without showing symptoms themselves.

The CDC in April studied the pandemics effect on different ages in the U.S. and reviewed preliminary research in China, where the coronavirus started. It said social distancing is important for children, too, for their own safety and that of others.

Whereas most COVID-19 cases in children are not severe, serious COVID-19 illness resulting in hospitalization still occurs in this age group, the CDC study says.

The CDC in May also warned doctors to be on the lookout for a rare but life-threatening inflammatory reaction in some children whove had the coronavirus. The condition had been reported in more than 100 children in New York, and in some kids in several other states and in Europe, with some deaths.

Trumps claim prompted Facebook to delete his post with a link to the Fox News video because of the misinformation. Twitter temporarily blocked the Trump campaign from tweeting from its account, until it removed a post with the same video.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 03:19:47|Editor: huaxia

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PARIS, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The international community on Sunday pledged timely and sufficient aid, well-coordinated under the leadership of the United Nations (UN), to assist the Lebanese people hit by the massive explosions at the Beirut port five days ago.

After a UN-backed virtual conference, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, representatives from Britain, Qatar, the United States, the European Union, China, the World Bank and others issued a joint statement pledging solidarity with and support to the Lebanese people.

"The participants agreed that their assistance should be timely, sufficient and consistent with the needs of the Lebanese people, well-coordinated under the leadership of the United Nations, and directly delivered to the Lebanese population, with utmost efficiency and transparency," said the statement.

To help Lebanon overcome the tragedy and recover better, "we will need all hands on deck," UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told the conference.

"I give my pledge that the United Nations is committed to helping the people of Lebanon in every way we can," she said.

Mohammed called for a focus on support to four priority sectors, health, food, the rehabilitation of buildings and the rehabilitation of schools.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun told the conference that rebuilding Beirut requires a lot of efforts and resources.

"The earthquake struck us while we are in the midst of economic and financial crisis, in addition to the existence of over 1 million refugees in Lebanon and the repercussions of COVID-19. Dealing with all these is way beyond the capacity of Lebanon," Aoun noted.

The total figure of "emergency aid pledged or that can be mobilized quickly" amounts over 252 million euros (297.08 million U.S. dollars), said the French presidency.

"We are sending a clear message: we, the global community, Lebanon's closest friends and partners, will not let the Lebanese people down," Macron tweeted. Enditem
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The competition is selecting a prestigious panel of Tequila & Mezcal professionals consisting of Master Sommeliers, F&B Directors, Journalists, and Retailers Buyers.

While the judging panel is building, the following "Stars of Tequila" are on the 2020 judging board; Kobe Desmet (author of the Tequila & Mezcal Complete Guide) Cesar Ramirez of the Las Vegas Tequila Patrol and Mixologist at the MGM Grand's Heche Bar and M.A "Mike" Morales of M.A. "Mike" Morales, CEO, Tequila Aficionado Media, to name a few.

Christopher J. Davies, Wine Country Network, CEO and Co-Founder, stated, "Our well-rounded panel of experts will taste the Tequilas, Mezcal & Agave Spirits "double-blind" and achieve the fairest scoring results possible. We are looking to identify the absolute best products in this exciting category!"

There are currently around 150 distilleries in Mexico, making Tequila, Mezcal, and Agave products. Each distillery is identified with a NOM (Norma Official Mexican) number, guaranteeing that the product is made to government quality standard. There are now 1,660 Tequila brands with more coming online every week.

The 2nd Annual Tequila Mezcal Challenge has pivoted during COVID-19. Judges will taste virtually from home and on Zoom. http://www.teqmezchallenge.com

Attn: Editors

Wine Country Network CEO, Christopher J. Davies is available for interviews on ZOOM or via the telephone.

High resolution photographs from the 2019 competition are available for publication use. View our photo gallery: https://www.flickr.com/photos/winecountrynetwork/albums/72157711542034087

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Wine Country Network, Inc. is a multi-platform media and event company dedicated to wine, beer, spirits, food, and travel. Christopher and Darcy Davies founded the company in 2002 in New York. Today the company is based in Broomfield, Colorado.

The company publishes Wine Country International Magazine, a well-respected glossy print publication (2003 to 2012), which transformed into a fully digital magazine in 2013. The magazine is now available through Issuu, the worlds leading digital publishing platform. https://winecountryinternational.com/
World Vision-Lebanon director talks impact of Beirut explosion: 'Everything is shattered'

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The blast in Beirut that killed some 150 people and injured over 5,000 has exacerbated preexisting economic conditions and reignited for many the trauma of Lebanons 15-year civil war.

Rami Shamma, field operations director for World Vision-Lebanon, felt the blast in a public place about 30 kilometers from Beirut. He told The Christian Post that it reminded people of the war, but without a political reason to blame.

Part of the port that was destroyed was the same part destroyed in the Lebanese civil war, Shamma said. Everything we see took us back 15 years to what took place ... We dont have bullets in the buildings, but everything is shattered and on the ground. The images were terrifying.

Beirut, a port city crucial to the economy and well-being of the country, saw hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate become a deadly, powerful force on Tuesday. The cause of the blast was either negligence or "external action, with a missile or a bomb," Lebanese President Michel Aoun said Friday.

The agony is widespread, as the blast acts as only the latest detriment to the country this year, according to Shamma.

Due to the ports destruction, Lebanese people will face a higher cost on goods due to a lack of imports. The Lebanese pound has rapidly decreased in value ($0.0007 USD) and a lack of opportunities in the country already had many in poverty before the blast.

Syrian refugees will be hit the hardest, according to Hans Bederski, World Visions national director in Lebanon.

Everyone living in and around Beirut is affected, says Bederski. The port was the main point of entry for imported goods and supplies. Its destruction will have an immediate impact on cost of living for all people residing in Lebanon. Of course, the most vulnerable, including the refugee population, will get to feel more severely the increases in cost of produce.

Hospitals, already stressed by COVID-19 patients, have been overrun after the blast, according to Shamma. Injured people who go to the hospitals that are already weak experience long wait times. Four hospitals were also heavily damaged from the blast, causing capacity issues.

World Vision is assisting Lebanese people affected by the blast in various ways. Shamma said that basic needs such as food, water and shelter are the primary needs and focus in Lebanon, but emotional healthcare is also provided, which is crucial for Lebanese children.

They have either experienced it or seen it. People are talking about it, yelling about it, crying about it, he said. The trauma is stacked up and thus we support in psychological first aid and guiding parents for children living through this difficult time.

Shamma mentioned a point of positivity though. He said right after the blast, he saw people in the streets with brooms and cleaning supplies, working together to clean up the now-destroyed city. Hospitals were filled with citizens donating blood within minutes of the blast.

Seeing this type of togetherness and hope is why he is able to continue the strenuous work of a humanitarian.

The solidarity that we see ... its so powerful that it brings hope to people who have lost somebody or who have terribly seen their city collapsing and being destroyed, he said.

Anyone can assist the Lebanese people through online donations to World Vision-Lebanon, The Lebanese Red Cross, Save the Children-Lebanon and other organizations.
A leading diaspora group in the US will hoist Indias National Flag at the Times Square this week, the first time the Indian tricolour will be unfurled at the iconic New York City destination.

The Federation of Indian Associations (FIA) of the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut said in a statement that it will be creating history on August 15, 2020 by hosting the first ever flag hoisting ceremony at Times Square to commemorate Indias Independence Day.

It will be the first time ever that Indias tricolour will be unfurled at the iconic venue in all its glory, the organisation said, adding that Consul General of India in New York Randhir Jaiswal will be the Guest of Honour at the event.

The FIA said this years Independence Day celebrations will include the flag-hoisting ceremony at Times Square and the annual tradition of illuminating the Empire State Building in hues of the tricolour - orange, white and green.

The Empire State lighting ceremony will be held on August 14.

The Times Square flag hoisting ceremony is a testament to the Indian-American communitys growing patriotism and is a fitting tribute to the FIA which is celebrating its golden jubilee year, the organisation said.

Established in 1970, the FIA is among the largest umbrella diaspora organisations.

In July, Ankur Vaidya was appointed the FIA Chairman, succeeding prominent Indian-American community leader Ramesh Patel who passed away due to complications from coronavirus.

Vaidya, 40, has been long associated with the FIA and was the President of the umbrella diaspora organisation for the year 2014. He is the youngest member of the Board and the youngest to be chosen as its chairman.

The Consulate General of India in New York will host a virtual Independence Day celebration on August 15 in which it has invited members of the Indian community and friends of India for the commemoration that will be live streamed.

The FIA annually organises its flagship event - the India Day Parade to mark Indias Independence Day in August.

Top US political leaders, lawmakers as well as prominent members of the Indian-American community and celebrities from India have participated in the annual parade that draws a crowd of thousands in the heart of Manhattan each year.

This year, however, the parade will not be held due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Troops in Niger backed by French air power launched a hunt Monday for the killers of eight people, six of them French nationals, as prosecutors in Paris announced a terror investigation into their deaths.

"Search operations with our partners are under way to root out the people behind these vile acts and strengthen security in the area," the Nigerien interior ministry said.

The French military, which has a 5,100-member anti-jihadist force in the Sahel, said it was providing air support for the operation, which is unfolding over a vast wooded area.

Six French citizens were killed on Sunday along with their Nigerien guide and driver about six kilometres (four miles) from the town of Koure, in a wildlife haven about an hour's drive southeast from the capital Niamey, officials said.

The country, one of the poorest in the world, is struggling with incursions by Islamists from both Nigeria to the south and Mali to the west.

In Paris, French anti-terror prosecutors said in a statement they would investigate charges of "murders with links to a terrorist enterprise" and "criminal terrorist association".

French NGO Acted, whose staff were targeted in the attack, said the victims were aged between 25 and 50 and were four women and four men. It did not give their names.

Acted co-founder Frederic Roussel told reporters in Paris that the international community had to do more to ensure the protection of humanitarian workers.

"The international community must understand the contradiction between asking us to support these populations who live under the most dramatic circumstances and leaving us alone against violence where we are the easiest targets," he said.

- 'Cowardly and barbaric' -

The attackers came on motorcycles through the bush and waited for the group's arrival, a source said.

Most of the victims were shot although one woman managed to escape but was later caught and her throat was cut, the source added.

Story continues

The bodies were laid side-by-side next to a torched 4x4, which had bullet holes in its rear window.

Nigerien forensic experts investigated the site of the killing before the bodies were taken to Niamey.

French President Emmanuel Macron and his Nigerien and Malian counterparts Mahamadou Issoufou and Ibrahim Boubacar Keita lashed the attack as cowardly and barbaric.

The Koure area is a sanctuary for hundreds of West African giraffes, a subspecies distinguished by its lighter colour.

"We all go to Koure on weekend outings because it's very easy to access," a Western humanitarian source based in Niamey told AFP.

"Everyone goes there, even ambassadors, diplomats, teachers... it is not considered a dangerous zone at all."

Later on Monday, officials said they had suspended access to the park and extended a pre-existing state of emergency to cover the Kollo prefecture, which houses the giraffe park.

The region around Niamey has become a hideout for jihadist groups including the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), which have killed hundreds of troops and driven thousands of people from their homes.

- Previous kidnappings -

Nigerien authorities banned humanitarian organisations from travelling without military escort in several areas of Tillaberi and the neighbouring region of Tahoua in 2019 after armed men stole vehicles belonging to aid groups.

Two humanitarian workers, an American and a German, had been kidnapped in those regions in 2016 and 2018.

Aid groups said Monday they would not be deterred by the deteriorating security situation.

"The UNHCR, like all humanitarian actors in Niger, will continue its mission to help the most fragile populations," said Alessandra Morelli, the representative in Niger for the UN refugee agency UNHCR.

"We try to be close to the people, we try to go out into the field to assist these populations affected by the violence, but we notify the relevant authorities of our movements," Nicolas von Arx, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Niger, told AFP.

bur-bh/thm/erc/jxb/ach
CHICAGO, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Enhanced Oil Recovery Market by Technology (Thermal (In-Situ Combustion, Steam, Others), Chemical (Polymer, Surfactant, Alkaline Surfactant Polymer), Gas (CO2, Other Gas), Other EOR), Application (Onshore, Offshore), and Region - Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Enhanced Oil Recovery Market size will grow to USD 59.4 billion by 2025 (forecast year) from USD 43.3 billion in 2020 (estimated year), at a CAGR of 6.5% during the forecast period. The rising number of mature fields in North America and the Middle East, along with rising primary energy demand from the Asia Pacific, are the driving factors for the Enhanced Oil Recovery Market, globally. Technological developments in advancements in shale oil & gas reserve development, production from oil sand, and deep-water drilling have led oil & gas production across regions, which creates opportunities for growth of the market.

Download PDF Brochure:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=251660091

The thermal EOR segment is expected to dominate the Enhanced Oil Recovery Market, by technology, during the forecast period.

In thermal EOR, steam is injected to lower the viscosity and improve the mobility of oil through the reservoir. Itis mainly used in heavy oil reservoirs to recover several billion barrels of heavy crude oil. Thermal EOR technology has been deployed in various countries such as the US, Canada, Venezuela, Oman, China, and Indonesia, with major projects in operation for many years. The thermal EOR is further categorized further based on the type as in-situ combustion, steam, and others. The steam segment is expected to grow at a faster CAGR. Owing to increasing activities in shale and the development of mature oilfields in the Gulf of Mexico are likely to drive the steam market.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Enhanced Oil Recovery Market"

118  Tables

59  Figures

181  Pages

View Detailed Table of Content Here:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/enhanced-oil-recovery-market-251660091.html

The onshore segment is expected to be the fastest-growing Enhanced Oil Recovery Market, by application, during the forecast period.

The onshore segment, by application, the Enhanced Oil Recovery Market is estimated to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period. This is mainly because of the increasing demand for production activities from new shale development activities in North America. Moreover, maturing shallow oilfields in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea, as well as increasing investments in offshore EOR projects. Such factors propel the growth of the Enhanced Oil Recovery Market.

North America likely to emerge as the largest Enhanced Oil Recovery Market

In this report, the Enhanced Oil Recovery Market has been analyzed for six regions, namely, North America, South America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa. The US is the top explorer and producer of shale oil and gas. Moreover, the rising production of tight oil and increasing oil sand formations in Alberta propel Enhanced Oil Recovery Market growth. Thus, North America dominated the Enhanced Oil Recovery Market during the forecasted period.

Inquiry Before Buying:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=251660091

To enable an in-depth understanding of the competitive landscape, the report includes the profiles of some of the top players in the Enhanced Oil Recovery Market.

Some of the key players are Schlumberger (US), Halliburton (US), Baker Hughes Company (US), Royal Dutch Shell Plc (Netherlands), BP Plc(UK). The leading players are adopting various strategies to increase their share in the Enhanced Oil Recovery Market.

Browse Adjacent Markets: Energy and Power Market Research Reports & Consulting

Browse Related Reports:

Artificial Lift Market by Type (ESP, PCP, Rod Lift, Gas Lift, and Others); Mechanism(Pump Assisted (Positive Displacement, Dynamic Displacement), Gas Assisted); Well Type(Horizontal, Vertical); Application(Onshore, Offshore); Region - Global Forecast to 2025

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/artificial-lift-systems-market-879.html

Well Intervention Market by Service (Logging & Bottomhole Survey, Tubing/Packer Failure & Repair, Stimulation, Artificial Lift), Type (Light, Medium, Heavy) Application (Onshore, Offshore) Well (Horizontal, Vertical) Region - Global Forecast to 2025

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/well-intervention-market-1099.html

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Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model  GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

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President Moon Jae-in and his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev, shake hands in Tashkent, in Uzbekistan, last year. Korea Times file



By Lee Kyung-min



Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev will visit Korea before the end of this year, sources said Monday.



"Apart from the visit, a couple of joint feasibility studies are ongoing to determine the economic impact that will entail the two countries signing a bilateral free trade agreement," a senior official at the Ministry of Economy and Finance told The Korea Times.



The visit of the head of state of a country in Central Asia, a key region with which Korea seeks to bolster bilateral economic relations, is in accordance with President Moon Jae-in's "New Northern Policy" initiative. Moon declared 2020 as the year of improving relations with what his government calls "New Northern Nations," mostly in Eurasia.



The envisioned visit will follow one by Umurzakov Sardor Uktamovich, the country's deputy prime minister for investments and foreign economic affairs who doubles as investments and foreign trade minister, July 7. Korea's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki met him at the Seoul Government Complex in Gwanghwamun that day.



The rare visit of the high-ranking foreign government official was meaningful because it was the first since March when most official visits were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.



Umurzakov's visit came on the heels of a business deal signed between Uzbekneftegaz (UNG), Uzbekistan's state-run oil and gas corporation, and SK Engineering & Construction (E&C), an infrastructure building subsidiary of SK Group.



The two signed a front-end engineering design (FEED), agreement July 6, according to which SK E&C will modernize the Bukhara Oil Refinery. This is the first significant joint project to materialize following the government's plan announced June 15 to help more Korean firms win overseas business deals.



The Uzbek president is expected to seek more prompt and detailed cooperation in advancing almost 100 bilateral business projects, including 39 outlined in a summit in Uzbekistan, April 2019, and 57 outlined during a telephone conversation April 13.



Most will be pursued in the form of "investment development," which the finance ministry calls an advanced form of turnkey project. This is a high-value creation growth initiative whereby Korean developers oversee and manage the entire process, including business model planning, equity investment, product purchases, construction and facility operation.



Also to be discussed is the extension of a three-year joint business projects agreement concerning a $500 million (593 billion won) Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) set to expire in 2020.



Under the project, Korea helped the country set up a school of medicine, a national cancer center and a national geographical information system. The fund was set up in 1987 to promote economic cooperation between Korea and developing countries.




FTI: B1trn loan needed for recovery

BANGKOK: The government may need to borrow an additional B1 trillion to address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, says the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).

economicsCOVID-19

By Bangkok Post

Monday 10 August 2020, 09:30AM

FTI chairman Supant Mongkolsuthree. Photo: NNT / file

The borrowing would be used to stimulate the grassroots economy, which is still reeling from the crisis, said FTI chairman Supant Mongkolsuthree, reports the Bangkok Post.

Last Tuesday (Aug 4), the Cabinet approved the Finance Ministrys proposal to borrow US$1.5 billion from the Asian Development Bank to stimulate and rehabilitate the economy. The borrowing scheme is part of the governments plan to issue a royal decree to borrow B1trn for stimulus.

Of the B1trn, B600bn is for implementing health-related plans and giving financial aid to affected individuals. The remaining B400bn will go to economic and social rehabilitation through projects aimed at creating jobs, strengthening communities and building community infrastructure.

The public debt level will rise to 57% of GDP from Junes 44.8% upon borrowing the full amount under the loan decree.

Mr Supant said the government should extend the debt moratorium measure for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from six months to two years or until 2022.

This is because SMEs are likely to continue being affected by the crisis next year, he said.

The two-year debt moratorium measure could be divided into two phases, according to Mr Supant.

The first phase, spanning six months, would be for an interest payment suspension and the remaining period would be for interest-only payment.

The move would help SMEs adjust to the crisis as profits disappear this year, Mr Supant said.

Pisit Serewiwattana, president of the Export-Import Bank of Thailand, said the bank is considering extending the debt repayment period for customers affected by the pandemic.

The measure to extend debt repayment by six months will end in September and October and could be extended by another year, Mr Pisit said.

A source at Exim Bank said there are many ways for customers to extend debt repayment, such as halting principal and interest payment or payment of half the principal.

Meanwhile, PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC), Thailands biggest petrochemical maker by capacity, suffered a loss of B7.1bn in the first half of the year because of a slowdown in global fuel consumption caused by the pandemic, the Bangkok Post noted in another report.

The company made a net profit of B8.6bn in the same period last year, but it failed to maintain momentum as prices of petroleum products fell during the coronavirus crisis.

Revenue in the first half dropped by 26% to B162bn from B220bn in the same period last year.

In the second quarter, the revenue fell by 35% to B69.2bn from the same period last year. This was a 26% drop from B93bn in revenue made in the first three months of 2020.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 16:25:37|Editor: huaxia

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Beijing's municipal education authority announced on Sunday the dates when schools in the capital city will start their autumn semester. Senior high schools in Beijing will start the new semester on Aug. 29, while primary schools and junior high schools will start their new school year on three dates -- Aug. 29, Sept. 1 and Sept. 7. Kindergartens in Beijing are to reopen on Sept. 8 and Sept. 11, said the notice. Colleges in Beijing can decide their own time for students to check in or register starting from Aug. 15 after getting approval from the epidemic prevention and control leading group and education authorities.
By Trend

Current president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko won 80.23 percent of the vote, Azerbaijani MP Arzu Naghiyev, who visited the country as a member of the Azerbaijani delegation of the presidential election observers, told Trend on August 10.

Naghiyev made the remark commenting on the preliminary results of the presidential election in Belarus.

"As was announced at the Central Election Commissions press conference after the elections, they were held transparently, with 83 percent of voters taking part in them. Alexander Lukashenko leads with 80.23 percent of the vote, followed by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya with 9.9 percent of the vote," the MP said.

The electoral process is over, and the situation in [the capital] Minsk is calm, he added.

The presidential election were held in Belarus on Aug. 9.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
A 60-year-old man with a history of felony convictions has been arrested for his connection to a weekend shooting in Fort Lauderdale that sent an 11-year-old boy and a woman to the hospital, police said.

Lauderhill resident Stanley Johnson is not the one who pulled the trigger. Instead, Fort Lauderdale police say hes in trouble for being in possession of a gun, despite his convicted felon status, and giving the gun to the shooter.

Stanley Johnson, 60,

Florida law states that anyone who has been convicted of a felony is not allowed to own, possess or be in control of any firearm, ammunition or electric weapon or device.

Fort Lauderdale police announced his arrest Sunday. Hes charged with two counts of aggravated battery with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The shooting began as a dispute between two other men Saturday night at 50 Northwest First Street in Fort Lauderdale, near the Broward Metro Transit Center, according to police.

At some point, Johnson got a gun from a vehicle and gave it to one of the men. The man then began shooting, striking two unintentional victims, police said.

Those two victims  an 11-year-old boy and a woman  were given first aid and taken to Broward General Hospital. They remain in stable condition, police said.

No one else was treated after the shooting, Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue said.

Detectives say a witness identified Johnson as the man who gave the gun to the shooter and that Johnson later confessed to his involvement in the shooting.

As for the gunman, police are still working to identify him and are asking anyone who may have seen the shooting or has information about the incident to contact Detective Kirtman at 954-828-6070 or Detective Knapp at 954-828-4787.
Experts have often debated as to when educational institutions, including schools, should be opened in countries battling a wave of COVID-19.

Reuters

Despite warnings of a possible large-scale exposure of children to COVID-19, a WHO scientist now argues that schools should not be shut till long.

In an interview with TOI, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, a chief scientist at WHO, has said that states should reopen schools so that the learning of the children is not affected and their overall health is taken care of as well.

Swaminathan further stressed that even if schools cannot reopen due to the obvious risk of exposure of kids to COVID-19, colleges, at least, should be reopened.

Why shut schools are not good

Dr Soumya Swaminathan (Image: Reuters)

In the interview, Dr Swaminathan explained, One of the emerging priorities is how and when to reopen schools. Disruptions to instructional time in the classroom can have a severe impact on a childs ability to learn. That puts schools as one of the high priorities in the coming days.



She further cited the lack of access to online education to all as another reason for the schools to start operating. As per the scientist, the impact can be worse when the poor and marginalised children are out of school for long. They may not have facilities to access online education and many may not return to schools if they dont restart.

In addition, the scientist warned of the possible domestic abuse that a child is prone to go to while being out of school. She highlighted abuse, child marriage, violence and other threats as the grim truth of the society that are at a risk of increasing if the child does not go to school.

Children and COVID-19 risk

A teacher sits in an empty classroom after Tamil Nadu state government ordered the closure of primary schools across the state amid coronavirus fears. (Image: Reuters)

Even though it makes sense for the schools to reopen, even if in limited capacity, it is not an easy task. The obvious risk of students contracting COVID-19 from an infected counterpart is dreaded by all. Dr Swaminathan helped with this dilemma in some way.



Initially, schools should open in low incidence districts with staggered timings, Dr Swaminathan said. She also urged for an early preparation for the schools to reopen, with increased testing, tracking and isolation of COVID-19 patients.

Swaminathan mentioned that this might be the only option going forward. Since no vaccine for the disease has been developed yet, governments might have to implement the known health and social measures and get on with the reopening.
New York City must be one of the few places on earth where chaos nostalgia is widespread. Many were the laments, in the Giuliani-Bloomberg era, that the city was too sanitized, too gentrified, too boring, anodyne, suburban. Often youd hear people saying, or declaiming, that their ideal vision of the city was the 1970s1980s one  oh, for the New York of CBGB, of Lou Reed, of the Tompkins Square Park riots. Occasionally people would sneeringly express revulsion that the sidewalks were teeming with strollers. What have we done, weve made this place safe enough for babies! And yet the population, which was smaller in 1990 than it was in 1940, boomed. More than a million more New Yorkers squeezed in between 1990 and 2010. It was as if a city the size of Austin grew atop the existing city.

On a return visit this weekend to the Upper West Side neighborhood where Ive lived for more than a quarter of a century, the fear in the air was palpable. The population seemed to be reduced by about half. New Yorkers steer around each other on the sidewalks, some of them walking in the street to avoid passing near a stranger. A lady declined to ride the elevator with me and my children. People are especially terrified of the subway, whose ridership is down 80 percent from normal levels. Friday night, at a time when there would ordinarily be 50 or more people riding on any given car of the 1 train, there were about seven. Downtown was morose, grim, broken. Graffiti (the anarchists symbol, ACAB for All Cops Are Bastards) was much in evidence.

Mask compliance is almost universal on the Upper West Side: easily 90 percent. The area is defined by college-educated white folk over 40. These are rich people, theyre rule-followers, and if following one more rule might help them ace the virus the way they aced every other test in their lives, theyre going to follow it to a T. Mask wearing, like every other habit, is also a kind of class signifier. Less affluent-looking people are far more likely to wear them pulled down like a chin strap. When its 85 degrees out and you wear a mask out of doors for any length of time, though, your face starts to sweat, and breathing can become a chore. Because there are so many people on the sidewalk and you cant avoid passing close to others, you have to spend much more time with a mask on here in the city than in a more sparsely populated place, which makes mask wearing a kind of extra New York tax or burden, along with all of the others. I spent more time wearing a mask in the city this weekend than I did the entire summer on Long Island, which was irritating. Some of the most irritable people on earth now have a major additional reason to be irritable.

Story continues

Restaurant interiors remain closed, so New Yorkers fill the outdoor tables at lunch and dinner, dining in some cases on the sidewalks but in others actually in the street, protected only by wooden barriers from passing traffic. Happy, chatty (unmasked) diners crowded all of the better Upper West Side places Friday night  inches away from trucks rumbling by, sprinkling the invisible or not-so-invisible contents of their exhaust pipes on peoples Cobb salads.

Several blocks are frozen in time. The multiplex at 84th and Broadway is still festooned with posters from March movies that were never to be released theatrically. But there wasnt a lot of looting in this area because the stores arent luxurious enough. Todays generation of looters have very refined taste, a lifelong resident sardonically tells me. Still, several storefronts are boarded up, and scores more in the neighborhood are vacant. At 85th and Broadway, the Victorias Secret and a luxury shoe store are boarded over, and so is a third business on the block, leaving only a lone cupcake shop on the block cheerfully trying to stay afloat amid the desolation.

Because there is scaffolding over the sidewalk related to repairing the stonework above, this is one of many such sheltered blocks where homeless people sack out on the sidewalk. Sunday afternoon, two homeless women had built up a small encampment in front of the plywood walls of the Victorias Secret. Nearby, in the middle of Broadway, a disheveled and mentally ill man familiar to neighborhood residents walked in traffic, muttering to himself. At 78th and Broadway, the Cuban-Chinese restaurant La Caridad, a neighborhood favorite for more than half a century, has gone out of business. A few blocks south, on West 72nd Street, where there was a socially distanced line of people easily 100 yards long awaiting entry to Trader Joes in the early afternoon, a homeless encampment extended for 20 feet. A ragged man slept on a filthy mattress in the open air.

West 72nd Street in Manhattan, August 9, 2020

Mayor Bill de Blasio has filled three Upper West Side hotels that previously catered to European tourists with hundreds of homeless people, drug addicts, and sex offenders, and the New York Posts wood on Sunday was UPPER WEST SLIDE. The Post isnt making this up. Outside one of the hotels, the Belleclaire, a dazed-looking man stood on the corner in a bathrobe and slippers. A few yards away, a perky half-dozen or so leftists responded to the Post story by bringing a large box of colored chalk and scrawling welcoming slogans to the homeless in several colors on the sidewalk in front of the entrance to the Belleclaire.

Even in this exceedingly well-heeled corner of Manhattan, the disorder is in your face, everywhere. In my building, someone has been sneaking in, grabbing peoples mail and packages from the lobby where they normally sit unmolested, and opening them in the stairwell, discarding whatever items have no interest. Walking down the stairs, I found an opened envelope containing two new passports, and delivered it to the addressee in the building.

Manhattan has been reduced to a diehard remnant of true believers. Often wealthy New Yorkers get accused of being NIMBYs and hypocrites, but I dont think thats always the case. I never tire of reminding nonNew Yorkers that the era-redefining election of Rudy Giuliani was a squeaker. Half of New Yorkers evidently were unwilling to part with ideology over interests, and Giuliani got less than 51 percent of the vote against the disaster merchant David Dinkins, his margin of victory delivered by white working-class voters in the outer boroughs. That cohort has mostly gone, replaced with immigrants and hipsters.

There is no push for law and order in New York. The next mayor of the city will likely be to de Blasios left, not his right. He or she will argue that New Yorks troubles are the fault of the plutocracy, the patriarchy, and white privilege, and whatever Upper West Siders remain behind will enthusiastically applaud. New Yorkers arent hypocrites; theyre masochists.

More from National Review
Kaushik Kumar really loves Japan and has wanted to live here long-term for a while now, even though he knew head always be atreated like a foreigner.a

aThe positives are: good infrastructure, good health care and the people are lovely,a says the 25-year-old from Bangalore, India, when asked why he chose Japan over other countries. aOverall, the quality of life here is better than in India.a

Kumar has been stranded in Bangalore since March, however, awaiting permission from Japanese authorities to return home to Tokyo. He says he now seems to understand what being atreated like a foreignera can really mean.

aI didnat even have health insurance in India,a he says via a WhatsApp call, adding that he has since had to buy insurance there. aMy entire life is in Japan and it is treating me and many like me, who pay taxes and social insurance, like average tourists. That is very depressing.a

Kumar is one of thousands of Indian residents of Japan who are still stuck in their homeland due to an entry ban on foreign arrivals, which was first introduced in April to protect the country from the COVID-19.

He had been living in Japan since last year but was visiting his family in March when India closed its own borders to try to shield itself from the coronavirus. Days before the country opened up again on June 1, Japan added India to its list of countries and regions affected by the entry ban.

Japan wasnat alone in closing its borders. Many nations took similar actions as the extremely contagious virus made its way around the world. However, unlike the other G7 nations, Japanas policy applied to permanent and long-term residents a though not Japanese nationals coming from those same areas, who were requested to self-quarantine for two weeks upon their return to Japan.

The government has said that some foreign nationals could re-enter the country on humanitarian grounds but it gave no clear definition of the criteria until June 12.

aI wasnat able to go back and wondered how many like me were stranded in India,a Kumar says. aI started looking for more information on the Indian community groups and thatas how I got connected to hundreds of others like me.a
Indigenous people around the world live in remote areas without adequate health facilities, clean water, sanitation.

The coronavirus pandemic poses grave health threat to the worlds Indigenous people, according to the United Nations.

The UN says the pandemic emphasises the importance of indigenous peoples being allowed to exercise their right to self-determination, for their particular needs to be recognised.

In Brazil, COVID-19 has killed hundreds of people in its vulnerable Indigenous communities, infecting tens of thousands in many communities already struggling against environmental damage and economic hardship.

Al Jazeeras Daniel Schweimler reports.
(Reuters) - After failing to reach a deal with the U.S. Congress for a fresh round of coronavirus pandemic relief, President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders aimed at pumping up Americas pandemic-hit economy.

The orders are likely to face some legal challenges.

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

Trumps order cuts enhanced federal unemployment benefits - a lifeline for the tens of millions of Americans thrown out of work during the pandemic - from $600 to $400 per week. Democrats had been lobbying to extend the original $600 a week enhanced benefits, which expired on July 31.

Trump proposes taking most of the money from the coffers of the Federal Emergency Management Agency - $44 billion, according to the order - with 25% of the money coming from states.

Its not clear how Trump will convince state governments, whose revenues have been hard hit by the crisis, to pony up their proposed share.

Trump called the reduced payments generous.

A PAYROLL TAX CUT

Trumps first order waives the payroll tax that funds Social Security in a bid to inject extra money directly into salaried employees pockets. Trump has been pushing the idea for a while but it has found little support in Congress from Democrats or his fellow Republicans.

The executive order says the cut comes into effect on Sept. 1, but Trump said it most likely would be retroactive to Aug. 1 and translate into bigger paychecks for working families.

EVICTIONS

Trumps order protecting homeowners and renters from evictions is unlikely to face a challenge from Democrats; indeed, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week encouraged the move. But it isnt clear how it will be executed.

The order directs authorities to provide temporary financial assistance to renters and homeowners struggling to meet their monthly rental or mortgage obligations.

Even Trump seemed a little hazy on the orders ultimate effects, saying we dont want people being evicted and the act that I am signing will solve that problem - largely, hopefully, completely.

STUDENT LOANS

Trump said that interest on student loan payments - frozen since March - would be suspended until the end of the year.
The COVID 19 disaster has certainly given a handy tool for critics of Trump to browbeat him. The question is whether President Obama could have handled the COVID 19 crisis in any way better than President Trump.

by N.S.Venkataraman





China is one country which is extremely interested in the outcome of the forthcoming Presidential election in the USA and must be hoping against hope that President Trump would be unseated.













Until the time that Trump assumed office as President of the USA, China had a nearly smooth run towards achieving its goal of becoming a global superpower.





Certainly, President Trump tried to apply a brake on Chinas unchallenged strategies to dominate the world and his work is still in progress. However, China has already felt the intensity of the war of attrition in the trade and other front launched by President Trump and would want President Trump to be defeated in the Presidential poll. This would be in Chinas interest. Chinese government, known for its unethical strategies, will go to any extent to influence the American voters against President Trump.





It is widely reported that some leading media houses in the USA have earned large revenue from China in various ways such as by way of advertisement, sponsored articles etc. It is becoming increasingly obvious that media has tend to become more business oriented than service oriented





In such circumstances, one cannot miss the fact that for the last four years, section of American media and think tanks have been critical about every pronouncement and policy decision of President Trump .





This approach of the section of the media is bound to make Chinese government happy and strengthen its hopes that Trump would be defeated in the Presidential poll.





If one would take an overall comparative view of President Trumps four year governance with the earlier eight year governance of President Obama, it would become clear that there is no reason to think that President Obamas administration was any way better than that of Trump ,based on a study of the scenario in a holistic manner.





The COVID 19 disaster has certainly given a handy tool for critics of Trump to browbeat him. The question is whether President Obama could have handled the COVID 19 crisis in any way better than President Trump. This is unlikely ,since the options before the US President and the US government in dealing with the crisis are very limited.





The ground reality is that when COVID 19 started in Wuhan in China and China did not forewarn the world about the severity of the virus and W H O either protected Chinas stand or was itself ignorant of the seriousness of matter, and when the virus spread across the world, the entire world was caught unaware.





Even today, there are differences of views amongst the scientists, medical researchers and doctors about the appropriate treatment for the virus ,with no proven drug or vaccine being available. Therefore, with no clue and facing a desperate situation , it was suggested that mask should be worn, hands should be cleaned frequently etc. Some scientists said that the virus would go away with the onset of the hot season but it did not happen that way. Some scientists have said that the virus is airborne and therefore, the social distancing will not help. Some even said that a mask is not the sure way to block the spread of virus.





Even as the research efforts to develop appropriate vaccine are underway in several countries , scientists started examining whether existing drugs could be used. This is how hydroxy chloroquine tablet was suggested by some scientists. When President Trump suggested hydroxy chloroquine drug , he was ridiculed by the media and the critics , even as some scientists supported the use of hydroxychloroquine drug. So many other existing drugs are now being tried. Meanwhile, traditional medicines are suggested by several sources. What President Trump can do under the circumstances?





It is said that President Trump did not take this crisis seriously at the early stage in the month of February,2020 . He said that the virus crisis would go away soon and America would remain protected, based on the observations of several sources. Trump thought that wearing a mask may not be necessary and some people in the USA and elsewhere were highly critical about the suggestion to wear a mask. There were even public demonstrations.





Even while sections of the media and critics use Americas COVID 19 crisis as a trump card to unseat President Trump, the thinking Americans should examine whether any other American President would have done better.





The central theme of Trumps campaign before the last election was America first. Obviously, this means that unchecked immigration to America has to be stopped and American investment going to China has to be curtailed. This also means that China is exploiting the American market by dumping goods and taking away American technologies to China by clever and , sometimes, by dubious strategies , have to be put to an end. This is what President Trump has been trying to do.





Obviously, China would think that President Trump getting one more term would halt Chinas march towards global super power status decisively.





Several pollsters in recent times have said that President Trump would lose the election and China must be extremely happy about such a forecast.





It remains to be seen whether American voters would please China by unseating President Trump.





Certainly, Trump has been the first President of the USA to attempt to stop Chinas greed for territorial expansion and economic domination of the world.





The American voters should not forget that President Obama did nothing to stop Chinas ambitious goal plans and even went out of the way to keep China in good humour. One glaring example is that President Obama received the Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama through the back door of the White House , so that China would not be displeased.




KITCHENER  Almost 100 people gathered Sunday at a Hugs Over Masks rally in Victoria Park.

Organizer Vlad Sobolev said he wants the Region of Waterloo to end the mandatory mask-wearing bylaw in indoor public spaces.

He questions the effectiveness of masks to help stop the spread of COVID-19, along with other safety measures.

However, the vast majority of medical authorities are in agreement that wearing even non-medical cloth masks does limit the spread of the disease.

The Hugs Over Masks group insists these measures are about controlling the public rather than providing safety, and that mask-wearing can cause physiological and psychological damage, especially to children.

The group says that masks impair social development in children, enable anonymous crime, reduce oxygen availability, and cause stress and anxiety among other issues.

Sobolev argues the government could have more effectively used its resources to protect the elderly and immunocompromised, rather than lock down the entire country.

Going forward, I would like all the measures to be completely abolished. If someone wants to feel safe and wear the mask themselves, thats their personal choice, he said at the rally.

At the same time I would love for our experts to talk about both sides of all the measures they are actually implementing, both the beneficial ones as well as the harmful effects. I think thats the least we can ask of our experts.

The group aims to open more chapters and host more events across Canada.

A small group of about 10 mask-wearing counterprotesters were also at the rally.

People came and went throughout the afternoon, but the crowd of nearly 100 people remained steady.

Sobolev, the groups founder, says the gathering was, an opportunity for like-minded people to come together, connect and build relationships in their local communities.

He said that he grew up in the former Soviet Union and feels there is a parallel between government control then and government attempts here to control behaviour during the pandemic.

Most health authorities agree the spread of the virus is slowed when the majority of a population wear face coverings in public indoor spaces.

Public Health Canada says, When worn properly, a person wearing a non-medical mask or face covering can reduce the spread of his or her own infectious respiratory droplets.

Health experts from the Region of Waterloo expressed disappointment that the rally was planned.

Waterloo Region's acting associate medical officer of health, Dr. Julie Emili, said everyone is entitled to an opinion, but we have to think about what is our collective responsibility to each other.
After repeatedly throwing a wrench into plans for the Republican National Convention this summer, President Trump on Monday tried to offer something tantalizing about the upcoming gathering, saying that his renomination speech would take place either at the White House or the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, Pa.

We will announce the decision soon! Mr. Trump teased in a Twitter post.

It was perhaps a predictable move by the first president to be credited as an executive producer of a network reality show while sitting in office.

But whether Mr. Trump will actually deliver a nationally televised address in Gettysburg  the site of the Civil Wars bloodiest battle, a place memorialized in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln as hallowed ground  remains an open question.

The battlefield, where Mr. Trump gave an indoor campaign speech in 2016, is federal property run by the National Park Service. This presents the same ethical conundrums his re-election team will face if the president delivers the speech from the South Lawn of the White House.
Coronavirus news in the DC, Virginia and Maryland area

FAQ: D.C. | Maryland | Virginia

What you need to know: Symptoms guide | Delta variant | Other variants | How mental disorders elevate covid risk | Booster shots in D.C., Maryland and Virginia

Mapping the spread: Known deaths and cases in the region | Nationwide cases

Vaccine: Breakdown | State tracker | Mapping the vaccination divide | D.C. employees required to get vaccine | Md., Va. state workers need to show proof of vaccination

Masks: Masks FAQ | Masks and vaccines in D.C. area schools | DC requires masks during high covid transmission | Prince Georges requires masks for children | Montgomery considering lifting mask mandate

Get the latest local news: Morning newsletter | Afternoon newsletter

Have a question about the delta variant? Ask The Posts science reporters.
IMANI Africa is calling for an audit into assets procured by the Electoral Commission (EC) that were declared as obsolete to pave way for the procurement of new ones.

According to IMANI Africa, the procurement done between 2016 and 2019 for the equipment currently abandoned amounts to some $60 million.

According to the think tank, it is surprised that the equipment procured within a short period had been abandoned.

In a four-point recommendation following the completion of the ECs voter registration exercise, IMANI Africa posited that the registration exercise was a waste of resources on a non-existent problem.

It said until such an asset audit is done and the efforts made to stop unjustified procurements by the EC, Ghanaians must not feel secure about the current electoral process.

IMANI Africa in a statement said Ghanaians should not be happy with the EC until the following is done:

A detailed independent asset audit of the Electoral Commission to account for the 60 million dollars of equipment procured between 2016 and 2019 that it claims have suddenly gone obsolete, deep and complete reconciliation with the Opposition Parties and CSOs whose calls for accountability it has shunned so far. Failure to patch up and open up to scrutiny by all stakeholders will only deepen the rancour, including the ethnocentric tensions, that marred the integrity of the electoral process in many places.

A serious national dialogue about strategies to fix the identification and register cleaning issues that remain wholly unresolved due to continued neglect despite the expenditure of tens of millions of dollars of this country's hard-earned resources over the last decade on the electoral system. Tackle the Procurement Raj that has taken hold of the EC and is hell-bent on milking the country at all cost through scheme after scheme, IMANI indicated.

The policy think tank has already registered its opposition to the decision of the EC to compile a new voters register only a few months before the December 2020 polls.

The Executive Director for IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, over the weekend on The Big Issue said the numbers recorded during the mass voter registration exercise would not have been so different if the old register was used.

This attempt to justify almost 150 million dollars on a totally needless exercise is quite worrying. If you study the trend carefully, the numbers we have seen so far is not necessarily different from what would have been exacted anyway, he indicated.

---citinewsroom
The Republican General Assembly candidates and incumbents from Greenwich all publicly oppose the Police Accountability Act, the most important civil rights legislation to be considered in Connecticut in decades. Their reasons for opposing it simply dont hold water. Indeed, its unclear any of them even read the bill, as all five referenced the bills 41 sections; it contains 46 sections.

Outgoing Republican state representative Livvy Floren (149th district  backcountry Greenwich, western and northern Stamford), asserts, We have in place a Police Accountability Task Force which is charged with substantive work and duties. Lets allow the subject-matter experts the opportunity to recommend future policy changes. In fact, Section 42, which her Republican colleagues proposed dropping from the bill, requires the police accountability task force to make recommendations to the General Assembly related to limited immunity changes, anticipated impact of that implementation, and details regarding liability insurance.

Kimberly Fiorello, the Republican candidate running to succeed Floren, claims eliminating qualified immunity would subject police officers and municipalities to lawsuits, even when they performed their duties pursuant to policies and procedures. Not true. Section 41 requires municipalities to indemnify serving police officers, including an officer who had an objectively good faith belief that his conduct did not violate the law. Only if a court determines an officer deprived a person of his constitutional rights by committing a malicious, wanton or willful act, is limited immunity withdrawn.

Ms. Fiorello claims a police officer may be decertified as an officer if his/ her actions taken while off duty, is found to undermine public confidence in police work, and questions who decides how to define undermine public confidence and could this be too vague a standard by which to measure our police? Who decides is specified in Section 1 (a): the Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) Council. Though Section 1(g) tasks COST Council with developing additional standards for decertification, including acts that undermine public confidence, Section 1(c) lays out in great detail the circumstances under which an officer may be decertified.

Objecting to the ban on military equipment to local police departments, Ms. Fiorello claims our police should be able to use certain gear that improves their effectiveness and safety. For example, night vision goggles leased from the U.S. Department of Defense are a big help when trying to find lost Alzheimer sufferers ... in the dark. Section 40 bans the acquisition of a controlled firearm, ammunition, bayonet, grenade launcher, grenade, including stun and flash-bang, or an explosive, Night vision goggles are not banned.

Ms. Fiorello claims that, Missing from among the 41 sections of this bill is any mention of police department accreditation ... Municipalities deciding to pursue state- or private-accreditation programs for their police departments is one idea for an intense, focused, professional, community-based way to address many of the issues in the proposed bill... In fact, Section 44 (c) clearly states: On and after January 1, 2025, each law enforcement unit shall obtain and maintain accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. If a law enforcement unit fails to obtain or maintain such accreditation, the council shall work with the law enforcement unit to obtain and maintain such accreditation.

Republican state rep candidate Joe Kelly (150th district), claims that with qualified immunity removed, any citizen who feels their rights have been abridged  regardless of the merit of their claim  can force an officer to come to court instead of allowing them to serve the community and do their jobs. Now, as before, residents have the right to bring suit for violation of their constitutional rights. Connecticut courts determine whether charges are frivolous or meritorious.

Calling it a radical bill, Republican state senator candidate Ryan Fazio (36th district  Greenwich, northern Stamford, New Canaan) claims it excessively ties the hands of police doing their job ... the bill changes the standard for use of lethal force from threat of serious physical injury to a several-factor test that seems to include hindsight. Mr. Fazio doesnt understand that the Police Accountability Act was created because police murdered George Floyd in broad daylight on a Minneapolis street corner. Because the American people now understand that Black people are afflicted by an epidemic of police violence. Because American police kill more than a thousand people every year, more than three times as many relative to population as do Canadian police; four times as many as Australia; nearly 70 times as many as Britain. Because Black men are 2 1/2 times more likely to be killed by police than whites. Because the people of Connecticut demand that police officers think carefully before killing another George Floyd, another Breonna Taylor, another Mubarak Soulemane in New Haven, another Jayson Negron in Bridgeport.

State Rep. Anthony Nolan, an African-American police officer from New London who supported the bill, stated, We are in the midst of an uprising from our communities. Police need to be held accountable. Through their votes for the Police Accountability Act, Democrats passed the test of history. These Republicans failed.

Sean B. Goldrick served four years as a Democratic member of the Greenwich Board of Estimate and Taxation. He lives in Riverside.
The evolution of colorful feathers shines light on the missing link in evolution by natural selection, according to new University of Arizona research

There's a paradox within the theory of evolution: The life forms that exist today are here because they were able to change when past environments disappeared. Yet, organisms evolve to fit into specific environmental niches.

"Ever-increasing specialization and precision should be an evolutionary dead end, but that is not the case. How the ability to fit precisely into a current setting is reconciled with the ability to change is the most fundamental question in evolutionary biology," says Alex Badyaev, a University of Arizona professor of ecology and evolutionary biology .

Badyaev is co-author of a paper published in Nature Communications that suggests an explanation based on the evolution of colorful pigments in bird feathers throughout North America. He wrote the paper with two former graduate students - lead author Ahva Potticary, now a UArizona lecturer, and Erin Morrison, now an assistant professor at New York University.

There are two general possible solutions, according to Badyaev. First, the mechanisms that enable organisms to fit well into their current environment and the mechanisms that enable change in adaptations are distinct - the latter are suppressed as organisms fit better and better into their current setting and activated only when the environment changes. The second is that the mechanisms that make organisms fit into current environments are themselves modified during evolution.

"Distinguishing between these possibilities is challenging because in evolutionary biology we necessarily study processes that occurred in the past, the events that we missed," he said. "So, instead, we infer what we missed from comparisons of species that exist today. Although this approach can tell us how well the current organisms fit into their current environment, it cannot tell us how they got here."

Ultimately, the first scenario was supported by the researchers' work. The mechanisms that make organisms locally fit and those responsible for change are distinct and occur sequentially in evolution.

Carotenoid Clues

Badyaev and his team aimed to directly observe adaptation to new environments in action while specifically paying attention to the mechanisms involved. The opportunity was provided by the house finch, a ubiquitous Sonoran Desert bird that over the last century has spread throughout most of North America and now occupies the largest ecological ranges of any living bird species.

Birds color themselves by eating and integrating pigmented molecules called carotenoids into their feathers.

"Carotenoids are large molecules, and stuffing them into growing feather is a messy process, resulting in all kinds of structural modifications and aberrations to feathers," Badyaev said. "This presents a unique opportunity to study how well-characterized developmental mechanisms that produce an intricate feather co-evolve with unpredictable external inputs needed to color them."

In feathers where structural integrity is essential, such as in temperature-regulating down or flight feathers, mechanisms evolve that buffer feather growth from incorporating carotenoids. For this reason, flight feathers or down feathers are almost never colorful in any bird species. On the opposite end of spectrum, ornamental feathers benefit from being colorful and evolve mechanisms that modify their structure to enable greater incorporation of carotenoids and to enhance their presentation.

The authors took advantage of this diversity and studied how this array of mechanisms - from complete buffering of carotenoids to fully embracing them - actually evolves.

The sources of carotenoid pigments differ across the house finch's huge range. In native desert populations, finches obtain their pigments from cactus pollen and fruits, while in urban populations they get them from newly introduced plant species and bird feeders. In northern populations, they incorporate the pigments from grass seeds, buds and berries.

"As expected, within each of these locations finches have evolved precise adaptations to incorporate diverse local carotenoids into their feathers," Badyaev said. But the unique aspect of this study is that "we knew the colonization routes of these birds, which enabled us to observe how they modify these adaptations as they move from one location to the next over the last century."

This approach not only allowed the team to directly study the process of evolution but also enabled them to study repeated evolution in the wild, because birds evolved distinct local adaptations in parallel from known starting points as they spread through the continent.

"We got to replay the tape of evolution of this adaptation, instead of deducing the process from the outcome," Badyaev said.

The team established 45 study populations along colonization routes that the species took from its native southern Arizona to the northwestern United States. They also explored how species changed within regions, such as between Arizona desert populations and urban populations on the University of Arizona campus and in Tucson. In all of these populations they examined microscopic structure and complete carotenoid composition in thousands upon thousands of feather samples. The unprecedented scale and depth of the study - believed to be the largest of its kind in a wild bird species - led to two discoveries.

First, evolution proceeded by remarkably similar sequences from widely diverse starting points. Unfamiliar local carotenoids exerted major modifications in developing feathers at first, but the longer birds persisted in a region and the more familiar they became with local carotenoids, the better there were able to incorporate them into their feathers, eventually evolving precise local adaptations.

Second, and most importantly, although carotenoids and their mixtures differed strongly between locations as distinct as deserts and northern evergreen forests, the mechanisms behind their incorporation into growing feathers were remarkably uniform and not specific to biochemical properties of individual carotenoid compounds. Instead, in all populations, evolution resulted from changes in mechanisms that buffered previous local adaptation from external stressors. These general stress-buffering mechanisms - what Badyaev called "the guardians of local adaptations" - had to be recruited to allow evolution of new adaptations.

In other words, "the boundaries of current adaptations become bridges between successive adaptions in evolution," Badyaev said.

The next step for the authors is to study the origin of molecular and developmental mechanisms they implicated in stress-buffering processes in evolution.

###
TORONTO, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- African Gold Group, Inc. (TSX-V: AGG) (AGG or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has closed, on an oversubscribed basis, the second and final tranche of its previously announced C$10,000,000 non-brokered private placement financing of common shares (the Offering) for gross proceeds of C$5,474,000 (the Final Tranche). Together with the closing of the first tranche of the Offering, the Company raised gross proceeds of $11,084,000.

I am very pleased to report the over-subscribed closing of the second and final tranche of the $10 million private placement with significant support from existing and new institutional investors, says Danny Callow, Chief Executive Officer of AGG. We will use these funds to focus on our Phase 3 exploration drilling programme, which we plan to start in early September. We have only drilled 4km of more than 30km of shear zones on our concessions, and we will be targeting rapidly increasing our resources and reserves with this programme. This additional drilling will complement the robust Definitive Feasibility Study published in July.

Pursuant to the Final Tranche, the Company issued 21,976,000 units of the Company (each a Unit and collectively, the Units) at a price of C$0.25 per Unit for gross proceeds of C$5,494,000. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company and one half of a common share purchase warrant (each whole common share purchase warrant, a Warrant). Each Warrant will entitle the holder to acquire one additional Common Share of the Company at an exercise price of C$0.40 until August 10, 2022.

In connection with the closing of the Final Tranche, the Company has paid aggregate finders fees of $231,587.50 in cash and 926,350 finders warrants (Finders Warrants) to certain finders. All securities issued under the Final Tranche are subject to a statutory hold period ending on December 11, 2020.

Certain directors and officers of the Company purchased or acquired direction and control over a total of 2,410,000 Units under the Final Tranche. The placement to those persons constitutes a related party transaction within the meaning of TSX Venture Exchange Policy 5.9 and Multilateral Instrument 61-101 -Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101) adopted in the Policy. The Company has relied on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 in respect of related party participation in the placement as neither the fair market value (as determined under MI 61-101) of the subject matter of, nor the fair market value of the consideration for, the transaction, insofar as it involved the related parties, exceeded 25% of the Companys market capitalization (as determined under MI 61-101). Further details will be included in a material change report to be filed by the Company.

The securities offered under the Offering have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any State in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

AGM Results

The Company is pleased to announce that its 2020 annual and general special meeting of shareholders was held on August 6, 2020 (the Meeting). A total of 15,842,788 common shares, representing 15.14% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company, were represented at the Meeting. The following resolutions were approved at the Meeting:

Danny Callow, Scott Eldridge, Jan-Erik Back, Pierre Pettigrew and John Begeman were elected directors of the Company for the ensuing year.

McGovern Hurley LLP, Chartered Accountants, were appointed as auditors of the Corporation for the ensuing year and the directors were authorized to fix the auditors remuneration.

The Companys existing stock option plan for the ensuing year, reserving for grant options to acquire up to a maximum of 10% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Corporation calculated at the time of each stock option grant, was approved.

The special resolution to change the name of the Company from African Gold Group, Inc. to Avion2 Gold Inc., subject to regulatory approval and TSX Venture Exchange approval, was approved.

The Company would like to thank all of its shareholders for their continued support, stated Mr. Callow. In particular, as Mr. Bharti did not stand for re-election at the Meeting, I would like to thank Mr. Stan Bharti for his tireless efforts and guidance in setting the Company on the path to success.

Option Grant

The Company has granted a total of 6,375,000 stock options to certain directors, officers and consultants of the Company pursuant to the Companys stock option plan. All options vest immediately, and each stock option may be exercised at a price of $0.28 per option for a period of five years from the date of grant. This grant of options is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Webinar

African Gold Group is hosting an investor webinar to discuss upcoming Phase 3 drilling program at our flagship Kobada Gold Project, located in Southern Mali. The investor webinar will take place on Tuesday, August 18th, 2020 at 10:00 am (EDT). Management will be available to answer questions following the presentation. Online registration and participation details may be found at the following link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7Rh89Xp1TbGm64XTRZ5AAw

About African Gold Group

African Gold Group is a Canadian listed exploration and development company on the TSXV (TSX V: AGG) with its focus on developing a gold platform in West Africa. Its principal asset is the Kobada Project in southern Mali. For more information regarding African Gold Group visit our website at www.africangoldgroup.com .

For more information:

Danny Callow

President and Chief Executive Officer

+(27) 76 411 3803

Danny.Callow@africangoldgroup.com

Scott Eldridge

Non-Executive Chairman of the Board

(604) 722-5381

Scott.Eldridge@africangoldgroup.com

Daniyal Baizak

VP Corporate Development

(416) 861-2267

Daniyal.Baizak@africangoldgroup.com

Cautionary statements

This press release contains forwardlooking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forwardlooking information includes, but is not limited to, statements regarding, the intended use of proceeds of the Offering, other matters relating to the Offering and the grant of stock options of the Company. Generally, forwardlooking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forwardlooking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of AGG to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forwardlooking information, including but not limited to: receipt of necessary approvals; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; future prices of mineral prices; accidents, labour disputes and shortages and other risks of the mining industry. Although AGG has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forwardlooking information. AGG does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act) or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

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.
A secretly filmed documentary aired on Joy News showing how cocoa farmers have been cheated for a long time has provoked an uproar in Kuapa Kokoo with some farmers of the cooperative union demanding an end to corrupt practices in the organization.



The documentary which was aired on August 3 and 4, 2020, showed how some licensed cocoa buyers have been illegally adjusting their weighing scales to steal 5 to 11 kilos of cocoa on each bag of cocoa weighed.



The standard weigh of cocoa per bag is 64 kilos. However, some licensed cocoa buyers through their own doings, have illegally adjusted their weighing scales for each bag of cocoa to now weigh 69 to 75 kilos.



The difference, according to the Chairman of the Jomoro Cocoa Farmers Association, represent 30% loss of profit per each bag of cocoa weighed.



We are working for no profit. All our profits go away. We are discouraged because we dont even know who to talk to. COCOBOD too is not helping us, he noted.



Mr. Stephen Nyarko, a cocoa farmer commenting on the issue said the adjustment of the weighing scale is worrying and therefore wants the Ghana Standards Authority to move in and check all the weighing scales the licensed cocoa buyers are using.



We want accurate and standard scales, he stressed.



Some cocoa farmers who are members of the Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Cooperative Union (KKFU) say it was about time their leaders work to nib the rot in the industry in the bud.



They pleaded that their real names are withheld for fear of intimidation and possible suspension by the President as such has allegedly been her character for the almost 12 years she has been in power.



Madam Akua Nyarko (Not her real name), a cocoa farmer in Atwereboana in the Western Region, told this reporter in an interview that farmers are not only being cheated through the weighing scale by some licensed cocoa buyers, but also through mismanagement and blatant stealing of their resources.



She recounts how some alleged corrupt persons have found their way in leadership positions of KKFU and condoned and connived with some others to steal from the farmers.



This, she noted, does not surprise her since in 2018, the husband of the President of KKFU who was a depot manager in Sefwi Akontombra, allegedly stole GH5,000,000 from the coffers of the Union but has till date not been brought to book. He is walking a free man while we continue to suffer. I know one day God will speak, she said with her head and hands up and looking into the skies.



Another farmer, Kofi Nyamekye (not his real name) in the Twifo Nyinase Society in the Central Region also an interview said rot in KKFU is becoming so horrendous, stressing that they farmers can no longer sit down and watch how their monies are being channeled into individuals pockets.



He said since the arrest of Madam Fatima Alis husband in 2018 over the alleged GH5,000,000 theft case, there has not been any serious action by the executives of KKFU to retrieve the money.



She also suspects the President to have abetted the crime committed by her husband.



Kwasi Ntow (not his real name), another farmer in Ankasa in the Western Region said it is time farmers come together to flush out all those cheating them in KKFU.



He contends that Madam Fatima Ali will not be forgiven if she fails to retrieve their monies. Madam Fatima Alis tenure as President of KKFU expires in 2021.



In July 2018, the 38 year-old Union President was fingered by some aggrieved farmers for masterminding the disqualification and suspension of any credible person who wanted to contest the Unions presidential election in August that same year, leading to her going unopposed.



The disqualified Union members tried as much as possible to fight back but their efforts were allegedly stalled by the Managing Director of Kuapa Kokoo Limited, Samuel Adimado.



Addressing a press conference in Kumasi, the spokesperson for the aggrieved farmers, Samuel Antwi, alleged that the reason why Madam Fatima Ali, together with the MD of Kuapa Kokoo Limited and one Mr. Osei Nsiah, a staff of the Electoral Commission who was appointed chairman of the electoral committee of KKFUs elections, ensured their disqualification was to allegedly cover up misappropriation and embezzlement of funds.



The aggrieved farmers say they will soon hold a press conference to expose the Presidents alleged shoddy deals and dictatorship that has even seen her masterminding the suspension of some NEC Members who rose up against her.

Source: New Crusading Guide









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Sharon Stone has a stacked resume with acting credits that include Action Jackson, Casino, Mosaic, and of course, her scene-stealing turn in Basic Instinct.

With a career that spans 40 years, shes had her share of professional highs and lows but still remains a household name. Underneath the Hollywood fame, awards, and glam lies someone whos had more than one brush with death.

Stones upcoming memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice, will detail some of her experiences but she recently shared a few survival stories.

Sharon Stone | Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb

Sharon Stone almost died as a teenager

Stone grew up in a rural Pennsylvania town with her parents and three siblings. As a child, she was used to doing chores around their large farmhouse and spent much of her time outdoors. When she was 14, she had a horseback riding accident that left her with a neck scar. While riding, she struck a clothesline and it slashed her neck.

Stone appeared on the podcast Films to Be Buried With and told host Brett Goldstein, I had my neck cut to like a 16th of an inch from my jugular vein when I was 14. She still has the scar started a modeling career several years later but remain self-conscious about the scar for a while.

RELATED: Why Was Sharon Stone Blocked From Bumble?

Stone was also struck by lightning

Stone also told a story about another time when she was home with her mother. She said their family home used well water and when she turned on the faucet to fill the iron, she was zapped by lightning. She explained the lightning hit the well and the charge came up through the water.

And I got picked up and thrown across the kitchen, and I hit the refrigerator, Stone said. And my mother was there and she belted me across the face and brought me to. She said her mother took her to the hospital and her EKG readings were so off the charts that she needed to repeat them daily for 10 days.

Stone recovered from a 2001 stroke

Nearly 20 years ago, Stone had a debilitating stroke and it changed the course of her life. She had a brain hemorrhage that lasted nine days and required nearly two dozen coils to treat the brain damage. Stone told The Hollywood Reporter the stroke was sudden.

Its a little bit like I felt like I was hit by that lightning bolt. I dont know how long I was on the floor. It was three days before somebody took me to the hospital, she said. She added that it took her years to physically recover and she still has to take medication for an ongoing seizure condition.

The mom of three temporarily lost custody of her oldest child during that period and had to put acting on the back burner. Stone had to rebuild her career and personal life.

These days, fans can watch her in Netflixs Ratched when its released in September. Stone plays Lenore Osgood in the prequel for One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Stones book is due to be released in January 2021.
Only 200 people have come into the Irish healthcare system through the On Call for Ireland initiative of former Health Minister Simon Harris, even though 3,200 have bolstered the front line.

And about 600 of those approved for induction have since notified the HSE that they are no longer available, it was revealed yesterday.

Sinn Fein now wants a jobs guarantee for 2,500 doctors, nurses, social care workers and support staff, including those cleared through On Call for Ireland, as part of a proposed 1.9 billion additional investment in health for the remainder of this year.

Read More

The party warns that a tsunami of would-be admissions is coming this winter through Covid-19, seasonal 'flu, deferred treatments and screenings  whereas capacity will be reduced by up to 40 per cent because of the need for distancing and infection control.

The Government is preparing a further 2 billion spend in health for the remainder of the year, but Sinn Feins proposal would double this amount  with more staff, more supports, more buildings, ending the two-tier consultant pay issue and a special concentration on a greatly extended 'flu vaccine drive.

Some 3,200 staff have come into the system though a variety of different ways, said party spokesman on Health, David Cullinane. But only a handful have come from On Call for Ireland.

The rest were either directly recruited or returned home from abroad. It is very frustrating to see a pool of 1,600 who are supposedly on call, but have not been called.

They are in a pool; they have gone through all the clearances, they are available to be placed in work, and yet they are not in work. About 600 of those identified as suitable have since notified the HSE that they are no longer available, he said.

We dont want to lose any more. In fact we need to go and attract those 600 back again, if we can. Were saying that every single opportunity must be taken to get more staff  as does every opportunity to get more facilities, beds and physical infrastructure.

He added: We have a plan for reopening the economy, we have a plan for reopening schools. Now we need a realistic plan to protect Irelands health. The Minister says it is coming, but we need to see it.

Sinn Fein has proposed a 1.9 billion plan that the party says will protect capacity in the health service, saying Covid-19 has exposed a decades-long failure to build a public health system that has enough doctors, nurses and beds..

Every option has to be on the table, and workers need to be guaranteed certainty in their employment, Mr Cullinane said.

A policy document calls for expanded physical infrastructure through space in the community, repurposing space in acute hospitals, the building of modular units, and leveraging at-cost capacity in the private sector.

The health system is under pressure on several fronts, the party argues, through overworked staff, Covid care, non-Covid needs, catching up on delayed cases, a vast reduction in capacity, and the looming winter 'flu.

There are now more than 700,000 people on waiting lists, and this will continue to grow. We could lose from 20 to 40pc bed capacity, Mr Cullinane said. We frankly need a response like weve never seen before.

Frontline staff are at burnout and cannot continue to work overtime in understaffed conditions, hence the need to recruit all persons willing and able, he said. The full year cost of an additional 2,500 staff would be 125 million, he said.

Sinn Fein also wants to provide free access to the winter 'flu vaccine to all children up to the age of 12, all over-65s, and all healthcare workers and vulnerable groups. This would cost 42 million, the same cost as ending the two-tier consultant disparity between private and public.

To the suggest that his partys attitude to every problem is to promise money, Mr Cullinane said: This is an emergency - it needs emergency response.

Dr Donal OHanlon, President of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said: We commend this plan. It contains measures which are critical if we are to be ready for what the HSE has predicted will be a winter like no other.

The specific commitment to resolve the two-tier consultant pay issue in order to retain and attract consultants has never been more timely. One in five permanent consultant posts are unfilled in our public hospitals.

The HSE itself has confirmed Ireland has the lowest number of consultants in a range of specialties. Before the pandemic hit, over 800,000 people were waiting to see a consultant or receive treatment. What was bad is now worse.
The hardest thing is just knowing that somebody has to be there for these kids, said Colas, who is in the middle of a divorce. You have to either find some sort of day care service or hire somebody and if youre working its impossible to do your job and keep your job or have your career and make sure these kids are getting the attention that they need.

Colas decided to hire a college student to facilitate the virtual learning of her kids, Quinn, 12, Keegan, 10, and Colin, 9, and a few other students in a learning pod in Colas basement.

Honestly, I cant afford it, but I have to figure out a way to do it, Colas said. And bearing the burden with other parents is making it more doable.

John and Katie Smith, who live in Davidson, have two daughters in Iredell-Statesville Schools, one of the few remaining local school districts to offer in-person classes.Their eldest daughter Angela, an incoming freshman at South Iredell High School, was not given the option of returning to class and will attend school virtually. But, Alex, a rising seventh-grader at the Brawley School, an IB World School, is slated to attend two days a week in person. And that has led to some questions about the risk of bringing COVID-19 home, Katie Smith said.
The popularity of Tiger King has thrust the 1997 disappearance of star Carole Baskins husband, Jack Don Lewis, back into the spotlight, and now his family is offering a $100,000 reward for information in the case.

We really need someone to come forward in the case with information, family spokesman Jack Smith said during a Monday news conference in Tampa, Fla., per NBC affiliate WFLA. And theres a lot of people out there that have information but theyre scared to come forward. Theres people with animals  exotic animals  that are scared if they come forward, theyre gonna lose their animals somehow.

Lewis, who married Baskin in 1991, was last seen leaving his Tampa home on Aug. 18, 1997. In the Netflix docuseries, Baskins nemesis Joe Exotic (real name: Joe Maldonado-Passage) accuses her of being the person behind it. Exotics theory is that she then fed Lewis to tigers at her animal sanctuary, Big Cat Rescue.

Carole Baskin has denied playing a role in Don Lewis's disappearance. (Photo: Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection)

Baskin has refuted accusations that she had anything to do with Lewiss disappearance. Shortly after the release of Tiger King, she wrote in a lengthy blog post that Lewis had shown signs of mental deterioration in the years before he disappeared. He was declared dead in 2002, and Baskin remarried two years later.

I never threatened him and I certainly had nothing to do with his disappearance, Baskin wrote. When he disappeared, I did everything I could to assist the police. I encouraged them to check out the rumors from Costa Rica, and separately I hired a private investigator.

She dismissed the latest development as a publicity stunt in a statement to WFLA. She accused Smith of hoping to bolster his YouTube views. However, Baskin said she hoped that, all of the attention from Tiger King and the aftermath will reslt in us finding Don.

Just after the release of the show, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister asked for new leads in the 23-year-old case. Then, in June, he said he believed Lewiss will was 100 percent a forgery.

Story continues

Three of Lewiss daughters appeared at the news conference to ask for help ending the mystery.

We all know by now that he was not a perfect man, youngest daughter Gale Rathbone said. But do only the perfect among us deserve justice? Were asking that anyone with vital information please come forward so that progress can be made on his case.

The family put up four billboards in the area that read, Who Murdered Don Lewis? in the days leading up to the formal announcement.

Four of these new billboards offering a $100,000 reward from the family of Don Lewis are displayed around #Tampa ahead of a press conference Monday. This one is located down the road from the entrance to the Big Cat Rescue. https://t.co/sPk3IxirSp #TigerKing @WFLA pic.twitter.com/W8YrO7WlVv  Justin Schecker (@WFLAJustin) August 8, 2020

They also introduced a lawyer, John M. Phillips, they said is willing to help anyone who comes forward in the case for free.

Phillips is already representing the Lewis family in a related lawsuit he said. Theyre suing Baskin, Tiger King subject Kenny Farr and a woman listed as a witness on Lewiss will, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Instead of money, the family is seeking equity, which Phillips described as any information related to the case that could be used in future lawsuits.

Generally you announce a $150 million lawsuit and how were going to get justice, Phillips said. And we are going to do all of that, in time. But our office wants to invite reason, to invite civil conversation where it can be had.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
The General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu says President Akufo-Addo will not do anything to endanger the peace of the country ahead of the December General Elections.

He thus urged Ghanaians to ignore the contrary claims by the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress party, John Dramani Mahama.

The NDCs flagbearer for the 2020 presidential polls said the Akufo-Addo government has put Ghana on a slippery slope of chaos.

Mr. Mahama in an interview with Woezor TV, on August 9, 2020, said some of the comments by leading members of the Akufo-Addo government and the deployment of the military to some border communities smack of deliberate attempts to divide the country.

The way things are going, we see vigilantes, thugs and intimation and harassment, we are on a slippery slope towards chaos and we need to arrest thatWe will bring things to normal.

Never before have I witnessed a situation where we have become so disunitedIn all governments I have seen, every leadership makes an effort to bring us together. Unfortunately, I see signs of cracks in the unity and oneness of our nation and it looks like this current administration is deliberately fueling that. Utterances of some of the leading members of the ruling party have been most unfortunate, John Mahama remarked.

John Boadu rejects claims

But addressing a press conference organised by the NPP today, Monday, August 10, 2020, John Boadu said: Akufo-Addo has been instrumental in maintaining peace and tranquillity in this country including Dabgon since he came into office. He will be the last to want to disturb the peace the country is enjoying. We must therefore completely and totally reject Mahamas hate for votes campaign and look for the real facts.

The fact tells us that at the end of the mass registration exercise, the Volta Region was among the highest performing regions and there is also no evidence that there was an eligible registrant in the Volta Region who has been denied the opportunity to register. Let us not allow John Mahama to fool us with his hate for the vote.

He further added that Mahamas allegations cannot be supported by the facts on the ground.

John Mahamas allegations that the more soldiers were deployed to the Volta Region to ostensibly intimidate Voltarians cannot be supported by facts. The facts are that the military was deployed months ago to patrol our borders for a variety of security-related reasons, including prevention of terrorism and enforcement of COVID-19 preventive protocols.

---citinewsroom
Annup Soniis First Project Was Sea Hawks

When asked as to how did he bag the show, Annup said, "After passing out from National School of Drama, I did a couple of things here and there in Delhi. My first project was a very good project called Sea Hawks, which came in between 1997-1998. It was helmed by brilliant writer and director Anubhav Sinha. It was produced by UTV."

How Annup Bagged Sea Hawks?

He revealed that during those times, Anubhav Sinha had shifted with his wife near to his place as his house was getting renovated. The actor further said, "One of my seniors at National School of Drama told Anubhav that I wanted to meet him. Then he called me and his wife Ratnaa Sinha took my audition in the UTV office. She gave me a few lines and asked me to speak them. I had a small audition."

Later, he did an audition with change in his look. Anubhav and Ratnaa said Anup was very good and next day they tried a few moustaches on him. After that was done, they started shooting.

His First Scenes Were With Niki & Madhavan

The actor further revealed that his first scenes were with Niki Aneja and Madhavan which kind of went off well. He added that those days there was no pressure and had ample time as they used to shoot one episode a week.

Anubhav Loved His Character ACP Kumar

Annup added, "I remember Anubhav used to write very nice dialogues for me and everybody was like "Annup gets great dialogues". My character's name was ACP Kumar. Anubhav said, "I am in love with this character". I think that was lucky for me because if the writer/director is in love with a particular character that's like an extra benefit you get. And then Madhavan and I became very good friends. I think then it was easy. Niki was also very good. We all became great friends eventually."
Defence ministry to ban import of 101 items in indigenisation push

The Ministry of Defence on Sunday announced a list of over 100 items imports of which would be banned beyond a prescribed period of time,. defence minister Rajnath Singh said, even as he asserted that this step would move India and its defence sector closer to becoming self-reliant.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the Nation on 12 May 2020 had given a clarion call for a self-reliant India based on the five pillars, ie, Economy, Infrastructure, System, Demography & Demand, and announced a special economic package for self-reliant India named Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Taking cue from that evocation, the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) under the ministry of defence (MoD) has prepared a list of 101 items on which there would be an embargo on imports beyond the prescribed time. The DMA has indicated the timeline for ending the imports of such items.

A defence ministry release said this is a big step towards self-reliance in defence and that it offers a great opportunity to the Indian defence industry to manufacture the items in the negative list by using their own design and development capabilities or adopting the technologies designed and developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to meet the requirements of the armed forces.

The list has been prepared by MoD after several rounds of consultations with all stakeholders, including the Army, Air Force, Navy, DRDO, Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and private industry to assess current and future capabilities of the Indian industry for manufacturing various ammunition / weapons / platforms / equipment within India.

Already, the three Services have contracted almost 260 items under the schemes of such items at an approximate cost of Rs3.5 lakh crore between April 2015 and August 2020. With the latest embargo on import of 101 items, it is estimated that contracts worth almost Rs4 lakh crore will be placed on domestic industry within the next five to seven years.

Of these, the Army and the Air Force are expected to acquire items worth almost Rs1,30,000 crore each over the next five to seven years while the Navy is expected to contract for items worth almost Rs1,40,000 crore over the same period.

The list of 101 embargoed items comprises some high technology weapon systems like artillery guns, assault rifles, corvettes, sonar systems, transport aircrafts, light combat helicopters (LCHs), radars and many other items needed for the defence services. The list also includes, wheeled armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) with indicative import embargo date of December 2021, of which the Army is expected to contract almost 200 at an approximate cost of over Rs5,000 crore.

Similarly, the Navy is likely to place orders for submarines with indicative import embargo date of December 2021, of which it expects to contract about six at an approximate cost of almost Rs42,000 crore.

For the Air Force, it is decided to enlist the light combat aircraft LCA MK1A with an indicative embargo date of December 2020. Of these, 123 are anticipated at an approximate cost of over Rs85,000 crore.

The embargo on imports is planned to be progressively implemented between 2020 and 2024. The aim is to appraise the Indian defence industry about the anticipated requirements of the armed forces so that they are better prepared to realise the goal of indigenisation. The MoD has adopted many progressive measures to encourage and facilitate Ease of Doing Business for defence production entities. However, the defence ministry said all necessary steps would be taken to ensure that timelines for production of equipment as per the Negative Import List are met, which will include a co-ordinated mechanism for hand holding of the industry by the defence services.

The MA will over the years identify more such equipment for import embargo in consultation with all stakeholders.

Due note of this will also be made in the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) to ensure that no item in the negative list is processed for import in the future.

In another relevant step, the MoD has bifurcated the capital procurement budget for 2020-21 between domestic and foreign capital procurement routes. A separate budget head has been created with an outlay of nearly Rs52,000 crore for domestic capital procurement in the current financial year.

The list of defence weapons/platforms placed under import embargo with effect from December 2020 include:

120mm Fin Stabilised Armour Piercing Discarding Sabot (FSAPDS) Mark II Ammunition; 7.62x51 Sniper Rifle; Tracked Self Propelled (SP) Gun- (155mm x 52 Cal); Towed Artillery Gun - 155mm x 52 Cal; Short Range Surface to Air Missiles - Land variant; Shipborne Cruise Missiles; Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) (Pinaka Variant); Simulators Presenting Smart Ranges And Multi-Function Targets; Battalion Support Weapons Simulators; Container-based Simulators for Live Fire Training; Tailor-made Simulators for Counter Insurgency (CI)/Counter Terrorism (CT) based Training; Force-on-force Live Tactical Simulators / Infantry Weapon; Tank Simulators (driving, as well as, crew gunnery); 155mm/39 Cal Ultra-Light Howitzer; Successor of Flycatcher & Upgraded Super Fledermaus (USFM) / Air Defence Fire Control Radar (ADFCR); Component Level Repair Facility for Tank T-90; Shipborne Close in Weapon System; Bullet Proof Jackets; Ballistic Helmets; Missile Destroyers; Multi-Purpose Vessel; Offshore Patrol Vessel; Next Generation Missile Vessels; Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Crafts; Water Jet Fast Attack Craft; Ammunition Barges; 50ton Bollard - Pull Tugs; Survey Vessels; Floating Dock; Diving Support Vessels; Pollution Control Vessels; Anti-Submarine Rocket Launchers; Shipborne Medium Range Gun; Torpedo Tube Launcher for Light Weight Torpedoes; Magneto - Rheological Anti Vibration Mounts; All variants of Depth Charges; Shipborne Sonar System for Large Ships; Hull Mounted Submarine Sonar; Short Range Maritime Reconnaissance Aircraft; Anti-Submarine Rocket; Chaff Rockets; Chaff Rocket Launcher; Integrated Ships Bridge System; Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) MK I A - Enhanced Indigenised Content; Light Combat Helicopters; General Purpose Pre Fragmentation Bombs between 250-500 Kg; Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) for Transport Aircraft; Ground Based Mobile ELINT System; Transport Aircraft (Light); GSAT-6 Satellite Terminals; Aerial Delivery Systems for Transport Aircraft; Digital Tropo Scatter/LOS Communication System; Low Level Transportable Radar; High Power Radar (HPR); CBRN Detection & Monitoring System; CBRN Decontamination & Protection System; Parachute Tactical Assault (PTA)- G2; Dragunov Upgrade System; PKMG Upgrade System; Simulators for A Vehicles / B Vehicles; Simulators for Towed and Self Propelled Guns of Air Defence; Simulators for Correction of Fire by Observers; Military trucks of 4x4 and above variants: 12x12, 10x10, 8x8, 6x6; Fixed Wing Mini UAVs; 500 Ton Self Propelled Water Barges; Software Defined Radio (TAC) for IN; Next Generation Maritime Mobile Coastal Battery (Long Range); Advance Landing Ground Communication Terminals (ALGCTs)for AGLs; Field Artillery Tractor (FAT) 6X6 for Medium Guns.

Embargoed from Dec 2021

Wheeled Armoured Fighting Vehicle (AFV); Light Machine Gun; 125 mm Fin Stabilised Armour Piercing Discarding Sabot (FSAPDS) New Generation Ammunition; Assault Rifle 7.62 x 39mm; 30 mm Ammunition for Infantry Fighting Systems; Mine Fragmentation; Mine Anti-tank; Mine Anti-Personnel Blast; Multipurpose Grenade; Inertial Navigation System for Ship Application; Conventional Submarines;

Embargoed from Dec 2022 onwards:

40mm UBGL (Under Barrel Grenade Launcher); Lightweight Rocket Launcher; 155 mm Artillery Ammunition; EW Systems; Material Handling Crane 2.5 to 7.5 Tons (Vehicle Mounted);

Embargoed from Dec 2023 onwards:

GRAD BM Rocket; 30MM HEI/HET; ASTRA-MK I Beyond Visual Range Air to Air Missile (BVR AAM); EW Suit for MI-17 V5; Communication Satellite GSAT-7C; Satellite GSAT 7R; Basic Trainer Aircraft (BTA); Expendable Aerial Targets.

Embargoed from Dec 2024 onwards:

Small Jet Engines with 120kgf thrust; Light Low Level Terrain Radar (LLLWR); Close in Weapon System (Land based); 23 mm ZU Ammunitions; 30mm VOG 17; Electronic Fuses for Artillery Ammunitions; Bi- Modular Charge System (BMCS ); Long Range  Land Attack Cruise Missile;
A Memphis woman who is recovering from COVID-19 was evicted from her home last week over medical debt belonging to her mother-in-law.

The entirety of Leslie Nelson's life was stacked in haphazard piles on her front lawn on Thursday as she was being forcibly evicted from her Raleigh neighborhood home.

Nelson still struggled to breathe, could barely rise to her feet and even suffered a seizure as her belongings were removed from the home she inherited several years ago from family.

She said Memphis officers threatened to arrest her while she was being removed from her home.

Leslie Nelson of Memphis, Tennessee, was evicted from her home on Thursday while she said she was still recovering from COVID-19

In June, Tennessee officials ended the moratorium on home evictions that was implemented at the beginning of the pandemic. Pictured: Nelson's belongings piled on the front lawn of her home

The 56-year-old COVID-19 survivor was one of several Tennessee residents who were left blindsided after the state's moratorium on home evictions lifted in June.

Tennessee officials placed the moratorium earlier this year to help scores of Americans, many of who lost their jobs and resources, stay afloat during the pandemic.

But in August, as cases continue to rise across the country and an end for the pandemic is nowhere in sight, home evictions are the last thing residents needed.

Nelson told The Commercial Appeal that she begged a probate attorney for a chance to settle the debt from her deceased mother-in-law's medical bills, but to no avail.

Leslie Nelson (pictured) said she didn't know about her mother-in-law's medical debt and made efforts to pay it off

She said didn't know about the medical debt prior to her mother-in-law's passing. The house was left to her and a partner.

Nelson said she had the documents to prove it, and tried to repay the medical debt that lingered with the home.

A GoFundMe was created last week that has raised $12,500 of its $20,000 goal as of Sunday.

'I offered to pay,' Nelson told the publication. 'But he didn't even give me a warning. He just sent movers over here, and they showed up with police officers.'

Nelson said she first contracted COVID-19 on June 11 when she decided to visit a friend one day after spending much of the pandemic indoors.

A few days later, the friend called and she thought they suffered from heatstroke symptoms when they saw each other. It wasn't a heatstroke. It was COVID-19.

Nelson's health would deteriorate over the next three days and she felt sicker than she's ever felt before.

'I couldn't breathe, couldn't stand up, I was hallucinating at one point,' said Nelson.

She called an ambulance to her home and spent several days at Methodist North Hospital on oxygen.

Nelson was discharged a few weeks ago feeling like she was beginning to get better. But a process server showed up to her home and Nelson said she grew ill from the stress.

Pictured: Nelson's belongings placed on her front lawn in Memphis while she was being evicted on Thursday

Memphis police officers, community volunteers and movers were all at Nelson's house on Thursday for the eviction

In fact, Nelson reportedly suffered from an epilepsy-induced seizure on Thursday morning amid the eviction rush, The Commercial Appeal reports.

That night, Nelson went to a local hospital with chest pains.

Memphis police officers were at Nelson's home to ensure the peace and the process server, who was there to oversee the eviction, left around 3pm. Movers were also at the scene.

Ten volunteers arrived to Nelson's home to simultaneously help her move belongings out of the afternoon sun and to tend to her from a safe distance.

Leslie Nelson (left and right) said she first contracted COVID-19 in June after visiting a friend

Lesie (far right) claimed that an officer threatened to arrest her while she was being removed from her home on Thursday

The volunteers descended onto Nelson's home after she sent out a distress call on Facebook.

In the video, she can be heard telling two officers that she 'has COVID-19 and it's hard to even think.'

The officers mention they thought she was 'cleared' of the virus, but she insists that health officials allegedly tried to hospitalize her three separate times.

She claimed that the local health department says that city officials could not evict Nelson from her home because she was still 'active.'

Nelson's pleads were amplified by Hunter Demster, a community organizer and activist, who streamed her eviction on Facebook Live.

'A dozen people have showed up, dedicating their time, potentially putting themselves in harm's way of COVID to do the right thing,' Hunter told WREG.

At one point, the scene turned chaotic as a process server reportedly took an antique rifle from Nelson's home and said he was taking it to his car.

Volunteers attempted to block the process server by standing in his way.

Nelson (pictured): 'I offered to pay, but he didn't even give me a warning. He just sent movers over here, and they showed up with police officers'

Nelson tried to get the antique rifle back herself, but the process server reportedly swung the rifle around in the presence of officers.

The process server later said he would return the rifle before he left. He reportedly claimed it was his right to temporarily hold onto the gun.

'Just absurd behavior,' activist Marissa Kizer told WREG.

Demster said that it was an 'infuriating' situation to see a woman whose dealt with COVID-19 be displaced.

'Collecting debt from a deceased person is more important than putting an elderly woman who is recovering from COVID out on the streets, and that's what they're saying. That's what they did!' he said.

Nelson added that her situation is one that could happen to several Tennessee residents in the upcoming months.

'This is going to happen again. And next time, I want to be the one that shows up to help,' she said.

But for now, Nelson's belongings were placed in small rented storage space that was donated.

Tennessee has recorded 118,000 confirmed infections and 1,200 deaths.
Press Release

August 10, 2020 Villanueva: DOLE's P5-B fresh funding for OFW repatriation much appreciated, bats for comprehensive labor recovery package The P5-billion supplemental budget the government released to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) would go a long way in its continued effort to repatriate overseas Filipino workers displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Senator Joel Villanueva. Villanueva, chair of the Senate labor committee, said the latest fund release, which Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III disclosed on Sunday afternoon, would allow DOLE to continue providing the one-time cash grant of P10,000 to repatriated OFWs, aside from covering the cost of repatriation, testing, lodging and transportation to their home provinces. "Mapapagpatuloy pa po ng gobyerno ang pagpapauwi ng mga OFW natin na kasalukuyang stranded sa iba't ibang bahagi ng mundo sa tulong ng P5 billion na karagdagang pondo para sa DOLE," the lawmaker said in a statement. "Hinihikayat din po natin ang DOLE na samahan tayo sa pagtutulak sa ating ipinanukalang comprehensive labor recovery package nang sa ganun ay may kabuhayan para sa mga OFW na nais nang umuwi dito sa ating bayan." "We also express our gratitude to our government for heeding our call for additional funding, which we have raised since May in the course of the weekly reports to Congress as provided by the Bayanihan 1 law," he continued. The initial funding of DOLE's Abot Kamay Ang Pagtulong (AKAP)-amounting to P2.5 billion-is nearing depletion with the agency disbursing around P2.388 billion as of Aug. 8 to over 233,000 OFW beneficiaries. Both the Overseas Workers' Welfare Administration (OWWA) and Philippine Overseas Labor Offices around the world have processed and approved 267,584 applications, according to the department. AKAP intended to help 250,000 OFWs initially, but the number of applications swelled to about 597,469, prompting Bello to seek additional funding. The fresh funding would also enable OWWA to continue providing for the needs of repatriated OFWs, particularly seafarers who called the government's attention in June for supposed unequal treatment between land-based and sea-based workers. Seafarers' groups took issue with DOLE's guidance that recruiters of sea-based workers must take care of their recruits, while land-based workers can run straight to OWWA for repatriation, testing, and transportation. At the Senate labor committee, Villanueva sought DOLE for equal treatment and assistance to all OFWs. The surge in applications for relief, both coming from domestic and overseas-based workers, reflect the pressing need for the government to continue prioritizing labor recovery programs that would help jumpstart the economy, given its worst crash recorded in nearly three decades, Villanueva explained. "More than the latest infusion of funds to finance the repatriation of OFWs, we continue to appeal to the government to expand further our effort to implement a variety of labor recovery programs and provide the necessary budget for these efforts to make it happen," he continued.
(Natural News) First, do no harm is the most iconic  if not, the most important  maxim in the medical profession. But a leading hospital in London not only failed to uphold these principles, but it also imposed treatment limitations on over half of its COVID-19 patients at the height of the pandemic.

Kings College Hospital, one of the largest teaching hospitals in London, had do-not-resuscitate orders in place for COVID-19 patients, reports the Daily Mail, and even barred them from receiving intensive care treatment. The report revealed that only 18 percent of patients, or less than one in five people, were admitted to Kings intensive care unit. Even worse, a total of 61 percent of COVID-19 patients admitted to Kings had treatment limitations placed on them. This meant that over half of patients admitted to hospital for COVID-19 did not have access to potentially life-saving treatments.

Experts are concerned that COVID-19 patients  in particular, the elderly and high-risk populations  were forced to agree with do-not-resuscitate orders. If a do-not-resuscitate order is in place, healthcare providers will not perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if a patients heart stops beating or his breathing stops. Unlike in the U.S., where doctors make do-not-resuscitate orders after consulting with their patients, clinicians in the U.K. can sign the do-not-resuscitate order without needing to consult with the patient.

Aside from do-not-resuscitate orders, doctors can also use treatment escalation plans (TEPs) to limit life-saving treatments for the elderly and frail, as well as those with chronic illnesses like cancer and stroke. A patient who agrees to a TEP waives his right to be put in intensive care, which includes any life support if ever any of their organs failed.

The findings presented by the report were harrowing: TEPs were used in nearly 80 percent of patients in COVID-19 wards, which prevented them from receiving intensive care treatments. In addition, around 86 percent of COVID-19 patients were made to agree to do-not-resuscitate orders. (Related: The COVID-19 panic shows us why science needs skeptics.)

Hospitals provided palliative care instead of treatment

Doctors say that treating COVID-19 isnt just challenging, its also expensive. Patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19 not only need ventilators, but they also require kidney dialysis and specialized drug support, especially if they have multiple organ failure. The procedure can cost anywhere upwards of 1,500 a day in an ICU, compared to 200 in a regular ward.

The Kings report also gave a distressing account of how the hospital handled admissions of critically ill patients at the height of the pandemic. In particular, the hospital admitted nine patients to intensive care and sent 41 to regular wards.

In a statement, the National Health Services critical care department noted that TEPs were placed in 61 percent of all COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospital.

The majority  more than 80 percent  involved TEPs and DNR orders. Two-thirds of patients with a TEP were considered frail. Patients were given pain relief to keep them comfortable as an alternative to active treatment so palliative care faced a dramatic increase in ward referrals, the statement read.

The report looked at a total of 429 patients admitted to Kings, with ages ranging from 18 to over 90 years. From the total, 353 patients  or 82 percent  were treated only in COVID-19 wards and 76 were sent to the ICU.

To note, the mortality rate of those in COVID-19 wards was at 26 percent, compared to 34 percent for those in intensive care. Most patients who were admitted had at least a chronic disease  either high blood pressure or diabetes.

In response to the report, Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, stressed that resuscitation isnt always the most appropriate approach to patient care, especially in cases where they would not survive.

Evidence suggests that survival from CPR in patients whose hearts stop due to Covid-19 occurs in less than 1 percent, he added. The key point that must drive every clinical decision, regardless of the pandemic, is that we must be sensitive to patients needs and recognize that in considering such issues patients  usually in discussion with their loved ones  need time, space and support to consider the options.

The U.K. currently has over 304,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with over 46,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Pandemic.news has more on the ongoing Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

Resus.org.uk
The fire that destroyed a total of 40 mobile homes in the Lazy Days Pueblo Fiesta campsite in Mollina on Sunday broke out in an empty property.

This is the initial conclusion of the Malaga provincial firefighting consortium (CPB) whose report will be used in the investigation being carried out by the Guardia Civil in Antequera.

According to official sources, on Monday morning there was no clear hypothesis regarding how the blaze began and given the state of the burned mobile homes, it may well not be possible to establish the exact cause.

The sources said that more than 30 firefighters worked non stop on the site from 4pm to 2am. Their work was "especially complex", said the consortium's president, Manuel Marmolejo, adding that other fires in Humilladero and Ronda also broke out on Sunday evening.

The fire reached excessively high temperatures due to the materials used in the construction of the static caravans.

The firefighting operation had its moments of risk, said Marmolejo, due to the numerous explosions of gas cylinders as the home burned.

Forty homes were totally destroyed, three were partially affected and 18 were untouched.

Around 70 people, most of the British, had to be evacuated from the site; 20 of them were accommodated at the nearby Ceulaj Euro-Latin American Youth Centre.
Rajendra Singh, an acclaimed environmentalist and Ramon Magsaysay awardee, has supported the fast-unto-death agitation of Matri Sadan ashram seer Swami Shivanand Saraswati for saving the Ganges, Yamuna and its sub-tributaries from pollution and related man-made ecological disasters.

Observing a day-long fast at his residence in Alwar, Rajasthan; Singh, the waterman of India, urged the public to observe a similar non-violent protest to extend their support to the seers agitation.

Support is pouring in from across the country. On Monday, people from all walks of life observed the fast. I urge the government to address this important issue on a priority basis and meet the demands raised by the revered Matri Sadan saint, said Singh.

Earlier in January, Singh had organised a two-day Ganga Environment Conservation convention at Matri Sadan under the aegis of Tarun Bharat Sangh.

We regard the Ganges as a deity and mother. We need to preserve the rivers sanctity, purity, unhindered flow, and ecology. The rise in pollutants, haphazard construction of hydropower projects, operation of stone crushers, largescale quarrying and indifferent attitude of the government doesnt augur well for the Ganges, Singh had said.

Swami Shivanand Saraswati, the founder of Matri Sadan ashram in Haridwar, is on an indefinite fast since August 3.

The seer has demanded the scrapping of all hydropower projects on the Ganges, Yamuna and its sub-tributaries, prohibition on quarrying on the rivers bed, enactment of the Ganga Act, and the inclusion of environmental activists in its drafting panel, among others.
Protective covering, not ancient wall, collapsed

From:ChinaDaily | 2020-08-10 07:19

The collapsed part of an ancient city wall in Xi'an, Shaanxi province was a protective structure covering the original wall, not the cultural heritage relic itself, and restoration plans are being drafted, experts said.

The wall, located in the Xincheng district of Xi'an, the capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, dates to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The collapse occurred about 9:30 am on Saturday, leaving four people injured and damaging a bus and three cars, according to local authorities.

The wall is listed as one of Shaanxi's major cultural relics. It protected the residence of Zhu Shuang, the second son of Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of Ming Dynasty, and is not part of the Xi'an Circumvallation, the largest and best preserved ancient city wall in China and a well-known tourist destination.

The injured people were rushed to a hospital for treatment. Representatives of provincial and city government departments were dispatched to the scene on Saturday, and a task force was set up to handle the response to the accident and investigate its cause.

Xi'an and Shaanxi cultural heritage protection departments arranged for experts to inspect the collapsed section of wall and draft plans for its restoration and reinforcement. Cleanup of the site is underway.

Chen Ping, a professor at Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, said the collapse was caused by persistent rainfall in Xi'an in recent days and the collapsed section is 20 meters of a 130-meter covering structure that was built from 2007 and 2011 to protect the original ancient city wall. The original rammed earth of the cultural relic was not destroyed.

Restoration of the wall won't be a complex project and could be done by using the ancient method of making rammed earth, said Wang Xiaoyong, an assistant researcher at Shaanxi Academy of Social Sciences.

He said it's not easy to protect a more than 600-year-old wall because of weathering. The wall has been found vulnerable to rainfall, and restoration and consolidation were being carried out before the collapse. But the downpour had been too heavy and frequent in recent days.

"The incident is a warning that cultural heritage relics need more frequent examination and restoration, even though some of them seem to be complete and solid," Wang said, adding that other parts of this wall should be inspected in a timely manner to prevent another incident.
India has decided to upgrade its diplomatic presence at the UN before taking over as a non-permanent member of the Security Council in January 2021 by appointing an additional deputy permanent representative (DPR) and a counsellor to handle UNSC matters. External affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will personally review Indias stint at the UNSC every month.

According to South Block, R Ravindran, a 1999 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer and presently joint secretary (Central and West Africa), will join the Indian Permanent Mission to the UN in New York with a rank equivalent to that of a DPR. Pratik Mathur, a 2007 IFS officer and deputy secretary (PMO), will join as a counsellor.

While the mission is headed by T S Tirumurti and has Nagaraj Naidu as DPR, the two officers will join the group before the 75th UN General Assembly opens on September 15,2020. Preparatory work for new non-permanent members begins months before they formally join the UNSC.

Ravindran served in the office of the Indian permanent representative to the UN under Hardeep Singh Puri, now minister of civil aviation, urban development and commerce, who headed the mission when India was a non-permanent member in 2011-2012. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already spelled out Indias approach at the UNSC by spelling out a 5S approach -- Samman (respect), Samvad (dialogue), Sahyog (cooperation) , Shanti (global peace) and Samiriddhi (global prosperity) -- with the overall objective of a New Orientation of a Reformed Multilateral System.

While India got 184 out of 192 valid votes cast for the UNSC seat, the vote numbers surprised New Delhi as Indias adversaries, particularly Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysai and backed by Islamabads all-weather friend Chinam had spread negativity about the revocation of article 370 in Kashmir on August 5 last year.

Our understanding is that India got these many votes as its forces stood up to China at Galwan in East Ladakh in June. Although only 129 votes are required, India got additional votes for having the capacity to fight for its territory, said a senior government official.

It was a reference to the violent brawl that took place in Galwan on June 15 in which heavily outnumbered Indian soldiers fought back against Chinese troops. India lost 20 men in the skirmish and China suffered an unspecified number of casualties.

From conversations with a bunch of diplomats, it is quite evident that India is set to play a constructive role at the UNSC without forgetting that it is still waiting to become a permanent member of the Council after 75 years.

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Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan  Mon, August 10, 2020 14:30 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cd7db2 1 National Mount-Sinabung,Karo,North-Sumatra,volcanic-eruption,volcanic-activity,volcanic-ash,BPBD,PVMBG Free

Authorities have advised the public to remain alert over potential future eruptions at Mount Sinabung in Karo regency, North Sumatra, as the volcano has erupted several times since the weekend following a year-long absence of volcanic activity.

The latest string of eruptions occurred on Monday, with Mt. Sinabung spewing a 5,000-meter-high column of volcanic ash and smoke from the peak of the mountain at 10:16 a.m., followed by a second eruption at 11:17 a.m. that produced a 2,000-m-high column of ash, according to the Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center (PVMBG).

PVMBG official and personnel of the Sinabung observation post, Armen Putera, told The Jakarta Post that the volcanic ash from Monday's eruption had covered at least three districts in Karo and turned the sky dark, especially in Namanteran district, which is located 5.2 kilometers from the mountain.

More eruptions are likely to ensue in the following days, given the recent increase in frequency of tectonic earthquakes that rattled the volcano, he said.

"We have recorded increased tectonic earthquakes in Mt. Sinabung over the past 12 hours. These are signs of eruptions," Armen said, "We have to increase our vigilance and avoid the danger zone of Mt. Sinabung."

At least three districts -- Namanteran, Merdeka and Berastagi -- had been directly affected by Monday's eruptions and covered by volcanic ash, according to the Karo Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD).

"Residents have been forced to halt their activities because the ash is thick, [the afternoon] sky is similar to a night sky because it is covered in ash," BPBD Karo acting chairperson Natanael Perangin-angin told the Post.

Mt. Sinabung erupted again for the first time after 14 months of inactivity at 1:58 a.m. on Saturday, spewing a 2,000-m-high column of volcanic ash that later spread as far to Berastagi, located some 30 km from the volcano.

A second eruption occurred later at 5:18 p.m. on the same day, producing a 1,000-m-high column of ash.

Read also: Mount Sinabung erupts again after year of inactivity

M. Nurul Asrori, another personnel of the Sinabung observation post, told the Post on Sunday that the eruptions over the weekend indicated that Mt. Sinabung had turned active again following its period of inactivity.

The PVMBG could not precisely predict when the next eruption would take place, but considering the recent situation, Nurul said a subsequent eruption of a larger scale was imminent.

We ask residents and tourists to exercise caution, stay away from Mt. Sinabung. Keep your guard up, because a larger eruption could occur anytime, he said.

As of Monday afternoon, the local administration has yet to issue an official evacuation order for residents who live near the volcano. The majority of them have reportedly remained in their homes to clean up their yards and plantations from volcanic ash.

Natanael of the BPBD Karo also reminded the public to steer clear of areas designated as "danger zones" that surrounded the volcano, especially after local authorities found that a number of locals and tourists still trying to enter the areas for sightseeing on Sunday.

"This is very dangerous because Mt. Sinabung can erupt again at any time," he said, adding that a patrol team deployed by the agency on Sunday had since escorted the civilians to safety.

The 2,460 m Mt. Sinabung roared back to life in 2010 for the first time in 400 years. After another period of inactivity, it erupted once more in 2013 and has remained highly active since.

At least 16 people died in one of Sinabungs eruptions in 2014. Two years later, another eruption killed seven.

Indonesia is home to about 130 volcanoes because of its position on the Ring of Fire, a belt of tectonic plate boundaries circling the Pacific Ocean where frequent seismic activity occurs. (rfa)
Pope Francis has confirmed reports for the first time that a particular Malawian Diocesan impregnated 30 nuns.

According to Pope Francis, he revealed that priests and bishops in the Catholic Church had sexually abused nuns and that some priests have been suspended on several occassions.



Specifically, several examples came from Africa, where priests were said to have turned to nuns for sex during the spread of AIDS.

Some Catholic Priests Sexually Abuse Nuns, Sometimes to Avoid HIV Infection, Reports Say

Nuns around the world have suffered sexual abuse by priests, sometimes resulting in pregnancy and abortion, but church leaders have "fail[ed] ... to discipline" the clerics involved, the New York Times reports. According to five reports written by senior members of women's religious orders and a priest, cases of sexual abuse against nuns have been reported in at least 23 countries.

In one report, Sister Maura O'Donohue, a physician and a member of the Medical Missionaries of Mary, wrote that women were "forced" by priests into sexual liaisons in order to obtain certificates or recommendations needed for work in a diocese. O'Donohue also recorded cases where nuns were "recommend[ed]" by priests to take contraception, sometimes being told that oral contraceptives would prevent the transmission of HIV. The report included "disturbing" accounts of nuns impregnated by priests, including one case in Malawi where 29 sisters in one congregation became pregnant by priests in the diocese. Another example explained the case of a nun who became pregnant by a priest and was brought by that priest to a Catholic health institution to undergo an abortion. After the nun died during the procedure, the priest performed her funeral mass, O'Donohue wrote (Hedges, New York Times, 3/21). The National Catholic Reporter said that "no comprehensive statistics" exist on the sexual abuse of nuns, but the "frequency and consistency of the reports ... point to a problem that needs to be addressed" (AP/Washington Times, 3/21).



AIDS and Africa

While the reports documented incidents of abuse in a number of countries, much of the abuse was linked to Africa and the continent's AIDS epidemic, the New York Times reports. The priests in Africa often live in "isolated" areas, and fear contracting HIV from prostitutes and "other high-risk groups." Many perceive nuns as "safe sexual partners" who do not carry the virus, the New York Times reports (New York Times, 3/21). African attitudes toward celibacy and the "tradition of female subservience" in Africa also contribute to the spread of abuse, the AP/Washington Times reports (AP/Washington Times, 3/21). O'Donohue said that in some African countries, "priests have a liberal interpretation of celibacy," adding that one priest once said that celibacy "in the African context" barred priests from getting married, but not from having children (New York Times, 3/21). In Africa, priests are often "better educated than the nuns," and sometimes use "false theological arguments to persuade them [to have sex], suggesting, for example, that sex between two celibate religious [people] does not violate their vows of celibacy," a report by Sister Marie McDonald, superior general of the Missionaries of Our Lady of Africa, stated (Willan, London Guardian, 3/21).



Vatican Response

The authors of the reports noted that church leaders often failed to punish or reprimand priests for incidents of abuse. In her report, O'Donohue wrote that while the priests involved in sexual incidents were "usually given mild reprimands," the nuns were often "forced out of the order." And when one superior general "complained" to an archbishop about incidents of sexual abuse, she was replaced. Rev. Robert Vitillo, executive director of the United States Bishops Campaign for Human Development, wrote in a 1994 report, "I myself have heard the tragic stories of religious women who were forced to have sex with the local priest or with a spiritual counselor who insisted that this activity was 'good' for the both of them. Frequently, attempts to raise these issues with local and international church authorities have met with deaf ears" (New York Times, 3/21). The Vatican yesterday "acknowledged" the reports, but added that the incidents of sexual abuse are "restricted to a certain geographic area," without clarification (Reuters/Washington Post, 3/21). Vatican spokesperson Joaquin Navarro-Valls said, "Work is being done both on the training of people and the resolution of individual cases" (New York Times, 3/21). He added, however, that "[s]ome negative cases cannot let us forget the often heroic faith expressed by the large majority of those men and women in religious orders and of the clergy" (Mangan, New York Post, 3/21).

Source: khn.org









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Setback: Marie Daly, CEO of Daoine Oga in Navan, Co Meath, says the positive cases are devastating. PHOTO: SEAMUS FARRELLY

Staff and parents at a Meath creche are anxiously awaiting test results after two staff members were diagnosed with Covid-19 in recent days.

The results at Daoine Oga Community Childcare Centre in Navan have been described by its CEO Marie Daly as "extremely devastating", especially after an investment of 10,000 in personal protective equipment and other Covid-19 measures at the facility.

One of the eight rooms at the centre was immediately closed after a staff member complained of a sore throat and tested positive for the illness last Wednesday.

Children at the facility have been split into pods of up to eight, with two staff members in each as part of Covid-19 response measures.

The second staff member in the same pod, consisting of eight children aged between one and two, has tested negative.

However, due to a 'floating' staff member between two units, management decided to close a second room containing seven children aged between two and three years old.

That member tested negative but her co-worker in the pod was also confirmed as having the virus.

Neither of the two staff who tested positive were in contact with each other, either inside or outside of work.

Since then, results of testing on all seven staff and most of the children have returned negative, but the facility is awaiting the results of the remaining children.

"All our staff's temperatures are taken three times every day and none of the two staff who tested positive had a temperature," said Ms Daly.

"The first employee complained of a sore throat and the second had a runny nose and aches and pains.

"We immediately shut the first room down when the case was confirmed last Wednesday and all the parents and the relevant statutory bodies were informed.

"Since reopening in June, all rooms were divided into pods of up to eight children with two members of staff per pod. There is also an additional employee who works between two rooms.

"Because of this, I took the decision to also close that room immediately. This employee proved to be negative but another staff member in this pod of seven children was a confirmed case.

"Both cases showed very mild symptoms and didn't need any hospital treatment, and neither staff member had any contact with each other in work or outside it.

"Six rooms at the facility remain open.

"Everyone is worried but the parents and pre-school inspectors have been extremely supportive to us.

"It's extremely devastating, disappointing and frustrating but despite all our efforts, unfortunately we can't control outside circumstances.

"During lockdown, our senior staff completed a level-five course in infectious control and the other employees were all given a briefing.

"So far every other test is coming back negative and no one else has reported any symptoms, so we can only wait anxiously and hope that we have managed to contain the virus here."
Senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot on August 10 said that interim party President Sonia Gandhi "heard all our concerns and the governance issues that we raised" and welcomed the formation of a three-member committee to look into issues raised by him.

"Sonia Gandhi heard all our concerns and the governance issues that we raised. Formation of the 3-member committee by the Congress interim President is a welcome step. I think all the issues will be resolved," he said.

Earlier, Pilot had met with former Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi and, according to a statement by senior party leader KC Venugopal, had expressed his grievances in detail.

After the meeting, Congress had said Pilot will "work in the interest" of the Congress and its government in Rajasthan.

"Following this meeting, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has decided that the AICC will constitute a three-member committee to address the issues raised by Sachin Pilot and the aggrieved MLAs and arrive at an appropriate resolution thereof," Venugopal said in the statement.

"For some time some MLAs were in Delhi. There were some issues which we wanted to highlight. I did that. I'd been saying since beginning that all these things were based on principle. I always thought these things are essential to be raised in party's interest," news agency ANI quoted Pilot as saying.

"Several things were said, I heard a lot of things. I was surprised by a few things that were said. We should always maintain restraint and humility. There is no place for personal malice in politics. We had formed a government in Rajasthan after five years of hard work," Pilot, who had rebelled along with 18 MLAs, said.

The development comes ahead of the August 14 Assembly session and a month after Pilot rebelled, along with 18 other MLAs, against the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan, leading to Pilot's sacking as Deputy Chief Minister and state party chief.

Reports had earlier suggested that some of the rebel MLAs have also been in touch with the Congress leadership in the last few days.
By Trend

The Southern Gas Corridor is indeed a very important achievement for energy security in Europe because it helps lessen Europes dependence on Russia, Former US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Richard E. Hoagland told Trend.

In fact, the first major achievement like this was the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline of the late 1990s. Currently, exploitation of Azerbaijans Shah Deniz natural gas field will provide further natural gas that will likely help Europes energy security. In my personal view, another important achievement would be the Trans-Caspian Pipeline to deliver Turkmenistans natural gas to Europe, again not subject to Russian control, although I understand that is a complex issue that is still under discussion by both Baku and Ashgabat, he said.

He also touched upon the current status of bilateral relations between the US and Azerbaijan amid COVID-19.

While it is true that the pandemic has changed many things in the world, I do not see any evidence that it has seriously disrupted or changed the fundamentally strong U.S.-Azerbaijan bilateral relationship. I know that the diplomats of both countries continue their daily work to maintain this important relationship, said Hoagland.

He pointed out that Azerbaijan has been an important partner for the United States in Afghanistan. This has included Bakus participation in the multi-national NATO force and, especially important, providing an essential line of communication to deliver supplies to the forces in Afghanistan.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Incorporate regulatory issues into the next brief in the CIO as Broker management series.

Pose the regulatory issues as one of the priority options in the next priority assessment.

Modify next survey design to address regulatory issues.

Consider having a virtual collaborative forum on regulatory issues and impacts at the 2020 fall virtual conference in October.

Incorporate an assessment on regulatory issues in the 2020 DSS survey assessment within the scope of available data.

Build upon Navigating the Next Normal: A resource guide for state and local IT leaders during the COVID-19 recovery and beyond to further assess role and considerations for regulatory issues.

Expand regulatory assessments through the local government survey series.

Consider doing a local government regulatory assessment and recommendations jointly with CDG, NACo and NLC.

On Wednesday, July 29, 2020, the CEOs of some of the biggest tech giants in the world testified (virtually) before Congress. Some characterized the bipartisan questioning as a brutal beating, but others reported that not much new was accomplished. These hearings are the current ones in a series of actions at the federal and local governments and have involved other big tech such as Microsoft as well as other industry service providers.What can we learn? What were the impacts? How do these regulatory issues affect state and local governments? Most importantly, what can and should be done next by public and private sector leaders and their partners?These are a few of the items I explore in this blog, with the help of long-time state government policy expert Andris Ozols  who worked for many years with me in Michigan State Government before his retirement a few years back. Andris was also a significant contributor to my recent blog efforts on elections security First, the media coverage of the testimony was widespread before, during and after the virtual event. Here are a few headlines and relevant excerpts:Excerpt: The leaders of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google took a brutal political lashing Wednesday as Democrats and Republicans confronted the executives for wielding their market power to crush competitors and amass data, customers and sky-high profits.The rare interrogation played out over the course of a nearly six-hour hearing, with lawmakers on the Houses top antitrust subcommittee coming armed with millions of documents , hundreds of hours of interviews and in some cases the once-private messages of Silicon Valleys elite chiefs. They said it showed some in the tech sector had become too big and powerful, threatening rivals, consumers and, in some cases, even democracy itself. Excerpt: Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., the subcommittee chairman, spent all of his first five-minute block of questions on Google  the company at most immediate risk of antitrust action. The Department of Justice is reportedly preparing to sue the company over its advertising business, and could be joined by state attorneys general who have also been investigating Google.Cicilline pressed CEO Pichai on whether Google's business model presents a conflict of interest, because it has an incentive to give search results that keep users on its own site rather than anywhere else on the Internet. Excerpt: The chief executives of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook , four tech giants worth nearly $5 trillion combined, faced withering questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike on Wednesday for the tactics and market dominance that had made their enterprises successful.For more than five hours, the 15 members of an antitrust panel in the House lobbed questions and repeatedly interrupted and talked over Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Google. Excerpt: Big Tech faces two main options. They can go on acting as if nothing is amiss and hope that government action will take a long time to become a reality. Or they can take proactive steps to recognize the legitimacy of the issues and regulate themselves with a commitment to reengage with acting honorably and doing no evil. The latter course of action will be the smarter and less painful one. Excerpt: House lawmakers on Wednesday grilled the heads of some of the world's largest tech companies - with Democrats questioning whether the companies violated U.S. antitrust laws and stole from competitors, while Republicans slammed them over alleged censorship and bias against conservatives. Excerpt: It's highly unlikely though that anything much will happen before the US elections in November.As well as the presidential vote, all the seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs, as well as about a third of the Senate.And so we reach a fork in the road for Big Tech in America.A Republican win would probably see the tech giants scrutinised further over how they police free speech. Section 230 - which gives social media companies immunity from prosecution for what is published on their platforms - would probably be looked at.If the Democrats win, expect more regulation in an attempt to inject more competition into the tech industry. There are both direct and indirect consequences on state and local governments, and in order for the states and locals to both maximize the benefits as well as ameliorate the effects of regulations, the state and local governments need to understand these effects and their causes and work collaboratively among themselves and with the technology partners.Collaboration involves shared assessments, solution design, programs, education and training, advocacy and more. Selected examples of collaboration and collaborative networks include:Direct impact issues are issues that are part of the federal review, litigation and hearing agendas as well as state Attorney General related agendas. Contested IT related issues involve direct business practices, platforms, hardware, software, services at variance with state and local government public values and ethics, policies, strategies, standards and agreements including accuracy, operations, outputs or outcomes.Emphasis is placed on: State legal requirements; state and gubernatorial priorities; action and decisions needed for this decision cycle; potential for maximum effects on outcomes; facilitating integration, collaboration among governments; options available for sustained innovation involving the greatest range of state and local government services and customers.. Key issues identified in federal big tech, and related hearings include: Limiting options in services, decrease in control or discretion in managing services, decreased trust in government protection of security and privacy, accuracy and truthfulness of information.. Key issues addressed in state Attorney General initiatives also include: Limiting options in services, decrease in control or discretion in managing services, decreased trust in government protection of security and privacy, accuracy and truthfulness of information.Collaborative state initiatives announced last week for New York and California are accelerating the process and may provide new models for state and local initiatives. This article from The Guardian (UK) is entitled, New York unveils landmark antitrust bill that makes it easier to sue tech giants.New York State is introducing a bill that would make it easier to sue big tech companies for alleged abuses of their monopoly powers. New York is Americas financial center and one of its most important tech hubs. If successfully passed, the law could serve as a model for future legislation across the country. It also comes as a federal committee is conducting aninto tech giants amid concerns that their unmatched market power is suppressing competition. Also, The New York Attorney General's office will join the California Attorney General's office and the Federal Trade Commission's investigation into Amazon's online marketplace.. Balance in roles and authority in regulations is a policy and legal point of contention among levels of government and also determines how the regulatory issues are prioritized. This includes topic like what stakeholders need to be involved and timing for action. One of the NGA chairs priority issues for 2020  2021 will be federalism issues and questions of balance of roles and authority.States have established public and private sector collaborative networks, but the current issues call for reinforcing relationships and strengthening ones with the National Governors Association (NGA), fiscal officers (), procurement, auditors, legislators () and their associations. Also, the perspectives of federal Congressional and Executive branch assessment and design resources such as The Partnership for Public Service Congressional Budget Office and public policy administrators would be helpful, including ASPA - Indirect issues are those resulting from direct IT services such as hardware, software, services, outputs serving as IT inputs that support or enable other functions, processes, programs or services. In addition to processes and services, these may also affect policies, standards, decision-making, customer values, perceptions, satisfaction and trust.In particular, these issues and how they are resolved help define and pre-structure the options available for smart, digital communities and governments.. Information and information management is a foundational issue, the wizard behind the curtain. Ownership, control, accuracy, misinformation and information management plays a central role in a number of the support platforms for smart, digital government - such as internet of things, big data analytics, facial recognition, mobile and location aware services, cloud, integrated and autonomous AI.Procurement management is the gateway to public / private relationships, partnerships, standards, performance, accountability, policy and value alignment, etc. Includes RFIs, RFSs, RFPs and contracts.is a crucial partner on this issue and NASCIO has a strong established relationship.Smart, digital government and communities and cities are vital constructs describing the connection, integration of technologies to transform how governments, citizens and businesses interact. Some of the regulatory issues can impact on smart government priorities; timing and scheduling; platforms; information ownership; integrity of personal identity; privacy; security; accuracy and reliability; processes; state and local government control; public trust and others.While many roadmaps for smart governments and communities address the role of regulations, not all of them do, and the pandemic as well as the overlap of the flu and hurricane seasons will further accentuate the risks. In general state and local assessments, policies, standards, plans and roadmaps do not consistently address the role of regulations or the consequences of not complying. However, there are sufficient examples and models such as NGA work on Smart Transportation and Smart Energy roadmap , with sections on regulations from the Smart Community and State Initiative that can serve as models.There are differential regulatory effects among service sectors and realignment of priorities and solutions. For example, differential effect of selected platforms on IT supported health and education services, distance learning and work, election processes, security, disaster management and recovery.The juxtaposition of the sustained pandemic, hurricane season, pending flu season in context of the election, economic disruptions and revenue and budget short-falls are altering priorities, reducing funding allocation levels, stressing state and local service capabilities and calls for modifications in disaster and management and recovery approaches and the supporting platforms in which Big Tech is involved.The public sector IT community needs to work together in both recognizing the benefits of Big Tech and integrator services as well as addressing and resolving adverse effects. This needs to involve both the public and private sector communities and build upon existing networks and public private partnership models.The following recommendations address both the three-month cycle before the election, the three months after the election, and reference issues for potential future action.The next five or six month period covers the front end of most state and local government assessment, design and development cycles and also includes a number of state and local association and support group working sessions and planned deliverables that could include a regulatory issue perspective. The following state/local groups share a collaborative history and are illustrative of potential opportunities and next steps regarding non-profits supporting state and local governments:Follow-up to federalism issue after the Summer 2020 virtual session can include both infrastructure and regulatory issues from an IT perspective.The Smart Transportation and Smart Energy roadmap sections on regulations, from the Smart Community and State Initiative can be one of the inputs in developing shared templates.The, a leading example from the federal level, with private sector partners that are shared with the state and local associations, has developed a series of information technology opportunity assessments and designs for infusing technology in federal government operations, with long-term support by IT integrators and service providers such as Deloitte, Accenture and IBM, as well as broad-scope management consultants such as Booz Allan Hamilton, Ernst Young and others. Examples include:Coordinate state and local advocacy on the pending federal hearing report and recommendations as well as follow-up with the Executive branch and Congress.Develop a coordinated and collaborative state and local review of AG initiatives from an IT perspective and recommendations, including the New York and California proposed actions. The federal hearings and NY initiatives can be fulcrums for state and local IT related actions and may serve as models for selected state actions.Collectively develop templates for addressing regulations in state and local policy and procedural guidelines, including procurement, operational and performance management, audits and others.Conduct a collaborative assessment of the capabilities and opportunities of IT support for the pandemic and election process, other pending emergencies and potential interactions with the regulatory issues. Develop recommendations for state leadership, NGA, NCSL and federal government.. Identify scope of potential stakeholders for supporting recommendations and further action, and develop a forum for organizing a state, local, federal and private sector collaborative. This forum can be a Web based forum, perhaps hosted as part of the NASCIO virtual fall session.Back in 2018, Deloitte Consulting wrote this : Regulations or absence of regulations can also alter or limit both direct government operations as well as stakeholder, customer benefits, and limit development or innovation options. As new business models and services emerge, such as ride-sharing services and initial coin offerings, government agencies are challenged with creating or modifying regulations, enforcing them, and communicating them to the public at a previously undreamed-of pace. And they must do this while working within legacy frameworksattempting to foster innovation.Here is another excellent piece by Deloitte on regulation and cybersecurity: National security and technology regulation . I also think it worth reviewing these biggest takeaways from the Washington Post on the antitrust hearings.CNBCs expert analysts believe these companies will never be broken-up due to the U.S. desire to compete with companies from China and elsewhere. Nevertheless, they also say there is likely more regulation coming.In a surprising twist,wrote last week that:One thing is clear: Well be back to cover this topic many times in the coming years. The issues are not going away.Time to do your homework and get ready for more in 2021 and beyond - regardless of who wins the upcoming election.
No timeline has been fixed yet by the Ministry of Education for reopening of schools as majority of states are not in favour of it in view of the spike in Covid-19 cases, according to sources.

While the government is looking at the possibility of starting some classes for senior students from September end or October, no final decision has been taken in this regard, they said. "No timeline has been fixed yet as the decision will completely depend on the pandemic situaton. Barring one union territory, no other state or UT is in favour of reopening schools in near future," ...
Attorneys for Amber Guyger, a white former Dallas police officer, filed an appeal this week to overturn her murder conviction in the shooting of Botham Jean, her Black unarmed neighbor, inside his home.

Guyger is serving a 10-year prison sentence for the September 2018 fatal killing. She testified in court that she mistook Jean for an intruder when she mistakenly entered his apartment, thinking it was her own, after a long shift at work. Guyger, 31, was in uniform at the time but was off-duty and shot Jean with a service weapon. Jean was eating a bowl of ice cream when he was killed.

In the appeal, filed with the 5th Texas Court of Appeals, Guyger's attorneys ask the Dallas-based court to overturn her murder conviction and order a new sentencing and trial, or replace it with a conviction for criminally negligent homicide, which would carry a maximum punishment of two years in jail, the Associated Press reports.

More: Former Dallas cop Amber Guyger gets 10 years in prison for killing neighbor in his own home

Her attorneys argue that the evidence presented at her trial last year was "legally insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Guyger committed murder," saying that Guyger had "reasonable belief" that she was in her own apartment and there was an intruder inside.

They also argue her mistake "negated the culpability of murder because although she intentionally and knowingly caused Jean's death, she had the right to act in deadly force of self-defense."

Jean's family responded to the appeal expressing their disappointment:

"After admitting her crime and asking Botham Jean's family for mercy  Guyger's actions in filing this appeal reflect someone who is not repentant but instead was hoping to play on the families sympathies at the time that they were most vulnerable," S. Lee Merritt, attorney for the Jean family, said in a statement, according to CNN.

While protesters chanted "No justice! No peace!" outside the courthouse in 2019, the victim's brother hugged Guyger in the courtroom in an emotional moment after the sentence was met. At the time, Brandt Jean said he forgave her and that his brother would have wanted Guyger to give her life to Christ.

Story continues

While Guyger sobbed, he said, I love you as a person. I dont wish anything bad on you.

The 2019 conviction, surrounded by a series of police killings of unarmed black men, drew national attention at the time and resurfaces less than a year later among nationwide protests against police brutality and killings of unarmed Black Americans George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and more.

Contributing: John Bacon and Jorge Ortiz, USA TODAY; Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Amber Guyger, ex-Dallas cop, appeals Botham Jean murder conviction
Several White House aides reached out to South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem in 2019 and opened the possibility of adding more presidents to Mount Rushmore.

Trump on Mount Rushmore

Trusted sources spoke to The New York Times and detailed how Gov. Noem and President Donald Trump met. The source said that Gov. Noem greeted the president when he arrived in South Dakota for his July Fourth celebrations at the monument. The president included a four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore and he included his face.

Gov. Noem has stated before that President Trump's dream is to have his face included on Mount Rushmore, which is a Coolidge-era sculpture that features the faces of Presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt. The faces are around 60 feet tall and are one of the most famous tourist spots in the United States.

Also Read: President Trump Authorizes $400-Per-Week Unemployment Payments Hits Democrats for Stalling Tactics

In an interview with Gov. Noem back in 2018, she said that she talked to the president about the sculpture in the Oval Office during their first meeting. She first thought he was joking when he suggested to include his face in Mount Rushmore. She said she laughed at the idea but Trump wasn't, he was serious the whole time.

Gov. Noem said that Trump asked her to shake his hand, so she did. She also invited the president to visit South Dakota and talked about Mount Rushmore, as reported by CNN.

Trump then revealed that it is his dream to have his face on Mount Rushmore and that he even thought about adding his face to Mount Rushmore during his campaign rally back in 2017 in Youngstown, Ohio.

During his speech to his supporters in South Dakota last July Fourth, Trump defended Mouth Rushmore fiercely. It was at the time when Black Lives Matter activists and native tribal leaders are pointing out and criticized its history and purpose and revealed the gruesome murders and racism that the presidents did against the black community and the Native Americans.

President Trump said in his speech that Mount Rushmore will stand forever as an eternal tribute to America's forefathers, and to the country's freedom. Trump also warned during his speech that there is a "growing danger" that threatens "every blessing " that the ancestors fought so hard for.

Will Trump be added?

A White House official said to The New York Times that Mount Rushmore is a federal monument and not a state monument.

Unfortunately for Trump, it is not physically possible to add another face to the monument. Maureen McGee-Ballinger, a public information officer at Mount Rushmore, said that workers are asked by locals and tourists if it is possible to add another president. People have even suggested John F. Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan.

McGee-Ballinger said in New York Mag that there is no more space that can be carved on the sculpture. When looking at the sculpture, it may look like there is some space left on both sides, but they are rocks that are beyond the sculpture causing an optical illusion.

Related Article: History Professor Who Accurately Predicted Election Results Since 1984 Reveals Pick for 2020

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Although currently, TikTok is the most controversial social media app, the list of suitors for buying its operations has some big names. As per a report by The Wall Street Journal, after Microsoft, Twitter has also joined the race to grab the US operations of TikTok.

TikTok is in a dire situation, not only in the US but is facing trouble in one of the major economies like India as well. The latter has already imposed a ban on TikTok along with 59 Chinese apps.

And now the US is also looking for a ban on TikTok if the social media giant does not close a deal before September 15. As of now, Microsoft was at the forefront of cracking the deal.

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Matter of fact, it is already in the news that the tech-giant is almost on the verge of acquiring global operations of TikTok.

But a new report by Engadget suggests Twitter is also exploring its opportunities to sign the dotted lines with TikTok. Twitter is looking to grab the US operations of the social media giant. However, the talks are at an early stage and we might see further developments in the near future.

Twitter likely to draw large amounts from investors to strike a deal with TikTok

Twitter is one of the successful social media platforms and has been successful in the past years. However, the last quarter did not prove fruitful for the company and it suffered a loss of $1.2 billion.

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There are reports which point that Twitter is not as huge as Microsoft to crack this deal with TikTok. But some numbers definitely favor Twitter.

Though Twitter is not as huge as Facebook or Microsoft, the number of active daily users on Twitter amounts to 186 million worldwide, while TikTok is said to have 41 million active daily users.

This puts Twitter as a full-fledged counterpart to buy TikToks US operation. So, this deal would definitely impact the operations of Twitter as a whole.

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We speculate that this Twitter deal might be something, which TikTok was not previously considering. But is now actively exploring this case because of the little time they have left before the ban in the US.

TikTok is planning legal action against the US executive order

In one of our reports, we have highlighted that the US executive order came as a shock to TikTok. It claims that the evidence and information shared by the company were completely neglected by the US government.

The executive order states that the TikTok apps data could be used by China to spy against the US. Moreover, this personal information could also be used to run misinformation campaigns in the US.

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Well, there are several occasions where TikTok has stated that they do not share their data with the Chinese government. Besides, it also claims that TikTok is put under rigorous scrutiny as compared to its peer companies.

All in all, TikTok has till September 15 to sign the dotted lines to sell its US operations. If it fails to do so, then the ban will be executed by the US government.
The Ministry of Health of Ukraine has presented a strategy for the development of the transplant system until 2023.

At a daily briefing on Sunday, Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov presented the Ministry's large scale strategy for transplant medicine until 2023. As part of the presentation, he announced the main priorities of the ministry in this area.

"Increasing the number of transplants by developing cadaveric donation and expanding the types of organ transplantation, increasing the number of bone marrow transplants, developing the Transplant Coordination Center, ensuring the logistics of anatomical organs, in particular with the involvement of civil aviation, aviation transport of the State Emergency Service, vehicles of the National Police, and also professional development of domestic specialists are the priorities of the Ministry of Health," said the head of the Ministry of Health.

The document clearly identifies the problems in this area that impede the development of the field of organ transplantation and bone marrow transplantation: the lack of treatment protocols and clear indications for transplantation, a shortage of personnel with practical experience in transplantation, and the like. At the same time, the Ministry of Health has developed a clear mechanism for overcoming such problems and expects ambitious results.

"Already in 2021, we expect an increase in the number of kidney transplants by three times, liver - four times, heart - eight times," the minister said.

According to him, the implementation of the program has begun: today, 24 medical institutions are already participating in a pilot project for the development of a transplant system, and a few days ago, a pancreas transplant was carried out for the first time in Ukraine at Lviv City Clinical Hospital of Emergency Medicine.

The document also contains timelines for the introduction of innovations in each unit of such medical care: organ transplantation, bone marrow transplantation, transplant coordination and personnel policy, where the main goal is to form in Ukraine its own team for allo-BMT for adults. In addition, in order to train quality specialists, the Ministry of Health plans to include the diagnosis of brain death in the curricula for persons who have not received a scientific degree and in postgraduate training for doctors.

The Ministry of Health plans to significantly increase funding for a pilot transplant project already from 2021 - by UAH 483 million.
Worldwide sales have dropped $2 billion, and as many as 100 million bottles are expected to go unsold

News reports from the Champagne region of France paint a grim picture for this years harvest. For a change, the growing level of panic has nothing to do with the weather.

The Champagne industry has been slammed by the COVID-19 pandemic. While consumption of table wine has skyrocketed, Champagne sales have plummeted. The widespread lockdowns may keep people sheltering in place and tippling more than usual, but celebrations such as weddings and graduations have been verboten.

It has been reported that by fall, there could be as many as 100 million unsold bottles of Champagne resting in the cellars of the Champagne region. Worldwide Champagne sales have dropped a stunning $2 billion. In France alone, which accounts for 50 percent of all Champagne sales, the drop is 70 percent of normal. France was in total lockdown for more than two months due to COVID-19.

The backup in inventory is so great that an emergency meeting has been called for Aug. 18 to decide whether to proceed with the harvest or destroy the grapes. Other alternatives being considered are using the grapes to produce hand sanitizer, or possibly table wines without the fizz, though table wine from this rather cool region (where grapes struggle to ripen) could be a bit rough around the edges.

The CIVC, the organization that controls regulations in the Champagne region, is likely to impose severe limits on harvested grapes due to the backlog in inventory.

One option not being discussed, at least openly, is a dramatic reduction in price. Champagne is expensive. Its expensive primarily because its time-consuming and costly to produce.

Many non-vintage Champagnes are aged a minimum of three years before release. Thats a long time to sit on inventory without any sales revenue. Vintage Champagne and special cuvee Champagne are typically aged far longer than non-vintage Champagne, sometimes up to nine years.

The old saying time is money is especially true in the Champagne business. By contrast, most New World sparkling wines are released after aging for two years or less.

No one knows what the CIVC will decide later this month, but none of the options are very appealing. Im hoping for a painful but bold decision to move the excess inventory with steep discounts worldwide.

For wine consumers, that would be something to celebrate during these strange times.

Tasting Notes

Wines are rated on a 100-point scale. Wines are chosen for review because they represent outstanding quality or value, and the scores are simply a measure of this reviewers enthusiasm for the recommended wine.

Graham Beck Brut Rose, Western Cape, South Africa ($18.99): This non-vintage bubbly from South Africa comes in at an attractive price, and you will love whats in the bottle, too. The cuvee relies heavily on pinot noir, hence the strong note of raspberry and cherry. A jolt (34 percent) of chardonnay brings structure and notes of citrus. On the palate, this sparkling rose is supple and inviting, shows exceptional fruit purity, and delivers great persistence through the finish. Best value. Rating: 88.

Graham Beck Brut Rose, Western Cape, South Africa. (Courtesy of Graham Beck Estate)

Majuscule 2018 Cabernet Franc, Mount Veeder ($80): Forget whatever you know about cabernet franc before you take your first sip of Majuscule. Light? No. Green? No. Boring? Definitely not. This beauty from the Napa Valleys Mount Veeder sub-appellation is richly layered with impressive depth and remarkable complexity. The 2018 shows notes of blueberry and blackberry, supple tannins, and a generous hit of wood spice. Hefty price tag, hefty wine. Rating: 96.

Majuscule 2018 Cabernet Franc, Mount Veeder. (Courtesy of Majuscule Wine)

La Crema 2016 Pinot Noir, Saralees Vineyard, Russian River Valley ($55): Its not always easy to find a new-release pinot noir with a little bit of bottle age, but here it is. La Cremas 2016 vintage from the iconic Saralees Vineyard offers a pinot of uncommon depth and complexity, shows beautifully integrated tannins, and is ready to drink now. Complex notes of raspberry, strawberry, and cherry come together in a dazzling display of RRV pinot noir at its very best. Rating: 95.

La Crema 2016 Pinot Noir, Saralees Vineyard, Russian River Valley. (Courtesy of Jackson Family Wines)

MacRostie 2019 Pinot Noir Rose, Russian River Valley ($28): Bursting with notes of strawberry and cherry, this is a crowd-pleasing dry rose that just goes on and on. MacRostie is famous for its chardonnay and pinot noir, but now it seems rose is getting in on that class act. Rating: 94.

MacRostie 2019 Pinot Noir Rose, Russian River Valley. (Courtesy of MacRostie Winery and Vineyards)

To find out more about Robert Whitley and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at Creators.com. Email Robert at whitleyonwine@yahoo.com. Copyright 2020 Creators.com
Nearly two months after the standoff at the Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, allegations of corruption within the Chinese Army and questions on the substandard Dongfeng military vehicle are emerging that point towards the death of Chinese soldiers at the Galwan Valley.

In the DNA show, Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary analyses and connects the dots between the corruption within the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) and how it affected China's soldiers at Galwan Valley. At first, we have to understand what is the basis of these allegations of corruption on the Chinese Army.

On June 15 night, 20 Indian soldiers were martyred and 40-50 Chinese soldiers were also killed. However, China has been hiding the truth from the world as to the exact number of Chinese soldiers killed in the Galwan Valley. If anyone in China talks about it, then China takes strict action against that person. A person named Zhou Liying posted the real reason on social media for the loss of the Chinese Army at Galwan Valley and as soon as he made these posts, the police accused him of spreading rumours and arrested him later.

In his social media post, he wrote that the military vehicles supplied by a company named Dongfeng to the Chinese Army were of poor quality and due to this corruption of the company, the Chinese soldiers died in the confrontation between China and India at the LAC. Later, 500 such vehicles of this company were returned by the Chinese Army.

After his posts, the company supplying these vehicles to the Chinese army complained against him and he was arrested last week. The Chinese police also made him write an apology after arresting him. This news has been published on the website named chinamail.com, and it is said that it is operated by the PLA. In the letter of apology, it was said that the person concocted the news in an inebriated state and so he apologised.

Now China suppressed the voice of one of its citizens, punished him and forced him to write an apology. But it also exposes the Chinese government's fears and lies over the Galwan Valley incident. This clearly shows that even if China doesn't reveal its losses in the Galwan Valley the people have come to know about the skirmish of Galwan Valley.

A video recently went viral, when tensions between India and China were high at the border, where Indian soldiers were seen hitting the windows, smashing a Chinese Dongfeng named Humvee. However, at that time the Indian Army had made it clear that this video has nothing to do with the ongoing dispute over LAC. But the low quality of army vehicles made in China is clearly visible in the video. Now the discussion in China itself is that such vehicles could not save Chinese soldiers in Galwan and corruption is being cited as the reason behind it.

Some reports published in Chinese media claim that Dongfeng, the manufacturer of these vehicles, has betrayed the Chinese army. This is a serious question for a country like China that claims to stop corruption and now it is being alleged that corruption in defence deals is the reason behind it.

A news report published in one such website states that an officer of Dongfeng company is under investigation for financial disturbances. However, it does not mention the India-China dispute. The news of the ongoing corruption investigation against two executives of Dongfeng company has also been published on a website called Sohu. It also does not mention the border dispute between India and China but both these reports were published in June.

A website, Apply Daily, in China had ruled a connection between the allegations against Dongfeng and the ongoing controversy at LAC as it wrote that poor quality steel was used in the manufacture of these vehicles. The newspaper gets published in Hong Kong after this report the owner has been arrested in Hong Kong on charges of sedition.

China's Dongfeng HUMVEE itself is the biggest example of this. This vehicle is a copy of Hummer used in the US Army, Hummer has now also come civil versions and there is a lot of demand in US and European countries, but China does not consider it a copy and says that it's a product made in China. This is because the Dongfeng MOTOR GROUP, which manufactures Humvee in China, is owned by the Chinese government itself. China is also said to have a license for Hummer's remake. But Dongfeng Motor has not been charged with corruption for the first time. In 2015, there was a corruption investigation against an officer of this company.

When Chinese President Xi Jinping came to power, he promised China to end corruption. He sacked more than one million employees and officials in China. This did not end corruption in China as Xi Jinping seated his people in the positions from which the old officers were dismissed, and with this, he strengthened his hold in power.
Aerial photo taken on July 16, 2020 shows Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong, south China. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

The U.S. side, in league with Hong Kong's opposition camp, challenged "one country, two systems" and the red line of national security in Hong Kong, plunging Hong Kong into prolonged disturbances, and they are the real destroyer of Hong Kong's democracy, freedom and high degree of autonomy, said the liaison office.

The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) said Sunday that the recent so-called U.S. sanctions against some Chinese officials will eventually become the laughingstock of the world.

The hegemonic acts of the United States have drawn widespread, strong condemnation in Hong Kong and have been regarded as bullying and unreasonable by the mainstream public opinion, a spokesperson of the liaison office said in a statement, stressing that the Chinese people will not be intimidated and the so-called sanctions are nothing but a joke.

Officials of central government agencies responsible for Hong Kong affairs and of the HKSAR exercise governance in Hong Kong according to the Constitution and the Basic Law, and they are staunch defenders of Hong Kong's overall interests and residents' well-being, the spokesperson said.

It is truth-distorting and absurd for the United States to claim that the recent actions taken by China fundamentally undermine Hong Kong's autonomy and democratic process, the spokesperson said.

The U.S. side, in league with Hong Kong's opposition camp, challenged "one country, two systems" and the red line of national security in Hong Kong, plunging Hong Kong into prolonged disturbances, the spokesperson said, calling them the real destroyer of Hong Kong's democracy, freedom and high degree of autonomy.

The U.S. politicians who tried to use Hong Kong to make trouble for China and stop China from further developing are doomed to fail, the spokesperson said, adding that those colluding with foreign forces will eventually pay the price.

Photo taken on June 12, 2020 shows the night view of Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong, south China. (Xinhua/Wang Shen)

The United States, always declaring that it upholds democracy and freedom and respects human rights and privacy, recently imposed unreasonable restrictions over and cracked down upon Chinese telecom businesses on the pretext of "data security of U.S. citizens," and even intended to take away the assets of a Chinese tech firm by force and trickery, the spokesperson said.

When interfering in Hong Kong affairs this time, the U.S. government showed its hypocrisy and blatantly disclosed home addresses and personal information of Chinese officials on the U.S. Treasury Department website, the spokesperson said.

Such despicable acts infringing upon privacy have crossed the line politically and morally and only reveal its bullying and double standards more clearly to the world, the spokesperson said, adding the United States will have its moral bankruptcy at a faster pace.
FHA Jobs; Marketing, Cap. Mkts. Products; Webinars in the Comfort of your Home

Paranoia is out of control: This morning, while reviewing this commentary, I sneezed in front of my laptop and the anti-virus software started a scan of its own! The nation continues to brabble about health care, coin shortages, opening up and closing down, and politics it makes my head spin. The political ads are increasing in intensity, with people talking about the Joe Biden ad featuring Lindsey Graham, and President Trump stirringly noting his accomplishments. Did you know that its illegal to campaign from government-owned property? Thats difficult for anyone in politics! Despite the political noise, lenders across the nation are off to great starts in August, with longer locks pointing to a good September as well. It is nice to see this industry as helping millions of borrowers! Consumers arent complaining. In rising numbers, theyre applying for mortgages. The surge in mortgage lending is partly pent up demand because buyers took a pause in March and April. Additionally, the recent stock market rally is not only boosting buyer confidence but also providing money for their down payments.



Lender and Broker Services and Products

The latest Compass Analytics release has some impressive enhancements to support system integrations. Compass CompassBridge solution, which integrates CompassPPE and CompassPoint to other platforms, has expanded its use of stateless processing and microservices, providing greater speed, simplicity, and scale to its users. Additionally, Compass now supports the ability to post ULDD commitment data from CompassPoint to Black Knights Empower LOS and Fiservs MortgageDirector LOS, automating the data entry process for ULDD commitment extracts. Compass has also enhanced its automation capabilities with Empower allowing users to make smarter and faster hedging decisions. In addition, lenders can configure multiple LOS connections with a CompassPPE instance, enabling a more seamless LOS implementation process. Finally, CompassPPE has enhanced its locking functionality, giving secondary more control with features like guideline rules to disable locking. This release, loaded with new features, demonstrates Compass continued focus on innovating the mortgage origination market.

(A conversation happening right now between a lender exec and one of his directs over text.)

Kenneth (Boss): Chris, what percent of our borrowers do their next loan with us?

Chris: I haven't checked lately, but we're around 15 percent.

Kenneth (Boss): So you're telling me only 1-2 people out of 10 come back?

Chis: Sadly, yes... I think it's been like that for a while.

Kenneth (Boss): That stinks. How much have we spent to acquire those borrowers?

Chris: Right around $1,500 each, not counting the hourly cost per processor and underwriter, so, you know

Kenneth (Boss): I need you to get on a call with you first thing tomorrow morning.

Kenneth.... It's time to figure out what you've been missing... from the experts: www.salesboomerang.com/challenge.

"Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first 4 sharpening the axe." (Abraham Lincoln) Having a solid process and strategy coupled with your efforts is critical to finding success in our world today. A single cold call and an email isn't going to get you hires, you need a solid, concrete plan of attack in order to target the right talent and set the right meetings. Build out your strategy with Model Match and communicate your process into actions across your entire footprint. Combined with On-Demand Market Insights, gain access to nationwide origination data and fill your pipeline with high quality targets to set your team up for success. Click here to connect with our team to see how you can create healthy pipelines and create a strategy to help you reach your goals.



Webinars for August and Early September

Volume and lender demand continue to be at an all-time high. To successfully meet your borrowers needs and stay ahead of the curve, its important to adopt the right technology. In three days, Capacity is teaming up with HousingWire for a webinar titled: How Leaders in Lending Are Driving Results Through New Technology. Capacitys VP of Marketing, Justin Schmidt, along with Karthik Kumar from TCS, and Scott Roller from Vendor Surf, will dive into the current trends and highlight the technology leading firms are using to drive results. You will learn what technology is driving results in the mortgage industry, what is on the horizon in mortgage tech, and how to get ahead of it. You dont want to miss this webinar on August 13. Register here. Want a sneak peek? Request a demo to learn more.

I have the honor of speaking this week during the HAMB (Hawaii Association of Mortgage Brokers and Professionals) and MBAHs free webinar, sponsored by First Hawaiian Bank, on August 13, from 1-2PM PT. Check it out and say hi!

California MBA and MBA Members are invited to join a free webinar from 10-11 PST today for a presentation of the issues on Californias November Ballot, which will feature California MBA and MBA staff as well as independent experts on each ballot initiative. (California MBA Members use this code to register for free: CAPROP.)

On August 12th at 10:30am, MMBBA and MBA/MW are offering "Tangible Tips for Mortgage Marketing" webinar featuring Matt Muscat, the Author of TAG. This short webinar will cover tangible tips for generating more business for mortgage and real estate professionals. Leveraging Facebooks algorithm for free, using messenger to your advantage, and bolstering your database will be among many of the topics.

NAMMBA is hosting a special webinar for CEO's and senior executives called Black Lives Matter Movement: What Does It Mean For Your Company? on Wednesday, August 12, from 2- 3PM ET. This webinar will include findings from a survey NAMMBA conducted on how employees felt their companies responded to this movement and best practices companies can implement to start building a more inclusive and intentional culture in their organization. To register, CLICK HERE (limited seating available).

Arch MIs upcoming Trainings Schedule is now available for review and registration.

AmeriHomes underwriting management team is offering a series of webinar meetings covering a selection of recent VA Lenders Handbook updates and related changes to AmeriHome guidelines and requirements. These meeting will be most useful for VA Loan Processors and Underwriters. Register as soon as possible, space is limited. The August 17th Webinar will cover VA Lenders Handbook Ch. 10  Appraisal Process and VA Circular 26-20-25  Impact of CARES Act Forbearance on VA eligibility. The September 14th Webinar will cover VA Lenders Handbook Ch. 11  Appraiser Requirements.

Join Flagstar Bank and Freddie Mac for an Affordable Housing Virtual Summit, August 17th and 18th : Navigating Todays Evolving Housing Market. If you are unable to attend the virtual summit, recordings of all sessions will be available to those who register.

The MBA is offering free online learning through MBA's Path to Diversity Scholarship in the month of September.

Don't Miss the CoAMP Wire Fraud and Cyber Crime Virtual Class with Peggy Pingel, Analyst for the Identity Theft and Financial Fraud Unit at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, on September 2nd beginning at 1:00.

Join your partners across the real estate transaction for the National Settlement Services Summit (NS3) Sept. 1-3. At this years event you can learn how recent legislation will affect your business from HUDs Deputy Secretary Brian Montgomery as well as from state regulators, what to expect from the economy from Fannie Maes Chief Economist Doug Duncan and how to stay cybersecure with the FTC and an entire cybersecurity track. Attendees will be able to discuss the adoption and response to trends such as the rise of digital mortgages and iBuyers from those leading the way such as our Keynote Speaker, Zillows Ryan Berry.

Zelman & Associates 2020 Virtual Housing Summit  September 21-25! Attend this years exclusive housing conference Co-Hosted by top ranked Wall Street housing Analyst, Ivy Zelman. Live panel discussions, industry expert keynotes, rich research content and a comprehensive perspective on the entire housing ecosystem. Grow your business and learn more than your competition. Email for registration information and mention this newsletter for a discount  kim@zelmanassociates.com.



Capital Markets

The big economic release to close last week was the July employment report on Friday morning, which showed that Americas job market is losing steam after two months of improvement. The 1.8 million jobs added in July was better than estimates but still a sharp slowdown from the 4.8 million gained in June, as businesses closed again in parts of the country where the virus has surged. The unemployment rate dropped to 10.2 percent in July, down from 11.1 percent in June, but still well above the 3.5 percent low from February. Payrolls remain nearly 13 million, or 8.4 percent, below the February peak before the recession started. Only a little more than 40 percent of the jobs lost since the pandemic hit have been recovered. What does it all mean for mortgage rates? Well, this rate of job growth certainly won't push mortgage rates higher, which is welcome news for many, though it prevents more buyers from entering into housing markets. Its expected that the August payrolls figure will show further deterioration.

The other big news affecting mortgage rates was regarding further stimulus talks in Washington. President Trump on Saturday issued executive orders to pay $400 a week in extra jobless benefits, extend the moratorium on evictions, delay payroll tax collections for some workers and give flexibility to Americans who owe student loans. He may not have the power to act on his own in such a matter, given that the Constitution gives Congress power of the purse. Legal challenges are expected. His decision to sign the measures comes as White House officials and top congressional Democrats remained bitterly divided on a number of critical issues.

Other economic releases showed consumer credit increased by $9.0 billion in June though it was below expectations and marked the fourth straight monthly contraction in revolving credit, which is something that hasn't happened in nearly a decade, and demonstrating the more restrictive credit stance adopted by lenders in the wake of the COVID shutdown and spike in unemployment. By Fridays close, MBS and Treasuries had pulled back slightly.

This weeks economic calendar includes updates on July PPI and CPI, the budget deficit, import/export prices, and the ever-important July Retail Sales. The weeks most likely market moving event comes via a $112 billon record Quarterly Refunding consisting of $48 billion 3-year Treasury notes, $38 billion 10-year Treasury notes and $26 billion 30-year Treasury notes to be auctioned tomorrow through Thursday. Todays calendar sees only June Job Openings from JOLTS and the July Employment Trends Index, both due out later this morning. With regards to MBS, the Desk will purchase a maximum of $17.2 billion this week. Today, the NY Fed Desk will potentially buy a total $3.5 billion starting with $753 million UMBS15 2 percent and 2.5 percent followed by $2.8 billion UMBS30 2 percent through 3 percent. We start the week with Agency MBS prices better/up a few ticks and the 10-year yielding .55 after closing Friday at 0.56 percent.

Employment and Promotions

Caliber Home Loans is a great place to work! HousingWires August issue awarded Calibers Ann Thorn and Renee Galitis both as 2020 Women of Influence. Criteria for this recognition is based on professional achievements within their organizations, contributions to the overall industry, community outreach, client impact, and personal success. We nurture professional development while providing innovative technology and rewarding skilled talent with lucrative salaries and bonuses. Are you driven and influential in helping people obtain their dream of home ownership? Do you strive to exceed your personal best every day? Do you want to develop your professional skills with Calibers award-winning leadership? If so, we want to talk to you! Interested in one of our posted job opportunities? Please contact Jonathan Stanley for consideration. Interested in a sales opportunity at Caliber? Please contact Brian Miller for immediate consideration. Visit the Caliber Careers website for opportunities across the organization!

Do you know an operations team that might be interested in a new and exciting opportunity? There is a fast-growing regional company with a great track record of employee retention whose sales staff is growing faster than operations can handle. It is willing to pay a $25,000 referral bonus to someone who puts them in contact with the right team of underwriters, closers, and compliance people anywhere in the country who may want to move as a team. Contact Scott Flaherty for more details.

Towne Mortgage Company is growing again, and would like bring on high performing underwriters with at least 3 years of experience. Over the last year our volume has increased by 300% and for nearly 40 years we have provided big name results with a small Towne touch. Being part of our Towne has its perks; We offer industry leading health benefits because we care about your safety and well-being first. Boost your performance with skills training and maintain work/life balance with our alternative work arrangements. Towne is committed to fostering a respectful, inclusive community that is diverse in all aspects, both in and outside of the office. Come for the stability, stay for the culture. Full-time, on-site, 100% REMOTE and flexible/part-time opportunities are available. If interested, please contact Jessie James to learn more.

In our relentless pursuit of excellence, Trinity Oaks Mortgage is seeking passionate, driven Mortgage Loan Originators and Sr. Loan Processors in the DFW area to join our team. TOM is a full service, independently owned mortgage banker headquartered in Red Oak, TX that puts a great emphasis on providing you with the tools, technology and support you are looking for to be successful. If youre seeking a position with a growing, innovative company that values family, honest communication, 2nd Mile Service and generous love to our employees, we want to talk to you! Visit our website to learn more about Trinity Oaks, view job description and apply online, or contact Todd Reynolds (Sales) or Kizzy Kehoe (Ops) to learn more.

Attracting Operations talent is big news in the industry lately. Joining Thrive is absolutely the best career move I have ever made. This is the most common sentiment expressed by new Ops Team Members after their first few months with the company. After laying an incredible foundation of best-of-breed technology solutions, perfecting their Quality & Efficiency workflow, and building one of the best leadership teams in the industry; Thrive Mortgage is crushing production numbers and is positioned to maintain this growth for years to come. Our operations staff is unmatched. We simply have the best people across all our teams, stated Selene Kellam, COO for Thrive. When you have great leadership, it simply breeds a culture of excellence from the top down. To inquire about open positions within Thrive, contact Jamal Chubb or Josh Harvith to begin a conversation. You can also visit us at Join.ThriveMortgage.com to learn more.

If you are interested in helping make affordable and sustainable housing solutions available to millions of low- to moderate-income individuals and families each year, FHA is hiring for two positions: Deputy Director of the Quality Assurance Division in Washington D.C. and Supervisory Underwriter in Santa Ana, CA.

Blackstones Incenter announced the appointment of Tom Piercy as President, Enterprise Business Development. Tom will remain Managing Director of Incenter Mortgage Advisors but also head Incenters new National Enterprise Sales Team consisting of Tyler Bohn, Nick Costas, and Steve Ferringer, each serving as EVPs, National Business Development.
Over the years, the Congress has seen scores of rebellions and defections by party men more senior and prized than Sachin Pilot. But never in recent memory has a disaffected leader been as assiduously wooed as the former Rajasthan deputy chief minister after his revolt against Ashok Gehlot.

The Congress leaderships peace overtures to Pilot -- including his latest meeting with Rahul Gandhi -- were unprecedented also in the light of the chief ministers majority support in the legislature party: 100-plus loyalists against a mutinous 20-odd. Party spokespersons described Pilot as a valued colleague, as family while advocating dialogue to sort out the misunderstandings or grievances he has with Gehlot.

To be sure, this may also have been made possible by the lack of options before Pilot once it became clear he couldnt get more legislators to switch to his camp.

Albeit on a much smaller scale, the clamor -- it seemed to lose steam after the initial burst on Twitter by Congress leaders of Pilots generation -- to not let him leave was reminiscent of 1999. That was when Sonia Gandhi quit as Congress president after the Sharad Pawar-led rebellion on the issue of her foreign origin. The only difference: she resigned, and Pilot was sacked from the positions he held for ignoring the partys urgings to bury the hatchet.

To be fair, much of Pilots insubordination, if thats the word, was unattributed. Personally remaining incommunicado, his was a proxy media offensive against Gehlots excesses to marginalise his faction. A thread that ran common to these off-the-record conversations was the assertion that Pilot had no plans to cross over to the Bharatiya Janata Party; and that his battle was against the CM, not the partys central command. Its another matter that bipartisan observers saw circumstantial evidence flying in the face of his claim of no truck with the BJP.

Be that as it may, these averments, which couldve been tactics to skirt disciplinary action or make the party complacent, distinguished laffaire Pilot from past intraparty ferments. The Congress For Democracy (CFD), formed by Jagjivan Ram and HN Bahuguna before the 1977 elections, was a frontal denouncement of Indira Gandhis Emergency. Before that, Chandra Shekhar, the original Young Turk of Indian politics, chose jail over a ministerial berth by refusing to back suspension of democratic freedoms under the draconian 1975 proclamation.

In the early phase of her long innings, Indira, then a relative neophyte, fought the powerful syndicate of Congress old guard in 1966-67 to become Prime Minister. The group that wanted her tamed included such stalwarts as Morarji Desai, K Kamaraj and S Nijalingappa. She had to wait till the 1969 presidential poll to put her stamp of supremacy on the party. The turning point came when her candidate, VV Giri defeated the syndicates nominee, Sanjeeva Reddy.

Thats now a bygone era.

Todays Congress is without even the truncated strength bequeathed to it by PV Narasimha Rao, who ran a good minority regime but paid scant attention to the health of the organisation he led by default after Rajiv Gandhis assassination. The period, made difficult by the 1992 Ayodhya episode, witnessed senior functionaries leaving the party in a veritable procession.

The breakaway group led by ND Tiwari had people like Arjun Singh and Natwar Singh in it. They rejoined the Congress in 1998 after Rao ceased to be its president, and his successor Sitaram Kesri was dispensed with to make room for Sonia Gandhi.

The Congress she inherited was a pale copy of the one headed by her husband. With over 400 seats in the Lok Sabha, Rajiv Gandhi appeared unstoppable when elected PM in 1984. The sheen wore off fast as charges of graft (read Bofors) and other missteps (read Shah Bano; opening of temple doors in Ayodhya) which clouded the initiatives for which hes remembered: advent of information technology; empowerment of Panchayati Raj institutions; warding off global pressure to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

In the second half of Rajivs rule, his former defence and finance minister, VP Singh declared an all-out war, using the Bofors scam to marshal the entire Opposition against the Congress. The Janata Dal that formed the government in 1989 under Singh was founded a year earlier.

Besides him, the trinity that unraveled the legislatively formidable Rajiv dispensation included the latters ambitious cousin, Arun Nehru and Arif Mohammad Khan, who fell out with him when the government gave in to the hardline lobby in the Shah Bano case.

From the memoirs of Giani Zail Singh and PC Alexander, it is evident that Arun Nehru engineered Pranab Mukherjees ouster from Rajivs inner circle after the 1984 elections in the wake of Indiras assassination. That saw Mukherjee forming his own party-- before merging it with the Congress in 1989. In Rajivs own words, the reconciliation happened when he realised that many things told to him about his mothers trusted men, such as Mukherjee and RK Dhawan, were untrue.

The episode could be a lesson for the incumbent high command on the risks of being misled by those they trust.

Like Mukherjee, who rose to be Indias President, other Congress biggies who formed their own parties but later returned to the Congress were former Kerala CMs K Karunakaran and AK Antony. An ace party hand, GK Moopanar floated his Tamil Mannila Congress in the 1990s. But for the DMKs opposition, he couldve been the PM of the United Front government in 1996.

Another Indira loyalist, VC Shuklas homecoming happened in 2004 after stints in Pawars Nationalist Congress Party and the BJP. He also served as a minister under VP Singh and Chandra Shekhar.

The restlessness of talented people in the Congress today is largely the work of its fixation with the Nehru-Gandhi name, which has undoubtedly kept it from falling apart, besides fetching it power on Sonia Gandhis watch from 2004 to 2014. But in the absence of the glue of power, even that utilitarian value of the first family came unstuck with a string of debilitating defections: Hemata Biswa Sarma, Jaganmohan Reddy and Jyotiradtiya Scindia, to name a few (and whose decisions to part ways has seriously dented the party).

That brings Pilot back into the narrative. In his early forties, he hasnt left the Congress and seems to have returned to the fold after keeping the party on the tenterhooks for weeks.

Perhaps Pilots terms of entente were unrealistic. After all, a CM with majority support in the legislature could not be removed at his asking. He needed to agree to a middle ground. And seems to have.
Before she came to the United States, Ramirez had worked in emergency care and with the Red Cross in her native Colombia. Without the Welcome Back Centers help, she said the process of becoming certified would have taken much longer. She didnt know much English and was just about ready to give up on working as a nurse when she found the center. We just need someone to open the door and let us prove that we have the skills, she said. But, she added, its hard to get that door open.
ROME - Greece has warned Turkey not to continue with what the Greek foreign ministry has described as ''illegal actions' south of the small island of Kastellorizo, stating that they mark ''a new, serious escalation'' that proves Turkey's ''destabilizing and dangerous'' role for peace.

The Greek response, Kathimerini reports, comes after the Turkish navy issued a 'navtex', a navigation warning, stating that the ship Oruc Reis will conduct seismic surveys south of Kastellorizo for two weeks.

''Greece will not accept blackmailing and will defend its sovereign rights'', the ministry said in a statement, stressing that the Turkish navtex was proof that Ankara's claim that it was ready to discuss the situation in the eastern Mediterranean ''was only a pretext''. The Greek counter-navtex says the Turkish warning to ships in the area is illegal.
Six years ago this month, the Islamic State (IS) published its first video in what would become the prevailing image of the war: a jumpsuit-clad hostage kneeling before a knife-wielding executioner. For the parents of slain Americans James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller, justice has remained elusive.

But two of the families told Al-Monitor they were given fresh hope after a phone call with Attorney General William Barr on Aug. 6. Barr told them federal prosecutors will take the death penalty off the table as a potential sentence for two men alleged to have tortured and killed foreign hostages. News of the call was first reported by NBC News.

This decision would make it possible for the United Kingdom, the suspects home country, to share evidence that could be key to putting El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey behind bars in the United States. If the British government doesn't provide its evidence within six weeks, Barr told the families that Kotey and Elsheikh may be prosecuted in Iraq where they are currently detained.

"At this point, the balls in their court," said Carl Mueller, whose daughter Kayla was imprisoned by the group and raped by then-IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. "If [the British government] doesn't want to do anything for their citizens that were murdered, well, so be it. Let us do it."

"I think [Barrs] actually given them an ultimatum. The death penalty is off the table for this period of time. If you dont make a decision, they might leave them in Iraq."

The attorney general said he would be speaking with UK Home Secretary Priti Patel ahead of a public announcement this week, according to Diane Foley, mother of one of the victims. US Justice Department Spokesperson Alison Kjergaard declined to confirm whether the administrations position on the death penalty had moved, but she told Al-Monitor that the department is committed to ensuring justice for the victims.

Two years after their capture by US-allied Kurdish forces in Syria, Elsheikh and Kotey have yet to step foot in a courtroom, despite admitting to at least some of their crimes during multiple interviews with foreign journalists.

The delay is not for lack of evidence. The British government has more than 600 witness statements collected by the Metropolitan Police, in addition to phone calls and other intelligence intercepts on the two men.

Its clear that the US does not have that evidence and the UK does, said Toby Cadman, a British human rights lawyer advising Diane Foley. I think it is a credible concern.

The UK government initially handed over some materials to American prosecutors without assurances on the death penalty, which Britain abolished in 1998. The British Supreme Court ruled in March that the home secretarys decision to share information in a trial where capital punishment is a possible outcome had breached the countrys data protection law.

The parents of the four American victims have called on the Donald Trump administration both privately and publicly to spare Kotey and Elsheikh from the death penalty so that prosecutors can build the strongest case possible using British-supplied evidence.

Theyve listened to us, taken meetings with us. And weve tried to be patient, said Diane Foley. This August will be six years since Jim was killed. Its really time to take action.

Foley's son, a freelance journalist who covered the Syrian civil war for outlets including GlobalPost and Agence France-Presse, was the first hostage publicly beheaded by the group after the US government failed to secure his release.

This administration speaks of law and order, Foley said. To me, our American justice system is a perfect way to give a strong message to any terrorist seeking to kidnap or hurt our citizens.

Dubbed the Beatles by their victims due to their accents, Kotey and Elsheikh are the remaining half of a British cell that also included Mohammed Emwazi, who died in a CIA drone strike in 2015, and Aine Davis, who was sentenced to prison on terrorism charges in Turkey in 2017.

The US State Department says the group was responsible for beheading some two dozen hostages and subjecting their victims to exceptionally cruel torture methods, including waterboarding, electric shock and mock executions.

Former hostages have said some of the worst treatment came from masked, British-accented jailers matching their description, but Kotey and Elsheikh have downplayed their role. In interviews, they claimed their duties largely consisted of collecting email addresses and other information from the hostages, which would later be used in ransom negotiations.

Kotey and Elsheikh, whose British citizenship has been revoked, remain in US military custody. The pair are currently held without charge at Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq.

It kind of gives them a celebrity status and lets them become martyrs for IS, said Marsha Mueller, Kaylas mother. Just bring them here, put them on trial, put them away and let them be forgotten.

The Muellers believe a trial by jury can shed some light on what happened to Kayla. Unlike Foley, Sotloff and Kassig, whose killings were documented on video, the circumstances surrounding their daughter's death are unclear.

The US let all of our families down, Marsha Mueller said, referring to the previous administration's no-concessions policy and its widely criticized handling of the hostages. The Donald Trump administration, she says, knows how we feel, and they are listening to us.

We would all prefer a life sentence in a supermax prison, Carl Mueller said of Kotey and Elsheikh, whose trials he said he would attend.

These guys shouldnt have rights. Our children didnt have rights. We dont have rights, he added. Marsha and I got a life sentence.
VANCOUVER, BC, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE: RBA) and (TSX: RBA) ("Ritchie Bros." or the "Company"), the world's largest industrial auctioneer and a leading used equipment seller, announced the appointment of Kevin Geisner as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). In this new role, Geisner will have responsibility for driving the Company's overall corporate strategy as well as execution of corporate development activities, including mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and the Company's data analytics & market insights capabilities. He will serve as a member of Ritchie Bros. Executive Committee and report to Ann Fandozzi, CEO.

"Kevin has the deep knowledge and skills needed to lead our strategy. He has a proven track record and his outstanding strategic capabilities and broad industry experience make him the perfect leader to help set our long-term strategy and bring value from data and advanced analytics to our customers," said Ann Fandozzi, Chief Executive Officer of Ritchie Bros Auctioneers. "This is an exciting time at Ritchie Bros. because we have an incredible opportunity to leverage our scale and expand our digital and technology capabilities in order to deliver a great customer experience, while driving growth and long-term value creation."

Geisner brings 30 years of experience and has held various leadership positions in his career including most recently as Chief Strategy Officer of Abra Auto Body & Glass. He has also held a variety of senior strategy and leadership positions at Amazon, Microsoft, and McKinsey & Company. Geisner earned a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University and holds two Master of Science degrees from Drexel University.

"I could not be more delighted to join Ritchie Bros. at such an exciting time in the Company's history", said Geisner. "While we enjoy many strengths, there remains significant opportunity to expand and innovate. I look forward to helping the Company deliver long term sustainable growth while accelerating the Company's digital strategies to enhance the customer and employee experience."

About Ritchie Bros.:

Established in 1958, Ritchie Bros. (NYSE and TSX: RBA) is a global asset management and disposition Company, offering customers end-to-end solutions for buying and selling used heavy equipment, trucks and other assets. Operating in a number of sectors, including construction, transportation, agriculture, energy, oil and gas, mining, and forestry, the Company's selling channels include: Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers , the world's largest industrial auctioneer offers live auction events with online bidding; IronPlanet , an online marketplace with featured weekly auctions and providing the exclusive IronClad Assurance equipment condition certification; Marketplace-E , a controlled marketplace offering multiple price and timing options; Mascus , a leading European online equipment listing service; and Ritchie Bros. Private Treaty , offering privately negotiated sales. The Company's suite of multichannel sales solutions also includes RB Asset Solutions, a complete end-to-end asset management and disposition system. Ritchie Bros. also offers sector-specific solutions including GovPlanet, TruckPlanet, and Kruse Energy Auctioneers, plus equipment financing and leasing through Ritchie Bros. Financial Services. For more information about Ritchie Bros., visit RitchieBros.com .

SOURCE Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers

Related Links

http://www.rbauction.com


Technavio has been monitoring the cable tray market and it is poised to grow by USD 2.08 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 7% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200810005401/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Cable Tray Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. ABB Ltd., Atkore International Group Inc., Chatsworth Products Inc., Eaton Corp. Plc, Hubbell Inc., Legrand SA, OBO BETTERMANN Holding GmbH Co. KG, Schneider Electric SE, TransDelta International Industries LLC, and voestalpine AG are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

Increasing adoption of automation and communication technologies has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, fluctuating prices of raw materials might hamper market growth.

Cable Tray Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Cable Tray Market is segmented as below:

End-user Commercial Industrial Residential

Geography APAC North America Europe South America MEA



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Cable Tray 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 cable tray market report covers the following areas:

Cable Tray Market size

Cable Tray Market trends

Cable Tray Market industry analysis

This study identifies the increasing use of cloud-based servers as one of the prime reasons driving the cable tray market growth during the next few years.

Cable Tray Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the cable tray market, including some of the vendors such as ABB Ltd., Atkore International Group Inc., Chatsworth Products Inc., Eaton Corp. Plc, Hubbell Inc., Legrand SA, OBO BETTERMANN Holding GmbH Co. KG, Schneider Electric SE, TransDelta International Industries LLC, and voestalpine AG. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the cable tray market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Cable Tray Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist cable tray market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the cable tray market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the cable tray market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of cable tray 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 End-user

Market segments

Comparison by End-user

Commercial Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Industrial Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Residential Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by End-user

Customer landscape

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Key leading countries

Market opportunity by geography

Market drivers Demand led growth

Market challenges

Market trends

Vendor Landscape

Vendor landscape

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

ABB Ltd.

Atkore International Group Inc.

Chatsworth Products Inc.

Eaton Corp. Plc

Hubbell Inc.

Legrand SA

OBO BETTERMANN Holding GmbH Co. KG

Schneider Electric SE

TransDelta International Industries LLC

voestalpine AG

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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Authorities in Hong Kong on Monday arrested pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai and raided the newsroom of his flagship newspaper, the Apple Daily, under a draconian new security law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party.



Dozens of uniformed officers from the newly established national security division of the Hong Kong police force filed into the headquarters of Lai's Next Digital media company, cordoning off the Apple Daily's newsroom and removing boxes of material they described as "evidence."



Lai, 71, an outspoken critic of Beijing, was taken away by police at around 10.00 a.m. local time and charged under a clause in the new law banning "collusion with foreign powers." Eight of his colleagues were also arrested.



"Jimmy Lai is being arrested for collusion with foreign powers at this time," Lai's aide Mark Simon, said via Twitter.



Police also arrested Lai's son Ian and searched both men's homes, the Apple Daily reported.



According to the Oriental Daily News, an arrest warrant has also been issued for Simon, who is currently not in Hong Kong.

Hours after the arrest of Lai and the raid on the Apple Daily, police arrested prominent pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow Ting at her home under the national security law, according to tweets by a fellow activist and Chow's official Facebook page.

"Agnes Chow was arrested on the charge of 'inciting secession' under the National Security Law. The lawyer said the police reached Agness residence with a search warrant issued on August 6," Chow's account said. She had written Sunday that her home as being watched by "suspicious" men.

Nathan Law, Chow's former colleague in the pro-democracy Demosisto party, also confirmed Chow had been taken into custody.

"Agnes Chow is arrested under National Security Law and we are still acquiring information about the content of the arrests. Horrible day," wrote Law, who is based in England.

The raid on the Apple Daily is the first time the new security regime, which is being overseen by China's feared state security police, has been used to target a media organization.



Lai's is also the first high-profile arrest on charges of "collusion with foreign powers," a charge which came after repeated claims from Beijing that last year's anti-government and pro-democracy protest movement was instigated by "hostile overseas forces."



Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), the Hong Kong Photojournalists' Association, the Independent Commentators Association, and the Next Media Labor Union, and four other media industry organizations issued a joint statement after the raid, saying the police had searched journalists' desks and personal belongings.



"More than 100 police officers searched the Next Digital building and set up a cordon," the statement said. "Everyone's belongings were searched, as well as items at their desks."



"It is very important for the operation of the media that research materials and source information remain protected," it said.



"This wanton raid on news materials by the police will create a chilling effect, making sources reluctant to expose shady dealings in the media and weakening its ability to supervise those in power," it said.



'Prepare for the worst'



HKJA chairman Chris Yeung called on the city's journalists to prepare for the worst, as the authorities had removed material from the Next Digital offices that could identify journalists' sources.



"Maybe only a month or two ago, nobody could have imagined such a thing could happen here in Hong Kong," Yeung told reporters outside Digital Media headquarters. "I don't think even people who have worked in the media for decades have ever seen anything like it."



He said police raids on media organizations, in breach of traditional protections of the "fourth estate," would create an atmosphere of fear, and have a huge impact on journalists, in a psychological campaign known in Chinese as "white terror."



Yeung said the HKJA had been concerned from the day the new law took effect that it gave broad and sweeping powers to police in cases deemed to involve "national security."



"Unfortunately it didnt take long for our worries to become a reality, and in an extremely bad case of police operation and raid to a media office," he said in comments reported by government broadcaster RTHK.



Steve Li, a senior superintendent in Hong Kong's national security police, said police had displayed a warrant before entering the building, and denied that any material generated by journalists had been removed.



"We all knew that it was a media organization and there was news material involved ... so we didn't search if there was a good chance that there was that kind of material in those departments, for example, the editorial department."



But social media reports said police had ordered journalists to leave the newsroom and cordoned off the area.



Police also denied permission to news outlets including Reuters, Agence France-Presse, and the Associated Press, to enter the premises to cover the raid.



A police spokesperson said there wasn't enough space to allow journalists inside.



"We chose local, bigger news organizations that haven't hindered us or threatened our safety during previous operations," the spokesperson said.



During last year's protest movement, journalists repeatedly lodged complaints after police prevented them from filming, claiming that they were "obstructing" a police operation or failing to cooperate with instructions.



Yeung said it was unacceptable for the police to be screening journalists to determine their access to such events.



FCC condemns raid, arrests



The Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) strongly condemned Lai's arrest, along with that of eight colleagues, and the raid on the Apple Daily.



"The arrests, and the raid on the newsroom, are a direct assault on Hong Kongs press freedom and signal a dark new phase in the erosion of the citys global reputation," the statement said.



It said the raid made a nonsense of official claims that the national security law wouldn't be used to suppress the media.



It said police were seen "rifling through notes and papers on reporters' desks."



"All of this was witnessed via live-streaming by Apple Daily reporters who continued to video this breach of press freedom and provide continuous coverage online," it said, confirming reports that police had blocked several local and international media outlets from a press briefing about the raid.



"It seems some police officers are substituting their judgment as to which media outlets they consider 'friendly' and allowed to cover important briefings, and which media they can block," the FCC said, adding that journalists who did attend were prevented from asking questions of police.



"If the police are allowed to decide who counts as a legitimate journalist ... no critical coverage [is] available to the public," it said. "Instead of the free flow of information, Hong Kong will have only propaganda."



Police arrested prominent pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow Ting at her home, on charges of inciting secession under the national security law, according to tweets by fellow activist Nathan Law and Chow's official Facebook page. Credit: AP More suppression likely



Bruce Lui, a senior lecturer in Hong Kong Baptist Universitys journalism department, said suppression of Hong Kong's once freewheeling media organizations now looked likely.



"They can do this both through law enforcement actions and through personnel changes," Lui said. "It will now be very easy for the government to move against Next Media, which has a strong stance and attempts to hold the government to account, as well as some overseas media organizations."



Lai's arrest comes after he made a series of critical tweets in May after Beijing announced its intention to impose the national security law on Hong Kong.



China's state-owned Global Times newspaper has called the tweets "evidence of subversion."



The same month, Lai wrote an op-ed in the New York Times questioning this view.



"I have always thought I might one day be sent to jail for my publications or for my calls for democracy in Hong Kong," Lai wrote. "But for a few tweets, and because they are said to threaten the national security of mighty China? Thats a new one, even for me."



Lai has also been arrested on public order charges in connection with his attendance at protests last year and his attendance at a vigil for the victims of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen massacre.



He also met with then U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last year to discuss his opposition to plans by Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam to allow extradition to mainland China, the issue that triggered mass peaceful protests of up to two million people on the city's streets.



The national security law bans secessionist, subversive, and terrorist acts, as well as collusion with foreign forces to interfere in Hong Kong's internal affairs, charges which carry a maximum sentence of imprisonment for life.

In Washington, National Security Advisor Robert OBrien called Lai and his staff powerful voices for the fundamental rights and liberties that Beijing guaranteed to the people of Hong Kong, but that it now systematically attacks.

These arrests are also a clear effort to intimidate pro-democracy and political opposition figures and suppress Hong Kongs free and independent media, which have played key roles in the citys character and success, he said in a statement.

Rep. James McGovern and Sen. Marco Rubio, the Chair and Cochair, respectively, of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), an advisory group, denounced the arrests and called for sanctions

Hong Kongs vague National Security Law is being used to justify human rights abuses, silence anyone critical of Beijings policies, and repress democratic voices, the CECC heads said in a letter signed by the full commission.

The arrests of Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, Agnes Chow Ting, and other pro-democracy activists, along with the raid of Apple Daily Hong Kong are serious violations of human rights. U.S. allies and partners should follow with their own sanctions and condemnations, they wrote.



Reported by Lau Siu-fung for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Gao Feng for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Newcastle: bulk carrier detained after seafarers intimidated, underpaid and forced to sail for 14 months

The detention of a Hong Kong-flagged vessel allowed to cart alumina along Australias coast amidst accusations of abuse and intimidation shows the federal governments fundamentally flawed regulation of coastal shipping is leading to the extreme mistreatment of vulnerable workers and violation of their human rights, says the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA).

The bulk carrier Unison Jasper was bringing alumina to the Tomago Aluminium smelter in central NSW when it was detained by authorities in the Port of Newcastle following allegations that crew members were abused, intimidated and forced to sign contract extensions which would have kept them on board for up to fourteen months, well beyond the legal maximum of eleven months.

The Unison Jasper had been operating under a temporary license issued by the Australian federal government to undertake coastal shipping between the ports of Gladstone and Newcastle.

Massive underpayment of wages was discovered when the vessel docked in Brisbane earlier in July, resulting in crew members being paid $93,000 (US) they were owed. Once the vessel left port, the Burmese seafarers were allegedly intimidated by ship officers. Another $60,000 (US) in owed wages has been uncovered by inspectors from the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) in Newcastle.

The MUA and ITF are working with agencies, including the NSW Police, Border Force, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and the Port Of Newcastle, to have the workers paid the wages they are owed and have them safely repatriated to their home country. The MUA believes that the captain is in no condition to sail the ship after himself being at sea for fourteen months, and that the entire crew should be replaced.

MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin said What weve seen on this vessel  with seafarers intimidated, robbed of their wages, and forced to remain on board for up to fourteen months  is an extreme form of exploitation that has no place in Australian waters, but risks becoming more common as our authorities fail to properly regulate amidst a global crew change crisis.

Quite frankly, the Australian Government allowed things to get this bad on the Unison Jasper. They were clearly unconcerned with the seafarers conditions on board when they freely issued a temporary licence to this ship just last month. This is a ship with crew who have worked for thirteen months already  already beyond the limit. This is a vessel that has already had complaints lodged to AMSA for serious breaches of seafarers rights. Why did they grant it a licence? All the warning signs were there.

This route was previously serviced by Australian vessels, crewed by local Australian seafarers, and paid Australian wages and conditions, but the last remaining Australian vessel on this run, the CSL Melbourne, was removed from service in 2016. These Australian ships have been replaced by foreign Flag of Convenience vessels, operating under temporary licenses from the federal government, and crewed by exploited foreign workers.

Paddy Crumlin said exploitation and abuse on ships often occurs in supply chains when those who are supposed to be responsible turn a blind eye.

The owners of Tomago Aluminium  which includes Rio Tinto and CSL  must take action to address this extreme exploitation in their supply chain. We have the largest aluminium smelter in Australia, owned by some of the largest companies operating in the country, allowing abuse and exploitation to occur under their noses, he said.

The mistreatment of these Burmese seafarers is not only illegal under Australian law, it is a clear breach of the international Maritime Labour Convention. The companies which are profiting from exploitation in our waters, and indeed anywhere, should be held to account.

In my view, the continued issuing of licenses to Flag of Convenience vessels such as the Unison Jasper, crewed by exploited seafarers, makes our federal government complicit in the inevitable abuse that transpires. Its built into the system.

Crumlin said the discovery that the crew had been on board for up to fourteen months, far in excess of the Maritime Labour Convention maximum of eleven months, was proof that the federal government was also asleep at the wheel when it came to regulating Australian shipping and upholding seafarers human rights.

Seven of the crew members on board the Unison Jasper have been on board for fourteen months with no way to get home, with the remaining four ratings on board too frightened to re-join the ship. Outrageously the company is now refusing to handover the seafarers passports and is now dictating terms to the Australian authorities. You have to wonder how we got here.

Australia needs to sharpen its response to the unfolding crew change crisis that is leading to more cases like these. International seafarers need to be able to leave and join ships at Australian ports. We cannot tolerate floating prisons in our waters, said Paddy Crumlin.
Gyms, swimming pools and childrens indoor play areas can reopen from today

This article is old - Published: Monday, Aug 10th, 2020

Swimming pools, gyms and and leisure centres can re-open their doors to the public from today.

It will be the first time such facilities have been able to open fully since lockdown measures were introduced in March.

Childrens indoor play areas will also be able to open again as part of the latest changes to the coronavirus regulations in Wales.

However, areas such as ball pits, which cannot be easily cleaned, should remain closed.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said: We continue to take a step-by-step approach to easing the lockdown, closely monitoring the impact of each change we make.

As more parts of our society and economy reopen, it is vital we all keep in mind our personal responsibility to do the right thing and make sure we continue to protect ourselves and others from the virus.

This means keeping a two metre distance from others, washing our hands often and wearing a facemask on public transport.

These are simple steps to take that benefit us all. The rules we have in place are not optional, they are there to protect us all.

They are essential if Wales is to avoid another lockdown.

Welsh law requires measures to be taken to minimise the risk of exposure to coronavirus on these premises. This includes ensuring that people maintain a two metre distance where possible and taking other measures to avoid close interaction; this includes screens, face coverings and improving hygiene.

Information also has to be provided to customers and staff to help them understand what they need to do in order to stay safe on the premises.

The Welsh Government is also continuing to look at whether changes can be made to the rules to enable people to meet indoors with other people who arent part of their household or extended household from August 15.
ED questioned Showik Chakraborty for about 18 hours in connection with a money laundering case linked to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned Showik Chakraborty, brother of actor Rhea Chakraborty, for about 18 hours in connection with a money laundering case linked to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, officials said on Sunday.

Showik left the central investigative agency's office in the Ballard Estate area of Mumbai around 6:30 AM after an overnight questioning session that began around noon on Saturday.

Officials said Showik's statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and he was asked about his personal businesses, income, investments and financial dealings with his sister and Rajput.

He was grilled by the agency for a few hours on 7 August as well. On the same day, his sister and prime accused in the case Rhea (28) was questioned by the agency for the first time for about eight hours.

Rhea and her father Indrajit Chakraborty have been summoned to appear before the agency again on Monday.

On Friday, the ED had questioned Indrajit, Rhea's chartered accountant (CA) Ritesh Shah and business manager Shruti Modi, who also worked for Rajput.

The agency is understood to have questioned Rhea, who stated in her petition to the court that she was in a live-in relationship with Rajput, about her friendship with the late actor, business dealings and the developments that took place over the last few years between them.

The ED's line of questioning, officials said, is revolving around Rhea's income, investments, business and professional deals, and links.

Also under the ED's scanner is a property located in the city's Khar area and another in Navi Mumbai, both linked to Rhea, for the source of purchase and ownership.

Agency sources have said they "want more answers" from Rhea over the alleged mismatch between her income, expenditure and investments.

They said while Chakraborty has filed Income Tax Returns stating an income of about Rs 14 lakh, the value of her investments is reportedly higher.

Her father, they said, is retired defence personnel who gets a pension of about Rs 1 lakh per month.

The sources said Rhea told the agency that she had made the property investments from her income, savings and has taken bank loans.

Rhea has been accused by Rajput's father of abetting his son's suicide and she had initially refused to appear before the agency citing her appeal pending before the Supreme Court that is slated to be heard on 11 August.

Her lawyer Satish Maneshinde had said Rhea is a law-abiding citizen and would cooperate with the probe.

She has filed a petition in the apex court requesting that the case lodged by the Bihar police against her be transferred to the Mumbai police.

She, through her lawyer, also shared a picture of a note on Saturday which she claimed was written by Rajput to express his gratitude for her and her family.

Rhea also shared a photograph of a water sipper, which is a piece of movie merchandise from Rajput''s 2019 film "Chhichhore".

"The only property of Sushant that I possess," she said in a message sent along with the photo to the media.

The ED, during the questioning sessions, is learnt to have confronted Rhea, Showik and Modi with certain bank statements that purportedly show a transfer of small amounts into Showik's accounts from those of Rajput and Chakraborty.

The agency had also summoned Rajput's friend and roommate Siddharth Pithani to appear before it on Saturday in connection with the money laundering case that stems from the complaint filed by the actor's father with the Bihar Police in connection with his death.

Pithani, an IT professional, is stated to be out of Mumbai at present and may appear before the agency on Monday.

He has said in various news channel interviews that he was present in the Bandra flat on 14 June when the 34-year-old actor hanged himself.

Pithani, stated to be living with Rajput for about a year, had earlier recorded his statement with the Mumbai Police as part of their accidental death report (ADR) probe in the case.

Rajput's 74-year-old father KK Singh, who resides in Patna, had on 25 July filed a complaint with the Patna police against Rhea, her parents (including mother Sandhya Chakraborty), Showik, Rajput's manager Samuel Miranda, Modi and unknown persons accusing them of cheating and abetting his son's suicide.

The CBI had re-registered this FIR as a fresh case on Thursday and named as accused the same people.

Singh also alleged financial irregularities in bank accounts of his son.

In the complaint, Singh alleged that Rs 15 crore was siphoned off from Rajput's bank account in one year to accounts of persons not known or connected to the late actor.

Under the ED's scanner are at least two companies linked to Rajput and some financial deals involving Rhea, her father and Showik, who are stated to be directors in these companies.

*

A collection of Suicide prevention helpline numbers are available here. Please reach out if you or anyone you know is in need of support. The All-India helpline number is: 022 2754 6669
MINSK, Belarus  A protester died amid clashes between police and thousands of people gathered for a second straight night Monday in Belarus after official results from weekend elections  dismissed by the opposition as a sham  gave an overwhelming victory to authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Interior Ministry spokesman Alexander Lastovsky said the victim was part of a crowd of people protesting results of Sundays presidential vote. The protester intended to throw an explosive device, but it blew up in his hand and killed him, Lastovsky said.

The death came amid demonstrations in at least four areas of Minsk that met with a harsh response from police who tried to disperse protesters with flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets. Near the Pushkinskaya subway station, some 3,000 protesters tried to build barricades.

Lukashenkos hardline rule began in 1994 and his victory would extend it until 2025. He derided the opposition as sheep manipulated by foreign masters.

Dozens were injured and thousands detained hours after Sundays vote, when police brutally broke up mostly young protesters with tear gas, water cannons and beat them with truncheons. Rights activists said one person died after being run over by a police truck  which authorities denied.

Election officials said Lukashenko won a sixth term in office with 80% of the vote, while opposition challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya got 10%. Tsikhanouskaya submitted a formal request for a recount to the Central Election Commission.

After submitting the request, both Tsikhanouskaya and her spokeswoman remained unreachable. Upon leaving the commissions headquarters she said I have made a decision, I must be with my children.

It was unclear if her statement meant that she was heading abroad to reunite with her children, whom she had earlier sent to an unspecified European country after receiving threats.

On Monday evening, scattered groups of opposition supporters began gathering in downtown Minsk, chanting Freedom! and Long live Belarus! A heavy police contingent blocked central squares and avenues, moving quickly to disperse protesters and detained dozens.

Later, about 1,000 protesters gathered near a big shopping mall in downtown Minsk before being dispersed by police. The Viasna rights group said protesters also gathered in several other Belarusian cities, including Brest, Mogilev and Vitebsk, where detentions also took place.

The police crackdown drew harsh criticism from European capitals and will likely complicate Lukashenkos efforts to mend ties with the West amid tensions with his main ally and sponsor, Russia.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that the election was not free and fair and added: We strongly condemn ongoing violence against protesters and the detention of opposition supporters.

Lukashenko, whose iron-fisted rule since 1994 has fueled growing discontent in the ex-Soviet nation of 9.5 million, warned that he wouldnt hesitate to use force again. He argued that the protesters met a due response overnight after injuring dozens of police officers and attempting to take control of official buildings in several Belarusian cities.

We will not allow them to tear the country apart, he said.

The 65-year-old former state farm director asserted that the opposition was being directed from Poland and the Czech Republic, adding that some groups in Ukraine and Russia could also have been behind the protests.

They are directing the (opposition) headquarters where those sheep dont understand what they want from them, he said in a dismissive reference to Tsikhanouskaya and her campaign.

Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek dismissed Lukashenkos claim, saying his country has not organized any protests.

The Interior Ministry said 89 people were injured during the protests late Sunday and early Monday, including 39 law enforcement officers, and about 3,000 people were detained, some 1,000 of them in Minsk.

Tsikhanouskaya, a 37-year-old former English teacher without any prior political experience, entered the race after her husband, an opposition blogger who had hoped to run for president, was arrested in May. She has managed to unite fractured opposition groups and draw tens of thousands to her campaign rallies  the largest opposition demonstrations since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

We dont agree with (election results), we have absolutely opposite information, Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press on Monday. We have official protocols from many poll stations, where the number of votes in my favor are many more times than for another candidate.

The coronavirus-induced economic damage and Lukashenkos swaggering response to the pandemic, which he airily dismissed as psychosis, has fueled broad anger, helping swell the opposition ranks. The post-election protest, in which young demonstrators  many of them teenagers  confronted police, marked a previously unseen level of violence.

Internet and mobile networks went down after the polls closed as authorities tried to make it more difficult for protesters to coordinate.

The more they beat us, the less we believe in the official results, said Denis Golubev, a 28-year-old IT specialist who joined the protests.

The European Union condemned the police crackdown and called for an immediate release of all those detained.

In a joint statement, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and the EU commissioner responsible for relations with Europes close neighbors, Oliver Varhelyi, lamented that the election night was marred with disproportionate and unacceptable state violence against peaceful protesters.

Belarus EU and NATO neighbors, Poland and Lithuania, also issued strong rebukes. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on European Unions leaders to convene an extraordinary summit to support the Belarusian peoples democratic aspirations.

The U.K. Foreign Office also urged Belarusian authorities to refrain from further acts of violence following the seriously flawed presidential elections.

In the early 2000s, the United States and the European Union slapped sanctions against Lukashenkos government, but they lifted most of the penalties in recent years after Lukashenko freed political prisoners and allowed some opposition protests.

The Trump Adminsitration has recently sought to improve long-strained ties with Lukashenko, who some officials believe could be a valuable partner in countering Russian influence in eastern and central Europe. In early February, Pompeo became the first U.S. chief diplomat in more than 25 years to travel to Belarus, and offered to sell U.S. oil and gas to the country to reduce its dependence on Russian energy.

The administration has also nominated an ambassador to Belarus who, if confirmed, would be the first to the country since 2008.

Throughout his tenure, Lukashenko has tried to exert pressure on the Kremlin with the prospect of normalizing ties with the West in a bid to win more Russian subsidies. But the violent crackdown now appears likely to derail Lukashenkos hopes for those ties as Russia exerts pressure on its small neighbor.

Moscow this year cut supplies of cheap oil to Belarusian refineries, depriving the country of an estimated $700 million in revenues from oil product exports. Russia-Belarus ties were further strained last week, when Belarusian law enforcement agencies arrested 33 Russian private military contractors and accused them of planning to stage mass riots.

Moscow has rejected the charges. Russian President Vladimir Putin called Lukashenko Friday to mend the rift, and quickly congratulated him Monday on winning the vote. The Belarusian leader also received congratulations from Chinese President Xi Jinping and heads of several ex-Soviet nations.

___

Associated Press journalists Jim Heintz, Vladimir Isachenkov and Daria Litvinova in Moscow, Lorne Cook in Brussels, Matthew Lee in Washington, Danica Kirka in London, Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Frank Jordans in Berlin and Karel Janicek in Prague contributed to this story.
The 61-year-old actor has now been shifted from ICU to the normal ward and is expected to be discharged from the hospital in a day or two

Mumbai: Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, who on Saturday was admitted to Mumbais Lilavati hospital after complaining of breathlessness, is doing good and is showing no other symptoms, hospital authorities said.

As per the doctors statement, his health condition is stable and is maintaining normal oxygen saturation. The doctor added that the actor might be staying in the hospital premises a day more and will be kept under observation. The 61-year-old actor has now been shifted from ICU to the normal ward and is expected to be discharged from the hospital in a day or two.

He is stable and fine; there are no serious symptoms noted as of now. We have kept him under observation and necessary treatment for his medical evaluation is still on. He has tested Covid-19 negative. said hospitals Chief Operating Officer Dr V Ravishankar.

On Saturday, Dutt took to Twitter and updated his fans about his

health on Twitter. Just wanted to assure everyone that Im doing well.

Im currently under medical observation & my Covid-19 report is negative. With the help & care of the doctors, nurses & staff at Lilavati hospital, I should be home in a day or two. Thank you for your well wishes & blessings, the tweet read.
Kerala Rains LIVE Updates: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted extremely heavy rainfall in Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode, Malappuram and Alappuzha districts for today. Sounding a Red Alert, the IMD said yesterday that these districts are likely to receive over 20 cm rain in the next 24 hours. IMD officials said almost all districts north of Alappuzha are likely to receive over 20 cm rains. There is likely to be a reduction in rainfall from Tuesday, they said. Incessant rains, landslides and opening of shutters of dams across rivers have caused rise in water level in rivers and streams in central Kerala. Normal life of people living in low lying areas of Kottayam and Alappuzha has been affected with flood waters entering their homes.

Here are the latest updates on the situation in Kerala:

 The death toll in the massive landslide that destroyed a row of 20 houses of tea estate workers in the high range Idukki district of Kerala rose to 43 on Sunday evening after 17 more bodies were retrieved from the debris. "Three days after the settlements were swept away by devastating landslides at Pettimudi near Rajamala, authorities have now decided to take help of sniffer dogs to trace the persons buried under the debris," news agency PTI quoted officials as saying.

 Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami has assured support to his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan on rescue efforts. "I spoke to Hon @CMOKerala today morning about the tragic loss of lives and damages caused due to heavy rain and landslides at Munnar. I promised to provide necessary support in rescue and relief operations," Palaniswami said on his Twitter handle.

 Low-lying areas in Kottayam and Alappuzha districts are heavily impacted due to flooding. Hundreds of families have been shifted to relief camps from-low lying areas including Kumarakom and Kuttanad regions of Kottayam and Alappuzha districts, they said.

 Considering the spread of novel coronavirus, the authorities have opened separate camps for different categories of the flood affected people. In Ernakulam district, 1,203 flood affected people have been shifted to relief camps.
T he Education Secretary has said there is little evidence of coronavirus transmission in schools, amid suggestions that teachers could call for a "week on week off" approach if there is a virus spike.

Gavin Williamson claimed that ministers were being guided by science in their move to reopen schools to all pupils in England next month.

Mr Williamson referred to a forthcoming study which he described as "one of the largest studies on the coronavirus in schools in the world", saying it "makes it clear there is little evidence that the virus is transmitted at school". According to BBC News, Mr Williamson is believed referring to an upcoming report due to be released by Public Health England.

In a statement issued on Sunday, he said there was a "growing confidence among parents about their children returning" to the classroom, adding: "This is down to the hard work of school staff across the country who are putting in place a range of protective measures to prepare to welcome back all pupils at the start of term."

Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a member of Sage, echoed Mr Williamson's statements on virus transmission in schools as he said studies suggested children were very minor players in the transmission overall of the virus.

Gavin Williamson said the government was being guided by the best science ahead of all pupils returning to schools / REUTERS

He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme on Monday: There are five studies from around the world from New South Wales, from Australia, Singapore, from Ireland, from Germany, and from France, and in each of those there appears to be very, very little transmission in schools.

We know that children can and do transmit this virus, of course they do, but theyre very minor players in the transmission overall, particularly younger children.

Its increasingly clear that older children  teenagers probably  transmit as much as adults, but schools themselves play very little role.

Theyre a closed setting but actually we see very few outbreaks in schools, large outbreaks, and actually theres very little transmission from child to child or child to adult, actually much of the transmission in schools is from adults bringing it in, particularly staff."

UK Schools begin to reopen during Coronavirus lockdown ease 1 /28 UK Schools begin to reopen during Coronavirus lockdown ease Harris Academy Primary School Jeremy Selwyn Parents drop off children at Queen's Hill Primary School, Costessey, Norfolk, as pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, begin to return to school as part of a wider easing of lockdown measures PA Harris Academy Primary School Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Harris Academy Primary School in Croydon Jeremy Selwyn Parents and children arrive at Watlington Primary School as some schools re-open Reuters Lessons with reduced class sizes at Queen's Hill Primary School, Costessey, Norfolk, as pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, begin to return to school as part of a wider easing of lockdown measures PA Parents and children arrive at Watlington Primary School as some schools re-open Reuters Parents drop off children at Queen's Hill Primary School, Costessey, Norfolk PA Parents drop off children at Queen's Hill Primary School, Costessey, Norfolk, as pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, begin to return to school as part of a wider easing of lockdown measures. PA Parents drop off children at Queen's Hill Primary School, Costessey, Norfolk, as pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, begin to return to school as part of a wider easing of lockdown measures. PA

He continued: Theres increasing evidence in the UK and the Government is doing a number of studies which have showed apparently very little transmission and very little infection when schools were open in England.

But the National Education Union (NEU) deputy general secretary Avis Gilmore called for ministers to be clear about support if a second wave of the virus strikes, with Boris Johnson urged to implement a better test, track and trace system ahead of children returning to school.

Robust track, trace and test alongside health and safety checks in schools and colleges are necessary, she said.

The NEU has provided its members with an extensive "checklist" of coronavirus measures which its institution should be putting into place. If the checklist demands are not met, the union is calling on staff to "escalate" their concerns.

The document states: "Union reps should seek meetings with school leaders in order to discuss plans for full opening. School leaders' difficult responsibility will be assisted by comprehensive union input. Consultation must start as soon as possible and allow for improvements to be made to those plans.

Boris Johnson: Moral duty to get all children back in school

"If unfortunately there is a either a failure to consult, or members' concerns are not being addressed, then this should be escalated."

Ministers complained the checklist was blocking the government's efforts to see all pupils return to school safely.

Education select committee chair Robert Halfon MP said the list was "impossible" and told the Sun on Sunday: "It is incredible not one of these 200 nitpicking questions asks the most important thing of all - what's best for the kids?"

Meanwhile, the Association of School and College Leaders has said that teachers could look to teach students on a week-on, week-off basis if there was a resurgence of coronavirus and schools were forced to limit the number of pupils attending. It suggested parents should home school in the alternative weeks.

The Prime Minister is facing widespread calls to boost coronavirus testing and tracing in order to safely reopen schools / Getty Images

The unions general secretary Geoff Barton said schools were losing patience with the governments demand to have all children back in school next month while framing no back-up plan if this was not possible.

If you want to limit the number of children on site or travelling to and from school, a big part of that is using rotas and the obvious way to do it is week on, week off , Mr Barton told The Daily Telegraph.

The unions are not the only institutions to raise concerns ahead of all pupils returning to school as teachers, scientists, opposition politicians and the childrens commissioner for England Anne Longfield, have all called for improvements to testing before pupils return.

Ms Longfield welcomed Mr Johnsons commitment to make children the priority after previously accusing ministers of treating them as an afterthought.

But she said regular testing of pupils and teachers, perhaps as frequently as weekly, could be needed even if they do not exhibit symptoms to keep transmission rates down.

Sir Keir Starmer: Schools have to be the priority

I think it needs to be as regular as it needs to be, to ensure that the infection is caught and identified as quickly as possible and then the tracking system can move on from that, she told Times Radio.

Schools minister Nick Gibb did not support the call, saying: All the advice weve had is the measures that were putting in place, the hierarchy of controls about hygiene and so on and bubbles within schools, is the most effective method of reducing the risk of transmission of the virus.

Sir Bernard Jenkin, chairman of Parliaments Liaison Committee, said the Government had been slow to come to grips with tracking and tracing.

I think the Government were very slow to realise the importance of track and trace at the outset, Sir Bernard told BBC Radio 4s Westminster Hour. Bear in mind the whole of Whitehall had prepared for an influenza and not for a coronavirus [pandemic] and thats the fundamental problem the Government had contended with.

Shadow education secretary Kate Green called for greater support from ministers in making schools safe, with extra resources and for them to boost the tracing of potential infections.

I do think the Government could be doing more to support them (teachers) particularly, for example, making sure weve got a really robust test and trace system in place, the Labour MP told Times Radio.

Its really, really important that we dont write off a generation of Covid children  they need to be back in class the whole of our futures depend on this.

Meanwhile, Labour is demanding rapid reform of the test and trace system to focus on local health protection teams as data suggests they are far more effective than national call centres.

Shadow cabinet members Jonathan Ashworth and Rachel Reeves wrote to Health Secretary Matt Hancock raising concerns that the current model is not fit for purpose.
Burma Four Ethnic Fighters Jailed for 35 Years for Attack on Myanmar Militarys Defense Academy

A damaged vehicle at the DSTA in Pyin Oo Lwin in August 2019.

MANDALAYPyin Oo Lwin District Court in Mandalay Region has sentenced four people to 35 years in prison for last years attacks on the Myanmar militarys Defense Services Technological Academy (DSTA) and other locations in the garrison town of Pyin Oo Lwin.

They were given 20 years in prison for the attack on the DSTA, and 15 years for the attack on a toll gate, totaling 35 years, a court official told The Irrawaddy on Friday.

A military alliance of three ethnic armed groupsthe Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), Arakan Army (AA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), which dubbed themselves the Brotherhood Alliancecarried out a series of organized attacks at around 5.30 a.m. on Aug. 15 last year on the DSTA and three other locations in Pyin Oo Lwin and its surroundings, including a tollgate installed with an X-ray machine to prevent drug trafficking.

At the time, TNLA spokesman Mai Aik Kyaw claimed responsibility for the attacks on behalf of the Brotherhood Alliance, confirming to The Irrawaddy that the assaults were carried out by the group as a counteroffensive against the Myanmar military in order to reduce military pressure in their regions.

In the attack on the DSTA, a civilian was killed and a soldier and his relative were wounded, while some vehicles and the academy building were partly damaged. Parts of the tollgate in Pyin Oo Lwin as well as vehicles and equipment were also damaged in artillery strikes by the four attackers, the Myanmar military said.

The Myanmar military arrested a total of eight suspects some two months after the attacks and police opened cases against them under the Counterterrorism Law. After the trial, which lasted for nearly a year, the court sentenced the four to prison and acquitted four others.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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This is our second project after Yahsat, and there are many more projects to come, as Tawazun works to further develop the UAE space sector, said Matar Ali Al Romaithi, chief economic development officer of Tawazun. Image: Tawazun Economic Council

The aim is manufacturing components and assembling, integrating and testing small to medium satellites.

The AIT Satellite Center will develop and build communication, navigation and hyper spectral satellites ranging in size between 50 and 250 Kilograms and it is planned to commence operations at the beginning of 2021.

The Centre will be based at the NSSTC facilities in Al Ain, UAE with Airbus supporting NSSTC during the design, outfitting and commissioning of the facility. Airbus will also manage the procurement, installation and operational qualification required for the equipment.

This is our second project after Yahsat, and there are many more projects to come, as Tawazun works to further develop the UAE space sector, said Matar Ali Al Romaithi, chief economic development officer of Tawazun.

The UAE is building and acquiring the knowledge required to become a regional hub for space activities and advanced research and development. This centre is an integral part of those plans and consequently Tawazun has worked to make sure that it operates as a sustainable resource for the next five to seven years with a view to becoming permanent, he added.

We also value the significant contribution that Airbus is making to the centres sustainability, as well as to the increase and development of our Emirati resource and expertise. NSSTC will accumulate critical knowledge from Airbus through this project, and our national competencies and skills will increase significantly, Al Romaithi commented.

The space industry is an important and strategic sector for the UAE, as it enables the development of high-level skills and drives innovation, said Mikail Houari, President Africa and Middle East, Airbus.

Airbus remains committed to supporting the advancement of all key elements of the UAEs aerospace industry. This new collaboration will support the future growth of the UAEs space and satellite sector, contributing to the countrys economic diversification strategy. It will also support the continued efforts around Emiratization, which will be vital for ensuring long-term sustainable development of the sector, added Houari.
He was recently spotted sharing a kiss with Amber Pierson.

And, Love Island's Maura Higgins, 29, has branded ex Curtis Pritchard, 24, the 'villa villain' after learning of the dancer's new romance.

Taking to Twitter, the former grid girl 'liked' a post comparing the exes; with Maura labelled 'the perceived villa villain' and Curtis labelled the 'ACTUAL villa villain.'

Ouch! Love Island's Maura Higgins, 29, has branded ex Curtis Pritchard, 24, the 'villa villain' after learning of the dancer's new romance with Amber Pierson, 21

MailOnline has contacted Curtis Pritchard's representatives for comment.

The not-so-subtle swipe comes after it was reported that Maura is so furious about Curtis's new romance with Amber, 21, that she's said to be 'on the warpath to make his life hell'.

The professional dancer was pictured putting on a cosy display with dancer Amber, with a source close to Maura, saying the pair's outing was 'a kick in the teeth'.

And while Curtis has denied accusations he cheated on Maura with Amber, a source told The Mirror: 'Maura is on the warpath and has been telling everyone she is going to make Curtis life hell.'

Ouch! Taking to Twitter, the former grid girl 'liked' a post comparing the exes; with Maura labelled 'the perceived villa villain' and Curtis labelled the 'ACTUAL villa villain'

Rage: Maura is reportedly so furious about Curtis's romance with Amber, 21, that she's said to be 'on the warpath to make his life hell' (Pictured before their split)

Continued the source: 'Maura has been with all the Love Island contestants and has been in touch with everyone this weekend seeing what we all think and telling us shes going to make his life hell.

'She seems to not be able to move on and has been talking about Curtis for months and obsessing over who he is with and if he cheated on her.'

MailOnline contacted representatives for Maura Higgins and Curtis Pritchard for comment at the time.

The report came after friends of the former couple insisted that Curtis did not cheat on Maura with Amber, who he was recently spotted sharing a kiss with.

Fuming: A source told The Mirror, 'Maura is on the warpath and has been telling everyone she is going to make Curtis life hell'

A friend close to Curtis and Maura told MailOnline the cheating claims are a 'smear campaign' by Maura to serve as a 'diversion' from rumours that circulated about her relationship with her Dancing On Ice partner Alexander Demetriou.

The insider said: 'The claims earlier this year that Curtis was with Amber whilst still with Maura were simply a tactical diversion by her to take the heat off the rumours circulating about the close relationship she had with her dance partner Alex'.

Alexander and his wife Carlotta Edwards split earlier this year, with Alex admitting she grew 'jealous' of his close bond with Maura, saying he 'didn't want to lead her on' anymore.

A friend of Curtis and Maura insisted that there was 'no overlap' between him seeing Amber and the reports that Maura and Alex had grown close during their time on the show.

Claims: Friends of the former couple previously told MailOnline that Curtis did not cheat on Maura with Amber, who he was recently spotted sharing a kiss with

They told MailOnline: 'Maura and Alex both swore nothing was going on, yet Alex split from his wife soon after the show finished in suspicious circumstances which got everyone taking'.

'We all know the truth that there was no overlap of him beginning to see Amber. They toured together without any form of spark, it was only afterwards that this occurred'.

'Any suggestion otherwise is just a smear campaign by Maura to cause harm to Curtis and cause him further upset and hurt.

'The truth will all come out in time, but we all back Curtis and support his version of events. Those in glass houses shouldn't throw bricks!'

Rumours: A source said the cheating claims are a 'smear campaign' by Maura to 'divert' from rumours about her relationship with her Dancing On Ice partner Alexander Demetriou

It comes after a source close to Maura admitted that the images of Curtis with Amber, released on Friday, were 'a kick in the teeth' and believes she 'should have trusted her gut' following claims about their relationship in the past.

Maura and Curtis called it quits in March just eight months after leaving the Love Island villa, with sources claiming at the time the Irish reality star felt pressured to maintain the romance to boost their profile, which the dancer strongly denies.

A source close to Maura said: 'This is a massive kick in the teeth to Maura as she did have her suspicions and believes now she should have trusted her gut feeling at the time.

'However Maura is in a really great place right now, focusing on herself and her career.'

Denied: Amber (pictured centre right) and Curtis (pictured centre) branded claims of their alleged affair as 'complete lies' despite their recent park rendezvous

What's going on? Amid the reports Maura also took to Twitter to share a cryptic tweet about 'the truth coming out'

Mere hours after Curtis was pictured kissing Amber, Maura also took to Twitter on Saturday to cryptically write: 'The truth always comes out in the end.'

Professional dancer Curtis previously hit back at claims he had cheated on his ex-girlfriend Maura, with Amber, who also called the speculation a 'complete lie.'

However it appears the pair have got close in recent months as they were spotted kissing as they walked through a park in images obtained by The Sun.

Curtis packed on the PDA as he wrapped his arm around Amber and leaned in for a kiss. Amber is also a professional dancer and a model based in London.

Rumbled: The dancing couple have been spotted out together on multiple occasions including a romantic double date with Curtis' brother AJ, 25, and his girlfriend Abbie Quinnen

An insider told the publication: 'It's game over for Curtis and Amber pretending they are just pals. Their ''friends'' line fooled no one.'

Curtis is said to have taken Amber out on a double date on Tuesday, where they enjoyed dinner with his brother AJ, 25, and his girlfriend Abbie Quinnen.

Curtis and Maura's relationship was rumoured to be on the rocks in March after speculation surfaced that he was getting overly friendly with the blonde beauty.

Maura had reportedly confronted him after she noticed him getting too close for comfort with his dancer 'friend.'

Former flame: Curtis and Maura's relationship was rumoured to be on the rocks in March after speculation surfaced that he was getting overly friendly with Amber (pictured 2019)

The red flags went up for Maura when she was alerted to an anonymous tweet, saying that Curtis was spotted 'hugging and kissing' the blonde.

Following the speculation, Amber dismissed claims she'd had a fling with Curtis behind Maura's back calling them 'complete lies,' but branded the Love Island hunk 'a lovely and talented guy'.

Taking to Instagram, she wrote: 'I didn't want to speak out about this, but I feel I have to as I have been receiving a few abusive messages recently regarding what's been in the papers.

'To be very clear, Curtis and I have never been together. We are simply friends and dancer partners! There are 13 dancers going on tour, and I am one of them. The 'cheating' allegations this week are out of the blue and complete lies.

History: Curtis and Maura found love towards the end of the 2019 ITV series and continued to date for eight months after their exit before their relationship came to end in 2020

'I wanted no part in this but what I will say is Curtis is genuinely a lovely and talented guy, who doesn't deserve any of this. Hope that's set the record straight and we can move on. Amber x.'

Curtis and Maura found love towards the end of the 2019 ITV series and continued to date for eight months after their exit before their relationship came to end in 2020.

It was claimed at the time the couple rowed over her friendship with her Dancing On Ice partner Alexander.

The Sun reported that Alex's friendly relationship with Maura caused arguments with his Dancing On Ice skater wife Carlotta.

Carlotta and Alex have since announced the break down of their marriage, but Maura has always insisted she is just friends with the professional skater.
Working from home has become the norm during the coronavirus pandemic, and Morgan Stanley predicts that office tenants across Asia will permanently give up between 3% and 9% of their existing office space.

That will result in rent declining between 10% and 15% over the next three years, a recent report by the investment bank estimated.

Big tenants from the financial and IT industries, which have well established business continuity plans or work-from-home infrastructure, could give up even more office space  at 10% over the next three years, said the report.

Below is the projected rental impact from June 2020 to December 2022, according to the report which assessed the rental impact on key financial centers in Asia Pacific.

Singapore: -10% decline. Year-to-date actual decline: -3%

Tokyo: -9% decline. Year-to-date actual increase: +3%

Hong Kong: -7% decline. Year-to-date actual decline: -13%.

Sydney: -5%. Year-to-date actual decline: -2%

Top 7 metropolitan cities in India: +5% increase. Year-to-date actual decline: -2%.

Those estimates are based on the bank's base case in which 40% of all employers, with IT infrastructure workers, returning between 10% and 15% of their space.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi decided on Monday to form a three-member committee to look into grievances of its rebel leaders in Rajasthan after Sachin Pilot met former party chief Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi to end a revolt that threatened chief minister Ashok Gehlots government.

The panel at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) level will have senior leaders as its members and it will hear all the sides and also go into the details of the political turmoil in the state before submitting its report, including a possible solution, to the Congress high command.

The committee will also discuss the possible changes in the organisation and the government, a Congress leader said, adding that the names of the committee members and the timeframe will be announced soon.

In a statement, KC Venugopal, Congress general secretary in charge of the organisation, said Pilot met with Gandhi and expressed his grievances in detail.

They have had a frank, open and conclusive discussion. Shri Sachin Pilot has committed to working in the interest of the Congress party and the Congress government in Rajasthan, he said.

Following this meeting, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has decided that the AICC will constitute a three member committee to address the issues raised by Shri Sachin Pilot and the aggrieved MLAs and arrive at an appropriate resolution thereof, added Venugopal.

Congress leaders familiar with the development, however, ruled out that Pilot will be given back the positions he held till July 14, when he was sacked as the deputy chief minister and also removed as the Rajasthan Congress president.

Leaders close to the Pilot camp termed Mondays development a win-win situation for the rebels.

The Congress leadership appreciated that Pilot did not respond to utterances by the chief minister and other leaders owing allegiance to him. All issues that his supporters had raised will also be looked into, said a leader close to the former deputy chief minister.

The leadership also took cognisance that Pilot all along maintained that he will never join the BJP. Pilot is happy with the developments so far and is also confident that he will get his due in the future. Inevitability of it one cannot deny. Diwali will come if not today but in future definitely. If he agreed to come back, there must be some reason, the leader added.

Pilot also stressed that the grievances of his people should be addressed, they should get respect and their work should get done and he categorically stated that he does not want any post, he said.

The leadership also recognised the fact that if Pilot goes the government will certainly fall and the party will lose another state, the leader further added.

Pilot and the legislators supporting him are expected to attend the assembly session, beginning August 14.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 23:28:35|Editor: huaxia

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KATHMANDU, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Nepal's Department of Immigration said it had suspended visa services for foreigners staying in Nepal after one of its employees tested positive for COVID-19.

The employee tested positive during the test conducted among its over 80 staff on Friday.

"Considering the possible spread of the COVID-19, the Department of Immigration has decided to close all the visa services effective from Aug. 10 until further notice," a statement posted by the department on its website reads.

Ram Chandra Tiwari, an information officer at the department, told Xinhua on Monday that he expected the visa services to be closed for a week. According to the department, around 100 foreigners, many of them foreigners with Nepali origins visit the department for visa services every day.

The department estimated that around 20,000 foreign passport holders are still staying in Nepal, many of them with Nepali origins.

The government has not resumed normal visa services for foreigners from the Nepali embassies abroad except for diplomats and officials of international agencies who are required to visit the country on a case-by-case basis.

According to Tiwari, since the infection was confirmed on Sunday evening, the outside visitors have been barred from entering the department's office starting from Monday.

"The infected employee had attended office until Sunday. After infection was confirmed, the employee has been sent to the hospital while the other collogues serving in the same department have stayed at home quarantine," said Tiwari.

There has been a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in Nepal, with 338 new cases on Monday and a total of 23,310 cases so far, according to the Ministry of Health and Population. Enditem
A red alert has been sounded in seven districts of rain-ravaged Karnataka where one more death was reported on Sunday, taking the toll to 13.

IMAGE: A parking area is flooded due to overflowing Tunga river following incessant rainfall, at Sringeri near Chikmagalur, in Karnataka. Photograph: PTI Photo

According to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, there would be heavy rain for the next 24 hours in coastal areas, in the northern and in the interior parts of the south.

The red alert has been issued in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Kodagu and Shivamogga as they would get heavy rainfall.

As on Sunday, Cauvery and Krishna rivers were flowing above the danger mark, and the sluice gates of the dams were opened.

Due to the release of water, many regions in the low-lying areas were inundated.

In the Cauvery basin, Krishnaraja Sagar Dam, Harangi, Hemavathi, and Kabini Dams were almost full.

In view of the swollen Cauvery river, the Mandya district administration put barricades near the Sri Nimishamba Temple near Ganjam in Srirangapatna Taluk to ensure the safety of public in general and pilgrims and tourists in particular.

"The public is not allowed to venture into the Cauvery River as a precautionary measure," read a statement issued by the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Mandya District Dr M V Venkatesh.

In Kodagu, the situation remained grim due to a heavy downpour and incidents of landslides were reported.

Congress state president D K Shivakumar, on a two-day tour of Kodagu from Saturday, visited many relief camps and spoke to the people there.

Also, he inspected a few places which suffered severe damages due to landslides.

Later, Shivakumar issued a statement saying the district has been suffering rain-related damages and all political parties should come to the aid of the people.

In Belagavi, reports emerged that a youth got swept away in the rain.

In Mysuru, the Hebbal lake was overflowing.

80 relief camps have been set up to house 1,600 people as 278 houses have been fully damaged and 2,140 partially damaged, according to the disaster Monitoring Centre.

A total of 23 animals have perished in the rains which destroyed 31,541 hectares of crops while inundating 35,000 hectares of horticultural crops.

The State government has released Rs 50 crore as an initial amount to carry out relief and rehabilitation work.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will present a new outline for a self-reliant India in his address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday. The defence minister said various departments and ministries of the government are working seriously to implement Modi's initiative for a self-reliant India and that it is an attempt to give a fresh dimension to Mahatma Gandhi's push for 'Swadeshi'.

Singh was speaking at an online event organised to pay tributes to revolutionary freedom fighter Udham Singh. Talking about the 'Atmanirbhar' initiative, the defence minister said that the coronavirus pandemic has shown that a country may not be able to effectively protect its sovereignty if it is not self-reliant.

"Our government will not allow any harm to India's self respect and sovereignty at any cost," he said. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi will present before the nation a new outline for a self-reliant India in his address from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the Independence Day," Singh said.

Referring to the defence ministry's decision to ban import of 101 military weapons and platforms, Singh said major and tough decisions are being taken to promote self-reliance in defence production. He said big weapons systems will now be produced in India and the country will look for their export to make it a hub for defence manufacturing.

In a major push to promote the domestic defence industry, Singh on Sunday morning announced restrictions on import of 101 weapons and military platforms including light combat helicopters, transport aircraft, conventional submarines and cruise missiles by 2024.

Also read: Procurement portal GeM to launch advanced version in next couple of months
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday underlined the need for a better coordination between the central and state agencies to have a permanent system for forecasting of floods.

He also stressed on extensive use of innovative technologies for improving the forecast-and-warning system.

The prime minister made these remarks at a virtual meeting with the chief ministers and representatives of six states to review the flood situation in various parts of the country.

The states that attended the meeting, which was convened to review their preparedness to deal with the southwest monsoon and the current flood situation in the country, were Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala.

A statement from the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) said at the meeting, Modi highlighted that the investments in localised early warning systems should be increased so that the people of an area can be cautioned on time in case of a threatening situation such as breached river embankments, inundation or lightning.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar drew the Prime Ministers attention to the non-cooperation by Nepal in carrying out annual maintenance work on embankments falling on the other side of the international border, across Darbhanga and Madhepura districts, and also pitched for the removal of 25% cap on the amount to be spent for extending gratuitous relief to affected people in times of natural calamities.

Kumar said, Floods in north Bihar are invariably caused by heavy rainfall in the catchment areas of rivers originating from Nepal. But in the absence of required co-operation from the neighbouring country, despite reaching out on official level, embankment repair works could not be completed on schedule in May and got extended to June-end this year.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government demanded setting up of a committee under the prime minister for tackling crisis situations in states and ensuring a better coordination. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray also sought an immediate central assistance for Maharashtra in view of the June 3 Cyclone Nisarga that caused widespread damage in the states coastal districts and the August 5 downpour and heavy winds that battered Mumbai.

The Karnataka government said it requested the prime minister to provide an additional special assistance of Rs 4,000 crore to handle the flood situation in the southern state.

Representing the state government at the meeting, Karnataka home minister Basavaraj Bommai said that according to an initial assessment, the state had suffered a loss of Rs 4,000 crore due to the floods. It is a preliminary estimate because the rains are continuing. A proper survey has to be done, he said.

The meet, which lasted for nearly an hour and a half, was also attended by defence minister Rajnath Singh, health minister Harsh Vardhan, ministers of state for home Nityanand Rai and G Kishan Reddy, and senior officers of the central ministries and organisations concerned.

The prime minister asserted that in view of the COVID-19 situation, the states must ensure that people follow all health precautions such as wearing of face masks, hand sanitisation and maintaining an adequate physical distance with each other while undertaking rescue efforts.

He said the relief material must include provisions for hand washing and sanitising and face masks for the affected people. Special provisions should be made for elderly people, pregnant women and people with co-morbidities, he observed.

Modi said the states should ensure that all development and infrastructure projects are built with resilience to withstand local disasters and help reduce the consequential losses.

The prime minister pointed out that over the last few years, forecasting agencies such as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Central Water Commission (CWC) are making concerted efforts to make better and more usable flood forecasts.

They are trying to provide not only rainfall and river-level forecasts, but also location-specific forecasts of inundation, he added.

Pilot projects are underway to use innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence to improve the location-specific forecasts, for which the states should provide the necessary information to these agencies and timely disseminate the warnings to the local communities, Modi said.

The prime minister emphasised on better coordination between all central and state agencies to have a permanent system for forecasting of floods and extensive use of innovative technologies for improving forecast and warning system, the PMO statement said.

The chief ministers of Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Kerala and the home minister of Karnataka gave updates on the flood situation and rescue efforts in their respective states, according to the statement.

They lauded the efforts of central agencies, including the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), for a timely deployment of teams and rescuing people.

The states also put forward some suggestions for short-term and long-term measures to mitigate the effects of floods.

The prime minister directed officials to take action on the suggestions.

He said the Centre will continue to provide support to the states and Union territories to strengthen their capabilities in dealing with various disasters.

According to those present at the meet, Modi said he would have visited all the states but could not due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Our best hope for ending the COVID-19 pandemic is a safe and effective vaccine, but faced with polls suggesting a large number of people will refuse to be immunised, governments must consider making it mandatory.

Its not just card-carrying anti-vaxxers that will refuse. Surveys in the United States and France indicate about one in four adults would refuse a vaccine, and one in six in Britain.

The first patient enrolled in Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore receives an injection. Credit:AP

If groups of this size refuse vaccination, they dont just put themselves at risk  they undermine efforts to end the pandemic. For a vaccine to end this, a large proportion of the global population will have to sign up for it. Experts agree that at a minimum, 60 per cent of the population will need to be immunised to achieve so-called "herd immunity".

Given the incredibly high costs of unnecessarily extending the COVID-19 crisis, it seems reasonable to consider whether governments should make vaccinations mandatory. In recent months, we have come to accept extraordinary government restrictions that would ordinarily be unconscionable in liberal democracies. If you think  as most of us do  that these constraints are an acceptable price to pay to help curb the pandemics damage, then a mandatory vaccination policy deserves serious consideration.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 10

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Armenians of Lebanon have no right to speak on behalf of all Lebanon people, famous Lebanese historian Ali Bekraki toldTrend on August 10.

"The statements that it is the Armenians who represent Lebanon are absurd," Bekraki said.

The historian noted that Lebanons population amounts to 5 million people, and only a small part of it - no more than 150,000 people, are ethnic Armenians.

He added that the Lebanese Armenians also have no right to somehow speak out against Turkey and Lebanon's relations with the Turkic-speaking countries in general.

"If Armenians believe they have problems with Turks, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan showed ways to solve them," the historian noted. "The president has repeatedly stated that Ankara is ready to open the archives of 1915 and set up an independent historical commission to investigate the events of that period."

In Bekraki's words, the Western countries should also open their archives, and then it will become clear whether or not there was the "genocide of Armenians" in 1915.

"Today, Lebanon is going through difficult times and needs the support of fraternal countries; Azerbaijan and Turkey among those countries," the historian stressed.

"A friend in need is a friend indeed, and Azerbaijan, having provided Lebanon with financial aid, has shown that its a friend of the Lebanese people who reacted to this step with great enthusiasm," he said.

Bekraki noted that the financial support provided by Azerbaijan and Turkey is very important for the Lebanese.

"Despite the anti-Turkish and anti-Azerbaijani agitation of a number of Lebanese media, the people of Lebanon have always greatly respected the citizens of Turkey and Azerbaijan," Bekraki said.

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.

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.

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.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Dhaka:

Five members of a banned Islamist extremist group were on Thursday nabbed in Bangladesh as they were regrouping in a bid to free their arrested leaders, a day after the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of the outfits chief.

The five were members of Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJI) and were arrested in separate operations, police said.

The elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) found bomb-making materials from their three-storey hideout in Chittagong. Three militants were arrested in the operation carried out on the lead provided by two militants arrested from another area in the southern port city.

The five arrested in separate incidents are HuJI members, RAB media wing director Mufti Mahmud Khan told reporters. They were trying to regroup after a long period of inactivity, Khan was quoted as saying by bdnews24 online.

He said the militants were planning attacks to free their arrested leaders.

The two suspects caught earlier - Tajul Islam and Nazimuddin - had pistols in their possession, Khan said adding that seven gun magazines, 12 IEDs and bomb-making materials were found in the hideout from the three were arrested later.

Tajul Islam is HuJIs chief coordinator in Dhaka. His name came up after the arrest of HuJI leader Mufti Mainul Islam. Tajul has been central to their organisation attempts in Chittagong.

Nazimuddin has close ties to HuJI leaders Mufti Hannan and Rouf who are in prison, he said.

Mufti Abdul Hannan is the chief of HuJI in Bangladesh and his death sentence in a terror case for attacking the British envoy in Bangladesh in 2004 that left three policemen dead was upheld yesterday by the Supreme Court.

The ruling cleared the way for Hannans execution and the regrouping of the militants could be a desperate attempt by the outfit to free the militant leader.

HuJI is accused of launching a series of deadly blasts targeting a Christian church, an Ahmadi Muslim mosque, and rallies of secular activists. The US several years ago designated HuJi as a foreign terrorist organisation and specially designated global terrorist. Its involvement is also suspected in several bomb blasts in India.

The militant hideout was seen littered with jihadi books, ball bearings, wires and knives, the report said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Lebanon's prime minister resigns amid protests after deadly Beirut explosion

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Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced his government's resignation Monday following last week's massive explosion in Beirut that killed at least 163 people and resulted in over 6,000 injuries.

I declare today the resignation of this government, said Diab, who cited huge corruption as a problem at a press conference amid large-scale public protests in response to the explosion, ABC News reported. May Allah protect Lebanon.

Diab tendered his resignation to Lebanese Christian President Michel Aoun who will remain in his office for the time being in what ABC News dubbed a caretaker capacity.

The resignation decision came after days of protests against the regime, with protesters arguing that the government was guilty of negligent handling of the explosives that triggered the blast.

Last Tuesday, an explosion caused by an estimated 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, used in fertilizers and bombs, occurred at a warehouse in a port in Beirut, a major metropolitan city in the country of 6 million people, many from Muslims Christian faiths.

The exact cause of the explosion remains unknown. However, soon after the blast, the government put several port officials under house arrest as part of its investigation.

French President Emmanuel Macron visited the country once controlled by France on Thursday, expressing solidarity with the victims of the explosion.

During his visit to one damaged neighborhood, Macron was met with a large crowd demanding government reforms and an end to the current Lebanese regime.

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.

They feel that international money [for recovery] should not be going to this government, France 24 reported days before the resignation was announced.

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.

Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, Maronite Patriarch of Antioch, whose denomination has a strong presence in the country, called the devastation of the explosion a war scene without war.

Beirut is a devastated city. A catastrophe struck there because of the mysterious explosion which occurred in its port, said the cardinal, as reported 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.
The pandemic has sent people searching for ways to cope with the anxiety of a global health crisis and economic downturn. Marijuana  which only became widely legal in Illinois Jan. 1  has emerged as the coping mechanism of choice for many. Stores selling it were deemed essential businesses by the state, new dispensaries have opened and product introductions continue. People are taking the money they would have spent on restaurant meals and nights out and using it to buy weed.
An internal investigation by Facebook has uncovered thousands of groups and pages, with millions of members and followers, that support the QAnon conspiracy theory, according to internal company documents reviewed by NBC News.

The investigation's preliminary results, which were provided to NBC News by a Facebook employee, shed new light on the scope of activity and content from the QAnon community on Facebook, a scale previously undisclosed by Facebook and unreported by the news media, because most of the groups are private.

The top 10 groups identified in the investigation collectively contain more than 1 million members, with totals from more top groups and pages pushing the number of members and followers past 3 million. It is not clear how much overlap there is among the groups.

More from NBC News:

The investigation will likely inform what, if any, action Facebook decides to take against its QAnon community, according to the documents and two current Facebook employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The company is considering an option similar to its handling of anti-vaccination content, which is to reject advertising and exclude QAnon groups and pages from search results and recommendations, an action that would reduce the community's visibility.

An announcement about Facebook's ultimate decision is also expected to target members of "militias and other violent social movements," according to the documents and Facebook employees.

Facebook has been key to QAnon's growth, in large part due to the platform's Groups feature, which has also seen a significant uptick in use since the social network began emphasizing it in 2017.

There are tens of millions of active groups, a Facebook spokesperson told NBC News in 2019, a number that has probably grown since the company began serving up group posts in users' main feeds. While most groups are dedicated to innocuous content, extremists, from QAnon conspiracy theorists to anti-vaccination activists, have also used the groups feature to grow their audiences and spread misinformation. Facebook aided that growth with its recommendations feature, powered by a secret algorithm that suggests groups to users seemingly based on interests and existing group membership.

Facebook has been studying the QAnon movement since at least June. In July, a Facebook spokesperson told NBC News that that company was investigating QAnon as part of a larger look at groups with potential ties to violence.

A small team working across several of Facebook's departments found 185 ads that the company had accepted "praising, supporting, or representing" QAnon, according to an internal post shared among more than 400 employees. The ads generated about $12,000 for Facebook and 4 million impressions in the last 30 days.

Some of the most recent ads included one for a "QAnon March for Children" in Detroit, and several retailers selling QAnon merchandise, according to Facebook's searchable ad library. Many now-inactive QAnon ads also ran recently on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. Most of the Instagram accounts that ran those ads were abandoned or removed, according to the ad library.

A Facebook spokesperson said the company has routinely enforced its rules on QAnon groups.

"Enforcing against QAnon on Facebook is not new: we consistently take action against accounts, Groups, and Pages tied to QAnon that break our rules. Just last week, we removed a large Group with QAnon affiliations for violating our content policies, and removed a network of accounts for violating our policies against coordinated inauthentic behavior," the spokesperson, who asked not to be named for fear of harassment from the QAnon community, wrote in an emailed statement. "We have teams assessing our policies against QAnon and are currently exploring additional actions we can take."

The potential crack down follows a campaign from mainstream advertisers as well as lawmakers to curtail misinformation and hate speech on Facebook. Along with a significant summer advertising boycott, 20 state attorneys general and the congressional Democratic Women's Caucus wrote separate letters last week urging Facebook to enforce its policies and clean up its platform.

Some members of Facebook's cross-departmental team tasked with tracking QAnon for the internal investigation say they are concerned the company will decline to ban QAnon groups outright, opting for weaker enforcement actions, according to one current employee. Those employees have shared concerns with one another that QAnon could influence the 2020 election, the employee added, noting that the pages and groups most likely violate Facebook's existing policies against misinformation and extremism.

Facebook and other platforms face a unique challenge in moderating QAnon communities, said Joan Donovan, director of the Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media Politics and Public Policy at Harvard. The platforms act both as the "base infrastructure" for networking and spreading content and a target of the conspiracy theory itself, which frames Facebook and other platforms as "oppressive regimes that seek to destroy truth," Donovan said.

"Facebook is definitely the largest piece of the QAnon infrastructure," Donovan said. "While people who have bought into these disinformation campaigns are already affected, preventing it from spreading to new groups and new audiences is one intervention, among many, that are needed. Unless there is some kind of coordination between platform companies to get rid of the main QAnon influencers, it will continuously pop back up."

Facebook's anticipated move follows Twitter's more aggressive action against QAnon. In July, Twitter announced it had banned 7,000 QAnon accounts for breaking its rules around platform manipulation, misinformation and harassment. Twitter also said it would no longer recommend QAnon accounts and content, would stop such content from appearing in trends and search, and would block QAnon's internet links.

QAnon is a right-wing conspiracy theory that originally formedaround the idea that President Donald Trump is leading a secret war against the "deep state," a group of political, business and Hollywood elites who, according to the theory, worship Satan and abuse and murder children. These baseless claims emerge from posts by an anonymous user on a fringe internet forum who goes by "Q."

QAnon grew out of the "pizzagate" conspiracy theory, which claimed that Hillary Clinton ran a pedophilia ring from a Washington pizza shop. Many of the most popular QAnon groups are also pizzagate groups, according to the leaked documents.

Both pizzagate and QAnon have been implicated in real-world violence, including armed standoffs, attempted kidnappings, harassment campaigns, a shooting and at least two murders  events noted by Facebook as part of its investigation, according to the documents. In 2019, the FBI designated QAnon as a potential domestic terrorist threat.

While QAnon is a product of the internet, born on fringe forums and spread through social media, the conspiracy has become politically mainstream in recent months. "Q" signs and merchandise were first spotted at Trump campaign rallies in 2018. More than 70 congressional candidates have endorsed some part of the QAnon ideology in 2020, according to the liberal watchdog Media Matters.

In 2019, Facebook took action against anti-vaccination pages and content, hoping to reduce the visibility of misinformation by strangling its reach, but it stopped short of a total ban. Despite that action, the largest anti-vaccination pages and groups have continued to grow in the last year, according to data from CrowdTangle, Facebook's social media analysis tool.

Facebook has taken down QAnon accounts before, but previous removals have been based on behavior rather than content that violated policy. Last week, Facebook removed a QAnon group with nearly 200,000 members "for repeatedly posting content that violated our policies," according to a Facebook spokesperson. In May, Facebook purged a small section of the U.S. QAnon community that included five pages, six groups and 20 profiles, citing "coordinated inauthentic behavior," whereby accounts work together to push content and obscure their own networks.

Last week, Facebook removed 35 Facebook accounts, three pages and 88 Instagram accounts that operated from Romania and pushed pro-Trump messages, including the promotion of QAnon.




Chinese iPhone sales could decline up to 30 per cent if Apple is forced to remove WeChat from its App Store, an analyst has predicted.

The removal of the massively popular chat platform, owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent, could adversely impact iPhone sales in the country.

Annual shipments of other Apple hardware devices, including AirPods, iPads and Mac computers, could also fall by a quarter.

The prediction follows US President Donald Trump's decision to ban WeChat in the US with an executive order, which takes effect from mid-September.

As a result of the decision, the US firm Apple may be forced to remove WeChat from its App Store.

A ban on China's WeChat could have a huge effect on iPhone sales in the country. The app has become 'a daily necessity' for Chinese smartphone users, an analyst said

Chinese consumers could be put off from buying an iPhone if it doesn't support the app, which has become an integral part of millions of Chinese phone users' lives.

Last quarter, Greater China accounted for about 10 per cent, or around $6 billion, of Apple's total revenue, meaning Trump's ban could backfire by depriving the US economy.

WHAT IS WECHAT? WeChat is one of the most popular social media sites in China. It boasts 1 billion active monthly users and aggregates key features like messaging, social media, and mobile payments. The app is owned by China's largest company, Tencent, which owns myriad internet services and products Advertisement

'WeChat has become a daily necessity in China, integrating functions such as messaging, payment, e-commerce, social networking, news reading, and productivity,' said analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in a research note seen by MacRumors.

'If this is the case, we believe that Apple's hardware product shipments in the Chinese market will decline significantly.

'We estimate that the annual iPhone shipments will be revised down by 2530 per cent, and the annual shipments of other Apple hardware devices, including AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac, will be revised down by 1525 per cent.'

There is the possibility that WeChat is only removed from the US version of Apple's App Store, rather than all App Stores globally, including China.

In this former scenario, iPhone shipments would be impacted by somewhere between 3 to 6 per cent and other Apple products would be affected by less than 3 per cent.

Last week, Trump's orders banned any US transactions with WeChat owner Tencent, a major Chinese company that owns shares in Tesla, Snap Inc and Reddit.

Trump signed the orders using national emergency powers, which bar WeChat from the US after 45 days, as well as popular Chinese-owned video app TikTok.

TikTok is reportedly planning to sue the Trump administration over the president's executive order banning the Chinese app from the US (file photo)

The order does not take effect until September 20, however, leaving time for the order to be modified or rescinded.

According to Trump, the apps represent national security threats, which mirrors his reasoning for adding other Chinese companies  most notably Huawei  to its 'blacklist' of companies prevented from trading with US businesses.

The ban moves further away from the long-promoted American ideal of a global, open internet and could encourage other countries to follow suit, other analysts said.

'It's really an attempt to fragment the internet and the global information society along US and Chinese lines, and shut China out of the information economy,' said Milton Mueller, a Georgia Tech University professor and founder of the Internet Governance Project.

Daniel Castro of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said the US actions suggest 'a serious risk of internet fragmentation' if carried out.

'The United States should be careful about arguing that there is an inherent national security risk of using technologies from foreign companies,' Castro said.

'If other countries apply that same logic, US tech companies will be locked out of many foreign markets.'

US social media platform Twitter has approached TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance to express interest in acquiring the US operations of the video-sharing app.

Trump said he would also support Microsoft's efforts to buy TikTok's US operations if the US government got a 'substantial portion' of the proceeds.
About 78 per cent respondents said they were also satisfied with the steps taken by their own state government, according to the findings of the survey.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairs Cabinet meeting in New Delhi. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

An overwhelming majority of rural Indians are satisfied with the steps taken by the Narendra Modi government as well as state governments to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, despite facing hardships that forced some to sell land, phones and watches, and take loans from neighbours to get by, according to a nationwide survey unveiled on Monday.

Seventy four per cent of rural Indians are satisfied with the steps taken by the Modi government to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the "nationwide" survey of rural India by media platform Gaon Connection.

About 78 per cent respondents said they were also satisfied with the steps taken by their own state government, according to the findings of the survey.

A total of 25,371 respondents were interviewed between May 30 and July 16, 2020 during the exercise and all of them were main earners of their households, and thus primarily men, the Gaon Connection said.

The survey was designed and data analysed by the Lokniti-CSDS team at the New Delhi-based Centre for Study of Developing Societies.

It was carried out through face-to-face interviews following social distancing in 179 districts across 23 states and union territories by Gaon Connection Insights, the data and insights arm of the media platform.

On the margin of error in the survey, Sanjay Kumar, professor at CSDS, said: "If the entire sample had been selected using the probability sampling methods, the overall margin of error for a sample as large as this (25,300 respondents) would have been +/- 1 per cent at a 95 per cent confidence level."

"However, given that the sampled locations were not spread out evenly in most states/UTs and were selected by non-probability sampling methods owing to logistical and Covid-related issues, we are not in a position to provide reliable estimates of sampling error," he said.

The nationwide lockdown was first imposed by the Centre from March 25 for 21 days to check the spread of coronavirus and was subsequently extended.

Of those who supported the Modi government's steps, 37 per cent said they were "very satisfied" and 37 per cent said they were "somewhat satisfied" with the central government, according to the survey.

More than 14 per cent respondents said they were "somewhat dissatisfied" with the Modi government, and seven per cent said they were "very dissatisfied".

According to the survey, the lockdown doesn't seem to have adversely impacted the perception of rural citizens about the Modi government at the Centre, or the governments in the states on the whole.

"For instance, on being asked whether the Modi government's attitude towards migrant workers during the lockdown had been good or bad, 73 per cent or over seven out of ten respondents interviewed in rural areas of the country said it had been good (29 per cent said very good and 44 per cent rated it as good)," the Gaon Connection said.

Only 23 per cent or around one of every four were of the opinion that the lockdown had been bad (9 per cent very bad and 14 per cent bad), it said.

While 40 per cent respondents said the lockdown was "too harsh", 38 per cent said it was "adequately harsh", 11 per cent said the lockdown should have been harsher. Only 4 per cent respondents said the lockdown should not have happened at all, according to the survey findings.

The state governments on the whole were rated equally positively, in fact slightly more than the Centre, with 76 per cent describing their attitude towards migrants as good and only 20 per cent rating it as bad.

"Interestingly, respondents in BJP-ruled states were less impressed with the Modi government's and their state government's handling of the COVID-19 epidemic than those in many other states," the Gaon Connection said.

Rural India has not been part of the national media narrative in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. This survey offers powerful insights into how rural India dealt with this crisis, and what it plans to do ahead  including questions like, will they return to cities? Will they change spending patterns? said Neelesh Misra, founder of Gaon Connection.

According to the survey, about 23 per cent rural Indians borrowed money during the lockdown, eight per cent sold a valuable possession (phone, watch etc.), seven per cent mortgaged jewellery, and five per cent sold or mortgaged land.

It also found that 71 per cent ration card-owning households said they received wheat or rice from the government during the lockdown.

Of the 17 per cent citizens who do not own ration cards, only 27 per cent said they received wheat or rice from the government, according to the survey findings.

Twenty three per cent of the migrant workers returned home walking during the lockdown and over 33 per cent migrant workers said they want to go back to the cities to work, the survey showed.

It also showed that skilled workers and manual (unskilled) labourers were the hardest hit. Work shut down completely for 60 per cent skilled workers and 64 per cent manual labourers.

"One in every eight rural households surveyed reported frequently having gone without eating food the entire day during lockdown due to lack of money and resources," the Gaon Connection said.

Only 20 per cent respondents said they got work under MGNREGA in the lockdown, according to the survey.

Chhattisgarh reported the highest percentage of such households at 70 per cent followed by Uttarakhand (65 per cent) and Rajasthan (59 per cent). Gujarat and UTs of Jammu & Kashmir-Ladakh reported the lowest work under MGNREGA at 2 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively, according to the survey.

More than 68 per cent rural Indians faced high to very high monetary difficulty during the lockdown, the survey findings said.

According to the survey, 42 per cent of the households with pregnant women said these women did not get pregnancy check-ups and vaccination during the lockdown. The lowest percentages were in West Bengal (29 per cent) and Odisha (33 per cent).

Seventy eight per cent respondents saw their work coming to a "complete standstill" or "a standstill to a large extent" during the lockdown while 44 per cent respondents said their work came to a complete standstill during the lockdown.

Seventy one per cent surveyed households reported a drop in total monthly household income during the lockdown months compared to pre-lockdown months, according to the survey.

The poor were the hardest hit -- 75 per cent poor families and 74 per cent lower class households suffered a fall in income during the lockdown, according to the survey.

It also found that only nine per cent of rich rural households, who do not own a car, to be thinking of buying a car in the coming months.

Similarly, only 14 percent of non-bike owning rich households plan to buy a bike in the next five to six months, the survey found.

More than half the farmers managed to harvest their crops in time in the lockdown, but only one fourth could sell them on time.

The Rural Report by Gaon Connection is the first set of national insights that document the post Covid impact on livelihood, income, debt, perception towards governments, consumption patterns and future plans, the Gaon Connection said, adding that full details are available at www.ruraldata.in.

The states where the survey was conducted are Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Odisha, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

The surveyed union territories are Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
(TNS)  When the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly closed school buildings in March, the lack of home internet access became a glaring problem for thousands of students who tried to finish the school year without a classroom. After a summer of local, state and federal efforts to expand access, more than 850 devices will be deployed across Carter County, Okla., with students beginning a new school year.Schools will not incur extra costs for the hardware and service is being offered at a discounted rate. Even though the devices will provide internet access without families directly footing the bill, some districts and families may still face technological challenges whether or not the pandemic closes school doors again.The Oklahoma State Department of Education last week announced 50,000 wireless hotspots would be distributed among 175 school districts across the state to begin the upcoming school year. The devices were purchased after the state received almost $161 million in federal relief funding through the CARES Act.Some districts across the state received 10 or fewer devices, while others received thousands. In order to receive the equipment, districts were required to have a distance learning plan and conduct a survey of students households to see what connectivity assistance would be needed.As a condition of receiving a grant, hotspots funded through the grant may only be assigned to low-income students, read an OSDE document that explains the grant process.Five districts in Carter County received a total of 851 devices, according to OSDE which bought the equipment at a discounted rate. School districts using the wireless hotspots will not incur any equipment costs but still have to pay a monthly service fee per device for at least six months.Each wireless device will cost $10 per month, according to multiple sources. Content filtering is also being provided at no cost to school districts by OneNet, a state education initiative that provides internet services to Oklahoma libraries and colleges. The service agreement between districts and Verizon can be extended until June 2021 or as long as the Pandemic National Emergency is in effect, according to the state education department.SURVEY RESPONSESAmong the smallest local districts in Carter County to receive the hotspots is Springer Public Schools. Superintendent Cynthia Hunter said she is grateful for the opportunity for her district to provide connectivity assistance to families who responded to the schools technology survey.We had 28% of our respondents who stated that they needed help accessing the internet. Of that 28%, 25 identified as low income, Hunter said.Those technology surveys conducted following school closures highlighted the connectivity issues faced by a large number of Oklahoma households. Wilson Public Schools Superintendent Tonya Finnerty said more than a third of her students households face challenges with home internet access.Referring back to our student/parent technology survey, 35% of our students did not have a sufficient connection to an internet service to be able to access our distance learning system. That equals around 130 students in our small rural school district, Finnerty said.Hotspots will be distributed to families and not necessarily students, considering some households will have multiple students. A vast majority of hotspots in Carter County will be distributed to low-income families in Ardmore and Fox.While Carter Countys largest school district will receive 500 of the hotspots, Fox Public Schools  which had about 300 students last year -- will receive 211 of them. Only 140 will be distributed to families in Lone Grove, Springer and Wilson.The wireless hotspots will provide internet access through the Verizon wireless network. Questions about device connectivity and the companys network capacity in Carter County were not answered by press time.BOOK IN A DARK ROOMProviding internet access to low-income families will not solve all of the technology problems faced by low-income families with students. Decisions by schools to subsidize connectivity post-pandemic have not been made, and the computers or tablets that connect to the internet are still out of reach for some.This is a band aid fix. The grant did not provide for devices the hotspots will be used on, said Fox Public Schools Superintendent Brent Phelps. He said his district has found a way to loan equipment this year but is not sure how long the hotspot equipment will be used.This pandemic has underscored the inequities of the digital divide that hinder opportunities for so many of our children, said OSDE Superintendent Joy Hofmeister in a July 31 statement. She said her department encouraged districts to use CARES Act funding to secure computers and tablets.But a device without connectivity is like a book in a pitch-dark room, said Hofmeister.School officials in Wilson jumped on the ability to use pandemic funding to upgrade computer access for students. Finnerty said old desktop computers have been upgraded and now nearly every student from second grade to high school seniors have access to a Chromebook or iPad.During our time of building closure, we realized, more than ever, that we needed a way for our students to be able to connect virtually to the services we offer. We understood that this transformation would not be an overnight process, but a continual one, Finnerty said.CARES Act funding is also helping some schools pay the monthly service fee for hotspots. Ardmore City Schools will be using CARES Act funding to pay the $5,000 monthly cost through at least December, according to school officials.CLOSING A DIGITAL DIVIDEArdmore City Schools Superintendent Kim Holland said his district has been exploring ways to close digital divides with connectivity and equipment. He expects many families to utilize distance learning as much as possible and wants Ardmore students to share their learning experience, whether in-class or over the internet.For kids who dont have any technology, were prepared to provide them with their Chromebook so they can work from home, said Holland.Well be using those much more individually and actively in our schools so that if we have to quickly transition back to a full virtual setting  everybody would already have a computer assigned to them and be ready to go, he said.Ardmore is also looking at ways to expand internet access on campus and across the city. One method is to extend WiFi signals from campus buildings so families can connect to faster speeds from parking lots. Holland said his district is also exploring ways for low-income families to subscribe to local broadband internet access for reduced costs.Were thankful that we have a technology department that can speak that language a lot better than I can, Holland said.Equitable access to technology and connectivity has been a hurdle for school districts for nearly an entire generation, and a pandemic has made that gap appear even wider. Holland said challenges faced by educators are numerous and widespread."Any superintendent that says they have their whole act together probably is not telling you the truth. We've all got some things that we haven't thought about yet. We get a little bit better everyday," he said.
New Zealand marked 100 days without community transmission of COVID-19, and it is proof that a vigorous, decisive response to the pandemic can drastically curb cases.



Reuters

New Zealand has recorded 1,219 infections and 22 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The numbers are a drop in the ocean when compared to other countries still battling thousands of cases and deaths.



From the first case in New Zealand on February 26 to the last one detected on May 1, elimination of the virus took 65 days.

Achieving 100 days without community transmission is a significant milestone, however, we cant afford to be complacent.  Unite against COVID-19 (@covid19nz) August 9, 2020

"Achieving 100 days without community transmission is a significant milestone, however, as we all know, we can't afford to be complacent," Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said.



COVID-19 Update



There are no new cases of COVID-19 to report in New Zealand today.



It has been 100 days since the last case of COVID-19 was acquired locally from an unknown source. We have 23 active cases of COVID-19 in managed isolation facilities.  Unite against COVID-19 (@covid19nz) August 9, 2020

"We have seen overseas how quickly the virus can re-emerge and spread in places where it was previously and we tobe prepared to quickly stamp out any future cases in New Zealand," he added.

Also Read: After Becoming Covid Free, New Zealand Is Cutting Its Research In Antarctica To Keep It Virus Free

Reuters

In the last three months, the only cases have been in residents who have returned from abroad, who have then been quarantined upon re-entry, reports The Independent.

The milestone comes as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, launched her re-election campaign on Saturday, announcing that it would be a COVID election.



New Zealands elimination strategy for COVID-19 has drawn the world's attention, and the New England Journal of Medicine just published a paper on the same.



While other countries might differ from New Zealand in terms of topography, population density and other factors that might hinder them from replicating the country's success, there are quite a few lessons to be learnt from its management of the pandemic.

Also Read; New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern Visits Hindu Temple To Offer Prayers
Nikkee Rhody, SVP and Managing Director Our new Entrepreneur in Residence component will be a valuable addition to the Falls Fintech experience

Falls Fintech, the fintech accelerator founded by Central Payments, is excited to announce the commencement of the fall cohort, operating virtually from August 10 to October 30, 2020.

Cohort 2 includes a pair of new initiatives from the accelerator. For the first time, Falls Fintech has added an Entrepreneur in Residence. Falls Fintech Co-founder and Managing Director Nikkee Rhody explains: Our new Entrepreneur in Residence component will be a valuable addition to the Falls Fintech experience, as new entrepreneurs will have a chance to work alongside individuals who have already overcome the many challenges of start-up life.

Cohort 2 Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) is Tenth whose cofounders are Donald Hawkins, powerhouse CEO of Griffin Technologies and Asya Bradley, an intrepid leader in the payments space. As they fulfill their EIR role in Falls Fintech, Tenth will be simultaneously integrating with Central Payments for a soon-after product launch.

Also, for the first time, Falls Fintech has dedicated one spot to a company whose primary focus is improving the financial well-being of minority consumers through financial literacy and innovative and responsible products. Rhody adds: Our organization, at its core, is committed to serving consumers who have not traditionally enjoyed the security and convenience of financial products. In todays challenging times, we felt that it was important to ensure every cohort going forward includes at least one company that is trying to improve the financial lives of people in minority communities.

The company filling this role in Cohort 2 is Frizzmo, a mission-first organization equipping families with responsible money management skills and fundraising for predominately intercity schools. Frizzmo believes in making every childs potential reality by engaging and empowering families and communities.

The full line-up of impressive participants in Cohort 2 are:

1) Cedar Credit Builder

CEO: Adam Finke

CTO: George Ulmer

Cedars Credit Builder allows consumers to utilize the money they have and expenses they already pay to build the credit they deserve.

http://www.linkedin.com/company/cedar-inc

HQ: Luverne, MN

2) RiftPay

CEO: Haafiz Abdurrahim

CTO: Bryce DeVaughn

Riftpay is a social and personalized banking platform that allows users, customers, and groups to share their finances and bank together.

http://www.riftpay.io

HQ: Dallas, TX

3) Frizzmo

CEO: Philip Holmes

Frizzmo has designed a new banking app that offers a platform which allows people in the community to give back to schools through daily purchase round ups, and it gives parents an opportunity to teach their children responsible money management.

http://www.frizzmo.com

HQ: Detroit, MI

4) Paperplane Financial

Cofounder: Austin Ritter

Cofounder: Cameron Polo

Paperplane is at the intersection of higher education and financial technology  aiming to serve as a platform for connecting students with funding via investors.

http://www.linkedin.com/company/paperplane-inc/

HQ: Durham, NC

5) Tenth

CEO: Donald Hawkins

Cofounder: Asya Bradley

Tenth is building a digital bank designed to erase the wealth gap for Black Americans through legitimate financial education.

http://www.betenth.com

HQ: Kansas City, MO

Trent Sorbe, President and Founder of Central Payments and Co-Founder of Falls Fintech, said Cohort 2 builds on the momentum of our inaugural group. Were thrilled about the opportunity to embed these five companies in Central Payments and look forward to bringing their fantastic products to market at the end of their Falls Fintech experience.

About the Program: Falls Fintech is a custom, 12-week program designed to accelerate market readiness for early-stage financial technology startups. The high-intensity curriculum is delivered by a distinguished group of payments, technology, and banking professionals. In addition to a financial investment of $15,000, at the conclusion of Falls Fintech, successful companies will have completed all the necessary steps to come to market with a bank partnership and access to the payments ecosystem through Central Payments and its OpenCP platform.

Contact: Nikkee Rhody/SVP and Managing Director/nrhody@central-payments.com
By Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - After failing to secure a Senate confirmation hearing, U.S. President Donald Trump's most divisive nominee for a Pentagon position so far has taken a different, less-senior policy role at the Defense Department, a spokeswoman said on Sunday.

Anthony Tata, a retired Army brigadier general who has called former President Barack Obama a "terrorist leader," will officially perform the duties of the deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, the Pentagon spokeswoman said.

In theory, the position would still offer Tata some degree of influence on hot-button Pentagon policy matters, potentially including Iran.

In addition to falsely calling Obama a Muslim and a terrorist, Tata has also called Congresswoman Maxine Waters, an African American, a "race-baiting racist," according to now-deleted Twitter posts seen by Reuters.

Democratic Congressman Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, blasted the move to give Tata a senior job just days after the Republican-led Senate abruptly canceled Tata's confirmation hearing.

"If an appointee cannot gain the support of the Senate, as is clearly the case with Tata, then the President should not put that person into an identical temporary role," Smith said in a statement.

"This evasion of scrutiny makes our government less accountable and prioritizes loyalty over competence."

Tata's new job is more junior than the one Trump initially nominated him for - undersecretary of defense for policy. But the White House made clear on Friday that Trump still supported him, even after the Senate declined to take up his nomination.

Tata had to overcome two bureaucratic hurdles to secure his new role. First, he withdrew himself from consideration by the Senate for the undersecretary position. He then accepted the more provisional status of simply "performing the duties of" the deputy, as opposed to having the position outright.

Story continues

Smith said the Defense Department was struggling under a record number of vacancies, with top positions filled in provisional capacities, like Tata's deputy role.

"If confirmations cannot be completed, the president must find new, qualified people who can win the support of the Senate," Smith said.

The Pentagon had said Tata previously served as a senior adviser in Defense Secretary Mark Esper's office, although his exact responsibilities were unclear. (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Dan Grebler)
New Delhi: The Delhi Police Crime Branch has apprehended two accused in connection with supplying illegal weapons to history sheeters of Uttar Pradesh using fake licenses, who were then selling it to Delhi based criminals.

The two accused including the owner of the Gun House in Karnal (Haryana) were held after Delhi Police received secret information on August 4, 2020, that illegal arms are being supplied from UP to Delhi and one person was going to arrive near the India Gate area to deliver a consignment to criminals.

Subsequently, a team led by Inspector Vijay Shanwal along with other officials was constituted under the supervision of ACP Yadav (Cyber Cell, Crime Branch).

Accordingly, a raid was conducted at Tilak Marg near India Gate and one suspected person namely Insar Khan (31) who hails from Baghpat (UP) was overpowered by the team. One 0.32 bore automatic pistol made in Ordinance Factory of Kolkata with one extra magazine and five live cartridges were also recovered from Insar's possession.

The other accused, Paras Chopra (36), who is the owner of the Chopra Gun House in Karnal was also apprehended. Paras told that they used to sell arms, weapons to criminals without verification of arms license and they did not use to maintain a proper record of the arms buyers as per the government guidelines.

On sustained interrogation, it was found that Insar is working at the Ministry of Labour & Employment in New Delhi at a post of Junior Statistical Officer and was the main person behind supplying arms and weapons.

Insar disclosed that he had collected the recovered pistol from a history-sheeter of Baghpat called Deepak, aka, Furtila.

He further disclosed that they buy the automatic pistols from the Gun Houses on fake arms license.

A raid was then conducted at the house of Deepak, wherein, 14 live cartridges and one magazine of the pistol were recovered from his house.

Notably, Deepak is involved in more than 15 different crime-related cases in UP.

Further investigation and raids are being conducted against gun houses involved in this racket and against those who received or bought such arms and ammunition through this gang in order to prevent the use of such sophisticated weapons by the criminals.
(HealthDay)With millions of American children soon returning to school, a new study shows that at least 97,000 kids were infected with COVID-19 during the last two weeks of July.

According to the new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association, at least 338,000 U.S. children had tested positive through July 30, The New York Times reported. That means that more than a quarter of those cases had come up positive in the second half of July alone.

Already, some schools have tried to reopen and then had to order quarantines or close after COVID-19 cases were reported among students and staff, the Times reported. North Paulding High School in Georgia, which gained national attention last week after videos of crowded hallways made their way onto social media, announced Sunday it would switch to online instruction for Monday and Tuesday after at least nine coronavirus cases were reported there.

In the new report, states in the South and West accounted for more than 7 of 10 infections. The count could be higher because the report did not include complete data from Texas and parts of New York State outside of New York City.

Missouri, Oklahoma, Alaska, Nevada, Idaho and Montana were among the states with the highest percentage increase of child infections during that period, the report found.

There were differences in how states classified children: Most places cited in the report considered children to be no older than 17 or 19. But in Alabama, the age limit was 24, while it was only 14 in Florida and Utah, the Times reported.

Though public health officials say that most children do not get severe illness, a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that a new, more dangerous COVID-19 condition known as Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children has struck children of color far more often than whites. From early March through late July, the CDC received reports of 570 young peopleranging from infants to age 20 with the condition, the Times reported. Of those, 40 percent were Hispanic or Latino, 33 percent were Black and 13 percent were white. Ten died and nearly two-thirds were admitted to intensive care units, the report found.

New model shows 300,000 dead

Meanwhile, a new model predicted that nearly 300,000 Americans could die of COVID-19 by December if more people don't wear masks or practice better social distancing.

Researchers from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) have issued a forecast of 295,011 deaths from coronavirus by Dec. 1.

However, if 95 percent of people were to wear a face mask in public, some 66,000 lives could be saved, they added.

"We're seeing a rollercoaster in the United States," institute director Christopher Murray said in a statement. "It appears that people are wearing masks and socially distancing more frequently as infections increase, then after a while as infections drop, people let their guard down and stop taking these measures to protect themselves and others which, of course, leads to more infections. And the potentially deadly cycle starts over again."

His team's model also identifies which states will need to re-impose mask mandates between now and the winter to slow the spread of transmission.

In other pandemic news, the U.S. State Department has lifted its 5-month-old blanket warning against international travel for Americans. Instead, the department will now issue travel recommendations by country.

Why the change? "Health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others" influenced its decision, the state department said in a statement released Thursday. The change will allow travelers to make "informed decisions" based on the situation in specific countries, officials said.

"We continue to recommend U.S. citizens exercise caution when traveling abroad due to the unpredictable nature of the pandemic," the agency's statement said.

Despite the lifting of the travel warning, many other countries are currently restricting American citizens from entry because the United States has far more coronavirus cases than any other nation in the world, the Washington Post reported.

Scientists call for faster tests

To try to better track and stem the spread of coronavirus, scientists have called for widespread adoption of simpler, less accurate tests, as long as they're given often and quickly.

"Even if you miss somebody on Day 1," Omai Garner, director of clinical microbiology in the UCLA Health System, told the Times. "If you test them repeatedly, the argument is, you'll catch them the next time around."

The strategy hinges on having an enormous supply of testing kits. But many experts believe more rapid, frequent testing would spot people who need immediate medical care while also identifying those most likely to spread COVID-19, the Times reported.

Of the dozens of coronavirus tests that have been granted emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, most rely on complex laboratory procedures, such as PCR, the Times reported.

Only a few tests are quick and simple enough to be run in a doctor's office or urgent care clinic, without the need for lab equipment. And these tests are still relatively scarce nationwide, though government officials say they plan to ramp up production of such tests by the fall, the newspaper said.

"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 Times. "But we are so far gone in this country. It is a catastrophe. It's kitchen sink time, even if the tests are imperfect."

By Monday, the U.S. coronavirus case count surpassed 5 million as the death toll exceeded 162,400, according to a Times tally.

According to the same tally, the top five states in coronavirus cases as of Monday were: California with over 563,000; Florida with nearly 533,000; Texas with over 508,000; New York with over 425,500; and New Jersey with more than 186,600.

Nations grapple with pandemic

Elsewhere in the world, the situation remains challenging.

Australia logged a record daily death toll on Monday, following weeks of rising case numbers there, the Post reported.

In the Australian state of Victoria, authorities confirmed more than 300 new infections and 19 deaths over the last 24 hours, the Post reported. But there were hopeful signs that the peak of the outbreak might be over. The number of new daily cases in Victoria has been falling significantly since the middle of last week, the newspaper said. A strict lockdown imposed on the state's capital, Melbourne, more than a week ago may start affecting case numbers soon.

Things continue to worsen in India.

On Monday, the country passed 2.2 million infections and over 44,300 deaths, a Johns Hopkins tally showed. The surge comes weeks after a national lockdown was lifted, and it's prompted some parts of the country to revert back to stricter social distancing measures.

Brazil is also a hotspot in the coronavirus pandemic, with over 3 million confirmed infections by Monday, according to the Hopkins tally. It has the second-highest number of cases, behind only the United States.

Cases are also spiking wildly in Russia: As of Monday, that country reported the world's fourth-highest number of COVID-19 cases, at over 890,700, the Hopkins tally showed.

Worldwide, the number of reported infections passed 19.8 million on Monday, with over 73,500 deaths, according to the Hopkins tally.

More information: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the new coronavirus

Copyright  2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Measured on a per capita basis, Galax, population about 6,500 and slipping, by far, would be the epicenter of COVID-19 in Virginia.

It has lost more of its residents to the coronavirus than elsewhere in Virginia.

As of Sunday, 347 of its residents have tested positive. Two of its nursing homes have dealt with widespread infections. And so far, 24 people have died, a count that rose again by two this past week.

Sparsely populated Galaxs actual numbers look puny when measured against densely populated Fairfax County that has had 16,376 infections and 529 deaths.

But Galax dwarfs Fairfax based on rates calculated per 100,000 population, a figure that indicates prevalence of disease.

If Fairfax County had the same rates as Galax, five times as many people living in the Northern Virginia locality would have become infected and eight times as many would have died.

Galax and surrounding Carroll County have been struggling to contain infections for more than a month. Both localities fall within the Mount Rogers Health District, which is to the south and west of the New River Valley.

Breanne Forbes Hubbard, the districts population manager, said when the numbers first started rising in June, the cases were mostly linked to nursing homes and large family gatherings.

At this point, its really just general community spread, she said. Its not like there has been four outbreaks and everybody has gotten it from that. Its more like you might get it from a coworker or a household member or somebody you had close contact with. So its just sort of spreading person to person.

The health districts cases cut across all age groups, including 59 in children younger than 10. The most heavily represented age group is people in their 20s, followed evenly by those in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

We know the majority of the deaths in the Mount Rogers District is similar to other health districts, and is unfortunately among the elderly, Forbes Hubbard said.

Of the 1,427 cases in the Mount Rogers district, 1,038 are in whites, 261 in Latinos, 41 in Blacks, three in Asian or Pacific Islanders, four in two or more races, one in a Native American, seven in other races and 73 in people of which race and ethnicity are not known.

Gov. Ralph Northam said during his news briefing Wednesday that he is monitoring the uptick in cases in the western part of the state, and is encouraging more community testing, contact tracing and public service announcements so people know the numbers are trending up in their communities.

Presently, our hospital capacity is still where we would like it to be, he said.

The Virginia Department of Health does not provide detailed information on hospitals by health districts, reporting only the number of beds by the five health regions.

Forbes Hubbard said she did not know how the case counts were affecting local hospitals.

Twin County Regional Healthcare in Galax and Wythe County Community Hospital are owned by Lifepoint Health. No one from the health system was available last week for an interview.

Wythe CEO Joseph Wilkins emailed a statement in which he wrote they closely monitor the prevalence of the virus and build their emergency operations plan.

Capacity is incredibly fluid and changes rapidly, but our team is continuously monitoring operational capacity measures, including patient admissions and discharges, to ensure we are well-coordinated in meeting the varied  and vital  health needs of patients in our community, he wrote. While we cannot speculate on what could happen over the coming weeks and months, we can assure our community that we are working hard to plan for many scenarios and adapt our hospital operations to safely care for our patients during this evolving pandemic.

The health district stretches to the south and west of the New River Valley.

The westernmost part includes Washington County and Bristol. At the start of July, when Virginia lifted restrictions on indoor dining and allowed larger groups, Bristol had logged just four cases of COVID-19. In recent weeks its numbers are surging, going from 59 at the start of August to 78 on Sunday.

In Washington County cases also have risen from 64 on July 1 to 181 on Aug. 1, and then to 229 a week later.

Forbes Hubbard said those localities are tracking with Tennessees sharp rise.

Ballad Health, which provides health care to much of western Virginia, was seeing fewer than 100 cases a week throughout its 21 county service area, until late June. Very few people were sick enough to require admission.

Now Ballad has nearly 100 patients each day in the hospital with confirmed cases of COVID-19 and another 20 or so with symptoms waiting on lab results.

Ballad had 1,807 cases in its region during the week ending Aug. 1.

Ballad has shifted staff and services to increase capacity for caring for COVID-19 patients and, according to predictive modeling the rate of new cases is trending near the worst-case scenario line.

The health system is holding weekly news conferences and putting out daily scorecards to help people understand how quickly the disease is spreading.

Jamie Swift, chief infection prevention officer, said it took a little longer for the disease to arrive in rural places.

As COVID has come into the community now, if we dont have all the measures in place continually  the wearing the mask, the washing of the hands, the distancing  thats when you are going to see rapid increases in cases. And thats what we are seeing, Swift said. It took a little longer to get here based on our geography and how spread out we can be. But now that it is here, it can spread just as rapidly as any metro city.

Ballads executives a few weeks ago asked elected officials in its Tennessee counties to enact mask mandates. While Northam has ordered wearing face coverings for indoor public spaces in Virginia, Tennessee does not have a statewide mandate.

It is hoping the face coverings will slow the spread.

The message we are trying to get across is there is no zero-risk environment anymore. There is a risk any time you walk out your front door of your home. All we can do is have safer barriers, Forbes Hubbard said.

Its kind of a broken record. But we really want people to wear their masks. We really want people to social distance. Were all still safer at home. Avoid large gatherings. But wear your mask when you are going out in public, she said.

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tech2 News Staff

Four Indian astronaut candidates in Indias first manned space mission Gaganyaan are in good health and "determined to continue with their training" and doing well, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said in a statement Thursday. The training, being undertaken by experts at the Russian space agency at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC), began in February 2020.

The training was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but resumed in May. The astronauts-in-training are following general space training courses as well as specialized training on operating the Soyuz MS crewed spacecraft. The training is scheduled to end by the first quarter of 2021, the statement said.

So far, the astronaut candidates have completed training on "crew actions in the event of an abnormal descent module landing" on different surfaces, including in "wooded and marshy areas in winter" and water. As of July, they were also trained in how to manage an emergency landing in a flat plain during summer, the agency said.

Some other courses in their regular training include physical and medical training; the configuration, structure, and systems of Soyuz spacecrafts; and speaking Russian  an important language astronauts use to communicate. The astronaut candidates will also be trained in simulations in a centrifuge and in a hyperbaric chamber (pressurized room) to prepare them for conditions like G-force, hypoxia and pressure drops during spaceflight. These training modules will begin in the near future, the statement said.

"After [a year] of training in Russia, the astronauts will receive module-specific training in India," Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space Jitendra Singh had said earlier. "They will be trained in crew and service module designed by ISRO, learn to operate it, work around it and do simulations."

Indian Air Force Pilot Wing Commander Nikhil Rath is one among the four astronauts chosen for Gaganyaan, Indias first human spaceflight mission in 2022, as per a report in the New Indian Express. The Governor of Odisha Ganeshi Lal, and Union ministers congratulated Odisha-born Indian Air Force Wing Commander Nikhil Rath for his selection by ISRO for the Gaganyaan mission on Saturday.

Rath is among of the four astronaut-elects chosen by IAF and ISRO for the mission, all of whom are male pilots. No women will be part of the inaugural flight of Gaganyaan, an ISRO official had clarified in August 2019.

The first manned flight in the Gaganyaan program, originally scheduled for 2022, will feature three astronauts chosen from among the test pilots now in training. They were shortlisted from over 25 test pilots by the IAF. If all goes to plan, Rath and two others will fly to Earth orbit in a seven-day historic mission for the India and the Indian space agency.

The 10,000-crore Gaganyaan mission is now expected to take place in 2022, which happens to be the 75th anniversary of India's Independence.
The foreign ministers of Ukraine and Saudi Arabia, Dmytro Kuleba and Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, agreed to resume political consultations between the foreign ministries of the two countries in online mode.

The two diplomats discussed this during a phone conversation on Monday, the Foreign Ministry's press service reported.

Dmytro Kuleba proposed, for the first time in 11 years, to restore online political consultations between the foreign ministries of Ukraine and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. H.H. Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud welcomed the proposal and agreed to begin preparations for the consultations, the statement reads.

The parties paid special attention to the development of trade and investment between Ukraine and Saudi Arabia. According to H.H. Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, economic interaction between the two countries has great potential.

The interlocutors noted that they expect positive consequences from visa-free regime introduced for citizens of Saudi Arabia when visiting Ukraine in order to expand business, cultural and human ties between the two friendly countries. They also discussed possible steps to further simplify the procedure for entering KSA for certain categories of Ukrainian citizens.

The foreign minister of Saudi Arabia responded favourably to the invitation by the Ukrainian minister to visit our state.

Kuleba also confirmed the invitation by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to His Majesty King Salman bin Abdulaziz and His Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to visit Ukraine and received assurances that the proposal would be considered after the current quarantine restrictions over the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted.

As a reminder, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of Ukraine's important partners in the Gulf region. The total volume of trade in goods with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2019 amounted to almost USD 920 million.

The parties seek to develop mutually beneficial cooperation in the aviation and agro-industrial spheres.

On September 28, 2019, the Government of Saudi Arabia introduced multiple tourist visas for citizens of 49 countries, including Ukraine. On August 1, 2020, Ukraine introduced a visa-free regime for citizens of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

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Technologies are now being developed to tackle garbage that ends up in seas, rivers and oceans.
Saudi Arabias Al Elm Information Security Company (Elm) has signed an agreement to acquire the entire shares of the Saudi Company for Exchanging Digital Information (Tabadul) from the Public Investment Fund (PIF).



Upon closing of the transaction, Tabadul will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Elm, preserving its brand and identity.



Tabaduls current executive management will continue to lead its operations, and will report to its existing board of directors, with representation from Elm. The transaction is likely to result in significant synergies while unlocking potential growth opportunities and expediting the achievement of the overall strategic objectives of the both companies.



Besides, Elm and Tabadul will have an opportunity to leverage complementary strengths, enhance competitiveness and expertise to create a one-stop-shop that will cater to the entire logistics value chain in the Kingdom.



Under the agreement, Tabadul will continue to operate as an independent company, under its trademark whose ownership has been transferred to Elm.



Commenting on the transaction, the Public Investment Fund said: This acquisition will contribute to the realization of Vision 2030 by creating a logistics national champion and benefit the KSA economy through integrating the logistics value chain.



This acquisition will add to the value of the Public Investment Fund by providing an integrated entity that focuses on the digital sector. Also, it creates advanced national logistical services that are aligned with the current market requirements and the need of beneficiaries, as well as facilitating innovation by taking advantage of Elm expertise to develop Tabadul products in the logistical field. Moreover, it will reduce costs while creating satisfactory economic revenues.



Dr Abdulrahman Aljadhai, Chief Executive Officer of Elm, regarded the deal to be an important milestone for Elm as it continues to expand its product offerings and digital custom solutions in the transportation and finance sectors. The combination of Elm and Tabadul will create a one-stop-shop that will cater to the entire logistics value chain, thus accelerating its targeted sector expansion strategy and offering significant value to its partners and the market alike.



Dr Aljadhai also stated that it is an opportunity to develop national logistics services that meet the current market requirements and the need of the beneficiaries.



Abdulaziz Alshamsi, Chief Executive Officer of Tabadul, said that he is confident that this transaction will enable Tabadul to expedite its new service offerings and solutions. He noted that this transaction would be a remarkable development that will support the business growth in Tabadul during the coming years.



Moreover, it will serve the Customs, Ports, and Aviation sectors and contribute to the advancement of logistical domains. Combining Tabaduls forces with Elms will allow Tabadul to leverage product capabilities and create a comprehensive logistics platform that are core to Tabaduls growth strategy.



Elm is one of biggest digital companies in the region, aiming to enhance its global reach in the near future. Established in 1986, Elm provides various technical solutions, e-products, consulting services, digital outsourcing, and training solutions to government and private businesses.



Tabadul is a pioneer in providing innovative digital integration solutions to the logistics sector, enabling the exchange of information, goods and services across government and private businesses in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.



The Public Investment Fund is one of the largest and most impactful sovereign wealth funds in the world, enabling the creation of new sectors and opportunities that will shape the future global economy, while driving the economic transformation of Saudi Arabia.  TradeArabia News Service
(Natural News) Bill Binney, the federal governments top expert on computer hacking and other internet-related issues, has come forward with claims that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) under Barack Obama actually fabricated evidence to push the infamous Russiagate conspiracy theory.

Binney, who worked as technical director at the National Security Agency (NSA) under George W. Bush, is the same whistleblower who boldly exposed that administration of faking evidence about weapons of mass destruction to legitimize invading and waging war against Iraq.

Concerning the leftist attempt to dethrone Donald Trump from the White House over claims that he conspired with the Russians to steal the election, Binney says that this is yet another example of deep state tampering with the truth, and that the whole thing was completely made-up.

Obamas CIA, Binney contends, defrauded the American people by falsely leading them to believe that Russia had hacked the computers of two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democrat Party before feeding the information it obtained to Wikileaks and other organizations.

Binney cites evidence, which, if true, conclusively proves that Russiagate was actually created fraudulently by the CIAs extensive evidence-tampering, which subsequently became covered-up by the Special Counsel Robert Mueller, in his investigations for the Democratic Partys first (and failed) try at impeaching and removing from office U.S. President Donald J. Trump, writes Eric Zuesse for The Duran.

In a recent speech, which lasted about 10 minutes  you can watch it on YouTube  Binney lays it all out in easy-to-digest language. His hope is to eventually convince Congress, the courts  and the court of public opinion  to recognize that the Russiagate conspiracy theory was a complete fabrication that requires a full investigation in to who all is responsible for it.

Obama, Hillary, the Democrats, and the CIA all need to go down for their crimes

Binney says that he and other technical people with access to special analysis tools were able to determine that the information obtained by Wikileaks did not come from a hacker, but was rather downloaded to a storage device such as a CD or thumb drive before being physically transferred to Wikileaks.

No matter how you look at it, Binney contends, the forensic evidence is conclusive that the DNC emails obtained by Wikileaks were not hacked, but rather were downloaded and physically transported to Wikileaks.

These same forensic methods were used to determine that Guccifer 2, which claims to have been the responsible person, or party, that hacked and shared the DNC emails, is also a fraud. There is simply no way that all the data supposedly hacked could have transferred over the web as fast as the time stamps on this data suggest, further indicating that there was some kind of physical transfer that took place as opposed to a hack.

Guccifer 2 also apparently lied about supposedly separating the data into two files, as well as other erroneous claims that cannot be supported by actual forensic evidence. Guccifer 2 was also caught inserting Russian signatures into the files to make them look like they were hacked by the Russians, when in fact they had been deliberately and obviously  at least to those in the know  tampered with after the fact.

All of this and more can be traced right back to the CIA under Obama, Binney says, though nobody at the highest levels of government with any capacity to do anything about it seems willing to address these revelations. Instead, they are all systematically sweeping the whole thing under the rug as they move on to newer conspiracy theories, hoping those might stick instead.

For more related news about the failed Russiagate narrative, be sure to check out Hoax.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheDuran.com

NaturalNews.com
COVID-19 continues to affect Hispanics at a disproportionately higher rate than other ethnic groups in El Paso County and statewide, a reflection of their vulnerability because of their jobs and unequal access to health care, advocates say.

We do see higher rates of infection than expected in our Hispanic and Latino community, said El Paso County Public Health spokeswoman Michelle Hewitt.

While Hispanics make up about 20% of the county's population, they account for about 30% of local COVID cases, she said.

Statewide, of the nearly 49,500 people who have tested positive for the virus, 38% are Hispanic, according to Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment statistics. Hispanics comprise 22% of Colorados 5.7 million residents.

One reason for the disparity could be that many Hispanics are front-line workers who may not have health insurance or access to health care, said Julissa Soto, director of statewide programs for Servicios de la Raza, or Services for the People.

There is much health inequity, she said. We must meet people where they are at, where they live and play, where everything seems familiar to them.

Since April, her organization has run a free weekly food giveaway at the Southeast YMCA for undocumented and other low-income residents. The program started with 25 families showing up and has grown to serve 500 families weekly.

Bilingual COVID testing through El Paso County Public Health was added in June, as Spanish-speaking residents and undocumented immigrants sought to find somewhere they could feel comfortable and more clearly understand the pandemic, Soto said.

About half of those who use the testing site each week receive positive results, she said. Normally, between 15 and 20 people are being tested each week, Soto said.

Cars start lining up in the YMCA parking lot and spilling over onto South Chelton Road at 10:30 a.m. each Monday for the food distribution and testing that begin at noon.

Some queued up to be tested this past week were worried they had contracted the virus. Others said they possibly had been exposed.

Susana Carreno's 21-year-old daughter had lost her sense of taste and smell. Carreno said through a translator that she went to other clinics but was told she needed an appointment.

At the Servicios de la Raza site, no appointment is necessary and the test is free, Soto said.

Carrenos daughter had self-quarantined in her room so as to not spread the virus to her other five children. But the family was concerned because the daughter and her husband are the only ones with jobs.

She needs a negative test to go back to work at a cellphone retail center, said Cindy Marroquin, program manager for Servicios de la Raza, who translated.

Carreno said her family is on the verge of homelessness because their landlord wants to evict them.

She has a lot of stress, Marroquin said. This pandemic is crazy, a very stressful time.

Teenagers and young adults have been lax with social distancing rules and covering their faces, Carreno said.

Some people dont believe its true, she said.

A worker at Andrea Quirozs job in a fruit and vegetable packing plant in Colorado Springs tested positive for COVID, so now all employees have to be tested.

The issue has affected her family of three tremendously, she said through as Marroquin.

They have very little work. They pretty much only have money for rent.

Quirozs employer shut down operations and told workers not to return until the business could figure out who is infected and whos not.

Quiroz said she didnt have any symptoms as she waited patiently in line to be tested.

People dont believe its real, she said.

As to why Hispanics have higher infection rates, Quiroz said undocumented people without proper paperwork to be in the United States arent receiving unemployment benefits or federal stimulus money.

Theres the need; we have to go to work," she said.

Some people just dont care about the pandemic and the regulations, said Catalina Cholico. Her 13-year-old daughter was tested at the bilingual site a few weeks ago and received a negative result despite having some of the symptoms.

Were not taking the right measures we should be taking as a (Hispanic) community, she said. Were in crowded places, around a lot of people, and not wearing masks like we should.

Cholicos five-member family took precautions before hearing the outcome of the daughters test because they were worried, she said.

The daughter was quarantined in her room for more than a week.

She went from her room to the bathroom, and that was it, Cholico said through Marroquin. She was nervous about the test.

Spanish-speaking volunteers ask every driver whether anyone in the car has symptoms or needs to be tested. Results are returned in a about a week, Marroquin said.

At last weeks event, El Paso County Public Health provided 320 Spanish and 100 English copies of a general COVID information sheet.

Access to information about the disease might be another reason Hispanics and Latinos are contracting COVID at a higher rate, Marroquin said.

Theres a lot of information, and I dont know if its readily available in Spanish, she said, adding that the information sheets should help.

People are afraid to get tested or go to the doctor, and some dont have papers, so they fear ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) looking for them.

Servicios de la Raza will re-evaluate its ability to continue both the food distribution and the testing after Aug. 17, Soto said.

Food boxes include milk, meat, fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, tortillas and other items, primarily donated by Colorado Springs Food Rescue and Care and Share Food Bank of Southern Colorado.

Kenia Uparela said through Marroquin that she was grateful for the assistance during these hard times.

She and her family relocated to Colorado Springs from Belgium just as the pandemic was taking hold and has been unable to find a job or child care. Her husband is working, and the family is relying on savings to get by.

Were the ones doing the hard jobs, the cleaning, the agriculture, Uparela said of Hispanics. This kind of help is necessary now and after the pandemic ends.
Actor Amitabh Bachchan, who recently expressed concerns for his career, has received a mock job offer from one of his fans. The actor shared the message on his blog. Hed previously noted that under the Maharashtra governments now amended shooting guidelines in a post-pandemic world, he would not be allowed to work, as he is a senior citizen.

He wrote on his blog, Expect the unexpected from the Ef ever .. and one such brightness evolves in this creativity which kind of reflects one of my posers in the Blog.

The brightness that the actor was referring to is a job offer, presented to him by a fan. The letter reads:

Dear Mr. Amitabh Bachchan,

Re: Your Application for an alternate job vide Day 4539

In view of the permanent kind of temporary moratorium on work imposed on you by the governance due to your age, and the loss of revenue caused by the same, we are pleased to inform you that your application for an alternate job is temporarily under review for permanent reasons

(By the way, before we forget, please register our request that if you understand anything of what we are saying, please let us know too)

So, here is our offer -

Sir,

if you wish to do nothing, yet you want to feel as if you are something, then we suggest that you become the President of the United States

But if you want to do something which will last forever, then we suggest that you open a Peace Shop Sell Peace that shop can never go out of business

Let us draft a flowchart for you to prepare for the venture

1) Vision - To provide a rolling plan for ways and means to acquire and sustain peace

2) Mission - Make sure that it remains a rolling plan Peace alive is peace dead

3) Aims and Objectives - Define Peace, develop immeasurable standards for peace, and draft governance models for ensuring that the standards are impossible to achieve

4) Policies - Develop and enforce codes of conduct which will make the objectives happen

5) Systems - Draft and build an organisation of functions which are both horizontally and vertically indefinite Make sure that everything and everyone is included

6) Procedures - Develop and establish procedures for each function such that no single procedure is standalone every procedure must rely on another to produce results

7) Standards - Establish standards for each procedure Make sure that the standards are not auditable we live in a democracy Use the preamble to beat audits

8) Codes of Practice - Adopt all new codes of practice Remember, history is recorded for telling us what has been defeated in the past Historical successes are compromised

We sincerely hope that you will lead our temporary enterprise We will wrap it up as soon as it shows signs of positive results

Looking forward to your favourable response, and assuring you of our best services at all times,

We remain,

Yours truly,

Sd/-

My job is now insured, the actor wrote at the end of his blog post. There are of course many other anxieties that trouble the mind. Government authorities have stipulated that those at 65 age and above cannot go out to work .. a few days back that age limit was reduced even further to 50 yrs, the actor had written on his blog. However, on Friday, the Bombay High Court quashed the Maharashtra governments orders that barred TV and film artistes above 65 years of age from resuming shootings and related work during the coronavirus lockdown, terming them discriminatory.

Also read: Amitabh Bachchan welcomes bhaiyu Abhishek Bachchan as he returns home after testing Covid-19 negative

The actor and his family, including son Abhishek Bachchan, daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and granddaughter Aaradhya, were all recently cured of the coronavirus. Amitabh is in quarantine, while Abhishek returned home this week.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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The National Institute on Drug Abuse recently awarded a $2.6 million grant to researchers at East Tennessee State University and Virginia Tech to develop studies on how best to provide support services for individuals being treated for opioid use disorder.

The Studies To Advance Recovery Support (STARS) Network, which will involve researchers across multiple universities and health care systems, will center on the urgent need for research to advance recovery support services in Central Appalachia.

The goal of the partnership is to build research networks and capacity around addiction recovery support services in general and specifically around those people who are using medications to treat their opioid use disorder in combination with counseling and other support services.

The principal investigators for this project are Robert Pack, an associate dean and a professor in the ETSU College of Public Health and executive director of ETSU's Addiction Science Center, and Kimberly Horn, a professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and in the department of population health sciences in Virginia Tech's Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. Both are nationally recognized experts on the prevention and treatment of substance use disorders with a number of funded research studies and published manuscripts on this topic.

"STARS will use creative methods to engage treatment providers and peer recovery support specialists to generate a better understanding of the continuum of treatment services in Central Appalachia," said Pack. "The ultimate goal is to better understand what works in a variety of settings, so that long-term recovery support services are readily accessible for persons suffering from substance use disorder.

"Recovery can be greatly facilitated through peer support services - engaging with non-clinical people who have had similar lived experiences with addiction and who are in long-term recovery," Pack added. "Exactly how those services work is one of the main areas of focus for the new grant."

The STARS Network will capitalize on the existing Opioids Research Consortium of Central Appalachia (ORCCA), established in 2019 and jointly run by Horn and Pack, to generate training programs, tools and platforms to study of peer recovery support services for individuals treated with medications for opioid use disorder.

In addition to ETSU and Virginia Tech, other ORCCA partners include Ballad Health, Carilion Clinic, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Marshall University and West Virginia University.

"It is important for people in treatment to interact with others like themselves, who've successfully navigated the same journey in their community, and who can give them support as they rebuild their lives," said Horn. "We need to figure out how to create a recovery ecosystem that bridges the gaps. We intend for this project to gear us up to study the effects and key features of peer support models. Without these types of studies, the value of peer support models may not be fully realized in our communities."

The work will be facilitated by long-standing university-community collaborations in both regions: the Addiction Science Center Working Group in Northeast Tennessee, chaired by Pack, and the Roanoke Valley Collective Response, in the Roanoke VA region, co-chaired by Horn.

###
The Bombay high court last week stayed an order passed by a deputy registrar of co-operative societies in the city, directing a co-operative housing society at Dindoshi to issue no-objection certificates to one of its members for improvement and change of user of his premises.

In my prima-facie opinion the Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies ex-facie did not have any jurisdiction and authority to issue such a direction to the petitioner society to issue a NOC as contained in the order, said justice Girish Kulkarni while staying order issued by the deputy registrar, P ward.

Acting on a complaint lodged by the member, the deputy registrar had on July 9, 2019 directed Shree Raghunandan co-operative housing society to issue necessary NOCs to the member for joining four tenements and converting user of the premises from residential to commercial.

The housing society then moved HC, through advocate Mohit Jadhav, challenging the order on various grounds.

The order was purportedly passed under Section 79(2)(a) of the Maharashtra C o-operative Societies (MCS) Act, 1960, but justice Kulkarni opined that the deputy registrar had no power to issue such a direction.

In my prima facie opinion, it is clearly a dispute between a member and the society, which would require adjudication before some other forum, said the judge.

The judge said section 79(2)(a) deals with compliances to be made by co-operative societies and confers power on the deputy registrar to issue necessary orders to ensure the statutory compliances like filing of returns etc.

It is difficult to conceive that the nature of the complaint as made by respondent no. 3 (member) before the Deputy Registrar invoking Section 79(2)(a) for issuance of inter-alia fire NOC and a NOC for improvements can at all fall within the purview of this provision, said justice Kulkarni.

The judge added that to read such wide powers to issue such directions as contained in the impugned order under Section 79(2)(a) would amount to reading something into the provision which the legislature has not provided for and in fact if so construed would amount to something contrary to the statutory scheme of the MCS Act 1960.
The movie-going experience is returning to Laredo this week as Cinemark announced theaters across the country that will reopen Friday, Aug. 14 including the Mall del Norte location.

At Cinemark, we are thrilled to once again welcome you to a shared and immersive experience as we begin the phased reopening of our theaters, Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi said. There is nothing quite as powerful as great cinematic storytelling on the big screen. We wanted to ensure that the time was right before we reopened our doors as this global pandemic has changed the way we live our lives, and our hearts go out to all affected by coronavirus, and we are so deeply grateful for all the heroes on the frontlines.

Zoradi also announced the new cleaning and hygiene techniques they will offer which include cleaning their facilities fully each morning, cleaning between movie screenings, making sure contactless payments and contactless receiving become the norm and also for there to be social distancing practiced inside the theater at all times.

Employees will be provided wellness checks every time they enter the building. They will be required to wear face masks at all times and to help maintain social distancing in lobby areas.

The announcement of the phased reopening of Cinemark is not the first time the chain has announced its reopening. It announced it would open in early June, but the continued rise in COVID-19 cases around the state and country caused it to delay the reopening.

Just as before, some people reacted positively to the news as they want things to return to normal, for people to go back to work and to have the options to go and see movies if they wish. However, a majority said they will not rush back to see movies as they want to see the impact on infection rates after the theaters open.

Im going to go ahead and wait, Sam Dougherty said. I love the movies, and I would go about three to four times a week if possible, but not right now. Id rather wait.

Many agreed with Doughertys mindset of waiting since Laredo is coming off an eighth straight record week with 1,409 new COVID-19 cases, an average of 201.3 per day.

I just prefer to wait honestly, Illeana Romero-Ortiz said. Here in my house you can see all kinds of movies at any time you want, and its cheaper and more snacks and safer as well. Although I really miss popcorn from the movie theater, it is better to be safe than sorry.

Although Romero-Ortiz said she may not be interested in going to the movies, she said the idea of buying fresh popcorn and eating it in the comfort and safety of her home is something she could consider as the movie theaters reopen. Kiara Rodriguez and Jose Fuentes also said they would consider buying concessions from the theater.

Some people pointed to the online-only openings of schools as a reason to stay away from the theater.

Well watch them in the comfort of our home, Victor Uribe said. My family has been renting them and its cheaper. I hope parents make the right decision. Since the students wont be attending school on campus, it would be ridiculous to see the cinema full of kids.

Erick Mendoza Munoz has seen the impact of COVID-19 firsthand and said he will be staying home.

I don't want to go through COVID-19 again in my family, Munoz said. Not being able to sleep at night afraid of waking up the next morning to something bad is not worth a movie.

Although most Laredoans asked said it is too soon to return to movie theaters, some are eager to go. In fact, they find comfort in the fact not many people will go as restaurant dining areas that continue to be open continue have little to no customers.

I am definitely going to go watch a movie as nobody else is, Sara Fox Munoz said. Its better now than later when everyone wants to go.

For anyone interested in guaranteeing a theater to themselves, Cinemark offers the option to book a private watch party for up to 20 guests for $99. For normal showings, tickets will be $5 for adults and $3 for children. The lone 2020 release showing is The Hunt while the rest are a mix of blockbuster classics and a few more recent releases.

The other movies being shown Aug. 14 are:

Back to the Future

Beauty and the Beast

Despicable Me

Ghostbusters

The Goonies

Jumanji: The Next Level

Jurassic Park

Raiders of the Lost Ark

jorge.vela@lmtonline.com
New Delhi, Aug 11 : The National Students' Union of India (NSUI) activists on Monday staged a protest march to Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) office in response to the anti-student policies and demanded fee waiver for six months.

The NSUI activists were led by General Secretary Nagesh Kariyappa and they demanded a fee waiver for six months and a postponement of all exams till novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic situation becomes suitable to conduct exams.

Speaking to media, Kariyappa said, "We are reporting the maximum number of cases per day around the world and still MHRD is insisting on conducting exams. This has to stop." He also said that besides all this the government is trying to wash its hands and sell the entire education sector to private players through National Education Policy (NEP), 2020.

"The NEP 2020 is anti-reservation. This would devastate our education sector," he said.

The NSUI leader also said that the common man is struggling to meet its daily needs and the government is forcing students to pay fees.

"The government should be compassionate and sensible at this moment and waive off the fees for six months," he demanded.
Although President Donald Trump flatly denied claims that his team asked about how to add his face to the iconic Mount Rushmore, he certainly liked the thought of it, calling it a "good idea" in a tweet.

ELABORATE FRAUD SCHEME: Houston stepmom and son ordered to pay nearly $13M after being convicted in bank fraud scheme

According to a Saturday report from the New York Times, a Republican party official source stated that White House aide reached out to Kristi Noem's office last year with this curious question, "What's the process to add additional presidents to Mount Rushmore?"

This is not the first time the addition of Trump's face to Mount Rushmore has been discussed. In a 2008 interview with the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Noem noted Trump's "dream" to have his face on Mount Rushmore. The Argus Leader reported that the two struck up a conversation about the monument during their first meeting:

"He said, 'Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand,'" Noem said. "I shook his hand, and I said, 'Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore.' And he goes, 'Do you know it's my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?' " Noem thought he was joking. "I started laughing," she said. "He wasn't laughing, so he was totally serious."

When Trump visited Mount Rushmore last month for the July 4 celebrations, he was greeted by Noem, who presented a four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore with Trump's face etched into it, according to the New York Times.

alison.medley@chron.com
A petition that calls for MISD to offer in-person learning after four weeks went online this weekend.

Katie Joyner started the online document that petitions Midland ISD Superintendent Orlando Riddick and the Midland ISD school board to offer an option for parents, students, teachers and administrators who want to be on campus.

The petition reads, Do you believe that MISD should offer an IN-PERSON SCHOOL OPTION WITH SAFETY PRECAUTIONS after 4 weeks? Do you believe FAMILIES THAT WANT TO ATTEND SCHOOL SHOULD BE ABLE TO HAVE THAT OPTION? Those that do not wish to attend have the OPTION OF THE ONLINE ACADEMY!! Help us get school reopened by signing our PETITION and take some of the uncertainty out of the 20-21 school year.

The district announced last week the school year would start with at least four weeks of at-home learning for all students.

Joyner told the Reporter-Telegram on Sunday that the districts communication about health indicators that ultimately caused the shutdown wasnt what it needed to be and that one piece of data  the positivity rate  should not have been the measuring stick.

District officials specifically pointed to a more than 21 percent positive test rate  comparable to Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.

Infectious disease experts recommend both a local positive case rate of less than 5 percent and a 14-day decline in positive case counts as conditions for safely reopening schools, according to MISD.

Joyner responded to what she called a bogus number, as it was not 20 percent of the population.

She also said that while surveys were used to obtain certain information from Midland ISD staff and parents, the districts unwillingness to work with the 50 percent of parents who wanted to return to campus has created apprehension across the community.

In completely suspending in-person classes to help fight the virus, weve likely activated Newtons Third Law, Carrie McKean wrote in an opinion article for the Reporter-Telegram. Weve jeopardized the safety and well-being of thousands of children in our community whose families do not have the resources, job flexibility, or social support networks to properly educate their children at home.

The same week that Midland ISD announced its plan of at least four weeks of at-home learning for its students, Ector County ISD announced a phased-in plan that starts with the following students on campus on the first day of school: those who dont have internet access at home, those who receive services through special education (option to phase-in with grade level), 3-year-olds at early education centers and children of ECISD employees (pre-K through eighth grade). Other students will be phased in over the next 3 1/2 weeks.

If we dont go back and try, how will we not know if we can be successful, Joyner said.

MISD has sent the wrong message in their discussion with the community about not being able to have students on campus, Joyner said. She pointed to allowing extracurricular activities to take place (a decision she agrees with) and a slide used during a board meeting that showed the impact of at-home learning on parents. The slide is called, A day in the life of a parent: at-home learning.

In the slide, the district shows a parent named Tammy, who has one child and works at home. The slide shows that Tammys day as an educational support figure ends by 5:10 p.m.

If that is expectation MISD is setting for virtual learning, they are lying, Joyner said. It is completely ridiculous. I dont know how we cant push back on this decision publicly.

Joyner and her husband, Dave, arent calling for those who feel uncomfortable to be in a packed-classroom setting. The goal of the petition, they said, is to have an option for students to attend in person. Their case was made last week by an award-winning MISD teacher who went on to social media saying she would have signed a waiver to be back on campus in front of students.

Education is essential, Katie Joyner said. What is unacceptable to taxpayers is to offer them no options.

Joyner said she hopes to garner enough support to show results at the school board meeting on Aug. 17. She wants Midlanders to think about if the bomb dropped last week really improves student outcomes in the community.

We want as many people to sign the petition that we cannot be ignored, Joyner said.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Human changes to the environment have been linked to widespread pollinator declines. New research published in Nature Communications shows that intensive land use will further decrease pollination and reproductive success of wild plants, especially of those plants that are highly specialized in their pollination. An international team of scientists led by researches from the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ) performed a global data analysis that provided conclusive evidence of the links of human land use and pollination of plants.

Plants provide resources including food and shelter to all other living organisms on earth. Most plants need pollinators to reproduce, which is why mounting research showing widespread pollinator declines is concerning. Despite concerns we are facing a pollination crisis, we do not know which types of plants will be most affected by pollinator declines and under which conditions declines in plant reproductive success are to be expected.

Changes in land-use are the leading threat to plants and pollinators. However, different groups of pollinators may have different responses to changes in land-use. For example, some farming practices may increase honeybee abundance on the one hand but reduce the abundance of other pollinators such as wild bees and butterflies on the other hand. Dr. Joanne Bennett, who led the research as a postdoctoral researcher at iDiv and MLU and is now working at the University of Canberra, said: "Plants and their pollinators have evolved relationships over millions of years . Humans are now changing these relationships in just a few years."

A global data set on land use and pollen limitation

To determine if land use effects pollen limitation, an international team of researchers set out to compile a global dataset that quantified the degree to which pollenation limits plant reproductive success. For this, they analyzed thousands of published pollen supplementation experimentsexperiments that estimate the magnitude of pollen limitation by comparing the number of seeds produced by naturally pollinated flowers with flowers receiving hand supplemented pollen. Joanne Bennett said: "If naturally pollinated plants produce less fruits or seeds than plants that have received additional pollen by hand then the reproduction of that plant population is limitedthis is called pollen limitation. In this way, pollen limitation experiments provide an unparalled opportunity to link plant reproductive function to the health of pollination services."

It was almost 20 years ago when Prof Dr. Tiffany Knight, Alexander von Humboldt professor at MLU and head of the Spatial Interaction Ecology research group at iDiv and UFZ, started to compile the first data sets. Supported by iDiv's synthesis center sDiv, Knight and Bennett took the project to a new level by forming a group of 16 experts from all over the world to expand the dataset and generate new ideas. The researchers started with 1,000 experiments on 306 plant species from Europe and North America. To date, it includes data from over 2,000 experiments and more than 1,200 plants and has a more global distribution. Tiffany Knight said: "One of the most rewarding components of this research has been the collaboration with the international team, and the inclusion of studies published in languages other than English."

Specialists and plants in intensely used landscape highly pollen limited

Ultimately, this data allowed for a global meta-analysis, which showed that wild plants in intensely used landscapes, such as urban areas, are highly pollen limited. The researchers found that plants that are specialized in their pollination are particularly at risk of pollen limitation, but this varies across the different land-use types and is based on which pollinator taxa they are specialized on. For example, plants specialized on bees were less pollen limited in agriculturally managed lands than those specialized on other pollinator types. This could be because domesticated honey bees support the pollination of wild plants in these lands.

The results show conclusively that intensive land use is linked to lower plant reproductive success due to lower pollination success. This suggests that future land-use change will decrease the pollination and reproductive success of plants, and can cause plant communities to become more dominated by species that are generalized in their pollination.

Explore further Moths have a secret but vital role as pollinators in the night

More information: Joanne M. Bennett et al, Land use and pollinator dependency drives global patterns of pollen limitation in the Anthropocene, Nature Communications (2020). Journal information: Nature Communications Joanne M. Bennett et al, Land use and pollinator dependency drives global patterns of pollen limitation in the Anthropocene,(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17751-y

Provided by German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig
Military escalation appears inevitable in the eastern Mediterranean after Turkey announced new seismic research activity Aug. 10 in contested areas overlapping with a maritime zone that its arch foes Egypt and Greece agreed on last week.

Ankara issued a navigational notice  known as Navtex  that the mission of the Oruc Reis research ship, accompanied by two logistical vessels, will continue in the eastern Mediterranean until Aug. 23, the Anadolu news agency reported. Turkish military ships are likely escorting the mission. In the past, such escorts have been comprised of two or three frigates, two or three gunboats and a couple of submarines.

The announcement is a clear sign that Turkey will attempt a controlled escalation in the eastern Mediterranean after Egypt and Greece designated an exclusive economic zone between the two countries Aug. 6, raising the stakes for Ankara in a complex standoff in which energy rivalry has become entangled with the Libyan war.

The competition over energy resources comes atop Turkeys decades-long territorial disputes with Greece and the Greek Cypriots and political bad blood with Egypt since the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood government in 2013.

The Egyptian-Greek accord, which apparently caught Turkey off guard, came in retaliation to the maritime demarcation deal that Ankara signed with Libyas Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) in November and followed the accord that Greece sealed with Italy in June on maritime zones in the Ionian Sea.

Ankara immediately dismissed the deal, stressing that the delimited area infringed on Turkeys continental shelf. A maritime boundary between Greece and Egypt does not exist. With respect to Turkey, the so-called maritime delimitation agreement  is null and void. This understanding will reflect on the ground and at the table, read a Foreign Ministry statement. Turkey, it vowed, will not allow any activity at the area in question and will resolutely continue to defend its legitimate rights and interests as well as those of the Turkish Cypriots in the eastern Mediterranean.

The deal came as a shock in Ankara because only the week before it had stepped back from surveying the seabed in a disputed area between the Turkish coastal city of Antalya and the Greek island of Kastellorizo, known as Meis in Turkey, to allow time for diplomacy with Greece following German intervention. Spain had also sought to help defuse tensions between the two NATO allies.

Hawks in Ankara were incensed that the mission of the Oruc Reis had been suspended in favor of exploratory talks with Greece. They seem to have quickly achieved what they wanted as the vessel and the two accompanying ships left the Antalya port on the morning of Aug. 10.

Retired Adm. Cem Gurdeniz  credited as the brains behind the Blue Homeland concept that calls for a more assertive Turkish posture on maritime rights  had argued that the suspension was a blunder. Greece fooled us. It turns out they were negotiating with Egypt while blinding us with fairy tales about talks, he said.

The Oruc Reis returned to action amid a tense atmosphere in Ankara, marked by a prevailing conviction that halting the vessels mission in response to German and Spanish mediation was a mistake and that Turkey should press ahead with controlled escalation in the contested zones to demonstrate strength and resolve.

The move is likely to bear on the conflict in Libya, where Egypt has backed the eastern forces fighting the Turkish-backed GNA. In other words, the flashpoint of the power struggle between Turkey and Egypt could shift from Libya to the sea, where Turkey risks facing an expanded bloc involving Greece.

A critical strategic question is whether Greece and Egypt will mount joint diplomatic and military efforts to counter Turkey or act separately. Since Greece emerged as an independent actor in the region in the 1820s, the eastern Mediterranean has never seen an active Greek-Egyptian military alliance against Turkey.

In the past six years, Egypt has made notable efforts to strengthen its navy, aiming to become the leading naval force of the Arab world and expand its influence in the Red Sea and the eastern Mediterranean and, above all, protect its newly discovered undersea gas fields. Most remarkably, it has sought to beef up its submarine fleet.

With the Turkish and Greek naval forces already concentrated in the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean, the prospect of military escalation is hard to rule out.

To start with, Turkish, Egyptian and Greek surveillance drones are likely to fill the skies over the disputed waters in the coming days. In such an electrified climate, the crashing or shooting down of a single drone might dramatically heighten tensions and trigger a military escalation. As noted, Ankara has already issued a Navtex for the disputed areas and dispatched a seismic research ship escorted by naval forces. Deepening domestic woes might further induce Ankara to fan tensions to distract the public from the worsening economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, the slump of the Turkish lira, rising prices and unemployment.

As emphasized, the key question here is whether Egypt will back Greece by adopting a joint military posture. Also, how willing will third parties such as Germany and Spain be to mediate should a crisis erupt? The answers will determine the depth and the scope of a potential crisis down the road.

Judging by Turkeys scale-tipping intervention in the Libyan war since it signed its maritime accord with the GNA, Ankara appears resolved to use military clout to defend the deal. The coming days will show whether Athens and Cairo have a similar resolve to defend their own deal and whether they are ready to translate it into a joint military effort against Ankara. Such a showdown would raise the specter of a serious military escalation in the eastern Mediterranean involving both naval and air forces.
In July 2018, three Russian journalists, Orkhan Dzhemal, Alexander Rastorguyev and Kirill Radchenko set off to the Central African Republic to film a documentary on the alleged presence of a Russian private military company.

After they arrived in the capital, Bangui, they tried unsuccessfully to enter a camp at Berengo, in the southwest, where soldiers were trained by Russian instructors rumoured to be from Wagner, a mercenary outfit said to have connections to the Russian government

They then moved north where, on July 30, their vehicle was ambushed 25km from Sibut, a town north of Bangui. All three men were killed. Their driver emerged unscathed.

The next morning, I received frantic phone calls from their colleagues in Moscow. Based on information that filtered out over the next several days, doubts surfaced around official claims that the murder was the work of armed robbers, as nothing of value had been taken from the vehicle.

Some media reported that according to their driver, they were killed by a group speaking Arabic, even though they were well outside of the zone of the Seleka, the mostly Muslim armed group that started the years-long conflict in the country in 2012, or any other Arabic-speaking group.

People working with the journalists told me that before they were killed, the three men were coordinating their movements with someone falsely claiming to be an employee of the United Nations, based in Bambari, a town to the east. On a final check-in before they were killed, the men had said they were heading in the direction of Bambari, but they were killed on a different road, one heading north to Dekoa. The journalists also had managed to move out of Sibut at night, past the police and gendarme checks, a permission that is not usually granted lightly.

Given the sensitive nature of the topic they were investigating, there were more questions than answers.

In the two years since their death, a vast amount of work has been done to establish the circumstances around the killings. The Dossier Center, created by exiled Russian oligarch and Kremlin critic, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, conducted an in-depth investigation. Khodorkovsky was funding the Investigation Control Center (TsUR), when it hired the three journalists to do the documentary.

The investigation, which involved an analysis of tens of thousands of phone calls and sending two teams of investigators to the Central African Republic, concluded that, at the very least, the murder was pre-meditated and that the investigation by Central African Republic authorities has stalled.

The investigators alleged the participation of a Central African gendarme who was seen on the same road just minutes before the killing and who had made scores of phone calls with the journalists driver in the days leading up to the killings. Last year, CNN reported that it has seen evidence that this gendarme was also in contact with a Russian specialist trainer in counter-surveillance and recruitment in Central Africa.

Over the last two years, efforts by journalists and Human Rights Watch to find the driver have failed. The Russian foreign ministry accepted the armed robbery theory just days after the killing. Nevertheless, the Dossier Center report alleged that employees of the Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is affiliated with the Wagner group and said to be close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, had virtually unlimited influence over the preliminary investigation.

The murders were committed at a time when Russias presence in the Central African Republic was increasing significantly. Starting in 2017, President Faustin-Archange Touadera signed a series of military agreements with Russia, a shift from its traditional alliance with France.

In 2018, the UN Panel of Experts on the Central African Republic documented that waves of rearmament by armed groups were linked to an increase in Russian arms shipments to the country.

A former Russian intelligence official, Valery Zakharov, became a presidential adviser and by early 2018, not only Russian military trainers but also civilian instructors were on the ground, alleged to be from Wagner. We have heard reports of the presence of these instructors in both rebel-held and government-controlled parts of the country.

Journalism is a dangerous profession in the Central African Republic, particularly during times of conflict. Four years before Dzhemal, Rastorguyev and Radchenko were murdered, Camille Lepage, a French photojournalist was killed while working in the western part of the country. An investigation into her killing continues at a painfully slow pace.

But the case of the Russian trio is different. Through the report of the Dossier Center, potential leads have been established toward ascertaining both the identity of the killers and the motivation behind this egregious attack on journalists just trying to do their work.

It is far from clear that either the Russian or the Central African Republic governments are vested in establishing the real identities of those who killed journalists. Two years on, we should ensure that Central African investigators and prosecutors are afforded the independence and support to ensure that justice is done. We should insist on nothing less.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
Some students will need more help than others. A child may be in a household that experienced economic devastation; they may have lost a family member to covid-19; or they may have added layers of stress related to issues around race, discrimination and police brutality, she says. Her district is working with educators to help them understand trauma and the importance of leading with trust and compassion. Anxiety and depression also can manifest as aggression, irritability, avoidance or shutting down at home. Reach out to a school counselor or outside mental health provider if your child is unusually clingy or fearful, requires excessive reassurance, complains of headaches or other physical symptoms, exhibits major changes in sleeping or eating habits or loses interest in activities they used to enjoy.
Chennai, Aug 10 : The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has said that it has ordered an inquiry into an incident wherein one of its female security personnel posted at the Chennai airport had questioned DMK MP Kanimozhi whether she was an Indian.

In a tweet, the security force said: "The CISF has ordered an inquiry into the matter. It is not the policy of the CISF to insist upon any particular language." On Sunday, Kanimozhi had tweeted: "Today, at the airport, a CISF officer asked me if 'I am an Indian' when I asked her to speak to me in Tamil or English as I did not know Hindi. I would like to know from when being an Indian is equal to knowing Hindi." Political leaders in Tamil Nadu have been raising their voice against positing of north Indians at locations like railway station ticket counters where the local people have to interact with them.

The airport incident comes at a time when Kanimozhi's party is staunchly opposing the New Education Policy's three-language formula.

Kanimozhi thanked the CISF for immediate response and assurance to take action.
Protesters hold signs showing Wanchalearm Satsaksit, who went missing in Cambodia in June, and raise three fingers inspired by the The Hunger Games movie series to symbolize their dissent against the government, Aug. 10, 2020.

A lawyer and an activist who have been leading anti-government demonstrations in recent weeks addressed thousands of students protesting at a Bangkok university on Monday  in defiance of a court order banning the two from such activities after they were released from custody at the weekend.

Arnon Nampa, an attorney with the advocacy group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, and his fellow protester, activist Panupong Jadnok, spoke to about 5,000 at Thammasat University about the need for government reform and to lessen the power of the monarchy.

The reason for me to speak out about the monarchy is because demonstrators should leverage this topic and I speak on behalf of them, respectfully under the framework of laws and with good wishes for the monarchy to be democratic, Arnon told BenarNews before taking the stage.

Speaking to the thousands gathered on the campus Monday night, Arnon said the monarchy should stay out of politics.

Any involvement in politics by the King should be strongly questioned, he said.

He and Panupong were arrested Friday in Bangkok after the police charged them with sedition; organizing gatherings of 10 or more people to threaten unrest; leading mass gatherings that could spread the coronavirus; and five other offenses. They spent a night in jail before a judge decided to free them without bail while requiring that they not repeat any of the actions that led to charges against them, or they could face a fine of 100,000 baht (U.S. $3,210).

Arnon has played a key role in the rallies that began on July 18 and has commented about the power of the monarchy which is shielded by Lese-Majeste, Thailands strict law against royal defamation.

We have democracy with the king as the head of state, but the monarchy has much more power than the system allows, he told about protesters at a rally in Bangkok last week.

Under the Lese-Majeste law, one count of defaming, insulting or threatening the Thai royal family carries a penalty of three to 15 years in prison. Nearly 100 people have been charged under the law since a 2014 coup led by Prayuth Chan-o-cha, according to iLaw, an online legal advocacy group.

Prayuth, who has since been elected prime minister, said Lese-Majeste had been used less frequently of late at the request of the King himself.

On Monday, some protesters held signs showing a photo of Wanchalearm Satsaksit, a Thai dissident who was kidnapped on June 4 while living in exile in Cambodias capital, Phnom Penh, to signify the enforced disappearances of government opponents.

Since he went missing, the Thai and Cambodian governments have denied having any role in the incident, even as some social media posts had linked the Thai palace to his disappearance. Prayuth dismissed reports that the disappearance was tied to alleged Lese-Majeste violations.

Meanwhile other protesters, inspired by The Hunger Games movie series, raised three fingers to symbolize their dissent against the government.

We want to amend the constitution to have equality and a transparent government, said a Thammasat student who asked to be identified as Cherry so she could maintain her privacy.

The protest came hours after both pro- and anti-government groups appeared before parliament in Bangkok to issue opposing demands.

Sumet Trakulwunnoo, a coordinator of a royalist group, said the anti-government groups were attempting to overthrow the constitutional monarchy system.

We think its time for us to come out and protest a group of people who exploit the youths to subvert our nation, he read in a statement delivered to the lawmakers. Authorities must prosecute those who insult the monarchy.

A second group, which calls itself the Campaign for Peoples Constitution, submitted a letter demanding that the entire 2017 constitution be amended to take away powers linked to Prayuth, and other ex-military leaders in government.

The student protest group announced plans to return on Wednesday, the birthday of the Queen Mother, Queen Sirikit. Her son, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, succeeded his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in 2016 following a 70-year reign.

History of coups

Since converting from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy in 1932, Thailand has faced more than 20 military coups  the last two in 2014 and 2006 when the military overthrew the democratic government of Yinglucks brother, Thaksin Shinawatra.

In a Facebook posting last week, Arnon said he feared Thailand could revert to an absolute monarchy.

Also last week, the activist lawyer took to the stage dressed as Harry Potter before about 200 protesters to call for the monarchys power to be curtailed.

Prayuth responded by urging the protesters not to incite turmoil and make things worse at this time.

On Monday, Puttipong Punnagun, the Thai minister for digital economy and society, said he had received several thousand public complaints over the past seven days about posts defaming the royals on social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

If they dont break the law and do not insult on the institution, I simply monitor them, Puttipong told reporters at Government House. But if they violate (the monarchy), we will sue them.
Looking into the eyes of a patient with heart failure can tell doctors how long they have to live, a study has revealed.

Research found that patients with larger eye pupils are consistently more likely to survive heart failure and to stay out of hospital.

The study photographed the eyes of 870 patients who were hospitalised with acute heart failure.

The participants were then divided into those with large pupils, and those with smaller pupils.

The study, published yesterday by the European Society of Cardiology, found that people with smaller pupils were twice as likely to die.

Kitasato University Hospital researchers in Japan found that patients with smaller eye pupils were twice as likely to die from heart failure

Meanwhile, 47 per cent of those with small pupils were readmitted to hospital, compared with just 28 per cent of those with large pupils.

Study author Dr Kohei Nozaki, of Kitasato University Hospital in Japan, said: Our results suggest that pupil area is a novel way to identify heart patients at elevated risk of death or hospital readmission.

WHAT IS HEART FAILURE? Heart failure means that the heart is unable to pump blood around the body properly. It usually occurs because the heart has become too weak or stiff. It's sometimes called congestive heart failure, although this name is not widely used nowadays. Heart failure does not mean your heart has stopped working. It just needs some support to help it work better. It can occur at any age, but is most common in older people. Heart failure is a long-term condition that tends to get gradually worse over time. It cannot usually be cured, but the symptoms can often be controlled for many years. It can severely limit the activities you're able to do and is often eventually fatal. But it's very difficult to tell how the condition will progress on an individual basis. It's very unpredictable. Lots of people remain stable for many years, while in some cases it may get worse quickly. Source: NHS Advertisement

This provides an opportunity to intervene and improve outlook.

Heart failure affects nearly one million people in the UK. It is a life-threatening condition in which the heart is unable to pump enough blood to meet the bodys needs. Symptoms include shortness of breath, swollen limbs and fatigue.

Up to 45 per cent of patients admitted to hospital with heart failure die within 12 months of admission, and the majority die within five years of admission.

Dr Nozaki said: Finding better ways to pinpoint which patients are more likely to be readmitted or die is crucial.

He explained that one of the causes of worsening heart failure is disturbed function of the bodys autonomic system, which controls heart rate, digestion and respiration.

Dr Nozaki said pupil area is another way to assess autonomic function and has been used in patients with Parkinsons disease and diabetes.

The new study examined whether pupil area could predict prognosis in patients with heart failure.

The study was conducted in 870 patients hospitalised for acute heart failure in 2012 to 2017. The average age was 67 years and 37 per cent were women.

Pupil area was measured in both eyes at least seven days after hospital admission.

For the test, patients put on goggles, waited five minutes for their eyes to adapt to the dark, then photos were taken of the eyes. Patients were tested at a standard time since the autonomic system is affected by time of day.

Patients were divided into the small pupil area group and large pupil area group according to whether their measurement was below or above the average.

Large pupil area was consistently linked with favourable survival - regardless of age, sex, and the presence of either normal heart rhythm or atrial fibrillation.

Dr Nozaki added: Pupil area can be obtained rapidly, easily, and non-invasively.

Our study indicates that it could be used in daily clinical practice to predict prognosis in patients with heart failure, including those who also have atrial fibrillation.

Patients with a small pupil area could be prioritised for cardiac rehabilitation with physical activity, which has been reported to improve autonomic function.

He noted that pupil area cannot be used in patients with severe retinopathy or other eye diseases.
As Sonia Gandhi completes one year as Congress president, the Congress on Sunday said that Sonia Gandhi will continue to remain as the party's interim president beyond August 10 and will continue to occupy the post till the procedure to elect a new president is completed.

The Congress on Sunday said that Sonia Gandhi will continue to remain as the partys interim president beyond August 10 and will continue to occupy the post till the procedure to elect a new president is completed. Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters at a press conference held through video conferencing that Sonia Gandhi is the president, she will continue till such time as a proper procedure is implemented and it will be implemented in the not too distant future.

The senior leader said that it is very clear that neither politics nor political parties permit or tolerate a vacuum. Just like nature abhors a vacuum, political parties cannot function in a vacuum. It is true that the tenure is expiring on August 10. He said that there was a laid down procedure in the party constitution for elections, it goes through the CWC, party leader, etc.

Singhvis comment is noteworthy as it is the first official one from the party on the issue. He further said that her tenure is coming to an end. Theres a proper procedure for it which is carried out through the Congress Working Committee (CWC) carries out. It will be done in the near future and everyone will have a result. He said that its written in the Congress constitution, they are bound to do it and its being done.

Also read: India to embargo import of 101 defence items: Rajnath Singh

Also read: 11 dead and 30 injured as fire breaks out at Covid-19 facility in Vijayawada

According to sources, Sonias tenure is likely to be extended and the party will inform the Election Commission regarding the same. Earlier in a meeting with Sonia, several MPs from Lok and Rajya Sabha had raised the demand for Rahul Gandhis return to the post of party President. However, Rahul Gandhi has maintained a silence on the issue.

According to top sources, Rahul is not ready to take on the role although he is active in the partys affairs. Rahul had resigned from the post after the poll debacle in 2019 general elections, taking full responsibility for Congress defeat. Rahul had also stated that the partys president shouldnt be from the Gandhi family but party leaders and workers failed to find a leader as his successor following which Sonia was elected to the post by the CWC.

Also read: After getting landing clearance, plane missed approach runway: Kozhikode crash prelim report
Sri Lanka's new Parliament will meet for the first time on August 20 with strict COVID-19 health protocols and no visitors will be allowed, a senior official said on Monday.

Sri Lanka, one of the very few countries in Asia to hold a General Election amidst the pandemic, has reported 2,844 coronavirus cases, including 2,579 recoveries and 11 fatalities.

The Sri Lanka People's Party (SLPP) led by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his younger brother and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, registered a landslide victory in the August 5 general election, securing two-thirds majority in the 225-member Parliament.

The SLPP government has 150 members in the House and the combined Opposition strength is limited to 75.

Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in on Sunday as Sri Lanka's new prime minister.

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

"We will have strict health guidelines set in place for all parliamentary sessions," Narendra Fernando, Sergeant-at-arms of Parliament, said.

The new Parliament session is scheduled on August 20, he said.

"There is no one-metre gap between the seats within the Parliament's chamber. So it is difficult to maintain the one-meter social distancing rule. All members of Parliament are advised to wear face masks when they address the chamber," he said.

Other health guidelines such as washing of hands and social distancing would be practiced.

"Public galleries won't be opened and no visitors will be allowed," Fernando said.

The seating arrangement of the lawmakers will be made according to the seniority of positions they held in the government and the seniority in the number of years as a parliamentarian, Fernando said.

However, on the first day there will be no such reservations and lawmakers can sit anywhere.

Sri Lanka was one of the very few Asian countries apart from Singapore to hold general elections in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
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There have been angry protests and violent clashes with police on the streets of the Belarusian capital, Minsk, after President Alyaksandr Lukashenka was reelected for a sixth term.
Hong Kong police arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai and raided the offices of his flagship newspaper, the highest-profile case yet against the city's democracy activists under a national security law that has fueled U.S.-China tensions.

Lai was shown handcuffed as he was taken away by officers from his home on Monday morning. When a reporter asked Lai for his views on the arrest, he answered: "What views do I have? They want to arrest me."

Apple Daily, which is under Lai's media network Next Digital Ltd. and the biggest pro-democracy paper in Hong Kong, reported that nearly 200 officers were entering its offices.

Police said nine people ages 23 to 72 were arrested on suspicion of "breaches" of the security legislation, with offenses including collusion with a foreign country or external elements to endanger national security. Officers declined to name any of the people, but said more people could still be arrested.

Those arrested include Lai, his sons Ian and Timothy, Next Digital Chief Executive Cheung Kim Hung, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Royston Chow Tat Kuen and the Chief Executive of Next Animation Studio, Kith Ng, according to a police officer who asked not to be identified.

The South China Morning Post reported that ITV freelancer Wilson Li Chung-chak, a former member of the now-disbanded activist group Scholarism was arrested for foreign collusion alongside Andy Li, a member of an election monitoring group.

Police took away some 25 boxes of evidence for preliminary investigation, said Li Kwai-wah, senior superintendent of the police force's national security department. He said the floor where the assignment and reporting desks are located was searched, as one of the people arrested had an office there.

Lai was shown being walked around the Apple Daily office in a Next Digital live feed. Research from the Chinese University of Hong Kong said last year that Apple Daily had the biggest market share in both print and online platforms among the city's paid newspapers.

Shares in Next Digital rose as much as 344% to HK$0.40 in afternoon trading on heavy volume, reversing a morning decline that saw them slide to the lowest level on record following reports of the arrests. The surge came after pro-democracy supporters took to social media and urged people to buy the company's stock.

The security legislation, which bars subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, has prompted fears among activists and foreign governments that it will be used to curtail basic freedoms.

"With the passage of the national security law, Beijing has launched a full-blown rectification of Hong Kong," said Carl Minzner, a law professor at Fordham Law School and author of "End of an Era: How China's Authoritarian Revival is Undermining Its Rise." "The ultimate goal is the 'mainland-ization' of Hong Kong -- welding it more tightly to China and neutering all political and social elements that Party authorities view as problematic."

The U.S. has led foreign governments in expressing concern over the law, saying Hong Kong could no longer be considered sufficiently autonomous. It has revoked some special trading privileges, which help underpin the city's reputation as a business hub, and sanctioned officials including Chief Executive Carrie Lam.

On Monday, China hit back with sanctions on 11 Americans including Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, and Human Rights Watch head Kenneth Roth -- although Beijing avoided sanctioning senior Trump administration officials.

"The arrest reflects that the HKSAR govt wasn't intimidated by U.S. sanctions, which actually are pushing Hong Kong civil servants further to Beijing," tweeted Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of China's Communist Party-run Global Times.

The U.S. reacted strongly after Hong Kong barred a dozen pro-democracy lawmakers from campaigning for office and then delayed by a year legislative elections scheduled for September. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, is meeting in Beijing and expected to discuss issues arising from the postponement this week.

It wasn't clear whether four sitting lawmakers who were disqualified from campaigning for the election would be allowed to remain for the legislature's extended term. The South China Morning Post reported Monday, citing sources, that they would be allowed to stay.

In a weekend statement by the countries making up the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and the foreign ministers of the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand said they were "gravely concerned" by the disqualifications and election postponement.

"These moves have undermined the democratic process that has been fundamental to Hong Kong's stability and prosperity," the statement said.

"We are a beacon for the idea of freedom and democracy," Lai previously told Bloomberg Businessweek.

In a May op-ed piece for the New York Times, he warned of the impact the security law would have on his city.

"Every sentence, every word will carry the risk of potential punishment on the mainland," he wrote. "When it comes to free speech, this law will remodel Hong Kong so that it becomes like the rest of China."

Lai's media group and Apple Daily backed the protests that rocked the city in 2019, but it's been years since he was seen as playing a central role in Hong Kong's democracy movement.

He was arrested in February on suspicion of participating in an unlawful assembly in 2019 and intimidating a reporter two years before that, and granted police bail. Months later he was summoned to court for helping incite a vigil marking the June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre.

"The arrests, and the raid on the newsroom, are a direct assault on Hong Kong's press freedom and signal a dark new phase in the erosion of the city's global reputation," the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong said in a statement.
New Delhi, Aug 10 : There is an extreme shortage of medical abortion drugs across the country, with acute crisis due to lack of stocks in Delhi, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, a study on Monday revealed.

The study conducted by the Foundation for Reproductive Health Services on 1,500 chemists showed that merely one per cent of the chemists in Punjab, two per cent in Tamil Nadu and Haryana, 6.5 per cent in Madhya Pradesh and 34 per cent in Delhi have stocked the abortion drug.

The state which fared best is Assam at 69.6 per cent.

As per the study, the non-stocking of drugs seems to be linked with over-regulation by drug control authorities. About 79 per cent of chemists do not stock the drugs to avoid legal issues and excessive documentation requirements.

Even in Assam, which has the highest stocking percentage, 58 per cent chemists report over-regulation of drugs. State-wise legal barriers continue to be a major reason for non-stocking of the abortion drugs, with 63 per cent chemists in Haryana, 40 per cent in Madhya Pradesh, 74 per cent in Punjab and 79 per cent in Tamil Nadu reporting so.

FRHS Chief Executive Officer V.S Chandrashekar told IANS: "The main reason for not stocking drugs is over-regulation by local drug authorities. Even while it is a Schedule K drug and is even given to ASHA workers to distribute in communities, many retailers are not stocking them due to misconceptions and legal barriers." He added that medical abortion drugs are the most preferred method with 81 per cent of abortions being administered through them and hence their lack of availability hinders women, who do not wish to opt for surgical abortion methods.

"In the midst of the pandemic when movement of people is restricted and clinical methods of family planning are not adequately available, there is a dire need to ensure unrestricted access to drugs," said Chandrashekar, who is also the member of Pratigya Campaign Advisory Group.

While the purpose of the study was to verify the availability of drugs, the findings also reveal that Emergency Contraceptive Pills (ECP) are not being stocked by chemists in the state of Tamil Nadu.

Only 3 per cent of the chemists surveyed in the state reported stocking ECPs and 90 per cent not stocking shared that the pills are banned in the state. Emergency Contraceptive Pills are non-prescription drugs and are also stocked and distributed by ASHAs under the National Family Planning Program. Not allowing chemists to stock ECP denies women of Tamil Nadu a safe and easy to use contraceptive choice.

The primary reason for non-availability of MA drugs seems to be the incorrect understanding that medical abortion combipacks can be used for gender biased sex selection among regulatory officials.A Medical abortion combipacks is indicated for use only up to nine weeks while an ultrasound can detect the sex of the fetus at 13-14 weeks gestation.

Chemists, however, do not seem to share this misconception, only about 10 per cent chemists across the states where the study was conducted, reported that MA drugs can be used for sex-selective termination of pregnancy. In Tamil Nadu however, 36 per cent have this misunderstanding.

"The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare should clarify that MA drugs which are approved for use up to nine weeks in India cannot be used for sex selective termination of pregnancy. This will allow women to seek medical support and access drugs with a prescription," said Dr Rashmi Ardey, Clinical Services Director, FRHS India Scrutiny and over-regulation, leading to non-availability of MA drugs is a major cause of concern and is likely to result in millions of women being denied access to a safe abortion method. WHO in 2019, included MA drugs in its Core List of Essential Medicines, removing an earlier advisory which required medical supervision while taking the drugs.

Removing unnecessary barriers in stocking of MA drugs will ensure that women are able to access the method of their choice. "Non availability of MA will push women to seek surgical abortion which can be cost intensive and can further widen the access gaps," said Debanjana Choudhuri, Senior Manager-Partnerships, FRHS India.

The study recommends addressing misconceptions regarding medical abortion and gender-biased sex-selection; harmonising Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation approvals and the MTP Act, amending rules to allow MBBS Doctors to prescribe MA drugs increasing investments in safe abortion communication and providing support to women who access drugs by setting up toll-free helpline numbers.

(Aakanksha Khajuria can be contacted at aakanksha.k@ians.in)
An officer suspended after appearing to kneel on a black man's neck during an arrest is under investigation by the police watchdog for common assault and gross misconduct.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is looking into the manner of the arrest of Marcus Coutain, 48, who was filmed pleading with officers to 'get off my neck' as he was handcuffed on the pavement in Islington, north London, last month.

The arrest came just weeks after George Floyd, 36, died in Minneapolis when a police officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes, sparking mass protests across the world.

Mr Coutain was subsequently charged with possessing a knife in a public place.

He has called for a formal apology from Scotland Yard and for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to drop the charge.

The IOPC said it will also 'investigate whether the officers treated the man differently because of his race'.

One Metropolitan Police officer was suspended and another placed on restricted duties over the incident on Isledon Road on July 16.

Scotland Yard deputy commissioner Sir Steve House has described the footage as 'deeply disturbing' and said some of the techniques, which are 'not taught in police training', caused him 'great concern'.

Launching a witness appeal, the IOPC said: 'One officer has been advised that they are subject to a criminal investigation for common assault and investigation for gross misconduct on use of force; authority, respect and courtesy; discreditable conduct and honesty and integrity.

'A second officer has been advised they are subject to a misconduct investigation on challenging and reporting improper conduct; authority, respect and courtesy and honesty and integrity.'

Regional director Sal Naseem said: 'We are independently examining whether the use of force and the stop and search on this occasion were appropriate and proportionate in line with approved police policies.

'We will also investigate whether the officers treated the man differently because of his race.

'This incident took place in public and was witnessed by several members of the public.

'A video of the incident has been widely shared on social media platforms.'

Witnesses are asked to call 03003035724 or email isledonroad@policeconduct.gov.uk

Mr Coutain appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court last month charged with having a knife in public.

He indicated a not guilty plea and was granted technical bail as the case was sent to Snaresbrook Crown Court on August 17 by District Judge Gillian Allison.

A police officer is under investigation by the police watchdog for common assault and gross misconduct after he was filmed kneeling on a suspect's neck during an arrest in Islington, London

Officers were called to the scene initially after a fight in Isledon Road, Islington. They arrested a man at the scene on suspicion of affray and possession of an offensive weapon, the force said.

Inquiries continue and the Met has referred it to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

At the start of the two minute and 20 second clip, one of the officers appears to be kneeling on the suspect's neck and has his hand on his head.

The struggling man on the ground can be heard shouting 'Get off me ... get off my neck, I haven't done anything wrong, get off my neck.'

One of the police officers is heard to ask him 'Are you going to behave yourself?' before telling him to 'Stay down'.

He then stood up and asked onlookers who were filming the incident to 'move back', while another clip showed more police officers arriving at the scene.

The situation calmed down by the time the suspect was led into a car and taken to a police station. He has since seen a doctor.

Sir House, Met deputy commissioner, said last month: 'The video footage that I have seen today and is circulating on social media is extremely disturbing. I understand that many viewing the footage will share my concern.

'The man involved was arrested, taken to a police station and has now been seen by a police doctor.

'Some of the techniques used cause me great concern - they are not taught in police training.'

He said the decision to suspend one officer, and remove the other from operational duty, would be 'kept under review'.

The video shows two male officers pinning a visibly-distressed man to the ground as he writhes on the concrete

'We have quickly assessed the incident, including the body worn video footage from the officers and their statements and justification for their use of force. As a result we have referred the matter to the IOPC,' he added.

'One officer has been suspended and another officer has been removed from operational duty, but not suspended at this time. This decision will be kept under review.

'We will co-operate fully with the IOPC investigation.'

Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said what he saw in the video was 'an extremely concerning incident'.

He tweeted: 'It is right that it is quickly referred to the IOPC and an officer has been suspended. I will be following this closely: we are policed by consent and that relies on the highest levels of respect and professionalism.'

The suspect shouts a series of pleas including 'get off my neck' and 'I haven't done anything wrong'

The video showed two male officers pin a visibly-distressed man to the ground as he writhed on the concrete.

One officer had his hand pressed against the suspect's face and a knee on his neck while the other restrained his legs.

The suspect shouted a series of pleas including 'get off my neck' and 'I haven't done anything wrong'.

Horrified witnesses urged the officers to stop and repeatedly shouted: 'That's a human being.'

After several seconds, the officer took his knee off the suspect before telling an onlooker to 'shut it' when they criticised his use of force.

He stood up and walked towards the crowd to order them back before the second officer eventually let the suspect sit up.

After several seconds, the officer takes his knee off the suspect before telling an onlooker to 'shut it' when they criticise his use of force

One officer has his hand pressed against the suspect's face and a knee on his neck while the other restrains his legs

A second clip showed several more officers arriving on the scene as tension among the crowd escalated.

Witnesses urged officers arriving to 'arrest the officer' they had filmed kneeling on the suspect's neck.

A woman heard giving a statement to a constable said: 'It's okay to arrest him but don't push his head and then kneel on him. It might kill him, it might injure him.'

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: 'Police were called by a member of the public at approximately 18.30hrs on Thursday, 16 July to reports of a fight in Isledon Road, N7.

'A man was detained by officers and arrested at the scene on suspicion of affray and possession of an offensive weapon. He remains in custody at a central London police station.

'Enquiries into the circumstances continue.

A second clip shows several more officers arriving on the scene as tension among the crowd escalates with witnesses urging those arriving on scene to 'arrest the officer'

'We are aware of a video showing part of this wider incident where two officers have detained the man on the ground and appreciate this looks very concerning. This footage has been viewed, along with body worn footage from the officers who attended. Both officers involved have also provided statements.

'The officers' initial interaction with the man and the events that led to him being detained have also been analysed.

'Our officers carry out their duty on a daily basis across London in often difficult circumstances. Where force is used, officers must be able to justify this as lawful, proportionate and necessary.

'Our officers understand that their actions will be scrutinised as they go about their work and that the public have the right to hold them to account where appropriate.

'On this occasion we have decided to refer this incident to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.'
The Russian embassy in Armenia has responded to the urgings of the Russian Armenians who are at the Bagratashen border checkpoint since July 30, so that they could be transported to Russia by buses via Georgia. Artur Aynazyan, one of these Armenians at Bagratashen, said this in a conversation with Armenian News-NEWS.am.

"After our issue was raised by the media, they [the Russian embassy] contacted us. They asked us for the passport data, the number, how many of us there were, as well as the details of the bus that is to take us [to Russia]. We will pay for our transfer, the embassy just needs to reach an agreement with Georgia so that we can cross the border [into Georgia]. Now we are waiting, we do not know when it will happen. They will take us until Vladikavkaz; that is, they will have us cross the border [into Russia] and after that, each of us will go to our houses," Aynazyan said.

To note, these Russian Armenians could not cross the border [into Georgia] due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before going to Bagratashen they had staged demonstrations in front of the Russian embassy in Yerevan to pay attention to their problem and it would be possible to transfer them to Russia, but there was no response from the embassy, and therefore they had taken this step.

At the moment, according to Artur Aynazyan, there are 81 such people at Bagratashen who are waiting for the chance to return to Russia. Aynazyan added that the cost of the previous such groups transfer from Armenia to Russia was covered by the embassy.

Those in Bagratashen have long been registered to fly from Armenia to Russia, but their turn has not come, and that is why they had resorted to this step.
Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent.

1. Substantial number of overdose deaths found to be misclassified as sudden cardiac death

Findings suggest that national estimates of opioid overdose burden may be grossly underestimated

Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-0977

URL goes live when the embargo lifts

A 7-year comprehensive study of deaths attributed to out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in San Francisco found that more than one in six of those deaths were actually from occult overdose. These findings suggest that published national overdose mortality estimates may be substantially underestimated. A brief research report is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco conducted a case-series analysis of the POST SCD (POstmortem SysTematic Investigation of Sudden Cardiac Death) Study, to compare the characteristics of occult overdose OHCA deaths with all other causes of OHCA deaths and to classify primary intoxicants and whether intoxicants were prescribed for each death investigated. After toxicology and autopsy, the researchers found that more than one in six deaths attributed to OHCA were really due to overdose. Most occult overdose OHCA deaths involved multiple drugs, including opioids, and approximately one-half of intoxicants were prescribed by a physician.

These findings have important implications nationally, as San Francisco's age-adjusted overdose mortality rate is nearly identical to the national median overdose mortality rate. As such, published national mortality estimates based on recognized overdoses may significantly underestimate its true burden because occult overdose deaths masquerading as sudden cardiac deaths are missed without postmortem toxicology analysis. According to the researchers, their findings affirm the need for continued efforts to combat the opioid epidemic and for policymakers to consider naloxone in selected OHCA resuscitations.

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF please contact Lauren Evans at laevans@acponline.org. The lead author, Zian H. Tseng, MD, MAS, can be reached through Scott Maier at scott.maier@ucsf.edu .

2. Physicians offer real-world recommendations for overcoming telemedicine challenges with older patients

Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-1322

URL goes live when the embargo lifts

As routine outpatient physician visits continue to take place via telemedicine, physicians are faced with the challenge of providing quality care to older patients who may have difficulty with technology and often have hearing loss among other impairments. Physicians from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health developed real-world recommendations to help clinicians effectively connect with patients, regardless of their hearing status, health, or comfort with technology. Their Telemedicine Communication Checklist is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

The authors offer easy-to-follow steps to take before, during, and after a telemedicine encounter with an older patient. They suggest that before the encounter, clinicians should establish patient preferences regarding format and access to technology. Clinicians should assume that all older patients have some degree of hearing loss and request that they wear a headset. They should also make sure that they are conducting the encounter in good lighting so that the patient can see their face. If possible, captions should be turned on and clinicians should look for cues that the patient is not following the conversation throughout the encounter so that adjustments can be made. After the encounter, the clinician should follow up with a detailed summary of key points and instructions.

According to the authors, the recommendations are timely and relevant due to the sudden prevalence of telemedicine and the constant (and growing) prevalence of hearing loss in older Americans. The steps are simple enough to implement for any provider using telemedicine, regardless of their size or resources, and nearly free.

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF please contact Lauren Evans at laevans@acponline.org. To speak with the lead author, Carrie L. Nieman, MD, MPH, please contact Molly Sheehan at msheeh19@jhmi.edu.

3. Rituximap may successfully treat chylomicronemia caused by GPIHBP1

Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/L20-0327

URL goes live when the embargo lifts

Rituximab may successfully treat newly acquired cases of chylomicronemia caused by GPIHBP1 (glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored high-density lipoprotein-binding protein 1). Physicians should consider this possibility when patients present with difficult-to-treat chylomicronemia. A case report is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Researchers from Central Rhine Hospital Group, Koblenz, Germany and UCLA Department of Medicine describe the case of a 27-year-old woman with unexplained chylomicronemia, which was being investigated for the underlying cause. The patient had a history of antiphospholipid syndrome, Graves disease, and myocarditis. She previously had a cerebral venous sinus thrombosis and had no family history of adiposity, diabetes, autoimmune disease, or hyperlipidemia. Treatment with lipid-lowering drugs, plasma exchanges, and immunoadsorptions were not helpful. Based on approximately 10 other published cases of GPIHBP1, the physicians initiated treatment with rituximab, which is often used to treat autoimmune diseases. The treatment resulted in disappearance of GPIHP1 autoantibodies and normalization of serum levels of GPIHBP1 and serum triglyceride levels.

The clinicians hope that this case will draw attention to the GPIHBP1 autoantibody syndrome for two reasons. First, the syndrome is often not considered in the differential diagnosis of chylomicronemia. And second, the GPIHBP1 autoantibody syndrome carries a high risk for life-threatening pancreatitis, yet it is treatable.

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF please contact Lauren Evans at laevans@acponline.org. To speak with authors, Jens Lunz, MD or Anne P. Beigneux, PhD, please contact Anne P. Beigneux, PhD, at abeigneux@mednet.ucla.edu.

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By Ken Berlin

As we continue to address the COVID-19 public health crisis, we need to plan an economic recovery that tackles the climate crisis by creating jobs and speeding up our ongoing transition from dirty fossil fuels to a clean energy future. New Jersey, led by Gov. Phil Murphy, provides a good model for restarting our stalled economy, creating jobs, and lowering carbon emissions and pollution as we emerge from the COVID-19 crisis.

No single action could help our economy more than aggressively moving to adopt zero-carbon energy. Governor Murphy has instituted a goal to decarbonize New Jerseys energy supply by 2050. Roughly 40% of New Jerseys electricity is already carbon-free and New Jersey has built upon its fleet of carbon-free nuclear power plants to become a leader in installed solar capacity. Governor Murphy has also charted a course for the state to become a national leader in offshore wind. PSEG, New Jerseys largest energy provider  which recently announced it was selling its fossil fuel power plants  has been a key part of these successes and has helped lead the way with a bold net-zero emissions commitment.

The country should follow New Jerseys lead and make a bold, national commitment to zero-carbon energy and provide the investments needed to make it happen. Before the COVID-19 crisis, solar installer and wind energy technician were the two fastest-growing careers in the country. When the health care crisis ends, a nationwide plan mirroring New Jerseys commitment could create millions of clean energy and energy efficiency jobs to jumpstart the nations economic recovery.

Clean energy gets the headlines, but energy efficiency can provide the same climate and clean-air benefits, at less cost. Efficiency upgrades lower demand for energy, reducing both emissions and peoples energy bills. Nationally, an economic stimulus that invests billions of dollars in initiatives like the Weatherization Assistance Program could create jobs insulating and sealing homes owned or rented by low-to-moderate-income families. In New Jersey, PSEG has already proposed the largest energy efficiency program in the states history. This investment paired with national leadership could empower community-based organizations to provide jobs, lower utility bills for struggling families, help meet New Jerseys bold climate commitments and make America a climate leader again.

Purposeful, thoughtful policies can also aid the struggling automobile industry while addressing the large share of greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector both in New Jersey and nationwide. Programs to incentivize electric vehicle purchases coupled with new investment in EV charging infrastructure could revitalize the industry, preserve thousands of jobs, and ease the transition to a clean energy future. Yet again, New Jersey is one of the states leading the way. New state legislation provides incentives for consumers to purchase plug-in electric vehicles, while proposals to expand the network of charging infrastructure throughout the state would alleviate range anxiety.

Taken together, these measures wont only lower climate emissions, but will also save lives from decreased cases of asthma and lung disease. A recent study from Harvard showed that people with high exposure to air pollution are more likely to die from a COVID-19 infection. And low-income communities and communities of color are most at risk from both COVID-19 and air pollution health impacts. This public health crisis should compel us to rethink poisoning our air, instead opting for bold action to save lives.

The climate crisis is no less a threat to long-term public health than COVID-19 is to us today. Only the time horizon is different. When the stakes are highest  life and death  Americans need to come together. We can overcome the COVID-19 crisis, rebuild our economy to address the climate crisis, invest in communities harmed by pollution, and build the nation that we need and want. If national leaders want a blueprint, they might want to take a close look at New Jersey.

Ken Berlin is president and CEO of the Climate Reality Project, founded by Al Gore.

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In Macedonia del Nord la polizia ha scoperto e bloccato nelle ultime ore 94 migranti illegali nascosti su un camion.

L'automezzo, riferiscono i media regionali, e stato fermato per un controllo nei pressi di Radovis, nel sudest del Paese e non lontano dal confine greco.

L'autista e riuscito a fuggire, mentre i migranti - provenienti da Siria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan - sono stati condotti nel centro di accoglienza a Gevgelija, in attesa della loro riconsegna alle autorita della Grecia, da dove erano entrati in Macedonia del Nord.

Nelle ultime settimane si e intensificato il flusso di profughi lungo la rotta balcanica, con destinazione l'Europa occidentale.

 Riproduzione riservata

(Unioneonline/v.l.)
Army researchers developed a reinforcement learning approach that will allow swarms of unmanned aerial and ground vehicles to optimally accomplish various missions while minimizing performance uncertainty.

Swarming is a method of operations where multiple autonomous systems act as a cohesive unit by actively coordinating their actions.

Army researchers said future multi-domain battles will require swarms of dynamically coupled, coordinated heterogeneous mobile platforms to overmatch enemy capabilities and threats targeting U.S. forces.

The Army is looking to swarming technology to be able to execute time-consuming or dangerous tasks, said Dr. Jemin George of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory.

"Finding optimal guidance policies for these swarming vehicles in real-time is a key requirement for enhancing warfighters' tactical situational awareness, allowing the U.S. Army to dominate in a contested environment," George said.

Reinforcement learning provides a way to optimally control uncertain agents to achieve multi-objective goals when the precise model for the agent is unavailable; however, the existing reinforcement learning schemes can only be applied in a centralized manner, which requires pooling the state information of the entire swarm at a central learner. This drastically increases the computational complexity and communication requirements, resulting in unreasonable learning time, George said.

In order to solve this issue, in collaboration with Prof. Aranya Chakrabortty from North Carolina State University and Prof. He Bai from Oklahoma State University, George created a research effort to tackle the large-scale, multi-agent reinforcement learning problem. The Army funded this effort through the Director's Research Award for External Collaborative Initiative, a laboratory program to stimulate and support new and innovative research in collaboration with external partners.

The main goal of this effort is to develop a theoretical foundation for data-driven optimal control for large-scale swarm networks, where control actions will be taken based on low-dimensional measurement data instead of dynamic models.

The current approach is called Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning, or HRL, and it decomposes the global control objective into multiple hierarchies - namely, multiple small group-level microscopic control, and a broad swarm-level macroscopic control.

"Each hierarchy has its own learning loop with respective local and global reward functions," George said. "We were able to significantly reduce the learning time by running these learning loops in parallel."

According to George, online reinforcement learning control of swarm boils down to solving a large-scale algebraic matrix Riccati equation using system, or swarm, input-output data.

The researchers' initial approach for solving this large-scale matrix Riccati equation was to divide the swarm into multiple smaller groups and implement group-level local reinforcement learning in parallel while executing a global reinforcement learning on a smaller dimensional compressed state from each group.

Their current HRL scheme uses a decupling mechanism that allows the team to hierarchically approximate a solution to the large-scale matrix equation by first solving the local reinforcement learning problem and then synthesizing the global control from local controllers (by solving a least squares problem) instead of running a global reinforcement learning on the aggregated state. This further reduces the learning time.

Experiments have shown that compared to a centralized approach, HRL was able to reduce the learning time by 80% while limiting the optimality loss to 5%.

"Our current HRL efforts will allow us to develop control policies for swarms of unmanned aerial and ground vehicles so that they can optimally accomplish different mission sets even though the individual dynamics for the swarming agents are unknown," George said.

George stated that he is confident that this research will be impactful on the future battlefield, and has been made possible by the innovative collaboration that has taken place.

"The core purpose of the ARL science and technology community is to create and exploit scientific knowledge for transformational overmatch," George said. "By engaging external research through ECI and other cooperative mechanisms, we hope to conduct disruptive foundational research that will lead to Army modernization while serving as Army's primary collaborative link to the world-wide scientific community."

The team is currently working to further improve their HRL control scheme by considering optimal grouping of agents in the swarm to minimize computation and communication complexity while limiting the optimality gap.

They are also investigating the use of deep recurrent neural networks to learn and predict the best grouping patterns and the application of developed techniques for optimal coordination of autonomous air and ground vehicles in Multi-Domain Operations in dense urban terrain.

George, along with the ECI partners, recently organized and chaired an invited virtual session on Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning at the 2020 American Control Conference, where they presented their research findings.

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While we have looked into several mysteries and myths in the past, we have often discovered logical explanations for each one of them. The story of the ship named Mary Celeste, on the other hand, continues to remain unsolved over a century and a half later.

Whats The Story?

In 1872, a double-masted Mary Celeste set sail from New York Harbor towards Genoa, Italy.

It was captained by Benjamin S. Briggs, an experienced sailor and with him were his wife, Sarah, their infant daughter Sophia and eight other members of the crew.

A month later, this ship was spotted by another sailing vessel of Canadian origin named Dei Gratia sailing through the North Atlantic Ocean, about 645 kilometres away from the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal.

Upon inspection, no sign of human life was found on the brigantine. However, it was stacked with food and water which was later estimated to be enough for over six months of survival. Aside from a missing lifeboat, the ship also looked unscathed.

No signs of a natural disaster affecting the ship or a crash were found, which led to one of the most talked-about maritime mysteries of all time - what happened to the Briggs family and the eight crewmembers? Why would they abandon a perfect and damage-free ship?

Mary Celestes Dark History:

The ship, which was originally named Amazon, has been rather infamous throughout its past and is a source of numerous unfortunate events with the crewmembers.

Its first captain ever, Captain McLellan mysteriously fell ill during the maiden voyage and his condition continued to worsen as he spent days on the ship. Amazon made its way to Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia, where McLellan died on June 19, 1861.

John Nutting Parker, who took the ships wheel after the passing of McLellan, also fell prey to a series of misfortunes. First, it collided with fishing equipment at the Eastport, Maine, USA and crashed into another brig in the English Channel.

In 1867, the Amazon got completely wrecked by a storm. The damage was so much that the owners had to abandon it on the shore of Cape Breton Island.

The wreckage was bought by Alexander McBean who rebuilt the ship and named it Mary Celeste. Ever since, the vessels ownership changed a handful of times until it made its way to Benjamin S. Briggs.

Proposed Theories:

According to old folklore, carnivorous seaweed was said to be responsible for crew disappearances in the 1800s. In 1872, the ship Mary Celeste was found off the coast of Portugal aimlessly floating. Not a single crew member was anywhere to be found. #WyrdWednesday #History pic.twitter.com/tkXK2yBUah  Haunted History BC (@HauntedHistory2) August 5, 2020

Fiction fanatics came up with stories that ranged between a pirate attack and an assault by a giant sea monster. While those who were more scientifically inclined, suggested that mishap had something to do with the fumes from the 1,700 barrels of crude alcohol Mary Celeste was carrying at the time.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the Sherlock Holmes series, also contributed to the legend when in 1884, he wrote a short story titled J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement suggesting that the Briggs family was slaughtered by an ex-slave in an act of vengeance.

In 2007, Channel 4 International came up with a documentary titled The True Story of the Mary Celeste which suggested a rather unexciting theory (although inconclusive), according to which Briggs commanded everyone to abandon ship and row for the land, owing to the disastrous weather and a clogged onboard pump.

There have been many stories about this incident. Numerous tabloids have tried to retell the story based on the evidence available onboard but nobody could come up with one satisfying theory.

As time passes by and lores about the disappearance of the Briggs family continue to get added to the legend, what truly happened that day continues to be buried deeper and deeper.

Also Read: The Truth About Astronaut Carving Found On The 16th Century Spanish Cathedral Wall
She was recently seen locking lips with a mystery man during a sun-drenched getaway to Antibes.

And Tiffany Watson continued to showcase her incredible figure in a plunging white bikini as she posted a throwback snap of her trip to Italy on Monday.

The Made In Chelsea star, 26, flaunted her sun-kissed limbs and ample cleavage in the halterneck ensemble as she reminisced on her tour of Europe.

Wow: Tiffany Watson, 26, showcased her incredible figure in a plunging white bikini as she posted a throwback snap of her trip to Italy on Monday

She paired her summer look with an oversized cream shirt draped over her shoulders as she leaned against a pink-washed wall.

Tiffany styled her blonde locks in natural waves and accentuated her glowing complexion with a touch of bronzer.

Posting to Instagram, she wrote: 'UK heatwave making me miss being abroad x1000. Got this oversized shirt in a little market in Italia.'

Hot: Posting to Instagram, she wrote: 'UK heatwave making me miss being abroad x1000. Got this oversized shirt in a little market in Italia'

The reality star jetted to Italy before heading to Amsterdam with her sister Lucy Watson, 29, before Cannes.

And Tiffany was pictured packing on the PDA with a hunky blond as the pair hit the beach while staying at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in the South of France.

The lovebirds certainly seemed well acquainted as they passionately kissed one another as they lounged on a float in the sea.

Happy: The reality star was seen enjoying a glass of wine during a trip to Lungomare Di Lerici in Italy

Tiffany returned to the show earlier this year as a single girl following her split from her boyfriend, whose identity she kept largely secret on social media. She had a brief fling with Miles Nazaire.

Discussing her return, Tiffany told OK! Magazine: 'I had a solid two years away from filming the show which actually has gone really quickly.

'But I have always kept in contact with the producers of the show, chatted to them every couple of months.

Girls' trip! Last Thursday, the media personality revealed she had landed in the Netherlands with Lucy Watson

'And then I was in a serious relationship. And he was a private person. And when you're on Made In Chelsea it's not really fair unless you share your whole life. With that relationship I wasn't able to share that huge part of my life.'

The summer break comes after filming was halted for Made In Chelsea due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Upon her reunion with the cast, she ruffled feathers with Zara McDermott - her ex Sam Thompson's girlfriend.

During the show's finale, Love Island star Zara, 23, expressed her frustration as she thought Tiff overstepped the mark by inviting Sam, 28, out for a drink with her dad Clive.

The former couple dated on and off for two and a half years before splitting for good in 2017. Tiff went on to have another long-term relationship but things ended at the start of this year.
An online petition calling for disciplinary action against cheerleaders at Daphne High School over a photo depicting a Confederate flag emblem had by Monday morning garnered more than 10,000 signatures.

The petition was started by Reagan Coleman, a Black student who formerly was a member of the cheerleading squad but said she quit following an Instagram post showing some members of the squad.

In the photo, which has since been deleted, several cheerleaders were seen in a group of six women posing with a T-shirt reading, I Love Redneck Boys. In place of the word love was the heart sign with a Confederate battle flag. Another young woman in the photo held an American flag.

Coleman, on her online petition, stated the photo was posted on July 4.

They have faced remotely no consequences and are still on Daphnes Cheer Team, Coleman wrote.

I knew I needed to speak up about this matter and Daphnes negligence. I have since quit the team due to their carelessness and inactivity. I am not trying to ignite hate on these girls, I just simply want everyone to see what Daphne High School allows. Daphnes Administration team has failed to release any statements or contact anyone back concerning this matter. Daphne is known for keeping things like this hidden and swept under the rug. I dont want this to be another one of Daphnes well kept secrets. Something has to be done, and these girls need to face consequences for their actions.

Baldwin County Schools, in a statement, said action had been taken.

We are aware of the situation and it has been handled at the local school level. As with any student issue, federal law prohibits us from discussing disciplinary actions, if any, involving our students. Our system has implemented sensitivity programs and Superintendent Tyler has stressed that we have a zero tolerance for racism and bullying in our system.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Aug. 10, 2020 | FRANKFORT

By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 10, 2020 | 03:06 PM | FRANKFORT

During Governor Andy Beshear's Monday update, he recommended that schools wait until September 28 to begin in-person classes.



According to Beshear, although masks are working and his administration has taken steps to prevent the spread, we do not have control over the virus.



He said, "To send tens of thousands of our kids back to in-person classes when we don't have control on this virus isn't the right thing to do for our kids, it's not the right thing to do for the faculty, and it's not the right thing to recommend as Governor."



Beshear provided four reasons for his decision, including the high number of cases Kentucky is currently seeing, an increase in COVID-19 cases among children, cases of COVID-19 among children in states that have already opened to in-person classes, and families continuing to go on vacation to areas with a high number of cases.



"A tough but a necessary step," Beshear continued, "I believe we're going to be through this beginning of next year when the vaccine gets out, but until then we're going to have to make difficult choice after difficult choice to survive. Surviving and protecting each other is what we're trying to do."



He says he will be working closely with the Department of Education and superintendents across the state to provide as much flexibility as possible.



You can see Beshear's full update below.




New Delhi:

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti left a cabinet meeting midway on Friday following a rift with a BJP minister over her proposal to restructure the Kashmir Police Service (KPS) officers' cadre.

As soon as the chief minister left the secretariat, the meeting was shifted to the office of deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh.

Soon a delegation of the ministers headed by Singh also left for the official residence of the chief minister and the meeting was still going on. The ministers are trying to placate the chief minister, the source said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Shares of defence companies were trading higher in Monday's opening trade after Ministry of Defence announced over the weekend banning of 101 defence weapons and military platform items.

Bharat Heavy Electronics Limited (BHEL), Larsen & Toubro, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bharat Forge gained following reports as the ban could bring an additional impetus for India's defence companies.

Shares of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited hit fresh 52-week high of Rs 1039.5 today, rising 9.66% on BSE, after opening with a gain of 9.19%. The stock trades higher than 5, 20, 50, 100 and 200-day moving averages. The share has risen 14% in one week, 8.4% in one month and 39% since the beginning of the year.

Similarly, BHEL share price opened with a gain of 2.13% today and later touched an intraday high of Rs 37.6, rising 6.67% on BSE. The stock has gained after 2 days of consecutive fall.

Shares of the aircraft manufacturing company were trading higher after reports of a ban on big-ticket items like the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) MK I A.

Larsen and Toubro shares were trading as top gainers on NSE since opening bell today, rising 5.93% intraday post the news. Stock price of L&T gained 5% in one week and 3.17% in one month.

On a similar note, stock price of Bharat Forge opened with a gain of 5.89% and later touched an intraday high of Rs 434.8, rising 6.57% on BSE.

Cochin Shipyard stock also opened with a gain of 3.42% and later touched an intraday high of Rs 350, rising 5.53% on BSE. The stock of one of the few companies that manufactures items for the Indian Navy has risen 5.8% in one week and 5.16% in one month.

With defence stocks gaining, experts suggested that the actual impact on financials will be known if this ban initiative by the government translates into new order flows for the companies catering to the defence space.

The decision will offer an opportunity to the domestic defence industry to manufacture the items in the negative list by using their own design and development capabilities or adopting the technologies designed and developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to meet requirements of the Armed Forces.

Share Market News Live: Sensex up 250 points, Nifty at 11,285; Cipla, Dr Reddy, Bajaj Finance top gainers
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Washington, DC - Memorandum on Authorizing the Other Needs Assistance Program for Major Disaster Declarations Related to Coronavirus Disease 2019:

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF LABOR

THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY

THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE FEDERAL EMERGENCY

MANAGEMENT AGENCY

SUBJECT: Authorizing the Other Needs Assistance Program for Major Disaster Declarations Related to Coronavirus Disease 2019

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. 5121-5207 (the Stafford Act), and in light of Proclamation 9994 of March 13, 2020 (Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak), which declared a national emergency by reason of the threat posed by the outbreak of the novel (new) coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. Protective measures enacted by States and localities across the country to prevent loss of life from COVID-19 have resulted in millions of Americans becoming unemployed and in need of assistance. My Administration, recognizing the acute financial distress affecting families across the country, has worked to quickly provide billions of dollars in relief to supplement unemployment benefits and help businesses keep their workers employed, in addition to zeroing Federal student loan interest and delaying Tax Day. In total, nearly $3 trillion has been appropriated for emergency funding related to COVID-19.

Because many of the relief programs created by the Congress have expired or will shortly expire, my Administration and the Republican leadership in the United States Senate have proposed multiple options to continue to provide needed relief to Americans. But Democratic Members of Congress have twice blocked temporary extensions of supplemental unemployment benefits. Political games that harm American lives are unacceptable, especially during a global pandemic, and therefore I am taking action to provide financial security to Americans.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) (Public Law 116-136) included $150 billion appropriated directly to State, territorial, tribal, and some local governments through the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) to cover costs incurred due to the COVID-19 emergency. As of the latest report from the Treasury Inspector General regarding State expenditures, more than $80 billion of CRF dollars remain available, to supplement the billions of dollars States have received in other Federal assistance, such as the $8.8 billion in emergency assistance provided under the Stafford Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.). In addition, the Department of Homeland Securitys Disaster Relief Fund (DRF), has more than $70 billion in emergency assistance funding available.

I am hereby directing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assist in providing benefits from the DRF, and am calling upon the States to use their CRF allocation, to bring continued financial relief to Americans who are suffering from unemployment due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Sec. 2. Providing Disaster Relief Funds. On March 13, 2020, I declared a national emergency recognizing the threat posed by COVID-19. I also determined that same day that the COVID-19 outbreak constituted an emergency, of nationwide scope, pursuant to section 501(b) of the Stafford Act (42 U.S.C. 5191(b)). All States have activated their Emergency Operations Centers and are working to fight the spread of the virus. As of April 18, 2020, I have declared that a major disaster exists in all States and territories as a result of the virus, and have authorized Emergency Protective Measures (Category B) pursuant to section 403 of the Stafford Act (42 U.S.C. 5170b) for each.

To provide financial assistance for the needs of those who have lost employment as a result of the pandemic, I am directing up to $44 billion from the DRF at the statutorily mandated 75 percent Federal cost share be made available for lost wages assistance to eligible claimants, to supplement State expenditures in providing these payments. At least $25 billion of total DRF balances will be set aside to support ongoing disaster response and recovery efforts and potential 2020 major disaster costs.

Sec. 3. State Allocation. I am calling on States to use amounts allocated to them out of the CRF, or other State funding, to provide temporary enhanced financial support to those whose jobs or wages have been adversely affected by COVID-19. These funds, including those currently used to support State unemployment insurance programs, may be applied as the States cost share with Federal DRF funds. To ensure that those affected by a loss in wages due to COVID-19 continue to receive supplemental benefits for weeks of unemployment ending no later than December 27, 2020, States should also identify funds to be spent without a Federal match should the total DRF balance deplete to $25 billion.

Sec. 4. Assistance Program for Lost Wages. (a) For purposes of this memorandum, State includes the territories and the District of Columbia, and Governor includes the chief executive thereof.

(b) To help meet the needs of the American people during this unprecedented and continuously evolving public health crisis, the Secretary of Homeland Security (Secretary), acting through the FEMA Administrator, is authorized to make available other needs assistance for lost wages, in accordance with section 408(e)(2) of the Stafford Act (42 U.S.C. 5174(e)(2)) (lost wages assistance), to the people of a State, including the members of any tribe residing therein, if the Governor requests lost wages assistance and agrees to administer delivery and provide adequate oversight of the program, for a major disaster I declared pursuant to section 401 of the Stafford Act (42 U.S.C. 5170) for COVID-19, under the following conditions:

(i) the Governor requests from the FEMA Administrator a grant for lost wages assistance pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 5174(f)(1)(A) and agrees to the cost-sharing requirement of 42 U.S.C. 5174(g)(2); and

(ii) the Governor administers delivery of financial assistance for lost wages in conjunction with the States unemployment insurance system.

(c) In exercising this authority, the Secretary, acting through the FEMA Administrator, shall, subject to the limitations above, approve a lost wages assistance program that authorizes the Governor to provide a $400 payment per week, which shall reflect a $300 Federal contribution, to eligible claimants from the week of unemployment ending August 1, 2020.

(d) For purposes of this memorandum, the term Eligible claimants means claimants who:

(i) receive, for the week lost wages assistance is sought, at least $100 per week of any of the following benefits:

(A) Unemployment compensation, including Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) and Unemployment Compensation for ExService members (UCX), under section 8501 of title 5, United States Code;

(B) Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), under section 2107 of the CARES Act;

(C) Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), under section 2102 of the CARES Act;

(D) Extended Benefits (EB), under section 3304 of title 26, United States Code;

(E) Short-Time Compensation (STC), under section 3306(v) of title 26, United States Code;

(F) Trade Readjustment Allowance (TRA), under sections 2291 through 2293 of title 19, United States Code; and

(G) Payments under the Self-Employment Assistant (SEA) program, under section 3306(t) of title 26, United States Code; and

(ii) provide self-certification that the claimant is unemployed or partially unemployed due to disruptions caused by COVID-19.

(e) The authority vested in the Secretary, acting through the FEMA Administrator, to approve lost wages assistance shall not be construed to encompass authority to approve other forms of assistance.

Sec. 5. Additional Assistance. The Secretary of Labor shall provide, as appropriate, and consistent with applicable law, technical assistance to the FEMA Administrator and Governors in the implementation of lost wages assistance programs, including timely processing of advances from the Federal unemployment account pursuant to section 1321 of title 42, United States Code 321.

Sec. 6. Termination. (a) The lost wages assistance program described in section 4(b) of this memorandum shall be available for eligible claimants until the balance of the DRF reaches $25 billion or for weeks of unemployment ending not later than December 6, 2020, whichever occurs first, at which time the lost wages assistance program shall terminate.

(b) The lost wages assistance program shall terminate upon enactment of legislation providing, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, supplemental Federal unemployment compensation, or similar compensation, for unemployed or underemployed individuals.

Sec. 7. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

DONALD J. TRUMP
A massive explosion rocked the city of Beirut in Lebanon on August 4, killing more than 200 people, injuring thousands more and leaving as many as 300,000 people without their homes.

The pain wrought by the explosion in the capital city extends far beyond the borders of the small Western Asian nation, reaching Lebanese people across the globe  including those in central Pennsylvania.

As a Beiruti, it feels surreal to see these images of the whole front of the city gone, said Mireille Rebeiz of Carlisle. It feels like its not real. I dont know what other term to use  its unbelievable.

Rebeiz is an assistant professor at Dickinson College, teaching courses in Francophone and Middle Eastern Studies, as well as Womens Gender and Sexuality Studies. She has lived in the United States since 2003, but has returned to Beirut every year to visit family and friends.

Beirut is my mother, she said. And I go to see my mother every year. I know the city as I know my own self.

Having grown up in Beirut, Rebeiz is familiar with the East Beirut neighborhood where the explosion took place at a port warehouse. As relief efforts continue, so too do investigations as to why nearly three thousand tons of explosive ammonium nitrate was left in a warehouse for nearly six years.

READ MORE: Beirut blast: At least 135 dead; 5,000 hurt; 300,000 homeless as blame and worry spread

The front side of the city, the closer you get to the water, its mostly offices, she said. After the civil war, the new buildings that were build were mostly offices and businesses. As you go further in the city, away form the immediate shoreline, thats where it become residential. West Beirut has two American universities, a high concentration of schools and hospitals and different activities. The immediate shoreline is hotels and beaches and resorts, so on and so fort. Immediately behind that is houses and churches and mosques and schools and so forth. So yes, its very residential.

Watching recordings of the explosion and hearing reports of the aftermath has motivated Rebeiz to reach out and organize assistance for the people of Beirut  a densely populated city of two to three million people, easily the largest city in a nation roughly one-third the size of the state of Maryland.

Ive been calling people to donate to the Lebanese Red Cross, she said. They have their own website, their own app. Donate to local NGOs rather than international ones, because local NGOs will utilize the money right away, on the spot. Theres also the childrens cancer center in Lebanon. Its like St. Judes basically  its the only one that treats cancer, as as we all know, cancer will not wait. These are the two immediate ones that I urge people to donate to.

Even in the best of times, a disaster of this magnitude - the August 4 explosion has been measured as one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded - would mean severe strain on hospitals and medical professionals.

But like the rest of the world, Lebanon has been facing the COVID-19 pandemic, on top of a revolution which began in October of 2019. A proposal to tax free messenger and communication apps like WhatsApp allowed long-simmering political unrest to boil over, and the Lebanese took to the streets to protest a government which Rebeiz said is filled with corruption and nepotism.

[The tax] was the drop that made the water flow, basically, she said. People were fed up.

The governments response to the protests was to crackdown on public gatherings, which Rebeiz said had the inadvertent benefit of protecting people from spreading COVID-19. But the social unrest, government crackdown and the pandemic have all now combined with an unprecedented disaster. With an estimated 12 percent of Beiruts population left homeless due to damage from the explosion, the situation is a perfect storm to overwhelm the health and human services of the city.

Now with the despair thats happening on the streets, people are not wearing masks, Rebeiz said. When people are dying of bombs and rubble, people are desperate. When people are running into the streets to help, theyre not thinking How do I protect myself? So the virus is spreading. I dont think Lebanon has the capacity  a couple of hospitals were completely destroyed in the east side of Beirut because they were facing the port.

READ MORE: Death toll rises days after Beirut blast as crews find bodies in the rubble

As is always the case, the people with the fewest resources or outlets are the ones who are most in jeopardy when facing crises. And one such group Rebeiz mentioned specifically is Beiruts LGBTQ community.

Its a heavily marginalized community, she said. Lots of the LGBTQ community is going to be homeless, because a lot of them live in the city. Theyre urban, and as such theyve been extremely damaged.

Early rounds of international aide have already been at work in Beirut, with French President Emmanuel Macron visiting soon after the disaster. But the legacy of French involvement in Lebanon is a fraught one, with the nations modern origins stemming from French colonization following World War I.

Many Lebanese speak both Lebanese Arabic and French, and French culture is not foreign to many Lebanese, Rebeiz said. Having said that, seeing President Macron in Lebanon, its simultaneously bittersweet, because its a form of neo-colonialization. He immediately came to help Lebanon, which Im very grateful for. But there are mixed emotions, because hes coming back on September 1, 2020, to mark the 100 years of Lebanon which the French declared on September 1, 1920.

Several other nations have also stepped forward to help, from across the Mediterranean as well as the Arabian Peninsula and other parts of Western Asia (the term Middle East, according to Rebeiz, is one steeped in colonialism, as it was a name given by European people to the region and has no real geographic accuracy). And according to Rebeiz, this disaster comes at a particularly pivotal time for Lebanon. A nation already in flux from internal political upheaval is particularly vulnerable to machinations from other countries.

I think Lebanon needs all the allies that it can get right now, she said. Its at a turning point. Lebanon can either fall under the claws of Iran and Syria and be completely turned east in the worst way ever, or Lebanon would come back to be open to all countries and all cultures. The Lebanon that I know is open to everybody. The Lebanon that Syria and Iran and Hezbollah want is a Lebanon of terror and killing and blood. I dont want that. Every ally that Lebanon can get right now is important. Every donation is important.

Lebanon, Rebeiz said, is a very diverse nation. While no official census has been held in decades for political reasons, she estimates that roughly 60 percent of the nation is Muslim, and around 40 percent Christian, with at least 18 religious denominations openly practiced.

We speak Lebanese, but many of us speak Armenian, many, many of us speak French, she said. English is becoming a current language as well. Every religious holiday you can think of is celebrated in Lebanon, and theyre all days off. Beirut is very diverse in terms of ethnicity and religion and language. Growing up, my neighbors were Muslim Sunni. I celebrated Ramadan with them, they celebrated Easter with us. These cultural traditions become part of who you are, because you are exposed early on to this diversity.

Mireille Rebeiz, Assistant Professor of Francophone and Middle Eastern Studies & Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies at Dickinson College

It pains me to see my beloved city blown up like this, she continued. It truly is a hub of diversity and peace in the Middle East, and truly the only image that Americans have of it is bombs. And that breaks my heart.

But whatever happens, Rebeiz said, Lebanese people are resilient, and can find humor in the worst scenarios.

My friends texted me on WhatsApp, and they were like whats next, dinosaurs?, she laughed. When I hear Americans say 2020 is bad, I hear you and I share that pain right now. Its unbelievable, its unreal what is happening right now. This is why Lebanon is at a turning point, and every ally we can get is really wonderful.

Here are a list of some of the non-governmental organizations that Rebeiz suggested for supporting the relief efforts in Beirut, with causes ranging from medical supplies and food relief to reconstruction efforts to support for at-risk LGBTQ people:

Lebanese Red Cross

Childrens Cancer Center of Lebanon

Lebanese Food Bank

Impact Lebanon

Relief for Beirut

Arcenciel

Beit El Baraka

Food Blessed

Baytna Baytak

LiveLove

Basma (House Renovation program)

Basmeh and Zeitooneh for Relief and Development

Endless Medical Advantage

Kafe Be Kafak

Ahla Fawda

Nusaned

The Humanitarian Coalition + The Lebanese Canadian Coalition

Saint Paul Movement

Vulnerable LGBTQ

BETA: Beirut Ethical Treatment of Animals
Penguin Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. (Penguin)

So the hype got to you, you finally checked out Hamilton on Disney Plus and now you want to learn everything you can about the influential figures in American history. (You also have all of King Georges songs stuck in your head for which there is no cure.)

The Tony-award winning musical was inspired by the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow and tells the story of one of Americas founding fathers. So, to slake your thirst for a summer read and to satisfy your new-found curiosity about the people who shaped the U.S.A., here are 10 biographies you should check out. Who knows, one might turn out to be the next big Broadway hit.

Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words

Lynn Sherr, originally published in 1995, Crown Publishers

Susan B. Anthony fought tirelessly to give women the right to vote, but died 14 years before the 19th Amendment to the Constitution became the realization of her dream. Author Lynn Sherr looks at the famous suffragette through her letters and texts and combines them with reporting from Anthonys era as well as biographical essays. Sherr, a Peabody Award-winning broadcast journalist, was also a consultant on the Ken Burns documentary on the womens suffrage movement, Not for Ourselves Alone.

Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom

David Blight, 2018, Simon & Schuster

An escaped slave, Frederick Douglass wrote three autobiographies in his lifetime. His Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was an eloquent retelling of his harrowing tale and made for a vital voice in the call for the abolition of slavery. Blights biography, which won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for History, paints a portrait of the man throughout his life, his marriages and his relationships.

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States

Sarah Vowell, 2015, Riverhead Books

Historian Sarah Vowell is known for using her humorous, modern voice to tell the stories of the past. In this one, she looks at the Marquis de Lafayette and his time in George Washingtons Revolutionary War army. The book uses anecdotes about the French generals relationships with the founding fathers to give a quirky accounting of the fight for independence.

The latest Connecticut Forum panel discussion brings together two Pulitzer-winning writers, both of whom are best known as biographers and historians. David McCullough (pictured) has chronicled the Johnstown flood, the building of the Panama Canal and the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John Adams. Stacy Schiff has written books about Vera Nabokov, Antoine de Saint-Exupery and Cleopatra. McCullough and Schiff should have a lot to talk about Saturday, May 9 at 8 p.m. at The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. $39-$300. 860-509-0909. More info here The latest Connecticut Forum panel discussion brings together two Pulitzer-winning writers, both of whom are best known as biographers and historians. David McCullough (pictured) has chronicled the Johnstown flood, the building of the Panama Canal and the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John Adams. Stacy Schiff has written books about Vera Nabokov, Antoine de Saint-Exupery and Cleopatra. McCullough and Schiff should have a lot to talk about Saturday, May 9 at 8 p.m. at The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. $39-$300. 860-509-0909. More info here

John Adams

David McCullough, 2001, Simon & Schuster

The 2002 Pulitzer Prizer-winner for Biography was adapted into an HBO miniseries starring Paul Giamatti. Adams gets short shrift in Hamilton (he is mentioned but never appears), but McCullough uses a plethora of letters to tell a story that is both the epic tale of a committed revolutionary and a great romance between Adams and his wife, Abigail.

The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History

Joseph M. Marshall III, 2005, Penguin Books Limited

People know the Native American tactician who was a major force in the defeat of the U.S. Calvary at the Battle of Little Big Horn. Historian Joseph Marshall III uses stories from the oral traditions of the Lakota and other research to put together a full portrait of the man who fought for his people and the times that created him.

My Life With Martin Luther King, Jr.

Coretta Scott King, 1993, Puffin Books

The widow of the legendary Civil Rights figure, Coretta Scott King originally released this biography in 1969 to preserve his memory after his assassination the year before. In 1993, she released a revised version of the book with an emphasis on drawing in younger readers. King gives a first-hand account of her husbands movement to end segregation and racial injustice in this country, as well as a detailed, intimate account of the man she loved.

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

Edmund Morris, 1979, Coward, McCann & Geoghegan

The first in a trilogy about the life of the 26th president of the United States, Morris Pulitzer Prize-winning biography covers the years before Teddy Roosevelt took over after the assassination of William McKinley. The book tells this story of his illness-plagued childhood and the philosophy of his family that shaped his ideas on political service. This also includes his famed years as a traveler and adventurer and the creator of the Rough Riders.

Evan Agostini Author Erica Armstrong Dunbar attends the 68th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner at Cipriani Wall Street on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017, in New York. Author Erica Armstrong Dunbar attends the 68th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner at Cipriani Wall Street on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017, in New York. (Evan Agostini)

She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman

Erica Armstrong Dunbar, 2019, 37 Ink

Known for aiding in the freeing of an estimated 70 slaves before the Civil War, Harriet Tubman first freed herself and escaped to Pennsylvania and later served as a spy for the Union Army. Erica Armstrong Dunbar recounts her heroic tale and fills it in with the moments and conversations that made for a complete life. The book uses illustrations, photographs and breakout boxes to engage readers with the facts of one of Americas most selfless lives.

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Doris Kearns Goodwin, 2005, Simon & Schuster

Rather than recounting the full life of Abraham Lincoln, Doris Kearns Goodwin focused on his controversial cabinet of former political opponents and the way Honest Abe sought to include diverse viewpoints when making decisions. This 2005 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History also served as the basis for the Steven Spielberg film Lincoln.

Washington: A Life

Ron Chernow, 2010, Penguin Press

Author Ron Chernow is also responsible for the extensive biography on Alexander Hamilton that inspired Lin-Manuel Mirandas musical. In Washington, he looks at Americas first president as a man of passion and presence who led a nation to independence and shepherded it through its early years. The book won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.




Hong Kong authorities arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai on Monday, broadening their enforcement of a new national security law and stoking fears of a crackdown on the semi-autonomous region's free press. Police were seen carting away boxes of what they said was evidence at Lai's pro-democracy Next Digital headquarters.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 9/8/2020 (527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILE - In this July 30, 2020, file photo, Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, founder of the local newspaper Apple Daily, arrives a district court in Hong Kong. An aide to Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai says Lai was arrested Monday morning, Aug. 10, 2020, under the citys national security law on suspicion of collusion with foreign powers. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

Hong Kong authorities arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai on Monday, broadening their enforcement of a new national security law and stoking fears of a crackdown on the semi-autonomous region's free press. Police were seen carting away boxes of what they said was evidence at Lai's pro-democracy Next Digital headquarters.

In the evening, police arrested pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow Ting on charges of inciting secession under the same law, according to tweets by fellow activist Nathan Law, who left Hong Kong for Britain soon after the law took effect. An earlier post on Chow's official Facebook page said police had arrived at her home and her lawyers were rushing to the scene, and a separate post later confirmed that she had been taken away by police.

Two days after Chinese and Hong Kong officials shrugged off sanctions imposed on them by the U.S., the moves showed Chinas determination to enforce the new law and curb dissent in the semi-autonomous city after months of massive pro-democracy demonstrations last year.

FILE - In this July 1, 2020, file photo, Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai pauses during an interview in Hong Kong. An aide to Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai says Lai was arrested Monday morning, Aug. 10, 2020, under the citys national security law on suspicion of collusion with foreign powers. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)

The arrest of Lai, two of his sons and several company officers and the search of Next Digital marked the first time the law was used against news media. Next Digital operates Apple Daily, a feisty pro-democracy tabloid that often condemns China's Communist Party-led government.

"Raiding a news institution is a severe attack on press freedom and should not be tolerated in a civilized society," Next Digital said in a statement. "Hong Kongs press freedom is now hanging by a thread, but our staff will remain fully committed to our duty to defend the freedom of the press."

Apple Daily's popularity stems from its celebrity news and flamboyant stories, but it is also known for investigative reporting and breaking news coverage. It has frequently urged readers to take part in pro-democracy protests.

On July 1, it condemned the new national security law on its front page, calling it "the final nail in the coffin" for the "one country, two systems" framework under which the former British colony has been able to enjoy much greater civil liberties than in mainland China since its return to Chinese rule in 1997.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, right, who founded local newspaper Apple Daily, is arrested by police officers at his home in Hong Kong, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. Lai was arrested Monday on suspicion of collusion with foreign powers, his aide said, in the highest-profile use yet of the new national security law Beijing imposed on the city after protests last year. (AP Photo)

The British government condemned Lai's arrest, saying authorities are using the new law to quash dissent.

"This is further evidence that the national security law is being used as a pretext to silence opposition," Prime Minister Boris Johnsons spokesman, James Slack, said Monday.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a tweet that he was "deeply troubled" by reports of Lais arrest and that it was proof the Chinese Communist Party has "eviscerated Hong Kongs freedoms and eroded the rights of its people."

The arrests of Lai and Chow came on the same day Beijing announced sanctions on 11 Americans, including six members of Congress, in retaliation for Friday's U.S. sanctions on Hong Kong and mainland officials over Hong Kong policy.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who founded local newspaper Apple Daily, gets into a car after being arrested by police officers at his home in Hong Kong, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. Hong Kong police arrested Lai and raided the publisher's headquarters Monday in the highest-profile use yet of the new national security law Beijing imposed on the city after protests last year. (AP Photo)

And in Chinese-claimed Taiwan, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar became the highest-ranking American official to visit since 1979, fueling an escalating battle between the two nations over technology, security, trade and human rights.

Hong Kong police arrested Lai on Monday morning, an aide to the businessman said, in the highest-profile detention under the new law since it took effect on June 30. Lai, 71, is an outspoken pro-democracy figure who regularly criticizes Chinas authoritarian rule and Hong Kongs government.

Mark Simon, a Next Digital executive and Lais aide, said Lai was charged with collusion with foreign powers.

Hong Kong police said they arrested at least 10 people between the ages of 23 and 72 on suspicion of violating the security law and other offences. They did not release the names of those arrested or provide further details of the charges.

Police officers stand guard outside Apple Daily headquarters as Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who founded local newspaper Apple Daily, is arrested by police officers at his home in Hong Kong, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. Hong Kong police arrested Lai and raided the publisher's headquarters Monday in the highest-profile use yet of the new national security law Beijing imposed on the city after protests last year. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Following Lai's arrest, about 200 police raided Next Digitals headquarters, cordoning off the area, searching desks and at times getting into heated exchanges with staff. What police were looking for in the building wasnt clear, although they later said they took away 25 boxes of evidence for processing.

Lai, who was arrested at his mansion in Kowloon in the morning, was also brought to the headquarters of Next Digital, where he remained for about two and a half hours before police took him away in a car.

"We are completely shocked by whats happening now, with the arrest and followed by the ongoing raid inside the headquarters of Next Digital," said Chris Yeung, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association.

"With the passage of the national security law and the really tough powers given to the police in their operations, we have seen now what we call white terror become a reality, which will affect media organizations and journalists reporting."

Police officers set up a tent outside the Apple Daily headquarters as Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who founded the local newspaper Apple Daily, was arrested by police officers at his home in Hong Kong, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. Hong Kong police arrested Lai and raided the publisher's headquarters Monday in the highest-profile use yet of the new national security law Beijing imposed on the city after protests last year. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Police only allowed journalists from 15 select media to cover the raid from inside the cordoned-off area. They barred public broadcaster RTHK and foreign outlets including The Associated Press, saying only larger local media that had not obstructed or posed a threat to police in the past could enter.

Senior Superintendent Steve Li said the arrests were not politically motivated.

Police unblocked Next Digitals headquarters at midafternoon, with Li saying staff were free to resume work.

Bruce Lui, a senior lecturer in Hong Kong Baptist Universitys journalism department, said authorities are making an example of Apple Daily under the new law.

Police remove evidence from inside the Apple Daily newspaper headquarters after media tycoon and the newspaper's founder Jimmy Lai, who founded local newspaper Apple Daily, is arrested by police officers at his home in Hong Kong, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. Hong Kong police arrested Lai and raided the publisher's headquarters Monday in the highest-profile use yet of the new national security law Beijing imposed on the city after protests last year. (Apple Daily via AP)

"Theyre used as an example to terrify others ... of what can happen if you dont obey or if you go too far," Lui said. "I think other media may make a judgment to censor themselves."

The share price of Next Digital soared over 200% in the afternoon, following posts on a popular online forum encouraging investors to support the company by buying its stock.

The reasons for the charge against Lai weren't clear.

In May, shortly after Beijing announced its intention to pass the national security law for Hong Kong, Lai condemned the legislation in a series of tweets. The state-owned newspaper Global Times called the tweets "evidence of subversion."

FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020 file photo, activists Agnes Chow, left, and Joshua Wong arrive at a court in Hong Kong. Police arrested prominent pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow Ting at her home, on charges of inciting secession under the national security law, according to tweets by fellow activist Nathan Law, who is currently in Britain. A post on Chow's official Facebook page said police had arrived at her home and that her lawyers were rushing to the scene. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

Lai also wrote an op-ed in The New York Times in May stating that China was repressing Hong Kong with the legislation.

"I have always thought I might one day be sent to jail for my publications or for my calls for democracy in Hong Kong," Lai wrote. "But for a few tweets, and because they are said to threaten the national security of mighty China? Thats a new one, even for me."

Lai was arrested in February and April for allegedly participating in unauthorized protests last year. He also faces charges of joining an unauthorized vigil June 4 marking Beijing's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

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Last year, Lai met U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence and Pompeo at the White House to discuss a controversial bill  since withdrawn  that would have allowed criminal suspects in Hong Kong to be sent to mainland China for trial.

But Hong Kong officials have said the security law, which took effect June 30, would not be applied retroactively. The law is widely seen as a means to curb dissent after anti-government protests rocked the semi-autonomous city for months last year.

The legislation outlaws secessionist, subversive and terrorist acts, as well as collusion with foreign forces in the citys internal affairs. The maximum punishment for serious offenders is life imprisonment.

Taiwan condemned the arrests in a statement, saying they were a tool for the Chinese Communist Party's "political cleansing and hegemonic expansion." It said the law is being abused to suppress freedom of speech, press freedom and the civil rights of Hong Kong people.

___

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
Medical workers evacuate a resident from the Epping Gardens aged care facility in the Melbourne suburb of Epping on July 30, 2020. (William West/AFP via Getty Images)

Australian Health Workers Voice PPE Woes During COVID-19 Period

Many health workers have to source their own personal protective gear and have limited access to the right masks, according to a survey.

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians surveyed its members and found 20 percent of respondents in public hospitals were forced to source their own PPE.

It also found respondents either had limited (19 percent) or no (three percent) access to surgical masks, while 45 percent said they had limited or no access to higher-grade N95/P2 masks.

Eleven percent said they had no access to N95/P2 masks.

About 60 percent of respondents reported recent workplace training in the use of PPE.

At a bare minimum, the (federal) government must start providing transparent updates on the status of the national stockpile, RACP president and respiratory physician Professor John Wilson said in a statement.

If there is a real shortage, priority must be given to those in higher-risk areas where COVID and suspected-COVID patients are treated.

The survey was conducted from 30 July to 3 August and 677 responses were received from RACP members.

There are 994 active coronavirus cases among Victorian healthcare workers.

Two weeks ago on Monday, July 27, the state recorded 400 active cases in healthcare workers.

But Australias deputy chief medical officer, Nick Coatsworth, said he had not been hearing the same feedback.

The personal protective equipment is available and its where it needs to be at the front line for our healthcare workers, he told Nines Today program.

To try to reduce this, to suggest that there is insufficient or somehow inadequate PPE is actually misunderstanding the complexity of hospital infection control.

What we need is excellent data on how healthcare workers acquired their infections  that requires deep investigations.

Last week, an Australian College of Nursing survey of 750 nurses found many were feeling frightened and vulnerable.

While the Australian Society of Anaesthetists has voiced the need for P2 or N95 masks and has repeatedly questioned whether hospitals guidelines go far enough to protect staff, highlighting the importance of fit-testing PPE so virus particles cannot penetrate clinicians safety gear.

Kaitlyn Offer in Melbourne
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 02:55:32|Editor: huaxia

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UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The top UN envoy for Guinea-Bissau on Monday stressed the need for continued international engagement with the country after the expected departure of the UN peacebuilding mission by the end of the year.

Recent political developments in the country have led to a politically charged atmosphere with mounting mistrust among stakeholders. Mutual accusations and reported acts of intimidation against those opposing the new political dispensation have created a hostile environment, making it difficult to reach a compromise for the sake of political stability and consensus-building around national peacebuilding priorities, said Rosine Sori-Coulibaly, the UN secretary-general's special representative and head of the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS).

"A prognosis of the current impasse and beyond underscores a need for continued and robust engagement by the international community to avoid a deterioration of the political and human rights situation, consolidate past democratic gains, and preserve the much-needed peace and stability," she told the Security Council.

The political crisis and the parliamentary paralysis that emerged following the 2019 presidential election prevented UNIOGBIS from supporting urgent reforms, including the review of the Constitution, the electoral law and the law on political parties, she said. "Regretfully, therefore, UNIOGBIS mandate is unlikely to be fully implemented before the mission's departure."

Entrenched postures and divisions among political stakeholders pose a serious threat to stability and sustainable development. All political forces must be encouraged to commit to constructive dialogue and consensus-building around national priorities. The military and security forces must consistently be reminded not to interfere in politics. The security sector reform remains paramount, she said.

The implementation of key reforms and the continuation of efforts in key peacebuilding priorities -- protection and promotion of human rights and rule of law, women's participation and gender parity, the fight against drug trafficking and transnational organized crime -- are an imperative beyond UNIOGBIS. Local elections should also be considered among the peacebuilding priorities, she said.

"As UNIOGBIS advances toward its closure in less than five months, I would like to stress that the support provided by the international community to the 2019 electoral process was necessary but not sufficient to address the long-term political instability of Guinea-Bissau. Therefore, I wish to emphasize the need for the country to remain high on the international community agenda, with paramount focus on reforms and the strengthening of state institutions."

The recent political crisis linked to the electoral dispute is self-explanatory of the structural weaknesses of Guinea-Bissau. The country and its people need international support to uphold stability, sustain peace, and advance socio-economic development, she said.

The latest episode of political crisis started with the dispute over the outcome of the presidential poll toward the end of 2019. Umaro Sissoco Embalo finished second in the first round of voting on Nov. 24. He won the second-round run-off on Dec. 29 against Domingos Simoes Pereira, who led in the first round. Pereira refused to concede and challenged the outcome.

The saga seemed to be over after the endorsement of Embalo's presidency by the Economic Community of West African States. Pereira's opposition PAIGC party, which holds by far the largest number of seats in Parliament, continues to challenge the president's authority.

The PAIGC is contesting the parliamentary vote of June 29 that approved the program of the Nuno Nabiam government. The PAIGC continues to question the legality of the session, alleging procedural errors, and denouncing threats and intimidation against members of parliament that preceded the session. The PAIGC continues to reiterate its call for a political solution, said Sori-Coulibaly.

While President Embalo has expressed the wish to form a broad-based government with Nuno Nabiam as the prime minister, the prospects of a breakthrough are low given the PAIGC's strong opposition to joining the government under the current circumstances. A sustainable solution that promotes stability requires all sides to compromise, but this appears far-fetched at the present time as both sides remain deeply entrenched in their positions, she said.

Concerns about insecurity and human rights abuses, such as the July 26 raid on Radio Capital FM, which is considered allied to the opposition, as well as the arbitrary arrests, intimidation and detention of persons and political figures perceived as opposing the current administration have been reported. These occurrences have heightened political tensions, she said. Enditem
The Flies, a teen rock and roll band from Roscommon is releasing their new EP titled 'Looser' on all platforms including Spotify today, August 10.

The band recorded the basic tracks at The Blue Room Studio in Sligo - literally days before the lockdown and completed the recordings by doing the overdubs and vocals at home over the past few weeks.

A music video for the second track from the EP - Director's Cut is also being released today.

The new EP is influenced by The Chats, Dinosaur Jr., Queens of the Stone Age and Elvis Costello among others.

Last year The Flies released their debut EP - Catch Up To You. It received a lot of radio play including national radio play on RTE 2FM and after it's release the band played lots of shows including a show in Dublin supporting the inimitable Jinx Lennon. Their final gig before the lockdown hit was a support slot with The Stunning.

The band had been booked to play shows over the summer including the Indiependence Festival - but Covid changed those plans. Instead the Flies have been focusing on writing lots of new material for a debut album which they hope to release on vinyl in the near future.
(@FahadShabbir)

Six people have been charged with allegedly ransacking a Senegalese newspaper, an official said Saturday, after it reported that a Muslim religious and political leader fell ill with COVID-19

Dakar, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Aug, 2020 ) :Six people have been charged with allegedly ransacking a Senegalese newspaper, an official said Saturday, after it reported that a Muslim religious and political leader fell ill with COVID-19.

Les Echos said Monday on its front page that the Tijaniyya brotherhood's leader Serigne Moustapha Sy, who also heads the small PUR party, was "stricken by COVID-19" and had been admitted to the main hospital in the capital Dakar.

But the party denounced the report as lies and issued a veiled warning to the newspaper.

An official at the newspaper, Cheikh Oumar Ndao, told AFP earlier this week that four or five assailants had arrived at the publication around 1:00 pm on Monday.

"They asked for the author of the article on Moustapha Sy, issued threats and damaged equipment," including seven computers and a tv set, Oumar Ndao told AFP.

Senegalese gendarmes later arrested six suspects, although it is not clear at what date.

The unidentified individuals received charges of looting and criminal conspiracy in Dakar on Friday evening, according to an official close to the investigation, who requested anonymity.

"It is a criminal charge. These acts are punishable by at least ten years in prison," the official told AFP.

Groups such as Reporters Without Borders and Senegal's Council of Editors had denounced the attack on the newspaper office and demanded a firm response.

Health officials in the West African state have officially declared 11,003 coronavirus cases for 229 deaths, but those infected have complained they are stigmatised.

Senegal, a Muslim-majority nation of 16 million people, ranks 49th out of 180 countries in media freedom with the Reporters without Borders watchdog.
Algerian journalist Khaled Drareni received a three-year prison term Monday, a lawyer said, in a trial rights groups have called a test of press freedom in a country recently rocked by anti-government protests.

"It's a very heavy verdict for Khaled Drareni. We are surprised," lawyer and president of the Algerian League for Human Rights Nouredine Benissad told AFP.

Drareni, 40, editor of the Casbah Tribune news site and correspondent for French-language channel TV5 Monde, was arrested on March 29 on charges of "inciting an unarmed gathering" and "endangering national unity" after covering demonstrations by the "Hirak" protest movement.

Two co-accused in the trial, protest members Samir Benlarbi and Slimane Hamitouche, were sentenced to two years' jail each, said Benissad.

Weekly protests rocked Algeria for more than a year and only came to a halt in March due to the novel coronavirus crisis.

The prosecutor had called for Drareni to be sentenced to four years in prison, fined 100,000 dinars ($784) and stripped of his civil rights at the opening of his trial at the Sidi M'hamed court in Algiers on August 3.

Drareni denied the charges when he appeared via video-conference due to coronavirus measures.

"I just did my job as an independent journalist," he said, according to a statement by press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), for which Drareni also works.

He argued he had exercised his "right to inform as a journalist and citizen".

'Shift to authoritarianism'

RSF, part of an international support committee for Drareni, earlier condemned the charges and said "a prison sentence would be proof of a shift to authoritarianism" in the North African country.

If judges were to "accept this absurd indictment, it would show that Algeria's judiciary and executive have turned their back on the ideals of the country's independence," RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

The US-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists had demanded Algeria "immediately and unconditionally release journalist Khaled Drareni, especially as there is no evidence he did anything except his job as a journalist".

The Algerian judiciary has stepped up prosecutions and convictions of journalists, Hirak activists, political opponents and bloggers in recent months.

Some journalists have been accused of sowing discord, threatening national interests and being on the payroll of "foreign parties", with several in prison and trials under way.

In July, Ali Djamel Toubal, a correspondent for the privately-owned media group Ennahar, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for, among other things, broadcasting footage showing police officers mistreating anti-regime demonstrators.

RSF ranked Algeria 146 out of 180 countries and territories in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index, five places lower than in 2019.
Researchers are examining the risk posed to sea swimmers and surfers by antibiotic-resistant superbugs which could cause life-threatening infections.

A team at NUI Galway are exploring whether recreational waters are carrying potentially deadly bacteria that is not routinely tested for.

The deadly superbugs are recognised as one of the greatest threats to human health.

While Ireland has some of the cleanest bathing waters in Europe, raw sewage is still being discharged at more than 30 locations.

The Antimicrobial Resistance and Microbial Ecology Research Group at the university is launching the PIER study (Public Health Impact of Exposure to antibiotic Resistance in recreational waters), funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Rivers

Researchers are hoping to recruit 300 people to take part - one group of 150 people who regularly use the sea, lakes or rivers for recreation, and a second group of 150 people who rarely take to the water.

A key part of the project is to understand how superbugs get into human populations to help scientists learn how to control the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Previous research carried out by the team found potentially lethal bugs in seawater around Galway.

Dr Liam Burke, co-investigator on the PIER project, said some superbugs are very common in the environment because of increased antibiotic use in humans the release of sewage, manure and effluent containing antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant superbugs, which can end up in Ireland's lakes, rivers and seas.

"Although bathing waters are routinely tested for some bacteria, they are not tested for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, so we don't really know to what extent they are present," Dr Burke said.

"PIER will look into whether people who regularly use Irish waters for recreation are at risk of becoming colonised with superbugs."

Waste

Dr Burke also warned about the dangers of heavy rainfall and its impact on beaches and sea swimming. He said that drains can overflow and then carry wastewater into seawater and lakes, leading to no swim notices being issued, like those in Co Clare recently.

"If hospital waste ends up in the sea, it will more than likely contain antibiotic-resistant bacteria or a slurry stream from a farm ends up getting into the water or river, then there is potential for that to contain a high level of antibiotic-resistant bacteria," he added.
Prime Minister on Monday underlined the need to have a better coordination between all the central and state agencies to have a permanent system for forecasting of floods.

He also stressed on extensive use of innovative technologies for improving the forecast and warning system.

The prime minister made these remarks at a virtual meeting with the chief ministers of six states to review the flood situation in various parts of the country.

The states that attended the meeting, which was convened to review their preparedness to deal with the southwest monsoon and the current flood situation in the country, were Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala.

A statement from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said at the meeting, Modi highlighted that the investments in localised early warning systems should be increased so that the people of an area can be cautioned on time in case of a threatening situation such as breached river embankments, inundation or lightning.

The meet, which lasted nearly an hour and a half, was also attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Ministers of State for Home Nityanand Rai and G Kishan Reddy, and senior officers of the central ministries and organisations concerned.

The prime minister also asserted that in view of the COVID-19 situation, the states must ensure that people follow all health precautions such as wearing of face masks, hand sanitisation and maintaining an adequate physical distance with each other while undertaking rescue efforts.

He said the relief material must include provisions for hand washing and sanitising and face masks for the affected people.

Special provisions should be made for elderly people, pregnant women and people with co-morbidities, he observed.

Modi said the states should ensure that all development and infrastructure projects are built with resilience to withstand local disasters and help reduce the consequential losses.

The prime minister pointed out that over the last few years, forecasting agencies such as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Central Water Commission (CWC) are making concerted efforts to make better and more usable flood forecasts.

They are trying to provide not only rainfall and river-level forecasts, but also location-specific forecasts of inundation.

Pilot projects are also underway to use innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence to improve the location-specific forecasts, for which the states should provide the necessary information to these agencies and timely disseminate the warnings to the local communities.

"The prime minister emphasised on better coordination between all central and state agencies to have a permanent system for forecasting of floods and extensive use of innovative technologies for improving forecast and warning system," the PMO statement said.

The chief ministers of Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Kerala and the home minister of Karnataka gave updates on the flood situation and rescue efforts in their respective states, according to the statement.

They lauded the efforts of central agencies, including the Disaster Response Force (NDRF), for a timely deployment of teams and rescuing people.

The states also put forward some suggestions for short-term and long-term measures to mitigate the effects of floods.

The prime minister directed officials to take action on the suggestions.

He said the Centre will continue to provide support to the states and Union territories to strengthen their capabilities in dealing with various disasters.

According to those present at the meet, Modi said he would have visited all the states but could not due to the coronavirus pandemic.

(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.)
One move where Beijing has yet to respond to is the U.S. sanctions on TikTok and WeChat, a major blow to the countrys Internet industry. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian decried the move on Monday at the same press briefing where he announced the sanctions, but did not say how China planned to respond on TikTok and WeChat.
TRENTON  A city cop faces termination for lying on a search-warrant affidavit in a high-profile, multi-defendant drug trafficking case.

Trenton Police Detective Sgt. David Ordilles admitted falsehoods came out at a January suppression hearing in Timothy Wimbushs drug-trafficking case.

Ordille, a 15-year veteran, is one of at least 30 city cops rung up on disciplinary charges in the last nine years, according to records obtained by The Trentonian.

A federal judge described Ordilles tactics in obtaining a warrant to search Wimbushs vehicle as affirmative acts of deliberate deception.

Ordille, who worked as a certified auto body technician before becoming a cop assigned to a violent crimes interdiction task force, was found to have falsified information in the search warrant that could have jeopardized the ongoing prosecution of several alleged members of a Trenton drug-dealing crew.

Many of the 27 defendants already pleaded guilty and are serving sentences.

Wimbush, Jerome Roberts, David Antonio, Omar Council, Brian Phelps, Taquan Williams, Jubri West, Dennis Cheston Jr., and Wayne Bush were hit with a 15-count superseding indictment last September, charging them with drug and weapons offenses.

Ultimately, U.S. District Court Judge Freda Wolfson didnt suppress evidence in Wimbushs case, finding cops had cause to conduct a warrantless search of Wimbushs 2002 green Volkswagen Passat.

Despite these errors and the significant misstatements in the affidavit, I have found that a search warrant was not required, and an independent basis existed for the search based upon the automobile exception and the positive canine sniff alerting to the odor of narcotics, she said in her written opinion, issued in April.

But she went on to give a searing rebuke of Ordille, saying his misstatements are reflective of more than mere carelessness or negligence on the part of the drafting officer. They are the product of wholly inappropriate police practices, which are tantamount to lack of candor to the Court.

Because internal affairs records remain secret, and many officers settle disciplinary cases before they become public, Ordilles blatant deception might not have come to light if not for The Trentonians obtaining of privileged and confidential records.

It definitely wouldnt have come to light if some of the states most powerful police unions manage to block AG Gurbir Grewal from naming New Jersey cops who have been fired, demoted or suspended for more than five days for misconduct. The case goes before a state appeals panel in September.

For now, Ordille remains suspended without pay as he awaits a decision from his disciplinary hearing, records show.

He is not facing criminal charges despite a range of crimes that officers can face for intentionally lying in criminal investigations.

Wimbushs attorney said in an interview investigating Ordille for perjury may be appropriate, but a spokeswoman from the Mercer County Prosecutors Office said any prosecution of Ordille is a federal decision.

Even if hes not charged, and somehow prevails in the disciplinary case, Ordilles credibility appears shot.

The Mercer County Prosecutors Office labeled Ordille a Brady cop, meaning his honesty as a witness is doubted. Prosecutors informed the city they wont call Ordille to testify in criminal cases unless his statements are independently corroborated, documents show.

According to court records, Ordille, who has participated in more than 2,000 narcotics investigations over his career, lied in a search-warrant affidavit that he submitted to Superior Court Judge Thomas Brown in September 2018.

The warrant allowed police to search Wimbushs Passat after Ordille claimed an informant  who the FBI later terminated as a CI for engaging in crime  told him Wimbush had a hidden compartment, known on the streets as a trap, used to stash guns and drugs.

Ordille said in the search warrant affidavit, a copy of which was obtained by The Trentonian, that he spoke to the informant after pulling over Wimbush on Sept. 4. Witnesses had identified Wimbushs vehicle as being involved in a retaliatory shooting two days before.

Wimbush allegedly sought revenge after his cousin, Preston, and several associates were wounded in a separate shooting on the first block of Bryn Mawr Avenue.

Moments later, witnesses reportedly told cops they saw a man, suspected of being Wimbush, retrieve a rifle-style weapon from the trunk of a green Volkswagen and open fire on an unidentified victim near West State Street and Lee Avenue, according to the affidavit. Officers recovered 25 spent .233 rounds from the area.

Ordille admitted at Wimbushs suppression hearing that he never spoke to the informant. Trenton Detective Katherine Cox, who was one of the lead investigators in the federal drug-trafficking probe, testified she was the one who spoke with the informant.

In addition, Ordille misled Judge Brown about why cops were conducting surveillance in a crime-infested area of Trenton on Sept. 6, 2018.

Ordille claimed officers were focused on the area due to recent shootings when they were actually directed to tail one of Wimbushs suspected associates as part of an FBI-led investigation.

Ordilles and the governments attempts to explain away his deception drew Wolfsons ire.

He went on to explain that he described the purpose of the surveillance in that fashion [t]o keep the wiretap investigation from being known, and protect the integrity of the federal investigation, Wolfson wrote. The Government contends that [Detective] Sergeant Ordilles use of these five words [due to the recent shootings] accurately captured the thrust of what quickly developed, albeit not the initial reason for that afternoons surveillance.

The government called Ordilles description in the warrant an unfortunate choice of five words, adding it wasnt a deliberate attempt to deceive.

Wolfson said Ordilles testimony showed the cop deliberately obfuscated the purpose of the surveillance. Even if well-intentioned, Detective Sergeant Ordille deliberately misstated the information in the search warrant affidavit.

The judge noted Ordille admitted he could have written, I was advised by other members of law enforcement, rather than claiming to have spoken directly to the informant.

Megan Davies, Wimbushs attorney, told The Trentonian that she shared the judges trepidation over Ordilles false statements.

An officer is supposed to gather evidence and report truthful facts. A separate, neutral body, is supposed to weigh that evidence and those facts. When an officer lies to make his evidence stronger or to sway the opinion of others, he takes on a role thats not meant for him. He destroys the integrity of our justice system. We have seen recently in this country what can happen when those warrants are inaccurate, she said, referring to the case of Breonna Taylor, who was killed when officers served a no-knock warrant on her home in Louisville. When you are talking about fundamental rights, you cant justify lies.

Wolfson was perturbed by the lies because judges are often required to make credibility assessments about witnesses, including informants. To ensure fairness to the accused, they must know all facts when deciding what evidence is allowed at trial.

The search warrant affidavits failure to disclose that the affiant, Detective Sergeant Ordille, did not speak to the confidential informant, and instead was relying upon information from another officer is deceptive and lacks candor to the Court, Wolfson wrote.

Law enforcement is already given great latitude in drafting a search warrant affidavit; they are permitted to rely on the collective knowledge of the department, as well as hearsay. Here, however, the affidavit is written in the first person and affirmatively states that Detective Sergeant Ordille spoke to the confidential informant. This misrepresentation is particularly disconcerting.

Rich Rivera, a former cop and police accountability expert, said officers should never swear to facts that they dont know. And if theyre relying on another officers information, they should spell that out in search warrants.

He took a shortcut, Rivera said, because its extraordinarily rare that an officer is going to get caught. And this guy got caught. [The misstatements] are significant enough that he shouldnt be a cop and are significant enough that the prosecutor should review every one of his affidavits.

It was revealed at the suppression hearing that Ordille isnt the only Trenton cop engaging in the shady tactics, court records show.

Detective Cox admitted, [t]he information that we receive is often just interchangeable and thats how we write it,' Wolfson wrote. This testimony is eye opening and should be remedied.

Wolfson found the practice of officers swearing to facts theyre not personally aware of troubling and inexcusable given leeway afforded officers who apply for search warrants. Cops can rely on hearsay and collective knowledge uncovered by the police department during investigations.

Explaining the reason for the shortcuts, Rivera said officers may feel pressured to produce numbers. Thats how they retain their [assignments] Often times, the police bosses dont care how they get the information. They only care about the numbers.

Wolfson wasnt having any excuses.

Time constraints and pressures often arise during a criminal investigation, which is why law enforcement is not held to a standard of absolute, exacting accuracy, she wrote. But, there is no excuse for an officer, swearing on a search warrant affidavit, to not make all reasonable attempts to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information provided to the reviewing judge. Absent candor and diligence on the part of the affiant, the judge reviewing the warrant application cannot perform his or her role in safeguarding the warrant process.

The Case

Ordille was one of the officers who testified at the two-day suppression hearing in January.

He faced questions about many of the statements in his police report and on the search warrant, some of which turned out to be false.

The search of Wimbushs vehicle occurred Sept. 6, 2018.

By that time, cops had already wiretapped the phone of another target, Jakir Taylor. Officers intercepted a call, between Taylor and another man, two days before the Wimbush stop.

On the call, the men discussed in cryptic terms their beliefs that Wimbush was the target of the Sept. 2 shooting that injured Wimbushs cousin and associates. The men thought Wimbush would retaliate.

Ordille stopped Wimbush  who served prior prison stints for drug convictions, aggravated assault on law enforcement and intent to distribute  Sept. 4, claiming he had illegally tinted windows and a suspended New Jersey drivers license.

Davies, Wimbushs attorney, said her clients certified driving history showed his New Jersey license wasnt suspended at the time of the stop.

A Pennsylvania drivers license that Wimbush had at one time had been suspended after he was convicted of driving under the influence, according to court records.

Ordille didnt issue Wimbush citations and allowed him to drive off, testifying it was officers discretion whether to allow someone with a suspended license to continue operating a vehicle following a car stop.

On the day of the stop, detectives reportedly were conducting surveillance on Taques Buddah Hall, when Wimbushs Volkswagen parked in front of 52 Laurel Place.

Ordilles search warrant affidavit and police report claimed that Williams walked out of 44 Laurel Avenue, toward 52 Laurel Avenue, Wolfson wrote, noting the inconsistencies.

The record before me suggests that law enforcements approach to documenting this investigation was careless and at times, purposely false, she wrote. Although the haphazard documentation itself does not rise to the level of a constitutional violation in this instance, these practices are not merely typos or errors, and thus, I caution that such mistakes in other circumstances may jeopardize future investigations and prosecutions.

Williams got into the vehicle holding a yellow plastic bag that one of the detectives claimed appeared weighed down.

Officers Eliezer Ramos and Aaron Bernstein pulled over the vehicle and ordered the men in the car to roll down the windows.

Wimbush, Williams, West and Tyrese Oden were removed from the vehicle and frisked for weapons. West had 80 heroin packets and a small bag of marijuana.

A drug-sniffing dog was brought after nothing else was found in the vehicle and hit on the area near where the trap was reportedly located.

Ordille noticed the back passenger seat was modified and discovered two boxes of ammunition, three loaded .45-caliber magazines and a semiautomatic gun and rifle-style weapon.

Ordille obtained the warrant to further search the vehicle.

A detective later cut after-market wiring for the trap, which revealed three semiautomatic guns, a rifle, more ammo and 2,850 heroin packets.
The first time San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Norman Yee heard about a proposal to build housing on the Balboa Reservoir it was the late 1960s and he was a young student at San Francisco City College.

They were talking about it even way back then, Yee said.

That proposal went nowhere, as did three subsequent efforts by San Francisco mayors Dianne Feinstein and Art Agnos to develop the 17-acre property in the 1980s and 1990s. All of the proposals were blocked by a combination of neighborhood opposition and resistance from City College staff and students looking to preserve the land for future expansion.

Now Yee is set to reverse that losing streak with a vote Tuesday that could set the stage for the most significant development on San Franciscos west side since Parkmerced was built in the 1940s and 1950s. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on a development agreement and a special use district that would rezone the surface parking lot off Ocean Avenue to allow 1,100 housing units to be built.

The development agreement includes a commitment that the developers  Bridge Housing, AvalonBay and Mission Housing  make 550 of the units affordable. It will also include 4 acres of open space, a large child care center, a community center and $10 million in fees to the city for transit and infrastructure improvements. Of the 550 affordable units, 150 would be set aside for teachers and staff from City College.

Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle

The project likely will be approved, but that doesnt mean there isnt plenty of opposition.

Dozens of faculty leaders and students at City College of San Francisco spoke out against the housing development Monday at a news conference, saying not only that the project was supposed to provide hundreds of units of affordable housing, but that the Environmental Impact Report has also failed to take into account the coronavirus pandemics destructive effect on public transportation. As a result, they said, students who cant park at the school simply wont show up.

Wynd Kaufman, an engineering instructor and union activist, said, This project will have a devastating impact on City College students.

The group called on the community to urge the supervisors to reject the project, or require that it provide at least 550 units of affordable housing for teachers, staff and students.

Yee said that he has done his best to bring opponents and the development team together. He successfully pushed for a 100-slot child care facility, 50% of which will be set aside for low-income families.

Over the past month of negotiations, the developer also agreed to other changes, including making the below-market-rate housing permanently affordable. Some of the land will remain publicly owned, but leased to the developer, rather than the developer owning it.

I have done the best that I could in terms of resolving as many of the issues as possible that the community was concerned about, Yee said. With any major project you are going to have issues that cant be ironed out, especially in a neighborhood that is not used to development.

Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle 2019

Yee said that he would have preferred slightly fewer units but that the developers made a convincing case that the project would not be economically feasible if it were to be cut back.

Some critics are calling for the process to be slowed down.

Yee declined to delay the vote despite an Aug. 3 letter from City College interim Chancellor Rajen Vurdien requesting that the vote be pushed until after city college and the developer are able to finalize a memorandum of understanding.

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.

Project opponent Jean Barish said that the vote should be delayed while issues are resolved. She said more study is needed of the revised development agreement, which she called vague and wishy-washy.

There is real concern that this is being pushed through at warp speed without adequate notice and resolution of outstanding issues, she said.

She also accused the city of lining the developers pockets by selling the land for $11.4 million, well below what housing development sites typically sell for.

But Bridge Housing Executive Vice President Brad Wiblin said that the cost of building the public infrastructure  including streets and parks  would be close to $40 million. The low price of the land also reflects that half of the units will be dedicated to permanently affordable housing, said Wiblin, who stressed that 55% of the 17 acres would remain publicly owned.

City college is also advocating more parking, but the city is trying to reduce vehicle miles traveled to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, Wiblin said.

He called the Balboa Reservoir a legacy project for Yee, who will be leaving office at the end of the year because of term limits.

Nobody has seen this kind of leadership around housing on the west side, he said. It will be a major achievement if we can get across the finish line.

Chronicle staff writer Nanette Asimov contributed to this report.

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen
Soviet history shows socialism is the only path to peace, progress

This article originally appeared in Tribune November, 1949.

Thirty-two years isnt long for a new social order to show what it can do, but it has been long enough for the Soviet Union to demonstrate that she has all the answers which workers in capitalist countries are seeking.

Not all the time has been available to the builders of the new Socialist order to demonstrate its potentialities in peaceful construction.

Only in the past four if its thirty-two years of existence has the worlds first Socialist State been free from war itself and from the imminent threat of war.

And yet it has been able to demonstrate that Socialism will free humanity from the afflictions that workers have never avoided under capitalism.

Splendid future

It can lead humanity forward to a richer and more splendid future than the capitalist world dares to dream of.

Figures published by the Soviet Central Statistical Board reveal once again what the capitalist press of all lands is desperately anxious to conceal  the rapid rate of growth in Soviet industry from month to month, from quarter to quarter.

As a Soviet writer puts it:

The annual volume of industrial production in the USSR is expressed in hundreds of billions of rubles and a very additional per cent stands for thousands of tons of coal, tens of millions of metres of fabrics, hundreds of complicated machine tools.

An increase of one per cent requires tremendous effort.

All the more remarkable, then, is the fact that in nine months of 1949, industrial output rose by twenty per cent, as compared with the corresponding period of 1948.

This is not a chance phenomenon. Statistical data for all the post-war years shows that the annual pace of growth was never below eighteen per cent.

Such a pace has no parallel in the history of industrial development in the capitalist world. It is only possible in the Land of Socialism, where private ownership of the means of production does not exist and national economy is developed on the basis of a unified socialist plan.

Socialism has beaten Capitalism at its own game. All that has induced most people in the past 100 years to accept capitalism was that it developed production at a hitherto unprecedented pace.

Now the Soviet system has shown that even the marvels of capitalist production at its fastest can be surpassed by Socialism.

Staggering output

The figures show that Soviet industry is growing at the rate of twenty-five per cent a year. Every four years the total output is being doubled. Not even boom-time America, with the Fords, Carnegies, and Rockefellers in their villainous heyday, could show such results.

But that isnt all. As the Soviet writer says, Soviet expansion has been steady, without pauses or breaks, and certainly without catastrophes. It will continue that way.

Amazing at any period, Soviet post-war production gains added significance from the chaos of the surrounding capitalist world.

Socialist economy rears its mighty structure next door to the graveyard of Marshallised Europe.

War-devastated Russia had already surpassed by twenty-six per cent the pre-war production figures by September, 1948. Not one Western European country had yet recovered its pre-war level. American threats have devalued the pound sterling, striking at the financial foundations of half the capitalist world.

Gloom in USA

Unemployment has doubled in Western Europe in the first six months of 1949  the triumph of Socialist economy is striking home with increasing force on 3,000,000 unemployed Italians, nearly 500,000 Britons, 1,500,000 western Germans, hundreds of thousands of Belgians and Frenchmen.

America has done this to her satellites without solving her own problem. The Journal of Commerce admits that industrial output in USA dropped by at least twenty-three per cent in the past twelve months.

The American outlook as summed up by the London Daily Mails New York correspondent:

Theres gloomy talk of 10,000,000 unemployed by Christmas; of the worst economic paralysis since the great depression. Rainbow Land is grey with anxiety and American output will drop this month to the lowest level for the last three and a half years [...]

The workers job under Socialism isnt merely secure; it is increasingly pleasant. Soviet advances in the quality of industrial technique have been as impressive as qualitative output.

Picks and shovels have given way to machinery; good machinery to better. And now the era of automatisation  the use of self-regulating machinery which can perform a large variety of intricate operations without human intervention signalises mans mastery or what, under capitalism, is his enemy and taskmaster  the machine.

A living appendage of machine  nobody has ever bettered Marxs description of the degraded position of the worker under capitalism. But, under Soviet Socialism, machinery is the friend and servant of man.

In a famous speech Stalin pointed out that alone among revolutions the Soviet revolution not only smashed the fetters of capitalism and brought the people freedom but also succeeded in creating the material conditions of a prosperous life for the people. Therein lies the strength and invincibility of our Revolution.

If the Revolution was invincible then (1935) what is it today when the people are not only assured of necessities but of what most capitalist workers have to call luxuries?

(In the third quarter of 1949, eighteen per cent more consumers goods were sold than in the corresponding quarter of 1948. The people were able to buy ten per cent more radio sets, fifty-seven per cent more gramophones, 100 per cent more watches).

Pay up, prices down

They buy the goods because they have the money and because prices are low. Real wages doubled in 1948 alone  the result of steadily increasing wage-rises, and several successive all-round price-reductions of thirty per cent or more.

Capitalist builders have reached the point where they openly admit they cant build houses for the workers because workers cant pay economic rents.

They have resigned this sphere to capitalist governments whose housing programs are bitter farces to broken families and young married couples living in frustrated separation.

To them the message of this Soviet anniversary is that the land which has abolished capitalism was able to produce 1,600,000 dwellings (at the rate of one a minute) between 1946 and 1948 and the rate is still increasing. Variety and elegance of the new homes doesnt suffer, but even improves, with the increasing output. Rents are not more than five per cent of incomes.

There are two hundred million Russians who would be only too pleased to answer the heart-broken plea of NSW Health Minister Kelly for someone to tell him how he can build some more hospitals.

Kelly might not care for the solution but twenty years after the overthrow of capitalism (and capitalist politicians) in Russia there were nearly seven times as many doctors as before, with corresponding increases in hospital accommodation.

Soviet workers didnt have to battle with a capitalist High Court to get free medicine. That has been theirs since the Revolution, together with completely free health and dental services and other concessions which add at least thirty-eight per cent to the money value of the average income.

Socialism, said Engels, is mankinds leap forward from the realm of necessity into the realm of freedom. Seeing the use the Russians have made of their freedom it isnt surprising that the workers of the whole of the rest of the world, with China and the Peoples Democracies in the vanguard, are eagerly preparing for the same historic advance.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 01:47:19|Editor: huaxia

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KABUL, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani issued a decree on Monday to pardon and release about 400 controversial Taliban inmates, the Presidential Palace confirmed.

The palace tweeted that Ghani signed the decree late Monday evening for pardon of punishment of convicted Taliban prisoners, who are included in the 5,000 prisoners listed by the Taliban group.

The move came one day after participants of a 3,400-member Loya Jirga, or the Grand Assembly, voted for the release of 400 hardcore Taliban inmates.

A peace deal agreement signed between the United States and Taliban in Qatar in February required the Afghan government to free 5,000 Taliban inmates in exchange for Taliban's release of 1,000 soldiers or government staff.

Since early March, the Afghan government had released 5,100 Taliban inmates and Taliban freed 1,000 Afghan soldiers or government staff.

Under the agreement, U.S. and NATO-led coalition forces would leave Afghanistan by July next year depending on whether the Taliban outfit meets the conditions envisaged in the agreement, including severing ties with foreign terrorist groups.

However, the presidential palace said provisions of the issued decree about Taliban pardon do not prevent individuals from suing for their right.

It was not immediately known when the 400 Taliban inmates will be freed.

According to unnamed officials, following the release of 400 Taliban inmates, the long-delayed peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government will begin later this month. Enditem
BEIJING, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Huai'an, a prefecture-level city of east China's Jiangsu Province, is exploring to expand the service objects of its "101 percent service" mechanism from large firms and projects to all market players, so as to create a more dynamic economic ecology.

As a government service brand carefully built by the city in recent years, the "101 percent service" mechanism aims at providing an additional one percent of service to investors while meeting the legal requirements of investors at 100 percent.

Under this mechanism, nearly 200 units and departments in Huai'an help enterprises solve difficulties to the maximum extent to promote the development of enterprises in an efficient way.

The city has never stopped attracting investors even when faced with the COVID-19 pandemic. It has taken multiple measures to advance investment promotion during the epidemic prevention and control period.

The municipal leaders have kept interactions and exchanges with investors and entrepreneurs on a monthly basis to help them solve problems in investment and business development.

The city's commerce bureau released a letter to international investors in Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean languages to introduce the preferential policies for enterprises and the quality business environment of Huai'an to them, so as to enhance their confidence to invest in the city.

Cai Lixin, Party chief of Huai'an City, had led a delegation March this year to visit Yum China Holdings, Inc. (Yum China,NYSE:YUMC), Red Star Macalline Group Co., Ltd., Sinochem International Corporation (600500 SH.) and other well-known enterprises for investment promotion.

As a result, on July 10, Yum China, a leading Chinese restaurant company, signed an agreement with Huai'an to settle its northern Jiangsu supply chain center in the city. This will help boost the Huai'an's food industry development.

A resident working group has also been established in the Huai'an Economic & Technological Development Zone to help enterprises with work and production resumption amid the epidemic, including assisting companies in arranging CT and nucleic acid tests as well as hotels for medical observation for foreign staff.

These efforts have yielded fruitful results. From January to June this year, 47 new foreign-funded projects with foreign investment of 1.27 billion U.S. dollars settled in Huai'an, and 480 million U.S. dollars of the funds have already been received.

Original link: https://en.imsilkroad.com/p/315404.html

SOURCE Xinhua Silk Road
Six years later, the fight continues, and were still fighting for justice for everybody and equality for everybody, said Jason Armstrong, Fergusons new police chief appointed in 2019, who also spoke at the event.

He said that recent deaths of Black people at the hands of police around the country may make it seem like there has not been progress since Brown died. But he said the ensuing groundswell of activism sparked in Ferguson added crucial momentum to the broader conversation on race that is still playing out today.

Because this community started this walk six years ago, we are farther along, he said.

Dancing in the street

On Sunday night, activists blocked traffic and danced in the street outside Ferguson Police Department. At least one protester was arrested around 10:30 p.m. after police told the crowd to move back and released pepper spray.
Johnson fears loss of UK's power and magic if Scotland breaks away Britain's PM Johnson and Home Secretary Patel visit police in Northallerton

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Monday that Britain would be weaker if the union that binds its four nations were broken - his latest rejection of a growing push for Scottish independence.

Disagreements between Britain's constituent nations - Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England - over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic have damaged relations already badly strained by Brexit.

That is particularly the case in Scotland, which voted against leaving the European Union and where opinion polls show support for independence narrowly outweighs support for its 300-year union with England.

"The union of the United Kingdom is, for me, it's the greatest political partnership the world has ever seen," Johnson told broadcasters, when asked what the union meant to him.

"It would be such a shame to lose the power, the magic of that union."

Scotland voted 55 percent to 45 percent against independence in a 2014 referendum, but the Scottish National Party which runs the semi-autonomous nation wants another vote. Although voters there backed staying in the EU, Britain as a whole voted to leave.

Johnson's Conservative Party, which governs all of Britain and decides policy in areas that have not been devolved to Scotland, is a strong supporter of the union and dismisses any call for another vote.

However, Johnson and other senior ministers have visited Scotland in recent weeks, talking at length about the strength and benefits of the relationship.

(Writing by William Schomberg and William James; editing by Kate Holton)
DALLAS, Ga.  A Georgia high school plans to start the week with all classes shifting online after nine students and staff tested positive for the coronavirus when the school year opened last week with most students attending in-person.

North Paulding High School made headlines soon after students returned to school Aug. 3 when photos posted on social media showed hallways crowded with students, and many of them not wearing masks. The schools principal notified parents Saturday that six students and three staff members had tested positive for the virus, though its unknown if any were infected at school.

Now students will take online classes Monday and Tuesday, Paulding County Schools Superintendent Brian Ott said in a letter to parents Sunday. He said those two days will be used to clean and disinfect the school, and parents will learn Tuesday evening if in-person classes can resume later in the week.

Hopefully we can all agree that the health and safety of our students and staff takes precedence over any other considerations at this time, Ott said in his letter, which was obtained by Atlanta-area news outlets.

Paulding County schools spokesman Jay Dillon did not immediately return phone and text messages Sunday evening from The Associated Press.
It's shaping up to be one of the longest-running divorce battles in Hollywood history, and the Brangelina saga is far from over.

On Monday, Angelina Jolie asked that the private judge overseeing her divorce from Brad Pitt be disqualified from the case because of insufficient disclosures of his business relationships with one of Pitt's attorneys.

In a filing in Los Angeles Superior Court, Jolie argues that Judge John W. Ouderkirk should be taken off the divorce case that she filed in 2016 because he was too late and not forthcoming enough about other cases he was hired for involving Pitt attorney Anne C. Kiley.

A new twist: Angelina Jolie (pictured 2018) has asked that the private judge overseeing her divorce from Brad Pitt be disqualified from the case because of insufficient disclosures of his business relationships with one of Pitt's attorneys

It says that during the Jolie-Pitt proceedings Ouderkirk has 'failed to disclose the cases that demonstrated the current, ongoing, repeat-customer relationship between the judge and Responden's counsel.'

It goes on to say that Pitt's attorney 'actively advocated for Judge Ouderkirk's financial interests in moving - over the opposing party's opposition - to have his appointment (and his ability to continue to receive fees) extended in a high profile case.'

An email to Kiley and Pitt's lead attorney Lance Spiegel seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Legendary: It's shaping up to be one of the longest-running divorce battles in Hollywood history, and the Brangelina saga is far from over (the pair pictured in 2009)

Pitt and Jolie, like other high-profile couples, are paying for a private judge in their divorce case to keep many of its filings and the personal and financial details within them sealed, though some legal moves must be made within standard court procedure.

Jolie's filing emphasizes that a private judge must follow the same rules of disclosure and conflict of interest that other judges must.

The filing says 'it doesn't matter if Judge Ouderkirk is actually biased. Under California law disqualification is required so long as a person aware of the facts 'might reasonably entertain a doubt' about Judge Ouderkirk's ability to remain impartial.'

Family matters: Angelina pictured with her children, Pax, 16, Shiloh, 14, Vivienna, 12, Zahara, 15, and Knox, 12 (she also has 19-year-old son Maddox)

Jolie's attorneys have sought in private proceedings to have Ouderkirk disqualify himself, but the filing says Pitt's side has insisted on keeping him.

Pitt and Jolie were declared divorced, and the Pitt was dropped from her name, in April of 2019, after their lawyers asked for a bifurcated judgment, meaning that two married people can be declared single while other issues, including finances and child custody, remain.

Because most of the documents have been sealed, it is not clear what issues remain unresolved, but Jolie filed papers in 2018 saying Pitt wasn't paying sufficient child support, which his attorneys disputed, calling the filing an effort to manipulate media coverage of the split.

Jolie, 44, and Pitt, 56, were a couple for 12 years and married for two when Jolie filed for divorce in 2016.

They have six children, Maddox, 19, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 12.

Their shock divorce back in 2016 was allegedly triggered by an incident between Pitt and his then 15-year-old son Maddox, on a family flight home from France.

The alleged altercation was investigated by the LA Country Department of Children and Family Services, and the FBI, though the actor was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing and did not face any charges.

Laura Eimiller, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said at the time in a statement: 'In response to allegations made following a flight within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States which landed in Los Angeles carrying Mr. Brad Pitt and his children, the FBI has conducted a review of the circumstances and will not pursue further investigation.'

Eimiller added: 'No charges have been filed in this matter.'

However, in 2018, Jolie raised eyebrows when she cut ties with her famed Hollywood divorce attorney Laura Wasser, and hired a new counsel claiming the move was 'for the protection and best interest of her children.'

'Angelina has decided to change counsel to Samantha Bley Dejean, as Samantha's expertise is the protection and best interest of children,' Mindy Nyby, a spokesperson Jolie, said at the time. 'Angelina appreciates Laura's cooperation in transitioning the case over the past several weeks.'

The latest divorce twist comes after there had been reports that relations between Pitt and Jolie were apparently improving.
A huge fire that raced through several shops and two flats in east London, forcing residents to evacuate their homes, is being treated as suspicious.

About 100 firefighters were called to the blaze, which broke out at about 10:30pm on Sunday evening in Sherrard Road, Newham, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) said.

Police confirmed on Monday that they are treating the fire - which started in a mid-terraced shop with a flat above it, before quickly spreading through four neighbouring shops and two flats - as suspicious.

Fifteen fire engines from 13 different stations attended the scene, including aerial crews.

One man was treated for smoke inhalation, while around 26 people were forced out of their flats by the fire, which was brought under control soon before 3am.

Footage shared on social media appeared to show the blaze lighting up the night sky and smoke billowing out into Sherrard Road.

The fire spread through several old shop premises and was difficult to gain control of due to it spreading in different ways, an LFB spokesman said in a statement.

A range of equipment has been used to tackle the fire, our crews have used breathing apparatus to carry out searches of all of the premises and we used our aerial appliances to observe from above. We also used our drone to gain a better view of the fire.

The brigade also said that road closures are now in place between Westbury Terrace and Studley Road due to the blaze.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: "At this time the cause of the fire is being treated as suspicious. Detectives from Newham CID are investigating this incident alongside colleagues from the London Fire Brigade."

No arrests have been made, the force said.

Anyone with information about the circumstances of the fire is asked to contact police on 101 quoting CAD9152/9AUG or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
The Beirut port explosion is likely to go down in history as a turning point in Lebanons political configuration.

The blast, which killed more than 200 people, injured more than 6,000 and destroyed large parts of the city, has revitalised the Lebanese protest movement which had been trying to remove the entire political class since October 2019. Last year, when the economy finally collapsed under unbearable debt and mismanagement, many Lebanese people realised they had become pauperised, dispossessed and marginalised in their own country, forced to survive on their own, with few basic services from the government and little hope for the future.

The tens of thousands of citizens in the streets since August 7 have demonstrated new heights of distrust and anger at their government, whose incompetence and disregard for the peoples wellbeing had allowed the port explosion to happen. The mock hangmans nooses set up during the protests clearly express the citizens sheer disgust with the political elite who have long ruled them and have driven them and the entire economy into bankruptcy and debt.

The attacks on and takeovers of ministries and public institutions demonstrate that people want to take direct control of governance and would not allow the same uncaring, thieving, and criminally negligent politicians to take back the reins of power.

The consistent protest slogan all means all has been re-emphasised and people have expressed their anger with all political forces. The protesters also made rare explicit criticism of Hezbollah as a member of the sectarian rulers they called the mafia or a gang of thieves and criminals. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah joined President Michel Aoun in rejecting an international investigation of the port explosion and also sounded like all the other discredited politicians in saying his party knew nothing about the ammonium nitrate that exploded in the port.

The events of the past few days have started to sweep aside the cruel recent past to reveal the few power centres in the country that will now battle it out, or, more likely, negotiate a transition to a new governance system.

We are likely to see new waves and methods of citizens confronting their state, and the state fighting back militarily, until this battle is resolved in the months ahead. This week, for example, citizens demanded that foreign donors do not channel humanitarian assistance through the government, who they fear might steal or sell the aid, or only share it with sectarian loyalists.

The citizen rebellion has sent its ominous message and revealed cracks within the governing elite. On August 9, a number of members of parliament and government ministers resigned under pressure from the streets. A day later, the rest of the cabinet along with hapless Prime Minister Hassan Diab stepped down, simply formalising their lack of authority in the face of the citizenry.

Lebanon is experiencing the same dynamics as other Arab countries have since 2010: the irresistible force of an enraged and pauperised citizenry marching in the streets to bring down a power structure that refuses to budge. Yet, like in Sudan, Algeria, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and elsewhere, Lebanons exhausted and humiliated citizens have struggled against an entrenched militarised regime which is not easy to evict from power.

But Lebanons power structure is unlike any other Arab countrys and it is even more difficult to challenge. The main sectarian parties of Sunni, assorted Christians, Druze, and others have shown that they will retreat a bit and reconfigure power-sharing when threatened, if it keeps them in the governance and money-making game.

Last years events discredited the main sectarian parties in the eyes of most Lebanese, including some of those parties own supporters, whose standard of living has also deteriorated. These parties on their own now appear unable to prevent the demands for structural change. Parties like President Aouns Free Patriotic Movement and Saad Hariris Future Movement can only rule with the backing of Hezbollah, as we have seen in recent years.

Hezbollah represents something very different. It is more powerful than the state militarily, and more cohesive than any other single sectarian organisation. It is also structurally linked with Iran, Syria, and other militant parties in a regional resistance front. Hezbollah mostly operates behind the scenes through shifting alliances with leading Christian, Shia, and Sunni groups in the successive governments it has supported.

We might have entered a phase in Lebanon where, effectively, the two most powerful actors have emerged as Hezbollah and the mass of uncoordinated but probably unstoppable protest movement which wants to replace the current power structure with a more democratic and rule-of-law-based governance system.

If the protesters harness their immense popular support into a focused political process, they could eventually engage and remove the existing power elite, and then hold parliamentary elections that independent groups would oversee  two of their key demands. We should expect to see intense negotiations to agree on a new, non-sectarian elections law that would permit new elections, in turn leading to a new president and a fully re-furbished governance system. This would ideally be managed by a transitional emergency government of respected technocrats focused on stabilising the economy and supporting the majority of needy people.

Many of the now discredited sectarian elite will oppose this, but Hezbollah would probably accept it if it met certain criteria. The group will not allow the Lebanese state to crumble and it does not want to rule Lebanon on its own; at the same time, however, it will not surrender its sophisticated arms and capabilities that twice forced Israel into ceasefires and have achieved deterrence on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

So the big challenge for the protesters and all Lebanese now is: can the citizenry and Hezbollah work out a compromise agreement that allows a serious, capable government to assume power for a long transitional period that can start the revival of the country, while keeping Hezbollahs arms off the negotiating table for now? And if this happens, and the day comes when the Lebanese people demand Hezbollah give up its autonomous military capabilities, is it possible to envisage those capabilities incorporated under the defence ministry and an associated border security system?

Many Lebanese have pondered these and other possibilities for many years, but no consensus has been reached. This has allowed the old bankrupt governing system to remain in place for so long, with Hezbollahs backing, leading to the countrys shattered condition. This legacy of corrupt and inept officials in the foreground with Hezbollah and its external supporters in the background has now reached its end for most Lebanese people.

The moment of reckoning has arrived. The political elite has nothing left to steal from its people, the people have no more patience and want to hang all political leaders, and Hezbollah must define a new strategy that serves it and the rebelling people of Lebanon equally well.

Finding the answer to this riddle can no longer be the object of abstract discussions. Lebanon has no other choice but to go through with reconfiguring its political system and eventually incorporating Hezbollah into the national defence network. The elite has repeatedly failed and the people have risen up more than once. They will not stop until they have regained their dignity and their citizenship, and established a functioning state.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
Mask refusers should exile themselves from society, Letter to the editor, Aug. 5

After reading this recent letter, I am wondering what is more dangerous: non-masked citizens; or those who demand those with health conditions or creeds that exempt them from masks not have a place in society.

It appears the virus with a death rate of lower than 9,000 in a country of 37 million people (and mainly targeting those over 80) has caused another pathology we are missing: psychopathy induced from fear of the virus. It appears some peoples fears may lead to sociopathic behaviour, to say the least, when I read comments about non-mask-wearing citizens, when in reality, for less than $100 one can buy a well-fitted mask to protect themselves and others from catching the virus  about the same you probably pay a week for cigarettes.

But Im sure people feel superior and better while demeaning others instead.
Satanic Temple declares abortion 'religious ritual;' claims it provides 'spiritual comfort' Women told to recite tenets aloud during abortion and say: 'By my body, my blood; by my will, it is done'

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The Satanic Temple launched its Religious Reproductive Rights campaign Wednesday, declaring abortion as a sacred "religious ritual" in an attempt to circumvent state regulations on abortion by exerting religious freedom protections.

In a video posted on YouTube as part of its campaign, the Satanic Temple, which is now recognized by the IRS as a religious organization, explains how it plans to use state Religious Freedom Restoration Acts in their favor so women seeking abortions can forego counseling, avoid seeing the sonogram image of their baby or hearing its heartbeat, and refuse to have their baby's remains cremate or buried.

The video begins by stating that the U.S. Religious Freedom Restoration Act generally prohibits the government from interfering with a persons free exercise of religion, including the performance of religious rituals. The Satanic Temple proclaims that its religious rituals include abortion, which it says provides spiritual comfort and affirms bodily autonomy and self-worth.

Within the states that have enacted the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, religiously performed abortions are exempt from legal requirements that are not medically necessary, The Satanic Temple contends in the video. The group added that it "will do all it can to assure that states protect the religious rights of our members to obtain first-trimester abortions on demand, consistent with the view that thy self is thy master.

Jane Essex, the spokesperson for the Satanic Temples Religious Reproductive Rights Campaign, addressed questions, first answering how existing regulations interfere with the satanic abortion ritual. Essex listed mandatory counseling, being forced to listen to fetal heartbeats (and) waiting periods before you can even have the abortion as examples of regulations that she claims serve no medical purpose.

All these obstacles violate deeply held beliefs and this disrupts the practice of our rituals, Essex said, arguing that the Satanic Temple's abortion ritual is comparable to rituals practiced by billions of adherents to major religions.

It would be unconstitutional to require a waiting period before receiving Holy Communion; it would be illegal to demand Muslims receive counseling prior to Ramadan, she argued. We expect the same rights as any other religious organization."

Essex explained that to circumvent state regulations on abortion, the Satanic Temple has put together a letter women can take with them to the abortion clinic that states their demands to forego counseling, a sonogram, hearing the baby's heartbeat, and refusal to have their baby's remains cremate or buried. Doing any of the aforementioned, according to the letter, would "interfere" with their religious beliefs and practices.

The letter also states that during the abortion procedure, the woman is to disregard any doubts she has and instead recite aloud by memory the Satanic Temple's third and fifth tenets. After the abortion, the woman is to recite the words: "By my body, my blood; by my will, it is done."

Essex claims that the satanic ritual and reciting the tenets aloud will help women feel empowered and "confident" and allay any regrets that they have.

As part of the Satanic Temple's Reproductive Rights Campaign, it's holding an online fundraiser and raffle to raise $100,000 to "mobilize legal operations in order to protect religious abortions from unwarranted government interference."

Those who donate $200 will be entered to win the "grand prize," a free abortion up to $2,500 toward a late-term termination. Donors are also encouraged to make donations in the amounts of $66 or $666.

Essex vowed that the Satanic Temple would take legal action against any medical provider or abortion facility that denies any of their members requests to participate in their so-called abortion ritual. These demands stipulate that they be exempt from abortion clinics' own minimum requirements, which includes a few minutes of so-called counseling in which a clinic employee asks a woman if she's certain she wants to go through with the abortion and if she's being coerced into it.

Essex also contended that the Supreme Courts Hobby Lobby decision  which ruled that privately-owned businesses were exempt from Obamacares HHS requirement to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs  set a legal precedent that would enable the Satanic Temple to be exempt from abortion regulations based on their religious beliefs.

The Satanic Temple is known for taking legal action against state regulations on abortions.

Last year, they sued the state of Missouri over a pro-life law requiring women to read literature declaring that the life of each human being begins at conception. The organization failed to prevail, as both the Missouri Supreme Court and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the lawsuit.

In 2016, they also claimed that a Texas regulation requiring abortion providers to either bury or cremate babies killed by abortion violated their religious beliefs because it promoted the idea of "fetal personhood."
In its latest quarterly report, Genworth MI Canada said that the public can remain confident in the strength of the insurers business fundamentals and its risk management.

The company had $98 million in net income during the second quarter, defying fears driven by much-decelerated activity during the coronavirus pandemic.

We were pleased with our second quarter results, including positive top line momentum, a 27% loss ratio and 11% operating return on equity, said Stuart Levings, president and CEO of Genworth MI. While the environment since the onset of COVID-19 has evolved in line with our expectations, there continues to be economic uncertainty.We take comfort in the strength of our business model and capital position, along with our disciplined risk management and proven loss mitigation strategies as we manage through this period of economic stress.
A California judge granted a preliminary injunction Monday requiring Uber and Lyft to stop classifying their drivers as independent contractors pending further action by the court. The order will take effect after 10 days, as the companies requested a brief stay during the appeals process.

If upheld, the ruling could have serious implications for Uber and Lyft, both of which are not yet profitable and have seen their ride-hailing businesses suffer during the pandemic. By classifying their drivers as independent workers, rather than employees, the companies have not had to pay for costly benefits that come with a full-time staff.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra requested the injunction as part of a lawsuit he brought in May along with city attorneys from San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. The suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, alleged Uber and Lyft violated the state's new law known as Assembly Bill 5 (AB5), which was created as a way to classify gig workers as full employees and ensure benefits from their employers. Uber and Lyft were among a group of tech companies that have previously opposed the bill, arguing their workers enjoy the flexibility of creating their own schedules as contractors.

California officials sought an injunction on the alleged misclassification and restitution for workers and civil penalties worth up to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Shares of Uber were down 1.3% during extended trading Monday and Lyft shares were down 2.1%.

Both companies said they would appeal the ruling immediately.

"The vast majority of drivers want to work independently, and we've already made significant changes to our app to ensure that remains the case under California law," an Uber spokesperson said. "When over 3 million Californians are without a job, our elected leaders should be focused on creating work, not trying to shut down an entire industry during an economic depression."

"Drivers do not want to be employees, full stop," Lyft said in a statement. "We'll immediately appeal this ruling and continue to fight for their independence. Ultimately, we believe this issue will be decided by California voters and that they will side with drivers."

"The court has weighed in and agreed: Uber and Lyft need to put a stop to unlawful misclassification of their drivers while our litigation continues," Becerra said in a statement. "While this fight still has a long way to go, we're pushing ahead to make sure the people of California get the workplace protections they deserve. Our state and workers shouldn't have to foot the bill when big businesses try to skip out on their responsibilities. We're going to keep working to make sure Uber and Lyft play by the rules."

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi advocated for a "third way" to classify workers in a letter to President Donald Trump in March as the first round of coronavirus relief measures were being negotiated. He argued there should be a way for workers to gain protections without sacrificing the flexibility of contract work.

In the ruling, Judge Ethan Schulman recognized the value of flexibility offered by Uber and Lyft, writing, "The Court does not take lightly Defendants' showing that a preliminary injunction may also have an adverse effect on some of their drivers, many of whom desire the flexibility to continue working as they have in the past, and may have commitments that make it difficult if not impossible for them to become full-time employees."

But Schulman wrote that Uber and Lyft's concerns that the injunction would have "far-reaching effects" had "only been exacerbated by Defendants' prolonged and brazen refusal to comply with California law. Defendants may not evade legislative mandates merely because their businesses are so large that they affect the lives of many thousands of people."

Schulman wrote that any impact of the injunction on Uber and Lyft's businesses would likely be mitigated by the fact that both have said the "vast majority of their drivers work on a casual or sporadic basis" and the reality that the coronavirus pandemic has "drastically reduced the demand for Defendants' services."

"Now, when Defendants' ridership is at an all-time low, may be the best time (or the least worst time) for Defendants to change their business practices to conform to California law without causing widespread adverse effects on their drivers," Schulman wrote.

Uber and Lyft sought to delay the ruling until there was a ruling on Uber's constitutional challenge of AB5 or until voters weighed in on a ballot measure they sponsored to exempt them from the law. The Court dismissed those requests.

Schulman said Uber's arguments that drivers' work was outside the ordinary course of its business, as the standard requires, was "a classic example of circular reasoning." He summarized the argument as saying that since Uber views itself as a tech company, only its tech workers are its employees.

"Were this reasoning to be accepted, the rapidly expanding majority of industries that rely heavily on technology could with impunity deprive legions of workers of the basic protections afforded to employees by state labor and employment laws," the judge wrote.

The ruling does not end the legal battles for Uber and Lyft, however. Last week, California's Labor Commissioner announced lawsuits against the companies alleging wage theft due to misclassification. The commission seeks to recover wages it believes were owed to drivers currently classified as contractors. The suits were filed in Alameda County Superior Court.

-CNBC's Deirdre Bosa contributed to this report.

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WATCH: Delivery workers are risking their lives to bring people groceries during coronavirus  here's what it's like for them
Dr Tomas Ryan has been awarded a highly prestigious 2020 Lister Institute Research Prize, becoming the first scientist in an Irish institution to secure the Lister Institute Preventive Medicine Prize Fellowship [Monday 10th August 2020].

He will use the prize to pursue research into memory "engrams" to better understand if - and how - we may retrieve misplaced infant memories in adults.

Infantile amnesia is a focus of his work, which is the loss of memories formed in early childhood (prior to 2-4 years). Though infantile amnesia is likely the cost of crucial cognitive developmental processes, it is also a constraint on learning during early life. This research is focused on understanding the neurobiology of this form of apparent memory loss.

Dr Ryan said:

"It's an honour and privilege to receive this prestigious award. The freedom to pursue blue skies, fundamental research is at the core of the scientific enterprise, and is the starting point for all societal benefits in medicine, education, and industry. The support of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine will directly enhance the autonomy and impact of my research team. I look forward to working with the Lister Institute to contribute to the scientific community in Ireland and the UK."

The Hon Rory Guinness, a senior member of the Lister Institute's Governing Body, and whose great-great grandfather, Edward Cecil Guinness, was a Chancellor of Trinity, added:

"The award of a Fellowship to Dr Ryan is an immense and historic moment in the life of science in these islands. The original bequest to Joseph Lister was made by Edward Cecil Guinness. He understood the problems of insanitary conditions in the brewing process. He also had immense concern for the well-being of his fellow citizens. With amazing vision, he invested a large part of his fortune to pioneer medical research through the Lister Institute and in social housing through the Guinness Trust in the UK, and the Iveagh Trust in Dublin."

"It is superb to see Dr Ryan's laboratory supported in an institution that has long been supported by us. It is recognition that there are some world class scientists in Ireland, and we look forward to welcoming Tomas into the fabled Lister fellowship."

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Belarus began voting in an election on Sunday pitting President Alexander Lukashenko against a former teacher who emerged from obscurity to lead the biggest challenge in years against the man once dubbed "Europe's last dictator" by Washington.

The 65-year-old Lukashenko is almost certain to win a sixth consecutive term but could face a new wave of protests amid anger over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy and his human rights record.

An ongoing crackdown on the opposition could hurt Lukashenko's attempts to mend fences with the West amid fraying ties with traditional ally Russia, which has tried to press Belarus into closer economic and political union.

A former Soviet collective farm manager, Lukashenko has ruled since 1994.

He faces a surprise rival in Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, a former English teacher who entered the race after her husband, an anti-government blogger who intended to run, was jailed.

Her rallies have drawn some of the biggest crowds since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Human rights groups say more than 1,300 people have been detained in a widening crackdown.

>> Belarus opposition figures detained on eve of presidential vote

Foreign observers have not judged an election to be free and fair in Belarus for a quarter of a century. Despite an election commission ban on the opposition holding an alternative vote count, Tikhanouskaya urged her supporters to monitor polling stations.

"We are in the majority and we don't need blood on the city streets," she said on Saturday. "Let's defend our right to choose together."

Portraying himself as a guarantor of stability, Lukashenko says the opposition protesters are in cahoots with foreign backers, including a group of 33 suspected Russian mercenaries detained in July and accused of plotting "acts of terrorism".

Analysts said their detention could be used as a pretext for a sharper crackdown after the vote.

"Lukashenko a priori made it clear that he intends to retain his power at any cost. The question remains what the price will be," said political analyst Alexander Klaskovsky.

(REUTERS)
CHICAGO, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- PLS Financial Services, Inc. announced today a donation of $80,034.50 to the American Red Cross for disaster relief. The Red Cross provides help to people affected by disasters across the country; access to lifesaving blood; and support to US Armed Services and their families. The Red Cross has continued to help communities during the COVID-19 pandemic supporting feeding missions across the US and providing relief supplies.

Over the last several months, PLS set aside part of its fee from cashing stimulus checks to be donated to a charity supporting communities and families in need during this difficult time. PLS' guiding principal "Because You Deserve Better!" applies not only to their customers but also to their communities. PLS lives this mission by investing in the communities it serves and by participating in community activities.

"Supporting our communities is a core value and we are proud to support the American Red Cross' efforts during these difficult times with this donation. At PLS, we're not just different, we are making a difference." Dan Wolfberg, President.

"The American Red Cross relies on the generosity of our donors and the hard work of our volunteers to fulfill our lifesaving mission," said Celena Roldan, regional chief executive officer of the Illinois Red Cross. "We are grateful and proud to receive this generous gift from PLS Financial Services which will aid in our mission of providing comfort and relief to those in need. The generosity of PLS Financial Services on behalf of their clients comes at a critical time as we continue to navigate mission delivery and response during these very challenging times."

About PLS

PLS, headquartered in Chicago operates approximately 240 community financial services centers in markets that span from California to New York. PLS believes that customers deserve better than the existing services available in the marketplace to meet their critical financial needs. PLS financial service centers offer free money orders, check cashing, Xpectations! Visa Prepaid debit cards, money transfer services, direct deposit services, and bill payments. Some PLS locations offer consumer short-term loans, auto insurance, and vehicle license and registration services. PLS also has automobile dealerships located in Indiana and Texas. PLS employs over 3,500 team members from the neighborhoods it serves. Visit PLS at www.pls247.com for additional information on products and services.

About the American Red Cross

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nation's blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or cruzrojaamericana.org, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross.

SOURCE PLS Financial Services

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The Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) has partnered with the Union of Arab Chambers to host the latest episode of its series of webinars launched to tackle the long-term effects of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic on the different aspects of trade relations between Brazil and key Arab states.

To be held on Wednesday, August 12, 2020, the upcoming high-level virtual conference will focus on the current state of the Arab logistics sector against the backdrop of unprecedented global market challenges. The event is titled The impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the Arab logistics industry: Challenges and Opportunities for Arab-South American partnerships.

The specialists will explore the changes within the global logistics landscape brought about by Covid-19 and their impact on the Arab world, in addition to talking about the direction of the Arab-South American logistics alliance. The major highlight of the discussions will be on the strategic plan to build direct shipping lanes connecting the Arab region to Brazil and the whole of South America to foster more trade activities.

Rubens Hannun, President, ABCC, said: In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, we feel that there is a strong impetus for us to build strong shipping lanes and hear various ideas and perspectives on how we can finally take the critical initial steps towards this. ABCC has been at the forefront of calls to create Brazilian-Arab shipping lanes to not only reinforce trade activities between Brazil and Arab nations but also reduce costs and open up fresh global business opportunities.

Aside from Hannun, the other high-profile attendees are Khaled Hanafy, Secretary-General, Union of Arab Chambers; Kamal Hassan Ali, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Affairs, League of Arab States; Ahmed Al Wakil, President, Alexandria Chamber of Commerce in Egypt; and Senator Jean Paul Prates, Chairman, Brazil-Arab Countries Parliamentary Group. All of them will deliver their respective opening addresses. Moderating the discussions is ABCCs Secretary-General Tamer Mansour.

The presenters, meantime, will include data scientist Marcos Valentini, a specialist in logistics and supply chains and Founding Partner at SCL Big Data Analytics; Yahia Zaki, Chairman, Suez Canal Economic Zone; Flavio Lavor, Director, New Concessions and Port Regulation Policies at Brazils Secretariat for Ports; Tessa Major, Vice President for Central and South America at the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) and International Business and Innovation Director at Port of Acu; and Sarah Elgazzar, Dean of the College of International Transport and Logistics at the Arab Academy for Science Technology & Maritime Transport (AASTMT) and Economic Consultant at the Union of Arab Chambers.-TradeArabia News Service
From left are Choi Jae-sung, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, Kim Jong-ho, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, and Kim Je-nam, senior presidential secretary for civic and social affairs. / Yonhap





By Kang Seung-woo







President Moon Jae-in has accepted the resignations of three out of six senior presidential secretaries who offered to step down last week over policy missteps in multiple areas including failed real estate regulations, Cheong Wa Dae announced Monday.







However, the President has retained his chief of staff Noh Young-min, who was under fire for owning multiple homes that went against the government's policy goal of preventing speculative buying and stabilizing the housing market. He also named replacements for the three departing secretaries.







According to Cheong Wa Dae, Choi Jae-sung, a former four-term lawmaker of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), has been named senior secretary for political affairs, while Kim Jong-ho, secretary-general of the Board of Audit and Inspection, is now Moon's new senior secretary for civil affairs. Kim Je-nam, currently serving as secretary for climate and environment, will be promoted to the senior presidential secretary for civic and social affairs.







The replacements came as public anger over the government's real estate policies was intensifying after it was found that some senior presidential aides owned multiple homes in affluent southern Seoul areas and were reluctant to sell their properties despite the presidential chief of staff's recommendation to do so.







As a result, Moon's approval rating has steadily declined from 59.1 percent to 43.9 percent from the first week of June to the first week of August, according to a survey by Realmeter, Monday. The latest approval rate, 43.9 percent, was down 2.5 percentage points from the previous week, while 52.4 percent were dissatisfied with his performance. This marked the third time the disapproval rating has topped the 50-percent mark since June.







Taking responsibility for the situation, Noh and five senior secretaries offered to quit, Friday.







However, Cheong Wa Dae did not elaborate on why Noh has remained in his post.







"It is difficult to talk about the President's personnel appointment," a Cheong Wa Dae official said.







Such policy missteps have affected the approval rating for the ruling DPK as well. The decline can also partly be blamed on their railroading of controversial real estate bills and botched housing market policies.







In particular, the DPK appears to be in a more critical situation as it has seen its lead in support rate over the main opposition United Future Party (UFP) narrowing to less than 1 percentage point.







According to the Realmeter survey that interviewed 2,520 people aged 18 or older last week, 35.1 percent of respondents supported the DPK, down 3.2 percentage points from the previous week. The UFP's approval rating advanced 2.9 percentage points to 34.6 percent  the highest since the renaming of the main opposition party in February.







The finding carries extra weight for the conservative party as the gap in the approval rating between the rival parties recorded the smallest-ever margin of 0.5 percentage points.







What is more unnerving for the DPK, which won 176 out of 300 National Assembly seats in April's general election, is the UFP's rating briefly shot above that of the DPK  36 percent to 34.3 percent  Wednesday when Cheong Wa Dae, the government and the ruling party announced another real estate-related plan in a series of controversial laws that aimed to protect tenants but then backfired.







Some Korean tenants generally prefer jeonse, a long-term deposit rental system unique to Korea where a large deposit is paid instead of rent, which is returned to them at the end of their lease. However, the new laws, rammed through by the DPK, are raising concerns that excessive protection of jeonse tenants may prod landlords to switch to monthly rent, tolling the death knell for the jeonse system.







The local pollster said the DPK's declining rating was because its key supporters  women and voters in their 30s and 40s  broke away from the party due to their discontent with the government's real estate policies. The approval rating among women dropped by 3.9 percentage points, while that from people in their 30s and 40s fell by 6.1 percentage points and 7.9 percentage points, respectively.







The UFP saw its approval rating increasing by 6 percentage points in the Jeolla provinces  bastions of support for the DPK. In addition, Rep. Yun Hee-suk's floor speech late last month that denounced the government's real estate policy also positively affected the UFP's approval rating, Realmeter added.







However, some say the UFP's rise is benefitting from the DPK's policy missteps as the opposition party has yet to reform itself after a series of defeats in the presidential, general and local elections.







Later in Monday, President Moon said his administration is reviewing the establishment of an organization to oversee the property market, which seen as a determination to focus on curbing soaring housing prices in the second half of his term.







"The housing issue is the most urgent matter that the government is facing," Moon said during a meeting with senior secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae.


That program eased her into payment, with about 60 percent of her work wages and student stipends going toward the apartments $2,906 monthly rent, and the city paying the remainder. But when the program subsidy ended 18 months later, she fell behind and was evicted within months, landing back in the hotel  where the city pays more than $3,000 a month to house a family, not including meals. Thats substantially more than what it costs to keep her in market-rate housing.
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Intelligent virtual assistant market is anticipated to reach $21.52 Billion by 2026 according to a new study published by Polaris Market Research. In 2019, the BFSI segment dominated the global market, in terms of revenue. North America is expected to be the leading contributor to the global market revenue during the forecast period.

The growing need to improve customer service, streamline enterprise communication, and increase productivity has boosted the adoption of intelligent virtual assistants. The rising penetration of mobile devices, and integration of virtual assistants with smart home appliances further support the growth of this market. Additionally, the increasing demand of intelligent virtual assistants from small and medium enterprises has supported market growth over the years. Increasing investments by vendors in technological advancements coupled with growing need to improve customer experience would accelerate the adoption of intelligent virtual assistants. However, lack of awareness is expected to hinder market growth. Growing demand from emerging economies is expected to provide numerous growth opportunities in the coming years.

Get sample copy of this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/intelligent-virtual-assistant-market/request-for-sample

The use of digital assistants and bots is expected to increase in the coming years. Computer programs in the form of bots simulate conversation with users through chat windows and voice calls. They have the ability to perform a number of different automated tasks such as scheduling meetings, managing finances, and others. They also assist in successful use of unified communication tools. These bots could be used as an automated attendant monitoring the interactions and offering instructions to users.

Intelligent virtual assistants are gradually replacing traditional interactive voice response systems. Use of intelligent virtual assistants is proving effective by enhancing customer and brand experience, and providing a consumer-friendly environment. The virtual assistants also offer a platform for convenient communication within businesses through voice, text, and other channels.

North America generated the highest revenue in the market in 2017, and is expected to lead the global market throughout the forecast period. The presence of established telecom and cloud infrastructure in this region, and growing trend of BYOD drive the market growth in the region. The growing demand of mobile devices, and technological advancements further support market growth in the region. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period owing to growing demand of virtual assistant technologies in the developing countries of the region.

Complete Summary with TOC Available @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/intelligent-virtual-assistant-market

The end-users in intelligent virtual assistant market include healthcare, education, retail, BFSI, government, and others. In 2017, the BFSI segment accounted for the highest market share owing to increasing need to offer enhanced customer services, and improve productivity. The demand for intelligent virtual assistants has increased from organizations operating in this sector to improve workforce collaboration, client interaction, and reduce costs.

The well-known companies profiled in the report include Apple Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Google, Nuance Communications, IBM Corporation, Oracle Corporation, [24]7.ai., Speaktoit Inc., CodeBaby Corporation, Next IT Corporation, Intel Corporation, and Clara Labs among others. These companies launch new products and collaborate with other market leaders to innovate and launch new products to meet the increasing needs and requirements of consumers.

Intelligent Virtual Assistants Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Technology Text-based Speech Recognition Text-To-Speech-Based Others

Intelligent Virtual Assistants Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Type Rule-based Conversational Ai-Based

Intelligent Virtual Assistants Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Service Customer service Marketing assistant

Intelligent Virtual Assistants Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by End-User Healthcare Education Retail BFSI Government IT & Telecom Others

Intelligent Virtual Assistants Market Size and Forecast, 2017-2026 by Region North America U.S. Canada Mexico Europe Germany UK France Italy Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific China India Japan Rest of Asia-Pacific Latin America Brazil Middle East & Africa



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In response to a question from Armenian News-NEWS.am, Deputy Head of the News Department of the Police of Armenia Edgar Janoyan said ten citizens were apprehended in front of the National Assembly of Armenia.

The citizens defending Mount Amulsar were apprehended while playing dodgeball in front of the National Assembly today.

The gates of the National Assembly were closed today. Security officers told Armenian News-NEWS.am that the gates have been closed for technical reasons.

The participants of the demonstration expressed their solidarity with the residents of Jermuk and nearby communities for their just and unwavering struggle that they have been leading for over two years. They also demanded that the positive conclusion given to the Environmental Impact Assessment of Mount Amulsar in 2016 be repealed and that exploitation of Mount Amulsar is canceled once and for all.

The organizers recalled that exploitation of the Amulsar gold mine will lead to contamination of the surrounding environment and water resources, deterioration of the health and living conditions of people and elimination of biodiversity.
Medvedchuk's trip to Crimea is 'very unacceptable step' by Ukrainian politician  Shmyhal

Medvedchuk's trip to Crimea is 'very unacceptable step' by Ukrainian politician  Shmyhal

KYIV. Aug 10 (Interfax-Ukraine)  Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said that he has an extremely negative attitude to the stay of Head of the political council of the Opposition Platform  For Life party, MP Viktor Medvedchuk in Crimea temporarily occupied by Russia.

"I have a negative attitude. This is a very unacceptable step on the part of a Ukrainian politician, whoever he may be, whoever he is. Therefore, I have a critical negative attitude to this," the head of government said in an interview with Radio Liberty.

Earlier this week, Medvedchuk's press secretary Oleh Babanin confirmed to a correspondent of the Krym.Realii project that he had gone to the annexed Crimea.

"Viktor Medvedchuk is on vacation as a MP and is resting with his family in Crimea," he said.
Sesame Place is the third-largest employer in Middletown Township, Bucks County. St. Mary Medical Center is the largest. Read more

A 17-year-old employee at Sesame Place in Bucks County was punched in the face and required surgery for his injury after a dispute with a park visitor over wearing a mask, police said Monday.

Shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday, the employee was working at Captain Cookies High Cs Adventure ride when he was attacked by a male patron who was accompanied by a female, said Detective Lt. Steve Forman of the Middletown Township Police Department.

The employee had encountered the pair earlier and had reminded them that they were required to wear masks while in the park. When the male suspect saw the employee again at the ride, he punched him, Forman said in a telephone interview.

The pair were chased by park security but were able to flee in a vehicle registered in New York. Middletown police were working with authorities in New York to identify the suspects, who were described as between ages 20 and 30, Forman said.

The employee was taken to St. Marys Medical Center in Middletown on Sunday and underwent surgery on Monday for his jaw injury. He also suffered a damaged tooth.

A Sesame Place spokesperson said in an emailed statement: On Sunday, August 9, a guest assaulted and seriously injured one of our team members. Weve been in close communication with the family of our injured team member, and are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery. The health and safety of our guests and team members is our top priority, and violence of any kind is unacceptable and not tolerated at our park. We are cooperating with local law enforcement on this ongoing investigation. Any further questions should be directed to them.

There have been no other reported incidents involving masks at Sesame Place since it reopened late last month, Forman said.
Close to 200 doctors in the country have succumbed to COVID-19 so far, said the Indian Medical Association (IMA), requesting the prime minister for his attention on the issue.

A total of 196 doctors, majority of them being general practitioners, have died so far of the infection.

As per the latest data collected by the IMA, our nation has lost 196 doctors, out of which 170 of them are above the age of 50 years, with general practitioners attributing to around 40 per cent of it, the IMA said expressing concerns over the safety of doctors losing their lives in the fight against the COVID-19 crisis.

While an increasing number of doctors are getting infected and losing their lives every day, a substantial number of them have been found to be general practitioners.

AFP

Since a significant proportion of the population consult general practitioners due to fever and its related symptoms, they remain the first point of contact as well as care, the doctors body.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the IMA requested him to ensure adequate care for doctors and their families who are a special risk group and extend the state-sponsored medical and life insurance facilities to doctors in all the sectors.

The IMA represents over 3.5 lakh doctors spread across the country providing next door affordable healthcare, it is pertinent to mention that COVID-19 does not differentiate between government and private sector and affect all same.

AFP

Further disturbing are the reports that state that the doctors and their family members are not getting beds for admission and deficiency of drugs in most of the cases. The IMA thus requests the government of India to provide adequate attention for the safety and welfare of doctors during the pandemic, said Dr Rajan Sharma, National President, IMA

Dr R V Asokan, Secretary General, IMA, said the mortality rate among doctors due to COVID-19 has reached an alarming proposition now.

Saving each and every life of a doctor will ensure safety of thousands of patients who depend on their care. Doctors who have died in line of their professional duty merit favourable consideration for succour and solace to their families. It is thus pertinent for the IMA to also draw your attention to the demoralising effect to our healthcare community, he said.
Ms. Whitmer, 48, has a history and easy rapport with Mr. Biden: He campaigned for her governors race in 2018 and she returned the favor, endorsing him before Michigans presidential primary and appearing with him at his last big rally in the state before the pandemic struck. She was one of the first to appear on Mr. Bidens Heres the Deal podcast and is a national co-chair for his campaign.

They just seem to click, Ms. Bayer said.

Still, many Michigan Democrats dont want Ms. Whitmer to leave the state while she is still grappling with the outbreak, which has hit Michigan particularly hard, with more than 96,000 cases and 6,500 deaths as of Monday. And it has devastated the state economy, driving the unemployment rate to 14.8 percent, one of the highest in the country, as of June, the latest data available.

And while Michigan was among the first states to be severely affected by the virus, it has also had a recent uptick in cases, leading Ms. Whitmer last month to reinstate restrictions on public gatherings and some businesses, and to require all residents to wear masks indoors and in crowded outdoor spaces.

Those actions have spurred a backlash against the governor, including multiple recall campaigns  but they have also caused some of her supporters to question whether the state can afford to lose her at such a critical time.

In talking to some of my friends who work in infectious disease, they think shes done an incredible job, as do I, said Julie Campbell-Bode, a Democratic activist from Royal Oak, a Detroit suburb. Selfishly, we need her here. There is plenty of time for her to climb those mountains and Im sure she will.

Several observers also questioned how much she could help Mr. Biden win Michigan, a battleground state that Mr. Trump won by less than 11,000 votes over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
People gather at Martyrs' Square in Beirut as demonstrators took to the streets to protest against government corruption following the deadly explosion that devastated large parts of the city, in Lebanon on Aug. 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Corruption? It Happens Here, Too

Commentary

When thousands of tons of explosive material detonated in Beirut last week, everyone knew what was to blame. It wasnt an absentee ship owner; it wasnt terrorism; it wasnt careless workmen. It was corruptionthe corruption that has seeped into the bones of Lebanon where every contract, every job opening, every bureaucratic or political move is dictated by the interests of one or other of the sectarian cliques running the country. It is because of the selfish interests of these gangsters that garbage fills the streets of this once-beautiful capital city, why electricity is available only a few hours a day, and why foreign countries will not give disaster relief money directly to the government, knowing that it would only find its way into the pockets of warlords in Armani suits.

But we mustnt let the news from Beirut lead us to think that corruption is limited to Lebanon or developing-world regimes run by kleptocrats; it can rear its unlovely head anywhere. Like, for example, Canada.

Though government and business in Canada is, relatively-speaking, cleaner than most of the nations of the world, we are still plagued (and always have been) by malfeasance. Since even before Confederation, political life has been soiled by patronage, bribery, kickbacks, and influence-peddling. The government of John A. Macdonald fell over the Pacific Scandal, in which cabinet ministers palms were greased to secure railroad contracts. Prime ministers well into the 20th century received under-the-table funds from those who wished to be known as supporters of the right political party.

In the Airbus scandal, allegations were made in 1995 that commissions were paid to Conservative government members to induce Air Canada to purchase European-made jets. Reporters vied with each other to come up with the handiest name for the latest perceived transgression. Shawinigate was the name given to accusations in 1999 of Prime Minister Chretiens possible conflict of interest in securing government support for a hotel he had an interest in; in Adscam, money that was meant to pay for federal advertising in Quebec was diverted to the Liberal Party or its supporters; Tunagate involved fish unfit for human consumption but allowed to be sold; Harbourgate exposed rot in the bidding for a dredging contract.

Its not just at the federal level that corruption in Canada has manifested itself. First Nations have been widely implicated in financial irregularities: embezzlement, nepotism, conflict of interest, and overpayment of office holders. Attempts at imposing transparency of indigenous governance have been thwarted by the current government.

Provinces such as Quebec under Maurice Duplessis, British Columbia under W.A.C. Bennett, and Newfoundland under Joey Smallwood were notorious for shady practices. Two Alberta premiers have been forced to resign over accusations of bribery and misspending. British Columbia has given us the scandalous Bingogate and Casinogate affairs. The Charbonneau Commission of 2011 discovered that bids for municipal and provincial contracts in Quebec had been rigged in criminal ways and that Montreal-area politicians took kickbacks. The construction firm SNC-Lavalin was implicated in the hanky-panky, and it was an investigation into this company that Prime Minister Trudeau was later adjudged to have interfered withanother scandal.

In 2019, the Corruption Perception Index downgraded Canada, dropping us out of the top 10 least corrupt nations, citing the ease of money-laundering and the SNC-Lavalin affair.

Experts in anti-corruption measures offer different solutions. For some, the emphasis is on the attitude of political leaders. Robert Rotberg, founding director of Harvard Kennedy Schools Program on Intrastate Conflict, has stated: The key factor is political will. Prevailing national patterns of dishonest and manipulative behaviour by and within political elites cannot be disrupted easily without an exercise of political will that is bold as well as legitimate. Political leaders who have succeeded sustainably in reforming their nations and curbing corruption know those truths. No lasting improvements occur exclusively through popular action. All have come, and will in the future come, by a leader championing the spirit and letter of these improvements, and using each to advance the cause of human justice. Difficult times, corrupt times, demand nothing less.

Others tout institutional change. Though Canadian law in this area is usually deemed to be robust, some observers have suggested the creation of a First Nations auditor or a federal anti-corruption commission, as well as further legislation to weaken the link between private business and public officials by regulating political contributions, lobbying, and the receipt of gifts.

News media interested in exposing corruption is an essential element, but the decline of Canadian print journalism and its subsequent reliance on government grants makes one less than confident in what used to be called the mainstream. Citizens now increasingly rely on alternative sources such as internet blogs or podcasts, but these often lack the amplified voice necessary to reach the larger public.

In the end, it is at the ballot box where the struggle for honesty will be conducted most effectively. Greed is hard-wired into the human condition and needs to be fought by voters in every generation, lest it become apathetically accepted and seen simply as the way things are done.

Gerry Bowler is a Canadian historian and a Senior Fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. His latest book is Christmas in the Crosshairs: Two Thousand Years of Denouncing and Defending the Worlds Most Celebrated Holiday.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The big shareholder groups in Bahamas Petroleum Company plc (LON:BPC) have power over the company. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies. Companies that used to be publicly owned tend to have lower insider ownership.

Bahamas Petroleum is not a large company by global standards. It has a market capitalization of UK91m, which means it wouldn't have the attention of many institutional investors. In the chart below, we can see that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about Bahamas Petroleum.

Check out our latest analysis for Bahamas Petroleum

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Bahamas Petroleum?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

Bahamas Petroleum already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Bahamas Petroleum's earnings history, below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Bahamas Petroleum. Standard Life Aberdeen plc is currently the company's largest shareholder with 7.2% of shares outstanding. Barclays Bank PLC, Wealth and Investment Management Division is the second largest shareholder owning 5.3% of common stock, and IG Group Holdings Plc, Asset Management Arm holds about 4.2% of the company stock.

Story continues

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 12 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no one share holder has a majority.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. There is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of Bahamas Petroleum

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own some shares in Bahamas Petroleum Company plc. It has a market capitalization of just UK91m, and insiders have UK2.6m worth of shares, in their own names. This shows at least some alignment, but I usually like to see larger insider holdings. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, mostly retail investors, hold a substantial 54% stake in BPC, suggesting it is a fairly popular stock. With this size of ownership, retail investors can collectively play a role in decisions that affect shareholder returns, such as dividend policies and the appointment of directors. They can also exercise the power to decline an acquisition or merger that may not improve profitability.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Bahamas Petroleum (1 is significant) that you should be aware of.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.



Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
Its been a long, hard week, Gordon Lee High School Spanish teacher Allison Galloway, said Sunday afternoon.

But it was worth it, she said. Thanks to long, hard, hot hours of work  and the Worlds Longest Yard Sale  she and her husband, Ryan, are $7,000 closer to being able to adopt the child theyve both long wanted.

Aided by several of Mrs. Galloways students, early last week the Signal Mountain couple transformed the front yard of their home into a hodgepodge of furniture, knickknacks, clothing and table after table of other donated items.

Weve been incredibly lucky, she said. We thought maybe we might make a couple of thousand dollars . . . (but) we ended up with a little over $7,000.

Every penny is earmarked to help cover the estimated $50,000 total cost of adopting the baby theyve been wanting for years.

Adoption is a last resort for the couple. Mrs. Galloway has suffered a series of miscarriages and their daughter, Mary Elizabeth, died shortly after she was born last year with the chromosomal genetic disorder known as Trisomy 18 or Edwards Syndrome.

Edwards Syndrome is the second most common trisomy, after Down Syndome. People with the condition have three copies of chromosome 18, compared to the two copies in most people, and often die long before birth.

Mary lived three days, Mrs. Galloway recalled sadly.

The couples desire for children is well known to the Spanish teachers students in North Georgia, several of whom traveled to Signal to spend days helping out with the fundraiser/yard sale.

They included Hunter Seth Latta, who donated four days to the cause despite the fact that he has already graduated from high school and will soon leave to begin studies at Georgia State in Atlanta.

Shed make a good mom, he explained simply. Shes fun.

The Galloways are just one of the hundreds of families, antique dealers, charitable institutions and other people who, year after year, line the 690 miles of U.S. Highway 127 with thousands of yard sales.

Created in 1987, the yard sale was the brain child of former Jamestown, Tn., official Mike Walker, who was looking for a way to draw travelers off the interstates and into rural areas.

Originally designed as an opportunity for people who live along U.S. 127 to haul out the discards in their homes and sell them to eager bargain hunters, the sale has become a nationally recognized annual event which officially begins on the first Thursday in August and lasts four days.

At its southern end, the sale  which stretches all the way from Alabama to Michigan  begins at Noccalula Falls Park in Gadsden, Ala.

From there it heads north across Lookout Mountain until it reaches Chattanooga and then follows the path of highway 127 all the way to Michigan.

On Signal Mountain, where residents have become used to traffic snarls and occasional fender benders along the sale route, this years pandemic took a toll and crowds were smaller than usual.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Overcast. Morning high of 41F with temps falling sharply to near 20. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low 8F. Winds NNW at 15 to 25 mph.
The University of Ilorin says its Department of Jurisprudence and International Law recently won the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) $80,000 {approximately N30.3 million} grant.

It said the grant was meant to deepen the study and practise of laws relating to the physically challenged persons in the country.

The institutions management disclosed this in its bulletin issued on Monday in Ilorin, Kwara State.

It said the grant would assist the department in its service delivery capacity as well as deepen the study, practice and understanding of laws related to the rights of the disabled in the country.

The publication said a letter of offer was addressed to the Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin, Abdulmumini Oba, by the Executive Director of OSIWA, Ayisha Osiri.

It stated that the grant was offered to the University to enable its Department of Jurisprudence and International Law proceed on a project titled: Advancing Disability Rights Through Legal Education.

OSIWA added that the grant would enable the university to build capacity and advance the institutional commitment to develop and introduce a module on disability law in the curriculum at the undergraduate level.

READ ALSO:

The letter added that the approval of the grant for the project is also intended to develop a loop of lawyers with specialised knowledge and skills in disability rights as well as conduct research to inform the development of disability policy at the national level, it said.

Mr Oba expressed the appreciation of the University to OSIWA for the grant.

He said: The grant from OSIWA is a great development for us. It will help the profile of the Department of Jurisprudence and International Law.

The dean reminded members of the faculty that the OSIWA grant was not the limit and that stakeholders must continue to strive for excellence in order to attract more funding from within and outside Nigeria.

Also commenting, the Programme Manager of the Project, Onuoro Oguno, expressed satisfaction with the grant.

He said the gesture was a testimony of the development and a mark of excellence obtainable at the University of Ilorin.

The Programme Manager said Unilorin is the only university in Nigeria and one of the three in West Africa working on disability rights awareness using education.

He added that everything would be done to ensure that the essence of the project was achieved through media enlightenment programmes, workshops, interface with religious bodies, law enforcement agencies and the traditional institution.

Mr Oguno listed other programmes to be featured in the project to include debate and quiz among secondary schools and moot court competition for university undergraduates.

(NAN)
MIDDLETOWN  Public school students will resume the 2020-21 academic year later this month following a hybrid model, which will see students operating on an alternating schedule of in-classroom and at-home distance learning during the pandemic.

It does make sense to start off this way, Mayor Ben Florsheim said of the proposal. Hybrid learning is keeping with what Gov. Lamont and a lot of the child learning experts have been saying. There is a tremendous amount of value in having in-person learning for childhood development.

The proposal, Getting Back To Innovation And Equity 2020-2021, will be presented to Board of Education members by Superintendent of Schools Michael Conner Wednesday and disseminated to families Thursday.

That seems to be the general trend across the state, Mayor Ben Florsheim said.

Parents/guardians have three days to fill out an important questionnaire, which will be emailed to them Wednesday.

Critical themes that you have articulated  academic rigor, high-quality blended experiences, more virtual contact, and personalization of learning  will be grounded in the plan, and the safety and well-being of all MPS stakeholders will remain its overarching theme, Conner wrote in his Aug. 6 letter to the community.

Both Cromwell and Haddam-Killingworth school districts are following a similar system.

Naturally, situations may change on a day-to-day basis, the mayor said.

This is our plan, and plans change as they meet reality, Florsheim said. Trying to balance that with safety protocols, trying to balance meeting the needs of everybody in town is a really challenging thing.

There is no perfect plan, he said, due to of all the unknowns presented by the COVID-19 outbreak. This is all so novel. We are coming up with this from scratch, Florsheim said.

The back-to-school proposal is for A/B days, during which two groups of students (each 50 percent of the student population) will alternate between in-person classes and virtual learning. They will be divided alphabetically, and siblings will be allowed in on the same day to lessen child care issues.

On Wednesdays, Group A students will be in school the first week, and Group B students the second. This means each cohort of children will alternate during a two-week period of three days in school, and two days the next.

Group A students will be in school on Mondays and Thursdays, while Group B students will be in school on Tuesdays and Fridays. The two groups will attend school in person on alternating Wednesdays.

Also, Wednesdays will operate on an early dismissal schedule: primary school at 1 p.m., middle school at noon, and the high school at 11 a.m.

Buses will operate on staggered pick-up/drop-off times to prevent the congregation of people and motor vehicles.

Parents have the option of solely distance learning for their children. Either choice presents problems for guardians of children not old enough to stay home or manage their own class participation. With many adults unemployed due to the pandemic, and countless people searching for work, in addition to reduced capacities at day cares, a fractured school schedule may necessitate scrambling for child supervision.

The hybrid includes guidelines for mask wearing, and disinfection and social distancing, according to Conner. Students will also be grouped in cohorts, staying together throughout the day.

Contact tracing, hand washing and temperature checks are also integral to returning to school full-time, especially for the youngest students, Conner has said.

The districts plan also covers mechanisms for social-emotional learning and equity. We know that as students transition back into the brick and mortar, theres going to be a level of trauma, the superintendent has said. Addressing racial inequities also will be an important facet of the plan.

Board of Education members and district administrators consulted parents, teachers, staff and some students to determine the best course of action.

The mayor surveyed all city workers as an early measure to determine how many of their work schedules might be disrupted as a result.

We are trying to get their feedback for what their needs are going to be for city employees who have school-age children, Florsheim said. That could be an interesting microcosm of how it will affect people across the city.

He expects a great deal of conversations will be taking place between leaders of municipalities across Connecticut about what has worked  and what hasnt. It will have to evolve with time.

Florsheim is suggesting business owners consider planning now for what issues may affect their employees with children. That is going to have an impact on schedules for working parents. A huge, unpredictable consequence of that is what employers are going to do if some need to stay home with their kids.

He has been constantly reiterating the necessity of creating a national plan for how to deal with workforce issues related to school reentry.

Ive given up hope on their being any kind of federal response to the economic and educational consequences of the pandemic. What we really should be doing is extending and expanding the assistance we are providing to people who have been laid off, as well as city initiatives such as small business loans.

He has a message for business owners: This is going to have an effect on you and everybody. It makes sense to plan for it.

The Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce is providing a host of resources for business owners affected by the pandemic, including its Shout it Out Facebook page, as well as advocating on the state and national level, the mayor said.

For information, visit middletownschools.org or cityofmiddletown.com.
Andi Peters in a 2019 promotional still for Good Morning Britain. (ITV/Jonathan Ford)

Presenter Andi Peters was reunited with some old friends as he took the helm for the first time on ITVs Lorraine this week  including Edd the Duck.

With usual presenter Lorraine Kelly on a two-week break, Peters has been drafted in as temporary host, and his first episode saw the TV favourite surprised with some blast-from-the-past guests.

As well as The Broom Cupboard legend Edd, Peters was also surprised by former Live & Kicking colleague Emma Forbes.

Read more: Andi Peters praises ITV for putting black presenters in lead roles as he takes over Lorraine

Speaking from her home in Long Island, Forbes reminisced about working with Andi on the 90s Saturday morning show, referring to Peters as my rock.

She said: I can honestly tell you, they were the best days of my life, and I say that without a doubt.

Emma Forbes on Lorraine. (ITV)

He [Andi] is my rock, hes been my friend through everything, we went through so many fun times together, through things like New Kids on the Block  who can remember the interview with the band who never spoke?

Forbes went on to talk about some of the things they got up to on the show.

Andi Peters and Edd the Duck on Lorraine. (ITV)

Hes much more adventurous than me and we had to do things like open a ride at Thorpe Park and film and I couldnt open my eyes for the entire ride, so Andi held my hand as I screamed solidly through the VT. It was a ball from start to finish. It was just the best.

She added: We had incredible people on [the show]  Cher on for the entire morning, on her own, no entourage, just us three.

Read more: Andi Peters celebrates 50th birthday live on TV

Talking of Peters standing in on Lorraine, she said: Theyre [the viewers] going to have the best two weeks ever, you are television gold.

Peterss puppet pal Edd the Duck poked fun at him, asking why Eamonn Holmes wasnt in the seat instead.

The presenter appeared emotional over the series of surprises and admitted to holding back tears.

Lorraine airs on ITV weekdays from 9am.
New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday greeted Congress President Sonia Gandhi on her 70th birthday wishing her a long life filled with good health. "Birthday wishes to Smt Sonia Gandhi.

May Almighty bless her with a long life filled with good health," Modi tweeted.

Birthday wishes to Smt. Sonia Gandhi. May Almighty bless her with a long life filled with good health.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 9, 2016

Gandhi was born on this day in 1946. The Prime Minister's birthday wishes to Gandhi came even as her party has mounted an intense attack on him over demonetisation. Gandhi's son and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has been leading the attack.

Also Read: 30 days of demonetisation: Short term pain will pave way for long term gains, says PM Narendra Modi

On Thursday, while targeting Modi Rahul described demonetisation as a "foolish decision".

Also Read: Here is why Tamil Nadu's 'iron lady' Jayalalithaa was buried, not cremated

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
In May, as the coronavirus began clamping down on Houston, lawyer Laura Arguijo learned about a litter of puppies staying at BARC, Houstons Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care. The littlest one wasnt doing well.

The noise and commotion were too much for him. He needed a quiet, nurturing place - a home.

Arguijo didnt hesitate to take them in  turning her bedroom into a nursery for Tori, a Staffordshire terrier named after Queen Victoria, and her five babies, Belfast, Edinburgh, London, Cardiff and Dublin.

Arguijo had been fostering animals for BARC for nearly two years but it was the first time shed cared for puppies. Normally, her job would have made it impossible to give the young dogs the attention they needed. But like many, Arguijo was working from home and looking for a way to help the areas animal shelters as they navigate new challenges created by COVID-19 and a deepening economic crisis.

Sometimes, theres not much we can do about the big world outside, Arguijo told the editorial board, But we can do this.

Heroes abound during this pandemic, and those Houstonians going out of their way to help our furry friends deserve recognition, too.

Since March, shelters have been grappling with an influx of unwanted animals and emergency calls, all while social distancing rules have made adoptions more difficult.

Thankfully, hundreds of volunteers such as Arguijo are fostering, adopting and helping animals find homes.

Their efforts are helping more than the animals. The pandemic has put an added strain on BARC and other shelters during their busiest time of year. They have had to stagger staffing to meet social distancing practices, limiting the capacity for housing and accepting animals  just as job losses and layoffs were causing some owners to give up or abandon pets.

Julie Kuenstle, spokeswoman for the Houston SPCA, told the Houston Press in July that animal abandonment calls had risen more than 20 percent and the number of calls for a 24-hour injured animal rescue ambulance had doubled during the pandemic.

For their part, local shelters have responded quickly and creatively to the new demands. Theyre holding virtual meet-and-greets to encourage adoptions. Setting up appointments and contact-free curbside services for people picking up pets. Holding drives for pet food and supplies for families experiencing financial hardship.

In the beginning, no one quite knew what we were into so it was every day there was a new challenge, said Lara Cottingham, chief of staff of the City of Houstons Administration and Regulatory Affairs Department and Chief Sustainability Officer. Now weve settled into this new normal, we have learned things citywide.

The dexterity with which BARC and others, including the countys shelter, Harris County Pets, the Houston SPCA and Best Friends Animal Society, have adjusted to the new demands has likely kept strays off the street, allowed the animals in shelters to be better cared for, and helped families in dire straits keep beloved pets. At a time when crises seem to hit in every direction, those are no small victories.

BARC and other shelters must always contend with issues of capacity. There are only so many animals they can take in safely, only so many that can stay in a shelter without risking spread of illness and emotional depletion.

Every day there are more and more animals that get brought to the shelter, Cottingham said. So the No. 1 thing people can do is to help us adopt, rescue, foster those animals, and help them find their forever homes.

In this crisis, as in previous times of need, Houstonians have risen to the occasion. A sharp increase in the number of people asking to foster and a massive response from local rescue groups has helped ease the burden.

For Arguijo, who has fostered 39 animals since 2018, the effort is more than worth it. She believes that taking in Tori and her five pups almost certainly saved the life of the runt of the litter, who was not thriving in the shelter.

After coming to Arguijos house, little Belfast quickly began to improve. The puppies have all since been adopted and Arguijo is trying to match Tori to the right owner.

So often, in life we dont get a chance to know that we touched another life, she said. In fostering, you know you are giving these homeless animals a home, seeing them blossom and go on to amazing adopted families.

The need for fostering, adoption and donations to help struggling families care for pets continues and will go on long after the pandemic. We encourage those who are able to join the legions of animal lovers giving of their time, their resources and their homes during this public health crisis, and after it ends. It makes a difference.
An elderly couple who were out hiking in northern California ended up having to be rescued by a helicopter after getting injured while trying to run away from an angry cow that was chasing them.

The couple, who have not yet been named, ended up being saved by a California Highway Police helicopter on Sunday at the Lynch Canyon Regional Park in Solano County, northeast of San Francisco.

The pair had apparently run into the cow and her calf who charged at the the couple after determining them to be a threat.

An elderly couple were injured on Sunday when they were chased by a cow at the Lynch Canyon Regional Park in Solano County, northeast of San Francisco

The cow gave chase causing the couple to trip over and fall, injuring themselves.

CHP Golden Gate Division Air Operations explained that the helicopter landed just feet away from where the bothered bovine had been.

It was only when the aircraft landed and sounded a siren that the menacing cow moved on after being scared off by the sound.

The pair were hoisted up into the chopper before being flown to a waiting ambulance. They were taken to a hospital and treated for injuries.

The CHP Golden Gate Division sent a helicopter, pictured, and found the man and woman on a trail with the cow and calf standing just feet away

There were two other accidents in which people were injured on Sunday including one where two 18-year-old girls were hurt after jumping off a rock into Lake Berryessa.

One of the victims was knocked unconscious during the jump.

A female hiker was also hurt after falling on the Blue Ridge Trail in Solano County.

After being recused by helicopter she was taken to hospital in critical condition.

The incident was described by the California Highway Patrol's social media account
A man beheaded his son-in-law, took his head to Annavaram Police Station in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh and surrendered on Sunday.

According to Rambabu, the Circle Inspector (CI) of Annavaram police station, the incident took place in Dhara Jagannadhapuram village in Rowthulapudi Mandal of East Godavari in the state, where a Palla Satyanarayana, 56, killed his son-in-law Pampanapoyina Lakshman, 25, in a fit of rage after an argument.

On August 9, while Lakshman was on a visit to his father-in-law Satyanarayanas house, the two had a verbal duel. In a fit of rage, Satyanarayana beheaded Lakshman. At around 11.30 am, he came to the Annavaram police station with Lakshmans head, and surrendered, said the CI.

He added that a case section 302 of the Indian Penal Court had been registered and further investigation is underway.

Rambabu said that Lakshmans wife Pavani died 10 months ago, and since then his two daughters had been living with their maternal grandfather Satyanarayana. Satyanarayana on August 8 invited Lakshman to his house in Dhara Jagannadhapuram village for a ritual on the eve of Pavanis 10 month death anniversary.

On the next day, on August 9, Satyanarayana asked Lakshman to take his daughters along with him. Lakshman refused that and demanded that his father-in-law arrange a second marriage for him so that his other wife can look after the girls. Satyanarayana vehemently opposed the proposal, which led to a verbal duel between the two, following which Satyanarayana killed Lakshman, he added.

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The traitorous Afghan soldier who gunned down three Australian army personnel he whose side he was meant to be on in 2012 will soon walk free as part of a prisoner swap deal.

Afghan National Army sergeant Hekmatullah has been locked up for seven years after murdering Lance Corporal Stjepan Milosevic, Sapper James Martin and Private Robert Poate.

The unprovoked attack happened when the trio were playing cards with the then 19-year-old at Patrol Base Wahab, in the Baluchi Valley region of Oruzgan Province.

Afghan National Army sergeant Hekmatullah (pictured) is set to walk free from prison after seven years

The Australian soldiers were playing cards at Patrol Base Wahab (seen in this ABC re-enactment) when they came under attack by Afghan National Army soldier Sergeant Hekmatullah

The rogue soldier opened fire on the Australian soldiers with his M-16 rifle and successfully escaped the base for Pakistan (re-enactment)

Families of the victims were advised by the Department of Defence on Friday that the turncoat was likely to be among 5,000 prisoners who will soon be released as part of peace negotiations between the Afghan Government and the Taliban.

Originally Hekmatullah was among one of 400 'extreme cases' who were being considered by Afghanistan's Tribal Council, the Loya Jirga, for ongoing imprisonment after the peace deal.

But after a meeting Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said: 'Today, I will sign the release order of these 400 prisoners.'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has spoken out about the US-brokered prisoner swap.

'It is a matter that I have written to the President about it. It is a matter of keen interest to Australia and we have reminded them of that,' Mr Morrison said.

Pictured: Private Robert Hugh Frederick Poate who was gunned down by Afghan National Army sergeant Hekmatullah

Pictured: Sapper James Thomas Martin who was gunned down by Afghan National Army sergeant Hekmatullah

Pictured: Lance Corporal Stjepan 'Rick' Milosevic who was gunned down by Afghan National Army sergeant Hekmatullah

'Hekmatullah was responsible for murdering three Australians, and our position is that he should never be released.

'We do not believe that his relief adds to peace in this region, and that is the position that we will continue to maintain and we will maintain it strongly.

'I can't promise you the outcome we all want. But it is certainly the outcome that we will continue to press for as hard as we can.'

Troops from both countries were present at Patrol Base Wahab at the time of the incident.

A 24-strong Australian team had been tasked with mentoring Afghan National Army soldiers at the facility.

The temperature was stifling - over 40 degrees Celsius - on August 29, the day the Australian soldiers were attacked

Australian troops at Patrol Base Wahab were tasked with mentoring Afghan National Army soldiers

During the card game, the rogue soldier became 'crazy' after he saw a TV news report about U.S. soldiers burning the Koran.

He then opened fire with an M16, killing the three soldiers and wounding two others.

'There were some real nasty thoughts that I had in my head,' he was quoted by News Corp at the time.

'I saw that video and went crazy'.

Hekmatullah was initially sentenced to death by an Afghan court in December 2012.

The family of the lost Australian diggers released a joint statement condemning the killer's likely release.

Long Range Patrol Vehicles carry the bodies of the men who were killed in the tragic attack

Afghan and Australian soldier pay tribute to the fallen diggers at a memorial ceremony

'The news passed to us from senior Defence officers on Friday evening has come as a crushing blow. There can never be complete closure for us now,' the statement said.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted last week the deal in the name of peace was likely to be 'unpopular'.

'This difficult action will lead to an important result long sought by Afghans and Afghanistan's friends: reduction of violence and direct talks resulting in a peace agreement and an end to the war,' he said.

'After 40 years of war and bloodshed and destruction, the parties are ready to embark on a political process to reach a negotiated settlement.'

Parents of fallen soldier Robert Poate arrive at the Brisbane Magistrates Court for the inquest into the death of their son on October 15, 2014

Suzanne Thomas, mother of soldier James Martin, is pictured attending the inquest on October 14
By Kentucky News Network Aug. 10, 2020 | 05:07 AM | LEXINGTON

A study conducted by Kentucky students highlights how their peers are performing amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Students and the Prichard Committee have been conducting a study to see how Kentucky students viewed life and learning since May.

The study found that the overwhelming majority of students were more anxious, depressed and less motivated.

The shift was felt the hardest among poor, working-class, African American, and other minority groups.

The group will now interview 50 students from across the commonwealth to get a more personalized view of their struggles.
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State has charged the two newly appointed special advisers to justify their appointments by bringing their innovative ideas and strategies to bear in discharging their duties.

The governor gave the charge while swearing in the special advisers on Monday in Asaba, the state capital.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the advisers are Emmanuel Ogidi, the immediate past National Vice-Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), South-South; and Sunny Emeyese, a former member of House of Representatives.

Mr Okowa said the new advisers, being men of great pedigree in politics and governance, were expected to bring their wealth of experience into governance.

The governor said this was necessary as the state continued to wade through the fog of uncertainty occasioned by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

He said Messrs Ogidi and Emeyese have been part and parcel of the political journey since 1999.

They have proved themselves to be men of insight, competence, probity, and firm believers in the advancement of the collective good of our people, ever-willing and ready to contribute their quota to the growth and development of Delta.

Messrs Ogidi and Emeyese have never shied away from the call to serve, notwithstanding the office ascribed to them. It speaks volumes of their faith, loyalty, commitment, and sincerity of purpose.

I am persuaded, beyond any shadow of doubt whatsoever, that this administration stands to benefit immensely from their wealth of experience, wisdom and political sagacity. In the unusual times that we live in, we need every capable hand on board.

Let me reiterate the fact that Special Advisers occupy a distinct role in our modern democratic setting.

We need them for their expert policy inputs and ability to marry politics and policy to actualise the administrations vision of a stronger Delta anchored on Prosperity, Peace and Progress.

To the new appointees, I charge you to discharge your responsibilities in accordance with section 196 (Sub-section 1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

Having been part of our S.M.A.R.T agenda, I believe you are sufficiently acquainted with the key policy thrusts of this administration, hence I expect you to hit the ground running, he said.

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Mr Okowa said his administration had less than three years to fully deliver on its mandate.

He said the disruption caused by COVID-19 had placed a demand on citizens to work with a greater sense of urgency, unflagging enthusiasm, more creativity and innovative strategies.

Consequently, the governor urged every citizen, including appointees, to work assiduously to make up for time lost during the lockdown.

He charged the appointees to be fair and just in the discharge of their duties.

I urge you to make fairness and equity your watchwords in the discharge of your duties.

Public servants constantly come under the pressure to give preferential treatment to their kith and kin, but you must guard against such nepotistic considerations.

While you are expected to be very active and contribute meaningfully to your immediate constituency, you must also realise that your obligation is to the good people of Delta, irrespective of their ethnic nationality, party affiliation, socio-economic status, or educational background.

Having known both of you for a considerable length of time, I am confident you will justify the confidence reposed in you by this appointment, he said.

Responding, Mr Ogidi thanked the governor for considering them worthy to be part of the team to build a stronger Delta.

He said they were abreast with the governors vision and would work with him to achieve the desired objectives of his administration.

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(NAN)
Lebanese protesters, enraged by a deadly explosion blamed on officials' negligence, clash with security forces for the second evening near an access street to the parliament in central Beirut on August 9, 2020. The huge chemical explosion that hit Beirut's port, devastating large parts of the Lebanese capital and claiming over 150 lives, left a 43-metre (141 foot) deep crater, a security official said. (Photo: JOSEPH EID / AFP)

Fifteen government leaders including US President Donald Trump took part in the virtual conference hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and the UN, pledging solidarity with the Lebanese people and promising to muster "major resources" in the coming days and weeks.

A joint statement issued after the meeting in which representatives of nearly 30 countries as well as the EU and Arab League participated, did not mention a global amount.

But Macron's office said the total figure of "emergency aid pledged or that can be mobilised quickly" amounts to 252.7 million euros ($298 millon), including 30 million euros from France.

Macron was the first world leader to visit the former French colony after Tuesday's devastating explosion of a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate which killed more than 150 people, wounded some 6,000 and left an estimated 300,000 homeless.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told ZDF broadcaster that "more than 200 million euros of emergency aid have been collected," including 20 million euros from Germany.

- 'Utmost efficiency and transparency' -

The joint statement from the world leaders and their representatives underscored concerns about Lebanese government corruption.

"The participants agreed that their assistance should be timely, sufficient and consistent with the needs of the Lebanese people, well-coordinated under the leadership of the United Nations, and directly delivered to the Lebanese population, with utmost efficiency and transparency," it said.

USAID acting administrator John Barsa also said in a conference call Sunday that American help, some $15 million announced so far, "is absolutely not going to the government."

The donor nations urged Lebanon's authorities to "fully commit themselves to timely measures and reforms" in order to unlock longer-term support for the country's economic and financial recovery.

And they said assistance for "an impartial, credible and independent inquiry" into Tuesday's explosion "is immediately needed and available, upon request of Lebanon."

The UN said some $117 million will be needed for an emergency response over the next three months, for health services, emergency shelter, food distribution and programmes to prevent further spread of COVID-19, among other interventions.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun, who was also on Sunday's group call, thanked Macron for the initiative.

"Much is needed to rebuild what has been destroyed and to restore Beirut's lustre," the Lebanese presidency quoted him on Twitter as saying.

"The needs are many and we need to address them quickly, especially before the arrival of winter, which will accentuate the suffering of homeless citizens."

- Calls for calm -

At least 21 people are still missing from the huge blast, and the Lebanese army said Sunday hopes of finding survivors are dwindling.

Lebanese people enraged by official negligence blamed for the explosion have taken to the streets in anti-government protests that have resulted in clashes with the army.

Macron said it was now up to the authorities of Lebanon "to act so that the country does not sink, and to respond to the aspirations that the Lebanese people are expressing right now, legitimately, in the streets of Beirut."

"We must all work together to ensure that neither violence nor chaos prevails," he added. "It is the future of Lebanon that is at stake."

Trump also called for calm, according to the White House, which said he agreed with other leaders on the group call to "work closely together in international response efforts."

"President Trump also urged the government of Lebanon to conduct a full and transparent investigation, in which the United States stands ready to assist," it said.

"The President called for calm in Lebanon and acknowledged the legitimate calls of peaceful protestors for transparency, reform, and accountability."

- 'Generous help' -

Apart from heads of state and government ministers, Sunday's conference was attended by UN aid coordinator Mark Lowcock, representatives of the World Bank, the Red Cross, the IMF, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Israel, with whom Lebanon has no diplomatic relations, did not participate, though Macron said it had expressed a wish to contribute, nor did Iran which wields huge influence in Lebanon through the Shiite group Hezbollah.

Key Arab states in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq and the UAE were represented, as were Britain, China, Jordan and Egypt.

Macron said Turkey, with which France's diplomatic ties have been icy over the Libyan conflict, and Russia had indicated their support for the initiative, though they did not take part in the conference.

According to the UN, at least 15 medical facilities, including three major hospitals, sustained structural damage in the blast, and extensive damage to more than 120 schools may interrupt learning for some 55,000 children.

Thousands of people are in need of food and the blast interrupted basic water and sanitation to many neighbourhoods.

Pope Francis called Sunday appealed for "generous help" from the international community.

France has been sending tonnes of medical and food aid, dozens of search and rescue personnel and forensic experts to aid the investigation, as well as reconstruction materials.

On top of cash aid pledged so far, Egypt and Qatar have promised field hospitals, Brazil said it would send 4,000 tonnes of rice, and Spain 10 tonnes of wheat.

"In these horrendous times, Lebanon is not alone," concluded the conference statement.
A riot was declared again in Portland after protesters marched to a police union building, blocked a road and started fires.

Officers are working every night to quell unrest in the US state of Oregons largest city.

The protest was over almost as soon as it began outside the Portland Police Association building  the same building where protesters were dispersed after a fire was started inside the offices the night before.

On Sunday night, demonstrators marched to the building from a park a few blocks away. The road was blocked with fencing, and flames were seen rising from skips in the middle of the street.

The Portland Police Association is a labour union that represents members of the Portland Police Bureau.

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Police forced around 200 protesters away from the building, and live video showed several people being detained. It is unclear how many may have been arrested.

Since George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, protests have occurred every night in the city for more than 70 days.

Demonstrations this past week have turned violent. Many in the city had hoped for calm after federal agents withdrew more than a week ago.

Three officers were hurt, including two who were taken to hospital, during the efforts to clear the crowd of several hundred people outside the union building late on Saturday. The two injured officers have since been released.

Nine people were arrested during the protest.

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Police arrested 24 people during demonstrations overnight on Friday after they said people had defied orders to disperse. Officers said they threw rocks, frozen or hard-boiled eggs and commercial-grade fireworks at the police.

Some demonstrators left obstacles filled with nails in the road, causing extensive damage to a patrol vehicle, police said.

Oregon State Police worked with Portland officers to clear the protesters.

The gatherings this past week had been noticeably smaller than the crowds of thousands who turned out nightly for about two weeks in July to protest over the presence of US agents sent by the Trump administration to protect the federal courthouse.

The Portland Police Association building is located about five miles north of the federal courthouse.
Amroha : , Aug 10 (IANS) One and a half years after remaining missing, a woman in Uttar Pradesh surfaced at her home, only to find that her father, brother and another family member has been languishing in jail all this while for apparently murdering her.

The Amroha police put her father Suresh, brother Roop Kishore and a relative Dinesh behind bars for her 'honour killing' in December 2019 after they failed to work out the missing case. The police claimed that they had the confessions of the accused and had recovered a country-made pistol and the clothes of the missing woman.

The 'murdered victim' appeared in her village last week only to find that her three family members were incarcerated. The woman said that she had been living in Delhi with her boyfriend after leaving home.

The SHO who led the investigation into the 'murder' has now been suspended and an inquiry set up.

Amroha's Superintendent of Police (SP) Vipin Tada confirmed that Ashok Sharma, the then SHO of Adampur police station, has been put under suspension. He said that the murder charges against the woman's family members will now be dropped and they will soon be out of jail.

"The woman will be produced before a court where her statement will be recorded. The then SHO will be probed for dereliction of duty. An investigation under the additional superintendent of police has been initiated," the SP said.

According to reports, the woman had gone missing in February 2019 and the family suspected that she might have run away with her lover. However, after months of 'probe', the local police booked and arrested her father, brother and a relative.

Rahul Kumar, one of the brothers, said, "First they tortured Dinesh and recorded a confession. And then they tortured my father and brother after showing them the video of Dinesh's confession. All of them were beaten till they accepted before the police that they had indeed killed my sister." The family said that the dress shown to have been allegedly worn by the 'missing' woman never belonged to her.
South Dakota will track COVID-19 cases in its residents after the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally but keeping an overall coronavirus tally will be difficult, according to the Department of Health.

State epidemiologist Joshua Clayton said Monday that cases from out-of-state residents will have to be investigated by their home states that will only notify South Dakota in certain cases.

When exposures occur that require additional follow-up by the state," Clayton said the DOH would be notified by those state agencies of individuals that have been exposed, or the presence of the potential for larger spread when individuals are not able to identify all of their close contacts.

In both instances, Clayton said the DOH works closely with other states and that theres a notification system in place for those types of exposures.

When it comes to Sturgis, the DOH might be looking at case notifications from a majority of states as 250,000 rally-goers are expected this year. The DOH said last week that they will provide information if South Dakota cases rise to the level of a cluster after the rally.

Mass testing

State health secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon said the plan to conduct mass testing in first responders starting with EMS providers West River ahead of the Sturgis rally is ongoing.

She said the DOH has completed mass testing for Apollo, Faith, Hot Springs, Deadwood, Sturgis and Edgemont so far and that all results came back negative.

Malsam-Rysdon said the DOH plans to mass test first responders like EMS, law enforcement and firefighter personnel across the state starting two weeks after the Sturgis motorcycle rally.

After the state wrapped up testing in long-term care facilities, health officials reported Monday that they found 542 cases across the state in residents and staff by Aug. 5.

Residents accounted for 299 of those cases and for 65 of the states 146 fatalities, or 48% of the states deaths. Long-term care staff accounted for 243 of the 542 cases.

Malsam-Rysdon said the state is still working with congregate living facilities to conduct testing, noting that 11 of 15 of these facilities have already tested and saw 22 positive results from 799 people  18 coronavirus cases in residents and four in staff.

Malsam-Rysdon said the states public universities have their own Abbott ID Now machines to gear towards testing students and staff with symptoms as they return to campuses this fall. She said universities are working on their own testing plans consistent with their activity schedules, which will vary by university.

Sentinel testing of K-12 school staff will go on as planned this fall, she said, noting it is randomized testing of asymptomatic adults that are working in those settings.

Case update

The DOH reported 59 new cases of COVID-19 across the state Monday, including five in Pennington County. The county now has 896 positive cases, with 743 recovered and 121 active cases.

Mondays report totaled 9,663 COVID-19 cases statewide with no new fatalities, 37 new recoveries and six new hospitalizations. So far, 8,371 people have recovered from the coronavirus in South Dakota. As of Monday, 1,146 people had an active infection in the state.

Sixty-three people were hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide Monday and 882 South Dakotans have been hospitalized at some point in the pandemic.

Mondays report included 1,091 test results for a positive rate of 5.4%.

For the states cluster updates, 81 out of the 96 campers and staff with COVID-19 at Camp Judson have recovered, and 16 of the 37 staff and residents with coronavirus at McCrossan Boys Ranch have recovered.

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The Gulf Downstream Association (GDA) today (August 10) announced the successful conclusion of its first Board of Directors Meeting of 2020 followed by the Annual General Assembly Meeting. Both the meetings were held virtually on the same day, a statement said.

Presided over by Suleman A Al-Bargan, Chairman of the Association, (Vice President Domestic Refining & NGL Fractionation  Saudi Aramco), the Assembly was attended by senior representatives of GDA Member companies, who gathered to review activities of the past year and the Associations strategy for the year ahead.

Engineer Audah Al Ahmadi, Secretary General of GDA, discussed the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on GDAs operations and actions taken to cope with it. He presented the 2019 Achievements and Way Forward Plan. Additionally, the Audited Financial Statement of 2019 and the appointment of the External Auditor for 2020 were approved by the members. Finally, the current Board of Directors were re-appointed by the Annual General Assembly for the next two years.

Commenting, the GDA Secretary General Eng. Audah Al Ahmadi said: Despite the current challenges, GDA continues to work towards meeting our mission of driving further development of the regions downstream industries through greater collaboration between our members and other key players in the industry both in the Middle East and around the world. In 2019, we successfully increased our membership by 87% and had a 100% membership retention rate. Currently, we are in the process of developing various new services for our members on virtual platforms. We look forward to leveraging the many resources we have developed, both real and virtual, to support our members and to keep building on the momentum we have achieved since our establishment in 2016. --TradeArabia News Service
A call from Sinn Fein to set up an independent commission to investigate reports of the "harassment and bullying" by councillors and political parties of Belfast City Council staff was knocked back at a special meeting on Monday night.

In a notice of motion which was proposed by Ciaran Beattie, the Sinn Fein councillor claimed that his party had received complaints from council staff and called for a commission to examine the issue and to make recommendations.

No details of the allegations or who made them were made public during an online council meeting.

However, DUP councillor Brian Kingston's amendment, which replaced the entire wording of Sinn Fein's motion, was passed by 31 votes to 18, with four abstentions.

It stated that the council agrees that any incident of harassment, bullying or intimidation of staff by any member of council or party group is a very serious matter and is unacceptable conduct.

The amendment added that the council agrees to remind staff of the procedures which exist and how they work, and to remind councillors of their responsibility to ensure that they behave appropriately towards staff at all times and act within the Northern Ireland Local Government code of conduct.

In a statement released after the meeting, Mr Beattie said that the rejection of his motion was "shameful".

"It is a matter of grave concern that some political parties on Belfast City Council voted against establishing an independent commission to examine allegations of bullying in this council," he stated.

"The rejection of this motion is shameful and lets workers down.

"No one has anything to fear from an independent commission which sets out to ensure maximum protection for workers with grievances."

During the meeting, Mr Beattie said his party would not go into detail on what the allegations were and claimed he received another complaint on Monday.

"We don't really have any mechanism to deal with the issues of bullying and harassment, particularly senior management - who do they turn to if there's any allegations?" he continued.

However, Mr Kingston produced a copy of Belfast City Council's code of conduct for employees, which outlines how complaints can be made and processed. He also described Sinn Fein's motion as "unspecific and rather vague".

"That is a very serious issue," said Mr Kingston.

"However, we have been given no details on severity or the scale of what Sinn Fein is claiming."

He added: "In conclusion, the DUP group does not see grounds for another independent investigation nor for the establishment of another independent commission.

"The evidence has not been presented to us."

PUP councillor John Kyle said the motion was "disgraceful" and that it made unsubstantiated allegations of bullying and harassment against all parties but Sinn Fein.

"Sinn Fein are alleging harassment and bullying by others and going straight to a public platform and presenting themselves as the guardians of human rights and the defenders of employees rights," he stated.

"What we have here are scurrilous allegations made by a party that considers it unnecessary to comply with normal council protocols and complaints procedures."
Have the first two decades of the 21st century been good for film? It's a vexed question, but now seems a pertinent time to pose it, with cinemas across the globe either closed or three-quarters empty.

Add to the pandemic the looming threat of streaming giants such as Netflix, Apple and Amazon Prime, who understandably have little interest in the traditional theatrical distribution model, and you have a potentially apocalyptic scenario.

Grim times then, but there have been massive box-office hits in the years since the turn of the millennium that raised attendances and made cinema-going seem once again relevant. Avatar, James Cameron's hi-tech, high-concept behemoth dominated multiplexes at the turn of 2009 and became the biggest box-office hit ever. In 2008, Marvel dipped its toe into big budget cinema with Iron Man, the first instalment of a mighty franchise that would dominate mainstream movie-making for a decade.

Disney would eventually take over the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as George Lucas's Star Wars franchise, which was rebooted in spectacular fashion with The Force Awakens in 2015. Bond had been given a shot in the arm in 2006 with the casting of Daniel Craig, a man who - unlike his immediate predecessors - looked like he might actually be able to kick your head in.

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Lots of bums on seats, then, to watch these warring mega-franchises, but their success came with a heavy price tag in Hollywood, where producers and studios desperate for success became ever more risk-averse as they remade any old story with built-in audience recognition. As a consequence, original screenplays and grown-up dramas grew ever thinner on the ground, sending all the good writers towards television, which enjoyed a corresponding golden age. In effect, Hollywood was slowly strangling itself.

That said, many great films have been made over the last 20 years, in America and elsewhere, which have expanded the language of cinema and made audiences think. Below is my very personal list of the best movies of the past two decades, in genre categories, which made the task tougher.





Best Action

In the Bourne films, Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon brought the action thriller to a whole new level, creating fight scenes more visceral than anything seen before. Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity saw Sandra Bullock's astronaut plunge thrillingly towards Earth, and in The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan gave us the first superhero masterpiece. But Nolan outdid himself in Dunkirk, his staggering recreation of the famous wartime siege. Using real boats, planes and water rather than CGI, he created a moving, pin-sharp, largely wordless evocation of what it must have been like for those poor men stranded on that beach.

Video of the Day

Best Drama

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Terrence Malick made a spectacular return to form with The Tree of Life, an introspective rumination on life and God, Charlie Kaufman was similarly noodly in the startlingly original Synecdoche, New York. Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will be Blood was a great American epic, spoilt only by the faintly ludicrous "I drink your milkshake" ending. The best drama of all for me was Moonlight, Barry Jenkins' poetic cliche-subverting account of a boy, who endures a tough start in a Miami housing project before being taken under the wing of an unlikely saviour -the local crack dealer.

Best Comedy

I thoroughly enjoyed those delightful early 2000s American comedies Little Miss Sunshine and Juno. Richard Linklater's Before Midnight was a splendidly honest relationship comedy, while Whit Stillman's Jane Austen adaptation Love & Friendship was a sophisticated delight. Thor: Ragnarok was easily the funniest film of 2017, but my favourite comedy of the past two decades is Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel, a middle-European period caper starring Ralph Fiennes as a dashing concierge who's fondness for wealthy, older women will be his undoing. Funny, silly, oddly wise.

Best Animation

Pixar upped the ante with clever and funny, high-concept comedies such as The Incredibles and Up, Studio Ghibli produced one of their finest animated sagas in Spirited Away, Marianne Satrapi took on the endemic misogyny of the Iranian state in Persepolis, and Charlie Kaufman used stop motion to chart a mid-life crisis in his thoroughly grown-up animation Anomalisa. But you can't go past the excellence and imagination of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. If only all superhero films were as clever and funny and human as this beautifully made, perfectly judged adventure.

Best Documentary

Waltz with Bashir, Man on Wire, Grizzly Man, Pina and Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer were just some of the documentary features that stuck in my mind in this golden age for the genre. But the documentary of the last two decades that proved impossible to forget was Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing. The banality of evil was brilliantly exposed by in this boldly original film. Following a failed coup in 1965, the Indonesian authorities embarked on a bloody anti-communist purge. Oppenheimer tracked down the leaders of a Sumatran death squad and politely asked them to re-enact their work. The results were fascinating.

Best Sci-fi

I liked Ex-Machina, The Martian, and Denis Villeneuve's splendid but oddly unpopular sequel Blade Runner 2049. But the Canadian maestro outdid himself with Arrival, a high-concept drama that should rank with the greatest sci-fi movies, and used imagination rather than special effects to brilliantly depict a mysterious alien invasion. When 12 extra-terrestrial craft appear and hover silently above the Earth, scientists must do their best to make contact with visitors who seem ominously uncommunicative.

Best Horror

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Jordan Peele has shaken up a tired genre with Get Out and Us, two films that proved you can scare people and discuss serious issues at the same time. And there are plenty of other younger film-makers, like Ari Aster and latterly Leigh Whannell, bringing new ideas to the table. But my favourite horror of the last 20 years is Jonathan Glazer's 2013 mini-masterpiece Under the Skin. Scarlett Johansson plays an alien succubus who takes the form of a beautiful woman in order to lure unsuspecting Glaswegians to their doom. It's like nothing else I've seen.

Best Irish Film

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Irish cinema has come on in leaps and bounds over the past 20 years, with improved structures allowing a host of talented young writers and directors to flourish. Plenty of outstanding Irish films have been made, from Lenny Abrahamson's Garage to Frank Berry's Michael Inside, but my personal favourite was Silence, Pat Collins' mesmerising peripatetic tale in which a young Irishman returns to western Ireland from Berlin to record landscapes unpolluted by human sound. Somewhere along the way, a job becomes a kind of spiritual quest.

Best Foreign Language Film

Here is a category so broad one was inevitably spoilt for choice, so I'm going to select two favourites. Leviathan, Ida, A Prophet, The White Ribbon, A Separation, Volver, Dogtooth and Parasite were among the excellent foreign features since 2000, but my best two were Shoplifters, Hirokazu Kore-eda's touching portrait of a dysfunctional underclass family, and Nuri Bilge Ceylan's epic Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, in which a doctor and a lawyer assess the human condition while searching for a missing man.
By Associated Press

TEHRAN: An unknown gunman has killed two Lebanese nationals on the streets of the Iranian capital, local media reported on Saturday.

The semiofficial Mehr news agency said the assailant, riding a motorcycle, shot dead Maryam Dawood and her father Habib Dawood in northern Tehran.

The report said Habib Davood was a history professor and his daughter Maryam was 27 year old.

The report did not provide further details but said the case is under investigation.

Many Lebanese, usually Shiites, work and live in Tehran.

Iran is the main supporter of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Such incidents are rare in Iran, though a series of bombings targeted several Iranian nuclear scientists between 2010-2012.
COPEMISH  M R Products, Inc is expanding, adding a 25,000 square foot pre-engineered steel building that will be used for production space.

The new space will double the current production capacity and allow the company to implement more efficient processes and workflows.

Later in the year, the company is also adding another 12,000 square feet of shipping space and more shipping docks.

The COVID-19 pandemic greatly increased the demand for crowd control and safety products, and since the middle of March, M R Products, Inc. has hired 30 additional employees, bringing the current employee count to over 100 people. During this unprecedented time of COVID19, chain and safety products are in extremely high demand.

Recent projects include several miles of chain sent to the NYC Transit Authority to restrict access to their bus drivers; Cherry Capital Airport, Traverse City, MI to restrict access to the dining areas, and the National Guard in Louisiana, California and Indiana to form drive through COVID19 testing sites.

More recently, the Company has provided crowd control to allow other businesses to reopen since every business is required to provide safe spaces for its employees and visitors.

The expansion will also allow the Company to implement LEAN practices because the interior layout will be far more efficient and productive. Moving the manufacturing to the new building will also free up much of the existing space to be used for additional offices and more warehouse space.

It is incredible to me to reflect on all that has happened since early March," said Mulvoy. "At that point, we spent all our time focusing on creating a safe work environment for our employees and remaining open as a critical manufacturer. We are so relieved and happy to report that we have had no illness and have been able to grow very rapidly to meet customer demands. The new buildings will relieve the stress on our existing facilities, and position the Company for many years to come.

The family-owned company held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new buildings on July 30 attended by Dennis Stacey, vice president, Maree Russo Mulvoy , owner and president and Ryan Schultz, chief operating officer, as well as members of the Russo family.

The company celebrated 60 years of continuous ownership and operating by the Russo family in Michigan in May.
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Hundreds of people packed into a bar in Sturgis, South Dakota on Saturday night to hear a ZZ Top tribute band play, as fear continue about the huge annual motorcycle rally contributing to the spread of coronavirus.

An estimated 250,000 people have flocked to the city of 7,000 people this weekend for the start of the 10-day festival.

A total of 12 crashes were reported on Saturday, according to data released on Sunday and published in the Argus Leader, with most suffering non-life-threatening serious injuries.

One 64-year-old male driver, who was not wearing a helmet, was thrown from his Harley Davidson on Saturday and suffered life-threatening injuries.

Dr Jonathan Reiner, a Washington DC-based cardiologist, warned on Saturday on CNN that the event has the potential to be a 'super spreader' event, with the majority of people opting not to wear a face mask.

Coronavirus cases in the United States surpassed 5 million on Saturday.

Crowds of people packed the venue to listen to the music, and few were seen wearing face masks inside the venue

ZZ3, a ZZ Top tribute band, took the stage at the Full Throttle Saloon on Saturday night, playing to a large, mask-less crowd

Bikers from across the United States have gathered in Sturgis, and the Full Throttle was busy with fans of Texas blues-rock

South Dakota has more than 9,000 cases confirmed, and 146 deaths.

The tribute band, ZZ3, took the stage at the Full Throttle Saloon and filled the room with Texas blues-rock.

Willie Nelson and Lynyrd Skynyrd were also scheduled to perform at the event, but canceled because of the pandemic.

The rally is expected to become one of the largest public gatherings since the pandemic began.

The attendance is expect to be roughly half the number of previous years, but local residents  and a few bikers  worry that the crowds could create perfect conditions for the spread of COVID-19.

Many who rode their bikes into Sturgis on Friday expressed defiance at the rules and restrictions that have marked life in many locales during the pandemic.

People watch a bikini bike wash at the Buffalo Chip during the 80th annual event on Sunday - a highlight for bikers nationwide

A motorcycle rider looks for parking outside the Full Throttle Saloon on Sunday, the day after the ZZ Top tribute band played

People rode from across the country to a state that offered a reprieve from coronavirus restrictions, as South Dakota has no special limits on indoor crowds, no mask mandates and a governor who is eager to welcome visitors and the money they bring.

'Screw COVID,' read the design on one T-shirt being hawked. 'I went to Sturgis.'

Bikers rumbled past hundreds of tents filled with motorcycle gear, T-shirts and food.

Harley Davidson motorcycles were everywhere but masks were almost nowhere to be seen, with an Associated Press reporter counting fewer than 10 in a crowd of thousands over a period of several hours.

Daily virus cases have been trending upward in South Dakota, but the seven-day average is still only around 84, with fewer than two deaths per day.

The rally attracted crowds of retirees and people in age ranges considered to be at higher risk from the coronavirus. But for many who see the rally as an annual pilgrimage, the camaraderie and atmosphere could not be missed.

A man walks past camper vans at the Iron Horse Campground in Sturgis on Sunday, where many of the bikers are staying

Marsha Schmid, who owns the Side Hack Saloon in Sturgis, was trying to keep her bar and restaurant from becoming a virus hot spot by spacing out indoor tables and offering plenty of hand sanitizer.

She also scaled back the number of bands hired for the rally, hoping the crowds would stay thin but still spend the cash that keeps her business viable for the rest of the year.

She pointed out that many of her employees depend on the rally and the tips they can make.

'You've got people coming from all over the world,' she said.

'I just hope they are being responsible and if they don't feel good, they stay away.'

South Dakota has been relatively spared from the worst of the pandemic, so far, with only 146 deaths recorded since March

The United States has now had more than 5 million cases of COVID-19 confirmed, and 160,000 deaths from the virus

On Sunday the South Dakota department of public safety said 58 people had been arrested on misdemeanor and felony drug arrests, 17 of them felonies.

At this time last year, 54 people had been arrested, with 23 of them being felony arrests.

Twenty-six people have been arrested for driving under the influence this year, as opposed to 22 this time last year.

While there have not been any fatal crashes so far during the rally, there have been 12 injury crashes so far, which is slightly more than this time last year. There have also been six non-injury crashes.

'I fell in love with the rally. I love the sound of the bikes,' said Bill Sudkamp, who was making his 20th consecutive rally appearance.

He and his wife, who declined to give their ages but said they were at elevated risk for COVID-19, were among the handful of people seen wearing masks in downtown Sturgis.

They were also planning to avoid bars.

Sudkamp told AP he felt it was inevitable that infections would spread in the packed bars and concert venues.

'It looked like South Dakota was plateauing mostly,' Sudkamp said.

'It will be interesting to see what it looks like in two weeks.'
A Roman industrial complex has been uncovered by archaeologists and it provides a detailed picture of what life was like in Rural Britain under Roman occupation.

Archaeologists in the Borough of Corby, Northamptonshire, made the unique discovery during an excavation at the Priors Hall Park housing development.

Two tile kilns, a large lime kiln for the production of mortar and five pottery kilns were found alongside evidence of large-scale stone and clay quarrying.

The team behind the discovery say with further study it could shed fresh light on the town's industrial history and what rural life was like in late Roman Britain.

A Roman industrial complex has been uncovered by archaeologists and it provides a detailed picture of what life was like in Rural Britain under Roman occupation

A tile fragment with a complete vitrified cat print was found. Archaeologists in the Borough of Corby, Northamptonshire, made the unique discovery during an excavation at the Priors Hall Park housing development

Oxford Archaeology East recently completed a six-month excavation of a densely populated Late Romano-British industrial landscape to uncover the ruins.

The excavation was set within a Roman villa estate at Priors Hall in the town and it gives a detailed picture of the people who worked and lived in the area.

The location of the site were uncovered in the final century of the Roman occupation, a time of economic and social turmoil within the empire.

The kilns and other discoveries were linked by a metal surface across the site that would have been used to facilitate the movement of materials required to construct and operate a large Roman villa about 984 feet to the east.

Inscribed tile in-situ included the words ENII (F)ECIT Perhaps ()nenti or ()nenus FECIT - which may have been the name of the tile

Oxford Archaeology East recently completed a six-month excavation of a densely populated Late Romano-British industrial landscape

They also discovered a host of coins and intriguing artefacts such as animal bone, pottery and metal items, including jewellery and tools.

The team say these items offer a rare insight into the lives of the estate workers as opposed to the villa owner, as other discoveries have shown.

A particular highlight is a coin of the rebel emperor Allectus, who reigned a small breakaway empire based in Britain in AD 293.

The coin was pierced with a single hole so it may be worn as a fashion item suggesting its value was beyond just monetary.

A decorated complete buckle made of copper-alloy and depicting two flanking dolphins representing links with the gods of the sea, Neptune and Oceanus, found on the site, displays the fashion and taste of the time.

The organisation and finance required to build the villas - which were excavated on the site in the 1950s - would have been considerable.

The archaeology at Priors Hall shows evidence for numerous specialist tradespeople such as carpenters and builders, tile makers and mortar producers, perhaps being hired from nearby towns to make the pots, tiles, mortar and stone.

Nigel Wakefield, development director at Urban&Civic, which owns the site, said they've always known the site had a rich Roman history.

'What we didn't realise is quite how fascinating these new discoveries are, not only in terms of the buildings that were previously here but also in learning how they were constructed and understanding the materials and skills required to build them.

The team say these items offer a rare insight into the lives of the estate workers as opposed to the villa owner, as other discoveries have shown

The archaeology at Priors Hall shows evidence for numerous specialist tradespeople such as carpenters and builders, tile makers and mortar producers, perhaps being hired from nearby towns to make the pots, tiles, mortar and stone

'As master developers, it is important for us to uncover and preserve this history and we're delighted with the role that Oxford Archaeology have played in this process.'

NCC County Archaeological Advisor Lesley-Ann Mather said this was part of an ongoing scheme of archaeological resource management on the Priors Hall site.

'The previous archaeological evaluations within this area had identified that archaeological activity was present, however, the discovery of a Late Romano British industrial complex was entirely unexpected.'

The Roman villa complex that the newly discovered industrial area serviced is to be preserved in situ and left as grassland, Northamptonshire County Council said.

'It will be covered by a heritage management plan which will protect and manage it in the long term,' Mather said.

A drone shot of the late Roman industrial complex. The location of the site were uncovered in the final century of the Roman occupation, a time of economic and social turmoil within the empire

A complete zoomorphic buckle depicting two flanking dolphins was found within the excavation

Oxford Archaeology East is now washing and cataloguing finds recovered from the site, ready to be sent for specialist analysis.

Over 2000 villas are known from Roman Britain and over forty are known in Northamptonshire alone and although a large proportion have been excavated - the focus has been on the principal complex.

Less is known about the sourcing and manufacturing of materials to construct them and how they operated, and less still is known about the people who built them.

A large quantity of ceramic tiles were found, many of which had fingerprint impressions from the people who made them.

A tile fragment included the partial inscription of the name of the maker, likely to be a name of one of the tilers themselves immortalised in clay.
Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Monday urged Railways Minister Piyush Goyal to start two dedicated Kisan' trains from Abohar to Bangalore and Kolkata for the benefit of 'kinnow' growers of Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana.

The Union Food Processing Industries minister said Kisan trains with refrigerated bogies should run during the harvest season between December and March for 'kinnows', a type of fruit.

Harsimrat, in a letter to Railways minister, said the cluster of 'kinnow' cultivation, which included adjoining areas from the states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, is spread over one lakh hectares.

She said the Abohar town in Punjab functions as the focal market for aggregation of 'kinnows' and handles twenty-five lakh metric tonnes of produce every year.

She said Kisan trains originating from Abohar can take kinnows' to the southern and eastern states where there is a big market for the fruit.

She said the biggest market for the fruit is in Bangalore and Kolkata even as a significant quantity is exported to Bangladesh.

She said due to the highly perishable nature of the fruit, only 35 to 40 per cent of the produce presently reaches the end consumers.

The rest gets wasted due to high temperatures during the road transport over long distances leading to the loss to farmers, she said.

She said the problem gets even more acute during the peak harvesting months of February and March as the temperature starts rising in the southern and eastern states.

The Union minister sought to assure the Railways minister saying that she has been made to understand by farmers and traders of the area that Kisan trains would be utilized to full capacity and would be a viable venture for the ministry of railways as well.
Steve Easterbrook, then-chief executive officer of McDonald's Corp., speaks during the opening of the company's new headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, on Monday, June 4, 2018.

McDonald's is trying to recover millions in compensation it paid out to former CEO Steve Easterbrook by suing him for allegedly committing fraud and lying during the company's internal probe into his behavior, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The fast-food chain's board announced in November that it had terminated Easterbrook for having a consensual relationship with an employee and tapped Chris Kempczinski as his successor.

"McDonald's does not tolerate behavior from any employee that does not reflect our values," Kempczinski wrote in a letter to the McDonald's system about the lawsuit. "These actions reflect a continued demonstration of this commitment."

McDonald's now alleges that new information about Easterbrook's actions came to light in July, prompting further investigation from the company. A probe allegedly revealed that Easterbrook lied to the company and destroyed information regarding his inappropriate behavior, including three alleged additional sexual relationships with employees before his firing. None of the employees have been named.

The complaint alleges that Easterbrook told investigators in October that he only had one relationship with an employee.

Newly uncovered evidence includes dozens of nude or sexually explicit photos and videos of women  including images of the female employees  that were taken in late 2018 or early 2019 and sent as attachments from his corporate email account to his personal email, according to the lawsuit. Easterbrook allegedly deleted those photos and emails from his phone before it was searched by an outside investigator.

Easterbrook also approved "an extraordinary stock grant, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars" for one of the employees while they were involved in a sexual relationship, according to the complaint. An anonymous report about an alleged relationship between Easterbrook and this employee triggered the July probe.

The board said it would not have signed a separation agreement with Easterbrook had it known about this alleged conduct. Instead, it fired him without cause in the hopes of avoiding a lengthy legal dispute with him over whether his behavior crossed into "dishonesty, fraud, illegality or moral turpitude."

McDonald's is suing him in Delaware state court to recover the compensation and severance benefits he received as part of the separation agreement. The company said it has also taken action to prevent him from exercising any stock options or selling any stock from outstanding equity rewards.

At the time of Easterbrook's firing, as a condition of his separation agreement, he wrote an email to employees that said the relationship was a "mistake."

The agreement also included 26 weeks of severance. In 2018, Easterbrook earned $15.9 million in total compensation, including a $1.3 million base salary. He was eligible for prorated payment for hitting 2019 performance targets. Equilar, which tracks executive compensation, estimated that his severance package was worth nearly $42 million.

CNBC reached out to Easterbrook for comment.

While he was chief executive at McDonald's, the company sold off many of its company-owned stores to franchisees, helping profits but leading to falling revenue as a result of accounting differences. The all-day breakfast menu and tech-focused restaurant renovations also kicked off during his tenure.

Shares of McDonald's were down less than 1% in morning trading. The stock, which has a market value of $157 billion, has risen 4% since Easterbrook's ouster.
The Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), in collaboration with the Youth Bridge Foundation (YBF), will hold the next session of the "Youth Speaks Forum," an initiative aimed at stimulating the interest of Ghanaian youth in national politics and governance processes, on Thursday, August 13.



Three further fora scheduled for the month of August will be held on the 17th, 19th, and 24th at Nalerigu in the North East Region, Bolgantanga in the Upper East Region and Wa in the Upper West Region respectively.



Themed 'Engendering National and Local Level Conversations on Youth Issues ahead of Ghana's 2020 Elections,' the Youth Speaks Forums seek to promote dialogue between political actors and the youth, and serve as a platform on which the youth can provide critical feedback on political parties' policies and programmes towards their development.



The Accra event on Thursday will be streamed live on Graphic Online's Facebook page, dailygraphicghana.



Senior Programs Officer at CDD-Ghana, Regina Oforiwa Amanfo explains that the forums are in line with the Center's continual advocacy for the inclusion and effective engagement of the youth in governance processes.



"Ghana's youthful population can be an asset for the nation if the enormous abilities and intellect of the youth are channeled towards national development," she said. "Unfortunately, the youth have very limited opportunities to engage in governance processes beyond the exercise of their franchise."



The Youth Speaks Forums are planned to be held in the capital towns of all 16 regions of Ghana.



At the Forums, various political parties will highlight the policies and programmes for youth development outlined in their manifestos, after which the youth will have the opportunity to interrogate these policies and highlight what they consider to be the most important issues that political parties should pay attention to.



The Youth Speaks Forums form part of CDD-Ghana's "Electoral Support Project" and is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID-Ghana).







Source: Graphiconline.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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Activist Gemma O'Doherty has been "actively trying to evade" service of defamation proceedings brought against her by Jimmy Guerin, the brother of murdered journalist Veronica Guerin, the High Court has heard.

Mr Guerin, who is an independent councillor on Fingal County Council, claims he was defamed in comments allegedly posted by Ms O'Doherty about him on her Facebook and Twitter accounts in July 2019.

In his action he seeks damages, including aggravated and punitive damages, as well as injunctions permanently prohibiting the continued publication of the comments at the centre of the action.

The Howth-based councillor further seeks an order restraining Ms O'Doherty from publishing similar statements about him in the future.

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The matter was briefly mentioned before Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy at Monday's vacation sitting of the High Court.

Following an ex-parte application Mr Guerin's lawyers secured various orders against Ms O'Doherty, including one deeming that she has been formally served with the summons outlining the action against her.

Ms O'Doherty had been "actively trying to evade service," of proceedings she is clearly aware of, it is claimed.

Ronan Lupton Bl, instructed by solicitor Zoe Mollaghan of Flynn O'Driscoll Business Lawyers for Mr Guerin, said that there had been difficulties in relation to the serving of his client's proceedings on the defendant.

These issues had resulted in Mr Guerin's lawyers coming to court during the vacation in order to prevent potential problems further down the line, counsel said.

The court heard that earlier this year a Belfast-based law firm had indicated it would act for the defendant, and had the authority to accept the summons on her behalf.

However, after corresponding with that firm for several months it was not retained by Ms O'Doherty.

A summons server had attended at Ms O'Doherty's home at Shankill Dublin 18 on a number of occasions in January, February and in June.

Summons server Brian Comiskey said in his sworn statement to the court that on the afternoon of June 18th last he called to the defendant's home for the purpose of effecting service of the defamation proceedings on Ms O'Doherty.

He said when he knocked on the front door of the property, Ms O'Doherty opened a window. He said he told her who he was and that he had a summons for her.

Mr Comiskey said she replied "Sorry no," and closed the window. He had called to her home on two previous occasions but received no response when he knocked at the front door.

Efforts to serve documents on Ms O'Doherty by way of pre-paid registered post were also not successful, the court also heard.

Granting the orders sought, the Judge expressed her general concern that documents in the case that had been recorded as being delivered by An Post were subsequently returned to Mr Guerin's lawyers and marked as being not received.

The judge also gave the plaintiff's solicitors permission to serve any further documents on the defendant by ordinary post, and could also be hand delivered to Ms O'Doherty's home.
It is the radical communist philosophy which conquered China.

Now Maoism has a new territory in its sights: the idyllic market town of Lewes in East Sussex.

The riverside town, overlooked by a Norman castle and peppered with boutiques and antiques shops, is a hotbed of revolution, according to Facebook page the Lewes Maoist Action group.

It is the radical communist philosophy which conquered China. Now Maoism has a new territory in its sights: the idyllic market town of Lewes in East Sussex

The anonymous founders claim they are propagating the beliefs of Mao Zedong through three secret followers who have infiltrated the local council.

They have even produced new versions of the towns historic shield complete with either the face of Mao or the hammer and sickle in the corner.

But though Chairman Mao proclaimed that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun, they seem keener on running cake stalls.

An spokesman said: Unlike many other communist movements we do not seek to deny the mistakes, horrors and corruptions of the past.

The anonymous founders claim they are propagating the beliefs of Mao Zedong (above) through three secret followers who have infiltrated the local council

He went on: We will begin our work locally but we hope to create more syndicates in Sussex.

A social media post suggested a counter-revolutionary plot by comrades Nigel, Imogen and Gary to thwart the progress of Mao Zedong thought in Lewes had been foiled.

But the posting continued: We will be having our usual cake stand by the castle gate on Saturday.

Asked about the cake stall, the spokesman said: People think thats funny, but whats wrong with cake? Why cant communists eat cake?

A Lewes council spokesman said: It would be wonderful if we had a sleeper cell of Maoists. I was speaking to the leader earlier, but he couldnt commit any resources to rooting out the infiltrators.
An Israeli citizen was found dead inside a prison cell Saturday and another was injured at the Litoral Penitentiary in Guayaquil.Both Israeli citizens were arrested in early June in Santa Elena while transporting about $100,000. They were being investigated for allegedly belonging to a network that sold medicine illegally during the pandemic, according to local media reports.During testimonies given to authorities, Israelis said they sold medical supplies to ex-President Abdala Bucaram and his son Jacobo Bucaram, according to media reports.

In June, the former Ecuadorian president was detained after authorities raided his home and found a gun and medical supplies including masks as part of a wider investigation into corruption during the pandemic.Investigators said the raid was conducted in connection with an ongoing probe into suspected embezzlement at a large public hospital.

On Saturday, agents from the Prosecutor's Office entered the detention center to collect evidence. The Israeli inmates were in a cell in the pavilion known as Consular.Hector Gabriel Vanegas, the defense attorney for the injured man, said he's been in contact with the victim's relatives."They are very worried about his brother's situation. They've said that thanks to God, he's alive."

(Image Credit: Pixabay/Representative Image)
Ukraine is extremely interested in Belarus being a truly independent and democratic country with a strong economy and stable social relations.

"Ukraine and I personally are extremely interested in Belarus being a truly independent and democratic country with a strong economy and stable social relations. Belarus is our closest neighbor, so we do care about what is happening there and what will happen to our friends, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky posted on Facebook on Monday, August 10.

Our Belarusian neighbors are going through difficult times, he noted.

According to the President, it is already obvious that not everyone in the country agrees with the announced preliminary election results, and any legitimacy arises solely from public trust.

"Such a scale of doubts is a direct path to violence, to conflict, to growing public protest. Unfortunately, its what we see now," Zelensky stressed.

In this context, he called on Belarus residents to be tolerant and stop violence in the streets.

"We call for the most open, albeit complex, dialogue. Only a broad dialogue will give the citizens of the Republic of Belarus a way out of a difficult crisis situation and help them honestly discuss further steps and formats of public interaction. Only mutual understanding between all parties can preserve the country's independence and ensure its further movement towards freedom and democracy. Otherwise, the escalation of violence will increase, posing a threat of bitter consequences, the President of Ukraine warned.

According to him, now both the government and protesters should be interested in such a dialogue.

"In its actions, Belarus must adhere to the democratic standards recognized in the civilized world and try to ensure a comprehensive enforcement of the rights and freedoms of its citizens. This is the only way to preserve the hope of overcoming the crisis, Zelensky is convinced.

The presidential election took place in Belarus on Sunday, August 9. Five people ran for the president: Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, wife of jailed opposition blogger Sergei Tikhanovskiy; ex-MP Anna Kanopatskaya; leader of the Tell the Truth campaign Andrey Dmytriyev; chairman of the Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada party Sergei Cherechen; and incumbent President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko who has ruled the country since 1994.

According to the Central Election Commission of Belarus, Lukashenko garnered the most votes at the polling stations that had already provided the election results.

The Viasna Human Rights Centre reported that more than 140 people had been detained by security forces during protests in various parts of Belarus as of 03:00 on August 10.

The websites of some Belarusian media outlets, such as BelTA or TUT.by, are not currently working.

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An Algerian journalist faces years in prison if convicted on Monday in a trial rights groups call a test of press freedom in a country recently rocked by anti-government protests.

Khaled Drareni, 40, was arrested on March 29 on charges of "inciting an unarmed gathering" and "endangering national unity" after covering demonstrations by the "Hirak" protest movement.

Weekly protests rocked Algeria for more than a year and only came to a halt in March due to the novel coronavirus crisis.

The prosecutor called for Drareni to be sentenced to four years in prison, fined 100,000 dinars ($784) and stripped of his civil rights at the opening of his trial at the Sidi M'hamed court in Algiers on August 3.

Drareni, editor of the Casbah Tribune news site and correspondent for French-language channel TV5 Monde denied the charges when he appeared via video-conference due to coronavirus measures.

"I just did my job as an independent journalist," he said, according to a statement by press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), for which Drareni also works.

He added he had exercised his "right to inform as a journalist and citizen".

RSF, part of an international support committee for Drareni, condemned the charges and said "a prison sentence would be proof of a shift to authoritarianism" in Algeria.

If judges "accept this absurd indictment, it would show that Algeria's judiciary and executive have turned their back on the ideals of the country's independence," RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

The US-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists joined calls that have multiplied in recent weeks to release journalists in Algeria.

"Algerian authorities should immediately and unconditionally release journalist Khaled Drareni, especially as there is no evidence he did anything except his job as a journalist," said CPJ regional programme coordinator Sherif Mansour.

READ: Algeria protest movement marks 6 months, at an impasse

The Algerian judiciary has stepped up prosecutions and convictions of journalists, Hirak activists, political opponents and bloggers in recent months.

Drareni was charged along with protest members Samir Benlarbi and Slimane Hamitouche, who were released on bail in July and also face jail time, fines and loss of their civil rights.

Some journalists have been accused of sowing discord, threatening national interests and being on the payroll of "foreign parties", with several in prison and trials underway.

In July, Ali Djamel Toubal, a correspondent for the privately-owned media group Ennahar, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for, among other things, broadcasting footage showing police officers mistreating anti-regime demonstrators.

RSF ranked Algeria 146 out of 180 countries and territories in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index, five places lower than in 2019.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 16:01:13|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday sent a congratulatory message to Alexander Lukashenko on his re-election as Belarusian president.

In the message, Xi extended warm congratulations and best wishes to President Lukashenko on his re-election on behalf of the Chinese government and people as well as in Xi's own name.

Noting that he highly values the development of China-Belarus ties, Xi said he stands ready to work with President Lukashenko to jointly push forward China-Belarus comprehensive strategic partnership and expand mutually-beneficial cooperation between the two countries in various fields, so as to create new benefits for the two countries and peoples. Enditem
Bafta-winning Syrian activist Hassan Akkad today slammed claims that migrants flock to Britain for benefits as a 'myth,' and said it was 'ironic,' that some were referring to hundreds of refugees crossing the English Channel as an 'invasion'.

Mr Akkad, who has worked as a hospital cleaner during the Covid-19 pandemic, was speaking to Good Morning Britain during a debate on refugees crossing from France.

Between Thursday and Sunday, around 670 people were picked up by Border Force officials, another 20 were seen crossing this morning.

The sudden influx in illegal crossings has prompted the government to consider enlisting the help of the Royal Navy to patrol the Channel.

Mr Akkad said: 'We should solve this problem, we don't want to see dead bodies on the Channel.

'It's not a great look to send the Navy to stop vulnerable people trying to cross the Channel.

Hassan Akkad (bottom right) was speaking during a debate on migrants arriving in Britain on Good Morning Britain earlier today

'I think the solution will be trying to come up with legal and safe routes into Britain.'

Mr Akkad filmed his 87-day journey from war-torn Syria to the UK in 2015, travelling via Turkey to the Jungle migrant camp in Calais, before using a fake passport to fly to Heathrow.

Footage from his journey was in the BBC documentary Exodus: Our Journey to Europe which won a BAFTA for Best Factual Series or Strand in 2017.

He said a 'tiny majority' of refugees come to Britain and chose it as they may have family ties or know someone who can help kickstart their new lives after fleeing their own country.

Around 20 migrants were picked up in The Channel near Dover this morning, after hundreds more arrived last week

Speaking from his home in East London, he vehemently denied that migrants were braving The Channel to take advantage of benefits systems in the UK.

He said: 'We had a harvest crisis during the pandemic so we had to fly in Romanians to pick our crop. No these people are not coming for our benefits.

'Five pounds a day for asylum seekers, what's that going to buy?

'I think this is a myth. I can name you 100 people I know who came from Syria who didn't take a penny from the welfare system and are all paying their taxes.

'It's a myth.

'You're perfectly within your rights to travel through safe countries and claim asylum in Britain.

Border Force patrol boat Hunter picked up the crowded vessel in The Channel earlier today

At least 20 migrants have been picked up by Border Force crews so far today, following a wave of recent crossings

'Hundreds of thousands of Brits live in Spain, and south of France and Dubai and Vietnam why are they allowed to live there and people from Syria and Iraq and Afghanistan aren't allowed to live here? It's a myth.'

Priti Patel arrived in Dover today to meet with Border Force officials, hours after crews had been in The Channel picking up 20 migrants.

Over the weekend she appointed a former Royal Marine to the role of 'clandestine Channel threat commander'.

As a former Royal Marines Commando who served in Iraq and Kosovo, it is hoped Dan O'Mahoney can stop organised gangs smuggling people across the channel from Calais.

Priti Patel is in Dover this morning to speak with Border Force officials after hundreds of migrants made for the Kent coast last week

The documentary maker said the government's focus on dealing with migrant crossings was a 'distraction'.

'It's definitely not an invasion,' he said.

'It's ironic, Britain did invade Iraq and Afghanistan, but if Iraqis and Afghans now want to seek asylum in Britain then it's "not our problem" and we call it an invasion.

'British made bombs are being dropped on Yemeni people and if Yemeni decide to flee and seek asylum in Britain, it's "not our problem".

'I think the whole refugee and migrant issue is being exaggerated, it's being used as a distraction because one per cent of the refugee population is in Britain.

'I don't see any other country that complains about migrants like Britain does.

He added: 'Hundreds of thousands of Brits live in Spain, and south of France and Dubai and Vietnam why are they allowed to live there and people from Syria and Iraq and Afghanistan aren't allowed to live here? It's a myth.'
DUBLIN, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Cell & Gene Therapy Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

In-depth Analysis and Data-driven Insights on the Impact of COVID-19 Included



The study considers the present scenario of the cell and gene therapy market and its market dynamics for the period 2019-2025. It covers a detailed overview of several market growth enablers, restraints, and trends. The report offers both the demand and supply aspects of the market. It profiles and examines leading companies and other prominent ones operating in the market.



Key Questions Answered



1. What is the cell and gene therapy market size and growth rate during the forecast period?

2. What are the factors impacting the growth of the cell and gene therapy market share?

3. How is the growth of the healthcare segment affecting the growth of the cell and gene therapy market?

4. Who are the leading vendors in the cell and gene therapy market, and what are their market shares?

5. Which product type/ end-user type/region is generating the largest revenue in the Asia-Pacific region?



The global cell and gene therapy market by revenue is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 30.9% during the period 2019-2025



The global cell and gene therapy market is one of the fastest-growing segments in the regenerative medicine market. The market is expected to grow at a faster pace during the forecast period. The demand can be attributed to the growing prevalence of several chronic diseases such as cancer, cartilage related problems, wounds, diabetic foot ulcer, genetic disorders, and other rare diseases across the globe.



The prevalence of cancer and diabetes is increasing in the global population, which is influencing the growth of the market. There is a large unmet need in the treatment available, which is filled by cell and gene therapies. The market is growing due to the increased availability of funding from various public and private institutions. Besides, there is increased support from regulatory bodies for product approval. Several governments are creating awareness of cell and gene therapies in the population.



Cell and Gene Therapy Market Segmentation



The global cell and gene therapy market research report includes a detailed segmentation by product, disease, end-user, and geography.



In 2019, the cell therapy segment accounted for a market share of over 53% in the global cell and gene therapy market. The segment is expected to grow at a steady rate during the forecast period due to the increase in the target population and the rise in the number of countries preferring cell therapies in their patients. Increased therapeutic benefits are attracting several countries to invest in this technology and conduct a high number of clinical trials. However, the lack of advanced infrastructure in developing countries is hindering the growth of the segment.



In 2019, the oncology segment accounted for a share of over 40% in the global cell and gene therapy market. Oncology has been one of the targets of intense research for the gene therapy procedures & approach. More than 60% of on-going gene therapy clinical trials are targeting cancer. The segment is expected to grow at a promising rate on account of the high prevalence of cancer diseases, especially in low and middle-come countries. The market is growing at a double-digit CAGR, which is expected to help the segment as many cell and gene therapy for cancer are commercially available.



The dermatology application segment in the cell and gene therapy includes wound care management among patients. Vendors are focusing on the development and commercialization of advanced wound care products for the treatment of chronic and acute wounds, thereby increasing the growth of the wound care market. The increased pervasiveness of diabetics is increasing acute and chronic wounds, including surgical wounds, pressure ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers, and other wounds.



In 2019, the oncology segment accounted for a share of over 40% in the global cell and gene therapy market. Oncology has been one of the targets of intense research for the gene therapy procedures & approach. More than 60% of on-going gene therapy clinical trials are targeting cancer. The segment is expected to grow at a promising rate on account of the high prevalence of cancer diseases, especially in low and middle-come countries. The market is growing at a double-digit CAGR, which is expected to help the segment as many cell and gene therapy for cancer are commercially available.



The dermatology application segment in the cell and gene therapy includes wound care management among patients. Vendors are focusing on the development and commercialization of advanced wound care products for the treatment of chronic and acute wounds, thereby increasing the growth of the wound care market. The increased pervasiveness of diabetics is increasing acute and chronic wounds, including surgical wounds, pressure ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers, and other wounds.



Segmentation by Product

Cell Therapy

Gene Therapy

Segmentation by Disease

Dermatology

Musculoskeletal

Oncology

Genetic Disorders

Others

Segmentation by End-user

Hospitality

Cancer Care Centers

Wound Care Centers

Ambulatory Surgical Centers

Others

Insights by Geography



In 2019, North America accounted for a share of over 60% of the global cell and gene therapy market. There are more than 530 regenerative medicine companies, including cell and gene therapy manufacturing developers. The number of products approved in North America grew significantly in 2019, with developers filed for marketing authorization for 10+ regenerative medicines, many of which we expect to be approved in 2020. Within the next 1-2 years, the number of approved gene therapies is expected to double.



The US and Canada are the major contributors to the cell and gene therapy market in North America. Regulatory bodies are supporting several investigational products, fast track approvals, RMAT designation for the faster approval of the product into the market. The alliance for regenerative medicine and Medicare and Medicaid is working together to bring the structured reimbursement channels for cell and gene therapies.



Segmentation by Geography

North America

Europe

APAC

Latin America

Middle East & Africa

Insights by Vendors



The global cell and gene therapy market is highly dynamic and characterized by the presence of several global, regional, and local vendors offering a wide range of therapies. Dendreon, Gilead Sciences, Novartis, Organogenesis, Osiris Therapeutics, Vericel, Amgen, and Spark Therapeutics are the leading players in the market with significant shares.



Vendors such as NuVasive, APAC Biotech, Nipro, Orthocell, bluebird bio, J-TEC, and Terumo are the other prominent players in the market with a presence, especially in the cell therapy market. Most leading players are focusing on implementing strategies such as product launches and approvals, marketing and promotional activities, acquisitions, increased R&D investments, and strengthening their distribution networks to enhance their share and presence in the market.



Prominent Vendors

Gilead Sciences

Spark Therapeutics

Novartis

Organogenesis

Amgen

Osiris Therapeutics

Dendreon

Vericel

Other Prominent Vendors

Anterogen

Tego Sciences

Japan Tissue Engineering

JCR Pharmaceuticals

Medipost

MolMed

AVITA Medical

CollPlant

Biosolution

Stempeutics Research

Kolon Tissue Gene

Orchard Therapeutics

Sibiono GeneTech

NuVasive

Corestem

Pharmicell

Shanghai Sunway Biotech

RMS Regenerative Medical System

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company

CHIESI Farmaceutici

CO.DON

AnGes

GC Pharma

Human Stem Cells Institute

JW CreaGene

APAC Biotech

Nipro

Terumo

Orthocell

bluebird bio

Market Dynamics



Opportunities & Trends



Increase in Strategic Acquisitions

Robust Cell & Gene Therapy Pipeline

Increased Funding for Cell & Gene Therapy Products

Expanding Applications for Cell & Gene Therapies

Growth Enablers

Increasing Pool of Target Patients

Product Launches & Approvals

Regulatory Support & Special Designation for Cell & Gene Therapy Products

Growing Demand for Car T-Cell Therapies

Growth Restraints

High Cost of Cell and Gene Therapy

Limitations of Gene Therapy Products

Availability of Alternative Treatments & Withdrawal of Products

Manufacturing & Operational Challenges with Cell & Gene Therapy Products

Low Product Penetration in LMICS

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/is5t27

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.



Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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SOURCE Research and Markets

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Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi  Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has delivered a message on the occasion of the 53rd founding anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the 25th anniversary of Vietnams admission to the bloc. Following is a translation of the message.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Today is a very important day of our region as we are celebrating the founding anniversary of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (August 8, 1967) together. Throughout 53 years of development with its historic missions stated in the Bangkok Declaration 1967 kept in mind, ASEAN has truly become an organisation representing regional countries and uniting them in friendly and cooperative neighbourliness on the basis of mutual respect and understanding to strive for peace, progress and prosperity of people.

From a grouping of only five members, ASEAN has developed into a community of ten Southeast Asian nations with a population of 650 million and an economy ranking fifth in the world registering GDP of more than 3 trillion USD in 2019 and even gone beyond the regional border.

ASEAN has expanded relations with many partners in and outside the region, including world powers, creating momentum for cooperation and dialogue processes for peace, security, stability and development in Asia-Pacific and the world.

That is a precious achievement built by many generations that we must cherish and have the responsibility to preserve and promote.

Can we fulfill this mission? Will ASEAN continue maintaining its value and vitality sustainably to meet expectations of people? It requires the concerted efforts, consensus, strong political will and determination of all states.

ASEANs basic principles, recognised regional standards and above all, international law, the spirit of multilaterism and regional connectivity, as well as ASEANs centrality should be further promoted. ASEANs values as a common market, an united production base, an open movement and work space, a community of mutual care, support and sharing must be widely spread for all people and businesses to enjoy and contribute to the blocs development.

Twenty-five years ago, Vietnam joined ASEAN. The image of the red flag with the yellow star in the centre of Vietnam flying alongside with the national flags of other ASEAN member countries in the Brunei sky on July 28, 1995 will be remembered as an important milestone for both Vietnam and ASEAN. A new journey started for Vietnam, bringing the country into a process of intensive and extensive international integration.

It can be said that Vietnams development achievements over the past 25 years have important contributions from the ASEAN membership. The active, positive and responsible participation of Vietnam has also contributed to the development of the ASEAN Community.

With the cohesive and responsive spirit, as the ASEAN Chair 2020, Vietnam gives the highest priority to promoting solidarity and unity and effective coordination among member countries, as well as strengthening relations with partners to enhance the capacity to deal with unprecedented challenges: the COVID-19 pandemic and fierce competition in the regional and global geopolitical environment, in which the respect for law, including 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) must be heightened.

Joining hands with other ASEAN member countries in overcoming the existing difficulties and challenges, Vietnam has continued to promote the successful implementation of the ASEAN Vision 2025, enhance the position and promote the role of ASEAN, thus contributing to peace, security and sustainable growth in the region and the world.

Ladies and gentlemen,

ASEAN has always been one of the important pillars in Vietnams foreign policy. An united, strong, prosperous and self-reliant ASEAN Community with high international role and position is our shared interest. This can only be reached if all of us think community and act community. Vietnam has been exerted efforts, together with other ASEAN members, to successfully implement this noble goal.

Thank you very much!
Donald Trump lashed out on Monday at a Republican senator who is criticising recent executive orders the president says would provide relief to those out of work due to the coronavirus and protect some from being evicted.

Mr Trump used a Monday morning tweet to call Nebraska GOP Senator Ben Sasse a "RINO," short for "Republican in name only," and mocked him over his last Senate campaign.

"RINO Ben Sasse, who needed my support and endorsement in order to get the Republican nomination for Senate from the GREAT State of Nebraska, has, now that he's got it (Thank you President T), gone rogue, again," the president tweeted. "This foolishness plays right into the hands of the Radical Left Dems!"

Mr Sasse, in a weekend statement, called Mr Trump's coronavirus relief-themed orders "unconstitutional slop." He and other GOP lawmakers, like Mr Trump, were sharply critical of former President Barack Obama's second-term use of executive orders.

"The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop," Mr Sasse said in a statement. "President Obama did not have the power to unilaterally rewrite immigration law with DACA, and President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law."

Mr Sasse has been among a handful of GOP senators who have felt comfortable speaking out about some of Mr Trump's most controversial statements and actions.

The Nebraska Republican spoke out after Mr Trump signed orders on emergency unemployment benefits, a suspension of the payroll tax and eviction protections when talks with House and Senate Democrats stalled late last week.

Mr Sasse found himself in agreement with, of all people, Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"I associate myself  remarks with Senator Sasse, who says, they're 'unconstitutional slop.' I think that's right," she told CNN on Sunday.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, said he would prefer the White House and Congress pass legislation to help those hurt by the pandemic.

Tax and spending matters are legally required to be written by Congress, originating in the House. Presidents, however, do have authorities to interpret how tax and spending laws are implemented, which is where legal fights over the orders likely would be fought.

Some GOP lawmakers had warned Mr Trump weeks ago to avoid action on a payroll tax cut or suspension, saying those monies help fund programmes like Social Security and Medicare  popular among senior voters who have been fleeing the 2016 Trump coalition in big numbers.
In his speech at the Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan at Ayodhya on August 5, Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to the popularity of the Ramayana in distant lands, in particular, the Muslim majority countries of Indonesia and Malaysia and in other countries of South and Southeast Asia.

The irony was perhaps lost on him that it was on the site of the criminal demolition of a mosque that a temple to celebrate Ram was being built. Would the countries with adherents of Islam really consider the building of a temple to Ram an occasion to celebrate with the people of Hindu faith in India? The ...
Capt Amarinder Singh

Chandigarh: Acceding to the request of Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, the Government of India has given in-principle approval for setting up a National Institute of Virology Centre for the north zone in Punjab.

At present, the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune is the only institution in the country capable of providing a well-coordinated medical and public health response to such an emergency.

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Capt Amarinder SinghThe Chief Minister, who had proposed the Centre some weeks back in the light of the Covid pandemic, welcomed the approval, saying the Centre would prove to be a milestone to boost research in the field of virology, make India future ready to predict and detect viruses at the earliest so that necessary preventive steps can be taken.

Captain Amarinder further said that this Centre would also go a long way in addressing the requirements of the northern region including the States of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, UP and UTs of Chandigarh and J&K.

A spokesperson of the Chief Ministers office said that the Centres letter of in-principle approval had been received by State Chief Secretary from Secretary to Government of India, Department of Health Research of Ministry of India-cum-Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Prof. (Dr.) Balram Bhargava.

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Capt Amarinder SinghHe has requested the State Government to identify about 25 acres of land on long lease so as to enable ICMR to set up this prestigious centre at the earliest.

Notably, Captain Amarinder had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 10 requesting him to direct the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to set up the proposed centre, which would focus on addressing regional, national and global needs in virology, diagnostic, research and therapeutic evaluations to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Chief Minister had proposed a specialised Centre in Medicity, New Chandigarh, which would be well placed to serve the interests of the North-Western region given Chandigarhs international air connectivity.

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He also pointed out that the centre could easily be incubated in PGIMER, which is located only 7-8 kilometers from the proposed Medicity.

Punjab government

An approximate amount of Rs 400 crore would be required for the Centre with BSL-3 facility and an additional Rs 150 crore would be needed for the BSL-4 facility excluding the land, which would be provided by the Government of Punjab.

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Pointing to the unprecedented crisis faced by the country amid Covid-19, the Chief Minister hoped that this Centre would be instrumental in providing diagnostic support, undertake research in basic virology, build capacity in the field of virology to promote universal health coverage, develop rapid and affordable quality diagnostic assays for viral diseases, besides introduction of teaching courses for the M. Sc Medical Virology and DM, Virology.
Todd Grimshaw is returning to the cobbles, now played by Gareth Pierce. (ITV/Mark Bruce)

Coronation Street have unveiled the new Todd Grimshaw as the part has been recast ahead of the characters return to the cobbles.

Gareth Pierce will now be playing the role after original actor Bruno Langley was axed from the soap following accusations of sexual assault, which he later plead guilty to in court.

The character was last seen in late 2017 when he kidnapped Billy Mayhew's (Daniel Brocklebank) goddaughter Summer (Matilda Freeman) after her grandmother Geraldine (Lynne Verrall) tried to gain custody of her.

Read more: Natasha Blakeman returning to Coronation Street

He was later found by police but assaulted an officer and fled the scene on his own.

Todd Grimshaw's return is sparked by a letter. (ITV/Mark Bruce)

The storyline of his return will begin to kick off in next week's episodes as a letter arrives from Todd asking for money.

His mother Eileen (Sue Cleaver) is off in Thailand visiting his brother Jason (Ryan Thomas), so Mary (Patti Clare) and Sean (Antony Cotton) inform Billy after reading the letter and the trio set off to track him down.

Welsh-born Pierce's other roles have included Gavin Moss in The Archers and Lenny Mack in Sky One's Stella. He also starred in Ordinary Lies and Hinterland for BBC.

He said of his new part: Im thrilled to be joining such an iconic show, and to have been entrusted with taking Todd forward into some really exciting storylines.

Bruno Langley's contract on the soap was terminated in 2017. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

"Its an honour to be part of the dedicated Coronation Street team in such unprecedented times.

Read more: Corries Mikey North on socially distanced stunt

Langley played the role of Todd, the ITV soap's first openly gay character, on and off for 16 years.

He plead guilty to sexually assaulting two women at a music venue in Manchester in 2017. He was given a 12-month community order after appearing in Manchester magistrates court.
tech2 News Staff

Huawei is running out of processor chips to make smartphones due to US sanctions and will be forced to stop production of its own most advanced chips, a company executive says, in a sign of growing damage to Huaweis business from American pressure.

At the China Information Technology Summit 2020, Huawei consumer business CEO Yu Chengdong reportedly confirmed that the company will be launching its flagship Mate 40 series smartphone sometime this fall. He has revealed that the series will be powered by Huawei's Kirin 9000 SoC. However, Yu also said at the Summit that the Mate 40 series maybe the last to come with the high-end chipset.

Production of Kirin chips designed by Huaweis own engineers will stop 15 September because they are made by contractors that need US manufacturing technology, said Richard Yu, president of the companys consumer unit. He said Huawei lacks the ability to make its own chips.

This is a very big loss for us, Yu said Friday at an industry conference, China Info 100, according to a video recording of his comments posted on multiple websites.

Unfortunately, in the second round of US sanctions, our chip producers only accepted orders until 15 May. Production will close on 15 September, Yu said. This year may be the last generation of Huawei Kirin high-end chips.

More broadly, Huaweis smartphone production has no chips and no supply, Yu said.

Huawei Technologies Ltd, one of the biggest producers of smartphones and network equipment, is at the center of US-Chinese tension over technology and security. The feud has spread to include the popular Chinese-owned video app TikTok and China-based messaging service WeChat.

Washington cut off Huaweis access to US components and technology including Googles music and other smartphone services last year. Those penalties were tightened in May when the White House barred vendors worldwide from using US technology to produce components for Huawei.

Yu said this years smartphone sales probably will be lower than 2019s level of 240 million handsets but gave no details. The company didnt immediately respond to questions Saturday.

Huawei, founded in 1987 by a former military engineer, denies accusations it might facilitate Chinese spying. Chinese officials accuse Washington of using national security as an excuse to stop a competitor to US tech industries.

Huawei is a leader among emerging Chinese competitors in telecoms, electric cars, renewable energy and other fields in which the ruling Communist Party hopes China can become a global leader.

Huawei has 180,000 employees and one of the worlds biggest research and development budgets at more than $15 billion a year. But, like most global tech brands, it relies on contractors to manufacture its products.

Earlier, Huawei announced its global sales rose 13.1 percent over a year ago to 454 billion yuan ($65 billion) in the first half of 2020. Yu said that was due to strong sales of high-end products but gave no details.

Huawei became the worlds top-selling smartphone brand in the three months ending in June, passing rival Samsung for the first time due to strong demand in China, according to Canalys. Sales abroad fell 27% from a year earlier.

Washington also is lobbying European and other allies to exclude Huawei from planned next-generation networks as a security risk.

In other US-Chinese clashes, TikToks owner, ByteDance, is under White House pressure to sell the video app. That is due to fears its access to personal information about millions of American users might be a security risk.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced a ban on unspecified transactions with TikTok and the Chinese owner of WeChat, a popular messaging service.

With inputs from The Associated Press.
ENYONYANE  Eswatini will soon have a state-of-the-art clinic courtesy of a Kim family from South Korea.

The clinic, believed to be worth about E10 million, has been allocated a piece of land measuring a hectare at Enyonyane in Ezulwini. The good news to the country was confirmed by Daniel Kim during a community meeting held at Enyonyane Zone yesterday morning. Daniel was introduced by Pastor Mandla Simelane, who informed the residents how the proposed clinic came about in the country. Simelane told the residents that the clinic was the brainchild of a deceased female member of the Kim family, who had the interest of emaSwati at heart during the course of her life. The man of God told the residents that the deceased left a message that her estate should be spent on the construction of a clinic in her name to help the nation.

Lived

We have Daniel Kim, who lived with his mother and sister in the area. Unfortunately, Daniels sister passed away. Her mother has since revealed that her daughter had desired to have a decent clinic built for the benefit of emaSwati before she died. The family has released the money for the fulfillment of the deceaseds dream, Simelane said without disclosing the amount. He stated that the clinic would be different from others as it would have permanent doctors from South Korea and local nurses hired by government. He mentioned that the clinic would offer services similar to those offered at referral hospitals such as the Mbabane Government Hospital.

According to Simelane, the services would include maternity, theatre and bone treatment and other illnesses which required specialists. He informed the residents that the clinic would be accessed by all people just like any other public clinic in the country as it would not be a private institution. However, he mentioned that there would be no maternity wards for admissions. Also present at the meeting was Ezulwini Inner Council Indvuna Wilson Ndlavela Mavimbela, who confirmed knowledge of the proposed clinic. Mavimbela also confirmed the allocation of the piece of land by the authorities of the area.
'Nanda Devi is not an easy mountain to climb.'

IMAGE: Captain Manmohan Singh Kohli and members of the expedition at the base camp of Mount Everest, May 20, 1965.

Sonam Wangyal, the legendary mountaineer, along with other Central Reserve Police personnel were ambushed at Hot Springs on October 22, 1959 by Chinese soldiers in an incident reminiscent of how Colonel Babu along with soldiers of the Bihar Regiment were ambushed by the People's Liberation Army in the Galwan Valley on the night of June 15, 2020.

Wangyal feels blessed that he came out of that ambush alive as also that he succeeded in climbing Mount Everest at the age of 23 since he had never dreamt of becoming a mountaineer.

Today, at 79 years, Wangyal regrets how the PLA have encroached on large parts of Ladakh. The concluding part of a two-part interview with Rediff.com contributor Rashme Sehgal.

Have you been back to Mount Everest after 1965? No, I never had the opportunity. Climbing mountains has become much more expensive today. I did get a chance to fly over Everest. The trip was sponsored by the Nepalese government. It was done to commemorate 25 years of our group climbing Everest. Mountaineering has also changed in all these years. Glaciers have shrunk. The snow line has moved up, the snow has thinned. It is no longer the thick blanket of snow that we walked through. This is all part of global warming. Our Buddhist texts have written that a time will come when all our water sources will dry up and there will not be a drop of water left to drink in these mountains. Already, the summers have become much longer in Ladakh. Earlier, we would get rain in Ladakh. Now we do not get even a drop.

IMAGE: The many medals in Sonam Wangyal's collection.

After changing a few jobs, you went on to join the newly set up intelligence wing of the Indo Tibetan Border Force. Yes. After my matriculation, I took up a job as a primary school teacher. One year later, I joined as a clerk in the local forest department. A year later, I quit that job and joined the ITBF as a surveyor and found myself posted near the Chang Chenmo river valley located near the India-China border. I was attached to the Central Reserve Police and we had to keep an eye on Chinese movements. On October 21 1959, our team was ambushed by the PLA in an encounter, which is similar to the way the Chinese soldiers ambushed Colonel Babu and his contingent of soldiers. We used to patrol on the Indian side when on October 19, 1959, six members of our team were sent out to patrol, but only four returned. A group of us including myself were deputed to search for them, but we could not find them. On October 20, again we went out looking for them and could not find them. On October 21, we set out with a large search party comprising around 40 men largely from the Central Reserve Police (later, called the Central Reserve Police Force). We were armed with old outdated .303 rifles when we were fired upon by Chinese soldiers who were hiding behind bunkers and were armed with machine guns and carbines. We lost ten soldiers while another ten were taken captive who were later released.

IMAGE: Sonam Wangyal, third from right, standing, Captain M S Kohli (in black turban) and other members of the 1965 Everest expedition with Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi, May 20, 2015.

In October 1965, the US's Central Intelligence Agency and India's Intelligence Bureau joined hands in a clandestine mission to install a nuclear-powered sensing device on the summit of Nanda Devi at a height of 25,643 feet.

In 1964, China had conducted its first nuclear tests in Xinjiang province. A remote sensing device atop Nanda Devi, these intelligence agencies believed, would keep track of further Chinese nuclear tests. This happened in 1965 soon after we had successfully climbed Everest. The ambush in Hot Springs occurred in 1959. Please do not confuse the two events. Four Indians were selected to go to Alaska for training on a secret mission, but we were not told any details about it. The four selected were Captain Kohli, Harish Rawat, Gurcharan Singh Bhangu and me. All four of us had been part of the Everest expedition. The India-Pakistan War in 1965 cut short our training in Alaska and we returned early. The following year we had to carry this device and leave it at the Nanda Devi summit. At that time, we had no idea about what it was except that it was a heavy power unit that would provide the government information on Chinese movements. Nanda Devi is not an easy mountain to climb and the device weighing 56 kilos was carried by porters on their back. But before we along with our American counterparts could reach the summit, the weather turned bad and so we decided to leave the device and then come back the following year and activate it. The next year we returned to the same place. We searched, but it could not be found. In 1967, all four of us and the American mountaineers climbed Nanda Kot and left the second device there. The following year, this developed some mechanical problem. So in 1968, we went back to Nanda Kot to retrieve the device. The Americans took the device at the Nanda Kot base camp, put it in a chopper and flew it directly to Delhi. All the details of this expedition have been given in Captain Kohli's book, Spies in the Himalayas: Secret Missions and Perilous Climbs. You must read it. (The device included a stock of plutonium which was about half the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima).

IMAGE: The Tricolour, mementoes and photographs in Sonam Wangyal's collection.

You have also climbed the Stok Kangri mountain that overlooks Leh. This is also not an easy mountain to climb. That was way back in 1960, when I became a member of the ITBF mountaineering team and we were deputed to climb the Stok Kangri mountain.

What are you working on at present? I have been recovering from typhoid which I developed when I was in Dehra Dun. I got held up there because of the lockdown. I am very keen to set up a mountaineering institute in Leh. The land has been allotted to us, but further work on it has got held up because of covid. It is called the Ladakh Mountaineering and Adventure Club and we hope this institute will keep the spirit of mountaineering and adventure alive amongst Ladakhi youth.

Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com
Riot police block a street during a protest after polling stations closed at the presidential elections in Minsk - TATYANA ZENKOVICH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Phalanxes of Belarusian police in full riot gear violently dispersed thousands of demonstrators who poured into the streets to challenge the early count from Sunday's presidential election indicating the longtime authoritarian leader won a sixth term by a landslide.

Hundreds of people were detained, according to a leading rights group.

The brutal crackdown that began late Sunday and lasted through the night followed a tense campaign that saw massive rallies against President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet nation with an iron hand for 26 years.

Mr Lukashenko was projected to win the countrys presidential election by a landslide in a campaign marred by suspected vote-rigging and arrests of opposition supporters.

After receiving votes from closed polling stations, the Belarus Central Election Commission said President Lukashenko had received 81 per cent of votes and his closest competitor Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya eight per cent.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Minsk and other cities while protesters clapped, shouted "victory", waved flags and honked car horns in solidarity with the opposition. Some built barricades with garbage cans.

Police fired water cannons, tear gas and stun grenades in a crackdown on the protests.

A protester speaks to police as they block the road during a rally - AP

At least one person was killed after being knocked over by a police prisoner van and dozens were injured, a representative of the rights group Spring 96 said on Monday.

"There are at least 120 detainees, but this is initial data," Valentin Stefanovic said.

After breaking up the big crowds, police relentlessly chased smaller groups of protesters across downtown Minsk for the next several hours.

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova said that police efforts to restore order were continuing overnight, but wouldn't say how many people were detained.

Anticipating a wave of anti-government protests, Mr Lukashenko, largely reliant on cheap Russian energy imports and powerful secret services, had dispatched thousands of police officers, troops and armoured vehicles around the capital Minsk to empty parts of the city centre of motorists and pedestrians.

Story continues

Military trucks with police troops were tucked away in side-streets blocked from traffic. The military was patrolling highways leading into the nations capital. Even gates of many apartment buildings overlooking Minsks main road were locked and chained on Sunday morning.

With his main rivals either jailed or barred from running, Mr Lukashenko, 65, faced four other candidates including 37-year-old Mrs Tsikhanouskaya, the wife of an imprisoned YouTube blogger, who emerged as an unlikely face of the Belarusian protests.

Opposition protesters run from tear gas - TATYANA ZENKOVICH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Mrs Tsikhanouskayas campaign rallies across the country have attracted tens of thousands, debunking Mr Lukashenkos claims of being a universally popular leader.

Polls have been open for early voting since Tuesday, and Belarusian election officials on Sunday morning reported a 42 percent turnout in what independent election observers called a sure sign of wide-spread rigging.

European election monitors, including the well-respected Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, have not recognised a single election as free and fair since Mr Lukashenko came to power in 1994.

The group said earlier this summer that they did not receive a timely invitation from authorities and therefore would be unable to set up a monitoring mission in Belarus.

Lukashenko has been in power for 26 years - how much longer? Irina Ivanchikova, 29, told the Telegraph outside a polling station in Minsk. We want a better future _ for ourselves and our kids.

Alexei Yaloshevich, an independent election monitor, was sitting on a picnic chair just outside the polling station after election officials said there was no enough room for observers inside due to coronavirus precautions.

He and his colleagues counted just two-thirds of how many voters showed up at the polling station in early voting Tuesday to Thursday, according to election officials.

Police and protesters clashed in Belarus' capital - AP

President Lukashenko, who has a history of blaming foreign powers for plotting to topple him, has dismissed the growing opposition movement as brainwashed foreign puppets and vowed to clamp down on what he described as illegal protests.

Mr Lukashenko told reporters after casting his ballot at a polling station in central Minsk that the situation will not get out of hand.

Mr Lukashenko dismissed suggestions that he uses security forces to retaliate against his political opponents: They are not worth the effort of using any repressions against them.

Authorities in recent days have been putting pressure on the opposition.

Seven of Mrs Tsikhanouskayas campaign staff were detained and jailed Saturday evening and Sunday morning, including her campaign manager Maria Moroz.

The Telegraph was there when Mrs Tsikhanouskaya fled her home in Minsks east on Saturday night after spotting suspicious men and fearing arrest.

Her ally Maria Kalesnikava was grabbed by security agents just outside the campaign quarters right after that only to be released a few hours later.

The internet connection across town appeared to be jammed throughout the day, with most of the popular messenger apps as well as Facebook and Twitter unavailable.
Dozens of tonnes of Vietnamese longans enter Australia over the past few weeks. (Photo: VNA)



The most recent was the shipment of 7.5 tonnes of longans from the Mekong Delta provinces which arrived in Australia on August 6 and the 9-tonne batch departing from the northern province of Hai Duong on August 8 will join a promotional event, titled Nhan Viet Nam minh (Vietnamese longans), to be held by the Vietnam Trade Office in Australia.

Both batches were imported by 4 Ways Fresh  a Australia-based agribusiness founded in early 1993.

According to 4 Ways Fresh CEO Ly Hoang Duy, Vietnamese fresh longans have gained good impression and favours from local consumers. Vietnamese longans are sold at lower prices compared to those grown in Australia, Duy said, adding that though the longans are small, they have special flavours and very sweet.

Since the beginning of 2020, 4 Ways Fresh has imported about 30 tonnes of longans from Vietnam, mostly the Mekong Delta. After the shipment of 9 tonnes of longans from Hai Duong arrived in Australian, the company plans to raise the weekly import to 10 tonnes to meet increasing demand.

The event Vietnamese longans will last until the harvest season ends in Vietnam, according to head of the Vietnam Trade Office in Australia Nguyen Phu Hoa. It will include promotional activities on social networks, he added.

In 2019, longan has become the fourth Vietnamese fruit to gain permission to enter Australian market after lychee, mango and dragon fruit./.
Telehealth use surged from 8% of Americans in December to 29% in May as primary care and mental health physicians and specialists turned to remote care out of necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

RemetricHealth, a leading remote patient monitoring (RPM) and telehealth services company that has been serving the healthcare industry for more than a decade, has announced that its telehealth capabilities, in conjunction with its biometric monitoring devices, are helping connect patients and providers in a time when continuity of care can be challenging due to COVID-19.

The telehealth model is taking on an increasingly prominent role today, with the coronavirus pandemic sidelining many non-essential office visits. A recent survey by the Primary Care Collaborative revealed that nearly two-thirds (65%) of providers reported challenges in delivering care to their patients. While healthcare facilities are establishing formal telehealth exchanges between providers and their patients to help overcome this challenge, less emphasis has been placed on the remote exchange of vital patient data to empower diagnosis, analysis and treatment.

Visual check-ins via telehealth alone arent enough; If you dont also have a way to adopt preventive measures and keep an eye on biometric data remotely, patients will experience complications of chronic conditions, says Wayne Meng, CEO and founder of RemetricHealth. And the fact is, COVID-19 isnt going away as quickly as wed all hoped; remote care is essential.

To counter the growing disconnect between provider and patient, RemetricHealths solutions seamlessly integrate telehealth visits, remote monitoring of biometric data, patient education, and medication adherence reminders, providing healthcare professionals with a reliable, HIPAA-compliant, enhanced telehealth platform.

Each kit from RemetricHealth includes a customizable selection of biometric devices, including a scale, blood pressure monitor, pulse oximeter, and spirometer. The devices operate via Bluetooth and automatically upload data via the included Samsung 4G tablet straight to a HIPAA-compliant web portal for physicians, with zero technology lift on the part of the patient  they dont have to connect any devices or enter any data. These devices allow physicians and care teams to monitor crucial patient data as well as track trends over time.

Additionally, the included tablet is ideal for telehealth interactions; physician can call their patients on the tablet at pre-scheduled appointment times. The tablet also comes equipped with several apps and features, including numerous patient education videos about common chronic diseases (such as congestive heart failure, hypertension, COPD and diabetes), customizable medication reminders and alerts for patients, and symptom assessments.

For years, telehealth has been considered the future of medicine  it just never became the present. Then, as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down doctors' offices and clinics across the country, telemedicine suddenly became the only way patients could see their doctors and vice versa, according to a recent USA Today article. Telehealth use surged from 8% of Americans in December to 29% in May as primary care and mental health physicians and specialists turned to remote care out of necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

About RemetricHealth

RemetricHealth is an industry-leading, fully integrated remote patient monitoring and telehealth technology and service company that helps physician groups, hospitals, home health agencies, and payers improve patient outcomes and achieve strategic goals by closely monitoring symptoms, vital signs and medication adherence between healthcare visits, alerting healthcare providers if intervention is needed. We've custom-tailored our own devices and combined RPM with video telehealth for a comprehensive solution that is truly integrated, flexible and affordable  with room for providers to achieve a significant ROI. We are bringing healthcare home. To discover more, visit RemetricHealth.com.
08/07/2020

By David Perry

The publication of Prof. Arie Perligers latest book, American Zealots, couldnt feel more timely.

Arriving Aug. 18 to a nation divided by politics, protest and pandemic, the book examines the American far-rights subculture of domestic terror and its reemergence in recent years.

Perliger, director of security studies in the School of Criminology and Justice Studies, oversees the largest database of right-wing extremist violent incidents in the U.S., a mountain of facts and figures chronicling more than 5,000 attacks since 1990.

Before arriving at UMass Lowell in 2016, Perliger was the director of terrorism studies and associate professor at the Combating Terrorism Center and Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

In 2003, Perliger began his teaching career at the University of Haifa in Israel, where he also earned his Ph.D. in political science (specializing in terrorism and political violence security policy and politics), as well as his masters and bachelors degrees.

We caught up with him to chat about his research and about emerging trends in political extremism in these polarized times.

Q. What did your research for the book reveal?

A. In the book, I analyze the historical roots, characteristics, tactics, rhetoric and organization of the violent American far right. I also examine the current and future trajectory of the movements that comprise this subculture. I utilize a comprehensive dataset of more than 5,000 attacks and their perpetrators in order to explore key trends in American right-wing terrorism and identify some important and counterintuitive characteristics. For example, a state's ethnic and racial diversity is the best predictor for the geographical distribution of far-right violence. The number of attacks is positively correlated with the proportional size of minority populations (African Americans, Hispanic and Asian Americans) in each state. Thus, blue states, which are more diverse, also experience higher levels of violence, even when controlling for other factors.

The size and the increase rate in Hispanic and Asian American proportions of the state's population are also strong predictors of the level of violence. I also explain how and why there is a substantial increase in far-right attacks against religious sites and LGBTQ targets, delve into the spontaneous nature of many far-right violent incidents and examine how this can be used to distinguish between different types of perpetrators. Lastly, I use hundreds of primary sources to gain better insights into the current discourse of the American far right, how groups influence each other's rhetoric and explain the diffusion of ideological narratives and how changes in rhetoric impact target selection.

Q. With the country in a state of deep division, American Zealots seems particularly timely. How can your research help us understand the consequences of political polarization?

A. In the book, I highlight how political polarization facilitates further violence. For example, I show that the composition of political institutions is associated with the level of violence and explain how polarization empowers members of far-right groups.

Q. For a long time, many Americans thought extremism was Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic State. We didn't hear as much about homegrown terrorist groups until recent years. Where were all of these right-wing groups?

A. The American far-right groups never disappeared, but were less active until 2008. But a combination of factors facilitates their reemergence, including an increase in political polarization, the election of an African American president, the proliferation of social media which helps groups to disseminate ideological narratives, as well as the economic recession and increase in legislation that was perceived by many in the far right as unconstitutional (gun control, land appropriation, environmental regulations).

Q. Is it true you maintain the largest database of right-wing extremist violent incidents in the U.S.? If so, do students help you maintain this database, and what research purpose does it serve?

A. Indeed. There is no other dataset that covers more than 5,000 attacks since 1990. It includes attacks against property and those without fatalities, which usually receive less attention. I'm grateful to a group of dedicated undergraduate and graduate students at UML, who helped in expanding and improving the dataset. I believe that the dataset will continue to help to explore various facets of far-right extremism and violence, as well as changes over time in the way it is manifested.

Q. Your research focuses on far-right extremism. What about extremism at the other end of the spectrum?

A. I study different manifestations of terrorism. For example, I'm currently working with one of my doctoral students on research focusing on violent environmental groups in the U.S. In the past I also researched nationalist, left-wing and religious groups.

Q. How do you characterize newer groups like boogaloo and antifa, and what do they say about radicalism in 2020 America?

A. The "boogaloo" movement is comprised of individuals and small groups who are inspired by libertarian, white supremacist and anti-government sentiments. Its members promote various conspiracy theories that focus on the federal government's plan to undermine civil liberties, constitutional rights (with focus on the Second Amendment) and various freedoms. Many of them also seem to believe that they can exploit the current social and economic crisis (resulting from demonstrations against police brutality and COVID-19) in order to start a second American civil war. They believe that such a civil war will allow them to promote white supremacy policies as well as counter the powers of the central government. In the short term, their main goal is to prevent what they see as the implementation of new federal intrusive policies, such as new environmental and public safety regulations and policies that promote more racial diversity.

So far, there are no indications of central leadership, coordination or formal organizational apparatus. Some of the major activists are former or current members of militia groups, such as the Three Percenters. Its members are usually communicating via basic social media platforms such as Facebook, Reddit and YouTube. They are currently not using more secure and advanced platforms such as Telegram or Gab.

Most of the online boogaloo groups were created just in the last four or five months, basically when the COVID-19 crisis erupted. Facebook eliminated many of their groups in the last couple of weeks. We will need to see if they will migrate to other platforms like other groups did when their access to mainstream social media platforms was blocked. Its important to note that while some members were engaged in planning violent attacks, such efforts are still restricted to individuals or small groups.

As for antifa, currently there is no evidence that the group was involved in any planned campaign of violent attacks.

Q. When and how did your interest in terrorism begin?

A. I actually became interested in terrorism and political violence shortly before 9/11. I was always curious about extremist ideologies and how people are being mobilized to adopt such views, which are so far from my own views. However, while most of my colleagues focused on the more visible types of terrorism (such as Jihadi terrorism), I was always attracted to study the less "popular" violent groups. For example, my first book focused on Jewish Orthodox terrorist groups in Israel, and since 2011 I began to focus on the American far right. Despite the fact that at that time, most experts regarded it as a minor and insignificant threat.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella leaves the Elysee Palace after a meeting with the French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on May 23, 2018.

If Microsoft were to complete an acquisition of TikTok, it would gain a company with much potential for advertising revenue growth.

But with such a purchase, Microsoft would also take on an entirely new slate of problems.

Microsoft announced on Aug. 2 that it was in talks to purchase TikTok's business in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, with a deadline to complete the deal by Sept. 15. The company is currently owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance and has become a target of the Trump Administration and other governments over privacy and security concerns. Trump also signed an executive order last week that would ban U.S. companies from doing business with TikTok, but it's unclear how that order could affect a potential acquisition by Microsoft.

In the U.S., TikTok has grown to more than 100 million monthly users, many of whom are teens and young adults. Those users tune in to TikTok to see full-screen videos uploaded to the app by others. These videos often feature lip syncing over songs, flashy video editing and eye-catching, augmented-reality visual effects.

To say that TikTok represents a business that is radically different than the enterprise software that Microsoft specializes in would be an understatement.

For Microsoft, TikTok could become an advertising revenue powerhouse, but this potential is not without its own risk. Like other social apps, TikTok is a target for all kinds of problematic content that must be dealt with. This includes basic problems such as spam and scams, but more complicated content could also become headaches for Microsoft.

This could include content such as misinformation, hoaxes, conspiracy theories, violence, prejudice and pornography, said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CEO of Socialbakers, a social media marketing company.

"Microsoft will need to deal with all of that and will be blamed and criticized when they fail to do so," Ben-Itzhak said.

Microsoft declined to comment, and TikTok did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

These challenges can be overcome, but they require large investments of capital and technical prowess, two things Microsoft is capable of providing. And already, Microsoft has some experience when it comes to moderating online communities.

In 2016, Microsoft purchased LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, and although the career and professional-centric service does not have the degree of content issues its peers deal with, it is still a social network. Microsoft has also run Xbox Live, the online gaming service, since its launch in 2002. Online gaming and social media are different beasts, but they do share similarities.

"Combating misinformation will need to be a mission critical priority. Microsoft will be new to this as it doesn't have experience managing a high profile social network at this scale," said Daniel Elman, an analyst at Nucleus Research. "That said, if any company can acquire or quickly develop the requisite skills and capabilities, it is Microsoft."

But these are no small challenges, and these types of problems have become major issues for TikTok's rivals.

Facebook, for example, was accused of not doing enough to circumvent fake news and Russian misinformation ahead of the 2016 U.S. election, and four years later, the company still comes consistently under criticism about whether it is doing enough to prevent that type of content from appearing on its services. In July, hundreds of advertisers boycotted Facebook over its failure to contain the spread of hate speech and misinformation.

Twitter, meanwhile, began to lose key users, such as comedian Leslie Jones, after the company let harassment run rampant on its social network. The company has spent the past couple of years building features to reduce the amount of hateful content users have to deal with in their mentions.

These types of issues have already flared up on TikTok. Far-right activists, white nationalists and neo-Nazis have previously been reported on the app, according to Motherboard and the Huffington Post, which found some users who had already been banned by Facebook and Twitter.
Oil marketing companies (OMCs) continued to keep fuel prices unchanged on Monday across all the metros. Petrol prices have not changed for nearly 45 days now in the country. Petrol prices remained unchanged at Rs 80.43 per litre in Delhi and Rs 87.19 per litre in Mumbai.

Chennai and Kolkata, petrol rates have remained unchanged at Rs 83.63 and Rs 82.10 per litre, respectively.

Diesel prices have also not seen any changes in the last 2 weeks. Diesel is priced at Rs 73.56 per litre in Delhi and Rs 80.11 per litre in Mumbai. Similarly, the price of diesel in Chennai and Kolkata was unchanged at Rs 78.86 and Rs 77.06 per litre, respectively.

Except for Delhi, diesel prices across all metros have remained unchanged since July 26. This is because the Delhi government on July 31 cut diesel prices by Rs 8.36 per litre after rolling back the VAT (Value added Tax) hike.

Earlier, the Delhi government increased VAT on diesel from 16.75 per cent to 30 per cent.

The May 5 VAT hike translated into the steepest ever price increase of Rs 7.10 per litre for diesel. Until July 29, diesel rates in the national capital surged to Rs 81.94 per litre.

Check latest and revised petrol prices today

Price of petrol in Delhi today, August 10- Rs 80.43/litre

Price of petrol in Mumbai today, August 10-Rs 87.19/litre

Price of petrol in Chennai today, August 10-Rs 83.63/litre

Price of petrol in Kolkata today, August 10-Rs 82.10/litre

Price of petrol in Hyderabad today, August 10-Rs 83.49/litre

Price of petrol in Bengaluru today, August 10-Rs 83.04/litre

Price of petrol in Gurgaon today, August 10- Rs 78.64/litre

Price of petrol in Noida today, August 10-Rs 81.08/litre

Check latest and revised diesel prices today

Price of diesel in Delhi today, August 10- Rs 73.56/litre

Price of diesel in Mumbai today, August 10- Rs 80.11/litre

Price of diesel in Chennai today, August 10-Rs 78.86/litre

Price of diesel in Kolkata today, August 10- Rs 77.06/litre

Price of diesel in Hyderabad today, August 10- Rs 80.17/litre

Price of diesel in Bengaluru today, August 10-Rs 77.88/litre

Price of diesel in Gurgaon today, August 10- Rs 74.03/litre

Price of diesel in Noida today, August 10- Rs 73.87/litre

Price of diesel in Ghaziabad today, August 10- Rs 73.71/litre

How to check petrol and diesel prices?

One can check petrol and diesel prices via SMS. You can send an SMS to HPPRICE DEALER CODE and send it to 9222201122. For Indian Oil Corporation or IOC send SMS to Type: RSP DEALER CODE and send it to 9224992249.

Fuel prices can also be checked by visiting the websites of oil companies. Indian Oil, the country's largest retailer, revises fuel prices every day at 6 am in the morning.

Meanwhile, oil prices climbed in early trade today, clawing back over half of Friday's losses, on hopes for a stimulus deal to shore up the US economic recovery and a pledge from Iraq to deepen its crude oil supply cuts, Reuters reported. Brent crude futures were up 40 cents, or 0.9 per cent, at $44.80 a barrel on Monday.

Also read: Petrol, diesel prices today: Fuel prices remain unchanged; check latest rates in metros

Also read: Petrol, diesel prices today: Fuel prices remain unchanged; check latest rates across metros
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 9)  The death toll from a clash between government troops and rebels in Ilocos Sur has risen to seven as of Sunday.

In a message to CNN Philippines, Northern Luzon Command Chief LtGen Ramiro Rey said a soldier from the Armed Forces was killed, while six members of the New People's Army died in the clash.

The incident began at 2 p.m. on Saturday in Barangay Suagayan, Candon City, according to the Armed Forces of the Philippines Northern Luzon Command. Authorities said they received reports from residents who were concerned that an armed group was in the area.

This is a developing story.
The Boston Globe endorsed Sen. Ed Markeys re-election bid last month, citing the senators long record championing progressive causes.

But in a letter written to the Globes editorial board, city council presidents from four of the states Gateway cities, which includes Springfield, Lawrence, New Bedford and Chelsea, said the senator has ignored their voices.

We dont dispute the senators leadership on spectrum technology and nuclear arms, the letter said. With due respect, those issues dont come up very much in our communities.

Markey is in the midst of a tough Democratic primary fight against Rep. Joe Kennedy III ahead of the Sept. 1 election. The Globe endorsement credited Markey with being ahead of the curve on things like cracking down on insider trading, ensuring consumer access to wireless technology and helping to create a movement to put a freeze on nuclear arms.

Decades before CNN hosted its first town hall for presidential candidates devoted to climate change, and decades before Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenage activist, was named Time magazines Person of the Year, Markey worked to make the air we breathe cleaner and to stave off the catastrophic heat waves, droughts, and rising seas poised to displace millions of people around the world, the Globe wrote.

The letter, which was not published by the Globe, was signed by Lawrence City Council President Kendrys Vasquez, Springfield City Council President Justin Hurst, Chelsea City Council President Roy Avellaneda and New Bedford City Council President Joseph Lopes.

Lopes tweeted out the text of the letter on Sunday.

Center to the concerns raised by the four city council presidents was a report by the Globe that Markey spends less time in Massachusetts than the rest of the states congressional delegation. The letter writers said the Globes endorsement seemed to dismiss this as if it didnt matter.

It matters, the letter read, because, if he walked among us, maybe he would remember us when he sat down to write legislation.

What does matter to their cities, the letter writers said, is the exploitation of the American worker, the continued segregation of Massachusetts schools, the vicious legacy of mass incarceration and the inability of most families to afford health care, child care groceries and rent. We wish Senator Markey had been a leader on any one of those.

According to Globes Deputy Managing Editor Marjorie Pritchard, the Globe receives about 100 letters a day. Pritchard said the Globe received the letter on Friday afternoon, July 31, and that a followup email from Avellaneda on July 31 should have triggered an automated email that the letters editor was on vacation. The letter editor returned from vacation Monday to learn the letter had already been released publically by the councilors on their own. The Globe did not reject the letter, Pritchard said.

Hurst told MassLive Monday that the letter was a collaboration between the councilors and that the Kennedy campaign was also involved.

When our districts are crying out for assistance, whether its COVID-19 or other things, I did not see Sen. Markey out here in Springfield, Hurst said. The sad part about it is until this past Sunday I still hadnt seen Ed Markey out here in Springfield to even run his race.
God achieves his will by all human beings acting freely

Author John Payne addresses an age-old question through fiction in Then Comes the Flood ($19.49, paperback, 9781631299926; $30.49; hardcover; 9781631299933; $9.99, e-book, 9781631299940).

Paynes story centers around Megan Alladee, who was sexually assaulted and aborted the resulting pregnancy. Burdened by guilt and loss, she crosses paths with Kayla, whose 7-month old baby was killed in a car crash. As Megan learns of the faith that sees Kayla through her pain, she is confronted with the ultimate question: How could a loving God allow all this suffering? Payne offers answers to this question through his characters, and without preaching.

Through much study as a believer, I came to realize that the apparent contradiction between God's sovereignty, unfathomable to us, and human freedom that endeavors to work against his sovereignty, come together. God achieves his will by all human beings acting freely, said Payne.

John Payne was educated at Mid South Bible College, Memphis, Tennessee and holds a Certificate of Christian Apologetics from BIOLA University. His career has included General Manager of Customer Relationship Management for corporations.

Xulon Press, a division of Salem Media Group, is the worlds largest Christian self-publisher, with more than 15,000 titles published to date. Then Comes the Flood is available online through xulonpress.com/bookstore, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.
States question how Trumps initial proposal would work and many doubt that they could afford to participate.

Whether United States President Donald Trump has the constitutional authority to extend federal unemployment benefits by executive order remains unclear. Equally up in the air is whether states, which are necessary partners in Trumps plan to bypass Congress, will sign on.

Trump announced an executive order Saturday that extends additional unemployment payments of $400 a week to help cushion the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. Congress had approved payments of $600 a week at the outset of the outbreak, but those benefits expired August 1 and Congress has been unable to agree on an extension. Many Republicans have expressed concern that a $600 weekly benefit, on top of existing state benefits, gives people an incentive to stay unemployed.

But under Trumps plan, the $400 a week requires a state to commit to providing $100.

Many states are already facing budget crunches caused by the pandemic. Asked at a news conference how many governors had signed on to participate, Trump answered: If they dont, they dont. Thats up to them.

Trump expressed a different view on Sunday night, following a day of state officials questioning how they could afford even $100 per person in additional weekly payments. He told reporters as he returned to Washington that states could make applications to have the federal government provide all or part of the $400 payments. Decisions would be made state by state, he said.

Several state officials questioned how Trumps initial proposal would work and often expressed doubt that they could afford to participate at the level Trump initially set without using federal funds.





Aubrey Layne, secretary of finance for Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, said in a phone interview Sunday that he believes it would be feasible for Virginia to participate in such a programme if states are allowed to use money thats been allocated to them under the already-passed Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. He said his preliminary understanding is that states can do so, but he and others are waiting to see the rules published.

The better solution, Layne said, would be for Congress to pass legislation.

Its ludicrous to me that Congress cant get together on this, he said. I think it would have been better for the president to use his influence in those negotiations, rather than standing on the sideline and then riding in like a shining knight.

Details about the programme were confused on Sunday  and that was even before Trumps declaration that states could ask the federal government to pay all or part of the $400-a-week payments.

A man walks past a retail store that is going out of business due to the coronavirus pandemic in Illinois. Unemployment numbers are evidence of the devastation the coronavirus outbreak has unleashed on the US economy [Nam Y Huh/AP Photo]

On CNNs State of the Nation programme, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said conflicting things about whether the federal money was contingent on an additional contribution from the states. Initially, Kudlow said that for an extra $100, we will lever it up. We will pay three-quarters, and the states will pay 25 percent. In the same interview, though, he later said that at a minimum, we will put in 300 bucks  but I think all they [the states] have to do is put up an extra dollar, and we will be able to throw in the extra $100.

A clarifying statement from the White House said the funds will be available for those who qualify by, among other things, receiving $100/week of existing assistance and certify that they have lost their jobs due to COVID-19.

Several advocacy groups that follow the issue, though, said its clear the way the executive order is structured that the federal money will be contingent on states making a 25 percent contribution.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, called the plan an impossibility.

I dont know if the president is genuine in thinking the executive order is a resolution or if this is just a tactic in the negotiation, Cuomo said. But this is irreconcilable for the state. And I expect this is just a chapter in the book of Washington COVID mismanagement.

In Connecticut, Democratic Governor Ned Lamont said on CBSs Face the Nation programme that the plan would cost his state $500 million to provide that benefit for the rest of the year, and called Trumps plan not a good idea.





I could take that money from testing  I dont think thats a good idea, Lamont said.

On CNN, Republican Ohio Governor Mike DeWine praised Trump for issuing the order.

Hes trying to do something. Hes trying to move the ball forward, DeWine said.

Still, he was noncommittal about whether Ohio would participate.

Were looking at it right now to see whether we can do this, he said.

In Maryland, Michael Ricci, spokesman for Republican Governor Larry Hogan, said in an email that we will wait on new guidance from [the] US Department of Labor before looking at any [unemployment insurance] changes.

In Minnesota, Department of Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove said his agency is awaiting further guidance from the US Department of Labor.

Kevin Hensil, a spokesman for Democratic Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, said reducing the benefit by a third will make it harder for families to get by and it places a larger financial burden on states. He said state officials are studying the impact of the cuts.

In Louisiana, Christina Stephens, a spokeswoman for Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards, said, Right now we are reviewing the presidents order to determine exactly what the impact to the state would be.

And in Michigan, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer said in a press release that Trump cut federal funding for unemployed workers and is requiring states that are facing severe holes in our budgets to provide 25 percent of the funding.

On ABCs programme This Week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, called it an unworkable plan.

Most states will take months to implement it, because its brand new, Schumer noted. Its sort of put together with spit and paste. And many states, because they have to chip in $100, and they dont have money, wont do it.

Many states struggled to adjust outdated computer systems to accommodate the $600 payment, which along with the massive influx of new claims resulted in long delays in providing benefits. Reprogramming the computers again to accommodate the new amount could result in similar glitches.

On ABC, Kudlow said that many of those outdated systems have since been upgraded.

I dont think there will be a huge delay, he said. [The] Labor Department has been working with the states. The states are the ones that process the federal benefits before. So, I dont see any reason why it would be all that difficult.
Dr. Sonia Angell, Californias public health officer and one of the top officials formulating the states response to the coronavirus pandemic, abruptly announced her resignation Sunday night after less than a year on the job.

Angell gave no reason for her resignation as public health officer and director of the state Department of Public Health, which takes effect immediately.

The announcement comes less than a week after state officials revealed that a problem with a computer system had resulted in an undercounting of new coronavirus cases since July 25. Gov. Gavin Newsom learned of the problem only after he had touted a sharp drop in new cases as a sign for cautious optimism during an Aug. 3 news conference, officials said.

Angell was named state health officer and the director of Californias Department of Public Health in October. She was the first Latina to hold the posts.

In her resignation email to staff, Angell commended colleagues on their handling of public health challenges, from vaping and wildfires to the pandemic.

Since January, when we got word of repatriation flights arriving from Wuhan, China, our Department has been front and center in what has become an all-of-government response of unprecedented proportions to COVID-19, Angell wrote. Not one of our staff has gone untouched by the changes that have occurred. Not in our professional lives or our personal lives.

Gov. Gavin Newsom released a statement in response to the news offering thanks to Angell for her service to the state and her work to help steer our public health system during this global pandemic, while never losing sight of the importance of health equity.

Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly saying he was grateful to Dr. Angell for her service to the people of California during this unprecedented public health crisis. She has worked tirelessly for all Californians, always keeping health equity in mind. Her leadership was instrumental as Californians flattened the curve once and in setting us on a path to do so again.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Last week, Ghaly said we will hold people accountable after Newsom ordered an investigation of the states tech glitch for counting coronavirus cases. An email to the governors office asking whether Angells resignation was related to the glitch was not immediately returned Sunday night.

From 2014 to 2019, Angell worked as a deputy commissioner for prevention and primary care at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Before that, she was a senior adviser for global noncommunicable diseases as well as chief and founder of the Global Noncommunicable Disease Unit at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sandra Shewry, of the California Health Care Foundation, will be appointed as acting California Department of Public Health director on Monday, while Dr. Erica Pan will assume the role of acting state public health officer. Pan was Alameda Countys health officer until her appointment in June as California state epidemiologist.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Trapper Byrne contributed to this story.

Tony Bravo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tbravo@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TonyBravoSF
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Monday slammed Bihar government for its involvement in Sushant Singh Rajputs death case, saying theyve got nothing to do with the matter.

Mere angne me tumhara kya kaam hai? (What business youve got in my courtyard). The investigation is taking place here in Maharashtra, Raut said.

If the CBI registered an FIR, then its their compulsion. It comes under the centre and the government has its own compulsions. Bihar government made a recommendation when theyve nothing to do with the matter, he said.

The Shiv Sena leader said the FIR has been registered in Mumbai and Mumbai Police is investigating the case.

Also read: Sushant Singh Rajput case: Rhea moves SC, alleges unfair media trial

FIR is registered in Mumbai & is being investigated by Mumbai Police. Suddenly FIR is registered in Bihar. What's the need for it? Have some trust in the Police. Every Police holds a reputation in its state, if you interfere in that then matter gets worse: Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena https://t.co/PQdmXeC4nb  ANI (@ANI) August 10, 2020

Suddenly an FIR is registered in Bihar. Whats the need for it? Have some trust in the Police. Every Police holds a reputation in its state, if you interfere in that then matter gets worse, the MP stated.

Earlier, in partys editorial mouthpiece Saamna, Raut had said that Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput was not on good terms with his father KK Singh.

Also read: Sushant Singh Rajputs family demands public apology from Sanjay Raut

It is true, how many times did Sushant go to Patna to meet his father? I have sympathy for his father but there are many things that will come to surface, Raut said in his article in Saamana.

According to reports, the late actors family has now demanded an apology from Raut for his comments on the actor and is considering legal action.
Holidaymakers are facing chaos and uncertainty amid fears France, Holland, Switzerland, Poland and Malta could be added to the quarantine list within days.

Amid an alarming surge in coronavirus cases on the continent, Boris Johnson warned yesterday that ministers will 'not hesitate' to reintroduce quarantine 'very rapidly' if infections continue to rise.

There are already fears that France  where 500,000 Britons are currently on holiday  could be re-added if infections continue to increase over the next two days. The scenario could trigger a frantic rush of passengers desperate to return home.

And last night an industry expert warned it may be the case that fresh restrictions are imposed on Holland, Switzerland, Poland and Malta, where case numbers are rising. All returning passengers would have to self-isolate for 14 days.

Airline bosses last night dismissed the reports as 'overegged' speculation, but ministers have not ruled out new restraints, insisting it is too early to make a decision that would have a significant impact on holidaymakers and the travel industry.

There are already fears that France  where 500,000 Britons are currently on holiday  could be re-added if infections continue to increase over the next two days

An industry expert warned it may be the case that fresh restrictions are imposed on Holland, Switzerland, Poland and Malta, where case numbers are rising (pictured: Dover, August 9)

Airline bosses last night dismissed the reports as 'overegged' speculation, but ministers have not ruled out new restraints, insisting it is too early to make a decision that would have a significant impact on holidaymakers and the travel industry (pictured: Heathrow, July 30)

An extension of quarantine across Europe would effectively signal the death knell for foreign holidays this summer, heaping fresh misery on airlines and tour operators.

Q&A: WHAT TO DO IF YOU'VE BOOKED A HOLIDAY Should I cancel my holiday? Officials say a decision on countries including France, Holland, Switzerland, Malta and Poland is not expected imminently but could come before the end of the week. If coronavirus cases continue to rise in those places over the next few days it may be sensible to cancel or postpone. Can I claim statutory sick pay if I'm in quarantine? No. There is no automatic eligibility to statutory sick pay, unless they meet the required conditions, such as displaying virus symptoms. How likely is it that new countries will be added? It depends on whether infection rates continue to increase. As well as case numbers, officials are considering other criteria, such as individual country's testing regimes and the extent to which their data can be trusted. A decision could come at any time but an announcement is more likely to be made from Thursday onwards, as this is when the Government will carry out its weekly review of quarantine countries. Will I get a refund on my holiday? If your airline goes ahead with the flight, then you have no right to a refund  although some carriers may give you your money back as a gesture of goodwill. Otherwise you are likely to get a voucher or the option to move the flight to a later date. Package holidays are protected under the Atol scheme. What are the punishments if I break the rules? Fines of up to 1,000 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and 480 in Scotland. This can rise to 5,000 for persistent offenders. However, only a very small number of people have been fined so far. What if I just have to transit through France? As long as passengers remain in the car for the whole journey and nobody joins you, then you would not have to quarantine afterwards. Advertisement

In a potential scramble to return home before any new rulings come into force, holidaymakers would likely be given at least 30 hours' notice before the measures kick in.

Ministers are said to be giving careful thought to the decision to blacklist France due to heightened diplomatic tensions with the Channel migrant crisis.

There are said to be further concerns for the capacity of Eurotunnel and ferry operators to deal with a sudden rush of travellers returning home. Ministers insist no decisions have been made and an announcement is not expected imminently.

But in a sign of concern over the spike in infections, Whitehall sources last night said travellers should be prepared to expect the worst and warned: 'No holiday is necessarily guaranteed.'

An official announcement could come on Thursday night, after ministers are presented with the latest data in their weekly review of the quarantine list.

Officials say it is impossible to predict whether the countries will be added to the quarantine list but said they will monitor infection rates over the coming days.

One of the measurements used by Public Health England and the Joint Biosecurity Centre to determine the risk is the number of cases per 100,000 of the population, cumulative over 14 days.

According to industry insiders, any country with a consistent rate of more than 20 cases per 100,000 people, over seven days, is at risk of being added to the quarantine list.

As of Sunday, France has a rate of 26 per 100,000, Poland is 23 and Switzerland 25. Yesterday Malta hit 58.6 cases per 100,000 and Holland 32.5. The rates have been rising steadily over the last week, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

A Whitehall source told the Daily Mail: 'A lot of it comes down to these infection rates. Obviously, rising cases mean the risk of quarantine is more likely. No decisions have been made and we are waiting to see how things change over the week. What we would say to holidaymakers is that they need to be aware there is a risk of quarantine coming in at any time. No holiday is necessarily guaranteed.'

Speaking on a visit to Essex yesterday, the Prime Minister said ministers will 'not hesitate' to impose restrictions.

He said: 'I don't want to advise people about their individual holidays, individual decisions, they should look at the travel advice from the Foreign Office clearly.

'But what I will say, and I hope people would expect us to do this, in the context of a global pandemic, we've got to keep looking at the data in all the countries to which British people want to travel.

'Where it is necessary to impose restrictions or to impose a quarantine system, we will not hesitate to do so.'

Rising cases: Spain has suffered a severe spike in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, as this graph shows, while France, Germany and Italy have also seen upticks in new infections

Boris Johnson warned that ministers will 'not hesitate' to impose a quarantine system for travellers from other countries to the UK if needed

Now Paris wants you to wear masks outside People wear protective face masks by the Eiffel Tower as part of measures to contain the virus Romantics heading to the city of love had better be careful not to be caught kissing outdoors. that's because it's now illegal to be on the boulevards of Paris without a face mask. Following a surge in covid cases, police are authorised to issue a 123 spot fine to anyone not follow the public health diktat. one location covered by the measure is the banks of the Canal Saint-Martin, one of the city's most popular outdoor spots for lunch or an aperitif with friends. 'In the morning when there is nobody on the canal, I think it is a bit of a drastic measure,' lawyer Helene Rames said. Wearing a face mask outdoors is also required at the city's openair markets, at popular tourist sites like Notre Dame Cathedral, the Eiffel tower and the Montmartre district with its crowded streets. A nationwide decree already requires people to wear masks in all stores and other indoor public places. Advertisement

Summer holidays have been blamed for rising cases in Germany and Italy, while France has tightened its face mask rules in tourist hotspots such as Paris and the Mediterranean resort of Saint Tropez.

However, Europe has yet to see a major spike in deaths or hospital cases, amid signs that many of those testing positive are young and less vulnerable to the disease.

France has piled up more than 10,000 new cases in the last week, the highest number since April and a sharp increase from 7,391 the week before.

The government's Covid-19 scientific council warned last week that France could 'at any moment' lose control over the spread of the disease.

Some French towns are now requiring face masks outdoors, including the Mediterranean resort of Saint-Tropez and other tourist areas.

Paris and Marseille, the two largest cities in France, have both ordered mask-wearing in crowded outdoor areas such as open-air markets and the banks of the Seine.

Asked if France could be added to the quarantine list, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'We keep the data for all countries and territories under constant review.

'Any decisions to update the exemptions list will be informed by the latest health data and we can and will act rapidly. We have been updating the exemptions list on a weekly basis in order to make sure that it reflects the changes in the international health picture.'

He added: 'If there is a need to act very rapidly in order to protect public health, then we wouldn't hesitate to do so.'

He went on: 'Unfortunately, during this pandemic there isn't a risk-free way of travelling overseas. The population's made a huge effort to get the disease down to the levels that we're seeing in the UK and if we feel that we need to act in relation to the travel exemptions list then we'll do so.'

He continued: 'While we can amend the list at any time and we can remove countries from the exempt list, if there's a sustained improvement in the health situation in a particular country we can reinstate exemptions or add some new ones.'

'Bonfire of jobs' with a THIRD of firms planning lay offs this autumn as figures are set to show the economy has formally gone into recession

Fears are mounting of a 'bonfire of jobs' amid warnings a third of firms are planning to lay off staff this autumn.

Shock research found huge numbers of companies expect to axe roles in the third quarter of the year as coronavirus hammers the economy.

Many of the cuts are set to come from hospitality businesses such as hotels, restaurants and cafes, as well as shops that were already on the brink before the pandemic.

The hit emerged in a survey carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) with recruiter the Adecco Group.

The number of firms that cut 20 or more roles during June was up fivefold compared to last year, rising to 1,778. Pictured: Stock photo of an upset businessman

GDP figures due to be released this week are set to show that the UK has entered a technical recession - with two consecutive quarters of contraction. The Bank of England predicts that the downturn will be the worst in a hundred years (chart pictured)

Boris Johnson takes aim at unions amid bid to 'sabotage' reopening schools next month Boris Johnson told teachers today they have a 'moral duty' to help schools reopen next month as he faced a standoff with unions. The PM warned it is 'not right' that pupils should spend more time out of the classroom, reiterating his determination for a full return when term begins. While he was careful to praise the work done by teachers and unions to make schools 'safe' in time for the move, he added: 'It is our moral duty as a country to make sure that happens.' The intervention - as he tried his hand at archery on a visit to a school in Upminster - came as unions were accused of a bid to sabotage the government's plans with a 200-item list of safety demands. The National Education Union has provided its half a million members with a 'checklist' of Covid-secure measures, saying they should 'escalate' complaints if they are not being followed. There have also been calls for pupils to be taught on a week on, week off rota. But Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a member of Sage, said studies had suggested children were 'very minor players in the transmission overall' of the virus. And he insisted teachers were not at significantly higher risk than any other workers. Ministers have also played down calls for teachers and pupils to be routinely tested whether or not they have symptoms. Advertisement

Labour demanded the government ditches plans to scrap the furlough scheme entirely from October, forcing employers to take on the full costs of staff wages again.

Meanwhile, figures released this week are due to confirm that the UK has formally entered recession - with a second quarter of GDP contracting. And official jobs data are scheduled for tomorrow.

Figures on Wednesday are widely expected to show the economy contracted massively during the second quarter following the imposition of the virus lockdown.

That comes after output declined in the first three months of the year. Two successive quarters of contraction officially marks a recession, which would be the first since the financial crisis hit.

Separate figures from the Insolvency Service have indicated that more than 139,000 jobs were lost in June.

The number of firms that cut 20 or more roles during June was up fivefold compared to last year, rising to 1,778.

And economic figures due this week are due to underline the scale of the problems, with jobs figures and the latest GDP estimate coming within days.

There are fears that huge numbers of people working from home is causing damage as businesses that rely on busy offices  from sandwich shops and pubs to dry cleaners and hairdressers  are deprived of custom.

Sandwich shop chains Pret a Manger and Upper Crust have already axed thousands of jobs between them, with Pret yesterday asking staff to accept reduced hours.

Gerwyn Davies, of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), said businesses were now facing the prospect of rising costs as the Government winds down its jobs furlough scheme.

He added: 'For many firms, the problem is that revenues are simply not coming in. There is undoubtedly going to be a lot of job losses.'

Firms that revealed plans to lay off staff in June included Royal Mail, Jet2, HSBC, Jaguar Land Rover, Centrica and the Restaurant Group, owner of Frankie and Benny's.

Similar announcements followed from other big names in July, such as Marks & Spencer, Boots and John Lewis.

The Bank of England said last week that the UK economy is likely to shrink by nearly a tenth over this year

The Bank predicted that GDP will have been down by more than a fifth in the second quarter

High Street businesses have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, with lockdown measures dramatically reducing visitor numbers and forcing 'non-essential' shops to close for months.

200,000 people forced to retire early Nearly 200,000 people over 50 have dropped out of the workforce and become economically inactive since the outbreak, a study suggests. Inactivity levels have increased more in recent months among over-50s than any other age group, said jobs and community site Rest Less. A separate study from the Centre for Ageing Better and the Learning and Work Institute also found roughly 2.5million over-50s had been furloughed and 377,000 of those face the prospect of losing their job entirely. Stuart Lewis, of Rest Less, said: 'In the wake of the toughest job market in decades, there has been a significant rise in the number of workers over 50 who have lost hope in finding a job and feel forced into an early retirement that many simply cannot afford.' Advertisement

But the jobs bloodbath is expected to intensify when the Government's furlough scheme winds down in October.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been urged to extend the scheme for specific sectors that have been worst hit but has so far resisted pressure to do so.

Shadow business minister Lucy Powell called for the Government to 'urgently rethink their rigid approach', which will see the furlough scheme end entirely in October.

'The unpredictable nature of this virus means that public health measures must be flexible and responsive, but it surely follows that economic measures must be the same,' the Labour MP said.

'It's clearly illogical and unfair to prevent businesses from opening their doors, cutting them off from any income, and to cut their furlough lifeline at the same time.

'They've said they can't save every job, but we're seeing a jobs bonfire. They need to target their support at the hardest-hit sectors or be responsible for another wave of mass redundancies.'

As part of plans to set an example and get the country moving again, the Government has told civil servants  four fifths of whom are still working remotely -to get back to work in central London or risk losing their prestigious Westminster offices.

Treasury officials are said to be considering mass sell-off of the Government's buildings in the capital before this autumn's spending review.
Missing Brit found safe

PHUKET: British national Peter Murrray, 60, reported as missing by his family in the UK, is safe and on the island, but being detained at Phuket Provincial Prison while driving charges against him are being heard in court.

accidentsalcoholcrimepolice

By The Phuket News

Monday 10 August 2020, 04:36PM

Peter Murray is safe and in good health, but being detained at Phuket Prison while waiting for driving charges against him to be heard in court. Photo: Supplied

Concerns for Peters welfare were raised last week when his niece Shannon reached out to The Phuket News for help in locating her uncle.

Peters sister Sonia explained that Peter had booked tickets to fly to Bulgaria to meet family there, but failed to arrive on Aug 2. All attempts to contact Peter since then had failed.

Peter had been living in Phuket Town for about four years, Sonia noted.

Lt Wirote Pornpraprut of the Phuket City Police confirmed to The Phuket News today (Aug 10) that Peter is currently facing charges of drunk driving and reckless driving after he was involved in an accident on July 28.

He was held at Phuket City Police Station on July 28-29, then arraigned and taken to Phuket Provincial Prison to await trial, Lt Wirote said.

Lt Wirote gave only a brief description of the accident. Peter was driving a motorbike that collided with another motorbike. The person riding the other motorbike was injured, but the injury was not serious, he said.

I checked his alcohol level, which registered as 300mg [0.3 BAC], and so I charged him with drunk driving, he added.

Lt Wirote told The Phuket News, Peters case was reported to the [British] embassy on the same day of the accident, July 28, Lt Wirote said.

Asked Peters current state of health, Lt Wirote confirmed, He is fine.

Asked why there was such a long delay in processing a simple drunk driving and reckless driving charge, Lt Wirote said he had to wait for a criminal background check to come from Bangkok.

A representative with the British Embassy in Bangkok this afternoon confirmed that Peter is safe, and is receiving embassy assistance.

The Phuket News was granted three minutes to speak with Peter at the prison this afternoon.

Sporting a prison haircut, Peter was not overly in good spirits, but confirmed that he was in good health.

I am still sore from the accident, he said, pointing to the right side of his body.

Peter also confirmed that a British embassy representative had already visited him earlier this afternoon, along with a person who had been assisting the family to locate him**.

I hope to post bail by the end of this week, Peter said, also pointing out that he was a regular reader of The Phuket News.

** Correction: A person assisting the family to locate Peter had accompanied the embassy representative, not an actual family member. Our apologies for the misunderstanding.
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Communications Director of Ghana Gas Company Limited has descended on the Ahwois describing them as 'greedy old men'



Ernest Owusu Bempah who was reacting to the content of Prof Kwamena Ahwoi's "Working With Rawlings" book, disclosed how former President Jerry John Rawlings made a 'terrible mistake' because of the manipulations of the Ahwoi's.



"These are greedy old men who want to manipulate political leadership in the country. Who doesn't know the Ahwois . . . his (Rawlings) mistake was to allow you take juicy positions in his government . . . after Rawlings' term ended they made the man make a terrible mistake by lying to Jerry John Rawlings . . . then they moved to Atta Mills . . . the Ahwois were taking over, Mahama himself I'm surprised he is making terrible mistakes by aligning himself with the Ahwois because he was also complaining when he was a Vice President that the Ahwois had taken control of everything . . ." he said on Neat FM.



"What did they wanted to achieve by coming out with this book four months to election . . . my message to the Ahwois is that . . . nobody can erase the legacy of Rawlings . . . distortions and lies, propaganda . . . outright blatant lies," he added.



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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WATERLOO REGION  A constable with Waterloo Regional Police is facing two charges of assault following an investigation in Hamilton.

The arrest was made on Sunday and the reported assaults occurred between January 2019 and October 2019 in Hamilton, police said in a news release.

The officer has been with Waterloo Regional Police for two years and is a patrol constable in the north division in Waterloo.

The constable has been suspended with pay as is required by the Police Services Act of Ontario.

The officer will appear in court in Hamilton on Oct. 16.

To protect the identity of the victim police said they are not disclosing further details, such as the name of the officer.
I read the column (published in Saturday's edition of the Opelika-Auburn News) by Olivia Alperstein entitled, U.S. should apologize for bomb, with interest.

Ms. Alperstein laments the deaths of 200,000 people. What she fails to address is the alternatives to these deaths.

The bombs were dropped as an alternative to an amphibious invasion, the proposed Operation Downfall invasion of Japan. Estimates vary, but US death estimates generally fall in a range of 400,00 to 800,000 US troops, and 5 to 10 million Japanese casualties. Is this the alternative Ms. Alperstein would have preferred?

There were other alternatives we could have chosen. We could have surrendered to Japan.

Of course, the Japanese considered surrender to be the act of cowards who had no right to continue living, and they demonstrated their contempt by killing thousands of innocents in the Philippines, China, and other locations. Based on their behavior, a reasonable estimate of American deaths would have numbered in the millions.

Is this the alternative Ms. Alperstein would have preferred?
News Non-Signatories to Myanmars Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement Yet to Decide on Attending Peace Conference

Delegates pose for a photo at the third session of the 21st-Century Panglong Union Peace Conference on July 13, 2018. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

The ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) that are not signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) have yet to decide whether they will attend the NLD governments final peace conference session on Aug. 19.

The Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), an ethnic armed group in negotiations on joining peace talks with the government, said it would not be able to join the fourth session of the 21st-Century Panglong Union Peace Conference (UPC).

The government on Sunday sent invitations to the latest UPC session to seven ethnic armed groups who are non-signatories to the NCA: the United Wa State Army, the Kachin Independence Army, the Taang National Liberation Army, the KNPP, Mong Las National Democratic Alliance Army, Kokangs Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Shan State Progressive Party/Shan State Army-North. The government will not invite the Arakan Army, which it declared a terrorist group in March.

The KNPPs spokesman said the group is not able to join the talks, as the invitation specified that two senior leaders (with rank of secretary or above) should attend the opening ceremony on Aug. 19.

We are busy next week and wont be able to make it, said Khu Plu Reh, a secretary of the KNPP.

UWSA spokesman and liaison officer Nyi Rang said he had not heard anything yet from his headquarters in Pang Hseng.

The Naypyitaw government and our headquarters communicate directly and we, the liaison office, dont know anything about it, he told The Irrawaddy on Monday.

The Irrawaddy was unable to contact the KIA and other groups to get their views.

The upcoming peace conference will be the last under the current government. Due to COVID-19 health concerns, the conference on Aug. 19-21 will be held with fewer delegates than previous sessions.

As part of COVID-19 preventative measures, those attending the UPC will have to arrive in Naypyitaw no later than Friday, as all delegates will have to be tested for COVID-19.

To accommodate social distancing and other preventative measures, the number of delegates has been reduced to one-third previous levels, and only a few observers from civil society forums will be allowed to attend, U Zaw Htay, a government spokesman, said in mid-July.

A total of 54 Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) delegates will attend, while the total number of participants is limited to 200.

Major General Zaw Min Tun, the militarys spokesman, said the Tatmadaw hopes to get results that will support genuine peace, as envisioned by the army chief.

Myanmars peace process has been in limbo since long before the coronavirus pandemic began, but negotiators are focused on finding ways to move the peace process beyond 2020after the election and under a new government.

EAOs that have signed the NCA and the governments negotiation teams have continued talks, meeting both virtually and in person seven times in the four months since travel restrictions were put in place in Myanmar due to COVID-19 in late March.

In early August, those negotiations resumed in Naypyitaw, weeks before the conference. On Monday, pre-JICM (Joint Implementing Coordination Meeting) talks were held between the negotiation teams of both sides.

On Wednesday, the EAOs Peace Process Steering Team (PPST), led by the chairman of the Restoration Council of Shan State, will meet again in Naypyitaw to further share their common perspectives. The PPST also met on Aug. 6-8 but without its team leader.

Their discussions, which focus on setting a framework for NCA implementation, plans for the peace process beyond 2020 and establishing basic federal principles, are ongoing with many of the topics already set for agreement, according to Nai Ong MaNge, a spokesman for the PPST and a member of the Central Executive Committee member of the New Mon State Party, an NCA signatory.

The issues of troop deployments by armed forces (both the Tatmadaw and the EAOs), security reintegration and federal principles such as drafting state constitutions still need further negotiation, he said.

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New Delhi:

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday announced new measures and incentives for promotion of digital and cashless economy in the country.



In the aftermath of the cancellation of the legal tender character of old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes, there has been a surge in the digital transactions through use of credit and debit cards and mobile phone applications and e-wallets.



To further accelerate this process, the Narendra Modi Government on Thursday decided on a package of incentives and measures for promotion of digital and cashless economy in the country.



In a press conference after 30 days of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to ban currency notes of Rs 500, and Rs 1000, the finance minister on Thursday announced these eleven incentives and measures-

1. The Central Government Petroleum PSUs shall give incentive by offering a discount at the rate of 0.75% of the sale price to consumers on purchase of petrol or diesel if payment is made through digital means. Nearly 4.5 crore customers buy petrol or diesel at such petrol pumps per day who can take benefit of this incentive scheme.



It is estimated that petrol or diesel worth Rs. 1800 crore is sold per day to the customers out of which nearly 20% was being paid through digital means.



In the month of November 2016 it has increased to 40% and the cash transaction of Rs. 360 crore per day have got shifted to cashless transaction methods.



The incentive scheme has the potential of shifting at least 30% more customer to digital means which will further reduce the cash requirement of nearly Rs. 2 lakh crore per year at the petrol pumps.



2. To expand digital payment infrastructure in rural areas, the Central Government through NABARD will extend financial support to eligible banks for deployment of 2 POS devices each in 1 Lakh villages with population of less than 10,000.



These POS machines are intended to be deployed at primary cooperative societies/milk societies/agricultural input dealers to facilitate agri-related transactions through digital means.



This will benefit farmers of one lakh village covering a total population of nearly 75 crore who will have facility to transact cashlessly in their villages for their agri needs.



3. The Central Government through NABARD will also support Rural Regional Banks and Cooperative Banks to issue Rupay Kisan Cards to 4.32 crore Kisan Credit Card holders to enable them to make digital transactions at POS machines/Micro ATMs/ATMs.



4. Railway through its sub urban railway network shall provide incentive by way of discount upto 0.5% to customers for monthly or seasonal tickets from January 1, 2017, if payment is made through digital means.



Nearly 80 lakh passengers use seasonal or monthly ticket on suburban railways, largely in cash, spending worth nearly Rs.2,000 crore per year.



As more and more passengers will shift to digital means the cash requirement may get reduced by Rs.1,000 crore per year in near future.



5. All railway passengers buying online ticket shall be given free accidental insurance cover of upto Rs. 10 lakh. Nearly 14 lakh railway passengers are buying tickets everyday out of which 58% tickets are bought online through digital means.



It is expected that another 20% passengers may shift to digital payment methods of buying railway tickets.



Hence nearly 11 lakh passengers per day will be covered under the accidental insurance scheme.



6. For paid services e.g. catering, accommodation, retiring rooms etc. being offered by railways through its affiliated entities/corporations to the passengers, it will provide a discount of 5% for payment of these services through digital means.

All the passengers travelling on railways availing these services may avail the benefit.



7. Public sector insurance companies will provide incentive, by way of discount or credit, upto 10% of the premium in general insurance policies and 8% in new life policies of Life Insurance Corporation sold through the customer portals, in case payment is made through digital means.



8. The Central Government Departments and Central Public Sector Undertakings will ensure that transactions fee/MDR charges associated with payment through digital means shall not be passed on to the consumers and all such expenses shall be borne by them.



State Governments are being advised that the State Governments and its organizations should also consider to absorb the transaction fee/MDR charges related to digital payment to them and consumer should not be asked to bear it.



9. Public sector banks are advised that merchant should not be required to pay more than Rs. 100 per month as monthly rental for PoS terminals/Micro ATMs/mobile POS from the merchants to bring small merchant on board the digital payment eco system.



Nearly 6.5 lakh machines by Public Sector Banks have been issued to merchants who will be benefitted by the lower rentals and promote digital transactions. With lower rentals, more merchants will install such machines and promote digital transactions.



10. No service tax will be charged on digital transaction charges/MDR for transactions upto Rs. 2000 per transaction.



11. For the payment of toll at Toll Plazas on National Highways using RFID card/Fast Tags, a discount of 10% will be available to users in the year 2016-17.



Earlier on the day, the government said it will waive service tax on debit and credit card transactions of up to Rs 2,000 in a bid to promote digital transactions amid cash crunch following withdrawal of old Rs 500 and 1,000 banknotes.



The government has decided to "exempt services by an acquiring bank to any person in relation to settlement of an amount up to Rs 2,000 in a single transaction through credit, debit card or other payment card service."



A notification to this effect will be tabled by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament.

Watch: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's Press Conference

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YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, ARMENPRESS. The Treaty of Sevres wouldve allowed reducing the serious consequences of the Armenian Genocide, according to Armenian Ambassador to France Hasmik Tolmajian, who posted a tweet on the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Sevres today, on August 10.

100 years ago on this day, the Allied and Associated Powers, including France and Armenia, signed with Turkey the Treaty of Sevres, the ambassador tweeted. It was perceived as the key to establishing a just regional peace which would have also made it possible to reduce the serious consequences of the Armenian Genocide, she said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
RESTON, Va., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Xenith Solutions, LLC a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) based in Reston, Virginia announces today that it has been awarded a five year U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) with contract number 47QTCA20D00DJ, for IT Services under the Information Technology category.

Xenith Solutions underwent proper validation with GSA officials to verify that the company's pricing for services and solutions are compliant with GSA terms and conditions. As GSA continues to roll out Phase III of the MAS consolidation, we will continue to see a more simplified and modernized purchase experience for both contractors and government agencies.

"We are excited at the opportunity to deliver our strategic business solutions across the federal government" said Lee Shabe, a founding partner at Xenith Solutions. "We understand the importance of being able to quickly obtain the services needed to support an agency's mission."

About Xenith Solutions:

Xenith Solutions LLC is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business. We provide comprehensive, timely and relevant Solutions and Business Consulting support to our customers as a key partner. Our leadership brings over a century of combined experience in Defense and Civilian markets. Our employees possess experience in all aspects of solution development from requirements creation, development, test and evaluation, fielding, and sustainment. At the core of our offerings we provide strategy and technology solutions, giving our customers valuable insights and thought leadership on the best application of information technology to drive business objectives. Xenith focuses on solving complex business challenges facing our customers. Our "Success Through Achievement" work ethic means our customers receive quality solutions through our commitment. We pride ourselves on tackling some of the most difficult operational requirements our customers have  ensuring an appropriate match between the mission requirements, financials, schedule, and security.

Contact:

Haily Nguyen

[email protected]

Xenith Solutions, LLC

SOURCE Xenith Solutions

Related Links

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Photo credit: Anadolu Agency - Getty Images

From Country Living

As if the threat of murder hornets and mosquito-borne illnesses weren't enough, now "zombie cicadas" have arrived in the United States and we've never been more excited to use our canopy chairs with bug guard and hide from this savage insect community.

According to CBS News , "zombie cicadas" have been spotted in West Virginia. Fortunately, these mutant critters appear harmless to humans, yet the process in which zombie cicadas infect others is quite bizarre. Unlike your average noisy chirping cicadas, these "zombie cicadas" are infected with a fungus called Massospora that basically eats away at their mind and body.

A study recently published in PLOS Pathogens compares the transmission of Massospora, known as active host transmission (AHT), to that of rabies. "AHT is a form of biological puppetry in which the pathogen manipulates the behavior of its powerless host," the study writes. It explains that when a male cicada becomes infected with this fungus, it will start mimicking the wing-flicking behavior that is typically exclusive to female cicadas. Other male cicadas will be lured in, thinking its a female cicada wanting to mate. Since cicadas are not sexually dimorphic, it is hard to distinguish between a male and female.

Once the interested cicada flocks to the infected cicada to mate, the infected cicada will attempt to transfer the fungus over to its peer. Then, the Massosopora will begin to eat away at the cicada's abdomen from the inside, filling it up with yellow fungal spores. Not only will the now zombie-like cicada lose half its body to this ferocious fungus, but it will be brainwashed and tricked into performing female mating rituals in order to continue spreading the virus. Think of it as a living deaththe cicada will continue to exist, but in a mutated life form. The spores that form in each cicadas abdomen can be dropped onto other cicadas to further transmit the disease.

Story continues

Unfortunately, theres not a whole lot of research on this bizarre fungal infection yet, as its extremely challenging for scientists since certain cicadas live underground for periods of 13 to 17 years. In fact, its still unknown how Massopora originated. All I know is Im running the other way when I hear their rackety chirps. These bugs are buggin.

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On August 9 French President Emmanuel Macron condemned a cowardly attack on French aid workers in Niger. French President reportedly said he would do everything to shed light on the tragic incident in which eight people died. French President also spoke to Mahamadou Issoufou, President of Niger, and said Niger leader is determined to curb terrorist groups in the Sahel region.

As per reports, the August 9 attack killed 8 people out of which 6 were French nationals. The governor of Tillberi region, Tidjani Ibrahim Katielle told media that the group was attacked in a giraffe reserve just 65 kilometres away from Nigers capital city Niamey. He also added they were intercepted by gunmen on the motorcycle and were killed. A Nigerian guide, a driver in the wildlife park, and six French aid workers were killed in this attack.

Read: French President Macron Says 'Lebanon's Future At Stake', Calls For Swift Action

The attack took place in Koure, where Niger has a giraffe reserve, Oumarou Moussa, the adviser to Niger's interior minister, told media. The area is a protected national park that contains dense vegetation and tall trees about 70 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of the capital. Hundreds of people visit each year to see its distinctive giraffes.

Read: Beirut Explosion: World Leaders To Hold Talks To Raise Aid For Lebanon

French Governments Warning

The French government has reportedly warned citizens against traveling outside of the capital of Niamey as militants linked to Boko Haram, Islamic State, and al-Qaida still carries out attacks across the vast West African nation. Niger borders several countries including Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Nigeria, and Libya. Violence by groups linked to IS and al-Qaida is on the rise in the Sahel region. France has deployed thousands of soldiers to help fight the growing insurgency there, and a local Sahel force made up of soldiers from Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mauritania has also been fighting the extremists.

(Image Credit-AP)

Read: Niger: 6 French Citizens, 2 Guides Killed By Gunmen At Giraffe Park

Read: Gunmen Kill At Least 20 In Village In Eastern Burkina Faso
The first seismometer on the moon, with solar panels and an antenna pointed at Earth, was placed there by Apollo 11 astronauts and tested by Buzz Aldrin stamping his foot. Credit: NASA

Eavesdropping on the shudders and groans echoing deep inside alien worlds like Mars and the moon is revealing what lies far beneath their surfaces and could teach us more about how our own planet formed.

On Earth, we can feel and see the often terrifying results of the tectonic plates shifting beneath our feet. As they grind together, they generate earthquakes that produce seismic waves that reverberate through layers of rock, magma and metal deep inside our planet.

Scientists can monitor these seismic waves using a variety of instruments that pick up even faint vibrations passing through the Earth's crust and core. Studying how the behaviour of these waves changes as they pass through our planet's interior, reveals details about what lies deep inside the Earth, far out of our sight.

But Earth is not the only place in our solar system that experiences seismic activity. Both Mars and the moon also experience quakesalthough for different reasons than here on Earth. Seismometers deployed on the moon andmore recentlyon Mars, are allowing researchers to probe the interiors of both of these distant worlds.

The results show that while on the surface Earth, Mars and the moon are not alike, beneath it they have more in common than might be suspected, but with some striking differences.

Moonquakes

Moonquakesas they are known on the moonare produced as a result of meteoroids hitting the surface or by the gravitational pull of the Earth squeezing and stretching the moon's interior, in a similar way to the moon's tidal pull on Earth's oceans. As the lunar interior cools, it is also causing the moon to shrink and shrivel like a raisin, causing other quakes as the crust buckles and breaks. Heat from the sun can also produce thermal quakes due to the temperature difference in the lunar crust as the moon emerges from its night.

Five seismometers have been deployed on the moon, left by astronauts during the Apollo missions between 1969 to 1972. The first lunar seismometer was set up by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Apollo 11 mission. After deploying the instrument, Aldrin stamped on the lunar surface to check it was workingwith the instrument picking up the waves produced by his foot.

The other four seismometers were left by subsequent missions and they were operated until 1977, five years after the final Apollo astronauts set foot on the lunar surface. But some 43 years later, their data is still being pored over by scientists.

SeisMo is one project that recently re-analysed the data. "We were trying to apply a technique which is used quite commonly on Earth," said Dr. Ceri Nunn, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, US, the lead scientist on the project. "If you cross-correlate the noise between stations, you can actually see waves travelling between them. The first station is a source, and the second station is a receiver."

Unfortunately, Dr. Nunn was unable to pick up similar patterns in the data from the moon. But that failure revealed something else about the moonnamely that it doesn't appear to have surface waves, which get trapped in the upper layers of rock and bounce around. "That wave doesn't seem to exist on the moon," said Dr. Nunn.

A total of five seismometers were manually placed on the moon between 1969 and 1972, including one positioned by Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean in 1969. Credit: NASA

This suggests the upper layer of the moon's surface is likely highly fractured, and up to 100 kilometres thick, both of which disturb the movement of seismic waves across the surface. "This highly fractured layer is changing the way that seismic waves behave," said Dr. Nunn.

Currently there are no active seismometers on the moon. But there are proposals to send new seismometers back to the lunar surface in future missions.

"We're interested in using much smaller seismometers, possibly being delivered by penetrators, which are almost like missile-shaped objects," said Dr. Nunn. "You put a very small seismometer in the back and then launch them either from a descending lander or directly from Earth."

Questions

Putting new seismometers on the moon could answer several outstanding questions, such as why there are large structural differences between the near side of the moon that points towards us and the far side that points away.

'(That could be) related to the internal structure," said Dr. Nunn. "There's a theory (the moon) was hit again after it formed by another moon, and that's why you get this strange asymmetry. Exploring the internal structure would be interesting. And on top of that we'd like to constrain how thick the core is."

Understanding this could help to prove theories about how these early, cataclysmic impacts around the time the Earth and moon were forming helped to determine the structures they have today.

On Mars, however, things are a bit different. Marsquakes are produced not by tidal interactions, but by the planet cooling and contracting, producing deep stresses. Meteoroid impacts are believed to play a part too, just like on the moon, sending seismic waves around the planet.

The existence of marsquakes had never been proven until researchers landed a seismometer on the red planet in 2018 as part of NASA's InSight mission. The InSight Mars lander detected the first-ever definitive marsquake on 6 April 2019 using its Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, which had been gently placed on the surface by the lander's robotic arm shortly after it touched down on 26 November 2018. Since then about 500 subsequent events have also been detected.

Volcanic activity

While most of the marsquakes have been relatively small, some of these have been large enoughalmost equivalent to a magnitude 4 earthquake  to be traced back to their source, an area known as Cerberus Fossae, about 1,600 kilometres east of InSight. It is thought the quakes there are being caused by the build-up of stress as fractures in the Martian crust are stretched, possibly by volcanic activity.

Since researchers landed a seismometer on Mars in 2018 as part of NASAs InSight mission, it has recorded around 500 seismic events on the planet. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

While the larger quakes appear to originate from the mantle beneath the Martian crust, the smaller marsquakes are thought to begin in the crust itself. The velocity of seismic waves in the upper Martian crust, however, in the first eight to 11 kilometres, seems to be about 50% lower than in similar rocks on Earth.

Researchers who are part of the GeoInSight project have been studying the geology of the surface around the InSight landing site to understand more about what might be going on. They used images and data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to study the Elysium Planitia area before InSight arrived.

The images revealed that there are lava flows 200 to 300 metres beneath the lander, according to Dr. Lu Pan from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, the project coordinator on GeoInsight. "But beneath those lava flows, we have sedimentary rocks and clay-bearing rocks a few kilometres in depth," she said.

This layering is one explanation for the lower velocity of the seismic waves, says Dr. Pan, because sedimentary rocks have a high porosity that could slow the waves down. Another possibility is that the upper crust has been heavily damaged and fractured by meteorite impacts and other processes, producing more resistance for the waves.

The findings also have implications for some of InSight's other results, noted Dr. Pan. "For example, one of the exciting discoveries of InSight was the magnetic field, (which was) ten times more than we observed from orbit," she said. "Having established the stratigraphy (the layering of the rocks), we could help put some constraints on where the magnetic field came fromstratigraphy from before 3.9 billion years (ago)."

Humming

While InSight will continue to probe the interior of Mars with its SEIS instrument, scientists are keen to also unravel the mystery of a strange reading it has been picking up.

"There's this humming at a specific frequency that occurs when there's another event," said Dr. Pan. "We don't really understand what it is. Sometimes when there's a quake, we see that humming come afterwards. We don't really have a good analogue on Earth."

As InSight and its instruments listen into to the inner workings of the red planet, it might help reveal the source of this hum and reveal what really lies deep inside this alien world.

Explore further Marsquakes rock and roll
India's third Covid wave likely to peak on Jan 23, daily cases to stay below 4 lakh: IIT Kanpur scientist

A tribute to the Indian fire fighters ahead of the Independence Day

India

oi-Briti Roy Barman

New Delhi, Aug 10: Even if they are one of the frontline workers in this COVID-19 pandemic, the firefighters of the nation somewhere are not getting the praises and appreciations, they deserve.

Fire Service professionals have always been brave to tackle all kinds of emergencies by risking their lives to save people.

Be it reaching in a fiery building, to save drowning man or rescuing man from the edge of a building, call the saviour fire brigade.

India reports single-day spike of 64,399 new coronavirus cases, total tally rises to 21,53,011

Even amid this pandemic, they reach in time whenever they be needed.

The struggle against the coronavirus pandemic would be difficult without the national firefighters.

Sanitising

Firefighters have disinfected public places across the states. This includes hospitals, high storeyed buildings, vehicles, bus stands, railway stations, Food Corporation of India go-downs, public parks and waiting shelters.

Designated squads are now working round-the-clock near all check-posts to disinfect inter-State vehicles used for delivering goods and services.

Rescuing after a fire

Recently the country has witnessed a number of fire-broke out. The firefighters rescued many lives after major fire broke out at a Covid-19 hospital in Ahmedabad last week, or in a COVID hotel converted into Covid Care Centre in Vijayawada on Sunday.

Landslides clearing

The frontline workers clean landslides from the road on a regular basis as many states are witnessing floods in this monsoon.

The squad members were also engaged in emergency pick-and-drop service for patients, delivery of essential commodities for the needy, and distribution of life-saving drugs to patients in some states.

Pranab Mukherjee tests Covid-19 +ve | Former President tests positive | Oneindia News

Mumbai's Dharavi slum has been recently disinfected by the fire brigade of Maharashtra in a bid to curb the COVID-19 cases.
President Trump signed four executive orders on Saturday, granting Americans financial relief in a number of areas. However, the actions did not provide any funding for a second round of stimulus checks. To get those, Americans may have to wait for Congress to pass its much-debated relief package.

Saturday's executive orders defer student loan payments and payroll taxes for many through the end of the year, provide some eviction protections and grant enhanced federal unemployment benefits. Some experts have already noted that these relief measures may be difficult to implement and could face legal challenges.

But the orders did not include funding for another round of stimulus checks because generally, funds for federal programs need to be authorized through legislation passed by Congress. "The constitution mandates that only Congress has the power of the purse  the president cannot unilaterally tax and spend," says Kris Cox, senior tax policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The authority to spend comes only from legislation passed by Congress, she says.

The stimulus checks were authorized as a one-time payment through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, commonly referred to as the CARES Act, passed by Congress in March. President Trump has no legal authority to extend those payments, Cox tells CNBC Make It.

It will take a new law to implement a second round of stimulus payments, says Richard Kogan, a CBPP senior fellow. When it comes to relief measures affected by Saturday's executive orders, those programs may have some flexibility in the existing law that the president can utilize to extend them. "That's different than what we're talking about in the case of the stimulus payments where they aren't existing and ongoing  they've expired. Period," he says. "The legal situation there is black and white."
By Michael Georgy

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese protesters stormed government ministries in Beirut and trashed the offices of the Association of Lebanese Banks on Saturday as shots rang out in increasingly angry demonstrations over this week's devastating explosion.

The protesters said their politicians should resign and be punished for negligence they say led to Tuesdays blast, the biggest ever to hit Beirut, that killed 158 people and injured more than 6,000, compounding months of political and economic meltdown.

A policeman was killed during the clashes, a spokesman said. A policeman at the scene said the officer died when he fell into an elevator shaft in a nearby building after being chased by protesters.

The Red Cross said it had treated 117 people for injuries on the scene while another 55 were taken to hospital. Policemen wounded by stones were treated by ambulance workers. A fire broke out in central Martyrs' Square.

Dozens of protesters broke into the foreign ministry where they burnt a portrait of President Michel Aoun, representative for many of a political class that has ruled Lebanon for decades and that they say is to blame for its current mess.

"We are staying here. We call on the Lebanese people to occupy all the ministries," a demonstrator said by megaphone.

About 10,000 people gathered in Martyrs' Square, some throwing stones. Police fired tear gas when some protesters tried to break through the barrier blocking a street leading to parliament, a Reuters journalist said.

Police confirmed shots and rubber bullets had been fired. It was not immediately clear who fired the shots. Riot police shot dozens of teargas canisters at protesters, who hit back with firecrackers and stones.

TV footage showed protesters also breaking into the energy and economy ministries.

They chanted "the people want the fall of the regime", reprising a popular chant from the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011. They held posters saying "Leave, you are all killers".

Story continues

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut said the U.S. government supported the demonstrators' right to peaceful protest and urged all involved to refrain from violence.

The embassy also said in a tweet that the Lebanese people "deserved leaders who listen to them and change course to respond to popular demands for transparency and accountability".

Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the only way out was early parliamentary elections.

'GO HOME!'

The protests were the biggest since October when thousands of people took to the streets in protest against corruption, bad governance and mismanagement.

You have no conscience, you have no morality. Go home! Leave! Resign, Enough is enough, shouted one of the protesters. What else do you want? You brought us poverty, death and destruction, said another.

Soldiers in vehicles mounted with machine guns patrolled the area. Ambulances rushed to the scene.

"Really the army is here? Are you here to shoot us? Join us and we can fight the government together," a woman yelled.

Tuesday's blast was the biggest in Beirut's history. Twenty-one people were still reported as missing from the explosion, which gutted entire neighbourhoods.

The government has promised to hold those responsible to account. But few Lebanese are convinced. Some set up nooses on wooden frames as a symbolic warning to Lebanese leaders.

"Resign or hang," said one banner at the demonstration.

The prime minister and presidency have said 2,750 tonnes of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, which is used in making fertilisers and bombs, had been stored for six years without safety measures at the port warehouse.

ECONOMIC MELTDOWN

The explosion hit a city still scarred by civil war and reeling from an economic meltdown and a surge in coronavirus infections.

For many, it 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.

Some residents, struggling to clean up shattered homes, complain the government has let them down again.

"We have no trust in our government," said university student Celine Dibo as she scrubbed blood off the walls of her shattered apartment building. "I wish the United Nations would take over Lebanon."

Many people denounced their leaders, saying none of them visited the site of the blast to comfort them or assess the damage while French President Emmanuel Macron flew from Paris and went straight to the scene to pay his tribute.

Macron, who visited Beirut on Thursday, promised aid to rebuild the city would not fall into "corrupt hands". He will host a donor conference for Lebanon via video link on Sunday, his office said. U.S. President Donald Trump said that he will join.

"We don't want any government to help us," said unemployed protester Mahmoud Rifai. "The money will just go into the pockets of our leaders."

Aoun said on Friday an investigation would examine whether the blast was caused by a bomb or other external interference. He said the investigation would also weigh if it was due to negligence or an accident. Twenty people had been detained so far, he added.

'WE CAN'T AFFORD TO REBUILD'

Officials have said the blast could have caused losses amounting to $15 billion. That is a bill that Lebanon cannot pay after already defaulting on a mountain of debt - exceeding 150% of economic output - and with talks stalled on an IMF lifeline.

For ordinary Lebanese, the scale of destruction is overwhelming. Marita Abou Jawda was handing out bread and cheese to victims of the blast.

"Macron offered to help and our government has not done anything. It has always been like that," she said. "After Macron visited I played the French national anthem all day in my car."

(Additional reporting by Maher Chmaytelli, Laila Bassam, Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Ezgi Erkoyun, Ellen Francis and Richard Lough; Editing by Frances Kerry and Nick Macfie)
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx has dismissed more than 25,000 felony cases - including many involving charges of murder and other serious crimes - in her first three years on the job, a new report shows.

Foxx gained notoriety last year when she dropped felony charges against Jussie Smollett, the Empire actor accused of staging a racist, homophobic attack on himself in January 2019.

The Chicago Tribune on Monday published an analysis of Foxx's overall record on dropping charges, revealing that she has done so at a rate that's 35 percent higher than her predecessor.

In the first three years after Foxx took over as Cook County's top prosecutor in 2016, her office dismissed all charges against 29.9 percent of felony defendants, the Tribune found.

By comparison, Foxx's predecessor Anita Alvarez dropped charges against just 19.4 percent of felony defendants over her last three years in office.

A total of 25,183 defendants had their felony charges dismissed under Foxx up until November 2019, compared with 18,694 under Alvarez during a similar period, the Tribune said.

Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx has dismissed more than 25,000 felony cases - including many involving charges of murder and other serious crimes - in her first three years on the job, an analysis by the Chicago Tribune has found

Foxx took over as state's attorney in 2016 with a promise to bring criminal justice reform and to reduce the population of Cook County Jail.

The Democrat is now up for re-election in November after beating three challengers in a tight race that was one of the most expensive of its kind.

Foxx defended her case dismissal record in an interview with the Tribune prior to the publication of its analysis.

A Tribune analysis found that Foxx has dismissed felony cases at a 35 percent higher rate than her predecessor, Anita Alvarez (pictured in 2015)

The newspaper reported that Foxx did not dispute the findings, but said that the high rate of dismissal gave an 'incomplete picture of her commitment to keeping the public safe'.

'It is always eye-opening to be able to look at our own data and compare it to my predecessor's past,' Foxx said. 'I can't reconcile what her decision-making was, and how they chose to (dismiss) cases in the past.

'But I will say that this administration has been clear that our focus would be on violent crime and making sure that our resources and attention would go to addressing violent crime.'

Foxx asserted that her office has focused on dropping cases against low-level, nonviolent offenders - though the Tribune's analysis paints a different picture.

It found that Foxx has consistently dismissed cases involving murder, shootings, sex crimes and serious drug offenses at a significantly higher rate than Alvarez did.

Below is a breakdown of dismissal rates for different felony crimes under Foxx and Alvarez:

Homicide cases: Foxx - 8.1 percent, Alvarez - 5.3 percent

Sex crimes: Foxx - 9.5 percent, Alvarez - 6.5 percent

Aggravated battery: Foxx - 7 percent, Alvarez - 5.9 percent

Narcotics: Foxx - 53.8 percent, Alvarez - 34.5 percent

Foxx gained notoriety when she dropped felony charges against Jussie Smollett (pictured), the Empire actor accused of staging a racist, homophobic attack on himself in January 2019

Foxx's handling of the Smollett case has been a key issue in her campaign for re-election this fall. She is pictured at a rally after winning the Democratic nomination in March

Foxx said she encourages assistant state's attorneys in her office to openly discuss dismissing felony charges with cases that have legal problems.

She said fostering that kind of environment is important to her given Chicago's record of wrongful convictions and police misconduct.

'Recognizing the history that we've had around wrongful convictions, recognizing our ethical obligations as prosecutors ... requires us to reinforce that people can, if they believe a case is flawed, bring it to our attention, and we will dismiss it if it's appropriate,' she said.

Foxx also said she is more selective about prosecuting the strongest, most winnable cases - though the Tribune's analysis showed that her overall conviction rate (66 percent) is lower than Alvarez's (75 percent).

Foxx drew intense criticism last year after she recused herself from the Smollett investigation and her office dismissed all 16 felony charges against the actor.

Though Foxx had removed herself from the investigation prior to the charges being dropped, questions remained about whether she acted improperly by speaking to a Smollett relative and aide to former first lady Michelle Obama before the dismissal.

Last summer a Cook County judge appointed a special prosecutor, former US Attorney Dan Webb, to investigate whether any misconduct occurred in Foxx's office's handling of the case.

Foxx drew intense criticism last year after she recused herself from the Smollett investigation and her office dismissed all 16 felony charges against the actor. Protesters are seen demanding her removal in Chicago on April 1, 2019

Foxx denounced Webb's appointment, saying that it was unnecessary to bring in a special prosecutor when the county's inspector general was already looking into the case.

But Webb's investigation proved very influential as it led to a grand jury indicting Smollett on new charges in February. Those charges, which were ridiculed by Foxx, are nearly identical to the ones her office dismissed.

Webb said that the decision to drop charges was unjustified in part because the evidence against Smollett seemed overwhelming and because he was not required to admit that the attack was a hoax.

The new charges threatened to bring down Foxx's campaign for re-election as her opponents repeatedly used her perceived mistake as ammunition.

But Foxx overcame the opposition and won the Democratic nomination in March.

'There was an effort to make this election about one big case involving a celebrity,' she said in her victory speech. 'The voters have overwhelmingly put that fallacy to rest.'

Webb's determination on whether Foxx's office engaged in misconduct in the Smollett case has yet to be released.

If it comes before the November election and contains damaging conclusions, Foxx could be facing another hard battle to keep her position.
The Georgia school depicted in a viral image showing hallways packed with students will close for two days after 9 people tested positive for coronavirus.

Paulding County, Georgia School Superintendent Brian Otott said North Paulding High School will undergo a deep cleaning Monday and Tuesday with students switching to digital learning on those days. The number of people being quarantined could increase based on pending test results, he said.

The school drew scrutiny last week when a student tweeted an image showing teens many without masks  packed into hallways as they changed class. The student, Hannah Watters, was initially suspended for using her phone without permission on school grounds. That suspension was later reversed.

Day two at North Paulding High School. It is just as bad. We were stopped because it was jammed. We are close enough to the point where I got pushed multiple go to second block. This is not ok. Not to mention the 10% mask rate. pic.twitter.com/JKbGYqG9RS  hannah (@ihateiceman) August 4, 2020

Here are other back-to-school headlines:

Buses will have sanitizer stations

Franklin County students will start back Aug. 20 and bus riders will notice something new.

Franklin Countys buses will be equipped with hand sanitizer stations that students will be required to use when getting on or off the bus. Each bus will be sanitized after all routes are completed in the morning and afternoon.

250 quarantine at Georgia school

After only 1 week of school, more than 250 students from the Cherokee County School District in Georgia are being asked to quarantine for 2 weeks.

At least 11 students, ranging in age from 1st -12th grade, and two staff members covering various elementary, middle and high schools, have tested positive for the virus. Contact tracing led to almost 250 other students and staff being sent home for online instruction.

Cherokee County School District has 40 schools, 4,800 employees and more than 42,200 students.

School masks

Schools across Alabama are producing their own masks. Heres one from Gulf Shores Middle School.

MPS short on devices

Montgomery Public School starts school today  at least remotely  but there are concerns the system wont have enough devices for every students.

District officials said they are asking families to use their own devices if possible so that those are available can be given to families in need to technology, WSFA reported. MPS is waiting on 15,000 devices to go with the ones they already have. The system has 28,000 students.

MPS is virtual for the first 9 weeks. Students and parents with technology needs are asked to call their schools main office.
People in the western Japanese city of Tokushima are decorating shopping streets with lanterns to brighten up the mood as a major summer festival was canceled due to the coronavirus.

The Awa Odori dance festival normally draws more than 1 million tourists to Tokushima in August.

But all programs for the event were canceled this year to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Organizers are instead handing out lanterns to people to decorate the city.

A family who runs the Japanese tea shop Miyoshien hung 20 colorful lanterns under the eaves. Some people were seen taking photos.

Miyoshien President Kurokawa Kosuke said he hopes the lanterns will help cheer up people as there is little positive news these days. Kurokawa added that he is saddened that the Awa Odori was canceled and that he wants it to be held next year.
By Ayya Lmahamad

President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree to set up Azerbaijan Investment Holding that will help control the countrys state-owned companies under one umbrella.

The authorized fund of Azerbaijan Investment Holding is AZN 10 million ($5.8m).

According to the decree signed on August 7, the Investment Holding is created for managing state companies and enterprises, as well as economic companies with the state share according to unified principles. In addition, it will increase transparency and economic efficiency of investment projects implemented by state enterprises.

The Decree also approved the charter of the holding company and established a supervisory board and a management board to manage it, which will consist of five persons appointed by the president.

Moreover, Presidential Aide Shahmar Movsumov during the briefing of Operational Headquarters on August 8 stated that the creation of Investment Holding means the acceleration of the liberalization process in Azerbaijan for years to come. In addition, he emphasized that the creation of the holding, raising governance efficiency, effective management of the non- oil sector will impetus to the development of these areas.

Furthermore, Deputy Economy Minister Rovshan Najaf stated that the Economy Ministry has held discussions with several large foreign investors during the pandemic. He emphasized that there are large companies interested in investing in Azerbaijan. Moreover, he noted that efforts will be made to actively attract foreign investment in the economy.

Likewise, MP Vugar Bayramov told local media that creation of Investment Holding is very important from the point of improvement of activity of state enterprises as well as increase of transparency. Its creating will allow applying corporate methods at state enterprises, thus, increasing accountability and possibilities of public control.

Additionally, he noted that the establishment of the holding is important for searching export markets, expanding production and exporting competitive products.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Seven members of the same Mennonite family have been seriously injured after a car crashed into their horse and buggy on Sunday sending them flying into a field and ditch.

Among the casualties of the crash in Jerusalem, New York was a seven-month-old baby with internal injuries, and a seven-year-old boy who was in critical condition.

Four members of the family were airlifted to hospital.

The collision occurred just after 5pm on County Road 22 when a 24-year-old driver from Penn Yan tried to overtake the family but collided with their slow moving vehicle.

Both were heading westbound when the car approached the buggy at the crest of a hill and the accident occurred when the driver noticed another eastbound motor approaching.

Scroll down for video

The collision occurred just after 5pm Sunday on County Road 22 when a 24-year-old driver tried to overtake the SMV at the the crest of a hill in Jerusalem, New York

The crash smashed the buggy into pieces, NBC 10 reports.

Authorities did not provide the ages of the three other young boys who were injured in the smash and transported to Strong Memorial Hospital via ambulance.

The mother and father were airlifted with the most serious injuries.

Their horse was badly injured and had to be euthanized at the scene.

Yates County Sheriff Ron Spike called it a 'mass casualty incident with several critical injuries.'

The driver of the car was not in custody. Police are investigating the incident.

The sheriff shared with news reporters some information on collisions between cars and SMVs, something he said happens all too often.

The smash happened when an oncoming car approached. The parents and two young children were airlifted to hospital. Three other boys were taken to medical care via ambulance

The manual about 'closure collision time' states that encountering an SMV while driving presents a 'unique set of challenges to vehicle operators, primarily due to the much slower speed of the SMV, which could lead to a dangerous situation.'

The guide states that at least 80% of SMV collisions occur when the SMV is struck from behind. This appeared to be the case in Sunday's accident.

'The difference in speed between your vehicle and the SMV means you will often approach the SMV very quickly.

A diagram shows that a car traveling at 55mph will reach the SMV in just 11 seconds if it's moving at 30 mph or just 7 seconds if it's traveling at 15 mph.

If the SMV is a horse and buggy, like in this case, it would take the car just 5.7 seconds to reach SMV estimated to be moving at 7mph.
A new study by researchers from the Scripps Research Institute and Novavax Inc. in the US affirms the structural integrity of the full-length SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein immunogen. It enables the interpretation of immune responses to this multivalent nanoparticle immunogen. Their results are currently available on bioRxiv* preprint server.

Since the start of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, we are faced with more than 728 thousand deaths and almost 20 million infections around the world (as of August 10, 2020). As an effective treatment is still elusive, many people share the hope that an effective COVID-19 vaccine may be our ticket back to the old normal, or at least something close to it.

Vaccine efforts against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a causative agent of the current COVID-19 pandemic, are mostly focused on viral spike glycoprotein  the primary target for neutralizing antibodies.

Of note, SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein enables cell entry by binding to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), which serves as the viral receptor. Previous studies provided cryo-electron microscopy structures of the spike glycoprotein ectodomain trimer, which served as a blueprint for designing vaccines and inhibitors of viral entry.

Novavax Inc, a late-stage biotechnology company known to develop next-generation vaccine approaches for serious infectious diseases, designed a stable, prefusion protein with nanoparticle technology that includes a proprietary Matrix-M adjuvant for boosting the immune response.

In this new paper, a group of scientists from the Scripps Research Institute and Novavax Inc. in the United States performed a structural analysis of the Novavax SARS-CoV-2 full-length immunogen formulated in polysorbate 80 detergent.

Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 3Q-2P-FL spike glycoprotein. (A) Linear diagram of the sequence/structure elements of the full-length SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein showing the S1 and S2 ectodomain. Structural elements include a cleavable signal sequence (SS, white), N-terminal domain (NTD, blue), receptor binding domain (RBD, green), subdomains 1 and 2 (SD1/SD2, light blue), protease cleavage site 2 (S2, arrow), fusion peptide (FP, red), heptad repeat 1 (HR1, yellow), central helix (CH, brown), heptad repeat 2 (HR2, purple), transmembrane domain (TM, black) and cytoplasmic tail (CT, white). The native furin cleavage site was mutated (RRARQQAQ) to be protease resistant and stabilized by introducing two proline (2P) substitutions at positions K986P and V987P to produce SARS-CoV-2 3Q-2P-FL spike. (B) Representative negative stain EM images and 2D classes of SARS-CoV-2 3Q-2P-FL, formulated in polysorbate 80 detergent in the presence of Matrix-M adjuvant. In the raw micrograph, spike rosettes are circled in yellow and Matrix-M adjuvant cages are circled in white. 2D classes showing individual spikes, higher order spike nanoparticles and Matrix-M cages of different sizes.

Recapitulating the prefusion spike glycoprotein

In a nutshell, this study provides an in-depth structural appraisal with the use of cryo-electron microscopy and site-specific glycan analysis of the Novavax full-length vaccine candidate (currently being tested in humans) that adequately recapitulates the prefusion spike.

In order to assess whether the multimerization phenomenon seen in the full-length spike construct has a role in viral replication, the researchers performed pseudovirus replication assays utilizing the SARS-CoV-2 wild-type spike and two mutant spike proteins.

Furthermore, site-specific glycosylation of the SARS-CoV-2 prefusion spike protein produced in insect cells was analyzed with the use of recently described mass spectrometry proteomics-based method.

Stable conformation and novel interactions

"Our results show that polysorbate 80 detergent forms detergent micelles around the transmembrane domains of one or more spike proteins, enabling the formation of nanoparticle-like rosettes", emphasize study authors in their bioRxiv paper.

It can be said that the structural analysis of the full-length spike immunogen in this study yielded several significant findings. First and foremost, a stable prefusion conformation of the spike immunogen was demonstrated, with tiny differences in the S1 subunit of the spike glycoprotein when compared to published spike ectodomain structures.

The researchers have also observed two non-spike densities within the spike trimer that corresponded with polysorbate 80 detergent and linoleic acid. Interestingly, new interactions between the spike trimers that allow the formation of higher-order spike complexes were described as well.

Consequently, these larger nanoparticles enable a multivalent display of the spike immunogen with the potential for improved immunogen trafficking and B cell activation, as described previously for nanoparticle-based immunogens.

Capitalizing on the previous success

"Our structural work is consistent with the burgeoning body of structures available of the spike protein, albeit with the important differences described above," accentuate study authors.

Therefore, this advanced protein subunit vaccine candidate that is currently being tested in humans appears rather homogeneous, stable and locked in the antigenically preferred prefusion conformation.

Moreover, firm clustering of the spikes in the nanoparticle formulation may result in much more vigorous immune responses over soluble trimers alone, in accordance with glycoprotein immunogens in other viruses.

"It appears that the remarkable speed at which this vaccine was designed did not compromise the quality of the immunogen, and that building off the previous success in formulating respiratory syncytial virus F glycoprotein and influenza hemagglutinin nanoparticle immunogens could readily be extended to SARS-CoV-2 spike", conclude study authors.

Finally, after obtaining these pivotal biophysical, structural and antigenic insights, further evaluation of the vaccine in humans will give us the much-desired proof-of-principle for this specific concept.

*Important Notice

bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
The ammonium nitrate explosion tragedy in Beirut was avoidable. It also has lessons for India.

Chemicals are complex creatures. Ammonium nitrate, for example, is used for fertilisers, although it is being phased out in some countries.

But, as we saw, it is almost bomb-like in its propensity to explode. In India, chemicals are handled both formally and informally, even the most toxic of them. For example, people come in contact with mercury and pesticides. So, although we dont know of an ammonium nitrate crisis in the public domain, lets try to avoid one.

At the risk of stating what many people know already, here are a few foundational steps. First, ministries concerned, with a lead from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, should identify the most explosive chemicals still in use.

Second, a handling protocol should be prepared based on the field observations of current practices. Some of these can restrict how much to store, how to store, and how long to store. We know that over time, chemicals lying in godowns can be forgotten till they kill.

Third, the protocol has to be disseminated innovatively, both at the grassroot level and the local administration. Capacity building is essential  how should people measure, handle and monitor? What should a trader in a chemical bazaar know, for example? And of course, registry systems should be strengthened, and made easier to use. These are just the basics. We need to roll them, and many more, out before we are struck by a chemical catastrophe.

(The writer is the founder and director of the Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group)

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When Lauren Cortez found out she was pregnant, there was one person she wanted to deliver her baby: Dr. Bryan Cox, the same OB/GYN who helped welcome her to the world 25 years ago.

Cox has been an OB/GYN at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, for 33 years. Cortez's mother, Isabel Luna, has been one of his patients for decades, and spoke highly of him. When Cortez arrived at her first appointment, she was "excited, because her mom loves me, so it was a great situation," Cox told Good Morning America. "It was fun the whole pregnancy."

Cortez's son, Logan James, was born on July 26, weighing six pounds, one ounce. Cox had a special greeting for Logan  the same one he gave Cortez in 1995. "Dr. Cox, right when the baby is born, he sings 'Happy Birthday,'" Cortez said. "The fact that he takes that little time to personalize the birth experience meant a lot to me."

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ANI file photo

Months into the pandemic, the Covid-19 continues to ravage countries across the world with the US, Brazil and India being the most affected.

On Sunday, the US crossed the 5-million case mark of Covid-19 infections, while Brazil crossed the 3-million mark, and also 100,000 deaths.

In India, Maharashtra which is among the worst affected states from Covid-19 pandemic crossed 500,000 cases.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage

Besides this, several other countries are reeling under the second wave of Covid-19 among them is Australia, where Victoria state recorded its deadliest day with 19 fatalities.

Meanwhile, United Nations group UN-Water said on Monday that a severe household water shortage facing two out of five people in the world is undermining efforts to contain the pandemic.

Follow all the live updates here:
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The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) said Sunday that the recent so-called U.S. sanctions against some Chinese officials will eventually become the laughingstock of the world.

The hegemonic acts of the United States have drawn widespread, strong condemnation in Hong Kong and have been regarded as bullying and unreasonable by the mainstream public opinion, a spokesperson of the liaison office said in a statement, stressing that the Chinese people will not be intimidated and the so-called sanctions are nothing but a joke.

Officials of central government agencies responsible for Hong Kong affairs and of the HKSAR exercise governance in Hong Kong according to the Constitution and the Basic Law, and they are staunch defenders of Hong Kong's overall interests and residents' well-being, the spokesperson said.

It is truth-distorting and absurd for the United States to claim that the recent actions taken by China fundamentally undermine Hong Kong's autonomy and democratic process, the spokesperson said.

The U.S. side, in league with Hong Kong's opposition camp, challenged "one country, two systems" and the red line of national security in Hong Kong, plunging Hong Kong into prolonged disturbances, the spokesperson said, calling them the real destroyer of Hong Kong's democracy, freedom and high degree of autonomy.

The U.S. politicians who tried to use Hong Kong to make trouble for China and stop China from further developing are doomed to fail, the spokesperson said, adding that those colluding with foreign forces will eventually pay the price.

The United States, always declaring that it upholds democracy and freedom and respects human rights and privacy, recently imposed unreasonable restrictions over and cracked down upon Chinese telecom businesses on the pretext of "data security of U.S. citizens," and even intended to take away the assets of a Chinese tech firm by force and trickery, the spokesperson said.

When interfering in Hong Kong affairs this time, the U.S. government showed its hypocrisy and blatantly disclosed home addresses and personal information of Chinese officials on the U.S. Treasury Department website, the spokesperson said.

Such despicable acts infringing upon privacy have crossed the line politically and morally and only reveal its bullying and double standards more clearly to the world, the spokesperson said, adding the United States will have its moral bankruptcy at a faster pace.
PUNE: The administration has decided to put on hold the setting of the third planned jumbo Covid hospital in the city. The facility was to come up at All India Shri Shivaji Memorial Society (AISSMS) ground.

Suhas Diwase, commissioner, Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) and incharge of erecting the jumbo facilities in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, confirmed the decision.

Diwase said, The work of two jumbo facilities at College of Engineering Pune (COEP) and Magar Stadium (Pimpri) is already in progress. PMRDA has kept the tendering process ready for the third facility at AISSMS ground, but the work would be executed only if needed.

Diwase said, Each facility had 800 beds, including 600 oxygenated and 200 ICU beds. Hence, the city will have an additional 1,200 oxygenated and 400 ICU beds in the next few days. With private hospitals releasing more beds for Covid treatment, it was decided to keep the setting up of third facility on hold.

With residents complaining of bed shortage amidst rising cases of Covid-19, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar told officials to erect jumbo hospitals for Pune like Mumbai and Delhi. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray also instructed the administration to start the jumbo hospitals by mid-August.

Divisional commissioner Saurabh Rao identified three locations for jumbo hospitals. The work on two facilities is in progress and it would be functional by August 20, officials said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shocked the world economy with millions of people infected globally. There are a growing number of challenges in the COVID world starting with finding a cure and helping the loss of livelihoods to recover. The disease is hurting the most vulnerable sections of society, elderly citizens that have co-morbid conditions or those that live in situations where social distancing is not possible, such as the slums in urban cities.

The silver lining is that scientists are collaborating at the speed of sound and are willing to share their data with other scientists that are perhaps in a faraway country. Universities are providing quick dissemination of Public Health and Science information to their alumni worldwide.

As the pandemic evolves, guidelines continue to change quickly on therapies that were effective, and the medical fraternity is moving rapidly to share their successes with treatments or report treatments that were not working.

Vaccine research is accelerating with scientists working on research and production across the globe. The idea and concept of repurposing drugs, which was not in the regulatory vocabulary before COVID-19, is generating nearly 2000 trials across the globe, where even governments are looking to speed up regulatory oversight and investing in drugs that may work and are affordable.

Also Read: Coronavirus hits ICMR! Senior scientist tests positive for COVID-19

"The challenges we face today transcend industries and national borders. Business has a unique role to play today, not building back, but building forward towards a more resilient society that can withstand future cataclysms. Businesses can have an oversized impact - through products they produce, global infrastructure, supply chains and reach, employee and customer base and comparative industry know-how." said the World Economic Forum

In Maharashtra, as the pandemic began to make a grievous impact, public health experts, data analysts, philanthropists, and management consultants gathered to form a group called the 'Mahacovid', and like the Manhattan group in New York, advised the government to ramp up testing, and plan 'jumbo' healthcare facilities to make sure there were enough beds for an overwhelmed healthcare system.

Corporate groups banded together to provide millions of meals to feed the hungry or provide ration kits to containment zones where cooked meals could not be delivered. More than 17 million meals were cooked by NGO's such as ISKCON's Annamrita Foundation. Safe drinking water sites run by social enterprises were ramping up clean water disbursement across the nation.

Design teams from universities such as Anant National University were designing massive beds made of easy-to-clean cardboard that could be flat packed - an amazing design innovation. When serological tests like antibody tests were seeming to fail, medical teams called up researchers in Stanford and Milan who answered within a few hours. It turns out that the tests were meant for surveillance and not diagnosis.

Also Read: Russia set to register world's first coronavirus vaccine on August 12; all you need to know

Partnerships play a vital and critical role in finding cures for COVID-19. As vaccines get discovered they need massive production facilities and specialised glass vials to fill them. Given that these are in short supply and often production sites are dotted across the globe, collaboration is warranted. For clinical studies, governments are joining the battle with intelligently isolating the repurposed drug from basic studies and using it in a massive number of patients quickly. This unprecedented speed and investment is playing out in nations hit by the virus. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has issued a call for scientists to work together to find a cure and has decided to bring speed into a creaking regulatory system that has been painfully slow in trying to find drugs that might effect a cure.

Ramping up Testing must play a critical role in the battle against the pandemic. This requires a collaboration of scientists using methods that are constantly updated to be sensitive and specific to diagnose and treat early.

It is evident that much more investment will be needed to improve healthcare in India - At ~1% of GDP, it is much too low. The private healthcare sector enabled support by providing nearly 75% of the hospital beds.

During a pandemic, the public healthcare structure will be overwhelmed as private healthcare - mainly smaller nursing homes - shut down amidst the lockdown. Health policy will also need to change, in addition to collaboration between governments on testing and capacity building to avert future shocks.

Architects, urban design teams, and municipalities will have to rethink the housing of the future as it is clear that cities cannot support the health of huge numbers of people that migrate from the villages into urban slums. This requires collaboration between economists, urban planners, and policymakers to build jobs that not only keep workers safe but also revive the economy.

Also Read: Coronavirus vaccine: UK's Imperial College scientists to immunise hundreds in early-stage trial

Mahatma Gandhi once said that India resides in its villages, and therefore it is of utmost importance to develop them. An example of this today is the transformation of the 115 aspirational districts, the remotest districts of India, identified by PM Modi, and driven by the NITI Aayog, India's foremost think tank.

Developing these Districts as far as healthcare, education, infrastructure, etc. is concerned, can lead to an increase in India's GDP growth by 1-2%, and lead to a balanced development across the country. In the history of mankind, never has there been more need for people with varied training - from doctors, pharmaceutical companies to policymakers, to come together to fight the battle against COVID.

Partnerships and collaborations, especially those through a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model with governments, will indeed play a key role in advancing public health and the economy in this COVID era. This is the most opportune time for all of us to collaborate with each other and support the government in its endeavor to make self-reliance, or 'Aatma-Nirbhar Bharat' a national movement.

(The author is Vice Chairperson, Piramal Group and a Padma Shri Awardee)
The Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) has urged the Ghana Education Service (GES) to enforce its ban on political activities in first and second cycle schools in to protect the children from unhealthy political activities.



A statement signed by Mr Joseph Homadzi, Interim Chair of the GNECC, which was copied to the Ghana News Agency, in Accra, said partisan political activities, whether direct or indirect must be kept away from schools because it had the potential to undermine efforts to maintain discipline.



The GNECC, the statement said, condemned "the gross misconduct" of some final year students writing the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) in various parts of the country and some teachers.



While the Coalition it said, promoted the respect for the fundamental rights of children to free quality education as provided in the 1992 constitution, which was amplified in various international conventions, and the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4); it did not support riotous behaviour or any other acts of indiscipline by either students or teachers within or outside the school setting.



The statement said much as the Coalition had always championed the fundamental right to education for every Ghanaian child, particularly, the most vulnerable and marginalised, it also held the view that these same children must make the most of opportunities afforded them and understand that their rights came with commensurate responsibilities.



"In our view, instilling a sense of discipline and integrity in children is an important part of education," it said.



"The Coalition therefore, commends the swift disciplinary actions by the GES, against the students involved.



"We believe the sanctions meted out are adequate enough to deter other students from engaging in similar acts."



All culprits, the Coalition said, must face the consequences of their actions.



"That notwithstanding, as an organisation that has promoted access to quality and relevant education for every Ghanaian child for more than 20 years, our position is that the application of sanctions should not be detrimental to the welfare and prospects of the child," it said.



"We, therefore, add our voice to calls to allow these students to complete the examinations in order to avoid losing the considerable investment of time and scarce resources in their education."



The GES, it proposed, should therefore, review its directive in accordance with the Childrens Act, 1998 (Sections 2 and 13), and the principle of non-retrogression as provided in various international conventions to which the State had committed to.



"The positive discipline protocols developed by the Ghana Education Service should also serve as a guide as to the form and degree of punishment that ought to be given to the students most of whom may be first time offenders," it said.



"We also reiterate our calls for strengthening and adequately resourcing the guidance and counselling structures in both basic and secondary schools to provide appropriate psycho-social support to those who may be having challenges with their studies."



The statement said parents were also critical stakeholders in education and played an essential role in shaping the childs character.



The Coalition, therefore, urged parents to take more active roles in instilling positive values in children and not leave the responsibility entirely to schools.



"Education is a shared responsibility and every stakeholder must play their role to ensure proper development of the countrys human resources," it said.

Source: GNA









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The "Say Their Names: Silver Lake Memorial" forces passersby to address the issue of police brutality. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power says its policies do not allow any such installations. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The Say Their Names: Silver Lake Memorial  an installation running 2.2 miles on the chain link fence surrounding Silver Lake Reservoir and honoring more than 100 unarmed Black individuals killed by police in the U.S.  is coming down by Saturday, according to the artist organizers and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

The fence is city property, and the DWP said organizers did not obtain permission to put it up, spokeswoman Dawn Cotterell said.

"Say Their Names" co-organizer Lia Brody said that although she knew putting up the installation without permission was against DWP policy, it was totally overridden by the importance of our mission.

This was an urgent moment in history when we really wanted to reach out to our community, she added. Were not trying to sell anything. We were hoping theyd see this project in the context of todays world.

The artwork is composed of colorful, woven fabric such as cotton sheets and silky scarves. Community members began installing it on June 1  the first name was George Floyd  and the memorial was mostly completed by June 5.

Project co-organizer Micah Woods said that not nearly enough time has passed for the installation to create much-needed awareness about police violence.

It's something people are forced to reckon with on their daily walks, Woods said of the artwork. I feel really sad, because it just deserves more time. Theres been so little done in terms of policy with the LAPD. And I feel there shouldnt be an end to memorializing these people who have been so forgotten.

A heart made of fabric as part of "Say Their Names: Silver Lake Memorial." (Stacey Mann)

The DWP has said no art installations are allowed on its properties. In an initial Times interview, DWP spokeswoman Cottrell was asked if "Say Their Names" had to come down. She said yes. Among the reasons Cottrell cited: The fabric can be a hazard, it breaks down, theres debris, she said. And not everyone wants something on the fence, or they may have different views and ideas of what art might be.

Story continues

After this article first published online Monday, the DWP responded to criticism on Twitter by saying, "Times story got it wrong." It later replied to critical tweets by saying: "LADWP did not order or request the removal of the installation and have 100% supported this effort."

Co-organizer Brody acknowledged that "Say Their Names" was never intended to be a permanent installation, and the timeline for its removal was set by her. But in a follow-up Times interview, she confirmed that she did feel pressure from the DWP, which conveyed community complaints about the artwork to her via an early supporter of the project, the volunteer-run nonprofit Silver Lake Reservoirs Conservancy.

"While there were not demands, there were concerns reported and encouragement for us to take this on," Brody said of the deinstallation. She feared the artists were losing the goodwill of the DWP and the conservancy, and she did not want to cede control of the project. She wanted artists to take down the memorial "on their own terms, collectively and with consciousness. We wanted to take ownership of the process."

Andrew Thomas, president of the Silver Lake Reservoirs Conservancy, said he got involved when a local resident emailed his group and the DWP to complain about the use of the reservoir fence "as a place for political signage." Thomas said he emailed back with his support for Black Lives Matter signs, and "the conservancy took a position that was pro 'Say Their Names' to the DWP."

Over time, Thomas said, community complaints to the DWP  he estimated the number as "between one and seven"  were relayed to Brody via the conservancy, "but at no point did they [DWP] express a desire or exert pressure to take down the memorial."

On Tuesday The Times repeatedly asked the DWP to clarify its position and to confirm its previous statement that no installations of any kind would be allowed on DWP properties. The Times asked: "Is it the DWP's position that the memorial must come down, eventually, yes or no?"

DWP community affairs manager Stephanie Spicer refused to answer the question in three email exchanges and instead responded with a statement that said the department had "100% supported this effort," had discussed deinstallation with Brody and "have followed her lead on determining the appropriate timing."

The installation of "Say Their Names" included about 150 people. Disassembling the artwork wont be easy, Woods said. Many of the fabric knots are tight and triple-knotted; organizers have added laminated bios beside each name. The placards are affixed with zip ties that are cumbersome to undo, one by one. As part of the removal, Brody, Woods, co-organizer Eli Caplan and volunteers began taking down the bio placards last week, along with extraneous fabric and dead flowers.

Woods estimated that the rest of the process will take about two to three days. Its faster to take it down than putting it up, because theres less weaving involved  but its still pretty labor intensive, he said. Our hope is to have 50 volunteers to help.

Project organizers have been brainstorming with the Silver Lake Reservoirs Conservancy for a permanent memorial  a mural, perhaps, or a commemorative bench. They plan to approach the city with suggestions.

What would be awesome would be to rename the meadow  the 'Say Their Names Memorial Meadow,' Brody said. Or even a small plaque.

Ideas are still in their infancy, Brody added. "Wed have to go to City Council meetings. But we wanted to put our energy towards a permanent marker of some kind. And for those who are upset about the names being removed, to start thinking about whats next.

Updates:

2:35 PM, Aug. 12, 2020: This article has been expanded to include additional interviews and to provide more context on the decision to take down the memorial.



For the record:

2:35 PM, Aug. 12, 2020: An earlier version of this article erroneously said the DWP had set the deadline for removal of the memorial. Organizers of the memorial set the timeline.


Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday questioned the resignation of former IAS officer Shah Faesal as president of the J&K Peoples Movement party last year.

Kashmir is abuzz about Shah Faesal resigning as President JKPM, a party he founded in Feb, 2019. What made a man deeply passionate about bringing effective change to people of J&K through politics change his mind so abruptly? she said a tweet. Her Twitter handle is now operated by her daughter Iltija.

Another tweet said, A UPSC topper & Harvard scholar who excelled as a civil officer & had no dearth of career options. Shah Faesal post 5th Aug said in a BBC interview that a Kashmiri leader could only be a stooge or a separatist now. He was detained right after & slapped with PSA subsequently.

Mehbooba has also been booked under the Public safety Act (PSA) and has been in detention since August, 5 2019. Last week, the Jammu and Kashmir administration extended her detention by another three months under the PSA.

Mehbooba backed Faesal saying JKPMs vision document was well within the realm of constitutional rights.

Unlike other mainstream parties, he had no political baggage & therefore enjoyed considerable popularity & credibility amongst masses. JKPMs vision document was well within realm of constitutional rights given to J&K.

She went on to accuse the Centre of arm twisting of political parties and leaders who refuse to accept scrapping of Article 370.

Earlier Monday, the JKPM released a statement saying Faesal had asked the party to spare him from the organisational responsibilities.

Dr Shah Faesal had informed state executive members that he is not in a position to continue with political activities and wants to be freed from the responsibilities of the organisation, the JKPM said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 17:01:08|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is here to attend the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, in Beijing, capital of China, April 25, 2019. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday sent a congratulatory message to Alexander Lukashenko on his re-election as Belarusian president.

In the message, Xi extended warm congratulations and best wishes to President Lukashenko on his re-election on behalf of the Chinese government and people as well as in Xi's own name.

Noting that he highly values the development of China-Belarus ties, Xi said he stands ready to work with President Lukashenko to jointly push forward China-Belarus comprehensive strategic partnership and expand mutually-beneficial cooperation between the two countries in various fields, so as to create new benefits for the two countries and peoples. 
Sineeka Latimer said she has vacillated between tears and prayer since she learned late last month that she was being evicted from her home in Greenville, South Carolina, where she lives with her four teenagers and her mother.

After two murders near her rental home, Latimer, 40, wanted a safer place for her family to live. Unable to find an affordable new home, however, she began her application to renew her lease. With many offices closed or unable to serve her in person, the coronavirus pandemic complicated her ability to collect all the documents she needed and pay her rent in time. She got an eviction notice days later.

Now Latimer  who works at an assisted living facility for $12 an hour  her mom and her kids have to leave their home Monday with no idea where they might next rest their heads.

"Cost of living here is just so high," said Latimer, who has gone through a period of homelessness before. "We're probably going to have to put our stuff in storage and go to a motel until something comes through."

Latimer is one of thousands of people who face or will face eviction as the economic recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic has led millions across the United States to find their housing situations complicated or to miss their housing payments. Latimer's eviction is part of the early wave that came after the state moratorium was lifted in May.

The federal moratorium, which Democrats and Republicans in Congress continue to debate in the latest negotiations over coronavirus legislation, paused evictions in most federally subsidized housing for four months, affecting 12.3 million to 19.9 million households. The eviction notices for those homes in South Carolina and other states will go out Aug. 24, because the federal moratorium expired at the end of July.

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Before the pandemic, South Carolina already faced a long-term housing crisis, and it had the highest eviction rate in the U.S., nearly twice that of any other state, according to Princeton University's Eviction Lab. Now, with tens of millions in the United States out of work and the sudden disappearance of the unemployment relief and eviction moratoriums provided by the expired CARES Act, the pain caused by the pandemic could reach a whole new dimension.

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In South Carolina alone, 52 percent of renter households can't pay their rent and are at risk of eviction, according to an analysis of census data by the consulting firm Stout Risius Ross. About 185,000 evictions could be filed in the state over the next four months.

Rental assistance needs will grow to nearly $835 million to cover those at risk in South Carolina this year, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

The situation isn't much better in the rest of the country: 40 percent or more of the renters in 29 states could face eviction because of the recession triggered by the pandemic.

"A lot of the safety net things that people relied on are gone," said John Pollock, coordinator of the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, which assisted Stout Risius Ross in its data analysis. "And some of the things that they relied on, like credit cards and borrowing from family, those are not sustainable ways to pay rent. So as bad as the numbers have been up to now, it pales in comparison to what's coming. If Congress does not act and provide substantial relief, we're going to go over the cliff."

'Preparing for a tsunami'

Janice "Pinky" Whitney, 64, is used to taking care of others, cooking large batches of soul food in her kitchen four days a week for the people experiencing homelessness in the neighborhood. She makes only about $500 a month through her Supplemental Security Income, and a local church helped her pay her rent. But she was recently forced out of her home in Greenville because the landlord deemed it uninhabitable at the end of June, and she has slept in her car with her dog or in a nearby motel since then.

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Now she is the one in need, as she has gone without food and doesn't know how she will find another home during a pandemic. She sobbed over the phone as she reflected on her situation.

"I hurt for them when I don't have food and I can't feed them, but now my stomach is growling. It really made me appreciate the love that I showed them," she said of the people she fed. "It ain't no fun when your stomach hurts from hunger. It ain't no fun  especially in a pandemic."

Hunger is a real side effect of the housing crisis.

Thirty-two percent of South Carolina households struggle to afford basic needs, such as food, clothing and transportation, because of high housing costs, according to the South Carolina Housing Needs Assessment published in August 2019.

The state has few tenant rights, and filing for eviction is comparatively easy  it requires five days' notice and a $50 fee. As a result, South Carolina averaged 400 to 500 evictions a day from 2015 to 2019.

After the state's temporary eviction and foreclosure moratorium, which was issued by state Supreme Court Justice Donald Beatty, expired in May, landlords began filing eviction notices for the rent they missed in March and April.

The number of eviction notices filed in April jumped from 40 to more than 4,500 in May and over 6,000 in June, according to court records. Advocates say the number of evictions will return to the level before the pandemic soon  there were more than 162,000 eviction filings in South Carolina last year  and they are bracing themselves for it to become much worse, as the state economy hasn't rebounded and the few safety nets protecting people have been removed.

"Particularly because of COVID, we are preparing for a tsunami of folks," said Lorain Crowl, executive director of United Housing Connections, a South Carolina housing aid organization. "You know, not just in the lower-middle-income or low- to middle-income areas, but in the higher income brackets, and we're left wondering how that's going to affect our system. Six months from now is what I'm really worried about."

Few solutions on the horizon

Advocates say that there needs to be another moratorium but that Congress also needs to go further and provide rental relief funds and access to counsel to help those who face eviction. Neither is being considered by Congress, but many emphasize the need for rental relief, because the moratorium will only prolong the inevitable due date for rent, as unpaid obligations rose to more than $21.5 billion nationally.

Those who face eviction in South Carolina and those advocating in their behalf don't have a lot of faith in the state government's filling those shortfalls, however.

The court system  in the form of about 300 state court magistrates who are left to oversee eviction filings  don't provide a heartening avenue, either.

The magistrates, who are appointed by the governor, don't need law degrees or to pass the state bar to take on the role. They must only pass certification examinations within a year of their appointments. While nearly half the cases were settled in 2019, according to South Carolina court documents, magistrates sided with landlords more than 44,000 times last year  about 27 percent of the time.

Image: Henry McMaster (Meg Kinnard / AP file)

Meanwhile, Gov. Henry McMaster, who didn't respond to a request for comment, is a landlord himself, and he has continued to collect rent throughout the crisis, according to The Post and Courier newspaper of Charleston. He collected nearly $1.3 million in rent in 2018 from his 200 or so tenants, the paper reported.

State Rep. Marvin Pendarvis, a Democrat who represents North Charleston, introduced a bill that would extend the moratorium and provide rental assistance, and he hopes to have the state reconsider the magistrate system. But he admitted that his bill is unlikely to pass or to even be considered.

While he said he likes his Republican colleagues personally, the political realities of their party majority  as they push to reopen the economy and stand opposed to government spending  limit the state's ability to put a safety net in place to help tenants.

"The moratorium wasn't something that we did as a legislature, and the governor didn't do that, either  everyone punted," he said. "We went to the state Supreme Court to make the call. That's the kind of the mindset that's here in South Carolina, so I'm not optimistic."

But even some landlords argue that the state needs to consider rental assistance.

Jaymes McCloud runs a property management company. He said he worked out payment plans with many of his tenants rather than file eviction notices, but he said the moratorium drained his company's resources so much that it struggled to make repairs, forcing it to turn to a nonprofit to help replace an air-conditioning unit a tenant needed fixed.

Image: South Carolina housing (Robert Ray / AP file)

"People don't want to move. I don't want them to move. There are a handful of slumlords here who are doing a disservice to people, but we were able to create some payment plan incentives and programs for people to keep them in their units," he said. "You got to meet people where they are at. People can't get back to work, so to be honest with you, it's just a matter of rental assistance."

Support services, such as the homeless shelter One80 Place in Charleston, are preparing for the long haul. But as Marco Corona, the shelter's chief development officer, said, the next few months aren't the worry. It's maintaining the new threshold of support six months from now and beyond.

Corona said that the shelter is providing millions of dollars in housing relief to its 800 to 1,000 clients but that it's just a drop in the bucket of the greater need across the state.

"We're seeing this as the new normal for at least the next year, possibly 18 months," he said. "We're increasing our capacity and our bandwidth in preparation for the additional services and clients that we've never seen before."

'The Scarlet E'

Jennifer Taylor, 34, has seen how an eviction can change your life. She said she has spent the last 14 months experiencing homelessness after a disagreement with an ex-boyfriend caused her and her son to be evicted from their home of 12 years.

Her son, Gage, 12, has been with her for the past eight months as they have slept in parks and shelters  always hoping to find some kind of break. They're on the cusp of finding a home in Columbia through the help of a shelter.

Taylor said she had no idea that an eviction on your record could derail your life, but it forced her and her son to live through the hardest period of their lives during a pandemic. Most landlords consider what many call the "Scarlet E" an automatic denial to prospective renters.

"As soon as you mention an eviction, they won't even run your credit," she said from the shelter she and her son are living in. "Nobody even talks to you."

That's a situation millions of Americans could face with evictions on the horizon. Although many may ultimately be able to remain in their homes, with the "Scarlet E" on their records there could be a massive downstream economic impact.

"It's hard to conceive of how dramatic the effects will be," said Bryan Grady, the chief research officer of SC Housing, the state housing authority. "Not immediately, but obviously once people have an eviction on their record, that substantially compromises their ability to find housing in the future  even if they find a job and the economy finally recovers."

While millions across the country are under threat, Sineeka Latimer and her family only have the ability to think about Monday  the day they'll have to be out of their home permanently. Whether they'll be able to find housing in the near future is a challenge for another day.

"I have children trying to be prepared for school," Latimer said. "It's just a mess, and I just get overwhelmed. I have to do all this stuff. I'm a single mama of four teenagers and trying to take care of my mama. I just cry if I have to and ask God to give me strength."
CHICAGO  All summer, demonstrators have marched through Chicago to protest police misconduct. In many neighborhoods, gun violence has been unrelenting, soaring to levels not seen in decades. The coronavirus pandemic is resurging, now sickening hundreds of people each day.

Then early Monday morning, hundreds of people, spurred by a police shooting and by calls on social media to take action in the gleaming heart of the city, converged on the Magnificent Mile, Chicagos most famous shopping district. They broke windows, looted stores and clashed with the police, a chaotic and confusing scene that prompted city officials to briefly raise bridges downtown and halt nearby public transit to stem the unrest. Two people were shot and at least 13 police officers were injured.

The events instantly played into the broader political dynamics of this season, in which President Trump has regularly portrayed Chicago as a poorly governed hotbed of violent crime. Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a Democrat, expressed fury over the violence and ordered limited access to downtown starting Monday evening.

But with a debate still fresh over federal agents sent to Portland, Ore., Ms. Lightfoot made it clear that she did not want military troops brought in, despite a call for help from the National Guard from at least one Republican leader in the Illinois House.
China remains a magnet for foreign investment as its doors open wider and business environment continues to improve, Commerce Minister Zhong Shan said in an interview with Xinhua.

Despite the fallout from the coronavirus epidemic and rising protectionist sentiment, foreign companies expanded their investment in the world's second-largest economy during the first half of the year.

The number of projects with investment above 100 million U.S. dollars hit 320 during the period, showing that the country still holds great appeal to foreign investors.

"I don't think smart foreign investors will give up on the Chinese market," said Zhong, citing the country's huge market, better business environment and complete industrial chain.

The minister pledges greater efforts to expand opening-up during the second half, and encourages more foreign investment in the central and western regions as well as the old industrial base in the northeast.

China will also continue to improve the business environment and protect intellectual property rights, he added.

STABILIZE FOREIGN TRADE

China's foreign trade companies will be faced with greater challenges during the second half, due to waning external demand and rising anti-globalization sentiment.

The ministry will step up its policy support for foreign trade firms, and introduce more measures such as export tax rebates, foreign trade credits and export credit insurance to help them overcome difficulties, Zhong said.

In addition to consolidating traditional markets, he stressed exploring emerging markets and deepening cooperation with countries along the Belt and Road in a bid to stabilize foreign trade.

The ministry will support companies building overseas marketing networks and warehouses, and encourage the development of new forms of business such as cross-border e-commerce, Zhong said.

Meanwhile, the country will expand imports to meet burgeoning domestic demand and lift global markets' confidence, he said.

BOOST DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION

As the country's economic recovery gathers momentum amid the further containment of COVID-19, China's consumption market has warmed up in recent months.

Retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of consumption growth, fell 3.9 percent in the second quarter, narrowing 15.1 percentage points from the decline registered in the first quarter.

To further boost domestic consumption, more efforts should be made to upgrade the consumption of urban residents, expand the coverage of e-commerce in rural areas and develop service consumption such as catering and housekeeping, according to Zhong.
MIDDLETOWN  Another packed week of events and activities is upon us in Middlesex County, and the chamber continues to be on the move.

Our Womens Leadership Collaborative will hold the third and final installment of Learn to Lead Through Uncertainty, a personal discovery series, Tuesday. This session will focus on Excellence Under Pressure, and attendees will learn how to shift their thinking to effectively lead others in these turbulent times.

I thank our Womens Leadership Collaborative for their great work on the development of this series. This important chamber group is led by Chairwoman Barbara Taylor-Hatje of Morgan Stanley and chamber Vice President Johanna Bond on the staff side. We also continue to be grateful to Citizens Bank for its support of the Womens Leadership Collaborative, and look forward to more exciting content in the coming months.

Also Tuesday, I look forward to two important meetings dealing with COVID-19 mitigation and recovery in Connecticut. In the morning meeting, I will join leaders from throughout the state to discuss the distribution of Personal Protective Equipment to the business community. Effective PPE distribution is critical, and it will be critical for quite some time. We look forward to working with our partners throughout the state to make sure that businesses have what they need to keep their employees, their customers, and their families, safe and secure.

Thursday, I will join my fellow members of the Region 2 Long Term Recovery Steering Committee for an important virtual meeting regarding economic recovery. As we continue to adapt to the realities of this global pandemic, the chamber will continue to do its best to be a constructive partner on everything from emergency management, to economic development, to workforce development, and much more.

I continue to appreciate my weekly virtual meetings with the leaders of the Metro Chambers of Commerce in our state. The metro chambers collectively represent thousands of businesses in our state, and these meetings always feature productive discussions about collaboration and joint advocacy for the business community. These partnerships are more important now than ever before, and I thank my fellow chambers for their good work and leadership in their respective communities.

On the chamber division and council front, the chamber staff will be busy this week executing important meetings of our Durham and Middlefield Division, Cromwell Division, and Health Care Council Steering Committee. The chamber divisions and councils are continuing to meet right through the summer, and we were receiving very positive feedback on that decision. These division and council meetings will continue, albeit virtually in the near term, right through the end of the calendar year and beyond.

Switching gears to business development, on Wednesday afternoon, the MEWS+ will present the latest installment of its Midweek Marketing Workshop Series. This weeks session will focus on Measuring Your Marketing: What to Measure. In this webinar, the MEWS+ team will focus on the metrics you should be monitoring for your website, your email and social media channels, and benchmark against industry-specific metrics as a guide.

Midweek Marketing is a nine-week interactive webinar series that shares smart, effective marketing strategies with startups and small business owners who want to grow and get more impact from their marketing efforts. The MEWS+ fosters a culture of innovative entrepreneurship through high-quality services, affordable workspace, and the connections required to catalyze the entrepreneurial, startup, and small business communities in Middletown and Middlesex County.

The week wraps up on the workforce development front, as Friday morning features a virtual meeting of the Workforce Alliance Board of Directors. The group works to improve the delivery of workforce services in close collaboration with business, education and training providers, and local elected officials.

It serves the public through the American Job Centers, one of which is located on South Main Street in Middletown. The chamber continues to enjoy a very strong working relationship with Workforce Alliance, and we appreciate the support of President and CEO Bill Villano and his terrific team.

I want to send out a special shout out to the chambers recently established Big 6, a group of dedicated and engaged chamber members who meet biweekly to discuss through the current status of the chambers financials. Thanks to the leadership of this group, and the ongoing efforts of our staff, our chamber is in a strong position and poised for the future.

These important meetings include the participation of chamber Chairman Tom Byrne, Vice Chairwoman Tamera TJ Jackson, immediate past chairman Don DeVivo, past chairman Jay Polke, past chairwoman and current chairwoman of Chamber Strategic Planning Teresa Opalacz, and past chairman and current Treasurer Rick Morin. I am forever grateful for their dedication to our chamber. The Big 6 meets this Wednesday afternoon.

I am afraid I must close this weeks chamber column on a sad note after the recent passing of two well-respected individuals in our state.

Salvatore Sam Carabetta passed away recently at the age of 94. Sam was a lifelong resident of Meriden, but was also a known commodity in the city of Middletown. Along with his brothers, Sam was the founder of Carabetta Brothers Builders. The family owns over 1,600 apartments in Middletown, and over 10,000 throughout New England.

Beyond his success in business, Sam was also a proud veteran with service in WWII. He was also a supporter of our chamber, and of countless community initiatives in Meriden and Middletown. Sam Carabetta led a life well lived, and he will be missed by all who knew him.

I have enjoyed my recent conversations with Bill Corvo about Sams life and impact. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Carol, and his entire family at this difficult time. We are grateful for his service to country, and to community.

Finally, I want to also acknowledge the life of Richard Nelson Oz Griebel, who recently passed away at the far too young age of 71. Oz Griebel led a very successful professional career, which included stints as CEO of Bank of Bostons operations in Connecticut, head of the Metro Hartford Alliance, and two-time candidate for Governor of Connecticut.

I got to really know Oz during his tenure at Metro Hartford, which at the time functioned as the capital regions chamber of commerce. Oz had a deep passion for this state, and he always stressed the importance of jobs and economic development to policy makers at all levels of government.

In recent years, he stressed a true non-partisan message, and pushed for a series of election reforms. Oz Griebel was taken too soon, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this difficult time. He was a true champion for Connecticut, and he will be missed.

Larry McHugh is president of the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce in Middletown.
PM Nguyen Xuan Phucs message on ASEAN's anniversary

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has delivered a message on the occasion of the 53rd founding anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the 25th anniversary of Vietnams admission to the bloc.

In his message, he reviewed ASEANs development and achievements over the past 53 years as well as Vietnams contributions to the bloc as an active, positive and responsible member.

He stressed that a united, strong, prosperous and self-reliant ASEAN Community with a high international role and position may only be achieved if all of the ASEAN member countries think community and act community, pledging that Vietnam has been exerting efforts, together with other ASEAN members, to successfully implement this noble goal.

To mark the occasion, Vietnams Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) also hosted a flag hoisting ceremony at its headquarters in Hanoi on August 7.

Tens of tonnes of Vietnamese fresh longan enter Australian market





Vietnamese longan has characteristic aroma, small seeds and sweetness.

Large batches of Vietnamese fresh longan, tens of tonnes in size, have been shipped to Australia and entered regions in the south and west of the country over the past few weeks.

Recently, about 7.5 tonnes of longan originating from Mekong Delta provinces arrived in Australia on August 6 while 9 tonnes of longan grown in Hai Duong Province are being packed to be sent to Australia to participate in a longan promotion programme held by the Vietnam Trade Office in Australia.

All batches of longan are imported and distributed by 4 Ways Fresh, a company based in Australia specialising in the production and trade of agricultural products.

Japan resumes issuing visas for Vietnamese employees

The Japanese Embassy in Vietnam has resumed receiving visa applications from Vietnamese citizens who wish to travel to Japan for working purposes, according to Vietnams Department of Overseas Labour.

The visa issuance was restarted following four months of suspension to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The embassy began to receive applications again from July 27.

Specifically, visas will be granted to Vietnamese nationals travelling to Japan via direct flights for work or long-term stay for positions such as business managers, intra-company transfers, engineers/specialists in international services, nurses, highly skilled professionals and designated activities.

Vietnamese employees will be required to quarantine themselves at home for 14 days upon entering Japan.

48.6% of total COVID-19 patients in Vietnam made full recovery as of August 9 afternoon





A local resident makes a medical declarations at a PCR sampling venue set up at Nguyen Trai Secondary School in Ba Dinh District, Hanoi, August 8, 2020. (Photo: NDO/Duy Linh)

As many as 395, or 48.6%, of the total number of COVID-19 patients in Vietnam have made full recovery as of August 9 afternoon, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

The country reported another 29 COVID-19 cases, taking the national count to 841. All of the new patients are related to the central city of Da Nang, the current pandemic hotspot.

Of the total cases, 317 were imported cases that were quarantined right upon their arrival.

There are currently 178,695 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients or entering Vietnam from pandemic-hit regions are being quarantined nationwide.

There have been 11 COVID-19 fatalities in the country, all of them had either been residents of the city or the nearby areas of Quang Nam Province and had been suffering from serious chronic diseases such as cancer, renal failure, and diabetes prior to becoming infected.

Vietnamese short film competes in Venice Film Festival

A Vietnamese short film entitled Live in cloud - cuckoo land has been chosen to compete in the Orizzonti Short Competition category at the 77th Venice Film Festival.

The 19-minute film will compete with 12 others from different countries around the world in the category for international films with new aesthetic trends and expressions.

Live in cloud - cuckoo land, which is directed by Vu Minh Nghia and Pham Hoang Minh Thy, is about a girl working in a wedding dress shop who falls in love with a street vendor.

Gojek app debuts in Vietnam





The platform has over 150,000 driver partners and 80,000 partner restaurants in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Gojek, the leading on-demand service and payment platform in Southeast Asia, officially debuted its app in Vietnam on August 5.

Customers can access services such as ride-hailing with GoRide, goods delivery with GoSend, and food delivery with GoFood on the Gojek app, available on both iOS and Android operating systems.

The platform has over 150,000 driver partners and 80,000 partner restaurants in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, offering a better experience to users with a simpler, cleaner interface and upgraded features.

In early July, GoViet announced the merger of its app and brand name with Gojek as part of a long-term strategic deal. Vietnamese users will also be able to use Gojeks services in Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand using a single app.

COVID-19 contact tracing app Bluezone hits 10 million users

As many as 10 million of Vietnams 76.8 million smartphone users have downloaded a domestically developed contact-tracing mobile app to identify and alert people who have interacted with COVID-19 patients.

The smartphone app Bluezone relies on Bluetooth signal to log when two users are near each other, information that can later be used in contact tracing of COVID-19 cases.

The development of Bluezone has been overseen by the Ministry of Information and Communications and the Ministry of Health. It was launched on April 18.

Bluezone helps authorities to quickly identify people likely to be COVID-19 patents, helping to prevent larger outbreaks of the disease.
He jetted off to Turkey earlier this week to get his teeth done at the same clinic Katie Price was seen at this month.

But Dan Osborne failed to show off his new pearly whites as he returned home to the UK with his mother and a pal on Sunday.

The former TOWIE star, 29, cut a casual figure as he unloaded his car with his luggage following his sun-soaked trip.

Shy? Dan Osborne failed to show off his new pearly whites as he returned home to the UK with his mother and a pal on Sunday following his trip to Turkey for a teeth makeover

The Ink Paradise owner looked effortlessly cool in a white T-shirt and monochrome striped trousers as he hopped out of his vehicle.

Opting for comfort, the reality star rounded off his appearance with dressed-down flip-flops.

The media personality left his wife Jacqueline Jossa, 27, at home with their children - Ella, five, and Mia, two - in Essex while he whisked his beloved parent and a friend off to the Anatolian peninsula for a three-person round of dental work.

Splashing out for the trip, the tattoo artist recently took to Instagram to film himself in the pool with his friend.

Every inch the gentleman: The former TOWIE star, 29, cut a casual figure as he unloaded his car with their luggage following his sun-soaked trip

Low-key: The Ink Paradise owner looked effortlessly cool in a white T-shirt and monochrome striped trousers as he hopped out of his vehicle

In it together: According to the TV star, his beloved parent and his friend also underwent cosmetic procedures

Not only did they use former glamour model Katie's dentist, they also stayed at the same resort she has just returned from, after breaking both her feet on holiday with her new boyfriend Carl Woods and two of her children Junior, 15, and Princess, 13.

Talking to his followers from the five-star Akra Hotel in Antalya, Dan said: 'I'm here getting a couple of my teeth done at the back

'My mum is getting so much work done and my mate Sam is getting a full set of gnashers and I bought them out to Dental Centre Turkey.

Not much difference: The hunk already boasted relatively straight teeth (L in May, R on Saturday)

Just the girls: The media personality left his wife Jacqueline Jossa, 27, at home with their children - Ella, five, and Mia, two - in Essex

'The treatment is unbelievable. I'm more than happy with mine!'

The revelation came after her husband Dan Osborne finally confessed to cheating on her.

Speaking of his infidelity, the fitness enthusiast, who has son Teddy, six, from a previous relationship with Megan Tomlin, said 'if it was the other way around', and Jacqueline had been unfaithful, he would have left her.

He also revealed he's previously told his wife of three years he wouldn't 'blame' her for walking away from their marriage.
Two Victorian prisoners have been handed more jail time after bashing another inmate with a frozen water bottle and raping him as he drifted in and out of consciousness.

Col Thornton and Stephen Down were already serving time for violent crimes when they attacked the fellow prisoner over a demand for contraband tobacco in February 2017.

Thornton asked 'where's the f***ing tobacco' and smashed the man's face repeatedly with a frozen water bottle in an Ararat prison unit.

'I want to f*** him,' he told Down, who joined in on the bashing before restraining the man so Thornton could rape him.

Victorian prisoners Col Thornton and Stephen Down were given extra jail time after ruthlessly bashing another inmate with a frozen water bottle before Down held the victim down while Thornton raped him (stock picture)

The victim, aged 37, had been waiting for an approved visit from friends when he was attacked.

He'd never agreed to supply Thornton with tobacco and was surprised when it was brought up.

His teeth were knocked out, and he needed plates and screws inserted in his face.

Thornton, 35, was jailed in Victoria's County Court on Monday for a maximum of nine years and six months. Down, 31, was handed an eight-year six-month prison term.

They were both found guilty by a jury of rape, with Thornton also convicted of intentionally causing serious injury and Down recklessly causing serious injury.

The duo muttered and shook their heads throughout the sentence. They were not remorseful.

Thornton had been in prison for the best part of eight years at the time of the attack, for aggravated burglaries and other violent offences.

He had bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and abused drugs and alcohol since his teens.

They faced the Victorian County Court (pictured) and were found guilty of rape, with Thornton also convicted of intentionally causing serious injury and Down recklessly causing serious injury

Down had been serving a sentence for an aggravated burglary, where he bashed an intellectually disabled man in his own home.

Thornton and Down's jailhouse victim described the attack as 'something I've never experienced before in my life'.

'I can't explain it. It was horrible,' he told the court in a statement.

Judge David Sexton ordered Thornton wait six years and nine months becoming eligible for parole. He has already spent 295 days in jail awaiting sentence.

Down's non-parole period is six years, with just under a year of that time already served.

He did not physically rape the victim but was convicted of the offence for facilitating the brutal attack.
Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Legal & General Group Plc (LON:LGEN) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next two days. You will need to purchase shares before the 13th of August to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 24th of September.

Legal & General Group's next dividend payment will be UK0.049 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of UK0.18 per share. Last year's total dividend payments show that Legal & General Group has a trailing yield of 7.7% on the current share price of 2.272. We love seeing companies pay a dividend, but it's also important to be sure that laying the golden eggs isn't going to kill our golden goose! That's why we should always check whether the dividend payments appear sustainable, and if the company is growing.

View our latest analysis for Legal & General Group

Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned in profit, then the dividend could be unsustainable. Its dividend payout ratio is 84% of profit, which means the company is paying out a majority of its earnings. The relatively limited profit reinvestment could slow the rate of future earnings growth. We'd be worried about the risk of a drop in earnings.

Generally speaking, the lower a company's payout ratios, the more resilient its dividend usually is.

Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Companies with consistently growing earnings per share generally make the best dividend stocks, as they usually find it easier to grow dividends per share. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. With that in mind, we're encouraged by the steady growth at Legal & General Group, with earnings per share up 4.5% on average over the last five years.

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Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. In the last 10 years, Legal & General Group has lifted its dividend by approximately 16% a year on average. It's encouraging to see the company lifting dividends while earnings are growing, suggesting at least some corporate interest in rewarding shareholders.

The Bottom Line

Should investors buy Legal & General Group for the upcoming dividend? Legal & General Group has been generating some growth in earnings per share while paying out more than half of its earnings to shareholders in the form of dividends. We're unconvinced on the company's merits, and think there might be better opportunities out there.

With that being said, if dividends aren't your biggest concern with Legal & General Group, you should know about the other risks facing this business. For example - Legal & General Group has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

We wouldn't recommend just buying the first dividend stock you see, though. Here's a list of interesting 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.
Users of new SIM cards should only get marketing messages from their mobile operator, South African networks told MyBroadband.

We recently purchased and activated SIM cards from South Africas four major mobile operators.

We found that once the SIMs were inserted into our test phone, the respective mobile operators started sending welcoming and onboarding SMSes which included information on how to buy bundles and check balances.

These were followed by a flurry of marketing and campaign messages directly from the operators.

However, the Vodacom phone number started receiving spam messages for fake fund inheritances and airtime competitions from third parties.

One possible cause for this is the fact that certain old numbers are recycled and used for new SIM cards.

Unsolicited marketing is not only irritating but is regulated by legislation such as the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) and Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

According to ISPA, The CPA determines that consumers may refuse to accept, request the discontinuation of or pre-emptively block direct marketing communication.

Further to this, opt-out requests must be honoured by marketing companies

POPIA, which came into full effect as of 1 July 2020, places further limitations on when a party may engage in direct marketing through unsolicited communications.

This requires consumers to explicitly consent to receiving marketing or for there to be an existing relationship between parties such as a contract.

MyBroadband asked the major mobile operators which marketing messages new customers would receive by default.

Vodacom

Vodacom explained that it sent messages to both contract and prepaid SIMs as soon as they are connected to its network.

Postpaid customers receive an SMS welcoming them and explaining their new tariff plan, Vodacom said.

Prepaid customers receive an automated message or system-generated message as soon as they connect with their new number, Vodacom added.

From time to time, new customers including those with recycled numbers receive promotional and campaign messages about our products and services, as well as functional messages that explain how to recharge, check balance, and more.

Customers can opt-out of these marketing messages, Vodacom stated.

With every promotional or campaign message, there is an opt-out instruction at the end of the message. Customers can easily SMS the shortcode to opt-out.

Vodacom cautioned that it was possible that customers could also receive messages from third parties if they were using a recycled number.

This was because the previous user of the number may have subscribed to these services.

Customers can opt-out of these on a case-by-case basis, Vodacom noted.

MTN

MTN Executive for Corporate Affairs Jacqui OSullivan said that in most cases the only marketing communication users will get will come from the operator itself.

The company does not share information with external suppliers to market their products unless a subscriber opted-in to this option. Third parties can contact subscribers during their tenure with MTN on behalf of MTN, but it is not a default after connection, OSullivan said.

New postpaid customers receive system notifications via SMS to confirm the upgrade and service allocations such as data and airtime allocation, OSullivan stated.

They are then sent an onboarding pack via email which reminds them of the most important numbers and actions they have to perform during their contract term.

Depending on the plan, relevant information will be shared. Direct communication and promotions will be shared with subscribers who have opted-in to marketing communications, these marketing communication messages are tailored to the subscribers profile and usage, she explained.

For prepaid customers, the welcome journey that onboards new customers to the network, providing essential numbers and information will be received over a few days.

New prepaid customers will also receive details about offers and how to access these.

We stagger the messages in order to not overwhelm customers with information, OSullivan said.

Recycled numbers do not receive information on MTN products the previous user was signed up for. If the previous customer had signed up for services from third-parties prior to the number being recycled, the new customer might receive messages from those parties.

However, because of the length of time required to deactivate a SIM, most third parties will have stopped marketing to a number by the point that it is recycled.

Cell C

Cell C said that by default the only marketing messages it sends to its customers are its own communications.

Cell C sends informative messages to explain how to buy bundle, how to manage your data and voice usage, and how to check your credit and balance, the operator said.

Customers are able to opt out of marketing communication from Cell C by visiting the Cell C website, logging into their account and changing settings under Contact Preference in My Details.

Cell C doesnt use old data to campaign the customer, and so recycled numbers wont receive marketing from Cell C that the new user didnt sign up for.

It did note, however, that marketing from WASPs could still be sent to recycled numbers.

All WASP partners are responsible for their own marketing and Cell C has no control over whether they are sending marketing campaigns to a recycled number or not,

All of the marketing conducted by WASP Partners falls under the guidance of the WASPA Code of Conduct.

Telkom

Telkom said that no marketing messages from external parties are sent to its customers by default.

Telkom does, however, send an automated system welcome message to all new prepaid SIMs on the network.

This is a network generated message, no third marketing company is being used to directly contact the customer when their service is activated.

This is followed by customer onboarding messages.

For Post-paid and Hybrid plans, once the sim is activated and inserted into a handset the first message that the customer receives is a link to the Telkom app.

This allows the customer to view their plans, check balances and purchase voice, data and SMS bundles. OTA settings for internet and MMS services are also sent to the customer.

Telkom said that from a network perspective, no previous user data is carried over when a number is recycled.

Recycled numbers are quarantined for a period of 120 days before being eligible for re-use, Telkom explained.

However, it said that new users could receive marketing content from third-party companies since these normally only keep records of the MSISDN (phone number) of the customer and not the personal particulars of users.

Even in the event that the marketing company does hold the personal particulars of an old user, the new user is now in possession of the MSISDN and may, therefore, receive the content intended to the previous user, Telkom said,
By Greg Torode and James Pomfret

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai became the highest-profile person arrested under a new national security law on Monday, detained over suspected collusion with foreign forces as around 200 police searched the offices of his Apple Daily newspaper.

Mainland-born Lai, who was smuggled into the British colony of Hong Kong on a fishing boat when he was a penniless 12-year-old, has been one of the most prominent democracy activists in the now Chinese-ruled city and an ardent critic of Beijing.

His arrest comes amid Beijing's crackdown against pro-democracy opposition in the city and further stokes concerns about media and other promised freedoms when it returned to China in 1997. China imposed the sweeping new security law on Hong Kong on June 30, drawing condemnation from Western countries.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he was "deeply troubled" by reports of the arrest, calling it further proof that the Chinese Communist Party had "eviscerated" Hong Kong's freedoms and eroded the rights of its people.

The arrest "bears out the worst fears that Hong Kong's national security law would be used to suppress critical pro-democracy opinion and restrict press freedom", said Steven Butler, the Committee to Protect Journalists' Asia programme coordinator.

Ryan Law, chief editor of Apple Daily, a staunch anti-government tabloid that also does investigative work, told Reuters the paper would not be intimidated.

"Business as usual," he said.

The security law punishes anything China considers subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison. Critics say it crushes freedoms, while supporters say it will bring stability after prolonged anti-China, pro-democracy protests last year.

Beijing said it supported Lai's arrest.

A spokesman for China's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office told the official Xinhua news agency Lai was a representative of people who were "anti-China, anti-Hong Kong" and that he planned and instigated "illegal" protests, funded pro-independence forces and used his media group to spread rumours.

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Lai, 71, had been a frequent visitor to Washington, where he has met officials, including Pompeo, to rally support for Hong Kong democracy, prompting Beijing to label him a "traitor".

Hong Kong police said they had arrested nine men and one woman, aged between 23 and 72, without naming them, adding that further arrests were possible.

Suspected offences included "collusion with a foreign country/external elements to endanger national security, conspiracy to defraud" and others, the police said.

Apple Daily posted on its Facebook page a livestream of police officers roaming through its newsroom and rifling through files, and asking staff for identity documents.

Some executive offices were sealed off with red cordons. The police later wheeled in stacks of empty plastic containers. Lai himself was brought back to the office, initially in handcuffs.

"We can't worry that much, we can only go with the flow," Lai said, before being escorted into a police vehicle.

Police said around 200 officers entered the premises with a court warrant and collected 25 boxes of evidence after finishing the search. The law allows police to search premises without one "under exceptional circumstances".

In major cases in Hong Kong, the central government in Beijing can claim jurisdiction. The legislation allows agents to take suspects across the border for trials in Communist Party-controlled courts.

Apple Daily reported that one of Lai's sons, Ian, had also been arrested at his home and later showed his restaurant, Cafe Seasons, being raided by police.

Shares in Lai's media company Next Digital, which publishes Apple Daily, plunged 16.7% before rebounding to trade 344% higher at one point as online pro-democracy forums called on investors to buy shares to show support.

'THIRD-WORLD'

Other senior Apple Daily staff, including Executive Director Cheung Kim-hung, were also arrested.

"We see this as straight harassment," an Apple Daily source said, adding that Lai was arrested on suspicion of sedition, criminal fraud and colluding with foreign forces.

Next Media Trade Union called the search "an extremely rare and serious incident in Hong Kong history", with a "catastrophic" impact. It said journalists "will continue to guard their posts until the last minute".

Britain said the arrest was further evidence the security law was "a pretext to silence opposition".

Hong Kong Journalists Association chairman Chris Yeung said the search was akin to "third-world" press freedom suppression.

Apple Daily executive Chan Pui-man said the newspaper will be published on Tuesday.

"Even if Apple Daily publish a pile of blank paper tomorrow, we would go and buy a copy," prominent young activist Joshua Wong said on Twitter.

Wong's longtime colleague, Agnes Chow, and two other activists were among those arrested, local media reported.

In a Reuters interview in May, Lai pledged to stay in Hong Kong and continue to fight for democracy.

Before Monday, 15 people, including teenagers, had been arrested under the new law.

The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and other officials, drawing mockery and condemnation from Beijing.

The arrests show Hong Kong "wasn't intimidated" by sanctions, Global Times editor Hu Xijin said in a tweet. Global Times is published by China's official Communist Party newspaper, the Peoples Daily.

(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Washington, Jessie Pang, Yanni Chow, Carol Mang, Noah Sin, Donny Kwok, Clare Jim, Meg Shen, Twinnie Siu, Anne Marie Roantree and Marius Zaharia in Hong Kong, Yimou Lee in Taipei, and Yew Lun Tian in Beijing; Writing by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Gerry Doyle, Raju Gopalakrishnan, William Maclean and Nick Macfie)
The U.S. Department of the Interior  Indian Affairs, which oversees the Bureau of Indian Education, announced last week that it would reopen "brick and mortar schools" under its jurisdiction to the "maximum extent possible" on Sept. 16.

That will affect 53 Bureau of Indian Education schools run by the federal government across 10 states. With President Donald Trump pushing for schools to reopen for in-person learning despite the coronavirus pandemic, his administration has a direct say in the fate of some schools on Native American reservations.

An internal memo sent to bureau-operated schools Friday and shared with NBC News included details of the return to in-person teaching. Families can opt for virtual learning, according to the memo, but instructors must still teach in person, said the memo, signed by Tara Sweeney, the assistant secretary of the interior for Indian affairs. Schools would move to entirely virtual learning only if an outbreak occurred that led to a schoolwide shutdown. Boarding schools and dormitories will operate as day schools under the new order.

Native American reservations across the U.S. are among the jurisdictions hardest hit by COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. If the Navajo Nation were its own state, it would have the highest infection rate in the country. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show that Native Americans have the highest hospitalization rate of any ethnic group in the U.S. Many who live on reservations do so in multigenerational homes in small, confined spaces. Underlying health conditions are common, as is limited access to health care and even running water.

Related: Navajo officials want to use the millions in federal aid money to guard against the next public health crisis, but obstacles stand in their way.

"I am concerned about the infection and the spread of the virus through our staffing, to the teachers, to the employees," said Sue Parton, president of the union that represents Bureau of Indian Education employees. "Then I look at it from the aspect of being a Native American community member myself, and I worry about the spread throughout our Native community. I don't want to see that happen, and I just don't think that there has been enough scientific evidence to show that it is safe for staff and students to go back to school as normal."

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Many Bureau of Indian Education schools face numerous challenges that educators fear could be aggravated by the virus: They are frequently miles from students who must travel hours from far-flung corners of their reservations. As a result, some students live in dormitories during the week in close quarters with one another, while others board full time at one of the bureau-operated boarding schools.

Image: Haskell Indian Nations University (Orlin Wagner / AP file)

Teachers and employees are also at a heightened risk of coronavirus infection. The bureau's reopening plan says 18 percent of teachers and 27 percent of principals are considered vulnerable or are caring for dependents at home. An estimated 746 employees across the schools are eligible for retirement, and many have underlying health conditions, it says.

Educators have made their concerns clear to the agency.

In mid-July, Bureau of Indian Education Director Tony Dearman asked educators and the Native American community for feedback on tentative plans to reopen schools for in-person instruction.

"Life is what is important right now," an educator said on the video call. "I wouldn't take that risk. I just wouldn't. And I don't want to lose any staff or any students. It would be awful and tragic if anybody died on campus."

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

The message appears to have gone unheeded. Dearman told lawmakers on Capitol Hill two weeks later: "The BIE is prepared to rotate between on-site and distance-learning models if COVID-19 spikes occur. But our goal remains on-site, in-person learning."

Educators and families on reservations said the move to reopen is shortsighted and politically driven. They worry that restarting in-person teaching could have irreversible impacts on a culture that has already been devastated by the virus.

Image: Tony Dearman (U.S. Dept of the Interior Indian Affairs)

"As federal employees, you know, we always have the chain of command. And I think the people who are above Tony Dearman's level are really pressuring the reopening of schools," Parton said.

Reopened schools could allow the virus to spread internally and to transfer across reservations, community members warned during the call with Dearman.

"Students will be traveling through numerous hot spots to get to the BIE off-reservation boarding schools," Matthew Putesoy, vice chair of the Havasupai Tribe, in the Grand Canyon, told Dearman. "We need to be ensured that our students are protected to and from Supai to the facilities."

Related: Trump's appearance in Minnesota drew a rebuke from Democratic lawmakers and dozens of protesters, who accused her of a "cheap media stunt."

Several people asked senior staff in mid-July to work on better communication, underlining a history of feeling kept in the dark by the agency, despite its promises that final decisions to reopen schools would be made in tandem with community leaders.

"If we're not in the loop, both for our tribally controlled schools and the boarding schools, it's really difficult to make informed decisions," said Isaac Salcido, director of tribal education for the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona.

The Bureau of Indian Education said that all feedback would be taken into final consideration and that school reopening decisions would be determined case by case. Yet the decision was made weeks later to reopen.

"Students more effectively learn and grow while attending school during in-person academic instruction," Sweeney wrote in last weeks memo. "The BIE is also better able to ensure continuity in student academic services and enrichment when students are present at school."

But the safety of the schools is in question, as the Trump administration hasn't publicly released COVID-19 infection numbers for bureau employees.

Download the NBC News app for latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak

Internal data shared with NBC News by an Interior Department employee shows that bureau staff, most of whom are Native American, have been affected by the virus in an outsize way. To date, 25 employees have contracted the coronavirus, and four have died, according to the internal tally. It showed that all eight of the Interior Department employees who have died of COVID-19 were employed at the Bureau of Indian Education, the Bureau of Indian Affairs or Indian Affairs.

The real count is likely to be higher, as limited testing and reporting on reservations make it hard to determine exact causes of illness and death. The Bureau of Indian Education did not return multiple requests for comment, nor for the number of positive coronavirus cases and related deaths.

Bahozhoi Kinsel, president of the school board that oversees Kaibeto Boarding School in Arizona, said there's a "history of distrust" between the bureau and the school board.

Related: "Are we going to keep getting body bags or are we going to get what we actually need?" a Seattle Indian Health Board official asked.

Kinsel, whose children attend the school, blames the agency's slowness to close schools in March for COVID-19's spreading among educators. She said she knows of at least 10 school employees who contracted the virus. The bureau-operated school wants classes to be held virtually come September, despite an acknowledgment that distance education will be challenging for many students who come from troubled homes or lack internet access. Most Arizona public school districts are beginning the school year with virtual learning.

Kinsel said several instructors at Kaibeto are still sick with COVID-19. She had hoped that the Bureau of Indian Education would listen to the school board's recommendations to stay closed, but she isn't shocked that it chose the opposite route.

"This is the Bureau of Indian Education playing God. This is what they do," she said. "Leadership is poor in Washington, D.C. What happens above trickles down. It's like a domino effect. Trump is being an example to his fellow comrades in office and gives Mr. Tony Dearman the full authority to put our younger generation at risk."

CORRECTION (Aug. 10, 2020, 7:28 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated the federal agency that oversees the Bureau of Indian Education. It is the U.S. Department of the Interior  Indian Affairs, not the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The long, hot summer of 1967: A forgotten season of riots and urban unrest across America

By Sam Jacobs



The Book of Ecclesiastes says that there is nothing new under the sun. And while many have spoken of the unprecedented nature of the rioting in the early summer of 2020, it is actually quite precedented.

The Long, Hot Summer of 1967 was the peak of urban unrest and rioting in the United States in the lead up to the 1968 election. While there are certainly a number of key differences, there are also a number of striking parallels that make the topic worthy of discussion and examination.

The long-term impact of the urban unrest of the summer of 2020 is unclear, but the long-term impact of the Long, Hot Summer of 1967 and related urban rioting was a victory for Richard Nixon in 1968, and a landslide re-election in 1972. One must resist the temptation to make mechanistic comparisons between the two, and we will refrain from doing so here. But the reader is encouraged to look for connections between these events and more recent ones.

Prologue: The Ghetto Riots

The riot wave in Americas urban ghettos might have peaked in the summer of 1967, but it certainly didnt begin there. 1964 is generally thought to be the beginning, with a riot that began in Harlem after the shooting of a 15-year-old black teenager named James Powell.

The story of how this happened is familiar to anyone who read the news in the summer of 2020: The superintendent of a building in a predominantly white working-class neighborhood turned a hose on black students who had been congregating on the stoops of his buildings. The black students alleged that he used racist language with them, a charge that he denied. It is worth noting how often alleged racial slurs are invoked as an excuse for violence. In any case, no one disagrees that the students then began throwing garbage can lids and bottles at him. He retreated into his building where he was pursued by three of the students, one of them being James Powell.

A white off-duty police officer, Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan, arrived on the scene and fired three shots at Powell. One of these was a warning shot, but the other two connected with Powells forearm and abdomen. Lieutenant Gilligan claimed that Powell had a knife, raised it and then he fired first a warning shot, then a shot into the forearm to disarm him before firing the third shot. Gilligan had an impeccable record with the New York Police Department. Powell had a few interactions with the law: twice for boarding a subway car without paying, once for breaking the window of a vehicle and once for an attempted robbery (he was cleared of the robbery).

The result was a week of rioting that left one dead, 118 injured and 465 arrested.

Between the Harlem Riot of 1964 and the Long, Hot Summer of 1967, there were riots in Rochester, New York, Dixmoor, Illinois, Philadelphia, Watts, Chicago, Cleveland, Waukegan, Illinois, San Francisco and Benton Harbor, Michigan. But the Long, Hot Summer was when things really picked up.

Chapter One: The Long, Hot Summer of 1967

It would be impossible to cover all of the rioting that occurred throughout the summer of 1967. All told, there were 159 riots that summer. The worst of these were in Newark, New Jersey and Detroit, Michigan. The riots left over 85 dead, over 2,100 injured and over 11,000 arrested. They also caused tens of millions of dollars in property damage.

The first of these riots was the Cincinnati riot of that year, which began in the Avondale region of the city, in response to the conviction of Cincinnati Strangler Posteal Laskey Jr. for a series of rapes and murders. Laskeys cousin, Peter Frakes, protested the decision and was arrested for blocking the sidewalk, in stark contrast to the protesters of today who are allowed to block off highways. The next day there was a protest in support of Frakes that spiralled out of control, quickly becoming an orgy of violence, destruction and looting that spread throughout the city.

Resulting in one death, 63 injured, 404 arrested and $2 million in property damage (over $15 million in 2020 dollars), the riot was only quelled when the National Guard was deployed.

Cincinnati was the first, but the two biggest riots were in Newark and Detroit.

Newark was one of the earliest and most extreme examples of white flight in the nation. Its manufacturing base had largely abandoned the city by the time that the riots began. The city had been on edge for a while, but things began to boil over in July 1967, after Newark white police officers John DeSimone and Vito Pontrelli beat black cab driver John William Smith, who they claimed assaulted them. A rumor began to spread that Smith was beaten to death and a crowd formed outside of the police station. Witnesses disagree as to what happened first  the crowd throwing things or the police emerging with hard hats and clubs.

The crowd demanded that Smith be moved to Beth Israel Hospital, a request granted by the police. That night there was a march to protest police brutality, during which an unidentified female smashed the windows of the police precinct with metal bars. Looting and firebombing of local businesses began soon after, with the looting of liquor stores being a predominant feature of the rioting.

Six days of rioting left 16 civilians, eight suspects, a police officer and a firefighter dead. There were 727 injuries (including 67 police officers, 55 firefighters, and 38 military personnel) and $10 million in property damage (roughly $77 million in 2020 dollars). Many believe that the city never fully recovered from the riots even to this day.

The riots in Detroit took place from July 23 to 28. At around 3:45 a.m., Detroit police broke up a party at a blind pig (unlicensed private drinking club). They expected to find only a few, but instead were greeted by an 82-person strong celebration of the return of two GIs from Vietnam. The police made the decision to arrest everyone there. A crowd began to gather to watch the raid. William Walter Scott III, the doorman and son of the organizer of the blind pig, later admitted to starting the riot by throwing a bottle at a police officer in his memoirs.

The next afternoon, the first fire was set at a grocery store. The local media tried simply ignoring the riots in an attempt to maintain calm. Tigers left fielder Willie Horton, who was born in Virginia but lived in and grew up in Detroit, drove to the center of the rioting and stood on his car in uniform, passionately imploring the crowd to stop the violence, but failed to do so.

Chaos began on the second day of rioting. There were 483 fires, with 231 incidents reported every hour, and a whopping 1,800 arrests in a single day. Hardy's drug store, a black-owned business known to fill prescriptions on credit, was one of the first to be burned to the ground. Indeed, the black business district was not spared. Firefighters were shot at as they attempted to put out fires. U.S. Representative John Conyers tried to address the rioters via loudspeaker out of his car, but had rocks and bottles thrown at him.

All told, there were at least 23 deaths and 696 wounded, with property damage pegged somewhere between $40 million to $45 million (between $300 and $350 million in 2020 dollars). Among those dead were 4-year-old Tanya Blanding.

The final riot in the Long, Hot Summer of 1967 was the Milwaukee riot, which left four dead, 100 injured and 1,740 arrested. This began after two police showed up to break up a fight between two black women, around which a crowd of 350 had gathered. The property damage was relatively scant because it was mostly confined to broken windows: it came in at around $200,000 at the time.

Chapter Two: The King Assassination Riots of 1968

The next wave of rioting took place following the assassination of Martin Luther King in the spring of 1968. This wave of riots engulfed the nations capital, Chicago, Baltimore, Kansas City, Detroit, New York, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Trenton, Wilmington and Louisville. New Yorks riots were quickly quelled by mayor John Lindsay, who went directly to Harlem and gave a speech about addressing poverty. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy is largely credited with saving Indianopolis, with his speech there following Kings assassination. A James Brown concert in Boston is similarly credited with keeping the peace there. Memorials were held in Los Angeles that averted a repeat of the 1965 Watts riots.

Washington, D.C. was the first to experience rioting, beginning on the day of Kings assassination, April 4. Ironically, the rioting here was started by a mob following Stokely Carmichael of the Southern Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who quickly began breaking windows. The riots devastated the black business district of the city, which had an incredibly difficult time finding investment to rebuild after the riots were over. Some areas of the city remained little more than piles of rubble until 1999.

Riots in Chicago came next, starting the day after Kings assassination. The damage here was over $10 million (over $77 million in 2020 dollars), with 11 dead, 500 injured, and 2,150 arrested. Baltimore was next, two days later. The swift and sharp response of Governor Spiro T. Agnew (thousands of National Guard and 500 Maryland State Police were deployed the very day that unrest began) was likely what attracted then-candidate Richard Nixon to choose him as his running mate.

The riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. were comparatively minor when contrasted with the Long, Hot Summer of 1967. However, it is worth noting that they happened as part of a more general pattern of lawlessness and urban unrest in the United States in the late 1960s.

It is now generally agreed that the wave of rioting in 1968 helped to sweep Richard Nixon into the White House. The riots outside of the Democratic National Conventionin 1968 likewise didnt help matters. However, whether or not the 2020 election will be a replay of the 1968 election (which also took place during a pandemic that left over 100,000 Americans dead) remains to be seen. At the very least, the Democrats are going to spare themselves unrest by holding their convention virtually.

Epilogue: The Hard Hat Riot

or every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This might be a law of physics, but it often holds in politics as well. The reaction to urban rioting and leftist violence in general that plagued the late 60s and early 70s is a little-known incident in American history known as the Hard Hat Riot.

The Hard Hat Riot took place on May 8, 1970, in New York City of all places. Its worth remembering that in 1970, most of New York was a lot more like blue-collar forklift operator Archie Bunker of All in the Family rather than Lena Dunham  Bunker lived in Astoria, Queens, which is a much different place today than it was at the time of the Hard Hat Riot.

Unlike the hippies and college students of America, blue-collar workers tended to support Nixon and his Vietnam War policies. Peter J. Brennan, who was the head of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, was one of the most vocal supporters of Nixon and the Vietnam War.

The Hard Hat Riot started as a counter-protest to a protest against the killing of four students at Kent State by the National Guard. It started with a few hundred college and high school students, but quickly ballooned to over 1,000. They were soon met by about 200 construction workers carrying American flags and patriotic signs. Their numbers doubled when people working in the surrounding area joined the construction workers. The construction workers began beating anyone with long hair in the vicinity of their counter-protest.

After this, the construction workers stormed city hall and raised the flag, which had been at half mast for the Kent State students, back to full mast. They were joined by city workers, including a postal worker who raised an American flag on the roof of city hall. Most of the rioters were Catholic and turned their attention to the nearby Episcopal church in the neighborhood.

Six rioters were arrested and Mayor John Lindsay denounced the rioters, as well as police for their lack of action. A massive influx of phone calls to local union offices were 20 to 1 in support of the rioters. On May 11 and May 16, there were additional protests denouncing Mayor Lindsay as a commie and a rat. Its worth noting that rat is a term approximating scab in the building trades. On May 20, 150,000 pro-war demonstrators marched through the city without opposition. Many workers who were on the job showered the demonstration with ticker tape.

Peter J. Brennan met with Nixon and 22 other labor leaders on May 26, presenting the president with a hard hat. Brennan later met privately with the president on Labor Day. He is considered instrumental in securing a second term in the White House for President Nixon, and was rewarded for his efforts with the Secretary of Labor position.

What all of these have in common are a template for community unrest in advance of an election year. While not a direct reaction to the urban riots, the Hard Hat Riots were largely the urban white working class saying enough to the racialized and political violence that had plagued the country for the last several years.

While 2020 saw the merger of racialized and political violence running rampant in the early summer, it has yet to see any kind of organized  and we use that term loosely  pushback of the order of the Hard Hat Riots. Americans are a tolerant and a patient people, but their tolerance and patience has a limit. Whether or not there will be an analog to the Hard Hat Riots in the future is anyones guess, but if history repeats (or even, as Mark Twain once said, rhymes) we will be seeing something not unlike the Hard Hat Riots in the near future.

Sam Jacobs is a writer for Ammo.com where this originally appeared.
None of that has dislodged Mr. Trump  or the Republican governors trying to appease him  from his headstrong push to score political points, no matter the particulars of the local situation. The president and his allies sadly havent been the only ones to politicize this fraught issue, as teachers unions in some places have used the pandemic to try to hamstring private and parochial schools. Caught in the middle are school officials such as Mr. Gregorich; teachers such as Heidi Hisrich, who resigned after 13 years at the Indiana school she loved because the reopening was unsafe; and parents such as Joel and Lindsay Barnes, who tried to pull their son out of his Mississippi school after multiple students tested positive. Theres sadness, and its also so much fear, said Mr. Gregorich.
Guwahati: Various organisations and individuals from all walks of life have filed multiple complaints against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker from Assam Shiladitya Deb for allegedly describing

reputed Assamese literateur, the late Syed Abdul Malik, an intellectual jihadi.

Recently while commenting on a communal clash in Sonipur district, the BJP legislator from Hojai, who is known for his provocative comments on various issues, had accused the late Malik, a former president of Asom Sahitya Sabha, the states highest literary body, of instigating intellectual jihad.

I condemn Debs remarks on Malik and urge him to publicly apologise for his statement, said Muminul Aowal, a BJP leader and chairman of the Assam Minority Development Board (AMDB).

Opposition Congress has also targeted Deb for his remarks and accused him of trying to spread communal hatred in Assam by making such irresponsible and provocative comments.

The partys minority wing filed a complaint against Deb at Guwahati on Sunday.

The comments by Deb are politically motivated and expose his low mentality and lack of knowledge. I urge Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who holds the home portfolio, to take stringent action against Deb, said Debabrata Saikia, Congress legislator and leader of opposition in the Assam Assembly.

Three complaints have been filed against Deb by the Sadou Asom Goriya Moriya Deshi Jatiya Parishad at Morigaon, Barpeta and Dhubri districts. Two other organisations, Sodou Asom Goriya Yuba Chatra Parishad and Asom Sangrami Yuba Manch, have also filed two complaints against Deb in Guwahati.

Kuladhar Saikia, former director-general of police (DGP), Assam, and president of Asom Sahitya Sabha (ASS), also condemned Debs remarks.

If my comment on Malik has hurt anyone I express my regret for that. It was never my intention to hurt anyone and request all to end this matter. I want to make it clear that the comment was my personal view and has nothing to do with my party or the government, Deb had explained on Saturday via a social media post.

In July, the BJP member of the Assam legislative assembly (MLA) had hit the headlines after he had threatened to resign from the party for being overlooked.

Later, he was mollified by party leaders and revised his stance.

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The Taliban is ready to begin intra-Afghan negotiations within a week if the prisoners' release is completed, said spokesperson Suhail Shaheen. As per Tolo News, Shaheen said that the first round of talks would be led by the former chief negotiator of the Taliban Abbas Stanikzai.

The remarks come after the Loya Jirga approved the release of 400 Taliban prisoners -- a key decision to start the intra-Afghan negotiations. The first round of negotiations is expected to be held in Doha, Qatar. With regard to the willingness of the Taliban for a cease-fire, Shaheen said that it was a ...
GHAZNI, Afghanistan -- The family of a young female Afghan police officer is seeking justice after her recent kidnapping and murder in a volatile southeastern Afghan province.

Relatives say the Taliban abducted, tortured, and killed Fatima Faizi, 23, a member of Afghanistans anti-narcotics police, in Ghazni Province, where the hard-line Islamists control large parts of the countryside. The Taliban have denied any involvement in her disappearance or death.

My daughter was killed because she was accused of serving the people as a policewoman, Maryam, Faizis widowed mother, told Radio Free Afghanistan. Like many Afghans, she goes by one name only. She was caring and deeply committed to her job.

As Kabul prepares to join the Taliban in complex peace negotiations after a grand council of Afghan leaders approved the release of remaining Taliban prisoners, the two sides will need more immediate confidence-building measures. Ensuring the security of government workers in rural regions controlled by the insurgents could figure prominently on such a list.

But like the countless other victims of four decades of violence in Afghanistan, Faizis murder is unlikely to be resolved and her killers punished even if the government and the Taliban agree to a cease-fire.

Maryam says she approached tribal leaders soon after learning armed insurgents had forced Faizi out of a car in Ghanzis rural Qarabagh district on July 11. Faizi had been traveling to spend time with her family in Ghazni, the capital city of the province by the same name. She was on leave from serving at Kabuls Pul-e Charkhi, Afghanistans largest prison.

In the days that followed, Maryam begged tribal leaders and clerics in the Qarabagh, Maqur, Giro, and Andar districts to persuade the Taliban to release her daughter. The insurgents wouldnt meet with her, but intermediaries told Maryam that the Taliban were demanding the equivalent of $6,500 for her daughters release. We are very poor and dont have that kind of money, she said.

On July 25, Faizis mutilated body was discovered in the Andar district. She was our breadwinner, Maryam said. My son is sick and jobless, she added. Now we can do nothing but weep for Fatima and hope she gets justice.

Samiullah Rajabi, Faizis brother, says they have no doubt about who kidnapped and killed his sister. She was taken by the Taliban, he told Tolo News. They [the Taliban] had demands that the elders [acting as intermediaries] could not meet.

Khaliqdad Akbari, a member of the Ghazni Provincial Council, says the Taliban were prepared to free Faizi once her family and community promised she would quit her government job. We were ready to give this commitment to release the captive, Akbari said.

Why the effort failed remains unclear. The Taliban were opposed to womens employment during their brief stint in power in the 1990s. Today, the movements leaders claim that they allow women to work. But targeting government workers has been a hallmark of the Taliban insurgency for nearly two decades.

Officials in Ghazni say they can confirm Faizi was killed by the Taliban. They held her for two weeks, and then her corpse was found in the Zakur region of Andar, provincial government spokesman Wahidullah Jumazada told Radio Free Afghanistan.

The Taliban, however, have denied involvement. Zabihullah Mujahid, a purported Taliban spokesman, told Radio Free Afghanistan that Taliban commanders in Ghazni have no information about whether Faizi was captured or killed by their fighters. The Taliban are not involved in this incident, he said.

In the regions they control in rural provinces, the Afghan government and the Taliban run parallel administrations while their forces frequently clash along the frontlines. Threatening, kidnapping, and even killing government workers is a favored Taliban tactic aimed at terrifying others and weakening government support among the rural populace.

For years, female Afghan police officers have been at the receiving end of such violence. In 2008, the Taliban claimed credit for killing Malali Kakar, a top police officer in the southern province of Kandahar. In 2013, Lieutenant Negar, the most senior police officer in the neighboring province of Helmand, and her predecessor, Islam Bibi, were shot dead by gunmen. Authorities blamed the enemies of Afghanistan  a euphemism for the Taliban militants  for their killing.

Abubakar Siddique wrote this story based on Radio Free Afghanistan reporter Habibur Rahman Taseers reporting from Ghazni, Afghanistan.
Sea lice, the larvae of stinging jellyfish, have been found near Ocean City, Avalon and Stone Harbor, likely pushed to New Jersey from Florida by Tropical Storm Isaias, according to the Sierra Club of New Jersey.

Stinging jellyfish have been known to show up in New Jersey near the end of summer when the water is warmer. Sea lice can cause burning sensations and rashes, including a skin reaction known as seabathers eruption. Severe cases can require medical treatment.

The Press of Atlantic City has reached out to the Ocean City Beach Patrol for comment.

Here we are in the middle of summer and people cant enjoy our beaches because of sea lice in the water. Sea lice are jellyfish larvae that can cause skin irritation and uncomfortable rashes, said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. They have already been found near Ocean City, Avalon and Stone Harbor, which means that they could spread north because of warm water and nutrients.
UPDATE: Charges possible after N.J. pop up house party that drew 300 to neighborhood

Police from two counties dispersed about 300 people from a pop-up party on Sunday that was promoted through social media and hosted in a residential Howell neighborhood, authorities said.

Township officers called for assistance from police in Wall, Brick, Jackson and Freehold along with state troopers and sheriffs officers from Monmouth and Ocean counties to break up the massive gathering on Wilson Drive in the Ramtown neighborhood.

Most of the attendees are compliant. Others are hesitant and are directing their anger towards the host who charged admission, police said in a statement shortly after 7 p.m.

PRIVATE Location in CENTRAL Jersey...Advance Tixs...Females $30.00 Male $40.00, an Instagram post advertising the event read. The post mentioned a DJ and pool party as part of the festivities. The online flier called the party the Real Big Drip 5.

Only residents were being allowed on the street as officers worked to clear party-goers. Police said more details would be released later.

Last month, police charged three people with violating Gov. Phil Murphys coronavirus order barring large gatherings after officers broke up a party with at least 700 attendees in Jackson.

Outdoor gatherings can have up to 500 attendees while maintaining social distancing as of early July.

Murphy tightened limits on indoor gatherings last week after the state saw increasing numbers of young people who tested positive for the illness. The governor pointed to the Jackson mansion party, in part, as an example of why he moved to limit indoor events.

We cannot be any clearer that indoor gatherings  especially large, crowded ones, where social distancing isnt being practiced and face masks arent being worn  are not safe, Murphy said last week. To be clear, this tightening caps house parties at 25 people  period.

Howell police said about 300 people gathered at a pop-up party on Wilson Drive in the Ramtown neighborhood of the township on Aug. 9, 2020.(Howell Police Dept.)

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Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  A New Brighton man has already served two prison sentences for drug convictions.

Noel Steidell, 36, will soon return upstate for a different crime  illegally possessing a loaded handgun.

Steidell was busted last Nov. 13 during a raid of his York Avenue apartment, according to police and a criminal complaint.

Officers with Narcotics Borough Staten Island allegedly spotted Steidell leaving his home and entering a car.

Inside the apartment, cops seized a loaded Glock gun, an undisclosed quantity of crack cocaine and the painkiller Buprenorphine, cash and multiple cell phones, the complaint said.

They also found items typically used to package drugs -- including a scale and plastic bags, said the complaint.

Steidell was indicted on charges of criminal weapon possession, criminal firearm possession, criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminally using drug paraphernalia.

He pleaded guilty on Friday in state Supreme Court, St. George, to second-degree criminal weapon possession to resolve the case.

In exchange, hell be sentenced on Sept. 11 to five years behind bars and five years post-release supervision.

Defense lawyer Maria Guastella declined comment on the case.

Assistant District Attorney Matthew Gamberg is prosecuting it.

Steidell is headed back to a familiar place.

In 2007, he was sentenced to two years in prison for attempted criminal drug possession, show online records of the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

Five years later, in 2012, he was sentenced to 30 months behind bars for criminal drug possession and attempted criminal drug sale.
(CNN) - As the global COVID-19 case count approaches 20 million and deaths approach 750,000, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said the virus must be suppressed to safely reopen societies

I know many of you are grieving, and that this is a difficult moment for the world, Tedros said during a news briefing in Geneva on Monday. But I want to be clear: There are green shoots of hope and no matter where a country, a region, a city or a town it  it is never too late to turn the outbreak around.

He said there are "two essential elements to effectively addressing the pandemic effectively."

Leaders must step up to take action, and citizens need to embrace new measures, he said.

Tedros highlighted countries such as New Zealand and Rwanda as examples of places that are doing well in the fight against COVID-19.

New Zealands Prime Minister celebrated 100 days with no community transmission but stressed the need to stay cautious, Tedros said. Rwanda is seeing progress due to a similar combination, he said. Testing and treatment for COVID-19 is free, people who test positive are isolated, and all their potential contacts are visited and tested by health workers.

Getting the basics right provides a clear picture of where the virus is, and the necessary targeted actions to suppress transmission and save lives, Tedros said.

He added that "even in countries where transmission is intense, it can be brought under control by applying an all-of-government, all-of-society response."

Using tools such as rapid case identification, contact tracing, adequate care for patients, physical distancing, mask wearing and hand hygiene, chains of transmission have been broken.

Whether countries or regions have successfully eliminated the virus, suppressed transmission to a low level, or are still in the midst of a major outbreak, Tedros said, now is the time to do it all  invest in the basics of public health, and we can save both lives and livelihoods.

Countries that have successfully done this have been able to reopen parts of societies, including schools, with a risk-based approach; however they must stay vigilant for potential clusters of COVID-19.

Everyone wants to see schools reopen, Tedros said, but the safety of all those involved must also be ensured.

My message is crystal clear: Suppress, suppress, suppress the virus, Tedros said. If we suppress the virus effectively, we can safely open up societies.

This story was first published on CNN.com, ""If we suppress the virus, we can safely open up societies," WHO head says"
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, August 8, 2020.

Lawyers for President Donald Trump on Monday accused Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. of "still fishing for a way to justify his harassment of the President" in a court battle over Trump's income tax records.

Trump's lawyers, in a new legal filing, asked Manhattan federal Judge Victor Marrero to reject Vance's recent request that the judge dismiss Trump's challenge to a grand jury subpoena. That subpoena seeks eight years of the president's tax returns and other financial documents from his accountants.

The filing accuses Vance of trying to avoid defending Trump's challenge to the subpoena by suggesting without a sound basis that his office is investigating the president and his company for significantly more serious crimes than the accounting for hush money payments to women facilitated by the president's then-lawyer Michael Cohen in 2016.

The filing also argues, as the lawyers previously have done, that the subpoena for Trump's financial records from the firm Mazars USA is "overbroad in relation to an investigation" of the hush money payments.

A spokesman for Vance, when asked for comment on the filing by Trump's lawyers, said, "We will respond in court papers."

Trump's lawyers in the past year have repeatedly failed to block the subpoena, both at the trial court level and appeals court level.

The U.S. Supreme Court last month ruled that presidents do not have blanket immunity from being criminally investigated by state authorities while in the White House, and thus could not use that argument to thwart the subpoena.

But the Supreme Court allowed Trump to raise new arguments against the subpoena at the trial court level.

The president's lawyers did so in late July with a second lawsuit that argued to Marrero that the subpoena was too broad and that Vance had sought it in bad faith.

Vance in turn last week asked Marrero to dismiss that lawsuit.

His office in that filing said the lawsuit "merely regurgitates allegations and arguments this Court has rejected before."

The filing also hinted, but did not explicitly say, that Vance is eyeing Trump and the Trump Organization for bank and insurance fraud in connection with how it valued real estate assets at different times.

That filing, which cited newspaper articles detailing claims of misvaluation by Trump's company, was the first time that the DA's office had suggested that its probe was that expansive and that serious.

Trump's lawyers, in their rebuttal filed Monday, themselves suggested that Vance was trying to short circuit that case by improperly asking Marrero to dismiss the lawsuit quickly after ruling on "factual disputes over the scope of the investigation and the reason why he copied a congressional subpoena" that had demanded the same information sought by the grand jury's subpoena.

The lawyers said that federal rules of civil procedure bar such an inquiry at this stage of the litigation over the new suit.

Those same rules "forbid reliance on extrinsic evidence in deciding a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim," the lawyers argued.

"Yet the District Attorney's motion heavily relies on a declaration submitted by a member of his staff and an assortment of newspaper articles. In short, the District Attorney inappropriately asks this Court to ignore the Federal Rules at every turn."

The lawyers went on to say that, "At no point  in this motion or in any public filing  has the District Attorney ever claimed that the topics discussed in these reports were the impetus for his investigation or are otherwise related to it."

They added: "Lobbing incendiary articles into the record may be sufficient to trigger a breathless news cycle, but such misdirection falls woefully short of what is needed for dismissal."

"If anything, it shows that the District Attorney is still fishing for a way to justify his harassment of the President."

Vance's "motion to dismiss should be denied," Trump's lawyers wrote.

"The President plausibly alleges that the subpoena is overbroad and was issued in bad faith. That is the only issue before the Court at this stage. The District Attorney's attempt to prematurely litigate the merits at the pleadings stage, including his reliance on extrinsic evidence, should be rejected."

Trump's lawyers in a second court filing on Monday told Marrero that if he does consider the suggestion by Vance's office that prosecutors are investigating Trump for bank and insurance fraud, the judge should compel prosecutors to outline in general terms the scope of the grand jury probe and show that the records sought bear some relation to that investigation.

Vance's prosecutors have argued to Marrero that Trump's suit opposing the subpoena "merely serves to delay the grand jury's investigation."

The prosecutors in court filings have said, "Every day that goes by is another day Plaintiff effectively achieves the 'temporary absolute immunity' that was rejected by this Court, the Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court."

The DA's office also argued that further delay increases the chance of loss of evidence and of the expiration of the statute of limitations for certain crimes.
This scanning electron micrograph (SEM) shows cells in a fixed Pseudomonas aeruginosa colony biofilm. The crack in this fixed sample reveals the many layers of densely packed cells that make up the biofilm structure. This biofilm mode of life gives these cells protection and can result in antibiotic resistance / tolerant infections, but the cells also cause a problem for themselves. The upper biofilm layers respire oxygen faster than it can diffuse to the bottom, effectively suffocating the lower layers. However, these cells have a strategy to overcome this oxygen limitation. Credit: Newman laboratory

Bacteria are found living nearly everywhere on our planet, from the inside of human intestines to the soil to deep underwater. When scientists study bacteria in the lab, they most often examine individual bacterial cells as they grow rapidly in liquid cultures. However, bacteria in nature usually exist in the form of structures called biofilmsdense populations of cells attached to each other and to surfaces with a matrix of sticky goo.

To conserve energy, bacterial cells normally remove electrons from sugars and transfer those electrons to oxygen molecules. While oxygen is plentiful at the surface of a biofilm, there is very little of it at the bottom, creating a puzzle for biologists: How do bacteria buried at the bottom of a thick biofilm "breathe" if they lack ready access to oxygen or other electron acceptors used to conserve energy?

Bacteria can solve this problem in a variety of ways. In one strategy, bacteria produce so-called extracellular electron shuttlessmall, diffusible molecules that are capable of exchanging electrons with a variety of substrates.

Researchers in the laboratory of Dianne Newman, Caltech's Gordon M. Binder/Amgen Professor of Biology and Geobiology and executive officer for molecular biology, have now made progress toward a mechanistic understanding of this process in an organism called Pseudomonas aeruginosa. P. aeruginosa is a model organism for studying biofilms and extracellular electron shuttles. It is also a dangerous opportunistic pathogen: it caused more than 30,000 hospital-acquired infections in 2019, and it is inherently antibiotic resistant. An understanding of P. aeruginosa's metabolic processes could lead to new methods to treat these infections more effectively, while offering insight into the workings of many kinds of bacterial biofilms.

A paper describing the new study appears on August 6 in the journal Cell.

Biologists have suspected that the key to a modified metabolism for organisms like P. aeruginosa lies with molecules called phenazines. Researchers in the Newman laboratory have previously shown that bacteria that cannot produce phenazines also cannot form biofilms; instead, they form structures that are so thin that every cell has access to oxygen. In 2016, Newman and her colleagues demonstrated that biofilm development in P. aeruginosa could be inhibited through the addition of an extracellular enzyme that degraded a key phenazine produced by the microbe.

In this new study, the team focused on the matrix of "goo" that holds a biofilm together to discover exactly how phenazines help bacteria breathe without oxygen. The research was led by former graduate student Scott Saunders (Ph.D. '20) and was conducted in collaboration with researchers in the laboratories of Jacqueline Barton, Caltech's John G. Kirkwood and Arthur A. Noyes Professor of Chemistry, and Leonard Tender of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.

Bacteria in nature usually exist in the form of structures called biofilmsdense populations of cells attached to each other and to surfaces with a matrix of sticky goo. While oxygen is plentiful at the surface of a biofilm, there is very little of it at the bottom, creating a puzzle for biologists: How do bacteria buried at the bottom of a thick biofilm "breathe" if they lack ready access to oxygen or other electron acceptors used to conserve energy? A new model for biofilm metabolism answers longstanding questions about how populations of an opportunistic bacterial pathogen thrive. Credit: Newman laboratory / Caltech

First, the team mapped the distribution of phenazines within a biofilm. To do this, they grew biofilms on top of plates dotted with tiny pores that create a kind of sieve through which phenazine molecules, but not bacterial cells, could escape. These experiments showed that certain phenazines, including a particular molecule called pyocyanin, do not diffuse out of the biofilm but remain trapped within it.

What was trapping pyocyanin within the biofilm? The answer was found in the matrix of material between bacterial cells. In addition to protein fibers and sugar molecules, this matrix contains an abundant amount of loose DNA from cells that have died and spilled their contents into the biofilm. Saunders and his team found that pyocyanin was binding to this extracellular DNA.

The team theorized that the pyocyaninDNA complexes were somehow relaying electrons from the bottom layers of a biofilm to the oxygen-rich top. And indeed, when they grew biofilms upon electrodes, they were able to show that the biofilms generated electrical current. That current continued to flow when bacterial cells were removed from the gooey matrix, which suggests that something within the matrixsuch as the pyocyaninDNA combinationwas controlling the charge transfer.

This led to another question: Were the electrons being handed off between the pyocyanin molecules, like a baton in a relay race, or were pyocyanin molecules physically moving through the film while carrying electrons? To find out, Saunders and his team turned to the expertise of the Barton laboratory, which has, for decades, studied how strands of DNA can act like a wire to conduct charge. The research groups found that the DNA in the biofilm matrix was in fact conductive.

The results, combined with the findings of other laboratory experiments that directly examined pyocyaninDNA charge transfer, suggest that such a mechanism may contribute to biofilm metabolism. Newman notes, however, that it is also possible that DNA helps trap phenazines within the biofilm but is not required for electron transfer reactions.

These discoveries have led to the first mechanistic model of phenazinemediated electron transfer in the biofilm matrixthat is, of how bacteria buried in biofilms can breathe.

"I have been studying biofilm metabolism for many years, and Scott's rigorous work represents an important conceptual advance," says Newman. "I am very proud of what he accomplished in his Ph.D. and grateful to all of our outstanding collaborators who made this interdisciplinary project possible."

The paper is titled "Extracellular DNA promotes efficient extracellular electron transfer by pyocyanin in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms."

Explore further How a gooey slime helps bacteria survive

More information: Scott H. Saunders et al. Extracellular DNA promotes efficient extracellular electron transfer by pyocyanin in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms, (2019). Journal information: Cell Scott H. Saunders et al. Extracellular DNA promotes efficient extracellular electron transfer by pyocyanin in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms,(2019). DOI: 10.1101/2019.12.12.872085
Karl Stefanovic took on a different kind of news bulletin on Sunday night.

The Today show host was a special guest on 6NEWS, a YouTube channel run by Melbourne based Year 7 student Leo Puglisi.

Leo, 12, is currently recording his broadcasts from lockdown in a home studio and Karl, 45, joined him for a special guest appearance.

Career move! Karl Stefanovic (right) took on a different kind of news bulletin on Sunday night. The Today show host was a special guest on 6NEWS, a YouTube channel run by Melbourne based Year 7 student Leo Puglisi (left)

Karl acted as a news reporter on the segment, covering such topics on the show as the attempted banning of social media app TikTok - and even had a go at doing the weather.

The segment was recorded via video link with Karl joining from his home in Sydney on Friday afternoon.

Leo caught Karl's attention after Senator Jane Hume recently Tweeted that he was giving Karl run for his money - so the host figured if you can't beat them, join them.

The talented young journalist has also been dubbed 'the next Karl Stefanovic' by former Studio 10 producer and TV Blackbox co-creator Robert McKnight.

Tuning in: Karl, 45, joined Leo, 12, for a special guest appearance via video link from Sydney

Media mogul: Karl acted as a news reporter on the segment, covering such topics on the show as the attempted banning of social media app TikTok - and even had a go at doing the weather

The excited school boy told Daily Mail Australia exclusively that having Karl on the program was a dream come true.

'I'd welcome Karl back anytime!' he gushed excitedly. 'It was absolutely a bulletin of a lifetime.

'Having THE Karl Stefanovic co-hosting alongside me was something I will never forget, and I got to interview him too! Thanks Karl for everything!' he added.

Leo hopes to have a long career in journalism, which has interested him since he was just 11-years-old.

Hard at work! Leo is currently recording his broadcasts from lockdown in a home studio

Dreams: The school boy told Daily Mail Australia that having Karl on the program was a dream come true. 'I'd welcome Karl back anytime! It was absolutely a bulletin of a lifetime,' he said

'I started it in March 2019 because I enjoyed writing news articles, making movies, filming it and it came together to form 6NEWS,' he said.

Morning show host Karl better watch out, as the pre-teen has his sights set on a job very much like his.

'I would love to work at a major network - of course I'd love to anchor but I would go wherever the career took me!' Leo added.

The broadcast is currently live on the 6NEWS YouTube channel.
MIDDLETOWN  A good number of absentee ballots mailed last week by the town clerks office have yet to be received by voters, who have flocked to social media to express their frustration.

Many are not venturing out due to fear of contracting COVID-19, so, although they are allowed to vote person, many may choose not to.

Of the 20,000 Connecticut absentee ballots not sent out promptly to voters,1,675 of those were in Middletown, said Town Clerk Ashey Flynn-Natale.

The expansion of absentee ballots was intended for the elderly, those whose with compromised immune systems or others who fear possible exposure to the coronavirus.

Registered voters who havent gotten their forms still can show up Tuesday at their regular polling places, but many may not know that, Flynn-Natale said.

Another hurdle in this primary is the aftermath of Tropical Storm Isaias, which hit the state Aug. 4, knocking out power to close to 9,000 households in Middletown serviced by Eversource.

By late Monday, 86,101 people still were without power in Connecticut, with 500 of those in Middletown, or 2 percent of Eversource customers in the city.

Mayor Ben Florsheim reassured residents all of the citys districts are up and running.

Of the absentee ballots, If, for any reason, its lost in the mail, you didnt get it, or if you didnt apply for one in the first place, you can vote in person, Florsheim said. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Due to last weeks storm disrupting mail delivery and election offices across the state, Gov. Ned Lamont signed an executive order late Monday allowing absentee ballots to be postmarked by Tuesday and received by Thursday  rather than requiring they be received Tuesday.

Florsheim took to Facebook live to explain the situation to residents.

In terms of expanding absentee ballot use to those who did not want to risk exposure to the virus, The whole point of this was to try to make it possible so people wouldnt have to go out and vote in person if they didnt feel safe doing so, Florsheim said.

Anyone voting in person is required to wear a mask, and safety measures will be strictly enforced throughout the voting districts.

They are going to be just as equipped as any place else, with social distancing, cleaning of the stations, and cleaning them between voters, Florsheim said.

A number of absentee applications reportedly were not received by Flynn-Natales office and many residents did not get ballots despite them being put them in the mail by the town clerk Tuesday through Thursday of last week, Flynn-Natale said.

Even the custodians were running some of those to the post office to help out, she said. People are saying theyve mailed in two weeks ago and we havent received it, the town clerk said.

Registered voters have until 4:30 p.m. Monday to stop by her office and fill one out.

Unless received in the town clerks office and postmarked by 8 p.m. on primary day, or placed in a ballot dropbox outside City Hall, votes will not be counted, Florsheim said.

Flynn-Natales department wasnt alerted to the situation until the end of the day Aug. 3. Thats what the confusion was, Flynn-Natale said. Because the secretary of states office sent out the applications, a lot of people assumed the polls were closed, but that is not the case.

She did post a notice alerting people on the town clerks website.

Many crucial lessons regarding main-in voting will need to be learned before the presidential election Nov. 3, when participation is expected to be exponentially more, Florsheim said.

Were doing this now to try and stave this off. If were doing that during a period where theres an increase in [coronavirus] cases, its going to be all the more important to vote by mail, he said.

Im glad we did it. Somebody said to me, you want to break it so you can know what the fail points are, and put it back together, the mayor said.

The issues may mean full primary results may not be available until late Tuesday, Florsheim said. We will be here until the last vote is counted, he said.

The Election Day hotline, 866-733-2463, and email address, elections@ct.gov, will be available throughout Tuesday for anyone who witnesses voting irregularities.

Information on local polling districts can be found at cityofmiddletown.com.
CHICO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 10, 2020 / AmeraMex International, Inc. (OTCQB:AMMX), a provider of heavy equipment for logistics companies, infrastructure construction, and forestry conservation, reports revenue for its second quarter and six-month period ending June 30, 2020.

The Company's revenue for the second quarter and six-month period was negatively affected by COVID-19 restraints as was that of its customers. The first month of the third quarter has already experienced a revenue turnaround. For the month of July through August 4, the Company reported sales in excess of $2.2 million. Based on potential order backlog and activity, AmeraMex management strongly believes that the second six months of 2020 will be outstanding.

Second Quarter Ended June 30, 2020

The company reported revenue of $1,782,658 compared to revenue of $5,473,041 for the second quarter of 2019. This represents a 67 percent decrease when compared to the second quarter of 2019.

Gross profit for the quarter was $430,288 compared to gross profit of $605,604 for the second quarter of 2019. Gross profit as a percentage of revenue was 24 percent compared to 11 percent for the second quarter of 2019.

The net loss for the quarter was $(439,840) compared to net income of $24,032 for the second quarter of 2019. This loss is attributed, in part, to a one-time operating expense of $428,700.

Six-Month Period Ended June 30, 2020

Revenue for the six-month period was $3,221,154, a 59 percent decrease when compared to revenue of $7,916,933 reported for the comparable six-month period of 2019.

Gross profit for the six-month period was $874,499 compared to gross profit of $1,247 ,674 for the six-month period of 2019. Gross profit as a percentage of revenue was 27 percent for the six-month period compared to 15 percent for the six-month period of 2019.

The net loss for the six-month period was $(567,919) compared to a net loss of $(258,586) reported for the comparable six-month period of 2019.

AmeraMex's CFO, Hope Stone, presented at the OTC Markets Online OTCQB Venture Company Investor Conference on August 6, 2020. A replay of Stone's presentation is available, via registration, on the OTCMarkets.com website.

As a reminder, the public is invited to participate today in the Company's second quarter conference call at 11:00 a.m. PT, 2:00 p.m. ET. The conference call dial-in number for both U.S. and international callers is 1.201.689.8560. Please dial in to the conference center five minutes before the call begins and ask the operator for the AmeraMex conference call. An audio replay of the call will be available from August 10, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. ET until August 24, 2020 at 11:59 p.m.ET. The replay is accessible by dialing 1.412.317.6671 and entering pin number 13707920

About AmeraMex International

AmeraMex International sells, leases and rents heavy equipment to companies within multiple industries including construction, logistics, mining, and lumber. AmeraMex, with a US and international customer base, has over 30 years of experience in heavy equipment sales and service. Follow AmeraMex on Twitter @ammx_intl and visit the AmeraMex website, www.AMMX.net or www.hamreequipment.com for additional information and equipment videos.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release are forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "potential," "continue" or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, and there are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Investors are encouraged to review the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects the Company's current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

Investor and Media Relations

McCloud Communications, LLC

Marty Tullio, Managing Member

Office: 949.632.1900 or Marty@McCloudCommunications.com

Tables follow:

AMERAMEX INTERNATIONAL, INC.

UNAUDITED STATEMENT OF OPERATIONS

FOR THE THREE AND SIX MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2020 AND 2019

THREE MONTHS THREE MONTHS SIX MONTHS SIX MONTHS JUNE 30,

2020 JUNE 30,

2019 JUNE 30,

2020 JUNE 30,

2019 REVENUES Sales of Equipment and Other Revenues $ 1,025,364 $ 4,901,300 $ 1,937,679 $ 6,671,353 -71 % Rentals and Leases 757,321 571,741 1,283,475 1,245,580 3 % Total Sales 1,782,685 5,473,041 3,221,154 7,916,933 -59 % COST OF SALES Sales of Equipment and Other Revenues 1,103,305 4,632,000 95 % 1,849,257 6,197,536 93 % Rentals and Leases 249,092 235,537 41 % 497,398 471,723 38 % Total Operating Expenses 1,352,397 4,867,537 2,346,655 6,669,259 -65 % GROSS PROFIT 430,288 605,504 874,499 1,247,674 19 % OPERATING EXPENSES Selling Expense 59,167 106,726 148,000 187,959 General and Administrative 708,562 292,751 977,085 497,368 Total Operating Expenses 767,729 399,477 1,125,085 685,327 Profit (loss) From Operations (337,441 ) 206,027 (250,586 ) 562,347 OTHER INCOME (EXPENSE) Interest Expense, net (260,989 ) (172,559 ) (520,797 ) (435,734 ) Loss from Early Extinguishment of Debt - - - (482,908 ) Other Income (Expense) - 716 (1,302 ) 1,233 Total Other Income (Expense) (260,989 ) (171,843 ) (522,099 ) (917,409 ) INCOME BEFORE PROVISION for INCOME TAXES (598,430 ) 34,184 (772,685 ) (355,062 ) PROVISION (BENEFIT) for INCOME TAXES (158,590 ) 10,152 (204,766 ) (96,476 ) NET INCOME (LOSS) $ (439,840 ) $ 24,032 $ (567,919 ) $ (258,586 ) Weighted Average Shares Outstanding: Basic 753,415,879 753,415,879 753,415,879 753,415,879 Diluted 753,415,879 753,415,879 753,415,879 753,415,879 Earnings (loss) per Share Basic $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 Diluted $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00

AMERAMEX INTERNATIONAL, INC.

UNAUDITED BALANCE SHEETS

FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2020

AND THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2019

JUNE 30,

2020 DECEMBER 31,

2019 ASSETS Current Assets: Cash $ 210,739 $ 114,504 Accounts Receivable, Net 975,043 589,710 Inventory, Net 7,385,715 4,832,283 Other Current Assets 234,476 206,945 Total Current Assets 8,805,973 5,743,442 Property and Equipment, Net 1,135,234 1,179,794 Rental Equipment, Net 3,371,724 4,036,612 Other Assets 436,597 489,562 Total Other Assets 4,943,555 5,705,968 TOTAL ASSETS $ 13,749,528 $ 11,449,410 LIABILITIES & STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY Current Liabilities: Accounts Payable $ 733,432 $ 531,806 Accrued Expenses 572,461 79,787 Joint Venture Liability 442,000 459,500 Line of Credit 225,090 408,033 Notes Payable, Current Portion 1,749,893 386,528 Total Current Liabilities 3,722,876 1,865,654 Long-Term Liabilities Deferred Tax Liability 21,578 226,339 Notes Payable - Related Party 315,122 334,794 Notes Payable, net of Current Portion 2,592,085 559,235 Line of Credit 5,516,026 6,313,628 Total Long-Term Liabilities 8,444,811 7,433,996 TOTAL LIABILITIES 12,167,687 9,299,650 Commitments and Contingencies (Note 11) STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY: Shareholders' Equity Preferred Stock, $0.001 par value, 5,000,000 shars authorized, no - - shares issued and outstanding Common Stock, $0.001 par value, 1,000,000,000 shares authorized 753,416 753,416 753,415,879 shares issued and outstanding Additional Paid-In Capital 20,781,087 20,781,087 Accumulated Deficit (19,952,662 ) (19,384,743 ) Total Stockholders' Equity (Deficit) 1,581,841 2,149,760 TOTAL LIABILITIES & STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY $ 13,749,528 $ 11,449,410

AMERAMEX INTERNATIONAL, INC.

UNAUDITED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOW

FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2020 AND 2019

JUNE 30,

2020 JUNE 30,

2019 OPERATING ACTIVITIES: Net Loss (567,919 ) (258,586 ) Adjustments to reconcile Net Loss to Net Cash provided by Operations Activities: Depreciation and Amortization 676,983 580,044 Provision for Deferred Income Taxes (204,761 ) (75,114 ) Loss on Early Extinguishment of Debt - 482,908 Change in Assets and Liabilities: Accounts Receivable (385,333 ) 322,115 Inventory (2,553,432 ) (963,246 ) Other Current Assets (27,531 ) (195,673 ) Accounts Payable 201,626 (250,513 ) Accrued Expenses 492,674 (34,136 ) NET CASH PROVIDED BY OPERATING ACTIVITIES (2,367,693 ) (392,201 ) INVESTING ACTIVITIES: Payments for Property & Equipment (135,025 ) (90,801 ) Payments for Rental Equipment 167,490 (98,371 ) NET CASH PROVIDED BY INVESTING ACTIVITIES 32,465 (189,172 ) FINANCING ACTIVITIES: Proceeds from Notes Payable 3,804,863 126,000 Payments on Notes Payable (391,300 ) (5,580,757 ) Payment on Note Payable - Related Party (19,672 ) (1,101 ) Joint Venture Liability (17,500 ) - Net Proceeds Borrowing Under Line of Credit (980,546 ) 6,015,067 NET CASH PROVIDED BY FINANCING ACTIVITIES 2,395,845 559,209 NET INCREASE (DECREASE) IN CASH & CASH EQUIVALENTS 60,617 (22,164 ) Cash and Cash Equivalents, BEGINNING OF PERIOD 114,504 197,752 Cash and Cash Equivalents, END OF PERIOD 175,121 175,588 CASH PAID FOR: Interest 520,797 435,734 Income Taxes 204,766 195,598 SUPPLEMENTAL DISCLOSURE OF NON-CASH INVESTING AND FINANCING ACTIVITIES: Transfer of Inventory to Rental Equipment - - Equipment Financed under Capital Leases 3,742,310 - Transfer of Rental Equipment to Inventory 227,279 -

SOURCE: AmeraMex International, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/600890/AmeraMex-International-Reports-Revenue-for-Second-Quarter-and-Six-Month-Period-Ended-June-30-2020
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 06:59:18|Editor: huaxia

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U.S. Secret Service staff respond to a shooting near the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, Aug. 10, 2020. U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday afternoon was temporarily escorted by the Secret Service away from an ongoing coronavirus briefing after a shooting was reported outside the White House. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday afternoon was temporarily escorted by a Secret Service agent from an ongoing coronavirus briefing after a shooting was reported outside the White House.

"There was an actual shooting, and somebody has been taken to the hospital. I don't know the condition of the person," the president said after he returned to the White House briefing room minutes later.

"It seems to be very well under control," Trump said. "It was the suspect that was shot."

No one else was injured, according to the president, adding that he was taken to the Oval Office when he was evacuated.

Trump had been mid-sentence during the first attempt at the briefing when the Secret Service agent came into the room and asked him to leave.

A senior administration official told CNN the shooting happened just outside of the White House grounds close to Lafayette Square and the shooter is in custody.

Photo taken on Aug. 10, 2020 shows the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday afternoon was temporarily escorted by the Secret Service away from an ongoing coronavirus briefing after a shooting was reported outside the White House. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)
Hazleton, PA (18201)

Today

Some early morning breaks in the overcast, otherwise cloudy. High 39F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy. Snow likely late. Low around 25F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 80%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.
Bhubaneswar, Aug 10 : The Commissionerate Police on Monday arrested two persons for allegedly spreading misleading information about Covid-19 management in the capital city of Odisha.

The two were arrested after an audio clip of the conversation between two persons was circulated and broadcast on a private regional news channel accusing Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) of COVID-19 mismanagement.

The two arrested are Biswajit Mohanty and Laxmikanta Behera.

The police swung into action after the BMC lodged a complaint against the news channel accusing it of spreading misinformation related to Covid-19.

"On examination and prima facie investigation, it has been found that the audio recording has been prepared, circulated, edited, uploaded and propagated, with mala fide and mischievous intention as the clip contains misleading and false information about COVID pandemic," said a statement issued by Bhubaneswar Additional DCP.

"The mischievous conversation is trying to make others falsely believe that there are corona positive reports, persons are being shifted to hospital falsely showing them positive and there is a certain target for the number of patients to be fetched by hospitals, etc. This goes against the guidelines related to the management of the present disaster and violates many legal provisions, thus attracting criminal action," it added.

The Commissionerate Police said further investigation is underway and some other persons have been summoned in this regard.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Peterborough County, Selwyn Township and Trent Lakes officials are concerned about thrill-seekers jumping off of the Gannons Narrows Bridge.

Selwyn Deputy Mayor Sherry Senis said its been a problem for years at the channel between Buckhorn and Pigeon lakes.

It towers much higher than it used to be, which makes it that much more dangerous. Like I cant believe that people are doing this, Senis said.

Theres a lot of dangerous aspects to it, Senis said.

There was a death years ago due to one of the kids being caught in an undertow. Its a very unsafe practice and the OPP have been alerted, and there are neighbours in the area that have been told to call the OPP if they see anyone on the bridge, she said.

Trent Lakes Mayor Janet Clarkson said the stretch of water located under the bridge  which goes between Buckhorn and Bobcaygeon  is the busiest part of the Trent Canal.

All of the boats that go between Buckhorn and Bobcaygeon have to go underneath that overpass, so these people are jumping in among boats, she said.

This time of year, there wouldnt be two or three minutes between a boat going underneath there, and when theyre up on top of that, they dont necessarily know that theres a boat underneath.

Clarkson said the water under the bridge isnt deep, making the jump even more dangerous.

I would say the water theres probably around eight or 10 feet deep. Its not particularly deep, she said.

Although after the drowning incident there werent as many people choosing to jump off of the bridge, Clarkson said its been happening a lot more frequently this year.

This year, any place that people can do something they shouldnt do, theyre doing it, she said.

Along causeways, at beaches, and at parks  really every possible place that the public have access to  for the most part, theres been a percentage of people that have been misbehaving. Theres just a total disregard for the law. Its just like people have gone crazy.

Clarkson believes those jumping off of the bridge are locals.

Because the average person coming from Toronto or somewhere else isnt going to think about that. Thats not the same as fishing along a causeway. So I wouldnt put that blame on people form outside of the area, she said.

The ones that are marching in Peterborough saying we arent going to wear a mask, its the same people doing this. Its a sign of the times and unfortunately its very dangerous.
French expert: Dangerous chemicals remain in Beirut port

(AP) Chemical experts and firefighters are working to secure at least 20 potentially dangerous chemical containers at the explosion-shattered port of Beirut, after finding one that was leaking, according to a member of a French clean-up team.

Some of the containers were punctured when last weeks deadly blast ripped through the port and the Lebanese capital, said Lieutenant Anthony, a French chemical expert at the site who was not authorised to be identified by his full name according to government policy.

French and Italian chemical experts working amid the remains of the port have so far identified more than 20 containers carrying dangerous chemicals, Anthony said. We noted the presence of containers with the chemical danger symbol. And then noted that one of the containers was leaking, he told The Associated Press in a TV interview today.
Readers hoping to buy Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:DLB) for its dividend will need to make their move shortly, as the stock is about to trade ex-dividend. If you purchase the stock on or after the 14th of August, you won't be eligible to receive this dividend, when it is paid on the 26th of August.

Dolby Laboratories's next dividend payment will be US$0.22 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$0.88 per share. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that Dolby Laboratories has a trailing yield of 1.3% on the current share price of $70.17. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Dolby Laboratories's dividend is reliable and sustainable. As a result, readers should always check whether Dolby Laboratories has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.

View our latest analysis for Dolby Laboratories

Dividends are usually paid out of company profits, so if a company pays out more than it earned then its dividend is usually at greater risk of being cut. Dolby Laboratories paid out a comfortable 36% of its profit last year. 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. Fortunately, it paid out only 30% of its free cash flow in the past year.

It's encouraging to see that the dividend is covered by both profit and cash flow. This generally suggests the dividend is sustainable, as long as earnings don't drop precipitously.

Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Businesses with strong growth prospects usually make the best dividend payers, because it's easier to grow dividends when earnings per share are improving. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. With that in mind, we're encouraged by the steady growth at Dolby Laboratories, with earnings per share up 4.1% on average over the last five years. Recent growth has not been impressive. Yet there are several ways to grow the dividend, and one of them is simply that the company may choose to pay out more of its earnings as dividends.

Story continues

Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. In the last six years, Dolby Laboratories has lifted its dividend by approximately 14% a year on average. We're glad to see dividends rising alongside earnings over a number of years, which may be a sign the company intends to share the growth with shareholders.

The Bottom Line

Is Dolby Laboratories an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? Earnings per share growth has been growing somewhat, and Dolby Laboratories is paying out less than half its earnings and cash flow as dividends. This is interesting for a few reasons, as it suggests management may be reinvesting heavily in the business, but it also provides room to increase the dividend in time. We would prefer to see earnings growing faster, but the best dividend stocks over the long term typically combine significant earnings per share growth with a low payout ratio, and Dolby Laboratories is halfway there. There's a lot to like about Dolby Laboratories, and we would prioritise taking a closer look at it.

Curious what other investors think of Dolby Laboratories? See what analysts are forecasting, with this visualisation of its historical and future estimated earnings and cash flow.

We wouldn't recommend just buying the first dividend stock you see, though. Here's a list of interesting 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.
This summer, children and teens will be spending more time outside. For some, this will include riding all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). Unfortunately, this activity comes with significant risks. A new study conducted by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy and the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Nationwide Children's Hospital analyzed data regarding ATV-related head and neck injuries treated in U.S. emergency departments from 1990 through 2014 involving patients younger than 18 years of age.

The study, published in Clinical Pediatrics, found an average of more than 11,000 children and teens treated for nonfatal ATV-related head and neck injuries annually in emergency departments - that's approximately 31 children and teens injured each day. The number of these injuries goes up during the warmer months of April through September, when they average 68 per day on the weekends. The number of injuries fluctuated over the course of the study, going up after the Consent Decree agreement between the ATV manufacturers and the government, which included numerous safety measures, ended in 1998. Injuries peaked in 2007.

"Although the number of nonfatal ATV-related head and neck injuries decreased during the latter part of the study period, they remain too frequent and can have long-term consequences," said Kris Jatana, MD, co-author of the study and pediatric otolaryngologist-head and neck surgeon at Nationwide Children's. "Most of these serious injuries can be prevented."

Being thrown off of an ATV was the most common mechanism of injury (30%), followed by crash (19%) and rollover (16%). Overall, broken bones and concussions/closed head injuries each accounted for approximately one-third of the injuries, but these proportions varied by age group. More than 15% of injured youth were admitted to a hospital. Riding on a roadway was especially dangerous. Children and teens who were injured on a street or highway were about 1.5 times more likely to be admitted to a hospital for their injury than those injured at other locations.

Children younger than 12 years of age accounted for almost half (46%) of injured youth in the study despite the recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics that children should be at least 16 years of age - old enough to drive a car - before they operate an ATV. Children younger than 12 years were more likely than teens to sustain broken bones and be injured when thrown off of an ATV, whereas teens were more likely than younger children to be diagnosed with concussions/closed head injuries and to be injured by an ATV rollover.

"ATVs are powerful machines designed strictly for off-road use that require mature judgement, coordination, strength, and moment-to-moment decision making. Adoption of the safety recommendations outlined by the American Academy of Pediatrics would go a long way in preventing many pediatric ATV-related head and neck injuries," said Gary Smith, MD, DrPH, senior author of the study and director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's. "These recommendations include requiring children to be at least 16 years old before they operate an ATV, wearing a helmet designed for motorcycle use every time they ride, prohibiting passengers, and not riding on roadways."

###

Data for this study were obtained from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) database, which is maintained by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. The NEISS database provides information about consumer product-related injuries treated in hospital emergency departments across the country.

The Center for Injury Research and Policy (CIRP) of the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital works globally to reduce injury-related pediatric death and disabilities. With innovative research at its core, CIRP works to continually improve the scientific understanding of the epidemiology, biomechanics, prevention, acute treatment, and rehabilitation of injuries. CIRP serves as a pioneer by translating cutting edge injury research into education, policy, and advances in clinical care. For related injury prevention materials or to learn more about CIRP, visit http://www.injurycenter.org. Follow CIRP on Twitter @CIRPatNCH.

The Department of Otolaryngology at Nationwide Children's Hospital is committed to identifying new prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of childhood ear, nose, and throat (ENT) diseases. From the most common disorders to complex problems that require unique expertise, the ENT team at Nationwide Children's is specially trained to treat children. To learn more about ENT services at Nationwide Children's, visit https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/specialties/ear-nose-throat-ent-services-otolaryngology.
This cover image released by Putnam shows "Then She Vanished," a novel by T. Jefferson Parker. (Putnam via AP)

Then She Vanished, by T. Jefferson Parker (Putnam)

With each new book in T. Jefferson Parkers series featuring San Diego private detective Roland Ford, the less the yarns resemble private eye novels and the more they bring to mind apocalyptic James Bond thrillers.

Fans of detective stories are likely to prefer the first Roland novel, The Room of White Fire (2017), over the fourth and latest installment, but apocalyptic conspiracies involving powerful forces fit the current national mood, and Parker certainly has the writing chops to pull this sort of thing off.

Then She Vanished opens with Dalton Strait, a California politician in the middle of a bruising reelection campaign, hiring Ford to track down his missing wife. At first, it appears that the bipolar woman has simply run off again, but when her car is found abandoned, the word help scrawled in lipstick on the back seat, the search takes a dark and urgent turn.

Fords investigation brings him face to face with members of Straits dysfunctional family, including the menacing family patriarch and a sister whose legal marijuana-growing business has brought her into violent conflict with a Mexican drug cartel.

Meanwhile, a terrorist group with an anti-technology manifesto is blowing up targets around the state and urging others with anarchistic inclinations to join them. As the bombings become more frequent and the death toll mounts, Ford comes to suspect that the missing woman and the bombings are somehow related.

Although the story drags a bit at times, the plot is suspenseful and Parkers writing is first rate, as is to be expected from a writer with 25 mostly excellent crime novels and a remarkable three Edgar Awards in his resume.

___

Bruce DeSilva, winner of the Mystery Writers of Americas Edgar Award, is the author of the Mulligan crime novels including The Dread Line.
A former Nigerian minister who is wanted for multiple counts of corruption and embezzlement has lamented the decay in societal values among Nigerians and the glorification of internet Fraudsters.

Diezani Alison-Madueke, Nigerias former petroleum minister, who is held up in the UK where she is also being investigated for money laundering, was a guest speaker at a virtual event on Friday.

Video clips of the event organised by the Ijaw National Development Group, were posted by Jackson Ude, an aide to a former president, Goodluck Jonathan.

Mrs Alison-Madueke lamented that Nigerian youth were looking up to internet fraudsters, popularly called Yahoo Yahoo.

The ones that have swag, the Yahoo Yahoo boys as my son would say; these in short, are the role models they are looking at. These are the ones that reinforce negative societal norms and values.

This is a travesty of an unfolding tragedy for us. Why have I spent time talking about fatherless homes and the impact it has on our children? The truth of the matter is that an irresponsible boy tends to become an irresponsible man and it is therefore a vicious cycle. If you plant yam, you cannot harvest plantain, she told the audience.

Diezanis corruption scandals

In the posted video, Mrs Alison-Madueke did not speak on corruption in public office and how that affects societal values.

The former minister is alleged to have committed offences bordering on abuse of office, bribery and money laundering between 2011 and 2015, while in office.

Some of the beneficiaries of the corrupt act have been convicted in Nigeria.

In the build-up of the 2015 presidential election, Mrs Alison-Madueke allegedly stashed about $115 million in a bank with subsequent instruction to distribute it among mainly electoral officials in the 36 states of the federation. The motive was to rig the election in favour of Mr Jonathan, who eventually lost to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Two of the beneficiaries of the largesse, a Deputy Director of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Auwal Jibrin, and one Garba Ismaila, have been tried and were sentenced to six years imprisonment in 2019. Many others are still being prosecuted.

In an attempt to apparently evade justice, Mrs Alison-Madueke bolted to the United Kingdom on medical grounds in 2015 but was held in London alongside four others. She is being investigated for money laundering in the UK.

However, in her absence, she has forfeited properties and jewellery worth billions of naira to the Nigerian government.

Former Petroleum Minister, Dieziani Alison-Madueke, has surfaced oooo. She spoke on Fatherhood, and making a case for Ijaw Womens voice to be heard, praised GEJ for the chance he gave women in his Govt. This was in August 7, 2020 virtual event of Ijaw National Dev Group. Pt 1 pic.twitter.com/b0KFratkWa  Jackson Ude (@jacksonpbn) August 9, 2020

Many Nigerians have mounted pressure on the federal government to demand Mrs Alison-Maduekes extradition back to the country to face trial.

The suspended acting chairman of the anti-graft agency, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, repeatedly called on UK authorities to extradite her to Nigeria to face trial.

Recently, a Federal High Court in Abuja ordered her to appear in October and answer to the money laundering charge filed against her by the EFCC.

Women Empowerment

While delivering the lecture on Friday, Mrs Alison-Madueke advised women to rise above stereotypes, giving their best to whatever they do.

I want to stress that no woman is helpless not to talk of our hard-working Ijaw women who are multi-dimensional in every sense of the word regarding economic empowerment for women. The United Nations has posited that when more women work economies grew womens economic empowerment boosts productivity. It increases economic diversification and income equality in addition to other positive development outcomes.

According to her, womens economic equality is good for business, and studies have shown that companies have greatly benefitted from increasing employment and leadership opportunities for women.

Politics is another area in which women are proven to excel. It is quite striking for me that a study I found which was done in India and published by The Brookings Institute on women legislators and economic performance. The study concluded that women legislators are more effective relative to men and produce economic growth in less developed countries.

She added that the former president, Mr Jonathan, achieved nearly 40 per cent of women to men in his cabinet.

While we look forward to seeing this sort of gracious again in the not-too-distant future as women, we need to prepare ourselves at every level for entry into the political sphere. Lets all start with the Grassroots the Grassroots level and find platforms for each other women to get their voices heard and to contribute actively to the political discourse in our land, Mrs Alison-Madueke said.
As Delhi University's online open book examinations began on Monday, the teachers expressed doubts over its feasibility in the long run and also flagged the lack of guidelines to evaluate students under the latest exam mode.

The varsity has maintained that it is opting for the open book examination mode as a one-time measure in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

Arun Attri, a professor of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, said the new exam mode has ended uncertainty for over 2 lakh students who now know that since they have taken the exams, they will get their results and can apply for Masters.

He, however, said the open book exam is not a feasible option in the long run for the varsity which is known for its commerce and humanities courses.

Such exams may be feasible for engineering and science students, but won't serve the purpose for commerce and humanities courses. They are more like assignments rather than exams, Attri said.

A professor, requesting anonymity, said such a mode of examination also raises concerns over cheating and use of fraudulent means by students.

He said teachers have learnt about students sharing answers on social messaging platforms like WhatsApp.

There is no way to check such instances. The answers to many questions are easily available on the internet and students will just copy them. How do we know whether a student has actually understood what he has written? It is disadvantageous for those who actually put in hard work and prepare for the exams, the professor added.

The students are in touch with each other over WhatsApp. Even those students, who may not be willing to share answers, are forced to do so in the name of friendship. There is no way we can check this or keep a tab on it. If I get the same answer in 10 answer sheets, how am I supposed to evaluate them? another professor rued.

Teachers' Association treasurer Abha Dev Habib said all students have the same study material.

Earlier, the students would visit libraries and take additional notes, but due to the pandemic that has not been possible. I have sent the same notes to every student and they will be relying on similar material, she said.

Abha, who teaches at Miranda House, said teachers are awaiting clarity on how they will evaluate the answer sheets.

We do not know whether we will be sent the answer sheets or given a login to the portal. We do not know which software will we be using to evaluate the answer sheets. There has been no training given to us on this, she said.

Pankaj Garg, former academic council member and a professor of Rajdhani College, concurred with Abha and said teachers will face difficulties in evaluating the examinees.

"There is a fair possibility that there would be swapping of the pages while scanning and uploading, this would disturb the sequence... teachers will have to be very careful in connecting all those pages which belong to the same question," he said.

While scanning, some pages may be blurred and it would be difficult to read them carefully. It would be equally difficult to connect to the next page and hence, the continuity of the answer would be lost, Garg said.

For teachers, the most challenging point would be marking of pages, it seems that evaluation would take much longer, he added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sanjay Gupta, Corporate Vice President at HCL Technologies, made the remark during a virtual seminar on Vietnams key macroeconomic policies to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and potential sectors for long-term investors held by the Vietnamese Embassy in India on August 7.

The event drew the participation of about 100 businesses, investors, experts and scholars of the two countries.

At the event, Vietnamese delegates updated their Indian counterparts about the Vietnamese Governments policies in the context of COVID-19 and potential sectors for investment, stressing that the country has become a bright spot in both economic recovery and fighting the pandemic.

With an open economy and favourable business climate, Vietnam boasts potential to become of the nations with the fastest economic growth in the world in the post-pandemic period.

Gupta also spoke highly of the Southeast Asian countrys incentives in IT development.

He noted that the number of Indian companies invested in Vietnams IT field, standing at only 23 so far, has yet to match with the potential of the sector and the cooperation potential between the two countries.

HCL Technologies is working on a major investment plan worth hundreds of millions of USD in Vietnam, he said, which may employ 8,000 people in the upcoming fiscal year especially in the software and service sectors.

The Indian company also eyes the establishment of one of its largest hubs in Southeast Asia in Vietnam, he added.

HCL Technologies, a multinational IT service and consulting company, is the third largest IT firm in India with 150,000 employees working in 47 countries and territories across the world.
(Photo : Prepear/Facebook) Prepear's logo (left) and Apple's logo (right) apparently had the same commercial impression, according to the tech giant. (Photo : Cherie) (Photo : Raleigh Downtown Farmer's Market) (Photo : Oasis) (Photo : FreshSquare) (Photo : Woolworths) (Photo : Costa Rica) (Photo : Banana Bird) (Photo : Orange Investments) (Photo : Annana) (Photo : Fresh)

Brands take care of their own logos as it's an integral part of their identities, which is why people often know what brand a particular object is based on their logo. For example, people would know an Apple device even from afar because of their infamous Apple logo with a bitten piece.

Apple Files Notice of Opposition

However, the tech giant believes that a fruit logo from a meal prep company Prepear could "cause dilution of distinctiveness" with the Apple logo and might make it hard for people to distinguish Apple and Prepear's services, which it argues would be a violation of the Lanham Act.

In a report by The Verge, Apple has filed a notice of opposition against the company because it claims that Prepear's pear logo is too close to its trademarked apple logo.

For those who are not aware, the Lanham Act "protects the owner of a federally registered mark against the use of similar marks if such use is likely to result in consumer confusion, or if the dilution of a famous mark is likely to occur," according to the Cornwell Law School.

The whole fruit logo fiasco happened when Super Healthy Kids, Prepear's parent company, filed to register the pear logo for trademark.

Read Also: Polyarc Vows to Expand From Virtual Reality to Augmented Reality Games by Raising $9 Million Funds

Similar Vibe?

So, why did Apple file the notice of opposition?

Based on the notice that the tech giant filed, it described Prepear's logo as a minimalist fruit design with a single right-angled leaf that "readily calls to mind Apple's famous Apple logo" that they believe would create a similar impression.

"The Apple Marks are so famous and instantly recognizable that the similarities in Applicant's Mark will overshadow any differences and cause the ordinary consumer to believe the Applicant is related to, affiliated with or endorsed by Apple," the notice further claimed.

Prepear Responds

As a response to the notice of opposition, the co-founder of Prepear app Russell Monson has started a petition saying that their company is just a small business with only five employees.

Furthermore, Monsoon said the company could not afford a protracted legal battle, especially with a giant company like Apple, saying that what they're currently facing is a "terrifying" experience.

The petition is called "Save the Pear from Apple!" and has already amassed more than 23,000 signatures supporting them as of writing.

Meanwhile, co-owner Natalie Monson has also posted on her Instagram account that she is not pushing everyone to stop using Apple products, but she wants to make a stand against Apple's "aggressive legal action."

The Prepear app is a meal prep and recipe app that allows its users to organize recipes and create custom meal plans.

Fruit Logos in the Industry

Besides Apple and Prepear, fruit logos are not uncommon in the industry.

In fact, Leeroy has listed down ten companies that have fruit logos, including BlackBerry, Fresh, juicy Films, The Great Catering Company, and more.Check out some of them below:

1. Cherie Hairspa

2. Raleigh Downtown Farmer's Market

3.Oasis

4. FreshSquare

5. Woolworths

6. Fresh







7. Costa Rica

8. Banana Bird

9. Orange Investments

10. Annana

Will Apple come after these companies using fruit ogos too? Probably not.

Although some of these companies use a minimalistic approach like Apple and Prepear, they don't exactly give off the Apple logo's feeling, like apparently how Prepear's did, based on their notice.

Read Also: Gaming Companies Like Epic, Riot Not Affected by Trump's Executive Order Against Tencent

This article is owned by TechTimes.

Written by: Nhx Tingson

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The statue of Christopher Columbus at Marconi Plaza is enclosed in a box on June 16, 2020 till a decision can be made about its future. Read more

Last month, Philadelphias Art and Historical commissions heard hours of passionate testimony about Mayor Kenneys proposal to remove Marconi Plazas Christopher Columbus statue. The statue became a flashpoint for violence this summer as armed mobs claiming to protect the statue clashed with protesters who took to the streets in the wake of George Floyds murder.

In presenting its case, the Kenney administration acknowledged that while Columbus is a culturally meaningful symbol for Italian-Americans, he also represents Indigenous genocide and European colonial aggression. The administration says removal is a matter of public safety and about protecting the historic sculpture. But it is also a values statement.

This is not a sculpture being pulled down mid-protest or a hasty, sanctioned removal under cover of night. Instead, the Art Commission is expected to vote on the statues removal on August 12. This is the city trying to dismantle a symbol of oppression through official channels  a process that feels like forcing flood water through the funnel of bureaucracy.

 READ MORE: Historic Commission Votes to move statue

Philadelphia should open the floodgates and embark on a comprehensive review of its entire collection of public art, memorials, and monuments, including the names gracing public properties like schools and streets. Its time to take stock of what values our public realm reflects and whose stories dominate. The rest of our symbolic landscape should receive the same level of scrutiny as a single statue of Columbus.

Neither the Art Commission nor Historical Commission are big enough venues to hold the weight of these important conversations. And members of the public need more than a three-minute-long blurt on Zoom to say their piece.

This moment demands an honest reckoning with the past. If the city is serious about this kind of reconciliation, it must ensure the shared network of spaces maintained and created in our names lives up to our highest democratic values. We must rethink the structures, symbols, and systems long taken for granted and ask how the built environment can be an instrument of justice.

Following public outcry over its sculpture of Christopher Columbus, New York City undertook a similar review of its public art collection in late 2017; Philadelphia can learn from its experience. There, a diverse panel of experts convened for three months to review New Yorks public art, monuments, and markers, and to collect public input. Its work resulted in guidance on confronting or removing public artworks.

 READ MORE: Why is the Columbus statue an issue?

Philadelphia has no shortage of people actively engaged in these questions and it is time to tap their wisdom. The public art and history practice Monument Lab, for example, has worked for years to stoke public imagination about the connections between public art, social justice, and equity. It spent Summer 2017 soliciting proposals for new monuments that represent Philadelphia today. The responses and the process revealed a deep public sensitivity, knowledge, and curiosity about the city.

Its time to build on that foundation. The mayor should establish a commission to assess the citys public art and monuments, through an inclusive and participatory process designed to prioritize citizen expertise with professional guidance. Its work has the potential to advance a city built on greater empathy, brotherly love, even.
Fuel spilling from a Japanese bulk carrier that ran aground on a reef in Mauritius two weeks ago is creating an ecological disaster, endangering corals, fish and other marine life around the Indian Ocean island, officials and environmentalists say.

The MV Wakashio, owned by the Nagashiki Shipping Company, struck the reef on Mauritiuss southeast coast on July 25.

On Thursday, the government said fuel was leaking from a crack in the vessels hull, and Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth declared a state of environmental emergency, pleading for international help.

Environmental group Greenpeace said the spill was to likely to be one of the worst ecological crises Mauritius has ever seen.

Thousands of species around the pristine lagoons of Blue Bay, Pointe dEsny and Mahebourg are at risk of drowning in a sea of pollution, with dire consequences for Mauritiuss economy, food security and health, Greenpeace said in a statement.

France was sending specialist teams and equipment to help Mauritius deal with the spill, French President Emmanuel Macron said.

Nagashiki Shipping Company said it had tried to free the tanker, but the effort was hampered by persistent bad weather.

The tanker is grounded in what the environment ministry has described as a sensitive zone, with the leaking fuel endangering the diverse marine life that attracts tourists from around the world.

Mauritius, famous for its pristine beaches, is popular with tourists who last year contributed 63 billion Mauritius rupees ($1.6bn) to the economy.
The 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump was targeted by an international conspiracy of top-level spies, working in concert to generate phony evidence of Russian involvement so as to provide a legal basis for electronic spying on it. Following Trump's election, his designated national security adviser, General Michael Flynn, was targeted for destruction via a bogus perjury trap and blackmailed into a guilty plea that is still working its way through the appeals process.

For more than two years, we have had evidence that a key figure in this conspiracy was Stefan Halper, ostensibly a Cambridge University don, who was paid vast sums by the shadowy U.S. Office of National Assessment for work that remains unclear.

Now a former Ph.D. student of Halper's at Cambridge has stepped forward to tell his tale of intrigue, including his own role in introducing Halper to Carter Page, after which Page become the target used to submit false warrants to the FISA Court enabling use of the NSA's electronic surveillance capability to spy on the Trump campaign.

Steven P. Schrage, who now has completed his doctoral studies and received his Ph.D., came forward yesterday in two forums to tell the inside story of the targeting of Carter Page and Michael Flynn. Schrage wrote a long article on Matt Taibbi's website, titled "The Spies Who Hijacked America" and appeared on Maria Bartiromo's Fox News program Sunday Morning Futures, which has been the single most important source of information on Obamagate since the story started emerging. Schrage promises a series of articles to come laying out more detail.



YouTube screen grab.

The TV interview lasts almost nine minutes but is quicker than the long article in getting the gist of the story.

If you have time and want to get a clearer sense of how this outrageous plot developed, the entire article is well worth your time. One key to the conspiracy is a group of 4 individuals associated with Cambridge whom he dubs "The Cambridge Four," who, if they were not on Russia's payroll, certainly acted in ways that served Russia's goal of sowing chaos and distrust within the American political system

I call them  Halper, Steele, Dearlove, and [Christopher] Andrew  the Cambridge Four because of parallels to another British spy story of yore, perhaps the most notorious intelligence scandal in history. That earlier "Cambridge Five" spy ring, including infamous names like Kim Philby and Guy Burgess, became the basisfor John LeCarre's famous spy thriller and film Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. The Five were Cold War Soviet spies who escaped virtually unpunished after embarrassed British and American officials essentially covered up the extent of their betrayals. One, Anthony Blunt, was even knighted and served as art curator to the Queen. I have no indication that any of the Cambridge Four were ever on Russia's payroll or were actual spies for Russia, like their Cambridge Five namesakes. Yet the Cambridge Four, and their media and political enablers, did a miraculous job in pushing fake Trump-Russia conspiracy stories that undermined America's democratically-elected government and sparked investigations still ripping us apart today. In this regard, the Cambridge Four were probably the most effective tools for Russia's disinformation campaign to divide America that Putin could have ever dreamed of.

As a doctoral candidate, Schrage led a seminar at Cambridge to which Page was invited as the sole representative of the Trump campaign. It was at the seminar that Halper met Page and appears to have realized his potential as an excuse to spy on the Trump campaign:

Halper might have faded into retirement  and Spygate likely never would have happened  without my driving forward with the 2016 conference, one that Halper, again ironically, had repeatedly urged me to cancel. An all-star cast of international academics and officials would be there, headlined by Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton's confidante Madeleine Albright. But after a 20-something Cambridge administrative official smugly told me "there's no way Trump can win" and cut our travel funding, it sent me on a mad scramble. I had to find someone, anyone, to fly over on a last-minute economy ticket to represent the Trump campaign. This is the only reason Spygate's "FBI Spy" Halper and Russiagate's "Russian Spy" Carter Page ever met, with consequences still shaking politics today. For most of the conference, Halper couldn't be bothered with Page, about whom he made snarky comments about behind Page's back, while focusing on Albright. That all changed when another one of the Cambridge Four arrived. Sir Richard Dearlove is a former director of MI6 and Halper's long-time collaborator. He arrived at the last minute from a billionaire's Rocky Mountain soiree called the Allen Conference, whose other attendees reportedly included Oprah, Obama confidants, and Hollywood sexual predator Harvey Weinstein. Dearlove was under the cloud of an official UK investigation into the Iraq war rationale, called the Chilcot Report that were serious even by the Walrus's or Weinstein's standards, given the geopolitical consequences. Among other things, it involved Dearlove's MI6 allegedly withholding the fact that a key piece of "intelligence" George W. Bush used to launch the attacks  the idea that chemical munitions were kept in "glass beads or spheres"  suspiciously mirrored an erroneous factoid from the plot of the 1996 WMD-heist movie The Rock, starring Nicholas Cage. At my conference's last session, Dearlove went far off the script I had discussed with his assistant, lambasting Trump as a national security threat in front of a Trump advisor, and our official guest, Page. My jaw hit the floor in embarrassment, but that, and his discussion with Dearlove, seemed to cause Halper to do a 180-degree shift. Suddenly, he seemed desperately interested in isolating, cornering, and ingratiating himself to Page and promoting himself to the Trump campaign.

The targeting of General Flynn also seems to have a Cambridge Four connection:

Starting in 2016, Halper made odd requests for me to brief him and others on Trump's team. He even had me research Trump, allegedly as part of my thesis work, even though my thesis was focused on past, not present, presidents. In these discussions I stressed that Flynn was indispensable. He was perhaps the only campaign advisor who both had Trump's personal trust and the deep intelligence experience necessary to expose hidden problems in the intelligence community. At one point, I even recall telling Halper that taking Flynn out would be like "beheading" Trump's team. I had no idea I had been unintentionally aiding a spy preparing the guillotine and helping lead Flynn to exactly such a beheading. (snip) Halper's long-time FBI handler Steve Somma, who personally saved Halper's FBI career after Halper's firing in 2011, was quickly reassigned to Crossfire Hurricane despite Somma telling the DOJ's Inspector General that he "lacked a basic understanding of simple [campaign] issues." Shortly after his reassignment, Somma claimed he "couldn't believe [their] luck" as he "kind of stumbled upon" Halper's ties to Crossfire Hurricane's top targets, including from his recently meeting Page at my conference. Halper quickly agreed to highly questionable, if not illegal, FBI requests to secretly record his own party's presidential campaign advisers. Two business days after Somma held his meetings with Halper, the Crossfire Razor investigation of Flynn launched on August 16.

Halper had long been a highly paid intelligence source, but Obamagate enriched him even more:

 Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment (ONA) reported paying Halper $411,575 while he surveilled Trump's team. ONA claims this enormous sum more than the annual salary of the President of the United States  was paid to Halper for fairly normal, largely publicly-sourced, reports to this office. I always found it strange that Halper profusely thanked me for introducing him to Carter Page, even after Page was accused of being a "Russian spy." The disclosure that some of these payments started around the time Halper met Page, provided me with a theory on why he was so grateful.

There is lot more.

But what is most shocking is the revelation that until Schrage stepped forward to contact U.S. attorney Durham, neither he nor (apparently) the Cambridge Four had been targeted for testimony.
As schools across the country prepare to start classes, the American Academy of Pediatrics released new data on Sunday that showed nearly 100,000 children tested positive for coronavirus within the last two weeks.

The report, which revealed data from 49 states, Puerto Rico and Guam, said there were 97,078 new cases of coronavirus in children from July 16 to July 30. The total represented an increase of about 40% compared to the total number of cases among children, the American Academy of Pediatrics said.

New York was the only state that didnt provide age-distribution for state-wide cases, but the data included information from New York City.

The total number of COVID-19 cases among children is now 338,982, the report said. The number represents 8.8% of all cases in the United States. The report said the rate of infection among children is 447 cases per 100,000 individuals.

The data showed hospitalizations due to coronavirus among children was low, however, only 20 states and New York City provided data. Children represented 0.6% to 3.7% of the hospitalizations.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the hospitalization rate for children was eight per 100,000 compared to 164.5 per 100,000 for adults.

Overall, the rate was highest for children under age 2 years at 25 per 100,000 children, compared to four per 100,000 for ages 2-4 years and six per 100,000 for ages 5-17 years.

The data showed children represented a fraction of a percentage point in terms of the number of deaths related to coronavirus. Of the 44 states and New York City that reported data, 20 hadnt experienced a child dying of COVID-19, including Massachusetts.

Arizona, 12, and New York City, 13, had the highest number of deaths among children, but they represented 0.3% and 0.1% of the overall deaths the areas experienced. Maine with one child death had the highest percentage at 0.8%.

Within Massachusetts, the report showed that 6,903 cases from people ranging in age from 0 to 19. Each state defined children differently with ages ranging from 0-17, 0-18, 0-19, 0-20 and Alabama defined it as 0-24.

In Massachusetts, 5.9% of all coronavirus cases in the state through July 30 were children. The rate of infection was 443 per 100,000 - a rate nearly identical to the national average.

In terms of hospitalizations, 118 children have been hospitalized in Massachusetts, which represented 1% of all hospitalizations. The hospitalization rate among children in the state is 1.7% the data said.

Rhode Island had the highest rate of infection among children in New England with 677 cases per 100,000 children. Vermont had the highest percentage of cases that were children in New England at 11 percent.

Massachusetts health officials announced another 14 new coronavirus deaths on Sunday, bringing the statewide tally to 8,514.

Officials also reported another 286 new confirmed cases of the virus, totaling at least 112,459 across the commonwealth since the pandemic began.

More than 5 million people have contracted the virus across the nation, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education set an Aug. 14 deadline for submitting back-to-school plans. Many districts around the state have already released models under consideration that include hybrid and remote models.

Springfield announced last week that classes will continue to be fully remote in the fall.

Age demographics of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Massachusetts.

Related Content:
MENTAL CASES

The media talks about Kanye West and his mental health. What about the mental health of Joe Biden and the mental health of Don Lemon on CNN? Hes a disgrace to CNN. He should be replaced. Maybe Kanye West has a problem. So hes not well but no one wants to admit that all this is catching up to the Democrats and they dont know how to handle it. Biden is dragging them down in the mud, but they wanted him and they deserve him. They can all crash together.

RIDLEY DEFENDERS APPRECIATED

Well I suppose BLM expects to be the only protesters allowed. Maybe not in Ridley, but BLM protesters have caused chaos in other areas. Burning and looting stores, etc. So with good reason there was concern this could happen in Ridley. Have you heard what BLM protesters have said or done to police or anyone not going along with their agenda? I dont condone any physical force being used on either side. The counter group had every right to fly a Confederate flag, just like it is legal to burn an American flag. Totally wrong in my opinion but legal. I for one am glad we had a group willing to show support for the police, veterans and if needed protect the properties in our community.

VIETNAM VET IN RIDLEY

JOES DECLINE

The DNC will not permit Joe Biden to hold a press conference to explain and defend his ideas for the country. Based on the DNC reluctance, Biden was asked if he had taken a cognitive impairment test like President Trump. Bidens response to difficult questions is always, Come on man. He then stated that President Trump does not know the difference between a lion and an elephant. The error was not made by the president but a CNN commentator. Biden is losing it.

JR

IT IS WHAT IT IS

I live in a retirement community with about 350 people. Every time we leave our apartment we put on a mask and leave it on until we get back home and we tried to stay 6 feet apart. The last time we were tested we were all negative. Your president doesnt have the intestinal fortitude or care to tell you to do the same. And today 1,000 of you will suffer and die. But anyone who comes in contact with him should wear a mask and be tested because hes special. and you are not. Now youre going to send your kids to school and they will also suffer and die, but lets all vote for him in November because it is what it is and good luck with that.

JOE THE COWARD

Bill from Broomall, what a clown you are: Why dont you concentrate on getting your boy sleepy Joe Biden to debate my boy Trump? That is if he can remember the way out of his basement. Your boy doesnt want to debate the president because he be so exposed! Sleepy Joe doesnt have a clue and neither do you! I can just Imagine if your girl Hillary was president. OMG what better shape we be in! God bless America.

RICK FROM ASTON

NO FACTS DON

Oh lord, the explosion in Beirut has been confirmed to be nothing more than the result of negligence. Donald Trump is still trying to claim that it was a terrorist act somehow. Another example of what type of fool Donald Trump, the man is never ever write with facts. He doesnt even know what a fact is, apparently, and he just keeps piling on with ridiculous accusations against people.

MASK UP

Just finished reading your article about the Upper Darby sanitation workers and just want to make a few points. First of all, I hoped all who were affected get well. Second, does anybody check on these guys to wear masks? As a retiree taking lot of medications I have plenty of time on my hands. Since this pandemic started I would tell you nine out of ten of the workers dont have a mask on. Now what they do on own time is up to them. But if they dont wear a mask while theyre working, where is the supervision to make sure these people wear masks? This past year Upper Darby sewage and sanitation went up over $50 a year. Are we going to get a refund for that? Yep, the checks in the mail like they say. Have a nice day. Wheres your mask?

LOOKING FOR THE MASKS
Transgender high school students must be granted access to bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity, the federal appeals court in Atlanta ruled.

The closely watched case granted a legal victory to Drew Adams, a transgender student who sought access to the boys bathroom at Nease High School in Ponte Vedra, Fla. The opinion, issued Friday, said the school boards policy barring Adams from the boys bathroom violated his civil rights by discriminating against him because of his sex.

Local school systems, some of which have been embroiled in controversy because of their transgender bathroom access policies, eagerly awaited the decision. The 2-1 ruling, by a three-judge panel for the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sets an important precedent for the three states under its jurisdiction: Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

I am very happy to see justice prevail, Adams, 19, said in a statement. High school is hard enough without having your school separate you from your peers and mark you as inferior. I hope this decision helps save other transgender students from having to go through that painful and humiliating experience.

Adams lawyer, Tara Borelli from Lambda Legal, said the court sent a clear message that schools must treat transgender students with the same dignity and respect as any other student.

Neither the St. Johns County, Florida, school board nor its lawyer responded Monday to requests for comment.

Adams, an honor student who came out as transgender when he was 14, now attends the University of Central Florida. In 2017, joined by his mom, he sued his county school board after being told he could no longer use the boys restroom at Nease High.

The decision, written by Judge Beverly Martin, relied on the U.S. Supreme Courts landmark ruling last month that held federal law prohibits discrimination against gay and transgender employees in the workplace.

The high courts decision confirmed that workplace discrimination against transgender people is contrary to law, Martin wrote. Neither should this discrimination be tolerated in schools. The school boards bathroom policy, as applied to Mr. Adams, singled him out for different treatment because of his transgender status.

Martin added, A public school may not punish its students for gender nonconformity. Neither may a public school harm transgender students by establishing arbitrary, separate rules for their restroom use.

Martin was joined by Judge Jill Pryor. Both were appointees of President Barack Obama.

Chief Judge Bill Pryor, appointed by President George W. Bush, issued a stinging dissent, predicting the decision will have radical consequences for sex-separated bathrooms. Pryor is a former attorney general for Alabama.

When the Supreme Court ruled last month in favor of LGBTQ rights in the workplace, it pointedly declined to consider the issue of transgender bathroom access, Pryor said.

In its Adams decision, the 11th Circuits majority reaches the remarkable conclusion that schoolchildren have no sex-specific privacy interests when using the bathroom, he said. "  The logic of its opinion would invalidate all government policies that separate bathrooms  or locker rooms and showers, for that matter  by sex.

Pryors dissent could mean the case is far from over. The decidedly conservative 12-member 11th Circuit could decide as a whole to reconsider Fridays decision. If that happens, Martins majority opinion would be vacated until a new one is issued.



2020 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Atlanta, Ga.)

Visit The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Atlanta, Ga.) at www.ajc.com

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We've lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So we'll take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in Fevertree Drinks Plc (LON:FEVR).

What Is Insider Selling?

It's quite normal to see company insiders, such as board members, trading in company stock, from time to time. However, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market.

Insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing. But equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. For example, a Columbia University study found that 'insiders are more likely to engage in open market purchases of their own companys stock when the firm is about to reveal new agreements with customers and suppliers'.

View our latest analysis for Fevertree Drinks

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Fevertree Drinks

In the last twelve months, the biggest single purchase by an insider was when Independent Non-executive Director Kevin Havelock bought UK320k worth of shares at a price of UK14.98 per share. We do like to see buying, but this purchase was made at well below the current price of UK22.73. While it does suggest insiders consider the stock undervalued at lower prices, this transaction doesn't tell us much about what they think of current prices.

While Fevertree Drinks insiders bought shares during the last year, they didn't sell. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Story continues

Insider Ownership of Fevertree Drinks

Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Fevertree Drinks insiders own about UK298m worth of shares (which is 11% of the company). This kind of significant ownership by insiders does generally increase the chance that the company is run in the interest of all shareholders.

So What Do The Fevertree Drinks Insider Transactions Indicate?

There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. However, our analysis of transactions over the last year is heartening. Judging from their transactions, and high insider ownership, Fevertree Drinks insiders feel good about the company's future. So while it's helpful to know what insiders are doing in terms of buying or selling, it's also helpful to know the risks that a particular company is facing. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for Fevertree Drinks you should be aware of.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

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 Akbar Mammadov

Yerevan seizes every opportunity to illegally settle Armenians in Azerbaijans occupied territories in a bid to artificially change the demographics of the region.

The countrys leadership saw the recent deadly blast in Beirut as another opportunity to illegally settle Armenians in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and the adjacent seven regions.

Thus, the leader of the separatist regime set up in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, has offered the settling of 150 Lebanese-Armenian families in Nagorno-Karabakh. The separatist leader voiced his readiness to receive Armenians on August 5, during the phone conversation with the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I who is based in Lebanons capital-Beirut.

It should be noted that this telephone conversation took place after Armenian President Armen Sarkissian contacted with the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I.

The illegal settlement of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Armenias annexation policy under the guise of repatriation and humanitarian assistance.

Armenia had earlier moved thousands of Syrian Armenians to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan since the start of the Syrian war. According to UNHCR figures, at least 15,000 Syrians have found refuge in Armenia since the start of the crisis.

Before the conflict, the estimated number of ethnic Armenians in Syria was about 100,000. More than 60,000 of them settled in Aleppo. In 2013, the number of Syrian Armenians fleeing reached 11,000 and by August 2015, over 15,000 Armenians had been reported to be seeking asylum in Armenia. Many who have not made it to Armenian cities have now settled in the disputed Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, according to BBC report.

According to the source of the Armenian Government as of January 1, 2020, about 15,000 Armenians have been received from Syria.

In 2012, twelve Armenian families were moved from Syria to the occupied Lachin region of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijans former Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov also touched upon the resettlement of Armenian refugees from Syria by Armenia in the illegally occupied territories of Azerbaijan in 2008.

Attempts to pursue a settlement policy and purposefully change the demographic composition of the occupied territories are a gross violation of international humanitarian law, Mammadyarov had said.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Groups efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

---

Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry expressed his confidence in the Lebanese public awareness of the economic, political, and social challenges facing their country, especially amid the coronavirus pandemic, foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez said in a statement.

Addressing a virtual meeting organised by the United Nations on Monday on the humanitarian situation in Lebanon, Shoukry urged the Lebanese people to avoid regional conflicts and work on consolidating state institutions to meet their needs and aspirations and to build mutual trust between the country and international financial institutions in accordance with the outcomes of the 2018 Cedar Conference.

The France-hosted conference aimed to rally international support for an investment programme to boost Lebanon's plummeting economy.

During the UN meeting, Shoukry reiterated Egypt's solidarity with the Lebanese people, noting that Cairo is exerting all possible efforts to provide the necessary support to the Lebanese to overcome the repercussions of the deadly blast.

The UN meeting comes one week after a massive warehouse explosion that hit Beirut, killing more than 150 people, including three Egyptians, and rendering thousands wounded and homeless.

Lebanese officials said the explosion was caused by 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse at Beirut port for six years after being confiscated from a ship.

The devastating bombing triggered the anger of the Lebanese public who took to the streets and stormed government ministries in protest of what they described as the incompetence and corruption of the political elite.

The Lebanese government resigned on Monday over the public fury.

Countries around the world have rallied to offer support to Lebanon, providing aid packages, rescue and medical teams and humanitarian aid.

Egypt has taken several steps to provide assistance to Lebanon, including opening an air bridge of medical supplies and other aid to support the country.

An Egyptian field hospital in Beirut is also providing aid to victims of the blast.

Shoukry said the Egyptian Embassy in Beirut is also carrying out field visits, in coordination with the Lebanese authorities, to identify the needs of the Lebanese side, Hafezs statement added.

Shoukry called upon the world community to back Beirut in these "difficult moments," the statement added.

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According to a report by the American Academy of Pediatrics released over the weekend, the number of Covid-19 cases among children increased by 97,078 in the US between July 16 and July 20. This number, according to the report, is 29% of all cases among children reported since the start of the pandemic, and represents a 40% increase (there were 241,904 cases among children on July 16 and this went up to 338,982 by July 30). Overall, according to data from worldometers.info, the US saw the addition of 22% of its total cases as on July 30 in the period between July 16 and July 30. Clearly, infections among children (albeit on a lower base), have grown faster than in the total population (including children) in this period. The report considered children to be those under the age of 17 or 19 (although two states set the ceiling at 14 and one considered young people till the age of 24).

The American Academy of Pediatrics report is relevant in that country given the debate over the reopening of schools. For that reason, it is relevant in India, too, where, as HT reported late last week, there has been a plan for school reopenings ready for at least a month, although there has been no decision on the timing of this (some reports have suggested that it could be September 1 for students in Classes 11 and 12).

Similar data for India isnt available. Neither the Indian Council of Medical Research nor the Union health ministry release caseload data by age groups on a regular basis. They did so once in April, but since then, while they have released data on deaths by age groups at least thrice, they have not shared details of cases. According to people familiar with the data, though, the proportion of children (those under the age of 18) in the caseload was around 8% at the end of July, when India had around 1.7 million cases. In the absence of more granular details, it is difficult to assess whether this number has been rising in recent weeks. Still, while the information isnt in the public domain, it is available, which means the government can analyse whether cases among children have been on the rise even as Indias overall caseload has soared -- just the kind of input that should go into a decision on reopening schools. The data also shows that the majority of infections (till the end of July) were among people below the age of 45, but that the majority of deaths (till August 4), among those over the age of 45  but thats another story.

The issue of school openings is a controversial one around the world; it is also one that has vexed governments. Most governments believe (and justifiably so) that keeping schools closed disadvantages the already disadvantaged. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson distilled these sentiments in an article published in the Mail on Sunday. He cited research that claimed that the attainment gap between children from economically deprived households and their peers could widen by more than a third and referred to UN secretary general Antonio Guterress comments last week about this being a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities. He added that keeping schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible.

All of Johnsons observations are valid  and they are perhaps not out of place in a country that has seen a sharp fall in cases. According to the New York Times database, the seven-day average of daily new cases in the UK was 876 (on Sunday). Thats higher than the 500-level the average was at in early July, but far off peaks seen in April and May.

The reason why the issue has become as controversial as it has in the US is because the country is considering reopening amidst a clear second wave (which is just coming off its peak). Indias challenge is even tougher, and from both ends  the digital divide is real and affects many children who go to government schools and even most of those who study in private schools under the governments Right To Education law; and the number of coronavirus disease cases in the country continues to rise. India ended Monday with 51,127 new cases, and a total of 2,263,864 cases thus far.
(Photo : Pixabay) (Photo : Unsplash)

The United States Food and Drug Administration recently approved Oliceridine, also known as "Olinvyk," an opioid primarily concerned in treating severe acute pain, by biopharmaceutical company, Trevena, last August 7, 2020.

After years of getting the FDA to approve the drug, Trevena, Inc., finally received approval this year. Trevena initially submitted the drug for review and was knocked back with U.S. FDA's denial. The drug is previously named as "Olinvo" and rebranded as Olinvyk.

Bioworld reports that the drug is considered to be an intravenous opioid agonist (IV) and is approved for short term hospital or clinical use only. High-risk patients, such as the elderly, obese, and renally impaired, are the market's initial target recipients. This drug is also intended for patients whose current alternative treatment proves to be insufficient.

FDA sets a recommended maximum dosage of the drug, limiting only 27 milligrams per day. Patients and clinics should not exceed this to avoid side effects and worsening of patient condition.

ALSO READ: COVID-19 Killer: Instant Pot Kills Virus in N95 Mask More Effectively than UV in Under 50 Minutes

What is Oliceridine?

Trevena, Inc. characterizes the drug, Oliceridine, as "the first G protein-selective agonist designed to deliver an improved analgesic profile compared to IV morphine."

"Olinvyk" Oliceridine targets the mu-opioid receptor together with an optimized mechanism of action (MOA). The drug is specifically designed to engage new pathways for the drug to ensure its efficacy and, at the same time, reducing the risks that the opioids bring.

Trevena, Inc. stated that an estimate of over 45 million patients receives a similar analgesic for severe acute pains yearly. Opioids are given to those who underwent surgeries that have longer healing processes, severe, and are expected to bring lasting pain to patients.

The FDA and biopharmaceutics company, Trevena, warns the public that the drug is only to be administered with health professionals present in the scene. These opioids bring severe cases to those who will self-administer the medication. It is dangerous and proven to be harmful to the person when misused. Rather than receiving the actual effects of the opioid, patients will be subject to several conditions like nausea, respiratory depression, opioid withdrawal symptoms, or risks from the concomitant use of central nervous system depressants such as this.

Opioids and its abuse

Opioids are a class of drugs naturally found in the opium poppy plant. A few of the prescription drugs are made of the plant directly, while some are produced in a lab with the same structure. Drug Abuse publications note that the drug is used as a medicine for treating severe acute pain felt by a person.

These opioid drugs contain chemicals that relieve painful sensations resulting from surgeries or injuries and help the body relax. However, these prescription drugs are to be used in moderation and must abide by its recommended dosage for opioids proven to be highly addictive, resulting in abuse.

"Addressing the opioid crisis remains a top priority for the FDA. We will continue to do everything we can to reduce the number of Americans who are addicted to opioids and cut the rate of new addiction through a number of cross-agency initiatives," Deputy Director for Regulatory Programs in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Douglas Throckmorton M.D., said in a press release.

Common opioid drugs known in the market are oxycodone, hydrocodone, oxymorphone, morphine, and fentanyl. Another known opioid is the drug, Heroin, which is illegal in the U.S. market and is not considered a medication.

FDA advises people to be responsible in the administration of opioids and to moderate their usage.

ALSO READ: Ibuprofen, Paracetamol, Other Painkillers Do More Harm Than Good for Chronic Pain: Experts

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Written by Isaiah Alonzo

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
CHP Golden Gate Division Air Operations

A California Highway Police helicopter rescued an elderly couple who were injured Sunday while trying to flee from an angry cow.

The pair encountered the bovine and her calf while hiking in Lynch Canyon Regional Park in Solano County. Apparently perceiving them to be a threat, the cow began chasing them, causing them to fall and hurt themselves.
Faisal Khan, a 15-year-old Pakistani, beams for selfies with lawyers and police. Thousands hail him in the streets as a holy warrior.

His claim to adulation? Allegedly gunning down in open court an American accused of blasphemy, a capital crime in this Islamic republic.

Khan is charged with murder, which also carries a death sentence. But while lawyers line up to defend him, the attorney for Tahir Naseem, the U.S. citizen, has gone into hiding.

The teen, according to officials and witnesses, got through three security checkpoints on his way into a courtroom in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on July 29, pulled out a pistol and fired multiple shots into Naseem, 57, at a bail hearing.

Naseem died on the spot, onlookers spattered with his blood.

His killing grabbed global headlines, put a fresh spotlight on Pakistans blasphemy laws and drew criticism from abroad, even as many in the country praised the shooter. The United States and human rights groups decried the killing and urged changes to Pakistans blasphemy statutes, among the harshest in the world.

Closer to home, Khan is a hero.

Its one of those cases where everyone wants to be his lawyer, Inamullah Yusufzai, who represented Khan at his first court hearing last week, told Reuters. Yusufzai said lawyers from across Pakistan had called to defend Khan for free, to support what they see as the justified killing of a heretic.

The case has not reached the stage for Khan to enter a plea.

Thousands rallied, calling for Khans release. Delegations of well-wishers  lawyers, clerics, local politicians  have visited the Khan family home in Peshawar to congratulate the family. He has received messages of support from the Pakistani Taliban.

A selfie shot by Elite Force police guards in a van escorting Khan to court after his arrest was shared widely on social media. Wearing all white, the teen grins broadly. Several officers smile, one gives a thumbs-up.

A senior police official, who said the force had looked the photo, said it was authentic. Reuters could not independently confirm its authenticity.

Another selfie shows a crowd, some black-clad lawyers, escorting a beaming Khan into court.

BLASPHEMY

The U.S. State Department, in an unusually blunt statement, said Naseem had been lured to Pakistan from his home in Illinois by individuals who then used Pakistan's blasphemy laws to entrap him.

It called on Pakistan to reform its blasphemy laws and prosecuting Naseems killing.

Pakistans Foreign Ministry says a special team is investigating the case and it will be dealt with in accordance with the law.

But prosecuting Khan and any potential accomplices will be an immense challenge.

In blasphemy cases in Pakistan, an accusation becomes a death sentence, whether carried out by the state or by mobs or vigilantes, Omar Waraich, head of South Asia for Amnesty International, told Reuters.

The rights group said in a 2016 report, Pakistanas blasphemy laws are often used against religious minorities and others who are the target of false accusations, while emboldening vigilantes prepared to threaten or kill the accused.

In 2011, the governor of Punjab, Pakistans largest province, was killed by his own police guard for offering support to a Christian woman facing blasphemy charges. His killer was tried and awarded the death penalty, but not before thousands rallied for his release and rioted after he was executed.

SELF-STYLED PROPHET

Naseem was born in a village outside Peshawar but had long lived in the United States, according to clerics and locals who knew him.

He often visited his village, where he expressed views that upset locals, said Wajid Ali, a cleric who runs a seminary there.

Naseems statements landed him in prison several times, said Ali and another local who knew him Naseem. In those cases, they said, the intervention of locals, who believed Naseem was mentally unstable, got him released.

On the internet, he kept saying things like, Im a messiah, or a prophet, and that caused great trouble in our village, Ali said.

Naseem set up a website proclaiming himself a messiah, with a link for people to pledge allegiance to him. On LinkedIn, he described himself as Jesuss second coming, reviver, Prophet.

His distance from Pakistan kept him safe, even as he reached out to its Islamic seminary students to preach his messianic call.

In 2018 one of those students convinced Naseem to travel to Pakistan, where they met at a Peshawar shopping mall, according to court documents seen by Reuters.

He came thinking this student will believe him and others will join his call, Ali said. But the student had already told the police. They were standing nearby in plainclothes and they arrested him.

Naseem was charged with denigrating the Koran and the Prophet Muhammad. Two years later, awaiting his bail hearing surrounded by police and lawyers, he was gunned down.
The Department failed to justify the similarity in treatment of those with and without severe disabilities, the court held (stock photo)

The family of a severely disabled woman in Northern Ireland were discriminated against by the refusal of bereavement payments following her death, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

Senior judges found no justification for denying the benefit to Pauline O'Donnell's husband and children because she was never able to work and make National Insurance contributions.

They held that provisions within the Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 2015 are incompatible with human rights law.

Mrs O'Donnell was diagnosed with Friedreich's Ataxia, a progressive degenerative disorder, when she was 12.

She went on to marry her husband Michael in 1995, with the couple having four children together.

In July 2017 she died at the age of 41 due to cardiac issues associated with her condition.

The Department for Communities declined Mr O'Donnell's application for Bereavement Support Payments (BSP) on the basis that his late wife had not paid enough National Insurance.

The widower appealed to a tribunal, claiming the condition amounted to unlawful indirect discrimination towards him and the couple's children, contrary to Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Mrs O'Donnell's disabilities meant she could never work and therefore could not pay the necessary National Insurance contributions, it was contended.

The case was referred to the Court of Appeal to determine if the Act is incompatible with human rights legislation.

Judges identified a failure to differentiate between those in contrasting circumstances.

"The deceased, who as a result of disability could not work and could never meet the contribution condition, was treated in exactly the same way as an individual who could work and who could meet the contribution condition but did not do so," Lord Justice Stephens said.

"This means that the appellant and his children have been treated in the same way as others whose situation was significantly different by reason of the disability of the deceased."

He added: "The discrimination is by comparison to non-disabled persons."

The Department failed to justify the similarity in treatment of those with and without severe disabilities, the court held.

Lord Justice Stephens described the contributory policy for those unable to work throughout their life due to disability was "manifestly without reasonable foundation".

With the current provisions found to be inadequate, he said the BSP contribution condition is to be treated as met if the deceased was unable to comply with the relevant section throughout working life due to disability.

"Reading and giving effect to the 2015 Act in this manner means that it is compatible with Article 14 ECHR," the judge concluded.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, left, and Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen (right) speaks during a meeting in Taipei. (via @iingwen)

Taipei: U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar offered President Donald Trumps strong support for democratic Taiwan on Monday, telling President Tsai Ing-wen that her governments response to the coronavirus pandemic had been among the worlds best.

Azar arrived in Taiwan on Sunday as the highest-level U.S. official to visit in four decades, a trip condemned by China which claims the island as its own, further irritating Sino-U.S. relations. China has promised unspecified retaliation to Azars trip.

Washington broke off official ties with Taipei in 1979 in favour of Beijing. The Trump administration has made strengthening its support for the democratic island a priority, and boosted arms sales.

Its a true honour to be here to convey a message of strong support and friendship from President Trump to Taiwan, Azar told Tsai in the Presidential Office, standing in front of two Taiwanese flags.

Azar is visiting to strengthen economic and public-health cooperation with Taiwan and support Taiwans international role in fighting the pandemic.

Taiwans response to COVID-19 has been among the most successful in the world, and that is a tribute to the open, transparent, democratic nature of Taiwans society and culture, he told Tsai.

Taiwans early and effective steps to fight the disease have kept its case numbers far lower than those of its neighbours, with 480 infections, including seven deaths. Most cases have been imported.

The United States, which has had more coronavirus cases and deaths than any other country, has repeatedly clashed with China over the pandemic, accusing Beijing of lacking transparency.

Tsai told Azar his visit represented a huge step forward in anti-pandemic collaborations between our countries, mentioning areas of cooperation including vaccine and drug research and production.

Taiwan has been particularly grateful for U.S. support to permit its attendance at the World Health Organizations (WHO) decision-making body the World Health Assembly, and to allow it greater access to the organisation.

Taiwan is not a member of the WHO due to Chinas objections, which considers it a Chinese province.

Id like to reiterate that political considerations should never take precedence over the rights to health. The decision to bar Taiwan from participating in the WHA is a violation of the universal rights to health, Tsai said.
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On Sunday night's first half of Surviving Jeffrey Epstein, Lifetime's new four-hour documentary taking place over two nights, eight survivors shared their initial encounter with disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and how Ghislaine Maxwell was allegedly the gatekeeper to their elaborate sex abuse and trafficking scheme.

While Maxwell, who was arrested in July, has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing in the Epstein case, many of his victims are saying that it was because of Maxwell that they agreed to go to Epstein's house in the first place, due to her charming nature.

"Ghislaine was fantastically charming. Her British accent and her connections served her well in recruiting young girls," stated Maxwell's former friend Christopher Mason.

"I genuinely thought that she really did care about me and so it was a giant blow to learn that she was in on all of it," shared Chauntae Davies.

"They knew exactly how to pull you in to trust them. I went from one person to the next just like a human baton being passed along," said Teresa Helm.

Virginia Giuffre, who was recruited by Maxwell from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago spa, even described Maxwell as "this really bright, Mary Poppins kind of a figure." However, Giuffre claimed that, during her first encounter with Epstein, she was abused by both Epstein and Maxwell.

"The massage seemed legitimate at first. Ghislaine grabbed one foot, I grabbed the other, and she says, 'You always wanna keep one hand on the body when you're massaging somebody.' And then he turns over and the entire thing changed," explained Giuffre. She continued, "They said, 'Take off your clothes.' I had these little girl undies on, like, little hearts on them, I remember, and they were laughing at that because they liked that. The younger you look, the better it is. So I stripped down. Ghislaine stripped down. It turned very sexual. It was abuse right away from both of them."

"Epstein's victims have talked about how they weren't sure who this guy was but, because Ghislaine seemed so proper, surely it's gotta be legit. Her posh upbringing and her accent gave this veneer of respectability. Coming from a woman, I think that was incredibly manipulative, and I think it was absolutely critical in Epstein's operation," stated journalist Daniel Bates.

Story continues

Courtney Wild, who was a victim-turned-recruiter, revealed that she had gotten "comfortable" with recruiting other young girls to go to Epstein's house and that there were times she brought two to three girls a day.

"Once I got comfortable with, like, approaching girls and kind of finessing them in a way to, like, say, 'Oh, it's just a massage and you just have to do this,' and making it sound oh-so-good for them to go, there was times where I brought two and three girls in a day. He groomed me to be exactly what he wanted me to be  a personal sex slave that brought him underage girls. You know, these are my friends that I brought," admitted Wild.

During Sunday nights airing, Wild took accountability for her involvement and apologized to all of the girls she recruited.

"For anybody that I recruited, like, I'm so sorry," said Wild through tears. "The guilt and shame in how I feel about, basically I lied to them and lured them in to go see this guy. I don't know if it's something that I'll ever, really fully get over."

The Surviving Jeffrey Epstein two-night event continues August 10 at 8 p.m. on Lifetime.

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Iran's Supreme Leader Backs Ahmadinejad

06/05/11 Source: Radio Zamaneh

Iran's Supreme Leader has called for unity among Islamic Republic supporters, which is being interpreted as an implicit show of support for embattled President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.



Supreme Leader Khamenei waves to the crowd with Hassan Khomeini, grandson of

Ayatollah Khomeini, a supporter of the green opposition, is in the background

In a speech marking 22 years since the death of the system's founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader said: "If there are criminal charges against a movement, then officials are obliged to legally confront it." Ayatollah Khamenei continued: "However, if someone is not seeking to topple the regime or carry out the bidding of our enemies, but disagrees with our political tastes and views, we must not deprive them of justice and security or crush them under our feet."

After the 2009 presidential election, millions of people supported opposition candidates MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi in their challenge of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory and protested against alleged vote fraud.

The government used extreme violence to crush the protests, which resulted in dozens of deaths and the widespread incarceration of reformists and protesters.

Even though Mousavi and Karroubi have been under house arrest since February for rallying protesters for an Arab solidarity march, Ayatollah Khamenei insisted that election protests have died down.

However, in an implicit show of support for Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khamenei insisted that attacks against "forces that are loyal to the foundations of the system and Islam" are a deviation from the path of the founder of the Islamic Republic.

Ahmadinejad has come under heavy attack in recent months from extreme conservatives, who claim Ahmadinejad's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, is leading a "deviant current" that threatens the foundations of the regime.

The Supreme Leader went on to laud the Ahmadinejad government, saying the "administration has been able to accomplish many great tasks, realize major infrastructure projects... the results of which will soon be evident to the people."

This appears to be a clear indication to senior figures in the establishment to cease their attacks against the government.
Sushant death: Rhea moves SC again; ED probe continues; Raut levels big charge

Fresh twists and turns in Sushant Singh Rajput's death case on Monday. Bollywood actor Rhea Chakraborty approached the Supreme Court on Monday with a fresh plea alleging media trial. Rhea said she should not be made a scapegoat of political agendas. The actor also alleged the transfer of probe by Bihar Police to CBI was illegal and bad in law. Rhea was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate on Monday in the money laundering case linked to Sushant's death. Rhea and her family members were summoned on Monday morning. Later, Sushant's business manager Shruti Modi was also questioned in the case. Sushant's friend Siddharth Pithani also reached Enforcement Directorate on Monday. Centre had transferred Sushant's case to the CBI after which an FIR was re-registered on Thursday naming Rhea and others. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that Sushant did not have the best of relations with his father. Sushant's family hit back at the Shiv Sena leader and demanded an apology. ...read more
Victoria has suffered its deadliest day in the coronavirus pandemic with 19 deaths and 322 new infections including 105 'mystery' cases with no known source.

The figure takes the state's death toll to 229 and the national total to 314.

Fourteen of the 19 deaths were residents in aged care. The people who died were one man in his 50s, one woman in her 60s, two men in their 70s, one man and six women in their 80s, and one male and seven women in their 90s.

Victoria currently has 7,869 active coronavirus cases, including 1,065 among healthcare workers.

The Australian Medical Association has said it is 'extremely concerned' after 590 healthcare workers contracted the virus over the past 14 days.

Nurses from Western Australia are due to touch down in Melbourne this week to provide reinforcements.

After peaking at 725 on 5 August, Premier Daniel Andrews said the daily case totals appeared to be decreasing as a result of lockdowns and compulsory mask wearing.

Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday announced that Victoria has suffered 19 coronavirus deaths

Airline passengers off a Qantas domestic flight from Melbourne make their way to coaches headed for hotel quarantine at Sydney International Airport

A man is detained by Victoria Police on Sunday after protesters demonstrated against lockdown

'We're certainly seeing perhaps some greater stability that is a result of the cumulative impact of stage three,' he said.

But he warned Victorians 'not to get ahead of ourselves' and to keep following lockdown rules.

In his daily press conference Mr Andrews showed two videos of COVID-19 survivors who had lasting health impacts, including a middle-aged woman who needed a breathing tube for a month.

'Think about the person who is most important to you. And then think about them with a tube to help them breathe in intensive care for 32 days. That's how serious this is,' he said.

Victoria is rolling out a free call-to-test program which will allow a vulnerable person to summon a tester to their home within 48 hours by calling a hotline if they want a COVID-19 test.

'We will go to people's homes and we will ensure that they will be able to be tested within a 48-hour period,' Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said.

'This is designed to ensure that approximately 200 vulnerable Victorians every day will have access to this new testing capacity.'

Normally busy shopping centres in Melbourne were empty on Sunday

A woman walks down the street during an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne on Sunday

In the past 24 hours, Victoria Police handed out 276 fines for beaching health rules, including to a man who broke Melbourne's 8pm curfew to get cigarettes.

On Sunday Australia's Deputy Chief Medical Officer Nick Coatsworth said Victoria seems have passed the peak of the outbreak.

'It appears we're in the plateau but we're looking for the inflection point that tells Victorians that their efforts are being rewarded,' he said.

'We haven't seen that yet but I have no doubt that we will see it. If you consider that stage three restrictions had us almost at a plateau, then the stage four restrictions will produce a result.'

New daily case numbers in Victoria have been stuck around 500 for the past seven days, falling to 394 new cases on Sunday with 17 new deaths.

Dr Coatsworth said the pandemic was challenging as you 'never really know where you are on the curve'.

The rate at which the virus spreads is called the 'reproductive number' or R-0.

Victoria has suffered a record 19 deaths and 322 cases of coronavirus

Hari Krishnas cheerfully singing on the St Kilda foreshore on Sunday. Experts have taken heart that Victoria's daily new infection rate appears to be dropping

This graph shows Victoria's coronavirus infection rate appears to be falling from a peak of 725 cases on Wednesday 5 August

A family frolicks in a St Kilda park in Melbourne on Sunday as new case numbers fall

If the R-0 is at one, then R-1 means that every person with the virus spreads it to one other person.

Numbers above R-1 mean a virus will spread exponentially, but if the reproductive number falls below one then the virus will slowly fizzle out.

COVID-19 has a natural median reproductive number of R-5.7, according to a study published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, which explains why it exploded all over Victoria.

Victoria's outbreak now has a basic reproductive number of R-1 - or just below one, Dr Coatsworth said on Sunday.

'The ideal situation would be if we could see that reproductive number at 0.5,' he said.

'We don't have enough data at the moment from the numbers to see whether that's approaching 0.5, but in the coming days to week we will see that.'

Victoria police hand out 276 fines for breaching lockdown rules Police issued a total of 276 fines to individuals for breaching the Chief Health Officer directions, including:  37 for failing to wear a face covering when leaving home for one of the four approved reasons  25 at vehicle checkpoints  74 for curfew breaches  27 fines issued for those who were travelling to, or attended a protest in the CBD on Sunday. Examples included:  A man was observed running across Edgedale Road in Kew overnight. He was stopped by police and stated he was just getting cigarettes, despite being aware of the curfew in place.  A vehicle was located in a carpark in Campbellfield, with four people inside all from different addresses claiming to be just 'hanging out'. All four males were issued with fines.  After receiving a noise complaint, police attended an address in Wyndham and located 5 people in a garage drinking and smoking, listening to loud music playing. All five people were issued with an infringement.  A man was located in Yarra, more thank 5 kilometres from his address. He claimed he was catching up with friends for a drink.  A man and a woman had travelled beyond 5 kilometres to go to a playground in Wyndham to play with their children as they claimed they were 'sick of walking around their local area.' Advertisement

On Sunday six people were arrested and 27 were fined for breaching restrictions at a protest against lockdown called the Melbourne Freedom March.

New South Wales reported 14 new cases on Monday, with five linked to a Sydney girls school.

Queensland recorded one new case of coronavirus on Monday morning, traveller in hotel quarantine.

Queensland's aged care homes can now reopen to visitors, with authorities confident two infected teens who dodged quarantine did not spread coronavirus.

Officials had been on high alert for an outbreak linked to the women who spent a week moving around the community after returning from Melbourne in July.

'Today was the very important day,' Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said, referring to the end of the two-week period since police placed the women in isolation.

'Aged care restrictions will be lifted, which I know means a lot to the families, especially over the last week or so when they have not been able to see their loved ones.'

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said Bolton Clarke aged care facility in Brisbane's southwest would need to remain closed for another day and a half.

'Until we have confirmation that potential outbreak is over,' she said.

According to The Australian, grim secret modelling by the Victorian Government leaked on Wednesday estimated the daily case load would rise to 1,100 by the end of this week.

The dire forecast showed case numbers would then hover above 1,000 per day and would not fall below current levels until the end of August.

But Premier Daniel Andrews said no-one in his government or the federal government was aware of the modelling.

A lone protester was detained after a proposed anti-lockdown rally did not materialise in Melbourne on Sunday. The harsh lockdown and mandatory facemasks have already got new infection numbers falling, giving hope to the community

Little Italy in Lygon Street, Melbourne, on Sunday where 22 premises once bustling with cafes and restaurants are now empty. Residents hope things may return to normal in six weeks

Professor Tony Blakely from the University of Melbourne also said the outbreak has already peaked thanks to mask wearing.

'It looks like the curve turned at 30 July. But more importantly, it makes sense.' he said.

The professor said July 30 was about one week from when mandatory mask wearing was put in place by the Victorian government - which is also slightly more than the virus's five day incubation period.

'Mask wearing appears to have bent the curve, consistent with expectation. Or put another way, the numbers would be higher now without mask wearing, and much higher again without Stage 3 restrictions,' he said.

He predicted a significant drop in the smoothed-out daily numbers would occur about 10 days from when Victoria put Stage 4 restrictions in place on Thursday.

He said once the numbers drop to around 200 per day, which he expects stage four restrictions will achieve, then contact tracing teams will be less overwhelmed and the state will be able to keep the numbers down.

Professor Tony Blakely's five-day average chart predicted Victoria's outbreak has already peaked and is now on the way down. Professor Blakely is optimistic that facemasks and the lockdown have reduced the virus transmission already

People enjoy St Kilda pier on Sunday in Melbourne with their masks and face shields firmly on as residents stick to Stage Four lockdown rules in order to crush the virus outbreak

As of Sunday, 1725 of Victoria's healthcare workers have been struck down by the virus of which 994 are still active cases.

Melbourne's metropolitan area has been the hardest hit with 13,445 cases compared with just 889 from regional Victoria.

On Sunday the state recorded 394 new cases taking the state's total to 14,659 of which 7854 are active.

Dr Coatsworth issued a plea for everyone to download and activate the Government's COVIDSafe app on their mobile phones, saying it was needed now that states other than Victoria are easing their lockdowns.

'We see what happens when you have an essentially open economy as you do in New South Wales,' he said.

'And that's where COVIDSafe comes into its own.'

In Sydney's western suburbs, 544 people were traced through the app which led to the positive identification of two new COVID-19 cases, Dr Coatsworth said.

New South Wales recorded 10 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, only one of which was a returned overseas traveller in hotel quarantine.

St Kilda pier, Melbourne, pictured on Sunday. Worldwide there were 19.9 million coronavirus cases

Seven new cases are close contacts of previous cases, while two are being investigated.

New South Wales is the only other state to be consistently reporting new cases, with new case numbers hovering from 10 to 15 over the past week.

Health authorities have warned against complacency in New South Wales after 11 new infections were found with no known source.

Worldwide there were 19.9 million coronavirus cases as of the early hours of Monday morning, of which 6.3 million are active cases, 12.7 million have recovered and 731,104 people have died, according to Worldometers statistics.

The country with the highest numbers continued to be the USA with 5.1 million cases, followed by Brazil at 3 million and India on 2.2 million.
Indeed, A 21st Century Vision for Waukegans Downtown and Lakefront proposed building up to 3,700 new residential units along the underutilized lakefront. In that vein, it would be akin to Kenoshas Southport district mix of businesses, restaurants, bars and various housing which is close to the Wisconsin citys lakefront, east of Sheridan Road; the Town of Fort Sheridan in Highland Park; and The Glen in Glenview, which once was home to the Glenview Naval Air Station.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has issued a reminder to organisations such as non-government schools that they need to be adhering to their COVID-safe plans after five of the 14 new cases announced on Monday were linked to an independent Catholic school.

Five of the new cases were linked to Tangara School for Girls at Cherrybrook in Sydney's north-west, including four students and a household contact.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian addresses the media on Monday. Credit:Rhett Wyman

In Victoria, 19 people have died of COVID-19 in the past day as the state recorded 322 new cases. It's Australia's deadliest day of the pandemic, taking the national death toll to 314.

On Monday morning, an additional teacher and student at Tangara tested positive for the virus, and they will be counted in Tuesday's numbers. That brings the cluster size to nine people, including six students. The original source of the cluster is unknown.
Although often thought of as a form of self-expression, fashion can often leave people feeling confused, especially with old 'adages' restricting what is acceptable to wear and what isn't.

Experts at GQ have stepped up to dispel some myths around mens fashion and reveal the five bits of once popular advice that are now outdated.

Long gone are the days when men were only allowed to wear white socks for sport and shoes had to match their belt buckle.

Never wear shorts to the office

Not as taboo as before but check first - is your boss wearing shorts? No, then maybe don't be the first to bare your legs in the office

During a British summer it is not uncommon to see men walking around in shorts, and sometimes with their tops off too.

While it is advisable to cover your top half while at work, the belief that men should not wear shorts in the office seems old fashioned.

Matched with a smart shirt and a pair of great shoes men can feel confident wearing shorts and baring their legs in the office.

The fashion gurus at GQ say: 'We would have wholeheartedly upheld this rule but the truth is that the planets warming up and men are getting better at self-care - which means youre unlikely to offend others with your primate-like legs if you get them out.'

'That said, if your boss doesnt succumb, neither should you.'

Never mix gold and silver jewellery

Kiss goodbye to the old adage 'you can't mix gold and silver jewellery'. GQ's only recommendation is people buy good quality pieces

When it comes to jewellery, options for men can sometimes be limited and plain so to find pieces that suit individual style can often be difficult to achieve.

Team the difficult quest for decent jewellery with the outdated belief it all has to match, it makes for a difficult shopping experience.

If popstar Harry Styles has taught us anything, its that jewellery can be whatever colour whatever you want it to be.

And the GQ experts agree: 'Rubbish. The only important thing to remember when wearing jewellery is that you must invest in pieces made from quality metals.'

White Socks are for sport

Only wearing white socks while doing sport is a thing of the past as the GQ experts question why not?

In recent years the white sock has been transformed from the pariah only considered worthy of gracing people's feet for a bit of sport, to the popular choice for under footwear.

Say goodbye to only wearing white socks when they won't be visible. Why not commit what some may consider a mortal sin?

Dig out your shorts and pair them with some white socks and trainers.

Rules? There are no rules.

GQ says: 'Why? You do you.'

No brown in town

A report revealed people had been turned away from jobs in the city because they wore a blue suit with brown shoes - but now it's acceptable

For years men in the city have avoided the cardinal sin of pairing a blue suit with brown shoes.

As recent as four years ago, a report found some candidates who arrived for an interview wearing clothes which broke the long-standing fashion rule were unsuccessful with their job applications, The Oxford Student reported.

But the GQ experts say its time to rid the industry of its outdated belief.

They say: 'The idea that brown shoes should not be worn with blue suits in the city still pervades in some industries and is, generally speaking, a load of tosh.

'OK, an electric-blue suit worn with fudge-hued loafers will make you look like you canvass for Nigel Farage but a midnight-blue suit worn with chocolate-hued Oxfords can look equally as elegant as any combination of greys and blacks.'

Read the full feature in the September issue of British GQ, available via digital download and on newsstands now

Your shoes shall match your belt

Although belts help stop our trousers from dropping down to our ankles, they do not always help avoid fashion faux pas.

Now, a man's choice of belt is where GQ's advice gets a little more advanced.

The experts say: 'Sure, a tan belt worn with black shoes will look the pits, but team a woven brown leather belt with a pair of jute espadrilles and you will be summer insouciance incarnate.

'Likewise, a chestnut leather belt worn with some sandy suede monk straps will look nothing but slick.'

Read the full feature in the September issue of British GQ, available via digital download and on newsstands now.
A tip off has today sparked a fresh search for the remains of murdered Tina Baker who mysteriously disappeared almost two decades ago, amid fears by detectives that her body had been fed to pigs.

Police, specialist forensic teams and the Army are today digging-up ground between two barns near a Surrey village, three miles away from the farm Mrs Baker shared with her ex-SAS solider husband Martin Gerald Baker.

Mr Baker was jailed for life with a minimum term of 14 years in 2006 after being convicted of her murder. He is currently still in prison.

Mrs Baker went missing after going to the farm four years earlier, in July 2002. Her body has never been found.

Detectives at the time feared that the 41-year-old was thrown to the pigs at the couple's farm in Chobham.

Today, Surrey Police have confirmed they will dig land near Priest Lane, Bisley, on the border of the Woking and Surrey Heath boroughs throughout this week as part of the latest search for their remains.

Neighbours say the land is owned by the MOD and is believed to have been leased at the time to one-time mayor of Guildford, the late Ralph Jordan, who is said to have employed Mr Baker to take care of his cattle.

Police, specialist forensic teams and the Army are today digging-up ground in a Surrey village, three miles away from the farm Ms Baker shared with her ex-SAS solider husband Martin Gerald Baker, who was jailed in 2006 after being convicted of her murder

Tina Baker (pictured right) went missing from her Surrey home in July 2002, with her former SAS soldier husband Martin Gerald Baker (pictured left) jailed for life in 2006 for her murder

Today, Surrey Police have confirmed they will dig land near Priest Lane, Bisley, on the border of the Woking and Surrey Heath boroughs throughout this week as part of a search for their remains

A neighbour said: 'Baker was back and forward here for years working for Mr Jordan, who was a very well-known figure in the area.

'They kept unusual breeds of cattle on the land but all that's a long time ago now.'

Police say the latest search, which they say is on farmland at the back of Ministry of Defence (MOD) property, follows a tip-off.

However they have refused to give any further details about what or where the new information has come from.

One local said neighbours were speculating whether Baker, who was convicted of murder despite his denial, had 'decided to confess' in the hope he 'may be let out'.

The resident said: 'Clearly the police are working on very specific information thought because their dig is concentrated on one area of what used to be the farm.'

Today, Detective Inspector Chris Rambour from the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team, said: 'The investigative work around Tina Baker's death has continued since 2006 and we have received information which has resulted in our decision to carry out further investigation at this location in Bisley.

'Surrey Heath Borough Council are aware of the activity taking place and Surrey Police will be assisted by the British Army.

'We wanted to make local residents aware of the reasons for the increased police presence in the area and apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused.

'However, it is extremely important to us that we do everything we can to provide answers and closure for Tina's family and friends, and our thoughts remain with them at this difficult time.'

Mrs Baker was initially reported missing after last being seen in Sunbury on July 8 2002. But the investigation became a murder enquiry in October 2002.

Detectives investigating Mrs Baker's disappearance at the time believed she may have been fed to the pigs at the couple's farm near Chobham. Police are digging up Priest Lane in Bisley this week as part of a new search for her body

Detectives found no trace of Mrs Baker, despite an extensive search - including checking if she made off after winning the lottery.

The pig's swill and manure were checked after Mr Baker's first wife, Gillian Hopkins, told police he had threatened her before their divorce.

In 2005, following an extensive investigation by the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team, Mr Baker was arrested and charged with her murder.

The following year, he appeared at the Central Criminal Court in London where he was sentenced to 14 years behind bars.

The jury heard that Baker killed his wife when she began an affair with an old school friend, Derek Poplett, from Sunbury, and told him she wanted a divorce.

Baker, then a 54-year-old engineer, feared he would lose the 100,000 14-acre Brookfield Farm in nearby Chobham after Mrs Baker walked out on him, the Old Bailey heard.

Mrs Baker went to the farm on July 8, 2002, to feed her animals and was never seen again.

In 2008, Baker lost an appeal against the murder conviction after three judges at London's Court of Appeal ruled the original Old Bailey conviction was safe.

Following the conviction, enquiries continued by Surrey Police in order to find out what happened to Tina Baker's body.
Ho Chi Minh Citys Department of Tourism has asked authorities in all districts to take measures to control the spread of disease in rental apartments and lodging facilities.

Police officers distribute leaflets about COVID-19 control and prevention to residents living in Mieu Noi Apartment Building Complex in HCM Citys Binh Thanh district (Photo: tuoitre.vn)

Many types of accommodation services are available in the city, such as Airbnb rentals and rentals booked through online travel agents (OTAs) like Agoda.com and Booking.com.

Most rentals occur in private houses, luxury apartments or high-rise buildings. They face a high risk of spread of disease if there are no strict managerial measures.

Because most property owners have not registered these businesses, it is difficult for authorities to manage them.

To limit the risk, owners of rental apartments have been asked to obtain the personal information of guests, including name, age, address, phone number, current health status, place of departure, and travel history.

All information related to tenants staying at lodging facilities and rental apartments must be sent to the departments Tourism and Hotel Management Office via email at hoteldivision.tphcm@gmail.com.

Tenants must strictly comply with regulations and recommendations on COVID-19 prevention and control. They must fill out health declarations and report to the owners and medical facilities if they have symptoms related to COVID-19.

Residential security guard forces, apartment management boards and local police have been asked to work closely with the department and local authorities on issues related to disease control and prevention at rental accommodations.

Bus suspension

Operations of five public bus routes between HCM City and Dong Nai Province have been suspended since August 4 to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Dong Nai Provinces Department of Transport said the suspension order would be in place until further notice.

Suspension will occur on Bus Route No 5 from HCM Citys Cho Lon Bus Station to Dong Nai Provinces Bien Hoa Bus Station, Bus Route No 60-1 from HCM Citys Mien Tay (Western) Bus Station to Bien Hoa Bus Station, and Bus Route No 60-2 from the University HCM City of Agro-forestry to Dong Nai Provinces Phu Tuc Bus Station.

The suspension order also applies to Bus Route No 60-3 between HCM Citys Mien Dong (Eastern) Bus Station and Dong Nai Provinces Nhon Trach Industrial Park, and Bus Route No 60-4 between Mien Dong Bus Station and Dong Nai Provinces Song May Industrial Park.

On August 3, the department also announced it will suspend passenger transport on roads and waterways in the province to other COVID-19 affected provinces and cities./.VNA/VNS

HCM City supports tourism businesses in face of COVID-19 As the disease broke out again in Da Nang in July, many enterprises in HCM City have delayed or cancelled their tourism programmes in the central coastal city.
NEW YORK, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- TransPerfect, the world's largest provider of language and technology solutions for global business, today announced that data security and financial services expert John Beeman has joined the company as a Senior Director for Finance, Banking, and Data Security.

Beeman will be based in TransPerfect's Los Angeles office and brings 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, with a primary emphasis on virtual data rooms (VDRs) for M&A transactions. Over his career, Beeman has focused on consultative solutions for senior leadership and business users within corporations, banking and finance organizations, and law firms.

In his new role, Beeman will head TransPerfect's TransCEND solutions group. TransCEND is a data security and VDR technology that offers clients a secure, cloud-based repository with a user-friendly interface. His responsibilities include oversight for client relationships as well as close collaboration with the product development team to help direct the product roadmap.

TransCEND VDR is trusted by Fortune 100 companies, leading financial institutions, and top law firms around the world to facilitate secure communications, document exchange, and web-based review.

"Having previously been both a client and a competitor, I have long held TransPerfect in high regard," said Beeman. "I'm excited to join a team that is committed to innovation, growth, and leadership in an industry that I know and love."

TransPerfect President and CEO Phil Shawe commented, "We're honored to welcome John to the TransPerfect family and look forward to gaining his perspective on our VDR technology roadmap and associated service offerings."

About TransPerfect

TransPerfect is the world's largest provider of language and technology solutions for global business. From offices in over 100 cities on six continents, TransPerfect offers a full range of services in 170+ languages to clients worldwide. More than 5,000 global organizations employ TransPerfect's GlobalLink Product Suite to simplify management of multilingual content. With an unparalleled commitment to quality and client service, TransPerfect is fully ISO 9001 and ISO 17100 certified. TransPerfect has global headquarters in New York, with regional headquarters in London and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit our website at www.transperfect.com.

About TransCEND

TransPerfect is a leading provider of web-based virtual data room (VDR) solutions that enable firms to conduct due diligence in a secure online environment. Fast repository creation and 24/7/365 support help corporations, financial institutions, and law firms achieve cost and time efficiencies during the M&A process. With an SSAE 16 Type II certified hosting environment, next-generation encryption, and intrusion detection, TransCEND allows customers to rest assured that their confidential information is secure and protected. For more information, please contact us at [email protected].

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Bachelor in Paradise star Timm Hanly believes that his friend and co-star Ciarran Stott was given a rough deal on the show.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph on Monday, the 27-year-old claims the 26-year-old British export was 'stitched up' and encouraged by producers to pursue multiple women in Paradise.

'They would encourage [Ciarran] to go after different girls. They stitched him up,' he claimed.

In stitches: Bachelor in Paradise star Timm Hanly (pictured) believes that his friend and co-star Ciarran Stott was given a rough deal on the show. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph on Monday, the 27-year-old claims the 26-year-old British export was 'stitched up'

'They tried to get me to do it, I'm lucky I didn't. They don't give a f**k about us,' he added.

Timm added that he had an 'uncomfortable' time on the show and is unable to reveal why he really quit early.

'It was rubbish editing and it was all planned. It was uncomfortable to be there,' he said.

On the pull: 'They would encourage [Ciarran] to go after different girls. They stitched him up,' he claimed. 'They tried to get me to do it, I'm lucky I didn't. They don't give a f**k about us'. Ciarran is pictured with Alex McKay

Issues? Timm added that he had an 'uncomfortable' time on the show and is unable to reveal why he really quit early. 'It was rubbish editing and it was all planned. It was uncomfortable to be there,' he said

Timm added: 'It wasn't nice to be there, it wasn't a nice holiday. It was f***ed. I wish I could tell you how I really left but I'm not allowed to'

'It wasn't nice to be there, it wasn't a nice holiday. It was f***ed. I wish I could tell you how I really left but I'm not allowed to.'

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Channel Ten for comment.

Ciarran told the Manchester Evening News in April he was convinced he'd get a 'villain' edit on the show and feared his public image would be tarnished when it went to air.

Girl trouble: During his time on the show, Ciarran was embroiled in various hook-ups, including with Jessica Brody, 30 (left)

Moved on: When Kiki Morris, 32, (left) arrived in Paradise, he quickly ditched Jess, with revelations coming to the fore that Ciarran and Kiki had met prior to the show and formulated a plan to couple up once she arrived

Love triangle: Matters were complicated by his ex-girlfriend, Renee Barrett, 26, (pictured) also appearing on the show, and harbouring the belief that she and Ciarran, who had split just over a week prior to filming, would reunite

Concerns: Ciarran told the Manchester Evening News in April he was convinced he'd get a 'villain' edit on the show and feared his public image would be tarnished when it went to air

'I think I'll go from the sweetheart of Australia to the bad boy of Australia so that won't be good,' he said.

During his time on the show, Ciarran was embroiled in various hook-ups, first with Abbie Chatfield, 25, before moving on to Jessica Brody, 30.

When Kiki Morris, 32, arrived in Paradise, he quickly ditched Jess, with revelations coming to the fore that Ciarran and Kiki had met prior to the show and formulated a plan to couple up once she arrived.

Gone: Ciarran quit the show shortly before the final rose ceremony, taking Kiki with him - only for the pair to split two months later

Moving on: Timm also mysteriously quit Bachelor in Paradise, along with love interest Brittany Hockley, 32, (left) the pair vanishing from the program with little fanfare

Matters were complicated by his ex-girlfriend, Renee Barrett, 26, also appearing on the show, and harbouring the belief that she and Ciarran, who had split just over a week prior to filming, would reunite.

Ciarran quit the show shortly before the final rose ceremony, taking Kiki with him - only for the pair to split two months later.

Timm also mysteriously quit Bachelor in Paradise, along with love interest Brittany Hockley, 32, the pair vanishing from the program with little fanfare.

Legal issues? Jamie Doran (pictured) announced plans to sue Channel 10 and Warner Bros. over his unfair portrayal on Bachelor in Paradise and is now pushing for a class action lawsuit

Class action? The 40-year-old's lawyer 'has already started calling around to a bunch of other contestants from this season, and asking if they would be interested in joining Jamie's fight for justice,' reports the So Dramatic podcast

It comes after Jamie Doran announced plans to sue Channel 10 and Warner Bros. over his unfair portrayal on Bachelor in Paradise, and is now pushing for a class action lawsuit.

The 40-year-old's lawyer 'has already started calling around to a bunch of other contestants from this season, and asking if they would be interested in joining Jamie's fight for justice,' reports the So Dramatic podcast.

Earlier this month, the FIFO worker announced on Instagram that he had begun 'legal proceedings against Network 10 and Warner Bros. Australia'.
President Donald Trump on Monday teased giving his own Gettysburg address by using the site of the famous Civil War battle field to give his acceptance speech for the Republican National Convention.

Trump also has mulled giving his speech, which is his formal acceptance of the Republican nomination for a second term, at the South Lawn of the White House, which has raised questions about the propriety of using the president's home for a campaign event and violations of the Hatch Act.

Now Trump has added another federal property - the Gettysburg National Military Park is part of the National Park Service - to the list of location possibilities for his August 27 address.

'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!,' the president tweeted.

President Trump teased giving his acceptance speech for the Republican National Convention at Gettysburg

A photo by Mathew Brady of Abraham Lincoln (center, bareheaded) giving the Gettysburg Address in 1863

Gettysburg is the site of site of the bloodiest battle of Civil War and where Abraham Lincoln gave his famous address - above is a statue of Brigadier General Gouverneur Warren stands at Little Round Top

Gettysburg is the site of the bloodiest battle of Civil War and where Abraham Lincoln gave his famous address vowing the union would stand.

Pennsylvania will be a critical state to Trump's re-election bid. In 2016, he became the first Republican in more than 20 years to carry the state. Biden is up 5 points there in the RealClearPolitics polling average.

The theme the president would likely being going for with an appearance at the historic location is unity and drawing a comparison to Lincoln, a president he has admired and compared himself to in the past.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany wouldn't comment on why the president was considering Gettysburg but she did cite the unity factor.

'I won't get ahead of the president as to what his convention speech will look look like but the president has done a lot to bring this country together,' she said Monday at her daily press briefing.

Between 46,000 and 51,000 soldiers from both armies died in the three-day battle in July 1863. The victory by the Army of the Potomac against General Robert E. Lee's Confederate forces was seen as a turning point in the war.

President Trump is know to prefer venues that provide a good backdrop. A former reality TV star, the president is ever aware of how his speeches look on TV and conventions are made-for-TV moments.

The Gettysburg location comes as the president has defended the use of Confederate flags and vowed not to change the names of military bases named after figures from the Civil War.

'We are in a culture war,' Trump said in July.

His comment came after Black Lives Matter protesters took down statues, mainly of Confederate figures, because of their links to white supremacy. Some states have officially decided to remove such figures because of their ties to racism.

The president has latched on to the destructive part of the movement - and liberals' calls to 'defund the police' - to craft a message palatable to his predominantly white base.

At a speech at Mount Rushmore on July 3, the president stood before the famous monument of four presidents - Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt - and gave a fiery speech where decried the 'left-wing cultural revolution' he claimed wanted to overthrow the government.

He also announced in June he 'will not even consider' renaming American military bases that were named after leaders of the Confederacy.

'These Monumental and very Powerful Bases have become part of a Great American Heritage, and a history of Winning, Victory, and Freedom,' Trump tweeted. 'The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars,' the president continued.

'Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations,' Trump said.

The president had compared himself to Lincoln when it comes to race relations. Voters give President Trump low marks in this area.

'I think I've done more for the Black community than any other president, and let's take a pass on Abraham Lincoln, cause he did good, although it's always questionable, ' the president told Fox News in June.

He conceded Lincoln had did a lot for the nation by freeing black people from slavery, winning the Civil War and keeping the United States intact during those tumultuous years.

'You know, it depends on what your definition is. But I am comfortable with freedom of speech. It's very simple,' he told CBS last month.

President Trump has compared himself to President Abraham Lincoln in the past

The North Carolina Memorial stands along West Confederate Avenue in the Gettysburg National Military Park

A freedom of speech rally at Gettysburg in July 2017 featured Trump campaign flags and Confederate flags

A painting of Abraham Lincoln giving his Gettysburg Address at the dedication of Gettysburg National Cemetery on November 19, 1863

President Trump has cited his signing criminal justice reform as part of his work to benefit African Americans.

The president has also defended flying the Confederate flag as a freedom of speech issue.

'You know, it depends on what your definition is. But I am comfortable with freedom of speech. It's very simple,' he told CBS last month.

The president's re-election and party planners for the Republican convention have struggled with how to pull off the president's big name after it became apparent he would not be able to give his speech the traditional way - in a massive arena filled with cheering delegates as the balloons dropped.

Trump's original plan to address delegates in Charlotte, North Carolina, and then Jacksonville, Fla., were upended by the coronavirus pandemic. Now Republicans, like Democrats, will conduct most of their convention virtually.

The South Lawn of the White House was floated as an idea but it met with objections from Democrats and Republicans alike because of the Hatch Act.

The law prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities while working. President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are exempt from the law but White House staffers - who are federal employees - are not.

'You don't have political events at the White House,' Speaker Nancy Pelosi told MSNBC last week. 'You can't do it.'

Republicans also questioned the move.

Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas called the idea 'problematic.' And Senator John Thune questioned the legality of holding political events at the White House.

'Is that even legal?' he asked when reporters asked him about it last week.

'I assume that's not something that you can do,' he continued. 'I assume there's some Hatch Act issues, or something.'

Trump held a campaign rally at Gettysburg in October of the 2016 campaign, making one of his closing pitches to voters before they went to the polls.

'President Lincoln served in a time of division like we've never seen before. It is my hope that we can look at his example to heal the divisions we are living through right now. We are a very divided nation,' he said at the time.
Nearly two weeks after Democrats grilled Attorney General William Barr over the Justice Department's crackdowns on racial justice protests, Barr on Sunday evening lashed out at the opposition party and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Speaking to Fox News host Mark Levin, Barr said liberals are intent on "tearing down the system" and called protesters' tactics "fascistic."

"They are a revolutionary group that is interested in some form of socialism, communism," Barr said of Black Lives Matter. "They're essentially Bolsheviks."

Barr's comments in the hour-long interview on "Life, Liberty & Levin" represent some of his harshest critiques yet of the protest movement, which he equated with antifa and compared to guerrilla warfare, and of the Democratic politicians who have accused the attorney general of subverting the Justice Department to do President Donald Trump's bidding.

Trump has also regularly expressed his disapproval of Black Lives Matter, accusing one of its members of "treason" and called the Black Lives Matter mural outside Trump Tower in New York "a symbol of hate." Barr has also previously criticized the protests, which have been ongoing throughout the country since George Floyd's death in Minneapolis in May, and personally ordered law enforcement to use force to clear a largely peaceful crowd outside the White House on June 1.

On Sunday, Barr accused Black Lives Matter of being an anti-government operation that has been co-opted by violent antifa members. Barr argued that the group is part of a coordinated effort to push Trump out of office.

"The left wants power because that is essentially their state of grace in their secular religion," he said. "They want to run peoples' lives so they can design utopia for all of us and that's what turns them on. And it's the lust for power and they weren't expecting Trump's victory and it outrages them."

The attorney general also accused Democrats of abandoning their traditional values.

"They're not interested in compromise, they're not interested in dialectic exchange of views. They're interested in total victory," Barr said. "It's a secular religion. It's a substitute for a religion."

Barr went on to call antifa a "new form of guerrilla warfare," arguing that the group, which he said is "highly organized," hides among peaceful protesters for protection.

"What they do is, they are essentially shielding themselves or shrouding themselves in First Amendment activity," Barr said. "They hijack these demonstrations and they provoke violence. And they have various tiers of people from the sort of top provocateurs down to people who are their minions and run the violent missions."

Despite Barr's claims, there have been no arrests or solid proof connecting antifa to violence at Black Lives Matter protests, The Washington Post's Fact Checker reported in June. The far-right boogaloo movement, meanwhile, has been tied to a murder and several bomb plots aimed at escalating violence.

Barr also accused the media of willfully ignoring any coverage of alleged antifa violence at protests.

"Of course the media doesn't take footage of what's happening," Barr said. "They don't take footage of the rocks being thrown."
During this summer of tear gas and turmoil, Kamala Harris has not been quiet.

On The View, the California senator spoke about reimagining how we do public safety in America.

On the Senate floor, she sparred with Rand Paul after the Kentucky Republican blocked a bill to make lynching a federal crime, and she is among the Democrats sponsoring policing legislation that would ban choke holds, racial profiling and no-knock warrants.

As a leading contender to be Joe Bidens running mate in the final days before his decision, Ms Harris has emerged as a strong voice on issues of police misconduct that seem certain to be central to the campaign. Yet in her own unsuccessful presidential run, she struggled to reconcile her calls for reform with her record on these same issues during a long career in law enforcement.

Since becoming Californias attorney general in 2011, she had largely avoided intervening in cases involving killings by police.

Then, amid the national outrage stoked by the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, came pleas for her to investigate a series of police shootings in San Francisco, where she had previously been district attorney. She did not step in. Except in extraordinary circumstances, she said, it was not her job.

Still, her approach was subtly shifting. By the end of her tenure in 2016, she had proposed a modest expansion of her offices powers to investigate police misconduct, begun reviews of two municipal police departments and backed a Justice Department investigation in San Francisco.

Critics saw her taking baby steps when bold reform was needed.

The daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father who met in Berkeley, California, in the social protest movement of the 1960s, Ms Harris has said she went into law enforcement to change the system from the inside. Yet as district attorney and then attorney general  and the first black woman to hold those jobs  she found herself constantly negotiating a middle ground between two powerful forces: the police and the left in one of the most liberal states in America.

Ms Harris declined to be interviewed for this article. But over the years, she has proudly labelled herself both a top cop and a progressive prosecutor.

All of which poses a question: is Ms Harris essentially a political pragmatist, or has she in fact changed? And is she the woman to lead a police reform effort from the White House?

Ms Harris was elected San Francisco district attorney in 2003. The police union endorsed her in a runoff.

But in April 2004, barely three months into the job, Ms Harris found herself at odds with police after a gang member gunned down an officer named Isaac Espinoza.

During her campaign, Ms Harris had opposed the death penalty, in part, as being discriminatory towards people of colour, and she did not seek it for Espinozas killer. Rank-and-file officers were infuriated.

In 2007, she stayed quiet as police unions opposed legislation granting public access to disciplinary hearings.

Police use of force had been a contentious issue in San Francisco long before Ms Harris took office. From 2001-04, The San Francisco Chronicle reported, there were more complaints about use of force in the city than in San Diego, Seattle, Oakland and San Jose, California, combined. Ms Harris pursued few on-duty cases of force-related misconduct, though that was not unusual at the time.

Timothy Silard, Ms Harris former chief of policy, said Ms Harris experienced hostility in the department from the beginning. He recalled commanders and homicide detectives who refused to speak to her. Instead, they addressed white men  her subordinates.

Did she set out as a professional prosecutor to anger the cops? he asked. No. Why would she do that? But did she shy away from doing bold things and important things because it was something the police department or police union didnt like? Never.

From 2002 to 2005, black people made up less than 8 per cent of the citys population but accounted for more than 40 per cent of police arrests. Mr Silard and Paul Henderson, who was Ms Harris chief of administration and now directs a city agency that investigates complaints about police, said Ms Harris told her staff not to prosecute arrests based on racial profiling.

Ms Harris also created a re-entry programme called Back on Track that aimed to keep young low-level offenders out of jail if they went to school and kept a job.

But some said she did not do enough.

We never thought we had an ally in the district attorney, said David Campos, who was a supervisor and police commissioner while Ms Harris was district attorney and is now chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party. You have someone saying all the right things now, but when she had the opportunity to do something about police accountability, she was either not visible, or when she was, she was on the wrong side.

Calls to review police misconduct grew after Ms Harris took office as attorney general in January 2011, in a state with a historically high rate of police shootings.

California law gives the attorney general broad authority over law enforcement matters. But aides to Ms Harris said that she hewed to the state Justice Departments hands-off policy, not interceding in officer-involved shootings unless the local district attorney had a conflict of interest or there was obvious abuse of prosecutorial discretion.

Brian Nelson, a top aide to Ms Harris while she was attorney general, said she was reluctant to big-foot district attorneys, having been one herself.

On 11 August 2014, two days after Brown was killed in Missouri, police officers in Los Angeles fatally shot Ezell Ford, an unarmed 25-year-old black man with a history of mental illness, sparking a wave of demonstrations. Ms Harris deferred to Jackie Lacey, the citys first black district attorney, who ultimately brought no charges.

Ms Harris began her second term as attorney general the next year by outlining steps to make policing fairer and more transparent. Still, she refused to endorse AB-86, a bill opposed by police unions that would have required her office to appoint special prosecutors to examine deadly police shootings.

In San Francisco, police killed 18 people during Ms Harris six years as attorney general. But if there was a single flash point, it was the shooting of 26-year-old Mario Woods in December 2015. Widely circulated cellphone videos showed officers surrounding Woods  disturbed, strung out on methamphetamines and armed with a steak knife. Five officers fired 46 rounds, hitting him with 21.

A series of rallies followed. Many believed that Ms Harris would take action. Ultimately, it was the Justice Department that intervened.

We werent absent, said Venus Johnson, a former associate attorney general who advised Ms Harris on criminal justice issues, adding that there were frequent discussions with San Francisco officials. We werent putting our heads in the sand. We were actively involved.

In 2016, former representative Loretta Sanchez, then vying with Ms Harris for a Senate seat, made a campaign issue of police shootings, particularly her opponents refusal to support AB-86. That year, Ms Harris offered a compromise to the bill that would expand her offices authority to review police misconduct, but only if sought by district attorneys or police chiefs. California lawmakers are still considering the idea.

And after the election, a month before her Senate swearing-in, Ms Harris began investigations of the Kern County Sheriffs Office and the Bakersfield Police Department, where officers had been involved in multiple deadly shootings.

In her measured way, Ms Harris pursued a variety of other criminal justice reforms.

One of her most lauded initiatives was OpenJustice, a database that provided public access to crime statistics collected by the state. That included data about the use of force and won the support of some police groups as well as activists.

The decision I made was: Im going to try and go inside the system, where I dont have to ask permission to change what needs to be changed, she said earlier this year.

As for her own career, she said, I know we were able to make a change, but it certainly was not enough.

New York Times
Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion at this hour. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times.

What made Shah Faesal change his mind so abruptly, asks Mehbooba Muftis daughter

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday questioned the resignation of former IAS officer Shah Faesal as president of the J&K Peoples Movement party last year. Read more.

In UK, only 53% people likely to go in for a coronavirus vaccine finds recent study

A large number of young people in the United Kingdom, one of the worst hit countries by the Covid-19 pandemic, are likely to steer clear of the coronavirus vaccine, according to a new study. The research has found that 22% of people under the age of 34 have said they may or may not go in for the vaccine as opposed to 11% of those aged between 55 and 75who have wanted to avoid the jab. Read more.

Before you pull, you should know who youre facing: When Shoaib Akhtar sledged Ashish Nehra in Punjabi

The rivalry shared between India and Pakistan is filled with legendary tales and adding to the list is former left-arm fast bowler Ashish Nehra, who has revealed one such incident where Shoaib Akhtar had some words to say to him. Read more.

Randeep Hooda broke his pledge for Extraction, apologised at a gurudwara after cutting his hair: I was very heartbroken throughout the filming

Actor Randeep Hooda was waiting to play a Sikh soldier in his Hindi film Battle of Saragarhi when he landed one of the lead roles in the Hollywood film, Extraction. The actor had grown his beard and hair for the long-delayed film and had pledged not to cut them until the completion of the Battle if Saragarhi. The Sarabjit actor has now opened up about how heartbroken he was when he had to break his promise in order to get into the look of his character in Extraction. Read more.

Sushant Singh Rajput was not on good terms with his father: Sanjay Raut

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Galaxy M51 could be the next powerful Samsung mid-range phone in India

The Samsung Galaxy M51 has been in the news for quite some time now. Over the past couple of months, reports have detailed the features that Samsungs upcoming M-series smartphone is expected to feature. Now, a new report says that the phone is getting closer to launch. Read more.

Sweatsuit is the new pantsuit

With nowhere to go and actors spending a great deal of time indoors, active wear separates and twinsets have replaced dresses and pantsuits. From Kareena Kapoor Khan to Anushka Sharma, from Deepika Padukone to Esha Gupta - actors have been spotted chilling in their sporty leggings, yoga pants and crop tops. Internationally, the likes of Hailey Bieber, Kim Kardashian West and Kylie Jenner have been spotted sporting active wear separates. Read more.

Netflix India boards the trend train with these Binod inspired memes. Check them out

If youve been on the Internet recently, then you may have heard of the Binod trend. As peculiar as it sounds, under this trend everything and everyone is, you guessed it, Binod. Read more.
Beirut has been living with car bombs and air raids on a sporadic but continuing basis for so long that it would probably make sense to rebuild this time with shatterproof glass. The torrent of broken glass falling from a thousand shattered buildings probably accounted for half the 158 dead found so far in Beirut, and certainly for most of the 6,000 wounded.

The Beirutis were not expecting a giant exploding warehouse, of course, but Lebanon has been cursed in so many other ways that in retrospect it seems almost inevitable. Fifteen years of brutal civil war, followed by 30 years of corrupt rule by the very warlords who ruined the country, ended Beiruts claim to be the Paris of the Middle East a long time ago.

The sense that the countrys time was running out has taken different forms over the years, but it was always there. I even thought the end might be coming with Islamic State a few years ago, and took my wife there to see the old Lebanon (some of which still survived and was easy to love) before IS came over the mountains from Syria to destroy it all.

Another blow to my reputation as a prophet, and one I was happy to take. IS overreached itself, and is gone. What finally did it for Lebanon was more banal: the deliberate looting of the countrys entire fragile economy, and the concealment of the proceeds in obscure foreign banks, by the few thousand people whom ordinary Lebanese contemptuously call the political class.

Warlords is the right name for them, although many are sectarian leaders whose pedigrees go back to Ottoman times. It is a country where old men and obsolete communal loyalties oppress the impoverished young. That is true of almost every country in the Arab world, of course, but in Lebanons case the only remaining route to a better future may lie through even greater violence.

Popular anger was great even before the 2.75-kiloton explosion last week. Garbage collection failed years ago, the only safe water comes in bottles, and there is still not reliable 24-hour electricity 30 years after the war. The currency has collapsed, most peoples savings have been wiped out, the country has defaulted on its debt, and there are no jobs for the young.

There were huge non-violent street demonstrations last October, and the multi-party coalition government was forced to resign. (The parties are really the old militias renamed.) All of them means all of them, the demonstrators chanted  but all that really changed was the faces of the cabinet ministers. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

There is a lot of sympathy for the Lebanese, and foreign governments are willing to bail the country out of its troubles  but only on condition that the loans dont just get pocketed by the same thieves in silk ties, and that there is complete transparency in banking and in government financial transactions.

Those conditions were too tough for the political class, since many of their past crimes would be exposed and future ones would become more difficult. So, incredibly, the Lebanese government refused the loans even as families went without food. Then came the explosion on the waterfront, which was clearly the result of official incompetence at the very least.

The demonstrators came out on the streets in force on Saturday, and by Sunday the army was there as well, firing live rounds into the air. The militias are out too, but so far they have left their weapons at home. The likelihood that this confrontation will be resolved peacefully? Worse than evens, certainly.

The crisis might have been delayed another year without the explosion, but not more. Even Hezbollah, once violent but relatively honest, now also has its hand in the till, and popular outrage is huge. This time, the protesters are building mock gallows in the street.

The oligarchs have their backs to the wall, but they know that popular rage can often be drowned in blood in the Arab world. In the past decade it has been done successfully in Syria, in Egypt, and in Bahrain, so why not in Lebanon too?

Heres why not. Even if they win in the streets, the oligarchs still lose, because there is no economy left to plunder. And if they lose in the streets, they could easily end up on real gallows.
The viral strain identified in India contains a mutation that could undermine current efforts to develop a vaccine. AP



South Korea's public health authorities said Monday they have found three new mutated genome sequences of the novel coronavirus among imported cases.



Genetic mutations were detected to "spike protein," the major surface protein of the virus, from the three COVID-19 imported cases  two from Pakistan and one from Uzbekistan  according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).



The KCDC said the new mutations are different from 78,810 viral genome sequences registered at the GISAID database on the virus run by the World Health Organization.



The finding was based on the KCDC's analysis of sequenced genomes of a total of 776 COVID-19 patients, including 597 local infections and 179 imported cases.






If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here
The RSPCA is reminding dog owners and walkers of the importance of keeping their pets under control to avoid devastating attacks on livestock.

The call comes after three sheep were injured and two died following a dog attack in a farmer's field in the Runcorn area, Cheshire this month.

The sheep was spotted by a member of the public with an open wound on its back which was covered in dried blood.

The sheep was unable to stand and seemed very lethargic. Two other sheep had died and so far this year the farmer says he has lost six sheep from dog attacks and sheep worrying.

RSPCA inspector, Caren Goodman-James, who attended on 4 August, is now urging dog walkers to keep their dogs on a lead around livestock.

She said: It is heartbreaking to hear that so many sheep have died as a result of dog attacks, which could have easily been prevented had the owners kept their dog on a lead and not let them run loose near livestock.

Whilst the vast majority of people take care as a matter of course, sadly accidents can happen and even the most docile and obedient dogs can get distracted and excited by grazing animals.

"Ewes have been known to abort unborn lambs whilst under stress which is particularly tragic."

In more extreme cases, severe attacks can happen which have a devastating effect on the livestock, resulting in severe injury and death.

Dog owners should also remember that it is lawful for farmers to shoot a dog to protect their livestock.

Owners could also be prosecuted by police if their dog is caught worrying livestock.
Just before two months, when arms embargo on Iran would come to an end, a new development took place. According to media reports, six Arab countries backed the United Nations arms ban on Iran. The Gulf Cooperation Council said it in a letter to the United Nations Security Council backing an extension of an arms embargo that kept Iran from purchasing foreign-made weapons like fighter jets, tanks, and warships. The Gulf Cooperation Council comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Gulf Cooperation Council accused Iran of not stopping or desisting from armed interventions in neighboring countries.

Read: Beirut Blast: UN Allocates $15 Million In Humanitarian Aid To Support Lebanon

According to experts Yemens Houthi rebels with whom Saudi-led coalition continues to battle receive arms from Iran and on the other hand, Tehran denies arming the Houthis, even as Iranian armaments and components have repeatedly turned up in Yemen. The GCC said it is not right to lift the embargo on conventional weapons movement to and from Iran until it abandons its destabilizing activities in the region and ceases to provide weapons to terrorist and sectarian organizations in the region. According to a report by Iranian TV, Irans foreign ministry spokesperson Abbas Mousavi condemned the GCC letter and criticized the Gulf Arab countries for being among the largest arms buyers in the region and the world.

Read: Iran Urges UN To Hold US Accountable For Plane Inception In Syrian Airspace

United States Resolution to UNSC

According to International media reports, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on August 5 said that next week the United States is going to submit a United Nations Security Council resolution to extend arms ban on Iran despite opposition from Russia and China. A ban on conventional weapons sales to Iran ends on coming October 18 and the United States has threatened to try to force a return of UN sanctions if it is not extended. While interacting with media Pompeo said the United States would submit the long-awaited resolution coming next week and also added that the United States was alarmed at indications that China was already preparing to sell weaponry to Iran. There are various nations ready to sell weapons to Iran that will destabilize the Middle East region and can put Israel, Europe, and the United States at risk, Pompeo told reporters.

(Image Credit-AP)

Read: Pompeo Says US To Submit A UN Security Council Resolution Next Week

Read: 6 Gulf Arab Countries Back Extending UN Arms Embargo On Iran
PARIS French humanitarian aid group ACTED said seven of its colleagues, along with one of its guides, had been killed in the gun attack in Niger on Sunday.

It is with profound grief that we confirm the death of seven of our colleagues as well as their guide in Niger who were senselessly and cowardly murdered by armed individuals in the KourA area, southeast of Niamey, on August 9th 2020," ACTED said in a statement released on Monday.

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
CHICAGO, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Flexpoint Ford, a private equity investment firm specializing in the financial services and healthcare industries, announced today the appointments of Blake Heyde, Philip Purcell and Mike Manno to Vice President, complementing the firm's talent development and growing their ability to originate and execute new investment opportunities.

"As Flexpoint continues to grow, we remain focused on attracting and retaining experienced talent to help further strengthen our investment capabilities," said Don Edwards, CEO and Founder of Flexpoint Ford. "Expanding these individuals' responsibilities will allow us to further our reach in identifying, evaluating and executing investment opportunities in the financial services and healthcare industries. We welcome Mike to the team and look forward to the continued contributions of Phil and Blake in their expanded roles."

In his role as Vice President, Blake Heyde will continue to focus on investment opportunities and portfolio companies in the healthcare sector. Prior to joining Flexpoint Ford's Chicago office in 2017 as a Private Equity Associate, Mr. Heyde was an Investment Banking Analyst in the Services and Industrials Group at William Blair, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions advisory assignments. His experience also includes stints at Wind Point Partners and GCM Grosvenor. Mr. Heyde received a B.A. in Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences as well as Economics from Northwestern University.

Phil Purcell will continue to concentrate on private equity investments as a Vice President on Flexpoint Ford's financial services team. Prior to joining Flexpoint Ford's New York office in 2017 as a Private Equity Associate, Mr. Purcell was an Investment Banking Analyst in the Financial Institutions Group at UBS Investment Bank in New York, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions and capital raising advisory assignments. He received his B.B.A. in Finance with a specialization in Alternative Asset Management from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University.

Mike Manno joins Flexpoint Ford as a Vice President in the Chicago office. Mike will join the healthcare team where he will enhance the team's investment capabilities. Mike has held roles as a Private Equity Associate at Genstar Capital and as an Investment Banking Analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. in the industrials group. Mike received his BS, Electrical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame and received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

About Flexpoint Ford, LLC

Flexpoint Ford is a private equity investment firm that has raised more than $4.3 billion in capital and specializes in privately negotiated investments in the financial services and healthcare industries. Since the firm's formation in 2005, Flexpoint Ford has completed investments in more than 30 companies across a broad range of investment sizes, structures and asset classes. Flexpoint Ford is headquartered in Chicago with additional offices in New York. For more information about Flexpoint Ford, please visit www.flexpointford.com.

For any questions or queries, please contact:

Hallie Erlich

Prosek Partners

(212) 279-3115

[email protected]

SOURCE Flexpoint Ford
Parents of children attending schools run by Niagaras public school board have choices to make before the resumption of classes next month.

Niagaras largest school board, responsible for the safety of over 36,000 students, released its pandemic back-to-school plan on Thursday.

With classes set to begin on Sept. 8, parents have only until Aug. 17 to notify the District School Board of Niagara how their children will be returning to the classroom.

The DSBN plan presents four scenarios to students and parents  two for high-schools and two for elementary schools.

Students returning to elementary school in the fall must choose between either full-day return or voluntary learning at home.

Elementary school students that are returning to full-day will attend school five days per week, with one cohort for the full day, including recess and lunch. There will also be enhanced health and safety protocols in place.

The back-to-school plan outlines the DSBNs enhanced health and safety guidelines for elementary schools. It includes 11 components that include daily health assessments, physical distancing, and an enhanced cleaning program for school facilities.

DSBNs 79 elementary and 20 high schools will also have to adhere to a COVID-19 protocol.

The protocol calls on the board to work closely with Ontarios Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and Niagara Region Public Health. School boards are required to file a daily report with the education ministry outlining whether there were no cases, suspected cases and confirmed cases.

Parents who decide to keep their children home will enroll them in a DSBN virtual school. The virtual school will be equipped with a principal and staff who are solely dedicated to students who are learning at home.

High school students must choose between in-school learning in an adaptive model or completing courses fully through online learning.

Students days will be compressed into about four hours, says the document, plus an additional 75 minutes of online learning at home.

Students will focus on two courses at a time in two-week mini blocks throughout the semester.

The plan divides students into two cohorts. Students in cohort A will attend school Mondays, Tuesdays and alternating Wednesdays. Students in cohort B will attend school on Thursdays, Fridays and alternating Wednesdays.

Class sizes for the students will have about 15 students in them, to allow for physical distancing.

Children that will be studying from home will spend 300 minutes in virtual classes Monday to Friday.

Dr. Mustafa Hirji, Niagaras acting medical officer of health, said, If plans to reopen local schools are to work, then Niagara residents at large have to do everything they can to keep local spread of the virus in check.

In some countries, including Israel, school reopenings have become linked to renewed outbreaks of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. However, Hirji said Ontario has several factors running in its favour that may prevent similar outbreaks locally.

When Israel reopened its schools, it did so when it reopened its entire economy, said Hirji. They also allowed social gatherings, including weddings, which caused outbreaks and that resulted in spillover into their schools.

Ontario has moved more slowly toward reopening, Hirji said, which has helped keep the overall case count relatively low. If cases in the general community remain low, the risk of a COVID-19 outbreak in a school is suppressed.

He also said Ontarios overall plan is deliberately taking cues from countries with the best track records, including Taiwan and South Korea, along with Norway and Denmark, which have been able to resume classes without significant surges in cases.

With files from Grant LaFleche

Sean Vanderklis is a Niagara Falls-based reporter for the Review, covering education. His reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.

CORRECTION: Aug. 10. 2020 - The original version of this story incorrectly reported the DSBN has 29 high schools. It has 20.
Transport Workers Union (TWU) Statement

Doordash and TWU sign agreement on virus protections for delivery workers

Leading delivery platform DoorDash and the Transport Workers Union have signed a landmark agreement on COVID-19 protections for DoorDash delivery riders and drivers in Australia, including financial assistance for those who have tested positive for the virus, those who have been instructed to self-isolate, and for those who are at high risk if they contract the virus.

The partnership aims to further DoorDash and TWUs commitment to supporting delivery workers during the pandemic to ensure a safe and healthy environment.

The agreement will see DoorDash continue to provide masks, hand sanitiser, and gloves, while defaulting all deliveries to no contact and enabling riders and drivers to initiate no-contact deliveries, in a joint effort to enforce social-distancing guidelines.

Both organisations are calling on the rest of the food delivery industry to implement protections and help ensure the highest safety for both consumers and workers.

An ongoing dialogue between DoorDash and the TWU will focus on a broad range of issues affecting DoorDash riders and drivers, including insurance to cover riders and drivers injured on the job.

TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said the joint stance was an important first step in giving workers in the gig economy the protections and benefits they need.

Food delivery workers are essential frontline workers who allow businesses to stay open and people to eat safely while under lock-down. These workers need protections to keep them safe and they need to be paid when they cant work due to COVID-19. In too many cases these protections are absent. We are pleased that DoorDash is at the forefront of changing the status quo and is working with us to stand with workers on virus protections, he said.

Through this joint agreement we want other companies to come on board to protect workers and we want state and federal governments to back the process. We believe that collaborating with DoorDash is an important step towards giving gig economy workers the rights and protections they deserve, Kaine added.

DoorDash CEO Tony Xu said the company remained committed to supporting riders, drivers and customers during the pandemic.

The work that Dashers do every day to deliver meals to families in need is nothing short of extraordinary, and were proud to be part of this ground breaking agreement with the TWU. Its incumbent upon us to support Dashers as they work to serve others, and we will continue to help protect these frontline workers while we remain committed to providing economic opportunities in the safest way possible. We hope this meaningful agreement encourages other companies to take similar steps forward to protect workers and prioritise the wellbeing of our communities, he said.

We look forward to the ongoing dialogue with the TWU on other important matters and exploring new opportunities to collaborate and further support riders and drivers. Providing a valuable service to Dashers and customers, and helping to ensure that the communities we serve remain safe and supported, is critically important to us, Xu added.

Igor Perino, a Sydney based DoorDash rider and member of the TWUs Delivery Riders Alliance, said it was important for delivery workers to have protections.

We are out every day and night working hard to deliver meals to people and we know there are serious risks. There simply isnt enough protections for riders and they mostly have to source their own masks, gloves and sanitiser on low salaries. The agreement between Doordash and the TWU will help change this and I would urge the rest of the food delivery industry to follow this lead, he said.

The TWU has previously signed agreements with Coles on safety and standards in the gig economy, for all transport workers and in the retail supply chain. The TWU also signed a charter with Woolworths on road transport supply chain standards.

A Victorian government inquiry into the gig economy earlier this month published a report highlighting the need for change in the sector. The TWU welcomed the report and its call for the federal government to regulate the sector.

To find more on DoorDash, visit www.doordash.com
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) is making preparations for a recovery of the tourism market amid a new COVID-19 outbreak.

A sign in front of My Khe beach in Da Nang. The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism is taking steps to recover the tourism market amid a new COVID-19 outbreak. Photo Hugh Bohane

Speaking at an online meeting on Friday, Nguyen Trung Khanh, director general of the VNAT, said the agency was working with localities to rehabilitate the tourism industry as the new outbreak has hit businesses again after three months of no locally transmitted cases of COVID-19.

He noted that hotels, transport and other tourism services have a close mutual relationship.

Any disruption to the relationship greatly affects the overall operation of the tourism industry, he said.

Tourism has been one of the industries hardest hit globally by the pandemic, and Vietnam is no exception, with foreign tourist arrivals and tourism revenue falling by more than 50 per cent in the first half of the year, according to Khanh.

After a brief recovery of domestic tourism thanks to many promotions, travel firms are now facing thousands of cancellation and refund requests.

Vo Anh Tai, deputy general director of Saigon Tourist Travel Service Company, said that most customers who want to cancel tours have requested a full refund of their payment.

This is a problem that enterprises cannot solve by themselves. When customers buy tours, the companies have to pay a part of that money to service providers such as airlines, restaurants, hotels and resorts, he said.

Nguyen Thi Hoat, executive director of Top Travel, said the firm is facing challenges related to cash flow.

Many customers are delaying their payment of the remaining amount that is due for their chosen tour. When making a contract, the travel company usually takes only 50-80 per cent of the tour value.

Huynh Phan Phuong Hoang, deputy general director of Vietravel, said that as of August 5, more than 22,300 tourists had cancelled tours worth a total revenue of VND102 billion (US$4.4 million). The number is expected to increase in the coming time.

Travel firms typically have to book services with service providers in advance. In force majeure events in previous outbreaks, only some service providers agreed to refund, while many others applied penalties when customers cancelled tours, Hoang said.

Director general Khanh said the VNAT would continue to provide support to enterprises. However, many tourism businesses said they have been unable to receive government incentives since the first COVID-19 outbreak due to the complicated procedures they must follow.

Most travel businesses have requested a reduction of VAT as well as electricity and water bills. They also would like extension on rental payments and financial support for employees in the tourism sector.

Hoi An Old Quarter has been packed by local and foreign tourists before the pandemic and close of international airways.  VNS Photo Hoang Trung Hieu

Tour cancellations

Preliminary statistics from localities and businesses show that the number of tourists who have postponed or cancelled tours has reached hundreds of thousands across the country, significantly affecting tourism service providers.

The cancellation rate in localities is expected to be more than 90 per cent by the end of the month. Major tourist hotpots in the country have confirmed that the cancellation rate of tourist bookings has reached more than 80 per cent.

Some customers have agreed to postpone or adjust their travel times, but others have cancelled their tours and requested a full refund.

After social distancing measures were suspended in late April, the domestic tourism industry strongly revived between June and early July. According to the VNAT, hotel room occupancy in mid-June reached 60 per cent by mid-week and up to 90 per cent by the end of the week.

Across the nation, the number of domestic tourists in June was estimated at 7 million, twice the figure in May. In Da Nang, the city's tourism authority recorded more than 450,000 visitors in June, up 85 per cent from May.

In response to the resurgence of COVID-19, Vietnam is taking serious measures to stop the virus from entering and spreading in the community, the VNAT said. VNS

Much to do to bring tourism back to life Phung Quang Thang, director of Hanoitourist Company, vice chairman of the Vietnam Society of Travel Agents (VISTA), talks to Minh Thu about hard time of Vietnamese tourism.
Airtel today announced that it is the first mobile operator to launch Ultra-Fast 4G services in Andaman and Nicobar, after launching 4G services in the island back in January last year. Department of Telecommunications today launched new 2300 kilometer undersea optic fiber link between Chennai and Andaman and Nicobar.

Inaugurated by the Honble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi, the foundation stone for this project was laid by the PM on 30th December 2018 at Port Blair. The service had begun today on a major chunk of the islands from Chennai to Port Blair, Port Blair to Little Andaman and Port Blair to Swaraj Island.

The fiber link will be a game changer for the region and unlock the true potential of 4G and even 5G in future for customers. Airtel said that it remains fully committed to the Governments vision of Digital India.

We hope the Department of Telecom will accelerate the deployment of USOF for building such infrastructure backbone to complement the efforts of telecom operators to bridge the digital divide, said Airtel.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Airtel said:

The new fiber link marks a major milestone in Indias digital transformation journey as this critical infrastructure reaches the strategic archipelago. We are grateful to the Honble Prime Minister for taking the time to launch this key digital infrastructure.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 02:46:04|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- At least nine people were killed and seven others wounded as a truck collided with a passenger minibus Sunday on a highway in Egypt's Nile Delta province of Qalioubiya, north of the capital Cairo.

The health ministry office in Qalioubiya revealed the names of five victims whose ages varied between 24 and 62, while the other four were unidentified.

Those wounded were taken to the nearby Benha University Hospital where Qalioubiya Governor Abdel-Hamid al-Haggan checked on them after inspecting the accident's scene.

In early August, eight people died when a minibus crashed into a canal in Giza province in south of Cairo.

Egypt suffers a high rate of traffic accidents that kill thousands of people every year mostly due to human errors including high speed and negligence of traffic rules. Enditem
It all started with a weird video put out by YouTube channel Slayy Point, where creators Abhyudaya and Gautami decided to give us a glimpse of what really goes on in the "filthy" comments section's world.

In one of their videos dubbing it as garbage. In the July 15 video tilted Why Indian Comments Section is Garbage (BINOD), they showed their audience the bizarre and crude comments left by the Youtube users viewing their content. They came across a comment by a user Binod Tharu which had several likes on it. He had simply written his name Binod under the videos, and it quite naturally took everyone's attention.

The creators presented many funny situations when to every question asked, the answer was only one: Binod. Soon, many Indian YouTubers noticed Binod being written all over their comments and it quickly became a trend on the platform.

Internet latched on to it so much so that Binod has become the top trend on microblogging site Twitter.

Users are using the hashtag Binod to call everyone and everything and this is leaving everyone quite puzzled. This trend has left most users perplexed, wondering who this viral Binod is, while others guessed what the real Binod must be feeling  the platform is abuzz with sarcastic jokes and hilarious photo captions.

Even Paytm changed its official handle's name to Binod after a netizen challenged it to do so.

Meanwhile, Tinder, and Mumbai Police were among the others who shared chuckle evoking jokes.

Mumbai police tweeted: "Dear #binod , we hope your name is not your online password. Its pretty viral, change it now! #OnlineSafety."

Dear #binod , we hope your name is not your online password. Its pretty viral, change it now! #OnlineSafety  Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) August 7, 2020

"#Binod might not write anything else, but we do have a message for you," wrote Uttar Pradesh Police as they urged their followers to wear masks.

#Binod might not write anything else, but we do have a message for you! pic.twitter.com/1It1yZE7Tq  Call 112 (@112UttarPradesh) August 7, 2020







Dating app Tinder wrote, "Yes Binod is on Tinder." "Update - Binod just matched with Binodini. Binod just messaged her saying 'naam toh suna hi hoga,'" they added.
Union Home Minister expressed his gratitude to PM Modi for launching the 1,00,000 Cr 'Agriculture Infrastructure Fund' and transferring 17,000 Cr in the accounts of 8.5 Cr farmers under 'PM-Kisan' for the development of agriculture sector & rural areas. Agriculture Infrastructure Fund will accelerate the creation of many infrastructure projects such as cold storage, collection centers, processing units so that our hardworking farmers can get the true value for their produce. This will generate new employment opportunities and will also strengthen the rural economy, he said. Union Home Minister further added that agriculture is the foundation of the Indian economy and the Modi government has been striving to strengthen it for the last six years. Amit Shah emphasized that many unprecedented steps have been taken for doubling the income of farmers and for the development of the agriculture sector. The Union Home Minister added I am confident that due to the untiring efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian agriculture will become world class in the times to come.

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Russia's consumer rights and human welfare watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, is assisting Lebanon, Vietnam, Abkhazia, and Guinea in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to advise colleagues in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, the organization's head, Anna Popova, said on Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th August, 2020) Russia's consumer rights and human welfare watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, is assisting Lebanon, Vietnam, Abkhazia, and Guinea in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to advise colleagues in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, the organization's head, Anna Popova, said on Monday.

"Our colleagues continue working in Guinea and Vietnam, providing assistance [there] ... The SAET [special anti-epidemic team] in Beirut continues its work, providing assistance [in the country]. Also, a group of our scientists and [medical] practitioners have been working in Abkhazia for over a week, supporting the tourist season and this tourism campaign beyond the Russian Federation," Popova said at a meeting of the coordination council on the fight against the novel coronavirus.

The Rospotrebnadzor chief recalled that some of its specialists had already returned from several neighboring countries.

"Colleagues have returned from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan, and we continue consulting them online to provide assistance," Popova added.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Russia has been active in helping other countries, such as Italy and Serbia, to stem the tide of the disease.
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks gave up early gains to turn flat on Monday as investors weighed rising U.S.-China tensions against signs of improvement in China's industrial activity. Investors kept a close eye on Sino-U.S. relations amid concerns that their trade deal could be at jeopardy. Amid mounting tensions between Washington and Beijing, U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar offered President Donald Trump's strong support for democratic Taiwan. China said it will impose sanctions on 11 U.S. citizens in response to similar measures from Washington on Chinese and Hong Kong officials. Traders are also grappling with an unclear timeline on the U.S. virus relief package. The benchmark CAC 40 was little changed at 4,892, giving up early gains. Speed-train maker Alstom declined 1.7 percent. The company, which is in deal to buy Bombardier Transportation, said it remains convinced of the strong strategic rationale for the acquisition. The company also said it is confident in its ability to restore in the medium term the profitability and commercial performance of the business. Total SA advanced half a percent, tracking higher oil prices after Saudi Aramco said demand will continue to improve. 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.
Lebanon's prime minister announced his government's resignation on Monday, saying a huge explosion that devastated the capital and stirred public outrage was the result of endemic corruption.

The detonation on August 4 at a port warehouse of more than 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate killed at least 163 people, injured more than 6,000 and destroyed swathes of the Mediterranean capital, compounding months of political and economic meltdown.

In a televised address, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said he backed calls by ordinary Lebanese for those responsible for "this crime" to be put on trial.

Diab made the announcement after the cabinet, formed in January with the support of the powerful Iranian-backed Hezbollah group and its allies, met on Monday, with many ministers wanting to resign, according to ministerial and political sources.

Diab said on Saturday he would request early parliamentary elections.

Demonstrations broke out again in central Beirut, with some protesters hurling rocks at security forces guarding an entrance leading to the parliament building, who responded with tear gas.

"The entire regime needs to change. It will make no difference if there is a new government," Joe Haddad, a Beirut engineer, told Reuters. "We need quick elections."

For many ordinary Lebanese, the explosion was the last straw in a protracted crisis over the collapse of the economy, corruption, waste and dysfunctional governance, and they have taken to the streets demanding root-and-branch change.

The information and environment ministers quit on Sunday as well as several lawmakers, and the justice minister followed them out the door on Monday. Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni, a key negotiator with the IMF over a rescue plan to help Lebanon exit a financial crisis, was set to resign, a source close to him said.

Lebanon's president had previously said explosive material was stored unsafely for years at the port. He later said the investigation would consider whether the cause was external interference as well as negligence or an accident.

Accountability

The Lebanese army said on Monday that another five bodies were pulled from the rubble, raising the death toll to 163. Search and rescue operations continued.

The cabinet decided to refer the investigation of the blast to the judicial council, the highest legal authority whose rulings cannot be appealed, a ministerial source and state news agency NNA said. The council usually handles top security cases.

Anti-government protests in the past two days have been the biggest since October, when angry demonstrations spread over an economic crisis rooted in pervasive graft, mismanagement and high-level unaccountability.

An international donor conference on Sunday raised pledges worth nearly 253m for immediate humanitarian relief, but foreign countries are demanding transparency over how the aid is used.

Some Lebanese doubt change is possible in a country where sectarian politicians have dominated since the 1975-90 conflict.

"It won't work, it's just the same people. It's a mafia," said Antoinette Baaklini, an employee of an electricity company that was demolished in the blast.
If there was one thing the last oil price crisis proved, it was this: despite the devastation that low oil prices can wreak on an industry, they can also make oil and gas production more efficient for less money. If there is one thing this crisis is proving, it is that oil and gas companies can do this remotely. In what could well be the industrys next step towards digitalization, oilfield service providers have been moving more and more of their operations to remote officessome are even moving some operations to the homes of their employees. And once again, they have been doing more with less, prompted by oil prices falling off a cliff this spring.

Home Oilfield

The Wall Street Journals Colin Eaton reported earlier this month that Baker Hughes and Schlumberger both had two-thirds of their drilling activity supported by remote work during the second quarter of the year. For Schlumberger, this was up 25 percent from the first quarter. For Baker Hughes, it was up 20 percent.

Eaton also quoted a Halliburton executive as saying the move from the field to the remote operations center or the home has been an eye-opener in that it has shown the industry that remote work was not as much of a challenge as previously believed.

And this means the trend could become a stable one, just like it has for Big Tech.

Google and Facebook were among tech companies that extended their work-from-home policies until at least the summer of 2021. Some, such as Twitter, have told employees they could keep working remotely forever. But drilling an oil well requires the physical presence of a crew. It is not all done on a computer except it increasingly is.

The oil and gas industry has been rather selective in its adoption of digital products to optimize its business. This may be about to change, a survey by analytics and advisory firm Quantzig recently revealed. According to the survey, the industry should go all-in for digital to utilize the potential of information technology, and the time to do it is right now.

Related: Oil Drops As Demand Recovery Stalls Such a transformation will require organizations to implement a focused digital strategy backed by technology adoption, said Quantzig. It will also need investment and commitment to revisit and revamp processes, infrastructure, and systems. All the enablers required for a successful transformation will have to come into play for the industry to harness the true potential of digitalization.

Jobs Gone Forever

Automation is a big part of the digitalization of the oil industry. It will eventually render many jobs in the fieldmanual jobsobsolete. This means that some jobs lost now to the oil price collapse will not be coming back.

Back in February, Baker Hughes VP of Ventures and Growth, Taylor Shinn, told Oilprice.com in an interview that digitalization did not necessarily mean the loss of jobs. It would actually make it easier to retrain employees and re-assign them, he said. But this was before the pandemic struck, obliterating more than 40,000 jobs in Texas alone, according to data from the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers.

In the perfect storm of low prices and low demand, job losses were inevitable from the start. Going remote and going digital will make more job losses inevitable. Yet it is very likely that they will create new ones, too.

The rise of the digital worker

In December last year, the Houston Chronicles Sergio Chapa reported on the rising number of tech labs set up by oil and gas companies to drive forward the digitalization of the industry. These labs were hiring people for positions that had words like data, agile, and cloud in their names.

As Chapa noted in that report, it was not only a way to take advantage of what many are calling the fourth industrial revolution. It was also a way to make work in oil and gas more appealing to a generation that is more hostile to this industry than those before it as a talent shortage loomed on the oil horizon.

Related: Oil Market Contango Returns In A Sign Of New Glut

Yet this shift is first and foremost about bringing oil and gas in the digital era more comprehensively. Drillbit sensors are fine, and so are 3D printed turbines, but the industry is moving towards comprehensive digitalization, it seems, and the pandemic is speeding up the process because remote is safe.

Geo-data major Fugro recently said it had completed the first fully remote inspection of an offshore platform in the North Sea. It used a remotely operated vehicle and its remote operations center in Aberdeen. This is just the first instance of what is likely to become standard practice, also featuring virtual reality products such as Baker Hughes Phantom View, drones, and smart drills.

Baker Hughes told the WSJs Eaton that 40 percent of the users of its remote operations services since the start of the year were first-time users. Schlumberger reported that it planned to boost its digital business substantially in what is becoming the new normal for the industry. Halliburton last month struck a deal with Microsoft and Accenture to advance its digital capabilities.

The big three are going digital. It will cost thousands of jobs, but it may yet create thousands more.



By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Nearly three-quarters of New York City school students will return for in-person classes when the new academic year begins this fall, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday.

De Blasio said the parents of around 764,000 students have opted to send their children back to school for between one to three days a week as part of the citys blended learning plan.

Meanwhile, 26 percent  or nearly 300,000 families  requested that their children continue to learn remotely full-time and not return to class when school resumes after summer break

This year is going to be different. We all know it, de Blasio said during his daily press briefing. but it does not take away the excitement, the energy, possibility, and the meaning for our kids. Our kids have been yearning to reconnect with school.

Around 85 percent of the school systems 75,000 teachers also intend to return, while the remaining 15 percent will be conducting digital-only classes.

Scroll down for video

De Blasio said the parents of around 764,000 students have opted to send their children back to school for between one to three days a week as part of the citys blended learning plan.

Meanwhile, 26 percent  or nearly 300,000 families  requested that their children continue to learn remotely full-time, and will not return to class when school resumes after summer break

The hybrid schedule will feature classes of no more than 10 students at any one time, with upgrades to classroom ventilation systems, cleaning regimes and a mandatory face covering policy for all children and staff.

Hand-washing and hand-sanitizer stations will also be located throughout the school buildings.

Those who decided against in-school instruction can transition into a blended schedule at various times during the academic year. Those who opted-in from the start will also be permitted to return to remote learning upon request.

Individual classes and schools may be closed temporarily should students or teachers test positive for COVID-19 at any stage. All of the citys 1,800 schools will be shut down if the citywide positivity rate exceeds an average of three percent over a seven-day period.

According to de Blasio, the citys rate has remained below three percent for the last two months  registering as low as one percent in the last 24 hours.

The reopening plan came as part of a 109-page document submitted by New York City to the state on Friday night. Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday acknowledged the supplemental submission and said it was being reviewed.

In addition to the blended learning plan, the city is also calling for random temperature checks for students and teachers, with a 14-day mandatory quarantine order for anyone who tests positive.

Around 85 percent of the school systems 75,000 teachers also intend to return, while the remaining 15 percent will be conducting digital-only classes (pictured: Teachers of a New York City middle school protest against it's air conditioning system that hasn't been repaired for seven years. If it's not fixed, Teacher Lisa Fitzgerald, left, says she and her colleagues will not return)

Those who decided against in-school instruction can transition into a blended schedule at various times during the academic year. Those who opted-in from the off-set will also be permitted to return to remote learning upon request.

The plan looks appears incredibly ambitious, considering other large school systems  including Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston  have opted away from in-person instruction, insisting all students will be studying from home at the beginning of the new academic year.

De Blasio acknowledge the scale of the challenge during his press briefing Monday: Im going to say it now and Ill say it a lot of times in the coming months, we are up against a challenge, but its not a challenge thats going to go on forever.

At some point, likely in the course of this school year, there will be a vaccine, and that vaccine will be administered to kids and families all over New York City, he continued. Then, we can start getting back to something more normal.

De Blasio said the Department of Education is addressing safety concerns, like hiring more nurses and coordinating with the citys test and trace program. He also said its working on ventilation and being able to open windows in classrooms.

If a classroom is not ready, that classroom simply will not be used. I want to affirm that to all parents, he said. If any classroom we feel is not fit, we simply wont use it. Well just segment it off and keep going until we do feel its ready to go.

Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza added that maintenance crews have been upgrading ventilation systems and filters at a number of schools.

I want to double down on what the mayor said  if there is any classroom that is not fit, we will not use that classroom, i.e. why were exploring alternate locations, as well, the chancellor continued.

They hybrid schedule will feature classes of no more than 10 students at any one time, with upgrades to classroom ventilation systems, cleaning regimes and a mandatory face covering policy for all children and staff

The new academic year in New York City is set to commence on September 10. Carranza said students and families will learn what their blended learning plan schedule is starting from August 17, with everyone informed by August 24.

Depending on each schools resources and classroom sizes, children are expected to sit in classrooms from anywhere between one and three times a week on alternating days.

Critics of the reopening plan noted Monday that parents who did not submit a response were automatically categorized as having opted-in for blended learning.

The DOE pushed back by insisting that only families who wanted to opt out of classroom learning were required to complete the survey. The department also pointed out that parents could revert their childs schedule back to remote-only learning at any point in the year.

De Blasio, however, warned parents they should expect some initial turbulence come September.

I think its going to get a certain number of weeks to really get it to move smoothly, the mayor said.

In the meantime, Carranza has urged parents to prepare their children for what awaits them when they walk back through the school gates in four weeks time.

Start talking to your children  especially your younger children  about why its important to wear a mask, he said. Its an act of friendship; its an act of love.
NEW YORK - UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday said the time has come for solidarity and improvement in the wake of the August 4 deadly blasts in Beirut during a virtual Security Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Lebanon. He called the explosion ''shocking''.

''In this moment of pain and frustration, the rage of the Lebanese people is palpable'', he added-.''Their voices need to be heard. It is important for a credible and transparent investigation to determine the cause of the explosion and the responsibility demanded by the people''.

Guterres recalled that ''the United Nations took quick and wide-ranging action'' to respond to the crisis and ''will continue to support Lebanon in any possible way during this emergency''. The secretary general launched an appeal for ''strong international support to all the people in need in Lebanon, in particular women and children who are most vulnerable in times of crisis''. ''I thank those countries that are already providing financial, material and specialized assistance'', he added, urging donors to give quickly and generously.

''The catastrophe is enormous, the sense of loss is deep, but Lebanon is strong, it has immense spirit and will and, most of all, it is not alone'', stressed Guterres. ''The United Nations are beside Lebanon to help and alleviate immediate suffering and to support its recovery''.
The nation's aged care regulator has admitted it was told of a crucial coronavirus outbreak four days earlier than previously claimed, in an embarrassing correction to evidence that made headlines last week.

The regulator surprised a Senate inquiry by reversing claims it made to a hearing last week about the days of delay in learning of the first infections at the St Basil's home in suburban Melbourne.

The aged care regulator has admitted it was told of a coronavirus outbreak at St Basil's four days earlier than previously claimed. Credit:Justin McManus

Aged Care and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson revealed a phone call from St Basil's on July 10 to report that one staff member had been diagnosed with COVID-19 two days earlier.

Ms Anderson told the inquiry last week the regulator had not been told of the outbreak until July 14, leading to headlines in the media about the delay in alerting authorities to the problem.
New Delhi, Aug 10 : Amid talks of a truce with rebel Rajasthan Congress leader Sachin Pilot, party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi met former party chief Rahul Gandhi at his residence at Tughlak Lane here on Monday.

The party is hoping for a breakthrough with the rebel Rajasthan MLAs led by Pilot but there is still no official word.

The party officially did not react to these political developments as Rajya Sabha MP K.C. Venugopal, who was assigned to talk to the rebels, declined to comment.

Sources say that the party hopes for an early settlement but there are no signs of a happy ending yet.

Reports say that Pilot has sought an appointment with Rahul Gandhi but it could not be confirmed from his office, despite repeated attempts.

But sources say that party treasurer Ahmed Patel is instrumental in reaching out to the rebel MLAs and has asked them to come back to the party and air their grievances before the leadership.

However, there is a strict message that the Chief Minister's post is not negotiable and Sachin Pilot, if he wants to return to the party, will have to wait for some time for some adjustments.
Photo: (Photo : YouTube/ABC News)

A 90-year-old Florida man had no regrets even after he contracted the coronavirus from his dying wife. Almost one month after, he died with the same cause.

The couple's family shared an emotional video of Sam and JoAnn Reck. It has recently made headlines. Sam said his last goodbye to his 86-year-old wife before she succumbed to COVID-19 on July 12.

All worth the risk

USA Today reported that Sam died almost one month after JoAnn did. It also noted that the husband likely got the virus from his wife. According to Scott Hooper, JoAnn's son from her first marriage, Sam knew he was taking a risk when he visited his wife but said that the risk was worth it.

See also: Man Invents Affordable Electric Wheelchair for Wife with Disability to Conquer Rough Roads

Hooper wrote in a Facebook post that he asked Sam if he regretted his visit to the hospital after testing positive with the deadly virus. Without thinking, Sam told Hooper that he did not regret even one second because no matter what happens, he was very happy to have the opportunity to say goodbye and hold his wife's hands one more time.

Romeo and Juliet

Nearly a year ago, JoAnn was diagnosed with dementia. She had been living in a nursing home separately from her husband. Sam had been living in a building next door to JoAnn's nursing home. He found a way to keep in touch with his wife by waving from his apartment balcony while practicing social distancing.

Their community has nicknamed them "Romeo and Juliet" for their practice. However, last month, JoAnn showed symptoms of COVID-19, so their distant visits came to a halt. She got tested positive at Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center.

See also: Blind grandpa and army veteran makes ukulele from scratch as hobby

Exempted from the rule

Although hospitals generally prohibit visitors amid the pandemic, there are exemptions for life and death situations. Sam wore full protective gear in the emotional video to see and be with his wife before she died. During that time, the couple had been separated for months already.

Sam told USA Today that he might have looked ominous in all protective gear, but he did that to hold his wife's hands to tell her how much he loved her.

Holly Reck, Sam's daughter, has one last conversation with her dad before he died on Saturday. Her dad told her that he had lived a good life and that he did not expect to live until 90.

See also: Son traveled 85 days across sea to see 90-year-old dad

The most important thing for Sam is being able to care for his family and let them know how much he loved them. Holly told her dad how much she loved and appreciated everything that he had done for her over the years.

The outlet reported that the cremated remains of Sam and JoAnn would be interred together at Florida Presbyterian Homes.
Indian-origin historians and campaigners have called for practical solutions to ensure a well-rounded approach to teaching all aspects of the British Empire to students in the UK.

During a webinar 'Reflections and Relevance of Heritage in the Modern Era' over the weekend, it was agreed upon that education through various media such as coursework, theatre and storytelling was the answer to a growing tide against colonial symbols and statues as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.

"A very practical and do-able suggestion would be to incorporate elements that reflect different aspects of the British Empire within the coursework," said Zehra Zaidi, a campaigner who leads the 'We Too Built Britain' campaign, which has received the backing of UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak to incorporate ethnic minority figures on British coinage.

"What the Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted is that leaders and heroes can be flawed and therefore there is an urgent need to focus on our inclusive history and unite around common themes," she said.

The Black Lives Matter protests, which spread across the world following the killing of African-American George Floyd in the police custody in US in May, drew attention to the UK's slave trading and colonial past.

As a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston was pulled down from its plinth in the city of Bristol, the public attention was drawn to similar dubious symbols and led to petitions against other colonial era statues such as that of Robert Clive - referred to as Clive of India for his role in the colonisation of India - as well as the UK's war-time prime minister Winston Churchill's Parliament Square statue, which was targeted with graffiti by angry protesters.

"Politicians are always a complicated subject - there will be those who are heroes to some and not a hero to others. It is not practical to pull down every statue or memorial. The answer lies in education - colonial history has got to be a part of the syllabus, said Shrabani Basu, author of historical accounts such as Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan' and Victoria and Abdul'.

The webinar, organised on Saturday as part of the Bengal Heritage Foundation's new Think Tank series along with the Indian Journalists' Association in the UK, Kolkata Literary Meet and British Council, explored several strands around the theme of colonialism and its legacy.

"Recent events in the US raise pertinent questions around how we should see our history in the context of changing times. Whilst the discussion will be focussed on the shared history between the UK and India, the references will apply elsewhere in the world as we move further into becoming a global village," said Malavika Banerjee, the Director of Kolkata Literary Meet, who moderated the discussion.

Lady Kishwar Desai, the founder of the Partition Museum in Amritsar, said, "It is a fallacy to suggest that the new generation is not interested in history. We were pleasantly surprised when 1,500 people attended the launch of the museum in a hall meant only for 300.

"Youngsters recalled what their grandparents went through during the Partition. From humble beginnings of a couple of items, it has now grown to 14 galleries and won six awards."

The panelists agreed that a shift in perspective would help tell the stories of controversial aspects of history, such as the British Empire, with a more well-rounded approach.

"We have to shift the lens in interpreting culture," said Jonathan Kennedy, Director - Arts, British Council India. The webinar opened with a tribute organised by the Bengal Heritage Foundation (BHF) to Dwarakanath Tagore, best known for his significant role in the Bengal Renaissance of the 19th century, to mark his 174th death anniversary.

The event included a musical rendition of a song by Tagore's grandson, the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, at a memorial in Kensal Green Cemetery in north-west London.

"Dwarkanath Tagore's pioneering work as an entrepreneur - first Indian having equal partnership with the British and that too in early 19th century - is so relevant in the post-Brexit world of Indo-British relationships.

"As BHF, we have focussed on the promotion of both tangible and intangible shared heritage over the years and the webinar was part of our continued effort to bring heritage into the mainstream discussions," said BHF president Sourav Niyogi.
Its not clear whether Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is a top contender to run for vice president alongside Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, but the possibility is certainly top of mind for Michiganders watching the national contest play out.

People are excited and kind of flattered that shed be considered, but do kind of feel like Oh geez, do we want to give her up? said Abby Clark, president of Athena Strategies.

Whitmer has a rising national profile that dates back before she was thrust into the national spotlight for her coronavirus response strategy. She was called on earlier this year to give the Democratic response to President Donald Trumps State of the Union speech and has only grown her national profile since then.

Two weekends back, she reportedly flew to Delaware to meet with Biden, a signal to many that shes on a shortlist of contenders for vice president.

Experts agree shes in the running, but say shes probably not in the very top tier.

Shes probably somewhere in the middle of the list of potential running mates, said Kyle Kopko, an adjunct professor at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania who studies the vice presidency.

Biden is expected to name a pick before Aug. 17, when the Democratic National Convention begins.

With that decision fast approaching, will it be Whitmer joining the ticket? Here are some factors experts say work for and against her:

Hell pick a woman, and possibly a woman of color.

Biden has publicly committed to picking a woman for the ticket. Since the nation erupted in protests against police brutality after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, there have been calls for him to pick a woman of color.

Grassroots Midwest partner and CEO Adrian Hemond said two women of color are likely higher than Whitmer on Bidens list: U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and former Obama national security advisor Susan Rice.

He rates it as very likely Biden will pick a woman of color.

Whitmer is white, but like Biden has placed a career-long emphasis on addressing issues that disproportionately impact communities of color.

At the beginning of the year, in her State of the State speech, she dedicated a portion of the high-profile address to announcing ways she aimed to tackle racial disparities in health outcomes for moms and babies. She followed that up last week with a directive condemning racism as a public health crisis. And that came after she intentionally assembled the most diverse cabinet in Michigan history.

Related: Racism declared a public health crisis in new Whitmer executive directive

Whitmer has good, but limited, national stock.

Clark has worked on the last three Democratic presidential campaigns in Michigan, and said one thing that seems to be fueling Whitmers rise initially looked like a negative at the beginning of the cycle: She doesnt have a huge history on the national stage.

The campaign culture around former President Barack Obamas runs was no drama Obama, she said, and if Biden plans to be in keeping with that, he may not want a vice presidential candidate who comes with a lot of inherent political issues or presents an easy target for Trump.

Theres been a little drama around all the people who have been much-discussed, so I think that can make people anxious and say well we should keep looking, Clark said.

Whitmer has continued her rise to national prominence over a mostly-commended handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which hit Michigan early among states.

She plays well in battleground Michigan.

After Trump won Michigan by 10,700 votes in 2016, Whitmer turned around a key gubernatorial contest on a much wider margin in 2018.

Shes polling strongly in Michigan now, too. An EPIC-MRA poll of 600 likely voters conducted July 25-30 found she had 57% favorability, compared to Trumps 41% and Bidens 46%. And 57% of those polled said she was doing an excellent or pretty good job.

Biden is eyeing several states with strong working-class demographics as a path to the presidency.

I think she would be helpful in the upper Midwest, absolutely... certainly shes helpful in Michigan and I think shes helpful in Wisconsin, too, Hemond said.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer looks on during a campaign stop for democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden at Renaissance High School in Detroit, on Monday, March 9, 2020. (Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)Mike Mulholland | MLive.com

She could help balance the ticket.

Demographically, Whitmer is two things Biden is not: young and a woman.

Hemond said, I definitely think theres some things that she brings to the ticket, and the obvious sort of balancing factor is shes relatively young.

She also has experience being the states primary executive, he pointed out, whereas Bidens executive experience is as Vice President.

Kopko said there historically isnt a lot of value in choosing candidates of a particular geography, for instance, to round out the ticket. But where it has mattered, he said, is when a Vice President can fill in gaps the presidential candidate has in policy experience.

That makes the ticket appear much stronger to voters, he said.

Biden has been in public office so long, Kopko said, that he doesnt have any obvious gaps. But if he wants to put a particular emphasis on issues of racial injustice and policing, it could help to bring on somebody with expertise in those areas.

Shes a forceful leader in a crisis. But shes still in the middle of it.

Hemond says the vice presidential pick is unlikely to be any governor, as theyre in the middle of leading their states through a pandemic thats unprecedented in recent history.

If thats the case, he said, Youll immediately be attacked for abandoning your state during the pandemic.

Republicans in Michigan have already been critical of Whitmer spending time on national issues.

Clark said there are a number of candidates who are key players in congress or in states.

A number of these people are already in important jobs. Can we afford to lose them in those jobs? she asked.

Related:

Whitmer and Trump have different ideas about if and how to reopen schools. But in Michigan, plans are ultimately local.

Whitmer extends coronavirus state of emergency through Friday, Sept. 4

Whitmer says Trumps executive orders do nothing to protect unemployed Americans
News has emerged from Wired that Chinese Hackers have heavily pillaged Taiwans Semiconductor Industry. A campaign named Operation Skeleton Key has stolen source code, software development kits, chip designs, and more.

Hackers are becoming an increasing threat in our society. Recently Garmin was subject to a $10 million ransom fee from hackers. In the past, the U.S. has accused the Chinese government hackers of stealing technology.

This news will no doubt do little for Chinas image on the international stage. There is no categoric evidence that this came from state-sponsored actors. However, China does have a history of similar actions toward Taiwan.

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Chinese hackers target Taiwans semiconductor industry

Taiwan has been in conflict with China for its very existence for decades now. State-sponsored hackers have targeted the nation regularly during that time as well.

An investigation by a Taiwanese security firm has revealed the extent to which hackers have targeted their semiconductor industry.

At the Black Hat security conference, reports will be presented that detail the damage. The report shows that at least seven Taiwanese chip firms over the past two years were compromised by hackers.

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The operation, name Skeleton Key appeared to aim to steal as much intellectual property as possible. This includes source code, software development kits, and chip designs.

Taiwanese security firm CyCraft previously named the group Chimera. However, new evidence links them to the state-sponsored group Winnti.

Chad Duffy, one of the CyCraft researchers made a statement on the news. He said, This is very much a state-based attack trying to manipulate Taiwans standing and power.

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Chung-Kuan Chen, who is another researcher noted that the breach fundamentally damages a corporations entire ability to do business.

Operation Skeleton Key damages Taiwanese industry

CyCraft declined to disclose any of the companies the breach compromised. The investigation found that in some cases, hackers gained access by compromising virtual private networks.

It is unclear as to whether they gained individual credentials or the servers themselves were vulnerable. Hackers then used a penetration tool called Cobalt Strike.

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This disguises the malware before moving to other machines on the network. The investigation revealed that hackers were more interested in stealing credentials and legitimate features. Rather than implanting malware that could reveal their identities.

Investigation finds loose links to mainland China

CyCraft were able to intercept an authentication token from the hackers communications. This allowed them to browse the contents of the cloud server. This included the standard operating procedure for typical intrusions.

The link to mainland china came in the language. As it used simplified Chinese characters, therefore, the researchers were able to ascertain it came from mainland China. This is because the Taiwanese do not use these characters generally.

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The investigation also found the hackers tended to operate largely within Beijings time zone. They took off mainland Chinese holidays and as well as the time schedule of work they used fitted with this theory.

One backdoor program revealed the most obvious clue to the researchers. Winnti had previously used the program in recent years. This allowed the investigation to draw the link between this group of hackers and mainland China.

Costin Raiu, the director of Kasperskys Global Research & Analysis Team noted that Winnti has formed a part of other state-sponsored hacking operations aimed at Taiwan. These go far beyond the semiconductor industry which this investigation detailed.

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He said that its possible that what theyre seeing is just a small fragment of a larger picture. Duffy noted that the semiconductor industry was a vulnerable target.

He pointed out that stealing chip schematics could allow hackers to identify more vulnerabilities hidden in computing hardware.

CyCraft has conceded it does not know what the hackers plan to do with the stolen material. One of the most likely explanations was to give Chinas semiconductor industry as leg up.

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This story demonstrates the ever-present and increasing concern when it comes to hackers. It is likely they will play an even larger role going forwards. Hopefully, defense mechanisms will improve but if not there could be some serious problems for companies in the near future.
As the total coronavirus patients across the country crossed the 22-lakh mark, India's fatality rate dropped to its lowest two per cent in the last 24 hours whereas the recoveries reached a new peak of over 15 lakh so far.

The latest data shared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) reveals that the current Case Fatality Rate (CFR) is two per cent and is steadily declining.

The report came at a time when the country tested a record over 1,000 deaths in a single day, pushing the death toll so far to 44,386.

The central government said the fatality rate is at its lowest and India is among the countries with lowest fatalities.

As per the Health Ministry, the coordinated efforts of the Centre and states/Union Territories on early detection through aggressive testing and efficient clinical management of hospitalised cases have shown results with continuously decreasing CFR.

"Early identification of cases has also led to steep fall in percentage of active cases," it said.

Early identification helps to ensure timely and prompt isolation of mild and moderate cases and hospitalisation of severe and critical cases, thereby leading to effective management of cases, the Ministry said.

The Ministry data further mentions that India's COVID-19 recoveries have crossed the historic peak of 15 lakh on Monday, more than twice the active cases.

Recovery of 15,35,743 patients, the Ministry said, has been made possible because of the policy of aggressive testing, comprehensive tracking and efficient treatment.

Better ambulance services, focus on standard of care and use of non-invasive oxygen had given the desired results, it said.

With the highest-ever single-day recoveries of 54,859 patients in the last 24 hours, the recovery rate had scaled another high of almost 70 per cent.

The record recoveries ensured that the actual caseload of the country, namely the active cases, has reduced and currently comprises only 28.66 per cent of the total positive cases.

India has posted more than 9 lakh recoveries compared with active cases (6,34,945).

The Ministry, however, mentions that the coronavirus infections still remains concentrated in 10 states that contribute more than 80 per cent of the new cases.

"The aggressive testing and tracking through house-to-house surveys and well implemented containment strategies and surveillance in these areas may lead to an initial increase in positive cases.

"However, well-implemented strategies will ensure it reduces over time," the Ministry said.

India on Monday held on to third rank in the world as the country worst hit by COVID-19 pandemic and recorded a spike of 62,064 coronavirus cases, pushing the total tally to 2,215,074.

Maharashtra remained the worst-hit state with a total of 5,03,084 cases and 17,367 deaths, followed by Tamil Nadu with 2,90,906 cases and 4,808 deaths. The southern state is followed by Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh.

Globally, the total coronavirus cases has topped 19.7 million, while the deaths have increased to over 729,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 10)  The Philippine economy may shrink by nearly a tenth this year, double the size of the government's projected contraction, a global bank analyst said.

HSBC economist Noelan Arbis said the economy may collapse by as much as 9.6 percent in 2020, against the 5.5 percent contraction expected by the President's economic team.

"The continued rise in COVID-19 cases domestically remains a serious concern, and in our view, has dashed any hopes for a meaningful recovery in the second half of 2020," Arbis said in a market report. "Moreover, the absence of a big-ticket stimulus is likely to put a damper on the recovery in the year ahead."

The Philippines has been reporting thousands of new cases daily, with total infections nearing 130,000 as of Sunday  the highest in Southeast Asia. Of these, 67,675 patients have recovered while 2,270 have died.

The government reported a 16.5 percent nosedive in the national output during the second quarter, the steepest decline ever recorded since at least 1981. This confirmed that the economy has entered a recession, with over 800 billion in output value wiped out versus last year.

Household spending, which has long been the backbone of the economy, declined year-on-year as the COVID-19 lockdowns in April and May kept most Filipinos at home. The return of Metro Manila  as well as nearby provinces Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna, and Cavite  would also douse a possible growth rebound for the third quarter, HSBC said.

IN PHOTOS: Metro Manilas first day back under MECQ

"Reduced remittances  as a result of the growing amount of displaced overseas Filipino workers  and rising unemployment are also likely to keep a lid on private consumption growth in the quarters ahead," Arbis added.

The Philippine Statistics Authority reported that the pandemic left 7.3 million Filipinos jobless as of April, which could have risen in succeeding weeks.

The analyst added that lockdowns abroad also led to a slump in consumption, which also had a negative effect locally. He also pointed out that "the absence of a big-ticket stimulus program from the government" will keep near-term recovery "shallow."

READ: PH cant afford to extend MECQ as economic costs pile up  Roque

The House of Representatives has just approved a 162-billion economic stimulus program, but the economist said this was measly compared to what industries really need to get back on their feet.

"We believe this is not nearly enough to offset the substantial impact of the pandemic on the economy. Moreover, private construction has fallen and is unlikely to recover significantly in the near-term, as corporations protect their bottom line," he added.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has repeatedly said that the over 1-trillion stimulus program laid out by economist lawmakers in the House was not "fundable," adding that he refuses to spend all of the government's funds for COVID-19 response in one go as no one knows know how long the crisis will last.

For his part, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno said the negative feedback on the second quarter performance was "grossly exaggerated," adding it was only a blip rather than a result of structural weaknesses.

"The setback is temporary. Recovery can come quickly once consumer confidence return, factories fired up, construction activity particularly the BBB (Build, Build, Build) Program is ramped up, and transportation is fully restored," Diokno told reporters.

"In the near future while waiting for the vaccine, policy makers will opt for targeted, localized, village-level lockdowns. Hence, the adverse economic impact on jobs, incomes, and livelihoods will be subdued," he added.

At present, only 50 percent of businesses are operating with latest stay-at-home rules. Authorities said the country can no longer afford prolonged business shutdowns, which has stifled consumer spending and will result to more people going hungry and jobless.
BUCHAREST, Romania - Queen Elizabeth II, David Bowie and ... Claudia Anghel?

Anghel, an experienced Romanian midwife, has joined the star-studded ranks of people whose portraits have been taken by famed photographer Rankin.

It was done as part of a billboard campaign celebrating the 72nd anniversary of the U.K.s National Health Service, which gives residents free health care. Anghel has been working as a midwife in Britain since 2012.

Her success story as one of 600,000 Romanians in Britain is at the same time a telling sign of how the deficiencies of her home countrys health care system and the bleak prospects for a better future for herself and her family have left huge gaps in Romanian society and its health care system.

Romania, an impoverished former communist country ruled for decades with an iron fist by dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, joined the European Union in 2007. The move opened up massive new work prospects for the countrys 19 million people.

By 2013, more than 14,000 Romanian doctors were working abroad, about 26% of the countrys total number of physicians. By 2016, official statistics showed that 44,000 medical staffers had left for Western Europe, with current estimates putting that figure as high as 60,000.

The issues plaguing Romanian health care reflect the countrys overall problems  low wages, corruption, bad management and favouritism tied to political or personal connections that paves the way for advancement over other attributes like skill, experience or merit.

Anghel said that while higher Western salaries certainly influenced her decision to emigrate to Britain, it wasnt the most important factor.

Salaries make a difference, but for me, the work environment makes the bigger difference, Anghel said in a video interview from her English home. Its the respect for the medical staff and the respect for the patient  this mutual respect.

You dont emigrate because you dont have money, you emigrate to avoid corruption, said Anghel, who works at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire, in central England. There are small elements of corruption everywhere, but in Romania it is at a different level.

Transparency International lists Romania 70th among 180 countries ranked according to their perceived levels of corruption. Previous governments especially were strongly criticized by the European Union for efforts to weaken the independence of the courts to protect politicians facing corruption charges.

Over the past few years, Romanians all over the country have held massive rallies against government corruption. The recent designation of Romanian prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi as the European Unions first Public Prosecutor was welcomed by many compatriots  but not by the dozens of politicians she indicted at home during her five years as head of Romanias Anticorruption Directorate.

Analyst Sorin Ionita said the thousands of doctors and nurses who have fled Romanias public health sector left mainly because they felt powerless in a feudal system in which political cronies decide who gets promoted and how medical resources are spent.

Although salaries were increased quite significantly in the state medical system ... this did not slow the pace of departures too much, said Ionita, head of the Bucharest-based Expert Forum think-tank .

Ionita said young doctors especially could be frustrated at falling behind less-talented colleagues who had better political connections.

The one who is not a good professional joins a political party to gather support and immediately becomes the health minister or a state secretary, Ionita said.

Better opportunities and a more fair workplace were key factors for Anghel.

I would not return to work to Romania because I can be whatever I want here, she said, jokingly envisioning herself as an adviser on midwifery issues to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In Romania, you dont have wings like you have here, to become whatever you want.

Someone needs to change the system to make people stay there, Anghel added. The rules are not the same for everyone in Romania.

Her frustrations with Romanian health care were reconfirmed recently when her father became ill and required medical attention in her hometown of Calarasi, 115 kilometres (70 miles) east of Bucharest, the capital.

I was looked down upon and treated arrogantly by someone (on the medical staff) whose assistance I needed, she said.

Adding to her pain, her father later passed away.

Surrounded in her English home by thank-you cards, official awards and testimonies about her professional excellence, Anghel mentioned another reason for emigrating.

I wanted to offer more opportunities to my son, Anghel said.

Would she consider going back to her homeland, which she said she loves and promotes as much as she can?

I wish something would change with the Romanian system, but I am so sure its not going to change, she said. No thanks, I will not be a midwife in Romania.

___

Andreea Alexandru contributed to this report.
Related Egypt urges citizens to adhere to preventive measures in anticipation of a rise in coronavirus cases

Egypts coronavirus isolation hospitals are set to reopen this week in anticipation of a possible second wave of COVID-19, which could possibly hit the country harder than the first wave, manager of Al-Nagila hospital Mohamed Taleb told DMC TV on Sunday.

Minister of Health Hala Zayed has held a meeting with fever hospital managers and told them to be prepared for a surge in coronavirus cases, Taleb said.

Taleb said that Al-Nagila Hospital returned to operating as a coronavirus isolation facility three days ago, and that there is currently a moderate number of coronavirus patients receiving treatment at the hospital.

Al-Nagila Hospital, which is located in Marsa Matrouh governorate, was the first hospital to be assigned as a coronavirus quarantine facility in Egypt in mid-February when the first case was reported in the country.

Health Minister Hala Zayed held a meeting via video conference with the managers of fever hospitals across the country on Sunday to check on the work in the hospitals, the Health Ministry said on Monday.

During the meeting, Zayed praised the efforts of the medical teams in fighting coronavirus.

Last week, Dr Jihan Assal, the deputy chairman of the scientific committee formed to fight coronavirus, announced that isolation hospitals had been closed due to the decline in the number of cases over the past three weeks.

Egypt has recorded 95,492 cases of coronavirus including 52,678 fully recovered patients and 5,009 fatalities.

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Classes resumed Monday at a southern Tennessee school district after a student and school employee at two different schools tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend.

The Lincoln County school system announced the positive tests Saturday at Flintville Elementary School, which is about 30 miles from downtown Huntsville. On Sunday, a student and employee at nearby South Lincoln Elementary School tested positive, the school system said.

Related: See AL.coms coverage of the coronavirus pandemic

In a Facebook post on Sunday, the school system said contact tracing had been completed for all four cases and that school would continue Monday. Lincoln County Schools began classes last week.

Sunday, August 9, 2020 Covid-19 Update Contact tracing has been completed by the administration at Flintville School... Posted by Lincoln County Schools - TN on Sunday, August 9, 2020

All those who potentially had contact with the students and employees have been notified, the school system said.

Both schools were completely sanitized over the weekend, the school system said.

Parents were urged to check their childs temperature and screen them for possible COVID-19 symptoms before sending them to school. The school system said it would continue to conduct symptom checks for all students and employees.
Over the weekend, Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly put out a tweet that conflated statistics, making it potentially misleading, and which also contained wrong figures for cases of Covid-19 in Laois, Offaly and Westmeath.

The Minister Tweeted.

We've been notified of an additional 174 cases of Covid-19 today, with 120 of those in Kildare, Laois and Offaly. Our acting CMO & HSE chief gave me comprehensive briefings earlier. Our priority is to ensure these clusters do not lead to widespread community transmission.  Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) August 8, 2020

This tweet pertained to cases on Saturday when there were actually 118 cases across Kildare, Laois and Offaly.

However the Minister failed to point out that 110 of those cases were in Kildare, seven were in Offaly and one was in Laois.

On Saturday, 27 of the new cases were in Dublin and there were six in Meath. Enfield in Meath is only 13 kilometres from one of the factories hit hard by Covid-19.

Conflating the figures for the three counties could potentially leave people with a misleading impression of the situation on the ground in Laois and Offaly.

READ NEXT: Latest update on confirmed cases of Covid-19 in hospitals in Offaly, Laois or Kildare
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. It was supposed to be an easy job  not one that would shut down an entire city.

But a series of major goofs and errors turned an underground drilling project into a nightmarish tale where the water pipes ran dry, leaving 250,000 people and businesses without water in Fort Lauderdale and several nearby cities.

The details of what happened that day in July 2019  and how an unlicensed worker came to be operating the powerful drilling rig for a Florida Power & Light job  are laid bare in court documents.

A three-man crew started work around 11 a.m. on July 17, digging a trench for an underground pipe near the runways at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. Sometime after 3 p.m., their drill hit Fort Lauderdales main water supply line, a 42-inch concrete pipe that carries water from the citys wellfields to its Fiveash Water Treatment Plant.

Their first clue that something was awry: Water came surging up from the ground.

Their first call went to their boss.

Hey, we broke something here, they told Geovanis Rivera, the Homestead man who runs his Geo & Yus company out of his home.

What Did I Hit?

The drill punched a 6-inch-wide hole through 7 inches of concrete. His guys, who were drilling 7 feet down, werent sure if theyd hit a water or a sewer main, Rivera said in a deposition. Hours later, a tree stump was used to plug the hole.

Rivera didnt realize how big a deal the breach was until he saw the news that night.

With the pipes running dry, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis declared a state of emergency. Hundreds of hotels, restaurants and other businesses from Fort Lauderdale to Tamarac were forced to close. The next morning, thousands of people woke up to a boil-water order that lasted four days for some and six days for others.

Neither Rivera nor his workers had a clue there was a massive water pipe right where they were digging.

But they should have, according to a lawsuit filed by five businesses forced to close that day: The Las Olas Company (owner of the Riverside Hotel), Press & Grind Cafe, Roccos Tacos & Tequila Bar, Di Pietro Partners and HHR Lauderdale Beach Limited Partnership.

With no running water, fire sprinklers wouldnt work and toilets wouldnt flush. Several hotels, including the Riverside, were forced to evacuate guests and cancel reservations.

Harbor Beach Marriott estimates it lost $300,000 from the whole ordeal.

It was like a hurricane, said Bill Scherer, an attorney representing the plaintiffs along with Adam Moskowitz. Everybody went home and bunkered down for a day.

Scherer estimates businesses throughout Broward County lost up to $300 million in revenues.

They just screwed up at every turn, Scherer said of the contractors. With directional drilling, you dont know where youre going because its underground. Water started coming out and then it was just a geyser. Like a fire hydrant on steroids times 1,000.

The suit, filed last year, is expected to go to trial Jan. 11. An upcoming hearing on Sept. 18 will determine whether the case will be granted class-action status to cover all businesses impacted by the water main break.

City Suing Too

A second lawsuit, filed by Fort Lauderdale on July 13, seeks to recoup $800,000 in repair costs.

Both lawsuits name FPL and three subcontractors as defendants.

FPL hired Infratech Corp. to replace buried electrical cables. Infratech subcontracted the work to Florida Communication Concepts, or FCC. That company then hired an even cheaper subcontractor, Geo & Yus Corp.

Rivera spoke briefly to the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Thursday (July 30). He at first agreed to an interview, apologizing for not being entirely fluent in English. After the first question, he politely ended the interview.

I think you should call my attorney, he said.

Rivera, a Cuba native, moved to Miami in 2016 and opened his business the following year.

A high school graduate, he spent four years studying to be a technician in civil construction but worked in tourism instead, he said in a deposition.

Attorneys for FPL and all three subcontractors could not be reached for comment despite calls to their law firms Thursday morning.

According to the lawsuit: FPL crews never bothered to visit the job site before the work began. And officials with Infratech and FCC, the company that hired Geo & Yus, did not show up that day to supervise the job.

Jose Carlos Torres was the man operating the drill that day for Geo & Yus, Rivera said in his deposition.

In his deposition, Rivera said he did not know whether Torres had any formal training to operate that kind of drill.

Torres and the other two men on the crew are not licensed by the state to do the work they were doing, Moskowitz said. The crew did not use ground penetrating radar. If they had, they would have found the pipe.

Another huge error was made when FCC put out an alert about the underground work but gave the wrong address, the lawsuit says.

Relying on a service called Sunshine 811, FCC sent out an alert to companies that might have lines in the area so they could come out and mark them before the work started.

Fort Lauderdale gave the all-clear because it had no lines at the address submitted by FCC: 2525 NW 55th Court. But the drill crew was working at 2417 NW 55th Court, a full 200 feet away.

More Mistakes

FCC made another mistake when it claimed there would be no directional boring, the lawsuit says.

Timothy Hicks, who launched FCC in April 2019, defended his company during his deposition, laying the blame squarely on Fort Lauderdale for not coming out to mark the pipe.

In his deposition, Hicks said city workers initially claimed the water pipe didnt even belong to Fort Lauderdale.

Hicks said his foreman rushed to the job site as soon as he got a call from Rivera about the pipe spewing water. The foreman told Hicks two men who work for Fort Lauderdale showed up, but left after deciding the pipe wasnt theirs.

Oakland Park showed up, said for sure its not theirs, Hicks said in his deposition. They left. And (the foreman) was calling the city of Fort Lauderdale to come back because they had already been there and had left, saying it wasnt theirs also. Then about an hour or so after that, two hours later the city of Fort Lauderdale came back to the property and said, `Hold on, wait a minute, maybe this is ours.

Then they set about trying to find the control valves to shut off the water, Hicks said.

FPL knew the location of the water pipe but never warned contractors to look for it, the lawsuit alleges.

In the meantime, FPL has filed cross claims against the subcontractors, arguing it was not responsible for mistakes they might have made.

Our response is FPL was negligent because they never went to the site, Moskowitz said. And because directional drilling is an inherently dangerous activity, FPL is liable for all of their subcontractors.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Modi inaugurates submarine Optical Fibre Cable connecting Chennai and Port Blair

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Aug 10: PM Narendra Modi on Monday inaugurated the submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connecting Chennai and Port Blair via video conferencing.

Pranab Mukherjee tests Covid-19 +ve | Former President tests positive | Oneindia News

The submarine cable will also connect Port Blair to Swaraj Dweep (Havelock), Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Kamorta, Great Nicobar, Long Island, and Rangat.

Addressing via video conference, Modi said,'' Completing the work of laying 2,300 km long cable undersea before the scheduled time is praiseworthy. Deep-sea surveys, maintaining cable quality and laying cable using special ships is not easy.''

He said,'' This optical fibre cable project, connecting Andaman & Nicobar with rest of the country is symbol of our commitment towards ease of living. Be it online classes, tourism, banking, shopping or telemedicine, thousands of families in Andaman-Nicobar will now get its access.''

Ahead of submarine OFC launch, PM Modi says its a 'special day for Andaman and Nicobar Islands

''Tourists going to Andaman will get a huge benefit of this facility because better net connectivity has become the first priority of any tourist destination,'' the Prime Minister said.

''High Impact Projects are being expanded in 12 islands of Andaman and Nicobar. The major problem of mobile & internet connectivity has been resolved today. Apart from this, physical connectivity through road, air & water is also being strengthened,'' Modi said.

''After a period of three decades, India's first deep-draft greenfield seaport at West Coast has received principal approval. Construction work of deep-draft inner harbour is also underway at East Coast,'' he also added.

Ahead of the launch, Modi had tweeted to say it's a very special day for the residents of the islands. He also said that the OFC will provide "high-speed broadband connectivity and a big boost for the local economy".

On Sunday, while interacting with BJP workers of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the PM said that internet connectivity in the islands will go through a sea change after the launch of the facility. It is expected to deliver faster and more reliable mobile and landline telecom services at par with other parts of the country.

Foundation stone for this project was laid by the Prime Minister on 30th December 2018 at Port Blair.

Provision of reliable, robust, and high-speed telecom and Broadband facilities in these Islands will be a landmark achievement from the viewpoint of islanders as well as for strategic and governance reasons.

Due to satellite linkage there is only a fixed bandwidth of 3.2 GBPS available in the islands which will be hiked by more than 100 times. A 400 GBPS bandwidth would now be available initially with the commencement of the project
The equity barometers firmed up further and hit fresh intraday high in mid-morning trade. Global stock markets were upbeat after US President Donald Trump signed executive actions extending financial relief to Americans hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

At 11:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 378.27 points or 0.99% at 38,418.84. The Nifty 50 index added 117.65 points or 1.05% at 11,331.70.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 1.56% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 1.51%. Both these indices outperformed the benchmark Sensex.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1635 shares rose and 753 shares fell. A total of 145 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 397.32 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 438.62 crore in the Indian equity market on 7 August, provisional data showed.

Buzzing Segment :

The Nifty Metal index was down 0.08%. The index added 8.4% in the past six sessions.

Among the index constituents, Hindustan Zinc (down 1.07%), Hindalco Industries (down 0.99%), APL Apollo Tubes (down 0.78%) and Jindal Steel & Power (down 0.48%) declined while Mishra Dhatu Nigam (up 3.64%), Ratnamani Metals Tubes (up 1.88%) and Welspun Corp (up 1.84%) advanced.

Earnings Impact:

REC gained 1.70% to Rs 107.55 after the consolidated net profit rose 22.29% to Rs 1,845.30 crore on 20.44% rise in total income to Rs 8,450.36 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

Meanwhile, the board of directors of REC approved the proposal of raising of funds through issue of unsecured/secured non-convertible bonds/debentures through Private Placement, upto an amount of Rs 85,000 crore, in one or more tranches, subject to approval of shareholders in this regard in the ensuing Annual General Meeting.

Amara Raja Batteries rose 2.92% to Rs 738.80. The battery maker's consolidated net profit tanked 55.6% to Rs 62.49 crore on 36.6% drop in net sales to Rs 1,151.22 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019.

The company's performance during the quarter came against the backdrop of severe disruptions in manufacturing, supply chain, and sales and distribution operations due to COVID-19 lockdown. Despite the challenges, Amara Raja Batteries managed the demand and supply by implementing completely new standard operating procedures across operational branches and units.

Separately, the company said that Jayadev Galla has been re-appointed as vice chairman and managing director (MD) of Amara Raja Batteries for a term of five years effective from 1 September 2020.

Global Markets:

Overseas, most Asian stocks were trading higher on Monday as investors shrugged off concerns over rising tensions between the United States and China. Japanese and Singaporean markets are closed for public holidays.

Investors continued to monitor the US fiscal stimulus after talks between the White House and Democrat lawmakers broke down.

Australia is reportedly tackling a fresh wave of coronavirus outbreak in Victoria state, which accounts for the majority of reported cases and deaths in the country. In an effort to slow the spread of infection, the state has imposed strict lockdown measures limiting people's movements and closed large parts of the economy, media reports said.

In US, the S&P 500 retreated from a near six-month high in choppy trading on Friday with data showing a sharp slowdown in US employment growth, while US-China tensions escalated with President Donald Trump's move to ban WeChat and TikTok.

US President Donald Trump signed two executive orders banning WeChat, owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent, and TikTok in 45 days' time while announcing sanctions on 11 Chinese and Hong Kong officials.

Trump signed a series of executive orders to extend unemployment benefits after talks with Congress broke down. The orders would provide an extra $400 per week in unemployment payments, less than the $600 per week passed earlier in the crisis.

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One of the points I've made to anyone who will listen is that the Antifa and Black Lives Matter insanity we're seeing is a purely leftist phenomenon. This leftism is not just because of the obvious fact that the activists are leftists; it's also because the cities that host their often theatrical violence are leftist, too. The truth is that, over the last two months, most American cities and towns have been peaceful, and most Americans are hostile to this street theater.

I've also been arguing that, after having their spirits battered by the one-two punch of (arguably unnecessary) lockdowns and the leftist attacks on America's Democrat-run cities, Americans are coming back. The latest resurgence of the American spirit took place in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Although some of the facts around this event are contested, there are a few clear things. On Saturday, hundreds of people attended a "Back the Blue" rally to support their local police. Black-clad people, whose clothes identified them as Antifa, showed up as a counter-protest. Their presence did not sit well with some of the attendees at the pro-police rally.

A video emerged showing a Back the Blue contingent slow-marching the Antifa crowd out of the neighborhood. As the Back the Blues march forward, the Antifa members walk backward. It's rather like a stately dance. One member of the Back the Blue contingent uses a wheelchair, which matters, because he shows up later.

As the walk continues, the Back the Blues are not violent, but they are angry, accusing the Antifa horde both of being disrespectful to veterans and being communists. Significantly no Back the Blues are making racist comments. Their anger is entirely about their disdain for the counter-protesters' political ideology.

At a certain point, this weird dance turns off the road onto a grass-lined pathway. The man filming turns the camera toward himself to explain what's going on. "So, we are currently marching the Antifa commie bastards out of the neighborhood because nobody wants Antifa in the neighborhood."

The camera then swings back to the slow march. Someone now has a bullhorn and hollers, "Bye-bye, commie scum. Bye-bye. Go home." Again, this is not about race.

And then something happens. The Back the Blues later said that one of the Antifa people attacked the man in the wheelchair. We can't see that, although we hear a man say, "I'm good, I'm good." He may be "good," but whatever happened off-camera triggered a fight, with men tumbling into a ditch alongside the pathway.

It's a brawl at this point. Three things are immediately apparent: the Back the Blues are reminding each other that no weapons are allowed, at least one member of the Antifa crowd has a knife, and the Antifa crowd is no match for angry patriots.

When ANTIFA makes a wrong turn into MAGA country.  pic.twitter.com/DA5QJqdHGR  Hotep Jesus (@HotepJesus) August 9, 2020

A second video picks up the story as the fight is breaking up. This time, we see an empty wheelchair by the ditch and several Back the Blues helping someone back into the chair. Meanwhile, the police have arrived, and they head straight for Antifa. At least one, and possibly two, of the Antifa members try to escape arrest by violently fighting the police.

Speaking of the person who chose to fight the police, a woman can be heard saying, "That guy's jacked up," while the person filming the video asks, "What is that guy on?" This meshes with rumors that a lot of the Antifa violence results from pre-riot drug use that amps up their aggression and raises their pain threshold:

Antifa assaulted someone in a wheelchair. Thats what set off the beat down from residents. Police were on the scene to arrest the commies. pic.twitter.com/LhqHFztjV2  Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 9, 2020

Fort Collins isn't the only fighting back going on. The Daily Mail has a big photo spread showing hundreds of people walking through Beverly Hills for a MAGA/#WalkAway rally. As you look at the pictures, you'll see that the crowd is more racially diverse than the average leftist rally. It's also a crowd that's having fun and is peaceful.

People are fed up with the left, they're getting their spirits back, and they're remembering that America standard for one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I'll give the last words to Mike Tyson, words that seem to have been written for those Antifa youths whose original training ground was getting into Twitter wars while sitting in their parents' basements: "Social media made you all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it."

Image: Twitter screen grab.
Tanystropheus hydroides, the newly-described species of reptile that lived 242 million years ago (Triassic period), was about 6 m (20 feet) long, with the neck making up half of that length  three times as long as its torso.

One of the most remarkable Triassic reptiles, Tanystropheus is characterized by an extraordinarily long and stiffened neck that is almost three times the length of its torso, despite being composed of only 13 hyper-elongated vertebrae.

It was first described as a single species, Tanystropheus longobardicus, in 1852, and its been puzzling paleontologists ever since.

For a long time, scientists werent sure whether this reptile lived on land or in the water. Its bizarre body didnt make things clear one way or the other.

Tanystropheus looked like a stubby crocodile with a very, very long neck, said Dr. Olivier Rieppel, a paleontologist at the Field Museum.

In the same region where many of the big Tanystropheus fossils were found, in whats now Switzerland, there were also fossils from similar-looking reptiles that were only about 1.2 m (4 feet) long.

So not only were scientists unsure if these were land-dwellers or marine animals, but they also didnt know if the smaller specimens were juveniles or even a separate species.

To solve these two long-standing mysteries, Dr. Rieppel and colleagues used newer technologies to see details of the animals bones.

The large Tanystropheus fossils skulls had been crushed, but the researchers were able to take CT scans of the fossil slabs and generate 3D images of the bone fragments inside.

The skulls had key features, including nostrils on top of the snout like a crocodiles, 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.

That neck doesnt make sense in a terrestrial environment. Its just an awkward structure to carry around, Dr. Rieppel said.

To learn whether the small specimens were juveniles or a separate species, the scientists 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, said Dr. Torsten Scheyer, a paleontologist at the University of Zurich.

The authors named the larger species Tanystropheus hydroides. The small form bears the original name Tanystropheus longobardicus.

The small species likely fed on small shelled animals, like shrimp, in contrast to the large species which ate fish and squid, said Dr. Stephan Spiekman, a paleontologist at the University of Zurich.

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.

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 Dr. Nick Fraser, keeper of natural sciences at National Museums Scotland.

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 teams paper was published in the journal Current Biology.

_____

Stephan N.F. Spiekman et al. Aquatic Habits and Niche Partitioning in the Extraordinarily Long-Necked Triassic Reptile Tanystropheus. Current Biology, published online August 6, 2020; doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.07.025
Two Georgia police officers are under investigation after shooting at five black minors during a traffic stop on Saturday morning.

No one was struck by the gunfire, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).

According to a GBI report, a police officer witnessed a traffic violation in Waycross, a city near the Georgia-Florida state line, at about 8 a.m. Saturday and tried to get the cars license plate information. The exact traffic violation was not disclosed.

In the car were five Black minors, all siblings, aged 9, 12, 14, 15, and 16.

As the officer approached the car, the three youngest children ran out of the car toward their mothers house, another sibling, Savannah Boyd, told NBC affiliate FirstCoastNews. According to the GBI report, the officer followed the three children who had fled the car and a second officer was called to the scene.

The two older children were still inside the car when the second officer approached from the front and opened fire; the officer told investigators that the car had been driving toward him and that the teenagers jumped out as the car was still moving, the GBI reported.

An altercation ensued between the second officer and the 15-year-old, who was later treated for minor injuries while being handcuffed.

Boyd, who posted a Facebook Live video about the incident, had harsher words for the interaction:

He's Black. He's a Black young man in this country, and it's a scary situation and I feel for him," she told FirstCoastNews. "Stuff like that shouldn't happen. Police are supposed to be here to protect and serve.

The siblings were dropping off their 9-year old brother at a football game, according to Boyd. They decided to return home once they realized the officer was following them, but were pulled over while turning onto their street.

It was then, she said, that the oldest brothers told their three youngest siblings to run to their mothers house down the street.

Story continues

"The youngest one I really feel for. Every football game hes going to think, 'Wow I almost got shot before a football game,'" Boyd said. "Hes going to tell this story. Hes going to remember this. My little sister is going to remember running from the police and falling in her own yard almost getting shot."

The two older boys in the car were detained and are facing charges while the two officers involved have been placed on administrative leave.

The shooting is one of four incidents in less than 24 hours being investigated by the GBI. The bureau has investigated more than 55 officer-involved shooting incidents this year so far.
Announcement of Periodic Review: Moody's announces completion of a periodic review of ratings of Embraer S.A.

Global Credit Research - 10 Aug 2020

New York, August 10, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has completed a periodic review of the ratings of Embraer S.A. 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.

Embraer S.A.'s Ba2 rating broadly reflects its solid position as the leading regional jet maker and its reputation as a reliable airplane producer. In our view, Embraer is still a strategic asset to the Government of Brazil (Ba2), which owns a golden share in Embraer with veto rights. At the same time, the cyclical nature of the aviation business and its increasing competitive pressure constrain Embraer's rating, particularly given the significant investments required on an ongoing basis to keep up with evolving customer needs.

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.

Story continues

The principal methodology used for this review was Aerospace and Defense Methodology published in July 2020. Please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.

This announcement applies only to EU rated and EU endorsed ratings. Non EU rated and non EU endorsed ratings may be referenced above to the extent necessary, if they are part of the same analytical unit.

This publication does not announce a credit rating action. For any credit ratings referenced in this publication, please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com for the most updated credit rating action information and rating history.

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"You must reside in Ward 3, and have been a resident in Ward 3 for at least a year," said borough Manager Christine Hart.
New Zealand yesterday reached a reassuring milestone, marking 100 days without a domestic transmission of Covid-19. Though that must be celebrated, authorities have warned against complacency, as neighbours, even relatively distant neighbours Vietnam and Australia, where the virus had once seemed contained, battle resurgent infection rates.

New Zealand has not reached this point without acceptance of limits to stymie the pandemics spread.

Its geographic remoteness is significant, but secondary to assertive, clear thinking turned into public policy.

On February 2, the world recorded the first Covid-19 death outside China.

There were no known cases in New Zealand, yet the very next day, the country began banning entry to any foreigner coming from, or via, China.

As of midnight on March 16, just as the Cheltenham mardi gras reached peak conviviality, anyone arriving in the country had to go into self-isolation. Prime minister Jacinda Ardern said these early-and-hard measures were the strictest in the world, for which she would make no apologies.

Yesterdays milestone vindicates that policy.

Events on the other side of the Tasman Sea vindicate it, too, though in a different way. This weekend, Australia recorded its deadliest day of the pandemic, after 17 people died in Victoria. That escalation came as Brazil passed 100,000 deaths. Brazil has recorded more than 3m infections second to Donald Trumps best-in-the-world America.

Our policies reflect neither New Zealands clampdown nor Australias nonchalance.

They are, however, increasingly divisive and ignored. That may be understandable, but hardly wise. The decision to lock down Co Kildare, Co Laois, and Co Offaly, because several meat plants are pandemic Petri dishes, could hardly have been welcomed in those counties.

The fact that gardai cannot take enforcement action against anyone who ignores the lockdown adds confusion and an unhelpful air of slapdash.

That those plants were free to reopen today  though they have thankfully decided not to  adds to the slapdash.

That many of their employees, like those in private nursing homes, earn minimum pay offers lessons, too. Had those plants reopened, it would have undermined the sacrifice of everyone ensnared in the Midlands lockdown.

That the Department of Health is, at last, preparing options on restricting non-essential travel from countries outside the EU or Britain with high rates of Covid-19 is hardly inspiring, either.

New Zealand did this, and much more, five months ago. These measures are necessary, if the solidarity needed is to hold. After all, there seems little logic in having Dublin Airport open while Co Kildare is in lockdown.

It is all too easy to snipe at government inconsistencies in trying to contain a rolling pandemic, but they can only lead those who might be led.

This weekend, gardai had to close beaches in Co Kerry because of crowding.

They also had to deal with flagrant disregard for social distancing in West Cork. This behaviour seems more happy-go-lucky than anything in New Zealand.

Lets hope we still have time to change, to cop on, so we do not suffer the same fate as those still knowingly underestimating Covid-19.
Derry Girls stars Siobhan McSweeney and Nicola Coughlan have taken up new roles showcasing the country in a new Tourism Ireland film.

The tourism body have teamed up with the Abbey Theatre to showcase its new digital theatre experience Dear Ireland - which brings together the voices of 50 writers and actors in a collection of theatrical postcards.

To launch this, Tourism Ireland has created a series of three short clips featuring some of those involved in the project, including the two Derry Girls actresses who play Claire Devlin and Sister Michael respectively. Author and teacher Sinead Burke has also filmed a clip.

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The clip in the series shows Cork native Siobhan McSweeney sharing insights into a piece she performed called Katty Barry, written by Karen Cogan.

She also speaks about her love for Ireland, particularly Corks beauty spot of the Beara Peninsula. The short film features spectacular scenery of some of the top tourist attractions including Blarney Castle, the HaPenny Bridge, St Annes Church in Cork city and the Cliffs of Moher.

I think when people visit Ireland, they're surprised at how different it can be to the Ireland of their imagination, she said. You may have one idea of Ireland but Ireland is so diverse and has so many different kinds of landscapes from rural to urban, mountains, beautiful lush green fields, forests and cliffs.

People come with one idea and they realise that we have the whole world on the island of Ireland. The Peninsula Beara in West Cork is the most beautiful place on earth. The copper mines down there, the beaches, the surfing, the landscape, the food; my God, the food. It is a very special, magical place. Ireland inspires me because there's no place in the world like it.

Siobhan McSweeney's #DearIreland clip can be viewed here.
Kerala has been going through tough times. In the last few days, the state has been affected by back-to-back tragedies such as floods, landslides and a plane crash. Amid facing the COVID-19 crisis, the people of Kerala witnessed landslide in Rajamala and Idukki, heavy rainfall all across the state and the plane crash in Karipur, Kozhikode in which at least 67 people died. Notably, the Air India Flight IX-1344 (Dubai to Kozhikode) was a part of 'Vande Bharat' repatriation initiative.

On the other hand, landslide that happened in Rajamala has claimed at least 15 people's lives. Considering the dark times in Kerala, Malayalam superstar Mammootty is spreading positive words through his Facebook handle.

The above post is in Malayalam which states (translated), "The world is going through a painful phase which none of us experienced before. Everyone is helpless and shocked. As far as Kerala is concerned, the challenges for the people of the state have become tougher. Tragedies like floods, landslides, aeroplane crash have been affecting us deeply. But one thing which is still not extinguished is, light of hope. During floods, we witnessed the shining examples of mankind's love and sacrifice for each other. The brave and selfless act from people assured that they will be there for each other during tough times. During Pettimudi landslides and Kozhikode aeroplane crash, people's love came out like a bright side and showed that love can only lead us to light. Let's stay strong together. Let's stand up as the lamps of love and kindness for each other."

Also Read : Air India Plane Crash: Dulquer Salmaan Expresses Deep Shock; Mollywood Celebs Share Helpline Numbers

Mammootty's words are indeed giving positive energy to the people of Kerala. On a related note, Mammootty is spending time at home as his son, Dulquer Salmaan revealed that he has not even stepped out of his house since the lockdown began.

Also Read : Mammootty's One: Netflix Bags The Streaming Rights Of The Political Thriller!

On the professional front, Mammootty will next be seen in The Priest and One.
A global Covid-19 vaccines programme alone will need over $100 billion, the World Health Organization Director-General said even as the registered cases crossed 20 million and deaths topped 750,000 world-wide.

"This sounds like lot of money and it is. But its small in comparison to the $10 trillion that have already been invested by G20 countries in fiscal stimulus to deal with the consequences of the pandemic so far. Every life lost matters," said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"As countries work to suppress Covid-19, we must further accelerate our work to rapidly develop and equitably distribute the additional tools we need to stop this pandemic," he said.

Just over three months ago, WHO had launched the ACT Accelerator as the fastest and most effective way to contain the pandemic.

The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is a new, groundbreaking global collaboration to accelerate development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.

It is the only end-to-end, global solution that combines public and private sector expertise in research and development, manufacturing, procurement and delivery for the tools needed to address the pandemics cause.

The ACT-Accelerator has already harnessed the international public health ecosystem in a unique way of working, with early proof of its potential, said Dr Ghebreyesus.

The accelerator supported vaccines are in Phase 2/3 trials. A Global Vaccines Facility is engaging over 160 countries. The first therapy for severe COVID  dexamethasone - is in scale-up.

"However, to exploit this window we have to fundamentally scale up the way we are financing the ACT-Accelerator and prioritise the use of new tools," he said.

There is a vast global gap between our ambition for the ACT-Accelerator and the amount of funds that have been committed.

"While were grateful for those that have made contributions, were only 10% of the way to funding the billions required to realise the promise of the ACT Accelerator.

"And this is only part of the global investment needed to ensure everyone everywhere can access the tools," he said.

There are two essential elements to addressing the pandemic effectively: Leaders must step up to take action and citizens need to embrace new measures.

Some countries in the Mekong Region, New Zealand, Rwanda, and many island states across the Caribbean and the Pacific were able to suppress the virus early, he said.

New Zealand is seen as a global exemplar and over the weekend Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern celebrated 100 days with no community transmission, while stressing the need to remain cautious.

Rwandas progress is due to a similar combination of strong leadership, universal health coverage, well-supported health workers and clear public health communications.

All testing and treatment for Covid-19 is free in Rwanda, so there are no financial barriers to people getting tested. And when people test positive for the virus, theyre isolated and health workers then visit every potential contact and test them also.

"My message is crystal clear: suppress, suppress, suppress the virus. If we suppress the virus effectively, we can safely open up societies," he added. - TradeArabia News Service
Britons who fail to answer calls from the NHS Test and Trace service may now face a knock on the door after staff only reached half of at-risk people on the phone.

In a dramatic bid to improve the beleaguered scheme, the Government's army of call centre contract tracers will be slashed by a third - from 18,000 to 12,000 - with much greater use made of local public health teams.

Council employees in at-risk areas could end up knocking on the doors of people who have been exposed to the virus but who don't answer the phone calls or emails of Test and Trace.

The national operation is still failing to find half of close contacts of infected people, well below the 80 per cent minimum threshold needed to keep a lid on local outbreaks.

Under the plans, local authorities will be called upon if the NHS tracers can't reach people within 48 hours.

They will use their knowledge of local areas to find people, and their community ties to engage with harder-to-reach people in deprived areas and those who do not speak English.

Experts have told MailOnline that language barriers and trust issues are the main factors behind the low success rates of the NHS system in many of England's worst-affected areas.

It's thought that 94 local authorities have already expressed interest to Public Health England about deploying their own tracers.

Contact tracers working for the national system, based in call centres around the country and on 17-an-hour contracts, have hit headlines repeatedly for not having enough work to do, with some saying they were being paid to sit around watching Netflix.

Nearly 100 local councils are considering setting up their own contact tracing teams. Under the plans, councils would support NHS Test and Trace by sending tracers to chap on doors of people who refuse to answer the phone to, or reply to emails from, the national team (file)

Leicester, Blackburn and Luton - which have some of the highest infection rates in the country - set up their own local teams earlier this month to help curb their outbreaks.

It comes only a week after a major Lancet study suggested the test-and-trace service was not operating effectively enough to prevent a second coronavirus wave when schools reopen next month.

Last night, Department of Health officials insisted the changes were part of a 'planned next step' and nothing to do with the Lancet study or the growing criticism of the programme.

But the changes are likely to be seen as a tacit admission that the system  which ministers had claimed would be 'world-beating'  was not working well enough ahead of a feared second wave.

Under the new plan, call-handlers who have been unable to get in touch with a 'close contact'  someone who has spent at least 15 minutes in the proximity of a patient with the virus  will be told to pass their details on to local health teams.

These teams will then decide whether to visit the contacts directly at home to tell them to self-isolate for 14 days.

The task of door-knocking all contacts who haven't answered their phones will be time consuming, so the squads are likely to focus on those living in areas of concern, where infection rates are rising.

The plans to establish local teams were unveiled by the Department of Health today. Announcing the move, Dido Harding, executive chair of NHS Test and Trace, said: 'We have always been clear that NHS Test and Trace must be local by default and that we do not operate alone  we work with and through partners across the country.

'As we learn more about the spread of the disease, we are able to move to our planned next step and become even more effective in tackling the virus.

'After successful trials in a small number of local areas, I am very pleased to announce that we are now offering this integrated localised approach to all local authorities to ensure we can reach more people in their communities and stop the spread of Covid-19.'

Reopening schools in September WILL lead to a catastrophic second wave of coronavirus unless NHS test and trace drastically improves, major study claims Children returning to school in September will trigger a devastating second wave of Covid-19 that could infect twice as many as the first unless the test and trace system drastically improves, a major study has claimed. Scientists said reopening schools in the UK would inevitably result in another crisis that peaks in December. 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 researchers from University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Advertisement

Local public health officials had been crying out for months to be given the power to do their own contact tracing.

Gerry Taylor, Luton borough council's director of public health, said last month she was 'very concerned' at the low rate in her town and blamed the centralised system for being too far removed from communities.

Luton has since become one of the first areas to have its own local, dedicated tracing team.

Blackburn with Darwen Council also launched its own track and trace scheme to combat a rise in infections in the area.

Its public health chief, Professor Dominic Harrison, said the national system was 'simply not tracing enough cases and contacts fast enough'.

Reacting to today's news, James Jamieson, chairman of the cross-party Local Government Association, said: 'This announcement is good news for everyone.

'A strong national and local partnership is critical for test and trace to work as effectively as possible and it is right that local resources are kept under constant review to ensure everyone involved is able to help stop the virus spreading further.

'Using councils' unrivalled local knowledge and vast experience of contact tracing within local public health teams is vital in the Government's national efforts.'

It comes after a study by University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine last week found reopening schools will cause a devastating second wave if the test and trace system drastically improves.

Scientists said reopening schools in the UK would inevitably result in another crisis that peaks in December.

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.

Three quarters of people with Covid-19 would need to be tested and self-isolate to prevent a second wave caused by schools reopening.

Labour today wrote to Heath Secretary Matt Hancock demanding urgent reform of the system ahead of schools going back next month.

The party wrote: 'The stakes are too high to tolerate failure in either the operation or the design of this crucial public service.

'We cannot afford for the test and trace system to continue as it is without rapid reform. It is not too late to improve the system and put in place new, locally-led contact tracing measures.'

A major study by University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found a second wave could only be prevented when schools go back if 68 per cent of close contacts of Covid-19 patients are tracked down and isolated

Opposition health spokesman Justin Madders added: 'Labour has been calling for a locally-led contact tracing system for months  it's welcome that local authorities are now finally being given additional support to tackle the virus in their areas.

'But it's clear Boris Johnson's 10 billion centralised contact tracing system is nowhere near 'world-beating' as he claims and the system is unable to fight local outbreaks successfully.'

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson told teachers today they have a 'moral duty' to help schools reopen next month as he faced a standoff with unions.

The PM warned it is 'not right' that pupils should spend more time out of the classroom, reiterating his determination for a full return when term begins.

While he was careful to praise the work done by teachers and unions to make schools 'safe' in time for the move, he added: 'It is our moral duty as a country to make sure that happens.'

The intervention - on a visit to a school in Upminster - came as unions were accused of a bid to sabotage the government's plans with a 200-item list of safety demands.

The National Education Union has provided its half a million members with a 'checklist' of Covid-secure measures, saying they should 'escalate' complaints if they are not being followed. There have also been calls for pupils to be taught on a week on, week off rota.

But Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a member of Sage, said studies had suggested children were 'very minor players in the transmission overall' of the virus.

And he insisted teachers were not at significantly higher risk than any other workers.

Ministers have also played down calls for teachers and pupils to be routinely tested whether or not they have symptoms.

James Jamieson, chairman of the Local Government Association, which represents councils, said: 'This announcement is good news for everyone. A strong national and local partnership is critical for test-and-trace to work as effectively as possible.'

The Lancet research by academics at University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said that ideally, at least 68 per cent of all close contacts needed to be alerted by teams and told to self-isolate.

If this threshold is not reached, they warned that the reopening of schools at the beginning of next month could trigger a second wave, possibly much bigger than the first.

But the figures last Thursday showed that only 46 per cent of close contacts were alerted, a drop from 51 per cent on the previous week and well below the 68 per cent mark.
China on Monday slammed the ongoing visit of a top US official to Taiwan and sanctioned 11 American lawmakers and individuals in a tit-for-tat retaliation against Washington sanctioning 11 Chinese and Hong Kong officials last week over the passing of the controversial security law in the former British colony.

The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian criticised the US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azars ongoing visit to Taiwan, the highest-level meeting between Washington and Taipei. China claims Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy, is a breakaway province.

Speaking at the regular ministry briefing on Monday, Zhao said the US side should stop official interactions and contact of all kinds as well as the upgrading of substantive relations with the island.

Also read: China sends fighter jets as US offers Taiwan strong support

Azar met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen Monday, a high-profile visit that comes in the backdrop of a severe low in US-China relations. The evident friction in the Chinas ties with Washington has likely exacerbated by Azars visit, making him the highest-level US official to visit the self-governing island since formal diplomatic relations were severed in 1979 in deference to China.

Separately, Zhao announced sanctions on 11 US lawmakers and individuals, including Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, as countermeasures against earlier US sanctions on Chinese central government and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) officials following the passing of the national security law for Hong Kong. Zhai said China has decided to impose sanctions on individuals who have behaved egregiously on Hong Kong-related issues

China resolutely opposes and strongly condemns such blatant interference in Hong Kong affairs - Chinas internal affairs - as it seriously violated international law and basic principles of international relations, Zhao added.

Since the return of Hong Kong (from British rule), the one country, two systems principle has been recognised around the world as a success and Hong Kong residents enjoy democratic rights and all sorts of freedoms in line with the law. That is a fact that no unbiased person can deny, Zhao said.

But the principle also faces challenges during its implementation, that is to say, national security risks in HKSAR, Zhao said.

Also read: US health chief meets Taiwans leader, fueling China tensions

Besides Rubio and Cruz, Beijing sanctioned Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, Pat Toomey and Congressman Chris Smith.

The heads of NGOs namely Carl Gershman, president of the National Endowment for Democracy, Derek Mitchell, president of the National Democratic Institute, Daniel Twining, president of the International Republican Institute, Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, and Michael Abramowitz, president of Freedom House, were also sanctioned.

I want to reiterate that Hong Kong is Chinas Hong Kong and Hong Kong affairs are Chinas internal affairs that no external forces can interfere in. China urges the US to have a clear understanding of the situation, correct mistakes, and immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and interfering in Chinas internal affairs, Zhao said.
On July 6, Commerce and industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that a group of important officials would be working to resolve Japanese investors concerns on logistics, customs clearance, export procedures, and quality issues.

The announcement comes at the backdrop of more than 200 investment plans of Japanese companies in India, including factory construction and production line expansion being stuck.

According to the Invest India website, Japan is the fourth-largest investor in India and has brought in a cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) worth $33 billion during 2000-2020, contributing 7.2 percent to India's total FDI inflow during the same period.

In FY 2018-19, Japan's import to India stood at $12.77 billion, making it India's 14th largest import partner. For the same period, India's exports to Japan stood at $4.86 billion, making it India's 19th largest export partner.

On the strategic front, as China increasingly becomes a threat in South and East Asia with aggressive ambitions to dominate sea routes, Indian and Japanese alliance to counter China has only strengthened, as seen in Japanese participation in Malabar naval exercises and the reemergence of Quad 2 or the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue - which includes Australia, India, Japan, and the United States.

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

India's long-term commitment to supporting Japanese allyship in building South Asian states infrastructure has been reaffirmed post-Covid-19.

Japan has had a long history of association in India. Maruti Suzuki, a joint venture between India and Japan, has been in India for the last 37 years. Maruti Suzuki owns over 50 percent market share in the automobile sector. Apart from Suzuki, companies like Toyota, Mitsubishi, and Honda have been prominent players in the Indian auto market.

A lot of research and market studies have pointed out that syncretic cooperation in fields like automobile, pharma, chemical, electronics, textile, and food processing could help both countries, as in each of these cases, India offers an advantageous manufacturing base and the market for the Japanese.

The global outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to countries across the globe to re-orient their dependence on China, as all countries were adversely affected by the breakdown in supply chains.

In the National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation, Japan Bank for International Cooperation holds 26 percent in the venture which would be creating five industrial corridors in India.

However, despite this transactional allyship, India doesn't occupy a major place in Japan's trading landscape.

Japanese companies have invested a lot in India in past decades, and nearly 1,500 companies have set up their base. Still, India-Japan economic cooperation has not performed its full potential yet. India should leverage this opportunity by looking at what Indias competitors such as ASEAN countries are doing to attract Japanese investment, Satoshi Suzuki, the Japanese ambassador to India had said.

However, in a post-COVID world, India could increase its trading potential with Japan by attracting foreign investments through developed infrastructure and better regulations.
Migrants: Berlin highlights importance of EU response in Med

(ANSAmed) - BERLIN, AUGUST 10 - A spokesman for the German government, Steffen Seibert, said on Monday that it is ''very important that the challenge posed by migration flows in the Mediterranean is met by a European, not a national, response''.



The spokesman was responding to a question on the dramatic situation at hosting centers in Moria and Lesvos in Greece during a press conference of the government in Berlin.



The spokesman also stressed that Berlin supports the European Commission which has announced a new proposal in September.



''Between 2019 and 2020 Germany was always the first to move'' to host refugees and ''this promptness has shown the human face'' of the German government's policy, he added. The interior ministry spokesman went on to say that supporting Greece is important to ''improve the general hosting situation'' in the country. (ANSAmed).




Emma Bunton has wished her son Beau a heartfelt happy birthday as he turned 13 on Monday.

The Spice Girl, 44, shared an adorable snap of herself alongside her son on Instagram as she told how Beau makes her and partner Jade Jones 'so proud'.

In the photo, Beau grins at the camera as his mother looks on lovingly at him.

Tribute: Emma Bunton, 44, has wished her son Beau a heartfelt happy birthday as he turned 13 on Monday

Alongside the snap, Emma wrote: 'That smile!!!!  you are the most special human being, the centre or our world!

'You make us so proud and teach us so much everyday. Smart, funny, sensitive, affectionate and loyal! 13 today, I have a teenager.'

Emma, who is also mother to Tate, nine, shared a snap of Beau with his father Jade on her Instagram Stories and wrote: 'My world'.

It comes after Emma wished her Spice Girls bandmate Geri Horner a happy birthday as she turned 48 on Thursday.

Family: Emma and her partner Jade Jones, 41, are parents to Beau and Tate, nine

Heartfelt: Alongside the snap, Emma wrote: 'That smile!!!!  you are the most special human being, the centre or our world!'

Emma went on to post a collage of images from their lengthy friendship, including a series of shots from their recent reunion, as well as a still from their 1997 musical comedy Spice World.

The former Heart Radio host wrote in an accompanying message: 'Happy birthday @therealgerihalliwell.

'Love you so much sis. Sending you kisses and cuddles birthday girl. xxx' (sic)

Fellow Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, 46, uploaded a fierce throwback image of the pair as she wished her longtime friend a 'happy birthday'.

Father and son: Emma shared a snap of Beau with his father Jade on her Instagram Stories and wrote: 'My world'

It comes after Mel C teased a potential repeat of the Spice Girls reunion tour during Thursday's This Morning as she urged the coronavirus pandemic to be gone so that they can make 'exciting plans for the future'.

The Spice Girls thrilled fans earlier this year as they, minus Victoria Beckham, embarked on an epic area tour of the UK.

Addressing the possibility of another Spice Girls show, Mel explained: 'We're talking about it. There are no plans set in stone right now, but I think all the fans out there know we would love to do more.

'More in the UK, more around the globe so please God, this horrible pandemic goes away and we can all start making exciting plans for the future!'

Pals: It comes after Emma wished her Spice Girls bandmate a happy birthday as she turned 48 on Thursday

The I Turn To You hitmaker also opened up about the girls' recent reunion, which saw all five of them enjoy a walk near Geri's home and share a cup of tea.

On seeing her band mates during lockdown, she said: 'We all went up to Geri's, she's got a lovely place in the countryside and we all hung out.

'It was all five of us, which is quite a rarity. I think it's been about two years since we were all back together and it was so nice.

'We just hung out and reminisced, had a cup of tea and a walk. So it was lovely.'
The flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has condemned the violence that occurred at a voter registration centre at Nkrankwanta in the Dormaa West District of the Bono Region.



Supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) clashed in the Bono regional community over the weekend leading to the death of one person.



One vehicle and motorbike were burnt amidst gunshots with two others injured. Three persons have also been arrested as a result.



Police reinforcement was quickly dispatched to ensure restoration of peace and order.



The former president in condemning the incident said, violence must never be an option of Ghanas democracy.



He further said the incident shows that President Akufo-Addo has lost control of NPP and many sectors of Ghanas economy.



I condemn the violence at the EC voters registration centre during the mop-up exercise in Dormaa on Sunday.



I join the rest of our well-meaning compatriots to mourn the loss of the NPP activist who was killed by gunshots discharged by armed thugs of his own party. It is crystal clear now for all to see that armed NPP thugs are running rampage everywhere and this portends a clear and present danger to our democracy.



Violence must never be an option in our democracy. Unfortunately, it is increasingly clear that having nurtured and democratized violence by his all die be die mantra, Nana Akufo-Addo has lost control of his own party, just as he has lost control of many sectors of the economy in Ghana. In January 2021, a new administration under my leadership will fix our economy and restore justice and peace to our beloved Ghana.

Source: citinewsroom.com









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Sopore: The Jammu and Kashmir police on Monday (August 10) arrested two overground workers (OGWs) in North Kashmir's Sopore.

The police recovered arms and ammunition including one hand grenade-1 and AK-47 rounds-20 from the arrested militant associates.

The accused were caught during the Naka checking at Darpora Bomai which was laid by a joint team of Armys 22 RR, SOG Sopore, CRPF 92,179.
Dr. Beverly Malone As we celebrate the Year of the Nurse, it is only fitting that we honor Dr. Malone with NCHLs most prestigious award, recognizing her dedication to leadership, organizational excellence and mentorship, and her strong advocacy to advance the cause of nursing

The National Center for Healthcare Leadership, a nonprofit organization that supports the advancement of evidence-based leadership practices, is pleased to announce that Dr. Beverly Malone, Chief Executive Officer of the National League for Nursing (NLN), has been named the 2020 Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award recipient.

As head of the NLN, the premier organization for faculty and leaders in nursing education, Dr. Malone is recognized for forging partnerships with key educational institutions, corporations and foundations that keep the NLN on the cutting edge of the technological innovations that are needed by nurse educators to help them succeed in todays rapidly changing environment. Under her leadership, the NLN, with 40,000 individual members and 1,200 institutional members, has moved to a mission-aligned business model that supports and develops nurses heading into leadership roles as well as building a diverse workforce dedicated to advancing the nations health.

Dr. Malone is a visible national and global thought leader on issues facing the nursing profession, including diversity, the nurse educator shortage, and workforce development. Her career has mixed policy, education, administration, and clinical practice, underscoring her commitment and contributions to improving the health of the public, and distinguishing her leadership excellence.

"Dr. Malone exemplifies transformational leadership as evidenced by her life-long career advancing innovation in nursing education and addressing national and global health issues, including workplace diversity, NCHL CEO LeAnn Swanson said. As we celebrate the Year of the Nurse, it is only fitting that we honor Dr. Malone with NCHLs most prestigious award, recognizing her dedication to leadership, organizational excellence and mentorship, and her strong advocacy to advance the cause of nursing.

Dr. Malone joined the National League for Nursing in 2007 after serving as General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing of the United Kingdom in London, England, from 2001-2007. Prior to that, she was deputy assistant secretary for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services from 1999-2001, and served two terms as president of the American Nurses Association from 1996-2000. Earlier in her career, Dr. Malone held leadership roles at the North Carolina A&T State University, and was the director of nursing professional staff resources at the University of Cincinnati, University Hospital.

Dr. Malone received her BSN from the College of Nursing and Health at the University of Cincinnati and earned her M.S. in Adult Psychiatric Nursing from Rutgers. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Cincinnati and attended the Harvard Institute of Educational Management.

Dr. Malone has received numerous professional and educational honors during her career, including honorary doctorates from Georgetown University, University of Cincinnati, and University of District of Columbia. Recent fellowships include Fellow Ad Eundem of the Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery, Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, and Fellow of the National Academy of Medicine. In 2020 she received the Linda Bates Parker Legend Award from the University of Cincinnati, she was honored as a Modern Healthcare Inaugural Minority Leaders Luminary, and she received the Lifetime Achievement Award, the Alpha Omega Chapter of Signa Theta Tau and The College of Nursing of Adelphi University. She has been ranked several times as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare, which has also honored her as one of the Top 25 Women in Healthcare.

The Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award committee was co-chaired by Peter W. Butler, Retired President Rush University Medical Center, and Jill Schwieters, NCHL Board Chair, JAS & Associates. The committees members are: Nancy Howell Agee, Carilion Clinic; Bob Clarke, Furst Group; Damond Boatright, SSM Health  Wisconsin Regional; Dr. Joanne Conroy, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health; Edgar Curtis, Memorial Health System; David Ertel, Vizient, Inc.; Jessica Melton, Sentara Norfolk General Hospital; Dr. David Feinberg, Google Health; Dr. Rod Hochman, Providence and 2019 Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award recipient; Michelle Hood, American Hospital Association; Shoou-Yih (Daniel) Lee, PhD, Department of Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan School of Public Health; Joe Moscola, Northwell Health; and Brian Peters, Michigan Health and Hospital Association.

Dr. Malone will be honored at NCHLs 2020 Gail L. Warden Leadership Award Celebration, which will occur virtually on Thursday, November 19, as part of the NCHL Human Capital Investment Conference being held November 16-20. Over the years, the conference and celebration have been one of healthcares most important events, attracting luminaries and notable leaders from prominent health sector, academic, and research organizations.

ABOUT THE GAIL L. WARDEN LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE AWARD

Established in 2005, NCHLs annual Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the health field, including the mentoring of future leaders towards transforming organizational performance to improve health and healthcare. It is named for Gail L. Warden, founding chairman of the NCHL Board, president emeritus of Henry Ford Health System, and a major proponent of leadership development throughout his career.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP

Established in 2001, the not-for-profit National Center for Healthcare Leadership champions three premier membership programs that advance healthcare leadership. These are the Leadership Excellence Networks (LENS), US Cooperative of International Patient Programs (USCIPP), and National Council on Administrative Fellowships (NCAF). Each of these programs supports a portfolio of interorganizational collaborations that address critical issues facing todays leaders as they pursue excellence and solutions. For more information please visit NCHLs website. You can also visit NCHL's LinkedIn page or follow NCHL on Twitter.
(Alliance News) - Russian gold miner Polymetal International PLC said Monday it has signed an exploration joint venture with Russian engineering firm JSC Rosgeology, for the discovery of pyritic copper-zinc mineralisation at the Novopetrovskaya site in Russia.

Under the joint venture, the Limassol, Cyprus-based gold miner will acquire a 75% stake in Rosgeo's subsidiary - which owns the Novopetrovskaya area's licence - for a total cash payment of RUB490 million, or USD7 million.

The group has also been given a seven-year call option to acquire the remaining 25% interest following the Russian statutory reserve estimate.

In return, Polymetal will provide exploration funding sufficient to complete a reserve estimate, allowing for 100 kilometres in drill holes to be completed, resulting in a JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate by 2023.

Polymetal said it will provide the funding through shareholder loans.

"We continue to leverage our exploration strategy through joint ventures with dedicated and experienced professionals. Rosgeo is a recognized Russian leader in greenfield exploration, whose previous prospecting works at Novopetrovskaya proved its further exploration potential. This partnership reinforces our presence in the promising Urals region," said Chief Executive Officer Vitaly Nesis.

By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Vulnerable residential tenants citywide will now be able to access relevant information and resources through a free online portal, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday.

The NYC Tenant Resource Portal is the citys first free online portal to help tenants prevent eviction and keep them stably housed.

The city is doing everything in our power to support vulnerable families as they deal with a public health and economic crisis, de Blasio said.

The portal was launched through the Mayors Office to Protect Tenants (MOPT), the Mayors Public Engagement Unit (PEU) and the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT).

Tenants seeking information will need to respond to a series of questions about their unique circumstances so it can provide specific information to each tenant.

The most recent information about the status of evictions in New York Citys Housing Court is also available by accessing the portal.

Tenants without internet access can call 311 and ask for the Tenant Helpline; they will then be connected to a PEU Tenant Support Specialist for free assistance.

Available resources include those from multiple city agencies, city-funded non-profit legal service organizations and community based organizations.

Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore) lauded the portal, stating, Fearing the loss of ones home is terrifying, especially during a time when almost everything feels uncertain. Many resources throughout the city are available for tenants during times of need, and it is important that these resources are be accessible to those who need them most.

FOLLOW KRISTIN F. DALTON ON TWITTER.
A new angle has been discovered on the Aug. 4 Beirut explosion. An explosives expert told Daily Mail UK that the mega explosion was not the chemical called Ammonium Nitrate, it was due to burning military missiles. There is still no confirmation if this claim is valid or not.





What's the cause of the explosion?

If the Beirut explosion was due to explosive Ammonium Nitrate chemical, the smoke's color should be yellow. That is the claim of explosives expert Danilo Coppe.

One of the United Kingdom's leading bomb experts said that the smoke's color determines what kinds of hazardous material have been burning in an area. In the case of the Beirut explosion, the color was unmistakeably orange. Coppe claims that the color orange smoke usually happens when military missiles are burning.

"There should have been a catalyst because otherwise it wouldn't all have exploded together," he said. "You can clearly see a brick orange column tending to bright red, typical of lithium participation. Which in the form of lithium-metal is the propellant for military missiles. I think there were armaments there."

Coppe explains that the fire may have reached other places in the area wherein the armaments might be placed, triggering the orange smoke. It was not clear whether he assumes that the military gears were deliberately set on fire or not.

Tech Times reported that 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate were the main cause of the mega explosion. The country's President Michel Aoun confirmed this info. Reportedly, the chemical has been long stored inside the port without being moved to another less hazardous area. The explosion was the main effect.

Beirut explosion update

Last Tuesday, Aug. 4, was one of the shocking days for Lebanese people. Over 150 people now recorded as deceased due to the explosion. More than 6,000 people were left injured in hospitals. The incident left a 43-meter deep crater that lies near a granary destroyed in the blast, filled with seawater, according to Al Jazeera.

Donations for the rehabilitation of the area and the victims are now pouring for Lebanon. Even the United States President Donald Trump pledged 'substantial' aid to Lebanon, which amount was not specified.

"On a humanitarian basis, we have to do it. We have to do it. It's, you know, you can almost say how does a country survive such a tragedy? This was at a level that people over there, they said, is at a level that we've never seen before."

Due to protests about the explosion, Lebanon's Justice Minister Marie Claude Najm, Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad, and Environment Minister Damianos Kattar were forced to resign.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Jamie Pancho

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Drug dealers are exploiting innocent people through courier services and using people working from home to unknowingly traffic substances around the country.

Courier companies including Airtasker and Zoom2U have been caught up in investigations from the Australian Federal Police after large quantities of drugs were moved through Sydney and Melbourne in the past year.

Coronavirus travel restrictions have pushed traffickers to use couriers and the Australia Post service to deliver drugs while using false identities to remain anonymous.

Police believe 55 kilos of cocaine was moved by Zoom2U couriers concealed in industrial machinery in Sydney last year, while Airtasker couriers are alleged to have transported 10 kilos of MDMA in Melbourne earlier this year.

Innocent couriers have been linked to drug trafficking operations in Australia through services such as Airtasker (pictured), with crime syndicates using postal services to move substances amid COVID-19

Neither group of couriers had any idea they were transporting illegal substances.

'Criminals will do whatever they can, and use whoever they can, to stay anonymous and arm's length from the illegal activities,' AFP national co-ordinator for drug strategy detective acting superintendent Craig Bellis told SMH.

Five people were arrested following the two trafficking incidents after Airtasker and Zoom2U aided police in their investigations.

'These arrests show that no matter how criminals try to conceal and move their drugs, we are one step ahead  we will outsmart them,' acting superintendent Bellis said.

Both companies have continued to work with detectives in their investigations into suspected criminal activity using courier services.

Acting superintendent Bellis said police were aware of instances where innocent people have become entangled in trafficking methods after responding to online ads during to the coronavirus pandemic.

Police believe criminals are taking advantage of people who lost their job or are working from home during the coronavirus period to unknowingly help in their illegal operations (stock image)

He believes crime syndicates have taken advantage of people who have lost their jobs or are working from home to aid in the transportation of illegal substances.

'We are aware of some incidents where offenders have purchased goods online using stolen credit card details and have organised to have the goods sent to innocent people, who repackage the items and deliver them to another address,' acting superintendent Bellis said.
A day after the Centre imposed restrictions on import of 101 weapons and military platforms, the Trinamool Congress on Monday sought to know if the countrys defence industry has the ability to produce these items.

Senior TMC leader and the partys national spokesperson Saugata Roy said the central government should create a proper roadmap to make Indias indigenous defence sector self-reliant.

In a major reform initiative to boost the domestic defence industry, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday announced restrictions on import of 101 weapons and military platforms including artillery guns, assault rifles, transport aircraft and sonar systems.

The announcement might sound good, but there are a few things that have to be looked into. The Centre has put an embargo on 101 items, but the question remains whether our indigenous defence sector has the ability to produce those items. If not, what is the Union government doing to enhance its capabilities, the senior TMC leader told PTI.

Roy, a veteran parliamentarian and former union minister, claimed that attempts have been made to undermine the countrys ordnance factories over the last five years.

On one hand, you talk of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self- reliant India) and on the other, you weaken our ordnance factories instead of strengthening them. This is unacceptable, he said.

Efforts should be made to build fighter jets, submarines and other high-end defence products in India, the Lok Sabha MP from Dum Dum insisted.

If the country lacks capability, foreign companies will set up units in India and sell their products to us. That wont serve the purpose. The government must come up with a proper roadmap to make the defence sector self-reliant, he added.

The defence minister had on Sunday said that the domestic defence industry would receive contracts worth almost Rs four lakh crore within the next five to seven years as a result of the decision to prune the import list of military platforms and equipment.

He also said that all necessary steps will be taken to ensure that timelines for domestic production of equipment identified under the negative list for import are met, adding the measures will include a co-ordinated mechanism for hand- holding of the industry by the defence services.
All four meat processing plants in the midlands are not reopening today, after recent outbreaks of Covid-19.

It is after hundreds of new cases at the facilities has led to a localised lockdown in Kildare, Laois and Offaly.

150 workers tested positive for the virus at Kildare Chilling, 86 at O'Brien Fine Foods in Timahoe and nine at the Irish Dog Food Factory in Naas.

Carroll Cuisine in Tullamore, which has reported nine cases, is also to suspend operations to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the community.

Kieran Carolan, Chief Executive of Carroll Cuisine, said: "We have been working closely with the HSE and, while positive case levels among our staff are low, we believe that the best approach is to take this break in operations over the days ahead until we can evaluate the results of comprehensive tests which were undertaken for our staff on a precautionary basis yesterday in co-operation with the HSE.

Through the independent testing that we also conducted and completed last week, a total of 9 employees from our workforce of 330 (2.43%) to date have had positive tests for Covid-19 and are self-isolating.

"We welcome proposals by the Minister for Agriculture for a 14-day recurring testing programme for the meat sector and we will participate fully in any such initiatives. This will help to monitor, suppress and prevent the virus, keep people safe and protect employment when we reopen in due course following the current precautionary measures.

Our employees will continue to be paid as normal. We are very grateful to our staff for their excellent dedication and commitment and for the support and encouragement of our communities however we believe this temporary suspension of operations is the best course of action at this time.

SIPTU will meet with the meat industry later to discuss the outbreak among workers.

Agriculture Minister Dara Calleary says his department are working on revising health protocols for meat processing plants.

What were doing now, is proposing as a response to the new phase, that we will begin the testing in the bigger parts, he said.

Starting in Kildare, in Laois and in Offaly.

For that testing to be effective, it needs to be repeated."

Mr Calleary said they were in discussions with the HSE on rolling that out.

04/08/2020 Minister for Agriculture Dara Calleary. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

SIPTU's Greg Ennis said more than 10% of workers in the industry have had confirmed Covid-19 cases in the last five months.

He said mandatory temperature testing needs to be complied with across the country.

He also called for improved sick pay provisions.

At the moment, nine in 10 workers do not have sick pay within the meat industry and workers are forced into a place where if they have symptoms they may go to work because they cant afford not to.

And that is simply not good enough in a very poorly paid industry.

Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar expressed regret at the issue of blame for the spread of Covid-19 which he says is creeping into Irish society.

People are blaming American tourists, young people, migrant workers he told the show.

Mr Varadkar pointed out that 100 workers in meat plants had died in the US. Fortunately, that had not been the case in Ireland, he said.

Leo Varadkar. Picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

The Tanaiste also pointed out that under public health legislation the Health Service Executive (HSE) has the power to order the closure of Carroll's Cuisine in Tullamore.

An outbreak team is working at present to assess measures necessary at the Carroll plant which remains open while three other factories in the three-county area closed following the discovery of clusters.

Mr Varadkar told RTE radios Morning Ireland that there is a need to trust public health officials on the ground who will decide whether a public health closure order needs to be issued.

The Tanaiste added that he understood the frustration of people in Kildare, Laois and Offaly, but said that an individual and employer could do everything and still get the virus.

It was not known why meat processing plants were at risk, he said, as there were still clusters emerging even with improved measures in the workplace including the wearing of visors, masks and shields.

This was a continuing problem and there was a need to get back to basics and to contain the amount of Covid cases in the community.

Meanwhile, the director of the Migrant Rights Centre, Edel McGinley has said it seems ludicrous that the plant in Tullamore would not close because of the cluster of Covid-19 cases there.

It had not been surprising to see more cases at meat plants because workers had been warning of conditions for months she told Morning Ireland.

Edel McGinley Director Migrants Centre Ireland. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

People have to work in close proximity and output has not decreased, she said, so how could measures have been put in place?

This was a sector that is very difficult to work in with long hours and a high incident of workplace accidents, added Ms McGinley.

Many staff did not feel safe at work with many workers not on a sick pay scheme while others do not have contracts or any job security, she said.

Ms McGinley also called for sick pay to be streamlined and for staff to be made aware of who their local doctor was and how they could access translators.

Workers were very concerned that there was going to be a rowback by Meat Industry Ireland on commitments made at an Oireachtas Committee meeting about the sector and Covid-19.

There is a mixed picture across the industry, some acted and some didnt.

Ms McGinley said that workers had told them of plants putting extra measures in place when they knew there was going to be a Health Safety Authority inspection such as telling staff to stay at home on the day of the inspection.

We accept that some things are being done, but obviously not enough. Ms McGinley called for the immediate closure of all plants. It was ludicrous she said that there was not a mandatory requirement that Carroll Meats had to close.
Not suspicious: Gardai investigate the discovery of the body of a man in his 50s in Drumcondra, Dublin. Photo: Arthur Carron

Gardai have ruled out foul play in the death of a man whose body was found in his home after they were alerted to an attempted break-in.

Eric Rooney (50) was found by gardai who went to the house in St Michael's Road in Drumcondra, Dublin.

The discovery was made when gardai received a call that a number of men were attempting to break into a house at around 11pm on Saturday.

However, when they arrived at the scene there were no other people present, and the body of Mr Rooney was located in the house.

Mr Rooney's body was removed from the scene yesterday afternoon for a post-mortem examination which was carried out last night. Following this, gardai are not treating the death as suspicious.

Mr Rooney's family was being contacted by gardai yesterday.

Fr Martin O'Shea, priest in residence at Corpus Christi church on Home Farm Road in Drumcondra, said the news will come as a great shock to the local community.

"Especially in an area like that where you don't expect something like this to happen," he said.

"It's always very sad when someone dies alone like that," he said.

"I have deep sympathy for the family, it's always very upsetting, a sudden death like that," he said.

Local Dublin city councillor Ciaran Perry said the area where the tragedy occurred is normally very quiet.

Mr Perry said Mr Rooney's home is located near Tolka Park, which he described as "a very peaceful, quiet area".

"You'd rarely get any complaints at all from there," he told the Irish Independent.

"It would be very unusual for something like that to happen in the area," he said.

The area is home to a lot of elderly people and locals are in shock at news of the sudden death, he added.

Fellow Dublin City councillor Cat O'Driscoll said her heart goes out to Mr Rooney's family.

"My thoughts are for his family and condolences to his family and community," she told the Irish Independent.

"Losing a loved one is difficult enough at any time, but it is especially difficult during the pandemic due to restrictions on funerals," she added.

Gardai said they are still investigating all of the circumstances of the death.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Mountjoy Garda Station on 01 6668602, the Garda Confidential Line (1800 666 111) or any garda station.
Locklan 'Locky' Gilbert claimed he found 'The One' during the upcoming season of The Bachelor, which premieres on August 12.

But his ex-girlfriend Jordan Cayless, who starred on Love Island Australia in 2019, doubts he'll settle down anytime soon.

Speaking to New Idea this week, the 28-year-old stunner warned his 'winning' lady that she believes Locky only signed up to the dating show for publicity.

Scroll down for video

Bachelor Locklan 'Locky' Gilbert's (right) ex-girlfriend Jordan Cayless (left) has given a BRUTAL warning to his 'winner' ahead of the show's premiere on Wednesday

Locky and Jordan dated for three years between 2017 and 2019, with Jordan choosing to end the relationship.

'Unfortunately I made a mistake on a trip away that deeply hurt Jordan and our relationship,' Locky said in a statement to the magazine.

'That was over a year ago and Ive learnt a lot from it. The love I have for my chosen lady is something Ive never felt before,' he added.

'I dont think he will end up married with kids with this person on The Bachelor': Jordan says she's sceptical that the former Survivor star has found love with his 'winner'

Ouch! Jordan also claimed that if the tattooed hunk gets down on one knee in the finale that it would be purely for 'publicity and the ratings'

Jordan says she's sceptical that the former Survivor star has found love with his 'winner'.

'I dont believe it. Obviously you have genuine feelings and youre in a bubble on the show, but no, I dont think he will end up married with kids with this person on The Bachelor,' she said.

'I saw the ad where he says, "Im the type of guy to get down on one knee" and I thought, "Yeah, you will  for the publicity and the ratings!"'

In his element? Jordan claimed that Locky had previously mentioned that he wanted to become The Bachelor

Jordan even claimed that Locky had previously mentioned that he wanted to become The Bachelor, and suggested he would use the attention and following to 'lift up' his business in Bali.

Daily Mail Australia has also contacted Locky Gilbert for further comment.

Locky will debut as The Bachelor on August 12 from 7:30pm on Channel 10
Former Playa del Carmen mayor moved from prison after being granted house arrest

Playa del Carmen, Q.R.  Former municipal head Mauricio Gongora Escalante, has been granted house arrest by a judge after lawyers requested the change. The former mayor of Playa del Carmen was granted the change August 8. He was sent to his home outfitted with an ankle bracelet after a judge found him an unlikely flight risk.

Jose Mauricio Gongora Escalante is also a former PRI candidate for the governorship of Quintana Roo. He was mayor of Playa del Carmen from 2013 until 2017. Between 2011 and 2013, he held the position of Secretary of State Finance during the administration of Governor Roberto Borge Angulo who is also in prison on similar charges.

In 2017, allegations were brought against Gongora Escalante of various public financial crimes for 754 million peso. He was arrested on January 25, 2018 in Mexico City for an alleged diversion of more than 700 million peso from the municipal coffers of Solidaridad, derived from three complaints.

On January 28, Gongora Escalante was formally linked to process and was being held in the CERESO of Chetumal until his recent change to house arrest August 8.
* To operate new vehicle architecture developed with Swedish unit

* Plants at home, overseas to be retooled to develop cars faster, at lower cost

* Volvo, bought 10 years ago, central in Geely drive to be China's 1st global car giant

* Platform to be shared with partly owned Malaysian firm Proton

* Challenges remain for China carmakers' international aspirations

By Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh

TAIZHOU, China/SHANGHAI, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Chinese carmaker Geely plans to use a platform developed with input from Volvo to build new models in Malaysia for its partly owned Proton brand, a strategy that shows how it aims to accelerate its push to become China's first global auto giant.

The yet-to-be-finalised plans for Proton are just one strand of a Geely project to revamp factories at home and abroad using joint platforms it has been perfecting with Volvo since 2013. Geely bought the Swedish brand 10 years ago for $1.8 billion - a deal that raised its international profile and sent shockwaves through the global auto trade.

Senior Geely officials and engineers told Reuters that a project dubbed Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) will allow them to develop, design and build different types of compact cars with similar mechanical layout faster than before - and at lower cost.

They said CMA, along with a platform for smaller cars known as B-segment Modular Architecture (BMA) that Geely plans to roll out for Proton, allow them to harness the Swedish automaker's technologies and Geely's capabilities in cost control, supply chain management and local production.

"CMA will be the core of Geely's future architecture design ... We learn technologies and build up talents through developing it," said Li Li, vice president at Geely Automobile Research Institute, confirming the Proton plan during an interview in Ningbo, south of Shanghai. Li declined to disclose details of general investment, financial targets or a timetable for expansion plans.

Story continues

From its lowly foundation in 1986 in Taizhou on the east coast as a maker of refrigerator parts, Geely has grown into one of the biggest players in China, the world's largest auto market accounting for nearly one in every three passenger cars sold around the planet. Geely now sells more than 2 million cars a year across all brands, ranking it not far from the world's top 10 automakers by unit sales.

The CMA platform in particular will allow Geely and Volvo to design vehicles more quickly and cost-effectively, Li said, providing a technological springboard towards a higher market share at a time when the auto industry must embrace a future featuring electric and autonomously driven transport.

GLOBAL AMBITIONS

Like Geely - an anglicisation of the Chinese word for 'lucky' - domestic peers Great Wall Motor and GAC have branched out with their own versions of vehicle platforms, harbouring greater ambitions for selling cars in major Western markets.

But grand plans have previously been delayed, or simply cancelled, amid a lack of practical preparedness, analysts have said, against a backdrop of years of trade tensions between China and the United States that have roiled the global economy. At the same time, attention has been diverted to deal with stalling sales at home as the pace of China's growth has slowed.

In its pursuit of global automaker status, Hangzhou-based Geely is now holding talks to merge the Volvo Cars business with its Hong Kong-listed Geely Automobile - worth about $22 billion by market value, bigger then famed industry names like Fiat Chrysler Automobile and Nissan Motor .

As well as the 49.9% stake it took in Proton three years ago, the broader Geely group - Zhejiang Geely Holding Group , led by Taizhou-born billionaire Li Shufu - now also comprises a 9.7% stake in Germany's Daimler AG and a majority stake in British sport car brand Lotus.

And while giants from Toyota Motor Corp to Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co have followed a similar shared platform projects for their respective brands, Geely's strategy is a first for a Chinese company.

The automaker plans to develop all its future models for the Geely and Lynk & Co brands on CMA or other related product platforms, like BMA. It is also developing a new architecture to accelerate the launch of pure battery electric vehicles with intelligent connectivity functions, said Li, a former Ford engineer.

In addition, Geely wants to shift development of next generations of some popular existing models, like Borui and Emgrand sedans, to those architectures, he said. It takes around 18 months for Geely to significantly change a CMA-based car, versus 24-30 months to do so on a non-CMA-based model.

Using CMA, plant managers can switch production of different models to maintain smooth overall capacity utilisation rates at production lines, said Oskar Falk, the Volvo-trained head at Geely and Volvo's first joint production site in Taizhou.

The plant already exports Volvo Polestar 2 electric sedans to the United States and Europe, and is preparing to make Volvo's first battery-powered electric vehicle, Falk said.

Geely also plans to start exporting China-made Lynk & Co 01 SUVs to Europe this year.

(Reporting by Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
Sathyavani Muthu Nagar is one of hundreds of informal settlements in the process of being demolished by Chennai officials  part of a vast effort, they say, to restore the citys heavily polluted and constricted waterways.

By Theo Whitcomb

In a resettlement colony on the outskirts of Chennai, a sprawling industrial city on Indias Bay of Bengal, rows of beige tenements rise out of marshland in clusters, blocking out the sky in a uniform grid. Construction materials line the first floor of buildings, and bulldozers roll through the wide and dusty streets. Vijay Vasanth says he arrived here in early January on government provided transport. His family and their belongings were left on the sidewalk in the middle of the settlement, named Perumbakkam. When we came here, we had to be homeless. Vasanth said, They just lifted us and dropped us here, now we have to stay.

Vasanth says he grew up in the heart of Chennai, the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu, in a neighborhood alongside the Cooum River called Sathyavani Muthu Nagar. But in late 2019, officials evicted 500 families living there, Vasanth included, without initially informing residents why they were evicted or where they were going. They were the first batch of 2,092 families set to be evicted. They started marking our houses by writing letters and numbers on the door, said Vasanth. He asked why and was told it was because his house was along the river. The markings on the door were to tell the families their house was set for demolition.

The families  like tens of thousands of families before them  were moved to settlement colonies like this one, miles from the city center and far from the sources of work and income that they once knew. When they arrived, the apartments they finally moved into did not have running water or electricity. There was only one light, an emergency light on the veranda, said Vasanth, who has struggled to find work. It is too expensive to travel to central Chennai, where he sold electronics, nearly 19 miles away. For three months we struggled hard. We were stir crazy, he said.

Its a familiar sentiment. Sathyavani Muthu Nagar is one of hundreds of informal settlements in the process of being demolished by Chennai officials  part of a vast effort, they say, to restore the citys heavily polluted and constricted waterways. The governments first step, according to project documents, is what is officially called slum clearance or the removal of encroachments.

Supporters of these restoration initiatives say they are sorely needed. Chennais rivers are plagued by rampant pollution and overdevelopment, leaving them uniquely vulnerable. Science suggests that both problems are only amplified by climate change and will continue to be so in coming years. The long-term goal, officials say, is the restoration of crucial riverbank wetlands that can act as a buffer against both flood and drought.

The neighborhood clearance projects are carried out in coordination with various municipal organizations, including the Chennai Rivers Restoration Trust (CRRT), the state Public Works Department (PWD), and the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB). The problem, critics say, is that the implementation of these otherwise well-intentioned programs weighs heavily on  and has little regard for  the thousands of low-income inhabitants eking out already difficult lives in dozens of informal communities along Chennais rivers.

Indeed, under the new eco-restoration initiatives, it is not just the 2,092 families in Sathyavani Muthu Nagar  including Vasanths  whose lives will be impacted. Nearly 60,000 families, or roughly 200,000 people, are currently marked for eviction from the banks of Chennais rivers, according to the TNSCB, which handles the relocation of residents. The families are considered to be living in objectionable locations, which means in low-lying, flood-prone areas. Many have already been relocated.

But experts worry that at best, these environmental initiatives  while ostensibly for the common good  will continue to result in severe consequences for the citys poor. At worst, they say, climate change and ecological restoration are being used as pretenses for evacuating the citys slums so that new and equally imprudent infrastructure can be built. Even without climate change, we are a city that has been built to drown itself, said writer Nityanand Jayaraman, who works on environmental justice campaigns in Chennai. We don't need extreme weather events. Regular weather events are enough to finish us off.

Either way, what is officially referred to in project documents as resettlement and rehabilitation of families invariably results in them being sent, often against their will, to distant settlements referred to by housing advocates as ghettos, or satellite slums. Is this restoration? asked Vanessa Peter, a researcher at the Information and Resource Center for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC), a Chennai-based information clearinghouse for the citys poor. Or is this just another way of convincing everybody that we should get rid of our slums?

**

In a video posted to YouTube in 2015, a crowd can be seen standing on a concrete bridge spanning the Cooum River  one of three major rivers coursing through the city  watching the swollen water rush underneath. It laps against the bridge, threatening to rise up and over the wall onto the road. On either side of the waterway, rooftops are visible above the turbid, olive-green water. The structures are almost completely underwater. Another video, taken from a bridge near the neighborhood of Koyambedu, shows a similarly bleak reality: the Cooum flowing over more rooftops, some houses completely washed away. Seen from overhead, the vulnerability of the city is staggering. Few areas lie above sea level; the rest is swallowed by water.

In 2015, this particular flood, deemed a once-in-a-hundred-year event, damaged or destroyed nearly 500,000 houses, killed at least 470 people, and caused $3 billion in economic losses, according to official estimates. The flooding disproportionately impacted the citys poor, who mostly lived in low-lying settlements along the river.

Following this historic rainfall, a series of abnormally weak monsoons and a subsequent heatwave resulted in a severe drought that peaked in 2019 with the citys main reservoirs running dry.

Of course, cycles of flood and drought have been a feature of life on the Bay of Bengal for millennia. But with climate change pushing the Bay of Bengal ever further inland, studies suggest that water-proximate, pollution-clogged neighborhoods like Sathyavani Muthu Nagar are facing a future of continued inundation. On top of a swelling sea, the city faces an increase of extreme weather events as the northeast monsoon gets stronger.

But Chennais problems, critics say, are as much structural as meteorological. People have the tendency to hide behind climate change, said S Janakarajan, president of the South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies and an expert on water management. Drought and flood, he said, are as much a result of Chennais rapid development as they are of extreme weather.

Ecologically vital wetlands, estuaries, and rivers fell victim to decades of negligent land-use policy and an insatiable urban sprawl. Over the past 40 years, paved surfaces have expanded 10 times over, according to a report by Care Earth, a nonprofit that does extensive restoration work throughout the city. Jayshree Vencatesan, a managing trustee of biodiversity and conservation with the organization, noted that in order to build the industrial center and house an expanding population, developers of flashy IT campuses and looming apartment buildings deliberately cut off rivers, lakes, and wetlands. Once that is done, the land becomes dry and very easy to convert, said Vencatesan. These landscapes were usurped by the big players.

These wetlands and waterways serve as systems for recharging the citys aquifers, absorbing heavy rain and providing drinking water for the city, and climate change is likely to challenge the wisdom of this development. According to a report published in the aftermath of the 2015 flood by the Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group, a local consumer and environmental advocacy group, the increased frequency of climate change-amplified events threatens to exacerbate already pressing environmental problems. The report called for extensive mapping of the storage and carrying capacities of local waterbodies, which had degraded due to incessant construction on the waterbodies, dumping of debris, and encroachments.

And yet, when it comes to addressing issues like these, Jayaraman said blame too often falls on informal settlements like Sathyavani Muthu Nagar, and the primary focus of the post-2015 restoration push remains the elimination of Chennais riverside communities. Thats because these informal settlements are often built directly into the riverbank and are perceived by many officials  as well as Chennais middle-and upper-class residents  as making the flooding worse, mainly by blocking the drainage area. And so ecological restoration of the Cooum focuses on slum eviction as an achievable first step, noted a 2010 analysis written by Karen Coelho, a scholar of urban ecology and associate professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, and urban planner and community advocate Nithya Raman.

This shortcut approach is openly announced, the paper continued, confidently addressing a growing urban middle-class constituency who hold slum-dwellers responsible for the state of the rivers, and regard their summary removal as the crux of eco-restoration.

As climate change increasingly lays bare the citys complex ecological crisis, nearly all interventions seem to begin with this familiar logic. For some strange reason, said Jayaraman, they believe that the only encroachers in the city that are problematic are the poor.

Such thinking leaves some of the more complicated realities of city-wide ecological restoration unaddressed, Jayaraman and other say. These include deeper, more harmful ecological disruptions, like the decimation of vital wetlands outside the city, or mega-projects like the port expansion being pursued by multinational company Adani, which will affect nearly 3,000 acres of critical tidal wetlands north of the city, threatening local fishing towns.

The eviction drive stems from a post-flood call from the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for massive investment in housing for those most affected. Despite a 2016 high court order that directed the government to examine resettling riverside residents near the area where they were originally relocated, CRRT-driven evictions have increasingly sent these families to hastily-built colonies on the periphery of the city. In a resettlement action plan prepared by the Tamil Nadu Housing and Habitat Development Project, with funding from the World Bank, the authors acknowledge the need for new housing, not just because of a housing shortage, but as a clear climate issue, citing CRRTs work as expected to contribute positively in managing climate-induced extreme events.

But CRRT, a wholly owned division of the Tamil Nadu government, has long been criticized for using ecological restoration as a mere pretext for allowing new development projects. In their 2010 article, Coelho and Raman described CRRTs first project along the Adyar River, which evicted hundreds of huts and threatened thousands more with demolition. The aim was to create an eco-park and restore local flora, fauna, and the ecological function of the river. But the Tamil Nadu government had already permitted new office buildings, multi-storied luxury residential complexes, and five-star hotels on what was left of the estuary at the mouth of the river, irreversibly damaging the fragile ecology of the creek. These efforts to restore the creek were already moot, Coelho and Raman wrote.

Further complicating matters, the relocation settlements are often built on wetlands themselves, like the colony Kannagi Nagar, which filled in part of the essential Pallikaranai wetland to avoid flooding, and in the process blocked drainage of the Okkiyam Maduvu channel, an estuary so ecologically critical it has been dubbed the aorta of the marsh.

CRRTs scope is limited, says S. Vishwanathan, an official with the trust. Their main focus is restoring the allotted project areas. The trust, officials added in an email message, has not prioritized aesthetics or allowed any real estate agency to pave for individual interest. For decades they feel they have been caught between environmentalists, who want to restore function to the citys heavily damaged waterways, and social advocates, who criticize the resulting displacement as unnecessary, unjust, and anti-poor. CRRT gets sandwiched between these two, Vishwanathan said.

Officials say they must walk the fine line of addressing flooding hazard and restoration, while meeting the needs of affected families. They also argue that they are being more surgical in their removals than is typically portrayed by critics. My focus is not to remove the entire slum, said Vishwanathan. We identified that part of the slum that lies within the river itself.

The resulting impact on families is addressed in an official Resettlement & Rehabilitation Scheme for affected families  people like Vasanth and his family  who are deemed vulnerable to flooding. Officials point to social and community development programs, financial relief, and a provision of utilities and basic services. Acknowledging the difficulty of the distant displacement, Vishwanathan says the alternative is worse. They lose everything every year to flooding, he said, and they have no facilities. According to Vishwanathan, the resettlement colonies are a step up.

Yet years of documentation and research by advocates have shown that the evictions have negative impacts on the livelihood of residents. The issue, according to a World Bank report published in February, is that the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board, which is ultimately in charge of the resettlement and rehabilitation of families, does not have a standardized environmental or social framework for projects. Instead, it implements ad-hoc measures to suit each intervention. The COVID-19 pandemic further exposed these deficiencies, as enforced lockdowns left residents struggling to survive in isolation.

While TNSCB is experienced in managing physical construction and delivering housing units, they do not have all the necessary expertise or experience in addressing key issues, World Bank representatives wrote to Undark in an email. Issues, they say, like ensuring residents have the means to secure an economic livelihood, and an environmentally sustainable, climate-resilient apartment building.

Despite evictee grievances, removing families may still be necessary, they say. While relocating families to nearby housing is always preferable, it is often not an option, and displacing families from the riverbank is necessary due to the high risk and inhabitability.

As of now, officials say, the TNSCB has indicated willingness to expand social and environmental reforms.

In late June, the Government of Tamil Nadu signed on to a $250 million dollar project with the World Bank to strengthen the states housing sector policies, institutions, and regulations. It is part of a two-pronged approach to shift the responsibility for the development of low-income housing away from the TNSCB and the public sector more broadly and encourage more private sector involvement. The program also indicates expanded environmental and social reforms to alleviate some of the current housing development concerns.

So far, advocates have criticized the Tamil Nadu government for lack of transparency, citing the lack of community participation of the most impacted communities, like Vasanths. The policy draft was unavailable for community input, and furthermore, there was no copy in Tamil, the local language.

**

In the neighborhoods being razed like Sathyavani Muthu Nagar, most residents were wage laborers, autorickshaw drivers, and domestic workers. Some families had ties to the area along the river going back three or four generations. Now in the new settlements, many families are saddled with arduous, expensive, and often impossible journeys to the city in order to maintain work.

At such distances, many displaced residents are effectively locked out of the predominantly working class, cash-based network that undergirds Chennais dense urban economy. Schools, public safety, and health care services are also scarce and inadequate in these colonies, according to a 2019 report by the Information and Resource Center for the Deprived Urban Communities. Other public services are cost-prohibitive for most settlement residents, according to research by the Housing and Land Rights Network, a New Delhi-based human rights organization. The concentration of poverty contributes to high crime rates, and despite government efforts, access to electricity, water, and affordable food is often unreliable.

In December, the evictions in Sathyavani Muthu Nagar were temporarily halted amidst widespread protest and civil disobedience. Two residents jumped into the putrid river to demand the government at least postpone the evictions until after their children completed exams. And even advocates for river restoration and better water resource management say that Chennais relentless displacement of poor and working families is unfair. The best-case scenario, they say, would be relocation to government lands located within the city center. The worst-case scenario, said Janakarajan, is what we are seeing today.

Having lived along the Cooum for years, Vasanth recalls the impact the 2015 floods had on his community. People who live down by the river really struggled during the flooding, he said. Water entered all the houses. Many families lost their dwellings completely. Vasanths home was located above the bank, however, and was spared any damage.

When the TNSCB came to evict the first batch of 500 families, Vasanths included, he couldnt understand why. They didn't give any reason, like flooding, they just told us it was dangerous to live near the river, he recalled. Dangerous for some, he argued, but his family had been spared over years of cyclones and floods.

For Vasanth, Sathyavani Muthu Nagar was more livable than Perumbakkam, the resettlement colony where he was delivered early this year. Before the eviction, everything was nearby: food, work, his community. Perumbakkam, he says, is too far removed, and most of his money would have to go to paying for bus tickets to travel back into the heart of Chennai for work. I miss everything, Vasanth said. Everything was near to us.

A 2017 report from the IRCDUC found that resettlement job programs were lacking, with little follow-through. Faced with overcrowded, mismanaged schools, students dropped out at high rates after displacement across the resettlement sites; if they decided to keep their existing schools, the average daily commute would be between three and five hours. Parents were also hesitant to send students to school citing poor educational quality and safety concerns, especially for girls.

The tenements themselves are also barely livable at times. Residents reported having to sleep outside the buildings until their apartment is finished being built, and when it is, some had to still wait for electricity. If elevators do not work, some residents must carry heavy water jugs up as much as eight stories, a near impossible task for older or disabled residents.

When they arrived, Vasanths family was originally assigned a seventh story apartment. However, the elevator did not work, and his pregnant sister in law was unable to make it up the stairs. The only other available apartment was without water or electricity. The community comes together to share resources, but, still, Vasanth says, it is unbearable. Right now, the situation is the same. It is very difficult. Five months they have not done anything. There are so many people struggling hard in our apartment.

He wished they could have stayed in their home along the Cooum. If they cleaned the river and gave a house in the same place, I would have been happy, he says. What is the point of them evicting us here? There is no electricity, there is no water.

According to data collected by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board, more than 16,000 families have been relocated as a direct consequence of river restoration along the Cooum and Adyar Rivers. Some 42,000 more are slated to follow from around Chennai. For now, however, evictions have halted as Covid-19 spreads throughout the city.

Peter and Coelho have both worked to research these resettlements, which they see as a discriminatory intervention. In India, a caste system is implicit in social decisions. The dominant numbers of informal settlement residents are of lower caste backgrounds, said Peter. Coelho says that the World Bank has at least shifted support towards a more equitable relocation strategy by including project safeguards. But both researchers remain concerned that people sent to these settlements face unacceptable living conditions.

Meanwhile, river restoration has become an initiative prioritized at the highest levels in India. Restoration activities are seen as a pathway to a modern, cleaned up, 21st-century nation, and ecological interventions will almost certainly be necessary to adapt to a rapidly changing climate, with stronger floods, droughts, and heat waves.

But Coelho suggested that so far these efforts have ignored, or given short shrift to, the most important questions.

The first order of business when we are talking about ecology, she said, should be what are we going to do about 50 to 60 thousand people?

Top: Indian children fly kites on the banks of the polluted Cooum River next to homes in Chennai in 2018. Residents of these communities are being evicted and relocated while their homes are destroyed in a government initiative aimed at river restoration. Image via Undark/ Arun Sankar / AFP via Getty Images

Theo Whitcomb is a Fulbright Scholar and writer based in Tamil Nadu.

This article was originally published on Undark. Read the original article.
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The Supreme Court (SC) on August 10 adjourned the hearing on telecom companies under insolvency to August 14, while observing that the government must come prepared with a plan for recovery of dues from the telcos under insolvency, CNBC-TV18 has reported.

A Supreme Court bench comprising of Justices Arun Mishra, S Abdul Nazeer and MR Shah heard the case. However, there is still no clarity on the question of time period to be given to telcos for repayment of their respective AGR dues. While Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea had sought 15 years' time for repayment of dues, the government had suggested a time-frame of 20 years.

As Justice Arun Mishra is set to retire on September 3, an order on the staggered repayment time frame is likely before that.

The SC had on July 20 reserved its order on permitting telecom companies to make staggered payments over 15 years.

Also read: Telecom stocks trade mixed ahead of SC's AGR hearing; Vodafone Idea gains, RCom down 4%

SC observations:

>> Justice Arun Mishra said "We want to go into cause of initiation of insolvency for telcos under IBC. We want an understanding of their outstanding liabilities, urgency in pushing for insolvency."

>> Justice Mishra: "If RCom had settled the payment dispute with Ericsson, why was the CIRP process allowed to proceed?"

>> Justice Mishra "SC orders binding on all courts, how can IBC proceedings be revived by NCLAT despite payment by RCom to Ericsson?"

>> How can it be decided for the resolution plan proceeds to be paid only to banks, and nothing to DoT for AGR?

>> What is the government's stance? It seems the govt will get nothing from the IBC process. What is the plan to recover Rs 31,000 crore from R.Comm?

>> Government must come prepared with a plan for recovery of dues from telcos under insolvency.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to SC:

>> Amount recoverable from Reliance Communications (RComm) is Rs 31,000 crore.

Senior Advocate Shyam Divan, RCom's resolution professional, to SC:

>> Ericsson's claim was Rs 1,677 crore. Have submitted details as sought by the SC. Insolvency began on account of claims claims made by operational creditor Ericsson, China Development Bank.

>> After banks failed to sell assets of RCom, the telco and lenders agreed for CIRP process to proceed.

>> Resolution plan pending before NCLT, COC has given 100 percent approval. RCom owes Rs 49,054 crore to banks. RCom's primary asset is the spectrum, it can be sold or monetised under the IBC to realise value for banks.

Senior Advocate Ravi Kadan appearing for Aircel to SC:

>> Resolution plan has been approved by Committee of Creditors (CoC) and the NCLT. AGR dues are of Rs 12,389cr. After the takeover by the resolution applicant, assets can be sold to raise money. Spectrum is transferrable, can be sold and bought. No money is going to operational creditors, in compliance with the IBC. Insolvency process was initiated by the company itself in February 2018.

Here's a quick recap of what happened at the previous hearing:

The top court had in October 2019 upheld the expanded definition of AGR set by Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

>> Vodafone Idea has to pay a balance of Rs 50,399 crore, while Bharti Airtel's outstanding amount is Rs 25,976 crore, said Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said on July 20.

>> Both the telecom majors, which owe the maximum amounts, had on July 20 revised their demand from 20 years to 15 years for the staggered payments after Supreme Court's stringent stance on payment period.

>> The SC is expected to stick to its observation that self-assessment of AGR-related dues by telecom companies is not allowed, and will uphold the DoT's estimates.

Also read: AGR case highlights | SC reserves order on time to be allowed for staggered repayment of AGR dues

>> The SC had objected to any re-assessment or re-calculation of the outstanding amounts, and is unlikely to provide any relaxation in this regard on August 10.

>> The SC might also give more clarity on whether spectrum as a security against AGR-related outstanding payments. "The spectrum itself acts as a security for ensuring payment of AGR dues," Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said on July 20.

>> Reliance Communications, Videocon and Aircel were asked to submit all records and details of insolvency within seven days, after the SC had wondered if the IBC is being misused by the companies.
Parents are forming learning pods for their children to supplement virtual learning this fall. Source: Outschool

The latest education trend has parents reaching into their wallets to help supplement or replace their children's virtual education this fall. So-called "learning pods" or "pandemic pods" are popping up all over the country. They are small, in-person groups of students learning together with the help of an in-person tutor or teacher. With it come concerns about those who can't afford the extra help being left left behind. As coronavirus cases climb and more school districts abandon in-school learning, either fully or partially, parents are scrambling. More from Invest in You:

Parents at breaking point as they cope with school this fall

Remote work burnout is growing. Here's how to manage it

Suze Orman: A perfect financial storm is brewing Single mother Heather Cline, who is 40 and lives in Seattle, is one of those parents. She's working on creating a pod for her 6-year-old daughter Saida, who still needs extra help with speaking English. Cline adopted Saida, who was living in Azerbaijan, a few years ago. She has no family support nearby and wants her daughter to get some social interaction, as well as the help Cline feels will be difficult for her to provide.

Heather Cline and her daughter Saida Source: Heather Cline

"How am I going to manage two full jobs at once?" asked Cline, who is a high school Spanish teacher. "I have to uphold the best standards I possibly can for my high school students while also ensuring that my daughter gets what she needs." Cline is finalizing the pod members and found a teacher. She's expecting to pay between $75 and $80 an hour for four to six kids, split by the participants. The children will use their school district's virtual curriculum and work out of a parent's home.

Getting outside help

For those who need help finding and hiring a teacher or tutor, a cottage industry has sprung up practically overnight. Different educational companies are offering services at varying prices. One option for those who don't have the space or financial resources is a virtual pod, like the ones offered by Outschool, a marketplace of online classes based in San Francisco. Outschool's classes are also being used as part of in-person pods to help supplement the curriculum. Prices can range from $10 for a single-hour, one-time class to "hundreds of dollars" for a semester-long core course that meets three times a week for 10 weeks to 15 weeks, said Outschool CEO Amir Nathoo.

Myka Burley and her son, Michael. Source: Myka Burley

Myka Burley has been using Outschool courses for her son, 9-year-old Michael, to help keep him engaged this summer. She plans on continuing with it in the fall, when Michael's full-time virtual learning begins. Burley, 30, is also in talks with other parents to form an in-person learning pod that would rotate between houses. "My son is a stellar student," Burley said. "He really struggled with the transition to online learning. "Obviously they are going to suffer socially, but I am also concerned the learning won't be as robust or substantial enough." Burley, who lives in Southfield, Michigan, and works in community and economic development for a nonprofit, only intends to convene the pod, complete with a tutor, once a week. She's yet to finalize the plan.

The mentality of most of the parents I am seeing is more one of survival than it is of distancing their own kids from other others. Mike Teng CEO of Swing Education

Other parents are opting to use teachers or tutors more often  either a few days a week or every day. Hiring through an agency can help with all the logistics but will likely end up costing more than if you did it yourself. For instance, you'll pay $100 an hour for a certified teacher though Philadelphia-based Pupil Pod. The cost is split by the number of kids  so the more in the pod, the lesser the cost to each parent. So if you have six students, the maximum allowed, it will cost about $17 an hour per pupil. You can opt to just hire someone for three hours a day, two days a week  the minimum allowed. The teachers follow the virtual curriculum from the students' schools. California-based Swing Education Learning Bubbles is also providing teachers to help students in pods with their schools' virtual curriculum.

The idea is to "bring the curriculum to life and off the screen into some sort of social interaction environment," said Swing Education CEO Mike Teng, adding that about 6,000 to 8,000 families in various states across the country have reached out in the last three weeks. "The mentality of most of the parents I am seeing is more one of survival than it is of distancing their own kids from other others," he said. Otherwise, many parents would have to quit their jobs. Swing Education clients get 25 hours of instruction a week. Prices range from $306 to $349 a week per student in a pod of seven to eight kids and can go up to $825 a week per student for a two-person pod and $1,500 a week for one child.

$23,000 private pod school

Those who have the means can pull their children from public school and enroll them in a private school pod. For instance, Portfolio School in New York City and Westchester County, New York-based Hudson Lab School, along with San Francisco-based Red Bridge Education, have partnered to offer learning pods that can either provide a private education or can work with the curriculum of the students' current school. It comes with a steep price tag. Elementary pods, grades K through 5, cost $68,750 for a five-month semester. For a pod of three, that works out to just under $23,000 per pupil. The full academic year runs $125,000 per pod, or almost $42,000 per pupil in a group of three. The cost goes down the more children there are in the pod. For example, broken down hourly, it could be as little as $15 an hour for a pod of nine. The instruction runs for five hours a day and an average 18 school days a month, costing the student in the nine-person pod $1,389 a month. "It is communities and groups of people coming together saying, 'Let's figure out how we can make this a great situation or as best a situation we can for our children, instead of having it just be driven by our fear and our anxiety of what is going on,'" said Hudson Lab co-founder Stacey Seltzer.

Less expensive options

For those who need help but can't afford a teacher, hiring a babysitter or nanny is a possibility. For instance, it could cost about $30 an hour for three children or up to $50 for five, according to Nicole's Nannies, based in Madison, New Jersey. The company is also hiring teachers to match with learning pods, with the pricing still being worked out. Typically with nanny agencies, families also pay some sort of agency fee. Wendy Brookstein, who works remotely in a corporate job and is a single mother, has opted to hire babysitters for $35 an hour to facilitate the school's virtual curriculum, instead of a certified teacher. The cost will be split by the four to five members of the pod.

Wendy Brookstein and her children Source: Wendy Brookstein

The 48-year-old has a 6-year-old boy entering first grade and twin 4-year-olds in preschool. Since she doesn't have room in her Philadelphia condo, she recently found a private party space to rent for $10 a day per kid. "I don't have any other choice in order for him to learn," Brookstein said of her oldest son. She's also concerned about socialization. Since the children will need seven hours of coverage, plus the rental fee for the learning space, she anticipates a budget of $1,000 a week, divided by four or five kids in the pod. With four kids, the cost would be $250 a week, or $1,000 a month.

Concerns about inequality

The biggest criticism of learning pods is that they can exacerbate the racial and economic inequities already in place in the education system. Those who can't afford to pay for the extra help could wind up at a disadvantage. "This is the perfect example of being an opportunity gap," said Clara Totenberg Green, a social and emotional learning specialist in Atlanta Public Schools.

Plus, schools will lose funding if students leave, she explained. "If people are talking their kids out of public school, it is going to be devastating for the kids left behind," Green said. "Not only will there be less money coming into the school, but also because integration is good for children."

Scholarships
No comment on Pranab Mukherjee book before reading it: Former Union Minister

Pranab memoirs: PM Modi must speak more often in Parliament

Pranab Mukherjee undergoes successful brain surgery for removal of clot, on ventilator support

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Aug 10: Former President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday underwent successful brain surgery for removal of clot. He is currently on ventilator support at the Army's Research and Referral R&R Hospital in Delhi, reported news agency PTI.

Prior to surgery, Mukherjee had tested positive for coronavirus.

"On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for COVID19 today," the 84-year-old said in a tweet.

Former President Pranab Mukherjee put on ventilator support

"I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19," Mukherjee, who was the president from 2012 to 2017, said.

Sachin Pilot meets Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi amid reconciliation talks | Oneindia News

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited the R&R Hospital and enquired about Mukherjee's health. Singh was at the hospital for around 20 minutes.

Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, Rahul Gandhi as well as several of his party colleagues, wished Mukherjee, who was a Congress leader for years, a speedy recovery.
A heavy police presence is expected in downtown Chicago until further notice after looting and firing at officers.

More than 100 people were arrested on Monday following a night of looting and unrest in the US Midwestern city Chicago that left 13 officers injured and caused damage in the citys upscale Magnificent Mile shopping district and other parts of the city, authorities said.

The looting followed demonstrations that began after police shot a man who allegedly fired at officers the previous day in the citys Englewood neighbourhood.

Police Superintendent David Brown said the unrest was not an organised protest but an incident of pure criminality.

At one point early on Monday, shots were fired at police and officers returned fire. Brown said a heavy police presence is expected in the downtown area until further notice.

This was straight up, felony criminal conduct, said Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. This was an assault on our city.

Those arrested were expected to face charges including looting, disorderly conduct, battery against police. Lightfoot said the city has activated a neighbourhood protection programme that will be in place for foreseeable days until we know our neighbourhoods are safe.

Stores looted, damaged in Chicago's Goose Island neighborhood: https://t.co/XJbOYwSqlA pic.twitter.com/3v61QjL9h5  WGN TV News (@WGNNews) August 10, 2020

No officers were injured in the shooting, police spokesman Tom Ahern said on Twitter. Many of the businesses that were ransacked had recently opened after Chicago protests of George Floyds May 25 death in Minneapolis devolved into chaos.

The unrest began shortly after midnight and anti-police graffiti was seen in the area of the Magnificent Mile, which is one of Chicagos most-visited tourist attractions. Hours earlier, dozens of people had faced off with police after officers shot and wounded a person on Sunday in the Englewood neighbourhood, located about 16km (10 miles) away.

Brown said after a crowd dissipated following that shooting, We are monitoring social media and we come across a post of a caravan of cars being prompted to go to our downtown and loot.

Very orchestrated

Along the Magnificent Mile, people were seen going in and out of stores carrying bags full of merchandise as well as at a bank, the Chicago Tribune reported, and as the crowd grew vehicles dropped off more people in the area.

On streets throughout the downtown area, empty cash drawers from stores were strewn about and ATMs were ripped open.

Stores miles from downtown were also ransacked, with parking lots littered with glass and items from inside the stores. Clothes hangers and boxes that once contained television sets and other electronics were seen  evidence that thieves had taken racks of clothes and removed them from the hangers.

This was obviously very orchestrated, the Reverend Michael Pfleger, a prominent Roman Catholic priest and activist on the citys South Side, told WBBM-TV as cameras panned the downtown area.

One officer was seen slumped against a building, several arrests were made and a rock was thrown at a police vehicle, the newspaper said. Police worked early Monday to disperse the crowds.





There was a large police presence on Monday morning outside an Apple store located north of Chicagos downtown area. Blocks away, debris was strewn in parking lots in front of a Best Buy and a large liquor store.

Train and bus service into downtown was temporarily suspended at the request of public safety officials, the Chicago Transit Authority said on Twitter.

Bridges over the Chicago River were lifted, preventing travel to and from the downtown area, and Illinois State Police blocked some expressway ramps into downtown. Access was being restored later Monday morning.

Chicago and its suburbs, like many other cities, saw unrest following the death of Floyd. Chicagos central business district and its commercial areas were shut down for several days after violence erupted and stores were damaged in the wake of marches protesting against Floyds custodial death.

Volunteers help clean up the car park outside a Best Buy store in Chicago after some broke into the store overnight [Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photo]

Floyd, a Black man who was handcuffed, died after a white officer pressed his knee against Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd said he couldnt breathe.

In the Sunday shooting in Englewood, police said in a statement that they responded about 2:30pm (18:00 GMT) on Sunday to a call about a person with a gun and tried to confront someone matching his description in an alley. He fled from officers on foot and shot at officers, police said.

Officers returned fire, wounding him, and a gun was recovered, police said. He was taken to a hospital for treatment and three officers involved also were taken to a hospital for observation, the statement said.

More than an hour after the shooting, police and witnesses said a crowd faced off with police after someone reportedly told people that police had shot and wounded a child. That crowd eventually dispersed.
A savvy home cook has inspired hundreds of others to meal prep after sharing an easy recipe for a quick work day or weekend lunch.

Posting to the Budget Friendly Meals Australia Facebook group, Jelvie said her aunty, who owns a tapas bar in Madrid, originally taught her how to make the simple yet mouthwatering meal.

The dish consists of chorizo sausage, tinned bean mix and vegetables over steamed rice.

The combination of protein, vegetables and good carbohydrates is also filling and nutritious.

The dish consists of chorizo, tinned beans and vegetables over steamed rice or potatoes

The meal would take no longer than 25 minutes to prepare and cook from start to finish, and is a good alternative solution for those who are time poor.

The quick recipe involves browning the chorizo, cooking the chopped onion and tomatoes, and mixing in the tinned beans while steaming the rice.

Not only is the meal simple to make, but it can also be adapted and changed to suit individual taste preferences.

'[The] chorizo can be substituted with leftover roast, mince [or] tofu,' Jelvie said.

She also said more water, stock and other vegetables can be added to create a delicious soup.

The recipe itself involves browning the chorizo, cooking the chopped onion and tomatoes, and mixing in the tinned beans while boiling the rice

Not only is the meal simple to make, but it can also be adapted and changed to suit individual taste preferences

Other social media users part of the Facebook community were impressed with the little amount of effort that is required to make the dish.

'You inspired me, dinner tonight,' one home cook said.

'I'm not a fan of tinned beans but this looks too delicious not to try,' another said.

A third person added: 'I'm Spanish, this dish is called feshons.'

Another woman said she prepares a similar dish but instead uses cannellini beans, garlic, capsicum and spinach served with Turkish bread.
The European Union may consider imposing new sanctions on Belarus, TASS reported referring to the Polish Foreign Ministry, Jacek Czaputowicz.

According to him, everything depends on the development of the situation and the actions of the authorities in Minsk.

Sanctions will be one of the options to be considered, the Polish minister said, expressing hope that such a scenario would not come to pass.

According to preliminary data from the Central Election Commission, the incumbent head of state Aleksandr Lukashenko wins the presidential elections in Belarus and gains 80.23% of the vote.
On Saturday, US President Donald Trump announced a series of measures ostensibly targeting the cutoff of federal unemployment benefits that mark a new stage in his effort to abolish all constitutional restraints on the power of the president.

Trump announced a deferral of the federal payroll tax, which would defund Social Security, and the extension of federal unemployment benefits at a much lower level.

Congress allowed federal extended unemployment benefits to expire more than two weeks ago, plunging the 16 million unemployed workers in the US and their families into poverty. The expiration of federal jobless aid of $600 a week means that the weekly payments have fallen to the level of state benefits, which can be less than $300.

Trumps measures constitute an illegal imposition on the powers of Congress, as spelled out in the Constitution, which declares that Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes and provide for the general Welfare of the United States.

Trumps usurpation of the congressional prerogative to tax and spend is the latest act in a series of unconstitutional actions. In February of last year, Trump declared a State of Emergency to misappropriate Pentagon funds, in defiance of Congress, to build up his apparatus of repression on the Southern border.

In June, amid mass protests against police violence, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy the military throughout the country. When sections of the military resisted this attempted coup, fearing it was not adequately prepared and would create a social explosion, Trump instead dispatched federal border agents to Portland, Oregon, where they beat demonstrators and snatched protesters into unmarked vehicles.

In announcing the new measures, Trump presented himself as the arbiter of a logjam in Congress. Political games that harm American lives are unacceptable, especially during a global pandemic, and therefore I am taking action to provide financial security to Americans, Trump said. Asked if he was trying to set a new precedent that the president can go around Congress, Trump replied, Congress has obstructed people from getting desperately needed money.

Trumps actions have the character of Bonapartism. The term is derived from the historical example of the famous French general who ruled France for 15 years as a dictator. In its modern usage, it denotes a political situation that arises in a period acute social tension, when the traditional norms of bourgeois democracy become dysfunctional. The executive of the capitalist statein the US, the presidentexploits the impasse to augment its power.

The Bonapartist appears to rise above classes or the contending political factions through which bourgeois politics, in accordance with constitutional provisions, normally proceeds. Relying increasingly on the repressive forces of the statethe military, the police, intelligence agencies and, if necessary, paramilitary forcesthe president asserts himself as the super-arbiter of conflict between factions and classes. In fact, however, he speaks for definite class interests.

Writing about the phenomenon of Bonapartist dictatorships in Europe that came to power prior to the rise of fascism, Trotsky wrote:

Raising itself politically above the classes, Bonapartism, like its predecessor Caesarism, for that matter, represents in the social sense, always and at all epochs, the government of the strongest and firmest part of the exploiters; consequently, present-day Bonapartism can be nothing else than the government of finance capital which directs, inspires, and corrupts the summits of the bureaucracy, the police, the officers caste, and the press.

Trump has not yet created a dictatorship. The real estate and casino con artistwithout military conquests to brag ofhas limited credentials to posture as a modern-day Bonaparte. But all his actions are directed toward creating such a dictatorship.

Trumps power grab is facilitated by the mendacious and two-faced character of his opposition in the Democratic Party. The Democrats present themselves as sympathetic to the plight of unemployed workers, while in reality representing the interests of a corporate and financial oligarchy which materially benefits from cutting unemployment benefitsthe same interests for whom Trump speaks.

On the one hand, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly said that she is seeking a full extension of the federal unemployment benefits. On the other hand, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer last month introduced a bill that would cut extended unemployment benefits by $100 when the rate fell below 11 percent [in a given state], and by another $100 each time the rate dropped by another percentage point, according to the New York Times. Given that the official US unemployment rate is already at 10.2 percent, Schumers proposal would mean a cut in jobless benefits for the vast majority of unemployed workers in the US.

The New York Times, the main newspaper associated with the Democratic Party, called Schumers bill a smarter way to provide workers with necessary and timely aid.

The Washington Post, the other major US newspaper aligned with the Democratic Party, called for a renewal of unemployment benefits at an elevated rate without disincentives to work. The term disincentive is a backhanded euphemism for cutting unemployment benefits, which supposedly discourage workers from returning to workplaces.

In an op-ed published in the Washington Post last month, former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Jason Furman and former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, both under Obama, declared that extending the $600 weekly unemployment insurance benefit enacted at the start of the shutdown does not make sense now.

The basic reality is that the Democrats, Congressional Republicans and Trump, despite the different political roles that they play, support the same fundamental, bipartisan policy of the ruling class in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In mid-March, when the pandemic threatened to cause a major financial crisis for overindebted US banks and corporations, the Democrats and Republicans united nearly unanimously to pass the so-called CARES Act, which sanctioned the multi-trillion dollar bailout of Wall Street and the rich. When it came to handing money to the rich, the gridlock in Washington suddenly disappeared.

Once the massive corporate bailout was passed, the US ruling class immediately adopted the mantra that the cure cant be worse than the disease, demanding that workers get back on the job.

Both the federal government and the states quickly abandoned even the most minimal efforts to contain the pandemic, with more than half of governors reopening businesses in defiance of the CDCs own guidelines, including the Democratic governors of Maine, North Carolina, Kansas and Colorado.

The premature reopening of businesses has fueled a massive resurgence of the pandemic, with more than 1,000 people dying every day.

The cutting of unemployment benefits is critical in forcing workers back on the job through a form of economic conscription, aimed at driving down labor costs and boosting the profits of major corporations by sacrificing the lives of workers and their family members.

It is entirely possible that Democratic and Republican members of Congress will come to an agreement on a plan to extend unemployment benefits, using Trumps proposal as a baseline to reach a deal that cuts benefits, which they all agree is necessary. This, however, will resolve nothing.

Capitalism is incompatible with the needs of society, as it is incompatible with democratic forms of rule. Any resolution on a progressive basis to the catastrophe of the spreading pandemic and the social catastrophe engulfing the United States depends upon the independent intervention of the working class on the basis of a revolutionary and socialist program.
Air India Express is not planning to exclude Keralas Kozhikode airport from its operating schedule despite the accident on August 7, The Hindu BusinessLine has reported.

One of the no-frills airlines aircraft overshot the tabletop runway and fell into a gorge on August 7, killing at least 18 people on board, including the pilot and co-pilot. Over 100 others were injured and admitted to local hospitals. Many of those injured remain in a critical condition.

It is our promise to the departed captain that we maintain 100 percent of our schedule and uphold our integrity despite the horrific accident. There was no cancellation or delay in the Air India Express network on Saturday and Sunday when it operated a flight to Abu Dhabi from Calicut, an official told the newspaper.

Also read: Nearly two hours before IX1344 crashed, an IndiGo aircraft had landed in similar conditions

The officials response was in the context of news reports suggesting that the airline, and its parent company Air India, were planning to divert some flights, including those using wide-body aircraft to other airports from Kozhikode after the August 7 accident, the report adds.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

The pilots of the Air India Express flight IX1344 had circled the airport several times and tried to land the aircraft safely at least twice but could not do so due to unfavourable weather conditions. When they finally landed, the aircraft skid off the wet runway and fell into a 35-feet gorge.

Also read | Air India Express crash: This safety instrument could have prevented Kozhikode tragedy

The mishap was similar to the 2010 crash at the Mangalore airport also involving an Air India Express flight. A year after the 2010 mishap, industry regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had listed Kozhikode as one of the 11 airports "that posed a safety risk to flight operations in the country."

Again in July 2019, DGCA had issued a show-cause notice to the director of the Kozhikode airport after it found " various critical safety lapses ". However, on August 8, Airport Authority of India (AAI) Chairman Arvind Singh said that all technical issues with the runway at the Calicut International Airport had been resolved
In June, Black Lives Matter protesters took to the streets for at least 14 straight days.

Adam Miller/Business Insider

Polls suggest that about 15 million to 26 million people in the US have participated in recent anti-racism rallies, according to the The New York Times.

Broadly speaking, protesters are calling for police reform, reparations for slavery, and policies that invest more in Black and brown communities.

Business Insider spoke with several Black Americans participating in New York City rallies to understand what the movement means to them.

View more episodes of Business Insider Today on Facebook.

Since the killing of George Floyd on May 25, millions of Americans have taken to the streets in protest. Recent polls suggest that about 15 million to 26 million people in the US have participated in anti-racism rallies, The New York Times reported.

On a large scale, protesters are calling for police reform, reform to the justice system, reparations for slavery, more investment in education, and policies that recognize in essence, that Black lives do indeed matter. But on a personal level, the movement means so much more than one chant or slogan can capture.

Business Insider spoke with several Black Americans participating in New York City rallies to understand what the movement means, in their own words.

Tennille Newbold, 26, organized a Juneteenth march from Harlem to Central Park in Manhattan. For her, peaceful protest is a way to process the incomprehensible.

Newbold leads the march from Harlem to Central Park on June 19, a day celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the US.

Adam Miller/Business Insider

"We are tired. We are tired of waking up every single day and seeing Black death," she said at the rally.

At the rally, Newbold explained her encounters with the police and the effect they've had on her.

Adam Miller/Business Insider

As a child, she struggled to understand why the color of her skin meant some people viewed her as less than. "I just remembered thinking that wasn't fair," she said.

Newbold's father explained how he feels Black Americans have to work "twice as hard for half the results."

Adam Miller/Business Insider

"We Black people have done nothing to deserve this. They brought us here on slave ships, they separated us, took our language, took everything from us, mistreated us until today. It hurts," her father, Melvin Newbold, 61, told Business Insider.

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Newbold's father.

Adam Miller/Business Insider

For Genisha Metcalf, 33, a mother of two children, participating in peaceful demonstrations is a chance to educate her children on what it means to be Black in the US.

Metcalf and her two children attend a Black Lives Matter street mural painting on July 2.

Adam Miller/Business Insider

"I want to make sure that they are a part of what's happening, they're not just bystanders. Also just making sure they are fully aware of their Blackness  and fully aware of just how dark and difficult these times are. Because I never want them to discount how hard people are working to make the world better for them," she told Business Insider.

Metcalf's son helps paint a mural in New York.

Adam Miller/Business Insider

The movement is also about celebrating Black joy with her family, friends, and community, Metcalf said.

Metcalf's son partakes in the mural painting.

Adam Miller/Business Insider

Jamaal Duarte, 18, had just graduated high school when George Floyd was killed.

Duarte walks down a street in the Bronx.

Adam Miller/Business Insider

"After the death of George Floyd, I was in like a weird state because I didn't really know how to process what was happening," he told Business Insider. "I wanted to do something and actually be a part of rectifying the situation. So the protests is what I naturally came to."

Duarte takes part in a Black Lives Matter protest in Central Park.

Adam Miller/Business Insider

For the young activist, police reform is top of mind. "We need a solution for why police officers are just killing African Americans at an obscene rate," he said.

Black Lives Matter protesters march in Brooklyn on June 13.

Adam Miller/Business Insider

"I'm actually really thankful I'm a part of this generation. We know we can actually make a change in our own country. And that's what we're doing. We're just taking the reins," he said.

People march in Brooklyn on June 14 for a Black Trans Lives Matter protest.

Adam Miller/Business Insider

Read the original article on Business Insider
The Tamil Nadu Directorate of Government Examination (TNGDE) will release the result for the Secondary School leaving certificate examination (SSLC) or class 10 examination today. The result will be declared at 9.30 am. Around 9.7 lakh candidates who had appeared for the SSLC, class 10 exams will get their result through the websites- dge.tn.nic.in or tnresults.nic.in.

The results will also be displayed on alternative websites like - dge2.tn.nic.in, manabadi.co.in, schools9.com.

Follow live updates on Tamil Nadu SSLC Class 10 results 2020

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. The students will have to download the TN SSLC Result app on their smartphone in order to access the result. 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 SSLC class 10th examination 2020 got cancelled due to the pandemic. The exams were scheduled from March 27 to April 13 originally.

A total of 9.7 lakh candidates appeared for the Tamil Nadu Class 10 exams, which were held from March 27 to April 13.

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami had said that the result this year will be based on 80% of the marks for SSLC examination would be based on the marks scored by the students in their half yearly and quarterly examinations. As for the remaining 20%, the marks would be awarded based on the attendance of the child in the school.

Tamil Nadu SSLC Result are usually released in late April or early May.
Ontario marked a significant achievement in its COVID-19 fight this past week. In each of the last seven days, the province has recorded fewer than 100 cases of the novel coronavirus.

While this may be seen as cause for celebration, medical experts say people should not forget that COVID-19 is still very much around.

"Complacency is something we'll always have to worry about and make sure that people realize that COVID's still there," infectious diseases physician at Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga, Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti told CBC News.

"The big vulnerability is the fact that there are so many people here [in Toronto] and there are so many more chances of having lapses in an indoor environment with lots of people."

Submitted by Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti

Chakrabarti said with bars, restaurants and gyms now open, people are more likely to be grouped together, thus increasing the risk of outbreaks.

"I do expect to see spikes in the numbers, that doesn't surprise me, but the fact that the overall trend has continued to drop is very, very good," Chakrabarti said.

"Places like Toronto, places like the GTHA, we've been in Stage 3 for less time and obviously the eyes are upon us right now because it's such a more densely populated area.

"We've got to keep a close eye on this and if the trend starts to go upwards, we may have to pull back and put in some public health restrictions," Chakrabarti added.

We are just as susceptible as a population to this infection as we were in the beginning. - Dr. Sean Blaine

Like Chakrabarti, Stratford-based family physician Sean Blaine said, while the numbers are encouraging, Ontario residents should not be lulled into complacency.

He said every part of the province remains at high risk and whether or not new outbreaks occur will depend on how people choose to conduct themselves.

"We know that the nature of this particular virus is that it continues to circulate in all of our communities among people who have no idea that they're actually infected, have no idea that they could be passing it on to other people, and it does this very, very quietly," Blaine told CBC News.

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"It would be easy to conclude from the lower case numbers that the virus is gone when in fact the threat remains there.

"In fact, we are just as susceptible as a population to this infection as we were in the beginning," Blaine added.

Dr. Sean Blaine/YouTube

If everyone remains confined to their bubble of 10 people, and use all of the protective measures that are known to work, the province could sail through the fall and winter until next year, when hopefully a vaccine comes along, the physician said.

"But that's not going to happen, because unfortunately there are going to be those among us who choose to have closer interactions with people beyond the 10 exclusive people that you're supposed to have in your bubble," Blaine said.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott announced the full week of numbers below 100 in a tweet.

"It's official: for a full week, Ontario has now reported fewer than 100 cases, with 79 cases of #COVID19 today, a 0.2% increase," Elliot said Sunday.

Enhanced public health measures essential to COVID-19 control

Meanwhile, to control the spread of COVID-19 as Canada reopens, enhanced testing to identify and isolate cases, contact tracing and quarantining combined with physical distancing are essential, according to a new modelling study published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

According to the study, school closures will help but won't be sufficient to control the epidemic if community transmission persists.

It adds that partial closures of workplaces and general community closures would have a greater effect because transmission outside of the household is occurring primarily in these settings.

"When we have high levels of community transmission combined with minimal public health interventions and low adherence to physical distancing, school closures will have a minimal impact in combination with these interventions and will not be sufficient to control the epidemic," said Dr. Victoria Ng from the Public Health Agency of Canada.

"In contrast, workplace and general community closures were much more effective, because transmission outside of the household is occurring predominantly in these settings.

"The model findings are consistent with our observed experience in Canada where restrictive closures over the last few months have been effective in keeping our health-care system from being overwhelmed, but this has had a negative impact on our economy and health effects on society," added Ng.

Consistent with other studies, the researchers found that approximately 0.25 per cent to 56 per cent of Canadians could become infected over the course of the pandemic depending on the level of public health intervention implemented in the coming months and years.

Get the COVID Alert app

Meanwhile, Dr. Blaine is urging all Ontario residents to get the province's COVID Alert app.

The app can tell users whether they have been near someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 over the previous two weeks.

"I think it would be great if as many people as possible would download the app," Blaine told CBC News.

"It's just another tool in our repertoire when it comes to rapidly doing contact tracing."

Justin Tang/The Canadian Press

COVID Alert is the federal government's latest move in the battle to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as Canada's economy gradually reopens. Here's how it works:
You've been locked inside your home for weeks on end, have had to wield your ID just to get a breath of fresh air and have shelved you travel plans for the foreseeable future. No more airplanes, faraway lands, exotic destinations and changes of scenery. Our right to journey, and some plain rights too, have been sort of crushed of late. But do not despair, for there's an alternative, a diminutive, plain as day solution that can take you to a land far, far away. Behold the travel agencies you didn't know existed : watch shops.

Timepieces are small worlds unto themselves, doors leading to imaginary places, dream spaces and graphic utopias. Their dials, inspirations, design, extravagance and that of their creators have the power to take us to lands that do not always exist, yet where one can go by merely conjuring them.

First, one can find oneself in the midst of landscapes and settings lying thousands of miles away. In Lisbon with the series of Patek Philippe Azulejos unique pieces.

At the door of a Japanese temple with Blancpain's Villeret Metiers d'Art Binchotan / Travel to Lisbon with a Calatrava Azulejos by Patek Philippe  David Chokron/WorldTempus

Deep in a forest, in the dead of night, surrounded by howling wolves with the Arceau Awoooo from Hermes. At the gates of a Shinto temple, in front of a Torii with the Blancpain Villeret Metiers d'Art Binchotan.

Hear the call of the wild with the Arceau Awoooo by Hermes  David Chokron/Worldtempus

One can also travel beyond what's possible. Arnold&Son offer a trip to the times of their founder, as the Tourbillon Chronometer No. 36 reminds of that era when chronometers were helping rule the world. Mimic a James Bond scene with Urwerk's AMC, a great suitcase-like master clock that looks like it can trigger the impending nuclear strike the hero will fend off at the last minute. Travel to the heart of Paris, rue Cambon, inside Coco Chanel's home with the Mademoiselle Prive Coromandel, as their magnificent dials are reminiscent of Mme Gabrielle's lacquered folding screens.

Back to the future with the 18th century-like structures of Arnold & Son's Tourbillon Chronometer No. 36 / One minute into the life of Gabrielle Chanel with a Mademoiselle Prive Coromandel  David Chokron/WorldTempus

You're swimming next to a giant pink jellyfish, somewhere along Australia's great coral reef thanks to MB&F x L'Epee's Medusa. You're taking it easy along the banks of a pond inside the Magic Lotus Automaton from Jaquet Droz, watching a Koi carp swim next to a dragonfly.

Dip your feet in the fresh waters of the Jaquet Droz pond with the Magic Lotus Automaton / Beware of the Medusa by MB&F x L'Epee  David Chokron/WorldTempus

You're rising up with a hot air balloon from the Les Aerostiers collection by Vacheron Constantin. A bit higher even when you're staring inside the small wrist planetarium that is Jacob & Co's Astronomia Clarity. Top that of with a lazy ride on the tail of a comet conjured by a diamond fairy, on the dial of the Lady Arpels Nuit Feerique by Van Cleef & Arpels.

Behold the Astronomia Clarity from Jacob & Co, a small wrist-worn planetarium  David Chokron/WorldTempus

Easy for me to say, I'll grant you. I have watches from all over coming to my wrist, shown to me in the hope I'll show them to you. I do travel for free, indeed. But the thing with watchmaking is that it allows you to become a stowaway and ride for free just like that. Just enter a watch dealer, try anything you bloody well want and become a fellow traveler. And who knows, you might just like what you see, buy the watch and become an expat...
Pennsylvania has temporarily suspended a rule requiring children to get vaccinated for school.

Children will be allowed to attend school for up to two months without the usual immunizations, an allowance made due to potential delays families may have getting appointments with their doctors due to COVID-19, according to a news release Monday from the Pennsylvania state departments of education, health, human services and insurance.

The state is urging parents to schedule appointments as soon as possible. Most insurance plans are required to cover school vaccinations without a copayment, the state departments said.

The health department actually announced the change last month but issued the news release on Monday as health and education officials unveiled new, separate coronavirus guidelines for schools.

During a news conference on Monday, Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, a pediatrician, told reporters that it is critically important for kids to get the appropriate shots. Required vaccinations for K-12 include tetanus, diphtheria, polio, MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), hepatitis B and chickenpox.

The Philadelphia Inquirer recently reported that there is some concern among pediatricians about how the contagious diseases may spread with a decline in vaccination rates.

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

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com.
Worried about face masks dampening your look as you step out to shop for essentials? No worries. You can add some glitz to your pandemic look with a blingy, diamond face mask from Israel.

After some Indians went viral for wearing masks made of gold that cost lakhs of rupees, an Israeli jewelry company has revealed that it is working on what it says will be the worlds most expensive coronavirus mask, a gold, diamond-encrusted face covering with a price tag of $1.5 million. That's Rs 11 crore, in case you wondered.

The 18-karat white gold mask will be decorated with 3,600 white and black diamonds and fitted with top-rated N99 filters at the request of the buyer, said designer Isaac Levy.

Levy, owner of the Yvel company, said the buyer had two other demands: that it be completed by the end of the year, and that it would be the priciest in the world. That last condition, he said, was the easiest to fulfill.

But who commissioned such an expensive mask? Levy declined to identify the buyer, but said he was a Chinese businessman living in the United States.

The glitzed-up face mask may lend some pizzazz to the protective gear now mandatory in public spaces in many countries. But at 270 grams (over half a pound)  nearly 100 times that of a typical surgical mask  it is not likely to be a practical accessory to wear.

In an interview at his factory near Jerusalem, Levy showed off several pieces of the mask, covered in diamonds. One gold plate had a hole for the filter.

Money maybe doesnt buy everything, but if it can buy a very expensive COVID-19 mask and the guy wants to wear it and walk around and get the attention, he should be happy with that, Levy said.

READ: Gold Mask Now a Trend in India with Yet Another Man Donning One Worth Rs 3.5 Lakh in Odisha

Such an ostentatious mask might also rub some the wrong way at a time when millions of people around the world are out of work or suffering economically. Levy said that while he would not wear it himself, he was thankful for the opportunity.

I am happy that this mask gave us enough work for our employees to be able to provide their jobs in very challenging times like these times right now, he said.

Indians are not new to masks made of precious metals and substances. Earlier in July, several Indian businessmen from places like Pune and Cuttack went viral for their golden face masks. One cost Rs 2.8 lakh while the other cost Rs 3.8 lakh.

(With inputs from AP)
Bluezone, a mobile app commissioned by the Vietnamese government to assist in contact tracing during the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, does not intrude on personal privacy or collect users data, according to Tran Viet Hai  the person in charge of the app project.

Hai told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the app can identify recent contacts by the exchange of Bluetooth radio signals.

Each phone generates a random alphanumeric ID  which is shuffled regularly  that it broadcasts to nearby phones in a protocol known as Bluetooth 'handshakes.'

If two users are opening the app at the same time, their passing by each other will be calculated as one 'contact,' Hai explained.

If they leave the application running in the background, it may take longer [for the encounter to be recorded], but not more than five minutes, he said.

If the distance between the two smartphones with Bluezone installed is less than two meters, the users interaction will be categorized as 'close contact.' Otherwise, it will be classified as mere 'contact.'

If a user experiences symptoms or tests positive for COVID-19, they can trigger notifications to the phones they have recently been near.

Hai further clarified that the number of people a Bluezone user is exposed to and the number of 'contacts' counted by the app can be different, as several interactions between two same people are counted as separate 'contacts' rather than one.

By this logic, a user can see a high number of 'contacts' on the app although they have recently interacted with only one or two people, he noted.

Hai also asked people to make sure that the Bluetooth function on their smartphone is turned on to keep the app running properly.

This supplied photo shows Tran Viet Hai, who is in charge of the project to develop the Bluezone app.

Regarding Bluezone users privacy, Hai affirmed that the apps development and operations team does not collect any user data.

According to him, Bluezone operates in a distributed application architecture, where data is stored on users devices rather than a developer server.

Users are therefore in complete control of whether they want to erase data collected by the Bluezone app stored on their device, Hai explained.

In the event that Bluezones system is attacked, hackers cannot have all the data of the users, he added.

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 previously pledged 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.

Over 12 million of people in Vietnam had downloaded the app as of last Saturday, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.

The health ministry believes that at least 50 million active Bluezone users  out of Vietnams 76.8 million smartphone users  are needed for the app to have a meaningful impact.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Children walk down a street in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, on July 20, 2020. (Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images)

Puerto Rico Partially Suspends Primary Elections Over Lack of Ballots

Puerto Rico on Sunday suspended voting at polling places that ran out of ballots, with some officials calling for the resignation of the president of the territorys elections commission.

The voting centers, which did not receive ballots by the early afternoon on Sunday, will have their primaries rescheduled, the election commission said.

The leaders of Puerto Ricos two major political parties announced that the centers, which turned away voters on Aug. 9, will now hold primaries on Aug. 16. Some politicians argued that the entire election should be cancelled and run again on another date. The two left-wing parties have a field of five primary candidates vying to face off in the general election in November.

A federal control board with oversight of Puerto Ricos finances said in a statement that the dysfunctional voting process was unacceptable. The board blamed the fiasco on inefficiency by the elections commission.

I have never seen on American soil something like what has just been done here in Puerto Rico. Its an embarrassment to our government and our people, Pedro Pierluisi, a gubernatorial candidate challenging Gov. Wanda Vazquez in the primary, said.

Vazquez called the situation a disaster and demanded the resignation of the president of the elections commission, Juan Rivera. A commission spokeswoman said Rivera was not granting interviews.

They made the people of Puerto Rico, not the candidates, believe that they were prepared, Vazquez said. Today the opposite was evident. They lied.

Thomas Schatz, president of the Senate of Puerto Rico, said that trucks with ballots were still parked at the elections commission headquarters even as he announced the partial suspension of the primaries.

The question is, why havent they left? Schatz said.

The situation infuriated voters and politicians of all stripes as they blamed Puerto Ricos elections commission and demanded an explanation for ballots reaching only a handful of voting centers by the afternoon.

Meanwhile, officials from the islands two main parties scrambled to find solutions as they urged voters to still show up at centers that remained open.

Yadira Pizarro, a 44-year-old teacher, ran out of patience at a shuttered voting center in Carolina where she had waited more than four hours under a blistering sun.

I cannot believe this. This is some serious negligence, she said.

One of the most closely watched races on Sunday is that of the pro-statehood Progressive New Party, which pits two candidates who served as replacement governors following last years political turmoil. Vazquez faces Pierluisi, who represented Puerto Rico in Congress from 2009 to 2017.

Pierluisi briefly served as governor after Gov. Ricardo Rossello resigned in August 2019 following widespread street protests over a profanity-laced chat that was leaked and government corruption. But Puerto Ricos Supreme Court ruled that Vazquez, then the justice secretary, was constitutionally next in line because there was no secretary of state.

Meanwhile, the main opposition Popular Democratic Party, which supports Puerto Ricos current political status as a U.S. territory, is holding a primary for the first time in its 82-year history. Three people are vying to become governorSan Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, known for her public spats with U.S. President Donald Trump following the devastation of Hurricane Maria; Puerto Rico Sen. Eduardo Bhatia; and Carlos Delgado, mayor of the northwest coastal town of Isabela.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
michael barbaro

From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

[music]

In the weeks since China imposed a strict new security law on Hong Kong, dozens of people have been arrested there. Today: My colleague Austin Ramsay speaks to the most high profile figure arrested so far about his quest for freedom and the future of Hong Kong. Its Thursday September 3. Austin, who exactly is Jimmy Lai?

austin ramsay

Jimmy Lai is a wealthy media tycoon in Hong Kong.

[music]

archived recording 1 Jimmy Lai has lived the Hong Kong dream. He went from rags to riches. archived recording 2 He went from working at a Hong Kong sweatshop to founding a business empire that is now worth around $1 billion.

austin ramsay

He made his first fortune in clothing, hes now in media.

archived recording Lai is the owner of Apple Daily, one of the most widely read newspapers in Hong Kong.

austin ramsay

Hes a man about town, he is politically active.

archived recording 1 Mr. Lai is Hong Kongs most prominent pro-democracy campaigner. Hes an outspoken critic of Beijings policies in the territory. archived recording 2 Outspoken, unafraid. He has said to cause trouble, to speak his mind and to support his publication.

austin ramsay

And the story of how he became who he is very much a story of Hong Kong. He reflects, in many ways, the promise of Hong Kong. And now whats happening to him today reflects some of the disappointments.

archived recording Police in Hong Kong have arrested media mogul and democracy proponent Jimmy Lai along with six other people under that controversial new national security law.

austin ramsay

After the national security law was passed, Jimmy Lai was arrested. And after he was held for about a day, he was released and out on bail, and he agreed to talk to us. So one morning, my colleague Tiffany May and I 

tiffany may Hi. [SPEAKING CANTONESE]

austin ramsay

 went and visited him at his house.

speaker [SPEAKING CANTONESE] tiffany may Hes asking for our press cards. speaker [SPEAKING CANTONESE]

austin ramsay

Its in a neighborhood of old colonial houses on the Kowloon peninsula. And by American standards, its a large suburban house. But by Hong Kong standards, where people have a couple hundred square feet to themselves at most, its enormous. And theres a gate 

tiffany may We go in now, this guard said.

austin ramsay

And a new Mercedes outside.

tiffany may There are five cars parked here.

austin ramsay

And we walk into his house.

tiffany may Were being led into the living room with a grand piano, many oil paintings.

austin ramsay

Theres lots of art on the walls, stacks of books, fresh flowers. And we wait to meet him for breakfast.

tiffany may Hes saying that during the interview, we could wear the mask. Obviously not while were eating.

austin ramsay

And so Jimmy Lai comes in after his morning workout.

jimmy lai Yeah, have some coffee and breakfast. tiffany may Thats it  jimmy lai Yeah, I just finished my exercise.

austin ramsay

Hes wearing sort of a multimillionaire casual with some gray sweat pants and a seersucker jacket, and a white dress shirt. And so we sit down at a table, its sort of an enclosed veranda next to his backyard.

jimmy lai Cheers. tiffany may Cheers. austin ramsay Cheers.

austin ramsay

And we start talking.

austin ramsay Well, maybe if we can start  jimmy lai Whatever, you just ask, ill answer. austin ramsay Ask away. jimmy lai Ill answer but if I cant answer, Ill tell you why I cant answer. austin ramsay OK, great. Great.

michael barbaro

And where does Jimmy Lais story start? Where do you begin this conversation?

austin ramsay

So Jimmy Lai was born in Canton, whats now known as Guangzhou in mainland China. He was born in 1948 just before the Communist takeover of China in 1949. And this is a very wrenching and difficult period for a lot of people, including Jimmy Lais family. Theres campaigns to take land and property from the wealthy.

tiffany may What did your family do in mainland China? jimmy lai My family was a shipping business. My family were quite rich, thats why we became the enemy of the people. So the whole family was marginalized.

austin ramsay

And by the time hes a young boy theres a mass collectivization campaign called the Great Leap Forward. And it results in widespread starvation.

austin ramsay So that was a very difficult time in mainland China  jimmy lai Because famine. You have some food, but sometimes youre hungry, you have to eat vegetable, rice or whatever.

austin ramsay

 and contributes to a famine in which tens of millions of people are believed to have died. And so while he lives in Canton  which is a comparatively a relatively well-off place in China  its still quite difficult for him and his family.

jimmy lai Well, I worked as a boy as a luggage carrier in a railway station in Canton.

austin ramsay

He told us that he was working at a railway station as a porter, and thats where he sort of first got the inspiration to go to Hong Kong.

jimmy lai So I had access to people who came from Hong Kong, those guys I carried the baggage for. But one day I carried baggage for a guy who was biting a bar of chocolate, and he gave me a tip, and he gave the bar of chocolate to me also. He ate almost half of it. And I was shy. I, you know, turn around and I bite it. And I said, whats this? He said, chocolate. I said, where you from? Hong Kong. I said, Hong Kong must be heaven.

austin ramsay

And so he tried it, and he was amazed, and in that moment he said, I have to get to this place.

michael barbaro

So for this poor young man, wherever that chocolate came from he wanted to be.

austin ramsay

Thats right. And it becomes clear in talking to him that food is a very big consideration. I mean, this is a period of starvation in China.

jimmy lai Then I told my mother, I have to go. My mother said, you know, if you go to Hong Kong its like going to the moon. I would never see you again. It is very dangerous.

austin ramsay

And his parents are reluctant to allow him to go. Hes quite young, hes 12. But he tells us that his mother also realized that there was a real risk of him starving.

jimmy lai My mom eventually allowed me to go just because if you stay here, maybe you would die from famine. And I left, and snuck under the fishing boats from Macau to Hong Kong.

austin ramsay

And from Macau he makes his way onto a fishing boat, and he is smuggled by a fishing boat into Hong Kong.

jimmy lai And the same night I arrive, I was taken to a factory as a boy worker. The factory manager told those other kids to take me in the morning to breakfast. It was the first time I saw so much food. It was the first time I realized, food is actually freedom. When you have the choice of food. I was so emotional about food that when the food was served, and I ate the first bite, I stood up to eat it. I dont know why. Its like paying respect to food. And I was poor, but I never felt I was poor. Because I was so hopeful that, you know, one day I will be rich. Thats the beginning.

michael barbaro

And so what does he do with his newfound sense of freedom in this land where theres finally enough food? What happens next?

austin ramsay

Well, he proves to be a very capable worker in this clothing factory. He works his way up the factory.

jimmy lai I was not even 21, I was made a general manager of a factory or 300 people. tiffany may And what did the factory make? jimmy lai Sweaters. And I stopped work and with luck, I was able to perform and make profit that they hadnt made in a couple of years.

austin ramsay

One year he uses his bonus money to invest and buy his own factory. And so within a few years, hes running his own factory.

michael barbaro

Thats very impressive for a man in his early 20s.

austin ramsay

Yeah, its quite impressive. In many ways its a very Hong Kong story. Its an opportunity that he just would not have been afforded had he stayed in mainland China.

michael barbaro

So what happens to this factory that he buys?

austin ramsay

It does well.

jimmy lai I was working as a manufacturer for t-shirts. We were producing a lot for Polo, Ralph Lauren, and some other brand names.

austin ramsay

And he eventually creates his own clothing company.

jimmy lai When I was in New York, I was trying to name my retailing shop.

austin ramsay

He tells us this kind of wild story of how he came up with the name for his new company.

jimmy lai And one day I met somebody I knew in an importing company. The guy gave me a few cookies.

austin ramsay

He is on a sales trip to New York, and hes unwittingly given a pot cookie.

michael barbaro

[LAUGHING]

jimmy lai I was totally high. I didnt know that the cookie had marijuana. interposing voices [LAUGHTER] jimmy lai So I just felt so munchy. And I went into a pizza place.

austin ramsay

He quenches his munchies with a bunch of pizza, and then later on finds a napkin in his pocket from this place, and its called Giordanos.

jimmy lai Giordano. Wow, this is very good. Italian name. You know, I was stupid enough to think that if I use the Italian name, people would think that the clothes from Italy.

austin ramsay

He takes that name, thinking that itll give this Hong Kong clothing company a sort of a European flair. And Giordano becomes a success, and it sort of becomes the Gap of Hong Kong and beyond Hong Kong. They open up in China and other parts of Asia. And Jimmy Lai is on his way, he becomes a multimillionaire.

michael barbaro

So within a very short span, this child of mainland China, who used to carry the bags of rich men on their way to Hong Kong, is now himself a massive Hong Kong success story. So how does he get from retail into media?

austin ramsay

So it starts with Chinese politics. This is the 1980s, the period of opening up in China. And people in mainland China begin pushing for even more. And so theres a protest movement in 1989 in Beijing and other large Chinese cities, where students and workers come together and demonstrate and try and demand greater say in their government. And this is something thats followed very closely in Hong Kong. By this point, its clear that Hong Kong will return to Chinese control. And so people in Hong Kong are very invested in the idea of China becoming a democracy.

michael barbaro

Right.

austin ramsay

And Jimmy Lai, he has this belief that China will open up. But that doesnt happen. China sends in the troops. And on June 4, 1989, Chinese soldiers kill hundreds, possibly thousands, of demonstrators in Beijing. And that is the end of the protest movement.

michael barbaro

And how does Jimmy Lai react to the news of that massacre?

austin ramsay

He still believes that China will become a democracy.

jimmy lai At the time when the Tiananmen Massacre happened, I thought that the way for China to go forward, liberalization, was irreversible. I was wrong. I was a dreamer, Im still a dreamer. [CHUCKLING]

austin ramsay

And he wants to do what he can to push it in that direction.

jimmy lai For somebody who has made enough money, I was 40 years old. I made enough money for my life. I said, OK, lets go into the media, because I believe in the media by delivering information, youre actually delivering freedom.

austin ramsay

He sees the way of doing that is through the media. And so as a child, he saw food as freedom. Now he sees information as freedom. And by being a publisher himself he can deliver that. So his first publication is called Next Magazine.

austin ramsay Can you tell us about the philosophy of your publications? You describe the inspiration to start them as the aftermath of Tiananmen and the crackdown, and hopes to reform China. And its a very high-minded political idea. But Next Magazine and Apple Daily are famous for gossip. So it seems like theres a  jimmy lai A Contradiction there. austin ramsay A little bit of a contradiction there. What is the underlying  jimmy lai The underlying is pro freedom. And at the same time, Im a retailer. When I started the Next Magazine, the magazine was like, OK, if youre a financial magazine, youre a financial magazine. If youre entertainment gossip, youre gossip. So I said, [EXPLETIVE] it, why should I have to do this? Why cant I put it all together and just choose the best of each one? And it became an overnight success. My purpose is to sell and to deliver the message to as many people as possible. And we have been very persistent in our pro-democracy and freedom principle.

austin ramsay

And people in Hong Kong talk about in those days waiting to get the next issue of Next Magazine. And five years later, he starts Apple Daily, which is a daily newspaper, and its a very similar mix of gossip and celebrity, and also hard hitting news and investigations. And everything somebody might want to read, basically.

michael barbaro

So how did these publications  Next, Apple Daily  how do they treat China?

austin ramsay

So theyre very critical of the Chinese Communist Party.

michael barbaro

Mm-hmm.

austin ramsay

In fact, Jimmy Lai gets into a lot of trouble over this. He has a column, and in this column he insults Li Peng, whos the Chinese Premier and person generally believed to have ordered the troops into Beijing.

jimmy lai I dont know what year was that, may be a couple years after the Tiananmen Square. He was saying something ridiculous, so I wrote a letter calling him the son of turtle.

austin ramsay

He calls him a turtles egg with zero IQ.

michael barbaro

I dont know that reference very well, but Im imagining thats a local insult that hurts.

austin ramsay

Its basically questioning both his intelligence and his parentage.

jimmy lai Then Chinas sanctioned me. And ordered me to sell the stake in Giordano within five days or whatever, otherwise they would close the shop in Beijing.

austin ramsay

Theres a very quick reaction from the Chinese authorities, and they begin closing Giordano shops in mainland China. And hes forced to decide, does he want to run a media empire or the clothing empire?

[music]

And he decides to stick with media, and he sells all of his interest in Giordano for a few hundred million dollars, and then he becomes strictly a media tycoon.

michael barbaro

But I have to imagine that the message of that insult and the response from the Chinese government, which is to directly punish him and hurt his business, is very clear to Jimmy Lai. Which is if you mess with the Chinese Communist Party, there will be repercussions.

austin ramsay

Yes, thats right. And as China gets more powerful, the risks to Jimmy Lai get bigger.

michael barbaro

Well be right back. So Austin, how do these tensions start to play out once Jimmy Lai throws himself into this media empire and, like you just said, Chinas power keeps growing?

austin ramsay

Well, he becomes a very prominent and outspoken figure in the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. He participates in protests, and his paper is a big backer of large protest movements in Hong Kong in 2014. And also, last year, he goes to the U.S. and meets with the secretary of state to advocate for Hong Kong to become more Democratic.

michael barbaro

And how risky is this behavior? Because it does seem very provocative, very publicly provocative. Is there a sense that when youre a billionaire you can do these kinds of things with a certain level of protection?

austin ramsay

Hes definitely taking risks, and hes arrested a few times for participation in illegal assemblies  for an incident with a photographer from a pro-Beijing newspaper. But the risks really escalate once the national security law comes into place.

michael barbaro

Right. And weve talked about this law with you on the show, Austin. It is written so broadly, and so clearly in response to the protest movements of the past three years, that its pretty clear that the Chinese government and their allies in the Hong Kong government could pretty much find any reason to apply it to someone doing something they dont like.

austin ramsay

Yes, thats right. And nobody really knows how far it could go.

austin ramsay This national security law I think came as a big surprise. What was your reaction when you first heard about this? jimmy lai I couldnt believe it. I thought it was rough. But the more I heard about it, the more it was true. And I knew that that spelled the death knell of Hong Kong. Because the British government did not give us democracy. But it gave us rural, private property, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom assembly. All these institutions were the protection of freedom, and thats why we Hong Kong people are so rebellious against C.C.P. when the threat of our freedom was to be taken away.

austin ramsay

And for Jimmy Lai, the Chinese authorities and Chinese state media have really identified him as one of the main targets under this law. And sure enough, within a few weeks after the law is passed, hes arrested.

austin ramsay You were one of the first people in Hong Kong to be arrested under the national security law. Theres a new department within the police specifically to handle this. So this is all very new. What was that like? jimmy lai It was like  I was preparing for it, and now the time had come. I just took it easy, because I didnt know what was going to happen. I just flow with it, flow with time, flowed with whatever. But only worried that I asked my policeman, can I go back upstairs to say goodbye to my wife? Because she is the only thing that I worry, and she has to really suffer more than I do. And thats the only thing I was concerned.

austin ramsay

He is escorted out of his mansion, and then hes taken to the Apple Daily headquarters. And theres this just amazing scene of sort of a perp walk of Jimmy Lai through the newsroom.

archived recording [SOUNDS OF NEWSROOM RAID]

austin ramsay

And there are hundreds of police, more than 200 police officers, show up at the Apple Daily newsroom.

archived recording [SOUNDS OF NEWSROOM RAID]

austin ramsay

Reporters go there and theyre live streaming the police raid on their headquarters. And editors are getting in arguments with police. And its a really dramatic scene, and its quite shocking to see so many police just descend on this newsroom. And so he, his two sons, and a few executives in his organization are arrested under national security violations. But its not made clear exactly what, in the few weeks since the law went into effect, he has done to violate this.

michael barbaro

Mm-hmm. And how did he describe his time in jail?

austin ramsay

He says that while he was being held, he thought about whether he would do things differently.

jimmy lai Actually, I was thinking, if I knew that I would end up like this in prison, would I have changed the way I ran my life? And I realized that no, I wouldnt, because I never did anything before intentionally, just naturally. So it must be my character. If its my character, its my destiny. So it was all relief. And I really dont have an inch of regret.

austin ramsay

And besides that, at some point he was going to have this collision with the authorities. And hes satisfied with the things that hes done, that the choices hes made that have led up to this point.

michael barbaro

Well, to that point, theres a line of thinking  and its kind a Chinese-centric line of thinking, but its a line of thinking  that the Communist Party hastened the imposition of this very strict security law, because of all the protests and the attention that they garnered. And to the degree that people like Jimmy Lai played a role in that movement in supporting it and amplifying it, criticizing China so openly. Does he worry that he had invited this law and its consequences faster than it might have happened if everybody, including Jimmy Lai, had acted differently? Did he miscalculate the Chinese response?

austin ramsay

He does have criticisms of the movement. He argued for nonviolence. The violence and property destruction of the protests are things that hes critical of.

jimmy lai You know, when the kids first broke into legislative consulate, I said [EXPLETIVE], this is too much. When they first threw their fire bomb, I said [EXPLETIVE], this is going to be very detrimental to the movement. I was always telling those kids, we cannot be more violent than the C.C.P. who has guns and tanks. The only thing we have is moral authority. This is the only power we have.

austin ramsay

But at the same time 

jimmy lai But I can understand also why the kids are so violent, because they are so desperate. Theyre at the beginning of their life, Im at the end of it. Its easy for me to say what I say. But for them, if they dont fight, theyll have to face a life without freedom. I dont know, if the whole movement was more moderate, would the natural security law come? I think the national security law, or kind of like this will come eventually anyway. But it just come sooner.

austin ramsay

He says that the Chinese government would have arrived at this point way or another. That these sort of restrictions on Hong Kong were inevitable.

michael barbaro

And according to that logic, what would be the point of tiptoeing around any of this? What would be the point of acquiescing or delaying? It wouldnt gain much of anything.

austin ramsay

Thats right. And hes not a subtle guy. In some ways he probably relishes the conflict that comes with forcing the authorities hand.

jimmy lai I just believe that C.C.P. definitely wanted to clamp down on the rebellions of the Hong Kong people. Because they didnt understand why Hong Kong people are so rebellious. They dont understand that we have a different value than those Chinese in China.

michael barbaro

And you and Tiffany were obviously talking to him in his home, not in a prison. So how does he get out?

austin ramsay

And so hes on bail.

jimmy lai You know, I didnt even think they would allow me bail, that was a surprise. If they dont send me to China, at least they will keep me in custody until trial. But now, after paying 300,000 cash on bail and 200,000 personal guarantee, Im not even charged. I dont know what my crime is. Theres not a day for me to appear in court yet, although my passport was confiscated. And thats it.

austin ramsay

Hes not allowed to leave Hong Kong, so there is a lot of uncertainty in terms of his future and also the future of his publications.

michael barbaro

You know, Im struck, Austin, that Jimmy Lais story, from the beginning, is, as you said, this quest for freedom. And a quest for freedom that very much resembles Hong Kongs quest for freedom. The acquisition of it, and then the loss of it. And he has tasted that freedom. But at this point, if were being honest, it kind of feels like that battle is now ending, and that he is on the losing side of it. So does he see it that way?

austin ramsay

I dont think he does. I asked him about this, because it struck me that now he was at a point in his life that was very similar to the experiences of protest leaders from 1989.

austin ramsay You know from 89, and the Tiananmen experience that often for political activists in China theres a choice thats offered. You can go the path of Wong Don and to go to America.

austin ramsay

Some of those, like Wong Don, spent some time in prison and then left, and now live a life of freedom overseas.

austin ramsay Or you can go the path of Liu Xiaobo, stay in China, end up in prison.

austin ramsay

And some of those, like Liu Xiabo, whos the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, spent time in prison and died in prison. And so I asked Jimmy Lai 

austin ramsay If a choice like that is  jimmy lai I would choose the latter. austin ramsay You would go to prison? jimmy lai Yeah. Thats the only way to end. Because its just making it very expensive for them if I stay. austin ramsay But itd be very expensive for you too. jimmy lai Huh? austin ramsay To spend potentially the rest of your life in a prison cell, thats a great cost as well. jimmy lai For one person as opposed to a country, thats a big good bargain. Thats a very good bargain. Thats a very good bargain. I choose the bargains.

austin ramsay

And he said that he would stay and fight, and risk spending the rest of his life in a prison cell. Thats a bargain that he sounds like hes willing to make.

austin ramsay As somebody whos done very well for himself as an entrepreneur, that seems like a tough bargain to take. jimmy lai It depends on what you want in life. If I was satisfied with being rich and a successful businessman, my life would be meaningless. Thats not the kind of life I want. Im just lucky to have so much money [LAUGHING] because I want to make it, you know. Its just very lucky. I think that my true nature is the fighter. austin ramsay Well, Mr. Lai, thank you very much. jimmy lai Thank you. interposing voices [SPEAKING CANTONESE].

austin ramsay

As Tiffany are walking out, Ive interviewed Jimmy Lai a few times over the past 15 or so years, it occurs to me that this could potentially be the last time that I talk with him.

jimmy lai Thank you. austin ramsay Thank you. tiffany may Thank you.

michael barbaro

Thank you, Austin. We appreciate it.

austin ramsay

Thank you, Michael.

[music]

michael barbaro
YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, ARMENPRESS. Lebanon's Health Minister Hamad Hasan announced that the Government of the country is preparing to step down, ARMENPRESS reports, citing TASS, he said following the Cabinet meeting.

Prime Minister of Lebanon Hassan Diab will soon announce about the resignation of our Government, he said.

Mass protests have been held in Lebanon for several days. The protesters demand the resignation of the Government, blaming them for the huge explosion in Beirut on August 4.

Reporting by Lilit Demuryan, Editing and Translating by Tigran Sirekanyan
YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, ARMENPRESS. On the centennial of the signing of the Treaty of Sevres (10 August 2020), the Armenian Cause Foundation published No. 3 of its Reprints series. It is a scientific article On the Validity of the Treaty of Sevres and the Arbitral Award of Woodrow Wilson, by Aida Avanessian, PhD in Law. The Article was first published in 2017, in the Armenian Yearbook of International and Comparative Law. It was last revised on 1 May 2020.

ARMENPRESS reports in the article Avanessian notes that its essential to separate the issue of validity of the Treaty from the subject of its enforceability from the perspective of generally recognized and accepted principles of international law.

According to the author, the criteria applied for determination of the validity of a treaty is if the delegation signing the treaty on behalf of a State had been authorized to sign the said treaty and whether by doing so they have not exceeded the powers granted to them.

For verification of the authority of Turkeys delegation who signed the Treaty reference should be made to a few historical facts.

Between the period from 1918 to 1920 Turkey was ruled by Sultan Muhammed the Fourth who had the authority of signing treaties on behalf of Turkey according to Article 7 of the working Turkish Constitution of the time.

On 22 July 1920, that is when the terms of the Treaty were already known, the Sultan invited the Shoray-e Saltant (the Crown Council) to examine and decide on the execution of the Treaty. The execution of the Treaty was approved in that meeting and the Treaty was signed on behalf of Turkey by a delegation headed by Damad Ferid Pasha (the other members of the delegation were General Hamdi Pasha, Riza Tavfik Bay and Rishad Halis Bay (the Turkish Ambassador in Bern).

Thus, it is undeniably clear that the Treaty was signed for Turkey by its duly authorized representatives.

To examine the question if Turkeys representatives have exceeded their powers by signing the Treaty it must be pointed out that the draft of the Treaty was submitted, by the representatives of the Allied Powers, to Turkeys representatives in May 1920.

Subsequently, comments raised by Turkey were examined and, after making minor changes in the draft, the final text was prepared and submitted to Turkey on 17 July 1920. It was this draft of the Treaty that was tabled and approved in the 22 July 1920 session of Shuray-e Saltanat (Crown Council) which means that the representatives of Turkey had signed the Treaty within and without exceeding the powers granted to them.

Thus, it can be concluded that Treaty of Sevres is a valid document under public international law.




By Jun Ji-hye







Korea's public human resources management led by the Ministry of Personnel Management has been garnering worldwide attention, as the nation's response to the COVID-19 outbreak has been praised by a number of international health experts and media for its significant testing and diagnostic capability along with its real-time information system.







The ministry said Monday that it has received inquiries from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and other developing countries on the government's personnel administration measures to overcome the public health crisis.







The ministry in charge of the public human resources management for the central government has held 12 web conferences with those countries this year amid the pandemic, sharing its knowhow on the recruitment and evaluation of public officials as well as digital transformation of the personnel management system.







The ministry and the OECD held four video conferences between April and June to discuss the role of government in coping with the public health crisis.







On June 17, the ministry hosted an online seminar in cooperation with the Astana Civil Service Hub, in which it shared its COVID-19 response experience with about 10 countries including Ukraine and Kazakhstan, as well as international organizations including the United Nations Development Programme.







The ministry has also been active in signing memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with governments of other countries to boost cooperation.







It signed an MOU with Saudi Arabia in June, and is in its final stages of signing agreements with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.







"We expect MOUs with foreign governments to foster a deeper level of cooperation in making personnel-related policies and improving competence of public officials," a ministry official said.


A central Pennsylvania jury was fully justified in convicting a woman of waving a pistol and shouting obscenities at a mother, her fiancee and her 3-year-old son during a road-rage incident on Route 422, a state Superior Court panel has found.

The decision, set in an opinion by President Judge Jack A. Panella, means Toshua Beckham, 38, of Annville, cant escape a prison and house arrest sentence for the July 2018 incident in Lebanon County.

According to Panella, Beckham waved the pistol and shouted Im going to (expletive) kill you after a Hummer driven by her boyfriend nearly collided with the victims car. The victims had beeped at the Hummer.

The victims declined Beckhams invitation to fight. Instead, they took a photo of the Hummers license plate and drove to the North Cornwall Township police station, Panella wrote.

Bechkam admitted yelling out the window, but denied brandishing a gun, police said. They said a pistol like the one the victims described was found in the center console of the Hummer.

A county jury convicted Beckham of making terroristic threats, conspiracy and simple assault. She was sentenced to 2 months in prison, followed by 4 months of house arrest and 18 months on probation.

On appeal, Bechham argued that the result of her trial was skewed because the female victim was allowed to testify that her son suffered nightmares and required therapy because of the road rage incident. That testimony was permissible, Panella concluded, and in any case had no significant effect on the trials outcome because there was ample evidence to support Beckhams convictions.
Police in New Jersey have busted another wild party which was thrown despite coronavirus restrictions in the state - with more than 300 people told to go home.

The Howell Township Police in Monmouth County said they also arrested the unnamed host of the event, which took place on Wilson Drive in the Ramtown section Sunday.

Howell police said they requested mutual aid from Wall, Brick, Jackson, Freehold, the Monmouth and Ocean County sheriff offices and State Police 'in response to the dispersal of approximately 300 people in attendance at a 'pop-up' party', according to a news release posted on Facebook.

Pictures released by Howell cops show mask compliance among the revelers to be mixed. It was unclear if social distancing was being enforced.

The images also showed the department called out K9 units to help in their response to the party.

Police in Howell Township, New Jersey, called for more cops to bust another wild party in the state during coronavirus restrictions that attracted more than 300 people and ended with all being told to go home. Pictured are revelers at the Howell festivities Sunday

Howell cops said they also arrested the unnamed host of the event, which took on Wilson Drive in the Ramtown section (pictured)

Howell police called in mutual aid from Wall, Brick, Jackson, Freehold, the Monmouth and Ocean County sheriff offices and State Police 'in response to the dispersal of approximately 300 people in attendance at a 'pop-up' party'. Pictured are officers arriving on the scene

Howell Township also called out K9 units to assist in busting the wild festivities

'Several patrol units will remain in the area to prevent others from arriving and/or returning and to monitor surrounding streets as there's been reports of stragglers urinating on people's property and vehicles,' police said.

'A majority of those who attended are not local,' authorities added.

Many of the revelers were compliant when asked to leave, but some remained upset they were charged admission by the host to attend the wild festivities.

The host, identified as 37-year-old homeowner Ronald Chatman, was charged with two counts of disorderly persons offenses, CBS2 reported.

The state's current COVID-19 safety restrictions limit indoor gatherings to 25 people, or 25 per cent of a room's capacity. 'All attendees at indoor gatherings must wear face coverings and stay six feet apart, according to regulations posted on the state's COVID-19 website.

Gatherings for weddings, funerals, memorial services, and religious and political activities, which are protected under the First Amendment, are limited to 100 people for indoor events, or 25 per cent of a room's capacity.

'Whichever number is lower,' the state's website said. Outdoor gatherings are limited to 500 people and social distancing is required.

However, there are no limits for 'First Amendment-protected outdoor activities, such as political protests of any persuasion or outdoor religious services,' the state said.

The Howell party bust comes after local authorities put a stop to a massive pool party that took place at a Bergen County mansion Aug. 1.

Video from the large gathering showed that many partygoers weren't adequately practicing social distancing.

The event, attended by hundreds and hosted in Alpine, was seen in footage on social media circulated by both the party promoter and party guests.

Folks wanting to go to the party paid to ride shuttle buses to the residence, where they stood in long lines to wait to get inside, NBC New York reported.

The Howell party bust comes after local authorities put a stop to a massive pool party that took place at a Bergen County mansion (pictured) Aug. 1

Video from the large gathering (pictured) showed that many partygoers weren't adequately practicing social distancing

One person was taken away in an ambulance during the party.

The event was billed as 'The Lavish Experience Pool Party' in advertisements while aerial views of the property showed cabanas that people could use for a price.

One woman and her group paid roughly $1000 so that they could take a bus from Brooklyn to the party. She said social distancing was practically nonexistent.

'I don't know what kind of scheme, or what they was doing, what kind of scam it was, but I don't appreciate how I was treated, how my friends were treated, how packed it was,' the woman said.

There have been more than 187,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in New Jersey, with 16,000 people killed.

Across the US there have been more than five million cases, and 163,000 deaths.

New Jersey reported five additional deaths and 378 confirmed cases on Sunday as the transmission rates have been on the decline statewide. New Jersey saw seven straight days of fewer cases, but was still above a critical benchmark that indicated the outbreak was expanding, NJ.com reported.
The founder of the Guardian Angel's has vowed to have 60 members of their organisation patrolling part of Manhattan amid growing safety concerns.

Curtis Sliwa, 66, led a Guardian Angels safety patrol of around eight members through Manhattan's Upper West Side yesterday.

The group met local people and examined the condition of the area after reports of public urination, cat-calling and drug use, the New York Post reports.

Curtis Sliwa, 66, (pictured wearing red) led a Guardian Angels safety patrol of around eight members through Manhattan's Upper West Side yesterday

The city recently moved around 300 people from packed shelters into The Lucerne, Hotel Belleclaire and the Belnord.

However, since the group, including at least six homeless pedophiles, were moved into the hotels by the city brazen drug-dealing and public masturbation have been reported by residents.

Describing the scene inside the Hotel Belleclaire told to him by a security guard, Sliwa, a 2021 mayoral candidate, said: 'Once they are in their room, other than if its an extreme emergency, you dont have access to them.

'So they are shooting up in the rooms, nickel and dime bags of heroin, very cheap, $5, $10.'

Sliwa also said that people have been able to smell certain drugs coming from some of the hotel rooms.

Members of the Guardian Angels stand outside 72nd Subway station on the Upper West Side as leader Curtis Sliwa led the group out onto the streets

The Guardian Angels patrolled the streets over the weekend after reports of drug use and public urination after three hotles in the area were turned into shelters for the homeless

The city recently moved around 300 people from packed shelters into The Lucerne, Hotel Belleclaire and the Belnord

Despite police being responsible for hotel hallways, Sliwa has said that he intends to have as many as 60 of his Guardian Angels positioned on the Upper West Side streets to restore order in the area.

A video posted on social media showed Sliwa and his group of eight angels taking to the streets wearing their red berets and all but Sliwa also wore a mask.

In the video, Sliwa says that the police are not responding to calls for help now and so his group are stepping up to help.

On Friday, Sarah Lind, who is running for City Council tweeted about those being housed in the hotels. In the tweet she said: 'A narrative Ive seen about the shelters in hotels is that individuals are being warehoused and not getting any services.

'Im not sure what warehoused is supposed to mean when were talking about housing large numbers of human beings, but they are getting services.'

Since the group were moved into the hotels by the city brazen drug-dealing and public masturbation have been reported by residents
NEW YORK Presidential politics move fast. What were watching heading into a new week on the 2020 campaign:

Days to general election: 85

Days to first state offering early voting (North Carolina): 26

___

THE NARRATIVE

The 2020 spotlight is about to shift, at least temporarily, away from President Donald Trump and onto his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

The former vice president has largely been an afterthought in recent months as he waited out much of the coronavirus pandemic from his Delaware home and Trump struggled on the global stage through a series of crises and self-made controversies. That dynamic will change when Biden announces his vice presidential selection, which is almost certain to come this week, ahead of the Democratic National Conventions Aug. 17 start date.

The burst of attention offers risks and rewards for Biden, who has struggled to energize Democrats behind his candidacy and has a demonstrated proclivity for gaffes. He is expected to make history by tapping a woman of color to serve as his running mate, although his decision remains one of the most closely guarded secrets in politics.

___

THE BIG QUESTIONS

How will Biden handle the spotlight?

Its no secret that Democrats want the 2020 election to be a referendum on Trump. Theyre far more comfortable with voters focusing on the Republican incumbents struggle to control the pandemic, revive the economy and unify the nation. But for the next two weeks, the brightest spotlight is expected to shine on Biden and his party.

His vice presidential announcement will likely be the dominant story, at least temporarily. And that leads immediately into the mostly virtual Democratic National Convention.

Make no mistake: Biden remains a candidate with flaws no matter what the polls say. Republicans have legitimate openings to attack the 77-year-old lifelong politicians age, his misstatements and his long and mixed record. The presumptive nominee has been able to deflect such attacks for much of the year given the political worlds focus on Trumps leadership through multiple crises, but very soon Biden will be under a relentless glare.

Aside from the debates, no moment in the campaign may be more consequential for Bidens fate than this one.

Will Biden make history and how much will it matter?

Never before has a woman of color been featured on a major partys presidential ticket. Biden is under intense pressure to do just that this week, although it may not be accurate to assume hes already ruled out the white women. He met privately with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whos white, last week. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who also is white, has also been a leading contender.

Still, it would be a surprise if Biden did not choose a Black woman from a short list that includes at least three prominent African Americans: California Sen. Kamala Harris, former national security adviser Susan Rice and California Rep. Karen Bass.

Its worth noting here that running mates have rarely, if ever, swayed a presidential election in the modern era. But Bidens team hopes that the historic nature of his pick might help energize two key Democratic constituencies: women and people of color. Both groups are opposed to Trump, but that doesnt mean theyre necessarily excited to turn out for Biden.

Its fair to wonder how effective the leading candidates would be in exciting the Democratic base. Harris struggled to energize Black voters behind her primary campaign earlier in the year, and Rice and Bass remain largely unknown nationally.

Will anyone stop Russia?

They warned us that Russia would be back, and now U.S. intelligence officials have confirmed that Russia is using a variety of measures to denigrate Biden ahead of the November election and that individuals linked to the Kremlin are boosting Trumps reelection bid.

The countrys counterintelligence chief, William Evanina, on Friday offered the most specific warning to date about the threat of foreign interference in the 2020 election. He also announced that U.S. officials believe that China does not want Trump to win a second term and has accelerated its criticism of the White House.

But the assessment presents a much more direct threat from Russia, which, of course, has been charged by the U.S. government for various crimes related to interfering in the 2016 election on Trumps behalf.

The Trump administration implemented a series of sanctions in recent years against Russia, but its unclear if the president will do anything else to confront the new threat of foreign interference. He again appeared to dispute his own governments intelligence over the weekend when asked about Evaninas warning.

I think the last person Russia wants to see in office is Donald Trump because nobody has been tougher on Russia than I have ever, Trump said.

Meanwhile, Trumps Republican allies on Capitol Hill are waging an ongoing probe into Bidens son Hunter and his work in Ukraine that parallels Russian disinformation efforts. The statement released Friday called out by name a pro-Russia Ukrainian lawmaker who has been spreading unsubstantiated corruption allegations against Biden and his son, which make up the core of the Republican investigation.

Will Trumps executive actions make an impact?

With Congress gridlocked and the nation in crisis, Trump over the weekend bypassed the legislative branch with executive actions that deferred payroll taxes and offered a supplemental federal unemployment benefit of up to $400 a week to millions of Americans.

It may not be legal. But its easy to see out-of-work Americans warming to Trumps move given that a week earlier an estimated 30 million people lost enhanced unemployment benefits in the midst of a public health crisis because of congressional inaction.

Trumps willingness to make his own rules has often gotten him into trouble over the last four years. And it may again this time. But Congress inability to get a deal done in the midst of legitimate crises is a reminder why voters supported a populist outsider in the first place.

___

THE FINAL THOUGHT

There is likely more risk than reward waiting for Biden as he weighs whether to pick a woman of color to serve as his running mate. Such a decision would be historic. But its far from certain that a Black female vice presidential nominee would on its own produce the kind of strong African American turnout Democrats need to defeat Trump.

Given the expectations, however, Biden faces a real backlash should he not pick a woman of color. Aimee Allison, of She the People, tells us that it would be a reckless choice to pick a white running mate with a party thats as dependent on Black and brown voters as it is.

___

2020 Watch runs every Monday and provides a look at the week ahead in the 2020 election.

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
MINSK (Reuters) - Belarus police fired water cannons, tear gas and stun grenades in a crackdown on protests that erupted on Sunday as President Alexander Lukashenko was set to claim another election win in the face of the biggest challenge in years to his grip on power.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Minsk and other cities while protesters clapped, shouted victory, waved flags and honked car horns in solidarity with the opposition. Some built barricades with garbage cans.

Video footage showed helmeted police detaining and clashing with protesters.

A police prisoner transport van hit a crowd of people in Minsk, witnesses said, but there were no immediate details of casualties. The authorities said they had no reports of any injuries from the protests.

A former Soviet collective farm manager, the authoritarian Lukashenko has ruled the country since 1994 but has battled a wave of anger over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy and his human rights record.

State-approved exit polls showed him winning 79.7% of the vote while his main opponent Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, a former English teacher who emerged from obscurity a few weeks ago to lead rallies against him, received 6.8%.

Tikhanouskaya entered the race after her husband, an anti-government blogger who intended to run, was jailed.

Id like to ask the police and troops to remember that they are part of the people. I ask my voters to prevent provocations, she said in an appeal through the news outlet tut.by. Please stop the violence.

Foreign observers have not judged an election to be free and fair in Belarus since 1995.

A harsh response to new protests could hurt Lukashenkos attempts to mend fences with the West amid fraying ties with traditional ally Russia, which has tried to press Belarus into closer economic and political union.
Democratic state Rep. Poncho Nevarez, who was caught on camera dropping an envelope containing 2 grams of cocaine at the Austin airport and turned himself in for the felony in November, said in a blog post Monday that he is 292 days sober.

In the more than 2,000-word essay titled How Im Doing, Nevarez wrote about the difficulty of being in the minority party in the Texas Legislature, his frustration in reconciling with respected colleagues whose views and politics he found abhorrent, and how he turned to alcohol and drugs as a coping mechanism.

The personal injury attorney and four-term lawmaker is not seeking re-election. The third-degree felony possession of a controlled substance charge against him was dismissed in June after Nevarez successfully completed pretrial diversion.

You lose a lot of control over how things go in the legislative process. I cannot stress this enough. It becomes a tornado. Out of control, he wrote. For a perfectionist thriving on control, it can be maddening. My lack of patience hampered me. My ego pounded me. I became unable to manage defects in my character. My path towards full-blown alcoholism and addiction was pretty well set once I lost perspective.

TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

Nevarez, 47, said that stress was further compounded by grief when he lost his sister and his best friend in 2017 within a span of six months. He started drinking more and started using drugs again for the first time since his 20s.

I could not handle the grief, he wrote. Worse, it became an excuse to continue on a very destructive path. It was never fair to their memories or to people who cared about me.

Nevarez, who is chair of the Houses Homeland Security & Public Safety committee, was also the House member who in 2017 shoved a Republican colleague during a confrontation at the Capitol. Then-state Rep. Matt Rinaldi had threatened to call immigration enforcement on protesters of the states sanctuary cities law.

Nevarez said despite his addiction he became an even more influential figure during the 2019 legislative session, but he still felt he was letting people down and had a feeling he would not be returning.

When police contacted him the first week of October, he said, his wife called it a blessing in disguise.

CRIMINAL CASE: State Rep. Poncho Nevarez faces drug charge

Publicity of the charges and my arrest were somewhat of an afterthought to me, but it turned out to be harder than I could have imagined because I had to tell to my children, he wrote. It hurt to see the damage I caused. Children are resilient, but I knew that I had a long road back to earning what gets blown away immediately for people that have addictions: trust.

Nevarez wrote that Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous as well as in-patient rehabilitation have helped him remain sober for almost a year.

I see now that what needed to change was me, he wrote. I work on that every day and I am grateful for the chance to do so.

Republican House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, who also is not seeking re-election, in a tweet Monday commended Nevarez for his openness in sharing about his struggle with addiction.

You are demonstrating that our greatest accomplishments can be found in our darkest defeats, Bonnen wrote. That, my friend, transcends any victory on the House floor. Stay well and keep on keepin on.

In an interview Monday, Nevarez said hes received a lot of positive feedback on the essay so far, but the most important to him are people reaching out asking questions about recovery.

If one person can see their way to starting to be abstinent and then working their way to sobriety, then all this stuff is worth it, he said.


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Emergency calls to Northern Ireland's Ambulance Service are regularly diverted to operators in Scotland, it can be revealed.

Dozens of 999 incidents every month are now being answered outside the region.

The number of calls rerouted to the Scottish Ambulance Service has risen by more than 80% year on year.

In 2019 over 550 emergency incidents were answered in Scotland, according to figures obtained by this newspaper.

DUP MLA Paul Givan said it was a "deeply worrying trend".

He said sending calls outside the region could lead to delays and disruption.

It comes as figures show many of the most urgent calls are not responded to inside the target eight-minute window, despite a new system brought in last autumn to tackle the problem.

When someone dials 999 their call is initially answered by the Public Emergency Call Service operated by BT.

The operator then attempts to connect the call to the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service's (NIAS) Emergency Ambulance Control.

However, in some circumstances calls are routed to the Scottish Ambulance Service as part of a 'buddy' arrangement.

These include where calls to the emergency control room exceeds its normal call handling capacity, or where an unplanned disruption to 999 call handling services occurs, through technical or other failures.

NIAS said the 'buddy' arrangement ensures an appropriate route for 999 calls to be redirected.

It said arrangements in place as standard across all UK ambulance services to ensure business continuity

However, the number of calls being answered in Scotland has risen sharply.

In the last five months of 2017, 29 calls were sent to Scottish operators.

But by 2018 this had risen to 306, rising further to 558 last year. Last September alone 98 calls were answered in Scotland.

The figures were released to this newspaper after a Freedom of Information request.

Mr Givan, who has raised the issue with Health Minister Robin Swann, said the reasons for so many calls being sent outside Northern Ireland must be identified.

He said: "These findings suggest a deeply worrying trend in the number of emergency calls from members of the public in need of medical assistance in Northern Ireland being rerouted to the Scottish Ambulance Service.

"In 2019, 558 such cases took place compared to 306 the previous year, and only 29 in the last six months of 2018.

"This demonstrates a stark and steady increase in contact lost between households and individuals in need of help locally and NIAS Emergency Ambulance Control. Rerouting these calls naturally increases the risk of delay and disruption in coordination of services.

"Whilst we recognise the need for effective 'buddy' arrangements with services elsewhere in the UK to ensure interrupted service in unforeseen situations, this should not be normal course day and daily.

"Reports of technical faults leading to calls being answered in Scotland extend as far back as 2015 and the root causes need to be identified and rectified."

In recent weeks concerns have been raised over ambulance cover in the Newry, south Down and south Armagh regions.

The Ambulance Service estimates it needs 335 additional staff to meet targets.

Mr Givan added: "It is also vital that an evidence-based approach is adopted to staffing in the NIAS and ambulance control in particular in order to ensure appropriate capacity to meet service demand across Northern Ireland.

"Covid-19 has already placed our dedicated ambulance crews and staff under additional operational pressure and they deserve to have every resource available to ensure they can carry out their roles in the most effective way.

"It is imperative that the Minister of Health moves to address these concerns as a matter of urgency."

NIAS said: "All UK services have buddying arrangements in place with neighbouring ambulances services.

"This is considered best practice.

"NIAS has a 'buddy system' with the Scottish Ambulance Service. This ensures continuity of service in the event of 'call surges' or interruption to the telephony network. This is a reciprocal arrangement and NIAS will take calls for Scotland.

"When this happens the Scottish Ambulance Service takes the call and it is passed to NIAS's command and control system via an electronic gateway for an ambulance to be despatched."
Thousands of opposition supporters quickly took to the streets of the capital to protest what they saw as official manipulation of the vote

Protesters stay in a line during a protest after the Belarusian presidential election in Minsk, Belarus. (AP)

Minsk: Police in Belarus broke up crowds of protesters with stun grenades and rubber bullets as long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko looked set to declare an overwhelming victory in a presidential poll his opponents say was rigged.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the capital Minsk and other cities after a state exit poll showed Lukashenko winning just under 80 percent in Sunday's election, with main challenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya coming second with about seven percent.

Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old stay-at-home mother and political novice, galvanised the opposition during the election campaign, attracting tens of thousands of supporters to the ex-Soviet country's biggest demonstrations in years.

In the capital Minsk protesters gathered near a central monument, where they formed human chains as they faced off against hundreds of riot police with shields, an AFP journalist and witnesses said.

A live video feed provided by US-funded Radio Liberty showed police firing stun grenades and advancing to disperse the crowd, with many fleeing. The channel posted images of young protesters with their faces and bodies covered in blood.

An AFP journalist saw at least one protester receiving medical treatment from paramedics, and others being dragged away by riot police.

Opposition-linked media outlets showed a video of a police van ramming into a crowd and running down a protester.

Government buildings in Minsk had been cordoned off, residents reported internet shutdowns and widespread connection problems, and social media posts showed columns of military vehicles on roads leading into the capital.

Alexander, a 35-year-old protester in Minsk, accused Lukashenko of blatantly rigging the vote.

"I came out to protest because the country needs a change in power," he told AFP. "This is a crime, a mockery of our people."

Videos posted on social media showed water cannon being used and there were reports of rubber bullets being fired.

After several hours of rallies, state news agency Belta quoted the interior ministry as saying that "police are in control of the situation." Protests had largely died down in the capital by 3 am local time (00:00 GMT).

Ales Bialiatski, the head of rights group Viasna, said several people were injured and accused police of using excessive force against the mainly young protesters.

"The police responded with disproportionate harshness, using their full force," he told AFP.

'Majority is with us'

In a news conference after polls closed Tikhanovskaya said she did not trust the results.

"I believe my eyes, and I see that the majority is with us," she said. "We have already won, because we have overcome our fear, our apathy and our indifference."

She also called on members of law enforcement to stop using force.

Her ally, Maria Kolesnikova, said the government was "incapable of running the country" and an "unprecedented" political crisis was setting in.

Preliminary results had not yet been announced, although the election chief had said she expected them in the early hours of Monday.

Lukashenko, seeking a sixth term, warned the opposition he was not planning to give up his "beloved" Belarus as security was dramatically tightened in the capital.

Tikhanovskaya decided to run for president after the authorities jailed her husband, popular blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, and barred him from running.

On Sunday afternoon, huge queues formed outside polling stations in Minsk and other cities, after Tikhanovskaya urged her supporters to vote late to give authorities less chance to falsify the election.

Many wore white bracelets that have become a symbol of the opposition.

Tikhanovskaya has said that if she won she would release political prisoners and call fresh elections to include the entire opposition.

Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, vowed to maintain order, suggesting his opponents may be planning unrest.

"Nothing will get out of control, I guarantee you... whatever certain people have planned," the strongman said, casting his vote.

'What happens next'

Nigel Gould-Davies, a former British ambassador to Belarus, said there was no doubt the polls would be falsified.

"The question is what happens then," Gould-Davies, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told AFP.

In the past Lukashenko has crushed protests with riot police and hefty jail terms, prompting Western sanctions.

"Given Lukashenko's ruthlessness, anyone who is concerned about Belarus will worry, will fear for the Belarusian people in the days ahead."

Lukashenko has sought to boost his support by warning of outside threats and raising the spectre of violent mobs.

Authorities have detained 33 Russians, describing them as mercenaries sent to destabilise the vote.

The detentions sparked a political crisis with ally Russia. Moscow urged the men's release and President Vladimir Putin told Lukashenko he wants Belarus to stay "stable".
New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld its constitutional power to hear maintainability plea of the application by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

The apex court to hear the maintainability plea on December 15.

Earlier Centre had opposed in the apex court that plea filed Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu was not maintainable.

Supreme Court on Friday reiterated that the order to release 2000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu will stand till further orders.

Earlier on October 19, the apex court on reserved order on maintainability on appeal of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala against Tribunal's order of 2007.

The Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal announced its final verdict on 5 February 2007.According to its verdict Tamil Nadu gets 419 TMC of Cauvery water while Karnataka gets 270 TMC.

The Centre, through Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, had raised a preliminary objection claiming that the CWDT award amounted to a final decree in the dispute and the apex court had no jurisdiction to hear appeals against the award of the tribunal.

But the states had contended that their appeals were maintainable saying the Supreme Court had the jurisdiction to adjudicate the appeals filed by the state against the award of tribunal and that no statute can take away the appellate powers of the apex court under Article 136 of Constitution.

However, Puducherry supported the stand of the Centre that the appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are not maintainable.

Earlier, Rohatgi had argued that Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to adjudicate the appeals pertaining to the dispute relating to use, distribution and control of inter-state water or river valley.

The attorney general had said as per the constitutional provisions, the inter-state water dispute tribunal is headed by a retired Supreme Court or High Court judge and its decree has a force like that of a decree of the Supreme Court and thus the apex court cannot hear the appeals against its own order.

(With inputs from PTI)

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Kerala Flooding: Ham radio operators offer support

The Times of India reports a group of amateur radio enthusiasts has extended their support to ensure emergency communication with rescue operations in Idukki



A control unit of the ham radio station started functioning Friday night, August 7, at Gandhi Nagar fire station in Ernakulam, 132 km away from Rajamalai in Idukki.



Read the full story at

https://timesofindia.

indiatimes.com/city/kochi/kerala-ham-radio-operators-offer-support/articleshow/77442579.cms
OTTAWABillions of dollars are flying out of federal coffers as part of the governments COVID-19 wage support program.

But which companies are getting the money? Ottawa wont say  at least not yet.

According to Jeremy Bellefeuille, press secretary to National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier, its only a matter of time until it does.

Bellefeuille pointed out that the law passed in April to create the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy allows the government to publish the names of employers receiving it. He said the government will release a list of them at some unspecified point in time, along with the amount of public money each has received.

The process for making this information available is still under consideration, Bellefeuille said by email Monday. He referred further questions to the CRAs media relations department.

Agency spokesperson Christopher Doody told the Star by email that the CRA plans to provide an update on the publication of this information by the end of August. Doody did not answer questions about why it hasnt been released yet, or what factors are being considered before it is published, but said the CRA is focusing on recent changes to extend and expand eligibility for the wage subsidy.

Federal statistics show the government paid out more than $25 billion in wage subsidies to almost 800,000 applicants as of Aug. 2. That included 190 entities that received more than $5 million.

James Cohen, executive director of the anti-corruption group Transparency International Canada, said the government should be as open as possible about how it is spending huge amounts of public money during the pandemic crisis. For the wage subsidy, that transparency would be increased if Canada created a registry that makes it easier to see who owns companies in this country.

Additional transparency is key during this time, Cohen said. Canadians are hurting and need help, but they also need to trust the process, that the help is being distributed correctly, is being overseen correctly.

Others questioned the need for the government to release which companies are receiving how much from the wage subsidy.

Kevin Page, the former Parliamentary Budget Officer and president of the University of Ottawas Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy, said Monday that a case can be made that we do not need company-specific information about the wage subsidy.

He said general information about company sizes and industries could be enough to evaluate the programs performance, and regular government audits should be sufficient to monitor how the money is spent.

To qualify, firms need to demonstrate significant year over year declines in revenues. While this should not be surprising in an economy that is shrinking by record amounts (post Depression) in 2020, it may be sensitive to business and employees, Page wrote by email.

Billed as a key plank in the federal governments response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the wage subsidy is designed to help businesses, non-profits, political parties and other entities keep workers on their payrolls as revenues are battered amid this years economic turbulence. In recent months, applications for the wage subsidy trailed those of the more-popular Canada Emergency Response Benefit for people who lost work during the pandemic.

Last month, Parliament extended the life of the subsidy program and broadened its eligibility criteria, so that companies that have lost less than 30 per cent revenue during the pandemic can now qualify for the subsidy.

Allan Lanthier, a former government adviser and retired partner of an international accounting firm, argues the expanded wage subsidy  and the loosening of the requirement to have experienced a 30-per-cent revenue decline  lets corporations that dont need Ottawas help receive public money anyway during the crisis.

But Lanthier questioned whether the government could release how much companies get from the wage subsidy without breaching confidentiality rules in the Income Tax Act. He said he would rather see a better designed program that doesnt open the door to major corporations that dont need government help.

Rather than publishing the names, I think they should have written the rules in a sensible way, he said.

NDP MP Gord Johns said Monday that his partys main priority is to pressure the government to ensure more entities can get the wage subsidy to protect jobs during the pandemic. At the same time, however, we should know where the funds are going when it comes to all of the spending for the pandemic, he said.

We need more transparency, and thats something that weve been asking the government for.
(Natural News) According to a recent study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, a citizen science program that was started more than 10 years ago has helped researchers determine mercury pollution levels in the U.S. National Park System.

The Dragonfly Mercury Project

Dr. Sarah Nelson from the University of Maine and the Schoodic Institute first launched the original Dragonfly Mercury Project back in 2007.

Following the initial project, Dartmouths Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program developed a regional effort in New Hampshire and Vermont in 2010. Eventually, the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) expanded the project nationally.

The citizen science project in the Upper Valley region of New England usually takes place during fall, with high school students in New Hampshire and Vermont taking part.

The study was conducted by researchers from the Appalachian Mountain Club, Dartmouth College, the National Park Service, the University of Maine and the USGS.

Collin Eagles-Smith, from the USGS, was the papers lead author. Nelson, who launched the original project, is now the director of research at the Appalachian Mountain Club.

The researchers analyzed data from thousands of larval dragonfly specimens collected from at least 500 locations throughout 100 sites within the U.S. National Park System. The survey of mercury pollution was collected from 2009 to 2018 for the national Dragonfly Mercury Project.

Students and park visitors who participated in the citizen science project helped organize field studies and collect the dragonfly specimens. In addition, National Park rangers helped guide the citizen scientists as they worked in the protected sites.

Biosentinels

According to the national research effort that initially started as a regional project to collect dragonfly larvae, the young form of the insect can serve as a biosentinel to measure the amount of mercury present in birds, amphibians and fish.

Mercury levels in dragonfly larvae can then be analyzed so researchers can conduct mercury research. The findings can then be gathered to develop a national registry of pollution data on toxic mercury.

Celia Chen, a co-author of the study and director of Dartmouths Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program, explained that scientists are unable to run tests on fish because both animals and humans consume them.

Additionally, fish can be difficult to work with for a national-level research program. Substituting dragonfly larvae allowed the scientists to focus on subjects that dont significantly affect the food chain.

Dragonflies thrive in diverse freshwater habitats throughout six continents. These insects have tissues that take up mercury in its toxic form.

As predators, dragonflies operate in the food web like birds, fish and amphibians that also amass the toxic metal in their body tissues.

Why you should be worried about methylmercury

Methylmercury is the organic form of mercury, a toxic metal. Methylmercury endangers humans and wildlife who both consume fish.

Mercury pollution can be traced back to power plants, mining and other industrial sites. The toxic metal can be dispersed via the atmosphere or deposited in the natural environment, harming wildlife exposed to it.

Elemental and methylmercury are harmful to the human central and peripheral nervous systems. Inhaling mercury vapor can damage the digestive, immune and nervous systems, along with the lungs and kidneys. It can also be fatal.

The inorganic salts of mercury will corrode the eyes, skin and gastrointestinal tract upon contact. If accidentally ingested, it may induce kidney toxicity.

Inhalation, ingestion or dermal exposure of different mercury compounds may result in behavioral and neurological disorders. Symptoms can include headaches, insomnia, memory loss, neuromuscular effects, tremors and cognitive and motor dysfunction.

Workers exposed to an elemental mercury level in the air of 20 micrograms per cubic meter of air (mcg/m3) or more may experience mild, subclinical signs of central nervous system toxicity. The effects can last for several years. Workers exposed to mercury have also reported kidney damage such as increased protein in the urine and kidney failure.

Dragonfly larvae and mercury pollution

Researchers often observe fish and aquatic birds to monitor mercury levels. However, these animals are difficult to work with during a large-scale project because of their size, migratory patterns and the diversity of species.

On the other hand, dragonfly larvae are easy to collect. This helped ensure the success of the citizen science research project. (Related: Mercury exposure in the oceans is getting worse, causing mercury levels in seafood to rise.)

Kate Buckman, a research scientist and Dartmouths coordinator for the citizen science program, commented that it was very rewarding to assist teachers and their students to engage in data-driven, real-world research impacting their communities. Buckman was pleased to observe the enthusiasm of students who wanted to take part in real science first-hand.

For the 10-year study, the scientists devised the first survey of mercury pollution in the U.S. National Park System.

Results showed that at least two-thirds of the aquatic sites studied all over the national parks are polluted with moderate to extreme levels of mercury.

The researchers noted that the finding of mercury within park sites does not suggest that the root of the pollution is in the parks. Most of the time, mercury spreads within the atmosphere. The toxic metal is then deposited in the protected areas and different water bodies throughout America.

Since the parks included in the study were found all over the country, such as in Alaska and Hawaii, the findings indicate mercury pollution levels all over the U.S.

Chen said that the Dartmouth study is the first to conduct a broad-scale survey on mercury in the country. And by using the national dragonfly data, researchers were able to study a huge area with different systems.

Chen posited that further study can help develop a national baseline of mercury pollution information.

Findings also revealed that rivers, streams and other faster-moving bodies of water had higher levels of mercury pollution compared to slower-moving systems like lakes, ponds and wetlands.

Chen noted that the research team owes a lot to the citizen scientists all over America who helped conduct this important study. She added that this proves how public outreach around science can bring results that help the entire country.

To learn more about mercury and how to avoid this toxic metal, visit MercuryScience.com.

Sources include:

ScienceDaily.com

WHO.int
The Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) headquarters has cleared the Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Agboola Ajayi, to contest as the partys candidate in the October 10 governorship election.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that Mr Ajayi who lost the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ticket to Eyitayo Jegede, has been meeting with state and national leaders of the ZLP.

One of those who is said to have endorsed Mr Ajayi is a former governor of the state, Olusegun Mimiko, who gave him some conditions to be met.

Mr Mimiko told Mr Ajayi that he must be willing to complete some of his abandoned policies and also pick deputy governorship candidate from his camp.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that Mr Ajayi was cleared to contest by the ZLP national executive council last week.

Confirming the development, the deputy governors spokesperson, Tope Okeowo, said he has been cleared and no going back on that again. He is ZLP candidate

He also confirmed that a formal defection from the PDP would be done before the end of the week.

Mr Ajayis name would be used to replace the current governorship candidate of ZLP, Rotimi Benjamin, this newspaper learnt.

Such substitution is still allowed now based on the timetable released by the electoral commission, INEC.

Following the latest development, Mr Ajayi will challenge his boss, Rotimi Akeredolu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Mr Jegede of the PDP.

INEC has cleared 17 parties and candidates for the October election.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-11 00:02:08|Editor: huaxia

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UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for international support for Lebanon after last week's horrific explosion that destroyed the port of Beirut and part of the capital city.

"I call for robust international support for all people in need in Lebanon, especially women and girls who are most vulnerable in times of crisis," he told a virtual UN briefing on the humanitarian situation in Lebanon. "I thank those countries that are already providing tangible financial, material and specialized assistance. I urge donors to give speedily and generously."

Guterres also called for an investigation and for reforms in the country.

At this time of both sorrow and prolonged frustration, the anger of the Lebanese people is palpable. Their voices must be heard, he said, referring to the anti-government protests in the country.

It is important that a credible and transparent investigation determine the cause of the explosion and bring about the accountability demanded by the Lebanese people. It is also important that reforms be implemented so as to address the needs of the Lebanese people for the longer term, he said.

The blast has come at an already difficult time for Lebanon, with the country already facing economic hardship and impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. The economic, social and other reverberations will be felt for some time to come, said Guterres.

"The catastrophe is huge. The sense of loss and even disbelief is profound. But Lebanon is resilient. Lebanon has immense spirit and will," he said. "Perhaps most of all, Lebanon is not alone. The United Nations will stand with Lebanon to help alleviate the immediate suffering and support its recovery."

This is a moment for solidarity, and it is the time to change things for the better, he said. Enditem
In the aftermath of an oil leak from a Japanese-owned ship that polluted its waters, the island of Mauritius situated in the Indian Ocean has declared a "state of environmental emergency."

The announcement was made on Friday by Pravind Jugnauth, prime minister of Mauritius. The government has stated that the effect of the spill has made a "very sensitive impact" on its environmental areas as images taken via satellite showed the oil staining the island's blue waters with black.

According to the island country, the Japanese-owned MV Wakashio carried around 4,000 tons of fuel. Cracks have appeared in the hull of the ship causing the oil to leak in the surrounding waters.

Before his announcement, Jugnauth stated that the government has already appealed for help from France. He also added that the spill poses a threat to the country and their 1.3 million citizens, explaining that this is another hard hit on their economy which mostly relies on tourism since they have already been affected by the CVOID-19 pandemic.

Moreover, he stated that the country does not have the resources in helping stranded ships refloat, thus, he asked for aid from president Emmanuel Macron of France. He also said that the weather has also made it impossible to make any moves and expressed concern about the situation worsening as the weather deteriorates.

According to The Guardian, footage of the spill has surfaced online showing people at the ship looking from a distance as oily waved crashed on the shorelines of the island. Based on online ship trackers, MV Wakashio, which was a Panama-flagged bulk carrier was headed to Brazil from China.

Mauritius' closest neighbor is the Island of Reunion which is still part of France's territory. The French foreign ministry has also stated that France is the "leading foreign investor" of Mauritius and also one of its biggest partners in trade.

Read also: China Seals Off Village After Bubonic Plague Deaths Increases in Inner Mongolia

Meanwhile, Kavy Ramano, Mauritius' environmental minister referred to the spill as an environmental crisis. He also added that the areas within the proximity of the spill are sensitive environmental areas including the Blue Bay Marine Park.

In addition, Ramano stated that a salvage team was previously working on the ship, however, they were evacuated after the detection of cracks on the ship's hull. He also added that they have acted on trying to contain the spill by deploying around 400 sea booms.

According to Aljazeera, the National Coast Guard did not receive any distress call despite the ship having been ran aground since the 25th of July. The ship was said to be owned by Japanese companies, Nagashiki Shipping Co Ltd. And Okiyo Maritime Corporation.

On top of this, the government stated that there is already an open police inquiry looking to possibilities of issues concerning negligence that led to the spill.

Nearly a decade ago, and environmental outlook released by the government stated that the country has a national spill contingency plan in place. However, it was emphasized that their equipment can only deal with less than 10 metric tonnes of oil spills.



Related article: Protesters Storm Beirut Streets Calling for Justice Over Deadly Blast

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
TN SSLC 10th Result 2020 DECLARED: Students can check their results on alternative websites such as examresults.net, indiaresults.com, schools9.com, results.shikha.

TN SSLC 10th Result 2020 DECLARED| The Tamil Nadu government has released the results of its Class 10 or SSLC exams today (10 August) at 9.30 am.

Students can now check their results on the Tamil Nadu board's official websites dge.tn.gov.in, dge1.tn.nic.in, tnresults.nic.in

This time, 100 percent of students  over 9.5 lakh students of which 468,070 are girls and 471,759 boys  have cleared the Class 10 papers.

Students have been assessed on the basis of a special scheme that takes into account the results of quarterly or half-yearly exams (given 80 percent weightage) and attendance (20 percent weightage).

The exams, which were to be conducted from 15 to 25 June after being postponed from March due to the nationwide lockdown, were cancelled as per a Madras High Court order to ensure the safety of students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Follow LIVE Updates on Tamil Nadu Class 10 results

How to check results on alternative websites

The official websites could become unresponsive or slow down due to the heavy traffic. But students need not worry as the result is available on a mobile app as well as a few alternative websites such as examresults.net, indiaresults.com, schools9.com, results.shikha.

How to check TN SSLC Results 2020 on examresults.net:

Step 1: Log onto examresults.net website.

Step 2: Click on Tamil Nadu in the list of the states or access the link directly here.

Step 3: Look for the link that says "Tamil Nadu SSLC Exam 2020."

Step 4: Click on the link and fill in all the details to get your Tamil Nadu Board SSC Examination 2020 result.

Steps to check Tamil Nadu SSC result 2020 on indiaresults.com:

Step 1: Visit the website indiaresults.com.

Step 2: Click on Tamil Nadu in the list of the states or type the URL tamil-nadu.indiaresults.com on your browser and press 'enter'.

Step 3: Look for the link that says "TN SSLC 10th Results 2020".

Step 4: Click on the link. It will take you to a new page. Fill in all the details to get your matric result.

How to check via mobile app

They may also face issues with internet connectivity. In such a situation, students can check their results through the TN SSLC Result app, which can be downloaded on smartphones from Google Play Store or App Store.

How to check Tamil Nadu Class 10 results 2020 online:

Step 1: Go to the official website- tnresults.nic.in

Step 2: Select the link that reads 'SSLC Exam 2020 Results'

Step 3: Login by entering your roll number/registration number and date-of-birth

Step 4: The result with subject-wise marks and total score will appear on the screen.

The Class 10 exams were scheduled to be conducted between 15 and 26 June but were cancelled due to COVID-19.

The board has formulated a new strategy to promote the students in which 80 percent marks will be evaluated based on students' performance in quarterly and half-yearly examinations. The remaining 20 percent will be based on attendance.

Last year, an overall pass percentage of 95.42 percent was recorded. Girls had outperformed boys with pass percentage of 97 percent. The pass percentage of boys was 93.
Organizations across the public and private sectors must join forces to make global access to transformative monoclonal antibody products a priority and a reality.

The groups highlight four areas of action: Increase Awareness, Expand Availability, Apply Innovations, and Create New Business Models.

The time to act is now to ensure equitable global access to potentially life-saving monoclonal antibody therapies for COVID-19 and other diseases.

Today IAVI, a nonprofit scientific research organization, and Wellcome, the independent global health foundation, are urging the global health community, from pharmaceutical companies to academic institutions to governments, to join efforts to make monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) globally accessible. The organizations issued this call with the publication of "Expanding Access to Monoclonal Antibody-Based Products: A Global Call to Action." This publication demonstrates that despite the transformative impact that mAbs have had in the treatment of a range of life-threatening diseases, they are currently not available to people living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200810005421/en/

The call to action couldn't come at a more critical time: the novel coronavirus pandemic has triggered unprecedented collaborative efforts to accelerate research and development of mAbs for COVID-19 treatment and prevention. mAbs have the potential to play an important complementary role to COVID-19 vaccines, especially for those individuals who, due to age or medical conditions, may not benefit from a vaccine. Should mAbs prove to be effective tools in the COVID-19 response, it will be essential to develop new approaches to ensure their timely global availability at scale in order to help end this pandemic. The call to action provides clear guidance for the global health community by identifying opportunities to enable and accelerate equitable global access to COVID-19 mAbs. If successful, the new approaches and partnerships that arise for COVID-19 can also set precedents to support increased global access to mAbs targeting many other diseases.

Monoclonal antibodies are one of the most powerful tools in modern medicine. These proteins, derived from human immune cells, act specifically against targets ranging from cancerous cells to viruses and bacteria, or alter precise immune pathways to augment an individual's ability to fight cancer or block aberrant immune responses in autoimmune diseases. Millions of people have benefited from mAb-based therapies to treat non-communicable diseases in the 30 years since the first one was licensed. For a sizeable and growing number of diseases, mAb therapies are not only significantly more effective than previously available therapies, they are often better tolerated as well. mAb products have dramatically improved survival rates for people with breast cancer, melanoma, lung cancer, and other difficult-to-treat cancers. They have provided new, more effective approaches for treating a range of autoimmune diseases. In addition, mAbs have been developed for several infectious diseases, and active research efforts are underway to evaluate their potential to prevent and treat a number of globally relevant infectious diseases including Ebola, HIV, and, as mentioned, COVID-19.

But mAbs, which are among the most expensive pharmaceutical products in the world to develop and produce, are inaccessible for most of the world's population. And the few mAbs that are licensed in LMICs are often unavailable, due to affordability concerns or lack of enabling policies and structures in public health systems. This major access gap must be addressed because mAbs represent a growing proportion of the product pipelines of pharmaceutical companies. Further, as many of the diseases targeted by mAbs disproportionately affect people living in LMICs, developing effective new solutions for increased global access to mAbs is imperative.

"Monoclonal antibodies are critical tools to treat a wide range of diseases from cancer to snakebite, and potentially COVID-19. Yet they remain among the most expensive medicines in the world, leaving the majority of people unable to afford or access them. This new report, from IAVI and Wellcome, sets out an achievable roadmap of actions to make equitable access to antibody therapies a reality, but global collaboration is paramount through new policy, business models, and innovation.

"In the face of the ongoing pandemic, it is even more critical to take lessons from this report and break down barriers to accessing these life-saving tools. We must ensure that any potential advances to treat COVID-19 with monoclonal antibodies are made equally accessible around the world, without exceptions," said Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of Wellcome.

"Life-saving monoclonal antibodies that are now mainstays of medical care in high-income countries are largely unavailable, and often prohibitively expensive, in LMICs, where rates of non-communicable diseases are sharply rising and where 70% of global deaths from cancer occur. Antibodies in development are also poised to play a significant role in preventing and treating infectious and neglected diseases, which often disproportionately affect those living in poverty. The crisis with COVID-19 is a once-in-a-century opportunity to develop new solutions to overcome the profound inequities in access to monoclonal antibodies and enable these promising solutions to be globally used to protect people from many diseases now and in the future," said Dr. Mark Feinberg, president and CEO of IAVI.

Analyzing case studies, and including insights from more than 100 interviews with stakeholders including product developers, global health organizations, manufacturers, regulators, funders, policy makers, healthcare providers, and ministries of health, the call to action identifies opportunities for the global health community to create solutions to make mAbs widely accessible.

"Expanding Access to Monoclonal Antibody-Based Products: A Global Call to Action" proposes four parallel actions to ensure widespread access to mAbs in LMICs:

Increase advocacy and awareness of the life-saving potential of mAbs and the need to make them more widely accessible. Develop expanded policy and regulatory pathways to increase availability of mAbs. Invest in and apply new technologies to lower development costs. Establish alternative business models to enable innovative market approaches in low-, middle-, and high-income countries that promote global access.

Action is urgently needed. Pharmaceutical companies and product developers, global health agencies, academic institutions, philanthropic organizations, civil societies, governments, and ministries of health must join forces to make global access to transformative monoclonal antibody products a priority and a reality.

IAVI and Wellcome will convene a series of meetings with key influencers and stakeholders in 2020 and 2021 to catalyze progress on the call to action for mAb access.

Read "Expanding Access to Monoclonal Antibody-Based Products: A Global Call to Action."

The publication was developed with the support of Wellcome's Affordable Innovation for Global Health flagship initiative.

BACKGROUND

Antibodies are proteins generated by the immune system. They are one of the primary ways the body defends itself against disease.

are proteins generated by the immune system. They are one of the primary ways the body defends itself against disease. Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are antibodies expressed from identical immune cells that can be manufactured at commercial scale using living cells. They are powerful tools in treating and preventing disease.

mAbs have been developed and deployed, mainly in high-income countries, against many cancers, autoimmune diseases, and some infectious diseases. A growing pipeline of mAbs is being developed to address infectious and neglected diseases, which are significant and escalating threats to global public health.

In 2019, seven of the ten best-selling novel drugs globally were mAbs.

Approximately 80% of licensed mAbs are sold in the U.S., Europe, and Canada. Only 20% of mAbs are sold in countries that make up 90% of the world's population.

Availability and affordability are two of the biggest barriers impeding global access to licensed mAbs.

Advancements in antibody optimization, manufacturing technologies, and packaging and delivery have the potential to lower mAb production costs and increase efficiency.

Alternate business models, including public-private partnerships and industry-led access models, are emerging to support antibody research and development, manufacturing, and global access

Engaging communities, healthcare providers, and policy makers will help ensure that future products are acceptable and feasible to implement in diverse settings.

About IAVI

IAVI is a nonprofit scientific research organization dedicated to addressing urgent, unmet global health challenges including HIV and tuberculosis. Its mission is to translate scientific discoveries into affordable, globally accessible public health solutions. Read more at iavi.org.

About Wellcome

Wellcome exists to improve health by helping great ideas to thrive. We support researchers, we take on big health challenges, we campaign for better science, and we help everyone get involved with science and health research.?We are a politically and financially independent foundation.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200810005421/en/

Contacts:

IAVI Media Contact

Rose Catlos

+1 212 847 1049

RCatlos@iavi.org



Wellcome Media Contact

Wellcome Media Office

+44 (0)20 7611 8866

mediaoffice@wellcome.ac.uk
Chinese lawmakers held group discussions on Saturday to deliberate draft laws on urban construction and maintenance tax and deed tax, respectively.

The draft laws were submitted to the 21st session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee for a second reading on Saturday.

Lawmakers said the two drafts were relatively mature and suggested their approval by voting at the session.

The draft law on urban construction and maintenance tax aimed to further clarify the scope of relevant tax reductions and exemptions, while that on deed tax aimed at exempting legal heirs from deed tax on the ownership of land and houses they inherited.
The complexities of FEMA's Disaster Recovery Fund are too many to detail here in this blog post. In summary, Congress puts money into the fund every year to cover disaster relief payments to states and local jurisdictions that have a Presidential Declaration. If there are a number of big disasters, Congress has to act during the year to replenish the fund by authorizing the borrowing of more money. 2020 is a year where the expected number of hurricanes is such that we may run out of letters in the alphabet to name them.One of President Trump's executive orders he signed authorizes taking (robbing?) money from the fund. There is around $50B in it right now. This segment from aarticle explains, "One of the measures Trump signed on Saturday aims to provide $400 in weekly unemployment aid for millions of Americans. Trump said 25 percent of this money would be paid by states, many of which are already dealing with major budget shortfalls. The federal contribution would be redirected from disaster relief money at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Those funds are not likely to last more than two months, and Trump would not say when the benefits would kick in."It is a tangled web we weave.One last note is that local and state governments will need to start laying off employees since there is no federal funding on the horizon. Only the Democratic Congress has funds to help these governments in their COVID-19 proposal. The Senate and White House do not. Republican states could delay for a few more months, but then when layoffs do come, they will have to be more significant than if they took earlier action.
The Ministry of Environment and Pursat officials have criticized conservation group Wildlife Alliance for burning the vehicle of a Pursat resident for allegedly transporting illegal timber.



On August 5, a team from Wildlife Alliance confronted two tractor-driven carts, called koyun in Khmer, according to a provincial police statement. It added that the Wildlife Alliance team, which comprised three Cambodians and one foreign national, burnt one of the two-wheel tractors.



It was not related to our authorities, read the August 8 statement.



Sarun Chanthy, Pursat provincial police chief, said officials had investigated the incident and found that the Wildlife Alliance team had burned the koyun, but refused to comment any further.



You can ask Wildlife Alliance. It is not related to our police activity, he said. Their activity went over the line.



Ministry of Environment spokesperson Neth Pheaktra said burning the tractor was not part of forest protection measures under the Ministry of Environment.



The ones who burnt it are responsible for that. The activity of Wildlife Alliance was not legal, he said. We also advise Wildlife Alliance to oversee their staffs work.



A four-minute video of the incident was posted on Facebook by the Ministry of Interior official Pheng Vannak, who runs a popular social account. The video has seen angry reactions from social media users against Wildlife Alliances actions.

Kea Teav, the villager whose tractor was burned, said she was collecting deadwood on August 5, around 13 kilometers from her home in Svaysor commune. She said the Wildlife Alliance team confronted her and, after a heated exchange, the foreign national burned her tractor.



The foreigner asked for a lighter and then he took gasoline from the cart and he burned my tractor, said Kea Teav, the mother of two children.



Kea Teav is concerned about loan payments she has to make for the two-wheel tractor. She had taken a $3,000 loan from microfinance institution Hattha Kaksekar to finance the tractor.



It is too cruel. Other villagers also transport the woods, she added.



While Suwanna Gauntlett, founder, and CEO of Wildlife Alliance, said it was a mistake to burn the tractor, she claimed that Kea Teav was engaging in illegal logging and that in such cases law enforcement is needed.

First of all, it was our mistake to have burned the Koyun. I have educated our team on this, she said.

It is perfectly normal that the people conducting illegal logging are not happy to be stopped, villagers always complain, and their timber is rarely just firewood.

She added that the Wildlife Alliance team found that Kea Teav was transporting a large quantity of sawn trees, around three cubic meters, and claimed that the wood was coming from the Cardamoms.

They used the term firewood, but thousands of trees are being cut under this term, she said in an email.

She added that the Cardamom national park was being destroyed by firewood logging, which was then transported to either charcoal factories on the way to Phnom Penh, or to garment factories in Phnom Penh. She did not elaborate on which garment factories were using this wood.



Kea Teav rejected Suwanna Gauntletts accusations and reiterated that the wood she cut was not from the protected area.

It is not big trees like Prey Lang trees, she said. Other people also transport timber. Why burn only my tractor? It is very unfair.



Chan Sai, commune chief for Svaysor, said there were no big trees in the area surrounding the area and that villagers normally cut and collected small trees.

The firewood is small. They are not big, he said.
Hyundai Motor shares jumped to their highest price since May 2018, after the carmaker said it would create a family of Ioniq-brand electric vehicles (EV) as it aims to become the third-largest EV maker by 2025.

Hyundai said the elevation of Ioniq from individual vehicle nameplate to a brand will support its goal of capturing 10% of global EV sales within five years.

Other car shares also rose, with affiliate automaker Kia Motors and parts suppliers Hyundai Mobis and Mando also climbing.

With the launch of a new EV family brand, shares of Hyundai Motor are rallying today, reflecting investors hope that the auto industry will outperform compared to other industries, said analyst Kwon Soon-woo at SK Securities.

Trevor Milton, chief executive of EV startup Nikola, said he would like to cooperate with Hyundai.

Hyundai Group chief Euisun Chung last month said Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors aim to sell 1 million battery-driven electric vehicles in 2025, together targeting more than 10% of the global market share for such vehicles.

Read More BP at start of costly road to switch to wind and solar power

Hyundai said that starting in early 2021, it would introduce three all-electric models under the Ioniq brand.

They include the Ioniq 5, a midsize crossover based on the 2019 Hyundai 45 concept; in 2022, the Ioniq 6 sedan, based on the Hyundai Prophecy concept unveiled earlier this year; and in early 2024, the Ioniq 7, a large crossover.

Meanwhile, Chinese carmaker Geely plans to use a platform developed with input from Volvo to build new models in Malaysia for its partly owned Proton brand, a strategy that shows how it aims to accelerate its push to become Chinas first global auto giant.

The yet-to-be-finalised plans for Proton are just one strand of a Geely project to revamp factories at home and abroad using joint platforms it has been perfecting with Volvo since 2013.

Geely bought the Swedish brand 10 years ago for $1.8bn - a deal that raised its international profile and sent shockwaves through the global auto trade.

Senior Geely officials and engineers said a project dubbed Compact Modular Architecture will allow them to develop, design and build different types of compact cars with similar mechanical layout faster than before - and at lower cost.

- Reuters
ANN ARBOR, MI  Police are investigating a reported early Monday morning home invasion at a University of Michigan student housing community.

Officers were call at about 2:10 a.m. Aug. 10, to the 2100 block of Stone Road at the Northwood V student housing community for a reported home invasion that had just occurred, according to the University of Michigan Division of Public Safety and Security.

A woman reported she was sleeping in an upstairs bedroom when she was awakened by a noise in the apartment, police said.

Checking on the noise, she opened her bedroom door and was met by an unknown man standing outside, police said. The man did not speak before fleeing the home moments after the woman opened the door, police said.

It was discovered the man was able to get inside the apartment through an unlocked sliding glass patio door on the first floor, police said.

No arrests have been made and an investigation into this incident continues.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the U-M Division of Public Safety and Security at 734-763-1131 or call 911.

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Some UPCOM-listed companies are enjoying stable earnings brought by joint ventures they established with foreign partners, but their core businesses remain insignificant.

An automobile assembly line at Ford Vietnam Co's factory in northern Hai Duong Province. Ford Vietnam is a joint venture between Ford Motor Group based in Michigan, US (75 per cent) and Song Cong Diesel Company (25 per cent), a subsidiary of the Vietnam Engine and Agricultural Machinery Corporation (VEAM).  VNA/VNS Photo Tran Viet

These joint ventures are usually foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in which State-owned enterprises contribute capital and land use rights, while foreign companies contribute money and technology.

The Vietnam Engine and Agricultural Machinery Corporation (VEAM), which makes engines, agricultural machinery, automobiles and motorbikes, possesses major stakes in three joint ventures, namely Honda Vietnam (30 per cent), Toyota Vietnam (20 per cent) and Ford Vietnam (25 per cent).

VEAM's profits mainly come from these three joint ventures.

The firm's plentiful revenue from financial activities was also thanks to the dividends collected from its joint ventures.

The 2018 financial statements showed net revenue from the main business activities of VEAM reached VND7.07 trillion (US$304.2 million), but the company achieved VND7.04 trillion in post-tax profit.

In 2019, VEAM achieved revenue of VND685 billion and suffered a loss of VND337 billion in its main business.

But thanks to the large volume of revenue from financial activities of VND7.8 trillion, at the end of the year, the company still achieved a post-tax profit of VND7.04 trillion.

When spare parts manufacturer PetroVietNam Machinery-Technology JSC (PVM) was a State-owned enterprise 25 years ago, it held 30 per cent each in joint ventures with Japanese partners Nippon Seiki, Showa and FCC, all specialising in manufacturing auto and motorcycle parts.

After equitisation, PVM now only holds 10 per cent capital in the joint venture with FCC, 10 per cent with Nippon Seiki and 8.45 per cent with Showa.

These all are leading enterprises in the spare parts industry, supplying spare parts for Honda, Yamaha, and Suzuki. These joint ventures earn trillions of dong of profits each year and produce profits up to VND80-100 billion for PVM every year.

In 2016, PVM earned more than VND100 billion of dividends and distributed profits collected from joint ventures. It earned nearly VND84 billion in 2017, VND80 billion in 2018 and VND81.3 billion in 2019.

PVMs core businesses only helped it achieve profits of VND21 billion in 2019, VND15.7 billion in 2018 and VND27.8 billion in 2017.

Vietnam Forestry Corporation JSC (Vinafor or VIF) also enjoys earnings from joint ventures with Yamaha from Japan, Hong Leong Industry from Malaysia, Sojitz Corporation from Japan and JK Paper from India.

In 2018 and 2019, the profits Vinafor earned from these joint ventures accounted for about 90 per cent of its profit structure.

Binh Duong Production and Trading Goods Corporation (PRT) is the Vietnamese partner in the FDI joint venture FrieslandCampina Vietnam Co Ltd, familiar to consumers with brands like Dutch Lady, Friso, YoMost, Fristi and Completa.

The main profit of the company comes from FrieslandCampina. PRT achieved dividends and distributed profits from this joint venture of VND402.8 billion and VND539.2 billion in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Waiting for restructuring

Shareholders of these companies are looking forward to restructuring.

PVM has many conveniently-located land plots such as a 2,000sq.m land plot at Trang Thi Street, Hoan Kiem District in Hanoi; 23,600sq.m in Dong Anh District, Hanoi; 137sq.m in Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi; and 1,500sq.m at 25 Mong Cai Street in Quang Ninh City.

However, earning results from the main businesses remain poor. At general meetings of shareholders every year, shareholders question leaders about the use of those land plots and request company restructuring, streamlining apparatus and increasing business efficiency.

At this year's meeting, PVM shareholders questioned the efficiency of the Centre of International Labour Co-operation and Service.

This centre reported revenue of VND790 million in 2019, only 13 per cent of the yearly goal.

The shareholders even suggested PVM's leaders consider dissolving the centre.

The cumbersome apparatus, ineffective operation of many departments and divisions, consume two-thirds of the dividends collected from the companys joint ventures every year, the shareholders said.

Similarly, at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Vinafor, shareholders complained that three years after equitisation, Vinafor's profits still rely largely on joint ventures.

Shareholders requested the company improve the efficiency of the afforestation and wood processing segments to improve the profit structure and avoid relying too much on dividends from the joint venture. VNS

Vietnamese businesses still reluctant to list shares The number of companies which listed shares or are planning to list shares in 2019 remains very modest.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Donald Trump said Monday that his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination will be held at either the White House or the Gettysburg battlefield, as he searches for a symbolic substitute for his virus-scuttled plans for an arena celebration.

The president's initial hopes for the event to be a four-day infomercial for his reelection bid have been steadily constrained by the coronavirus pandemic, culminating in his decision last month to cancel nearly all of the in-person proceeding. In recent weeks, Trump and his aides have looked for alternatives that would allow him to recreate at least some of the pomp of the event.

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., Trump tweeted Monday.

He added that a decision on the location of the Aug. 27 speech will be made soon.

Both sites are federal property, raising legal and ethical issues for their use in a political event. The president is not covered by the Hatch Act, which prohibits political activity by nearly all federal employees, though White House and other federal officials supporting the event are.

The Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania could also resurface the presidents repeated defense of monuments to heroes of the Confederacy.

Trump has previously turned to national parks and monuments to hold politically tinged events, including a July 4 event on the National Mall in 2019 and one at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota just last month. In May, he gave an interview to Fox News inside the Lincoln Memorial, a move that required special dispensation from his appointed secretary of the Interior, David Bernhardt.

Staging a convention speech at Gettysburg, though, would go a step further, and raise questions about politicizing the site of the deadliest battle of the Civil War.

Story continues

Trump has spoken openly of his fondness for President Abraham Lincoln, whose short address dedicating the national cemetery for Union soldiers in 1863 crystallized the cause for which they died fighting. But Trump has repeatedly courted controversy in office in opposing efforts to remove displays of the Confederate battle flag and failing to resoundingly condemn white supremacists.

The Republican National Convention was initially slated for Charlotte, North Carolina, before Trump moved it to Jacksonville, Florida, in June, in hopes the Republican-led state would be more amenable to his aim of having thousands of mask-less supporters cheering his renomination. But as a wave of new coronavirus cases swept the Sun Belt, Trump was forced to cancel those proceedings last month.

Now almost the entirety of the convention will be conducted virtually, except for a formal renomination vote on Aug. 24 in Charlotte by just a few hundred delegates casting proxy votes for those unable to assemble in person.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  More than 600 guns seized by Cleveland police during criminal investigations sit untested because of a dispute between the city and the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiners Office and complications arising from the coronavirus pandemic.

The disagreement already led to delays in more than 100 prosecutions of criminal cases. The issue began in late March just as the coronavirus gripped the nation and Ohio.

The medical examiner notified Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams March 31 that two technicians went on medical leave because of the virus and that the office could no longer perform the tests.

At issue is a disagreement over who is responsible for performing the tests known as an operability test, a test-fire that is used to determine whether a gun seized from a suspect works. The test is necessary to secure an indictment and conviction in a gun-crime case and used to link the gun to other unsolved violent crimes.

A contract amended in 2017 calls for the medical examiner to conduct forensic testing on guns for Cleveland police. Medical examiner administrator Hugh Shannon said his office does not consider the operability tests a forensic test.

Cleveland police did not make alternative plans to test the guns for four months, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael OMalley said. Cleveland spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia has not responded to questions about what the department is doing to restart testing.

The simple test can be conducted by a police officer or a medical examiner investigator, along with a witness to verify the gun was tested. Forensic analysts compare the bullet casing to others found at shooting scenes  which are entered into a national database, along with the guns identification number and other data  to determine if someone used the same weapon in other crimes.

Shannon said, in recent years, that his office conducted operability tests for Cleveland police to help the department process the vast amount of guns it seizes in the interest of justice. The office tests the weapons based on the most urgent need, such as in a homicide investigation or if prosecutors are preparing to present a case to the grand jury.

Medical examiner statistics show the office tested 324 guns in the first three months of the year.

Then the coronavirus pandemic hit. The medical examiner tested 70 guns throughout April, May and June.

Shannon said the pandemic forced one evidence technician to go on medical leave due to underlying medical conditions, which worsen the effects of the virus. A second technician was exposed to the virus in May. The medical examiner hired another technician in June but that employee is still going through training, Shannon said.

Medical Examiner Thomas Gilson notified Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams March 31 that their office would stop conducting all but the most necessary tests, Shannon said.

Eleven days later, a Cleveland police detective emailed Gilson to complain that a gun seized during an arrest wasnt tested, delaying the criminal case.

These arrests are piling up, and these dangerous people are not getting prosecuted, Fifth District Vice Det. Jeff Yansenchack wrote.

Gilson emailed Williams and then-Cleveland Safety Director Michael McGrath and reiterated that they could no longer conduct operability tests.

Gilson wrote that another issue the medical examiner faced is their gun-testing space in the basement of the medical examiners building is kind of cramped and that social distancing measures are next to impossible because a witness is required to watch the test fire.

Gilson offered to send the new employee, once theyve passed the probationary period, to Cleveland polices much larger gun range to conduct the test fires. No one from the city responded, the emails show.

We helped them out by doing these tests for years, Shannon said. The one time we needed their help, with COVID and everything else going on, they were nowhere to be found.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael OMalley said his office is awaiting operability test results for more than 600 guns. So far, the delay has held up 138 criminal cases ranging from shootings and robberies to felons arrested in possession of a weapon, he said.

Its possible that some defendants are back out on the streets because of this, but where it really helps is when we can test those guns to tie them to other crimes and identify bad actors, OMalley said.

OMalley said police officials notified his office on Tuesday that department brass has come up with a temporary solution. Still, the police department has not released details on how they intend to address the backlog.

Were happy that Cleveland has dedicated resources for this problem, and Im thankful for that, OMalley said. But there needs to be a permanent solution.

The backlog comes at a time when Cleveland is dealing with an increase of gun violence. Cleveland has 94 homicides so far in 2020, compared with 72 at the same time last year. Shootings  including when someone fires a gun and no one is hurt  increased by 39 percent, with 715 through July 24 this year compared with 514 through the same time in 2019, according to police statistics.

At the same time, gun seizures are up, but weapons arrests are down, according to the statistics. Police have seized 1,162 guns, a 10 percent increase over 2019. Weapons arrests are down 14 percent, from 524 in 2019 to 449 this year.

The U.S. Department of Justice earlier this month sent 25 agents to help Cleveland police investigate and solve violent crimes.
He killed his roommate with a cleaver, A 29-year-old man has been sentenced on Monday by the Frankfurt district court to three and a half years in prison. The district court was in fact in Bad Homburg refugee accommodation of the age of homicide from (Az.: 3490 Js 208215/18).

the motive for the attack remained Unclear. The Pakistanis had bats in his 42-year-old compatriot in February of 2018 at night, according to court more than 50 "" with the knife added, resulting in the immediate death of the victim.

escape ended in Spain

Immediately after that, he fled, where he left a Footprint in the blood. The escape ended in Spain, where he was captured, and Germany was delivered.

Updated Date: 10 August 2020, 14:20
Update: Shifu Noodle will open Saturday.

In Mandarin Chinese, to be a shifu is to be a master and a teacher. Hunan native Chrystal Yi and business partner Wendy Jiang from Sichuan hope to bring that spirit to the Southeast Side with Shifu Noodle, a Sichuan-style noodle house opening Saturday near the H-E-B at McCreless Market.

The menu draws its power from a dozen dishes incorporating noodles made fresh at the shop, then dressed out with elements like pork and mustard greens for dan dan noodles, pork and bok choy for homestyle noodles, and garlic with fiery chile oil for garlicky cold noodles.

The kitchen, overseen by chef Daming Yao, also will turn out Sichuan-style crispy chicken, wok-sauteed green beans and spicy-sweet peanuts, along with fried rice, lo mein and dumplings. The menus reminiscent of Sichuan House, one of San Antonios best restaurants according to the Express-News Top 100 Dining & Drinks guide. Yao and Yi are both veterans of that well-known Northwest Side favorite, and Yi credits Sichuan House owner Kristina Zhao with inspiring her to start Shifu, bringing Sichuan cooking to a part of town in need of more Chinese food options.

The shops design transcends the generic look and feel of the shopping center it shares with H-E-B. Yi has decorated one wall with cool, calm watercolors and clean lines, the other wall with graphics exploding with Chinese opera masks and monkey kings. A curtain at the kitchen entrance in the back warns in Chinese characters to beware of the grumpy cook within.

On ExpressNews.com: Review: Sichuan House brings the heat and the subtlety, too

Shifu will be open this Saturday and Sunday for its soft opening from 4 to 8 p.m. Afterward, they plan to have a grand opening Wednesday, moving toward regular hours of 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday, 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m Wednesday through Saturday and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday. Dine-in, curbside and third-party delivery will be available.

Shifu Noodle, 3850 S. New Braunfels Ave., Suite 109, 210-888-1228, Facebook: @shifunoodle

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
Beijing: The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday (August 10, 2020) 'firmly opposed' the United States-Taiwan official interactions and urged Washington to stop official interactions with Taiwan.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said, "China consistently and firmly opposes any official interactions between the US and Taiwan and has made stern representations with the US side over this issue."

Zhao added, "I'd like to reiterate that 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 its political foundation. What the US has done contravened its own promises on the question."

He said, "We urge the US to adhere to the one-China principle and the three joint communique, stop having official interactions of any kind with Taiwan, make no attempts to change the nature of its relationship with Taiwan, and handle Taiwan-related issues prudently and properly to avoid severe damage to China-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait."

China firmly opposes any US-Taiwan official interactions. We urge the #US to adhere to the one-China principle&the #threejointcommuniques, stop official interactions with Taiwan, make no attempts to change the nature of the relations, and handle related issues prudently&properly. pic.twitter.com/ZJysgQYY6z  Spokesperson(@MFA_China) August 10, 2020

Zhao said that they stand ready to work with the United States to build a relationship on coordination, cooperation and stability in the spirit of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, but will never submit to "its bullying and power politics".

"We will firmly safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, uphold our legitimate development rights and interests, and defend our major country status and national dignity that the Chinese people have won through unremitting efforts," stated Zhao.

He also expressed that some extremist forces in the United States continue to stoke trouble, trying to push China-US relations into the so-called "New Cold War".

"We believe that China and the United States need to have candid and effective dialogues, take concrete actions to manage differences and focus on and advance practical cooperation in various fields. This serves the common interests of the two peoples and meets the common expectations of the international community," said Zhao.

Recounting the August 7 event when the US announced sanctions on 11 officials of Chinese Government and the Hong Kong SAR under the pretext of undermining Hong Kong's autonomy, Zhao commented, "Such behavior openly meddles with Hong Kong affairs, blatantly interferes in China's internal affairs, and gravely violates international law and basic norms of international relations. China firmly rejects and condemns it."

In response to US' sanctions, China also decided on Monday to impose sanctions on US individuals with "egregious behaviors on Hong Kong-related issues".

"Hong Kong is part of China and its affairs are entirely China's internal affairs which allow no foreign interference. We urge the US to grasp the situation, correct its mistake, and immediately stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs," said Zhao.

Earlier on August 7, the director of the US National Counterintelligence and Security Center said that Russia, China and Iran are trying to interfere in the 2020 US election adding that the US believes that "China does not want Trump to win reelection" because it views him as "unpredictable".

Zhao in reply to this said that the general election of the United States is its internal affairs and "China has never interfered in it" and has "no interest to do that in the future".

"At the same time, we have repeatedly said that those in the US should immediately stop the trick of dragging China into their domestic politics," stated Zhao.

China has no interest in or history of interfering in #USelections. Some in the US should stop dragging China into their political games. pic.twitter.com/AFYBcw53Kt  Spokesperson (@MFA_China) August 10, 2020

The US-China relations have soured in the past few months over several issues including Hong Kong and the Chinese government's handling of the coronavirus.
MEXICO CITY  A gray Suzuki stopped outside the General Hospital of Mexico and deposited a heaving Victor Bailon at the entrance. He had refused to come to the hospital for days, convinced that doctors were killing coronavirus patients. By the time he hobbled into the triage area and collapsed on the floor, it was too late.

Papito, breathe! his wife screamed. Please breathe.

Within an hour, Bailon was dead.

Mexico is battling one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the world, with more than 52,000 confirmed deaths, the third-highest toll of the pandemic. And its struggle has been made even harder by a pervasive phenomenon: a deeply rooted fear of hospitals.

The problem has long plagued nations overwhelmed by unfamiliar diseases. During the Ebola epidemic in 2014, many in Sierra Leone believed that hospitals had become hopeless death traps, leading sick people to stay home and inadvertently spread the disease to their families and neighbors.

Here in Mexico, a similar vicious cycle is taking place. As the pandemic crushes an already weak health care system, with bodies piling up in refrigerated trucks, many Mexicans see the COVID ward as a place where only death awaits  to be avoided at all cost.

The consequences, doctors, nurses and health ministers say, are severe. Mexicans are waiting to seek medical care until their cases are so bad that doctors can do little to help them. Thousands are dying before ever seeing the inside of a hospital, government data show, succumbing to the virus in taxis on the way there or in sickbeds at home.

Fighting infections at home may not only spread the disease more widely, epidemiologists say, but it also hides the true toll of the epidemic because an untold number of people die without ever being tested  and officially counted  as coronavirus victims.

Many Mexicans say they have good reason to be wary of hospitals: Nearly 40% of people hospitalized with confirmed cases of the virus in Mexico City, the epicenter of the nations outbreak, end up dying, government data show, a high mortality rate even when compared with some of the worst coronavirus hot spots worldwide. During the peak of the pandemic in New York City, less than 25% of coronavirus patients died in hospitals, studies have estimated.

While the statistic may be imprecise because of limited testing, doctors and researchers confirmed that a startling number of people are dying in Mexicos hospitals.

During a surge of cases in May, almost half of all COVID-19 deaths in Mexico City hospitals occurred within 12 hours of the patients being admitted, said Dr. Oliva Lopez Arellano, Mexico Citys health minister.

In the United States, people who died typically made it five days in the hospital.

Doctors say more patients would survive if they sought help earlier. Delaying treatment, they argue, simply leads to more deaths in hospitals  which then generates even more fear of hospitals.

The distrust is so pronounced that relatives of patients in Ecatepec, a municipality outside of Mexico City, stormed a hospital in May, attacking its employees, filming themselves next to bags of corpses and telling reporters that the institution was killing their loved ones.

After seeing videos of what happens to people inside hospitals, screw that, said Bailons brother, Jose Eduardo, who had recently spent 60 days at home recovering from his own bout with what he believes was the coronavirus. Id rather stay home and die there.

But many people who die at home in Mexico  or even on the way to the hospital  are never tested for the virus, so they are not counted as coronavirus victims. Instead, they fall into a statistical black hole of fatalities that are not officially tied to the pandemic.

Even by the official count, Mexico has already suffered more coronavirus deaths than any other nation but the United States and Brazil. And the government said recently that during a period of over three months this spring, there were 71,000 more deaths than expected, compared with previous years  an indication that the virus has claimed many more lives than the official tally suggests.

Adding to the confusion, political leaders here, as in many countries, have sown doubts about the virus and the need to seek medical care. The hugely popular president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, said he uses religious amulets and his clean conscience to protect against the coronavirus, and he has advocated fighting the pandemic at home, with the help of families, rather than in hospitals.

Nearly 70% of Mexicans said they would feel unsafe taking their loved ones to the hospital during the pandemic, in a survey published last month. A third said they would prefer to care for their relatives themselves.

Now the nations top health officials have begun pleading with Mexicans to stop resisting medical care.

Its very important that late care doesnt contribute to death, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, the health official leading the countrys response to the virus, said at a news conference last month. Please, go to hospitals early, especially people who are most at risk.

Many are wary of the costs that come with a hospital stay. And in a country plagued by rampant government corruption, the fundamental distrust of authorities often extends to doctors and nurses in public hospitals.

At the General Hospital in Mexico City, where Bailon died, suspicion was running high. No one had wanted to come to the hospital, a place that seemed to swallow their loved ones and leave them outside, with few updates to calm the nerves. Everyone had a theory about the real cause of the virus and the destruction it had unleashed.

Modesto Gomez, whose wife was inside, heard the government was letting elderly people die of the virus because they had expensive pensions. Hector Mauricio Ortega, whose father was intubated there with a COVID infection, said he believed doctors were purposely infecting people with the virus because countries have a quota of people who need to die every year.

Raul Perez woke up in a panic on the benches outside the entrance. It was his 16th day sleeping there after his sister went in for brain surgery.

He said he had met seven families of patients who had come in for another illness and then died of the coronavirus.

People think maybe theyre injecting them with something or killing them in there, he said.

Perez did not believe the rumors at first, but then doctors told him that his sister, who was still intubated after her brain surgery, had tested positive for coronavirus. Now he was frantic, calling all his relatives, telling them the hospital wanted his sister dead.

They are letting people get infected, he said. They just want to get rid of one more patient.

Lopez, Mexico Citys health minister, said that rumors of malicious medical practices had been widespread. Doctors were supposedly stealing the fluid from peoples knees, or trading their fingerprint data gleaned from oximeter readings.

There was a big fake news campaign spreading rumors that health workers were attacking people inside hospitals, profiting from their death, she said.

Dr. Ernesto Nepomuceno said that in his clinic in Iztapalapa, a poor neighborhood in Mexico City, doctors perform oximeter readings on themselves to show patients that they are measuring oxygen levels, not recording personal data.

We have to make great efforts to put people at ease, Nepomuceno said.

Two days before Bailon was wheeled into the General Hospitals intensive care unit, he visited a doctor in his tiny hometown an hour outside of the capital. His oxygen levels were low, but he begged his wife, Fabiola Palma Rodriguez, not to drive him to the hospital.

Please dont take me there, I dont want to die, she recalled him telling her. By the time Bailon relented, he was already ravaged by the disease.

After a local hospital turned him away, he made the trip to Mexico City. He died on a stretcher in the General Hospital, Palma said, before doctors could intubate him.

I would have taken him earlier, but we were both too scared, Palma said. It is so unfair. I took him there alive and brought him back home dead the same day.

Aurora Arzate Nieves died on the same day as Bailon, in the same hospital, about 30 hours after being admitted. The matriarch of a tightly knit Mexican family, Arzate, 83, was known for her green mole dish and strong will. Her sons practically had to drag her to the hospital.

That decision was tormenting Eduardo Gutierrez Arzate as he said a final goodbye to his mother, who was zipped into a bag inside a Ford minivan converted into a hearse by a funeral company near the hospital.

Pawing at the window, Gutierrez begged his mother to wake up.

I felt really guilty when I saw her, he said, standing outside the crematory, black smoke billowing overhead. She was scared of everything having to do with the coronavirus and of hospitals, where she would be surrounded by depressed people instead of her family.

I asked her in that moment to forgive me, he said. I asked her to forgive me for taking her to the hospital.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont called for an investigation of the states two largest electric utility companies Wednesday as hundreds of thousands of residents remained without power a day after Tropical Storm Isaias ripped through the state.

Lamont asked the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to look into Eversource and United Illuminating and find out why they were not prepared for a quicker response, calling their power restoration efforts wholly inadequate.

As of Wednesday evening, just more than 609,000 Eversource and just under 92,000 UI customers remained without power and Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross said customers should prepare for multiple days without power.

The tongue lashing from Lamont came hours after he declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard to provide services such as helping to clear roads. The states Emergency Operations Center on Wednesday was managing both the response to the storm and to the coronavirus pandemic, he said.

Lamont also submitted a request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a presidential emergency declaration, which would allow Connecticut to request direct federal financial help to supplement state and local government costs for responding to the storm. His administration has also begun the first damage assessments to determine if the state meets the threshold necessary for a presidential major disaster declaration, which could lead to a wider range of federal assistance.

Lamont on Wednesday urged both Eversource and United Illuminating to further ramp up their efforts to restore power, noting they had several days of advance notice of the storm, which brought down trees and power lines across the state.

Find people wherever you can and get them here, Lamont said. Why werent they pre-positioned five days ago? Well have plenty of time to analyze that later. Right now, Ive got a house on fire, so to speak, and I need the fire department fully staffed.

This isnt the first time the states utilities, electric and others, have come under criticism for their preparation for storms and their response to restore service.

In 2012, following Tropical Storm Irene and a devastating ice storm, a panel formed by then-Governor Dannel P. Malloy determined that the size of those storms had revealed serious structural flaws in the electric utilities actual on-the-ground response to their customers.

The panel issued 82 recommendations, including improved worst-case planning and staffing by the states utilities and better hardening of the states infrastructure to withstand natural disasters, noting that work should be done as soon as possible.

Eversource said Tuesdays storm ranks just behind those two.

The company had 450 line crews out Wednesday and was bringing in crews from out of state in an effort to double that number by Thursday. United Illuminating, with a much smaller service area, said it had 465 personnel involved in the recovery effort.

Craig Hallstrom, Eversources president of electrical operations, defended his companys response.

We committed back on Friday to crews, he said. We know what the past has been so we hired hundreds of crews in anticipation of this.

The storm has been blamed for at least one death in the state. Police said a 66-year-old Connecticut man was killed by a tree during the height of the storm.

The man, whose name was not immediately released, was driving in Naugatuck at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. When he got out of his car to clear branches from the road, a tree fell and hit him, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

At least seven other people were killed as the storm battered the East Coast on Tuesday with rain and fierce winds. They included Mario Siles, 60, who was inside a construction van that was crushed by a large tree in the Queens borough of New York City.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Windstorm Connecticut
WASHINGTON - It's going to be screen time all the time for kindergartners and graduate students alike. Teachers are threatening strikes. And students are already coming home infected with the coronavirus, which has upended American education.

The 2020-21 school year has dawned, and it's more chaotic than any before it.

Plans are changing so fast that students and parents can hardly keep up. Districts that spent all summer planning hybrid systems, in which children would be in school part of the week, ditched them as coronavirus cases surged. Universities changed their teaching models, their start dates and their rules for housing, all with scant notice.

And many districts and colleges have yet to make final decisions, even now, with the fall term already underway in some of the country.

"Plans are changing right up till the moment that schools open," said Michael Casserly, executive director of Great City Schools, a lobbying group for large districts.

Chicago Public Schools announced last week that, after planning a hybrid system, its classes would begin the year online. Districts across the country have pushed back their opening dates. Last week, the first week of school in Georgia's Cherokee County School District, administrators sent 14 letters to parents, each disclosing new cases of the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease covid-19. They included 13 students ranging from first to 12th grades, and a few teachers. More than 300 students who had been in contact with them were directed to quarantine for 14 days.

"Our parents wanted a choice for their children, and we delivered - it is not perfect, and we all know that, but perfection is not possible in a pandemic," Superintendent Brian Hightower said Friday in a message to the community.

Another Georgia high school, in Paulding County, drew national attention after students posted pictures and video of their peers walking without masks in tightly packed hallways. Now, six students and three staff members there have tested positive for the virus, according to a letter sent to parents over the weekend.

And on Sunday, the superintendent said the school would go online only for Monday and Tuesday and would announce plans beyond that on Tuesday evening.

Last week, Johns Hopkins University changed its mind and said classes would be fully online, discouraging even those who had signed leases from returning to Baltimore. Students at Washington University in St. Louis faced the opposite problem when the school said on July 31 that all dorm rooms would be converted to singles, leaving juniors and seniors scrambling to find housing at the last minute.

In Congress, talks over a pandemic relief package collapsed last week, leaving no clear path to providing schools with funding lawmakers in both major political parties agree is urgently needed.

"We knew how to close schools," said Annette Anderson, an assistant professor of education and deputy director of the Center for Safe and Healthy Schools at Johns Hopkins University. "But we have no idea how to properly reopen schools."

The result of this chaos is uncertainty for students and their parents, with profound ramifications for health, learning, emotional development and economics in schools that open and those that do not.

Of the 20 largest K-12 districts, 17 now plan to begin the year fully remote. The big outlier is New York City, by far the nation's largest district, which plans a hybrid system and so far has withstood intense pressure from teachers and others to reverse course.

On Friday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, gave the state's 732 school districts the go ahead and open in person if they like, as long as the state's coronavirus infection rates stay low.

Across the country, districts have wildly different plans based on their geography, infection rates and partisanship.

About 4% of rural districts and 21% of suburban districts have announced fully remote plans, compared with 55% of urban systems, according to a study of 477 districts chosen as a representative national sample by the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington at Bothell.

Robin Lake, the center's director, also reviewed parent surveys from districts across the country and was struck by how divergent views are.

"Some are saying they are terrified," she said. "Others are saying, 'I think this whole covid thing is a farce.' "

Like so much in America, decisions appear to be falling along partisan lines, with schools in Republicans areas far more likely to open than those in Democratic communities.

Polling shows Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to say going back into school buildings is safe. And an examination of district plans compiled by Education Week suggests that campuses are more likely to be open in conservative communities than in liberal ones.

Ed Week's database includes 153 districts in states won by Hillary Clinton in 2016. Of them, 67% plan fully remote learning this fall.

Of the 307 districts in states won by Donald Trump in 2016, 58% plan to hold fully or partly in-person classes.

Some of the divide may trace to fact that rural areas are more Republican and in some cases have fewer covid-19 cases. But the overall trend worries Daniel Domenech, executive director of AASA, which represents school superintendents.

"It's a very dangerous and explosive situation, and unfortunately people are more inclined to follow their political bent than to do what is safe for their own families and their own children," he said.

Trump and his allies have repeatedly pushed districts to open, noting the importance of in-person education for students' academic and social emotional growth, as well as for parents' ability to work. Some administrators, and the parents they serve, seem to be listening.

In Washington County, Utah, for instance, schools were accommodating the desires of a very conservative community when they opted to open for full-time, in-person school. Classes begin there this week.

"As restrictions lifted, we felt - and the community felt - that would be in the best interest of students to get them back on as normal a schedule as possible," said Steven Dunham, director of communications for the district.

"We are trying to put into place every safety precaution we can," Dunham said. "We are also trying to fulfill the requests of the parents in this community."

The district is requiring students and staff members to wear masks, as ordered by Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican. But Dunham said "a significant number of parents" have asked the school board to defy the order, something the board has declined to do.

The pressures in more liberal communities often cut the other way, with teachers unions saying it is not safe to reopen campuses.

The American Federation of Teachers passed a resolution endorsing actions including strikes to protest any orders to return to classrooms, and teachers in New York City have threatened to walk out over the issue. The newly installed president of the National Education Association said she, too, supports strikes if needed to get the attention of decision makers.

"Our members are looking at every option that they have in their toolbox to get those in charge to listen to them when they say their schools are not safe," NEA President Becky Pringle said in an interview. In her inaugural speech, she promised financial help to any affiliate that concludes its reopening plan is not safe for teachers.

Pressure to keep schools open has been intense in Texas and Florida, two states where Republican governors ordered them open and then backed off, as infections continued to climb.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in July that all schools must reopen. Then he said districts could operate remotely for the first three weeks. Then he extended that for several more weeks. Local health departments stepped in to bar some districts from opening. A few days ago, Abbott said the decision was up to local school officials.

John Kuhn, superintendent of the 3,300-student Mineral Wells Independent School District, said he's trying to follow the state's orders.

"But it's not easy," he said. "It keeps changing."

Kuhn said he's decided to open schools for students who want to come, but he is encouraging parents to keep their children home so there will be fewer in the classroom and social distancing will be easier. School starts there next week.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also ordered all districts to open, then retreated, saying remote learning would be all right where coronavirus rates are highest. On Friday, he made clear that not all districts would receive that dispensation, telling Orlando's News 6 that he was concerned that Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, plans to use remote education.

"The law requires you to offer certain amount of in-person instruction," DeSantis said, referring to his executive order. "I'm concerned about it."

Angela Skilling, a teacher in Arizona's tiny Hayden Winkelman Unified School District, is terrified of going back. Over the summer, she and two other teachers taught a remote class from the same classroom. One of the teachers died. Seven staff members, out of 60 in the district, contracted covid-19.

"We are not ready to lose another staff member," she told a congressional committee at a hearing on schools last week. "We can recover a child's lost education, but we cannot recover a life."

For colleges and universities, the tumult of campus closures in March gave way to the chaos of planning for reopening under volatile and unprecedented conditions. Some are bringing most of their students back. Others are bringing only certain groups - freshmen, for instance. Still others are telling students it's best to stay away for the fall. Many international students cannot get visas to travel to the United States, and others who are here are dependent on colleges for emergency housing.

No matter where they are living, students are resigned to a course catalog with a heavy dose of online learning. Classes might be fully online or "hybrid," using limited face-to-face contact with faculty members.

Dorm rooms, by default, will become classrooms. Harvard University is inviting freshmen and select others to live on campus, but all of its undergraduate teaching will be conducted online.

Like their K-12 counterparts, many colleges face pressure from their faculties to shift to remote learning. More than 350 faculty members at the University of Iowa signed a petition demanding that all classes be held online. There was similar resistance from faculty members at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

As of last week, nearly 30% of 3,000 institutions planned to teach fully or primarily online, and about 24% were fully or mostly in person, according to an examination by the Chronicle of Higher Education and Davidson College.

The review found that 16% planned a mix of approaches and that 26% had not yet decided.

Much remains in flux. The University of Virginia had announced in June that students would be invited to campus for classes starting Aug. 25. They would live in residence halls under a strict public health regimen that includes assigned sinks and showers. Now U-Va. says that the undergraduate arrival will be delayed due to the surging virus, and that face-to-face teaching will not start until after Labor Day.

Some plans fell apart weeks after they were announced. The University of Southern California in July reversed course on an aggressive reopening, and then last week ratcheted plans back again to almost entirely remote instruction. Georgetown, George Washington and American universities, all in the nation's capital, took similar zigzag paths toward remote openings.

At American, a private university with about 14,000 students, officials had painstakingly pieced together a plan to house about 2,300 students on campus in single dorm rooms and teach through a blend of in-person and online methods. The school calculated the socially distant capacity of classrooms, depending on whether seats were fixed or mobile. It tracked how many faculty members had health concerns and who could teach in person and when. Assembling the course schedule, said AU President Sylvia Burwell, was like solving a Rubik's Cube.

By the end of July, that plan went out the window.

"I'm disappointed," Burwell said. "We're all disappointed."

Burwell, who was health and human services secretary during the Obama administration, said the trajectory of the pandemic now dictates caution. She said she spent weeks gathering facts and enduring many sleepless nights before deciding to shift course. Now she's pledging to make it work.

In California, the leader of the largest public university system in the country saw this moment coming months ago. Timothy White, chancellor of the 482,000-student California State University system, had announced on May 12 that most instruction on its 23 campuses would be remote this fall. It was at the time a shocking statement of higher education's vulnerability to the virus.

Now White says he is glad he staked out a radical position. It gave his faculty ample time to prepare and freedom to innovate. "It allowed a different mind-set," he said. The attitude: "Now, let's get to work and figure out how to do it great."
Biological sex is typically understood in binary terms: male and female. However, there are many examples of animals that are able to modify sex-typical biological and behavioral features and even change sex. A new study, which appears in the journal Current Biology, identifies a genetic switch in brain cells that can toggle between sex-specific states when necessary, findings that question the idea of sex as a fixed property.

The research-- led by Douglas Portman, Ph.D., an associate professor in the University of Rochester Department of Biomedical Genetics and the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience -was conducted in C. elegans, a microscopic roundworm that has been used in labs for decades to understand the nervous system. Many of the discoveries made using C. elegans apply throughout the animal kingdom and this research has led to a broader understanding of human biology. C. elegans is the only animal whose nervous system has been completely mapped, providing a wiring diagram - or connectome - that is helping researchers understand how brain circuits integrate information, make decisions, and control behavior.

There are two sexes of C. elegans, males and hermaphrodites. Though the hermaphrodites are able to self-fertilize, they are also mating partners for males, and are considered to be modified females. A single gene, TRA-1, determines the sex of these roundworms. If a developing worm has two X chromosomes, this gene is activated and the worm will develop into a female. If there is only one X chromosome, TRA-1 is inactivated, causing the worm to become a male.

The new study shows that the TRA-1 gene doesn't go completely silent in males, as had been previously thought. Instead, it can go into action when circumstances compel males to act more like females. Typically, C. elegans males prefer searching for mates over eating, in part because they can't smell food as well as females do. But if a male goes too long without eating, it will dial up its ability to detect food and acts more like a female. The new research shows that TRA-1 is necessary for this switch, and without it hungry males can't enhance their sense of smell and stay locked in the default, food-insensitive mate-searching mode. TRA-1 does the same job in juvenile males - it activates efficient food detection in males that are too young to search for mates.

"These findings indicate that, at the molecular level, sex isn't binary or static, but rather dynamic and flexible," said Portman. "The new results suggest that aspects of the male nervous system might transiently take on a female 'state,' allowing male behavior to be flexible according to internal and external conditions."

A separate study appearing Current Biology by a team of collaborating researchers at Columbia University further describes the complex molecular mechanism by which TRA-1 is controlled by sex chromosomes and other cues.

###

Additional co-authors of the study include Hannah Lawson, Leigh Wexler, and Hayley Wnuk with the University of Rochester. The research was supported with funding from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
Adar Poonawalla, Chief Executive Officer of Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), has said the coronavirus vaccine may be ready by the end of this year and that the final price of the anti-virus dose will be announced in two months.

SII is part of an agreement with AstraZeneca, which along with Oxford University, has developed a vaccine that has reported satisfactory progress from the test results.

"We should have a vaccine by the end of this year. We will conduct trials in India on a few thousand patients in partnership with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)," Poonawalla told CNBC-TV18, adding the final pricing for the vaccine will be announced in two months.

Poonawalla had earlier said that by the end of August, between 4,000 to 5,000 people in Pune and Mumbai will be injected with the vaccine as part of trials scheduled to last over two month. He said the company aims to manufacture 300 million to 400 million doses by the year-end.

The institute has also inked a pact with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, to make 100 million doses of the vaccine. This is for low-and medium-income countries, and with a price cap of Rs 250 a dose.
Sushant Singh Rajputs family is disturbed by recent comments made by Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, and is considering taking legal action. Raut, who is the associate editor of partys editorial mouthpiece Saamana, said in an article that the Bollywood actor was not on good terms with his father KK Singh.

Sushants cousin, BJP MLA Neeraj Singh Bablu has said that the family expects a public apology from Raut, DNA reports. He called the allegations completely false. His statement read, Sanjay Raut has to apologize for his statement in which he has said that Sushant Singhs father KK Singh had done two marriages. This news is completely false. If Sanjay Raut does not publicly apologize, Sushant Singhs family will take legal action against him.

Meanwhile, Sushants uncle, RC Singh, told Navbharat Times, Sanjay Raut has given a wrong statement at the behest of Uddhav Thackeray and Aditya Thackeray. Sanjay Raut is trying to tarnish his image by saying such a thing. It is not a good thing to spoil someones image by saying such a thing.

Raut in an article, suggesting that Sushant was displeased with his fathers second marriage, had said, It is true, how many times did Sushant go to Patna to meet his father? I have sympathy for his father but there are many things that will come to surface.

Also read: Kamya Punjabi on Rhea Chakrabortys chat with Sushant Singh Rajput: Whats she trying to prove? Siblings fight

Sushant died by suicide on June 14, at the age of 34. After a turf war broke out between the Mumbai and Bihar Police over the investigation into his death, the case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

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Irish smartphone users who have seen their batteries drain unusually quickly after downloading the Covid Tracker Ireland app have been promised that that the issue will be resolved today.

Some users of Android smartphones, covering brands such as Samsung, Huawei, Sony and OnePlus, have been complaining of abnormal battery life depletion over the last 24 hours with their phones indicating the Covid Tracker app as the culprit.

In separate statements, the HSE and Nearform  the Irish apps development firm  have said that the issue is set to be fixed imminently.

Sorry to anyone that has had issues with the app this weekend, said the HSE in a statement. We have identified the problem that some users with Android phones are experiencing. Google are working with us to fix it as soon as possible.

There have been no reports of the issue affecting iPhone users.

Yesterday, the HSE claimed that the problem was triggered by an update to Google Play Services leading to a change in behaviour in the apps Exposure Notification System. However, Google has not recently updated Google Play Services. Nevertheless, both the HSE and Google say that the issue should be gone by this evening.

Google and Apple are the main architects of the underlying technology behind the Covid Tracker app. The joint effort by the two tech giants was designed partially to minimise the impact on battery life from the app, which works in the background, even when the phone is locked or sleeping.

Typically, the app can use around 5pc of a smartphones daily battery reserve.

But over the weekend, social media platforms such as Twitter and Reddit saw dozens of people complaining that their Android handsets were sapped of power within hours due to errant behaviour from the Covid Tracker app.

Almost 1.5m Irish people have downloaded the app, according to the HSE, with over 100 contact tracing connections made since its launch.
The coronavirus has regained its grip on Barcelona. The United Kingdom removed Spain from the air bridge around two agos, forcing all travellers to quarantine for 14 days upon return to the UK. So the question is whether Formula 1 would be wise to travel to Barcelona next week?

"I always stay on the track, so not much changes for me. I just stay in the bubble with just a few people around me. I will also go straight to my motorhome from the airport and will stay there for the next few days, as I did in previous races," Lewis Hamilton said, according to the BBC.

Verstappen likes to go to Spain

The winner of the second Grand Prix in Silverstone is not worried about that either. "You ensure that you have as little contact with other people as possible, so I don't really expect any problems. It is not only in Spain where the coronavirus is. You have to be careful everywhere," says Max Verstappen.

A spokesman for Formula 1 then said that there is no problem at all to drive in Spain. "We look forward to driving in Spain and Belgium. We make sure that the security is guaranteed, because that is ultimately the most important. That is why we will continue to test extensively for those races, "F1 spokesman concluded.
TAIPEI, Taiwan  The United States top health official lauded Taiwans democracy and its response to the coronavirus. Taiwans president hailed the islands growing economic and public health ties with the United States.

Yet just offstage from this show of bonhomie on Monday between Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, and President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan was the looming force of China. Beijing claims Taiwan as its territory and underlined its opposition to official exchanges like Mr. Azars visit by sending two fighter jets toward the island just before the talks.

Mr. Azars trip, the highest-level visit to Taiwan by an American official since Washington severed official ties with the island in 1979, pointed to the increasingly important role Taiwan will play in a brewing ideological battle between the two superpowers. Taiwan and the United States have frequently framed their alliance as one based on shared democratic values, and Chinas reaction was a reminder of the risks the island faces as it seeks a stronger relationship with Washington.

To Taiwan, the trip is a diplomatic coup and an opportunity to showcase its widely praised response to the virus, which it achieved despite efforts by China to diplomatically isolate the island. Ms. Tsai, in remarks welcoming Mr. Azar, said his visit showed that relations between the two sides have never been better.
Speakers are blaring and people are dancing, showing off nice cars and new outfits, blowing off steam. But the chance to let loose and socialize comes with serious security concerns and a heightened risk of spreading coronavirus.

With bars closed and large gatherings discouraged, impromptu street parties have been popping up across Baton Rouge, creating their own nightclub atmosphere. People are desperate to have fun despite the ongoing pandemic, so desperate that they're actively avoiding the cops.

The parties are often elusive and somewhat fluid. A group might gather in one location  big parking lots and party buses have been popular  and disperse when police arrive, only to reconvene somewhere else.

Groups have sometimes swelled to include several hundred people  all in good fun until someone gets shot or comes down with coronavirus, police and local officials have warned.

The parties became a law enforcement issue after gunfire erupted at one such gathering on Plank Road last month, leaving one person dead and seven others injured. Police collected 178 shell casings from the scene and traced them to 32 separate guns. They estimated 800 people had been present when the shooting occurred, officials said.

Since then, Baton Rouge police and other local law enforcement agencies have been patrolling the gatherings on Friday and Saturday nights.

Rise in Baton Rouge street parties worries city officials following deadly shooting that injured 8 A mass shooting that killed a 25-year-old and wounded several others on Plank Road this weekend erupted as hundreds of people gathered for an 

Here's how last weekend went:

A few dozen officers congregated in the parking lot behind BRPD's First District substation around 8 p.m. Friday, preparing for the long night ahead of them. The station is just two blocks south from the intersection of Plank Road and Evangeline Street, where the mass shooting had occurred weeks earlier.

Law enforcement assigned to these new "directive patrols" include some from the department's uniform patrol division in addition to undercover detectives and other officers with the constable's office.

Their mission is to track down these large gatherings and make sure people follow the law. Sometimes businesses or residents complain about the groups, in which case the police will take action to disperse them. That typically involves turning on their lights and sirens and telling people to leave.

"This is not a zero-tolerance situation. We're not looking to stop everybody for minor infractions," said Lt. Chris Polito, who oversees the directive patrols. "You can hang out and have fun, but you can't do traffic violations, commit acts of violence or carry an illegal weapon, things like that."

Baton Rouge police have conducted patrols each weekend since the Plank Road shooting, gathering intelligence on the parties, which are often organized via social media, and sending officers to locations where the groups often congregate. Some of the popular spots are areas downtown near the levee and various large parking lots, including along Airline Highway, Coursey Boulevard and Siegen Lane.

Officers set out for those locations around 8:30 p.m. Friday. Several plainclothes narcotics detectives drove downtown and started wandering through the Belle of Baton Rouge casino parking lot, which has been problematic on past weekends. The lot was about half-full with cars, and some people were hanging out in their vehicles.

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After about an hour, detectives noticed a man with a gun in one of the cars and asked to speak with him, police said. The man took off running and hopped a fence to exit the lot, then ran over the levee straight to the Mississippi River.

Sgt. L'Jean McKneely Jr., who chased the man on foot and placed him in handcuffs without incident, said officers believe he threw his gun in the river. Police searched the area but didn't find the weapon.

Later in the night, police ticketed or arrested several people in that area, including for drag racing.

The following night was more eventful. Sometime after 11 p.m. Saturday officers responded to the old Cortana Mall, where a couple hundred people were hanging out, some doing donuts and burnouts in the parking lot. Polito said officers issued traffic tickets and told the group to disperse.

He said about 80 people from that group then migrated to a Racetrac gas station at Airline Highway and Tom Drive. The store management complained about that gathering, so police once again told them to leave.

Some of the partygoers relocated downtown, where officers issued some citations for marijuana possession and arrested at least one person for being a felon in possession of a gun. That arrest stemmed from a traffic stop for having a switched license plate, Polito said.

He said several people were also stopped for driving four-wheelers on downtown streets, and one driver was arrested for aggravated flight from police. By about 3 a.m., the crowds had thinned and most people apparently had gone home.

Polito said Baton Rouge police will conduct similar proactive patrols each weekend for the foreseeable future.

The Greater Baton Rouge Crime Stoppers organization, which gives out cash rewards for anonymous crime tips, posted on its Facebook page late Monday afternoon announcing the recent arrest of a man named Frisco Jack who police believe has been organizing some of the parties. Officials asked anyone with information about his involvement to call Crime Stoppers.

"People are just bored. They're trying to get out and have fun. We get it," said Lt. Dominic Distefano, the department's uniform patrol commander. "But like anything else, you have a few bad apples in the crowd and they put everyone else at risk."

Some local elected officials have expressed concern that responding to the street parties takes limited law enforcement resources away from more pressing issues like solving violent crimes. Those concerns are heightened due to Baton Rouge's surging homicide rate as 2020 threatens to become the parish's most murderous year on record.

Officials are also worried about the gatherings spreading coronavirus since party buses and large unmasked crowds could contribute to an outbreak. Cases in the Baton Rouge area have been trending downward the past few weeks since Gov. John Bel Edwards closed bars and issued a statewide mask mandate.
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.
The Bachelor's casting directors reportedly had a tough time finding women to date new leading man Locklan 'Locky' Gilbert.

Dozens of 'disinterested' bachelorettes apparently quit after learning that the former Australian Survivor star, 30, spends six months a year living in Bali, where he owns the Four Elements Adventure tourism company.

A production insider told Woman's Day on Monday: 'There was a revolving door of women; it was quite a headache for casting.'

Un-Locky in love? The Bachelor's casting directors reportedly had a tough time finding women to date new leading man Locklan 'Locky' Gilbert (pictured)

Known for his passion for thrill, speed and adventure, Locky's company runs guided tours across Bali and its surrounding islands.

But after realising that he would be spending so much of his time in Indonesia overseeing his business, many of the contestants pulled out because they weren't willing to leave Australia.

'A lot of women were disinterested,' the source continued. 'It was just hard to get them to sign up and compete for a guy who spends half his life in another country.'

Ouch! Dozens of 'disinterested' bachelorettes apparently quit after learning that Locky spends six months a year living in Bali, where he owns the Four Elements Adventure tourism company

Tricky situation: A production insider told Woman's Day on Monday, 'There was a revolving door of women; it was quite a headache for casting'

Producers reportedly had to work overtime to 'encourage the girls to take the process seriously and put it all on the line' for Locky.

Tensions were running so high over the matter that the 'awkward' first few weeks of filming even saw the women argue over who would seriously consider leaving their friends and family behind to start over in Bali.

Despite the casting struggles, Locky has repeatedly assured fans that he found love on The Bachelor.

Staying put: After realising Locky would be spending so much of his time in Bali overseeing his business, many of the contestants pulled out because they weren't willing to leave Australia

Squabbles: Tensions were running so high that the 'awkward' first few weeks of filming saw the women argue over who would seriously consider leaving their lives behind to start over in Bali

He said over the weekend: 'I can definitely assure you I am madly in love. It's an amazing feeling and to be able to say it out aloud now, it's a really good feeling.

'It's definitely a love story that everyone will remember. It's a crazy ride, I'll tell you that,' he added.

The Bachelor premieres on Wednesday, August 12 from 7:30pm on Channel 10
SACRAMENTO  Gov. Gavin Newsom says California cannot pay its share of President Trumps proposed plan to offer a $400 expanded weekly unemployment benefit to millions of people who have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic.

Newsom said Trumps proposal, outlined in an executive action issued Saturday, would cost the state $700 million per week to fund its 25% share, or $100 per person. The governor said California cannot afford to do that without massive cuts to other state programs, at a time when it is already counting on aid from the federal government to balance a budget that was $54 billion in the hole.

There is no money sitting in the piggy bank from earlier federal coronavirus aid to the state, one source the Trump administration has suggested states could tap, Newsom said at a news conference Monday. It simply does not make sense.

Up to 30 million unemployed people across the country had their benefits slashed last month after Republicans in the Senate refused to sign on to a Democratic plan to extend the $600 payments and proposed a lower total. The average benefit in California is now roughly $380 a week.

Newsom said its unusual for the federal government to roll out a new benefit program without providing a funding source. He said the state has already spent most of its federal pandemic relief money.

We need the federal government to front those dollars, Newsom said, or we are at peril of being in a position where were making false commitments, false promises to millions of Californians.

Californias budget already counts on a federal bailout  which has yet to materialize  to avoid making steep cuts to the University of California and California State University systems, affordable-housing grants and state worker pay. It needs Congress and President Trump to agree to a bailout by Oct. 15 to avoid the cuts, and talks in Washington on a coronavirus relief package broke down Friday.

Trumps order on unemployment benefits sparked a flurry of confusion over the weekend, and its unclear if he has the authority to unilaterally extend the benefits without Congress approval. He said the federal government would pay its share by diverting Federal Emergency Management Agency aid money, which pays for relief after wildfires, hurricanes and other disasters.

On Sunday night, Trump suggested that states could ask the federal government to cover the full $400 payments.

The states will make a application, Trump said, according to CNN. We will look at it, and we'll make a decision. So you know, they may be, theyll pay nothing in some instances or maybe they'll  a little bit like the National Guard.

Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 16:31:55|Editor: huaxia

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JAKARTA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- A total of eight people were killed in a two-vehicle crash that occurred on a toll road linking the capital city of Jakarta to West Java early on Monday, local authorities said.

The crash involved a bus carrying 16 passengers and a car with eight people on board.

The accident occurred after the bus heading for Central Java suddenly trespassed into the opposite lane and hit a car heading for Jakarta, West Java police's chief Rudy Sufahriadi was quoted by the state news agency Antara as saying on Monday.

The eight passengers in the bus killed in the accident were rushed to a hospital in West Java's district of Cirebon.

An investigation on the crash is being carried out by the police, said Sufahriadi who suspected that the bus driver was sleepy while driving. Enditem
The family of a man who died after a sheriffs deputy knelt on his back and neck is entitled to a full damage award from the county that employed the officer, even though the man was found partly responsible for his own death, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday.

A 1986 state ballot measure, Proposition 51, said damages in civil lawsuits based on comparative fault would be shared among the responsible parties, with each paying only its share of the fault. The measure did not say whether it applied to all civil suits, but the court said Prop. 51 should not be interpreted to shield intentional wrongdoers from paying 100% of the damages.

California principles of comparative fault have never required or authorized the reduction of an intentional tortfeasors liability based on the acts of others, Justice Ming Chin said in the unanimous ruling, using the legal term for wrongdoer.

In a separate opinion, Justice Goodwin Liu compared the African American man in this case, Darren Burley, to another Black man, George Floyd, killed by a Minneapolis policeman who knelt on his neck in May. That officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with murder, and three other officers are charged with aiding him. No officers have been charged with crimes in Burleys death.

Variants of this fact pattern have occurred with distressing frequency throughout the country and here in California, said Liu, joined by Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuellar.

While the ruling provides a measure of monetary relief to Burleys family, they said, it does not acknowledge the troubling racial dynamics that have resulted in state-sanctioned violence, including lethal violence, against Black people throughout our history.

They also noted that President Trumps administration has sharply curbed enforcement of existing agreements reached by President Barack Obamas administration with numerous police departments requiring court-supervised measures to halt excessive force and racial bias.

Los Angeles County deputies were called to the scene of a reported assault in Compton in August 2012 and said they saw Burley, 29, walking stiffly and growling under the apparent influence of drugs. When a woman shouted that Burley had attacked her, he started chasing her, and officers pursued him and threw him to the ground.

After an exchange of blows, the court said, Deputy David Aviles, who weighed 200 pounds, pressed one knee on Burleys back and another on the back of his head. A second officer knelt on Burleys legs, and others shot him with a Taser stun gun. Burley went limp, lost consciousness, and was taken to a hospital, where he died 10 days later.

In a damage suit by Burleys estranged wife and five children, a jury awarded $8 million in damages for their pain and suffering. Jurors also said Aviles had used unreasonable force and was 20% responsible for Burleys death, other deputies were 40% responsible and Burley himself was 40% responsible.

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.

A state appeals court, citing Prop. 51, reduced the familys damages by 40%, or $3.2 million. But the states high court said the ballot measure did not relieve an intentional wrongdoer  in this case, Aviles and his employer  of full responsibility for non-economic harm such as pain and suffering.

Olu Orange, a lawyer for three of Burleys children, said the ruling restores one of the most powerful tools Black and brown Californians have in pursuing justice against police officers who kill people they are sworn to protect.

The countys lawyer could not be reached for comment.

The case is B.B. vs. Los Angeles County, S250734.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denysova appealed to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to do everything possible to release Ukrainian political prisoners and instruct the government to provide their families with adequate social protection.

"I appeal to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky with a request to do everything possible to release Ukrainian political prisoners and instruct the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to provide their families with adequate social protection. I ask First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska to take each such family under her personal patronage," Denysova wrote on her Facebook page on Monday morning.

The ombudswoman also called on Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and members to urgently develop and submit to the Verkhovna Rada for consideration a bill on the regulation of the legal status and social protection of persons illegally deprived of their liberty as a result of armed aggression against Ukraine, as well as their family members, and to approve the relevant governmental social program.

In addition, Denysova called on international governmental and non-governmental organizations, in particular the International Committee of the Red Cross in Ukraine, to provide humanitarian aid to the prisoners and to help intensify the struggle in the international arena for their release.

Among other things, the ombudswoman recalled the tragedy that happened to the son of Ukrainian political prisoner Ruslan Suleimanov Musa, stressing that this is a consequence of the cynical occupation policy of the Russian Federation.

"According to the information I have, some 133 Ukrainian citizens, including 97 Crimean Tatars, are being persecuted by the Russian Federation for political reasons. Some 112 people are illegally detained on the territory of the Russian Federation and the temporarily occupied Crimea, the rest are restricted in movement and are at their place of residence. Of these, 71 citizens are the parents of 188 minor children," Denysova said.

Thus, according to her, ten wives of Kremlin prisoners, who are raising 12 children, live in various regions of mainland Ukraine, and 62 women with their children remained on the occupied peninsula.

"This autumn, in the occupied territory of Crimea, only 14 children of political prisoners will go to first grade from 17 children, so the 'leadership' of Crimean educational institutions ignored the rights to education of three children. Some 11 seriously ill children require special attention and care," Denysova said.

She also said that due to the lack of access to the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, no state-owned organization can provide a systemic mechanism of social protection to the families of political prisoners.




Hong Kong businessman Jimmy Lai became the most famous person arrested under a new national security law on Monday.

Lai was accused of suspected collusion with foreign forces. About 200 police officers searched the offices of his Apple Daily newspaper and took away boxes of what they said was evidence.

His arrest raises concerns over press freedom and other rights promised to the former British colony when it returned to China in 1997. The raid came just days after the U.S. government announced economic actions against Hong Kongs leaders.

The arrest bears out the worst fears that Hong Kongs National Security Law would be used to suppress critical pro-democracy opinion and restrict press freedom, said Steven Butler. He serves as Asia program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

China enacted the new security law on June 30 in what critics say was an effort to answer anti-government protests in Hong Kong last year. Persons arrested under the law can be tried for crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces. Those found guilty can face a sentence of up to life in prison.



Who is Jimmy Lai?

Jimmy Lai has been one of the leading democracy activists in Hong Kong and a strong critic of Chinese government. He was born in mainland China and left for Hong Kong on a fishing boat when he was 12.

In May, shortly after China expressed support for the national security law in Hong Kong, Lai condemned the legislation on Twitter. Chinas state-owned newspaper Global Times called the tweets evidence of subversion.

The 73-year-old businessman also wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times. He stated that China was repressing Hong Kong with the legislation.

I have always thought I might one day be sent to jail for my publications or for my calls for democracy in Hong Kong, Lai wrote. But for a few tweets, and because they are said to threaten the national security of mighty China? Thats a new one, even for me.

Lai was earlier arrested in February and April for what officials said was taking part in unauthorized protests last year. He also faces charges of joining an unauthorized event on June 4 marking the anniversary of Chinas violent suppression of pro-democracy protesters in 1989.

Last year, Lai met U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington at the White House. They met to discuss a bill  since withdrawn  that would have given Hong Kongs government permission to send criminal suspects to mainland China for trial.

The arrest

In addition to Lai, Hong Kong police arrested his two sons and several officials from his media business.

Hong Kong police announced the arrest of at least nine men on suspicion of violating the new security law. The offenses, police said, included collusion with a foreign country and conspiracy to defraud. Police said they collected 25 boxes of evidence and more arrests were possible.

Apple Daily, known for its anti-government and pro-democracy position, published video on its Facebook page of police going through its newsroom. The video showed reporters being asked to show identity papers.

The paper reported that Lai was taken away from his home early Monday. He was then brought back to the office in handcuffs. We cant worry that much, we can only go with the flow, Lai said, before being brought into a police vehicle.

In a statement, Next Media Trade Union called the search an extremely rare and serious incident in Hong Kong history. It said reporters will continue to guard their posts until the last minute.

Hong Kong Journalists Association chairman Chris Yeung called the search a third-world press freedom suppression.

Ryan Law is chief editor of Apple Daily. He told Reuters that it is business as usual at the newspaper. And another official added the paper will be published on Tuesday.

Even if Apple Daily publish a pile of blank paper tomorrow, we would go and buy a copy, said democracy activist Joshua Wong.

I'm Jonathan Evans.

Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English with information from the Associated Press and Reuters. George Grow was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

collusion - n. secret cooperation for an illegal purpose

bear out - phrasal verb, to show the correctness of something

secession - n. the act of separating from a nation or becoming independent

unauthorized - adj. without permission

conspiracy - n. a secret plan made by two or more people to do something illegal

defraud - v. to trick or cheat someone or something to get money

handcuffs - n. a set of two metal rings that are joined together and locked around a person's wrists

editor - n. a person whose job is to edit
Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. (HCPI) has announced its Angeles-Clark merchant as its top dealership for 2019.

During its first-ever online Dealer Conference, the local automobile business unit recognized the Honda Angeles-Clark dealership under the helm of Engr. Eriberto Gomezas the top dealer for last year.

The online Dealer Conferencethe virtual form of the annual recognition eventwas held to honor the achievements of HCPI's dealerships during these times when social distancing is a must.

Honda Dealership

Honda Cars Lipa City and Honda Cars Greenhills got the second and third spots respectively for the top dealership awards.

Meanwhile Honda Cars Rizal and Honda Cars Lipa City both bagged Sales Achiever Awards for reaching their retail sales targets.

Garnering the highest target achievement in service intake, Honda Cars Greenhills and Honda Cars Rizal were also accorded with the Service Intake Achiever award.

Honda Cars Greenhills and Honda Cars Angeles-Clark both took home the Parts Wholesale Achiever award for reaching their parts wholesale targets.

HCPI President Masahiko Nakamura expressed gratitude for the achievements of the dealerships in the past year.

We congratulate all our Honda Cars dealerships for their dedication and hard work in 2019. We truly appreciate and value our partnership with them in providing top quality products and excellent service to our customers. Our dealership network is truly a big part of our milestones and achievements here in the Philippines over the decades, he said.

Nakamura

Photo/s from Honda Cars Philippines

Also read:

Honda dealerships are now reopening nationwide

Yuchengco-led car dealerships close starting today

Honda Cars PH Suspends Dealership Operations
New Delhi, Aug 10 : The Finance Ministry has set up a committee headed by former Home Secretary G.K. Pillai for determination of ceiling rates under the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme. The scheme is to reimburse taxes and duties incurred by the exporters.

The two other members are Y.G. Parande, former Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) member, and Gautam Ray, former Chief Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise.

The committee will interact with administrative ministries, export promotion councils, commodity boards, trade bodies and other stakeholders to take their views on fixing the ceiling rates under the RoDTEP scheme.

The committee will work out the modalities of the calculation of duties, levies and charges at the central, state and local levels borne on the exported product. This will be done after calculating the prior stage cumulative indirect taxes on goods and services used in the production of the exported product.

The committee will recommend in their report a ceiling rate of Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP) for sectors and items identified by the government.

As per the scope of the panel, the committee will determine the methodology, decide modalities of holding meetings, conduct field visits and study specific production processes and suggest a ceiling rate as part of its report.

The panel headed by Pillai will submit its main report to the government within three months from identification and prioritisation of sectors and items by the government and any supplementary report will be submitted in two months after the main report.

The RoDTEP is a scheme which aims to reimburse the taxes and duties incurred by the exporters such as local taxes, coal cess, mandi tax, electricity duties and fuel used for transportation, which are not getting exempted or refunded under any other existing scheme. The rebate would be claimed as a percentage of the Freight on Board (FoB) value of exports.
Fans might still be reeling from the conclusion of the final George Lucas-created Star Wars project. But now Star Wars: The Clone Wars has gotten the finale showrunner Dave Filoni hoped for. The series seven-season arc memorably bridged the gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. So fans are understandably excited to see what else Filoni has in store.

After all, he followed the initial cancelation of Star Wars: The Clone Wars with another animated series, Star Wars: Rebels. Now many fans are wondering if Filoni is looking to return to give that series one more belated season. Heres what he had to say on the matter.

The cast and creative team of Star Wars: Rebels | Paul Hebert/Disney XD via Getty Images

Star Wars: The Clone Wars began a legacy of animated series

With Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Filoni didnt just create an animated series. He kickstarted an entirely new era of Star Wars. The saga dabbled in animation before but never with such detailed mythology. So Star Wars: The Clone Wars  which started with a feature-length animated movie  was a real opportunity for Filoni and Lucas to flesh out the prequel trilogy.

And fans largely agree Filoni and his team did an excellent job exploring the stories behind the movies. In fact, Star Wars: The Clone Wars was the only project  other than the movies, of course  Disney grandfathered into the canon after the companys 2012 purchase of Lucasfilm. That transition did mean the series end but another show sprung up its in place.

Launched in 2014, Star Wars: Rebels introduces an entirely new crew for fans to fall in love with. In many respects, Filonis show serves as a sequel to Star Wars: The Clone Wars, especially with the inclusion of fan-favorite Ahsoka Tano. The series ended in 2018 after four popular seasons. But fans are still desperate to know what happens next.

Dave Filoni doesnt feel the need to do Star Wars: Rebels Season 5

Alas, Filoni has no plans for Star Wars: Rebels Season 5. Deadline recently asked him about the possibility of returning to Rebels. But Filoni has no desire to get back to the show, not like he did with The Clone Wars. But he has an excellent reason for feeling that way.

I was really happy with how [Star Wars: Rebels] turned out, and I feel like we got to tell a complete story there. It was one of the things that really drove me to thinking, well, it would be great to have a complete feeling like that for Clone Wars, so now to have both is really great.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars fell victim to the business side of things. Obviously, Disney didnt want their newly acquired asset pumping out new programming for the Warner Bros.-owned Cartoon Network. Therefore, Rebels joined the Disney XD block, as has another Filoni-created animated series, Star Wars: Resistance.

But Filoni does hint that the story of Sabine Wren will continue

That being said, fans certainly havent seen the last of the Rebels crew. Set after the defeat of the Empire, the series finale hinted at Ahsoka and Sabine Wrens quest to find young Jedi Ezra Bridger. Lucasfilm has not made any official announcements regarding when this story might be told. But Filoni vaguely teased it could be in the works.

I think that theres always potential for stories that involve the characters from Rebels, which is maybe a better way to put it. Theyve all earned their place in the galaxy, so to speak. So Im sure theres some more of them to do.  Certainly, I will say its something Ive given a decent amount of thought to. So you never know when or if it will actually ever take shape.

Rosario Dawson reportedly joins The Mandalorian Season 2 as Ahsoka. That series is pointedly set a few years after the Empires fall. So it is the perfect venue to at least check in on Ahsoka and Sabine. Whether their search for Ezra will impact The Mandalorian remains to be seen. Perhaps the show will just introduce the characters potential for their own new series.
COLUMBUS, Ohio  State Auditor Keith Faber wants to hear from of Ohioans about their experience with coronavirus testing, as part of a larger project through which he will review the accuracy of Ohios COVID-19 testing numbers.

After being approached by several members of the public who shared their personal experience with COVID-19 testing, Faber plans to set up an online portal to solicit additional stories at some point in the near future, according to Allie Dumski, a Faber spokeswoman.

UPDATE: Fabers office launched the portal on Aug. 11, the day after this post published. Click here to visit.

The portal will be part of a larger project through which auditors from five states  Delaware, Florida, Mississippi, Ohio and Pennsylvania  plan to review their respective states COVID-19 data for uniformity and accuracy. Part the projects goal is to create a uniform COVID-19 data reporting system, so that comparisons among states can be done accurately.

The governors office welcomes the review, said Dan Tierney, a spokesman for Gov. Mike DeWine.

Weve always been willing to talk with people about how our data processes work so they can have confidence in it, Tierney said.

Faber and DeWine both are Republicans.

Part of Fabers review will be to investigate a persistent rumor  its taken on different forms, and often is second-hand, but generally entails someone waiting for a COVID-19 test, leaving before it can be conducted and later being notified by mail that theyve tested positive. State health officials have said theyre not aware of evidence of the issue being widespread or even documented at all.

Dumski said the auditors office is in the process of gathering information and verifying it. The office is only interested in first-hand accounts to establish facts or debunk rumors.

The rumor has been prevalent on social media. Tierney said the rumor has been repeated on local talk radio.

Wed love to investigate it, he said. So if anybody has that information about where the test was taken, what the facility was, what the county was, so we can run it down, wed be glad to do it. But nobody ever takes us up on that offer.
Offices to close for Queen Sirikits birthday holiday

PHUKET: Many Thais will have a one-day holiday as the nation celebrates Queen Sirikit the Queen Mothers 88th birthday on Wednesday, August 12, which is also celebrated throughout the nation as Mothers Day.

culture

By The Phuket News

Monday 10 August 2020, 10:40AM

Image: The Phuket News / Graphics

The auspicious holiday honours the birthday of Queen Sirikit, mother of His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun.

On Wednesday, all government offices will close, including Phuket Immigration Office, the Employment Office, the Land Transport Office and all three District Offices in Phuket.

All main bank branches will close, but branches in shopping centres will remain open.

All Royal Thai Police and Tourist Police stations will remain open and some local consulates will remain open to serve their respective citizens.

Although the sale of alcohol on the Queens Birthday is not prohibited by law, police traditionally encourage people to refrain from drinking alcohol on the auspicious day as a sign of respect and in honour of Queen Sirikit.
In the third of a series of books titled From the Memory of Land and River, we wander in the land of wonder: India and Pakistan

Soresh and Rakshanda, the land of wonder From the series of Memory of Land and River, Ibrahim Shalaby, Al-Balsam Publishing House.

According to Indian myth, when the god Tuashtri created the world, then man, he realised that he ran out of raw materials, so after deep meditation he created woman from elements of all creatures: from the sun its shine, from the moon its sphere, from the cloud its tears, from the breeze its softness, from fire its heat, from snow its cold, from the flower its scent, from grass its leaning, from the gazelle its eyes, from the rabbit its shyness, from the pigion its cooing, and from the peacock its lavishness.

And on begins the trip into the most colourful country. India shimmers with multilayers of cultures that fill the air with myth and mysticism, from the poetry of Tagore to the Sufi chants of Ibn Arabi, on the banks of the Gang river. Be the change you want to see in the world is exactly what Ghandi left behind.

Taj Mahal, the symbol of true love and devotion, sums up the story of an emperor in love, who spent the rest of his life mourning the death of his wife and built her one of the worlds wonders, Taj Mahal.

From the Memory of Land and River (Al-Balsam Publishing House) was written by Dr Ibrahim Shalaby, a renowned Egyptian physician who started his writing career in 2013.

With the aim of revealing Egyptian and world heritage to the younger generation, Shalaby is inspired by fruits and how they carry the collective memory of the places in which they are planted.

In his first book he traced the origins of the Nile civilisation through the life cycle of a guava, named Aziza, and in his second he chose dates that he gave the name Nagham (Tunes) telling the history of Iraq. His third is told from the perspective of mango (Soresh) and pomegranate (Rakshanda).

Life is nothing but a bridge, cross it but do not build on it, said Christ endorsing the gateway of the grand mosque in the ancient city of Fatehpur Sikri. Here Emperor Jalal El-Din Akbar has sat every Thursday with grand scientists, philosophers and men of Islamic, Hindus, Christian, Yani and Magous faith. Here Akbar founded the idea of unity of all religions based on the Sufi belief of Ibn Arabi on the unity of existence. 

Myth and folk tales are quite an inspiration in India. Haridwar (the road to God) city of the holy pilgrimage of the Hindus is one of four cities where the elixir of immortality was spilt. The myth tells of a 12-day dispute between gods and demons on possessing the flask beholding the elixir of immortality, from which were spilt four drops on four destinations of pilgrimage.

On a parallel note, Pakistan had its own colourful history to share. Lots of learnings are inherited from the long smooth trail of silk trade. The banks of the Kunhar river cherish deeply the myth of Prophet Joseph who said that he who will inherent his grace will be able to unlock the two piles sealed with his seal. Seif El-Molouk managed to do so. He fell in love with the princess of fairies Badr El-Gamal after waiting for 12 years to find her by the magic lake. To hide from the vicious jinn, they fled into a cave that the jinn managed to flood with water. But every full moon, the lovers come out from the cave to rejoice their eternal love story.

In Keshmir, Jesus Christ lived for 120 years during which he healed and blessed and was buried in the Rosa Bel shrine. The book also provides in its annex the rich culture of henna motifs and the ideas behind them compiled by artist Ahmed Soleiman.

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BREAKING NEWS...SHARE The people who really know me...know how BIG this is for me...Today I had a chance to promote... Posted by Marty Small Sr. on Sunday, August 9, 2020

Atlantic City could soon be a doggy doggy world: Snoop Dogg has plans to begin investing in real estate in the city, the rap mogul said on a phone call with the mayor.

Im coming to the state, Im coming to the city, Im looking to invest in some real estate, do some big things, Snoop Dogg said on a Facetime call with Mayor Marty Small.

The conversation was facilitated by Cesar Pina of Flipping NJ, a regional real estate investor based in New Jersey.

In a Facebook post about the call, Small called Snoop Dogg his favorite rapper of all time.

You heard the legend himself... hes coming to Atlantic City, we are going to make it happen, Small wrote.

Discussions between Snoop Dogg and the city will continue, Small told BreakingAC, which first reported on the rappers interest in the city. Small could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

Atlantic City real estate is not the first entrepreneurial venture by the rapper. Snoop Dogg owns the cannabis company Leafs by Snoop, and launched an e-sports gaming league that most definitely allows the use of cannabis.

During the Sunday call, Small also took the opportunity to bring up one of Snoop Doggs other passions: weed. Marijuana legalization will be on the ballot this November, something Snoop Dogg said he was looking forward to.

You know it, and when yall legalize, I will definitely be there to cut the ribbon, Snoop Dogg said.

The rapper lives in Inglewood, California, which is also governed by a Black mayor, and he suggested the two mayors should lead a national coalition of Black mayors.

Small is up for reelection in November, and Snoop Dogg offered preemptive congratulations.

Success on your new term because I know youre going to get it again, Snoop Dogg said.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
A pair of gold-plated spectacles believed to have been worn by Mahatma Gandhi and presented as a gift in the 1900s have emerged on the UK auction circuit, estimated to fetch between 10,000 pounds and 15,000 pounds.

East Bristol Auctions in Hanham, south-west England, said on Sunday that they were pleasantly surprised to find that the spectacles, dropped through their letterbox in an envelope, may have such a rich history behind it.

Its a huge find of great historical importance. The vendor had presumed them to be interesting, but of no value and did tell me to dispose of them if theyre not worth anything, said auctioneer Andy Stowe of East Bristol Auctions.

I think he nearly fell off his chair when we presented our valuation. Its a really great auction story  and one that we all dream of, he said.

The glasses, which have already attracted an online bid for 6,000 pounds, are said to have been in the family of the unnamed elderly gentleman vendor in England, who was told by his father that they were a gift to his uncle when he was working for British Petroleum in South Africa between 1910 and 1930.

The vendors uncle definitely worked for British Petroleum in South Africa, and I believe Gandhi didnt wear glasses until the late 1910s early 1920s, says Stowe in reference to the provenance of the glasses, which are likely to be one of Gandhis earliest pairs during his time in South Africa.

The story that appears with the lot is exactly what the vendor told us, and exactly what was told to him by his father some 50 years ago, explains Stowe.

The lot, titled Pair of Mahatma Gandhis Personal Spectacles, forms part of the auctioneers Military, History and Classic Cars online sale and will go under the hammer on August 21. It has already attracted much interest, including from India.

A pair of early 20th century c1920 gold plated circular rimmed spectacles by repute owned and worn by Mahatma Gandhi, notes the auction lot details.

The spectacles of usual form, with sprung gold plated arms and prescription lenses. Jointed by a gold plated nose bar, the spectacles formed an important and somewhat iconic part of Gandhis overall appearance. It was known that he would often give away his old or unwanted pairs to those in need or those who had helped him. A rare and important pair of spectacles, it notes.

The uncle working for British Petroleum at the time and was stationed in South Africa, and it can be presumed that these were gifted by way of thanks from Gandhi for some good deed. A note from the vendor is included, the auction lot adds.

Gandhi became synonymous with the iconic round-rimmed Windsor-style glasses, common during the period when he was studying law in England in the late 1800s and 1900s. While initially used infrequently, the glasses became a regular feature during the national movement and Gandhis civil disobedience protests in India.

He is known to have handed over his personal items as gifts to admirers and a number of similar items have emerged on the auction circuit over the years.

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Contact tracing and testing will be ramped up in food-processing factories across the country to prevent further Covid-19 outbreaks, HSE chief executive Paul Reid has said.

Mr Reid said testing and tracing was effective in identifying where outbreaks were emerging, but that it was up to individuals and organisations to follow public health advice in order to prevent the risk of transmission.

"One thing which has proven well in this instance has been our testing and tracing," he told Newstalk's Off The Record, before cautioning that, "it's not a silver bullet, and it can't prevent outbreaks from happening".

Extensive testing and tracing was carried out in Kildare, Laois and Offaly at the weekend following a surge of cases in the area.

Mr Reid said testing in food processing plants was continuing but it would be expanded to include factories in other regions and other settings vulnerable to outbreaks, such as direct provision centres and care homes. He added that the HSE was strongly advising organisations to continue to implement infection prevention and control measures but said there were "a whole range of societal and workforce organisation issues here that need to be addressed as well".

"We do have a lot of this workforce in these plants, non-Irish in many cases, but not all, primarily sharing accommodation," he said.

"[They are] transporting to work together, and then in some instances some people go to one site and some people go to another site.

"So you have a risk of transmission outside of the plant, and then into the plants."

Mr Reid said the rise in cases of the virus was an "ongoing concern" but he did not believe the country was facing a second wave.

"The last time we've seen these numbers was when we were on the decline, and now we're seeing them on the rise, so they are quite concerning for us," he said.

"I don't think we are right now on a second wave.

"If you stand back and look at our incidence rates across the country and take out the impact of the three counties (Kildare, Laois and Offaly), it wouldn't indicate that we're at a second wave, or surge.

"If you look at the impact in our hospitals right now, thankfully, we haven't seen massive soars in hospitalised cases again and equally in our ICUs," he added.

His comments come as a food factory in Co Kildare announced it has suspended normal operations for two weeks after 86 of its employees tested positive for Covid-19.

O'Brien Fine Foods, which specialises in meat products, said normal operations at its Timahoe facility had been halted from August 4 to 18.

Minimal operations would continue at its warehousing facility "to manage perishable goods", it said.

Further employee testing will be carried out on days seven and 14 and only employees who test negative and meet public-health guidelines in full will return to work.

The company said it would continue to pay all staff in full during the closure. It added that in line with public health guidance, once processing operations were fully restarted, staff would undergo testing at 14-day intervals. Arrangements will be put in place for the safe transportation of all employees to and from work to lessen the risk of transmission.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 20:26:42|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Monday dismissed the allegations of interfering in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

"This is one of the ridiculous claims that the Americans have raised recently with respect to the (upcoming) elections in their country," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said.

What Iran cares about the policies of parties in the United States is their behavior and their interaction with Iran, Mousavi said at his weekly press conference on Monday.

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleged that some countries, including Iran, have been interfering in the U.S. elections by engaging in cyber activities. Enditem
Andhra Pradesh: To create 9 new harbours, modernise Visakhapatnam port

August 10,2020 | Source: Business World

The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to create nine new harbours and modernise the Visakhapatnam port, said the state fisheries minister Seediri Appalaraju on Friday. The minister told reporters that the state government will soon lay the foundation of a fisheries university in Andhra Pradesh.



"A subsidy is being given on petrol and diesel to fishermen who go for fishing in the sea. The state government has decided to create nine new harbours and to construct six new fishing jetties. Arrangements are also being made to supply fishnets and boats on subsidy to fishermen this year," said Appalaraju. The minister further said that arrangements are being made the foundation for aqua form and aqua hub in the state. "New reforms are being brought in aqua policy so that the sector is much more developed. The transparent policy is being brought in the aqua sector," he added.
TRIBUTES have been paid to veteran former Fine Gael TD P.J. 'Paddy' Sheehan (87) who died after a short illness.

Mr Sheehan passed away less than a week after the death of his beloved wife, Frances.

The father of four, a native of Goleen in west Cork, was considered one of Ireland's foremost rural constituency operators and renowned for his knowledge of his Cork South West base.

He first became involved in politics in the 1960s and was elected to Cork Co Council in 1967.

A farmer, auctioneer and merchant by profession, he used his knowledge of rural agriculture and fishing business to tremendous effect in developing his political base.

He was first elected to the Dail in 1981 but lost his seat in the disastrous 2002 General Election for Fine Gael.

Mr Sheehan comfortably won his seat back in 2007 and then opted to retire before the 2011 General Election when his seat was effectively filled by Noel Harrington.

With retired Fine Gael TD Jim O'Keeffe, he formed a renowned constituency partnership which repeatedly defied Fianna Fail attempts to win a second seat in west Cork.

His political machine was ably managed by his wife, Frances, who regularly travelled to constituency clinics across west Cork with her husband.

Mr Sheehan was also famed for his humorous clashes in Leinster House with the late Taoiseach Charles Haughey - once good-naturedly accusing the Fianna Fail leader of misleading the Dail over the precise number of votes the Fine Gael TD had just received on west Cork's islands during a general election.

Over his life, Mr Sheehan was also a stalwart supporter of Muintir na Tire, the RNLI and the Goleen unit of the Irish Coast Guard.

Tributes to Mr Sheehan were led by Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney as well as Cork business and cultural groups.

Mr Varadkar said that, on behalf of everyone in Fine Gael, he wished to extend his sympathies to the Sheehan family on their sad loss.

"PJ was a stalwart of Fine Gael in west Cork," he said.

"I served alongside Paddy between 2007 and 2011. Our offices were on the same floor and I got to know him and Frances well. He was a wonderful character, the likes of whom we will not see again."

"I only spoke to him last week to offer my condolences on her (Frances) passing. They are together again. PJ was a hugely popular politician in west Cork and I know he will be widely missed."

Former Cork South West TD Noel Harrington said the timing of Mr Sheehan's death was particularly poignant.

"I was very sad to learn of the death of Paddy Sheehan, a former TD and good friend, barely a week after the passing of his beloved wife, Frances," he said.

"May he rest in peace."

Senator Tim Lombard said politics was mourning the loss of a hugely talented constituency worker.

"It is very sad news today with the mighty and great Paddy Sheehan passing away this morning," he said.

"He was a true servant to the people and one of the finest public representatives west Cork has ever had. It was a privilege to serve with him."
Britannia Industries Ltd is quoting at Rs 3969.55, up 0.88% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The stock is up 58.03% in last one year as compared to a 3.6% jump in NIFTY and a 10.28% jump in the Nifty FMCG.

Britannia Industries Ltd is up for a fifth straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 3969.55, up 0.88% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 0.94% on the day, quoting at 11319.1. The Sensex is at 38369.18, up 0.86%. Britannia Industries Ltd has gained around 4.55% in last one month.

Meanwhile, Nifty FMCG index of which Britannia Industries Ltd is a constituent, has gained around 1.49% in last one month and is currently quoting at 31490.6, up 0.6% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 5.79 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 11.26 lakh shares in last one month.

The benchmark August futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 3954.45, up 0.59% on the day. Britannia Industries Ltd is up 58.03% in last one year as compared to a 3.6% jump in NIFTY and a 10.28% jump in the Nifty FMCG index.

The PE of the stock is 55.04 based on TTM earnings ending June 20.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A former dean of admissions at Texas Southern Universitys law school stole nearly $74,000 in scholarship money by inflating financial awards for two students and pocketing the excess funds, according to a criminal charge filed Monday.

Edward Rene, 52, was charged with theft by a public servant, a second-degree felony. If convicted, he faces a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison.

The former TSU Law School dean of admissions masterminded a variety of schemes to steal money from the school by diverting student scholarship funds to himself, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement.

He abused his power for personal profit and his actions hurt the school and the students, Ogg said. It was the TSU Board of Regents who brought us the case following an internal investigation, and we applaud their swift actions to bring this thief to justice.

Marc Carter, vice chair of the board of regents, said the board decided to involve authorities after TSUs former administration failed to act promptly in addressing an obvious crime committed by Rene. Additionally, they hired an independent auditor to investigate and suggest best practices to prevent improprieties.

The regents have a duty to protect the university. That includes holding administrators accountable for their acts and in some cases their omissions, Carter said. He added that TSU has moved beyond the controversy and the board is now focused on the COVID pandemic, protecting students and ensuring they receive an excellent education.

The criminal justice system, Carter said, will deal with former associate dean Rene.

Rene is expected to turn himself in, according to the district attorneys office. He did not answer his cell phone Monday afternoon.

Controversies at the law schools admissions office led to months of friction between TSUs regents and Austin Lane, TSUs president at the time. Lane said in past interviews that school officials and auditors were investigating improprieties in the admissions office when the regents intervened.

Lane ultimately reached a settlement with the board to end his contract with the school. Lane received $560,000, which included a $100,000 payment for emotional distress. Lane said he was also owed $80,000 in vacation time and nearly $240,000 in deferred compensation.

Kenneth Huewitt, the schools former chief financial officer and vice president of finance and administration, was appointed acting president in January and has served as interim president since April.

TSUs board of regents brought their concerns about Rene to the District Attorneys Office of Public Corruption. Harris County investigators worked with the FBI to investigate Rene, a longtime employee at TSU.

FBI Special Agent Coy Davis stated in an affidavit that the scheme began in August 2017. Two TSU students, who werent identified in court papers, told the FBI that Rene had offered them scholarships to help cover tuition costs  but they received tens of thousands of dollars in extra financial aid.

The students were described by Davis as credible witnesses, and they face no criminal charges.

Rene told one student that the excess funds would need to be returned to a charitable foundation to help minority students, the affidavit alleges. Rene gave no name of a foundation, and he told the student to write cashiers checks to Rene from the fall of 2017 to the fall of 2019 that totaled nearly $47,000.

Rene told a second student in October 2018 that he had a family foundation that could help pay the students tuition fees, Davis stated in his affidavit. The student was initially paid $7,500, which covered the tuition bill. But then the student was awarded an additional $7,500.

The student asked Rene about the discrepancy and was told it was an accounting error. Rene asked the student to reimburse Rene directly with a check, cashiers check, or money order, according to the affidavit.

The double payments continued, court records allege, and the student paid Rene a total of nearly $27,000. The FBI found no evidence of a charitable foundation tied to Rene, and court records allege that all the checks were either deposited in his personal bank account or cashed at his bank.

Joan Bullock, the dean of TSUs Thurgood Marshall School of Law, told the FBI that Rene had sole discretion to award scholarships from the law school, but the money was intended for students.

Another school official, Derrick Wilson, identified in the affidavit as director of administration, said several TSU administrators reviewed and approved Renes budgetary requests for scholarship money  but no one ever questioned Rene.

Moving forward, Carter said the boards goal is to make TSU a school that is competitive with other historically Black colleges and universities by ensuring that the institution, its officials and instructors are exceptional and employ best practices in every aspect.

The negative press surrounding Renes theft earlier this year had made things difficult  especially considering that Black institutions often feel pressure to perform better than predominantly white institutions, Carter said.

Due to racism, being just as good isnt good enough, he said. When bad news surfaces at a black institution, it tends to blow up more than anywhere else.

When we have something like this, like a Dean Rene, it does significant damage, Carter said.

There was a cancer in the school that we had to cut out, he added.

brittany.britto@chron.com

john.tedesco@chron.com
By PTI

SYDNEY: Australia has reported fewer new daily cases from its virus hotspot in the city of Melbourne than on any single day since last month.

But it has also reported the nation's highest daily death total since the virus outbreak began.

The state of Victoria reported 322 new infections and 19 new deaths on Monday, with 14 of the deaths connected to outbreaks at aged-care facilities.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was more hopeful now that cases are stabilising in Victoria than he has been at any time over the past week.

But state premier Daniel Andrews cautioned that not too much could be read into a single day's worth of data, and that some of the state's most stringent lockdown measures had only come into effect at midnight Sunday.

The number of new cases was the lowest recorded in Victoria since July 29.

The figures did not include new infections and deaths from other Australian states, although Victoria has been accounting for the vast majority of both in recent weeks.

Since the outbreak began, Australia has reported more than 21,000 infections and more than 300 deaths.

The state premier also said that more than 2,700 active cases have no known source and remain the primary concern of health authorities.

Victoria on Sunday saw a welcome drop in its new COVID-19 cases with 394 but a record 17 deaths, including two people in their 50s.

It took the hard-hit state's toll to 210 and the Australian total of deaths to 295.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said confirmed cases also include almost 1,000 health care workers.

The city of Melbourne has been under tough restrictions since a week ago, including an overnight curfew and mandatory wearing of masks, but won't see the results of their efforts for another one to two weeks.

Almost 270 Victorian residents have been fined over the past 24 hours for breaching the restrictions, including a man helping a friend to move a television 27 kilometres (17 miles) across the city.

Victoria Police issued 268 fines to individuals in the past 24 hours, including 77 for curfew breaches and 38 for failing to wear a mask when leaving home.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan congratulated Alexander Lukashenko on his re-election as President of Belarus on August 10.

I congratulate you on your re-election as President of the Republic of Belarus. I wish success and new achievements to you in the position of the states leader, the Armenian PM told Lukashenko in a telegram.

I am convinced that through joint efforts we will continue strengthening the friendship between our peoples and enhancing the mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries both bilaterally and as part of international organizations and integration unions. From my side I am ready to spare no effort in order to completely realize the entire potential of the relations between our peoples and countries. I would like to take this opportunity, dear Mr. Lukashenko, to wish robust health to you and peace and welfare to the brotherly people of Belarus, Pashinyan said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
Parents, teachers, and students altogether are still doubtful whether school reopening for the fall semester is the right decision amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. President Donald Trump has demanded schools reopen in fall as he claimed that the virus does not easily spread among children.

Some large school districts such as Los Angeles and San Diego have opted for online classes this fall.

However, some school districts have already resumed face-to-face classes this summer and are currently struggling with COVID-19 cases.

On July 27, Corinth School District in Mississippi has been affected by COVID-19 cases among students and teaching staff in its elementary, middle school, and high school.

This resulted in over 100 students into quarantine, according to a Forbes report.

In Tennessee, around 50 COVID-19 cases have been recorded in five school districts since it resumed in July.

Many parents will soon send their children back to schools despite fears of the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether they will be notified when COVID-19 hits their schools.

Schools Informing About COVID-19 Cases

According to a USA Today report, school districts, health departments, and other concerned agencies gave mixed messages whether they will release information about COVID-19 cases in students and staff at campuses.

The report also showed little consistency in how schools and health departments plant to relay the information.

Many cited medical and educational privacy laws to keep even basic counts of coronavirus cases. This even with federal guidance saying those laws should not hinder disclosure.

Legal experts said that schools could share information as long as they do not identify individuals.

In Florida, Martin County teachers have recently heard rumors that a school employee died from COVID-19, just days before the start of in-person classes.

District spokesperson Jennifer DeShazo confirmed the death but not the cause. DeShazo mentioned the HIPAA, which is a federal law that only applies to medical practitioners releasing information.

In Tennessee, officials said they would not collect, release data of COVID-19 cases in Tennessee schools.

"At this time, we do not plan to ask school districts to submit formal reports to us about COVID-19 cases and do not plan to systematically release school-specific information on cases among students and/or staff members," Health Department spokesperson Shelley Walker was quoted in a report.

Walker said the department would encourage school districts to track COVID-19 cases to understand the disease's threat and take needed steps to curb the further spread.

Legal Experts

Legal experts and government transparency advocates say schools have a history of abusing privacy laws to keep information secret.

This has forced the public to enter lawsuits to gain access to records.

Justin Silverman, who leads the New England First Amendment Coalition, said many states are also citing HIPAA for keeping COVID-19 cases information in nursing homes.

Dr. Nathaniel Beers, who serves on the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on School Health, said that school districts should have basic COVID-19 case counts and responses for the general community.

Beers also said that there should be detailed information to people with direct exposure and a general information health screening guidance for others on the campus.

"For schools to be open, you need staff to feel like safety is first. You need students and parents to feel safe is first. You need the broader community to feel like the school is taking care of business and not putting everyone else in harm's way," Beers was quoted in a report.

Check these out:

How Prepared Are California Schools for Reopening?

Schools Struggle to Reopen at Limited Capacity While Parents Protest Against It

How Are Some Schools in The U.S. Going to Reopen
Maria Khachaturyan, the youngest of three sisters charged with killing their father in Moscow two years ago, has gone on trial in the Russian capital.

The high-profile trial began behind closed doors at the Butyrsky district court on August 10.

Dozens of young men and women gathered in front of the court building to support the defendant and her sisters, whom they consider victims of domestic violence.

Investigators say that in July 2018, Krestina, Angelina, and Maria Khachaturyan -- then 19, 18, and 17 years old, respectively -- killed their father, Mikhail Khachaturyan, at their home in Moscow's outskirts.

Materials gathered by investigators included substantial evidence of protracted sexual and physical abuse of his daughters by Khachaturyan.

The case has attracted widespread attention from Russian media, and led to calls from women's rights activists for the introduction of legislation that would allow victims of domestic violence to plead self-defense.

In early December, investigators finalized their indictment against the three sisters and sent it to the Prosecutor-General's Office to prepare for trial. Krestina, Angelina, and Maria acted with premeditation, it concluded, governed by "a strong personal enmity toward their father" due to continued physical and sexual abuse.

Later in December, Deputy Prosecutor-General Viktor Grin cited flaws in the investigation and asked officials to reclassify the sisters' actions as self-defense, which would pave the way for the women to be let free.

But earlier in July, according to the defense team, Grin confirmed the original premeditated-murder charges.

Maria Khachaturyan, who was 17 when the alleged crime took place, is being tried separately. A medical evaluation following the killing found her mentally unsound at the time of the crime, and it was recommended that she undergo psychological treatment.

Her two elder sisters will be tried by jury and their trial will begin on August 31.

With reporting by TASS and 360 TV
IndusInd bank has acquired more than 7 percent stake in both Eveready Industries India and McLeod Russel India by invoking pledged shares.

The bank invoked pledge on more than 56.83 lakh equity shares of Eveready Industries to pick up 7.82 per cent stake in the battery maker.

"The equity shares of Eveready Industries India Ltd held by Williamson Magor and Co Ltd were pledged with the bank for securing the outstanding dues of Seajuli Developers & Finance Limited (Seajuli), the borrower company. The bank has invoked the pledge held on aforesaid shares for recovery of its dues from Seajuli," IndusInd Bank said in a regulatory filing.

The company is in the business of manufacturing and marketing of batteries, flashlights and packet tea under the brand name of "Eveready".

The bank also invoked the pledge on more than 78.32 crore equity shares for recovery of its dues from Seajuli. The shares of McLeod Russel India held by Williamson Magor and Co Ltd were pledged with the bank for securing the outstanding dues of Seajuli Developers & Finance Limited, the borrower company.

IndusInd Bank has acquired 7.50 per cent paid-up equity share capital of the company by invoking shares. McLeod Russel India is engaged in cultivation and manufacturing of tea. The tea produced is sold in domestic as well as international markets and is part of the Williamson Magor Group. It has 31 tea estates in Assam and two in the Dooars region of West Bengal, three estates in Vietnam and six in Uganda.
Visitors to Mexico's tourism website were lost in translation when the names of some of the country's top tourist destinations were hilariously mistranslated from Spanish to English.

Entire states like Hidalgo and Guerrero were mistranslated as 'Noble' and 'Warrior' on VisitMexico.com site.

The systematic and inexplicable re-invention of the names of some fairly well-known tourist towns included the Caribbean resort of Tulum, which somehow became 'Jumpsuit.'

The Mexican tourist board apologized for the errors, which were reportedly blamed on and outsourced supplier.

The mistranslations also included the Pacific coast resort of Puerto Escondido, which became 'Hidden Port,' a literal translation, and the northern city of Torreon became 'Turret'.

Mexico's tourism website VisitMexico.com encountered a hilarious glitch on Friday when the names of its cities and states were mistakenly translated. Pictured are the locations of some of the mistranslated places

A glitch in Mexico's tourism website VisitMexico.com on Friday erroneously translated the name of the Caribbean coastal city of Tulum (pictured) to 'Jumpsuit'

An aerial view of the city of Pachuca in the central state of Hidalgo, whose name was hilariously translated to 'Noble'

Tourism officials in Acapulco, Mexico, removed a controversial video that was posted Thursday promoting the resort city as an 'anything goes' destination for tourists despite the COVID-19 pandemic

Some name changes were just inexplicable and appeared to have as much to do with invention as simple translation.

The central Mexican town of Aculco somehow became 'I Blame,' and the northern Gulf coast city of Ciudad Madero became 'Log.'

'Stop making Mexico look ridiculous!' former President Felipe Calderon wrote in his Twitter account.

Mexico's Tourism Department issued a statement apologizing for the apparently out-sourced errors, but then made it sound like something sinister had been involved.

'The Tourism Department expresses its most sincere apologies to the public and users for the effects that have occurred on the website VisitMexico,' the statement said.

Aerial view of Mexico's Pacific resort city of Acapulco (photographed September 20, 2013). Tourism authorities pulled a pair of controversial video ads Thursday, which touted the faded resort's reputation as an 'anything goes' tourism destination, because they weren't appropriate during the new coronavirus pandemic

The Pacific coast resort town of Puerto Escondido was translated by mistake to 'Hidden Port' on Mexico's official tourism website VisitMexico.com

'Moreover, we make it known that these acts aim to damage the image of the website and the department, and so therefore a criminal complaint has been filed and appropriate legal actions will be taken against those responsible.'

The department did not explain that claim, but local media reported the dispute might involve a web services supplier angry about not being paid.

The translation blunder came one day after the U.S. State Department cited the high number of COVID-19 cases in Mexico for issuing a 'do not travel' advisory for the country, its highest level of warning.

Hours earlier, the resort of Acapulco was forced to pull 'anything goes' tourism ads that showed people partying without masks and the words 'there are no rules.'

Officials took down a pair of Acapulco video ads touting the faded resort's reputation as a nightclubbing spot - despite the fact nightclubs are currently closed to enforce social distancing. They said the ads weren't appropriate during the coronavirus pandemic.

'We have stopped being a postcard from the past, today we have changed the rules,' says a narration in one of the videos. 'In fact, there are no rules,' says another voice, as people can be seen eating bizarre meals and going out to night clubs. 'Eat whatever you want, have fun day and night and into the early morning hours ... find new friends and new loves.'
Childcare providers, tattoo parlours and auction houses are among the firms to benefit from a 12-month rates holiday introduced by the Executive.

Legislation has now been made to implement the rates break - and it details the kinds of firms across hospitality, tourism, retail, leisure and other sectors who will benefit.

The 100% rates relief - which will apply to around 25,000 premises until the end of March next year - was one of the measures introduced to help businesses weather the storm of coronavirus and lockdown.

Finance Minister Conor Murphy has visited Omniplex Cinema in Dundonald, as cinemas are among the beneficiaires.

He said: "COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on our business community but I am pleased today to see local retailers open for business.

"The Executive is committed to protecting livelihoods and supporting businesses impacted during this extremely challenging time. The 12 months rates holiday is supporting in excess of 25,000 businesses across the sectors most adversely impacted, including childcare establishments which are integral to supporting the process of economic recovery.

"This targeted support builds on the four months rates holiday provided to all businesses and demonstrates our continued determination to helping businesses get through this pandemic."

Land and Property Services will issue non-domestic rates bills this week which will indicate whether firms benefit from the four or 12-month holiday.

Domestic bills were issued in June, three months later than usual.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Finance said: "Where Land & Property Services (LPS) has sufficient information about business use, LPS will automatically apply the 12-month rates holiday.

"If a business has not been automatically awarded the 12- month rates holiday and their business falls within the categories of use listed in legislation, they may apply for the rates holiday by providing more information to LPS about their business use."

Paul John Anderson, director at Omniplex Cinemas, said the rates holiday had been "extremely helpful" for the leisure sector but that times were still tough.

"We're trading probably 20% of what we would normally trade at the moment. Times are not easy, so over the next six months the rate relief will be of great help and assistance to our business and to businesses in our sector."

Francis Loye of Giggles Early Years, a childcare facility in Newry, Co Down, said: "Here in Giggles Early Years rates is one of the biggest overheads that we have.

"By removing rates for the next financial year that has ensured that we're able to reopen to provide a service for the parents in the local area."

Gary Keenen of Bogart Menswear - which has stores in Belfast and Newry - said the rates relief brought at least some certainty. "Because of the uncertainty that's involved whereby we literally can't plan or pre-empt what is happening. To be sure that we don't have to pay rates was a major help for the business financially."
Skal Phuket elects new board

PHUKET: Skal International Phuket, the local chapter of the international hospitality organisation Skal International, has elected a new board at its annual general meeting held in Phuket.



By The Phuket News

Monday 10 August 2020, 11:32AM

The Skal International Phuket AGM was held at the InterContinental Phuket Resort on Aug 6. Photo; AJ Wood

Andrew J Wood, who serves as President of Skal International Bangkok as well as Vice President of both Skal International Thailand and Skal International Southeast Asia (SEA), was on the island for the occasion.

On my road trip visit to Krabi and Phuket, I was fortunate to attend a SKAL meeting in both towns. As President of SKAL Bangkok it is always a great opportunity to visit my sister clubs in Thailand, reported Mr Wood.

Throughout the world we have 345 clubs in 104 countries. SKAL is represented locally, nationally and regionally, I am honoured to wear three hats in the World of Skal being VP in both Skal Thailand and Skal Asia, he added.

The Skal International Phuket AGM was held at the InterContinental Phuket Resort on Aug 6.

Having exceeded a 25% quorum of members the Skal Phuket AGM opened with Acting President Robert De Graaf with his welcome of all to the meeting including founding member Methee Tanmanatragul, Mr Wood noted.

Apologies had been received from Skal International Thailand President Wolfgang Grimm.

In his opening remarks Robert mentioned his special thanks to Past President Richard Valentine who is recovering well.

Due to the cancellation of the Skal Asia Conference which had been slated for June this year, that along with much of the islands tourism industry had stopped in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, Mr Wood reported.

Robert went on to thank the Phuket Exco for their continued hard work in a chaotic year for tourism globally, he added.

Reports were presented by members of the committee followed by the election of the new 2020-22 board of officers, as follows:

President Robert de Graaff

VP Krit Srabua

Secretary Francois Laing

Treasurer Kevin Rautenbach

Young Skal Ben Tabateau

Marketing Fred R. Muenger

Digital Niklas Wagner

A good turnout afterwards on the beach lawn of the Resort for the monthly networking event with 40-50 people in attendance had a real buzz, Mr Mr Wood noted.

For further information about Skal International Phuket, people may contact Francois Laing at francoislaing@gmail.com

SKAL INTERNATIONAL KRABI

The meeting in Krabi took place on July 29 at the five-star Anana Ecological Resort.

Billed as a Krabi SOS Dinner meeting by resort owner and club President Wolfgang Grimm, Mr Grimm issued his SOS message (Spirit of Sharing) and the meeting discussed how to be an active driver of the local tourism community and in these unprecedented times, develop new and different strategies to make our jobs and our communities more sustainable in a Covid world, Mr Wood noted.

Guest speaker was Kevin Rautenbach, Snr VP Skal Thailand, who presented Krabi Destination Domain www.krabivacations.com to promote the best carbon conscious hotel and tour products of the destination.

The distribution and booking platform will be provided by Traveliko OTA free of charge. The one-time charge for the new website and service was presented during the meeting.

All channel manager reservations from the website are free of commission.

At the meeting Mr Rautenbach also discussed CSR projects that protect nature and resolve hunger in Krabi, also carbon offset ideas such as creating edible light hydroponic landscapes on flat roof tops and/or participate to grow/protect trees, mangroves and seagrass in association with offset organisations.

Anana was not fully open on the day of the meeting, however Wolfgang felt it was important that we meet face-to-face to consider the benefits of cooperation. The resort opened to guests a few days later and is now operational following lockdown, Mr Wood said.

The event was free of charge with the meal being provided by three Krabi institutions; Anana Ecological Resort, Umbertos Italian Cuisine and Coopers Speciality Kitchen.

With 30 attendees it was a great turnout for this small resort town! We had a very interactive two- way dialogue led by President Wolfgang after dinner about what Krabi Skalleagues would like to see happen going forward and they gave a good strong affirmation on the clubs plan to make Krabi the No.1 ecotourism resort destination in Thailand after VP Kevin Rautenbachs excellent presentation on Destination Marketing, Mr Wood explained.

Two Skalleagues over the course of the evening donated over two rai (3,200sqm) of flat roof and ground space for Skal Krabis use for eco-friendly projects. To be able to convert unused space into areas for reusable community projects such as agriculture including edible landscapes.

President Wolfgang commented, What a great night. What a great result. We launched an idea to explore tourism related Community Farming on a Roof in Krabi Town and land in Klong Muang provided free of charge.

Amazing! Two members immediately volunteered their properties to initiate this milestone project.

For further information about Skal International Krabi, people may contact Wolfgang Grimm at md@ananakrabi.com

SKAL INTERNATIONAL BANGKOK

The Bangkok Club will have its next meeting (a cocktail dinner) tomorrow (Tuesday, Aug 11) from 5:30pm at the Riva Surya hotel.

For further information, contact Pichai Visutriratana at events.skalbkk@gmail.com










A Yerevan court upheld the motion to reestablish the pretrial detention of former MP Levon Sargsyan. Gor Abrahamyan, Adviser to the Prosecutor General, informed Armenian News-NEWS.am about this.

To note, on March 20, Russia had granted the Armenian side's petition to extradite Sargsyan to the Armenian law enforcement agencies, and the extradition took place on August 6.

In November, Levon Sargsyan, 51, was found and detained in Zelenograd, Russia.

He has been wanted by the Armenian law enforcement since October 2018.

Levon Sargsyan is charged with ordering the robbery attack on the house of Armen Avetisyan, former Head of State Customs Committee of Armenia, 11 years ago.
This is the dramatic moment huge rocks suddenly collapsed from a mountain and smashed into a highway road with busy traffic in China.

Heart-stopping footage shows the enormous stones tumbling down the slope before smashing into a stream of cars in south-western Chinese province Sichuan.

Three people suffered minor injuries from the incident triggered by recent heavy downpours in the region, the officials said.

This is the dramatic moment huge rocks suddenly collapsing from a mountain and smashing into a highway road with busy traffic in China's south-western province Sichuan on August 8

The terrifying accident occurred around 10:55am on Saturday on a highway road in the city of Yibin, according to a notice released by the local traffic authorities from Sichuan province

The terrifying accident occurred around 10:55am on Saturday on a highway road in the city of Yibin, according to a notice released by the local traffic authorities.

Dashcam footage shows multiple giant rocks rolling down the hill and smashing into the cars moving along the highway.

Three people were injured and three cars were said to have been hit by the stones.

Other clips shows a man, appearing to be injured, covering his head with a cloth while two wrecked vehicles can be seen parking on the side of the road.

Three people suffered minor injuries from the incident triggered by recent heavy downpours in the region, the officials said. Three vehicles were said to have been hit by the fallen rocks

Officials have sealed off the road and launched an emergency response to repair the traffic link, according to the official statement released by the Yibin traffic authorities on Saturday

Yibin traffic authorities said that the rocks collapsed from the mountain due to recent heavy rain in the area.

Officials have sealed off the road and launched an emergency response to repair the traffic link, according to the official statement.

The news comes as another shocking video sees a giant sinkhole suddenly opening up on a street, swallowing two pedestrians in south-western China.

Dramatic footage shows the two female residents walking on the footpath next to a main road before tumbling into the deep pit as the pavement ripped in half in Chongqing on July 27.

Both women survived the accident with minor injuries after being rescued by firefighters, according to reports.

Regions across China have been hit by floods and heavy rain since June.

More than 45million people have been affected since flood season began in June, with at least 142 people dead or missing, according to official figures.
This year, the Independence Day event on 15 August is likely to consist of only Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech, a 21-gun salute, the National Anthem, and the unfurling of the National Flag, reports said

With less than a week to go for Independence Day 2020, preparations are underway across the country and authorities are enforcing special precautionary measures in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

On 24 July, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued guidelines for the Independence Day celebrations at Delhi's Red Fort and said, "...while organising various programmes or Independence Day celebrations, it is imperative to follow certain preventive measures such as maintaining social distancing, wearing of masks, proper sanitisation, avoiding large congregations, protecting vulnerable people, etc."

Every year, a cultural programme in which children perform is organised at the Independence Day event, but it will not be organised this year.

"More than 2,000 children from various schools used to perform and stand in National Flag formation at the Red Fort ground. The event will either be limited to a few students or cancelled," a Delhi Police official was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

As part of the additional crowd-regulating restrictions, the two grounds on either side of the Red Fort, which are usually open to the public, will also remain closed.

This year, celebrations at the Red Fort on 15 August is likely to consist of only Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech, a 21-gun salute, the National Anthem, and the unfurling of the National Flag, The Hindu reported.

In addition to precautionary measures, the the home ministry also recommended inviting "COVID 'warriors' like doctors, health workers, santisation workers as a recognition of their noble service in the fight against the pandemic."

"Some people cured from COVID-19 may also be invited," the MHA's advisory added. As a break from tradition, school children will not be participating in the event this year.

However, National Cadet Corps members are likely to be a part of it, Hindustan Times reported. The report added that around 1,500 people who have recovered from coronavirus are likely to be "the highlight at the celebrations".

"The corona winners will include around 500 local policemen. The remaining will travel to Delhi from other parts of the country. The defence ministry, which plays a key role in organising the event, has asked the Union home ministry to implement the plan for inviting corona winners for the function," the report added.

Security personnel taking part in I-Day event in quarantine

In Delhi, 350 police personnel who will be part of guard of honour at the Red Fort have been quarantined ahead of the ceremony at the police colony in the Delhi Cantonment, reports said. The guard of honour will be inspected by Modi on the day.

The quarantined personnel include all ranks  from a constable to Deputy Commissioner of Police.

Special Commissioner of Police (Armed Police) Robin Hibu was quoted by Moneycontrol as saying that the personnel "are doing well and none of them have any COVID-19 symptoms".

"After their parade rehearsals, they immediately sanitise themselves. All precautions are being taken," another senior police officer said.

Usually, 40 personnel travel to and fro parade rehearsals together, but this year, 20 personnel are being allowed at a time in a sanitised vehicle, the report added.

The Independence Day celebrations at Red Fort will be graced by dignitaries other than the prime minister as well, ANI reported, adding that this year, the country is likely to witness a "completely different" Independence Day function at the Red Fort in Delhi, due to the pandemic.

ANI reported that only 20 percent of the usual number of VVIPs and other invitees will be able to attend Modi's speech live this year. Till last year, thousands of people used to attend the function.

Additionally, officers of the Indian Army, Air Force, Navy, and the Delhi Police who are slated to participate in the Independence Day programme have been asked to be in quarantine till 15 August.

Their employees  like drivers, househelps, cooks, bus drivers, parade trainers  have also been asked to be in quarantine, reports said.

The officers have also been instructed only to attend rehearsals for the event and return directly home, hence curbing their activities in the run-up to Independence Day.

According to NDTV, authorities have drawn up stringent precautions for participating officers because "the nature of the celebration makes it impossible to maintain social distancing rules, which is required amid the COVID-19 pandemic".

This precaution has been taken to ensure that Modi, and VVIPs, VIPs, and others are not exposed to virus, as "during the Guard of Honour on the red carpet, the Prime Minister passes through parade commander and soldiers, Zee News reported.

The sanitisation of every government vehicle involved in the parade will be undertaken till 15 August, the report added.

Security arrangements in Delhi

Delhi Police commissioner SN Shrivastava said that all necessary security arrangements have been made for Independence Day and public cooperation has also been sought in this regard.

"Necessary security arrangements have been made for Independence Day. Arrangements have also been made in view of the threat from aerial objects like drones and microlight aircraft. We have sought public cooperation so that no place is used to launch any terror attack," Shrivastava told ANI.

As part of security protocol for the event, Delhi Police on Monday checked vehicles of commuters as part of heightened measures in the National Capital. Police teams were seen checking vehicles at India Gate and Connaught Place, ANI reported.

Security forces are conducting vehicular check in all the parts of Delhi-NCR.

On Sunday, the Indian Armed Forces (Tri-Service) Band gave a musical performance at the North Block during the ongoing celebration of the 74th Independence Day.

The 74th Independence Day celebration will be marked by musical performances by the bands from the Army, Navy and Indian Air Force, the Defence Ministry was quoted as saying.

"These performances are intended as gestures of gratitude and appreciation of the nation towards the corona warriors who have been steadfastly fighting to stop the spread of the coronavirus in the country even at the risk of their lives," said the Ministry of Defence in a press release.

Military and Police Bands will also perform in Imphal, Bhopal and Jhansi on 12 August.

I-Day celebrations in other states

Independence Day celebrations will also be curbed in other states Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, and Odisha.

Jharkhand chief secretary Sukhdev Singh on 6 August said that Independence Day functions in the state will be organised with a limited number of visitors at the venues.

In a statement, Singh said, as per the instructions issued by the MHA, the visitors to state and district-level functions will be limited to avoid gathering of people in large numbers.

Reviewing the Independence Day celebrations at the Jharkhand Armed Police (JAP-1) ground, the chief secretary said, doctors, health workers, sanitation workers and some cured COVID-19 patients will be invited this year.

The wearing of masks, social distancing and keeping two yards distance between chairs will be followed, he said.

In Jaipur, school children will not take part in an Independence Day parade, while in Bengaluru, schools will conduct celebrations online.

With inputs from agencies
August 10, 2020 - SEOUL, South Korea - The flag of Finland was raised at the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) Headquarters today during a ceremony welcoming the country's accession to IVI. Finland joined the Seoul-based international organization dedicated to vaccines for global health in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, committing an annual contribution of 500,000 EUR during the period of 2020 - 2025 to support IVI's core operations and 500,000 EUR for COVID-19 vaccine research and development this year.

The Chairperson of IVI's Board of Trustees, George Bickerstaff, gave welcome remarks and the Minister of Social Affairs & Health of Finland, Aino-Kaisa Pekonen, and the First Lady of the Republic of Korea, Kim Jung-sook, offered their congratulations for the special event over video conferencing. The Ambassador of Finland to the Koreas, Eero Suominen, attended the ceremony in person to hoist the flag with the Director General of IVI, Jerome Kim.

Additionally, Korea's Ambassador of Global Health Security, Jong-Koo Lee; the President of the IVI-Korea Support Committee, Sang Chul Park; and the First Secretary of the Swedish Embassy, Victoria Rhodin Sandstrom, attended the event.

Director General Kim said, "We're proud to call Finland a member state of IVI, and we're extremely grateful for its support for our mission to eradicate infectious diseases in low- and middle-income countries, including COVID-19. With its demonstrated commitment to join efforts to advance global health, eliminate poverty and reduce inequality, we see a host of possibilities for future collaboration between IVI and Finnish institutions. Vaccines must be a global public good, and it is the support and partnership of our member states like Finland that bring us closer to a future free of vaccine-preventable death and illness."

Minister Pekonen said, "The commitment to equity in IVI's vision, to support developing countries become free of suffering from infectious diseases, is an important value to Finland...The development of vaccines requires time, resources and expertise. The IVI is an important partner in the global collaboration to reaching this goal, and Finland wants to play its part in supporting this crucial work."

Madame Kim Jung-sook, who was inaugurated as the Honorary President of IVI's Support Committee on July 8, 2020, said, "I was deeply moved by Finland's healthcare system that makes nationwide effort to heal the pain of children...IVI aims to make a healthier tomorrow for humanity by forging Vaccine Solidarity Without Borders in the fight against a virus that knows no borders. I hope Finland's participation will bring forward the day we see this vision turn into reality."

Ahead of the flag-raising, Director General Kim and Minister Pekonen signed a Memorandum of Understanding detailing the membership agreement over livestream video from Seoul and Helsinki. Representatives from IVI's other funding states, Korea, Sweden and India gave congratulatory remarks after the signing ceremony.

Finland became the international organization's 36th member state following approval from its Board of Trustees and the country's deposit of an instrument of accession to the Agreement on the Establishment of the IVI with the United Nations. With their funding commitment, Finland is also the fourth member state contributing financial support to IVI, along with the Republic of Korea, Sweden, and India. Like the other state funders, Finland will send a representative to the IVI Board of Trustees.

Finland officially joined IVI on August 1, 2020, and its accession represents IVI's first expansion of member states since 2012 with the addition of India.

###

About the International Vaccine Institute (IVI)

The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) is a nonprofit inter-governmental organization established in 1997 at the initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, IVI was the first international organization hosted by Korea. IVI has 36 signatory countries and the World Health Organization (WHO) on its treaty, including Korea, Sweden, India, and Finland as state funders.

Our mandate is to make vaccines available and accessible for the world's most vulnerable people. We focus on infectious diseases of global health importance such as cholera, typhoid, shigella, salmonella, schistosomiasis, Group A Strep, Hepatitis A, HPV, TB, HIV, MERS, COVID-19, as well as antimicrobial resistance. For more information, please visit https://www.ivi.int

CONTACT

Aerie Em, Global Communications & Media Specialist

+82 2 881 1386 | aerie.em@ivi.int
Lucknow, Aug 10 : Former Union minister and senior UP Congress leader Jitin Prasada has written a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, urging him to declare a holiday on Parshuram Jayanti.

Parshuram Jayanti had earlier been declared a public holiday but when the Yogi government came to power, the holiday was cancelled.

In April 2017, the chief minister had cancelled 15 public holidays, including Parshuram Jayanti. The government also cancelled the birth and death anniversaries of several eminent people.

In his letter, Jitin Prasada, who has been leading a campaign against atrocities on the Brahmin community, said that Parshuram is revered as the Lord of Justice and is also seen as the sixth avatar of Lord Vishnu.

He said that Parshuram is held in high esteem by the Brahmin community. Prasada has urged the chief minister to restore the holiday on Parshuram Jayanti.
EVERYONE you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.

Its one of those phrases that pops up regularly on social media accounts the world over.

In the case of Munster and Ireland rugby player John Ryan his on-the-pitch tackles have been clear for all to see. But behind the scenes hes been engaged in a more covert battle that many people may not realise.

John, who celebrated his 32nd birthday last week, had just turned 23 when he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that causes long-lasting inflammation and ulcers in your digestive tract.

He had never heard of it before. There was no history of it in his family.

While he has spoken about it in the past, John, who lives in Castleconnell, opens up extensively about how the condition has affected his life on a new podcast, Gutcast, which has been launched by the Irish Society for Colitis and Crohns Disease (ISCC) in partnership with Janssen Sciences Ireland UC.

The podcast has been made in response to national research that shows the extent of mental health concerns among those living with IBD and the need for accessible supports for stress, anxiety and depression, all of which are being compounded by Covid-19.

Gutcast ep 5, Sex and relationships', will help those with IBD overcome the fears they may have of entering a new relationship or discussing the topic of sex with their partner. Listen back and share. #Gutcast @ISCCIRL  Irish Society for Colitis and Crohns Disease (@ISCCIRL) August 6, 2020

I think there are a lot of people with IBD probably keeping it a secret, John tells the Leader. We need to get rid of that stigma. I think keeping it a secret adds that extra bit of baggage and stress and when you get rid of that you feel a bit better.

While John now knows a lot of people who suffer with ulcerative colitis, before he was diagnosed he didnt know of anyone with the illness.

While his initial symptoms werent too bad he says he realised what bad was around 2014 when he got a very bad flare-up which affected his entire colon.

Initially, I think the condition affected around 5% of my colon and then it spread to about 70% of it and now its the whole lot.

Nine years down the road and Im still adapting to it. Id get lethargic which is never a good thing.

It gives you a good sense of perspective when youre healthy and you can go in the car for two or three hours without worrying.

John went five years without getting any flare-up which was pretty amazing.

He is on infusions which he gets every eight weeks in the Mater hospital in Cork and finds very beneficial.

So what is it like managing the condition while being a professional rugby player?

There is a good team inside in Munster to be fair, he asserts.

I can skip training every eight weeks. When I go for the infusions Ill skip a Monday session and Ill go down to Cork and get that done. To be fair Id never shy away from the work because Id never want in my head to think people might think Im getting the easier route. I make it my business to do all the work, but if I was struggling, theyd be fine about it to be fair.

In terms of people who are newly diagnosed with IBD John offers this advice. Some people might say dont read all the stuff thats out there. I would say the opposite - Id say do all your research but dont get ahead of yourself either. I was reading up on things and saying why dont we try this and this and this but Ive a very good specialist in Cork, Dr Barry OConnor and hed say its a gradual process, there is no point trying everything together. Its been a real gradual process for me. Ive been on infusions since 2014 and tablets. I find the infusions excellent. I definitely find that by week seven Im saying I need to go back. And on week eight when I get them Im back to myself again.

The research conducted among people living with Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis has revealed that mental health issues have the highest impact on everyday life with 82% of people with IBD stating they have experienced stress, 74% experienced anxiety and 53% experienced depression due to their condition

When Im ill I get frustrated and I probably get down about it as well, says John, candidly. When Im ill I have to plan my session that Im close to a bathroom or take medication to stop myself from going to the toilet for the three hours Im on the pitch or in the gym or whatever. There are those type of things that can really mess with your head but you have to stop worrying about what everyone else thinks, he continues.

Much of Johns support comes from his family and his incredibly supportive wife Zita whom he married last year.

The couple moved to Limerick in 2016. They have two children, Felix, 2, and baby Gaia Isobel who was born in late March.

Were both Cork. Im from Inniscarra and Zita is from Blackrock. I really like living in Limerick. There is a good lifestyle here and good food.

Munster of course are back in action on August 22 playing Leinster in the opening round of the Guinness PRO14. The Covid cases are creeping up. Hopefully we can get the ball rolling. Everyone is eager for some normality. We cant wait. It has been good enough craic back training, John smiles.

Gutcast comprises eight episodes released throughout July and August. The podcast focuses on a variety of topics including mental health, fatigue, managing work and social life, sex and relationships and getting the most out of your healthcare appointments. It is available on the ISCC website as well as on Apple Podcast App, Google Play Music and Spotify.

For more Limerick news click here
F amous artworks vibrantly reinvented by a new generation of artists are on display on billboards around London.

Kandinskys Swinging, John Everett Millaiss Ophelia and John Simpsons Head of a Man are among the works of art to be reimagined by a group of 16 to 25-year-old artists of all disciplines.

The 48 exhibited works were selected from more than 800 applications, spanning poetry, photography, illustration and even make-up looks. They will be on display on billboards across Camden, Hackney, Haringey, Islington, Lambeth, Southwark and Walthamstow for two weeks from today.

Tate Collective, which offers discounted access to young people, put out a call to its members with the aim of stimulating creativity during difficult times, and offering concrete support to young people at the beginning of their artistic careers.

The inspiring artworks also include John Martins The Plains of Heaven, Ibrahim El-Salahis Reborn Sounds of Childhood Dreams, Sheba Chhachhis Urvashi  Staged Portrait, Gulmohar Park, Delhi and Guerrilla Girls Talk Back, all of which are available to view for free at Tate Modern and Britain.

Urja Gauri Jain, whose photograph Ophelia, in the midst of a pandemic is a modern response to Millaiss painting, said: As a young creative & someone who graduated through a global pandemic, I am very proud and excited for this opportunity to showcase my work across London. While the current pandemic has thrown our lives into disarray and chaos, uncertainty & disappointment have become a part of our daily routine. But unlike Ophelia who drowned in despair, this is an ode to the class of 2020, as we all try our best to stay afloat while the current pulls us down.

Tate director Maria Balshaw said: It is heartening to see immense creativity emerge at such a time of uncertainty for so many. Tate Collective members have engaged with Tates collection in ways that are truly inspiring. I hope people all over the city are delighted and surprised by the new work they find in their communities.

The winning pieces were selected by a panel of judges including editor of GUAP magazine Ibrahim Jamara, producer and founder of Black Ticket Project Tobi Kyeremateng, artist Soofiya and Tate curators Nathan Ladd, Aicha Mechrez and Valentina Ravaglia.

Kyeremateng added: Right now we all need a reason to be hopeful and what better joy than encountering the expression of young creative talent."
Hundreds of people descended on downtown Chicago early Monday following a police shooting on the city's South Side, with vandals smashing the windows of dozens of businesses and making off with merchandise, cash machines and anything else they could carry, police said.

Police Superintendent David Brown told reporters that the Sunday afternoon shooting of the man who had opened fire on officers apparently prompted a social media post that urged people form a car caravan and converge on the business and shopping district.

Some 400 additional officers were dispatched to the area after the department spotted the post. Over several hours, police made more than 100 arrests and 13 officers were injured, including one who was struck in the head with a bottle, Brown said.

Brown dismissed any suggestion that the chaos was part of an organized protest of the shooting, calling it ``pure criminality`` that included occupants of a vehicle opening fire on police who were arresting a man they spotted carrying a cash register.

No officers were wounded by gunfire, but a security guard and a civilian were hospitalized in critical condition after being shot, and five guns were recovered, he said.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot agreed that the melee had nothing to do with a protest. ``This was straight-up felony criminal conduct,'' she said. ``This was an assault on our city.''

The mayhem brightened the national spotlight that has been on Chicago for weeks after a surge in gun violence that resulted in more homicides in July than any month in decades.

President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly criticized the city's handling of the violence, recently ordered more federal agents to Chicago to take part in what Attorney General William Barr called ``classic crime fighting.''

Further ratcheting up the tensions in the city was a video circulating on Facebook that falsely claimed that Chicago police had shot and killed a 15-year-old boy. Posted at 6:30 p.m.

Sunday, the video shows upset residents confronting officers near the scene where officers shot and wounded an adult suspect who they said had fired at them that day. By Monday morning, it had been watched nearly 100,000 times.

Witnesses to the unrest described a scene that bore a striking resemblance to the unrest that unfolded when protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis devolved into chaos. Brown suggested that the lenient treatment of people arrested then played a role in what happened Monday.

``Not many of those cases were prosecuted to the full extent,'' he said. ``These looters, these thieves, these criminals being emboldened by (the lack of) consequences ... emboldened to do more.''

At the same news conference, Lightfoot addressed looters directly, telling them that police had collected a lot of surveillance video and other evidence that will be used to arrest and prosecute as many as possible.

``We saw you, and we will come after you,'' she warned.

Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx disputed any suggestion that her office had shied away from prosecuting people who were arrested for ransacking businesses weeks ago. She said none of those cases had been dropped.

``That is simply not true,'' she said. ``Those cases are coming to court now.''

Videos of the vandalism showed huge crowds of people smashing their way into businesses and streaming out of the broken windows and doors with clothes and other merchandise.

They loaded up vehicles, some moving slowly and deliberately, apparently not worried about being caught by police or being recorded by scores of cellphone cameras.

Vehicles drove away slowly, some leaving behind boxes of rocks that they had apparently brought to shatter the windows. Cash register drawers and clothes hangers were strewn about the streets, along with automatic teller machines that had been ripped from walls or pulled from inside businesses.

Stores miles from downtown were also ransacked, their parking lots littered with glass and boxes that once contained television sets and other electronics.

``This was obviously very orchestrated,'' the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a prominent Roman Catholic priest and activist on the city's South Side, told Chicago television station WBBM.

The havoc left downtown residents rattled.

``I've lived here for 20 years, and it's getting scary, because you can't walk out now,`` said Alan Freeman, who lives in the downtown area. ``You don't know if they're going to start with the people walking on the streets, instead of the stores.''

Train and bus service into downtown was temporarily suspended. Bridges over the Chicago River were lifted, preventing travel to and from the downtown area, and state police blocked some expressway ramps into downtown. Access was to be restored later in the day.

Brown said the department would maintain a huge presence in the downtown area indefinitely, telling reporters that all days off had been canceled until further notice.

On the South Side, police responded about 2:30 p.m. Sunday to a call about a person with a gun in the Englewood neighborhood and tried to confront someone matching his description in an alley. He fled from officers on foot and shot at officers, police said.

Officers returned fire, wounding the man, who was taken to a hospital for treatment. He was expected to recover. Three officers also were taken to a hospital for observation, the statement said.

Brown later said the 20-year-old man had a long criminal history, including arrests for domestic battery and child endangerment, He said a gun was recovered at the scene.

More than an hour after the shooting, police and witnesses said a crowd faced off with officers after someone reportedly told people that police had shot and wounded a child. That crowd eventually dispersed.

But police later came across the social media post about a caravan of cars ``being prompted to go to our downtown to loot,'' Brown said. ``Within 15 minutes, we respond and almost immediately the caravan is in our downtown area.''

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How many people will receive the benefit and for how long is open to question. Trump said the payments would be funded 75% by the federal government and 25% by states. But it is unclear if states will pay that share, given acute budget shortfalls amid the economic recession. The federal government had been covering the full cost of the now-expired $600 supplement.
Kolkata:

Refuting allegations by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the purchase of huge tracts of land by BJP ahead of demonetisation, Siddharth Nath Singh on Thursday said it was a decision taken by BJP two years ago to buy land for building party offices in each district of the country.

The BJP national secretary also urged Banerjee to stop harbouring perceptions about the hardships caused due to demonetisation.

She should stop hallucinating that hardships are being caused by demonetisation. When the entire country had supported demonetisation, she is opposing it for her vested interests. She should stop blabbering lies, false statements and canards, he said.

Terming the allegations raised by Banerjee that the BJP had brought huge land assets months before demonetisation move as baseless, Singh said the Chief Minister should first look into the assets of her own party colleagues, who have amassed fortunes by siphoning off money in chit fund scams.

The allegations are completely baseless. We have proper papers for everything. Secondly, the decision to buy land was taken by our party leadership two years back. We had then decided that we needed to have party offices in every district of the country. So in order to build a party office, you need to have land, Singh reasoned.

Reacting to Banerjees claim that a financial emergency had been imposed and that the country was being run in an arbitrary way, the BJP leader asked, She is questioning Prime Minister, but what is her credibility?

Banerjee had demanded a probe by a Supreme Court judge into the assets bought by BJP months before demonetisation was announced. She had said there were reports and proof of how the BJP purchased the huge tracts of land and deposited large amounts of money in accounts held by it before ban on old high-value bills was announced on November 8.

The TMC supremo had also staged a sit-in in Delhi on November 23 and met President Pranab Mukherjee on the issue.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 07:08:53|Editor: huaxia

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BUENOS AIRES, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- More than 70 percent of the people who contracted the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Argentina have recovered, the Ministry of Health said on Sunday.

"We report a total of 170,109 people as recovered ... that is 70.34 percent of the total confirmed cases," the undersecretary of health strategies, Alejandro Costa, told a local daily.

In all, 241,811 people have tested positive for the virus in Argentina and 4,556 have died from the disease.

Costa said the number of recovered patients was counted in two ways, including those discharged from hospitals and outpatients with mild symptoms. Enditem
Global insurer Chubb announced appointments to two new executive positions.

Chubb has named John Lupica as president of North America Insurance, the companys largest division. Lupica is currently vice chairman, Chubb Group, and president, North America Major Accounts and Specialty Insurance. His new role encompasses his current responsibilities.

Chubb also appointed Paul Krump as vice chairman, Global Underwriting and Claims. Krump is currently executive vice president, Chubb Group and president, North America Commercial and Personal Insurance. He will retain his current executive responsibilities for global claims and risk engineering.

Both appointments are effective September 1. Both leaders will report jointly to Evan G. Greenberg, chairman and chief executive officer, and to John Keogh, executive vice chairman and chief operating officer.

Lupica

Lupica will have executive responsibility for all Chubb general insurance business in the United States, Canada and Bermuda including commercial property/casualty, personal lines, agriculture, and accident and health insurance. His scope of responsibility will include all products, underwriting, marketing and sales, claims, actuarial and support functions related to these business lines.

Lupica has 30 years of property and casualty insurance experience.

Prior to ACEs acquisition of Chubb in January 2016, Lupica was vice chairman of ACE Limited and ACE Group and chairman of Insurance  North America. Lupica was appointed vice chairman of ACE Limited in November 2013 and vice chairman, ACE Group, in March 2014.

He joined ACE in 2000 as executive vice president of the U.S. Professional Risk business and advanced to division president of the unit. He also served as division president of U.S. Regional Operations before being named president of ACE USA in 2005. He was appointed to the additional role of chief operating officer, Insurance  North America, in 2010.

Prior to ACE, Lupica served as senior vice president for Munich-American Risk Partners and held various management positions at American International Group.

Krump

In this new leadership role, Krump will oversee high-level underwriting policy and standards-setting, and provide operational direction and oversight in underwriting execution across Chubbs property and casualty insurance product lines, which include commercial P&C, personal lines and accident and health insurance globally.

Krump will be responsible for the companys global underwriting standards, rules, authorities and risk management and will share accountability for the profitability of the P&C books of business. The global underwriting and corporate underwriting functions will report to Krump and he will supervise the global product boards, portfolio management processes and underwriting audits.

Krump has more than 35 years of insurance industry experience. Prior to ACEs January 2016 acquisition of Chubb, Krump was chief operating officer of The Chubb Corporation, where he was responsible for the companys Commercial, Specialty, Personal and Accident & Health insurance lines; Claims; Global Field Operations; Information Technology; Human Resources; Communications; and External Affairs.

He joined the predecessor Chubb company in 1982 as a commercial underwriting trainee in the Minneapolis office, and has held numerous headquarters and field positions in the United States and Europe.

Topics Claims USA Underwriting Property Casualty Chubb
When President Donald Trump gave an Independence Day speech at Mount Rushmore in early July, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem gifted him with a four-foot statue of the famous landmark with one notable addition.

Trumps face was added to it.

According to CNN, though, the President wants more.

It reported that a White House aide reached out to Noem last year to inquire about possibly adding Trumps face to the landmark.

Its not possible, according to Business Insider, because theres no stable surface left for carving a fifth face.

But, according to the reports, its a dream of Trumps and its something he has brought up more than once. In fact, Noem told South Dakotas Argus Leader, he mentioned it during their first meeting in the Oval Office.

He said, Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand, she said. I shook his hand, and I said, Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore. And he goes, Do you know its my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?

Noem said she started laughing.

He wasnt laughing, she said. So, he was totally serious.

President Trump denied asking about it on Twitter, but said it sounds like a good idea.

This is Fake News by the failing @nytimes & bad ratings @CNN, he tweeted late Sunday. Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me!

He also shared a photo of himself recently speaking in front of Mount Rushmore, his face aligning with the likenesses of presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
In an a May interview, Democratic state Rep. Marcus Evans of Chicago explained why he and fellow South Side legislators pulled their support for the Transformation Plan: We should be sure what the results are going to be before spending government money on this level  hundreds of millions of dollars. We should be able to say, This project will do this.
Hundreds of protesters have been arrested and dozens injured during violent clashes in Belarus, where long-standing leader Alexander Lukashenko was announced the winner of Sunday's presidential elections with over 80% of the vote, prompting an outcry by the opposition.

Central electoral commission chief Lidia Yermoshina said in televised comments on Monday that incumbent Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term with 80.23% of the vote.

His main challenger Svetlana Tikhanouskaya won 9.9%, citing a preliminary count.

The other three candidates each won less than 2%, Yermoshina said.

Tikhanouskaya said at a press conference on Monday that the results did not reflect the support she has clearly received from the majority of the population.

She said she would wait until the publication of the official results before making a decision to contest them.

"I consider that we have already won because we've already conquered our fear, our apathy, our indifference," she said, calling on Lukashenko to step down.

The announcement of results came after police broke up crowds of protesters with stun grenades and rubber bullets in Minsk and other cities on Sunday evening after an exit poll showed Lukashenko winning an overwhelming victory.

At least one person was killed after being knocked over by a police van and dozens were injured in the clashes that began after polling stations closed on Sunday, a representative of the rights group Spring 96 (Viasna) told Reuters.

The NGO reported that around 300 people had been arrested, 152 of them overnight, and that many people were injured.

Ales Bialiatski, director of the NGO said police had used "disproportionate force".

The European Union condemned the repression in Belarus and called for a recount of votes.

No limits to presidential terms

A former Soviet collective farm manager, 65 year-old Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994, garnering considerable support from rural areas over the years.

Story continues

In 2004, Lukachenko held a referendum which cancelled the limitation on presidential mandates.

His surprise rival in the 2020 presidential race was 37 year-old Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, who galvanised the opposition during the election campaign and attracted tens of thousands of supporters to her rallies, some of the biggest crowds since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

This video, posted by TV5 Monde television on 30 July, shows the effect Tikhanouskaya has on crowds at a rally.

The voices of women

Taking the place of her husband Serguei on the ballot, an anti-government blogger who was jailed and not able to run as a candidate, Tikhanouskaya found support by forging an alliance with two other women.

Maria Kolesnikova ex campaign director for former banker and presidential candidate Viktor Babaryko, currently in jail on charges of fraud and money laundering.

And Veronika Tsepkalo, wife of a third anti-government critic who is living in exile with their children in Moscow.

They are hoping to see elections re-run democratically in the coming months.

Human rights groups say more than 1,300 people were detained in the crackdown ahead of the election, including independent election observers and members of Tikhanouskayas campaign team.

Amnesty International said that human rights have been constantly eroded in Belarus over the years, with opposition either jailed, disappeared or living in exile.

Opposition media outlets such as Nexta, Nacha Niva and Tut.by, have accused the government of deliberately cutting internet connections and other communication during the election and subsequent protests.

(with News agencies, wires)
Greece raises alert after the announcement of Turkish exploration drilling in the eastern Mediterranean.

Greeces Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has convened the governments national security council after Turkey announced its research vessel would be conducting exploratory drilling in the eastern Mediterranean in an area between Cyprus and Greece.

The council, which includes the ministers of foreign affairs and defence, met on Monday as Greeces navy ships were monitoring the Turkish seismic research ship Oruc Reis.

We are in complete political and operational readiness, Minister of State George Gerapetritis said on state television ERT. Most of the fleet is ready to be deployed wherever necessary, he said.

Turkey issued a Navtex, or international maritime safety message, announcing Oruc Reis and two auxiliary vessels would be conducting exploratory drilling from Monday until August 23.

Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez said Monday that the Oruc Reis had arrived in its area of operation from its anchorage off Turkeys southern coast, near the Greek island of Kastellorizo.

He also said 83 million back the Oruc Reis, referring to Turkeys population.

Rising tension

Tension has been high in the region in recent months over drilling rights and maritime boundaries.

Late last month, Turkey had said it was suspending its exploratory drilling in the eastern Mediterranean, and the move was seen as somewhat defusing the situation.

But last week, Ankara slammed a deal signed between Greece and Egypt delineating maritime boundaries and the countries exclusive economic zones for drilling rights.

Last year, Turkey signed a similar deal with the UN-recognised Libyan government in Tripoli, sparking outrage in Greece, Cyprus and Egypt, who all said the Turkish-Libyan deal infringed on their economic rights in the Mediterranean.

NATO allies and neighbours Greece and Turkey have been at odds for decades over a wide variety of issues, including sea boundaries, and have come to the brink of war three times since the mid-1970s.

Recent discoveries of natural gas and drilling plans across the east Mediterranean have led to a spike in tension.

Mitsotakis spoke on Monday morning with European Council President Charles Michel, informing him about the Greek-Egyptian agreement and the situation in the eastern Mediterranean, officials said.

Turkish position

In a television interview on Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin said Turkey and Greece had been holding talks in Berlin for more than two months and were on the verge of issuing a joint statement when the Greek-Egyptian agreement emerged.

The moment the agreement with Egypt was announced, we received a clear instruction from our president: You are halting the talks. Inform the Germans and the Greeks, we are not pressing ahead with the negotiations,' Kalin told CNN-Turk television.

This is another move to keep Turkey out of the eastern Mediterranean and to restrict it to the Gulf of Antalya, Kalin said.

Kalin said Turkey is in favour of resolving the dispute through dialogue. But it is the Greek side that disrupted the agreement and broke the trust, he said.
Professor Kwamena Ahwoi has revealed that ex-President Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings considers key people who helped him to consolidate his rule for 19 years (11 years military rule and eight years of democracy) as criminals and that has remained ever since.

In his controversial book Working with Rawlings which has since opened a can of worms and is tearing the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) apart, Prof. Ahwoi mentioned the key individuals as myself, Captain Kojo Tsikata, Ato Ahwoi (my elder brother), P. V. Obeng, Kwame Peprah, and Kofi Totobi-Quakyi.

He said their 'crime' was that the NDC gurus switched allegiance from Mr. Rawlings to the then President John Evans Atta Mills whom Mr. Rawlings had handpicked as his vice along the line, and Mr. Rawlings as a result felt 'abandoned' and that incurred the wrath of the NDC founder.

Chief of Staff Bait

Prof. Ahwoi said the first time the tag of 'criminals' was confirmed to him was when he claimed he feigned interest in becoming Chief of Staff to Prof. Mills after several complaints from the NDC rank and file indicated that Henry Martey Newman was not performing and needed to be removed.

Sometime in late 2010, Nana Akuoko Sarpong, Omanhene of Asante Agogo, and a member of the NDC Council of Elders, visited me in my house. At that time, Professor Atta Mills was the President of the Republic and John Martey Newman was his Chief of Staff. There were, however, many complaints about Martey Newman who was alleged not to be a party man and therefore could not effectively handle the liaison between the party and the presidency. There were loud calls for his removal as Chief of Staff by party members, he stated in his book.

The book said that according to Nana Akuoko Sarpong during the visit, the Council of Elders had deliberated on the matter and had agreed with the sentiments of the party members. The Council had decided to advise President Mills to remove Martey Newman as Chief of Staff and replace him with me, and he (Nana Akuoko Sarpong) had been mandated to deliver the message to me and get my acquiescence before the Council tendered its advice to the President.

Background Consultation

He said I knew that I could do the job but I also knew that I would not do the job. For one thing, Martey Newman had been consulting and working closely with me ever since he was appointed Chief of Staff, and I did not see how I could take his job as if all the time I was working with him I had an eye on his job. For another thing, during the campaign, I had constantly told Professor Mills that I would work for him to get elected but I would not be available to work in his government. I was not about to renege on that promise. So I told Nana Akuoko Sarpong that I thanked the Council of Elders for the confidence it had reposed in me but that no, I would not do the job.

Informing Rawlings

According to Prof. Ahwoi, After about three hours of haggling when it became obvious that Nana would not take my 'no' for an answer, I told him, Nana, I will consider the Councils request on one condition. If I took this position because I knew Rawlings was very unhappy about the fact that I appeared to have switched allegiance from him to Mills and accepting such a position without his blessing would only worsen the relationship between us.

Nana Akuoko Sarpong asked me to leave Rawlings to him and that he would handle it. I thought Nana could handle it because he was one of the very few people left who had worked with us in the PNDC system and with whom Rawlings was still very close. Three days later, Nana Akuoko Sarpong returned and told me he suspected I knew what Rawlings answer would be and that was why I gave him that 'mission impossible'. According to him, Rawlings told him that I was one of the best persons he had ever worked with. However, I had got myself attached to 'some criminals' and unless I detached myself from those criminals, he would never talk to me, he added.

Confirmed Line-up

Prof. Ahwoi asked, Who were these 'criminals'? and went ahead to mention them as Captain Kojo Tsikata, Ato Ahwoi (my elder brother), P. V. Obeng, Kwame Peprah and Kofi Totobi-Quakyi and himself.

I was scandalised. These fine gentlemen, together with myself had virtually functioned as Rawlings kitchen cabinet in the PNDC/ NDC GovernmentsSo how could these people be 'criminals' in the eyes of Rawlings? Thus Nana Akuoko Sarpongs mission ended in a fiasco, he said.

He also said that NDC gurus like President Mills himself, Mr. Daniel Ohene Agyekum, Dr. Obed Asamoah, Mrs. Cecilia Johnson, Ms. Sherry Ayittey and many of Rawlings' closest confidantes who worked with him in 'the decade that stopped the decay' (1982-1992) and in the eight-year period of democratic stabilisation (1993-2001), all fell out with Mr. Rawlings.

---Daily Guide
Mid-tier IT firm Hexaware Technologies has received nod from its shareholders for de-listing from the stock exchanges. Voting for the same was open from July 9 till August 8.

Promoters Baring Asia PE, who announced their intent to de-list in June, can now push the proposal forward. Earlier, the company board had approved the de-listing.

Of the 1,197 shareholders who voted, 705, including promoters, voted in favour of the de-listing. Of this, public shareholder votes accounted about 7.3 crore. Close to 492 shareholders with 56 lakh votes were tendered against the proposal.

According to a filing in the Bombay Stock Exchange, the resolution for de-listing has been passed since the number of votes in favour is three times more than those that voted against it.

In terms of Regulation 8(1) (b) of the Delisting Regulations, the Special Resolution will be considered to have been passed only if the votes cast by public shareholders in favour of the proposal amount to at least two times the number of votes cast by public shareholders against it (requisite majority)," the scrutinisers report explained.

The scrutinisers report said the resolution is considered passed since it has the requisite majority.

Now that the de-listing is happening, it is unlikely to change operations.

In a recent interaction with Moneycontrol, R Srikrishna said the de-listing would have no impact on its operations or employees and clients. He added that clients have so far raised no concerns over the move, and there are no issues on retaining employees either. The whole idea is to continue as it is, he stated.

Employee compensation is not likely to be an issue as well. In an earnings call on July 28, he said if the de-listing goes through, employees with company stocks would be adequately compensated. This could be through ownership plans similar to restricted stock units (RSU), he said. RSU is a compensation issued to employees in the form of company shares.

Baring PE Asia holds a 62.4 percent stake in Hexaware, which it acquired in 2013. The company has a market capitalisation of Rs 11,212 crore. The company's stock increased close to 10 percent right after the announcement and has increased more than 20 percent to Rs 374 by July-end. Currently, the stock is trading at Rs 400 per share.

The de-listing would give the company complete control and improve operational efficiency. According to a CNBC-TV18 report, the delisting would offer promoters better value for their stake. The report added that the delisting will help Hexaware scale faster and in selling stake to a strategic investor.
President Trump, seeking to block a subpoena for his tax returns, plans to ask a federal judge to order the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., to disclose details about his investigation into the presidents business practices, according to a letter filed on Monday.

The letter, which Mr. Trumps lawyers wrote to the federal judge in Manhattan, was in response to a filing from prosecutors in Mr. Vances office, who argued last week that they had wide legal basis to subpoena eight years of the presidents tax records and other financial documents.

The office suggested it was investigating the president and his company for possible bank and insurance fraud, a significantly broader inquiry than prosecutors had acknowledged in the past.

In their letter, Mr. Trumps lawyers asked for a hearing to discuss whether Mr. Vances office should be forced to disclose the justifications for the subpoena. The presidents lawyers, who have called the subpoena wildly overbroad and the investigation politically motivated, said the prosecutors should be required to show that each item requested in the subpoena is relevant to their investigation and within their jurisdiction.
The death toll in the landslide at a tea estate in Rajamalai in Idukki district of Kerala rose to 49 on Monday after six more bodies were recovered, according to Idukki district collector H Dineshan. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has also resumed rescue operations in Rajamala battling challenges of rain, slush, mud and rocky terrain.

KeralaRains2020 @NDRFHQ work on site w/State/local agencies. Battling odds of rain/slush/terrain etc. Ops resumed since morning today, Director-General of NDRF, SN Pradhan, tweeted on Monday.

Two NDRF teams, a full unit of Idukki fire and rescue team, a team each from Kottayam, Thiruvananthapuram, and a team which received special training are leading the rescue operations in Idukkis Rajamala, the Kerala government had said on Sunday. Nearly 105 members of the Kerala Armed Police, 21 members of the local police, and 10 members of the Rapid Action Force are also involved int he rescue operations.

ALSO READ | Body of 6-month-old baby recovered, Kerala landslide death toll rises to 43

Rescue work is on. The latest equipment has reached the site and rescue personnel are cutting big boulders to clear the site. They are also using sniffer dogs, District collector H Dineshan had said a day earlier.

On Friday, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of those who had been killed in the landslide triggered by torrential rain in large parts of the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed his condolences over the deaths due to the landslide and had announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each from the Prime Ministers National Relief Fund (PMNRF) to the families of the deceased.

Continuous heavy rainfall for more than three days in several parts of Kerala has triggered floods and a landslide in the early hours of Friday that razed a tea plantation workers settlement in Idukki.

On Sunday too, rains lashed many parts of Kerala amid weather forecasts of extremely heavy rainfall in six districts. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for extremely heavy rainfall in Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode, Malappuram and Alappuzha districts.

Rainfall in the southern state is likely to decline from Tuesday, the IMD said.
Communist Party of Australia

Message to the Lebanese Communist Party

Dear comrades,

The Communist Party of Australia extends its heartfelt condolences for the lives lost in the devastating explosion at the port of Beirut.

Palestinian children light candles to show their solidarity with the Lebanese people following the explosion in the port of Beirut, at the unknown soldier square in Gaza City, 6th August 2020.

We offer our solidarity to the people of Beirut who were already facing a health and economic crisis and now have also to deal with this disaster.

We call on the international community to respond by offering whatever material support is needed for the rehabilitation and recovery.

While investigations reveal the cause of the blast, whether there was any foul play or simply a lapse of safety regulations, those responsible must be held accountable.

The people shall overcome.

In solidarity,

Vinnie Molina

Communist Party of Australia (CPA)

International Department

6th August 2020
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.10

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The Southern Gas Corridor is indeed a very important achievement for energy security in Europe because it helps lessen Europes dependence on Russia, Former US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Richard E. Hoagland told Trend.

In fact, the first major achievement like this was the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline of the late 1990s. Currently, exploitation of Azerbaijans Shah Deniz natural gas field will provide further natural gas that will likely help Europes energy security. In my personal view, another important achievement would be the Trans-Caspian Pipeline to deliver Turkmenistans natural gas to Europe, again not subject to Russian control, although I understand that is a complex issue that is still under discussion by both Baku and Ashgabat, he said.

He also touched upon the current status of bilateral relations between the US and Azerbaijan amid COVID-19.

While it is true that the pandemic has changed many things in the world, I do not see any evidence that it has seriously disrupted or changed the fundamentally strong U.S.-Azerbaijan bilateral relationship. I know that the diplomats of both countries continue their daily work to maintain this important relationship, said Hoagland.

He pointed out that Azerbaijan has been an important partner for the United States in Afghanistan. This has included Bakus participation in the multi-national NATO force and, especially important, providing an essential line of communication to deliver supplies to the forces in Afghanistan.

---



Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
The Red Cross has trained more than 43,000 volunteers to help North Korea to fight coronavirus and provide flood assistance. Reports suggest that these volunteers will also provide help Kaesong, which is under a lockdown. North Korea often suffers heavy damage from summer rains due to poor drainage and deforestation. However, this time the damage has been doubled due to COVID-19.

Current situation in North Korea

According to reports, last month the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared an emergency. He also imposed a lockdown in Kaesong. This was done after a man returned from the South, showing symptoms of the novel coronavirus. However, coronavirus is not the only crisis that is being fought by the Koreans. Heavy rains and floods have contributed to the crisis.

Read: North Korea: Kim Jong Un Orders Distribution Of Aid In City Under Coronavirus Lockdown

Reports suggest that floods and rains have raised concerns about crop damage and food supplies. Antony Balmain, the spokesman of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said that they have built a network of volunteers to help residents in all the nine provinces. He added that this is being done to fight the virus and reduce the damage done by the floods.

Read: Kim Visits North Korea Flood Zone, Orders Shelter, Food Aid

According to reports, in Kaesong IFRC volunteers were providing 2,100 families with relief items including tampulins, kitchen sets, quilts, water containers and hygiene kits. Kaesong is coping up with the lockdown and the floods, both at the same time. Leader Kim Jong Un had sent aid packaged to Kaesong. Reports suggest that the grain supplies from Pyongyang had arrived in another county he visited last week.

Read: North Korea Vows To Redeploy Military In Demilitarized Zones, Rejects South's Peace Offer

Although there have been no confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in North korea, strict quarantine measures have been imposed. According to reports, last month, the IFRC provided North Korea with kits to run up to 10,000 coronavirus tests. Things like infrared thermometers, surgical masks, gowns and protective gears were also provided.

Read: Days Of Torrential Rain In South Korea Leave At Least 30 Dead

Also Read: North Korea Raises Fear Of COVID-19 Outbreak Amid Escalating Virus Response

(Image Credits: AP)
South African Brad Binder on his way to shock victory in the Czech MotoGP on Sunday

The stunning Czech MotoGP triumph of South African rookie Brad Binder at the weekend did not go unnoticed in the highest office in the African state.

Reacting to the victory in central Europe by the 24-year-old in only his third elite division race, President Cyril Ramaphosa said Binder had made all South Africans proud.

"We share in his elation and look forward to his long and successful career at the top of his sport," said the 67-year-old leader.

"His victory in the Czech Grand Prix provides us with inspiration, hope and pride and lifts South African spirits at a time we need this."

Binder, who was born in university town Potchefstroom 120 kilometres (75 miles) southwest of Johannesburg, became the first South African to win a MotoGP race.

He was the first rookie to triumph in the premier class since 2013 and now moves to Austria for two events at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg on August 16 and 23.

Before his success in the Czech Republic, Binder had finished 13th in the Spanish GP and did not finish in the Andalusia GP this season.

His win in Brno lifted the morale of the most industrialised African nation as it grapples with the coronavirus pandemic and an embattled economy.

There had been 559,858 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease in South Africa by late Sunday with 10,408 deaths.

Africa passed the one million infections mark last week and more than half were in South Africa.

Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria, is the current epicentre of the virus and measures to combat it include bans on the sale of cigarettes and alcohol.

The pandemic has hit hard at an already struggling economy and a spike in official unemployment figures to more than 30 percent has been widely predicted.

dl/mw
BJP worker shot at by militants

Srinagar: A BJP worker, who was shot at by militants in Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, succumbed to injuries at a hospital here on Monday, police said.

BJP worker shotAbdul Hamid Najar, a resident of Mohiendpora area of Budgam in central Kashmir, was shot at and critically injured by militants in his native village, the official said. He succumbed to injuries.

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Najar is the fourth BJP worker or office bearer targeted by militants in the last one month.

BJP's district president for Bandipora, Waseem Bari, his father and and brother were shot dead by militants last month.

BJP worker shotA BJP panch was shot at and injured on August 4, while another sarpanch from the party was shot dead two days later in south Kashmir's Kulgam district.
After more than 35 years offering information and advice to foreign residents in Mijas, Anette Skou retired at the end of July.

Originally from Denmark, but resident on the Costa del Sol since 1972, Anette first joined Mijas Town Hall in 1984 as an interpreter.

In 1986 she started the Foreign Residents Department, and launched the first Mijas International Day in 1987, as well as organising numerous informative talks in different languages, gastronomy events, fairs and music festivals over the years.

"I am going to miss my job a lot, as I have always enjoyed being able to help others. Over the years I have had an opportunity to meet thousands of people and to organise countless activities," she told SUR in English this week. "From now on I will use my time to do some volunteer work and spend more time with my family and friends," she added.

The Mijas Foreign Residents Department remains open in the town hall building in La Cala where Anette's colleague Katja Thirion offers a daily free information and advice service in English, German, French and Spanish. The department continues to organise activities for the foreign community in Mijas, with the help of local councillor Arancha Lopez.
According to a paper released today in Nature Ecology and Evolution, only 6.5 of the world's pristine tropical forests--critical to mitigating climate change--are formally protected, and the rest are at significant risk of being lost

The world's 'best of the last' tropical forests are at significant risk of being lost, according to a paper released today in Nature Ecology and Evolution. Of these pristine forests that provide key services--including carbon storage, prevention of disease transmission and water provision--only a mere 6.5 percent are formally protected.

In the study, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Wildlife Conservation Society and scientists from eight leading research institutions--including professor Scott Goetz, research professor Patrick Jantz and research associate Pat Burns of Northern Arizona University' School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems--identified significant omissions in international forest conservation strategies. Current global targets focus solely on forest extent and fail to acknowledge the importance of forest intactness, or structural condition, creating a critical gap in action to safeguard ecosystems essential for human and planetary well-being.

New targets that recognize forest quality are urgently needed to safeguard the Earth's precious humid tropical forests. Of the 1.9 million hectares of humid tropical forests globally, the study advocated for new protections in 41 percent of these areas, active restoration in 7 percent and reduction of human pressure in 19 percent to promote coordinated strategies to sustain forests of high ecological value.

"By serving as a convener to bring together the world's best scientists with governments, UNDP plays a critical role in ensuring that cutting-edge research is relevant for the development of key international agreements and implementation at the national level," commented Haoliang Xu, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Director of Bureau for Policy and Programme Support.

Collaborating with UNDP Country Offices and key stakeholders in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Indonesia, Peru, and Viet Nam, researchers mapped the location of high-quality forests using recently developed high-resolution maps of forest structure and human pressure across the global humid tropics.

The paper reveals that the Earth's humid tropical forests, only half of which have high ecological integrity, are largely limited to the Amazon and Congo Basins. The vast majority of these forests have no formal protection and, given recent rates of loss, are at significant risk.

With the rapid disappearance of these 'best of the last' forests at stake, the paper provides a policy-driven framework for their conservation and restoration, recommending locations to maintain protections, add new protections, restore forest structure, and mitigate human pressure.

The coming year is a so-called 'super year' for biodiversity, in which the world will agree on a new deal for nature that will shape global action for the next 30 years. Countries will also have a final chance to revise their contributions to reduce carbon emissions before the Paris Climate Agreement goes into effect. Both these milestones will impact efforts to advance the nature-based Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda.

"The work reported in this paper is the result of a long process assessing the condition of the world's tropical forests," said Goetz, a co-author of the paper. "The breakthrough here was being able to use spaceborne satellite data to provide the first robust estimates of the structural condition of forests in three dimensions, not just forest canopy cover."

"Advances in earth observation instruments and methodologies developed by NASA and partner institutions, coupled with the use of incredibly powerful computing systems like NAU's Monsoon and Google Earth Engine, enabled a near-global mapping of tropical forest quality. We synthesized the best available earth observation datasets to map the changing condition of the Earth's tropical forests, finding that only 6.5 percent of the highest quality tropical forests are formally protected. We hope that the conservation strategies proposed as part of this international effort will be a step towards conserving high quality forests and restoring those that have been degraded," said Burns.

"Every year, research reveals new ways that old, structurally complex forests contribute to biodiversity, carbon storage, water resources, and many other ecosystem services. That we can now map such forests in great detail is an important step forward in efforts to conserve them," said Jantz.

###
Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra on Monday ruled out any possibility of a leadership change in the state, saying it is merely a rumour.

"There is no such thing or discussion on change in leadership. It is a fake and hollow rumour. Ashok Gehlot is the chief minister and he will remain so for five years, Dotasra told reporters here.

Dotasra along with other Congress leaders were in Jaipur to meet the Rajasthan Speaker CP Joshi ahead of the assembly session convened from August 14. Replying to a question on Sunday's CLP meeting where the Congress leaders ruled out the return of rebel legislators to the party, Dotasra said everyone is free to speak in a meeting but decisions ultimately are taken by the party high command.

"There is a freedom for every member to put forth his views but decisions ultimately are taken by the party high command. Everything is in the knowledge of the party high command and whatever decision is taken, it will be right," he said. When asked whether the party's doors for Sachin Pilot camp have been closed, he said, "Doors were open. They have run away. We have not asked them to go.

He said it's now between the rebel MLAs and party high command as we did not discuss their return, said Dotasra. The party's state unit chief said party leaders met Speaker Joshi on Monday so that the House runs smoothly when the session begins on August 14 and issues related to people are discussed peacefully in the House.

He also said the Congress will become a party in the court on the issue of merger of six BSP candidates as they are now the Congress legislators.
- Nonini went on Twitter to criticise the new hit song, Wap, released a couple of days ago by Cardi B featuring Megan The Stallion

- The Genge legend said the video was just too much nonsense and did not portray true Hip hop

- Nonini did touch a nerve and netizens were on hand to remind him of his own music

Legendary musician Nonini was the latest celeb to receive the wrath of social media after his comments towards current ladies in Hip hop.

The former rap king went on social media on Saturday, August 8, to criticise the new hit song, Wap, released a couple of days ago by Cardi B featuring Megan The Stallion.

READ ALSO: Rashid Abdalla gushes over his wife Lulu Hassan rocking figure hugging outfit: "Mpenzi mtangazaji"

Nonini was the victim of social media trolls after going against current rap queens Photo: Noninimgengetrue

Source: Instagram

READ ALSO: Sex workers claim they've been forced to find customers within their estates due to COVID-19

Sharing his two cents, Nonini said the video was just too much nonsense and did not portray true Hip hop.

He claimed the song and video were bulls**t adding old rap legends like Lauryn Hill and Lil Kim were so much needed as diversity was clearly lacking.

READ ALSO: Video of lady rejecting proposal ring from boyfriend goes vira

READ ALSO: Nigerian grandma becomes famous after appearing in Beyonce's visual album

Needless to say, Nonini did touch a nerve and netizens, especially ladies who adore the two rap goddesses, reminded him of his own music.

Many shared clips from his old songs which were more of the same or even dirtier, to say the least.

The artiste's songs like Mtoto Mzuri, We Kamu and Mazi Wa Nairobi were not spared from the conversation.

There were some loyal fans who believed Nonini had the right to raise his opinion saying the Genge god was correct because the song was promoting nothing but racy behaviour.

Here are some of the reactions:

READ ALSO: Bayern Munich vs Chelsea: Lewandowski scores brace in 4-1 win over Blues

READ ALSO: Niliogopa kuhusu kukosa maziwa ya kumnyonyesha mtoto wangu - Sarah Hassan

For Megan The Stallion, she is having a great year in music after finally collaborating with two female artistes in songs that have topped the charts.

Her collaborations with Beyonce, Cardi B have all topped the charts in both Apple Music and Billboard.

She is definitely having the best year in her music career.

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly.

I was rejected by my father three times- Tony Cruize | Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
On Monday, Mr. Pierluisi was joined in his lawsuit to count the primary votes by Senator Eduardo Bhatia of the Popular Democratic Party, which supports Puerto Ricos current status as a territory.

Not all the candidates agreed that Sundays votes should count. Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz of San Juan said that ballots cast early in person or by mail, and in prisons and nursing homes, should count but that people who voted on Sunday should have to vote again. Mayor Charlie Delgado of Isabela, a coastal town in northwestern Puerto Rico, wanted the primary to resume on Tuesday or Wednesday and sued late on Monday.

Nobody foresaw this situation, said Edgardo Roman, president of the Puerto Rico Bar Association. We face great uncertainty, because now we depend on what happens in the courts.

In the past, Puerto Ricos electoral system had been considered exemplary, drawing observers from across Latin America, several officials said. Now, even the number of precincts that did not receive ballots on Sunday was unclear, as were the precise reasons for the delay. Senator Carmelo J. Rios, a New Progressive who supports Mr. Pierluisi, estimated that 40 percent of the islands 110 precincts did not receive ballots. Maria Dolores Santiago, who represents the New Progressive Party on the electoral commission, said only 47 precincts did.

The federally appointed fiscal oversight board that controls Puerto Ricos finances blasted the election as dysfunctional. The head of the electoral commission, Juan Ernesto Davila, under pressure to resign, said he would be willing to leave his post, but not before seeing the primary through to the end.

Until Saturday, we thought we were going to be able to get the ballots out, Mr. Davila told Telemundo on Monday, though he offered little explanation of why the ballot distribution had failed so dramatically. He said all ballots cast on Sunday were being securely kept under lock and key.

The electoral system had been perhaps the last remaining institution in which Puerto Ricans, battered by years of bankruptcy, corruption, government incompetence and natural disasters, still had any confidence. By Sunday night, much of that trust had evaporated. Amid escalating public outrage, Puerto Ricans returned to banging their pots and pans at night in protest.
ALBANY  An independent investigation of the states nursing home policies during the COVID-19 pandemic is not needed, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Monday, asserting that no one can even agree who an independent expert is.

There is no person trusted by all Democrats and all Republicans, Cuomo said in response to a question about calls for New York to face an independent investigation of its policies governing nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition, Cuomo argued that a recent reviewby the state Department of Health found the cause of more than 6,000 nursing home deaths in New York since COVID-19 began was attributed to infections spread by staff members and not by residents who were, under his advisory order, returned to the facilities from hospitals while still infected but recovering. Cuomo said that report had been reviewed by credible industry experts.

As the Times Union reported, however, those health care industry leaders have close ties with Cuomos administration and have benefited from its policies and contracts.

Cuomo also has targeted certain media organizations, including the New York Post, as having a political agenda in blaming his policies for the high number of deaths.

I think you'd be blind have to have to realize it's not political, Cuomo said of the criticism.

Many media outlets have reported on the matter, with perhaps the most extensive single examination of the nursing home policies coming from ProPublica.

Cuomos comments came as state health Commissioner Howard Zucker declined to testify at a state legislative hearing on nursing home policy held Monday morning. Multiple legislators commented on Zucker's absence, expressing disappointment that the health department did not have anyone take part in the hearing.

That decision came as Cuomo's secretary, Melissa DeRosa, on Monday pointed to the Legislature's hearings on New York's COVID-19 response as part of the reason an independent investigation is unwarranted.

"Like many of my colleagues, I was deeply discouraged  although not surprised  that the state health department commissioner was not on the list of people to speak," said Assemblyman Kevin Byrne, a Republican representing parts of Putnam and Westchester counties. He said legislators on both sides of the aisle were "underserved by his testimony last week."

Zucker testified at the first legislative hearing, although he was criticized by lawmakers for refusing to give a definitive number of how many nursing home residents died in hospitals during the crisis.

Republican leaders in the state Senate and Assembly blasted the health department's report and contend the blame for the high number of deaths was a March 25 executive order issued by Cuomo which disallowed nursing homes from refusing to admit or readmit a patient solely on the basis of a positive COVID-19 test.

Long term care providers do not point to the March 25 order, or any one aspect for the high number of deaths in the residential facilities. Much like providers testified last week, facility representatives say the top issues they had to contend with were access to personal protective equipment and COVID-19 diagnostic tests as well as staffing shortages - the latter of which has been an issue across the industry for years.

"COVID-19 has laid bare many of the challenges, bottlenecks and funding inequities that have been festering for years," said Stephen Knight, CEO of United Helpers, which provides a continuum of care in St. Lawrence and Jefferson counties. "It's time for all to take responsibility, come together and fix the problems instead of blaming operators for systemic issues."

The state health department was ordered to study staffing shortages in residential care facilities last year and issue a report to the Legislature by the end of 2019. That report has yet to be released, but Zucker said it will be released Friday.

Cuomo and his administration have defended the governor's advisory order, which was later withdrawn, contending it followed federal guidance and that nursing homes that weren't equipped to safely handle those residents  including quarantining them  should not have done so.

The state's analysis also dismissed any connections between the policy and the number of deaths. The health department has instead blamed the deaths on infected staff members, noting some of those workers had brought the disease into the facilities before the spread of coronavirus within the state was documented.

Yet, multiple people with family members in long term care facilities  and advocates for residents in the facilities  described systemic breakdowns when they sought status updates for loved ones. There were also times that family members reported seeing staff members or other residents without personal protective equipment on when they were videoconferencing with their relatives in nursing homes.

California resident Mikko Cook testified Monday that she and other family members had to "beg" for contact with her father, who is a resident of a nursing home in the Capital Region. Mary Jo Botinardi of Syracuse described her experience asking about testing for a family member at a nursing home: "They didn't know how to get a resident tested."

Botinardi said she feels the long term care facility avoided testing patients because the results would make the facility look bad.

"If we're going to fix the problem, you have to own the problem," she said.

Vincent Pierce, a resident at Coler Specialty Hospital - a rehabilitation and chronic care facility on Roosevelt Island in New York City  described similar frustrations as a resident at the facility. Despite him and other residents voicing concern for their safety, Pierce said the facility didn't start separating COVID-positive patients from the rest of the residents until after a critical story ran in the New York Post.

"We can't even sit in front of the building without being threatened with quarantine for two weeks," he said. "We're not given any information about what's going on. I feel like they put everybody in the same category as if everybody can't think for themselves or make the right decisions for themselves."

An earlier version of this story incorrectly characterized the New York Department of Health's March 25 advisory order as an executive order.
He later told police he was a passenger on the motorcycle and a woman, 43, of Hebron, was driving. The woman told police she and Caudill had been drinking at a Valparaiso bar and Caudill was driving when they were on the way to Caudills residence. When Caudill turned on to County Road 600 North, he lost control of the motorcycle and crashed on the north side of the roadway.
The Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun political party and the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party (Ramgavar) have issued a joint statement on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Sevres, stating that even after 100 years, it still needs to be implemented.

The statement also states that the Treaty of Sevres is the only treaty that is signed by Turkey and the Republic of Armenia, by the free will of the Armenian side. The Treaty of Sevres not only recognizes Turkey as responsible for the war crimes committed in the past, but also serves as legal ground for the Arbitrary Verdict of Woodrow Wilson to ascertain the Armenia-Turkey border.

Over the past 100 years, Turkey has continued and continues to renounce its crime against humanity, that is, the Armenian Genocide, has avoided and continues to avoid responsibility for the crime, has been hostile towards the Republic of Armenia since 1991, and recently increased its rhetoric against Armenia, Artsakh and all Armenians and prepared for possible military encroachments, the statement reads.

The political parties emphasize that the Treaty of Sevres is a valid international document, even though it hasnt been ratified by all the signed parties, and that from the perspective of the rights of the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian nation, it remains a commitment hinged on international law. The governing bodies of the traditional Armenian political parties express certainty that there will come a day when Turkey will bear responsibility and restitute all the losses of the Armenian people as the organizer of the Armenian Genocide.
Barclays Plc faces a U.K. privacy investigation over software that checks on what staff are doing, the Information Commissioners Office said Monday.

We have an ongoing investigation relating to Barclays alleged use of employee monitoring tools, the ICO said in an emailed statement.

The probe was earlier reported by the Daily Telegraph, which said the bank used a Sapience Analytics program to study workers anonymously for 18 months.

While U.K. privacy rules dont forbid companies monitoring employees electronically, people are entitled to a degree of privacy, the ICO said.

If organizations wish to monitor their employees, they should be clear about its purpose and that it brings real benefits, the data protection authority said. Organizations also need to make employees aware of the nature, extent and reasons for any monitoring.

Despite leaving the EU earlier this year, Britain still adheres to the General Data Protection Regulation, one of the worlds strictest privacy laws. This gives watchdogs such as the ICO tough powers and raises potential fines for companies to as much as 4% of global annual sales.

Barclays referred to a statement it made in February, saying it always intended to listen to colleague feedback as part of this limited pilot, and we have taken steps to ensure that no individual data is visible to managers.

The software allowed managers to measure the length of time employees were away from their desks or how long they took to finish tasks, the Telegraph said. The bank switched on additional functions in February that allowed managers to pick out individuals, the report said.

After protests from employees at the time, the bank stopped the monitoring later that month, and informed the ICO of its actions, according to the Telegraph.
The NEA had announced on Saturday that it will make wearing facemasks mandatory inside polling stations for the senate elections

Egypt says it has begun the disinfection of polling stations nationwide ahead of ballot casting for the Senate elections on Tuesday and Wednesday.

According to the state TV website, the National Elections Authority (NEA) said the sterilisation measures began on Monday at 11 am, with the disinfection to be carried out again after the end of voting on the first day.

It includes a full disinfection of areas were voters are present, including the polling stations, offices, ballot boxes and tents outside polling stations or any waiting areas for voters.

The authority added that disinfection gates will be installed in front of every polling station to ensure the safety of voters against any viral infections, especially COVID-19.

The NEA announced on Saturday that it will make wearing facemasks mandatory inside polling stations for the senate elections.

It said that all those participating in the electoral process are required to wear masks and abide by social distancing inside polling stations, including the heads of polling stations, candidates representatives, media personnel and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) representatives.

The authority will provide facemasks inside polling stations to allow voters to participate in ballot casting.

Egypt started to make wearing facemasks in public mandatory on 30 May, with violators facing fines of up to EGP 4,000 (approx. $250). Nevertheless, many people have disregarded the new law on wearing masks.

Elections already kicked off for Egyptian expatriates by mail on Sunday and will run until Monday.

A total of 787 candidates are competing for seats in the 300-seat second parliamentary chamber.

Two-thirds of the members will be elected via the individual candidacy and the closed party list systems, and the rest will be appointed by the president.

The senate's term lasts for five years.

The results of the first round of voting will be announced on 19 August.

Second round voting will be held on 8-9 September, with the results to be announced on 16 September.

Senate polls will be followed by elections for the House of Representatives.

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Malawi's new president Lazarus Chakwera says he is working on proposing legislation aimed at trimming his presidential powers in an effort to empower the citizens. In his national address Saturday, Chakwera said having a president who makes too many decisions has created problems in Malawi and this has led to government mismanagement in the past.



Trimming presidential powers was among the campaign promises Chakwera made during political rallies that helped him defeat former President Peter Mutharika in the June 23 presidential election re-run.



In his address, Chakwera said the president has too much appointing authority and responsibilities that he says bring him into conflict.



Having a presidency that makes too many decisions has created problems for our country for a long time. Chief among them is that it has stifled a culture of responsibility and innovation among public institutions and private citizens, he said.



Chakwera compared the running of the government to how parents run family affairs.



Even as parents in our homes, we know that rigidly concentrating too much decision-making power in the parents hinders a childs ability to develop critical life skills. This is a mistake we must stop making at a national level, he said.



Chakwera faulted the present arrangement which puts the president as an appointing authority for top positions in the judiciary, legislature, executive, boards of statutory corporations, foreign embassies, and traditional leadership.



This is unwise. No person is good or humble enough to be entrusted with that much appointing power, for it is not possible for a president to be the appointing authority of that many offices without at some point coming face to face with a conflict of interest," he said.



Social commentator Humphrey Mvula supports the move, saying excess presidential powers have long made the presidents in Malawi not accountable to anyone.



They have done what they so wished. They employed cronies, relatives, home-mates, tribesmen and all manner of individuals because there is no vetting process. They have decided to vary rules and regulations at whim, Myula said.



Critics argue reducing powers would render the president useless, if he just becomes a mere rubber stamp at the expense of pleasing citizens.



However, Edge Kanyongolo a, legal expert at the University of Malawi, disagrees. He said trimming presidential powers is the only thing Malawi can do to consolidate its democracy.



People who are talking about maybe a president could become a rubberstamp, I suspect they may be people who may be more inclined towards an authoritarian president who exercises [a] heavy hand, and I think that is inconsistent with democracy. So I think that it is not true to say that limiting the powers of [the] president renders the presidency powerless, Kanyongolo said.



Meanwhile, Chakwera has asked Malawians to demand from their members of Parliament to vote for the changes once the proposed legislation is presented in the legislature.


(Alliance News) - Rank Group PLC on Monday confirmed the revised date on which it will publish its annual results and affirmed its guidance.

The company has its headquarters in Maidenhead and owns the Grosvenor Casinos brand in the UK along with bingo brands Mecca in Britain and Enracha in Spain. It will report its annual results on September 10 and not August 19 as previously announced.

Rank said this delay is: "In line with comments made by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Financial Reporting Council relating to the unprecedented challenges faced by companies and their auditors in preparing financial information and accounts during the Covid-19 pandemic."

Rank said that, as announced in July, it is expected its underlying operating profit for the financial year that ended June 30 to be at the low end of its GBP48 million to GBP58 million guidance range after IFRS16, or GBP40 million to GBP50 million pre-IFRS16.

The company is still expecting to report cash and available facilities as at July 1 of approximately GBP140 million.

Shares in Rank were up 3.1% at 139.20 pence in London on Monday morning.

By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Chris Mocko knows his limitations. He speaks up, over the noise of a carpenter installing some garage shelving in his home. To be determined, winter supplies, that third luggage that you need every 10 years, Mocko answers of his plans for the storage. I was not trusting my capabilities, he says with a slight smirk. It was about the cost versus the damage I could do. Mockos getting set up in Silver Lake, California, somewhere north of downtown Los Angeles and south of Glendale, and so too is his girlfriend. He left Boulder, Colorado in September of 2019 and temporarily stationed in downtown Los Angeles just prior to this move, and his girlfriend just relocated from Colorado days before our call.

She moved out on a Boulder-to-Los Angeles road trip, and Mocko went along for the ride. I picture the couple in a giant U-Haul, but instead they were in her Subaru, and Mocko was in the passenger seat the entire way. She drives stick, he says matter of factly, and I dont have to ask anything more. I share the same driving inferiority to my wife. We went the Albuquerque way, over three days. I think there must be some U.S. Southwest scenery or fun road-trip story to be shared, but he quickly shoots me down. We stopped in this little town, Taos, he says questioningly, as if checking his memory or the pronunciation. It was the first large-enough dot on the map. Im audibly upset that he didnt take in the towns famed pueblo, but they got in after dark and left again before sunrise. I ate a salad in a cup in my hotel room and she ate cherries. Nothing too eventful, Mocko slammed the figurative door on the subject. We didnt see a lot, no Breaking Bad tour either. It was disappointing all around.

Hes a technology guy and was earlier working for Twitter in Boulder, but he cuts me off again before I go too far. Briefly, Mocko said of his time there. I didnt enjoy it, and left in the winter of 2018. Working in Boulder, he felt distant from the excitement of the companys San Francisco Bay Area corporate office. The opportunity to work on core features wasnt quite there. Im really interested in customer-facing tools, but the role was more back end. I like to build empathy with the customer, provide value, he described his reasons for leaving.

He also struggled with the balance of heavy training and work while trying to excel at everything, something he admits is familiar to many runners. After leaving Twitter, he was a full-time runner for six months. I was very content with running. Id figured out the finances. I mean, I could pay my rent and go to Costco with my very meager YouTube ad revenue, Nike sponsorship, and race bonuses. I ask about his popular YouTube channel, The Mocko Show, and he digs in. The channel has over 10,000 subscribers, but just one update in the last 11 months. Theres a big gap you have when training full-time. You wake up, run, eat, recover, run, eat, sleep. Its really about energy during the day, and its certainly not easy to have that energy at high training volumes. Regardless of how he did physically, mentally it weighed on him. At the end of the day, What have I accomplished? I ran. Its nice to check that box, but thats not contributing to the world. YouTube was a creative outlet, to occupy some of that time, but I wasnt faced with hard problems.

And then, just days before the 2019 Western States 100 [where he finished 12th], he interviewed for the position that he now holds, part of a two-month interview cycle. Hes fully engrossed in the role, so much so that hes working nights and weekends too. Were still in stealth mode, Mocko explained. Its just what it sounds like, but the Stanford University graduate expertly elaborates on a business in this position. Its a start-up in its early stages. Theres a rare opportunity to keep it under wraps, secretive, so that when you enter the market you can expand more quickly before there are copycats. There are always going to be copycats. If you have a great U.S. idea, it will be copied in Europe, in Asia. I mean, somebodys going to want to open the Airbnb of France right away. The longer you can stay in stealth mode, it can be advantageous. Theyve been in stealth mode since before COVID-19, and Mocko sees his work well positioned. With tech in general, its really accelerating the future.

Mocko brought up Airbnb as an example, and Id already thought of Chris Lukezic. Tenth at the 2008 Olympic Trials 1,500 meters, Lukezic retired the very next year to become one of Airbnbs earliest employees, and I wonder of Mockos on a similar path.

Its a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a pretty compelling opportunity in the years to come. Im working on exciting, hard problems. Its challenging, unique, its a fun ride. I wont find out the details of this mission, but Mockos clearly excited, and better describes his role. Ive been a product manager for most of my career and that can mean a lot of things. In tech, it usually means leading a dev[elopment] team, creating a road map for part of the company. My position is unique with a lot of different surface areas: hardware, machine learning, and software. I work on a ton of problems, and it keeps things fresh.

Fully consumed in his work, Mockos stepped back from competitive running, and YouTube. His Nike sponsorship ended in December of 2019. If I miss a day of running, its not the end of the world. Thats the biggest shift. There will be a time I get that itch again, he cheers. Ill want to return to Western States again, UTMB, those European races are quite the handful though. Mockos 34 years old and looks further out for inspiration. The Jeff Brownings, the Ian Sharmanswell I guess Sharmans not that old. The Michael Wardians. And then with some finality, he pushes, There will be a comeback.

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Chris Mocko (and The Mocko Show) stories, leave em in the comments section!
Regarding the report Foxx drops cases at high rate (Aug. 10): As a criminal defense lawyer for more than 20 years, it was maddening to me that Anita Alvarez, when she was Cook County states attorney, would rarely dismiss a case, no matter how weak the evidence, no matter how unjust the prosecution. Current States Attorney Kim Foxx was elected specifically to change that practice, and she has, although frankly, she does not exercise her dismissal power often enough.
Lebanons government resigned today following last weeks deadly explosion and subsequent mass protests. The countrys political future is in question as it continues to face an economic crisis and the fallout from the tragic blast.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced the resignation in a speech televised by Lebanese news outlets. He said the decision was in response to popular demands.

We have carried the Lebanese demand of change, said Diab. But between us and change are very thick walls.

The resignation of the whole cabinet, of which the prime minister is head, follows the departures of several individual ministers over the last few days. Before Diabs announcement, Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najm resigned. On Sunday, Information Minister Manal Abdul Samad and Environment Minister Demianos Qattar left their posts. Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni also reportedly prepared his resignation before Diab addressed the nation. Many members of parliament have also left office.

There were several resignations even before the explosion from officials fed up with the governments handling of the financial crisis.

Diab cited corruption as a reason the government had to step down.

The system of corruption is bigger than the state, he said.

Lebanon has a parliamentary system of government in which leadership positions are divided among the main religious communities in the country. The president, a Christian, is head of state; the prime minister, a Sunni Muslim, is head of the government; and the Speaker of the Parliament is a Shiite Muslim.

In the aftermath of the explosion, Diab said he would call for early parliamentary elections. The next elections are slated for 2022. Amid increasingly heated protests and public demand, Diab then resigned on Monday.

According to the constitution, the president should call now for consultations with parliament during which the parliamentary blocs would come up with a list of candidates to serve as prime minister. Members of parliament then need to agree on one individual. It is unclear what will happen this time given several parliamentary resignations and demands from protesters for early parliamentary elections. The last parliament was voted into office in 2018, which was before the recent protests.

The explosion occurred in Beirut on Aug. 4 in the capital citys port. Investigations so far point to 2,700 tons of the fertilizer ammonium nitrate blowing up after being improperly stored. Lebanese President Michel Aoun has suggested foreign interference is possible, though there is no conclusive evidence of such a thing at present. A government-led investigation is underway. The blast destroyed much of the port area and damaged buildings up to several miles outside of Beirut. More than 200 people have been confirmed killed so far with thousands more wounded and others still missing.

Many Lebanese blame the government for the explosion and protesters have been out en masse since last week.

There have been anti-government protests in Lebanon since October against corruption, poor services and the deteriorating economic situation in the country. Things have not improved since then. The currencys value has plummeted and job losses have gone up due to COVID-19 and the accompanying lockdowns. Electricity cuts, long a problem, are also worsening and parts of Beirut are without power for several hours a day.

The coronavirus situation is also worsening amid the fallout from the blast and renewed demonstrations. Lebanon registered a record 294 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday.
By Tong Kim





With less than three months left before the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 3, there is a growing interest to see who is going to win  Donald Trump or Joe Biden, and what the winner might do for denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula. Polls show that if the election were held today, Biden would win. However, the polls could be wrong, as they were in 2016.



Due to the coronavirus pandemic, both Republican and Democratic parties will hold virtual conventions to nominate their candidates and to hear their acceptance speeches online. This change will not favor one candidate or the other. On the other hand, voting by mail, which may affect voter participation, will be carried out by most states. As of this writing, 37 states are in the process of collating absentee votes, also done by mail.



Trump warns of potential fraud in the course of mailing ballots. Democrats argue that fear of the pandemic justifies the vote by mail to guarantee voters' rights. At one point, Trump has even toyed with a notion of postponing the election. That did not fly. There is concern the election may end up in the courts.



For Trump, an "October surprise" may come with the advent of a COVID-19 vaccine that he would politicize to his advantage. Biden is ahead in polls across the country, but largely due to Trump's failure in handling the pandemic and the subsequent decline of the economy. Biden is a known stock for decades. He does not excite the voters as a dynamic or charismatic leader.



Kim Jong-un would prefer Trump to Biden to make a deal with. However, he wants to prepare for Biden as well, particularly with the prospect of a Biden presidency looming large. So he is waiting. Last November, the North called Biden "a rabid dog to beat to death" after Biden called Kim a "tyrant," while criticizing Trump's meeting with Kim.



Kim may feel comfortable with Trump, especially after the departure of John Bolton from the White House. Kim may wish that Trump, if reelected, would make a deal that will allow him to keep a minimum level of his nuclear arsenal. On July 27, Kim said, "Thanks to our reliable and effective self-defense nuclear deterrence, the word war would no longer exist on this land."



He calculates that sanctions will be lifted and relations with Washington will improve to assure the security of his regime and help develop the economy of his country. Only if he dismantles most of its nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.



On South Korea, a second Trump administration is likely to impose more pressure to strain its alliance with Washington. Trump will keep demanding a larger share of the cost of defense for the South. It is possible to reduce or withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea, depending on how Seoul responds to U.S. pressure on burden sharing, trade imbalances, and the South's support for a new confrontational U.S. strategy against China.



If Biden is elected, the U.S. will strengthen its ties with South Korea and its other allies in the region, according to the 2020 Democratic Platform (Draft). The Platform continues, "Together with our allies  and through diplomacy with North Korea  we will constrain and contain the threat posed by North Korea's nuclear program. We will build a sustained, coordinated diplomatic campaign to advance the longer-term goal of denuclearization."



Biden's team understands denuclearization is a long haul. Biden will work closely with Seoul to contain the North Korean threat first. He understands that China's cooperation would be an essential part of an approach to the resolution of the North Korean issue. He is yet to announce a detailed plan on the North.



In hindsight, the Obama administration, for which Biden was vice president, wasted eight years, trenched in its "strategic patience." Obama's North Korea policy was a "three-prong approach of deterrence, sanctions and dialogue." It produced one agreement called the Leap Day agreement of Feb 2012, which was abrogated shortly afterwards.



In Washington, a transfer of administrations with key officials confirmed normally takes six to eight months. President Biden will not be ready on day one to tackle the North Korean issue. Biden has said he will not meet with Kim without preconditions. He will discard Trump's "top down diplomacy" and resume lower level negotiations with North Korea.



Whoever wins the next U.S. presidency, the COVID-19 that changes everything will be here at least another year according to scientists, and the two Koreas will face major challenges from shifting U.S. interest and strategy in the constantly changing environment of the region.





Tong Kim (tong.kim8@yahoo.com) is a visiting professor with the University of North Korean Studies, a visiting scholar with Korea University, a fellow at the Institute for Corean-American Studies, and a columnist for The Korea Times.








Kanye West's outbursts are still not over, as it turns out, he gave his wife Kim Kardashian an ultimatum.

Last month, Kardashian was spotted having an emotional reunion with her husband after his week-long Twitter outburst.

Since then, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, and their kids jetted off to a "tropical paradise" to work on their marriage.

However, Star Magazine reported that the "Jesus Walks" rapper left the beauty mogul "blindsided" by his demands.

According to Star Magazine, Kanye West asked Kim Kardashian, who would she choose, him or "Keeping Up with the Kardashians?"

A source told the publication, "Kanye put his foot down and, in a nutshell, told Kim to choose between him and TV."

"He never wanted to be on 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians,' and thinks it's shallow and pointless."

The Yeezy creator has also been repeating his objections towards the show to the Kardashian-Jenner matriarch, Kris Jenner, whom he previously dubbed as Kris Jong-Un.

The source added, "Kim always saw herself as the one in control, and now the roles are reversed. It's a total shock."

They further claimed that Kim Kardashian "can do better" and can handle taking care of the kids on her own.

Though Kanye West and Kim Kardashian's marriage have been full of drama, Gossip Cop debunked the claim that West gave his wife an ultimatum.

A representative for the 39-year-old mom-of-four has also denied Star Magazine's claims.

Additionally, the reality star has shown her full support for West, posting a long Instagram Story asking for comfort and privacy as they maneuver this difficult time.

Kanye West - Is He OK?

Kanye West has been making headlines the past couple of weeks after announcing that he was running for US President.

Besides that, he has also taken to Twitter to discuss personal topics to his millions of followers.

In the most shocking news, the hip-hop star claimed that he has been trying to divorce his wife for two years.

West also said in his South Carolina rally that they once thought about aborting one of their kids, North, to which Kim Kardashian has kept mum about once the story went out.

But things might be getting better for the Kardashian-West household.

In a report by People magazine, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, and their kids went to the Dominican Republic to focus on their marriage.

An insider close to the couple revealed to the magazine, "They had a good family week in the Dominican Republic. Kim and Kanye are getting along. They both seem much happier."

Kanye West is said to be enjoying "family time," with the insider adding, "He's in a great place and feeling creatively inspired."

After the brood left the Dominican Republic, the Kardashian-West clan touched down in Miami, and as per TMZ, it's not the end of their "make-or-break vacay."

The family is said to have planned some glamping. While it is a family vacation, there's reportedly one thing that they're not allowed to discuss on vacation and that is politics.

READ MORE: Brad Pitt Heartbreak: Angelina Jolie's Cancer Scare Led to Non-Intimate, Loveless Marriage
N icola Sturgeon has apologised to Scottish students who had their exam results downgraded by a methodology for awarding marks rolled out amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Scottish First Minister said on Monday that despite educators and officials "best intentions", the system had not worked as planned after vast swathes of grades estimated by teachers were marked down.

With exams cancelled this year due to the Covid-19 crisis, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) employed a model of teacher evaluation and moderation to help determine results.

However, officials then applied a moderation technique which led to about 125,000 estimates being downgraded based on criteria including schools' historic performances.

Ms Sturgeon said that too much focus was given to the system rather than individuals by the method and acknowledged those in more deprived areas were hardest hit.

Pupils from the most deprived areas of Scotland had their grades reduced by 15.2 per cent compared to 6.9 per cent in the most affluent parts of the country.

"I do acknowledge we did not get this right and Im sorry for that," Ms Sturgeon said at Monday's briefing.

Our concern  which was to make sure that the grades young people got were as valid as those they would have got in any other year  perhaps led us to think too much about the overall system and not enough about the individual pupil.

That has meant that too many have lost out on grades that they think they should have had and also that that has happened as a result of not of anything theyve done but because of a statistical model or an algorithm, and in addition that burden has not fallen equally across our society.

The First Minister added that Education Secretary John Swinney will set out a plan to rectify the matter at the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday, but said she did "not expect every student who has been downgraded to appeal".

The most immediate challenge is to resolve the grades awarded to pupils this year," she said.

"We will be taking steps to ensure that every young person gets a grade that recognises the work they have done."

Boris Johnson: The plan is there for schools to return in September

Mr Swinney has meanwhile faced calls to resign from opposition parties, with Scottish Labour set to mount a no-confidence vote against him in Holyrood.

The Conservative Party in the Scottish parliament has pledged to support Labour's bid to topple the education secretary, but the Scottish Greens and Liberal Democrats have withheld judgment until they hear the measures to be announced by Mr Swinney.

Speaking after the coronavirus briefing on Monday, when Nicola Sturgeon said too much focus was put on the system as a whole rather than the individual pupil, Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Willie Rennie said the Education Secretary has 24 hours to fix the problem.

He said: We will listen to John Swinneys proposals in Parliament and if we are not satisfied with what he puts forward, we will vote to remove him.

The Deputy First Minister cannot casually blame the pandemic for his failures.

For months he was warned repeatedly to turn back before it was too late. There was another way and he rejected it.

As well as calling for a solution to the exam results problem, Mr Rennie also said there will be a compelling case made for Mr Swinney to be the one to carry it out.

Greens education spokesman Ross Greer welcomed the First Ministers apology.

He added: Im pleased that the First Minister has now acknowledged that her Government got this wrong and apologised.

The working class young people who were unfairly treated last week need an urgent solution to this unacceptable situation.

The Education Secretarys statement to Parliament must announce the kind of systemic solution the Greens have demanded, otherwise our confidence in this Governments ability to discharge its responsibilities in education will come into question.

Coronavirus in numbers: UK deaths rise to 46,574

Votes are needed from all parties in the chamber to pass a vote of no-confidence in Mr Swinney, who is also the Deputy First Minister.

Ms Sturgeon, for her part, expressed her support for her deputy at Monday's briefing.

She said: When we get things wrong, I want to be able to stand here and acknowledge that and put it right, because I think fundamentally thats better than simply digging our heels in and trying to defend a position we think in our hearts we didnt get right.

Thats the approach I will take, its the approach the Deputy First Minister is going to take and I hope thats the one that young people affected and their families will see as the right approach to take.

The First Minister also said she is not prepared to have young people feel that no matter how hard they work at school, no matter how seriously they take education, the system is stacked against them.

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While the SQA developed the methodology, the First Minister absolved the qualifications authority of responsibility because it was done at the behest of Scottish ministers.

She said: Ministers asked the SQA to apply an approach that delivered a set of results that are comparable in terms of quality to last years.

This is a view that ministers are taking now that it didnt take enough account of the individual circumstances.
The ceremony was attended by President of the UN General Assembly Tijjani Muhammad Bande, UN Under-Secretary-General Atul Khare, UN Assistant Secretary-General Alexander Zuev and more than 4,000 delegates from UN member states.

Bande applauded ASEANs key role in maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the region and expressed his wish to further enhance close cooperation between ASEAN and the UN in various fields such as peacekeeping, counterterrorism, natural disaster mitigation, climate change, protection of labourers, gender equality and childrens rights.

He welcomed ASEANs efforts in promoting sustainable development and enhancing links between the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Khare also expressed his desire to step up close cooperation between ASEAN and the UN, especially in peacekeeping and building peacekeeping capacity, and thanked ASEAN member nations for sending 5,000 servicepersons, including servicewomen, to UN peacekeeping missions.

Amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, he said, ASEAN may play an important role in dealing with the current challenges.

He took this occasion to thank Vietnam for helping the UNs COVID-19 medical evacuation force to bring UN staff infected with the coronavirus to high-quality treatment facilities as well as providing technical training for nations sending servicepersons to peacekeeping missions within the ASEAN-UN cooperation framework.

On behalf of the ASEAN member states, Head of Vietnams Permanent Mission to the UN Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy said ASEAN has been developing strongly since its inception 53 years ago, emerging from a war-torn region to a region of peace, stability, prosperity and dynamic development.

These achievements are attributed to the efforts of ASEAN people and the close relations with partner and friend nations around the world as well as the UN, he stressed.

The ambassador affirmed the commitment to join hands with other nations to further promote ASEAN-UN relations in the fields of politics, economy, culture and social affairs.

The Embassies of ASEAN member states in Venezuela held a ceremony in Caracas on August 7 to celebrate the 53rd founding anniversary of the regional grouping, with Venezuelan Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs for Asia, the Middle East and Oceania Ruben Molina in attendance.

Speaking on the behalf of the ASEAN Committee in Caracas, Vietnamese Ambassador Le Viet Duyenhighlighted achievements made by ASEAN in recent years, saying that with a population of more than 679 million and GDP of over 3 trillion USD, the bloc has become one of the worlds most successful regional organisations and an important partner of many countries around the world.

ASEAN has entered a new era of development with a target of building the ASEAN Community based on three pillars: Political-Security Community, Economic Community, and Socio-Cultural Community, he said.

This year is significant to building the ASEAN Community in the ASEAN Vision 2025 and to strengthening relations with its partners, he said, adding that against the backdrop of regional and global uncertainties, ASEAN has always maintained its unity and consensus on dealing with issues regarding regional peace and security.

He further noted that in the face of rising global trade tensions and protectionism, ASEAN is committed to promoting trading of goods and capital among member states and accelerating negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) between ASEAN nations and six partners, including China, the Republic of Korea, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand.

As ASEAN Chair this year, Vietnam has given priority to closely coordinating with other member states to uphold ASEANs centrality in maintaining peace, security and stability in the region, fostering intra-bloc connectivity and integration, seizing opportunities from the fourth Industrial Revolution, raising community awareness and identity, enhancing cooperation with partners for peace and sustainable development, and promoting ASEANs role and contributions to the global community.

Duyen vowed to work closely the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry to strengthen and expand relations between the two sides.

He took the occasion to present the ASEANs donation of medical supplies to help the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

For his part, Molina voiced his hope to further reinforce ties between Venezuela and ASEAN as well as Venezuela and the blocs member states. He particularly expected that Venezuela will soon sign the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) with ASEAN.

The Embassy of Vietnam in Switzerland has hosted a ceremony to mark the 53rd founding anniversary of ASEAN and presided over the first meeting of the ASEAN Committee in Bern (ACB) in its capacity as the chair of the committee.

In her opening remarks, Vietnamese Ambassador Le LinhLan said over the past five decades after it was founded, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has become a widely-recognised regional organisation that plays an important role in promoting peace, stability and prosperity in Southeast Asia.

The ambassador also recalled milestones in Vietnams admission to and membership of ASEAN over the last 25 years, noting in the face of COVID-19 wreaking havoc in the region and the world, Vietnam, as ASEAN Chair 2020, has promptly shifted the focus of the blocs cooperation to fighting the pandemic and actively developed a master plan for ASEANs post-pandemic recovery.

During the ACB's meeting, the ambassadors of ASEAN member states discussed the current situation of the disease and its impacts on relations between ASEAN and Switzerland.

They emphasised that the ACB should further promote ASEANs image in Switzerland, prioritise holding political and economic activities and promotion of cooperation with Switzerland in healthcare, and foster exchange of policies with local universities and research institutions.

The same day, the Vietnamese Embassy in South Africa hoisted the ASEAN flag to mark the blocs 53rd founding anniversary.

Speaking at the ceremony, Vietnamese Ambassador to South Africa Hoang Van Loi said as ASEAN Chair 2020, Vietnam has been trying its best to leading the bloc to seize opportunities and effectively respond to challenges in the Cohesive and Responsive spirit.

As South Africa is planning to sign the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) this year, relations between South Africa and ASEAN in general and its member states in particular, including Vietnam, are expected to see new and strong development steps, especially in the fields of economy-trade and coordination at regional and international forums, Loi added.
London, Aug 10 : More than 500 migrants have crossed the English Channel to the UK in just three days, the Home Office has confirmed.

According to official figures, at least 532 migrants successfully reached the UK between August6-8, the Metro newspaper reported.

Migrants wearing blankets and lifejackets were seen arriving in Dover aboard a Border Force boat on Saturday afternoon, while others were reported to have landed on Kent beaches.

In a statement on Sunday, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said: "We are assessing the requirement using the formal Military Aid to the Civilian Authorities process and are working hard to identify how we can most effectively assist." Earlier, it was announced that the Home Secretary Priti Patel has tasked former Royal Marine Dan O'Mahoney with delivering her ambition of making the English Channel "unviable" for migrants in small boats.

"The number of illegal small boat crossings is appalling," Patel was quoted as saying in a statement.

"We are working to make this route unviable and arresting the criminals facilitating these crossings and making sure they are brought to justice."
Microsoft Corp has emerged as the most likely buyer of the US operations of TikTok, the popular Chinese short-video app that US President Donald Trump is preparing to effectively ban on national security grounds.

A deal would be in line with Microsoft's stance toward China where the firm has a sizeable presence - unlike fellow US tech heavyweights such as Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google which appear to have given up on China's consumer-facing market with its miscellany of government strictures.

The country accounts for over $2 billion in annual revenue, Microsoft President Brad Smith said earlier this year.

WHAT DOES MICROSOFT DO IN CHINA?

Microsoft employs roughly 6,000 people in the country, with offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Suzhou.

Its flagship Windows operating system is widely used, though revenue has long been crimped by piracy. In recent years the firm has pushed its Azure cloud computing product, launched in 2013 via a partnership with local data service company 21Vianet.

China's cyber-security law limits Microsoft to providing Azure's software and services while 21Vianet runs associated data centres. It is a small player in a sector dominated by local providers Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Baidu Inc, Tencent Holdings Ltd and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

Microsoft operates both its Bing search engine and LinkedIn social network in China, though again is a small player compared with local giants.

Its most important China operation is arguably the Microsoft Research Asia, famous as a leader in artificial intelligence (AI).

Founded in 1998 with help from renowned Taiwanese-American AI scientist Kaifu Lee - who went on to lead Google's China office - the lab has produced alumni who went on to become executives at TikTok owner ByteDance, Baidu, Xiaomi Corp and Chinese facial recognition unicorns.

DOES MICROSOFT SELF-CENSOR IN CHINA?

Bing and LinkedIn in China appear similar to their global counterparts but Microsoft censors search results and content the Chinese government considers sensitive.

Upon LinkedIn's China launch in 2014, two years before the company was bought by Microsoft, then-Chief Executive Jeff Weiner said censoring content would be "necessary" for the firm to grow in the country.

In 2019, free speech advocates criticised LinkedIn's position on censorship after human rights activist Zhou Fengsuo said his profile was not viewable in China. LinkedIn blamed an "error" and restored its visibility.

Software development website GitHub, which Microsoft purchased in 2019, is also accessible from China. The site, a coding repository, has been used by activists in China to preserve internet content before authorities censor the source.

HAS MICROSOFT HAD SCRAPES WITH CHINA'S GOVERNMENT?

Microsoft has bemoaned rampant piracy of Windows in China for decades and has occasionally filed lawsuits and complaints even against state-backed companies to address its concerns.

Its most notable tussle with the government was in 2014 when authorities raided four Microsoft offices demanding access to contracts and other information as part of an anti-trust investigation.

The same year, the government called on all agencies to ban the purchase of Windows 8 citing security reasons.

Microsoft eventually released a "China Government" edition of Windows 10 following a joint venture formed in 2015 with state-owned China Electronics Technology Corp.

WHAT ABOUT BILL GATES?

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has spoken in mostly positive terms about China in recent years. In November, he held a public meeting with Peng Liyuan, wife of President Xi Jinping.

Also late last year, Gates criticised the US government's restrictions on telecommunications equipment maker Huawei and spoke about sharing Windows source code with China's government which aided official acceptance of the software in the country.

He has praised China's response to COVID-19, which earned him public thanks from Xi, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $5 million to China for COVID-19 relief.

The foundation is one of few overseas charities or non-governmental organisations to maintain operations in China, where it has worked with the government and academic institutions against diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.
If you're out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic, don't lose hope Harris County has 8,000 jobs to fill before Election Day.

As preparations for the November general election get underway, the Harris County Clerk's Office is looking for individuals to work at more than 800 voting centers. There are also job opportunities available three weeks before the election during the early voting period of October 13-30 at about 100 voting centers.

BACK TO SCHOOL: A look at how three Houston private schools are handling reopening

"We need more than 1,000 election workers for the Early Voting period - which has been extended to three weeks - and more than 8,000 election workers for Election Day," Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins told Defender Network.com. "I highly encourage all civic-minded residents of Harris County to consider serving our communities as election workers."

The good news: all of these positions are paid. Harris County officials said bilingual workers are needed and urged to apply. Students of age 16 and older can apply to work as student clerks.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Our Texas Flood Map reveals if your neighborhood is at risk of flooding

There's one caveat to serve as an election worker, you must be a registered voter in Harris County.

If you're concerned about safety measures regarding coronavirus, Hollins said there are COVID-19 protocols in place.

"We will take every possible measure to keep voters and election workers safe, from keeping voting centers sanitized, to enforcing social distancing, to providing personal protective equipment to all election workers and voters," Hollins said.

In order to apply to become an election worker, get the online application here or call 713.755.6965.

alison.medley@chron.com
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ZURICH, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Chubb Limited (NYSE: CB) today announced that John Lupica, currently Vice Chairman, Chubb Group and President, North America Major Accounts and Specialty Insurance, has been named President, North America Insurance, which is the company's largest division. Mr. Lupica will have executive responsibility for all Chubb general insurance business in the United States, Canada and Bermuda including commercial P&C, personal lines, agriculture, and accident and health insurance. Mr. Lupica's scope of responsibility will include all products, underwriting, marketing and sales, claims, actuarial and support functions related to these business lines.

The appointment is effective September 1, and Mr. Lupica will report jointly to Evan G. Greenberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and to John Keogh, Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer.

Mr. Greenberg commented: "I have worked with John Lupica for many years. He has grown in that time to become an outstanding leader and insurance professional. His track record of success building, managing and leading businesses speaks for itself. From managing professional lines, to major accounts, to Chubb Bermuda, to Westchester, and finally to assuming responsibility for our field operations and agriculture insurance business, over the years John has proven his ability to learn, lead, grow and make better any business he touches. John's relentless attention to detail matched with an unrivaled will to win combine to make him simply a world-class executive and business partner. I have every confidence in his abilities to lead North America to greater heights."

Mr. Keogh commented: "John Lupica and I have been partners for nearly 15 years, and he is without doubt one of our industry's most experienced and accomplished insurance executives. Since the ACE-Chubb merger in 2016, we have operated our North America P&C insurance business with two great leaders. The time has come to have one outstanding executive lead this premier business spanning all of our divisions including our retail and wholesale commercial P&C businesses serving businesses of all sizes from major accounts to the middle market to small commercial; our outstanding high net worth personal lines business; and our leading agriculture insurance operation that includes the nation's #1 crop insurer."

About Chubb

Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. 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 and promptly. 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 .

SOURCE Chubb Limited

Related Links

http://www.chubb.com


On April 17, a worker punched in for duty at FGF Brands, an industrial bakery in Toronto that has supplied flatbreads and muffins to major corporations like Loblaws and Walmart. At the time, Ontarios COVID-19 epidemic was raging and all eyes were on the long-term care crisis.

Few were paying attention to companies such as FGF, where production lines continued to whir during lockdown. But three days after his shift, the FGF worker tested positive for COVID.

A massive outbreak had begun.

That was it: Boom. In my line, five people were positive, said one worker, who asked not be named due to fears of reprisal. The worker contacted a supervisor, panicking.

You have to do something about this. Everybodys getting sick.

A total of 184 employees, many of them low-wage temporary workers, would be diagnosed with COVID at the companys series of plants clustered in northwest Toronto. One worker died.

FGF says it complied fully with the appropriate regulatory authorities and has been relentless in its efforts to keep our Team Members healthy and safe. It says it took early and aggressive action to mitigate risks, and is committed to creating an awesome and fair place to work.

The outbreak at FGF is now over. But it raises an urgent question: why was the public never informed by authorities about an outbreak involving almost 200 people, when experts say workplaces can play a significant role in community transmission?

Across Ontario, there is no uniform definition of a workplace outbreak of COVID-19. And because there is no obligation for health authorities to publicly disclose them, we still dont know how many other workplaces in Toronto have suffered a similar fate.

To date, Toronto Public Health has never published any data on the number of workplaces affected by COVID, and have only publicly identified a few where there have been outbreaks, mostly grocery stores.

Advocates say FGFs case also raises broader issues around precarity, which they point to as a COVID risk factor. But without detailed, publicly reported information about which workplaces have been hardest hit  and the types of workers most heavily affected  its impossible to paint a clear picture of the pandemic.

I think by and large, public health forgot some of the basics about how infectious disease moves through populations, said Cameron Mustard, president and senior scientist at the Toronto-based Institute for Work and Health.

Going forward now, it will be outbreaks at work that will need more attention.

A bakery becomes a COVID hot spot

After Ontarios first case of COVID was reported in January, FGF created a pandemic preparedness team, according to internal communications obtained by the Star. In a statement to the Star, FGF described some of the safety measures they implemented for their staff of more than 2000 workers: increased cleaning and sanitization; the installation of hospital-grade HEPA filtration systems; hiring nurses to screen and perform temperature checks.

In its updates to staff, FGF described itself as a tech company that bakes and as a disrupter in the baking industry. The company encouraged employees to get gritty in the difficult days ahead.

How are you making the most of disruption? one update asked workers.

Two employees interviewed by the Star said FGF relies on several temp. agencies  they said most workers belong to Filipino, West African, and Caribbean communities living in Torontos northwest corner, which has seen the highest COVID infection rates in the city.

FGF did not respond to the Stars questions on what proportion of its workforce is temporary, but said its compensation package is the most competitive in the industry. Starting rates are $1.50 above minimum wage, according to an internal HR document. While permanent staff get two paid sick days, temps get none.

As part of its pandemic prevention efforts, the company announced in March that permanent workers would get an extra three paid sick days. The measure did not apply to temp. agency staff.

Across the city, many employers were providing essential workers with extra pay in recognition of the heightened risk they were shouldering. Grocery store workers received a $2 an hour bump; workers at another nearby industrial bakery, Fiera Foods, got a $1 hourly bonus. FGF raised wages by 50 cents.

One worker described the factory as a fast-paced and often pressurized environment. Initially, the worker said production did not slow  without reducing the sometimes frantic pace, physical distancing was hard and masks were scarce. At a neighbouring facility, another worker said when physical distancing was introduced, there was little oversight on the production floor, especially on the night shift.

For some, the fear of job loss meant there was little choice but to keep punching in.

Even if I am scared, I go to work, said one employee.

The company did everything we can to ensure the safety of our Team Members in the fight against this highly-contagious virus, according to Lori Procher, FGFs senior vice president for talent and development, who said the company began providing masks to workers in January and implemented social distancing in early March.

Later, as the outbreak worsened, the company would increase its 50 cent wage bump to a temporary $2 an hour increase  including a retroactive thank you bonus for staff who kept working after the first case was identified.

FGFs first COVID case was announced to staff in an April 21 memo, where the company described the infected worker as high-risk because he lived with someone employed at a nursing home. The company said it was investigating. It would shut down its 1295 Ormont Dr. location for 24 hours, deep clean the facility, then resume production.

Later that day, staff received a subsequent message. Due to widespread anxiety at the plant, the factory would shutter for a full week.

The company yet again increased the number of sick days for permanent staff by two to allow for mass testing, and this time, it would now give temp. agency staff two days of leave, according to its updates

But the testing results were bleak. Within a few weeks of the first identified case, 52 workers tested positive for the virus at its Ormont factory; 46 tested positive at its nearby Fenmar Dr. site. The numbers would continue to rise to 184, with most cases in two locations, FGF confirmed to the Star.

FGFs updates to staff point to the way the company embraced technology and mass testing to contain the outbreak, measures that went above and beyond what many other employers did. Because many people with COVID have no symptoms  a recent study suggested up to 30 per cent  its possible that similarly-high infection rates would also be found at other workplaces that conducted blanket testing.

But in the context of an infectious virus, Deena Ladd of the Toronto-based Workers Action Centre says even the most aggressive response will fail if employers let underlying workplace issues fester  from workers without sick days to those who must work multiple jobs to survive.

Its not rocket science, she said.

In its risk assessment as more workers fell ill, the company itself singled out staff who were taking part-time jobs in high risk areas such as grocery stores and nursing homes. The memo described red risk employees as those living with people who worked in health care or other industries with outbreaks. The viruss rapid spread between plants was attributed to the higher number of Team Members that live together in one household.

Those risks, said one worker, could be summarized in another way: poverty.

I think people feel sick but still come in. Because if you dont work you dont get paid, the worker said.

I think people are afraid to speak up.

A precarious sector with a troubled history

The pandemic was not the first time those dynamics had come into focus at FGF.

Founded in 2004 by Tejus and Ojus Ajmera and their father Sam  a prominent Toronto businessman who also sits on the board of Toronto General and Western Hospital  FGF now describes itself as one of the largest industrial bakeries on the continent.

But for workers, that sector can be a challenging one: in Toronto, 74 per cent of workers in food manufacturing are immigrants, municipal data shows. Median wages for workers without post-secondary qualifications sit at $16 an hour.

Like numerous other industrial bakeries, FGF had twice been convicted and fined for breaking occupational health and safety laws following critical workplace accidents. In 2016, a temporary worker at its plant in Concord was trapped and injured in a dough mixer; two years later, a young worker at the same location was critically injured by an improperly guarded machine.

In late 2017, workers at one of the companys sites began a union drive. Kevin Shimmin, an organizer with the United Food and Commercial Workers union, said the concerns were similar to those at food manufacturers across the city: low wages, tough working conditions, safety concerns, and a heavy reliance on temp. agencies.

In a recent decision, the labour board ruled FGF broke provincial laws when it terminated three workers leading the union drive within weeks of it starting. Even after reinstating those workers, the company continued to interfere with the drive through a pattern of misconduct that included surveillance designed to intimidate employees, the board said.

It just completely stopped, Shimmin said of the union drive. Everybody was scared to death.

Submissions made as part of the case also suggested working conditions at FGF reflected, at least in part, a gruelling and precarious industry.

One site, which would later be one of the hardest hit by COVID-19, operated five to six days a week, 24 hours a day on 12-hour shifts, according to evidence from a manager at the facility. The labour board noted in its decision that the company recruited its new employees through temp. agencies; when FGF deemed those workers unsatisfactory, it would tell the agency that it does not want an employee to return and ask the agency to send a new one in.

Procher said FGF works with only a few temp. agencies that it has carefully audited on a regular basis for ethical practices. She said both permanent and temporary employees receive rigorous training from a team of 14 full-time health and safety experts, and that temp. agency staff are eligible to get permanent jobs after around a year of service. She said the companys injury rates are steadily improving and remain best-in-class.

But the class to which FGF belongs, the food manufacturing sector, is described by Shimmin as a forgotten place rife with problems.

All the ingredients are there to make an extremely dangerous and exploitative situation.

Workplaces with COVID: where is the data?

Many Toronto clinicians noticed early on that a shift had occurred in their COVID wards: their patients  mostly white and middle-class in the first weeks of the pandemic  were increasingly lower-income, racialized people with connections to high-risk workplaces.

In May, University of Toronto epidemiologist Dr. David Fisman surveyed front-line public health epidemiologists and hospital planners across the GTA about their most urgent concerns. In a summary document, which he sent to public health officials, they highlighted high-risk workplaces, including factories, as a top concern.

Im not sure, but I think the case increase in the last few weeks could be linked to an outbreak in a factory setting within locations in the northwest end of the city, one front-line expert said.

But Ontarios essential workplaces have received little public attention, especially when compared to other high-risk settings. There has also been scant information on whats been happening inside COVID-stricken companies like FGF, though health units in Toronto and Peel have both shared findings that certain industries, including manufacturing, are overrepresented amongst COVID cases.

The province did not start sharing statistics on workplace outbreaks until late June, when more than 180 had already been identified  all with potentially differing definitions for an outbreak, since the province does not have a standard definition. As of Aug. 1, 256 outbreaks had been reported to provincial authorities, with 2,085 cases.

Toronto Public Health has never published statistics on workplace outbreaks. And while it confirmed to the Star that outbreaks occurred at four FGF locations, this information was not reported to the public.

In an emailed statement, TPHs associate medical officer of health Dr. Vinita Dubey said they need to balance the public health reason for the release of the information and the right to privacy by individual cases.

TPH is working directly with workplaces to put preventive public health measures in place to protect employees and prevent further virus spread, she said.

In these settings where outbreaks have occurred, there has been little to no interaction with members of the public, and so the potential risk to the broader public has been low, she said.

But for occupational health experts like Victoria Arrandale, an assistant professor at U of Ts Dalla Lana School of Public Health, all workplaces where COVID is circulating present a broader risk to the public.

It is very difficult to imagine a scenario where a workplace-acquired case has no meaningful contact outside the workplace, she said. Unlike other workplace hazards, (COVID) does not stop at the property line. Folks will take this with them as they go home and they run their errands, and they go visit their grandparents, or they go off and enjoy their time off.

Arrandale emphasized that COVID is a new threat that is challenging employers, regulators and public health in unprecedented ways. Before COVID, workplaces were normally not places that public health got involved in, said Dr. Karim Kurji, medical officer of health for York Region where 91 workplace clusters have been reported, many in factory settings.

Initially, it was What is the Ministry of Labours role and what is public healths role? he said. This used to get a little fuzzy but those roles have been increasingly clarified.

The SARS commission forcefully outlined the Ministry of Labours crucial role in containing infectious disease outbreaks more than a decade ago. It found that strong health and safety enforcement  as well as effective coordination with other government bodies  were key failings that cost lives.

Employers are required to notify the Ministry of Labour within four days if a worker falls ill on the job. But FGF has reported just two cases of COVID-19, ministry records show. Since the start of the pandemic, the ministry has conducted five workplace inspections at FGFs facilities at Steeles Ave. W. and Weston Rd. It did not issue any COVID-related orders.

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board has also registered fewer than five cases of work-related COVID claims from FGF, and the company has not filed any workplace exposure reports to the board.

FGF did not respond to the Stars questions about the discrepancies but said it has fully cooperated with the authorities.

Arrandale said there is currently no way to track COVID infections among different types of workers and she would like to see better data collected and reported.

As it stands, the WSIBs public breakdown of registered compensation claims is the best available picture of where workplace outbreaks are happening, said Mustard with the Institute for Work and Health. But according to these figures, food and other kinds of manufacturing have registered 70 claims total  fewer than FGFs entire case count.

Advocates say temp. agency workers  many of whom move between different workplaces  are at heightened risk of COVID. But the Ministry of Labour does not keep a record of employers use of temp. agencies when COVID-related inspections are made, a spokesperson told the Star. Toronto Public Health is not tracking statistics on temp. agency workers either, though York Region said it is collecting this information.

Having a clear picture of the role workplaces  and their inner dynamics  play in the spread of infectious disease is key to future prevention efforts, Mustard said.

Precarity has a good deal to do with the way in which we would expect to see the risks land on people, he said.

The intersection of public health, occupational health and worker health protection is something weve learned is a vulnerability.

Lessons from the first wave  will anything change?

While COVIDs risks and complications are new challenges for the provinces workplaces, some of the underlying problems that have contributed to outbreaks  poverty and job insecurity  should come as no surprise, said Ladd of the Workers Action Centre.

Now whats missing is detailed and publicly-reported data on these outbreaks.

This June, the provincial labour board ordered a union vote to take place at FGF before the end of the year. With its outbreak under control, the companys July and August staff updates have focused on urging workers not to believe the unions wild promises, which the company says include six paid sick days.

Wow, can they show us one employer that has that kind of program who is still in business? says one update.

One Team Member told us the union was promising overtime after 40 hours per week. Like all of the other promises we have heard so far, this just doesnt make sense either, does it?

The company has told employees that its handling of the outbreak has been praised by the government. FGF has also improved pieces of what it offered workers in the early days of the pandemic, announcing that it would give employees who continued to work through the massive outbreak a retroactive $2-per-hour thank you bonus.

But Shimmin says power imbalances at companies like FGF remain troubling. And for Ladd, addressing those dynamics through stronger minimum protections across the province  including paid sick days, and stricter limits on temp. agencies  is a crucial lesson of the pandemic.

We need to take the same responsibility that we would be taking in long-term care in all of these other sectors where there are the same factors that are leading to higher rates of infection, she said.

The vulnerability that existed in long-term care is absolutely in the fabric of these jobs.

And as more businesses fling open their doors, its only a matter of time before new workplace outbreaks arise. The question now is which ones the public will actually learn about.

One FGF worker recalls reading news about a major retailer with a single case of COVID at the height of the pandemic.

They couldnt help wondering why the public was kept in the dark: How come we never heard about FGF?
Now, the automaker has announced that they will be launching an all-new model this coming August 20, 2020. While Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) did not exactly reveal the model, they did mention the 'Corolla' name on one of the teasers, along with a close-up shot of what appears to be the Corolla Cross.

Two weeks ago, we reported that the all-new Toyota Corolla Cross will be arriving in the Philippines this 2020 . Originally, we thought it will be making its official debut in Q4 of this year given the COVID-19 pandemic. But according to one of our insiders, the dealers are already being prepped and trained for its eventual arrival  indicating that it might arrive sooner than later.

TMP has yet to reveal the Corolla Cross' exact model lineup for the Philippines. But according to our contact, it will supposedly be available in two distinct variants. First is the Corolla Cross 1.8 G which is powered by a naturally-aspirated 1.8-liter Dual VVT-i engine. It puts out 140 PS with 177 Nm of torque and is connected to a Super CVT-i that drives the front wheels.

Next is the 1.8 HV which gets a 1.8-liter hybrid powertrain derived from the Corolla Altis Hybrid. The 1.8-liter engine makes 98 PS with 142 Nm of torque while the electric motor provides 72 PS and 163 Nm of torque. Combined, the Corolla Cross has a total system output of 122 PS. Like the 1.8 G, the 1.8 HV is coupled to a Super CVT-i that drives the front wheels.

In terms of equipment, the crossover could come with the following features  touchscreen infotainment with T-Link, automatic climate control, 17-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights, power tailgate, and even leather upholstery. More importantly, Toyota Safety Sense will apparently be available on the 1.8 HV version which will give the Corolla Cross enhanced safety features like lane departure alert, pre-collision system, etc.

How much will the Corolla Cross cost? Well, the 1.8 G will supposedly start at PhP 1,285,000 while the 1.8 HV will retail for PhP 1,650,000. And should you want the Corolla Cross to be painted White Pearl, you have to pay an extra PhP 15,000 for that.

At less than PhP 1.290 million, the Corolla Cross undercuts its closest competitors  namely the Honda HR-V (PhP 1.295 million) and the Subaru XV (PhP 1.568 million). The question now is, will the Corolla Cross be as successful as the other two.

Are you excited for the arrival of the 2021 Toyota Corolla Cross? We won't have to wait too long now.
Contradictory testimonies by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), used in a UK court, was partly responsible for the failure of an attempt to extradite a former senator, Buruji Kashamu, to the United States, a court document obtained by PREMIUM TIMES shows.

Mr Kashamu died on Saturday at a Lagos hospital after he reportedly became ill after contracting coronavirus.

In December 1998, Mr Kashamu was arrested by operatives of the Metropolitan Police, upon arriving in London, United Kingdom, on drug trafficking allegations. Seven months earlier, the late senator had been indicted by United States authorities for allegedly being the mastermind of a heroin smuggling ring.

After his arrest and incarceration in a UK jail, the U.S. Department of Justices Office of International Affairs commenced a process to have him extradited to the U.S. to face trial, but that process was scuttled in part by conflicting testimonies about his identity and role as an informer for the NDLEA.

Mr Kashamu was indicted following incriminating evidence provided by three of his alleged co-conspirators. He was detained at the Brixton Prison pending the completion of his extradition process.

The former lawmaker denied the allegation. He claimed that the so-called Alaji, the drug-smuggling kingpin, which the co-conspirators had told U.S. authorities about, was his brother, Adewale Kashamu. He said Adewale was allegedly killed in 1989 by personnel of the Nigerian Customs. He said he shared a striking resemblance with his deceased brother.

The contradictory evidence

In February 1999, U.S. authorities filed for the extradition of Mr Kashamu from London. In May 2000, as part of his challenge to the extradition by the U.S., Mr Kashamu submitted documents proving he cooperated with law enforcement authorities in Benin, Togo and Nigeria.

Mr Kashamus challenge was primarily centred on two claims: that he was a cooperator with the NDLEA, and that he told the NDLEA, among other things, that his brother was a drug trafficker.

He subsequently submitted evidence he obtained from the NDLEA and from authorities in Benin and Togo, where he was based and conducted a car importation business from.

The U.S. government then made an inquiry to Interpol in Benin, Togo and Nigeria asking whether Mr Kashamu ever acted as a cooperator with law enforcement agencies in these countries.

In October 2000, Interpol Benin responded, describing Mr Kashamu as a well-known businessman in Cotonou, who collaborated with the police of Benin (BCN-IP Cotonou) within the scope of the fight against drug trafficking from 1993 to 1995.

In July and August 2000, Interpol Togo relayed that Buruji Kashamu had provided service to Togo from 1990 to 1997 in the area of information concerning narcotics traffickers and that the Chiefs of the Immigration Service  and Interpol confirmed that Mr Kashamu provided confidential information concerning his brother,, the man named Adewale Adeshina Kashamu who also belonged to a drug trafficking network, the court document revealed.

On January 24, 2000, Mr Kashamus lawyer presented to the London court, a letter written on NDLEA letterhead and signed by the NDLEA chairman at the time, Ogbonna Onovo, supporting Mr Kashamus claim that he was an NDLEA cooperator.

The letter stated that Mr Kashamu has been very helpful to the NDLEA in crime-fighting. We are surprised that he is being incarcerated on wrong accusation of drug trafficking in the UK, the letter stated.

However, on November 8, 2001, U.S. authorities received a letter dated March 12, 2001, and signed by Bello Lafiaji, the chairman of the NDLEA at the time, addressed to the U.S. ambassador in Nigeria which contradicted the testimonies received from Benin and Togo.

Mr Lafiaji told U.S. authorities that Mr Kashamu, had at no time, been an informant of this agency (NDLEA) nor has the Agency had cause to reward him for anything.

The letter also claimed that Alhaji Adewale Adeshina Kashamu, a wanted drug suspect, was already dead by the time Buruji Kashamu was wanted by this Agency in 1994, having died while attempting to run away from Customs investigation for involvement in drugs.

A day after receiving the letter from Mr Lafiaji, the U.S. government attorney wrote to the DEA office in Lagos, asking it to seek a response from the NDLEA about the contradictory testimonies.

On November 15, 2001, the attorney received a letter from the NDLEA signed by Usman Amali, a special assistant to the Chairman and Chief Executive of the NDLEA, stating that the January 24, 2000 letter submitted by Mr Kashamu, and another letter January 13, 2000, were bogus and their contents absolutely false. The U.S. attorney informed the Crown prosecution Services of the UK of these responses.

Mr Kashamu subsequently filed affidavits from Illiya Mshelia, chief prosecutor and deputy director in Legal Services Department of the NDLEA and Samson Aboki, director of public prosecution of the NDLEA on February 4, 2002, supporting his claim of being an NDLEA informer and cooperator.

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The US attorney immediately sent a request via the DEA office in Lagos to the NDLEA to confirm if the affidavits were valid and whether those who swore to it existed. The next day the attorney received a letter from Mr Amali insisting that Mr Kashamu has never been an informant or source of this Agency, rather he is a fugitive drug offender on the run from arrest, please.

But just before the magistrate commenced the extradition process on May 9, 2002, Mr Kashamu presented another letter to the court where the chairman claimed that Mr Kashamu was not arrested in 1994 and was not on the list of persons wanted for prima facie drug offences by the Agency, per se.

The letter also claimed Mr Kashamus brother, Adewale, had not died in the custody of the Nigerian Customs Services. Mr Kashamu also told the court that he had sued the NDLEA because the NDLEA had not retracted the negative information in its letters about him.

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Again, the U.S. attorney reached out to the NDLEA to confirm the veracity of the latest letter from NDLEA. On May 8, 2002, the US attorney received a letter signed by Mr Amali.

[T]he Agency stands firmly by its earlier assertion that Buruji Kashamu has never been a cooperator with NDLEA.

The letter, however, stated that after it was presented by the passport issued in 1990 to Adewale, Mr Kashamus brother, the NDLEA found it difficult to continue to assert [its] earlier conclusion that Adewale Kashamu died in the custody of the Nigerian Customs Service before the establishment of NDLEA in 1989.

The letter also stated that Mr Kashamu had threatened to take legal action against the Agency and the Federal Government of Nigeria, if the letters were not retracted.

After reviewing all the evidence before him, the magistrate in charge of the extradition proceeding, Timothy Workman, ruled in Mr Kashamus favour, thereby squashing his extradition to the US.

On January 10, 2003, Magistrate Workman issued his final decision in the second extradition proceeding. GEx10. Magistrate Workman found, among other things, that: (1) Kashamu had a similar-looking brother; (2) Kashamu was an informant for Interpol in Benin and Togo and for the NDLEA in Nigeria; and (3) Kashamus brother was not killed in 1989 by Nigerian Customs officials, the court paper read.

Interestingly, in 2015, the NDLEA tried to extradite Mr Kashamu to the US for the same allegations but the attempt was aborted by an order of a Federal High Court in Abuja.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 22:37:53|Editor: huaxia

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DAMASCUS, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army launched a massive campaign against Islamic State (IS) sleeper cells in the eastern countryside of the Hama province in central Syria on Monday, a war monitor reported.

Backed by the Russian air force, the Syrian army and allied fighters started the campaign against the IS militants in the desert region in the remote eastern countryside of Hama, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based watchdog group said the IS militants have a notable presence in eastern Hama.

It added that the Syrian army set up checkpoints in the area.

Last week, the observatory said intense battles took place between the Syrian pro-government forces and IS sleeper cells in eastern Hama.

The IS has lost key areas across Syria but still has a presence in the desert region of Hama, Deir al-Zour, and Homs provinces. Enditem
Firefighters responded to a large fire at Food Network star Rachael Rays upstate New York home, where she had been staying with her husband and pets during the pandemic.

According to reports, Ray, 51, her husband John Cusimano, 52, and their dog, Bella Boo Blue, are safe and not harmed.

Rachael Ray and husband John Cusimano | Noam Galai/WireImage

Fire spread through Rachael Rays upstate New York home

RELATED: Rachael Ray Was an Answer on Jeopardy! and Shes Ecstatic

According to reports, the fire went through the upstate New York home that Ray shared with her husband throughout the current pandemic. Located on Lake Luzerne, the home is about half an hour away from Lake George, where Ray was raised. The couple have owned the home since 2013.

Rays representative, Charlie Dougiello, said in a statement, Thanks for the concern. Rachael, her husband and their dog Bella are safe. The house is unfortunately damaged and we dont yet know to what extent.

The cause of the fire is not yet known.

Ray had been filming her Rachael Ray show at the home

When it became apparent in March that authorities were urging residents everywhere to stay indoors due to the pandemic, the Food Network star moved to her upstate home.

Once they settled in, Ray and her husband, John Cusimano, began filming her show in earnest.

RELATED: Rachael Ray: Her Celebrity Crush and Favorite Moment from the Daytime Show

We have never worked this hard in our entire lives, Ray said. Her show was temporarily renamed #StayHome With Rachael and filmed twice a week from her home.

This is a weird time. I cant say theres a silver lining  but there are found moments every day, she said during her first filmed show.

She and her husband have been generous throughout pandemic

Ray and her husband have been incredibly generous during the pandemic and now find themselves in danger of losing a home that has been filled with memories and worth much more than any dollar amount.

The couple pledged $4 million for those in need during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.

Half of their donation was funneled through her nonprofit, Yum-o! The pair is working with with Feeding America, Share Our Strength, World Central Kitchen, The National Restaurant Association, City Harvest, Hunger Free America, Wholesome Wave, and ReThink Food to feed anyone in need, and specifically most recently, those affected by unemployment.

The 30-Minute Meals star said at that time in a statement on her website, My overall goal with these donations is to support American families affected during the Covid-19 crisis with assistance for two-legged and four-legged family members.

Aimed as well at helping animals during this time, Ray and her husband stated on their website at that time, We felt it was important to help offset the decline in donations organizations have experienced, from a combination of the cancellation of fundraising events and reduced private donations.
With just a few weeks until most schools return to session, many are releasing their plans for the start of the school year.

In Jacksonville, the District 117 school board approved its back-to-school plan, establishing both in-person and remote learning options for students.

Each district has to follow guidelines set down by the Illinois State Board of Education, which include mandatory face masks, spacing, limited gatherings and increased cleaning policies.

Each plan includes protocols requiring all students and faculty members, as well as visitors to wear masks.

Jacksonville will be returning to in-person learning, but will allow parents to select remote learning for their students.

At the elementary level, students that are attending remotely will participate by viewing lessons recorded by a district teacher and participate in session with that teacher from 4-7 p.m. each day.

At the high school level, classes will be live-streamed for students.

Those attending in-person will have to self-certify that they are symptom and fever free prior to arriving at school.

Jacksonville High School and Jacksonville Middle School will operate on shortened schedules. Middle school students will attend from 8:15 a.m. to 12:32 p.m. High school students will attend from 8:05 a.m. to 12:35 p.m.

Lunch will be sent home with middle and high school students at the end of the day.

The elementary schools will operate on normal schedules. Early Years will continue to have all-day, as well as a.m. and p.m. classes.

Waverly

Waverly will begin blended learning on Aug. 24. Students will attend in person two days a week, remote learn two days and remote learn on Fridays. If Monday is a holiday students will attend in person on Friday.

At the elementary level, half of the class will attend in person two days, while the other half attends remotely on those days, then the groups will switch.

At the high school level, three grades will attend two days, while the remaining three attend remotely before switching.

The school will be implementing a staggered dismissal. Walkers and bus riders will be dismissed at 1:20 p.m. on the east side of the building. Third through 6th graders will exit through the front of the school at 1:25 p.m. Kindergarten through second grade students will dismiss at 1:25 p.m. to walk around the pick up loop.

At the high school, junior high school students will dismiss at 1:30 p.m. out of the east doors of the high school, while high school will dismiss out of the south doors.

Each student will be screened prior to entering the building. Anyone with a fever will be sent home.

Routt Catholic

Routt is returning to in-person learning, limiting access to the building.

Students will be unable to enter the building until 7:45 a.m. each day and will have a temperature and symptom screening. All students, faculty and staff members will have to wear a face mask inside other than during lunch and students must wear a mask issued by the school.

The Routt campus will be modified to provide more space for social distancing. Extra desks are being removed from classrooms and the remaining desks will be aligned to face the same direction. Schedules will be staggered to cut down on traffic in the hallways and there will be multiple lunch periods.

Signs will also be added to promote social distancing and direct hallway traffic.

St. Marys

St. Marys is returning to in-person learning. The school has purchased individual desks, removing round tables from classrooms where students previously sat in groups.

Students will have temperatures taken before entering the building and will be assigned seating in the gym prior to school starting, as well as at lunch time.

The school is not offering remote learning, unless mandated by the state.

Greenfield

Greenfield will return to in-person learning on a daily basis, but will be offering a remote learning option.

Staff and students will be screened prior to entry into the building.

The district also changed its schedule. The elementary school will operate from 8:10 a.m. to 1:45 p.m., while the high school will operate 8:10 a.m. to 1:50 p.m.

Winchester/ Bluffs School Districts

The two districts will be returning to a full week in-person learning schedule with shortened days, with student attending from 8:20 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

A remote learning plan will be available for students unable to attend in-person.

Parents will be required to certify that their student is fever free and random temperature checks will be done throughout the day.

Westfair Christian Academy

Westfair is returning to an in-person learning model with safety procedures in place. The school is not offering remote learning unless required by the state.

The school will be staggering lunches and recess to avoid larger gatherings.

Beardstown

Beardstown students will be returning in-person with a hybrid model at the elementary and high school levels. Students will attend two days in person and three days online on an A/B group schedule, except for students who receive special education services, who will attend Monday through Thursday and remote learn on Friday.

Gard Pre-kindergarten will attend in person Monday through Thursday, with remote learning on Fridays.

The district will also be offering remote learning for students.

North Greene

North Greene is returning with a hybrid-model, as well as a remote learning option for students.

All students will attend remotely on Monday and in person Tuesday through Friday.

Students will not be allowed to enter the building until 8 a.m.

Parents will be responsible for screening their children prior to sending them to school.

Carrollton

Carrollton will be attending in person daily following guidelines. Parents will be given the option to have their students attend remotely if they feel uncomfortable for their student to attend in person.

Parents will be responsible for certifying that their student is symptom and fever free prior to sending them to school.

Virginia

Virginia is offering both in-person and 100% at-home learning.

In-person learning will be blended, with a portion of students working from home two days a week, with all students working remotely on Fridays at the high school level.

Elementary students will follow the hybrid model for about a week before all students return to the classroom Monday through Thursday, with remote learning on Fridays.
The Paramount Chief of the Talensi Traditional Area, Tongrana Kugbilsong-Nanlebgtang, has commended President Akufo-Addo and his government for the construction of the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam and Irrigation Project.

President Akufo-Addo, according to the Paramount Chief, is the first President to have cut sod for the construction of the multipurpose dam, and for that matter, needs commendation. My people and I cannot thank him enough.

Speaking at a meeting held on Sunday, 9th August 2020, when the Director General of NADMO together with his officials called on him at his palace in Tongo, Tongrana Kugbilsong-Nanlebgtang said he is grateful to the President for the multipurpose dam because not only will it create employment for the youth in the area, it will also bring to control the perennial problems caused by the spillage of the Bagre Dam.

He also lauded the Director General of NADMO, Hon Eric Nana Agyemang Prempeh for the good work they are doing for mother Ghana especially in the time when the novel COVID19 has taken the centre stage of everything.

The Director General called on him to respectfully urge his people living near the banks of the black and white Volta Rivers to move to higher grounds.
A Covid-19 testing facility in Tullamore, Co Offaly, where nine people have tested positive for the virus in the Carroll Cuisinea meat factory (Niall Carson/PA).

Trade union Siptu has called for quicker testing and results for Irish meat plant workers at risk from Covid-19.

Representatives from Meat Industry Ireland (MII) and the workers organisation held talks in Dublin to discuss the outbreaks at plants in the midlands.

Siptu has called for the acceptance of a charter fully outlining adequate infection prevention procedures.

While meat maybe a perishable product, workers are not Siptu

Manufacturing division organiser Greg Ennis said: In what was a frank and robust meeting it was agreed that Siptu and Meat Industry Ireland (MII) representatives will seek to engage with the HSE to discuss the necessary improvements to testing protocol at meat plants.

This will focus on delivering quicker testing and results with a view towards protecting meat workers from infection while maintaining continuity in production.

He said Siptu members remained extremely concerned about the situation in the Irish meat processing industry, with unacceptably high rates of infection of workers running at approximately 10%.

While meat maybe a perishable product, workers are not.

He added there was nothing wrong with an industry making reasonable profits but this cannot be at the expense of workers safety.

Siptu is committed to ensuring that meat industry workers will receive fair recognition for the work that they do in this labour intensive industry, by way of improved pay and sick pay.

The existing relatively poor terms and conditions are proving to be key vectors in the transmission of Covid-19 in the meat industry.
ATLANTA, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Premier mortgage broker, Atlantic Home Mortgage (AHM) (https://www.atlantichm.com) announced Kelly Levens has joined the company's Alpharetta, Georgia branch as a Mortgage Loan Originator.

Years of experience as a realtor as well as 10 years as a gym owner prepared Kelly Levens for his new role as a Senior Loan Officer. He built a small 20 member hole in the wall gym to one of the biggest and best gyms in the Southeast.

10 Year CrossFit Veteran Kelly Levens Joins Atlantic Home Mortgages Alpharetta Branch

"I anticipate each client to be unique in their own way. I expect each client to have their own challenges. I expect to help them navigate issues and help carry them to their end goal. I think that is what they would expect of me and what I also expect of myself," said Levens.

Kelly's business was voted best gym in Atlanta for 3 straight years. Kelly dedicated himself to a sport in 2011 and set what most thought were unattainable personal goals for 3 years in a row. Each year, he met each of those goals and won many competitions, but his ultimate achievement was competing in the CrossFit Games.

"We are pleased to welcome Kelly to the AHM team. His former experience as a real estate agent will add tremendous value to our clients and realtor partners," said Tony Davis, Founder of Atlantic Home Mortgage.

About Atlantic Home Mortgage

Atlantic Home Mortgage (AHM) was founded to provide a better way for people to obtain home loans. The client-centered company combines cutting-edge technology with experienced professionals to create a simple, transparent mortgage process. They keep overhead low by using technology to streamline many of the tedious parts of the mortgage process, passing the savings onto their clients. The approach seems be working. In the past two years, AHM has funded over $180 million in new mortgage loans and experienced 650% revenue growth from 2018 to 2019.

For more information, visit https://www.atlantichm.com

Media Contact:

Larissa Negreiros

[email protected]

(678) 329-7353

SOURCE Atlantic Home Mortgage
Australian Associated Press's new owners are asking long-standing customers to pay the same amount for its newswire content despite less frequent coverage and fewer staff.

Acta Diurna AAP, which launched officially last week under new chief executive Emma Cowdroy, will need to secure contracts with former clients of AAP to shore up funding and prevent News Corp Australia from poaching customers when its non-compete clause is lifted in six months.

New AAP chief executive Emma Cowdroy. Credit:AAP

Multiple industry sources told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that the new business, owned by a group of investors led by Nick Harrington and John McKinnon, were asking subscribers to transition the old contracts to the new company. The sources said that while some subscribers were happy to continue paying the same price because their services were unaffected, others were concerned they were being asked to pay the same amount of money for reduced coverage on particular topics.

When the sale was announced in June, AAP's new owners said it would continue to produce world news, sport, court and political reporting, and that it would have a photography and a FactCheck service. However, the announced job cuts occurred across all divisions, including sport and courts. International correspondents were also affected.
New Delhi, Aug 10 : After a slow start, the Centre's ambitious Rs 90,000-crore plan on Liquidity Injection for Electricity Distribution Companies has taken off now with close to 80 per cent of the amount already sanctioned to distressed firms in three to four states.

Sources in the Power Ministry said that discoms in Uttar Pradesh have taken sanction for funds totalling about Rs 20,000 crore available under the scheme, while southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka have got sanctions for about Rs 25,000 crore.

Discoms in Maharashtra, J&K, Rajasthan, Punjab have got sanctioned another Rs 20,000 crore while Bihar and Tamil Nadu are yet to present their proposals for the loan.

Under the scheme, PFC and REC have been identified for liquidity injection into discoms through loans on easy terms, to enable them to clear dues to power generators. This is expected to kick off the payment cycle and keep the power sector functional amid the difficult Covid-19 pandemic period.

As per the Aatmanirbhar Bharat package announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on May 13, Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and REC Rural were to infuse liquidity of Rs 90,000 crore into the discoms in two equal instalments.

The amount of soft loan a discom could get was dependent on the amount it owed power generation and transmission companies and its receivables from the state government.

The scheme did not have a smooth start as states were earlier reluctant to extend guarantees on loans given to discoms due to their own precarious financial condition. Very few proposals had come from distribution companies to get loans against receivables (from state governments) for paying back dues of generators in the early days.

Discoms dues towards gencos, which had risen to Rs 94,000 crore as of March-end, has crossed Rs 1.25 lakh crore mark as of June-end. The government is now looking to expand the scheme to cover liquidity for dues up to June.

The Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown has squeezed the power demand sharply in March, April, and May and the fall has been so sharp that the demand for 2020-21 fiscal is set to report a 1 per cent decline, the first time in almost 36 years.

Not only this, with the expectation that lockdown may continue in large parts of the country for some more time, the discoms are set to see mounting losses every year that would make their operations unviable. Extension of the lockdown would also impact the electricity demand further.

According to an analysis done by rating agency Moody's unit ICRA, expected losses at state-run electricity distribution utilities (discoms) would rise by two third to Rs 50,000 crore in FY21 with an addition of Rs 20,000 crore in-book level losers in the current year itself.

Discoms are already reeling under low demand for some time, impacting their revenue and ability to service payment dues to generators.

Accordingly, the debt-laden discoms' overdue payments to electricity generators have risen to Rs 94,000 crore at present, more than 50% higher compared with the same period last year.

What has added to the woes of discoms is that the lockdown has resulted in consumption decline from the high-tariff paying industrial and commercial consumers (tariff almost twice that for households) and the likely delays in cash collections from other consumer segments.
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 Zhang Wensheng

On the afternoon of August 9, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar led a delegation to visit Taiwan. The US and Taiwan have scheduled to hold a signing ceremony for a memorandum of understanding in health cooperation on August 10. The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) specifically stressed that Azar is the first member of the US cabinet to visit Taiwan in the past six years, and also the highest-ranking US cabinet official to visit Taiwan since 1979.

In the context of deteriorating China-US relations, the US has specific intentions by doing so.

First, to fulfill the promise of the so-called "Taiwan Relations Act", enhance the level of exchanges between the US and Taiwan, cheer the Taiwan authorities and provide substantial "diplomatic" support;

Second, to strengthen the US-Taiwan collusion on their anti-China political bias under the banner of cooperation in the fields of epidemic prevention and control;

Third, to play the so-called "Taiwan card to escalate China-US confrontation, and address the crisis of Trump's upcoming re-election.

It is dangerous for the US government to continuously escalate confrontation with China on the Taiwan question. Adhering to the one-China principle is the basis for the establishment of China-US diplomatic relations, and severing official relations and exchanges between the US and Taiwan is also a prerequisite for the development of stable China-US relations.

In recent years, the US has continuously broken the foundation and premise of China-US bilateral relations on the Taiwan question, making the situation across the Taiwan Straits more and more turbulent.

According to the provisions of the US Presidential Succession Act, US Secretary of Health and Human Services ranks as the 12th member, higher than the ranking of the US Transportation Secretary (14th) who has once visited Taiwan. The US is deteriorating the China-US relations and cross-straits relations step-by-step, in a salami-slicing way, which seems to come with no end. If such dangerous attempts cannot be effectively curbed, peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits will be completely sabotaged.

The current anti-epidemic situation in the US has been out of control. However, instead of making efforts to prevent the epidemic at home, the US is actively achieving its political purpose, which is, promoting the so-called "Indo-Pacific Strategy" with containing China as a target under the banner of "anti-epidemic cooperation".

This US' move is doing great harm to others but no good to itself. Politically splitting the China cannot save the US from its own epidemic crisis. Raising the level of exchanges between the US and Taiwan will inevitably release wrong information to the Taiwan authorities and the Taiwan separatists. It can be said that the delegation led by US Secretary of Health and Human Services has consciously spread the political virus of separatism on the island.

Ironically, the US officials do not have to be isolated for 14 days, and are allowed to participate in various public activities, even to meet with Taiwan's leader Tsai Ing-wen and other Taiwan officials. This is an obvious loophole in epidemic prevention and control.

Although Chen Shih-chung, head of the island's health authority, said that "I will be responsible for any accident", the people in Taiwan still questioned: "how exactly Chen Shih-chung could be responsible in this regard", and some others in Taiwan even lamented: "Ladies and gentlemen, fend for yourself."

The US delegation not only spreads the political virus in Taiwan, but may also spread the COVID-19 virus therein. If this move results in the spread or loss of control in terms of the epidemic prevention in Taiwan, both the Taiwan authorities and the US government must be held responsible.

(The author is the deputy director of the Graduate Institute for Taiwan Studies at Xiamen University)

Disclaimer: This article is originally published on huanqiu.com and translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
CAMAS, Wash., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Fisher Investments, one of the world's largest independent, fee-only investment advisers and an ERISA 3(38) Investment Manager, announced two significant milestones for its 401(k) Solutions business, which reached more than $1 billion in retirement plan assets and 500 retirement plan clients as of June 30.

Fisher Investments was founded in 1979, and has offered 401(k) services for decades. In 2014, Fisher Investments created the 401(k) Solutions business unit to focus solely on the chronically underserved small and mid-sized retirement plan marketplace. Fisher 401(k) Solutions has grown rapidly since then, as clients responded positively to Fisher Investments' client and participant-focused retirement plan advisory services. More than 25,000 people currently participate in a Fisher Investments 401(k) Solutions plan.

"We've made significant progress in our mission to provide top-notch retirement plan services to our clients and their employees, and the best is yet to come," said Nathan Fisher, founder and Senior Executive Vice President of Fisher Investments 401(k) Solutions. "We take great pride in delivering high quality retirement solutions to employers and employees nationally, while avoiding the conflicts of interest that currently plague the small and mid-sized retirement plan marketplace. We are unique in offering smaller employers and employees a retirement specialist single point of contact. We're eager to continue growing so we can provide opportunities for a dignified retirement to many more employers and employees in the chronically underserved small and mid-sized company markets."

"We're incredibly proud of our 401(k) Solutions team and their dedication to serving our clients and their employees," said Damian Ornani, Chief Executive Officer of Fisher Investments. "There's an enormous opportunity to expand retirement services for small and mid-sized businesses, and Fisher 401(k) Solutions is ideally positioned to serve significantly more clients with our best-in-class offerings in the coming years."

401(k) Solutions brings Fisher Investments' experience and proven client education and advice model to the underserved small and mid-sized business 401(k) market. Fisher 401(k) Solutions provides dedicated client service, flexible and innovative investment solutions, customized education opportunities and more for plan participants. To learn more about Fisher 401(k) Solutions, please visit www.fisher401k.com.

About Fisher Investments

Fisher Investments is an independent, fee-only investment adviser. As of 06/30/2020, Fisher Investments and its subsidiaries manage over $123 billion in assetsover $79 billion for North American private investors, $29 billion for institutional investors, $12 billion for European private investors and $1 billion for US small to mid-sized business retirement plans. Fisher Investments maintains four principal business units: US Private Client, Institutional, Private Client International, and 401(k) Solutions, which serve a diverse global client base. Founder and Executive Chairman Ken Fisher wrote the Forbes "Portfolio Strategy" column from 1984 through 2016, making him the longest continuously running columnist in the magazine's history. He currently writes monthly, native language columns in major media organs spanning Western Europe and Asia. He has also been published in USA Today, the UK's Financial Times and numerous other publications globally. Ken Fisher has authored 11 books, including four New York Times bestsellers on finance and investing. For more information on Fisher Investments, please visit www.fisherinvestments.com.

Media Contact

John Dillard

Fisher Investments

[email protected]

SOURCE Fisher Investments

Related Links

http://www.fisherinvestments.com


THE HABIT OF BREAKING THE ICE BY THE SIMPLE & HIGHLY EFFECTIVE ADITYA PURI

Astonishing how Aditya Puri ran Indias most valuable bank for so many years without a cellphone in his pocket! In fact, some HDFC Bank old-timers add to the urban legend and say, at times, the banker from Gurdaspur, Punjab would not even carry a watch or a wallet. One of them, a nostalgic Puri fan, shared a light-hearted anecdote from an investor meeting held a decade ago.

Picture a room full of serious, hard-nosed investors and analysts, ready to take notes. The mood was sombre as one would expect in meetings of this kind. Enter the inimitable Puri, who says, I know you have a lot of questions, so let me guess some of them."

He then unleashed a barrage of questions and proceeded to answer all of them himself. The last one: When will HDFC Bank merge with HDFC? By the time he wrapped up with, Anything else, any other questions? The room descended into peals of laughter and Puri won some more fans that day.
Eight months after several south-east Queensland towns were placed on emergency water rations of just 80 litres per person daily, the dire water shortages have eased but the region is not out of the woods.

While dam levels have increased enough to keep Southern Downs Regional Council afloat until at least 2022, the bushfires late last year and now coronavirus have been one hit after another for the regional community.

Queensland's drought has been long and hard for regional areas. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Mayor Vic Pennisi, elected in March, said the council boundaries held just 36,000 people who had been living through the worst drought he had ever seen.

More than 67 per cent of Queensland remains drought-declared, including all of south-east Queensland.
Ben Hardy and Olivia Cooke split up during lockdown after their romance fizzled out.

The former EastEnders star, 29, and the actress, 26, are said to have called it quits after their relationship naturally ended soon after Britain entered lockdown.

The pair met and fell in love on the set of their comedy crime thriller Pixie and were first pictured together in February.

Split: It was not meant to be for Ben Hardy, 29, and Olivia Cooke, 26, as the couple have reportedly decided to call it quits

A source told The Sun: 'Olivia and Ben were smitten to begin with but the intensity soon fizzled out.

'They're at pivotal points in their acting careers and just couldn't make it work.'

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Ben and Olivia for further comment.

Sparks flew between the pair on the set of their film Pixie, which also stars Alec Baldwin.

Romance: Ben (left) and Olivia (centre) met and fell in love on the set of their comedy crime thriller Pixie

Pixie tells the story of a girl [Cooke] who plans to avenge her mother's death.

Olivia is also best known for her role as Emma Decody in the drama Bates Motel as well as her turn as Becky Sharp in the miniseries Vanity Fair.

Ben became known to audiences for his role as Peter Beale in EastEnders which he played from 2013 to 2015.

He made his film debut in X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016 as winged mutant Archangel.

A source said: 'Olivia and Ben were smitten to begin with but the intensity soon fizzled out' (pictured in December 2019)

The star has also made appearances in other big films including Bohemian Rhapsody, Mary Shelley, Only The Brave and The Woman In White.

His soap character Peter had a tumultuous time in Albert Square in the last couple of years, most notably with his sister Lucy being murdered by their brother Bobby.

Peter left the Square for a new life in New Zealand, with his ex Lauren Branning eventually joining him with their son Louie.
Pooja Nair By

Express News Service

KOZHIKODE: Employed in Dubai, Muhammed Fasil, 28, from Kodiyathur in Kozhikode and Parameswaran, 30, from Pattabi in Palakkad had their timings perfected before boarding the Air India Express flight to Kozhikode on August 7.

Muhammed Fasil

Both of them had scheduled their weddings exactly one month of their arrival to their native places, so that they could complete their quarantine during the period and prepare for one of the most important events of their life.

However, the plane mishap dashed all their hopes. And while they survived, the trauma and shock continues to haunt them.

ALSO READ | As debris rained, survivors climbed on wings to escape plane

Every passenger had a very bad feeling about things inside the flight. My worst experience was walking by the side of two people who had been seated beside me in the flight and were badly injured following the mishap. Though I was able to walk out of the plane, I started bleeding and vomiting blood soon after I got out. I was completely helpless. I could not even help a single person, Fasil told TNIE, all the while struggling to gather his thoughts.

Fasils last trip to Kerala was nine months ago, to attend the last prayers of his mother who had died.

But he gradually got over the trauma of losing his mother demise and decided to marry.

Parameswaran, who is under treatment at a private hospital in Kozhikode, said: I am not thinking about the wedding now. Everything happened in a flash on that day. I still cant recall how I survived, he said.
CHICAGO  Hundreds of people swept through the Magnificent Mile and other parts of downtown Chicago early Monday, smashing windows, looting stores and confronting police after officers shot a suspect in the Englewood neighborhood hours earlier.

The mayhem marked the second time since late May that the citys upscale shopping district has been targeted by looters amid unrest, reigniting the debate over policing as city leaders continued to point fingers and downtown again was shut down overnight heading to Tuesday.

As businesses owners boarded up shops and braced for the possibility of additional looting, some cautioned against simplifying the situation or blaming any single issue.

Its not just people looting, said Patsy Mullins, whose Gold Coast store, Accessorize, was completely emptied. Lets dig to the root of the problem, lets not look at the surface.  We need to get to the bottom of this otherwise, well, this problem will never be solved and it will continue again and again.

City officials said the seeds for the crime spree were sown on social media Sunday afternoon after officers said they shot and wounded a 20-year-old man they said fired shots at them while being chased.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday decried a false rumor on social media that police officers killed a 15-year-old boy. That led residents to clash with police officers in Englewood and prompted calls to head toward downtown.

The looting began around midnight, with people streaming in and out of high-end stores. Some could be seen throwing merchandise into a rental truck and other large vehicles before driving away.

This was not an organized protest, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said. Rather this was an incident of pure criminality. This was an act of violence against our police officers and against our city.

Black Lives Matter Chicago, which protested outside a near South Side police precinct Monday night, blasted Lightfoot for accepting the police version of events and not doing more to institute reforms. The organization suggested the man was right to flee authorities, given the departments history of racism and abusive tactics.

Story continues

In a predictable and unfortunate move, she did not take this time to criticize her officers for shooting yet another Black man, the organizations statement read. Lightfoot instead spent her time attacking looters. The mayor clearly has not learned anything since May, and she would be wise to understand that the people will keep rising up until the CPD is abolished and our Black communities are fully invested in.

More than 100 people have been arrested so far, according to Chicago police. At least three appeared in bond court Monday, including a 25-year-old Joliet man who police say threw a brick at them while trying to break into the Burberry store on North Michigan Avenue.

Thirteen officers were injured during the mayhem, authorities said. A civilian and private security guard were shot and wounded.

In the wake of the unrest, shattered glass, broken mannequins, toiletries and shoe boxes littered the citys toniest streets. Many store owners worried how they would survive the latest turmoil amid the pandemic and with insurance claims still unpaid from the previous looting spree.

I just dont know what the next move is going to be, said Mullins, the accessory store owner. Im out of work. Theyve destroyed everything, theyve taken all the merchandise that I have to sell. This requires an investment of money to rebuild and replenish.

It took police officers roughly four hours to get downtown under control, leading to a political blame game and calls for the Illinois National Guard to once again help quell unrest in the countrys third-largest city.

Downtown Alderman Brian Hopkins, who said he was on Michigan Avenue from midnight to 4 a.m., described a scene in which officers were overwhelmed by looters and apparently did not have much of a plan for restoring order. He criticized Lightfoot for failing to develop an effective strategy following recent looting incidents in May and June.

The real question today is, where was the strategy? What was the decision making at the highest levels? said Hopkins, 2nd. That means the police superintendent and the mayor, whos a very hands-on mayor when it comes to these kinds of decisions.

The Black Lives Matter movement released a statement suggesting Lightfoot should not be surprised by the Magnificent Mile being targeted, given Chicago politicians have long valued protecting the high-rent area while poorer neighborhoods have suffered from disinvestment and neglect.

Over the past few months, too many people  disproportionately Black and brown  have lost their jobs, lost their income, lost their homes, and lost their lives as the city has done nothing and the Chicago elite have profited, the organizations statement read. When protesters attack high-end retail stores that are owned by the wealthy and service the wealthy, that is not our city and has never been meant for us.

The violent stretch began Sunday afternoon, when the Police Departments newly created Community Safety Team responded to a call about a man with a gun in the Englewood neighborhood, authorities said. Officers found a man walking eastbound on 57th Street and Racine Avenue matching the physical description and attempted to stop him, police said.

The man, later identified as 20-year-old Latrell Allen of Chicago, fled, leading to a foot chase by officers. Authorities said Allen shot at the officers during the chase and two officers returned fire.

Allen, who was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center, has been charged with two counts of attempted murder and unlawful use of a weapon, authorities said.

Outside of Allens Aberdeen Street home, his mother, Latricsa, received a rundown from a neighbor of the prior days events that ended with her son shot five times.

The mothers voice raised as neighbor Tenisha Caldwell cast doubt on much of the police version of events. Caldwell said she watched from her front porch as an officer fired gunshots at the fleeing man. She also told Latricsa Allen that her son tried to give up before shots were fired.

Allen expressed relief that her eldest son was expected to survive his five bullet wounds, each bullet having missed a vital organ.

He said Mama, Im alright, she recounted. He said Mama I love you. I said I love you, too. He said Mama, they shot me. They shot me five times.

Allen said her son denied having a gun, though police posted a photo of a gun they said they found at the scene.

The Community Safety Team officers were not wearing body cameras, and disciplinary investigators said they did not yet have any video showing the shooting. When pressed by Tribune to explain the lack of video, an agency spokesman said those officers dont wear cameras despite the teams stated mission of intervening in Chicagos most violent areas.

The Civilian Office Police Accountability, the city agency that investigates officer-involved shootings, said surveillance cameras showed the pursuit of a man matching the description of the person (believed) to be in possession of a firearm. Those recordings were not released. COPA also issued a public plea Monday for anyone with video or information about the shooting to come forward.

The lack of immediate, independent corroboration drew skepticism from several community groups, including Black Lives Matter Chicago.

More than an hour after the Sunday shooting, police and witnesses said a crowd of about 30 people faced off against officers holding a police line near 56th and Aberdeen. Police said a man among the crowd stoked the groups anger by passing along misinformation, including that police shot a teenage boy. During a scuffle, one officer was hit with pepper spray and a second officer suffered a minor shoulder injury.

A large number of officers cordoned off streets in nearly every direction until the mood of the crowd cooled off. But by that time, Brown said, messages began appearing on social media encouraging people to head downtown.

The officers had stopped several people on Lake Street near Michigan Avenue when shots were fired from a passing car around 4:30 a.m., nearly five hours into the widespread vandalism, police spokesman Tom Ahern said. No officers were shot but a squad car was hit, he said. It was not known if anyone in the gunmans car was shot.

Shortly after midnight, the looting began as people darted through broken store windows and doors along Michigan Avenue carrying shopping bags full of merchandise. Cars dropped off more people as the crowd grew.

One woman with shopping bags in her hands fell on the sidewalk as an officer was chasing her. Another woman appeared to have been pepper-sprayed. A rock was thrown at a squad car.

The scene was reminiscent of the looting that occurred more than two months ago amid the response to the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. On Monday, both Lightfoot and Brown implicitly criticized Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx, saying there werent consequences for looters earlier this summer.

Lightfoot, who endorsed Foxx for reelection, became angry when asked follow-up questions about Foxxs handling of cases and told a reporter not to bait her.

What were saying is, as a result of what happened last night, there have to be consequences, Lightfoot said. Weve got teams of people that are aggressively out there identifying the people responsible, looking at the plates, and were going to bring them to justice.

But when we do make those arrests, our expectation is that this is going to be treated with the level of seriousness it should be. Period, she said. Dont try to bait us, mischaracterize, pit one against the other, were not playing that. Were in a serious situation here and we need a serious response. Thats what were saying.

Foxx pushed back with her own news conference a few hours later, insisting the cause of the unrest cannot be conflated with her offices response to protests earlier this year. She encouraged prosecutors to dismiss misdemeanor charges  and felony charges, in certain cases  related to the protests, but her office approved charges for the vast majority of felony arrests brought by the Chicago Police Department, she said.

Those cases are making their way through the courts, slowed by both the pandemic and typical pace of the Cook County justice system.

In denouncing the looting and promising to be tough on those responsible, Foxx said the situation also must be viewed amid the backdrop of a global health crisis, record unemployment and nationwide protests against systemic racism.

The reality is that as we seek to figure out what is happening in a truly unprecedented summer, it requires us to ask tough questions, to deep deliberations and to put all hands on deck, Foxx said. All hands on deck means rather than pointing fingers, work together.

The idea that a lax criminal justice system alone paved the way for the looting oversimplifies the situation, said David Stovall, a professor of African American Studies and Criminology, Law & Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

If the Sunday police shooting did touch off the reaction, then the decades of a strained relationship between police and the community has to be considered too.

Stovall said those who engaged in the looting are potentially reacting to that history and demonstrating their lack of trust in the law enforcement. Its not surprising that they questioned those official facts and then decided to strike back, he said.

If were going to get hit, then we are going to strike back at the spaces that hurt you the most, Stovall said, describing the mindset.

The looting seemed to be centered in Streeterville and North Michigan Avenue, but some was reported on State Street in the Loop and on the Near North Side. Police appeared to be getting things under control by 4 a.m., though some vandalism continued into the daylight hours.

The CTA suspended train and bus service into downtown during the morning rush, while Illinois State Police blocked off ramps from expressways. Bridges across the Chicago River were raised, except for the one on LaSalle Street for emergency vehicles. City officials said they will restrict access to the downtown from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. for time being.

Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin called for the National Guard to be brought in. The Guard was used to help enforce street closures during looting in early June, marking the first time in more than a half century that a Chicago mayor had asked for the Guards help in quelling unrest.

Once again, Illinois government has failed to protect its residents and businesses, said Durkin, a Western Springs legislator. It is time to bring in the National Guard and accept any and all federal assistance to stop the chaos that is destroying our state. No more excuses. No more failures.

The Illinois National Guard has not received any requests for support at this time.

Lightfoot, who has fought President Donald Trumps insistence that federal troops are the best way to restore order in troubled American cities, said she will not seek military assistance.

No, we do not need federal troops in Chicago, period, full stop, Lightfoot said. Im sure the president will have his way with this incident but Im calling upon him to do the things that we do need (such as gun control).



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Sachin Pilot will work in the "interest of the Congress" and a three-member committee will be set up to address the grievances expressed by him and other aggrieved MLAs, the Congress said on Monday after a meeting between the rebel leader and former party chief Rahul Gandhi. This signalled an "amicable resolution" of nearly a month-long Rajasthan crisis ahead of the crucial assembly session from August 14.

The meeting between Rahul Gandhi and Pilot at the former party chief's residence, where Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was also present, lasted two hours during which they had a "frank, open and conclusive" discussion.

While the Congress did not give details of what transpired in the Rahul-Pilot meeting, AICC general secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal said in a statement that following the meeting, Sonia Gandhi has decided that the AICC will constitute a three-member committee to "address the issues raised by Pilot and the aggrieved MLAs and arrive at an appropriate resolution thereof".

"Shri Sachin Pilot has committed to working in the interest of the Congress party and the Congress government in Rajasthan," it added.

On his part, Pilot said, "We raised issues of principles before the Congress leadership, and welcome their assurance of a time-bound redressal of our grievances."

Asserting that he doesn't crave for any post and that the party can take back the position given to him, Pilot said,"Some personal remarks have been made against me. I feel there is no place for personal mudslinging in politics," in an apparent reference to Gehlot's "nikamma" remarks against him.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, "The political crisis in Rajasthan Congress stands resolved amicably by the intervention of none other than Rahul Gandhi himself. This is reflective of steadfast unity in Congress party and the commitment of Congress legislators to never fall prey to BJP's evil designs to defeat democracy."

However, Congress sources ruled out that Ashok Gehlot will be replaced as Rajasthan chief minister or Pilot will be reinstated as party's Rajasthan chief, a post which was filled immediately after the Congress sacked Pilot following his open revolt against Gehlot last month.

Meanwhile, rebel Congress MLAs started returning from Haryana to Jaipur. Bhanwar Lal Sharma, one of the MLAs, met Gehlot, and said there are no camps in the Congress and the party stood united. Sharma is facing a case of alleged involvment in horse trading of Congress lawmakers in a bid to topple the Gehlot government.

AICC sources said all rebel MLAs will return ahead of the August 14 assembly session, and asserted that the Gehlot government was safe.

Once all dissidents return, the Congress will have a total strength of 107 MLAs in the 200-member state Assembly where the simple majority is 101. The Congress also has the support of a number of independent MLAs. BJP has 72 MLAs.

Congress leaders also claimed that with this reproachment, "BJP's conspiracy" to break the party has been dashed and the Congress leadership has not yielded to demands of removal of Gehlot as chief minister.

A Congress leader said this is one of the "best fightbacks by the Congress" in saving its government and thwarting BJP's attempts to topple its government. He alleged that BJP's efforts to bring in Pilot met with a revolt within the BJP by its former CM Vasundhara Raje, and the party had to lodge its MLAs in different locations.

Meanwhile, party sources said a formula for Pilot's return was being worked out. They said among the options, one possible agreement discussed during the Monday meeting was favourable voting by Pilot and MLAs loyal to him in case of a trust vote during the upcoming Rajasthan assembly session.

Pilot and 18 other MLAs had rebelled against Chief Minister Gehlot in Rajasthan, leading to Pilot's sacking as deputy chief minister and state party chief. Sources add that some of the rebel MLAs have also been in touch with the Congress leadership in the last few days.

Pilot and other rebel MLAs would have faced disqualification in case they defied the Congress whip on the floor of the house. Party leaders had held discussions with Congress MLAs lodged in Jaisalmer and had sought their views on the rebel party legislators on whether to accept them or not.

Meanwhile, after a rapprochement between the Congress and Pilot, the BJP is weighing its options and working to put up a united face against the Ashok Gehlot government ahead of the assembly session from August 14.

BJP legislative party leader Gulab Chand Kataria claimed even a unity in the Congress ranks can only be temporary and the government is "bound to disintegrate sooner than later". A meeting of BJP MLAs has been called on Tuesday, he said.
File image: Rhea Chakraborty

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday began a fresh round of questioning of actor Rhea Chakraborty and her family members in connection with its probe in a money laundering case linked to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Rhea, her brother Showik and father Indrajit Chakraborty arrived at the office of the central probe agency in the Ballard Estate area around 11 am in response to their scheduled summons for Monday, officials said.

Later, Shruti Modi, the business manager of Rhea and Rajput, also arrived at the ED office.

All the four were questioned by the agency on August 7. Showik, till now, has been grilled for about 22 hours.

He had left the ED office around 6:30 am on Sunday after an overnight questioning session that began around noon on Saturday.

Rhea was questioned for about 8 hours on Friday.

The agency will again question the four including Rhea (28), the prime accused in the case, and record their statements under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

On Friday, the ED also had questioned Rhea's chartered accountant (CA) and Modi.

The agency is understood to have questioned Rhea, who stated in her petition to the court that she was in a live-in relationship with Rajput, about her friendship with the late actor, business dealings and the developments that took place over the last few years between them.

The ED's line of questioning, officials said, is revolving around Rhea's income, investments, business and professional deals, and links.

Also under the ED's scanner is a property located in the city's Khar area and another in Navi Mumbai, both linked to Rhea, for the source of purchase and ownership.

Agency sources have said they "want more answers" from Rhea over the alleged mismatch between her income, expenditure and investments.

They said while Rhea has filed Income Tax Returns stating an income of about Rs 14-18 lakh, the value of her investments is reportedly higher.

Her father, they said, is a retired defence personnel who gets a pension of about Rs 1 lakh per month.

The sources said Rhea told the agency that she had made the property investments from her income, savings and has taken bank loans.

Rhea has been accused by Rajput's father of abetting his son's suicide and she had initially refused to appear before the agency citing her appeal pending before the Supreme Court that is slated to be heard on August 11.

Her lawyer Satish Maneshinde had said Rhea is a law-abiding citizen and would cooperate with the probe. She has filed a petition in the apex court requesting that the case lodged by the Bihar police against her be transferred to the Mumbai police.

Rhea, through her lawyer, also shared a picture of a note on Saturday which she claimed was written by Rajput to express his gratitude for her and her family.

Rhea also shared a photograph of a water sipper, which is a piece of movie merchandise from Rajput's 2019 film "Chhichhore".

"The only property of Sushant that I possess," she said in a message sent along with the photo to the media.

The ED, during the questioning sessions, is learnt to have confronted Rhea, Showik and Modi with certain bank statements that purportedly show transfer of small amounts into Showik's accounts from those of Rajput and Chakraborty.

The agency had also summoned Rajput's friend and roommate Siddharth Pithani to appear before it in connection with the money laundering case that stems from the complaint filed by the actor's father with the Bihar Police in connection with his death.

Pithani, an IT professional, is stated to be out of Mumbai at present and may appear on Monday. He had told various news channels that he was present in the Bandra flat on June 14 when the 34-year-old actor hanged himself.

Pithani, stated to be living with Rajput for about a year, had earlier recorded his statement with the Mumbai Police as part of their accidental death report (ADR) probe in the case.

Rajput's 74-year-old father K K Singh, who resides in Patna, had on July 25 filed a complaint with the Patna police against Rhea, her parents (including mother Sandhya Chakraborty), Showik, Rajput's manager Samuel Miranda, Modi and unknown persons accusing them of cheating and abetting his son's suicide.

The CBI had re-registered this FIR as a fresh case on Thursday and named as accused the same people. Singh also alleged financial irregularities in bank accounts of his son.

In the complaint, Singh alleged that Rs 15 crore was siphoned off from Rajput's bank account in one year to accounts of persons not known or connected to the late actor.

Under the ED's scanner are at least two companies linked to Rajput and some financial deals involving Rhea, her father and Showik, who are stated to be directors in these companies.
Twenty sets of Irish made outdoor cafe furniture will arrive in Tullamore this week under a new project devised by the local Rotary Club.

The Tullamore Street Furniture Scheme is the brainchild of Rotary in collaboration with Offaly County Council and Tullamore Chamber of Commerce.

Offaly County Council will discount the licensing fee for outdoor furniture for traders for applications made before the end of September 2020 as part of the project and both organisations have committed money also.

Part funding for the project has been secured from the Rural Development LEADER Programme 2014-2020 through Offaly Local Development Company and their Hospitality and Tourism Reopening Grant -May 2020. CEO Brendan OLoughlin says

"OLDC identified a need for direct financial support for the reopening of tourism and hospitality businesses. We were delighted to be able to put a grant package in place for the sector. We are very pleased with the take up on the initiative and the support it provides businesses in getting their doors open again".

The project aims to stimulate economic activity in the town by tapping into the renewed community spirit evident during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. The newly completed public realm provides an ideal space for outdoor dining and socialising.

A single style of furniture has been chosen for consistency and eight traders have signed up for the scheme allowing them to purchase the furniture at a significantly discounted price. The furniture is free standing and non-permanent.

Alan Cunningham President Tullamore & District Rotary Club said: We identified the need for additional outdoor seating to compliment the new public realm in Tullamore and to give local traders the opportunity to continue to do business. Our town centre is vital to the prosperity of our town and county and the challenges for businesses presented by the new localised lockdown will be vast.

The project is widely welcomed by local businesses and by local representatives.

Cllr Tony McCormack commented: I am delighted to see this innovative project being delivered. The collaborative effort of the groups involved is exactly what the town needs especially as we all look to overcome the economic challenges the Covid-19 pandemic and now a second lockdown presents.

The scheme remains open to local traders and a second delivery will be arriving in the coming weeks. For information on the scheme email tulamorerotary@gmail.com
<! Erica >

Housemates in the Big Brother Naija season 5 show are assigned different roles by the head of house while others can choose their chores likewise. Erica is on this table.

While sweeping today, the 26 year old reality star started to give some sensational move as she sung her waist to a lovely tune, which helped make cleaning really easy.

Ngozi Erica Nlewedim is an actress and commercial model from London, England who returned to Lagos after studying screen acting at the Met Film School in London.

Watch the visual

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After a month of political rumble in Rajasthan's top leadership, the meeting between Sachin Pilot and Rahul Gandhi is currently underway. The meeting between the two leaders comes a few days ahead of Rajasthan assembly session on August 14.

In what could a game-changer in Rajasthans game of thrones- Sachin Pilot, who was branded a rebel and even ousted from the party has in a massive development held a crucial meet with the Gandhis. The meeting between the two leaders comes a few days ahead of Rajasthan assembly session and can be seen as a bid to soften the cracks that might appeared in the courtroom drama followed by horse-trading charges on Pilot and rebel MLAs.

Pilot is currently at 10 Janpath, he is likely to meet Sonia Gandhi. Even though Sachin Pilot camp has neither denied nor confirmed the reports, there is a likelihood of Pilot seeking appointment with Rahul Gandhi. As his revolt against Ashok Gehlots leadership continues, all eyes are now on Rajasthan assembly session, which is scheduled to convene from August 14.

Addressing a CLP meeting in Jaisalmer on Sunday, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot urged his camp to show unity in the house. He said that they all are democracy warriors and they are going this war. He added that they ought to show the same unity in the house, which they have shown till now.

Also Read: Former president Pranab Mukherjee tests Covid-19 positive

Also Read: After banning 101 defence items for import, Rajnath to launch Atma Nirbhar week

Amid horse-trading accusations, Congress has made its MLAs stay at a Jaisalmer Hotel to secure prevent change of sides. Meanwhile, Rajasthan BJP is all set to meet today at 4 pm. Rajasthan BJP President Satish Poonia on Saturday accused Rajasthan police of working as Ashok Gehlots agents and targeting BJP MLAs. He added that whenever BJP legislature party meets, they will all be there as Rajasthan BJP is intact and united.

Now, all eyes are on RaGA-Pilot meeting to see if they reach a deal or it marks the final nail in the coffin for Pilots association with Congress.

Also Read: Sushant Case latest: ED questioning Rhea, her family and Shruti Modi
Trot Insider has learned that Sandra Gail Monk, who was highly involved in the Standardbred Chaplaincy for many years, passed away peacefully in Mississauga, Ont. on July 28, 2020 at the age of 79.

Sandra, who is the daughter of Edward Pollard and Eleanor Chalk, is the loving wife of David Monk and dear mother of Bryan.

Sandra rested at Turner and Porter, Neweduk Chapel, and funeral services took place at Park Lawn Cemetery on July 30, 2020.

Sandra was well known to many in the industry, as for many years she helped feed grooms, coordinate fundraisers, and keep busy with her efforts for the Standardbred Chaplaincy.

Messages of condolence can either be left below or here.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Sandra Monk.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 19:55:57|Editor: huaxia

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KUWAIT CITY, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait on Monday reported 687 new COVID-19 cases and four more deaths, raising the tally of infections to 72,400 and the death toll to 482, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

Currently, 7,890 patients are receiving treatment, including 117 in ICU, the statement added.

The ministry also announced the recovery of 509 more patients, raising the total recoveries in the country to 64,028.

Kuwait started the third-phase plan of restoring normal life on July 28. During this 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
Delhi HC refuses to stay release of movie 'Nyay: The Justice', purportedly based on Sushant Singh Rajput's lif

Sushant Singh Rajput Death Anniversary: A Timeline of the of events that have transpired so far

Relief for Rhea Chakraborty, Court allows de-freezing of actress' bank accounts after a year

At least 6 members of Sushant Singh Rajputs family killed in road accident in Bihar

Rhea Chakraborty moves Supreme Court over unfair media trial

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Aug 10: Rhea Chakraborty, accused of abetting Bollywood star and boyfriend Sushant Singh Rajput's alleged suicide, approached the Supreme Court on Monday against what she termed an 'unfair media trial'.

She also said she feared becoming a "scapegoat of political agendas" and asked the top court to protect her against "extreme trauma and infringement of privacy".

Rhea, her family appear before ED again in Sushant Singh case

"The issue is blown out of proportion in (the) media. Media channels are examining and cross-examining all the witnesses in the case. Petitioner has already been convicted by the media even before foul play in the death of Sushant Singh Rajput is established," Chakraborty's petition read.

She cited two other high-profile cases - the 2G scam and the Talwar murder case - "media had convicted the accused... each and every accused was, later on, found innocent by the courts".

Pranab Mukherjee tests Covid-19 +ve | Former President tests positive | Oneindia News

Earlier, Chakraborty and her family members arrived at the Enforcement Directorate's office in Mumbai for questioning in an alleged money laundering case linked to the death of her friend and actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

The Enforcement Directorate or ED's probe focuses on Chakraborty's income, investments, business and professional deals.

'Only property of Sushant I possess': Rhea Chakraborty shares two photos

Rajput's family in Bihar had filed a police complaint alleging Chakraborty illegally transferred Rs 15 crore in tranches from his son's account and drove him to suicide.

While the ED is looking into the alleged money laundering angle, the CBI has taken over the probe into the death of the actor.
Also, in a crucial sense, the Democrats 1944 choice is the one that most closely resembles the decision that Biden and his party face today. By the time of his nomination for an unprecedented fourth term, Roosevelt, though only 62 years old, was in poor and declining health  and although the public didnt know much about his problems, his partys insiders did.
Mouthwashes have an effect on the novel coronavirus. Credit: RUB, Marquard

Sars-Cov-2 viruses can be inactivated using certain commercially available mouthwashes. This was demonstrated in cell culture experiments by virologists from Ruhr-Universitat Bochum together with colleagues from Jena, Ulm, Duisburg-Essen, Nuremberg and Bremen. High viral loads can be detected in the oral cavity and throat of some Covid-19 patients. The use of mouthwashes that are effective against Sars-Cov-2 could thus help to reduce the viral load and possibly the risk of coronavirus transmission over the short term. This could be useful, for example, prior to dental treatments. However, mouth rinses are not suitable for treating Covid-19 infections or protecting yourself against catching the virus.

The results of the study are described by the team headed by Toni Meister, Professor Stephanie Pfander and Professor Eike Steinmann from the Bochum-based Molecular and Medical Virology research group in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, published online on 29 July 2020. A review of laboratory results in clinical trials is pending.

Eight mouthwashes in a cell culture test

The researchers tested eight mouthwashes with different ingredients that are available in pharmacies or drugstores in Germany. They mixed each mouthwash with virus particles and an interfering substance, which was intended to recreate the effect of saliva in the mouth. The mixture was then shaken for 30 seconds to simulate the effect of gargling. They then used Vero E6 cells, which are particularly receptive to Sars-Cov-2, to determine the virus titer. In order to assess the efficacy of the mouthwashes, the researchers also treated the virus suspensions with cell culture medium instead of the mouthwash before adding them to the cell culture.

All of the tested preparations reduced the initial virus titer. Three mouthwashes reduced it to such an extent that no virus could be detected after an exposure time of 30 seconds. Whether this effect is confirmed in clinical practice and how long it lasts must be investigated in further studies.

The authors point out that mouthwashes are not suitable for treating Covid-19. "Gargling with a mouthwash cannot inhibit the production of viruses in the cells," explains Toni Meister, "but could reduce the viral load in the short term where the greatest potential for infection comes from, namely in the oral cavity and throatand this could be useful in certain situations, such as at the dentist or during the medical care of Covid-19 patients."

Clinical studies in progress

The Bochum group is examining the possibilities of a clinical study on the efficacy of mouthwashes on Sars-Cov-2 viruses, during which the scientists want to test whether the effect can also be detected in patients and how long it lasts. Similar studies are already underway in San Francisco; the Bochum team is in contact with the American researchers.

Explore further Researchers urge immediate study of oral rinses as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread

More information: Toni Luise Meister et al, Virucidal efficacy of different oral rinses against SARS-CoV-2, The Journal of Infectious Diseases (2020). Journal information: Journal of Infectious Diseases Toni Luise Meister et al, Virucidal efficacy of different oral rinses against SARS-CoV-2,(2020). DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiaa471
New Delhi: Students who had appeared for the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) Secondary School Level Certificate (SSLC) or Class 10 exams will get to know about their scores on Monday (August 10).

The results will be announced at 3:00 pm today on the official website of the board  karresults.nic.in or kseeb.kar.nic.in.

However, candidates will be able to check their results on the board websites only after 3:45 pm as the link will go active only after that.

Around 8.48 lakh students registered for the SSLC exams this year. The exams were supposed to be conducted from March 29 but got delayed due to COVID-19 lockdown. Later, the exams were held on June 25 till July 3.

Once the Karnataka SSLC results 2020 are declared, students can check their scorecard by following these simple steps:

Step 1: Visit the official website i.e. karresults.nic.in

Step 2: Find Direct Link for SSLC Results 2020 Karnataka Board

Step 3: Input your exam roll number and other details asked on the page

Step 4: Verify the details against your hall ticket and submit them on the website

Step 5: Your SSLC Result 2020 Scorecard will be displayed on the screen

Step 6: Download PDF Softcopy or take a printout for future reference

Apart from the official website, different private websites will also host the Karnataka SSLC result 2020. Students, however, are advised to check their results from an official source.

Around 8.43 lakh students appeared in the SSLC board exams in 2020. The minister for primary and secondary education of Karnataka, Suresh Kumar on August 7 confirmed on social media about the timing of the Karnataka class 10th results declaration.

This year, the exams were held from March 27 but the KSEEB had to be postpone the exams in view of the coronavirus induced lockdown. The Karnataka SSLC exams were later conducted from June 25 to July 4, following safety measures.
India wants Chinese construction to stop at Depsang-Daulat Beg Oldie sector

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Aug 10: India has told China to stop further construction and pull back troops from the Depsang-Daulat Beg Oldie sector of eastern Ladakh. During the talks between the two sides, India also told China to stop further construction activities in the area.

During the talks, India stressed upon the importance of reducing tensions in the Depsang plains, an official familiar with the developments told OneIndia. This has been a major flashpoint for several years now, owing to the perceptions of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The military level talks between the two sides were held on Saturday between 11 am and 7,30 pm. India stressed on the fact that the PLA troops who are camping near the Bottleneck area in the Depsang plains since May should not block Indian soldiers from going to their Patrolling Points-10, 11, 12 and 13.

India-China stand off unlikely to overshadow BRICS, SCO summits

The primary agenda of the meeting was to reduce tensions at the Depsang Plains, where there is a massive build up of troops of both sides. The meeting would discuss ways to de-escalate as well as disengage. India will also seek restoration of patrolling rights for its soldiers.

Following the meeting that was held last Sunday by the two sides, 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.

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.

Pranab Mukherjee tests Covid-19 +ve | Former President tests positive | Oneindia News

The source said that India reiterated to China for complete disengagement and de-escalation. India also sought for full restoration of peace and tranquillity in the border areas as had been agreed upon during the earlier meetings.

Pull back from Dapsang-Daulat Beg Oldie sector, India tells China at military level talks

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.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ohio reported a daily increase in coronavirus cases of 1,166 on Thursday, slightly down from the day before.

The increase is below the 21-day average of 1,280. Deaths are also slightly below the 21-day average, with 22 deaths reported in the last 24 hours. The 21-day average is 25 deaths.

Hospitalizations are slightly above the 21-day average, with a 135 increase against an average of 97.

Case numbers are inching towards 100,000 cases, with Thursdays total at 97,471. Deaths are up to a total of 3,618.

The numbers come hours after Gov. Mike DeWines office announced he had tested positive for coronavirus at part of protocol before greeting President Donald Trump at the tarmac in at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland. The governor is not showing symptoms, will take another test and quarantine.

More Ohio coronavirus news:

-- Older adults, including Gov. Mike DeWine, are at high risk for severe illness from COVID-19

-- 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

-- Unemployment claims drop in Ohio, but hundreds of thousands remain out of work as extra federal benefits expire
A BP employee who was fired in 2018 for sharing a Hitler meme making fun of the company as it tried to negotiate a new pay deal with staff has been awarded $200,000 in compensation.

Refinery worker Scott Tracey shared with his colleagues a meme his wife made using a clip from the 2004 German movie Downfall of Hitler ranting with English subtitles about the enterprise agreement negotiations, prompting BP to sack him.

Actor Bruno Ganz in the movie Downfall that Mr Tracey's wife used to create her meme video. Credit:YouTube

In a legal battle stretching almost two years, Mr Tracey initially lost his unfair dismissal case in September 2019 when a Fair Work commissioner decided Mr Tracey had compared his bosses to the Nazis. Mr Tracey later persuaded the full bench of the workplace tribunal on appeal the video was clearly a joke.

The Federal Court upheld that decision and Mr Tracey went back to work in March this year at the BP Kwinana oil refinery in south-west Perth, leaving his compensation for the work he had missed as the only outstanding issue. He was awarded the compensation on Monday.
In DNA, information is stored in the sequence of chemical building blocks; in computers, information consists of sequences of zeros and ones. Researchers want to transfer this concept to artificial molecules.

Artificial molecules could one day form the information unit of a new type of computer or be the basis for programmable substances. The information would be encoded in the spatial arrangement of the individual atoms  similar to how the sequence of base pairs determines the information content of DNA, or sequences of zeros and ones form the memory of computers. Researchers at the University of California in Berkeley and Ruhr-Universitat Bochum (RUB) have taken a step towards this vision. They showed that atom probe tomography can be used to read a complex spatial arrangement of metal ions in multivariate metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).

Professor Tong Li, head of the Atomic-Scale Characterisation research group at the Institute for Materials at RUB, describes the method together with Dr. Zhe Ji and Professor Omar Yaghi from Berkeley in the journal Science, published online on 7 August 2020.

Decoding metal sequences

MOFs are crystalline porous networks of multi-metal nodes linked together by organic units to form a well-defined structure. To encode information using a sequence of metals, it is essential to be first able to read the metal arrangement. However, reading the arrangement was extremely challenging. Recently, the interest in characterizing metal sequences is growing because of the extensive information such multivariate structures would be able to offer.

Fundamentally, there was no method to read the metal sequence in MOFs. In the current study, the research team has successfully done so by using atom probe tomography (APT), in which the Bochum-based materials scientist Tong Li is an expert. The researchers chose MOF-74, made by the Yaghi group in 2005, as an object of interest. They designed the MOFs with mixed combinations of cobalt, cadmium, lead, and manganese, and then decrypted their spatial structure using APT.

Just as sophisticated as biology

In the future, MOFs could form the basis of programmable chemical molecules: for instance, an MOF could be programmed to introduce an active pharmaceutical ingredient into the body to target infected cells and then break down the active ingredient into harmless substances once it is no longer needed. They could also be used to capture CO 2 and, at the same time, convert the CO 2 into a useful raw material for the chemical industry.

In the long term, such structures with programmed atomic sequences can completely change our way of thinking about material synthesis, say the authors. The synthetic world could reach a whole new level of precision and sophistication that has previously been reserved for biology.
Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai speaks at a dialogue in Grand Rapids, the United States, on Feb. 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Ping)

"It's not fair to make such allegations without giving any evidence and to accuse China of not giving American companies a level playing field while at the same time they themselves are denying Chinese companies such a level playing field. This is extremely unfair," Cui Tiankai said.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The United States should stop making groundless allegations against Chinese companies including TikTok and give them a level playing field, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai has said.

"I don't think there's an evidence that any company is giving such information to the Chinese government. People make these allegations, but they never show any evidence," said Cui in response to the U.S. government's allegations that TikTok might give its data to the Chinese government when he was attending the 2020 Aspen Security Forum on Aug. 4.

"Very often we hear complaints here that we don't give a level playing field to American companies. But more and more, I believe we should complain Chinese companies are not having a level playing field here," he said.

"There is such a degree of political intervention, government intervention into the market. There's such a discrimination against Chinese company. These companies are just private companies," the ambassador said.

The logo of TikTok is displayed on the screen of a smartphone on a computer screen background in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, Aug. 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

"It's not fair to make such allegations without giving any evidence and to accuse China of not giving American companies a level playing field while at the same time they themselves are denying Chinese companies such a level playing field. This is extremely unfair," he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order banning any U.S. transactions with Chinese tech firm ByteDance, owner of TikTok, starting in 45 days.

TikTok has been downloaded over 175 million times in the United States and over 1 billion times globally, according to the executive order, which claims that the app automatically captures "vast swaths of information" from its users, posing risks to U.S. national security.

A similar executive order has also been issued for WeChat, a messaging and social media app owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent.
KHABAROVSK, Russia -- Protesters in Russia's Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk , where rallies against President Vladimir Putin's role in a regional political crisis have been going on for almost a month, have voiced their support for demonstrations against the presidential vote in Belarus.

More than 80 protesters shouted "Belarus, we are with you!" as they marched through Khabarovsk on August 10.

Police in Belarus said on August 10 that they detained about 3,000 protesters overnight during demonstrations against preliminary results of the August 9 presidential election naming incumbent Alyaksandr Lukashenka the winner.

In Khabarovsk, the protesters also demanded the immediate release of Sergei Furgal, the former governor of the Khaborovsk region whose arrest prompted the protests there.

A member of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), Furgal was elected by a wide margin in 2018 over the incumbent candidate from Putin's ruling United Russia party.

Furgal was arrested on July 9 and transferred to a jail in Moscow for what authorities said was suspicion of involvement in several murders in 2004 and 2005.

Furgal was then dismissed by Putin, who appointed LDPR member Mikhail Degtyaryov as the region's acting governor.

Furgal's supporters say the charges against him are politically motivated retribution for his 2018 election defeat of Putin's ally.

The Kremlin says Furgal has serious charges to answer.

The protests highlight growing discontent in the Far East over what demonstrators see as Moscow-dominated policies that often neglect their views and interests.

Putin's popularity has been declining as the Kremlin tries to deal with an economy suffering from the coronavirus pandemic and years of ongoing international sanctions.

The pro-Furgal demonstrations have attracted tens of thousands of protesters on weekends since they started on July 11.
The spectacular find has been valued at 15,000 (16.000) by Bristol East Auctions, but pre-auction bids online stand at 50,000 (55,000)

The early 20th century gold-plated circular-rimmed glasses owned and worn by the civil rights leader were given as a gift to the vendors uncle.

Decades later, the rare item was found in the most unusual of circumstances, said auctioneer Andy Stowe.

Speaking to PA news agency, he said: It was about two, three weeks ago a gentleman who lives fairly locally to us came down on an evening stroll on a Friday night with the glasses.

We found the glasses hanging halfway out of the letterbox in an envelope with a note saying these glasses belong to Gandhi, give me a call at your earliest convenience.

Mr Stowe and his team discovered the glasses were given to the vendors uncle while he was working for BP in South Africa between 1910-1932.

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He was known for giving things away quite openly, Mr Stowe said.

The vendor is in his 80s with no family to pass the glasses on to, Mr Stowe added.

When asked how sure he was the glasses are genuine, he said: Without Gandhi here to tell us himself that theyre his, we cant be absolutely sure, but the stories all check out.

It was the right time and the right place, the glasses are a near identical to the ones we found in a museum.

Those glasses had a bent bridge that would match the contours of Gandhis nose and ours matches that.

There are only around four or five pairs around the world, Gandhi was known not to have many possessions and weve seen about five or six references of him giving things away.

If they fetch the highest bid of 50,000, it would be the most expensive item the auction house has ever sold.

The current record was set in 2018 after it sold comedian Robbie Barkers script for the sketch Four Candles for 31,000.

Mr Stowe described the vendors disbelief at how much the glasses could make, with interest from potential buyers from all over the globe, particularly in India.

The glasses will go on sale on August 21.
KV Navya By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Just five months ago, Shiraj Nishas son was studying in a CBSE school where she was working as a teacher. It was smooth sailing for the mother-son duo until Covid took away one vital aspect of her life  her job.

After losing her job in April, Nisha discontinued her sons studies at a crucial stage (ninth standard) and her landlord has been forcing her to vacate the house since she is unable to pay rent.

Nishas son was getting a 50% concession in his fee since she worked in the same school in Kolapakkam as an art and design teacher.

However, in December, school authorities abruptly discontinued the concession.

I couldnt afford the Rs 90,000 fee. So I told them I will look for a job elsewhere and put him in a matriculation school post-March. But in February, the school authorities told me they would continue the fee concession and retain me, she said.

However, once the lockdown began, Nisha says her resignation was processed and she was asked to leave.

As the school authorities had told me to stay, I did not look for another job, and now, I am not getting a job anywhere, she said.

She has been a single mother since he was three years old, and with her son in Class 9, she has now been forced to discontinue his education temporarily.

Schools ask at least Rs 15,000 for admission and I dont have a penny. My mother and father are feeding us out of their savings. That too will not last for more than a month. I badly need a job. He keeps telling me that all of his friends are attending online classes and that breaks my heart, said the 30-year-old.

Since March, I have not paid rent and the landlord has been deducting the money from advance. But now, theres nothing left and he is asking us to leave. With a personal loan to repay and no house to live, I have been numb for the past few days.

She hopes to survive for a few more days by selling off household items. This is yet another family that Covid has devastated.
Border guards on duty at Huu Nghi border gate in Lang Son Province, February 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy.

Vietnam border guards have deported 21 Chinese nationals who had illegally sneaked into the country after they completed a 14-day quarantine.

On Saturday afternoon police in the central province of Quang Nam, where the Chinese were found staying in a residential area last month, handed them over to border guards at the Huu Nghi border gate in Lang Son, and they were sent home the same day.

On July 18, acting on tip-offs from locals, officers raided a luxury apartment block in Quang Nam's Dien Ban Town and found the illegal Chinese, some of whom tried to escape.

However, all were rounded up and sent to quarantine, where they tested negative for the novel coronavirus.

They were reportedly smuggled into Vietnam by a gang with members from both countries. They intended to look for jobs in Da Nang that borders Quang Nam.

A Chinese woman (C) found in Quang Nam Province after having entered Vietnam illegally, July 18, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Dai Quyen.

Earlier police in Quang Nam had arrested a Chinese man identified as Gao Liang Gu and a Vietnamese woman Luong Thuy Dung for their involvement with a ring smuggling Chinese nationals to Da Nang and nearby Quang Nam Province. The investigation into that case has been expanded.

Vietnam closed its borders and suspended all international flights on March 25, after halting visa issuance on March 18.

Since June public security officers and border guards have found 21 cases involving 177 illegal Chinese entrants, and launched criminal investigations into five cases.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had ordered the Ministry of Public Security to investigate the illegal entry by foreigners into Vietnam following the first case of local transmission of Covid-19 in 100 days on July 25.

A Quang Ninh court in northern Vietnam sentenced six men to between two and six years in jail last week for smuggling Chinese nationals into the country.
Abuja, Nigeria (PANA)  President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday gave strong assurances that security will be restored to Borno State, the Northeast, and the nation at large, following the recent adoption of new strategies, and the acquisition of modern military equipment
India registered 62,064 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours while the total recoveries crossed 15 lakh mark. Active coronavirus cases in worst-hit Maharashtra have now reached 1,45,865.

India registered 62,064 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours while the total recoveries crossed 15 lakh mark. According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), 1,007 new deaths were reported in the country and the cumulative toll reached 44,386. The countrys COVID-19 count has risen to 22,15,075 including 6,34,945 active cases, 15,35,744 cured/discharged/migrated.

Active coronavirus cases in worst-hit Maharashtra have now reached 1,45,865. Taking to Twitter, the Union Health Ministry informed that Indias COVID-19 recoveries cross the historic peak of 1.5 million and the infection is now concentrated in 10 States that contribute more than 80 per cent of the new cases.

MoHFW tweeted that Indias Covid-19 recoveries cross the historic peak of 1.5 million. Recovery of more than 15 lakh has been made possible because of the policy of TESTING aggressively, TRACKING comprehensively & TREATING efficiently. Better ambulance services, focus on Standard of Care & use of non-invasive oxygen have given desired results.

Also read: PM inaugurates submarine optical fibre cable connecting Chennai and Port Blair

Also read: Rajasthan rumble: Sachin Pilot meets Rahul Gandhi, will it be a game changer?

The ministry tweeted that COVID19 infection still remains concentrated in 10 States that contribute more than 80% of the new cases.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 4,77,023 samples were tested on August 9 while over 2.45 crore samples have been tested so far.

As many as 245 new COVID-19 cases were reported from Puducherry on Monday, according to the Union Territorys (UT) Health Department. The total number of coronavirus cases in Puducherry stands at 5,624 including 2,180 active cases and 3,355 recoveries. So far, 89 lives have been claimed by the infection in the Union Territory.

Also read: Former president Pranab Mukherjee tests Covid-19 positive
Egyptian national has been held for more than 1,300 days despite repeated calls for an end to his arbitrary detention.

Egyptian authorities have extended the detention of Al Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein by another 45 days.

The extension on Sunday came more than 1,300 days after his arrest upon arrival in Egypts capital, Cairo.

Hussein, an Egyptian national working for the Al Jazeera Arabic television channel in Qatar, was arrested on December 20, 2016, while on a personal visit to see his family.

Hussein was accused of incitement against state institutions and broadcasting false news with the aim of spreading chaos, allegations he and the Al Jazeera Media Network deny.

The Doha-based network has repeatedly called for Husseins release.

In May 2019, an Egyptian court rejected an order by the state prosecutor to release him. Authorities opened a new investigation against him with unspecified charges and returned him to prison.

His incarceration is already in breach of Egypts penal code, which sets a maximum pretrial detention period of 620 days for individuals being investigated for a felony.

While in solitary confinement, Hussein suffered a broken arm and has been refused proper medical treatment.

The United Nations has called on Egypt to end Husseins arbitrary detention, saying the appropriate remedy would be to release Mr Hussein immediately.

Crackdown on journalists

Last month, veteran Egyptian journalist Mohamed Monir died after contracting the new coronavirus during pretrial detention following his arrest for appearing on Al Jazeera, which is banned by Egypts government.

The 65-year-old died a week after he was hospitalised with COVID-19 following his release from detention in early July due to his sickness.

In a statement at the time, Al Jazeera said it was saddened and deeply dismayed by the death of Monir after contracting COVID-19 during his unwarranted imprisonment and expressed its condolences to the journalists family.

We reiterate the seriousness of the deteriorating health conditions in Egyptian prisons amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, it said, noting the overcrowded facilities are known for their unhygienic conditions, which during the current pandemic can pose an imminent threat to prisoners, ultimately endangering their lives and wellbeing.

Since the 2013 overthrow of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Jazeera Media Network has been portrayed as Egypts national enemy for its coverage of the group.

That same year, Egypt arrested and later imprisoned Al Jazeeras Abdullah Elshamy, Baher Mohamed, Mohamed Fahmy and Peter Greste on charges of spreading false news  cases that were widely condemned by international media outlets and many politicians. All have since been freed.

A former editor-in-chief of Al Jazeera Arabic was sentenced to death in absentia for purportedly endangering national security.

Several other Al Jazeera journalists have also been charged in absentia of spreading lies and supporting terrorists  a reference to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organisation.

Since removing Morsi in a coup, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has waged an unprecedented crackdown on dissent, arresting thousands and rolling back freedoms won after the 2011 uprising that ended decades of rule by Hosni Mubarak.

Reporters Without Borders ranked Egypt 166th out of 180 in its 2020 Press Freedom Index.
However little hope the election of Donald Trump left, for some antitrust watchers it hid the slimmest of silver linings: Maybe, just maybe, some thought, Trumps criticisms of corporate power on the campaign trail (Amazon, Time Warner) were more than just attacks on his political enemies (Jeff Bezos, CNN) and would translate into meaningful enforcement of antitrust and other laws. Some held similar hope for the Trump Justice Departments new antitrust chief, Makan Delrahim, who gave several barn-burning speeches early on that promised tougher enforcement. Immediately on taking office in 2017, Delrahim brought an extraordinary challenge to the merger of AT&T and Time Warner, the governments first vertical merger case in 40 years. Antitrust believers cheered, cautiously hoping that Trumps promises to use the law against concentrated power were worth more than empty air.

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In light of several remarkable recent events, and rumors that Delrahim may soon leave the Department of Justice, it is worth asking how well one of Trumps principal antitrust enforcersand by extension Trump himselfdelivered on antitrust. There is a growing consensus, after all, that America has developed a serious monopoly problem, one that journalists, civil society, and Congress are scrutinizing more and more. But history will not be kind to Delrahim or what might have been his contributions to this awakening. Probably no U.S. antitrust chief has ever failed quite so thoroughly and variously.

Two nails sealed this coffin. First, Delrahim wrote last month to congressional leaders to discredit a DOJ Antitrust Division whistleblower, and his transparently dishonest arguments were repeated with much indignation by a recently departed deputy. The whistleblower testified that Delrahim and Attorney General William Barr abused antitrust enforcement to punish political opponents. The most important revelation was that they ordered burdensome informational demands to marijuana industry mergers that they had no intention of challenging under the antitrust laws.

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None of this had been public, and it was shocking. So was the the deception with which Delrahim attempted to wave it away. Because federal merger review is bureaucratically opaque, his letter might strike many as pretty reasonable. The Justice Department must quickly review many large mergers, and Delrahim said his team needed to learn as much as it could of this new, idiosyncratic, and fast-growing industry.

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His claims were facially absurd. The second requests he ordered to marijuana companies are extremely burdensome impositions reserved for a tiny fraction of the thousands of mergers reviewed every year. Because they impose extraordinary and expensive demands on the firms that receive them, they are not issued except with respect to deals that are very likely illegal. But in fiscal year 2019, DOJ issued nearly a third of the second requests it sent to the entire American economy to this one small industry, each of them involving deals that would not have been challenged in court. The Justice Departmentwhich after all contains the Drug Enforcement Administrationknows more than enough about the industry to handle merger review. And indeed, antitrust enforcers have never done anything like this before, though our massive economy constantly generates previously unknown products and industries.

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More remarkable than what Delrahim said are the things he didnt say. He didnt dispute the whistleblowers claim that DOJ staff were ordered not to interview customers and competitors of the firms under revieweven though third-party interviews are bread and butter in merger investigations and are required by the agencys operating manualnor that, once the merging firms complied and delivered millions of pages of documents, the investigators didnt really read them. He disputed neither that the deals were likely legal, nor thatunbelievablyin two of them the merging firms did not even compete geographically. No competent antitrust lawyer could imagine the Justice Department actually challenging such a deal under existing law, and it would be amazing if a second request was issued to even one such case in the prior 45-year history of federal merger review. Impossibly, Delrahim issued 10 of them in one year, all to firms that just happen to be politically disfavored by his party, and asked Congress to accept that it was honest law enforcement.

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The other recent development was a press release, the strange coda to a transaction that will be remembered as one of Delrahims most regrettable acts. The notice congratulated the cellphone carrier T-Mobile for completing divestitures in support of its acquisition of Sprint. The deal, approved by Delrahims agency last year, leaves only three meaningful wireless carriers to serve the entire economy, subject to a transparently feeble package of remedial divestitures, approving a consolidation essentially the same as one the Obama administration blocked just a few years earlier. It was revealed that the agency didnt just approve the deal, but that Delrahim personally worked to make it happen, lobbying other regulators and members of Congress and helping to secure a divestiture buyer. As the New York Times editorial board put it, he was caught treating T-Mobile like a client rather than a firm he was supposed to regulate. That oddly congratulatory press release failed to mention a fact the agency was required to acknowledge in court the next day: that even the thin remedial divestitures the agency required for the deal to go through would not be fully carried out.

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The series of other failures during Delrahims three-year tenure are grave in number and importance, even beyond the agencys breathtaking failure to enforce the antitrust laws themselves and the disaster of its morale. Delrahims conflicts with the other antitrust agency, the Federal Trade Commission, grew bad enough to draw congressional inquiry, even before his agencys absolutely unheard-of interference in the FTCs case against chip maker Qualcomm. Delrahim also seriously aggravated tensions with state attorneys general. During the T-Mobile investigation, for example, he convened them to solicit their support for the deal, but apparently excluded Democrats, and he aggressively interfered in their separate lawsuit challenging the deal. He has also been dogged by appearances of impropriety, including most glaringly in the Qualcomm controversy, as hed represented Qualcomm prior to federal service. Among the grossest and least concealed abuses of this officeuntil revelation of the marijuana caseswas investigation of automakers for working with California environmental regulators, a case that no competent antitrust lawyer could have imagined generating serious legal challenge.

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This story can end where it began, with the AT&T/Time Warner challenge. An allegation that struck most antitrust lawyers as unlikely when the suit was broughtthat Delrahim ordered it to punish President Trumps political enemy, the Time Warner unit CNNnow seems hard to doubt. Like many others, I didnt believe it, because it would have been the biggest scandal in antitrust since Richard Nixon was caught interfering in cases in exchange for political favors. But whatever was Delrahims personal motivationwhether the White House ordered the suit, as critics have claimed, or agreeing to bring it was a quid-pro-quo for his appointment, or whatever elseit now seems hard to imagine that it was anything other than a retaliation against a Trump political opponent. Trump and Delrahim, hailed by some as the last hope for this broken area of the law, have instead left the Antitrust Division a corrupted and misbegotten shambles. With any luck, the repair of its dignity can begin in just a few months.

For more of Slates news coverage, subscribe to What Next on Apple Podcasts or listen below.
When Annette Fernandez realized that her third grade classroom wasnt close to a bathroom or equipped for hand washing to slow the spread of COVID-19, she wanted to do something about it. She approached her school's principal to ask whether there was any money available for hand-washing stations. There wasnt.

So, with her principals blessing, she started a GoFundMe campaign to raise the money. In just two hours, she exceeded the $1,500 that she needed to provide her classroom with a sink.

This is the first time that I have ever done a GoFundMe so I am completely shocked! Fernandez told TODAY Parents. Im at $3,059 so I purchased another (hand washing) station for another classroom.

When Annette Fernandez realized it would be hard for her third grade students to wash their hands, she started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for a portable sink. In two hours it was funded. (Courtesy Annette Fernandez)

Fernandez works in a portable classroom that is detached from the main school building at Turie T. Small Elementary School in Daytona Beach, Florida. The 12 portable classrooms at the school don't have bathrooms, and at least 10 of the classrooms will be used this year. Any additional money Fernandez raises will go to equipping the other portable classrooms with hand-washing stations.

She said she started the fundraiser after worrying that so much of her school day would be dominated by navigating hand washing.

I just thought about the amount of wasted instructional time I was going to need ... just trying to get them to wash their hands outside of the classroom, Fernandez explained.

Related: Teachers need pencils, crayons, glue sticks ... and plexiglass.

Download the TODAY app for the latest coverage on the coronavirus outbreak.

While this is Fernandezs 23rd year teaching, this is her third year in this district in the heart of Daytona Beach. About 97% of the students at her school qualify for free or reduced lunch.

Our kids deserve better. It doesnt matter where they live. It doesnt matter if theyre poor or theyre rich. They all deserve the same, she said. My principal is very supportive of having me doing this.

Fernandez has 18 students and fears they wont be able to properly social distance. Thats why hand washing seemed so essential. The money she raises also will supply soap, paper towels, hand sanitizer and cleaning wipes. Many of the children's families don't have any extra cash to donate cleaning supplies and hand sanitizer to the school.

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Hand washing is such a basic necessity ... and its the number one thing to prevent the spread of COVID, Fernandez said. The most important thing is that these kids get what they need.

Watch TODAY All Day! Get the best news, information and inspiration from TODAY, all day long.

Fernandez has taught these same students since first grade. She said she has confidence theyll be pros at mask wearing and hand washing.

They will be right on board as soon as we go through all the procedures and class rules, she said. Its just an amazing group ... theyve become like a small family."

Related: The dangers are real, but so is the anxiety.

After spending so much time with them, Fernandez said she feels close to her students and wants to do anything she can to help them.

When theyre not with their parents, theyre my kids and I have to defend them like they are mine. I have to advocate for them like theyre my children, Fernandez said. I just want the best for them.

For more on the reopening of the American education system, watch Pandemic: Back to School anchored by Craig Melvin every Monday through Labor Day at 11 a.m. ET on MSNBC. Viewers can submit their own questions via Twitter with #MSNBCAnswers or sent to talk@msnbc.com.
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has rejected as "unrealistic" a call by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for the United Nations to extend an international arms embargo on Tehran that ends in October, state TV reported on Monday.

The GCC, made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, said on Sunday that Iran's continued interference in neighbouring countries made an extension necessary.

The arms embargo is currently set to end on Oct. 18 as part of Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which the United States quit in 2018.

"The GCC is currently at the apex of its incompetence and its unrealistic policies have rendered it ineffective," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi told a televised news conference.

"The council, swayed by the wrong and destructive policies and behaviour of certain member states, has turned into a mouthpiece for anti-Iran elements inside and outside the region."

U. S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that the United Nations Security Council will vote this week on a U.S. bid to extend the arms embargo on Iran, despite warnings by some diplomats that the measure lacks support.

If the United States is unsuccessful in extending the embargo, it has threatened to trigger a return of all U.N. sanctions on Iran under a process agreed in the 2015 deal.

In May, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani threatened a "crushing response" if the embargo on Iranian trade of conventional arms was extended.

Iran has breached parts of the nuclear deal in response to the 2018 U.S. withdrawal and Washingtons reimposition of sanctions.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Reality star Kylie Jenner takes birthdays seriously. The Kylie Cosmetics founder goes all-out not only for her birthday but for her daughters birthday as well. As the beauty mogul turns 23, were looking at back on some of the most expensive birthday parties Jenner has ever thrown  and in 2019, the cost totaled to more than $3 million in one year.

Kylie Jenner | Gregg DeGuire/WireImage

Kylie Jenners luxurious 22nd birthday trip to Italy cost close to $2 million

Jenners birthday party this year will likely be a little lower key than her extravagant 22nd birthday bash thanks to the coronavirus (COVID-19). But in 2019, Jenner spared no expense at celebrating her birthday in style. She chartered a yacht off the coast of Italy for a week, but it wasnt just any yacht; it was Tranquility, a 300-foot mega yacht that cost $1.25 million per week to charter.

Jenners birthday week cost at least that much, but thats not factoring in flights, food, and the exotic experiences she offered her friends and family throughout the week. Jenner tends to fly private, and chartering a mid-size private jet to Italy costs a minimum of $80,000 round trip for a 14-hour flight from California. Jenner might have even chartered a larger plane, depending on how many people she invited. Its unclear how much the extras cost, but Jenners total bill likely came in right around $2 million.

RELATED: Kylie Jenners Wealth Keeps Deteriorating

Jenners birthday parties for Stormi are estimated to cost between $100,000 and $1 million

Jenner spares no expense for her daughters birthday parties, either. Stormi is only two, but her mother has pulled out all the stops to ring in each year in the best way possible. A massive inflatable Stormi greeted guests at the entrance to both years parties, and Stormis cake was crafted with butterflies, flowers, and a moving carousel.

Though the actual cost of Stormis birthday parties remains unknown, her first birthday was estimated somewhere around $1 million. As for her second birthday, Jenner didnt go quite as crazy but still dropped an estimated $100,000 on the big day.

RELATED: Kylie Jenners $1,000 Purse for Stormi is the Latest in Lavish Gifts for the Toddler

Jenners sweet 16 party favors cost $1,000 each  but she didnt pay for them

Jenners lavish birthday bashes started long before her billionaire status; even her sweet 16 was incredibly expensive. Though Jenner likely didnt pay for her own birthday party, she knew how to ring up a bill. According to Daily Mail, Jenners sweet 16 party favors cost an estimated $1,000 each  and every guest went home with one at the end of the night.

Surprisingly, though, Jenner was able to put together lavish party favors without paying a dime  thats because Brand Placement supplied the goody bags, which included iHome speakers, jewelry, and makeup, among other products. Though Jenner got away with not paying for them, she could have footed the bill if she had wanted to.

Jenner reportedly spent $1 million on a gift for her daughter

While Jenners pricy parties are hard to beat, she might spend more on gifts. Jenner reportedly purchased a $1 million diamond ring for her toddler for Christmas  not quite a birthday party, but still an unbelievable present for a special occasion. The ring boasts 22 carats and is in the shape of a bow. The seemingly obvious problem with purchasing a ring this size for her daughter is that Stormi will likely grow out of it within the year. With that, fans slammed Jenner for spending so much money on something that wont be wearable for very long, but thats never stopped her before.
If California Sen. Kamala Harris is picked to be Joe Biden's running mate and he wins the election, Gov. Gavin Newsom would appoint Harris' successor to the U.S. Senate. (Getty Images, Associated Press)

Democrats accuse Republicans of trying to suppress voting all across America. But in California, Democrats actually ban voting to fill a vacancy in one of our most important offices: U.S. senator.

Thats hypocrisy, pure and simple.

A Republican legislator is trying to fix the autocratic practice. But he hasnt a prayer with Democrats controlling both the legislative and executive branches of state government.

Of course, the GOP is equally guilty in other states  arguably even more sinful. Both major parties run elections in their own self-interests, regardless of what might be best for the public. Shock!

The recent Republican strategy, led by President Trump, has been to suppress voting among Democrats. The GOP does this by discouraging mail voting, claiming without significant evidence that it leads to voter fraud. Nonsense.

Republicans also push for voter photo IDs. They seek to reduce the time period for voting and the number of places to cast ballots. They aggressively challenge peoples eligibility to vote. Anything to hold down voter turnout.

The smaller the turnout, the larger slice of votes for GOP candidates, history shows. Thats because Republican voters tend to turn out more reliably than Democrats.

Thats why Democratic lawmakers dont trust voters in special elections to fill Senate vacancies. Special election turnouts are almost always much lower than in regular state elections. Democratic politicians are very happy to allow a Democratic governor to fill a Senate vacancy without voter interference.

And Republicans do the same thing in most states they control.

In all, 45 states authorize governors to fill Senate vacancies. In 36, including California, the appointee can serve the balance of the Senate term or until the next statewide general election.

But in nine, the gubernatorial appointee must face voters in an expedited special election. Thats the way it should be in California, at least.

Five states  Oregon, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Wisconsin  require any Senate vacancy to be filled only by voters. Theres good precedent for this. Thats the way it is for the other half of Congress, the House of Representatives; also in the California Legislature.

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Any vacancy in a statewide elective office, however, can be filled by the governor, subject to legislative confirmation. A governor is also empowered to fill vacancies on county supervisor boards.

The issue of Senate vacancies arose when California Sen. Kamala Harris essentially began running for president about the time she was sworn into office after her 2016 election. Her candidacy flopped, but she immediately was placed on Joe Bidens short list of potential running mates.

There also was speculation in 2018 about whether Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who won reelection that year, would serve out her term. Shed be 91 when it expires. My bet is she will.

Republican state Assemblyman Kevin Kiley of Rocklin, near Sacramento, introduced a bill in 2018 that would have required the governor to call a special election to fill a Senate vacancy. It had one committee hearing and was killed on a party-line vote. Hes back with a similar bill this year and it hasnt even been given a committee hearing.

The whole idea of our system of government is that the people should have a say in who their senators are, Kiley says. With senators, its especially important because there are six-year terms with no term limits and they can stay in office for decades.

Appointments are an anachronism, he adds. Its about time we bring our selection of senators into the 21st century.

Until 1913, U.S. senators were appointed by state legislatures. The 17th Amendment required elections by voters. If theres a vacancy, the governor must call a special election. But theres a hitch: The Legislature can empower the governor to make a temporary appointment until the next election.

The ability of a governor to appoint a senator has been egregiously abused, Kiley says, although not in California. Elsewhere, it has invited corruption and nepotism.

When Illinois Sen. Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, Democratic Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich was caught trying to sell the vacant Senate seat. He went to federal prison for eight years until Trump pardoned him in February. Thats the same Trump who had vowed to drain the swamp of corruption in Washington.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was appointed by her father, Frank Murkowski, who had resigned from the Senate in 2002 to become governor. In fairness, she did have some credentials as a state legislative leader.

In California, governors have appointed five senators to fill vacancies since the 17th Amendment was ratified.

In 1991, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson chose state Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) to replace him in the Senate. Seymour was easily dispatched by Feinstein in the 1992 election.

In 1964, Democratic Gov. Pat Brown appointed former White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger to replace Sen. Clair Engle, who died in office. Salinger was beaten that November by actor George Murphy, a Republican.

Republican Gov. Earl Warren made two Senate appointments: State Controller Thomas Kuchel to replace Sen. Richard Nixon, who was elected vice president in 1952, and William F. Knowland of an Oakland newspaper publishing family to fill in for Sen. Hiram Johnson, who died in office.

The fifth appointee was a brief office caretaker in 1938: Santa Barbara newspaper publisher Thomas Storke. He served two months and retired.

Theres a valid argument for not holding a special election to fill a vacant Senate seat. Its costly  around $100 million.

But democracy isnt free. California taxpayers send Sacramento enough money to foot the bill.

For the record:

3:29 PM, Aug. 10, 2020: A previous version of this column said former Sen. Clair Engle resigned from office. He died while in office.


RACINE  Wisconsin has larger gaps in educational equity between its black and white students than any other state in the nation, according to a Wallethub study.

And those vast gaps are apparent at Racine Unified schools, where in 2018-19 among students who took the ACT, 5.5% of black students were proficient in English language arts, compared to 32.4% of white students. There are similar gaps in proficiency on standardized tests across grade levels and subjects.

Many educators agree that those gaps  as well as those between other student groups, such as those with disabilities and those without  have surely widened while school buildings are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

When asked if she believed that learning gaps had increased during the closure of schools, Racine Unified Chief Academic Officer Rosalie Daca replied: I would say that its certain.

Daca said that disparities leading to achievement gaps begin before students enter the public school system.

Children with a parent who can stay home with them and read to them regularly, for instance, are already at an advantage compared to those who have two busy working parents or a single parent who doesnt have the luxury of spending as much time with their kids. Daca said this is one of the reasons the district has expanded its 3K program over the past several years.

Akosua Aning, education co-chair for the Racine Branch of the NAACP, believes that if black children are coming into the Racine Unified system already at a disadvantage to their white peers, its largely due to institutionalized racism.

No matter the cause, Aning said, its the districts job to do something about it.

The shutdown

After Racine Unified schools closed in mid-March due to the statewide COVID-19 Stay at Home order, some district students didnt have sufficient devices or internet access allowing them to take part in online learning. Students were sent packets of materials to complete, but for most students no there was no live instruction or new learning. Attendance was not taken.

A lot of the times, children from these families have a harder time with being able to successfully complete homework because parents are working or maybe they might not have the educational knowhow to help their children with the process, Aning said of black families in Racine.

She would like to see the district focus on meeting the students where they are academically, and then helping to bring them to where they need to be.

Daca said that the district is setting aside time in the coming school year for interventions for most students, such as extra support for English language learners, special education support, Title teachers for reading, and computer programs that work on specific skill-building, to help get all students up to speed after the long break.

The district also has pared down required standards for each grade level to what it has deemed most essential for students to know. Daca said that for example, last years second-grade teachers will communicate with this years third-grade teachers about what their students missed out on, so that they can catch up on necessary second- and third-grade standards.

Because black students and poor students, generally speaking, were already lagging behind their peers, as least as far as standardized test scores are concerned, Aning would like to see the district take steps to help those students specifically.

All students will need additional support when they return, Daca said. Teachers will be working to differentiate lessons to meet the needs of all students.

Aning would also like to see the district track the academic impact the shutdown has had on students, and to break down those numbers by race and income. Typically, districts across the state receive an annual report card from the Department of Public Instruction in the fall that details, among many other things, the learning gaps between various student groups.

Its unclear what those report cards will look like this fall, or if there will be any, as students did not take the Forward exam  the results of which play a big part in DPI report-card scores  due to the shutdown.

Daca said that Unified will track the data and will be able to break it down by student group when it gives a district assessment.

Remote learning

Racine Unified will be starting the school year with remote learning for at least the first quarter of the 2020-21 academic year. A decision on the second quarter is set to be announced by Oct. 19.

District officials have promised that remote learning in the new school year will be much different than it was in the spring, with live lessons, new learning and attendance being taken. Unified has also said it will supply all students in grades three and up with Chromebooks by the start of the school year. Tablets for younger students could come as late as October, and in that case those students would be distributed paper schoolwork until then.

The district has purchased 500 internet hot spots to distribute to families who dont have access or who dont have enough data for online lessons, and officials have said they will purchase more if needed. Although initially the hot spots were equipped with a limited amount of data per month that could be used up quickly with regular, live video lessons, district Spokeswoman Stacy Tapp said that the district is expanding the amount of data available.

Even so, educators agree that students generally do not learn as well remotely, and Aning believes that could be even more the case for some poor and minority students.

Virtual learning puts economically impoverished, lower income black students at a bigger disadvantage, Aning said. They dont learn as well with the remote learning.

Aning acknowledged that she does not think anything besides remote learning is realistic at this point, with how coronavirus has spread in the Racine area.

They have been off school for so long, Aning said. Even just the summer period, we know, causes that gap to increase. And now they havent been in school for all of these months, couple that with the fact that theyre traumatized ... by the pandemic.

She added that many black students have experienced additional trauma after the death of George Floyd, a black man, while in Minneapolis police custody and the national uproar, protests and riots that Floyds death ignited. She would like to see more counselors at the schools in the coming year to help students deal with that trauma.

Systemic racism

The reason why black people are more likely to be impacted is because of the systemic racism that we have, Aning said. We are segregated. Even in neighborhoods, theres segregation everywhere that you look in the city, and thats definitely a contributing factor. Poverty definitely plays a role, but I also think a lot of the poverty is a result of a racist system which is kind of designed to impact black people adversely.

That segregation of neighborhoods is apparent when looking at the racial and socioeconomic makeup of the students enrolled at Unified schools.

In 2019-20, students attending Janes Elementary School, 1425 N. Wisconsin Ave., Racine, were 36.5% black, 49% Hispanic, 8.4% white and 6.1% two or more races. Out of all Janes students, 96.1% were considered economically disadvantaged, according to the Department of Public Instruction.

In contrast, students attending Gifford School, 8332 Northwestern Ave., Caledonia, were 72.4% white, 15.5% Hispanic, 4.9% black and 5.6% two or more races; at Gifford, a K-8 school, only 32.4% of students were economically disadvantaged.

Getting the community involved

Aning said she hopes that the district gets the community involved in helping low-income students and students of color to be successful with remote learning, and the return to school after that.

According to Daca, some of the districts community partners are providing tutoring and support to students, and some staff will be reassigned to provide additional support to families who need it.

I have so much frustration and I dont have all the answers, Aning said. But I just really would have liked to see the district really mobilize the community, the whole city to figure this out. Whether they could get nonprofits involved to see how they can be of help once school opens to help children who are more vulnerable.

I would have liked to see more of a direct response to the fact that black children are going to be more impacted by these last few months and the pandemic.

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Stein will be joined by candidates for state office, Marcus Singleton, NC Senate 36; Aimy Steele, NC House 82; and Gail Young,NC House 83.

The presenters were asked to provide background information and topics they hope to address during the virtual meeting.

Josh Stein was sworn in as North Carolinas 50th Attorney General on January 1, 2017. Between 2009 and 2016, Josh served in the state Senate and was a champion for public education, clean energy and public safety.

Singleton identified Medicaid Expansion as a top priority, a move that would provide healthcare to so many neighbors who are currently uninsured. He said, The necessity for healthcare is evident, as we continue to struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic. Medicaid would also aid in the opioid epidemic fight. It would lower premiums for everyone by reducing uncompensated medical care. In addition to saving lives, Medicaid expansion is important for our economy.

Steele will also vote to expand Medicaid, so that 40,000 uninsured people in our county will finally have coverage. She will take on the opioid crisis by voting to increase funding for alternative healthcare options, like dependency intervention and therapy.
SAN FRANCISCO and LEXINGTON, Ky., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the global leader in CRM, today announced the University of Kentucky, the largest public research university in the state, will deploy Salesforce's Work.com to help it safely welcome back students, faculty, and staff to its campus on August 17. Work.com includes technology for emergency response management; manual contact tracing; health and wellness assessments; shift scheduling; and a Command Center dashboard that captures all relevant data to help organizations reopen safely.

Since 2017, the University of Kentucky has used Salesforce.org Education Cloud to connect all of its departments on a single platform to deliver connected experiences and real-time communications to students, parents, alumni, faculty, and staff. With Education Cloud, the University of Kentucky was able to quickly pivot to address the emerging pandemic, beginning with a university-wide wellness outreach campaign in March when it contacted all 30,000 students via phone to check in on their mental health and wellness, and share additional resources.

Also in March, the University of Kentucky began to assess how it could safely and effectively bring its community back to campus this coming fall semester. It quickly assembled a cross-departmental team comprising 500 faculty, staff, and students who worked extensively over three months to create a comprehensive return-to-campus framework, outlined in its Playbook for Reinvented Operations . To execute this strategy and manage its return to campus, the university will implement Work.com solutions that will enable it to:

Conduct daily wellness assessments and symptom checks of its entire student body, faculty, and staff who plan to be on campus this fall

Manage, triage, and track initial testing and contact tracing operations

View data and insights from its community in the Command Center to assess campus readiness and rapidly respond to changing conditions

Implement a faster and more accurate emergency response with manual contract tracing

Listen to and generate feedback from its community of 50,000 parents, students, alumni, faculty, and staff through surveys, and share real-time information through personalized communications at scale

Comments on the News

"Our investment in Salesforce's solutions is more than a crisis responseit's an investment to come out on the other side of the pandemic stronger and show our community how deeply we care about them," said University of Kentucky President Dr. Eli Capilouto. "We are using Salesforce's Work.com solutions as a springboard for a healthier community, supporting student mental health and well-being, and preparing our university to handle any number of future scenarios."

"Reopening will be a different journey for every higher education institution across the U.S.," said Rob Acker, CEO of Salesforce.org. "Having a comprehensive framework and agile infrastructure in place are critical to not only returning to campus safely, but to retaining student community culture. We look forward to our continued collaboration with the University of Kentucky to reimagine and deliver the future campus experience with Salesforce's Work.com technology."

About Salesforce

Salesforce is the global leader in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), bringing companies closer to their customers in the digital age. Founded in 1999, Salesforce enables companies of every size and industry to take advantage of powerful technologiescloud, mobile, social, internet of things, artificial intelligence, voice and blockchainto create a 360-degree view of their customers. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), visit: www.salesforce.com .

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase Salesforce applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM." For more information please visit http://www.salesforce.com , or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

About University of Kentucky

Founded in 1865, the University of Kentucky (UK) is a public research university in Lexington with more than 30,000 students and 8,500 faculty. UK's mission is to serve as not simply the University of Kentucky but the University for Kentucky by fostering a community of belonging, delivering academic excellence, and creating a safe, best-in-class learning environment for its students, faculty, and staff. UK has been recognized by Forbes as one of America's best employers and one of the best employers for diversity, and among the top 30 campuses in the nation for LGBTQ inclusion and safety. UK is also ranked among the top 10 percent of public institutions for research expenditures and UK HealthCare has been named the state's top hospital for four straight years.

SOURCE Salesforce

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She has recently been scouring through old videos and photos she took in Turks and Caicos and sharing her favorites with her 38.7million followers on Instagram.

But Vanessa Hudgens uploaded her most share-worthy memory on Sunday afternoon, which showed her dancing to Waterfalls by TLC during a 'rainy day' on her trip.

In the clip, the 31-year-old actress performed her best lip sync, while putting her toned physique on display in a leopard print one piece suit with a plunging neckline.

Reminiscing: Vanessa Hudgens uploaded her most share-worthy memory from Turks and Caicos on Sunday afternoon, which showed her dancing to Waterfalls by R&B girl group TLC during a 'rainy day' on her trip

Leopard lady: In the clip, the 31-year-old actress performed her best lip sync, while putting her toned physique on display in a leopard print one piece suit with a plunging neckline

Hudgens had her brunette hair styled in braids that poked out from beneath her white Prada bucket hat.

Her wrists were decked out with a plethora of bangles, while a myriad of gold chains of different lengths hung down from her neck.

The High School Musical star also had on a pair of chunky gold hoop earrings, a few antique rings, and a single anklet.

Vanessa commenced her lip sync video - made on the Triller app - in selfie mode, while passionately reciting the lines to the popular R&B track.

Designer darling: Hudgens had her brunette hair styled in braids that poked out from beneath her white Prada bucket hat

Accessorized: The High School Musical star also had on a pair of chunky gold hoop earrings, a few antique rings, and a single anklet

She played with the brim of her bucket hat and caressed her neck before setting the camera down and busting a move on her hotel room's wooden deck.

Hudgens snapped her fingers to the rhythm and swayed her hips as rained poured down on top of her.

In another wide-shot, the Princess Switch actress flaunted her toned legs, while strutting towards the camera.

Feeling the song: Vanessa commenced her lip sync video - made on the Triller app - in selfie mode, while passionately reciting the lines to the popular R&B track

Rhythm: Hudgens snapped her fingers to the rhythm and swayed her hips as rained poured down on top of her

To conclude the video, Vanessa kneeled down in front of the camera and let her hand caress her leg and her backside before flashing a huge smile.

The brunette beauty's last throwback post from her trip to Turks and Caicos was uploaded on Friday.

The sultry snapshot showed Hudgens standing in the ocean water, while donning a slinky blue bikini and a gold body chain.

Strut: In another wide-shot, the Princess Switch actress flaunts her toned legs, while strutting towards the camera

Fin: To conclude the video, Vanessa kneeled down in front of the camera and let her hand caress her leg and her backside before flashing a huge smile

In the midst of sharing her vacation video to Instagram, Vanessa was spotted picking up food at a healthy eatery in Los Feliz.

For her solo errand run, the actress wore a black cloth mask over her mouth and nose and hid her hair beneath a bright green bucket hat.

She gave passerbys a view of her taut tummy - and diamond belly button ring - in a cropped Dogpound sweatshirt and a pair of emerald green leggings.

Turks and Caicos: The brunette beauty's last throwback post from her trip to Turks and Caicos was uploaded on Friday
The Department Related Standing Committee for Human Resources Development (HRD) under the chairmanship of Vinay Sahasrabuddhe on Monday discussed the future of education in India in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

This was the first meeting of the committee since Sahasrabuddhe took over as chairman. Seventeen of the 30 members of the committee participate in this meeting. Those who attended included the secretaries of School Education and Higher Education, UGC Chairman, AICTE and CBSE officials.

The MPs were informed by the higher-ranking officers of the HRD ministry that there is no clarity in terms of when schools can resume, sources told CNN-News18. Educational institutions have remained shut since March due to the coronavirus impact.

The Secretary of School Education and the Secretary of Higher Education informed the panel that the call to reopen schools has to be taken by individual states depending on their own assessment of the pandemic and that a blanket decision cannot be taken, said the sources.

A number of MPs had raised the question of parents struggling with providing laptops for online classes.

Officers present in the meeting on Monday told the panel that they have been working on various media for online education and that suggestions are being received to employ community service radios and district newspapers to connect with students, added the sources. The officers said Andhra Pradesh's example of using IVR service to impart information needs to be duplicated.

Since giving laptops and mobile phones to students may not be feasible, MPs suggested giving them transistors instead, said sources. This move will be cost-effective and can be implemented easily even in rural areas.

According to sources, Secretary of Higher Education Amit Khare told the panel that 2020 will not be year of zero education, indicating education will be imparted in some way or the other and exams will take place for higher education.

Several MPs told the officers at the meeting about the feasibility of conducting online classes for children since parents on many occasions have complained about the lack of attention from children.

Top officers told the panel that the guidelines issued by the central government clearly state that no classes should be conducted for pre-primary, primary and up to classes 3-4. The guidelines also call for limited classes for classes 4-8 and full online classes for classes 8 and above. The panel was also informed that in case of pre-primary, primary and students studying up to class 3, there should be classes for parents as well.

There was also a discussion on reforms in education and how a system of adopting a question bank to assess the progress of a student, including during exams, can be a useful one, said the sources.

A few members also raised the issue of four students being denied mid-day meals during the coronavirus pandemic, to which an officer said its implementation is entrusted to the states and that the Centre has already directed all states to do the needful and will continue to stress that all states should provide some form of cooked food, dry ration or ration to the kids, said the sources.
Health organizations including the CDC recommend routine immunization for HIV-positive people, who have been unilaterally left out of vaccine trials so far.

After promising results from early-stage trials of two key vaccine candidates against the coronavirus, vaccine candidates from Moderna-NIAID and Oxford-AstraZeneca entered final stage of human trials in August. Now, Moderna and Pfizer (which has partnered with German biotech firm BioNTech to develop a COVID-19 vaccine) have announced that they will be including a limited number of HIV-positive volunteers in the final stage of trials, after initially having excluded them.

So far, all human trials for a COVID-19 vaccine have excluded participants with pre-existing conditions and co-morbidities. The protocol for the NIAID-Moderna vaccine, for instance, excludes those with an "immunosuppressive or immunodeficient state, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection." The protocol for the Oxford-AstraZeneca trial excludes people with "any confirmed or suspected immunosuppressive or immunodeficient state" without specifying HIV.

However, advocates have argued that with modern antiretroviral therapy, most HIV-positive people on treatment do not experience any immune suppression. Instead, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is prevented from replicating and affecting immune cells, which are often at near-normal levels. There are studies showing that people living with HIV are not at any greater a risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection, and neither are they more likely to develop severe COVID-19 or to die from it.

"Decades of research have proven that HIV-positive people with undetectable viral loads and a safe CD4 count respond to vaccines, and are encouraged to receive all recommended vaccinations," Jeff Taylor of the HIV+Aging Research Project told POZ. "It should give us pause to see an inexperienced company with a lack of basic scientific knowledge is in charge of a hugely important vaccine trial  at a huge cost to taxpayers," he added.

The exclusion was overturned  first in the Moderna vaccine trial and later, in the Pfizer vaccine trials  after advocates submitted a Change.org petition to the US National Institute of Health AIDS Director Francis Collins, citing that Moderna's trial "excludes people with HIV with no scientific basis."

Moreover, many health organizations including the US Centre for Disease Prevention and Control recommend routine immunizations for HIV-positive people. The only caveat, as per the CDC website, is for "live vaccines, if the CD4 T cell count is below 200", the petition pointed out.

On 5 August, Moderna tweeted that its Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trials would adapt to "include people living with controlled HIV who are not otherwise immunosuppressed." The company had planned to test the vaccine in HIV patients in a separate study, but heard the preference of the community, it said, to be part of the ongoing trial.

Today, we are sharing an important update about our protocol for the Phase 3 COVE Study of mRNA-1273, our vaccine candidate against COVID-19. pic.twitter.com/jigTXUi9v2  Moderna (@moderna_tx) August 5, 2020

Pfizer, too, in a 7 August letter to the petition signatories, said that is has amended its protocol to open up the trial to HIV patients in phase II/III of its vaccine study, as well as people who have been treated for hepatitis B and hepatitis C in the past.

In the same vein, debate has emerged around pregnancy. While the pregnant women group is far less activist-driven than the HIV community, they too have been left out of safety and efficacy trials throughout, something scientists and ethicists have acknowledged.
The West African Examination Council (WAEC) says the indiscipline misconduct of some students in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) should not mar the integrity of its certificates.

The Head of Public Affairs of the Council, Agnes Teye-Cudjoe in an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show said the students who have been reported to have misconducted themselves during the exams are in the minority as its preliminary assessment shows that majority of students are comporting themselves.

We are concerned about this, we've always been concerned about the credibility of the certificates issued. That is why we eschew malpractices of any form. This examination is being conducted in 976 schools nationwide. We are recording these cases in only a few schools so their actions should not mar the good things that are being done or the way that other candidates are comporting themselves, she said.

Some Senior High School students have been violently protesting what they call tight security and supervision of the ongoing WASSCE.

While students of the Tweneboa Kodua Senior High School and Juaben Senior High School threatened to boycott their exams because they thought supervisors were 'too strict' during the supervision of their first paper, Bright Senior High School students at Kukurantumi attacked some invigilators who were strictly enforcing WAEC examination rules against cheating.

In some other schools, the students said the examination was too difficult and was not exactly what was in the past questions the government provided.

Some of the students captured themselves venting their frustration and insulting the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Some of the students have since been sanctioned by the Ghana Education Service (GES) but there are concerns that such incidents have the potential of eroding the credibility of examinations organized by WAEC.

But Agnes Teye-Cudjoe said WAEC will do all it can to ensure that the credibility of its exams is maintained.

She said the Council will not hesitate to make use of only external invigilators or change examination centres to ensure that incidents that have the potential of discrediting its exams do not occur.

These isolated cases should not mar the entirety of the examination. Much as we abhor whatever we've seen, these are a few instances and we have a majority of candidates comporting themselves. Anything that we need to do to ensure that the integrity of our certificates is maintained, we will do that, she indicated.

---citinewsroom
Demonstrators descended in waves to Thammasat University in the outer edges of Bangkok as the sun set

Young Thai protesters listened in rapt attention on Monday night as a pro-democracy activist called for open discussion of the unassailable monarchy's role in the kingdom, at a rally in Bangkok that drew thousands.

The massive demonstration comes after weeks of near-daily student-led protests denouncing Premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha's military-aligned administration.

The student-led movement has repeatedly demanded a rewrite to a 2017 constitution, the parliament's dissolution, and called for the government to "stop threatening the people".

Protesters regard former army chief Prayut, who led a 2014 coup, as a remnant of Thailand's junta legacy as his premiership was ushered in under a military-scripted charter in last year's poll.

But activists have waded further into sensitive territory by calling for the abolition of the kingdom's draconian royal defamation law, which protects the powerful, super-rich King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

Monday's rally outside Bangkok -- which started off with anti-government songs -- ended with speeches by two activists who were arrested over the weekend and later released on bail.

Lawyer Anon Numpa and activist Panupong Jadnok were charged with sedition for their alleged role at a massive July 18 rally.

But their arrests came days after Anon led a discussion at a protest of the monarchy's role in the kingdom.

He revisited the topic onstage Monday night, calling for the frank discussion of the unassailable institution.

Protesters held up a three-finger salute, a symbol for freedom taken from "The Hunger Games" trilogy, after his speech.

The king sits at the apex of Thai power, buttressed by the powerful military and elite billionaire clans.

The royal defamation law carries a sentence of up to 15 years per charge, and experts say the law's vagueness makes open reporting or discussion of the royal family virtually impossible.

Story continues

Organisers said the next rally will be on Wednesday, which is a public holiday in Thailand commemorating the Queen Mother's birthday.

- 'No more fake democracy' -

Monday's rally closed with a video conference call by prominent Thai dissident Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a Kyoto-based academic who was granted asylum in Japan following his vocal criticism of Thailand's junta, broadcast on stage.

Held at Thammasat University, the protest drew a diverse crowd from the LGBTQI community, high schoolers and elderly pro-democracy supporters.

"Us seniors must support the students," said a 70-year-old woman who declined to be named. "We must fight for our sons, daughters, nephews and nieces."

The kingdom has long been locked in a cycle of violent street protests and coups by a putsch-happy army.

The coronavirus pandemic seized up Thailand's economy, leaving millions jobless and angry at the inequalities of a society perceived to favour the kingdom's elite establishment.

"No more fake democracy," read a sign at the demonstration, which drew around 4,000 by nightfall, according to an AFP estimate.

At the end of the night, the hashtag "Thammasat will not tolerate" was trending on Thai Twitter.

Prayut has vowed to hold public forums with young people.

But army chief Apirat Kongsompong -- an arch-royalist who in the past has angrily ranted about pro-democracy figures -- called "hatred of the nation" an incurable disease.

Earlier Monday, a group of royalist supporters marched to parliament to counter a pro-democracy rally where protesters were burning models of army tanks and the constitution.

Holding portraits of the monarch above their heads, the pro-monarchy group called for the protesters not to insult the king and carried posters saying "The people protect the king".

Besides the arrests of two activists over the weekend, protest organisers in northern Phitsanulok province were detained for hours without charge, according to a Thai legal aid group.

bur-dhc/st
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 16:27:29|Editor: huaxia

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by Xinhua writer He Fei

BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- A delegation led by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar arrived in Taiwan on Sunday in the name of enhancing anti-pandemic cooperation.

Azar is the highest ranking cabinet-level U.S. official to visit Taiwan since 1979 when Beijing and Washington established diplomatic ties. The visit stands as Washington's fresh flagrant provocation against the one-China principle, and a serious challenge to the political foundation of China-U.S. relations.

In fact, it is not the first time that Washington has sought to challenge China's red line on the Taiwan question. Earlier this year, the United States flagrantly supported Taiwan's attempt to join the World Health Organization. And over the past few years, the incumbent U.S. administration has continued to sell arms to Taiwan, and passed the so-called Taiwan Travel Act despite strong opposition from Beijing.

Stepping up anti-pandemic cooperation sounds somewhat necessary when the once-in-a-century outbreak is still raging across the planet. Yet considering the fact that Washington has many other ways to do it while respecting the one-China principle, as well as its long history of provocation against China on issues concerning Taiwan, the real purpose of Azar's visit is too obvious to miss.

With the incumbent administration's approval rating dropping and re-election anxieties ballooning, the White House has grown increasingly desperate to divert the American public's attention away from its fouled-up COVID-19 response. As Washington has in recent days been gearing up its anti-China campaign, its fiddling with the Taiwan question has come no surprise.

By challenging the one-China principle, Washington is also trying to test where Beijing's bottom line lies and blur its clear-cut commitments on the Taiwan question in salami tactics.

In the three China-U.S. joint communiques, the most fundamental political documents that have ensured stability and progress in bilateral ties over the past more than four decades, Washington has not only recognized that "there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China," but also promised that "the people of the United States will maintain cultural, commercial, and other unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan."

Thus, whatever excuses the White House can come up with for its sending a high-ranking official to the Chinese island province cannot change the fact that it has blatantly violated the key and long-standing political consensus between the two countries.

Moreover, the current U.S. administration, which views China as a "main geopolitical rival" and "revisionist power," is also repeating the same old trick of emboldening separatists in Taiwan to create tensions in the Taiwan Strait, impede China's unification drive and contain the country's development.

For those in Taiwan who are trying to count on the United States for their independence attempt, while indulging themselves in the illusion that Washington will help with their secessionist plots, they must be awakened to the fact they are no more than a cat's-paw for Washington's drive to maintain America's supremacy in the Asia Pacific.

Washington's hardliners should know that their provocation against the one-China principle, which has won growing global recognition, will only harden Beijing's already rock-solid determination to achieve the mainland's unification with Taiwan, and to preserve China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. There is no way for China to compromise on its core interests.

They should also grasp the fact that their escalation of provocation on the Taiwan question is pushing what many dub as the world's most important bilateral relationship further down the wrong path, which will in turn undermine the much-needed bilateral cooperation to tackle a wide range of pressing global challenges, particularly the rampaging coronavirus pandemic.

Washington must stop interfering in China's internal affairs and further harming the high-stake China-U.S. relationship. And if it truly wants to contribute to the world's fight against the pandemic, it should offer real input, rather than using it as a pretext for its wicked purposes. Enditem
Mr. Barr, who was present when federal officers tear-gassed peaceful demonstrators near the White House in June, vowed to use the Justice Department to combat what he called urban guerrilla warfare waged by protesters in Portland, Ore., and other cities, during an interview with the right-wing radio personality Mark Levin.

They are a revolutionary group that is interested in some form of socialism, communism. Theyre essentially Bolsheviks. Their tactics are fascistic, Mr. Barr said when asked by Mr. Levin about Black Lives Matter protesters and demonstrators Mr. Levin described as antifa.

Mr. Barr has been a fierce defender of President Trump throughout his tenure. But his comments to Mr. Levin were among his most pointed verbal attacks to date, blurring the distinction between mainstream Democratic leaders  who have expressed support for peaceful protest  and the violent minority of demonstrators in Oregon and elsewhere.

Mr. Trump has seized on scenes of national unrest to build a law-and-order message for his re-election campaign, and on Monday he again called for the National Guard to be sent to Portland. But the Trump administrations decision to dispatch militarized federal agents to the city last month drew criticism from state and city officials, who said the agents exceeded their authority and harmed peaceful protesters.

Mr. Biden said last month that the deployment of federal agents to an already volatile situation showed that Mr. Trump was determined to sow chaos and division. To make matters worse instead of better.

Mr. Barr on Sunday portrayed the protests, which erupted after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, as part of a long-term strategy to defeat Mr. Trump.

They were trying to impeach him from Day 1, he said. Its the lust for power. And they werent expecting Trumps victory. And it outrages them.
Ambition: Donald Trump is fighting an uphill battle in the polls

A White House official has made discreet inquiries into the possibility of US President Donald Trump's image being carved into Mount Rushmore.

According to The New York Times, the official, who was not named, approached the office of Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor, last year to ask how an additional president could be added to the monument.

Details of the approach emerged over the weekend. Likenesses of four presidents - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt - were immortalised in the massive 1941 sculpture that took 14 years to create.

The attraction in the Black Hills draws more than two million visitors a year.

Mr Trump first raised the possibility of being added to the pantheon of US presidents when he met Ms Noem at the Oval Office as far back as 2017.

The South Dakota governor assumed the president was joking, she recalled a year later. "He said, 'Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand'. I shook his hand, and I said, 'Mr President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore.'

"And he goes, 'Do you know it's my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?' I started laughing. He wasn't laughing, so he was totally serious."

The South Dakota governor did present Mr Trump with a 1.2m replica of Mount Rushmore - with his face added - when the US president visited the state early last month.

Eric Swalwell, a Democratic congressman from California, suggested on Twitter it would be more appropriate to add Mr Trump's face to the Confederate likenesses at Stone Mountain in Georgia.

The chances of Mr Trump's dream becoming a reality are considered slim, given the lack of usable rock on either side of the existing likenesses.

The kerfuffle over Mr Trump's desire to carve his way into history was the culmination of a difficult weekend for the president.

On Saturday he abruptly ended a news conference after being challenged over claiming credit for passing the Veterans Choice Programme, which made it easier for former servicemen and women to get medical care.

The legislation was passed in 2014 and signed by Barack Obama.

Mr Trump still appears to be facing an uphill battle to be re-elected in November. Polls last week in key swing states showed Joe Biden ahead. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
The steep rise in prices of key components, coupled with a ban on the import of finished sets, is expected to hit prominent Chinese brands, such as OnePlus, Xiaomi, TCL, and Realme.

Disruption in business activity and crunch in the supply of components have taken a toll on television (TV) manufacturers.

The latest rules - restricting the import of finished TV sets - may further aggravate the situation.

The steep rise in prices of key components, coupled with a ban on the import of finished sets, is expected to hit prominent Chinese brands, such as OnePlus, Xiaomi, TCL, and Realme.

The restrictions have impaired a clutch of consumer electronics majors dependent on imports from China and Vietnam.

Leading brand Xiaomi, which imports TV sets larger than 49 inches from China, has been impacted.

Estimates suggest the fourth-largest TV brand in the country imports close to 20 per cent of its TVs.

Xiaomi has been manufacturing smart TVs in India since the launch of Mi TVs in 2018.

"Currently, over 85 per cent of the Mi TVs sold in India are manufactured locally, said the firm spokesperson.

According to the Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA), Xiaomi held 13 per cent share of the 17-million-a-year local TV market in 2019.

Chinese TV major TCLs dependence on imports is not low either.

Estimates suggest it imports over 50 per cent of its portfolio from China.

According to Mike Chen, general manager, TCL India, while it has a plant at Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), it will take time to localise the high-end models.

The plant is capable of producing models up to 55 inches and TCL will increase localisation, following the recent order. Currently, it imports 35 per cent of its TVs from the US, Brazil, and Thailand, said Chen.

Smartphone majors like OnePlus and Realme entered the fast-growing smart TV space recently.

These, along with Indian brand VU, import nearly all TVs they sell here.

While they have plans to begin procuring locally, their business is expected to get hit in the short term.

Moreover, what is haunting most TV marketers is the steep price hikes on components.

During the initial phase of the Covid-19 pandemic - in February - disruptions in the supply chain in China yanked up prices by 30-40 per cent.

By July, the rise had been 50 per cent on TV panels.

Flat panels that are totally imported, primarily from China, form over 65 per cent of the cost of manufacturing a TV set.

According to Avneet Singh Marwah, chief executive officer, Super Plastronics, price hikes are inevitable now.

Nobody can absorb this kind of rise in cost, said Marwah.

This has further increased the burden on Chinese players, most of whom operate on wafer-thin margins.

Xiaomi, for example, has a stated objective of keeping its net margin lower than 5 per cent.

Others, too, operate at a similar level, said sources.

Chen, however, ruled out any price hikes at TCL.

We make sure that the products given to our customers are of utmost quality.

"India is a price-sensitive country, where we customise products for the Indian audience, so that they can afford it, he said.

Targeting China

The restrictions imposed by the Centre on the import of finished TV sets that have screen size larger than 14 inches is primarily aimed at controlling imports from Vietnam and China.

While manufacturers will still have options like securing licences for import, sources said, it will help the government restrict imports from China.

The plan is to issue licences on a case-by-case basis.

"Now, authorities will have the power to directly control imports from China, said a person familiar with the matter.

The data from the Department of Commerce shows that in 2019-20, the share of finished TV imports of the total TV-related imports came down, while total imports surged.

While Rs 8,500 crore worth of TV sets and components were imported from China, the share of finished sets stood at 26 per cent or Rs 2,200 crore.

Photograph: Reuters
New Delhi: Rajasthan politics has taken an interesting turn on Monday (August 10) as sacked deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and other Congress rebel leaders are likely to come back and vote for Ashok Gehlot during the trust vote as the Assembly session is set on begin on August 14, according to sources.

Sachin Pilot is learned to have been touch with the Congress high command and has also spoken to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra over the phone. The high command has assured the rebel leader of not taking any action against him and sought his support for the Ashok Gehlot camp, sources in the Congress told Zee News.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is likely to decide on a "reconciliation" plan as discussions have taken place regarding the current situation.

Sachin Pilot is understood to have a positive meeting with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi. The meeting between the three leaders was learned to have been extremely emotional and Sachin Pilot gave the signs of a return to the party fold.

On Sunday, Sachin Pilot met senior AICC leaders and a separate meeting was also fixed with Rahul Gandhi, who on Monday met Pilot and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was also present there, said the sources.

Sachin Pilot explained the circumstances in which he took the drastic decision and he is understood to have said that he did nothing against Congress, rather he was merely opposing Ashok Gehlot, according to Sources.

Rahul Gandhi was also in regular touch with Sachin Pilot for the last three days, and several formulas have been considered for Pilot's return.

Among the formulas, the party is toying with the idea to make two senior leaders of the Pilot camp as Deputy Chief Ministers, while another option is also mulled to give Sachin Pilot a big responsibility in Delhi, sourced said.

Sachin Pilot is also being considered as the Congress party's Chief Ministerial candidate for the state in the future, sources said.

Last month, Sachin Pilot rebelled against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot along with 18 other MLAs and was sacked as deputy chief minister and the state Congress president after he failed to attend the Congress Legislature Party meetings.

Two other ministers from the Pilot camp were also dropped from the Ashok Gehlot Cabinet. The Congress appointed Govind Singh Dotasara as the president of the partys Rajasthan unit.
Lebanon has denied claims the bodyguard of a top politician fired rounds at protesters over the weekend as fury over the Beirut explosion threatens to spark a revolution.

Sporting jeans and a black top, a man was photographed pointing a shotgun at swarms of demonstrators yesterday afternoon, firing in their direction as huge protests rocked the Lebanese capital at the weekend.

Rumours had swirled that the man was the bodyguard of Nabih Berri, a claim that Lebanese officials have firmly denied.

Berri, 82, is the leader of the biggest Shi'a faction in the parliament, and is backed by Hezbollah - the Islamist group which is widely seen as having effective control over Lebanon, and is in turn controlled by Iran.

The Internal Security Forces published a statement on social media on Sunday that they had not used live ammunition or rubber bullets during the demonstrations.

They also said the man was a civilian, and not Berri's bodyguard.

'Photos of a civilian shooting at demonstrators and presented as Hussein Dimachk, an officer of the Internal Security Forces, circulated on social networks,' the statement read.

'ISF leadership clarified that this information is completely false and that the person who appears in the photos is not one of his operatives.

'The ISF did not fire any real or rubber bullets as part of their mission to maintain security and order in downtown Beirut ', the police statement added.

A civilian shoots live rounds over the heads of protesters

The Lebanese government is facing widespread anger and the biggest anti-government protests since October over the blast, which compounds months of political and economic meltdown and prompting furious calls for the entire government to resign.

Lebanon's cabinet is facing mounting pressure to step down, with justice minister Marie-Claude Najm the latest to resign after being sprayed with water and verbally attacked last week while visiting a damaged area .

The man crouches down as he aims above protesters' heads before firing rounds

Another masked Lebanese government soldier is pictured pointing his gun at protesters

Explosives expert has claimed the Beirut blast was caused by burning military missiles - not ammonium nitrate He believes the blast, which killed 160 people was not caused by ammonium nitrate because the colour of the cloud was orange not yellow

Explosives expert claims Beirut explosion that killed 160 was caused by burning military missiles - not ammonium nitrate  because the blast cloud was orange not yellow An explosives expert has claimed the Beirut blast was caused by burning military missiles - not ammonium nitrate. Danilo Coppe, 56 and from Parmesan in Italy, is one of the country's leading explosive experts. He believes the August 4 blast, which killed 160 people, wounded 6,000 and destroyed 300,000 homes, was not caused by ammonium nitrate because the colour of the cloud was orange. The expert, nicknamed Mr. Dynamite, explained that when ammonium nitrate detonates, it generates an unmistakable yellow cloud. But videos of the explosion show orange plumes of smoke, Mr Coppe told Corriere. 'There should have been a catalyst, because otherwise it wouldn't all have exploded together. 'You can clearly see a brick orange column tending to bright red, typical of lithium participation. Which in the form of lithium-metal is the propellant for military missiles. I think there were armaments there,' he said. Advertisement

The warehouse detonation of more than 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate killed 158 people, injured more than 6,000 and destroyed a swathe of the Mediterranean city.

A cabinet meeting is scheduled for Monday, amid speculation the Hezbollah-backed government could resign en masse. If a total of seven out of the 20 ministers resign, the cabinet would effectively become a caretaker government. At least nine MPs have resigned.

'The entire regime needs to change. It will make no difference if there is a new government,' Joe Haddad, an engineer, told Reuters. 'We need quick elections.'

Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Saturday he would request early parliamentary elections.

About 20 people have been detained over the blast, including the head of Lebanon's customs department and his predecessor, as well as the head of the port. Dozens of people have been questioned, including two former cabinet ministers, according to government officials.

Lebanon's president had previously said explosive material was stored unsafely for years at the port. He later said the investigation would consider whether the cause was external interference as well as negligence or an accident.

Beirut's governor said many foreign workers and truck drivers remained missing and were assumed to be among the casualties, complicating efforts to identify the victims.



Yesterday Iran said that countries should refrain from politicising the massive blast in and urged the US to lift sanctions against Lebanon.

'The blast should not be used as an excuse for political aims ... the cause of the blast should be investigated carefully,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi told a televised news conference.

Iran backs Hezbollah, the armed Shi'ite Muslim group that is among Lebanon's most powerful political forces, which Washington considers a terrorist group and penalises with sanctions.

Lebanese anti-government protesters try to break through a barrier placed by Lebanese police to block a road leading to the parliament building during a protest in Beirut, Lebanon, 09 August

Demonstrators attack a protection wall leading to the Parliament square during a protest on August 8

At least 160 died when 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate in a warehouse went up in flames

French President Emmanuel Macron visited shattered streets on Thursday, two days after the chemical explosion in the dock area, as crowds demanded an end to decades of corrupt politics of patronage.

Asked about the visit, Mousavi said: 'Some countries have been trying to politicise this blast for their own interests.'

Macron told an emergency donor conference on Sunday that donors would watch closely how the aid was spent.

Mousavi also said that 'if America is honest about its assistance offer to Lebanon, they should lift sanctions'.

Lebanon's government is hanging by a thread as thousands of protesters continue to take to the streets and clash with police.

They have exchanged tear gas and molotov cocktails, with the army drafted in to take control of Martyrs' Square in the city centre.

It is believed one police officer fell to his death following an 'assault' by protestors, and dozens of demonstrators are injured.

The explosion that disfigured the city and shocked the world is widely perceived as a direct consequence of the incompetence and corruption that have come to define Lebanon's ruling class.

Two cabinet ministers have resigned, including a top aid to the premier, amid signals that the government may unravel entirely.

A demonstrator uses a slingshot in a protest following Tuesday's blast, in Beirut, Lebanon August 9, 2020

Riot police march toward demonstrators during an anti-government protest following Tuesday's massive explosion which devastated Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday

As the political fallout continued, protesters converged again on the parliament area Sunday afternoon, setting off another night of violent demonstrations.

Hundreds of protesters clashed with security forces, attempting to breach the heavily-guarded parliament.

Security forces responded with tear gas and chased the protesters in the streets of downtown, in a smaller repeat of scenes from the night before.

Warehouses full of goods including cars in the immediate area surround the blast were completely destroyed by the impact of the explosion the size of a small nuclear bomb

French President Emmanuel Macron reacts during a donor teleconference with other world leaders concerning the situation in Lebanon following the Beirut blast, in Fort de Bregancon in Bormes-les-Mimosas, France, August 9

Earlier Sunday, the resignation of Information Minister Manal Abdel-Samad, in which she cited failure to meet the people's aspirations and last week's blast, was followed by a swirl of reports that other ministers were also resigning.

Late Sunday, Environment Minister Demanios Kattar resigned, calling the ruling system 'flaccid and sterile.'

He stepped down despite closed-door meetings into the evening and a flurry of phone calls between Prime Minister Hassan Diab and several ministers following Abdel-Samad's announcement.

If seven of the 20 ministers resign, the Cabinet would effectively have to step down and remain in place as a caretaker government.

Maha Yahya, the director of the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center, said the discussions clearly point to backroom deals that seek to put together a new government that's acceptable to domestic and international powers, as well as the angered public.

The current government 'really has been a lame duck,' she said, unable to undertake any reform or show independence in a highly divisive political atmosphere. 'Even the ministers are deserting the sinking ship.'

Tear gas and rubber bullets were used by the Lebanese army to try and break up crowds of protesters last night

French experts working at the scene of the explosion say that the crater left by the explosion measures as large as 43-metre (141 foot) deep

Hundreds of tons of highly explosive material were stored in the waterfront hangar, and the blast sent a shock wave that defaced the coastline of Beirut - destroying hundreds of buildings.

World leaders yesterday pledged more than 250 million euros to rebuild Beirut.

Fifteen government leaders, including Donald Trump took part in a conference call hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and the UN.

The donor nations also urged Lebanon to 'fully commit themselves to timely measures and reforms' in order to unlock longer-term support for the country's economic and financial recovery.

And they said assistance for 'an impartial, credible and independent inquiry' into Tuesday's explosion 'is immediately needed and available, upon request of Lebanon.'
(Bloomberg) -- Fridays attack by President Donald Trump on WeChat may have pushed many investors to offload Asias technology shares. But for some, the selloff has presented a good buying opportunity.

Jian Shi Cortesi, a fund manager at GAM Investment Management in Zurich, bought some Chinese internet stocks on Friday and plans to further increase holdings if the stock prices pull back more.

The U.S. ban on Chinese internet companies will have little impact on the revenue and earnings of most listed Chinese internet companies, Cortesi said in an interview. Her Asia Focus Equity Fund has a third of its investments in internet stocks, and beat 93% of its peers in the past year. It hurts sentiment, which could push the stock prices lower and create an opportunity to buy.

Trumps escalation of his confrontation with Beijing, banning U.S. residents from doing business with TikTok and WeChat apps, wiped about $77 billion off the four largest Asia technology firms valuations on Friday and highlighted the political risks faced by regional companies, particularly those in China.

But Asian tech bulls arent flinching.

President Trumps noise provides a buying opportunity, said Gary Dugan, chief executive officer of the Global CIO Office in Singapore. Valuations are low on international comparisons and many are globally extremely competitive.

WeChat operator Tencent Holdings Ltd. fell another 3.4% on Monday. Its peer Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. also declined 2.7%. Technology stocks in the U.S. had a selloff Friday as investors took note of the stepped up confrontation with China.

Read: Tencent Shares Fall Further as Worries About U.S. Action Persist

The value of the four largest stocks on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, all of them tech firms, still lag behind their American peers. The group -- Alibaba, Tencent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics Co. -- trade at an average of 25 times estimated profit for the next year, versus the 34 times of the more familiar tech giants atop the S&P 500 Index.

Story continues

The valuation gap had been narrowing since June, when the Asian companies traded at their cheapest since 2015. JPMorgan Asset Managements Oliver Cox, who manages the JPMorgan Pacific Technology Fund, says the U.S.-China tiff doesnt change the long-term story. He believes Asia has been repeating many of the U.S. trends in an earlier stage of evolution.

That implies a much faster growth rate, more promising outlook and therefore greater upside potential for Asia Pacific tech stocks compared with the more mature, slower-growth U.S. names, he said. The four Asia tech titans gained an average 22% this year, lagging behind a 40% average gain in their U.S. peers.

The gap could be closer, Pruksa Iamthongthong, a senior investment director for Asian equities at Aberdeen Standard Investments, said of the valuation difference. On a three-year trajectory we will see a clear pathway on how they want to monetize businesses that they have invested in a long time ago.

Alibaba, Tencent Hold Their Lead as New IT Hastens Fintech Shift

Still, U.S. capital markets remain by far the deepest, most diverse, and most attractive in the world, said Andy Wong, senior multi-asset investment manager at Pictet Asset Management, adding U.S. leadership in shareholder value, corporate governance, liquidity, and innovation warrants a higher multiple.

Yet a weakening U.S. dollar may also prompt foreign investors to look at foreign assets, and Asia tech presents good opportunities given structural growth drivers, according to Suresh Tantia, a senior investment strategist at Credit Suisse Group AG.

(Updates share prices in seventh paragraph.)

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

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2020 Bloomberg L.P.
NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP >> In the wake of several pedestrian fatalities, the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors is moving forward with a multi-pronged plan to improve safety along Sycamore Street, the townships downtown commercial corridor. At its Jan. 13 meeting, the board voted unanimously to follow the short term and long term recommendations of its traffic engineer, Derek Kennedy, who was...
Mumbai, Aug 10 : The key Indian equity indices shed major gains made earlier in the day on Monday, while the BSE Sensex closed 141 points higher.

Healthy buying was witnessed in healthcare and industrial stocks. The BSE Healthcare index rose 4.69 per cent and the Industrials index was up 2.1 per cent.

The BSE Sensex closed at 38,182.08, higher by 141.51 points, or 0.37 per cent, from its previous close of 38,040.57.

It had opened at 38,168.42 and touched an intra-day high of 38,430.69 and a low of 38,073.29 points.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 11,270.15, higher by 56.10 points, or 0.50 per cent, from the previous close.

According to Manish Hathiramani, technical analyst with Deen Dayal Investments, Nifty closing above the 11,250 level is a bullish sign.

"The Nifty should attempt 11,500 as its next price target. The support continues to be at 11,100," he said.

Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said: "Indian equity markets opened gap-up but gave up some of the gains towards the end, though still ending in green for the third straight day." He noted that the global cues were positive in the morning trade post strong industrial activity data from China.

"But it turned weak later after China said it would impose sanctions on American officials in retaliation for Hong Kong measures. The mood was also wary with an unclear timeline on the US relief package," Khemka said.
COVID-19 and Common Sense By Kaushik Basu, exclusively for the Sunday Times in Sri Lanka View(s): View(s):

ITHACA  As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, our understanding of it is improving. Through a combination of epidemiology and physics  including knowledge of the viruss character and how aerosols float in the air  we are learning more about how the microbe infects new hosts.

This understanding is fueling hopes that we will soon be able to counter the pandemic more effectively. But it has also led to some contentious exchanges regarding the social sciences and the interaction between social norms and the law.

Ever since the pandemic began to spread beyond Wuhan and around the world, there has been an increasingly acrimonious debate regarding which preventive measures should be decreed by government and enforced by public officials and the police, and which should be promoted as social norms. Unfortunately, this debate has become so polarised that people are immediately classified as right-wing or left-wing depending on their view. Because people often do not like to be categorised in this way, and certainly not wrongly, many are reluctant to express themselves on this important question.

In fact, on many coronavirus-related matters, we need enforceable laws. Especially in the early days of the pandemic, when people understood little about the virus, treating public-health measures as matters of personal choice was folly. Because some people decided to gather in large groups and not wear face masks, the disease became widespread in some countries, with Brazil under President Jair Bolsonaro and the United States under President Donald Trump being prime examples.

But it would be equally dangerous to swing to the other extreme and make governments solely responsible for changing our behavior. Autocratic regimes, in particular, are liable to use the pandemic as a pretext to arrest opponents and silence dissent. Furthermore, excessive government control is often the first step toward crony capitalism, whereby a few big firms use the levers of state power to stifle competition and repress wages.

Social norms are often more effective than government mandates, because they allow a degree of flexibility that statutes cannot provide. In Ithaca, for example, there is a bridge on Forest Home Drive that has featured in studies of games and social norms, including in William Fergusons book Collective Action and Exchange. The bridge is so narrow that cars can pass only in one direction.

Regulating the traffic flow by law might entail making it a one-way bridge, or requiring cars to travel from left to right in the morning and right to left in the evening. Or the law might require drivers to alternate, with one crossing from left to right and the next in the opposite direction, resulting in wasted space behind each car.

What happens in the absence of legal regulation is far better. There is a norm whereby three or four cars cross in one direction, and then the drivers behind them stop, allowing three or four cars to come from the other side. Because the norm, unlike a law, is flexible, you might, if you are in a hurry, decide to cross the bridge as the fifth or sixth car, delaying those waiting on the other side by a few seconds.

As we understand more about COVID-19 and how the virus spreads, we can decide when we should socially distance ourselves, and by how much. The six-foot (1.8-meter) rule may need to be interpreted flexibly. For example, if you are talking to a much taller person, or someone who holds their chin very high, you may need to move back an extra foot in order to allow any infected aerosol to complete its arcing journey from face to floor.

What we need are guidelines with an articulated rationale, so that people can adjust their behavior to the context. In a widely cited recent paper, for example, the University of California, San Franciscos Monica Gandhi and her co-authors show that face masks not only protect others from your COVID-19 germs, should you be carrying them, but also protect you from other people who may be infected.

There is thus both a social and a selfish reason for you to wear a mask. But if you are walking alone on a beach, you have every reason not to wear one. It is also reasonable not to wear a face mask in the company of people with whom you cohabit, given the likelihood that either all or none of you have the virus.

As we learn more about COVID-19, we will develop better rules for ourselves. But two caveats are in order. First, many epidemiological studies warn that, for certain findings, causality has not yet been established. In fact, we can never establish causality definitively. We must regard all such claims with a dose of skepticism and the awareness that we may revise them later.

This is another reason to prefer the greater flexibility of social norms to the heavy hand of the law. For example, we now know that up to 40% of people infected with COVID-19 are asymptomatic. In societies where only some people wear masks, the share of asymptomatic carriers could be as high as 90%, as happened during one outbreak in Oregon. If they are not wearing a mask, their lack of symptoms puts us off guard, implying that wearing a mask may indirectly cause COVID-19 to spread more.

This is of course not an argument for disregarding masks. Rather, it is a reminder that all ideas, whether rooted in folklore or science, must be combined with common sense to optimise our behavior.

Kaushik Basu, a former chief economist of the World Bank and chief economic adviser to the Government of India, is Professor of Economics at Cornell University and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2020.

www.project-syndicate.org
The Tories failure to fund elderly care may be the result of ageism and has resulted in a lost decade, a major report has warned.

A paper by academics at Birmingham University found that without swift intervention, Englands adult social care system could become unsustainable.

Report author Professor Jon Glasby said the impact of social care cuts had been particularly felt in services for older people, with those for the working-age population less affected.

A paper by academics at Birmingham University found that without swift intervention, Englands adult social care system could become unsustainable. Pictured: Stock photo of a nurse helping an elderly lady

He said that despite the legitimate needs of other groups, it is hard to interpret this other than as the product of ageist attitudes and assumptions about the role and needs of older people.

The problems of social care have become particularly apparent during the coronavirus outbreak. The paper, A Lost Decade? A Renewed Case for Adult Social Care Reform in England, said local authority spending on adult social care increased in real terms until 2011.

But afterwards it declined despite increases in need and demand, with an 8 per cent reduction in gross spending between 2009/10 and 2015/16. Spending on nursing care for older people in 2018 was about 4.5billion while projected spending was 7billion, it says.

Prof Glasby said the Tories austerity agenda led to a decade of spending cuts, service pressures, and a growing sense of crisis.

Not only were these warnings not heeded  but the situation has since got worse, he said. When social care for older people is cut to the bone, lives are blighted, distress and pressure increase and the resilience of individuals and their families is ground down. Yet this happens slowly  day by day, week by week, and month by month.

It is not sudden, dramatic or hi-tech in the way a crisis in an A&E department may be, and tends to attract less media, political and popular attention. With yet more urgency than in 2010 we warn: doing nothing is not an option.

The report comes more than a year after Boris Johnson said on the steps of Downing Street that he had a plan to deal with the crisis once and for all.

Prof Glasby, head of Birmingham Universitys school of social policy, said: While the situation is urgent, the human misery caused by this lost decade is not as visible as financial pressures on more prominent, popular and better understood services, such as hospitals or schools.

In 2010, we were adamant that doing nothing was not an option. Our 2020 update shows that, without swift government intervention, the adult social care system could quickly become unsustainable.

Fiona Carragher, of the Alzheimers Society, said: It is no secret that decades of inaction on social care have created a stretched and overworked system, one that has been pushed to breaking point by the coronavirus pandemic.

Too often they fall into the gaps between health and social care. We must learn from the pandemic and urge the Government to bridge this divide by building a social care system that is free at the point of use, with costs shared across society.

A Department for Health and Social Care spokesman said: We know that there is a need for a long-term solution for social care, and will bring forward a plan that puts the sector on a sustainable footing to ensure the reforms will last long into the future.
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown has advised senator Kamala Harris to politely decline if Joe Biden makes her an offer to be his presidential running mate.

The former mayor wrote in an opinion article for The San Fransisco Chronicle that the vice presidency is a dead end and not the job she should go for.

Historically, the vice presidency has often ended up being a dead end. For every George HW Bush, who ascended from the job to the presidency, theres an Al Gore, who never got there, he wrote on Saturday.

Mr Brown recommended that Sen Harris should ask for the position of attorney general instead, saying that the position has legitimate power.

From atop the Justice Department, the boss can make a real mark on everything from police reform to racial justice to prosecuting corporate misdeeds, he wrote.

And the attorney general gets to name every US attorney in the country. Thats power.

Mr Brown, who served as mayor in San Francisco from 1996 to 2004, has previously appointed Sen Harris to positions on the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and the California Medical Assistance Commission.

The politician has spoken publicly about his previous relationship with Sen Harris, noting that they briefly dated over 20 years ago early in her political career.

Sen Harris is said to be one of the leading contenders to be Mr Bidens running mate in the final days before his decision, following the promise Mr Biden made in his campaign to make a woman his VP pick.

Mr Brown continued in his editorial to warn Sen Harris against accepting the position on the basis that the administration would face a tough term in the midst of a pandemic and an economic downturn.

The next few years promise to be a very bumpy ride. Barack Obama and the Democrats saved the nation from economic collapse when he took office, and their reward was a blowout loss in the 2010 midterm elections, he said.

He also implied that the senator should plan for a future presidential run and that being attorney general would give Sen Harris enough distance from the White House to still be a viable candidate for the top slot in 2024 or 2028, no matter what the state of the nation.
Dara Khosrowshahi Uber Reuters

Carlo Allegri/Reuters

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said companies like Uber should be required by law to provide "benefits funds" to gig workers in a New York Times op-ed published Monday.

Khosrowshahi said the gig-work employment system is "outdated and unfair," and called for laws that would require companies to provide gig workers more benefits without classifying them as full-time employees.

Gig workers have called on companies like Uber to give gig workers more benefits that full-time employees receive, like health insurance. Uber is facing several lawsuits in California seeking full-time status for drivers.

Uber opposes classifying gig workers as full-time employees, and Khosrowshahi's proposal is meant as an alternate solution.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi proposed a new model for gig work in a New York Times op-ed Monday, arguing that companies like Uber should be required by law to provide "benefits funds" to drivers without classifying them as full-time employees.

The ridesharing company is facing mounting pressure from drivers and labor activists to extend more benefits to gig workers. A California law passed this year reclassifies Uber drivers as full-time workers, and the company now faces several lawsuits alleging that it failed to pay drivers minimum wage, sick pay, unemployment, and other benefits guaranteed to employees under state law.

Uber has argued that the law, known as AB-5, doesn't apply to them, and the company is now supporting a ballot initiative in California that would explicitly classify app-based drivers contractors rather than full-time employees.

Even though Uber doesn't want to treat its drivers as full-time employees, Khosrowshahi said believes they're getting the short end of the stick.

"Our current employment system is outdated and unfair," he wrote. "It forces every worker to choose between being an employee with more benefits but less flexibility, or an independent contractor with more flexibility but almost no safety net."

Story continues

Khosrowshahi says lawmakers should require Uber and other gig economy companies to establish "benefits funds" that would allow workers to take out cash for every hour of work they put in. Under his proposed system, a driver working 35 hours per week could access around $1,350 in benefits per year.

He also argues that those benefits should be provided in cash that workers could use for anything. While labor activists have said companies like Uber and Lyft should be required to provide health insurance to drivers, Khosrowshahi said that most Uber drivers already have health insurance through another job or through the Affordable Care Act.

Beyond the question of how to classify workers, Khosrowshahi argued that anti-discrimination laws for gig workers are needed.

"We also need new laws that prevent companies from denying independent workers opportunities based on their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or any other protected characteristic," he wrote. "Shockingly, that fundamental measure of equality is not fully enshrined into law for all American workers today."

Read the original article on Business Insider
- Infotrak conducted a study on the level of happiness among Kenyans across the country with a sample of 600 respondents from each devolved unit

- The findings indicated Makueni county emerged top with a score of 64.4% followed closely by West Pokot county at 62.2%

- Residents of Taita Taveta, Trans Nzoia and Nairobi counties were ranked the least happy in the country

- Among other factors that were taken into consideration were peace, education, quality and affordable healthcare, food, security and infrastructure

Makueni county has been ranked the happiest county in Kenya in a recent research conducted by Infotrak Research and Consulting firm.

According to the poll conducted between November and December 2019 to January 2020, Makueni emerged top after scoring 64.4% in the happiness index and was followed closely by West Pokot county at 62.2%.

READ ALSO: Steven Runo: Kenyan don bags 2020's Royal Society Africa Prize for best scientific research

Makueni county emerged top in the list of happiest counties consequently leading to Eastern region being ranked top in the happiness index. Photo: Screenshot from Infotrak

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: CS Kagwe evades discussion on his son, Kahush spotted at house party: "You can ask them"

In the study its findings were was released on Sunday, August 9, the most unhappy people in the country are found in the five counties namely Taita Taveta, Trans Nzoia, Nairobi, Mombasa and Siaya which all scored 52.8% and below.

"When residents from the happiest counties were interrogated to shed light on what drives their high levels of happiness, many mentioned that visible positive changes in their social and natural environments made them exceedingly happy," read the report.

The top drivers for happiness according to the happy counties were peace, education, quality and affordable healthcare, food, security, infrastructure, equitable development and good governance.

Taita Taveta was ranked the least happiest county in Kenya. Photo: Screenshot from Infotrak

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Mbunge Didmus Barasa ataka Jubilee imuadhibu David Murathe kwa kusema Raila tosha

Machakos scored 62.1%, Bomet (61.8) and Kwale (61.3) to seal the top five counties with the highest happiness rating.

Other counties that made it to top 10 were Elgeyo Marakwet (61.3), Marsabit (61.0), Uasin Gishu (61.0), Kericho (60.9) and Mandera (60.4).

Regionally, Eastern leads followed by Rift Valley, Northeastern, Central, Western, Nyanza, Coast and Nairobi.

In overall, the level of happiness among Kenyans had gone down by over 10% from 67% in 2015 to 57% in 2020.

List of the top ten and bottom ten counties in terms of happiness. Photo: Screenshot from Infotrak

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Nairobi woman quit marriage after learning husband was garbage collector, not airport employee

The data was collected through computer-assisted telephone interviews with each county being allocated 600 respondents. The survey had a +/- 4 margin of error with a 95% degree of confidence.

The Infotrak findings came barely four months after Kenya was ranked position 121 out of 156 in the World Happiness Report 2020 with a score of 4.583 out of the possible 10.

According to the survey which was released on March 21, Kenyans were ranked the happiest people in East Africa as compared to Uganda, which was in position 126, Burundi (140), Tanzania (148), Rwanda (150) and South Sudan (152).

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
Serum Institute partners with Gavi and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to manufacture, deliver of up to 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to India, other low and middle-income countries.

Serum Institute of India (SII) on Friday said it has entered into a new partnership with international vaccine alliance Gavi and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to accelerate manufacturing and delivery of up to 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for India as well as other low and middle-income countries (LMICs).

"The collaboration will provide upfront capital to SII to help them increase manufacturing capacity now so that, once a vaccine, or vaccines, gains regulatory approval and WHO prequalification, doses can be produced at scale for distribution to India and LMICs as part of the Gavi COVAX AMC mechanism as early as the first half of 2021," SII said in a statement.

The company has set an affordable ceiling price of $3 (around Rs 225) per dose, it added. The vaccine will be made available to the 92 countries included in Gavi's COVAX AMC.

The funding will support at-risk manufacturing by SII for candidate vaccines from AstraZeneca and Novavax, which will be available for procurement if they are successful in attaining full licensure and WHO prequalification, the statement said.

This collaboration with @SerumInstIndia and @Gavi will help ensure every country, not just the wealthy few, will have access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. https://t.co/IvtntrRXui  Gates Foundation (@gatesfoundation) August 7, 2020

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, via its Strategic Investment Fund, will provide at-risk funding of $150 million to Gavi, which will be used to support the SII to manufacture the potential vaccine candidates and for future procurement of vaccines for low- and middle-income countries via Gavi's COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), the statement said.

"In an attempt to make our fight against COVID-19 stronger and all-embracing; SII has partnered with Gavi and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to advance the manufacturing and delivery of up to 100 million doses of future COVID vaccines for India and low- and middle-income countries in 2021," Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla said.

The worlds largest vaccine producer, the Serum Institute in India, plans to mass-produce an unproven COVID-19 vaccine candidate. https://t.co/TWohdz5Yz6  Twitter Moments (@TwitterMoments) August 1, 2020

Through this association, SII seeks to ramp up constant efforts to save the lives of millions of people from this dreadful disease, he added. Serum Institute has a long history of partnerships with Gavi and pharmaceutical companies to manufacture vaccines that protect against meningitis, severe diarrhoea, pneumonia and measles, the statement said.

"We are very happy to see SII enter this global partnership to respond to the global health crisis posed by COVID-19," Renu Swarup, secretary in the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, said.

In a similar vein, Indian Council of Medical Research Director General Balram Bhargava said: "ICMR is deeply supportive of our cutting edge vaccine research and manufacturing prowess, of which SII is one prominent example. This partnership signifies yet another step in India's efforts to bolster the fight against this global pandemic."

According to a report by Reuters, AstraZeneca has been granted protection from product liability claims, in the future, related to its COVID-19 vaccine candidate by most of the countries with which it has signed agreements.

This is a unique situation where we as a company simply cannot take the risk if in ... four years the vaccine is showing side effects, Ruud Dobber, a member of Astras senior executive team, told Reuters.

In the contracts, we have in place, we are asking for indemnification. For most countries it is acceptable to take that risk on their shoulders because it is in their national interest, he added.

with inputs from wires
"Donald Trump is trying to distract from his failure to extend the $600 federal boost for 30 million unemployed workers by issuing illegal executive orders," Oregon's Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said. "This scheme is a classic Donald Trump con - playacting at leadership while robbing people of the support they desperately need."

He said 25 percent of it would be paid by states, whose budgets have been hard hit by the crisis. The president wants to set aside $44 billion in previously approved aid to help states pay the larger jobless benefits, but it would be up to states to decide how much, if any, to use, so the benefits could be smaller still. The previous unemployment benefit was fully funded by Washington.

"This is the money they need, this is the money they want, this gives them an incentive to go back to work," Trump said of the smaller jobless benefits during a news conference at his private country club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

As the United States neared 5 million cases of the coronavirus and 162,000 deaths Saturday, Trump called for up to US$400 extra in weekly unemployment payments, one-third less than the $600 people had been receiving. Congress allowed those payments to end August 1, and talks to extend them fell apart Friday, with the White House and Democrats far apart on relief aid.

President Donald Trump acted Saturday to extend an expired jobless benefit to tens of millions of Americans who have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic and defer payroll taxes after negotiations with Congress on a new package of economic aid collapsed.

 Payroll Taxes

The president is also suspending payroll taxes for workers who make less than $100,000 through the end of the year. Unemployed workers, who do not pay the tax because they aren't collecting a paycheck, wont benefit. The taxes, 7 percent for employees, pay for Medicare and Social Security and will need to be paid eventually unless Congress acts, but there is bipartisan opposition to this on Capitol Hill.

"This fake tax cut would also be a big shock to workers who thought they were getting a tax cut when it was only a delay," Wyden said. "These workers would be hit with much bigger payments down the road."

Finally, the president said he was extending protections for tenants threatened with eviction and further delaying student loans payments and zero percent interest on federally financed loans.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden called the orders a "series of half-baked measures" and accused Trump of putting Social Security "at grave risk" by delaying the collection of payroll taxes that pay for the program.

However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement Saturday, "Struggling Americans need action now. Since Democrats have sabotaged backroom talks with absurd demands that would not help working people, I support President Trump exploring his options to get unemployment benefits and other relief to the people who need them the most."

 At an Impasse

Negotiations between top congressional Democrats and the White House reached an impasse after nearly two weeks with the two sides about $2 trillion apart.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had offered to cut their $3.4 trillion aid package by almost one-third if the Republicans would double their $1 trillion counteroffer. That $1 trillion package faces opposition by about 20 of the Senate's 54 Republicans.

"Today's meager announcements by the President show President Trump still does not comprehend the seriousness or the urgency of the health and economic crises facing working families," Pelosi and Schumer said in a statement Saturday.

"These policy announcements provide little real help to families Furthermore, these announcements do nothing to increase testing, nothing to reopen schools, nothing to put food on the table for hungry families, nothing to prevent heroes being laid off across state and local government, nothing to protect the Postal Service or the integrity of our elections, nothing on many critical needs of the American people."

The breakdown in the negotiations between the White House and congressional Democrats is particularly distressing for schools, which have been counting on billions of dollars from Washington to help with the costs of reopening. But other priorities, not addressed in Trump's actions Saturday, are also languishing, including a fresh round of $1,200 direct payments to most people, a cash infusion for the struggling Postal Service and money to help states hold elections in November.

Four coronavirus rescue bills amounting to nearly $3 trillion all won bipartisan approval, but conservatives have recoiled at the prospect of another agreement with a whopping deficit-financed cost.


Animal Health Update

Brisbane, Aug 10, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Anatara Lifesciences Ltd ( ASX:ANR ) is pleased to provide an update on initiation of challenge study in poultry with the recently developed bromelain-based formulation (ANR-pf).Anatara recently advised that it was finalising discussions with third parties to progress challenge trials of Anatara's animal health assets to address barriers to partnering.Anatara has entered into an agreement with the University of New England's Poultry Hub Australia to undertake the study "Efficacy of ANR-pf on the performance of broilers subject to subclinical and necrotic enteritis challenges". This study is anticipated to be completed by 31 January 2021.This project is supported by Poultry Hub Australia (formerly the Poultry CRC), through funding from AgriFutures Australia as part of its AgriFutures Chicken Meat Program.Necrotic Enteritis (NE) is the most common and financially devastating bacterial disease in modern broiler flocks.This economically significant disease, caused by the bacterium Clostridium perfringens, causes lesions in the chicken's intestine and can lead to flock mortality of 1% per day (clinical NE). The true economic impact of NE though is felt not from those birds that die from infection, but those who suffer from disease but survive subclinical NE. The true costs of NE could come close to US$6 billion.CEO Steve Lydeamore commented, "Anatara is pleased to have engaged with Poultry Hub Australia to conduct trials at the University of New England. Our objectives are aligned - to help Australia achieve sustainable, ethical poultry production."About Anatara Lifesciences Limited

Anatara Lifesciences Limited (ASX:ANR) is developing and commercialising innovative, evidence-based products for gastrointestinal health where there is significant unmet need. Anatara is a life sciences company with expertise in developing products for animal and human health. Anatara is focused on building a pipeline of human gastrointestinal health products. Underlying this product development program is our commitment to delivering real outcomes for patients and strong value for our shareholders. For more information, please visit www.anataralifesciences.com.
Rally This is a prayer book for a revolution, Shane Claiborne writes in the foreword of Rallya revolution of love and compassion and justice.

Over the past several months, the United States and the rest of the world find themselves in the midst of unexpected and unwanted crises. Whether it is racial violence, political change or inaction, economic hardship or a crippling pandemic, people of faith are looking for ways to respond to what is happening in their lives, families, and communities.

Rally: Communal Prayers for Lovers of Jesus and Justice speaks to readers with great faith, those seeking deeper faith, people new to prayer, or anyone looking for an authentic way to pray together. It reminds readers that they can take action in the face of fear, evil, and injustice.

Compiled and edited by Britney Winn Lee, Rally was released by Fresh Air Books on August 1. Lee is the director of a community arts program in Shreveport, Louisiana. An artist and word-wielder since childhood, Lee is the author of Deconstructed Do-Gooder: A Memoir About Learning Mercy the Hard Way and The Boy with Big, Big Feelings. She led a team of more than 45 writers to contribute to this collection of reflections with call-and-response prayers meant to be prayed as a group.

Rally contains more than 50 litanies (prayers) for loving our neighbors, our bodies, for listening to one another, for those who have been wounded by the church, victims, perpetrators, and many others. In this resource, readers will find prayers that evoke hope and connection, laments about destruction of the earth, and pleas for loving alike though we don't think alike.

Contributors include Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, D. L. Mayfield, Onleilove Chika Alston, Delonte Harrod, Patrice Gopo, Bruce Reyes-Chow, Rachel G. Hackenberg, and Michael T. McRay, among others.

Prayers in Rally spur people to draw courage from one another and take positive steps for change. The words of hope found in this book will motivate readers to gather (even if only virtually) and grieve, meditate, and organize for action.

This is a prayer book for a revolution, Shane Claiborne writes in the foreword of Rallya revolution of love and compassion and justice.

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The Upper Room is a global ministry dedicated to supporting the spiritual formation of Christians seeking to know and experience God more fully. From its beginnings as a daily devotional guide, The Upper Room has grown to include publications, programs, prayer support, and other resources to help believers of all ages and denominations move to a deeper level of faith and service. The Upper Room is a part of Discipleship Ministries. Visit UpperRoom.org to learn more.
Photo: (Photo : Are Your Stimulus Checks Safe?)

As the pandemic continues, the number of bankruptcy filings will inevitably continue to jump during the year. This is primarily due to the economic uncertainty, especially as several states consider rolling back re-opening, or instituting a new series of lockdown orders.

Even if the government reaction to the economic crisis has been slow, lawmakers have learned from the mistakes they made in 2008 and 2009. For starters, the CARES Act included stipulations to help homeowners to get a forbearance on their home mortgage and a temporary increase in unemployment benefits in addition to a one-time stimulus check.

Given that the stimulus is literally pennies from heaven, some have expressed concern as to whether this money can be garnished. The full answer is no and yes, but when it comes to filing bankruptcy, your check is safe.

This is important as parents across the country are using this money to help pay for the essentials such as food, rent, utilities, and even medical bills. Granted, the one-time has probably been spent already, but if you were lucky enough to save the money, then you want to make sure it is safe as, in this time of uncertainty, the money can go a long way to help protect your family.

According to statistics from them American Bankruptcy Institute, nearly 720,000 consumers filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019, and given the current state of the economy, that number is expected to climb this year. If past economic crises are any indication, the number of new bankruptcy filings could go up by more than 30 percent.

Regarding the impact of past or future, stimulus checks, the Justice Department has issued a notice notifying the courts that stimulus checks cannot be considered when considering a claimant's assets or monthly income. This means that recipients will not be forced to repay the amount they receive from the government.

While there are rare exceptions, this rule will hold for the vast majority of those filing for bankruptcy protection. But even in these cases, there is a process to gain approval for the plan to include stimulus payments in the pool of assets used to repay debt.

Remember, if you are considering bankruptcy, then you might want to talk to a law firm in your area that can help you and your family navigate this process. According to Jacobson, Julius & Harshberger, this includes finding a lawyer who can help "assess your financial picture and offer dependable information about bankruptcy and various alternatives, including loan modifications."

If you are in Pennsylvania, then you can find out more about their approach to this process at https://www.ljacobsonlaw.com/pa/harrisburg-bankruptcy-attorney/.

This coverage extended to the past due to taxes as the CARES Act stipulates that the IRS cannot seize the funds. This is good news, as it is estimated that nearly 15 million people owe the government money. As such, the added protection will not help you to get out of debt, but it also means that you will not have to turn around and send the check right back to the government.

Beyond bankruptcy and past-due taxes, your student loan lender cannot attach your stimulus check either. This includes federal student loans in default as these loans have been suspended without interest accrual until the end of September. Depending on how long the current crisis continues, the deadline might even be extended.

But just because your stimulus payments cannot be garnished from bankruptcy, past-due taxes, and student loans, does not mean that your checks are wholly protected. Given the impact on your family's finances, you want to make sure that you keep this in mind when planning how to allocate the money you received.

As such, you will want to check if you have any private debts which are currently in collection or have wage garnishment judgments against you. Also, if you are divorced and your ex is behind on child support, then there might be an opportunity for you and your family to get what you are owed.

This is important as the CARES Act specifically mentions the need for this money to go for child support via the Treasury Offset Program (TOP). Without going into the minutia of the law, the critical point is that the money is meant to help you and your family.

Just keep in mind that if you or your spouse has dealt with a divorce are filing jointly, and owe child support, then your family is receiving could be garnished.

If you are not sure how this will impact your family, then the best thing you can do is seek out professional advice as this might be the best way to make sure your family does not get shorted shifted by this unprecedented stimulus payment.
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Linkedin Dzulfiqar Fathur Rahman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 10 2020

Indonesian agriculture has emerged as a buttress against the pandemics impact on the economy this year, supported by the resilience of farmers and the accounting effects of an incidental shift in the harvest season.

The sector, the second-largest contributor to Indonesias economy, managed to grow 2.19 percent year-on-year (yoy) in the second quarter, albeit more slowly than the sectors yoy growth in the same period last year: 5.3 percent.

Most other sectors, such as transportation and warehousing, suffered steep declines as a result of pandemic-related restrictions.

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Press Release

10 August 2020

With vast numbers of food and beverage outlets having to temporarily close their doors to keep the COVID-19 pandemic at bay, restaurants, bars and cafes alike have had to adapt to survive. In response to the abrupt loss of dine-in guests , the more fortunate F&B businesses have succeeded in demonstrating agility and resilience. A heavier reliance upon delivery services is but one approach.

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Many countries are now entering into a phase of gradual restriction relaxation, allowing the restaurant industry to rekindle its dine-in operations, albeit with strict hygiene and social distancing requirements. While face masks, Perspex screens and floor markings have become a matter of course in meeting these requirements, some restauranteurs have channeled their inventiveness to come up with creative solutions .

You could argue a straight-forward way to facilitate social distancing would be to quite simply reduce the number of diners on the premises. In some instances, the number of guests per restaurant has been dictated as a proportion of maximum capacity. Add to this the need for predefined sittings to allow for thorough disinfection between formal dinner guests, for example, and the potential for revenues dwindles before your very eyes. In an industry hungry to make up for lost time, it comes as no surprise that some companies have sought to turn the tables on this concept by increasing their capacity rather than cutting their numbers.

Restaurant trend #1. Al fresco dining - on tarmac

In quest of additional capacity, many restaurants are spilling over into their car parks . With many US city codes, in particular, requiring restaurant owners to provide around three times as much parking space as dining area , unlocking this potential could quadruple a restaurant's footprint from one day to the next. While the tarmac jungle may not necessarily be the be-all and end-all of al fresco dining, outdoor spaces provide the additional advantage of endless ventilation. Given that research suggests coronavirus is more readily transmitted indoors , summer meals out in the open could be just the ticket - provided local authorities are happy to grant the prerequisite permission.

Over on the European side of the pond, car parks are a little less sprawling. Most city-center restaurants are lucky if they have a patch of curb to call their own. Behold repurposed street parking, traffic lanes or even entire roads! It is this strategy that has been adopted in Vilnius , the Lithuanian capital. Some 18 public spaces have been designated for dining tables a respectable minimum of two meters apart. Of course, once business as usual is up and running again and people the world over take to their cars to resume their manic daily lives, these privileges are likely to be withdrawn. Here's hoping the trend towards commuting by bike sticks and the pivot towards facilitating human-to-human interaction has longer-lasting effects Disruption, anyone?

Restaurant trend #2. Drive-throughs

If you just can't shake your fondness for your four-wheel drive, you'll be happy to hear drive-throughs are also on the up . Household names, such as McDonald's and Burger King, continue to churn out orders. The appeal for the consumer is evident: No need to step foot inside, a quick sweep past the counter and, voila, dinner. It seems, however, that the circumstances are affecting the way people order, with a clear preference for occasional, larger orders, presumably with a view to keeping leftovers for the next day, lining up a day of potential isolation. Keen to capitalize on this change in demand, Popeyes is offering "family bundles", while Taco Bell promises free tacos on Tuesdays.

The uptick in demand is proving taxing on fast-food chain employees, largely low-wage workers cooking and serving food under compromised conditions. There has been no shortage of complaints as well as some walkouts as employees call for increased safety precautions. They argue that keeping sufficient distance from one another and from guests is impossible, and report a lack of personal protective equipment. Despite these possible challenges, even eateries that have not previously offered a drive-through service have started to convert redundant outdoor space into temporary drive-through lanes, as is the case at Texas Roadhouse .

Restaurant trend #3. Ghost kitchens

Those of us looking to stay home entirely are sure to have encountered some virtual restaurant brands during our perusal of third-party delivery apps, such as Grubhub , Deliveroo or Uber Eats . These virtual brands may in fact be established restaurants looking to diversify, push one of their offerings as a standalone brand, reach a broader audience or simply delivery-only F&B businesses. Thanks to their sharp focus on delivery services, these brands are able to side-step costly, desirable post codes and spacious dining areas, instead operating out of "ghost kitchens" - also known as "virtual kitchens" or "cloud kitchens".

These unassuming yet conveniently located premises are proving to be a much needed source of work for those kitchen staff who have had the misfortune of losing their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. C3 , or Creating Culinary Communities, a partnership between sbe , Simon Property Group and Accor , is a shining example of the growth spurt recently encountered in this field. It is leasing shuttered eateries and hiring 1,000 people in effort to meet increased demand for its higher-end meals capable of withstanding 30-minute delivery times.

Restaurant trend #4. Pop-ups

Taking a greater leap, it just so happens that today's rather hostile circumstances for the restaurant industry may well provide an opportunity to awaken any dormant ambitions for far-out dining concepts. This is exemplified by a recent undertaking in Varmland, Sweden, about 350 kilometers from Stockholm: Bord For En , which translates as Table For One. Duo Rasmus Persson and Linda Karlsson have had the audacity to center their concept around the joys of eating alone - as much a response to the need for social distancing as an expression of the value of interacting with nobody but oneself.

To make this possible, they have positioned a solitary table with a single chair in a lush meadow and set up a rustic pully system, so the set menu can be served to their guest in a basket. There are neither waitstaff nor fellow diners to interrupt the glorious solitude. As you might imagine, a one-guest approach might not necessarily be the most lucrative. This, though, is irrelevant to the pair, who invite anyone who wishes to attend to their meadow, as long as they come alone, permitting them to define the price. This opens up the experience to anyone, irrespective of their financial situation.

Conclusion

Creativity. Open-mindedness. Flexibility. Resourcefulness. Sheer grit. These are the qualities being demanded of the restaurant industry in the face of crisis. These, too, are qualities we can benefit from as we emerge from lockdown and look to the future. Let's make sure we make the right choices along the way by taking a leaf out of Persson and Karlsson's book: Revel in the glory of being human and try to make sure nobody gets left behind.
The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC), the developer behind one of the worlds most sustainable tourism projects, has announced the launch of a competition for Saudi architecture students to design the new community centre for the developments Coastal Village.

The Ecotecture Design Competition is aimed at engaging young talent from within the kingdom for the key project. TRSDC is inviting applications for the design competition till August 22.

Under this, students from Saudi universities are being invited to propose eco-friendly designs and architectural renderings that complement the areas natural environment and historical value, whilst supporting the projects wider commitments to sustainable development, said a statement from TRSDC.

With competition winners set to be selected in October, the winning designer will have the opportunity to play a part in the creation of Saudi Arabias world-leading tourism destination.

The winning entrants proposal will be considered as a concept for the destination, it added.

CEO John Pagano said: "In line with Saudi Vision 2030, creating opportunities and a culture of high performance for a new generation of Saudis is an important value to us at The Red Sea Project. With project development gaining pace, we want to ensure that Saudi Arabias youngest and brightest talents differentiate themselves by playing a role in shaping the design of the destination."

"As we launch this new competition, we are excited to provide a unique platform for Saudis creative young designers to contribute their expertise to this international project," stated Pagano.

TRSDC is developing Saudi Arabias flagship international tourism destination and setting new standards in sustainable development. Its sustainability targets include a 100 per cent reliance on renewable energy, a total ban on single-use plastics, and complete carbon neutrality in the destinations operations.

According to Pagano, the judging panel will comprise internal experts from TRSDC team, covering the fields of design, construction and development.

"Submissions will be judged based on creativity, out-of-the-box architectural and engineering ideas and concepts, integration of smart tech solutions, maturity of designs, functionality, constructability, authenticity, environmental considerations, background research and fulfillment of requirements," he noted.

The Coastal Village development, which is already under way, will eventually be home to the destinations first 14,000 employees when it opens its first phase in 2022, as well as for the 25,000 construction workers building the destination, said the developer in its statement.

The community centre will sit at the heart of the development, providing a range of services for workers and their families. In addition, the Coastal Village will also include a community library, childcare facilities, a gymnasium, and a mosque for worshippers, it added.-TradeArabia News Service
Former President John Dramani Mahama, flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has announced a $10-billion accelerated infrastructural plan, dubbed the Big Push, which he says will drive a jobs and entrepreneurial agenda of his next government should he win the 7 December 2020 polls.



We are looking at what I call the BIG PUSH  injecting some $10 billion to dualise our roads, complete the remainder of the 200 Community Day Senior High Schools, finish all the hospital projects that have been left abandoned, and construct bridges to open up the country, says Mr Mahama.



Speaking in an interview with Woezor TV, the NDC flag bearer said the major plank of his second coming as President is to deliver jobs to our young people.



The $10 billion BIG PUSH will inject money into infrastructural development, and according to the former President, it will involve the construction industry, engineering and other professionals, and will bring a lot of artisans and everybody back into work.



Mr Mahama who has been visiting and meeting traditional rulers and various interest groups in Savannah, Northern, Oti and Volta Regions, also announced that delivering jobs to the young people of Ghana will be a major plank of his next government.



If we do not do this urgently, we have a time bomb ticking away. Everything, every policy, and every policy will be focused on creating jobs for young people.



The NDC Flagbearer says his Agenda One Million Jobs will see the creation of between 300,000 and 400,000 jobs a year, in both the private and public sectors.



It is a very well-thought-out plan and will be the central promise of our manifesto, he added.





Source: Class News









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In the statement, the ministers expressed sympathies and condolences to the government and people of Lebanon, as well as the families of the victims.

They also affirmed solidarity with Lebanon and hope the countrys government and people will soon overcome and settle the consequences of the incident.

The minister reaffirmed the commitment of providing consular support to the citizens of the ASEAN member states in Lebanon, in line with the existing agreements of the bloc.
Shoppers who refuse to wear face coverings from today will face fines of up to 2,500 and a prison stint under new coronavirus rules.

Retailers are to encourage the use of masks while shopping in the first instance, but gardai can be called as a last resort. The mandatory wearing of masks in shopping centres and other places, such as libraries and bingo halls, comes as counties Kildare, Offaly and Laois remain under strict coronavirus restrictions.

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris, who served as the Minister for Health in the previous government, reminded people on Twitter of the need to wear a mask, saying: "Don't be a jerk, wear the mask."

Just back from a supermarket where I met a very upset staff member who had politely reminded a shopper of the need to wear a face mask. A message which was not well received. Our supermarket staff have been doing trojan work throughout the pandemic. Dont be a jerk, wear the mask  Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) August 10, 2020

Fianna Fail politicians in the midlands are demanding that businesses hit by the renewed lockdown receive emergency support from the State to help see them through the crisis.

Meanwhile, the Government urged people in those counties to cancel any staycation holidays they had booked for the next fortnight elsewhere in Ireland.

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It comes as the number of new coronavirus cases remains high, with 68 reported last night. No new deaths were reported.

Acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn reiterated that face coverings will now be mandatory in retail and other indoor settings like hairdressers, cinemas, and museums.

The Government said that, to date, there has been a very high level of buy-in from the public on Covid-19 measures and there has not been a need for high levels of enforcement.

A Justice spokesperson confirmed that gardai can intervene as a very last port of call.

Retail Ireland director Arnold Dillon said shops are "happy to do their bit" - but staff should not bear the brunt of any disputes that may arise.

He said: "Retailers will be happy to encourage the use of face coverings.

"We expect the vast majority of the public to be supportive of these measures."

However he said that there is a concern retail workers should not be at the coalface of any disputes that may happen because of the new regulations.

"While I think retailers are happy to play a part in encouraging it, enforcement should be a matter for the authorities," he said.

The Department of Health said gardai had adopted an approach of engaging with the public to educate and encourage people to abide by the measures in place.

"That has proved to be very successful and they will continue that approach and only use enforcement as a last resort," said a statement.

The department confirmed the penalty for not wearing a face covering is 2,500 and/or six months in prison.

"The expectation is that the vast majority of customers will comply and that penalties would only need to be imposed in very rare cases," it added.

Three counties in the Midlands last night remained under tough new restrictions after a surge in cases linked to meat processing plants.

Businesses owners in Kildare, Offaly and Laois are furious at the latest threat to their livelihoods.

Fianna Fail politicians in the region - including Offaly-based former minister Barry Cowen, Kildare North TD James Lawless and Senator Fiona O'Loughlin - have called for emergency government support for affected businesses.

They said: "Whilst recognising the imperative of public health and the need for unpopular actions in response to the virus, the loss to businesses and communities across those counties must be recognised and mitigated."

They urged the creation of a "tailored package from Government to help [businesses] survive this and restart again when it passes".

Tanaiste Leo Varadkar signalled at the weekend that new supports will be forthcoming. The Fine Gael leader and Enterprise Minister said he was "determined to do everything in my power to help businesses and workers affected".

Fianna Fail Agriculture Minister Dara Calleary last night echoed this saying: "I think we will have to consider a specific package to assist businesses to assist people whose community operations have been completely inconvenienced."

He also said the Government was asking people in the three counties to cancel any holidays they had planned elsewhere in Ireland over the two weeks until the restrictions were reviewed.

Mr Calleary said it was "incredibly difficult" for people in the affected counties and he knew there was anger and frustration. He also told RTE Radio there were plans to roll out a Covid-19 testing programme for all meat factories.

The issue is to be discussed today at a meeting between officials from his department and the HSE. Mr Calleary said he wanted the meat-processing industry to "step up" and pay for the testing.

On the outbreaks in meat-processing plants, he said: "We have to get to the bottom of why this happened."

He said a "very successful protocol" was put in place in May when there had been more than 1,100 cases in meat factories that reduced this to "virtually zero" in June and July. He said the protocol would have to be reviewed and strengthened in light of what happened last week.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly last night outlined a range of supports put in place in Kildare, Offaly and Laois including extra pop-up testing centres.
Barack Obama and MSNBC have a lot in common. They are rich, sleek, and corporate-friendly. They staff their organizations with urbane meritocrats. Both institutions rely on a kind of soft-focus patriotism that stops shy of nationalisman American-exceptionalist-lite rhetoric that takes refuge in hope and in appeals to who we are, among other superficial aspirational slogans.

Consequently, its no surprise that Obama meets with little criticism on MSNBC. The alignment isnt merely political; its aesthetic, generational, and class-based. Reverence for Obama is by now the networks stock-in-trade. It has never critically assessed his presidency.

Obamas eulogy of late Georgia congressman and civil rights legend John Lewis won the week, according to MSNBCs Midwin Charles: President Obama was on fire. A powerful eulogya treatise on American democracy, a rousing call to arms, said new anchor Joy Reid. Conservative anchor Joe Scarborough struck the same note, though with his usual pomposity: Knowing John Lewis the way I didand I knew him pretty damn wellBarack Obama did exactly what John Lewis would have wanted him to do in that funeral.

The Obama brand is appealing, especially in comparison with the current president. Obama is everything that Trump is not: handsome, well read, reasonable-seeming, beautifully turned out; even today, the sight of Obama on television is enough to persuade people that things are still halfway okay.

Sadly, however, things are really not all that okay. Id like to believe the highly artificialized vision of the world that television conjures up in order to seduce, titillate, and comfort the maximum number of people. But how well does the glossy, TV-friendly facade serve the needs of the networks viewers?

Not very, according to former MSNBC producer Ariana Pekary, who quit her job some days ago in an apparent crisis of conscience. Pekary wrote a much-circulated blog post about her decision to quit the network in early August, calling the cable news obsession with ratings a cancer that stokes political division by amplifying the most outrageous voices. The ratings obsession risks lives, she said, by focusing on Trumps failures in the pandemic, in preference to vital scientific and epidemiological news; it risks democracy itself, by allowing Trumps excesses to dominate coverage, in preference to intelligent and serious discussion of the threats our society and our world are facing.

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All of this is true, and worth thinking about, but MSNBCs coverage demonstrates something subtler and farther-reaching still. Though Pekary was held up by right-wing media as a critic of MSNBC particularly, her concerns were economic, not ideological. The flawed structure of the industry, she said, affects everyone.

The contest is rhetorical, but the battlefield is commercial. Which means that rhetoric, ultimately, is just another form of marketing. During the Obama presidency, the fine talk was sometimes accompanied by clear, competent, and effective policy, as in 201416, when the Obama administration responded to the Ebola crisis by coordinating the state and federal response and spending hundreds of millions of dollars to send thousands of troops to West Africa to help contain the virus. Just two people in the US died of Ebola in that outbreak.

But sometimes Obamas slogans accompanied less appealing news. He had been in office only a few months, for example, when he attempted to block the court-ordered release of photos showing the abuse of detainees by American soldiers. The decision to not release the photographs makes a mockery of President Obamas promise of transparency and accountability, said ACLU attorney Amrit Singh, who had argued the case, which the ACLU fought for more than ten years.

MSNBC was not and is not about to call Obama out for having broken his campaign promises of transparency, for permitting nine million people to lose their homes in the mortgage crisis, for failing to jail even a single banker, or for having failed to call the butchers of Iraq to account.

There is no cable news station broadcasting today that is willing to state the blindingly obvious, to wit, that a less corrupt, less wealth-enslaved, less warmongering Democratic Partya party that had paid more than lip service to the needs of working people over the previous eight yearswould have walked away with the 2016 election. Maybe this begins to explain the strange coolness of Obama toward the candidacy of his own vice president.

Joe Scarborough and Nicolle Wallace, the networks Lincoln Project Republicans, have made hay for years out of calling Trump a buffoon and a vulgarian, day after day, in a never-ending performance of self-satisfied indignation. Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid indulge in the same charade, from a slightly more left-inflected position.

Obamas aloof, technocratic coldness makes for a great foil to all that outrage. He plays the role of the anti-Trump very well. But the outrage is simplistic; its pure theatrics. At a time of enormous danger, trauma, and grief, some of us just want to know whats happening.

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Maria Bustillos is the founding editor of Popula, an alternative news and culture magazine. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Harpers, and The Guardian.
Salil Singhals presence, along with his wife Madhu, led many to ask about denying the same courtesy to children of senior BJP leaders

While most invitees seated in close proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi around the havan kund at the ground breaking ceremony for the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya last week could be recognised, people were left guessing the identity of a couple who participated in the religious ceremony.

It turned out the unknown person was Salil Singhal, a Udiapur-based businessman and the nephew of late Ashok Singhal, who was the international working president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for nearly two decades and a leading figure in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

Salil Singhals presence, along with his wife Madhu, led many to ask about denying the same courtesy to children of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi who were also the architects of the movement which catapulted the saffron party to power.

Party insiders pointed out it should be remembered that Ashok Singhal was the first leader from the Sangh to declare his support for Modis candidature as the BJPs prime ministerial face.

Speaking to the press at the 2013 Mahakumbh congregation in Allahabad, Singhal had said that Modi enjoyed the same popularity as Jawaharlal Nehru.

In contrast to Singhal, Advani had resisted Modis move to the national political stage while Joshi was also not known to be favourably disposed towards Modi.

After Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra came out in support of the construction of a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, party leaders went overboard in endorsing her stand.

While most leaders put out similar tweets and statements, many party offices in the states and districts organised special prayer meetings while others even burst crackers to mark the occasion.

However, this open display of religiosity at the party offices has not gone down well with a section of the Congress cadre. Questions are being raised in private conversations about organising pujas at party offices and whether similar celebrations will be held in the future to mark the festivals of other faiths.

Most pertinently, it is being asked if any programme will be held when the construction of the mosque begins on the plot, which has been allotted to the Muslim community to compensate for giving up their claim on the disputed site of the Babri Masjid.

First home minister Amit Shah tested positive for coronavirus. Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan was next. Both are undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Gurugram.

With the two leaders in quarantine, BJP insiders are wondering how their incarceration will affect the partys plans to topple the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan.

It is an acknowledged fact that it is Shah who is planning and supervising the operation in the desert state while Pradhan, who has now emerged as his chief lieutenant, executes the former party presidents orders.

So does this mean a reprieve for the Gehlot government? The more optimistic in the BJP express full faith in Shahs capabilities while underlining that it is perhaps no coincidence that the two chief players are in a hospital which is in close proximity to the resort where rebel Rajasthan Congress leaders are lodged.



Bihars director general of police Gupteshwar Pandey, who has been extremely vocal about the ongoing investigation into actor Sushant Singh Rajputs death, sounds more like a politician than a high-ranking police officer.

Like a politician he has been making all kinds of charges in public, acting as judge, jury and executioner.

It must be recalled here that Pandey nurses political ambitions and had even sought a ticket from the Bharatiya Janata Party but it never materialised.

As inspector general of police, Muzaffarpur, Pandey courted controversy when he was investigating an abduction case and was even examined by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with it.

Pandey took voluntary retirement from the service a few years ago but was subsequently reinstated by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, a decision which raised a lot of eyebrows.

This bit of background is important to understand why Mr Pandey is over-eager to please his political bosses.



The recent decision of the textile ministry, headed by Smriti Irani, to disband the 70-year-old All-India Handloom Board, set up by Pupul Jayakar, and the All-India Handicrafts Board, has virtually gone unnoticed.

The two panels, comprising craftspersons and other experts, served as a valuable forum for the government to get inputs from people working in the field. The official explanation for scrapping these boards is that it is prompted by the governments vision of minimum government, maximum governance.

However, representatives of the sector and craftspersons, are convinced the decision flows from a belief that Iranis ministry does not need to listen to voices from the ground.

They feel it is a deliberate attempt to deny an opportunity to those outside the system to interact with the government. Irani is particularly prickly about working with anyone who has been even remotely associated with the Congress regime.
Law enforcement officers detain a person participating in the Ruki Peremen [Hands of Changes] opposition rally ahead of the presidential election - Tass

Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka deserves sanctions. This election campaign in Belarus, which culminates in a vote on Sunday is the most brutal and dirty in its history. But so far, the EU, the UK and the US have only issued familiar-sounding and futile appeals to the Belarusian authorities condemning their actions. Not imposing sanctions is a de facto licence to continue with repression.

Despite all this, the West is unlikely to impose significant sanctions after Sunday. There are several questionable reasons for this.

First, Western policymakers fear sanctions against Lukashenko will make him more likely to genuflect to Russia. However, relations with Russia have already deteriorated as Belarus accuses Russia of trying to interfere with its domestic affairs. Sanctions serve as a wake-up call: the Belarusian authorities then might seek - once again - to repair relations with the West and reduce repression for greater assistance in any direct confrontation with Russia.

People vote at a polling station during the 2020 Belarusian presidential election - Tass

Second, the West is reluctant to implement sanctions because it has already invested somewhat in warming relations with Belarusian authorities. Punishing Lukashenko could mean burying the (admittedly modest) achievements of a Belarus-West dialogue that started in 2014, after the conflict in Ukraine. Even US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Lukashenko in Minsk this year, after which Belarus replace a small but symbolic amount of Russian oil for American. All the same, the West has its conscience to answer to if dialogue is won but repressions continue.

The third reason why the West may not resort to targeted economic sanctions and visa restrictions is a latent concern whether such measures have any effect on democratisation processes at all. They may be appropriate punishment, but there is little evidence they ever change the nature of a regime.

According to this logic, if the West imposes sanctions, the Belarusian authorities will continue to crack down with repression because they will have nothing to lose. That said, in previous years, the Belarusian authorities have released political prisoners in response to sticks and carrots brandished by the West. If Belarusian political prisoners did not have a price tag, the authorities would most likely keep everyone in jail.

To be fair, there are reasonable arguments in favour of and against sanctions. But if the West fails to impose them (be it through lack of political will or out of genuine concern about their effectiveness) at least it should focus on helping ordinary Belarusians withstand Lukashenkos repressions. After the vote, arrested and jailed Belarusian citizens might lack money for lawyers and arbitrarily imposed fines.

If repression spreads further, independent media and human rights organizations will need funds to keep their structures running in the heat of the crackdown. Many entrepreneurs might lose their companies for openly supporting free elections. Thus, if the West will not sanction Lukashenko, it should at least show solidarity with these Belarusians in peril.
MORRISVILLE, N.C., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pharmaceutical solutions provider TrialCard Incorporated announced today it has been named the prime contractor for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) "Ready, Set, PrEP" program. The new nationwide program provides pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medications at no cost to individuals who lack prescription drug coverage. When taken prior to an exposure, PrEP medications are a safe and effective way to prevent HIV.

"We are excited, as part of the Ending the HIV Epidemic program, to play a crucial role in eradicating HIV in the United States," said TrialCard President and CEO Mark Bouck. "For twenty years, TrialCard has provided pharmaceutical manufacturers and their patients the industry's best affordability and access programs. With today's announcement, we are pleased to be working with HHS and look forward to additional opportunities in the future with the federal government."

The Ready, Set, PrEP program is a key component of the Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America (EHE) initiative, which aims to eradicate HIV in the United States by 2030. In his State of the Union Address in February 2019, President Trump announced his administration's goal to end the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years. EHE is the operational plan developed by agencies across HHS to pursue that goal. TrialCard, as the prime contractor, will be responsible for the overall administration and operational effectiveness of the Ready, Set, PrEP program. As subcontractors to TrialCard, AssistRx will support patients and providers with program enrollment, while Cardinal Health will serve as the wholesaler.

More than 700,000 American lives have been lost to HIV since 1981. Although more than 1 million people who are at risk for HIV in the United States could benefit from PrEP medications, fewer than one in four will receive it. More Information about the Ready, Set, PrEP program and how to access services can be found at https://www.hiv.gov/federal-response/ending-the-hiv-epidemic/prep-program.

About TrialCard

TrialCard Incorporated provides patient affordability, medication access and adherence, patient support, and clinical trial services on behalf of pharmaceutical manufacturers. Founded in 2000, TrialCard has connected nearly 33 million patients with over $15 billion in branded drug savings to date. The company is headquartered in Morrisville, North Carolina. For more information about TrialCard, please visit www.trialcard.com.

About AssistRx

AssistRx has engineered the perfect blend of technology and talent to provide manufacturers with an intelligent therapy initiation and patient support solution to improve patient uptake, visibility and outcomes. Our solution integrates technology and therapy expertise to advance patient therapy in a more efficient and effective mannerdelivering informed touchpoints that simplify a complex system to enable better results for today's patients. For more information, visit www.assistrx.com.

About Cardinal Health

Cardinal Health, Inc. is a global, integrated healthcare services and products company, providing customized solutions for hospitals, healthcare systems, pharmacies, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories and physician offices worldwide. The company enhances supply chain efficiency for clinically proven medical products, pharmaceuticals and cost-effective solutions. To combat prescription drug misuse, the Cardinal Health Foundation and its education partners created Generation Rx, a national drug prevention education and awareness program. The Foundation actively supports an array of other solutions, including efforts to reduce opioid prescribing, promote drug take back and safe disposal and expand collaborative community work. Cardinal Health is backed by nearly 100 years of experience with operations in nearly 46 countries. For more information, visit cardinalhealth.com.

Contact:

Michael Carlin

[email protected]

919-415-3105

SOURCE TrialCard

Related Links

www.trialcard.com


Depiction of the evolutionary placement of Undinarchaeota in an archaeal tree as a sister group of the symbiotic DPANN archaea (left). Illustration of cell of an Undinarchaeota representative, which might have pili (cell appendages) and may be able to take up DNA but is likely dependent on partner organisms for the acquisition of various metabolites (right). Credit: Anja Spang

In a publication in Nature Communications last Friday, NIOZ scientists Nina Dombrowski and Anja Spang and their collaboration partners describe a previously unknown phylum of aquatic Archaea that are likely dependent on partner organisms for growth while potentially being able to conserve some energy by fermentation. In contrast to initial analyses, this study shows that the new phylum is part of a group of Archaea that are believed to mainly comprise symbionts. Further, the study yields new insights into the diversity and evolutionary history of the Archaea.

Archaea make up one of the main divisions of life, next to the Bacteria and the Eukaryotes, the latter of which comprise, for example, fungi, plants and animals. Archaea are a large group of microorganisms that live in all habitats on Earth ranging from soils and sediments to marine and freshwater environments as well as from human-made to host-associated habitats including the gut. In turn, Archaea are now thought to play a major role in biogeochemical nutrient cycles.

In a publication in Nature Communications last Friday, evolutionary microbiologists Nina Dombrowski and Anja Spang from the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research (NIOZ) describe a previously unknown archaeal lineage (phylum). The authors named them the Undinarchaeota, in reference to the female water spirit or nymph Undina. For the study, Dombrowski and Spang cooperated with partners from Bristol University, the University of Queensland and the Australian National University.

Diverse symbionts and parasites

Because of their great resemblance to Bacteria, Archaea were only described as a separate lineage about 40 years ago and were not studied intensely until very recently, when it became possible to sequence DNA directly from environmental samples and to reconstruct genomes from uncultivated organisms. This field of genetic research, generally referred to as metagenomics, has not only revealed that microbial life including the Archaea is much more diverse than originally thought, but also provided data needed to shed light on the function of these microbes in their environments.

Pictures (by Nina Dombrowski) from sampling campaign on the Black Sea in summer 2018 and simplified depiction of a metagenomics workflow allowing to reconstruct genomes from uncultivated organisms in environmental samples. Credit: Nina Dombrowski

The newly described Undinarchaeota were discovered in genetic material from marine (Indian, Mediterranean and Atlantic ocean) and aquifer (Rifle aquifer, Colorado River) environments. The authors could show that they belong to a very diverse and until recently unknown group of so-called DPANN archaea. Members of the DPANN include organisms with very small genomes and limited metabolic capabilities, which suggests that these organisms depend on other microbes for growth and survival. In fact, the few so far cultivated DPANN archaea are obligate symbionts or parasites that cannot live on their own.

"In line with this, the Undinarchaeota seem to lack several anabolic pathways, indicating that they are, too, depend on various metabolites from so far unknown partner organisms," says research leader Anja Spang. "However, Undinarchaeota seem to have certain metabolic pathways that lack in some of the most parasitic DPANN archaea and may be able to conserve energy by fermentation."

Complex evolutionary history

While DPANN have only been discovered recently, it becomes increasingly clear that they are widespread and that representatives inhabit all thinkable environments on Earth. Yet, little is known about their evolutionary and ecological role. "In some way, some of the DPANN archaea resemble viruses, needing a host organism, likely other archaea or bacteria, for survival," says Spang. "However, and in contrast to viruses, we currently know very little about the DPANN archaea and how they affect food webs and host evolution. It is also unclear whether DPANN are an ancient archaeal lineage that resembles early cellular life or have evolved later or in parallel with their hosts."

With their study, the authors could shed more light on the complex evolution of Archaea. "Our work revealed that many DPANN archaea frequently exchange genes with their hosts, which makes it very challenging to reconstruct their evolutionary history," says first author Nina Dombrowski. Tom Williams (Bristol University) adds: "However, we could show that DPANN have probably evolved in parallel with their hosts over a long evolutionary time scale, by identifying and studying those genes that were inherited from parent-to-offspring instead of having been transferred between host and symbiont."

Archaea make up one of the main divisions of life, next to the Bacteria and the Eukaryotes, the latter of which comprise for example fungi, plants and animals. ) The authors named the previously unknown archaeal lineage (phylum) Undinarchaeota, in reference to the female water spirit or nymph Undina. Credit: Anja Spang

Role in marine biogeochemical cycles

Spang expects that certain DPANN including the Undinarchaeota, may be important for biogeochemical nutrient cycles within the oceans and sediments. "One reason that DPANN were discovered relatively recently, is that they were not retained on the filters originally used for concentrating cells from environmental samples due to their small cell sizes." But since their discovery, DPANN turned out to be much more widespread than originally anticipated. Chris Rinke from the University of Queensland: "Prospective research on the Undinarchaeota and other DPANN archaea will be essential to obtain a better understanding of marine biogeochemical cycles and the role symbionts play in the transformation of organic matter."

These questions drive some of the prospective projects of Anja Spang. In particular, in collaboration with their NIOZ colleagues Laura Villanueva, Pierre Offre and Julia Engelmann, the authors of the publication Anja Spang and Nina Dombrowski have just sequenced new DNA from water samples from the Black Sea, revealing that Undinarchaeota are present in almost all anoxic depth layers of this basin. Spang says: "These data are a gold mine for the future exploration of the ecology and evolution of these potentially symbiotic Archaea, allowing us to identify their interaction partners and to unravel further secrets about the biology of the Undinarchaeota."

Explore further New insight into the evolution of complex life on Earth

More information: Nina Dombrowski et al, Undinarchaeota illuminate DPANN phylogeny and the impact of gene transfer on archaeal evolution, Nature Communications (2020). Journal information: Nature Communications Nina Dombrowski et al, Undinarchaeota illuminate DPANN phylogeny and the impact of gene transfer on archaeal evolution,(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17408-w

Provided by Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research
The Sinhala majoritarian narrative has emerged strong and clear with no pretence of accommodation of the minorities, and this signals a going back on the promise of a political solution to the Tamils of the north and the burial of a probe of war crimes against members of the Sri Lankan military ahead of its victory against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009





by R.K. Radhakrishnan

Courtesy: Frontline, India





Rarely does a single election settle for all times, in clear terms, the debate on the future of a country. The Sri Lankan parliamentary elections, which gave a two-thirds majority for the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), vanquished the United National Party (UNP) and made irrelevant the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), is one such election. The SLPP won the two-thirds majority it wanted to amend the constitution, the former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe lost, and the TNA was forced to share space in the northern province with new contenders, including former Chief Minister Wigneswaran, and Minister Douglas Devananda, long considered an outcaste in Vellalar-dominated Jaffna.













The Sinhala majoritarian narrative has emerged strong and clear with no pretence of accommodation of the minorities, and this signals a going back on the promise of a political solution to the Tamils of the north and the burial of a probe of war crimes against members of the Sri Lankan military ahead of its victory against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009. In return for the promise of safety and security made by the SLPP, the Sri Lankan voter settled for the rule of a family, the Rajapaksas, and a definitive change in foreign policy with China at the centre. Now, a Rajapaksa will be Prime Minister (Mahinda) while another is already President (Gotabaya). The architect of the long-drawn-out campaign, Basil Rajapaksa, too, will have to be accommodated in a senior position. Mahindas son Namal is also a contender for a Cabinet berth.





For the first time, two breakaway factions from the major political formations will be the ruling and the main opposition parties. The SLPP led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, which split from the Grand Old Party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), is the ruling party. The Samagi Jana Balavegaya, which was formed by an exasperated former Minister, Sajith Premadasa, is a splinter group of the UNP. In effect, they are actually the SLFP and the UNP with different names because of the mass exodus of supporters from both these parties to the new formations.





"Heartfelt gratitude to all Sri Lankans for placing their trust in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, myself and the Podujana Party and voting for the Saubhagye Dakkama [a period of health and wealth ahead] election manifesto in overwhelming numbers. We will ensure Sri Lanka will not stand disappointed during our tenure," tweeted Mahinda Rajapaksa after the results were announced.





True to its intention of sidelining the Tamils, the SLPP handed over to the election commission 17 names to be added to its national list MPs  there was just one Tamil on the list, Suren Ragavan, a former governor of the Northern Province, widely seen by the Tamil community as a collaborator with the Sinhalese forces. Three Muslims were included in the list (Ali Sabry, Marjan Faleel and Mohomed Muzammil). Of this, Faleel was named in a police complaint made by former President Chandrika Kumaratunge after her vehicle was attacked in December 2014 in Beruwala. All the rest are Sinhalas, led by former Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris, former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Kabraal, and SLPP secretary Sagara Kariyawasam.





The Indian Tamil community, which is a force to reckon with in the Hill country, managed only nine seats across its three main factions. "All nine MPs have to work together. We have to draw up a unified strategy so that we do not cede ground at least in the next election," said a supporter.





Senthil Thondaman, of the Ceylon Workers Congress suffered a shock defeat in Badulla. Despite him being a close ally of Mahinda, his supporters are disappointed that he was not included in the list. But SLPP insiders say that this was because of the partys principled stand that those who lose an election should not come in through the backdoor. The TNA slid to its worst defeat since the war ended in 2009, losing nine seats. Though its main leaders, R. Sampanthan and A. Sumanthiran won, Maavai Senadirajah, another senior leader, lost. The results from eastern Sri Lanka  Batticaloa and Amparai  are a cause for concern for the party since none of the sitting TNA MPs won.





"Nationalism at its best," said a senior official, close to the Rajapaksas. "It is a shame that some of the competent candidates in the opposition lost, but that is the price you will pay when the entire government is perceived as being run by outsiders and NGOs," he added.




The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has made a clarion call for the rejection of presidential or parliamentary candidates who exhibit or support acts of violence in the December 7 general election.



The Chairperson of the commission, Ms Josephine Nkrumah, who made that call, said endorsing such candidates would erode Ghana's democratic gains and throw the country into anarchy.



"What we must do is to reject any candidate who exhibits violent tendencies, acts in a violent manner or condones, accepts and encourages violent behaviour," she stated.



In an interview with the Daily Graphic last Thursday, she stressed that aside from rejecting such violent leaders, they must be made to face the law as provided for in the Vigilantism and Related Offences Act, 2019 (Act 999).



Vigilantism Act



Act 999 was enacted to disband vigilante groups, including political party vigilante groups and land guards; proscribe acts of vigilantism in the country and provide for related matters.



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo assented to the Act on August 23, 2019 after Parliament passed the bill on July 23, 2020.



The act further provides that a person who directly or indirectly instigates or solicits the activity of a vigilante, facilitates or encourages vigilantism, or conceals a vigilante to avoid lawful arrest, commits an offence, and is liable, on conviction to a term of imprisonment of not less than 10 years and not more than 15 years.



Offenders



Ms Nkrumah observed that the pockets of violence that characterised the just-ended mass voter registration exercise was an indication that some political leaders wanted to feed on violence for electoral gains in the December 7 elections.



She, therefore, called on the security agencies, particularly the Ghana Police Service, to step up their game to clamp down on such violent activities for law and order to prevail.



"The security agencies must ensure that people who engage in violence in the electoral process are dealt with swiftly without fear or favour. It should not be the case that because one is a big man or woman they can do whatever they like and get away with it, she stressed.



Averting vigilantism



The NCCE boss said for vigilantism to be averted going into the elections, it was important for the security agencies to be seen to be dealing ruthlessly with perpetrators of violence.



In her estimation, that was the only way the public could instil confidence in the security agencies.



"When we had our engagement with many institutions and groupings, including political parties, on vigilantism, one of the biggest challenges was that they do not have confidence in the security agencies.



"The security agencies must act swiftly to restore that confidence so that people can go to them and report cases, knowing that people who flouted the Vigilantism Act will be properly dealt with and sanctions applied against them," she said.



No voter apathy



Touching on voter apathy, she said the only way Ghanaians could show their disapproval for violence on the part of political leaders was to turn up on election day and vote against them.



"Do not allow your right to vote be taken away from you by thinking that you are unhappy with a situation and so you will not vote. If we want change, the best way is to go out and vote," she stressed.



Ms Nkrumah urged all political parties and politicians to put the national interest first and accept the outcome of the December 7 polls.



"Whatever the outcome of the election, once there is a transparent, free and fair process, we should accept the results; that is the beauty of democracy," the NCCE chairperson said.

Source: Daily Graphic









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Funeral directors who are ramping up COVID-19 prevention measures warn they are under intense pressure from grieving families asking them to exceed the 10-mourner limit at services.

Australian Funeral Directors Association president Andrew Pinder said while there was a COVID-19 cluster involving western Sydney funerals in July, there had been none in Victoria. But any slip-up could prompt a ban on all funerals, which would have a dire impact on mourners mental health.

Australian Funeral Directors Association president Andrew Pinder and staff from Ern Jensen Funerals in Preston. Credit:Simon Schluter

Under stage four restrictions, funerals in Melbourne are limited to 10 mourners, plus people required to conduct the service.

Relatives were exerting "extraordinary pressure" by asking for more than 10 mourners, or asking if 10 people could attend one half of a service and 10 others the second half, Mr Pinder said.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is seeking fields to lease for the upcoming 2020 dove season. The first segment of dove season opens at noon on Tuesday, Sept. 1.

Landowners can earn up to $3,600 for providing a dove field for public hunting. These fields must be available for a minimum of three priority hunt dates in September.

Mourning doves are a popular game bird and one of the most widely distributed and abundant birds in North America.

More mourning doves are harvested than all other migratory bird species combined in 39 of the continental states. In Tennessee, an estimated 15,500 hunters harvested approximately 277,000 mourning doves last year.

TWRA began its leased dove field program in the late 1980s and the program has been very successful in providing quality hunting opportunities for hunters. In addition to leased fields, many public dove fields are provided on wildlife management areas in each TWRA region. The TWRA website will have specific information about WMAs and leased dove fields in each region beginning Aug. 15.

The standard fall leased field is a harvested grain field to which TWRA leases the hunting rights for three priority dates. The hunting access rate paid to landowners for fall leased fields may be up to $75 per acre for a maximum of 40 acres. Fields that are top sown with wheat are eligible for an additional $15 per acre. Interested landowners must sign up their fields in August.

Anyone interested in leasing a dove field to TWRA should contact their TWRA regional office.

Although offices are closed to public traffic, due to COVID-19, phones are maintained during business hours (8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. local time). TWRA has four regional offices across the state that interested landowners can contact: Region I (West Tennessee) 731-423-5725 or toll free 800-372-3928; Region II (Middle Tennessee) 615-781-6622 or toll free 800-624-7406; Region III (Upper Cumberland) 931-484-9571 or toll free 833-402-4698; Region IV (East Tennessee) 423-587-7037 or 800-332-0900.
Former President Pranab Mukherjee said on Monday that he has tested positive for COVID-19.

Photograph: Kind courtesy @CitiznMukherjee/Twitter

The 84-year-old requested people who came in contact with him in the last one week to get tested as a precaution.

'On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for COVID19 today,' he tweeted.

'I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19,' the Congress leader, who was the President from 2012-17, said.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala along with several other party leaders wished a speedy recovery to Mukherjee.

'We wish former President Pranab Mukherjee a speedy recovery from Covid,' the Congress said on its official Twitter handle.

Several leaders from across the political spectrum also wished him a speedy recovery.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot tweeted, 'I have come to know former President of India Sh Pranab Mukherjee has tested positive for Covid-19...concerned about his health. Wish him a speedy recovery.'

Union minister Piyush Goyal also wished good health for Mukherjee, and said he is confident that the former President will be successful in recovering from the virus quickly.
The family of Merle Saul has put up a billboard near the Bosselman Travel Center, which is the last place he was seen, more than 4-1/2 years ago.

The 60-year-old man, whose roots are in Santee, hasnt contacted his family since his daughter dropped him off at Bosselmans on Dec. 12, 2015. That day, he was planning to hitch a ride to Omaha.

Saul spent a lot of time in Omaha and Grand Island. His four children and his ex-wife live in Grand Island. He served in the U.S. Army, where he was a paratrooper.

He is one of nine children, so he has a lot of relatives wondering where he went. Many of them came to Grand Island last Saturday to see the billboard and to visit the Law Enforcement Center.

Maybe her brother wanted to be homeless, Laura Calvillo said. But hes human. He needs to be found, she said, wiping tears from her eyes.

Exhaustive searches

Family members have been thorough in their searches.
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg during a press conference in the Mural Hall at Parliament House on June 11, 2020 in Canberra, Australia (Sam Mooy/Getty Images)

Victorians Deserve Answers: Australian Federal Treasurer

Federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg has again called out the Victorian government over significant failures in its hotel quarantine system, saying mistakes were made and must be explained.

Genomic testing indicates the program could be linked to a significant number of cases and sparked Victorias deadly second wave coronavirus outbreak.

Frydenberg, who is currently self-isolating in Canberra ahead of the next federal parliament sitting, said it should never have gotten to the point where the state was recording hundreds of new cases and multiple deaths a day.

Its very very difficult emotionally, its difficult obviously on the economy as well, the Victorian MP told Sydney radio 2GB on Aug 10.

We know with respect to quarantine, there have been very significant failures with deadly consequences. Victorians deserve answers. Ill leave that to Daniel Andrews and his government to provide.

An independent review of the quarantine program is set to begin next week, after the states Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said she was deeply sorry if she hadnt done enough to prevent the virus spreading.

Let the independent (hotel quarantine inquiry) judge do her job, let the cards fall where they may. I believe there is nothing to fear in seeking the truth. The truth will set you free, she tweeted on the weekend.

It is not yet clear whether infections in Victorias outbreak have peaked, although there have been encouraging signs in recent days.

Victoria racked up a record 17 deaths on Sunday from the virus, taking the national toll to 295.

The state recorded 394 new cases on Sunday, which was less than the previous three days.

It appears were on the plateau, National Deputy Chief Medical Officer Nick Coatsworth said on Sunday.

He also again reminded Australians, not just in Victoria, that in the absence of a vaccine there are just two blunt tools to tackle the virus  extreme social distancing and level-four restrictions as seen in Melbourne.

However, Coatsworth said Australia was well placed to benefit if and when a vaccine was produced.

NSW recorded 10 new infections in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday, including a Hornsby Hospital healthcare employee in northern Sydney who worked on August 6 from 11am to midnight while infectious.

Queensland went for a fourth straight day with no new cases.

Given the uncertain outlook from the impact of the virus on the economy, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann hasnt ruled out further changes to JobKeeper.

Last week, the government announced a further $15 billion injection into the wage subsidy program with changes allowing easier access for businesses, that are aimed at outbreak-hit Victoria.

The scheme will step down from a fortnightly payment of $1500 a week to $1200 at the end of September and then down to $1000 from December to March.

Weve been flexible in the past when it comes to what has been a rapidly evolving and fluid situation, Senator Cormann said when asked if the reduction was too soon.

Colin Brinsden, Rebecca Gredley in Canberra
The Akyem-Abuakwa Traditional Council in the Eastern Region is demanding the immediate closure of Bright Senior High Secondary school.



The request, according to the council has been provoked by the incident of examination fraud of grave significance in direct relation to the assault of Mr. Gyan Mensah and Damolie Emmanuel Pacome, an official of the West African Examination Council and a reporter or the Daily Graphic respectively in their lawful duties to insist on a fair conduct of WASSCE examination.



In a statement signed by the States secretary, D.M Ofori- Atta and copied to the Ghana Education Service and the Education Ministry, the Council said, its demands are being backed by His Majesty Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin



In the two-paged letter sighted the Council accused the headteacher of instigating the assault and rampage by the students.



The assault was instigated and ordered under the misdirection of Bright Amponsah, the proprietor of the rogue Bright Senior High School which for over a decade has been engaged in ultra-commercial and profiteering aims which runs against the established interest of the educational policy and integrity of public examination.



The above is not an isolated incident; it confirms several reports of corrupt and exploitative motive of Bright Senior High School.



Of more importance to this matter and of illustrative and evidential significance is his bribery of certain officers of the West African Examination Council over the past decade.



The council further alleged that Bright SHS, in terms of admission process and curriculum is in violation of all the protocols and regulatory measures put in place by the Ghana Education Service.



Hence, the closure of the school will be in the best interest of the students.



I am directed to express publicly that the exams results fromthe rogue Bright SHS are falsified.



It has become evident that 90% of graduands of the Bright SHS drop out of public universities in their first year due to their lack of ability to meet the intellectual and academic demands of tertiary institutions.



While the AkyemAbuakwa Traditional Council says it will assist in the rehabilitation of affected students, it is also calling for an audit into the academic and social situations of the school by the police and GES.



Among other things, the council means that there should also be a thorough investigation into the operations of Bright SHS over the last decade with particular concern with its dealings with certain officers of the West African Examination Council WAEC.

Source: Myjoyonline.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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California's public health director has resigned just days after it was revealed a 'technical glitch' had left COVID-19 cases under-counted in the state as it was experiencing a huge spike in infections.

Dr Sonia Angell announced her resignation in an email to staff that was released late Sunday by the California Health and Human Services Agency.

Angell, who had been director and state public health officer at the California Department of Public Health for less than a year, did not give a specific reason for her departure.

It came just days after the state announced a fix for a glitch that caused a lag in collecting coronavirus test information that is used to make decisions about reopening businesses and schools.

California's public health director Dr Sonia Angell announced her resignation in an email to staff in an email on Sunday just days after the glitch in COVID-19 data emerged

The glitch caused up to 300,000 records to be backlogged, though not all of them were coronavirus cases and some could be duplicates, according to the state's Health and Human Services Secretary Dr Mark Ghaly.

'Our data system has failed,' Ghaly said last week when he announced the glitch.

'We apologize. You deserve better, the governor demands better of us and we are committed to doing better.'

The problem affected the California Reportable Disease Information Exchange, also known as CalREDIE.

The glitch came as the country's most populous state surpassed 10,000 deaths from the coronavirus, making it the US state with the third-highest number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

California also leads the country as the state with the most infections at more than 554,000.

The state's COVID-19 dashboard page now carries a disclaimer saying the numbers 'represent an underreporting of actual positive cases' per day but it continues to show a rate of infection that may not be accurate.

County health officials said they had been flying blind, unable to conduct robust contact tracing or monitor health factors without timely information, especially at a time when parents are on edge about school plans.

Timely data is a huge deal for Governor Gavin Newsom, who has repeatedly stressed in media briefings and interviews the importance of using numbers to 'look at conditions as they change in real time, based upon the data, based upon local conditions'.

The state's COVID-19 dashboard page now carries a disclaimer (pictured above) saying the numbers 'represent an underreporting of actual positive cases' per day

Angell, who was director of the California Department of Public Health for less than a year, did not give reason for her departure. She regularly appeared beside Gov Gavin Newsom at press briefings throughout the pandemic

Newsom had said a week ago that indicators were pointing in the right direction after weeks of a viral surge.

Ghaly said the problem began with a computer server outage July 25 and was compounded by the state's failure to renew a 2-year-old certificate for an intermediary for one of the nation's largest commercial labs, meaning the state did not receive updates for five days from Quest Diagnostics.

He said he learned of the magnitude of the data backlog late on August 3, though others in the department were aware of it earlier.

Ghaly said last week that Newsom had ordered an investigation into the glitch and vowed to 'hold people accountable'.

Newsom issued a statement on Sunday following Angell's resignation, saying: 'I want to thank Dr Angell for her service to the state and her work to help steer our public health system during this global pandemic, while never losing sight of the importance of health equity.'

Sandra Shewry, vice president of external engagement for California Health Care Foundation, will fill the role of acting health director.

Dr Erica Pan, who was recently appointed state epidemiologist, will be the acting state public health officer.

Marin County first noticed a problem with data back in mid-July when it started seeing a growing gap between the number of cases reported directly from labs there and the state's numbers, said D. Matt Willis, the county's public health officer. The county receives about 90 percent of its results directly from labs and relies on the state system for the rest.

It became an issue when residents began asking why the county was reporting more cases than the state - pushing Marin County over the limit set by Newsom's administration for elementary schools to reopen - but only by the county's estimates and not the state's, he said.

Marin estimated the county had 210 cases for every 100,000 residents over a 14-day period, while the state estimated there were 170, he said. He estimated about a fifth of virus testing data to the state could be delayed.

'We're in an interval now where we've been seeing significant increases in cases across the state. There's been a lot of policy responses to that,' he said, 'This is a particularly vulnerable moment for us as a state to lose access to data.'

Dr Clayton Chau, Orange County's interim health officer, said last Friday that his county is still not getting updated numbers. Those figures are critical for elementary schools wanting to seek waivers to reopen because the county needs to have a somewhat lower case rate for these to be considered, Chau said.

'The conversations can't start until we know what our community case rate is,' he said.

Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, a Republican from Rocklin, called the backlog 'disastrous' in a state of 40 million with 'people's livelihoods hanging in the balance. It's just absolutely unacceptable'.

The state has been encouraging labs to report information directly to county health offices instead of going through the state system. The results getting to the state are accurate, but they are not posting as quickly as they should, said John Swartzberg, an infectious disease expert at the University of California Berkeley's School of Public Health.

'If we're not getting the data coming in a contemporaneous fashion, we're not able to act on it appropriately,' he said.

'The delay with CalREDIE getting numbers in a timely fashion really makes the county health officers, if not blind, at least looking through foggy glasses.'
wittlelizzy/TikTok

A video of a woman in a California supermarket claiming to be from the "Freedom to Breathe Agency" was widely shared over the weekend.

It shows her telling a store employee that she is breaking the law by trying to enforce mask-wearing in store.

In fact, wearing a mask in stores is compulsory under California public health rules.

The Freedom to Breathe Agency is not a government agency, and has been warned by the real US government after distributing fake exemption cards marked with the Department of Justice seal.

An associated Facebook page  Unmasking America  was also shut down after spreading coronavirus-related misinformation.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

A video being widely shared on social media has renewed attention on a group that falsely presents itself as a government agency fighting against compulsory mask-wearing.

In the video filmed in a California grocery store a woman, Lenka Koloma, says she is from the "Freedom to Breathe Agency." Koloma founded the group.

She tells a store worker that she could be sued for enforcing mask rules. Koloma also handed her papers, which, according to BuzzFeed News, claimed that she could be sent to prison.

The group has no affiliation with any state or federal authority, and has been warned by the Department of Justice to stop mis-using its seal.

It has also been censured as part of a Facebook crackdown on coronavirus misinformation, linked to fake cards marked "FACE MASK EXEMPT" and said to be issued by the agency.

In a statement to Business Insider, Koloma denied that the Freedom to Breathe Agency has claimed to be part of the US government.

In July the Department of Justice (DoJ) denied any affiliation with the group after imagery emerged of the cards, which feature the department's seal.

"These postings were not issued by the Department and are not endorsed by the Department," said the DoJ in a statement to NPR.

Story continues

The cards threatened business owners requiring patrons to wear masks with a referral to the DoJ, and potential fines of $150,000.

Pictures of the exemption cards were being linked to widely in a Facebook group called Unmasking America, reported The Verge in July.

The page was subsequently banned from the site for spreading coronavirus misinformation.

One poster in the group reportedly advised others to "print it, laminate it and use it. The number is legit."

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to Business insider that the group's page had been removed for violating "harmful misinformation policies relating to coronavirus, amongst other violations."

The New York Times previously reported that Koloma had been selling the cards via the Shopify platform.

She describes herself on her webpage as an "entrepreneur, motivational speaker, transformation expert and researcher in the field of biology, nutritional science, science of life, neuroscience and quantum physics."

In a statement to Business Insider, she confirmed she was the woman in the video confronting the grocery store worker.

"We were only educating her and advocating for her to make her realize that her employer is putting her into harm's way," she said of her confrontation with the grocery store worker, alleging that the store's attempt to enforce mask wearing rules was illegal.

"We NEVER said nor pretended to be with any US federal government agency. Those are false statement," she said of the incident.

"We clearly stated that we are with FTBA, Freedom To Breathe Agency, from the very beginning of our interaction. I explained that FTBA is We The People organization created to ensure our God given rights are protected under the Constitution of the United States of America."

She described the Facebook ban as "clearly violating The First Amendment of our constitutional rights for freedom of speech."

Read the original article on Insider
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 22:01:57|Editor: huaxia

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ACCRA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The attempt by Ghana's Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voters' roll ahead of the country's general election in December, which lasted from June 30 to Aug. 9, has been met with violence.

The 38-day registration exercise and two days of mop-up witnessed two deaths with several acts of violence across the country involving supporters of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

A clash between supporters of the two largest political parties in the country on Aug. 8 resulted in the death of one person at Nkrankwanta, a town in the Bono Region.

Two persons, who sustained gunshot wounds and were in critical condition, were said to be receiving treatment at the Dormaa Ahenkro Presbyterian Hospital.

Member of Parliament (MP) for Dormaa West Constituency Halidu Ali Maiga told local media that the deceased was hit by a stray bullet fired by security personnel who were deployed to the scene to maintain law and order.

Images shared on social media captures two vehicles and a motorbike razed down by the rampaging youth. Tension, over the weekend, was quite high and security has been beefed up in parts of the town and adjoining communities in the area.

Earlier on July 13, a 28-year-old teacher who graduated from college recently was stabbed to death at Banda, a border town in the Bono Region.

Micah Perdjo, the younger brother of the deceased, told local media that his brother died without saying a word to him.

"The doctors did their best but they said the knife would have affected his lungs and there was not much they could do when he was brought to the hospital," he said.

In the Awutu Senya East Constituency of the Central Region, a clash between supporters of the two main political parties nearly halted the process at a registration center.

Cabinet Minister and MP for the area Hawa Koomson admitted to firing gunshots at the scene. Her action was widely condemned by the public.

Even though nobody lost the life during incident, properties including vehicles and motorbikes were burnt down.

Five persons, the police say have been processed and are currently facing the court over the incident.

Similar politically orchestrated violence was reported in the Ashanti, Ahafo, and Volta and in the Greater Accra Regions.

Several notable individuals and civil society groups condemned the acts of violence that characterized the exercise.

The country's electoral body condemned such unruly acts and asked the political parties to use the processes put in place to have their grievances addressed instead of resorting to violence.

Former president, and NDC candidate for this year's presidential election, John Dramani Mahama on Sunday described the exercise as the most violent ever in the country.

"People are running rampage and we have just seen this recent registration exercise where thugs go and try to prevent people from registering, they go and cause confusion at the polling centers in order to disrupt the process and they get away with it," he stated.

The Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference also expressed concern about the recent violence in the voter registration exercise and urged political parties to abide by the country's electoral laws.

As at the close of registration, the EC said some 16.6 million people, which is a provisional figure, were registered during the period.

The West African country returned to democratic rule on January 7, 1993, and will hold its eighth general election on December 7 to elect a president and 275 parliamentarians.

The sitting President, Akufo-Addo, who defeated John Mahama in the 2016 race is contesting the same opponent who had earlier won against him in the 2012 presidential election.

The stakes in the country's December polls are quite high and political watchers say the acts of violence that characterized the just-ended voters' registration exercise is a foretaste of what would happen in the general election if adequate measures are not put in place. Enditem
They both have suffered pre-existing diseases such as renal failure, heart failure, hypertension, end-stage chronic kidney failure and blood poisoning and heart failure.



Therefore, Vietnam has 13 Covid-19-related deaths; most of them having serious health condition before.

Also on the same day, the National Steering Board for Covid-19 Prevention and Control announced recoveries of four Covid-19 patients. Four Covid-19 patients were discharged from the Da Nang Hospital for Lung Diseases; three hailing from the Central City of Da Nang and one hailing from the Central Province of Quang Ngai.

These four people will be under quarantine in their houses and local medical workers must keep an eye on their health condition.

In related news of coronavirus, the Central Province of Quang Tri authorities decided to practice social distancing because the province has recorded four Covid-19 cases with 155 people who have had direct contact with a confirmed Covid-19 patient, referred to as F1 cases and more than 1,212 people who have had direct contact with F1 people, also known as F2 cases.

Several districts have been placed under lockdown even.

At a meeting of the province Steering Board for Covid-19 Prevention and Control today, Chairman of Quang Tri Peoples Committee Vo Van Hung said that the development of coronavirus pandemic in the province has been complicated with high risk of community transmission.

He added that a medical report of state competent agencies has shown that F1 and F2 groups are not strictly monitored and quarantined.

Some places in Quang Tri Province are put under lockdown even (Photo: SGGP)

By SGGP staff writers - Translated by Uyen Phuong
After four years, and more than 636 Ninja runs and 106 grand final attempts, Ben Polson has been crowned Australia's first-ever Ninja Warrior.

The 27-year-old Perth videographer managed to scale Mount Midoriyama in just 25.56 seconds and take home a whopping $400,000 during Monday's grand finale.

Ben was up against season three winner Charlie Robbins and Zak Stolz, who each needed to climb a 20-metre rope in under 30 seconds.

History in the making! On Monday, Ben Polson was crowned Australia's first-ever Ninja Warrior after he conquered Mount Midoriyama in record time

The three contestants were the first to attempt to climb Mount Midoriyama in all four seasons of the Channel 9 show.

Ben said he wanted to take his girlfriend, Olivia Vivian, on holiday to Japan, and plans to invest the rest of his prize money.

'Four hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money! Especially during such a rollercoaster year,' he said in a statement.

Watch him go: The 27-year-old Perth videographer managed to scale Mount Midoriyama in less than 30 seconds, taking home a whopping $400,000 during Monday grand finale

Reflecting on his win, Ben explained: 'I wasn't your average kid at school.'

'I felt like an outcast and got bullied a lot. It wasn't until I discovered Ninja training that I once again felt I had a purpose,' he continued. 'It helped me build myself back up physically and mentally.

He then added: 'Conquering Mount Midoriyama is not about what I have received, it's about who I have become.'

Winner! Ben said he wanted to take his girlfriend, Olivia Vivian, on holiday to Japan, and plans to invest the rest of his prize money. Pictured together

Ben, Charlie and Zak have all cemented their names in the history books, joining an elite group of only 14 people in the world who have scaled Mt Midoriyama.

The show will conclude with a two-part special finale on August 16, which will see the four best Ninjas from each state return for a chance at winning $100,000.

Australia Ninja Warrior: State Of Origin airs Sunday at 7pm on Channel Nine
10.08.2020 LISTEN

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has reviewed its decision to ban 13 dismissed students from partaking in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) at their current centres.

The students who have been dismissed from school for varying acts of indiscipline can now continue to write the exams in their schools.

Some had taken part in violent action in protest of strict invigilation during the examinations and others had insulted the President on camera.

The Public Relations Officer of GES, Cassandra Twum Ampofo explained this was after a meeting that followed President Akufo-Addos urge to the GES for some flexibility in the sanctions .

The President in a statement said their dismissal alone was enough punishment.

The Minister had a meeting with the management of GES today [August 10, 2020] to review the sanctions imposed on the students who misconducted themselves and we decided that now, the students will be allowed to write the WASSCE in their respective schools, Mrs. Ampofo said.

The students will now be able to return to the schools under guardian escort on the days they have papers and immediately after the paper they also leave with their guardian, she added.

All other sanctions against the students remain in place.

Aside from the dismissal, all students who are in schools where destruction of school property occurred are to be surcharged for the full cost of the damage.

The results of these students will be withheld until they have fully paid up the full cost of items destroyed.

Additionally, three teachers have also been interdicted and barred from invigilating pending conclusion of the probe to ascertain their culpability for their roles in the alleged activities as they are further being referred to the security agencies for further investigation.

---citinewsroom
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Drug firm AstraZeneca Pharma India on Monday reported a 13.38 percent decline in its net profit to Rs 18.63 crore for the quarter ended June.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 21.51 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, AstraZeneca Pharma India said in a BSE filing.

Revenue from operations stood at Rs 193.57 crore for the quarter under consideration. It was Rs 204.56 crore for the same period year ago, it added.

The board of directors has declared an interim dividend of Rs 2 per equity share for the financial year 2020-21, the filing said.

Shares of AstraZeneca Pharma India were trading at Rs 3,381.65 per scrip on BSE, up 1.50 percent over previous close.
Hong Kong, Aug 10 : Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai was arrested on Monday "for collusion with a foreign country" under the new national security law imposed in the city by Beijing, a media report said.

Sources told the South China Morning Post (SCMP) newspaper that Lai's two sons, and senior executives from the tabloid-style Apple Daily were also arrested in the sweeping police operation.

"He was arrested for collusion with a foreign country, uttering seditious words and conspiracy to defraud," one of the sources told the SCMP.

Lai's top aide, Mark Simon, who is not in the city, was also being sought by Hong Kong police, according to the source, who would not say what offence the latter was accused of committing.

The source said the city's opposition activists were not likely to be targeted in Monday's operation.

Meanwhiel, another source told the SCMP that of Lai's two sons was arrested on suspicion of collusion with foreign and external forces to endanger national security, and the other was detained for conspiracy to defraud, according to another source.

The four others included Apple Daily's CEO Cheung Kim-hung, and Chow Tat-kuen, its chief financial officer.

Chow was also arrested for collusion with foreign and external forces to endanger national security, while Cheung was arrested for conspiracy to defraud.

Police said the operation was continuing and so far arrested they had arrested at least seven people aged 39-72.

"They are suspected to be involved in offences including collusion with foreign and external forces to endanger national security and conspiracy to defraud," the force said.

"The operation is ongoing and we do not rule out more arrests." Lai's arrest came two weeks after the new police unit took its first action against anti-government activists, not directly related to street protests, said the SCMP newspaper report.

On July 29, four students, aged from 16 to 21, were taken into custody on suspicion of secession under the new legislation which is aimed at punishing acts of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security.

The offence carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Rumours about Vicky Kaushal and Katrina Kaif seeing each other have been doing the rounds for a while now. The couple was clicked exiting a Diwali party together last year, and ever since the news of their rumoured romance has been the talk of the town. Katrina and Vicky have also been spotted attending several parties, dinners, as well as festival celebrations together and now pictures of Vicky outside Katrinas residence, have gone viral on social media.

Vicky was spotted with his mask and gloves on as he got out of his car upon reaching Katrinas residence on Sunday. Dressed casually, the actor looked smart as he went to meet the actress. Check out the pictures below:

Earlier this year, Katrina Kaif was snapped at the screening of Vicky's horror flick 'Bhoot'. The actress was accompanied by her sister Isabelle Kaif for the preview screening.

Earlier, Vicky was reportedly in a relationship with Harleen Sethi. While Katrina dated Ranbir Kapoor for about six years. The two hit it off after they met on the sets of Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani in 2009. Ranbir and Katrina also co-starred in movies like Raajneeti and Jagga Jasoos, which released after their breakup.
In June, on Death Row at San Quentin State Prison, 58-year-old Jarvis Masters heard a rumor that the coronavirus was ripping through the aging structure. Condemned prisoners are confined to their cells for 23 hours a day, so Masters tracked the outbreak by watching news reports on his small personal TV.

He watched as 100 cases swelled to 300 in two days, then 1,000. Then he started to cough. Masters soon felt like he couldnt breathe.

Over the next two weeks, as calls of man down! rang out every few hours, several of his neighbors disappeared and didnt come back. Staff pulled them from their cells, leaving their TV sets on to drone.

Its like a crime scene, said Masters, who has been on Death Row since 1990.

Less than two years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom halted executions of condemned prisoners, saying the death penalty system is prone to error and is a failure. California has faced challenges to its lethal injection protocol and has not executed a prisoner since 2006.

Now the virus has picked up where the state left off, sweeping through Death Row and taking the lives of more condemned men than California has executed in a quarter of a century.

More Information COVID-19 victims San Quentin State Prison Death Row inmates who have died from COVID-19: Richard Eugene Stitely, 71, died June 24 Joseph S. Cordova, 75, died July 1 Scott Thomas Erskine, 57, died July 3 Manuel Machado Alvarez, 59, died July 3 Dewayne Micheal Carey, 59, died July 4 David John Reed, 60, died July 7 Jeffrey J. Hawkins, 64, died July 15 Troy A. Ashmus, 58, died July 20 John M. Beames, 67, died July 21 Johnny Avila Jr., 62, died July 26 Orlando G. Romero, 48, died Aug. 2 Pedro Arias, 58, died Aug. 9 See More Collapse

A colossal outbreak at San Quentin has infected more than 2,000 incarcerated men and 260 staffers; killing 25 prisoners and one correctional sergeant. Its also hit Death Row especially hard, claiming the lives of 12 condemned men with an average age of 62.

The death penalty has long been one of the most polarizing issues in criminal justice, fiercely defended by some victims groups and assailed by a wide range of reformers. Twenty-two states have abolished the death penalty entirely, and three others, including California, have issued moratoriums on state killings, saying the death penalty is biased against the poor and people of color and citing the danger of irrevocable mistakes. DNA evidence has led to the exoneration of about 170 people on death rows across the country.

But now that the virus is blowing up that uneasy stalemate, an already broken system is facing an unprecedented crisis, and everyone with a stake in the process  family members of victims, prisoners fighting for their freedom, attorneys who have invested years in their cases  is sorting through the wreckage.

My clients are entitled to a review of their convictions and sentences, said Harry Simon, a federal public defender in Sacramento who represented three of the 12 men on Death Row who were felled by the virus. To the extent that the negligence of San Quentin and CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) stopped them from having that, thats a problem.

East Blocks invisible killer: In California, the majority of the 700-plus people sentenced to death are confined to a standalone building at San Quentin called East Block.

Even though the prison in Marin County is just a 35-minute ferry ride away from San Francisco and the worlds technology epicenter, East Block looks like something out of a vintage black-and-white movie. Built in 1927, its five tiers are lined with single-man cells secured by old-fashioned metal bars and a metal mesh screen, allowing airborne droplets to enter and escape. Neighbors can hear but not see one another.

Inside each cell is a stainless steel sink and toilet, upper and lower lights, a twin bed and a bookshelf on the back wall to store legal work, food and other personal items.

Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

Because of accessibility and mobility concerns, the first tier is where older, medically vulnerable patients serve their time. Many are on medications, oxygen or dialysis, or a combination of the three.

These guys are not getting any younger, said Keith Doolin, a condemned prisoner who lives on East Blocks fourth tier. The wheelchair count is so bad that theyve got them all lined up, with the guys names and CDC numbers on the back of them, basically like an automobile parking lot.

Until late May, San Quentin had successfully dodged the bullet of the pandemic, with zero recorded infections among its 3,600 incarcerated men. But on May 30, in a series of mistakes that would prove fatal, state and federal officials ushered the virus into the prison, bringing 121 men to San Quentin from a virus-infested prison in Chino (San Bernardino County). In some cases the men had not been tested for weeks. The transfers were then mixed with healthy men in San Quentins South Block. Cases spiked as the virus raced from one housing unit to another.

Its unclear how the virus first entered East Block, but people who live and work in the prison have theories. Doolin speculated that food trays spread the virus  during flu outbreaks, the prison had switched out plastic trays for paper ones as a precaution.

So, this time around we were literally saying, Wait a minute, wheres the paper trays? Doolin said. Why arent you guys following protocol?

According to internal prison emails obtained by The Chronicle, East Block was not placed under quarantine until June 15  two weeks after the first incarcerated man at San Quentin tested positive. The quarantine failed.

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

Nine days later, on June 24, case counts were exploding in East Block, with the prison recording 136 infections there, records show.

That day, 71-year-old Richard Eugene Stitely collapsed in his cell and died, becoming the first COVID-19 fatality on Death Row. Convicted three decades ago for the rape and murder of 47-year-old Carol Unger in Los Angeles County, Stitely had refused to be tested for the coronavirus, but a postmortem exam confirmed he was positive.

One of Stitelys attorneys, Joel Levine, said his client was illiterate and had been raised by an abusive father, and two psychiatrists had measured his IQ at below 70. Defendants with severe intellectual disability cannot be executed, meaning he had a chance to leave Death Row. The question of his mental competency was set to be determined in state court in May, Levine said. Then the pandemic delayed the hearing, and Stitely died before Levine could argue the case.

In the days that followed, the virus notched more victims in East Block.

Masters chatted with a neighbor, 75-year-old Joseph Cordova, who arrived to Death Row in 2007 after being sentenced for the rape and murder of an 8-year-old San Pablo girl. Cordova and Masters had recently gotten sick with the virus around the same time. I asked him how he was doing, Masters recalled. He said he just felt real cold. Cordova died on July 1.

By that point, at least 166 men in East Block had been infected, and the virus was still spreading out of control.

A lack of due process: Over the next week, as COVID-19 claimed four more lives on Death Row, groups opposed to the death penalty  and attorneys representing condemned men  followed the news with growing horror, worried that the outbreak was stealing important legal rights from men on the Row.

Not everyone whos been sentenced to death is guilty, said Nancy Haydt, an attorney who directs Death Penalty Focus, a California nonprofit trying to abolish the death penalty. Not everyone who has been sentenced to death has gone through all their appeals. And not everyone is mentally competent to be executed.

California has executed 13 people since reinstating the death penalty in 1978, with some waiting on Death Row for more than 20 years. Even before Newsoms moratorium, capital punishment had been all but nonexistent in California for more than a decade.

The vast majority of condemned people at San Quentin are still fighting their sentences, pursuing state or federal appeals. Several have long maintained their innocence, including Masters, whose conviction for taking part in the fatal stabbing of a corrections officer in 1985 was partly based on false and recanted testimony, the California Supreme Court ruled last year. Masters plans to file a federal appeal.

Doolin, a former Fresno truck driver, was sentenced to death in 1996 after a jury found him guilty of killing two sex workers and shooting four others. Doolin has consistently maintained his innocence, and some post-conviction DNA testing and other physical evidence have bolstered his claims.

Hes recently scored a legal victory, persuading a Superior Court judge to order the Fresno County District Attorneys Office to turn over documents in his underlying case.

As Doolin becomes more optimistic about winning his freedom, the pandemics timing feels particularly cruel. Its as if the state is trying to basically impose another death sentence, he said.

Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

Donna Doolin-Larsen said she feels helpless to protect her son.

I thought I was handling it well, because Ive been a tough old broad up until now, she said. I feel like I have no control of anything.

Simon, the public defender, represented Manuel Machado Alvarez, John Beames and Johnny Avila Jr. before each condemned man was stricken and killed by the coronavirus.

He said all three were still pursuing appeals. Now those efforts have died with them.

The men on Death Row, he said, were sitting ducks for this virus.

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.

Searching for closure: In California, a death sentence automatically touches off a lengthy series of reviews and appeals holding people on Death Row for years or decades before their execution date.

Peggy Peattie / Special to The Chronicle

The system is protracted by design to ensure the government makes no mistakes when handing down its ultimate sentence. The process is imperfect, arduous and exhausting, but the end result  at least in theory  is justice.

For those affected by Death Rows recent fatalities, the virus was an unceremonious finale.

Milena (Sellers) Phillips wept when she learned Scott Thomas Erskine, the man who murdered her 9-year-old son, Jonathan Sellers, had died July 3. Though she wasnt quite sure why.

I know hes on Death Row, but it came out of the blue, Phillips said. Maybe it was just the confusion; my emotions were so mixed up. Tears were all I could do.

The bodies of Jonathan and his 13-year-old friend, Charlie Keever, were found two days after the pair disappeared during a bike ride in San Diego in 1993. The two had been beaten, raped and tortured.

DNA would link Erskine to the crimes eight years later.

After the initial shock of Erskines death subsided, Phillips confronted emotions that were uncomfortable for a woman of faith. Shed never before felt happy about the death of another person and sought guidance from her pastor.

He said that it was OK that I was glad that it ended, that that chapter is over for me, Phillips said.

Now, she added, her sons killer is no longer a part of me at all. Its just my son that resides within me.

Charlies mother and Phillips good friend, Maria Keever, also cried when she was told Erskine was dead.

I was glad that he was gone, but all these years I had been wanting to talk to him, Keever said.

The horrific details of her sons death were laid out in court, but officials could only speculate on how Erskine made off with the boys. Keever had twice visited San Quentin over the years, hoping she could look Erskine in the eye while he filled in the missing pieces.

Both times, he refused.

I was hoping that he would change his mind and someday tell me what happened, Keever said. How he got him.

Teresa Carey, sister of Dewayne Michael Carey, the fifth resident of Death Row to die of COVID-19, said she felt robbed of closure.

A respiratory therapist at a Texas hospital, Teresa was the one in her family who kept in closest contact with her brother, talking to him on the phone every few months. The last time they spoke was in April, before there were any known infected men in custody at San Quentin. Then, on July 2, she got a call from a doctor at a Bay Area hospital, saying that her brother was on a ventilator and it didnt look good.

In the hospital, the doctor put his phone to Dewayne Careys ear, allowing him to hear his sisters voice. The ventilator tube down his throat had left him unable to speak. I told him I loved him, Teresa said. I told him to fight.

The siblings had an understanding that went back years: If Dewayne Carey were executed, Teresa would be a witness. He had asked her to be in the room. But two days after their last phone call, on the Fourth of July, he died alone.

If you do a hideous crime: yes, an eye for an eye, Teresa said. But he was still my brother, and I needed a chance to say goodbye. And they took that from me.

Jason Fagone and Megan Cassidy are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jason.fagone@sfchronicle.com, megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfagone, @meganrcassidy
YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on August 10 visited a military base of the Armenian Armed Forces to meet with the troops, the Prime Ministers Office said in a news release.

PM Pashinyan toured the military base, greeted the troops during their breakfast, reviewed the base conditions and the tactical situation.

He also toured the cafeteria which serves the recently introduced, newly developed nutrition-based food system to the troops.

A group of distinguished servicemen were awarded encouragement gifts for their selfless service by the Prime Minister, who wished them peaceful service.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
ROCKY RIVER, Ohio -- Ginny Walters has been conducting an outdoor yoga class in Rocky River Park beside Lake Erie for 22 years. Recently, city officials told her that her class has been taking place without the citys knowledge and without authority from the recreation department.

Recreation Director Bob Holub noted that Walters takes donations for the class --which appears to be the issue.

We want the parks open to all and to allow as many users to enjoy it in many ways, Holub said. The intent of the city was not to preclude the group, but a for-profit venture cannot be conducted on public land.

Holub said the city wanted to come up with a solution moving forward so that Walters could continue to offer the class with proper authorization from the recreation department.

He put her in touch with the Rocky River Parks and Recreation Foundation, a group that works in tandem with the recreation department, after Walters turned down an offer to become an independent contractor with the city.

Several emails on the issue were sent to Walters from the city attorney.

Walters said that about 10 years ago, the former city recreation director talked with her about the classes and said that as long as the students were clear that they were freely making donations rather than being charged a fee, she could continue her classes.

Walters said donations are about $5 apiece from the usual 20 students who attend, but attendance is climbing during the coronavirus pandemic and now stands at about 30.

In total, the weekly class now provides her with approximately $600 per month as an instructor.

Its a lot of money, Walters remarked. She also wondered aloud, Does the foundation want all of it?

Walters noted that she has yet to have any conversation with the foundation about how to distribute the donations, and apparently there is no written agreement.

When Holub was asked if he was aware of how much money Walters receives as the class instructor and whether or not there is a written agreement, he forwarded an email he wrote to her and others, primarily her students who wrote to the city to complain about Walters being confronted on the issue after so many years.

Im not sure of the general weekly amount received or contributions made by participants to Ms. Walters in previous weeks.

With regard to a written agreement, he said, its not something were drafting for the remainder of this year, but rather something we are working through the foundation on.

As a (non-profit) 501c3, the foundation will receive those dollars at their discretion, working with Ms. Walters -- really, no dealings with the city other than the approved reservation of space.

Holub said the city is pleased with the outcome.

Ultimately, we have worked through the situation, he said. Classes will continue, and we are thrilled we could accommodate, especially now. With such high stress, it is extremely valuable. But we needed to be consistent with other groups.

However, the situation doesnt seem to be quite as definite to Walters. She said she will finish the current class within about four weeks and will then be looking around the area for other possible locations.

She has lived in Rocky River since 1991 and said, The class was so positive for Rocky River.

Read more from the West Shore Sun.
Britain has pledged 20 million pounds ($26 million) to help feed people in Lebanon after last week's massive explosion in Beirut.

The U.K. government announced the aid during a virtual international donor conference for the country on Sunday.

It says the money will go to the World Food Program to provide food and medicine for the most vulnerable.

Britain has previously pledged 5 million pounds to Lebanon and is sending specialist medics and a Royal Navy survey ship to Beirut. The ship will help assess damage from the blast fueled by thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate, which leveled Beirut's port and devastated much of the city.

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DUBAI Iran said on Monday that countries should refrain from politicising the massive blast in Beirut last week, adding that the United States should lift sanctions against Lebanon.

The blast should not be used as an excuse for political aims  the cause of the blast should be investigated carefully, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi told a televised news conference.

If America is honest about its assistance offer to Lebanon, they should lift sanctions.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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 publication in Nature Communications last Friday, NIOZ scientists Nina Dombrowski and Anja Spang and their collaboration partners describe a previously unknown phylum of aquatic Archaea that are likely dependent on partner organisms for growth while potentially being able to conserve some energy by fermentation. In contrast to initial analyses, this study shows that the new phylum is part of a group of Archaea that are believed to mainly comprise symbionts. Further, the study yields new insights into the diversity and evolutionary history of the Archaea.

Archaea make up one of the main divisions of life, next to the Bacteria and the Eukaryotes, the latter of which comprise for example fungi, plants and animals. Archaea are a large group of microorganisms that live in all habitats on Earth ranging from soils and sediments to marine and freshwater environments as well as from human-made to host-associated habitats including the gut. In turn, Archaea are now thought to play a major role in biogeochemical nutrient cycles.

In a publication in Nature Communications last Friday, evolutionary microbiologists Nina Dombrowski and Anja Spang from the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research (NIOZ) describe a previously unknown archaeal lineage (phylum). The authors named them the Undinarchaeota, in reference to the female water spirit or nymph Undina. For the study, Dombrowski and Spang cooperated with partners from Bristol University, the University of Queensland and the Australian National University.

Diverse symbionts and parasites

Because of their great resemblance to Bacteria, Archaea were only described as a separate lineage about 40 years ago and were not studied intensely until very recently, when it became possible to sequence DNA directly from environmental samples and to reconstruct genomes from uncultivated organisms. This field of genetic research, generally referred to as metagenomics (Figure 1), has not only revealed that microbial life including the Archaea is much more diverse than originally thought, but also provided data needed to shed light on the function of these microbes in their environments.

The newly described Undinarchaeota were discovered in genetic material from marine (Indian, Mediterranean and Atlantic ocean) and aquifer (Rifle aquiver, Colorado River) environments. The authors could show that they belong to a very diverse and until recently unknown group of so-called DPANN archaea. Members of the DPANN include organisms with very small genomes and limited metabolic capabilities, which suggests that these organisms depend on other microbes for growth and survival1,2,3. In fact, the few so far cultivated DPANN archaea are obligate symbionts or parasites that cannot live on their own4.

"In line with this, the Undinarchaeota seem to lack several anabolic pathways, indicating that they are, too, depend on various metabolites from so far unknown partner organisms", says research leader Anja Spang. "However, Undinarchaeota seem to have certain metabolic pathways that lack in some of the most parasitic DPANN archaea and may be able to conserve energy by fermentation."

Complex evolutionary history

While DPANN have only been discovered recently, it becomes increasingly clear that they are widespread and that representatives inhabit all thinkable environments on Earth. Yet, little is known about their evolutionary and ecological role. "In some way, some of the DPANN archaea resemble viruses, needing a host organism, likely other archaea or bacteria, for survival", says Spang. "However, and in contrast to viruses, we currently know very little about the DPANN archaea and how they affect food webs and host evolution. It is also unclear whether DPANN are an ancient archaeal lineage that resembles early cellular life or have evolved later or in parallel with their hosts."

With their study, the authors could shed more light on the complex evolution of Archaea. "Our work revealed that many DPANN archaea frequently exchange genes with their hosts, which makes it very challenging to reconstruct their evolutionary history", says first author Nina Dombrowski. Tom Williams (Bristol University) adds: "However, we could show that DPANN have probably evolved in parallel with their hosts over a long evolutionary time scale, by identifying and studying those genes that were inherited from parent-to-offspring instead of having been transferred between host and symbiont".

Role in marine biogeochemical cycles

Spang expects that certain DPANN including the Undinarchaeota, may be important for biogeochemical nutrient cycles within the oceans and sediments. "One reason that DPANN were discovered relatively recently, is that they were not retained on the filters originally used for concentrating cells from environmental samples due to their small cell sizes." But since their discovery, DPANN turned out to be much more widespread than originally anticipated. Chris Rinke from the University of Queensland: "Prospective research on the Undinarchaeota and other DPANN archaea will be essential to obtain a better understanding of marine biogeochemical cycles and the role symbionts play in the transformation of organic matter."

These questions drive some of the prospective projects of Anja Spang. In particular, in collaboration with their NIOZ colleagues Laura Villanueva, Pierre Offre and Julia Engelmann, the authors of the publication Anja Spang and Nina Dombrowski have just sequenced new DNA from water samples from the Black Sea, revealing that Undinarchaeota are present in almost all anoxic depth layers of this basin. Spang says: "These data are a gold mine for the future exploration of the ecology and evolution of these potentially symbiotic Archaea, allowing us to identify their interaction partners and to unravel further secrets about the biology of the Undinarchaeota."

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Arlington, Virginia - A Virginia man who used an online chat website to engage in sexually explicit conversations with a 12-year-old minor female and later induced the victim to engage in sexually explicit behavior over video chat, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Virginia to a pair of federal charges, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Departments Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Thomas T. Cullen for the Western District of Virginia.

Roger Allen Bellini, 30, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of coercion and enticement and one count of possession of child pornography. He will be sentenced on January 4, 2021.

According to court documents, Bellini admitted to using an online chat website to communicate with minor females. The defendant admitted the communications were sexual in nature. Specifically, Bellini admitted to communicating with a minor via video chat, beginning when she was 12 years old. He used screen capture software to record his computer screen while he engaged in video chats with the minor. In these video chats, Bellini induced the minor to expose herself and perform sexually explicit acts.

The investigation of the case was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations. Trial Attorney Leslie Fisher of the Criminal Divisions Child and Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Swartz prosecuted the case for the United States.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.
Ambassa(Tripura), Aug 09(UNI) BJP MP Rebati Tripura rescued a stranded man, who was wounded in an accident in Kuwait, and ensured his smooth return back to Tripura.

Parimal Debnath, who lives in Bishalgarh area in the Sepahijala district, had gone to Kuwait in search of a job years ago.

Recently, he met with a devastating accident after falling from the second floor of a building and received grievous injuries in his head, legs and arms.
New Delhi:

Two officials of a private bank were sent to seven days in Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody by a city court for alleged irregularities in the conversion of old currency and supply of new notes leading to blackmoney generation.



District Judge Ravinder Kaur allowed EDs plea seeking seven-day custody of Shobit Sinha and Vineet Gupta, working as managers in Axis Banks Kashmere Gate branch here to interrogate them as it wanted to nab several other persons.



The court, while remanding the bank officials to ED custody till December 12, observed that everyone should cooperate in the on-going drive to eradicate blackmoney.



This is the situation where everyone should cooperate. If a drive is going on to eradicate blackmoney, we all should cooperate, the judge said.

ALSO READ | Demonetisation: ED arrests two bank managers for converting blackmoney into white



Advocate Vivek Garg, appearing for ED, argued that the two bank officials, in connivance with others, were indulging in illegally changing demonetised currency into new notes.



He said till now the probe revealed that Rs 40 crore worth of currency and several companies were involved in the case. He said one gold brick worth Rs 39 lakh has been recovered from accused Sinha and another one is yet to be recovered.



Garg contended that around 15 persons were involved in the matter and 13 are yet to be arrested and if the custody of the accused is not given to ED, its probe would be hampered.



While 32-year old Sinha was the Branch Manager, 33-year old Gupta was the manager (operations), both of whom have been suspended by the bank. They were arrested yesterday under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).



The custody plea was opposed by the counsel for the accused on the ground that their custodial interrogation was not required.



Advocate Sanjay Gupta, who appeared for Vineet Gupta, said ED has thoroughly searched the houses of his client, his parents and in-laws and he was detained in the bank for 36 hours.



He said the alleged beneficiaries and account holders were also examined and let off by ED but the two officials were arrested.

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Ontarios chief medical officer is urging residents to stay vigilant with COVID-19 precautions in hopes of further lowering the number of new daily cases, making it even safer for our school programs to open in September.

The message from Dr. David Williams came Monday as Premier Doug Ford faced mounting concerns about the size of elementary classes and the province reported 115 new cases of the virus, ending a seven-day stretch with fewer than 100 new infections a day.

It was a sharp increase from 79 new cases Sunday and 70 on Saturday as health officials keep a close watch on daily tallies with most of the province in Stage 3, where the risk of spread is higher if people do not abide by physical distancing, wearing face coverings and frequent hand washing.

Health Minister Christine Elliott cautioned against reading too much into a one-day jump in the case count.

While a slight uptick and an end to our streak, we shouldnt lose sight of the fact that thanks to your efforts the trend in the province remains downward, she said on Twitter as the government allowed Windsor-Essex to move to Stage 3.

Eighteen of Ontarios 34 public health units had no new cases and 10 regions had fewer than five new infections. The highest numbers were 20 in Ottawa, 19 in Peel and 16 in Toronto.

Williams said lower case levels in the community will make it harder for COVID-19 to disrupt classrooms. He predicted the number of Ontarians testing positive will go back below 100 and trend toward 50, given recent steady declines despite more business openings under Stage 3 in recent weeks.

Anything that gets into a school has to usually come in from the community, he told reporters.

New cases throughout the province have mostly been linked by local public health departments to parties, workplaces and other gatherings  such as the outbreak last week in Chatham-Kent after several families went on a boat trip together  rather than random community spread, Williams said.

He acknowledged concerns from parents that class sizes will be larger than the 10 people allowed in social circles with close contact under existing guidelines, but suggested the concept could soon be expanded, saying, Stay tuned.

Asked about a new report by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Childrens Hospital Association that found 97,000 children tested positive for COVID-19 in the U.S. during the last two weeks of July, Williams said that is more a reflection of the rampant spread south of the border.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has recommended classrooms remain closed in counties where more than five per cent of people being tested are showing positive for the virus. Williams said Ontarios testing rate is hovering between 0.5 and 0.6 per cent positive.

Over the weekend, the active number of cases across the province dropped below 1,000 for the first time since the virus peaked and now sits at 994, the Ministry of Health said in its daily status report based on figures reported by health units at 4 p.m. the previous day.

The age bracket with the highest number of infections remains the 20s, with 244 Ontarians fighting COVID-19. That compares with 187 people under 20 and 175 in their 30s.

In a reversal from the peak of the pandemics first wave, seniors have the fewest active infections, with just 55 people over 70 trying to recover.

A Star compilation of data from health units at 5 p.m. Monday showed 133 new confirmed and probable cases in the previous 24 hours, the largest daily increase since late July, increasing the pandemics tally to 41,224. There have been 2,824 deaths.
Centrify, a leading provider of Identity-Centric Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions, today announced that it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the Leaders quadrant of the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management. The report evaluated 12 vendors based on completeness of vision and ability to execute.*

GET A COMPLIMENTARY COPY OF THE 2020 GARTNER MAGIC QUADRANT FOR PRIVILEGED ACCESS MANAGEMENT HERE: https://www.centrify.com/lp/gartner-mq-privileged-access-management/

We are proud to again be recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management, said David McNeely, Chief Strategy Officer at Centrify. We believe our position in the Leaders quadrant validates the flexibility of our cloud-architected SaaS-based solution for modern PAM. Furthermore, our rich history in Active Directory bridging, as well as our support for modern cloud identity infrastructures that empower federated access, are at the core of our Identity-Centric PAM approach.

Over the past few years, it has become evident that privileged credentials are the enabling targets that cyberattackers are after, evidenced by Centrify research that shows nearly three-quarters of all data breaches involve access to a privileged account. Concurrently, digital transformation has significantly expanded the IT landscape and increased the number of potential vulnerabilities that can be exploited by threat actors. The increase in cyberattacks and the expanding attack surface that now includes cloud, DevOps, containers, microservices, and more has made securing access to the modern IT estate more challenging than ever.

Centrify believes a more modern approach is required, which reduces the reliance on shared passwords in a vault and instead grants least privilege based on individual identities, whether they are human or machine. By taking an Identity-Centric approach to PAM, privileged users log in as themselves and the concept of least privilege can be enforced to only permit just enough, just-in-time (JIT) privileged access.

Our interpretation of our placement for Completeness of Vision is that it validates that we are taking a different approach to Privileged Access Management that is cloud-first, and centered around identity as the key to authentication, privileged access controls, and zero standing privilege, McNeely continued.

Centrify was also named a Leader in the inaugural 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management. Gartner named Privileged Account Management as one of the Top 10 Security Projects for 2019.

Get a complimentary copy of the report from Centrify to learn more about Gartners evaluations: https://www.centrify.com/lp/gartner-mq-privileged-access-management/.

*Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management, Felix Gaehtgens, Abhyuday Data, Michael Kelley, 4 August 2020.

Required Disclaimer:

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Centrify

Centrify is redefining the legacy approach to Privileged Access Management by delivering multi-cloud-architected Identity-Centric PAM to enable digital transformation at scale. Centrify Identity-Centric PAM establishes trust, and then grants least privilege access just-in-time based on verifying who is requesting access, the context of the request, and the risk of the access environment. Centrify centralizes and orchestrates fragmented identities, improves audit and compliance visibility, and reduces risk, complexity, and costs for the modern, hybrid enterprise. Over half of the Fortune 100, the worlds largest financial institutions, intelligence agencies, and critical infrastructure companies, all trust Centrify to stop the leading cause of breaches  privileged credential abuse.

Centrify is a registered trademark of Centrify Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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Encryption is an obscure but critical part of everyday life. That padlock in the address bar of the website youre visiting represents the s after http  which stands for the latest version of Transport Layer Security (TLS). Together with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), which TLS replaced, these digital security technologies allow encrypted communication between two parties, such as web sites or servers, and web browsers.

Like the Internet itself, these technologies were breakthroughs when conceived. Whereas previously, encrypted secure communication required a physical exchange of keys, the new approaches allowed secure communication between parties unknown to each other.

Public-key cryptography, also described as asymmetric encryption, did so through a pair of keys: one public, which can be shared widely, and the other private, which is kept secret.

Common deployments of public key infrastructure (PKI) leverage the Diffie-Hellman key exchange, which stands behind the secure icon in your browsers address bar; and the RSA algorithm, which is named after its inventors: Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman.

Both of those algorithms originated in the 1970s.

Attribute-Based Encryption: A Brief History

Cryptography is a highly mathematical and esoteric discipline, but most tech-savvy readers have at least a passing familiarity with TLS or SSL. Many have worked at companies that require the use of RSA SecureID authentication tokens (the inventors of the RSA algorithm also set up a company with same the three-letter name.) Less well known is the story of how this field has evolved behind the scenes over the past few decades, and what new approaches are on the horizon.

Public keys were a leap forward, but challenges in managing them led one of the RSA founders, Adi Shamir, to introduce in 1984 the idea of identity-based encryption (IBE). Seven years later, another cryptographer, Stanford University Professor Dan Boneh, proposed a practical implementation of IBE using a variant of the computational Diffie-Hellman problem (cryptographic systems are based upon mathematical problems that are very difficult to solve). This proposal advanced the cause; yet it relied upon a private key generator (PKG) which created certain drawbacks, especially for general use.

In 2005, Amit Sahai, Symantec Chair professor of computer science at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and director of the Center for Encrypted Functionalities, and Brent Waters, professor of computer science at University of Texas at Austin and distinguished scientist at NTT Research (then at Princeton), approached the idea from another angle.

In a paper titled Fuzzy Identity-Based Encryption, they suggested  and proved  that a secure system was possible using multiple private keys with a single public key. The paper also introduced a class of IBE in which public keys were defined in terms of attributes. In what became known as attribute-based encryption (ABE), decisions to decrypt turned on policies rather than individual identities.

The paper proved influential. Building upon it, in particular with the idea of designating sets of attributes as private, the authors later proposed the broader concept of Functional Encryption (FE). While FE remains in development, ABE has gained speed. In 2018 the European standards body ETSI issued specifications for using ABE to secure access control. Meanwhile, in April 2020, the scientific organization that hosted the conference at which the original Sahai-Waters paper was presented gave it a Test of Time award.

ABE Use Cases

To better appreciate how ABE would differ from the status quo, lets look at some examples.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Consider a document that needs to be locked down, with limited access. It could be classified intelligence, privileged client information, health care data, intellectual property, etc. In this case, a trusted server is typically used to store the data. To access the document, you connect with the server and display credentials. The server delivers all the data in the clear to you if, and only if your credentials match with the data access policy. This is the classic all-or-nothing model, typically aimed toward a single recipient. It remains the prevailing paradigm.

But about that trusted server, for instance, one with a TLS certificate. Unfortunately, server corruption occurs, making trust more difficult to assume. Corruption comes in various forms: an operator or owner of a third-party cloud server may want to read your data; the operator may be honest but is using hacked software; or the operator may have discarded the physical storage medium, which a bad actor then found and exploited.

Suppose, on the other hand, that the document was encrypted such that it could be stored on an untrusted server. What if the use of retrieved data or files occurred when you  or others with privileges  applied cryptographic keys based on a set of attributes?

Imagine access moved from the realm of software engineering into mathematics, based on the attributes that you and possibly others have, not simply your identity. Attributes could involve belonging to a particular department for a certain amount of time; or being part of a budgeting group within the CFOs office. That is the kind of enhanced efficiency, security and utility that ABE offers.

Take another scenario involving a ridesharing app. Today the company stores your credit card and personally identifiable information (PII) on a trusted server, accessing it when needed to complete a verified transaction or to use for other authorized purposes.

Within an ABE framework, the company could also encrypt sensitive information and tag it with attributes of the GPS location of the ride, time and drivers name. Then it could decide how much access to grant employees. Say a policy allows them to read all data that, (1) exists within a certain GPS bounding box of the region and, (2) was created after the employees were hired into their position. The data becomes at once more usable and secure, being subjected to both flexible policies and restricted access.

The Case for ABE and Standards

Are there barriers to deploying ABE? One technical factor involves speed. The time it takes to decrypt data within ABE can take 20 times longer than in standard decryption, depending on the size of policies. However, context here is important. This difference could be on the scale of one millisecond of latency vs. 20 milliseconds, which is undetectable by a user.

A more general rule is that innovation itself takes time. While ABE was first proposed in 2005, context matters. The world has moved beyond the one-to-one, browser-to-website paradigm. In 2018, with 5G, highly distributed IoT systems and recent European privacy laws in mind, the ETSI Technical Committee on Cybersecurity issued two specifications for applying ABE to protect personal data with fine-tuned access controls:

ETSI TS 103 458, which codifies the high-level requirements for applying ABE for personal identifiable information (PII) and personal data protection in four use cases: IoT devices, wireless LANs, cloud and mobile services.

ETSI TS 103 532, which addresses an ABE toolkit, trust models, procedures for distributing attributes and keys and an attribute-based access control layer.

According to the ETSI press release at the time, a standard using ABE has several advantages. In the first place, it offers greater security, because ABE enforces access control at a cryptographic (mathematical) level, it provides better security assurance than software-based solutions. At the same time, ABE is space-efficient, requiring only one ciphertext to handle access control needs of any given data set.

An ABE-based standard also intrinsically supports privacy. It provides an efficient, secure-by-default access control mechanism for data protection that avoids binding access to a persons name, but instead to pseudonymous or anonymous attributes. Both of the ETSI specifications enable compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

The standards organization described this new scheme as especially relevant in an IoT world, where data are widely distributed yet access must be limited: ABE offers an interoperable, highly scalable mechanism for industrial scenarios where quick, offline access control is a must, and where operators need to access data both in a synchronous manner from the equipment as well as from a larger pool of data in the cloud.

Finally, the fine-tuning enabled by ABE allows for introducing access control policies after data has been protected, which provides forward-compatibility with future business and legal requirements.

Security Plus Utility

Whether or how soon a new encryption scheme comes to a device near you, one takeaway here is that cryptography is far from a static field.

As a final note, apart from ABE, work on FE is also advancing. The Functional Encryption Technologies project (FENTEC), funded by the EUs Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, is pressing ahead to develop new FE as an efficient alternative to the all-or-nothing approach of traditional encryption. In academics, the Center for Encrypted Functionalities, which Amit Sahai directs at UCLA, continues to advance the underlying mathematics behind both FE and ABE.

To users of encryption, little appears to have changed, even as cybersecurity threats continue undiminished. In academic labs and R&D shops, however, cryptographers have been busy. Ongoing work surrounding ABE and FE aims to enhance security and privacy, without sacrificing functionalities.

Indeed, the goal is that heightened security can coexist with even more efficiency, flexibility and utility.
Red Bull is not joining the five teams vowing to appeal the outcome of the 'pink Mercedes' protest.

Racing Point team owner Lawrence Stroll - who normally keeps an extremely low media profile - has lashed out at the four teams who think the EUR 400,000 fine and 15 deducted points penalty is not severe enough.

"I don't often speak publicly, but I am extremely angry at any suggestion we have been underhand or have cheated - particularly those comments coming from our competitors," the billionaire said at Silverstone.

"I have never cheated at anything in my life. I am appalled by the way Renault, McLaren, Ferrari and Williams have taken this opportunity to appeal. They are dragging our name through the mud and I will not stand by nor accept this."

Stroll said he will vigorously defend the appeal in court, with his Aston Martin business partner Toto Wolff saying on Sunday that the Canadian intends to use "all resources" to clear the team's name.

The FIA confirmed that "five teams" have indicated their intention to appeal, including Racing Point which wants to clear its name.

When asked about Stroll's anger, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto said emotion should be left out of it.

"For us the facts are obvious," he said. "It's not about being angry or furious. We are all rivals and everyone is looking for their own interests.

"We believe that the penalty is not adequate," Binotto added.

It is also clear that Ferrari is not only concerned about Racing Point's actions, but also the team alleged to have helped the pink team to 'copy' the title-winning car of 2019 - Mercedes.

"The violation is like copying homework," Binotto told Sky Italia. "There are those who copy and those who pass it on."

Meanwhile, Red Bull will not be joining the anti-Racing Point appeal - presumably because it is keen to do the same sort of thing with its junior team Alpha Tauri for 2021.

When asked about the appeal, Dr Helmut Marko said simply: "No, we will not appeal."

(GMM)
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Sydneysiders are bracing for wild weather on Monday after New South Wales' south coast was drenched by up to 300mm of rain - forcing residents living in tents in bushfire-affected towns to evacuate.

A severe flood warning is in place for coastal regions of Sydney and the Hunter region with winds expected to exceed 90km/h as a low pressure trough moves northwards through the state.

Photos of Hurstville in Sydney's south showed cars crushed by falling trees while emergency crews worked through the night to clear the scene.

The NSW State Emergency Service issued three evacuation orders late on Sunday night for the south coast covering nearly a dozen major population centres including Moruya, Nowra and Sussex Inlet.

Mark Ethell, an evacuated resident from the Moruya Waterfront Hotel, told Channel Nine he was afraid of the impact flooding could have on his community still reeling from the bushfire season.

'I'm actually concerned for a lot of the people that have been through the fires, the COVID,' he said.

'They're living in tents, they're actually living in caravans right now and a lot of our low-lying areas around town. It's going to be pretty hard.'

The Shoalhaven River at Nowra - the largest town in the City of Shoalhaven region - is predicted to peak near 4.4m about 1pm on Monday with authorities warning of 'major flooding'.

About 6pm on Sunday, the body of a missing kayaker was pulled from Murrumbidgee River, south of Canberra, highlighting the dangers of getting caught out during the deluge.

The man was reported missing about 2pm after he was separated from his kayaking group amid rising river levels, torrential rain and increasingly difficult conditions. His kayak reportedly got caught under a bridge.

Scroll down for video

A car is pictured crushed by a fallen tree in Hurstville in Sydney's south. A severe flood warning is also in place for coastal regions of the Harbour City as a trough which has already dumped 300mm of rain on parts of the south coast moves northwards

New South Wales State Emergency Service workers cut up parts of a tree which fell on a ute in Hurstville. Winds exceeding 90km/h expected as a trough moves northwards through the state

Wild weather in Kogarah, in southern Sydney, tore a tree out of the ground and left it lying across the roof of a suburban home

Pictured is the damaging weather system in satellite imagery shared by the Bureau of Meteorology moving north on Sunday evening

Cars were caught in rising waters in Canberra on Sunday (pictured). The SES has told residents in Queanbeyan in the Australian capital's eastern fringe the surging flood waters should not be considered a 'tourist attraction'

Mudslides filled with bushfire debris from the catastrophic blazes of the summer are also a cause for concern.

Residents have reported flash flooding, particularly along the Deua River, which peaked at eight metres on Sunday afternoon, and authorities are warning Monday's deluge could be even more catastrophic.

People in low lying areas of Sussex Inlet were told to evacuate with flood levels expected to damage properties.

The SES has received more than 1,000 calls for help as of Monday morning.

Most of the calls came from within Greater Sydney - many of which were related to falling trees crushing roofs, blocking roads and leaving Bankstown, Padstow and Revesby residents without electricity for several hours before emergency crews restored power.

The torrential downpour has left waterfront homes in Wamberal, about 100 kilometres north of Sydney, facing collapse after a weekend of heavy surf.

Pictured: Rescue crews saving two horses amid rising flood levels in Canberra, as a kayaker's body is pulled from a stream

A catchment area in ACT was overflowing at the weekend as torrential rain lashed the territory, causing flash flooding

Up to 200mm of rain fell on the burnt-out town of Moruya on the south coast of NSW on Sunday as residents in low lying areas were urged to evacuate and seek higher ground

Canberra suffered extreme and torrential rain on Sunday. Pictured: A car is pictured submerged in the rising floodwaters

Meanwhile, waterfront homes in Wamberal, north of Sydney, have been hit by major erosion after a weekend of wild weather

NSW Transport Minister and Bega MP Andrew Constance said the heavy rain was the latest challenge to face the region after bushfires ravaged the state's south coast last summer.

'There was 260mm of rain in some areas over the past three days... It has caused extensive damage, a lot of infrastructure takes a lot of battering,' he told 2GB's Ben Fordham.

Sussex Inlet was forecast to rise to 1.2m with the high tide on Sunday night and the nearby river at Island Point Road expected to peak around 1.3m later on Sunday, causing minor flooding.

Torrential rain has pummeled the south coast of New South Wales in particular, but also in Perth - where the downpour has been accompanied by powerful winds (pictured)

Cars were struggling to make it through flood waters on Sunday following torrential rain

People made a mad dash in the rain on Sunday night, carrying umbrellas

Roads were inundated with water both in NSW and ACT (pictured). SES warned residents who chose to remain in their properties that they may get stuck

People who can't stay with family and friends have been advised to go to the Sussex Inlet Police Station to register for emergency accommodation.

Anyone who chooses to stay behind after the evacuation orders were put in place faces being stranded, with authorities warning they may not be able to rescue all those who are trapped.

Similar warnings were distributed during the fire season, when the NSW Rural Fire Service warned they simply didn't have the resources to return to previously evacuated communities.

Flood waters were rising on Sunday, leading the SES to urge residents in parts of the south coast to evacuate their homes

By Sunday evening, that evacuation order was updated to include Terara, East Nowra, Worrigee and North Nowra

Sussex Inlet is forecast to rise to 1.2m with the high tide on Sunday night and the nearby river at Island Point Road is expected to peak around 1.3m later on Sunday causing minor flooding

Ovals and drains were also submerged in water from the extreme weather conditions in Berry on Saturday

SES Commissioner Carlene York noted the ground across parts of the south coast has become unstable as a result of last summer's bushfires, urging residents to be alert for landslides and fallen trees.

More than 20 homes at Broughton Vale near Berry were also cut off by floodwater.

The SES has meanwhile told residents in Queanbeyan in Canberra's eastern fringe the surging flood waters should not be considered a 'tourist attraction' after they flocked to the river edge to watch its level rise.

'We are very disappointed to see the amount of people at the waters edge and even on occasion in the water, sometimes in the company of children. This is irresponsible and needs to stop please,' the SES said in a Facebook post.

They warned that while the water 'may look calm on the surface' that 'large debris and other items' lurked below which 'pose serious risk of injury'.

'We implore the community to please maintain their distance and let us do what we need to do to keep you safe. You can still see the river from many safer vantage points then right next to it,' they said.

'We have engaged the help of the Monaro Police District to ensure people are staying back.'

Roads were left damaged and covered in water, rubble and fallen trees when flash flooding subsided in parts of NSW

SES workers spoke with residents as they urged them to take extra precautions or evacuate

Bureau of Meteorology senior flood hydrologist Justin Robinson said heavy rains were expected to ease on the south coast later on Sunday and move towards Sydney, the Central Coast and possibly into the Hunter.

'Hopefully over the next 24 hours the worst of the weather will be over,' he said.

Flood warnings associated with the weather system have also been issued for the Queanbeyan, Molonglo and Snowy rivers.

In total, more than 300mm of rain fell across the south coast during the weekend.

The low will continue to ravage the Australian Capital Territory as the week progresses, BoM forecasters warn.

Sheep graziers have been warned to pay extra attention to their sheep during the cold snap on Monday, as plunging temperatures increase the risk of losses, particularly with lambs.

Temperatures will drop as low as 3C on Monday and peak at 13C as showers are forecast throughout the day.

By Tuesday, temperatures could plunge to as low was -2C.

A telegraph pole is seen with water rushing past it in Berry as the popular tourist South Coast town suffers horrific rainfall

SES workers are pictured walking through flood waters after torrential rain fell in the ACT

Horses had to be rescued from a paddock which was inundated in the downpour

Shoalhaven Zoo received a drenching on Sunday, revealing two of their more heavy animals had become stranded in the rain

Meanwhile on the other side of the country in Perth, trees crashed into homes and cars as wild weather battered the city on Sunday.

A severe weather warning was issued from Carnavorn to Albany as wind gusts of 110km/h swept across the coast.

More than 3,000 properties were left without power on Sunday.

Heavy rainfall, which could lead to flash flooding, has been forecast throughout south-eastern parts of the state and coastal regions.

Perth is set to receive a month's worth of rain in just four days as a monster cold front brought in the first of the rains from Sunday.

Parts of the state recorded as much as 45mm on Sunday, with 35mm forecast for Monday and 10mm for Tuesday and Wednesday.

One couple were seen holding hands as they trudged through the water just to cross the road as the town was battered by intense rainfall in Berry on Saturday

Footage shows cars struggling to make their way through roads that were completely submerged in brown water in Berry on NSW's South Coast on Saturday

Horses had to be rescued from a paddock near Canberra by SES workers which was completely drenched in the downpour
Cement export from Bangladesh begins in July

10 August 2020

Bangladesh's cement industry has earned export revenue of US$0.53m in July 2020, the first month of FY20-21, compared to US$0.66m bagged in July 2019. The weak start at the beginning of the new fiscal year reflects the fall in exports by 20 per cent over the year-ago period. The figure also includes a minor amount of salt, stone and related products, says data of Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).



The export value for cement decreased by 37 per cent, underperforming when compared with the government target of US$0.84m set for July 2020.

Meanwhile, the EPB has set an advanced export target for the cement industry at US$10m for FY20-21 (July 2020-June 2021) compared to US$9.14m for the previous fiscal year, following a decrease of cement export earnings in past years.



The country's total export earnings from other merchandise shipments witnessed a 0.59 per cent growth in FY20-21, despite the impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The aggregate export earnings on July 2020 stood at US$3.91bn, against US$3.887bn earnings of the corresponding month of last fiscal, according to the EPB data. The government has set an export-earning target of US$41bn from goods in the current fiscal year (FY20-21). The export earnings in the last fiscal year (FY19-20) totalled US$33.67bn.



Bangladesh cement producers export cement to overseas markets including India, Myanmar, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka.

Published under
Seoul: The Red Cross has trained 43,000 North Korean volunteers to help communities, including the locked-down city of Kaesong, fight the novel coronavirus and provide flood assistance, an official with the relief organisation said on Monday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared an emergency last month and imposed a lockdown on Kaesong, near the inter-Korean border, after a man who defected to the South in 2017 returned to the city showing coronavirus symptoms.

An employee disinfects a treadmill at the Ryugyong Health Complex in Pyongyang, North Korea. Credit:AP

Heavy rain and flooding in recent days have also sparked concern about crop damage and food supplies in the isolated country.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has built an extensive network of North Korean volunteers to help residents in all nine provinces to avoid the virus and reduce damage from floods and landslides, spokesman Antony Balmain said.
The National Weather Service has confirmed that tornadoes touched down in Bucks and Montgomery counties during Tuesdays storm.

The weather service office in Mount Holly, New Jersey, said more details would be provided later such as the strength and exact location of the storms, which were among six that struck the region. Tornadoes also touched down in Ocean and Cape May counties in New Jersey, Kent and New Castle Counties in Delaware and Queen Annes County, Maryland.

In Bucks County on Tuesday, high winds partially tore the roof off a day care center on the grounds of a suburban Philadelphia hospital, injuring four children. 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, and overturned and moved around 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.

An eastern Pennsylvania coroner on Wednesday released the name of a woman who died after her vehicle was swept away by floodwaters. The Lehigh County coroners office said 44-year-old Yesenia Then of Allentown was pronounced dead just before 4:30 p.m. Tuesday after her vehicle entered high water in Upper Saucon Township and was swept downstream. An autopsy is slated Thursday.

Tens of thousands of electric customers remained without power in the Philadelphia suburbs, with PECO reporting more than 55,000 customers without power in Chester County, more than 32,500 in Bucks County and more than 10,500 in Montgomery County

Regional rail service was suspended Wednesday in Philadelphia after the storm raised the Schuylkill River and sent an unsecured construction barge into a bridge. The barge came to a rest against the Vine Street Expressway Bridge. Inspectors were checking for damage.

The bridge is upstream from a SEPTA rail bridge at 30th Street. The commuter bus and rail agency said is suspended all regional rail service out of an abundance of caution until the barge was secured or crossed under the bridge. Interstate 676, which crosses the bridge, also was closed in both directions.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Windstorm Pennsylvania
Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced his government's resignation Monday under a barrage of pressure over the catastrophic Beirut port explosion six days earlier that has reignited angry street protests.

"I announce the resignation of the government," Diab said at the end of a televised speech in which he tried to portray himself also as a victim of a corrupt political elite.

The announcement was met with cars honking in the streets and celebratory fire in the northern city of Tripoli but it was unlikely to meet long-term expectations of Lebanese.

Even as Diab spoke, security forces in central Beirut clashed for a third night with protesters demanding an end to an entrenched political system widely seen as inept, corrupt and dominated by sectarian interests and family dynasties.

France, whose President Emmanuel Macron visited Beirut after the blast, called for the "rapid formation" of a new government.

"The aspirations expressed by the Lebanese in terms of reforms and governance must be heard," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said, adding that a new government would have to "prove itself" to the people.

According to the health ministry, at least 160 people were killed in Lebanon's worst peacetime disaster, 6,000 injured and about 20 remained missing after the August 4 disaster blamed on official negligence.

Almost a week after the enormous chemical blast that wreaked destruction across swathes of the capital and was felt as far away as Cyprus, residents and volunteers were still clearing the debris off the streets Monday.

International rescue teams with sniffer dogs and specialised equipment remained at work at the disaster's charred "ground zero", where the search has turned to one for bodies rather than survivors.

The Lebanese have been left asking how a massive stockpile of volatile ammonium nitrate, a compound used primarily as a fertiliser, was left unsecured at the port for years.

Story continues

Top officials have promised a swift and thorough investigation -- but they have stopped short of agreeing to an independent probe led by foreign experts as demanded by the protesters.

- Violent protests -

The outgoing government is now due to stay on in a caretaker capacity, and fresh elections could still be months away.

Before Diab's announcement, four ministers had already decided they could no longer serve a government that has shown little willingness to take the blame or to put state resources at the service of the victims.

At least nine lawmakers have also announced they would quit in protest, as have two senior members of the Beirut municipality.

The blast, which drew comparisons with an atomic bomb, was so enormous that it altered the shape of not only Beirut's culture, whose masters are widely seen as bent on self-preservation and buck-passing.

But it remained to be seen whether the disaster will also have a lasting impact on Lebanon's entrenched post-war political culture.

Diab on Monday blamed the blast on corruption by former warlords from the 1975-1990 civil war who have exchanged their military fatigues for suits, or were replaced by relatives.

"Their corruption created this tragedy," said Diab. "Between us and change stands a thick wall protected by their dirty tactics."

During consecutive evenings of protests, the rage sparked by the explosion that disfigured Beirut and scarred so many of its residents had not relented.

"The resignation of ministers is not enough. Those who are responsible for the explosion should be held accountable," Michelle, a demonstrator in her early twenties, said on Sunday night.

- 'Direct' aid -

Demonstrators said security forces had been using tear gas against blast victims instead of helping them clean their wrecked homes and find a roof.

"We need an international investigation and trial to tell us who killed our friends and all the other victims," said Michelle.

Macron supported the idea when he visited last Thursday, but his calls for reform and transparency appeared to receive less attention among Lebanese officialdom than his offer to raise aid money.

An online emergency support conference Macron chaired Sunday, attended virtually by a slew of world leaders including US President Donald Trump, came up with pledges for more than 250 million euros.

Macron, who was given a hero's welcome when he trudged through the rubble of ravaged old Beirut to meet distressed residents, stressed the aid would go "directly" to the population.

Many Lebanese are sceptically waiting to see how the aid delivery will navigate a sophisticated and deeply entrenched system of local and sectarian patronage organised by political party barons.

The Beirut disaster compounded what has become Lebanon's annus horribilis, deepening a dire economic crisis which had dragged half of the country into poverty in past months.

The obliteration of the port and its huge grain silos in a country hugely reliant on imports has sparked fears of food shortages in coming weeks.

Adding to Lebanon's woes, coronavirus cases are reaching new highs almost every day, putting further strain on hospitals that are treating blast victims and the dozens wounded in the repression of the protests.

bur-jmm-ho/hc
Netizens have hailed Shanghai police for fining a pet owner who abandoned his elderly dog and refused to retrieve it and said they hope such rules will be extended to more parts of the country.

Many internet users said such administrative penalties could lead more people to be more cautious before deciding to own a pet, and the rule showed that Shanghai was a pioneer in the country in terms of animal protection.

"Dogs are sometimes more than a family member. We share a decade with them, but they accompany us their entire life," said a micro blog user going by the name of Xingyun from Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

However, some said the 500 yuan ($72) fine that the pet owner received, the first imposed in Shanghai, was far from a deterrent.

"Moreover, I suggest those abandoning their dogs should be blacklisted and permanently barred from owning a pet," a micro blog user from Nanjing, Jiangsu province, said.

In 2011, the Shanghai Municipal Regulations on the Administration of Dog Keeping began requiring all pet dogs to be vaccinated and registered with the police.

The regulation was revised after five years, specifying that abandoning pet dogs was illegal. Violators would face fines of between 500 yuan and 2,000 yuan, their dog registration certificates would be revoked and they would not be allowed to apply for another certificate for five years.

On July 28, passersby saw a small, brown injured dog with scars left from a roadside accident lying on the sidewalk at the crossroads of Dongfang Road and Longyang Road in Pudong district. The dog had a collar, indicating that it had an owner.

Concerned residents sent the dog to a pet clinic. Vets said the dog was nearly 10 years old and suffered from a fractured pelvis and diseases commonly seen in elderly dogs. The clinic got in touch with the dog's owner, but the owner said that he had abandoned it.

The clinic then turned to police for help.

Police called the dog owner, surnamed Wu. He was informed of the dog's condition and told to pick it up and bring it home. But Wu, who is in his 60s, said he had decided to abandon the dog because he had recently moved and the dog was in its twilight years.

On July 30, police went to Wu's home to speak with him again, but he refused to take the dog back. Police then decided to penalize him.

The dog later died from its diseases. The police did not disclose its gender or age.

A similar regulation in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, that took effect in 2009 stipulated that dog owners who mistreat or abandon their pets will be fined between 1,000 yuan and 2,000 yuan.
Golden Ocean Group Limited (the Company) announces that its 2020 Annual General Meeting will be held on August 31, 2020. A copy of the Notice of Annual General Meeting and associated information including the Company`s Consolidated Financial Statements on Form 20-F for 2019 can be found on our website at www.goldenocean.bm and in the links below.

August 10, 2020

The Board of Directors

Golden Ocean Group Limited

Hamilton, Bermuda

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act

Attachments
On Monday (August 10, 2020), actress Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik Chakraborty visited the Enforcement Directorate's office in Mumbai for the second round of questioning in the money laundering case linked to Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death.

Besides the brother-sister duo, Rhea's father Indrajit Chakraborty was also probed by the ED in connection with the money laundering case. As per a PTI report, Shruti Modi, the business manager of Ms Chakraborty and Mr Rajput, is also at the ED's office. Sushant's friend and flatmate Siddharth Pithani arrived at the ED office around 2:35 pm.

As per reports, the Enforcement Directorate is investigating Rhea's income, investments, business and professional deals. Quoting unnamed ED officials, a PTI report stated that the ED wants more answers from Rhea over alleged mismatch between her income, expenditure and investments.

The report also stated that a property in Mumbai's Khar neighbourhood and another in Navi Mumbai, both linked to the actress, are under the scanner.

Earlier, while speaking with Pinkvilla, Rhea's lawyer Satish Maneshinde had said that the Jalebi actress has nothing to hide and she will cooperate with the police and ED investigations.

For those who don't know, late actor Sushant Singh Rajput's father KK Singh had filed an FIR against Rhea Chakraborty and her family in Patna under various sections including abetment to suicide. He had also accused them of cheating and siphoning funds from Sushant's bank accounts.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will be hearing Rhea's transfer plea on August 11, 2020. The actress had filed a plea seeking transfer of the FIR in Sushant's death case from Patna to Mumbai. On August 5, the SC had asked all the three parties (Mumbai police, Bihar police and Sushant's father) to file their replies within 3 days.

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

ALSO READ: Sushant's Sister Counters Rhea's WhatsApp Chat Revelations; 'He Was Closest To His Sister Priyanka'

ALSO READ: Sushant's Friend Kushal Zaveri Takes A Dig At Sanjana Sanghi; Says She Was Quick To Reply To Kangana
The board of directors of data and analytics firm CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX) has called a special meeting of shareholders for November 17, 2020 to consider the replacement of up to nine directors with nominees chosen by the two firms looking to buy out CoreLogic.

The board called the special meeting after bidders Senator Investment Group and Cannae Holdings Inc. said they intended to solicit consents from other shareholders in connection with requesting a meeting.

In order to remove uncertainty for our shareholders, the board has scheduled the meeting so that Senator and Cannae will have no reason to continue the convoluted two-step solicitation process they are now pursuing, CoreLogic Chairman Paul Folino said in a statement.

Last month, after the CoreLogic rejected their $7 billion proposal to take it private, Senator and Cannae said they would solicit support from fellow shareholders to replace nine of the 12 directors. The firms had said they were also prepared to call a special meeting to replace the board if the company didnt engage in talks.

Cannae and Senator maintain they own a 15% stake in CoreLogic, including stock and options. However, they accused CoreLogics board of increasing the share count to dilute their holdings to 9.9%, which is below the shares needed to call a meeting, and adopting a poison pill to delay them calling a meeting.

The planned consent solicitation was aimed at reaching the 10% threshold needed for a meeting to replace the majority of the 12-member board.

California-based CoreLogics board said it continues to believe their unsolicited proposal to acquire CoreLogic at $65 per share is significantly undervalued -directors are confident shareholders will agree.

In our view, their call to replace the CoreLogic board is an attempt to distract from their failure to put forward a proposal that appropriately values CoreLogic.

The special meeting agenda will also include amendments to CoreLogics bylaws that Senator and Cannae indicated they intended to propose.

Topics Mergers
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- This time it only took six months of haggling and five missed deadlines, but Latin Americas best known recidivist borrower  nine sovereign debt defaults since independence and 20 International Monetary Fund bailouts  has finally come to terms with the foreign holders of its bonds. And for Argentina, which has spent one of every three years in recession since 1950, the new deal, signed Aug. 4, may once again prove to be the easy part.

President Alberto Fernandez and his economy minister Martin Guzman deserve plaudits for keeping the talks for rescheduling $65 billion in foreign debt civil and on topic  with remarkably little pushback from alpha Peronist and Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Recall 2014 and 2015, when Fernandez de Kirchner (no relation to Alberto) was running the country and made a point of turning debt negotiations into a passion play.

Yet decorum isnt deliverance, and to honor the agreement with private lenders Fernandez not only must convince the countrys biggest creditor, the International Monetary Fund, to reschedule $44 billion in loans, but sell his own recession-battered compatriots on the inevitable sacrifices and unpalatable political changes required to return Argentina to solvency and growth.

Three years into a deepening economic contraction, Argentina has fallen hard. It earned the second lowest score on Bloomberg LPs latest misery index, with around 40% of the population living in poverty. Locked down since March, the pandemic-smothered economy is set to contract by as much as 13% this year. The IMF says it will take $55 billion to $85 billion in debt relief to see Argentina through the next decade.

This combination of afflictions has bought Argentina some indulgence and may have helped grease the way to a debt deal. Argentina will have four years to start paying off its pared down debt, and many analysts foresee the IMF agreeing to reschedule the loan to its biggest debtor. Nonetheless, the Funds imprimatur will come with conditions.

Story continues

Guzman deserves applause but the question is, what will he do with the breathing room hes won for Argentina? said Adriana Dupita at Bloomberg Economics. One major unanswered dilemma: How to manage the 70% of national debt denominated in dollars at a time Argentina has been all but shut out of foreign capital markets? Hell have to bring the economy back to growth and to do that will require reducing inefficient public spending and take on structural reforms.

Its hard to know where to start. Even before this years compound emergencies, Argentina was a global straggler. It earned the World Economic Forums lowest rank for economic competitiveness among the Group of 20 countries and placed an underwhelming 83 out of 141 countries worldwide. Dont count on much relief from the governments proposed judicial reform, which critics suspect is designed to shield Fernandez de Kirchner from numerous criminal charges such as money laundering. The Casa Rosadas attempt to nationalize financially troubled soy crushing giant Vicentin in June didnt help; although a judge, overruled the takeover, Fernandez declared that nationalization is still on the table.

Multinational companies are pulling up stakes. Latam airlines recently announced it was ending domestic flights in Argentina, and Covid-19 was only part of the problem. Spiking operating costs due to onerous taxes, chronic labor disputes and low productivity by flight crews had inflated operating costs to the breaking point, Bloomberg News reported. Perhaps its no surprise that many Argentine companies are weighing relocation across the border to more business-friendly Uruguay. Argentina has become a very hostile place to invest with an out of control executive that seeks to expropriate businesses and the governing Peronist coalition threatening further expropriations, said Nicolas Saldias, a political analyst at the Wilson Centers Argentine Project.

Argentina isnt a poor country, just a mismanaged one, chronically squandering the countrys enviable human capital and enterprise. The high tax burden, low productivity and protectionism have delivered years of underinvestment and boom and bust, Alberto Ramos, a senior economist at Goldman Sachs told me. Whats needed are structural reforms.

Mauricio Macri surged into office five years ago on precisely that promise  fiscal consolidation, streamlining public spending and taxes, and opening the economy. Macri was not wrong. While it has taken time, these policy efforts are starting to bear fruit, the IMF declared in its fourth review under the Argentine Standby agreement 13 months ago. Financial markets have stabilized, the fiscal and external positions are improving, and the economy is beginning a gradual recovery from last years recession. The Fund is strongly supportive of these important policy efforts.

That was then. Instead of transformational reform, Macri delivered gradualism and half measures, with the prostrate economy setting up the rival Peronists for a triumphant return. Will Fernandez take up that vital if politically toxic unfinished agenda? Dont hold your breath.

The rest of Fernandezs term will be damage control, said Bruno Binetti, who teaches poltical science at the Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires. What we might see is Fernandez justifying necessary spending cuts and reforms by transferring the blame to the pandemic or to Macri. The deflection may already have begun. A pandemic without the virus, is how Fernandez recently described his predecessors policy bequest as his own sky high approval ratings began to slip. Whether such partisan cant will persuade his crisis-weary compatriots is another matter.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Mac Margolis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Latin and South America. He was a reporter for Newsweek and is the author of The Last New World: The Conquest of the Amazon Frontier.

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

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2020 Bloomberg L.P.
New Delhi, Aug 10 : The Congress will constitute a three-member committee to look after the grievances of sulking Congress leader Sachin Pilot, who met Rahul Gandhi on Monday.

The party said that the two leaders held a frank, open and conclusive discussion.

In a statement, party General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal said, "Congress President Sonia Gandhi has decided that the AICC will constitute a three-member committee to address the issues raised by Sachin Pilot, the aggrieved MLA, and arrive at an appropriate resolution thereof." "Sachin Pilot has met former Congress President Rahul Gandhi and expressed his grievances in detail. They have had a frank, open and conclusive discussion. Sachin Pilot has committed to working in the interest of the Congress party and the Congress government in Rajasthan," said the statement.

The Congress had sacked Pilot as Deputy Chief Minister and Rajasthan Congress President. So far, Gehlot has stayed put as the Chief Minister amid claims and counter-claims on attempts to poach MLAs.

The development comes after Rahul Gandhi met Sachin Pilot on Monday. The duo had a meeting in presence of Priyanka Gandhi and then both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi drove from Rahul Gandhi's residence to 10 Janpath, where all the three, including Sonia Gandhi, discussed the issue.

Sources said that Congress has assured that Pilot's grievances will be addressed regarding Ashok Gehlot and Rajasthan politics. However, the party claims that previous status will be restored and his concerns will be sorted out.

While leaders from the Congress camp claimed that MLAs from the Pilot camp did not want to join the ranks, the negotiations started with the party and Pilot reapproached the senior leadership, including Ahmed Patel and Rahul Gandhi, and was taken into confidence for future action. After Rahul Gandhi said yes, the deal was sealed.
New Delhi:

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Friday warned that his speech in Parliament on demonetisation move by the Narendra Modi government will cause an 'earthquake'.

Rahul also said, "I want to say that Modi, in the whole of India, has indulged in the biggest scam. I want to talk about that."

The ruling BJP was quick to respond as party spokesperson Sambit Patra wrote on Twitter, "Those who were 'Epicentre' of SCAMS for last 60 years talk of 'Earthquake' today!!".

Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu took a jibe as he said, "May this quake happen when we are not present in parliament."

Watch video | Rahul Gandhi says his speech in Parliament will cause 'earthquake'

The Opposition and the ruling BJP has been at loggerheads over a demonetisation debate in Parliament. The Opposition members on Thursday observed a black day to mark the 30 days of demonetisation as they protested at the Parliament premises.

On November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the scrapping of old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes. While the move has been hailed by many, it has also led to cash crunch in the country.



For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Actor Dan Wyllie, star of TV drama Love My Way, will face court this week accused of a domestic violence assault on his wife at the pair's Woollahra home.

Mr Wyllie, 50, who has won a Silver Logie and appeared in series including Underbelly, Rake and Offspring, was arrested at Waverley police station on Saturday, "following an investigation by officers from the Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command into an alleged domestic violence assault", police said in a statement.

Charged: Dan Wyllie. Credit:Brendon Thorne

"He was charged with assault occasion actual bodily harm (DV) and common assault (DV)," police said.

Police have also been granted an apprehended violence order for the protection of Mr Wyllie's wife Shannon Murphy.
5 | India to get 100 million AstraZeneca's vaccine shots by December 2020, say Reports: With Covishield, the coronavirus vaccine candidate jointly developed by the University of Oxford and British firm AstraZeneca entering phase 3 trials, Serum Institute of India (SII) has started ramping up the production of the vaccine. The world's largest vaccine maker plans to have 100 million doses ready by December 2020 for an inoculation drive that could begin across India that same month, Bloomberg reported on November 13.

The Russian COVID-19 vaccine candidate, being jointly developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute and the countrys Defence Ministry, is set to get registered on August 12, reports suggest. This would be the first vaccine candidate against the novel coronavirus to get registered.

News reports quoted Russias Deputy Health Minister Oleg Gridnev as confirming that the development. The vaccine developed by the Gamaleya centre will be registered on August 12. At the moment, the last, third, stage is underway, Gridnev said.

The junior health minister said that medical professionals and senior citizens will be the first to get vaccinated. Mass production of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine is expected to begin in October.

This development comes days after the World Health Organization (WHO) warned Russian authorities to follow established guidelines for producing safe and effective vaccines. The warning came as Moscow moved swiftly to begin producing vaccine doses.

Follow our LIVE blog for the latest updates of the novel coronavirus pandemic

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

Dr Anthony Fauci, United States top infectious disease specialist, had also questioned the fast-track approach. I do hope that the Chinese and the Russians are actually testing a vaccine before they are administering the vaccine to anyone because claims of having a vaccine ready to distribute before you do testing I think is problematic at best," he said.

Gamaleyas candidate is a so-called viral vector vaccine which is based on human adenovirus fused with SARS CoV-2s spike protein to stimulate an immune response in the body. It is said to be similar to a vaccine candidate being developed by Chinas CanSino Biologics.

It was earlier reported that a number of individuals belonging to Russias political and business elite had been given early access to the experimental vaccine. Russian billionaires and government officials reportedly started getting shots of a potential vaccine as early as April.
My beloved nation of India has been on a rollercoaster ride since the beginning of the last decade.

When the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a parliamentary majority for the first time ever in 2014, the whole country, including the young population, was quite hopeful. The youth of the nation has its finger on the mouse of computers and is changing the world. Indias journey has gone from snake charmers to mouse charmers! said prime minister Narendra Modi during a keynote address at a top college in 2013. That particular speech was so powerful that it became Modis one-way ticket to winning the young hearts and their votes. However, the charm didnt last.

Six years into the Modi government, Indias youth appears to be amazingly baffled and disappointed. Honestly, why wouldnt they be? In the last 12 months alone, India has encountered the most ruthless type of riots in New Delhi where Hindu and Muslim mobs demonstrated their wrath, and innocent college students were beaten up mercilessly by the police. While Kashmir is still using 2G network, the rest of the country is planning for 5G, police brutality is at a record high, the countrys transgender rights bill has majorly disappointed the LGBT+ community, and multiple minority groups like Dalits are constantly being let down by the government.

Indias economy is breaking down at the speed of light, with 33 per cent youth unemployment. There are insufficient opportunities after graduation and the youngsters are being forced to work below minimum wage positions  and they only get that if theyre lucky. What young Indians want is pretty simple. They want the government to update the old law and enactments and utilise all the funds available in all the right places like healthcare, and education. Instead of spending over 25m on building statues, Gen Z and millennials want the government to invest in worthwhile areas, like the northeastern region of India that encounters dangerous floods every year, or the infrastructure and sanitation facilities of millions of hospitals, government schools and colleges all over the country.

It almost feels like the government doesnt want to help build the country up and move us in the right direction. Such a significant number of assets have been invested in initiatives that werent even needed. The governments decisions of answering to wants before needs are getting tiring and so many assets have likewise gone MIA because of corrupt officials. No one can blame the youngsters for taking to the streets and starting social media revolutions every now and then. An official YouGov-Mint-CPR Millennial Survey also states that the majority of the young population believes that Indias economy is going in the wrong direction and I cant help but concur.

As we enter a new decade, the main hope I have for my country is to truly push ahead, united, while making decisions that benefit more people. I wish for the administrative authorities to stop hiding information, and let the media and press carry out their responsibility of revealing whats truly going on.



Its high time that the ruling body starts listening to all the young Indians because not only are they the ones who have genuinely taken a stand about the vast majority of the pressing issues that need consideration, but they also have established that they are the future.

The old ways and ideologies dont work anymore, and its time to concede that reality.
The first flight from Moscow to Antalya since Russia and Turkey imposed border restrictions aid the coronavirus pandemic, took off late on Sunday. It was operated by Rossiya carrier.



A Boeing 747 plane was filled to capacity with all 522 tickets sold. On Monday, Russia restarts flights to Turkeys resort cities of Antalya, Bodrum and Dalaman. Within the day, flights to Antalya, Bodrum and Dalaman are also expected from Moscow, St. Petersburg and Rostov-on-Don.



This is a second stage in the reopening of international regular and charter flights from Russia suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. Fewer flights were also operated inside Russia, TASS reported.



Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Russia was scaling down international flights from February 1, while on March 27 all flights abroad were stopped with the exception of repatriation, cargo and post flights. On August 1, Russia restarted flights with the UK, Tanzania and Turkey. On August 15, flights between Russia and Switzerland will begin.



Upon the decision of the federal crisis management center, international flights can be operated from Moscow, St. Petersburg and the southern city of Rostov-on-Don.
CEDAR KNOLLS, N.J., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- During the Senate Labor Committee hearing this morning, Senate Bill 1957 received 100% support from the Senate Labor Committee. The Bill was introduced to the Senate on February 25, 2020, and a companion Bill was introduced in the Assembly on March 16, 2020.

The Bill calls for $1.5 million of already allocated DOL Workforce Development funds to be dedicated to the Workforce Development Partnership Fund reserved to support this initiative to train unemployed and underemployed workers for jobs in manufacturing. This initiative is designed to stimulate job growth  especially in underserved communities, including to industries re-engineering to make PPEs and to help domesticate the New Jersey supply chain in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic activities. The program will be led by NJMEP, which has plans to use these funds to open a southern New Jersey operation to make sure this training and jobs program is equally effective throughout the state.

"One of the reasons I'm fortunate to serve as the CEO of NJMEP is because of days like today, when we can move forward, in a bipartisan way, with Senate Labor Committee approval on Bill 1957. This bill provides strong support for NJMEP which has important impacts in New Jersey. Approval from the Senate Labor Committee is the beginning of the planning for a broader manufacturing strategy which includes NJMEP, to ensure our state is more competitive in the global market, and that we're doing everything we can to help our local manufacturers grow and create jobs," said John W. Kennedy, CEO, NJMEP.

Next step in the process will be for Senate Bill 1957 to go to the Senate Floor and then on to the Assembly to be voted upon.

About NJMEP: NJMEP is a private, notfor-profit organization that improves the profitability and competitiveness of New Jersey's manufacturers. Backed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), NJMEP enables organizations to enhance their productivity and efficiencies, reduce costs, and improve employee performance. For more than 20 years, NJMEP has used its extensive network of connections and proven track record of success to help manufacturers adapt to the latest innovative technologies and best practices to realize more than $4.16 billion in value. Our services are categorized into the following three areas: Operational Excellence, Innovation and Growth Strategies, and Workforce Development. NJMEP also has a signature philanthropic program, Manufacturing Cares, which is designed to provide a platform for manufacturers to give back to the community by pooling efforts to increase our impact.

SOURCE New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program

Related Links

njmep.org


If you decide to spend $1,300 on the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, youre getting a lot for your money: the best processor, biggest display, and most RAM you can get in a phone, a gorgeous design, and a greatly improved S Pen. But theres one thing you wont be getting: headphones.

We got our Galaxy Note 20 Ultra review unit on Friday and have already started testing it, but there was a surprise right off the bat. The cardboard sleeve that traditionally holds a USB-C cable and a pair of AKG headphones had an empty slot where the buds should be. After Apple had been criticized for its own rumored decision to dump its Lightning Earpods from the box, Samsung snuck in and did the same with its own flagship phone.

Samsung does include a 25W power adapter in the box for fast charging, while an adapter is rumored to be missing from the next iPhone box. Apple may opt to include little more than a USB-C-to-Lightning cable with the iPhone 12. Apples move is reportedly based on environmental concerns, and of course it could help push more AirPod sales. Samsung is probably looking for similar upsides.

Of note, the decision only applies to phones shipping in North America. In a statement, Samsung said More consumers are opting to use Bluetooth and wireless headphones that match their own preference, and the usage of wired headphones, even where weve included compatible solutions inbox, has steadily declined.

Ultimately, its not a huge deal. Samsung is offering $100 in store credit when you preorder a Note 20, which can be used toward a pair of $170 Galaxy Buds Live. And besides, most people have a pair of old earbuds lying around. Just remember that the Note 20 doesnt have a 3.5mm jack either, so youll either need Bluetooth, USB-C, or a dongle.

Update 11:30am: This article has been updated to include a statement from Samsung.
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has vowed strict observance of the protocols against the spread of coronavirus disease to protect the candidates and its staff during the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

The examination bodys head of its Nigeria national office (HNO), Patrick Areghan, said this in an exclusive interview on the phone with PREMIUM TIMES.

He said WAEC would not risk the life of anybody. He said any centre that fails to meet the standard required for the safe conduct of the examination would be reported to the appropriate authorities for sanction.

He, therefore, advised school owners and management of various participating centres to step up their efforts towards putting in place preventive measures ahead of the examinations.

This is coming exactly one week to the commencement of the examination, which has been rescheduled to kick off on August 17.

He said; I dont think there is any school that will not want to comply with the COVID-19 protocols because I know that the Federal Ministry of Education and the state counterparts are going round for inspection of facilities. In fact, the Honourable Minister himself joined them in inspecting schools. This is an issue that is strictly within the purview of the Ministry of Education.

But if we notice any that falls short of expectation, we will immediately report to the relevant ministry of education, so that they can raise immediate action because we dont want to risk the life of anybody.

Speaking about WAECs preparation, the HNO explained that the agency was prepared.

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We will ensure that all our staff wear face masks and provide them with hand sanitisers. There will be buckets with hand washing basins and running water. At various exam centres, we will ensure two-metres spacing is maintained. That is why we make it to be at least two supervisors per centre should the number of candidates be more than what a hall could accommodate.

So we will have those we call chief invigilator and two supervisors per centre. So once we do all these, we strongly believe that we are good to go.

The HNO, however, noted that provision of first aid facilities should be the responsibility of the participating centres, and urged them to make available necessary items that could enhance a conducive atmosphere for the examination.

Also speaking on the likely performance of the candidates, Mr Areghan said it is erroneous to think the students performance will be poor this year. He added that the postponement of the examination from April to August should be viewed as an added advantage to the students.

Anybody can speculate, but any candidate who is desirous of a good certificate and wants to achieve something in life will study hard. This exam was supposed to be taken in April and even the unscheduled ones were supposed to begin by the end of March. So it is assumed that all learning and revision will have been concluded by March. So, this is just an extension of time for preparation of the exam, the HNO said, adding that; So, I dont see any reason why anybody will say we were not taught this or that.

He said the examination body would not lower its standard due to the pandemic, and advised the candidates to avoid any form of malpractice before, during and after the examination.

Asked whether the examination body would pay its staff hazard allowance, the HNO said those engaged by WAEC are usually paid for services rendered, and that the situation would not change now.
The six MLAs had contested and won the 2018 Assembly election on BSP tickets but they defected to Congress in September 2019

New Delhi: The Supreme Court said it would hear on Tuesday the petitions filed on the issue relating to merger of six BSP MLAs with the Congress in Rajasthan last year.

The apex court was hearing a plea filed by a BJP MLA who has challenged the Rajasthan High Court order which had refused to stay their merger with the Congress. The MLAs merged with the ruling party in the state in September last year.

A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said that appeal filed by BJP MP Madan Dilawar would be heard along with a separate plea filed by the six MLAs.

In their plea, these six MLAs have requested the apex court to take up Dilawar's plea pending in the high court in which he is seeking their disqualification for allegedly violating the party whip.

Dilawar has challenged in the apex court the 6 August order of a division bench of high court which had disposed of his plea against the order of a single judge, who had refused to stay the functioning of these six MLAs as Congress legislators.

During the hearing conducted on Monday through video-conferencing, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Dilawar, told the apex court that in September last year the Assembly Speaker had passed an order accepting the merger.

He said that BSP has said that they have not merged.

While saying that the issue is pending before a single judge of the high court, he also referred to the plea filed by the six MLAs in the apex court. The bench said it would hear both the matters on Tuesday.

The single judge of high court had earlier not granted any interim relief and refused to put a stay on the participation of six MLAs in the proceedings of the House as Congress legislators.

Sandeep Yadav, Wajib Ali, Deepchand Kheria, Lakhan Meena, Jogendra Awana and Rajendra Gudha contested and won the 2018 assembly election on a BSP ticket but they defected to Congress in September 2019.

They had submitted an application for the merger on 16 September last year and the Speaker allowed their induction into the Congress two days later.

The merger was a boost to the Ashok Gehlot-led government as the tally of the Congress increased to 107 in the house of 200.

In their plea filed in the apex court, these six MLAs have contended that similar petitions, raising questions on disqualification under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, are pending before the Supreme Court and, therefore, the plea filed against them in the high court should be transferred to the top court.

They said the high court cannot exercise the power of judicial review in "purely political questions" but can examine questions if they emanate from a constitutional duty or obligation.

They have said in their plea that it would be in the interest of justice that the matter is transferred to the top court and heard together with similar petitions filed there.

Two petitions have been filed in the high court, one by Dilawar and the other by BSP National Secretary Satish Mishra.

Dilawar has challenged the merger of the BSP MLAs into Congress, questioning Assembly Speaker CP Joshi's order dismissing his complaint without allowing him to have his say.

Mishra has challenged the defection of the MLAs, but these legislators have not sought transfer of his plea to the Supreme Court.

On 30 July, the high court had sought the response of the Assembly Speaker and its secretary on the pleas challenging the induction of the six MLAs into the Congress.

Amid a political crisis triggered by a rebellion by Sachin Pilot and 18 other MLAs, the Speaker had moved the top court for a stay on the high court's order which had asked him to defer disqualification proceedings against the sacked deputy chief minister and the 18 others.

On 31 July, the Rajasthan Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi also moved the top court challenging the high court order asking the Speaker to defer disqualification proceedings.
A Cumberland County judge Monday refused take a first-degree murder charge off the table for a former West Shore man who is accused of killing his infant daughter.

President Judge Edward E. Guidos ruling means Derrick Yohe, 30, of Shamokin, will keep facing that count, and its accompanying penalty of life in prison as his case proceeds toward a trial.

The judge made that call despite defense attorney Michael Palermos argument that prosecutors lack evidence Yohe intentionally killed his child in 2016.

Initially, Silver Spring Township police charged Yohe with assault based on a preliminary determination that the baby died after swallowing marijuana and choking on her vomit. Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Sibert said an autopsy uncovered physical evidence that the child was strangled. Investigators said the infant also suffered a traumatic brain injury days or weeks before her death.

Strangulation can infer a specific intent to kill, Sibert told Guido during Mondays hearing on Palermos request to dismiss the first-degree murder count. A specific intent to kill must be proven to justify a first-degree murder conviction.

Palermo noted Yohe wasnt charged until three years after the death. Former District Attorney David Freed, who is now a U.S. attorney, declined to prosecute, Palermo said. The current DA, Skip Ebert, approved the filing of the murder case against Yohe.

That case isnt solid, Palermo insisted. Mr. Yohe wasnt the only adult in the house at the time this (death) happened, he said. Another possible suspect, the babys grandfather, was in the Bayberry Drive home when the child died, Palermo said. He said the grandfather has since died.

Theres nothing to connect Mr. Yohe to any of these acts, Palermo said.

Guido concluded the prosecution had provided at least a basic case to support the first-degree murder count. Yohe also is charged with aggravated assault, child endangerment, reckless endangerment, conspiracy and drug offenses.

Police said clothes, dirty dishes, open food containers and cat feces were scattered about the house. A cake pan filled with marijuana-laced brownies and loose marijuana was found as well, they said. Investigators said marijuana was found in the babys system.

The childs mother, Emily Kirby, 28, of Shamokin, is charged with aggravated assault, child endangerment, reckless endangerment, conspiracy and drug offenses and is awaiting trial.

Court records show both parents have multiple drug-related criminal convictions in Cumberland County dating from before and after their childs death.
Official results handed Lukashenko, in power for more than a quarter of a century, an 80% share of the vote in Sunday's election

The Belarusian opposition accused President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday of rigging a landslide re-election victory after bloody clashes between police and protesters sparked Western criticism and talk of new sanctions.

Official results handed Lukashenko, in power for more than a quarter of a century, an 80% share of the vote in Sunday's election, while Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, who emerged from obscurity to become his main rival, took just 9.9%.

"The authorities are not listening to us. The authorities need to think about peaceful ways to hand over power," said Tikhanouskaya, a former English teacher who entered the race after her blogger husband was jailed.

"Of course we do not recognise the results."

Foreign observers have not judged an election to be free and fair in Belarus since 1995, and the run-up to the vote saw authorities jail Lukashenko's rivals and open criminal investigations into others who voiced opposition.

Events are being closely watched by Russia, whose oil exports run through Belarus to the West and which has long regarded the country as a buffer zone against NATO, and by the West, which has tried to lure Minsk from Moscow's orbit.

Germany called for the European Union to discuss sanctions on Belarus that were lifted in 2016 to foster better relations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin used a congratulatory telegram to nudge Lukashenko to accept deeper ties between the two nations, which the Belarusian leader has previously rejected as an assault on his country's independence.

The streets in the capital and other cities were quiet after Sunday night, when riot police used force to disperse thousands of protesters who had gathered to denounce what they said was an electoral farce.

But calls for new protests spread through social media networks on Monday. Local media also reported a partial strike at a steel plant in protest against Lukashenko. The plant's management has not commented.

Tikhanouskaya, whose campaign rallies drew some of the biggest crowds since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, told reporters she considered herself the election winner. She said the poll had been massively rigged.

The opposition now wants a vote recount at polling stations where there were problems, her aides said, adding that protests would continue.

They said they were ready to hold talks with authorities.

'NO REVOLUTION'

There was no immediate response to that offer from Lukashenko, a former Soviet collective farm manager who has kept Belarus under tight control since 1994. He faces his biggest challenge in years to hold onto power amid discontent over his handling of the economy, the COVID-19 pandemic, and human rights abuses.

But Lukashenko signalled he would not step down.

"The response will be appropriate. We won't allow the country to be torn apart," the 65-year-old leader was quoted by the Belta news agency as saying.

Lukashenko repeated allegations that shadowy forces abroad were trying to manipulate protesters he called "sheep" in order to topple him, something he said he'd never allow.

"They are trying to orchestrate mayhem," said Lukashenko. "But I have already warned: there will be no revolution."

The European Union's foreign policy chief and its commissioner for enlargement said the election had been marred by "disproportionate and unacceptable state violence against peaceful protesters".

"We condemn the violence and call for the immediate release of all (those) detained during last night," Josep Borrell and Oliver Varhelyi said in a joint statement.

Neighbouring Poland said it wants a special EU summit on Belarus.

Russia's RIA news agency cited the Belarusian Interior Ministry as saying that police had detained around 3,000 people during post-election protests.

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The Director of the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) shared info on attempts of influence 2020 U.S. elections.

The Director of the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) William Evanina shared information on ongoing operations aimed at influencing the 2020 U.S. elections.

Many foreign actors have a preference for who wins the election, which they express through a range of overt and private statements; covert influence efforts are rarer. We are primarily concerned about the ongoing and potential activity by China, Russia, and Iran reads the press release published by the Office of the Director of the National Intelligence.

Evanina linked the efforts to Russia, China, and Iran, he explained, for example, that Russian actors are supporting President Trumps candidacy with a coordinated effort on both Russian television and media.

According to US intelligence, Russia is carrying out campaigns to denigrate former Vice President Biden that is considered hostile by the Kremlin.

We assess that Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia establishment. This is consistent with Moscows public criticism of him when he was Vice President for his role in the Obama Administrations policies on Ukraine and its support for the anti-Putin opposition inside Russia. said NCSCs Director. For example, pro-Russia Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach is spreading claims about corruption  including through publicizing leaked phone calls  to undermine former Vice President Bidens candidacy and the Democratic Party. Some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trumps candidacy on social media and Russian television.

Iran is mainly operating to undermine U.S. democratic institutions and to divide the country ahead of the forthcoming 2020 elections. Iran-linked actors are spreading disinformation on social media and pushing anti-U.S. content.

We assess that Iran seeks to undermine U.S. democratic institutions, President Trump, and to divide the country in advance of the 2020 elections. Irans efforts along these lines probably will focus on on-line influence, such as spreading disinformation on social media and recirculating anti-U.S. content. continues the statement. Tehrans motivation to conduct such activities is, in part, driven by a perception that President Trumps reelection would result in a continuation of U.S. pressure on Iran in an effort to foment regime change.

China wants that President Trump will lose the presidential elections since Beijing considers him unpredictable.

We assess that China prefers that President Trump  whom Beijing sees as unpredictable  does not win reelection. China has been expanding its influence efforts ahead of November 2020 to shape the policy environment in the United States, pressure political figures it views as opposed to Chinas interests, and deflect and counter criticism of China. Although China will continue to weigh the risks and benefits of aggressive action, its public rhetoric over the past few months has grown increasingly critical of the current Administrations COVID-19 response, closure of Chinas Houston Consulate, and actions on other issues. continues the statement. For example, it has harshly criticized the Administrations statements and actions on Hong Kong, TikTok, the legal status of the South China Sea, and Chinas efforts to dominate the 5G market. Beijing recognizes that all of these efforts might affect the presidential race.

Evanina warns that foreign states will continue to use covert and overt influence actions to influence the Presidential elections. The Directors also warns of the attempt of compromising the election infrastructure for multiple purposes, including interfering with the voting process, stealing sensitive data, or calling into question the validity of the election results.

In July, Evanina published another analysis of foreign threats to the U.S. 2020 presidential election warning of coordinated efforts of foreign nation-sponsored actors to interfere with elections through traditional and social media.

At the most basic level, we encourage Americans to consume information with a critical eye, check out sources before reposting or spreading messages, practice good cyber hygiene and media literacy, and report suspicious election-related activity to authorities, he said.

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs  hacking, Presidential elections)
Even though the presidential nominations at the top of ballots for Tuesdays primary are a foregone conclusion, voters will still be able to cast votes in the races.

In addition, a number of nominations for local and state races are up for grabs.

Heres a rundown of the state of play.

STRATFORD

In Stratford, a primary is set for the Democratic Registrar of Voters, where Jim Simon, a journalism professor endorsed by the Democratic Town Committee, is being challenged for the partys nomination by Rick Marcone, a three-term incumbent.

Marcone, a former DTC chairman who won the partys Democrat of the Year award as recently as 2015, drew the ire of members of his party with a donation to longtime friend and GOPer Jim Connor, who won a close race against Simon for Town Council last year.

Simon, who has called for downsizing the head count in the registrars office, said a shake-up is needed in Town Hall.

The registrar of voters office works best when you have a Democratic registrar and a Republican registrar keeping each other honest, keeping an eye on one another, making sure the final decisions are made in the best interests of the citizens, he said Friday. In Stratford weve had a Democratic registrar leaning toward the other party, contributing to the other party, so sometimes that equilibrium is lost.

Marcone has stressed his time in office overseeing more than 30 elections, state certifications as a registrar and moderator trainer and cast his opponent as inexperienced in comparison.

He said the question for voters is simple: Do you want somebody whos certified and experienced or do you want a newcomer?

The registrars office is not about whos the more loyal Democrat or Republican, its about working together to ensure fair and open elections, Marcone said. I have proven to be the right person for the job.

In the lead-up to the vote, Simon has rolled out a number of endorsement videos on Facebook from prominent local Democrats, including state Reps. Joe Gresko and Phil Young.

The Stratford Democratic party endorsed me because they want change, they want to shake things up in Town Hall, and I think well have thousands of Democrats making the same decision Tuesday, he said.

Marcone said hes been busy ensuring the election will go smoothly as possible in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of Tropical Storm Isaias.

My priority No. 1 is doing my job as registrar now, setting up and preparing for the primary and then looking ahead to the presidential election in November, he said. Unfortunately the campaigning is secondary to my need to do the job.

Depending on the outcome of Tuesdays vote, the candidates could be facing off again in November. Marcone said Friday he has filed signatures to appear as a petitioning candidate on the November ballot, which means the town could have three registrars after Novembers election, depending on how the votes shake out.

STATE RACES

There are also a handful of nominations for state office in the Bridgeport area up for grabs Tuesday.

Republican voters in the 128th House District will choose between Republican Town Committee-endorsed Joseph Borges, a former registrar of voters who retired from politics a decade ago, and activist Ethan Book for the GOP nomination to face off against Democratic state Rep. Christopher Rosario in November for the right to represent the East Side and Hollow neighborhoods.

In the 130th House District, which includes the downtown and the South End, Democrat Kelvin Ayala is challenging incumbent Antonio Felipe for the party nomination.

In the 126th House District with its North End and East Side neighborhoods, Tony Barr is challenging incumbent state Rep. Charlie Stallworth, who has promised to retire when his term concludes if re-elected.

And in the state Senate 22nd District, which includes all of Trumbull and parts of Bridgeport and Monroe, incumbent Marilyn Moore lost the endorsement of Democratic leaders to Marcus Brown, a Bridgeport City Council member, but is hoping the partys voters give her the nomination.

ABSENTEE BALLOT DRAMA?

Another wrinkle in this years election  no excuse absentee balloting because of the pandemic, which has resulted in huge upticks in requests.

In Stratford, there were a total of 284 absentee ballots in the most recent 2016 presidential primary. This year more than 4,000 were requested, mostly on the Democratic side.

In addition, there has been finger-pointing between local clerks and state officials after roughly 20,000 ballots went unmailed in the run-up to the primary.

In an update posted to the towns Facebook page Friday, Stratford Town Clerk Susan Pawluk said voters can return absentee ballots to the drop-box outside of Town Hall by 8 p.m. Tuesday. Voters needing to drop off absentee ballot applications should call the clerks office, 203-380-6753, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday to make an appointment.

Meanwhile, Joshua Diaz of the town clerks office in Bridgeport  where absentee ballot controversies are nothing new  said they have processed more than 8,200 absentee ballot applications as of Thursday night.

Thats more than three times the number from last years Democratic primary for mayor, in which absentee ballots played a decisive role for incumbent Joe Ganim in his defeat of Moore, who seeks to hold on to her state Senate district in Tuesdays primary.

A subsequent Hearst Connecticut Media report revealed voters were allegedly pressured by Ganim campaign workers to vote for the mayor on their absentee ballots, as well as ineligible felons and unregistered voters participating in the primary, prompted an unsuccessful legal challenge by Moores campaign. A State Elections Enforcement Commission investigation is ongoing.

Staff writer Brian Lockhart contributed to this story.
One in three UK employers plans to cut staff this quarter, highlighting the growing risk of a labor market crisis derailing the post-lockdown recovery as government support is withdrawn.

The problem is particularly acute within private companies, with almost 40% expecting to make layoffs, according to a survey of 2,000 employers by human resources body the CIPD and Adecco Group.

Click here for full Covid-19 coverage

Wage growth also looks set to be subdued. Those bosses who do intend to review salaries anticipate making 1% increases to basic pay, compared with 2% this time last year. Even so, hiring intentions rose, indicating that businesses are reshaping in response to the crisis.

The specter of mass unemployment is looming large over the UK economy as it begins its fragile recovery following months of lockdown. While the government has been paying the wages of 9.6 million jobs at a cost of 33.8 billion pounds ($44 billion) as of Aug. 2, it has started to wind down the program, even as many businesses are still struggling. The Bank of England last week warned unemployment will rise to about 7.5% by the end of the year.

Until now, redundancies have been low -- no doubt due to the Job Retention Scheme -- but we expect to see more redundancies come through this autumn, especially in the private sector once the scheme closes, said Gerwyn Davies, senior labour market adviser at the CIPD. This will likely be accompanied by a pay squeeze for workers, which is actually to be welcomed to help preserve jobs. This looks set to be a somber autumn.
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Market Summary Digital Asset Pair Price 24hr Chg 7d Chg 24/hr Volume MarketCap Bitcoin BTC/USD $11,645.92 -0.52% 4.57% $17,380 M $214,938 M Ethereum ETH/USD $390.21 0.16% 3.76% $9,405 M $43,748 M XRP XRP/USD $0.29 -1.68% -0.57% $1,390 M $12,931 M Bitcoin Cash BCH/USD $298.46 -1.52% 4.12% $1,643 M $5,517 M Bitcoin SV BSV/USD $222.65 -3.65% 1.50% $1,216 M $4,115 M Litecoin LTC/USD $56.97 -1.33% -0.31% $1,600 M $3,715 M EOS EOS/USD $3.02 -0.87% 1.50% $1,599 M $2,821 M Stellar XLM/USD $0.10 1.06% 0.62% $218 M $2,140 M Monero XMR/USD $92.83 -1.73% 8.34% $70 M $1,639 M Dash DASH/USD $97.08 -1.22% 13.84% $313 M $936 M



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The Trump administrations increasingly belligerent China policy has taken another turn with Alex Azars visit to Taiwan  the first such engagement by a top-level US official since the 1970s.

At a meeting with president Tsai Ing-wen on Monday, the health and human services secretary heaped praise on the democratic island country, which China considers a breakaway province.

Taiwans response to Covid-19 has been among the most successful in the world, Mr Azar told his host, and that is a tribute to the open, transparent, democratic nature of Taiwans society and culture.

Driving home the point of the visit, the secretary said the visit represents an acknowledgement of the United States and Taiwans deep friendship and partnership across security, economics, health care, and democratic open transparent values.

And for her part, Ms Tsai described the visit as a huge step forward in anti-pandemic collaborations between our countries.

Chinas response to the visit has been unequivocal. In an unusual move just before the meeting, it sent fighter planes on an incursion into Taiwanese airspace, in range of the countrys anti-aircraft missiles; they were driven out by Taiwanese aircraft.

Later that day, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian made plain the Chinese Communist Partys feelings. I would like to stress again that the Taiwan issue is the most important and sensitive issue in China-US relations, he said. What the US has done seriously violated its commitment on the Taiwan issue.

Washington broke off official diplomatic ties with Taipei in 1979, and since then has mostly observed cordial relations with the government in Beijing. And while Donald Trump himself repeatedly railed against China during his first presidential campaign, his complaints at that point revolved mainly around what he described as Chinas unfair trade practices and its undercutting of American manufacturers.

However, many Trump administration officials have from the off displayed a far cooler attitude to China than some of their predecessors, and Mr Azars visit is just the latest part of a sharp acceleration in the USs hawkish turn. In the years since, this has developed into a broader agenda of grievances.

Most recently, the administrations animosity has cohered around certain key issues: the coronavirus, which Mr Trump has accused China of lying about or even creating in a lab; the Chinese Communist Partys domestic enforcement policies, specifically its crackdown in Hong Kong and its treatment of the Uighur minority in Xinjiang province; and the security risks posed by Chinese technology companies, in particular Huawei, which the US has lobbied other Western countries to lock out of their high-tech infrastructure projects.

These are all layered on top of longer-running disputes with China that have not developed into outright conflict, but which have put a strain on the relationship as Beijing puts pressure on American allies.

High up the list is the South China Sea, which China has spent the last decade asserting its claim over despite multiple international legal decisions to the contrary.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Japan, among others, have all been obliged to respond to Chinas installation of military bases in the area, including in their territorial waters, with the US sending aircraft carriers to assert its determination to resist the Chinese claim  and China in turn continuing military drills and base construction.

These encounters often escalate one way or another when general diplomatic tensions are high. And sure enough, in the run-up to Mr Azars visit, satellite images emerged showing Chinese amphibious armoured vehicles assembling near the South China Sea  and specifically, at the Taiwan Strait.
GOP sneaks $8 billion for military weapons into Coronavirus relief bill

A new US$1 trillion COVID-19 response package by Senate Republicans is supposed to give the government more weapons to battle the surging coronavirus pandemic. But GOP lawmakers have more than just the invisible enemy in mind.

Austal shipyards in Mobile, Alabama.

The Republican measure includes billions for F-35 fighters, Apache helicopters and infantry carriers sought by Washingtons powerful defence lobby. Overall, the proposal stuffs US$8 billion into Pentagon weapons systems built by defence contractors like Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics  corporate titans that sit atop the Washington influence industry.

The bill, drafted by Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Richard Shelby, R-Ala., would deposit US$2.2 billion in Pentagon shipbuilding accounts, boost missile defence systems in California and Alaska and deliver about US$1.4 billion for C-130 transport planes and F-35 fighters manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp. Some of the F-35s could be delivered to an Air National Guard unit in Montgomery, Alabama.

In several cases, Shelby proposes restoring cuts imposed by the administration that diverted almost US$4 billion to help pay for construction of President Donald Trumps border wall. The Pentagon won significant defence increases last year with passage of a budget agreement that erased automatic spending cuts known as sequestration.

The US$8 billion weapons procurement package is part of a US$29.4 billion defence portion of the GOPs US$1 trillion coronavirus response measure, a White House-backed package released Monday 10th June. Providing that money now would help build headroom into the annual defence funding bill that Congress plans to write later this year.

The outlook for Shelbys proposed defence projects could be dim. Democrats slammed the add-ons, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Tuesday that the final package should not stray from the coronavirus response.

The weapons bazaar galled Democrats whose votes will be required to pass the bill amid widespread divisions inside the Senate GOP conference on the measure. They are pressing items such as food aid and funding for mail-in voting.

We are not going to be supporting anything that does not acknowledge the incredible hardship people are facing on food, said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.

Did you see the states it goes to? Maine, Arizona, Kentucky  we have a list, said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., naming states where Republicans are defending seats in the fall election.

The administration never officially asked for the defence funding. It instead delivered informal requests to the powerful lawmakers like Shelby who sit atop the defence funding panel, aides say. Even those informal requests left out the US$8 billion for items like planes, ships and missile defence systems, though the White House grew to embrace some of the items.

The weapons package grew to include US$1.1 billion to build Boeing Poseidon surveillance jets, manufactured in Washington and Kansas, with US$283 million more for the companys Army Apache helicopters, which are made in Mesa, Arizona.

Endangered GOP Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona has been pressing a US$650 million project to replace the wings of A-10 Thunderbolt ground support aircraft, many of which are based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson. Theres US$49 million for Navy sonobuoys, listening devices that can detect submarines that are likely to be manufactured in Florida, according to an analysis by Democratic staff aides requiring anonymity to share internal working documents.

The defence industrial base  a lot of its been eroded right now. A lot of people are off from work, Shelby said. Weve got a lot of suppliers involved in there. A Shelby spokesperson added that the countrys defence industrial base is essential to our economy and to the defence of our nation and said the bill would support millions of jobs.

But further justification for the huge weapons procurement package  drawn in part from a Pentagon unfunded priorities wish list of items excluded from the official US$740 billion or so defence budget  has been lacking. The measure doesnt say in many cases whether the money is going to buy additional aircraft and other weapons or provide additional money for existing contracts.

The Shelby measure would restore defence dollars that were diverted for border wall work, such as US$260 million for a high-speed Navy transport ship to be built by Austal Ltd. in Mobile, Alabama. The Austal shipyard is also the most likely contractor for four expeditionary medical ships.

Anniston, Alabama, is also a beneficiary, along with Lima, Ohio, of US$375 million for Stryker Army combat vehicle upgrades. Shipyards in Mississippi and Maine would benefit from US$250 million for shipbuilding industrial bases.

They turned the appropriations portion of the bill into a spending spree on weapons systems and a new federal building designed to block competition to the presidents hotel, said House Appropriations Committee Chair Nita Lowey, D-N.Y. Its clear to me that amphibious ships dont feed hungry children.

The package includes US$1.8 billion to rebuild the FBIs headquarters in downtown Washington. The building is near the Trump International Hotel, and if the FBI moves the lot, it could be used to construct another hotel that would compete with Trumps. McConnell is moving to kill the idea after it attracted widespread media scrutiny and came under attack as unrelated to COVID-19.

Shelby is among the last of a brazen breed of veteran Senate appropriators who try to push the envelope to deliver for their states. He also appears to be more independent than his predecessor, the late Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss.

Peoples World
Seamless coordination ensured that there are just 38 local terrorists active in Kashmir

BJP worker shot by terrorists succumbs to injuries

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Srinagar, Aug 10: A BJP worker, who was shot at by militants in Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, succumbed to injuries at a hospital here on Monday, police said.

Abdul Hamid Najar, a resident of Mohiendpora area of Budgam in central Kashmir, was shot at and critically injured by militants in his native village on Sunday, the official said.

He succumbed to injuries early Monday.

Intruder from Pakistan shot dead by BSF

Najar is the fourth BJP worker or office bearer targeted by militants in the last one month.

Pranab Mukherjee tests Covid-19 +ve | Former President tests positive | Oneindia News

BJP's district president for Bandipora, Waseem Bari, his father and and brother were shot dead by militants last month.

A BJP panch was shot at and injured on August 4, while another sarpanch from the party was shot dead two days later in south Kashmir's Kulgam district.

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Story first published: Monday, August 10, 2020, 16:29 [IST]
The ministry continues consultations with the relevant Ukrainian central executive agencies and the Israeli side.

The Ukrainian government has not given permission for a traditional pilgrimage by thousands of Hasidim to the Ukrainian town of Uman to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.

"According to the Secretariat of Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers, the Government of Ukraine had not made any decision as of August 6 to allow five thousand people to make a pilgrimage to Uman to celebrate Rosh Hashanah [the Jewish New Year]," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Ukraine said in a comment for Deutsche Welle's Ukrainian Service.

Read alsoIsrael opposes Ukraine pilgrimage over coronavirus fears  media

The ministry added that it continued consultations with the relevant Ukrainian central executive agencies and the Israeli side in order to minimize the number of pilgrims given the quarantine restrictions and the difficult epidemic situation in Ukraine, Israel, and the world in general.

The Rabbi announces permission for 5,000 Hasidim members

Earlier, Israeli media reported that Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich said the Ukrainian government had allowed at least 5,000 people to attend the annual pilgrimage to Uman. That number could be increased to 8,000, but pilgrims will have to wear masks in crowded places and refrain from gathering more than 30 people, the rabbi added.

After that, the Ministry of Health of Israel called on the Ukrainian authorities to take measures to prevent mass gatherings in Uman, so as not to promote the spread of the coronavirus. "Our professional position is that the event should not be allowed because of the gathering of 30,000 people. The only way to stop this is for the Ukrainian authorities to take appropriate measures," Director of the International Relations Division in the Ministry of Health Asher Shalmon said.

In 2019, more than 30,000 pilgrims came to Uman to celebrate the 5780th Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah). This year, Rosh Hashanah will begin on September 18.
Even as anti-China boycott sentiment remains high in the country after the Galwan Valley clash, a section of Indians are not ready to pocket out more for non-Chinese goods. Nearly one-third of Indians are not willing to pay more for non-Chinese goods, according to the Mood of the Nation 2020 survey conducted by India Today.

While nine out of 10 Indians favoured a boycott of China-made products, only 67 per cent said they were ready to pay more for non-China goods. However, 30 per cent of the 12,021 surveyed said no, they were not ready to pay more, the survey showed.

The survey further said that 90 per cent of the respondents were in favour of banning Chinese products in India. More than 90 per cent backed the government's decision to ban Chinese apps. Seven per cent were not in favour of banning the China-made apps.

The Mood of the Nation survey was carried out across 97 parliamentary constituencies in 194 assembly constituencies across 19 states in India.

The survey included a total of 12,021 interviews which were conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

After the Galwan Valley incident which left 20 Indian soldiers dead, the central government took a slew of economic measures to counter the Chinese aggression. The government banned 59-apps, along with cancellation of contracts given to the Chinese companies in India.
All issues such as excessive rubber deposits, water stagnation and cracks that were red-flagged by the aviation regulator DGCA were "addressed and rectified" by the Kozhikode airport operator, said Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday.

The statement came after news reports said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation had issued a show-cause notice to the director of the Kozhikode airport on July 11 last year after it found "various critical safety lapses" in different places, including the runway and the apron. "It is indeed a fact that several issues were routinely red-flagged by DGCA, and were addressed by the (Kozhikode) airport operator. These pertain to excessive rubber deposits, water stagnation, cracks and other routine issues," Puri tweeted a day after a plane crash in Kozhikode that claimed 18 lives.

The point is that raising such concerns is the normal work of the DGCA, he noted. "The DGCA also strictly ensures that these are complied with and rectified under all circumstances. This was done by the airport operator," the minister added.

Puri said an inquiry has been ordered into the plane crash and its findings will be made public. "I will encourage all to exercise patience and refrain from making speculative observations bordering on the irresponsible. Again to emphasize, all the issues were addressed and rectified," the minister said.

The Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 people on board overshot the runway at the airport in Kerala at 7.40 pm on Friday in rainy conditions and went down 35 feet into a slope before breaking up into two, killing at least 18 people. The minister said some of his "colleagues in the political system" have raised queries regarding the accident without ascertaining facts.

For example, he put out a screenshot of a tweet by Thiruvananthapuram MP Shahi Tharoor, who alleged that warnings had been given about dangers of landing in heavy rain at Kozhikode airport and the Airports Authority of India knew an accident was waiting to happen. "I would advise all those who are looking for a few columns of media space that we should wait for the outcome of the statutory inquiry and then visit the issue with facts. Instant civil aviation safety expertise by self-styled experts should better be avoided," Puri stressed.

The minister also posted a screenshot of a tweet by Ludhiana MP of Congress, Ravneet Singh Bittu, who alleged that "despite several red flags and 2015 ban on wide-body aircraft's landing at Kozhikode airport, Hardeep Singh Puri removed the ban in July 2019 leading to such a fatal crash and loss of lives". Puri tweeted that the aircraft involved in the accident on Friday evening was a B-737-800, which is not a wide-body aircraft. B-737-800 is a narrow-body aircraft.

"AAI strengthened the runway and thereafter necessary permissions were issued in 2018 to operate wide-body aircraft. Consequently, certain carriers started operating some flights with wide-body aircraft to Kozhikode Airport," he said. Puri reached Kozhikode Saturday afternoon. He went to the accident site, before visiting Kozhikode Medical College, where senior doctors briefed him and Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan about the condition of the injured people admitted for treatment.

"Senior doctors briefed us on the status of various people admitted for treatment. 149 people have been admitted to various hospitals. 23 have been discharged while 3 are critically injured (sic)," he said in a tweet. Saturday evening, the aviation minister said, he discussed with senior officials like Aviation Secretary P S Kharola, AAI Chairman Arvind Singh and DGCA chief Arun Kumar to "the situation arising due to the accident in Kozhikode".

Also Watch:

"Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the ill-fated aircraft have been retrieved. AAIB is conducting investigations," Puri said in another tweet. A DGCA official said the two devices  DFDR and CVR  were with the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau and would be sent to Delhi for further investigation.

"My heart goes out to the families & friends of the 18 people who lost their lives in the air accident involving @FlyWithIX Flight IX-1344 in Kozhikode last evening & offer my heartfelt condolences (sic)," Puri tweeted earlier in the day.
Wales is reopening soft play centres from today after concluding under-11s pose a low risk of spreading coronavirus.

Facilities in the rest of the UK have still not been given a date to get back up and running.

But Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford has announced the move in Wales, although some areas that cannot be easily cleaned, such as ball pits, will have to remain shut.

Gyms and indoors swimming pools have also been given the green light to open their doors again.

Carol James, owner of Tiny Tumblers, in Church Village, near Pontypridd told the BBC she had been taken aback by the decision.

A deserted soft play in Manchester last month. Facilities in England have not yet been given a date when they can reopen

'We were waiting for England to get the go-ahead, then we thought we would be about three weeks behind England,' she said.

Gwen Evans, owner of Cantref Adventure Farm in Brecon, said the news had come 'very suddenly'.

The latest changes to coronavirus regulations in Wales have come into force a week after pubs and restaurants were able to open indoors for the first time since March.

Under-11s have also been exempted from social distancing from adults and their friends, as they are seen as having lower risk of transmitting the disease.

The Welsh Government said it is 'continuing to explore' whether people can be allowed to meet indoors others who are not already part of their extended household from August 15.

It has also boosted powers given to local authorities to ensure newly reopened businesses and workplaces adhere to laws designed to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

They include making sure people keep a two-metre distance where possible, and taking measures to avoid close interaction like using protective screens, improving hygiene, and wearing face coverings on public transport.

Enforcement officers will be allowed to issue a Premises Improvement Notice to highlight breaches of the rules and state what measures need be taken in order to comply with them, or face being temporarily shut down.

Signs will be displayed in a prominent place for businesses or workplaces that are given a Premises Closure Notice informing the public that improvement is needed or that it has had to close.

Mr Drakeford said following the rules is 'essential' if the country is to avoid following other parts of the world and entering another lockdown.

'As more parts of our society and economy reopen, it is vital we all keep in mind our personal responsibility to do the right thing and make sure we continue to protect ourselves and others from the virus,' he said.

Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford announced the move in Wales on Friday after experts concluded young children pose low risk of spreading coronavirus

'This means keeping a two-metre distance from others, washing our hands often and wearing a face mask on public transport. These are simple steps to take that benefit us all.

'The rules we have in place are not optional, they are there to protect us all. They are essential if Wales is to avoid another lockdown.'

He added: 'As we have seen in many places around the world, this pandemic is far from over and we must remain vigilant. There is a significant risk cases in Wales could rise again and we will have to take further action if this were to happen.

'Only by us all continuing to do our part can we keep Wales safe.'
The next few days will witness a highly anticipated collaboration between two multiple award-winning artistes Bisa Kdei and AMG Medikal.



The duo would combine on a new song titled "Netwerk" which would be released on August 28, 2020.



The duo, have in the past composed tracks including "Distant Relationship" and "For You" which made the airwaves in the country and the upcoming tune would certainly be a banger.



It was recently announced that Bisa Kdei is preparing to release his fourth studio album, which would feature international artistes as well as Ghanaian acts with this song likely to be on the album.



After a successful release of Ofie Nipa which featured the most sought out female musician in Ghana Sista Afia, "Netwerk" with Medikal is a prove that Bisa Kdei has lots of packages to entertain the world.



Medikal has always tagged Bisa Kdei as one of his strongest music pillars when coming up as a musician so we can only anticipate the much-awaited "Netwerk" collaboration between godfather Bisa Kdei and son, Medikal.

Source: GNA









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Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 20:55:04|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese lawmakers have held panel discussions to deliberate the draft amendment to the Copyright Law during an ongoing legislative session of the country's top legislature.

The draft amendment was submitted to the National People's Congress Standing Committee for a second reading.

At the group discussions, the lawmakers agreed that the development of internet and information technology has brought many challenges to copyright protection, such as how to protect the new forms of works, including online literature, internet shows and artificial intelligence-composed music.

Lawmaker Zuo Zhongyi stressed the importance of protecting the creators of online works as they are obviously in a weak position compared with internet platforms with the advantages of capital, technology and marketing.

Some legislators suggested strengthening the protection of non-literary works.

Lawmaker Xu Yanhao underscored the copyright protection of works on science and technology, and punishment for the falsification and plagiarism of academic achievements and data.

The Copyright Law was put into effect in 1991 and amended in 2001 and 2010. Enditem
In a relief to those who graduated from Delhi University up till last year but did not receive their degrees, the varsity has activated an online portal for issuance of digital degree certificates to speed up the process, the Delhi High Court has been informed.

The university submitted before the high court that the students have to register on an online portal www.digicerti.du.ac.in, and give their details including academic qualification and name of their college and after completion of the verification, the digital degree certificates will be issued by DU within a week.

The submissions were made before Justice Prathiba M Singh, who was hearing various petitions by 21 doctors who completed MBBS graduation in 2018 and 2019 from Lady Hardinge Medical College, Maulana Azad Medical College and University College of Medical Sciences, affiliated with the DU, but have not received their degree certificates till date on the ground that the contract with the printer had expired.

Regarding these petitioners, the court directed that the digital degree certificates for all of them be issued by email, on or before August 13, as they wish to apply for their residency programmes in the United States and to sit in the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE).

August 15 is the last date by which the degree certificates would have to be uploaded for processing to the My ECFMG mobile application.

In pursuance to the courts earlier directions, the university prepared a sample digital degree with the assistance of officials from Digilocker, an initiative by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) and IT Department of the high court.

The court has perused the digital degree certificate, which has been sent by e-mail and the court is satisfied with the contents of the same. The issuance of similar digital degree certificates duly verified by two officials of the DU and digitally signed by the authorised officer of the DU would in the courts opinion, satisfy the purpose of the petitioners, Justice Singh said.

The court said the doctors, represented through advocate Sarthak Maggon, are free to use the digital degree certificates for the purpose of their ECFMG applications and if the ECFMG authorities need any clarification, they may be addressed to the email IDs of DU officials Sanjeev Singh or Vinay Gupta.

The court also asked the DU authorities to look into the question as to whether marksheets and transcripts of students can also be issued digitally and asked them to deal with this aspect in their affidavit and listed the matter for further hearing on September 7.

Regarding the other students, the DU officials told the court that the data of all the students who have graduated up till November, 2019 is already available with the varsity.

The court noted that DU is working out modalities with the officials of Digilocker to transmit all the data relating to degrees awarded by it to Digilocker within a time bound manner.

Let the above measures and timelines thereto be placed on record by means of an affidavit by DU. Let an affidavit be also placed on record by MEITY/ Digilocker as to what are the steps that DU needs to take to ensure that the data is made available to the students through Digilocker, the court said and asked the varsity and the ministry to file the affidavits within two weeks. The court also appreciated the effort of the officials of the high court IT team, Digilocker and DU for coming up with the template of the digital degree certificate in a timely manner to enable students to complete their formalities for their proposed post-graduate applications.

It said all such students who require their digital degree certificates due to any urgent deadlines are free to register on the portal and the officials at DU shall ensure that their digital degree certificates are issued within a period of one week from registration.

In case the portal is not working for any reasons, the details may be submitted on the e-mail addresses of joint director of DU Computer Centre Sanjeev Singh and Dean of Examination Professor Vinay Gupta and steps shall then be taken within the time prescribed, it said.

Digilocker is an initiative under Digital India, in which the government aimed at transforming India into a digitally empowered society. It provides citizens a shareable private space on a public cloud and makes all documents or certificates available on cloud.

The court was earlier unhappy with the conduct of DU for not taking proper steps to issue digital degrees to students who have graduated and said there was a complete collapse of administration in the varsity and it reflects a sorry state of affairs.

It had said most institutions have made alternative arrangements during the lockdown period for issuance of digital certificates, digital mark sheets and digital transcripts online, along with the digital signatures and security features.

It had said most of DU is under lockdown and there is very minimal physical interface between students and the administration. There is no reason as to why DU should not be adopting technically advanced methods to ensure that the students are not inconvenienced.
Chandigarh, Aug 10 : The Centre has given in-principle approval to set up a centre of the National Institute of Virology in Punjab to cater to the north zone, officials said on Monday.

At present, the National Institute of Virology in Pune in Maharashtra is the only institution capable of providing a well-coordinated medical and public health response to a public health emergency in India.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who had made the proposal some weeks back amid the Covid-19 pandemic, welcomed the approval, saying the proposed centre would prove to be a milestone in boosting research in the field of virology.

He said it will make India future-ready to predict and detect viruses at the earliest so that necessary preventive steps can be taken.

He said the virology centre will also go a long way in addressing the requirements of other northern states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Rajasthan, and UTs of Chandigarh and Jammu and Kashmir.
U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar said on Monday that any U.S. vaccine or treatment for COVID-19 would be shared fairly with the rest of the world, once the U.S. need has been satisfied.

There are more than 200 COVID-19 vaccine candidates in development around the world, including more than 20 in human clinical trials. U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to have a shot ready before year's end, though they typically take several years to develop and test for safety and effectiveness.

"Our first priority of course is to develop and produce enough quantity of safe and effective FDA-approved vaccines and therapeutics for use in the United States," Azar told reporters while on a visit to Taiwan.

"But we anticipate having capacity that, once those needs are satisfied, those products would be available in the world community according to fair and equitable distributions that we would consult in the international community on."

He did not elaborate.

Also read: Russia set to register world's first coronavirus vaccine on August 12; all you need to know
LUCKNOW : Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh on Monday attended his office after recovering from coronavirus .

He had tested positive for the infection on July 24.

"I am fine. On Thursday, I was declared COVID negative. After this, I spent around five days in quarantine. Today, I was at my office and attended a meeting with the UP chief minister," Jai Pratap Singh told PTI on Monday.

Apart from Jai Pratap Singh, the UP ministers who had earlier contracted the infection were Rajendra Pratap Singh, Chetan Chauhan, Dharam Singh Saini, Upendra Tiwari, Brajesh Pathak and Kamal Rani Varun.

Kamal Rani Varun, who was the Technical Education Minister of the state, had succumbed to the disease on August 2 at Lucknows Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences. She was 62.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.

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The Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) has received a oneM2M certificate, a global international certificate for technology solutions, for its VNPT IoT Platform.

A building of VNPT.  Photo vietnamplus.vn

To achieve the certification, VNPT IoT Platform had to undergo a minimum of 282 tests under the rigorous testing category specified by oneM2M.

After going through the tests, VNPT and Authorised Test Lab, a testing unit of oneM2M, will continue to finalise their documents and submit them to the GCF (Global Certification Forum) for VNPT IoT Platform to be reviewed and issued a certificate.

oneM2M is an organisation founded by 200 members including world-leading telecommunication carriers and technology companies.

Certified by the organisation, VNPT IoT Platform is valid globally. This technology platform is interoperable and compatible with all products of more than 200 members of the oneM2M community.

As at the end of May, VNPT is one of 20 telecom - technology companies in the world to receive MEF 3.0 certificate, a title of the highest quality in the field of international telecommunications networks.

VNPT also ranks in the top three among the 50 most valuable brands in Vietnam by Forbes Viet Nam magazine.

Previously, a report from Brand Finance in May revealed the group is also the brand with the most impressive growth among 150 major global carriers and had the strongest growth in the top four largest Vietnamese telecommunications brands.

It is expected that revenue from information technology will account for about 20 per cent of the total revenue of VNPT by the end of 2025. VNS

Vietnams second largest telco gets green light for 5G tech tests Vietnams second largest telco is ready in terms of technology, technology and network structure for deploying commercial 5G network.
President Donald Trump's payroll tax deferral plan could result in higher tax bills for workers in 2021, tax experts said.

As lawmakers remained at a stalemate over coronavirus relief efforts last week, Trump signed a package of four executive orders on Aug. 8.

In one of them, the president called for the deferral of the employees' portion of payroll taxes from Sept. 1 through the end of the year. Other measures included an extension of unemployment benefits  albeit at a reduced level  as well as a three-month extension of payment relief for federal student borrowers.

More from Your Money Your Future:

Trump order gives 35 million student loan borrowers a break until 2021

Second $1,200 stimulus checks might not cover the rent

Why you might not see cash from a payroll tax cut

Normally, employers and employees split the burden of the payroll tax, each covering a 6.2% levy that funds Social Security and a 1.45% tax that supports Medicare.

Social Security taxes are subject to an annually adjusted wage cap ($137,700 for 2020), but Medicare taxes continue to apply beyond that threshold.

Forgiveness of the deferred employee's portion of the tax remains uncertain, as this would be up to Congress.

However, Trump said in his executive order that "the Secretary of the Treasury shall explore avenues, including legislation, to eliminate the obligation to pay the taxes deferred pursuant to the implementation of this memorandum."
By David Tizzard





David Tizzard

In 1973, South Korean president Park Chung-hee introduced the Minor Offences Act which mandated limits on the length of men's hair and women's skirts. Women suspected of wearing a skirt or dress that finished 17 centimeters or more above their knees were often subjected to public checks and then taken to a police station if they were found to have violated the rule.



His daughter, imprisoned and impeached president Park Geun-hye, sought to reinvigorate a variation of this rule as late as 2013 when a decree was passed at a March 11th cabinet meeting that meant anyone found to have "exposed any part of their body which should otherwise be concealed" would be subject to a 50,000 won fine.



It's no wonder casual foreign observers sometimes get their Koreas mixed up.



Yes, South Korea can be described as a conservative country. It often seems that to really fit in, one shouldn't stand out too much. Get a car in one of the three available colours, wear a suit in one of the agreed upon designs, get your botox and cosmetic surgery done at one of the listed clinics, and away you go: Money, success, stressand then possibly suicide.



But that would ignore how much the society is, and has been, changing. South Korea is not monolith. And it's not the hermit kingdom that you read about in dated and dry text books, often written from afar.



In the past couple of years, major affiliates of the "Big Four" conglomerates in South Korea (Samsung, Hyundai, SK, and LG) all introduced more relaxed dress codes for their employees and provided greater freedom to their workers. In September 2018, LG Electronics permitted staff to dress "completely casual", meaning that blue jeans and white shirts became a common sight. In 2019, a Hankyoreh reporter noted that 20%-30% of the men leaving the Hyundai Motor Group headquarters in Seoul one summer afternoon were wearing shorts.



The main focus is now being placed on TPO (time, place and occasion). You are allowed to work in clothes that you find comfortable providing they are acceptable for the circumstances and environment.



Thus, President Moon and many in his administration are often seen without neckties. This seems part of an internal policy decision to appear more modern and progressive, to display a more forward-thinking appearance to the general public and shift away from the staid conservativism usually associated with politicians both sides of the political aisle.



On June 21 2017, I took to social media to remark at the pleasant surprise of seeing JTBC anchor Ahn Na-kyung sat at her desk ready to report the evening news while wearing a black company hoody. I wondered whether we were seeing a "New Clothes Movement" (as opposed to the "new village movement" launched in the early 1970s). Perhaps we are?



If so, however, why did a female member of the National Assembly wearing a dress make headline news here in South Korea and even hit the front pages of international papers such as the UK's Guardian?



Sartorial controversies in the National Assembly are not a new thing. In November 1993, the Environment Minister Hwang San-song caused a stir for having the temerity to wear a pant suit and put her hands in her pockets. Imagine the horror!



In 1996, Lee Mi-kyung staged a campaign with her fellow female lawmakers to promote more opportunities for women to wear pantsuits. This too, believe it or not, was seen as troubling at the time. Society going to hell in a handcart.



In 2003, former journalist and known progressive Rhyu Si-min entered the National Assembly for the first time wearing a t-shirt, blazer, and white cotton trousers. He turned up in a suit next time after taking a battering in the press. In 2004 it was about Kang Gi-gap's beard and hanbok and then Dan Byung-ho's jumper. Last year I had to constantly stifle laughter as Kim Jin-tae sought the conservative party's position as presidential candidate while frequently appearing in an American leather cowboy hat. Yes, really. Yeehaw!



Times change and there will always be discussions about what people wear. So Ryu Hyo-jeong appearing in the National Assembly this week wearing a pink dress that finished above the knee naturally caused a stir.



There were some all too predictable and misogynistic reactions to her appearance. It was also disappointing to see certain media outlets place these comments in their headlines and news reports as a way of generating outrage.



There were also disapproving comments based more on conservatism; Some referencing the aforementioned TPO. Others suggesting it was simply a way for a young or aspiring politician to gain attention.



However, most reasonable-thinking Koreans I spoke to about the incident (both male and female) suggested that it is largely irrelevant what Ryu wears. They insisted that the most important thing is that she does her job well.



With floods and torrential rains devastating the nation, causing tragic losses of life, livelihoods, and much more, it seems rather wasteful that people bicker over what the elected officials are wearing rather than how well they are working and acting to improve the lives of the citizens they are employed to serve.



And it's hard to disagree with that. It just unfortunately doesn't generate as much seethe or interest online.



Aged 28, Ryu is the youngest member of the National Assembly and the only lawmaker under the age of 30. She serves in the Justice Party and was elected as part of the proportional representation ticket.



She frequently wears jeans, suits, shirts, and various other outfits. All of which are common place at companies, university campuses, and coffee shops around the country. Her fashion choices are  with the greatest respect  not really that daring of deserving of such attention. She's not a "fashion terrorist" as the local parlance has it. She's just being a normal person.



Ryu revealed in an interview with CBS' Kim Hyun-jung on Thursday that whatever she wears, she receives criticism. Sadly, I can believe that that is very much true.



Ryu's current work focuses on the disposal of nuclear waste (particularly in Gyeongju and Ulsan but also vis-a-vis broader national safety), the exploitation of workers, differential voting rights, and issues concerning rape and women's rights.



She finds it disappointing that issues related to sexual minorities, the homeless, zero-hour contract workers, and women all seem to be divided: One party per issue. Instead, as a way of moving forward, Ryu is seeking to create the "first progressive opposition party with a clear voice for the socially disadvantaged."



This will be welcome news to many because despite the international platitudes  deserved in specific relation to the excellent response to the Covid-19 pandemic  the ruling Democratic Party has been embroiled in its own scandals related to sexual controversies and has not yet embraced the anti-discrimination law tabled by Ryu's Justice Party.



This is a different voice. It's still trying to be heard and yet the focus is on a dress?



Her YouTube channel "Ryu Tube" has videos of her in the National Assembly addressing issues of counterfeit items being sold on South Korean home shopping channels and the opposition of a Buddhist monk to development plans in the southern part of the country. There are efforts at transparency and engaging public attention.



This is a long way from her first uploaded video which revealed her past of being a YouTube gamer and streamer. Interestingly, the video revealing her gaming history garnered over 46,000 views; the one in which she discusses nuclear energy and its usage has just over 1,500. A sign perhaps of the citizens' current interests?



Nevertheless, Ryu is working towards what she believes in. Rather than sitting around criticizing people and lamenting hardships, she seems focused on improving the lives of people and is working towards creating a South Korea for the 21st century. A South Korea that her generation can be proud of.



This would be a country that moves beyond the Cromwellian puritan measures of the past and instead seeks results in social justice. It would be a South Korea that looks, dresses, and gives voice to the millions of 20 and 30 somethings currently experiencing continually worsening economic and housing situations.



Of course, many will disagree with Ryu's policies towards a variety of social issues, even those of her own generation. That is more than natural in a democratic political climate. However, to see young people engaging and working hard is surely a positive sign for the future.



In the United States, we see political stagnation and a refusal of the parties to hand over the reins to any of the following generations as two near-80 year olds battle it out in a presidential election marred by distrust and extreme partisan attitudes.



South Korea shouldn't go that route. It should look to the examples of Jacinda Arden in New Zealand, to Sanna Marin in Finland, and to Nayib Bukele in El Salvador.



South Korea already stands as a relative beacon of forward-thinking in the Northeast Asian region. Few, if any, are standing up in the National Assembly in China, North Korea, or Japan and seeking the changes that Ryu is.



It might seem easy to deride her from afar. But I would suggest that it takes a great deal of courage to do what she is doing in a largely male-dominated political environment where traditional attitudes are still prevalent and there is pressure to be seen but not heard.



Citizens deserve politicians that are courageous and patriotic rather than career-oriented and self-serving. Political allegiances aside, Ryu is at least already demonstrating she has one of those qualities.



This is a new Korea. These are new Koreans. They are not monolith. They are divided. But they are here and regardless of what they are wearing, it's probably time for the country to at least start listening to what they have to say.





David Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) is an assistant professor at Seoul Women's University where he teaches Korean Studies. He discusses the week's hottest issues on TBS eFM (101.3FM) on "Life Abroad" live every Thursday from 9:35 a.m. to 10 a.m.
In a unique initiative, Google had asked Indians to record their own voice singing the national anthem and to send it to Google. All these tracks will be brought together to create one main track thats going to be released on August 15 to mark Indias 73rd Independence Day.

Remember how it felt like to sing the national anthem with everyone else at school during morning assemblies and on Independence Day? Google is hoping to recreate that exact feeling with people from all across the country.

Google announced in a blog that it was looking for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make Independence Day celebrations a little unique this year. The tech giant announced a collaboration with Prasar Bharati and Virtual Bharat to create one master track with the voices of thousands.

Google wrote in the blog that this experiment brings together the most cutting-edge AI work they have even done with music and the voices of thousands of participants.

We are bringing together these two elements to produce a song that you would know all too well -- the Indian national anthem, wrote Google.

Adding - All you need to do is sing the national anthem, then using the power of AI your voice will get converted into one of three traditional Indian instruments -- the shehnai, sarangi, or bansuri -- effectively rendering your performance of the national anthem in the instrument of your choice.

So what do you need to do?

Head over to https://soundsofindia.withgoogle.com/ from your smartphone. This is an interactive web app that works only on browsers like Chrome and Safari. You can scan the QR code and open it on whichever browser you want. If you open this link on the desktop browser, it will prompt you to shift to your smartphone.

Once you have opened the web app, you will get to hear the national anthem to understand the pitch and the tempo thats needed.

Post this you will see a screen with the lyrics. Like a karaoke track, the words on the screen will light up according to rhythm to help you sing at the right speed.

Google is going to bring together all the renditions submitted to create one track for Independence Day. Please note, you dont have to submit your rendition if you do not want. You can just download it for yourself to send to friends and family. (Google )

Once you have sung the anthem, you can choose your favourite instrument and get your voice rendered to it. You can download this and share it with friends and family and you can also choose to submit this rendition for Google to use for its experiment.

Google is going to bring together all the renditions submitted to create one track for Independence Day. Please note, you dont have to submit your rendition if you do not want. You can just download it for yourself to send to friends and family.

Google writes that the experiment runs on the browser and on-device using TensorFlow and no personal identifiable information is collected or stored.

Today is the last day for you to go record your track so if you are interested, head over right now. The whole concept is quite simply beautiful and we expect the results, thats going to be released on August 15, to be just as stunning.
Even before they wed in April 2011, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William were always incredibly popular. However, they did not have the mania and sheer media frenzy that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry were met with when they wed. After all, Kate seemed to fit some aspects of the royal mold while Meghan was an outsider.

Now that the Sussexes have resigned from royal life and moved to Meghans hometown of LA, the Cambridges are stepping back into the forefront of royal life. As they have become the face of the royal family, their relationship and patronages are under scrutiny in a way that they havent been in the past.

People are also examining the Cambridges as they compare to Sussexes, and it turns out that one body language expert doesnt believe they are quite on the same footing with one another.

RELATED: Kate Middleton Is Nothing Like Princess Diana

Kate Middletons personality is fairly reserved

Kate has been a member of the Brtish royal family for nearly a decade. However, she is only now just emerging as a royal force after spending quality time with her three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis away from the spotlight.

As shes honed in on her passions which include, early childhood education and development as well as photography, her personality has really begun to shine through. Royal author Victoria Murphy explained to Yahoo UK,

Ive always thought that Kate has more in common personality-wise with the Queen; not an extrovert, but quietly self-assured with a love of the outdoors and the ability to compartmentalize. I think she still remains more of a team player than a leader though and perhaps more of a listener than a talker, but I think these qualities are well-suited to her current and future roles.

RELATED: Kate Middleton Has The 1 Thing Princess Diana Always Wanted

Kate Middleton has carved out her own path in the British royal family

With nearly 20 years in the same orbit as the royal family, Kate hs learned a great deal by simply observing. Though she was criticized for her apparent lack of work ethic, she learned not to rush into anything in order to circumvent blowback and exhaustion. This was a lesson Meghan never learned.

As a result, Kate has been able to carve out her own path and destiny without ruffling the feathers of royal tradition. Royal expert Leslie Carroll spoke to Express,

In Meghans absence, and particularly during the coronavirus lockdown, Kate has been compelled to step to the forefront a lot more. Even from behind her keyboard and computer screen, she has become more visible and accessible. She is naturally more diffident than Meghan; the openness with strangers doesnt come naturally to her, although she can speak candidly on subjects close to her heart, such as parenting.

RELATED: Inside Prince William and Kate Middletons Strict Parenting Rules

Prince William dominates over Kate Middleton at royal events and engagements

Though they remain on equal footing at least until Prince William becomes king, that hasnt stopped the Duke of Cambridge for unconsciously dominating over his wife at royal events and engagements. Body language expert Debbie Bolton revealed that the prince is very in tune with his power, sometimes at the expense of his wife. Bolton examined a photo of the couple for Express,
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 20:48:13|Editor: huaxia

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GENEVA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- For the vaccines alone, over 100 billion U.S. dollars will be needed to ensure everyone everywhere can access the tools to fight the COVID-19 outbreak, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday.

Speaking at a virtual press conference from Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: "This sounds like lots of money and it is. But it's small in comparison to the 10 trillion dollars that have already been invested by G20 countries in fiscal stimulus to deal with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic so far."

He told reporters that the coming three months present a crucial window of opportunity to scale-up the work of the ACT-Accelerator, a WHO-sponsored global collaboration to accelerate development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines.

However, he said, to exploit this window "we have to fundamentally scale up the way we are financing the ACT-Accelerator and prioritize the use of new tools."

According to the WHO chief, there is a vast global gap between the ambition for the ACT-Accelerator and the amount of funds that have been committed.

"We're only 10 percent of the way to funding the billions required to realize the promise of the ACT Accelerator," he said.

Noting that this week the registered cases of COVID-19 will reach 20 million, with 750,000 deaths, the WHO chief stressed that "behind these statistics is a great deal of pain and suffering."

"Leaders must step up to take action and citizens need to embrace new measures," he said. Enditem
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.10

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Transshipment of goods from Libya via Turkish ports in the first half of 2020 surpassed 1.7 million tons, the Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure told Trend on August 10.

During the reporting period, the volume of cargo transshipment from Libya by ships flying the Turkish flag amounted to 229,008 tons, while the ships flying the flags of other countries transported over 1.5 million tons.

Meanwhile, no ships flying Libyan flag transported cargo through Turkish ports, said the ministry.

As many as 48,712 tons of goods were transited from Libya through the Turkish ports.

Transshipment of goods through the Turkish ports made up 179.6 million tons in the first six months of 2020.

During the reporting period, 14.3 million tons were handled by the ships flying the Turkish flag.

The volume of cargo transshipment via Turkish ports by ships flying the flags of their countries amounted to over 6.9 million tons, while the cargo transshipment by ships flying the flags of other countries stood at nearly 158.3 million tons from January through June 2020.

Meanwhile, 36.1 million tons of cargo were transited through Turkish ports, the ministry said.

In June this year, the volume of cargo transshipment through the ports of Turkey made up slightly over 28.1 million tons.

In the reporting month, the volume of cargo transshipment by ships flying the Turkish flag made up 2.4 million tons, by ships flying the flags of their countries amounted to 1 million tons, and by ships flying the flags of other countries exceeded 24.6 million tons.

According to the ministry, more than 5.4 million tons of cargo were transported in transit through the ports of Turkey in June 2020.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Former President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday (August 10) tweeted that he has tested positive for coronavirus COVID-19, requesting people who have come in contact with him in the last week to self-isolate.

Mukherjee, who was India's president between 2012 and 2017, said that he tested positive for COVID-19 on a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure.

"On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for COVID19 today. I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19," tweeted the 84-year-old Congress leader.

On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for COVID19 today.

I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19. #CitizenMukherjee  Pranab Mukherjee (@CitiznMukherjee) August 10, 2020

Shosrtly after Pranab Mukherjee posted the tweet, leaders started wishing him speedy recovery.

"Please take care sir. We are praying for your speedy recovery and good health @CitiznMukherjee (sic)," Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote on Twitter.

Please take care sir. We are praying for your speedy recovery and good health @CitiznMukherjee https://t.co/GrptWPAM2p  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 10, 2020

"Sir, wishing you a speedy recovery and a long & healthy life," Ajay Maken, ex-Delhi Congress chief tweeted.

"I pray for the well being and speedy recovery of Shri Pranab Mukherjee. I am confident he will be successful in recovering from the virus quickly. Wishing him strength and good health," Union Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted.

I pray for the well being and speedy recovery of Shri Pranab Mukherjee. I am confident he will be successful in recovering from the virus quickly. Wishing him strength and good health https://t.co/56TESwSUJs  Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) August 10, 2020

Several well-known leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, and other have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last few days.
French forces have stopped at least 810 migrants crossing the Channel in 2020 including 532 since Thursday

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The Prime Minister today vowed to reconsider the law in a bid to tackle migrant crossings as France warned the government not to send the Navy into its waters.

Boris Johnson branded Channel crossings a 'very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do' as he hinted at changing laws to tackle the deepening crisis.

The PM said the UK needed to 'look at the legal framework' for migrants who have arrived in the UK illegally, adding it was 'very, very difficult to then send them away again.'

But critics have accused Mr Johnson of using 'inflammatory' soundbites during his 'increasingly chaotic' handling of the crisis.

This morning Home Secretary Priti Patel travelled to Dover to meet Border Force officials - as the patrol boat Hunter stopped a packed 12-man boat carrying 19 men and one woman off the coast.

This comes as a Royal Air Force plane was deployed to carry out surveillance over the English Channel as part of the effort to tackle migrants attempting the crossing from France.

Home Office figures suggest some 677 people, including at least one toddler, were caught making the perilous crossing from France to England between Thursday and Sunday.

Ministers are said to be considering a so-called 'push back' approach where UK ships would stop migrant boats leaving French waters.

But as Royal Navy chiefs look into the idea of a 'passive blockade', a French Minister warned against sending Naval vessels across the Channel to intercept dinghies.

MP for Calais Pierre-Henri Dumont described the involvement of the Royal Navy as a 'political measure' which could be 'dangerous', claiming it was an attempt by British ministers 'to show some kind of muscle'.

Asked if it might be a deterrent, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'Yes, but that's dangerous, because if there is a vessel from the Royal Navy trying to push a vessel, very small boat full with migrants, back into French waters - first you could say that you've got British vessels entering French waters, I don't know if the British Government would be very happy to see the other way, if French vessels would enter without any ask, before or without any decision before, into British waters.'

As efforts to address the escalating crisis intensified on Monday, it also emerged:

More crossings continued in the early hours, with some 20 migrants crossing the Channel to Dover today;

RAF dispatched a plane to survey the Channel after flight was authorised by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace;

Home Office has been in talks with the Ministry of Defence as the government asks Royal Navy for support;

The Home Office appointed a former Royal Marine to head up an operation to tackle the problem;

Calais' MP Pierre-Henri Dumont said the French priority was to 'save lives' and warned calling in the Navy was an attempt by British ministers 'to show some kind of muscle';

Downing Street said Brexit would allow the UK to draw up a new framework for dealing with migrants;

Immigration minister Chris Philp is set to discuss with French counterparts tomorrow a request that British taxpayers provide tens of millions of pounds of support to pay for patrols along the beaches of northern France.

Around 20 migrants were intercepted off the coast of Dover by Border Force officials on Monday

Home Secretary Priti Patel also headed to Dover, and was seen disembarking from a police boat that had been out in the Channel earlier that morning

Home Secretary Priti Patel went to Dover harbour this morning to meet with Border Force officials

More migrants were seen crossing the English Channel this morning, as French authorities have insisted they have intercepted more than 800 people so far this year

A Royal Air Force plane carries out surveillance over the English Channel as part of the effort to tackle migrants attempting the crossing from France

The huge grey Atlas cargo plane was seen circling low above the English Channel on Monday morning. The rotor-powered aircraft made several passes above the water, sharing the skies with HM Coastguard's plane

Boris Johnson (pictured at a school in Upminster today), branded migrants' Channel crossings a 'very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do' as he hinted at changing laws to tackle the crisis. But MP for Calais Pierre-Henri Dumont described the involvement of the Royal Navy as a 'political measure' which could be 'dangerous', claiming it was an attempt by British ministers 'to show some kind of muscle'.

Around 4,000 people have managed to make the crossing from France to England since the start of this year

Former MoD chief suggests using cruise ships for quarantining Former director general of Ministry of Defence, Rear Admiral Chris Parry has suggested disused cruise liners could be used to try and clampdown on crossings. He told The Telegraph: 'One of the things that I've been looking at this week is employing one of the many unemployed cruise liners along the south coast. 'You take them to a cruise liner, you quarantine them, you give them medical checks, and then you can process them and those that can come to the UK come, and those that can't get returned.' Advertisement

It comes after two children suffered 'minor injuries due to prolonged exposure to the sun,' after spending 12 hours in the Channel with 15 other refugees before they were picked up by French authorities.

Speaking during a trip to St Joseph's school in Upminster this morning, Boris Johnson said: 'We've got a problem which is that there are people who want to come from around the world to this country because obviously it's a great place to be.

'There's no doubt that it would be helpful if we could work with our French friends to stop them getting over the Channel.

'Be in no doubt what's going on is the activity of cruel and criminal gangs who are risking the lives of these people taking them across the Channel, a pretty dangerous stretch of water in potentially unseaworthy vessels.

'We want to stop that working with the French, make sure that they understand that this isn't a good idea, this is a very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do.

'But then there's a second thing we've got to do and that is to look at the legal framework that we have that means that when people do get here, it is very, very difficult to then send them away again even though blatantly they've come here illegally.'

As of Sunday, 4,283 people have arrived in Britain after making the crossing, with today's arrivals bringing the total to 4,303.

The RAF flight by the Atlas aircraft today was authorised by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace to support Border Force operations in the Channel.

The Ministry of Defence said the aircraft, which flew from RAF Brize Norton just minutes ago, is an 'initial offer of assistance' to the Home Office.

The huge grey Atlas cargo plane was seen circling low above the English Channel on Monday morning.

The rotor-powered aircraft made several passes above the water, sharing the skies with HM Coastguard's plane.

According to the website Flight Radar 24 the Atlas A400M left RAF Brize Norton at around 7.10am on Monday and has been flying over the Channel between Dover and Calais since.

Last week the Home Office made a formal request for support from the Royal Navy to deal with migrants attempting to cross the English Channel in small boats.

Downing Street said Brexit would allow the UK to draw up a new framework for dealing with migrants.

French MP says the priority is to 'save lives' Calais' MP Pierre-Henri Dumont today said the French priority was to save lives. He also dismissed the idea of calling in the Navy as an attempt by British ministers 'to show some kind of muscle'. 'My question is: what for? If a small boat full with migrants is entering the British waters, is the British navy going to shoot at them?' he said in a BBC interview. 'We're talking about human beings, we're not talking about cattle,' he said. 'First we need to save lives.' He told Good Morning Britain: 'We are picking migrants up, but our one point here is saving lives. 'When you've got one vessel of the French coastguard and two small boats one that is safer than a kayak and riskier boats, we need to save lives, we need to save the ones who have the bigger chance to die crossing the channel.' Advertisement

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'We are currently bound by the Dublin Regulations for returns and they are inflexible and rigid - for example, there is a time limit placed on returns, it's something which can be abused by both migrants and their lawyers to frustrate the returns of those who have no right to be here.

'At the end of this year we will no longer be bound by the EU's laws so can negotiate our own returns agreement.

'The Home Office continue to look at all available options to tackle this issue.'

The Government continues to work with the French authorities on stronger measures, Downing Street said ahead of talks between immigration minister Chris Philp and his counterparts in Paris on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'We continue to work with the French on stronger enforcement measures, French interceptions at sea and the direct return of boats. The primary objective is to prevent migrants from leaving France in the first place.'

Speaking on Good Morning Britain today, French National Assembly member Pierre Henri-Dumont said: 'We're dismantling dozens and dozens of smugglers in France with the help of European police and British police.

'We're doing whatever we can, but you need to understand we've got almost 300km of coast to monitor between France and the UK.

'We are picking migrants up, but our one point here is saving lives.

'What we should focus on is what we're going to do with France and GB not to have the Channel being a new Mediterranean Sea and what can we do to make sure we're not going to see dead bodies lying on both sides of our coasts.'

He added: 'We cannot stop all the boats because that would mean stopping 20 to 30 boats sometimes and we don't have all the resource to do that.

'You have to choose between two boats sometimes.'

Asked about the Royal Navy getting involved, he told BBC's Radio 4: 'This is a political measure to show some kind of resource to fight against smugglers and illegal crossings in the Channel, but technically speaking that won't change anything.'

Sir David Normington, former permanent secretary at the Home Office, said the 'only solution' was to work with French officials to 'persuade them to intensify their efforts to stop illegal migrants'.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'The best solution is if we can persuade the French to intensify efforts to stop illegal migrants leaving the French coast or patrolling the coastline within French territorial waters, because once they get into British territorial waters they are likely to end up being landed in Britain and then claiming asylum, so the only solution to this is to work with the French to persuade them to intensify their efforts to stop illegal migrants.'

The Ministry of Defence said the aircraft, which flew from RAF Brize Norton just minutes ago, is an 'initial offer of assistance' to the Home Office

Asked about talk of an additional 30 million to help the French fund patrols, he said: 'Well, if it takes money to help the French increase their resources and their manpower then that will have to be done.

'There's a long history of Britain putting money into resources for the French on the French coast.'

On deploying the Royal Navy, he said: 'I'm a bit sceptical about it ... If the Navy is going to push boats back, it will have to go into French water to do that, and then you can only do that with the permission of the French government.'

He added: 'A lot of these migrants want to come to the UK and will do everything they can to avoid being documented or claim asylum in another country.'

Calm weather on The Channel has provided conditions for small boats to cross over from France

Border Force patrol boat Hunter intercepted a small vessel carrying refugees toward Dover this morning

Under new plans Royal Navy and Border Force vessels would pick up migrants and take them to Dunkirk, northern France, rather than offering refuge in the UK.

Admiral Lord West, the former head of the Royal Navy, has backed the plan, telling the Daily Mail: 'This catastrophic situation will only escalate unless the Royal Navy becomes involved.

Migrants wave as they bail water out of rubber dinghy on perilous 52-mile journey across the Channel Around 20 migrants waved as they were spotted motoring across the English Channel on a rubber dinghy. They were packed together on board the blue and grey boat, which was being powered across the Dover Strait by a single outboard engine. But choppy waters on Monday morning pushed the vessel this way and that, and sea spray showered them at every turn. One migrant was seen constantly bailing out water from the floor of the dinghy using a plastic container as they continued their desperate journey to Britain. Migrant charity worker Bridget Chapman, of the Kent Refugee Action Network, said she was 'terrified' by video of the crossing and said the boat was 'dangerously packed' and 'totally unsuitable'. She said she was 'relieved' to hear that the migrants had been picked up by Border Force, and added: 'You must be absolutely desperate to put your life on the line like that.' Spotted about halfway across the Channel at around 6.20am, the group of migrants would have set off from northern France in the early hours of the morning. When asked if they were all right, they shouted back that they were OK, and said they were from Syria. The dinghy was visibly low in the water as they sat huddled together wearing orange lifejackets. The famous White Cliffs of Dover, and their intended destination of the UK, could be seen on the horizon. Advertisement

'It is patently obvious that the Home Office cannot cope, despite the best efforts of the Border Force and the assistance of the coastguard and RNLI.'

But former foreign secretary David Miliband has criticised the proposal.

Mr Miliband, president and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, warned 'cooler heads need to prevail if the UK is to sustain an effective response as well as a humane response.'

He told Times Radio: 'There is a danger that the people who are seeking to escape from persecution, not everyone is in that situation but there's a lot of unsolved conflicts around the world, get dehumanised in a way that statistics are used to make it seem like there's an 'invasion' when the truth is... 85% of the world's forcibly displaced people, so refugees, are in poor countries not rich countries.'

The former foreign secretary highlighted refugee numbers in Bangladesh and Lebanon, adding: 'As long as there is a neglect of diplomacy, we're going to see more of these people fleeing.'

On using the navy to stop boats travelling from France to England, Mr Miliband said: 'The bigger the wall, the more desperate the measures to get round them.'

Refugee Council's director of advocacy Lisa Doyle said: 'It's incredibly disappointing to hear the Prime Minister using such inaccurate and inflammatory language to describe men, women and children who are desperate enough to make perilous journeys across the busiest shipping channel in the world.

'Seeking asylum is not a crime, and it is legitimate that people have to cross borders to do so.'

Instead of 'scapegoating people in desperate circumstances', she urged the Government to introduce measures like a 'strong resettlement programme, humanitarian visas and reformed family reunion rules', insisting that this would see the number of crossings 'decline sharply'.

Stephen Hale, chief executive of Refugee Action, told the Government to 'move on from soundbites' and focus 'constructively on serious and long-term solutions'. He added: 'Britain is better than this.

'We have a proud history of welcoming people fleeing some of the most violent and oppressive regimes in the world and we can't stop now.'

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman Christine Jardine claimed the Government's attempt to be 'tough' on crossings had failed.

She added: 'If we want to tackle this we need to provide safe legal routes which take migrants out of the hands of criminals. This must be coupled with investment in our border forces.'

The latest landings come as it was revealed France is expected to demand 30million to help stem the flow of migrants across the Channel.

Around 20 refugees were intercepted on a small boat just off the coast of Dover this morning

The Hunter patrol vessel picked a groupf of migrants who were crossing the Channel from France

A source today told The Telegraph French officials have asked the UK to pay the staggering figure to help fund more beach patrols.

Meanwhile, Home Secretary Priti Patel yesterday appointed a former Royal Marine to the role of 'clandestine Channel threat commander'.

As a former Royal Marines Commando who served in Iraq and Kosovo, it is hoped Dan O'Mahoney can stop organised gangs smuggling people across the channel from Calais.

Mr O'Mahoney said: 'This role is vitally important in the fight to end the heinous crime of people smuggling across the Channel.'

Ms Patel's Home Office has been accused of having 'lost control' after a new single-day record for migrant crossings was set on Thursday - when a 235 arrived in 17 vessels in one day.

Individuals wearing blankets and lifejackets were seen arriving in Dover aboard a Border Force boat on Saturday afternoon, while others were reported to have landed on Kent beaches. Pictured: A Border Force official carries a migrant child

Migrants are brought to shore in Dover after a number of small boats were intercepted in the Channel today

Under new plans Royal Navy and Border Force vessels would pick up migrants and take them to Dunkirk, northern France, rather than offering refuge in the UK. Pictured: Migrants wearing face coverings arrive in Dover

One refugee charity boss also described the government's handling of the situation as 'increasingly chaotic'.

Plans to bring in the Navy will be presented to the French government in Paris on Tuesday.

In a statement, the MoD said: 'We are assessing the requirement using the formal Military Aid to the Civilian Authorities process and are working hard to identify how we can most effectively assist.

'As ever the MoD will do all it can to support HMG requirements.'

Ms Patel said: 'The number of illegal small boat crossings is appalling.

'We are working to make this route unviable and arresting the criminals facilitating these crossings and making sure they are brought to justice.

'Dan's appointment is vital to cutting this route by bringing together all operational partners in the UK and in France.'

The latest landings come as it was revealed France is expected to demand 30million to help stem the flow of migrants across the Channel. Pictured: Migrants are bought into Dover

Ms Patel's Home Office has been accused of having 'lost control' after a new single-day record for migrant crossings was set on Thursday - when a 235 arrived in 17 vessels in one day. Pictured: A view showing dinghies being stored at Dover harbour

Individuals wearing blankets and lifejackets were seen arriving in Dover aboard a Border Force boat (pictured) on Saturday afternoon, while others were reported to have landed on Kent beaches

A group of migrants attempting to cross the channel in a dinghy were picked up by the National Gendarmerie and taken back to Calais today

A toddler (pictured) was carried to safety by the Border Force as officials work around the clock amid a sharp rise in the number of people making the treacherous journey

Other images showed a suspected migrant being pushed along in a wheelchair by officials in Dover

Four men, some using shovels as paddles, use a small dinghy to cross the English Channel on August 7

The youngster was carried from a boat containing at least six others. There appeared to be other young children on board

Border Force officers escort a group of men - believed to be migrants - all wearing protective face masks in Dover

Border Force vessel brings a group of people - including children - thought to be migrants into the port city of Dover

Britain has so far paid more than 100million to fund the French response to the migrant crisis.

In 2015, the UK paid 10million towards security reviews and reducing the number of migrants waiting to cross.

Another 17 million was paid in 2016, 36 million in 2017, 45 million in 2018, 3.25 million in 2019 and 2.25 million this year up until March.

It comes as more than 4,000 migrants have already made the crossing to the UK so far this year - more than double the total for 2019.

The recent heatwave and calm seas have encouraged more boats than ever to cross the vast 84km expanse of water.

A wheelchair user, a pregnant woman, unaccompanied children and a newborn baby were among the latest to arrive this week.

Officials are already disagreeing over whether millions more should be paid to help tackle the growing issue.

Tim Loughton MP, the senior Conservative member of the Home Affairs select Committee which monitors immigration for Parliament, told the newspaper: 'It is pretty rich for the French to be demanding yet more money from UK taxpayers to deal with a problem that they have singularly failed to deal with on their own territory.'

Border Force officer escorts a young family thought to be migrants from a Border Force vessel in Doveron Friday

A tiny baby was spotted on Thursday morning arriving in Dover with its family after crossing the Channel in a dinghy - carried in what appears to be a gym bag

Migrants were photographed using shovels to paddle their boats (pictured) and some have used paddling pools instead of proper vessels

Meanwhile, a senior French government official blasted the accusation as a 'fantasy'.

They said: 'The simple fact is that a huge amount of work is successfully being put into stopping these crossings.'

Mr Wallace has agreed to tell advisers to put together a military response that could include using Archer class fast patrol boats off the south coast.

US-made P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft, drones and helicopters could also spot migrants from the French coast so they can be intercepted by UK vessels.

The plan will be presented by Chris Philp, the Minister for Immigration Compliance, at a meeting with French interior minister Gerald Darmanin.

The group of weary migrants attempted to cross the channel by dinghy. They are pictured being escorted back to France

The National Gendarmerie escorted the migrants back to France after they tried to cross the channel

Pictures yesterday emerged of a toddler being carried to safety by the Border Force from a boat containing at least six others. There appeared to be other young children on board the vessel as it docked in Dover.

Other images showed a migrant being pushed along in a wheelchair by officials in Dover.

On current trends, around 7,500 migrants will cross the Channel by the end of the year, according to an analysis of official figures by Migrationwatch.

This would be nearly four times the 1,892 that entered the UK via the crossing in the whole of 2019, the campaign group projected.

Almost 4,000 migrants have crossed the Channel to the UK so far this year. Pictured: Children are picked up by the Border Force vessel Hunter after being brought into Dover, Kent on small boats crossing the English Channel on Friday

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

Kent county council has seen more than 500 unaccompanied child migrants, 23 of which came in on Thursday alone.

Council leader Roger Gough told The Times: 'Numbers started picking up last year with young people coming through in lorries. Then with the shutdown and disruption to freight channels, there was much more reliance on boats.

'We do not want a situation when there are adults in a setting with children and young people.

Ministers are said to be considering using Australia's 'push back' method - a tactic used to stop illegal migrants arriving from Indonesia - according to sources.

It would involve using the navy to intercept migrant boats in the channel.

But some are concerned that such drastic interventions could lead to drownings - with some questioning whether the move would be legal in the first place.

One source in the Defence Ministry said it was 'completely potty' to get the navy involved, The Times reported.

One group of 14 migrants - including a heavily pregnant woman - managed to land on the Kent coast this morning and came ashore in the village of Kingsdown, near Deal.

Officers were seen taking away possessions in evidence bags as the migrants sat on the pebbles looking tired after completing their journey.

Two other groups reportedly landed at Folkestone and Deal while multiple boats were brought into Dover Marina on what is expected to be another busy day for Border Force officials.

A second extra large customs cutter was drafted in to help deal with people making the treacherous 21-mile journey across the world's busiest shipping route.

The Dover Lifeboat did not return to the marina until shortly before 8pm on Friday after being called out to more migrants in trouble at 4.30pm.

Their first call out was at around 3.30am and the crew were back at sea at 9am today with crossings expected to continue until at least midday.

It comes after more than 130 migrants were picked up in 13 small boats on Friday.

On Thursday, 235 people landed or were brought ashore from boats in the English Channel, a record number for a single day.

In some cases, makeshift flotation devices have been created out of household items.

The fleet of dinghies included a a girl aged around eight, another around 10 as well as at least five large groups of adults in the Kent town

A group of people thought to be migrants were escorted by Border Force staff into Dover

A man was found with empty lemonade bottles strapped to his body just four miles off the French coast in a highly-dangerous bid to swim to Britain.

In another shocking case, a group tried to get to the other side of the channel in a children's paddling pool while some have tried wooden boats or kayaks.

Harrowing images of children wearing lifevests being picked up by the Border Force vessel Hunter after being brought into Dover, Kent, on a small boat emerged this week.

Home Secretary Ms Patel has said the Royal Navy could be called in to prevent boats reaching UK waters, though other senior officials and politicians say that could be impractical and potentially dangerous.

She tweeted: The number of illegal small boat crossings is appalling and unacceptably high.

'The figures are shameful. France and other EU states are safe countries. Genuine refugees should claim asylum there, not risk their lives and break the law by coming to the UK.

Pictured: A swimmer crosses the English Channel as, in the background, a dinghy carrying migrants is escorted by French border police on Friday

'I am working to make this route unviable. This involves: Stopping the boats leaving France in the first place and intercepting boats and returning those attempting to make a crossing.

'This is complex to do and we face serious legislative, legal and operational barriers.'

But Labour former home secretary Jack Straw said any move modelled on Australia's controversial 'push-back' approach could have deadly consequences.

'I don't think that just trying to push these people back is going to work and it will only take one of these dinghies to capsize and everybody to drown, which is perfectly feasible, for their to be a hullabaloo, including in the Conservative Party, and for the policy to have to be reversed, so I wouldn't go down that route,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Border Force chief Tony Smith said extra resources may not solve the problem as the Navy would 'be in the same boat as Border Force in terms of policy. The only powers we have are search and rescue and that is what we have been doing'.

He said that dangerous crossings of the Channel by boat will continue without an agreement with the French to return migrants.

Dover Tory MP Natalie Elphicke said it was 'absolutely essential' to stop the continued migrant crossings and said 'all options need to be on the table' to keep them from arriving from France, including the Navy

He said smugglers are exploiting a 'loophole' in the law of the sea which obliges vessels to rescue people once they enter the waters of their jurisdiction.

'I think it can be overcome by bilateral agreements, we've done that before with the French.

'Once you're on the waterways the law of the sea kicks in and we haven't, without a bilateral agreement on instant returns or joint patrols with the French, which would enable us to safely return them to France to be processed, we're going to see I'm afraid continual numbers of this.

'And we need to find a way of breaking this circle and stopping the pull factor which is fuelling the smuggling supply chains.'

Among Friday's illegal arrivals there was a group of 12 men in their 20s, who were on a small vessel that was intercepted by Border Force officers

Former Royal Navy officer Rear Admiral Chris Parry said 'innovative solutions' like using unemployed passenger liners to re-route migrants are needed.

He said: 'We don't have to take them back to dry land. There's any number of unemployed passenger liners on the south coast at the moment, they could actually be taken there for processing for medical assessment and then onward routing either back to France or to the United Kingdom.

'I think people need to understand that the old ways are just not cutting it at the moment and we need to apply innovative solutions.'

But Mr Smith said: 'Once they are under our jurisdiction we will immediately face asylum claims.

The number who have reached Britain so far this year is now already double the total who arrived in the whole of 2019

'Without that agreement from the French to actually interdict people on the high seas and take them back to France the message is getting back to the migrants and to the smugglers that this is the way in and that does create a huge pull factor.

'We could see something very similar to what we saw in the Mediterranean three or four years ago where the word will get out that all you need to do is get out on to the English Channel, you will be brought into the UK and it's very unlikely you'll be returned.'

MP for Dover Natalie Elphicke said more needs to be done to stop the crossings.

She said: 'Putting an end to the small boats crossings crisis will only happen when migrants and traffickers alike know that they won't succeed in breaking Britain in this way.

'For me that has three parts: firstly making sure that the boats don't leave France in the first place, if they do leave French shores that they're picked up early, and returned immediately to France and if people do break into our country and arrive on our shores that they are turned back to France.'

A border force vessel brought the group into Dover today after 130 people made the perilous crossing on Friday

Asked about speculation that Ms Patel was considering drafting in the Navy, Ms Elphicke said: 'There's some discussion about the Navy, and what I'd say is that as we've gone into this record number of people crossing over this year all options need to be on the table.

'But whoever it is that's involved what we must make sure is that boats are deployed not to bring people into this country but to return them to France and for the French to do more to make sure that those boats don't leave in the first place.'

Ms Elphicke said the UK has an 'incredibly important' role in humanitarian and asylum issues around the world.

She added: 'What I don't agree with is that we should be encouraging or allowing illegal people trafficking that actually preys on some of the most vulnerable people and puts them at risk of their very lives.

'What we've seen here in Kent, here in Dover and Deal, is we've seen an unacceptable situation of small boats actually arriving at the beaches, of people getting off those boats and roaming round the area and that's very, very worrying and concerning for local residents.'

It comes as migrants crossing the Channel were seen using makeshift flotation devices including lemonade bottles to make the dangerous journey.

UK ministers plead with France to get tough on Channel migrants amid warning that 7,500 could cross by Christmas UK ministers have pleaded with France to get tough on migrants crossing the Channel to Britain after figures suggest that 7,500 migrants could cross by Christmas. Almost 4,000 migrants have crossed the Channel to the UK so far this year, according to analysis of Border Force figures. This is thought to be more than double the total for the whole of 2019 where fewer than 2,000 are believed to have arrived in the country. On current trends, around 7,500 migrants will cross the Channel by the end of the year, according to an analysis of official figures by Migrationwatch. This would be nearly four times the 1,892 that entered the UK via the crossing in the whole of 2019, the campaign group projected. Advertisement

Migrants were photographed using shovels to paddle their boats and some have used paddling pools instead of proper vessels.

Clare Moseley of the Care4Calais charity told The Times: 'The people who do not have money, and not everybody can pay people smugglers, are seeing others getting across and are getting more and more desperate that they will be left out.

'They try kayaks, wooden rowing boats. It is terrifying.'

Lucy Moreton, professional officer of the Immigration Service Union, said: 'Prices for crossing have fallen but for some people an average price of around 4,000 per crossing per individual is too much.'

Ms Elphicke's fellow local Tory MP Damian Collins said the number of migrants crossing the Channel is 'shamefully high' and 'unacceptable' for his constituents.

Speaking on Channel 4 News, Mr Collins, who represents Folkestone and Hythe, said: 'It's good to have more observation at sea and more ships that can intervene if there's a problem, but having the Navy there doesn't mean we can suddenly intercept migrants in French territorial waters any more than we would let the French navy conduct operations within ours.'

Mr Collins said: 'It's clearly unacceptable for my constituents and for other people on the south-east coast to think that our borders are open, that anyone can get in a small boat, whoever they are, and make their way to the UK illegally.

'Having the Navy in the Channel is great, but it won't solve the problem unless they can patrol French waters and at the moment there is no agreement that they can.'

The Home Secretary's spokesman said the 'fantastic weather' was behind the surge despite ongoing efforts to prevent them while Immigration Minister Chris Philp said he shares 'the anger and frustration of the public' at the 'appalling number' of crossings.

Mr Philp is to visit France next week to speak with counterparts following a 'constructive' meeting with the country's deputy ambassador earlier this week.

The fleet of dinghies included a girl aged around eight, another about 10, as well as at least five large groups of adults in the Kent town.

The children, some too young to walk, were picked up by the Border Force vessel Hunter and taken into a white tent at the marina at 12.15pm.

Some of the adults - who appeared mainly to be men - carried their possessions in plastic bags before they were processed.

ABUL TAHER: 'Now you pay one fee and they'll keep putting you on a boat till you succeed in getting to Britain', say determined migrants waiting at the new Jungle camp in Calais

Sitting cross-legged outside makeshift shelters, the men pore excitedly over tide charts, trying to plot the most favourable time to cross the English Channel.

The new Jungle camp in Calais, a scrubby field near the main hospital, is a kind of tented waiting room.

So few made it to Britain from the infamous old encampment, which closed in 2016, that it became synonymous with despair.

But this shanty town resonates with hope and anticipation. It is possible to get across, newcomers are told.

More than possible. Large numbers make it every day: all you have to do is wait  and eventually you will be called.

Large numbers of refugees try and make the crossing every day. These days passage to England is going comparatively cheaply  as little as 350 in some cases

These days passage to England is going comparatively cheaply  as little as 350 in some cases.

By far the toughest journey the migrants make is the one to Calais, and every day brings new arrivals, from Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Egypt.

How different to a few years ago when it was the final leg that seemed so hopelessly beyond reach.

UK ministers plead with France to get tough on Channel migrants amid warning that 7,500 could cross by Christmas UK ministers have pleaded with France to get tough on migrants crossing the Channel to Britain after figures suggest that 7,500 migrants could cross by Christmas. Almost 4,000 migrants have crossed the Channel to the UK so far this year, according to analysis of Border Force figures. This is thought to be more than double the total for the whole of 2019 where fewer than 2,000 are believed to have arrived in the country. On current trends, around 7,500 migrants will cross the Channel by the end of the year, according to an analysis of official figures by Migrationwatch. This would be nearly four times the 1,892 that entered the UK via the crossing in the whole of 2019, the campaign group projected. Advertisement

Back then, I watched migrants try, night after night, to jump on to moving trains, a perilous enterprise with a pitifully low success rate.

Now, however, even if a migrant fails the first time and his boat is intercepted, he has only to keep trying until he gets it right.

Though it is far from risk-free, in most cases he  or she  will do so.

Best of all, explains Sajid Ali Khan, 21, from Lahore, Pakistan, you pay only one fee.

Khan was a mechanic in Germany for two years but when his work permit was not renewed, he came to Calais to make his way to Britain where he has friends.

'There were 13 of us, from all different countries, including four women with children,' he tells me. Barely had the boat travelled a mile across the Channel when the French coastguard appeared. After being returned to France, the migrants were released without arrest.

Normally, when migrants are intercepted they are detained for at least 24 hours and fingerprinted to see which European country they have come from so they can be deported back to that country under the Dublin Agreement.

But Khan says: 'They just let us go and so I will try again. We paid 2,000 euros [1,800] to the Iranians who say they will put me on a boat as many times as it is needed to get across to England. They are telling the truth because I know others have got across this way.'

A concrete path from the Calais hospital roundabout takes you to the new Jungle, its entrance guarded by a Police Nationale van. Everywhere there are charred circles from bonfires, many left by those who are now in England.

Trees with mangled branches torn for firewood dot the camp and yesterday I heard loud singing in Arabic and Farsi, a stark contrast to the subdued tension of the 2016 camp.

Local charities estimate that around 1,500 migrants live in Calais, all of whom are set on making their way to Britain. Others, mainly from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Chad, occupy a disused industrial park on Rue des Garennes, two miles away.

The new Jungle camp in Calais, a scrubby field near the main hospital, is a kind of tented waiting room

Back at the new Jungle, Khan laughs at plans to use the Royal Navy to stop migrants. 'If they make it harder in one way, we will find another way,' he says, sipping coffee and munching on bread supplied by a local charity which provides three meals per day.

Next to him stands Abebe Haile, 34, an Ethiopian from the capital Addis Ababa, who claims to have fled death threats issued because he was an opposition politician.

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

'The British Government should welcome us, not refuse us,' he says. 'Ask her [Home Secretary Priti Patel] when she wears clothes, where does the cotton come from? When she drinks coffee, where that comes from?

'It's from Africa. They should respect us. We will keep trying no matter what.'

His determination is typical of other at the camp.

According to official figures, more than 3,500 migrants have reached the UK this year from Calais, including a record of 235 in 17 boats last Thursday.

On Friday, 130 arrived aboard 13 boats and more than 2,000 entered the country using this route in June alone  more than four times the known total of 500 for the whole of 2018.

Back in the new Jungle, migrants use trees as clothes lines, draping jeans, T-shirts and even Islamic prayer mats across the branches to dry.

The ground below is littered with food and carrier bags full of rubbish.

Poppy Cleary, a British volunteer working for charity L'Auberge des Migrants, rejects the charge that organisations like hers encourage migrants to converge on Calais.

'They are leaving their homes because their countries are being bombed. They are refugees. What is wrong with providing some food, shelter and water to drink on such a hot day?' she says.

As we walk across the uneven ground, a group of Syrians rise from beneath their tarpaulin and surround me.

Abu Amir, 31, says he is from the war-torn city of Aleppo and has been in Calais for ten months. He was a pharmacist in Syria and believes he will be able to resume that career if he can get to Britain.

'The agents can put you on a boat for 350 euros. I have already done it once, but I was caught. I will try again,' he says.

He is dismissive when told that it is difficult to become a legal resident in the UK and fulfilling his dream of becoming a pharmacist may prove impossible.

'There is nothing here in France,' he says. 'I know there is security and work in Britain.'
The European Union (EU) on Sunday pledged 30 million euros (35.4 million U.S. dollars) in additional funding for the Lebanese people after a devastating explosion hit the capital Beirut last Tuesday.

The pledge, made at the international conference on assistance and support to the Middle East country, was meant to help address the immediate needs of those affected by the explosion, said the European Commission in a press release.

The amount was on top of the 33 million euros initial aid offered by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her phone call on Thursday with Lebanese President Michel Aoun.

"In these critical hours, the EU is providing shelter, emergency healthcare, water and sanitation, and food assistance," said EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic, who represented the Commission at the conference on Sunday.

Some 300 experts from the EU and its member states have been deployed on the ground in Lebanon, providing help in search and rescue, chemical assessment and medical treatment. (1 euro = 1.18 U.S. dollars)
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

After a few months of lackluster growth at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, metro Albuquerques home prices soared to their highest point in at least a decade in July.

According to the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors monthly housing report, the median sales price for a detached single-family house reached $251,000, an 8.3% increase since last July. The mean sales price increased 9.4%, to $289,677, according to the report.

Kent Cravens, CEO of the realtors association, said the median price was the highest since at least 2008, due to low inventory, low mortgage rates and a possible influx of new out-of-state buyers.

People are showing up to the market with money, Cravens said.

Albuquerque home prices grew slowly during the spring, as the pandemic may have prompted some buyers and sellers to be more cautious than they might have been under normal circumstances. However, Cravens said demand has picked up as the weather has warmed. Some 1,471 home sales closed in Albuquerque in July, with an additional 1,495 sales pending. Both totals represented jumps of more than 20% compared to July 2019, according to the report.

This, in turn, has pushed already low levels of inventory even lower. In July, homes spent an average of just 26 days on the market, down from 33 a year prior. The inventory of homes on the market dropped nearly 54% compared to last July.

Its all putting upward pressure on pricing, Cravens said.

Cravens added that buyers moving to New Mexico from other parts of the country may be a contributing factor as well. While New Mexico hasnt grown as quickly as its western neighbors Arizona, Colorado and Texas, it fared well in a recent survey tracking the percentage of moves made into each state.

In 2019, 59% of New Mexicos moves were inbound, which ranked fourth in the nation, according to an annual study released by Atlas Van Lines earlier this year.

Cravens added that the pandemic and widespread social unrest may exacerbate that trend. Albuquerque, with its relatively low costs, could be an appealing option for buyers looking to flee expensive coastal cities.

Its gonna get down to two things: economics and quality of life, Cravens said.
A woman who glassed her mother in the face during a day-long drinking bender has been spared jail.

Jade Rhodes, 29, attacked her mother Joanne during an argument after downing Tequila and Stella Artois on a pub crawl in Manchester.

Mrs Rhodes was left with cuts and a black eye and needed stitches on her eyeball - but handed the judge a character reference to help her daughter walk free from court.

Just one month earlier, Rhodes - who has seven previous convictions for assault - had been given a suspended sentence after assaulting an emergency worker.

Jade Rhodes, 29, attacked her mother Joanne during an argument after downing Tequila and Stella Artois on a pub crawl

The judge told Rhodes: 'You are someone who should not touch alcohol she whether or not you do in future will determine whether or not we meet again. Think about their next time you think about going out drinking cocktails and lager'

The 29-year-old, from Whitefield, Greater Manchester, said she could barely remember the incident when questioned by police.

Officers questioned her mother about the assault but she said she wanted to forgive her daughter.

Prosecutor Miss Sarah Wait told the court Rhodes carried out the attack after drinking with a group in Bury town centre on 8 July.

Appearing at Minshull Street Crown Court via video link from Styal Women's Prison in Cheshire, Rhodes admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm.

She was given 12 months jail suspended for two years and ordered to complete 25 rehabilitation days.

Rhodes has seven previous convictions for assault and in June was given 12 weeks jail suspended for a year for beating an emergency worker.

The court heard she suffered mental health issues due to a 'terrible personal life.'

Judge Paul Lawton told Rhodes: 'After a bender with your mother you glassed her in the face. That sort of behaviour would normally result in immediate custody and you were also subject to a suspended sentence at the time.

'However your background is one of the most tragic I have ever read about. You had medical conditions as a child and your personal life is terrible which has unsurprisingly led to mental health issues.

'However the way of dealing with that isn't through a Tequila Sunrise or a pint of Stella Artois.

Rhodes - who has seven previous convictions for assault - had been given a suspended sentence after attacking an emergency worker

Mrs Rhodes (right, with her daughter, left) was left with cuts and a black eye and needed stitches on her eyeball - but handed the judge a character reference to help her daughter walk free from court

'Instead you should use the services that are available to you. You are someone who should not touch alcohol she whether or not you do in future will determine whether or not we meet again.

'This is in your hands. Think about their next time you think about going out drinking cocktails and lager.'

In mitigation her lawyer Katie Laverty said: 'Her mother has forgiven her and says it was out of character.'

Addressing Rhodes' mother after the hearing, the judge added: 'Thank you for your reference. What happened to you is extremely unfortunate.

'I want to impress on you that your daughter should not access alcohol in the way she has been doing.

'The answer to her problems is not alcohol it only aggravates the position. You have seen first hand what happens. She will get through these problems if she is guided properly she you are one of the principal people doing that.'
Bhubaneswar:

BJP woman legislator Radharani Panda on Thursday alleged in the Odisha Assembly that a lady was asked to remove her black colour innerwear before being allowed to enter the venue of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaiks meeting at Bargarh.

Pandas allegation created ripples in the House after she was given an opportunity to speak on the issue of security personnel asking girls and women to remove black Odhani (stole) before allowing them to attend a government programme attended by the Chief Minister in Sundergarh district on December 4.

Even a woman was asked to remove her black petticoat to attend the CMs meeting held earlier at Bargarh, Panda alleged adding she came to know about the incident of November 25 from media reports.

She also alleged that a 5-year-old child died due to suffocation at the Chief Ministers meeting at Bargarh.

The woman MLA from Brajrajnagar further alleged that a policeman forcibly removed her black shawl while she was proceeding to Chief Ministers meeting at Jharsuguda on November 23.

Is it respect towards women under this government, Panda wondered adding that she went to the meeting as per the invitation.

I felt disrespected and humiliated at the meeting of the chief minister, Panda said as the ruling party members continued to disrupt her speech.

She also alleged that womens dignity was dented at the CMs meeting in Bargarh, Jharsuguda and Sundergarh.

Making an intervention, government chief whip Ananta Das raised question as to why the woman MLA did not raise the issue earlier as the winter session of the assembly began on December 1.

He said the chief minister has already given a statement on the incident that took place at Sundergarh.

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The body is removed from the scene at a house in St Michaels Road, Drumcondra. Photo: Paddy Cummins / Collins Photos

Gardai have ruled out foul play in the death of a man who was found in his Dublin home after gardai were alerted to an attempted break-in.

Eric Rooney (50) was found by gardai who went to the house in St Michael's Road in Drumcondra late on Saturday night.

Scene

The discovery was made when gardai received a call that a number of men where attempting to break into a house at around 11pm that night.

However, when they arrived at the scene there were no other people present, and when gardai entered the house, they found the man's body.

A post-mortem was carried out last night and the death is not being treated as suspicious.

Mr Rooney's body was removed from the scene yesterday afternoon for a post-mortem examination.

His family were being contacted by gardai yesterday.

Sudden

Fr Martin O'Shea, priest in residence at Corpus Christi Church on Homefarm Road in Drumcondra, said the news will come as a shock to people living in the area, "especially in an area like that when you don't expect something like this to happen," he said.

"It's always very sad when someone dies alone like that," he said.

"I have deep sympathy for the family, it's very upsetting, a sudden death like that."

Local Dublin City Councillor Ciaran Perry said the area where the tragedy occurred is normally very quiet.

The independent councillor said Mr Rooney's home is near Tolka Park, which he described as "a peaceful, quiet area".

"You'd rarely get any complaints at all from there," he told the Herald.

"It would be very unusual for something like that to happen in the area," he said.

The area is home to a lot of elderly people and locals are in shock, he added.

Dublin City Councillor Cat O'Driscoll (Social Democrats) said her heart goes out to Mr Rooney's family.

"My thoughts are for his family and condolences to his family and community," she told the Herald.

"Losing a loved one is difficult enough at any time, but it is especially difficult during the pandemic due to restrictions on funerals," she added.

In the meantime, she said burglaries are an issue in the area, citing the lack of a strong garda presence on the ground.

"Finding the culprits can be difficult," she said.

Meanwhile, gardai said in a statement yesterday the body was found after gardai were alerted to a break-in attempt.

"Gardai in Mountjoy are investigating all of the circumstances surrounding the death of a man, aged 50 years, whose body was discovery at his home in St Michael's Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9 last night, Saturday 8th August, 2020.

"The discovery was made when gardai received a call that a number of men where attempting to break into a house at approximately 11pm.

"When gardai arrived at the scene there were no other persons present and the body of the man was located in the house," the statement said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Mountjoy Garda Station 01 666 8602, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or any garda station.
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Children of foreign-born parents sometimes consider assimilation their priority, but by her account Ms. Matsuda was just as concerned that the history of Chinese immigration, reaching into the 19th century, could be forgotten.

She recognized, too, that though Metropolitan New York has the largest concentration of ethnic Chinese outside of Asia, there was no single museum there devoted to that immigrant experience, nor to the contributions Chinese immigrants had made to their adopted country. Such a museum, she believed, could also explore societal and cultural issues within the Chinese immigrant community, like the tensions between Chinese-born parents and their American children.

All of which led her to the New York Chinatown History Project, which was started in 1980 by John Kuo Wei Tchen, a historian and the first American-born son of Chinese immigrants, and Charles Lai, a Chinatown resident who immigrated from Hong Kong with his parents and five siblings as a child in 1968.

It wasnt as if we could go to the library and find history books about laundry workers, Professor Tchen was quoted as saying in Columbia, the universitys magazine, in 2007. (He was the founding director of the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University and is now director of the Clement Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture and the Modern Experience at Rutgers University, Newark.)

Their fledgling effort evolved into what MoCA describes as the first full-time, professionally-staffed museum dedicated to reclaiming, preserving, and interpreting the history and culture of Chinese and their descendants in the Western Hemisphere.

Ms. Matsuda, as both a preservationist and a social worker, was a big part of why Chinatown has so many agencies that serve seniors needs, and why generations of their otherwise neglected stories and belongings are remembered and kept safe for future generations, Professor Tchen said.

Ms. Matsuda was particularly proud of a 1991 exhibit called What Did You Learn in School Today?: P.S. 23, 1893-1976. The exhibit was inspired by a Depression-era class photograph taken at P.S. 23, a 19th-century school at 70 Mulberry Street that became the museums home for a period.
As the middle of August approaches, the time to plan that one final summer vacation is now.

Whether its a weeklong trip or just a weekend getaway, plenty of Airbnb options are available for rental, including in Cape Cod.

Here are 10 of the best rentals in Wellfleet to end your summer on a high:

Courtesy of Airbnb.com

Click here to see more photos of this rental

Welcome to our internationally acclaimed and regionally featured Cape Cod cottage located on Lieutenant Island in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Its in a private location with panoramic views and a western exposure featuring beautiful sunsets nightly (weather permitting)!

Courtesy of Airbnb.com

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Private room and bathroom above garage with a separate entrance. Located in a quiet neighborhood, very close to ocean beaches, bike trail and a short drive to downtown Wellfleet.

Courtesy of Airbnb.com

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Centrally located large summer rental on Eastham / Wellfleet line minutes from both Bay Beaches , Cape Cod National Seashore beaches trails & visitor center. Professionally cleaned following covid-19 sanitizing recommendations . This house is perfect for family groups sharing their vacation!

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Join us in our charming treehouse, above a free standing 2 car garage. Your entrance is a 14 x 26 mahogany deck with outdoor seating & grill. The outdoor hot-cold shower is tucked under your access stairs. You have a full sized washer/dryer for your exclusive use. Laundry is near the entrance stairs. The tree house interior has a Queen bedroom with sleeping up to 3 in living room. Dog friendly fees apply. Using a professional cleaning service following Covid-19 cleaning protocols.

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The Naughty Bluff House is the perfect, cozy space for your visit to Wellfleet. There is an open floor plan that makes it a bright and welcoming home. Sit on the porch under the umbrella and eat breakfast before heading off to the beach or for a bike ride through Wellfleets network of trails. Come home to the sunny yard, take an outdoor shower and relax on the lawn. Complete your day sitting around the fire pit after a five minute walk down to the bay to watch the sunset.

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Social Distancing made easy on Duck Creek in the Heart of Wellfleet. Located directly on Duck creek in central Wellfleet, this independent cottage is cozy, private, and has two bedrooms and a full bath. It sleeps up to four adults or a small family. Never rented, the house features a new bathroom, new beds, new linens and towels, and new kitchen utensils. Come for the social distancing, but thats not what you will remember.

Courtesy of Airbnb.com

Click here to see more photos of this rental

This bright, spacious home can comfortably sleep 10 people and features an open-layout that is perfect for family vacations. It is located in a quiet, private neighborhood half a mile from the town of Wellfleet. The house is close to beaches, ponds, and beautiful walking and biking trails.

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Unwind at the Cape in this cozy 1-bedroom, 1-bathroom vacation rental cottage thats been recently updated with new amenities that the whole family is sure to love. Situated in the coastal town of Wellfleet, you will experience the tranquil charm that defines the Cape Cod area. Play on sandy beaches, dine on fresh seafood and explore the Cape Cod National Seashore on your next seaside getaway.

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Click here to see more photos of this rental

This comfortable house is located in a woodsy area few minutes walking distance (2 min by car) from the center of Wellfleet, the most desirable town on the Cape. You can quickly get to the bay side, or the ocean beaches, or to many Wellfleet ponds. You are 17 min away from province town.

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Click here to see more photos of this rental

This home was renovated in 2016 and has many modern amenities including a large double-headed outdoor shower, central a/c, gas stove, grill, dishwasher, washer/ dryer. The main living area is approximately 900 sq. ft. and is all on one level. "

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Soon after his patch-up talks with senior Congress leaders, former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot on Monday night said he has never hankered after posts and his was a fight for principles. He also welcomed the creation of a three-member panel by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) to address the issues raised by him as the protracted political crisis engulfing the party in Rajasthan drew closer to an end.

Pilot, who made his first public appearance since his revolt against Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot a month ago, said he and the other MLAs raised organisational issues, the case of sedition filed by the SOG, and the style of governance in the state, and expressed the hope that the grievances will be addressed soon. He was speaking after the rebel Congress MLAs met party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and KC Venugopal and aired their grievances.

The MLAs said the issues raised were in the party's interests.

Pilot had met Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi earlier in the day. Priyanka, Venugopal and Ahmed Patel are part of the panel set up to address Pilot's complaints and recommend action.

"We raised issues of principles before the Congress leadership and welcome their assurance of time-bound redressal of our grievances," said Pilot.

"I don't crave for any post or hanker after any position. The party has given a position and can take it back. I wanted that the respect be maintained and those who have worked hard in the formation of Congress government in Rajasthan be rewarded accordingly," the former deputy chief minister said.

Pilot said he has worked hard for bringing the Congress to power in Rajasthan and hoped the party would fulfil its promises made to the people.

After the meeting, AICC general secretary Venugopal said, "The Congress will go forward unitedly by mutually respecting each other and resolving concerns raised."

Pilot said some personal remarks have been made against him, but he has never used such language that hurts anyone. "I feel there is no place for personal mudslinging in politics," he said, adding all this while he did not respond to any personal remarks made against him and maintained dignity.

Pilot was referring to earlier remarks made by Gehlot who had called his former deputy "nikamma" (useless) and had accused him of playing a part in toppling the government.

"We raised organisational issues, the case of sedition filed by the state SOG, the style of functioning and governance in Rajasthan," Pilot said. "I raised my experiences of 1.5 years to the party leadership and said whatever was in the party's interest."
Mumbai, Aug 10 : Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt was discharged from hospital on Monday.

The 61-year-old actor was admitted to Lilavati Hospital on Saturday evening after he complained of breathlessness and uneasiness in the chest. However, his Covid-19 report was negative. The actor was discharged from hospital on Monday afternoon, and he returned home.

Dutt alighted from his car in front of his Bandra residence wearing purple kurta-pajama, a pair of glasses and a mask. Baba, as he is fondly called, waved his hand and posed for lenspersons waiting outside his home.

On Saturday night, shortly after being hospitalised, Dutt had tweeted: "Just wanted to assure everyone that I'm doing well. I'm currently under medical observation and my COVID-19 report is negative. With the help and care of the doctors, nurses and staff at Lilavati hospital, I should be home in a day or two. Thank you for your well wishes and blessings." On the work front, Sanjay Dutt will next be seen in Mahesh Bhatt's "Sadak 2". The sequel to the 1991 hit, "Sadak", reunites Dutt with Pooja Bhatt, and also casts Alia Bhatt and Aditya Roy Kapur in pivotal roles. The film is slated to release digitally on August 28.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
French military said it was providing air support for the operation, which is unfolding over a vast wooded area.

French and Nigerien soldiers are searching through a giraffe reserve and the surrounding area in Niger for traces of the gunmen who killed six French aid workers.

Frances anti-terrorism prosecutor also opened an investigation into the incident, in which attackers on motorcycles ambushed the group as it drove through the reserve located 65km (40 miles) from the capital Niamey  an area considered safe by the Niger government.

The French military, which has a 5,100-member force in the Sahel, said it was providing air support for the operation, which is unfolding over a vast wooded area.

In addition to six French citizens, their Nigerien guide and driver were also killed.

The country, one of the poorest in the world, is struggling with incursions by armed groups from both Nigeria to the south and Mali to the west.

200630180156175

In Paris, French anti-terror prosecutors said in a statement they would investigate charges of murders with links to a terrorist enterprise and criminal terrorist association.

Most of the victims were shot although one woman managed to escape but was later caught and her throat was cut, a source said.

The bodies were laid side-by-side next to a torched four-wheel-drive vehicle, which had bullet holes in its rear window.

Cowardly and barbaric

Nigerien forensic experts investigated the site of the killing before the bodies were taken to Niamey.

French President Emmanuel Macron and his Nigerien and Malian counterparts Mahamadou Issoufou and Ibrahim Boubacar Keita branded the attack cowardly and barbaric.

The Koure area is a sanctuary for hundreds of West African giraffes, a subspecies distinguished by its lighter colour.

To the northwest of Niamey, the Tillaberi region has become a hideout for Sahel armed groups such as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), which have killed hundreds of troops and driven thousands from their homes.

The use of motorcycles has been totally banned since January in an attempt to curb the movements of such armed groups.

Two young Frenchmen, Antoine De Leocour and Vincent Delory, were killed after being kidnapped by fighters from a restaurant in Niamey in 2011.
It is not always a pyrotechnic Big Bang, the kind of breathtaking detonation that deformed, incinerated and vaporised downtown Beirut, that sends a place to the grave.

More often, death is by a thousand misguided, if, sometimes, well-intentioned cuts.

Read More

Like the repeated and brutal Government dagger thrusts that have left so many abandoned Irish communities bleeding out on the side of the road.

The continued shuttering of the doors of the village pub might be the last lacerating thrust for Forgotten Ireland.

Fridays Midlands lockdown  entirely avoidable had NPHET/political class unhealthy obsession with bars extended to the infinitely more vulnerable direct provision model  merely emphasises the misplaced priority and damage done.

It doesnt require twisted metal or the kind of terrible mushroom cloud that enveloped the stricken Lebanese capital on Tuesday to torment and break a locality, as small town Ireland, caught in a suffocating headlock of hopelessness, pummelled for decades by ruling class disdain and detachment, is coming to painfully understand.

The Government, along with the great medical minds of NPHET, seem blinded, whether by indifference or dogma, to a terrible tragedy unspooling before the nations eyes.

CLOGGING

The villages and marketplaces of Ireland, the byways and hamlets, the boondocks and hinterland cant breathe.

And it is not Covid-19 that is clogging their airwaves: It is Government-imposed despair. Melancholy, an absence of sunlight, is washing the colour out of so many lives.

What the zealots who are imposing a kind of 21st century prohibition on great swathes of the land fail utterly to understand is the primary role of the village pub.

Read More

It is a defibrillator, offering the jolt of companionship which might be the last guardrail against the mental health of so many flat-lining into a life-stealing darkness of the soul.

At the 'local' they taste not just a drop of stout, but the vitamin shot of human companionship

A safehouse for an increasingly endangered species: Those solitary, isolated, often older, frequently forgotten, citizens of a left-behind Ireland.

It is at the local that they taste not just a drop of stout, but the vitamin shot of human companionship.

They talk about the GAA matches they are not permitted to attend because of your Governments irrational imposition of a 200-person limit on outdoor gatherings in wide-open spaces.

Theirs is not a sweaty, claustrophobic nightclub or an anarchic house party.

They play a hand or two of gin-rummy or poker, catch-up on who is unwell or has passed.

Their pub is a palace of gossip, a community centre, a mental-health clinic where the demons of isolation can, for an hour or two at least, be shackled and quietened and kept at bay.

The regulars reminisce: About their years in London or New York; about the once thriving, now largely shuttered main street; about a town that has lost its youth, jobs and hope.

Government continued, inexplicably, to identify pubs as the source of all evil

And, about the days before Big Brother came to frown on their one merciful evening release, their lives of little enriched by a glass of stout, maybe a cigarette, and, the gold-dust that is a few precious hours of convivial company.

For some, it is all they have, before they return to stare at those four walls closing in like a junkyard car crusher.

None of this is to belittle the very real and brutal menace presented by coronavirus.

As the families of those who have lost a loved one can affirm, it is a merciless, rapacious killer.

But, on Tuesday, as the Government opted to keep every non-food-serving pub in the land closed, placing family-run businesses that have survived war and pestilence in grave danger, some 20 counties did not register a single Covid-19 case.

As demonic clusters were identified in meat factories and the ill-ventilated, disease-riddled direct provision centres where their immigrant workers reside, you continued, inexplicably, to identify pubs as the source of all evil.

The conflating of pub and school openings, the binary presentation of only one or the other being possible, is nonsensical, cynical spin.

It is one designed to camouflage the shameful absence of a remotely coherent plan to get children back at their desks.

And to deflect from the scandal of inaction on those direct provision centres, hubs of infection, into which you sardine the unwanted.

ISOLATED

Though Covid-19 is a grotesque pathogen, it is not the only killer in our midst.

Depression, the endless November of the soul facilitated by the absence of human company, is a butcher of lives.

No less than Michelle Obama revealed that coronavirus restrictions contribute to the low-grade depression that has enveloped her like a dark cloud.

If this vibrant former First Lady, surrounded by family and opportunity and love, is afflicted, imagine how it must be for those who are alone.

In so many parts of Ireland, there has long been a ready-made antidote to this terrible killer: The local pub.

But you have opted to cut off the supply of this life-saving serum.

To deny these isolated groups the nugget of companionship, even though their risk of spreading infection is tiny compared to unsupervised house parties, is inhuman, irrational and heartless.

And so a powder keg of despair and anger is piled high in the desolate fields of Forgotten Ireland.

The contempt of the political class is the lighted match that may soon trigger another terrible conflagration.
Fern Surfing - Self Shot V2:

Through The Trees - Emil Johansson:

Team Lifehack  Are Video Challenge 2020:

Matt Slager - In the Natural State:

Middle Hill Enduro 2020:

Intrinsic Film Segment #2:

Bike Park Days:

Boondocker:

Trail Blazer:

Spirit Of Adventure:

From The Ash:

HaroZona:

Dan Foley - Quarantine Clips:

Being - Lizzie Armanto:

Jeanne Duval's 21:

Colby West - "CLAIM, The Greatest Ski Movie... EVER!!!" - Full Segment

Why Scientists Are So Worried About This Glacier:

Movements:

Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories - Last Week Tonight with John Oliver:

Ashes To Ashes:

Max McCulloch surfing a sea of ferns on Vancouver Island. Wheels: NOBL TR38s on I9 Hydra Hubs. Location: Lower Vancouver Island. Riding and Video: Max McCulloch.Video: Niklas Wallner.Riders and filmers: Max Fredriksson, Anthon Thelander, and Alma Wiggberg.Typical day in my natural state in "the natural state" of Arkansas. Completely different life after moving from Chicago to Arkansas. Self shot.Just north of Kaikoura, Middlehill Mountain Bike Park hosted a masterpiece of enduro bike racing - over four stages (five for the pros) in all-time winter conditions, this local race was hotly contested by New Zealand's most talented bike athletes - Charlie Murray, Cole Lucas, Ed Masters, and Sam Blenkinsop. Thanks to PDIGSSS & Shapeshifter for the tunes!Toby Wilson and Fred Griffiths hit up some classic Derby lines.Stephane Pelletier and friends ripping in the park.Brian Langlois @dirtjumper771 shreds Boondocker in Revelstoke, BC.Rider: Derek Young. In my newest project Derek and I adventure into a local spot with some elevation and trails that we have both discovered and built ourselves. Mountain biking has always been our favourite thing to do, so coming together and creating a short film was a blast.Think of all those incredibly uncomfortable situations you have found yourself over the years, and they were right there with ya... hell, they were the ones that talked you into it. They have a way of making the unknown something we can't live without, you could even call them the curators of curiosity. They were the ones that introduced us to skids and wheelies, and the long way home. They are the master manipulators of "Just a bit further," that can't even spell "straight and narrow." They are our best friends and worst enemies, the curious, the wild, the irrational voices of awesome... The Spirit of Adventure!Featuring: Nico Vink. Directed By: Ryan Gibb. Cinematography By: Liam Mullany, Scott Secco, and Ryan Gibb. Additional Cinematography By: Austin Hopkins and Arnie Rodriguez. From The Ash is a visual metaphor for pushing forward as the world seemingly crumbles around you. For those whove lost, please dont give up. In May of 2018 the Ute Park wildfire burnt 36,740 acres; a large swath of it was on the Philmont Scout Ranch. Thank you to the Boy Scouts of America for allowing us to film on location at Philmont. For the best experience, please use headphones or a great sound system.Suffering from communal cabin fever caused by the Covid lock downs, we got the crew together and hit the road as soon as we heard word that cases were declining and restrictions easing. Weary not to venture too far during these uncertain times, we kept close to home and cruised through the desert to the great state or Arizona, aka HaroZona! Crew: Chad Kerley, Dennis Enarson, Matthias Dandois, Alex Leibrock.Dan Foley's back to his roots. Stacking clips over the quarantine. Riding, filming, and editing in only the way Dan can do!With a gift for competitive bowl and park skating, Lizzie Armanto could easily sit back and compete her way to international notoriety. But shes a skaters skater, with an eye on firsts. From pro model decks to signature shoes, magazine covers to becoming the first woman to do the loop, Lizzie is the next level of womens professional skateboarding.Sharing the common vision of a purely black and white aesthetic, filmmaker Claudia Lederer followed Vans' French skateboarder, Jeanne Duval, through an urban quest made of lines, curves, simplicity, details, shadows and light. This project is an attempt to transcribe Jeannes personal universe, endowed with a discreet personality whose sensitivity is mainly expressed through her skateboarding. Built up like a slow poetic journey, it was filmed pre-Covid in several cities of France (Paris, Nantes & Biarritz areas). Each spot visited has been picked for its architectural & graphic dimension. 21. is a personal vision of skateboarding.Claim is a classic.It's at the heart of Antarctica and on the verge of collapse.Movements is the symphonic saga  in four parts (Rainbow, Steelhead, Musky, Striper)  of three Alaska fishing guides who road trip their way home in a 2003 Dodge Caravan (best known as Van-a White and for its lack of a reverse gear) from AK to NYC. From an Edenic paradise to a modern-day Gomorrah in a single month  arriving in Time Square on Halloween night  these four MOVEMENTS make our original symphony "Agartha." Titled after the legendary luminous world said to be located at the earths core, Agartha's entrance is believed to be hidden at the bottom of an unnamed mountain lake, but which of course is accessible to anyone willing to look  and to walk and to cast  and keep looking.With conspiracy theories about coronavirus proliferating, John Oliver discusses why were prone to believe, how to distinguish fact from fiction, and what you can do to help others.This film tells the story of avid Star Wars fan and master leatherwork artist, Winfred Rembert, who survived an attempted lynching in 1967. The film also brings to light the extraordinary friendship between Winfred and Dr. Shirley, while she is on a mission to memorialize the forgotten 4,000 African Americans lynched during the Jim Crow era through a special home-going ceremony.Photo: Bruno Long
Former President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday underwent a brain surgery at Army's Research and Referral Hospital, and he tested positive for COVID-19 prior to the procedure, sources at the hospital said.

The surgery was carried out for removal of a clot in his brain, they said.

Mukherjee is critical and is on ventilator support, the sources said.

At the same time, they said his vital parameters are stable and that the surgery was successful. A multidisciplinary team doctors is constantly monitoring the health of 84-year-old Mukherjee.

In the afternoon, the former President had tweeted: "On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for COVID19 today. I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19."

Following his tweet, wishes for an early recovery poured in on Twitter from a large number of people including leaders from across the political spectrum.

President Ram Nath Kovind spoke to Mukherjee's daughter Sharmistha and inquired about his health, the Rashtrapati Bhavan tweeted.

A powerful orator and scholar, he had been a Congress stalwart before he was elected as India's 13th President and served from July 2012 to 2017 in the top post.

"We wish former President Pranab Mukherjee a speedy recovery from Covid," the Congress said on its official Twitter handle.

Abhijeet Mukherjee, Congress leader and the former president's son, tweeted, "I wish my father a speedy recovery! I appeal to all my countrymen to pray for his speedy recovery & good health."

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited the R&R Hospital and enquired about the former president's health. Singh was at the hospital for around 20 minutes.

Union minister Piyush Goyal also wished good health for Mukherjee and said he is confident that the former president will quickly recover from the virus.

Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi said, "Astonishing and matter of concern that former President Pranab Mukherjee tested positive for COVID per press reports. Very active, regular walker, wish him quick recovery and restful convalescence."

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot too wished Mukherjee a speedy recovery.

"Wishing Sri Pranab Mukherjee a speedy recovery. I am sure he will be out of this sooner than later," said Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge.
A YouTube video shows what seemed to be a capsized boat found in ice near Antarctica.

The Sun reported that a video of the strange finding, which looks like an oddly-shaped iceberg, was uploaded to YouTube by user MrMBB333 on Aug. 7. However, when zoomed in, the 400 feet-long object resembled a cruise ship with chimneys and windows.

MrMBB333 calls himself the "Earth Watchman," and he told his 400,000 YouTube subscribers to "look down on it" as it appears like a ship's outline. He added that the image is about 400 feet and it looks like an "ice ship" that sits off the Antarctican coast.In the video, the snow-covered Antarctic in Google Earth is shown.

MrMBB333 then highlighted a large mass of ice that rose above the snowy landscape, but it suddenly looks like a ship when Google Earth is switched to 3D mode.

The YouTuber regularly examines unusual findings on Google Earth and other areas and discusses them with his huge online audience.

He claimed a certain amount of expertise with more than 10 years of experience. "I have become very familiar with our planet, the mechanics of it, and how it reacts to many different aspects of space weather and many other things as well," MrMBB333 said on his website.

He added that he monitors everything: space, seafloor as well as "everything in between."

Read also: Mysterious Spiral Structures Found Extending out of a Young Star: Is a New Planet About to be Born?

The ice figure sparked some conspiracy theories

The discovery has sparked conspiracy theories with some linking the "boat" to a secret Nazi base in the Arctic or was used to transport world leaders during the global crisis. MrMBB333 shares the strange stuff that fans have spotted on his channel.

Some comments think aliens left the object. "They've been going down there for 80 years or more so there's no telling what they've found or left behind."

Another commenter noted that the "compound" seemed like "it has been blurred out to hide what's there..."

Meanwhile, YouTube commenters also linked the "ice ship" to various conspiracies in the government. One user suggested that "it probably is (an) ice ship that was built in the second world war."

Another conspiracy theorist said he "was told a couple of years ago that there are ships built underground somewhere on the upper east coast," which appear like those in the movie 2012. The commenter said they were used "to save the rich and powerful" after a massive earthquake hit the Canary Islands.

"I want to know why politicians, old astronauts, and religious leaders were invited to Antarctica, and the whole world still doesn't know. Makes me ANGRY!" exclaimed by an angry user.

What NASA says about the "ice ship"

Despite numerous theories about the icy phenomenon, NASA provided a much simpler explanation. The "ice ship" image may just be a case of pareidolia.

According to NASA, pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon whereas people see familiar shapes in rock formations, clouds, and in this case, ice. These patterns seen on Earth and in space are unrelated and do not exist.

Read also: Bizarre 'Fast Radio Burst' Resurfacing After 30,000 Years Triggers Alarms It's Now Closer to Earth

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by CJ Robles

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: Bowing to Opposition pressure and reluctance of ineligible farmers to return the money received under Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme, the State Government has put it under hold.

The decision to suspend the recovery of KALIA money was taken in view of the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing kharif operation, an official communication to all chief district agriculture officers (CDAOs) stated.

In view of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis and the Kharif agricultural crop operations, it has been decided to keep the refund activities of KALIA assistance from the ineligible beneficiaries in abeyance, for the present, Director of Agriculture and Food Production M Muthukumar stated in a letter to the CDAOs.

The CDAOs have been asked to inform the decision to the field extension functionaries. The State Government had recently written to around 50,000 ineligible beneficiaries to return the financial assistance.

In the last Assembly session, the State Government informed the members that 45,965 ineligible persons have availed the monetary assistance under the scheme. These bogus beneficiaries have received an assistance amounting to Rs 22.98 crore. Steps are being taken to recover the money from them, the Agriculture Minister had said.

Earlier, the department had served notice to nearly 3.41 lakh farmers to return Rs 5,000 which was given to them in the first instalment. The total amount comes to Rs 170.50 crore. The move to recover KALIA assistance came in for severe criticism from the opposition BJP and Congress. While urging the Government to refrain from collecting the money from the farmers during this crisis situation, Opposition political parties asked the farmers to ignore the notice.

Leader of Opposition Pradipta Naik had asked the Government to recover the money from those officers who had prepared the list and selected the ineligible beneficiaries. Finally good sense has prevailed and the Government has realised its mistake, said BJP Krushak Morcha president Pradip Purohit.
DEAR ABBY: My wife and I have been together since we were 16, married for 25 years. Her parents took me in as a teenager, and her family has been my family ever since.

I'm the kind of person who loves everyone equally. I will bend over backward for someone in need and have done so for my wife's family many times.

Over the last few years, my wife's brother, nephew and niece have turned against me. They've called me controlling, hateful and racist. I am none of those. I am, though, a law enforcement officer and a Christian. My wife's brother is a convicted felon, and her niece went to one of those anti-everything colleges.

This has created a rift in the family and caused my wife and me to feel hated and isolated, which has ruined family gatherings and holidays. How can I fix this? What can I do to help them see me for who I am, instead of their biases based on my religion and occupation?

 Really not like that

DEAR REALLY NOT: There is nothing you can or should do to erase their biases. From your description, you have done enough good deeds for your in-laws to have shown them the kind of person you are.

You have mentioned only your brother-in-law the felon and his radicalized daughter. Where does the rest of the family stand on this? If they are joining in and allowing you to be isolated, quit trying to impress them. Instead, spend your time with people who like, understand and accept you for you are and don't look back. Your brother-in-law and his kids will come looking for you as soon as they need something else from you, but when they do, I sincerely hope you'll resist the temptation to buy your way back in.

DEAR ABBY: I work closely with a woman who is 21 years younger than I. We are both single. Because of our age difference and professional relationship I am not looking to date her. However, over the last couple years I have developed romantic feelings for her.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

I converse with her by asking questions about movies she likes, books she reads or what she did the previous weekend. Her answers are usually short and without elaboration. I even share with her things that I do in my life, but never once in the five years I have known her, has she ever initiated a conversation with me or asked me about my life. She acts differently with other male co-workers. She does things for them, smiles at them and seems genuinely interested in their conversation. It really stings every time I see her socialize with others and ignore me. What can I do to get out of this psychological rut I am in?

 Stuck in Illinois

DEAR STUCK: Your co-worker may have picked up on the fact that you are attracted to her and it is not reciprocated, which is why she keeps your relationship strictly formal and work-related. I am sure this stings, and for that you have my sympathy.

You now must do what everyone else in your situation does, which is concentrate on meeting women who are available. You are not going to find what you're looking for in your workplace. What's going on is not healthy for you or conducive to a productive work environment. If you can't quell that crush on her, you may have to change jobs so you won't have to work so closely with her -- or at all.
A new study from Juniper Research found that operator revenue from SMS business traffic will reach $50 billion in 2025; increasing from $39.6 billion in 2020. This represents an overall growth of 26%; driven by the reduction in illegitimate traffic due to the implementation of SMS firewalls.

The new research, A2P Messaging: SMS, RCS OTT Business Messaging 2020-2025, found that fraudulent traffic will decrease by 75% over the forecast period, from 539 billion messages in 2020 to 138 billion in 2025. Operators will experience significant benefits as traffic delivered over legitimate channels increases, with operator revenue lost to illegitimate channels drastically reducing from $5.8 billion in 2020 to $1.2 billion in 2025.

For more insights on A2P Messaging, download our free whitepaper: Why Mobile Business Messaging is Critical to Brand Interaction.

Leading SMS Firewall Vendors Leverage Machine Learning

The reportcontains Juniper Research's analysis of 20 leading SMS firewall providers, based on criteria including the level of technology innovation and digital investment. The top 5 vendors leading Juniper Research's SMS Firewall Vendor Positioning Index were:

Infobip

Mavenir

Mobileum

Proofpoint

Tata Communications

The leading vendors all offer advanced analytics within their firewall offerings; using natural language processing and machine learning to combat fraudulent activity. The research highlighted machine learning's ability to identify and mitigate fraudulent traffic in real-time as critical for reducing fraudulent traffic.

Research author Scarlett Woodford noted, "Machine learning is crucial to combatting fraud, as it enables network operators to compete with the constantly evolving tactics of malevolent players. SMS firewall vendors must implement machine learning techniques to detect new fraudulent tactics, or they risk losing market share to more technologically-adept vendors."

Illegitimate Traffic Volumes in North America to Decline by 99%

The report forecasts that North America will witness the most significant decline in illegitimate traffic, with volumes decreasing from 178.4 billion in 2020 to 1 billion in 2025. This extraordinary drop will be driven by widespread firewall adoption by operators in North America, who are keen to offset falling voice revenue.

Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector; providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200809005001/en/

Contacts:

For further details please contact

Sam Smith, Press Relations

T: +44(0)1256 830002

E: sam.smith@juniperresearch.com
Damage reported included wires down on the 200 block of Central Avenue, at the intersection of Root Street and Galena Boulevard, at Prairie Street and Elmwood Drive, at State Street and Fourth Avenue, in the 600 and 900 blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue, the 500 block of Iroquois Drive and the 600 block of Jefferson Street, Lewbel said.
The province reported 51 new COVID-19 cases in Manitoba over the weekend  16 on Saturday and 35 on Sunday  including a total of 32 in the Prairie Mountain Health region.

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This article was published 10/8/2020 (527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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The province reported 51 new COVID-19 cases in Manitoba over the weekend  16 on Saturday and 35 on Sunday  including a total of 32 in the Prairie Mountain Health region.

The 35 new overall cases revealed on Sunday marks the second-highest one-day jump since the start of the pandemic.

Of the 20 new PMH cases announced on Sunday, Dr. Brent Roussin, the provinces chief public health officer, announced during a rare weekend news conference that at least seven of these cases are connected to a single business in Brandon.

Although Roussin mentioned that the seven affected individuals are self-isolating, and that there was no evidence of workplace transmission, he would not name the specific business in question when asked.

However, this announcement follows a week where at least 10 workers from the Maple Leaf Foods pork processing plant in Brandon have tested positive for the virus.

And as of Sunday evening, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832 president Jeff Traeger told the Sun that eight additional positive cases of COVID-19 were discovered at Maple Leaf Brandon over the weekend, bringing their total amount of known cases up to 18.

"These new cases strengthen our call on Maple Leaf Brandon to close for a one-week period until all test results are in, and the situation is under control," Traeger wrote in this email.

Meanwhile, the Winnipeg Free Press reported Sunday that Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said the province needs to dial back its reopening strategy in Brandon.

Lamont said Brandon should revert to earlier stages of the phased-in reopening plan because he worries there is a risk of greater community transmission.

Lamont said the government should be willing to roll back the reopening plan in any COVID-19 hot spot in the province, instead of sticking to one plan for such a large geographic area.

Over the weekend, several other businesses in the Wheat City closed their doors or significantly reduced their services due to concerns that one of their workers might have contracted COVID-19.

This includes Marinos Pizza, the McDonalds restaurant on Victoria Avenue and the Shoppers Drug Mart located on Victoria Avenue East.

Employees from a local Walmart and a Tim Hortons restaurant on the Trans-Canada Highway also tested positive for COVID-19 last week, prompting the Tim Hortons to shut down so it could be thoroughly sanitized.

In general, Roussin said on Sunday that this growing cluster in Brandon was approaching and may have exceeded 40 people.

Otherwise, this batch of new cases over the weekend brings Manitobas total number of lab-confirmed positive and probable positive cases up to 542.

Sundays COVID-19 data also shows that six people are currently hospitalized, with three individuals being in intensive care.

Overall, the province is now contending with 182 active cases in Manitoba, with 352 individuals having recovered from the virus.

Manitobas COVID-19-related death toll remains at eight.

While Roussin admits that the recent spike in new cases is discouraging, he implores Manitoba to remain vigilant and stick to the essentials of good social distancing: vigorous hand-washing, avoiding crowded indoor spaces and staying at home if you feel ill.

"Our concern has never gone away," he said.

"Weve had to find ways to continue to articulate to Manitobans that we have to be careful. And certainly, as we see these numbers go up, were going to increase that messaging."

An additional 756 laboratory tests were completed on Saturday, bringing the total number of tests completed since early February to 100,830.

 kdarbyson@brandonsun.com, with files from the Winnipeg Free Press

 Twitter: @KyleDarbyson
Joseph V. Micallef is a best-selling military history and world affairs author, and keynote speaker. Follow him on Twitter @JosephVMicallef.

The purpose of elections is to determine an outcome, to designate a winner and, by extension, one or more losers. The mechanics of elections, in and of themselves, do not carry national security implications, although the selection of a winner may result in far-reaching policy changes.

From a practical standpoint, the goals and objectives of U.S. foreign and military policy do not change markedly as a result of elections, nor does the global environment in which that policy must be carried out. The style, the rhetoric and the priorities of those objectives, however, can be sharply affected by election outcomes.

What happens if an election fails to designate a winner? The Constitution of the United States defines such outcomes as a "contingent election." Are there implications on U.S. national security if the 2020 presidential election should end up a contingent election? How would such a failed election be resolved?

Contingent Elections in American History

There are a number of ways that an election could become contingent. To be elected president of the United States, a candidate must obtain a majority of the votes in the Electoral College. Currently, that stands at 270 or more votes. In the event of multiple candidates, it's possible that no one candidate achieves a majority of the Electoral College votes. This has happened only once.

The 1824 election featured four candidates for president: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and William Crawford. Jackson won the most popular votes and had 99 electoral votes out of 261 to Adam's 84 electoral votes. In accordance with Article II, Section 1 Clause 2 of the Constitution, as modified by the 12th Amendment, a contingent election was declared, and the matter was referred to the House of Representatives. The House chose John Quincy Adams as the 10th president of the United States.

The last time a third-party candidate won electoral votes was in 1968. George Wallace and retired Air Force Gen. Curtis Lemay ran for president and vice president under the American Independent Party. They won 13.5% of the popular vote and obtained majorities in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama, gaining 46 Electoral College votes. Their success did not change the election outcome, as the Republican ticket of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew won the Electoral College easily with 301 of the 538 votes.

A more likely scenario is a tie in the Electoral College vote. Forty-eight of the 50 states award all their Electoral College votes to whichever candidate obtains the most votes statewide. Nebraska and Maine apportion their electoral votes based on the outcomes by congressional district, plus two more votes based on the statewide results.

In the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump won the Electoral College 306 votes to Hillary Clinton's 232. The actual total was 304 to 225 because seven "faithless electors," two pledged to Trump and five pledged to Clinton, voted for someone else. Had Clinton carried Pennsylvania and Michigan, two states she lost by a sliver, and had Maine not apportioned its electoral votes by congressional district, the Electoral College would have been tied.

There has been only one instance when the Electoral College was tied. In the 1800 election, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr both received 73 electoral votes. Burr was technically Jefferson's vice presidential candidate but, prior to the 12th Amendment, each elector had two votes, one for their presidential choice and one for their vice presidential choice. The election was referred to the House of Representatives, which chose Jefferson, after 36 ballots, as the third president of the U.S.

What would happen if the 2020 presidential election results in a tie of the Electoral College? The procedure for dealing with a contingent election as further modified by the 20th Amendment is straightforward.

In this instance, the incoming House of Representatives would choose the president, while the Senate would select a vice president. The voting in the House would be by state, with each state receiving one vote, based on the underlying vote of their congressional delegation. Each state's delegation must have a majority in favor of one of the candidates. If they lack a majority, the state cannot cast a vote.

Even though the Democratic Party currently has a majority in the House, the Republican Party has a majority of state delegations. In the 116th Congress, the Democratic Party has a majority in 22 state delegations and the Republican Party has a majority in 26. Two states, Pennsylvania and Michigan, are evenly split. If the voting were along party lines and the balance between the state delegations didn't change, the Republican presidential candidate would win. What the balance will be in the incoming 117th Congress is anyone's guess.

Voting in the Senate is by individual senator. If a tie resulted, it would fall on the current vice president, in his capacity as president of the Senate, to break the tie.

The House is limited to choosing between the three candidates who received the most electoral votes. In the event the House is unable to reach a decision and the Senate has selected a vice president, the vice president-elect would become president until a president could be chosen. In the case that neither a president or vice president has been selected, the House also has the option of selecting a temporary president until it can reach a decision. Under the presidential succession spelled out in the 20th Amendment, if Congress is unable to select a president or vice president, the speaker of the House would become acting president.

A third scenario is a breakdown in tabulating the election results. The election outcome isn't official until each state certifies the result. Candidates can object to a state's certification if they feel that the tabulation has been faulty in some way, that legitimate votes were disqualified or that voter fraud occurred. Typically, state election laws require mandatory recounts if an election is particularly close.

Every election has issues with the tabulation of voter results. In most instances, however, the number of votes in question isn't enough to change the outcome.

In the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, the outcome hinged on the results of the vote in Florida. Bush had 246 electoral votes to Gore's 266. Florida's 25 electoral votes would have carried either candidate over the finish line. What followed was a month's worth of litigation while the rest of the country debated the significance of "hanging chads," "fat chads" and "pregnant chads."

Eventually, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Bush, stopping the recount of votes and allowing the Florida secretary of state to certify that Bush had won the election in Florida by 537 votes and awarding him the state's 25 electors. Gore could have petitioned Congress to reject the Florida electors, a decision that would have required the consent of both chambers and precipitated a contingent election. Since both the Senate and the House were controlled by the Republican Party, that outcome was unlikely.

There has been one instance in which issues with certifying the vote resulted in no candidate securing a majority of the Electoral College and forced the election to be decided in the House of Representatives.

In the presidential election of 1876, the Republican Party nominated Rutherford B. Hayes, while the Democratic Party nominated Samuel J. Tilden. One hundred eighty-five electoral votes were needed to win. Tilden had 184 votes, and Hayes had 165. Three states -- Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina -- were unable to declare a winner. Both sides claimed to have won all three states, amid charges of fraud and accusations by the Republicans that Democratic state officials had suppressed the African American vote. In addition, in Oregon, one elector was disqualified because he was a government employee.

The issue was resolved by what was informally termed the Compromise of 1876. The House appointed an Electoral Commission to resolve the matter. The Democratic Party-controlled House of Representatives agreed to vote for the decision of the Electoral Commission in favor of Hayes in return for the withdrawal of all U.S. Army troops still stationed in Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina. The withdrawal marked the official end of Reconstruction in the South.

National Security Implications of a Contingent Election in 2020

Is it possible that we will have a contingent presidential election in 2020? Would there be national security implications if we did?

There are only two credible candidates contesting the 2020 presidential election: Donald Trump and Joe Biden. There will be third-party candidates listed on some ballots, but it's highly unlikely that any of them can win electoral votes. That means that the Electoral College outcome, assuming all states certify their results, will produce a clear winner or, at worst, a tie. In the event of a tie, there is a clear constitutional procedure for resolving the matter.

The more complicated issue is the states' certification of their results. State governments have till Dec. 3, 2020, to certify their results. Under federal law, any dispute over the election results must be resolved by Dec. 8. Given that such a dispute could precipitate a constitutional crisis, the courts, all the way to the Supreme Court, would expedite any such challenges so that the constitutional procedure governing contingent elections could, if needed, be pursued.

What happens if a secretary of state is unable to certify their state's results before the deadline because not all ballots have been counted or legal challenges to the election outcomes are forcing a recount? If the election produced a clear-cut winner in the Electoral College regardless of whichever states have not yet certified their election results, then the issue, while deeply embarrassing to that state's election officials, is academic.

If, on the other hand, the Electoral College outcome is a close one and no candidate can get over the finish line without resolving the missing states, then -- just as in 1876 -- the 2020 presidential election would be a contingent one and it would fall to the House of Representatives to elect a president.

The issue is particularly germane because of New York State's recent experience in counting the results of the June 23 primary election. It took state election officials more than a month to tabulate the votes cast, mostly because of a deluge of mail-in ballots. According to some reports, as many as 25% of the mail-in ballots in New York City were rejected because they did not conform to state requirements, a development that has already spawned numerous lawsuits by losing candidates, as well as demands for recounts.

Should New York election officials have a similar experience in November, it is questionable whether the state could certify its election results before the Dec. 3 deadline. There are a number of other states that have already decided or are contemplating expanding their vote-by-mail options. If these states have a similar experience, it is possible that the winner of the 2020 presidential election will not be known before the Dec. 3 cutoff.

Ironically, it has been Democratic governors and Democratic-controlled state legislatures that have pushed the hardest for mail-in balloting. Should these states be overwhelmed by the number of mailed ballots and be unable to count them in time for the Dec. 3certification, that decision could actually backfire against the Biden campaign.

State laws regarding the selection of electors vary. It's possible that a state legislature can decide to appoint electors, even before an election has been certified, on the basis that the results overwhelmingly favor one of the candidates. Such actions, however, would likely precipitate a legal battle.

Per federal law, since 1936, electors in each state are required to cast their ballots "on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December next following their appointment." In this election, that will be Dec. 14. The electors' votes are opened in a joint session of Congress held in the first week of January. The incumbent vice president, acting in his capacity as president of the Senate, reads out the vote totals by state. If no candidate receives a majority, a contingent election is declared.

Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that state election laws that require electors to vote in accordance with the election results are constitutional and that states can replace "faithless electors." That means the Electoral College outcome will be known well before those votes are officially counted in Washington.

Per the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, an incumbent president's authority expires at noon on Jan. 20 of the year following the election. There is no legal basis for a president to retain their authority beyond that date. If no candidate wins a majority of the Electoral College, and if the House of Representatives is unable to elect a president or the Senate elect a vice president, then the speaker of the House becomes the acting president until such time as the House of Representatives or the Senate can discharge their constitutional responsibilities.

The procedure set out in the Constitution in the event of a contingent election is clear-cut. Come Jan. 20, 2021, there will be a president and only one president, either duly elected, selected by the House of Representatives, or an acting one. There is simply no scenario where two different people could both contend to be president, subject to some future deliberation by a court. That means there will be only one commander in chief to whom the military reports, and the chain of command within the federal government remains unaltered.

Critics of President Trump have suggested that, should he lose the 2020 election, he will allege fraud, refuse to step down and precipitate a constitutional crisis. In my view, it's highly unlikely that would or could happen.

The constitutional procedure for selecting a new president in the event one isn't determined by the Electoral College is clearly spelled out. Per federal law, any legal challenges to the results certified by the states must be settled by Dec. 8. It's reasonable to expect that courts will expedite any legal challenges to conform to the schedule and procedures laid out in the Constitution and federal law. There is no reason to expect that procedure won't be followed by Congress or respected by the rest of the federal government.

A long, drawn-out deliberation accompanied by uncertainty as to who will end up being president could, if Biden wins, make for a difficult and complicated transition period. America's adversaries often test new administrations with provocative acts to see how they will respond. Even if Trump gets reelected, a controversial election may limit his administration's freedom of action.

What is unmistakable is that the 2020 presidential election is going to be a highly contentious one. Regardless of who wins, the losing side will contend that it was robbed and that election improprieties were to blame. Given the risks of a delay and the resulting consequences, this is probably not an ideal time to experiment with different voting procedures, notwithstanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The smooth function of the electoral process has been a hallmark of the American political system. Today, it seems increasingly strained and frayed.

Come January, there will be a president in the White House, regardless of the ill will that surrounds their selection. The American government and military will continue to function as before. The political divisiveness that increasingly characterizes American politics, however, is what will ultimately pose the biggest threat to U.S. national security.

-- The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration.
This is ideology, group and politics neutral  its non-neutral only on the India-China equation. What follows is a comprehensive wish list, intended to recalibrate, re-imagine and reinvent that equation. If two swords  India and China  are to coexist in the Asian scabbard, reluctant respect and forced likability are required and these are the consequences of fear. While China has engendered that fear in India, it is time to reciprocally implant Indias fear in China. This alone will reset the equilibrium.

For this we need less talk, more action; consistency of application over years; taking care of the small things so that the big things take care of themselves; and a holistic, multipronged and preventive, not merely curative, approach. It requires a fundamental attitudinal change. Finally, it requires teamwork, a broad consensus, bridging the trust deficit, transparency and participatory approaches.

The military option is of least importance, in view of Chinas size and might, but still vital to outstare the enemy. The appearance (not actual use) of Indias military might is vital to eventually restore status quo ante, since the so-called buffer zones are on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The Mountain Strike Corps, inexplicably downgraded, must be exponentially enhanced. The defence budget, below 1.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), must be pulled above 2%, preferably 3%, despite Covid-19 and economic woes. Open interoperability military exercises with the United States (US) and other big powers must accompany the accelerated completion of the Darbuk-Shyok-DBO road and building others on our northern and Arunachal Pradesh flanks. China has effectively deployed a mammoth drone armoury and we must significantly enlarge that arsenal.

The diplomatic option is highly underestimated. A blitzkrieg of naming and shaming China for its ruthless expansionism must accompany regular meetings and exercises of groupings such as an expanded Asean, Quad, Malabar, G10 and Democracy 10. The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance of the European Parliament, with more than 100 members, is against expansionist China and India should seek consultative status on it.

Consistent China-critics such as Japan, the United States, the Philippines, Vietnam, Mongolia, Indonesia and Australia have to be continuously leveraged. The current unprecedented global anti-China sentiment has to be exploited. The Philippines won significant maritime arbitral awards against China, and Vietnam fought China over the Spratly islands. Indias place at the high table of G10 cannot be delayed. These multilateral groupings have another unnoticed benefit: They turn Indias focus seawards, where Chinese military asymmetry qua India is much less than on land.

The two Ts  Tibet and Taiwan  old Chinese bugbears, need to be exploited much more. The Dalai Lama and persons like Richard Gere qua Tibet and Dolkun Isa qua Xingjiang must be allowed to travel and speak on Indian soil without restriction (subject to no violence and no official Indian government participation). India and Taiwan must have full diplomatic relations and Taiwanese companies must be wooed qua import substitution. Parliamentary alliances such as Friends of Tibet or of Uighurs must be allowed free play. We need to oppose the Belt Road Initiative and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) much more vocally at all forums. Buddhist diplomacy has great resonance across Asia. Both Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh occupy pole positions in this regard, but they remain underused by India internationally.

If Pakistan deters the Indian elephant by displaying the Chinese dragon in Indias backyard, India must flaunt the super dinosaur Russia overlooking the dragons own backyard. I deprecate Indias unfortunate dilution of its close ties with its oldest all-weather ally, Russia. The latter has to be immediately reassured that closer Indo-US relations do not affect our deep bond with Russia. Countering the latters newfound closeness to China and worse, even to Pakistan, should be the governments top priority.

Turning to economic options, first, some Chinese investments can be terminated. The fear of breach of the Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) is exaggerated, since most have clear derogation clauses allowing invocation of the Essential Security Interest (ESI) exception. Second, while import substitution is not easy, we must snap the perfect symmetry between China as an export-driven engine and India as a domestic demand-driven economy.

Third, since China is a controlled economy, with land frequently being free with heavy subsidies built-in, India must use anti-dumping levies much more along with a judiciously-crafted and targeted mix of import substitution, discriminatory tariffs, steep duties, and bans in certain areas.

Above all is the most important facet which we ignore at our peril: The persona of President Xi Jinping. In eight years, he has risen from general secretary to the supreme autocrat of China. His journey to unquestioned leader status has included arrests of opponents, purging hundreds of officials close to his predecessors, bringing the security agencies and the army under his direct command, removal of the two-term limit on his presidency, his New Guidelines for Political Life replacing Dengs 1982 ones and new courses in universities on Xis China Dream.

In one of his rare interviews, he said: If you want to be a general, you must be able to win a battle. We do not have battles every day, especially in times of peace...Only battles can give an opportunity to show success...

A man looking to leave his personal stamp on China and globally is hardly going to be content with jhoola diplomacy. He has to be retaught Maos dictum that power comes through the barrel of a gun, whether it is a military, economic or diplomatic gun. We should never forget: China is not the problem, but the Chinese Communist Party is and, more than that, Xi Jinping is.

Abhishek Singhvi is an MP; former Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee; former Additional Solicitor General, India; Senior National Spokesperson, Congress and eminent jurist

The views expressed are personal
Authorities declared a riot for the second consecutive night Sunday in Portland, arresting 16 in a demonstration outside a police union building that has become a hub for protests.

Among those arrested was Black activist Demetria Hester, who leads Mothers United for Black Lives Matter and is a regular presence at Portland protests against anti-Black racism and police violence. Hester is the survivor of a hate crime committed by MAX train murderer Jeremy Christian in 2017 and testified against him in his trial.

Hester was accused of disorderly conduct and interfering with a peace officer, both misdemeanors. But she was released from custody Monday afternoon, and spokesman Brent Weisberg said the Multnomah County District Attorneys Office had declined prosecution and that the court will dismiss the charges.

The prosecution decline decision was in the interest of justice upon reviewing the police reports in this matter, Weisberg said.

Targeted arrest at 2307 at PPA by PPB of a Black activist. @defendpdx #PortlandProtests pic.twitter.com/ev6eSYLfi2  Clementson Supriyadi (@cdsupriyadi) August 10, 2020

The Sunday protest brought a crowd of about 200 to the North Portland headquarters of the Portland Police Association, the union for police officers.

Police declared the gathering a riot as officers advanced on protesters, some of whom threw objects at police, video from the scene showed. At one point, a large firework exploded between the groups.

Police responded by firing crowd control munitions.

They said a mortar hurt two officers and cited direct attacks on officers in declaring the demonstration a riot.

Paramedics treated the injured officers. One suffered a neck burn, police said, and her facemask was partially melted. A piece of a firework also hit a sergeants leg, causing an injury, according to police.

The demonstration was short-lived, with demonstrators gathering in Kenton Park about 8 p.m. and marching to the union building on North Lombard Street shortly before 10 p.m.

Minutes after they arrived, police warned demonstrators by loudspeaker not to participate in criminal activities.

Demonstrators blocked Lombard Street and Fenwick Avenue, using dumpsters and fences dragged into the street from nearby. At least one dumpster was set on fire.

Shortly before 10 p.m., police declared the gathering an unlawful assembly.

Minutes later, police in riot gear advanced on the crowd, which began to retreat down North Denver Avenue. Video showed officers hit by small thrown objects. At one point, a large firework exploded between the police line and the retreating protesters. Police also fired crowd-control munitions.

About 10:10 p.m., police declared a riot, and officers appeared to arrest several people.

Marchers returned to Kenton Park, where they had gathered earlier. A little before 10:30 p.m., police followed the group into the park and appeared to make more arrests. The crowd had largely scattered, and police left the park.

The event unfolded in less than an hour.

A small crowd of about two dozen later returned to the police union building. Police arrived minutes later, ordered those gathered to leave and appeared to make an arrest.

Portland police and Oregon State Police troopers formed a line around the building as protesters stood by, then officers departed about 11:45 p.m. Protesters remained, milling about in the street.

No additional confrontations between protesters and police ensued.

The demonstration, which punctuated Portlands 74th consecutive night of protests, came on the heels of a protest Saturday night in the same area. That demonstration was mostly peaceful until a small group lit a fire inside the police union building.

The action drew police to declare a riot and advance on the crowd using impact munitions and physical force  a pattern thats unfolded on several recent nights, in which a small group provokes police by damaging property and throwing objects at officers.

The focus of Portlands largest protests has turned from the downtown police headquarters and nearby federal courthouse to marches that usually end outside police precincts and facilities throughout the city.

The crowds, which ballooned as federal officers arrived in Portland to protect the federal courthouse and quell the protests, have become smaller but more confrontational after the federal officers disappeared from public view.

Portland police have responded with crowd-control munitions and other force, usually in response to protesters they say are trespassing, lighting fires or vandalizing the facilities.

Christian, the MAX train killer, was sentenced in June to life in prison  with no chance of ever getting out  for the murders of two fellow passengers on a MAX train in May 2017.

He was found guilty on all charges, including those for assaulting Hester as part of a hate crime the night before the train killings.

Hester testified Christian had repeatedly shouted that he was a Nazi, that he hated all Muslims, Blacks, Jews while riding a Yellow Line train and she told him to stop. He threw a half-full Gatorade bottle at her, injuring her eye.

-- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
- The last time New Zeland recorded a local COVID-19 infection was on May 1 and since then no case has been recorded

- On Sunday, August 9, the country celebrated 100 days without recording any virus spread since May 1

- As of Monday, August 10, there were only 23 patients in isolation with 22 deaths having been recorded out of the 1,219 confirmed cases

New Zealand has marked 100 days without recording any new local COVID-19 infections in the country since the last case was recorded on May 1.

Sunday, August 9, marked the fourth day in a row that no new local cases of COVID-19 were reported.

READ ALSO: Willian: Chelsea winger announces Stamford Bridge exit

New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern during a recent COVID-19 update in the country. Photo: Getty Images

Source: Getty Images

READ ALSO: Rais Uhuru akagua miradi ya Nairobi usiku akijiendesha kwenye gari la polisi

The total number of active cases in the country remained at 23, all in managed isolation and majority of them were foreigners, according to a report by BBC.

The country has been praised globally for its precise determination in handling the virus since it was first recorded in late February.

Among other measures that were implemented included an early lockdown, tough border restrictions, effective health messaging and an aggressive test-and-trace programme, which played a great role in eliminating the virus.

READ ALSO: MP Didmus Barasa wants Murathe disciplined by Jubilee for leading Raila's 2022 campaigns

However, the government cautioned its citizens against celebrating as there was a possibility of another wave of infection if they ignored the COVID-19 guidelines.

"Achieving 100 days without community transmission is a significant milestone. However, as we all know, we can't afford to be complacent," Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said on Sunday.

New Zealand is among a group of small countries that have managed to curb spread of the virus. Others have, however, experienced a resurgence of the virus.

Vietnam went for 99 days without recording any virus until July when a 57-year-old man in Da Nang tested positive for COVID-19, making the city a new epicentre for the outbreak.

In July, Taiwan was also praised for its virus response having reached the landmark as well.

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
Beckham is allegedly going to hold three engagement parties just because his mom, Victoria Beckham, did not want to cross the President.

According to Daily Mail UK, Victoria Beckham would rather have his son throw three engagement parties to avoid any awkward conflict with Donald Trump and her other liberal friends.

Why would Donald Trump be interested in how Brooklyn Beckham throws his engagement party? This, allegedly, is because her fiancee is actress Nicola Peltz, whose dad is businessman Nelson Peltz, a known backer of Trump.

Therefore, Trump may be invited to the engagement party. He is impossible not to be. Nelson is planning a bash for the couple set to tie the knot at his Palm Beach mansion, and this is where the President will have an invite. According to The Mirror, other Republicans are expected to be invited to the event, which compelled Victoria to have a party set up for her liberal friends. Just for safety measure.

But because Victoria has two sets of friends - those who live in the UK and those in the US, she had to plan two engagement parties.

In total, that makes three parties for the young couple to show their love.

The Spice Girl, 46, will host a party in the UK for her liberal friends here so they do not have to come to face with Republicans. The same goes for her friends in New York, where she lives.

A source close to Brooklyn explained, "There have been a lot of logistical problems with Brooklyn and Nicola's engagement parties." The source added, "Nicola's dad is friends with Trump and a lot of Republicans, which is the complete opposite to Victoria's friends."

The source added that Victoria is sure that her friends would not go the extra mile for her and celebrate Brooklyn's special day just because they would have to sit down with Trump somewhere around the celebration.

There's no need to be surprised that Victoria is willing to spend so much for her kid, though. The family's income is more than enough. Not to mention, Nicola Peltz's family's income. If Brooklyn Beckham's personal net worth is an astounding 8 million. His fiance has five times more at 40m.

A few months ago, Express UK asked experts who have computed the engagement ring that Brooklyn Beckham gave to Nicola Peltz to know the price of the ring, and the amount was simply astounding. According to experts, Brooklyn's ring for Nicola costs up to 335,000 - that can buy thousands of engagement rings for ordinary people.

The ring is said to be made of a combined stone carat of between 4.5 and 5 carats worth of diamonds. Naturally, the experts added that the ring is absolutely flawless. For the price, it better be.

When the two got engaged, it was apparent that Brooklyn thoroughly felt happy. He announced the engagement himself on social media. "Two weeks ago, I asked my soulmate to marry me and she said yes xx I am the luckiest man in the world. I promise to be the best husband and the best daddy one day. I love you, baby xx," the sweet announcement read.

At present though, there are already rumors that the two already wed.




Chuck Pages 100th birthday party was much like the man himself  full of good cheer with more than a hint of the extraordinary.

Page marked the milestone having already surpassed his goal of 100 laps of his St. Catharines townhouse complex.

The exercise was much more than a fitness endeavour. Pages goal was to raise $5,000 through donations for the Hotel Dieu Shaver Health and Rehabilitation Centre. By Sunday, he had raised $20,766.

And that birthday party?

More than 100 family, friends, and well-wishers joined him for the festivities, as did the Lincoln and Welland Regimental band, a plethora of politicians, and one of the worlds last flying Lancaster bombers, which circled overhead.

I still have some walking left to do, Page said when asked what he was going to do next. This was marvellous. I want to thank everyone that donated. Keep it up. We need more.

The celebration was a bittersweet moment for Page and his family. His wife, Irene, died on July 23. They were married for 68 years.

These things happen when they happen, Page said in a private moment after the party. You cant control it. She was looking forward to this.

Mayor Walter Sendzik, members of both St. Catharines and Regional Council, Sal Sorrento and Barb Greenwood, and local MP Chris Bittle and MPP Jenny Stevens all lent their support, as did professional bagpiper Kelly Buckley.

You are a true inspiration to us, said Norma Medulun-Burke of Hotel Dieu Shaver to Page. You completed the challenge. You raised over $20,000 for patient-care equipment at Hotel Dieu Shaver. That is simply amazing. Thank you for allowing us to shine a light on the great work the Hotel Dieu Shaver does.

Pages son, David, said the family was overwhelmed by the outpouring of affection for his father.

This all started when dad said he was bored trying to do calisthenics, David Page said. One-hundred and fourteen laps later, here we are.

David Page ended by paying tribute to his mother.

This is going to be difficult, he said before catching his breath and telling the crowd the cheque he was holding was from his father. It was a donation to Hotel Dieu Shaver in memory of his mother.

I just want to thank everyone for all this amazing support, said daughter Nancy DeVuono. Those of you who know mom and dad from the complex know the bedroom window on the second floor overlooks the roadway, and mom was expecting to watch the parade from there. Shes watching from a little higher above today.

DeVuono then oversaw the handing out of individually wrapped cookies instead of a birthday cake, a sign of the COVID-19 pandemic times.

Dont take your masks off, DeVuono said with a laugh. Enjoy them when you get home.

Among those thanking Page were representatives of the Royal Canadian Legion and the Commander of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment, Lt.-Col. Christopher Cincio.

The bomber from the Hamilton Warplane Heritage Museum made at least three passes, which was particularly poignant given Pages military pedigree.

Page is a veteran of the RCAF and was serving as a bomb-aimer on a Halifax bomber when he bailed out of the crippled aircraft over Nazi-occupied Holland in 1942. His crewmates survived  except for the wounded captain, whose parachute landed in a canal.

Page was making his way through Holland when he was spotted by the Dutch police and was turned him over to the Gestapo. He spent the rest of the war in POW camp before returning to civilian life in his hometown of St. Catharines.

Note: The story has been changed to reflect Irene Page died on July 23.
A group of 13 US senators have asked the Office of the United States Trade Representative to lift 25% tariffs imposed on food and alcoholic beverages from the EU, Reuters reported, citing a document leaked to the agency.

Seven Republican and six Democratic senators, including Robert Menendez, John Barrasso, Cory Gardner, Susan Collins, Dianne Feinstein, Pat Toomey, Kyrsten Sinema and Cory Booker, noted in their letter that American restaurants, retailers, grocers, importers and distributors are experiencing severe economic hardship due to the increased cost of goods.

In the letter, politicians note that the demand for these products has decreased, as a result of which importers and distributors have received goods from a month ago, many of which are perishable, in warehouses and en route in the United States.

Last year the United States introduced tariffs on European goods for up to EUR 7.5 billion.

The tariffs, in retaliation for EU subsidies on large aircraft, hit French wine, Italian cheese and single-malt Scotch whisky, as well as cookies, salami, yogurt, olives from France, EU-produced pork sausage and German coffee.
MULHEIM AN DER RUHR, Germany, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As an important milestone in its financial strategy, Oryx Stainless Group has refinanced 80 million Euro out of a previous 100 million Euro syndicated credit facility. The facility size has been reduced as the company was able to set up an innovative borrowing base facility in the banking market in Thailand which covers part of the existing one. The funds will be used for working capital requirements.

In this transaction, HSBC acted as sole bookrunner, supported by Commerzbank, DZ Bank and Rabobank as Mandated Lead Arrangers. NRW Bank and Sparkasse Dusseldorf acted as Lead Arrangers.

Oryx Stainless Group, founded in 1990, is one of the world's leading trading organisations for raw materials used in the production of high-quality stainless steels. The company focuses its business activities on the handling and processing of stainless steel scrap into Oryx Stainless Blends. These secondary raw material blends  individually adapted for the respective stainless steel producers  replace above all primary raw materials.

Contact

Roland Mauss

Oryx Stainless

Telefon +49 208 58 09 0

[email protected]

Grit Beecken

HSBC Deutschland

Telefon +49 211 910-1491

[email protected]



HSBC Germany

HSBC Germany is part of the HSBC Group, one of the world's leading commercial banks. It is the "Leading International Bank" and has a network in more than 70 countries worldwide which account for more than 90% of global economic output. HSBC Germany's clients are companies, institutional clients, the public sector and high net worth private clients.

The Bank, which operates as HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt AG, stands for internationality, comprehensive advisory expertise, major placement power, first-class infrastructure and capital strength. With its "AA- (stable)" rating, it has the highest Fitch rating of all private commercial banks in Germany. HSBC Germany was founded in 1785 and has more than 2,800 employees in Dusseldorf and at a further eleven locations.

SOURCE Oryx Stainless AG
A discount home improvement retailer has opened on Union Deposit Road.

Home Outlet opened at The Point shopping center on Wednesday at 4247 Union Deposit Road in Lower Paxton Township. The store is located in a space next to Burlington. Last year, Burlington downsized and Home Outlet is taking over the vacant part of the store.

The store offers flooring, cabinetry, plumbing, door, and window products. The new Home Outlet store also offers complimentary design services as well as special financing options through a store credit card, and additional savings through a military appreciation program and a landlord program.

Home Outlet has opened in Lower Paxton Township (Photo provided)

We conduct a lot of research prior to selecting markets for new stores to ensure that it will be a good fit. The Harrisburg area presented as an excellent option for the fourth of five new store locations in 2020, Travis Laurence, vice president of operations at E.C. Barton & Company said in a press release. Within the last year, we have opened new locations in Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee and Ohio; we are excited to now expand upon our existing footprint here in Pennsylvania and look forward to becoming part of this community.

Grand opening events are scheduled for next month.

The Bartons location is 27,101 square feet, according to Cedar Realty Trusts website. Cedar Realty Trust owns the shopping center.

E.C. Barton & Company, the owner of Home Outlet was founded in 1885, and is headquartered in Jonesboro, Arkansas and operates more than 105 stores in 17 states from upstate New York to south Texas under the following names: Bartons Lumber, Grossmans Bargain Outlet, Surplus Warehouse, Home Outlet and E.C.B. Brokerage. The closest Home Outlet stores to the new Harrisburg-area store are in New York, accodring to the company website.

The shopping center is anchored by Giant, Staples and Burlington. An A.C. Moore location closed at the shopping center after A.C. Moore closed all of its stores. Officials at Cedar Realty Trust couldnt be reached for comment in regards to plans for the former A.C. Moore store.

--Business Buzz

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Mumbai, Aug 10 : The female version of the Arijit Singh hit, Pachtaoge, is ready to release. Dancing sensation Nora Fatehi, who starred in the music video of the original number last year, will be seen in the new version, too. The female version of "Pachtaoge" is sung by Asees Kaur.

"My brand as Nora Fatehi, whether it's a song in a movie, a music video in India or my independent international projects, is all about keeping it fresh and being experimental with an international touch. And that's what has made me who I am today and that's what my fans expect from me now.

"The acting and dancing in this video are different -- it's all in the eyes, very composed and internal. The form of dance, which I have attempted for the first time, is contemporary abstract body movements, to tell a story of emotional struggle and the subsequent breakthrough of self love," Nora said.

The makers have also unveiled Nora's look in the video of the female version of "Pachtaoge". Dressed in white outfit, Nora is supposed to depict divinity and purity in the song.

The original song featured Vicky Kaushal along with Nora.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 16:31:24|Editor: huaxia

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VIENNA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) daily basket price stood at 44.87 U.S. dollars a barrel on Friday, compared with 45.17 dollars per barrel on Thursday, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations released on Monday.

Also known as the OPEC reference basket of crude oil, the OPEC basket, a weighted average of oil prices from different OPEC members around the world, is used as an important benchmark for crude oil prices. Enditem
A security guard has been stood down after breaching coronavirus hotel quarantine sanctions after barging into a guest's room.

The guard stormed into the room at the Mercure Hotel in Perth on Saturday night looking for a television remote control.

The Mercure Hotel is hosting returned travellers in quarantine during the coronavirus period and the guard thought the room was empty.

Security guards, guests and hotel staff are not allowed to interact under hotel quarantine prevention measures.

The Department of Health is conducting an inquiry into the breach, with the guard stood down and in isolation.

A security guard entered a guest's room at the Mercure Hotel in Perth (pictured) on Saturday night looking for a TV remote

A Department of Health spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia the risk of transmission between the guest and the security was low, but recommended the guard be tested for COVID-19.

'A full investigation into the circumstances is currently underway. The security guard has been stood down to allow for the investigation to take place,' the spokesperson said.

'This is standard protocol for any breach of hotel quarantine compliance in Western Australia.

'Inquiries to date indicate that the security guard entered a room that they believed to be unoccupied to complete a requested task.

'The guard in question has been tested for COVID-19 and is currently in self-quarantine. The hotel guests will receive their day 12 swab and remain in hotel quarantine for their 14 days. The guests have been contacted by the SHICC health and wellbeing team.

'Given the lack of COVID-19 community transmission in WA and the limited time of exposure when the guard entered the room, the risk to the guests is believed to be extremely low. In addition the risk to the guard is also low.'

Australian passengers arrive at the Duxton Hotel in Perth to quarantine after flying in from Qatar in March

No new cases of coronavirus were recorded in Western Australia on Sunday, with only four active cases in the state.

Two of those are local Western Australians, one is from interstate and one is a returned traveler from overseas.

The breach comes after Melbourne's bungled hotel quarantine system lead to an increase in new cases in the second wave of infections through May and June.

Former judge Jennifer Coate is conducting an inquiry into the program, with the Andrews government refusing to comment on the matter before the investigation is finished.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told ABC the program had 'serious failures' with 'deadly consequences' and Victorians had the right to know what went wrong.

'There needs to be accountability, there needs to be an explanation,' he said.

'Victorians deserve that, Victorians want that, Victorians need that at this difficult time. They're being asked to make major sacrifices right now.'

Victoria recorded another 394 cases of coronavirus on Sunday, with 17 deaths, in the deadliest day in Australia since the pandemic began.
A wide-body aircraft, also known as a twin-aisle aircraft, is a jet airliner with a fuselage wide enough to accommodate two passenger aisles with seven or more seats abreast.

The Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Sunday suspended the operation of wide-bodied aircraft at the Calicut International Airport, on Sunday, in the wake of the Air India Express (AIE) flight AXB 1344 overshooting the runway in Kerala's Kozhikode on Friday evening.

As per a Times of India report, a Saudi Airbus 330, which was scheduled to fly down at Calicut airport, was diverted to the Kochi airport on Sunday, following the directives of DGCA.

Calicut International Airport, also known as Karipur Airport, is an international airport located in Karipur, Malappuram district of Kerala. This airport which has a table-top runway has been on the regulators watch list after the 2010 Air India Express Boeing 737 crash in Mangaluru, which claimed the lives of 158 people.

In 2010, a Boeing 737-800 passenger jet operating Air India Express Flight 812 from Dubai to Mangalore crashed on landing at Mangalore airport, which like the Calicut airport, has a table-top runway. The aircraft had caught fire while landing and fell into the valley below. The accident claimed 158 lives and only 8 passengers on-board the ill-fated flight survived.

DGCA suspends wide-bodied flights in Karipur

This new directive of the DGCA to suspend the operation of wide-bodied aircraft could be temporary or even permanent. According to The Hindu, MK Raghavan, a member of Parliament from Kozhikode has said that the decision to suspend wide-bodied flights at the airport cannot be justified. The airport had complied with all the stipulations for the operation of big aircraft.

But this is not for the first time wide-bodied aircraft will stay away from Karipur. The operation of wide-bodied aircraft was suspended at the Calicut airport back in May 2015 after a report by the Court of Inquiry on the Mangaluru crash.

Following the ban, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) had carried out strengthening of the runway and expanding the runway safety area or RESA of the Calicut airport. Subsequently, the DGCA asked the AAI and the airline companies to submit reports on safety assessment and mitigation plans, reports Times of India.

But after an interval of over five years, Air India had resumed wide-bodied flight operations from the Calicut international airport in 2019. A Saudi Arabian Airlines flight from Calicut to Jeddah on 17 February, 2019 was the first airline to get the nod, following which Air India also got the green light to operate wide-bodied flights after conducting the safety assessment in August last year.

So what is a wide-bodied aircraft?

A wide-bodied aircraft, also known as a twin-aisle aircraft, is a jet airliner with a fuselage wide enough to accommodate two passenger aisles with seven or more seats abreast.

The aircraft is almost always used to operate long haul and medium-haul flights but can occasionally be used on shorter flights.

DGCA bans wide-bodied aircraft at Kozhikode airport: With big passenger capacity, these planes are used for medium and long hauls

In the typical wide-body economy cabin, passengers are seated seven to 10 abreast, allowing a total capacity of 200 to 850 passengers.

By comparison, a typical narrow-body airliner has a diameter of three to four metres (10 to 13 ft), with a single aisle, and seats between two and six people abreast.

A wide-bodied aircraft's capacity is usually equipped to carry 200 to 850 passengers and typically has two aisles per cabin. This kind of aircraft was originally designed for a combination of efficiency and passenger comfort and to increase the amount of cargo space.

However, airlines quickly gave in to economic factors and reduced the extra passenger space in order to maximise revenue and profits.

Responding to criticism that the Kozhikode air crash occurred as landings were allowed despite several warnings, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri urged his fellow politicians and media to exercise patience, saying that the accident was being probed and the findings will be made public.

In a series of tweets, Puri said that the aircraft involved in the incident at Kozhikode, a B-737-800, was not a wide-bodied aircraft. "As far as wide-body aircraft are concerned, DGCA had carried out a thorough assessment and prescribed comprehensive mitigation measures," he said.

With inputs from agencies
During the pandemic, everyone is in need: Candace Cameron Bure teams with Salvation Army to help

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Actress Candace Cameron Bure has teamed up with the Salvation Army for a back to school give back to help meet the needs of families struggling financially during state lockdowns in response to the novel coronavirus.

The Fuller House star, author and queen of Hallmark Christmas movies, has been working with The Salvation Army for many years as an ambassador so she jumped at the opportunity to link arms with them during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"They help over 23 million Americans every single year but during back to school time, it's often a huge financial burden for a lot of families. To the point that some families have to choose whether they're going to put food on the table or buy their children's school supplies, Bure told The Christian Post in an interview on Wednesday.

The Salvation Army is there to help, and they're asking everyone to get involved and help to pick up a few extra school supplies while you're out shopping or even shopping online, she said.

The nonprofit organization is asking people to Stuff the Bus and donate supplies at nearly 4,500 Walmart stores around the country this weekend, Aug. 7-9. People can drop off new school items in one of the bins at Walmart or search their local Salvation Armys Registry for Good to donate online. The Salvation Army will make sure all supplies are given to children in the local community.

"It's just a huge relief, the actress said.

"What I love so much about The Salvation Army is that wherever you donate, it stays in your local community. So just know that you will be helping the children in your community," she stressed.

A Salvation Army spokesperson recently told CP that people living in poverty are feeling the effects [of COVID-19] quicker and more significantly than others impacted by the virus.



Because of these impacts, The Salvation Army is rapidly evolving services to ensure low-income individuals and families have access to desperately needed resources like food and shelter, the spokesperson added.

The humanitarian ministry has provided more than 65 million meals to people nationwide affected by job loss and financial hardship due to state-enforced business closures in response to COVID-19.

"During the pandemic, we just know that everyone is in need, everyone is in more need than normal, Bure declared. The Salvation Army has always been there to help. They do so much and not just with the back to school campaign. Salvation Army provides emotional care, spiritual care, they provide shelter, and meals for families, they provide daycare for all kinds of frontline workers."

Bure said she believes the pandemic is helping people realize, We're not OK anymore. There's a lot of job loss, people can't go back to work and the struggles are very prevalent for all of us."

As a way to encourage others to give to the cause, Bure read her book, Grow Candace Grow on social media.

"I've written two children's books. I actually have a third one that will be out in January, but this is a series for 4- to 8-year-old kids, Bure who now has nine books under her name, said of her latest release.

Reading was my all-time favorite activity to do with my children when they were little. I absolutely love reading because it's acting. You get to be these people in the book or the characters or give voices to the animals, whatever it is. So I've always loved it. It was always a dream of mine to write children's books.

"In each book, you learn a little lesson. And that's what I love. As a mom, I always want to read something that gives our kids either a lesson to be learned or that we can talk about and discuss, she added. So in this book [Grow Candace Grow], it's all about having patience.

Bure maintained that regardless of the times she will continue to be a positive force in Hollywood and on social media.

"My relationship with God is my guiding light. I'm a Christian and I love the Lord with all my heart. I don't leave that at the doorstep when I work or if I'm on my social media; it is who I am! Bure declared. I love being able to use that platform of social media to share Scripture and hope that God gives each and every one of us because He loves us all so much.

"I've just found that during this time, people are searching and wanting. And I feel incredibly blessed and humbled that people have found my social media as a form of hope and inspiration, knowing that they can come there and listen to God's Word. I just love it because God and His Word is the truth in my life, and I want to share that with everyone. I think it's the only source of real hope.

More information about The Salvation Army's Stuff of Bus campaign can be found on its website.
New Delhi:

Eighty-five people have been rescued so far by four shuttles in a joint operation from Indian Navy, Air Force and Indian Coast Guard from Havelock Islands on Friday.

Rescue and evacuation process of stranded tourists is still going on, said Indian Coast Guard's officials.

Earlier on Friday, Lt. Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jagdish Mukhi, said that around 320 foreign tourists are stranded at Havelock and Neil islands in the Andamans after heavy rain and "cyclonic weather conditions" are safe. He also added, that approximately 1000 tourists are stranded at the islands.

On Thursday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh cited the numbers of tourists stranded at the islands at 1,400 tourists. who are stranded at havelock and Neil islands in the Andamans after heavy rain and "cyclonic weather conditions" are safe. He also made an appeal to the families of the tourists not to panic.

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Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could rise 30 points at the opening bell.

Overseas, Asian stocks were trading lower on Monday as investors kept one eye on flaring tensions between the United States and China and another eye on US fiscal stimulus after talks between the White House and Democrat lawmakers broke down. Japanese and Singaporean markets are closed for public holidays.

In US, the S&P 500 retreated from a near six-month high in choppy trading on Friday with data showing a sharp slowdown in US employment growth, while US-China tensions escalated with President Donald Trump's move to ban WeChat and TikTok.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed two executive orders banning WeChat, owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent, and TikTok in 45 days' time while announcing sanctions on 11 Chinese and Hong Kong officials.

Trump signed a series of executive orders to extend unemployment benefits after talks with Congress broke down. The orders would provide an extra $400 per week in unemployment payments, less than the $600 per week passed earlier in the crisis.

In economic data, the US economy added 1.8 million jobs in July, far fewer than in May and June, according to government data released Friday. The unemployment rate fell to 10.2% from 11.1% in June, still slightly worse than the depth of the global financial crisis in October 2009. However, the Labor Department said some workers continue to be misclassified, and the jobless rate would have been a full point higher than reported.

Back home, domestic equity benchmarks ended a lackluster session with tiny gains on Friday. Gains were capped due to weakness in IT shares. Rising coronavirus cases also dented sentiment. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex gained 15.12 points or 0.04% at 38,040.57. The Nifty 50 index rose 13.90 points or 0.12% at 11,214.05.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 397.32 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 438.62 crore in the Indian equity market on 7 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.)
Coronation Street character Todd Grimshaw has returned to the cobbles three years after actor Bruno Langley was axed in 2017 following his sexual assault conviction.

Todd is now being played by actor Gareth Pierce who has been cast as the runaway and his first photos have been released.

Welsh born Pierce follows in the steps of Langley who held the role for 16 years until he was convicted of groping two women on a drunken night out.

New star: Actor Gareth Pierce is taking the role of Todd Grimshaw after Bruno Langley was forced to step down in 2017

Gareth is best known for his roles as Lenny Mack in Sky 1's Stella and Gavin Moss in The Archers. He also starred in Ordinary Lies and Hinterland for BBC.

His storyline will start from next week when news of his potential return starts to spread after the former solicitor writes a letter asking for money.

With Eileen away in Thailand, visiting her other son Jason, the letter is opened by Mary and Sean who break the news to Todd's former partner Vicar Billy Mayhew.

Axed: Langley held the role for 16 years until he was convicted of groping two women on a drunken night out

Exciting: Gareth is best known for his roles as Lenny Mack in Sky 1's Stella and Gavin Moss in The Archers. He also starred in Ordinary Lies and Hinterland for BBC

The trio then embark on a manhunt to try and track him down.

The last time viewers saw Todd was in late 2017 when he fled Weatherfield with Billy's goddaughter Summer after her grandmother Geraldine attempted to gain custody.

When they were tracked down by the police, Todd assaulted a police officer and ran off.

Gareth said about his exciting new role: 'I'm thrilled to be joining such an iconic show, and to have been entrusted with taking Todd forward into some really exciting storylines.

Fall from grace: Langley pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault at a hearing in November 2017

'It's an honour to be part of the dedicated Coronation Street team in such unprecedented times.'

Langley pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault at a hearing in November 2017, and was given a 12-month community order, including 40 days of rehabilitation activity and a curfew.

He offered a tearful apology for his actions, and has since said he is attending therapy session and alcoholic anonymous meetings.

Over: Back in 2017, Todd was written out with viewers told he had 'gone on the run' after assaulting a police officer

Todd's return to the cobbles has apparently been hinted at several times in 2020, with his mother Eileen (played by Sue Cleaver) saying: 'Every Mothers Day or birthday its the same. I think this will be the time I hear from him but I never do of course.'

Daniel Brocklebank, who plays vicar Billy Mayhew, who had a romance with Todd, has also said he's set to encounter 'a blast from the past.'

Meanwhile, Bruno has now found work as a portrait photographer and takes home 65 for a four hour shoot.

Friends of the actor told The Mirror that he is hoping to kick-start a career as a writer after losing his acting work on the small screen.

At the time of his conviction, Bruno told The Sunday Mirror: 'I've been living way too fast for too long... My drinking had escalated. The wheels fell off. I wasn't particularly happy... I've started going to see a counsellor and been attending AA meetings and that's helped.

'I have no excuse, no one forced me to drink to such an extreme, but it is hard to explain why I would do anything as dreadful as that. It must have been awful for those women, and I am ashamed of myself. Im truly sorry.

'I sincerely apologise to the women, from the bottom of my heart. I promise I will never do anything like that again', he added at the time.
(Newser)  A video in wide circulation last month showed the unnerving scene of a black bear in a Mexico park getting up close and personal with a young woman. The bear even stood on its hind legs and sniffed the woman's hair at one point, and she managed to take a selfie in the moment. Now, a not-so-great turn for the bear: Wildlife authorities captured and castrated the animal and will ship him out of his home in the Chipinque Ecological Park to new terrain, reports the BBC.

story continues below

Amid criticism, authorities defended the move to relocate the bear by saying it has come too close to other visitors in the park as well. The castration, they say, will help keep the bear from fighting other males in its new home in the Sierra de Nido mountain range. Meanwhile, supporters of the bear say humans are to blame because they kept feeding the animal on visits to the park, causing it to become used to human interaction, reports CTV. An online petition (in Spanish) puts the blame squarely on "human recklessness." (Read more bear stories.)
COVID-19 response has resulted in major reductions in health facility births in Nepal and widened inequalities, with significantly increased institutional stillbirth and neonatal mortality, according to a new study in The Lancet Global Health.

The research was led Dr Ashish KC and Nepal colleagues with Uppsala University, Sweden, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. It is the first published study with primary data on the impact of a COVID-19 lockdown on births in hospital, and measuring stillbirths and newborn deaths.

Compared to before lockdown, the number of births in the country's health institutions reduced by approximately 49.9% with increased inequality by ethnicity. Stillbirth rate in the hospitals increased by 50% from 14 per 1,000 total births before lockdown to 21 per 1,000 total births.

Professor Joy Lawn, co-senior author from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: "The COVID-19 outbreak has brought unprecedented disruptions to health services, with the risk being highest in resource-limited countries, and to the most vulnerable. Babies can die in minutes if there are delays for safe care. This study provided the first published primary data on the extent of this risk during the COVID-19 lockdowns. So far we have only had snapshots from surveys and modelled estimates."

Although prioritised as an essential core health service, some surveys indicate that maternal and newborn health services are being affected due to COVID-19 restrictions in low-income and middle-income countries. Both access and quality of care might be deteriorating, risking deaths and reversals of hard-won gains over the past two decades.

Nepal is one of a small number of low-income countries believed to be on track for Sustainable Development Goal targets for maternal and newborn and child health by 2030. Over the last three decades Nepal has reduced maternal mortality by 76%, and newborn mortality by 62%. Future progress is now threatened, and each day lives are at risk.

The first case of COVID-19 was detected in Nepal on January 23, 2020. A countrywide lockdown was announced on March 21, 2020, with directives to frontline health-care providers to prepare for cases, and disruptions in the health system and more widely, for example to transport systems.

This study involved around 22,000 births in Nepal in nine hospitals across all seven provinces, including 11% of all births nationally, and covered 12.5 weeks before the national lockdown and 9.5 weeks during the lockdown. Very detailed data, including observations, were being collected as part of a national study on improving quality of care at birth.

As well as a halving of the numbers of institutional births, the research teams found the risk of neonatal death increased more than 3-fold, from 13 per 1,000 livebirths to 40 per 1,000 livebirths during lockdown.

Joy Lawn said: "The findings suggest that the national lockdown in Nepal has had a major impact on women and babies through travel restrictions, fear of going to hospitals due to COVID-19, with more complex cases in facilities, delays and reduced quality of care.

"Preterm birth and caesarean section rates rose, and quality of care also fell, notably intrapartum fetal heart rate monitoring and breastfeeding within one hour of birth. One positive finding from our study was that we did see improvements in hand hygiene practices of health workers during childbirth."

"Undoubtedly countries face very tough choices on how to combat COVID-19. However, our findings raise questions on policies regarding strict lockdowns in low-income and middle-income countries during outbreaks. Collateral effects seem to be much more severe than the actual direct effects of SARS-CoV2 infection, especially so for the most vulnerable in our society, pregnant women and babies. More data are needed, but even more importantly, more action now to protect these services."

The authors acknowledge limitations of our study, including that they did not explore the prevalence or the direct impact of COVID-19 on health outcomes. None of the women admitted to the hospital were tested for COVID-19, but the prevalence of COVID-19 among the study population then was likely to be very low.

###

To arrange interviews or request a copy of the paper please email press@lshtm.ac.uk

PUBLICATION

Ashish KC, Rejina Gurung, Mary V Kinney, Avinash K Sunny, Md Moinuddin, Omkar Basnet, Prajwal Paudel, Pratiksha Bhattarai, Kalpana Subedi, Mahendra Prasad Shrestha, Joy E Lawn, Mats Malqvist. Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic response on intrapartum care, stillbirth, and neonatal mortality outcomes in Nepal: a prospective observational study. The Lancet Global Health. DOI:10.1016/ S2214-109X(20)30345-4
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- New York Citys public school teachers are calling for schools to remain closed come fall and remote learning to continue, citing safety concerns for students and staff members if they reopen during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The UFT Solidarity caucus of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) union announced Sunday it was calling for support to oppose Mayor Bill de Blasios reopening plan and to push for a fully remote start to the school year.

We truly believe that there is too much at stake at reopening school buildings for in person learning. We have seen terrible instances of spikes of COVID in countries, like France and Israel, that reopened school buildings after they believed that COVID was being well monitored and managed, the caucus said in the announcement.

The caucus is also calling for the immediate resignation of city Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza with a petition of Change.org, which has more than 1,000 signatures as of 6 p.m. Sunday.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that all schools across the state will be able to reopen in September based on the states low coronavirus infection rate.

New York City submitted its full reopening plan to the state last week, which includes a blended learning model. As part of the model, students will rotate in groups between in-person and remote learning. Students will go to school two or three times a week, and participate in remote learning the rest of the week.

The caucus cited cases across the United States in which school buildings reopened and positive coronavirus cases were reported -- prompting officials to shut down schools again and students and teachers quarantining.

It also noted that New York City is the largest school district in the U.S. and had the most coronavirus cases at the peak of the pandemic. There are also concerns that public transportation will be a vector for spreading the virus, and that classrooms and school buildings wont have enough ventilation.

And educators will have to continuously remind students to social distance, keep masks on, and wash their hands. They wont be able to comfort students on bad days, and there wont be high-fives or sharing materials.

Some Staten Island educators told the Advance/SILive.com they are nervous about going back to their classrooms, citing concerns over ensuring students wear masks appropriately, how cleaning and disinfecting will work, and what happens if a student or staff member contracts COVID-19.

Our governor and mayor claim that we are ready for school buildings to reopen but if school districts smaller than NYC can have these sudden surges of coronavirus, it is terrifying to think what may happen in NYC if school buildings are allowed to reopen, the caucus said.

UFT Solidarity said it is prepared to pursue legal action to protect the health and safety of its members and students.

The caucus is also calling for the immediate resignation of city Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza with a petition of Change.org, which has more than 1,000 signatures as of 6 p.m. Sunday.

The DOE did not immediately respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.

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FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.
Aamir Khan was spotted at the Turkey International Airport posing with some fans and officials. The actor looked amazing in his grey sweatshirt and black sweatpants as he landed in the country. Several fan pages of Amir Khan have got the pictures of the actor and thus have been sharing them ever since. The actor was all smiles as he posed for several pictures with his fans at the airport. According to several news portals, Aamir Khan has landed in Turkey in order to resume the shooting for his film Laal Singh Chaddha after almost 5 months.

Aamir Khan lands in Turkey to begin shooting for Laal Singh Chaddha

Also Read | Atul Kulkarni Had Penned Amir Khan Starrer 'Laal Singh Chaddhas' Script 10 Years Ago

Laal Singh Chaddha is the official remake of Forrest Gump in which Tom Hanks originally played the titular role. Aamir Khan has been vocal about his love for the script of the original film and thus fans are eager to watch him essay the role of Laal Singh Chaddha. According to many news portals, the Punjab shooting of the film was halted abruptly due to the pandemic which later on caused the lockdown. Thus the shooting has now begun in Turkey after almost five months. According to Hindustan Times, Kareena Kapoor Khan too was spotted outdoors, however, it is yet unsure as to when she will begin her schedule for shooting the film.

Also Read | Unseen Pic Of The Day: Young Aamir Khan & Saif Ali Khan Look Suave In This Throwback Post

NEW PIC@aamir_khan resumes #LaalSinghChaddha shoot in Turkey pic.twitter.com/vjheNtCqde  Aamir Khan Official FC Kolkata (@AamirFanKolkata) August 8, 2020

Also Read | Anil Kapoor's 'Jeevan Ek Sanghursh' Was First Offered To Aamir Khan; Read Trivia

In Laal Singh Chaddha, Aamir Khan will be changing his looks from time to time depending on the decade he is in. Thus speaking about this to the same media outlet, Aamir Khan revealed that he may soon lose around 20 kilos for the character. Speaking about the story of the film, Aamir Khan stated that he personally loved Forrest Gump and called it a wonderful story. He added that the life-affirming story is a movie one can watch with the entire family. He also added that he personally loved the script of the movie and began appreciating the sheer brilliance of the film. Aamir Khan also added that the only challenge one faces when doing a character like Forrest Gump is finding the Sur of the character, according to the news portal. Laal Singh Chaddha has been produced by Aamir Khan himself along with Viacom18 Motion Pictures. The original release date the film was expected to be in December, however, due to the halt in the shooting process, the dates may get pushed further.

Also Read | Katrina Kaif And Aamir Khan Shake A Leg In Dance Practice For 'Suraiyya', Watch BTS
The reason for the large-scale fight and murder that took place in densely-Armenian populated Akhalkalaki town of Georgia was the domestic dispute between the two sides, years ago. Artak Gabrielyan, coordinator of the council of Armenian NGOs in Samtskhe-Javakheti region, on Monday told NEWS.am that this dispute escalated on August 8.

He added that there were no injured at the moment. "People with minor bodily injuries were discharged from the hospital on the same day," Gabrielyan added.

And when asked how this incident can affect the local Armenian community, he responded that this was not a community dispute. "I do not think they will have any consequences. It is also not ruled out that there will be a vendetta, that this case will have a continuation. Police forces at the regional level are currently concentrated in the town. As of yesterday, surveillance was established at the entrances to the town," Artak Gabrielyan said.

To note, riots broke out in Akhalkalaki after the murder of Vardik Marabyan, 27, an Armenian resident of Kulikam village, and another 27-year-old Armenian was detained.

The murder was followed by the setting of fire to the hotel and restaurant belonging to Gabrielyan, who is the suspect of the murder in Akhalkalaki, as well as to several houses belonging to his supporters at the scene.

Exclusive footage published from fight, murder in densely-Armenian populated town in Georgia
Jiang Minci, at the age of 89, records a video with the help of her grandson.[CNR-1]

While many senior citizens are troubled by the fast-growing digital lifestyle, Jiang Minci, 89, has become an Internet celebrity. Even though she is the oldest uploader of Bilibili, a Chinese online video sharing platform, as of August 3 Jiang's account under the monicker "Minci Bulao," which means "forever young," had 297,000 followers, and the most-watched video had received more than 4.56 million views.

Jiang was first introduced to Bilibili by her grandson Doudou, a senior high school student and also a salted uploader of the website. Jiang became curious about the site in April when she happened to see Doudou recording a video he planned to upload. She was greatly attracted by its rich content and asked Doudou to help her create an account. From then on, the door to a new world opened for her.

Jiang posted her first video on Bilibili on April 30. "Hi everyone, young people now choose to be uploaders here and I want to have a try too. How do you like it?" she said, extending greetings to viewers in the video, "but I am no longer young. Can I compete with you? I will keep up with you as much as I can."

The users of the website gave Jiang a warm welcome by leaving encouraging bullet screen comments, and she soon became popular on the platform.

"I always pay close attention to the cyber world," she noted, adding that it can help the elderly people keep up with the times and improve the quality of their lives.

Homepage of the account of Jiang Minci on Bilibili [CNR-1]

Jiang's videos are all about her life stories, introducing the social environment of the last century to today's young people. She provides a vivid and special "history lecture" to her viewers and has drawn more attention.

She started with the idea of writing an autobiography, accompanied by old photos, to make a memo of her life experiences. But the idea was put aside due to the high requirements of publishing. After becoming an uploader, she found that telling stories directly through video is the best way for her to satisfy both her desire and followers' interests.

In one video, Jiang recounts her story of pursuing her studies, which was flooded with positive responses. "I don't agree that women should be housewives after they get married. Women should have their own career and life; that's also what I want to convey to my female followers," she said.

An old photo of Jiang Minci (in a white shirt) with her junior high school teachers and classmates [CNR-1]

Before each video, Jiang will communicate with her grandson about the selected topic and the details of her oral account. She also needs him to help with shooting and editing videos. Previously, Jiang had studied simple video editing at the University for the Elderly. "I hope one day I can produce the whole video by myself, just like young people."

Notes and outlines made by Jiang Minci for producing a video [CNR-1]

After Jiang's account became a favorite on the Internet, many companies tried to cooperate with her to reap a profit, but she refused. Jiang and her grandson take it as an enjoyment and they don't want to turn it into a money-making tool.

Jiang said that she will continue to make more videos. "It's delighted to do something for the younger generation in my old age. And it is interesting to communicate with netizens and learn from each other," she added.

(Source: CNR-1/Translated and edited by Women of China)
Microsoft's TikTok bid spotlights Windows maker's history with China A person walks past a Microsoft logo at the Microsoft office in Beijing

By Josh Horwitz

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp has emerged as the most likely buyer of the U.S. operations of TikTok, the popular Chinese short-video app that U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing to effectively ban on national security grounds.

A deal would be in line with Microsoft's stance toward China where the firm has a sizeable presence - unlike fellow U.S. tech heavyweights such as Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google which appear to have given up on China's consumer-facing market with its miscellany of government strictures.

The country accounts for over $2 billion in annual revenue, Microsoft President Brad Smith said earlier this year.

WHAT DOES MICROSOFT DO IN CHINA?

Microsoft employs roughly 6,000 people in the country, with offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Suzhou.

Its flagship Windows operating system is widely used, though revenue has long been crimped by piracy. In recent years the firm has pushed its Azure cloud computing product, launched in 2013 via a partnership with local data service company 21Vianet.

China's cyber-security law limits Microsoft to providing Azure's software and services while 21Vianet runs associated data centres. It is a small player in a sector dominated by local providers Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Baidu Inc, Tencent Holdings Ltd and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

Microsoft operates both its Bing search engine and LinkedIn social network in China, though again is a small player compared with local giants.

Its most important China operation is arguably the Microsoft Research Asia, famous as a leader in artificial intelligence (AI).

Founded in 1998 with help from renowned Taiwanese-American AI scientist Kaifu Lee - who went on to lead Google's China office - the lab has produced alumni who went on to become executives at TikTok owner ByteDance, Baidu, Xiaomi Corp and Chinese facial recognition unicorns.

DOES MICROSOFT SELF-CENSOR IN CHINA?

Bing and LinkedIn in China appear similar to their global counterparts but Microsoft censors search results and content the Chinese government considers sensitive.

Story continues

Upon LinkedIn's China launch in 2014, two years before the company was bought by Microsoft, then-Chief Executive Jeff Weiner said censoring content would be "necessary" for the firm to grow in the country.

In 2019, free speech advocates criticised LinkedIn's position on censorship after human rights activist Zhou Fengsuo said his profile was not viewable in China. LinkedIn blamed an "error" and restored its visibility.

Software development website GitHub, which Microsoft purchased in 2019, is also accessible from China. The site, a coding repository, has been used by activists in China to preserve internet content before authorities censor the source.

HAS MICROSOFT HAD SCRAPES WITH CHINA'S GOVERNMENT?

Microsoft has bemoaned rampant piracy of Windows in China for decades and has occasionally filed lawsuits and complaints even against state-backed companies to address its concerns.

Its most notable tussle with the government was in 2014 when authorities raided four Microsoft offices demanding access to contracts and other information as part of an anti-trust investigation.

The same year, the government called on all agencies to ban the purchase of Windows 8 citing security reasons.

Microsoft eventually released a "China Government" edition of Windows 10 following a joint venture formed in 2015 with state-owned China Electronics Technology Corp.

WHAT ABOUT BILL GATES?

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has spoken in mostly positive terms about China in recent years. In November, he held a public meeting with Peng Liyuan, wife of President Xi Jinping.

Also late last year, Gates criticised the U.S. government's restrictions on telecommunications equipment maker Huawei and spoke about sharing Windows source code with China's government which aided official acceptance of the software in the country.

He has praised China's response to COVID-19, which earned him public thanks from Xi, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $5 million to China for COVID-19 relief.

The foundation is one of few overseas charities or non-governmental organisations to maintain operations in China, where it has worked with the government and academic institutions against diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.

(Reporting by Josh Horwitz; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
The biggest structural problem in Australian education is that a broken school choice model is driving an ever-growing segregation of students between schools.

Australia ranks as the fourth most segregated education system in the OECD. In Australia, more than half of our disadvantaged students are concentrated into disadvantaged schools while less than 5 per cent of disadvantaged students attend advantaged schools.

School choice has not delivered the education outcomes Australia needs. Credit:Brook Mitchell

The current structure of Australian education with one free, publicly funded sector and another sector that receives public funding but charges fees to parents sets us apart from most other countries around the world. We are structurally unique, and not in a good way.

Students from higher income families and socially advantaged backgrounds tend to be more concentrated in non-government and selective public schools while students from disadvantaged backgrounds are more concentrated in other schools.
Bottles of French wine are displayed for sale in a liquor store on December 3, 2019 in Arlington, Virginia.

A bipartisan group of 13 U.S. senators have asked the U.S. Trade Representative's Office (USTR) to remove 25% tariffs imposed in October 2019 on European Union food, wine and spirits, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

The tariffs, in retaliation for EU subsidies on large aircraft, hit French wine, Italian cheese and single-malt Scotch whisky, as well as cookies, salami, yogurt, olives from France, EU-produced pork sausage and German coffee.

Seven Republican and six Democratic senators, including Robert Menendez, John Barrasso, Cory Gardner, Susan Collins, Dianne Feinstein, Pat Toomey, Kyrsten Sinema and Cory Booker said in a letter to USTR Friday that American "restaurants, retailers, grocers, importers and distributors" are experiencing "severe economic hardship due to the increased cost of goods."

The senators noted "demand for these goods has declined, leaving importers and distributors with months' worth of product, much of it perishable, in storage and in transit with no clear end date for the COVID-19 pandemic."

USTR did not immediately comment.

Last month, Europe's Airbus said it would increase loan repayments to France and Spain in a "final" bid to reverse U.S. tariffs and jog the United States into settling a 16-year-old dispute over billions of dollars of aircraft subsidies.

The United States last year won World Trade Organization authorization to impose tariffs on up to $7.5 billion of EU goods.

The U.S. Distilled Spirits Council last month urged ending EU and U.S. beverage tariffs, saying drinks firms on both sides of the Atlantic "have suffered enough."

The group noted Scotch Whisky imports by the United States fell nearly 33% between October 2019 and May 2020, a $378 million decline over the same period a year earlier.

The EU in a separate dispute imposed 25% tariffs on all U.S. whiskey imports in June 2018. Since then, U.S. whiskey exports to the EU have fallen by 33%, or $300 million, the group said.

Trade groups are bracing for an escalation this autumn when the EU is expected to win WTO approval to retaliate with its own tariffs over subsidies for U.S. planemaker Boeing Co.

USTR announced in June it was considering imposing additional tariffs on products from many EU countries including gin, vodka, beer, sparkling wine and other whiskies.
CALGARY - Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. has struck a $461-million deal to buy Painted Pony Energy Ltd. as it looks to grow its position in the liquids-rich Montney natural gas region of northeastern B.C.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/8/2020 (526 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. says it has struck a deal to buy much smaller oil and gas producer Painted Pony Energy Ltd. for $111 million in cash and the assumption of $350 million in debt. Canadian Natural Resources logo is shown at the company's annual meeting in Calgary on May 4, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

CALGARY - Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. has struck a $461-million deal to buy Painted Pony Energy Ltd. as it looks to grow its position in the liquids-rich Montney natural gas region of northeastern B.C.

"This acquisition further strengthens Canadian Natural's natural gas assets and production base in key operating areas and complements the company's diversified portfolio," Canadian Natural president Tim McKay said in a statement.

"This transaction also allows us to further insulate against natural gas costs in our oilsands operations and has minimal impact on the companys low overall corporate decline rate."

The acquisition of Calgary-based Painted Pony company for $111 million in cash and the assumption of $350 million in debt is expected to close later this year.

Canadian Natural is best known as one of Canada's largest oilsands and heavy oil producers, but it has been allocating funds to grow its natural gas output as well.

In a statement, Painted Pony said it is facing liquidity challenges caused by three years of weak natural gas prices and more recent declines in prices for the petroleum liquids produced with the gas.

It decided on a confidential process to enhance shareholder value, it said, and its board determined the corporate buyout offer of 69 cents per share by Canadian Natural was the best path forward.

Painted Pony's shares have traded between 20 cents and 90 cents in the past year. They rose by as much as 16.9 per cent on Monday to match the offering price.

Separately, Canadian Natural said Painted Pony's lands in northeastern B.C. are located near its similar operations and offer potential synergies in infrastructure and pipelines.

It said the assets produce about 270 million cubic feet per day of natural gas and 4,600 barrels per day of petroleum liquids.

By comparison, Canadian Natural produced 1.46 billion cubic feet per day of gas and 922,000 barrels per day of crude oil and liquids in the second quarter.

Analysts said the transaction was good for both companies but better for Canadian Natural, whose shares were little changed on Monday.

"Although we would consider the acquisition as immaterial to base operations today (four per cent of total production), the purchase is consistent with Canadian Natural's history of opportunistic acquisitions along cyclical lows, adding significant future gas inventory," National Bank analyst Travis Wood said in a report.

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Analyst Chris MacCulloch of Desjardins pointed out the offer represents a 38 per cent premium above his 50 cents per share target price for Painted Pony, but investors may have mixed feeling about the deal.

"The acquisition certainly marks a disappointing conclusion for PONY shareholders after languishing for years under the crippling weight of elevated debt levels and depressed natural gas prices," he said.

Painted Pony will hold a special meeting in September to vote on the deal which will require support of two-thirds of the shares.

It said holders of about 25 per cent of its shares, including its two largest shareholders, have agreed to support the transaction.

This report by the Canadian Press was first published Aug. 10, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:PONY, TSX:CNQ)
NEW YORK, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft (Deutsche Bank or the Bank) (NYSE: DB) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, and indexed under 20-cv-08978, is on behalf of all investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Deutsche Bank securities between November 7, 2017, and July 6, 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 Bank and certain of its top officials.



If you are a shareholder who purchased Deutsche Bank securities during the Class Period, you have until September 14, 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 newaction@pomlaw.com 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]

Deutsche Bank was founded in 1870 and is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The Bank provides investment, financial, and related products and services to private individuals, corporate entities, and institutional clients worldwide.

Deutsche Bank has been the subject of scandal, investigation and regulatory enforcement for years because of anti-money laundering (AML) compliance failures and deficiencies in its disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, causing it to have one of the lowest gradings offered by the U.S. Federal Reserve (Federal Reserve).

The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Companys business. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Deutsche Bank had failed to remediate deficiencies related to AML, its disclosure controls, procedures, and internal control over financial reporting, and its U.S. operations troubled condition; (ii) as a result, the Bank failed to properly monitor customers that the Bank itself deemed to be high risk, including, among others, the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein (Epstein) and two correspondent banks, Danske Estonia and FBME Bank, which were both the subjects of prior scandals involving financial misconduct; (iii) the foregoing, once revealed, was foreseeably likely to have a material negative impact on the Banks financial results and reputation; and (iv) as a result, the Banks public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On May 13, 2020, media outlets reported that the Federal Reserve had sharply criticized Deutsche Banks U.S. operations in an internal audit. The audit reportedly found that Deutsche Bank had failed to address multiple concerns identified years earlier, including concerns related to the Banks AML and other control procedures.

On this news, the value of Deutsche Banks ordinary shares fell $0.31 per share, or 4.49%, to close at $6.60 per share on May 13, 2020.

Then, on July 7, 2020, the Federal Reserves criticism of Deutsche Banks failure to address its AML and other issues was reaffirmed when the New York State Department of Financial Services fined the Bank $150 million for neglecting to flag numerous questionable transactions from accounts associated with Epstein and with two correspondent banks, Danske Estonia and FBME Bank, both of which were the subjects of prior scandals involving financial misconduct.

On this news, the value of Deutsche Banks ordinary shares fell $0.13 per share, or 1.31%, to close at $9.82 per share on July 7, 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

rswilloughby@pomlaw.com
Chinese electric car start-up Xpeng Motors has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange, according to an official filing.

While the company did not disclose how many Class A ordinary shares it would sell, Xpeng Motors said it would sell 429,846,136 class B ordinary shares, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing published Friday. It also said it plans to raise a placeholder amount of $100 million, a figure that will likely change.

Each Class A ordinary share will be entitled to one vote while each Class B ordinary share will give the holder 10 votes.

The filing comes after CNBC reported that it raised a further $400 million from Alibaba, one of its biggest shareholders, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala. QIA and Mubadala both invested $100 million each as part of that round.

Xpeng's push for a New York IPO comes amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and China that have threatened Chinese firms listing on Wall Street.

The IPO will give Xpeng another injection of cash as it faces tough competition in China from a number of players including Li Auto, which recently listed in the U.S., WM Motor and Nio. But the company also competes with Tesla, which has looked to boost its presence in China with a Shanghai factory.

Earlier this year, Tesla began rolling out its Model 3 sedan made in the Shanghai factory to consumers in China.

Xpeng currently has two cars on the market  the G3 SUV and the P7 sedan. The latter competes with Tesla's Model 3.

G3 production began in November 2018 and as of July 31, 2020, Xpeng said it had delivered 18,741 units to customers. The P7 started to roll out to customers in May this year and as of July 31, Xpeng had delivered 1,966 units of the vehicle to customers.

The company is planning to launch a third electric vehicle sedan in 2021, the company said in the SEC filing.

Xpeng, which was founded in 2015, has tried to differentiate itself from rivals by talking up its investment in software. The company has a feature called XPILOT which gives cars some semi-autonomous driving features like automated parking. XPILOT is developed in-house and Xpeng is positioning it as a rival to Tesla's Autopilot.
Former President John Mahama says the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is against attempts by the Akufo-Addo government to hand over 66% share of the Kotoka International Airport to TAM-SUMMA Consortium, a Turkish company.

According to him, such moves by the government are wrong and must not be stopped.

Speaking in an interview on Woezor TV on Sunday, the former President said while the NDC administration was in power, its valuation report showed that the airport was valued at about GH5 billion and so its strange that the government intends to cede 66% of its control of the airport to the private company in exchange for $70 million.

When we were in office, a valuation study of the Kotoka Airport was done and it was valued at over GH 5 billion. It also had an insured value in the region of GH3 to GH4 billion because a lot of money had been invested in the airport and it had become one of the five best airports in Africa.

[Now we are seeing] a strange development where a Turkish company is being given the airport; to take over the airport and run it. For $70 million we are giving 66% of the airport to a Turkish company. We are against it. It is wrong, John Mahama said.

In July, the Aviation Ministry revealed that the Ministry is considering a proposed Strategic Partnership Arrangement between GACL and TAV-SUMMA Consortium to improve service delivery and expansion of infrastructure at the Kotoka International Airport to achieve Government's vision of making Ghana the Aviation Hub within the West African Sub-Region.

The Ministry further disclosed that an Executive Approval had been granted by President Nana Akufo-Addo for the Ministry to facilitate the engagement of the Strategic Partners.

The announcement has since received criticisms from various quarters, including the Minority in Parliament and the Public Services Workers Union (PSWU).

John Mahama, who is the latest to comment on the development said that, with airports being the pride of most countries, it is wrong to give up our airport like that.

He said the government can find other ways of raising money to keep the airport functioning other than the currently proposed arrangements with TAM-SUMMA Consortium.

Even if you sold some of the lands around the airport you will be able to raise far more than $70 million, he noted.

The former President also suggested that the government should consider triggering clauses within the airport expansion project loan agreement to enable a rescheduling of the facility.

---citinewsroom
The family of Don Lewis, whose mysterious 1997 disappearance is a major talking point on the Tiger King documentary series, has hired a lawyer in hopes of finally figuring out what happened to him.

Attorney John Phillips announced the investigation into Lewis disappearance during a news conference Monday, and urged people with information to come forward.

Resolving this case is in everyones best interest, Phillips said at the Riverhills Church of God in Tampa, Florida.

With the investigation, a reward of $100,000 has been offered in exchange for information to help solve the case.

Phillips said Monday that he has asked Lewis former wife, big-cat activist Carole Baskin, to speak about the situation. On Friday, the legal team filed a lawsuit against Baskin in an effort to depose her and get her to speak on the record.

Justice is spelled one way, but defined in many different ways, Phillips said in a statement. After meeting with the family, justice to them is primarily defined by answers to what happened to Lewis, but also includes a full and open criminal investigation and the taking of statements under oath and subpoenas.

Phillips said Monday that the hope is to provide closure for Lewis family members, who were present at the press conference.

Baskin, who was prominently featured in Tiger King series, has long denied speculation that she played a role in Lewis disappearance.

In an email to local news outlet WFLA, Baskin addressed Lewis familys investigation.

Don Lewis disappearance update DON LEWIS DISAPPEARANCE UPDATE: The family of Don Lewis, the former husband of Big Cat Rescue CEO Carole Baskin, is giving an update on their search and are offering a $100,000 reward. Their attorney says they will conduct their own independent investigation into his disappearance. STORY: https://tinyurl.com/y5qov2bd Posted by FOX 5 Atlanta on Monday, August 10, 2020

I believe it is a publicity stunt orchestrated by (family spokesman) Jack Smith to bolster his YouTube views but do hope that all of the attention from Tiger King and the aftermath will result in us finding Don, she wrote.

In March, following the launch of Tiger King that month on Netflix, the Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office in Florida renewed its search for information regarding the disappearance of the millionaire Lewis.

Tiger King highlighted the lives of several major figures in the world of big cats, with Baskin, the CEO of Big Cat Rescue, and now-incarcerated zoo owner Joe Exotic among the most prominent.



2020 New York Daily News

Visit New York Daily News at www.nydailynews.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(Alliance News) - UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said getting all children back to school full-time in England next month is the "right thing for everybody" amid calls to boost coronavirus testing and tracing to ensure a safe return.

Johnson reiterated his pledge to reopen schools to children across the country in September as he insisted that they were "safe" and "Covid secure".

His comments come after teachers, scientists, opposition politicians and the Children's Commissioner for England Anne Longfield have all called for improvements to testing before pupils return in September.

One school leaders' union said the government should have a plan B in place for schools a such as a "week-on, week-off" rota system for pupils a if there are further lockdowns and spikes in Covid-19 cases.

But speaking to reporters at a school in east London, Johnson said he hoped schools would not be forced to close as a result of local action, adding it is the "last thing" that the government wants to do.

He said: "But clearly what we are doing a the way we are trying to manage the Covid pandemic a is to have local measures in place and local test and trace to introduce restrictions where that's necessary.

"But, as we have all said, the last thing we want to do is to close schools. We think that education is the priority for the country and that is simple social justice."

Johnson struck a conciliatory tone to education unions a who have raised concerns about the test and tracing system a praising the work that school staff had already done to make classrooms safe.

He said: "It's very important that everybody works together to ensure that our schools are safe and they are a they are Covid secure a I have been very impressed by the work that the teachers have done, working with the unions, to make sure that all schools are safe to go back to in September.

"But, basically, the plan is there a get everybody back in September, that's the right thing for everybody in this country."

Johnson said it was "not right" that children should spend any more time out of school, adding that it was more "damaging" for pupils who have fallen further behind amid school closures.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School & College Leaders, said heads supported the full reopening of schools in September and the pledge to make it a national priority.

But he added: "We are concerned about the lack of a national plan B if there is a second wave of coronavirus and there is a second national shutdown.

"The government guidance requires schools to have in place their own contingency plans which are based on a return to remote education in the event of local closures."

Barton said: "We would like to see more thought given to blended learning as a back-up plan which could be a rota system of children in for one week and then learning at home for one week. This would be better than children returning solely to remote education.

"But we need some national modelling on how this might work informed by scientific advice so there is an off-the-shelf alternative that is ready to go."

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said that the Test & Trace programme had to be better to give parents the confidence to send their children back to school.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, he called on the government to give more resources to local councils to trace people the national call centres were unable to reach and to also allow people to self-isolate on full pay.

Burnham added: "So many people are struggling to self-isolate because they just can't afford it.

"We are saying to the government: you have got to give all employees in the country the ability to self-isolate on full pay, and it's only that approach that will get Test & Trace system working properly."

But on Monday, a leading expert said children were "very minor players" in the transmission of coronavirus and opening schools would "add little" to the reproduction rate of infection.

Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health and a member of the government's Sage scientific advisory group, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that "reopening schools is one of the least risky things we can do".

His comments were echoed by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, who said there was little evidence of transmission in schools.

A Public Health England analysis appears to show that Covid-19 outbreaks were "uncommon" in educational settings during the first month after the easing of national lockdown in England.

The study, which Williamson and Viner referenced, will be published in the coming weeks.

Care Minister Helen Whately added it was the government's priority was to have children "fully" back at school by September.

Asked if schools should stay open in the event of a local lockdown, she told BBC Breakfast: "Yes, that is the approach, so, for instance, in places like Leicester and Greater Manchester, and areas where we have local restrictions going on, absolutely schools should be still going back. It is essential that children get back into school this autumn term."

The latest tensions over Covid-19's impact on education come as a European study suggested reopening schools was not a major danger in community transmission of the disease.

By Eleanor Busby, PA Education Correspondent

source: PA

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
On Glassdoor, current and former employees can share anonymously opinions on the company they work or have worked for - the good and the bad.

We've pulled together some unsettling reviews for another perspective on working at some well-known places. In general, San Antonio employees are fairly generous with praise for their bosses.

Companies can earn up to a 5-star rating from Glassdoor reviews, and many local companies average more than 3 stars.

But as one current loan processor from USAA warns, "(There's) no opportunities for growth."

Scroll below to see what employees have to say - good and bad - about their San Antonio employers.
Coronavirus: 17 migrants test positive after reaching Lesvos Out of group of 38 who arrived on August 4

(ANSAmed) - ROME, AUGUST 10 - A reported 17 migrants who reached the Greek island of Lesvos on August 4 as part of a group of 38 people have tested positive for coronavirus, the news agency Ana-Mpa reported on Monday.



The migrants landed on a beach in the area of Plomari. The municipality of Mitilini, the main city of the island, announced that the people who tested positive will be quarantined for 14 days at the Kara Tepe camp and then tested again. All have reported symptoms of the virus.



Since August 1, two additional boats with a total of 80 people have reached Plomari. All migrants were reportedly isolated.



Meanwhile, due to a rise in coronavirus cases, the government is expected to announce new containment measures, possibly on Monday. According to local media reports, a mandatory test could be introduced for those entering the country, in particular from northern land borders, and the activity of bars and restaurants could be limited.



Yesterday Greece reported a record number of cases: 203. For the eighth consecutive day the country registered a three-digit number of new infections. (ANSAmed).




Architect Tomer Maymons thoughtfulness, diligence and practicality have made him a highly-sought after expert for Bay Area residents looking to remodel their homes.

Boasting experience in the software industry, military and architecture, Maymon brings unique perspective to every project. But his overall design ethos is simple.

First and foremost I design for daily life, said Maymon, who serves as principal of his eponymous architectural firm in San Francisco. You think about how the house will be used for entertaining as well, but my primary focus is the day-to-day living and indoor/outdoor flow.

Hes alternated between technology companies and architecture for years and recently pivoted to focus more on remodeling homes for sale.

His latest project, 363 Bright St., listed for $1.398 million and sold for $1.64 million. The thorough renovation updated the facade and modernized the floor plan of the Ingleside Heights home.

Born in and educated in Israel, Maymon moved to San Francisco in 2003. He worked for several technology companies (mainly startups) as a project manager within the software engieering groups for 7 years. He entered the tech industry amidst the Great Recession, when demand for high-end facilities was cratering. Previous to it, Maymon was a project architect in the construction industry for 12 years, earned his license as an Architect in 2008.

The crisis in the design and construction industry along the great recession forced me to reinvent myself, and add hands-on experience in both tech and the real estate investment to my experience as an Architect Maymon said. Architectural Design alone seems to be isolated from the operational and financial considerations that shape the building, I became curious about how money works behind building and interned with a commercial real estate firm before working with investors on commercial properties.

In addition to designing high end residential homes in Israel, Netherlands and Sillicone Valley, Maymons past portfolio is comprised of university, labs and healthcare buildings, like UC Riverside Health Sciences Research Building, which Maymon led as the project Architect in SRG Partnership, in close collaboration with his principal and mentor, architect Ralph Belton.

In this interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Maymon talks about his favorite type of home to remodel, his design process and the overlap between working for high-tech firms and being an Architect.

Q: Whats your favorite type of architecture to remodel?

More Information Details Tomar Maymon, principal, Tomer Maymon Architecture. About: Born and educated in Israel, Maymon's the son of a general contractor who started working for his father when he was 15 for many summers, enjoyed software programming in his Arts and Science highschool years, before his service as an officer in a special force unit as part of the compulsory military service in Israel. Tomer always felt a draw toward architecture. He participated and won in design competitions in Israel and South Korea and started his architecture firm during the Great Recession. Maymon prides himself on functional, thoughtful and useful designs that suit themselves for everyday living. In addition to a wealth of residential projects, his portfolio also includes institutional (high education and science) buildings. Maymon is focused on design-build projects, as well as collaboration with developers and Investors, as Haim Mamane Palman that he enjoyed collaborating with along 2019 and early 2020. Contact information: www.tmaymon.wixsite.com/architecture See More Collapse

A: I would say the houses built during and after World War II. You find them all over the city. I cant say for sure, but it feels like its the majority of San Franciscos housing stock. They were value-engineered and built quickly. They were affordable, but werent very imaginative. What Im doing is taking those boxes and reinterpreting them for the 21st Century. I like working with these houses because they are more affordable. Its challenging because I stay within the envelope of the existing building.

Q: Whats common between working in the tech industry and work as an architect?

A: Theres a bunch of things there that Ive taken from software industry, like morning meetings, daily scrums and quality assurance reviews at the end of each week. I enjoyed working in tech startups, in short, intense iterations via agile-scrum with the software engineers  architecture feels quite similar. I follow the agile-scrum process with my crews, including running different options and optimizing the design with their cost and time calculations.

User feedback is also something else employed in the tech industry that carries over to architecture, I have a Realtor I trust  Mary Macpherson. She has a refined eye and helps prevent me from getting in my own feedback loop where only my ideas are getting in.

Q: Whats your favorite type of project?

A: I prefer to work customized, affordable housing. Unlike the top high-end residential, which is not only costly to design, but also holds a larger volume of scope and requires resourcing the development, design and construction from larger practices. Theyre costly to coordinate, procure and most importantly, execute.

Q: What is one of your design philosophies?

A: I dont let my tastes dictate. Its not a personal project. Its a product that needs to be sold. Of course, its always good to bounce things around with folks and not having it echoing in your own head. My site walks and plans review with realtor Mary Macpherson were instrumental in my selection of finishes and spatial concepts that appeal to families and buyers. My projects are nimble and return-on-investment driven without compromising the quality and best practice of both design and execution.

Q: What were some changes you implemented at 363 Bright St.?

A: That was a good case study in what we do. We put the owners suite on the ground level and thought a lot about how to finalize the great-room: the desired common open-space that joins the kitchen, dining and living in one large tall (vaulted) open space, showered with natural light from new skylights above. We always try to simulate how people would circulate around it in our site walks from the very start of the project design and construction. We worked with the bones of the existing home. Vaulting the top bedrooms and adding an opening to the existing staircase are additional enhancements that made it more open and less secluded.
Today, ThingLogix (http://www.thinglogix.com) is announcing a partnership with global industrial computer manufacturer and solution specialist, OnLogic (http://www.onlogic.com). ThingLogix has fully integrated OnLogic's edge devices into Workwatch, a complete COVID-19 management solution. Workwatch manages time and attendance, body temperature, and mask compliance and is easily integrated into existing access control, facility management, and HR systems. OnLogics powerful computer hardware enables Workwatch artificial intelligence (AI) software to create a full-featured solution for workplace, school or venue automation and compliance. Thermal screening data is correlated with employee and visitor records for entry and exit to ensure compliance and traceability. ThingLogix chose OnLogic to provide the computing solution for Workwatch for its proven reputation creating highly reliable computing solutions engineered to last in the most challenging environments. By integrating OnLogic's industrial hardware, Workwatch can now be deployed in a wide range of new applications and locations.

OnLogic gateways, and their experience in building ultra-reliable computers, have given us the confidence to offer this solution to our customers," says Carl Krupitzer, CEO of ThingLogix. "As a strategic partner, OnLogic provides the quality of products and delivery timeline to launch Workwatch Thermal into a market that needs this kind of technology to help get back to work. We are excited to offer their products to our customers and to provide Workwatch as a comprehensive solution to OnLogic customers as well."

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented strain on communities, schools, workplaces, and events around the globe. Now, as these institutions of public life begin to reopen, employers and community leaders are trying to design safe ways to get people back to the new normal as quickly and safely as possible.

With everyone trying to navigate new back-to-work/school mitigation protocols and enhanced screening procedures, technology is offering solutions to streamline these processes at scale. ThingLogix Workwatch delivers a complete solution including thermal screening, automated social distancing monitoring, and Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) policy management. Using powerful image processing and sensor-based (internet of things) IoT features, Workwatch can maintain the records necessary to ensure compliance with changing requirements.

ThingLogix developed Workwatch on its underlying Foundry IoT platform, built on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Workwatch enables employers to quickly start screening staff and restore on-site operations. The foundation for the gateway portion of the solution was OnLogics next-generation Helix Series computing platform, powered by Intels 10th gen processing.

Sean Larkin, President of OnLogic added, In the United States, we spend the majority of our time indoors, and in the age of COVID-19, making sure those spaces are safe is critically important. OnLogics line of industrial computers can power the technology our communities need to keep our buildings healthy, connected and informed as the country begins to reopen. We are excited to work with ThingLogix on the Workwatch solution and provide an offering that addresses users needs right out of the box.

To request a demo of the OnLogic-powered Workwatch solution, visit http://www.workwatchthermal.com

About ThingLogix

ThingLogix is a provider of Serverless Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and Serverless Low-Code Application Development Platform, Foundry. We empower our clients with a scalable and extensible, enterprise-grade, serverless Low-Code IoT platform that propels solutions to revenue in a fraction of time.

Our platform Foundry simplifies, accelerates, and optimizes the development, deployment, and operation of market-facing Serverless or IoT services deployed on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Our technology delivers sophisticated functionality, rapid time-to-market, infinite scalability, and extreme cost-efficiency. Workwatch is developed on ThingLogix Foundry and is deployable into customers AWS accounts or as a multi-tenant service.

ThingLogix operates globally out of our offices in Belmont CA, Dubai, and regional locations in Den Haag, Netherlands, and Denver. For more on ThingLogix visit: http://www.thinglogix.com and for more information on Workwatch visit https://www.workwatchthermal.com.

About OnLogic

OnLogic is a global industrial computer manufacturer that designs highly-configurable, solution-focused computers engineered for reliability for the IoT edge. OnLogic systems operate in the worlds harshest environments, empowering customers to solve their most complex computing challenges, no matter their industry. Fueled by a unique, direct-to-customer business model that combines vertical integration, modular product design, and a powerful online platform, OnLogic produces computers designed to last, built to order, and delivered in days. Founded in 2003 as Logic Supply, the company has offices in the U.S., Netherlands, Taiwan and Malaysia, and has helped more than 70,000 customers worldwide solve their most complex hardware challenges. Learn more about how OnLogic is helping innovators advance their ideas at http://www.onlogic.com, or on Twitter @OnLogic.

Release Contacts

ThingLogix Contact

info@thinglogix.com

Related Links

ThingLogix (http://www.thinglogix.com)

Chelsea Higgins

BIGfish Communications for OnLogic

onlogic@bigfishpr.com
ORLANDO, Fla., Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just last month we ran an editorial about Global Diversified Marketing Group Inc (OTC: GDMK) which had seen an exceptional increase in sales due to Covid-driven Amazon buyers. The food and snack manufacturer, importer and distributor had found an-all new audience products like its popular macarons.



What we didnt know at the time was that it was just the beginning of a rapid market expansion for the Company. Take a look at the last few releases:

Global Diversified Marketing Group Secures New Distribution by Expanding into Restaurant Depot Stores Nationwide

Our take: This new relationship with the well-established Restaurant Depot could be catalytic for the Companys domestic expansion. Simple inclusion in the members only Restaurant Depot product offering will give Global tremendous exposure to an ideal list of independent food businesses. Full release here.

Global Diversified Marketing Group Inc. Announces a Full-Scale Nationwide Distribution Effort with New Line of Gluten-Free Macaron Cookies in All Channels of Trade After a Strong Demand at T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods Stores.

Our take: This release is a blazer because it simultaneously confirms success in a soft-launch of an all-new gluten-free macaron line in a rapidly growing category that was no guarantee to sell and a subsequent national roll-out of the product. If youre looking for lines of future revenue a full scale nationwide distribution effort are words you want to see. Full release here.

Global Diversified Marketing Group Partners with Ruttensteiner to Distribute its Products in Austria and EU Markets

Our take: A definite expand-the-brand move. Ruttensteiner has been connecting products to major European chains, hotel industry, gastronomy, catering and food retail since 1993. It is worth noting that via this agreement Global will be taking products of European provenance back to European consumers. Full release here.

Collectively, thats a pretty good run for a year, let alone a one-month period.

For more informative reports such as this, please sign up at http://www.emergingmarketsllc.com/newsletter.php

About Global Diversified Marketing Group Inc.

Headquartered in Island Park, NY, Global Diversified Marketing Group Inc. operates as a food and snack manufacturer, Importer & distributor through its subsidiary in the United States, Canada and Europe. The company operates through snacks segment. The snacks segment offers Italian Wafers, Italian filled croissants, French Madeleines, Wafer Pralines, shelf stable Macarons and other gourmet snacks. The company sells its products direct and through various distribution channels comprising specialty, grocery retailers, food-service distributors, DSD as well as vending, pantry and micro market segment.

About Emerging Markets Consulting LLC

Based in Clermont, Florida, Emerging Markets Consulting, LLC (EMC) brings over 40 years combined experience in the investor relations industry. EMC is an international investor relations firm with affiliates around the world. EMC is relationship-driven and results-oriented with the goal of seeking attractive emerging companies and concentrating its resources and efforts to serve a limited number of high-quality clients. For more information, visit EMCs website at www.emergingmarketsllc.com.

Section 17(b) of the Securities Act of 1933 requires that any person that uses the mails to publish, give publicity to, or circulate any publication or communication that describes a security in return for consideration received or to be received directly or indirectly from an issuer, underwriter, or dealer, must fully disclose the type of consideration (i.e. cash, free trading stock, restricted stock, stock options, stock warrants) and the specific amount of the consideration. In connection therewith, EMC has received the following compensation and/or has an agreement to receive in the future certain compensation, as described below.

We may purchase Securities of the Profiled Company prior to their securities becoming publicly traded, which we may later sell publicly before, during or after our dissemination of the Information, and make profits therefrom. EMC does not verify or endorse any medical claims for any of its client companies.

EMC has been paid $22,500 by Global Diversified Marketing Group Inc. for various marketing services including this report. EMC does not independently verify any of the content linked-to from this editorial. http://emergingmarketsllc.com/disclaimer.php
The Executive has been told that young people in Northern Ireland must be at the heart of coronavirus recovery plans. Credit: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

The Executive has been told that young people in Northern Ireland must be at the heart of coronavirus recovery plans.

With family budgets taking a hammering during lockdown, a joint statement from over 50 charities and frontline services has warned young people face unprecedented uncertainty.

Those backing the campaign include Action for Children NI, National Childrens Bureau NI and Barnardos NI.

Campaigners want better policies for children and young people, and say it must include meaningful participation from the community, health, education, social care and the voluntary and community sector.

The group called for more engagement with decision-makers about policies that will shape the future and direction of our society. It added: We ask the government to make a clear statement of prioritising the Children and Young Peoples strategy in light of the major impact that has been felt by this group during Covid-19.
Over the last few weeks, President Donald Trump has ramped up his election-year pitch to the suburbs, and it has drawn criticism for being a racist and dated appeal to voters. His focus on a supposed suburban ideal also draws attention to the longstanding connections between housing and schools, and what those connections mean for educational inequities.

Last month, Trump highlighted a New York Post column by Betsy McCaughey , the former lieutenant governor of New York state, deploring presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Bidens support for high-density, affordable housing. In doing so, he declared to the Suburban Housewives of America  that he would save their communities from destruction at the former vice presidents hands. He also made similar remarks at a White House event.

His rhetoric is linked to policy. On July 23, two days after the Post published McCaugheys column, Trumps Department of Housing and Urban Development announced it would significantly scale back obligations for state and local governments to show that they are using federal dollars under the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing requirements to combat discrimination.

I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood, Trump tweeted July 29 to highlight the new HUD rule, which was effectively a repeal of an Obama administration directive. Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down.

Trump did not mention education directly in those comments about suburban housewives and the suburbs, which Trump won by 5 percentage points , according to a 2016 New York Times exit poll. But they also serve to highlight how school policy is housing policy, and vice versa, said Peter Piazza, a researcher at the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment who supports school integration efforts.

That rhetoric is just an age-old device to signal to white people that, Im just going to protect you from poor, violent black people, said Andre Perry, a fellow at the Brookings Institutions Metropolitan Policy Program, about Trumps comments. Hes trying to get reelected by appealing to not just white people, but racist white people.

That sentiment draws on a growing body of research about how education and other local officials have responded to the increasing diversity of their suburban communities. And clashes about school integration and rezoning in suburbs have drawn significant media coverage.

Yet Piazza said he was concerned that even people that Im not even sure will necessarily vote for Trump might sympathize with support for what they see as key characteristics of suburbs.

Ultimately, the impact of Trumps rhetoric on the election could be quite limited either way, in part because of how ostensibly liberal suburbanites say they favor diversity and integration but often resist concrete local school integration plans, said Max Eden, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He pointed to a major dispute over school integration in Howard County, Md., as one such example.

Any effort to change the composition of their schools [they would see as] a threat to their community. And they would become defensive against that. And they would never admit that there is a racial component to that. And I dont want to accuse them of harboring secret racist or racialist ideas, he said. But many outside of those communities would see such motivations at work nevertheless, he added.

Makes Our Work Harder

The rule Trump brought into the public arena last month isnt his administrations only significant initiative that highlights the connection between housing and education.

Last year, the administration introduced a proposal that essentially would make it more difficult for people to sue developers, banks, and others for racial discrimination under the Fair Housing Act. Several groups criticized the proposal at the time because, they said, it would make it more difficult to address the root causes of housing discrimination that create a disparate impact for people of color, regardless of whether such discrimination is intentional.

Among such negative effects , they said, are racially segregated schools that often lack the same financial resources as their majority white counterparts.

Every time we see standards used under the Fair Housing Act, in this case disparate impact, weakened ... it also makes our work harder on the education integration side, said Sherrilyn Ifill, the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, when discussing the proposal last year. (The proposed rule has not been finalized by HUD.)

Regardless of how much these and similar shifts in policy have affected Trumps overall political standing, theres growing evidence that with the presidential election less than three months away, Trumps support among suburban voters has sharply declined. That clearly hasnt gone unnoticed by the president and his supporters. In her New York Post column, for example, McCaughey noted the increasing diversity of suburbs and that Trumps comments should appeal to people who live in them regardless of their race.

While its fair for suburbanites to have certain expectations for their communities including their schools, another factor limiting the political impact of Trumps rhetoric either way is that the issue remains abstract for many people, Eden noted. Its not as if, for example, Hillary Clinton was elected in 2016 and implemented aggressive housing rules and school integration schemes that Trump could now promise to tear down as a challenger in 2020, Eden explained.

The argument that Trump is making would appeal to them if they actually had to see the effects of what theyre saying, Eden said.

Demographics, Data, and Opinion

Its not clear how much recent suburban demographic change itself might affect Trumps vote share in November. But for years, think tanks and others have focused on how, even as the suburbs are growing less white in many instances, this demographic shift does not necessarily translate into similar educational experiences for different racial groups.

A recent study of 50 families in Cleveland from two researchers published by the MacArthur Foundation, for example, followed 24 Black families looking for the package deal of moving to a good neighborhood with a good school. They found that just 13 were able to make the move to the suburbs, and just three were ultimately satisfied with the quality of their suburban school.

By contrast, of 12 white families studied, eight made the move to the suburbs and all eight were satisfied with their suburban school. Yet for all that, Piazza said, he works with districts in Massachusetts where educators have worked hard to support nonwhite students and make integrated schools work.

A recent study published by Piazza and two other researchers conducted in the state found a precipitous drop in the number of intensely segregated schools where at least 90 percent of students were white, but a simultaneous if not equivalent rise in intensely segregated nonwhite schools, over the past dozen years.

If the federal government were to exercise more aggressive legal oversight of school segregation, use the bully pulpit and share important data to focus attention on the issue, and direct voluntary grants to communities interested in desegregation efforts like those created at the tail end of the Obama administration, according to Piazza, the collective weight of those actions could affect everyday conversations among many suburban white parents.

Oftentimes, once those policies are in place, peoples attitudes change, he said.

Language and Self-Reflection

Just how consistent Trumps Suburban Housewives of America rhetoric is with his approach to education issues in recent months is up for debate.

In June, Trumps campaign called attention to former vice president Joe Bidens troubling 1979 vote in the Senate that ultimately helped protect the tax-exempt status of private schools accused of barring black students.

The Trump administration has highlighted its support for school choice in several public events recently, amid increased outreach by his campaign to the Black community; some polling shows support for school choice measures among Black voters. Trump said that school choice is the civil rights statement of the year at a White House event in June.

But Trumps pitch to the suburbs not only underestimates suburban voters support for diverse communities and schools, but uses prejudice to pit people against each other, said Liz King, the program director for education at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. The fallacy that white children will succeed only at the expense of black children is just that. It is a fallacy, she said.

The presidents unsubtle rhetoric might also lead to some self-reflection and make it very clear to suburban voters where they should stand and what actions they should take, King said.

You have euphemisms and you have jargon as a way of avoiding the underlying agenda, King said. What Trump is doing is sidestepping the jargon and the euphemisms.
Simon Cowell has shared an update with his fans for the first time since breaking his back at the weekend.

On Saturday, it was revealed that the Americas Got Talent judge had fallen off a new electric bicycle near his home in Malibu, California.

Cowell has since undergone surgery and is currently recovering in hospital.

On Sunday, the 60-year-old music mogul confirmed the news himself on Twitter.

Recommended Simon Cowell in hospital after breaking back on family bike ride

Some good advice... If you buy an electric trail bike, read the manual before you ride it for the first time, he wrote.

I have broken part of my back. Thank you to everyone for your kind messages.

Cowell went on to thank the hospital staff who have taken care of him.

And a massive thank you to all the nurses and doctors.

Some of the nicest people I have ever met. Stay safe everyone Simon.

Cowells message comes after his former Britains Got Talent co-judge, Amanda Holden, shared an update on Twitter with regards to his condition.

Ive been thinking about my dear friend all day and luckily Im able to write that hes had his operation and hes doing really well, Holden wrote alongside an old photograph of her with Cowell.

My family and I wish you a speedy recovery and send you, Lauren and Eric all our love, she added with regards to Cowells wife, Lauren Silverman, and their six-year-old son, Eric.

Cowell suffered another bad fall two years ago after he tumbled down the stairs in his London home.

Id gone to get some hot milk because I felt ropey. On the way back upstairs, I just remember feeling really dizzy, he told The Sun.

Next thing I know someone was putting a neck brace on me and I had a terrible headache, which must have been from me hitting the stairs. I was worried at first that Id done some real damage.

But Im on the mend now. I know I was very lucky I didnt hurt myself seriously.

It could have been a lot worse. I must say, everyone at the hospital was incredible. Im truly grateful.
A quad bike stolen from a Yorkshire farm in the middle of the night was pursued and successfully recovered by police, thanks to its tracker.

At about 2.15am on Saturday 8 August 2020, a farmer near Appleton Wiske, north of Northallerton, called North Yorkshire Police on 999.

He had just been notified by a vehicle tracking company that his quad bike had been stolen and was on the move.

Force Control Room staff immediately contacted the tracking company, and were able to pass live updates on the quads whereabouts to police officers nearby.

The quad was tracked to Saltergill Lane, Yarm, in Cleveland. A short time later, at about 2.30am, as officers arrived at the scene, the quad was driven directly towards them, and was pursued over paths into bushes.

The quad was later found abandoned in a field, and despite an area search by a police dog and a police drone, no suspects were located.

The quad bike, a red Honda, has been returned to the farmer. It had been stolen by forcing open a locked shutter door.

Forensic enquiries are underway as the investigation into the burglary continues.

Police in North Yorkshire are urging farmers and landowners to invest in trackers to protect their vehicles.

Inspector Matt Hagen, of North Yorkshire Polices Rural Taskforce, said: Quite apart from their monetary value, the loss of a quad can have a really significant impact on farms and other rural business.

"The good news is security measures, in particular vehicle trackers, can be extremely effective.
The Democrats vying to be Joe Bidens running mate have made the rounds of the Sunday shows. Theyve enlisted surrogates to talk them up to the vetting committee and have been preparing for their one-on-one interviews with Biden himself.

But as the vetting process enters its final stage, there's another lesser-noticed facet to the veepstakes: how much cash the contenders have raised for him, and their ability to juice donations if they're chosen.

Of Bidens prospective running mates, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has brought in the most money for him, totaling more than $7.7 million combined from a high-dollar event  which she vocally swore off during her own campaign  and a grassroots event that drew 50,000 participants. Shes also sent multiple emails to her own small-dollar list, as well as his. On Tuesday, Warren will host another event for Biden, alongside Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), with tickets ranging from $250 to $25,000, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO.

Sen. Kamala Harris  who headlined two fundraisers alongside Biden and appeared at several other events  has raised more than $5 million, according to a source familiar with the total. And Sen. Tammy Duckworth has co-headlined three fundraisers with Joe and Jill Biden, and appeared at other events, bringing in more than $3 million for the campaign.

For the VP hopefuls and their donor backers, hosting events that generate eye-popping totals is a flex, or a means of showing off their political muscle, said one Democrat affiliated with one of the considered running mate candidates. Another Democrat aligned with a different VP contender called it a measurable sign of enthusiasm behind certain people.

Though Biden has said he's looking first and foremost for a governing partner with whom he's "simpatico," fundraising prowess is unquestionably a plus.

Theyre going to park the VP in a basement and have them do nothing but media interviews and Zoom fundraising calls. Maybe theyll let them out for bathroom breaks, said Pete Giangreco, a Democratic strategist who has worked on nine presidential campaigns. Raising money is going to continue to be a big deal, and if youre looking for someone with a fundraising base, like Kamala Harris, or a real draw on a Zoom, like Tammy Duckworth, then they bring more assets to the table than someone who is a nontraditional pick.

Story continues

Notably, Susan Rice  a VP finalist who was national security adviser under President Barack Obama and has never run for office herself  hasnt hosted any fundraisers for Biden. But she has headlined five fundraisers without Biden present, according to a source familiar with the events.

Bidens delayed decision on a running mate isnt slowing down the machinery to roll out the duo: The campaign is preparing for a high-dollar event, billed as Introducing our Running Mate. Tickets range from $500 to $250,000, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO. Those paying $100,000 or more will get a pre-event meet-and-greet. Details for the fundraiser will be sent to all confirmed participants 24-48 hours prior to the event, the invitation read.

Fifteen of Bidens fundraisers since March  or one of every five  have featured a person on Biden's VP list, according to presidential fundraising pool reports and interviews. The events have collected more than $20 million.

Last week, California Rep. Karen Bass headlined an event for Biden, raising more than $2.2 million. A source familiar with the event said it exceeded the initial fundraising goal by more than double. Gretchen Whitmer, meanwhile, has hosted two fundraisers with Joe and Jill Biden. The Michigan governor has drawn renewed attention in recent days after she reportedly met with Biden for an in-person meeting, chartering a flight from Lansing, Mich., to Delaware.

Florida Rep. Val Demings, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms have all headlined one fundraiser alongside Joe or Jill Biden.

Raking in big cash for the nominee is not limited to vice presidential candidates, of course. Pete Buttigieg, his onetime rival in the Democratic primary who's seen as a likely appointee in a Biden administration, has raised more than $6.7 million through events, emails and digital ads for the campaign, according to a source familiar with the total.

Theyre all trying to show off their fundraising abilities, and the advantage definitely goes to the more established candidates with broader bases, said Doug Herman, a California-based Democratic consultant. These are all folks who are auditioning for a spot, and this is a box that needs to be checked and they all need to demonstrate they can do it.

Biden has nearly closed the fundraising gap with President Donald Trump. But after outraising the president two months in a row, Trump and the Republican National Committee topped Biden and the Democratic National Committee by nearly $30 million in July.

The fundraisers held by VP hopefuls also provide a platform for donors to pitch their preferred No. 2 to the Biden campaign.

Earlier this month, Gerald Acker, a Michigan-based attorney who led a fundraiser with Whitmer, told Jill Biden that when she gets off this Zoom tonight and goes to see the vice president for dinner, the name she ought to take to him for vice president is Gretchen Whitmer, according to the fundraisers pool report.

Florida state Sen. Annette Taddeo made a similar pitch to the former second lady in May on behalf of Demings. Obviously, Im trying to push for her, as a Floridian, Taddeo said on a fundraising call. And before Sen. Amy Klobuchar took herself out of the running for vice president, a donor told the Minnesota Democrat and Biden on a May 5 fundraising Zoom call that you look really great together.

Do donors lobby for the person they want? Yes. If their person wins, they know the VP now, said one Democratic donor. Theyre going to show up for them in force.

The semi-public exchanges at fundraisers between Biden and prospective vice presidential candidates are one of the few glimpses of the pairs dynamic  another side effect of the coronavirus pandemic. One moment that raised eyebrows came when Biden told Harris on April 8: Im so lucky to have you as part of this, this partnership going forward, because I think ... we can make a great deal of difference, Biden said. Im coming for you, kid.

Just last week, at a virtual grass-roots fundraiser, Biden apologized for talking too long in response to a question about dismantling systemic racism. Warren, Bidens co-headliner for the event, interjected: No! Dont be sorry, I love everything you had to say.

Its all through Zoom, and that makes it hard  Im sure it makes the chemistry part of the decision harder, said Taddeo, who was vetted and selected as Charlie Crists running mate during his unsuccessful 2014 Florida gubernatorial campaign.

The Biden campaign is also leaning on his various VP options to raise money online, primarily through emailed solicitations. In late July, during the end-of-the-month fundraising push, Bidens campaign sent four emails signed by Rice, Duckworth, Harris and Warren.

Warren, with her vast email list, has been particularly helpful on this front. Biden has sent four email solicitations to Warren's own email list of supporters, as well as lending her name to more than a half-dozen emails to Bidens list. An email announcing her endorsement of Biden on April 15 broke Biden campaign records at the time.

With days until his announcement, Bidens campaign is fundraising off the anticipation surrounding the selection. In an email last week, he told supporters theyre invited to a grassroots event. He said he'd be sending "the exact date, time and all the other details once theyre finalized, but I didnt want to wait on giving you the opportunity to reserve your spot at this historic event.

Natasha Korecki contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of fundraising events Susan Rice has held for Joe Biden.
If the Instagram photo of a very relaxed Jerry Falwell Jr. came as a surprise to his followers, it shouldnt have. The picture showed Falwell, president of the ultraconservative Liberty University, aboard a yacht holding a glass with what appears to be red wine, his pants unzipped and underwear showing, his arm around a woman who is not his wife, her belly showing and her shorts also unzipped.

After a Houston newspaper reporter posted the image, one of Falwells allies at a right-wing think tank denied it was Falwell in the picture. Shortly thereafter  stuck with the truth staring him in the face  the ally, Malachi OBrien, acknowledged that the photo was of Falwell but maintained that the picture was taken out of context. OK. That may have been the best OBrien could do since Falwell was caught in full view, the image still circulating after it was removed from Falwells Instagram account.

That the president of an ultraconservative Christian university, known for its prudishness, among other things, could be exposed in flaming hypocrisy was unlikely to jolt his admirers. How many in similar positions of power have been caught engaging privately in conduct they condemn in public, practicing behaviors they preached against? That seems to be part of the playbook for Falwell and his ilk.
Washington: A White House official has made discreet inquiries into the possibility of Donald Trump's image being carved into Mount Rushmore.

According to The New York Times, the official, who was not named, approached the office of Kristi Noem, the South Dakota Governor, last year to ask how an additional president could be added to the monument.

President Donald Trump smiles at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota on July 3. Credit:AP

Details of the approach emerged over the weekend. Likenesses of four former presidents - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt - were immortalised in the massive 1941 sculpture, which took 14 years to create.

The attraction in the Black Hills has more than 2 million visitors a year.
It is known that it is impossible to distinguish a natural diamond from a lab-grown one with the naked eye.

Is the legislation adopted at the European Union level required to prevent a potential confusion between the two types of these precious stones? The diamond industry sees this as an urgent need, but the lobby has not succeeded in getting the European Commission to understand this.

The highest executive body of the European Union considered it inappropriate to take measures to force the sellers of synthetic diamonds to disclose their origin to their clients. The European Commission does not intend to propose specific European rules for the sale of diamonds, the media office of the European Commission said.

Thus, the European jewellery lobby lost the battle with Brussels, although it did not abandon its claims.

The Belgian members of the European Parliament - Frederique Ries, Hilde Vautmans and Kris Peeters - applied to the European Commission and demanded to develop the EU legislation to differentiate between natural diamonds naturally formed in the depths of the Earth's mantle billions of years ago and their synthetic clones that are massively grown in a lab environment.

In the cover letter sent in May 2019, the parliamentarians gave reasons for the industry players complaints because of a growing number of questionable sales practices that mislead consumers. Pointing to the legal vacuum on this issue, the MEPs asked the European Commission to develop clear, European-wide rules for distinguishing between the two types of gemstones.

The international community has recognized the ISO 18323 2015 standard (Jewellery - Consumer confidence in the diamond industry), which allows differentiating between natural and synthetic diamonds. The Belgian MEPs proposed to introduce this standard into the relevant EU regulation.

In response, the European Commission told that it did not have the authority to turn the ISO standard into the binding European legislation. At the same time, Brussels pointed out that the current EU consumer protection legislation applies to the sale of polished diamonds as well.

The law, in particular, obliges sellers to provide an average consumer with the information to make an informed decision when making a purchase and prohibits deceiving and/or misleading the customer.

However, according to the European Federation of Jewellery (EFJ), the European Commission simply did not heed the industry's concerns despite the well-reasoned arguments presented by its experts.

Melanie Lamaison, a consultant at EFJ comprising about 40,000 companies, comments on the situation to L'Echo that the current (European) legislation is imperfect because the consumers should control the observance of their own rights when choosing a stone.

In the transactions between the professionals, synthetic diamonds are traded 20-40% cheaper than natural ones. In the situation with an average consumer, the absence of the relevant EU regulation allows a seller to sell a lab-grown stone as a natural diamond.

Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
The Georgia high school that suspended two students for posting a video of the school's crowded halls has shut down due to coronavirus infections. Nine people at North Paulding High School (6 students, 3 staff members) have tested positive, and attended school "for at least some time" last week, according to Principal Gabe Carmona.

Now the school is closed, at least today and tomorrow, for a scrub down. And then, incredibly, they might decide to open again on Wednesday.

From The Washington Post:

The district will announce Tuesday evening whether in-person instruction will resume the next day, [Superintendent Brian] Otott wrote to parents Sunday in a second letter, shared by a WSB-TV reporter. Otott added that anyone who has tested positive, as well as close contacts of people who have the virus, must quarantine for 14 days before returning to school. "I apologize for any inconvenience this schedule change may cause, but hopefully we all can agree that the health and safety of our students and staff takes precedence over any other considerations at this time," Otott wrote. The infections validate concerns in Georgia and nationwide that crowded conditions in the nation's K-12 schools could facilitate virus transmission as the new academic year begins. Young people develop severe infections at far lower rates than adults, but experts warn that they could be vectors for infecting more vulnerable populations, such as older relatives in the same household.

It took a national outcry for the school to reverse the two students' suspensions last Friday. I wonder how many coronavirus cases it'll take for the school district to reverse its stance on in-person instruction.
Update (August 10): Heading into the fall semester, evangelical colleges and universities have eliminated more than 230 faculty and staff positions. Dozens of faculty and staff were cut in the spring, with schools citing COVID-19 and ongoing financial concerns. Scores more were eliminated from four institutions over the summer:

Southwest Baptist University (Missouri)24 faculty and staff

Walla Walla University (Washington)15 faculty and staff

Calvin University (Michigan)12 faculty, two majors, and four minors

Spring Arbor University (Michigan)11 faculty positions, one study abroad program

Matt Kucinski, a spokesperson for Calvin, said the school has been, Preparing for several years now to meet the reality that more extreme enrollment declines are predicted for higher education institutions around 2026 as enrollment continues to reflect the demographic decline of university-aged students worldwide.

Walla Walla spokesman Aaron Nakamura said COVID-19 has made everything more complicated. We have found that we have had to be more flexible than normal, he said.

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Original post (June 22): Five evangelical Christian colleges and universities have eliminated more than 150 faculty and staff positions this spring. While some officials cite COVID-19 as the reason for the cuts, most say the financial reckoning comes in response to the ongoing crisis of higher education and their efforts to prepare for the future.

School officials have confirmed the following cuts:

Bethel University (Minnesota)36 faculty, 28 staff, two masters programs, 11 majors

Southeastern University (Florida)32 faculty and two staff

Hardin-Simmons University (Texas)17 faculty, 14 staff, 22 programs and seminary

John Brown University (Arkansas)25 positions, including at least five faculty

Harding University (Arkansas)10 faculty and administration and closed North Little Rock location

Other schools, including Taylor University in Indiana and Charleston Southern University in South Carolina have furloughed employees to save money, but not eliminated positions.

Institutions are often required to make strategic and necessary changes based on a number of factors, said Shirley Hoogstra, president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). But at the end of the day, these decisions are made to ensure the future financial viability of the institution.

Eliminating positions may, in some cases, mean laying off faculty or staff. More often, however, administrators make cuts by not filling vacant positions, declining to replace people who have retired or taken another job. Many schools across the country have had hiring freezes, and some make the smaller rosters permanent after a period of time.

School administrators say the decisions hurt but are necessary. They hope the tough calls may make the difference in the future health of their institutions.

These changes, while painful, are a necessary part of our work to ensure Bethel will thrive well into the future, said Deb Harless, executive vice president and provost, in a press release.

Only two of the five schools, Southeastern and Harding, cite COVID-19 as a primary reason for the financial situation requiring cuts. Small, evangelical colleges were already in a precarious position due to lower enrollment, relatively small endowments, and shrinking donor bases. COVID-19 only made it worse.

Ten CCCU schools made similar cuts in 2019, according to press reports, including Gordon College in Massachusetts, Malone University in Ohio, Indiana Wesleyan University, and Azusa Pacific University in California. Evangelical seminaries have been navigating financial pressures made worse by COVID-19 as well.

A number of conservative Christian schools that are not part of the CCCU have also reduced their budgets this year. Ashland University laid off several faculty as part of a plan to discontinue 40 programs. Liberty University announced it is discontinuing its philosophy major. Some schools have also completely closed: Nebraska Christian College and Concordia University-Portland shut their doors this spring.

Declining enrollment is a major factor in the ongoing financial crisis. From 2014 to 2018, Bethels enrollment declined by 6 percent, John Browns by 9 percent, and Hardings by 10 percent, according to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). McKinsey & Company, a higher education trade company, predicts first-year undergraduate enrollment will drop 15 percent this fall. If true, schools that are tuition dependent with small endowments will be hit especially hard.

Enrollment isnt the decisive issue for every institution, however. In the same five-year span, Hardin-Simmons enrollment increased by 11 percent, Ashlands by 36 percent, and Southeasterns by 80 percent, according to IPEDS.

The larger challenge, for schools, is not knowing what to expect. Dramatic changes from year to year, whether caused by enrollment decline or a pandemic, make it very hard to plan for the future.

Colleges are having to make high-impact decisions, Hoogstra said, when predictability about the future is low and there are many variables outside of their control. Administrators have to be extraordinarily strategic, and thats still no guarantee of survival.
PM dedicates undersea cable link to Andaman and Nicobar to nation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today dedicated to the nation the submarine optical fibre cable (OFC) connecting Andaman & Nicobar Islands to the mainland through video conferencing. The PM had laid the foundation stone for this project on 30 December 2018 at Port Blair.

Announcing the launch of the submarine cable system, Prime Minister Modi said the connectivity would now open up endless opportunities in the islands. He said the laying of the 2300 km submarine cable and completing it before the set target is praise worthy.

The prime minister said that the service had begun today on a major chunk of the islands from Chennai to Port Blair, Port Blair to Little Andaman and Port Blair to Swaraj Island.

Modi admired the work of laying of cables for about 2,300 kilometers under the sea as surveying in the deep sea, maintaining the quality of the cable and laying of the cable with specialised vessels are not an easy tasks. The project also had to overcome challenges such as high waves, storms and monsoons and the tough times owing to corona pandemic.

The prime minister said the Andaman & Nicobar Islands felt the need for years but no steps were taken to fulfil it. Modi expressed his happiness for being able to deliver the project notwithstanding such major challenges.

He congratulated all those who were associated with the project.

The prime minister said the government is committed to provide modern facilities to every citizen and every sector so that there can be a better ease of living. He said this Optical Fibre Project which links A&N Islands with the rest of the country is an example of the commitment of the Government towards ease of living. He said the Government is committed to the speedy development of national security linked border areas and island states.

Digital India

Modi said the submarine cable will help A&N in getting cheaper and better connectivity and all the benefits of Digital India, especially in improving online education, tele-medicine, banking system, online trading and in boosting tourism.

PM said that the Indian Ocean has been the centre of India's trade and strategic prowess for thousands of years and that Andaman & Nicobar is an important centre for Indias Economic-Strategic Cooperation.

He said all the Islands of India would be playing an important role under Indias new trade strategy for Indo-Pacific region.

Modi said under the Act-East policy, the role of Andaman and Nicobar in India's strong relations with East Asian countries and other countries connected to the sea is very high and is going to increase.

He said that the Island Development Agency was formed 3 years ago to strengthen its role. He said that the projects which were not completed in Andaman and Nicobar for years, are now rapidly getting completed.

PM said that High Impact Projects are being expanded in 12 islands of Andaman and Nicobar. Apart from providing for better internet and mobile connectivity, he said the effort is to further improve physical connectivity through road, air and water.

The prime minister referred to the work on two major bridges and the NH-4 in order to improve road connectivity of North and Middle Andaman.

He said the Port Blair Airport is being enhanced to handle 1,200 passengers. Along with this the airports are ready for operations in Diglipur, Car Nicobar and Campbell - Bay.

Modi said the passenger terminal in Swaraj Dweep, Shaheed Dweep and Long Island along with Water Aerodrom Infrastructure like Floating Jetty will be ready in the coming months.

He said that the 4 Ships being built at Kochi Shipyard shall be delivered soon to improve the water connectivity between the islands and the mainland.

Port-led development

He said Andaman & Nicobar will be developed as a hub of port-led development as it is at a competitive distance from many ports of the world.

The prime minister said a country which has better network of ports and their connectivity will be able to provide a boost to trade in the 21st century.

He said when India is moving forward with the resolve of self-sufficiency and is establishing itself as an important player in the global supply and value chain, it is very important to strengthen our network of waterways and our ports. Modi said that the legal bottlenecks in the development of port infrastructure are also being removed continuously.

Maritime trade

PM said the government's focus is also on promoting Ease of Business in the sea and simplifying maritime logistics. He referred to the speedy construction of the deep draft inner harbor and the proposal to construct transshipment port in Great Nicobar at an estimated cost of about Rs10,000 crore. Modi said this would enable big ships to anchor and would increase Indias share in maritime trade, along with new employment opportunities.

He said the blue economy like fisheries, aquaculture and seaweed farming in the island will accelerate in commensurate with the modern infrastructure being developed in Andaman and Nicobar. He hoped that the efforts of the government will give Andaman and Nicobar not only new facilities but also a prominent place on the World Tourist Map.
Shares in Superdry jumped today after the fashion retailer agreed to a new 70million financing deal with its banks and said sales fell less than expected.

The fashion chain, which was already struggling before the coronavirus crisis, said the new loans it has secured through its lenders HSBC and BNPP will run until January 2023.

It comes as it posted a 24 per cent decline in sales in the three months to the end of July, which the company says is smaller than they had feared.

Deal: Superdry has agreed to a new 70million financing deal with its banks

The news sent shares in the FTSE 250 listed company rising. They closed 19 per cent higher at 140p on Monday.

However, they remain about 60 per cent lower than they were before the Covid-induced March's crash and about 90 per cent down compared to two years ago as the company has been struggling with falling sales.

Julian Dunkerton, who co-founded Superdry and returned as the company's chief executive last year after a boardroom coup in a bid to turn its fortunes around, said the new loans give it the 'flexibility to execute our current plans and to secure our recovery'.

However, the business continues to be 'materially' impacted by the coronavirus crisis.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said the ongoing concern with the company is more that its hoodies and jackets adorned with Japanese text may have just fallen out of fashion.

'With the immediate issue of survival seemingly addressed for now, attention will turn back to Dunkerton's efforts to restore the brand's appeal and credibility among shoppers,' he said.

'The fear for shareholders is that its traditional customer base may just have tired of its faux-Japanese stylings and moved on.

'Dunkerton will have to demonstrate to the market that there is some light at the end of the tunnel as he looks to set the business on an upwards trajectory or investors may run out of patience.'

Even though it has now reopened the majority of its stores, Superdry said total store sales fell 58 per cent in the three months, with like-for-like sales trading down 32 per cent.

Online sales soared 93 per cent in the quarter, though it said they have started returning to more normal levels in recent weeks as stores reopen with the easing of lockdown restrictions.

Julian Dunkerton co-founded Superdry and returned as the company's chief executive last year after a boardroom coup in a bid to turn its fortunes around

Last month, hedge fund Gatemore, which supports co-founder and boss Julian Dunkerton's vision for the company, disclosed it had gradually built up a 3.37 per cent holding in the group.

Gatemore, which has previously set its attention on French Connection and Moss Bros, reckons Superdry's casual clothing will be a hit with shoppers who have become accustomed to wearing comfier and less formal attire during lockdown.

But the company, which furloughed 88 per cent of its staff at one stage in the lockdown and agreed rent deferrals with landlords, was struggling even before lockdown.

In January, after dismal Chirstmas sales, Dunkerton admitted that his plan to wean the company off discounting had backfired as desperate rivals slashed prices heavily during the festive period.
When 2020 began, Mayor Ron Nirenberg was determined to use millions in sales tax dollars to expand San Antonios public transit system. He would need voter approval to do it and was methodically gearing up a major campaign to win that support.

Then the coronavirus pandemic hit. Hundreds of thousands of residents lost their jobs. Families sat in their cars in miles-long lines to receive free groceries from the San Antonio Food Bank  an image of desperation that shot across the country and haunted the mayor.

Now, Nirenberg has a different legacy project in mind.

Rather than bolster VIA Metropolitan Transit in the near future, he wants to spend that sales tax money on an economic recovery plan. The idea is to seize a once-in-a-generation opportunity to strengthen San Antonios economic foundation and ensure a strong, broad-based, lasting recovery once the pandemic eases.

Details on the mayors plan are scant at the moment. Writ large, it calls for spending $154 million from a one-eighth-cent sales tax over four years, plus more, on job training and higher education for people thrown out of work by the COVID-19 crisis. The idea is that when the economy gets back on its feet, theyll qualify for better-paying jobs.

On ExpressNews.com: Recovery plan would help 40,000 San Antonians get better jobs

But Nirenberg faces a daunting task.

He already had backed off the transit expansion proposal, deciding it wouldnt be prudent to ask voters for support at a time when many are suffering economic hardships and might recoil from any ballot proposition with the word tax in it.

But VIAs board would not be put off and threatened to get the tax proposition on the November ballot anyway, with or without the mayors support.

With his back against the wall, Nirenberg struck a deal: City government would hang on to the sales tax for four years to fund economic recovery efforts. After those four years, the city would hand off the tax to VIA  that is, if voters approve both in November.

Now the mayor and his team have barely three months to sell the idea to voters.

Its going to be hard to convince voters right now, not so much because of the merits but because of the virus, said former Mayor Phil Hardberger, one of Nirenbergs political mentors. People are not spending much money. They dont have much money to spend.

That doesnt mean necessarily hes wrong to try to do it.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, who teamed up with the mayor on the original pre-coronavirus transit expansion plan, saw the November slot as ideal for an economic recovery proposal, given that the sales tax for the popular Pre-K 4 SA program is up for renewal in November and could give the recovery proposition a boost.

There was a lot more confidence in doing that in November than the VIA plan, Wolff said.

But trying to sell the economic recovery plan and the VIA plan as one package?

The prospect of explaining that arrangement to voters sounds like a nightmare even to some veteran political strategists.

Just the workforce thing on its own would be a pretty big bite to take, Democratic consultant Colin Strother said. And then to compound that with a perpetual additional funding source for VIA, I think is a pretty heavy lift.

On ExpressNews.com: VIA board ignores leaders, launches its own pursuit of sales tax for expansion

On the other hand, Councilman Manny Pelaez, whose District 8 covers much of the Northwest Side, said many homeowners werent enthusiastic about funding just an expansion of VIA service.

When we throw in the mix of workforce training because of COVID, most people up here perk up and say, Yeah, you know, thats not a bad idea. Thats something we can get behind.

They know somebody out there whos sustained a gut punch financially and personally, Pelaez said. They know a small-business owner. They know someone whos out of a job, so for them that makes sense.

The issue could easily get complicated. The one-eighth-cent sales tax that would go for the economic recovery and VIA is currently used to protect the citys primary source of drinking water, the Edwards Aquifer, and to build linear parks and creekways. Under the plan, that tax would be allowed to expire and a new one for the recovery plan and VIA would be put on the ballot.

Money for aquifer protection and the other projects would come from other sources.

On ExpressNews.com: Heavy hitters join mayors call to use aquifer tax to fund transit expansion

The sales tax money for the recovery plan would be on top of $75 million the City Council approved in early June from city and federal funds for job training programs, part of a $191 million economic relief package. Officials aim to help 10,000 residents with that money by September 2021.

Nirenberg views the recovery program as a vehicle to equip the citys workers with the skills they need to secure higher-paying jobs in medicine, bioscience, information technology and construction. More than a third of the 154,000 people laid off because of the pandemic worked in the relatively low-wage retail, hospitality, restaurant and health care industries.

While it may be difficult to persuade voters to support a sales tax for economic recovery now and VIA expansion in the future, such long-term, big-picture ideas are Nirenbergs forte. He long has been drawn to policies aimed at undoing decades of entrenched poverty and economic segregation.

I think he realizes that, in the past, previous mayors really havent tackled these big issues, Pelaez said. I dont think hes comfortable waiting for the next mayor to do it.

It was Nirenberg who began the practice of diverting city resources to parts of town historically underfunded because of racial redlining and segregation, known as equity budgeting.

The mayor also persuaded the City Council to adopt a framework to stimulate affordable housing construction  a rebuke of a decade of city housing policy that subsidized luxury and market-rate condos and apartments downtown.

The mayor does have some advantages in his efforts to gain voter support for his plan.

His elevated profile as a result of the citys pandemic response could buy goodwill with voters  and help him advance that agenda.

He probably is as strong right now as hes ever been as mayor because the virus has put the spotlight on him and kept it on him, Hardberger said.

Walter Wilson, associate professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, agreed, noting the nightly coronavirus briefings.

A lot more people are going to be familiar with him and know they should listen when he says something, Wilson said. If he does find a way to effectively convey support for this initiative, it probably will have a broader impact than it might otherwise have just because of his enhanced profile.

Nirenberg is betting on record turnout in November to help push the sales tax initiative over the finish line.

On ExpressNews.com: Voters urged to cast ballots early for November elections to avoid corona surge

But high turnout could prove a double-edged sword. The campaign runs the risk of getting drowned out on a loud ballot that includes the presidential race, a number of nail-biting congressional campaigns and a fight for a U.S. Senate seat.

Not everyone supports Nirenbergs emphasis on workforce training and education as the best way to bring about the citys economic recovery.

To District 10 Councilman Clayton Perry, the councils lone conservative, the citys condition is too dire for another years-long plan, given the severity of the economic crisis.

Instead, the city should focus on providing direct stimulus to small businesses, Perry said.

Im more for giving that shot in the arm to the city instead of these long-term programs that may or may not even work, Perry said. Youve got to hope and pray that everybody completes their education. And then whats to keep them here in San Antonio?

Nirenberg pointed to the $191 million stimulus package the council passed in June, which pumped $38.1 million into small-business relief, as evidence that the citys looking out for that sector, too.

But to Nirenberg, focusing on short-term goals is what made San Antonio the poorest major U.S. city in the first place.

Small-minded politics leads to big-time challenges, Nirenberg said. I dont want that to happen to San Antonio anymore.

He admits its harder politics to address long-term challenges.

But those have the most impact in leaving a better and more just and more equitable community in the long run, Nirenberg said. And thats the kind of stuff I want to work on. But if it was easy, it would have already been done.

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
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China on Monday announced sanctions against 11 U.S. officials with egregious records on Hong Kong affairs, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian at a press briefing.

Zhao made the announcement in response to a request for comment on the so-called sanctions by the U.S. government against 11 officials of the Chinese central government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government.

According to Zhao, China's decision stems from the wrongdoings of the U.S. side. The sanctions, effective from Monday, are applied to U.S. officials, including Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton and Pat Toomey, Representative Chris Smith, and Carl Gershman, President of the National Endowment for Democracy, Derek Mitchell, President of the National Democratic Institute, Daniel Twining, President of the International Republican Institute, Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, and Michael J. Abramowitz, President of Freedom House.

Stating that China firmly rejects and condemns the U.S. government's so-called sanctions against Chinese officials, Zhao stressed that the U.S. behavior openly meddles with Hong Kong affairs, blatantly interferes in China's internal affairs, and gravely violates international law and basic norms governing international relations.

Since Hong Kong's return to the motherland, the practice of "one country, two systems" has proven to be an enormous success, Zhao said, and Hong Kong residents enjoy unprecedented democracy and rights and freedoms in accordance with law.

"This is an objective fact no unbiased people will deny," Zhao said.

In the meantime, there are new risks and challenges in the implementation of "one country, two systems," the most prominent of which is heightened national security risk, Zhao added.

When national security in Hong Kong is undermined and confronted with real threats and the HKSAR government had difficulty in completing national security legislation on its own, the Central Government took decisive measures to establish and improve at the state level a legal system and enforcement mechanisms to safeguard the national security in Hong Kong, he said.

"The law on safeguarding national security in Hong Kong targets a small number of criminals who gravely jeopardize national security and protects the law-abiding Hong Kong residents, who represent the vast majority," Zhao said.

He said Hong Kong is part of China and its affairs are entirely China's internal affairs which allow no foreign interfere. "We urge the U.S. side to grasp the situation, correct its mistake, and immediately stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs."

In response to a joint statement on Hong Kong by the foreign ministers of the Five Eyes, namely the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, on Sunday, in which they urged Hong Kong to hold legislative elections as soon as possible, Zhao said China strongly deplores and rejects it.

"It is another evidence of their interference in China's internal affairs and Hong Kong Legislative Council election. China has made stern representations with the relevant countries," Zhao said.

Zhao stressed that the HKSAR government's decision to postpone the elections in the face of the raging pandemic is a justified and necessary step to ensure people's safety and health, as well as a safe, fair and just election.

According to Zhao, more than 60 countries and regions have postponed national or local elections due to COVID-19. For example, Britain announced in March that local elections in places like England originally scheduled in May would be postponed to May 2021.

"It is the epitome of double standards that the Five Eyes chose to interpret the HKSAR government's decision in a twisted political way," Zhao said.

He noted that at a recent UNHRC session, 70 countries supported China's formulation of the law and condemned interference in China's internal affairs by using Hong Kong as a cover.

"This reflects the common voice and just position of the international community," Zhao said, adding that the Five Eyes can by no means represent the international community.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 14:53:56|Editor: huaxia

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URUMQI, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Steady progress has been made in the building of 5G base stations in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region as the region seeks to speed up development via the superfast wireless technology.

Nearly 3,700 5G base stations have been built as of late July, according to the local telecom watchdog. Xinjiang plans to set up 4,140 5G base stations this year.

Urumqi, the regional capital, reported the fastest 5G network growth, with 5G users topping 234,000 people.

All the main urban areas of Xinjiang's prefecture-level cities are expected to be covered by 5G network by 2021. Enditem
A large number of young people in the United Kingdom, one of the worst hit countries by the Covid-19 pandemic, are likely to steer clear of the coronavirus vaccine, according to a new study. The research has found that 22% of people under the age of 34 have said they may or may not go in for the vaccine as opposed to 11% of those aged between 55 and 75who have wanted to avoid the jab.

The author of the study, carried out by the Kings College London (KCL), has cautioned that conspiracy theories and mistrust of government, authority and science could potentially pose a hindrance to conquering the Covid-19 infection.

Explaining that the results of the research are deeply concerning, the authors have indicated that only about 50% of British people are committed to taking a coronavirus vaccine, as and when it is launched.

The new research has found that people who avoid wearing masks, those who distrust scientists, and those who are of the opinion that too much fuss is being made about the Covid-19 pandemic are the ones most likely to refuse to take the vaccine.

Vaccines are one of our greatest achievements, and there is a great deal of faith that well eventually develop an effective one for Covid-19  but more people still need to be convinced of how important it could be for ending this crisis, Professor Bobby Duffy, director of KCLs Policy Institute said on the results of the new study.

Misconceptions about vaccines are among our most directly damaging beliefs, and theyre clearly influencing peoples intentions during the coronavirus crisis, Professor Duffy said.

Globally with nearly 200 countries being hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, scientists believe that at least 70 per cent of the population per country will need to be vaccinated to provide herd immunity that is believed will get nations back to normal.

Researchers and scientists working at frantic speed to find a vaccine for the infectious disease have expressed hope that an effective vaccine will be available next year, after clinical trials at Oxford University produced an immune response in volunteers, although it is still unclear how long that will last within the body.

Gideon Skinner, research director at pollsters Ipsos Mori, said slightly more number of Britons appeared prepared to accept a Covid-19 vaccine than one for seasonal flu, but said the results were still disturbing.

A total of 26 vaccine candidates are being developed, according to the World Health Organisation, as a process normally taking up to 15 years has been squeezed into a matter of months.

The KCL study found, however, that only 53 per cent of the UKs population is certain or very likely to get a vaccine against the virus. About one in six people (16 per cent) said they would reject it, or are likely to, 11 per cent said they did not know, while the remaining 20 per cent are only fairly likely to go in for a coronavirus vaccine.

The findings were published soon after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hit out at anti-vaccination conspiracy theorists, describing them as nuts.

Among the groups doubtful about getting a vaccine are those who think the government wants people to wear masks to control the public (34%), those doubting scientific experts (33%) and those who do not follow the rules at all times (24%).

Among the pessimists, only 4% of people said a vaccine will never arrive  but just 44% think it will be available in a year or less.
The distinctive brown and white mud brick houses of Sanaa's historic neighborhoods in Yemen,

have long been under threat from conflict and neglect.

And now the 11th century houses are collapsing under heavy rains.

Mohamed Ali- Al Talhi's house partially collapsed on Friday (7 August).

"We call on all the organisations to save us may God save them from hell. We call on good-doers to save us, Six women and six children live in this house, we don't have anywhere else to go, no friend, no relative except God. Save us with a room or a bathroom, our house is in danger of collapsing."

Civil defense workers worked to salvage the UNESCO-listed buildings, which have buckled under this year's exceptionally heavy downpours, which began mid-April.

The deluge adding to what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Five years of war have killed more than 100,000 people, and left 80% of the population reliant on aid and millions on the brink of famine.

On top of the coronavirus, heavy rains like these can also spread diseases like cholera, dengue fever and malaria.

The Iran-aligned Houthi authorities that have controlled Sanaa since late 2014, appealed this week to UNESCO to save the city's heritage.

They said around 111 houses had partly or completely collapsed in recent weeks.
The Congress youth wing launched a campaign on Sunday to "raise the voice" against unemployment, with Rahul Gandhi alleging that the Modi government's decision of demonetisation, its "faulty" implementation of GST and lockdown have "destroyed" the country's economic structure.

The opposition party said it launched the "Rozgar Do" campaign as never before have "we seen the figures, the scope, the degree of unemployment, which this country is suffering" now.

"When Narendra Modi became the prime minister, he promised the youth of the country that he will give jobs to 2 crore youths every year. He sold a dream, but the reality is that 14 crore people have become unemployed due to the policies of Narendra Modi," Gandhi alleged.

"Why did this happen? Because of wrong policies. Demonetisation, faulty implementation of GST and then lockdown -- these three steps have destroyed the economic structure of the country and the truth now is that India cannot give employment to its youth," the former Congress chief said in a video message on Twitter.

Therefore, the Youth Congress has hit the street to raise these issues in all towns, he said.

The Youth Congress said the campaign will help raise the voice of the unemployed youth.

"Anti-youth policies of the central government will be highlighted among the youth of the country through social media and other mediums," it said in a statement.

"Please join the 'Rozgar Do' programme and along with Youth Congress, get jobs for the youth of this nation," Gandhi said and congratulated the Youth Congress on its foundation day.

Expressing solidarity with the campaign, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said "youth power" is India's strength.

"As opposed to the BJP government's job-destroying policies, there is a need to create more and more employment opportunities for the youth of India," she said on Twitter.

"Rozgar Do is the demand of young India. Employment is the need of young India," she added.

Other Congress leaders posted videos on social media voicing their concern over unemployment in the country. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the demand of every youth is "Rozgar Do" (give employment).

"We all demand, it is our right that the youth of the country should get employment on the basis of qualifications and get ahead in the progress of the country," he said.

Digvijaya Singh, Depender Hooda, Gaurav Gogoi, Rajeev Satav, Gaurav Vallabh and Ragini Nayak also called for increasing employment opportunities for the youth.

Emphasizing the need for the campaign, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said when Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office the unemployment rate was 4.9 per cent, but in May 2020, it reached 29 per cent.

Singhvi said there is also a negative GDP growth projection ranging from -4 to -7.5 per cent. Tax collections are down by 46 per cent and at least 12 crore people are supposed to have lost their jobs, he claimed.
Cong-CPC MoU: Cross border political pacts unheard of, says SC

The Supreme Court has refused to believe that the Congress party has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Communist party of China (CPC) even as the apex court declined to admit a petition challenging the validity of such an agreement.

How can a political party sign agreement with a political party in another country, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court S A Bobde asked the petitioners even as the Supreme Court refused to entertain the petition and asked the petitioners to move the high court.

The petition, moved by Goa Chronicle editor-in-chief Savio Rodrigues and Shahshak Shekhar Jha, a Delhi based advocate, had sought legal proceedings against Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and some others on the MoU signed.

The petitioners wanted the National Investigation Agency or the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on 7 August 2008 between Indian National Congress (INC) and the Communist Party of China (CPC) for exchanging high-level information and co-operation between them.

Chief Justice SA Bobde, before whom the matter was listed, said that the issue is very serious and in our limited experience we have not heard about a political party entering into an agreement with a foreign country.

While observing that the matter was of serious concern, the top court told the petitioners that if would allow an amended petition, but if the facts are wrong you will be prosecuted.

The petitioners have argued that despite India having hostile relations with China, the INC had signed an agreement when it was leading the coalition government.

"The Petitioners firmly believe that the nation's security cannot and shouldn't be compromised by any one. Therefore, this petition has been moved under Article 32 of the Constitution of Bharat, which seeks to bring transparency and clarity regarding the agreement signed between the Respondent No 1 (INC) and the Communist Party of China, which is also the de-facto government of People's Republic of China," the petition stated.

The petitioners said they had asked the Congress to make details of the agreement public, but it didnt pay heed, which reflects the malafide intention of the party.

"The details are very crucial. It is a national security issue and the truth must be told. We had put out that question to Rahul Gandhi in an editorial that I had written as well as on a TV channel but he has given no answer to the people of India," Rodrigues had earlier said.

"Therefore, we have approached the Supreme Court of India with a petition. We are demanding an NIA probe into the China-Congress MoU. It must be made public. There is no other choice available to Congress but to tell the truth about its relationship with China," he had said.

The petition comes up at a time when the situation in Eastern Ladakh arising from Chinese aggression continues to be sensitive. China's PLA intruded into Indian territory in May.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot moved to shut down some of the city's lakefront over the weekend after dozens of people were seen crowded into a park without masks or social distancing.

Lightfoot observed the ill-advised gathering in person on Saturday afternoon at Montrose Beach, and called out the partygoers on Twitter.

'It's called a pandemic, people,' the mayor wrote alongside a photo of at least 50 people scantily clad people in bikinis and swim trunks with zero masks in sight.

'This reckless behavior on Montrose Beach is what will cause us to shut down the parks and lakefront. Don't make us take steps backwards.'

Lightfoot followed through with her threat as hours later city workers were seen installing a fence around the park, leaving the lakeside trail open but closing off areas where people could congregate.

The move came as Chicago continues to see a surge in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, prompting officials to reinstate some restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot visited Chicago's Montrose Beach on Saturday and tweeted a photo which showed dozens of mask-less people who appeared to be ignoring social distancing rules

Lightfoot decried the 'reckless behavior' on Twitter and threatened to shut down the lakefront

Lightfoot followed through with her threat as hours later city workers were seen installing a fence around the park

One man who saw Lightfoot visit Montrose Beach on Saturday said that the photos and videos captured by the mayor and her cameraman were misleading.

'In person and in the flesh, it's not as bad as that photo suggests,' Mick Montesi told CBS2, noting that similar gatherings have been taking place along the lake for the past two months.

Justin Schneider, who has a boat in Montrose Harbor, said Saturday's crowd 'definitely was not social distancing [and] a lot of people didn't have masks on'.

'I understand where her frustration is and concern is coming from,' Schneider said of Lightfoot.

But he added: 'Where are people expected to go to when the beaches are closed it's 95 degrees out?'

Officials have acknowledged that ongoing beach closures are driving people to pack into park areas, but say that the reckless gatherings in parks show that people cannot be trusted to safely use the beaches.

In the hours after Lightfoot tweeted her Montrose Beach photo, police officers were seen patroling the area and ordering people to disperse.

Witness Miles Kampf-Lassin criticized the shutdown on Twitter, insisting that groups there had been spaced out.

He shared a photo of an officer telling a people by the lake to leave, writing: 'The cop just told this couple that he didn't want to be doing it, but "the mayor says go to the bar."'

'Seems like not a great policy approach to an airborne pandemic,' Kampf-Lassin added.

In the hours after Lightfoot tweeted her Montrose Beach photo, police officers were seen patroling the area and ordering people to disperse. Witness Miles Kampf-Lassin criticized the shutdown on Twitter, insisting that groups there had been spaced out

Police were also seen turning cars away from Montrose Beach on Saturday evening and telling visitors it was closed.

Park District spokeswoman Michele Lemons confirmed that a fence had been erected around where the large gathering took place.

'The Chicago Park District installed fencing at Montrose Beach to deter large gatherings like those observed (Saturday),' Lemons told the Chicago Tribune.

'While the lakefront trail is open, Chicago's beaches and parkland east of Lake Shore Drive remain closed under the Chicago Department of Public Health's executive order.'

Meanwhile, police also worked to disperse crowds at the lakefront near Belmont.

The crackdown took place just one day after the city gave 13 of Chicago's lakefront restaurants permission to reopen.

Park District spokeswoman Michele Lemons confirmed that a fence had been erected around where the large gathering took place

Crowds cool off along the lakefront in Chicago on July 14 as city officials blamed social gatherings for a new surge in coronavirus cases

Chicago's beaches remain closed by lakefront paths alongside them are open

Several people expressed frustration with Lightfoot on Twitter, saying that limiting open spaces was only worsening the density of patrons in restaurants.

One person tweeted a photo of a packed restaurant and wrote: 'You allow this restaurant to open a couple of feet away from Montrose Beach, but not the giant beachfront right past it. Shut the f**k up.'

Another replied to Lightfoot's tweet with a photo of a different busy eatery, writing: 'Oh but this crowded cafe at Diversey is just fine, right?? Because it's rich people bringing in revenue.

'You're being irrational, Lori. Start by listening to science and logic.'

Yet another critic shared a snap of park workers putting up the fence and noted that many of them were not wearing masks.

'It's called a pandemic Lori! Your staff is not socially distancing with masks as they disrupt an otherwise safe afternoon at Montrose Beach.'

The mayor's office raised the alarm about a new surge in coronavirus cases in a news release on July 20 as it reinstated some restrictions, including reducing party sizes in bars and restaurants.

The release charged that the surge was fueled in part by young people who were gathering in social settings like bars, restaurants, parks and the lakefront.

'If we're going to win against the greatest public health challenge we've ever faced, none of us can afford to sit on the sidelines and warm the benches,' Lightfoot said in another statement the same week.

'We cannot afford to let our guard down - it's time to team up with your masks up.'

As of Sunday, 63,876 coronavirus cases and 2,809 deaths have been reported in Chicago.

Daily new cases have continued to climb over the last month, according to county health data.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker also expressed concern about the situation across the state on Sunday after more than 2,000 daily new cases were reported on Friday and Saturday.

Pleading with residents to heed mask guidelines, Pritzker said: 'Imagine if someone could walk into a restaurant, light a cigarette, blow smoke in your face, and all the smoker had to say is: "Well it's my choice."'

Dr Ngozi Ezike, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, added: 'We are seeing cases increasing each day and hearing about people not complying with the masking mandate.

'This rule is an effort to help keep all of us healthy and decrease the risk of contracting COVID-19.'

It came as the governor's office announced new rules giving local officials more power to enforce guidelines for social gatherings and masks.

The rules include fines of up to $2,500 for businesses that fail to enforce guidelines.
He was swimming in the reservoir at Bohernabreena when he got into difficulty and failed to resurface.

Emergency assistance was called and the boy was found a short time later.

He was taken to Crumlin Children's Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
Dominic Pace, a character from the Disney Plus Star Wars series The Mandalorian, has been traveling throughout the nation to help support small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Jacksonville was his home for several hours Saturday.

Destination Toys owner Mark Medley invited Pace to stop at the comics and collectibles store.

Pace, who plays the character Gekko the Bounty Hunter, is making his way toward Los Angeles.

It has been a great tour. We have raised $7,000, and that money goes straight back to the stores, Pace said while Star Wars fans admired the themed collection around him.

John and Kelly Comerford, who joked about not knowing what Star Wars was  while wearing a movie-themed mask  talked with Pace while having memorabilia signed and having photos taken with the actor.

Its pretty cool, John Comerford said.

Pace said he is a blue collar actor and felt the need to help support local businesses during the pandemic because of the loss of income stores are experiencing. His son, Benett, has been his co-pilot on the journey.

We have had such an amazing time traveling. It has been a great experience, Pace said. It has been so nice to be on the open road and not stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic like it is in LA or New York, he said of the Midwest.

Destination Toys at 228 W. Morton Ave. had several Star Wars movie characters mingling with those in attendance and waving at cars driving past.

Pace has also appeared in such movies as Megalodon and such TV series as Superstore, Desperate Housewives and Prison Break.
The Supreme Court on Monday said that the next hearing on the University Grants Commission's directives for final-year exams will be held on August 14. The apex court today heard various petitions against the UGC guidelines making it mandatory for final year exams to be held by September 30. The apex court granted time to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for UGC, to respond to affidavits by Maharashtra and Delhi urging that final-year exams be cancelled amid coronavirus pandemic. The states had also requested that the results be declared based on the past performance of students. The top court sought clarification from Mehta appearing for UGC on whether Disaster Management Act can override the UGC's notification.

Earlier during the hearing, Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, who appeared for 31 students who had filed one of the petitions being heard by the apex court, raised questions on the legality of the UGC guidelines. Even as Delhi and Maharashtra had been asked to reply about holding the final-year exams amid the pandemic, their key concern was the legality of the UGC guidelines, Srivastava added.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan that states cannot change the rules of the University Grants Commission as only the UGC is empowered to prescribe rules for conferring degrees. Mehta argued that not conducting exams will not be in the interest of students and degrees may not be recognised if the states would act unilaterally. The UGC had earlier told the court that nobody should remain under the impression that since the Supreme Court is examining this issue, the final year or semester examination would be stayed.Also read: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to launch 'Atma Nirbhar Bharat Saptah' today

Also read: US tech giants plan pushback against India's data-curb plan
Our islands, our home campaign

Perhaps one of the good things to come out of this pandemics enforced lock-down is the need to connect online. I personally have become addicted to the host of webinars that have introduced me to so many people around the world and the chance to hear their many stories. The latest one organised by the 350.Org on 29th July, in which Torres Strait Islanders let people know of the ongoing predicament they face daily on their islands now that the effects of climate change are intensifying.

In May, 2019, eight Islanders through ClientEarth, lodged a complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Committee against the Australian government, charging them with inaction on the issue of climate change. Lawyer, Sophie Majanac, appearing in the webinar from London, reiterated that climate change is fundamentally a human rights issue and that the impacts  predicted and currently being experienced  by the Torres Strait Islanders, are proving to be catastrophic for its people. To date, the Morrison government has failed to take adequate action to reduce emissions or pursue proper adaptation measures on the islands and, as a consequence, has failed fundamental human rights obligations to Torres Strait Islander people.

Kabay Tamu, a 6th generation Warraber man, explained most eloquently the love and connection to their land, explaining how the loss of land due to erosion by the sea, is destroying their culture. Advancing seas are threatening homes, damaging burial grounds and sacred cultural sites. Many Torres Strait Islanders are worried that their islands could quite literally disappear in their lifetimes without urgent action: severely impacting on their ability to practice lore and culture. Kabay stressed the importance of the connection with the spirits of the land. With the destruction of their sacred sites they face a disconnection from those spirits: its as though a piece of their body has been lost. The rising seas, combined with tidal surges, are causing coastal erosion and inundation of agricultural land.

It became clear that this is the first climate change litigation brought against the Australian government which is based on human rights and it crossed my mind that perhaps it wont be the last. The complainants allege that Australia has violated article 27, the right to culture; article 17, the right to be free from arbitrary interference with privacy, family and home; and article 6, the right to life. The litigation is clear  that the catastrophic nature of the predicted future impacts of climate change on the islands (which include the total submergence of ancestral homelands) is a sufficiently severe impact as to constitute a violation of the rights to culture, family and life.

The argument is that these rights have been violated both by Australias extremely deficient greenhouse gas mitigation targets and plans, and its failure to fund adequate coastal defence and resilience measures on the islands  such as seawalls. Islanders have asked the Australian government to commit at least $20 million for emergency measures such as seawalls, and sustained investment in long-term adaptation measures to ensure the islands can continue to be inhabited.

They also want a commitment to reduce emissions by at least sixty-five per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 going to net zero before 2050 with a phase-out of thermal coal, both for domestic electricity generation and export markets, which Im sure all Australians want to see, especially after witnessing our own catastrophic firestorms with the subsequent annihilation of three billion animals. Unlike the Torres Strait Islanders, we on the mainland are not usually facing (on a daily basis) the destruction of our homes.

The majority of Australians believe global warming is a critical threat which has been, and is still being, underestimated by scientists and denied by politicians in thrall to their fossil fuel lobbyists. The Lowy Institute conducted a poll in 2019, which showed for the first time that climate has topped the list of threats to Australias national interests.

It is hardly surprising that the Australian government has taken no action to protect the Torres Strait Islanders, who are Australian citizens. Already, on the Australian mainland, were seeing properties teetering on cliff tops being undermined by the rising seas. This is not just a Torres Strait Islands problem but loss of their islands means losing their long-term heritage and culture as well.

The members of the webinar came across as happy, gentle people desperate to save their way of life. There were no accusations aimed at our government  which there should have been. The LNP has no policies which come near to meeting the Paris Agreement to commit to a 1.5 degree world. It has not effectively responded to the climate emergency for decades and has certainly not responded to the catastrophe of our own unprecedented summer firestorms.

They can find $270 billion for our defence forces but have done nothing for adaptation measures to save the Torres Strait Islands. An assessment was made for a sea wall around some islands to delay the worst impacts of climate change. It has been ignored, so their complaint has now gone to the UN Human Rights Committee coming through the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It includes the right to culture, the right to be free from arbitrary interference and the right to life.

For these people, those islands are their life, their religion, their culture. The Islanders want two sets of outcomes.

They want the Australian government to take greater action as a global citizen to decrease the impacts of climate change, which means having stronger targets, being a much more active citizen and also moving away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible.

They want the Australian government to commit to doing everything it can to protect these islands from the impact of climate change.

350.org are running a campaign to (a) collect 20,000 signatures by November 2020 on a petition calling on Parliamentarians to protect Torres Strait Islanders right to their Island Homes; (b) to amplify the story of the eight claimants call to action; (c) to establish strong Indigenous cross-solidarity between peoples most affected by the climate crisis; and (d) to build the understanding of this issue amongst federal politicians across the political spectrum.

To sign the petition: ourislandsourhome.com.au/#sign
Omaha travel FAQs

What are the best hotels in Omaha? One of the most popular hotels in Omaha is Magnolia Hotel Omaha, which has been reviewed by 327 users and currently has a rating of 8.4/10. Other top-rated locations include Hilton Omaha and Hotel Deco, which have received 7.8/10 and 7.9/10 ratings from our users, respectively.

What is a good hotel near TD Ameritrade Park Omaha? Magnolia Hotel Omaha is a good hotel close to TD Ameritrade Park Omaha - it has scored 8.4 over 327 reviews from HotelsCombined users.

What is a good hotel in Omaha near Orpheum Theater? For a good hotel near to Orpheum Theater, consider Magnolia Hotel Omaha - it is rated 8.4/10 from 327 HotelsCombined reviews.

Is there a good hotel near CenturyLink Center Omaha? 327 HotelsCombined reviews of Magnolia Hotel Omaha score it 8.4/10, making it a highly recommended hotel near CenturyLink Center Omaha.

What are the best hotels on Dodge Street in Omaha? Dodge Street is the largest and one of the busiest streets in Omaha. It is the main east-west street through the city, starting in downtown Omaha and connecting to West Dodge Road. Sonesta ES Suites and Hilton Garden Inn are some of the best cheap hotels in Omaha, both located on Dodge Street. Staying at Hilton Garden Inn will put you in the business and cultural hub of the city. This hotel is located near Eppley Airfield, making it easily accessible to visitors flying into the city via this airport. Traveling from this hotel to the city center is convenient via both private and public means of transport. The hotel is also located a short distance from the Joslyn Art Museum. Hilton Garden Inn offers many convenient on-site features, including an indoor pool, a restaurant, and free Wi-Fi. If you book a room at Sonesta ES Suites, youll enjoy free parking, luxury bedding, and full kitchens in every room. Free grab-and-go breakfast is also available every morning, in addition to a fitness area and outdoor pool.

Are there kid-friendly hotels in Omaha? Finding a hotel with spacious rooms located near exciting attractions is important if you are traveling to Omaha with your children. Many hotels in Omaha have several amenities that are particularly suitable for the kids. Holiday Inn and Residence Inn are some of the many family-friendly hotels in Omaha; both are located on Cuming Street, a short distance from the city center. Residence Inn provides free hot breakfast for the entire family in addition to free parking. It is conveniently located near great destinations for kids, including Fun-Plex Waterpark & Rides and Memorial Park. Holiday Inn also offers free parking, an indoor pool, and an on-site restaurant, convenient for family meals. It is located near the Durham Museum and the Joslyn Art Museum, where families may enjoy taking in the local culture and art.

How do I find a peaceful and quiet hotel in Omaha? Many of the peaceful and quiet Omaha hotels are located away from Dodge Street and the busy city center. Booking a hotel on 18th Street will put you in a better position to find more peaceful accommodations while in the city. The Peregrine Omaha Downtown is known for its tranquil environment, providing guests with peace and quiet, yet is also conveniently located a short distance from many of Omahas popular attractions, such as Joslyn Museum of Art, Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, and the Downtown Old Market. This hotel features an on-site restaurant, room service, a fitness center, and pet-friendly rooms for those whod like to travel with their furry friends.
Well, the new line of colors introduced by Samsung with the Galaxy Note 20, turns out to have more colors than expected. As per a recent report by Sammobile, a new Mystic Blue color went live for the Galaxy Note 20 in India.

Samsung released a bunch of new products from its Unpacked event back on August 5. This includes the Galaxy Buds Live, Galaxy Note 20 series, Galaxy Tab S7 series, Galaxy Watch 3, and a sneak peek at the Galaxy Z Fold 2.

However, the much anticipated Galaxy Note 20 series was the one that caught the most attention. The phone comes with top-of-the-line specs. A new camera system, the latest software, brilliant design, form factor, which gave the phone more limelight.

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But we should also not forget the new set of colors that were introduced for the Galaxy Note 20. The preview of Galaxy Z Fold 2 also showed that the company will replicate similar colors for Fold 2 as well. So, kudos to that.

Samsung users in India have two more color option apart from Mystic Blue

Samsung India today announced that users in India will be able to purchase a new Mystic Blue Galaxy Note 20 smartphone. There are a total of three color options to choose from, i.e. Mystic Bronze, Mystic Green, and Mystic Blue.

Over the years, Samsung has tried to overhaul a lot of things for its smartphone series. Be it the introduction of One UI by ditching the TouchWiz UI or a new edge display with the Galaxy S6 series.

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And now with the new Mystic color branding, Samsung brings a fresh appeal to the colors of its smartphones. Not only are the colors fabulous this time around, but the material and the texture also gives a premium feel to the phones.

Notably, Samsung has utilized a matte design that reduces smudges and fingerprints. But the back is not pure glass. Rather its what Samsung calls Glasstic, which is a mixture of glass and plastic. More specifically Samsung used glass for the back with a top layer of polycarbonate over it.

Customers in India can book the new Galaxy Note 20 from its official website

The Mystic Blue Galaxy Note 20 along with other colors can be ordered from the official Samsung Store. Moreover, the phone will also be sold across Samsungs retail partners. Each Galaxy Note 20 comes with a similar color S-Pen as well.

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However, those who pre-order the new Galaxy Note 20 phones, will get some incentives like cash back, discount, INR 2000 off on the Samsung Shop app, eVoucher, and much more.
The woman was illegally detained by Russia-controlled armed formations during her visit to relatives in occupied Donetsk.

The SBU Security Service of Ukraine has busted an attempt by members of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" ("DPR") to involve a female resident of the city of Lviv in criminal activities posing a threat to Ukraine's national security.

"It has been established that during a visit to relatives in the temporarily occupied city of Donetsk, a female resident of Lviv was illegally detained by the armed formations under the pretext of allegedly checking documents," as reported by the SBU's press center.

Read alsoSBU detains member of notorious 'Vostok Battalion' involved in Donetsk airport battles

"After that, she was sent to the so-called 'DPR State Security Ministry,' where she was forced to agree to confidential cooperation detrimental to Ukraine's national security. She faced psychological pressure and threats," it said.

As tasked by "DPR" terrorists, she would have to collect and share information about connections of family members of Ukrainian military personnel from the western regions who come to the territory of Donetsk region.

Upon her return to Ukrainian-controlled territory, the woman visited the SBU Office in Lviv region to inform about facts of her illegal detention and attempts by the "DPR" to recruit her.
Confusion still surrounds President Donald Trump's executive orders on coronavirus relief as states say they can't kick in the $100 a week toward extra unemployment insurance.

Equally unclear is whether President Trump has the constitutional authority to extend federal unemployment benefits by executive order.

Trump announced an executive order Saturday that extends additional unemployment payments of up to $400 a week to help cushion the economic fallout of the pandemic.

There are questions about President Trump's extension of unemployment benefits through executive order - both the legality and if states will be able to afford to contribute

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio said his state was still looking into whether it could afford the $100 a week contribution

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, called the $100-a-week contribute 'an impossibility'

Congress had approved payments of $600 a week at the outset of the coronavirus outbreak, but those benefits expired Aug. 1 and Congress has been unable to agree on an extension. Many Republicans have expressed concern that a $600 weekly benefit, on top of existing state benefits, gives people an incentive to stay unemployed.

But under Trump's plan, the $400 a week requires a state to commit to providing $100.

Many states are already facing budget crunches caused by the pandemic. Asked at a news conference how many governors had signed on to participate, Trump answered: 'If they don't, they don't. That's up to them.'

Trump expressed a different view on Sunday night, following a day of state officials questioning how they could afford even $100 per person in additional weekly payments.

He told reporters as he returned to Washington that states could make application to have the federal government provide all or part of the $400 payments.

We have a system where we can do 100% or we can do 75% and they pay 25 and it depends on the state,' he said, adding decisions would be made on a state by state basis.

It may be they pay nothing in some instances,' he noted.

Several state officials questioned how Trump's initial proposal would work and often expressed doubt that they could afford to participate at the level Trump initially set without using federal funds.

Aubrey Layne, secretary of finance for Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, said in a phone interview Sunday he believes it would be feasible for Virginia to participate in such a program if states are allowed to use money that's been allocated to them under the already passed CARES Act. He said his preliminary understanding is that states can do so, but he and others are waiting to see the rules published.

The better solution, Layne said, would be for Congress to pass legislation.

'It's ludicrous to me that Congress can't get together on this,' he said. 'I think it would have been better for the president to use his influence in those negotiations, rather than standing on the sideline and then riding in like a shining knight.'

Details about the program were confused on Sunday - and that was even before Trump's declaration that states could ask the federal government to pay all or part of the $400 week payments.

On CNN's 'State of the Nation' White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said conflicting things about whether the federal money was contingent on an additional contribution from the states.

Initially Kudlow said that 'for an extra $100, we will lever it up. We will pay three-quarters, and the states will pay 25 percent.' In the same interview, though, he later said that 'at a minimum, we will put in 300 bucks ... but I think all they (the states) have to do is put up an extra dollar, and we will be able to throw in the extra $100.'

A clarifying statement from the White House said the 'funds will be available for those who qualify by, among other things, receiving $100/week of existing assistance and certify that they have lost their jobs due to COVID-19.'

Kudlow admitted on CNN's 'State of the Union' the administration still needed to find out if governors were on board with the plan after many states saw their budgets decimated by the virus.

'We will probably find that out today and tomorrow, as we make our canvass,' he said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, several advocacy groups said it's clear the way the executive order is structured that the federal money will be contingent on states making a 25 percent contribution.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, called the plan 'an impossibility.'

'I dont know if the president is genuine in thinking the executive order is a resolution or if this is just a tactic in the negotiation,' Cuomo said. 'But this is irreconcilable for the state. And I expect this is just a chapter in the book of Washington COVID mismanagement.'

In Connecticut, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont said on CBS' 'Face the Nation' that the plan would cost his state $500 million to provide that benefit for the rest of the year, and called Trump's plan 'not a good idea.'

'I could take that money from testing - I don't think that's a good idea,' Lamont said.

On CNN, Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine praised Trump for issuing the order.

'Hes trying to do something. Hes trying to move the ball forward,' DeWine said.

Still, he was noncommittal about whether Ohio would participate.

President Trump signed four executive actions designed to bring COVID relief on Saturday

'Were looking at it right now to see whether we can do this,' he said.

Christina Stephens, a spokeswoman for Democratic Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said: 'Right now we are reviewing the Presidents order to determine exactly what the impact to the state would be.'

In Maryland, Michael Ricci, spokesman for Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, said in an email that 'we will wait on new guidance from US Department of Labor before looking at any (unemployment insurance) changes.'

In Minnesota, Department of Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove said his agency is 'awaiting further guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor.'

Nearly 2 million Pennsylvanians are relying on that additional unemployment to pay their bills and put food on the table.

Kevin Hensil, a spokesman for Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, said 'reducing the benefit by a third will make it harder for families to get by and it places a larger financial burden on states.' He said state officials are studying the impact of the cuts.

And in Michigan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a press release that Trump 'cut federal funding for unemployed workers and is requiring states that are facing severe holes in our budgets to provide 25% of the funding.'

On ABC's 'This Week,' Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it 'an unworkable plan.

'Most states will take months to implement it, because its brand new. Its sort of put together with spit and paste. And many states, because they have to chip in $100, and they dont have money, wont do it,' Schumer said.

Many states struggled to adjust outdated computer systems to accommodate the $600 payment, which along with the massive influx of new claims resulted in long delays in providing benefits. Reprogramming the computers again to accommodate the new amount could result in similar glitches.

On ABC, Kudlow said that many of those outdated systems have since been upgraded.

'I dont think there will be a huge delay. Labor Department has been working with the states. The states are the ones that process the federal benefits before. So, I dont see any reason why it would be all that difficult,' he said.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow was among those aides on the Sunday shows defending Trump's orders

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said if there are lawsuits against Trump's orders it would delay aid and Democrats would have a lot of explaining to do

On Saturday, President Trump signed four executive orders and memorandum that he said would expand supplemental unemployment benefits, ease a moratorium on evictions, suspend student loan repayments, and pause the payroll tax.

His aides spent Sunday trying to explain Trump's attempt to circumvent Congressional Democrats, which brought a flurry of questions about the legality of his orders and their effectiveness.

'They're absurdly unconstitutional,' Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday on CNN's 'State of the Union.'

She also argued states could not afford what the president wanted because they were cash-strapped by dealing with the pandemic.

'He is saying states have the money. No, they don't. They have expenses from the coronavirus. They have lost revenue,' she said on CNN.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin shrugged off concerns about the legality of the president's actions.

'We've cleared with the Office of Legal Counsel all these actions before they went to the president. The president knew unemployment insurance was ending. He said, let's continue at $400. By the way, the 25 percent from the states, they can either take that out of the money we've already given them or the president can waive that,' he said on 'Fox News Sunday.

'We've been told by the states they can get this up and running immediately. And I would say, if the Democrats want to challenge us in court and hold up unemployment benefits to those hardworking Americans that are out of a job because of Covid, they're going to have a lot of explaining to do,' he added.
With the ongoing pandemic and its adverse effects, some of the most anticipated films are going through a reshuffle of their release date as health and safety of people are of utmost importance. Aamir Khan's much awaited film Laal Singh Chaddha that was initially headed for a Christmas 2020 release, has now been shifted to Christmas 2021.

Aamir Khan has a long standing association with Christmas. All his movies released during Christmas have been super successful; be it 3 Idiots, PK, Dhoom 3, Dangal and more. His latest movie, Laal Singh Chaddha which is based on Tom Hanks' Forrest Gump, has already shot a few parts in Chandigarh and Kolkata before the nationwide lockdown was implicated. While the situation in the country remains to be crucial, the actor flew to Turkey to do recce for the film.

Ever since the makers dropped the first look of Aamir as a Sikh man, fans went berserk over it. Keeping the current scenario in mind, Aamir and makers have announced a new release date and shifted it from this December to next December as the movie deserves a grand release.

Presented by Aamir Khan Productions, Laal Singh Chaddha stars Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan and Mona Singh in pivotal roles. The film is adapted by Atul Kulkarni and helmed by Advait Chandan. The music is by Pritam and lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya.

ALSO READ: Exclusive: Aamir Khan To Restart His Film Laal Singh Chaddha's Shoot In Turkey Post Lockdown

ALSO READ: Aamir Khan Not In Talks With A Streaming Platform For A Deal
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump's executive order to extend federal unemployment benefits, but have states pick up part of the tab, would cost New York $4 billion and take weeks to implement, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Monday.

With the state already facing a $13 billion deficit this year  which is expected to nearly triple over the next four years  Cuomo likened the executive order to "handing a drowning man an anchor. He also blasted the change as "unrealistic" and possibly illegal.

This only makes a bad situation worse," Cuomo said during a press conference.

Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, a Democrat from a red state, joined Cuomo for the news conference and agreed that the executive order is "unworkable" and too expensive and time consuming for Kentucky to implement.

Both governors called for a congressional solution, but Republicans and Democrats remain locked in a stalemate over the next coronavirus stimulus package even after weeks of steady negotiations.

Amid the gridlock, Trump on Saturday signed four executive orders aimed at providing some pandemic relief. He announced he was postponing payroll taxes through the end of the year, waiving student debt payments until 2021 and considering a continued ban on evictions and more rent relief.

His memorandum would extend but cap the federal unemployment benefit at $400 a week  down from $600 per week  but require states to cover a quarter of the cost. Trump said the federal government could afford its portion of the payments using existing federal funds for more than a month.

Beshear said the state burden of that could cost Kentucky $48 to $60 million a month, or up to $1.5 billion, depending on how long it continues, something that is just not possible for the commonwealth of Kentucky." With a state unemployment system that is 20 years old, it would take weeks or even months to also start dolling out payments in the new structure, he said.

When asked on Sunday about states that could not afford their portion of the payments, Trump said: "It will depend on the states. ... It may be they pay nothing."

Earlier in the pandemic, the then-$600 per week unemployment benefit was paid for by the federal government and given out on top of state unemployment benefits. But that federal benefit expired July 31. The governors have urged Congress to reinstate it, if possible.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

But reaching a new deal on unemployment has been one of the thorniest problems for Democrats and Republicans. Democrats want to continue the benefit at $600 a week, while Republicans have proposed $200 and then 70 percent of each individuals' lost wages.

The divide has been, in part, driven by complaints from business owners, especially small business owners, that some employees said they were collecting more income from unemployment than they had been paid in their jobs and were reluctant to return to work as the economy reopened.

Trump's executive orders could face legal challenges because they tinker with congressional spending plans.

In their negotiations, Democrats and Republicans also have not reached a final number on how much aid to provide state and local governments, although both sides have agreed billions in relief is needed. Cuomo has warned that without sufficient federal aid, the state will be forced to implement drastic budget cuts, including to education.

"They want to bailout states that have been badly managed by Democrats, badly run by Democrats for many years  and, in fact, in all cases, many decades," Trump said Saturday. "And we're not willing to do that."
The main opposition candidate in the Belarus election has rejected official election results that handed president Alexander Lukashenko a landslide victory amid bloody protests and accusations of vote-rigging.

Of course we dont recognise these results, said Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya after the countrys electoral commission put the former teachers share of the vote at only 9.9 per cent.

The incumbent president, often referred to as Europes last dictator, was claimed to have secured 80.23 per cent of ballots, a figure widely seen as not credible.

Ms Tsikhanouskaya told reporters in Minsk: According to the data we receive from precincts, we won, and this corresponds with what we saw at polling stations.

People stood in lines at polling stations in order to vote for Tsikhanouskaya. I believe my own eyes rather than the data of the Central Election Commission.

Foreign observers have not judged an election to be free and fair in Belarus since 1995. In the run-up to the Sundays vote, authorities jailed Mr Lukashenkos political rivals and opened criminal investigations into others who voiced opposition.

Ms Tsikhanouskaya said her team was gathering proof of falsification.

We have official protocols from many poll stations, where the number of votes in my favour are many more times than for another candidate, she told the Associated Press.

Ms Tikhanouskaya entered the race following the imprisonment of her husband, who had intended to run. She emerged from obscurity to draw some of the biggest crowds since the fall of the Soviet Union at her campaign rallies.

Police violently broke up protests which sprang up on Sunday after the election results were announced. In Minsk, which saw the worst of the violence, police deployed water cannon, stun grenades and rounds of rubber bullets against demonstrators and drove a van into crowds. Dozens were injured and there were reports of one person being killed.

Amnesty International said its researchers on the ground had documented arbitrary arrests and excessive use of force against peaceful protestors.

Ms Tikhanouskaya warned Mr Lukashenko that protests would continue if he tried to cling to power and called for demonstrators to take to the streets on Monday night.

Her campaign also appeared to call for an general strike to begin from Tuesday in a message shared with supporters on Telegram.

In Zhlobin, a city in eastern Belarus, workers at a metal plant declared they would go on strike in protest over election-rigging and urged others to join them.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, speaking to reporters in Minsk, said she believed she had won Belaruss election (AP)

Mr Lukashenko, who has held office since Belaruss first presidential election 26 years ago, warned protesters challenging the official vote results would face a tough crackdown and derided his critics as sheep supposedly manipulated by foreign governments.

We will not allow them to tear the country apart, he said, claiming he wanted his victory to be a holiday for the people. But some wanted to spoil that holiday.

The president claimed without evidence that opposition to his iron-fisted rule was being directed from Poland and the Czech Republic.

They are trying to orchestrate mayhem. But I have already warned: there will be no revolution, he said.

The brutal police crackdown drew condemnation from Belaruss European neighbours and will likely complicate Mr Lukashenkos efforts to mend ties with the west amid tensions with his main ally, Russia.

The European Union lamented that the election night was marred with disproportionate and unacceptable state violence against peaceful protesters and called for the immediate release of arrested demonstrators.

The EU and United States slapped sanctions on Belarus in the early 2000s, but lifted most of them in recent years after Mr Lukashenkos government freed political prisoners and allowed some opposition protests.

A spokesperson for Boris Johnson, the prime minister, on Monday condemned the violent suppression of protests in Belarus as completely unacceptable.

They added: We have previously made clear on many occasions our significant concerns about Belaruss anti-democratic actions, including the detention of opposition candidates, peaceful protesters and journalists. Were raising our concerns, again, with the government of Belarus following these protests.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 10)  Several officials are encouraging the use of face masks at home and face shields in public to curb the spread of the coronavirus, but said it's unlikely that government will make them mandatory.

Members of the country's task force against COVID-19 on Monday recommended the use of face masks at home after health officials record clusters of coronavirus cases in households. The Department of Health said people exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms and members of the vulnerable sectors  such as the elderly, pregnant women, and those with preexisting medical conditions  are urged to wear face masks even inside their houses to protect other members of the household.

National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chairman Delfin Lorenzana said there is no need to impose this rule on a national basis as it is the "responsibility of the home owners."

The national government will also not issue a directive requiring face shields in public. However, Lorenzana said government agencies, local government units, and private companies are free to issue this guidance as an added health safety protocol.

'Yung minimum kasi natin sa IATF is only face mask sa labas. So we will maintain that, hindi natin gagawing mandatory 'yung face shield," he said.

[Translation: In the Inter-Agency Task Force, the minimum health standard is to wear a mask in public, we will maintain that. We will not make wearing of face shields mandatory.]

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire also said they are studying the impact of requiring face shields as it is an added cost to Filipinos.

The Philippine government has required the use of face masks in public places, with fines imposed on those caught without masks.

Transportation officials last week also announced that face shields will be required in public vehicles starting August 15. The municipality of Pateros mandated its use in public spaces too.
Monika K. Goyal, a physician who designed the study, said it was undertaken early in the epidemic when younger people were thought possibly to be spared infections from the coronavirus. The D.C. testing site, located at Trinity University, was the first in the nation exclusively for children, she said, and reached out to the community with Spanish and Amharic interpreters.
No comment on Pranab Mukherjee book before reading it: Former Union Minister

Former President Pranab Mukherjee tests positive for Covid-19

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Aug 20: Former President Pranab Mukherjee tested positive for Covid-19. Mukherjee had gone to the hospital for a separate procedure

Pranab Mukherjee tests Covid-19 +ve | Former President tests positive | Oneindia News

Taking to Twitter, he wrote,''On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for COVID19 today. I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19.''

On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for COVID19 today.

I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19. #CitizenMukherjee  Pranab Mukherjee (@CitiznMukherjee) August 10, 2020

No Covid19 test done on Amit Shah since last week, clarifies MHA

He also requested the people who came in contact with him in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19.

In 2014, Mukherjee underwent heart procedure after doctors detected a blockage. The doctors immediately conducted angioplasty and installed a stent, a small mesh tube that's used to treat narrow or weak arteries.

With 62,064 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, the total caseload in India has now risen to 22,15,075.

Of these, 6,34,945 are active cases, while 15,35,744 patients have already been discharged, data from the Union Health Ministry showed. As many as 1007 deaths were reported, taking the casualties to 44,386. For the last four days, now, Covid-19 cases have in India have risen by over 60,000.
YORKTOWN, Va.  The line crew from Northern Virginia had been working since 7 a.m., knocking out six repair jobs to restore power to hundreds of Peninsula homes, but the backlog at Dominion Energys regional operations center meant they got a bit of an early afternoon breathing spell at job No. 7.

They had little choice  the operations center turns off the electricity on a line  and the job they were about to tackle involved a lot of electricity, 34,500 volts feeding some 700 York County customers, including Dominions own power station in Yorktown.

The storm snapped a 50-foot tall, 12-inch thick pine tree, bringing down the neutral wire that completed the electrical circuit on the Dominions five-mile 401 line, which runs along the CSX tracks in Seaford. The tree put enough weight on the two sets of three live conductor wires to break the ends off two cross arms on a nearby pole.

Lucky it was just a pine tree, theyre not as heavy, said Gary Pultz, a Dominion safety performance specialist working with the crew.

Though it was a big job, affecting a lot of customers, it couldnt be tackled until a railroad crew cleared the fallen pine. Access is one reason why some jobs start later than others.

Then, too, it takes a lot of coordination, which takes time, to deal safely with 34,500 volts.

And then, as lineman Andrew Dodson found, once one of the crews bucket trucks had hoisted him 40 feet up, you can spot problems that neither an on-the-ground patrol nor a overflying drone can see.

`Open And Tagged

When they got the word the regional operations center was ready, D.J. Uffelman and his team set off for one end of the 401 line, his friend Dan Friot to the other, five miles off.

Uffelman waited at the western end of the 401 for the center to send its electronic signal open the reclosers the switches that connect the line to the rest of Dominions system  to start to isolate the line.

Theres a three-step back and forth between the center and the crews in which the one tells the other what it plans to do. The crew then confirms it understands; the center then disconnects the circuit, tells the crew, which acknowledges and then advises that the circuit is no longer energized.

But when youre dealing with 34,500 volts, you want to make sure.

Thats when it became Uffelmans job to use his 40-foot extender pole to reach up to the disconnect ? the 18-inch-long bar attached to each recloser _ and open it. The disconnect is a backstop, in case the internal switch in the recloser malfunctions.

There were six at his end of the line, one for each of the 401s six conducting wires. Being able to maneuver a 40-foot-line pole to flip open an 18-inch disconnect is just one of the things a lineman needs to know how to do.

Opening the disconnect physically separates the 401s wires from the electricity pulsing through the rest of Dominions system.

Uffelman then used the same extender to check voltages on either side of each recloser, making sure that noting is getting across to the 401. That done, he used the pole to attach a bright red tag to a cross-arm, a signal that there were people working on the wire and it needed to remain dead.

Five miles away, Friot was doing the same, though he had a few extra things to take care of.

It took about 40 minutes. Once done, Friot huddled with Uffelman. 401 R-zero open and tagged, he said. Bypass open and tagged. Line side taps, open and tagged, Two sets of Ds (disconnects) open and tagged.

The 401 was now isolated. In a box, Uffelman said.

About the photo: Andrew Dodson, left, and Scott Crane, of Dominion Energy work to repair a fallen electrical line near Newsome Drive in York County, Va. Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 5, 2020 after multiple trees were toppled by Tropical Storm Isaias. Power would be restored to more than 700 customers once the work was completed. (Jonathon Gruenke/The Daily Press via AP)

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Lebanese police fired tear gas to try to disperse rock-throwing protesters blocking a road near parliament in Beirut on Sunday in a second day of anti-government demonstrations triggered by last weeks devastating explosion.

Fire broke out at an entrance to Parliament Square as demonstrators tried to break into a cordoned-off area, TV footage showed. Protesters also broke into the housing and transport ministry offices.Fire broke out at an entrance to Parliament Square as demonstrators tried to break into a cordoned-off area, TV footage showed. Protesters also broke into the housing and transport ministry offices.

Two government ministers resigned amid the political fallout of the blast and months of economic crisis, saying the government had failed to reform.

Tuesdays explosion of more than 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate killed 158 people and injured more than 6,000, compounding months of political and economic collapse and prompting furious calls for the government to quit.

Riot police wearing body armour and carrying batons clashed with demonstrators as thousands converged on Parliament Square and nearby Martyrs Square, a Reuters correspondent said.

We gave these leaders so many chances to help us and they always failed. We want them all out, especially Hezbollah, because its a militia and just intimidates people with its weapons, Walid Jamal, an unemployed demonstrator, said, referring to the countrys most influential Iran-backed armed grouping that has ministers in the government.

The countrys top Christian Maronite cleric, Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai, said the cabinet should resign as it cannot change the way it governs.

The resignation of an MP or a minister is not enough ... the whole government should resign as it is unable to help the country recover, he said in his Sunday sermon.

Lebanons environment minister resigned on Sunday, saying the government had lost a number of opportunities to reform, a statement said.

Damianos Kattars departure follows the resignation of Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad earlier on Sunday in the wake of the explosion.

Anger boiled over into violent scenes in central Beirut on Saturday. Those protests were the biggest since October when thousands of people took to the streets to demand an end to corruption, bad governance and mismanagement.

About 10,000 people gathered at Martyrs Square, which was transformed into a battle zone in the evening between police and protesters who tried to break down a barrier along a road leading to parliament. Some demonstrators stormed government ministries and the Association of Lebanese Banks.

One policeman was killed and the Red Cross said more than 170 people were injured in clashes.

Change the government

The police fired at me. But that wont stop us from demonstrating until we change the government from top to bottom, Younis Flayti, 55, a retired army officer, said on Sunday.

Nearby, mechanic Sabir Jamali sat beside a noose attached to a wooden frame in Martyrs Square, intended as a symbolic warning to Lebanese leaders to resign or face hanging.

Every leader who oppresses us should be hanged, he said, adding he will protest again.

Lawyer Maya Habli surveyed the demolished port.

People should sleep in the streets and demonstrate against the government until it falls, she said.

The prime minister and presidency have said 2,750 tonnes of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, which is used in making fertilisers and bombs, had been stored for six years without safety measures at the port warehouse.

The government has said it will hold those responsible to account.

An emergency donor conference in France raised pledges worth nearly 253 million euros ($298 million) for immediate humanitarian relief, the French presidency said.

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 has since been rebuilt.

I worked in Kuwait for 15 years in sanitation to save money and build a gift shop in Lebanon and it was destroyed by the explosion, said Maroun Shehadi.

Nothing will change until our leaders just leave.
Commitment is the top predictor of relationship satisfaction, new study finds

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A new study based on the compilation of 43 datasets that consist of more than 11,000 couples suggests that perceived partner commitment is the top predictor of relationship satisfaction.

The study  published July 24 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science  was led by Samantha Joel, a psychology professor at Canadas Western University; and Dr. Paul Eastwick, an associate professor at the University of California, Davis. They collaborated with seven dozen researchers.

The data for the study was collected longitudinally, meaning that researchers spoke to the same couples repeatedly at different points over time.

To determine the strongest predictors of relationship satisfaction, the researchers used machine learning, which the Massachusetts Institute of Technology defines as algorithms that use statistics to find patterns in massive amounts of data.

The study took into account several variables, including both partners perception of the relationship and both partners personality traits.

Scott Stanley, one of the collaborators on the study and research professor at the University of Denver, explained in a piece for the Institute for Family Studies that the study measured different variables such as affection, appreciation, conflict, empathy, aggression, sexual satisfaction and supportiveness.

The study also measured relationship characteristics such as whether or not couples live together, are married and how long they have been in a relationship among other characteristics.

Another category measured individual characteristics like anxiety, attachment, alcohol use, family history and demographic characteristics.

Perceived partner commitment was ranked as the top variable that explains the "variance for both present and future relationship satisfaction," according to Stanley.

According to a statement from Western University announcing the studys conclusion, relationship-specific predictors like perceived partner commitment, as well as appreciation and sexual satisfaction account for nearly half of variance in relationship quality."

Perceived partner satisfaction, conflict, intimacy, love, perceived partner responsiveness, investment and trust were also among the top 10 strongest relationship-specific predictors.

Individual characteristics, on the other hand, only explained 21% of the variance in relationship quality, according to the study. The top five strongest individual predictors were life satisfaction, negative affect, depression, attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety.

Once you have all the relationship-specific data in hand, the individual differences fade into the background, Joel said in a statement.

According to the statement, individual differences didnt seem to regulate or moderate the relationship-specific variables.

Who I am doesnt really matter once I know who I am when I am with you, Eastwick said in a statement.

In an interview with CNN, Joel explained that a relationship is more than the sum of its parts.

"It's that relationship dynamic itself, rather than the individuals who make up the relationship, that seems to be most important for relationship quality, Joel said.

The datasets for the study were sampled from Western countries like Canada, the United States, Israel, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and New Zealand. The researchers would like to collect data from countries in South America, Asia and Africa for future studies.

Joel and Eastwick previously published a study in 2017 titled: Is Romantic Desire Predictable? Machine Learning Applied to Initial Romantic Attraction. Eastwick is also the head of the Attraction and Relationships Research Laboratory, which studies the psychological processes involved in initiating and maintaining romantic relationships.
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Linkedin Sofia Christensen (Agence France-Presse) Hammanskraal , South Africa  Mon, August 10, 2020 10:02 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cbe585 2 News South-Africa,safari,travel,coronavirus,COVID-19,pandemic,leisure Free

Tourists gasp as two lionesses elegantly pad across the track, barely glancing at the jeep-load of city dwellers escaping lockdown at a game reserve in Gauteng, South Africa's coronavirus epicentre.

Visitors have flocked from the capital Pretoria and financial hub Johannesburg since the government allowed South Africans to travel for leisure within their provinces last week.

The announcement brought a small sliver of relief to the country's tourist industry, which has missed out on more than $3.9 billion in revenue since South Africa went into lockdown on March 27.

As the only park in Gauteng offering sightings of the popular "Big Five" -- buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion and rhino -- Dinokeng Game Reserve has attracted nature lovers who would normally drive to remote larger parks elsewhere in the country.

"It's actually amazing, we have had a lot of support from locals," said Gavin Sterley, manager of the four-star Mongena Game Lodge in Dinokeng, which reopened a week ago.

"They are all booking and coming for game drives, dinner and that type of stuff."

Mongena closed its doors two weeks before the start of lockdown, when President Cyril Ramaphosa banned travelers from badly infected countries in an early bid to stem the spread of COVID-19.

Before the pandemic, around 80 percent of Mongena's guests came from abroad, while locals mainly visited for business events.

Sterley believes the easing of intra-provincial travel restrictions could add to the business.

The lodge is fully booked through August by South Africans eager to holiday after months of confinement.

"It is a big marketing opportunity for us," Sterley told AFP.

Read also: Worried and wary: South Africa's safari industry waits out virus pandemic

'Breath of fresh air'

Lindy Jansen Van Vuuren, 42, beamed up at her husband as a pair of nyala antelope sidled past the jeep and trotted lightly towards the sunrise.

The Johannesburg-based couple had spent two nights in Mongena and were next headed to the neighboring Magaliesberg mountain range.

"It is the first time we are holidaying in Gauteng and it is actually really nice so close to home," Van Vuuren exclaimed. "A breath of fresh air."

"You go on a two-day break and it feels as if you have gone a week," she said.

Graphic design student Natasha Zachariades, 20, shared the enthusiasm.

"We usually go down to the coast or overseas for our holiday but obviously we can't do that," said Zachariades, who came from Pretoria after finishing her exams.

"It has been the most relaxing couple of days that I have had in a long time," she noted, thrilled after spotting a giraffe.

Apparently grinning from behind his face mask, ranger Stian Loubser pointed out rhino tracks and elephant droppings along the way.

"We are trying to be as virus-safe as possible while also trying to create a nice guest experience," he explained, excited to be "back in the bush".

After the morning drives, guests rubbing sanitizer over their hands trickled into the restaurant for lunch.

All tables were marked with reservation tags, highlighting signs of recovery after four months without income.

"I don't think anything will make up for the losses we have made but we can carry on," said Sterley, noting that 80 percent of staff had returned to work.

"We will see how long it stays like this," he added, fearing a "dip" in demand once travel to other provinces is allowed to resume.

The trick, said Sterley, will be brushing up service and providing enough incentive for locals to return.

"Just give them the best experience possible," he said. "That's all we can do for now."
Selling goods through live streaming, which has exploded in the Chinese market, has become popular in Southeast Asia, including in Vietnam, reported Nhip Cau Dau Tu (nhipcaudautu.vn).

Appearing in Vietnam in late 2018, selling goods through live streaming promises to become a leading sales platform for online retailers.





Many livestream accounts have seen record high numbers of viewers which bring high revenue to sellers. Many e-commerce sites, including Shopee, Lazada, Sendo and Tiki, have applied this method.



Two years ago, Tiki tried the new sales method by playing live videos on its fanpage. In June 2019, it set fixed livestream schedules every month.



Since early 2020, Tiki has expanded live streaming to sell products to many different targeted clients  celebrities, community of buyers and KOLs (key opinion leaders).



Lazada, Sendo and Shopee have also jumped on the bandwagon. On the first days of the social distancing campaign, Shopee launched the program o nha khong kho  co Shopee lo (its not difficult to stay at home, let Shopee take care of you).

Selling goods through live streaming, which has exploded in the Chinese market, has become popular in Southeast Asia, including in Vietnam.

Livestreams are organized two days every week, with up to three each day.

Meanwhile, Lazada ran An tam mua sam tai nha (enjoy shopping at home). The e-commerce site has only a few livestreams within one day, but organizes livestreams on many days a week with many different topics.



Each topic has a hashtag attached, which allows viewers to easily find and watch favorite topics, such as LazCook, LazMusic, LazGetfit, LazLearn, LazHome and LazPlay.



As for Sendo, it joined forces with OTA Network, which brings game-focused content creators together to organize Livestream Showmatch.



Sales through live streaming, or social e-commerce, is well known. In 2015, Kohls in the US applied livestream for its fashion shows. Buyers can order products while they are watching videos about the shows.



In 2016, Facebook joined the market when it announced a live video streaming platform.



Tiffany Wan, CEO of VS Media, said to attract viewers, livestream videos need to have attractive informative content.



The biggest challenge for video streamers is retaining viewers as long as possible, thereby creating interactions through comments, likes, and deal finalization.



Le Huu Nhan from Tiki said the content of videos must be prepared thoroughly. Some sellers report revenue from TikiLive, accounting for 70 percent of their total revenue.

Revenue on the days when they organize live streaming is much higher than ordinary days. Livestream in combination with games can increase the number of interactions.

Translated by Kim Chi

Online sales rise sharply amid pandemic As Vietnamese are now favoring contactless purchases in Covid-19, online sales have increased rapidly.
Mahesh Babu Starrer Dookudu To Be Remade In Hindi? Read Details...
At the General Hospital in Mexico City, where Mr. Bailon died, suspicion was running high. No one had wanted to come to the hospital, a place that seemed to swallow their loved ones and leave them outside, with few updates to calm the nerves. Everyone had a theory about the real cause of the virus and the destruction it had unleashed.

Modesto Gomez, whose wife was inside, heard the government was letting elderly people die of the virus because they had expensive pensions. Hector Mauricio Ortega, whose father was intubated there with a Covid infection, said he believed doctors were purposely infecting people with the virus because countries have a quota of people who need to die every year.

Raul Perez woke up in a panic on the benches outside the entrance. It was his 16th day sleeping there after his sister went in for brain surgery.

He said he had met seven families of patients who had come in for another illness and then died of the coronavirus.

People think maybe theyre injecting them with something or killing them in there, he said.

Mr. Perez didnt believe the rumors at first, but then doctors told him that his sister, who was still intubated after her brain surgery, had tested positive for coronavirus. Now he was frantic, calling all of his relatives, telling them the hospital wanted his sister dead.

They are letting people get infected, he said. They just want to get rid of one more patient.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany has rejected a proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin back into the Group of Seven (G7) most advanced economies, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a newspaper interview published on Monday.

Trump raised the prospect last month of expanding the G7 to again include Russia, which had been expelled in 2014 following Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region.

But Maas told Rheinische Post that he did not see any chance for allowing Russia back into the G7 as long as there was no meaningful progress in solving the conflict in Crimea as well as in eastern Ukraine.

Russia itself could make the biggest contribution to becoming part of the G7 format again by contributing to a peaceful solution in the Ukraine conflict, Maas said.

Russia is still part of the G20, a broader grouping including other emerging-market economies.

"G7 and G20 are two sensibly coordinated formats. We don't need G11 or G12 anymore," Maas said in reference to Trump's proposal to invite not only Russia, but other countries to G7 meetings.

Maas described the relationship with Russia as "currently difficult" in many areas. "But we also know that we need Russia to solve conflicts such as those in Syria, Libya and Ukraine. That will not work against Russia, but only with Russia."

Germany, which took over the rotating six-month EU presidency on July 1, has taken on a mediating role in the conflict in Libya as well as in Ukraine.

"But Russia also has to make its contribution, which is very slow in Ukraine," Maas said.

(Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Peter Cooney)
TROY, Mich., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As the coronavirus pandemic continues to create a challenging situation across the country and the world, ICONMA's Healthcare Division has seen a rapid increase in healthcare openings.

"Our healthcare partners list is growing, and almost all of them are seeing an increased demand for healthcare professionals of all kinds, especially in hospitals and emergency rooms. Registered Nurses (RN), Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA), Traveling Nurses, and Lab Technicians are just a few of the positions with increased demand," said Nick Mirabile, Director, Healthcare Services & Solutions.

ICONMA now also offers a COVID-19 medical screening service, available to all businesses resuming in person operations.

"Our medical screening service helps companies provide a secure workplace for employees and visitors. The extra layer of security could be the difference between an outbreak or a smooth transition back into the office," Mirabile said.

To learn how ICONMA can provide healthcare staffing for your organization, email [email protected].

About ICONMA

ICONMA is a Global Information Consulting Management firm providing Professional Staffing Services & Project-Based Solutions for organizations in a broad range of industries. A certified woman-owned company celebrating 20 years of business in 2020, ICONMA's Corporate Headquarters is based in Troy, Michigan with locations throughout the United States, Canada, and India.

Connect with ICONMA on social media

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Riot police secure an area inside a shopping mall during a rally in Hong Kong on July 21, 2020. (Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)

Freelancer for UKs ITV News Arrested in Hong Kong Under National Security Law

A freelance journalist working for Britains ITV News has been arrested in Hong Kong under the new national security law.

Wilson Li, a former member of pro-democracy student activist group Scholarism, was arrested on Monday for allegedly colluding with foreign forces in violation of the national security law.

We can confirm that Wilson Li works for ITV News in a freelance capacity. We are concerned to hear of his arrest and are urgently seeking clarification of the circumstances, said an ITV News spokesperson.

Media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, founder of Apple Daily (C), is detained by the national security unit in Hong Kong on Aug. 10, 2020. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Lis arrest followed that of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, founder of the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper and the Next Digital media group, his two sons, and a number of other activists.

At least 100 police officers raided the headquarters of Apple Daily, sifting through files on desks, lining up staff for identification, and searching through the newsroom.

The British government is deeply concerned by the arrests of Lai and other activists, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson told ITV.

This is further evidence that the national security law is being used as a pretext to silence opposition, the spokesman said.

Britains Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves Downing Street in London on July 8, 2020. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)

The arrests were the most outrageous assault yet on what is left of Hong Kongs free press, said Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, in a statement released by NGO Hong Kong Watch.

The international community cannot let this stand, said human rights activist and China expert Benedict Rogers, who chairs Hong Kong Watch.

Rogers urged the British government to impose targeted Magnitsky sanctions immediately against Hong Kongs Chief Executive Carrie Lam, as well as other Hong Kong and Chinese officials accused of human rights abuses in the former British colony.

Chris Patten, Hong Kongs last British governor, speaks at the Foreign Correspondents Club to promote his new book, in Hong Kong on Sept. 19, 2017. (Vincent Yu/AP Photo)

The Trump administration on Aug. 7 sanctioned Carrie Lam and 10 other Hong Kong and Chinese officials for undermining the citys autonomy and freedoms.

The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets the officials possess, and generally bar Americans from doing business with them.

Yinyin Liao, Cathy He, and Eva Fu contributed to this report.
Les Wexner may be forced to explain his ties to Jeffrey Epstein after the Victoria's Secret mogul was hit with a subpoena by the dead pedophile's former lawyer, Alan Dershowitz.

Dershowitz, 81, wants Wexner and his attorney John Zeiger to sit down for depositions and provide documents that could influence his bitter ongoing legal battle with Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre.

Giuffre accused the famed Harvard Law professor of having sex with her when she was underage then sued him for defamation when he responded by calling her a liar.

Dershowitz countersued, accusing Giuffre of making the abuse up to extort 'millions of dollars' from himself and other prominent Epstein associates, namely Wexner, who stepped down as the CEO of global retail empire L Brands in February.

He now wants the Ohio billionaire and his lawyer to describe any contact they may have had with Giuffre, saying details of any secret demands or deals she cut with them will be essential to his defense.

Les Wexner (right) may be forced to explain his ties to Jeffrey Epstein after the Victoria's Secret mogul was hit with a subpoena by the dead pedophile's former lawyer, Alan Dershowitz (left). Dershowitz, 81, wants Wexner and his attorney John Zeiger to sit down for depositions and provide documents that could influence his bitter ongoing legal battle with Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre

Giuffre (pictured) accused the famed Harvard Law professor of having sex with her when she was underage then sued him for defamation when he responded by calling her a liar

Dershowitz (pictured with Epstein) counter-sued, accusing Giuffre of making the abuse up to extort 'millions of dollars' from himself and other prominent Epstein associates, namely Wexner, who stepped down as the CEO of global retail empire L Brands in February. He now wants the Ohio billionaire and his lawyer to describe any contact they may have had with Giuffre, saying details of any secret demands or deals she cut with them will be essential to his defense

The subpoenas are demanding they hand over copies of any communications between Wexner or Zeiger and any lawyer representing Giuffre, particularly any document 'concerning any accusation by Giuffre that she had sexual relations with Wexner.'

They have also asked for copies of any confidential settlements or agreements of any kind between Giuffre and Wexner as well as any documents ever supplied by the two men to any legal case involving Epstein, whether civil or criminal.

Wexner, 82, has never been accused of taking part in the warped financier's child sex trafficking operation, although Epstein was known to use his ties to the Victoria's Secret mogul to lure underage girls with promises of modeling careers.

But he admitted last year that he was 'embarrassed' by their long-standing ties.

The elderly tycoon hired Epstein as his personal money manager in the 1990s and claims that more than $46 million was 'misappropriated' from his personal fortune during that time.

'Being taken advantage of by someone who was so sick, so cunning, so depraved, is something that I'm embarrassed I was even close to. But that is in the past,' Wexner told investors one month after Epstein hanged himself last August while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges.

In a batch of letters unsealed Monday, Dershowitz's attorney Howard Cooper asked New York Federal Judge Loretta Preska to intervene because Wexner and Zeiger were resisting subpoenas served to them on June 8.

He accused the pair of trying to 'condition their compliance' on the depositions remaining confidential under a proposed protective order that would allow them to veto anything they did not want filed publicly, or even under seal.

'The Subpoenas  seek depositions of Wexner and Zeiger, and the production of a small number of documents directly relevant to the central allegation in this case that Plaintiff falsely accused Professor Dershowitz of sexual abuse as part of a scheme to extort Wexner,' Cooper wrote.

The subpoenas are demanding they hand over copies of any communications between Wexner or Zeiger and any lawyer representing Giuffre, particularly any document 'concerning any accusation by Giuffre that she had sexual relations with Wexner

'Professor Dershowitz's counsel has engaged in an extensive meet and confer process and has offered every courtesy and accommodation to Wexner and Zeiger short of withdrawing the Subpoenas.

'With Wexner refusing to produce any documents or appear for a deposition, and Zeiger refusing to produce documents or provide testimony absent the entry of an onerous protective order which would severely hamper Professor Dershowitz's ability to use the discovery in this litigation, the parties are at an impasse.'

Giuffre's attorney Charles Cooper wrote his own letter to Judge Preska saying the depositions should go ahead and that Giuffre planned on seeking similar information, seeing as Dershowitz had 'put Leslie Wexner at the heart of his false and defamatory claims.'

Judge Preska said lawyers for all the parties should 'confer' and report back to her no later than August 13.

Wexner did not comment publicly when Dershowitz first aired his extortion defense in 2015 but a source close to him told the New York Times that no such attempt was ever made by Giuffre and the pair had never met.

Brad Edwards, a longtime lawyer for Epstein's victims, said in July last year that he had no reason to suspect that Wexner was involved or aware of Epstein's sick crimes.

'We have not seen where he is in the company of Jeffrey Epstein at the time when he was engaging in these things,' Edwards told reporters.

'In fact, it's very seldom that many of the victims actually even met him or saw him. I do know that there's a lot of business ties to him, but other than receiving information about their business connection, I don't have any information to believe otherwise.'

Dershowitz helped Epstein agree to a cushy non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in 2008 which allowed him to plead guilty to minor charges and spend only 13 months in jail, most of it on work release.

In 2014, Giuffre named him as one of several prominent men she was forced to have sex with, including Britain's Prince Andrew, who also denies the allegations.

In 2014 Giuffre named Dershowitz as one of several prominent men she was forced to have sex with, including Britain's Prince Andrew (pictured together with Ghislaine Maxwell), who also denies the allegations

She sued Dershowitz in 2019 claiming he had made 'false and malicious defamatory statements against her' while he was making his vociferous denials.

The veteran attorney responded by vowing to prove she was a liar in open court and predicted Giuffre would end up behind bars herself for perjury.

Dershowitz was back in the Epstein crosshairs last month after his name appeared in a tranche of newly unsealed documents revisiting accusations that he had sex with 'Jane Doe 3', who is identified elsewhere as Giuffre.

He told DailyMail.com the allegations that dated back to 2014 were 'old news' and that he has denied them numerous times.

Dershowitz has admitted having a massage at Epstein's Palm Beach mansion, where the dead predator attacked many of his underage victims, but says it was entirely innocent.

'We were guests and everybody got massages,' said Dershowitz, who was on President Trump's defense team in his Senate impeachment trial.

'When you went into Epstein's house, the first thing they offered you was to have a massage therapist come to your room and give you a massage.

'I did it once. And my massage therapist was a middle aged woman from Eastern Europe. I had never had a quote erotic massage in my life, period.'

Dershowitz was named in unsealed documents released last month. Dershowitz has admitted having a massage at Epstein's Palm Beach mansion, where the dead predator attacked many of his underage victims, but says it was entirely innocent

This flight log shows American attorney Alan Dershowitz on board Epstein's 'Lolita Express'

Dershowitz helped Epstein agree a cushy non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in 2008 which allowed him to plead guilty to minor charges and spend only 13 months in jail, most of it on work release.

In 2014 Giuffre named him as one of several prominent men she was forced to have sex with, including Britain's Prince Andrew, who also denies the allegations.

She sued Dershowitz in 2019 claiming he had made 'false and malicious defamatory statements against her' while he was making his vociferous denials.

The veteran TV attorney responded by vowing to prove she was a liar in open court and predicted Giuffre would end up behind bars herself for perjury.

Giuffre also sued Maxwell for making alleged smears about her credibility but that case was settled in 2017 and much of the evidence sealed.

After appeals from the Miami Herald and other outlets Judge Preska has been going through the cache of sealed and heavily redacted documents one by one since last year, giving anyone mentioned in them the chance to lodge an objection.

The entire process is taking too long and is becoming farcical, according to Dershowitz who says he wants all the papers released today as they will 'fully exonerate' him.
Several Gulf countries asked the United Nations to extend an arms embargo against Iran on Sunday.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) sent a letter to the UN Security Council saying that Iran has not stopped its military activities under the embargo.

Iran has continued to proliferate conventional weapons and arm terrorist and sectarian organizations and movements throughout the region, the council said in a statement.

UN Security Council Resolution 2231 prohibits weapons transfers to and from Iran. It expires in October, and the end date is part of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that former US President Barack Obama negotiated with the Islamic Republic. In 2018, the United States withdrew from the deal and US President Donald Trump reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran as part of his maximum pressure strategy. The United States asserts that Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon, which Iran denies. The United States, Gulf states and Israel also oppose Iranian military support of its allies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

The GCC consists of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Kuwait, Omar and Qatar. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain are all close allies and staunch opponents of Iran. UAE diplomats did discuss COVID-19 cooperation with their Iranian counterparts this month, however. Qatar has somewhat better relations with Iran. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have not had diplomatic relations with Qatar since the 2017 diplomatic crisis, but Qatar remains a part of the GCC.

The Trump administration has been ramping up efforts this summer to get the arms embargo extended, saying it has the ability to reimpose pre-deal sanctions on Iran if the embargo is not extended. The GCC announcement shows the member states are on board with the US efforts.

The United States plans to submit a resolution to the UN this week on extending the embargo. Russia and China, who have veto power on the Security Council, as the United States does, are likely to oppose this.

On Monday, Iran slammed the recent efforts to extend the embargo as an anti-Iran policy led by the United States.

The US is actively resorting to Iran-phobia & coercion, Irans Ambassador to the UN Takht Ravanchi said in a tweet. The Council must reject bullying & unilateralism."
MOSCOW  Dramatic protests erupted across Belarus overnight as the country's authoritarian president declared a sweeping victory over a popular opposition candidate in elections widely seen as riddled with irregularities.

Alexander Lukashenko has resorted to violent crackdowns on several occasions to maintain his grasp on power in the former Soviet nation for the last 26 years. But despite recent overtures to the West signalling that his regime was softening, Lukashenko reverted to the old playbook Sunday.

According to official exit polling released by the countrys Central Election Commission after polls closed, Lukashenko was on his way to receiving more than 80 percent of votes cast from a turnout of more than 80 percent.

He is often referred to as Europes last dictator, but Sundays results strained credulity even by those standards.

Crying foul, streams of people began taking to the streets across Belarus to support surprise opposition star Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya.

She has emerged in recent weeks as an unprecedented threat to Lukashenkos authority, inspiring the largest wave of protests against the regime in the past decade.

Related:

Last night, Lukashenko opted to answer this movement with a heavy-handed crackdown.

Internet access in Belarus was heavily curtailed as polls closed, making it difficult to ascertain exactly what was going on. Many foreign journalists were denied accreditation to enter the country to cover the election, further complicating the picture.

Videos and accounts made their way out of Belarus overnight, painting a dramatic picture of peaceful protesters appearing to be met with disproportionately violent responses from riot police  especially in the capital city Minsk.

Lukashenko warned Monday that the protesters will face a tough crackdown, labeling them sheep being manipulated by foreign masters.

We will not allow them to tear the country apart," he said.

The European Union condemned the police crackdown and called for an immediate release of all those detained.

Story continues

"We're deeply concerned by the Belarus presidential election," White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at a briefing Monday, citing intimidation of opposition candidates and the detention of protesters and journalists.

The U.S. urged Lukashenko's government to refrain from the use of force, she added.

Image: Riot police disperse protesters after polls closed in the presidential election, in Minsk, Belarus (Siarhei Leskiec / AFP - Getty Images)

For her part the opposition leader Tsikhanouskaya rejected the results and asserted that she was the winner of Sundays contest, setting the stage for a prolonged standoff between her supporters and the Lukashenko government.

We do not recognize the election results. We have seen the real tallies. We urge those who believe their votes to have been stolen to not remain silent, she said in a press conference Monday, according to independent Russian outlet Meduza.

Her campaign has said they intend to keep up the pressure.

Belarusian authorities have not released any official tallies of the number of protesters who took to the streets in Minsk last night  let alone across the country  but on Monday the interior ministry said it had arrested 3000 people, 1000 of which were detained in Minsk.

Videos that made it online showed thousands of protesters gathering in various locations.

Authorities said nobody had been killed in the clashes, though photos and video appeared to show many were injured.

Tensions are not only playing out in physical clashes. Internet connectivity has been severely limited across the country since Sunday, several digital rights groups have said.

Access Now, an internet freedom nonprofit, said that Belarusian authorities had blocked independent media sites, as well as several virtual private networks, a service that can be used to circumvent some internet censorship methods.

NetBlocks, a service that tracks internet outages, found evidence of multiple internet disruptions, particularly in Minsk. As polls opened, Twitter said its platform had been blocked in the country.

Image: An injured man receives medical help during clashes between opposition supporters and riot police after polls closed in Belarus' presidential election, Minsk (Siarhei Leskiec / AFP - Getty Images)

Lukashenko now finds himself in a tenuous position, Emily Ferris, a research fellow specializing in the former Soviet space at London's Royal United Services Institute think tank, told NBC News on Monday.

Lukashenko has in recent years found himself increasingly dependent on foreign, particularly Western, support in order to remain in power and assert independence from neighboring Russia under President Vladimir Putin.

A further crackdown could jeopardize this support.

This is a difficult balance for Lukashenko to strike, Ferris said, ensuring that he quells the waves of protests in time and maintains some element of political stability, while also making sure that potential western partners are not put off by his actions.

Tsikhanouskaya is calling on Lukashenko to enter into a dialogue with the opposition and begin a peaceful transition of power.

We are for peaceful changes, she was quoted as saying by the Russian state-run TASS news agency on Monday.

The measures implemented by the authorities were disproportionate," she added. "And we will do everything we can to prevent this from happening again.

Protests were expected to continue Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
McDonalds Corp. sued ousted leader Steve Easterbrook, seeking to recover tens of millions of dollars in severance pay after discovering evidence he had sexual relationships with multiple employees, tried to cover it up and arranged for one worker to get a lucrative stock award.

His termination last fall over an improper relationship shouldnt have included severance pay because he concealed evidence and lied about his wrongdoing, the company said in a filing.

Easterbrook had originally admitted to having a consensual relationship with just one co-worker, but information the company received from an anonymous tip in July led the company to further investigate. It concluded he had been involved in sexual relationships with three additional company employees before his exit, according to a company filing Monday.

The evidence also shows Easterbrook approved a special discretionary grant of restricted stock units worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to one of the employees after their first sexual encounter -- and just days before their second, the company said.

As a result, the fast-food chain filed a complaint in the Delaware Chancery Court to recover any compensation and severance benefits that he received when he left his post. The company has also taken steps to prevent Easterbrook from exercising any stock options or selling any shares.

Company Memo

Chris Kempczinski, who took over as CEO when Easterbrook was pushed out, alerted company employees about the action Monday.

We recently became aware, through an employee report, of new information regarding the conduct of our former CEO, Steve Easterbrook, he wrote in the internal memo, reviewed by Bloomberg News. While the board made the right decision to swiftly remove him from the company last November, this new information makes it clear that he lied and destroyed evidence regarding inappropriate personal behavior and should not have retained the contractual compensation he did upon his exit.

Easterbrook got $675,000 in severance and health insurance benefits and stock awards that Bloomberg valued at more than $37 million last November.

McDonalds shares were little changed in premarket trading Monday in New York. McDonalds rose 3.5% this year through Friday, roughly in line with the S&P 500 Index.

Naked photos

According to the complaint, the evidence against Easterbrook includes dozens of naked or explicit photographs and videos of various women, including some employees, that Easterbrook had sent as attachments to his personal email account from his work account. The time stamps on the photos of employees show they were all taken in late 2018 or early 2019, when he was CEO.

The photographs are undisputable evidence that Easterbrook repeatedly violated the companys prohibition of any kind of intimate relationship between employees in a direct or indirect reporting relationship, McDonalds said in the filing. They are undisputable evidence that Easterbrook lied during the investigation into his behavior in October 2019.

The company said wasnt aware of the photographs before July 2020, despite doing an earlier investigation of his behavior in the fall. Thats because Easterbrook appeared to have deleted the emails and photos from his company phone before it was searched by independent counsel in late October 2019, according to the complaint.

However, the deletion of the emails from his phone didnt also delete them from his email account stored on the companys servers.
Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA

Steve Easterbrook, the British former chief executive of McDonalds, is being sued by the company in an attempt to recover tens of millions in compensation and severance payments after new allegations of sexual misconduct emerged against him.

Easterbrook, who was fired from the company last November over a relationship with an employee, allegedly hid details of three other physical sexual relationships with employees in the year before he left the company, according to a lawsuit filed in Delaware.

Related: McDonald's chief executive out over relationship with employee

At that time, McDonalds listed his termination as without cause, signalling that the Chicago-based company considered Easterbrooks transgressions insufficient to prevent him from receiving exit payments. Easterbrook apologized and stepped away with stock awards worth more than $37m, as well as about $675,000 in severance pay.

The McDonalds lawsuit, filed against Easterbrook on Monday accuses him of lying, concealing evidence and fraud. The fresh allegations against him, the company said in a securities filing and a document lodged with the Delaware court of chancery, came to light via an anonymous tipster last month.

The company  which, in the complaint, invoked founder Ray Krocs philosophy that employees should be ethical, truthful and dependable  said it would have terminated Easterbrook for cause if it had known the extent of his inappropriate personal behaviour.

According to the lawsuit, new evidence shows that in addition to physical sexual relationships with three employees in the year before his termination, he was in the midst of one when he was fired and he was knowingly untruthful with investigators.

Evidence against Easterbrook, McDonalds said, consisted of dozens of nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit photographs and videos of various women, including photographs of these company employees, that Easterbrook had sent as attachments to messages from his company email account to his personal email account.

Story continues

The company said the emails were sent in late 2018 and early 2019.

During the investigation, the company alleges, Easterbrook claimed that the relationship over which he was dismissed consisted only of texting and video calls and he assured the company that he had no other intimate relationships with employees.

Had Easterbrook been candid with McDonalds investigators and not concealed evidence, McDonalds would have known that it had legal cause to terminate him in 2019, the company said in its lawsuit.

Based on the results of the investigation, the board concluded that Mr Easterbrook lied to the company and the board and destroyed information regarding inappropriate personal behaviour and in fact had been involved in sexual relationships with three additional company employees prior to his termination, all in violation of company policy, McDonalds said.

Chris Kempczinski, who replaced Easterbrook as chief executive, told franchisees and employees in a separate message that McDonalds does not tolerate behavior from any employee that does not reflect our values.

We now know that his conduct deviated from our values in different and far more extensive ways than we were aware when he left the company last year, Kempczinski added.

Easterbrook could not immediately be reached for comment.

In an email sent to McDonalds employees at the time of his exit, he expressed regret over the relationship that had come to light at the time.

As for my departure, I engaged in a recent consensual relationship with an employee, which violated McDonalds policy, Easterbrook wrote. This was a mistake. Given the values of the company, I agree with the board that it is time for me to move on. Beyond this, I hope you can respect my desire to maintain my privacy.

McDonalds also said it had also taken steps to prevent Easterbrook from selling stock it had granted to him or exercising his remaining share options.

The companys complaint alleges that Mr Easterbrook breached his fiduciary duties as an officer and director of the company and committed fraud in the inducement, the company told investors in its filing. It is seeking compensatory damages for all the amounts paid to Mr Easterbrook under the separation agreement and other costs and expenses incurred by the company by virtue of his misconduct, it added.

The lawsuit marks a dramatic departure from unspoken US corporate policy around allegations of wrongdoing and termination of senior executives as they seek to align with the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements.

As we recommit to our values, now, more than ever, is the time to lean in to what we stand for and act as a positive force for change, Kempczinski noted in his memo.

Easterbrook, 53, was born in Watford and joined McDonalds in 1993. He left in 2011 to become the chief executive of Pizza Express and later Wagamama, before rejoining McDonalds in its head office in Illinois as global chief brand officer in 2013. He became chief executive two years later.
Windsor-Essex Joins Ontario Stage 3 Reopening as Canada Continues to Emerge From Shutdown

As parts of Canada continue to reopen after the COVID-19 shutdown, the Windsor-Essex region will join the rest of Ontario in Stage 3 of the provinces reopening plan on Aug. 12.

Outbreaks among migrant workers on farms in the region had previously held Windsor-Essex back when other parts of the province entered Stage 3 on July 17, 24, and 31.

Ontarios chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams, said in a press release that he made the decision based on positive local trends, including lower transmission rates, a significant increase in testing and the local public health units capacity to conduct rapid case, and contact management.

Premier Doug Ford said the decision will allow more businesses to reopen and more people to return to work.

As all of Ontario now enters into Stage 3, I ask everyone to remain on their guard and keep following the public health measures to protect the tremendous progress weve made and keep this deadly virus at bay, he said in the release.

The areas medical officer of health, Dr. Wajid Ahmed, stressed in his own media briefing that despite the economic and social relief the reopening will bring, people must not stop practising physical distancing and wearing face coverings.

Wajid Ahmed, Chief Officer of Health for Windsor-Essex County, poses outside his office in Windsor, Ont. on June 25, 2020. (The Canadian Press/Rob Gurdebeke)

Ahmed said health officials are making progress in the region to contain outbreaks on local farms. Hundreds of migrant workers have contracted the virus in the region and the province continues to test and isolate them, he said.

No one can predict what happens and which farms or workplaces can go into outbreak, he said. The only way to prevent that is through proactive measures.

Ahmed said a number of factors were considered when it came to the decision to move the community forward, including local hospital capacity, which is currently at 85 percent.

Overall, Ontario reported 115 new cases of COVID-19 on Aug. 10. It was the first time in more than a week that the province saw more than 100 new cases of the virus in a day.

Health Minister Christine Elliott acknowledged the slight uptick but said the trend in the province remains downward. The minister also said 28 out of 34 of the provinces public health units reported five or fewer new cases, while 18 reported none.

Ontario started to enter Stage 3 reopening on July 17, with more businesses and public spaces allowed to reopen gradually, and gatherings of 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors, but in all cases individuals have to maintain social distancing of at least 2 metres. Gyms, movie theatres, and playgrounds also started to open as well as indoor dining with proper distancing.

B.C. entered its Phase 3 Restart Plan on June 24. At this stage, dining indoors with a group of up to 6 people is allowed with 2 metres social distancing. Overall, gatherings cant be more than 50 people.

Alberta entered Stage 2 of its Relaunch Strategy on June 12 when indoor recreation, fitness, and sports, including gyms and arenas started to open. At this time, indoor social gatherings are still limited to 50 people and 200 maximum for audience-type community outdoor events, 100 maximum for other outdoor events and indoor seated/audience events.

In Quebec, festivals as well as some other public indoor and outdoor events can now resume, but with a maximum of 250 attendees.

With files from The Canadian Press.
GODFREY  This years Christmas in July raised $26,700 for the nonprofit Community Christmas area-wide event that starts in November.

It is with a very grateful heart that we raised the funds with donations, which are still coming in, said Margaret Freer of Freers Auto Body, where the summer fundraiser originated and held each year in Godfrey. We ran out of food  Margaret Freer never runs out of food. I would never have guessed with COVID-19 that we would have had the crowd and the success we had.

The Freer family, along with the sisters friends normally serve the sloppy Joes, bag of chips and a beverage to people who stop by during the one-day event for lunch, although plenty have ordered carry out in past years, too. Lunch is provided for a donation to the whole Community Christmas cause. This year, all orders were carry out only on July 31. All proceeds go to help those in need.

Freer Auto Bodys owners began the lighthearted event 12 years ago, when it was founded at the behest of Freers granddaughters, Taylor, 16, and Lily Freer, 13, as part of United Ways and The Telegraphs Community Christmas, which raises money and collects new items for families in need. New toys, personal items and non-perishables, either through donations or purchased with the money raised, are distributed through a network of businesses, groups and volunteers at Christmastime. Pre-pandemic past Christmas in Julys have raised approximately $40,000 each year during the past few summers.

We truly have the best friends, customers and family ever, who always step up to the plate and help out, Margaret Freer said. We are grateful and amazed. This was all done during a pandemic without our usual raffle. There will be a lot of happy kids this Christmas.

The Freers also take time to shop sales each year for needed items, such as coats, hats, gloves, toys and personal items.

We have been shopping sales all year for needed items, Freer explained. We are truly blessed and are so grateful for a giving community.

Hopefully by the time Christmas comes celebrating will be closer to normal. But in the meantime families in need still rely on Community Christmas.

We know this is a rough time, but if you would still like to donate to Community Christmas you can, she said. We are accepting cash donations, as well. We have always appreciated the support from the community and lots will need help this year at Christmas with the pandemic.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 12:32:10|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The United States should stop making groundless allegations against Chinese companies including TikTok and give them a level playing field, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai has said.

"I don't think there's an evidence that any company is giving such information to the Chinese government. People make these allegations, but they never show any evidence," said Cui in response to the U.S. government's allegations that TikTok might give its data to the Chinese government when he was attending the 2020 Aspen Security Forum on Aug. 4.

"Very often we hear complaints here that we don't give a level playing field to American companies. But more and more, I believe we should complain Chinese companies are not having a level playing field here," he said.

"There is such a degree of political intervention, government intervention into the market. There's such a discrimination against Chinese company. These companies are just private companies," the ambassador said.

"It's not fair to make such allegations without giving any evidence and to accuse China of not giving American companies a level playing field while at the same time they themselves are denying Chinese companies such a level playing field. This is extremely unfair," he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order banning any U.S. transactions with Chinese tech firm ByteDance, owner of TikTok, starting in 45 days.

TikTok has been downloaded over 175 million times in the United States and over 1 billion times globally, according to the executive order, which claims that the app automatically captures "vast swaths of information" from its users, posing risks to U.S. national security.

A similar executive order has also been issued for WeChat, a messaging and social media app owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent. Enditem
HOLYOKE  The LGBTQ Victory Fund, which calls Holyoke Mayor Alex Morses campaign for Congress a game changer on its website, is sticking with the candidate despite allegations of inappropriate relationships with college students.

And in doing so, the Washington-based political advocacy group seems to echo Morses defense of himself.

Morse, a former political science lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has acknowledged what he describes as consensual relationships with students. The university has said it will conduct an investigation.

Alex is taking responsibility for actions that made students uncomfortable and we support the independent investigation by UMass, despite no complaints having ever been made to the university, LGBTQ Victory Fund said Monday. But it is critical the media and others avoid reinforcing tired homophobic tropes or sensationalizing this story because of Alexs sexual orientation.

Alex has been open about the fact that he has had consensual relationships with other men, including students enrolled at local universities that he has met using dating apps, and there are no allegations of non-consent or of anyone underage, the organization said. The media and voters should review the allegations and determine whether a straight candidate would be held to the same scrutiny and standards.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nations largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, has endorsed Morses opponent, incumbent U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield. The Human Rights Campaign said Monday it had no comment on Morse.

College Democrats of Massachusetts and its chapters at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Amherst College said Morse used their events to meet romantic partners and that he used online dating apps and Instagram to communicate with them. The young men were intimidated by Morse position as mayor and as a lecturer at UMass, the organization said.

On Thursday, the College Democrats disinvited Morse from its events. Members of the groups have declined comment when reached by The Republican over the past few days.

College Democrats published a statement Sunday highlighting the power imbalance between students and Morse and how that imbalance made students uncomfortable and feeling unable to speak out.

For an elected official who is also a lecturer at a university (a position that involves holding both academic and political power over students) to sleep with students at that university is unacceptable, the statement read. In addition to being a Mayor and a lecturer, Mayor Morse is a widely-admired and well-connected gatekeeper to progressive politics in Massachusetts and nationally, which makes the task of refusing his advances fraught for college students who wish to enter progressive politics themselves.

The LGBTQ Victory Fund also questioned the timing of College Democrats Thursday letter to Morse, first reported Friday by the Daily Collegian student newspaper.

Alex has been running for Congress for more than a year and this letter was released one week before the first debate and three weeks before the primary, the LGBTQ Victory Fund said. It is clear it was timed with the political calendar and without enough time for an independent investigation to be completed. That is a disservice to voters who want a progressive member of Congress but now only have time to make a decision based on vague and anonymous accusations.

The LGBTQ Victory Fund is not listed as a donor to the Morse campaign, according to Federal Elections Commission records. His campaign did spend $225 with the group in October 2019, according to those records.

Related Content:
BK Plastic Surgery Hospital in Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul, has set up monitors in the lobby showing footage from its surveillance cameras installed in operating rooms, Monday. / Yonhap



By Lee Hyo-jin



A decision by BK Plastic Surgery Hospital in Seoul to voluntarily disclose its surveillance camera footage in operating rooms is drawing keen attention from industry watchers as to whether other medical institutions will follow suit.



The hospital has launched a real-time monitoring system in which patients or guardians can view operating rooms and other wards through closed-circuit TV (CCTV). BK's move is considered very rare in the medical industry.



"We have decided to open video surveillance of patients upon their consent to keep our surgery procedures transparent. It will ensure patient safety and raise the credibility of our medical services," an official at BK hospital told The Korea Times.



Although many hospitals have surveillance cameras installed in their wards, they strongly oppose CCTV footage being broadcast outside the operating theatre.



Following a series of fatal accidents, public calls are growing for mandatory installation of security cameras to record any medical malpractice and enhance patients' rights.



In March, a six-year-old boy died six months after a tonsillectomy in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province, last October.



His parents posted a public petition on the presidential website on July 21 urging for CCTVs to be mandatory in operating rooms. They stated that the hospital is avoiding responsibility by intentionally amending surgery records, and stressed the need for video footage to clarify the exact cause of death.



According to a survey conducted by Realmeter last month, among 500 people aged above 18, 73.8 percent of respondents agreed on mandatory installation of security cameras in operating suites.



In response to growing calls, on July 24, Rep. Kim Nam-kuk of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea submitted a revision bill obligating all hospitals to install security cameras and record surgery procedures upon the request of the patient.



The lawmaker organized a discussion session on the topic at the National Assembly on July 31, attended by lawmakers, various civic groups and officials of the Ministry of Health and Welfare.



The Korean Medical Association (KMA), which has been strongly opposing the bill, showed changed views at the discussion session. The KMA is the largest doctors' group in Korea with more than 100,000 members.



Song Myung-jae, a member of the KMA, stated, "We are not against enhancing patient's rights, but installing cameras should not be obligatory as many doctors think it will be disturb their surgical procedures."


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A 17-year-old was killed while at least 20 people injured following a shooting in southeastern Washington D.C. on early Sunday morning, according to authorities and local media.

Shots were fired around 1 a.m. eastern time (0500 GMT) on Sunday in a residential neighborhood in the U.S. capital, local police said.

At least nine people were taken to nearby hospitals after the shooting, a police spokesman said, according to CNN's affiliate radio WTOP-FM.
Despite uncertainties from COVID-19, top Japanese corporations plan to invest 15.8% more in information technology in fiscal 2020 to keep up the wave of digitization across industries.

A total of 765 enterprises aim to spend 471.8 billion yen ($4.45 billion) on tech, shows a Nikkei survey of publicly traded companies and those with 100 million yen or more in capital. This marks a second straight year of double-digit growth.

Manufacturers are on track to a record 20.3% jump, while nonmanufacturers plan a 13.1% increase.

But overall capital investment is set to fall 1.2% to 19.24 trillion yen across a broader swath of 948 companies -- the first decline since fiscal 2016, when the U.K. voted to leave the European Union.

With the pandemic disrupting flows of people and goods, companies are turning to technology to adapt sales and distribution channels to the new normal.

Seven & i Holdings, the company behind 7-Eleven convenience stores, plans a 19.9% increase in tech investment to 121.2 billion yen -- the largest sum of anyone on the list. It aims to introduce dynamic pricing for home deliveries and to reduce the burden on delivery staffers.

Kubota will invest 20.8 billion yen, or 140% more, in tech, partnering with Microsoft to globally manage production and sales for its farming and construction equipment. General contractor Taisei will spend 17.1% more so that it can track construction projects remotely, reducing the need for workers.

Investment in technology is only accelerating, given that businesses that have embraced digitization are the ones doing the best in this pandemic.
India has decided to upgrade its diplomatic presence at the United Nations in preparation for taking over as a non-permanent member of the Security Council in January 2021 with an additional deputy permanent representative (DPR) and a counsellor appointed to handle the UNSC matters. External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will personally review Indias stint at the UNSC every month.

According to South Block, R Ravindran, a 1999 batch Indian Foreign Service officer posted as Joint Secretary (Central and West Africa), will join at a rank equivalent of DPR at the Indian Permanent Mission to UN at New York. Pratik Mathur, a 2007 IFS officer and Deputy Secretary (PMO), will join as Counsellor (UNSC).

While the mission already is headed by TS Tirumurti and has Nagaraj Naidu as DPR, the two officers will join the group before the 75th UN General Assembly opens on September 15,2020. Preparatory work for the new non-permanent members begins months before the formal joining of UNSC.

Ravindran had served in the UNPR under Hardeep Singh Puri, now Minister of Civil Aviation, Urban Development and Commerce, who headed the mission when India was a non permanent member in 2011-2012.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already spelled out Indian approach at the UNSC, describing it as the 5S or Samman (Respect), Samvad (Dialogue), Sahyog (Cooperation) , Shanti (global peace) and Samriddhi (global prosperity) with an overall objective of New Orientation of a Reformed Multilateral System.

While India got 184 out of 192 valid votes cast for the UNSC seat, the vote numbers surprised New Delhi as Indias adversaries particularly Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia and backed by Islamabads all weather friend China had run a shrill campaign targeting India over the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir.

Our understanding is that India got these many votes as its forces stood up to China at Galwan in East Ladakh in June. Although only 129 votes are required, India got additional votes for having the capacity to fight for its territory, said a senior government official.

It was a reference to the violent brawl that took place in Galwan on June 15 in which heavily outnumbered Indian soldiers fought back against Chinese troops. India lost 20 men in the skirmish and China suffered an unspecified number of casualties.

But diplomats underline that as New Delhi prepares to play a constructive role at UNSC, it hasnt forgotten that it is still waiting to become a permanent member 75 years after the world body was founded.

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Long-serving Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has won a sixth term, the central electoral commission said, after elections marred by violence as police cracked down on opposition protesters.

The countrys central election commission announced on Monday that all the ballots had been counted and Lukashenko took 80.23 percent of the votes, while his main opposition challenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya had 9.9 percent.

The announcement came after police broke up crowds of protesters with stun grenades and rubber bullets in Minsk and other cities on Sunday evening after an exit poll showed Lukashenko winning an overwhelming victory.

Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old stay-at-home mother and political novice, galvanised the opposition during the election campaign, attracting tens of thousands of supporters to the ex-Soviet countrys biggest demonstrations in years.

A rights group reported that at least one person was killed after being knocked over by a police van and dozens were injured in the clashes that began on Sunday after polling stations closed. More than 200 people were also reportedly detained.

#Belarus It is hard to imagine how the authorities will explain these images,and I am not posting most sensitive ones. These were peaceful protesters,mostly young,really young people. At least one person died after a police van intentionally hit him. The authorities are denying pic.twitter.com/6OfypgvQeJ  Hanna Liubakova (@HannaLiubakova) August 10, 2020

A former Soviet collective farm manager, Lukashenko has ruled the country since 1994, but faces the biggest challenge in years to keep his grip on power with some voters believing strongly that it is time he stood down.

He has cast himself as a guarantor of stability, but is battling a wave of anger over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy, and his human rights record.

Tikhanovskaya entered the race after her husband, an anti-government blogger who intended to run, was jailed. Her rallies have drawn some of the biggest crowds since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Foreign observers have not judged an election to be free and fair in Belarus since 1995.

A severe crackdown on protests could hurt Lukashenkos attempts to mend fences with the West amid fraying ties with traditional ally Russia, which has tried to press Belarus into a closer economic and political union.

Human rights groups say more than 1,300 people were detained in the crackdown ahead of the election, including independent election observers and members of Tikhanovskayas campaign team.

After casting his vote on Sunday, Lukashenko denied imposing repressive measures as fake news or far-fetched accusations.

Late on Sunday, the atmosphere in the city was tense as riot police faced off with opposition protesters, beating some with truncheons and using flash-bang grenades to try to disperse them.

Al Jazeeras Step Vaessen, reporting from Minsk, said the capital was a city filled with anger and frustration and described hectic scenes that Minsk hasnt witnessed before.

The streets and squares are full of people who are all very angry, calling the election a huge fraud, added Vaessen.

Theyre very defiant but also very scared because riot police are out in force. They are detaining people right in front of us, so people are spreading around trying to get away from police.

Police presence in Minsk was heavy throughout the day and, in the evening, police set up checkpoints on the citys perimeter to check residence permits, apparently worried that protesters would come from other cities.
In a recent ruling, an Ontario Superior Court judge has decried the continuing scourge of gun violence and the failure of governments to properly regulate  or banish entirely  firearms from Canadian society.

The primary purpose of illegal guns is to threaten, to maim and to kill, Justice David E. Harris wrote in his sentencing ruling released at the end of last month.

They are a disease, a plague on our communities. We have the means at our disposal to eradicate or at least to drastically curtail them. It is difficult to understand why our society would not do everything in its power to ensure that guns are not available for criminal purposes.

Harris was imposing parole eligibility on two young men who, in the middle of the afternoon on April 27, 2017, went into a Mississauga fast food restaurant armed with a semi-automatic rifle that one of them used to pump up to 15 bullets into 19-year-old Kamar McIntosh.

Calling the case a poster child for the evil of military assault-type weapons, Harris pointed out they are readily available in Canada and can be purchased at some outdoor stores for under $1,000. His ruling  unusually  included a still photo of the gun taken from surveillance footage a day before the killing.

While the federal government is attempting to ban such weapons it is more than a little difficult to understand how weapons of war have ever been permitted in Canadian communities, Harris wrote.

If grenades are illegal how is that semi-automatic military assault weapons such as the one used in this murder are legal? There is no satisfactory answer. Guns are a disease and a disease we have the means to combat if not outright defeat. Not doing so is a grave abdication of the communitys social responsibility to nurture and ensure the well-being of its citizenry.

Harris added that firearm control and regulation is imperative to reduce the carnage and that Canada does not have the obstacle posed in the United States by the interpretation of the Second Amendment.

Harris wrote that it is important that the judiciary record the specific details they see and hear to enable the public to be informed and sensitized to the many levels of human tragedy brought on by gun violence. His ruling, which was posted online, includes a link to the Canadian organization Doctors for Protection from Guns, a group of physicians who advocate for reducing the prevalence of firearms.

After a trial last year, a jury in Brampton convicted Shamar Meredith and Thulani Chizanga of second-degree murder. Although there were elements of planning and deliberation present, the jury rejected a conclusion of first-degree murder, Harris wrote. The COVID-19 pandemic has since delayed sentencing.

Meredith shot McIntosh just outside a washroom at a Popeyes restaurant at the intersection of Hurontario and King Streets around 3:30 p.m. on April 27, 2017. Staff and patrons scattered, fearing for their lives.

This was not a killing, it was a slaughter, the judge wrote. Although no motive was proven, the killing likely related to illicit drug activity.

The judge also questioned the brazenness of the killing a man in a public place, and the fact the three accused  one young person was convicted of manslaughter at a separate trial  seemed unconcerned about a preponderance of video surveillance cameras.

The inanity of this crime demonstrates a profound indifference to the value of life. This underscores a pressing social problem which may lurk below: poverty, lack of opportunity, a world without hope.

Still, Harris said this does not diminish the high moral responsibility of the two defendants, whose brutal actions have left the victims family shattered.

Meredith, who came to the restaurant armed with the gun and fired the fusillade, had four court orders prohibiting the possession of firearms and weapons. He received an automatic life sentence, and Harris set his parole ineligibility at 16 years. The judge had the discretion to impose a parole eligibility period in the range of 10 to 25 years.

Chizanga, who did not possess the murder weapon, will have to wait 12 years into his life sentence before he can apply for parole, Harris ruled.

Both men are in their early 20s.

Harriss ruling includes a long list of judicial pronouncements about gun violence, including one of his own, from 2018, when he called the proliferation of handguns in the GTA a pressing and urgent matter of public safety.

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Michigan reported 557 new case of coronavirus on Monday, Aug. 10, the second consecutive day the state has reported fewer than 600 cases.

The Department of Health and Human Services also reported eight new deaths.

Since the start of the pandemic, Michigan has tallied 87,960 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

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There are currently 6,257 deaths attributed to COVID-19, in which patients tested positive for the virus. There also are 269 probable deaths, based on symptoms.

Health officials recommend looking at seven-day moving averages to evaluate data trends during the pandemic. The state now averaging 648 new cases, and six new deaths per day.

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As of Aug. 3, the most recent data available, there are 460 hospital in-patients with coronavirus and 132 patients on ventilators.

On Sunday, 759 -- or 3.54% -- of 21,450 diagnostic tests conducted came back positive for the virus.

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Thirty-seven counties reported no new cases on Monday.

Oakland County topped Mondays report with 110 new cases. Other counties in the top 10: Macomb (112), Wayne (100), Kent (24), Saginaw (23), Genesee (14), Berrien (14), Washtenaw (13), Barry (12) and Ottawa (11).

Hundreds of kids may have been exposed to coronavirus at Barry County camp

Of the deaths, Wayne and Monroe counties each reported two deaths, and there was one death each in Macomb, Calhoun, Van Buren, Ingham and Otsego. Saginaw had one death removed from its total.

Michigans county-level trends for coronavirus on Monday, Aug 10: Western U.P. and Saginaw-Bay City regions at higher risk

Below are online databases that allow readers to look up county-level data for each of the last 20 days.

Cases by day it was reported to the state

First is a chart showing new cases reported to the state each day for the past 20 days. This is based on when a confirmed coronavirus test is reported to the state, which means the patient first became sick days before.

You can call up a chart for any county, and you can put your cursor over a bar to see the date and number of cases.

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Cant see the chart? Click here.

(In a few instances, a county reported a negative number (decline) in daily new cases, following a retroactive reclassification by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. In those instances, we subtracted cases from the prior date and put 0 in the reported date.)

Cases by day of onset of symptoms

Below this chart shows new cases for the past 20 days based on onset of symptoms. In this chart, numbers for the most recent days are incomplete because of the lag time between people getting sick and getting a confirmed coronavirus test result, which can take up to a week or more.

You can call up a chart for any county, and you can put your cursor over a bar to see the date and number of cases. (Cant see the chart? Click here)

Browser does not support frames.

For more statewide data, visit MLives coronavirus data page, here. To find a testing site near you, check out the states online test finder, here, send an email to COVID19@michigan.gov, or call 888-535-6136 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.

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:

Michigan shoppers improve mask compliance, based on MLive survey of 41 stores

Story of a coronavirus long-hauler: Five months after getting infected, still struggling to recover

How the first week of school went inside a Michigan elementary

Jim Harbaughs last-ditch effort to save college football: This virus can be controlled

What do Michigan teachers fear most about in-person learning? The students sitting in their classrooms
MUMBAI: BJP leader Sanjay Pandey on Monday (August 10) wrote to Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh demanding to take Rhea Chakraborty, an accused in Sushant Rajput death case, and others into protective custody to ensure justice in the case.

The BJP leader took to Twitter and wrote, "#SushantMysteryDeepens leading to a strong nexus btw politicians,Bollywood&underworld. Establishment is shaky, saving big names.There are 5 key living evidences who are vital. My request to @CPMumbaiPolice to take Rhea & others into protective custody to ensure #justiceforSushant."

"Sushant Singh Rajput's father has lodged an FIR with Patna Police against Rhea Chakraborty, Indrajit Chakraborty, Sandhya Chakraborty, Showik Chakraborty, Samuel Miranda, Shruti Modi and others. It has been stated in this FIR that Rhea allegedly transferred money from his son's bank account mentally harassing him and drove him to suicide. The CBI has accordingly charged her and others with alleged abetment of suicide, criminal conspiracy, theft, cheating, wrongful confinement and criminal intimidation.

The CBI will also probe the actor's death with a special emphasis on a possible financial crime with criminal motives which pose direct threat to the lives of those who are connected with this case. Since there is a high possibility that investigation of these people might lead to the unravelling of crimes, financial or otherwise, and might expose famous and influential persons/s and therefore there is a high degree of threat perception to these accused people, who may turn out to be very important witnesses/approvers in this case.

In view of the above stated, in relation to the case of unnatural death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto, it is expedient to urgently put Miss Rhea Chakraborty and all the other accused in Protective Custody urgently."

#SushantMysteryDeepens leading to a strong nexus btw politicians,Bollywood&underworld. Establishment is shaky, saving big names.There are 5 key living evidences who are vital. My request to @CPMumbaiPolice to take Rhea&others into protective custody to ensure #justiceforSushant pic.twitter.com/KUnuSe2PhL  Sanjay Pandey (@BJPSanjayPandey) August 10, 2020

It is to be noted that the Supreme Court will on Tuesday (August 11) hear a petition file by Rhea Chakraborty on the transfer of FIR filed by Sushant's father KK Singh from Patna to Mumbai.

A day before the crucial hearing, Rhea told the apex court that she should not be made a scapegoat of political agendas in Sushant's death case and alleged that Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is reported to be responsible for the registration of FIR in Patna against her.

Rajput's father has accused Chakraborty and others, including her family members, of abetting the actor's suicide. The matter was later transferred to the CBI.

The 34-year-old Bollywood actor was found hanging from the ceiling of his apartment in suburban Bandra in Mumbai on June 14.
In the latest report by NPR, the social media app TikTok is planning to sue and file a lawsuit against the US administration over the executive order passed on Thursday. The executive order bans TikTok from operating in the US if they could not sell their US operations.

Moreover, TikTok will reportedly argue that the presidents ban is unconstitutional. Because TikTok was not given enough time to argue their case. Apparently, the lawsuit can be filed as early as Tuesday. Besides, it will demand justification for the ban.

The social media giant accuses Trump administrations national security justification as baseless. Moreover, they affirm that these reasons are solely based on un-confirmed and speculated sources.

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TikTok has expressed its shock over the US administration executive order

We have reported earlier that TikTok was in shock after the Trump government, issued an executive order to ban the operations of TikTok in the US.

TikTok has time till September 15 to close in a deal to sell off its US operations. If they fail to strike a deal before the said date, then a $300,000 fine will be imposed on willful offenders doing business with TikTok.

In the official blog post, TikTok said that they have given sufficient proof that the company does not and will not share its data with the Chinese government.

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Matter of fact, it accused the US government of negligence towards its justification. Furthermore, TikTok claims that they are being put under rigorous scrutiny as compared to its peer companies.

As per the new report, TikTok will file a lawsuit because they believe that their voice is not heard. In order to have an unbiased trial on this matter, the company will take all necessary remedies available to them.

TikTok already in talks with Microsoft and Twitter for selling its US operations

Microsoft was currently the front runner in grabbing the global operations of TikTok. Besides, reports came in that the company is almost on the verge of signing on the dotted line.

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But a new rumor suggests that Twitter is also eyeing to close a deal with TikTok for its US operations. While Microsoft is eyeing for acquiring global operations, Twitter seems to have a good case as they are reportedly eyeing only for the US operations.

Meanwhile, TikTok has to close in on a deal before September 15. After which its operation in the US will be banned. This is the reason why TikTok is planning a legal lawsuit against the US administration ban.

As it would be pretty drastic for TikToks operation in the US. For the unaware, TikTok is the most downloaded app in the US, second only to India. Notably, India has already imposed a ban on TikTok and other 59 Chinese apps citing security reasons.
OTTAWA - A quiet choice this spring to have the Crown corporation responsible for helping Canadians obtain affordable housing run a commercial rent-relief program during the COVID-19 pandemic has become the latest front in a war between the Liberal government and opposition.

Opposition parties are trying to draw parallels between the decision to have the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. run the program and the WE controversy, arguing both involve ethical breaches at the highest levels of the Liberal hierarchy.

That is because the CMHC ended up contracting out administration of the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program to a mortgage lender where the husband of Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus chief of staff is a senior executive. That contract with MCAP was initially worth $56 million when the rent-relief program was launched in May and later expanded to $84 million in July.

The Liberals are pushing back against opposition allegations of unethical conduct as well as comparisons with the WE controversy, saying it followed the rules when it came to MCAP and that CMHC alone made the decision to have the company run the program without any political involvement.

The root of the dispute goes back to April 24, when Trudeau announced Ottawa had reached an agreement in principle with all provinces and territories to implement the rent-relief program, which promised to reduce the rent for small businesses by 75 per cent through subsidies and loans to their landlords.

Trudeau said at the time the CMHC would administer the program, a decision the Liberals are now defending. Finance Minister Bill Morneaus spokeswoman Maeva Proteau says the Crown corporation was considered the best fit because it deals with mortgages and has the best understanding of Canadas real-estate market.

In consultation with the Department of Justice it was determined that CMHC was able to make payments without requiring new legislation that would have further delayed roll out, Proteau said in a statement, adding it also had experience delivering a program that involved working with the provinces and territories.

But then CMHC, which describes its singular mission as to make housing affordable for everyone in Canada, outsourced administration of the program. According to CMHC spokeswoman Audrey-Anne Coulombe, that was because it did not have the internal capacity to stand up the program in short order.

That should have been obvious to the Liberals from the start, say the Conservatives, who argue the program should have been given to the Canada Revenue Agency. It is already managing a variety of support programs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the federal wage subsidy.

The Conservatives say that would have also prevented the CMHC outsourcing the rent-relief program to MCAP, the Toronto-headquartered mortgage lender that hired Robert Silver as an executive vice-president in January. Silver is married to Katie Telford, Trudeaus chief of staff.

Proteau said the Canada Revenue Agency was a good fit for the wage subsidy program because its mandate already deals with things like payroll taxes. She said it does not directly monitor commercial rent.

The Liberals and CMHC say the Crown corporation awarded MCAP the contract on its own, independent of any political involvement.

Coulombe said the CMHC reached out to two financial institutions with experience dealing with commercial mortgages and asked for proposals. She said MCAPs proposal was stronger, and cost less. She said the second company told the CMHC it would still be prepared to support the program if it needed a back-up plan.

The Prime Ministers Office has also released emails it says show Telford consulted with federal ethics commissioner Mario Dion in January before Silver was hired by MCAP.

Trudeau spokesman Alex Wellstead said Dion advised no additional measures were needed.

However, out of an abundance of caution, Ms. Telford implemented a voluntary conflict screen at that time, Wellstead said. This screen applies to anything related to MCAP and it has been diligently followed since it was implemented. Ms. Telford has not been involved in any discussions related to MCAP.

The Conservatives nonetheless say they want answers.

They are also comparing the issue to the governments ill-fated decision to have the WE Charity run a student-volunteer program during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dion is now investigating whether Trudeau and Morneau violated conflict-of-interest rules over the agreement, which was cancelled in early July, due to connections to WE.

Our economy will take a $100 billion hit this year, and what is the prime minister focused on? Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre said Sunday in Ottawa. Not on getting Canada through this crisis or rebuilding our economy, but on helping his friends, helping his cronies.

Trudeau has been found to have violated the Conflict of Interest Act twice before.

The first time was for accepting two paid family vacations on the private island of the Aga Khan, and the second was for improperly pressuring Jody Wilson-Raybould, who was the attorney general, to halt the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.

Former federal ethics commissioner Mary Dawson was to have testified on the matter Monday during a virtual meeting of the House of Commons ethics committee. Technical difficulties made that impossible and her appearance will now be rescheduled.

Meanwhile, the rent-relief program has been criticized for falling short in meeting the needs of small businesses, many of which are struggling to survive due to the pandemic-related shutdowns.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, which represents such companies, says only 20 per cent of its members felt the program was helpful.

Its not working for anyone  tenants or landlords  yet no major changes have been made to the program since it was announced, beyond an extension to July and August, said CFIB president Dan Kelly, who has proposed a number of amendments to make it more accessible to companies.

Proteau said as of Sunday, the more than 70,000 business tenants have received a total of over $693 million in rent support.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 10, 2020.

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- Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano suggested that people should still wear face masks at home

- He explained that the transmission of COVID-19 is now among families whether rich or poor

- Ano also urged the Filipinos to stay at home to prevent the further spread of the COVID-19

- Earlier, Ano said that those who will not be wearing masks outside their house will be imprisoned

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Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano recommended Filipinos to wear face masks even at home.

KAMI learned that the Interior Secretary also advised wearing of face shield inside the house.

Photo from Getty Images

Source: Getty Images

In a report by GMA News Online (authored by Anna Felicia Bajo), Secretary Ano explained that the transmission of coronavirus disease or COVID-19 is rampant among families now.

"Isipin natin ngayon ang transmission ngayon ay buong pamilya na, pami-pamilya... rich or poor talagang buong pamilya... ang pinaka-importante diyan kung talagang di nila maiwasan, magsuot sila ng mask. Advisable din 'yung face shield diyan," he said.

The DILG chief also mentioned that those who leave their home to work or run errands should still wear a face mask at home.

"Ang importante din 'yung mga LGUs natin na kasama sa bahay, dapat maprotektahan sila. Dapat talaga magsuot sila ng mask, 'yung mahihirap at kung pupuwede, lahat talaga magstay at home at kung may lalabas na isa, ito 'yung dapat iwasan, bigyan ng distansya, lalo na 'yung pumunta ng palengke o kaya galing sa trabaho, 'yan ang dapat magsuot ng mask at itry niya na magkaroon ng distansya," the Interior Secretary said.

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As of posting time, there are now 129,913 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Philippines. The active cases are 59,968.

Earlier, Secretary Ano responded to the critics of barrier shields on motorcycles. He explained that this will help prevent the further spread of the coronavirus.

He also shared that those who will be caught not wearing a face mask and not maintaining physical distancing will be imprisoned for 10 to 30 days.

Please like and share our amazing Facebook posts to support the KAMI team! Dont hesitate to comment and share your opinions about our stories either. We love reading about your thoughts and views on different matters!

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The Crown Prince Foundation (CPF) in Jordan and Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education (AGFE) in the UAE have signed an agreement to support Jordans youth and launch a joint action to implement and promote the Al Ghurair Young Thinkers Program (YTP) among them.



The memorandum of understanding (MoU), which was signed over video conference by Dr Tamam Mango, Chief Executive Officer of the CPF, and Rashed Abdulla Al Ghurair, member of the AGFE Board of Trustees, outlines CPFs role in overseeing YTP activities in Jordan for a period of three years; promoting YTP to youth across Jordan; and conducting, jointly with AGFE, an assessment study on the impact of YTP on youth in Jordan.



YTP, a free program launched by AGFE in the UAE in 2018, is accessible to all Arab youth aged 15-35 years and provides educational and soft-skills learning opportunities through a bilingual (English and Arabic) digital platform designed to enhance the education to employment journey and acquaint youth with the competencies that are consistent with labour market requirements.



The program is now available to youth youngthinker.org or by downloading the mobile application, using the promotional registration code #CPFJO.



Dr Mango said: This partnership with the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education is part of the CPF employability and entrepreneurship focus area aimed at acquainting youth with the right skills and preparing them to join an ever-evolving labour market, leveraging various platforms to help them identify and maximize their strengths.



Dr Mango further explained that CPF programs and initiatives are designed to achieve the CPF vision - capable youth for an aspiring Jordan - through local, Arab, and international partnerships.



Rashed Abdulla Al Ghurair said: We are happy to sign this partnership with the Crown Prince Foundation as it is in line with our common goals and vision of empowering youth in Jordan to become future leaders and drive sustainable development across the country and the Arab region at large.  TradeArabia News Service
Schools will be the last places to close, even in a local lockdown, Boris Johnson vowed yesterday.

As the Governments row with the unions escalated, the Prime Minister said getting all children back to school full-time in England next month was the right thing for everybody.

His comments, on a visit to a school in east London, came after one teachers union said ministers should have a plan B  such as a week-on, week-off rota system for pupils  in case of further lockdowns and spikes in Covid-19 cases.

The Prime Minister said getting all children back to school full-time in England next month was the right thing for everybody

Mr Johnson said he hoped schools would not be forced to close as a result of local action, adding it was the last thing that the Government wanted to do.

But clearly what we are doing  the way we are trying to manage the Covid pandemic  is to have local measures in place and local test and trace to introduce restrictions where thats necessary, he said.

As we have all said, the last thing we want to do is to close schools. We think that education is the priority for the country and that is simple social justice.

Ministers have become increasingly frustrated with the teaching unions in recent days, particularly after the National Education Union published a nit-picking list of 200 safety demands for all schools to adhere to.

Mr Johnson said he hoped schools would not be forced to close as a result of local action, adding it was the last thing that the Government wanted to do

Tory MP Rob Halfon, chairman of the education select committee, said: I think that some of the unions are... imposing significant obstacles and significant tests that no other workplace is following.

If youd had all the conditions in supermarkets that some of the unions are proposing, then perhaps you wouldnt have had any of the supermarkets open during the lockdown. The four most important words in this are What about the kids?.

The unions insist they are not trying to sabotage the back-to-school plans but are asking genuine questions about the Governments approach and the lack of a plan B should virus cases escalate again.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: This idea that demonising the trade unions lets the Government off the hook with difficult questions we are asking.

They ought to be facing difficult questions because we are in the middle of something extremely challenging.

Mr Barton added: We would like to see more thought given to blended learning as a back-up plan, which could be a rota system of children in for one week and then learning at home for one week. This would be better than children returning solely to remote education.

Avis Gilmore, deputy general secretary of the National Education Union, called for a more robust test, track and trace system to be in place to ensure the welfare of pupils and school staff.

She said: Government could do much more to assure schools and local authorities that, should a second spike occur, either nationally or locally, there is a clear Plan B in place.

This plan needs to spell out what action must be taken in a variety of situations, so that schools and colleges can make the preparations parents expect of them.

Scientists called for routine Covid testing of teachers and pupils, alongside a robust test-and-trace system

Last night scientists called for routine Covid testing of teachers and pupils, alongside a robust test-and-trace system.

Researchers behind a report from Delve, a multidisciplinary group convened by the Royal Society, said routine testing will be necessary when the majority of children return to school.

Dr Ines Hassan, a researcher in the global health governance programme at the University of Edinburgh, said the group was recommending the widespread screening of all staff, including those who are asymptomatic.

Home-schooled children are among those who will miss out on grades this week.

They have been excluded from Ofquals plans because only teachers were permitted to submit assessed grades.

It is believed the majority will need to sit real exams this autumn to get their qualifications  and, due to the delay in getting their results, could be forced into a gap year before they start university.

Returning to school is a 'minor threat to virus spread' Schools are minor players in the overall transmission of coronavirus, a leading expert has said. Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said we owe it to our children to re-open schools  or risk doing them permanent harm. He said parents should be reassured by growing evidence from countries including Germany, Singapore and the Netherlands, which shows little significant transmission in schools. Professor Viner, who also sits on the Governments Scientific Advisory Group, said returning next month was likely to add little to the reproduction rate of infection. Instead he warned of mounting evidence of childrens health declining from extended periods at home, prompting rising mental health problems and higher rates of obesity. He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme reopening schools is one of the least risky things we can do. He added: We cannot be in a risk-free society and this is about the risk balance. Its very clear for them the benefits and risks, the balance is for them to be back at school. Professor Viner highlighted the higher rates of some concerning conditions, observed in childrens absence from school. He added: But we also know that young people arent getting the exercise they need, the sleep they need. There is some evidence that they may be gaining weight, theres a real wide raft of implications for children and young people. One of the most detailed studies yet, by Public Health England, is expected to show it is safe for schools to fully reopen. Carried out at 100 institutions across the UK, it will say there is very little evidence of coronavirus transmission where pupils have returned to the classroom. While children can transmit this virus, experts believe they are not super-spreaders as feared and are also at much lower risk of harm from the virus. Professor Viner said: I think the message is, it can never be perfectly safe nothing in life is perfectly safe, but this is one of the better things we can do. And we owe it to our children. He added: Theres always dangers with evidence but I think the evidence from around the world is starting to become convincing that for younger children, particularly primary school children, that they appear to be less likely to catch this virus, and they dont play a big role in transmitting it. Advertisement
Greece has announced a night curfew for restaurants and bars in some of its top tourist destinations after new coronavirus infections hit a new high.

A government spokeswoman also announced new entry restrictions for Balkan arrivals and flight passengers from several EU countries on Monday.

Greece has become a top holiday destination among British sunseekers after the UK government changed travel advice required people who return from Spain to England to quarantine for two weeks.

The country has recorded a total of 5,623 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, and 212 deaths.

Greece has announced a night curfew for restaurants and bars in some of its top tourist destinations after new coronavirus infections hit a new high. Above, tourists and locals gather at a beach in Athens amid the coronavirus pandemic

Eateries in certain areas will be closed from midnight to 7am. Above, a waiter with a mask serves customers in Athens

The government also moved to suspend public gatherings, including shows and concerts, where audiences are not seated. Above, an usherette wearing a face shield directs people arriving to the Herodus Atticus ancient theatre at the foot of the Acropolis

Areas in which eateries and bars will be closed from midnight to 7am include the popular islands of Mykonos, Santorini, Corfu, Rhodes and Crete, spokeswoman Aristotelia Peloni said in a televised address.

The restriction will be in place from Tuesday to August 23, she said.

In addition, all passengers on flights from Belgium, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden arriving from August 17 must provide a negative COVID-19 result.

Proof of negative tests will also be required for anyone entering the country by land, including Greek citizens and permanent residents.

Tightening controls after a recent spike in Covid-19 infections, the government said the requirement will go into effect from August 17.

The required test cannot be older than 72 hours prior to entry.

Greek officials are tightening controls after a recent spike in Covid-19 cases. Above, passengers wearing face masks wait to board a ship bound to Greek Saronic islands at the port of Piraeus, near Athens

Staff members wear face coverings as they serve customers at a bar in Athens amid the coronavirus pandemic

And only 750 people will be allowed in daily from Albania as of August 16, Peloni said.

On Sunday Greece reported its highest daily tally of coronavirus infections, 203 cases, since the start of the outbreak.

The brought the total number of infections in the country to 5,623 since its first infection surfaced in late February. Greece has recorded a total of 212 deaths since the pandemic began.

The government also moved to suspend public gatherings, including shows and concerts, where audiences are not seated.

The announcement comes as it emerged British holidaymakers are gambling on Greece instead of Spain despite an increase in coronavirus cases in the country - as fears grow of a second spike in France.

Brits desperate for a foreign break have set their sights on destinations in Greece, such as Crete, Corfu and Santorini, as reported by The Sunday Telegraph.

Previously the most sought after destinations on Skyscanner, a flight booking website, were Ibiza, Barcelona and Malaga, but they have now dropped out of the top 10, after the UK government changed travel advice required people who return from Spain to England to quarantine for two weeks.

It comes as Spanish police have broken up a 'coronavirus party' where guests were allegedly trying to spread the disease on purpose - as the country suffers a sharp rebound in cases with infections rising across Europe.

Rising cases: Spain has suffered a severe spike in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, as this graph shows, while France, Germany and Italy have also seen upticks in new infections

A Spanish Civil Guard officer watches on as youngsters dismantle their tents on a closed Tenerife beach where guests are alleged to have attended a 'get-together to spread Covid-19

More than 60 people were found camping on an out-of-bounds Tenerife beach in what police called a 'get-together on the beach to spread Covid-19', apparently in the hope of developing immunity.

Civil Guard officers swooped to shut down the gathering with youngsters forced to dismantle their tents, but officials say the party was a 'very serious threat' after Spain suffered more than 25,000 new cases in the last week.

Spain has already been hit with new travel restrictions in a blow to its tourism-reliant economy, while there are fears that France, Germany or Holland could be put back on the UK's quarantine list after spikes in cases there.

Summer holidays have been blamed for rising cases in Germany and Italy, while France has tightened its face mask rules in tourist hotspots such as Paris and the Mediterranean resort of Saint Tropez.

However, Europe has yet to see a major spike in deaths or hospital cases, amid signs that many of those testing positive are young and less vulnerable to the disease.
In a 54 vote last week, the US Supreme Court stayed an injunction originally granted on May 26 on the basis of a class-action lawsuit brought by over 3,000 inmates to protect them against COVID-19 in the pandemic. The suit sought to force Sheriff Don Barnes and Orange County, California, to take urgent steps to remedy conditions in Orange County jails, a four-facility penitentiary complex. The Supreme Court ruling reflects the contempt of the ruling class for constitutional rights and its indifference for human life.

The Ahlman v. Barnes complaint, granted and injunction in May, alleged various causes of action, such as unconstitutional conditions of confinement and unconstitutional punishment in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and, where applicable, in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution. It also alleged discrimination on the basis of disability in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and of Section 504 of the rehabilitation Act. The District Court concluded that the risk of harm in the jail was undeniably high.

The lawsuit sought the immediate release of vulnerable and disabled people in jail, plus the demand to expand social distancing, care, testing and personal protective equipment (PPE). It also sought additional releases to bring the jail population to a level that is compatible with public health experts recommendations.

At the time of this writing, the Orange County Sheriffs Department alleges that all inmates and staff are tested for the coronavirus. This claim is contradicted by facts presented in the complaint, as well as inmates reports, taken into account by the District and Appeals courts, that the facility was not testing all suspected cases and that at least one symptomatic inmate was left in areas with inmates displaying no symptoms. The Orange County jails complex has run 3,133 tests, with 489 positive results.

In Ahlman v. Barnes, the plaintiff alleged that limits in the jails design and capacity preclude full social distancing, with beds less than six feet apart. Symptomatic inmates mingle in common areas. Cleaning supplies are insufficient to disinfect living areas, with several cases of supplies not received for days. Moreover, on many occasions, inmates were not tested after exposure to an infected individual.

Remarkably, the original injunction specifically focused on deliberate indifference on the part of the defendant, who was alleged to have made an intentional decision with respect to the conditions that put inmates at substantial risk of suffering serious harm, evinced by the high number of confirmed infections. The injunction agreed that the defendant was not even complying meaningfully with the meek Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, which focus on prevention and management and dont even contemplate a situation where hundreds within the inmate population have indeed been infected.

The accounts of several inmates depicted highly dangerous housing conditions and were a determining factor in the lower courts decision to grant injunction.

 Melissa Ahlman, 32, one of the plaintiffs in Ahlman v. Barnes, is a nursing mother, pumps milk for her baby several times a day and shares housing with other women nursing, some with diabetes, others with autoimmune disease. She has to wait in a crowded area among sick inmates who are seeking medical treatment. I wonder what will happen if I get sick and it spreads to my baby through my milk, Ahlman declared. And I worry that I will get sick in here and not be able to come home to her.

 Cynthia Campbell, 64, has rheumatoid arthritis, a painful autoimmune condition affecting joints and at times the liver, kidneys and heart. The jail conditions force her to come into closer than six feet contact with other inmates, even when she goes for her medical treatment: Between myself and the three diabetic cellmates, I believe that we are constantly at risk to contract COVID because of our increased interaction with deputies and other inmates every time we go to medical.

 Monique Castillo, 43, has type 1 diabetes and is insulin dependent. Shes picked up by guards four times a day and taken to the medical room. Because of that, she fears exposure: When I travel to the waiting area of the medical office, there are many times that there are too many people in the waiting area to properly distance myself. When we wait to see a doctor, we sit on benches that are close together.

 Don Wagner, 68, survived cancer and is dangerously exposed to COVID-19, especially when he visits the inmates medical station for regular monitoring of blood pressure and thyroid levels. He complained about lack of PPE: We are not given gloves. We were not given masks either, instead we were given sheets to cut up and bandanas to use. We were not even given these materials until two weeks ago. He is given a bar of soap a week and has no money to buy any additional cleaning supplies.

 Cecibel Caridad Ortiz, 31, has type 1 diabetes and shares her medical module with six other people: There are two women who use canes, one who uses a walker, two who are nursing mothers, one who is not autoimmune, and three of us who are diabetic. Shes been provided one single-use face mask that she had to use for three weeks.

 Enrique Hernandez, 42, explained its impossible to maintain social distancing: The beds are very close together, only a couple of inches apart. If people sleep with their heads facing each other, their heads will touch. I sleep with my feet facing a cellmates feet, and our feet touch each others during the night.

The conditions that prevail in the Orange County jails are widespread in California and throughout the US. There have been 8,726 confirmed COVID-19 cases among inmates in the California prison system, with 52 deaths. Californias oldest prison, San Quentin, has been the ground of numerous complaints, with nearly 2,200 infections. As of the end of July, the number of inmates deaths rose to 13. Inhumane conditions were widely reported by inmates as part of a petition sent to a local Fox television station.

California jails and prisons conditions are so dire that state prison employees represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) filed a health and safety grievance on July 28 against the state corrections department and its health care system, alleging staffers exposure to uncontrolled coronavirus outbreaks inside state-run prisons. Additionally, hundreds of guards and prison staff have also contracted the virus.

The Supreme Court decision denies the right to safety during a deadly pandemic and at the same time shows contempt for the lives of the poor and destitute. This is an expression of the ideology of the ruling class, which is indifferent to the suffering of working people and loss of lives, as clearly evidenced by the back-to-work and back-to-school policies.

In her dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, highlighted the jails awareness of the facts and knowledge that the pandemic was spreading rapidly.

As the dissenting opinion states, [I]nmates described being transported back and forth to the jail in crammed buses, socializing in dayrooms with no space to distance physically, lining up next to each other to wait for the phone, sleeping in bunk beds two to three feet apart, and even being ordered to stand closer than six feet apart when inmates tried to socially distance.

In a section of the dissenting opinion that speaks more to the crisis of bourgeois democracy than to its virtues, Justice Sotomayor wrote, It has long been said that a societys worth can be judged by taking stock of its prisons. That is all the truer in this pandemic, where inmates everywhere have been rendered vulnerable and often powerless to protect themselves from harm.

Indeed, there remains no significant constituency within the ruling class for democratic rule. The most modest demand, such as the guarantee of survival, safe living and working conditions, is viewed with hostility. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are no longer basic rights, they are privileges reserved only to the rich.

As social inequality accelerates, so does the reactionary response of the bourgeoisie through the agencies of its state in an attempt to defend its class privileges against the antagonist, the working class.
A Brentwood couple is facing human trafficking charges after they allegedly recruited a young woman from outside the United States to fraudulently enter the country and work as a nanny for their young children without proper compensation, authorities said Monday.

In 2017, Ijeoma Chukwunyelu and Nnamdi Onwuzulike instructed the young woman to obtain a passport and visa by falsely claiming that she was coming to California to attend a wedding, according to the Contra Costa County district attorneys office. The woman complied because of her economic situation and fears that someone else would obtain the job, officials said.

Once the woman  who was not identified  arrived in the U.S. in April 2017, Chukwunyelu and Onwuzulike allegedly took possession of her passport and visa. They required her to sleep in the childrens room, cook for the family, and clean the home without breaks, days off or overtime compensation, prosecutors said.

The woman was not aware of her rights under California labor law and was particularly vulnerable because she feared deportation after her visa expired, authorities said.

In October 2018, a worker for ambulance company American Medical Response recognized the woman as a potential victim and alerted authorities.

Prosecutors filed the charges, which represent the countys first criminal labor trafficking case, following a two-year joint investigation by several local, state and federal agencies working through the Contra Costa County Human Trafficking Task Force, officials said.

As the COVID-19 pandemic causes massive job losses and severe economic instability, California workers are more vulnerable than ever to exploitative employment practices, District Attorney Diana Becton said in a statement. Our collaborative efforts on this investigation led to a successful filing of this case. I am proud to work with our partners at all levels of government to protect workers and seek justice for those harmed by predatory behavior.

Kellin R. Cooper, an attorney representing Chukwunyelu and Onwuzulike, said he was surprised that the prosecution characterized this as a human trafficking case.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The reality of this case could not be more different from what prosecution thinks, Cooper said. We are incredibly confident that when they have their day in court and the truth emerges, they will be exonerated.

Chukwunyelu and Onwuzulike have pleaded not guilty to labor trafficking, extortion and conspiracy to violate minimum wage and hourly work requirements, officials said.

The experience of this domestic worker represents countless more who are preyed upon because of economic desperation. These criminal acts are not only illegal but immoral, California Labor Commissioner Lilia Garcia-Brower said. Human trafficking is modern-day slavery, and we are committed to stopping it by partnering with agencies to eradicate this horrific crime.

Brett Simpson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: brett.simpson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @brettvsimpson




We're a family of seven living in Georgia where Andrew's working as a professor at GSU. You can read more about us here
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- "CBS This Morning" Co-Host Gayle King will moderate an online panel discussion about the Trauma of Incarceration that Venice Family Clinic is hosting at 11 a.m. Friday, August 14, with Susan Burton, who founded A New Way of Life Reentry Project to help women released from prison, and Clinic CEO Elizabeth Benson Forer.

An accomplished television journalist, King interviews top newsmakers and delivers original reporting to "CBS This Morning" and all CBS News broadcasts and platforms. She is also editor-at-large of the award-winning O, The Oprah Magazine. King recently began hosting a live weekly radio show titled "Gayle King in the House" on SiriusXM.

For many years, Burton endured a cycle of abuse, addiction and incarceration, including six terms in prison. She eventually received behavioral health support at Venice Family Clinic along with other help and subsequently founded A New Way of Life, a nonprofit that helps other formerly incarcerated women rebuild their lives. For her leadership, Venice Family Clinic recognized Burton as one of its 50 Visionaries, which are individuals the nonprofit organization is honoring as part of its 50th Anniversary.

Burton has earned numerous awards and honors for her work, including receiving the prestigious Citizen Activist Award from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She is a recipient of both the Encore Purpose Prize in 2012 and the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award in 2014. She is the author of a memoir, Becoming Ms. Burton, which received a 2018 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in the category of biography/autobiography and the inaugural Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice.

Forer is a social worker by training and a public health expert who has led Venice Family Clinic for the past 26 years, guiding its growth from serving about 10,000 patients a year at one location to serving nearly 28,000 patients at 12 locations. She has held numerous positions on boards, including the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County, the California Primary Care Association and the National Association of Free Clinics. In 2016, the Durfee Foundation recognized her as an outstanding leader, and she was also chosen to be a California HealthCare Foundation Health Leadership Fellow.

"Venice Family Clinic has been a leader in recognizing the impact trauma has on health and well-being, and we appreciate that Susan Burton has been so generous in helping others understand its importance by sharing her personal story of how childhood trauma and the tragic death of her 5-year-old son sent her into a downward spiral of addiction and incarceration," said Forer. "We are very fortunate to have Gayle King bring her expertise to a panel discussion of the far-reaching impacts of trauma on health.

To register for The Trauma of Incarceration discussion, please click here. The online discussion is the second in the Venice Family Clinic's Health and Justice Series, which explores the intersections of justice and health. It is also one of several activities Venice Family Clinic is sponsoring during National Health Center Week 2020, which is August 9-15.

National Health Center Week is aimed at educating the public and policy makers about the vital role community health centers play in providing preventive and primary care services to almost 30 million people nationwide  most of whom would otherwise lack access to affordable, quality care.

Because of COVID-19 restrictions on people gathering, Venice Family Clinic will be hosting online events during the week, including stress management and virtual sessions in English and Spanish that will encourage its patients to get their voices heard by voting and responding to the 2020 Census. For more information, please visit: venicefamilyclinic.org/nhcw.

About Venice Family Clinic

Venice Family Clinic is a leader in providing comprehensive, high-quality primary health care to people in need. Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the Clinic has grown from a small storefront operation into one of Los Angeles' leading community health centers, providing care to nearly 28,000 men, women and children annually through sites in Venice, Santa Monica, Mar Vista, Inglewood and Culver City. The Clinic leads the way in providing comprehensive and integrated care by creating a one-stop health system that offers multiple services, often at the same locations and same time as primary care appointments. These services include dental care, substance use treatment, mental health services, vision screenings, child development services, health education, prescription medications, domestic violence counseling, HIV services, street medicine for people experiencing homelessness and health insurance enrollment. For more information, visit VeniceFamilyClinic.org. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .

SOURCE Venice Family Clinic

Related Links

http://www.venicefamilyclinic.org


10.08.2020 LISTEN

PREFACE

As speculations, sentimental analysis and political calculations appear to be on the rise on which part of the country would produce the next Nigerian President in the auto-scheduled 2023 general elections, an American, Mr. Paul Owen from the city of California, squealed in delight after watching a video clip in my YouTube channel displaying the silent but very salient revolution that Dr. David Nweze Umahi is igniting in Ebonyi State and could not help but postulate thus: "Umahi deserves to be the President of Nigeria come 2023 but sadly most Nigerians are blind".

While I differ from Owen's view about most Nigerians being blind as captured above, I will clearly articulate the verisimilitude or otherwise of his prediction in this piece.

Supports for Power Shift to South East in 2023

Although Buhari has spent only a year into his second term in office, issues of 2023 are already creeping up in the polity. Subtle campaigns and lobbies for 2023 presidency have already begun and the agitation for presidency to move to the south is also on course. Indeed, the controversy over which region should produce the next president in 2023 is already an issue and every zone in the country seem to be haboring some sort of interest on the subject.

As 2023 approaches, nationalities across Nigeria are once again strategizing and negotiating into the heart of the party under which platform they hope to realise their dream. The Igbo whose position have remained precarious in the Nigerian political landscape do not seem to be doing much to actualise the dream of the section occupying the seat of power come 2023.

Indications of how the Igbos are treated it wouldnt be far from the truth to state that Ndi Igbo still remain a defeated people since the past civil war despite the no victor, no vanquished disposition.

General Yakubu Gowon, Nigerias wartime Head of State, in the pursuit of the South East gunning for the Presidency of Nigeria said that he does not have any problem if power shifts to the Igbo for the 2023 Presidency as long as doing so would enhance peace.

The General added that, There was a time the PDP started rotational presidency, if that was continued, maybe the Igbo would have produced a President but that didnt happen. If that can be done now, I dont have a problem with it. Anybody can govern. There are many people in Nigeria, if God gives them and they will govern with the fear of God and love for Nigerians, we will make the desired progress.

On the other hand, Ohanaeze Ndigbo recently renewed its quest for Nigerias citizen of Igbo extraction to succeed Buhari in 2023. The groups Spokesman, Chuks Ibegbu said the demand for South East to produce the next occupant of the topmost office in the land was in the spirit of equity, justice and fair play as the move would strengthen unity and promote a sense of belonging.

In another development, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai one of Nigerias living nationalists was amongst those that declared unequivocally that it should be the turn of the Igbo to produce the next President of Nigeria in 2023. Yakasai based his declaration on the logic that other regions and zones in the country, except the Igbo of the South-east. According to him, Nigeria had three major blocks. Two of these three namely, the North and the West have had the opportunity of producing the President. Therefore, Igbos has a good argument because out of the three siblings, two have already succeeded at producing the President but the Igbos has not.

Yakassai went further to highlight, "I for one  I am in support of it. I did it before in the era of NPN (National Party of Nigeria) when we had the arrangement that the next president after late President Shehu Shagari would come from the East. We would have settled this problem long ago if not for the military intervention.

First Republic politician, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi had this to say: More than any other race in Nigeria, the South-East, the Igbo have been dealt with especially since the end of the civil war. They were treated at all times as a conquered people. The Igbo have been treated as slaves. During the Shagari era, the South-East got a reprieve. But simply because of a feeling that the South-East might get into power, they staged a military coup and took over the government.

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, recently in an interview with the BBC postulated that the Presidency should be zoned the south in 2023. According to this visionary leader from the North, In Nigerian politics, there is a rotation system, where everyone agrees that if the north rules for eight years, the south will rule for eight years. Although the acceptance process was not written in the constitution, every politician in the country was aware of it. That is why I can confidently state that after President Buharis eight years term, no northerner should run for the Presidency. Let the southerners also have eight years.

The Past Failed Attempts of Igbo Leaders to Gain Access to the Seat of Power in Nigeria

Since the end of the civil war that engulfed Nigeria from 1967 to 1970, almost all sections of Nigeria either through the Army or ballot boxes have produced a Leader of Nigeria except the South East. Though the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gown stated at the end of the war that there was no Victor or Vanquished, all efforts by the South East to gain power in Nigeria have proved abortive.

The effort by the Zik of Africa, Dr Nnamadi Azikwe, one of the founding fathers of Nigeria and the first President of Nigeria to govern Nigeria through the Nigeria Peoples Party, NPP was futile.

Another great son of Nigeria of Igbo extraction, Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, military Governor of Eastern Nigeria and the Leader of Biafra also attempted through the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA but was not successful.

The only Igbo man who came closest to government in Nigeria was Dr. Alex Ekweme, who led G34 to stand against the then Military Junta and Head of State, General Sani Abacha with their lives; a struggle that led to the formation of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. All Nigerians were in unison then that it was time an Igbo will be given a chance to govern the country but by the time Nigerians came out from their sleep the Cabal met and schemed him out during the Jos Convention of the party and instead General Olusegun Obasanjo who was released from the prison was anointed to fly the flag of a political party which he doesn't know how it was formed to the detriment of Dr Ekweme who risked his life to bring PDP to fruition during the 1999 general elections.

Another serious attempt of the South East to gun for the presidency of Nigeria was through Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu who was elected to fly the All Peoples Party presidential flag in the 1999 general elections to face PDP but before we can say Jack, he was also schemed out through the coming together of APP and Alliance for Democracy, AD and instead of Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, Dr Olu Falae was anointed to fly the joint ticket of APP and AD not minding that AD was a weaker party than APP during the 1999 general elections.

Other attempt was through Dr. Rochas Okorocha during the 2015 APC Presidential Convention but nobody took him seriously.

The Challenges and Chances of South East Producing the Next President

Today, all eyes are now focused in the 2023 general elections and how will the Igbos fare whether it will be another futile attempt.

This brings us to the major aim of this study.

As much as Ndi Igbo never lack quality leaders that can give Nigeria its dreamy leadership, the following great sons of Igbo extraction are been mentioned as frontline candidates for the 2023 general elections - Dr. Ogbonnya Onu, Dr. Peter Obi, Senator Ike Ekweremadu and of course the general choice Dr. Davies Nweze Umahi and others.

One sacrosanct fact is that since 1999, the southeast has been all out for the PDP till date so even if other political parties deny the Zone their tickets it will be inhuman and wicked if PDP denies the zone its ticket considering the fact that the North through President Buhari have taken its eight years slot and if equity, justice still exist in Nigeria then the Nigerian Presidency of Igbo Extraction is not negotiable.

2023: Umahi and the Prediction of Paul Owen

Before, I discuss this, let me take time to highlight the Ebonyi State that Dr. Davies Nweze Umahi inherited and how he changed the landscape within five years and use his feats within this period to judge if he is the Messiah that Nigeria and Nigerians have been waiting for.

Ebonyi before the Coming of Umahi:

In order to understand and appreciate what Dr. Umahi has done or achieved in Ebonyi State, one need to carefully and critically examine the past of Ebonyi before the coming of the golden regime of Umahi"s administration

The fact remains that EBONYI State before the coming of the administration of Apostle David Nweze Umahi (FNATE, FNSE), the Governor of Ebonyi State, the Lion of South East and Chairman of South-East Governors Forum was not only home to Guinea worm disease but one of the most undeveloped States in Nigeria. The State capital, Abakaliki was more of a glorified Local Government Headquarters with all basic amenities acceptable in a State capital lacking. The Government House then was nothing to write home about while most of the roads were all dilapidated with public water system as a luxury only known to the rich within the State. Most of the Ministries operate from rented houses even after over 20 years of the creation of the State.

Onu Joseph Eze, writing from Lagos in an article which he titled, REMARKABLE THINGS GOV. DAVID UMAHI HAS BROUGHT TO BEAR IN EBONYI STATE stated, Abakaliki as a state capital used to be a village square where outsiders mistook for one of those fledgling hamlets with the potentiality of becoming a satellite unit in the nearest future. But today under Umahi, Abakaliki is fast rising to the status of a sought after state capital in Nigeria with robust nightlife and invigorating sights of rendezvous. Abakaliki can now be referred to as a state capital with superlative potentials for trade and commerce, tourism and socio-cultural education.

What Are the Facts Supporting Umahi's Presidency

If the access to power is based on the feats and capability of leaders to turn a seemingly dark age to a very bright future then I will like us to carefully and critically examine what were the factors that caused an American in the person of Mr. Paul Owen to attest that if Nigeria is to forge forward positively then the presidency of Dr. David Nweze Umahi becomes imperative

Umahi, his Magic Wand and the Turning Around of the Fortunes of Ebonyi State

According to historians, Ebonyi State in the eyes of the world was a State infested and known for the menace of the deadly Guinea-worms and water-borne diseases with a Local Government Secretariat as its Government House but the coming of Governor Umahi has changed the narrative. Those who have visited Ebonyi State before the coming of this Infrastructural Bulldozer cannot know the State if they visit the State now as the changes in the State is even more visible to the blind. Apart from the approval of the request by the administration of Governor Dave Nweze Umahi of Ebonyi State to construct an International Airport by the Federal Government at a time when the only International Airport in the South-East, Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, had been shut down by the Federal Government for repairs, is a thing of pride to all and sundry. I am happy to report that the Ebonyi International Airport will be ready for commissioning by 2022

It is on record that Governor Umahi is the first Governor in Nigeria to embark upon the construction of over ten gigantic flyovers in the State with five already completed. To make the State a truly modern State, Governor Umahi has started the construction of the first Olympiad size Stadium in the entire South-East zone of the nation. The State Government recently got a loan to embark upon the gigantic and audacious Ebonyi Ring Road that will link almost all the Local Government Headquarters of the State.

Today, Ebonyi State can proudly boast of having one of the best Government Houses in Nigeria.

The Ecumenical Centre initiated and completed by Umahis administration stands out as one of the best places of worship in the entire West African countries. The best motor park in entire Nigeria is under construction in the State capital coupled with the electrification of all the Local Government Headquarters of the State including major towns in the State. All major roads to major towns and Local Government Headquarters are currently under construction. The Water-Scheme in the State is being developed to supply water to all areas of the State coupled with all other major developments that have placed the State as the most developing economy in Nigeria.

Dr. Umahi scored another first amongst all the Governors that have governed Ebonyi State to become the South-South Vice-Chairman of the Governors Forum and Head the South-East Governors Forum. It should be recorded that if what make a State modern are the provisions of quality and drinkable water scheme, good roads, electricity, quality infrastructural facilities then one can conclude without fear of contradiction that with all that Gov. Umahi has achieved within the span of five years, he is the Creator of modern Ebonyi State.

It is on record that Ebonyi State is the only state in Nigeria that initiated the distribution of palliatives to her people within and outside the State particularly, her indigenes that reside in Lagos, Anambra, Rivers, Imo and Abia States including Abuja the FCT while providing over 90,000 facemasks and sanitizers for her people to ease the burden associated with COVID-19 pandemic.

With the sum of Eighty Million Naira (N80, 000,000.00) the renovation and equipment of Erinwobvu General Hospital selected to serve as COVID-19 Treatment Centre is completed. The Ebonyi Executive Council under the watch of Umahi has approved the naming of the following public facilities after prominent individuals with effect from June 2020:  Centenary City to be known as Ocho Udo City  Ezzamgbo flyover to be known as Senator Sam O.Egwu Flyover Nkalagu flyover to be known as Chief Cletus Ibeto Flyover. Functional Primary Health Centres (PHC) are available across the State, catering for the healthcare needs of rural dwellers and providing training and jobs for healthcare givers, nurses, and midwives.

The governor had created huge industrial clusters in the three senatorial zones of the State located strategically with proximity to raw materials and markets. The industrial clusters have the capacity of creating over 200,000 jobs for Ebonyi people and others and reduce the brain drain that the State had suffered over time.

The Magic of the Flyovers

So far, five of the flyovers completed include; Akanu Ibiam Flyover, Offia Nwali Flyover, President Muhammad Buhari Flyover/ Tunnel, St. Margaret Umahi Flyover and Arthur Eze flyover. The four ongoing flyovers are located at Ezzamgbo flyover to be known as Senator Sam O.Egwu Flyover Nkalagu flyover to be known as Chief Cletus Ibeto Flyover. Nkalagu, others are the Airport and Uburu Flyovers. The construction of the flyovers in the state is part of the effort of UMAHI to upgrade the state to a city, not just a city but to put the state on top when beautiful, secured and economically viable states are ranked.

Celebrating the latest Flyover named after an Oil Magnet, Prince Arthur Eze carefully installed in the hearth of Abaomege, Onicha Council Area which has, without doubt, facelifted Abaomege and added her as one of the major cities in Ebonyi State. People of Abaomege took time to pour encomium on the Governor, stating that their community has been blessed through the divine Mandate Governor.

What Umahi through His Matured and Advanced Politics Attracted the Following Federal Government Projects to the State?

1. Federal College of Education in Ebonyi state

2. Federal technical colleges in Ebonyi state

3. National park for Southeast and it is to be cited in Ebonyi state

4. Federal housing units of 5000 houses for Ebonyi state in Uburu

5. The independent solar power at AE-Funai

6. The construction of Nigerian Army Reference Hospital in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state which is expected to be completed in six months and will serve the entire south east and south south and will be equipped and beautified to international standard.

7. Today, Ebonyi State is home to a Federal Teaching Hospital, a Regional Virology Centre, and a state-of-art Ebonyi State University Teaching Hospital (EBSUTH).

Further Efforts towards the Modernisation of Ebonyi State by Umahi

Umahis zeal to transform Ebonyi was born out of the experience he gathered as both former chairman of PDP in the state and Deputy Governor. His policy trust on the industrialization was key, which he began with the construction of three industrial clusters across the three senatorial zones aimed at developing each sector. These include agriculture, technology and human empowerments. As an engineer, he engaged new technology in constructions with particular reference to roads where 8 inches concrete roads started springing up in the state. Parks, markets and streets started wearing new looks. Pedestrian crossing, flyovers, street lights, water fountains were also built to change the face of Ebonyi, transforming it to one of the fastest growing economies in Nigeria.

Empowerment for youths and widows has taken a new shape in the state, positively impacting lives of many. Today, many youths who were mere street urchins have become employers of labour through the rich empowerment programmes of the Umahi administration.

Some of the projects Umahi started and completed within this period include three 700-metre twin yover bridges at Akanu Ibiam Roundabout, Ofa Nwali Junction, the International Market bypass and a pedestrian bridge at Ebonyi State University permanent site gate. Others are roads and bridges constructed within Onueke-Ezzama-Oshiri-Onicha road, 35km; Obiozara-Onicha road, 8.3km; Uburu-Presbyterian Church road,12km; Umuchima road, 7.5km; Okposi road, 23km, AkaezeIvo road,15km; a section of AbakalikiAkpo federal highway, 14.5km; Abakaliki internal roads, 150km, with one major bridge; 7 bridges along NkalaguEhamufu road,15km; Abaomege-Ukawu-Ugwulangwu-Okposi federal road, 25km; and Abaomege Ukawu bridge.

Gov. Umahi is a magician, an enigma, poster boy and Revelation of this dispensation and your visit to Ebonyi will convince you.

Reactions on the Feats of Governor Umahi

Reacting to some of the great feats of Governor Umahi within this past five years, Lady Comfort Obi, the Publisher of the Source Magazine and a very powerful Pen Pusher in Nigeria highlighted in one of her treatises, In fairness to Umahi, he has so far, done well as Ebonyi Governor. He has encouraged Agriculture, especially, in the area of rice production. Ebonyi rice ranks amongst the best in the country. I dont know much about what he did in the area of yam production, but I proudly ask for Abakailiki yams from my yam customer. But where Umahi has definitely excelled most is in the provision of Physical Infrastructure, especially roads. Aside from Anambra State where Peter Obi excelled in the construction of roads, no other governor in the south-east compares to Umahi in that area. Gradually, Umahi has bequeathed Ebonyi with quality roads. Umahi has also excelled in the area of education, granting scholarships to hundreds of Ebonyians in relevant areas of study. Thanks to him, Abakailiki, which, as the state capital looked worse than a local government headquarters, has had a complete turn- around. It looks bam

These and many more underscores the basis on which one of the prominent sons of South East, Chief Arthur Eze once advised President Muhammad Buhari, to look no further than the Ebonyi State Governor for a Nigerian President of the Igbo extraction- if, and when the time comes. Apostle Dave Nweze Umahi, the wisest Governor in Nigeria has come of age and it is time for Nigeria to move forward with him. All these feats to make Ebonyi State one of the most developed States in Nigeria are the initiatives of Apostle Umahi, divinely inspired to lead the state on the path of progress and reposition her to that highly anticipated enviable height

Umahi Speaks on His Driving Force and Mission

According to Governor Umahi, The Bible says when men say theres a casting down; we will say theres a lifting up. Abraham followed God when He asked him to follow him to show him a land, he believed God. When God sends you on a mission and you have a passion, He gives you a vision which you pursue with passion. Everything is possible to those who believe. You have to have the passion then, God will make a way for you. This is the terminal building for the airport; it is like two and a half size of the Shopping Mall. You can trace the Mall; this is like two and a half size of the Mall. It is going to be the biggest terminal building in the country. We have done almost 90 percent of the pilling and the vocal, and thats the real work and it is where that will take more money, whats in the ground is more than what is coming up. The tarmac is hundred metres in width; its like ten-lane by four kilometres. Tarmac is a different thing because theres impact load, theres traction load and also theres dynamic load, there is a special design, but the earthwork is very challenging. We are going through valleys and hills and we are on it. You can see the airport road, it's about 4 kilometres. The airport flyover is being set out for construction.

My Verdict and Conclusion

With all these feats, I can happily and proudly state that Governor Umahi is the David of Ebonyi, the wisest Governor in Nigeria according to Governor Ikepazu of Abia State, this Zik Awardee for Leadership for a higher position in Nigeria has demonstrated his commitment to making EBONYI State one of the fastest-growing economies in Nigeria today.

Umahis feats in Ebonyi State has showcased him as the peoples leader as his remarkable feats within the past five years in areas of healthcare, education, security, agriculture, maintenance and dualisation of Federal Roads particularly, the Abakaliki to Enugu and Abakaliki to Afikpo Express Roads, Construction of the Biggest State Shopping Mall in Nigeria, prompt payment of salaries to civil servants and pension to pensioners, the infrastructural revolution, Ebonyi is truly blessed with an enigma and innovative leader as her Governor that one can easily postulate that the modernization of Ebonyi State has been achieved in our lifetime through Apostle Dr. David Nweze Umahi.

Truly and assuredly I agree with Mr. Paul Owen the American that Umahi deserves to be president of Nigeria come 2023 if we are to forge ahead positively. I hinge my postulation on the revolution which Dr. Umahi has ignited in transforming Ebonyi State to one of the fastest growing economy in Nigeria today

Congratulations to Ndi-Ebonyi!

Congratulations Nigeria!!

ENDS

Monica Chidinma Ada Eze, Aka Ada Ebonyi

President DUNAETA & erstwhile TA on Media to Gov Umahi and can be reached through: [email protected] , [email protected]
Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor Khan recently weighed in on the nepotism debate when she blamed the audience for making children of film stars, stars.

In an interview with journalist Barkha Dutt for Mojo News, Kapoor said that she found the entire nepotism in Bollywood debate - which surged once again following the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput - rather weird" as it was the audience that had the power to make or break the star.

Adding that if people had such a problem with star kids, then they should stop watching their films. The comments have attracted an insane amount of trolling on social media. Days after the interview was aired, a clip from the interview - the portion where Khan asks viewers to not watch films of star kids if they hate it so much - has been going viral on Twitter on Monday.

Critics objected to Kapoors statements as rather ungrateful, considering that she herself is the daughter of actors Randhir Kapoor and Babita and that she entered the film industry when sister Karisma Kapoor was already an established actress in Bollywood.

The trolling soon took a nasty turn when trolls started to call for a boycott of her upcoming film Laal Singh Chaddha with Aamir Khan. Many called Kapoor an arrogant snob.

Most snobbish and arrogant actor ever#KareenaKapoorKhanStop watching her movies. Shes one selfish woman who looks down on any common man. Stop giving her so much attention. Just Boycott her movies. God is looking!!! #karma anuraag_98 (@iamtherealme111) August 10, 2020

So DONT WATCH #LaalSinghChaddha coz Kareena herself taunted Toh Mat Dekha karo humari movies" #KareenaKapoorKhan https://t.co/hIDTkrsu0I Rosy (@rose_k01) August 10, 2020

#KareenaKapoorKhan Wait. What? Sahi to keh rahi h. Audience banati h. Mat jao na. You people make nepo kids star. Now she is getting trolled for harsh truth she said.#KareenaKapoorKhan pic.twitter.com/eNP3t7j7EV  Mamta Dagar  (@TheMamtaDagar) August 10, 2020

This trend of calling for a boycott of films by trending viral hashtag campaigns against actors on social media came to the fore earlier when trolls downvoted Chapaak on the film rating site IMDB following its actor Deepika Padukone show of solidarity for the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. The students had been protesting on against an attack that took place within campus previously when masked men and women entered the premises and beat up students and teachers.

The intimidation tactic may work to reduce the success of an actors film. But what about all the other people involved in the making of the film? Do trolls ever wonder how a films bad performance due to social media trolling affects filmmakers and other actors whose hopes or finances might be pinned on its success?

Calling for a boycott was also not enough. Trolls made personal remarks and brought out lists of films the actress had worked in to analyse the number of hits" and flops".

#KareenaKapoorKhan should look at her own career trajectory before claiming that audience makes or breaks an actor. If that was true, she would have never gotten any movie after starring in a string of flops laced with terrible acting skills.#KarenKapoor pic.twitter.com/JUR3fcPasM Amorphous (@noScrubs96) August 10, 2020

Comments about the age difference between Saif Ali Khan, whom she married in 2012 and her alleged anti-national" acts also surfaced.

As a Proud Hindustani what I am thinking now is why should we buy Jewellery from MALABAR GOLD" who celeberates Pakistan Day for one long week and their Model is #KareenaKapoorKhan, who is ashamed to be a HINDUSTANI.!Wake Up.! pic.twitter.com/3URalgYzQc  Ganesh K Gunaga (@GaneshJaiHind) August 10, 2020

All because she was asked a question in an interview which she answered, perhaps a bit tactlessly.

Now comes the second part of the story. Should Kareena be trolled for what she said? Because what she said was not very inaccurate either. Viewers do make or break stars and Kapoor has been a fairly popular actress in Bollywood. She has also worked in the film industry for nearly 21 years and acted in over 60 films. To call for a boycott of her films just because she happens to be the daughter of film stars herself and was asked to air her views on nepotism is not just mean but also attempt to expunge the actresss body of work of all merit.

As she herself pointed out, star kids may get an easy launchpad but that did not ensure their longevity or performance in the industry. Parental influence may get a potential actor a break in the industry but it can never ensure the actors popularity among the masses.

Kapoor, though, is perhaps no stranger to trolling or public controversies. A few years ago when decided to name her first child Taimur, many blamed her for hurting the sentiments of Hindus for naming her child on Taimur (Timur) Lang, the founder of the Timurid dynasty. She is used to people scrutinizing everything about her - from what she is eating to maintain her slim body or whom she is kissing behind locked doors (Remember the slut-shaming after the viral" leaked MMS of the actress and her then beau Shahid Kapoor in 2004 before things even started going viral?) It is fair to say though Kapoor may have entered the industry with a little leg up from her filmy background, she has found her own battles in the industry and also received her share of criticism.

And as an actor, the only criticism that should matter should come from film critics. Using a films earnings as a metric for an actors performance or the merit of the film is uneducated and inaccurate, especially in India where films make money based on item numbers, male machismo and over the top promotions.

Instead of focusing on how to hate on actors and actresses, perhaps viewers can indeed take a second look at the kind of films they have been watching over the past few years. Perhaps the actress is right. If viewers stop falling into the same old traps of Bollywood and constantly demand new content, more space may open up for newcomers.

Until then, you can give your hate and calls for boycotting Kareena Kapoors next film some rest and decide wisely before you pick the next film you watch. And dont let your personal grudges hamper the performance of a film which is the product of several peoples hard work, all of whom are depending on its success and earning a living from it, not just the one you hate.

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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  An ongoing visit by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to Taiwan will likely exacerbate mounting tensions between Washington and Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.

From the South China Sea to TikTok, Hong Kong and trade, China and the U.S. find themselves at loggerheads just three months ahead of the American presidential election. In a throwback to the Cold War, the two recently ordered tit-for-tat closures of consulates in Houston and Chengdu and rhetorical sniping has become a daily occurrence.

The Trump administration added to those frictions by sending Azar to Taiwan, making him the highest-level U.S. official to visit the self-governing island since formal diplomatic relations were severed in 1979 in deference to China.

This visit represents an acknowledgement of the United States and Taiwans deep friendship and partnership across security, economics, health care, and democratic open transparent values, Azar said Monday in Taipei, the capital.

Beijing has been ratcheting up pressure on Taiwan, but thats just one area in which its increasingly assertive foreign policy and the accompanying push-back from Washington have taxed diplomacy on both sides.

Washington drew Beijings ire last month when it parted with years of ambiguity by explicitly denying most of Chinas maritime claims in the strategically vital South China Sea. China says it owns the waterway and that activity in the area by the U.S. Navy, including sailing ships close to Chinese-controlled islands, threatens regional peace and stability.

Other disputes center on economic and human rights issues.

A two-year-old tariff war has buttressed U.S. actions targeting Chinese institutions and officials. Washington has been campaigning to exclude Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from the U.S. and its allies, a push China sees as a bare-knuckled attempt to restrain its development as a global technology power.

Story continues

The U.S. says Huawei is beholden to Chinas ruling Communist Party and threatens to compromise personal data and the integrity of the information systems in the companies in which it operates. China says there is no proof of that.

President Donald Trump stepped-up the technology confrontation last week with an executive order banning dealings with the Chinese owners of consumer apps TikTok and WeChat, possibly leading to their becoming unavailable in the lucrative U.S. market.

The U.S. has sanctioned Chinese companies and officials over the alleged persecution of Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang and has now turned its eye toward stricter Chinese control in Hong Kong.

As Azar was preparing to meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday, Hong Kong police arrested newspaper publisher and leading opposition figure Jimmy Lai as part of a crackdown on voices questioning Beijings policies toward the former British colony, now a semi-autonomous Chinese city.

Washington has moved to withdraw trading and other privileges granted to Hong Kong in response to Chinas imposition of a sweeping national security law seen as an attack on free speech and political activism. China has denounced such actions as infringing on its domestic political affairs and Beijing-backed officials sanctioned by Washington, including the citys leader Carrie Lam, appeared over the weekend to laugh-off the penalties.

Human rights complaints are a long-standing source of tension between the sides, and Trump has added to them with repeated allegations that China covered-up the initial outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The accumulated accusations against Beijing have observers saying Trump is hoping mistrust of China will boost his re-election chances come November. Democratic rival Joseph Biden has substantial foreign policy experience and has spent time with Chinas leader Xi Jinping, but underlying differences between the sides are expected to continue no matter who wins the election.

Beijing has protested Azars visit as a betrayal of U.S. commitments not to have official contact with the island. Azars visit was facilitated by the 2018 passage of the Taiwan Travel Act, which encouraged Washington to send higher-level officials to Taiwan after decades during which such contacts were rare.

I would like to stress again that the Taiwan issue is the most important and sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Monday. What the U.S. has done seriously violated its commitment on the Taiwan issue."

Warmer American relations with democratic Taiwan are largely a result of strong bipartisan support in Congress, but also appear to show how the Trump administration is willing to defy Beijings threats and promote an alternative to Chinese Communist Party authoritarianism.

At the start of Monday's meeting with Tsai, Azar said the islands success in dealing with COVID-19 was a tribute to the open, transparent, democratic nature of Taiwans society and culture.

An island of 23 million people, Taiwan moved swiftly and aggressively to contain the coronavirus and has recorded just 277 reported cases and seven deaths from the illness.

Since taking office in in 2016, Tsai has angered Beijing with her refusal to recognize Chinas claim to the island. Beijing has in turn cut contact with Tsai and brought increasing diplomatic, economic and military pressure against her, poaching away several of its few remaining diplomatic allies and excluding Taiwan from international gatherings such as the U.N. World Health Assembly.

Such moves have increased already considerable bipartisan sympathy for Taipei in Washington and prompted new measures to strengthen governmental and military ties.

Azars visit will put further pressure on China-U.S. ties, but wont be seen as entirely unprecedented by Chinas leaders, said Shi Yinhong, an expert on international relations at Beijings Renmin University

Of course, there will be very negative impact on China-U.S. relations, especially under the circumstances that China and the U.S. have fallen into confrontation in almost all areas, Shi said.

Beijing will respond with diplomatic protests and seek to prevent the further expansion of relations between Taipei and Washington, Shi said.

Azars visit is serious, but it is not extraordinary, Shi said.
Image courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

Former President Pranab Mukherjee on August 10 underwent a brain surgery at the Army's Research and Referral (R&R) hospital for removal of a clot, sources said.

The ex-president was tested positive for COVID-19 before the surgery and was hospitalised after being unwell.

News agency PTI quoting sources said the former president successfully underwent brain surgery for removal of a clot at the Army's R&R hospital.

"He is critical and is on ventilator support," the sources also said.

Mukherjee, 84, said in a tweet in the morning, "On a visit to the hospital for a separate procedure, I have tested positive for COVID19 today."

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

"I request the people who came in contact with me in the last week, to please self isolate and get tested for COVID-19," Mukherjee, who was the president from 2012 to 2017, said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited the R&R Hospital and enquired about the former president's health. Singh was at the hospital for around 20 minutes.
Reporter Ollie Reed Jr. accurately described events of 73-75 years ago in the Albuquerque Journal series New Mexico and THE BOMB. The writing reflects extensive research of how and why New Mexico was selected as the remote site needed for scientists and thousands of support personnel to try to develop a weapon never before accomplished. The series will be a good resource for New Mexico social studies and history teachers required to teach this history.

However, the question asked, Was it necessary? (July 13, page 10), omits the histories of those who were saved by the atomic bombs. New Mexicos National Guardsmen bravely defended the Philippines for four months until they surrendered because of being badly outnumbered. The men were marched on a 75-mile trek to prison camps. Then and for 3 years they were tortured, beaten, starved of food and medicine, enslaved to work, and died of disease and exposure. About half of the Guardsmen were still alive when the new bombs rescued them.

Allied American and Australian prisoners  dispersed to many camps throughout Japan  were to be exterminated without a trace once the U.S. armed forces set foot on Japanese soil. The War Ministrys command, The August 1 Kill-All Order (1944), was to prevent the prisoners from being freed by an invading army. Okinawa is not considered the Japanese mainland. The dropping of the first atomic weapon convinced Emperor Hirohito that Japans annihilation was at stake. But Japanese Army Gen. Korechika Anami, Minister of War and head of the War Council, viewed two more cities  Hiroshima and Nagasaki  as dispensable. Once he acceded to the Emperors wishes and signed the Imperial Rescript  which announced the termination of the war  Anami committed ritual suicide.

Had America waited until Nov. l, 1945, for Operation Olympic to invade Japan, many Allied POWs  weak, starving, and sick  would not have endured. Many New Mexico families are grateful their loved ones came home to lead full lives. Survivor Master Sergeant Manuel Armijo of Santa Fe described to me how he personally thanked President Truman on behalf of the N.M. 200th Coast Artillery Regiment.

Nancy R. Bartlit taught at a womens college in Sendai, Japan, after the war. She co-authored, with UNM Professor Everett M. Rogers, Silent Voices of World War II: When Sons of the Land of Enchantment Met Sons of the Land of the Rising Sun.
Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday he doesnt see how New Jersey could afford to pay for the expanded unemployment benefits proposed by President Donald Trumps executive action over the weekend.

States are going broke and millions of Americans are unemployed yet the solution called for states to create a new program we cannot afford and dont know how to administer because of this uncertainty, Murphy said during his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton. I cant sit here and say New Jersey could afford to participate in this program.

Trumps plan would reinstate expanded benefits at $400 per week, down $600 per week payments from the CARES Act that expired last month.

But cash-strapped states would have to chip in 25% of the cost, or $100 per week per person.

About 685,000 New Jerseyans collected unemployment benefits last week, so if the numbers stay the same in the weeks ahead, the state would have to pay out about $68.5 million per week to cover its share of the extended benefit.

Asked how much the program would cost the state, Murphy said hundreds of millions of dollars over time.

Its just not workable, the governor said. Millions of unemployed workers  and their families  deserve better.

The state has lost significant revenue from the coronavirus crisis. The Democratic governor and Republican lawmakers are fighting out a $9.9 billion borrowing plan in the states Supreme Court.

To pay for the federal part of the benefit, the president said he would pull money from funds that are earmarked for natural disasters.

As for how the states would pay, Trump said states havent used all the federal stimulus money they received from the CARES Act, so they could tap those funds for the $100 per week payments. But Murphy countered that the current stimulus funding is limited, and its not enough to fund the variety of tsunamis we are facing.

On Sunday, Trump suggested that some states may not actually be required to pay.

You have a system where we could do 100% or 75% and they would pay 25%, the Republican president said. It will depend on the state. They will make an application. It may be they will pay nothing in some instances.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

Trump and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. have been against extra state funding in the new stimulus bill, saying Democratic-run states have mismanaged their budgets and shouldnt get a bailout.

But it could all be moot. Theres speculation that legal challenges will arise because Congress, not the president, has the authority to spend public funds.

Republican US. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska called the executive orders unconstitutional slop, while Democratic U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it was an illusion.

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., called the presidents action a deliberate scam.

What the president did is akin to him offering everyone a brand new car, but when you read the fine print, you realize it has no engine, no tires and runs on hot air, Menendez told NJ Advance Media. The fact of the matter is the president is not only cutting unemployment benefits, but he knows full well that he doesnt have the authority nor do the states have the money to even make this happen.

Its a deliberate scam that preys on the fears of desperate, out-of-work Americans looking for any sign of hope to help them get through this crisis, and only further underscores that President Trump still has no plan for a national response to a national emergency, Menendez said.

For states to administer a benefit, it has to be authorized by Congress, unemployment expert Michelle Evermore of the National Employment Law Project told CNN, who noted this funding would not be run through the states existing unemployment systems.

This is a brand new program, its an assistance program for lost wages, it requires the creation of an entirely new administrative system. The states that dont get the program set up as quickly as other states arent going to get any funding because it will run out, Evermore said.

Earlier Monday, Murphy called Trumps actions a hollow political gesture in a statement issued by the Democratic Governors Association, where he serves as chairman.

For an economic wound that needs sutures, President Trumps executive actions do not even justify being called a Band-Aid, he said.

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

NJ Advance Media staff writers Brent Johnson and Jonathan D. Salant contributed to this report.

Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com.
Here comes Trump. He wears a navy suit, a white shirt, and a patterned blue tie. Cameras follow him as he makes his way across the White House lawn, in the shade of a tree, and then through a gate. He does not wear a mask, though the world is fighting a deadly disease that spreads through respiratory droplets. He walks with his attorney general, his chief of staff, his secretary of defense, his press team, his daughter, and his son-in-law. They are not wearing masks either. Trump approaches St. Johns Church, an Episcopal congregation just off Lafayette Square. He stops in front of the churchs sign, whose black and white lettering reads Sunday Services Online. The services are online because covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, has by this point killed more than a hundred thousand Americans. A disproportionate number of the deceased are Black. Trumps posse is entirely white. It is the first day in June, and the sun shines in Washington. Someone hands Trump a Bible, which he turns over in his hands like a box he isnt sure how to open. His eyes are narrowthe look of a man who wants to look determined; the look of a man with sun in his eyes, so perhaps he cannot see.

Moments before he arrived at this spot, officers cleared the square of a crowd that had been protesting peacefully as part of an uprising against systemic racism, in particular police brutality targeting Black people. That story is longboth complicated and simple (Black people are dying, by white violence and by covid-19). A coalition was gathering to say that Black lives matter. In Lafayette Square, they had set up outside a church, one known for its commitment to social justice. But that day, the Congressional Budget Office projected that, over the next decade, without serious help from Washington to confront the losses caused by the pandemic, the US economy could become $15.7 trillion smaller; now Trump wanted to do his photo op; the protesters had to go. The federal park police descended, in riot gear, firing off rubber pellets and spraying the area with tear gas. Puffs of smoke filled the air; legs went spiraling in all directions, arms waving. Fear, shouts, coughing. Empty space for Trump to fill. The cameras rolled.

This is a snapshot of a presidential campaign season that has been unlike any other. The coronavirus has disrupted the usual election cycle routinesthe bus rides, the stump speeches, the canvassing, and all the accompanying coverage. Joe Biden, a man of seventy-seven, secured the Democratic Partys nomination and then hunkered down in his basement, in Wilmington, Delaware, saying little. With nobody to brawl with on TV, and a pileup of national crises, Trump, the incumbent, age seventy-four, still had to run. He has since waged a campaign that is not so much against his political opponent as it is against the American people. In press coverage, Trumps response to the anti-racism protests has often been presented as a facet of the 2020 elections. But in truth, the uprising tells the campaign story.

While officers in Washington met demonstrators with tear gasa chemical agent so harmful that it was banned from warfare by signatories of the Geneva Conventionsthe same was going on in Portland, Oregon. People had started protesting there a day after George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, was fatally pinned to the ground by Derek Chauvin, a white policemanChauvins knee on Floyds neck. Portlands public spaces bloomed with outrage: in Lownsdale Square, Chapman Square, and Terry Schrunk Plaza. On May 28, someone tossed a Molotov cocktail in the direction of the Portland field office for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The next day, the Portland Police Bureau began teargassing the crowd. Officers also beat up protesters and shot projectiles their way. Trump told Americans, We have the greatest country in the world. Keep it nice and safe. During a speech in Philadelphia, Biden criticized Trump for deploying chemical agents. We can be forgiven for believing the president is more interested in power than in principle, more interested in serving the passions of his base than the needs of the people in his care, he said.

At the same time, the Washington Post reported, Joe Biden is facing growing pressure from activists and party leaders to lead a racially balanced ticket in the wake of explosive incidents involving African Americans and police violence that have stoked widespread outrage. The idea that he ought to choose a Black woman as a running mate, it seemed, was driven by a strategic motivation to quell so-called racial tensions with a symbolic gesture, rather than by a genuine interest in equitable policy. Various outlets chimed in. (He hears the concerns of folks across this country who have asked for an African-American woman vice president running mate, Symone Sanders, Bidens senior adviser, told ABC.) Biden demurred on questions of police violence; instead, he affirmed his support of departments in op-eds for the Los Angeles Times (Most police officers meet the highest standards of their profession, which is all the more reason that bad cops should be dealt with severely and swiftly) and USA Today (Every single police department should have the money it needs to institute real reforms). In an interview on the CBS Evening News with Norah ODonnell, he assured Americans that he did not support defunding the police.

Meanwhile, at the beginning of June, the Portland police were stocking up on military gear. KATU, an ABC affiliate in Portland, obtained records showing that the citys police bureau spent nearly $50,000 on tear gas, pepper spray, and related items. We ordered munitions to ensure we have an adequate supply for future incidents, a spokesperson said. Then officers started spraying demonstrators with chemicals every night. By June 5, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported, protesters had filed a class action lawsuit against the City of Portland for indiscriminate use of tear gas. Were out screaming for justice for Black people and asking the state to stop its violence against us, and the City responds by using tear gas when were in the middle of a pandemic of respiratory disease, Teressa Raiford, of an advocacy group called Dont Shoot Portland, said in a statement. Ted Wheeler, Portlands mayor, declined to comment for the article; OPB reported that he visited a demonstration and said, through a bullhorn, I do not like the tear gas, I think its uglyit is not focused enough. Soon, Wheeler was nicknamed Tear Gas Teddy.

But Portland was not yet a national story. Confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in the United States were now surpassing two million; an autopsy report showed that Floyd had been infected before he was killed. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released a report stating that the pandemic was on track to cause the worst recession outside of wartime in a century. Black and Latino peoplemany of them deemed essential in their jobsfaced the greatest risk of medical emergency and financial collapse. The humanity of those workers could not be ignored by the rest of the country as their daily struggleswhich largely predated the pandemicnow became news. Early coverage of the protests, which leaned on terms such as chaos and rage and rampage, shifted in tone, turning increasingly sympathetic. USA Today ran the headline I Cant Breathe: Dying Words Gasped by Dozens Restrained by Police in Past Decade. According to Civiqs, an online survey research firm, public support for Black Lives Matter, a movement that formed in 2013, rose as much in the two weeks after Floyds death as in the previous two years; a majority of Americans now believed in the cause. Many nonblack protesters have reasoned that black people should not have to risk their lives alone in taking to the streets demanding that the state not execute its citizens without consequence, Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote in a sweeping essay for the New York Times Magazine. These protests not only give Americans who are not black a moral reason to leave their homes after weeks of social isolation; they also allow protesters to vent anger at the incompetence of the man in the White House, himself a product of this nations inability to escape its death pact with white supremacy, who they sense is imperiling this terribly flawed but miraculous country.

As June progressed, Americans, spurred to action by the uprisings, were learning about a Black holiday that had, until this year, been ignored by most non-Black people: Juneteenth, celebrated annually to commemorate the liberation of the last remaining enslaved Black Americans on June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texastwo years after Abraham Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation, and two months after Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, surrendered. News outlets published primers: So you want to learn about Juneteenth? (the New York Times), What to know about Juneteenth and why people are talking about it now (CNN), What to know about Juneteenth (USA Today). The sudden press interest paired with a shameless corporate rush to honor Juneteenthby Nike, Postmates, Twitter, the NFL, and many others with questionable-at-best, indefensible-at-worst track records regarding racial equity. (CBS reported that some 40 percent of Black-owned businesses are not expected to survive the pandemic.) White executives made hurried gestures to observe Juneteenth, amid calls to make it a national holiday; while Black people appreciated the recognition, however belated, they also feared the inevitable: co-option, dilution, theft. News organizations took company holidays, tooincluding Vox Media, BuzzFeed, the Times, and CJR. The front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer that Friday ran both Juneteenth: What You Need to Know and Police Budget Will Lose Money. (By Monday, the lead story was Being Black vs. Being Blue in Phila.)

Juneteenth had been on the books for a Trump rally in Tulsa, where, in the summer of 1921, a white mob burned down a neighborhood known as Black Wall Street. Some three hundred residents were killed in the massacre; others were hauled off and imprisoned for as long as two weeks; local police pressed no serious charges against the assailants. The relationship between Tulsa police and the black residents they are bound to protect was poisoned, Victor Luckerson wrote for The New Yorker. Toxicity remained. Did Trump know this? When asked the question on Foxif he chose Juneteenth, in Tulsa, on purposehe said no. But Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, told reporters that Juneteenth was meaningful for Trump. At these rallies he often shares the great work he has done for minority communities, she said. Trump resolved the matter simply: Think about it as a celebration. The Democratic National Committees Black Caucus released a statement to the press: The Trump campaign knows exactly what theyre doing, it read. They dont care.

In the days leading up to the event, however, the optics got bad enough that his team decided to push it back a day, to June 20. But there was another reason not to hold the rally, which had been communicated to those making the arrangements: Health experts believe this weekends indoor rally could result in a super spread that will leave each of us vulnerable to exposure and potentially tax our health system in an unprecedented way, Susan Savage, a healthcare executive and former mayor of Tulsa, wrote in a planning email. The Tulsa World later reported how much more was known about the spread of covid-19 than was reflected in the action of local leaders: There were about 50 emailsa few from public officialsopposing or expressing concern about Trumps campaign rally taking place. The week of the event, Tulsa set a record for coronavirus cases. On CNN, Karen Keith, the Tulsa county commissioner, told Wolf Blitzer, Nobody is wearing masks, and you know, people are coming in, Wolf, from all over the countryso they could be coming in from hot spots. Nothing would deter the Trump campaign, which spent $2.2 million on the whole affair, even as it wound up playing to a lot of empty seats. Facing a crowd of just 6,200 people (in an arena built to seat 19,000), Trump took aim at protesterssome of whom filled the streets just outsideand tried to malign Biden by linking him to the uprising. Joe Biden and the Democrats want to prosecute Americans for going to church, but not for burning a church, Trump said. They believe you can riot, vandalize, and destroy, but you cannot attend a peaceful pro-America rally. That evening, CNN and MSNBC flipped back and forth between Trumps speech and the demonstrations surrounding him. Fox covered the whole thing, drawing 8.2 million viewers at its peakthe highest Saturday prime-time rating in Fox history. Big numbers, McEnany later told the press.

The same could be said of the coronavirus cases in Tulsa. About two weeks after the event, Dr. Bruce Dart, the executive director of the Tulsa Health Department, reported a surgenearly five hundred positive tests in a two-day period. He believed the rally and several other large-scale events recently held in the city were to blame. I guess we just connect the dots, he said. Trumps staff disputed the doctors conclusion, as they had been wont to do over the past months. Tim Murtaugh, the Trump campaigns communications director, told CNN that the media was obsessed with Trump rallies. There were literally no health precautions to speak of as thousands looted, rioted, and protested in the streets and the media reported that it did not lead to a rise in coronavirus cases, he said. Meanwhile, the presidents rally was eighteen days ago, all attendees had their temperature checked, everyone was provided a mask, and there was plenty of hand sanitizer available for all. Never mind that every campaign staffer who attended the rally was instructed to quarantine after coming into contact with several colleagues who had covid-19. Two Secret Service officers at the rally also tested positive.

June ended with an executive order from Trump and a press conference with Biden. The order, on Protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues and Combating Recent Criminal Violence, instructed federal law enforcement officials to prosecute vandals and withhold money from local governments that declined to confront mob rule. (The word mob appeared repeatedly throughout the order; its also commonly heard on Fox News.) The president has argued that protesters have gone too far, CBS reported, citing the removal of a couple of Confederate statues and a failed attempt, before police intervened, at toppling one of President Andrew Jackson, who enslaved Black people. (Other monuments were being taken down at the behest of local governmentsJohn C. Calhoun in Marion Square, in Charleston; Jefferson Davis in the Kentucky Capitol Rotunda; Christopher Columbus in Tower Grove Park, St. Louis. In Richmond, Mayor Levar Stoney ordered the removal of all Confederate statues from city land.) In an attempt to punish those governments that the president claims have looked the other way during monument destruction, the order directs officials to consider holding back funding and grants, the Times observed. But it is unclear whether the Trump administration could actually follow through on that threat.

Biden made his first appearance before the press in about three months, at a high school a short drive from his house. His focus was the coronavirushe outlined his plan to curb the spread, and denounced Trumps efforts. Then he did something weirdly normal, Politico reported: The presumptive Democratic nominee made what now amounts to news in this bizarre election: He opened the floor to questions from reporters, waving off aides when they tried to cut him off and marveling at how strange this has all become.

The spring had been marked by a series of tragedies and responses to them, all linked by their display of what had for too long gone unseen. Trumps response, as the summer dawned, was to scream, to lean further into the absurd. Independence Daya celebration that for some has always carried an asteriskbore its contradictions more visibly this year. Many Americans prepared to loudly reject the lies inherent in celebrating freedom for all. On July 3, Indigenous treaty protectors gathered in South Dakotas sacred Black Hills, on the road leading to Mount Rushmore. Press reports described their protest as a culture war. The Indigenous demonstrators demanded their land back. The Black Hills had been part of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, signed by the US government and a collective of peoples native to the area. In the 1870s, however, gold was discovered; the US broke its part of the deal and systematically seized the land; it was 1927 when workers began to carve the faces of four white men into the earths flesh. Native news outlets covered this years protest: more than a hundred people blocked the road, waving signs and chanting. A nonprofit advocacy organization called NDN Collective parked white vans across the highway and deflated the tires. Local law enforcement, outfitted in riot gear, arrived; the officers ordered the protesters to clear the area, directing them to a free speech zone. The protesters refused. We dont need them to give us permission to do this on our land; we intend to stay here indefinitely throughout the night, Nick Tilsen, who is Oglala Lakota and works with NDN Collective, told Indian Country Today. Mount Rushmore is a symbol of white supremacy. That evening, twenty people were hauled off to jail.

On July 4, Trump showed up. He wore a navy-blue suit, a white shirt, and a red tie. Whereas protesters were seeking the removal of monuments to Confederate traitors, colonizers, and other brutal men responsible for the pillage of Native land and Black bodies in the name of American glory, Trump and his cast of apologists accused the demonstrators of aiming to erase history. With the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln rendered in stone behind him, Trump stepped onto a stage festooned with Americana. He then delivered a speech. As we meet here tonight, there is a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought so hard for, struggled, they bled to secure, he said. Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.

Trump continued, The violent mayhem we have seen in the streets of cities that are run by liberal Democrats, in every case, is the predictable result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias in education, journalism, and other cultural institutions. He refused to be tyrannized or demeaned by bad, evil people. In press reports, the speech was described as lacking in self-awareness and, in the context of a nation failing to address the worst health crisis in recent memory, beside the point. The New York Times characterized it as appealing to a subset of Americans to carry him to a second term by changing the subject and appealing to fear and division. Foreign Policy noted the irony of a speech that railed against so-called left-wing fascism using fascist rhetoric. Conservative and right-wing media praised the event. One outlet, the US edition of The Spectator, ran a column titled Donald Trump teaches history. The Supreme Court did not agree: days later, a decision was handed down ruling that about half of Oklahoma belongs to Native Americans.

In Portland, protesters continued taking to the streets; police kept on spraying them with tear gas. Between May 29 and July 4, according to a data analysis by a graduate student at Portland State University, officers attacked protesters with chemical agents more than a hundred times. In a special session, Oregons state legislature passed a bill banning choke holds and tear gas, but an exception was carved out for circumstances constituting a riotwhich, according to the states rules, could involve as few as five people. Jason Kafoury, a civil rights lawyer, told the Willamette Week, Im not sure how thats going to decrease tear gas use. Around the same time, the Trump administration launched Operation Diligent Valor, which brought yet more tear gas to Portland. Per Politico, a hundred and fourteen federal agents were deployed, in full military gear, carrying rifles longer than their chests. Led by the Department of Homeland Security, they assembled a Rapid Deployment Force of officers from ice, the Federal Protective Service, and Customs and Border Protection; US Marshals joined, too. Gathering around Portlands buildings and filtering into the crowds, they chased people away from the demonstrations and snatched others up. One man, Mark Pettibone, a twenty-nine-year-old, was approached by men in green military fatiguesthey hopped out of a van and ran him down. He fell to his knees. I was terrified, Pettibone told the Washington Post. It seemed like it was out of a horror/sci-fi, like a Philip K. Dick novel. It was like being preyed upon. The officers drove him to the federal courthouse and placed him in a holding cell; then they let him go, with no explanation. He was not charged with a crime, nor did he know who, exactly, arrested him.

Protesters and journalists have documented a litany of human rights violations perpetrated by federal agents, The Appeal reported. In the month after federal forces arrived in Portland, they made ninety-four arrests; local police fielded at least a hundred more. Some officers fired shots. One protester, Donavan LaBella, age twenty-six, was hit in the head with an impact munition. He lost some cognitive function; his overall prognosis remains unknown. The Times obtained an internal memo from the Department of Homeland Security revealing that the federal agents sent to Portland hadnt been trained to handle mass demonstrations. The US attorney in Oregon announced federal charges against seven protesters, who stood accused of defacing a courthouse and assaulting officers. Thousands more people came out; in a Fox interview with Chris Wallace, Trump called them anarchists. But the scene also had moms: the Wall of Moms, who locked arms in yellow shirts, crooning an eerie lullaby (Hands up / Please dont shoot me) that quickly went viral. The moms were written up everywherein BuzzFeed, USA Today, and Mother Jones, which declared, The Portland Moms Are Giving Trump a Headache. The Associated Press covered the divided story of Portland: The Federal Protective Service, U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents were tired and frustrated, the article observed. They didnt want to confront the crowd; they just wanted to go home. The Atlantic argued that the abuses in Portland were working for Trump: Apparently powerless to stop the chaos, Trump has now decided to embrace it, hoping that if he was unable to deliver the security he promised, perhaps heightened fear would motivate voters nearly as well.

Then again, CNN found, With just four months until Election Day, the Trump campaign is struggling to deploy what was supposed to be a chief feature of the presidents reelection effortthe signature Trump rally. One was scheduled for New Hampshire, then called off. Three weeks after the poorly attended Tulsa event, the hangover is still being felt inside the campaign. CNN went on to describe discontent within the Trump ranks, much of it directed toward Brad Parscale, the campaigns manager. When Trumps friends get mad, he gets mad. He does not like Brad, an adviser is quoted as saying. I think Parscale probably needs to go, a donor chimed in. Within two days, Parscale was demoted. For the Times, Maggie Haberman reported, The president at times berated Mr. Parscale over real and perceived transgressions, sometimes screaming at him and once threatening to sue him. With that settled, Trump and Mike Pence, his vice president, set off on a tour to besmirch a shadow Joe Bidena figure far more progressive than the real manwho would set America on a path of socialism and decline and abolish the police. But in the Fox interview with Wallace, Trump was corrected. (The White House never sent us evidence the Bernie-Biden platform calls for abolishing the police, because there is none, Wallace said.) A few weeks earlier, Politico had published a story, Why Trumps attempt to tag Biden as a tool of the radical left isnt working, pointing out that Trump had been running an ad highlighting Bidens work on the 1994 crime bill, which destroyed millions of Black lives. Here was a mixed messagedestroying Black lives was, apparently, supposed to be Trumps wheelhouse.

So Trump announced that he would send more federal agents into American cities. Mr. Trump, who has sought to make law and order a campaign theme and has denounced Democrat-run cities as he seeks re-election, per the Times, gave remarks at the White House vowing never to defund the police, and to make law enforcement stronger, not weaker. William Barr, Trumps attorney general, stood beside him. Trump told reporters that his administration would send some two hundred officers to Chicago, and dozens to Albuquerque; more would be deployed to Kansas City, and elsewhere. The same day, during a virtual town hall organized by the Service Employees International Union, Biden commented on Trumps racism: The way he deals with people based on the color of their skin, their national origin, where theyre from, is absolutely sickening, he said. No sitting president has ever done this. Never, never, never. No Republican president has done this. No Democratic president. Weve had racists, and theyve existed, theyve tried to get elected president. Hes the first one that has. The press, incredulous, leaped: Biden says Trump is Americas first racist president (the Washington Post); Joe Biden calls Donald Trump Americas first racist president (The Guardian). PolitiFact got in, too: Historians say this is wrong, the article deadpanned. Various presidents since the countrys founding can be considered racist, whether because they enslaved Black people, held racist beliefs, or used racist rhetoric. Reporters asked Trump for his take, and he gave it: Ive done more for Black Americans than anybody, with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln.

On July 17, John Lewis, who represented Georgias Fifth District in the House of Representatives and was known to colleagues as the conscience of the Congress, died, at the age of eighty. The son of Alabama sharecroppers and a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Lewis was a moral beacon in the fight for civil rights, during which he survived bloody beatings and a fractured skull. He succumbed to pancreatic cancer. When he revealed his condition, last December, Jelani Cobb wrote, for The New Yorker, hope persisted despite those odds, in part because, for many people, the thought of confronting the reactionary, racist, and antidemocratic realities of the Trump era without one of the nations most potent symbols of decency was too difficult to countenance. Lewis was a persistent critic of Trump, and Trump expressed only disdain for Lewis. Trump did not attend the funeral. (I dont know John Lewis, he later told Axios. He chose not to come to my inauguration.) The Trump administration sent yet more federal agents to Portland. NBC questioned what right he had to do so: Trump and Barr cannot dispatch federal agents to take over local law enforcement activities simply because they might think local police are doing a poor job.

Biden gave a speech in New Castle, Delaware, not far from his home. He wore a blue suit and a blue-and-white striped tie. Families are squeezed emotionally and financially, he told a small crowd. They need help, but too often they cant afford it. It was the third of four economic policy rollouts he planned to make before the Democratic convention, this one focused on caregiving and education; racial equity would come next and last, his campaign said. NPR observed, After months of mostly focusing on Trumps actions and statements, Biden is now focusing more on highlighting his own proposals and possible presidential agenda. The Biden campaign was proceeding under a banner of empathy; at the event, he spoke about his own collapse into tragedywhen his wife and daughter were killed in a car crash and, in an instant, he became a single father. Around the same time, news outlets were covering the story of Black mental health; per the Post, The rate of black Americans showing clinically significant signs of anxiety or depressive disorders jumped from 36 percent to 41 percent in the week after the video of Floyds death became public. Some protesters began to suffer from physical maladies, tooOregon Public Broadcasting reported that women and trans and nonbinary people in Portland were experiencing strange side effects from the tear gas, including disruptions to their menstrual cycles. The extent of the environmental damage would be unknown, however, because no other U.S. city has ever been subjected to such a sustained barrage of tear gas.

At the end of July, Barr appeared at a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. The room was dimly lit; staffers spread out among the seats; the session was carried live on cable news and covered by every major outlet. Barr wore a gray suit. He confirmed to the committee that, when protests poured into Americas cities and towns, Trump moved down to the White House bunker. There was unprecedented rioting around the White House, Barr said. Plus, he continued, the crowd was very unruly. Jerry Nadler, the committees chair, took his turn to address Barr about the deployment of federal forces in Portland. Mr. Attorney General, he said, would you agree with me, at least on principle, that it is improper for the Department of Justice to divert resources and law enforcement personnel in an effort to assist the presidents reelection campaign? Barr replied, No.

In early August, Ibram X. Kendi suggested in The Atlantic that, in one respect, Americans should be thankful to Trump. He has held up a mirror to American society, and it has reflected back a grotesque image that many people had until now refused to see: an image not just of the racism still coursing through the country, but also of the reflex to deny that reality, Kendi wrote. Though it was hardly his intention, no president has caused more Americans to stop denying the existence of racism than Donald Trump.

By now, at least 150,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus. Another study made the rounds in news reports, adding evidence that the rate of covid-19 cases has been significantly greater among minority and poor families; this time, the research focused on children. Biden announced that he would not fly to attend the Democratic National Convention, in Milwaukee; hed accept the nomination from home. He called off other travel plans, too. The headline in the Times read, Bidens Milwaukee Trip Is Canceled, and So Is a Normal Presidential Campaign. The Republican National Convention was slated to be held in Charlotte; Trump threatened to pull out when that states governor insisted on basic health precautions; Trump wanted to move the whole thing down to Jacksonville, but then covid-19 cases skyrocketed in Florida, so he backtracked. On Fox & Friends, Trump mentioned that he might deliver his convention speech from the White House. I think its a beautiful setting, and we are thinking about that, he said. On MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell discussed the news with Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker. He has floated the idea today of doing it on the south lawn of the White House, Mitchell said. Our reporting is also that he has suggested monuments as a backdrop, like the Lincoln Memorial. Is that appropriate? Pelosi curled her mouth into a frown. Its very wrong, she said. It wont happen. The AP interviewed Jordan Libowitz, of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group; he said that a separation between governing and campaigning is fundamental to democracy.

Swirling around the convention news was speculation over Bidens vice presidential selectiona story that proceeded with minimal comment from his campaign. The focus was on Kamala Harris, a senator from California; Karen Bass, also from California, and the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus; and Susan Rice, a former US ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser. (Another contender, Stacey Abrams, had already been discounted; some in the press dismissed her as overly eagerher thirst borders on threatening, according to the Washington Examiner, in a piece called Stacey Abrams feels entitled to power, which is why she shouldnt get it.) Coverage of Harris, Bass, and Rice often made comparisons, instead of direct evaluations: In many ways, Karen Bass is the antiKamala Harris, according to Politico. On The Breakfast Club, a radio show, Charlamagne tha God, one of the hosts, asked Bass about that characterization. Ive never seen them do that with white women, he said. Bass shook her head. Why are you comparing me with her? she replied. Harris was, in contrast with Bass, labeled too ambitious. During a livestream of the Black Girls Lead 2020 conference, Harris addressed that contention. There will be a resistance to your ambitionthere will be people who say to you, You are out of your lane,  she told viewers. They are burdened by only having the capacity to see what has always been, instead of what can be. But dont you let that burden you. The same day, the Sacramento Bee published an editorial: Biden will likely pick Kamala Harris for VP. Heres why Karen Bass is a better choice. In anticipation of racist attacks on whomever Biden chose, a group of Democratic women sent a letter to the top editors of major newspapers and networks, urging them to avoid stereotypes and tropes and to actively work to be anti-racist and anti-sexist in your coverage.

Election coverage, even this year, has had its rhythms, its moods. The press finds it hard to resist following certain through lines, or creating them. An aberration of 2020, however, has been the story line of Breonna Taylor, a twenty-six-year-old African-American woman who worked as an emergency room technician in Louisville. Taylor was asleep at home one night with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, when three white police officers entered, in plain clothes, with a no-knock warrant and a battering ram. Walker got up to see what was going on. Then came gunshots: the officers fired more than twenty times; eight bullets tore into Taylors body. She died on March 13. The officersJonathan Mattingly, Myles Cosgrove, and Brett Hankisonhave not been charged with any crime; only the last of the three men was let go from the Louisville police. (Hankison had, as it turned out, a history of violating departmental policy and stood accused by several women of sexual assault.) Mattingly and Cosgrove remain on administrative reassignment. Joshua Jaynes, the detective who signed off on the warrant, was also placed on administrative reassignment. For months, even when there were no updates in her case to report, Taylors picture floated across the internet, as a cause and sometimes a meme; people spoke her name in the way of an incantation. Justice for Breonna Taylor became, on social media, the campaign slogan to which many Americans feel most connectedand around which theyve centered their political identities.

The presidential candidates have not been able to avoid that fact. On Taylors birthday, June 5, Biden tweeted a message to her mother, Tamika Palmer: Our country needs to actnow. Trump did not say anything about Taylorexcept when he threatened those who rallied around her family. Back in May, Trump tweeted that protesters were thugs and that When the looting starts, the shooting starts. (Hed stolen that line from Walter Headley, the former police chief in Miami who uttered those words during a news conference in 1967, catalyzing an uprising in a Black neighborhood.) Twitter, for the first time in its history, blocked a sitting presidents tweet for violating its code of conduct; Trumps message had broken a rule against glorifying violence. Then Trump tweeted again: Looting leads to shooting, and thats why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night  or look at what just happened in Louisville with 7 people shot. I dont want this to happen, and thats what the expression put out last night means But no one had been shot, nor had anyone looted, at the protests in Taylors name. Trump lied, which perhaps is not notableexcept that the gravity of Breonna Taylor is what pulled him there, this time. In death, after a horrific murder, she became a driving force of American political life. Her cause subsumed the whole election cyclewhether or not the campaigns or political reporters realize it, fullybecause her cause is that of a people demanding that they have a future, no matter who the president is.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Betsy Morais and Alexandria Neason are on the staff of the Columbia Journalism Review. Morais is the managing editor; Neason (@alexandrianeas) is CJR's staff writer and Senior Delacorte Fellow.
A state study shows that Black drivers in North Carolina are stopped by police at more than twice the rate of white drivers.

The Raleigh News & Observer reported Wednesday that roughly 25 out of 100 Black drivers were stopped by police in 2019. The same year, roughly 12 out of 100 white drivers were pulled over.

The numbers were released by the N.C. Criminal Justice Analysis Center. The center is part of the Governors Crime Commission, which collects and interprets data to help inform criminal justice policy.

The study dug into various metrics. For instance, traffic stops declined over the last decade. But disparities remained.

The rate of white people being pulled over fell by 28% between 2009 and 2019. The rate dropped 15% for Black people.

The study also found that white drivers were stopped for speeding more frequently. Police stopped Black drivers more frequently for vehicle regulatory violations.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Personal Auto Law Enforcement North Carolina
Courtesy of Matthew Herron/mattherronwriter.com

Matthew Herron, a renowned photojournalist and activist known for documenting the voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 among other pivotal moments of the civil rights era, has died at the age of 89. His body was recovered inside a glider that had crashed in Lakeport, the Lake County Sheriffs Office confirmed on Friday.

Herrons aircraft, a LAK-17B FES MINI Glider, had taken off at 2 p.m. earlier that day, leaving Lampson Airfield. He was headed toward Mendocino County but never arrived. At around 5:40 p.m., the sheriffs office received a report from the Williams Soaring Center of an overdue aircraft. Deputies responded and were able to locate the glider. Herron was the only occupant, according to a statement from the sheriffs office, and the Federal Aviation Association as well as the National Transportation Safety Board are working to investigate the crash.
"For Such A Time As This" is a powerful account that shares the trials of a young, rich White lawyer who tries to live a normal life amid America's persecution against color and principle. For Such a Time as This is the creation of published author Madestella C. Holcomb, a writer, retired editor from the US government, family woman, and Christian.

Holcomb shares, It is 1946, a dangerous time in the United States of America when minorities are persecuted, segregated, and denied their rights as equal citizens. It is a time when Darius Paul Deavers, a young White man, defies tradition, laws, and family for the right to marry his childhood sweetheart, Ariel Sage Copple, who is Black. He and Sage move to the state of Washington where interracial marriage is legal. He tries to deal with the pressures and all the mean things that happen to him because of his Black wife.

The novel probes our most deeply held racial prejudices in a love story with all the extraordinary drama and overwhelming emotion as Darius travels down several avenues in search of himself as a White man. He is reminded by his father of Esther and Mordecai, who acted as Gods servants in a time of racial crisis. He tells Darius that, most likely, he and Sage were sent here for such a time as this to try and heal some of the worlds wounds. For Such a Time as This is a brilliant love story embedded in one mans search for his true identity.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Madestella C. Holcombs new book is an enriching masterpiece that reveals the beauty of love that triumphs against the odds of racial discrimination. This book also depicts an enthralling journey as Sage helps Darius to find the true meaning of life and the need of having a solid foundation, for his true identity can flourish.

View the synopsis of For Such a Time as This on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase For Such a Time as This at traditional brick-and-mortar bookstores or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about For Such a Time as This, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.

You may also contact the author, at 303-333-4480
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 22:37:40|Editor: huaxia

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A schoolgirl of Salma Kikwete Secondary School collects free sanitary pads from a vending machine installed by non-profit organization Chausiku Foundation in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Aug. 7, 2020. (Xinhua)
onetool, a Berlin, Germany-based provider of a license management app, raised a seed funding round of undisclosed amount.

Backers included High-Tech Grunderfonds.

The company intends to use the funds to continue to develop the tool.

Founded in the summer of 2019 by Gordian Braun and Tobias Becker, onetool allows users to buy licenses of various software applications in one app. Via a central dashboard, various software applications can be purchased directly from their app store and can then easily be managed for each employee.

The company is part of Y Combinator. Since its inclusion in the accelerator, onetool is also active in the US market.

FinSMEs

10/08/2020
Two candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination in Tuesdays partisan primary to represent southeastern Wisconsins 1st Congressional District. The winner will face first-term Republican incumbent Rep. Bryan Steil. The term is for two years.

Josh Pade

Age: 40

Address: 18920 128th St., Bristol

Family: Married

Job:

Business consultant

Prior elected office: None

Other public service: Organized drives for DonorsChoose; volunteered with The Edible Schoolyard Project; volunteered with Forward Kenosha; volunteer and silent canvasser with BLOC (Black Leaders Organizing for their Community); participated in drives for Salvation Army and Shalom Center; volunteered to help returning Iraq/Afghanistan veterans get benefits; and helped raise money for Rags of Honor

Education: Law degree, Suffolk University Law School; bachelors degree in political science and economics, UW-Eau Claire

Email or website:

Roger Polack

Age: 37

Address: 7123 Lakeshore Drive, Caledonia

Family:

Married with a son and daughter

Job: Full-time congressional candidate since January; most recently an associate attorney on international arbitration and investigations at Covington & Burling LLP

Prior elected office: None

Other public service: None

Education: Law degree, Georgetown University Law School; bachelors degree in political science, international studies and Asian studies, UW-Madison

Email or website:

Q&A

Why are you the best candidate to represent the people of your district?

Pade: Our district is facing critical challenges, and we have a lack of leadership in Washington. Im a businessman from Kenosha. I overcame the challenges of losing my parents and worked my way through school to fight for policies that will restore opportunity for Wisconsin families. We dont need D.C. insiders and career politicians. We need a strong voice in Congress who will fight for working families.

Polack: We are in the middle of a national crisis: from public health to the economy, to inequality. Where is the leadership? I have the experience to meet this moment. I grew up in a low-income family, I served our country (including two civilian deployments to Afghanistan), and I have worked across the aisle  serving in the Bush and Obama administrations.

What is the most important issue facing Wisconsin and what legislation would you propose to address it?

Pade: We need to rebuild and restore the middle class and give young people opportunities to establish prosperous futures in Wisconsin. We need to make higher education affordable and debt-free. We need to make it easier to join a union. Health care should be universal and affordable, and we need to build economic ecosystems that end the geographic inequality burdening our country.

Polack: I believe bringing high-quality, family-supporting jobs to Wisconsin is critical. I will work to do this on a number of fronts: making vocational and technical schooling more affordable, pushing infrastructure programs that bring green technology investments into southeastern Wisconsin, and prioritizing the creation of union jobs. If given the opportunity, southeastern Wisconsinites can compete with anyone, anywhere.

What expertise would you bring to this office?

Pade: Im a businessman and policy expert. I know how to bring people together for a common purpose. I learned the importance of servant leadership working for a Wisconsin family company, and I learned the value of political courage as an intern for Sen. Russ Feingold. These are the foundations of Wisconsin values I bring as a candidate and will bring as a member of Congress.

Polack: I recognize the challenges our country faces and have the experience to solve them. Ive kept our country safe and tackled complex issues in government already  drafting bills and regulations and negotiating with foreign allies and adversaries. My priorities lie with Wisconsinites over large corporations. I know what its like growing up living check-to-check and will always prioritize families over corporations.
Oyster farms battling a COVID-19 sales slump saved their industry by shifting from fish markets onto social media to push their product.

Growers across South Australia's Eyre Peninsula were beginning to bounce back after a potentially devastating oyster virus struck farms last year, when the pandemic took hold in March.

The coronavirus outbreak zapped demand from restaurants and markets as economic activity came to a halt.

But determined to act rather than ride it out, many Port Lincoln producers broke decades of tradition by turning to digital platforms to sell their stock.

Oyster Farms have turned to online methods of selling stocks after demand through traditional methods, such as fish markets, ran dry when COVID-19 hit earlier this year. Pictured are Pristine Oyster Farm staff collecting oysters last month

Brendan Guidera, manager of Pristine Oysters in Coffin Bay, said the adaptations will now form a permanent part of the business once things return to normal.

'Since POMS [Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome] and now COVID, the market has changed,' Mr Guidera told The Advertiser.

'We created the website when things really hit the fan back in April. Since then, things have really started to build, which has been great and we would like to continue the service even if the market recovers.'

Before COVID-19 hit, Mr Guidera said they were selling 4.5 million oysters a year.

Although business is not yet booming at pre-pandemic levels, Pristine is selling about 1200 dozens oysters a week via its website.

Their Facebook page has already amassed more than 3200 likes, with some orders coming from Sydney and Melbourne.

Pristine Oyster Farm is now selling about 1200 oysters a week (one pictured) through their website

Mr Guidera said growers in Tasmania and New South Wales have also turned online, creating competition.

However, he said the process has helped the Pristine establish themselves as a brand and that the business enjoys now getting paid straight away.

Adelaide resident Rory Bluett used to make the drive across town once a month to purchase oysters, but is now delighted they are dropped to his door.

'The pricing was pretty competitive from my understanding but Pristine were able to deliver the oysters fresh to my door for the same price from where I used to get them after spending the morning driving,' he said.

Oysters are delivered in a foam box with prices starting at $60 for five dozen unopened.

Pristine customers can also purchase a glove and oyster knife for an additional $10.
The Rajapaksa familys hold on the Government is much stronger after the Parliamentary Elections.





by S. Binodkumar Singh





The Mahinda Rajapaksa-led Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP, Sri Lanka Peoples Front) has swept the August 5, 2020, Parliamentary Elections. SLPP received 6,853,693 votes (59.09 percent) and secured 128 electoral seats. The Sajith Premadasa-led Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB, United National Power), the breakaway faction of the former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe-led United National Party (UNP), came in second with 2,771,984 votes (23.90 percent) wining 47 electoral seats. The Anura Kumara Dissanayake-led Jathika Jana Balawegaya (JJB, National Peoples Power) got 445,958 votes (3.84 percent) winning two electoral seats. The Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), the main constituent party of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), got 327,168 votes (2.82 percent) winning nine electoral seats. The UNP came at a distant fifth place receiving only 249,435 votes (2.15 percent) and it failed to secure even a single electoral seat. Former Prime Minister Wickremesinghe himself lost the election.













The Ahila Ilankai Thamil Congress got 67,766 votes (0.58 percent) and one seat; Our Power of People Party got 67,758 votes (0.58 percent) but failed to secure even a single electoral seat; Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal, 67,692 votes (0.58 percent), one seat; Sri Lanka Freedom Party, 66,579 votes (0.57 percent), one seat; Eelam Peoples Democratic Party, 61,464 votes (0.53 percent), two seats; Muslim National Alliance got 55,981 votes (0.48 percent), one seat, Thamil Makkal Thesiya Kuttani, 51,301 votes (0.44 percent), one seat; All Ceylon Makkal Congress, 43,319 votes (0.37 percent), one seat; National Congress, 39,272 votes (0.34 percent), one seat; and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, 34,428 votes (0.30 percent), one seat.





On August 5, 2020, Sri Lankas 9th Parliamentary Elections were held at 12,985 polling stations across the country under strict health guidelines amid the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Election Commission (EC), 71 percent of eligible voters out of 16,263,885 voters cast their ballot to elect 196 lawmakers. A total of 7,452 candidates from 40 recognized political parties and 313 independent groups contested the election.





The 225-member Parliament has 196 elected members and 29 members are elected from a national list according to the number of votes received by the respective parties or independent groups. According to the August 5 results, out of the 29 national list seats, SLPP gets 17; SJB, 7; JJB, ITAK, UNP, Ahila Ilankai Thamil Congress and Our Power of People Party, one seat each.





The Director of the Police Elections Division Senior Superintendent of Police Ashoka Dharmasena, at a special media briefing, stated that the election was held peacefully. However, according to Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV), an independent non-partisan organization, 340 incidents of election-related violations, including 63 incidents of intimidation/assault/influencing, were reported on Election Day. Between March 2 (the day of the dissolution of the 8th Parliament) and August 2, 2020, (the day the 'silent period', with no canvassing or political activity preceding the General Election, came into effect), the CMEV reported 1,101 incidents of election-related violations, including 55 incidents of assault/threats/hate speech. CMEV did not report any incident of election-related violations on August 3 and 4. However, Sri Lanka's oldest election monitoring group, the People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), reported 37 incidents of election-related violations, including two assault incidents on August 3; and 120 incidents of election-related violations, including two assault incidents and one incident of attack on Political Party/Candidate Office on August 4.





In the last Parliamentary Elections held on August 17, 2015, the voter turnout was 77.66 per cent. However, the voters gave a fractured mandate, with none of the parties securing a simple majority. UNP, led by the then incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, secured 106 seats, falling seven short of a simple majority in a 225-member House; the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) secured just 95 seats. The main Tamil political party, the TNA won 16 seats; and the main Marxist party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP, People's Liberation Front) won six. However, following a historic agreement on August 20, 2015, between UNP and SLFP to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the incumbent Prime Minister Wickremesinghe took the oath as the 26thPrime Minister of the island nation on August 21, 2015. According to CMEV, between June 26, 2015, midnight, when the elections were notified, and August 14, 2015, when the campaigning officially ended, it registered 143 'major incidents' across the country. Major incidents included murder, injuries, assaults, threat and intimidation, misuse of state resources, robbery, arson, abduction, damage to property, etc.





However, in a political slugfest, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sacked on October 26, 2018, and Mahinda Rajapaksa became the Prime Minister. Ranil Wickremesinghe was sacked by Maithripala Sirisena, who became President after winning the Presidential Elections held on January 8, 2015, defeating the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa. President Sirisena, realizing that his de facto Prime Minister, Rajapaksa, would not command a majority in Parliament, announced the dissolution of Parliament with effect from November 9, midnight, in an extraordinary Gazette notification, and scheduled General Elections to be held on January 5, 2019. However, exactly 34 days later, on December 13, 2018, the Supreme Court (SC) of Sri Lanka ruled, that President Sirisena's decision was illegal and unconstitutional. After the SC ruling, UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn-in on December 16, 2018, for a fifth time, as the Prime Minister, ending a nearly two-month long political crisis. However, his Government did not last long, and Mahinda Rajpaksa became the Prime Minister again on November 21, 2019.





The five-year term of the 8thParliament was due to expire in August 2020. Paving the way for General Elections, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is Mahinda Rajapaksas younger brother, who won the Presidential Election, held on November 16, 2019, on the SLPP ticket. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa dissolved the eight Parliament on March 2, 2020. According to the Gazette Notification, the Parliamentary Elections were to be held on April 25, 2020, and the new Parliament was to meet on May 14, 2020. However, considering the uncertain situation prevalent in the country with the spread of COVID-19, on March 19, 2020, the EC postponed the General Election indefinitely. However, on April 20, 2020, the EC decided to hold the Parliamentary Elections on June 20, 2020.





Meanwhile, several Fundamental Rights petitions were filed in the Supreme Court requesting the court to issue an injunction against holding the General Elections on June 20. On June 1, 2020, the Supreme Court dismissed the Fundamental Rights petitions filed challenging the holding of the General Election on June 20. Pronouncing the ruling, the Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya announced "By majority decision, preliminary objections are overruled. By unanimous decision, Leave to Proceed is refused for all applications.





On June 3, 2020, the Health Ministry handed over health guidelines in connection with holding the General Election to the EC. Finally, following several rounds of discussions with the Health and Security authorities and other stakeholders, on June 10, 2020, the EC announced that the General Election 2020 would be held on August 5, 2020.





With the SLPP winning 145 seats, just five short of a 2/3rd majority, there is strong probability of the Government overturning several of the decisions taken by the Ranil Wickremesinghe-led National Unity Government.





The focus is on the 19th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, which the party has promised to scrap. Significantly, speaking about the 19th Amendment to the Constitution on December 29, 2019, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa observed,





All of you know that there is a massive crisis in governing the state because of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution done by the previous regime. We have to remove this now. For that, we are in need of a strong Parliament.





On March 5, 2020, President Gotabaya called for a two-third majority in the Parliamentary Election, declaring that the 19th Amendment to the Constitution had taken away the people's freedom and questioned the meaning of the Constitution, as it circumscribed the powers of the President elected by the people. The 19th Amendment reduced the presidential term from six to five years and the two-term limit was restored. The President could no longer dissolve Parliament until the expiration of four and a half years of its term, unless he was requested to do so by a resolution of a two-thirds majority of Parliament. Moreover, the presidential immunity from suit was abridged by extending the Supreme Court's fundamental rights jurisdiction to cover official acts of the President. Meanwhile, on July 31, 2020, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa asserted,





The Yahapalana Government (National Unity Government) introduced the 19A mainly to violate the fundamental rights of the Rajapaksas. Though this was the main intention, it has also violated the rights of the people. Even amid all obstacles and to the dismay of the previous government, 6.9 million of people elected Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the President thus approving his programme for the country.





The 19th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution was passed by the Ranil Wickremesinghe-led Government on April 28, 2015, with 215 out of 225 members voting in favour of the amendment to weaken the power of the presidency. The 19th Amendment envisaged the dilution of many powers of the Executive Presidency, which had been in force since 1978. It established a Constitutional Council which exercises some executive powers previously held by the President. It also empowered the Constitutional Council to set up Independent Commissions.





Meanwhile, on January 7, 2020, an official attached to the Justice Ministry disclosed that the Government has decided to review the Office of Missing Person (OMP) Act enacted by Parliament under the preceding regime. The official further stated that a preliminary discussion has already been held and that the Government would review it and decide what needs to be done. OMP was operationalized on March 13, 2018, with the mandate to search for and trace the fate and whereabouts of missing and disappeared persons during the Eelam War between the Government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which officially ended on May 20, 2009.





Earlier, on February 17, 2020, the Rajapaksa Government decided to immediately withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolutions 30/1 and 40/1 co-sponsored in 2015 and 2019. In 2015, the Ranil Wickremesinghe-led Government had co-sponsored the UNHRC resolution, 30/1, making commitments to promote reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka. Renewing the commitments, in 2019, the Ranil Wickremesinghe-led National Unity Government (NUG) co-sponsored UNHRC resolution, 40/1.





The Rajapaksa familys hold on the Government is much stronger after the Parliamentary Elections. Under Mahinda Rajapaksas previous tenure as President (2005-2015), many members of the family occupied senior positions in the Sri Lankan state. The sweeping majority that Mahinda Rajapaksa has now secured in the Parliamentary elections, even as Gotabaya Rajapaksa is President, suggests the possibilities of a consolidating autocracy. On August 9, 2020, Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn as Prime Minister for the fourth time by his younger brother and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.





The Ranil Wickremesinghe Government had sought to further the national reconciliation process, though if failed to achieve much of significance. This process is now likely to suffer a major setback.





The writer is a Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management. This assessment originally appeared in South Asian Terrorism Portal
(Photo : REUTERS/Dado Ruvic) TikTok logos are seen on smartphones in front of a displayed ByteDance logo in this illustration taken November 27, 2019. (Photo : REUTERS/Dado Ruvic) TikTok logo is displayed on the smartphone while standing on the U.S. flag in this illustration picture taken, November 8, 2019.

As the United States government banned the famous Chinese video-sharing app TikTok, the United Kingdom is now facing a whopping $3.9 billion. That is the reported price of transferring ByteDance's office from the U.S. to the U.K. It turns out, the Chinese company is not yet done in foreign countries and continues to make arrangements to operate outside China.

After the U.S., TikTok now eyes London

TikTok is now the most controversial app in the world. After its issues of unsafe user protection, resulting in U.S. ban, ByteDance-- the company that holds TikTok-- is now eyeing London as the location of its new headquarters office.

Before the ban, it was reported that TikTok suggests making its U.S.-based office in locations like New York or California. However, since President Donald Trump signed the executive order banning ByteDance, the plan went to garbage. That is the reason why TikTok was said to be giving its attention to London, U.K.

According to the South China Morning Post, TikTok has not yet confirmed nor denied the said London rumor. However, it was confirmed-- via an unknown source-- that the company has been "evaluating the possibility of establishing TikTok's headquarters outside of the US to better serve our global users."

Allegedly, ByteDance was not able to give out the announcement on possible London office until they are accurate that they'll receive the British government's support.

"TikTok has been sitting on the plan to relocate to London for weeks, pending a positive response from the government," a source from SCMP said. "If the government would not speak out in its favor, it would be very difficult for TikTok to make the move."

Will U.K. accept Chinese app TikTok?

So far, the British government has been silent about the issue. However, SCMP noted that Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his ministers have been having a hard time choosing, since the money on stake exactly amounts to $3.9 billion.

Johnson's spokesperson confirms that no decision has still yet finalized, saying that "it would be a commercial decision."

Similar to the U.S., the British government also has quite distaste with the Chinese apps and companies in their country. Months ago, Johnson also approved Chinese company Huawei to be banned, citing security issues.

Once the U.K. approved the TikTok office, the expert speculates that it may harm the relationship between PM Johnson and Pres. Trump.

TikTok was banned due to alleged 'CCP connection'

Tech Times reported that TikTok rumoredly has hundreds of employees that are also members of the nation's Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

That was the main argument that the U.S. throws against the company. Will it also be the same as the U.K.?

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Jamie Pancho

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Chandigarh The Punjab local bodies department has started the exercise of delimitation of wards in at least 50 civic bodies, including seven municipal corporations. Amid the covid-19 pandemic, the state government was reluctant to hold the polls. Finally, October was chosen as there was no alternative, with the law dictating that the civic body polls be held within six months of the expiry of the term of the elected body.

The opposition parties, particularly the SAD-BJP alliance, have objected to the delimitation process. I have got to know that the state local bodies department has disturbed limits of all wards without a justified reason, as neither the population has increased nor the civic body has expanded limits. We are waiting the final draft, on the basis of which, we may take legal recourse, said Kulwant Singh, a former mayor of Mohali.

Sources in the department added that polls might be pushed back, with delimitation work of 20 civic bodies still pending.

Of 167 civic bodies, 129 are scheduled to go for polls, the list of which has nine municipal corporations: Mohali, Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Pathankot, Moga and Phagwara. The other three are Abohar, Kapurthala and Batala, which recently has been elevated to corporation level from municipal councils. There are total 13 municipal corporations in the state and elections in four: Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and Ludhiana are not scheduled as their general Houses have not completed the five-year tenure.

Balwant Rai, former Bathinda mayor, who represented the SAD-BJP, objected to delimitation alleging that the ruling party has favoured its own party men.

We are ready. It is just a matter of time when we would complete delimitation, said local bodies minister Brahm Mohindra, clarifying that the outer boundaries of the civic bodies cannot be altered, but boundaries of the wards are changed as population imbalance is reported after five years.

HOW DELIMITATION IS DONE?

Any resident or the elected representative of a ward can report population imbalance and seek delimitation. The proposal received by the local bodies department is referred to a delimitation board of the particular civic body. This board comprises sub-divisional magistrate, executive officer, commissioner  the executive head of the civic body, deputy director and director of the department along with two private members from the ward.

Then, a week is given for objections. After clearing objections, the matter is referred to the secretary of the department for final nod. Finally, notification is done to seal boundaries and population of the ward.

The department decides the ward numbers. Of these, some are reserved for females and SC contenders. In 2017, after assuming power, the Congress government had announced giving 50% reservation to women. To ensure this, all even wards in all civic bodies have been allotted to them.

CENSUS OF INDIA POSTPONES FREEZE ORDERS

The Census of India that functions under the Union ministry of home affairs, which had earlier asked the states to freeze the boundaries of wards, constituencies etc by Dec 31, 2019, owing to the covid-19 pandemic lockdown has postponed the freeze orders to December 31, 2020, via a communication dated July 28.

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The Ayo Salami-led panel probing allegations of corruption against suspended EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu, was stunned on Thursday when the MD/CEO of FCMB, Adam Nuru, told the panel that there was an error over the reported posting of N573 million into the church account of Emmanuel Omale, founder of the Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministries, Account No 1486743019.

The bank CEO was invited by the panel following the alleged report that the cleric laundered money for Magu and used the proceeds of the said N573 million to purchase property for the suspended EFCC chairman in Dubai.

Nuru, while giving evidence on the funds traced to the account, narrated that on January 16, 2016, the bank made a return to NFIU which indicated that there was a transaction of an inflow of well over N573 million.

This return was said to be in favour of Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministries Account No 1486743019, Nuru said.

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After that report, we conducted an investigation and discovered that the lodgement which we reported to NFIU was an error.

The error was as a result of the fact that we were using a bank application called Pinnacle-7. However, we migrated from that application to a newer version called Pinnacle-10.

Usually, when the bank intends to migrate from one application to another, we utilise weekends to carry out the exercise. The migration involves moving all the balances of customers from the previous application to the new application. The account of the Divine Hand Ministries was moved during that migration.

In that branch, we have 983 accounts (Banex). The credit balance in all the 983 accounts domiciled came to the aforesaid amount. It was that balance of N573 million that was wrongly posted as an inflow into Divine Hand Ministries as reported to NFIU, he said.

Nuru said the error was not peculiar to Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministries alone but was also ascribed to 27 other accounts.

When asked why it took the bank about four years to discover the error, the CEO responded that the bank just realised the blunder upon invitation by the panel.

President Buhari had in July ordered a Judicial Commission of Enquiry under the Tribunals of Inquiry Act (Cap T21, LFN, 2004) to investigate the alleged financial impropriety and mismanagement of recovered assets levelled against the suspended acting chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu.

Recall that Magu was accosted on July 6, 2020 in front of the Wuse office of the EFCC and directed to appear before the Salami-led panel.

The Justice Salami committee had summoned several witnesses to testify at the probe.

BusinessDay gathered that Magu was served with the allegations and terms of reference on Saturday, August 8, 2020.

Multiple sources close to the Presidency also disclosed that the panel was given 45 days to submit its report.

The panel, headed by Ayo Salami, also has Anthony Michael, a retired deputy inspector general of police as deputy chairman, Muhammad Babadoko, Hassan Abdullahi, Muhammad Shamsuddeen, and Douglas Egweme as members, and Kazeem Attitebi as secretary.



Source: https://businessday.ng/news/article/magu-probe-bank-ceo-admits-n573m-wrongly-posted-to-prophet-omales-account/
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 21:56:08|Editor: huaxia

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--Universities and colleges in Beijing are allowed to open campuses for new student registration as early as Aug. 15.

--With cinemas now open and domestic tourism rebounding, Beijing has maintained an anti-epidemic "new normal" with targeted COVID-19 prevention and control measures to ensure normal life and social order.

--Extracurricular training institutions can submit applications for resuming offline classes and activities.

by Xinhua writers Fang Ning, Qiang Lijing, Luo Xin and Xie Hao

The Beijing municipal authority has issued a breakdown of school opening schedules for the coming fall semester, which staggers the school opening peak to reduce COVID-19 control pressure on campuses.

Instead of the standard fall semester opening on Sept. 1, universities and colleges in the capital are allowed to open campuses for new student registration as early as Aug. 15, according to a notice issued by the municipal leading group office for epidemic prevention and control on Saturday.

A staff member is on duty at the entrance of a dormitory in Beijing University of Chemical Technology in Beijing, capital of China, May 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

Since June 11, Beijing has reported 335 confirmed COVID-19 cases linked to a cluster of infections in the Xinfadi wholesale market. By Aug. 6, all of the patients had recovered and been discharged from the hospital. No new cross infections have been reported in the city.

ANTI-EPIDEMIC "NEW NORMAL"

With cinemas now open and domestic tourism rebounding, Beijing has maintained an anti-epidemic "new normal" with targeted COVID-19 prevention and control measures to ensure normal life and social order.

The city, with 93 colleges and universities, leads Chinese metropoles in the number of higher-learning institutions. Campuses are some of the city's most densely-populated places.

Chen Baojian, vice president of Peking University, said in coping with COVID-19 prevention, the university has introduced big data and artificial intelligence to build a digital personnel management mechanism.

"For example, canteens are high-risk areas. In the new semester, we will introduce a 'dining index' to timely inform teachers and students of the real-time number of diners in each canteen to prevent crowding," Chen said.

Xu Haijun, who is in charge of COVID-19 prevention and control work at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology, said that when students return, they will each receive a kit that will include a thermometer, face masks, and disinfectant supplies.

According to the notice, all teachers, students, and staff from low-risk areas must present a green health code to be able to return to school. Those from medium-risk areas shall observe the 14-day quarantine rule and take nucleic acid tests before returning to campuses.

A man has his temperature checked during an epidemic prevention and control drill at Beijing University of Chemical Technology in Beijing, capital of China, May 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

FULL REOPENING

Beijing has roughly a million students in primary and secondary schools. According to the official arrangement, senior high schools in Beijing will start the new semester on Aug. 29, while primary schools and junior high schools will start their new school year on three dates -- Aug. 29, Sept. 1, and Sept. 7.

Kindergartens in Beijing are to open on Sept. 8 and Sept. 11. Extracurricular training institutions can submit applications for resuming offline classes from Saturday.

Wang Xuechen, a mother of a four-year-old in Beijing's Fengtai District was very glad to hear the news of the reopening.

"I can hardly wait to send my daughter to the kindergarten. I hope she can return to a social life with other kids," Wang said.

"Since January, her kindergarten has collected and recorded all the children's health conditions and their travel information. The teachers are very responsible. I was told that the kindergarten is carrying out disinfection to prepare for the reopening. We feel rather assured."

Niu Zhenyun, Communist Party chief of Beijing Bayi School, said that most courses in the past semester were taken online. With the government notice, the school is making all the necessary plans.

"The notice provides specific COVID-19 prevention guidance for schools, which is crucial to prevent a resurgence of the epidemic. We also gained some experience last semester, when we arranged for three senior grades to study in class for over two months," said Li Mingxin, principal of Beijing Primary School.

Photo taken on May 8, 2020 shows a classroom at Chenjinglun High School in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Chen Zhonghao)

The municipal authorities required extracurricular training institutions to submit applications to resume offline classes and collective activities after they meet prevention requirements.

Jin Jing, a trainer with an English language school in Beijing, said as soon as they heard the notice, the school board decided to launch a thorough disinfection of the indoor environment.

"Our students are mainly little kids who may be susceptible to viruses, so we need to be very careful," said Jin.

"We will try to limit the number of people in closed spaces. For example, we used to have seven classes in our two teaching areas. For the reopening, we will only allow one class to open in each area at the same time," Jin said.

(Video reporter: Meng Jing; Video editor: Peng Ying)


The smoke-and-mirrors executive actions Trump signed this weekend are but the latest example. They dont actually do anything concrete to help the millions of Americans thrown out of work by the pandemic, with the one exception of extending the moratorium on repayment of student loans, which is a good thing. Beyond that, Trump didnt really forestall an expected wave of evictions; he just mandated a study of the issue. Trump didnt really extend the $600-a-week federal supplement to unemployment benefits; he cut it to $300 and demanded that the states, which are basically broke, pony up an additional $100.
New Delhi, Aug 10 : German airline major Lufthansa will recommence passenger flight services to India on specific routes, following a bilateral agreement between India and Germany.

The airline on Monday announced that effective immediately, Indian citizens are eligible to travel on Lufthansa flights to India from the US, Canada, and other countries.

"Following a bilateral agreement between India and Germany, inbound passenger flights to India, one of Lufthansa's most important international markets, will be reinstated as of 13 August," the airline said in a statement.

Consequently, Lufthansa will be able to offer flights to Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru effective immediately.

"Lufthansa has already been operating outbound flights from India for several months, departing from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore (Bengaluru) to its Frankfurt and Munich hubs, the latter being Europe's only five star airport," the airline said.

According to the airline, since July, Lufthansa has been offering Indian customers a convenient option at Frankfurt and Munich airports to test for coronavirus at short notice.
The New York Attorney Generals Office has reached an agreement with the Watertown school district as it concludes an investigation into a teachers mock slave auction during a fourth-grade class last year.

The teacher, who has since resigned, was placed on leave by district officials after parents reported the May 28, 2019 reenactment. Parents accused the teacher, who was not identified by the district or AG, of having white students place bids on two Black classmates, who she asked to stand in the front of the class with their hands behind their backs.

The AGs office concluded the Watertown City School Districts response to the incident was largely adequate. The district and AG agreed the district would also take additional steps, including to hire a chief diversity officer and diversity consultant.

The AG found the teachers conduct had a profoundly negative effect on all students present  especially the African American students who reported they had experienced lasting emotional harm from these events ...

According to the AGs office, the teacher created a reenactment of a slave auction, by concocting a scenario in which two Black students in class, a boy and girl, were instructed to stand at the front of the class. She then referred to the students as brother and sister, and said theyd be split up upon sale. She instructed the Black students to refer to the winning bidders as masters, and told them that as slaves they would have to take their masters surnames. She also told the students not to escape because they would be chased down and violence would be done to them, according to a report by the AG.

The lesson for social studies that day was not related to slavery, the AG found. The teacher did not get express permission or approval from the district for the lesson, the AG said.

The AGs office credited the district with immediately placing the teacher on leave after learning of the incident. The teacher resigned and has not returned to the classroom since, according to the AGs office.

The district reported the teacher to the states licensing authority, contacted parents and attempted to counsel the affected students in the aftermath of the class.

As part of the agreement with the AGs office, the district committed to taking a series of steps to prevent another incident like this from happening in the future.

The district agreed to ensure continued compliance with state and federal laws, including the Dignity for All Students Act; it will update the districts code of conduct and other procedures, come up with a training plan for teachers and staff, recruit diverse teachers, and regularly report to the AGs office.

The district said it plans to hire a chief diversity officer to oversee compliance, and to develop culturally sensitive curriculum to teach students about slavery and the contributions of African Americans to this country.
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Linkedin Jennifer Gonzalez Covarrubias (Agence France-Presse) Mexico City, Mexico  Mon, August 10, 2020 07:10 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cb0430 2 World Mexico,journalists,gang-killing,violence,drug-violence Free

Mexican journalist Julio Cesar Zubillaga shudders when his young daughter asks him why "they" want to kill him.

He spoke up after a fellow reporter's murder and quickly felt the consequences: death threats and a gun attack on the office where his paper is printed.

His experience highlights southern Mexico's status as among the most dangerous regions in a country that is one of the most dangerous in the world for journalists.

Zubillaga helped prepare the corpse of Pablo Morrugares, a journalist with digital newspaper PM Noticias, after gunmen killed both him and the policeman guarding him in a restaurant in Iguala in southern Guerrero state.

Zubillaga, the editor of Iguala's La Tarde newspaper, issued a public plea for justice for the 48-year-old reporter, who had survived a 2016 attack.

"It was a brutal assassination. I saw how Pablo looked. I had to dress him for those who wanted to come and see him off, but fewer than four colleagues came. Everyone is afraid. We live in terror," he told AFP.

The following day Zubillaga received threats on social media, and on Tuesday gunmen opened fire on the offices of the Diario de Iguala, where his newspaper is printed.

"At least 10 journalists from Iguala have received death threats" from criminal groups, said Zubillaga, who has pleaded with the leftist government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to provide protection.

Three other journalists have been murdered in Mexico this year: Jorge Armenta, Victor Alvarez and Maria Elena Ferral.

Since 2000, more than 100 Mexican journalists have been killed, and 92 percent of the cases remain unsolved, according to press groups.

Killed for doing their jobs

Early this year, videos circulated on social media in which armed groups threatened their rivals and several journalists.

Intimidation is nothing new for Mexican reporters, "but we're now seeing those threats being carried out," Zubillaga said.

To protect himself, the 51-year-old editor rarely stays long at the same address, regularly changes his route to work and long ago stopped taking walks with his family.

"The most painful part for me is to get home and have my youngest daughter ask me: 'Papa, why do they want to kill you? How long are you going to live?'" Zubillaga says, his voice breaking during a phone interview.

Given the threats, most reporters in Iguala have opted for self-censure.

"Many don't want to speak, let alone publish," said another journalist, speaking anonymously after having had to leave the city because his life was at risk. "You're in the crossfire."

"One group threatens you for publishing this or that information, and another [its rival] for not publishing it."

The Los Tlacos criminal group threatened Iguala journalists with death after accusing them of siding with rival gang Guerreros Unidos, the investigative journal Proceso reported Wednesday.

In response, the city's reporters opted for a policy of self-censure, Proceso said.

Shortly before his killing, Pablo Morrugares had reported on a crime in an area he said was controlled by Los Tlacos.

'Nothing happens'

Since 2006, when the government launched a military offensive against drug traffickers, Mexico has witnessed a growing wave of violence.

To date, 293,336 people have been murdered, according to official data that do not specify how many were victims of organized crime groups.

Mexican authorities have linked the narco-traffickers of Guerreros Unidos to the disappearance in September 2014 of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teachers' college in Guerrero state.

For the NGO Reporters Without Borders, the situation in Iguala is among the most worrying in Mexico, said Balbina Flores, a representative of the group who herself has faced threats.

"It seems that if a journalist is killed, nothing happens. That is why this doesn't stop," she said.
Six aftershocks have occurred in Alleghany County following Sunday's 5.1 magnitude earthquake near Sparta, authorities said Monday.

The Center for Earthquake Research and Information at the University of Memphis recorded the aftershocks that occurred around Sparta, said Mitchell Withers, a research associate professor at the center. Those aftershocks had magnitudes ranging from 1.7 to 2.2, said Withers, who is also the center's director of seismic and computer networks.

The aftershocks didn't cause any additional damage or injuries in Alleghany County, Sheriff Bryan Maines said.

Sunday's quake happened at 8:07 a.m. and was centered about 2 miles southeast of Sparta, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It shook much of North Carolina, damaged Alleghany homes and buildings and startled residents.

The earthquake was widely felt throughout the central Appalachian Mountains and coastal areas from Washington, D.C. to Atlanta, according to the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology Education in Washington.

A few Alleghany residents suffered scratches from the quake, but no significant injuries were reported, Maines said.
IMAGE: Tourists pose for photographs at the Merlion Park in Singapore.

Singapore is the most favoured destination for people living in India, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines when it comes to post-lockdown travel. Photograph: Feline Lim/Reuters

Indians, among the most travelled huyman beings before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, are the most confident in the world about resuming their international adventures once they allowed to do so.

They also top the list of people most eager to travel internationally in the next 12 months with 77 per cent saying they are keen to travel, followed by Thais at 70 per cent and Indonesians at 60 per cent.

Singapore is the most favoured destination for people living in India, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines when it comes to post-lockdown travel.

This was revealed in a newly released study conducted jointly by social research agency Blackbox Research, data provider Dynata and language partner Language Connect, Unravel Travel: Fears & Possibilities in a Post Coronavirus (COVID-19) World.

It examines the sentiments, preferences, and expectations of 10,195 people across 17 countries regarding travel in a post-COVID-19 world.

However, with bad news continuously emanating from the travel industry, travellers will have to put their plans on ice for the foreseeable future as the 'new normal' in travel is still some time away.

Two weeks ago, travel booking giant Expedia reported a steep 82 per cent revenue decline to $566 million in the second quarter (for period ending June) and a $577 net loss. A year earlier, the firm had a net income of $276 million.

Last week, French hotel group Accor, which owns luxury accommodation brands like Swissotel, Sofitel and Raffles, posted half-year losses of 1.5 billion euros ($1.77 billion) compared with a profit of 141 million euros one year ago.

In addition, it announced that it was slashing 1,000 head office jobs worldwide out of a global corporate headcount of 18,000.

Also last week, Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic, which is 49 per cent owned by Delta Air Lines, filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in New York. This is the second airline owned by Branson that is seeking the protection of courts, the first being Virgin Australia.

Chapter 15 is slightly different from the usual Chapter 11 as it is designed for companies that operate in multiple countries.

Virgin Atlantic based in Britain, is attempting to put together a private rescue package after having previously attempted to obtain a British government bailout.

Singapore Airlines reported a historic loss in its latest fiscal quarter (for the period April to June) of 1.12 billion Singapore dollars ($812 million).

Following that, it announced pay cuts for all management and rank-and-file staff, as well as an early retirement programme for ground staff and pilots.

Earlier, with support from government investment arm Temasek and other shareholders, it managed to raise some 15 billion Singapore dollars ($10.9 billion) to weather the COVID-19 storm.

Geneva-based International Air Transport Association (IATA) does not expect air travel to be restored to 2019 levels until 2024.

With the COVID-19 virus rampaging throughout the world causing people to shelter in their homes for most of the last few months, the World Tourism Organisation Tourism Barometer showed a precipitous fall of 98 per cent in international arrivals in May this year when compared with May 2019.

The Barometer also uncovered a 56 per cent decline in tourist numbers for the first five months of this year, translating into a loss of 300 million tourists and $320 billion lost in international tourism receipts.

This is more than three times the loss during the global financial crisis of 2009.

Although there are hints of a gradual and cautious resumption of travel, confidence is low. A majority of the World Tourism Organisation panel of tourism experts expect international tourism will only recover in the second half of 2021.

When travel can resume under a 'new normal' travel framework, the Unravel Travel survey found that with a score of 76, India and Thailand are tied for top position for nationalities most confident of travelling.

Asian countries dominate the countries that scored above the global average of 61, including China (69), Indonesia (65), Singapore (64). France and Germany also rated above the global average.

At the other end of the spectrum, Japan was rated the most cautious with a score of 40, followed by the Philippines (43) and Hong Kong (50).

Other countries that scored below the global average include Sweden, New Zealand, UK, Canada and the United States.

Saurabh Sardana, Chief Operating Officer, Blackbox Research, said each country's score reflects a balancing act between a number of considerations -- the perceived importance of tourism to the country's economy, national management of COVID-19 cases and even past experiences of similar epidemics.

Notably, New Zealand's low case achievement has led to the country's more cautious attitude towards international travel.

In another finding, the Unravel Travel study showed that contactless travel is something travellers would expect once they can resume travelling.

76 per cent of respondents indicated that their preferred destinations would be countries that offer more reliable contactless experiences.

In terms of what the future of travel looks like, the study found that e-boarding passes (41 per cent), touchless lavatories (43 per cent), contactless journeys between airports and hotels (40 per cent), no more middle seats in transportation (36 per cent) and digital health passports (35 per cent) are some of the new ideas that global travellers hope to see implemented in the near future.

"Governments will need to play a key role in messaging and ensuring travellers' safety, as well as empowering the tourism industry through investment in new technology and innovation that would ensure a seamless, contactless travel experience that is sustainable," Sardana added.

"The first movers will cash in on the pent-up demand as borders open."
More than 60 people have been killed in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato since the arrest of a cartel leader at the start of the month.

Jose Antonio Yepez - known as 'El Marro' was arrested the early morning of August 2 by security forces at one of his compounds in the city of Celaya.

Since the 40-year-old's arrest, at least 22 people have been murdered in the municipality of Leon, 78 miles away.

On Saturday morning, two male employees were killed inside a Leon butcher shop. Witnesses told authorities that the suspects fled in two vehicles after the assassinations.

On Thursday, authorities in municipality of Jerecuaro discovered the bodies of seven men after they were executed and dumped on the side of a road.

Jose Antonio 'El Marro' Yepez is the leader of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel. Since declaring war on its rival Jalisco New Generation Cartel in 2017, more than 9,000 people have been killed in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, where Yepez's fuel theft gang operated from

More than 60 people were murdered throughout Guanajuato, Mexico last week, including a man (pictured) who was executed in the town of Uriangato on Saturday morning

Most of the other murders were reported in the cities of Apaseo el Alto, Valle de Santiago, Salamanca, Acambaro, Moroleon and Celaya.

The killings are part of the never ending wave of violence that has left more than 9,000 dead in Guanajuato since El Marro and his Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel declared war on his rival, Nemesio 'El Mencho' Oseguera and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Recent government data reported 2,685 homicides through the first seven months of 2020, including 392 in July.

Yepez's criminal organization was based out of the municipality of Villagran and had a presence in the nearby cities of Celaya, Cortazar, Salamanca, Irapuato, Valle de Santiago, and his birthplace Juventino Rosas.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel promised to restore tranquility back to the residents of Guanajuato, Mexico, via a video released Saturday in which they celebrated the arrest of Jose Antonio 'El Marro' Yepez, leader of their rival Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel

El Marro was arrested August 2 in the Guanajuato city of Juventino Rosas

According to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel benefited from links with local and state government and law enforcement officials.

Unlike the traditional drug cartels, the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel earned its illicit riches via the theft of fuel from refineries operated by the state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos [Mexican Petroleum].

As its dominance grew, Yepez's criminal syndicated forced out local cartels from the area that sold synthetic drugs and also robbed freight from trains.

But after authorities stepped up security around trains and pipelines over the last two years, the gang turned to extortion and kidnapping. It would move sector to sector, systematically demanding extortion payments from businesses like tortilla shops or car dealerships.

In late June, Yepez vowed revenge on the Mexican government and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel after his mother, sister and cousin were among 30 people arrested in a raid.

With Yepez now in jail, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel has promised to restore peace to Guanajuato, according to a video that was posted on social media Saturday.

In, at least two dozen men were seen dressed in military gear and holding assault rifles, .50-caliber sniper rifles and at least two belt-fed machine guns.

'We know that there are still people from this gang of killers of innocents,' a cartel spokesman says in the video, a reference to remaining Santa Rosa gang members. 'They will also fall. The best thing they can do is run.'

The video promises that once the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel is eliminated, peace will return to Guanajuato under Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which is Mexico's most violent and fastest growing criminal faction.

'Today, the Cartel Jalisco New Generation makes the promise to you, the people of Guanajuato, and to the authorities, that it will keep the state in peace and tranquility,' the spokesman said.
We note with concern and regret, the events surrounding the commencement of written papers at this year's WASSCE, specifically, the misconduct of students and some teachers. We wish to render an unqualified, collective apology to His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana, for any embarrassment occasioned by the unfortunate pronouncements of some recalcitrant students who have thankfully, been brought to book. Having monitored examinations in Ghana in times past and present, we wish to proceed to make the following observations that are at the base of this year's WASSCE disturbances, and recommend some remedial measures moving forward:

Secondary education has been publicized enough; Politicians must cease making predictions on this year's WASSCE results as it has a tendency of affecting public acceptance. Anytime a politician makes such predictions, it fuels a process that may lead to the politicization of the results of the WASSCE.

There is growing indiscipline in our schools due to the interference of external actors in schools' disciplinary processes and outcomes. Such interferences only embolden students with impunity and lower the recognition of the authority of school heads as principals of discipline in schools. Let's leave school heads to manage the schools in line with the GES' disciplinary code, and hold them accountable for their stewardship.

There is a developed black market for trading in examination leaks, commonly called 'Apo'. This industry has developed with the growth of the internet and mobile communication gadgets. Our study of the 'Apo' value chain in the past decade suggests that every year, students contribute huge sums amongst themselves, to purchase these questions, sometimes from anonymous sources. This has over the years lowered the enthusiasm and efforts invested in learning by some finalists, as these questions mostly do not disappoint. Last year, there were leaked questions on social media in Integrated Science and mathematics, which all appeared in the exam. Unfortunately, this year, there has been a disappointment, leading to the rioting. The security of questions continue to be a huge challenge for the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) for decades, without which there wouldn't have emerged this black market. WAEC has failed over the years to secure their questions, consistently raising questions of standards and quality assurance. In view of the inefficiencies in WAEC's examining approaches, we respectfully recommend the establishment of an independent regulatory authority for examining bodies, including WAEC, while taking steps to dilute their monopoly.

A Regulator of Assessments, similar to the Office of Qualification and Assessments in the United Kingdom, would provide quality assurance, standards enforcements and grant/revoke licenses to examining bodies including WAEC, on the basis of the quality of their assessment practices, including the security of questions. Presently, WAEC does not operate under any external regulation, and cannot determine and appraise their own standards and performance. Pursuant, a detailed memorandum is being submitted to your good offices and Parliament.

Presently, there are several international examining bodies operating in the pre-tertiary education space, specifically in the private sector. The reputations of these groups are not in question as one hardly hears of any leakage in examination papers. It is our considered opinion that, it is long overdue for Ghana to consider inviting some healthy competition in the Public Pre-Tertiary Examinations Sector to help improve standards under the proposed Regulator of Assessments.

It is necessary to approach this year's WASSCE unrest with an honest and holistic perspective, with the aim of systemic reform. Anything short of this would, as usual, manage the situation temporarily for a recurrence next year.

Finally, while the decision by the Ghana Education Service to dismiss the rampaging students is commendable, we wish to appeal to you, to consider allowing them to sit for their remaining papers in their respective schools as day students, under the necessary security.

Very sincerely,

Kofi Asare

Executive Director, Africa Education Watch
Opinion Article

10 August 2020

The threats of the 'novel' Coronavirus have been very real and palpable. And so imposing in their magnitude, reach and penetration!

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While other outbreaks have been sizeable too and have unleashed big enough havoc; yet they seem to have been region specific having peaked in one geographical area or two. H1NI, SARS, MERS, Ebola - all have claimed lives, some more than the others.

But Coronavirus seems to have unified the world in fear, panic, and helplessness like never before. It is not a First World dilemma or a Third World problem. The Virus has spread across the length and breadth of the globe with unfathomable haste and urgency, leaving a small window for response and rectification.

We all seem to be grappling with the menace of it, having trundled into an area none of us have had experience in; not even the richer, more equipped societies.

With no place or person immune to the deadly Coronavirus, people are employing energy and acumen into developing resources and devising techniques to streamline a combat strategy.

While the role of the Government and the various governing bodies is paramount in making the pandemic retract; many ingenious individuals and institutions have set themselves on the warpath to make an impressive difference.

Some of the examples hereunder are perfect for the travel and hospitality industry to either -

Emulate from

Learn with

Contribute to

String together in their own Survival Strategy

Improve upon by adding their unique experience

Use as a Sift to see what can be gleaned and what must be allowed to pass-through

Avi Schiffmann a teenage High School student from Seattle developed a website in December of last year when the virus had not been detected outside of China. Accessing data from the World Health Organisation, the Centers for Disease Control and other relevant places, Avi's Site is today one of the most significant global resources for tracking the Coronavirus cases.

The at-a-glance dashboard presented in real-time on the Schiffmann Website depicts total confirmed cases, total deceased, total serious, and total recovered in 173 countries infected by now, providing you easy and quick information on where and how the Coronavirus is spreading.

The latest addition is the ticker advising you about how many vaccines are being currently worked on. You can access the Site here - https://ncov2019.live/data.

I think this is a fantastic resource to aid in the planning of travel and hospitality professionals. Besides, since such talent, experience, skill and acumen resides in the industry, it presents opportunities to individuals and companies to get innovative and inventive.

Dennis Pitocco, a Florida-based publisher and solopreneur who runs an award-winning media digest Bizcatalyst360, is using his platform to perpetuate a goodwill wave of "rising by lifting others." Dennis' initiative is essentially targetted at the weakest common denominator - the senior population and the desolate. Acknowledging the challenging times and urging everyone to do their bit, Pitocco reemphasizes that "doing something versus doing nothing means everything," so much more in the present context.

Pitocco advises to organize Wellness checks on the senior population, offer practical help, physically run errands, be a call away for the most vulnerable. I ratify that these are pertinent pointers to devise one's strategy around guest loyalty and retention.

That is the need of the hour. From an individual's effort to a country's approach as a whole - everything will and is adding up to combat the Coronavirus.

A handful of countries such as India and Canada had taken the lead with timely steps, but lack of consistency as in the case of India is proving to be its Achilles' heel. Some other countries, like Italy, where there is a large senior population faced the brunt of it.

Vilnius, the capital of the small European country Lithuania, in the initial days itself made 'solidarity' its anthem to meet the Coronovirus pandemic head-on. The country is under quarantine, but the zealous volunteers of Vilnius together with a large number of entrepreneurs and businesses have been working overtime to help the doctors and people in risk groups.

I would like to use the Vilnius initiatives as a model on which the efforts of any country or industry could be easily based. The tiny nation's giant strides must be extrapolated.

The Volunteers of Vilnius are joining into different groups to take up big or small tasks - help a senior citizen shop for food or medicine, disburse correct, fact-checked communication through posters, flyers, and drones, raise funds for protective equipment or respirators, provide help to overloaded medical staff in whatever way possible such as perhaps volunteer to walk the dogs of doctors and nurses currently pressed into immense pressure.

The number of volunteers is increasing every day with the current count being more than 3000. Competing telecommunication providers set up a website 'Strong Together' where both volunteers and help-seekers can register. The site matches offers and requests ranging from providing food aid to being a courier with one's own car.

The contribution of entrepreneurs is phenomenal. In a matter of hours, when the Pandemic first broke out, entrepreneurs raised around EUR 600,000 through online communications. The funds are being plowed into procuring essential amenities like surgical masks scaling up to lung ventilation machines and other equipment.

Many businesses are donating their products or adapting their production lines to the new situation. Distilleries and chemical plants are producing disinfectants. Popular restaurants are providing free food for medical staff, servicemen, volunteers and isolated people. A known Fashion Designer is producing substitute surgical masks for doctors who are lacking professional protective equipment.

While I find the Vilnius template to be a great model to follow, there are reports coming in from other places too, with organizations and individuals rising up to lend their hand in the best way they can.

Tata Group, one of the biggest and most respected conglomerates in the Subcontinent has made two strong commitments - Daily wage workers in all Tata group companies will be paid salary for the Lockdown months. Secondly, Tata outlined its move to pay the dues of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises without any delay.

Anand Mahindra, the Chairman of Mahindra Group is one of the first billionaire businessmen to come ahead and provide solutions. "To help in the response to this unprecedented threat, we at the Mahindra Group will immediately begin work on how our manufacturing facilities can make ventilators. At Mahindra Holidays, we stand ready to offer our resorts as temporary care facilities," Mahindra offered in May when the Coronavirus was seen to subsume everything around.

Sadly, no segment is being left untouched by the perils of the virus this time around. The Hotel, Travel, Aviation Industry seems to be the worst hit, worldwide.

An Italian restaurant, in the early days of the outbreak, put out a social media message requesting people to buy coupons now which could be utilized to dine in later when the situation improves, in order to keep the local restaurants afloat.

Some Airlines announced pay cuts for the top management so as to ward off the immediate and pressing business need for layoffs.

The loss to the travel and hospitality industry is immense. The recovery, experts say, will kick in possibly around the second quarter of '21.

Travel Agents and Tour Operators project a similar timeline for business and leisure travel to recoup and return. Some say that while air travel may already be showing signs of a slow recovery, it will take until 2024 to get to pre-pandemic levels.

Analysts have forecast a loss upwards of $1.2 Trillion for the global tourism industry this year; and total job losses in the sector are staring vacuously at a figure that threatens to touch 197 million.

Yet, many top of the line hotel chains and individual hotels are braving it to once again open their doors within the templates of the new normalcy.

The local region, the community, the in-city customers have become more crucial to help with the bailout.

One thing is certain, we will bounce back. That is a fact because the human spirit is such.

Already, we are adopting new ways of doing things, whether it is work from home, or virtual meets and webinars, or working staycations, with heightened sanitization being the most luxurious service offered.

But the zeal must be tempered with reality and rationality. Perhaps it may not be wrong to err on the side of caution.

Yes, businesses must survive. But so must lives.

It is quite the conundrum, this coronavirus pandemic.

Still, I leave you with optimism rising over the pensiveness, as I bring to your attention the prophecy made by Sylvia Browne in her 2008 book "End of Days."

While Browne wrote about the devastation the virus would unleash and the obstinacy it would show in the face of treatment, but she predicts that "the illness will suddenly vanish as quickly as it arrived, attack again ten years later, and then disappear completely."

In the interim, we would have acquired new ways to Survive, Strengthen, Sustain, Surmount, and Succeed.

That and the fact that Avi Schiffmann's site tells us that as on date there are 164 vaccines in development!
MTN Ghana has cautioned customers against new forms of mobile money fraud targeted at nurses and other unsuspecting Ghanaians.



Reports indicate that some nurses have been lured into sending mobile money to fraudsters who promise to facilitate the expeditious payments of their outstanding salaries.



According Mr. Godwin Tamakloe, MTN Mobile Money executive, these fraudsters, following governments decision to pay nurses outstanding salaries, seem to have obtained information on the names of the nurses and their outstanding salaries. With such information, they deceive nurses into believing that they are the officers processing their salaries.



He explained further that these fraudsters then negotiate a percentage of the outstanding salaries for the expeditious processing of the salaries and then once they get the money they go missing leaving the defrauded nurses frustrated.



Mr. Tamakloe said MTN was working assiduously with the security agencies to arrest these fraudsters; we picked one of these fraudsters about three days ago, he told a group of journalists during an interaction in Accra last week.



He disclosed that since the beginning of the year, the police have arrested about 13 people for mobile money related fraud. Weve had discussions with the police to publish names of arrests made. Our management has written to the head of the police in that direction; we are still appealing to the police, he stated.



Mr Tamakloe indicated that another new trend of mobile money fraud had also emerged whereby fraudsters promise to double money in a scheme similar to a Ponzi scheme.



He gave the assurance that MTN Ghana would continue to work to address the threat of these fraudsters but urged the public to be vigilant and avoid falling for such tricks from unscrupulous persons.



He disclosed that data suggests that there has been a drop in the number of MTN mobile money fraud this year. He also disclosed that this year MTN has blocked an average of 380 accounts used for fraudulent mobile money activities every month compared to last years average of 900.











Source: graphiconline.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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Haiti - Politic : Mexico expels 55 Haitians





On Friday, the Mexican government expelled 55 Haitian migrants from the international airport of Tapachula (far south-eastern state of Chiapas) on board a Boeing 739-300, registered XA-VDD, under the custody of a around twenty agents from the National Institute of Migration (INM). During the return process to their country of origin, the authorities ensured compliance with health measures for the Coronavirus, the INM said.



Activist Wilner Metelus, President of the Citizens Committee for the Defense of Naturalized and Afro-Mexicans, originally from Haiti, naturalized Mexican, denounced these expulsions, stressing that the majority of Haitians had submitted a refugee application to the Commission Mexican Refugee Aid (COMAR). He declared that "[...] the expulsion of Haitian migrants in the midst of a pandemic is a crime and a disgrace [...]" adding "It is a pity that the Mexican Government is doing the dirty work for President Donald Trump."



For its part, the INM indicated that these Haitian migrants had been at the southern border of Mexico for several months and that they had not been able to comply with various requirements to obtain some form of regularization.



It should be remembered that since the beginning of the year the INM has expelled 28,722 foreigners who entered the country illegally, 48% of whom were expelled from Chiapas. Of this total 282 Haitians were expelled this year (source INM).



SL/ HaitiLibre


















Woman sentenced to 7 years behind bars for babynap from Kemerovo maternity clinic

 flickr.com/ Jlhopgood

16:09 10/08/2020

MOSCOW, August 10 (RAPSI)  The Central District Court of Russias Kemerovo has jailed a 42-year woman living in a neighboring town to 7 years in penal colony for kidnapping from a local maternity hospital, the press service of the Prosecutor Generals Office reports.

According to the case papers, in October 2019, the defendant came to the clinic, entered a ward took a baby from a bed when a mother was absent and left the hospital. Later, the childs father released his kid. The woman pleaded not guilty. The accused said she found the baby on a bench.

The hospitals access control chief was fined 10,000 rubles ($135) for negligence, the statement reads.




The new far left fascism By Rachel Alexander

President Trump accurately labeled the rise of Antifa as a new far left fascism during his July speech at Mt. Rushmore. Antifa has arisen at an appropriate time, when the far left in America is taking on the characteristics of fascism. No doubt they named themselves Antifa in order to dissuade people from thinking they were actual fascists. Give yourself a name that everyone agrees with, and you can hide your real agenda. Black Lives Matter has done it successfully, they have an approval rating over 70% but their real agenda is Marxism. As Catholic teacher Timothy Gordon put it after being fired for calling the group terrorists, you could be a terrorist group and hide your agenda by naming yourselves Dont Kill Kittens. The similarities between Antifa, the far left and fascism are disturbing. The left claims that fascism is closer linked to the right, but the right has never stood for massive government control, that is a hallmark of the left. One troubling similarity is the identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause. The far left now labels all conservatives as evil, calling them white supremacists, sexists, homophobes, climate change deniers, etc. Fascists disdain intellectuals. Under fascism, professors and other academics were censored and even arrested. Today, the far left is driving conservatives out of the universities. If they sneak in, the left complains until they are fired. Only 1% of the faculty at Harvard now identifies as conservative. Only academics who think like leftists are allowed to remain. Fascism has a disdain for human rights, which manifests itself by cruel behavior toward political opponents. Were seeing this in long prison sentences for conservative activists. Former Congressman Steve Stockman is serving a 10-year prison term for merely raising money for two conservative nonprofits. Even though he is over 60 and has diabetes, putting him at high risk for COVID-19, corrupt bureaucrats within the Bureau of Prisons will not release him. They released every other diabetic over 60 in his prison. Now he has COVID-19, so his sentence could turn into a death sentence. Under fascism, fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the people. Were seeing this with the Democrats handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. They have made people ultraparanoid of contracting the virus, even though the young and healthy will be fine and even though a certain amount of the population needs to contract it in order to reach herd immunity. By fomenting this anxiety, theyre able to portray conservatives who oppose the draconian measures as not caring about people dying, using it against them to stop them from winning elections. Corporate power is protected under fascism. The industrial and business aristocracy often puts the government leaders into power. Were now seeing this with the most powerful companies in the country donating almost exclusively to Democrats. More than 90% of the $40 million donated by big tech employees to political causes since 2004 has gone to Democrats. In 2020 so far, 96% of the money contributed to political campaigns by Apple and its employees has gone to Democrats. Fascists used slogans, symbols, songs and flags to promote their ideology. Antifa has a very distinct symbol of a black and red flag which shows up everywhere at their protests and riots. Black flags generally mean anarchy and red flags mean communism or socialism. Antifa is known for a variety of chants and slogans. They include No America at all, No Trump, no wall, no USA at all, and If we dont get it, shut it down! There is rampant cronyism and corruption under fascism. Weve seen this in the revolving door between the mainstream media and Democratic administrations. There are too many to list here, but some of the more well-known individuals include George Stephanopoulos and Rahm Emanuel. Mark Levine cites 29 recent examples in his latest book, Unfreedom of the Press, which is far more than cycled through the GOP-media revolving door. There are also increasing malicious, politically motivated prosecutions against conservatives taking place in locations where far left Democrats control the prosecutors offices. Another sign of fascism is fraudulent elections. The left has been caught engaging in election fraud over and over again, and is blatantly preparing to do so again by transferring all voting to mail-in ballots. Election fraud also includes complicit judges and manipulation of the media. Since the left controls much of the judiciary, and plaintiffs are often able to forum shop to pick a favorable judge, they are having some success. While the left hasnt taken over the police as happens under fascism, there are signs they are making inroads. Police are arresting and citing people for not wearing masks. They arrested two pro-life protesters for merely writing Black Preborn Lives Matter in chalk on the sidewalk outside a Planned Parenthood. In contrast, Antifa and Black Lives Matter spray paint slogans on businesses and nothing happens. Michelle Malkin recently attended a Law Enforcement Appreciation Day in Denver and the police did nothing as radical left thugs beat the attendees. Since Democrats control the big cities, where the police chiefs report to the mayor, they are able to dictate how the police behave. Antifa blatantly refers to its members as comrades, a leftover term from communist Russia. Many of their members admit they are communists. Communism is a close cousin of fascism, with the government controlling everything (Marxists claim that the people own everything under communism, but its never worked out that way). Its way overdue to start referring to Antifa as fascists and calling them out when they act like them. Dont let them get away with labeling all conservatives as fascists. Were not the ones trying to get the government to take over everything and stomp out the opposition. Rachel Alexander and her brother Andrew are co-Editors of Intellectual Conservative. She has been published in the American Spectator, Townhall.com, Fox News, NewsMax, Accuracy in Media, The Americano, ParcBench, Enter Stage Right and other publications.mericano, ParcBench, Enter Stage Right and other publications.



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The executive actions signed by President Donald Trump over the weekend add up to a thinning lifeline of support for an already-stalling US economic recovery, but may refocus lawmakers on getting back to the table for negotiations.

Trump's redirection of disaster-relief funds would provide $US300 ($419) a week in federal aid to the unemployed - down from the weekly $US600 in the Cares Act that expired in July. That money is capped at $US44 billion , which at the current level of unemployment could run out in one to two months.

The US jobs market has been battered by the pandemic. Credit:AP

"The extra $US400 unemployment payment is likely to last only a month," Goldman Sachs economists said in a research note.

Trump's other major action could potentially have a bigger impact: it defers the payroll tax from September through year-end for workers earning as much as $US8,000 a month, which could put an extra $US600, at most, in employees' pockets. Economist Stephen Moore, a Trump ally, says it amounts to a $US300 billion tax cut that would help the economy.
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But keeping a bunch of youths from dancing isn't all we'll be losing thanks to the United States of Footloose. TikTok, while only two years old, already has a deeply layered culture with countless caverns stretching out into the deepest, dankest corridors of the internet.

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Ignore that giraffe. Most people over the ripe age of twenty-six will only have ever known two TikToks. Its most mainstream is, again, pretty dancing Straight Tok, its videos all looking like if OnlyFans had a 30-second preview window before you have to give it your credit card details.
Whether you're planning a staycation or braving a holiday overseas (and the risk of being quarantined when you get back), will you be one of the new 'Leaveists'?

These are people who use their time off work to catch up ... with work. According to a recent survey, about half of us have done it.

The 'leaveism' trend was first identified by Cary Cooper, a professor of organisational psychology and health at Manchester University, in 2014. While conducting a study into stress, he found that police officers were using holiday time to catch up with paperwork.

Professor Cooper's latest figures suggest that not only were half of the 17,000 police he studied taking holiday to catch up with work, but 59 per cent of people in the private sector were doing the same as they were just too busy to catch up in normal working hours.

So is this unhealthy? The answer is not straightforward.

In a study published in the journal Psychology and Health, scientists found people who had spent at least two weeks on holiday in the past 12 months were found to have a lower risk of metabolic syndrome. (Stock image)

For some, holidays can be hugely beneficial. People who had spent at least two weeks on holiday (even split into shorter breaks) in the past 12 months were found to have a lower risk of metabolic syndrome  a cluster of symptoms that raise the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes  in a U.S. study published last year in the journal Psychology and Health.

A 2016 study from the University of California, San Francisco, published in Translational Psychiatry, showed that even taking a six-day break caused changes in the way genes that control stress and immune responses work.

'We need holidays to recharge and connect with our family or friends,' says Professor Cooper.

But not everyone needs the same type of holiday to get these benefits. While research published in the journal Stress and Health in 2014 showed most people can recharge their batteries with short breaks, 'compulsive workers' don't get that benefit. For these people, it took two weeks away to stop them thinking about work.

They also didn't like to be doing nothing on holiday.

'Try to get someone who is highly ambitious, driven or fast-moving to sit by a pool for two weeks and they won't deal with it well,' adds Professor Cooper.

'It can increase their stress and they'll probably start doing work to keep themselves busy.'

If this sounds like you, the key to a beneficial holiday is 'relaxing busyness'. This might mean trekking up a mountain, booking tours or attending a cookery school.

Whatever you do stops you thinking about work  and there's an extra bonus if it also benefits you mentally.

While research published in the journal Stress and Health in 2014 showed most people can recharge their batteries with short breaks, 'compulsive workers' don't get that benefit. (Stock image)

'People who do activities that are meaningful on holiday get the biggest surge in life satisfaction during and after it,' says Joe Sirgy, a professor of marketing at the Pamplin School of Business in Virginia.

But should you also check in with work? Professor Cooper says no. 'If there is something negative going on, you'll either worry about it or get sucked in trying to fix it.'

But psychologist Portia Hickey says that for some, switching off is not so simple. 'The need to stay involved with work while on holiday can be driven by natural cognitive processes,' she says.

'For example, the Zeigarnik effect is where tasks that are interrupted or unresolved remain in our memory, making them more likely to nag at us.

'Anxieties about job security can also make us feel that we need to check in.'

Being able to balance a relaxing trip with these thought processes means finding strategies to tackle them.

Portia Hickey suggests focusing your workload on what is really important for a few weeks before you go away.

Another study by scientists at Tilburg University in the Netherlands found that some people became physically ill when they took a break. (Stock image)

'Identify a couple of high-value 'deliverables' that are feasible to achieve and that will feel like accomplishments once done,' she suggests. And if you feel you need to check emails, 'set aside a specific time, daily or every few days, to do so and allow time to action only the most important or urgent items.

'Turning off email and text notifications will help ensure you stick to your allotted time.'

If you have anxiety about job security, arrange 'worry appointments' for yourself.

Veg in disguise Sultana muffins with carrot and apple Sneaky ways to add veg without anyone noticing. This week: Sultana muffins with carrot and apple This recipe makes eight muffins and counts as one of your five-a-day per muffin. METHOD: Stir 250g grated carrots, 75g sugar, 75g margarine and 75g stewed apple together. Sift in 200g flour and 2tsp baking powder. Add two beaten eggs to the mixture, along with 125g sultanas and 50g walnuts (optional). Spoon into paper muffin cases and bake at 200c/gas mark 6 for 20 minutes or until the top is springy. Advertisement

'When the worry comes to mind, make a mental or physical note of it to think about at your worry appointment.'

Anxiety about work is one health concern on holiday, but some people become physically ill when they take a break. In 2002, scientists at Tilburg University in the Netherlands named this 'leisure sickness'.

'We found that about 3 per cent of people develop health complaints such as headaches, muscle pain, fatigue and nausea within the first few days of taking a holiday,' says trial author Professor Ad Vingerhoets, a clinical psychologist.

One theory on why this happens is that holidays allow us to notice health issues we have been ignoring.

The other possible explanation is that being permanently busy creates high levels of the hormones adrenaline and cortisol, which can reduce the effectiveness of the immune system. Combine this with the exposure to more, or different, germs and illness takes hold.

Travelling can have its own ill-effects. Research at Vienna University in 2012 found that blood pressure rises for the first day of travel and stays high for the next two days.

Even so, a weekend mini-break can be enough to reduce stress levels, according to research published in the journal Stress and Health in 2014.

In 2015, Jessica de Bloom, a psychologist specialising in occupational health, compared the positive effects on mental and physical health of relaxing after work, spending a weekend at home and having a weekend away.

Her study, published in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism, found that when people travelled, they slept more, were more active, more social and did fewer chores. They also worried less.

On average, the boost to wellbeing from a holiday lasts for between two and five weeks after you return  but you can prolong the benefits.

Book a day out or plan some evenings on the sofa for the few weeks after you return.

A 2011 study from Konstanz University in Germany found teachers who used their spare time to relax once they returned from a trip felt the positive benefits of a holiday for longer than those who just swung back into their daily routine.
Why the Kerala Gold Smuggling case is an act of terror

Kerala Gold Smuggling: There is evidence says court while rejecting Swapnas bail plea

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Aug 10: A special NIA court has rejected the bail petition of Swapna Suresh an accused in the Kerala Gold Smuggling case.

There is prima facie evidence that she was involved in the gold smuggling, the court also observed while rejecting her bail plea.

Gold and narcotics are the most preferred means of funding for terrorist activities. After the Mumbai 26/11 attacks, the agencies are on high alert regarding terror funding, the NIA had said while objecting to the bail plea.

Kerala Gold Smuggling: NIA team will visit Dubai to quiz prime accused

The NIA said that the accused persons used the lockdown period to smuggle the gold and this shows the intent of these persons to destabilise the economy.

Pranab Mukherjee tests Covid-19 +ve | Former President tests positive | Oneindia News

These persons smuggled 200 kilograms of gold on 20 occasions since June 2019, the NIA further submitted.

The agency has so far arrested 12 persons in connection with case. The NIA had said that there is a terror angle to this case. The NIA had also arrested one Muhammad Ali, who was charged by the Kerala police in connection with the hand chopping case involving a professor.

Last week, the NIA made six fresh arrests in the case. Ali was arrested after the investigation revealed that he was part of the conspiracy. He is alleged to aided and assisted arrested accused, Jalal A M in collecting the smuggled gold from Ramees K T at Thiruvananthapuram and distributing the contraband amongst other conspirators.

The NIA also conducted searches at six places. During searches, 2 hard disks, 1 tablet PC, 8 mobile phones, 6 SIM cards, 1 Digital Video Recorder and 5 DVDs were seized besides various documents including bank passbooks, credit/ debit cards, travel documents and identity documents of the accused.

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Story first published: Monday, August 10, 2020, 12:03 [IST]
IFA Berlin has postponed its Global Markets 2020 event as a part of its three-day in-person event that was supposed to take place from 3rd to 5th September. However, the rest of the events will take place as scheduled. IFA Global Markets is IFAs international sourcing platform for OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), ODMs (original design manufacturers), suppliers, and component manufacturers.



Even though almost 600 companies were eager to present themselves in Berlin this year, plans to reunite manufacturers, distributors and retailers at the major sourcing platform for Consumer and Home Electronics this year in Berlin as part of the IFA 2020 Special Edition proved to be impossible for companies from Asian markets, said IFA.

All companies which planned to participate in the IFA 2020 Special Edition but cannot join now may present their brands, products and innovations digitally as part of the IFA Virtual Market Place. For those companies which still plan to participate in 2020, the IFA team offers alternative solutions to ensure a successful and effective presentation.

Preparations for the IFA 2020 Special Edition, which will take place from 3 to 5 September 2020 in Berlin, are continuing at full speed. Several brands including HUAWEI, HONOR, JVC Kenwood, LG, Miele, Qualcomm, Realme, TCL and TP-Link will showcase their latest innovations and products at this years IFA 2020 Special Edition.

Regarding the same, Jens Heithecker, IFA Executive Director, said:

Through discussions with our partners we learned that the demand for participating in a real physical trade show this year remains strong. However, persistent travel restrictions prevent Asian companies from joining the live event in Berlin. Under these circumstances, many had to postpone their participation in IFA Global Markets to next year. The decision to postpone this event section of IFA 2020 Special Edition to 2021 was not an easy one for us. Especially since almost 600 companies were eager to present themselves in Berlin this year. Yet we have to accept that, with ongoing travel restrictions, for many of our partners it is simply impossible to plan and prepare for this years IFA Global Markets.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 10)  The Philippine Navy chief defended the decision of President Rodrigo Duterte to forbid Filipino troops from joining naval drills in the South China Sea, citing an 18-year old agreement between China and Southeast Asian states "to promote a peaceful, friendly and harmonious environment" in the disputed territory.

Flag Officer-in-Command Vice Admiral Giovanni Carlo Bacordo was referring to the Declaration on the Conduct (DOC) of Parties in the South China Sea, which China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations signed in Phnom Penh in 2002.

In a virtual media forum organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association in the Philippines (FOCAP) on Monday, Bacordo pointed to provision number 5 of the DOC to justify the President's order, which states, "the parties undertake self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability" in the region.

He noted that the United States, Japan and Australia, whose naval units held a two-day "trilateral exercise" in the South China Sea last July 21, are not signatories to the DOC.

"Our guiding principle here is adherence to the rule of law. So what the President and the Secretary of National Defense pronounced is consistent with this 2002 doctrine," Bacordo explained.

When asked if the Philippines can defend its interests in the South China Sea without relying on the U.S. and its allies, Bacordo said the Philippines can "leverage" on its "strategic partnerships" as platforms to discuss contentious issues related to the disputed territories.

"We may not invoke the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) which is already at the extremes," Bacordo explained.

Bacordo referred the "strategic partnerships" to the meetings among navy chiefs within the ASEAN, as well as the Western Pacific Naval Symposium, to which China is among the 31-member navies.

"Whatever violations come up, it's usually discussed during these navy chiefs meeting," he said.




THIS years Heroes Day and Defence Forces Day respectively commemorated today and tomorrow in honour of the gallant sons and daughters of the soil who bravely fought for Zimbabwes Independence comes at a time when the country faces a number of attacks from different fronts.





The country, just like the rest of the world, is grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic that has killed millions of people across the globe.





As at Friday, Zimbabwe had recorded 4 300 cases of Covid-19 including 102 deaths.





As part of measures to stop the spread of the virus, the Government implemented a number of measures including the cancellation of the holding of national public events.

This affected the Independence Day celebrations in April and the Heroes Day and Defence Forces Day, which come at a time the virus has spread more in the country, has also been affected.





To that effect, President Mnangagwas address to the country on the two holidays will be broadcast live on national television and local radio stations.





The virus has negatively impacted on countries economies, Zimbabwe included, as they adopted the new normal. On top of that the country has also endured successive droughts.





Adding to that, the country has had to deal with economic aggressors who are manipulating local currency to manipulate the Governments efforts at reviving the economy.

Critically, the country has suffered renewed attacks from the opposition and their handlers who want to destabilise the nation in pursuit of an illegal regime change agenda.





The G40 cabal, a grouping of Zanu-PF rejects has teamed up with the MDC Alliance and surrogate organisations to launch an onslaught on the country to try and discredit the Government within the broader plot of effecting regime change.





The opposition organised violent demonstrations on July 31 disguised as pretests against corruption yet the main agenda was to try and violently overthrow a democratically elected Government.





After the demos were ignored, they resorted to a spirited campaign to discredit the country on social media under the hash tag #ZimbabweanLivesMatter.





Last week, President Mnangagwa yesterday said the country will overcome renewed attacks on the country perpetrated by some rogue Zimbabweans working in league with foreign detractors to destabilise the nation.





It is against this background that this years Heroes Day and Defence Forces Day should give Zimbabweans time to reflect on the importance of the Independence and the need to guard against disruptive elements who want frustrate the Governments efforts in turning around the fortunes of the country.





The President said despite the attacks on the country, his administrations goal of peace, unity, stability, development, progress and prosperity remains unchanged.





The dark forces, both inside and outside our borders, have tempered with our growth and prosperity for too long. They have thrived on dividing us. Let us as a people embrace the call for patriotism, hard work, transparency, accountability, love, unity and peace, said President Mnangagwa.





Now is the time to embrace the opportunities before us with optimism and determination to transform and modernise our society. The door to the old manner of doing things is shut. The corrupt way is closed.





Last Friday as he commissioned the first phase of the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Road project in Bubi, Beitbridge, President Mnangagwa reiterated that development can only be achieved in a peaceful and tranquil environment.





Let me reiterate that my Government will not tolerate corruption neither will we hesitate to terminate under-performing contracts. The days of holding national development at ransom are over.





All this will be achieved under an environment of peace, tranquillity, stability, unity and love in the country. That is the basis that provides development in our country, said President Mnangagwa.





We must remain united; we must ignore the rumblings of the fugitives who ran away from this country and focus on developing our country for the benefit of our people.





The President, impressed by the five local contractors engaged in the project, said the success of the project bears testimony of our ability as Zimbabweans to champion our own development with unity.





It is further pleasing that skilled locals, in various fields such as engineering, architecture and surveying among others, constitute the bulk of those doing the work. This is how it should be, Zimbabweans building their motherland, brick upon brick, stone upon stone, he said.





This is what the heroes and heroines we will be remembering next week (today) fought for. The onus is now on us to build from where they left.





The President has been on a tour of the countrys developmental projects critical in the achievement of Vision 2030.





He was in Hwange last month touring coal projects which by 2023 should be generating an excess of 6 900MW of power, a development that would make Zimbabwe energy self-sufficient and also be able to export power.





Last Thursday, the President was in Victoria Falls where he officially launched the National Tourism Recovery and Growth Strategy to restart of the sector, whose contribution to the national economy has been heavily crippled by the outbreak of Covid-19.





He also officially re-opened the Victoria Falls Rainforest, signalling the countrys readiness to welcome visitors to the prime resort destination. Earlier on President Mnangagwa had toured tourism facilities in the resort town before commissioning the 19-suite luxurious Mbano Manor Hotel, which was built using local funding.





The President also visited the massive 146-room Palm Lodge facility, which is still under construction and is estimated to cost close to US$24 million.





On Saturday, the President presided over a ceremony to launch Anjin Diamond Mining Companys official resumption of operations in Chiadzwa.





The Chinese mining giant is set to boost the countrys coffers as the company used to contribute up to US$200 million to the economy before stopping mining in 2016.





The Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Monica Mutsvangwa, said Zimbabweans should use the two holidays to reflect on the progress made by President Mnangagwas administration.





I am very much aware of the negativity that has gripped our people because of the myriad of challenges that we are facing as a country.





Some people have been quick to judge the Second Republic while ignorant of the many achievements that our President has made. Zimbabweans need to understand that the current challenges are temporary. The future looks so much brighter, she said. Herald




Federal agencies have been accused of failing to prepare for thousands of coronavirus cases in aged care homes at a crucial point when infections surged, sparking a political row over government delays in saving lives.

The damning claims in the aged care royal commission threw the Morrison government on the defensive on Monday ahead of evidence due within days on the slow response to the emerging threat.

A body is removed from Epping Gardens aged care home in Melbourne in July. Credit:Getty Images

Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck insisted the government had "ramped up" its help for older Australians with measures worth $850 million so far, while also pointing to a new code being developed to tackle the problem.

But the government's performance will come under closer scrutiny this week in royal commission hearings that will explore why peak federal agencies did not update their advice on aged care when daily infections spiked again in June.
10.08.2020 LISTEN

We are in an unprecedented moment and it is for such a time before and as today, that the Peoples Democratic League (PDL) was formed in 1986 to be in the forefront of the struggle for the return of Sierra Leone to democracy and democratic good governance.

Our leaders have made unprecedented progress in recent years to consolidate peace. But more efforts are needed and that should not be left in the hands of failed politicians, who have impoverished the masses and now want to plunge our country into a tribal war.

The Peoples Democratic League (PDL) believes can make significant contributions to bail Sierra Leone out of the current precipice, if its constitutional rights and democratic freedoms only are not trampled upon by the enemies of our people, and Africa. For four years now our rights and democratic freedoms to register and belong to a political party of our choice have been ceased with impunity.

No sane-thinking person will deny the fact that Sierra Leone is heading for abysmal collapse if common sense is not allowed to dictate. Rude tribalism or exclusion in any form is incompatible with Gods call to unity and patriotism. Sierra Leoneans need to turn to God Almighty, to pray for national healing.

In light of this, the Peoples Democratic League (PDL) invited all its members, supporters and sympathizers, and other Africans on the continent and the diaspora to observe Thursday, 6th August, 2020 as day of fasting and prayer for the party, as its struggle for its final registration certificate. This call was yielded amass and most importantly, the Party was also joined in the exercise, by our African brothers and sisters in Uganda, South Africa, Malawi, Madagascar, Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Ivory Coast, Mali, Guinea, Liberia and in the USA. Those who did not join we know it was because of lapses in the communication. We hope this will change soon.

The 1991 multiparty constitution gives all Sierra Leoneans the right to form and belong to political parties of theirs, without interference by anyone. It is unfortunate that PDL constitutional rights and democratic freedoms were being subjected to the evil designs and tastes of greedy, avaricious and good for nothing politicians who have sold the dignity of Sierra Leone for a life of opulence and immorality. The truth of the matter is that, the injustice meted on PDL registration for political party is brutal, and not even near to the pains and suffering under Ebola and Cocid-19 combined.

The Holy Bible teaches us that God made man in His own likeness. We take oath to serve a nation and not to destroy it; and having witnessed the senseless killings of our fellow Sierra Leoneans and the pain and suffering inflicted on their families and our society, it reminds one of St. Pauls letter to the Corinthians where he shares that we are all one humanity, and when one suffers, we all suffer. (1 Cor. 12:12-27).

As we prayed and fasted for divine intercession and protection and for spiritual wisdom, we want to assure all Sierra Leoneans and Africans in particular that, our faith in God Almighty will give us calm in the midst of the storm. Our prayers and fasting will at the end help to guide us in our struggle for human rights, democracy and democratic good governance.

God is greater than any force on earth, and we, in the Peoples Democratic League (PDL) believe that demonic forces can only be driven out by prayer and fasting. The two go hand in hand. Prayer keeps us rooted in the fact that it is our desire to carry out God's will. Fasting is a sacrifice that helps us reach beyond our own limitations with God's help.

The Peoples Democratic League (PDL) encourages its members, supporters and sympathizers, both in and outside Sierra Leone to continue to double down on our prayers, fasting, and sacrifices. We know that God Almighty is watching over the PDL. We firmly believe that we will endure this trial and will not lose hope.

We are living in extraordinary times and when our constitutional human rights and democratic freedoms as provided in the Sierra Leonean 1991 constitution unjustly trampled upon by the enemies of our people, PDL remains steadfast in its faith and trust in God Almighty. Our prayers and sacrifices and our yearning for peace, freedom, justice and happiness of Sierra Leoneans will be heard into the highest heaven.

Every Sierra Leonean citizen, not only PDL has a duty to pray for the country, its people and its leaders. Since the PDL has been unrelenting in praying and fasting for Sierra Leone, we appreciate and want to thank all PDL members, supporters and sympathizers who are yielding to the call for prayer and fasting for the well-being of all Sierra Leoneans, and welfare of the nation. Sierra Leoneans need to pray every day, not only once. We cannot pray only when there is a crisis. Prayer is an everyday activity so that God can see our genuine faith and bless us in all our endeavours.

Where there is no vision, the people perish, so says the wise adage. It is a known fact that Sierra Leone has been a highly religious nation across faith lines and denominations. However, our leaders have all fallen prey for immorality as a people, rarely practicing what we preach and have lost the path to God Almighty. It is therefore time for Sierra Leoneans, our leaders and common people to turn away from all our misdeeds and truly seek Gods face, if Sierra Leone is to move forward.

No nation can move forward without seeking the face of God Almighty. The Peoples Democratic League (PDL) holds the belief that the evils militating against peace, political stability and development in Sierra Leone can be defeated if we sincerely seek the help of God while assiduously working to address same. It is on this note that the PDL has been embarking on fervent prayers and fasting to seek Gods guidance and protection against enemies of progress.

Lets sincerely seek Gods guidance and protection and see a significant difference.

God bless Sierra Leone!

God bless PDL!!

Sender:

Samuel Musa Kalokoh

National Secretary for Administration

Peoples Democratic League (PDL)
A bench comprising justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah, was hearing petitions filed by 31 students from Karnataka, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Meghalaya and other states

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the University Grants Commission (UGC) in the Supreme Court on Monday, said students must continue to prepare for the exams, according to several media reports. Mehta added, If exams aren't conducted, students can't get a degree. That's the law.

The Supreme Court on Monday was hearing a clutch of pleas by students from Karnataka, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Meghalaya and other states challenging the UGC's 6 July circular directing universities to conduct final year examinations by 30 September. The students have asked that marks be calculated based on their internal assessment or past performance.

The bench comprising justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah asked if the Disaster Management Act overrides the UGC's guidelines and sought a reply. The bench further posted the hearing for 14 August.

Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, representing the students in the apex court on Monday, sought to question the legality and constitutional validity of the 6 July guidelines and not the conduct of the exams itself, Bar and Bench reported.

The court allowed senior advocate Arvind Datars request to allow him time to file consolidated replies to put on record the position of all states of the conduct of final year exams by the UGC.

Pointing out that Delhi and Maharashtra have filed affidavits stating exams will not be conducted in the states, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta asked, "How can states cancel exams when UGC is empowered to confer degrees?" He also sought time to reply to the affidavits filed by the two states.

According to a report in The Times of India, an apex court bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan had earlier asked the Delhi and Maharashtra governments to place on record decision of state disaster management committee. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has also been asked by the court to clear its stand.

According to the UGC, universities were asked to inform the status of holding the exams and responses were received from 818 universities including 121 deemed, 291 private, 51 central and 355 state universities. Of the total 818 universities, 603 have either conducted or are planning to hold the examinations, while 209 have already conducted exams in either online or offline mode.

As per the report, 394 universities are planning to hold exams (online/ offline/blended mode) in August and September.

The UGC had submitted in the previous hearing that it is not willing to change its decision.

In a 50-page affidavit, the commission said that decision to conduct the exams was taken to "protect the academic future of students across the country which will be irreparably damaged if their final year/terminal semester examinations are not held, while also keeping in mind their health and safety."

It also stated that the decision to cancel the exams taken by Delhi and Maharashtra will be considered as contradicting the guidelines and will be detrimental to the standards of higher education.

The affidavit further mentioned that no student will be forced to give the exams at the cost of their health. The commission has also allowed universities to hold special exams for those who are unable to take the exams held by September.

As per a report in Bar and Bench, the Delhi government has informed the apex court that the universities exams in the National Capital have been cancelled.

Delhi deputy chief minister has directed "all Delhi State Universities to cancel all written online and offline semester examinations including final year exams."

Also, the Maharashtra government has informed the top court that the State Disaster Management Authority on 13 July had suggested not hold examinations in the state amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision was taken after vice-chancellors from most universities in the state voted against conducting exams.

With inputs from PTI
Toronto families will be asked if they intend to send their children back to school with regular-sized classes, and if they would consider doing so if classes were smaller  should the province provide funding to make that happen.

Those questions will go out to parents starting Tuesday as the Toronto District School Board pushes the provincial government to change its back-to-school plans.

School board trustees will be voting this week on a motion to ask that masks be made mandatory students in junior kindergarten to Grade 3  not just for older students, as is currently planned  in a bid to allay concerns raised by parents and teachers.

They will also consider a proposal seeking funding from the province for more teachers, as well as money to improve ventilation in buildings and to make sure all washrooms have touchless handwashing stations, among other items.

I am moving the mask requirement because public health agencies agree that children over two years should wear masks indoors, and when social distancing is not available, said Beaches-East York Trustee Michelle Aarts, noting that Toronto bylaws mandate masks in indoor spaces.

We want to start from a position of an abundance of caution, with proper education, training, options, and flexibility for different age groups, and then revise protocols as needed, she said.

Aarts added that her youngest child is seven years old, and attends an overcapacity school of over 1,000 students, while another child has health issues.

Masks in schools are a minimum requirement for me to choose to send my youngest back to school, she said.

Like boards across the province, the TDSB is now trying to gauge parents interest in having their children return to the classroom as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

Families must decide if they want to send their children to school full-time, or prefer remote learning at home. All boards are warning that if parents change their minds after choosing the online option, their children could be put on a wait-list.

High school students in large, urban boards will have the chance to switch from in-person to at-home learning between quadmesters.

The government has mandated masks for students starting in Grade 4, and also set high school class sizes at 15 students in the larger boards. Elementary class sizes will remain as they were, which had meant up to 30 students in a classroom.

The province is providing about $30 million to the Ontarios 72 boards to hire additional teachers. It is also hiring 500 public health nurses, in part to assist with random COVID-19 testing in high schools.

The government is spending more than $309 million on education costs related to COVID-19, which Premier Doug Ford has said will result in the highest per-student expenditure of any province.

Experts at Sick Kids and other childrens hospitals, however, have said that smaller classes are critical to the safe return, along with physical distancing and good hand hygiene.

On Monday, Ford said hes confident about the fall restart, but to say Im confident no ones going to catch the virus  its just not realistic with two million (students) going back into the system, 160,000 teachers. But I do believe we have the best plan in the entire country.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the government is doing everything it can to de-risk the return to classrooms. Were doing everything we can to follow the evidence, the science and the emerging advice of our public health agencies, to put in layers of prevention, Lecce said.

In a letter to Ford, Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca called on the premier to keep class sizes small. His party has calculated that the government needs to spend $3.2 billion to hire enough teachers, caretakers and to ensure student and staff safety.

Del Duca also said the province could consider delaying the start of the school year to ensure that we get it right. This can be done using the same regional approach thats been used for the reopening of our economy, recognizing that a one-size-fits-all plan may not be advisable.

The TDSB has said many of it schools are older and have small classrooms, so it will be difficult to enforce physical distancing if classes remain at their current size.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 23:54:58|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday announced sanctions against 11 U.S. officials with egregious records on Hong Kong affairs, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian at a press briefing.

Zhao made the announcement in response to a request for comment on the so-called sanctions by the U.S. government against 11 officials of the Chinese central government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government.

According to Zhao, China's decision stems from the wrongdoings of the U.S. side. The sanctions, effective from Monday, are applied to U.S. officials, including Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton and Pat Toomey, Representative Chris Smith, and Carl Gershman, President of the National Endowment for Democracy, Derek Mitchell, President of the National Democratic Institute, Daniel Twining, President of the International Republican Institute, Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, and Michael J. Abramowitz, President of Freedom House.

Stating that China firmly rejects and condemns the U.S. government's so-called sanctions against Chinese officials, Zhao stressed that the U.S. behavior openly meddles with Hong Kong affairs, blatantly interferes in China's internal affairs, and gravely violates international law and basic norms governing international relations.

Since Hong Kong's return to the motherland, the practice of "one country, two systems" has proven to be an enormous success, Zhao said, and Hong Kong residents enjoy unprecedented democracy and rights and freedoms in accordance with law.

"This is an objective fact no unbiased people will deny," Zhao said.

In the meantime, there are new risks and challenges in the implementation of "one country, two systems," the most prominent of which is heightened national security risk, Zhao added.

When national security in Hong Kong is undermined and confronted with real threats and the HKSAR government had difficulty in completing national security legislation on its own, the Central Government took decisive measures to establish and improve at the state level a legal system and enforcement mechanisms to safeguard the national security in Hong Kong, he said.

"The law on safeguarding national security in Hong Kong targets a small number of criminals who gravely jeopardize national security and protects the law-abiding Hong Kong residents, who represent the vast majority," Zhao said.

He said Hong Kong is part of China and its affairs are entirely China's internal affairs which allow no foreign interfere. "We urge the U.S. side to grasp the situation, correct its mistake, and immediately stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs."

In response to a joint statement on Hong Kong by the foreign ministers of the Five Eyes, namely the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, on Sunday, in which they urged Hong Kong to hold legislative elections as soon as possible, Zhao said China strongly deplores and rejects it.

"It is another evidence of their interference in China's internal affairs and Hong Kong Legislative Council election. China has made stern representations with the relevant countries," Zhao said.

Zhao stressed that the HKSAR government's decision to postpone the elections in the face of the raging pandemic is a justified and necessary step to ensure people's safety and health, as well as a safe, fair and just election.

According to Zhao, more than 60 countries and regions have postponed national or local elections due to COVID-19. For example, Britain announced in March that local elections in places like England originally scheduled in May would be postponed to May 2021.

"It is the epitome of double standards that the Five Eyes chose to interpret the HKSAR government's decision in a twisted political way," Zhao said.

He noted that at a recent UNHRC session, 70 countries supported China's formulation of the law and condemned interference in China's internal affairs by using Hong Kong as a cover.

"This reflects the common voice and just position of the international community," Zhao said, adding that the Five Eyes can by no means represent the international community. Enditem
MOSCOW - As the women arranged themselves along the wooden floors and benches of the sauna, the furnace hissed and bundles of pine and birch branches filled the space with an herbal aroma.

The attendant poured one ladle of water after another against the iron rods, ticking up the temperature. "God, give us health," she said.

"God, give us health," the other women repeated.

As the coronavirus pandemic grinds on, Russia's bathhouses - or banyas as they're called here - remain the country's most popular wellness centers and a deeply rooted cultural tradition.

But, like other communal spaces across the globe, they are not suited for social distancing. And that is one of the core quandaries: Can the community bonds and intimacy of places such as Russia's banyas remain the same in a world reordered by the coronavirus pandemic?

So far, the life in the banyas appeared remarkably unchanged.

"It's just the same as it ever was," said Natalia Dyakina, who joins friends weekly at the Rzhevskie Baths, Moscow's second-oldest bathhouse, dating back to 1888.

"I just wish it was open during coronavirus. We really suffered without it," she added. "I was never worried about coming here because this is where you come to get healthier."

One woman inside the sauna cracked a joke that there was no coronavirus in the steamy room, another promptly hushed her. This was a sacred space, and such talk did not belong, she scolded.

"Russian values might have changed after the Soviet Union was dissolved or the 2008 financial crisis, but the banya is our history," said Oleg Pashkov, the director of the Rzhevskie Baths. "We were never worried about people's habits changing. The people who appreciate this culture will always come."

During World War II, Rzhevskie Baths was a stop for Soviet soldiers to bathe before boarding the nearby train that would take them to the front. One gentleman has visited its sauna every week for the past 49 years - until Russia's coronavirus restrictions closed Rzhevskie and other bathhouses for three months.

It's not practical to wear a mask or gloves inside when temperatures can reach 210 degrees Fahrenheit, but Russia's health regulator initially told bathhouses that patrons would have to observe a roughly five-foot distance from one another in the sauna.

The agency then backed off that instruction, believing that the rooms get so hot that it's not possible to infect someone inside. But the World Health Organization website's "Mythbusters" page warns that the coronavirus, which causes the disease covid-19, can be transmitted in hot and humid environments.

Other restrictions remain, such as limiting the capacity and closing the swimming pools.

Sitting in a booth in the Rzhevskie Baths' dressing room, Irina Sergeyeva recounted her own close call with the coronavirus. Her daughter had been infected and has since recovered. But Sergeyeva still ignored her daughter's pleas to stay away from the banya and has resumed the once-a-week visits.

"I think the Russian mentality is different. We just don't care," Sergeyeva said. "It didn't even occur to me that it might be risky."
Actress and former Miss India World Natasha Suri has tested positive for novel coronavirus and is currently under home quarantine. She went to Pune earlier this month and fell sick after returning to Mumbai. "I had gone to Pune taking all the necessary precautions. When I came back, on August 3, I fell sick. I had fever, sore throat so I got myself tested and it turned out COVID-19 positive," the actress said.

Suri also mentioned that she is strictly quarantining at home and taking necessary medications. Her grandmother and sister have also been tested for coronavirus but their reports are still awaited.

The actress will have to skip the promotional events around her upcoming MX Player series Dangerous, which also stars Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover. She further stated, "we were all gearing up for the promotions but now I won' t be able to participate. I was looking forward to it because we had worked so hard for the project. There were things that were planned but nothing can be done now."

Her upcoming MX Player series, Dangerous, written by Vikram Bhatt and directed by Bhushan Patel, is all set to premiere on August 14.

Also read: Bigg Boss 2020: Salman Khan returns; shoots new promo at Panvel farmhouse
Aug 2 (Reuters) - France will push for financial sanctions under the EU's 750 billion euro ($880 billion) coronavirus recovery fund against states that undermine fundamental human rights, its junior European affairs minister told the Financial Times newspaper https://on.ft.com/33iEmzj.

"(We can't tell) French, Polish, Hungarian and European citizens that (we) can have financial solidarity in Europe and not care how the basic rules of democracy, free media, and equal rights are respected," Clement Beaune said in an interview published late on Sunday.

The European Union is struggling to respond to what many in western Europe see as creeping authoritarianism on its eastern flank.

The European Commission, EU lawmakers and activists have said freedoms are notably under threat in Poland and Hungary.

Beaune told the newspaper that the EU must be tougher on breaches by those countries. ($1 = 0.8493 euros)

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; editing by John Stonestreet)
Petroleum tanker drivers in Lagos State have withdrawn their services as directed by the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) beginning from August 10.

The state Chairman, NUPENG, Tayo Aboyeji, made the confirmation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.

Mr Aboyeji said that the strike began in the early hours of August 10, following a negotiation breakdown between the state government and the union.

Although, we met with the state government yesterday night (August 9), yet we could not reach an agreement.

So, only the tanker drivers in Lagos State proceeded with the strike, because the environment is not conducive for tankers to operate, he said.

NAN reports that NUPENG had, on August 7, directed its members to down tools with effect from August 10.

NUPENGs National President, Williams Akporeha, and General Secretary, Olawale Afolabi had in a joint statement said the directive became necessary due to failure of various authorities in the state to address some pending issues.

The issues include extortion of money from the drivers by various security agents; the menace of containerised trucks at Apapa, Kirikiri and Beach Land axis areas of the state.

Others challenges include harassment and extortion by area boys as well as area god-fathers.

(NAN)
President Trump has given the Democrats a surprise thrashing, hoisting them with their own petard over stimulus payments in what must be the legislative jiu-jitsu of the year.

According to Fox News's Liz Peek:

Furious that Democrat leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were blocking a bill to help Americans through the COVID-19 crisis, President Trump stepped up and got the job done, all by himself. Over the weekend, he issued four executive orders that would extend modified unemployment relief to millions who are out of work, protect many from eviction from their homes, provide continued relief from student loan debt and suspend payroll taxes for employers and those earning less than $100,000. It may not be enough, but it was more than Democrats were offering.

Of course they're furious  they've been outwitted and are now sitting in the manure of their own political games-playing. Stephen Moore calls it a "game changer."

They had their chance to pass a stimulus bill that would have helped the unemployed, but for them, first things first: they held that package hostage to the all-important need, for them, of bailing out mismanaged blue Democrat cites and their unions. The little guy's $400 weekly unemployment check booster would have to wait. Plus, multi-millionaire Pelosi pooh-poohed those checks as "an illusion," same as she did the news that workers were getting $1,000 raises during the Trump boom years, calling those "crumbs." Any money to the little guy is always something of a joke to her. What's the little guy's need for rent or food help compared to bailing out Big Unions and their bloated pensions going bust?

And here's Chuck Schumer, according to Vox:

"The president's executive orders described in one word could be: 'Paltry.' In three words: 'Unworkable, weak and far-too-narrow,'" Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on ABC's This Week on Sunday. "As the American people look at these executive orders, they'll see they don't come close to doing the job in two ways: One, what they propose, second, what's left out."

Paltry it may be; the sad fact remains that the Democrats were offering nothing. N-o-t-h-i-n-g. Not unless they could get their mismanaged, overspending blue cities bailed out and the same way of mismanaging affairs could go on forever.

Now they're talking lawsuits to stop those checks to the desperately unemployed thrown out of work by the Democrats' COVID lockdowns, a really bad look for Democrats, and sure enough, Trump was waiting for them at the pass on that one, too, throwing them another roundhouse kick.

Here's how Democratic senator Dick Durbin said they were taking it, when asked by talking head Chuck Todd about it on Sunday:

"This is a moral dilemma," Durbin responded. "We want unemployed people to receive benefits. We never wanted them cut off at all. So I'm not going to suggest that we run out to court at this point. I think some will. There will be some challenges." "This country club fix suggested by the president is going to be a cut in the unemployment benefits for 30 million Americans," Durbin contended. "It's either going to be cut from $600 to $400 or from $600 to zero where it is right now if the president's executive orders don't stand."

The lawsuit issue is also a loser for Democrats for a second reason  the stink they made about DACA and President Trump's bid to end President Obama's executive order on the matter, taking it up and down the courts, with the courts insisting that the executive order stand. Now Democrats are going to go to court to yank $400 checks from the unemployed in contradiction to their stance on DACA? According to RedState, here's how untenable it is for Democrats:

So Trump did what Obama did, only with an added degree of cunning. Not only did he sign 4 Executive Orders that have little or no political downside, he now has the Democrats in Congress in a position to having to advocate for eliminating relief to the unemployed, students, and workers  and maybe even compelling them to go to court in an effort to block the relief from getting to those who need it. Are these bold unilateral steps Pres. Trump has taken, possibly infringing on the authority of Congress to pass tax & spending measures? Maybe. I think the Democrats should go to court to find out.

Trump has always been good at reading the political landscape, and he understands the urgency at hand for the unemployed  they can't go a week without a meager paycheck the way Nancy Pelosi can. In issuing the order and daring the Dems to stop him, take him to court, come on out and yank those checks while offering a pie-in-the-sky solution that includes blue-city bailouts, Trump has completed a masterstroke. Hope they like the view up there; they've got no one to blame now but themselves.

Image credit: PikRepo, public domain.
The nation's criminal-justice system is at a pivotal moment. With rising public revulsion at the brutality inflicted on Black Americans by law enforcement, racial-justice groups have brought conversations around racial disparities and the justice system into the mainstream.Prosecutors have played a historic role in exacerbating these racial disparities, and they have an equally vital role to play in the systemic reforms that are needed to turn an unfair system around. To ensure that reforms are set up to succeed, it is incumbent on modern prosecutors to collect as much relevant data as they can and analyze it to measure disparities and evaluate policies that seek to create a more-just system. To that end, prosecutors will benefit from a careful review of a recently published report from the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) in seeking to divert more cases successfully out of the system.Promisingly, this national study of data from 2000 to 2016 reveals a significant reduction in racial disparities across most facets of the criminal-justice system. The numbers show that during that period crime declined and, consistent with public demand, so did arrests. In addition to shrinking the system's impact overall, the CCJ report reflects that front-end policies designed to reduce arrests and divert cases from criminal prosecution early in the process also reduced differences in treatment across race.Seeking to further these front-end decreases, a new set of materials from the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution andabout prosecutor-led diversion details data-collection processes in different district attorneys' offices and how data can inform diversion programs for low-level crimes.Relying on traditional data alone, however, may be inadequate to measure reforms, and should instead be expanded beyond the narrow metric of recidivism, which the monograph's authors write "cannot properly account for the progress an individual makes towards strengthening familial and communal ties, furthering their education, or improving their employment prospects." Expanding the metrics of success will better enable the development of responses that improve both individual and community safety.Scholars, activists and others have argued that many of the criminal-justice reforms of recent years  decriminalizing quality-of-life and other low-level offenses, diverting misdemeanors from the justice system, and expanding use of alternatives to incarceration for some felonies  will not result in meaningful system change unless there also is a significant reduction in sentences for the kinds of violent crimes for which lengthy incarceration serves no public-safety purpose. Prosecutors have yet to implement diversion for such crimes at scale.A vital area for data analysis related to the potential for diversion programs for violent crime is the role that a charged person's criminal history should play in indictment, sentencing and release decisions. A person who has prior convictions often faces ever-increasing penalties for new crimes, subject to the exercise of prosecutorial discretion. A first-time arrest for a felony may result, for example, in the offer of a pre-indictment misdemeanor plea by the prosecutor, while a second or third felony arrest is more likely to result in an indictment. At the pleading stage, someone with no prior convictions facing a felony indictment is more likely to avoid incarceration compared to a person with prior convictions.This undermines the notion that once someone has done his or her time, they have repaid whatever debt to society the crime purportedly incurred. Given the uneven application of the system across demographic categories, such practices may contribute to racially disparate sentence recommendations from prosecutors as well as disparate denials of release by parole boards.Criminal-justice reformers face some hard questions. Chief among these are how to appropriately respond to crimes of violence and whether racial disparities might be reduced by removing the criminal history of a person charged with a crime as a substantial factor during sentencing. It is incumbent upon prosecutors to look carefully at their data and consider diversion options at each stage of their decision-making.GoverningGoverning
The water level at Mullaperiyar reservoir in Idukki district of Kerala reached 136 feet late Sunday night, officials said. The Idukki district collector held discussions with the collector of Theni in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, with regard to the release of water through the tunnel to Vaigai dam. The Kerala government had on Saturday asked the Tamil Nadu government to release water from Mullaperiyar through the tunnel to Vaigai Dam in a phased manner when the water level reaches 136 feet in view of heavy rains in Idukki.

The water level has reached 136 feet. I have talked to the Theni collector. No decision has been made as of now with regard to opening of the shutters. They have assured us that we will be informed prior to opening, Idukki district collector H Dineshan told PTI.

He said the district administration has made all arrangements to shift the people in case of any emergency. In a letter, Kerala Chief Secretary Vishwas Mehta had asked his Tamil Nadu counterpart to inform the state government, 24 hours prior to opening of the shutters.

The state is receiving heavy rains especially in the Idukki district. The water level in the catchment area of Mullaperiyar has been steadily rising. The water level, which was at 116.20 feet on August 3, reached 131.25 feet by 2 pm on August 7, Mehta said in his letter.

He also pointed out that the MeT office has issued a red alert for Saturday and Sunday in the district, indicating extreme heavy rainfall. He said currently the inflow to the dam is 13,257 cusecs of water and the outflow through the tunnel is 1,650 cusecs.

In the letter sent to Tamil Nadu chief secretary K Shanmugam, Mehta had said that as per information provided by the Executive Engineer of MI Division at Kattappana, the surplus shutters of Tamil Nadu-controlled Periyar dam were capable of releasing 1,22,000 cusecs of water.

We know the extent of damage when 23,000 cusecs of water were released in 2018. Hence, necessary steps should be taken to release water in a phased manner, he had added.

According to information provided by the Idukki district administration, the water level at Mullaperiyar at 10 pm on August 9 was 136 feet.
Hong Kong: Jimmy Lai, one of Hong Kong's most prominent democracy activists, was arrested on Monday for suspected collusion with foreign forces under the national security law, in what is the highest profile arrest yet under the new legislation.

China imposed the security law on Hong Kong just before midnight on June 30, punishing what Beijing broadly defines as subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.

Jimmy Lai, second left, is led away from his residence by law enforcement officials in Hong Kong on Monday. Credit:Bloomberg

Lai, a millionaire publishing tycoon, has been a key critic of Beijing and widely believed to be a target of the new legislation.

Born on the Chinese mainland, Lai was smuggled into Hong Kong on a fishing boat at the age of 12.
US ambassador to Libya speaks to Ahram Online about the prerequisites for a peace deal in Libya amid his current visit to Cairo

US Ambassador to Libya Richard Norland visited Cairo on Monday for talks with Egyptian officials and the speaker of the Tobruk-based Libyan House of Representatives, Aguila Saleh, on means of resolving the Libyan conflict.

Ahram Online spoke to the envoy about the Libyan crisis, and Washingtons position on recent developments.

Norland said Washington aims to get forces to pull back and find some sort of neutral security arrangement for Sirte. He revealed that one of the ideas suggested during talks involved the establishment of a demilitarised zone around Sirte.

He wants the Russians to be involved in a productive way instead of supporting armed groups, while pointing out that only international courts can decide on the issue of Eastern Mediterranean cooperation between Turkey and the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA).

Ahram Online: What was the impact of the Turkish intervention on Libya's political and security conditions?

Richard Norland: First of all, let me say that this visit took place in the context of recent conversations between US President Donald Trump and Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, and between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.

The idea was to follow up those conversations to try to seize an opportunity that in the end we hope will help lead to the departure of all foreign forces from Libya. We see that the political dimension of the Cairo Declaration on 6 June offers an opportunity for new voices to emerge from Libyas east to engage with the GNA in Tripoli and try to come up with a Libyan political dialogue with a new approach and a negotiated solution to the conflict.

We see this hopefully as the beginning of specific steps to deal with confrontation around Sirte and Jufra, and also to help resume oil production in Libya, which has an important security dimension to it. We want to help the Libyans who want to restore their sovereignty, and in that sense I believe it has been a very useful visit.

The Turkish intervention produced a kind of a stalemate, which has created an environment where people understand that there is only a political solution. The government in Tripoli reluctantly made arrangements for Turkey to support them militarily when it appeared that the capital was about to fall to Haftars offensive.

But I argue that there should be limits to any foreign intervention, and the dynamic now should be on how to end and de-escalate these interventions on all sides, and there is an opportunity to do that because of the stalemate that exists on the battlefield right now.

We want to take advantage of that opportunity because the confrontation that is out there with the Turkish forces on one side, and the other forces, is one in which there could be a miscalculation any time that could lead to disastrous results for Libya and its neighbours.

AO: What are the prerequisites for a peace deal in Libya?

RN: First, foreign actors have to stop fuelling the conflict, especially those countries that are providing military equipment and supporting mercenaries, and others who are helping to fuel the conflict. This really needs to end. Also, all the commitments that were made in Berlin, if fulfilled, will be the recipe for addressing the conflict.

I think if all pitch in now to support those in Libya who are patriotic nationalists trying to end the conflict and the involvement of all foreign forces, that is the other part of the equation. In that respect, the political dimension of the Cairo Declaration has been positive.

AO: What is the possibility of having a US plan in terms of creating a demilitarised zone in Sirte?

RN: One of the ideas we are suggesting is supporting some sort of a demilitarised solution around Sirte. We are not the only ones who suggested that, but if we can use our influence to do so, we would like very much to do that. The aim is to get forces to pull back, to find some sort of neutral security arrangement for the city itself, and to avoid the risk of Sirte becoming a flashpoint for an expanded conflict.

AO: Do you think there is progress taking place towards reaching a final settlement between the warring factions?

RN: We have an opportunity here to consolidate a long-term ceasefire, and I am not going to say whether I am optimistic or pessimistic, but I think it is an opportunity that rational parties support and will continue to do so. The reason is that the alternative is a serious regional conflict.

AO: Turkey signed an accord with the GNA last year to create an exclusive economic zone from Turkey's southern Mediterranean shore to Libya's northeast coast. In your view, do Turkey and the GNA have an oil-for-protection deal?

RN: Regardless of why the agreement was signed, its impact and how it proceeds is something that will have to be decided through international, legal processes in the courts, and I think parties on both sides recognise that. The issue is being contested and will have to play itself out in international courts.

AO: In June, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi described Sirte and Al-Jufra as a redline for Egyptian national security. What is the US position on such a reaction by Cairo towards the Turkish-GNA moves?

RN: Obviously, we respect the presidents statements, as it shows the risk of escalations and the growing imperative to find a solution to this. In our discussions today, Egyptian officials pointed out to me, which I think is one of the most important points that even President El-Sisi made, that Egypt does not want to see any kind of military action either from the east or the west of Libya, and that Egypt opposes any kind of attack on Tripoli.

From my perspective as ambassador to Libya, hearing those assurances from President El-Sisi, to the extent that growing confidence can be built around those assurances, I think it could have a very powerful impact on what happens next to stabilise the situation further.

AO: What is the US position on the Libyan tribal leaders' call, which Egypt agreed to, for an Egyptian intervention in Libya?

RN: The broader issue is that we support efforts to de-escalate the situation. We believe in the urgency in helping all parties and the UN to come up with a negotiated settlement here.

AO: Russia is involved in Libya. What is the US position on Russia's military presence in an oil-rich country that Western oil companies have worked in for years?

RN: Russia has legitimate commercial interests in Libya like everybody else. What surprises us is that Russia pursuing its interests through the Wagner Group, bringing in sophisticated, hard military equipment and doing things that are not helping to stabilise the country.

We have noticed in the last couple of days, with the disaster in Beirut, that Russia, through its ministry of emergency services, has actually done very good work in Lebanon to help with that crisis. From our perspective, it would be good to see Russia involving itself in productive way in Libya, not in a way that fuels conflict.

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The latest dramatic developments unfolding in Ukraine's neighboring country Belarus have clearly shown that the August 9 presidential election cannot be referred to as those held in line with the established democratic standards.

Peaceful protests in the capital city Minsk and other cities across the country, as a massive response to the official polls released after the voting ended, unfortunately, saw more an overly harsh reaction on the part of local authorities. Reports came of a significant number of casualties and detainees.

Warsaw and Vilnius have already called such crackdown as "unacceptable". Both Poland and Lithuania are parties to a recently formed joint format "Lublin Triangle", also involving Ukraine.

In particular, the presidents of Poland and Lithuania issued a joint statement calling on the Belarusian authorities to "refrain from violence and respect fundamental freedoms, human and civil rights."

Lithuania hinted that nuclear fuel was put into the first reactor of the Ostrovets NPP in Belarus right on the eve of presidential election, which indicates the project's geopolitical rather than economic nature

At the same time, the Polish Foreign Ministry expressed serious concern about the brutal pacification of the post-election rallies: "We call on the Belarusian authorities to cease actions that aggravate the situation and to start respecting basic human rights."

The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry's statement was even harsher in its statement: " The use of excessive force against peaceful protesters is reprehensible and unacceptable We are concerned that the call of the Lithuanian and international communities to repression to a halt and ensure a transparent electoral climate has been ignored. We call on the Belarusian authorities to cease persecution of political opponents, to immediately release all those unjustly detained, and to respect human rights and freedoms."

Moreover, Lithuania hinted that nuclear fuel was put into the first reactor of the Ostrovets NPP in Belarus right on the eve of presidential election, which indicates the project's geopolitical rather than economic nature. Therefore, Lithuania is turning down the option of purchasing electricity "at the hazardous Ostrovets nuclear power plant." "We are ready to develop relations based on the principles of good neighborliness, mutual respect, and trust. However, these relations strongly depend on the will and actions of our neighbor," the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry added.

We should also keep in mind that today's Minsk is a military-political ally of Moscow, which opens wide opportunities for meddling by the assertive Russia

Obviously, it is in Ukraine's interests to show foreign political consistency, commitment to our European choice, and to act in coordination with our partners, as well as to ensure that human rights are properly respected in this country that's so important to us.

The concerted action by the Lublin Triangle member states on the developments in Belarus will not only be able to demonstrate the effectiveness of this new regional format of cooperation, but will undoubtedly increase Ukraine's weight and prestige in the international arena, in particular in the European Union.

We should also keep in mind that today's Minsk is a military-political ally of Moscow, which opens wide opportunities for meddling by the assertive Russia.

Therefore, meticulous monitoring of further developments in and around Belarus should also become the major priority for the Ukrainian government.

Oleh Belokolos is Chairman of the Board at the Maidan of Foreign Affairs Foundation
Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Alpha Financial Markets Consulting plc (LON:AFM) as an investment opportunity by projecting its future cash flows and then discounting them to today's value. One way to achieve this is by employing the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple!

Remember though, that there are many ways to estimate a company's value, and a DCF is just one method. If you still have some burning questions about this type of valuation, take a look at the Simply Wall St analysis model.

View our latest analysis for Alpha Financial Markets Consulting

The calculation

We use what is known as a 2-stage model, which simply means we have two different periods of growth rates for the company's cash flows. Generally the first stage is higher growth, and the second stage is a lower growth phase. In the first stage we need to estimate the cash flows to the business over the next ten years. 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) UK17.0m UK23.0m UK17.0m UK13.8m UK12.0m UK11.0m UK10.3m UK9.96m UK9.74m UK9.63m Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x2 Analyst x2 Analyst x1 Est @ -18.97% Est @ -12.91% Est @ -8.67% Est @ -5.7% Est @ -3.63% Est @ -2.17% Est @ -1.15% Present Value (, Millions) Discounted @ 7.6% UK15.8 UK19.9 UK13.6 UK10.3 UK8.3 UK7.1 UK6.2 UK5.5 UK5.0 UK4.6

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = UK96m

Story continues

After calculating the present value of future cash flows in the initial 10-year period, we need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all future cash flows beyond 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 7.6%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2030  (1 + g)  (r  g) = UK9.6m (1 + 1.2%)  (7.6% 1.2%) = UK153m

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= UK153m ( 1 + 7.6%)10= UK73m

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is UK169m. In the final step we divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of UK2.0, 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

The assumptions

The calculation above is very dependent on two assumptions. The first is the discount rate and the other is the cash flows. If you don't agree with these result, have a go at the calculation yourself and play with the 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 Alpha Financial Markets Consulting 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 7.6%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.922. 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.

Looking Ahead:

Whilst important, the DCF calculation 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?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. For Alpha Financial Markets Consulting, we've put together three additional factors you should look at:

Risks: Take risks, for example - Alpha Financial Markets Consulting has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of. Future Earnings: How does AFM'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 High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

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.
Basant Lal Chaudhary migrated from his village of 1,200 people in Madhya Pradesh, to a city of 90,000 people in Jammu and Kashmir in 2016. He last worked as a construction worker, before the COVID-19 lockdown forced him out of employment. I used to earn a daily wage of Rs 350. That was my only source of income, he shares. During the lockdown, he along with others who worked with him, are finding it difficult to make the ends meet. "I dont know whether I will be able to find work here anytime soon."

More than 50 million construction workers in India build our homes and cities. Like Basant Lal Chaudhary, an average construction worker earns just over Rs 350 a day with almost no perks or benefits. Many workers are their families primary earners. For the high risk of the jobs they are involved in, they are seldom provided a safety net.

Approximately 87.4 percent of workers in the construction industry are categorised as casual labour, and they make up a majority of the informal workforce in our country. In 1996, the Indian parliament enacted two laws which had the potential of providing protection and dignity to this workforce:

1. The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, (BOCW Act or BOCWA).

2. The Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act (Cess Act).

Understanding these laws and what they mean

These laws mandate that construction companies pay a minimum of one percent cess on the construction cost. This money is then directed to the welfare of construction workers registered under the BOCW Act. The act ensures the safety and welfare of these workers and their families. Benefits include pension, education and maternity assistance, loans for purchase of tools, and accident and medical expenses.

Despite this, data released by the Ministry of Labour and Employment in early February 2019 showed that only about 35 million of the 50 million construction workers were registered under the BOCW Act. Even here, up-to-date information is unavailable on the number of active registrations. For example, Delhi has 5,39,421 workers registered totally, but only 1,28,394 are active as per the state website. It is not clear how many of these registered workers are local and how many are migrants, because none of the systems we have come across captures this.

Since the inception of the Cess Act, states and union territories have collected an estimated INR 52,000 crores from construction companies. However, until 2019, less than 40 percent of the corpus was spent on welfare of the construction workers. Here, there are sizeable differences among states:

1. As many as 21 of the 37 states and union territories have spent less than 30 percent of their collected funds.

2. On the other hand, Kerala was the only state to have spent more than the collected funds (121 percent).

3. Importantly, some states, which collected the highest amount of cess, have spent the least on the welfare of construction workers.

For instance, Maharashtra spent only five percent of the INR 7,400 crore that it had collected. Similarly, Delhi collected INR 2,190 crore, but spent only nine percent of it.

With COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown, the government asked states to use their unspent funds to provide immediate relief to construction workers. This was a welcome move, not only because it would ease distress amongst labourers, but also because it marked what will probably be the first time in 24 years that we will see an uptake in spending from this fund.

However, to avail these benefits, the workers needs to be registered under the BOCW Act. Low registrations, especially among the significant migrant population, has led to exclusion of a large section of the construction workforce. I am not registered anywhere. I dont have much knowledge about it. I just do my labour work, shares Basant Lal. Like him, millions of workers (often the most vulnerable) not only miss out the relief package benefits, but also on other welfare benefits they and their families are entitled to.

COVID-19 or not, registering under the BOCW Act is crucial as it is the first step in availing any support from the government. But why are the registrations so low and what can be done to change this? Let us break it down.

Increasing BOCWA registrations: What needs to be done

1. Adoption of a single window system

The current system allows for registration and support in one state without any portability option. This is incompatible with the reality of migrant labourers who are often working in multiple states in a given year. For example, Delhi has seen 87 percent fall in registered workers since 2015largely because people dropped off the system when they migrated elsewhere for work.

Consider Govind and his family. They moved from Jhansi to Jodhpur to make a living as construction labourers. They are registered under BOCW Act in Jhansi; however, because of the move, their registration has most likely shifted to an inactive status, leaving them unable to avail any benefits. They share, We have not got any benefits of that registration yet. We are not aware as to what the benefits are, and how to avail them.

Given this reality, states need to have mechanisms that ensure seamless portability of the informal workforce. A Model Welfare Scheme has been outlined by the Ministry of Labour and Employment following the Supreme Court directive, where each worker will be allotted a unique identification code that can be used across the country. As Jan Sahas recommends in their report, states should expedite the implementation of the new model that will help streamline the registrations and benefits in a single window.

2. Easy registration

Currently, workers are required to fill out a detailed form to register under BOCW Act. For instance, in Delhi the four page form was turned into a 12 page form. Filling out the form with all necessary details is usually a big task for workers as they have low literacy levels and little access to digital systems.

Additionally, the onus of registration is currently on the workers. It would be fruitful to shift this onto contractors or developers. In the short-term, employers will be able to easily register workers. They have the resources to do so, and they already collect details such as PAN, Aadhaar, and bank account details. In the long-term, employers could then formalise these employment relationships through official contracts and registration to authorities.

3. Relaxation in proof of employment certification

Under this act, workers need to submit 90 days certification of proof of employment in the last 12 months. In reality, the industry has a high rate of worker turnover. For example, at our Godrej Properties Limited construction sites, workers typically stay with us for about 45 days. This number is far lower at smaller construction sites. As workers keep moving, they find it difficult to have a 90 day documented proof of employability, especially from contractors that employ them for short projects. This rule should therefore consider relaxing the certification of work to 90 non-continuous work days annually.

4. Partnering to increase registrations

A large number of construction workers work at the nakas as daily wage earners. It is important to reach out to this segment and get them registered. To this end, a number of steps can be taken.

Firstly, state BOCW Act boards can partner with nonprofit organisations that work with migrant workers to effectively register daily wage workers at worker facilitation centres. Additionally, information counters can be set up at state transport bus stands, railway stations, and nakas for workers to easily access information. Even a central worker helpline number will be useful. For example, the Delhi government is holding a registration drive during the lockdown to get more workers in the system. Maharashtra is also replicating this idea, and it can be quickly taken up by other states. However, support from developers and the construction industry is crucial to boost this drive.

In addition, corporates can widen the social protection net by proactively engaging with suppliers, vendors, and partners to formalise registration and licensing, set standards for employee protection, and socialise linkages to public schemes. Stakeholders can be incentivised or penalised and progress can be monitored.

Lastly, it would be worthwhile for the BOCW Act boards to explore a public-private partnership to monitor registrations through different mediums (online, through civil society organisations, developers, builders, contractors, and so on).

We dont have to wait for a pandemic to highlight the gaps in our present system. A well-planned structure will ensure workers get the benefits they are entitled to, no matter the external circumstances.

This article was written with inputs from Jan Sahas and Dimpy Dave. It was originally published on India Development Review.
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam speaks at the meeting of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control in Hanoi on August 9 (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi - The risks of further coronavirus outbreaks remain ever-present and everyone must absolutely stay on guard, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said.

While the recent explosion in locally infected cases recorded in Vietnam can mainly be traced back to Da Nang, especially the three hospitals in the city, the risks of virus spread in the community remains significant, Dam said, requiring all localities and the public to be cautious.

He was addressing an emergency meeting of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control held in Hanoi on August 9.

No one can tell for certain that the coronavirus has been completely eliminated in the community, he said.

The vigilant spirit must be held high at all times, or a resurgence of the virus could appear like it did recently after months of relaxed measures with no new locally transmitted cases, Dam continued.

He added that if the country continues to well implement anti-pandemic measures, which have been tightened in the last two weeks since the discovery of the first case in Da Nangs outbreak, "we have the confidence that the outbreak will not explode on a wider scale.

Not only in the current epicentres of the outbreak like Da Nang or Quang Nam, all protocols are in all localities  with health workers and public security officers at the forefront  have been restarted and been constantly active, Dam said.

Recently, the health ministry sent five inspection teams to local level to assess the readiness, he said.

Assoc. Prof. Tran Dac Phu, former Director of the Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health, said anti-pandemic measures have been carried out aggressively and effectively in Da Nang, which is now under lockdown.

At this point, it could be said that the outbreak in Da Nang is under control, Phu said.

Le Quang Cuong, former Deputy Minister of Health, asked that information campaigns be enhanced in the future so that public awareness and community-minded spirit would be raised, and everyone would not let their guards down, maintain proper hygiene to protect themselves, their family, and the community in the new normal.

Regarding tests, the steering committee said capacity has been improving a lot compared to previous outbreaks, including the production of test kits and diagnostic machines.

In Da Nang, with the massive number of people needed to be tested in the community, the health ministry decided they would implement pool testing, where specimens collected from five people would be combined and tested via a single test, said Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long.

If the tests results return positive, then all those five people will be tested again individually, Long said.

This will significantly speed up population-level screening, especially in the high-risk groups, the minister said.

However, no matter how much we raise our testing capacity, we could never be able to conduct testing of all people, even in just a province, in a short timeframe, Dam said.

Therefore, the most important and effective measure is to identify cases, fast trace and focus testing on high-risk groups.

In Da Nang, health workers are processing about 8,000-9,000 specimens a day.

Dam said through the practical lessons and experience obtained in Da Nang recently, guidelines need to be compiled so that other localities could quickly deploy necessary measures when community cases are discovered.

He also urged people to install health declaration and contact tracing apps like NCOVI and Bluezone to better identify potential cases.
The Labour leader said the black community must have trust and confidence in the police following the incident on Sunday.

Ms Butler, who recorded a video of the incident, said she and her friend, who is also black, had been pulled over by Metropolitan Police officers simply for "being black and driving a nice car".

SIr Keir tweeted: I reached out yesterday to Dawn Butler to discuss the incidence she reported and to offer our support.

Dawn Butler has accused the Metropolitan Police of institutional racism / Sky News

All allegations of racial profiling must be taken extremely seriously by the Metropolitan police.

It is imperative that the Black community have trust and confidence in our police.

He also said the abuse Ms Butler received over social media since speaking out was wrong and must be condemned.

It comes shortly after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the police should treat people with fairness and equality when asked about the incident.

The former shadow equalities minister was a passenger in her friend's BMW on Sunday when she stopped by officers in Hackney, east London.

She has since accused officers of racially profiling her and said there was "institutional racism" in the police.

Boris Johnson responds to Dawn Butler's 'racial profiling' in car stop

Scotland Yard said the stop was a result of an officer having incorrectly entered the cars registration plate into a computer to wrongly identify it as a vehicle registered to Yorkshire, but did not explain why the search was carried out in the first place.

Earlier today, Ms Butler said she had been the victim of racist trolls online after speaking out about the police stop.

Twitter users claimed that her friend, who was driving, was white. Ms Butler, the MP for Brent Central, in north west London, said this morning that was not the case.

She tweeted: Good morning twitter I see the racist trolls are going crazy with conspiracy theories.

Someone who claims to be an ex police officer is challenging me to a debate.

Sir Keir Starmer said the abuse Ms Butler had received on social media should be condemned / Getty Images

No need waste my time as Im speaking to current police officers. Working together to make the system better.

Ms Butler's footage of the stop showed an officer saying police were carrying out searches because of gang and knife crime.

Ms Butler told the officers: It is really quite irritating. Its like you cannot drive around and enjoy a Sunday afternoon whilst black, because youre going to be stopped by police.

In the video, one officer says the initial search returned a car of the same make, model and colour but registered to North Yorkshire. Ms Butler was sceptical of this, asking for the police to share the registration they initially searched for to see how it returned such a similar car.

This week Ms Butler was named by Vogue magazine as one of the 25 most influential women shaping 2020 for her support of Black Lives Matter protests.

Dawn Butler: Cressida Dick needs to admit 'institutional racism'

She described her backing of the anti-racism movement as having led to threats of attack on her office and staff having drastically escalated.

A Scotland Yard statement said: Once the mistake was realised the officer sought to explain this to the occupants, they were then allowed on their way.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said he did not share Ms Butler's view that the met was "institutionally racist".

He added: "No, I don't think the PM would take that view of the Metropolitan Police.

"The Met, like police forces across England and Wales, are working very hard tackling issues such as knife crime and drugs."
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San Francisco, 10 Aug 2020: The Report Perfume & Fragrance Packaging Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product Type (Bottles, Cans), By Raw Material (Glass, Metal), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2019 - 2025

The global perfume and fragrance packaging market size is expected to reach USD 14.2 billion by 2025, expanding at a CAGR of 5.5%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Attractive packaging plays a major role as a stimulating attribute for the fragrance industry. Various perfumes are now made available with low concentration of fragrance or essential oils such as eau fraiche and eau de cologne, with the purpose of increasing the number of consumers using perfumes daily. This, in turn, increases the frequency of perfume use, thereby creating a huge demand for its packaging in the forecast years.

Growing trend of wearing perfumes is hence driving the global market. However, growing commercialization of the products imitations is anticipated to hinder the market growth. Furthermore, counterfeit perfumes are available in a packaging that looks similar to the original but is duplicate and made from cheap materials. This makes it difficult for the consumers to differentiate between the original and the counterfeit products. Hence, some consumers settle for these products since they are sold at a very low price, thereby impeding the market growth.

Based on the product type, the bottles segment held the largest market share in 2018. Manufacturers are focusing on designing bottles of different sizes and shapes to make them attractive. Adoption of high quality bottles designs for premium perfumes is driving this segment in the market. Among all the raw materials, the glass segment is anticipated to hold the largest market share, owing to its nonporous and impermeable properties that make it chemically non-reactive with the perfume. Hence it is preferred by many manufacturers as the primary packaging material for their perfumes.

North America held the largest perfume and fragrances packaging market share in 2018, followed by Europe. Currency fluctuation in Europe has led to a considerable rise in tourist consumers in this region, which results in the growth of luxury products including perfume and fragrance. Asia Pacific is also expected to contribute to the market growth significantly over the forecast period. Countries such as Japan and China are majorly driving the market in the region.

Key players are engaged in strategy implementation such as mergers and partnerships to expand their product portfolio and maintain a strong foothold in the market. Key players having a strong foothold in this market include Estee Lauder, Gerresheimer AG, Chanel, Swallowfield Plc, Saverglass sas, Albea S.A., Intrapac International Corporation, AVON, Verescence France SASU, and SGB Packaging Group.

Access Research Report of Perfume & Fragrance Packaging Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/perfume-fragrance-packaging-market

Perfume & Fragrances Packaging Market Report Highlights

By raw material, the glass segment is projected to ascend at a CAGR of 5.5% over the forecast period

North America dominated the global perfume and fragrances packaging market in 2018 and accounted for 36.9% share of the overall revenue. This trend is projected to continue over the next few years.

The industry is highly competitive in nature with the major players including Estee Lauder, Gerresheimer AG, Chanel, Swallowfield Plc and SCG Packaging Group

Various manufacturers are concentrating on new product launches, capacity expansion, and product portfolio extension to estimate existing and future demand patterns from upcoming application segments.

Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry/plastics-polymers-and-resins

Grand View Research has segmented the global perfume and fragrances packaging market on the basis of product type, raw material, and region:

Perfume & Fragrance PackagingProduct Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2015 - 2025)

Bottles

Cans

Others

Perfume & Fragrance PackagingRaw Material Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2015 - 2025)

Glass

Plastic

Metal

Paperboard

Perfume & Fragrance PackagingRegional Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2015 - 2025)

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Central and South America

Middle East and Africa

Access Press Release of Perfume & Fragrance Packaging Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-perfume-fragrances-packaging-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
Epic Systems sent a letter to employees this weekend informing them that they're no longer required to return to the Verona, Wisconsin, campus on Monday.

That marks a shift in its prior plans to bring the bulk of its workers back to the office during the coronavirus pandemic, which drew criticism from employees about what they said was a lack of concern for their health and well-being.

Epic sells electronic medical software to hospitals. About 4,000 of its 9,000 employees have worked at its campus voluntarily during the pandemic, the company has said.

Employees were previously told to return to work this month unless they had problems arranging child care or had a health condition that put them at risk of severe complications from Covid-19. Those employees were earlier told they could work remotely until Nov. 2.

Epic received a letter from local public health officials on Aug. 6 raising questions about its return-to-work plan. It told Public Health Madison & Dane County, or PHMDC, that it will modify its policy so that staff won't be required to return to the office.

"Throughout our planning process, we've been in frequent communication with PHMDC to ensure our plans are in compliance with their orders," a spokesperson told CNBC. "We responded to the letter on August 8th asking for clarity on their regulations and approval of our plan moving forward. While our intention is to return staff to campus, we are adjusting the timeframe as we work with public health officials to gain their agreement on our plan."

Epic did not disclose when it expects staff to return. It stressed that it still hopes to bring back as many employees as possible. The original plan was to bring most employees back by mid-September.

"We hope that you can provide us with additional guidance on your regulations," Epic's chief administrative officer, Sverre Roang, wrote in a letter to local public health officials that was shared with CNBC.

The company also said in the letter that it had hired Dr. Nicky Quick, a former public health official, as an internal expert. It's working with Dr. Stephen Ostroff, former acting health commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and is consulting with Cleveland Clinic on its return-to-work policies, it said.
(Newser)  That depressing, empty Sears or JC Penney at your local shopping mall? Amazon may soon turn it into a fulfillment center. Simon Property Group Inc., the largest mall owner in the US, is in talks with the online retailer on the matter, the Wall Street Journal reports. If the deal goes through, some of the abandoned department stores could be turned into Amazon distribution hubs, sources say; both Sears and JC Penney have declared bankruptcy and have been closing dozens of stores. Some US malls have already rented parking lot space to Amazon to use for its delivery fleet, and Amazon has even purchased entire failed malls and converted them to warehouses.

story continues below

Malls have been struggling for years, thanks in part to Amazon itself as well as other online shopping sites, but the coronavirus pandemic has made the struggle even worse. TechCrunch notes that malls have been looking to almost any avenue to bring in revenue, including using spaces to house schools, medical facilities, or senior living facilities. Amazon, on the other hand, is doing great amid the pandemic, and is working to increase its distribution centers in order to speed up its last-mile delivery efforts. Bloomberg notes, however, these talks have been going on since before the pandemic. Another possibility: Amazon is also considering putting some of its planned grocery stores into abandoned JC Penney stores. (Read more Amazon stories.)
Hyderabad, Aug 10 : The Endiya Fund II has received a commitment of about $10 million (Rs 75 crore) from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group.

The IFC has also committed an additional $10 million for direct co-investments alongside Endiya Fund II. The partnership with the IFC will provide the Endiya portfolio companies with financial and strategic support resulting in increased access to growth opportunities and sustainable scalability, said Hyderabad-based Endiya Partners.

"Early Stage VC investment volumes in India are markedly lower than VC volumes in countries like the US and China. Our investment in VC funds like Endiya helps mobilise capital from other LPs and brings that capital to path breaking early stage businesses," said Jun Zhang, IFC Country Head, India.

Endiya Partners is a seed and early-stage venture capital firm investing in IP led Indian product start-ups that are globally relevant. Endiya's current portfolio includes Darwinbox, Steradian Semiconductors, Kissht, SigTuple, and Myelin Foundry.

Endiya Fund II has a corpus target of Rs 500 crore ($65 million) and has already completed its first round at Rs 280 crore ($40 million) in May 2019.

Limited partners in the Fund include financial institutions, corporates, and family offices across India, Europe, and the US.

Endiya Fund II will seek to invest in 16-20 start-ups, with an initial cheque size of $500,000 to $1 million in Seed/Pre-series A rounds and a planned investment of up to $5 million per company.

Founded in 2016 by Sateesh Andra, cardiologist-turned-investor Ramesh Byrapaneni, and Abhishek Srivastava, Endiya added Abhiram Katta to its top deck in 2018 and most recently expanded its Investments team by hiring Dipesh Chawla and Lakshmi Kancharla.

"We are excited to have won the IFC's support and backing. We value the IFC's vast global presence across geographies that could offer future expansion markets for our portfolio companies. We are also delighted to have a co-investment envelope from the IFC that could be used to support our investees as they scale," Andra, Partner at Endiya, said.

Endiya's Fund I was a 2016 vintage fund with Rs 175 crore ($25 million) corpus and invested in 12 portfolio companies.
As other left-wing congressional candidates racked up wins around the country, Alex Morse, 31, seemed like he could become the next liberal challenger to oust a long-term incumbent.

Morse, the country's youngest openly gay mayor, spoke eloquently about growing up working-class in Holyoke, Mass. and losing his brother to heroin addiction earlier this year. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., had been in office for three decades, the mayor said, but failed in recent years to make himself visible in his rural and industrial swath of the state.

But as allegations emerged that Morse had used his position to make advances on men a decade his junior, he offered an admission on Sunday: He had in fact engaged in relationships with local college students.

In an apology Sunday night, Morse, who also taught college courses for a time, refused to drop out of the race. His sexual orientation had unfairly heightened the focus on his personal life, he said, while denying any accusations of nonconsensual relationships.

"I say this not to shirk responsibility for having made anyone uncomfortable," Morse said in a statement. "I am simply highlighting the fact that I am being held to a different standard, one deeply connected to a history of surveilling the sex lives of people like me."

In a letter to the candidate late last week, the statewide College Democrats chapter said the mayor's behavior was nonetheless inappropriate, disturbing both the organization's members and other students who were subject to his advances.

"Where such a lopsided power dynamic exists," the group said in a follow-up statement, "consent becomes complicated."

An investigation into his conduct by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he taught a political science class from 2014 to 2019, is ongoing, the university said.

The son of a meatpacking plant worker and a day-care operator who met in public housing, Morse first went public with his sexuality at age 16 - on his Myspace profile. He went on to start his high school's gay-straight alliance as well as a citywide LGBTQ nonprofit that organized a "Pride Prom," he told Salon last month.

As a 22-year-old college senior, he returned to Holyoke to kick-start his mayoral campaign, winning the office and working to address health and education disparities and extending a hand to the city's large Puerto Rican community.

Nearly four terms later, he launched a grass roots campaign for Congress. Among his most prominent endorsements were the Justice Democrats, the liberal group that fueled the rise of progressive primary challengers like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.

After a victory by Black Lives Matter activist Cori Bush in St. Louis last week, momentum seemed to be gaining. No polls had been conducted, but fundraising figures showed Morse just barely behind Neal, the powerful chair of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Then, on Thursday, Morse received a troubling set of allegations by email. In a letter obtained by The Washington Post and first reported by the Massachusetts Daily Collegian student newspaper, the College Democrats of Massachusetts told the candidate he would be uninvited from all future events because he had "disturbed" its members online and in person.

The letter alleged that Morse regularly matched with college students on the dating/hookup platforms Grindr and Tinder, added others to his "Close Friends" list on Instagram and sent them direct messages on the app, and engaged in "sexual contact" with college students, including those at UMass.

The group did not include specific stories or name any of the students accusing Morse, but said those incidents pointed to "dangerous and inappropriate" power dynamics that complicated sexual consent.

"Even if these scenarios are mutually consensual, the pattern of Morse using his platform and taking advantage of his position of power for romantic or sexual gain, specifically toward young students, is unacceptable," the letter said.

On Saturday, UMass said it had launched an investigation into those allegations, saying the letter was the first administrators had heard of the "serious and deeply concerning" charges against Morse. The school added that it did not currently employ the candidate and would not be hiring him again.

Relationships between faculty and students are banned at UMass, the Daily Collegian reported.

On Sunday, Morse apologized and said he now acknowledged the influence of his position, even outside his day job. But he also insisted that he would stay in the race, pointing out what he characterized as "the invocation of age-old anti-gay stereotype."

"I want my freedom, and I want you to have yours too," the candidate wrote. "I continue this campaign mindful of the fact that my personal life - and my consensual sexual activity - will be subject to scrutiny and fixation that are all too familiar to members of the LGBTQ community."

The College Democrats came under additional scrutiny over the weekend for a $1000 donation the organization had received from Neal. The group said it was "untrue, disingenuous and harmful" to claim that its letter was a "quid pro quo" with Neal's campaign or had been motivated in any way by Morse's sexuality.

- - -

The Washington Post's Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report.
Fresh concerns have emerged about Leaving Cert calculated grades as Scotlands First Minister Nicola Sturgeon apologised after accepting that her government did not get it right over a parallel results system it introduced this year because of Covid-19.

Labour education spokesperson Aodhain ORiordain is seeking guarantees from Education Minister Norma Foley that students from disadvantaged areas will not be unfairly treated.

He said students must be assessed on merit and not by postcode.

Read More

The Scottish Government has promised a quick fix after students from poorer areas suffered a disproportionate level of marking down when their teachers estimated grades were put through a national standardisation process.

The calculated grades system introduced by the Department of Education to replace the Leaving Cert this year is broadly similar to the Scottish model.

It involved teachers providing estimated grades for pupils and an expert group conducting a series of checks and balances, based on a schools previous performance and how the students fared in the Junior Cert.

Mr ORiordain has consistently warned that it involved school profiling and would not be fair to high achieving students in schools in disadvantaged areas.

He said the experience in Scotland, where there was widescale downgrading of the exam results of working class students, vindicates my criticisms and unless the Government takes action to review the methodology of awarding grades we will face a similar situation here in a few short weeks.

The Labour spokesperson said he had repeatedly asked both Minister Foley and her predecessor to take steps to guarantee that there will be no school profiling when it comes to grading the Leaving Cert.

While both of them have denied that the practice is employed, the Department of Education website says that estimated marks from each school will be adjusted to bring them into line with the expected distribution.

This means that students from poorer backgrounds will have their grades marked down compared to their peers in more affluent areas.

He said the Government needed to ensure that no student is adversely penalised because they come from a poorer background.

For many students, the Leaving Cert will be their only chance to break the cycle of disadvantage and Minister Foley needs to ensure that this is not taken away from them.

In light of the chaos experienced by students in Scotland, I am calling on the Minister to compel her officials to remove any potential for school profiling from this years arrangements and to make sure students are assessed on merit and not by postcode.
According to a new intelligence report by the US intelligence agencies released on Sunday, August 9, China will influence the upcoming 2020 presidential elections to favour Democratic candidate Joe Biden while the Russian government favors a Trump re-election.



According to the report, global powers China and Russia are in position to interfere with proceedings to ensure that their pick seals the White House position.



The report alleges China want to remove 'unpredictable' Trump as tensions between Washington and Beijing have intensified during the first term of the Trump administration due to the Coronavirus pandemic plus other issues while Russia wants to discredit Joe Biden with their own interests in mind.



"Ahead of the 2020 US elections, foreign states will continue to use covert and overt influence measures in their attempts to sway US voters' preferences and perspectives, shift US policies, increase discord in the United States, and undermine the American people's confidence in our democratic process," said William Evanina, who leads the National Counterintelligence and Security Center.



Evanina also said that tactics that could be used, as well as the spread of disinformation and propaganda, include attempts at compromising equipment used in the election. This could be either to alter the result in their favor or to give a false impression that the results have been tampered with.



While speaking to congress, she also revealed another player in the up I ng elections was Iran, saying the Islamic Republic aims to spread disinformation to divide the country and hurt the chances of Trump to remain in power.

Trump's and Biden's campaign have both denied soliciting for foreign help.



Tony Blinken, Biden's campaign senior advisor says Biden "has led the fight against foreign interference for years, and has refused to accept any foreign materials intended to help him in this election," adding that this is "something that Donald Trump and his campaign have repeatedly failed to do."



Trump's reelection campaign spokesman, Tim Murtaugh, said;



"We don't need or want foreign interference, and President Trump will beat Joe Biden fair and square."









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Russian authorities have reported 5,118 new cases of the novel coronavirus, pushing the countrys tally to 892,654.

The Australian state of Victoria has announced 19 deaths as it battles a resurgent virus in Melbourne.

Nearly 200 doctors in India have died after contracting COVID-19, the Indian Medical Association reported.

Almost 20 million people around the world have been diagnosed with COVID-19, more than 12.1 million have recovered, and 732,689 have died.

Here are the latest updates:

Monday, August 10

21:30 GMT  Trump, coaches push for college football

President Donald Trump joined a US senator and a number of coaches in a push to save the college football season from a pandemic-forced shutdown.

There was speculation that two of the five most powerful conferences  the Big Ten and the Pac-12  might call off their seasons. Farther east, Old Dominion canceled fall sports and became the first school in the Bowl Subdivison to break from its league in doing so; the rest of Conference USA was going forward with plans to play.

A growing number of athletes have spoken out about saving the season with Clemson star quarterback Trevor Lawrence among the group posting their thoughts on Twitter with the hashtag #WeWantToPlay. Trump threw his support behind them Monday.

The student-athletes have been working too hard for their season to be cancelled, he tweeted.

The student-athletes have been working too hard for their season to be cancelled. #WeWantToPlay https://t.co/lI3CCKZ4ID  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2020

19:45 GMT  COVID-19 cases in US children soared in late July, report says

The number of new COVID-19 cases among children in the US rose 40 percent in the last two weeks of July, according to a report released just weeks before tens of millions of American students are scheduled to begin the new school year.

The new report by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Childrens Hospital Association found that more than 338,000 children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the US epidemic, with 97,078 new cases reported in the July 16-30 period.

The American Academy of Pediatrics noted the data showed that severe illness due to COVID-19 appears to be rare among children. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has said that children who get the virus are less likely to have severe symptoms.

16:15 GMT  Antonio Banderas says he has tested positive for coronavirus

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas announced he has tested positive for COVID-19 and is celebrating his 60th birthday in quarantine, reading, writing and making plans to begin to give meaning to my 60th year to which I arrive full of enthusiasm, he wrote on Instagram

I would like to add that I am relatively well, just a little more tired than usual and hoping to recover as soon as possible following medical instructions that I hope will allow me to overcome the infection that I and so many people in the world are suffering from, wrote Banderas.

17:40 GMT  US Treasury Secretary sees possible virus deal, but no talks set with Congress

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Congress and the administration of US President Donald Trump could reach a coronavirus aid deal as soon as this week, but Democrats said the two sides have not spoken since talks collapsed last Friday.

US President Donald Trump, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows talk before Trump speaks with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House on Wednesday in Washington, DC, the US [AP Photo/Alex Brandon]

With negotiations at a standstill and Trump taking action at the weekend to try to sidestep Congress, it was unclear whether Democrats and Republicans would be able to bridge their differences to provide relief to workers, businesses and local governments that have been devastated by the pandemic.

Trump on Saturday signed executive orders and memorandums on expired unemployment benefits, eviction suspensions, student loan payments and payroll taxes. But it was not immediately clear whether they would provide relief.

17:25 GMT  US health officials are quitting or getting fired amid outbreak

Vilified, threatened with violence and in some cases burned out, dozens of state and local public health officials around the country have resigned or have been fired amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Californias public health director, Dr Sonia Angell, quit without explanation on Sunday following a technical glitch that caused a delay in reporting virus test results  information that was used to make decisions about reopening businesses and schools. Last week, New York Citys health commissioner was replaced after months of tension with the New York Police Department and City Hall.

A review by the Kaiser Health News service and The Associated Press found at least 48 state and local health leaders have resigned, retired or been fired since April across 23 states. The list has grown by more than 20 people since June.

17:15 GMT  US schools mull outdoor classes amid virus, ventilation worries

As they plan or contemplate reopening this autumn, schools around the United States are dealing with aging air conditioning, heating and circulation systems that do not work well or at all because maintenance and replacement were deferred due to tight budgets. Concerns about school infrastructure are adding momentum to plans in some districts, even in colder climates, to take classes outdoors for the sake of student and teacher health.

Nationwide, an estimated 41 percent of school districts need to update or replace their heating, ventilation and cooling systems in at least half their schools, according to a federal report issued in June.

Some officials say one solution to air circulation problems may be teaching classes outdoors, which was done during tuberculosis and influenza outbreaks in the early 1900s, even in cold weather. The coronavirus spreads less efficiently outdoors and students could more easily sit two metres (six feet) apart.

Dr Sonia Angell announced she was departing from her role as director and state public health officer for the California Department of Public Health in a letter to staff released Sunday, August 9, 2020 in the US [Rich Pedroncelli, Pool via AP] [Daylife]

16:30 GMT  US employers post more jobs in June, pull back on hiring

US employers advertised more jobs in June compared with the previous month, but overall hiring fell, painting a mixed picture of the job market.

The number of jobs posted on the last day in June jumped 9.6 percent to 5.9 million, the US Department of Labor said Monday  a solid gain but still below the pre-pandemic level of about 7 million. And employers hired 6.7 million people in June, down from 7.2 million in May, a record high.

The figures suggest that restaurants, bars, retail shops, and entertainment venues  businesses that were subject to shutdown orders in April  continued to bring back workers at a healthy pace. Job openings in those industries also rose.

15:40 GMT  Trumps COVID-19 unemployment plan confuses US state governors

Whether United States President Donald Trump has the constitutional authority to extend federal unemployment benefits by executive order remains unclear. It is also unclear if states, which are necessary partners in Trumps plan to bypass Congress, will sign on.

Trump announced an executive order Saturday that extends additional unemployment payments of $400 a week to help cushion the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. Congress had approved payments of $600 a week at the outset of the outbreak, but those benefits expired August 1 and Congress has been unable to agree on an extension.

President Donald Trump signing an executive order during a news conference at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, the US [AP Photo/Susan Walsh]

But under Trumps plan, the $400 a week requires a state to commit to providing $100. Many states are already facing budget crunches caused by the pandemic. Asked at a news conference how many governors had signed on to participate, Trump answered: If they dont, they dont. Thats up to them.

Read more here.

15:20 GMT  Iran closes down newspaper after expert doubts official coronavirus tolls

Iran shut down a newspaper after it quoted a former member of the national coronavirus task force as saying the countrys tolls from the epidemic could be 20 times higher than official figures, state news agency IRNA reported.

The Jahan-e Sanat newspaper was shut down today for publishing an interview on Sunday, the newspapers editor-in-chief, Mohammadreza Saadi, told IRNA.

On Sunday, the newspaper published an interview with epidemiologist Mohammadreza Mahboubfar, in which he said: The figures announced by the officials on coronavirus cases and deaths account for only five percent of the countrys real tolls.

15:10 GMT  UN official lauds Pakistans virus containment

The incoming president of the United Nations General Assembly has praised Pakistan for quickly containing the coronavirus, saying the South Asian nations handling of the pandemic is a good example for the world.

Turkish diplomat Volkan Bozkir made his comment at a news conference in the capital, Islamabad.

Bozkir was recently elected as the president of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly.

15:00 GMT  Cuba reports record number of COVID-19 cases

Cuba reported a record 93 cases of the new coronavirus as a surge of the disease in the Havana area threatened to stall the reopening of the country after a partial lockdown beginning in March.

A partial lockdown was reimposed on Monday in Havana and in neighbouring Artemisa Province. The area has been isolated from the rest of the country where with but few exceptions no cases have been reported in more than two months.

In Havana, restaurants, bars and pools are once more closed, public transportation suspended and access to the beach banned.

14:59 GMT  Virus doesnt seem to follow seasonal patterns: WHO

A senior doctor at the World Health Organization said COVID-19 is not showing signs of seasonal patterns, and that lifting restrictions is what will cause it to bounce back.

Speaking from Geneva on Monday, Dr Michael Ryan, the director of WHO Health Emergencies Programne, said so far, what it has clearly demonstrated is you take the pressure off the virus, the virus bounces back.

14:35 GMT  Virus spread accelerates in Denmark

Denmark has seen a new spread of COVID-19 infections in the past week with the reproduction rate rising to 1.4, the countrys health minister said.

The virus is moving through our society once again, Magnus Heunicke told reporters.

In the past week, infections have been confirmed in 67 out of Denmarks 98 municipalities. The countrys second-largest city, Aarhus, had the biggest number of new infections.

14:10 GMT  Italy fears being surrounded by contagious countries

Italy sounded the alarm over the rise in coronavirus cases in fellow European countries after a spike in the number of infections discovered among returning Italian holidaymakers.

Not to worry [about new cases from abroad] would be unconscionable, Health Minister Roberto Speranza told the Corriere della Sera daily, which noted: France, Spain and the Balkans Italy is surrounded by contagions.

Fear over new outbreaks imported by returning vacationers has been fuelled by the much-publicised case of 30 young Italians from the Veneto region who holidayed in Croatia and returned with coronavirus at the start of August.

13:45 GMT  Face masks now required outdoors at crowded Paris locations

From the most romantic spots along the river Seine to popular shopping streets, residents and visitors in Paris were required to wear face masks in some outdoor areas of the French capital amid an uptick in reported coronavirus cases.

Police are authorised to issue a 35-euro ($41) fine to people who do not follow the new public health requirement.

France reported more than 2,000 new confirmed cases in 24 hours on Friday, the biggest single-day rise since May [Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters]

13:15 GMT  Spanish actor Banderas says has COVID-19, feels relatively well

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas, 60, said he has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and is in quarantine.

Id like to add that Im feeling relatively well, just a bit more tired than usual, and confident that I will recover as soon as possible, Banderas said on Twitter.

12:15 GMT  Brazil facing continued pressure in coronavirus fight: WHO

Indicators point to Brazil, which has the worlds second-highest number of coronavirus infections, facing continued pressure on its healthcare system, the World Health Organization said.

Brazil has reported more than three million confirmed cases, second only to the United States, and has also reported more than 101,000 deaths.

Hello, this is Usaid Siddiqui in Doha taking over from my colleague Umut Uras.

11:15  WHO warns of need to fight new COVID-19 flareups

The coronavirus sweeping the world has shown no seasonal pattern and if health authorities take the pressure off fighting it, it will bounce back, the World Health Organization said.

Dr Mike Ryan, head of WHOs emergencies programme, said Western Europe and elsewhere needed to react fast to new flare-ups.

10:45 GMT  Vietnam reports six more coronavirus infections

Vietnams health ministry reported six more coronavirus infections and two additional deaths, bringing the total number of cases in the Southeast Asian country to 847, with 13 fatalities.

Most of the new cases, including that of an eight-year-old boy, are linked to the central city of Danang, where the new outbreak began late last month.

The ministry said more than 182,000 people are being quarantined in the country, including 5,139 at hospitals, 28,408 at centralised quarantine centres and the rest at home.

10:00 GMT  USs Azar says any vaccine would be shared once national needs met

United States Health Secretary Alex Azar said that any US vaccine or treatment for COVID-19 would be shared fairly with the rest of the world, once the USs needs have been satisfied.

Our first priority of course is to develop and produce enough quantity of safe and effective FDA-approved vaccines and therapeutics for use in the United States, Azar told reporters while on a visit to Taiwan.

But we anticipate having capacity that, once those needs are satisfied, those products would be available in the world community according to fair and equitable distributions that we would consult in the international community on.

Azar says the United States decision to leave the World Health Organization does not mean less international involvement for his country in global public health [File: AP]

09:25 GMT  UK: Getting children back to school is a national priority

It is a national priority for children to return to school after months at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, a junior British health minister said.

Sadly, we have seen children from more disadvantaged backgrounds (are) more likely to fall behind during this time, so it is essential that we have children back at school this autumn, Helen Whately told Sky News.

09:00 GMT  Hong Kong reports 69 new coronavirus cases

Hong Kong reported 69 new cases on Monday, 67 of which were locally transmitted, as authorities fought to contain a resurgence of the virus over the last six weeks.

Since late January, over 4,000 people have been infected in Hong Kong, 55 of whom have died. On Sunday, Hong Kong reported 72 new cases.

08:30 GMT  Russia reports more than 5,100 new cases

Russian authorities confirmed 5,118 new coronavirus cases, pushing the national tally to 892,654, the fourth-largest in the world.

The official death toll rose to 15,001 after 70 people were reported to have died in the last 24 hours.

The official coronavirus death toll in Russia has risen to 15,001 [Anadolu]

07:50 GMT  Indonesia reports 1,687 new coronavirus cases

Indonesia reported 1,687 new coronavirus cases, bringing its total to 127,083, data from the COVID-19 task force showed.

The Southeast Asian country also had 42 new deaths, taking that total to 5,765.

07:20 GMT  Where are we in finding a treatment for COVID-19?

There are currently neither licensed treatments nor a vaccine for COVID-19.

However, several drugs are being studied in large clinical trials and more research is under way.

Read more here.

[Illustration by Jawahir al-Naimi/Al Jazeera]

06:45 GMT  Indias largest crocodile park strapped for cash after virus lockdowns

Indias Madras Crocodile Bank may have as little as four months before it runs out of funds to feed animals, pay staff, and do research, as ticket revenue shrinks as lockdowns reduced visitors, park officials said.

Annual sales of about 5 million tickets make up roughly half the parks revenue, but it has been shut since March 16 with no prospect of reopening in sight.

The lockdowns during the summer vacation season have cost an estimated 14 million rupees ($187,000) as visitors dropped by almost 2.5 million, Allwin Jesudasan, director of the park, told the Reuters news agency.

Zookeepers feed crocodiles in their enclosure at the Madras Crocodile Bank in Mahabalipuram, India [Reuters]

05:45 GMT  German firms expect life to be restricted for 8.5 more months: Survey

German companies expect public life to be restricted for a further 8.5 months due to coronavirus, a survey by the Ifo economic institute showed, as Europes largest economy battles to recover from a pandemic-induced downturn.

Leisure firms, hit hard by the crisis, are particularly pessimistic, expecting restrictions to last another 13 months while the beverage sector is more optimistic, foreseeing an end to restrictions in 6.4 months.

Hello, this is Umut Uras in Doha taking over from my colleague Ted Regencia.

05:15 GMT  US warned coronavirus deaths could reach 300,000

As the US recorded more than five million coronavirus infections, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration Dr Scott Gottlieb has issued a warning about the rising death toll, saying he expected it to be somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000.

The concern now is that this has become so pervasive across the country that it could start to infect more rural communities that have largely been untouched to date  but are still very vulnerable because the infection hasnt been there, Gottlieb said in an interview with CBSs Face The Nation.

According to reports, one out of every 66 residents in the US is now infected with COVID-19. As of Monday, the US has reported almost 163,000 deaths.

04:50 GMT  Russias race for virus vaccine raises concerns in the West

Russia boasts that it is about to become the first country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine, with mass vaccinations planned as early as October using shots that are yet to complete clinical trials  and scientists worldwide are sounding the alarm that the headlong rush could backfire.

According to Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russias Direct Investment Fund that bankrolled the effort, a vaccine developed by the Gamaleya research institute in Moscow may be approved within days, before scientists complete a so-called phase three study.

That final-stage study, usually involving tens of thousands of people, is the only way to prove if an experimental vaccine is safe and really works.

04:20 GMT  Australias internal border closures to stay for months

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that the countrys internal border closures were unlikely to be lifted before Christmas.

Morrison, however, said that he is more hopeful that the measures being implemented are bearing results, with the daily new infections in the state of Victoria slowing to a near two-week low.

Australia reported on Monday its highest number of fatalities.

03:49 GMT  Red Cross sends thousands of volunteers to help N Korea cope with coronavirus, floods

The Red Cross has trained some 43,000 North Korean volunteers to help communities in all nine provinces, including the locked-down city of Kaesong, fight the novel coronavirus and provide flood assistance, an official with the relief organisation said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared an emergency last month, imposing a lockdown on Kaesong, near the border with South Korea, after a man who defected to the South in 2017 returned to the city showing coronavirus symptoms.

Heavy rain and flooding in recent days have also sparked concern about crop damage and food supplies in the isolated country.

03:15 GMT  Germanys confirmed coronavirus cases rise by 436 to 216,327

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 436 to 216,327, Reuters news agency reported on Monday quoting data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases.

The reported death toll rose by one to 9,197, the tally showed.

02:45 GMT  Manila to distribute one million face masks to help contain pandemic

The Philippine economy took a major hit amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with the government reporting a 16.5-percent drop in GDP in the second quarter of 2020 [Francis R Malasig/EPA]

Manilas mayor has announced that the Philippine capital the will distribute one million face masks to its residents, as part of the local governments effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus as a lockdown was reimposed on the city and nearby provinces until August 18.

Mayor Franciso Moreno also said the city is allocating at least 200m pesos ($4m) to procure the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it is available.

The Philippines has almost 130,000 cases nationwide and more than 2,200 deaths, most of which were in the Metro Manila area, which has a population of over 12 million. The national government has faced criticism over its pandemic response, forcing local governments to adopt localised restrictions and policies.

02:25 GMT  South Korea reports 28 new coronavirus cases

South Korea reported 28 new coronavirus cases on Monday, including 17 local infections, raising the total to 14,626.

Yonhap news agency quoted the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as saying that of the 17 local transmissions, 11 were reported in the capital, Seoul. Meanwhile, a church in Goyang, north of Seoul, reported eight additional cases on Sunday.

There were no new reported deaths, keeping the total fatalities at 305. Around 93 percent of the total cases have already recovered.

01:48 GMT  Venezuelas Maduro extends coronavirus restrictions for 30 days

President Nicolas Maduro has announced the extension of Venezuelas state of alert for another 30 days, to help contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Maduro made the announcement as he said that 5,491 Venezuelan nationals who recently returned to the country had tested positive of the coronavirus.

As of the end of Sunday, the country added 844 new cases, including 797 local infections and 47 imported cases, as well as eight deaths. Venezuela has reported almost 26,000 cases and 223 deaths so far.

01:15 GMT  Brazil reports more than 23,000 new coronavirus cases, 572 deaths

Brazils health ministry has reported 23,010 new cases of COVID-19, with 572 new fatalities, as the country struggles with containing the spread.

With the latest numbers, South Americas most populous nation now has more than 3 million cases and over 2.3 million recoveries, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally.

The countrys death toll from COVID-19 has hit more than 101,000  second only to the US.

Demonstrators in Sao Paulo protest against Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic last Friday [Andre Penner/AP]

01:00 GMT  China reports 49 new coronavirus cases in mainland

China reported 49 new coronavirus cases in the mainland as of the end of August 9, compared with 23 cases a day earlier, Reuters news agency said, quoting the health authority.

The National Health Commission said in a statement that 35 of the new infections were imported cases. There were no new deaths. China also reported 31 new asymptomatic patients, compared with 11 a day earlier.

As of August 9, mainland China had a total of 84,668 confirmed coronavirus cases, it said, with the death toll unchanged at 4,634.

00:15 GMT  Mexico reports 4,376 new COVID-19 cases, 292 new fatalities

Mexicos health ministry reported 4,376 new confirmed coronavirus infections and 292 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 480,278 cases and 52,298 deaths, according to Reuters News Agency.

Officials have said the real numbers are likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.

Mexico has the third-highest coronavirus death tally globally, behind the US and Brazil.

00:05 GMT  Australias Victoria reports 322 new COVID-19 cases, 19 deaths

Australia reported a record number of coronavirus deaths on Monday, although the number of new infections in the countrys virus hotspot fell to a near two-week low, according to Reuters news agency.

Officials in Victoria state, the epicentre of Australias second wave, reported that 19 people had died from the virus over the past 24 hours. Even with other states still to report daily new case and death numbers, that marks the countrys biggest single-day rise in fatalities.

In more positive news, Victoria officials also reported 322 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the lowest number of single-day new infections since July 29. Australia has recorded about 21,000 COVID-19 cases, and 314 deaths, still far fewer than many other developed nations.

________________________________________________________________

Hello and welcome to Al Jazeeras continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Im Ted Regencia in Kuala Lumpur.

For all the key developments from yesterday, August 9, go here.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-09 20:04:03|Editor: huaxia

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Protesters clash with the security forces during a protest in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 9, 2020. Demonstrators protested against the ruling class in downtown Beirut, days after massive explosions rocked the Lebanese capital. (Photo by Bilal Jawich/Xinhua)

BEIRUT, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese army announced on Sunday that 105 soldiers were injured during clashes with protesters a day earlier.

On Saturday afternoon, thousands took to streets in downtown Beirut in anti-government protests that demand the overhaul of the political system, days after massive explosions rocked the Lebanese capital that killed at least 158 and injured 6,000 others.

The Lebanese Red Cross announced that at least 238 were injured in the protests.

Some of the protesters who broke into the ministries of economy, foreign affairs, environment, energy and water, and the association of banks were arrested by security forces.

The protesters accused officials of negligence and recklessness following primary information revealing that ammonium nitrate that had been stored in the warehouse at Port of Beirut since 2014 may have caused the deadly explosions.

The protests have prompted the resignation of Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad and some MPs. Enditem
Australia has recorded its deadliest single day from the coronavirus pandemic amid the devastating second wave of new infections in the state of Victoria.

Nineteen people died from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours  all in the countrys south-eastern state, health officials announced on Monday.

However, there are hopes the outbreak has now peaked following a slowdown in new infections. The latest figures show only 337 people had been diagnosed with Covid-19 across Australia  the lowest one-day rise since 29 July.

This is an agonising day for the members for the 19 families who have lost a loved one to Covid-19 today, Michael Kidd, Australias deputy chief medical officer, told reporters.

He added: We are now seeing the first promising signs of a significant decline in the number of cases.

The apparent slowing in the spread of cases comes more than a month after the nearly five million residents of Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, were told to stay home as part of a resumed lockdown.

A week ago non-essential businesses in the city were ordered to close in an attempt to get the outbreak under control. Victoria will continue its hard lockdown for at least another five weeks.

The state recorded 322 new infections on Monday, down from a daily high of 725 cases reported five days ago.

Victorias premier Daniel Andrews said it was too early to say for sure whether the state was through the worst, but claimed: Were certainly seeing some greater stability.

Closed-up business in Melbourne, which will remain under strict lockdown for another five weeks (EPA)

With more than 21,000 Covid-19 cases and 314 deaths, Australia has still recorded fewer infections and fatalities than many other developed nations. Outside the two largest states of Victoria and New South Wales, the disease has been effectively eliminated.

Desperate to keep the virus at bay, other Australian states and territories have closed their borders and slowed their own timetables for remove remaining social-distancing restrictions.

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison said these internal travel restrictions were likely to remain until at least Christmas.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. 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In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. 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A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. 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Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Like many countries around the world, lockdown restrictions have devastated Australias economy. Unemployment is expected to peak at 14 per cent this year as the country enters its first recession in nearly three decades.

The government last week pledged to expand its wage subsidy scheme by 9bn amid the outbreak in Victoria, prompting some criticism that the economic toll was becoming too high.

But Mr Morrison said the alternative was unthinkable. There have been some suggestions, Ive read it ... that somehow our elderly should in some way have been offered up in relation to this virus, the prime minister told reporters in Canberra.

That is a just hideous thought. An absolutely amoral, hideous thought. One that Ive had no countenance with when its been suggested.

Additional reporting by agencies
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The FCC's Auction 105 continues into its third week Monday, having sold off more than $2.4 billion worth of priority access to the Citizen's Broadband Radio Service since kicking off on July 23.

CBRS is a hot topic in the wireless world for several reasons, not least of which is its unique three-tiered access system that carries with it the potential for an almost endless array of new services. Enterprises can use the spectrum  which sits between 3550MHz and 3700MHz  to roll their own IoT networks, MSPs can offer various services like smart buildings, and the carriers can fold it into their networks.

The tiered system is what makes CBRS different from other regulated spectrum in the U.S. First, there are incumbent users in this frequency band, most notably the U.S. Navy, which uses it for radar. Incumbents always take priority over other users. The second tier is Priority Access, which is what Auction 105 covers. Priority Access Licenses (PAL) have to accept interference from incumbents, and must not interfere with their signals, but otherwise take priority over the third tier of users, called General Authorized Access. GAA users can still use CBRS frequencies, but have to give way to signals from PAL holders and incumbents.

All of this is managed by a spectrum access system, which is licensed by the FCC but operated by the private sector. The SAS uses environmental sensors to detect signals in a given CBRS access area and assigns channels and prioritizes traffic based on a given user's access tier. At least in theory, this ensures that any kind of CBRS user can access the spectrum without interference, subject to the rules involved.
The Lancaster County District Attorneys Office has identified the man who was shot and killed in his car early Sunday.

Steve Walker, 68, was pronounced dead at the scene in West Earl Township after he was found with a gunshot wound to the head, officials say.

Stephen J. Jones, 27, of Denver, has been charged in connection with Walkers death.

It was not immediately known if the two knew each other.

According to the DAs office, Jones was driving a Chevy pickup truck when he forced Walker to stop his car just after midnight on Cats Back Road in West Earl Township. Jones is accused of shooting Walker through his open drivers side window.

Officials say Jones is on surveillance video at a Sheetz on Route 322 in Ephrata a few minutes before the shooting.

Witnesses and surveillance video indicated Jones entered the gas station with a long gun and asked employees for a gas pump to be turned on, the DAs office said. Jones then fueled up his truck but drove away with the nozzle still inside the truck which caused the hose to become disconnected from the pump.

Jones has also been charged with robbery in connection with the stolen gas, the DAs office said.

A man who was in the area of Cats Back Road at the time of the shooting said he heard a gunshot and the sound of a shotgun being racked he saw a Chevy pickup driving away from the area, the DAs office said.

When police arrived in the area, they found Walker in a Toyota with a gunshot to the head, the DAs office said. All the vehicles doors were closed and the windows were up except for the drivers side window.

The DAs office said later on Sunday, a friend drove Jones to his pickup which was parked in Farmersville. The friend saw the shotgun in the trunk and a spent shotgun shell in a cupholder.

Jones was taken into custody at his workplace at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, according to the DAs office.

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A recent meeting between the UAE Ministry of Economy and Dubai Chamber has highlighted the importance of the partnership between the public and private sectors, describing it as a pillar for the country's economic plans.



The meeting, which was held at the Dubai Chamber, was aimed at ensuring consensus among business councils and private sector representatives on the UAE's economic visions, reported state-run news agency Wam.



During the meeting, Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy, said that the UAE, since its inception, has believed in the importance of integrating roles between the government and the business community, and had succeeded in developing an integrated relationship, based upon mutual trust between the two groups.



Those at the meeting reviewed future economic trends and clarified the purpose of economic stimulus packages. Furthermore, the general framework of 33 initiatives adopted by the government were reviewed, followed by a discussion on how both sectors can complement each others roles to achieve the countrys economic vision.



Regarding the collaboration, Al Marri said: "The UAEs business environment enjoys many competitive advantages, most notably the efficiency of companies operating in the private sector and their ability to adapt to changes, develop work mechanisms and overcome economic challenges."



Dr Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and SMEs, said that building a resilient, diversified and sustainable economy is the main focus in the next stage, and all government efforts are being concerted to achieve it by meeting a number of immediate priorities. It supports a partnership with the private sector and the development of a supportive, dynamic and innovative environment for entrepreneurs in the country. This is most needed to stimulate economic activity and create new opportunities and further diversify the economic base, he added.



Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, said that one of the strengths of the country's economy is the presence of effective institutions to represent the private sector that greatly contributes to creating harmony and integration between the visions and requirements of the public and private sectors, by involving the business community in decision-making regarding the development of the economic climate.



He further emphasised that the next phase aims to provide bigger opportunities for the private sector to enter development projects, with priority given to projects that serve the countrys digital transformation efforts in various sectors.



Majid Saif Al Ghurair, Chairman of the Dubai Chamber, called for intensified collaboration between the public and private sectors to continue driving growth and economic development.



Hamad Buamim, President and CEO of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: "Our collaboration has enabled businesses to play a bigger role in the implementation of the UAEs strategic economic plans and distinguishing Dubai as a world-leading business destination."



The Dubai Chamber plays a fundamental role in representing, supporting and protecting the interests of the business community in Dubai by supporting the growth of business, creating a stimulating environment for it and promoting Dubai as a global trade centre. The number of Dubai Chamber members has reached more than 245,000 companies.
The province reported 51 new COVID-19 cases in Manitoba over the weekend16 on Saturday and 35 on Sundayincluding a total of 32 in the Prairie Mountain Health region.

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RUTH BONNEVILLE Manitoba's chief provincial health officer, Dr. Brent Roussin, holds a press conference at the Legislative Building on Friday. Roussin hosted a weekend press conference for the first time in a while on Sunday. (RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

The province reported 51 new COVID-19 cases in Manitoba over the weekend16 on Saturday and 35 on Sundayincluding a total of 32 in the Prairie Mountain Health region.

The 35 new overall cases revealed on Sunday marks the second-highest one-day jump since the start of the pandemic.

Of the 20 new PMH cases announced on Sunday, Dr. Brent Roussin, the provinces chief public health officer, announced in a rare weekend news conference that at least seven of these cases are connected to a single business in Brandon.

Although Roussin mentioned that the seven affected individuals are self-isolating, and that there was no evidence of workplace transmission, he would not name the specific business in question when asked.

However, this announcement follows a week where at least 10 workers from the Maple Leaf Foods pork processing plant in Brandon have tested positive for the virus.

And as of Sunday evening, UFCW Local 832 president Jeff Traeger told the Sun that eight additional positive cases of COVID-19 were discovered at Maple Leaf Brandon over the weekend, bringing their total amount of known cases up to 18.

"These new cases strengthen our call on Maple Leaf Brandon to close for a one-week period until all test results are in, and the situation is under control," Traeger wrote in this email.

Over the weekend, several other businesses in the Wheat City closed their doors or significantly reduced their services due to concerns that one of their workers might have contracted COVID-19. This includes Marinos Pizza, the McDonalds restaurant on Victoria Avenue and the Shoppers Drug Mart also located on Victoria.

Employees from a local Walmart and a Tim Hortons restaurant on Highway 1 also tested positive for COVID-19 last week, prompting the latter establishment to shut down so it can be thoroughly sanitized.

In general, Roussin said on Sunday that this growing cluster in Brandon was approaching and may have exceeded 40 people.

Otherwise, this batch of new cases over the weekend brings Manitobas total number of lab-confirmed positive and probable positive cases up to 542.

Sundays COVID-19 data also shows that six people are currently hospitalized, with three individuals being in intensive care.

Overall, the province is now contending with 182 active cases in Manitoba, with 352 individuals having recovered from the virus.

Manitobas COVID-19 related death rate remains at eight.

While Roussin admits that the recent spike in new cases is discouraging, he implores Manitoba to remain vigilant and stick to the essentials of good social distancing: vigorous hand-washing, avoiding crowded indoor spaces and staying at home if you feel ill.

"Our concern has never gone away," he said. "Weve had to find ways to continue to articulate to Manitobans that we have to be careful. And certainly, as we see these numbers go up, were going to increase that messaging."

An additional 756 laboratory tests were completed on Saturday, bringing the total number of tests completed since early February to 100,830.

 kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @KyleDarbyson
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP)  Whether President Donald Trump has the constitutional authority to extend federal unemployment benefits by executive order remains unclear. Equally up in the air is whether states, which are necessary partners in Trump's plan to bypass Congress, will sign on.

Trump announced an executive order Saturday that extends additional unemployment payments of $400 a week to help cushion the economic fallout of the pandemic. Congress had approved payments of $600 a week at the outset of the coronavirus outbreak, but those benefits expired Aug. 1 and Congress has been unable to agree on an extension. Many Republicans have expressed concern that a $600 weekly benefit, on top of existing state benefits, gives people an incentive to stay unemployed.

But under Trump's plan, the $400 a week requires a state to commit to providing $100.

Many states are already facing budget crunches caused by the pandemic. Asked at a news conference how many governors had signed on to participate, Trump answered: If they dont, they dont. Thats up to them.

Trump expressed a different view on Sunday night, following a day of state officials questioning how they could afford even $100 per person in additional weekly payments. He told reporters as he returned to Washington that states could make application to have the federal government provide all or part of the $400 payments. Decisions would be made state by state, he said.

Several state officials questioned how Trumps initial proposal would work and often expressed doubt that they could afford to participate at the level Trump initially set without using federal funds.

Aubrey Layne, secretary of finance for Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, said in a phone interview Sunday he believes it would be feasible for Virginia to participate in such a program if states are allowed to use money that's been allocated to them under the already passed CARES Act. He said his preliminary understanding is that states can do so, but he and others are waiting to see the rules published.

The better solution, Layne said, would be for Congress to pass legislation.

Its ludicrous to me that Congress cant get together on this, he said. I think it would have been better for the president to use his influence in those negotiations, rather than standing on the sideline and then riding in like a shining knight.

Details about the program were confused on Sunday  and that was even before Trumps declaration that states could ask the federal government to pay all or part of the $400 week payments.

On CNNs State of the Nation White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said conflicting things about whether the federal money was contingent on an additional contribution from the states. Initially Kudlow said that for an extra $100, we will lever it up. We will pay three-quarters, and the states will pay 25 percent. In the same interview, though, he later said that at a minimum, we will put in 300 bucks ... but I think all they (the states) have to do is put up an extra dollar, and we will be able to throw in the extra $100.

A clarifying statement from the White House said the funds will be available for those who qualify by, among other things, receiving $100/week of existing assistance and certify that they have lost their jobs due to COVID-19.

Several advocacy groups that follow the issue, though, said it's clear the way the executive order is structured that the federal money will be contingent on states making a 25 percent contribution.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, called the plan an impossibility.

I dont know if the president is genuine in thinking the executive order is a resolution or if this is just a tactic in the negotiation, Cuomo said. But this is irreconcilable for the state. And I expect this is just a chapter in the book of Washington COVID mismanagement.

In Connecticut, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont said on CBS Face the Nation that the plan would cost his state $500 million to provide that benefit for the rest of the year, and called Trumps plan not a good idea.

I could take that money from testing  I dont think thats a good idea, Lamont said.

On CNN, Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine praised Trump for issuing the order.

Hes trying to do something. Hes trying to move the ball forward, DeWine said.

Still, he was noncommittal about whether Ohio would participate.

Were looking at it right now to see whether we can do this, he said.

In Maryland, Michael Ricci, spokesman for Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, said in an email that we will wait on new guidance from US Department of Labor before looking at any (unemployment insurance) changes.

In Minnesota, Department of Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove said his agency is awaiting further guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Kevin Hensil, a spokesman for Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, said reducing the benefit by a third will make it harder for families to get by and it places a larger financial burden on states. He said state officials are studying the impact of the cuts.

In Louisiana, Christina Stephens, a spokeswoman for Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards said Right now we are reviewing the Presidents order to determine exactly what the impact to the state would be.

And in Michigan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a press release that Trump cut federal funding for unemployed workers and is requiring states that are facing severe holes in our budgets to provide 25% of the funding.

On ABCs This Week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it an unworkable plan.

Most states will take months to implement it, because its brand new. Its sort of put together with spit and paste. And many states, because they have to chip in $100, and they dont have money, wont do it, Schumer said.

Many states struggled to adjust outdated computer systems to accommodate the $600 payment, which along with the massive influx of new claims resulted in long delays in providing benefits. Reprogramming the computers again to accommodate the new amount could result in similar glitches.

On ABC, Kudlow said that many of those outdated systems have since been upgraded.

I dont think there will be a huge delay. Labor Department has been working with the states. The states are the ones that process the federal benefits before. So, I dont see any reason why it would be all that difficult, he said.

___

Associated Press Writers Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland; Larry Neumeister in New York; Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Thomas Strong in Washington; Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Jonathan Lemire in Bedminster, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
Two Alabama parents have been charged with manslaughter after their three-year-old son was found dead inside a hot car on Sunday.

Dakota Heath Fowler, 20, and his partner Brandi Michelle Burks, 22, could now face up to 20 years behind bars for their son's death.

The pair are currently being held in the Franklin County jail without bail set, according to inmate records.

According to a press release, the Franklin County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call on Sunday reporting an unresponsive toddler in a car on Church Street in Hodges.

Emergency crews attempted to resuscitate the three-year-old boy, but attempts were unsuccessful and he was declared dead.

Fowler and Burks told authorities that they last saw their son around midnight when they put him down for bed.

Dakota Heath Fowler (left) and Brandi Michelle Burks (right) were charged with manslaughter on Sunday in relation to the death of their three-year-old son

'Whey they woke up around 3:00 p.m., they were unable to locate the child and then found him in a car,' the press release said.

Sheriff Shannon Oliver told AL.com that the boy's sudden death was a unfortunate accident.

'I dont feel there was any intent there,' said Oliver. 'I think it was neglect, which sadly cost the little guys life.

'Its just a sad situation all around. These types of cases are really hard for everybody,' he added.

The child's body was sent to the Department of Forensics for an autopsy that will determine the official cause of death. The investigation is ongoing.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that 14 children have died from a heatstroke so far this year.

The first death was recorded on April 25 when a four-year-old child was left home along and climbed into a vehicle without his parents noticing.

There were 52 'hot car deaths' in 2019 and a record 53 deaths in 2018.
The NHS is advertising for a 24,000-a-year Reiki therapist to provide spiritual healing to cancer and 'acutely unwell' patients at a hospital in England.

The job advert, posted by United Lincolnshire Hospital NHS Trust, calls for a 'committed, enthusiastic and a self-motivated' Reiki therapist to join the team at the Lincoln County Hospital in Lincolnshire.

Reiki healers claim to channel energy and heal people through their palms, while also helping people to relax and alleviate stress.

Cancer Research UK says Reiki can help people suffering from cancer to relax - but there is no scientific evidence the holistic healing can cure it.

The healer will be working in the hospital's Waddington Unit - a 26-bed acute haematology and oncology ward that cares for 'acutely unwell' male and female patients.

The job advert, posted by United Lincolnshire Hospital NHS Trust, calls for a 'committed, enthusiastic and a self-motivated' Reiki therapist to join the team at the Lincoln County Hospital in Lincolnshire

The Japanese therapy which works with energy: What is Reiki and does it really work? Pronounced 'ray-key', Reiki, which means 'universal energy' in Japanese, is a type of complementary therapy in which a practitioner puts their hands lightly on or near your body. It is a Japanese healing art that was developed by Mikao Usui in Japan in the early 20th century. One of the main aims is to help you relax and ease stress and tension by changing and balancing the energy fields in and around your body to help on a physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual level. Some people with cancer may use Reiki alongside their treatment and some people say they feel better after using therapies such as Reiki. There are no reports of harmful side effects of Reiki, though there is no scientific evidence to show that Reiki can prevent, treat or cure cancer, or any other disease. However some healthcare professionals accept Reiki as a complementary therapy which may help lower stress, promote relaxation and reduce pain. Source: Cancer Research UK Advertisement

These include patients with haematological and oncological conditions, such as spinal cord compression and neutropenic sepsis, as well as those undergoing radiotherapy.

The successful applicant must have at least one years experience to land the role at Lincoln County Hospital and will also have completed a 175 two-day healing in hospital course by 'Reiki Master' Angie Buxton-King from the College of Psychic Studies.

On the College of Psychic Studies website, healing in hospitals courses have previously sold out. It says Ms Buxton-King and her husband Graham were employed as healers at the University College London Hospital for 12 years.

The trust's advert says the healer will work 15-hours-a-week, for which they will be paid between 21,892 and 24,157-a-year on a pro rata basis.

Entry level nurses who have been risking their lives battling Covid-19 make about 24,907 a year, after training for three years.

The position will be entitled funded for by The Sam Buxton Sunflower Healing Trust - a Cornwall-based charity run by Ms Buxton-King.

The Trust said: 'An exciting opportunity has arisen for an Spiritual Healer / Reiki Therapist to join our friendly and energetic team on Waddington Unit.

'We are looking for a committed, enthusiastic and a self-motivated therapist to join our well established team.

'The ward has a high acuity, fast paced clinical admissions setting that cares for acutely unwell patients as a result of haematological and oncological conditions such as spinal cord compression and neutropenic sepsis as well as facilitating the delivery of chemotherapy.

We are passionate about improving patient experience and enhancing patients stay in hospital.

The NHS allows reiki to be used alongside conventional treatments.

The healer will be working in the hospital's Waddington Unit at Lincoln County Hospital (pictured) - a 26-bed acute haematology and oncology ward that cares for 'acutely unwell' male and female patients.

University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust already has an in-house Reiki therapist and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust also uses reiki healing.

A House of Lords report published in 2000 classified it as a class 2 complementary therapy.

United Lincolnshire Hospital NHS Trust said Reiki is never used as an alternative to treatment for disease.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 10

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 and sniper rifles.
Compare-autoinsurance.org has released a new blog post that explains why it is important to take pictures immediately after an accident and how they can influence car insurance claims.

For more info and free quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/why-its-recommended-to-take-pictures-after-a-car-accident

Everyones safety is of the utmost importance. Check if everyone is alright and call the ambulance if needed. After making sure that everyone is safe, it is time to document the accident. Taking photos will allow the drivers to gather relevant data about the circumstances of the accident

Taking photos will help drivers:



Deal with insurance companies. Being involved in an accident where the other driver is involved, gives you the right to ask for compensation. It is possible that the company of the guilty driver will try to partially blame the victim or refuse to make compensatory payments. In this case, clear photos of the accident can become undeniable evidence that will resolve any dispute. If the company still refuses to pay, talk with a lawyer and provide the photos.

Gather crucial info about the circumstances of the accidents. Taking photos of the accident scene, the surrounding area and road conditions will help the authorities determine who and what caused the accident. Specialized criminalists can analyze all details and assemble the bigger picture.

Document the injuries. Again, this must be done in order to receive fair compensation. Take photos of injuries, bruises, cuts, burns, lacerations. Make sure to keep all medical receipts.

For more information, money-saving tips and free online quotes, please visit http://compare-autoinsurance.org

Compare-autoinsurance.org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc.
President Donald Trump waves to members of the media as he walks across the South Lawn as he arrives at the White House late Sunday. Read more

NEW YORK  President Donald Trumps lawyers made a final pitch Monday to block a New York prosecutor from getting his tax records, saying the Democrat was still fishing for a way to justify his harassment of the President.

The lawyers made their written submission to a federal judge who last year refused to throw out the subpoena Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance issued to Trump's accountant in a criminal probe.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero's ruling was upheld last month by the U.S. Supreme Court, though the high court returned to the case to him, saying Trump's lawyers were entitled to challenge the subpoena in the same manner as anyone else.

The president responded by arguing through his attorneys that the subpoena was issued in bad faith, might have been politically motivated and amounted to harassment of the president, especially since the wording mimicked the language in congressional subpoenas.

Vance's attorneys said they were entitled to extensive records to aid a complex financial investigation" and they cited in their papers public reports of extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization.

Trump's lawyers said Monday that the request for tax records dating back to 2011 was retaliatory after the president's company, the Trump Organization, disputed the scope of a subpoena seeking records from June 1, 2015, through Sept 20, 2018.

That time span pertains to an investigation related to payoffs to two women, including a porn actress, to keep them quiet during the 2016 presidential campaign about alleged extramarital affairs with Trump. Trump has denied the affairs.

The District Attorneys motion is doomed," Trump's lawyers wrote.

They said the inclusion by Vance's lawyers in their arguments of three news articles suggesting financial misdeeds by Trump shows that the District Attorney is still fishing for a way to justify his harassment of the President."

Trump's lawyers told the judge that the subpoena was served on the president's accountant only after a disagreement arose over whether the subpoena to the Trump Organization required the production of tax returns.

They said the subpoena reaches far beyond the scope of the investigation" by asking for all financial records, documents, and communications from all entities associated with the Trump Organization across the nation and world over nearly a decade.

Abruptly issuing a grossly overbroad subpoena, that was copied from an unrelated congressional demand, in order to punish the President for asserting his rights is the definition of bad faith, Trumps lawyers said.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 10

By Elnur Baghishov  Trend:

About 99 percent of the value of purchased wheat in the Tehran Province (northern Iran) from the beginning of harvesting season April 4 to August 9, 2020 has been paid to farmers, director of Government Trading Corporation (GTC) of Irans branch in Tehran Province Abbas Arshadi said, Trend reports citing the corporations website.

The director stressed that so far, more than 124,700 tons of wheat have been purchased from farmers.

Arshadi added that 103,200 tons of wheat was purchased from farmers in the same period last Iranian year.

"The volume of wheat purchased in the current Iranian year (began March 20, 2020) increased by 21 percent compared to the same period last Iranian year," the director said.

According to him, in addition, more than 3,340 tons of rapeseed was purchased from farmers in the province in the current Iranian year. All the money for the purchased rapeseed was paid to the farmers.

The price of ordinary wheat to be purchased from farmers in the current planting year is set at 25,000 rials (about 59 cents), and of durum wheat - at 26,000 rials (about 61 cents) per kilogram in the current Iranian year (began March 20, 2020). The price of rapeseed is set at 46,600 rials (about $1.1) per kilogram.

A number of products, including wheat, tea, rice and other products are purchased from farmers by a state company under a guarantee in Iran.
Metallica will screen a new concert on Aug. 29 at drive-ins throughout the United States, including two theaters in Alabama.

Participating venues include the Blue Moon Drive-In, 4690 U.S. 43 in Guin, and and the VIP Star-Lite Drive-In, 14200 West U.S. 84 in Newton.

Metallica isnt performing live, but this show is about as close as fans can get to that during the coronavirus pandemic. According to a statement posted today on the bands website, the members of Metallica will assemble this week in California to record a concert intended for the outdoor screenings.

Weve been rehearsing at HQ for a show that will be shot specially for the drive-ins at a location nearby later this week and then well pass it off to our award-winning production team to then be edited and mixed at the highest standards possible to be beamed into your cars from the big screen, the statement says.

The setlist hasnt been revealed, but the veteran metal band will have plenty of material from which to choose. Metallica, founded in 1981, has released 10 studio albums, nearly a dozen live albums, a covers album, a handful of EPs and more. The band has won eight Grammy Awards to date, and has a long list of radio singles and signature songs that includes Enter Sandman, Until it Sleeps, Turn the Page, The Memory Remains, The Unforgiven and Nothing Else Matters.

The drive-in event will open with a performance by Three Days Grace, which presumably has been filmed separately.

Tickets are $115 per vehicle, general admission, with a limit of six people per carload. Tickets go on sale Aug. 14 at noon via Ticketmaster, after an Aug. 12 presale for Metallicas fan club. Each ticket includes four digital downloads of Metallicas S&M2, an album documenting two concerts the band performed in October 2019 with the San Francisco Symphony.

Showtimes vary at each venue, according to the Ticketmaster website. In Guin, the screening starts at 8 p.m. CT. In Newton, it starts at 8:30 p.m. Sound for the concert will be broadcast via FM radio, with specific stations announced at each venue.

Metallica is the first band to be featured in a new series, Encore Drive-In Nights, presented by production company Encore Live. About 300 drive-ins in the United States and Canada are participating in the series, according to the Encore Live website.

Encore Live, based in Fort Worth, Texas, was the prime mover for Garth Brooks drive-in concert, which screened in Alabama on June 27. Encore Live also presented drive-in screenings of a concert by Blake Shelton on July 25.

All concerts in the Encore Drive-In Nights series will follow guidelines for coronavirus prevention recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a publicist says. That includes social distancing between cars, a limited capacity in restrooms, staffers wearing personal protective equipment and more. For more info, see the FAQs posted on the series website.

Metallica made its last appearance in Alabama in January 2019, playing at the Legacy Arena at the BJCC. It was the bands first show in Birmingham in nearly 27 years, attended by a pumped-up crowd of more than 17,000 people.
Burma Chinas Strategic Port Project Moves Step Closer to Reality as Myanmar OKs Joint Venture

An artists rendering of the Kyaukphyu SEZ / CITIC

YANGONThe Myanmar governments investment agency last week approved the registration of a joint venture between a Chinese company and a government-backed committee to develop Chinas strategic deep-sea port project in western Rakhine State.

The approval moves the long-delayed backbone project of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) one step closer to actually getting off the ground. The CMEC forms part of Chinas ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone and deep-sea port project is designed to provide China with direct access to the Indian Ocean, allowing its oil imports to bypass the Strait of Malacca and boost development in Chinas landlocked Yunnan Province. The entire project covers 4,300 acres (about 1,750 hectares). It also plans to construct an industrial zone with facilities for textile and garment manufacturing, construction materials processing, food processing, pharmaceuticals, electronics, marine supplies and services, and research.

According to company registration documents from the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA), the agency on Thursday approved the registration of Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone Deep Seaport Co. Ltd, a joint venture between Chinese consortium CITIC Myanmar Port Investment Limited and the Myanmar government-backed Kyauk Phyu Special Economic Zone Management Committee.

According to company extract records from DICA, the Chinese company holds a 70-percent stake in the venture and the Myanmar committee 30 percent, as agreed by the two sides in 2018 after several rounds of negotiations.

The China-backed project ran into delays shortly before Myanmars 2015 general election after critics raised concerns that the deal could land Myanmar in a debt trap with China. The initial agreement called for a project worth US$9-10 billion (12.23-13.59 trillion kyats) and gave the Chinese developer an 85-percent stake.

The current National League for Democracy (NDL) government successfully renegotiated the share ratio with China, along with an agreement that the project would be based on demand. Later, China agreed that Myanmar would hold a 30-percent stake. Moreover, the two sides agreed the project would start out on a small or medium-sized scale. After the deal was finalized, the Kyaukphyu SEZ Management Committee and CITIC inked a framework agreement for the development of the Kyaukphyu SEZ in 2018.

The two sides agreed that the first phase of the deep-sea port would be implemented with a $1.5-billion budget.

According to DICAs records, on the Myanmar side, Deputy Minister of Planning, Finance and Industry U Set Aung, who is also chair of the Kyaukphyu SEZ Management Committee, and U Minn Minn, the director general of the Department of Trade under the Ministry of Commerce, will serve as directors in the joint venture company. On the Chinese side, CITIC Group (Myanmar) managing director Yuan Shaobin and deputy managing directors Liu Qing, Shan Liming, Ma Chuanfu and Sun Tiejun will serve as directors.

In June, Deputy Commerce Minister U Aung Htoo said the two sides had reached a consensus on the companys composition. He expressed confidence that construction of the deep-sea port would get off the ground soon, once the lists of company directors were approved.

Kyaukphyu SEZ Management Committee Secretary U Yee Win told The Irrawaddy the project could start once an environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) report was completed.

Most responsible persons of the company went back to the China after COVID-19 emerged. We still need to hold further discussions relating to the actual construction on the ground. As far as we know, the company is still carrying out the EIA and SIA. Actual implementation of the project can start after that, U Yee Win said.

In July 2019, the Chinese company hired Canadian company HATCH to supervise the ESIA and a pre-geo survey. Last September, the company submitted a project proposal report (PPR) to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection (MONREC).

In its 2017 report, Kofi Annans Rakhine Advisory Commission recommended the Myanmar government conduct a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and labor assessment for the SEZ before beginning the ESIA process, in order to determine the likely consequences on local communities, as well as the projects risks and benefits for other industries in the area.

However, CITIC said in January that MONREC had determined the deep-sea port project required an EIA under Myanmar law. The Chinese company said it would choose an independent consultant to conduct the EIA through a bidding process. However, the company has yet to announce what progress has been made on the EIA.

According to the Commerce Ministry, the CITIC consortium will own 51 percent of the industrial zone and the Myanmar government 49 percent. The construction of the industrial zone will be led by CITIC and a total of 42 private Myanmar companies under Myanmar Kyauk Phyu Special Economic Zone Holding Public Company Limited, it said.

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UPPER THUMB  Habitat for Humanitys Lapeer-Tuscola branch is helping repair 16 homes across Huron County, making them livable for residents who are not able to afford home repairs.

Ed Watteny, the housing manager with Habitat for Humanity Lapeer-Tuscola, said that this program has been around for the past seven years, this being the first year it is being used in Huron County.

The 16 homes are located in Bad Axe, Caseville, Elkton, Pigeon, Harbor Beach, Port Hope, and Kinde.

Watteny said this year, Habitat for Humanity is repairing 65 homes across Huron, Tuscola, and Lapeer counties, helping just shy of 50 homes in the latter two counties last year.

The program provides grants through a member bank, in Huron Countys case Bay Port State Bank, for up to $7,500.

This covers roofs, windows, doors, heaters, septic systems, and wells, Watteny said. This program allows people to stay in their homes, because if you have roof or furnace problems and youre elderly, youre not going to come up with the funds.

People who qualify for this home repair program must own the homes and property they live in.

You dont own the land contract, you dont own the home, Watteny said.

The Lapeer-Tuscola Habitat for Humanity chapter gives out information for this program from late January through the first week of February, when people can start applying for it. The funds for it are distributed in April.

Despite Habitat for Humanity being an organization that allows for volunteers to help build homes, Watteny said that for these home repairs, only licensed and insured contractors will be used.

You dont put volunteers on someones roof, Watteny said. You have to inspect it and file permits.

The people who have had their homes redone have been overjoyed, as they have had no other way to do it. Watteny said one home they fixed about two years prior had a roof that needed to be replaced 10 years ago.

The number of people who need help never gets smaller, it continues to grow, Watteny said.
The Managing Director of MRS Oil Nigeria Plc, Mrs Priscilla Thorpe-Monclus, and Director, Mr Christopher Okorie have resigned appointment with Company, effective August 5, 2020.

The Oil marketing giant, which confirmed the resignation of Thorpe-Monclus with effect from August 5, 2020, said that it had subsequently appointed Mr Marco Storari as the Managing Director in an acting capacity.

The oil firm also announced the resignation of Mr Christopher Okorie, one of its directors, also with effect from August 5, 2020. The disclosure was made in a notification by the oil marketing giant, which was sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on August 7, 2020, and signed by its Company Secretary O.M. Jafojo.

The statement from MRS Oil Nigeria Plc reads:

At the Board Meeting of August 5, 2020, the Board of Directors of MRS Oil Nigeria Plc, considered and approved the resignation of Mrs Priscilla Thorpe-Monclus as Managing Director and Director of the Company, and the resignation of Mr Christopher Okorie as Director of the Company, effective August 5, 2020.

The Board of Directors also considered and approved the appointment of Mr Marco Storari as Director and Managing Director (Acting) of the Company.

According to the statement, Mrs Thorpe-Monclus, during her tenure as the Managing Director, showed great commitment and dedication in her drive for the new MRS Brand, which resulted in the unveiling of three new retail outlets in Lagos, one in Owerri, two in Kano and two new outlets in Abuja. It also resulted in an overall business turnaround for the oil company.

The board commended the efforts of Mrs Thorpe-Monclus and Mr Okorie to the growth of the company and wished them the best in their future endeavours.

Mr Marco Storari, on the other hand, is a seasoned leader with more than 3 decades experience in the management, shipping, trading and terminal operations in the industry. He has held various high-level positions where he recorded business successes in companies in Italy, Monaco and Nigeria.

He was, until his appointment as Acting Managing Directors, the Group Executive Director, Storage and Terminal for MRS Holdings Limited. He has been a driving force in the transformation of the MRS Group over the last 10 years.

The Board of Directors of MRS has expressed its confidence in the ability of Storari to bring to bear his wealth of experience in the industry, to improve business efficiency.

MRS Oil Nigeria Plc is a fully integrated and efficient downstream player, with leading positions in the Nigerian Oil Industry. The oil firm, with its head office in Nigerias commercial capital, Lagos, previously traded under the name Texaco Nigeria Plc.

It has 3 business units namely sale of petroleum products at retail outlets, sale of aviation fuel, and blending of lubricants.
A pair of gold-plated spectacles belonging to Mahatma Gandhi was discovered by employees of an auction house at UK's Bristol. East Bristol Auctions in south-west England said that they were surprised to find the spectacles, received through their letterbox in an envelope. It may behold a rich history, said the auctioneers.

Andy Stowe of the East Bristol Auctions said, "It's a huge find of great historical importance. The vendor had presumed them to be interesting, but of no value and did tell me to dispose of them 'if they're not worth anything.'" These glasses are likely to fetch between 10,000-15,000 pounds.

These "gold-plated, circular rimmed glasses" have already attracted an online bid of 6,000 pounds and are said to have been with the family of this unnamed vendor in England. According to the owner, these spectacles have been handed down across generations in his family. They came to own them after one of their family members met Gandhi at the British Petroleum in South Africa. According to Stowe, the vendor's uncle certainly worked at the British Petroleum in South Africa as he believes that Gandhi didn't wear glasses until late 1910s and/or early 1920s.

Titled as 'Pair of Mahatma Gandhi's Personal Spectacles', these glasses comprise the auctioneers' Military, History and Classic Cars online sale and will be sold on August 21. The auction lot details read, "A pair of early 20th century c 1920 gold plated circular rimmed spectacles by repute owned and worn by Mahatma Gandhi." These glasses have grabbed much attention from antique collectors across the globe, including India.

Also read: Amazon Prime Day, Flipkart Big Saving Day sales: Check out best deals on phones
Middle school math teacher Ronald Patrick Goranson, 23, was arrested on Friday in Las Cruces, New Mexico, after he allegedly sent inappropriate photos to a female student

A middle school teacher in New Mexico has been accused of sending inappropriate photos to a student via Snapchat.

Ronald Patrick Goranson, 23, was arrested on Friday in Las Cruces and charged with one felony count of criminal sexual communication with a child.

Police said Goranson, who teaches math to sixth graders at Mesa Middle School, sent the lewd photos to a female student on June 15 and 16.

At one point during his Snapchat conversation with the girl he allegedly wrote: 'SMH, I'm so horny for you.'

A warrant was put out for Goranson's arrest on August 6 after an adult turned the offending photos over to authorities.

Goranson was put on administrative leave from his job as a sixth grade math teacher at Mesa Middle School (pictured), according to a spokeswoman for Las Cruces Public Schools

Investigators met with the girl and she showed them her conversation with Goranson, which matched the photos the adult had reported, police said.

The 23-year-old is currently being held at the Dona Ana County Detention Center without bond, according to jail records.

A spokeswoman for Las Cruces Public Schools, Kelly Jameson, confirmed that Goranson was placed on administrative leave on August 5.

Jameson said that Goranson was hired by the district at the beginning of the 2019-20 school year.
Greeces prime minister convened the governments national security council on Monday, after Turkey announced its research vessel would be conducting energy research in the eastern Mediterranean in an area between Cyprus and Greece.

The council includes the ministers of foreign affairs and defence.

Turkey issued a Navtex, or international maritime safety message, announcing its research vessel Oruc Reis and two auxiliary vessels would be conducting seismic exploration from Monday until 23 August. Last week, Turkey also announced it would be conducing a firing exercise in the eastern Mediterranean this Monday and Tuesday.

Greece on Monday issued its own maritime safety message saying the Turkish Navtex on seismic research had been issued by an unauthorised station and referred to unauthorised and illegal activity in an area that overlaps the Greek continental shelf.

A crucial issue of the dispute is whether islands should be included in calculating a countrys continental shelf and maritime zones of economic interest. Turkey argues they should not be, a position Greece says violates international law. Greece has thousands of islands and islets in the Aegean and Ionian seas, around 200 of them inhabited.

Turkish energy and natural resources minister Fatih Donmez said on Monday that the Oruc Reis had arrived in its area of operation from its anchorage off Turkeys southern coast. 83 million back the Oruc Reis, he tweeted, referring to Turkeys population.

Tension has been high in the region in recent months over drilling rights and maritime boundaries. Late last month, Turkey had said it was suspending its exploratory operations in the eastern Mediterranean, and the move was seen as somewhat defusing the situation. But last week Ankara slammed a deal signed last between Greece and Egypt delineating maritime boundaries and the countries exclusive economic zones for drilling rights.

Last year, Turkey signed a similar deal with the UN-backed Libyan government in Tripoli, sparking outrage in Greece, Cyprus and Egypt, who all said it infringed on their economic rights in the Mediterranean. The European Union says its a violation of intentional law that threatens stability in the region.

Nato allies and neighbours Greece and Turkey have been at odds for decades over a wide variety of issues, including sea boundaries, and have come to the brink of war three times since the mid-1970s. Recent discoveries of natural gas and drilling plans across the east Mediterranean have led to a spike in tension.

Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke on Monday morning with European Council president Charles Michel, informing him about the Greek-Egyptian agreement and the situation in the eastern Mediterranean, officials said. He was scheduled to speak to Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg on Monday afternoon.

In a television interview late on Sunday, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogans spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said Turkey and Greece had been holding talks in Berlin for 2 months and were on the verge of issuing a joint statement when the Greek-Egyptian agreement emerged.

The moment the agreement with Egypt was announced, we received a clear instruction from our president: You are halting the talks. Inform the Germans and the Greeks, we are not pressing ahead with the negotiations, Mr Kalin told CNN-Turk television.

This is another move to keep Turkey out of the Eastern Mediterranean and to restrict it to the Gulf of Antalya, Mr Kalin said.

Mr Kalin said Turkey is in favour of resolving the dispute through a dialogue.

But it is the Greek side that disrupted the agreement and broke the trust, he said.

AP
DUBLIN, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market by Vehicle Type (Passenger Cars, Motorcycle, Light Commercial Vehicle and Heavy Commercial Vehicle), by Component, by Region, by Company, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of over 10% during the forecast period, due to the rising demand for vehicles requiring EBD systems and technological advancements. Moreover, automotive comfort and convenience are the primary factors for the growth in the Global Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market.



Low vehicle sales due to COVID-19 can negatively impact the market in 2020; however, the Global Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market is anticipated to witness significant growth until 2025.



In terms of vehicle type, the passenger car segment is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR in the forecast period due to the high demand of the passenger vehicles. Increasing vehicle production and mandates on implications of electronic brake systems is driving the EBD system market.



Based on the component, the market has been segmented into speed sensors, brake force modulators, electronic control units, steering wheel angle sensors and others. The speed sensor and brake force modulators segments are expected to continue their dominance in the forecast period. Regionally, Asia Pacific is anticipated to dominate the market until 2025, due to large automotive production volume in the region. China and India are the countries that are driving the growth of the electronic brake force distribution (EBD) system market in the Asia Pacific region.



Some of the major players operating in the Global Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market system are Autoliv, Continental, WABCO, ZF TRW, Robert Bosch GmbH, Mando Corp., Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd., Nissin Kogyo Co., Ltd., Delphi Automotive PLC., Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. etc. Major companies are developing advanced technologies and launching new products in order to stay competitive in the market. Other competitive strategies include mergers & acquisitions and new product developments.



Objective of the Study:

To analyze and forecast the market size of the Global Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market, in terms of value and volume.

To classify and forecast the Global Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market based on vehicle type, component and regional distribution.

To identify drivers and challenges for the Global Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market.

To examine competitive developments such as expansions, new product launches, mergers & acquisitions, etc., in the Global Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market.

To conduct the pricing analysis for the Global Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market.

To identify and analyze the profile of leading players operating in the Global Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market.

Key Topics Covered:



1. Product Overview



2. Research Methodology



3. Impact of COVID-19 on Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market



4. Executive Summary



5. Voice of Customer

5.1. Product Pricing

5.2. Factors Influencing Purchase Decision

5.3. Brand Awareness



6. Global Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Overview



7. Global Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

7.1. Market Size & Forecast

7.1.1. By Value & Volume

7.2. Market Share & Forecast

7.2.1. By Vehicle Type (Passenger Cars, Motorcycle, Light Commercial Vehicles and Heavy Commercial Vehicles)

7.2.2. By Component (Speed Sensors, Brake Force Modulators, Electronic Control Units, Steering Wheel Angle Sensors, Others)

7.2.3. By Company

7.2.4. By Region

7.3. Market Attractiveness Index



8. Asia-Pacific Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

8.1. Market Size & Forecast

8.1.1. By Value & Volume

8.2. Market Share & Forecast

8.2.1. By Vehicle Type

8.2.2. By Component

8.2.3. By Country

8.3. Asia-Pacific: Country Analysis

8.3.1. China Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

8.3.1.1. Market Size & Forecast

8.3.1.1.1. By Value & Volume

8.3.1.2. Market Share & Forecast

8.3.1.2.1. By Vehicle Type

8.3.1.2.2. By Component

8.3.2. India Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

8.3.2.1. Market Size & Forecast

8.3.2.1.1. By Value & Volume

8.3.2.2. Market Share & Forecast

8.3.2.2.1. By Vehicle Type

8.3.2.2.2. By Component

8.3.3. Japan Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

8.3.3.1. Market Size & Forecast

8.3.3.1.1. By Value & Volume

8.3.3.2. Market Share & Forecast

8.3.3.2.1. By Vehicle Type

8.3.3.2.2. By Component

8.3.4. South Korea Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

8.3.4.1. Market Size & Forecast

8.3.4.1.1. By Value & Volume

8.3.4.2. Market Share & Forecast

8.3.4.2.1. By Vehicle Type

8.3.4.2.2. By Component

8.3.5. Thailand Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

8.3.5.1. Market Size & Forecast

8.3.5.1.1. By Value & Volume

8.3.5.2. Market Share & Forecast

8.3.5.2.1. By Vehicle Type

8.3.5.2.2. By Component



9. Europe Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

9.1. Market Size & Forecast

9.1.1. By Value & Volume

9.2. Market Share & Forecast

9.2.1. By Vehicle Type

9.2.2. By Component

9.2.3. By Country

9.3. Market Attractiveness Index

9.4. Europe: Country Analysis

9.4.1. France Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

9.4.1.1. Market Size & Forecast

9.4.1.1.1. By Value & Volume

9.4.1.2. Market Share & Forecast

9.4.1.2.1. By Vehicle Type

9.4.1.2.2. By Component

9.4.2. Germany Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

9.4.2.1. Market Size & Forecast

9.4.2.1.1. By Value & Volume

9.4.2.2. Market Share & Forecast

9.4.2.2.1. By Vehicle Type

9.4.2.2.2. By Component

9.4.3. United Kingdom Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

9.4.3.1. Market Size & Forecast

9.4.3.1.1. By Value & Volume

9.4.3.2. Market Share & Forecast

9.4.3.2.1. By Vehicle Type

9.4.3.2.2. By Component

9.4.4. Italy Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

9.4.4.1. Market Size & Forecast

9.4.4.1.1. By Value & Volume

9.4.4.2. Market Share & Forecast

9.4.4.2.1. By Vehicle Type

9.4.4.2.2. By Component

9.4.5. Spain Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

9.4.5.1. Market Size & Forecast

9.4.5.1.1. By Value & Volume

9.4.5.2. Market Share & Forecast

9.4.5.2.1. By Vehicle Type

9.4.5.2.2. By Component



10. North America Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

10.1. Market Size & Forecast

10.1.1. By Value & Volume

10.2. Market Share & Forecast

10.2.1. By Vehicle Type

10.2.2. By Component

10.2.3. By Country

10.3. North America: Country Analysis

10.3.1. United States Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

10.3.1.1. Market Size & Forecast

10.3.1.1.1. By Value & Volume

10.3.1.2. Market Share & Forecast

10.3.1.2.1. By Vehicle Type

10.3.1.2.2. By Component

10.3.2. Mexico Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

10.3.2.1. Market Size & Forecast

10.3.2.1.1. By Value & Volume

10.3.2.2. Market Share & Forecast

10.3.2.2.1. By Vehicle Type

10.3.2.2.2. By Component

10.3.3. Canada Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

10.3.3.1. Market Size & Forecast

10.3.3.1.1. By Value & Volume

10.3.3.2. Market Share & Forecast

10.3.3.2.1. By Vehicle Type

10.3.3.2.2. By Component



11. South America Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

11.1. Market Size & Forecast

11.1.1. By Value & Volume

11.2. Market Share & Forecast

11.2.1. By Vehicle Type

11.2.2. By Component

11.2.3. By Country

11.3. South America: Country Analysis

11.3.1. Brazil Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

11.3.1.1. Market Size & Forecast

11.3.1.1.1. By Value & Volume

11.3.1.2. Market Share & Forecast

11.3.1.2.1. By Vehicle Type

11.3.1.2.2. By Component

11.3.2. Argentina Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

11.3.2.1. Market Size & Forecast

11.3.2.1.1. By Value & Volume

11.3.2.2. Market Share & Forecast

11.3.2.2.1. By Vehicle Type

11.3.2.2.2. By Component

11.3.3. Colombia Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

11.3.3.1. Market Size & Forecast

11.3.3.1.1. By Value & Volume

11.3.3.2. Market Share & Forecast

11.3.3.2.1. By Vehicle Type

11.3.3.2.2. By Component



12. Middle East and Africa Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

12.1. Market Size & Forecast

12.1.1. By Value & Volume

12.2. Market Share & Forecast

12.2.1. By Vehicle Type

12.2.2. By Component

12.2.3. By Country

12.3. MEA: Country Analysis

12.3.1. South Africa Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

12.3.1.1. Market Size & Forecast

12.3.1.1.1. By Value & Volume

12.3.1.2. Market Share & Forecast

12.3.1.2.1. By Vehicle Type

12.3.1.2.2. By Component

12.3.2. Saudi Arabia Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

12.3.2.1. Market Size & Forecast

12.3.2.1.1. By Value & Volume

12.3.2.2. Market Share & Forecast

12.3.2.2.1. By Vehicle Type

12.3.2.2.2. By Component

12.3.3. UAE Automotive Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) System Market Outlook

12.3.3.1. Market Size & Forecast

12.3.3.1.1. By Value & Volume

12.3.3.2. Market Share & Forecast

12.3.3.2.1. By Vehicle Type

12.3.3.2.2. By Component



13. Market Dynamics

13.1. Drivers

13.2. Challenges

13.3. Opportunities



14. Market Trends & Developments



15. Competitive Landscape

15.1.1. Autoliv Inc

15.1.2. Continental AG

15.1.3. WABCO Holdings, Inc.

15.1.4. ZF TRW

15.1.5. Robert Bosch GmbH

15.1.6. Mando Corp.

15.1.7. Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd

15.1.8. Nissin Kogyo Co., Ltd.

15.1.9. Delphi Automotive PLC.

15.1.10. Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd.

15.2. Strategic Recommendations

15.3. About the Author & Disclaimer



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/gw7nt7

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

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Most artists jealously guard their intellectual property, unwilling to let people change words in a script or tweak lyrics in a song because they fear losing control over their creation.

Robert Hicks doesnt mind handing over control of his new play to others. In fact, thats exactly his plan.

Like many people across Niagara, the 72-year-old self-described peace activist and climate change activist from Niagara Falls found himself with plenty of time on his hands when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Ontario in March: his gym closed, so he couldnt work out, and his regular volunteer sessions at Greater Niagara General Hospital were put on hold.

Then he caught wind of a new project at Brock University calling on Niagara residents to share stories, experiences, projects and thoughts on the pandemic so information can be preserved for future generations to learn what it was like in this region during these unprecedented times.

Brock Universitys archives and special collections and digital scholarship lab have created a website to capture the experience of living in Niagara region during the COVID-19 pandemic. People can upload digital materials such as photos, videos, texts or tweets to the website, can complete a brief survey on the website, or can donate physical records such as a diary or journal to Brocks archives.

David Sharron, head of archives and special collections at the universitys James. A. Gibson Library, said too often in history we only hear from politicians, business leaders and influencers.

The Brock COVID-19 archive is a unique opportunity for regular citizens to be part of the history of the pandemic by creating a grassroots source for future generations, he said.

For some people, this might be the only opportunity to share the experience to be found in an archive 50 or 100 years from now, said Sharron. This is the true gem of history.

Having people share their thoughts and experiences now rather than months from now when they have time to polish them allows it to be genuine and truly historic, he said. Its more unfiltered this way.

One Niagara resident, identifying herself as a widow, lamented the psychological toll COVID-19 is taking while answering the survey on the website. Im just so freaking tired of being alone and lonely, she said.

Welland Grade 10 student Thea Armenti, 16, submitted an original song she wrote and performed called Six Feet in which she explores the destruction wrought by the virus. We sit at home helpless while so many die, her lyrics read. Now, all we can do is hang our heads and cry.

Other residents submitted photos of shuttered schools, businesses and playgrounds in Port Dalhousie, people lining up for curbside pickup of items at Best Buy, and signs of hope in windows or written on sidewalks in chalk.

A woman from Port Colborne who buried her 96-year-old dad, a Second World War veteran, on March 14, said she hadnt been able to hug her kids or grandkids for weeks since then. Grieving as a family cant happen for us right now, she wrote in her submission. I want this to be over so badly. I want to cry.

Hicks decided to write an educational play entitled Virus under the microscope, in which he includes COVID-19 with other scourges he calls viruses including racism, prejudice, discrimination, bullying, bigotry, social indifference and police brutality.

The play revolves around two unnamed lab technicians who spend their days poring over viruses at microscopes, and how their messages of goodwill, compassion, respect and justice can send the viruses surrounding them (they cant see them) fleeing in terror.

I built in a reason for hope so people can feel better, said Hicks. I just want to spread the word that we can make the world better if we work together.

Hicks submitted his first two acts to the website and just completed a third act. He figures he may finish acts four and five, but is hoping other people will take over from there and add their own acts.

Im hoping itll take on a life of its own and more acts will follow, he said. Ill let the world take over from here; Ill let the world finish it.

Hicks said the chaos brought on by COVID-19 also brings a unique chance to tackle serious problems, such as climate change, by unifying people.

It (the play) is saying there is still reason for hope, but it is also saying there is not much time left, he said.

Sharron said he expects the legacy website to continue accepting submissions for the next year or so.

The Brock COVID-19 legacy project is at www.exhibits.library.brocku.ca/s/COVID-Niagara/page/home.
Nearly two-thirds of Spaniards believe former King Juan Carlos, who left the country this week amid a financial scandal, should not have gone abroad, according to an opinion poll published on Sunday.

Juan Carlos, who abdicated in 2014 in favour of his son Felipe, abruptly announced his decision to leave on Monday but there has been no official confirmation of where he went, setting off an international guessing game.

The poll by SigmaDos for the conservative newspaper El Mundo found 63.3% of those questioned felt it was a bad idea for the 82-year-old ex-monarch to have left, while 27.2% agreed with his departure.

Some 80.3% said they thought Juan Carlos should face any potential legal proceedings. The poll, carried out between Aug. 4-6 after he left, found 12.4% said he had nothing to answer for and 7.3% did not voice an opinion.

In June, Spain's Supreme Court opened a preliminary investigation into Juan Carlos' involvement in a high-speed rail contract in Saudi Arabia, after Switzerland's La Tribune de Geneve newspaper reported he had received $100 million from the late Saudi king.

Switzerland has also opened an investigation.

The former monarch is not formally under investigation and has repeatedly declined to comment on the allegations.

Juan Carlos's lawyer said on Monday his client was at the Spanish prosecutor's disposal despite his decision to leave.

ROLE IN TRANSITION

Despite the disapproval, reflecting Juan Carlos' sinking popularity in recent years, some 69.2% of those questioned in Sunday's poll said he played an important role in the transition from dictatorship to democracy after the death of Francisco Franco in 1975, while 24.4% said he played "little or no" role.

The pro-monarchist newspaper ABC reported on Friday that Juan Carlos had travelled by private plane from Spain to the United Arab Emirates on Monday.

Other media have said he is in the Dominican Republic or in Portugal. Officials there have said they have no knowledge of him arriving.

A Spanish government spokeswoman declined on Sunday to comment on his whereabouts. His lawyer and the royal palace have all this week declined to say where Juan Carlos is.

News website Niusdiario.es posted a photograph https://www.niusdiario.es/nacional/casa-real/exclusiva-nius-foto-llegada-rey-emerito-juan-carlos-aeropuerto-abu-dabi-emiratos-arabes-unidos_18_2990670271.html on Saturday that it said showed him walking down the steps of a plane at an airport in Abu Dhabi. If confirmed, it would be the first image published of the ex-king since his departure.

The blurred shot appears to show Juan Carlos wearing a white face mask and talking to an official, but there were no signs or other details in the frame to confirm the location or date. Niusdiario.es gave no details on who took the picture.

United Arab Emirates officials and the Emirates Palace Hotel did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday.
New Delhi:

ThreeA killed and 10 feared trapped under debris A as seven-storey building collapsed in Nanakramguda area of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday evening.A Police have also arrested one accused in the case while search operations are on for nab the another accused who is absconding.

Two persons, including a minor boy, were rescued and a body was recovered from the debris of an under construction building that collapsed in Nanakramguda. "The lives of two have been saved and one body was recovered," Greater Hyderabad Municipal Mayor Bonthu Ram Mohan said.

The building at Nanakramguda collapsed on Thursday and several people were feared trapped inside the under construction structure. Rescue operations are underway since then.



"NDRF personnel along with workers of local administration are involved in the rescue operations," the Mayor said. He said the rescue work took time as the way to the collapsed building is narrow. More machines have arrived for the operations, he said, adding some violation of rules have been found in the construction of the building.

The victims, who were rushed to the hospital, hail from Visakhapatnam, Chattisgarh and some of them are local residents, the Mayor said.



Telangana ministers N Narsimha Reddy and P Padmarao, who supervised the operation said that the number of persons trapped inside could not be ascertained and will be known only after the debris is removed.A

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Religious disputes, involving historical memory, and deeply divisive recent communal clashes, are not easy to resolve.

But the manner in which India got over the Ram Mandir versus the Babri Masjid dispute must be a unique template for the rest of the world. When the talks failed, the matter was left to the Supreme Court. The judgment, which finally came in November 2019, was a remarkable compromise.

It condemned the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 and asked for all those responsible for this act to be prosecuted. The Ram Mandir Trust was awarded the disputed land for the building of the new temple.

Simultaneously, the countrys highest court also ordered that five acres of land should be allocated elsewhere for the construction of a mosque.

In a country where some 80 per cent of the population is Hindu, Shri Ram will finally get a temple in his name in his hometown and at his birthplace after a struggle for over a century through a hard fought legal title suit!

There were some commentators in the media who proclaimed that August 5, 2020, the date of the shilanyas of the temple, marked the death of secularism in India. Frankly, I consider all such remarks ludicrous.

Does secularism banish religious faith and worship in India? On the contrary, the Constitution guarantees both as part of our fundamental rights. If so, why should the building of a temple, pursuant to the decision of the highest court of the land, be the harbinger of such unredeemed doom?

The Muslim litigants, who were party to the judicial dispute, may not have been entirely happy about the final verdict, but they accepted it. The same secular commentariat has no objection if a mosque or a church is built. In the past, they had always maintained that a solution to the prolonged dispute should be found either through mutual accommodation or through a judicial verdict. Why then this pained hand wringing?

In fact, it is my firm conviction that it is precisely this kind of reflex reaction that does the greatest disservice to the cause of secularism in this country.

Perhaps, the problem with the critics is the pageantry that marked the ceremony. But this was hardly a chance that the BJP-RSS was going to miss.

A temple was becoming a reality after 136 years of struggle. Its consecration had to be done in accordance with Hindu rituals, and the entire ceremony was bound to be telecast live. There was criticism too about Prime Minister Narendra Modis participation in the function.

But the precedent of our first President, Rajendra Prasad, inaugurating the restored Somnath temple in Gujarat, in spite of the advice of then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru against it, is telling. Secularism in our country is not about the absolute separation of the State and faith. It is about the fundamental freedom of following ones faith, while respecting all other faiths.

Babu Rajendra Prasad was one of the most prominent followers of Mahatma Gandhi. He was uncompromisingly secular. But his evocative defence of his decision was simply this: I believe in my religion and cannot cut myself away from it.

In other words, just like Gandhiji, he did not see a contradiction between being a practising Hindu and the imperative to respect all religions.

Indeed, if one reads the debates of the Constituent Assembly on the question of secularism, this -- and not the European construct of a complete separation between the State and religion -- was the interpretation accepted by the vast majority of its members.

This being said, what is important for the future is a closure to the kind of communal politics that we have recently seen.

Devotees of Shri Ram would do well to remember that he was maryada purushottam, the very epitome of right conduct, the role model of correct behaviour. Shri Ram would never sanction irrational anger, unwarranted violence, or unnecessary vengeance, particularly against the weak or the innocent.

In fact, in Tulsidass Ramcharitmanas, there is a very significant line in the description of Ram Rajya: sab nar karahin paraspar priti (all human beings would harbour mutual affection for each other).

It is Shri Ram again who  in Tulsidas words  tells Bharat: par hith saras dharam nahin bhai, par peeda sam nahin athamai (there is no greater virtue than the welfare of others, and no greater sin than injury to others). This did not make him a passive god. He fought hard against injustice and defeated Ravan.

But even in this form, he harboured no personal enmity, and remained the embodiment of the saumya rasa, eternally in equipoise and equilibrium, rational and restrained, and certainly not the kind of person who would approve taking the law into ones own hands.

Thus, when Prime Minister Modi in his speech at the ceremony said that Ram stands for the unity of India, it must be assumed that what he meant was that Ram, as the embodiment of mercy, compassion, justice and right conduct, must guide our actions in the future.

BJP ideologue Ram Madhav quotes Swami Chinmayananda to say that Ayodhya itself stands for ayuddha (non-war or peace), which should augur peace forever among all communities. If the otherwise noble greeting of Jai Shri Ram has been weaponised by illiterate bigots, Prime Minister Modis emphasis on Jai Siya Ram in Ayodhya on August 5 is a good sign.

We must remain vigilant to ensure that such sentiments are, indeed, implemented in the future. Hinduism, and its intrinsic tolerance for all faiths, would want that to happen.
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Divisive footage has emerged of an 'extremist' Christian church leader preaching to a large group of Hillsong worshippers about their 'sinfulness'.

The Church of Adelaide filmed the showdown outside Hillsong's campus in Sydney's inner city and posted the confrontation to its online platforms last Friday.

Hillsong has since hit back, claiming the preacher was from an 'extremist group' that targets not only them but other evangelical churches.

Daily Mail Australia has since discovered the footage was filmed in 2016.

Armed with a mircophone, a man shouts at dozens of Hillsong followers of all ages, including children from across the street in 'a true gospel preaching of the True Christ.'

Dozens of Hillsong followers watch on as a man preaches to them about the gospel from across the street in Sydney's inner-city

'The gospel of Jesus Christ is a powerful God. Have you ever known a gospel like that?' the man preaches.

He's accompanied by a second man he claims was a former Hillsong follower for many years.

'This man right here went to Hillsong friends, for years he went to Hillsong he was in sin.

'He was overcome by sexual sin. They said you're fine. The pastor said you were fine. I am in sexual sin too.'

His address was briefly interrupted by the arrival of two police officers who were called to the scene to investigate the commotion.

The man appears to carry on chanting about Jesus shortly afterwards.

The Church of Adelaide later shared the footage titled 'Hillsong Exposed: True Gospel Preaching of The True Christ Outside of Hillsong Church' to its YouTube channel, which has more than 1,100 subscribers.

It's unclear what Christian denomination the supposed 'Church of Adelaide' falls under.

The preacher is interrupted by a police officer, who turned up to investigate the commotion

Hillsong hit back at the group's claims when contacted by Daily Mail Australia on Monday.

'This was not filmed last week as Hillsong Church has been meeting online since March,' a spokesperson said.

'This group is an extremist group who targets not only Hillsong but other evangelical churches who believe that Jesus loves everyone. We prefer to focus on love not hate.'

Founded in 2014, the Church of Adelaide consists of just 16 members.

The footage, showing dozens of Hillsong followers gathered in a large group was posted online last week but is believed to have been filmed for the coronavirus pandemic hit

Founder Kevin Fessler denied claims his church is an extremist group.

'We are not extremists but are simply born against believers who have lived lifestyles of sin and came to salvation by His unmerited grace and work through the cross to love all of Gods word and obey what it says without compromise,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'We preach Gods love and mercy as well as Gods wrath and holy hatred against sin and those that continue to live a lifestyle of sin. Gods saving love can only be experienced by a life that is completely surrendered to him and that has forsaken the pleasures and riches of this world to take up there cross daily and follow him.'

Hillsong claimed the preacher (pictured) was from 'an extremist group who targets not only Hillsong but other evangelical churches'

The Church of Adelaide describes itself as believing the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired words of God.

'We believe in one Triune God, eternally existing in three personsFather, Son, and Holy Spirit, each co-eternal in being, co-equal in power and glory, and having the same attributes and perfections,' the church states on its website.

The church also believes Lord Jesus Christ became man without ceasing to be God, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Hillsong states similar values on its website with the belief the Bible is God's Word, an eternal God who is the creator of all things who exists in three persons.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 18:53:26|Editor: huaxia

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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen killed a pro-government tribal leader in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province, local police said Monday.

"Alizaman, a tribal elder and influential leader, was shot and killed outside his house in Zintu area of Mianshin district late on Sunday," Jamal Barekzai, provincial police spokesman, told Xinhua.

The assailants fled the scene after the shooting and provincial police had been investigating the attack, said the official.

In the meantime, the Afghan National Police arrested a member of Taliban militant group who tried to kill a religious scholar in Herat city, capital of western Herat province, on Sunday, the Afghan Interior Ministry confirmed earlier on Monday.

On July 27, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a report that civilian casualties in Afghanistan decreased 13 percent in the first six months of 2020 in comparison with the same period of last year.

More than 1,280 civilians were killed and over 2,170 others wounded during the period, according to UNAMA report. Enditem
Amid rising concerns over shortage of beds for Covid patients in Ludhiana district, two private hospitals started Covid care centres on their premises on Monday.

This includes a 25-bed centre at Verma Super Speciality Hospital near DMC hospital and 10-bed centre at Arora Neuro Centre on Mall Road.

Deputy commissioner (DC) Varinder Kumar Sharma and police commissioner Rakesh Kumar Agrawal visited both hospitals on Monday and lauded the hospital management for assisting the district administration in the battle against the virus.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA), Ludhiana, has already started the 25-bed IMA Ludhiana Covid Care Centre at the Lord Mahavira Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Hambran Road.

DC Sharma assured residents there is no shortage of beds for Covid patients in the district.

He said people should not panic and check the status of vacant beds through the mobile app, HBMS Punjab, or on official web links, https://ludhiana.nic.in/notice/covid-19-bed-status-in-ludhiana-district/ or www.hbmspunjab.in.

He said data of all private hospitals providing Covid treatment has been added on the mobile app along with web links.

He also urged the managements of other private hospitals to come forward and set up Covid care centres on their premises.

Earlier, Aam Aadmi Party had targeted the administration and state government over shortage of beds for Covid patients in the city, after reports surfaced regarding death of patients allegedly due to shortage of beds.

In the first week of August, the administration had conducted a meeting with the management of different hospitals to encourage them to start Covid care facility at their respective hospitals.
Feminist Gloria Steinem has opened up about her life choices and revealed that being childless does not mean she's 'unfulfilled.'

The 86-year-old, who was a defining figure of female liberation in the late 1960s and 1970s, reflected on her life, fears and success during the How To Fail podcast, by Elizabeth Day, which is released this week.

The activist, who was recently portrayed by Rose Byrne on Mrs America, told how she realised not having children was an option when she joined the Female Liberation Movement, after being raised in the 1950s where marrying and having kids was considered the norm for women.

She added there is a bias against women in the language use in fertility medicine, where females more often than not are the ones who bear the blame when it comes to difficulty conceiving.

Feminist and activist Gloria Steinem, 86, has opened about her life choices during a podcast released this week. Pictured, at the 2020 Embrace Ambition summit in New York

Steinem, pictured in 1972 in Los Angeles, was one of the most prominent figures of the women's liberation movement of the late 1960s and 1970s

Speaking of the fact she does not have children, Steinem says it was not a conscious choice she'd made as a young woman.

'There were a lot of years that I just kept putting it off into the future, "Oh yes Im going to do that, just not at this moment",' she said.

'It wasnt a decision in the beginning: remember I was growing up in the 1950s, not even the 60s, so I assumed women had to marry and have children, that there wasnt an option.'

But Gloria went on to explain that the women's movement opened her eyes to the fact that being childless was a choice she could make.

She continued: 'Fortunately, the womens movement came along and said "wait a minute not all women have to live the same way: you have a choice.'

Steinem says that she realised she was happy as she was - without children - adding that she never felt 'unfulfilled' and was 'OK' with the way she was living.

The activist has campaigned for equal opportunity for women, reproductive rights and issues such as Female Genital Mutilations throughout the years

'I think so, in a way that people assume I must be unhappy or unfulfilled. Not everyone but some people I think assume that in a way that they wouldnt assume about a man,' she commented.

She went on to explain that she had never regretted her decision to not become a mother.

Elizabeth Day and Gloria then went on to discuss fertility treatment and the 'insidious' way in which medical language is used to put the blame on women when a couple can not conceive.

They agreed that fertility language often refers to women's reproductive organ as defective when a couple encounter issues procreating.

'Are men told their sperm are "incompetent",' Steinem asked, adding she felt society was 'assigning blame' onto women when it came to discussion on infertility.

Actress Rose Byrne plays Gloria Steinem in the hit series Mrs America, which made a splash earlier this year
Iran says European insurers should pay compensation for downed Ukrainian plane Flowers and a paper plane are placed outside the Iranian Embassy to commemorate the victims of the Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 plane crash

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran will not compensate Ukraine International Airlines for its plane Tehran accidentally downed in January because the passenger jet was insured by European firms, the head of Iran's Central Insurance Organisation said on Monday.

"The Ukrainian plane is insured by European companies in Ukraine and not by Iranian (insurance) companies," said Gholamreza Soleimani, according to the Young Journalists Club news website affiliated with state TV. "Therefore, compensation should be paid by those European companies."

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards shot down the Ukraine International Airlines flight with a ground-to-air missile on Jan. 8 just after the plane took off from Tehran, in what Tehran later acknowledged as a disastrous mistake by forces who were on high alert during a confrontation with the United States.

Soleimani's comments concerned the aircraft and did not address potential compensation for victims' families. There was no immediate comment from European aviation insurers.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in February that Ukraine was not satisfied with the size of compensation Iran had offered to families of Ukrainians killed in the incident. Ukrainian officials have said that Ukraine would make every effort to maximise the amount of restitution.

Last month, Iranian and Ukrainian officials held talks on the compensation, with another round set for October.

In a July report, Irans Civil Aviation Organisation blamed a chain of mistakes - such as a misalignment of a radar system and lack of communication between the air defence operator and his commanders - for the plane crash that killed 176 aboard, including 57 Canadians.

The downing occurred at a time of high tension between longtime foes Iran and the United States.

Iran was on alert for attacks after it fired missiles at Iraqi bases housing U.S. forces in retaliation for the killing on Jan. 3 of its most powerful military commander, Qassem Soleimani, in a U.S. missile strike at Baghdad airport.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
(Newser)  As police in Hong Kong stepped up a crackdown on pro-democracy figures, China slapped sanctions on 11 American citizens for behaving "egregiously on Hong Kong-related issues." Those sanctioned include Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth, as well as Republican Sens. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, and Pat Toomey, the BBC reports. Beijing acknowledged that the sanctions were tit-for-tat retaliation for the placing of US sanctions last week on 11 officials "responsible for the degradation of Hong Kong's autonomy," including Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam.

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The US sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials ban them from traveling to the US and freeze any US-based assets they have. It's not clear what exactly the Chinese sanctions on American citizens involve, but because few American lawmakers hold assets in China, they are seen as largely symbolic, the Guardian reports. Roth tweeted that the sanctions are "little more than an effort to distract attention from its wholesale assault on the rights of the people of Hong Kong." He added that the so-called "egregious behavior" he is being sanctioned for "was (proudly) standing up for the people of Hong Kong as they resist Beijings efforts to crush their freedoms." (Read more China stories.)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ben Blackwell feels that the Stooges new Live at Goose Lake: August 8th, 1970 album marks a nice turning point in the history of Third Man Records.

The archival set, documenting the final performance by the iconic Ann Arbor rock group's original lineup, came out Friday, Aug. 7, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Goose Lake International Music Festival in Michigan's Leoni Township, near Jackson. But rather than the digging and sonic spelunking that Blackwell and others at Third Man have done to acquire other vintage recordings and even entire record label catalogs, the Stooges tape landed in the company's lap after being discovered in a box in Wyoming, Mich.

"This was the first time of, 'Oh ... our reputation did the work here.' Someone found something and they brought it to us. That makes you feel really good," the Detroit-born Blackwell, who co-owns Third Man with his uncle, Jack White, and Ben Swank, says by phone from Nashville, Tenn., where the company is based.

"It's another notch in our reputation."

The late sound engineer James Cassily recorded the Stooges' seven-song set  its entire "Fun House" album  among other performances by Chicago, James Gang, Mountain and more, at Goose Lake. The box of tapes wound up at the Rogers Mansion in Wyoming, which belonged to his family. It was discovered by Joshua Rogers as items were being cleared out of the house.

"Through kind of friends of friends (Rogers) reached out to Third Man," Blackwell recalls. "The idea was, 'Hey, you guys do really amazing archival work. You've worked with Iggy previously. I don't even know if there's music on these tapes. You want to find out together?'" Third Man had worked with Stooges frontman Iggy Pop on his book, "Total Chaos: The Story of the Stooges," and vinyl editions of the Stooges' 1969 debut album.

Blackwell, a Stooges devotee, did not hesitate to say yes.

"If I were given the Godlike power to pick any show from the Stooges' entire career, Goose Lake would've been the one I'd want to hear, because it's so shrouded in mystery and talked about for decades," he says.

One legend surrounding the gig was that bassist Dave Alexander, presumably affected by substances he'd ingested, did not play and/or played poorly  which led to him being fired afterwards, plunging the Stooges into a dark period of hiatus broken by 1973's "Raw Power" album. Pop acknowledges by email that "Dave took something that night that totally blew him down before the show" and that the bassist's performance was a mixed bag. "Sometimes he was there, sometimes he wasn't. My overwhelming memory for years has been of standing there with no backup. When he missed his cues, I turned around several times to look and try to catch his attention and, in those moments, he wasn't playing anything, and he wasn't reachable."

Stooges frontman Iggy Pop onstage at Goose Lake International Music Festival in Michigan's Leoni Township on Aug. 8, 1970. "Live at Goose Lake: August 8th, 1970" is an archival set, documenting the final performance by the iconic rock group's original lineup is out now on Third Man Records. (Photo: Charlie Auringer/Courtesy Third Man Records)

Of the decision to fire Alexander, Pop adds that, "There had been issues between myself and Dave before this night, and I'd had enough and I said so. I would do exactly the same thing now."

Blackwell, meanwhile, feels that the "Live at Goose Lake" release finally sets the record straight.

"Dave's there," Blackwell notes. "Dave's on every song. He starts off particularly rough on 'Loose' (the set's first song), but from there I feel like he holds his own. I don't feel like there's anything really egregious from that point on  and not that bad compared to how bad a Stooges set could go.

"As a Stooges fan, in my mind, this changes everything. This Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band's narrative has been dramatically changed from just one tape."

The Goose Lake tape, Blackwell adds, was in "solid" shape, especially compared to others in Cassily's box, which he says were considerably weaker. Nashville engineer Vance Powell worked some sonic magic on the source material, which was finished off at Third Man Mastering in Detroit, where the vinyl LPs were pressed. "What we started with was by no means bad," Blackwell says, "but from what we started with to what we ended up with, it's pretty remarkable. I almost feel like I need to do a before and after test to show people how good it sounds."

Blackwell is also pleased that "Live at Goose Lake" presents the Stooges' entire set, including festival organizers' attempt to rush the band off the stage partway through, but, according to Pop, "were physically prevented from doing so by our crew, who were all Vietnam combat vets."

And Pop, like Blackwell, is happy to have the show finally available for fans to hear.

"It's great that this recording is coming out now, because it is concrete, clear and indisputable," he says. "There is and has been so much baggage around the group, and that's all it is  baggage. ... It's really good to have this live document of something that feels like only the Stooges can feel."

For Third Man's part, Blackwell hopes there will be more basement and attic discoveries that make their way into his company's hands.

The hope is other interesting things will come out, he says. I find it mind-boggling theres no live recordings of any earlier Stooges stuff. Somebody said, Do you think theres more out there? Theres gotta be. Ive heard rumors about things that are floating around. Whether someone knows its important or not is another matter, but if people find things, I hope they bring it to us.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

It is conventional wisdom that Americans cherish democracybut a new study by Yale political scientists reports that only a small fraction of U.S. voters are willing to sacrifice their partisan and policy interests to defend democratic principles.

The study, published in the American Political Science Review, found that only 3.5% of U.S. voters would cast ballots against their preferred candidates as punishment for undemocratic behavior, such as supporting gerrymandering, disenfranchisement, or press restrictions.

"Our findings show that U.S. voters, regardless of their party affiliation, are willing to forgive undemocratic behavior to achieve their partisan ends and policy goals," said Milan Svolik, professor of political science in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and co-author of the study. "We find that polarization raises the stakes of elections and, in turn, the price of prioritizing democratic principles over partisan interests. Voters' willingness to sacrifice democratic principles may not be desirable in terms of protecting democracy, but it has an intuitive political logic: They are trading off one political interest against another."

Svolik and co-author Matthew Graham, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science, conducted two experiments. One was an original, nationally representative survey experiment that asked respondents to choose among candidates, some of whom took positions violating key democratic principles. The other was a natural experiment the researchers conducted based on Montana's 2017 special election for the U.S. House of Representatives, in which Republican candidate Greg Gianforte physically assaulted a journalist who had repeatedly asked him a question about health policy on the night before the election.

In the survey experiment, respondents were presented with a series of choices between hypothetical candidates for a state legislature. Candidates were randomly assigned attributes, including race, gender, party affiliation, and positions on economic and social issues. In four of the scenarios, both candidates adopted democratically neutral positions. In seven others, one of the candidates was randomly assigned an undemocratic position, such as support for gerrymandering or ignoring unfavorable court decisions.

Overall, candidates who embraced an undemocratic position lost about 11.7% of their vote share. This may have been exacerbated by the randomized nature of the experiment, which assigned some hypothetical candidates highly unlikely attributes, such as a Democrat who supports tax cuts for the wealthy. When the researchers focused on choices respondents were more likely to encounter in the real world because candidates' adopted conventional positions for their respective parties, they found that just 3.5% of respondents would vote against their partisan interests to protect democratic principles. This reflects the consequences of political polarization, said the researchers: When party and policy are closely aligned, opposing candidates become increasingly ideologically distinct from each other, raising the price that voters must pay to punish their preferred candidate for undemocratic behavior by voting for the other candidate.

In 2016, only about 5% of U.S. House district candidates won their seats by a margin of less than 7%making the potential loss of 3.5% in vote share unlikely to deter candidates from engaging in undemocratic behavior, the researchers said.

"Our findings suggest that in the overwhelming majority of House districts, a majority-party candidate could get away with openly violating a democratic principle," said Graham. "Voters make tradeoffs. For the most part, people support candidates who share their partisan, ideological, or policy goals, even if that means condoning undemocratic behavior."

When Gianforte body-slammed a reporter in his campaign office the night before Montana's 2017 congressional election, more than half of voters had already cast absentee ballots. This allowed the researchers to compare votes cast for the same pair of candidates before and after the election-eve assault. In politically moderate precincts, voters who cast ballots on Election Day punished Gianforte for the assault on the journalist by voting across party lines. In hardline Republican precincts, significantly fewer voters punished Gianforte for his undemocratic behavior on Election Day, according to the study.

The researchers assert that their findings expose a blind spot in conventional methods of measuring support for democracy, which often involve asking people questions like: "Democracy may have problems, but it is better than any other form of government. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?"

"Conventional measures don't capture people's willingness to act on their commitment to democratic values when doing so is politically costly," Svolik said. "If, as we found, only a small percentage of voters are willing to punish undemocratic behavior by their favored candidates in one of the world's oldest democracies, then we shouldn't be surprised by voters' failure to stop aspiring autocrats in younger democracies like Turkey, Hungary, or Venezuela."

Explore further Would you vote for a Democrat who behaves like a Republican?

More information: Matthew H. Graham et al, Democracy in America? Partisanship, Polarization, and the Robustness of Support for Democracy in the United States, American Political Science Review (2020). Journal information: American Political Science Review Matthew H. Graham et al, Democracy in America? Partisanship, Polarization, and the Robustness of Support for Democracy in the United States,(2020). DOI: 10.1017/S0003055420000052
ALBANY  An independent investigation of the states nursing home policies during the COVID-19 pandemic is not needed, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Monday, asserting that no one can even agree who an independent expert is.

There is no person trusted by all Democrats and all Republicans, Cuomo said in response to a question about calls for New York to face an independent investigation of its policies governing nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition, Cuomo argued that a recent reviewby the state Department of Health found the cause of more than 6,000 nursing home deaths in New York since COVID-19 began was attributed to infections spread by staff members and not by residents who were, under his advisory order, returned to the facilities from hospitals while still infected but recovering. Cuomo said that report had been reviewed by credible industry experts.

As the Times Union reported, however, those health care industry leaders have close ties with Cuomos administration and have benefited from its policies and contracts.

Cuomo also has targeted certain media organizations, including the New York Post, as having a political agenda in blaming his policies for the high number of deaths.

I think you'd be blind have to have to realize it's not political, Cuomo said of the criticism.

Many media outlets have reported on the matter, with perhaps the most extensive single examination of the nursing home policies coming from ProPublica.

Cuomos comments came as state health Commissioner Howard Zucker declined to testify at a state legislative hearing on nursing home policy held Monday morning. Multiple legislators commented on Zucker's absence, expressing disappointment that the health department did not have anyone take part in the hearing.

That decision came as Cuomo's secretary, Melissa DeRosa, on Monday pointed to the Legislature's hearings on New York's COVID-19 response as part of the reason an independent investigation is unwarranted.

"Like many of my colleagues, I was deeply discouraged  although not surprised  that the state health department commissioner was not on the list of people to speak," said Assemblyman Kevin Byrne, a Republican representing parts of Putnam and Westchester counties. He said legislators on both sides of the aisle were "underserved by his testimony last week."

Zucker testified at the first legislative hearing, although he was criticized by lawmakers for refusing to give a definitive number of how many nursing home residents died in hospitals during the crisis.

Republican leaders in the state Senate and Assembly blasted the health department's report and contend the blame for the high number of deaths was a March 25 executive order issued by Cuomo which disallowed nursing homes from refusing to admit or readmit a patient solely on the basis of a positive COVID-19 test.

Long term care providers do not point to the March 25 order, or any one aspect for the high number of deaths in the residential facilities. Much like providers testified last week, facility representatives say the top issues they had to contend with were access to personal protective equipment and COVID-19 diagnostic tests as well as staffing shortages - the latter of which has been an issue across the industry for years.

"COVID-19 has laid bare many of the challenges, bottlenecks and funding inequities that have been festering for years," said Stephen Knight, CEO of United Helpers, which provides a continuum of care in St. Lawrence and Jefferson counties. "It's time for all to take responsibility, come together and fix the problems instead of blaming operators for systemic issues."

The state health department was ordered to study staffing shortages in residential care facilities last year and issue a report to the Legislature by the end of 2019. That report has yet to be released, but Zucker said it will be released Friday.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Cuomo and his administration have defended the governor's advisory order, which was later withdrawn, contending it followed federal guidance and that nursing homes that weren't equipped to safely handle those residents  including quarantining them  should not have done so.

The state's analysis also dismissed any connections between the policy and the number of deaths. The health department has instead blamed the deaths on infected staff members, noting some of those workers had brought the disease into the facilities before the spread of coronavirus within the state was documented.

Yet, multiple people with family members in long term care facilities  and advocates for residents in the facilities  described systemic breakdowns when they sought status updates for loved ones. There were also times that family members reported seeing staff members or other residents without personal protective equipment on when they were videoconferencing with their relatives in nursing homes.

California resident Mikko Cook testified Monday that she and other family members had to "beg" for contact with her father, who is a resident of a nursing home in the Capital Region. Mary Jo Botinardi of Syracuse described her experience asking about testing for a family member at a nursing home: "They didn't know how to get a resident tested."

Botinardi said she feels the long term care facility avoided testing patients because the results would make the facility look bad.

"If we're going to fix the problem, you have to own the problem," she said.

Vincent Pierce, a resident at Coler Specialty Hospital - a rehabilitation and chronic care facility on Roosevelt Island in New York City  described similar frustrations as a resident at the facility. Despite him and other residents voicing concern for their safety, Pierce said the facility didn't start separating COVID-positive patients from the rest of the residents until after a critical story ran in the New York Post.

"We can't even sit in front of the building without being threatened with quarantine for two weeks," he said. "We're not given any information about what's going on. I feel like they put everybody in the same category as if everybody can't think for themselves or make the right decisions for themselves."

An earlier version of this story incorrectly characterized the New York Department of Health's March 25 advisory order as an executive order.
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Linkedin Josa Lukman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, August 10 2020

Those of a certain age are likely familiar with Buku Pintar, a series of encyclopedias first published in 1982 and a perpetual bestseller in the pre-internet days.

At hundreds of pages in length, the books contained enough information a regular Indonesian would need in their daily life, from national history to geographic trivia.

With the wide variety of topics at hand, you would expect the series author himself to lead a varied life, and you of course would be right.

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President Trump tweeted Monday that he'll deliver his speech accepting the Republican nomination for president at either the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania or at the White House.

The state of play: Republican National Convention planners are looking for a new venue for the president to deliver his acceptance speech after convention events were canceled in Jacksonville, Fla., due to coronavirus concerns.

The big picture: A number of Republicans  not to mention Democrats  have questioned both the optics and the legality of Trump delivering his acceptance speech from the White House, given that past presidents have usually drawn a firm line between the White House and their campaigns.
$3.7 million in the state budget year that ended on June 30, 2017

$11.3 million in the budget year ending June 30, 2018

$12 million in the budget year that ended on June 30, 2019

$16 million in the state budget year that ended on June 30, 2020

Were Not Just Fighting, Were Winning

Square Corners

Is This The New Normal?

Whats At Stake For California

(TNS)  California has spent $43 million suing President Donald Trumps administration over the past four years in a legal campaign that the states Democratic attorney general says has saved billions of dollars in funding the state would have lost had the White House carried out its policies.The lawsuits have prevented or stalled the Trump administrations efforts to put a citizenship question on the census, weaken climate change policies, revoke Californias authority to set its own car pollution standards and rescind an Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals that protects young immigrants from deportation.The lawsuits have also stymied some of Trumps key campaign promises, at least temporarily, such as his assertion that hed build a wall on the Mexico border and rescind the Affordable Care Act.Every single case is based on Donald Trump and his administration doing something against the law, said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. We didnt wake up in the morning and say, Wouldnt it be fun to sue Donald Trump again? His department provided a summary of its costs in fighting the lawsuits to, updating figures it released in 2018.The new tally shows rising spending on the cases. California has spent:The lawsuits continue a trend of legal warfare between presidents and attorneys general from opposing parties that accelerated in the Obama administration.Republican-led field Texas 48 lawsuits against Obamas Democratic administration, according to an analysis by the Texas Tribune.Since Trumps election, Democratic-led California has filed or joined more than 90 lawsuits against the Republican administration.Theres disagreement over whether state lawsuits against the White House have become more common against Trump because of politics, or because of Trumps broad attempts to undo a range of Obama-era policies covering health care, education, the environment and immigration.Obama pushed executive power, like DACA, but its nothing compared to what the Trump administration has done in pushing the boundaries of the law, said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of Berkeley Law at UC Berkeley. Like rescinding DACA, or funding the border wall after Congress refused, or arguing the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. This is one of the most radical administrations in memory.Trumps allies argue Californias relative success with stalling policies has been due to legal tactics that should be scaled back if not outlawed.Attorney General Bill Barr contends the state lawsuits have had an overly broad impact on the administrations agenda because theyve led to nationwide injunctions from lower courts, preventing the government from enforcing contested policies against anyone in the country. Barr has argued that the practice by lower courts has become much more common during the Trump administration.California has scored some high profile wins in court against Trump.Take, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.In a 5-4 decision, the court rejected Trumps attempt to repeal legal protections for DACA recipients, siding with plaintiffs in the case, including California.Or the time Trump tried to have the question of U.S. citizenship added to the U.S. census, which critics argued would discourage undocumented residents from responding to the survey. An estimated 2 million undocumented immigrants live in the state, and deterring them from participating in the census could deprive California of the federal funding and political clout that are tied to the decennial count.California was among the states that challenged the decision, and a federal judge blocked that policy.California also has won cases when the Trump administration sued to challenge state laws.In June, the Supreme Court declined to hear the Trump administrations challenge to the Californias 2017 sanctuary state law, which prevents local law enforcement officials from assisting immigration enforcement agencies in detaining and transferring the custody of immigrants.A federal judge last month rejected a Trump administrations lawsuit that aimed to weaken Californias greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program, one of the states signature environmental policiesWere not just fighting, were winning, Becerra said.Some of the Trump administrations legal losses centered on shortcuts it took in proposing policy changes.The Supreme Court decisions siding with California on Trumps census and DACA proposals, for example, called out the administration for failing to carry out a thorough administrative process before changing government policies. Justice Holmes famously wrote that [m]en must turn square corners when they deal with the Government.  But it is also true, particularly when so much is at stake, that the Government should turn square corners in dealing with the people, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the June decision upholding the DACA program, quoting the late Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.Those rulings leave Trump a window to try again.Hes announced a review of the DACA program, and one of Californias latest lawsuits against the Trump administration challenges the White Houses new effort to strike undocumented residents from the census.The courts have found on several occasions, said UCLA law professor Laura E. Gomez, that Trumps proposals are arbitrary and capricious.I think thats an area where Trump has gotten into particular trouble, Gomez said.White House officials declined to comment on how the many lawsuits have affected their agenda. But a Justice Department official pointed to a speech and op-ed by Barr that decried the increased use of nationwide injunctions.Injunctions are common enough in courts, but Barrs argument was they used to mainly be applied to the parties suing. For example, if California sued the Trump administration and a court issued an injunction, it would only apply to California.Now, Barr argues, its become much more common for those judges to put a nationwide injunction on the Trump administration while policies go through the courts.Shrewd lawyers have learned to shop for a sympathetic judge willing to issue such an injunction, Barr wrote in theop-ed. These days, virtually every significant congressional or presidential initiative is enjoinedoften within hoursthreatening our democratic system and undermining the rule of law.Barr said the Obama administration faced 20 nationwide injunctions in eight years, while Trumps administration faced double that in the first three years of his term.Chemerinsky doubted that the nationwide injunction issue has actually gotten worse.The difference is theres just so many more lawsuits against the Trump administration, so of course theres more nationwide injunctions, he said.Chemerinsky also said the lawsuits have to affect how the Trump administration handles priorities, especially now with the election looming. Some of Trumps policies enacted in 2017 are still tied up in the courts, and if Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden wins in November, many if not most of those policies will be overturned.And even if he wins in November, some of these cases are still going to take years to continue going through courts, Chemerinsky said.California is far from alone in taking on the Trump administration. Other states, cities and organizations all have sued Trump, often in conjunction with the Golden State.But if not the most prolific litigant, California is certainly one of the most high-profile.I would definitely say that California has been one of the genuine leaders, Gomez said.But Gomez is cautious in ascribing a winning record for California. She said she would have to see empirical data of lawsuits and their resolutions not just against Trump, but also Obama, in order to do a comparison.I think its a mixed record, she said.Gomez pointed to high-profile losses for California, such as Trumps ban on travelers from predominantly Muslim countries. While the courts balked at Trumps initial ban, his administration was able to tweak it in such a way that the courts found it acceptable.Or even with the DACA win, Gomez said. While the court prohibited the president from eliminating DACA, the administration has refused to accept new applications, she said.Im really not sure overall if you tally up the wins and losses that Trump has been thwarted, Gomez said.But sometimes, just slowing down the Trump administration and forcing them to reassess can be a victory, said Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.I would say its important even if youre not always victorious, he said.
The Air Force One of the future might be getting a major speed boost.

An aerospace company called Hermeus on Thursday announced a contract with the US Air Force and the Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate to develop a hypersonic aircraft for the presidential fleet.

While the next Air Force One, a modified 747-8, is due to be delivered by Boeing next year, the Hermeus contract looks toward its eventual replacement.

Hermeus said it won the contract after designing, building, and successfully testing a prototype of an engine capable of propelling an airplane to Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound  about 3,300 mph. Mach 5 represents the delineation between supersonic and hypersonic speeds.

The company completed those tests in March, Aviation Week reported.

Hermeus plans to build a demonstrator vehicle over the next five years, with commercial aircraft envisioned in about a decade, Skyler Shuford, its cofounder and chief operating officer, said in 2019. A press release announcing the Air Force contract said part of the project would focus on integrating Air Force requirements into the airplane's designs.

Hermeus emerged last year, announcing plans to develop a Mach 5 aircraft that could fly from New York to Paris in about 90 minutes. Ars Technica reported in May 2019 that the company raised an initial round of funding, led by Khosla Ventures, which it used to develop the prototype. Hermeus said it would use a turbine-based combined-cycle engine for the propulsion system, according to the report.

The company's cofounders are alumni of SpaceX, Blue Origin, and the aerospace company Generation Orbit.

At the time, Hermeus said it planned to use mostly existing technology and materials to achieve hypersonic travel.

"We can make a vehicle fly that fast with today's technology," Glenn Case, a cofounder and the chief technology officer, said in a video published this spring.

"We aren't getting into anything too miraculous," Shuford told Ars Technica last year. "We want to do engineering, not science."

As of Thursday, the company listed about 10 open positions, including for airframe and propulsion engineers.

Read the original article on Business Insider.
Oil tanks full to the brink at Libya's oil export terminals are posing a risk to local communities and the facilities themselves, the chairman of the National Oil Corporation, Mustafa Sanalla, warned yesterday.

"The militarization of oil facilities, the presence of mercenaries as well as the military escalation increase the risks that hydrocarbons and chemicals stored at oil ports pose to workers and local population," Sanalla said. "This may lead to a disaster that is more severe than Beirut's port and a massive destruction that will cause Libya to be out of the oil market for so many years."

An oil terminal blockade by groups affiliated with the Libyan National Army led by controversial figure Khalifa Haftar has decimated Libya's oil production, from over 1 million bpd to about 100,000 bpd. However, the blockade also almost stopped exports, so most of whatever oil has been produced has been stored, increasing the risk of a devastating accident.

And it seems that stockpiling will continue this month: Bloomberg reported last week Libya's loading schedule suggested it would only ship some 1.2 million barrels in total this month, with 600,000 barrels leaving from each of two terminals still in operation.

Last week, NOC said that it "is deeply concerned about the continuing militarization of its oil facilities and the heavy presence of foreign mercenaries at various oil fields and ports in the east and south of the country."

The presence of mercenaries at the Ras Lanuf petrochemical complex, the Zueitina oil port, and the Zallah field "are a threat and may lead to the destruction of the Libyan people's sole source of revenue," the Libyan oil firm said.

Now, Sanalla has pointed out that a blast at any of the terminals would cost hundreds of billions of dollars in "lost sales opportunities" as well as tens of billions for the reconstruction of the facilities after a hypothetical disaster.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 10)  National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace consultant Randall "Randy" Echanis was killed in his home early Monday morning, his colleagues said.

The 72-year-old Echanis and a neighbor "were killed inside a rented house in Novaliches, Quezon City," according to a statement by Anakpawis Partylist, which Echanis headed.

However, the Quezon City Police District has identified the dead body as a Manuel Santiago, owing to the identification card found with him. It added that the landlady of the apartment confirmed that the name appearing in the ID is similar to how she has known the victim.

QCPD chief Brigadier General Ronnie Montejo said that fingerprint and DNA comparisons must be done in order to validate the claim of NDFP that Santiago is Echanis.

For the meantime, we should stick with the facts of the case, Montejo said.

But NDFP legal consultant Edre Olalia said that to publicly accept the identity of a victim based solely on an ID reportedly found in the crime scene is either naivete, laziness or plain incompetence.

Olalia pointed out that Echanis, as a mass leader and an active participant in peace negotiations, was a public figure.

Surely the police 'intelligence' had a cache of pictures of him with all the interest on his person and activities and with all the funds for police trainings and seminars on police investigation and intelligence, he said.

One look at his bloodied and bruised face leaves no room for any doubt, speculation, ambivalence or paucity of vision. Despite the curious divergence of the name and the photo in the ID, he continued.

Montejo said an investigation is already being conducted into the death of the two men.

What happened?

According to the police, a cursory examination showed that the certain Santiago sustained multiple stab wounds on different parts of his body, while his neighbor who was identified as Louie Tagapia, 48, also sustained a head wound.

Montejo said a downstairs neighbor was awakened at around 1:35 a.m. by a loud noise coming from the apartment unit where the two were eventually found dead.

The police report stated that the witness saw the suspects hurriedly coming out from their apartment when he peeped through the window, before going upstairs to check what happened.

Five unidentified male persons were tagged as suspects in the police report.

Meanwhile, former Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao alleged that Echanis, believed to be one of the victims, was unarmed when police forces raided his house.

"Our anger is beyond words. This is a culture of extrajudicial killings with impunity under the Duterte regime," Casilao said. "This is a declaratory act that national leaders of legal-democratic movement are now targeted to be killed by the Duterte regime."

Echanis, a known peasant leader and activist, was a third nominee of Anakpawis during the 2010 partylist elections.

Other leftist groups condemned the reported killing of Echanis, noting that the incident happened after the passage of the controversial anti-terrorism law, which has raised mounting concerns on possible attacks by state forces among activists.

"This happened even as the new terror law is now in effect. With extrajudicial killings still rampant, a reign of terror would truly ensue with its full implementation," said Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate.

"We have all reasons to believe that this is the handiwork of state forces and mercenaries of the Duterte government," said Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas chair Danilo Ramos.

On late Monday night, Anakpawis Party-list said the body of Echanis was forcibly taken by policemen from his familys chosen funeral home, after his wife already positively identified his body.

"I condemn the persistent harassment of PNP La Loma-QCPD and their brazen act of snatching the remains of my husband Randall 'Randy' Echanis from us," his wife said.

She added that the lifeless body bore "torture marks, multiple stab and gunshot wounds."

The wife said the police claimed "a release order" hasn't been issued yet, and that the cadaver will be brought to Pink Petal Funeral Homes in La Loma under their custody.
Captain Sir Tom Moore has told how he wasnt very scared of the Japanese Imperial Army, despite carrying around a suicide pill in case he was captured.

The 100-year-old Second World War veteran remembered his comrades ahead of VJ Day on Saturday, which will mark 75 years since the surrender of Japan and the effective end of the century-defining conflict.

In an interview with the Radio Times, the NHS fundraising champion recalled his time serving in Burma (now Myanmar) and contracting dengue fever in the sweltering conditions.

Expand Close Captain Sir Tom Moore during a visit to the Army Foundation College in Harrogate (Danny Lawson/PA) PA / Facebook

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He told the magazine: I wasnt very scared. Not really. At one stage we were given a pill that, well, it did you in completely.

That was to swallow in case we were captured and forced to give up information.

The Royal British Legion has announced plans to mark the 75th anniversary of VJ Day (Victory over Japan), to highlight the forgotten history of those who helped bring an end to the Second World War on August 15 1945.

Sir Tom told the Radio Times he did not give in to despair during his time in the Far East, adding: In Burma I never thought of disaster. I always thought we would win and looked forward to the time when we would keep the flag flying in peace.

The full story can be read on the Radio Times website at www.radiotimes.com
Nagasaki on Sunday marked the 75th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city in a ceremony held at the grandiose Peace Statue, with the mayor and survivors urging world leaders to work for a ban on nuclear weapons.

At 11:02 a.m. local time, Nagasaki survivors and others stood in a minute of silence to honor more than 70,000 people who died when the B-29 bomber Bockscar dropped a 4.5-ton plutonium-239 bomb dubbed "Fat Man" on the city.

"As a country that has experienced the horrors of nuclear weapons, please sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and see to its ratification at the earliest possible date, said Tomihisa Taue, Nagasaki mayor. In addition, please examine the plan to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Northeast Asia. Please adhere for eternity to the peaceful principles of the Japanese constitution, which includes the determination not to wage war."

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe laid a wreath at the memorial to remember the victims and made a speech but avoided any direct reference to the treaty.

"The tragedy in Nagasaki and Hiroshima and the suffering caused to its people must never be repeated again, Abe said. As the only country that had experienced nuclear weapons during war, it remains the unchanged mission of our nation to firmly move forward step by step the efforts of the international community towards realizing a world without nuclear weapons."

Japan has not signed the treaty. Many survivors developed cancer or other illnesses because of radioactive contamination.

U.N. Undersecretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu said in a message to the Nagasaki Peace Memorial that the world must return to the understanding that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, adding that there is an urgent need to stop the erosion of the nuclear order. All countries possessing nuclear weapons have an obligation to lead.
Sean "Diddy" Combs, pictured in January 2020, led 100 African-American men including radio host Charlamagne Tha God and civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump in writing to Joe Biden

Rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs led more than 100 prominent African-American men Monday in penning an open letter urging presidential candidate Joe Biden to choose a woman of color as his running mate.

The presumptive Democratic nominee is expected to announce his vice presidential pick in the coming days, ahead of next week's Democratic National Convention.

The group, including radio host Charlamagne Tha God and faith leaders like Reverend William Barber, warned that failing to choose a woman of color would cost Biden the election against President Donald Trump.

"For too long black women have been asked to do everything from rally the troops to risk their lives for the Democratic Party with no acknowledgment, no respect, no visibility, and certainly not enough support," they wrote.

"Failing to select a black woman in 2020 means you will lose the election," they added.

"We don't want to choose between the lesser of two evils and we don't want to vote the devil we know versus the devil we don't because we are tired of voting for devils -- period."

The men said the letter -- also signed by civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump -- is a mark of "solidarity" with some 700 black women leaders who wrote Biden last week calling on him to choose a woman of color.

Both groups highlighted the excessive criticism and scrutiny to which several of the leading contenders for the post, including Senator Kamala Harris and former national security advisor Susan Rice, have been subjected in recent weeks.

Other women in the running are House Democrats Karen Bass and Val Demings, who are black, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and senators Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Duckworth.
A last-minute appeal from one of South Carolina's top politicians failed to sway state Supreme Court's justices, who unanimously rejected a request to reconsider their previous ruling in a lawsuit over whether Charleston residents can oppose a new cruise ship terminal.

The high court on Friday turned down a request to rehear the case weeks after Jay Lucas, speaker of the S.C. House of Representatives, argued that state residents don't automatically have a right to challenge environmental permits even if they'll be affected by their outcome.

Lucas filed a "friend of the court" brief month requesting a rehearing in the years-old case, drawing criticism from project opponents who called his filing "inexcusably late."

The denial means the S.C. Administrative Law Court must now consider evidence and testimony from opponents of the terminal to determine whether the State Ports Authority can get a permit to build the terminal at Union Pier in downtown Charleston. The Supreme Court in February overturned the lower court's 2014 ruling that said people living nearby  as well as historic preservation and environmental groups  didn't have a right to fight the permit issued by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.

Blan Holman, one of the attorneys representing opponents of the terminal, said the high court's decision will have far-reaching environmental consequences.

"We are relieved that the Supreme Court upheld the rights of families and property owners to protect themselves from unlawful pollution," he said. "The State Ports Authority's attempt to gut challenges to illegal DHEC permits would have crippled our ability to protect our beaches from offshore oil drilling and defend our neighborhoods from toxic waste dumps. All South Carolinians should breathe a sigh of relief."

A spokeswoman for the SPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. The authority and DHEC had also asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its earlier ruling.

The Administrative Law Court has not set a date to hear the case.

The ports authority has been trying for years to replace its existing, aging 1970s-era terminal that sits a few hundred yards south of the proposed site. The current building is used primarily by Carnival Cruise Line, which operates year-round trips on its Sunshine ship. Other cruise lines have ports of call at the terminal.

Charleston hosted 217,673 cruise passengers in fiscal 2020, which ended June 30. The authority and the city agreed on a voluntary limit of 104 cruise ships per year and no vessel larger than 3,500 passengers. Cruises have been on hold throughout the U.S. since mid-March because of coronavirus concerns, and Carnival said it won't resume voyages until November at the earliest.

DHEC previously issued a permit that would authorize structural changes to an existing warehouse at Union Pier, the construction of two covered staging areas to handle passengers and luggage, and the installation of five clusters of concrete pilings to support three elevators and two escalators. Opponents sought a review of that permit at the Administrative Law Court, which hears disputes involving state agencies. That set up the current legal challenge.

In addition to the state permit, the SPA will need federal approval from the Army Corps of Engineers to build the terminal. Opponents have challenged that in U.S. District Court. No hearings are scheduled in that case.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France  Mon, August 10, 2020 10:20 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cc0f60 2 World world-leaders,Lebanon,Beirut,Beirut-blast,Beirut-explosion,aid Free

World leaders on Sunday pledged "timely, sufficient" emergency aid for disaster-struck Lebanon which they vowed to deliver "directly" to a population reeling from the deadly port blast in Beirut.

Fifteen government leaders including US President Donald Trump took part in a virtual conference hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and the UN, pledging solidarity with the Lebanese people and promising to muster "major resources" in the coming days and weeks.

A joint statement issued after the emergency meeting in which nearly 30 countries as well as the EU and Arab League participated, did not mention a global amount, but individual nations announced pledges amounting to tens of millions of dollars.

"The participants agreed that their assistance should be timely, sufficient and consistent with the needs of the Lebanese people, well-coordinated under the leadership of the United Nations, and directly delivered to the Lebanese population, with utmost efficiency and transparency," it said.

USAID acting administrator John Barsa also said Sunday that American help, some $15 million announced so far, "is absolutely not going to the government" of Lebanon.

Donor nations urged Lebanon's authorities to "fully commit themselves to timely measures and reforms", both politically and economically, in order to unlock longer-term support for the country's economic and financial recovery.

And they said assistance for "an impartial, credible and independent inquiry" into Tuesday's explosion "is immediately needed and available, upon request of Lebanon."

Lebanon's future 'at stake'

The UN said some $117 million will be needed for an emergency response over the next three months, for health services, emergency shelter, food distribution and programs to prevent further spread of COVID-19, among other interventions.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun, who was on Sunday's group call, thanked Macron for the initiative.

"Much is needed to rebuild what has been destroyed and to restore Beirut's luster," the Lebanese presidency quoted him on Twitter as saying.

"The needs are many and we need to address them quickly, especially before the arrival of winter, which will accentuate the suffering of homeless citizens."

Macron was the first world leader to visit the former French colony after Tuesday's devastating explosion which killed more than 150 people, wounded some 6,000 and left an estimated 300,000 homeless.

While it is not known what started the fire that set off a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate, protesters say the disaster could not have happened without the corruption and incompetence that have come to define Lebanon's ruling class.

At least 21 people are still missing, and the Lebanese army said Sunday hopes of finding survivors are dwindling.

Lebanese people enraged by official negligence blamed for the explosion have taken to the streets in anti-government protests that have resulted in clashes with the army.

Macron said it was now up to the authorities of Lebanon "to act so that the country does not sink, and to respond to the aspirations that the Lebanese people are expressing right now, legitimately, in the streets of Beirut."

"We must all work together to ensure that neither violence nor chaos prevails," he added. "It is the future of Lebanon that is at stake."

Calls for calm

Trump also called for calm, according to the White House, which said he agreed with other leaders to "work closely together in international response efforts."

"President Trump also urged the government of Lebanon to conduct a full and transparent investigation, in which the United States stands ready to assist," it said.

"The President called for calm in Lebanon and acknowledged the legitimate calls of peaceful protestors for transparency, reform, and accountability."

Apart from heads of state and government ministers, Sunday's conference was attended by UN aid coordinator Mark Lowcock, representatives of the World Bank, the Red Cross, the IMF, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Israel, with whom Lebanon has no diplomatic relations, did not participate, though Macron said it had expressed a wish to contribute, nor did Iran which wields huge influence in Lebanon through the Shiite group Hezbollah.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq and the UAE were represented, as were Britain, China, Jordan and Egypt.

Macron said Russia and Turkey, with which France's diplomatic ties have been icy over the Libyan conflict, had indicated their support for the initiative, though they did not take part in the conference.

According to the UN, at least 15 medical facilities, including three major hospitals, sustained structural damage in the blast, and extensive damage was caused to more than 120 schools.

Thousands of people need food and the blast interrupted basic water and sanitation to many neighborhoods.

Pope Francis called Sunday appealed for "generous help" from the international community.

France has been sending tons of medical and food aid, dozens of search and rescue personnel and forensic experts to aid the investigation, as well as reconstruction materials.

On top of cash aid pledged by nations, Egypt and Qatar have promised field hospitals, Brazil said it would send 4,000 tons of rice, and Spain 10 tons of wheat.

"In these horrendous times, Lebanon is not alone," concluded the conference statement.
Bikers descend on Sturgis, South Dakota for annual motorcycle rally - Michael Cioaglo/Getty

An estimated quarter of a million bikers descended on the small South Dakota town of Sturgis in the largest mass gathering in the US since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

They pressed ahead with the rally, which has been an annual event since 1938, despite fears that the gathering could trigger a Covid-19 outbreak not only among the bikers but also among the towns population of just under 7,000.

Social distancing and masks were largely noticeable by their absence as the bikers started arriving en masse over the weekend.

Even Donald Trumps description of mask-wearing as patriotic failed to convince the majority attending the rally.

Many made a point of bragging about their defiance of the guidelines issued by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the US government health watchdog.

Bikers at Sturgis through their support behind General Michael Flynn - Bryan R Smith/AFP

Screw Covid. I went to Sturgis, read one T-shirt which was on sale in the town.

With the bars expected to be packed and an array of concerts staged over the 10 days, health experts fear the rally could turn into a super-spreading event.

Officials in Sturgis have stepped up precautions, including planning mass testing of residents.

Local bars, like the Side Hack Saloon, did try to minimise the risk by spacing out tables and making hand sanitiser available.

Motorcyclists attend the 80th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally - Bryan R Smith/AFP

Bob Graham, 71, who was making his 36th trip to Sturgis, was one of the few to wear a mask for the visit which he describes as annual therapy for himself and his wife.

"We don't want the virus. We want to come up here a few more years yet.

Kristi Noem, South Dakotas Republican governor, has taken a more relaxed approach towards the coronavirus pandemic than her counterparts in other states.

Neither masks nor social distancing were required when Mr Trump held a celebration at Mount Rushmore at the start of the month.

However, the Cheyenne River Reservation has taken a far stronger line, because of the higher incidence of Coronavirus among native Americans.

The Oglala Sioux, which has recorded more than 160 Covid cases and two deaths, mounted checkpoints only allowing people to pass through the reservation if they passed a coronavirus screening questionnaire.
Oakville, Canada, Aug. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Industry wide known author and business transformation expert, Dr Jonathan Reichental will join host Ian Khan on the Ian Khan show in a Canadian First, Livestream Launch of the new book Smart Cities for Dummies on Thursday August 6th, at 1pm EST.

The Smart Cities for Dummies is the latest book in the Dummies series of books published by Wiley Inc, and is aimed at helping readers understand the background, impact and future of urban development. Author, Dr. Jonathan Reichental is an industry veteran and has previously served in high impact positions, including the CIO of the City of Palo Alto. Today Dr Reichental is a globally recognized educator, digital transformation expert and consultant to private and government organizations worldwide.

"Cities are the most successful and complex of human inventions. Theyve lifted billions out of extreme poverty and are now the central mechanism of generating GDP. I wrote this book, not as an academic exercise in theory, but as the worlds first comprehensive how-to guide. Everyone who reads it will be empowered to make their cities better for everyone. said Dr. Reichental.

Dr Reichental will talk about the evolution of the book, why smart cities are important and what we can do to be part of them. Smart Cities of the future are expected to change how we live and provide a promise of a high quality of life, better healthcare, education and job outlook.

Futurist Ian Khan said Today in the era of COVID-19, we have recognized the need for a better infrastructure and lifestyle that helps us prevent disease and promises economic and social stability. Smart Cities may be of a huge significance to this. The Ian Khan Show hosts leaders, experts and visionaries who have ideas to change the world through their exemplary work. Previous guests have included Dr. Shafi Ahmed (the worlds most watched surgeon and virtual reality surgery pioneer), Naveen Jain (Founder of Viome & oon Express), Daniel Stanton (Mr. Supply Chain) and other visionary leaders.

The upcoming livestream features a LIVE interview with Dr. Reichental, and the Canadian debut of the book. Viewers can watch the livestream on YouTube, Facebook and Linkedin Live simultaneously.

Dr. Jonathan Reicenthal Bio

Dr. Jonathan Reichental is a multiple-award-winning technology and business leader whose career has spanned both the private and public sectors. Hes been a senior software engineering manager, a director of technology innovation, and has served as chief information officer at both OReilly Media and the City of Palo Alto, California. He also creates online education for LinkedIn Learning and recently published Smart Cities for Dummies. He can be reached on Twitter: @reichental

About Ian Khan

Ian Khan is a CNN featured Technology Futurist, 3 times TEDx Speaker, Director of highly acclaimed documentary Blockchain City", Bestselling author of 7 Axioms of Value Creation, and contributor to multiple industry publications including Forbes, McGraw Hill, Business.com, AccountingWeb, and Entrepreneur.com. Ian is one of the most widely quoted experts on Blockchain and also the creator of the Future Readiness Score, a revolutionary methodology to help organizations use a data based scientific approach to value creation. The Future Readiness Livestream features innovators, experts and thought leaders to help shape our ideas about the future through strategic idea sharing. More at www.iankhan.com

Instructions to Join

- The Livestream will be broadcast on Thursday, Aug 6, 2020 at 1:00pm EST

- Viewers can watch the Livestream on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedinLive

- Register here for a reminder service https://bit.ly/31jvl6v

News submitted for Ian Khan on https://iankhan1.submitmypressrelease.com

Send Press Relase by KISS PR Story





E-Mail: ian@iankhan.com

Phone: 6478020355

Attachment
Islamabad: An accountability court here on Monday (August 10, 2020) indicted former Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in connection with the Park Lane corruption case.

Zardari appeared before the court via video link from Bilawal House in Karachi and pleaded not guilty. The trial will continue, as per The Express Tribune.

Judge Muhammad Azam Khan heard the case and during the hearing, Zardari said that he cannot be indicted in the absence of lawyers as they are at the Supreme Court.

However, the court rejected Zardari`s plea and said that the former Pakistan President will be indicted and his lawyers would be marked absent if they did not appear before the court.

Others who are accused in the case include Omni Group chief Anwar Majeed, Sher Ali, Farooq Abdullah, Saleem Faisal and Muhammad Hanif. They were also indicted during the hearing.

As per the indictment, Zardari influenced relevant authorities to release loans to front companies during his term as president.

He was accused of being a director of Park Lane firm and planning to commit fraud.

With a mala fide intention, Zardari allegedly got a loan of Rs 1.5 billion for his front company, Parthenon Private Limited, and the amount was transferred for personal use through fake accounts.

The Park Lane corruption case is being probed over Zardari`s alleged involvement in extending the loan and its misappropriation by Parthenon Private Limited under different sections of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999 and the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010, The Express Tribune reported.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has accused Zardari of causing the national exchequer a loss of Rs 3.77 billion through fake bank accounts.

In a 13-page NAB reference against the former president and other accused, the NAB alleged that the accused created Benami properties through Park Lane Company, using Parthenon Private Limited as the front organisation
09.08.2020 LISTEN

The Ghana Chamber of Communications has refuted the claim that the implementation of the Common Platform (CP) has uncovered under-declared taxes by mobile network operators.

The Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful was answering questions on the floor of Parliament on Friday, August 7, 2020, when she said an estimated amount of GHS300 million in taxes was saved between the first quarter of 2017 to date as a result of the implementation of the CP.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber, Kenneth Ashigbey in a statement, however, rejected the claim.

He pointed out that network operators have over the years shown an exemplary record of tax compliance as well as delivering on all their tax obligations.

While asking the government to engage members of the Chamber before making such claims, Mr Ashigbey also expressed his outfits willingness to address these allegations.

We are humbly entreating the Government to engage with our members and all other industry players on serious reputational issues such as these before conclusions are drawn and same circulated with the public.

We also will seek an audience with Parliament through the Select Committee on Communications in the ensuing days to engage them adequately in addressing these allegations which have serious reputational effects on our businesses both in and out of Ghana.

The Minister for Finance and the Minister for Communications are to establish a common platform as a mechanism for verifying the actual revenues service providers accrue for the purpose of computing taxes.

KelniGVG was hence contracted in 2017, to build and operate the Common Monitoring Platform which is an integrated single platform connecting to nodes in the networks of all Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and the Interconnect Clearinghouse (ICH) where traffic and revenues can be monitored.

The Platform has four main components, that is fraud management, traffic monitoring, revenue assurance and mobile money monitoring.

More clarity needed

Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Sam George has also asked the government to provide more clarity on the revelation that millions in under-declared taxes were saved in the telecommunications sector since the implementation of the Common Platform.

He further said the government needed to be impressed upon to commence prosecution of these MNOs [Mobile Network Operators] if the claim by the Minister is true.

---citinewsroom
Trump has warned that widespread voting by mail will result in the most corrupt election in our nations history, at one point suggesting that delaying the election until the pandemic eases would be a preferable option. He says he supports use of absentee ballots as in past elections -- by voters who request one in advance because they have an Election Day conflict -- but objects to making them broadly available to most or all voters, requested or not. With millions of mail-in ballots being sent out, who knows where they are going, and to whom? he tweeted on June 22. Theres no evidence that voting by mail opens the door to widespread fraud and little evidence to support another Trump contention, that vote-by-mail doesnt work out well for Republicans.
India to halt 101 military imports in push for defence self-reliance - Rajnath Singh Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh attends a meeting with Japanese Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya (not pictured) at the Defence Ministry in Tokyo

By Swati Bhat

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India will stop importing 101 items of military equipment in an effort to boost domestic defence production, defence minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday.

Singh said the move follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for defence self-reliance. India is one of the world's top arms importers.

India has accelerated military purchases in the wake of a June border clash between Indian and Chinese troops, with the government approving the purchase of 33 Russian fighter jets and upgrades to 59 other planes in July.

Tensions between India and China are at their highest in years following the clash in a disputed stretch of border in the western Himalayas in which India lost 20 soldiers.

Military experts say India is short of combat planes, helicopters and field guns because of years of low funding.

"The embargo on imports is planned to be progressively implemented between 2020 to 2024," Singh wrote in a series of tweets.

"Our aim is to apprise the Indian defence industry about the anticipated requirements of the Armed Forces so that they are better prepared to realise the goal of indigenisation."

India traditionally buys military equipment from Russia, but is increasingly purchasing from the United States and Israel. Modi has repeatedly called for cutting the military's dependence of expensive imports.

Between April 2015 and August 2020, the Indian defence services had contracted around 3.5 trillion rupees worth of items that are now on the hold list.

The government estimates around 4 trillion rupees worth of orders will now be placed with the domestic industry over the next five to seven years.

The list of embargoed items includes high technology weapon systems, artillery guns, sonar systems, transport aircrafts, light combat helicopters (LCHs), Singh said.

The defence ministry has also split the capital procurement budget for 2020/21 between domestic and foreign procurement routes, he added.

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"A separate budget head has been created with an outlay of nearly 520 billion rupees for domestic capital procurement in the current financial year."

($1 = 75.0120 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Swati Bhat; Editing by William Mallard and Michael Perry)
Now some local districts are coming up short.

Jennings plans to have most students do all classes remotely. Roughly a third  generally younger students and those with special needs, said Superintendent Art McCoy  will learn partially in-person, on alternating days.

And Jennings has enough devices for grades one to 12, McCoy said. But for preschoolers and kindergartners, the district is aiming to provide touchscreen devices. McCoy said a touchscreen device is preferable for a younger child, because it is easier than using a computer mouse.

About two months ago, the district paid for 175 touchscreen Chromebooks, McCoy said. But he doesnt expect theyll arrive by Aug. 24, when school starts.

McCoy said he believes vendors have had trouble keeping up with the volume.

We were one-device-to-every-family in 2017, McCoy said. Now, he said, the goal is one device per every child.
Sushant Singh Rajput Case: WhatsApp Messages Dont Count As Evidence For Police To File FIR, Says Advocate
EDWARDSVILLE  Sivia Law has expanded to South County, Missouri and welcomed a new attorney, Jeff Wagener.

Wagener has been a practicing attorney for 30 years.

We are excited that we are continuing to grow and that we have the ability to hire great attorneys like Jeff, stated owner of Sivia Law, Todd Sivia. Jeffs personal and professional experience make him a great fit for the Sivia Law family.

Founded in 2006, Sivia Law has recently added offices in East Alton and South County, Missouri. The South County location is at 10024 Office Center Ave. Suite 202 in St. Louis.

Wagener will focus on business, real estate, special needs, and elder law.

I have been interested in working with a growing, mid-size firm, Wagener said, When I learned of Sivia Laws value of putting family first, I was sold. I am excited for what this new opportunity has in store for me.

For more about Sivia Law visit www.sivialaw.com; call 314-782-4499 or 618-659-4499; or email info@sivialaw.com.
Dublin, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Adhesive Tapes Market, Resin Type, By Region; Trend Analysis, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2016-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The in-depth analysis of the report provides the growth potential, upcoming trends, and statistics of the Global Adhesive Tapes Market size & forecast. The report promises to provide state-of-the-art technology of Global Adhesive Tapes Market and industry insights, which help decision-makers to make sound strategic decisions. Furthermore, the report also analyzes the market drivers, challenges, and competitive analysis of the market.



Global Adhesive Tapes Market estimated to reach USD 85.9 billion by 2026



The surge in disposable income, alterations in lifestyles of the people and increased dependency on electronic devices' usage are expanding the sales of electronic devices in Asian countries. The tendency toward miniaturization of electronic devices, especially cell phones, portable personal computers, and tablets, is a central element driving the adhesive tapes market internationally.



Adhesive tapes are widely deployed in various automotive applications such as wire harnessing, electric insulation, and automotive body repairs, masking, and surface protection. The surge in usage of adhesive tapes in automotive interior parts to deliver improved confrontation and excellent bond-ability is likely to push the adhesive tapes market during the prediction period. Demand for adhesive tapes has been surging in the packaging-end-use industry due to its wide range of applications in unitizing, palletizing, carton sealing, bundling, and general packaging.



Double-coated tapes are expected to substitute old-style sealing and adhesion techniques, due to their rise in ingesting due to their stability, excellent surface adhesion, and high shear strength. Strong production base, the rapid growth of the automotive sector, and replacement of bolts, traditional fasteners, screws, and rivets with adhesive tapes are projected to push the adhesive tapes market through the globe.



Single-coated adhesive tapes captured the global adhesive tapes market in 2018. Single-coated tapes contain adhesive applied to one side of a support. The adhesive could be composed of silicone, natural rubber, or acrylic, while the backing material could be paper, foil, nonwoven, polymeric film, or high thread count weaved cloth. These tapes, which comprise masking, medical tapes, carton sealing, electrical, and BOPP adhesives, facilitate the closeness of a material with a surface and the joining of two adjacent or overlying materials.



Growth Drivers



Rising usage of adhesive tapes in diverse applications



The widespread practice of adhesive tape usage in various industries such as automotive and food and beverage is an essential factor propelling the market. Automotive manufacturers are progressively accepting adhesive tapes in place of mechanical fasteners such as bolts and screws to decrease the vehicles' weight and provide better fuel efficiency. The growth of the healthcare sector is another factor in promoting the market growth. The sector uses adhesive tapes majorly for wound care, assembly of medical devices, attributing electrodes on the skin, and fixing cover shields during surgeries.



Besides, skin-friendly adhesive tapes are extensively applied in the manufacturing of infant and adult diapers. Moreover, the rising demand for eco-friendly water-based adhesive products joined with the introduction of recyclable tapes made from biodegradable polymers has increased the market development. Furthermore, the rising trend of online shopping is feeding the demand for retail packaging and distribution materials, which has resulted in an increased obligation of adhesive tapes across the sphere.



Increasing demand for adhesive tapes in Asia-Pacific



The Asia Pacific region is anticipated to fetch a promising rate in the coming years owing to the growth in technology. Furthermore, raw materials are readily available in the Asia Pacific, and the manufacturing infrastructure is advancing as per the needs of the units. Middle East & Africa is also a prominent market for adhesive tapes due to the substantial rise in commercial & substructure activities and current low market saturation in the region.



Competitive Landscape



APAC is a significant primary adhesive tapes market and is predicted to be the fastest-growing market during the forecast period. The region is seeing healthy development due to ongoing R&D progressions and other related activities in healthcare, electrical & electronics, and automotive industries.



The adhesive tapes market in developing economies, such as South Africa, China, India, Brazil, and Indonesia, is expected to witness significant development. In contrast, more advanced markets such as the US, Germany, Japan, and the UK, will see slow or no growth during the prediction period. China is probably the major contributor, mostly led by the high demand from heavy industries and consumer product manufacturing segments.



Socio-economic growth donates to the development of the global adhesive tapes market in the country. Besides, the low cost of raw materials and easy accessibility of inexpensive labor for their manufacturing have induced the augmented production of low-priced tapes in APAC, which has funded to the development of the adhesive tapes market in this region.



Some of the leading players operating in the Global Adhesive Tapes Market are 3M Company (US), Tesa SE (Germany), Nitto Denko Corporation (Japan), Lintec Corporation (Japan), Intertape Polymer Group (Canada), Avery Dennison Corporation (US), Lohmann GmbH (Germany), Berry Global Inc. (US), Scapa Group PLC (Canada), and Rogers Corporation (US), 3M Company (US) and other prominent players.



Key Topics Covered



1. Research Framework



2. Research Methodology



3. Executive Summary



4. Global Adhesive Tapes Industry Insights

4.1. Industry Value Chain Analysis

4.2. DROC Analysis

4.2.1. Growth Drivers

4.2.2. Restraint

4.2.3. Opportunities

4.2.4. Challenges

4.3. Technological Landscape/Recent Development

4.4. Regulatory Framework

4.5. Company Market Share Analysis, 2019

4.6. Porter's Five Forces Analysis

4.7. Impact of COVID-19



5. Global Adhesive Tapes market Overview

5.1. Market Size & Forecast by Value, 2016-2026

5.1.1. By Value (USD Million)

5.2. Market Share & Forecast

5.2.1. By Resin Type

5.2.2. By Backing material

5.2.3. By Technology

5.2.4. By Category

5.2.5. By Industry

5.2.6. By Region



6. North America Adhesive Tapes Market



7. Europe Adhesive Tapes market



8. Asia-Pacific Adhesive Tapes Market



9. Latin America Adhesive Tapes Market



10. Middle East & Africa Adhesive Tapes Market



11. Company Profiles

(Company Overview, Financial Matrix, Key Product Landscape, Key Personnel, Key Competitors, Contact Address, and Strategic Outlook)

11.1. 3M Company

11.2. Tesa SE

11.3. Nitto Denko Corporation

11.4. Lintec Corporation

11.5. Intertape Polymer Group

11.6. Avery Dennison Corporation

11.7. Lohmann GmbH

11.8. Berry Global Inc.

11.9. Scapa Group PLC

11.10. Rogers Corporation

11.11. Other Prominent Players



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/dbq8os

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Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900




A massive fire broke out on Monday at a multi-storeyed building in Pollock Street in Central Kolkata. At least 15 fire tenders were rushed to the spot. More fire tenders are being pressed into service.

All the people have been safely evacuated despite the severity of the fire. No one is inside the building.

The fire has spread to the entire floor and is yet to be brought under control.

This is a developing story. More details are awaited.
President Donald Trump takes questions from the media on the tarmac at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., on Aug. 9, 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump Calls on Portland Mayor to Use National Guard Amid Unrest

The city of Portland should call in the Oregon National Guard to deal with months of rioting, protests, and general unrest, said President Donald Trump in a statement on Monday.

Portland, which is out of control, should finally, after almost 3 months, bring in the National Guard. The Mayor and Governor are putting peoples lives at risk. They will be held responsible. The Guard is ready to act immediately. The Courthouse is secured by Homeland! he wrote on Twitter.

His posts on Twitter come as a riot was declared in Portland on Sunday night as police officers attempted to curb unrest. Protesters marched on a police union building before throwing objects at officers, blocked a road, set fires, and more, according to news reports.

Authorities arrested 16 people during protest-turned-riot, reported KATU. They were either arrested for disorderly conduct or interfering with a police officer, or both.

A riot was also declared on Saturday evening outside the police union building. Officials in the city said the demonstrators threw fireworks at officers in that incident.

Portland police hang off the side of a riot van while searching for protesters in the Laurelhurst neighborhood after dispersing a crowd of about 200 people from in front of the Multnomah County Sheriffs Office in Portland, Ore., early in the morning on Aug. 8, 2020. (Nathan Howard/AP Photo)

Portland police officers arrest a woman during rioting in Portland, Ore., in an Aug. 1, 2020, file photograph. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

Following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, protests and riots have occurred every night for more than 70 days straight. But demonstrations in the past week have become more and more violent, forcing police to declare a riot.

Trump, meanwhile, has been critical of the violence for weeks while laying the blame on Mayor Ted Wheeler. Last week, Wheeler, a Democrat, asserted that demonstrators in one instance were attempting to commit murder after individuals attempted to trap officers inside a police precinct building and allegedly tried to set fire to the structure.

Dont think for a moment that if you are participating in this activity, you are not being a prop for the reelection campaign of Donald Trumpbecause you absolutely are, Wheeler said, according to The Associated Press. If you dont want to be part of that, then dont show up.

Capt. Tony Passadore, who was the incident commander during the incident, said in a news conference: I dont want people to get confused to think that this was something related to Black Lives Matter.

Ive been the incident commander for 24 nights of the 70-plus events, and Ive seen amazing protesting going on in the city of Portland where people gather together, he said.
NEW YORK, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bluerock Residential Growth REIT, Inc. (NYSE American: BRG) ("the Company"), an owner of highly amenitized multifamily apartment communities, announced today its financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2020.

"We are encouraged by increases in same store occupancy and average rent, along with an improvement in operating margins over the prior year period given the challenges of COVID-19. We appreciate the efforts of our dedicated team that strives to ensure that our properties maintain their high standard of service in spite of COVID-19," said Ramin Kamfar, Company Chairman and CEO. "Our rental collections continue to reflect the quality and stability of our investments in highly amenitized, live/work/play apartment communities in knowledge-based job economies such as health care, technology, education, sciences and finance sectors, as we acknowledge there could be some challenges in the future due to the further impact of COVID-19. The proceeds from the property sales and Series T Preferred Stock raises, and our deliberate slowdown in investment activity, increased our cash position so that we can effectively navigate the current environment and be positioned for growth opportunities."

Second Quarter Highlights

Total revenues grew 1.1% to $53.0 million for the quarter from $52.4 million in the prior year period.

for the quarter from in the prior year period. Net income attributable to common stockholders for the second quarter of 2020 was $0.61 per share, as compared to net loss attributable to common stockholders of ($0.50) per share in the prior year period.

per share, as compared to net loss attributable to common stockholders of per share in the prior year period. Property Net Operating Income ("NOI") grew 5.5% to $29.1 million , from $27.6 million in the prior year period.

, from in the prior year period. Same store occupancy increased 90 basis points and same store average rent increased 1.6%.

Improved operating margins by 170 basis points year over year to 61.1%.

Same store revenue and NOI decreased 0.4% and 1.1% respectively, as compared to the prior year period.

Portfolio occupancy was 95.3% at June 30, 2020 , up 130 basis points from the prior year.

, up 130 basis points from the prior year. Collected 97% of rents, including payment plans of 1%, for the three months ended June 30, 2020 , including the properties underlying its preferred and mezzanine loan investments.

, including the properties underlying its preferred and mezzanine loan investments. Core funds from operations attributable to common shares and units ("CFFO") was $5.1 million , compared to $6.7 million in the prior year period. CFFO per share was $0.15 for the second quarter as compared to $0.22 in the prior year period. CFFO was impacted by the company's strategic decision to reduce its investment pace in the near term and to increase its cash position.

, compared to in the prior year period. CFFO per share was for the second quarter as compared to in the prior year period. CFFO was impacted by the company's strategic decision to reduce its investment pace in the near term and to increase its cash position. Consolidated real estate investments, at cost, were approximately $2.1 billion .

. Completed preferred equity and mezzanine loan investments totaling $16 million , including in one multifamily community totaling 328 units in Jacksonville, Florida , additional funding for six multifamily developments and the buyout of the noncontrolling interest in one asset for $3.5 million .

, including in one multifamily community totaling 328 units in , additional funding for six multifamily developments and the buyout of the noncontrolling interest in one asset for . In April 2020 , closed on sales of three properties for $160 million which contracts were entered into pre-COVID-19.

, closed on sales of three properties for which contracts were entered into pre-COVID-19. Completed 39 value-add unit upgrades during the quarter achieving an average 23.3% ROI.

Paid quarterly dividend of $0.1625 in cash per share of common stock.

in cash per share of common stock. Raised $42.8 million through its continuous registered Series T Preferred Stock offering in the quarter.

through its continuous registered Series T Preferred Stock offering in the quarter. As of June 30, 2020 , the Company had $236.2 million of unrestricted cash and availability under its revolving credit facilities.

, the Company had of unrestricted cash and availability under its revolving credit facilities. Expanded stock repurchase program to include repurchases of traded preferred stock.

Included later in this release are definitions of NOI, CFFO and other Non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations of such measures to their most comparable financial measures as calculated and presented under GAAP.

COVID-19 Pandemic Update

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company executed on actions to prioritize the health and well-being of its tenants, business partners, service providers and employees, while striving to provide the highest quality living experience possible and facilitating virtual leasing and services.

The Company continues to monitor COVID-19's impact on its business, properties, tenants, partners and employees and the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rental revenues and overall financial performance remains uncertain.

Post-Quarter Operational Performance

As of July 31, 2020 , the Company has collected 97% of July rents from its multifamily properties, including payment plans of 1%.

, the Company has collected 97% of July rents from its multifamily properties, including payment plans of 1%. Occupancy remains strong at 95.4% as of July 31, 2020 .

Current Liquidity

Due to the uncertainties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company took a number of measures to increase its liquidity and believes it has sufficient liquidity through this uncertain period.

The Company has approximately $205 million in unrestricted cash and availability under its revolving credit facilities as of July 31, 2020 .

in unrestricted cash and availability under its revolving credit facilities as of . Over $29 million has been raised from the Company's continuous registered Series T Preferred Stock offering since June 30, 2020 .

Second Quarter 2020 Financial Results

Net income attributable to common stockholders for the second quarter of 2020 was $15.1 million, compared to net loss attributable to common stockholders of $11.0 million in the prior year period. Net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders included non-cash expenses of $19.0 million or $0.79 per share in the second quarter of 2020 compared to $15.9 million or $0.72 per share for the prior year period.

CFFO for the second quarter of 2020 was $5.1 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, compared to $6.7 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, in the prior year period. CFFO was primarily driven by growth in property NOI of $1.5 million, preferred returns of $0.7 million, and a decrease in interest expense of $0.6 million. This was primarily offset by a year-over-year decrease in interest income of $0.6 million, an increase in general and administrative expense of $0.5 million and preferred stock dividends of $3.2 million. CFFO was impacted by the company's strategic decision to reduce its investment pace in the near term and to increase its cash position.

Total Portfolio Performance























$ In thousands, except average rental

rates 2Q20

2Q19

Variance

YTD20

YTD19

Variance

Total Revenues (1) $ 53,033

$ 52,437

1.1%

$109,274

$ 103,902

5.2%

Property Operating Expenses $ 18,571

$ 18,868

(1.6%)

$ 37,870

$ 37,470

1.1%

NOI $ 29,124

$ 27,596

5.5%

$ 60,177

$ 54,683

10.0%

Operating Margin 61.1%

59.4%

170 bps 61.4%

59.3%

210 bps Occupancy Percentage 94.4%

93.8%

60 bps 94.3%

93.8%

50 bps Average Rental Rate $ 1,330

$ 1,312

1.4%

$ 1,330

$ 1,306

1.8%

(1) Including interest income from related parties

















For the second quarter of 2020, property revenues increased by 2.6% compared to the same prior year period. Total portfolio NOI was $29.1 million, an increase of $1.5 million, or 5.5%, compared to the same period in the prior year. Property NOI margins expanded by 170 basis points to 61.1% of revenue for the quarter, compared to 59.4% of revenue in the prior year quarter.

Same Store Portfolio Performance























$ In thousands, except average rental

rates 2Q20

2Q19

Variance

YTD20

YTD19

Variance

Revenues $ 35,113

$ 35,265

(0.4%)

$ 70,909

$ 69,987

1.3%

Property Operating Expenses $ 13,897

$ 13,804

0.7%

$ 27,870

$ 27,286

2.1%

NOI $ 21,216

$ 21,461

(1.1%)

$ 43,039

$ 42,701

0.8%

Operating Margin 60.4%

60.9%

(50) bps 60.7%

61.0%

(30) bps Occupancy Percentage 94.7%

93.8%

90 bps 94.5%

94.1%

40 bps Average Rental Rate $ 1,342

$ 1,321

1.6%

$ 1,344

$ 1,313

2.4%



The Company's same store portfolio for the quarter ended June 30, 2020 included 24 properties. For the second quarter of 2020, same store NOI was $21.2 million, a decrease of $0.2 million, or 1.1%, compared to the same period in the prior year. Same store property revenues decreased by 0.4% compared to the same prior year period, primarily driven by a 90-basis point increase in occupancy and 1.6% increase in average rental rates as twenty of the Company's twenty-four same store properties recognized rental rate increases during the period, but offset by $0.7 million increase in bad debt expense and $0.3 million less in ancillary income, such as termination fees and late fees, due to the impact of COVID-19 and related Federal and state eviction moratoriums.

Same store expenses increased 0.7%, or $0.09 million, primarily due to non-controllable expenses; real estate taxes increased $0.35 million from prior year due to municipality tax increases and insurance expenses increased $0.15 million due to industrywide multifamily price increases. The increases were partially offset by a $0.20 million decrease in discretionary seasonal maintenance due to COVID-19 and $0.13 million decrease in turnover costs from increased tenant retention.

Renovation Activity

The Company completed 39 value-add unit upgrades during the second quarter achieving a 23.3% ROI. Since inception, within the existing portfolio, the Company has completed 2,804 value-add unit upgrades at an average cost of $5,834 per unit and achieved an average monthly rental rate increase of $114 per unit, equating to a 23.5% ROI on all unit upgrades leased as of June 30, 2020. The Company has identified approximately 4,572 remaining units within the existing portfolio for value-add upgrades with similar projected economics to the completed renovations. Due to the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 impact, the Company has temporarily suspended interior renovations at several properties subject to better visibility on the economic recovery, and now expects to complete between 200 and 400 unit renovations in 2020.

Portfolio Activity

The Company completed the following investments:

Made a preferred equity investment in the Strategic Portfolio totaling $3.9 million into the final portfolio operating asset with 328-units called The Commons, located in Jacksonville, Florida .

into the final portfolio operating asset with 328-units called The Commons, located in . Funded $12.5 million under existing preferred and mezzanine loan commitments in six investments.

under existing preferred and mezzanine loan commitments in six investments. Bought out the noncontrolling interest in The Brodie, in Austin, Texas for $3.5 million and increased our ownership to 100%.

The Company completed the following sales activities:

Closed on the sale of Ashton Reserve for $84.6 million on April 14, 2020 generating net proceeds to the Company of $31.2 million .

on generating net proceeds to the Company of . Closed on the sale of Marquis at TPC for $22.5 million on April 17, 2020 generating net proceeds to the Company of $5.3 million .

on generating net proceeds to the Company of . Closed on the sale of Enders Place at Baldwin Park for $53.2 million on April 21, 2020 generating net proceeds to the Company of $24.0 million .

Balance Sheet

As of June 30, 2020, the Company had $236.2 million of unrestricted cash and availability under its revolving credit facilities, and $1.5 billion of indebtedness outstanding.

During the second quarter, the Company raised gross proceeds of approximately $42.8 million through the issuance of 1.7 million shares of Series T Preferred Stock at $25.00 per share. The Series T Preferred Stock continuous offering offers 20,000,000 preferred shares in the primary offering, along with 12,000,000 preferred shares pursuant to a dividend reinvestment plan. The preferred shares are offered at $25.00 per share and pay cumulative monthly dividends at a 6.15% annual rate, along with an annual stock dividend of up to 0.2% for five years.

The Company repurchased 163,068, 27,905, and 76,264 shares of Series A, C, and D Cumulative Preferred Stock during the second quarter at an average price of $22.84, $23.00, and $22.75 per share, respectively, under its $50.0 million share repurchase plan announced in December 2019.

Dividend

The Board of Directors authorized, and the Company declared, a quarterly cash dividend for the second quarter of 2020 equal to a quarterly rate of $0.1625 per share on its Class A and Class C common stock, payable to the stockholders of record as of June 25, 2020, and was paid on July 2, 2020. A portion of each dividend may constitute a return of capital for tax purposes.

The Board of Directors authorized, and the Company declared, a quarterly cash dividend on its 8.250% Series A Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock for the second quarter of 2020, in the amount of $0.515625 per share. In addition, the Board of Directors authorized, and the Company declared, a quarterly cash dividend on its 7.625% Series C Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock for the second quarter of 2020, in the amount of $0.4765625 per share. Further, the Board of Directors authorized, and the Company declared, a quarterly cash dividend on its 7.125% Series D Cumulative Preferred Stock for the second quarter of 2020, in the amount of $0.4453125 per share. The dividends were payable to the stockholders of record as of June 25, 2020, and were paid on July 2, 2020.

The Board of Directors authorized, and the Company declared, a monthly dividend of $5.00 per share of Series B Preferred Stock, payable to the stockholders of record as of April 24, 2020, May 22, 2020, and June 25, 2020 which were paid in cash on May 5, 2020, June 5, 2020 and July 2, 2020, respectively.

The Board of Directors authorized, and the Company declared a monthly dividend of $0.128125 per share of Series T Preferred Stock, prorated on the basis of the actual number of days in the applicable dividend period during which each share was outstanding. Such pro-rated dividends were payable to the stockholders of record as of April 24, 2020, May 22, 2020, and June 25, 2020, which were paid in cash on May 5, 2020, June 5, 2020, and July 2, 2020, respectively.

On July 10, 2020, the Board of Directors authorized, and the Company declared, a monthly dividend of $5.00 per share of Series B Preferred Stock, payable to the stockholders of record as of July 24, 2020, which was paid in cash on August 5, 2020, and as of August 25, 2020, and September 25, 2020, which will be paid in cash on September 4, 2020 and October 5, 2020, respectively.

On July 10, 2020, the Board of Directors authorized, and the Company declared a monthly dividend of $0.128125 per share of Series T Preferred Stock, prorated on the basis of the actual number of days in the applicable dividend period during which each share was outstanding. Such pro-rated dividends are payable to the stockholders of record as of July 24, 2020, which was paid in cash on August 5, 2020, and as of August 25, 2020, and September 25, 2020, which will be paid in cash on September 4, 2020 and October 5, 2020, respectively.

2020 Guidance

The Company withdrew its full year 2020 guidance on May 11, 2020, due to inherent uncertainty regarding the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conference Call

All interested parties can listen to the live conference call at 11:00 AM ET on Monday, August 10, 2020 by dialing +1 (866) 843-0890 within the U.S., or +1 (412) 317-6597, and requesting the "Bluerock Residential Conference."

For those who are not available to listen to the live call, the conference call will be available for replay on the Company's website two hours after the call concludes, and will remain available until September 10, 2020 at http://services.choruscall.com/links/brg200810.html, as well as by dialing +1 (877) 344-7529 in the U.S., or +1 (412) 317-0088 internationally, and requesting conference number 10146336.

The full text of this Earnings Release and additional Supplemental Information is available in the Investor Relations section on the Company's website at http://www.bluerockresidential.com.

About Bluerock Residential Growth REIT, Inc.

Bluerock Residential Growth REIT, Inc. (NYSE American: BRG) is a real estate investment trust that focuses on developing and acquiring a diversified portfolio of institutional-quality highly amenitized live/work/play apartment communities in demographically attractive knowledge economy growth markets to appeal to the renter by choice. The Company's objective is to generate value through off-market/relationship-based transactions and, at the asset level, through value add improvements to properties and operations. The Company is included in the Russell 2000 and Russell 3000 Indexes. BRG has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust (REIT) for U.S. federal income tax purposes.

For more information, please visit the Company's website at www.bluerockresidential.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements are based upon the Company's present expectations, but these statements are not guaranteed to occur. Furthermore, the Company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect changes in underlying assumptions or factors, of new information, data or methods, future events or other changes. Investors should not place undue reliance upon forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, the Company's actual results and performance could differ materially from those set forth in these forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Currently, one of the most significant factors is the potential adverse effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and performance of the Company and its tenants, partners and employees, as well as the real estate market and the global economy and financial markets. The extent to which COVID-19 impacts the Company and its tenants, partners and employees will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, including the scope, severity and duration of the pandemic, the actions taken to contain the pandemic or mitigate its impact (including governmental actions that may vary by jurisdiction, such as mandated business closing; stay-at-home orders; limits on group activity; and actions to protect residential tenants from eviction), and the direct and indirect economic effects of the pandemic and containment measures, including national and local employment rates and the corresponding impact on the Company's tenants' ability to pay their rent on time or at all, among others. For further discussion of the factors that could affect outcomes, please refer to the risk factors set forth in Item 1A of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed by the Company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on February 24, 2020, and subsequent filings by the Company with the SEC. We claim the safe harbor protection for forward looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Portfolio Summary

The following is a summary of our operating real estate and mezzanine/preferred/ground lease investments as of June 30, 2020:

Consolidated Operating

Properties

Location

Number

of Units

Year Built/

Renovated (1)

Ownership

Interest

Average

Rent (2)

%

Occupied (3)





























ARIUM Glenridge

Atlanta, GA

480

1990

90%

$ 1,279

93.1%

ARIUM Grandewood

Orlando, FL

306

2005

100%

1,437

95.4%

ARIUM Hunter's Creek

Orlando, FL

532

1999

100%

1,444

96.1%

ARIUM Metrowest

Orlando, FL

510

2001

100%

1,451

95.3%

ARIUM Westside

Atlanta, GA

336

2008

90%

1,545

93.2%

Ashford Belmar

Lakewood, CO

512

1988/1993

85%

1,646

97.3%

Avenue 25

Phoenix, AZ

254

2013

100%

1,198

96.1%

Cade Boca Raton

Boca Raton, FL

90

2019

81%

2,851

94.4%

Chattahoochee Ridge

Atlanta, GA

358

1996

90%

1,355

95.3%

Citrus Tower

Orlando, FL

336

2006

97%

1,365

93.5%

Denim

Scottsdale, AZ

645

1979

100%

1,225

96.9%

Element

Las Vegas, NV

200

1995

100%

1,251

96.5%

Falls at Forsyth

Cumming, GA

356

2019

100%

1,370

88.2%

Gulfshore Apartment Homes

Naples, FL

368

2016

100%

1,295

92.9%

James on South First

Austin, TX

250

2016

90%

1,331

97.6%

Marquis at The Cascades

Tyler, TX

582

2009

90%

1,229

94.0%

Navigator Villas

Pasco, WA

176

2013

90%

1,096

96.0%

Outlook at Greystone

Birmingham, AL

300

2007

100%

1,038

97.0%

Park & Kingston

Charlotte, NC

168

2015

100%

1,327

94.6%

Pine Lakes Preserve

Port St. Lucie, FL

320

2003

100%

1,338

97.8%

Plantation Park

Lake Jackson, TX

238

2016

80%

1,315

95.8%

Providence Trail

Mount Juliet, TN

334

2007

100%

1,251

95.5%

Roswell City Walk

Roswell, GA

320

2015

98%

1,568

95.9%

Sands Parc

Daytona Beach, FL

264

2017

100%

1,375

94.7%

The Brodie

Austin, TX

324

2001

100%

1,319

96.9%

The District at Scottsdale

Scottsdale, AZ

332

2018

100%

1,864

74.4%

The Links at Plum Creek

Castle Rock, CO

264

2000

88%

1,424

97.0%

The Mills

Greenville, SC

304

2013

100%

1,049

94.7%

The Preserve at Henderson Beach

Destin, FL

340

2009

100%

1,482

95.0%

The Reserve at Palmer Ranch

Sarasota, FL

320

2016

100%

1,331

96.3%

The Sanctuary

Las Vegas, NV

320

1988

100%

1,059

98.4%

Veranda at Centerfield

Houston, TX

400

1999

93%

990

96.0%

Villages of Cypress Creek

Houston, TX

384

2001

80%

1,169

95.3%

Wesley Village

Charlotte, NC

301

2010

100%

1,363

94.0%

Subtotal/Average

11,524









$ 1,329 (4) (5) 95.3% (4)



























Mezzanine/Preferred/Ground

Lease Investments

Location

Planned

Number

of Units









Pro Forma

Average

Rent





Alexan CityCentre

Houston, TX

340









$ 1,800 (2)



Alexan Southside Place

Houston, TX

270









1,716 (2)



Arlo

Charlotte, NC

286









1,507





Belmont Crossing

Smyrna, GA

192









772 (2)



Domain at The One Forty

Garland, TX

299









1,410 (2)



Georgetown Crossing

Savannah, GA

168









938 (2)



Mira Vista

Austin, TX

200









1,035 (2)



Motif

Fort Lauderdale, FL

385









2,352





North Creek Apartments

Leander, TX

259









1,358





Novel Perimeter

Atlanta, GA

320









1,749





Park on the Square

Pensacola, FL

240









1,067 (2)



Riverside Apartments

Austin, TX

222









1,408





Sierra Terrace

Atlanta, GA

135









1,192 (2)



Sierra Village

Atlanta, GA

154









1,091 (2)



The Commons

Jacksonville, FL

328









819 (2)



The Park at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC

*









*





Thornton Flats

Austin, TX

104









1,517 (2)



Vickers Historic Roswell

Roswell, GA

79









3,176





Wayforth at Concord

Concord, NC

150









1,707





Zoey

Austin, TX

307









1,762





Subtotal/Average

4,438









$ 1,512

































Portfolio Properties Total/Average

15,962









$ 1,380 (4) (6)









(1) Represents date of last significant renovation or year built if no renovations.

(2) Represents the average effective monthly rent per occupied unit for the three months ended June 30, 2020.

(3) Percent occupied is calculated as (i) the number of units occupied as of June 30, 2020, divided by (ii) total number of units, expressed as a percentage.

(4) Excludes The District at Scottsdale, which is in lease-up.

(5) The average effective monthly rent including sold properties was $1,330 for the three months ended June 30, 2020.

(6) The average effective monthly rent was not impacted by the sold properties for the three months ended June 30, 2020.

* The development is in the planning phase; project specifications are in process.

































Consolidated Statement of Operations

For the Three and Six Months Ended June 30, 2020 and 2019

(Unaudited and dollars in thousands except for share and per share data)





Three Months Ended



Six Months Ended





June 30,



June 30,





2020



2019



2020



2019

Revenues































Rental and other property revenues

$ 47,695



$ 46,464



$ 98,047



$ 92,153

Interest income from related parties and ground leases



5,338





5,973





11,227





11,749

Total revenues



53,033





52,437





109,274





103,902

Expenses































Property operating



18,571





18,868





37,870





37,470

Property management fees



1,194





1,235





2,488





2,451

General and administrative



5,303





5,046





11,674





10,674

Acquisition and pursuit costs



423





70





1,691





128

Weather-related losses, net









291











291

Depreciation and amortization



20,067





16,226





40,990





33,454

Total expenses



45,558





41,736





94,713





84,468

Operating income



7,475





10,701





14,561





19,434

Other income (expense)































Other income



19











59







Preferred returns on unconsolidated real estate joint ventures



2,834





2,492





5,249





4,781

Gain on sale of real estate investments



57,843











58,096







Gain on sale of non-depreciable real estate investments





















679

Loss on extinguishment of debt and debt modification costs



(13,985)











(13,985)







Interest expense, net



(13,859)





(15,125)





(28,774)





(31,191)

Total other income (expense)



32,852





(12,633)





20,645





(25,731)

Net income (loss)



40,327





(1,932)





35,206





(6,297)

Preferred stock dividends



(14,237)





(11,019)





(27,784)





(21,403)

Preferred stock accretion



(3,602)





(2,316)





(7,527)





(4,203)

Net income (loss) attributable to noncontrolling interests































Operating Partnership units



5,413





(3,887)





(409)





(7,938)

Partially owned properties



1,985





(390)





1,707





(882)

Net income (loss) attributable to noncontrolling interests



7,398





(4,277)





1,298





(8,820)

Net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders

$ 15,090



$ (10,990)



$ (1,403)



$ (23,083)



































Net income (loss) per common share - Basic

$ 0.61



$ (0.50)



$ (0.09)



$ (1.03)



































Net income (loss) per common share  Diluted

$ 0.61



$ (0.50)



$ (0.09)



$ (1.03)



































Weighted average basic common shares outstanding



24,307,147





22,430,619





24,197,479





22,775,203

Weighted average diluted common shares outstanding



24,345,034





22,430,619





24,197,479





22,775,203



Consolidated Balance Sheets

Second Quarter 2020

(Unaudited and dollars in thousands except for share and per share amounts)





June 30,

2020



December 31,

2019

ASSETS















Net Real Estate Investments















Land

$ 267,589



$ 268,244

Buildings and improvements



1,778,750





1,752,738

Furniture, fixtures and equipment



70,151





67,904

Total Gross Real Estate Investments



2,116,490





2,088,886

Accumulated depreciation



(158,896)





(141,566)

Total Net Real Estate Investments



1,957,594





1,947,320

Cash and cash equivalents



211,968





31,683

Restricted cash



29,732





19,085

Notes and accrued interest receivable from related parties



178,015





193,781

Due from affiliates



309





2,969

Accounts receivable, prepaids and other assets



20,440





16,317

Preferred equity investments and investments in unconsolidated real estate joint ventures



107,610





126,444

In-place lease intangible assets, net



584





3,098

Total Assets

$ 2,506,252



$ 2,340,697



















LIABILITIES, REDEEMABLE PREFERRED STOCK AND EQUITY















Mortgages payable

$ 1,405,046



$ 1,425,257

Revolving credit facilities



130,500





18,000

Accounts payable



1,885





1,488

Other accrued liabilities



29,670





27,499

Due to affiliates



727





790

Distributions payable



14,498





13,541

Total Liabilities



1,582,326





1,486,575



8.250% Series A Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock, liquidation preference $25.00 per share,

10,875,000 shares authorized; 5,558,392 and 5,721,460 shares issued and outstanding as of June 30, 2020

and December 31, 2019, respectively



136,778





140,355



6.000% Series B Redeemable Preferred Stock, liquidation preference $1,000 per share, 1,225,000 shares

authorized; 516,738 and 536,695 shares issued and outstanding as of June 30, 2020 and December 31,

2019, respectively



467,237





480,921



7.625% Series C Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock, liquidation preference $25.00 per share,

4,000,000 shares authorized; 2,295,845 and 2,323,750 shares issued and outstanding as of June 30, 2020

and December 31, 2019, respectively



56,279





56,797



6.150% Series T Redeemable Preferred Stock, liquidation preference $25.00 per share, 32,000,000 shares

authorized; 4,025,663 and 17,400 shares issued and outstanding as of June 30, 2020 and December 31,

2019, respectively



90,925





388

Equity















Stockholders' Equity















Preferred stock, $0.01 par value, 197,900,000 shares authorized; no shares issued and outstanding











7.125% Series D Cumulative Preferred Stock, liquidation preference $25.00 per share, 4,000,000 shares

authorized; 2,774,338 and 2,850,602 shares issued and outstanding as of June 30, 2020 and December 31,

2019, respectively



66,867





68,705

Common stock - Class A, $0.01 par value, 747,509,582 shares authorized; 24,605,585 and 23,422,557

shares issued and outstanding as of June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively



246





234

Common stock - Class C, $0.01 par value, 76,603 shares authorized; 76,603 shares issued and outstanding

as of June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019



1





1

Additional paid-in-capital



321,973





311,683

Distributions in excess of cumulative earnings



(262,455)





(253,132)

Total Stockholders' Equity



126,632





127,491

Noncontrolling Interests















Operating Partnership units



20,130





19,331

Partially owned properties



25,945





28,839

Total Noncontrolling Interests



46,075





48,170

Total Equity



172,707





175,661

TOTAL LIABILITIES, REDEEMABLE PREFERRED STOCK AND EQUITY

$ 2,506,252



$ 2,340,697



Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The foregoing supplemental financial data includes certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe are helpful in understanding our business and performance, as further described below. Our definition and calculation of these non-GAAP financial measures may differ from those of other REITs, and may, therefore, not be comparable.

Funds from Operations and Core Funds from Operations

We believe that funds from operations ("FFO"), as defined by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts ("NAREIT") and core funds from operations ("CFFO") are important non-GAAP supplemental measures of operating performance for a REIT.



FFO attributable to common shares and units is a non-GAAP financial measure that is widely recognized as a measure of REIT operating performance. We consider FFO to be an appropriate supplemental measure of our operating performance as it is based on a net income analysis of property portfolio performance that excludes non-cash items such as depreciation. The historical accounting convention used for real estate assets requires straight-line depreciation of buildings and improvements, which implies that the value of real estate assets diminishes predictably over time. Since real estate values historically rise and fall with market conditions, presentations of operating results for a REIT, using historical accounting for depreciation, could be less informative. We define FFO, consistent with the NAREIT definition, as net income, computed in accordance with GAAP, excluding gains or losses on sales of depreciable real estate property, plus depreciation and amortization of real estate assets, plus impairment write-downs of depreciable real estate, and after adjustments for unconsolidated partnerships and joint ventures. Adjustments for unconsolidated partnerships and joint ventures will be calculated to reflect FFO on the same basis.



CFFO makes certain adjustments to FFO, removing the effect of items that do not reflect ongoing property operations such as acquisition expenses, non-cash interest, unrealized gains and losses on derivatives, losses on extinguishment of debt and debt modification costs (includes prepayment penalties incurred and the write-off of unamortized deferred financing costs and fair market value adjustments of assumed debt), one-time weather-related costs, gain or losses on sales of non-depreciable real estate property, shareholder activism, stock compensation expense and preferred stock accretion. Commencing January 1, 2020, we did not deduct the accrued portion of the preferred income on our preferred equity investments from FFO to determine CFFO as the income is deemed fully collectible. The accrued portion of the preferred income totaled $0.4 million and $0.8 million for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020, respectively. We believe that CFFO is helpful to investors as a supplemental performance measure because it excludes the effects of certain items which can create significant earnings volatility, but which do not directly relate to our core recurring property operations. As a result, we believe that CFFO can help facilitate comparisons of operating performance between periods and provides a more meaningful predictor of future earnings potential.



Our calculation of CFFO differs from the methodology used for calculating CFFO by certain other REITs and, accordingly, our CFFO may not be comparable to CFFO reported by other REITs. Our management utilizes FFO and CFFO as measures of our operating performance after adjustment for certain non-cash items, such as depreciation and amortization expenses, and acquisition and pursuit costs that are required by GAAP to be expensed but may not necessarily be indicative of current operating performance and that may not accurately compare our operating performance between periods. Furthermore, although FFO and CFFO and other supplemental performance measures are defined in various ways throughout the REIT industry, we also believe that FFO and CFFO may provide us and our stockholders with an additional useful measure to compare our financial performance to certain other REITs.



Neither FFO nor CFFO is equivalent to net income, including net income attributable to common stockholders, or cash generated from operating activities determined in accordance with GAAP. Furthermore, FFO and CFFO do not represent amounts available for management's discretionary use because of needed capital replacement or expansion, debt service obligations or other commitments or uncertainties. Neither FFO nor CFFO should be considered as an alternative to net income, including net income attributable to common stockholders, as an indicator of our operating performance or as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities as a measure of our liquidity.



We have acquired seven operating properties and made nine investments through preferred equity interests and ground lease investments and sold twelve operating properties subsequent to June 30, 2019. The results presented in the table below are not directly comparable and should not be considered an indication of our future operating performance.

The table below reconciles our calculations of FFO and CFFO to net income (loss), the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019 (in thousands, except per share amounts):



Three Months Ended



Six Months Ended



June 30,



June 30,



2020



2019



2020



2019

Net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders $ 15,090



$ (10,990)



$ (1,403)



$ (23,083)

Add back: Net income (loss) attributable to Operating Partnership Units

5,413





(3,887)





(409)





(7,938)

Net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders and unit holders

20,503





(14,877)





(1,812)





(31,021)

Common stockholders and Operating Partnership Units pro-rata share of:





























Real estate depreciation and amortization (1)

19,144





15,290





39,045





31,432

Gain on sale of real estate investments

(55,250)











(55,360)







FFO Attributable to Common Stockholders and Unit Holders

(15,603)





413





(18,127)





411

Common stockholders and Operating Partnership Units pro-rata share of:





























Acquisition and pursuit costs

423





70





1,691





128

Non-cash interest expense

747





786





1,592





1,561

Unrealized (gain) loss on derivatives

(5)





652





(30)





2,287

Loss on extinguishment of debt and debt modification costs

13,590











13,590







Weather-related losses, net







249











249

Non-real estate depreciation and amortization

122





84





242





170

Gain on sale of non-depreciable real estate investments



















(679)

Shareholder activism







55











393

Non-recurring expense, net

43











3







Non-cash preferred returns on unconsolidated real estate joint ventures







(386)











(598)

Non-cash equity compensation

2,191





2,427





5,738





4,819

Preferred stock accretion

3,602





2,316





7,527





4,203

CFFO Attributable to Common Stockholders and Unit Holders $ 5,110



$ 6,666



$ 12,226



$ 12,944

































Per Share and Unit Information:





























FFO Attributable to Common Stockholders and Unit Holders - diluted $ (0.47)



$ 0.01



$ (0.55)



$ 0.01

CFFO Attributable to Common Stockholders and Unit Holders - diluted $ 0.15



$ 0.22



$ 0.37



$ 0.42

































Weighted average common shares and units outstanding - diluted

33,075,598





30,550,863





32,936,762





30,704,271

































(1) The real estate depreciation and amortization amount includes our share of consolidated real estate-related depreciation and amortization of

intangibles, less amounts attributable to noncontrolling interests for partially owned properties, and our similar estimated share of unconsolidated

depreciation and amortization, which is included in earnings of our unconsolidated real estate joint venture investments.



































Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization for Real Estate ("EBITDAre")

NAREIT defines earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for real estate ("EBITDAre") (September 2017 White Paper) as net income (loss), computed in accordance with GAAP, before interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization expense, and further adjusted for gains and losses from sales of depreciated operating properties, and impairment write-downs of depreciated operating properties.

We consider EBITDAre to be an appropriate supplemental measure of our performance because it eliminates depreciation, income taxes, interest and non-recurring items, which permits investors to view income from operations unobscured by non-cash items such as depreciation, amortization, the cost of debt or non-recurring items.

Adjusted EBITDAre represents EBITDAre further adjusted for non-comparable items and it is not intended to be a measure of free cash flow for our management's discretionary use, as it does not consider certain cash requirements such as income tax payments, debt service requirements, capital expenditures and other fixed charges.

EBITDAre and Adjusted EBITDAre are not recognized measurements under GAAP. Because not all companies use identical calculations, our presentation of EBITDAre and Adjusted EBITDAre may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies.

Below is a reconciliation of net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders to EBITDAre (unaudited and dollars in thousands).







Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended





June 30,

June 30,





2020

2019

2020

2019 Net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders

$ 15,090



$ (10,990)



$ (1,403)



$ (23,083)



Net income (loss) attributable to noncontrolling interests



7,398





(4,277)





1,298





(8,820)



Preferred stock dividends



14,237





11,019





27,784





21,403



Preferred stock accretion



3,602





2,316





7,527





4,203



Interest expense, net



13,859





15,125





28,774





31,191



Depreciation and amortization



20,020





16,142





40,899





33,284



Gain on sale of real estate investments



(57,843)











(58,096)









Loss on extinguishment of debt and debt modification costs



13,985











13,985







EBITDAre

$ 30,348



$ 29,335



$ 60,768



$ 58,178



Acquisition and pursuit costs



423





70





1,691





128



Non-real estate depreciation and amortization



122





84





242





170



Weather-related losses, net









291











291



Gain on sale of non-depreciable real estate investments





















(679)



Shareholder activism









55











393



Non-cash equity compensation



2,191





2,427





5,738





4,819



Non-recurring expense, net



43











3









Non-cash preferred returns on unconsolidated real estate joint ventures









(386)











(598)

Adjusted EBITDAre

$ 33,127



$ 31,876



$ 68,442



$ 62,702







































Same Store Properties

Same store properties are conventional multifamily residential apartments which were owned and operational for the entire periods presented, including each comparative period.

Property Net Operating Income ("Property NOI")

We believe that net operating income, or NOI, is a useful measure of our operating performance. We define NOI as total property revenues less total property operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization and interest. Other REITs may use different methodologies for calculating NOI, and accordingly, our NOI may not be comparable to other REITs. We believe that this measure provides an operating perspective not immediately apparent from GAAP operating income or net income. We use NOI to evaluate our performance on a same store and non-same store basis; NOI measures the core operations of property performance by excluding corporate level expenses and other items not related to property operating performance and captures trends in rental housing and property operating expenses. However, NOI should only be used as a supplemental measure of our financial performance.



The following table reflects net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders together with a reconciliation to NOI and to same store and non-same store contributions to consolidated NOI, as computed in accordance with GAAP for the periods presented (unaudited and amounts in thousands):







Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended





June 30,

June 30,





2020



2019



2020



2019

Net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders

$ 15,090



$ (10,990)



$ (1,403)



$ (23,083)



Add back: Net income (loss) attributable to Operating Partnership Units



5,413





(3,887)





(409)





(7,938)

Net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders and unit holders



20,503





(14,877)





(1,812)





(31,021)

Add common stockholders and Operating Partnership Units pro-rata share of:

































Depreciation and amortization



19,144





15,290





39,045





31,432



Non-real estate depreciation and amortization



122





84





242





170



Non-cash interest expense



747





786





1,592





1,561



Unrealized (gain) loss on derivatives



(5)





652





(30)





2,287



Loss on extinguishment of debt and debt modification costs



13,590











13,590









Property management fees



1,135





1,170





2,367





2,318



Acquisition and pursuit costs



423





70





1,691





128



Corporate operating expenses



5,166





4,975





11,462





10,529



Weather-related losses, net









249











249



Preferred dividends



14,237





11,019





27,784





21,403



Preferred stock accretion



3,602





2,316





7,527





4,203

Less common stockholders and Operating Partnership Units pro-rata share of:

































Non-recurring expense, net



(43)











(3)









Preferred returns on unconsolidated real estate joint ventures



2,834





2,492





5,408





4,781



Interest income from related parties and ground leases



5,338





5,973





11,227





11,749



Gain on sale of real estate investments



55,250











55,360









Gain on sale of non-depreciable real estate investments





















679

Pro-rata share of properties' income



15,285





13,269





31,466





26,050

Add:

































Noncontrolling interest pro-rata share of partially owned property

income



750





690





1,553





1,418

Total property income



16,035





13,959





33,019





27,468

Add:

































Interest expense



13,089





13,637





27,158





27,215

Net operating income



29,124





27,596





60,177





54,683

Less:

































Non-same store net operating income



7,908





6,135





17,138





11,982

Same store net operating income (1)

$ 21,216



$ 21,461



$ 43,039



$ 42,701







(1) Same store portfolio for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020 consists of 24 properties, which represent 8,459 units.













































SOURCE Bluerock Residential Growth REIT, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.bluerockresidential.com


Robin Williamss daughter Zelda has hit back at Eric Trump for posting a video in which her late father jokes about Joe Biden.

Donald Trump's son, 36, shared a video of Williams poking fun at Barack Obamas former Vice President during a stand-up show in 2009.

Titled Robin Williams Just Savages Joe Biden, the clip sees the comedian quip: We still have great comedy out there, theres always rambling Joe Biden, what the f***.

Joe says s*** that even people with Tourettes go, No. What is going on?

Zelda, 31, was not impressed with Eric tweeting her fathers comments about Biden, who formally won the Democratic Party nomination to run for president opposite Trump in Novembers US election.

In response, she fired back at him, writing: While were reminiscing (to further your political agenda), you should look up what he said about your dad. I did. Promise you, its much more savage.

Many Twitter users then began posting the video they believe Zelda was referring to.

In the clip taken from a New Jersey show in 2012, Williams described Trump as a scary man and the Wizard of Oz because he plays monopoly with real f***ing buildings.

He also criticised the future president for owning beauty pageants, for unsettling remarks he made about his daughter, Ivanka, as well as his hairstyle.

The body is a maintenance system for the hair, the comedian quipped at the show.

Zelda Williams with her father (Getty Images)

Williams died aged 63 in 2014.

Last month, Zelda paid tribute to her father on what would have been his 69th birthday.

Today wouldve been Dads 69th birthday, so to honour him (& that glorious number), I will be donating $69.69 to as many local homeless shelters as I can, she wrote.

Join me if you like, but regardless, know I am wishing you all at least one hearty, immature belly laugh on dad today.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aery Aviation, LLC ("Aery") has been awarded an aircraft acquisition and special missions modifications contract for an undisclosed government customer. This awarded contract comes from a long-time client recommendation of Aery with requirements to deploy Aery's expertise to design, engineer, modify, integrate, and certify the necessary aircraft special mission conversion.

Aery will provide turnkey startup (into service) training, logistics, spare parts package, GSE equipment, as well as design, engineer, install, and certify the new systems being installed to the customer specification. "This important project provides our valued customer with the modern special mission upgrades it desires with Aery's turnkey solution over the coming months," commented Scott Beale, Vice President of Aery Aviation.

Aery will complete all design, engineering, manufacturing, and the kit buildup from its Newport News, Virginia corporate headquarters. The installation and certification will be completed by an Aery "Go Team" that will install and modify the aircraft as required by the contract in a remote location. Aery's work scope will be ongoing into 2021 and be transitioned to the end-user for government operations upon completion.

Aery Aviation is a full service commercial and government services provider of aerospace design, engineering, systems integration, modifications, certification, maintenance, and flight operations solutions that support critical aviation mission requirements for domestic and foreign governments and select corporations and individuals in the private sector. Aery's experienced team of professionals provides efficient, economical, and flexible services that respond to the most challenging demands facing the aerospace industry today. Aery's commitment to safety, compliance, and security has earned Aery a reputation as one of the most forward-thinking aviation companies worldwide. Aery is headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, and is deployed globally to meet clients' needs.

Founded in 2016 by a team with over 200 hundred years of combined aviation experience, Aery's drive to dream, innovate, and inspire has fueled our rapid growth and diversity. Together, the Aery Team has developed over 100 Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs) with over 200 projects, and more than 500 airworthiness releases.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: This communication contains forward-looking statements that involve several judgments, risks and uncertainties concerning Aery Aviation, LLC., its subsidiaries and their expected financial and operating performance and plans. Actual events or results could differ materially from those described or implied herein, including as a result of risks described in reports filed with various entities, and other risks and uncertainties. We do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or results after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, new circumstances or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable laws.

For additional information contact Heather McAfee at [email protected] or Scott Beale at [email protected].

SOURCE Aery Aviation, LLC
Rescuers search for victims under rubble on August 7 after the August 4 explosion in Beirut, Lebanon (Photo: AFP/VNA)



In the statement, the ministers expressed sympathies and condolences to the government and people of Lebanon, as well as the families of the victims. They also affirmed solidarity with Lebanon and hope the countrys government and people will soon overcome and settle the consequences of the incident.



The minister reaffirmed the commitment of providing consular support to the citizens of the ASEAN member states in Lebanon, in line with the existing agreements of the bloc./.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 10

By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:

The value of trade turnover between Kazakhstan and the Netherlands amounted to over $1.6 billion over first four months of 2020, compared to $1.59 billion during the same period of 2019, Trend reports with reference to Kazakhstans Statistics Committee.

The share of the Netherlands in the total value of Kazakhstans trade turnover stood at 4.8 percent during the reporting period of 2020 compared to 4.3 percent during the same period of 2019.

Kazakhstans export to the Netherlands amounted to $1.59 billion over the period from January through April 2020 compared to $1.51 billion during the same period of 2019.

The Netherlandss share in the total volume of Kazakhstans export amounted to less than 7.1 percent during the reporting period of 2020, compared to 6.4 percent during the same period of 2019.

In turn, Kazakhstans import from the Netherlands amounted to $102.3 million over the reporting period compared to $87.5 million during the same period of 2019.

The Netherlandss total share in Kazakhstans import reached 0.8 percent during the reporting period of 2020 compared to 0.6 percent during the same period of 2019.

Total volume of Kazakhstans trade turnover made up $28.1 million over the period from Jan. through Apr. 2020 which indicates a decrease from $28.8 million during the same period of 2019.

Kazakhstans export amounted to $18.3 million during the reporting period of 2020 ($18.5 million in the same period of 2019), whereas import amounted to $9.8 million ($10.3 million in the same period of 2019).

---

Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has expressed regret at the issue of blame for the spread of Covid-19 which he says is creeping into Irish society.

People are blaming American tourists, young people and migrant workers he told RTE radios Morning Ireland.

Mr Varadkar said he understood the frustration of those who had seen their business close again under restrictions in Kildare, Laois and Offaly.

The advice from Nphet had been that a local lockdown was needed as it was important that the virus did not spread in the community and that it was contained.

Mr Varadkar pointed out that 100 workers in meat plants had died in the US.

Fortunately that had not been the case in Ireland, he said.

This was a continuing problem and there was a need to get back to basics and to contain the amount of Covid-19 cases in the community.

Mr Varadkar also pointed out that under public health legislation the Health Service Executive (HSE) has the power to order the closure of Carroll's Cuisine in Tullamore.

Leo Varadkar. File picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

An outbreak team is working at present to assess measures necessary at the Carroll plant which remains open while three other factories in the Kildare, Loais and Offaly closed following the discovery of clusters.

When asked about the issue of Direct Provision and the number of Covid-19 cases in such centres, Mr Varadkar said that it was Government policy to end Direct Provision but to do was not going to be easy with the housing shortage.

'Do not ignore symptoms'

On the same show, Portarlington GP Dr Sumi Dunne called on people not to ignore their symptoms and if they have any concerns they should telephone their GP.

Please do not ignore symptoms. GPs doors will remain open, call ahead so we can take measures, she said.

It was vital to suppress any possible spread of the virus in the community.

She commended the people of Kildare, Laois and Offaly for their community spirit. She had noticed that more people had been seeking tests in recent days. This was as a result of the good job being done by public health officials in contact tracing.

Dr Dunne also welcomed the new regulation that makes the wearing of face masks mandatory in public settings.

File image

It is an excellent initiative.

The wearing of face masks in retail settings becomes mandatory from today.

Regulations to enforce the compulsory wearing of face coverings on public transport came into effect last month.

People should wear face masks when in locations where they cannot maintain a 2m distance, Dr Dunne explained.

She also warned that it was important to wear a face covering properly ensuring that nose and chin were covered. Pulling down a mask to the neck while talking or eating was not effective and could lead to infection, she said.

The latest figures show that Ireland recorded 68 new cases of Covid-19 yesterday.

No new deaths were reported.

46 of the cases came from Kildare, Offaly and Laois where local restrictions were put in place on Friday.

People in those counties are not permitted to travel outside their home county.

We continue to see cases linked to the outbreaks in counties where additional public health measures have been introduced. This was expected and we will continue to monitor closely, said Dr Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer.

- additional reporting from Digital Desk staff
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 10

By Elnur Baghishov  Trend:

As many as 2,132 people have been infected with the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the past 24 hours in Iran, said Sima Sadat Lari, spokesperson for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Trend reports citing the ministry.

According to Sadat Lari, 189 more people have died from the coronavirus over the past day.

Sadat Lari added that the condition of 3,992 people is critical.

The official said that Iran's Tehran, Mazandaran, Qom, East Azerbaijan, Ardabil, Isfahan, Alborz, Razavi Khorasan, North Khorasan, Semnan, Markazi, Yazd, Gilan, Golestan, and Kerman provinces are considered 'red' zones.

So far, more than 2.71 million tests have been conducted in Iran for the diagnosis of coronavirus.

Iran continues to monitor the coronavirus situation in the country. According to recent reports from the Iranian officials, over 328,800 people have been infected, and 18,616 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 286,600 have reportedly recovered from the disease.

The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease.

The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19.
Meghan Markle has sent her thanks and personally called a fan after they set up a campaign to raise funds in the duchess' name for a charity which works to educate girls in rural Africa.

The Duchess of Sussex, 39, who is currently living in LA with Prince Harry, 35, and their son Archie, one, expressed her gratitude to the admirer after their social media effort, titled #InspiredByMeghan, saw $80,000 donations made to CAMFED.

Meghan is a passionate advocate of the work of charity CAMFED - the Campaign for Female Education - which believes one of the best ways to alleviate poverty and inequality is through education.

Twitter user @freepeeper, who appears to be from America, shared the exciting news with their 8,000 followers, writing: 'Omg! Meghan called me! I spoke to Meghan yesterday.'

Meghan Markle (pictured recently) has sent her thanks and personally called a fan after they set up a campaign to raise funds in the duchess' name for a charity which works to educate girls in rural Africa

The Duchess of Sussex, 39, who is currently living in LA with Prince Harry, 35, and their son Archie, one, expressed her gratitude to the admirer after their social media effort, titled #InspiredByMeghan, saw $80,000 donations made to CAMFED. Pictured, the fan recalling the call with Meghan

She recalled: 'First, I heard from Harry & Meghans team. They contacted me to thank supporters for the @Camfed birthday fundraiser. It was so thoughtful. Their representative was lovely.

'I was excited wed made it onto their radar. That was enough for me. Then... Meghan called yesterday! She said their team heard about the fundraiser and flagged it for her.

'She and Harry were very touched. She asked me to pass on a big Thank you to everyone,' the social media user said.

'I told her that they have a lot of support out there. She thanked me. She said she felt it. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to tell her that their humanitarian work informed and inspired our fundraisers.

'She asked how much wed raised, and I told her close to $80k (latest update). She said that was amazing. She was so gracious and humble.

Meghan (pictured in March) is a passionate advocate of the work of charity CAMFED - the Campaign for Female Education - which believes one of the best ways to alleviate poverty and inequality is through education

Twitter user @freepeeper, who appears to be from America, shared the exciting news (above) with their 8,000 followers, writing: 'Omg! Meghan called me! I spoke to Meghan yesterday.'

'Guys, she was delightful, kind, super-sweet. We spoke for about seven to eight minutes. It seemed much shorter though. There was so much more I wanted to say, but this wasnt that type of call.

'She was engaging, the kind of person you talk to for hours and time escapes you. But the purpose of her call, and she said this a couple times, was to express gratitude to all of YOU for supporting them, for the fundraisers, and for your birthday wishes.

'So, this is me delivering the message, as promised. From Meghan, to all of the supporters, donors, well wishers, Thank you.'

The call comes after the Luminary Bakery - which has long been supported by Meghan - launched a bake along with CAMFED and raffle to mark the royal's birthday.

The call comes after the Luminary Bakery - which has long been supported by Meghan - launched a bake along with CAMFED and raffle to mark the royal's birthday. Meghan made several visits, pictured, to the bakery while living in the UK

Meghan made several visits to the organisation while living in the UK, and promoted their work in her September issue of Vogue last year.

Posting a picture of the duchess on Instagram, Luminary Bakery wrote they were partnering with CAMFED to mark the Duchess' birthday.

The bakery said: 'To celebrate, one of our Luminary grads, Monica who is based in London, will be joining Tisiyenji, in Zambia to bake cakes "together" from across the globe to honour The Duchess of Sussexs birthday & celebrate ALL women with through their beautiful bakes.'

The cake baked by Monica is now being raffled off, with the organisation asking royal fans for donations of 10 to be entered into the draw.

They explained: 'Today, we're partnering with @Camfed to celebrate #WomenEmpoweringWomen and say a Happy Birthday Meghan, who has championed the work of both our organisations!'

The two charities featured are all close to the Duchess' heart, and she has made her support clear by visiting them during her time as a working royal.
A woman who was a nurse, possibly gave sedatives and then injected insecticide into 10 members of her family taking her own life, said a senior police official on Monday as a probe continued into the death of 11 people in Jodhpur districts Lodata town on Sunday.

Police had earlier suspected a suicide pact. The 11 people belonged to a Hindu family which had migrated from Pakistan in 2015. Their bodies were found in a small house at a farm in Jodhpur districts Lodata town on Sunday morning. The victims were identified as Budharam (75), Antara Devi (70), their son, Ravi, 35, daughters Laxmi and Priya and their six grandchildren.

Only one member of the family survived. Kewalram who claimed to have gone out in the night to guard his farm, later returned and slept on the verandah of the house. He also claimed that he was not aware of what happened inside the house on Saturday night and that he saw he bodies only on Sunday morning

Preliminary probe suggests that the deceased were first given sedatives in food by one of the victims identified as Priya, who was a nurse. After victims felt unconscious, they were given insecticide injections and the poison mixed directly with blood and they died in sleep, said Rahul Barhat, Jodhpur superintendent of police (SP).

Priya injected the poison in her body through a cannula (a thin tube inserted in the vein or body to administer medicine) on her leg, the SP said.

He said the injections were given in a very professional manner and only Priya, a trained nurse, could have done it.

On the basis of the investigation, the police said that there were two possibilities. First, it was a case of mass suicide. Second, Priya committed the murders and then killed herself. The possibilities fit with the evidence that there were no injury or marks on the bodies of any of the victims.

Police are still baffled by the motive for the crime.

In its investigation, the police have found that there was a dispute between Kewalram and Ravi, two brothers, and their in-laws for a last couple of years, which was also mentioned in the alleged suicide note found from the house. The note also spoke of financial hardship the family was facing.

Kewalram and Ravi had married sisters from a Bheel tribal family, whose parents now live in Jodhpur city. Their wives went to their parental house with their children, a few months ago, as the martial dispute became murkier, police said.

Between 2018 and 2020, Kewalram and his in-laws had filed complaints and counter complaints accusing each other of harassment. In the latest complaint lodged at Mandor police station in Jodhpur city in March this year, the in-laws accused the entire family of domestic violence, said another police officer, who was not willing to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Kewalram told police that his family suspected all of them could be arrested in the domestic violence case. They were also unsure about getting Indian citizenship, if they were arrested and spoke about the possibility of their repatriation to Pakistan, the officer said.

The victims family had come to India from Sangad district of Sindh province of Pakistan in 2015, a year after the in-laws family came and settled in Jodhpur city. As per the citizenship law, a Pakistani has to be resident of India for seven years before applying for citizenship.

On why Priya could kill her family, Barhat said they did not have evidence to suggest that she killed her family. Priya was a professional nurse and therefore, there was a high probability that she did it. But, again survival of Kewalram is a big question mark in the entire story, he said.

The SP said the medical reports would answer several questions.

On Monday, the post-mortem of the 11 bodies was conducted after Covid-19 tests came negative. Later, with help of district administration the funeral was performed.

A team of medical experts would examine the post-mortem results, a police officer said. Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday said thorough investigation will be conducted into the case.

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Have you ever seen a kid Barber before if yes, where? And if No then Ghevent TV brings you all you need to know about 11-year-old Suzy Armah who was spotted in her barbershop at Yawamatwa in the Bia West District of the Western North region.

Little Suzy is a Junior high school pupil of D/A Junior High School at Yawamatwa.

On Thursday 6th August 2020, Ghevent crew went through the length and breadth of Sefwi Yawmatwa looking for newsworthy stories to feed our ardent audiences in Ghana.

On our way to a location within the town, a member of the crew asked town folks of a barbershop to trim his hair and we were directed to a small barbershop in town, and to our surprise we met little Suzy busy rendering service to her old male client.

We were dumbfounded seeing a female at her tender age doing marvelously well and very professional with her craft, something which is rarely found in Ghana

We caught up her for an exclusive interview with Ghevent  the super talented Suzy revealed to us that aside from being a professional barber she is also a great dancer. She added that her barbering skills is a talent from God and never learn from anyone.

I woke up one day and her brother wanted to shave but there was no money to go the barbershop, so I offered to help him out  it was a bold decision telling my brother I would help trim his hair and the whole family burst into laughter, many said this girl you are very funny. But I never allowed the mockery to be an obstacle.

I went straight into the room, picked up a comb, a pair of scissors and blade,told him to trust me and sit down. Suzy recounted.

My brother gave out the condition that, after I finished and it doesnt look nice, he was going beat me up and I boldly agreed to his condition. She added.

Concluding our conversation with her, she talked about her ambitions, the future of her barbershop and more.
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 10 : The Kerala government will enforce strict Covid protocols for the two-month long Sabarimala temple season. The decision was taken at a preliminary meeting held on Monday in the state capital to discuss arrangements at the hill shrine that opens on November 16.

The meeting was called by State Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran who said that all pilgrims who wish to pray at the temple must carry a Covid negative certificate with them.

"With Covid now around, we can go forward with the festival season in a very tight and rigid manner and all those coming should register in the Virtual Q system. Further meetings will decide on the exact protocols which will have to be followed and it would be taken when the Chief Minister will join in the upcoming meetings," said Surendran.

Situated in the mountain ranges of the Western Ghats at an altitude of 914 metres above sea level, the Sabarimala Temple is located in the Pathanamthitta district. The shrine attracts lakhs of devotees from all over the world every year.
District 112 needs the publics help to reopen and stay open this fall, said SD112 Superintendent Michael Lubelfeld. It is up to all of us to help keep each other safe. Please do your part by continuing to wear face masks and practice social distancing. The positive test rate for our region of Illinois jumped from 3.4% to 5.3% from July 15 to July 27. We must band together to get these numbers down.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday hosts US President Donald Trump and other representatives for a UN-backed virtual conference intended to drum up aid for Lebanon after the devastating Beirut port blast.

Representatives from European Union member states, China, Russia, Egypt, Jordan and the UK will all take part, with many other nations invited to attend.

Israel is not expected to participate.

Aid available, change essential

President Macron on Thursday became the first world leader to visit Beirut after Tuesday's explosion. He warned Lebanese leaders that, while international aid would be forthcoming, deep change was needed to resolve the country's problems.

The blast at the Beirut port, blamed on a vast store of ammonium nitrate that was allowed to rot for years in a warehouse, destroyed entire neighbourhoods.

It has amplified the anger of many Lebanese against a ruling class allegedly mired in corruption and cronyism.

Macron will be hoping that pledges made at the video summit, which begins at 1200 GMT, will be translated into concrete donations and that the funds will be spent transparently and for the right purpose.

Macron critical of opaque governance

Speaking in Beirut after his visit on Thursday, President Macron said that the conference aimed to mobilise funding from Europe, the US and regional states to provide medicine, care, food, and housing.

"We will also put in place clear and transparent governance so that all of this aid -- whether it is French aid or international -- is directly chanelled to the people, to NGOs, to the teams in the field who need it, without any possible opacity or diversion," he said.

The French leader said that profound change was needed in Lebanon and that the nation's leaders required "a new pact with the Lebanese people in the coming weeks."

Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Saturday that he would call for early elections.
Korean Movie | 2020

 Drama

Directed by Lim Seunghyeun ()

Written by Lim Seunghyeun ()

83min | Release date in South Korea: No release date in Korea yet

Synopsis

Han-gyeol and Go-woon is a young couple raising their newborn Woorim. Not too long ago, they got scammed by a real estate agent and lost their entire fortune leaving them homeless. Eventually, they lug their belongings and try to sleep at Jjimjilbangs every night. Han-gyeol provides delivery service driving a scooter and Go-woon put up flyers carrying Woorim. However, it seems impossible to find a place to live by their endeavors alone. One day, Woorim gets hurt at a Jjimjilbang and the couple's situation becomes more desperate. They end up temporarily staying at a house of this elderly woman whom Han-gyeol got to know through his delivery service work. Han-gyeol tells Go-woon that this lady is visiting the US for a month but the whole thing feels suspicious to her. Homeless illustrates the despair of the younger generation toward housing problems. The couple dreams to live a life like a model house that appears in the first scene, but the reality is the opposite. They have inner conflict between the desire to turn the lady's house into their stable home and the guilt. This is clearly expressed through rookie actors Park Jeong-yeon and Jeon Bong-seok. [MOON Seok]

Source
Police investigate in the 7200 block of South Artesian in Marquette Park, Chicago, Ill., on July 3, 2020. (Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times)

40 Shot, 4 Dead, in Chicago Over Past Weekend: Police

Four people were killed and at least 36 others were injured in separate shootings across Chicago during the past weekend, officials said on Monday morning.

The latest fatal shooting occurred on Monday on the South Sides Grand Crossing, police told the Chicago Sun-Times. In that incident, a 22-year-old man was shot in the chest at around 3 a.m. before he was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Another man was shot and killed on the Southwest Sides Marquette Park area, police told the paper. Officials responding to gunshots at around 2:59 a.m. found a 31-year-old man unresponsive before he was rushed to a nearby hospital and was later pronounced dead at the facility.

On Saturday morning, a man was shot and killed and two others were injured in a shooting on Saturday. Someone shot the three at 3:53 a.m. in Englewood on the South Side. The fatal shooting victim was identified as 29-year-old Keith Richmond of Austin, police told the Sun-Times.

And about an hour earlier, a 20-year-old man, Hugo Tecomateco, was shot and killed on the Northwest Side, officials said.

Three teens were also shot over the weekend, ranging from 14 to 17 years old, authorities told ABC7 in Chicago.

Chicago police investigate the scene of a mass shooting where more then a dozen people were shot in the Gresham neighborhood, on July 21, 2020. (Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times/AP)

In July, President Donald Trump announced he will send federal agents to cities including Chicago to combat crime in the midst of a spike in crime and violence across the United States.

To look at it from any standpoint, the effort to shut down policing in their own communities has led to a shocking explosion of shootings, killings, murders, and heinous crimes of violence. This bloodshed must end, the president said, adding that the crime is being caused by the movement to defund, dismantle, and dissolve our police departments. Trump noted that more than 400 people have been murdered in the city this year, a roughly 50 percent increase over last year. More than 1,900 people have been shot. These are numbers that arent even to be believed. A website that compiles media reports noted that more than 460 homicides have been reported so far in 2020 in the city. According to an analysis, Chicago saw about 105 murders in July 2020, which is more than double the 44 murders that were reported in July of last year. Last month was the deadliest month in Chicago in 28 years, according to the analysis.
Complaints about Dublins Luas system are down, while numbers travelling on it are up

The overall number of complaints about the Luas from passengers declined slightly last year - despite record numbers travelling on the light rail systems.

However, there were increases in reports about problems with ticket machines and the behaviour of Luas staff.

Figures published by the National Transport Authority show that Transdev, the operator of the Luas Red and Green lines, recorded a total of 5,190 complaints last year down from 5,207 in 2018 - an annual decrease of 0.3pc.

Machines

Complaints about disruption to services - the single biggest source of passenger grievances - were down 10pc to 1,868.

NTA figures show the reliability of services on the Red and Green Lines improved last year averaging 98pc - up from 97.3pc in 2018.

However, the number of complaints about issues with ticket machines has jumped by 45pc to 941.

The third biggest issue among tram passengers was staff behaviour, with an 8pc increase in complaints about the conduct of drivers, inspectors and security staff. Some 46 additional complaints, up from 613 last year, were received - the highest level in years.

The number of people claiming to have suffered personal injury while travelling on the service rose by 18pc to 210.

Complaints about overcrowding were down 38pc to 124, while reports of anti-social behaviour declined by 3.5pc to 419 - the lowest level since 2016.

The NTA figures also showed that Transdev is failing narrowly to meet its targets on punctuality - with the Red Line experiencing longer excess waiting times to scheduled departure times compared to the Green Line.

Investigate

The Luas came into operation in 2004 and, with several of extensions, the network extends to 42.5km over two lines.

The light-rail system carried a total of 48.1 million passengers last year - its highest ever figure, representing an annual increase of 15pc.

A spokesperson for Transdev said the company always worked to ensure customers had a positive experience when on board.

"When something falls short of expectation and a complaint is made, we always investigate such complaints fully," the spokesperson said.

Transdev said Luas ticket machines recently underwent an update to improve the user experience for its customers.

"This along with the increase in Leap Card usage will greatly enhance the service," the spokesperson said.
Dramatic footage shows a driver using a crowbar to smash the windows of another car on a London street.

The argument, in Poplar, east London, saw the driver lash out at the other man after their vehicles were apparently involved in a minor collision.

The video was shared on Twitter by London & UK Crime on Sunday following the incident, reportedly involving drivers who worked for Uber.

The driver keeps striking the white hybrid Toyota's windows in Poplar, east London, until he shatters its window

As the video begins, the two drivers are seen arguing at the side of the road. The camera pans to reveal how one driver has shunted into the back of the other's white hybrid Toyota.

The camera cuts to the men stood next to their cars, with one driver seen brandishing what appears to be a metal crowbar.

The rear-view window of the Toyota already has a huge hole in it when the man swings the bar at its open back door.

The argument reportedly started after a minor crash as the video shows the car shunted into the back of the Toyota

The door slams shut and he keeps striking until he manages to shatter its window, sending shards of glass flying.

He then makes his way to the front of the car, swinging violently while banging the drivers' window and the bonnet of the car.

Bystanders are seen looking on in disbelief.

The video then shows the driver who smashed the windows sitting on the floor.

The driver makes his way to the front of the car, swinging violently while banging the drivers' window and the bonnet of the car

He tells one of the witnesses to get the other driver to move his car and the man says: 'Save your life, and move your car okay?'

London & UK Crime posted the clip saying: 'Uber driver v Uber driver. This happened in East London.'

The clip has horrified many social media users.

One user said: 'Pair of clowns, revoke their licences.'

The man is seen in the video to be holding a crowbar as bystanders look on in disbelief

Another user wrote: 'This guy is really overreacting over what looks like a bump. He's acting like it's a new Lamborghini.'

A third commented: 'As someone who uses Uber, I'm shocked as I've not had an experience like this in five years.

'Angry hot-headed drivers, not down to Uber really is it?'

The Metropolitan Police said: 'Police were called at approximately 02:20hrs on Sunday, 9 August to reports of a road traffic collision on Cotton Street, E14 involving two cars.

'One of the cars had its windows smashed and a man, 34, was assaulted. He was not seriously injured.

'There have been no arrests. Investigations are ongoing to establish the circumstances surrounding the collision.'

An Uber spokeswoman said: 'There is no place for this kind of behaviour in the Uber community. We take all reports very seriously and investigate thoroughly.

'During investigations we usually remove a drivers access to the app, and if the allegations prove true, an individual would likely face deactivation.

'We work closely with the police to assist with any investigation.'
When Alberta students head back into their K-12 classrooms this fall, they (and school staff) will be provided with two reusable masks, courtesy of the provincial government.

Education Minister Adriana LaGrange announced Saturday that the province had placed orders for 1.7 million masks at a total cost of $4.2 million.

She said instead of putting out a standard request for proposals, the government expedited the process given the urgency of the situation and approached two companies directly  U.S.-based Old Navy, a multinational clothing company owned by the Gap, and IFR Workwear, a family-owned company based in Red Deer, Alta.

While the government didn't specify how much of the order each company will be fulfilling, Lyn Radford, community relations manager for IFR, said her company will be fulfilling just 10 per cent.

It's really great that we got recognized for our product  we worked very hard in March when COVID-19 hit. - Lyn Radford, IFR Workwear

IFR was founded in Red Deer 15 years ago by the Radfords: dad Reg, mom Lyn and daughter Erin Buckland. The company is certified with the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (Erin Buckland and Lyn Radford are Metis) and has offered a scholarship fund for Indigenous students at Red Deer College since 2008.

The company has a 31,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution centre in north Red Deer (LaGrange's riding), and a manufacturing plant in Mexico.

"It's really great that we got recognized for our product," Radford said. "We worked very hard in March when COVID-19 hit. We worked very hard to retool some of our factories, both in Alberta and in Mexico, to make sure that we would be able to meet the demand that was coming."

Radford said the masks need to be delivered by the end of August, so they'll be using both their Red Deer and Mexico manufacturing plants to meet the demand on short notice.

Company, founder are UCP donors

The announcement of the government's choice of IFR raised some eyebrows online, as Reg Radford is a long-time conservative donor, donating $3,600 to the former Progressive Conservative Party between 2006 and 2011. He contributed $255 to Premier Jason Kenney's leadership campaign in 2017, and $2,000 to LaGrange's campaign in 2019.

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The company has also made donations in excess of $7,000 over the years to the Progressive Conservative Association.

Radford said she wants to put talk surrounding those donations to rest, especially as she said those numbers pale in comparison to what her family contributes to charity each year.

She recently chaired a campaign to build a new Ronald McDonald House in the city, and was part of a 10-year push to bring the Canada Winter Games to Red Deer, which saw her honoured with a city lifetime achievement award. IFR has also donated thousands of masks to local front-line workers.

"We have not worked with the government directly, so any of this cronyism, nepotism," she said. "Of course we're a business so we're going to support political affiliations  we don't know what the government's done, but we can tell you, we submitted a quote to a third party. That party submits to the government."

Radford said the company only sells to distributors and not end users. She said a distributor requested the price to order childrens' masks, IFR supplied the distributor price, and the distributor sent the quote to the province  and secured the contract.

"We're very up front, we're very transparent, we're a family business. You'd think they'd be glad Alberta companies are getting a small piece of it, anyways," she said.

Reg Radford is also listed as an intermediary of Thatcher Estates Limited, an entity tied to the British Virgin Islands, in the Offshore Leaks  a cache of details of offshore accounts leaked in 2013. It is legal for Canadians to use offshore tax havens but profits must be reported. Offshore jurisdictions also might have strict confidentiality rules and shell companies that can make it easier to hide assets.

Radford said back in the '70s they had utilized offshore accounts, but realized it wasn't right, pulling back and later supplying their documents when the Canadian government investigated the leaks.

"We had nothing in there ... we're through and through Canadian here," she said.

IFR said in a statement posted to its LinkedIn page that it was happy to see its distributor selected by the provincial government.

"It was one of our distributors selected to supply a small percentage of the reusable mask contract. Thereby it doesn't matter where our political affiliations lie, we supply to other businesses only, not government nor individuals but very appreciative to be recognized for our work," the company said.

"We continue to employ Albertans and we continue to support many, many non-profits with our time and resources. We hope that our fellow Albertans see the benefit of these wins for small businesses in Alberta."

Martin Bureau/AFP via Getty Images

On July 18, Kenney and LaGrange visited IFR's Red Deer facility.

"This is a great Alberta company that produces garments and personal protective equipment for heavy industry, and which is now onshoring production of masks for COVID-19," Kenney wrote of a visit to IFR.

IFR's masks will be 65 per cent polyester and 35 per cent cotton, with two-ply design, elastic ear loops, an aluminum nose bridge, and what the company said is anti-microbial technology. The masks last through at least 75 washes, and should be washed with bleach, the company said.

John Strain, head of e-commerce and technology at Gap Inc., said in an emailed statement that Old Navy will offer "an assortment of reusable, non-medical grade cloth face masks in different colours and patterns."

The masks are made of three-ply cotton with elastic ear loops. The company has already sold about 10 million of the non-medical masks to employers like the City of New York and the State of California.

Neither company's masks are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Companies were chosen to fulfil order fast, province says

Alberta announced on July 21 students would return to in-person classes in the fall, and on Aug. 4, Albertans were told that masks would be mandatory for teachers and students in schools where physical distancing can't be maintained.

Timothy Gerwing, a spokesperson for the minister of municipal affairs, which the Provincial Operations Centre (POC) falls under, said the companies were chosen by "non-partisan bureaucrats" with the POC and had to meet both quality requirements and the demands of filling such a large order before classes resume.

"I hope you can understand that ordering 10,000 masks from one small company, 20,000 from another, etc. all the way up to 1.7 million wasn't realistic given we have weeks to deliver to school divisions. The primary goal is getting the masks into the hands of Alberta families for the resumption of classes," he said in an emailed statement.

Local companies ask why foreign conglomerate was chosen, without RFP

But some local companies have said they're frustrated to see the lion's share of the mask contract go to U.S.-based Old Navy, when Alberta's Bits and Pieces program is in place to source supplies locally during the pandemic.

Toby Cowx, owner of Calgary-based Sanford & Chante Inc., is partnered with Vaughan Imports to bring medical and non-medical masks to Western Canada, and said he's recently been able to work with some Alberta mask manufacturers.

He said they've imported and sold just over 50 million masks as of last week to clients like airports and retail businesses, as well as a federal contract they've been awarded in partnership with an Indigenous-run company.

He said he was surprised to hear the government hadn't put out a call for proposals.

"If they went through a process and decided to use them because of cost and their history of being able to deliver ... that's perfectly fine," he said.

"Would have liked to have been involved in the process, at least had an opportunity to bid on it ... because we have proved ourselves reliable in procuring and delivering.

"It would have been nice to use Alberta-made product for Alberta services."

Cam Dobranski, of Medium Rare Chef Apparel in Calgary, said in an emailed statement that his company had hoped to contribute.

"We are disappointed that the Alberta government has gone with companies outside Alberta as I believe Old Navy was one of the ones picked. The other has some political ties," he said.

"We really wanted to contribute but feel we have been left out of the equation as we have a high quality product that we have worked hard at producing locally."

Hippo Hug, a Calgary-based mask manufacturer, said on Twitter that it reached out to the government after that mandatory mask announcement and encouraged it to support the more than 40 Alberta companies manufacturing masks, but did not hear back.

"It is easy to be disappointed in this decision. The tough part is moving on and doing to hard work to keep supporting our communities, local biz and each other," the company wrote.

Hippo Hug was one of the manufacturers chosen to manufacture masks for the City of Calgary. The order of 30,000 masks allowed the company to triple is staff, and donate thousands of dollars in materials and finished masks to various non-profits, the company said.
It looks like CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) is about to go ex-dividend in the next 3 days. Investors can purchase shares before the 14th of August in order to be eligible for this dividend, which will be paid on the 31st of August.

CF Industries Holdings's next dividend payment will be US$0.30 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$1.20 per share. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that CF Industries Holdings has a trailing yield of 3.6% on the current share price of $33.13. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether CF Industries Holdings's dividend is reliable and sustainable. As a result, readers should always check whether CF Industries Holdings has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.

View our latest analysis for CF Industries Holdings

If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. CF Industries Holdings paid out 69% of its earnings to investors last year, a normal payout level for most businesses. A useful secondary check can be to evaluate whether CF Industries Holdings generated enough free cash flow to afford its dividend. Luckily it paid out just 22% of its free cash flow last year.

It's positive to see that CF Industries Holdings's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut.

Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

When earnings decline, dividend companies become much harder to analyse and own safely. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. With that in mind, we're discomforted by CF Industries Holdings's 20% per annum decline in earnings in the past five years. Ultimately, when earnings per share decline, the size of the pie from which dividends can be paid, shrinks.

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Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. CF Industries Holdings has delivered an average of 31% per year annual increase in its dividend, based on the past 10 years of dividend payments. Growing the dividend payout ratio while earnings are declining can deliver nice returns for a while, but it's always worth checking for when the company can't increase the payout ratio any more - because then the music stops.

The Bottom Line

Should investors buy CF Industries Holdings for the upcoming dividend? The payout ratios are within a reasonable range, implying the dividend may be sustainable. Declining earnings are a serious concern, however, and could pose a threat to the dividend in future. Overall, it's hard to get excited about CF Industries Holdings from a dividend perspective.

If you want to look further into CF Industries Holdings, it's worth knowing the risks this business faces. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for CF Industries Holdings (of which 1 is a bit concerning!) you should know about.

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.
AKRON, Ohio  The City of Akron on Monday announced the launch of the Akronite app, which offers incentives for residents to shop locally and help small businesses bounce back from losses incurred due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mayor Dan Horrigan and the citys Office of Integrated Development worked with Israel-based Colu to design the free app, which is available for Apple and Android devices.

The app rewards customers with points for shopping at local businesses. The points, or blimps, for each purchase can be redeemed for discounts at other businesses on the Akronite app. More than 120 businesses are listed in the app as of Monday afternoon, with the city saying the initial push is focused on supporting woman- and minority-owned businesses.

Our locally owned small businesses are facing enormous challenges and we need out-of-the-box ideas that safely connect them to consumers and turn local spending into a source of pride for residents, Horrigan said. The Akronite app will enable the city to reward customers for shopping local, improving revenues for our small businesses while helping folks stretch their dollars.

Users can also use the app to post about positive experiences theyve had at the businesses through a feature called City Stories, intended to reveal the vibrant and engaging narratives happening every day in Akron, the city said in a news release.

Akron has a long history of innovation within our economy  this initiative draws on that legacy, said Deputy Mayor for Integrated Development James Hardy. By putting the future of Akrons locally owned small businesses in the palm of our citizens hands, we hope to make it easy for consumers to keep their money local and continue to strengthen our incredible community.

Akron is the first American city that has partnered with Colu, according to TechCrunch. The company began gaining attention in December 2019, after it helped boost businesses in Tel Avivs Jaffa district at a time when light rail construction made the area harder to access. Colu has raised $35 million from investors since it was founded in 2014, according to the companys website.

A city spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an inquiry about how much money the city spent on the app.

UPDATE: Akron spent $32,500 on Israel-based app designed to boost local economy, bypassed local software developers
Sushant Singh Rajput Case: Rhea Chakraborty Files Another Plea In SC Against 'Unfair Media Trial'
Israelis who lean left are conflicted. On the one hand, they want a Democrat to win because, as principled non-conservatives, they hate everything about Trump. On the other hand, Trump has been the most Israel-friendly president in Israel's history, while Biden is still tied to one of the most anti-Israel presidents. With a possible Biden presidency, all they can do is hope for the best.

Shmuel Rosner is the Tel Avivbased political editor at The Jewish Journal, a paper out of Los Angeles that describes itself as "the largest U.S. Jewish weekly outside New York City and one of the most widely read Jewish newspapers in the world." The Journal cares about all things Jewish. On Sunday, the New York Times published an opinion piece Rosner wrote damning Biden with the faintest of praise.

The essay has a title that, taken alone, sounds like an endorsement: "Israel Will Be Perfectly Happy with President Biden." However, it's the subtitle that tells the real story (emphasis mine): "It's the best we can do  for a Democrat."

That bit about "for a Democrat" reflects the fact that, except for the hard-line leftists, Israelis like Donald Trump. This is because Trump, in turn, likes the only liberal democracy in the illiberal, totalitarian Middle East:

The United States is Israel's main ally in a difficult world. The relationship is a major part of Israel's national security strategy. Without the backing of the United States, Israel looks weaker  and in the Middle East, weaker countries are the prey of stronger countries. Israelis could be extra worried about the coming election because we fear losing President Trump. For many reasons, he is seen by Israelis as one of the friendliest leaders in the history of the United States-Israel alliance. Israel is one of few countries in the world in which the president is highly popular: A whopping 56 percent of Israelis prefer Mr. Trump in the upcoming election, compared to 16 percent who support Mr. Biden.

This is the kind of support, as I can attest, that resonates with pro-Zionist Jews in America, including people who otherwise actively support the Democrat party. The latter are beginning to realize that, while America can survive Trump and the Republicans, little Israel might not be able to survive a president and party that are hostile to her very right to exist.

Rosner, therefore, tries to reassure these pro-Israel, Democrat Jews that Israel can probably survive a Biden presidency. According to him, back in 2008, Biden repeatedly told Jewish audiences that he'd met "every Israeli prime minister since Golda Meir." As late as April 2015, Biden was boasting, "My name is Joe Biden, and everybody knows I love Israel."

While this boast is inherently suspect, coming as it does from a politician, Rosner reports that a senior Israeli official said, in essence, that for Israel, Biden is the best of the Democrats. Again, when you think of the Democrat party's new and chronic hostility to Israel, that's damning Biden with the faintest praise.

In addition to worrying about the new American left, Israelis haven't forgotten Obama's hostility to Israel:

Would his administration allow Israel to use military force against Hamas, Hezbollah or Iranian forces in Syria? (The Obama administration once suspended a shipment of Hellfire missiles to Israel because it was displeased with Israel's use of force in Gaza.) Will he restore the Iran nuclear deal, as he says he intends to? Will he pressure Israel to evacuate settlements as the Palestinians want and as more Democratic voters demand?

Biden was less overt in his hostility to Israel, but that did not make him Israel's friend. Instead, he offered a "tough love" paternalism that threatened Israel's existence. Matthew Mainen explained Biden's blinkered and dangerous views:

Biden remains a fervent adherent to the failed, groupthink-driven international consensus on resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which erroneously places the burden on Israel to make concessions. In the mid-'90s, Biden saw firsthand what happened when Israel agreed to allow Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Liberation Organization to relocate from Tunisia to the disputed territories. Israel gave the Palestinians self-government, and they, in turn, gave Israel suicide bombings and overall carnage. [snip] Rather than learning from the repeated mistakes of the past, in which each Israeli concession only served to embolden Palestinian militancy in its quest to erase the Jewish State, Biden doubled down on this formula as vice president and victim-blamed Israel until his last days in office.

No wonder the hard-left, anti-Israel J Street endorsed Biden, an endorsement he gladly accepted.

In the last sentence of his opinion piece, Rosner repeats that subtitle: "Mr. Biden is as good as it gets  for a Democrat." Even that statement assumes that Biden is mentally competent if and when he takes office. The greater likelihood is that the Israel-haters will be in the driver's seat. In that case, the sentence should be amended to read, "Mr. Biden will be as good as it gets  if you want to see a Palestine from the river to the sea."

Image: Joe Biden by Gage Skidmore; Creative Commons BY-SA 2.0.
Dancer and choreographer Derek Hough and his girlfriend Hayley Erbert enjoyed shopping at a farmers' market in Los Angeles on Saturday.

The 35-year-old wore a mandatory COVID-19 mask with a $19.95 Kindhumans 'Kindness Pass It On' trucker hat, while toting a box of treats from Waylynn Luca's bakery, Fonuts.

As he flashed his sculpted arms in a sage green tank top, his longtime love closely flanked his side in a pair of tiny black shorts.

Shopping away: Derek Hough and his longtime girlfriend Hayley Erbert enjoyed a trip to a farmers market in Los Angeles on Saturday

The Kansas native looked at ease, as she enjoyed an iced beverage and kept her wavy tresses in a ballerina-inspired top knot.

She paired her spandex bottoms with a light grey long sleeve and black and white sneakers.

While looking happy in love on their outing, the loved-up dancers were also seen in animated conversation with Hough's mother, Marriann, in the shade.

Gym-honed: The 35-year-old dancer wore a mandatory COVID-19 mask with a $19.95 Kindhumans 'Kindness Pass It On' trucker hat, while toting a box of treats from Waylynn Luca's bakery, Fonuts

Back in May, Erbert called Hough 'my love, my best friend, my rock, my everything' and said she 'loves' him and celebrates him 'every single day.'

June marked the Disney Family Singalong couple's fifth anniversary of dating, after first meeting when Hayley joined Derek and his younger sister Julianne's Move Live On Tour in 2014.

The six-time Mirror Ball Trophy winner previously romanced India de Beaufort, Shannon Elizabeth, Cheryl Cole, Lauren Conrad and Julianne's bridesmaid Nina Dobrev for six weeks in 2013.

Longtime lovers: Back in May, Erbert called Hough 'my love, my best friend, my rock, my everything' and said she 'loves' him and celebrates him 'every single day'

Family time: While looking happy in love together, the loved-up dancers were also seen chatting away and snacking with Hough's parents in the shade

The former pageant princess previously served back-up dancer duties for Derek's World of Dance colleague JLo, Paula Abdul, Wiz Khalifa, Fall Out Boy and Carrie Underwood.

The pair have been quarantining together, which Hough recently told Extra, they've been doing a lot of cooking, 'working out and doing arts and crafts.'

Additionally the couple 'got a new puppy,' who he believes is a 'Siberian husky mixed with a German shepherd and a chow.'
Iodine mouthwash could destroy the coronavirus and prevent Covid-19 or reduce its effects if someone is already sick, scientists have claimed.

Researchers said that specific types of mouthwash - made with the chemicals povidone and iodine - can have 'significant virucidal activity'.

Testing on a small group of patients with Covid-19, they found that using the mouthwash reduced the number of viruses that were in their saliva.

Lower viral loads - the number of viruses circulating through the body - have been linked to milder symptoms and faster recovery.

Scientists noted that iodine mouthwashes had proved very effective against the diseases SARS and MERS, which are very similar to Covid-19, so tested them on coronavirus patients.

Although they only tested it on four people, they said the results were promising and that the mouthwash could be used both for patients and uninfected people. They called for a bigger study to be done to test their theory.

Iodine mouthwash is stronger than popular shop-bought products such as Listerine or Colgate, which typically don't contain the antiseptic chemical - it is more commonly used by dentists. One brand that contains iodine is Betadine.

Scientists say medical-grade mouthwashes - not commercial ones - could kill the coronavirus (stock image)

Writing in the journal Oral Diseases, researchers led by the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain said: 'Results suggest that a PVP-I rinse [mouthwash] could reduce the saliva viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in patients with higher viral loads.

'Therefore, routine administration of PVP-I would be primarily indicated for symptomatic patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, especially during the first week after symptom onset, which is when viral charges in the saliva are highest.

'Asymptomatic patients usually have low viral loads, but those who end up developing symptoms have substantially greater viral loads even during the presymptomatic phase; accordingly, the application of PVP-I for the general population could be considered as a supplementary prevention measure'.

The Vigo team tested the effects of the mouthwash on four people who already had Covid-19.

WHAT IS A VIRAL LOAD AND HOW CAN IT AFFECT ILLNESS? Everybody who contracts Covid-19 will develop huge amounts of the virus inside their body, but people will become first infected with different quantities of it. The quantity of viruses in the body when someone is infected is called the viral load. Someone who breathes in the cough of a seriously ill patient in the height of a fever, for example, will be exposed to more viruses than someone who touches a door handle that was coughed on two days ago. Most of the coronavirus symptoms are caused by the immune reaction which is triggered when the virus is discovered in the body. In a bid to destroy the viruses the body ratchets up its internal temperature to kill them, causing a fever, and uses huge amounts of calories to send immune cells out into the blood to attack the viruses, causing tiredness and aching. Being exposed to a smaller number of viruses at the start may mean the body can start off with a smaller immune response. More viruses, however, would mean a need for a bigger reaction which could produce worse symptoms and then raise the risk of it tipping over into sepsis later on in the illness. Advertisement

They had been inspired by earlier studies which showed the povidone and iodine mix was very effective at killing SARS and MERS viruses.

Those are both coronaviruses and genetically extremely similar to SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19.

Iodine is a strong antiseptic and is used in hospitals to sterilise wounds and to clean people's skin during surgery so they don't get infections.

It is able to kill a huge variety of bacteria, viruses and fungi.

The Spanish study found that the viral load of coronavirus in each of the patients' saliva tumbled after they were given the mouthwash.

Viral load is a measure of how many of the coronaviruses somebody has in their body, and is thought to be an indicator of how seriously ill they are or could become.

Other things that may affect it include the way someone was infected.

Someone who breathes in the cough of a hospitalised patient - who have been found to have generally larger viral loads - is likely to have a more severe infection than someone who gets fewer viruses by catching them from a handrail that was touched by a patient without any symptoms.

Past studies have suggested that a lower viral load is linked to less severe symptoms and therefore a lower risk of death from Covid-19.

The researchers said mouthwash, if effective, could be a cheap way to try and protect people from serious illness.

'Given that a PVP-I rinse is a simple, inexpensive and practically innocuous intervention,' Professor Pedro Diz Dios and colleagues wrote, 'we consider that the encouraging results of the present study justify implementing a clinical trial to confirm its efficacy.'

Professor Dios and his team called for another, larger study to be done to test their theory and see if mouthwash could help.

The paper adds to past research which has suggested mouthwash has protective effects in other ways.

A team of international researchers said in May that mouthwash may be able to destroy the outermost layer or 'envelope' of the virus, preventing its replication in the mouth and throat.

Coronaviruses belong to the class of 'enveloped viruses', meaning they are covered by a fatty layer that is vulnerable to certain chemicals.

The researchers found that the viral load of the coronavirus patients fell within hours after they rinsed their mouths out with the mouthwash

Iodine mouthwashes are generally not the same as those bought in supermarkets - popular brand Listerine has had to post a warning on its website that its product does not prevent Covid-19

The study authors do not say that current commercially-available mouthwash prevents COVID-19, but that further research into mouthwash chemicals could be beneficial.

Writing in the journal Function, the study authors, led by Cardiff University, say oral rinses are an under-researched area of major clinical need.

The team is backed by virologists, lipid specialists and healthcare experts from Cardiff Universitys School of Medicine, along with the universities of Nottingham, Colorado, Ottawa, Barcelona and Cambridges Babraham Institute.

'Safe use of mouthwash  as in gargling  has so far not been considered by public health bodies in the UK,' said lead author Professor ODonnell, co-director of Cardiff Universitys Systems Immunity Research Institute.

'In test tube experiments and limited clinical studies, some mouthwashes contain enough of known virucidal ingredients to effectively target lipids in similar enveloped viruses.

'What we dont know yet is whether existing mouthwashes are active against the lipid membrane of SARS-CoV-2.

'Our review of the literature suggests that research is needed as a matter of urgency to determine its potential for use against this new virus.'

'This is an under-researched area of major clinical need  and we hope that research projects will be quickly mobilised to further evaluate this.'

The ingredients of dental mouthwashes, including chlorhexidine, cetylpyridinium chloride, hydrogen peroxide and povidone-iodine, all have the potential to prevent infection and several deserve clinical evaluation, according to the researchers.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Deggendorf, Germany  Mon, August 10, 2020 09:07 527 6657ac82168da9fa101c8a4066cb9cf4 2 Environment animals,alpaca,therapy,mental-illness,Germany Free

Offenders with mental health conditions at a southern German hospital can pitch in with looking after a small herd of alpacas as part of their therapy.

Staff at the Mainkofen psychiatric hospital in Bavaria say the aim is for the generally calm animals to help patients develop skills towards social reintegration.

Those on the program have daily tasks, such as to feed the around 10 alpacas, walk them, brush their coats, dress their wounds and clean out their stables.

Erwin Meier, whose name has been changed for this report, has helped care for the alpacas since October and believes it has helped him.

"I like it very much," he said.

"It's fun to work with animals. There is something to do every day."

The animals, which can be known to spit, have helped him to control his anger, said Meier, who did not want to give details about his conviction.

"I used to get angry quite quickly, I was impulsive, but it's improved thanks to the animals, because if I get angry, they get angry too, and the calmer I am, the calmer they are too," he added.

Read also: Worlds first airport therapy pig hogs the limelight at San Francisco airport

Hats and blankets

The program is open to all patients at the hospital but intended primarily for offenders.

If they stay out for too long or outside the authorized hours, permission to spend time with the alpacas is revoked.

Silke Lederbogen, the program leader and owner of the alpacas, runs a nearby farm with her husband with about 50 of the animals, using their wool to make hats and blankets.

"Usually, patients in the hospital do not have contact with 'normal' people," she said.

But, in walking with the alpacas on the hospital grounds, they are given the chance to chat and answer questions about the animals from interested visitors, patients and staff, she added.

"And they can do so competently," she said.
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Spanish police have broken up a 'coronavirus party' where guests were allegedly trying to spread the disease on purpose - as the country suffers a sharp rebound in cases with infections rising across Europe.

More than 60 people were found camping on an out-of-bounds Tenerife beach in what police called a 'get-together on the beach to spread Covid-19', apparently in the hope of developing immunity.

Civil Guard officers swooped to shut down the gathering with youngsters forced to dismantle their tents, but officials say the party was a 'very serious threat' after Spain suffered more than 25,000 new cases in the last week.

Spain has already been hit with new travel restrictions in a blow to its tourism-reliant economy, while there are fears that France, Germany or Holland could be put back on the UK's quarantine list after spikes in cases there.

Summer holidays have been blamed for rising cases in Germany and Italy, while France has tightened its face mask rules in tourist hotspots such as Paris and the Mediterranean resort of Saint Tropez.

However, Europe has yet to see a major spike in deaths or hospital cases, amid signs that many of those testing positive are young and less vulnerable to the disease.

Rising cases: Spain has suffered a severe spike in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, as this graph shows, while France, Germany and Italy have also seen upticks in new infections

A Spanish Civil Guard officer watches on as youngsters dismantle their tents on a closed Tenerife beach where guests are alleged to have attended a 'get-together to spread Covid-19

Spain has suffered the worst spike of recent weeks, prompting several countries including Britain and Germany to impose new travel restrictions.

The Mediterranean country announced nearly 26,000 new infections in the last seven days, up from 16,000 the week before and fewer than 2,000 in late June.

Catalonia alone saw more than 5,000 cases in the space of a week, while the nearby region of Aragon had the country's highest infection rate per 100,000 people.

Los Patos beach on Tenerife, where the alleged 'coronavirus party' took place, is traditionally a well-known nudist beach on the Canary Islands which have been lobbying for an exemption from Britain's quarantine rules.

La Orotava Town Hall's security department said in a statement: 'Civil Guard and local police have cleared Los Patos beach where 62 people were camping.

'The Civil Guard has intercepted a get-together on the beach to spread Covid-19 in an area where access is currently prohibited.'

La Orotava's Security Councillor Narciso Perez said the police operation came after investigators discovered the planned beach party on social media.

He told local press: 'Over the past few days, Civil Guard officers have discovered a kind of get-together which was being planned on social media to carry out a mass camping trip to Los Patos beach designed to help the spread of Covid-19.

'This is a threat which has been taken very seriously. The Civil Guard has carried out a thorough investigation to identify those people who organised this and they have been questioned.'

Despite Spain's increase in cases, only 46 virus patients were admitted to intensive care in the week up to last Friday, compared to more than 20,000 people who tested positive for the virus.

The death toll has generally remained in single figures despite the recent increase, with only 16 fatalities in the week to Thursday. The total is 28,503.

Spanish authorities on the Tenerife beach where dozens of people were found camping in an alleged 'coronavirus party'

The Tenerife beach (pictured) on the Canary Islands, which has been lobbying for an exemption from Britain's quarantine rule

Neighbouring France has piled up 10,002 new cases in the last week, the highest number since April and a sharp increase from 7,391 the week before.

The government's Covid-19 scientific council warned last week that France could 'at any moment' lose control over the spread of the disease.

Some French towns are now requiring face masks outdoors, including the Mediterranean resort of Saint-Tropez and other tourist areas.

Paris and Marseille, the two largest cities in France, have both ordered mask-wearing in crowded outdoor areas such as open-air markets and the banks of the Seine.

'All the indicators show that since mid-July the virus is again circulating more actively in the region,' the Paris police said, adding that the 20-30 age group was particularly affected by the latest spike in cases.

There are also fears that France could be next to be removed from the UK's 'travel corridor' list after quarantine rules were re-imposed for Spain and Belgium.

UK chancellor Rishi Sunak said on Friday that Britain would 'not hesitate' to toughen its quarantine rules amid rising infection rates across the continent. Portugal currently remains off-limits.

Norway has already ordered arrivals from France to quarantine for 10 days, saying that the epidemic is 'moving in the wrong direction'.

However, the number of severe cases has not risen in France, with around 5,000 people currently in hospital compared to more than 30,000 in April.

Deaths have also been stagnant, with 68 coronavirus deaths in hospital last week compared to 74 the week before.

People wear face masks in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, where coverings have become compulsory in some crowded outdoor areas amid surging infections in France

Pupils sit in a classroom in Berlin, as some German schools start to return despite a worrying rise in cases around the country

Germany meanwhile suffered nearly 6,000 new infections from Monday to Sunday, marking the fourth consecutive week-on-week increase.

The closely-watched R rate has been above the critical 1.0 threshold for most of the last month, meaning the epidemic is on the rise.

German officials are worried because cases are spreading across the country, unlike previous spikes linked to particular factories or apartment blocks. Only 55 districts have seen no new cases in the last seven days, down from 117 a month ago.

Tourists returning from abroad have partly been blamed for the increase, along with 'larger family events' and leisure activities since the lockdown was eased.

Some pupils are already back at school, but two schools in the east of the country were forced to close on Friday after new cases were detected.

While the daily death toll remains low, the 49 new fatalities in the last seven days are an increase on 37 the week before.

The UK yesterday announced more than 1,000 new cases in a day for the first time since June 26, prompting fears of the rebound in infections spreading to Britain.

Boris Johnson's government has been pushing businesses to return to work, despite the number of virus cases showing signs of increasing.

Young people sunbathe at the Marineterrein on a sunny day in Amsterdam last Friday, after the Dutch government announced that virus cases had doubled in the space of a week

Italy too has seen a rise in cases, although the figures are currently lower than in Britain, Germany, France or Spain.

The last seven days saw 2,497 new cases in Italy, up from 1,970 the week before, and Friday's figure of 552 new cases was the highest since May 28.

The regional governor of Veneto, which includes Venice, said new cases were being driven by tourists returning home from Spain, Malta, Peru, Croatia and Greece.

'Everyone must decide where they want to go on vacation, but it's also true, that by us, for a couple of weeks now, we're seeing a concentration of patients who were infected on vacation,' governor Luca Zaia said.

The Italian Health Ministry says the average age of infected persons in recent weeks has dropped to 40, compared to about 61 during the height of the crisis.

Only 45 people are currently in intensive care, compared to several thousand in April, while the majority of the 13,000 'active' patients are isolating at home.

Italy's death toll rose by 51 in the last week, taking the total to 35,205, compared to an increase of 48 the week before.

Elsewhere, the Dutch government said on Tuesday that cases had doubled in a week, with a particular spike in the province of South Holland.

The positive tests included more than 200 people who had recently returned from abroad, including from Spain, France, Belgium and Germany.

A quarter of the new patients are aged between 20 and 29, according to official figures, while the country's R rate was estimated at 1.2.
A new print edition of the AZERNEWS online newspaper was released on 8 August.

The new edition includes articles: President Ilham Aliyev: Situation over COVID-19 under control; Ancient necropolis discovered in Shamakhi; Presidential aide: Azerbaijans patience is not endless; Belgrade to investigate use of Serbian-made ammunition in Armenian provocation 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.
Hundreds gathered outside of the Dearborn Police Department on the evening of Aug. 7, to show their support for the city of Beirut and Lebanon in the wake of the explosion that took place earlier in the week.

On Aug. 4, 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer illegally stored in a warehouse ignited, resulting in a massive explosion and mushroom cloud which decimated Beiruts industrial port.

The catastrophe left a gaping water-filled crater where the warehouse once stood. Ships in the harbor were destroyed or capsized. Businesses and homes in a 6-mile radius from the epicenter have been damaged or shattered.

The blast with a reddish-orange mushroom cloud, which was captured on cell phones and shown all over television news and social media, left over 170 dead and nearly 4,000 wounded.

The Lebanese community in Dearborn gathered to mourn, cry, and seek unity to support family and friends affected by the disaster.

The vigil was organized by Hussein Hachem, owner of Whats Up Media, and was attended by Wayne County Commissioner Sam Baydoun, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-12th District), State Rep. Abdullah Hammoud (D-Dearborn), and Dearborn Public Schools Board of Education member Adel Mozip among many other dignitaries, business leaders and community members.

This event is to show the pain and suffering that people have experienced during this tragedy and send a message of support and solidarity. Hachem said. Were here to show support to the people of Lebanon that we are with you and that your pain is our pain. What happened in Beirut didnt just happen to Beirut but impacted everyone of us. Everyone here has someone related to them that has been impacted by this. If that person was killed or wounded then they have been displaced or lost their home or business because of what has happened.

Hachem said that he has heard from people in Beirut that have described stories of panic and despair and of people wandering the streets looking for loved ones.

Rescue efforts are continuing in and around the port area with wounded still being pulled from the rubble days later. Many hospitals in the area were overwhelmed with wounded whereas some others have been destroyed or heavily damaged. In addition to medical supplies, the people of Beirut are in dire need of food and clean water, Hachem explained.

As a group, we are working with elected officials on getting the administration to send more humanitarian aid and allocated emergency funds for the rebuild of the destroyed area. In addition, we are working on some major donations focused on medical and essential supplies that we will be announcing very soon, Hachem said.

Dingell addressed the crowd, telling them that the efforts to help the Lebanese people were non-partisan and that relief and supplies were already on its way to the country.

Today we sent a letter  more than 100 signatures of members of Congress  bi partisan  to the state department calling for aid to Lebanon. She said.

At that time one plane had already landed, and two others were enroute.

This is a time as Americans that we need to reach out to the people of Lebanon to help them at such a critical time, Dingell told the crowd. She stressed the need to ensure that all forms of support goes to legitimate NGOs and non-profit agencies whose goal it is to aid those in need in Beirut.

A country often involved in the middle of strife and war, Lebanon has had its share of hardships but despite situations that divide the region, Arabs have come together to share grief and show support. And the Dearborn community has epitomized that.

State Rep. Abdullah Hammoud was among those in attendance Friday night. Although he was not on the slate of speakers, he expressed his desire for compassion and support for the land of his heritage.

I am here today, more than just a Lebanese American or as a proud Arab American, but as a humanitarian. At a time of need for the country of my parents, I think it is time for us to step up and support them, for our family members and for our sisters and brothers that are still back home. The world needs to heed the calls and the cries of Lebanon that is yearning at this time, Hammoud said.

Together with Hachem and Dingell, Hammoud encouraged Dearborn residents to support charities and small businesses that are donating their proceeds to help the cause.

Zaman International, the Amity Foundation, Banin Charity Association, the Islamic Institute of Knowledge, the Sadr Foundation, the Al-Mabarat Foundation, and the Lebanese Red Cross are some of the organizations that have online fundraisers.

More information about how to support the fundraisers and send aid to Lebanon can be found on the Whats Up Media Networks website ( https://www.whatsupmedianetwork.com/ ) and Facebook page.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Read about why people in Chicago are looting the Magnificent Mile, get updates on the coronavirus and see more stories trending online today.

Todays top headlines

Looting, rioting breaks out in Chicago after police shooting (Newsweek)

Chicago police return fire as looters clash with officers (Chicago Tribune)

Coronavirus news around the globe

Top U.S. mall operator Simon faces pandemic pain (Yahoo)

Whats in Trumps executive actions - and whats not? (Wall Street Journal)

Coronavirus updates: US records under 50,000 new cases for 1st time in 6 days (ABC)

Pelosi slams Trumps executive actions on coronavirus relief: Absurdly unconstitutional (NBC News)

Coronavirus cases jump 40% in US kids last month: report (Fox News)

Chicago officials put up a fence after the mayor scolded residents gathered at local beach (CNN)

New Zealand marks 100 days without any new reported local cases of the coronavirus (CBS News)

Inside the Wuhan lab at the center of the coronavirus storm (NBC)

Read complete prior coronavirus coverage.

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North Carolinas strongest earthquake in 94 years shakes area along Virginia border (CNN)

Katherine Schwarzenegger and Chris Pratt welcome first child (ET)

Simon Cowell thanks medics after breaking back in electric bike fall (BBC)

China sanctions 11 US politicians, heads of organizations (AP)

Israeli military strikes Hamas target in northern Gaza Strip (ABC News)
Transgenders may soon be recruited in paramilitary forces; Govt mulls at allowing them to take UPSC

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On Kanimozhis CISF incident, Chidambaram says experienced similar taunt

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Aug 10: A day after DMK leader, Kanimozhi said that a CISF officer questioned her nationality when she asked the officer to speak in English or Tamil, Congress leader, P Chidambaram said he too had a similar experience.

Hindi imposition row: Kanimozhi says she was asked if she is Indian | Oneindia News

"I have experienced similar taunts from government officers and ordinary citizens who insisted that I speak in Hindi during telephone conversations and sometimes face to face," Chidambaram said in a tweet.

"Non-Hindi speaking recruits to central government posts quickly learn functional, spoken Hindi. Why cannot Hindi speaking recruits to central government posts learn functional, spoken English, he also asked.

CISF orders enquiry after officer questions DMK leader Kanimozhi's nationality

"Today at the airport a CISF officer asked me if 'I am an Indian' when I asked her to speak to me in Tamil or English as I did not know Hindi," Kanimozhi said in a tweet on Sunday.

With education placed in the State List, the Centre will assume the remaining rights of the states and take in its control (aspects ranging) from syllabus to university.This is an attack on the federal structure being underscored by the Constitution of India," M K Stalins had said.

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Story first published: Monday, August 10, 2020, 16:14 [IST]
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 21:00:12|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Egypt sent on Monday the third batch of aid to Lebanon to provide emergency assistance to the heavily burdened country that suffered a deadly explosion in the capital Beirut, the Egyptian armed forces said in a statement on facebook.

"Upon instructions of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for operating an air bridge of aids to Lebanon to overcome its ongoing crisis, a military plane loaded with large amounts of medical and food stuff was sent to Beirut," the statement said.

The air bridge aims also to deliver specialized medical teams, construction materials and glass panels for reconstruction, it added.

On Sunday, Sisi, in a virtual donors' conference, urged the Lebanese people, regardless of their political differences, to cooperate and distance their country from any regional tensions and conflicts.

The explosions in Beirut's port area on Tuesday left at least 158 people dead and more than 6,000 injured. Enditem
The Ukrainian government has decided to temporarily close the checkpoints of entry into the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and exit from it, Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers Oleh Nemchinov said following an extraordinary government meeting on Saturday.

This is linked to the instruction of the President of Ukraine to the Cabinet of Ministers to revise the mode of operation of the checkpoint of entry into the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. The decision is aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19 on the territory of Ukraine, Nemchinov wrote in his Telegram channel.

"Thus, the work of checkpoints of entry into and exit from the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol will temporarily stop from 8:00 on August 9, 2020 until 8:00 on August 30, 2020, except for the passage of Ukrainian citizens and their families:

- whose place of residence is registered in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea or the city of Sevastopol in accordance with the procedure established by law, as well as their vehicles, cargo and other property  for entry;

- whose place of residence is registered in the manner prescribed by law outside the Autonomous Republic of Crimea or the city of Sevastopol, as well as their vehicles, cargo and other property  for exit; who agreed to self-isolate using the Diy vdoma application of the unified public website of electronic services from the moment of crossing the checkpoints of entry into the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and exit from it;

- persons with the purpose of ensuring the protection of national interests or in connection with the fulfillment of international obligations, representatives of diplomatic institutions and humanitarian missions leaving the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, as well as their vehicles, cargo and other property," Nemchinov said, citing the decision of the Cabinet.

Exit from the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol for other categories of foreigners and stateless persons is provided in line with approval by the Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, the minister of the Cabinet of Ministers said.

Exit from the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and entry to it of citizens of Ukraine, if there are humanitarian grounds, is provided under a decision of the head of the State Border Guard Service in agreement with the Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine.
The national ministry of employment, unions and employers are negotiating the approval of an exceptional subsidy for people whose benefits are exhausted (or will be exhausted by end-September) or who have not been entitled to benefit.

Mari Carmen Barrera of the UGT said on Monday that discussions are ongoing, while the CCOO union has indicated that the benefit could apply to some 700,000 people. Barrera explained that the union had been demanding this benefit from the outset, as there are those who have suffered by comparison with workers on ERTE terms, as they didn't meet the prerequisites for the furlough scheme.

The CCOO's figure of 700,000 people consists of 550,000 who are unemployed and 150,000 who are under ERTE but who are part-time workers. The benefit would be 430 euros a month for three months and represent a cost of some 710 million euros.

Barrera added that it is essential to address the country's unemployment protection system so that exit from the crisis "does not leave anyone behind" and that "Spain does not pay a bill in terms of equality as happened with the previous crisis".
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Money laundering is big business but wholly illegal big business. It has an enormously negative impact on local, national, and international economies as well as providing the financial means to fund other criminal activities such as people trafficking and drugs. By definition, money laundering is activity carried out to obscure the source of money that has been obtained illegally.

Writing in the International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data Mining, researchers from the Sultanate of Oman and Saudi Arabia describe a new dynamic approach to identifying suspicious financial transactions that might be part of the chain in a money-laundering scheme.

Abdul Khalique Shaikh of the Department of Information Systems at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman and Amril Nazir of the Department of Computer Science at Taif University, in Al-Hawiya, Saudi Arabia, explain that among the many millions, if not billions, of financial transactions carried out every day, a worrying proportion will be associated with money laundering. Identifying such illegal transactions is difficult especially as the criminals carrying out such transactions are well aware of the tools used by banks and financiers to spot suspicious money movements and as such can usually obfuscate the activity very efficiently.

The team has devised a way to profile individual users and to flag up activity that is genuinely suspicious without the false positives that might otherwise interfere with genuine banking and other financial transactions members of the public might carry out entirely legitimately.

"The approach works based on the dynamic behavior of customer transactions that measures the customer's own transaction history, profile features and identifies suspicious transactions," the team writes. They have tested the approach against realistic data and validated the result with confirmed suspicious customers. The dynamic approach has an accuracy of well over 90 percent, which exceeds that seen with statistical models based on pre-defined rules, the team concludes.

Explore further Study reveals impact of powerful CEOs and money laundering on bank performance

More information: Abdul Khalique Shaikh et al. A novel dynamic approach to identifying suspicious customers in money transactions, International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data Mining (2020). Abdul Khalique Shaikh et al. A novel dynamic approach to identifying suspicious customers in money transactions,(2020). DOI: 10.1504/IJBIDM.2020.108762
The merger provides the shareholders with ownership of stock in an entity that has greater scale, size and diversification, while also providing potentially broader liquidity event options in the future, commented Al Hartman.

On May 14, 2020, the shareholders for Hartman Income REIT (HI-REIT), Hartman Short Term Income Properties XIX, Inc. (Hartman XIX) and Hartman Short Term Income Properties XX, Inc. (Hartman XX) voted to approve the mergers of HI-REIT and Hartman XIX into Hartman XX. The merged entity, Hartman XX, has a combined asset value of approximately $655 million. It is anticipated the mergers will close and the mergers officially completed in early third quarter of 2020.

After consideration of various strategic alternatives, the Boards of Directors of the respective companies, in consultation with the Special Committees and legal and financial advisors, believe that the mergers are in the best long-term interests of the shareholders of each of the companies. And we are pleased the shareholders overwhelmingly agreed. The merger provides the shareholders with ownership of stock in an entity that has greater scale, size and diversification, while also providing potentially broader liquidity event options in the future, commented Al Hartman.

Expansion of the Board of Directors for Hartman XX

At the Board meeting, directly following the shareholder votes, the Board of Directors of the combined company voted to increase the size of the Board to accommodate the addition of the directors of HI-REIT and XIX pursuant to its S-4 proxy and registration statement. Mr. Rusky, Mr. Ostroot and Mr. Cardwell submitted their resignations as board members and the Board voted to appoint Horst Schulze, Gerald W. Haddock, and James S. Still as independent directors of the Board.



Horst Schulze: Mr. Schulze, age 81, brings more than 65 years of experience in hospitality and operational quality to the Board. Mr. Schulze joined the Ritz-Carlton hotel brand in 1983 as a charter member and Vice President of Operations. He was appointed Assistant Vice-President in 1987 and then president and COO in 1988. Mr. Schulze became vice chairman of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company from 2001 to 2002, and in 2011, he left the company to form the Capella Hotel Group; at the time of his departure, Schulze was responsible for the $2 billion Ritz-Carlton operations worldwide. Mr. Schulze currently sits on multiple boards other than Hartman XX, including the Cancer Treatment Centers of America and Reliance Trust.

Gerald W. Haddock: Mr. Haddock, age 73, brings more than 48 years of professional and leadership experience to the Board. Gerald Haddock founded Haddock Enterprises, LLC in 2000. He has served as the company's president since its formation. Prior to forming Haddock Enterprises, Mr. Haddock served as president and chief executive officer of Crescent Real Estate Equities, a diversified real estate investment trust. He was a partner at the prestigious law firms of Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP (1972 - 1980), Kelly, Hart & Hallman, PC (1984 - 1990), and Jackson Walker, LLP (1990 - 1994), before founding the Haddock Firm, LLP. He is currently a director for Meritage Homes Corporation, serving as Chairperson of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee

James S. Still: Mr. Still, age 63, brings to the Board years of board- and management-level experience. Mr. Still founded RDC Advisors, LLC in 2010, to serve as a holding company for his Board and interim management roles. Prior to forming RDC Advisors, Mr. Still served as President and CEO of Surgent, LLC from 2014 to 2016, and prior to that President and CEO of Thompson Media Group, LLC from 2010 to 2014. Both entities were focused on providing professional education to a number of sectors of the domestic economy. The two companies were owned by private equity and institutional lending firms. Since 2017, he has been a director for Intellective, Inc, a leading provider of technology-based solutions; Precision Camera, the largest camera repair company in the country; and DirectPath, a leading telecommunications provider. Each of these entities is privately held.

For more detailed information about the shareholder meeting, please refer to Items 5.02 and 5.07 in the Form 8-K filed on May 21, 2020 with the SEC.

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 100 real assets totaling approximately $800 million as of December 31, 2019.

Forward-Looking Statement: This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Because such statements include risks, uncertainties and contingencies, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and you should not place undue reliance on any such statements. Several important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this material. Such factors include those described in the Risk Factors sections of the annual report on Form 10-K for Hartman XX and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date on which such statements were made, and the company undertakes no obligation to update any such statements that may become untrue because of subsequent events. Such forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor protection for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

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.
Regent's Park Open Air Theatre has teamed up with the Theatre Support Fund to release a special version of "The Show Must Go On" mask.

Featuring the north London's theatre's logo, the mask's release coincides with the venue's reopening at the end of this week for a special concert version of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Timothy Sheader, artistic director of Regent's Park Open Air Theatre said today: "As our industry continues to be faced with an uncertain future, the Theatre Support Fund+ is critical to support those whose livelihoods are under threat. Whilst we at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre have found a way to re-open this summer, a 70 per cent reduction in our capacity to allow for social distancing does not offer a long-term solution. We are therefore proud to support the Theatre Support Fund by selling their face coverings and to highlight their essential work".

The Regent's Park mask design



The masks will be available either at the venue or on the Theatre Support Fund's website.

Thus far, the fund has raised over 250,000 for a variety of theatre charities helping those in need while the pandemic continues.


Delhi Police Ahead of the Independence Day, the Delhi Police have intensified their vigil across the national capital with special focus on intelligence sharing on anti-social elements taking refuge in the NCR and the need to launch concerted drive regarding tenant verification and border checking. The police staff have been briefed to keep a watchful eye on the movement of drones and other flying objects from the open areas on the day of the function and share advance information about the movement of any suspicious elements. "Ahead of Independence Day celebrations, tenant verification drive has been taken up in various areas of New Delhi. During the drive, the police have also urged people to be extra vigilant and give any input on any suspicious person or activity. Announcements on loudspeakers are also made to spread awareness about tenant verification," said a senior police officer. To instill a sense of security among the people, flag marches are also being taken out by the Delhi police. Also, regular briefing of staff is being done to take stock of the Independence Day preparedness. Encroachments at various points are also being checked and random checking is being done by the Delhi Police personnel. In a recent interstate meeting of the police officers via video conferencing , the officers focused on sharing intelligence on the interstate gangs operating in the NCR and on incidents related to supply of illegal arms, narcotics and illegal sale and manufacturing of spurious liquor.




IRONSCALES is a recognized industry leader in anti-phishing for new-age cloud email ecosystems and its comprehensive self-learning security platform combines advanced machine learning with human intelligence to continuously evolve with the phishing landscape.

IRONSCALES, the pioneer of self-learning email security, today announced it has closed an $8 million Series B extension led by Chicago-based venture and growth capital firm Jump Capital. The additional funding will add to the $15 million previously contributed by current investor K1 Investment Management. A global leader in anti-phishing innovation, IRONSCALES plans to use the funding to further accelerate its aggressive growth strategy through market expansion and ongoing research and development of its email security platform.

As a result of the partnership, Jump Capital Partner Saurabh Sharma will join the IRONSCALES Board of Directors. Saurabh leads IT Infrastructure and Application Software investments for Jump Capital and brings a diverse background in investing, operations and product management.

"Phishing remains one of the largest attack vectors for cybercriminals. Even though enterprises are investing heavily in cloud-native security infrastructure, they still rely on legacy secure email gateway products to fight increasingly sophisticated and socially engineered phishing attacks," said Sharma. "IRONSCALES is a recognized industry leader in anti-phishing for new-age cloud email ecosystems and its comprehensive self-learning security platform combines advanced machine learning with human intelligence to continuously evolve with the phishing landscape."

In conjunction with todays funding news, IRONSCALES also announced that it has hired Matthew McNulty as SVP of Worldwide Sales. McNulty joins IRONSCALES as a seasoned sales, operations and finance expert, previously working as SVP of International Sales at security awareness training and simulated phishing platform KnowBe4.

While we werent actively seeking capital, partnering with Jump was too good of an opportunity for us to pass up, said Eyal Benishti, IRONSCALES founder and CEO. With this Series B extension, and with Jump and McNulty on our team, we will be able to accelerate our marketplace momentum through investments in both people and technology, helping reduce the risk from what has become a global email phishing epidemic.

Funding Builds on IRONSCALES 2020 Growth Momentum

Todays news furthers what has already been a monumental year for IRONSCALES. Already in 2020, the email security leader has scaled its North American sales and marketing teams, expanded into new territories and unveiled a number of platform updates and new tools available to customers and partners.

IRONSCALES biggest 2020 announcements include:



An upgrade of Themis, IRONSCALES AI-driven virtual security analyst, which now has the ability to be fully autonomous in the classification and removal of email threats. With the tool, security analysts can now measurably increase the speed and accuracy of their email security through automated time-sensitive decisions on email threat mitigation.

The industrys first Phishing Emulator, a fully automated solution that enables security professionals to evaluate their organizations email security defenses by relaunching real-world, unmodified phishing attacks built to bypass secure email gateways and authentication protocols.

The deployment of natural language processing, which uses advanced machine learning and neural networks, to automatically detect and respond to the most common types of business email compromise (BEC) attacks.

The launch of an in-app chat tool that encourages the sharing of phishing threat detection and open collaboration within security teams and amongst the global community of security analysts.

IRONSCALES helps where e-mail security hurts the most - in the inbox with post-message delivery, detection and remediation. Through a self-learning platform that provides for fast, easy and seamless collaboration, IRONSCALES puts its customers on offense, empowering them to defend against sophisticated email attack techniques automatically in a proactive and predictive manner. Using a democratized approach to threat intelligence sharing, IRONSCALES makes anti-phishing effortless and seamless for both security professionals and end users.

For more information about IRONSCALES, visit http://www.ironscales.com or follow @ironscales on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About IRONSCALES

IRONSCALES is the future of phishing protection, incubated inside the worlds top venture program for cybersecurity and founded by alumni of the Israeli Defense Forces elite Intelligence Technology unit. We offer security professionals and end users an AI-driven, self-learning email security platform that provides a comprehensive solution to stop tomorrows phishing attacks today. Using the worlds most decentralized threat protection network, our platform accelerates the prevention, detection and remediation of phishing attacks already inside your email with threat removal times in seconds, not minutes or hours. We give organizations of all sizes complete anti-phishing protection against any type of phishing attack, right now. Visit http://www.ironscales.com to learn more about The Power of Now.

About Jump Capital

Jump Capital is a thesis-led venture capital firm specializing in series A/B and growth-stage investments ranging from $2 million to $20 million. Jump focuses on data-driven software companies across the IT and Data Infrastructure, FinTech, Enterprise SaaS and Media sectors. Investing with an operating-centric approach, Jump provides advocacy and support for entrepreneurs, complemented with institutional level resources. Visit https://jumpcap.com/ for more information or follow us @jumpcapital.

About K1 Investment Management

K1 builds category-leading enterprise software companies. As a global investment firm, K1 assists high-growth businesses to achieve successful outcomes, and invests alongside strong management teams that continue to guide their organizations on a day-to-day basis. With over 100 professionals, K1 changes industry landscapes by assisting with operationally-focused growth strategies designed to assist portfolio companies scale efficiently. Since inception of the firm, K1 has partnered with over 125 enterprise software companies including industry leaders such as Apttus, Buildium, Checkmarx, Clarizen, ControlUp, Emburse, FMG Suite, Granicus, Litera Microsystems, Onit, Rave Mobile Safety, RFPIO, Smarsh, WorkForce Software and Zapproved. For more information about K1, please visit k1capital.com or follow us at linkedin.com/company/k1im.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 16:11:59|Editor: huaxia

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LANZHOU, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Xue Yuying got up early, carried two buckets and walked to Sanyan Valley to fetch spring water. Not far from the valley is the spot where his house once sat, which was swept away in a destructive mudslide 10 years ago.

Locals drink the spring water and use it for cooking, Xue said. The water tastes just as sweet and cool as it used to be when the 63-year-old was little.

A roaring avalanche of mud and debris devastated Zhouqu County in northwest China's Gansu Province on Aug. 8, 2010. The raging mudslide dashed down the valley slopes and swallowed up buildings and farmland in Yueyuan Village almost overnight.

Xue is a resident of the village. He lost three family members in the disaster, hanging on together with his eldest son, homeless.

"The mudslide ruined everything. There was no house, no family and no hope," Xue recalled the first hard days after the disaster.

Being the only survivors of the family, Xue Yuying and his son Xue Xinrong decided to make a living near the village.

With an interest-free government loan of 30,000 yuan (about 4,305 U.S. dollars), the father and son opened a small restaurant in 2011, striving for a better life. Xue Xinrong got married, and had two adorable daughters.

The newcomers to the family delighted Xue Yuying. "My granddaughters mean a lot to me. I have been taking care of them since they were born," he said.

As the family grew bigger, so did their catering business. Xue Xinrong signed a contract to supply a local hotel, and earns nearly 120,000 yuan a year.

Though having started his own family, Xue Xinrong persuaded his father to live with them. "Since the horrible disaster, we cherish and depend on each other more than before," said the son.

Their new apartment is located in Luojiayu Community, not far from the former site of Yueyuan Village. More than 40 other surviving families of the village also live here.

"Our village is gone for good, but we are still neighbors and live close to each other," Xue Yuying said.

After the disaster, a total of 5.3 billion yuan has been earmarked to Zhouqu for 186 reconstruction projects by the Chinese central government.

Xue Yuying has got used to taking a pause and casting a glance at the other side of the valley on his way back home from the spring. "My house used to be there. I was born in that house and lived there most of my life."

After he woke up his two granddaughters, made them breakfast and sent them to school, Xue went to visit his old neighbor Li Haiyun. The 54-year-old now lives alone.

Li used to be a cook and was quite popular in Yueyuan Village. "Whenever there were weddings or funerals held in the village, Li would be hired to cook the banquets," Xue recalled.

In the mudslide, Li lost his wife and son, his job, as well as his farmland and house. "I was completely down-and-out at that time. I didn't even have a change of clothes," he said.

To help farmers like Li earn a living, the county government provided job training programs, including car maintenance, housekeeping and electric welding for the survivors, since most of them were not willing to leave their hometown.

After attending a training course, Li found gigs at construction sites near the county, earning some 3,000 yuan a month. He moved into his new apartment in 2013 and spent heavily on its decoration, making up his mind to move on.

"Life goes on and it seems to get better," Li said. In his apartment, every piece of furniture is carefully wiped clean. He likes growing flowers and is known for his green thumb.

In Chinese, "Yueyuan" means "full moon," which symbolizes completeness and reunion.

"After a decade of struggling, we are trying to let go of the past and start a new life," said Xue Yuying. "After all, the moon will turn full one day." Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-10 20:42:56|Editor: huaxia

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PARIS, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Paris prosecutor's office on Monday launched an anti-terrorism investigation into an attack which targeted French nationals in Niger, state-run France info radio reported.

The probe was opened for "assassination in relation to a terrorist undertaking" and "terrorist criminal association." It was entrusted to the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) and anti-terrorist sub-directorate (SDAT).

In a statement released on Sunday evening, French President Emmanuel Macron's office announced that "a cowardly (attack) hit a group of aid workers" near Niger's capital Niamey, without giving the exact number of the victims.

According to media reports, the gunmen opened fire against a vehicle in a wildlife park in the Koure region. All the passengers on board, six French nationals and two Nigeriens, were killed in the attack.

The Elysee added that French president will preside over a defense council on Tuesday morning to elucidate the circumstances of the assault.

"All means are and will be used to clarify the circumstances of the deadly attack," Macron said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the shooting.

Some 5,000 French troops started Barkhane Operation in 2014 in Sahel to help G5 Sahel countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger) maintain control of their territory while also preventing the region from becoming a safe-haven for extremist groups.

However, security in the region continued to worsen with a series of deadly strikes staged by extremist militants and the humanitarian situation deteriorated, notably characterized by the impact of forced displacement, extreme poverty, social inequalities and violence, including sexual and gender-based violence. Enditem
ALBANY  The pace of new coronavirus cases continues to fluctuate in Albany County, with 10 new positive cases revealed Monday, but officials say the relatively low numbers offer hope for the start of in-class schooling.

Of the new cases, one individual was a health care worker, five had close contact with others who had contracted the virus and one had traveled out of state. It was unclear where the remaining three had contracted the virus from, County Executive Dan McCoy said during a briefing Monday morning.

McCoy said in recent days the rate of new cases has fluctuated "up and down," with 11 new cases Friday, six new cases Saturday and four new cases Sunday. There are currently five COVID-19 patients in the hospital and two in the intensive care unit.

McCoy and Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen addressed concerns from parents about Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's Friday decision to open New York schools.

"I know there are a lot of parents at home and a lot of teachers that are concerned about this decision, especially in light of what we've seen in other states," Whalen said.

"But our percent positivity is much lower (than other states), and I think the compliance we have noticed and education we have noticed in New York state, the plans that the educators have worked so hard on ... is really laudable. Theyve done a great job to put in place mechanisms to protect their student population and teachers."

Whalen said that Albany County is in "probably the best place possible" to reopen schools, although it's still not risk-free.

If an individual at a school does end up contracting COVID-19, the county will identify and test anyone who came in close contact with the individual.

McCoy, a Democrat like Cuomo, note parents have the option to keep their kids at home, although that could also cause issues.

"The logistics as we reopen, people are going to start going back to work. Now you've got day care issues," McCoy said. "It's going to be an issue, it's going to be a struggle for a lot of people. Please, we gotta try to work this out together."

McCoy was also joined by Betsy Manware, owner of Healthy Cafe, to discuss the toll the pandemic has taken on small businesses. McCoy resumed his criticism of big-box retailers, noting they've mostly been spared fines for customers who violate rules on social distancing and mask wearing.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

"I'm watching little businesses get fined," he said. "I haven't seen Walmart or Sam's Club or Target get fined. It's not fair. Theyre struggling, theyre reimagining how theyre going to operate moving forward, in certain cases some of them arent even opening up."

Manaware said the pandemic has been a "rollercoaster of emotions" for her and her employees, particularly because they are a catering business, not a restaurant. About 60 percent of her usual business has been eliminated, she said.

"We're just trying to weather the storm and survive," she said, adding that the Paycheck Protection Program helped keep her business afloat.

For months, work has been underway to develop a vaccination against COVID-19. Last month, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said a safe vaccination could be developed by the end of the year.

"We know its going to probably go into at least January and hopefully not longer but were trying to make the best of it and keep my employees working and having a steady income," Manaware said.
Parliament has endorsed a request for the suspension of the Fiscal Responsibility Rules for the 2020 financial year to allow the Finance Minister to exceed a deficit of five per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

The request was laid in the House on Wednesday by the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, on behalf of the Minister of Finance.

Section 2 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2018 (Act 982) enjoins the government to annually observe that the overall fiscal balance on cash basis for a particular year does not exceed a deficit of five per cent of the GDP for that year while an annual positive primary balance shall be maintained.

Act 982 also provides in Section 3 (1) that the Minister for Finance may suspend the fiscal rules due to a force majeure or unforeseen economic circumstances or both.

The Section 3 (3) further provides that where the minister, in accordance with subsection (1), suspends the fiscal responsibility rules, the minister shall, within 30 days, present before Parliament for approval facts and circumstances for the suspension of the set fiscal responsibility rules in a given financial year.

The minister must also present plans for restoring the public finances of the country within a reasonable period after the force majeure or unforeseen economic circumstances have elapsed; and a quarterly breakdown of the revised deficit target for the year as part of the budget presented to Parliament.

During the presentation of the 2020 Mid-Year Budget Review and Supplementary Estimate to Parliament on July 24, 2020, Ken Ofori-Atta informed Parliament that he had suspended the fiscal rules in accordance with Section 3 (1) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, (Act 982) in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Observations

Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah, said members of the committee observed that the Covid-19 pandemic had affected virtually all countries globally and every aspect of the Ghanaian economy.

The slowdown in economic activities has led to a drastic downward revision in the growth of real GDP from 6.8% to 0.9 per cent, an estimated revenue shortfall representing 3.5% of GDP, Dr. Assibey noted.

He indicated that an additional expenditure was anticipated to contain the impact of the pandemic. This represented 3.1 per cent of GDP, an upward revision of the cash-basis fiscal deficit from GH18.9 billion (4.7 per cent of GDP) to GH44.1 billion (11.4 per cent of GDP); and a revision in the primary balance from a surplus of GH2.8 billion (0.7 per cent of GDP) to a deficit of GH17.8 billion (4.6 per cent of GDP).

He said the committee was informed that given the impact of the pandemic, it was clear to the Minister of Finance that the fiscal rules of a deficit not exceeding five per cent of GDP and a positive primary balance as enshrined in the Fiscal Responsibility Act were neither feasible nor attainable.

---Daily Guide
A child helps his mother cast her ballot at a polling station during the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, on Aug. 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Belarus Holds Tense Presidential Vote; Aide Flees

MINSK, BelarusTensions were high in Belarus as the country held a presidential election on Aug. 9. Eight staff members for the main challenger to the authoritarian president were reportedly detained by police and one of the campaigns leading figures fled the country.

The election pits President Alexander Lukashenko, who has held an iron grip on the former Soviet nation since 1994, against four others in an atmosphere charged with wide public dismay over the countrys deteriorating economy, political repression, and Lukashenkos brushoff of the coronavirus threat.

Opposition supporters suspect that election officials will manipulate results to give the 65-year-old Lukashenko a sixth term in office. Protests are expected once the polls close on Aug. 9and Lukashenko has made it clear he wont hesitate to quash any demonstrations.

If you provoke, you will get the same answer, he said after casting his ballot. Do you want to try to overthrow the government, break something, wound, offend, and expect me or someone to kneel in front of you and kiss them and the sand onto which you wandered? This will not happen.

Although there are four other candidates on the ballot, the opposition has coalesced around one: Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the wife of a jailed opposition blogger.

Tsikhanouskayas campaign has attracted highly visible support, a very unusual development in a country where opposition voices are generally suppressed. One of her rallies in the capital of Minsk was attended by an estimated 60,000 people.

Mindful of Belaruss long history of violent crackdowns on dissentprotesters were beaten after the 2010 election and six rival candidates arrested, three of whom were imprisoned for yearsTsikhanouskaya has called for calm.

I hope that everything will be peaceful and that the police will not use force, she said on Aug. 9 after voting.

Tsikhanouskaya emerged as Lukashenkos main opponent after two other prominent opposition aspirants were denied places on the ballot. One was jailed for charges that he calls political and the other, an entrepreneur and former Ambassador to the United States Valery Tsepkalo, fled to Russia after warnings that he would be arrested and his children taken away.

Tsepkalos wife Veronika became a top member of Tsikhanouskayas campaign, but she, too, has now left the country, campaign spokeswoman Anna Krasulina said on Aug. 9.

Eight members of Tsikhanouskayas campaign staff were arrested on Aug. 9 and the campaign chief was arrested a day earlier.

Some voters were defiant in the face of Lukashenkos vow not to tolerate protests.

There is no more fear. Belarusians will not be silent and will protest loudly, Tatiana Protasevich, 24, said at a Minsk polling place on Aug. 9.

As polls opened, the countrys central elections commission said more than 40 percent of the electorate had cast ballots in early voting, a figure likely to heighten concerns about the results legitimacy because of the potential for manipulation.

For five nights nobody has guarded the ballot boxes, which gives the authorities a wide field for maneuverings, Veronika Tsepkalo told The Associated Press on Aug. 9, a few hours before leaving Belarus.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose assessments of elections are widely regarded as authoritative, was not invited to send observers to the vote.

Tsikhanouskaya has crisscrossed the country, tapping into public frustration with Lukashenkos swaggering response to the pandemic and the countrys stagnating Soviet-style economy.

Belarus, a country of 9.5 million people, has reported more than 68,500 confirmed coronavirus cases and 580 deaths but critics have accused authorities of manipulating the figures to downplay the death toll.

Lukashenko has dismissed the virus as psychosis and declined to order restrictions to block its spread. He announced in July that he had been infected but had no symptoms and recovered quickly, allegedly because of doing sports. He has defended his handling of the outbreak, saying that a lockdown would have doomed the nations weakened economy.

Belarus has sustained a severe economic blow after its leading export customer, Russia, went into a pandemic-induced recession and other foreign markets shrank. Before the coronavirus, the countrys state-controlled economy already had been stalled for years, stoking public frustration.

Yet for some voters, Lukashenkos long, hardline rule is in his favor.

He is an experienced politician, not a housewife who appeared out of nowhere and muddied the waters, retiree Igor Rozhov said on Aug. 9. We need a strong hand that will not allow riots and color revolutions, a reference to uprisings that forced out leaders in Georgia and Ukraine.

Belarusian authorities last week arrested 33 Russian military contractors and charged them with plans to stage mass riots. The political opposition and many independent observers saw the arrests as an attempt to shore up Lukashenkos sagging public support.

The arrest of the Russians marked an unprecedented spike in tensions between Belarus and Russia, which often have acrimonious disputes despite their close ties.

When Russia and Belarus signed a union agreement in 1996, Lukashenko hoped to use it as a vehicle to eventually lead a unified state as the successor to Russias ailing president, Boris Yeltsin. The tables turned after Vladimir Putin became Russian president in 2000, and the Belarusian leader began resisting what he saw as a Kremlin push for control over Belarus.

By Yuras Karmanau